Tuesday, January 26 1:30 pm PT: Brock Lesnar caught some flak for flogging the Canadian health care system recently. In an interview with Paul Heyman, though, the UFC heavyweight champion says he will continue to offer his views.
"I'm an American,” Lesnar said. “I'm guaranteed the right to express my opinion. And I'm stating it loud and clear, because I experienced something that I want to talk about. If I was a recovering drug addict, people would want to hear my story. Well, I survived something, and I went through -- first hand -- the problems in the health care system, and I want to talk about it."
Lesnar discusses specifics and much more at Heyman Hustle.
There’s real prejudice against martial artists who don’t subscribe to multiple styles. Being good at one thing -- and only one thing -- is seen as negligent.
Yet it’s these one-dimensional athletes who often wind up being the most exciting. Demian Maia needs some serious work on his stand up, but watching him on the ground is like listening to Eric Clapton play the guitar. (And no one is telling Clapton he sucks because he hasn’t mastered the piano.) The all-trades guys get more respect, but they’re also more likely to be responsible for a bathroom break of a fight.
This is taking the long way to Melvin Manhoef, a cult hero of a striker who makes his Strikeforce debut on Saturday. Manhoef will tell you, flat out, that he kind of stinks on the ground.
“If they have me on the ground, they have a slight advantage,” he told USAToday’s Sergio Non. “But if I have to put my fists on their chin, I also have a slight advantage…I'm going to practice my ground game very hard. Maybe one day, I can put also a grappler in a triangle choke or guillotine or armbar. It would be very nice.”
For some, this is reason enough to criticize Manhoef. And in mixed martial arts, spreading your knowledge across various styles is wise. But the “mixed” does not necessarily have to indicate two handyman athletes: it can be a clash between one guy who is very good at one form of offense and another who is very good at something else. Chasing proficiency in all areas will make you good at everything and great at nothing. (Fedor, Anderson Silva, etc., are the exceptions -- hence their status.)
Manhoef may be a no-belt, but he can deliver general anesthesia from both hands. For 24 of his 31 MMA fights, that’s been enough.
Asking a professional fighter with any measure of celebrity how they got started fighting is usually my cue to stop reading -- or watching -- whatever interview is unraveling. It’s the kind of pained, so-what stock question that practically guarantees nothing of consequence is going to be unearthed.
The Sports Courier’s interview with Cung Le at last weekend’s Philadelphia MMA Expo is an entry into that pile, but I hung in there because I was interested in hearing Le’s mindset following the upset loss to Scott Smith last month. Some fighters dig their aura of invincibility, and when it’s taken away, they can grow pretty apathetic about the whole thing.
“Get back in there, train smart, hard, fight as soon as possible and get a rematch,” he told the outlet. “…I believe this rematch will happen sooner than later.”
Seems like Le is more angry than stunned. And why not? He batted Smith like a tee ball for two-plus rounds before tiring out and getting clocked. A loss is a loss, but it wasn’t a grave-digging. Anything that gets Le in the ring before age forces him out has to be seen as a positive.
Take any athlete of any skill in any era and you’ll find extremists arguing both sides of their reputation. For some, Randy Couture’s title-laden career is modern-day mythology; for others, he’s an overrated smother artist with a crippled 17-10 record. You can’t argue facts, but you can argue how they’re interpreted.
Georges St. Pierre might be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, with a dizzying array of skills, but there are those who think his inability to finish fights is handicapping his reputation. (Anderson Silva has gone the distance only once in his UFC career; St. Pierre, six.)
That chorus has now added an unlikely voice: St. Pierre himself.
“I’m not satisfied about my ratio of knockouts. I have knockouts, but I want to bring my ratio up,” he told Tapology.com. “I’m more powerful than I was, and by being more powerful I’m faster as well. Power is strength and speed together.”
In recent months, St. Pierre has recruited a nutritionist to correct dietary deficiencies brought on by a love of McDonald’s. (Corporate sponsors: how do you not love this guy?) He’s added weight and power, something that Lyoto Machida credits with helping him move away from the decision-fighter stigma in 2009. When Machida began lifting weights, his technique found the fuel it needed to hurt people.
I’m not of the mind that fighters who don’t finish bouts are lesser competitors: a lot of athletes in this sport are just incredibly hard to stop. But as talented as St. Pierre is, stoppages are within his wheelhouse and would be proof of his maturation as a fighter. It’s the difference between being respected and being feared.
