UFC 118: The Other Guys

UFC 118 is getting plenty of hype, but what about Florian vs Maynard, Diaz vs Davis and Maia vs Miranda?

> Don't miss our UFC 118 predictions and find the official UFC 118 results after the fights are complete here at Pro Fighting Fans!

Surely by now, everyone that is interested in mixed martial arts has heard about the blockbuster card that the UFC has put together for this weekend’s UFC 118 event. The main event is a rematch between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn for the UFC Lightweight Title. Edgar won by unanimous decision the last time the two met, shocking the fight world and proving that Penn is indeed fallible in the Lightweight Division. In addition the main event, UFC Hall of Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture is taking on outspoken professional boxing champion James “Lights Out” Toney. If you have seen the commercials promoting UFC 118, you have noticed that nearly all of the attention is put on these two fights, which is a crime and a shame to rest of the fighters on the card.

Briefly, I am going to discuss the Couture vs. Toney fight and explain why I wish it would not have earned such high attention. James Toney is an excellent boxer. The man has won titles in the multiple weight classes in which he has fought and has been named Fighter of the Year on two occasions. He has 83 professional boxing matches under his belt, but the critical number is 0. James Toney has absolutely no prior MMA fights to his name. Across the cage from Toney is grizzled UFC veteran Randy “The Natural” Couture, who has 28 fights inside the cage.

You may be asking yourself “Why is this fight so incredibly hyped when, on paper, it should be a bloodbath in favor of Couture?” My answer to that question is that Dana White is a wise, shrewd businessman. Dana realizes that boxing is struggling for viewers in the younger male demographics. If he can publicly pit an above-average boxer against an above-average (in his prime, I would have said Randy is an elite mixed martial artist, but the man is 47 years old and he is still above-average in my book) mixed martial artist and have the mixed martial artist come out the victor, then the UFC and MMA in general will have dealt a heavy blow to the sport of boxing.

Find great unique MMA style t-shirts & clothing online from Intimidation Clothing!

I look at mixed martial arts as an evolution of boxing. For example, none of us remembers the sport of football before the legalization of the forward pass, but for the sake of the argument, it happened. I am sure in the olden days, football was a great game; it would have been fun to watch two teams line up and just plow straight into one another. Then the forward pass became legal. The game would have instantly become filled with more strategy and allowed for more specialization by the players. The game scoring and pace of play would have quickened dramatically. The same is true with boxing. Boxing is perfectly enjoyable if the fighters are giving their all, but imagine how the sport changes when the element of takedowns, kicks, submissions, and grappling becomes added to the rules. If you recall the initial UFC competitions, they were billed as the pitting of styles against one another to see what the best martial arts discipline was. Royce Gracie breezed through the tournaments and it took a while for other fighters to truly become mixed martial artists instead of masters of just one discipline. James Toney claims to have submitted training partners in practice, but this makes me think of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. I won’t believe it until I see it. As far as we know, Toney has no wrestling background and will be like a fish out of water if and when Randy takes the fight to the ground.

As far as I can tell, Dana White is most likely trying for a smear campaign against the sport of boxing by defacing one of its better fighters, but also White sees the opportunity to bring a whole new crop of fans to take a closer look at the UFC. If fans of boxing tune in to watch Toney fight, they will have to sit through the previous 3 main card fights to see Toney. There is a possibility that they will see something they like and will be hooked by the sport of mixed martial arts. For the above reasons, I understand why the Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn and the Randy Couture vs. James Toney fights have earned so much publicity, but there is no reason that the rest of the main card fights have not gotten much hype.

Just prior to the aforementioned Couture vs. Toney fight, we have Demian Maia against fellow Brazilian Mario Miranda in a Middleweight matchup. Miranda is making his 3 rd appearance in the UFC while Maia is fighting in his first fight since losing to Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Title. Maia is 6-2 in the UFC (losing only to Silva and Nate Marquardt) and has earned the Submission of the Night bonus in 4 of his 6 victories. This fight was hastily assembled as Maia was initially supposed to fight Alan Belcher before Belcher suffered a detached retina and backed out of the fight.

The fights that I am disappointed about for earning so little hype are the first two on the main broadcast. Kicking off the broadcast are two UFC veterans in Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis against Nate Diaz. Davis was a professional boxer before switching over to train for MMA, while Diaz is a submission expert, having earned his brown belt in jiu jitsu from Cesar Gracie. Davis was a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter: Season Two while Diaz was the winner of The Ultimate Fighter: Season Five. Davis is a tough fighter and has won fights by knockout as well as submission in the UFC, though I doubt his submission offense will come into play against Diaz. Diaz is a controversial fighter, known for his supreme confidence and submission skills (check out this highlight video, especially the submission beginning at 2:06). Diaz and Davis both have excellent hands and the fight will be exciting when it is standing up, thought Diaz has incredibly long arms and may have a significant reach advantage. When the fight goes to the ground, however, Diaz has a marked advantage in jiu-jitsu and could possibly submit Davis.

> Catch all of the official UFC 118 fight results online here at ProFighting-fans.com after the fights are complete!

In the second fight of the broadcast, Cleveland native Gray Maynard (who was a State Champion wrestler for Lakewood St. Edward) will be taking on Kenny Florian in a lightweight scrap. Once again, both fighters were contestants on The Ultimate Fighter, with KenFlo finishing as runner-up in Season One and Maynard advancing to the semi-finals of Season Five. Florian is a jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai expert and has shown his abilities inside the Octagon in both disciplines. Florian has fought in a championship fight on two occasions, being defeated by Sean Sherk and BJ Penn. Maynard brings an undefeated record (marred only by a no contest) to the cage against Florian and looks to demonstrate his exceptional wrestling skills (3x NCAA All-American) and rapidly improving boxing abilities. According to UFC President Dana White, the winner of this fight will become the #1 Contender in the Lightweight Division and will get the next crack at the champion, whether it is Edgar or Penn.

Though the title fight rematch is bound to be exciting and the Couture vs. Toney fight will capture the attention of many, it would be downright wrong to ignore the remaining bouts on the card of UFC 118. With 3 previous title fights (and an upcoming 4 th title fight for the winner of Florian vs. Maynard), 4 alumni of The Ultimate Fighter (which brings name recognition to the average fan), and a combined 15 UFC post-fight bonuses (Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night, Submission of the Night), it would be a shame to overlook the rest of the card. Odds are the action will be fast-paced and exciting.