Inner Machinations of sport

Within the past year, Benson “Smooth” Henderson’s popularity has taken a severe hit. Losing his Lightweight Championship belt wasn’t the only hit to his popularity; it was the string of close decision wins that was losing him fans and credibility. His talent has never been in question, but his finishing ability has. It didn’t help that some of his victories were controversial split decisions, and it certainly didn’t help that the always vocal Dana White also spoke about his displeasure with Benson’s performances. The boss made it clear that Benson wasn’t going to make his way back to the title with the performances he was giving. It wasn’t unreasonable for Dana to make that point because Henderson has 2 losses to the current champ. A third matchup between the two is a tough one for the UFC to make but the problem for the UFC is that Benson keeps winning matches over top contenders. Benson has fought the who’s who of the Lightweight Division and has defeated virtually all of them, minus the current champ. The UFC then decided to send a hit man in Rustam Khabilov at Benson Henderson. Khabilov had been on a tear and he looked to be improving in every fight he took. He is the 11th ranked lightweight but clearly has the potential to be in the top 10, if not top 5 in the near future. His skill set is tough for anyone to deal with but he had never faced top tier opponents. Getting matched up with the second best lightweight in the world was a major opportunity for Khabilov. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain, whereas it was the complete opposite scenario for Benson.  

 Always a warrior though, Benson hasn’t let all the naysayers discourage him. Most fighters would not have taken that matchup but Benson Henderson didn’t even hesitate before accepting it. He entered that fight and showed everyone why he is one of the best lightweights in the world. It was a close fight through 4 rounds, with both fighters having their moments. In the 4th round, Benson’s experience, conditioning, and skills proved to be too much for Khabilov as Benson landed a clean 2 punch combination that dropped Khabilov, then instantly took his back and sank in a rear naked choke. It was his first finish in the UFC and it couldn’t have come at a better time. It was probably the most fired up Henderson has been after a fight as he yelled “say something now” to his critics sitting outside the cage. It’s likely that Henderson thinks that people were looking to see him fade into obscurity after losing his belt and losing favor with the UFC. The truth is, if he keeps winning, there is no way anyone can keep him from getting a shot at the title again, even if it’s a third match against current champ Anthony Pettis. He already has 2 wins since losing his belt and he also has wins over 4 top 10 opponents (technically 5 if you include Nate Diaz), including current number 1 contender, Gilbert Melendez. Therefore 1 or 2 more wins should be all Benson needs.

If Benson wants to ensure that the magic number of wins before a title shot is 1, then he needs to face Khabib Nurmagomedov. Benson just defeated the other up and coming Russian standout, so it only makes sense to fight the number 4 ranked lightweight, Nurmagomedov. The undefeated fighter has looked unstoppable in the UFC and has been walking through opponents left and right. The UFC claims that no one wants to fight Nurmagomedov and finding fights for him is a difficult task. Benson Henderson just proved that he is willing to fight anyone, at any rank, at any time. This is the fight that makes the most sense, seeing as Benson has wins over the number 1 contender and also the number 3 contender, Josh Thomson. Benson would be a huge step up in competition for Khabib Nurmagomedov and it would make a great number 1 contender match. A win for either fighter would prove that they deserve the next shot at the title regardless of who the champion is. Nurmagomedov is a budding star with a lot of much earned hype behind him. A win for him is a win for the UFC because they will have created a new star, so there is no reason this fight shouldn’t happen. If the champion still happens to be Anthony Pettis and Henderson is the number 1 contender, he will have earned a third match with him and we’ll all have to start considering that the third time might be the charm.

The All-NBA first, second, and third teams were all named recently. The selections went as follows:

1st Team Kevin Durant LeBron James Joakim Noah Chris Paul James Harden 2nd Team Stephen Curry Blake Griffin Kevin Love Dwight Howard Tony Parker 3rd Team Al Jefferson Paul George LaMarcus Aldridge Goran Dragic Damian Lillard 

This is a list of very good players but there are certainly some egregious omissions. It is difficult to say that an individual doesn’t deserve to make the list because you never want to take away from a player’s accomplishments, especially when they’ve made great strides in a specific season. That hesitant feeling somewhat goes away when you start to ask yourself, what exactly is the criteria for making the teams. Whether it is based on statistics, impact on the game, team success, or an amalgam of the three is incredibly unclear. There are holes in the logic no matter how you view it and the inclusion of certain players on list embodies that fact. One can only deduce that it is perception that becomes the deciding factor.

Kevin Love is without a doubt one of the best players in the NBA and deserves to be on the list. In fact, he made the second team in 2012 as well and only missed it in 2013 because he was injured virtually the entire year, only playing 18 games. The word superstar is thrown around all the time without hesitation when discussion Kevin Love but there is one big problem in our celebration of this player. He hasn’t made the NBA playoffs a single year he’s been in the league. Carmelo Anthony was one of the biggest snubs this year and reasoning for that is certainly because his team had a losing record and they missed the playoffs. This is the first time Carmelo’s team missed the playoffs in his entire 11 year career. He had a phenomenal year none the less, and even put up historic numbers with his 62 point game against the Charlotte Bobcats this season. He finished second in the league in scoring and had career highs in blocks, rebounds, and 3 point percentage. Despite his great career, his superstardom is always in question. When analysts discuss his stardom they always call him “a great offensive player”, instead of simply “a great player”. The reasoning for this is far from legit. His defense has always been looked at as a weakness in his game and it is a negative stigma that has stuck with him in more recent times even though he is no longer a poor defender. Virtually every defensive stat shows that he is a much improved defender and his team is better defensively when he is on the floor. At the very least, he is an average defender now, and it is no longer a deficiency in his game. But perception is greater than reality and because of this, Kevin Love, Al Jefferson, Paul George, are all named on the team ahead of Carmelo Anthony.

With the example of Carmelo Anthony alone, we eliminate the idea that statistics, impacts on the game, team success are the reasons players makes the team. Maybe he’s an aberration though. Maybe this is just one little hole in the picking process. That would be the case if it wasn’t for a player named Russell Westbrook. Russell’s team made it deeper into the playoffs than any other guard on the list other than Tony Parker, who is now in the finals. Something that should be noted is that Russell went through Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers to get to the Western Conference Finals. So that completely eliminates the category of team success. Russell Westbrook’s 21.78 ppg, 5.72 rebs, 6.93 asts, 1.91 stls, and 24.12 PER completely eclipse the numbers of every other guard on the All-NBA teams. Only Chris Paul has higher assist, steals, and player efficiency rating. So that eliminates the criteria of statistics. Lastly, Westbrook is considered the most athletic point guard in the NBA. He is the heart of the Oklahoma City Thunder and he seemed to be the most important player on the Thunder on numerous occasions. There were many games that he had a bigger impact on the game and seemed to be even more important to the team than current league MVP, Kevin Durant. That eliminates the game impact criteria. There is absolutely no reason that Russell Westbrook was left off of the All-NBA teams. It’s ridiculous, to say the least. But Russell is looked at as an out of control player and a volatile player at times and like Carmelo Anthony, the negative stigma seems to hold people back from recognizing their transcendent talent. It is unjust to see them not get the recognition they deserve.

The only thing left is to once again look at the perception aspect of the decision making process. Goran Dragic was this year’s Most Improved Player. He led a Phoenix Suns team to an unexpected 48-34 record, just missing the playoffs. He had a great year and his stock is rising. Damian Lillard was the rookie of the year last year and his team missed the playoffs. This year he was an All Star and his team upset the Houston Rockets to advance to the next round. Again, he had a very good year and has a rising stock. Perception of these players and a few others, like the overrated Paul George (a whole other story), is greatly inflated and thus skewed in an unreasonable direction. In actuality, this list of All-NBA team worthy players is far from accurate if it is supposed to be a representation of the absolute best players in the league.

Call it a business strategy or call it a vendetta but Dana White is once again putting out negative publicity as it pertains to his most successful fighter. Like Anderson Silva before him, Jon “Bones” Jones finds himself on the opposite end of what Dana White thinks a model employee should be. Recently, the president of the UFC made it public that the Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and the UFC were currently in a contracts negotiation. Days after that, Dana made another statement claiming that the champion refuses to sign the contract to fight the current number 1 contender, Alexander Gustafsson.  Instead, Jon Jones seems to be keener on fighting another top contender in Daniel Cormier. Only Dana knows his true intention in keeping the media so well informed but one thing is clear, he knows that there will be backlash from the fans and media alike, pointed towards Jon Jones for what some will call, “ducking” his opponent.

Alexander Gustafsson gave Jon Jones his toughest fight in his entire career, a career filled with opponents that he’s walked through. Jon epitomizes the word success in the world of fighting. He is so successful that even Gus is benefiting from his success. To put things in perspective, Gus has gained so much notoriety from that fight to the point that he was chosen by the masses to be on the cover on the new UFC videogame. He gained all these fan and all this fame by losing to Jon Jones. Yes, it was a very competitive fight but people seem to be losing sight of the fact that Jon Jones won that fight. He is a victim of his own success because he had been so dominant in every fight before that, it was refreshing to see him look human and actually be at risk of losing the fight. In the case of fighting Jon Jones, almost winning is as good as winning, and that’s not fair to Jones. The notion of him ducking Gustafsson or being afraid to fight him is nothing short of ludicrous. In fact a valid argument would be to say that he is looking for a new challenge because he already conquered the mountain that is Alexander Gustafsson.

Daniel Cormier is a tough match up for anyone in the UFC and Jon Jones is not excluded from that. For years there has been much made about a possible fight between those two and it is clear that it is something the fans want to see. We know Jon Jones isn’t a fan of rematches as we’ve seen in the past. It was once presented to Jon that he could fight Lyoto Machida again but Jon had no interest in it, just as he seems to have no interest in Gus right now. Daniel Comier is coming off of one of the most dominating performances we’ve seen all year. He manhandled the former Pride and Strikeforce champion, Dan Henderson, for over two rounds then put him to sleep with a rear naked choke submission in the third. Some may be quick to say that Dan is over the hill, with him being 1-4 in his last 5 fights but none of those losses are shameful ones. They are all losses to perennial top 5 fighters. He lost a number 1 contender match to Lyoto Machida then went on to lose to former champs, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort. His one win came against another former champ, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, by way of knockout. Dan was a huge underdog against Cormier and ridiculously undersized but even then he was still a dangerous opponent and a high quality win for Cormier. Cormier has more top 10 victories against tougher opponents than Gustafsson. Gus’ only top 10 win came against Shogun Rua who is currently ranked 8th.  In fact, Gus has a loss to another top 10 contender, who is currently his training partner, Phil Davis. Daniel Cormier on the other hand, is not only undefeated but he hasn’t lost a single round in his entire career. He’s top 5 in two weight classes and is a proven winner. His wrestling is second to none in MMA and his skill set would be something that Jon Jones has yet to face. It is for these reasons that Jon Jones is not doing a disservice by not fighting Alexander Gustafsson, but in fact being a better sportsman and taking the tougher fight.

The boss seems to forget at times that mixed martial arts is not only a sport but it is one they have been trying to legitimize for over a decade. They’re as close as they’ve ever been but they still have minor missteps and setbacks every now and then. It is somewhat baffling to me at times, the way that Dana handles himself with the media and with his premier fighters. He ostracizes fighters like Anderson Silva and Jon Jones for the likes of Chael Sonnen, who as much as he likes to call himself “the bad guy”, is often painted as the selfless hero. Who could forget when he came to save the day when Dan Henderson had to pull out of his fight with Jones and Chael selflessly took the risk of blemishing his then 6-5 UFC record after coming of another loss to Anderson Silva, to fight the Light Heavyweight champion at a weight class he had zero wins at. My hero… Clearly he had nothing to gain there. Obviously my statements are dripping with sarcasm but if you hear the UFC president tell the story, that’s exactly how it happened. He complains about Jon Jones’ decision making and calls him out in the media but he doesn’t seem to hold all his fighters to the same standard. Former welterweight kingpin George St. Pierre handpicked a fighter coming off of a loss in Nick Diaz, when Johnny Hendricks was clearly the number one contender and Dana had no problem with it. In fact, he gave him that fight without hesitation. Jon Jones is asking to face an arguably better, more deserving fighter, and it’s apparently a problem. For this sport to fully be legitimized, fighters need to earn things off of merit and not how the boss feels about the individual or the fight.

My final point that needs to be made is that after Gus’ loss to Jon Jones he was given one fight before being named number 1 contender again. Was that fight against a top 5 or even a top 10 opponent? Of course not. It was against an unproven Jimi Manuwa who sits just outside of the top 10. Gus defeated Manuwa in the second round by tko, “earning” himself another title shot. I don’t think it would be slanderous to say that fight was made to ensure the Jones/Gustafsson rematch would happen. Jones has been outspoken about his disdain of the fact that fighters in the top 10 aren’t fighting each other in order to earn a title shot so it shouldn’t come as a shock that Jones is having a hard time rewarding Gus for defeating a much lower ranked fighter and instead wishes to fight someone who is coming off of a win against a top 10 opponent, in Daniel Cormier. At the end of the day, that’s the right fight to make and that’s the fight that should happen because that’s how sports work. Until the UFC learns that, there will always be skeptics, and those skeptics will have legit claims. Dana should probably stop trying to having a Stone Cold Steve Austin/Vince McMahon type relationship with his champions if he doesn’t want to be given the “entertainment” brand that the WWE has. Instead he needs to learn to be more like the commissioners of the more “legitimate” sports.