Roy Jones Jr. = More of the Same

It has been suggested that Anderson Silva should fight Roy Jones Jr., perhaps the greatest 185 pound boxer in the world. It’s not surprising that people have started to think this, after Silva destroyed a man that many considered the #2 ranked middleweight in the world, but the thought of reverting to Roy Jones Jr. seems bizarre, and the reasoning is relatively simple.

Even in the longstanding debate between who is the better striker, the conditons of Silva’s match with Jones would be subject to negative scrunity, however they turned out. Here’s what I mean:

If Silva and Jones met in a boxing match and Jones wins (which I imagine he probably would) then it won’t prove anything. It won’t show MMA fans that boxers are superior strikers because they are used to using heavier gloves. All it will show is that Jones is, as I suspect, a better boxer than the undisputed UFC middleweight champion.

If Silva and Jones meet in the Octagon and Silva destroys Jones, whether using his kicks, his thai clinch or his submission skills (all of which are possible, but the first two I find most probably, given that Silva feels they will look the best against Jones), all he will have proved is that it isn’t possible for Jones to adapt to the MMA system in whatever short period of time he is give. It won’t prove anything about the quality of Anderson’s skills and the authority of his dominance.

Let me simplify it even more:

If Silva fights Jones in MMA, all he’s going to prove is that Jones isn’t a very good MMA fighter. (or at least not any better than the other guys that he has systematically demolished)

If Silva fights Jones in boxing, all he’s going to prove is that his striking doesn’t translate well, or (on the slight off-chance that he should win) he’ll prove that he is (as we already know) a phenomenal striker.

That said, I don’t even think that Jones is a deserving opponent for Silva, given his current situation. Jones is 3-2 in his last 5 fights, and I, personally, don’t find that stat to be particularly impressive. If Jones were on the kind of roll that Mayweather is on, it might be more understandable (that said, if he also had Mayweather’s mouth, my reaction would be as it has always been to Mayweather, and that is to politely suggest that he shut his cakehole).

I think that it goes without saying, given how I feel about boxers coming into MMA (they shouldn’t), that I don’t think we should be talking about this, and that we should be looking at the prospect of a match between Silva and a legitimate top middleweight, pushing the UFC into signing Matt Lindland or Kazuo Misaki or Dennis Kang or Yoshihiro Akiyama (or a dozen other guys who are much more qualified fighters than the boxer Roy Jones), or, as has been suggested many times, that Zuffa work to convince WEC champ Paulo Filho that his best chance for a great fight (both to prove his own mettle and to entertain the fans) is in the prospect of a fight with Silva), despite the uncertainty of both men about fighting a fellow Brazilian.

My point is simple: we, as MMA fans, have been led on for over a year now (arguably longer than that, but other instances have been more sparatic, so I’ll just stay on the safe side) and I’m wondering why professional writers are still talking about it. I don’t want to sound superior, because here I am, talking about it (even if it’s as a suggestion not to), but it’s like my dad always used to tell me:

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me for being suck a damn fool.

I'm Just Going To Say It: "Floyd Mayweather, Shut the Hell Up"

Before I get to flaming, I should thank Eric Raskin, who's yellow-bellied attempted at explaining the Floyd Mayweather situation pissed me off enough to say exactly what's been going through my head since I first heard about these bullshit press releases discussing Floyd Mayweather's transition to MMA. So, here goes something. While the MMA fanbase will probably be the only people reading this, I hope that you guys understand where I'm coming from.



Floyd Mayweather, first and foremost, is a bag of wind. His lips keep flapping, air keeps coming out, but they aren't doing anything except cashing checks. Oh, and throwing that "check hook." Mayweather may be laughing all the way to the bank, but the least he can do is put up and shut up.



Mayweather is a stripper, he gets paid great and he puts on a great tease, but he never delivers. MMA is the land of the hookers, they might not get paid the same, but at least they deliver. The least Mayweather can do, if he's serious about jumping into the mix, is step up and open debates with the biggest pimp of all, Dana White, instead of flapping his lips to the playing customer about how bad he is, about how raw he is and about how he'd beat anybody in the world.

As Eric Raskin so remedially pointed out, going from boxing to mixed martial arts is like going from basketball to boxing, but even that comparison doesn't cover it. You might as well say it's like going from bowling to rugby.



We're not just talking about Mayweather making a transition in learning submission fighting. We're not just talking about teaching this boring excuse for a pugilist to utilize the sprawl and brawl, you're also going to have to restructure the guy's entire style of striking.



There are these things that got brought into this sport pretty early on, in fact I think I remember seeing them get used by this Dutch guy over in Japan. Oh yeah, they're called kicks. And then there's that other part of your leg that you use to hit stuff. That thing right where it bends.



If you put Mayweather in the ring, he'd be so confused when he got locked in a thai clinch, that he'd be yelling at the referee to break that up while his opponent kneed his ribs until they were purple.



Mayweather's standup translates so badly to MMA that Danny Abbadi is sitting on his couch laughing about it right now.

Then, once the fight hits the ground, you're talking about putting a guy who's never even had his back on the floor unless he was getting laid trying to defend elbows to his face that will cut him a third asshole, right on the bridge of his nose. I call it a third asshole, because it will only serve to drain the shit that didn't get carried out through his mouth.



As a long time fan of the sport, I'm offended when someone says the sport is barbaric.

As someone who trains in this sport, I'm offended when someone says the sport is easy.



I'd love to see Mayweather step in a cage with those fat gloves on and that big grin on his face. That match would be over so fast that he'd be wondering why Muhammad Ali is shuffling around above his head while Big John is raising his opponent's hand.

Mayweather is a world class athlete, I will not dispute that, but he's not a fighter.

A fighter fights.

He doesn't dance.

He doesn't weave.

And he definitely doesn't say he has a great performance when his opponent is still standing.

A fighter attacks

A fighter takes pain.

A fighter apologizes when he doesn't finish.

Fedor Emelianenko is a fighter.



Mark Hunt is a fighter.



Andrei Arlovski is a fighter.



Floyd Mayweather Jr., not so much.

The problem with boxing is that it's acceptable just to win, and that's why boxing stopped being called fighting. That's why the sport lost its credibility.

In this sport, you can't just win. In fact, you can't just do anything.

You can get a submission and still get boo-ed.

You can get a stoppage and still get boo-ed.



No one is going to cheer for you just because the judges were nice enough not to put a blemish on your record.

In this sport, the fans want you to step into the cage and put your balls out. That's why I love this sport, and that's why I'll continue to love this sport. Because two fighters step in there and want to show that they have taken physical conditioning and combat skills to a new level. They want to assert they're dominance. They want to earn their right to pound their chest afterwards.



A decision does not give you the right to pound your chest. You might walk home with a belt, but people are still going to wonder whether or not you deserve it.



So this is all of the wisdom I've got to offer Floyd Mayweather Jr.

If you are going to show up in this sport, it's time for you to do as the Romans do, and the way we do it here is the way you haven't done it in a long time:

Put up or shut up. We're sick of the talk.

Boxing v MMA

This is a regular debate and I thought that I might throw my two cents on here, because I'm pretty opinionated when it comes to this issue.

I honestly believe that boxers don't have the same level of skill as MMA fighters. The point is arbitrary and arguable, but that's generally my first point in connecting the two sport, and here's my logic.

1) There are hundreds of ways to finish an MMA fight. There are hundreds of different submissions and dozens of different strikes that a fighter can use to finish a fight. Boxers can punch each other in the face.

2) MMA fighters need to regulate distance, control clinches and, generally, have more spatial knowledge than boxers. In boxing, the refs control the distance by separating the fighters. In MMA, you better know how to seperate your self if that's not somewhere you want to be.

3) In MMA, a fighter has to be aware of the 3 dimensions of the sport (standup, takedowns and groundgame), but even the standing element is much more difficult to understand because you have to worry about the distance, like I said, you have to be able to endure kicks to the legs and body, you have to be aware of knees and elbows that can dish out nasty cuts and you have to be aware of your opponent setting up the takedown. In boxing, you have to not get punched in the face.

That's my logic. Anyway, comparing the two sports is like comparing apples and oranges, really. I like apples, you may like oranges. Both have their time and place.

I do think the one point worth making is that boxing is not what it once was. They used to be able to call boxers "fighters." Some people make the mistake of thinking that they are synonomous. They aren't.

The fact is, boxing is motivated by money and statistics. MMA doesn't have so much money in it yet that it can be motivated by anything other than the love of the sport.

When it's about the love of the sport, it becomes much more about trying to win, while boxers spend all of their time trying not to lose. That's why boxing bores me. Yes, I watched Mayweather v De La Hoya. It made me need Rampage v Liddell that much more.

In MMA, the biggest insult that you can give a fighter about his style is to say that he fights to not lose. It was said about former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver for years, and people made a big deal out of it. At least he could be credited with fighting smart and, still, finishing fights when he had the opportunity.

Boxers simply pad their statistics by taking fights to decision. In MMA, if you take the fight to a decision when you could have fought harder and finished, you are oblidged to apologize to the fans, and you will probably not get a title shot. Ask Andrei Arlovski.

In boxing, fighters get excited about winning a unanimous decision. That's a big deal in the upper echelons of boxing. In MMA, if a champion wins with a decision, his dominance is disputable. If you don't finish, it's hard to say that you deserve to hold that belt. The only reason I don't hesitate to recognize Randy is because he is so much better as a champion than Sylvia was, and at least he tried to lay it one the line.

The point is, boxing is dying because the men who were once fighters stopped being fighters. When boxers started competing in boxing, when they started making it about money, it became just another sport, as far as I'm concerned. I want to watch a competition for the love of the game, for pride, for self respect and for honor, I don't want to watch a fight over the winners purse.

In a fight, a great fight, there has to be more on the line than money. That's why the UFC gets geared up for grudge matches, for the chance for a fighter to avenge a loss and for the chance for a fighter to take a belt, the ultimate symbol of dominance in his weight class. The sport doesn't need money to fuel those fights, they play out incredibly on their own.

Honestly, I have alot of issues with the way this is argued by big commentators because I don't see it as a matter of ratings and ticket value and what celebrity shows up at the fight. I see this who issue as a matter of what sport has the better fighters, the better fights and the better standards set for both of those.

I honestly believe that boxing was the greatest sport in the world for a long. When Jack Dempsey was fighting, when Muhammad Ali was fighting, it wasn't about the money. That might have given them the opportunity to fight full-time, but it as about the respect, it was about the glory of the whole thing. It was a sport that was symbolic of a greater struggle, a physical struggle between two men where there is no interference by the outside world.

Boxers stopped making it about those core martial principles and we have seen the sport slowly deteriorate as a product of that. Now, if you want the pride of being a great fighter, you fight in MMA. MMA offers that opportunity, it offers that chance for fighters to be heroes, representatives of greater cause, while boxers remain, simply, the representatives of the greater paycheck.

That's just my two cents.