2011 – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (part two)

2011 has been a blockbuster year for mixed martial arts; records have been broken, stars have been born and sea changes have dramatically altered the landscape. MMABay puts the kettle on, sits in front of the typewriter and beats back 12-months of Sunday morning hangovers to recount the good, the bad and the ugly of the past year.  Catch up on The Good here, or read on for all that’s been bad in 2011…

The Bad – Strikeforce and K-1 no more?: Two brands, one more iconic than the other but both massively relevant in the combat sports world, are effectively dead and buried as we knew them going into 2012.

At the start of last year everything seemed rosy for Strikeforce. Their roster was bursting with talent, they had an ambitious heavyweight grand prix lined up and genuinely seemed ready to make a (admittedly small) dent in the UFC machine. In truth, their surprise acquisition by UFC owners ZUFFA LLC will probably do as much good for the sport as bad, but it also leaves US MMA in a less than ideal position.

Dana White is adamant that Zuffa do not have the monopoly on MMA in North America and while that statement may be technically (and legally) correct, it’s clear that the Brothers Fertitta and their pal have monopolised top flight mixed martial arts on the continent. Pre-Zuffa Strikeforce gave fighters like Dan Henderson a chance to test their worth on the free market. While Bellator is still chugging along as MMA’s ‘Little Engine That Could’ (and things will get better for them in 2013 when they move to Spike TV) it’s basically Zuffa or bust if you want to make a decent living as a top-level MMA athlete. What’s to stop the UFC refusing to re-sign cut fighters if they take a bout with Bellator to pay the bills? What’s to stop them dictating the pay scales and contract stipulations when fighters have nowhere else to go? One can only hope that the UFC’s deal with Fox will give rise to a second ‘boom period’ for MMA, with new promotions rising up to give fighters a viable alternative.

Thinks aren’t so simple for K-1. Since 1993, December has meant one thing in the stand-up fighting world – The K-1 World Grand Prix Finals. Eight of the top strikers in the world, three fights, one champion. After the forebodingly reduced schedule in 2010, 2011 is the first year since the competition’s inception that the Grand Prix has not taken place. K-1 is broke, that’s all there is too it. Fighters like Alistair Overeem and Rey Sefo are owed six-figures, while Dutch powerhouses Simon Rutz and Golden Glory – the main conduits for European fighters into Japan – have refused to provide talent until debts are settled.

Things were looking up a few months back with promises of Chinese investment, but the money never came. Rumours out of Holland suggested that the promotion had offered sports on a ‘Final 16’ card to various fighters, with the caveat that they sign away on the vast majority of money owed. Needless to say, few were interested. Management changes, shifts in ownership – the trials and tribulations of K-1’s downfall could fill numerous articles all by themselves. The abridged version is this: There is no K-1 Grand Prix in 2011, and there may never be another.

Runner up – The fall of the old guard: It had to happen at some point, but 2011 more than any other year will be remembered for the fall of some of MMA’s most enduring second generation fighters. BJ Penn may have nabbed a draw against Jon Fitch, but the man who took waves of unanswered blows in the third round of that bout looked like he’d rather have been anywhere but the Octagon. After a lopsided beating at the hands of Nick Diaz later in the year, it seems like the fire under ‘The Prodigy’ has finally burned out.

Perhaps the most shocking visual of the year was that of Frank Mir snapping the arm of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira like it was a turkey wishbone. Seeing the legendary ‘Big Nog’ submitted for the first time in such a brutal fashion was hard to watch both literally and figuratively. And what of Fedor, the man who made his name trouncing the previously untouchable ‘Big Nog’? Battered by ‘Bigfoot’, knocked out by Dan Henderson…have we seen the last great performances from the Last Emperor? Even the ageless Randy Couture called it a day in 2011.

One bright spot for the old guard was Tito Ortiz, who shocked the world by winning an all or nothing scrap with Ryan Bader in decisive fashion. Just weeks later a match-making conundrum saw him stepping up to bat against Rashad Evans, with even long time ‘frienemy’ Dana White admitting that a win could put Tito ‘back in the mix’. Sadly it would be a fleeting moment for Ortiz and his reinvigorated legion of followers; the former long time champion was battered mercilessly for the duration until a knee to the body ended his night. Newly dubbed ‘The People’s Champion’, Ortiz’s body was his downfall yet again in a long-awaited clash with Rogerio Nogueira, after a knee to the sternum and a relentless barrage of punches to the breadbasket brought a halt to proceedings. Tito, as always, campaigned for another chance…but like the Jens Pulvers and Kevin Randlemans of the world, 2011 needs to have taught him that what his mind asks, the body cannot always answer.

By Brad Wharton. Follow me on Twitter @MMABayBrad

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