Well, that’s a load of BS.

Allow me to present a quick case study of two fighters.

Fighter A is a hard-nosed fighter. After every fight he diligently breaks down his performance to find holes in his game, win or lose, and spends his time working his ass off to fill those holes. This hard-working style works well and he grinds his way into the top half of the division in the UFC. Fighter A finds himself fighting for the title more than once, but ultimately he just does not have the physical tools to get over the hump and be the best, no matter how hard he works.

Fighter B is a physically gifted fighter. While his work ethic in regards to assessing his problems, learning from them, then drilling until they are no longer so glaring is often criticized, nobody can deny the natural gifts that Fighter B possesses. He fights with a speed and strength unmatched by anyone in the division, but ultimately fails to ever put together a long run at the top of the division as he finds his weakness exploited by top fighters every time he starts to sniff a title shot.

By the masses, Fighter A is considered somebody who maximized his potential, and just never was somebody destined to be physically capable of winning a title. Fighter B is bemoaned as a waste of talent, somebody good enough to win the title if he could just get his mind straight for a couple years in a row. For some bizarre reason, a fighter with a physical deficiency who achieves more is considered less viable as a true potential-champion than a fighter whose flaws are mental but has never reached the heights of his counterpart. Why is this?

The problem comes primarily from the way a mental weakness and a physical weakness are viewed in general. At some point we are willing to accept that a body has achieved all it is destined to achieve within the legal methods available to a professional fighter. Without the use of steroids or other outside agents, there’s only so much efficient muscle mass a given fighter can put on. The muscle he does have will only be able to be used so fast. His body will only be able to handle so much resistance before he tires. When a man has reached the physical limit that his genetics allows, he’s reached that limit. There’s no shame in that and we accept it.

Mentally we hold people to higher standards. “The Secret” tells you that anything you set your mind on and want hard enough can be yours. When we see somebody who we know is, in the short term, capable of accomplishing great things, we often assume that any failure to maintain that as a long-term payoff is not a deficiency that they can not fix, but is instead simply the individual being weak willed. They don’t want it enough to fix it. They aren’t determined enough to try. They’re happy just wasting their potential.

Here’s the rub, though. At what point do you have to just accept that, no, they don’t have the potential to do what everyone thinks they can. When a rookie bursts onto the scene and is clearly a naturally gifted specimen but he doesn’t fight smart with it, there’s potential. You need to look no farther than another of Miller’s recent victims, Charles Oliveira. Having breezed through his first two UFC opponents, he expected more of the same. You could hear it in his interviews before the fight where he said he would use his purple belt to show the black belt Miller “what real jiu jitsu is.” In the cage, Oliveira didn’t fight smart. He threw up Hail Mary subs, didn’t identify that they were not just being stuffed, but being more and more stuffed each time, and ultimately got stuffed so bad it opened up a counter which he failed to identify the danger in until his knee was bent the wrong way. That’s a young fighter who is inexperienced doing an inexperienced thing against a better fighter. He has the potential to learn from that mistake.

Now let’s look at Melvin Guillard. Guillard looked strong early, as everyone expected of him. He dropped Miller with a punch and, while Miller’s legs didn’t ever appear weak during the ensuing takedown efforts, Miller admitted his body was working on auto-pilot for much of the fight after. Then Guillard got too flashy, as many expected of him. He threw one too many flying knees and got dumped on his back. Then he got quickly tapped when the fight hit the ground, as everyone expected of him. After the fight, Guillard made excuses for his two straight losses, calling one a fluke and claiming no errors in the latest bout, as everyone expected. Guillard didn’t shock us with his errors, he did exactly what people expected of him, and yet we still maintain that he is capable of not doing things he always does.

Guillard isn’t a rookie still learning by trial-and-error. Guillard has 42 fights officially, and will never hesitate to let you know that number is too low. With some 60-odd fights or so under his belt, then, he is still doing the same things wrong time and time again. A fighter who can not bring his body to the physical level he needs to get over the hump isn’t failing to live up to potential, he is being who he is. A fighter like Guillard who can not bring his mental game to that level he needs to get over the hump is just doing the same exact thing.

When I was in college I helped a friend get through her required math classes, because math comes easy to me. She was not a dumb woman by any stretch of the word, but the way her brain was wired it just never fell in line and made sense the way things did so easily for someone who is math-savvy. If she wanted to be a math teacher, she would struggle, despite having all the skills required to be a great teacher in general. An element of mental make-up required for the job isn’t there, and it doesn’t matter how capable you are for the other elements of a job if an important part of you isn’t wired for it. Similarly, whether it’s a failure to be able to honestly assess himself, a failure for his mind to be able to grasp and truly internalize the intricacies of the ground game or a combination of both, Melvin Guillard is not wired to be a consistent world beater. No differently than the guy who has a certain arrangement of cells in his body that prevents it from doing what it needs to to win, Guillard just does not have the right arrangement of cells in his brain that lets him fix his deficiencies.

More than 9 years later, Guillard still has the same problems he had when he was handed his first defeat by Carlo Prater. That’s not a waste of potential, that’s a fighter being who he is. Guillard is a fighter who, on his day, can beat anyone in the world, but something with the way his brain works means he doesn’t have the ability to consistently win at the top of the division against fighters who are capable of achieving more well-rounded skill sets. It’s comforting to think that anybody can just will themselves to be a better person, that physical limitations can only be battled so much but with hard work any mental block can be overcome, but it isn’t the case. You are who you are, and hyping up somebody to a level that everyone knows he has failed repeatedly to match just because his weakness isn’t a physical one just leads to disappointment all around.

With that said, when you get past the absurdity of the claim and really look at the division, it becomes apparent that he’s about as minimally incorrect as you can ever be when making such a claim about two fighters on 0-fight winning streaks.

Luke Nelson of Head Kick Legend had an excellent piece in which he looked at every fighter in the UFC’s lightweight division and broke down where they stood in terms of consecutive wins and losses. For a division that saw multiple fighters climb to five-plus consecutive wins last year, you may be surprised with what you find. Only four fighters have a winning streak more than two fights long outside of current title challenger Ben Henderson.

Jacob Volkmann has won five straight bouts, but nobody is of the misunderstanding he is anywhere near title contention. That Volkmann has yet to feature in any UFC broadcast as a lightweight, and was the second fight of the night in his last outing tells you all there is to know about where the UFC places Volkmann in the division.

Edson Barboza’s four straight wins has him second, and riding high on a thrilling wheel kick KO of Terry Etim seems destined for a big name in his next fight, but as yet has not faced an opponent with even a single top-25 vote on any ballot, and took narrow and contentious decisions against lower-half level competition in his prior two outings. Barboza is still a couple fights from being offered a shot at the belt.

Gleison Tibau and Tony Ferguson have each won three straight. Tibau has stumbled every time he’s faced top competition, including losing handily to Miller and a disputed decision to Guillard. Ferguson is a TUF winner being given the standard slow build. Neither is ranked higher than either of Friday’s main event fighters, and neither is likely to be closer to the title, either.

So, where are all the names of the division? Well, we got to see what happens to a division when the belt is put on hold (when Henderson enters the cage in February, he will be the first man other than Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard and BJ Penn to battle for the belt in over 26 months.) A group of top fighters separate themselves from the herd, but with no end game available, they ultimately beat each other up and before you know it, nobody near the top of the division is on a great run. Here is where the lightweights currently ranked in the consensus Top-25 sit, via Nelson’s article:

Two wins: Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon
One win: Frankie Edgar, Anthony Pettis, Sean Sherk, Evan Dunham, Matt Wiman

One loss: Gray Maynard, Clay Guida, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone, Melvin Guillard

Two losses: George Sotiropoulos

Half of the twelve ranked fighters outside of Edgar and Henderson have lost their last fight. One has lost two straight. The four highest ranked fighters outside of the current title fight are all coming off losses. Cerrone will be dropping come the next edition, surely, but it remains that in that event the top three fighters outside the title fight will be coming off losses, all to the two men set to fight for the belt.

A long win streak always continues to carry some merit even after a loss, and in a division where nobody at the top is on a long winning streak, it will hold extra bearing. The front-runners of the title chase now appear to be Diaz and the winner of the Pettis-Lauzon fight. The winner of a proposed Guida-Maynard pairing, similar to the Miller-Guillard winner, will instantly be back “in the mix” on past equity and a win over a highly ranked opponent. Either Miller, having won eight of nine with the loss to the current title contender, or Guillard, winner of six of seven and fresh off a win over the #7 lightweight in the world, would not be out of place among any of those fighters. Barboza could be thrown into the mix, but will more likely be just below the lead pack and paired off with a fringe top-20 opponent before getting a jump right to a title contender.

Coming out of the title fight, barring an injury or the need for yet another rematch for Edgar, there are two main scenarios which can ensue. The champ will either want a quick turnaround in June/July, or a longer wait until the fall.

Champion fights in early summer

In this scenario, the next shot will almost certainly go to Diaz, despite a relatively weak title resume, or the winner of the Pettis-Lauzon fight. For the man left over and not getting his shot, the obvious pairing becomes a match-up with the winner of Friday night’s fight, barring a set of events where Guillard and Lauzon both win while Diaz is given the title shot. With the state of the division, that fight could well prove to be a #1 contenders bout, or at worst, will place the winner of the bout in a fight for a shot. At most, Friday’s winner should find himself needing just a three fight winning streak to get a chance at the title.

Champion fights in the fall

If the champion decides he needs some time off to recover, this is more bad news for the men mentioned as front-runners than it is for Friday night’s combatants. If nobody is getting a title shot until later in the year, the men at the top of the division will be left to throw down among themselves to find out who is worthy of the chance at the title. It’s difficult in a scenario with this many variables to predict the exact series of bookings which will ensue, however it again becomes difficult to see how it takes more than Friday, a pairing with another front-pack opponent in the spring and then a #1 contender bout with whoever else has emerged from the 2012 dust cloud unscathed to finally earn what escaped in late 2011.

Everybody has heard some variation of those famous words from philosopher George Santayana, often in the slight paraphrasing “those who can not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” At this point it’s safe to say that UFC “middle”weight Anthony Johnson has not spent much time reflecting on Santayana’s sentiment.

At yesterday’s weigh-ins for UFC 142 it was announced before the event began that Johnson would not be making weight for his middleweight debut against Vitor Belfort, and that he wasn’t going to be close. A fighter struggling to make weight at a new weight class is nothing new in fight sports. While still unprofessional, there’s at least a logical path to follow in a fighter overestimating his ability to weigh in 15-pounds lighter than ever before. In the case of Johnson, the move to middleweight saw him granted 15 more pounds without violating his contract, and yet for the third time in his career, Johnson failed to complete his professional responsibilities by a sizable margin.

Immediately following weigh-ins, the spin out of Johnson’s camp began.

[Manager Glenn] Robinson says that Johnson started feeling sick and unstable, and so a local doctor came in to check him out to see what exactly was going on.

The doctor gave Johnson fluids to see if it would improve his condition, and within a couple of hours, the Blackzilian fighter started to come back to life. Unfortunately, at this point it was too late to cut the weight back down to 186lbs.

“It was medical reasons, it wasn’t for lack of effort,” Robinson said. “The UFC was extremely supportive and said health comes first.”

With excuse making like that coming from a man Johnson is trusting to act in his best interest, it’s little wonder that he hasn’t learned anything from his two prior failures to act like a responsible professional. Sure enough, not long after Johnson took to facebook to make it clear he did all he could and it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t do what he signed a contract swearing to do. As Bloody Elbow posted:

I’m already laughing at what ppl are saying. Yeah it was for medical reason and I did what the UFC Dr Told me to do. Believe it or don’t I give a f**k cuz the ppl close to me were freaking out but I’m still alive and something like this has never happen before. Say what you want I’m still gonna do my thang. You try not having feeling in your legs and can’t move then and see how you look at life after that

That’s right, don’t blame him for missing weight, blame the UFC doctor who made him take fluids just because he had already dehydrated himself dangerously to the point of losing feeling in extremities. He laughs at all you idiots who think this is on him. Well, sorry Johnson-defenders, but his behavior isn’t a laughing matter anymore, at least it shouldn’t be for him. Saying that a doctor prohibited him from cutting any more weight before he reached his target doesn’t let him off the hook because, and this may surprise Johnson to hear, he had several months knowing he was going to fight during which he could have lowered his weight to a level where he could have made 186-pounds without his body shutting down. He didn’t, and that’s nobody’s fault but his and the people around him looking to make excuses.

Fortunately, Dana White isn’t one to buy into that line of buck passing. Don’t believe it? Just ask Jason Guida about his long run on The Ultimate Fighter. As MMA Junkie first reported, White has already gone on the record saying Johnson may want to hold off on getting those Anthony Johnson, UFC Fighter business cards.

“His job is on the line,” White said. “His job is absolutely on the line, win or lose.”

…

“Complete and absolute unprofessionalism – that’s what happened,” White said. “There’s no other way it can be explained.”

Good for White. He is often fairly criticized for making rash decisions while still high on emotion, but that doesn’t mean those decisions are always the wrong ones. Quite bluntly, Johnson should already be unemployed, but it’s clear Belfort is excited to fight in Brazil and denying him that opportunity would be unfair to him. So, let Johnson fight, and when he gets back to the locker room, whether he lost or won by a double flying knee in a minute, have a pink slip waiting for him. Fighting is one part of being a professional mixed martial artist, and the UFC has made it clear that repeated failures in that area is a path out of the majors. It’s time to show that repeated failures in another part of the job holds the same consequences.

Maybe then Johnson will finally learn something.

Brent Brookhouse picked up the quote and noted both its inappropriate nature and the poor timing, just days before the UFC’s network television debut on Fox this Saturday, at a time when several top news stories revolve around sexual abuse. Several sites followed with reporting on the tweet, including Yahoo! Sports’ Maggie Hendricks. In responding to the articles, the MMA community happily provided ample examples of the “rape as an insult” side of the cavalier attitude.

In addition to hate mail received over the article, the comments section below quickly filled with over 1,000 comments. Many of them rational, many of them highlighting everything that is wrong with the mindset maintained by many MMA fans. After the jump are some quotes which exemplify the gross attitudes some fans hold which have to change, as well as a look at the even more vile response to Maggie Hendricks’ story.

The “MMA Fans are Insensitive Meatheads” Response

The problem with this sentiment is two-fold. First of all, the less important way of looking at it — when an old school journalist writes an article slamming MMA as a brutal blood sport for savages, the community is quick to flood the comments with swears and assertions the writer is a no-nothing old hack who doesn’t understand that the UFC is a major sport with classy athletes. When a UFC fighter acts in a manner that is unprofessional, well what do you expect? He punches people for a living and the people who watch him like watching bloody fisticuffs, so why should they care about trivializing rape a little? Sorry, but that double standard doesn’t fly. More pertinently, if what the above poster is claiming is correct, that’s not a reason to excuse Forrest acting inappropriately, it should be a call to the community to change its way of thinking so that such behavior is something that the MMA community minds. Nearly any subject can be handled in a manner to make an acceptable joke, even one which has a positive effect. Saying “Rape is the new missionary,” a joke where the punchline is “man, so many people are getting raped it’s not even worth mentioning because it’s ordinary now” is not appropriate in any way. It’s disgusting, it’s offensive, and it’s something that, if it doesn’t offend the community on the whole, damn sure should.

The “Man, Just Move On. Nobody Will Notice if You Stop Pointing it Out” Response

If you don’t care about trivializing rape, you should. In the United States for every two reported cases of sexual assault, three more assaults go unreported. Why is it that more than half of all assaults aren’t reported? Because of people who don’t care when rape is made into a joke, and victims are attacked. Beyond caring as a UFC fan worried about how it makes your sport look, you should care as a human who understands that rape is horrible, and anything which contributes to a culture where shame and fear allows perpetrators to get away with it should be changed. Sweeping rape stories under the rug for fear of it shining a negative light on something you love is why Jerry Sandusky was allowed to continue raping children after he was seen sodomizing a ten year old boy in Penn State showers. If the strictly decent-human motivations don’t cut it for you, though, let’s be slimy and look at it purely from a GO UFC! perspective. Maybe the mainstream media wouldn’t have noticed without MMA sites calling Forrest out. Then again, Forrest also wouldn’t have subsequently been sent on a sensitivity mission, and the lesson wouldn’t have been laid out for all UFC fighters, meaning something would be more likely to happen later, after the Fox show, which the UFC hopes will start them on a catapult to mainstream. It will be noticed by the mainstream if it happens again when the UFC is in the public eye.

The “What About Free Speech, Man?” Response

This isn’t strictly a MMA community, or rape-related grievance, I just wanted to point out how much I hate people waiving around Constitutional rights they do not understand. The Constitution dictates how your government can encroach on your rights. It doesn’t mean others can not then freely comment on how terrible you are for how you freely speak, or that an employer does not have the right to punish you for your stupid words. The fact that comment has 14 recommendations is sad. Moving on.

As bad as the comments section on Brookhouse’s article became, it had nothing on the comments for Maggie Hendricks’ piece. This isn’t the first time the MMA community has turned deplorable on Hendricks’ articles, most notably when Joe Rogan referred to her as “cunty” and the community took up for their hero to blast her repeatedly. Now, I’m no Rogan basher. In fact, I’m a big fan. The Joe Rogan Experience, The Bugle and Sklarbro Country are the only podcasts I listen to every episode of. But tearing into a woman with the most disgusting hate speech imaginable for rightly pointing out that there is a distinction between Rogan speaking as a comic (on stage) and Rogan as a UFC representative (on the Underground) is a sign of a deeper problem. With the story on Forrest, another fan favorite, the hate came out full force again.

Yes, let’s weep for the poor persecuted males of the world. Life’s been so hard on me because I have a penis and am white and as such people expect me to not treat others like shit. It’s sooooooo unfair.

That dude really just said only feminists think rape isn’t funny. I… I quit. I can’t actually explain why these comments will be wrong because, well, just fucking look at them. They speak for themselves:

There’s far more, several pages of them, but frankly I’m sick of reading hate speech. It’s also worth noting the worst comments, those wishing Hendricks herself would be raped, were thankfully pruned by moderators.

Now, MMA is not the only community that has this problem, but that doesn’t mean that we, the MMA community, should not want to change them anyhow. Making light of sexual assault, and attacking those who speak out against it, creates a culture where sexual assault is allowed to happen. When the result of words and actions is to cast shame upon and intimidate victims of abuse, it’s something we should want to stop contributing to, not because we have to, but because why the Hell wouldn’t we want to?

“I’ll tell you right now, if there was a gay fighter in UFC, I wish he would come out,” UFC President Dana White said Thursday. “I could care less if there’s a gay fighter in the UFC. There probably is and there’s probably more than one.”

…

But you’re going to have guys like Nogueira who come from Brazil, who’s got that macho, Latino — doesn’t want to roll with a gay guy. People are going to say stuff like this. … That’s the best answer I can give you is, give me a (freaking) break and be honest. Come on. We’re all human beings. We all make mistakes sometimes. It doesn’t mean that the UFC is bad and we’re unfit for children and all this other stuff.

Tell you what: Out of the 375 guys, we’ve got a few lunatics; some guys that are nutty; and then we’ve got 300 and something that are incredible, awesome human beings who are inspirational to kids and adults and whoever else is a human being.

Dana’s right, of course. Not only is a gay fighter currently being employed by the UFC a likely scenario, it’s all but a mathematical certainty. Likewise, any organization of the UFC’s size will have homophobes as well, and finding homophobic quotes from a few fighters doesn’t mean the UFC on the whole is gay-intolerant. So, does that mean that we could possibly see a fighter come out publicly and make the UFC the first major sports organization to employ an active participant who is openly gay? After all, we are at a time where homophobia is on the decline in America, with support for gay marriage passing opposition for the first time in the past year. It seems unlikely, as laid out after the jump.

Unfortunately, while the chart above shows tolerance is increasing, that does not mean that homosexuals have reached acceptance in the States yet, either. The increasing concern over bullying-induced suicide in gay teens has gained media attention recently, but only serves to highlight how far America is from true acceptance. Take the case of Joplin, MO. teacher Jim Whitney who posted homophobic comments on the link of a former student to the story of Jamie Hubley, a gay teen who took his own life. Ultimately, the school decided they were “not aware of a specific school guideline on discriminating against gays.” When school officials are free to espouse homophobic beliefs, it’s plain to see homophobia is far from a dead issue, and in a sport like mixed martial arts the risk to an outed athlete are particularly high.

Players are not Hired by Teams

In no sport would an athlete outing himself not be exposing himself to ridicule and possible bad intentions within his own team. In a sport like mixed martial arts, however, this risk is increased because individuals are hired by organizations, and the continued employment of an individual is not hindered by how he is privately treating a gym-mate behind closed doors. In a team sport such as basketball, failing to treat a gay teammate fairly is detrimental to the career of the bigot, as well. Mistreating the player can earn the label of trouble maker. Failing to work with the gay player in practices or during games hurts your personal production, lowering your value and hurting your bottom line. For these reasons, the ability of a team to hire an athlete and dictate without his choosing who else is on the team forces at least some degree of acceptance of the teammate. Additionally, failing to utilize the gay player’s skills lowers the bigoted player’s chances of winning, since it’s a team endeavor. In mixed martial arts, although fighters train in teams, their income comes from without the team dynamic, either as a major part of a fighter’s income, or in many cases, all of the fighter’s income. There isn’t the mandatory incentive from employers to play ball with the out individual.

Bigoted Teammates can Refuse to Train with an Out Fighter

Without the structure of the team dynamic requiring for co-operation of teammates, it is possible for teammates to simply refuse to train with an openly gay teammate. Most famously, and as noted by Dana, Big Nog came out and said the following before the UFC’s return to Brazil:

“I have no prejudice against the gays, but I wouldn’t train with someone who’s gay. I have no malice, I don’t take our physical contact as (something) sexual. But what if the gay person has that malice of having physical contact with me, of staying there grappling? I would have no problems having a gay student in my academy, but I would rather not train with him.”

So, if an openly gay fighter wanted to come train with Big Nog’s fight team, no worries, he’s not prejudiced. Just know that he’s not personally going to have anything to do with getting on the mat with you. And therein lies the rub — unless a fighter who came out was bringing something exceptional to the table, a lone fighter always stands to lose more by losing a handful of training partners than that same handful of partners will lose by rolling with only one less gym member. It’s easy to allow fear or bigotry to be the road to take when the sacrifice for yourself is so small, but the resulting accumulation of small losses the gay fighter would endure could have highly detrimental effects on his development, and as such on his career. Now obviously not all fighters will feel this way. As Dana rightly said, many of the UFC’s fighters are no-doubt tolerant and would happily train a gay teammate, but you have to be naive to think Nog is the only one holding his beliefs, as well, and in a sport like MMA even the slightest detriment to your training can make a huge difference in a career.

Finding an Opponent Won’t be a Walk in the Park

In other sports, you play who the league schedule dictates you play. If a member of the Patriots came out, well the other AFC East teams will still be facing him twice a year. In MMA it’s on a fighter to sign a bout agreement. Whether it’s brought on by fear of rolling with a gay fighter, or the stigma that many would attach to a fighter if he lose to a gay opponent (because obviously gays are soft and shouldn’t ever be beating you in a fight) means it’s no stretch to imagine finding meaningful, ladder-climbing fights will be more difficult on an openly gay fighter. Now, this is one area the UFC can certainly play a large role in countering the negatives of a fighter coming out. Letting it be known that fighters turning down a fight with a gay fighter on flimsy rationale will be punished will help, but ultimately there’s no way to fully police it. After all, “nobody ever fights healthy,” the saying goes, so in a sport where injuries are commonplace it’s not hard to see how even with a UFC crack down an out fighter could struggle to find opponents. Worse, should the fighter hit a losing skid and drop out of the majors the ability to find worthwhile fights without the UFC backing could prove even more difficult.

The Nature of the Sport Makes Acceptance Harder to Gain

While MMA itself may not be inherently ”totally gay, bro” in concept, it’s no secret that after brutal deathsport the accusations of homosexuality are the go-to play for MMA-bashers due to the grappling aspects. In a sport where two muscle-bound guys potentially spend twenty five minutes shirtless and rolling around while sweating, the gay jokes are obvious, low-hanging fruit. While any mature individual can approach the sport and realize fighting is fighting and sex is sex, that doesn’t mean others won’t be more inclined to be put off the at idea of a gay teammate when practice involves close contact on the ground than when it involves standing 30 feet apart on a baseball field. Would these same individuals likely be offended if you implied they should not be permitted to roll with an attractive female student because they can’t be trusted to view it as sport not sex? Of course, but that doesn’t change that for them it feels different when they’re the one who is potentially attractive to their partner. The fact that a day at the office means lots of intimate contact will always serve as an extra hurdle a gay mixed martial artist must clear that an athlete of another sport does not.

Ultimately, there will be an openly gay mixed martial artist at the highest level. Most likely the first fighter to come out will even be a star, somebody with the respect and skills within the community to overcome the losses at risk in coming out. When it happens it will be a giant step forward. But will it be a the first major sports organization with an openly gay player? I wouldn’t bet on it.

• Do Bronx blows through two fighters in the depths of the UFC’s lightweight division — Darren Elkins, who at the time had one fight in the UFC which he won by freak ankle break on a takedown, and Efrain Escudero, a TUF champion released after the fight. People infer from this that Charles will blow through established veteran Jim Miller, who at the time had only ever lost to the #1 and #2 ranked lightweights in the world.
• Oliveira is mauled on the mat by the bigger, stronger Miller, who shrugs off some hail Mary subs then yanks on Do Bronx’s knee until the Brazilian is submitted. After the fight Miller notes Charles felt like the weakest opponent he’d ever faced.
• Do Bronx puts on an exciting performance against Nik Lentz which ends in an illegal knee being missed, leading to a No-Contest.
• Do Bronx returns against Donald Cerrone and is summarily smashed again, this time on the feet, by a larger opponent.

For sure, Silva did what a true champion did and persevered when all hope seemed lost, but it’s no stretch to say that the odds for Silva-Sonnen II will give Sonnen a far better chance of winning than the first bout’s +Snowball’s-chance-in-Hell betting line. As he is wont to do, Sonnen has said anything and everything he can think of to irritate the champion enough to get him to outright say “bring it on,” to the fight everyone and their mother is waiting for, but the champ isn’t biting. Instead Silva’s manager Ed Soares has once again taken the opportunity to remind everyone that Silva has only a few fights left in his career, something he’s already said more than a few fights ago, while belittling Sonnen’s claim to a rematch in a SporTV interview:

Let’s see what the big boss is going to do. My opinion is that he had his chance and tapped, he should go back to the end of the line.

(translation via BloodyElbow.com)

So, if not Sonnen, then who should Silva be facing according to Soares? Answer after the jump.

People talk about Chael and Brian Stann, and sometimes people are focused on the TUF show. But I think Bisping could be a good opportunity.

Mike Bisping is a very good fighter. A fighter that doesn’t get nearly as much respect as he should do to a cocktail of fan vitriol that is one part TUF-villain, three parts continuing to be a gigantic knob post-TUF. The problem isn’t that Bisping isn’t worthy of being around a title shot, it’s just that there’s no reason to have him jump Sonnen in line other than to make for an easier bout for Silva.

Sonnen-Silva II will be big business. It’s the most anticipated fight in the sport right now, and Chael Sonnen is some kind of fight selling monster at this point. Sonnen earned his last title shot by beating the #2 ranked middleweight in the world two consecutive fights. Once there, he hammered on the champ for nearly five straight rounds before being caught in a triangle choke. While there was nothing unclear about who won the fight (despite what Sonnen will have you believe) if you really feel that offers the decisive answer on who wins the most fights out of ten you are kidding yourself. Throughout the fight Silva had his flashes of threats with subs, but the fact remains had Sonnen had one more answer to a sub, something he showed several times in the fight, Sonnen would have closed the deal. 25 minutes of Silva on his back throwing subs up against strikes coming down is a coinflip proposition. After thoroughly proving he has the skills to challenge a champion who has embarrassed every single other opponent he has faced in the UFC, coming back against a top fighter on a tear and completely outclassing Stann is all it takes to prove Sonnen deserves another flip.

That’s why the call out to Bisping just feels fishy. The only adversity Silva has ever faced has come as a result of opponents capable of depositing the champ on his back and working from there. In Bisping, you don’t have that, since the Brit is no offensive wrestling prodigy. Bisping is a vastly underrated striker capable of outpointing near anyone in the game. The problem is nobody is mistaking Silva as anything but one of those few people that necessitates the “near” modifier, and with Bisping renowned for his lack of knock out power it becomes apparent there’s likely not a more favorable match-up anywhere near the top of the division than the Brit. It’s not that the call out proves Silva is scared to fight Sonnen, it’s just that it has to make you wonder, and that’s not a good public image for his manager to put out there, particularly not given it’s a certainty the UFC is going to make the Sonnen fight anyhow.

The reaction to the tap and subsequent decision to keep fighting left many people less-than-pleased with Corassani, so he used his weekly TUF blog to address the controversial tap by saying he didn’t tap, admitting he tapped, noting how tight it was and pointing out that the submission was never there.

Wait, what?

Ride the Akiracoaster of logic as it swoops, spins then loops around on itself after the jump.

So, just how close was the submission that Neace grabbed? Not very close, according to Corassani:

The other was that when he had me in a heel hook it wasn’t there. It wasn’t in. If you watch the video again you see my knee pop out because he slipped. He lost his grip.

As a counterpoint, Corassani would have you know that it was pretty damn close to ending the fight:

I was thinking “holy shit he’s got it!”

…

I know the feeling that went through my body saying “this is going to hurt, I’m going to tap.”

Okay, so he can’t really decide whether the sub wasn’t there or whether the sub nearly finished him, but that’s an easy thing to confuse. At least he is sure about one thing. He didn’t tap out like no punk:

 I’ve watched it maybe 100 times and I know for myself that I never tapped.

Corassani didn’t tap. Never. Not one single time, and if he had, he’d admit it. To wit:

 I would be honest and say I tapped if I did.

If never tapping wasn’t the truth, and say he had tapped or something, he tells you right there he’d admit it. He’d come out and say something like, I don’t know, this:

I raised my hand and tapped one time on his thigh but it wasn’t one of those dramatic taps like a metal drummer. It slipped out and I just went up on him.

Oh. I guess he tapped.

(Note: for extra comprehension fun, note that he cites right after his tap as the moment the submission slipped after repeatedly saying above that the submission went from “oh shit” to “no big thang” because it slipped. Oops.)

I’m unsure what to make of this fight. My original thought was that the line was criminally even for a fight in which neither guy was likely to have their lights shut off (Lytle has never been finished in 90+ rounds, and despite all claims to the contrary, Hardy hasn’t shown much power against top opponents that aren’t totally overwhelmed) and where Lytle had such a clear edge on the ground. Now with the announcement that Lytle is retiring, who knows? On the one hand, Lytle will surely not want to go out with a “boring” fight after a career of Fight of the Night bonuses, and for some reason he seems married to the idea that his slick grappling just doesn’t do it for us. On the other hand, will he really want to go out on the back of losses to a debuting journeyman and a guy on a three fight skid? In the end I will stick to my early gut and predict Chris Lytle by Submission, Round 2.

Jim Miller vs. Ben Henderson – The Main Event (in Merit)

Ben Henderson is a good fighter, with a very well rounded skill set. The problem I see him running into in this fight is that everywhere that he is good, Miller is gooder. On the feet Bendo is susceptible to getting hit, and Miller’s striking looks leaps and bounds better every fight. On the ground, if Miller is on top of Ben he is in big trouble. If he puts Miller on his back, he finds himself inside a guard that has befuddled every opponent Miller has faced, from BJJ black belts to top control savant Grey Maynard. You see a lot of talk about Henderson’s excellent sub defense which is patently untrue. He has phenomenal sub escapes, but his defense leaves much to be desired, as evidence by our knowing he has good escapes. Against Miller, that is Bad News Bears. As always, my pick is Jim Miller by Submission, Round 1.

Charles Oliveira vs. Donald Cerrone

I’m running out of time to get these posted before the event starts, so I will switch to quick picks before the undercard. I think that both fighters are still a bit overrated. Oliveira is fun to watch, but a technically superior fighter will take his lunch every time until he learns to control it. Fortunately I don’t think Cerrone is technical enough. Do Bronx by Submission, Round 2.

Amir Sadollah vs. Duane Ludwig

If Amir takes Ludwig down he should probably be able to work to a decision or even a submission. On the other hand, he is in love with his muay thai, and I think that is a recipe for disaster against Bang. Ludwig by TKO, Round 1.

UFC Pick Record: 148-86 (63.2 percent)

Facebook fight quick picks after the jump. 

Jared Hamman vs. CB Dolloway

I still haven’t forgiven Hamman for stealing FotN when I attended UFC 111, engaging in a stand-and-bang “war” where both men were exhausted after a few minutes. Nobody can quite forgive Dolloway for that stupid sneer he always has. Ultimately, Dolloway is the better fighter. Dolloway by Submission, Round 1.

LAST MINUTE EDIT – Joe Benevidez vs. Eddie Wineland

Somehow I missed this fight in my first pass. Joe B-Won Kenobi by Unanimous Decision.

Kyle Noke vs. Ed Herman

I still don’t know quite what to make of Noke or returning Ed Herman beyond them being two guys that dwell somewhere in the middle of the UFC’s middleweight division. At the end of the day, you’ve got to pick somebody, so I’ll go with Herman by Unanimous Decision.

Ronny Markes vs. Karlos Vemola

Markes enters fresh off a win over Paulo Filho, unfortunately he literally just beat Filho in his last fight meaning recently and that is somewhat less impressive these days. Still, I like Markes to outwork Vemola over three rounds. Markes by Unanimous Decision.

Jim Hetes vs. Alex Caceres

Jimmy Hetes is in the UFC because he has eight submissions inside two rounds in eight career fights. Alex Caceres is in the UFC because he owns a Bruce Lee suit. Jim Hetes by Submission, Round 1.

Cole Miller vs. T.J. O’Brien

Cole Miller is not as good as Cole Miller would have you believe. Fortunately for him, he doesn’t need to be the world beater he fancies himself in order to beat a guy that was battered by Paul Kelly. Cole Miller by TKO, Round 2.

Jacob Volkmann vs. Danny Castillo

Say what you will about Antonio McKee — I, for example, like to say he is a maddeningly boring fighter who is far too quick to play the race card when he should be playing the nobody-wants-to-watch-me card — but the man has proven to be an effective MMA human body-warmer. Volkmann beat him at his own game, and I expect him to do likewise in an unscintillating bout with Castillo. Volkmann by Unanimous Decision.

Jason Reinhardt vs. Edwin Figueroa

Edwin Figueroa is neither making his professional debut nor spoting a record that is several fights below .500. That is all I need to hear to predict a first round victory for him. Figueroa by TKO, Round 1.

First up, a report on everyone’s least favorite glass-throwing inebriate Junie Browning, who lost his fourth consecutive fight to fall to 4-5 in his career.

The former Ultimate Fighter bad boy Junie Browning isn’t a bad boy anymore — he’s just a bad fighter.

Oh, snap. Lede graf burn.

It was the kind of loss that calls into question whether Browning really wants to be a fighter at all.

…

Browning weighed in at 162.25 pounds — a whopping 7.25 over the lightweight limit — and was noticeably chubbier than he had been on The Ultimate Fighter. He doesn’t appear to be committed to MMA.

The victory was a solid one for Clark, who improves his record to 9-3. But the real story is that Browning, who was once the focal point of the UFC‘s reality show, now looks like he has no business in the cage

Damn, MDS is not playing. But hey, it’s just Junie Browning, you might think. That guy is a dickhead anyways, and as Midsy pointed out he did show up as quite the fatty, so he’s worthy of more scorn than he normally receives, if anything. Surely once MMA legend Jens Pulver steps into the ring things will perk up. After all, even during his five fight losing streak any media coverage of Pulver carried all of the unbiased tone of a love letter.

Jens Pulver, the former UFC lightweight champion who has spent the last few years looking like a washed-up fighter who’s hanging on too long, finally earned a victory over a legitimate opponent on Saturday night.

Um. Nevermind.

For Pulver, it was just his third win in his last 10 fights, and although he didn’t look great inside the cage, it was nice for fans of Pulver to see him win at all: After Pulver exited the WEC on a five-fight losing streak last year, some people thought they’d never see him win a fight again.

Even in victory it’s worth noting it was a shitty victory and you should feel bad for encouraging him.

MMA Fight Pit announcer Jason Chambers said after Pulver’s victory that it “could be the rebirth of Jens Pulver.” That, however, is overly optimistic: At age 36, Pulver is past the point where he’s going to have a rebirth.

But at least Pulver got a win. For Pulver, that represents progress.

Last on the docket was a fight between Houston Alexander and Razak Al-Hassan, best known as the guy that wouldn’t tap to on that card that raised money for traumatic brain injuries by providing a lot of traumatic joint AND brain injuries, UFC Fights for the Troops. If Pulver’s years as a top star weren’t enough to avoid the wrath of the write, I don’t like their chances.

In a lackluster main event to conclude the first pay-per-view fight card put on by the upstart MMA Fight Pit promotion, Houston Alexander defeated Razak Al-Hassan

…

The official result was a second-round technical knockout win for Alexander, but the main event at MMA Fight Pit: Genesis wasn’t a great fight for Alexander.

…

That turned out to be a winning strategy for Alexander, but it wasn’t the kind of fight that most MMA fans willing think was worth their money on pay-per-view. It’s going to be tough for MMA Fight Pit to make it to a second pay-per-view event.

It’s not that anything MDS wrote is wrong, or anything, it’s just that even poor showings tend to come across with quite a different tone on major sites like MMA Fighting, Ben Fowlkes’ excellent comically-tinted pieces aside. So, MMA promoters, take this as a lesson — if you’re going to put on a bad show, by all means go for it, but at least have the decency to do so without making your viewers pay for the opportunity to be let down.

BONUS KIMBO REALITY CHECK

It’s important to note that Wade came into the fight with a record of 0-1, and he was knocked out in his only previous fight. So it’s not like Kimbo beat a particularly impressive opponent. The fact that Kimbo was fighting an 0-1 fighter at a casino in Oklahoma on a card that wasn’t even televised indicates that promoter Gary Shaw knows Kimbo has a long way to go before he’ll be a legitimate fighter who’s ready for public exposure.