Posts with the tag "UFC"

OK, so this might be the worst fight night in some time. The main event will feature the the up and coming Nate Diaz. I am not sure this is what Diaz had in mind when he asked for some real competition, lets see if Neer makes this an interesting fight.

Thinking about it, I can't even remember when Neer fought last. He throws with heavy hands, but lets face it Diaz will win. I promised to pick Diaz in his next fight no matter what, so I have faith he will win. If you missed it, I think I have picked Diaz to lose his last 4 fights only to be wrong every time.

The Clay Guida vs. Mac Danzig fight should be good. The only other fighter I am excited about is Houston Alexander. Let's hope he explodes like he did in his first two wins. Another loss for Alexander and the UFC might show him the door. Here is to a good night of fights!

I was reading this article yesterday when I ran across this tidbit.

All UFC contracts have a championship clause, which ties the fighter with the company as long as they hold a company title unless they retire as champion.

This was a surprise to me and it got me thinking about some of the recent contract disputes. Previously, I was under the impression that the UFC wouldn't give a fighter a title shot if they only had one fight remaining on their contract. This would assure that they would stay under contract at least to defend their title.

With the championship clause, I would think that the UFC wouldn't care if a fighter only has one fight left on their contract. The reason being is that they would be bound to the organization as long as they are the title holder. Am I missing something here? What the hell was Randy Coutre thinking when he left the organization? I guess I will have to dig further on this one...

I still can't get past the Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta fight. I just finished watching the UFC 87 countdown and now I am more excited than ever for it. You can see my post on that fight here. Still, I have to cover a few of the other fights, so here we go.

The Brock Lesnar vs Heath Herring fight seems very straightforward to me. Herring will look to land a bomb, probably a head kick but it could aslo be a knee. Lesnar will look to do what he does best, he will look for the takedown and then ground and pound.

Don't expect Lesnar to get caught in a submission like he did against Frank Mir. Herring just doesn't possess those skills. Still, he is very capable of landing that one big kick, just ask Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

I have a feeling that Lesnar will have Herring on the mat in about 10 seconds and pound him out shortly after. Expect this to be a huge win for Lesnar and a fun fight to watch. Goooooo Gophers!

The countdown continues as there is only 5 days left until UFC 87, Seek and Destroy. To continue my coverage of the event, I will now take a look at an extremely interesting matchup between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta.

The two best lightweights in the UFC are BJ Penn and Sean Sherk. However, the best of the rest includes Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta. I also put Joe Stevenson in this group, but that is a subject for another post. Now, these two will fight to determine the number one contender for the UFC lightweight title.

Kenny Florian made a name for himself on the original Ultimate Fighter. After fighting his way into the finals, he suffered a TKO loss to Diego Sanchez. The loss seemed to make Florian even more focused than before and he went onto win three straight fights.

With the three straight wins, Florian earned himself a title shot against Sean Sherk. Unfortunately for Florian, he wasn't able to deal with the strength of Sherk and lost a unanimous decision. Once again, the loss seemed to focus Florian's efforts more than ever. After the loss, Florian once again went on a win streak reeling off four straight wins.

Florian once again stands on the cusp of his title shot. The man standing in his way is Roger Huerta. A very exiting fighter, Huerta owns and impressive 22-1-1 record (6-0 in the UFC). Huerta gained his notoriety two-fold. First, he appeared on a Sports Illustrated cover. Then, the UFC, trying to cash in on his cover) featured him in five events in 2007.

The exposure was good for Huerta, but he was clearly drained from all the fights. He decided to recover by taking off most of 2008 and the fight with Florian will be his first this year. An interesting side note, Huerta has two fights left on his contract while being only one fight away from the title match. The UFC often won't give the fighter with one fight on his contract a title shot until he signs a new contract. If Huerta wins this fight, we may once again be in a contract freeze until one side caves.

Breaking down this fight is extremely difficult. Both fighters are known for their conditioning, so I don't expect that to be a factor. I have to give Florian the edge with submissions and you can't forget about his dangerous elbows. Huerta brings an energy to all of his fights and probably has the edge in the standup.

The x-factor for Florian has to be his experience. He has fought a much more impressive list of opponents including Sean Sherk, Din Thomas, Chris Leben and Diego Sanchez. He always looks focused and throws those elbows with malicious intent. As much as I like Huerta, I believe Florian will be able to catch Huerta in a submission or land one of those famous elbows. Either way, this should be fun to watch.

Only 10 days left until UFC 87 Seek and Destroy? Where the hell has the summer gone? Well, at least I still have an awesome summer event left, UFC 87.

In many ways, the fans in Minnesota got lucky with the UFC 87 card. The card includes a huge star in George St. Pierre, a local boy in Roger Huerta and local star in Brock Lesnar. Most importantly, the UFC 87 card features a title fight and all around great matchups.

I am definitely most excited about the Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch title fight. St. Pierre is a huge star and is the prototypical UFC fighter. Fitch is also an excellent fighter and deserving of the title shot having won all 8 of his UFC fights.

The other really interesting fight is between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta. This fight will surely decide the number one contender in the lightweight division.

With only 10 days left, I still have many things to cover but it is time to start getting excited about UFC 87!

I know my wife has noticed it and so have some of you. There seems to be a lot more Mixed Martial Arts these days. I remember back about a year ago when I couldn't get enough MMA, but those days seem long gone. With the UFC, EliteXC, DREAM and Affliction events, you can find fights to watch almost every weekend.

To complicate things, the UFC has been airing shows on the same night as EliteXC and Affliction. They are trying to draw away potential viewers with their own events. Case in point was last weeks UFC Fight night which aired on the same night as the "Banned" Affliction event.

The question is whether this is too much MMA? The quick response is a definitive "no." Fans love the ability to turn on the TV almost any weekend and watch fights?

The problem is that the events are losing the appeal of the big show. They are too often and there isn't enough build up. As the events are watered down and the talent is spread across more promotions, there will be a negative effect on the fans.

The real answer lies in the long term growth of the sport. The explosion of mixed martial arts will draw new fans and encourage competition among promotions. This competition will ultimately lead to better events and most likely fewer promotions. So, yes there is too much MMA right now, but it essential for the sport to evolve into a better product. What do you think?

The UFC must feel threatened by Affliction. Why else would they scramble to put a show up against the the first ever Affliction event? As my friend said, it's almost like the UFC is turning into Microsoft. He may be right, but we will have to wait and see.

Here is the official Banned preview:

I did find it interesting that they never mention the UFC when describing Tim Sylvia. The video does mention the UFC a couple times with their descriptions of Pat Militich and Andre Arlovski. Seems strange that they would leave it out for one fighter and include it for the other two.

I wish I was able to watch either event this weekend, but I can't. I'm betting that most fans tune in to see Fedor Emelianenko fight Tim Sylvia, but who knows. What will you be watching this weekend?

Who is the best pound for pound MMA fighter of all time? CBS has put together a 32 fighter bracket and is asking readers to decide.

Although interesting, I suspect most people will focus on the legends and the current big names. My early favorites to win this thing are...

• Fedor Emelianenko - While he is considered the most dominate fighter in the world, some question the talent he has been fighting lately.
• Anderson Silva - Like Fedor, he has dominated his weight class. This begs the question, is the division thin or is he that good?
• George St. Pierre - Probably my favorite to win it all, but a loss to Matt Serra really hurts.
• Chuck Liddell - The best name recognition of the bunch, but those back to back loses are still fresh in most fans eyes.
• Royce Gracie - The legend and most dominate fighter of his era. Still, will the new fans know who he is?

Go check it out and be sure to vote!

Success! I was able place once again in the top 100, landing in 96 place. My original predictions are here and my past event results are here.

Out of the two fights I got wrong, I was more surprised by Corry Hill losing to Justin Buchholz. From what I read about the fight, Hill dominated most of the fight until he got caught in a submission.

The only other real shocker to me was Cole Miller catching Jorge Gurgel in a submission. I thought he was suppose to be the BJJ expert... guess I was wrong.

For the next event, my goal is to break into the top 50. We will have to see.

Corey Hill vs. Justin Buchholz - Time to see if "The Real Deal" can continue his win streak. Corey Hill presents all sorts of matchup issues for his opponents and I don't see this fight being any different. At 6'4", Hill towers above all the fighters in his division. Look for Hill to win this fight by knockout.

Melvin Guillard vs. Dennis Siver - Guess who is back and it isn't the real slim-shady. The question is which Melvin Guillard will show up for the fight? When he wins, he looks like a title contender. When he loses, he looks like he belongs in a backyard brawl. I believe the time away has done him some good and he will have a strong showing for this fight. Another TKO for Guillard.

Jorge Gurgel vs. Cole Miller - This is an interesting matchup for sure. Gurgel strikes me as the type of fighter that is very good, but will probably never reach title contention. This makes him a perfect fighter for gauging the skill level of other fighters. Enter Cole Miller... I am still not sold on his abilities, but he has the potential to be a good fighter. A win for Gurgel means nothing while a win for Miller says a lot about his future in the UFC. Hard for me to pick a winner here, so I am going with the Vegas line and picking Miller by unanimous decision.

Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Justin McCully - How can a fighter look so good in one fight and then so bad in the next? Gabriel Gonzaga looked like the next heavyweight champ when he defeated Mirko Cro Cop, but looked like a chump in his loses to Randy Couture and Fabricio Werdum. Justin McCully is smart fighter that can win fights against better opponents, but I don't see that happening in this fight. Gonzaga wins this fight early by ground and pound.

Tyson Griffin Vs. Marcus Aurelio - This should be a great fight, but I am having a hard time picking a winner. I assume that Tyson Griffin is the odds on favorite so I will believe he will continue his current winning streak. Look for this one to go the distance with Griffin as the victor.

Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Lytle - Ouch, this is a bad matchup for Chris Lytle. Koscheck is an excellent wrestler who will look to get Lytle on the mat early. Lytle's best chance to win this fight is to keep Koscheck on his feet and entice him to exchange punches. If Koscheck sticks to his plan, he wins this fight by TKO.

Joe Stevenson vs. Gleison Tibau - This fight has the potential to be the fight of the night. With both fighters coming off of difficult loses, they both have something to prove. Expect a blood bath with Stevenson as the winner of the fight.

Patrick Cote vs. Ricardo Almeida - Ah yes, the classic matchup of the submission artist versus the slugger. These fights are almost always determined by where the fight takes place. Almeida wants the fight on the ground while Cote prefers to fight on his feet.

Usually, I tend to lean towards the submission guy because I assume the fight will eventually end up on the mat. The x-factor for Cote may very well be his new found confidence. He has been landing precision punches with the power to knockout his opponents. I am going to go against my better judgment and pick Cote to win this fight. You know what that means, knockout baby!

Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin - Finally, the main event. This soon to be classic represents an important moment in mixed martial arts. Think of this fight as the past meeting the future. Quinton Jackson is favored to win this fight, but don't be surprised if Griffin finds a way to win.

The first time I picked against Griffin was the first time I saw him officially fight. I was sure Stephan Bonnar was going to win the first Ultimate Fighter. The second time I picked against Griffin was when he fought Mauricio Rua... wrong again. So how can I pick against Griffin a third time?

Griffin can win this fight by following the right strategy. He needs this fight to make it into the later rounds where his conditioning is superior to Jackson's. Still, can he make it to the later rounds without being caught by Rampage? Probably not... Jackson wins this fight by technical knockout.

As we expected, this was a pretty crazy episode. If you didn't see the preview, check it out on YouTube.

The second semi-final fight takes place almost immediately after the show starts. The matchup puts the favorite C.B. Dollaway against Amir Sadollah. The fight starts and goes pretty much to script. Sadollah lands a few good punches and kicks before Dollaway is able to take him down. The fight makes it to the third round and once again we find Sadollah on his back. This time, Dollaway makes a mistake and leaves an arm out. Sure enough, Sadollah secures an arm bar and Dollaway is forced to tap out.

Since Sadollah wins the fight, we now know that either he or Jesse Taylor will be kicked off the show for their behavior. Judging from their prior actions on the show, it is easy to figure out that Taylor will be the one in trouble.

Eventually, we find out that Taylor was out on the town drinking heavily. As the preview video shows, we see him kicking out the limo window. He then goes into the casino and starts "terrorizing some female guests."

Sure enough, Dana White kicks him off the show. The best part was when the coaches, Dana White and Jesse Taylor all get together to discuss what happened. You can see Taylor squirming as White asks him some questions about what happened. He tries to blame his drinking, but White wants nothing to do with him and sends him home.

With Taylor out of the finale, Sadollah needs a new opponent. Logically, White brings back Tim Credeur and C.B. Dollaway to fight for the opening. The fight actually turns out to be pretty competitive. Dollaway eventually wins the decision and secures his spot in the finals.

So the live finale is set and it will be a rematch between Amir Sadollah and C.B. Dollaway. Don't forget to tune in Saturday for the live finale!

I have been playing the UFC fantasy game for a little while now and I am surprised on how well I have done. After all, users have to select the winner of the fight, winning method, round and minute. After 4 games I have never done worse than 134 place. Here are my results from the four events.

So far, UFC 84 has been my crowning achievement. I ranked 86 out of 19355. That puts me in the top 0.44%, not to bad.

For The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale, I plan to post my selections before the fight. That way, readers of this site should be able to repeat my success. I encourage you to use my selections and only modify one or two items. Using this method, you should be able to rank in the top 100 as well. However, if you do end up winning don't forget to thank me!

And then there were three... In the eleventh episode of the The Ultimate Fighter, Jesse Taylor was able to defeat Tim Credeur. With the win, Taylor cements his position in The Ultimate Fighter finale.

The episode primarily focused on the Taylor and Credeur. However, we also got to see the customary coaches challenge. As it turns out, Forrest Griffin is the "Larry Bird" of MMA. The editors chose to cut out most of the competition, but we did see enough to know Forrest easily won the competition.

Now, there is only one fight left before the finale. C.B Dollaway will look to continue his domination as he fights Amir Sadollah. I must admit that I never thought Sadollah would have made it this far. He has a decent chance to beat Dollaway, but the odds are definitely against him.

At the end of the show, the next weeks teaser proved to be quit interesting. They show a limo and one of the windows being smashed. After that, we see Dana white saying something about a fighter not being able to fight in the finale. My initial thoughts lead me to believe it was Taylor losing his temper again, but we will have to see.

Today Dana White debunked many of the rumors floating around the blogs. This included boxer Floyd Mayweather joining the organization, the WWE partnering with the UFC, the UFC appearing on FOX, ABC or another network and the UFC possibly going public.

So what's left? In my opinion, it breaks down the three possibilities.

1. The most realistic announcement is that Chuck Liddell will be headlining UFC 88 in Atlanta. His opponent? Why not Mauricio Rua? They were originally suppose to fight at UFC 85, so it makes perfect sense they fight now. That's assuming both fighters are healthy enough to fight by then.
   odds 4-1
2. Another possible announcement is that the UFC has acquired some new talent. Realistically, they could pull several fighters from the WEC.
   odds 10-1
3. The far-fetched announcement is that the UFC will be adding a weightclass or two. With the success of the lightweights, it would be easy to see the UFC adding featherweights and possibly even bantamweights.
   odds 20-1

Guess we will have to wait till Thursday to know for sure.

Dave Meltzer wrote a great article about the debate of who had better fighters, the UFC or PRIDE. As Meltzer points out, it is difficult to compare the fighters as they fought in different organizations with different practices and rules.

Some will look at the current UFC champions to make their decision. There are 4 former PRIDE fighters (Anderson Silva, Quinton Jackson, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Dan Henderson) and 3 UFC grown fighters (Randy Couture, Matt Serra, and BJ Penn). This argument doesn't hold a ton of weight as some fighter fought for both organizations and the champions will constantly change. Time may help, but it will never be clear who won this matchup.

The rumors are once again flying that the UFC will end up on network TV. Previously, I argued that network TV would be a good move for the UFC only if they can create a vested interest in the fighters. Now, what does it mean to the fans that watch the sport? On one hand, there will be more free fights. On the other hand, we have to watch 50 commercials to see 4 or 5 fights. In my opinion, the perfect solution is to show ALL the fights on pay-per-view while only showing the main card fights on network TV. That way, everybody wins!

Nothing is official, but most expect a deal between CBS and the Ultimate Fighting Championship to be announced shortly. You can find more details on MMAJunkie.com.

Broadcasting an UFC event on CBS would deliver the sport to a new audience. Some will argue that these new viewers will buy pay-per-view events in the future. I am not so sure, if I get something for free now, why would I pay for it in the future?

This reminds me of the NFL's decision to put some of their games on the NFL network. I am an avid NFL fan, but have yet to watch a single game on the NFL Network. Of course, if it came with my cable package I would be sure to watch it.

The UFC needs to be very careful with putting an event on Network TV. Spike followed the correct formula for success. They introduced viewers to new fighters and made fans out of all of us by showing us their lives on a reality show. This approach creates a vested interest in the fighters that is more important than a single fight.

The move to network TV is the right move for the UFC. If they don't, them somebody else will. The key to success will be creating a vested interest in the fighters so viewers will tune in for future events.

With all rapid growths in popularity, at some point there has to be a fall back down to earth. The UFC seems to be as popular as ever, when I go to the bar to watch the fights I see more and more people there each time. When we gather to order the PPV at someone's house, there are new people each time. So, are we still on the upward trend, or are we on our way down? At this point, it's hard to say. There isn't a suitable alternative… yet and most of the big names are still fighting in the UFC. If Randy Couture really does leave the UFC, so will his fans? What do you think?