Vitor Belfort was recently dropped from the Affliction “Day of Reckoning” card for having a broken hand. He’s the second fighter to drop as the result of a hand injury, the first being Fedor Emelianenko (originally scheduled to fight Andrei Arlovski).
The move to replace the WAMMA heavyweight champion (that’s Emelianenko) with top ten heavyweight Josh Barnett was one of the smartest that they could have managed, however, the talk of who may replace Belfort is making me wonder about the sanity, not so much of the people who run Affliction (who have decline to comment), but on the people who like to speculate over potential matchups.
With the bankruptcy of Elite XC, the name that has been thrown around for a replacement is that of EXC welterweight champion Jake Shields. That would be great, because Shields is a great fighter, except when we consider who Belfort’s opponent was.
Belfort, first of all, is a former UFC lightheavyweight champion, and in his era, he was the most feared striker and one of the most potent athletes in the UFC. Obviously, he’s not the same fighter, but he was scheduled to fight Matt Lindland, and Lindland remains on the card.
Matt is not far removed from his stint as the #1 middleweight in the world, and remains undefeated, in recent memory, against fighters of comparable size (his only two recent losses are to former UFC lightheavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and the Great One, Emelianenko). So, Shields seems like the last pick that Affliction should be looking at.
So I don’t just sound like a whiner, without any ideas of my own, I’ll throw some out there.
Lindland is used to fighting solid middleweights, bring in a middleweight that is going to compete with him, someone his own size. Give us the EXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler. That’d be the one 185 pound matchup that would be worth Lindland’s time.
Then again, I’ve talked to Matt Lindland before, and he always makes it plain that he doesn’t give a crap who he fights. Throw him in the ring with Kimbo Slice. That’s a fight I’d like to see, and it’ll be where it belongs on a card this impressive: the undercard. Still, it’d be fun to see Kimbo work off of the bottom against a technically superior fighter.
Loading ...
August 16th, 2008 at 5:33pm
when did elite file bankruptcy? ive been hearing nothing but bad news, but i havent read anything about them and bankruptcy.
August 16th, 2008 at 5:58pm
I have no idea why, but I would imagine that the fact that their last event was pretty weak had alot to do with it. It didn’t have the draw of the opener with Kimbo and Carano, and I think that hurt them alot.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:04pm
i agree, but i just didnt know when or that they actually did file bankruptcy. it was prety easy to assume that they were not gonna make it through the year, i just didnt know it was official.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:15pm
I thought the Belfort-Lindland match-up was pretty stupid in the first place. Lindland wouldn’t stand with him and Vitor wouldn’t be able to get out from underneath him so it more than likely woulda been a Nyquil fight.
I myself think Lindland/Randleman or Arona would be interesting.
August 16th, 2008 at 9:38pm
how about lindland/shields? thats a rumored bout going around. any thing with arona would nice but i think randleman may have lost a step. ive always thought randleman’s career was held back by training only with hammerhouse for the most part. he was an animal when he 1rst came on to the scene in the ufc and still had some great fights with pride, but i just dont think he evolved with the times and tried to hard to be just like mark coleman. with his atheticism, i think he could have achieved more.
August 16th, 2008 at 10:05pm
b.w. I talked about Lindland/Shields and why I think it’s a stupid idea in the article.
Amy, I thought that Belfort/Lindland had a lot of potential, since Vitor’s beaten a lot of great wrestlers. Still, I think that Randleman and Arona would make for better matchups though, so I’m with you on that one.
August 17th, 2008 at 12:40am
randleman vs arona would have been a great fight 4or 5 years ago, and id bet the house shields could take lawler out any day. im not even that big a fan of shields, but lawler? he was kicked out of the ufc ww division for getting beat up to much and struggled with scott smith who was like the 15th best mw when he left the ufc. unfortunetly we wont ever be to see or prove if lindland is that deserving of a ranking because he cant get his head out of his a$$. i can never get the david terrell ko out of my head. lindland is like a weaker version of dan henderson to me, without the ko power.
August 17th, 2008 at 1:29am
b.w., At least Lawler is in the same weightclass. Smith isn’t the best fighter in the sport, but the man had a game tailored to give Lawler problems.
If you’ve ever seen Lindland and Henderson roll, it’s clear which one of the two is a better wrestler. Lindland doesn’t have Henderson’s freak strength, but he’s alot more technical.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:51pm
I don’t know if they filed for bankruptcy, but I know they are having financial issues and aren’t sure if they can make it past 2008 without more financing.
August 17th, 2008 at 6:13pm
Shields has tapped Fitch when Fitch was 185 lbs… Shields will get taken down and sub Lindland just the same
August 17th, 2008 at 7:21pm
Brandt, I’ve been hearing bankruptcy talk, though I think that makes more sense. Either way, alot of their fighters have moved to the open market.
Skwirrl, I don’t know what you’re smoking, but pass the pipe. There’s a huge size difference between Lindland and Fitch, and there’s an even huger skill difference. Shields is way too small to handle Lindland.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:37pm
Shields made Thompson look really bad so I think he’s got the momentum and confidence to take on some bigger names.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:58pm
Yeah, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that as good as Shield’s is (and he’s very good), he’s not going to be able to physically handle Lindland, who hasn’t had an issue with a fighter from his weightclass since Terrell, and Terrell was a force back then (until he broke down in the Tanner fight). I just don’t think that bringing a guy up to fight Lindland (and remember, his only recent losses are that split decision to Rampage and that fight with Fedor) is going to give him much trouble.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:37pm
Lindland isn’t even a big middleweight. I wouldn’t be surprised if he and Shields walked around at the same weight.