What does the UFC do with Sean Sherk?
The Ultimate Fighting Championships had it all set up beautifully. At Saturday’s UFC 119 event in Indianapolis, they put rising lightweight (155lb) contender Evan Dunham against Sean Sherk. Dunham had looked
terrific in his three UFC fights, notably submitting Efrain Escudero and utterly dominating top 10 lightweight Tyson Griffin. Now he needed a win over a big name, and 37-year-old Sherk seemed the perfect candidate. The former champion was still a legit fighter,
with a big name, but who seemed beatable, having been beaten by Griffin.
Trouble is, Sherk won. Sort of.
The fight earned fight of the night honours, including a $70,000 bonus for each fighter, and saw Sherk walk away with the split decision victory. But almost all commentators called the fight for Dunham, and
the crowd in Indianapolis let the judges know what they thought of the decision by loudly booing when the scorecards were announced naming Sherk the victor. More than a 2-1 underdog, he’d pulled off what few had expected him to, and what the UFC almost certainly
didn’t want him to. And the fight was close enough that a Sherk decision victory is understandable.
A win over a top ten fighter, and such a highly regarded fighter like Dunham puts Sherk, at least on paper, in the title picture again. The UFC tends to work on the system that there is a fairly linear, uncomplicated
path to the title. Beat a good fighter, fight a better fighter. Beat him, and you’ll be even closer to the top, until you get a title shot. There’s no doubt Dunham is a very good fighter.
But Sherk just isn’t viable as a contender at this stage in his career. First of all, he’s 37 years old, and has seen his fair share of MMA battles that have taken their toll on his body. At present he can
only have a couple good years left before he starts to slide inevitably down the line.
But even worse is that Sherk just can’t stay healthy. When he walked into the cage in front of Dunham on Saturday evening, it was the first time he was able to fight in 16 months. And it wasn’t for lack of
trying, as three consecutive fights had to be cancelled because Sherk injured himself in one way or another. Simply put, it became something of a running joke about his propensity to injure himself.
Even before his recent string though, he wasn’t a terribly active fighter by UFC standards. In an organization where fighters are supposed to fight three times a year, he’s fought six times in four years.
In other words, Sherk has perhaps three good fights left in him, if even that. What does the UFC do? If they put him in the ring again, he might just end up upsetting another title contender. He’s probably
too old to make another run at the title again, and if he won it would just be a very short stay at the top. Other top fighters in the contender’s mix include Frankie Edgar and B.J Penn, but both of them hold recent wins over Sherk. A rematch over Dunham would
seemingly leave the prospect in limbo, stuck fighting the same opponent twice.
IN other words, it would have been much easier for the UFC had Sherk just lost his fight against Dunham and lent his name as another notch on the prospect’s belt. But Sherk hasn’t gone 34-4-1 in mixed martial
arts by rolling over and letting him competition walk all over him. For a man who won one UFC title, challenged spiritedly for another, and has fought the who’s who of MMA, losing obviously wasn’t in his mindset – no matter how convenient it would have been.
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