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By: David Tees
The first two events from the Adrenaline MMA promotion featured prominent MMA fighters like Jason Guida, Terry Martin, Forrest Petz, Bart Palaszewski, Brian Gassaway, Rory Markham, Pat Miletech, Ben Rothwell, Ryan McGivern and LC Davis. At Adrenaline MMA III, two more prominent names will be added to the list in former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia and former WBO Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer.
However, this main event battle at Adrenaline MMA III will not be a traditional MMA fight or a traditional boxing match. Instead, both fighters will be wearing boxing gloves and the fight will be occurring inside of an MMA cage. As of this writing, there has been no determination on whether or not there will be three-five minute rounds like a normal MMA fight or ten-three minute rounds like a normal boxing match.
There was controversy from the moment the fight was announced, because the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board refused to approve the fight. That lead to a decision being made by Adrenaline MMA CEO Monte Cox to take the event away from New Jersey and move it to the state of Alabama, where there is no form of any athletic commission.
For those who are wondering, the reason the fight is being held inside of an MMA cage is because the rest of the evenings fights are all professional MMA fights, so it would be hard to have both a ring and a cage in the venue, especially since there is only one boxing match on the card. Whatever the reason is though, it is going to be an odd site to see Tim Sylvia and Ray Mercer boxing each other, while in an MMA cage.
The questions that go through my mind ever since I heard of this fight are…
Is this fight a smart move for longtime MMA fighter Tim Sylvia? How will this fight effect the landscape of mixed martial arts?
I’ll tackle the initial question first, and I believe that this fight could potentially damage the career of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia. At one point in his MMA career, Tim Sylvia was one of the top names in MMA, having fought top MMA fighters like Andrei Arlovski and Fedor Emelianenko, while he is now fighting outside of the MMA bubble against a past his prime boxer in Ray Mercer.
Tim Sylvia could be devaluing his status as a top name in MMA, especially considering that his is rumored to fight former UFC contender Paul Buentello at Affliction III in August. A possible victory over Paul Buentello in August could’ve potentially given Tim Sylvia a rematch against WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko in 2010. Also, what are the chances the UFC would even resign him if this hybrid MMA/boxing fight makes Tim Sylvia look bad, because the UFC usually shies away from fighters who are on shaky ground. If you were the UFC or even Affliction, would you give a contract to Tim Sylvia, especially if he winds up losing to a forty nine year old Ray Mercer.
As far as the effect on the landscape of MMA goes, it all comes down to the result of the match between Tim Sylvia and Ray Mercer. If Tim Sylvia pulls out the victory and moves back into MMA, the damage will be minimum to none, because the MMA fighter defeated the boxer. However, if Ray Mercer manages to defeat Tim Sylvia, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion would be defeated by a much older opponent and Tim Sylvia’s status in MMA could be destroyed for a long time..
Also, there has been a long debate about which sport is better, boxing or MMA, and a loss by an MMA fighter could give boxing a little advantage in the debate, which could have a small lasting effect on the sport of mixed martial arts.
Either way, June 13th of 2009 will be an interesting day in the history of MMA, as one of MMA’s elite Tim Sylvia dons the boxing gloves against former boxing great Ray Mercer, not inside of a boxing ring, but in an MMA cage.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
