Title Writing: Mopping the Mats 8 "UFC on FX, Pro Elite 3"

Mopping the Mats is a weekly Monday feature meant to recap the weekend that was in mixed martial arts. There were two cards of significance this weekend: the debut of UFC on FX on Friday night, headlined by Jim Miller and Melvin Guillard, and the third offering from the Pro-Elite reboot, built around a feature attraction of former Ultimate fighter winner Kendall Grove against Japanese pro-wrestling/MMA star Ikuhisa Minowa.

THE EVENTS: UFC on FX 1, Pro Elite 3

I wanted to start with the Pro Elite event. The first time the promotion tried to make a splash on the elite MMA scene, they crashed and burned, in large part due to betting on web brawler Kimbo Slice to become the next mixed martial arts superstar. When he didn't even win his first fight, bankruptcy soon followed. This time around they are taking a much more measured approach, keeping the shows small and building them around local star power. They held two out of their first three shows in Honolulu, both times featuring Hawaiian Kendall Grove in the main event. Things are looking up too: Just last week, they announced a partnership with DREAM that will see both fighter exchanges as well as events for Pro-Elite in Japan and DREAM in America.

As for the UFC, the card was quite good from top to bottom, especially considering it was of the free variety. Three of the four fights on the main card were finished in the first round, while the undercard also was full of quick finishes. I get the feeling this could be a theme this year as the UFC further develops the 135 and 145 pound divisions. With so many unknown fighters getting a look there are bound to be lots of mismatches, as there was on Friday.

After the jump I'll break down the results and the takeaways from both events.

THE RESULTS: Guillard, Barry once again showcase the effectiveness of jiu jitsu.

As fighters, Pat Barry and Melvin Guillard are not too different. Both are supremely gifted athletes, possessing the type of natural speed and power that many men can only dream of having. Both are feared strikers, capable of stopping anyone in their respective divisions with one blow. Both have also displayed a remarkable lack of jiu jitsu acumen inside the cage, many of their losses stemming from a complete lack of defensive grappling ability. An incredible 13 of their combined 14 losses have come via submission. Both were in action on Friday and grappling played a huge part in both of their fights. For Barry the story was feel good; he defended two fairly dangerous submission attempts by Christian Morecraft before landing a picture perfect counter left hook and stopping Morecraft in the first round.

For Melvin, unfortunately, the story was the same as it has been for years. He came out like a bat out of hell, hurling flying knees and hooks at Jim Miller, hurting his opponent within the first minute of the fight. Flying knees aren't exactly the type of strike you would expect from a fighter who wants to keep the fight of the feet, but Guillard has the kind of athletic skill to get away with it, to a point. Instead of settling into a reasonable pace, focusing on his takedown defense and further punishing Miller, Melvin continued to throw caution to the wind with his jumping attacks. Miller eventually got the timing down, caught a knee and put Guillard on the mat. Once the fight was there it took less than 30 seconds for Miller to secure the back and lock in a rear naked choke for the finish. Fellow Head Kick writer Chris Hall breaks down the grappling exchange for us.

Over the weekend I saw the notion put forward that some people simply don't possess the abillity to be any good at jiu jitsu and to that I say "rubbish", at least as it applies to Melvin Guillard. The beauty of jiu jitsu is that it can be adapted to all types of people. Short, tall, strong, weak, flexible, stiff, everyone can adapt the art to meet their needs. Melvin is a very gifted athlete. His need for jiu jitsu is not great. Simply learning to defend a few of the more common submissions and returning to his feet is about all he needs to use the art for and I just don't buy the argument that he, or anyone, simply doesn't have the capacity for that. That's not to say that he'll ever be able to overcome someone like Miller, who is a world class submission threat, but he could definitely make it tougher on his opponents once they get him to the ground. He only need look at Pat Barry for an example of what is possible. Barry still looked like a novice grappler against Morecraft; his arm-bar escape was painfully slow. He still escaped though, and he won his fight because of it.

THE TAKEAWAYS: Grove adds a legend to his resume. Jorge Rivera finishes his career a winner.

As mentioned, Pro Elite put on their second Hawaiian show last weekend, with Kendall Grove facing off with "Minowaman". The fight wasn't really that great, with Grove mostly landing single shots and defending takedowns. What did stand out to me was the intensity that Grove brought to the fight. Since being cut from the UFC last summer and joining Pro Elite he has avenged a loss to Joe Riggs and beaten a legend of the sport in Minowa. I was a little surprised to see that Grove is only 29 years old. If he wants to make his way back to the UFC I think he could, although his current set-up seems pretty good to me, as long as Pro Elite can continue to provide him with name brand opponents. A quick look at the Dream middleweight roster shows Gerald Harris as the most well-known option. A fight between Grove and Harris would be a good way to start the fighter exchange program between the two promotions.

Finally I'd like to mention the retirement of long time UFC veteran Jorge Rivera, who stopped Eric Schafer in the second round during the undercard of the FX event. Rivera fought 15 times during his UFC career, posting a record of 8-7. Despite his penchant for putting on exciting scraps, "El Conquistador" never received a fight night bonus for his work. I was quite pleased to see him get the chance to leave the sport a winner. I don't think he always got a fair shake during his time in the UFC (see Bisping, Michael) but I always enjoyed watching Rivera fight and want to wish him well.

I will leave you guys with two new additions to Mopping the Mats: Throne Watch and Under the Radar. Throne Watch is simply a weekly list of the seven men most likely to become the next champion in their respective divisions, while Under The Radar will highlight the undercard fighter who did the most for himself at the most recent event.

THRONE WATCH

Heavyweight: Alistair Overeem
Light Heavyweight: Rashad Evans
Middleweight: Chael Sonnen
Welterweight: Jake Ellenberger
Lightweight: Ben Henderson
Featherweight: Erik Koch
Bantamweight: Miguel Torres

UNDER THE RADAR

Nick Denis. It took just 22 seconds for Denis to use his elbows to deliver a standing knock out of Joseph Sandoval. Denis said after the fight that his gameplan was actually to get the fight to the ground, since his camp considered Sandoval to be a much weaker grappler than Denis. The fact that he finished the job on the feet before even implementing his game plan is indicative of the type of power this young bantamweight possesses. If he keeps performing like this in the Octagon it won't be long before we see the young Canadian on the main card.