Longing for the Good Ol' Days of MMA

I used to love mixed martial arts. I would watch all the fights. It didn’t matter if it was in America, Japan, Russia, or Poland, I could find interesting things on cards all around the world. And now, it seems as there are maybe two fights a month that I even bother watching. If anything, there should be more talent in the sport which would lead to a better product. So why am I not into it? Ultimately, I think the talent is the problem.

It seems the greater the talent, the less exciting the fights become, and you just can’t match the excitement of early UFC cards. I’m a bad fan in that I love the Royce Gracie era as much as anything that has happened in mixed martial arts. Those fights were memorable. I remember him taking on the one-gloved boxer, Art Jimmerson and Jimmerson tapping out even though Royce didn’t even do anything to him on the ground yet. I remember Ken Shamrock tapping out but then trying to continue the fight. And I remember Royce Gracie holding his choke just a little bit long on Gerard Gordeau because that dude was a nasty son of a bitch.

I think about the best fighters of today, and although they are head and shoulders above that original crew, how many have truly memorable fights? I loved GSP, but honestly, his two most memorable fights are his two losses where he got caught in an armbar by Matt Hughes and caught with every punch imaginable by Matt Serra.

Jon Jones is the greatest fighter in the world, but I don’t vividly remember any of his fights. I remember the elbows he dropped on Matt Hamill, the armbar he escaped from Vitor Belfort, and that nasty ass choke he put on Lyoto Machida, but are any of his fights actually memorable? I know the Gustaffson and second Cormier fights were close (until Cormier got caught), but it’s not like I remember much of the back and forth.

Heck, I’m not even sure if I can name all of the champions, without looking, I think it’s Cejudo, Cejudo, Volkanovski, Khabib, Usman, Adesanya, Jones, and Miocic. For women it’s Zhang, Schevenko, and Nunes. Now there are more champions these days, but I could have named them in UFC, Pride, and Strikeforce back in the day. I think Horiguchi and Bader are Bellator champs but have no clue of anyone else.

It’s just not as much fun anymore. When I think about all the fighters I would love to see on a dream card, none of them are active today. Let’s just put out ten guys that would be super fun: Cro Cop, Wanderlei, Royce, Pudzianowski, Sakuraba, Mark Kerr, Hong Man Choi, Minowaman, Lesnar, and Akebono. Now, I’m going to use a random number generator to make the fights:

Cro Cop vs. Royce Gracie
Hong Man Choi vs. Akebono
Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva
Mark Kerr vs. Brock Lesnar
Pudzianowski vs. Minowaman

Good God, I would not only watch that card with everyone in their primes, I would watch that card today, and consider it the greatest gift of entertainment in this world. The one exception is Kerr/Lesnar which, in their primes, maybe the hypest I could be for any fight in MMA history, and if it were to happen now I would pay money to make sure that doesn’t happen. Also, sorry to not put a women’s match in there, but I did not need to see the man vs. woman dynamic, and the greatest women’s fight has already happened so there is no point to ever try topping it.


I know, it makes me a terrible person to yearn for the freakshow matches, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And it’s not like I could make a better UFC card with current champions facing top contenders in fresh matchups.

155 - Khabib vs. Gaethje
170 - Usman vs. Masvidal
185 - Adesanya vs. Romero
205 - Jones vs. Johnny Walker
HWT - Stipe vs. Curtis Blaydes

Okay, so Khabib/Gaethje would own, obviously, but it’s a significant dropoff from there. I even put in Johnny Walker just for funsies. Hell, I couldn’t do it with classic champions taking on current champions.

155 - BJ Penn vs. Khabib
170 - Matt Hughes vs. Usman
185 - Anderson Silva vs. Adesanya
205 - Chuck Liddell vs. Jones
HWT - Tim Sylvia vs. Miocic

That list of fights isn’t nearly as exciting, and that’s even with me putting in Tim Sylvia in the main event.

I don’t know. Clearly the skills are much better, and it’s not like there aren’t a ton of exciting finishes, but I feel like the UFC has made itself the star, and it’s really hard to care about personalities in today’s world of mixed martial arts. Even though guys got like 30 seconds to explain themselves at early UFC events, you actually saw a personality, and I guess it was wonderful to see how delusional they were to think people would believe that they were 400-0. Now I feel like every fighter is varying degrees of Cowboy Cerrone, kind of stupid, tougher than I could ever imagine to be, and thinking that they are the best in every area but taught well enough to give their opponents respect instead of speaking their truth. Why should I care?

But damn, thinking about that Kerr/Lesnar fight in their primes, now that is something that I would very much care about.

My Dog Punked Me On The Basketball Court

I decided to go to the local park and shoot some hoops the other day. I hadn't shot in a while, and my shot is usually pretty bad, but it was absolutely busted the first few times I threw the ball at the basket, as it literally looked like that was all I was trying to accomplish. Luckily, I had my dog there for moral support, as she loves me no matter how bad my skills are on the court.

But after a few shots, I started to get back to my old level (which is still very bad, but it at least looked like I was aiming at something). And although she was tired from chasing her ball earlier, she was still curious to watch me play on the court, and she even decided to step up and play some defense. At first, she was just crowding my space, so I couldn't jump forward on my shots. It was incredibly effective.

After that, she took it to another level. She started crying at me to give her more attention, because my friend, the basketball, was getting all of my sweet touch, at least that's what I thought. She got tired of playing defense shortly after that and decided to hang out under the hoop for rebounds. That is when she took it to her final level of intimidation.

I rose up to take a picture perfect three point shot and right as I was about to release the ball, my dog used all her might to bark as loud as she could. It came out of nowhere, and surprised the hell out of me, causing my shot to go about three feet to the left. I started laughing, because it was a good prank by my dog. I grabbed the ball, lined up to shoot, and went to fire when she barked at me again and completely threw off my shot. This was no longer a game to her as she was in my head and throwing off my entire game. She was out there punking me on the playground, and I was losing my rep as a true baller.

I did the only thing I could do at that point. I started working on dunks (layups), so I couldn't be taken out of my game. Still, the damage had been done. My dog punked me out on the basketball court, and she's not going to let me hear the end of it.

Now I just need to work on catching a frisbee in my mouth so I can have my revenge.