SBNation.com User Blog: J_M_I Himself

And The Winner Is: Jones V Silva

J_M_I Himself — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 02:47:31 -0000

There's been a lot of talk and speculation about a potential showdown between UFC Middleweight monster, long reigning champion and Pound-for-Pound chart topper Anderson "The Spider" Silva and 205lbs wrecking ball Champion and top 5 fighter in the world Jon "Bones" Jones. A fight which, unless something drastic happens, like Silva losing to Bonnar, a fallout between the two "BFFs", or a shit ton of money is dropped off, probably won't happen. But because fight fans can't stop talking about this fight so in this article I'm going to give my theory on who would win this match.

Let's go!

First, I wanna start off by saying that I'm a Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson fan; you won't see me cheering for either of these guys so don't think I'm being bias towards either of the two. I do respect both of Jones and Silva strictly as fighter and they both are incredibly talented fighters and for the most part deserve the praise they receive.

I'm just going to go out and say that if these two ever squared off I'd have to put my money on "The Spider" Anderson Silva. Jones has an edge in pretty much every tangible, physical advantage, taller, younger, possibly stronger, but Silva is the master of all the intangibles. The mystic of invincibility for never dropping a fight under the UFC banner and only really ever being in trouble in a fight once gets inside a fighter's head. You add to that the years of the UFC hype machine, MMA fans and journalist proclaiming Silva as the greatest fighter that has ever lived and you get the "Tyson Effect", where fighters have lost the fight before the ink is even dry on the contract. Jones is building up a fearful rep as well but not nearly to the extent that Silva has.

Mentally, Silva owns possibly a small advantage over Jones, who has said on numerous occasions that he has always been a fan of Anderson, looked up to him as a fighter and if you watch pre-championship Jones fights you can see that influence. So how will Jon Jones feel when he looks across the ring and not only sees his friend (Jones has admitted that his friendship with Evans made him reluctant to go in for the kill), his hero, is idol and what has been proclaimed that #1 pound-for-pound greatest fighter staring back at him? It would be like seeing your dad and Superman ready to square up against you.

Coming down to the actual fisticuffs, I see Double J having to be a lot more cautious in his approach. Silva's speed, reflexes and evasive ability is going to make him a lot more hesitant to go about his usual style. Jones has holes in his striking game that leave plenty of opportunities for his past fighter to take advantage of that Silva could exploit. He tends to be wild with his strikes and kind of linger in bad positions as well as the fact he move straight back after exchanges.

Add to that Silva won't be playing straight man to Jones unorthodox fighting style. How is Jones going to react when he's the one that has to be worried about getting kicked in the face? There is obviously the wrestling advantage that Jones enjoys but Silva's second fight with Chael showed that at the very least he has learned to neutralize a take down attempt. Jones doesn't have the power double that Sonnen does, his bread and butter is the clinch game. Will he be comfortable getting into the clinch while Anderson's deadly Muay Thai plum out on the loose? Rich Franklin's nose advises against it. Even if it does go to the ground how much does Jones want to play around in Silva's guard with his Nogeriura brother black belt? Chael Sonnen's hopes and dreams advise against it.

So if Anderson gets Jones to play cautious defense and the ground game being too risky to engage in as a long term strategy that leaves Bones left in a striking match with The Spider, which hasn't ended well for his past fifteen opponents.

What do you think Maniacs?

Haters Gonna Hate: Carlos Condit

J_M_I Himself — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 03:12:25 -0000

So I've been stalking this website of the past couple of years and I know that everybody that regularly posts on here knows that pretty much all of the MMA fighters in the major promotions are more talented, hard working, brave, dedicated and disciplined then any of us on here could ever dream of being but, they're not Gods. MMA fighters are people and people do shit that piss us the fuck off!

I don't hate many fighters but I do have a lot of hate for some fighters. In this article and what I hope to be a on going series, I wanna go and put all do respect aside and exercise my right to talk shit about fighters that annoy the shit out of me. Tonight I'm going to go on a nice slightly belligerent hate rant on interim Welterweight champion and upcoming opponent tot the returning 170 Lbs Kingpin Georges St.Pierre.

And in case you're wondering......yes, I am mad bro! Let's start the show!

First off Fuck Condit for the face that he got a title shot off beating Kim Dong-Yun! What kinda shit is that? Dong-Yun isn't even a top 10 WW let alone a proper stepping stone for a title shot! KDY doesn't even think he's a top 10 Welterweight! Then Carlos actually believes he DESERVES that title shot off beating Kim Dong-Yun! Does he know that all Asian MMA fighters suck, with the exception of..... ALL ASIAN MMA FIGHTERS SUCK! You wanna talk about undeserved WW title shots, Hell at least Dan Hardy was marketable, with his Mohawk and his bandanna.

Carlos Condit then follows that up with his "fight" with Nick Diaz. I don't give a shit who you thought won, how you scored the fucking fight or whatever else. The Main Event of UFC 143 was suppose to be a knockdown, drag out, modern day classic of a WAR between The Natural Born Killer and The Stockton Slugger but instead, Carols Condit was responsible for AT LEAST 50% of a wrist-slittingly disappointing of a fight between The Natural Born Runner and The Stoned Stockton Slug, at least Diaz can you the excuse that he was blazed outta his fucking mind.

He robs me of that fight which with then robs me of what could of been a fucking awesome Champ V Champ fight between Diaz and GSP. Which either could of led to GSP being pressured beat up and maybe even topped or finally seeing Rush impress people with his performance but thanks to Con-Cunt just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the World may never know.

There's a strong case that can be make that Carlos actually hates MMA fans as he then REFUSES to defend his "Championship" against any of the other Welterweights that have been rising up the rankings, you know getting title shots by fighting other 10 ten fighters in their division and effectively becoming a glorifies number one contender. Asshole.

Now as we wait for November to finally come to see the 170 pound Championship be defended for the first time in almost two years. I know that if he has his way Carlos will once again rob us once again of another great fight against Georgie Porridgie. Because hate to break the news to all of you Condit fans but if you think The Natural Born Killer is gonna make a triumphant return at UFC 154, your damn wrong. If Carlos didn't wanna trade with Diaz, if he didn't wanna be aggressive against Mean Mugging Molasses Man that just stood right in front of him, if he didn't wanna risk losing a Interim Championship, what the fuck makes you think he's gonna come out and rush "Rush"?

Turning down the hate jets down a notch, honestly, where does Condit beat St. Pierre. Carlos is a pretty well rounded, mostly aggressive fighter with killer instinct but for the most part that has only be against lesser completion then him. The only proven fighters that we can really gauge him against he lost to. He lost a split against Kampmann, dropped a decision against Jake Shields. Rory wasn't nearly the fighter he is now and even that was a close fight and Ellenberger was a split victory and Ellenberger's credibly is kinda iffy now.

Besides that, let's look at who GSP has beaten, Carlos Condit isn't a better grappler then Shields, BJ Penn and arguably Matt Serra. He's not a better wrestler then Koscheck, Fitch or Matt Hughes. He's not stronger that Alves, or Koscheck. He's not a better striker then Alver or BJ Penn and after that monstrous ass beating that GSP gave him where he still couldn't be put away, I don't think he's more durable the Fitch. So, how does he win? Baby leg kicks? Fuck off Running Man!

What do you think Maniacs? Let the Hate flow through you!

Remember that time Rampage Jones KO’ed Brock Lesnar?!

J_M_I Himself — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:37:51 -0000

This weekend I was spending some time with some new friends, a couple which were Atlanta natives that transplanted down to my home state of Florida. Generally nice people and a sweet couple the two are the epitome of average, average jobs, average lives, average cars, average apartment, average looks even. The only defining characteristics that really stood out is the couple’s fanatical devotion to sports, whether it be college football, the NFL, baseball, hockey, tennis, any sport, anytime, they’re there. They’re car is filled with tennis balls and racks on the inside and Atlanta Braves decals on the outside. Their apartment and Facebooks are filled with pictures of them at various sporting events and despite only being in Florida for 3 weeks, they already have a couple pictures of them mugging it up with some of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers players. These people are sports fans, folks.

Which brings me back to this past weekend, leaving the bar after watching Rashad crumple Tito’s solar plexus with a seismic knee; I linked up with the sports fans to make the most out of a Saturday night. While in the car hunting for a spot for the night the guy asked me how the fight went and who fought. Not knowing how into MMA he was I kept it short, replying back, “Oh, it was great, Tito Ortiz lose to this guy, Rashad Evans.” (As an Evans fan it was hard to down play him as some guy but Tito is a bigger name to the masses.) He casually replied back with a “That’s cool.” Before recounting his experience of a fight he once watched.

"Yeah, I like MMA, its pretty cool. I remember I was watching that one fight, where Rampage Jones fought Brock Lesnar, that shit was awesome! It was so great because Brock was supposed to be this big shit and then Rampage knocked him out in like the first round! I love Rampage, he’s so awesome!" (Those few sentences are such a cataclysmic, multidimensional fail, that I don’t even want to touch it. And no that wasn’t a typo he said Rampage Jones.)

Trying not to come off as a condescending douche bag and embarrass the guy in front of his girl and others in the car, I tried to correct him with some finesse. "Yeah, I remember that fight, I don’t think it was Rampage, I think it was this other guy named Cain." (Again, a huge Cain fan, it was painful to relegate the current UFC heavyweight champion and number one ranked heavyweight in the world down to, "this other guy", le sigh.) He was pretty confident it was Rampage and also drunk so, I just dropped the subject.( Also, the way the guy talked about the fight it seemed like it was a great fight and I didn’t want to wreck the guy’s fantasy.) Now, all racist jokes aside (dark brown pride?) Rampage Jackson looks nothing like Cain Velasquez, and Brock Lesnar looks not even remotely close to anyone Rampage has ever fought.

Now, most of my friends watch MMA to various different degrees but are what I would consider actual MMA fans, so for me this was a huge insight it to the average person’s depth of knowledge and general awareness of MMA. All I could think is how can this guy, who is such a huge sports fan and so passionate and devoted to one of the most boring sport to watch (baseball) be so grossly misinformed about a fight he actually watched?

This leads me to believe that MMA’s transition from fringe sport to mainstream mainstay is going to be even more of an uphill battle then we all thought. Putting aside having to learn the layered complexities of the sport, that’ll come as you watch, the largest hurdle to overcome is, in order to make it more than just two dudes hitting each other you have to become more personally invested it who is hitting who, that means having to pick "a guy". Picking a fighter to root for and be a fan of is a really personal decision that has more to do with a fighter’s looks and personality then it do wins and losses. Let’s say Brock Lesnar brought you into the sport, you feel like you like MMA but you think Brock is a prick and you tuned in to watch him get his ass kicked but he won that fight, where do you go from there? How do you find out that Lyoto Machida is "your guy" if he wasn’t on that card you watched? What if welterweight is you preferred division but it was a card loaded with lightweights and light heavyweights?

When comparing MMA to the NFL, NBA, and MLB the major advantage the big three have in gaining and keeping fans is franchises. Thanks to franchises you don’t have to like a player, you don’t need to agree or disagree with a player’s personality (for the most part) you can just be a loyal fan of the team. You can just be an Indianapolis Colts fan. Since a franchise is mainly a faceless entity, the entire roster is can change every season and you can still be a Colts fan, the brand, the name is bigger than the individual players.

Another leg up the big three have is an instant local fan base. If you live in Boston and you’re interested into becoming a fan of the NBA’s brand of basketball (NBA isn’t a sport and neither is UFC), you have the Celtics right there for you, no big decision and nobody is really even going to challenge you decision of rooting for the home team. That ease of induction for a newbie makes it less difficult to settle in and become a lifelong fan of the sport or the brand, something MMA doesn’t have. To use Mister Lesnar as an example again, if you moved from Maine to Minnesota you’re not going to automatically become a Brock fan.

So the question is, how do the Zuffa boys showcase their massive collection of talent in a way that allows for newer fans to become more personally invested in the sport and the fighters? The Ultimate Fighter was a great concept but I highly doubt that anybody is going to gather their friends around and shell out 60 bucks to see Jonathan Brookins or Tony Ferguson fight.

Sound off maniacs, do you have the magic answer?