Issue 072

February 2011

George Sotiropoulos is yet to have his defining moment in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The Australian, an Eddie Bravo jiu-jitsu pupil, all-round tough guy and quite brilliant lightweight of late, will get a title shot sometime in 2011. Sotiropoulos has shot to popularity in Australia, proof being in a web chat held recently by The Daily Telegraph (Australian version) for the mixed martial artist.

 George fielded more questions than had been put forward for similar chats by the media organization for both Kim Kardashian (the 30-year-old American celebutante) and the latest winner of Australia’s Next Top Model. However, as his profile grows, George may soon be in for greater scrutiny – over his fight wear.  

With the elision of the UFC and WEC lightweight divisions, the prospect of great 155lb contests next year increases. But when he does, he might have been stripped before the title challenge. I am talking of his attire (being stripped) in the Octagon. This matter arose, in passing, before GS’s contest with Joe Lauzon at UFC 123. There were rumblings that Lauzon was considering bringing it to the attention of the Michigan State Athletic Commission that GS could be gaining advantage from his garb. Let’s look at it: GS wears compression pants (as worn by cyclists) underneath his shorts, almost to his knees; he wears kneepads; he wears ankle supports.

There’s not much flesh on show there. An argument could be built that he gets traction in scrambling – something he is renowned for – and is able to counteract the perspiration that makes the body far more slippery. The same goes for helping with sweeps. Add to this, when he pulls ‘the rubber guard’, as espoused by Eddie Bravo, there are those who think there may be uses in the armor/clothing when grabbing hold of your leg in the guard. 

This girl power is for real

As with men’s knitting or male synchronized swimming, perhaps some of us can be deemed guilty of not taking women’s MMA seriously enough. There will always be debate about women in combat sports, but this is about mould-breakers. Women like Lucy O’Connor, a female boxer who might represent Great Britain at the Olympics in 2012 and commands a warship in the Royal Navy. Ten years ago no woman did such a thing. A smattering of brilliance is rapidly developing in the women’s variety, like from Megumi Fujii and Marloes Coenen, who have brains and athletic ability. If the sport itself is trying to avoid misconception, women’s MMA has twice as high a hurdle to jump.

The problem is so few people have seen women’s MMA. Like so many of men’s sports played by women it can be technical and compelling when witnessed in detail. On more than one occasion combat sports coaches have told me that women’s concentration levels and application over a long period of time far outweighs the level of men in such pursuits. I suspect that women’s MMA, in spite of the fact that Dana White, CEO of the UFC, finally affirmed an interest after a question at the Friday afternoon fight club at Oberhausen before UFC 122, will take some time before the various weight categories have enough breadth and depth for women to be added to professional fight cards alongside men.

But take this as an example: during summer – and I cover rugby union from time to time for the sports pages of The London Telegraph – myself and a number of pro sports writers were shocked by the women’s rugby world cup televised on Sky Sports. The standard was awesome. Ball handling, commitment, technique, brutality, close matches – the women’s rugby world cup had everything. I know chauvinist rugby players who changed their minds about women’s rugby overnight.

All women’s MMA will need is to quietly develop behind the scenes and have its own ground-breaking tournament to change the eyes of the world. I suspect the Olympics, which will be of an incredibly high standard, with three billion people watching, may change views forever about women’s combat sports.

The Octagon all at sea…

Staying on the Australian theme, the UFC have been so impressed with the take-up in interest in MMA ‘Down Under’, that the decision was taken by the hierarchy at Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, to leave a branded Octagon in Oceana because there will be, at worst, at least one event there per year. UFC 127 will be held in Sydney, although there are also eyes on a future event in Melbourne. It could also be the return of Britain’s Michael Bisping, against Jorge Rivera, and Carlos Condit, after dramatically knocking out Dan Hardy. 

The Aussies were always likely to embrace MMA. After all, they have a sport which is MMA with an oval ball – Australian Rules Football, lest we forget that. Anyway, a scarcity of patented UFC Octagons meant that in October, for the UFC Fan Expo in London, the Octagon in Australia was shipped to the UK. It took three months. With the next UFC expected in February, timing is tight for the Octagon to be back there in time. I understand it’s a matter of days before the UFC cage will see dry land before the next event in Oz. Let’s hope no merchant seamen, into MMA, are rolling inside it in the depths of a cargo hold somewhere in the Pacific as you read this… because that’s where it is right now. 

Gareth A Davies is MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The London Telegraph