ACB Supersonic: Widening My MMA Knowledge

As I mentioned when I began these posts, I’m a relatively recent convert to the sport of mixed martial arts. My experience, as that of so many ‘casual’ fans’, is largely of the UFC, comfortably the most dominant organisation.

However, as my intrigue in the sport has grown in the last 18 months, as has my awareness and understanding of the various promotions beyond the UFC juggernaut. With Spike TV’s partnership with the UK’s Channel 5, I now have access to fights across Bellator and BAMMA, and will be attending my first Bellator event when the promotion takes its next trip to London in May.

However, I make no bones about the fact that my level of knowledge of the wider MMA world is limited. As a result, when I saw that Russian-based Absolut Championship Berkut (ACB), labelled as ‘Europe’s biggest MMA promotion’, was coming to my hometown of Manchester, I jumped at the chance to see the action.

Having been fortunate enough to get a ticket to UFC 204 at the arena last October, it was surprising to me just how different the two promotion styles were. The brief introductions of the fighters’ backgrounds provided by the UFC were made to feel like X Factor sob stories when compared to the roll on, roll off style of the ACB. I genuinely lost count of the number of fights that took place that night, such was the quick turnaround.

While this style is perhaps more accustomed to the hardcore MMA fan, which I am well on my way to becoming, it does have considerable disadvantages for casual fans and even the fighters themselves. Other than those that simply turn up to watch people get punched in the face, of which I am sure there are many, fans want to follow the journey of competitors, understand their styles and histories, and recognise their names when they turn up on a future card. However, with the sheer volume of fights on offer at ACB, fighters have to pull something memorable out of the bag to stand out, meaning that the majority of competitors will remain largely forgotten.

Here’s a case in point. Other than the main and co-main, as well as the home-town fight of Saul Rodgers, I can honestly say that only three moments really stick in my memory: a 21 second front guillotine choke of ex-UFC fighter Nam Phan by Robert Whiteford, the guillotine choke of ex-Bellator veteran Bubba Jenkins by Ali Bagov and Andy De Vent’s KO victory over Danny Mitchell. As a result, more than 20 fighters are forced to fly under the radar, which is never good if you’re looking to become known.

The above submissions brings me onto another disturbing difference between the UFC and organisations outside. When it comes to submissions, UFC veterans recognise when they’ve been caught, and rather than risk permanent damage, and the very real possibility of an extended medical lay-off period, they elect to tap to a properly applied choke.

Outside of the primary MMA promotion, this seems to be less of a consensus, with fighters applying the macho logic of preferring to go out than tap out. In total, there were no fewer than three fighters put to sleep by chokes on the night, with Whiteford’s standing guillotine choke resulting in Phan face-planting into the canvas.

This mindset among fighters places significant pressure on referees to get it right when it comes to recognising when the contest is over, and also brings me back to my original point of difference between the UFC and ACB. The speed of turnaround dictated by the volume of fights on the night represents a considerable danger to a fighter either potentially concussed by strikes or waking up from an oxygen deprived state. While there are plenty of medical professionals on hand to provide support, forcing an individual to walk out of a cage less than a minute after being unconscious cannot be healthy!

Finally, there was a distinct difference between the crowds attracted by the two events. As is to be expected, the UFC brand brings the casual fans in, enticed by the pageantry and high profile nature of the event, while ACB felt more raw. Ignoring the fact that Mancunians were comfortably outnumbered by their Polish and Russian counterparts, which created its own unique atmosphere, it was clear that a considerable portion of those attending were family members or friends of those competing, and were therefore personally invested. As a result, there was a tension created by many of the fights that I can only compare to the Bisping/Henderson main event at UFC 204, where the levels of emotion ran high.

The quality of the contests also surprised me, though perhaps that demonstrates my previous ignorance of everything outside the UFC. Outside of the aforementioned standing guillotine finish, we also had a flying armbar finish, a variety of spinning attacks and some outstanding scrambles on the ground.

All of this was before the two biggest bouts of the evening. In the co-main, Manchester’s Brendan Loughnane delivered a stunning head-kick and knee combination to get the KO victory in his rematch with Mike Wilkinson, before Russian behemoth Rustam Khabilov destroyed England’s Luke Barnatt in just 21 seconds with his heavy hands to bring the night to an emphatic conclusion.

What did you think of the evening’s events? To discuss any of the points raised in this, or any of my other pieces, get in touch in the comments section, or on Twitter @TheWeighInMMA.

UFC Fight Night London: Does Adversity Breed Success?

Amidst a backdrop of widespread condemnation, the UFC rolled into London this weekend with, on the face of it, arguably its weakest card for many a year.

Following an explosive end to 2016 at UFC 207, this is an issue that the promotion has been battling for the whole first quarter of this year, but has only really come to a head in London. It’s no secret that the UFC struggles to build stacked cards in Europe, though why is anyone’s guess.

But the company seemingly hit a new low with its 2017 offering in the English capital when, after reportedly being unable to find a suitable opponent for Swedish slugger Alexander Gustafsson, it decided to bump its co-main of Jimi Manuwa/Corey Alexander to the headline bout. Not particularly inspiring, especially when you consider that the main event in the marquee London card last year was the ‘Fight of the Year’ contender between Michael Bisping and Anderson Silva.

If, like myself, you had bought a ticket before the card was even fully announced, you may have been forgiven for feeling a little disappointed. Looking down, it was hard to see where the draw would come, from the underwhelming co-main match-up between Gunnar Nelson and Alan Jouban, to the inevitably dull heavyweight collision of Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk. While British MMA pioneer Brad Pickett’s final fight added a little nostalgia value, the majority of the offering was nothing more than rising stars, covering Arnold Allen, Marc Diakiese, Brett Johns and Leon Edwards.

But if the fans thought they were struggling for value for money already, they hadn’t seen nothing yet. Just hours before the event itself, not one but two bouts were forcibly scrapped due to medical reasons, leaving the already slim card thinner than the two Octagon girls. With weight-cutting already under severe scrutiny, the struggles of Ian Entwistle and Tom Breese to cope with the pressures placed on their bodies will only further serve to shine a light on the issue. Indeed, immediately following the news, Entwistle announced his retirement from MMA, highlighting just how difficult this process is.

Perhaps surprisingly, the prelims started encouragingly. Lina Lansberg, fresh off her mauling at the hands of Cris Cyborg, got a narrow, and widely disputed, split decision win over Lucie Pudilova, while Scott Askham and Brad Scott put on, in my eyes at least, the fight of the night in a back and forth encounter. This was then punctuated by my highlight of the night – a thirty second KO of Teemu Packalen by rising lightweight prospect Marc Diakiese, including a cartwheel kick, a spinning wheel kick and then a huge overhand right, leaving the Finn jelly-legged and out cold on the mat. On this performance, there is no doubt that the Doncaster-born fighter can make good on his promise to the O2 Arena to go all the way to the top, though I’m sure he’ll have tougher competition than this.

However, if those in attendance felt that was to set the scene for the evening, we were very much mistaken. While the Edwards/Luque fight was entertaining in its technical and tactical battle, the goodwill built up by the early prelims was quickly eradicated by the heavyweight contest. I don’t care how glorious Tim Johnson’s handlebar moustache is, he puts on a boring fight!

At the risk of ripping off a famous Fatboy Slim song, the full 15 minutes were a case of punch, charge, recover, repeat, largely enabled by the lumbering Omielanczuk. The worrying thing is that both of these guys started proceedings inside the top 15 of the division, highlighting once again how in need of heavyweight talent the UFC is.

While Joe Duffy’s energetic dismantling of Reza Madadi and Arnold Allen’s scramble-fest against Makwan Amirkhani instilled a bit of life back into proceedings, it was very obvious that we had seen five consecutive, and rather dull, decisions as we entered the business end of the evening.

As a proud Northerner, I’m perhaps slightly biased, but I can honestly say that I was surprised by the abject lack of atmosphere in the O2 Arena before and during the Brad Pickett fight. Considering that this is supposed to be the final fight in the career of a legend of the London MMA scene, I had expected a raucous environment akin to the one I witnessed for Michael Bisping in his hometown title defence against Dan Henderson at UFC 204. Alas, the most excited the crowd got during the 14 minute fight was when a brawl broke out in the front rows of the seated section – over what I don’t know!

Nevertheless, it was sad to see ‘One Punch’ go out the way he did. While he argued an early stoppage, he was certainly badly hurt by Marlon Vera’s head kick, and the argument was there that he was not intelligently defending himself for the second hammer-fist. An emotional farewell speech later, Pickett fittingly left his iconic pork pie hat in the centre of the Octagon, bowing out with a respectable 25-14 record at the very highest level.

The crowd did wake up a little during the co-main, however, gamely joining in on the now famous Icelandic slow clap. Outside of Demian Maia, is there a more impressive jiu-jitsu practitioner than Iceland’s Gunnar Nelson? He absolutely bullied a game fighter in Alan Jouban, beating him to the punch and dominating him on the ground, before finishing the former model with a brutal guillotine choke. While this match-up was admittedly poor, surely Nelson has to be looking at a top five contender next time out – Lawler, Cerrone or Condit?

And if the co-main was one-sided, I’m not quite sure how to characterise the headliner. On paper an interesting match-up between a deadly striker in Jimi Manuwa and a respected wrestler in Corey Anderson, it could not have been much more of a mismatch. Having failed on a couple of takedown attempts and taken a brutal hook to the body, Anderson was left flat out on the floor by a huge left hand by the Brit at just three minutes, in a walk-off KO that Mark Hunt would have been proud of.

Certainly, Manuwa is living up to his reputation as one of the scariest knockout artists in the division (second behind Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson if you believe Joe Rogan), but has he done enough to secure a fight against the winner of Daniel Cormier and Rumble? If you’re going on legitimacy of contendership, absolutely, however there is the looming prospect of a Jon Jones return, and as we have seen from Georges St Pierre’s comeback, the new owners of the UFC value a returning star at a little more than a number one contender. And calling out David Haye? What is it with MMA fighters and boxers these days?  

Overall, UFC Fight Night London had its moments of quality, but these were often too fleeting and punctuated what was largely an underwhelming card. Not as good as last year, and certainly nowhere near UFC 204. It’s a shame, because the UK market for MMA is huge at the minute, with the Manchester event selling out in under six minutes, and there is a considerable opportunity for the UFC to expand. Bellator has looked to get into this with a comparatively stacked card in May, and with the current free agency debate, the UFC needs to demonstrate its strength in depth.

Put simply, the promotion needs to stop exposing just the same small roster of fighters for the European events. I’m not even going to look, but I’d be surprised if you could find an event in the region in the past few years that does not include one of these fighters in the main card: Andrei Arlovski, Michael Bisping, Gegard Mousasi, Stefan Struve, Jimi Manuwa, Alexander Gustafsson. I get that home fighters want to fight at their own events, and that’s fine, but make more events! Tickets are clearly selling, so the promotion needs to stop short-changing its loyal European fan-base and find a better balance between demand and supply.

The Octagon returns to Glasgow later this year, so there is hope, but I shan’t hold my breath.