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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A Need for a Masters MMA Division?

At the upcoming IFL event on May 19th we will see the return of two former UFC champions, Marco "King of the Streets" Ruas and Maurice Smith. Combined, these two aging mixed martial artists have not stepped into the cage, or ring for that matter, in 12 years! Can you say ring rust? Although this fight means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of MMA rankings or contention, it is intersting and will likely get some decent attention, at least for anyone who was a UFC fan back in the early days, you know, when they actually had tournaments? So this begs the question, should there be a senior's division, with title and all? Many of these fighters, like Ken Shamrock, still love to get into the cage and can't seem to let it go. However, they have no shot at ever regaining a title and will ultimate get beat badly and embarrased by the new breed. If many of the old guys knew that they could fight in a league where they would only be matched up with fighters of their age/skill bracket, I think you would see a highly competitive division that would bring some old-timers back into the ring. Maybe Oleg Taktorov, Keith Hackney, Dave Beneteau and the like? As we've seen, many of these guys still have the fighting spirit, see: Dan Severn (who has had five fights this year already!), Mo Smith, Tank Abbott, Shamrock, Mark Kerr, etc. You wouldn't have to pay these guys much and it would bring in some good ratings.

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