 As Quinton “Rampage” Jackson crumples Wanderlei Silva to the deck with a sharp left hook to the jaw, I empathically feel a lump in the throats of a million hard core MMA fans. At times over the last couple of years we have been forced to ask ourselves if there is anyone we can invest our belief in. We have seen long time pound for pound king and living legend Silva lose two out of three in the UFC. Worse still, he and fellow KO artist Chuck Liddell have found themselves adding a fair few seconds onto someone else’s knockout highlight reel. It doesn’t end there. Long time undisputed lightweight number one and miniature wrecking ball Takanori Gomi, who once accumulated a 10 fight win streak over the division’s very best, has now lost his last two fights to a journeyman and a submission specialist little known on the world stage (albeit a very talented one). Heavyweight gods Randy Couture and Minotauro Nogueira both failed to make it through the first round of a heavyweight tournament seemingly made for them. Welterweight monster Matt Hughes has taken severe thumpings in three of his last four fights, so much so that retirement looms for him. With the shining stars of the big bang that has been MMA over the last few years fading, I pose the question- what happened to the fighters we worshipped?
A new theory is banded around every time one of our heroes is exposed as human. Firstly I address my least favourite assertion, levelled chiefly by the interweb community’s favorite annoying younger brother, the bandwagon jumping keyboard warriors. I speak of course of the “Fighter X Exposed, Finally” explanation. A typical effort to discredit the fallen legend’s career begins by rooting through their victories and finding holes in the games of their vanquished foes to tarnish the win. If we as MMA fans are to regain some respect from the fighters and experts, this is something we must cut out. A victory must be viewed from the context in which it happened. For example, people will often site Chuck Liddell’s reign of terror over the UFC light heavyweight division as simply him defeating several wrestlers who couldn’t take him down. The fact is that those fighters he beat, whilst mostly coming from a ground fighting background, were the best contenders at the time, and undoubtedly outstanding mixed martial artists. Can Chuck be blamed that no pure strikers reached the level of contendership during his dominant period? He convincingly destroyed all comers and justified his spot as number one in the division. Bottom line; if you believe a fighter is over-hyped, then say it before the loss and let your vindication be your reward, and keep silent afterward. Crocop, Tito, Wanderlei, Chuck, Hughes, Randy, Gomi et all earned their stellar reputations, beyond questioning.
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