The early consensus is that Matt lost the first two rounds. But it was Matt's tenacity, conditioning and championship heart that carried him through a really rough ten minutes. In the final stanza, Hughes was by far the fresher fighter. He began teeing off on Penn on the feet and then took the challenger down with relative ease, pounding him on the mat until referee John McCarthy stepped in to end the fight.
To my friends that could care less about MMA and the UFC, don't worry. I'll be back to discussing other matters in my next few posts. For those who'd like a more detailed report on the fight, check out one of the following links:http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=5669
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2671&zoneid=2
One final bit of news: It seems Hughes won't have much time to enjoy his victory. Assuming that both combatants will be healthy (and it appears they will be), the champion will face No. 1 contender Georges St. Pierre on November 18th at UFC 65.
3 comments:
Here's the war I want to see...
Dave Scott vs. Jim Lampley
Search, in particular, his comments while guest hosting the Jim Rome show on June 6th of this year.
So Dave...fire back in defense of UFC. Lampley makes a good point.
Doost,
I remember when Jim Lampley first made these comments early in the summer. Not because I listen to Jim Rome's show, but because Lampley's comments certainly did not go unnoticed by the MMA media. I searched MMA Weekly's archives to find this report/editorial on what he said.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=2188&zoneid=13
It's important to keep in mind that many MMA journalists are (or once were) sports writers in the boxing world. These individuals are still very much fans of "The Sweet Science," even though they lament the present condition that sport is in today. Even though Dana White likes to employ the marketing strategy of "MMA > Boxing," writers like Trembow (see link) and Sherdog editor Josh Gross think such an either/or mindset is foolish. Boxing's star is falling, while MMA's is rising. That's a fact of straight economics, not proof that the newer sport is a better sport than boxing.
Lampley seems to me to be a member of "the old school" that prefers to assume an adversarial posture. He took advantage of a guest spot on a mainstream sports program to try to sully the reputation of a burgeoning threat to the market of boxing in an attempt to discredit it with mainstream sports fan who may know little to nothing about MMA. Trebow's article turns editorial when he points to the questionable character of Lampley himself, prompting us to consider the relative credibility of the source of these comments.
Now, Dustin, I'd have to know what specific points of Lampley's you're thinking of to address them adequately. But as a general statement, I can say this:
The heart of Lampley's objections seems to be that UFC fighters are not truly athletes and that MMA competitions are nothing more than
bar fights.
My gut response to Mr. Lampley is that he's an ignorant motherfucker who needs to pull his head out of his ass. My more cordial response is that he is mistaken or misinformed to think of Rich Franklin or Matt Hughes as nothing more than bar room brawlers.
Mixed Martial Arts is precisely that...a hybrid contest where numerous competitive disciplines come together. Matt Hughes is a great example of the hybrid athlete a UFC champion must be: an All-American wrestler who has learned Boxing, Kick Boxing, and Jujitsu to round out his fight game.
In his present incarnation, Matt Hughes trains his ass off in each one of these disciplines to continually improve his all-around abilities. And after he trains the hell out of his boxing skills, he has to spend a couple more hours working on the ground. Because when he's throwing punches, unlike a professional boxer, he has to worry about being taken down everytime he extends himself with a strike.
Lampley talks as though Hughes steps down off of a barstool right before he steps foot in the octogon. Some have tried to bring that gameplan to the big leagues of MMA (e.g. Tank Abbott) but you only have to take a look at their professional record to see that such an approach is far from successful.
Lampley also appears ignorant to the fact that MMA events- to be legal contests -have to be sanctioned by state athletic commissions. The same governing bodies that sanction pro boxing matches in Nevada, New Jersey, and Califoria are the very same bodies that put the stamp of approval on the events put on by the UFC and other MMA organizations. Apparently THEY think mixed martial arts is a real sport and THEY think the fighters are real athletes.
Add to these observations the fact that Fox Sports Net broadcasts programs provided by Pride Fighting Championships and the International Fight League. Apparently they also think of MMA as a legitimate sport.
Does Lampley know that when The Best Damn Sports Show Period put together its countdown of the Top 50 beatdowns of all time, clips of UFC and Pride were shown interspersed with clips from professional boxing? And does he know that K-1 (which he also took it upon himself attack) is often shown on ESPN 2? If he does know these things, he's certainly not happy about them.
Saying MMA fights in themselves are not true athletic competitions is tantamount to saying that Olympic track meets are just a bunch of bums running in a circle. I'd like to see Antonio Tarver go through the paces Sean Sherk is going through to get ready for his lightweight title fight. Fifteen minutes of cable sprawls would leave Tarver so exhausted that Sylvester Stallone really could knock him out.
When I try to make sense out of why Lampley said what he did, I can't help but think that he watched a tape of UFC VI eight years ago and based all his conclusions about MMA on that. I also think Trembow is on to something with his "personal attack" on Lampley. Lampley's sport seems to be in an irreversible nosedive, and all he can dp to try and stop the bleeding is lash out ignorantly at MMA in a pathetic attempt to discredit this new (and highly successful) source of competition.
Is that enough firing back for you, Doost?
Consider my appetite satisfied. I thought I could get a good response out of you.
p.s. what's up with Angle?! (I want to get all Fredo on him)
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