Has there been a great MMA rivalry?
Posted by Iain Liddle on March 17th, 2008
By Iain Liddle
Discuss this in the Total-MMA.com forums ~!
If you’ll allow me to be self-indulgent then I’ll use this week’s entry to throw out a question that has been niggling away at me of late.
March has already produced another installment in two great boxing rivalries. On March 1st Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez stepped into the ring together for the third time. They were tied at 1-1 in their rivalry having fought twice before in the previous thirteen months and both had been nominated for ‘Fight of the year’ for 2007. In fact, most boxing writers who I respect are unanimous in the view that the second encounter was the best to have taken place last year, despite Kelly Pavlik vs Jermain Taylor eventually taking the official boxing writer’s award.
As they prepared to lace up the gloves one more time, fan and promoter expectations were high. Gary Shaw had been proclaiming this fight as the antidote to February’s Klitschko-Ibraghimov snoozefest before it had even taken place. Showtime placed both of the preceding bouts on their website to justify the hype and show fans just how good the sport can be and will be again. It never seemed to cross anyone’s mind that the two Mexicans may disappoint us.
Which is just as well as the third was arguably the best of the bunch. An unadulterated modern-day classic between two great combatants. Boxing Standard columnist Frank Lotierzo said that the trilogy was “everything boxing should be.”
Then, this past Saturday, Rafael’s brother Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao rematched their classic from 2004 which resulted in a controversial split draw. It was four years later and as many pounds heavier but again it was eagerly anticipated in fight circles. Not only was this a fight between boxers but also between two nations with the pride of the Philippines taking on a Mexican hero. Thousands of fans came out in support of each man creating the kind back-and-forth atmosphere one might associate with a soccer match between the two countries.
Even watching on television it was possible to gauge just how electric the building was in anticipation of what was to come. The passion with which the national anthems were sung was mesmerising and showed that this was not just ’somewhere to go’ on a Saturday night for these fans. They truly cared about the fight and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This is not an abstract sporting contest, this fucking matters.
Once more the two men delivered a memorable contest, over twelve hard-fought rounds that ended in another close and arguable decision. Richard O’Brien remarked that it was “humbling to see that level of skill and commitment and courage—of true professionalism. Humbling, and immensely entertaining.”
Those are just two fights to have taken place so far this month and whilst not to say we are constantly inundated with fights of this quality, because it takes sitting through a Ruiz-McCline fight to truly appreciate greatness when it arrives, but there are other examples in boxing history.
The sport has produced series of fights such as the aforementioned Vazquez-Marquez, Benn-Eubank, Barrera-Morales, Duran-Leonard, Ali-Frazier and many more besides.
The word ‘great’ encompasses a lot. To achieve this status then the fights have to be between two people not only at the pinnacle of their own career, but also the sport as a whole at that time. The fights have to mean something beyond that of a title belt. A truly great rivalry is two men battling it out for the right to be the best in the world that night, rather than the best in that particular ring.
Also, the key component in all of this, the fights themselves have to be memorable. We’ve all bought into the hype of an upcoming bout before but if combat itself is dull an unmemorable then it will not be being talked about in future weeks let alone years.
In addition to be being merely entertaining the fights need to be competitive too. The key component in drama is being unsure of the final outcome and in fighting terms you need to have genuine belief that either man is capable of pulling out the victory on any given night.
So we’ve determined the ingredients for a classic. A close fight between two evenly skilled combatants that has meaning and relevance on a world level and has also captured the imagination of it’s audience as a whole. It is with this criteria in mind that I ask, even allowing for the relatively short history of mixed martial arts, where are our sport’s great rivalries?
A few immediately spring to mind.
Wanderlei Silva vs Kazushi Sakuraba. Definitely a contender but ultimately too one-sided. Saku was not victorious in any of the bouts and though valiant efforts, was simply overwhelmed.
Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz. This has a claim in the sense that they were between two athletes at the top of their weight class, with a legitimate rivalry and the second bout resulted in the biggest selling pay per view in history. When looked back upon in terms of the sport’s growth - this will definitely be remembered as important.. but does that equal great? Liddell won both fights with relative ease and neither were an outstanding example of how exciting an all-encompassing battle can be. The jury is out.
Olaf Alfonso vs John Polakowski. With the best will in the world, not a chance. Three entertaining scraps but of no relevance and with a distinct lack of technique. Not to be snobby but if this gets nominated with a straight face then maybe we’re in trouble.
Matt Hughes vs Georges St Pierre. If it wasn’t for the fact that the last two fights were so one-sided I would say this has a chance. They are definitely relevant in the sense that the series established a new king in the welterweight division, dethroning one of the true legends in the process. The fights were of good quality too but my issue is that GSP showed too much quality and dealt with Hughes in relatively routine fashion in the last bout especially. If all three contests had been like the second then we’d have a hands down winner but as it stands we have an outsider at best.
Matt Hughes vs BJ Penn. I actually think this has a case. The first fight caused one of the biggest upsets in history when a seemingly unstoppable champion was stopped by a fighter moving up from the weight class below in the first round. The second fight was also incredibly exciting and presented back-and-forth action that distinguishes great bouts. It seemed as though Penn has Hughes’ number only for the farm boy to dig deep and, admittedly with a little help from a rib injury sustained by his opponent, become the first man to ever stop the Hawaiian. They’re tied at one apiece and it seems unlikely that we’ll ever get to see the rubber match unfortunately. Like all great rivalries it will be forever argued between respective fans as to who was the better man. What can’t be argued is that we had fun watching them try to prove it.
Matt Hughes vs Frank Trigg. Apparently I’m a big Matt Hughes fan. This is probably the weakest of the three rivalries mentioned but boasts the best fight to have taken place in any of them. One of the few things that Dana White and I have in common, along with our want to ask people if they want to fucking fighters (for the record, neither my bank manager nor my grandmother are keen), is that we both rate the second Hughes-Trigg fight as maybe our favourite ever example of MMA. That alone should get it nominated, on a personal level at least. Let’s not forget that there was genuine debate at the time of the first bout as to who the better welterweight was. Frank Trigg (WFA champion) was being talked up as the superior wrestler with striking to match. Fans wanted to see the fight and although hindsight shows that Hughes won in comfortable fashion, it certainly wasn’t a foregone conclusion going in.
Dan Henderson vs Murilo Bustamante. I didn’t find any of their fights particularly interesting but historically they are relevant in determining who the world’s best middleweight was at the time. Maybe someone can make a case for this?
Heath Herring vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera. A dark horse. The first fight is possibly one of the best ever heavyweight encounters with both men competing for the recently-established Pride title which at the time was the most meaningful in the weight class. The second fight is also very strong in terms of entertainment and drama. What helps single this example out is that it is the only rivalry to span across both major promotions in the sport’s history (Pride and then UFC) and the third stanza, now in the cage, provided interest when Herring nearly became the only man to KO the Brazilian. Alas he was too tentative and Noguiera went on to win a decision. Which is the reason that I think this falls just short of what’s required for greatness. ‘Minotauro’ has three wins to the Texan’s nil. If you can look past the statistics then maybe this can be considered?
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera. Two hall of fame fighters. Too one-sided. Despite entering every bout with different gameplan, Noguiera could not find a way to even get close to beating Fedor. The first fight is essential viewing, much like Hughes-St Pierre II, in that we see the dethroning of a champion and the crowning of a new king but the series as a whole is not strong enough in my mind.
Randy Couture vs Vitor Belfort. This is a rivalry that spans two generations of UFC ownership. Their highly-regarded first encounter took place in SEG’s cage and the other two in Zuffa’s octagon. The first is a classic without doubt. The second is almost a non-event and I’m not sure the third was of sufficient quality. A good rivalry, but not the sort to turn a boxing diehard into a mixed martial arts fan overnight.
Randy Couture vs Chuck Liddell. Is this the best example to have been produced thus far? Two fighters at the top of their weight class worldwide? Yes. Drama / Unpredictability? For sure. Historical significance? Definitely. Fan interest? Without doubt. Entertaining fights? The only possible way to disqualify the series. Is it possible that the second and third fights finished before they and the series as a whole had the chance to be qualified as classical?