Fletch Blog: London Shootfighters; Camp in the Making

Published on various sites, December 2010

Marius Zaromskis: Dream Grand Prix winner & welterweight champion

London Shootfighters is one of the foremost camps in the UK and its fledgling MMA revolution.
The camp, based in the affluent West End of Europe’s largest city, is on the rise. London Shootfighters first came to prominence courtesy of its dangerous and hot tempered middleweight, the infamous Lee Murray. Known for his legendary reputation for street fights and criminal activity, Murray knocked out the then-UFC Light Heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz during a street fight in the back alley behind a London nightclub, went the distance in Cage Rage with future longtime UFC king Anderson Silva for the title, and was tipped for future greatness. Sadly, his talent will never be realised in MMA, given that he is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in Morocco and has been on considerable hiatus already, but the Shootfighters Class of 2010 are an impressive bunch, and have all combined to put the gym on the fight game’s map.


First and foremost has to be Marius Zaromskis. The firebrand striker wowed the fight world with his spectacular performance in the final round of the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix; knocking out the legend Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and then Jason High on the same night – both by head kick. Those displays earned him the Grand Prix tournament title, and with it he became the inaugural Welterweight champion of Dream.


Perhaps we all went too far though; sections of the very hardest of the hardcore community online (that I posted with) now held “The Whitemare” to be the premier welterweight in the game, and heir apparent to GSP’s claim to the top rank. This illusion was shattered, when the undersized Zaromskis headed Stateside to lose in round 1 to the vastly larger man Nick Diaz. Though the smaller Zaromskis dropped Diaz hard after 2 minutes in round 1, and nearly finished with ground’n’pound, the rangier Diaz recovered fast, and quickly turned the fight on its head, peppering the Whitemare with his superior reach and straight punches, and finished Zaro off. Marius returned to Strikeforce to face former middleweight Evangelista Santos, and his lack of defence cost him against another larger opponent, as a disastrous flying knee was countered, and the “Cyborg” scored the knockout with punches and g’n’p.


Regardless, Zaromskis is an undersized welterweight, who barely cuts any weight to fight in the division in Japan, where the practise of weight cutting is not so widely used. One hopes that in any future American adventures, Whitemare wisely cuts to lightweight, and faces off against men his own size where his skills can shine through once more, and prove that he truly is one of the elites.


Beyond the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix winner and divisional champion, Shootfighters boast some stacked talent. Karlos Vemola went 7-0 as a heavyweight on the UKMMA scene, winning the CFC title and making waves across the pond. Despite a UFC debut loss to wrestler Jon Madsen, Vemola dropped to Light-Heavyweight, and looked fearsome in absolutely beasting Seth Petruzelli at UFC 122. One hopes big things of the Czech-born Londoner.


He is not the only LS fighter contracted to zuffa. Jon Hathaway proved he is one of Britain’s major prospects, when he thoroughly outworked and arguably outclassed TUF middleweight winner Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez at UFC 114. Despite since suffering a loss at UFC 120, Hathaway is still young, and ditto, could achieve big things in his future.


Mostapha Al Turk is another London Shootfighter with experience in the UFC Octagon. He is perhaps most well known for his callup to face returning legend Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic at UFC 99 in Germany. Unfortunately for Al Turk, neither desired outcome transpired; namely the triumphant legend nor the unlikely underdog story. Al Turk suffered an eye poke, and under a barrage of punches from the unknowing CroCop, the fight was stopped. Disappointing for all, but such high profile fights can only help Al Turk develop as a heavyweight. Though he has also lost to Cheick Kongo and Jon Madsen (the London Shootfighters kryptonite?), Al Turk was the ADCC European champion in 2005, and also the Cage Rage heavyweight king in MMA, before he relinquished the championship to sign with zuffa, prior to the collapse of that org.


Another face to be found in that gym that needs zero introduction to hardcore fans; James “The Colossus” Thompson. While these days, James sadly loses more than he wins, there are a lot of fans who hold him with some affection, remembering his entertaining fights in Pride FC and Cage Rage. Shootfighters certainly had a strong presence in the former premier org in Europe, as along with the aforementioned Murray, Al Turk and Thompson, they also boast Jean Silva as a team member; the former Cage Rage lightweight champion. James Zikic too is a London Shootfighter; he of course captured the Cage Rage Light-Heavyweight title with a win over the aforementioned Evangelista Santos; the LHW who would in the future drop all the way down to welterweight to blitz the brave but undersized Zaromskis.


It seems inevitable, that with such notables and more, and the experience in such illustrious MMA organisations as the UFC (Murray, Al Turk, Hathaway, Vemola), Dream (Zaromskis, Thompson), Sengoku (Thompson), Strikeforce (Zaromskis) and more, not to mention boasting a Dream champion, multiple kings of Cage Rage and two solid UFC contenders, that this camp will only continue to grow and prosper. The man who – by hook or by crook – has somehow become the most famous MMA fighter in Britain, Alex Reid, calls London Shootfighters his home, and with or without justification, every fight he is in from here on in will be an undoubted attraction in the mainstream. There are champions, contenders and tough guys in that camp. This British writer hopes that they prosper, go forth and conquer, and that not only do they successfully add to their ranks and bolster the camp with more notable names, but that the fighters they already boast can achieve all their potential and continue to make waves in the fight scenes of Britain, Japan and the USA.


Fly the flag.


Fletch

Wannabe Defector Ishii Rolls Through Another Bizarre Matchup: Shibata Suffers Tenth Loss

Published on various websites, 14 November 2010


Satoshi Ishii was supposed to be the saviour of J-MMA.

Not just of Sengoku, or of Dream. The Olympic Champion Judoka was destined to dazzle adoring Asian audiences and drag the struggling scene out of the doldrums it has found itself in since the demise of Pride. It was nailed on; he was The Chosen One. He challenged Fedor, he was scheduled to fight the green but powerful Lesnar, and when this fell flat he instead ended up headlining the prestigious New Years Eve Dynamite 2009 card with another Japanese Olympic Judo hero, Hidehiko Yoshida….. and he lost.

From there on in, his career has been a circus show; mismanagement and bizarre fights, crazy rumours, and it only continued at the K-1 MAX Grand Prix 2010 card, on which he fought the nights only MMA fight, against late replacement…. puro resu star Katsuyori Shibata.
In all fairness, Ishii’s original opponent Antz Nansen cancelled late, citing poor health. But even so; Ishii’s career began with a very high profile loss against a now-retired, then-post prime Yoshida, and has been hectic since. He was even rumoured to be fighting Jerome LeBanner – under K-1 RULES! Madness. All credit to Shibata for stepping in like the warrior he is, but the tenth defeat of his MMA career was inevitable, and it came courtesy of a kimura three minutes into the first round.

Now, the spectacle continues. Ishii has spurned the chance to fight at FEG’s illustrious Dynamite NYE card, and has called out Tito Ortiz to do battle. Tito is contracted to the UFC; the very org that Ishii declined to sign with nearly two years ago prior to his debut, instead allying himself to Japanese promoters World Victory Road, from whom he defected in turn to FEG.
Whether or not this further defection – this time from JMMA altogether – will go down as Ishii intends, remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure; Ishii’s management have NOT done a bang up job in terms of nurturing the image of their supposed “saviour of JMMA”… an image that is being increasingly tarnished with every crazy rumour, every freak show fight he has against vastly undersized opponents, or every noise that emerges that suggests he now wishes to defect from the very fight scene that he is supposed to help revive.

Fletch

Shinya Aoki, Lightweight Greatness and The Deepest Recent Resume In The Sport

Published by Daniel Fletcher on www.lowkick.com - http://www.lowkick.com/Dream/Fletch-Blog-Shinya-Aoki-Lightweight-Greatness-and-The-Deepest-Recent-Resume-In-The-Sport-9857

Fletch Blog: Shinya Aoki, Lightweight Rankings and the Habit of Overlooking Asian Greatness


Hello… hello… it’s good to be back, it’s good to be back! So sang Liam Gallagher in his dulcet tones, back in the heady days of 1995; the year when his band were the biggest around, and the year in which Ken Shamrock ruled the roost in the UFC. And so sing I, returning in written form to destroy the pitiful logic of some more feeble-minded simpletons, who parrot the USA-centric propaganda propagated by the larger Mixed Martial Arts promotions in North America. I mean one in particular, but I’m sure I don’t have to name them. I’d only put “Axis” somewhere in the title, and have it justifiably edited out later on. But you know who I mean.

As with my first piece of prose on LowKick, straight from the annals of http://mmafletch.blogspot.com, this second piece strives to correct the opinions of the misinformed, and it is centred on another MMA legend, who also honed his craft under the glare of the Rising Sun. In this case, it is because this particular fighting champion happens to originate from Japan itself… the man who I feel strongly is the #1 lightweight in the world… The Tobikan Judan, Shinya Aoki.


All rise, for the Rainbow Panted one. I’ll warn you now, kids; plenty of people across the forums have heaped hatred on this man in the most vitriolic way imaginable – he ALWAYS shoves it back down their throats. And this article will explain why.

Pull up a ringside seat, settle down, remove your grubby little hands from below your beltline, and place your hands on your knees like a gentleman. This topic is deserving of your utmost respect – I am here to discuss GREATNESS.

First of all, in order to drum the point home, let me preface my examination of Aoki’s legacy by making what clueless idiots may consider to be a bold statement, and what true fans will likely agree with. And it is as follows.

Shinya Aoki has the deepest resume over the last half decade, in the ENTIRE sport of MMA. Not just at lightweight… in the sport.

Those who adhere to the Zuffa LLC way of thinking may scoff, heap scorn upon this article and ooze slime in my general direction. But they are mistaken. They will say, “what about Anderson, he is undefeated in that same time frame, and has been the UFC middleweight champion…” I’m pleased for him. They may say, “oh what about the fortunes of… insert a fighters name who has grown popular under the UFC/Zuffa banner since early 2006. But away from the spotlight of the American propaganda, but under the glare of the Rising Sun, a man has forged a resume that is impossible to deny… and it sickens me when people do just that. It proves the ineffectiveness of the current coverage of the sport, the failures of its journalists and the effectiveness of the hype machine that pumps out its Dr Josef material from the heart of California and Nevada.

Imagine signing up to the forums at sherdog, the UG or mmalinker, and suggesting (as I have) that Aoki Shinya could possibly have a chance to defeat one Mr Baby Jay Penn. Try it – even after the two losses to Edgar, you will be scorned. You will be laughed off the forum. Laughed off, for suggesting that the man with the sport's deepest resume since prime Fedor has a chance to beat a fighter whose legacy is in the custody of the Zuffa hype machine...

Is the hype machine that powerful, that people will not entertain the idea of the man who has toppled champions from nigh on ALL organisations, and beaten more top 10 talent in recent years than ANYONE, even having a chance at beating “the invincible lightweight, BJ Penn? No one gives him a one in ten chance. How sickening, that though the hype was false and BJ just lost twice to an undersized lightweight, that it simply means there is a new guy in the UFC who would “destroy Aoki.”

Insert face palm emoticon. I would bet money on Shinya defeating any fighter below welterweight in MMA, provided the fight occurred in a ring. And yes, that includes the overhyped UFC stars too. Let me explain something – the reason many of the UFC guys who would “destroy Aoki” are even IN the top 10 in the first place, is because Aoki has been knocking the former occupants of those top 10 spots out of the rankings!!!

If there is another fighter in MMA with at least 9 victories over top 10 ranked opponents since 2006, please show him to me. If there is another fighter with a 15-2 divisional record at the highest level (Pride & Dream) that includes 12 top 10 ranked opponents since 2006, then please show him to me.

The thought that Aoki could not potentially snap the limbs of these overhyped UFC superstars is laughable. Melendez neutralising his grappling in the worst performance of Aoki’s career does not mean that Aoki cannot deal with elite, top 10 ranked guys with a boxer-wrestler style – he submitted p4p and elite lightweight Eddie Alvarez in a couple of minutes. Another powerful boxer-wrestler, Mizuto Hirota, was pretty much EMBARRASSED by Aoki, who snapped his arm with what is colloquially known as a “copper lock” (used by policemen) and then added insult to injury by showing him the middle finger salute whilst doing the Gremlin dance. JZ Cavalcante was Hero*s champion, p4p list member and no slouch himself – Aoki soundly decisioned him. And as for Shaolin Ribiero – ANOTHER top ranked lightweight, the master grappler Aoki even put on a striking clinic!

Yet Aoki has “no chance” against Frankie Edgar, Kenny Florian, BJ Penn? These guys “all destroy him in one round?”






















Am I literally the only forum poster in the online MMA community with any damn sense anymore? Aoki has the potential to show up and look sloppy if his takedowns are stuffed in a wide cage a la the Gil fight… he also has the potential to embarrass elite opponents, and put them out of action with snapped limbs. Aoki can submit anyone at his weight, and don’t let the propaganda fool you… he is on a divisional tear. Here is why.

Shinya Aoki currently holds a 15-2 win/loss record at lightweight, and a 9-3 ledger at welterweight. I will examine his campaign at lightweight, to explain why this criminally underrated MONSTER of Mixed Martial Arts is quickly compiling what could well become the greatest resume at his weight division both in the sports short history, and for many, many years to come.

After going 7-2 in Shooto’s middleweight division (welterweight in the western world) Aoki began his lightweight odyssey in 2006. The pinnacle of Mixed Martial Arts competition, Pride Fighting Championships snapped up the promising youngster, who despite being undersized at the weight, had won the Shooto middleweight (170lbs) championship, and gone the distance with J-MMA O.G. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. It was a wise decision – a new star was blooded on the big stage, and Aoki won all three of his bouts in Pride. He would of course go on to become a huge star and standard-bearer for the successor of that wonderful, doomed organisation.

Aoki claimed his first big scalp outside of Shooto that year, when on October 14th 2006 he defeated George Sotiropoulos, a man who is still a top ranked fighter with only one other loss in his career. This win may seem on the surface an inauspicious start to lightweight and pound-for-pound greatness, given that it is technically a DQ loss due to the illegal foul committed by George, but still… Aoki had been handsomely outgrappling the Australian, and it was likely he was en route to a submission victory.

A triangle choke win followed some weeks later at Pride Bushido 13, before Aoki came up against another elite fighter – Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen. Now, anyone who knows MMA, in particular the Japanese scene, knows that Hellboy Hansen is a savage. This is a guy who beat prime Takanori Gomi, prime JZ Cavalcante, prime Caol Uno, prime Masakazu Imanari, prime Rumina Sato, had been the Shooto Welterweight champion, and of course was the future Dream Lightweight Grand Prix winner, and thus future Dream Lightweight champion. Hellboy is and was Japanese MMA royalty.

Aoki submitted him via gogoplata in 2:24 of round 1. It is fitting that this event was called Pride: Shockwave, because the victory by gogo over one of the most feared lightweights around sent shockwaves throughout the MMA world. The then 23-year-old Aoki had arrived on the big stage with a bang, and was by now entrenched in the elite rankings. Four years later, there is no sign of him dropping out of them.

Roll on 2007, and Aoki’s tear continued. His record for the year would be 3-0, his best win over Akira Kikuchi – a man who competed in the welterweight division, and held a win over future p4p list entrant and Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields. In the light of 2010, a win over Shields is extremely impressive, but it was a feat he could not manage with Aoki; the Tobikan Judan narrowly, but rightly earned a decision win over the dangerous Kikuchi to defend his old Shooto middleweight championship.

The death of Pride was undoubtedly responsible for the relative lack of activity for Aoki in 2007, but with the emergence of a legitimate successor org to PrideFC in Dream, the Baka Survivor more than compensated in 2008. It would be one of the deepest gauntlets that any fighter has ever run in MMA, with Aoki facing top lightweight competition in a seven-fight murderers row.

First off was former K-1 Hero*s champion JZ Cavalcante, one of MMA’s then brightest stars. Illegal strikes curtailed that first fight – a no contest – but then the rematch resulted in an entertaining grappling exchange between both men… one that Aoki emerged victorious from. This also further advanced Shinya in the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix, the next round of which he successfully navigated with another first round gogoplata win over Katsuhiko Nagata. He was nearing his goal to proving his divisional dominance, and the sub-77kg fighters must have all been looking over their shoulders nervously.

July 21st 2008 was that fateful day. Clouds gathered, blocking out the rays of the Rising Sun, and tumbleweeds gathered in the streets of Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Only in Osaka could the rumble of distant movement be heard, as the people clamoured for tickets for the hottest show in town. It was time for the object of their love and hate to claim his mantle, take his place on the throne that had awaited him since early 2006. It was Aoki’s day.

He faced one of the unluckiest men in MMA, Caol Uno. They went the distance, after a predictably grappling based struggle, and despite Uno surviving a triangle choke attempt in which he came desperately close to losing, he managed only to survive in a losing effort, as all three judged deemed Aoki the winner. The tournament final in sight, Aoki had an impending encounter with either the dangerous Japanese wrestler with KO power, Tatsuya Kawajiri, or the perennial top 10 American Eddie Alvarez.

Disaster struck. His fellow semi-final victor Alvarez was unable to continue to the final in the one-night event, and he was replaced by former Aoki victim Hellboy Hansen. A fired up Hellboy delivered perhaps the best display of a glittering career in J-MMA, as he avenged his earlier loss in style. Aoki suffered his first ever loss at lightweight, and his first loss by technical knockout. Hellboy was the Grand Prix winner, and thus the inaugural Dream Lightweight Champion.

Despite the blip, Aoki pressed on. He got back to winning ways, and secured the Super-fight that fans had been denied at the Grand Prix finals, a bout with Eddie Alvarez that the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts saw fit as to put their inaugural lightweight championship at stake in. Removing all doubts that if the Baka Survivor was not THE best lightweight in the sport, that he was still at least in the top 3, Aoki submitted the American after only 1:32 in round 1 with a heel hook. The 25-year-old had added a new belt to his growing collection, and a new name to his ever-growing collection of scalps of elite fighters.

Re-entry into the welterweight division followed, in the desire to try his luck in a second Grand Prix, and Aoki went 1-1 – defeating David Gardner in hilarious fashion after the American was foolish enough to wave at the crowd and shout “Hello Japan”, while the most dangerous Japanese submission artist had his back… and losing in a rematch to the legend, Hayato Sakurai. After this phase, Aoki was back in the saddle at lightweight. In the remainder of 2009, he would defeat FOUR top 10 ranked fighters in a row.

Aoki put on a surprise striking clinic against Vitor “Shaolin” Ribiero at Dream 10, then he got his rubber match against Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen. The Norwegian had been out of action for the previous year since winning the belt, but was still ranked, and had one of the more impressive 19-7 win/loss records that you are going to find in MMA. Aoki removed all doubts, facing him fresh without the wear and tear of a previous bout that night as he had at the Grand Prix finals, and in this third fight he won decisively – securing an armbar with only seconds left in the fight. Shinya Aoki had avenged his sole loss at lightweight, and become the Dream Lightweight Champion. His worth was proven – he was the #1 Lightweight on the planet, with a 13-1 divisional tear to his name. Like Gomi, whose identical 13-1 tear in Pride made his name and legacy, Aoki had now capped such a streak, but one that was to continue.

One thorn stuck in his side. The upstart org in Japan, Sengoku, had a top 10 ranked lightweight as its champion, a man known to all hardcores; Mizuto Hirota. A specially co-promoted show on New Years Eve 2009 may have raised the eyebrows of those concerned that one of Japan’s premier orgs must be in financial difficulties, but fight fans salivated over the prospect of a champion vs. champion bout to determine the TRUE lightweight champion in Japan. Aoki had the resume, the streak, the top 10 ranked scalps in his wins column… and Hirota claimed to have the answers; namely his powerful punches and the grappling that would supposedly neutralise Aoki’s attempts to put the fight in his realm.

It would not transpire quite that way.

Shortly into the fight, Aoki rode the apparently “much stronger man” (aren’t all his opponents meant to be stronger? Isn’t that why “all the UFC guys would destroy him”? Pfft, don’t get me started on that crap). Not only did Aoki ride his back, he did so with only one hand controlling the nonplussed Hirota. One hand waved to the crowd. Then, in a display of savagery, Aoki used the aforementioned “copper-lock” – or “hammer-lock” in puro-resu terms – and grotesquely bent Hirota’s arm in the wrong direction, until the elbow joint visibly snapped. Just to display his superiority over his hated rival, Aoki abandoned the Japanese code of Bushido and Samurai spirit, by breaking into the Goblin dance and flipping Hirota and the booing crowd off.




Regardless, the now 14-1 lightweight was untouched in the MMA world. For all the hate and empty statements thrown at him (he’d get killed in the UFC, etc) there was not one single fighter in the world who could even touch that recent resume. Aoki is to 2006-2009 what Fedor Emelianenko was to 2003-2006, what Igor Vovchanchyn was from 1995-2000, what Frank Shamrock was 1997-1999, and what Ken Shamrock was 1994-1996. Aoki is cut from that cloth.

Next up, April 2010, came the single downfall that is used to justify the way Aoki is criminally underrated. The Melendez fight.

*Never mind that Melendez was a pound-for-pound top 3 fighter in early 2007.
*Never mind that Melendez had a TREMENDOUS game plan for Aoki.
*Never mind that Melendez gave the performance of a lifetime.
*Never mind that it was Aoki’s first fight in a cage.
*Never mind that Aoki never came close to being finished.

Despite all this, the Melendez fight is the sole barometer that stupid, clueless fight fans and Zuffa Kool Aid drinkers use to discredit Aoki with. And that is WRONG.

All I’ll say is this – lets see the rematch in the Dream ring. 15 minutes is a LONG time to avoid getting submitted by Shinya Aoki in the smaller ring, as opposed to the huge cages used in USMMA.

But regardless, Aoki soldiered on and faced his sixth top 10 ranked opponent in a row, his 12th overall in a period of less than five years, and his 9th in less than three years. It would be the dangerous Tatsuya Kawajiri, a former friend of Aoki’s, and a man that fight fans had been clamouring for for years – some say, despite the Aoki/Hirota Super-fight, and the battles between Aoki and Uno, Sakurai and others, that after the post-Pride decline of Takanori Gomi, that THIS was the real fight to decide the #1 lightweight that Japan could field. Aoki vs. Kawajiri, a dream fight for all.

Fans of the Baka survivor may have been worried that his game was scouted, given the ineffectiveness against Melendez. They need not have feared. Aoki was back to his devastating best, and the fight more resembled Aoki vs. the p4p ranked Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez; Kawajiri was taken down quickly, and submitted via a vicious heel hook. Aoki was back to best.

And that is the story of Shinya Aoki’s career, from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and his two fights of 2010. An amazing odyssey, especially for such a young yet cerebral fighter. Even now, Aoki is only 27-years-old, and any true fight fan – love him or hate him – must be wondering about just how much this young fella can achieve. (OK, he is five years older than me, but still – the guy is hardly old). Already boasting one of the deepest resumes in the short history of our sport, this man shows no signs of slowing down, and is just entering the age of his athletic physical prime.

Do not believe “the truth”. Believe the record books, the list of fallen champions, and your own eyes. Tune into Dream, and watch FEG’s lightweight champion. I’m sure my work will be discredited, but in time what I have said will be viewed through the lens of history, with the benefit of retrospect. And I will be vindicated.

It is a pleasure to watch the modern great, Shinya Aoki perform. I only wish that more people actually appreciated that pleasure, instead of being so quick to look for any means of discrediting him, just because the champions he beat did not have “UFC” emblazoned across the 6oz gloves that they were unable to knock Shinya out with.

This man is the real deal, and he has the record to prove it.

2006-2010 - Shinya Aoki's Lightweight Resume:

W Jason Black
W George Sotiropoulos
W Clay French
W Joachim Hellboy Hansen
W Brian Lo Anjoe
W Bu Kyung Jung
NC JZ Cavalcante
W JZ Cavalcante
W David Gardner
W Katsuhiko Nagata
W Caol Uno
L Joachim Hellboy Hansen
W Todd Moore
W Eddie Alvarez
W David Gardner
W Vitor Shaolin Ribiero
W Joachim Hellboy Hansen
W Mizuto Hirota
L Gilbert Melendez
W Tatsuya Kawajiri


I’d like to shout out my forum pahtnah, from Noo Yowk City, Mr Anthony “Bloodstain” Lane, and everyone at our Team Takeover forum. Teamtakeover.forum-express.com… my own blog is http://mmafletch.blogspot.com

I’d like to thank all the fans, I’d like to thank allllll the peopllllllle… so many people…. and they all walk hand in hand, hand in hand through their… *****life!

(Sorry. The Liam Gallagher introduction went to my head there. He sang a variation of his rival’s song to mock him, and I just did likewise. But if fits.)

Back to Aoki and this article; the moral of this Disney fable is; don’t listen to the propaganda, kids. Don’t drink the Zuffa Kool Aid, stay in school, and leave them drugs alone! Only take lethal drugs like alcohol and tobacco that your government taxes… not the illegalised ones that they don’t.

Stay safe.

Watch the fights.

Support the fighters.

Fuck the management.

Fuck the politics.

Thank you for reading, my lovelies. This one is for the #1 Lightweight in Mixed Martial Arts.

The one who doesn’t fall, doesn’t stand up.

It’s been emotional. Black-fringe-wrist-slashing-Bullets-For-My-Valentine teenage hormones type emotional.

“He mobilised the English language and sent it into battle”. Winston Churchill knew the power of words. I hope mine can influence a few minds too. Propaganda is a terrible thing, and worse still when the ones propagating it are hardly at the level of Dr Josef Goebbels. Shinya Aoki has the deepest resume out there – recognise.

Once more, it HAS been, emotional.

Fletch

Fedor, The Ultimate FaceThePain Championship and "The New Breed of Heavyweight"

Published on www.lowkick.com, by Daniel Fletcher: http://www.lowkick.com/UFC/Fletch-Blog-Fedor-The-Ultimate-FaceThePain-Championship-and-the-New-Breed-of-Heavyweights-9754

Fletch Blog: Fedor, The Ultimate FaceThePain Championship and "The New Breed of Heavyweight"…


Good morning, sports fans. Open your knees and feel the breeze, sit back and smoke your pipe, cos I’m here to attack the propaganda with Team Takeover at my back, tweaking the nipples of the MMA world…

It seems only fitting that in my first lyrical rampage at lowkick – bastion of MMA news and features – I should start with the Great One. The big cheese, the dog’s bollocks, the crème de la crème of the sport. Yes, I am referring to a pudgy, prematurely bald Russian man. Why waste article uno on some snivelling mediocrity? Why be content with anything less than the best? Better than all the rest? Better than anyone? Anyone I’ve ever met…

*Tina Turner need not apply for royalties. I’m penniless, sweetheart…*

OK, the introductions are made, the pipe is laden with Drum tobacco, so let the festivities begin. This is the point where the posters of Axis-dog, mma-stinker and all the other Mixed Martial Arts cesspools of stupidity need to remain silent, while the adults speak. Because the subject I plan to spit my prose all lyrical like upon, is the very subject that these thousands of dribbling fucking infants have been whining over across every large MMA forum for the past two years: Fedor and the UFC.

Yes, Fedor, his legacy, and the looming, sinister presence of the Ultimate FaceThePain Championship – our beloved Yankee doodle organisation that supposedly has the best interests of the sport’s worldwide growth in mind, with every event, every press release and every new conquest… yet, despite their well-being and benevolence for all things MMA, they (for some strange reason) make it their modus operandi to downgrade and attack the legacy of the finest professional fighter to ever lace up the gloves in mixed grappling and striking combat; Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko.

And that is criminal.

UFC President and The Baldfather, Dana White, continually makes ludicrous claims that Fedor is NOT p4p material, nor is he a top 5 heavyweight. Worse, he mindlessly spat out this misinformation PRIOR to Fedor’s first ever loss, after a decade of dominance! When his own “top heavyweights” have not faced each other to prove their greatness, and nor have they beaten dangerous fighters that by consensus are sufficiently skilled enough to make a legitimate challenge to Fedor, yet they STILL make absurd public statements downplaying Fedor, the UFC and Dana come off like jealous, jilted lovers. It is sad that the President of the world’s (sadly) largest MMA organisation is such an immature man, that in the interests of public relations and UFC propaganda, he will not only insult Fedor personally on ESPN radio, but will also happily tarnish the career and legacy of this sport’s best fighter…

Sadder still, my friends; there are tens of thousands of fucking idiots who happily ingest and swallow all this misinformation, then spread it like truth. It’s like a retard-friendly game of Chinese whispers.



Allow me, dear reader, to review the logic and context of the claim – made by Zuffa LLC, and duly repeated by an entire generation of brainwashed American idiots who “train UFC” – the claim that Fedor Emelianenko, the man who imperiously stood atop the heavyweight mountain for seven long years… is “ducking” the UFC.

(ps – if you have EVER even suggested that this claim is feasible, fuck your life…)

Lets take a look at Fedor’s career, where he is now, and what exactly it is that he is “ducking” compared to the men he has already fought, could potentially fight, and will definitely wage war against in the cage.

Pride Fighting Championships are considered by many to be the very pinnacle of Mixed Martial Arts (read my history of the org at http://teamtakeover.forum-express.com/mma-f1/pride-fc-in-remembrance-of-the-finest-org-1997-2007-t180.htm) Emelianenko entered the Japanese promotion after a successful introduction to MMA with Rings, as an undersized heavyweight but with a lethal combination of outstanding throws and clinch, dangerous hands and a tremendous overall submission game. He duly triumphed over the future GOAT of K-1, Semmy “High Tower” Schilt; the most lethal lanky striker to live. If only Pride knew at the time they were essentially promoting a fight between the #1 All Time Greats of two different combat sports…

Soon into his Pride career, he earned a Heavyweight title shot against the consensus Second Greatest Of All Time: Rodrigo Nogueira. Nog is a Brazilian man who not only boasts a wealth of BJJ and submission grappling wizardry, he is a man who survived having a truck run over his chest as a kid, to become a Vale Tudo world heavyweight champion. That makes Nogueira tougher than Dan Quinn believes HIMSELF to be!

Fedor spent most of the fight either throwing Nog like a rag doll, pounding his face into the mat, or even Ground’n’Pounding him from within Nogueira’s guard. At the time, it was hands down THE most dangerous guard in the sport. That is what Fedor achieved, to become the Pride HW champion. No one would ever claim that title again.

Fedor defeated Nogueira again. He blew through a procession of former and future champions, from a variety of orgs. He took on and defeated K1 World Grand Prix champions, and ADCC submission grappling masters, Olympic Gold Medallist judoka’s and MMA champions of Pride and the UFC. He beat the other feared heavyweight Pride had to offer, the former K-1 terminator who ran the gauntlet of fire just to earn his Superfight with Fedor; Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic, the deadliest striker as yet seen in the sport. Fedor beat him in his own domain; out-striking him, forcing him onto the backfoot, and controlling the pace of the fight.

Fedor, quite simply, could not be touched.




















I could be pedantic, and run through the rest of Fedor’s Pride career, but we all know it by heart; thanks to the dribbling, socially incapable retards on sherdog… excuse me, Axis-dog forums, who posted their “expert analysis” of that career across the forums, explaining to each and every one of us exactly why each and every single win of Fedor’s was “overrated”.

*Fedor defeating Nogueira twice = overrated.
*Fedor beating Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic = overrated.
*Fedor having more top 10 wins than anyone else in history = overrated
*Fedor blowing through every top contender in Pride, Rings and Affliction = overrated
*Fedor being 7-0 (currently) against UFC champions = overrated.
*Fedor having defeated UFC champions, Olympians, Pride champs, K-1 champions, Grand Prix winners in both K-1 and MMA (Pride), ADCC champs, Rings champs, top 10 opponents and badass motherfuckers alike = vastly, vastly overrated.

Fedor beating:

*#1 ranked Nogueira
*#2 ranked Nogueira
*#3 ranked Herring
*#3 ranked CroCop
*#7 ranked Schilt
*#2 ranked Arlovski
*#4 ranked Sylvia
*#7 ranked Coleman
*#6 ranked Hunt
*#7 ranked Randleman
*#7 ranked Rogers


Because we all know – Fedor is scared of the post-2008 UFC “New Breed of Heavyweight!!” It’s a fact, sons! He's ducking them all! Lesnar, Duffee, all of them. Fedor has never faced anyone quite like them!

Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, Todd Duffee, Junior Dos Santos, and Cain Velasquez are the names that were thrown at each and every fan that – obviously, in their right mind – happened to support the Greatest of all Time. But hold on… tell me, these are the guys that happened to usurp the top dogs of the UFC circa 2009, yes? Well, when Fedor was first accused of avoiding the UFC after the demise of Pride (mid 2007) the three top heavyweights were Tim Sylvia (champion), Randy Couture (who then beat Tim), and Andrei Arlovski (had been champion previously).

Fedor faced TWO of that three – Sylvia and Arlovski – and – as ever, vastly undersized – he destroyed them both in a combined 3 minutes and 50 seconds. He signed to fight the third (Couture) but the fight was cancelled, due to Randy resigning with the UFC.

Ducking? The elites of the UFC are what Fedor fears? The men at the top when Pride collapsed and Fedor was left without a home, are precisely the men who LEFT the UFC willingly to prove themselves against HIM, the men whom he respectively choked into submission, and scud missiled into unconsciousness in a matter of minutes…

So, that takes care of 2007 and 2008. Roll on 2009, and lo and behold, UFC fanboys have found more reasons to ooze slime. Step aside, UFC elite and Fedor victims, because the New Breed are coming through. But are they really anything special that Fedor has not faced before? Fedor, the man who beat K-1 guys on the feet, BJJ world champions from within their own guard… he should fear the NEW BREED?

Prior to the PR fiasco that even Dr Josef Goebbels could not pretend was a fight between the world’s best heavyweights – Carwin vs. Lesnar – none of the New Breed had even fought each other! None had barely any top 10 wins between them! Brock was 4-1 win/loss, with his two shining triumphs being a 45yr old current light heavyweight, and a Frank Mir who last wore UFC gold proper in 2004. Carwin had more fights, but was little better; his best wins leading up to Brock were a Gonzaga whose stock is falling fast, and the aforementioned Mir.

As for Carwin vs. Brock itself, don’t make me laugh. Round 1 saw the sad spectacle of Brock turning and running from his opponent’s punches, cowering into a ball and praying that the referee would not stop the fight (he IS a cash cow, after all…) until Carwin prematurely gassed, and Brock managed to secure a submission on him in round 2 that resembled my 14yr old brother submitting a giant, inanimate teddy bear. Only the teddy would have been more of a challenge to secure a hold on, probably…

Best heavyweights in the world? UFC champion vs. UFC “interim heavyweight champion”? (Don’t get me started on THAT can of worms…

Yes… clearly, Fedor Emelianenko – with his pinpoint accuracy striking and knockout power, his great throws, top-notch submission game, indomitable will and ceaseless endurance, is ducking the top 2 fighters of the UFC – Shane and Brock.

Only now of course, there is no “interim champ” in Shane. So now there is, theoretically, a NEW second best HW in the UFC. Great. That basically means now that the old guard is discredited, their weaknesses and flaws highlighted, there is a NEW guy that Fedor is obviously ducking! Now it’s Cain! Now, while Cain is superior to the rest of the “new breed”, he is hardly a monster. “Pillow hands” is one criticism he is stuck with… and I fail to see in what area of fighting he is superior to not only Fedor, but to the hulking Alistair Overeem; Strikeforce champion, and the REAL new breed of heavyweight to my mind. 6’5 of solid muscle, speed and strength, not to mention K-1 striking and ADCC level grappling. THAT is new breed.

Nogueira and “CroCop” being picked up by the hungry, greedy animal that is UFC was the worst thing to happen to Fedor’s career. After both men – far past their primes, both – were cannibalised by younger fighters who’d never fought under the glare of the Rising Sun – both Zuffa and the zuffa zombies a.k.a the dribbling, stupid New Age forum fanboys, were able to discredit Fedor’s consensus biggest wins. But lets think in terms of context:

Is Nogueira, after such a punishing career, even 50% of the fighter he was from 2002-2006?

Is CroCop, after an even more punishing fighting life consisting of over 100 matches in K-1, amateur boxing and MMA, even 70% of what he was in 2003? Mirko is a striker; his reflexes, as with anyone else’s, dull over time.

I can safely say; both men in their primes were a hell of a lot more impressive – and well rounded – than Brock Lesnar, and Shane Carwin.

Because from what Brock/Shane taught me, the UFC term “New Breed of Heavyweight” is codeword for “huge wrestlers with no cardio”. And to me, that’s not new breed – we had Mark Kerr in 1997.

Only Kerr also had success in ADCC too. He had legit submission skills.

I’ll take a BJJ wizard with great boxing (Nogueira) and a K-1 killing machine with exceptional takedown defence, reflexes and sprawls (Mirko) any day of the week, over this fantastic, mythical new breed of heavyweight that the Zuffa UFC hype machine blathers on about… absolutely pathetic, transparent garbage, and it’s a fucking tragedy that so many morons fall for it. I’d take prime Nogueira with his insane skillset, and prime Filipovic, Pride’s Croatian Sensation, any day of the week.

I’d also prefer to have those names (circa 2002-2006) on my resume, in my wins column.

Lets look at some more fun facts; for all the New Breed propaganda, does the Ultimate FaceThePain Championship even have the best selection of heavyweights out there? Let’s compare the current UFC heavyweight roster to Strikeforce, the org that the dastardly UFC-ducking-coward Fedor actually signed to…

UFC:

Lesnar – huge wrestler, has proved to be vulnerable both to punches and submissions.
Carwin – huge wrestler, immense KO power, but slow and zero cardio.
Mir – hugely talented BJJ artist, not the sturdiest chin, far inferior overall to Fedor
Duffee – huge, unproven, could not finish Mike Russow before being KO’d
JDS – great striker (not quite prime CroCop, though) not proven on the ground
Cain – best of the bunch so far. Personally, I doubt he could KO or decision Fedor though…

Strikeforce:

Fedor
Overeem – the REAL new breed; 6’5, 250+lbs of K-1 striking, ADCC level grappling
Werdum – exceptional BJJ, most dangerous heavyweight submission artist fulltime in MMA
Silva – huge, talented striker, good grappling, well rounded
Rogers – the least well rounded of the bunch, but huge KO power, decent brawler
Kharitonov – completely well rounded; great chin, tremendous boxing, excellent throws, good submission game.
Barnett – one of the deepest HW resumes in history; great catch/submission wrestler
Arlovski – went 3-0 in UFC before leaving to face Fedor – went 0-3 afterwards
Gracie – if he stays in MMA full time, we will be treated to the current king of BJJ

So you decide. Did Fedor REALLY duck “top competition” when he chose to decline the dictator’s UFC contract, and sign with Strikeforce?

In my opinion – and that’s all it is – he chose to add a huge weight to the swollen ranks of the best heavyweight roster in Mixed Martial Arts right now.

Wow, this ended up being a fact-laden voyage. Perhaps if I slow down my typing, next time…

In closing, compadrés, I bid you adieu. This feature is solely the opinions of myself, and – I’m pretty sure – those of the guys at my forum! But don’t take the word of anyone professing to be an MMA writer as gospel; not Helwani, not those shit arse clowns at Axis-dog such as Rossen, Rios and the girls, not anyone here… hell, don’t even believe me.

Just do the research, and make up your own minds.

This article is dedicated to Team Takeover, and to the Greatest Professional Fighter in the short history of Mixed Martial Arts… Fedor Emelianenko.

Teamtakeover.forum-express.com – join some REAL fans, in legit debate about MMA without all the useless human waste that you find at the large, shithole forums like Axis-dog and mma-stinker.

The one who doesn’t fall, doesn’t stand up.

It’s been emotional.

Fletch.

Anderson Silva can surpass the Gracie’s, Shamrock’s, Coleman’s and Ortiz’s of UFC history

With a jaw dropping, rip-roaring performance at UFC 101, Anderson Silva placed himself in a pantheon of sporting greats whose finest performances in their era of dominance wowed and amazed the world. It was spectacularly magnificent.

Only 224 days had passed since Forrest Griffin held the UFC Light-Heavyweight championship of the world. While Silva himself is a belt holder, he was coming up a weight division to face a world champion calibre athlete who reportedly cuts from heavyweight proportions. Yet despite sound logic pointing to a close and even fight, given Anderson’s pedigree and Griffin’s lack of vicious knockout power, The Spider delivered an artistic and humbling display that included three knockdowns, a hands down Silva stance, disdainful punch evasion bordering on poetry in motion, and climaxed with the outclassed Forrest slumping to the mat unconscious after a deft counter punch, a right handed jab by the back-peddling Brazilian. Yes, he was moving backwards.

As a writer, it is hard to avoid grandiloquence when discussing Anderson Silva in the second half of his career. Even more so, given that I was not personally a fan until his display at the one hundred and first numbered Ultimate Fighting Championship event. As an unashamed Frank Shamrock super-fan, I was dismayed when the new kid on the block surpassed ‘The Legend’s’ record five UFC Middleweight title fight victories in April, with his lacklustre defence against Thales Leites at UFC 97. What was worse was the tepid pace of the fight; in winning to a chorus of boos, Anderson merely gave supporters of the imperious Fedor Emelianenko or the king of the welterweights, Georges St. Pierre, more wood to throw on the ever burning fire of The Great Lb 4 Lb Debate. But in his humiliating destruction of an elite fighter who competes at a weight twenty pounds heavier, The Spider arguably silenced all doubters among those who see lb 4 lb as a legitimate exercise in judging fighters of the time. It would be the equivalent of seeing GSP go up to middleweight and not only beat, but also clown Dan Henderson or Rich Franklin and knock out one of the former UFC and Pride champions respectively within three and a half minutes. It was the equivalent of Lyoto Machida facing former Heavyweight king and recent Interim Champion Frank Mir at a 235lbs catchweight, and doing the same. It is frightening to think what Anderson Silva can further achieve in the Octagon.

Anderson broke another record against Leites at UFC 97. He won his ninth consecutive UFC fight, an unmatched feat, which he followed up with his outstanding dissection of Forrest for a 10-0 record of perfection. It made me remember Frank Shamrock, in the wake of his own glorious victory over Tito Ortiz in a defence of the old 199lbs title. Back then in 1999, Frank claimed that monetary rewards in MMA were not enough for the risks they take, and he told UFC to call him when they had a middleweight (now Light-Heavyweight) who could beat him. Sadly, Frank never did return, but that was an occurring theme with dominant fighters, or those on the verge of dominance. I realised that Anderson alone has the potential to truly make a decade his own, so that nostalgic fans look back and remember a years-long period as ‘The Silva Era.’

In this, it is true Anderson has his rivals in that capacity. Friend and sparring partner Lyoto Machida looks truly daunting at the top of the light-heavyweight pile, he himself on a 7-0 UFC tear, and of course GSP at welterweight is carving his own legend. With Machida the only impediment in Anderson Being All That He Can Be at 205lbs, one wishes that the two fall out bitterly in order to see a dream fight to make fight fans salivate. But while the other two are, like Silva, head and shoulders above the rest of their weight class, of the three only Anderson has stepped up a weight and made an elite fighter and consensus top 4 warrior who recently held the big belt, look like an amateurish tomato can in comparison. The Spider is surely only a few more similar displays from surpassing the fighters from UFC history who have looked poised to make a whole era truly theirs, unshared and exclusive, only to fall at the final hurdle.

The first ever was Royce Gracie. In beating Art Jimmerson, a green Ken Shamrock and Gerard Gordeau to win the UFC 1 tournament, he cemented his legend. He followed it up by handily winning UFC’s 2 and 4. But after meeting former foe, rival Ken Shamrock who was now reigning King of Pancrase and MMA tournament winner in his own right, and surviving a 36 minute time limit to earn a ‘draw’, Royce left the UFC with an 11-1-1 slate. He would not return for eleven years, for a one-off match with welterweight ruler Matt Hughes. Though Royce was the undoubted king of UFC in 1993 and 1994, his abrupt departure left unanswered questions (does Shamrock have his number? Are fighters learning how to beat him?), and Gracie sacrificed the chance to maybe establish himself forevermore as the most dominant fighter the UFC will ever know. As fantastic as his record and achievements are, the latter plaudit will now probably never be the case.

The second was Ken Shamrock. After going 1-1 at UFC 1, and being introduced to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the harshest way, Ken fought a further 8 times in UFC in the 90s, matches that carved his legend. His form on paper in that post-UFC 1 period would be 5-1-2, but only on paper, effectively 7-1 in reality. The two ‘draws’ were due to special time limits introduced, and with no judges to award him his win, Ken’s winning record suffered. And the sole loss was ironically by split judges’ decision, in an incredibly even and equally boring rematch with Dan Severn, whom Ken had defeated to become champion.

Out of the men who had best chance to make an era their own, Ken perhaps had the best chance, which he arguably squandered. The single loss from eight high profile fights, including five title fights, should have been followed up on. He won two fights at the crazy, infamous UFC 3, but after Gracie forfeited his own semi-final, Ken refused to fight in the final and risk worsening his knee injury with no loss to avenge. He won a tournament and became a reigning champion in Japanese org Pancrase, which came in useful as a bargaining chip for a special UFC ‘Superfight’ with Royce. After that inconclusive outcome (which Ken saw as a moral victory, a win on all but paper) Ken remained in the Superfight slot, which became a means of having a reigning UFC openweight champion that the one-night tournament winners could face. Ken faced UFC 5 champion Dan Severn, whom he guillotine choked to submission in two minutes. He defended the belt in his second Superfight ‘draw’ against UFC 6 tournament winner and stable-mate Oleg Taktarov, and then beat Kimo Leopoldo more conclusively with a kneebar at UFC 8. Then in his fifth Superfight, things went wrong for Shamrock. After a thirty minute circling staredown, Severn was given the newly instated judges’ nod in his hometown. Ken fought once more in early UFC, giving his most explosive performance in a Ground and Pound massacre of Brian Johnston, but unfortunately broke his hand and had to withdraw from the tournament. With his contract in both UFC and Pancrase at an end, and the need to find a more lucrative career to fund his Lion’s Den fight team; given that MMA was increasingly being forced under the radar by politicians, Ken left the sport at his physical and fighting peak. Despite his later return, Shamrock could not compete with the younger champions of the day, and to date his record since 2000 is 4 wins and 8 losses.

Mark Coleman trained with Ken and the Lion’s Den, and later joined him in the UFC Hall of Fame. He burst onto the scene winning the UFC 10 and 11 tournaments using wrestling and formidable Ground and Pound, and as weight classes were introduced to the UFC, kept Shamrock’s title lineage going with a Superfight victory over Dan Severn that passed the torch to the official first UFC Heavyweight champion. In only six consecutive fights, The Hammer had claimed three separate UFC championship honours.

Yet that was as good as it got, at least in the UFC for Coleman. Losing to Maurice Smith (another Lion’s Den fighter) in his first defence, he went on to another three successive losses, including becoming a famous highlight reel KO to Pete Williams (yet another Lion’s Den fighter). Though Coleman went to Pride FC in Japan to win their openweight Grand Prix in 2000, his early UFC dominance was truly shattered as his suspect cardio was brought to harsh light.

Frank Shamrock left Pancrase for unified rules MMA, and after a debut loss to John Lober in Hawaii, he would post an undefeated 11-0-1 in a decade. More impressively, that included a 5-0 streak in UFC Middleweight (199lbs) title fights from 97-99, and he is credited with continuing his brothers’ noble work and becoming the prototypical Mixed Martial Artist that we know today. Frank defeated Olympic gold medallist and UFC tournament winner Kevin Jackson by submission in 14 seconds to win the belt, avenged his loss to Lober, beat Extreme Fighting champion Igor Zinoviev with a career ending slam, defeated MMA legend Jeremy Horn, and then capped it all off with a win over future 205lbs champion Tito Ortiz in what is the consensus greatest UFC title fight of all time. Then… he left the sport. Sporadic comeback matches eventually led to a return to the now mainstream MMA with Strikeforce, but a late career ledger of 1 win and 3 losses has tarnished somewhat his near flawless record. Worse, including Pancrase his career totals 23-10-2, an impressive yet somewhat mixed fight history that is less telling than the unified rules breakdown of 11-1-1 and 1-3 is to his overall contribution to and greatness in modern unified rules Mixed Martial Arts.

Tito Ortiz rebounded from the Frank Shamrock loss to defeat future legend Wanderlei Silva for the middleweight strap in 2000. Renamed the Light-Heavyweight title during his tenure, Tito’s five successful defences have yet to be matched, and his reign was MMA’s biggest trump card during the ‘dark ages’, when the sport was forced underground. His huge win over Ken Shamrock at UFC 40 galvanised the sport and put it back on the map, to the point where it now has boxing on the back foot after seven years riding the crest of a huge wave of popularity. However, the ‘mainstream era’ post Tito/Ken saw Ortiz lose his beloved strap to Randy Couture in 2003, then get TKO’d savagely by Chuck Liddell. Though he was a dominant champion for a time, with six successive championship victories, the American masses and new-age fans saw him gradually relegated from champion, to consensus top 3, to gatekeeper status. Randy and Chuck dished out humbling defeats that Tito never recovered from, and save for two more pointless wins over the shell of Kenneth Wayne Shamrock, and a fine defeat of Vitor Belfort, Ortiz never came close to recovering the belt that defined his career. His only shot at it came in 2006 against the formidable Chuck, himself a reigning champion, and once again he suffered a TKO defeat. His final two UFC fights after this saw him as a true gatekeeper, a mere obstacle in the respective paths of Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida to the 205lbs crown. Evans escaped with a draw after Tito was deducted a point for fence grabbing, and went on to win the belt anyway. Lyoto Machida earned a unanimous decision over the fallen former king, though Tito almost locked in a triangle choke in the final round. Tito’s contract expired directly after this, and though he would return to the UFC after a year on the sidelines, the ‘Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ does not look like he can reclaim the title he once held dear.

And so to Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva. Only four days after Ortiz recorded his last win to date, a useless UFC farewell to a shadow of Ken Shamrock, Silva won the UFC Middleweight Championship. It took him only three minutes to defeat the capable Rich Franklin, a feat he repeated at UFC 77 earning Knockout of the Night honours to boot. Nate Marquardt, Travis Lutter, Chris Leben, Patrick Côté, Thales Leites, James Irvin, two-weight Pride FC champion Dan Henderson and UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin would join his list of victims, a list that looks to keep growing. After three dominant years, Silva is the longest reigning current champion, has the record for most consecutive UFC wins, the most middleweight title victories, and will soon be the longest reigning UFC champion ever.

As fight fans reminisce, they will talk about the Gracie days of 93-94, the Shamrock superfights of 95-96, the legendary late 96 that Mark Coleman had, the 5-0 forged by Frank Shamrock that gave a glimpse to the archetypal fighter of the future, and the 2000-2003 Tito title reign that carried the UFC through Mixed Martial Arts’ darkest days. But with his ten victories, athletic pedigree and the potentially unrivalled fighting ability that the current pride of Brazil has, how much longer can Anderson reign at middleweight for? Will he ever make a run for the Light-Heavyweight title? What more can he achieve? Will rumours of a match with former heavyweight king Mir come to fruition? And will this supremely gifted gladiator be the first fighter to actually grab an entire time period within fight-sport exclusively, so that from October 14th 2006 to whenever Silva decides to hang up his gloves will forever be known as The Spider’s Era. I lived through the Anderson years.


Fletch