My disappoint with the big guys in this division is something that I'm pretty honest about. The fact is, they either haven't been fighting well, or they haven't been fighting at all, and that's really not something that should be coming from the men this sport was built on.
In light of UFC 81, though, we are starting to see that the downplayed expectations of the division may be getting them to fight harder and put on a better show.
The last card featured the big heavyweight matchups between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir and the title fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia. While both were expected to be terrible by the masses, both proved exciting, with Mir pulling out a win in 1:30 against his clearly submission-retarded opponent and Nogueira catching Sylvia in a guillotine that shocked alot of fans, myself included, who didn't think this fight would end with a big sub.
There is one more fight, though, that I've been looking forward to for some time, and it involves the man who is, in my opinion, far and away the UFC's most exciting heavyweight striker, though his grappling has been notoriously lackluster.
Cheick Kongo and Heath Herring are getting set to square off at UFC 82 as the co-main event with Dan Henderson and Anderson Silva (which is definitely an FOTY candidate in my opinion if both guys bring their A game). Kongo vs Herring isn't just a battle of old school vs new school, and it's not just a battle of styles where one guy is going to swing for the fences and the other is going to try and take this fight to the ground.
Kongo promises to bring the European kickboxing that we've seen him throw out there in every fight, a style reminiscent of the top tier K-1 fighters, not the big single strike style that we've seen from more modern fighters like Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic.
The Frenchmen's kickboxing is some of the best I've seen in the division in a long time, and his size and athleticism only make it that much more impressive that he has developed such extraordinary technical prowess without just trying to fall back to his physical advantages, like we've seen some of the bigger, stronger fighters do.
Herring, on the other hand, is about as well rounded as they come. While he's generally considered a striker, he has a solid ground game and good wrestling. There's definitely a chance that if he ends up in trouble, he will try and take the fight to the ground where he'll look for his experience to give him an edge.
It's going to be a fight, no matter where it ends up. I personally believe that Kongo gets alot of grief for his split decision loss to Marrero, where he showcased a less than perfect ground game, and that has led to a lot of stigma directed towards his ground skills, but I'm not sure how much of a problem that will actually be. But if anyone can take advantage of it, it will be an experienced fighter like Heath Herring.
There's another big heavyweight matchup that has been recently announced that I'm already gearing up for, and that's Josh Barnett vs. Hidehiko Yoshida, which has been put on the main event of the Sengoku card.
Barnett is a world class grappler, with one of the most aggressive submission games and probably the most versatile submission arsenal in the division, and the only comparable submission fighters are Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Jeff Monson. Barnett is a wrestling machine with size and power to muscle in submissions that most people would just give up on.
Yoshida is a technical judo warrior with an Olympic gold medal under his belt, and while he's had alot of trouble developing substantial standup, there's no doubt that his judo is solid, and if this fight ends up on the ground, he could make it interesting for Barnett. While Yoshida isn't quite as muscular as his American opposition, he's not a lot smaller, and one of Yoshida's protoge's, Kazuhiro Nakamura, gave Barnett some trouble, escaping from numerous dangerous positions.
I think Barnett is a fantastic fighter and, like many of the mainstream guys, I'll pick him to take this one, but I'm not going to count Yoshida out. He deserves respect as a fighter who can perform under pressure and as a guy who has no problem being the underdog. He hasn't coped well with big, powerful wrestlers in the past, but Barnett's a very different fighter than Rulon Gardner, so we'll see the matchup when the time comes.
It's going to be an interesting few months, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.
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