Each week, ESPN.com MMA writer Brett Okamoto, ESPN Insider senior editor Mike Huang and a guest panelist tackle hot topics that are buzzing in the world of mixed martial arts.
This week, UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy joins the panel. Once a soldier always a soldier, the Special Forces sergeant provided analysis from his hospital bed while recovering from knee surgery.
1. With UFC, Bellator and WSOF promoting cards this weekend, which one fight are you most excited for?
Kennedy: All three cards are kind of mediocre. You could take two or three fights from each of them and make one good card. I love the Cinderella story of Mark Hunt and how he can always put someone away with one punch. I love the pressure style of Yushin Okami, but you have to have an eye for that style. I truly believe that Michael Chandler and Will Brooks are two of the best lightweights in the world. But the supporting cast members of each of those cards respectively are pretty weak.
Brett Okamoto: If I could watch only one fight this weekend, it's probably Bellator's lightweight title fight between Chandler and Brooks. I like the rematch, the chip on Brooks' shoulder, the fact Chandler feels like he has something to prove and stylistically, it's an awesome fight. Very close second is the UFC's interim heavyweight title fight. You have to love the Mark Hunt story at this point and we need to see the next chapter of it. It's a nightmare set of circumstances -- which sort of makes it all the more intriguing for Hunt.
Michael Huang: This is that rare instance that Bellator really has put out a superior card to the UFC. I say that because while the main fight of Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar -- two UFC also-rans -- catches the eye, the Bellator card is driven by the Chandler-Brooks II bout, two homegrown talents. That's a feather in the league's cap. It took somewhat of a perfect storm of circumstances for the card to overtake the UFC card -- namely the injury to Cain Velasquez -- but Bellator has done its work and now really resembles Scott Coker's Strikeforce M.O.
2. Was it appropriate for the UFC to offer an interim heavyweight title this weekend?
Kennedy: It's not fair to the fans or the other fighters to have to sit on the sidelines and wait to see a title fight. The frequency in which the current champions are defending their belt is pretty depressing. That said this is a very hard sport. It's hard on your body and hard on your brain. The longevity of the athletes is decreasing, and injuries are increasing. Fans and promoters have to understand this. More surgeries, more layoffs, more damage, etc.
Okamoto: In a perfect world, the UFC would set a precedent here and stick to it. Typically, the company doesn't like to set rules that will handcuff its ability to make decisions on the fly, but it's not really fair to treat these situations case-by-case. Creating an interim title is sort of -- whatever. It's a marketing tool. What counts is the official belt. When you start talking about stripping a champion due to injury -- as UFC president Dana White is doing with Velasquez -- that's when it gets real. But having no precedent is tough. How can you give Dominick Cruz two years before stripping his title and Velasquez only one? Plus, by threatening to strip a champion of his title, aren't you potentially rushing him back too soon? That doesn't really help anyone. The interim title doesn't bother me, but stripping Velasquez might.
Huang: I just look at how the fighters will treat it. Both have said they'll never view it as a true championship. I remember Shane Carwin saying the same thing when he destroyed Frank Mir at UFC 111. In the postfight interview, the only thing he wanted was Brock Lesnar to unify the belts and win the "real thing." So, was it appropriate? That probably isn't the right question. Does it mean anything? No. And Brett made a good point the other day when he said this Mexico card was supposed to be inhumanly important to the UFC, so from a marketing standpoint they did what they had to do.
3. What is the best knockout of Mark Hunt's career?
Kennedy: I'm not going to limit it to one. I love the reoccurring walk-off KO. When he puts somebody down, and doesn't have to even follow up with punches, it's pretty beautiful.
Okamoto: His first knockout in MMA ever is pretty fantastic. He sent Dan Bobish (picture a World's Strongest Man at your local carnival) and his liver into the afterlife with a knee to the head and a kick to the body. The left hook walk-off against Stefan Struve last year, though -- that's it for me. Baseball had the Sammy Sosa hop and MMA has the Hunt look-away, drop-the-hands walk-off.
Huang: His knockout of Nelson was dramatic, as he dropped "Big Country" like a sack of potatoes. Struve was pretty good because both guys took massive punishment and Hunt had enough to land a big right while giving up so much length and height. But is it wrong to say the best knockout was when he got knocked out by Junior dos Santos at UFC 160? Until that point Hunt was really holding his own, so this is not to bag on him for getting KO'd. But that wheel kick JDS threw caught him right on the forehead after a lot of damage already. That he made it that far was amazing in itself. The wheel kick just added all the flair you wanted to see in a fight like that
4. Who has the psychological edge between Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar?
Kennedy: I think that they are both egotistical psychopaths. So it's difficult to choose who has the psychological edge when both of them need to seek professional psychological help. It's kind of curious considering that they both have the two biggest heads in the UFC and so much of the tissue inside can be so damaged.
Okamoto: I think they're both in a pretty good place mentally, actually. Ortiz is coming off a win over the promotion's then-middleweight champion, and Bonnar is coming in with nothing to lose. His career basically hit rock bottom after the failed drug test in 2012 and for all intents and purposes, he was done in the cage. This kind of fight wasn't supposed to happen for him. He's not chasing a title and he swears he's not in it for the money. He'll be in the cage on Saturday for no other reason than to have a good time in a big-name fight. There has been a lot of chatter about double crosses and former teammates changing their allegiance, but at the end of the day, Ortiz knows how Bonnar fights and Bonnar knows how Ortiz fights. Neither is in the other's head, if you ask me.
Huang: Hard to buy into the "war" between two over-the-hill fighters. They'll slug it out, but the only psychology going on here is how anyone was tricked into thinking this isn't for anything more than a paycheck. Just 485 miles north, Hulk Hogan was at the Golden State Warriors game and he did a better job of selling his rivalry with Roddy Piper back in the day than these guys. Bonnar might be "The American Psycho," but I was happy to see him spend the rest of his days as a rightful UFC ambassador.
5. Is Melvin Manhoef a threat to the Bellator middleweight title?
Kennedy: It's kind of ironic that Hunt and Melvin are fighting on the same weekend. Hunt's only other KO loss of his career was at the powerful hands of Manhoef. He's old, but damn he hits hard. He's a threat to anyone he puts his hands on.
Okamoto: Sure he is. Why not? He just obliterated Doug Marshall in September -- the same Doug Marshall who fought for the title one year ago. Manhoef is a recognizable name and we know he has a strong habit of knocking dudes senseless. It seems very realistic to me that we could see Manhoef in a title fight sooner rather than later. The fact is, Bellator's middleweight division is not particularly strong. There isn't a single name I would say Manhoef has absolutely zero shot against. Coker is throwing him into fun fights for now (and there are more of those available for Manhoef), but yeah, the promotion could sensibly have him fight for a title and he could absolutely win it.
Huang: Not in my opinion. Manhoef did have his day and he remains one of the most dangerous kickboxers in the world. But beating Joe Schilling won't do him any favors in climbing the ladder toward Brandon Halsey. To me, Halsey is legit enough to keep the belt for a while and if Manhoef ever even gets there, he might be 40 by then. By all of Reed Kuhn's (@Fightnomics) advanced metrics, that kind of age difference is an instant killer.
