The Champ and the Chump - UFC 65 Thoughts

Saturday at Ultimate Fighting Championship, installment 65, two titles were on the line. One champ relinquished his title and the other successfully defended his. Of course I’m talking about Matt Hughes and Tim Sylvia respectively. In the welterweight division we saw a battle between two of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, Matt Hughes and George St. Pierre. This was the fight that justified forking over $40 for the PPPV. There is something inherently exciting about watching the best of the best and no matter what was going to happen, I knew I was going to be treated to a fight bwtween two world class athletes. The new champion, GSP, showed the world that he’s the real deal. I admit that even as big of a fan as I am of St. Pierre’s, I questioned his mental fortitude going into this fight. I thought that he was going to continue to give Hughes too much respect. Obviously I was wrong, very wrong. GSP is the man, period. Look at what he accomplished. He dominated the greatest welterweight of all time. It’s not a scenario of the younger challenger taking advantage of an older champ who is on the decline. Very much the opposite. In fact, Matt Hughes gained a lot of my respect over his past few fights. Most dominating wrestlers (see Coleman, Sherk, and Randleman. Hard to believe that the “Monster” has lost 7 of his last 9 fights! We’ll save that for a later post.) are one trick ponies. Matt on the other hand has grown significantly as a mixed martial arts fighter. He has submitted quality fighters and his stand up game has drastically improved. Matt is at the top of his game. As I just replay the fight I’m still in awe of GSP’s performance. Yes, I’m swinging from his nuts right now, but right now he deserves all the props. He really is the total package. I love the fact that he truly took it to the champ. To be the champ you have to beat the champ and he did that and more. He wasn’t going to leave this one up to the judges. From the moment the bell rang you could tell that he was going to try to KO or submit Hughes. Now that is a true champion. Now, on the other hand we have the complete opposite in Tim Sylvia. This guy is supposed to be the badest man on the planet? I just don’t understand him. He loves and cherishes being the champion yet he didn’t give the paying fans what they deserved. It was so obviously he was fighting to “not lose” instead of fighting to win. I understand being cautious the first round or two. After all you are facing a world class submission wrestler. But come round three it was obvious that Monson really posed no threat. Sylvia, with almost a foot height advantage, made it almost impossible for The Snowman to get inside and inflict any damage. And when the did make it to the ground, Sylvia’s defense was good enough to stifle any offence Monson tried to muster. So here is my big gripe. Why didn’t Sylvia ever go in for the kill? This was such a lopsided match that he should have been able to dispose his overmatched foe within three rounds. Being cautious against Andrei Arlovski is one thing, but there was no excuse for his tentativeness against the The Snowman. To be blunt, he is an employee of the UFC (or Zuffa if you want to be exact). His employer, the UFC, makes money by providing a solid product. The product they offer is entertainment. Entertainment found in exciting fights. In essence, Sylvia’s performance hurt his employer. The entertainment value he provided was almost nil. So why doesn’t he want to do the best he can for his employer? The better the fight he puts on, the more PPV the UFC sell. The more money the UFC makes, the more they can afford to pay their fighters, especially the Champions. Yes, yes, some of you are going to say he did the best he could, he got the win, he did what he had to do to retain his title. Well, that isn’t good enough. This title should be held by the most dynamic fighter in the business. The Heavyweight Champion should be the poster child of The Ultimate Fighting Championship. If Tim Sylvia is the best product the UFC has to offer then they are in trouble. Compared to the Pride Heavyweight Champion you can see why Sylvia is such a let down. Fedor Emelianenko is a total bad ass. He is THE main draw for the organization and he is that because he fights to win. He fights to KO or submit. He is always moving forward looking to go in for the kill. Even if you want to argue that Sylvia could beat Fedor (which I would disagree) but point of the matter is that Fedor is fun to watch. It’s exciting to witness excellence. Sylvia is content on being an excellent witness.