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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Should Daniel Cormier Relinquish the LHW Title?
Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you some more of the good. But, first, thank you for your votes and comments last week, it is appreciated. Last week, Alex Rella and I stood toe-to-toe as we traded barbs over subjects like Amanda Nunes’ successful title defense at UFC 215, Jeremy Stephens fighting Jose Aldo, and Ray Borg taking a back seat to Sergio Pettis. Alex brought the thunder but I was able to survive his early onslaught and prevail in what turned out to be a fight of the century contender. Nonetheless, thank you, Alex, for your efforts and contribution.
This week, we have two 411 Fact or Fiction titans gearing up for a fact or fiction war the likes of which has never been seen! Wyatt Beougher and Robert Winfree will lock horns over Daniel Cormier potentially relinquishing his light heavyweight title, Yushin Okami’s return to the UFC, Valentina Shevchenko moving to the women’s flyweight division, and much more! It’s time, baby! Grab some grub and make yourself comfortable because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get the ball rolling…
TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Wyatt Beougher
Host/Reviewer/Columnist, 411 MMA/TV & Movies/Wrestling Zones
2-9-1
VS
BLUE CORNER
Robert “The Last Rider” Winfree
Contributor/Live Coverage Guru/Host, 411 MMA Zone/411 Ground and Pound Radio Show
6-5-1
Kamaru Usman says UFC rankings panel should be ashamed, knows willing opponents are few https://t.co/nRMaTWO49m pic.twitter.com/cfOX85LDYb
— MMAjunkie (@MMAjunkie) September 18, 2017
Despite his impressive knockout this past weekend and his six-fight winning streak Kamaru Usman is not ready for the No. 5 welterweight, Rafael dos Anjos.
Wyatt Beougher: FICTION I’m willing to give Usman the benefit of the doubt here – he hasn’t lost in over three and a half years, and his win streak is actually ten fights, with six of them coming in the UFC. Is Rafael dos Anjos a big step up in competition? Absolutely, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Usman is not ready for him. Admittedly, RDA has looked very impressive at welterweight, but he also moved up five spots after his win over Neil Magny at UFC 215. That means that, until a couple of weeks ago, there were only three spots between RDA and Usman. I don’t expect Usman’s win over Sergio Moraes to give him a similar jump, but if someone had suggested this fight three weeks ago when it was the tenth-ranked welterweight against the thirteenth, I don’t think anyone would’ve batted an eye about it. Sure, Usman could get absolutely starched against the former lightweight champion; however, I personally think he’s ready, making this a FICTION for me.
Robert Winfree: FICTION Nah, that’s about the level of opposition he should be facing next. Usman has run roughshod over the lower part of the division and just got his first finish in the UFC after winning TUF, he’s made noise about fighting the top five as he’s called out guys like Dong Hyun Kim and Demian Maia in the past, as well, so I say let him get it. If he swims great, if he sinks he’s still young and can take the loss as a learning experience.
.@dc_mma's @ufc titles almost ended up in the trash#UFC #MMAhttps://t.co/gj8C1GAvgh
— BJ Penn (@bjpenndotcom) September 19, 2017
Daniel Cormier should relinquish the light heavyweight title and the UFC should create a tournament to crown a new champion in the unsettled division so as to wash away the stain Jon Jones has imparted on the title—the fact he never lost the title but continues to be stripped of the title.
Wyatt Beougher: FICTION At first glance, this probably seems like a reasonable solution to a very real problem facing the UFC’s light heavyweight division, but regardless of who wins this theoretical tournament, they’re going to be in the same boat that Daniel Cormier is right now – Jon Jones is the best light heavyweight on the planet (and very probably the best fighter, period), and whoever holds the UFC light heavyweight title did not beat him for it. Sure, whoever wins the tournament has a feather for their cap, but they still can’t say that they’ve beaten Jones, so is it really going to make that much of a difference? Plus, the nature of the tournament format means that you’re going to weed out potential challengers for the eventual winner, as someone like Volkan Oezdemir could end up losing to an Alexander Gustafsson in the semi-finals and then you’d get, say, Gustafsson vs Cormier in the finals. So you’ve got your fight between your number one contender and your (relinquished) champion, but your number two contender now has to win two or three more fights before people will take him as a serious threat to Cormier because there are only so many fighters on the Gus/DC level at light heavyweight. By just continuing with Cormier as light heavyweight champion, UFC won’t eliminate any possible matchups and Cormier can either lose the title and justify all of the paper champion talk, or he can continue to prove that he’s the best light heavyweight in the world today not named Jon Jones.
Robert Winfree: FICTION If we were speaking before the UFC took the current course of action I’d mostly agree, they don’t need a tournament given the horribly shallow nature of the division would be my main point of contention. I mentioned recently that the UFC simply giving Cormier back the belt puts him in an untenable situation, everyone saw him get knocked out when he fought Jones and now that man is holding the belt again. It would have been a simple thing to simply vacate the title and have Cormier vs. Gustafsson or Oezdemir for the vacant belt. It’s not like Cormier as champion defending the belt draws appreciably more than Cormier fighting for the vacant belt, and that at least keeps continuity with the UFC’s decision to vacate the heavyweight belt when Josh Barnett won it and then tested positive for steroids after beating Randy Couture. I also think the narrative of two guys fighting to restore some normalcy and honor to the division is an easier sell than telling people Cormier is still the champion, but your mileage may vary.
RT BloodyElbow "UFC champ Michael Bisping tells Luke Rockhold to stop ‘sulking’ over Georges St-Pierre fight (Mcke… https://t.co/Ruh6qsGZcz"
— B Dog (@B_Dog040) September 19, 2017
Luke Rockhold can complain all he wants about Michael Bisping or Georges St-Pierre and who is the next title contender; it doesn’t matter because he’s still at least one fight away from earning a title shot.
Wyatt Beougher: FICTION I went back and forth on this one quite a bit, as Rockhold is probably realistically at least one fight (or a fortuitous injury) away from earning a title shot. But I went FICTION because if the winner of GSP/Bisping ends up with a lengthy medical suspension after the fight, Rockhold would probably find himself as Bobby Knuckles’ first opponent for the interim middleweight championship, assuming Whittaker remains on the initial timeline that was laid out when it was revealed that he wouldn’t need surgery for the medial ligament tear he sustained in his knee when he won the interim middleweight championship against Yoel Romero. That would tentatively put him in line for a fight in the first quarter of 2018 and if the lineal UFC middleweight champion is unavailable, Rockhold makes a much better choice than Romero, considering the first Whittaker/Romero fight didn’t end in a split decision or even a controversial unanimous one.
Plus, even if Rockhold is still one fight away from contendership, why shouldn’t he complain about St-Pierre and Bisping? MMA needs more marketable fighters, and guys like Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor increased their profile drastically talking about guys who were at the top of their respective divisions long before either of them was in real talks of contending. If Rockhold can generate some interest in a potential fight with GSP or Bisping, good for him, and good for the UFC.
Robert Winfree: FACT Assuming we aren’t counting a possible fight with Robert Whittaker for the interim belt a real title shot. Rockhold got back on the winning side of things and he’s still one of the best middleweights in the world, but there’s a champion and a pointless interim champion who will have to unify those belts as soon as possible to get some semblance of order restored. Rockhold will have to wait for that fight, assuming it can be made of course. Though I would be foolish not to acknowledge the possibility of Rockhold and Whittaker fighting should Bisping retire after the GSP fight, I just consider that a less likely scenario. Worth noting would be the insane schedule Whittaker could take in that situation, he beat Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero within three months of each other and if he takes on Rockhold while Bisping has wasted everyone’s time with the lineal belt against Dan Henderson and GSP I think there’s a compelling argument to make about Whittaker being the “real” champion.
SWITCH!
Here's the updated #UFCJapan poster now featuring OSP vs. Yushin Okami. pic.twitter.com/LmQVYHoKq2
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) September 19, 2017
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s removal from his fight with Ovince St. Preux due injury may be a blessing in disguise as Yushin Okami vs. OSP is more intriguing than Shogun vs. OSP.
Robert Winfree:FICTION Nope, this one just sucks. I wouldn’t have picked Shogun to get revenge, but OSP has slowed down considerably and perhaps Shogun wouldn’t have made the same tactical error that got him starched so quickly when they first fought. Okami has fought as low as welterweight; he’s horribly outsized and doesn’t have the type of game to surprise OSP.
Wyatt Beougher: FACT As much fun as it might be to see Shogun try to avenge his last defeat, which literally came at the hands of St. Preux, I haven’t seen anything in Rua’s three-fight win streak to make me think that things would go particularly differently this time around. OSP has only lost to upper tier UFC light heavyweights, and at an extremely old 35, I just don’t see Shogun fitting that particular bill anymore. Yes, Okami is a couple of months older than Shogun, and he’s been fighting lesser competition since 2014, but I’m still more interested in seeing what Okami can do against a top ten light heavyweight than seeing a rematch of a fight that was decided pretty handily. I realize that I’m probably in the minority here, but I’ll find a way to live with that and maintain that this statement is a FACT.
#UFCPittsburgh official weigh-in: @HectorLombard (186) pic.twitter.com/3CWka8CfLX
— UFC News (@UFCNews) September 15, 2017
Hector Lombard is a classic victim of coming too late to the ball game with regards to his UFC run which stands at 3 wins, 6 losses, and 1 no-contest; perhaps, had he entered into the UFC in his prime he would have yielded better results.
Robert Winfree: FACT I’m only going fact here because I struggle to imagine him doing much worse. The biggest assistant to him joining the UFC earlier would have been the more relaxed drug testing policy, plus if he got here younger he might have felt more compelled to add to his game over time rather than simply rely on the same strategy that has clearly been figured out.
Wyatt Beougher: FACT I think Lombard was also a victim of coming into the UFC as a much-hyped fighter who hadn’t lost in five years and had looked completely unstoppable in Bellator. Rather than getting an easily winnable fight for his UFC debut, Lombard was matched up with Tim Boetsch, who was a journeyman at that point but who had also compiled an undefeated record in the UFC’s middleweight division. In Joe Silva’s eyes, I’m sure it looked like a winnable fight for the former Bellator champion against an opponent who was making a name for himself. The fact that Boetsch won was less important than the fact that he had taken away Lombard’s mystique, something the Cuban would never really recover from. Lombard was at his best when he could overwhelm his opponents early and finish them, and it’s entirely possible that if he had come to MMA earlier in his life and ended up in the UFC at a younger age, he could’ve enjoyed a Chuck Liddell-like run. Of course, that would’ve put him in the UFC’s middleweight division during the rise and dominance of Anderson Silva, so perhaps he wouldn’t have fared much better than he has in his mid- to late-thirties. I’m still going FACT for the simple reason that had Lombard dropped four fights in a row in his late twenties instead of his late thirties, he would still have had time to regain his footing outside of the UFC and at least attempt to make his way back to the Octagon; as it stands, if Lombard is released after losing a fourth consecutive fight this past weekend in Pittsburgh, it’s entirely possible that his career in the biggest MMA promotion in the world is over for good.
The girls at 125-pounds might be in trouble. @BulletValentina tells @lthomasnews she is moving to flyweight https://t.co/3P9hkNEVAE
— Eric Kowal (@MyMMANews) September 14, 2017
There is no reason for Valentina Shevchenko to move to the newly created women’s flyweight division so soon when she is 1-or-2 fights away from another title shot at bantamweight.
Robert Winfree: FICTION Valentina should be the champion right now by my estimation, but that doesn’t change how undersized she is for the division. Shevchenko has fought at 125 before, most of her kickboxing and Muay Thai careers took place around that weight, while she fought at bantamweight in the UFC because they didn’t have a flyweight division and she can’t make strawweight. She might be the best bantamweight right now, certainly top two or three, but flyweight is her more natural weight class and I eagerly await a possibly MMA bout between her and Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the flyweight title should Joanna decide she dislikes cutting as much weight as she does.
Wyatt Beougher: FICTION While I can certainly understand the logic behind Shevchenko staying at bantamweight when she’s so close to another title opportunity, if she’s more comfortable at flyweight and believes she’ll have a better chance of success there, I can’t fault her for making the move. I don’t think this is a case of a Kenny Florian or a Frankie Edgar moving down a division because they don’t believe they can be the champion in their current division, as I honestly don’t think a split decision loss to Amanda Nunes would be enough to make Shevchenko think that she can’t wrest the title from the Brazilian’s grasp. When she was a kickboxer, Shevchenko competed primarily in the 60kg division (which is roughly 132 pounds), but she also held titles at 55-57kg, which is closer to the flyweight division’s limit. Perhaps Shevchenko wants to become flyweight champion before pursuing the bantamweight championship again in the hopes of becoming a two-division champion. I mean, there are multiple possible reasons she could be dropping down a weight class, so I’m not comfortable saying there’s “no reason” for her to move to flyweight, hence why I went FICTION.
So who won? Did Wyatt get the upset or did Robert walk away with another win? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Sunday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!
And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!
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