malechi's Xanga

Warfare: The hare and the hedgehog

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:06:38 GMT

I read an entry today at the laundromat about a German take on the classic fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. In the classic Aesopian fable, the moral of the story is that hard work and determination wins over lazy ability. The moral of the German fable is much more controvertial.

Most people who hear the German fable would think "wow, what a cheater" and think the moral of the story is "cheating wins". This is not what the moral of the story is. Here is the fable:

The Hare and the Hedgehog

One sunday morning the hedgehog was standing by his door with his arms akimbo, enjoying the morning breezes, and slowly trilling a little song to himself.

Whilst he was thus singing half aloud to himself, it suddenly occurred to him that, while his wife was washing and drying the children, he might very well take a walk into the field, and see how his turnips were getting on.

He had not gone very far from home when he observed the hare who had gone out on business of the same kind, namely, to visit his cabbages. When the hedgehog caught sight of the hare, he bade him a friendly good morning. But the hare, who was in his own way a distinguished gentleman, and frightfully haughty, did not return the hedgehog's greeting, but said to him, assuming at the same time a very contemptuous manner, how do you happen to be running about here in the field so early in the morning.

I am taking a walk, said the hedgehog.

A walk, said the hare, with a smile. It seems to me that you might use your legs for a better purpose.

This answer made the hedgehog furiously angry, for he can bear anything but a reference too his legs, just because they are crooked by nature. So now the hedgehog said to the hare, you seem to imagine that you can do more with your legs than I with mine.

That is just what I do think, said the hare.

That can be put to the test, said the hedgehog. I wager that if we run a race, I will outstrip you.

That is ridiculous. You with your short legs, said the hare, but for my part I am willing, if you have such a monstrous fancy for it.

What shall we wager. A golden louis-d'or and a bottle of brandy, said the hedgehog.

Done, said the hare. Shake hands on it, and then we may as well begin at once.

Nay, said the hedgehog, there is no such great hurry. I am still fasting, I will go home first, and have a little breakfast. In half-an-hour I will be back again at this place. Hereupon the hedgehog departed, for the hare was quite satisfied with this.

On his way the hedgehog thought to himself, the hare relies on his long legs, but I will contrive to get the better of him. He may be a great man, but he is a very silly fellow, and he shall pay for what he has said. So when the hedgehog reached home, he said to his wife, wife, dress yourself quickly, you must go out to the field with me.

What is going on, then, said his wife.

I have made a wager with the hare, for a gold louis-d'or and a bottle of brandy. I am to run a race with him, and you must be present.

Good heavens, husband, the wife now cried, are you not right in your mind, have you completely lost your wits. What can make you want to run a race with the hare.

Hold your tongue, woman, said the hedgehog, that is my affair. Don't begin to discuss things which are matters for men. Be off, dress yourself, and come with me.

What could the hedgehog's wife do. She was forced to obey him, whether she liked it or not. So when they had set out on their way together, the hedgehog said to his wife, now pay attention to what I am going to say. Look you, I will make the long field our race-course. The hare shall run in one furrow, and when the hare arrives at the end of the furrow on the other side of you, you must cry out to him, I am here already. Then they reached the field, and the hedgehog showed his wife her place, and then walked up the field. When he reached the top, the hare was already there.

Shall we start, said the hare.

Certainly, said the hedgehog.

Then both at once. So saying, each placed himself in his own furrow. The hare counted, once, twice, thrice, and away, and went off like a whirlwind down the field. The hedgehog, however, only ran about three paces, and then he crouched down in the furrow, and stayed quietly where he was. When the hare therefore arrived at full speed at the lower end of the field, the hedgehog's wife met him with the cry, I am here already. The hare was shocked and wondered not a little, he thought no other than that it was the hedgehog himself who was calling to him, for the hedgehog's wife looked just like her husband. The hare, however, thought to himself, that has not been done fairly, and cried, it must be run again, let us have it again. And once more he went off like the wind in a storm, so that he seemed to fly. But the hedgehog's wife stayed quietly in her place. So when the hare reached the top of the field, the hedgehog himself cried out to him, I am here already. The hare, however, quite beside himself with anger, cried, it must be run again, we must have it again.

All right, answered the hedgehog, for my part we'll run as often as you choose.

So the hare ran seventy-three times more, and the hedgehog always held out against him, and every time the hare reached either the top or the bottom, either the hedgehog or his wife said, I am here already. At the seventy-fourth time, however, the hare could no longer reach the end. In the middle of the field he fell to the ground, blood streamed out of his mouth, and he lay dead on the spot. But the hedgehog took the louis-d'or which he had won and the bottle of brandy, called his wife out of the furrow, and both went home together in great delight, and if they are not dead, they are living there still.

What's the moral of the story?

One moral is that the clever and weak will defeat the powerful but stupid. Another is that deception is often the best weapon of all. It has nothing to do with cheating and playing fair. Fair would have been hare vs. hare. The premise of hare vs. hedgehog wasn't fair to begin with.

The hare believes there is no way he can lose. The hedgehog deceives the hare by having his wife at the one end and himself at the other, out of the view of the hare. The hedgehog takes advantage of the hare's belief. One of the key elements in deception in warfare is to take what the opponent believes and to build upon that and guide him to where you want him. When the hare loses, he commits further strength and effort. And he loses again. The hare tries harder. And harder. Until he drops dead.

Historically, the Germans have a basis for this fable -- the Germans emerged from under the iron fist of Rome by playing into the Romans' idea that they were invincible under all conditions. The Germanic tribal warriors, under Arminius in 9AD led the 17th, 18th and 19th Roman Legions under Publicus Quinctilius Varus into the Teutoburg forest and stretched them out into an undefendable, disordered line and then fell upon them from all sides -- annihilating the entire Roman army.

The Germans could never fight the Romans in a "fair" fight (fair by Roman standards), so they instituted a campaign based on their advantages. Eventually the Germans and other peoples the Romans saw as "barbarians" sacked Rome itself because Rome, like the hare, failed to adapt to the changing state of warfare.

Move ahead almost two thousand years.

The United States is like the hare, moving into Vietnam to suppress the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Like the hare and the hedgehog, this was never a fair fight. The North Vietnamese would never have been able to fight a "fair" fight against the United States. Instead, they take advantage of the American mentality that they are so powerful that they cannot lose. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong use deception and irregular, unconventional warfare strategies against the United States. The United States continues, like the hare, to try harder and harder -- unable to understand and cope with the unconventional strategies of their enemy... until the hare drops dead (the United States withdraws).

The heart of the fable: The hare took the obvious shortcoming and disadvantage and reversed it brilliantly into an advantage that led to victory.

Stephen Hawking's answering machine

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:06:21 GMT

Stephen Hawking's answering machine:

HELLO THIS IS STEPHEN HAWKING.

Caller:

Hi, Stephen sorry I missed you--

Stephen Hawking:

NO THIS -IS- STEPHEN HAWKING.

MMA, Warfare: "Hey you can't do that!"

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:40:33 GMT

The smarter and more flexible unit is the one who wins.

Whether in Fighting or in Warfare or in daily competition, the unit (man, squad, army, team, corporation, etc.) which can think unconventionally and can act unbound from the set rules of warfare is the one that will be victorious. The very idea of rules of warfare is illusory. We create rules because we believe we are bound to behaving a certain way and are limited to a certain set of actions. Being bound by these rules is the surest path to defeat.

The only time rules in warfare are good is when the rule is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. When the rule is no longer beneficial to one or more party, all other parties are at a disadvantage if they remain bound by those rules.

Every year in Japan, NHK releases a new Taiga Drama. These are among my favorite series runs to watch. They run for fifty episodes of one hour each, and detail the struggles of Medieval Japan (most of them taking place in the Sengoku Jidai period) both on a personal level among characters and on a strategic level with clans battling each other for control of the land and its resources.

This year's NHK Drama 2006 is called "Komyo ga Tsuji", and is slightly different from the previous years' Taiga Dramas in that it follows the story of a husband and wife from their days as poor, low-level Samurai through the Sengoku Jidai, through his fealties to three successive Daimyo (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu -- who ultimately united Japan). I recorded the premiere episode last night and watched it, and a scene where they detailed Oda Nobunaga's assault on Imagawa Yoshimoto's army at the battle of Okehazama in 1560.

Okehazama is noteworthy to me because Oda Nobunaga was heavily outnumbered (the numbers are unclear but could be as much as 20 to 1) by Imagawa Yoshimoto but by being flexible, by knowing his enemy, and by taking advantage of breaking a set rule of warfare, Oda Nobunaga destroyed the Imagawa army and set them into flight for the rest of the civil war.

At Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga stockpiled three years of supplies in his main castle, prepared it for seige, and when the Imagawa army advanced into his land, he allowed two of his forward fortresses to fall unopposed by his main army. Oda then allowed Imagawa to feel confident that he was locking himself into his main castle, had villagers offer Imagawa food and drink to have a party and deceived him into a state of contentment on a hill near Okehazama. As the Imagawa army celebrated a pre-victory party, out of their armor and away from their weapons, the Oda army mounted a suprise attack under the cover of rain to mask the sound of their approaching Heavy Cavalry.

"Hey, you can't do that!"

Oda deceived Imagawa into a false sense of victory, drawing him into his territory where he could lay a trap. Oda then used the environment which he had superior knowledge of to attack Imagawa without Imagawa realizing Oda was approaching. Oda attacked Imagawa in a surprise attack (warriors of the time would call it dishonorable) while Imagawa was unarmed and unarmored and unprepared for battle.

The end result was that Oda defeated the Imagawa army of ten times his number, killed Imagawa Yoshimoto, and set the Imagawa to its demise. Imagawa, set in his mind that everybody was bound to the same rules of warfare, allowed Oda to attack him unprepared and was defeated.

This is just another example of using an opponent's belief that all parties are bound to the same rules of warfare to defeat him. In human history, it has happened time and time over.

"Damn, Batukhan.
I can't believe they keep falling for that."

When the Golden Horde attacked Europe in the 1300's, they would ride forward and entice the European Knights to charge and then feint a retreat while firing their compound bows over their shoulders -- cutting the Knights to pieces. The Knights only knew and were bound by their rules of warfare and Europe would have fallen completely if Ghengis Khan had not died, causing the Golden Horde to follow custom and return to their capital.

"Dishonorable? Moi?
But who's using your flag as toilet paper?"

When Wellington fought Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Wellington broke with the rules of warfare and refused to stand his men in a line against Napoleon's army. Rules of warfare (as well as the idea of honor) at the time dictated that men stand shoulder to shoulder in the open and exchange volleys until the lines broke and a bayonet charge was ordered. Instead, Wellington, ountumbered by a few but immensely outclassed by Napoleon's veteran army and his superiority in artillery, ordered his men behind the low hills to conceal his army's movements and provide protection against French artillery. With Napoleon not truly knowing Wellington's battle lines, he could not mount an effective offense because he never knew if he was about to order his Old Guard over a hill and find them staring into ten-thousand rifles.

Jihad? Jihadoe? It's just a matter of semantics.

When Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, 2001... they too chose to take advantage of the United States believing that they were untouchable in war and that all parties followed the same rules of warfare. The western world calls it "Terror". The Islamic world calls it "Jihad". This is a matter of semantics that mean "War."

The United States was blindsided because they didn't think an attack could come in the form of hijacked airliners against civilian targets because the United States believed that warring factions should play fair -- if the United States would not conduct such an attack, nobody else would.

The saddest thing about this is that the United States has already been struck this way, but is still not preparing an adequate defensive strategy toward this new form of warfare. Al-Qaeda will strike again and again until the United States realizes that they are fighting bound.

Rome and its modern equal.

In the year 9 (yes, 9AD), Germanic tribes under Arminius heavily outclassed and outnumbered by the Roman war machine completely annihilated three Roman legions (17th, 18th, 19th Legions) in the Teutoburg forest under Publius Quinctilius Varus. The Romans believed they were invincible, and in fact they were practically invincible in formal, conventional warfare (much as the United States is today). Arminius lured the Roman Legions (totalling about 30,000 to 40,000 into the Teutoburg forest knowing they would spread out into a thin line -- and then attacked at the most vulnerable points. The Romans, who could not be defeated when fighting in on open ground or in formal warfare, were cut to pieces by Germanic warriors attacking out of the cover of the forest from both sides of the Roman line.

History, time and time again has shown that the mighty falls when they are bound by conventional thinking and by rules of warfare that they believe every party is bound to... when in fact, the rule is nothing but illusion and conventional thinking is nothing but a limit to the strategy of war and the tactics of the fight.

Lesson:

Know your enemy, decieve your enemy, be flexible to your enemy, escape from the bounds of conventional thinking... and you will destroy your enemy.

Mild Seven: Part Two

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:33:33 GMT

Q: Do you know why I smoke Mild Sevens?

A: I don't. Fucking lungs are killing me now.

MMA: Conditioning Day Two

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:05:04 GMT

Man, I'm fucking sore.

I was going to attack the volcano again today, but I know better.

The volcanic crater I'm running up and down is on the coastline, so the views are awesome. It's an excellent workout area. Not only can I run the volcano (the most difficult part), but I can take a nice (not so steep) run along the coastal road, I can take a swim at a nearby beach, and as I discovered yesterday, I can work out at an outdoor training area just a few hundred feet from the entrance to the caldera.

I was going to work out there afterwards, but I think it would be better for my body to be able to completely recuperate after yesterday. I know I could work other muscle groups, but I'd rather let myself completely heal before going at anything again.

I didn't expect to be this sore today. I must be really out of shape. Back when I was still fighting, my training partner and I would run up and down the volcanic crater and then do weight training and then either go to class or meet up with some of the guys for a sparring session at the house. And at the end of the day, we'd be exhausted but we'd be recovered for another round the very next morning.

Now? I take a brisk walk up to the summit, and now I'm incapacitated.

The good news? Even though I found myself stressed out yesterday, I didn't light up a cigarette. Yesterday showed me how detrimental smoking is to fitness, and that if I'm going to be serious about this re-training and getting back into MMA, I'm going to have to quit smoking. More good news is that I drank an amazing four liters (about 136oz) of pure water yesterday. Water is life. I also managed to lose half a pound... whatever that means.

The bad news? I consumed probably about the 120% of my normal daily caloric intake. Bad. I mean, the stuff I ate was of better quality than the junk I would normally eat... but still. I need to adjust the caloric intake down, or at least if I'm going to keep it the same I need to adjust the quality and quantities. More proteins, less fats. Less processed stuff.

Anyway.

Fucking Xyience. Talk about advertising. You know, for a company that has it's logo in the middle of the UFC octagon and all over Spike TV and every MMA event I've ever seen (plus, Rachelle Leah is hot), they don't make much product. It's a good thing because I actually found myself wandering back into a GNC after having not been in one for a good three years just to look for their products.

If they made a protein supplement, I would have bought it. Just because their advertising worked on me. I'm not so interested in that NOX-CG3 stuff. I'm not even sure what it is. But their advertising is making me want to try it. Crazy. Must. Stop. Watching. TV.

What I do know is that I need to do some creatine loading, either by taking a supplement or by eating an assload of red meat. Hitting that wall so quickly when I ran out of natural creatine in my body -- that was not fun. I never really had a problem with any of the creatine mixes I've taken in the past -- only that it made me piss like a racehorse all the time. I think I might go that way, as much as eating a 32oz Porterhouse every day appeals to me. (Yay Costco).

I need to start researching schools around here again. The old Shooto school is gone, and the old Muay Thai school is way gone (it closed down even before I left the state). I'm not really sure what direction I want to go in -- only that I want to get out of this rut and go somewhere.

MMA: Conditioning Day One

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 20:00:00 GMT

The road back is not going to be an easy one.

At peak condition so many years ago, I used to run to the summit of an extinct volcanic crater and back down. The roundtrip is only about 1.5 miles, but you climb about 760 feet over about three-quarters of a mile -- it's a fairly steep climb and is a killer of quads and calves. The bottom quarter-mile is paved, but the remaining half-mile trail to the summit is volcanic rocky outcrop weaving back and forth up the side of the crater. Near the top, a series of steep staircases present a difficult challenge -- seventy-seven in the first set, an ultra-steep ninety-nine in the second, and a spiral staircase of about fifty at the top.

Imagine a rocky, uneven staircase wrapping around the edges of a sixty-story skyscraper, climbing a level from one corner to the next -- all the way to the top. And then five more stories of steeply inclined spiral.

That's what this climb is like.

I used to reach the summit from the starting point in fifteen minutes. Today, it took me half an hour. And it took me another twenty minutes to descend. I used to descend in ten minutes -- now I look at the uneven footing and can't even imagine how I used to run downhill and not crack my skull open nevermind not spraining any ligaments.

I tell you though, it's excellent conditioning.

At the summit, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I charged all the way up like a bull, knowing full well that I'm in terrible condition. I didn't try running it (thank God for giving me the sense to not try that right away) but I tried it at a brisk pace. I forgot how to pace myself and how to keep watch on my heart rate and respiration. To be honest, I was a little embarrassed -- granted, I was going faster than most people up the mountain, but still... I almost passed out at the summit.

I can't believe the horrible state of my physical condition. Well, okay... I can. I haven't worked out or done any kind of cardio in a year. I smoke like a chimney. I eat unhealthily. To be honest, I should be surprised that I actually made it all the way up, considering what I put my body through.

What's amazing, I realized again, is that being healthy makes a person want to do everything healthy. I don't want to smoke anymore. I want to eat healthy now. I want to keep working out. It might be the endorphins talking (or the memory of Rich Franklin's insane conditioning in my head), but I want to drop all my bad habits and become healthy again.

I got a baseline over the last couple of days.

I'm 191 pounds at 22% bodyfat. That's absolutely unacceptable. It's the worst I've ever been. I've been as heavy as 205, but even then I was about 18% bodyfat. I wasn't ripped at 205, but damn if I looked like I could tear somebody's head off with my bare hands.

Experts say to set a realistic goal. I agree to some extent, but I believe in the almost-unlimited ability of the human body when guided by the power of the mind. I've been as low as 12% bodyfat before, so I know I can get there again. Except I want to be about 180 at 10% bodyfat.

These are fairly arbitrary numbers, to be used only as a guide. I know what level of condition I want to be in, and I know how strong and quick I want to be. I think I'll be about 180 and 10% when I get there.

Before I start fighting again though, I need to get my physical conditioning back to where it was when I was fighting years ago -- at least to the point when I first began. I don't want to go into any kind of MMA training regimen before I'm at that point... I wouldn't survive. Concurrently, I'm going to have to start building my strength again. I'm really weak right now, so much that it disgusts me how much I have to work to do things I used to do with ease -- like how it now takes me two arms to lift things I used to be able to lift with one with relative ease.

I'm not going to do any kind of strength training today. I'm too worn. I know what happens when I overexert myself, and I don't want to risk injury. Besides, I think my creatine reserves are blown for the day.

I realized that when I hit the staircases -- I had expended all the natural creatine in my body by attacking the mountain early, so when I hit the staircase, I had a much more difficult time than I should have had. By the time I hit the ninety-nine stair set, I felt as if I had also depleted whatever ATP I had left, and so I had to drag myself up the stairs by sheer force of will. The ninety-nine stair set, one would think is an aerobic set; but they're so steep that the motion of climbing is much more anaerobic than one would think. And I had no more anaerobic fuel left.

Although I felt like dying when I reached the summit, and although I didn't feel quite good about myself (I was really disappointed with myself, to be honest) -- by the time I reached the crater floor again, I told myself that this is it... this is going to get me on the road back again.

I feel good now, even with the initial endorphin rush gone. I performed horribly, but it's about what I expected -- I have a long way to go, but I'm going to go all the way.

MMA: Invictus

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:05:10 GMT

INVICTUS
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloodied but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.

MMA: We who are about to die, salute you.

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:06:22 GMT

Nos morituri te salutamus.

We who are about to die, salute you.

It's what Gladiators would customarily say out loud before their fight. It's no secret that I love and admire ancient Rome. In many ways, I believe the world would be a better place if there was a new Pax Romana; or if more things in life and death were done the Roman way. If I was an ancient Roman, I would have been a fan of the Gladiatorial munera if I were not a Gladiator myself.

Man against Man. Warrior against Warrior. The fight for the Unbreakable mind, heart, body and soul. This is a world of the conqueror and the conquered.

In the modern world, the Gladiatorial munera have been replaced with the realm of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Fighters... the spiritual descendants of the ancient warriors. Yet, as demonstrated time and time again in the MMA world, these warriors are not able to truly fight the way they should be allowed to fight. They are held back by the rules of the organization, by liability, and by the law of theocratic government.

I never agreed with the concept of the winner of a fight between warriors being decided on through a subjective point scoring system during a constrained period of time. This practice does not accurately reveal who the better fighter is. At most, it reveals who a set of judges likes best over the course of three or five five-minute rounds.

Warriors should be able to fight to the end.

I'm talking about the only outcomes of a fight being:

1) Knockout
2) Tap-out

I'm talking about ressurecting the idea of Nos morituri te salutamus. Fight like you're fighting for your life. Fight like death is an acceptable outcome. None of this fighting to score points. None of this fighting for a set number of rounds to hope for a decision in your favor.

Force your opponent to submit to your will, or face death itself.

If nobody has won by the third round, continue to the fourth and then the fifth. Then the sixth... and so on until a clear winner can be determined.

UFC 58 demonstrated the disappointing results of decision-based wins well, with both of the title fights for the night. Rich Franklin, after defeating David Loiseau by decision after dominating him for five rounds, told the camera that he was disappointed with himself because his fight was the first fight he had ever won by decision.

Many viewers would think Rich Franklin was an arrogant snot for being disappointed for a win over a qualified opponent; but I understand exactly where he is coming from.

Fighters should not win by decision.

I give a lot of credit to David Loiseau for holding up for all five rounds. It takes a lot of heart -- heart I haven't seen since Stephen Bonnar and Forrest Griffin fought for the last UFC contract, knowing that the winner would go on to fight in the UFC and the loser would have to go home and be a joe-nobody. I give David Loiseau a lot of credit, especially considering his condition and the amount of punishment he took by the end of the fifth round -- but Rich Franklin should have been allowed to continue pursuing Loiseau for a knockout or a submission. Loiseau should have deserved to go down swinging.

Similarly, Georges St.Pierre's win over BJ Penn was empty. I'm a big GSP fan, but BJ Penn really should have won that fight if the fight was viewed as one fight instead of three rounds. Regardless, this is another flaw of the decision-based win system. If the fight had gone on for even two more rounds (if this had been a championship title fight), BJ Penn would have defeated GSP. If BJ and GSP were allowed to fight until the end -- until one man fell and another man stood victorious, the outcome of UFC 58's Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn would have been much different.

In the first case, the decision-based win was only insulting to Franklin and Loiseau, who deserved the opportunity to fight until the end. In the second case, the decision-based win robbed the win from the man who should have won the fight.

UFC 58 was a great event, but after I turned off the TV I felt... robbed. And not because of the $34.95 I paid for the event -- because as a fighter, I felt the insulting dishonor that Rich Franklin felt, having the rules of the game steal his true victory. I felt the insulting dishonor that BJ Penn felt, knowing that victory should have been his if it were not for the subjective point-scoring and set round system.

The UFC opening credits feature a gladiator preparing for battle. The MMA world should allow their fighters to fight like true gladiators.

Nos morituri te salutamus.

We who are about to die, salute you.

That's how the fight should begin. That's how the fight should be fought. And that's how the fight should end. With your opponent completely defeated. With his blood on your fists.

With honor. With glory. In victory.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:23:55 GMT

In previous xangas, I always tried to hide my musical preferences. I've decided... yeah fuck that. I don't listen to cool-people music.

I listen to kill-people music.

MMA: The four kings of UFC Welterweight

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:23:26 GMT

Georges St. Pierre's win over BJ Penn in UFC 58 presents an interesting quandary in the UFC Welterweight championship run. Granted, time passes and the rate of skill increase differs between competitors -- but examining the performances of each fighter against the others raises the question...

Who really is the best fighter?

GSP defeats BJ Penn.
BJ Penn defeats Matt Hughes.
Matt Hughes defeats GSP.

In the Hughes vs. GSP fight, it's true that Matt Hughes defeated GSP in the first round... but it looked like GSP was dominating the fight and was giving Hughes a really hard time. The technical display was brilliant -- even more than what we saw when GSP fought Frank Trigg (which was already an amazing technical performance). It wasn't until Hughes reversed GSP into a sudden RNC submission when it was obvious that Hughes had won. Hughes is definitely the winner, with no doubt -- but the question remains... is he really the better fighter?

This falls back to the age-old question: Who is the better? The one who scores the point? Or the one who controls the field and dominates the play? We see many sporting games where it's obvious one team dominates the other but for whatever reason fails to score -- and we've seen sporting games where one team is being dominated from beginning to end but somehow manages to score the points. Eventually, the most objective way to determine who the better is, is who scores the points -- but this sometimes doesn't feel right.

Hughes vs. Penn was more absolute. BJ Penn came out of his corner and worked Matt Hughes like he was a doll, eventually defeating Hughes by way of RNC. Penn had been on a roll, running straight through every opponent he faced -- including making Caol Uno look like a guy off of the street thrown into the ring against a champion.

UFC 58: BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre was the cloudiest of all. Two of the three most impressive welterweight fighters in the UFC could barely maneuver against each other. Everything one fighter did, the other countered and defeated. It became a stand-up fight in which BJ Penn pummeled GSP into a bloody mess -- but at no point did BJ Penn show the absolute dominion he normally does. And GSP was nowhere near any kind of dominion over BJ Penn -- when GSP usually makes his opponents look like amateurs. GSP dominated Hughes, but couldn't dominate Penn -- yet GSP ended up defeating Penn by decision, who defeated Hughes outright.

What's the deal?

To be honest, I think these three could go around and around, fighting each other in a circle and the victor would be different every time. Maybe BJ Penn is the only guy who can defeat Matt Hughes. Maybe GSP is the only guy who can defeat BJ Penn. And maybe Matt Hughes is the only guy who can defeat GSP. But who knows? These three are completely different in their strengths and weaknesses; different in their techniques and disciplines -- yet they're all masters at what they do.

What it comes down to are the instants... the openings, and the errors. GSP and Penn against each other was not apparently technically spectacular because neither of them could work against each other they normally do against other opponents... and that's where the technical spectacle is. The way Penn defended against GSP's takedowns on one leg, and the way GSP outmaneuvered Penn every time Penn looked like he had an advantage.

Now another element gets thrown into the mix: Royce Gracie

Now Royce Gracie is a whole different set of nuts and bolts. A great master. A legend. But can he defeat Matt Hughes in their upcoming fight in May? Rich Franklin took apart Ken Shamrock. Will Matt Hughes do the same thing to Royce Gracie?

I like to liken Royce Gracie vs. Matt Hughes to the WW2 naval encounter between the HMS Hood and the Bismark. The Bismark -- the new big kid on the block, with advanced everything and superior firepower. The Hood, the old legend who was the pride of the Royal Navy... the ship that came to mind whenever "battleship" was said. The Hood was arguably the mightiest ship of the pre-war period... but when the Hood faced down the Bismark, the Bismark sent the Hood to the bottom in a matter of minutes with all hands but three going down with the ship.

The Hood was a legend. But a legend outclassed by a new breed of ship in the Bismark. Is this what happened to Ken Shamrock? Is this what will happen to Royce Gracie when he faces Matt Hughes?

If Royce Gracie wins, will GSP face him? That would be interesting because in an interview with GSP, he admitted that it was watching Royce Gracie in early UFC bouts that made him want to go into MMA -- even more so than watching Matt Hughes (who he admitted his loss to being partially attributed to his seeing Matt Hughes as an idol).

Will GSP finally defeat Matt Hughes? Will he defeat the man who defeats Matt Hughes, fated to never defeat Matt Hughes himself? Will Royce Gracie lose to BJ Penn in the future? The top four slots in the UFC will be constantly rotating, with Frank Trigg taking up a distant fifth. This may just be the most exciting time to be a UFC fan; a time that will be remembered far into the future.