Dotseth’s Blog: Who Puts You to Sleep?
When you think MMA, you probably think of some of the great fights that made you a fan in the first place. It would be easy to ask you to list your favorite fighter or fights, but today I am going to do the opposite. I want you to tell me who your least favorite guys are. Who keeps ending up on your TV and you have no idea why?
MMA is meant to be exciting. You don’t always need to win by knockout – a great submission can keep you on the edge of your seat from bell to bell. The guys we are talking about today look like they just woke up from a nap, and they have no interest in throwing or receiving punches. I have not met any of these guys, I am sure they are all good, upstanding citizens, but when they come on the screen I do the unthinkable…I hand the remote to my wife!
In no order at all, here is a list of my least favorite fighters.
PATRICK COTE: Cote was recently cut from the UFC, but unfortunately it did not happen prior to UFC 121 where he slept walked through his three round fight with Tom Lawlor. I really don’t remember Cote ever being in a “fight of the night” brawl. When you look at the guys he has fought, you see some big names..Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Tito Ortiz and Chris Leben are all on the list. They are all on the list with “W” next to their names, as Cote was a perfect 0-5 against everybody listed above including Lawlor. As a hockey fan I remember a guy named Patrick Cote who was the fighter for the Nashville Predators. That Cote didn’t win many fights either, but at least he threw punches. Maybe Strikeforce can match up the two Cote’s for a future fight. Put my $5.00 on the hockey player.
JONATHAN GOULET: As I was starting this blog, I saw a note that Goulet was KO’d this past Saturday night, and said on twitter he may retire. I hope Goulet is ok and does retire. Goulet is the reason this list was put together. There was a stretch of time where it felt like he was on every UFC card, and (like Cote) never in a decent fight. “Styles make fights” is the old cliché, but I can’t really figure out what style Goulet has. In his bio it says “Goulet is considered the 2nd best Welterweight in Canada, right behind GSP.” Are there only two welterweights in Canada? We wish Goulet well in his life away from the cage, and look forward to the future knowing “The Road Warrior” has hung up his gloves.
JEREMY HORN: Horn is a throwback in every sense of the word. He looks like a guy who would have fought in the 40’s or 50’s, he has had an amazing 111 pro fights, and to his credit has won 86 of those, but for me he looked his best last week beating the tar out of some scub on MTV’s “Bully Beatdown.” Horn should probably have an asterisk by his name on this list, since his record shows impressive wins over Chuck Liddell (1999), Forrest Griffin (2003), and two wins over Chael Sonnen (2004,2006). He gets on the list because he hasn’t had a big win in 4 years since beating Sonnen, but somehow he still ends up on TV.
TONY LOPEZ: I first saw Lopez on “Inside MMA” where he was hyped up as a two weight division champion in KOTC. Since our own Dan Henderson was also a two division champ in Pride, Lopez’s story caught my attention. His first fight after that appearance was a defense of his KOTC Heavyweight belt against Tony Johnson…..Lopez lost. Two months later he defended his Light Heavyweight belt against Mike Kyle……and lost…again. Lopez scored a nice win when he KO’d UFC vet Jason Lambert in August…but that fight was not on TV. The win did earn Lopez an invite to Bellator where he faced Raphael Davis in October….and lost. Lopez is 20-5, and at one point had won 16 straight, but for me he is 0-3, and wasn’t very exciting in any of them.
Who is on your list? Anybody that has the guts to walk in the cage one time, or a hundred times is a champ. I get that. But still there are some fighters that are just not as fun to watch as others. Let me know who is on your “time to make a beer run” list, and we will talk about them in a future blog.
