Short of saying there's a conspiracy at play, the participants of the co-featured fights of UFC 93 (Countdown here) - Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson and Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua - have put their heads on the chopping block by stepping up to fight in this event.
Let's take Coleman vs. Rua for example. Why is Mark Coleman still fighting? The guy is 44-years old, and the last time he won convincingly against a decent opponent was in 2001. Also, despite being one of the early pioneers of the now-ubiquitous ground-and-pound fighting method, Coleman has always sucked - he can't do anything else, and his standup and coordination is terrible.
Obviously, Coleman is done if he loses. The same could happen to Shogun Rua if he loses, too. Shogun has been disappointing since he entered the UFC, getting submitted by Forrest Griffin in his first fight and going through some injury problems after that. He used to be touted as arguably the best light heavyweight fighter in the world, but you know how the saying goes : The bigger they are - the harder they fall.
Only a complete idiot would not be convinced that Coleman-Rua was artificially put together with the bad blood between The Hammer and Shogun as an excuse. Mark Coleman has always been uncoordinated and unskilled on his feet and with his hands, and he's not a threat to submit Shogun on the ground either. He is the Ken Shamrock of the UFC. I say Shogun knocks Coleman out in the first round.
Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson is better, but just by a little. The winner will become coach of one of the teams in The Ultimate Fighter 9, and the loser will be...one fight, at most two, from being out of the UFC.
With the way he is being juggled in between 185 and 205 lbs, it's obviously whom the UFC would like to see succeed. Beating Rousimar Palhares probably saved Dan Henderson's career, and he's right back on the chopping block against "Ace".
Hendo may be turning 39 in August, but the guy is a freak of nature, and has optimized his fight game to take advantage of his greatest strengths - relentless stamina, heavy hands and Greco-Roman wrestling.
Franklin is a more traditional well-rounded fighter with strong kickboxing, but Hendo is a storm trooper with his hands, and great at following up with knees in the clinch, body lock takedowns and ultimately, the ground-and-pound. He is an superbly efficient and conditioned fighter who has never been knocked out. He also matches up well against Ace : Dan Henderson will grind out a unanimous decision victory over Rich Franklin.
Expect The Hammer Coleman to be done and Rich Franklin's career to come under intense scrutiny after UFC 93 is over.
0 comments:
Post a Comment