People, events, organizations that disappointed us in 2009. Your attention is invited to the Magnificent Seven Losers of the last year.
7th place - Kid Yamamoto / Tim Silvia / Andrey Arlovsky.
Mixed martial arts is still a very young and rapidly growing sport, and that is why some skeptics still have the opinion that almost any failed wrestler, overweight boxer or, in extreme cases, a tire fitter can come and defeat the best representatives of MMA.
Kid Yamamoto, who was considered at one time one of the best fighters regardless of weight, and having a record of 17 wins with only one defeat, manages to lose by decision to Joe Varen, for whom it was only the second (!) fight in his career.
Tim Silvia, who lost all motivation after a crushing defeat from Fedor Emelianenko in 36 seconds, let himself go to such an extent that he lost with one blow to 48-year-old boxer Ray Mercer, whose career peaked in 1991 (!). Needless to say, for Mercer it was his debut in professional MMA, and two years earlier, in an exhibition duel, he was strangled by Kimbo Slice in one minute.
Andrey Arlovsky made many again remember the so-called "Curse of Fedor Emelianenko". Having lost to the "Last Emperor", already in the first round, Andrey hastened to get back into action as soon as possible, wishing to win an easy and almost guaranteed victory over the current tire fitter, for whom MMA was more of a hobby than a main job. Having finished filming in the film "Universal Soldier", Andrey spent only a couple of weeks preparing for the fight at Fredi Roach's "Wild Card" boxing gym. The result of this disdain was a crushing defeat to Rogers just 22 seconds into the first round. Minnesota lost the man who skillfully changed and balance wheels, and gained another top 10 heavyweight fighter besides Brock Lesnar.
6th place - Rampage Jackson / Kimbo Slice at TUF 10
The last season of "The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights" was remembered by several moments at once: the disgusting functional condition of many participants, the quirks of Weight Sims, the endless skirmishes between the two head coaches and the bright final victory of Roy Nelson. However, undoubtedly, the main character of the season should have been the thunderstorm of all the "boys from the Miami city area". Internet sensation - Kimbo Slice … In 11 episodes, which attracted a record number of viewers, Kimbo managed to lose twice. The first time by TKO in the second round, to the future winner, Roy Nelson, and the second to himself, refusing to enter the fight instead of Mat Mitron. TUF 10 finally dispelled the pink dreams of those lucky ones whose imagination is developed to such an extent that they see Kimbo Slice as a threat to any top MMA fighter. But we learned that Kimbo is great at grilling meat.
Rampage Jacksonwill surely remain the only coach in the entire history of the TUF show to have lost 11 matches in a row as a coach. Choosing their team on the principle of "He looks bigger and scarier than the other guy," Jackson's team was a collection of the most motley personalities, but mediocre fighters.
For a long time, Jackson's only victory at TUF 10 was a cruel KO over the … blue door, which Rampage, in a fit of anger after another defeat of his ward, smashed to pieces. Around the middle of the season, hopelessly losing battle after battle, Jackson stops even pretending that he is not indifferent to the fate of his charges, and begins to entertain himself in every possible way, making greasy jokes about other participants in the show, making a collage on Rashad's team, and throwing a bunch of chickens. EPIC FAIL!
But the main disappointment was that after the devastating TUF season, Jackson loses interest in MMA, and in fact refuses the much-anticipated fight with Rashad Evans, agreeing to a minor role in the movie. One of the most anticipated matches of 2009 has been postponed indefinitely.
5th place - Josh Barnett
If in 2008 a certain Seth Petruzeli was a person capable of destroying an entire organization, then in 2009 such laurels can be safely given to Josh Barnett. However, "The Killer with the Baby Face" managed to surpass his predecessor, for the collapse of Affliction Entertainment, Josh did not even need to go into the ring, it was enough just to pee in a jar once. For the third time in his sports career, Barnett was convicted of using a prohibited drug, this time it turned out to be the anabolic steroid Drostanolone, after which he was denied a license to fight with Fedor. Some time later, test B also gave a positive result. It was Josh's only positive result since his nondescript victory over Gilbert Ivel early in the year.
Such a long-awaited confrontation between Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett, once again was not destined to take place, and as Fedor will comment later on this event: "All the will of God", in the same way he commented on other 184 questions out of 185 asked to him this year.
4th place - Affliction Entertainment
The next paragraph should be read only to the music of the Time Machine "For those who are at sea"
Do you remember how it all started
Everything was for the first time and again
How the boats were built and the boats were called
Faith Hope Love.
How the ropes were chopped together
And the land went into the distance.
As the waves sang to us and every fifth
As a rule, he was at the helm.
About the dead, either good or nothing. So, good news, Affliction, presented us with 2 great shows, 4 stylish T-shirts with the name "Fedor Emelianenko" on the back and even his own brand store in Moscow. In return for all this, they became the subject of ridicule, indignation over the cancellation of the third tournament, and the owners of a lawsuit from their former "friends" and beloved "partners" from M-1 Global, for a round sum. And this is after they previously paid M-1 $ 3 million for invaluable "consulting" services. But either the "consultations" proved to be worthless, or their implementation left much to be desired, and after only one year of existence Affliction Entertainment ceased to exist, concentrating on the production of clothing.
“Listen to me, it just looks like a simple exercise, but it is a very difficult business, how many more idiots have to throw away $ 20-30 million to figure it out. It took us 10 years to build the UFC and find ourselves where we are now, I did not try to make a big show right away, we held our first show at the Tazh Mahal casino, selling only 3,500 tickets. But they will only understand this by throwing out a lot of money."
Dana White, UFC President on Aug 8, 2008, exactly one year before Affliction Entertainment surrendered.
3. Failed fights / Injuries
Injuries are an integral part of professional sports, but if in team disciplines the replacement of one or two retired players will allow a duel between two teams to take place, then in MMA, where the fight is one-on-one, the injury of one fighter automatically means cancellation, or, at best, postponement. battle.
The past year, especially its ending, seemed especially rich in various kinds of injuries and subsequent cancellations of the most interesting fights. Take UFC 106 alone, where the main event was supposed to be a heavyweight title fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Karvin, and the other main event of the evening was the return of Tito Ortiz in a fight against another veteran, Mark Coleman. None of these planned fights took place, and the pre-tournament poster had to be changed 3 times! The next UFC 107 in Memphis, in addition to the canceled Evans-Jackson fight, is injured and Thiago Alves is eliminated, followed by Tod Duffy. Also, at this tournament, a fight for the middleweight belt could take place, between Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, but due to surgery on his elbow, Silva took a long break and will return to business only in the first half of next year.
List of fighters injured in 2009 and whose fights were either postponed or canceled altogether: George St-Pierre, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Frank Mir, Heath Hearing, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Gabriel Gonzaga Rob Emerson, Rusimar Palhares, James Irwin, Matt Veach, Matt Hamill, Dan Lauzon, Mike Swick, Shen Sherk, Don Hume Kim, Ricardo Alemida and many others.
2010 greets us with the UFC 108 tournament, where 6 (!) Fighters have already dropped out due to injuries. this is in addition to the canceled fight between Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin for the second time.
2nd place - Judging / 10 Points Must System
2009 was the year of the most controversial and controversial judging. But, if earlier the judges' decisions caused (remember the fights Griffin - Jackson and Hammil - Bisping) mainly dividing the arguing into two equal sides, then this year "presented" us with the most controversial and certainly one of the most key decisions in the history of MMA. Of course, we are talking about the fight that took place at UFC 104: Machida - Rua. More than 90% of those polled on the leading MMA sites in the world gave the victory to Mauricio Shogan. However, Marcos Rosales, Cecil Peeples and Nelson Hamilton decided differently, giving a unanimous decision to the reigning champion. It turns out that the invincible Machida can also be defeated, the so-called "Era" proclaimed by Joe Rogan almost ended on the very first defense of the title.
Other high-profile controversial decisions of judges in 2009:
Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera at UFC 105
Tito Ortiz vs. Forest Griffin at UFC 106
Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin at UFC 99
The referee gave all three rounds to Rich Franklin in the fight against Dan Henderson. (Dan won by split decision.)
It is only worth noting that neither the UFC nor any other commercial organization in America has control over the selection of referees or individual referee decisions. This is the responsibility of the state sports commissions. One of the more recent NSAC introductions is allowing referees to replay in the octagon. Let's hope that the system for counting the winners will be improved in the very near future, the first such step would be the abolition of the "10 points must system", when each round must certainly have a winner.
1st place - M-1 Global / Co-Promotion
The main reason for the refusal was the requirements of M-1 Global for the so-called "co-promotion". For a long time we could not understand what exactly is the notorious "co-promotion" on the part of M-1 Global, what are their responsibilities? Scott Cocker helped us figure it out:
“The main task of the Russians was to bring Fedor to the USA. All the rest of the tasks, and the daily issues of the tournament, were handled by our side"
Scott Cocker, two days before the Strikefroce Fedor vs. Rogers"
Other memorable failures of M-1 Global in 2009 include:
- Positioning themselves as the main organizers of the Affliction Trilogy tournament, and transferring all arrows to their former partners after the tournament was canceled.
- Failure or unwillingness to obtain a license to host MMA tournaments in the states of Nevada and California. The cost of such a license ranges from $ 800 - 1, 500 and is one single document of 3 pages. As a result, the long-suffering Breakthrough tournament was moved 3 (!) Times to 3 different states, and Don Fry refused to participate, accusing M-1 of non-professionalism.
- Failure of the Breakthrough tournament Even despite the attraction of world stars like Fedor Emelianenko and Geghard Musasi, and the ticket price of $ 17, the hall with a capacity of 2, 000 people was only 70-80% full, and the tournament itself turned out to be a very mediocre spectacle, not received no publicity.
- The scandal with the deception of Gegard Musasi and the secret negotiations between his manager and the UFC leadership.
- The scandal and the subsequent disqualification of one of the main fighters of the Imperial Team, Kirill Sidelnikov. The official press release of M-1 Global shocked the imagination of many, the main culprit for the presence of the banned Stanozolol in the body of a young fighter was … a nasal spray for colds!
- Bas Boone's accusations that the leadership of M-1 Global deceived Fedor Emelianenko, and hid from him a more profitable contract with the K-1 organization in 2006, as a result of which Fedor lost more than $ 150,000 in one battle.
