With the swath of destruction that Jon “Bones” Jones is leaving in his wake, the Sprawl boys took a few minutes to consider the fighters who had the most meteoric rises, immediately followed by the swiftest crashes back to earth. So, here we go with:
The Sprawl’s “Top 5 Shooting Stars”
"What's my career doing down there?"
Cecil’s Picks
5. Mike Swick – With 4 straight wins at his new welterweight size, Swick was in line for a title contention bout with Kampmann. Swick got injured, though, and they had to have Paul Daley step in. Kampmann didn’t do so well, but this isn’t his story. Swick and Dan Hardy met for the the title contention bout and Hardy came away with the victory. Swick then tried to rebound by fighting Paluo Thiago, where Swick lasted two rounds. He was just one fight away from a fight with the champ. Swick may rebound (like Kampman did), but only time will tell.
4. Wilson Gouveia - This Brazilian was supposed to be the next big thing at Middleweight. He lost his UFC debut to Keith Jardine, but then went on to win his next 4 fights. His loss to Goran Reljic helped him make the decision to drop to middleweight, and he won his next two fights by stoppage. Then he met Nate Marquart. After a subsequent loss to Alan Belcher, he was cut from the UFC and moved on to losing in the MFC production.
3. Luis Cane - His UFC debut was against James Irvin, where he was DQ’d for kneeing a downed opponent. After that fight, he won his next 3, with 2 of them by TKO. His star was on the rise, but he was defeated in his bout with Little Nog in the first round. This might have been a moment where he got it together and worked harder to win, but his next fight went pretty much the same way, as he lost to UFC newcomer Cyrille Diabate.
2. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou - After beating Little Nog and Ricardo Arona in pride via KO, Sokoudjou made his way to the UFC. He wasn’t given a chump in his debut either, and Lyoto Machida won the fight against him easily. After his next fight, he looked like he was on the rise again, making his opponent submit due to leg strikes, but the UFC never threw him a softball after that. He pulled 2 straight losses to Cain and Babalou, and out the door he went. His career after the UFC has been a bit lackluster, but he is able to score a win about 50% of the time now.
1. Houston Alexander - His UFC debut had everyone cheering. Coming back against Jardine and scoring the knockout, many people were convinced that Alexander was the next big thing. His next fight against Sakara bolstered people’s opinions, and Joe Rogan said right after that fight, “HOUSTON ALEXANDER IS THE REAL
"But, Joe, you said I was the real deal!?!"
DEAL.” Next up, Houston had a problem with Thiago Silva, which led Joe to point out that Alexander’s ground game was weak. After a mounted ground and pound loss, Alexander came in ready to redeem himself against James Irvin. 8 seconds later, Houston had his second loss in the octagon. He lost one more fight and then left the UFC. He returned as a hand picked loser to Kimbo Slice, which he fulfilled, but not before losing any fans he still had left by retreating from Kimbo for the whole fight.
Circle’s Picks
5. Elvis Sinosic - I’m putting this one at number five since I don’t know that it was really Elvis’s fault. He entered his bout against Jeremy Horn at UFC 30 with a 3-3-1 record. After that victory, the UFC brass decided to toss him into the title picture with a shot against then belt holder, Tito Ortiz. His consecutive losses to Tito by first round TKO, Evan Tanner by first round TKO, and Babalu via decision put him out of the UFC. Unfortunately for him, he reloaded and shot himself back into the fray on two more occasions: losing to Griffin and Sakara, and later Bisping. I guess he turned out to be less of a shooting star and more of a weeble.
4. Roger Huerta - This one hurts quite a bit. Huerta entered the UFC at 15-1-1 and cranked his record up to 20-1-1 en route to a fateful meeting with K-Flo. Had he won that bout, it might have meant a shot at B.J. Penn and the Lightweight belt. Alas, he dropped a decision to Florian, and he followed that up with a close split decision loss to Gray Maynard, another top lightweight. Despite these losses, his career was still on track… until he abandoned it to take up acting. Dana White was pissed, and Huerta has since moved on to losing in Bellator. Damn. I used to love watching this guy.
3. Thales Leites - Thales was 14-1 going into his title bout with Anderson Silva, which was a bout no one would look down upon him for losing. That is until the fight got under way and Leites became the man voted “most likely to impersonate a trout on a sidewalk.” As bad as Silva looked, Thales looked worse. His next bout was an unimpressive decision loss to Sakara, and out the door he went with his 14-3 record. I doubt anyone is upset at his exit, if they even noticed that it happened.
2. Houston Alexander - Previously, in our picks for the top 5 falls from grace, we gave Houston special mention with the Shooting Star Award. He single handedly taught the UFC to be wary of their over-promotion of a fighter, lest they fall underneath the tracks of their own hype-tank. His meteoric rise to the top of the light heavyweight conversation and subsequent plummeting into the hole of the not-so-real deals would have earned him the top spot on my list, were it not for the next jackass.
Big Dan separates Daley from his: contract, aspirations, self-respect, oxygen...
1. Paul Daley - Semtex took out Kampmann and provided a KO of the Night to Dustin Hazelett while catching the express elevator to contendership in the talent packed welterweight division. His third and final UFC bout was against the always tough Josh Koscheck, who bested him in a unanimous decision victory. While the loss was a set back, he would have still been considered a top contender. That is, if he didn’t launch a cheap shot at Kos after the fight and earn himself the quickest star-snuffing of all time. White was ready to kick to him to the curb the moment that punch was thrown, but, ultimately, it could be worse for him: Strike “are you going to eat that” Force has decided to pick him up.
Feel free to weigh in with a comment. We’d love to disagree!
Also, if you haven’t already, be sure to give Episode 19 of The Sprawl podcast to get up to speed on this weekend’s UFC 117!
August 3, 2010
Categories: cecil, Circle, Humor, MMA, opinion, ufc, Uncategorized . Tags: elvis sinosic, houston alexander, luis cane, mike swick, mixed martial arts, MMA, paul daley, Roger Huerta, semtex, sokoudjou, thales leites, ufc, ultimate fighting, wilson gouveia . Author: thesprawlpodcast . Comments: Leave a Comment
