Standard Intro, I’ll make it better later
A majority of the complaints I get regarding this site tend to boil down to “Fighter A is too high”. Usually I respond to this by simply stating that if someone would beat them they’d go lower. However, I often understand where the person commenting is coming from. I’ve contended for awhile that if I could just make a fight or two here and there it’d help “clean up” a lot of the data. With that in mind I thought I’d start up a new little segment called, “Monday MatchMaker”. (insert corny it’s mmm mmm good blurb here)
Matt Hughes Vs. Jake Shields
I’ll start right out by saying this isn’t the fight I planned to mention today. However, with the result from this weekend’s Strikeforce card (Is the spoiler alert supposed to go before or after you give away information? *shrugs*) the fight became even more interesting in my opinion.
Shields
Shields is a fighter that has been on a tear for awhile now, but seems to get no respect. People constantly think he’s rated too high, but he just keeps winning. A solid win over a fighter like Matt Hughes would likely make more people finally take notice.
Hughes
Hughes is an all-time great who’s career is starting to wind down. I personally felt that professionally he should have retired several years ago because there simply was nothing left for him to do. There is no doubt that Hughes has the hunger to continue competing though and the chance to avenge the recent loss of a training partner is an extra little incentive. (Spoiler alert? Bleh, I’ll work on it)
The Fight
I know some fans will be weary of a fight that has very little chance of a standing KO finish, but this match could be explosive. Hughes’ BJJ continues to be underrated, and Shields is more tenacious/explosive than many realize. Since both fighters excel in the same areas it would be interesting to see who was able to impose their will on the other.
The fight also balances out nicely is that whichever fighter won, would be ranked higher (on this site, and likely others). This means both have something to gain, and both have something to lose (a topic I’ll discuss more in the coming weeks).
Fighter Comparison – Matt Hughes Vs. Jake Shields
Brock Larson Vs. Josh Koscheck
Since the above match isn’t very likely due to the organizational differences between the fighters, I figured I’d throw in an extra matchup. This is another welterweight showdown, but in this case both fighters are currently in the UFC.
Brock Larson
Similar to Shields mentioned above Brock is a fighter that some think is “too high”. Again though, he continues to win. One of the obvious knocks on Brock is that he hasn’t faced very difficult competition. Looking at:
MMA ELO – Current Welterweight Rankings
we see that although Brock is ranked quite high currently his Strength of Schedule is the fourth *lowest* of the fighters in the top 25. (Evil Tip – You can sort the rankings pages by the various columns by clicking on the column heading, in this case “strength of schedule”).
Taking on a tested fighter like Koscheck would show whether Brock is ready to hang at the upper levels of the welterweight division.
Josh Koscheck
Josh is a fighter that needs to get back on a roll. After winning five in a row (including giving Diego Sanchez his first ever loss) Kos lost a decision to GSP (big understatement). He came back from the loss to win two in a row, but then lost another decision to Thiago Alves. Following another win was…you guessed it, another loss.
Kos needs to get back on the right track and a solid win over an experienced fighter would be a great start.
The Fight
I have to confess that I haven’t a clue where this fight would go. Truth be told I think these two could fight 5 times and have 5 different outcomes and they’d likely each win at least one. Brock has only gone to decision 3 times in 28 fights, so it’d be interesting to see how he would handle things if the fight went into the later rounds.
Fighter Comparison – Brock Larson Vs. Josh Koscheck
The first of many?
So there you have it, a quick little breakdown of a couple potential (though not overly likely) match-ups. I personally see both fights as being interesting, reasonably marketable, and sound from a rankings standpoint.
Other than fixing the intro, please let me know what you loved/hated. If I don’t get too much hate mail for this I will do it again next week. 8)
The more I see from this site the better!! Love the rankings and the analysis. The rankings specifically, are the best around purely because there is a very simple explanation for everything. Im not a huge BJ fan, however I dont think he is the 10th best LW in the world….having said that, given how often he fights, 10 is a fair ranking. Similarly, Aoki, my fav lightweight has no business being ranked #1 in the tightest division in MMA after a loss.
The examples here with Larson and Shields are exactly the same. People may feel they shouldnt be ranked so high, but you can see why they are. Also, being ranked so high exposes them to a BIG drop if they should lose to someone outside the top 5.
But for Christs sake, fix the intro!!!!! :P hehe
LOL, I tried on the intro, I really did. If I do this again next week (probably) I’ll try to have a better intro by then.
Thanks for the kind words and for actually looking a little deeper into *WHY* something is the way it is. Some people have this uncanny ability to be offended by things they don’t even fully understand. (Had an ex like that once too)
You are also exactly right that these guys could take big drops if they lose. That’s exactly what happens though. If a fighter just isn’t quite up to that next level, they will lose and they will drop in rank. All that has to happen is giving them the right fights. With the right fight they’ll either drop down a bit, or they’ll further prove they deserve it and suddenly other sites/fans will take notice.