MMA NINJA

Affliction 2 Review: Fedor Emelianenko stays undefeated, Arlovski blows it, Babalu and Belfort win

mmaninja — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:29:00 -0500

Photo via Orange County Register

Affliction 2 Day of Reconing turned out to be a good sophomore effort in my opinion. None of the main card fights went to a decision and most fights turned out great with definite outcomes. If you read my Affliction: Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski picks you know I missed the mark on some of the picks, but I have real good explanations though, I swear!

So, I'm going to get the negatives of the show right out of the way because it was mostly good and this can be just nitpicking, though a lot of casual fans agreed with me on these:

Tito Ortiz is a dumbass. He embarrased Affliction at the pre fight press conferences and continued on with crappy commentating and post fight interviews. You can put lipstick on a pig, it'll still be a pig though. I don't know if he completely blocked out his embarassing exit from the UFC but he was very pretentious in his comments through out the show. I wonder if Donald Trump got him the gig. He is a joke and I hope he get a shot at Babalu so Babalu could embarras him yet again and send him off to whereever Sokoudjou will go. WEC?
The "Rabid" commentator that went behind the scenes to show Babalu relaxing before the fight and kept calling Babalu "intense" and "rabid". Too bad Babalu was yawning throughout. Where the hell did he come from? Get rid of that joker!
Extensive public display of poor Matt Linland's waking up after a brutal KO. On thing UFC does good if someone get badly KO'd is not show their wake up process until the fighter is ok and can stand on his own. There was no reason to show all that, especially when it was clear that Linland wasn't waking up well at all.

On to the good of the show.

Production was just fine. There were plenty of replays and the show moved along at a good pace.
John McCarthy - I was very happy to see him and that he is still an active MMA referee. I guess his retirement was only from UFC. Good for him, I'm sure he is being treated better and doesn't have to deal with Dana White. That along be huge in my book!
The "Fight Quest" alumni was a decent commentator and should definitely be a mainstay for Affliction.

On to the fights.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov - well I was right about one thing, just cause you can hang with Fedor in training doesn't mean you can beat everyone else. Sidelnikov also did not take it to the ground where he most certainly would have done better than Buentello. Why? He only tried for one takedown and it was when it was already too late for him in mid round 2. With a big debut like that, his coaches let him down or may be he just didn't listen to them. I am also questioning his training. Was he just helping Fedor with Fedor's fight and getting beat on by Fedor mostly, or was anyone actually helping him train for his fight? I'm leaning towards the first. Hopefully next time when the Russian promoters pretend they're in it to promote other younger fighters, they actually bring a huge camp of fighters to Starii Oskol, if that where Fedor must train, and concentrate on their improvement and preparation and not just Fedor.

Buentello did ok but seemed to be very apprehensive about throwing more than just a jab. He won so that's all that counts for him. Superstar he is not though. Beating an overweight Fedor's very young training partner is not exactly impressive, especially on the heels of three round decision over Gary Goodridge. Who decisions Gary Goodridge? Not a lot of fighters, they usually beat him very quickly.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - this one I was exactly right about. If there was any doubt that Sokoudjou had a few great wins early but folds everytime the going gets tough, he folding to Babalu should have cemented his lack of heart and ability to keep any stamina past round one. Yet again another example of how he gives incredibly hard time to Team Quest luminaries like Dan Henderson, but that doesn't mean he can beat other guys. Not sure where he goes from here, he may get another chance in Affliction, may be. If it's anyone decent, he may very well choke again. Then what? Japan? WEC if he is lucky?

Babalu leveraged his experience and weathered everything Sokoudjou had for him and easily took over in round two. It was pretty painful to watch him going through "show and tell" D'arce choke drill in the middle of the fight cause his opponent just sat there already given up. Great win for Babalu and his confidence. I guess stupid Tito was challenging him during the post fight interview. I think it'll be a good fight for Babalu, what can Tito do to him? Babalu's punching is better, wrestling is probably better and definite edge in submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland -Matt Lindland didn't get a chance to out work Vitor Belfort like I thought he would. Belfort took advantage of the very first exchange and Linland's striking weakness. A precise left straight from Belfort put Linland on the floor and Belfort did great capitalizing on the downed Linland. Four punches later fight was stopped with Linland laying almost lifelessly on the floor except for the uncontrollably shaking left leg. He got cought and should have been way more careful than rushing in with his weak sloppy striking against some one like Belfort.

Though the fight didn't show much, Belfort did what he had to do and didn't waste a single opportunity to exploit Linland's weakness. He looked fast, precise and showed good reflexes to get in there and finish the fight. It was interesting to see K-1's showman Ray Sefo in his corner. Nice to see him keep sharp.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel - wow, what a huge disappointment! Barnett looked aweful! Three rounds to finish a huge underachiver and non-crosstraining lazy striker in Gilbert Yvel!? Barnett's corner should have left him in the ring to celebrate his disappointing win by himself. He disrespected their time and efforts by just sitting on top of Yvel for almost 2 full round and not finishing him. What was that? How dared he do his "throat cutting" win gesture after that? Anyways, if he thinks he has a chance against either Fedor or Arlovski with that type of fighting....he probably doesn't though. I just hope he can snap out of his depression in time to get good training in before those fights. Oh, and how stupid was his excuse/give away about his poor nose bleeding and making him choke? I think very. Watch his nose being busted first thing in any of his future fights.

Gilbert Yvel was the winner in my book. Not like a winner in a sense that he'll amount to anything after this display of toughness. But he kind of redeemed himself for all those cowardly times he tapped out at the first sign of trouble. If only he was this tenatious when he was younger and more popolar. May be he earned another fight with that? Gilbert Yvel vs Paul Buentello? That could actually be a good fight, given how Buentello has self admittedly never initiated a take down in his whole career.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - News flash!!!!! Fedor again looked very beatable and human! This isn't really news by now, is it? Definitely not.

Fujita had Fedor sliding on ice when he rocked him
Nogueira reversed him and got on top
Coleman had his back and was on top
Randleman damn near killed him when he slammed him on his head
Mirko CroCop bloodied him up and landed a bunch on him
Mark Hunt out of all people was on top
Hong Man Choi stuffed his takedowns

He almost always looks beatable. Well in this fight against Andrei Arlovski he looked very beatable again. Arlovski was bigger, a little faster and was actually landing some glancing shots. Why was it such a big deal though? Because Sylvia didn't land any? CroCop did, Fujita did, Mark Hunt did. It's a fight, you're going to get hit! But as long as you don't get rocked or KO's or get hit too many times it's ok. That front kick that Arlovski landed towards the end that pushed Fedor back looked ok, but it wasn't like it doubled Fedor over. I'm sure that if the fight went on longer Fedor would have adjusted to Arlovski's timing and would have found his rhythm.

Arlovski's jump for the flying knee was aweful! Looked like he was going to do an olympic board diving jump. WTF was that? Per his own words he truly did dump his chance down the toilet. Fedor stood calm and capitalized on the first opportunity Arlovski gave him and finished the fight. Is that his magic? May be.

All I know is that I can't wait to see it again. Affliction together with it's great allies in Trump and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Productions should strike again while the iron is still hot and promote yet another Fedor headliner event. Hopefully in another six months. I wish they wouldn't give Barnett a chance at Fedor because while it will be entertaining I think it won't have that "this is the fight Fedor may finally lose" type hype. Arlovski vs Fedor 2 would garner more attention and may be Arlovski won't go to boxing just yet. Arlovski is just so much more marketable than Barnett - he is Russian, very hairy, thick beard and those vampire/werewolf teeth gimmick will just sell tickets and PPV buys. We'll see what happens. Until then Fedor is KING!

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his new book: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski: Affliction Day of Reconing picks

mmaninja — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

I just HAD to find time to writing at least something about this card/fight. I can not wait till tonight and am really hating the anticipation. It really doesn't matter how the fights turn out because of the fact that Fedor is fighting again just few months after fighting Sylvia and is fighting a legit threat in Arlovski.

HD Net put tugether a pretty good, not great, "get to know Fedor" show "FEDOR: The Baddest Man on the Planet". It was good to have a few fighters that have fought Fedor and give him credit that he never takes himself. I was disappointed with the fact that there really wasn't that much "new" footage. A lot of the Fedor footage was taken right out of Pride FC's "Champions" series they did on Fedor, Nogueira, Sakuraba and Silva. BUT... this is one of the few Fedor specials that actually had him LAUGH. That's right, Fedor actually laughs and it was great to see some type of emotion out of him. If you missed the show on HD Net, go visit Afflictions website and watch their promo videos, they're pretty much the gist of the whole Fedor show and you get to see some Arlovski training as well. AND if you watch the press conference, you'll get to see the surprize "superstar" that Affliction unfortunately decided to deal with, Tito Ortiz, make a total fool and tool of himself and Affliction too. The dumbass can't even read a fight card and as usual reiterated to everyone that he can't present himself in any other manner other than pound his chest before fights and then get embarrased by his inability to fight any good. Thank you Lyoto Machida! You gave me one of the most satisfying experiences when you exposed Tito Ortiz for what he is - a one dimensional never-improving hack. I just hope Affliction didn't spend a lot of money on him or sign a multi deal contract. Who's next? Ken Shamrock, just for Tito?

Oh and I just found out that Fedor apparently has an instructional book too, Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA, though I haven't seen it yet. Onto the fights though, besides Fedor vs Arlovski there are a few good fights that are kind of compelling to see.

Jay Hieron vs Jason High - Jay Hieron has been on a tear in IFL and looked great. Training at Xtreme Couture's has been great for him, as it is for any other fighter. Picking Hieron. (really though I just haven't seen Jason High fight. If he beats Hieron, he'll definitely be on everyone's radar)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Vladimir Matyushenko - hmm, kind of a tough one for me. Matyushenko rediscovered his MMA career in IFL and looked great recently. Noguiera on the other hand had a decent run in Pride but hasn't really shined. His brother's disappointing catatonic performance against Frank Mir (who's delusional by the way, Brock will TKO him and then break his leg off and then eat it) is kind of weighing on my judgement here, they're twins you know. I think the style that Nogueira's developed and used recently isn't cutting it any more and Matyushenko will hit harder standing and will most certainly get on top and then ground and pound him for decision. Picking Matyushenko.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov - one of the things that kind of surprised me is that, at least according to the HD Net Fedor special i mentioned earlier, Kiril Sidelnikov is Fedor's main training partner. It's great for Sidelnikov on one hand because training with someone better than you always make you improve more, especially Fedor. On the other hand though, many times training with someone much better than you all the time may give you a false confidence. It has happened countless times before, a fighter comes from a huge famous fight camp and is fighting another fighter from a barely known camp. Then the fighter who's sparring partners are guys that don't even fight beats a fighter that can kinda hang with a group of pro fighters. I really hope that it will not be the case for Sidelikov. He's striking looks a lot like Fedors and ground will definitely be better than Buentello's, given his success in Combat Sambo tournaments. Buentello won't be a push over, his striking is dangerous and his KO's are a pretty good testament to that. Picking Sidelnikov by being smart and taking it to the ground.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - Sokoudjou made a huge splash in Pride FC's 205 division by KO'ing two top guys at the time, Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. His UFC's showings however quickly took the air out of the hype he quickly build for himself in Pride. Powerful and athletic he appears to be lacking stamina and heart. Picking Sobral to weather a few hard kicks and punches from Sokoudjou early on and take over by whatever he wants, striking or submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland - No matter how ugly sometimes Linlands fights turn out, I've always respected his tenacity, will to win and willingness to cross train. His striking may never be beautiful, but his jiu-jitsu is coming along very nicely. Too bad he lost a few years of fighting because of the self absorbed Dana White and is getting up there in age. Belfort's been hot and cold for years now and while still young will probably never get up to the hype level he initially garnered. Picking Linland by outworking Belfort and breaking his will and body. Hopefully beating Belfort will get Linland a couple more good and high profile fights.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel - Barnett finally avenged his loss to Pedro Rizzo in a so so fight. Barnett did pretty damn good in Pride FC's last heavyweight Grand Prix getting to the finals, especially after a long stint in japanese pro-wrestling. So another win is a win. Affliction must have spend a bunch of cash on Barnett liking his quirky personality and are giving him a gift fight to set him up with the winner of Fedor vs Arlovski. Yvel has near zero chance to beat Barnett, if Barnett just takes him down and doesn't goof off standing up. Picking Barnett with one hand behind his back.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - historic fight this may be not, but a huge mega fight it sure is! Everyone is waiting for Fedor to finally to succumb to the reality of MMA - everyone loses and it's ok. There are just too many variables and ways to win that at some point you get caught. This will be a tough fight. Arlovski looked great against Rothwell, but I really think Rothwell made Arlovski look good. Sometimes certain bodytypes/styles make the same fighter look better than others. After his second loss to Sylvia, Arlovski didn't look all that great against Jake O'Brian, PeDepano or that other boring brazilian dude that trains with CroCop that made Gonzaga give up before their fight even started. So one fight where Arlovski kinda let go and looked like the former aggressive self made him into the guy that can beat Fedor? Almost everyone that fought Fedor could have beaten him, not that Heath Herring hack though. Even Tim Sylvia, while not landing a single shot on Fedor, still had a good chance of beating him. It just hasn't happened yet. Arlovski does look awesome in training, very fast, he's got a new famous boxing coach. Fedor? Fedor still trained in Starii Oskol with a handful of trainers and Kiril Sidelnikov who he just beats on. He's just special like that. I'm picking Fedor to beat Arlovski after Arlovski will put up a pretty good fight, though I think it will go to the ground where Arlovski isn't that good and Fedor really shines.

I also have to say that it's VERY PETTY of UFC to run Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture's UFC for free tonight on Spike. D$ck move. I'm sure fans are getting tired of all the UFC cards one after another and are itching for some even a little different. I think Affliction will pull through this and continue on their decent card and if they manage to have Fedor on each one, they'll be even better. I'd always pick Fedor's PPV vs Rich Franklin or Henderson, no offense to Rich.

UFC 92 picks Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans Wanderlei Silva vs Quinton Jackson Nogueira vs Mir

mmaninja — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:27:00 -0500

As usual, I say these will be super quick fight picks for UFC 92, but then I'll probably end up writing for an hour. Besides the fact that this is a really star studded event, like the old Pride year end event used to be, here are my picks.

Forrest Griffin Vs. Rashad Evans - what a tough pick this is for me, Rashad has been winning steady and last fight was a huge statement, especially for this confidence in his skills. Even though Forrest beat on Rampage a bit in their last fight, Rampage wasn't nearly at his best, but he has that advantage of going through that tough 25 minute championship fight and after being knocked down in the very first. So I like both guys, but I'm leaning towards Rashad and his power. Picking Rashad Evans.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Vs. Frank Mir - I'm honestly not sure what Mir can do to Nogueira. His striking is still isn't good enough for Noguiera and his latest submissions were against guys that are inexperienced at them. I give Nogueira striking advantage, stamina and submissions for that matter. He'll wear Mir out in the very first round, peper him with all kinds of striking. In the second he'll proceed to doing the same and finish Mir in the third. Picking Nogueira by just being better at everything and experience.

Wanderlei Silva Vs. Quinton Jackson - In both of their previous fights Rampage started off better than Silva and as soon as he got into any type of rhythm or a good position he was interrupted. In the first it was the ref for an odd reason, when Rampage was on top and pretty active and could have very well worn Silva out to finish him later. In the second he did great in the first round and spend good energy to get Silva on the ground and be on top before the bell rung. Silva showed why he was still great after exlusively beating up on 10+ japanese fighters and cought Rampage with some amazing forever-highlight reel shots. Again I really like both guys and both faltered lately. I hope Rampage learned from Silva-vs-Liddell, and Silva vs CroCop for that matter, that straight shots are Silva's cryptonite, Achilles's heel, whatever. Silva hopefully got some more good training in at Randy Couture's. So I want Rampage to win and hope he got whatever messed him up for the Griffin fight taken care of and is in better shape physically and metally.

CB Dollaway Vs. Mike Massenzio - picking CB Dollaway and his peruvian necktie, cause I get a feeling Massenzio is there to make CB look good again and promote him further.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Mostapha Al Turk - picking Kongo because he should be pretty hungry for a win after he basically gave away a fight he was winning a no talent hack Heath Herring.

Yushin Okami Vs. Dean Lister - So...like...wtf is Dean Lister still doing in UFC? Honestly! I know Dana hates Yushin Okami, but it is a damn sport that's already so popular that if there are a few guys that are not exiting but beat other good fighters with skill, IT IS OK. I mean, look at how boring Lyoto Machida can be, but he is damn good and in my opinion has redeemed himself when he gave Tito Ortiz the biggest humiliation of his life. Yep, and that's after Randy spaked Tito in front of millions. Anyways, hope Okami beats up Lister and moves on to the contender list for 185 right after.

Ryo Chonan Vs. Brad Blackburn- picking Ryo Chonan.

Other fights - who cares.

K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 - finalists Remy Bonjasky and Badr Hari share Douche Bag Grand Prix Title!

mmaninja — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:54:00 -0500

It's been a while since last entry, but it feels good to write something down again and nothing is better for writing motivation than something that really ticks you off. Well, I've been catching up on my MMA viewing and came across K-1's World Gran Prix 2008, K-1's yearly end of year tournament. I usually try to watch these because I think tournaments are fun and K-1 provides a nice break from MMA once in a while and, at times, shows off some damn good kickboxing. To get into the Grand Prix fighters either have to win a tournament eariler in the year or win some big fights throughout the year, so it builds up some sort of excitement of progression through the ranks that other fighting organizations give you at a much slower pace one fight at a time.

Anyways, so this year's tourney line up didn't look that bad. It had the staple crazy old K-1 stalwarts like Peter Aerts and Jerome LeBanner, both have been freaking fighting since mid 1990's! Then there were some youngerer guns like Ruslan Karaev, Badr Hari, Gohsan Saki, Errol Zimmerman, Ewerton Teixeira and 1 time Grand Prix winner Remy Bonjasky. Haha, basically everyone else. But I'm not going to review the whole event here, for that go to official K-1 site and get the official propaganda version of what happened. I will however make a few comments on some fighters, fights and happenings without going off on too many tangents like I sometimes do.

Peter Aerts used to be an absolute monster in K-1 and owns some of the most vicious knockouts out there as well as kick ass kickboxing instructionals. If you ever get your hands on the K-1 10th year anniversary DVD's or just "youtube" him you'll see his best work. I'll say it again - vicious guys he used to be. I don't know what he did this year to get into the Grand Prix, but he looked terrible like he's been looking for past few years. It's really time for him to retire and just make piece with the facts that he's fought for as long as he fought, won the Grand Prix several times and will remain an all time great. He fought Badr Hari and succumbed to a "late Peter Aerts" habit of throwing legkicks when he's getting pounded in the face instead of protecting his head or moving out of the way and then low kicking or better yet remember for a second that he too has powerful punches and punch back. He was TKO'd because of that nasty habit.

Ruslan Karaev, who usually is a whirlwind of energy mixed in with fast punching and deadly spinning jumping back kicks, fought very timidly comparatively to his norm against a highly touted Gohsan Saki and paid for by losing first round, getting knocked down in second and not being able to do any damage in the third.

Remy Bonjasky neutralized Jerome LeBanner's powerful punching with his trademark kicking and rarely penetrable defense. LeBanner never really got off anything good and Bonjasky kept pushing the pace and wearing him down with kicks till he finally reinjured LeBanner's left arm and finished the fight. LeBanner's been fighting in K-1 since like 1995 and made it to the finals of the Grand Prix but could never win the title. He's been called the most talented K-1 fighter that has never ended up winning the Grand Prix title. This was yet again a very disappointing set back for him, though arm break came late in the third round and he would have lost the fight on points anyways.

In the semi-finals Bonjasky finished Saki with a huge whalloping jumping roundhouse kick. According to Ernesto Hoost, another K-1 great who was on hand to commentate, Saki injured his ribs in beating Karaev in the first round and Bonjasky's huge kick furthered the injury. Badr Hari ended up knocking out Errol Zimmerman and that set up Bonjasky-Hari Grand Prix finals.

The first round of Bonjasky vs Hari was pretty good with both throwing great combos with both being pretty fresh. Late in the round Bonjasky caught Hari with a weird blind downward hook and gave him a flash knockdown. Hari quickly recovered and finished off the round ok. As soon as the second round started Hari came out swinging till they both jump kicked and Hari ended up falling on top of Bonjasky. And that's when the Douche Bag Grand Prix started!

Douche Bag Silver Medal goes to Badr Hari, who for some dumb reason either lost his cool or tried to rough up a fallen Bonjasky and went too far. As the ref tried to separate them Hari proceded to do a kickboxing version of ground and pound by throwing two punches at Bonjasky's head and then stomping his head! WTF!? You you're in the finals of the greatest kickboxing tournament that only very few get a chance to get to, you're only 2 rounds away and you ARE doing ok and you try to stomp your opponent who is down and the ref is between you?! And while you are doing that you don't even land any of the cheap shots! What a Douche Bag!

So drama ensues. Hari is being disciplined in the corner by the pissed off referee in front of everybody, they had the ref's discipline speech for everyone in the arena to hear in the best Engrish he could muster, then he gets some symbolic yellow card. What a huge mistake! Remy Bonjasky is pretending he is really hurt by the cheap shot attack. He'd close his eyes, then open them to gage the situation, then close them for a bit more to think of how he could benefit from what Hari did to him, then open again to see what's going on. They sit him in the corner and the doctors are trying to do their best to tell him that he's just fine to continue cause he's alert and is just milking this whole mess. Ernesto Hoost and the commentators are all in the agreement that they could possibly be nothing wrong with Bonjasky. They show a tonn of replays where it is becoming even more clear that none of the strikes that Hari threw and especially the stomp which only grazed Bonjasky's forehead with the inner soft part of the foot did any damage at all.

May be Bonjasky is a big soccer fan and as soon as he saw the yellow card shown to Hari he proceeded to fake even more vigorously and convincing the doctors that he could not continue. The crowd started booing, a red card was shown to Hari and the bell started ringing and a new Gold Medalist of the Douche Bag Grand Prix was finally crowned - Remy Bonjasky! What a douche bag! He was on his way to beating Hari and only had 5 more minutes to go to get the title by natural means - by being one of the best fighters out there! Oh and they threw the 2008 Grand Prix title as a complimentary gift to being the biggest freaking faker and a douche bag. What a disappointing end to an otherwise good event.

Up next will probly be a huge catch up post or two on MMA happenings I didn't comment yet on!

UFC 88 Review - Rashad Evans KOs Chuck Liddell - Henderson, Franklin and Marquardt win

mmaninja — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:04:00 -0500

Finally, I'm actually have some time to follow up on the quick picks I did for UFC 88. Time is definitely the most needed thing in my world. Anyways, I did pretty good with my picks this time and even the reasoning behind them. Sometimes I do know what I'm talking about.

Rashad Evans KO's Chuck Liddell (picked Liddell)- WOW. What a nice KO for Rashad. Like I said in my picks for this UFC, the key for Rashad is to be confident in his abilities because he's entered the very top and will have to fight the very star fighters he used to watch on TV. I often compare his fight with Tito Ortiz to the very first Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes fight where St. Pierre was a little more tentative for the sole reason of facing Matt Hughes. Rashad was very tentative against Tito and it almost cost his the fight. Everytime he'd exchange with Ortiz he never leaned in to actually reach for the giant bleached head to knock it out. So confidence was a huge part of Rashad's awesome KO of Chuck. You have to give him and Greg Jackson a lot of credit for being smart and working on his confidence to go with his top notch skills. He was very disciplined with making sure he didn't act on instinct to try to take Liddell down and most importantly not to follow Chuck and play into his strength. Rashad is right up there at light heavy and probably should be either fighting Forrest Griffin for the title or face Wanderlei Silva.

Rich Franklin TKO's Matt Hamill (picked Franklin) - It was a decent fight. The most interesting thing about it was how Rich Franklin would be doing at 205. He did just fine. Definitely a good move for him and he looked to have just as good conditioning, he was nearly fresh in the third! Matt Hamill did pretty good for facing a former champ, but his lack of experience certainly showed and his takedown attempts could have been better. He never really committed. I also found it funny that the UFC called it a "comeback fight of the night". Hamill cut Franklin by an off balance jab and the cut from that wasn't vision threatening. Even with that cut though Franklin was dominating the fight, how is that a comeback? I'm also wondering how far can Matt Hamill go with his disadvantage of not being able to hear his corner? So many top fighters credit their corner men to their success.

Dan Henderson Decisions Rousimar Palhares (picked Henderson) - Henderson did some pretty effective slip'n'slide striking that only he does in the first round and made Palhares look pretty bad. First round pretty much set the tone for the rest of the fight with Henderson being just more active, controlling more and doing more damage. Palhares did have a few takedowns, a decent looking kneebar attempt in the second, but Henderson had an answer for everything. Good win for Henderson to get back on track. May be have him fight Joe Doerkson for a guaranteed exciting fight or have him face Yushin Okami for a complete snoozer and finally retire the unwated Okami from the UFC. Then line him up for another go at Anderson Silva, cause he actually posed some problems for him in their first fight.

Nate "The Great" Marquardt TKO's Martin Kampmann (picked Marquardt) - just like thought and had a sneaking suspicion that the same Nate Marquardt that destroyed Jeremy Horn may show up and he did! He wasted no time and went after the tough Kampmann like he only had a minute and a half to do it. He looked sharp doing it with a variety of strikes and combinations. I guess it helps to have Greg Jackson for a trainer and the new lightheavy bright star Rashad Evans for a training partner. Oh and to have that ugly Keith Jardine around doesn't hurt either. Now that I think of it Marquardt should probably face Dan Henderson for a shot at Anderson Silva. Excellent fight for both.

Dong Hyun Kim decisions Matt Brown (picked Kim) - I loved this fight. Cool of UFC to book Dong Hyun Kim because he is a scrapper and because he bring something different to the table. That was the appeal of early days MMA - fights between different styles. Kim definitely brings an unorthodox MMA style and it was great to see, especially because he made it effective against a tough Matt Brown. Brown actually did sort of start fighting early on but let Kim hang out on his back for most of the first round. It could have gone either way, but I don't see the result being negative for Brown because the fight was very entertaining. Can't wait to see both of them back soon.

Kurt Pellegrino decisions Thiago Tavares (picked Pellegrino) - In my picks for this UFC I said Pellegrino would have weather the ground attack by Tavares first and then take over with improved striking. Turns out I was little too optimistic for Thiago Tavares. I have to say doing a few switch steps does show you did spend some time on footwork, but it seems that's all you did. Kurt Pellegrino came out striking, put Tavares down hard and continued punishing Tavares. Like in most fights, once a dominant pace is set by one fighter the other needs a huge effort to mount comeback. That's why comebacks are so exciting - they just don't happen that often. Pellegrino beating up Tavares while never really being in danger from him was just another example. He knocked him down, mounted him numerous times. The little time when Tavares had Pellegrino on the the bottom, Pellegrino even managed to submit Tavares with an armbar. That's my opinion on that. Tavares tapped, Pellegrino let go, but because it happened somewhat quick the ref hesitated and Pellegrino just had to keep going. Too bad Tavares didn't have the dignity to stop and admit his defeat, especially because he was badly loosing. Pellegrino finished destroying Thiago Tavares's hype and got a great win. Hope to see him back soon.

Tim Boetsch TKO's Michael Patt (picked Boetsch) - I couldn't quite remember seeing Patt before, but when his awkward self came out I recognized him from Bodog and know "Redneck Judo" was going to get another good showing from Boetsch. "Amature night"-looking fight aside, Boetsch was effective in taking out Patt. Gotta say that "Redneck Judo" is a whole lot more fun when it's effective over a more polished opponent like it was over David Heath, so I hope they match him up against a regular tougher fighter and not another awkward crappy one. Boetsch deserved that.

Jason MacDonald submits Jason Lambert (picked MacDonald) - As I said earlier this trend in fighters to keep dropping weight cause of a few losses is one of the stupidest ones out there, especially dropping down two weight classes. What was Lambert thinking when he took this fight? MacDonald is a huge 185'er, so fighting him is like fighting a 205'er. Like I thought, he had no chance. MacDonald completely overwhelmed him on the ground and submitted him. Lambert should try in WEC for a while and may be come back. MacDonald should probably fight with Kendall Grove.

Ryo Chonan decisions Roan "Jucao" Carneiro (picked Carneiro) - Like many Japanese fighters that come to train with Matt Hume, Ryo Chonan is enjoying the benefits of Hume's training and tuning by being sharper and doing better. It was a complete surprise to me how good Chonan did against Carneiro. It was a close fight with both having good moments. I kind of agree with the judges that Chonan did just a bit more than Carneiro. Good win for Chonan, he should face whoever UFC puts infront of him to prove he'll continue to improve under Hume's tuning. Tough break for Carneiro, second loss in a row. There will lot of pressure for him to win and show the tough Roan Carneiro that gave all kinds of fits to Jon Fitch. Hope he recoveres from this.

Overall, this was a great UFC card with an upset and some nice beatings that turned out about as good as it was on paper.

UFC 88 Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans, Henderson vs Palhares quick picks

mmaninja — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:09:00 -0500

It's that time again, less than two hours before the event and all I have time for now is just the very quick picks for UFC 88. It's another one of those UFC cards that on paper looks average, even with Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson on it, but as it often happens can turn out to be quite exciting.

Roan Carneiro Vs. Ryo Chonan - I really hope this one actually makes it on the PPV. Roan Jucao Carneiro was one of the very few fighters that had Jon Fitch in real trouble. Not an easy fit by any standards. Coming off an upset loss to Kevin Burns he should bounce back and beat Chonan by TKO. Ryo Chonan is a Japanese journeyman who's biggest accomplishment was catching the great Anderson Silva by a jumping scissors to a heelhook submission, but hey, at least is a great accomplishment. Should be a good fight due to Chonan's resiliency.

Jason Lambert Vs. Jason MacDonald - this match up feels like a "retirement from UFC for a while" party for Jason Lambert who has now dropped down to 185. Probably in hopes of better luck. It's an annoying trend nowadays. Lose a few fights and blame it on the fact that other guys are just "too big and strong". Yep, forget the fact that they might have done a few more pushups than you and are just a bit more skilled than you in some areas. Lambert is doing exactly this. He got TKO'd in his losses, not taken down and held down by a bigger stronger fighter. Another loss in the new for him 185 category should teach him a good lesson hopefully. It's about skill stupid! Plus, according to Jason MacDonald pendulum record, he is due for a win. Picking MacDonald by submission quickly.

Tim Boetsch Vs. Michael Patt - Patt has had a few decent wins in Bodog event and is decent on the ground with 12 submissions. Tim Boetsch is the famous for introduction to the world of the very unique style of combat Judo, the brutal "Redneck Judo". He instantly won over a great deal of fans, me including. He was just so much fun to watch and he was kicking ass while at it. Even though Matt Hamill put a damper on his quest for championship, Tim is more focused than ever and I'm sure his "Redneck Judo" is a sharp and unrefined as ever. Picking Boetsch by a vicious throw on a head.

Thiago Tavares Vs. Kurt Pellegrino - Tavares burst on the scene with some of the smoothest jiu-jitsu around and the hype around him was quite strong for a while. But you could see chinks in his beautiful jiu-jitsu based game. Tyson Griffin beat him by a close decision, then a judoka Michihiro Omigawa gave him a good run for his money. Many said Tavares had an off night, but truth was that just beautiful jiu-jitsu may simply not be enough. Matt Wiman proved that, he wasn't afraid of it and KO'd Tavares. Kurt Pellegrino can eat a huge kick and still keep coming. His record isn't the most stellar but he's been in some tough fights. I'm picking Pellegrino to get through the ground assault by Tavares and use his improved striking to beat Tavares, just follow Wiman's blueprint.

Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Matt Brown - Matt Brown is certainly tough and can win fights and finish them, but he HAD to get better at starting to fight sooner in his fights. You can not take a bunch of damage and hope it doesn't affect you too much when you're finally ready to fight back. Kim is an unknown, but based on his record it sounds like he will too come out and hurt Matt Brown for a while and may be Matt Brown will fight back or may be he won't. Picking Kim to start out early and not give Brown a chance to be in a condition to fight back effectively.

Martin Kampmann Vs. Nate Marquardt - Martin Kampmann is cool, awesome combo of dutch striking with improving ground game. However I believe in Nate Marquardt. His destruction of Jeremy Horn made me believe a little longer in his dream to eventually get a crack at Anderson Silva again. Marquardt's loss to Thales Leites was due to questionable fouls. Picking Marquardt to finish Kampmann.

Dan Henderson Vs. Rousimar Palhares - Palhares is a little muscle tank with some very slick jiu-jitsu who in his UFC debut not only submitted a very slick himself Ivan Salaverry with an armbar from back mount but also made Joe Rogan cry on the broadcast with that move. I mean honestly, while not a common move in MMA to date, it is a very common and real simple move in grappling. I just wish Joe Rogan was the one commentating Shinya Aoki pulling off gogo plata from the mount to see and hear Rogan's reaction. He would have blown up from all the excitement. Dan Henderson coming off two tough losses to two super tough guys in Andreson Silva and Rampage Jackson. He's really due to bounce back as he usually does and once again make an example of his opponent. Palhares definitely poses danger to Henderson, but Henderson's experience should bring him victory. Picking Henderson

Rich Franklin Vs. Matt Hamill - Is this a 205 fight? I'm guessing 185 is a pointless division for Franklin to be in so for now he's just going to do fights. No real meaning or a goal. And why not? Beating Anderson Silva is out of question for a few years if ever. He should be just as successful at 205 as he was at 185. May be a good move. Hamill isn't exactly an easy fight to try moving up a category. Franklin should have no problem dealing with Hamill's strong wrestling and hard punching. Picking Franklin

Chuck Liddell Vs. Rashad Evans - I don't know why but I'm not excited about this fight at all. Rashad has amazing potential, but he himself is his only hinderance to being great. He had nothing to be afraid of in his fight with Tito, for 2 rounds he stopped himself from beating Tito up exactly the same way he beat him up in the third. If he didn't get over the fact that he is now part of the more famous fighters and should not be afraid to punch them or take them down, he'll hurt his chances bad against Chuck Liddell. Because unlike Tito, Chuck will actually hurt him. Things are just not looking good for Rashad, he hasn't fought for almost a year, he's tentative with celebrities, his height disadvantage. Picking Chuck Liddell by TKO by Chuck's own sprawl-and-counter (tm). He was sharp against Wanderlei Silva and looked excited again to be fighting. Just hope that is still there.

Revealing recent Fedor Emelianenko interview - last entrance song, his injury, life

mmaninja — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:40:00 -0500

courtesy of sherdog.com

Came across another recent Fedor Emelianko's interview from from his official site posted on 08/08/2008. Cool date! He talks about finding religion, his entrance song and a few other interesting things. Read on for details.

Correspondent: Fedor, first fight according to your contract this year took place. It became one of the fastest out of Your stellar record. Did You expect such a desicive victory over Tim Sylvia?

Fedor Emelianenko: I never exect when a fight is going to end and can never tell ahead of time what is going to happen. Of course, I do want it to end as soon as possible, though I always mentally prepare myself for a long and gruelling fight.

Correspondent: Traditionally fighter's entrance is accompanied by music. This time it was a complete surprise a complete surprise when you came out to a kazak song "Stepan Razin's Dream" (Son Stepana Razina) , better known as a fold song "Oi, to ne veter" (Oi, that's not wind). What made you choose it, and who was it performed by? MMANinja's Note: as Fedor said he had father Andrei record it for him. From little searching that I did I found a version sung by a folk band. Download it here.

Fedor Emelianenko: It was my choice, I really like the song. With God's help I met a wonderful man - a priest from Nizhnii Novgorod father Andrei. When I heard him chant prayers and sing this song, I asked him to record it for me and he agreed.

Correspondent: After the fight cameras zoomed in on a moment when Your coach Vladimir Voronov placed a cross on you. You haven't had it that long. Are you a person of faith?

Fedor Emelianenko: Yes, I'm a person of faith and recently my life has changed, I will try to live my life according to God's teachings...

Correspondent: First step back to church many people make after something happened: serious illness, loss of a loved one, other tragic events... What was the reason for you to make that decision?

Fedor Emelianenko: When I met father Andrei, all my doubts left me...After being around this man, I realized that its the only right way. Through father Andrei God brought me to people who helped me realize how I used to live and how I should live going forward.

Correspondent: A disappointing incident from your last fight became an injury: a broken thumb, the same one that You already had a surgery on, put a metal plate on and so on, it happened again...According to international standards, after a fracture you can not even talk about fighting until after half a year. Does that mean that in 2008 You will not be able to fight?

Fedor Emelianenko: In reality, I don't feel a lot of pain, hand is healing and I'll hope that everything will work out. My next performance is planned in November: Combat Sambo world championships will take place in St. Petersburg.

Correspondent: Do you have plans to participate in "Affliction-2" in October?

Fedor Emelianenko: I would like to take part in "Affliction-2", but I'm not sure yet if it will happen.

Correspondent: Your younger brother Alexander was going to participate in the last "Affliction" event. What was the reason for him not being allowed to fight? Many fear if the same situation will happen at the next event?

Fedor Emelianenko: I can't comment on the situation. Alexander was in fact barred from performing from some blood tests. That's why I can't really say anything.

Correspondent: Last few years you have not trained with your brother. He moved to St. Petersburg and your training, mostly, takes place in Starii Oskol. Any plans to resume training together?

Fedor Emelianenko: It's more convinient and better for me to train in Starii Oskol. That doesn't work for Alex. From what I understand from his recent interviews, he likes it in St. Petersburg and he isn't planning to go anywhere for training.

Correspondent: A considerable group of fans went with you to America. How important is that for you?

Fedor Emelianenko: For me, of course, it's important to have people close to me, who always support me, worry about me and pray for me. I wish all of them could come with me, but none the less it was great to see guys who cheered for me at the event.

Correspondent: Are you planning to fly to Beijing to support russian athletes?

Fedor Emelianenko: Unfortunately, they way things are working out I will not be to go to Beijing. But I wish I could.

Correspondent: One of the organizers of the "Affliction" event was world famous make of stylish clothing, gothic style. You came out in an "Affliction" t-shirt as well. Do you prefer such "brave" style?

Fedor Emelianenko: I prefer a more simple style in clothing. Though I do really like "Affliction" clothes, it's comfortable. And on my t-shirt there was nothing that was against Russian orthodox, so I came out to the ring in it.

Correspondent: In one of your recent interviews we spoke about a project "Fighting Fedor". Are the participant already picked? When will it start?

Fedor Emelianenko: That's a question for Vadim Finkelstein - he leads that project. I don't know the exact time frames.

Correspondent: What are your plans for the near future?

Fedor Emelianenko: I am leaving for America to participate in a press conference. I will also be negotiating with "Affliction" company.

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his new book: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

UFC 87 Georges St. Pierre vs Jon Fitch, Brock Lesnar vs Heath Herring quick picks

mmaninja — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:35:00 -0500

I didn't get a chance to do quick picks for last few UFC events, but the picks are back. Here they are this UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Obviously St. Pierre vs Fitch, Lesnar and Roger Huerta vs Kenny Florian are interesting fight, but the rest of the card on paper is so so for me.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Dan Evensen - Kongo was kinda ripped off in favor of no talent hack Heath Herring in his last fight but showed some improvement in his ground game and I think came away with a few lessons from the fight. That's all that matters in a close loss like that and Kongo will be better off. Evenson fought in Bodog several times but hasn't beaten anyone of note. UFC's heavyweight division is lacking right now so they're bringing him in to feed to Kongo. Picking Kongo by KO

Luke Cummo Vs. Tamdan McCrory - should be a fun fight as both of the guys have decent standup and like to push the action in their fights. Picking Tamdan McCrory based on his better record of winning against better fighters and his reach.

Jason MacDonald Vs. Demian Maia - another fight that has the potential to be pretty exciting from the ground game perspective. Both MacDonald and Maia's previous victories were exciting finishes. Picking Maia by submission.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Rob Emerson - Rob Emerson has actually faced several good guys like Pulver, Vasquez, Mishima in his MMA career prior to his appearance on the Ultimate Fighter TV show. Gamburyan has gotten on a few win streak, both by submissions, since list injury loss to Nate Diaz. Seems like Emerson has had issues with good ground guys in the past, so I'm picking Manny Gamburyan by a few very hard rights, takedown, some pounding and submission.

Kenny Florian Vs. Roger Huerta - after watching UFC 87 Countdown and watching the Roger Huerta segment all I can say is wow. What a story! It's amazing what he has achieved coming off his childhood experiences. He was lucky to have had the people that helped him get on his feet, but his hard work and determination kept him on course. This completely throws out his image of happy go lucky mexican college kid who's fed easy fights. Come on, Clay Guida is an easy fight?

Onto Kenny Florian. He is very intelligent and established himself as a lifelong learner of MMA. His dedication and motivation to be the best has been showing in his recent fights. With that said, I think Huerta's has more power and faster pace, so I'm picking Roger Huera by an exciting decision.

Brock Lesnar Vs. Heath Herring - picking Brock Lesnar to give Heath Herring a retirement beating. Straight right, takedown, vicious ground and pount till TKO. Herring still sucks on the ground after 11 years of being in MMA. This will be much like Jake O'Brian's domination of Herring, only Brock Lesnar will do killer damage.

Georges St-Pierre Vs. Jon Fitch - the event will start in a few minutes, so I'm out of time. Picking Georges St. Pierre by a clean win over the blood and guts of Jon Fitch in a long exciting and gruelling fight!

Yahoo MMA's Meltzer: Brock Lesnar's UFC 87 fight his last chance? Not a chance!

mmaninja — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:02:00 -0500

Out of all the Yahoo! Sports MMA section newly minted MMA "experts" I always considered Dave Meltzer to be the best out of the bunch as he's been around MMA for a while longer than the rest. Most of the time, if I have time, I usually just quickly scan over their MMA coverage as they're often pretty bland and biased and plain bad...cough...Kevin Iole anyone?...cough...cough.

So when Dave Meltzer's Lesnar faces must-win against Herring article showed up on Yahoo.com's front page today I had to check it out. After quickly looking at it I felt compelled to comment on some of the points and errors in his article.

"Lesnar can’t afford a second straight loss on a major pay-per-view event and still be considered a long-term main eventer."

First of all, Brock Lesnar hasn't been a main eventer in UFC yet. His UFC debut fight with Frank Mir felt like one though because of how much popularity he brought to the UFC from his WWE days and stellar NCAA background to go with that. He can very much afford a second straight loss on a major PPV event also because he, in my opinion, lived up to the hype of being incredibly athletic and fast for his size and most importantly that he put in some hard training and looked very very good for being so inexperienced in MMA. He handily beat on Frank Mir but got caught by a much experienced fighter in a possibly debilitating, however not quite there, submission and didn't want to risk a long term injury. He only made more MMA fans with his loss and created more hype and anticipation as to what he can really do in MMA. He is also a natural competitor and it will be very hard for anyone to turn a fight with him into a boring affair. So he can afford 3-4 more exciting losses with no problem for his UFC popularity at all. But that's not going to happen, he is not losing at UFC 87 - not to the sloppy Heath Herring.

Meltzer then proceeds to comment on the fact that because Brock Lesnar came in at a higher salary of guaranteed $250,000 a fight another loss could really ruin his UFC career.

"The others have been given lower or mid-level opponents to start out with to build their reputation. UFC decided that with what they were paying Lesnar, there was going to be no such slow grooming process."

Honestly? With how many PPV buys Brock Lesnar brought in with his first fight, $250,000 a fight is nothing to UFC at this point for a celebrity of sorts. They'd need not even 6000 extra PPV buys to recoup that salary. He brought in quite a bit more than that. Come on, they just got done paying Brandon Vera nearly the same for one of the worst fights this year against a mostly unknown wrestler.

"Texan Herring has 41 pro fights over the past 11 years, in nearly every major organization. He became a star in Japan at the age of 22, and has been in the ring with a Who’s Who list of the greatest heavyweights of all-time."

"Herring, a big star during PRIDE’s heyday in Japan when he was known as “The Texas Crazy Horse” for his unique multi-colored hair, noted he’s beaten men bigger than the 6-2 ½, 277-pound Lesnar, as well as higher credentialed wrestlers. He’s best known for a 2000 win over Tom Erikson"

"Herring (28-13), is known for being difficult to finish; he went the distance twice with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their three meetings, after being submitted the first time. But he was beaten by his most famous opponents in Japan, by Cro Cop from strikes on the ground, and by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood."

Brock Lesnar isn't in much danger facing THIS Heath Herring. Yep. The same Heath Herring who showed his true skills against Jake O'Brian, who couldn't finish Brad Imes (where is he now anyways? Still doing gogo-platas at some tiny shows?), who questionably beat Cheick Kongo. 41 pro fights in the past 11 years and he never amounted to anything in nearly every major organization, besides amuzing Japanese fans with his stupid hair cuts. His supposed wildness or crazyness only amounts to the fact that in 11 years of fighting and training here and there, he still looks as sloppy and amateurish as he did during his "wild days" of wearing leather cloaks for his fight entrances. Lesnar will retire Herring from UFC by beating him in the first round.

Why is Meltzer talking a loss for Lesnar when he's fighting Herring? Herring hasn't submitted anyone in 5 years, let alone anybody good ever. Sorry comparing his wins over wrestlers 7 years ago doesn't make much sense. He hasn't KO'd anybody in 2 years. What he has done is get dominated on the ground by a ground game newbie Cheik Kongo and got completely tooled by a much smaller Jake O'Brian. Given all that and an enormous amount of sloppyness, Brock Lesnar's chances to lose are minimal.

Also, Nogueira submitted Herring in his second fight not first and what does "by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood" mean? I share Fightlinker's sentiments in how sad it is that Yahoo's Sports MMA has some of the biggest audience out there, especially when they often get to the front page, but their MMA coverage is being done either by very inept people with not much clue about MMA and the fact that they're very biased and often inaccurate.

EliteXC on CBS: Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith II thoughts

mmaninja — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:46:00 -0500

This round of EliteXC on CBS wasn't too bad of a show. They've definitely improved on it in a number of areas but at the same time still have quite a bit to improve on. This time I didn't think they delivered a major disappointment to all MMA like their first attempt with CBS in May. While it was about fights for me and I didn't mind too much that the whole production portion of the first show was a complete fumble. Kimbo and Thompson shouldn't have been a main event, but it was an ok brawl. I think MMA media overall, especially Yahoo MMA, were blowing EliteXC's production issues completely out of proportion. Come on, MMA is speeding steam-rolling train that nothing can stop it at this point. Mere 2 months after everyone proclaimed EliteXC did SO much damage to MMA's acceptance by general public NOT too many people even remember that.

Their intro highlight compilation is still the worst of just about any MMA show out there with any sort of budget, especially with a real TV station backing. It's outrageous in my opinion. Did they have golf highlight clip specialist make that? Scrap it, take all that good EliteXC highlight material to date and hire some of the very talented MMA highlight video makers out there in the wild of the internets. They'll probably be happy to make it for free.
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs Shayna Baszler - Wow, Cyborg's wife Cyborg is one vicious and angry woman. Training at Chute Boxe with a bunch of crazy men sure made her one of the most dangerous female fighters out there. It's a little scary how powerful and snappy her striking was. It was a great fight. I blame Josh Barnett for Shayna Baszler's mistakes though. WTF was he thinking not yelling for Baszler to let go of the damn useless toehold! She had Cyborg's leg extended for a least a good kneebar attempt and she kept cranking and wasting whatever energy/strength she had on, I'll say it again, a useless toehold. When the leg is almost straight and near a kneebar position toeholds just don't work until the leg is bent and the toes are near the butt. Then again, Baszler was just thrown down by an angry and a much stronger amazon woman and really had no choice but try for a submission, except she should have tried to get guard and work armbar/triangle. Obviously the end of the fight was a little weird, reminds me of Matt Linland vs Murillo Bustamante, where the clear winner of the fight had to interrupt their celebration, come back and win the fight again. Mazagatti and company should have known better and stopped the fight after first knockdown when it was clear Baszler wasn't ok to continue. But for a great TV moment they made, a mad at that point, Cyborg come back and beat Baszler even worse.
Jake Shields vs Nick Thompson - Shields was again very impressive and dominated the Goatboy Thompson. Shields was great in taking every single opening and taking full advantage of it. Takedown to side, mount, guillotine from the top - like clockwork. Thompson came in with a good win streak over lesser competition and was little to confident with that stupidest looking goat beard. Shields ate him up. Who's he fighting next?
Nick Diaz vs Thomas Denny - I wasn't overly excited to see this fight. I mean Denny is a journey man at best with a spotty record. Crazy stupid hair doesn't buy you skills, just look at that sloppy bum Heath Herring. Is it me or has Diaz been sloppier with his boxing? I know he's got a bit of an unorthodox style, but lately he's been taking a whole lot more punishment to his face than he used to. This cost him the KJ Noons fight. This also made it kind of embarrasing when a bum like Denny landed as much as he did with his awkward striking. So Diaz TKO's Denny and I guess not gets to rematch with KJ Noons. I'm predicting KJ Noons to beat Diaz again by crisp striking and complete face busting with cuts under and over both eyes, nose and forehead. Time for a new boxing coach for Diaz to work head movement and parrying or whatever, but to just avoid eating so many damn punches!
Antonio Silva vs Justin Eilers - Eilers is a bum that should have retired after looking just plain weird during every single of his three consecutive KO during his UFC punching bag days. So Silva beating Eilers was no surprise at all, even considering his not so stellar heavyweight accomplishments either. UFC's heavy's are a joke? Nope. EliteXC's heavy's are a complete mockery of even a half legit division. Eilers, Weizorek, Ricco Rodriguez? Even Silva himself, whose big accomplishment is beating those three bums. After Brock Lesnar chews Heath Herring up and spits him out, Herring will have a nice home and fame in the EliteXC's bum heavy division. He'll be a great fit. They'll only be missing Gan McGee.
Robbie Lawler vs Scott Smith - Nice fight. Started a little slow because it was hard for both to just jump in the slugfest they had previously. Both knew they could get hurt. Lawler pressed the action most of the first round, but Smith rebounded nicely with a good flurry at the end. Smith made a big mistake by just hanging out after he cut Lawler. I kept wondering what he was waiting for when Lawler punched him in the liver with those sharp grazing liver punches during clinch. Those didn't get through right away,but they certainly had a major compound effect which set up the final knees to break right through to knocking the wind out of Smith and putting him down for good. Awesome job by Lawler to pick up the pace and finish the fight.

This was really decent as far as fights go. I wish EliteXC would break the bank and hire some better competition or at least some bright new blood. Other than that, they're on the right track to eventually be #3 behind WEC on Versus and UFC on Spike.

Fedor Emelianenko sweat more while getting his university diploma than beating Tim Sylvia

mmaninja — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:08:00 -0500

Fedor Emelianenko just had an amazing weekend at Affliction's Banned event completely overwhelming Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia with some vicious punches and winning WAMMA Heavy Weight title. He made a big splash with his win at the event and various MMA news media, took pictures with Donald Trump and other celebrities, wore Affliction shirts all around Las Vegas and as Dave Meltzer said he "turned into an undisputed reality" the myths of his skills and might.

You know though, he's already been there, done all that numerous times. Who hasn't been thinking for a while now that his streak just has got to end!? Everyone. He's looked vulnerable so many times, not against Sylvia obviously, but yet his opponents just can't seem to be able to take advantage of those opportunities to beat him.

Anyways, back to my point. He's been there, done that - winning big titles, beating dangerous fighters and proving many wrong. But what Fedor's also done recently, while training for Sylvia, is join the ranks of well educated MMA champions. Just a little over a month ago he defended his Physical Education diploma with "Methodology for developing of strength abilities in training samboists of 13-15 years of age" at Belgorod State University. What usually happens at the "diploma defense" is the student reads their final work on a selected topic in front of a panel of professors and then answer their questions on anything at all that has to do with the topic. No multiple choice here, you have to know your stuff!

Also same little tiny write up mentions that Fedor may get to use his education and experience at the still in construction Academy of Fedor Emelianenko in Belgorod to coach professional fighers. It'll be a really hot MMA training spot for sure.

It's amazing how Fedor managed to keep true to himself and still live in a tiny city, a little aparment and with how rich and famous he is, still finish a Physical Education degree. Congratulations to Fedor and his achievements outside the ring. More Pictures from his "diploma defense".

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his book: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

Dream 5 Lightweight Grand Prix Finals thoughts - MMA tournaments are best

mmaninja — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:09:00 -0500

I've been a big fan of Japanese MMA ever since I could get my hands on some early Pancrase, Japan Vale Tudo, Rings KOK and Shooto tapes. It's the event atmosphere, the knowledgeable crowd who appreciates all aspects of MMA, fighting in the ring, leglocks, tournaments, good fighters and crazy always excited announcers - all those things combined made Japanese MMA very entertaining. I mean if you watched any of the yearly "Best of Shooto" tapes in the late 1990s and compared it to any of the other MMA around the world at the time you'd see how incredible the fights were.

This weekend were the Finals of the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix that started a few months back with first round of the tournament. I was really excited about that card because of several late Pride Bushido stars were to participate. Unfortunately, as it often happens, even the best cards on paper do not always turn out that way. The event was so so and several fighters I was looking out for like Joachim Hansen and Hideo Tokoro were pretty flat. Especially Hansen, who has pulled some amazing grappling moves during his fights, like helicopter armbar, and has had some amazing KO victories as well. I don't know if they layoff affected him or what, but he looked lethargic against a lesser opponent and even though he still finished the fight with a rear naked choke after flipping his opponent over him from all fours right into the back mount he looked like a shadow of his former energetic self. Anyways...onto the fights.

Daisuke Nakamura vs. Andy Ologun - Classic fight between grappler vs striker, as classic as that type of fight can get as Nakamura was even wearing old style Rings shinpad boots, which I thought was awesome. Ologun is brother of Bobby Ologun, who's a some type of comedian-turned-fighter in Japan. It was a fun short fight with Nakamura trying for a kneebar after getting knocked off his feet and finishing the fight with a slick flying armbar!

Joachim Hansen vs. Kultar Gill - Kultar Gill aka Black Mamba is quick striker with some great takedown defence who's given his many mostly grappling opponents hell win or lose. He beat Tokoro twice giving him a beating while escaping numerous submission attempts. To be honest I was a little worried for Hansen because of his last lethargic performance and you have to be very alert fighting Black Mamba. Hansen did good though, he kept pressure on Gill with takedowns so much so that Gill resorted to trying to take Hansen down. Hansen countered with a Kimura and then switched it to an armbar from the bottom for the submission. Good win for Hansen.

Joseph Benavidez vs. Junya Kudo - haven't heard about either fighter before, but Benavidez had Uriah Faber in his corner which only meant that he is from a tough camp and it's going to be a good fight. Benavidez's fighting style resembled Faber's, he was quick with his takedowns, did an awesome slam and looked to have powerful punches. Kudo did catch Benavidez with a few punches and kept up with him for a bit, but they didn't seem to affect Benavidez much. Benavidez pulled off a nice guillotine choke from the mount after quickly turning Kudo over his side from all fours. I'll be looking out for Benavidez now, hopefully he'll get a shot in WEC on Versus soon.

Hideo Tokoro vs. Takeshi Yamazaki - Hideo Tokoro's claim to fame was practically beating the Royce Gracie who outweight him by more than 30lb or so. Tokoro was given a chance of a life time and took full advantage of the opportunity and fought like a little mad man. He's always exciting and has a very slick ground game. Back to this fight with Yamazaki. Great fight with back and forth action. Tokoro actually ended up out striking Yamazaki and had a few kimura attempts. Yamazaki did great at neutralizing Tokoro's great guard and passing it on several occasions. Tokoro took a deserved decision win.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Motoki Miyazawa - Hironaka is a pretty tough guy with wins over Ryan Schultz, Nick Diaz and Renato Verissimo and a decision loss to Jon Fitch. Hironaka and Miyazawa tried to grapple for a bit with Hironaka getting a takedown and Miyazawa attempting to play rubber guard for a bit but quickly gave up. They worked their way back to standing and turned it into a striking match with Hironaka getting better and better as they went on till he finished it with flurry for a TKO from a cut. Decent fight.

Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuyori Shibata - I think Akiyama was the very first MMA fighter entrance to an opera piece and it actually pretty good. Akiyama is a judoka who's been involved in some controversy with oiling up in a fight with Kazushi Sakuraba and generallyn know to be an a$$hole. He's had some good wins over Dennis Kang and Melvin Manhoef recently. For this fight though he was fighting a tomato can of sort in Shibata, may be cause he needed to recover after a vicious KO courtecy of Kazuo Misaki in his last fight. He was having a hard time with Shibata, who was keeping distance and striking from the outside. Akiyama finally cornered Shibata and threw a huge high kick that missed but gave him an opportunity to tie up and do a sweet judo sweep to side mount. He moved to mount and used his gi to choke Shibata completely out with a front choke. Pretty typical Judo.

Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki - Both are exciting fighters. Uno with a good mix of stand up, ground and tenacity (dig up his classic fight with Joachim Hansen!) and Aoki with his rare submission skills, he's the only one so far to pull of a go-go plata from the mount! I was very excited to see the fight even though I know that when two really good guys fight it may not be too exciting. It wasn't the most faced paced fight, but it was great. In round 1 Aoki had a good heelhook attempt, then he took Uno's back and set up Uno to roll out straight in a tight triangle, then an armbar. As great as Aoki was moving from a submission to a submission, Uno was right there with him escaping from the jaws of defeat. Round 2 started off with Aoki taking Uno down, passsing his guard and taking his back again. Uno eventually worked his way out into Aoki's rubber guard to finish the round and the fight. Great round work and control by Aoki, he moved to the finals of the tournament.

Eddie Alvarez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri - Kawajiri a long time top lightweight and generally exciting fighter with strong wrestling and powerful striking from Shooto and Pride Bushido days. He beat Black Mamba and Luis Fermino to get to the semi finals of this tournament to face Alvarez. I haven't really seen Alvarez fight till the begining of this tournament and he really impressed me with his win over Andre Dida and then beating Joachim Hansen. This match just had to be good I thought. What a great fight it turned out! Both guys were really going for it with striking. Alvarez caught kawajiri with a great flurry and almost had him out. Kawajiri recovered and knocked Alvarez down and mounted him. Alvarez escaped to standing and they were both slugging it out out with both of them getting knocked down and still punching. Alvarez kept pushing forward and knocked Kawajiri down yet again and referee made him finish Kawajiri off on the ground. This wasn't the kind of fight to engage in as part of the tournament though. Alvarez had a big mouse with a cut under his right eye to go into the final against Aoki.

Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem - Meaningless fight? Yes. Are Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem fun to watch? Yes. Thats another thing Japanse MMA always offered over MMA - can't be serious all the time so once in a while it's ok to put on fight purely cause they'd be fun to watch! Hunt landed a few hard shots on Overeem to start off, then he kinda just pushed Overeem down and ...gasp.. he proceeded to intelligently pass Overeems guard. Good for you Mark Hunt! Hunt passed Overeem's guard into side mount but Overeem managed to lock in an Americana from the bottom, which he proceeded to crank like crazy and working in his legs as if he was going to go for an armbar on the other arm. He turned Hunt over and submitted him with a kimura from the guard. I wish it was longer, but it was fun while it lasted.

Tournament Final: Shinya Aoki vs Joachim Hansen - Turns out Eddie Alvarez couldn't continue with one eye shut, so Joachim stepped in as a winner of the alternate fight earlier. Hansen had a shorter earlier fight, but Aoki had a go-go plata submission win over Hansen only 2 years ago. Aoki took a charging Hansen down and kinda took his time working for position. Hansen proceeded to literally pester Aoki with a lot of punches from the bottom and making him move. Aoke is forced to stand up and Hansen accidentaly, though lightly, kick Aoki in the groin. To Aoki's credit he takes a very short break and they restard. Hansen throws wild puches, they scramble and Aoki plays rubber guard. Hansen gets out to land some hard punches form the top. He works to get out, stands up and lands a HUGE punch falling down and finishes and stunned Aoki. Hansen in the tournament winner.

Hansen said he want's to fight Alvarez next, but for me I think Alvarez should fight Aoki to resolve the real winner of the tournament.

MMA Tournaments are so exciting to follow and Japanese MMA has always provided us with some amazing events based on the tournaments. While Dream's tournament wasn't the best ever, it was still a decent tournament with excitement and unpredictability that only tournaments can provide. MMA Fighters that won tournaments or had to fight several times in one night always stand out for me as fighters who are just a little bit tougher than others. Vovchanchyn, Fedor, Noguiera, Henderson, Silva, Shogun, CroCop, Gomi are men's men.

TapouT Season 2 on Versus starts July 30th - Mask, Punkass and Skyscrape are back for 10 more episodes

mmaninja — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:44:00 -0500

Versus TV network has established itself on of the major MMA destinations on cable TV in recent years. Carrying World Extreme Cagefighting live events and replays has not only been beneficial for both Versus's and WEC's exposure, but also for the millions of MMA fans that get quality MMA events on free TV. WEC has the very exciting 145lb weight class that UFC currently doesn't. WEC's current 145lb champion Uriah Faber is one of the most exciting and dominating pound for pound fighters in MMA today.

About a year ago Versus introduced MMA fans to their new reality series revealing trials and tribulations of the TAPOUT crew's quest to find future MMA star fighters that could represent the TAPOUT brand. When I first saw it, I was surprised by the show's production quality. It turns out that the show's producers also produced popular reality series like American Choppers and Dirty Jobs. First season of the show was a success and was viewed by more than 40 million viewers, so they're back with more.

I really liked the show because it gave MMA fans like me a unique look into the roots of MMA - what happens at the smaller MMA shows and yet unknown MMA fighers with promise. Stuff like that was gold during the cable PPV black out times and was only shown by a few small documentary films and now it was on weekly! Tapout clothing is one of the oldest MMA companies that has been around since beginning of MMA rise in US. It was neat to hear their history from the founders themselves - the non-stop laughing face-painted MASK, tall and afro wearing SKYSCRAPE and the most sensible of the trio PUNKASS. Even though Tapout now is a major MMA brand that is sold even in regular mall stores and endorse major MMA stars, these guys stay down to earth and still support the small MMA shows and up and coming fighters. Over the course of the shows they've gone to different MMA camps and brought the promising fighters they picked to the shows on their own bus and at times were the only support during the fights.

From Versus TV's press release on what will be on in the Season 2 premier:

In the season two premiere, the TapouT crew travels to San Luis Obispo, Calif. to ‘The PIT’ to see one of John Hackleman’s up-and-coming MMA fighters, Scott Lighty. Scott is accompanied by his best friend and training partner, Glover Teixeira and the crew quickly realizes the potential Glover has, and decides to sponsor both Scott and Glover who are fighting on the same card. UFC legend Chuck Liddell, who is both Scott and Glover’s trainer, makes a special guest appearance.

Below is the video promo for TAPOUT season 2 on Versus that starts on July 30th and will be on every Wednesday at 10 pm. Full Schedule

Watch video

UFC Fight Night Anderson Silva vs James Irvin thoughts

mmaninja — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:38:00 -0500

I'm sure it's been talked about to death by other MMA outlets, but I'm going to chime in on this anyways. Dana White says he isn't "threatened by a T-Shirt company" (Affliction Clothing's first PPV event evah), YET he goes out and puts on a free Fight Night on Spike TV with a STUPID main event with only a few decent match ups. Ya, I get why UFC did it but as most I'm sure predicted it turned out for the worse. Anyways... I still watched it.

Anderson Silva vs James The Scrub Irvin - well, they circled for a while, sure enough Irvin throws a low kick, Silva catches it, counters and Irvin folds for a paycheck. WTF was the point?

Brandon Vera vs Reese Andy - I used to make excuses for Vera and his crappy performances after his contract disputes, which didn't do him any good, but after his tonight's performance I say stick a fork in him for a while and let him go see Tony Robbins, who did wonders for Chuck Liddell. I don't buy Vera's lack of any type of triggerering mechanism against a guy who can't take you down or strike with you on weight cutting. After the first round even a strategerist like Tito Ortiz would have realize that his opponent had nearly non-existent offence and that all Vera had to do is jab Andy's chest and follow up with some crosses or jumping knees or high kicks or wtfever. Seriously, I like Lloyd Irving's Grappling Plan and all, but he isn't doing anything for Vera's obvious flaws with his mental aspect of the fight game.

Hermes Franca vs Franky Edgar - at first I thought - cool, former title challenger vs rising star but then the fight took place. Franky Edgar kept a fast pace and Franca didn't care at all about getting taken down. So Edgar took him down and worked him over with repeated elbows. Joe Rogan tried to defend Franca's relaxation routine under elbow assault saying he's just waiting to explode. Good timing for Rogan cause Franca did almost pull off a nice armbar, but Edgar just as nicely escaped and proceded to gift Franca with face swelling elbows. It was all Edgar most of the fight for a relatively unanimous decision. This fight left me wondering though why would Franca just give the fight away? He's just one of those guys that tries to do everything last minute, unfortuntely for him the hard workers of the world will cosistenly come out on topof the slackers.

Cain Velasquez vs Jake O'Brien - Heavyweight division is kinda hurting so it was good to have this fight to expose Velasquez a bit. He was on a mission and he completed it with non stop punching of trapped O'Brien's head. Kudos to Yamasaki for letting it go for a while so that there weren't any doubts.

Anthony Johnson Vs. Kevin Burns - Burns did impress everyone by beating a really tough Roan Carneiro with a submission in his last fight. However Anthony Johnson made him look very average. The fight was ok until Johnson started feeling more comfortable in the second round and began to pick Burns apart, however lazy. Burns poked Johnson in the eyes about three times in second and in the third round he did it again and really deep. Johnson falls downs, he can't continue, replays show a finger jab going straight into his eye and they award victory to Burns? WTF?

Jesse Taylor Vs. CB Dollaway - I'm glad Jesse was brought back, but at the same time why make such a big deal on the TV show, take him off the Finale show and bring him back not a month later. When did he have time to go to the Alchoholics Anonymous, EH? Anyways, the fight was good, Jesse was controlling CB pretty well, till CB pulled a nice Marcello Garcia move to get behind Jesse and set up his now famous peruvian neck tie choke.

On it's own and without the stupid main event, this Fight Night was ok for me. But considering why it was put on, it was bust. Especially knowing how the competing event went. Dana should be ashamed of his ego, not willing to set up Randy vs Fedor and trying to be a bastard when others do it without him.

Affliction Banned PPV - Fedor Emelianenko vs Tim Sylvia results and thoughts

mmaninja — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:36:00 -0500

I really hope Lorenzo Fertitta is calling Dana White right about now, starts off with a huge sigh of disappointment and says:

"I should have quit my casino job about a year ago. --another sigh-- I just watched Affliction's , as you called a T-Shirt company's, PPV event and I gotta ask you Dana, W..T..F... Better yet, How TF did you F that up? Why wasn't this a UFC card? Crazy Russians you said? Who cares if they wanted a few bum Red Devil fighters bundled with Fedor? So what? We have bums fight all the time in UFC! I mean, take tonight for example! I wish you didn't have that black mail on me, so I could Fn get rid of your rude "personality" and non existent negotiation abilities. Did you see Arlovski? Did you see Barnett? Did you see Fedor? WTF Dana!"

Anyways, as of now I only caught the few last fights of the event and in short it was awesome!

John McCarthy is one of the most elloquent commentators/interviewers ever and who comes with the unmatched experience of being "in" the most fights ever. He was always good in interviews, but he was great as a commentator. Why didn't UFC add him on their commentating team?
Production Quality - who cares!? It's about the fights for me, but I liked the whole "boxing like" atmosphere and the production was pretty good for a first event.
Celebrities - Affliction by far beat UFC Fight night in this category. UFC had like what? Usher and some basketball dude who was texting instead of watching fights. PFFFFT! Affliction had like a whole part of the show where they showed Donald Trump and announced like over ten+ other celebrities. Say what you will Dana, but "T-Shirt" companies do pretty good with celebrities cause they like "all the cool kids are wearing it" t-shirts.
Josh Barnett is one the top guys at heavy. It was a pretty good fight and he knocked Pedro Rizzo out cold with a hook ala Roman Zentsov, in a sense that Rizzo fell the same way after a hook. After the fight he said he wanted to avenge his loss to Rizzo from 7 years ago, I don't believe it though. Come on, Rizzo used to be tough, used to. He had way too many knock outs in recent years and since this event was Barnett's return to US and a big deal, he played the revenge angle to get an easy fight. No matter, he'll take other top competition after this warm up.
Andrei Arlovski was awesome in his third round TKO victory over Ben Rothwell. Arlovski was the agressive fighter he used to be during his UFC heavyweight champion days. He did it all, flurries of puches, kicks, flying knees and leglock attempts. Rothwell did ok for a while but Arlovski kept a fast pace. Rothwell did have a good chance to do some damage after Arlovski's failed leglock attempt, but didn't take full advantage of it.
Donald Trump is a pimp and I'm glad he's somehow involved in Affliction's or WAMMA's or whatever event. He was all up Lennox Lewis during last apprentice because he likes fighting. So hopefully he can make an impact in MMA too, especially if this event was any indicator of what may happen in the future.
Many thousands of Afflictions shirts in one place was making me dizzy. I hope they can scale back on requiring everyone to wear them, especially Fedor's old coach. It was just wrong.
Fedor Emelianenko is freakin awesome! He yet again proves everyone why he is the number one heavyweight fighter in the world! Cause he is Fedor, that's why. Again when everyone is doubting his chances against an ugly huge and dangerous monstrocity in Tim Sylvia, an effective UFC representative in this case in my opinion, Fedor comes out and punches Tim Sylvia with such ferocity and speed that Sylvia falls where Fedor follows up to punch him some more, take his back and choke Sylvia out! Fast, furious and easy. About 30 seconds is all it took to dispose of Dana's boy. Dana's next best boy is Noguera who Fedor already beat 3 times!

The stars lined up for Affliction's event tonight, the fights turned out great and they shut Dana's big mouth up with Barnett, Arlovski and Fedor having awesome performances. I don't know who else they have on payroll as far as fighters go, but I'm willing to bet there will be many fighters trying to get involved with these guys. I hope Affliction made good money or please investors to do another event or more.

Oh, ya, I almost forgot a minor happening at the event. Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture does actually look like a possibility, cause Fedor said he's interested and Randy came out to say he is too and called Fedor a TOVARISH. He messed it up, but at lease he tried. Respect was the aura of that face off. I can't wait for it and will definitely be buying it. If you consider yourself an MMA fan YOU should too, even if you split it with your buddies that's ok too.

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his book: Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA