The mixed martial arts (MMA) "grand prix" style tournament is all the rage these days.
Strikeforce is in the middle of its heavyweight (225 lbs to 265 lbs) grand prix tournament. The tournament was designed to find a number one contender for the organization's heavyweight division, as well as to bolster the ratings a bit.
For the most part, it has not disappointed.
Bellator is an MMA organization that is almost solely based around the idea of the grand prix tournament, issuing title shots only to tournament winners.
A couple of weeks ago, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight contender Melvin Guillard suggested the idea (via ESPN) of the UFC having its own tournament. Guillard, certainly having a personal bias, voiced his desire for the tournament to feature the lightweights (155 lbs). Our own Geno Mrosko wrote an excellent article that discussed Guillard's idea right after the comments were made.
It being the relatively slow MMA news day that it is, I allowed my imagination to run rampant as I passively watched the Major League Baseball Homerun Derby and listened to Chris Berman savagely beat up words.
What if UFC President Dana White was listening and took Melvin Guillard's advice? What would the tournament look like? How would it run? Is it feasible?
For starters, if there's going to be a lightweight tournament, it needs to include all the best lightweights. That's a given, right? But I don't just mean the best lightweights in the UFC. I mean the best lightweights in the world.
Bellator couldn't make that happen with the bantamweights or the featherweights. Strikeforce couldn't quite get that done with the heavyweights.
This is the UFC. This is Dana White. "Business as usual" is code-phrase for utter and complete global dominance. For this post, I'm asking you, the reader, to give me your willing suspension of disbelief. It will be more fun for everybody if you play along.
There are lots of ranking systems in the MMA community. None of them are perfect, and someone always gets snubbed. That being said, Sherdog does a decent job with their lists of the top fighters in their respective weight classes. I chose to go with their top 10 list of MMA lightweights in the world to devise my bracket.
It would look something like this:
Frankie Edgar and Gilbert Melendez would be the number one and number two seeds respectively. Thus, they would both earn first round byes.
Here would be the hypothetical first round match-ups:
#3 - Gray Maynard vs. #10 - Tatsuya Kawajiri
#4 - Shinya Aoki vs. #9 - Melvin Guillard
#5 - Eddie Alvarez vs. #8 - Anthony Pettis
#6 - Jim Miller vs. #7 - Clay Guida
I believe Gray Maynard's wrestling would be too much for Kawajiri. I don't see it being an exciting fight, but I see "The Bully" doing what he has to do to advance to the next round.
Shinya Aoki vs. Melvin Guillard would give us a classic submission specialist vs. stand-up brawler match-up. Guillard's ground game is not even close to Aoki's. However, last time Aoki was in such a match-up, he was vastly dominated by the striking and speed of Gilbert Melendez. Guillard is not Melendez, but I still think we'd see the same result. I'm going with Guillard.
Eddie Alvarez vs. Anthony Pettis might be my favorite of all the first round fights. I'd absolutely LOVE to see this one go down. We saw Pettis get massively outclassed in the wrestling department when he fought Clay Guida at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale on Jun. 4. It's completely possible that Pettis does a lot of hard work and plugs this gap before his next fight. I just think that, right now, Alvarez is too skilled and complete a fighter for Pettis.
The last first round match-up would pit AMA tough guy Jim Miller against wildman Clay Guida. This would be a fantastic pairing of two guys who have been looking for a title shot for a while now. It would truly give Jim Miller the opportunity to show that he deserves to be considered one of the top lightweights in the world. I see this one going to a decision. Jim Miller moves on.
The idea behind byes is to give the #1 and #2 contenders the best possible second round match-up. There are certainly upsets in tournaments, but based on seeding, you'd mathematically expect the higher seeds to have the better chance to win. With that being said, the best second round match-up would hypothetically be the winner of the six-vs-seven seeds. For that reason, Frankie Edgar would get the winner of Miller vs. Guida for his first fight, which would take place in the second round. This means that the second best match-up would be against the winner of the five-vs-eight seeds, meaning Gilbert Melendez's first fight would take place in the second round and would be against the winner of Alvarez vs. Pettis.
Confused yet? Awesome. Let's move on.
Based on my picks, the second round would look something like this:
#1 - Frankie Edgar vs. #6 - Jim Miller#2 - Gilbert Melendez vs. #5 - Eddie Alvarez
#3 - Gray Maynard vs. #9 - Melvin Guillard
Edgar vs. Miller would give Jim Miller that shot at the top guy he's been practically begging for. I'd love to see him get that chance. Unfortunately, I think this is a bad match-up for him. You may not be aware, but Miller and Edgar actually fought back in 2006 at Reality Fighting 14. The fight was for that organization's lightweight title. Edgar won in a unanimous decision. Miller has certainly gotten better since then. So has Edgar. I just don't see it being any different this time around.
It's a little unfair that Gilbert Melendez would have to take on someone like Eddie Alvarez in his very first fight of the tournament. Oh well. He's been saying he's the best lightweight mixed martial artist for a long time now. Why should he get an easy road? Alvarez is good. He's very good. I just think that Melendez is better at all the things at which Alvarez excels. Also, Melendez really has been fighting tougher competition than Alvarez for a long time. He's ready for this. I pick Melendez to win a close decision.
I love Melvin Guillard. I love his game. I love his story. I don't really enjoy watching Gray Maynard fight. That aside, I won't disrespect the man and his game. I think he manages to find a way to slow Guillard down, make the fight deliberate, and eek out a win. There's no such thing as an ugly win...is there?
The bracket was difficult at this point. I am not a bracketologist of any sort. I Googled "ten team single elimination brackets" and didn't find a lot of help. I'm sure one of our readers will have a better idea than what I came up with. Whatever. This is what I came up. Deal with it.
I'm giving the winner of the Edgar-Miller fight, Frankie Edgar, a walk to the championship. My thinking is this: If Edgar wins, (and in my pretend tournament, he does) he successfully defends his #1 seed and earns the right to move on to the finals. If Miller wins, he should receive the same honors. It's not perfect, but like I said, it's the best I could come up with.
This leaves the winners of the other second round fight to step into the octagon and decide who would face Edgar in the championship.
Gilbert Melendez vs. Gray Maynard would be a fantastic fight. It's hard for me to pick against a guy in Maynard who has never lost. If this were a five round fight, I think it would give Maynard enough time to wear his opponent down. Assuming that all fights except the final would be three rounders, I give the edge to Melendez. I think his quickness wins out and he's able to essentially out-point Maynard. It's also not unthinkable to me that Melendez could catch Maynard and put him to sleep.
So, it's down to the finals. I know, I know. The number one and number two seeds in the championship fight. Real imaginative, right? Look, I hear you. I really do. But isn't it better than Edgar and Maynard? That fight is set to go down anyway. We don't even need a tournament for that to happen. I'm just saying.
A lot of people hate on Zuffa. There is a large contingency of MMA fans who don't care for Dana White and don't care for the UFC. I'm not one of those fans. I love the UFC and I love Dana White. I admit it. I have a bent and a bias. I think they are the number one organization in the world and it's for a reason. White runs his company like an elite business and the results are evident. So, you'd think it would be a given I'd go with the UFC champ to take the tournament final bout, right?
I want to. I really do. I love Frankie Edgar. As a guy who is also not very big in stature, I've always rooted for the little guy. He's fast and he has a massive heart. I know Melendez hasn't exactly fought the same level of competition that Edgar has faced over his career. I do think Melendez may be unfairly criticized in that regard. His list of notable wins includes: Clay Guida, Tatsuya Kawajiri (twice), Mitsuhiro Ishida, Josh Thomson, and Shinya Aoki. Those aren't chumps by any means. Ultimately, I think Melendez's experience is enough to push him over the hump and give him the win.
by Kevin Haggerty
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