2011 the year of the UFC

Earlier in the year I wrote a blog about the positive state of professional wrestling, namely in connection with TNA and the WWE, midway through 2011. My intention was to write a second blog with my thoughts and analysis of the progress both promotions had made by the end of 2011. However, things change and I’ve decided to write instead about the phenomenal year of the UFC – a phenomena in its own right.

               

For anyone who follows my blog regularly I attended my first ever UFC event a couple of months ago at UFC 138 in Birmingham. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing event, one which I hope to repeat in 2012 if (or when) the UFC return to the UK. 2011 certainly has been the year of the UFC. 2011 saw the UFC return to Brazil the ‘home’ of MMA in the fastest selling UFC event in its history, where Anderson Silva – the most successful UFC Middle Weight of all time – defended his belt against Japanese challenger Yushin Okami. 2011 also saw the UFC break new ground in signing a television deal with Fox in America to broadcast four UFC events a year. The inaugural UFC on Fox event saw Junior Dos Santos become heavyweight champion in just 64 seconds as he beat Cain Velasquez by TKO. The agreement with Fox is huge for the future of the UFC in its goal to become a fully accepted mainstream sport.

                 

2011 also saw the UFC parent company Zuffa buy out rival promotion StrikeForce. Currently StrikeForce remains a separate promotion but already many of its best fighters have made the transition to the UFC: Nick Diaz former StrikeForce Welterweight Champion gave up his title to sign for the UFC to fight UFC Welterweight king GSP as well as heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. With former StrikeForce champions now on their roster the UFC has strengthened its claim to be the most elite MMA promotion in the world. But it wasn’t just individual talent that the UFC incorporated into its already impressive roster. The UFC also absorbed the former WEC lightweight divisions including Bantamweight and Featherweight and most recently expanded to include Flyweight. The addition of the smaller weight divisions has enriched the UFC’s booking and PPV events dramatically. The UFC really can boast the most exciting, competitive and talented roster in the MMA world.

               

The success of 2011 for the UFC has in part come from its inclusion of more weight divisions and expanding into new territories garnering greater media exposure, but it has fundamentally come from the strength of its booking. There have been some incredible fights this year and almost every UFC PPV card has boasted world class main event calibre. This year has seen the rubber match between Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and arch nemesis Grey Maynard, which ended in a thrilling fourth round TKO for Edgar. It has seen Dominic Cruz successfully defend his Bantamweight title against Urijah ‘California Kid’ Faber; and it has seen the meteoric rise of Light-heavyweight Champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones who has beaten no less than three former champions in Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Lyoto ‘the Dragon’ Machida – the latter earning fight of the night. There have also been many ‘dream’ fights this year including, BJ Penn v Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson v Shogun Rua in a 5 round battle for the ages and to end the year Alistair Overeem v Brock Lesnar. The ever controversial ‘pound for pound greatest’ argument, so often referred to by UFC president Dana White has been bolstered this year by UFC champions Anderson Silva, GSP, Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo and Jon Jones, much to the chagrin of Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen it should be added.

             

 It is to the aforementioned fight between Overeem and Lesnar that I wish to indulge some thoughts and analysis on. On paper this was a classic striker v grappler match up – Overeem being a supreme Kickboxer and former K1, Dream and StrikeForce champion and Lesnar being a wrestling powerhouse and former NCAA Division I and UFC champion. However, the cards seemed stacked in Overeem’s favour; despite being one of the greatest strikers in MMA 19 of his wins came via submission. Overeem is a seasoned veteran of the ring/cage with over 40 pro fights to his name, whereas Brock by contrast going into the fight had only fought 7 times and two of those were losses. Brock had also suffered from the debilitating disease Diverticulitis, which had seen him require surgery and an extended period of time away from MMA. Lastly, Brock’s Achilles heel had proven to be powerful strikers, barely surviving the first round beating by Shane Carwin and losing his title to Cain Velasquez by first round TKO.

               

Strategically in many ways Brock was doomed if he did and doomed if he didn’t. His tactic against Velasquez had been to storm in and get the takedown early where he would have the advantage in top control and negate Velasquez’s superior striking ability. That tactic had failed in his title fight and he subsequently lost in emphatic fashion. Against Overeem, arguably an even better striker than Velasquez, Brock needed to take the fight to the ground once again but this time he was hesitant not to make the same mistake as before. This reluctance to utilise his best weapon – the takedown, meant that the fight was left standing where there was only one real winner: Overeem! Sure enough midway through the first round after some devastating knees inside the clinch Overeem caught Lesnar with a body kick that crumpled the former champion, quickly followed by a flurry of punches causing Lesnar to assume the by now familiar position of ‘turtling’ up waiting for the ref to step in and stop the fight. In his post-fight interview Brock announced that he was retiring from MMA and would not fight in the Octagon again.

                

 In some ways Brock was the architect of his own destruction. Due to his size, strength and wrestling pedigree Brock quickly overpowered many of his opponents in the early stages of his career leading him to become only the second man after Randy Couture to win the heavyweight title on only his fourth professional fight. But as the calibre of Brock’s opponents increased in talent and experience the gulf began to widen. Brock had been fast-tracked to the title and in the end his lack of experience and lack of all-round ability as a mixed martial artist became a stumbling block. I recognise that his own personal problems with Diverticulitis may have played a part in preventing him from fulfilling his potential but Brock was a proverbial example of power over technique. Once he came up against stronger and more technical fighters than himself his advantage was negated.

                 

What does this mean though? Firstly it means that Alistair Overeem will face JDS for the heavyweight title in 2012 – the two greatest strikers in the UFC heavyweight division. JDS dismantled all of his opponents on his way to the title through superior boxing. JDS has never been taken to the ground and so his ground game is yet untested. With Overeem’s strength lying in his kickboxing this fight could well be full of explosive fireworks and should produce a very entertaining fight. For Brock it means the fans have been denied a rubber match against Frank Mir and a potential return to the WWE. While many ardent WWE fans may relish the prospect of Lesnar gracing a WWE ring again, his credibility as a fighter has suffered with two back-to-back losses and his inability to defend combinations of strikes. His UFC career of course has no bearing on his WWE one, but nevertheless a return to the WWE may be viewed as ‘cowardly’ by some MMA fans.

                 

So 2011 is over, it has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful year in the history of the UFC and has opened many new opportunities for 2012. Expect more first class booking, greater mainstream exposure and UFC breaking more new markets, especially in Asia as the UFC goes to Japan in February 2012.