-Contributor: Josh Hall
Initially I planned on writing a generic, probably fairly boring synopsis of the crazy events surrounding the main event for the UFC on Fuel 9 card this weekend. It wasn’t one of my more creative ideas, to be completely honest. I think it will be a lot more fun to look at the madness as a whole and see how weird things have really become. Mousasi vs Latifi might not even be the most bizarre main event in the UFC during the Zuffa era, thanks to UFC 151 (or even Rousey/Carmouche for that matter).
Both fighters are making their respective UFC debuts, and on paper it could be one of the most lopsided bouts ever in the organization. I say this with no intent to disrespect or discredit Ilir Latifi and the massive balls he has displayed by stepping in to face Mousasi on a few days’ notice. But this is a lower caliber of fight than Gegard was competing in for DREAM, which is frankly stunning for a UFC main event. Or is it? Let’s take a look back at what we have seen lately and see whether this fight is actually an oddity, or a symptom of a strange transition period we have entered in which the bizarre becomes the reasonable.
As of right now, this is the current state of the combat sports world:
- We just had our first UFC WMMA fight, and it was a MAIN EVENT on a card with Hendo/Machida. We are now going to see not only our first female coaches on TUF, but our first ever co-ed season. It’s a brave new world out there, and not just for WMMA…
- Upsets are happening all over the sport at a crazy rate. As of right now, we are potentially two fights away from seeing Bigfoot Silva vs Mark Hunt for the UFC HW title, after both men unleashed the fury of hell on Alistair Overeem and Stefan Struve, respectively. That is pure madness. But maybe that’s just a UFC HW division anomaly, and not happening elsewhere…
- Bellator set everything up perfectly for a King Mo vs Babalu LHW tourney final, only to see Babalu’s already suspect chin get cracked in the first round, and then their biggest name in King Mo fail miserably at his attempt to use the Philly shell in the semifinals before walking into a spinning backfist and falling unconscious into the comforting arms of Emmanuel Newton. Ok, I guess it’s not just the UFC. It must just be an MMA thing then…
- Mirko Cro Cop is the reigning K-1 HW Grand Prix champion. I know what you are going to say. K-1 is no longer relevant in the kickboxing world, having been surpassed by Glory. The tournament he won did not resemble the one that had been won by the greatest kickboxers of a generation, with names like Peter Aerts, Semmy Schilt, and Remy Bonjasky amongst the winners. You would be right, but that only more establishes my point. The fall of K-1 was shocking on the same level that Cro Cop winning the GP was. But at least the Cro Cop story is a fun one that doesn’t challenge the integrity of its sport…
- Chael Sonnen is going to challenge for the LHW title having not fought in the division since losing to Forrest Griffin in 2005, whilst coming off a loss at MW to champion Anderson Silva. OK, that’s a little odd, but it’s not like guys coming off of losses are getting title shots all the time…
- Nick Diaz just fought for the WW title not only coming off a loss, but also a one year suspension for marijuana metabolites [marijuana legalization rant redacted]. OK, that’s two, but it’s not like we are cancelling events…
- UFC 151. Yeah, that actually happened. Or didn’t, depending on your perspective. But at least we all learned something from that awful scenario, like not to schedule co-main fights that cannot support the weight of the card if a last minute injury occurs, causing the main event to be lost. What’s that? The co-main for UFC on Fuel 9 is Pearson/Couture? Son of a …
- And now we are back where we started, to a UFC main event of Gegard Mousasi vs Ilir Latifi that opened at a few sports books with Mousasi in the -2000 range, the largest disparity ever in a UFC main event. Well, that’s a lot of weird for one story, so I think that’s enough…
- Sorry, nope. I can’t talk about all the weirdness without bringing up Wanderlei Silva and April Fools’ Day. In one of the strangest two day periods in MMA history, Silva confirmed to reporters that he would be stepping in for the injured Alexander Gustafsson. Dana White then issues a statement not to buy it, because it was an April Fools’ joke. At this point the UFC head has so little credibility with fans regarding fight announcements that his statement was completely dismissed, until Wanderlei admitted it was all a hoax himself.
To sum this all up, on April Fools’ Day, the UFC President said a fighter was pranking everyone, no one believed him, and then we got the biggest prank of all with a main event involving a fighter that even hardcore fans know very little about. Of course, he was also saying that Gustafsson was fine, despite all efforts to the contrary, and fans had no reason to doubt his word (JEREMY STEPHENS IS DEFINITELY STILL FIGHTING, I DON’T CARE IF HE IS IN JAIL OR NOT).
If you would have told me 1 year ago that even one thing from this list was going to happen, I would not have believed it. The only logical conclusion is we have all broken off into some alternate timeline where the insane is now the norm. Therefore, we can only surmise Latifi will destroy Mousasi this weekend before making a run to the title at LHW. Would that really make any less sense than all of this? Would it? OK, maybe it would. But doesn’t that only make it more likely to happen? Think about it. You know I’m right (or totally insane, but does it really matter at this point?).
-Josh Hall can be reached [email protected].
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