Fans of Randy Couture (including some of us here at MMA Weekly) were devastated. Sometimes, watching too much Hollywood flicks could be bad for the mental health of fans of mixed martial arts.

This is not Rocky Balboa fighting the humungous Russian Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV. Only in Hollywood would a Stallone vanquish a Lundgren. Fact is, while Stallone destroyed Lundgren on the widescreen, he was actually flown to a hospital and stayed in the intensive care for eight days when Dolph Lundgren hit him in the chest during one of the fight scenes. Even Carl Withers (who played Apollo Creed—a character based on Mohammad Ali) announced that he was quitting after a having too much of Lundgren’s punches during one of the shooting! Simple physics tells us about mass and the force that goes with it. The bigger the mass…

Now, this is mixed martial arts—the real thing. And we have our MMA hero Couture facing that large mass of muscles from a guy who hailed from another planet…planet WWE. We thought it was Hollywood, and Couture would always prevail. We were dead wrong.

Brock Lesnar is not your regular massive 265-pounds, 6 foot 3 MMA warrior (as if there’s anything regular about such size) he also moves swiftly in a manner that defies gravity. No baggage in that hulk of a physiology, baby, just pure unadulterated working muscles powered by equally huge doses of adrenaline of the octane kind.

Most of us must have this foreboding at the first seconds of the fight when we see how Lesnar’s size dwarfed Couture inside the octagon. It’s different when you compare stats, where you just play with figures of the fighters’ size and height in your head. Reality has a way of slapping us back to reality once we see the massive Lesnar hover over Couture. It wouldn’t have made any difference if only Lesnar doesn’t move with the agility of a 200-pound warrior.

Couture’s plan was to stay on his feet, perhaps to deprive Lesnar of the weight and size advantage if they grapple on the mat. However, this plan simply gives Lesnar more opportunities to land his power punches. It’s a conundrum. You avoid your opponent’s weight and size but as a consequence, you expose yourself to his power punches with a stand up game.

And one of the power punches hits its mark.

Lesnar just made the world of mixed martial arts more exciting with his colourful demeanor and demeaning bulk. We at MMA Weekly say, he’s bringing the showmanship and drama that mostly accompanies the then highly patronized WWE.

UFC, and MMA in general, may not be Hollywood, but it can learn from the way it promotes itself.

With all that said, one might be faced with this question, "What is the best form of martial arts?…"

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Check out the MMA weekly table below, we could clearly see that this is an ultimate test for “The Natural.”  Lesnar’s time will come, but this bout is all about Couture.   All the drama of Stallone’s surprise “Rocky” reprise, and the bloody breath-taking grandeur of Russel Crowe’s “Gladiator” fight scenes COULD all be rendered puny by UFC91 on November 15, 2008 (barring any repeat of the Kimbo-Petrucelli 14-second letdown).  That’s just five days from the day we posted this!

This is quite an intriguing scenario: is Randy Couture’s superior skills, brought about by his more than a decade of fighting experience, going to be more than enough to compensate for the wear and tear his body must have been enduring from more than a decade of punishment?

Besides that, Couture hasn’t seen a real fight for the past 15 months, while Lesnar has been busy with two bouts this year alone, the latest being barely three months ago.  Ring rust!

Couture says, he’s got his own gym, his stable of warriors (Forrest Griffin, et al) that he can pick to fight with every week.  He might not have gone up the octagon with all the klieg lights, but his gym’s ring is just about as real as anywhere in the world–with or without the cameras and ring announcers.

Couture’s buddy, Matt Lindland believes that if Couture would just keep Lesnar’s power puches in early rounds at bay, he could make use of his ground and pound stopping power.  Those pro-Couture say he toppled Sylvia, so he can demolish Lesnar just the same.  However, let us not forget that while Sylvia’s kickboxing was no match to Couture’s ground game, Lesnar could give a better match considering that he too is a wrestler—and a bigger one at that.

That could make all the difference in the world.

Less than two weeks and the mma weekly team will all go the biggest fight in UFC history, the Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar face-off.  And don’t you start grumbling about not having the Couture vs. Fedor fight.  It’s a dream fight alright, but Fedor still has to settle contract matters with Affliction.  And, if Dana White is to be believed, it won’t be long now.  White said, “I would be horrified if Affliction was still in business by January.”  That settles it then.

Now back to the Couture vs. Lesnar dream fight.

It’s going to be held on November 15, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.  That’s less than 3 weeks before the biggest boxing event featuring boxing legends Oscar de la Hoya and people’s champ Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.  Another event that’s sure to burn a hole in my pocket!

OK, back to the Couture vs. Lesnar dream fight.  This time…really!

Dana “it’s good to be” White is rubbing his palms now as he counts millions, “The thing is going to do over a million pay per view buys” as fans would jockey for the best view of the 5-found UFC heavyweight championship.  The eventual winner will take on the winner of the Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogeira tiff which is also expected to be a great bout.  Sorry dudes, no matchup with Fedor yet.

The Mir-Nogueira fight is for the UFC Interim Heavyweight championship which will be held in December.  If we get lucky, we may have the Couture-Fedor dream fight early next year—that is, if Couture doesn’t suddenly decide to succumb to old age.

We can never tell.  He may get some heavy beating from the largely larger foe in Lesnar who 13 years younger,  and  is 40 lbs bigger than Couture’s 224 lbs when he goes inside the octagon less than two weeks from now.

However, “The Natural,” who has been away for quite some time, was actually busy retooling his game.  Remember  March 2007?  When people said he just couldn’t make a win happen with someone as big as Tim Sylvia, and he proved everyone wrong?  Today, the same story is being rehashed, but with a different character.  This time, it is with a much younger, more formidable-looking phenomenon called Brock Lesnar.

“The Natural” has actually been very busy sharpening his skills.  He has been simulating his fight with Brock Lesnar,, “I brought Josh Hendricks in:  He’s actually fighting on the same card against Gabe Gonzaga…He’s a 245-pound guy with a wrestling background…. I’ve got guys like Mike Whitehead and a bunch of other guys that walk around 240, 250 with good, solid wrestling backgrounds… We’ve got a good crew.  They’re pushing me and ganging up on me.  It’s hard to find guys like Brock that are that size and move the way he moves.”

Now, this is going to be exciting.

It seems like it was only yesterday when MMA Weekly first witnessed Gina Carano slugging it out with Julie Kedzie.  If it were your first time to watch a mixed martial arts fight, and one of the first fighters you’d see inside the octagon was Kimbo Slice, you’d surely have a very different idea (humungously different from the real deal) of what real mixed martial arts is all about.

Conversely, it was my first time to watch women mixed martial artists to actually fight, and Gina Carano was the first woman I saw slugging it out inside the octagon.  The result was a very positive impression of what women mixed martial arts is all about.  The two women, Gina and Julie were simply dynamite!  I would even say that they fought better than some of the male MMA gladiators I’ve watched all these years!

With the folding up of Elite XC, Gina Carano’s fate as a fighter hangs in uncertainty.  This should have been a great opportunity for her to hop on to a bigger, more respected MMA organization: the UFC.  Unfortunately, Dana White have expressed reservations about female MMA warriors.  He must share what most of us guys think about women in MMA.

The first time I heard about female mixed martial artists, I thought, “Phooey! If I want to see a catfight, I’d go to some underground sleazy joints that feature mud wrestling.”  Truth is, I am somewhat against the idea of seeing women’s faces getting beaten, bruised, and bloodied.  Hey, they’re supposed to be supple and soft, right?  Besides, Americans, and the world in general may not want to see women (warriors or not) beaten down the mat.  

Seeing that fight between two women a couple of years back made me change my opinion.  The women–real women, not the hulky muscled type with masculine faces only their mothers would love—fought like real fighters that they are.  Watching them fight would make you change your old-fashioned perception of women as the weak, lesser specie of the humankind.  No, no, no.  Gina and Julie were real fighters.  Women MMA fighters have to thank Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie for giving the female version of the sport a very good first impression to the world.

It’s a shame that the possibility of seeing Gina Carano fight again remains an uncertainty.  Unlike in her case, Kimbo Slice seem to have a better chance of getting on the UFC bandwagon.  Dana White just made a turn-around about his stand about how to deal with the internet sensation.  While White previously said Kimbo is not an MMA artist, he said Kimbo can fight in the UFC.  “The offer’s out there if he wants to take it, (but) he won’t win it.”

If ever, there’s still the issue about Kimbo’s and Gina Carano’s contract with Elite XC to deal with before they could consider a UFC fight.  With Gina Carano’s popularity now, a trip to Hollywood tinseltown may be a lot easier.

With all that said, one might be faced with this question, "What is the best form of martial arts?…"

The most well known forms of martial arts are the ones that have proven themselves to be significantly effective throughout hundreds of years of existence and practice. The most common forms known the world over have endured to this day mainly due to there effectiveness in actual use in self defense or their use in fighting or combat.

The most common forms include the following:
Aikido, Bando Thaing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Capoeira, Chanbara, Choy Li Fut, Gatka, Haidong Gumdo, Hapkido, Hwa Rang Do, Iaido,Jeet Kune Do, Judo,Kandoshin, Karat, Kendo, Krav Maga, Kuk Sool on, Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Ninjitsu, Sambo, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwondo, Tai Chi Chuan, Vajra Mukti, Wing Chun

Some of the more popular forms are described here:

Aikido: Aikido takes the opponent's movements towards you and allows you to use circular blocks and defense tactics to direct the aggressor onto the ground via throws and pins, versus kicks and punches.

Hapkido: Often mistaken as Aikido because of its similarity in name and translation, this art combines the Aikido art of maneuvering an opponents body motions and momentum against him with kicks of that which one might find in Tae Kwon Do.

Iaido: a Japanese fighting art that is based upon the use and mastery of the sword as the primary weapon of attack and defense.

Jeet Kune Do: This was a martial arts style that was very much made popular by the late Bruce Lee. Combining different forms of martial arts, this art encompassed flexibility, being fluid in motion, and constantly learning and changing so as to ultimately have at one's disposal an infinite arsenal of moves and tactics to choose from,… greatly increasing ones chances in defeating his/her opponent.

Judo: Judo was originally evolved from Jujitsu. Judo took from this art and focused mainly on a form of wrestling, which involved throwing a falling.

Jujitsu: Jujitsu today is one of the most effective martial arts fighting styles adopted by an ever-increasing audience of serious fighters. It is no wonder that it is said that three other of the major martial arts styles has it' s roots from this single one all-encompassing fighting art. Each one, Judo, Aikido, and Hapkido are said to have evolved from this all-encompassing fighting style. Once mastered, one can become ultimately in control of virtually any fight. Using a variety of strikes, locking techniques, kicks, grappling, etc.. it would be hard to defeat a master of this art, if one were to only master one of the other major fighting styles.

We were a bit saddened by Kimbo Slice’s demise.  OK, the guy just got his 15 minutes of fame, and like a shooting star, Kevin Ferguson shone so bright everyone wanted a piece of his ass—for different reasons.

 Some wanted to fry him and expose who he really is: “a punk-who-beats-lame-punks-in-alleyways who thinks anyone, even a punk like him, can be a mixed martial artist.”   What were they thinking?  Everyone knows who he is!

On the other hand, some just love the appeal of his story—a Cinderella story.  And these people were not rooting for him for his skills (or the lack of it) in mixed martial arts.  They were rooting for the person—the underdog.  Everyone loves an underdog (or at least a lot of people do).  You will be surprised to know that even hardcore MMA fans (there were a large number of ‘em!) rooted for this internet sensation.

Kimbo Slice was a spice to the otherwise almost faceless warriors from these MMA stables.  Oh yes, we have the MMA big names but you will be totally dishonest with yourself if you’d deny that not a single one of the lot have grown as big as Kimbo’s in terms of popularity.

Kimbo Slice did to MMA what MMA warriors failed to do.

Kimbo Slice have increased the number of MMA fans in a matter of months when true-blue royal-blood warriors failed to do it in so many years.  Heck, MMA has just even barely risen from the underground image it has as a blood-sport of…well, blood-thirsty spectators.

The Fertitta brothers and Dana White may have done so much in the improvement of MMA as an industry but it took a cash-strapped Elite XC (with their poster boy Kimbo) to bring the sport to a broader fan base. 

White has done a lot to bring where MMA is right now.  However, we suggest that he should reconsider his position about identifying MMA as more of a sport of ground games, and driving away those who prefer standup fighting to kick-boxing events.   Let’s face it, outside of those true-blue MMA fans, not many spectators  would relish the prospect of naked men hugging each other on the mat.

Now you have MMA in prime time TV (at least for three shows).

Kimbo Slice was a TV producer’s dream. 

Kimbo Slice was a marketing gold find.  He was a marketer’s dream, offered in a silver platter, with all of his YouTube fans in tow.

Kimbo Slice was a marketing masterpiece that Elite XC, and CBS mishandled.

We’re not fooling anyone here.  Kimbo Slice  is a not a mixed martial arts fighter.  Anyone who thinks he was, we pity them.  Kimbo Slice was a marketing gimmick that brought that much-needed ingredient to a young and thriving MMA industry.

Even a marketing bit-player could tell you that an exciting sport such as mixed martial arts could not make it to the big time if it lacks an attraction.  Call it the “freak show” element, call it the Gina Carano appeal, you would need a package that anyone could visualize.  Heck, this is what World Wrestling Federation personalities used to succeed.  You have the Mr. T magic, you have the Undertaker, you have the most obnoxious personalities.  These “actors” became popular (as much as the body-slamming WWF was) not because of their wrestling skills but more because of their colourful (dark, ugly, or nice) personalities. 

It’s all about the drama.

Hardcore MMA fans should continue talking about skills.  But we should not neglect talking about marketing the sport too.  We need it—even the gimmickry. 

For anything to prosper, including MMA (which is still in its infancy) it should not be afraid of change.  That’s how entities turned out to be in their superior forms now—by evolving. 

Those who refused have joined the dinosaurs.

What a letdown. 

Official records say it was 14 seconds, but that was just the record.  The spectators swear it was impossibly…and shockingly shorter than that.  The Kimbo Slice circus top has folded….on all fours!

They may deny it but the Kimbo Slice formula (keeping the Kimbo Slice franchise a hot item by pitting him with “beatable” but interesting opponents – “tomato can” is too much of a term, we don’t want to dishonour the warriors with this derogatory term–uhurm!) is becoming more a fact that urban myth.

They had the dinosaur-old Ken Shamrock fitting the bill for this formula.  Elite XC couldn’t be happier with the prospect that this Kimbo Slice vs. The 44 year-old Ken Shamrock could bail them out of their tight financial fix.  After all, this match is the last telecast of their contract with CBS, and we do not know yet how CBS is feeling with this partnership with cash-strapped Elite XC.  What happens after this bout?  After the Elite XC – CBS three-show contract?

With the way things were going, there was no indication to the negative, as far as the CBS contract is concerned—until that accidental cut that Ken Shamrock inflicted on his eye while doing some light training.  “Oh, he’s so old, he’s brittle!” 

They should have sued that Shamrock sham for letting this accident happen to him!  Oh, how they must all have hated Ken Shamrock for letting them down.  Why didn’t Elite XC do a UFC85 “Chuck Liddel-Mauricio Rua” dancing-chair repeat? 

Remember?  Rua was injured so Evans was brought in.  Liddel hurt his hamstring so Irvin was brought in..and so on and so forth.  The match was altogether scrapped, and both Evans and Liddel have to consummate their unfinished business on UFC88.

Why didn’t they just “injured” and excused Kimbo so he could live another day to face a more suitable (read: defeatable) opponent?  Or maybe a Slice-Shamrock at another date—with or without the CBS contract?  But they didn’t!  And Kimbo was sliced!

What a letdown.   

After that 14-second flash-in-the pan (not unlike the Kimbo fame) tussle, true MMA fans rejoiced.  Newbie MMA curiousity-seekers incredulously asked, “That’s it?!!!”  and the suits of CBS rushed back to their boardroom to brainstorm another show– perhaps a reality show about community organizers, or about old guys wanting to take a shot at becoming a president?  Meanwhile, EliteXC employees start scanning the morning paper’s classifieds for job vacancies.  Oh, how they all hated that Seth Petruzelli pizza, or something.

Elite XC have banked all its rolls on the Kimbo Slice franchise.  It played a hangman’s game and they played till the noose was wrapped around its neck.  What’s next?

Some wise-ass suggests that with Gina Carano’s fame still alive and hot as hotcake, Elite XC could concentrate on becoming the world’s women-only MMA organization.  Or perhaps, they should get Chuck Norris as their new poster boy.

(We are not fans of Kimbo Slice, to set the record straight.  We just love the way he helps turn things out for MMA.  We’re sure a lot have the exact opposite opinion on this—they just HATE how Kimbo Slice turn things out for MMA! Har! Har!)

Just a couple of days more and we will see what fate hangs for the second most popular Mix Martial Arts organization in the United States.  Elite XC fields Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano for its third and last live broadcast with CBS, and the network TV ratings games will determine the company’s perilous make-or-break situation as it broadcasts its fight over CBS from the BankAtlantic Center on October 4.

The Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano headliner is an obvious attempt to make a repeat of that first broadcast with CBS last May 31 (which also happened to be the first mixed martial arts fight to be aired on network television).  This move is quite the most obvious and the most expected from the suits of Elite XC and CBS (whoever is really running the show).  After all, the formula they used gave that card an astounding success in the ratings game with a 3.0 rating and 4.85 million viewers.

While that May 31 bout was hugely successful, a lot of feedbacks from hardcore MMA fans were largely negative.  They complained that the bout did give the new fans of MMA a wrong impression of what mixed martial arts is all about, they complained of too much fanfare and pizzazz on the show, and they complained about an MMA nobody, Kimbo Slice, being the headliner instead of some true-blue MMA warrior.  Elite XC and CBS must have been convinced by all these complaints that they fielded “true-blue” MMA fighters on their second telecast. 

It was a costly mistake. 

It turns out the “Biggest Fight in MMA” history works with a Hollywood formula: casting is number one.  You see, movie-goers wouldn’t be interested in watching a movie starred by our regular “true-blue” MMA gladiators. 

On the other hand, cast a show with someone like Kimbo Slice who is more of a celebrity both in and out of the mixed martial arts world.  While at it, throw in the beautiful Hollywoodish Gina Carano and you have a blockbuster.  All the showbiz elements are there: Kimbo Slice looks like a thug but a lot of people know him as a good person who’s just down on luck (at least before the MMA break), a good father of six kids who is given a shot at making it big in the MMA.  Sounds like a good movie characterization and plot to me.

Take Gina Carano, stand her beside Eva Mendez or Hillary Swank, and I’ll pick “my” Gina Carano any day of the week. 

Let’s face it, Elite XC is not like our UFC where real fighters get to be appreciated by “real” MMA fans.  Elite XC is doing mixed martial arts a favour by introducing the sport to a wider audience, not without some sacrifices.  You will know when more newbie MMA fans are present, when the crowd boos ground games and delights at fist fights.  Let’s just hope that the CBS telecast on October 4 (which we are sure would be a success) would be able to change Elite XC’s luck.

And Oh, by the way, it’s not me writing this blog.  It’s my Hollywood reporter alter-ego pinch-hitting for me.  The Dr. Jekyll to my Mr. Hyde.  Cheerio!

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