Let’s cut Travis “I’m-a-fatty-and-was-too-lazy-to-cut-weight” Lutter some slack about losing his chance for a real title shot, because only a bunch of retards actually expected him to win against Anderson Silva anyway. Sadly, 20% of UFC viewers are apparently retarded, or at least says the Pay-Per-View poll running before the fight began. What makes this truly sad is the fact that Lutter controlled the entire fight, despite the fact that Silva finally won with a rather poor triangle choke that Lutter should never have fallen into. This is hardly a testament to Silva’s ground-game, however, and more a commentary on how lazy Silva was in preparing for his fight against Lutter. What should have been a quick series of sprawls and take-down avoidances turned instead into Lutter dominating Silva every which way on the mat, with Silva getting frustrated at Lutter for staying on the ground. Silva should know a thing or two about avoiding a weakness, because he does it repeatedly when keeping on his feet, which made me skeptical as to his ground skills before his fight with Lutter even began. How the UFC commentators could commend Silva for his rather weak triangle (which took forever to have any effect, and even then, only because Silva finally began throwing elbows), is beyond me. These commentators are supposed to have more of a clue than your average viewer, after all.
Then we have SIlva doing his little victory dance, which is occasionally fine for a fighter to do, though very lame if they won because they got lucky. It’s not even like SIlva pulled off a splendid submission, which would at least attest to some ground skills. Instead, it took Silva almost two minutes with Lutter in a shitty triangle for Silva to pull something out of his bag of tricks.
The whole victory dance thing agitates me, as does most showmanship. It can be funny, such as Scott Smith’s “crane kick”, or the occasional shit-talkery, but I respect fighters far more when they show up to fight, not brag. Do the talking in the ring, not outside it. Perhaps that’s why Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has my respect, because he shows up, cold as ice, does his deed, and recognizes the cheering crowd with a raised arm and little more. No running around like a fool, no doing a dance, and not jumping up and down as though he was just crowned prom queen. This attitude seems to be pretty typical of European fighters, whereas fighters from the Americas can’t seem to distinguish a little playing to the crowd from WWF dramarama.
I’m also a tad agitated by fighters who have no idea where they’re from, like Roger Huerta. At least fighters like Tito Ortiz have an inkling of class, by flying the Mexican flag alongside the U.S. flag (or vice versa, in his mind). Huerta, however, born in Los Angeles, comes out to the ring like he’s a Mexican native. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for giving props to one’s ancestors and the country they’re from, but Huerta, you’re a U.S. citizen. Show a little patriotism and fly your own flag, or move back to Mexico if you back it more than your own country.
In any case, tonight’s UFC event makes me think that Silva won’t hold the belt as long as I initially thought. Unless he brushes up on his ground game or builds up his takedown defense, it’s only a matter of time before he gets tapped out. Heck, after tonight’s showing, if a relative nothing like Lutter can give Silva a run for his money, someone else will, too.
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