It has been more than seven years since Pride Fighting Championships held its last show and since then the “freak show fight” in mixed martial arts has basically become extinct.
In Pride, it was routine to see a smaller man take on a bigger man. In fact, nearly every single card had one of these fights on it and some of the greatest fighters of all time participated in them. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fought Bob Sapp and even the great Fedor Emelianenko once fought the 400-lb. Zuluzinho. These fights were common and the fans dug them because the visual discrepancy in size was impossible to ignore.
When Zuffa purchased Pride in 2007, and with the sport in North America having adapted to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, these sorts of cross-divisional bouts have mostly gone the way of the dodo–unless of course you count the UFC 118 bout between Randy Couture and former heavyweight boxing champ James Toney. Other than that, though, it’s a rarity in modern MMA.
This weekend, however, at Bellator 120, the “freak show fight” is back and the promotion has no problem labelling it as such.
It was just under two months ago when Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko sent out a video on social media calling out Tito Ortiz, the former UFC light-heavyweight champion who was looking for a fight in Bellator. The callout seemed completely random at the time as it doesn’t make much sense for a small 185 pounder to call out a large 205 pounder, but Shlemenko’s request was intriguing. The fans liked the idea; Bellator liked the idea; the fight was booked.
Sure, this isn’t Fedor vs Zulu we’re talking about where there was a 200-lb. size discrepancy. But in today’s MMA, cross-divisional fights like Shlemenko vs Ortiz are very rare.
Shlemenko (50-7), who is on a 13-fight win streak, is five-foot-11 and walks around at approximately 190 pounds. He’s the size of most welterweights, but following in the tradition of Fedor and many Eastern European fighters, Shlemenko refuses to make large weight cuts. Meanwhile, Ortiz (16-11-1) is six-foot-two and has always been known as one of the bigger athletes in his division; he sheds a lot of weight to hit 205 and routinely weighs more than 220 pounds on fight night.
Even though Shlemenko says he gained some weight for this fight, Ortiz should have a size advantage of at least 20-30 pounds. In terms of modern MMA, this is as close to a “freak show” fight as you’ll see.
That’s not to say it’s not an interesting matchup. Actually, it’s the size difference that is the reason why I want to watch this fight. Shlemenko has had trouble with big, strong wrestlers in the past and Ortiz is exactly that. But on the other hand, I can see why some think the size difference is why this isn’t a legitimate matchup. Regardless, it’s a throwback fight and for many of the hardcore fans that sounds like fun.
If Shlemenko-Ortiz fight is a success, I could see Bellator doing more “freak show” fights in the future, but if it’s a joke of a fight I doubt we’ll see the promotion attempt something like this again in the future. But for this particular event, Bellator’s first on PPV, we get to see a big man fight a smaller man. Let’s sit back, pretend these are the good old days and enjoy the show.
