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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist
Philippe writes: In the past few years concussions have been focused on in the NFL. I don't hear about a lot of them in MMA though. With 2012 being so injury riddled, you would think a concussion would be amongst them. Do you think it's the difference in sports or are fighters hiding them?
A: The last thing I would want is for people to think I'm being dismissive of concussions as a serious topic in mixed martial arts. But first and foremost, MMA is a combat sport. One path of victory is literally to concuss (knock out) your opponent. The measures being put in place to avoid concussions in the NFL and in professional wrestling are preventative. Pro wrestlers and football players can (and should be able to) do their jobs just fine without taking serious blows to the head; the same just isn't true in MMA.
Fighters get hurt all the time and many of them receive concussions. But the pre and post-fight examinations put in place by the commissions (and the UFC when they're outside of the United States) make sure the athletes are fit to compete and well taken care afterwards.
Lengthy medical suspensions are handed out to concussed fighters to keep them from taking blows to the head and putting themselves in even more serious risk than they're already accustomed. That's what all of the "no contact" stuff is about.
Matt writes: How easy do you find detailed pre-fight & post-fight analysis on heavyweight MMA?
I'd presume you would find it easy to knock out 1,000+ word articles on nuanced, technical, and strategic fights like the upcoming GSP-Condit and Aldo-Edgar bouts, but I'd hesitate to guess JDS-Cain would be a different story.
This isn't a knock on HW MMA; and JDS & Cain in particular are excellent fighters, I just find due to the brute power involved in these contests they don't lend themselves to the academic depths apparent in the lighter weight classes.
A: Heavyweight fights might end faster and more violently than any other weight class, but at the very top there's more than enough technique to discuss. Cain Velasquez for example, has a really technical kickboxing game, he's really good in the clinch, and he's more skilled than any other fighter in the sport at avoiding the guard when securing takedowns.
Obviously, it wouldn't take me anywhere near as long to break down Lavar Johnson vs. Pat Barry as it would Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar, but the top guys are a lot more skilled than people give them credit for. I would say the top 20 heavyweights in MMA right now are as talented as they've ever been in the history of the sport.
Daniel writes: What do you truly think about the UFC heavyweight roster? I know they are the best in the world, but I always think about the idea of "there's always someone better." So far JDS, Cain, overeem and few others are the only relevant fighters in the HW div. Not a lot. Do you think there is a lot of undiscovered talent out there can possibly stand/beat the heavyweight roster? I know this question is very vague a it can sprawl out to many topics but I just was wondering what you believe.
A: There aren't a ton of great heavyweights outside of the UFC. You need look no further than Bellator's heavyweight division as proof. The Thiago Santos-Eric Prindle series was one of the worst and most embarrassing of the sport's history. Keep in mind, in the middle of all the foolishness that went on between the two, Prindle, after having decisively won their tournament, was effortlessly submitted in a minute by Cole Conrad. All of this took place in the second biggest mixed martial arts organization in the United States. These are the best guys that they could find.
Josh Barnett, Todd Duffee, Andrei Arlovski, and Sergei Kharitonov are pretty much it when it comes to quality guys out there, but they're obviously out of Bellator's price range. Duffee and Arlovski could conceivably make it back to the UFC with the right wins, but it's becoming less and less likely that we'll see Barnett and Kharitonov in the Octagon.
As far as the UFC's heavyweight roster goes, it's pretty great. Like I said, the UFC has assembled the best heavyweight division MMA has ever seen, which is generally why heavyweight MMA is so terrible outside the Zuffa umbrella; they've completely drained an incredibly shallow pool.
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STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
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