Thursday Blog: Rankings-related hate

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 11:00 p.m. ET: In this week’s edition of ESPN’s “MMA Live,” Frank Mir -- who owns a 50-percent equity stake in the UFC’s heavyweight championship -- speculates that Cheick Kongo might be next in line for a title shot after Mir’s appointment to stand in front of runaway train Brock Lesnar is over in July. (Is 18 months enough time to have enough submission awareness to stay out of Mir’s bear-trap ground game? My guess is -- nah.)

Equally likely, though, is Randy Couture being squeezed for one last title bid should he get past Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in August. Kongo and Shane Carwin are relatively fresh, but Couture, who is about to turn 46 this summer, is rapidly approaching his expiration date.

If he trumps Nogueira -- and it’s a solid possibility, considering Nogueira’s abrupt career tailspin -- I’d expect Kongo and Carwin to warm the bench until the new year.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 9:50 p.m. ET: Gina Carano spoke to FanHouse this week and expressed wishy-washy sentiment over signing with Strikeforce.

On possibly signing with the UFC instead: “I would have to go and fight (the contract that Strikeforce bought from EliteXC) in court and that would just seem like it would put more months in between me fighting, staying active and staying sane.”

Carano also indicated the decision wasn’t about money … which means it’s clearly about money. It’s also about the ability of either Strikeforce or the UFC to have a self-propelled women’s division once Carano and rival Cristiane Santos finally duke it out. Female MMA has matured exponentially in the past two years, but whether there’s life in it after Carano has filled her quota remains to be seen. At the moment, it’s a one-woman show.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 6:15 p.m. ET: RawVegas.tv quotes partial UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir’s growing concern over tongues getting too much of a workout in the UFC.

“Junie Browning was highlighted on the show and didn't even win,” Mir said. “Efrain Escudero won the reality show and … do most people know who Efrain is?”

Mir makes a valid point, but you can point to just as many athletes who draw with humility (Randy Couture, Georges St. Pierre) as with hubris (Brock Lesnar, Tito Ortiz). And if it’s any consolation, the novelty of seeing Browning getting punched in the face is likely to wear off any day now.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 5:05 p.m. ET: Trooper that I am, I still lasted only five minutes during an attempted viewing of “Bully Beatdown,” the hyper MTV series that abuses sneering “bullies” allegedly recruited from central casting. Acquired taste Jason “Mayhem” Miller acts as proxy to the bully’s victims, helping them garner some form of justice when their tormenters are abused in a homogenized, lawyer friendly MMA contest. The whole thing is about as spontaneous as a prom night groping. It might be God’s greatest mistake.

Despite the show’s dubious claims to being non-fiction, the CBC reports that anti-harassment group BullyingCanada still wants it taken off the air. Hiring a trained mercenary to beat up an antagonist, the group argues, is sending the wrong message to kids.

Could be. “My Bodyguard” is still a great movie, though.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 3:55 p.m. ET: From BloodyElbow.com comes news guaranteed to furrow your brow: Fedor Emelianenko is set to face Shinya Aoki during April’s 29 Deep/M-1 Challenge.

A lightweight submission machine, Aoki is roughly as muscular as Zac Efron; Emelianenko is built like a retaining wall. We assume this will be some kind of grappling contest, but it would not surprise to see promoters mandate Emelianenko wear a blindfold while arming Aoki with a slingshot. Things get very weird, very quickly over there.

Update: M-1 Global has announced that Emelianenko/Aoki will be a “five-minute sparring exhibition,” which sounds vague and ominous. Never try to figure out the logic of a country that’s produced an MP3-compatible toilet.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 2:35 p.m. ET: The excellent Brazilian fight sheet Tatame reports that former Pride standout Ricardo Arona has yet to be contacted by the UFC.

If you’re stateside and haven’t yet decided to blow a paycheck on a complete library of Pride events -- and you really should -- Arona might be best described as an aggressive wet blanket. He’ll jump on you, control you, stifle you, but won’t necessarily bring the violence of a carjacking. (Of 18 fights, 10 went the distance.)

Is that a good enough reason for exclusion? What if the best fighter in the world happens to be a complete and total bore? If he’s clipped from the circuit, doesn’t that diminish the value of a championship?

Signing Arona to a 10-fight guarantee is perhaps not the wisest use of resources, but a standard deal with the expected provisions for an early cut would seem to be a low-risk way of determining his value. Arona has had his rough patches -- his last fight was a KO loss two years ago -- but he’s certainly enough of a curiosity to warrant a prelim bout.

Whether he’s receptive to prelim money is another matter.

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By Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 1:30 p.m. ET: Let’s be realistic: There will never be a consensus “pound-for-pound” great in MMA. Everyone has their own idea of the attributes necessary for that kind of inflated title, and it’s difficult to sway anyone from their beliefs. (And God help any contender that happens to suffer a loss -- you’d have a better chance of remaining in the sport’s good graces if you had contracted leprosy. And scabies. At the same time.)

Sherdog.com’s attempt to crystallize the situation makes an honest effort: Their latest tally of accomplishments anoints Anderson Silva the world’s current alpha fighter, with Georges St. Pierre a close number two.

(For the record: I do not contribute to rankings. I also don’t attend the annual picnic.)

There’s little dysfunction here, though I’d swap Silva and St. Pierre in a heartbeat. Timidity, showboating and downright apathy aren’t traits I’d consider valuable in a fighter sitting on top of the pile. Can anyone imagine St. Pierre having a staring contest with an opponent, as Silva essentially did with Thales Leites on Saturday? Or having such contempt for the match that he’d bother punching Leites in the foot?

Yes, St. Pierre broke a nice streak by losing to an otherwise-underwhelming Matt Serra in 2007. But he avenged the loss, and he’s shown domination in all ranges of fighting. He is the sport’s most complete fighter -- and unlike third-place finisher Fedor Emelianenko, he displays those abilities in a deeply talented weight division. (Emelianenko has been stepping it up as of late, but the ghosts of Zulus past continue to tarnish.)

The list -- which makes dubious use of Forrest Griffin and Mike Thomas Brown -- might also have benefited from the presence of Lyoto Machida, who remains the owner of an undefeated record despite escalating competition.

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By Greg Savage (greg@sherdog.com)

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Thursday, 3:00 a.m. ET: Nothing like a little rankings-related reader hate to greet you when you open your inbox.

I believe this was supposed to go to Jeff Sherwood, but by some stroke of luck, it ended up in my hands. You all know how I feel about rankings. If not, it goes something like this: Rankings are like something that everyone has and they seem to turn people into that something when they print or peruse them.

Anyway, here is the beauty of an e-mail (the writer will remain anonymous, at least as far as I am concerned; my guess is he reveals himself):

Hey jeff, I just wanna let you know that your p4p ranking is stupid and has caused an outrage in the sherdog forum. Fedor should be number 1, and GSP should be number 2, if this ranking is not changed within a month or 2 , then I will stop watching MMA and its all because SHERDOG

And here is a portion of the post he attached to the e-mail:

Fedor also keeps winning your P4P polls by considerable margins and yet the voice of the community is repeatedly undermined by a handful people (Sherdog staff).

The indignation at the staff for not following the Sherdog forum’s wishes is about the greatest compliment I can ascribe to. Not that there is no redeeming value in the forum; it is a great place to converse with those who are as enamored with MMA as you are. All I am saying is that a place where people anonymously engage in childish behavior on a daily basis (again, not that this is a bad thing) just might not be the place to start taking queues from.

On a related note, what the hell is Anderson Silva still doing at number one? Personally, I have to go with Georges St. Pierre at the top spot or 1A in my book. Fedor and Silva are 1B and 1C respectively.

Now note how I didn’t threaten to quit watching MMA, or in my case covering it, just because something I don’t agree with was published.

Note from editorial staff: Savage, you’re suspended for disagreeing with the Sherdog rankings. Go sit in the forum.

Check the blog all day for more entries.

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