It was as predictable as Jon and Kate's long awaited divorce.  As I watched Chris Lytle and Kevin Burns throw punch after sloppy punch, I knew it was coming:  "Partner, this may just be the fight of the night we're seeing." 

Now, I knew I was watching with different eyes than Mike Goldberg, Joe Rogan, and many fans.  I am an incorrigible hardcore fan, scoffing at every Lytle punch from the hip, wincing every time a fighter refused to protect himself, amazed but not surprised that the UFC broadcast team was loving every minute of the tough-man level display. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Different people watch MMA for different reasons. We watch for the display of skill, the variety of techniques, or the unrepentant violence of it all.  But one thing has become very clear:  for most MMA fans, so-called great fights don't even have to be good.   

The Godfather of entertaining, yet awful, MMA fights wasn't even an MMA contest.  Boxers Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward became legends with three competitive, back and forth battles.  Fans loved their heart and the non-stop action.  But there was a hidden secret that only the curmudgeonly Larry Merchant felt compelled to reveal-neither boxer was anywhere near championship level.  These were past their prime contenders, essentially glorified club fighters who had their moment in the sun years earlier.   

There are famous MMA battles of this ilk as well, fights that were technically pathetic but filled with heart, desire, and balls.  Don Frye and Yoshiro Takayama went toe-to-toe, hockey goon style for PRIDE.  It made for a great youtube moment, two idiots wailing on each other, both too proud to duck.  But could it be called a great fight?  There was no skill, no technique, and no thought in the ring that night.     

The most important UFC fight of all time was also a bad fight masquerading as a great one. Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar were lousy fighters when they squared off at the first Ultimate Fighter finale.  Both got tired early.  Neither had good technique or ever considered dodging a blow from the other.  It was a bravura display of heart.  But was it good fighting? 

The two modern masters of the clumsy classic were both on display this weekend, While Lytle was stinking up the Octagon, Jorge Gurgel was relegated to a Strikeforce B-show on Showtime.  Gurgel has completely eschewed his reportedly world-class jiu jitsu.  You know exactly what to expect when you see him compete: a sloppy kickboxing match. No one in MMA history has led with his face quite like Gurgel.  You have to look to the movies for a parallel-Rocky Balboa.  And poor Rocky ended up brain damaged and fighting Tommy Gunn in the street, a broken (and broke) man.  

Gurgel's obsession with pleasing the subset of fans who insist their action be fast and furious, the ones Joe Rogan calls meatheads, has cost him dearly.  He's already been booted from the UFC.  His return to big time MMA at Strikeforce shows a fighter that has learned no lessons.  Lytle is cut from the same clothe.  He has regressed so much that victory isn't anywhere near the top of his priorities.  He wants to win, but it isn't winning the fight that interests him.  Lytle is much more interested in winning cash bonuses for fight of the night.  And he's willing to decrease his chances of winning the fight, standing and banging uncontrollably with overmatched opponents, in order to take his beating and insure he takes home the money.

MMA is at a precarious time in its history.  Fans and promoters are still deciding what kind of sport this is going to be.  There is a real chance of losing the fluid grace and beauty that characterizes the best the sport offers.  There is a real chance the sport will turn into wrestlers kickboxing with four ounce gloves.  Some of those fights might be exciting.  Some might even be called great.  But they aren't likely to be very good.