The Depressing Schedule of Tim “The Maine-iac” Sylvia
For those who haven’t been following the recent freakshow fights discussed by the generally respectable Monte Cox as potential bouts for former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia (25-6 MMA, 9-4 UFC), there’s been more movement recently. While Sylvia’s bout with UFC washout Wes Sims (22-13-1-2 MMA, 0-3 UFC) has been moved to Canada from Ohio, there has been some discussion of Sylvia appearing on the Dream 13 card at the end of March. The word seems to be that Sylvia refused a fight with fellow recovering steroid abuser and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett (24-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC).
It’s not surprising that Sylvia would avoid a fight with Barnett. He hasn’t beaten a top tier heavyweight in a long time and even with Barnett’s recent bust for illegal substances, he’s still a huge step up in competition compared to what Tim’s looking for right now.
That puts Sylvia in a position to end up fighting three times over the course of the next three months: an unknown opponent in Dream, Sims in Canada, and strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski (1-0 MMA) in what would be the five-time World’s Strongest Man winner’s U.S. debut, and a superheavyweight match. Pudzianowski weighs about 320 pounds and, frankly, is a complete freak of nature and unknown commodity in the world of MMA. While his technique looked spotty in his MMA debut, his power is pretty impressive. Unless Tim really kills Sims and whoever he ends up fighting in Japan, I may end up picking the Polish powerhouse over the former UFC heavyweight champion.