Except for this one guy. But other than that, they really do.
Now that I have got that one little stickler of a point out of the way, I will make my own personal disclaimer so as to avoid any future misunderstanding. I am a Lyoto Machida fan. I will be vigorously rooting for him tomorrow night at UFC 113 as he defends his title against the aforementioned Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. I became a fan of Machida’s when I saw him unleash one of the most unique (and efficient) attacks I have ever seen on highlight-reel superstar David Heath at UFC 70.
That same night, in the main event, one of Shogun’s fellow PRIDE FC poster-boys — Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic” – was supposedly being set up for a title fight with then-heavyweight champion Randy Couture. It had been my duty as the most “educated” MMA fan of my group to insist to everyone that Cro Cop was not only legendary, but a veritable lock to win his fight that evening and proceed on to stealing the belt away from “Captain America.” Instead, the bigger, stronger, more well-rounded fighter — Gabriel Gonzaga — dominated the Croatian for four minutes and then delivered one of the most legendary knockouts in UFC history.
I looked like a fool. It was the last time I would ever pretend to think that PRIDE’s stable of fighters held some mystical advantage over those in the UFC.
* * * * *
Except for when Mauricio Rua was set to make his debut in the UFC against Forrest Griffin at UFC 76. I never thought Rua was anything other than a relatively lucky brawler with a ground game, but my disdain for Griffin (now because he is just plain annoying, then because I was still convinced that Stephan Bonnar won their first fight) allowed me to once again proclaim to the Forrest contingent that this was a fighter on a totally different level than their large-eared Georgian. Instead he got out-worked, out-hustled, out-struck, and out-choked.
While I looked like a fool again, part of me on the inside smiled. All of this transpiring was not unlike watching the fate of many of WCW’s guys after the company was bought by Vince McMahon. Being the sick homer that I am, I enjoyed watching them flounder, and a huge part of me was reliving that as PRIDE’s stars continued to fall short of their perceived glory once they reached the promotion I had always loved.
By the time that UFC 93 had ended and Shogun had become the first fighter to ever make me want to root for Mark Coleman in a fight, his fate with me was completely sealed.
Now, fast-forward to last fall and UFC 104, where Shogun got a title shot against Machida. I thought it was a valiant and extremely surprising performance. I also thought that there was a pretty good chance that Machida still won the fight — just not a clean sweep of the rounds as we all had become accustomed. If it had ended there, I would have been perfectly fine with everything.
Unfortunately, every waking hour since October 24 of last year has featured at least one mention of how Shogun won the fight. Or how it was a terrible robbery. Or how “everyone really knows who won.” (The actual answer to that is, yes, we all were provided with the necessary information to know that Machida won the fight) When my MMA website of choice presented its 2009 Reader Awards, in the category of “Performance of the Year” there was actually some griping that Shogun didn’t get enough recognition.
Get over yourselves! Seriously. You might need some help if this gets any worse.
There are many of them, but I will instead pick on one guy in particular — mostly because my observations find him to be a relatively cool dude who is generally a major plus to the online MMA community. He goes by Orcus at Bloody Elbow, and if you look closely (or really, even glance) at any stories or posts regarding Shogun, you will see that he is the captain ring leader of Team WeconstantlywhineandarereadytodoanythingforthegreatandalmightyMauricio. So to you I say this, sir:
You annoy me less than someone who only likes to talk about how they are better than anyone else at predicting fights.
You annoy me less than people who constantly place their beliefs on religion, politics, social issues, etc. as the default position. I am a Christian and a Republican and never enjoy hearing how I must be stupid because obviously intelligent people could never have such beliefs.
You annoy me about the same as people who get mad when I beat them in online mode on UFC 2009 Undisputed. And yes, when I play the 2010 demo I love to beat up Shogun with Machida.
But Orcus, as a representative of the fans of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua… you annoy me more than Mike Goldberg.
Oh, and one more thing: Go Machida!
