MMA Ranking Talk

It always amazes me that I can watch a fight as it happens, step away to clear my head, come back to watch the fight a second time, and then still not see what some other people see.

Obviously personal tastes can skew things, but here’s what I saw…

Round 1

Round 1 was all Carwin…by a LOT. Brock tried a takedown and got clipped on the way in and landed in neutral position. Carwin stood up right after and soon proceeded to dominate the standup.

Brock got put down and spent a couple minutes on his back getting hammered away on. I won’t say the fight should have been stopped, but we’ve all seen fights stopped for *MUCH* less. If this fight were stopped two minutes in, think what people would be saying.

At the end of the round with about one minute left Brock gets back to his feet, has Carwin against the cage and even with Carwin gassed still doesn’t get the takedown. In fact, Carwin appears to be locking up a Kimura as the round ends.

Even the announcers call this a 10-8 round for Carwin.

Round 2

Round 2 is all Brock. Sadly though, not because of what he does, but because of what Carwin can’t do. Carwin is gassed and takes about 2 seconds to retract his first punch of the round. Brock does a fairly weak takedown attempt (by his standards) and get’s Carwin down.

From there Brock could have ended the fight via tickling if he wanted. Carwin was completely gassed.

Brock’s win or Carwin’s loss

Often times in sport people will ponder whether one team won the fight or the other team lost. I think in the case of this fight it’s obvious that Carwin lost it.

I’m not hating on Brock here, but he didn’t come right out and dominate with his wrestling. He didn’t beat Carwin at the standup game. He didn’t sub Carwin off his back. Those are all things Brock could have done to “win” the fight.

Carwin on the other hand pushed too hard too early. In the pre-fight rant I mentioned the uncertainties surrounding Carwin and this came true. He didn’t have the gas tank for it, he didn’t stay composed and adjust to the fight as it happened, etc.

The good for Brock

Brock showed heart. As silly as it sounds there were a lot of people that expected Brock to drop to his knees and tapout as soon as he took one solid shot.

Obviously, that’s a very silly thing to think. Brock competed at wrestling and football. Somehow people let his “fake wrestling” overshadow everything else. Wrestling is an incredibly difficult sport both physically and mentally. You don’t get as good as Brock at anything without having heart.

The bad of the good

Here’s where people again flip flop on me and think I’m back to being a hater…

Brock is an MMA fighter, he holds the heavyweight title and he’s a grown ass man!!! Saying “he didn’t tap” borders on an insult in my opinion. Look at all the fighters that fight injured, that struggle through fights, that refuse to give up.

That’s part of the pedigree, it’s part of the job, it’s part of who they are as a person. People don’t usually rant and rave about how brave A-Rod is for walking down to first base after getting beaned in the hip. People don’t lose their mind every time Peyton goes back to the huddle after being sacked.

The bigger issue

The bigger issue here is that saying Brock has “heart” perfectly illustrates the struggle between where people say Brock is and where he actually is. Let me explain…

If Brock is #1 in the world…

If Brock is the clear cut #1 heavyweight in the world. If Brock is the favorite against everyone. If Brock is a professional MMA fighter and the person others should aspire to be, then you can’t make comments like “heart” about him.

No one talked about “heart” when Anderson Silva came back against Lutter or Henderson. People never mentioned “heart” about Fedor in his fight against Rogers or Arlovski.

You see, if a fighter is truly at that elite level then these things are known. The fighter isn’t going to give up. The fighter is going to try to find a way to win. These are known.

If Brock Lesnar is an up and comer

On the other hand, if Brock is an up and comer, then all of these comments make sense. When a fighter is new we just don’t know how they’ll react to different situations.

Fighters can panic on their back or when they are close to being submitted. Some fighters fold like a lawn chair when hit. Other fighters breakdown mentally when their opponent doesn’t wilt under their opening gambit.

In this context, saying things like “heart” make perfect sense.

See the conflict?

If Brock is #1 and all dominate and known to be awesome, etc. then the fact that he did a basic sub on a completely gassed opponent he overpowers is *NOT* news, it is *NOT* a compliment, it is *NOT* reasonable praise.

If you see the potential in Brock though, and you recognize where he is and where he can be, then you can talk about heart. If you see Brock as an up and comer then you can mention him using some sub techniques and not being “just a wrestler”.

What you cannot do though is claim someone is the all mighty best in the world and then claim them doing basic things that every top 1000 MMA fighter can do as being special.

Bottom Line

Against Carwin, Brock proved to some people that he is an MMA fighter. However, he still needs a few more fights before he proves he’s the best in the world.

Tags: brock lesnar, shane carwin, ufc

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 7:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.