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SIERRA VISTA — Anyone wanting to watch any of a handful of college football or basketball games at Sierra Vista’s Famous Sam’s on Saturday night was out of luck. Similar was the situation down the road at Buffalo Wild Wings.
The reason?
Hundreds upon hundreds were packed into the city’s two largest sports bars to watch what was billed as the “fight of the century,” the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight bout between 45-year-old Randy Couture and 31-year-old Brock Lesnar.
Famous Sam’s was so prepared for the massive turnout, it put plywood over its dozen pool tables and covered them in buffalo wings, nachos and beer.
 Ultimate fighting fans watch the undercard fight at Famous Sam’s on Saturday night prior to Couture vs. Lesnar. (Matt Hickman-Herald/Review) |
Mark Griggs, 25, was just at the bar to have a beer.
But Famous Sam’s was more crowded than he had ever seen it, packed full of testosterone-saturated humanity.
Having worked at a night club and a bar back in his home state of Texas, Griggs was very familiar with the scene. He and a few of his friends bellied up to the bar and started recounting fights of their own. Griggs pointed to his right knuckle, still marred from when he once hit another guy, and to his lip, which still brings back some pain when he thinks about that time he got coldcocked in the face.
Surrounding all this conversation Saturday night were dozens of televisions showing just one thing — ultimate fighting.
Griggs, however, was less than impressed by it all.
“This is all part of a newer generation,” he said. “They’re selling the blood, the sex of it. It’s just a dumbed down version of boxing, like putting dogs in a cage.”
He said he grew up watching boxing, but knows the sport has been long dead for at least five years now. It’s the shorter attention spans of viewers, he said, that attracts so many people to bars to watch the big fight.
“It all comes down to the gloves,” he said. “If this goes more than three rounds, I’ll be shocked. It’s a shame this is taking boxing, but it’s kind of like watching a car wreck. I just don’t want to look away.”
But most on hand were avid mixed martial arts fans who weren’t at all broken-hearted to see Couture and Lesnar take the place of Ali and Frazier in American sporting culture.
“It takes more talent to excel in MMA than boxing,” said Tacoma, Wash., native David Hutchinson, who has a 2-0 amateur cage fighting record to his credit. “You’re not just worried about the punches. The training’s a lot harder and there’s more money in it.”
Like Hutchinson and several others at Famous Sam’s, 22-year-old Wisconsinite Jake Kazmierski has MMA experience under his belt. His disappointing 1-3 record so far hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for the sport he says he’s been a fan of his entire life.
“It’s clearly replaced boxing and it’s the fastest growing sport in America,” Kazmierski said.
Kazmierski was at a table full of Fort Huachuca soldiers who recently partook in MMA as part of their combat training, a growing trend in all branches of the military, thanks to Royce Gracie, who introduced jujitsu (Japanese grappling) to the sport in the mid 1990s.
“UFC started off as kind of a joke,” said Ian Sturgis of Tennessee. “But Royce Gracie kind of blew it wide open. He showed a small guy without a lot of muscle could win. Everyone had to learn jujitsu then.”
Sturgis said MMA has a relatability boxing doesn’t.
“People can relate to it easier because almost everyone’s been in at least one fight,” Sturgis said. “And MMA is a lot more like that kind of fighting.”
Saturday night’s bout may have rightly been called the fight of the century if for no other reason than it was a battle for the soul of the sport.
Couture, the Michael Jordan of the UFC, is seen as the more pure cage fighter, and giving 22 years to the Herculian Lesnar, was the sentimental favorite among most at Famous Sam’s.
“(Couture’s age) doesn’t matter in MMA because it’s all about technique, old age and (deception),” Hutchinson said.
“Yeah but that one shot is all you need,” his tablemate Gabriel Landin rebutted.
In the end, youth and size won out as Lesnar, a former WWE wrestler who is a neophyte when it comes to the ins and outs of MMA, defeated the legendary Couture.
Kazmierski predicted that such an outcome would be a setback for the sport.
“Lesnar is like Kimbo Slice — they’re just publicity stunts, not well-rounded athletes,” he said.
“I’m kind of worried Lesnar might become the new face of MMA,” Sturgis said. “I think a lot of the hard-core fans want Couture to win. But Lesnar could probably appeal to WWE fans.”
Herald/Review sports editor Matt Hickman can be reached at 515-4612 or by e-mail at sports@svherald.com.
Herald/Review sports reporter Liz manring can be reached at 515-4682 or by e-mail at liz.manring@svherald.com.
Wide Awake wrote on Nov 16, 2008 1:51 PM: