Fight Night’s Main Event Is Not Gripping Enough for Me

Evolution ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

When Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz stepped into the cage for the main event of last night’s UFC Fight Night 20 in Fairfax, Virginia, both had evolved as mixed martial artists since the first time they’d met, in the semifinals of season five of The Ultimate Fighter. Back in 2007, Diaz already had a dangerous jiu-jitsu skill set and put it on display in submitting Maynard from his back — which is where Nate had spent practically the whole fight, thanks to his opponent’s proficiency at takedowns. Maynard was a three-time NCAA Division 1 All-America wrestler, but as a mixed martial artist, Gray was green.

The common thinking going into last night’s rematch was that Maynard was the fighter who’d truly evolved, since he’d developed a nasty striking game to complement his smothering mat presence. However, Diaz had considerably refined what he already had: killer submissions, first and foremost, and impenetrable standup owing to his long, lanky reach. Maynard may have taken his game farther than Diaz, but he had farther to go.

So it must have been exciting to see all of this well-rounded evolution play out, right? Um, not so much.

Each guy stepped onto the mat last night carrying a lot more in his tool box than the last time, but neither did much to integrate those new tools into his cage craftsmanship. For 15 minutes, they basically circled and threw punches. Now, it can be exhilarating to watch two guys stand toe to toe and throw leather. But these guys’ toes seldom touched. They mostly kept their distance and stalked each other, probing with jabs and, mainly in the case of Maynard, flinging telegraphed haymakers from way, way outside. We saw no takedowns, no testing of one man’s submissions versus the other’s sub defense. It was no less narrowly defined a fight as their first one, and this time we didn’t even get to see strength vs. strength.

You know the old joke, “I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out”? It was a little like that last night, with the striking about as technically sound as Bob Probert vs. Tie Domi, except that the MMA enforcers never got close enough for one to pull the other guy’s sweater over his head. Maynard and Diaz engaged in the kind of wild-swing dance that fans of the Sweet Science would smugly cite as Exhbit A during a boxing vs. MMA debate. Of course, making the argument that boxers are better fighters than mixed martial artists simply because they throw straighter, more accurate punches is as bogus as saying Usain Bolt is a better all-around athlete than Bryon Clay because the world record-smashing Jamaican sprinter would smoke the 2008 Olympic decathlon gold medalist in the 100. Yeah, but how do you think Bolt would fare in the shot put, pole vault and seven other decathlon events? Likewise, how long would it take for B.J. Penn to run down a backpedaling Floyd Mayweather, take him to the mat, and choke him out? A minute? Boxing is but one event in the fighting decathlon, checkers to MMA’s chess.

But I digress.

My point is that while I appreciate the discipline involved in a wrestler or jui-jitsu artist becoming a well-rounded fighter, the fruits of all those laborious workouts sometimes can be lackluster fights. I’m not dissing evolution like some intelligent design nut job. I understand why Maynard stood with Diaz, considering their history on the mat, but I would have preferred to see their rematch take place with the fighters on their feet at times, on the ground at others. I wanted to see a true mix of martial arts. Instead what we got was a couple of guys looking like Joe Frazier trying to swim in the 1973 Superstars.

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Update: Apparently Dana White wasn’t impressed with Gray Maynard either. The day after Fight Night, the UFC president announced that the next challenger for Penn’s lightweight championship will be Frankie Edgar, not Maynard, even though Gray’s 9-0 record includes a victory over Edgar. “The last couple of performances I’ve seen from Gray Maynard,” White told MMA Fighting.com, “I just don’t think he’s ready for B.J. Penn.” But then, who is? We’ll find out if Edgar is ready April 10 at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi.

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