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Welcome to another Ask MMATorch segment, featuring your questions answered by MMATorch's Jamie Penick and Rich Hansen. If you have a question you'd like answered in a future Ask MMATorch piece, send it in to askmmatorch@gmail.com. We need your questions to keep this a regular feature!
Samuel from Houston Tex. asks: Do you think Chael Sonnen will become a WWE wrestler when he's done with MMA? Whether he does or not, would he be a good performer for WWE?
MMATorch Columnist Rich Hansen Answers: As a connoisseur of MMA who loathes everything having to do with professional wrestling, oh my freaking god in heaven I hope he jumps to the WWE. Tomorrow even. Hell, I'll fly to the mean streets of West Linn (at my own expense, Wade) to help the sumbitch pack. Because if he's wrestling with the WWE, he won't be employed by the UFC any longer. Which means no more Stale commentary, no more Stale gimmicks, no more Stale canned speeches (verbal plagiarism), no more Stale call-outs, no more Stale fights, no more Stale Chael, Period.
As to whether or not he would be a good fit over there; who cares! As long as he's out of the community I love, I don't care what happens to him. I hope he makes a billion dollars a year as long as he's out of my consciousness.
MMATorch Editor Jamie Penick Answers: I don't think it's something we're going to see for a couple of reasons. First, he doesn't have any pro wrestling experience, and his situation is not the same as Brock Lesnar returning to the WWE or even King Mo going to TNA. Second, I think he'll continue on with the UFC as a broadcaster once his MMA career is over with. Staying with the UFC by itself takes out the WWE option.
As for whether he'd be any good in the WWE, I'm not sure. He's capable of delivering scripted lines, we've seen it time and again, but with no actual pro wrestling experience it's impossible to say what he'd do as an in-ring performer. But seeing as I don't expect it to ever happen, that's one of those mysteries we're just not likely to find an answer to.
Dennis from Toronto, Ont. asks: Why haven't Japanese fighters been more effective in UFC considering the roots of MMA in Japan. What is it about Brazilian fighters and Americans with wrestling backgrounds doing so much better than Japanese fighters? Shouldn't Japanese fighters have caught up by now?
MMATorch Columnist Rich Hansen answers: Three simple answers for this one: Wrestling, weight cutting, and coaching.
1.) Amateur wrestling is huge in America, at least relative to most other countries of the globe, especially Japan. And if you've watched MMA recently, having a strong wrestling base is the quickest path to get to the middle of the pack with limited talent. Just think of how many semi-talented guys you've seen in the UFC and Bellator who were successful high school wrestlers, who know how to throw a few different punches, can't do anything else well, and who are in the middle of the pack. Mind-blowing, aint it? Now sure, a few of the guys who start out as limited wrestle-boxers break out because they discover that they have phenomenal power in their hands, but those fighters are the exception, not the rule. Wrestling is part of the American culture, and especially in the midwest kids are wrestling as soon as they enter grade school. That just isn't the way it is in Japan. Karate and Taekwondo (Korean, I realize) are cool and all, but not too useful when Darren Elkins plants you on your ass at the nine second mark of each round.
2.) Weight cutting was not nearly as important in PRIDE and Dream as it is here in the States. Well, it would have been important had fighters there been practicing it well, but it wasn't very prevalent. While Japanese fighters (and other international fighters who were fighting in Japan during that time) were fighting very close to their natural weight, fighters in the UFC (especially North American fighters) were scientifically dropping large amounts of weight. Once the Japanese-based fighters came over here and tried to fight at their natural weights against guys who had been cutting weight since they were wrestling in high school, well, size kills.
3.) Think of how many mega-camps there are in the States, and realize that all these camps are pitting fantastic fighters versus fantastic fighters in drills and sparring every single day of the year. Rare is the US based fighter who has a camp come to him for each specific fight. Frank Mir used to do this, but even he has eschewed this practice somewhat, flying to Albuquerque for a full camp with Greg Jackson's team. It's not that the coaches here are any better than they are in Japan (they might be, they might not be. I don't have first-hand knowledge), it's that the ability to train with the best fighters in the world on a daily basis has huge advantages that aren't realized elsewhere.
[Chael Sonnen art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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