On this week in 1971, 2 of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time fought a 15 round contest in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier is still revered and accounted by many to be a historical moment in sports, with a member of the panel of a popular sports radio show in Toronto to account it as a "single significant event" to have happened in the past 50 years, overlooking things such as 9/11, The Miracle on Ice and the Lockerbie Bombing.
The people that formed the panel on that same radio show were reminiscing as to what that moment felt like (One can only assume they were all alive and old enough to remember it) being around to see Frazier floor Ali in the 15th round and get the decision.
It got me thinking : In another 40 years, is there any one fight in Mixed Martial Arts that the general public will look back on and remember it like it was yesterday? Where they were for that single moment, etched forever in time?
In April, the UFC will hold its first show in the city of Toronto, and by industry standards easily the promotions biggest. Expected to hold upwards of 50,000 in the Rogers Centre, Georges St. Pierre will look to win against incumbent challenger Jake Shields. Many people have St. Pierre going up to 185 lbs. to challenge title holder Anderson Silva should he successfully defend his title against the grappler Shields, himself a winner of 15 straight fights and not losing since 2004. St. Pierre is the heavy favourite in this fight, due to his complete dominance of every challenger in his path, as Shields was busy winning titles in every promotion outside the UFC.
Is it too ambitious to think of Shields as the Ali in this fight to St. Pierre's Frazier? During pre-fight preparations St. Pierre has been his calm cool self, saying its "foolish" for him to look past his challenger and that the fight with Anderson Silva is only guaranteed should he beat Shields, while the American has been readily boasting that while St. Pierre is a "tough fight" and that he's the Pound for Pound King, that he'd easily win it by submission, that he doesn't get the respect he deserves due to his wins happening in outside promotions. If Shields wins, do we look at it as a monumental upset? and as the sport grows to bigger and bigger heights, will we look at this fight as large as people have Ali and Frazier?
Ali and Frazier fought 3 times, with Ali winning two of those encounters. Yet, we still remember their first encounter with great admiration, because it happened in what at the time, was the "mecca of sports" (MSG), and the impact that those 2 had on the sport of Boxing. Will we look at GSP and Shields, or even GSP and Silva with the same nostalgia circa 2051?
I suppose only time will tell.
-In other news, it appears that those guys from Team Quest just can't stay out of trouble. On the heels of Chael Sonnen's dirty laundry being aired (due to a real estate transaction gone wrong), comes the news of Matt Lindland. Sherdog.com is reporting that the former US Olympian is being sued for the theft of 6 medicinal marijuana plants, according to a report in an Oregon newspaper.
The Williamette week wrote on Monday that a tenant on Lindland's property, Gonzalo Aldana Gamboa, has legal permission to grow marijuana and was allowed to do so on lindland's property in October with his permission. However, Lindland would not allow Gamboa to get the plants in question when he returned to grab them last November.
He is reportedly seeking US$122,880, the apparent value of the plants.
All i'm going to say is, Lindland looked really dazed in his last fight against Robbie Lawler. I just thought it was ring rust :P
- On March 9th, MMAJunkie was reporting TUF 1 finalist (I mean, we still call him a finalist. He hasn't won a belt yet!) Stephan Bonnar was eyeing a return to the cage in either June or July, with the "American Psycho" having a laundry list of names he'd be interested in. Reportedly, those names include former Middleweight kingpin Rich Franklin, Bonnar's old buddy Forrest Griffin, Ryan Bader, and Tito Ortiz.
Note to Dana White : Throw Tito a bone. He could sure use it.
Got an opinion you want to leave me? just want to get in touch? hit me up at mmarmaggeddon@gmail.com
Until next time, fight fans!
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