Everyone answers to somebody, so we, the staff at Sherdog.com, have decided to defer to our readers.
Our reporters, columnists, radio hosts, and editors will chime in with our answers and thoughts, so keep the emails coming.
This week, readers weigh-in in a wide range of topics, including catch-weight bouts in mixed martial arts and early-UFC favorite Fred Ettish.
Finally, don’t miss “Forum Talk Back,” where loyal users of the Sherdog forums sound off on the latest in MMA.
Catch Me If You Can
I enjoyed watching the Strikeforce press conference. I liked Frank Shamrock’s response to your question, and how he compared Nick Diaz to his son and would send him to his room and take away his allowance. LOL. Should be an awesome tilt. I think Shamrock is a God, so I'm pulling for him. We've never seen Diaz so big.
Some people don't like the catch-weight fights, because they say nothing is at stake, no titles change hands, no change in rankings. Me, personally, sometimes, I just love to see a great matchup, and this is could be one of them. I'm sure people would love to see Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre at say… 177.5 pounds.
-- Kyle
Loretta Hunt, news editor: Kyle, I really enjoyed the simplicity and directness of your email. It got me thinking about this recent rush of catch-weight bouts and whether they are merited. Personally, I’m not a fan of catch-weight fare for all the reasons you listed above, but I’m starting to evaluate each one on a case-by-case basis and I’ll tell you why. I think you have to look at which promotion is hosting the bout and what purpose it serves.
Take Strikeforce’s decision to match up Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz at 179 pounds for their April 11 headliner. Does the bout progress either fighters’ careers? I think to a certain degree, yes, but there is certainly room for argument. Does the bout help define Strikeforce’s pecking order in either the welterweight or middleweight divisions? Not really. However, that’s not the reason Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker selected these two boisterous athletes to helm the promotion’s coming-out party on Showtime.
It goes without saying that this fight has a lot resting on its shoulders. Strikeforce needs to come out with a bang, with a real sense of personality and presence to win over fans quickly and establish itself as a true promotional superpower. Showtime is banking on an exciting and gripping main event that will attract viewers, as well as erase any negative memories that may have permeated from the unfortunate final days of the EliteXC and ShoXC brands it was once attached to.
And let’s be honest. Strikeforce won’t be given limitless attempts to get it right. They’ve got to jump in the driver’s seat and put the pedal to the metal.
This is a fresh start, not only for Strikeforce and Showtime, but also for the sport itself. So while pundits might argue that this bout, nestled between two competitive weight classes, doesn’t do much rankings-wise, it’s the banter between Shamrock and Diaz, and their emotional ferocity -- which both have in spades -- that the media will write about and the fans will tune in to see.
When the fight was announced, another MMA sports writer wrote (and please forgive my paraphrasing) that Shamrock-Diaz is not a good fight, but it is a good promotion. I think that statement gets to the heart of it.
I’m less sold on another catch-weight bout. The UFC recently announced that its former middleweight champion Rich Franklin will meet Wanderlei Silva at a catch-weight of 195 pounds in the main event for UFC 99, which marks the promotion’s debut in Germany on June 12.
Does this fight propel either fighters’ careers forward? Again, I think it could be argued yes. However, this fight seems thrown together more than anything else. The UFC wanted the lightweight championship bout between B.J. Penn and Ken Florian to anchor UFC 99, and when that fell through, they had limited options with their remaining top roster. Though the UFC has done all it can to tag Silva-Franklin a “dream bout” the fans have always wanted to see, I find little evidence of this. To me, it wasn’t one of those blatantly obvious must-have fights. In fact, I never thought about it, until it was announced and it’s at 195 pounds no less, which will do nothing but cause rankings wranglers all over the Internet to pull what remaining hairs they have out of their head. This catch-weight fight holds less water, other than to give Silva a test-run before he actually dives down into the middleweight division.
That’s not to say I won’t be watching Silva and Franklin dance come fight night. I’ll be glued to my seat, and I’ll probably get that little pain I get in my stomach when I see each guy loaded up in their corner, ready to spring out onto the canvas.
However, the UFC is the top dog, with the strongest pool of talent overall, so I hold them to a higher standard than I do with Strikeforce. The UFC is in a different place than Strikeforce. The UFC doesn’t need to prove itself to Spike TV or the pay-per-view providers or even to the fans anymore. They have the greatest resources to put together fights where something is a stake, where titles change hands, and that help refine the rankings.
When Strikeforce has found it’s footing, I will expect the same from them.
In a perfect world, I’d like to see catch-weight bouts saved for the most special of occasions and used wisely by promoters, i.e. I don’t want to see a lot of them.
In my interview with lightweight champion Josh Thomson at the Strikeforce press conference, I asked him what it was like to have to sit next to Frank Shamrock, the man he’s publicly lambasted on numerous occasions. Thomson, who was once suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for wearing a T-shirt that read, “Frank Glamrock is my bitch,” said this:
“I told [Frank] this after the Cung Le fight. Even though he lost, I walked up to him while he was laying on the canvas and I said, ‘No matter what I say about you, no matter what anybody else says, it’s always a pleasure to watch you fight.’”
I think Thomson agrees with you, Kyle.
Different fights serve different purposes. When it comes down to it, who doesn’t love seeing a great matchup?