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June 9, 2010

The Cage Favors Wrestlers???
by: JessiDylan

I’ve heard a lot of you clowns yammering on the forums ever since
Superman Shields (c) took out Hollywood Hendo in a masterful display
of American Jui-Jitsu.  After that, we got to watch the greatest
athlete in MMA, Josh Koscheck, bully the dignity and fair reason out
of Paul Daley and not only cut his run at the UFC WW title short, but
end his UFC career entirely via brilliant psychological warfare.
Finally, last weekend, I had the privilege of watching brother Rashad
dismantle and overcome the bigger, meaner, stronger dude via amazing
power endurance tailor made by Jon Chaimberg.  Oh and everyone that
won those fights was an awesome wrestler.

I loved the hell out of all those fights because I am a FIGHT FAN.  I
understand that you all may still have some residual daddy issues from
Griffin/Bonnar 1, but come on, now.  I feel like I’m one of the guys
that used to stick up for Royce and the rest of the BJJ world when the
rednecks at Hooters booed from the table at the back of the room
because the guy in the pajamas was hanging onto the big dude with the
‘stache.  After all, that was bullshit.  They came to see a fight!
What the hell is this hugging on the ground?  Then suddenly the pajama
guy throws a leg over the big man’s head and the fights over?  Please,
who would have wanted to watch that?  The UFC was supposed to be death
in a cage on late night television.  It was a step above a snuff film.

Now its the whole “face the pain”, one-punch KO’s that the TV spots
push, so when the first black-on-black main event features a class-a
game plan, cutting-edge conditioning courtesy of Rashad Evans and an
ass-load of cool under pressure, suddenly everyone’s disappointed
because, apparently, the cage favors wrestlers, and wrestlers have
just figured this out after 17 years!Right.  You know, I can remember
all those HS wrestling practices where coach made me practice TD’s off
the cage for hours on end.

Last time I checked, wrestling took place on an open mat.  You are
discouraged from pushing too much because you’re always at risk from
being turned out of bounds for no points.  Furthermore, if you’re not
a fan of “wall and stall” as you so cleverly put it, you should point
the finger at striking-only sports like K-1 and boxing.

Believe it or not, combat sports were around before 1993, and people
were upset with certain boxer’s over-reliance on excessive clinching
and pushing their opponents against the barrier.  This led to more
aggressive reffing and judges who often negatively altered a boxer’s
score for excessive clinching.  So now a modern boxing match features
Kenny Bayless jumping between the fighter’s every five seconds
shouting “no, no, no!”  You want that?  Get, real, son.  This is
fighting.

Anything goes in fighting.  In MMA, more things go than not.  If
you’re truly unhappy about your favorite fighter getting a cage
imprint on his face like a hooker that passed out on Andy Roddick’s
racket, then you should probably spam that fighter’s twitter and ask
him why the hell he didn’t train to shuck a guy off from the fence, or
stand up from half guard.  It actually IS your responsibility as a
fighter to stop the other guy from doing mean things to you, and that
includes humping you against the fence in front of your wife and kids.
Show some dignity, man.  Don’t let a guy do that to you.  Especially
if he’s smaller.  Especially if you photoshopped him onto a dead
artist.  NCAA/JUCO records are in fact NOT top-secret, and are
accessible to the public!  If your opponent is a very good wrestler,
it is in your best interest to prepare!……

*JD

*JessiDylan is a respected member of the Mormon Church and one of Utah’s most respected Mormon MMA journalists