UFC (MMA) Blog

Brock Lesner

2011-01-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

I will have to admit that I am not really a fan of Brock Lesner. In fact I would have to say that I really enjoy watching him loose, which made his fight against Cain Valesquez quite enjoyable to me. However as professional "heels" often say, they don't care if you like them or hate them as long as you pay attention. Thats why I really think putting him on the TUF season to coach against Junior Dos Santos is quite a brilliant idea, some have said that someone who only has 7 fights wouldn't be much of a coach. I however completely disagree, he is a former NCAA heavy weight champ, and I happen to believe that wrestling is the hardest part of mixed martial arts to learn and in that way he can be a tremendous help. That is unless he shows up and pulls a Ken Shamrock of course, and lets all hope that doesn't happen. Well we should find out in the next couple of months how thats going to turn out, Should be a interesting ride.

Strikeforce

2010-05-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am going to have to say that I am becomming less and less impressed with Strikeforce. With each and every event I become a little more disappionted with them. It's really everything about it but I will try to group some of these things so they will make sense.
Lets start off with thier annocing team, I don't know about everyone else but I feel Gus Johnson is completely the wrong guy for the job. I have never heard someone so iggnorant to the sport, which makes his way over the top calling look even more stupid. I can't help but roll my eyes almost everytime he speaks. Frank Shamrock on the other hand, was a great fighter and a pioneer in this sport but has no idea what it means to be a neutral play-by-play man(niether does Joe Rogan, but thats a different blog all together). Marou Ranello (not sure on the spelling), he is just more of a personal prefrence, his voice just kind of gets on my nerves and thats really it.
On to thier roster, which to kind is not exactly full. Thier heavyweight division is in my humble opion a joke. They really only have two legitiamte "world class fighters" in Overeem and Fedor. The rest of thier divisions a pretty much just as bad. In fact I think thier deepest divison might be thier womens divison and lets just say it's not exactly busting a the seams. Maybe one day they will be able to build up to the likes of the UFC but I personally just have a hard time seeing it. Now I will continue to watch thier fights because free mma is good mma but they do have a lot of work to do.

JLD

Anderson Silva

2009-04-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are giving "the Spider" a really hard time about his fight this past Saturday, to be honest I don't see how he is taking most of the blame. You can't really fight someone who doesn't want to fight, it seamed that anytime Silva even got somewhat close to Thales Leites he would would just fall to the ground. I thought that is was especially pathetic because he wasn't even trying to pull guard, he would just flop on the ground and hope Silva would come down there with him. Yes it is true that in the third round, I think, Silva had a chance to finsh him but in all honestly I think Silva would know if he could have finished him there.
Now I see a lot of the frustration with him also coming from his previous fight with Patrick Cote, that I admittedly did no see. The fight I saw a on Saturday night though was not his fault by the way I see it. I think it's a bit stupid to say that he should have gone to the ground with Leities, which is possibly the one place that he could have lost the fight. It was Leites's job to get him there if that is where he wanted the fight to take place. I see the dancing that Silva was doing as "the spider" trying to taunt him into fighting him, which clearly did not work. So I say lets get him someone that is going to fight him and not dance around and just try to survive the fight.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

Strikeforce on Showtime 1

2009-04-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well I would like to say that this was a pretty good night of fights, the fight I liked the most was the Radach vs. Smith fight. That was quite a fight and very exciting, and how many times can Scott Smith pull out victories like that? The fight I was most disgusted with was the "Cyborg" Santos fight, Akano was clearly over matched and not near strong enough to be in that fight. I personally found it hard to watch after the first round, I was honestly afraid the Akano was going to get seriously hurt in this bout. I also was very disappointed with the main event, but more on that later in the blog.
Now the Radach/Smith fight that was an absolute entertaining slug fest, I was rooting for Smith the whole time, I don't have anything against Radach I just like Smith a little more. I thought Radach was going to get stopped in the first round until he caught Smith at the end of the round, then I though Smith was going to get stopped and he some how came out of it. In the second round Radach really took over, and at one point I think the ref could have stopped the fight and would not have been wrong and probably would not have received any criticism. I personally think that clearly Smith was behind on all of the judge's score cards, which makes him 3rd round TKO of Radach all that more impressive. Once again GREAT fight, and personally I would love to see a rematch.
On to the main event, to start off with I thought this was going to be a good fight. I really can't stand either fighter but I was rooting for Frank Shamrock because I hate him a little less than I hate Nick Diaz. Shamrock looked lost in this fight, it was almost as he got old over night. He was much slower, appeared to be not as strong as Diaz who was basically coming up from the lightweight division and fighting a middleweight. Shamrock couldn't get inside Diaz's reach and really didn't develop any kind of offense that I could see. I normally am not the kind of fan that tells thinks I know when a fighter should retire, but judging by that fight alone I think Shamrock should consider it. Maybe he just had a really bad fight, but as much as I don't like Shamrock he is a very smart guy and probably knows more than anyone if it is time for him to hang the gloves up.

Until next time I am out of here,

JLD

Ultimate Fight Night

2009-04-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Now I didn't get the chance to write my blog the night of the fights but i was pretty good. So in this blog I will just cover the main event, which by the way I thought was a great fight. This fight was far more competitive than a lot of sport writers thought it was going to be, personally I didn't really know what to think about this fight as I posted in a previous blog. Mostly I had a lot of questions about Condit, I thought either the fight would go just like it did or Kampmann would completely blow him out.
As far as the fight goes, it was a very very close fight, in fact I don't recall seeing a fight that was closer than this one. If the judges had decided that Condit won I don't think that would have been the wrong call either. That fight was so close I think it could have been legitimately called a draw, even though that is not possible with the 10-9 system unless there is a point deducted.
The one great thing that I think comes out of this fight is that we found out that Condit is really contender in the welterweight division. The other thing is that Martin Kampmann is one tough fighter who gutted out a very tough fight.I honestly can't wait until these two are back in action.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

Brandon Vera vs Matt Hamill at UFC 101

2009-03-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is a bout that is rumored for UFC 101, it was reported on one of my regular MMA sites. Now I noticed of the message broads that a lot of fans are predicting that Vera is going to loose this fight if Hamill uses his wrestling. Now I don't understand this simply because I don't really see a way that Hamill can win this fight, he striking while powerful is very slow and very sloppy. I believe that Vera is simply going to make Hamill look extremely bad and this fight is going to be very ugly for Hamill as long as Vera shows up to fight. Brandon's striking is too accurate and lethal, his hand speed and foot speed will simply out class Hamill.
A lot of the fans are saying Hamill is going to beat Brandon by simply out wrestling him, but I guess that a lot of people forget that Brandon is an extremely talented wrestler who just missed the US Olympic team. He has wrestler with the likes of Mike Van ars Dale, Randy Couture, Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland. Personally I think that Brandon Vera is the better wrestler in this fight and the better striker and has far better BJJ. So once again I would say how is Hamill going to win this fight? Even if they are close to the same amount of wrestling talent, Vera is the much larger fighter.
I really hope this fight happens, I don't know how competitive this fight will be, but it definitely has the potential for fireworks. So lets all just hope for a good fight and see what happens.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Condit vs. Kampman

2009-03-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is really and interesting fight to me mostly because I have no idea who is going to win. Now they have a very very similar skill set, both are really good at submissions and very talented stand up fighters. Carlos and Martin also have legitimate knock out power, and from what I have seen there wrestling is negligible in comparison to each other. The biggest mystery and the most interesting thing is the strength of each ones competition.
I believe that Martin has been fighting the tougher fighter and the fact that he also fought some serious competition at middle weight which are obviously much bigger fighters and did very very well. Now I think their are some big question marks about Condit's competition, as most people know he was the long running champion of the WEC. I feel and as I think most people do that the welterweight and the middleweight divisions were by far their weakest divisions. So I really think that this will be a true test for Condit.
Also I think this is somewhat of a test for Kampman, because if he walks through Condit, the UFC will start to seriously look at Kampman as a title contender. I would have to say that I am rooting for Martin, simply because I like him as a fighter and person. I think if he wins the UFC should set his next fight against someone like Mike Swick, who has been asking for a step up in competition. I guess we will see what happens at the fight night on Wensday the 1st at the ultimate fight night.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Ken Shamrock test positive of Steriods

2009-03-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

I have actually been one of the few people that have been defending Shamrock in that he wants to keep fighting. I have always though that yeah he is way past his prime, but when he was in his prime the fighters were not making any money. So I don't think that it is wrong for them to make some money at what they love to do, and what they helped build.
Now I have changed my tune about Shamrock and him alone, when it gets to the point that you have to start taking steroids to even get in the cage with 300lbs tomato cans it is time to retire. People have been saying that he is ruining his legacy by loosing all of those fights in a row, but I don't think that was doing anything to his legacy and now that has all changed. So Ken it is really time to hang it up man, you were great in your day
Hopefully he will not get approved by any other athletic commissions, or maybe if he is smart he will gracefully bow out and apologize for his mistake. That would hopefully save a little face for him self. Well that's all for now on this subject, I hope one day the steroid use will calm down in this sport because it really is starting too look bad for this great sport.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

UFC 96 Blog

2009-03-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Okay I must start off with the positive side of this UFC. This was a really really goodnight of exciting fights. I though the Maynard vs. Miller fight was quite entertaining even though it went to a decision, Maynard truly picked Miller apart and showed how much better of a wrestler he was. The Hamill vs. Munoz fight was a fight that I thought the end was shocking and extremely unexpected, many people thought that Hamill was going to have a lot of problems with Munoz because it was the first guy that Hamill fought that could possibly out wrestler him. That of course we found out was completely incorrect, and for Hamill to knock him out with a head kick I thought just completely came out of no where.
Now the Matt Brown and Pete Sell fight probably deserves it's own paragraph and the fight only lasted about two minutes. Brown completely dominated Sell from the opening bell until the fight was stopped (the second time). I was completely stunned that when Brown knocked Sell down the first time and the ref jumped on him and then let the fight go, which is one of the most ridiculous things I have even seen. Now even after that Brown was battering Sell all over the cage and the fight should have been stopped on multiply occasions. It was so bad that I was beginning to become concerned for Sell's health and clearly so was Matt Brown. It was pretty plain to see that Sell was out on his feet and hurt very badly. I personally think that ref should be seriously reprimanded and possibly fired.
I would say that Shane Carwin really is starting too look like a contender for the heavyweight title. His knock out of Gabe Gonzaga was quite impressive and should that he could deal with adversity in a fight. The Rampage vs. Jardine fight is was also very good and I really wanted to see Rampage win so I was pretty happy about it. Rampage also showed some ability to block kicks and I was really surprised to see him throw kicks which I don't know that he has even done in a fight that I remember. So it looks like his move too the wolfs lair has really helped him and appears to be adding elements to his game. I can't wait for him to fight Rashad Evans and hope that he knocks him out cold. I really do not Rashad and his constant show boating it really does bug the crap out of me. Well so here we go, at lease it does give us some insight as to what is going to happen with the light heavy weight division.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

Frank Mir (updated)

2009-03-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Well it looks like Mir's knee is in fact the real deal and he is out of his fight with Brock Lesner in May. I am pretty disappointed but I would much rather see him pull out of the fight than to see him fight Lesner at 40%, I feel when they fight with serious injuries they kind of cheat the fans because if could have been so much different. The other thing about that is, if you chose to fight with an injury (which a lot of fighters do), I don't want to hear you blame the injury for the loss, you chose to fight with it so accept it.
Now I am not sure what the UFC is going to do about the loss of this fight on this card, personally I think they should move the fight to U.F.C 100 and not stick someone else in to fight Lesner because if they happen to when then we have a huge mess in the heavyweight division and nothing will ever be sorted out. So I guess we will have to wait and see what happens in the next week or so, but mostly I think we will just have to trust the U.F.C. and their match making abilities which have been proven again and again.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Mir injured or not

2009-03-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

There are reports all over the Internet that Frank Mir has been injured and it out of his fight with Brock Lesner at UFC 98. Now yahoo sports is saying that the fight is still on because Mir's knee was just scoped and cleaned up. Now here is the question, is Mir playing mind games like he did with the Big Nog fight, or was he actually injured. I have to say it though, this is the true genius of Frank Mir and how intellectual he really is. Now he has us all guessing.
The thing is that if it was just a scope and clean up his knee, I find it hard to believe that he could be in tip top shape by the time the fight comes around. I truly believe that Mir can beat Lesner again especially if he comes in the shape that he did against Big Nog. So I guess we will just have to wait and see what is going to happen with this but I have a sneaking suspicion that the knee is not as bad as some of the reports are saying.
I really hope that this fight goes on as scheduled because I am really looking forward too it. This should be a really good and exciting fight. So I will write another blog as soon as I here something more on the subject.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Dana White

2009-03-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

There is no one person in mixed martial arts that is so loved and or hated by so many. I personally think that he has done great things for this sport and it would not be near what it is in the United States if it even would still be here. Dana White and the other two owner's turned the UFC into a sport instead of a spectacle that it started off as. Now he is very abrasive and often unprofessional, but lets be honest everything he says is the same thing all of the other promoters say they just say it behind closed doors.
So at least he is openly an ass instead of all smiles in public trying to act like he is some kind of class act. Also we really need to realize that he is running a business and he will defend it probably to the death. So I would say that we all need to give him a bit of a break and just let him run the company....he has done a fine job so far.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Gray "The Bully" Maynard

2009-03-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

I would just like to start off and say that I really like Gray as a fighter and I think that he unfairly catches a lot of criticism from MMA fans for his fight with Rich Clemente. Now granted it was not an exciting fight but Gray did what he had to do to beat a very game and dangerous Clemente. I am extremely excited to see how he develops as a young fighter with superb wrestling ability, and for those who say he is boring I would say Clay Giuda (spelling?) is about a million times more boring. Now he fights Jim Miller this Saturday and once again I am excited to see him fight and see what improvements he has made since his last fight.
Gray is a very like able guy from what I have seen and he seams to simply be a much smaller Randy Couture and he doesn't want to take any easy fights. A lot of fighters always talk about wanting to fight nothing but the best, but Gray actually does it. His last fight against Clemente and this one against Jim Miller are both huge steps up in competition for a guy with only 6 or so fights under his belt. So hopefully we will see Gray coming out throwing bombs like he usually does and get another exiting fight from him, and if he plays it safe with a good game plan I say lets just wait and give him a chance to develop.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Hughes is going to finally fight Serra

2009-03-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

This fight is finally going to happen and I can't wait. I really want Hughes to just destroy Serra, not that Matt Hughes is really that much of a like able guy, I am really just picking the lesser of two evils. Hughes is a bit of an ass but you know one thing is for sure, he is always going to tell you what he thinks whether you like it or not. Honestly I can respect that, he doesn't always use the correct tact but I find it refreshing that he is usually a no B.S. kind of a guy. Serra on the other hand kind of reminds me of a little weasel. From what I have seen on TUF when they were coaches is there are basically the same person, just Matt Serra is more sneaky and behind the back kind of a guy.
I find Serra to be your stereo typical New Yorker (I know he is from Long Island) in that he is very obnoxious, boastful and just an overall "I'm better than you" attitude. It really kind of turns me off of him and sometimes it seams as though he thinks he is the greatest mixed martial artist that has ever stepped in the cage. Now to me he has really done nothing in his career that impresses me or merits such an ego. So all in all I see Matt Hughes dominating this fight, much to my enjoyment I might add. I really don't feel that Matt Serra has shown anything in his fights that would lead me to believe that he can beat even this aging Hughes. So lets hope this fight will be the end of this "grudge match" and hopefully Hughes comes out on top.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

Gonzaga vs. Carwin

2009-03-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is a fight that I am also very excited to see, first and foremost I have yet to get to see Carwin fight in the UFC. Now we can really see if the hype is real or not because this is definitely a dangerous fight for Shane Carwin. I think mostly people are wondering how deep Carwin's gas tank is and in this match we should find out pretty quickly. Not to say that is out side the realm of possibility that this couldn't be stopped in the first round, I even have a feeling that it might be.
Gabe Gonzaga is a dangerous opponent for anyone to fight. He has top notch BJJ credentials although I have yet to really see him use them in M.M.A. and is very heavy handed. So he could either submit Carwin or knock him out which makes this fight all the more interesting. If I had to say one bad thing about Gonzaga it is that he seams to give up on himself in fights when they start going badly, like in the Couture and Werdum fights. Granted in the Couture fight his nose was broken very badly, but he was no where near the same fighter he was before the nose was broken. That could be a by product of Randy's relentless pressure in the fight also.
Shane Carwin on the other hand I know very little about though. I do know that he is an excellent wrestler and is very heavy handed also. I also here from sports writers and other people that he has well above average hands (technically speaking) to go along with his heavy handedness. Now judging by his size and what I hear, if he turns out a dominant performance in this fight he could be a VERY serious contender for the heavyweight crown. If everything that has been said about him is true he sounds like he would be a very bad match up for Brock Lesner.
Going on feeling alone and really nothing more I am going to have to pick Shane Carwin for this fight. I might be wrong but if even half of what Dana White and other sports writers are saying about him is true, I think Gonzaga has a monster in his hands to deal with.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

Rampage vs. Keith Jardine

2009-03-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Now this is a fight that I really want to see, I will admit that it doesn't make a lot of sense as far as the title picture goes but whatever it should be a slug fest. Honestly I think that Rampage is the big favorite in this fight, but I know how Jardine could win. He could win in basically the same way that he beat Chuck Liddell and the way that Forrest Griffin beat Rampage (and Forrest did win that fight). That's with a steady stream of leg and body kicks to break Rampage down and then knock him out.
On the other hand Jardine has shown a big problem with people that come out and jump all over him quickly. If you need an example look at his fights against Houston Alexander and "The axe Murderer". Normally Rampage doesn't rush out there with that reckless aggressiveness as he usually prefers to counterstrike. Don't get me wrong even if he doesn't rush out and jump all over Jardine he still has plenty of power in his punches to make it lights out for the "dean of mean". So I find it hard to see Jardine winning this fight but it is definitely possible for him to do and I wouldn't be completely shocked if he did.
If Rampage hasn't figured out how to defend leg and body kicks then he is going to be in for a very long night and probably won't win. Keith Jardine has also proven to be quite the spoiler in this kind of situation, I for one can not wait to see what happens in this fight it is going to be an absolute war I think. But as I stated before I have to go with Rampage on this one, I personally hope he knocks out Jardine and then goes on to knock out Rashad Evans who is another fighter I can't stand but that is for a different entry.

Well until next time I am out of here,

jld

The so Called "lucky punch"

2009-03-02T20:13:00.000-08:00

To be honest this is phrase that I absolutely hate. Most fans use it when "their" fighter loses to someone they thought that they shouldn't. I happen to believe that there is really know such thing as a "lucky punch" and it really kind of pisses me off when they say it. The latest case is something that I already touched on with the Faber vs. Brown fight.
Now I feel the need to explain this but as Jens Pulver said it best when he lost to Joe Lauzon, "he threw the punch, and it landed so what was lucky about it?". That is simplified but it basically says it all, if a guy throws the punch and it lands where he was aiming how was it lucky?
Someone on an MMA site told me it more refers to the fact that the fighter was lucky that the opening came up. To me this is even more of a ridiculous reason, when you think about it because now you are saying the guy got lucky by taking advantage of a mistake the other fighter made. Now if mistakes were not taken advantage of we would have a lot more draws in fights don't you think.
So I would say lets get rid of this "lucky punch" crap and just admit that the fighter that lost didn't win because it was not his night or he made a mistake. Mostly lets stop trying to discredit great fighters and their abilities.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

WEC Fights

2009-03-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Well sorry everyone but I missed the first fight of the night with Rob McCullough and Marcus Hicks, but from what the two fighters looked like and the scores on the card it didn't seam to be all that impressive but I will read up on the fight and see how it was.In reality though the only fight that I am really looking forward to is the Brown vs. Garcia. So far thought the Jose Aldo fight has probably been the most impressive fight so far. I thought the Ricardo Lamas fight was a little boring and just another example of a good wrestler who needs to work on his finishing ability.
Now don't get me wrong some of my favorite fighters are former wrestlers but I absolutely despise the Matt Linland lay and pray style of fighting. I usually give young up and coming wrestler's a break because I do realize that they are still leaning the sport. So I would say that I am a little more forgiving than most fans of this sport. Now on too the main event.
That was an impressive fight by Mike Brown, what a completely dominate performance by the champion. I really think that Faber is going to have a serious problem trying to beat Brown, and as I said in a previous post I really don't think that Mike gets the respect that he deserves. He really can be champion as long as he wants if he keeps training and coming to his fights prepared like he is. But I am sure that people will be saying how that overhand right was just another "lucky punch", and the impressive arm triangle was just luck to I am sure. Well I look forward to seeing him fight again, also it was overall another great night of fights from the WEC.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Mike Brown get no respect

2009-02-27T22:21:00.000-08:00

You know admittedly I had no idea who Mike Brown was before he fought Faber for the WEC featherweight title, but from what I was reading on yahoo sports and a couple of other sites he was not someone to be over looked in that fight. Now what I don't understand is how people are saying it was a lucky punch that stopped Faber, first off there is really no such a thing as a lucky punch, he threw it and it landed right where he wanted it to so what was lucky about it. Now some people are saying that Faber just got careless in that fight, but he gets careless in EVERY fight that he is in, and Brown was just the first to capitalize on it.
Mainly the thing that I don't understand is that a lot of fans are not giving him a chance in his fight on Sunday with Garcia, but think that Faber would destroy him in a rematch. Now Garcia is by no means an easy fight to win but I think Brown will take it and probably by K.O. or T.K.O. I think he is just going to be too big and strong for Garcia, but obviously Garcia has the power in his hands too put Brown down. We will just have to wait and see what happens on Sunday for that fight but I am excited to see it.
However if Brown gets by Garcia I am sure that Faber will be up next, now I think the second time around the fight will be much more competitive but I still think Mike Brown wins this fight. I think number one he is too big and strong for Faber, and he is as equally skilled in almost every area that Faber is. He may be even more skilled in some areas but the two didn't fight long enough to really be able to tell that. So I guess we will see what happens but lets all give Mike Brown a little more respect than he has been getting and enjoy the fights this weekend.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

BJ Penn's Crying

2009-02-27T09:59:00.000-08:00

Okay this is that last and final time that I am going this subject, but I recently watched a video that Penn released to mmajunkie.com trying to state his case as to why he lost his fight to GSP. I am getting really, really tired of hearing about this and would enjoy it very much if it would just stop. I personally feel that GSP completely manhandled Penn in their match and can't really recall any time during the fight that Penn even had the smallest chance of winning.
The absurdity of this video in question is actually quite laughable. Penn uses everything from the fact that GSP grabbed his shorts in a take down, to Vaseline, to getting hit in the back of the head while GSP was pounding his head into the mat. The video is so completely one sided that it is almost goofy. He talks about how shinny GSP looks between rounds, but of course he is, he has been sweating like pig for the last 3 rounds. It fails to show Penn and how "shinny" he was from getting his ass handed to him.
The video in my humble opinion just makes BJ look desperate to explain why he didn't back up any of the trash that flowing out of his mouth before the fight. I guess in his mind that no one can beat him that badly without cheating so he has to come up with reason for why he lost. I personally think he lost because GSP was bigger, stronger and plain out worked Penn. BJ also proved that he is still a spoiled lazy brat who can't stand to loose, and when he does all we hear is crying out of him about this and that and whatever else he can come up with.
Now in closing I have read that he turned down a fight with Kenny Florian sometime this summer. I don't know what is going on but it sure looks like to me that the great BJ Penn is ducking Kenny Florian and avoiding putting up his title against him. I personally hope Kenny gets his shot and destroys Penn and then BJ is never heard from again. But then again we all know Penn will be back to whine and complain and call Kenny a cheater and it will be the same thing all over again.

Until next time, I am out of here

jld

Couture vs. Nogeria at UFC101

2009-02-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

This fight has been one that almost all fans have wanted to see since Nogeria has joined the UFC. Now from what I have read on mmaweekly.com is that Couture has accepted the fight and the UFC is waiting to here back from Nogeria. I for one would really like to see this fight and think that it truly could go either way. It is definitely a fight of conflicting styles, can Couture hold off Norgeria's submissions? Even better Couture has not been submitted in several years, and I believe that he will be trained in submission defense by "Jacare" or I believe Robert Drysdale who both probably just as good at BJJ as Nogeria.
I really hope this fight does happen because I am not really sure who would win, but it is a fight that I think most likely would go to a decision. I think I would favor Couture simply because when Randy puts Nogeria on his back I don't think Nogeria will be able to reverse or submit Couture. So lets all hope it will happen and hope for a good fight, with two legends living it all in the cage.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Damn I am happy EliteXC is gone

2009-02-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

You know tonight there was nothing on TV except the original Elite XC show, the Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock show. I am sitting here listing to the absurd play by play that this show had, I mean when Bill Goldberg is you Thia fighting expert you know that you have a problem. The fact that Gary Shaw stood right behind the announcer in plain site of the camera for the Gina Carrano (spelling?).
I really just always knew these guys were sleaze balls and it seams my thoughts were correct. Overall I was just tired of seeing the few actually talented people that they had completely fighting what we like to call "tomato cans". It really just completely reminded me of a strictly boxing promoter, which is where the Shaw's came from anywhere, so there really never should have been any surprise about it.Well I just wanted to go off on this little rant and I don't really know why because they are already gone. It just really reminded me of it being much better to watch on mute, I know it sounds funny but it is definitely true. Well I am done now and out of here.

Until next time I am gone,

jld

Does Demian Maia deserve a title shot?

2009-02-23T18:24:00.001-08:00

To me this is a difficult question to answer. You know the popular opinion is that Yushin Okaimi deserves the title shot next. There are quite a few people in line for this shot I feel, there is Okami, Henderson, Bisping,Marquardt and now Maia. Really this division has always really been thought of as a week division, but in reality I think Silva is just that good of a fighter and makes everyone else look like they are not as good.
Now to me I still think that Henderson has the very best chance of beating Silva, followed by Marquardt. I really think that Okami really doesn't stand much of a chance, and Bisping's chances are even worse than Okami's. Not that I don't think Bisping is a good fighter, it's just that his skills play right into Silva's and he is just on another level in the striking department. Okami just really has not impressed me with any of his fights or really proven that he has the tools to beat someone like Anderson Silva.
The thing about Maia is I don't know if he has the tools to beat Silva, now clearly he has the BJJ to be able to submit Silva but my question would be, can he defend himself long enough on the feet to get Anderson to the ground. I have not seen enough of his striking to really make an educated opinion on if he could or not. So I would say look at the other contenders records in the UFC, Maia is undefeated with all of his wins coming by first round submission. Henderson and Bisping are already set up to fight for a title shot, so we will remove those two from contention. Marquardt has lost two fights in the UFC, one being to A. Silva and a controversial decision to Leites.
I would it's a toss up between Marquardt and Maia as too who deserves the shot more, you could say that Marquardt has had his chance but I don't really subscribe to that line of thought. I wouldn't want to make that choice, I think the only solution is too have the two of them fight and the winner gets the title shot behind Hendo/Bisping. That seams to be the only logical solution to me. I think with winner to that fight there would be no argument that they deserved
a title shot. Well that is my view on the subject, I don't know if I am right but it is my thoughts on the subject.

Until next time I am out of here.

jld

UFC 95

2009-02-22T00:38:00.000-08:00

Okay here we are getting ready for another great night of FREE fights from the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Before the fights begin I will give my picks and we will see how I do as it goes along.

Sanchez (I hope I am wrong, see previous blog)
Hardy (Don't know much about him, basically just guessing)
Marquardt
Sonnen
Koscheck (I don't really care for him either)

Kocscheck vs. Thiago

WOW. That's all I can really say. I really have to say that Koscheck really had nothing to complain about after seeing the replay. It looked to me like the lights were on but nobody was home and the referee made a good call. Before the knock out all I could really say about the fight is that Thiago has a really impressive chin, and has a lot of problems in his stand up but it is not near as bad as I kind of thought is was going to be. I really thought he was going to be another undefeated Brazilian with good BJJ but really bad stand up and I was incorrect. But overall a good and pretty exciting fight.

Sonnen vs. Maia
That was a fast fight also. I thought Sonnen would be able to keep it off the ground, I was impressed with the throw that Maia put on Sonnen and really didn't see it coming. However we did finally get to see a little bit of Maia's stand-up game and it was decent, so that did answer a few questions about him. I still don't know that he will be able to handle anyone of Anderson Silva's caliber, but if he keeps going the way he is then I guess we will find out soon. I really think that they should step up his competition a little more now, maybe they should give him the looser of Henderson vs. Bisping and see how he does, since supposedly the winner of that fight gets a shot at the Spider. Overall another good fight and the night is shaping up nicely so far.

Dos Santos vs. Struve (didn't make a pick on this fight)
Not much too say. I haven't really seen either fighter before, I knew Dos Santos had knocked out Werdum thought. Good knock out and nice stoppage, the fighter was given plenty of chance to recover. I didn't really get to see enough of either fighter to have much of an opinion.

Marquardt vs. Gouveia
Well the first round had quite a bit of a feeling out period. It looked like they were pretty evenly matched on the feet, it looks like so far neither one of them really had an edge technically. Obviously Gouveia does have the edge in power thought. Gouveia had Nate rocked badly in the second round and made a huge mistake, he also appeared to be gassing out very quickly like many people expected he would. Nate also almost finished him at the end of the second which probably zapped some more of his gas tank. That was a very impressive finish, and one I didn't really see coming. I was kind of surprised the Nate appeared to be a little gassed in the third round, I don't know that I ever recall him gassing in a fight. Apparently he wasn't though because he really exploded with that knee and final onslaught. I would be interested in seeing him against Anderson Silva again, but still not completely convinced that he can beat him.

Etim vs. Cobb (didn't make a pick on this one either)
Fairly uneventfully first round, mostly Etim kicking Cobb and Cobb trying absolutely desperately to get the fight to the ground. The only problem is that once he got it to the ground he couldn't seam to do anything with it and Etim just holds on, gets up and kicks Cobb some more. Well that was an impressive knock out after a some what lackluster first round, overall decent fight and a good stoppage by the referee.

Eklund vs. Dunham (didn't make a pick)
WOW. Another exciting fight. Dunham apparently carries some pretty big power for a lightweight. Dunham also has a pretty good chin he took a couple of shots in that fight and it didn't appear to hardly faze him. I am becoming more and more impressed with fighters who train their stand up with Shawn Tompkins at Extreme Couture that all seam to be very stong stand up fighters.

Grove vs Mike C.
I have never seen either one of these guys fight, but I do know that Mike C is naturally and has always fought at LHW and is stepping up on short notice for the UFC. That was a nice heel hook, he pretty much snuck it in there and I think he did tear something in Grove's knee. Hopefully they will both be back in the UFC sometime. I am kinda interested to see what would happen.

Hardy vs. Markham
Another knock out that was pretty impressive, not really much of a fight. About the only thing Markham was doing is being aggressive, and walked right into a big left hook. I am not completely sure but I don't think Markham landed anything significant in that fight.I would really like to see Markham back in the UFC and hopefully he will be. On the other hand Hardy looked very very good and I can't wait to see him again.

Sanchez vs. Stevenson
One thing that I do notice before the fight starts is that I would have thought that Sanchez would have had a bigger reach advantage, just something kind of surprising. At the start of the fight Sanchez doesn't really seam to be that much bigger than Stephenson. So far I am not overly impressed with Sanchez at LW at the end of the first round, he is landing the more power full shots but was unable to overwhelm Joe like Florian and Penn did. I don't know is Joe can win this fight on the feet even though he appeared to be picking Sanchez apart at the start of the round. After the second round I am finding myself thinking Sanchez is really not looking like the "LW Champ" that he has claimed that he already is. It almost appears that Sanchez has lost quite a bit of his punching power with the weight drop, not that he was a really big puncher to begin with but it seams to not have as much "pop". I think Sanchez won the fight but was not really impressed with his LW debut, and I am not convinced that he could be Florian or Penn in this weight class like he claims that he could, but I guess will have to wait and find out. Well he did a lot of talking and I don't really feel like he backed up what he was saying, but lets see his next one and see what happens.

Overall I thought it was a great night of fights and even better because it was free.Well I was 3-2 on my picks, too bad I don't bet money on fights, I might have made a little money tonight. It was a night of good knock out and some exciting fights and a few upsets. I think Kos might have made a mistake and not being able to study his opponent a little more but hopefully he learns from that mistake. Well that is all for tonight.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Boxing vs. MMA

2009-02-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

You know I would have thought this argument would have been over by now. But I see it almost on a daily basis on the yahoo sports section for mma from fans. Now mostly I think it is just a couple of people trying to start a childish argument on the Internet. But I figured that I would go ahead and give my opinion on the subject, which boils down simply too they are two different sports so why try to compare them?
Now clearly, at least to me, most mixed martial artists would probably not last past the first round with a decent let alone great boxer. But that works both ways and a great boxer would more than likely not make it out of the first round with a decent let alone great MMA fighter. The biggest problem, take downs aside, for boxers in a cage is the style of fighting. Now I understand very little about the technicalities of boxing but what I do understand is that it is a sport that is built mostly around defense.
In MMA a boxers defense, no matter how great it is simply will not work, and the first reason is the size of the gloves. The boxing glove plays a BIG part in their defense, if you use MMA glove to cover like a boxer a knock out is sure to come your way, see Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz I as the best example that comes to mind.
Next if you come into a fight and try to slip punches like a boxer you are almost guaranteed to catch someones shin with your mouth, again immediate knock out. But in most cases you put a boxer in an MMA match and will see what Randy Couture calls "the Dead Roach Defense", because the boxer is going to get put on his back and not know what to do so the feet and hands go up in the air like a dead roach. It all goes back to the saying "you can't box someone who doesn't want to be boxed".
I hope I don't really need to explain why a mixed martial artist would last in boxing, the same rules apply only backwards. The MMA fighter has no boxing defense, and doesn't really know how to slip punches and when he is in trouble he can't put his opponent on the ground. This is all pretty simple, I guess some people just like to argue over the Internet.

Until next time I am out of here.

jld

Also I will give my thoughts on the fights Saturday after they are over.

Affliction...

2009-02-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

You know it really is a great time to be a mixed martial arts fan, with the likes of the UFC, Srikeforce and Affliction around. Between those three there is pretty much some kind of MMA fighting on the TV or PPV every weekend and personally I love it, as do most fans. This time next year we all know that the UFC and Strikeforce will still be around, mostly because the UFC is the pioneer and Strikeforce seams to be following their business model almost identically.
Now I like Affliction they have probably the deepest, experienced heavyweight division of all the promotions, while the UFC for the most part has a lot of young exciting, but still mostly unproven heavyweights except for the obvious veterans they have.
But the reason I don't think Affliction will be around next year is simply because of money, I don't see anyway they could have made money on their first two shows. Most people are guesstimating that they did somewhere around 100,000 PPV view buys(the only people that know the true number is Affliction), but that number while very,very respectable for a new promotion is not near enough for what they are paying their fighters. It's sad to say because competition is nothing but good for the fans of this great sport. Who knows maybe I am wrong and they are doing better pay per view numbers than anyone thinks, but I doubt it.
Unless they find some way to really boost their numbers or start cutting fighters pay I don't see how they can last threw too many more shows. If I were Affliction I would have started off paying only a little better than the UFC to try and create legitimate competition between the two. I mean Dana White sees what Affliction is paying some of the fighters and he knows how the number work better than probably anyone, and he can deduce just what I have. He doesn't have to raise his fighters salary simple because he knows they can outlast Affliction because of the way they are bleeding money. So I guess we will wait and see what happens, all I can say is good luck Affliction I hope you get to stick around awhile.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

GSP's chance in a fight against Anderson Silva

2009-02-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

I really do not see why GSP's fans or fans of MMA in general want to see this fight. This fight would be much like GSP vs BJ Penn, it would be a smaller fighter facing an equally skilled fighter who is just plain too strong for him. No matter how I look at this fight I just can't see anyway that GSP can win.
In reality his only hope is his wrestling, if and I mean a big if, GSP could get Silva to the ground I for one am not sure that he could keep him down or effectively hold him down there. Don't get me wrong, I think that GSP's wrestling and ground in pound is probably some of the best in the game. But Anderson has fought maybe one of the absolutely best wrestlers in the game in Dan Henderson, who truly has world class wrestling and Silva still stopped him in the second. Now I still think that Hendo has the best chance of beating Silva, but that's for another blog.
There are also some questions about GSP's chin that have come up because of the knock out he took from Matt Serra, now I don't really know how much truth there is to that simply because Serra technically punched GSP in an illegal spot of the head which threw off GSP's balance. Once GSP's balance was off Serra jumped on him and didn't let up and that's how he got the knock out. But one thing is for sure and that is Anderson Silva can knock out anyone in MMA, if you need examples see, Chris Leban and Tony Fryklund(not sure on the spelling), all three of those guys had never been knocked out in a fight until they met the "spider" in a cage. So I would say it doesn't really matter if GSP's chin is made of "concrete" or "glass" he looses this fight probably by devastating knock out.
To make things even worse I don't really believe that GSP much like Rich Franklin has "true" knock out power, I would describe it more like wear you out power, on top of that Silva is so much taller than GSP it would take even more off his punches since he would have to punch up at Silva. Well that's about all I have on this subject, please feel free to offer a counter if you wish, I welcome all thoughts on the subject.

Until next time, I am out of here.

jld

Rumor of Couture vs. "Cro Cop"

2009-02-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

I have heard about the rumor of this fight on http://www.mmaweekly.com/, I personally think that Couture would destroy Cro Cop. For the simple reason that Cro Cop has not looked good since he debuted in the UFC, and Couture has absolutely destroyed fighters like Cro Cop. He is still pretty much a one dimensional fighter and Randy has feasted on fighters like this.
Now there is quite a bit of danger in this fight for Couture obviously with Cro Cop's left high kick and all. But more than likely Randy gets this fight to the ground pretty easily and from there I think it will be pretty much over with and not ending well for Cro Cop. I would go as far as to say that Randy could realistically stop Mirko in the first round and it would not really surprise me.
Also the deeper the fight goes I believe that Randy still has the advantage simply because we would simply wear Mirko down. Now I do understand why the UFC would make this fight, first and simply because it's Randy and he would sell PPV's no matter who he is fighting, hell even thinking Randy would win fairly quickly I would still buy it. This fight was much much more marketable when Randy was the heavyweight champ, but as pretty much everyone knows Gabe Gonzaga put a stop to that. I still think this would be a huge fight between two viable stars in the sport no matter how much Mirko appears to have fallen off of his prime.
I don't really know what has changed except I think the fighters in the UFC are a little more prepared for their fights. It has already been well documented that in Pride the fighters always had to be prepared to fight on just a few days notice. So there were not any fighter making any real weight cuts or fighters having the time to specifically train for certain kinds of fighters. Then again it could just be that fighters have found his weakness and are starting to expose them. Well anyway if the fight does happen I will be there watching and enjoying every minute of it.

Until next time I am out of here,

jld

Jens Pulver

2009-02-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

You know a couple weeks ago I read an article on Jens Pulver, forgive me but I can't remember which site it was on, about how he needs to find "Lil Evil" again. Now I may be a little blinded because he is one of my favorite fighters of all time, but I think that article hit the nail right on the head. I don't think he is too old to compete, or that the game has passed him by, I think he needs to find that anger and hunger that he once had when he goes into fights.
I realize that he has made peace with a lot of the things that happened in his child hood and threw his life and I have all the respect in the world for him for doing that. But in the Cub Swanson fight he brought "Lil evil" into the cage with him and look what happened in that fight, over in what 30 seconds. His other three fights in the WEC I think he gave a little too much respect to the men standing across from him in the cage, I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean that he didn't bring that "fire" that he brought to the cage when he fought Swanson.
Then again it could simply just be a bad luck stretch that he is going threw, or you know they say it takes a certain kind of person to be a fighter and maybe making peace with his past has changed him enough that he can't fight like he used too. Only he can really answer that.
To those who say he should retire and move on I would say why should he. He is doing what he loves and he helped build this sport to what it is now and why shouldn't he have the benefit or making the kind of money they make now. So I say keep working and keep fighting as long as you want and your health permits I will continue to watch and get excited every time you step in the cage. I hope to see you return to your old self but even if you don't I will still be a fan. Good luck and keep on punching Jens.

Until next Time , "WAR Lil Evil"

jld

Diego Sanchez

2009-02-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

This is really the only fighter that is left from the "TUF" one series that has actually become less and less likable over the years to me. Apparently this guys ego has NO bounds, he really does think that he is the greatest fighter that this sport has ever seen. Who knows he could turn out to be, there is absolutely no denying his ability and talent but his ego over shadows it all.
With his recent drop to light weight he has made comments about one day wanting to hold the light weight and welterweight titles at the same time. To this I would say how about you concentrating on getting one title first, or better yet even getting to a title shot. He says he walked in to the lightweight division and requested an immediate fight with Kenny Florian because "he destroyed that guy" in his "TUF" finale. That scenario doesn't really work now simply because they are both completely different fighters than they were then, and there is no point in debating who has improved more simply because there will be no way to really tell until they fight, and you can be almost positive that they will.
The other thing about that fight is that it was at middleweight, now with Diego being the naturally larger fighter, the higher the weight class the more advantage he will have. At lightweight Diego might have to cut so much weight that he would not have a big strength advantage. So far there has been a lot of talk from Sanchez, as usual, but I feel he has a lot to prove at this new weight class.
For one how will the new weight cut effect his famous gas tank? Will he still maintain the strength that he possessed at the welterweight class? His other huge advantage at ww was his speed, I am curious to see how that is compared to the smaller and faster fighters at lightweight. He had great speed at ww, but he maybe one of the slower fighters at lightweight, or he may just have to acclimate to the speed of his new division. Some of these questions will probably be answered on Saturday, but I don't know that they all will be in just one fight I guess I will have to wait and see.

Until next time,

jld

Silva vs. Franklin

2009-02-19T10:08:00.001-08:00

Wow what a fight this is going to be. I for one am torn about who I should be going for, as I really do like both fighters immensely. The questions that loom in my brain about this fight is really can Franklin defend against the Muay Thai of another dangerous Brazilian or is it just simply that the "Spider" has Franklin's number?
With the "axe murder's" knees and elbows aside I would have to lean more towards Franklin in this fight just simply for his pin point accuracy on the feet and the fact that Silva throws BIG looping punches. But rest assumed if Silva lands one of those big punches it will be lights out for Franklin pretty quickly.
I think the ground skills of each fighter kind or negate each other, neither one really has strong wrestling and both are talented BJJ guys but they don't really chose to use it. Silva clearly has a big edge in pure power on the feet over Franklin. Franklin doesn't really have true knockout power (Nate Quarry aside), but most of the people that leave the Octagon after fighting him usually look like chewed up an spit out hamburger meat.
The rumor is that this fight will be at a catch weight but I think that Franklin, even though he has more fights at middleweight will be the bigger and stronger fighter. Whats even more interesting is that I don't really see how this fight helps either of there careers with a win, it's still a fight that I personally really want to see and really didn't see it coming. Now I know this is a fight that's a long way off and a lot can happen by then but I am already looking forward to it. This could be an all out way or it could be over in about 60 seconds, the longer the fight goes the more I favor Franklin, if it over in 60 seconds I think it will be Silva with his hand raised.

Well until next time, I am gone.

jld

Jake Shields vs. Joe Riggs at Strikeforce

2009-02-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

Personally I think that this could be the fight that exposes Jake Shields. I have only seen him fight a hand full of times and quite frankly he seams a little to one dimensional to be able to truly compete with the elite of the welterweight division. His striking is quite terrible and awkward and needs a lot of work. If he could develop that he really might be one of the absolute best in the division. But frankly he reminds me a lot of the Gracie's in the fact that he feels he doesn't need to learn anything but BJJ, that's all fine until you find someone that you can't get on the ground.
Now we usually see how far those guys get when they start consistently fighting top tier fighters, but Shields who has never fought in the UFC, and lets face it the UFC has every top welterweight out there excluding Shields. I have often thought that any of the top welters in the UFC would destroy Shields and probably make it look pretty easy. Think about it do you really think he could get the likes of GSP, Fitch, Kos or even an ageing Matt Hughes down to the ground?
I even think he will have trouble getting Riggs to the ground who is probably not as accomplished a wrestler as Shields but I feel that will be made up in pure strength that Riggs has. I see Riggs winning this fight by knock out or dominating decision, but of course I have been wrong before and I am sure it will happen again, especially when it comes to this sport.
The great thing about this fight though is that Scott Coker (CEO of Strike force) is sticking to the formula that has made him successful in this sport and that is putting on the best fights he possibly can with the talent he has. I for one am really excited to start seeing the new Strike force shows due to the influx of talent that the bought for Elite XC, and I know he won't be feeding his talent cans just to try to make a buck. After all the more MMA the better, but I really could have dealt without Elite XC, I don't really think they even fall under "the more MMA the better" logic. It was more like watching a sleazy boxing promoter just constantly feeding people to beat up and not really an entertaining sport that it is.

Well, until next time

jld

Grease Gate1?!?!?!

2009-02-17T20:18:00.000-08:00

I for one am really sick of hearing BABY Jay Penn cry about his fight with GSP and the use of Vaseline. Once again he just seams like a whinny little rich boy who didn't get his way!! Really the only thing worse than him is his fans all calling GSP a cheater. I have seen the fight multiple times and they made a mistake that I personally don't think was done on purpose, and had absolutely no bearing on the fight what so ever.
I for one feel that ONCE AGAIN BJ showed up too a fight out of shape and thought he could win on just talent alone. And BJ is by far one of the most talented guys in this sport and could have been one of the greatest ever, but with every video clip of him whining and even dragging other fighters(Florian) in to this it just makes him seam more and more like a spoiled brat. I also think that if he shows up for the fight with Florian like he did against GSP I personally think he will get demolished again and I for one will absolutely enjoy it.
It really is sad to say because I remember a time when I was excited about seeing BJ back in the UFC but at this point I want him to just shut up and fight, maybe one day I will look forward to one of his fights without just wanting to see him get the daylights beat out of him. But maybe he is trying to be like Tito and just get everyone to tune in even if they are all there just to see him get beat. If that is the case I have to give you credit BJ because I will be tuning in out of the hope of seeing you get beat down again.

Until next time I am out of here.

jld