I am really excited for the main event of this UFC. UFC went with the one big main event carrying the rest of so-so fights. Many fighters are coming off losses but because it's the first Canadien UFC card their local appeal will certainly help the event. I'm surprised they didn't get Patrick Cote fighting on this card though.  Check out Fightlinker.com for local Montreal coverage

Matt Serra Vs. Georges St-Pierre - I'm betting the lightning will not strike twice for Matt Serra and his 15 min are over. I'd like to say that St. Pierre's performance against Hughes should be a good indication of what kind of mental and physical state he is in, but I won't because he beat Hughes convincingly right before the first Serra fight too. So I'm just going to say St. Pierre will murder Serra because he's just a better fighter and will not let this one get away. Georges St. Pierre by TKO (Canada 1 - USA 0)

Travis Lutter Vs. Rich Franklin  - Eh, both fighters are coming off a loss to Anderson Silva. Lutter lost over a year ago and hasn't been active. Franklin lost to Silva twice and last one was about six months ago. UFC's 185 division, except for the undisputed champion, is very weak right now and this match up shows it. It really has no meaning, Franklin isn't going to move up in the ranks by beating Lutter and if Lutter does win he won't jump that high either, especially considering this record and lack of dedication. Back to the fight though, given how close Yushin Okami came to submitting the former champion, Lutter definitely has a good chance with his submissions if he can pull off a take down, but I doubt it because his striking is very weak. So I think Franklin will be able to keep this standing, working his striking from angles. I'm thinking this will end up like his fight against Evan Tanner, where Tanner came out beaten to a pulp. Picking Rich Franklin

Mark Bocek Vs. Mac Danzig - This fight is on the card because Bocek is Canadien and to make Mac Danzig look really good, not that he needs it really. I really think it's mismatch where Danzig will beat Bocek standing and if it does go to the ground Danzig will beat on Bocek even more. Picking Mac Danzig (Canada 1 - USA 1)

Nate Quarry Vs. Kalib Starnes - Another Canadien with a loss coming in, Kalib Starnes, is getting a tough match up in robotic Nate Quarry. This should be a good brawl and based on both of the fighters last fights Quarry should pull through this one on toughness and chin alone. Picking Nate Quarry (Canada 1 - USA 2)

Charles McCarthy Vs. Michael Bisping - May be UFC thought, "well since we only have one really big matchup, how about we put in a few mismatches bound to produce some spectacular beatings". This is the second one of the night, Bisping is given Charles McCarthy go beat on. It may go to the ground early, that's where McCarthy would like to take it, but in the end will turn out to be like McCarthy vs. David Loiseau with Bisping taking over with striking to finish the fight. Picking Bisping

Joe Doerksen Vs. Jason MacDonald - Both Canadien. Say what you will about Doerkon's losing record, the guy comes to fight and puts on exciting fighting to watch. So him being in the fight alone should make it at least fun to watch.  Doerkson has some good ground skills and even some cool takedowns and throw to go with that, but I think MacDonalds strength and size will make a difference big enough to ward off anything Doerkson throws at him and pull off a submission or a TKO of his own. Picking MacDonald. Since at least one Canadien will win this fight, I'm throwing it in the Canada vs USA mix to help Canadiens out (Canada 2 - USA 2)

Jason Day Vs. Alan Belcher - Haven't seen anything on Day, so I'm going with Belcher and his exciting stand up to win.

Ed Herman Vs. Demian Maia - Herman is slick on the ground and has some power in his striking (ex knocking out Doerkson in his last fight), however Maia's ground fighting credentials are phenomenal exept not really tested in MMA all that well. I'd like to think Herman could keep it standing for a while, but his stamina isn't that great so I'm picking Maia by submission

Rich Clementi Vs. Sam Stout - Clementi made out good in publicity/popularity with his handing of Melvin Guillard and backing up his side of the trash talking. I see this fight against Stout going exactly the same way. Clementi will stand for a little till he had enough and proved himself he can stand with good strikers, then he'll easily take Stout down and submit him. Picking Clementi by submission (Canada 2 - USA 3)

Brad Morris Vs. Cain Velasquez - Haven't seen either guys, but will go with Velasquez taking Morris down and beating on him there. I don't think Morris, being an aussie, has ever faced wrestling of Velasquez's level. P

Kuniyoshi Hironaka Vs. Jonathan Goulet - Goulet is a local Canadien favorite but a journeyman at best. Hironaka's record isn't stellar either but he's faced tougher competition and even took Jon Fitch to a decision. Picking Hironaka capitalizing on Goulet's mistake. If Goulet wins I'll add him to the Canada vs USA mix. I'm really pulling for them.

The goal now is to actually follow up on my UFC 83 picks and write up some thoughts of the fights. Wish me luck!

So apparently Dana White is so sick p**sies sneaking covertly on the show that couldn't take it any longer and for this block buster season of The Ultimate Fighter show featuring the first Ultimate Fighter winner, top light-heavyweight contender and a big fan favorite Forrest Griffin versus the current UFC light-heavyweight champion and Pride FC veteran Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Dana decided to turn the show "upside down"..well...at least for the opening of it.

He must have though to himself real hard - "hmmm.....no matter how hard the coaches make the contestants work out in the opening show, some how the "p**sies" still make it through....I got it!.... it's cause may be possibly "pu**sies" can be good at working out and be all into fitness and stuff but can't really fight!....so now I'll make them fight for the opening show! Ha, let them try sneaking in now!"

I have to say that it was definitely the most effective show opening for the series since ever. What a better introduction to the aspiring ultimate fighters than having them fight right off the bat and show everyone what they have as far as fighting skills versus fitness. The fans in turn got to watch a bunch of exciting fights with most of the fighters really putting it on the line to stay on the show. If the series will continue it's run, this should definitely the way to start the next runs.

Anyways, I'm sure you've seen the show yourself by now, so a few quick notes:

• I don't know why but the 5 minute rounds seemed like forever, even in exciting fights. May be cause of the atmosphere of a small warehouse and just a few people cheering. 
• Amir Sadollah won tough fight and is the fighter to watch in my opinion
• I didn't think the producers did a good job with the play by play that Forrest and Rampage were doing, they should have had the Picture-in-Picture of the both at all times and even Dana too and turned up the volume a bit.
• Dana should have changed the rules a bit and kicked both those guys that had the most boring fight of the night off the show and kept the guy that cut 17 pounds that gassed against Cale, he was good and exciting and would have been a contender I think, with some stamina of course.
• Poor Dave Roberts! The guy somehow got to debut in MMA at UFC 20 against some pure BJJ'er at 19! Those were the dark ages of UFC for many, at least me and a few other people. Dammit, I watched that show in an empty hockey rink's coach's room by myself on DirectTV....I can't believe I did that just to watch a crappy UFC card.
• Dana is such as sellout, he was willing to scare "the bejesus!" out of both Rampage and Forrest by making them watch the new horror flick "The Ruins"....just for a damn commercial!

Great show but I'm looking forward to more of Rampage entertaining for the rest of the episodes. I want to see more stuff like below!

First half of round 1 was pretty good. In fact the beginning started out kind of like I predicted with Lauzon taking it to the ground and Florian immediately looking to cut with an elbow from the ground. The fight was stopped for a warning to Florian because supposedly he was elbowing the back of the head. Myself and Joe Rogan, as I'm sure thousands of MMA fans were a bit perplexed with Herb Dean's call. It's nearly impossible from that position and angle to elbow the back of the head directly, kind of like trying to bite your own elbows - highly unlikely.

It'll be interesting to see if this sets a precedence for fighters being in the top guard of trying to really bury their head to defend elbows from the bottom or even try to turn the back of their toward the strikes, think Frank Mir getting a "get out of a beating" card from Steverino Mazagatti against Brock Lesnar. I'm willing to bet we'll be seeing this more and more in the near future, unfortunately.

So I'm wondering if it was the huge body kick that Kenny Florian landed right into Lauzon's side and immediately followed up with the cross to the side/liver that completely drained a usually very long lasting Lauzon? Cause shortly after Lauzon who loves ground and pound all of a sudden gave up a good top position to go for a leglock and started gasping for air. It was immediately obvious at that point that he couldn't go on for much longer. Florian took over quick in the second round, got to the mount and started throwing punches on top of helpless and out of gas Lauzon.

To Herb Dean's credit he wasn't stopping the fight just because Florian was arm flailing, he made him work for a while and gave Lauzon all kinds of chances to improve his position. I hope this sets yet another precedence of the refs actually making sure that the arm flailing is doing actual damage from now on. As much as I like Arlovski and that he got a so so win against Jake O'Brian at UFC 82, the ref didn't make him work that hard and do actual damage at arm flailing from the mount.

Good win for Kenny Florian, he seems to hang in there and find a way to win.

Well gotta run, I hear Dana White is sick of p**sies coming on to his Ultimate Fighter show, which is funny cause doesn't he pick them himself every time? Rampage and Forrest are going to make this entertaining for sure!

 

 

Ya.....so....I have had zero to none time to write last 2 months due work, extensive work travel, excellent paying part time work that I wanted but just couldn't get until, of course, I started to get into regular MMA blogging posting and actually getting a few readers. I mean it's been over a month since my really good picks for UFC 82 and I didn't even get a chance to pat my back in writing for them.  I've got a lot to catch up on and as soon as my part time gig's money well will run dry I'll be back on here spouting opinions.

It's old news of course in the fast moving blogging game, but I gotta say... how freaking dumb and clueless Heath Herring's after fight comments at UFC 82 were? If the fight was in Pride he'd kill Kongo? WTF are you smoking Herring? If it was in Pride, Kongo would have made Herring bleed his own blood with all the knees he would have pummeled into him before he either got tired of tooling a supposedly experienced Herring on the ground and though he did enough for a win or just was tired to escape side mount/north south. Whatever, point is Kongo tooled Herring on the ground, kudos to him for improving, and had knees been allowed would've destroyed him completely. As for Herring, I've said that before, he sucks. Even if he didn't train ground supposedly, he still shouldn't have been tooled on the ground by Kongo.

Anyways, back to Lauzon vs Florian. It's a little tough to pick for me, but I think Lauzon will be a bit stronger and more aggressive on the ground, cause that's where this fight will go if Lauzon has any say, and Florian will be on defensive hoping to cut Lauzon from the bottom. I pick Lauzon

I'm selling this MMA baby! Waiting for good offers

Not going to get into why posting has been lacking lately, that's for a later post about life getting in the way.....

Anderson Silva Vs. Dan Henderson - it's one of those fights for me where it's just very difficult to pick. I really like both fighters. Anderson Silva is really well rounded and only lacks in takedown defense where Dan Henderson excels. Henderson also, in my opinion, has more power to his wild punching style but Silva is extremely accurate with his. That's the beauty of MMA, this fight can end in a number of way. I'm picking Anderson Silva by slow methodical pick apart.

Heath Herring Vs. Cheick Kongo - I really don't like Herring and how perpetually over hyped he is even though he's been show up numerous times for what he is - sloppy mediocre fighter unwilling to improve any aspect of his MMA game. Just look up a pinnacle of his MMA evolution - fight against Gan McGee.  Anyways,  Cheick Kongo looks to be always in shape and his imposing size and reach combined with his good striking should lead him to beating the always under performing sloppy Herring. Picking Kongo.

Alessio Sakara Vs. Chris Leben - Already addressed this one. WTF is Sakara doing in UFC? I'm glad Leben is thinking exact same thing. In his last knockout victory, Leben showed he can improve himself to be a better fighter with good composure and go crazy when appropriate.  Picking Leben to clean Sakara's clock and send him packing once and for all. Warm up the bus Sakara!

Chris Wilson Vs. Jon Fitch  It's no secret that Jon Fitch has been the top 170 "parallel" contender for while now. Remember Chuck Liddell when Tito Ortiz was terrified of fighting him? Well, it's kind of the same with Jon Fitch right now except it's not the current champion who's scared, it's the UFC and the fact that their promotion strategies and campaigns take forever to unravel.  In the mean time Jon Fitch has been winning. Picking Fitch to continue his "parallel" contender streak.

Yushin Okami Vs. Evan Tanner Evan Tanner? Really? How desperate does an organization have to be to dig up a serious alcoholic homeless former fighter after years of drinking away his life??  Yushin Okami could have been fighting Anderson Silva tonight had he not picked a wrong "coast till 3rd round and try a submission them" strategy in his fight with Rich Franklin, which he could have won with more effort early on. He's not the most exciting fighter, but he's cleaned the 185 division's middle tier and is due for a desperate shot at Anderson Silva/Henderson winner. Picking Okami by mouthwashing with vodka before the fight and making sure Tanner gets a whiff and the ground and pounding for the win.

Jake O'Brien Vs. Andrei Arlovski It's garbage what UFC is doing to Arlovski after a boring loss on one knee to The Lame-iac Sylvia and a boring win over coma inducing Werdum. I hope the show the fight tonight because I think Arlovski is due for dealing out a vicious beating with a KO or at least a submission. Picking Arlovski to come back with a bang.

Luigi Fioravanti Vs. Luke Cummo Cummo looked pretty good in his last two fights and Fioravanti lost his last two, but I'm picking Fioravanti because he's faced much better competition than Luke did.

Dustin Hazelett Vs. Josh Koscheck  Koscheck should be ready to rip his opponent up after his loss to Georges St. Pierre, it just happens to be a less experienced Hazelett. Picking Koscheck

David Bielkheden Vs. Diego Sanchez Sanchez just dropped two close fights to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck and should be getting back on track in this one. Picking Sanchez to win in an exciting fashion for which he's been known for in the past.

John Halverson Vs. Jorge Gurgel  not really sure about this one, but leaning toward Gurgel by decision after taking a good beating as usual.

 

  All the cool kids are reporting it MMA Junkie and MMA Mania, FightLinker and CagePotato, so I thought I'd spread the word about it too since these news are brand spanking new!

 

Without any warning or even preceeding rumors, M-1 Global pulls a rabbit out of a hat and presents everybody with teaser video about their upcoming reality show about 16 heavyweights will train and fight each other for their one and only shot at fighting THE Fedor Emelianenko.  The 16 fighters will do all the training and fighting at the Red Devil fight club in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The video made it sound like the show will actually be aired on American television, but I didn't see any clues as to when or where. They used the guy that voices over all of the American movie trailers to give it more credibility I guess. The video was mostly a compilation of Fedor highlights and previous M-1 Global/Bodog promo clips.

Well, this is interesting and came out of no where. I guess it's a good strategy to promote M-1 Global brand and their 1 and only, so far, big name - Fedor Emelianenko. This definitely worked for UFC, so I don't see why another show based in exotic Russia with the goal of getting a chance to fight this enigmatic undefeated Russian heavyweight champion wouldn't  work as well as the Ultimate Fighter Show worked for UFC. Run the show, promote the hell out of Fedor's accomplishments, give him plenty of face time and have him fight in the finale.  They may even recoup some of the 2 million dollars per they'd be paying him in TV ads money.

Definitely interesting how this will pan out. What do you think?

 

I've been wondering for a while now why and how Alessio Sakara has been getting fights in UFC. You just have to question Joe Silva and Dana White's thinking here. With numerous fighters getting cut from UFC due to 1 or 2 bad performances, this guy rides the coat tales of his highly questionable boxing career in Europe and a decision win over Elvis Sinosic (no offense Elvis, you're cool) where his punching looked kinda good.  Dana and Joe Rogan just couldn't get over him and his supposedly amazing striking skill when they initially pushed him.

With all the hype about Sakara's "amazing" boxing background, he managed to actually win only 1 fight by TKO out of his 2 wins in six outings in UFC (I'm definitely not counting the James Lee fight, that should have been a no-contest). Both of his wins were over journeymen fighters at best. He's had 3 decisive losses 1 by submission from to Dean Lister and two TKOs from Drew McFedries and Houston Alexander. None of the guys that beat him, all in the first round I should add, are knocking on the door to the title condenders room either.

So how the hell does he get fights? It's not like he was impressive in his losses either, those fight were only decent because of the other fighters. WTF is going on here? Why doesn't UFC scrap him like they've done with even better fighters after a loss or two? If UFC just in love with his tattoos? What is it? What's surprising is that nobody, at least I think..., has publicly spoke out on this - till now that is. 

Chris "The Crippler" Leben finally said something in at his myspace blog, which I found via MMAMania. In Leben's last fight against the always dangerous heavy handed Terry Martin, he showed himself as a greatly improved fighter - he was calm, methodical, fought with a good game plan and when push came to shove when Martin rocked him at the end of the third round, he didn't back down and went forward to knock Martin out. It was a great fight. Anyways, Chris Leben always says what's on his mind and here is what he said on Mr "WTF, u still in UFC?!" Sakara:

“Honestly, as much respect as possible to him, but I really don’t think he deserves to be in the UFC. I haven’t seen him win the fights or do what he has to do to prove himself at this level. You know, we’re going to pressure him and test him and I’ll tell you what , he has a pretty good opportunity to prove himself if that’s what he wants to do.” more at his blog.

Chris Leben is fighting Sakara on March 1st at UFC 82 with Anderson Silva vs Dan Henderson headlining. Also, check UFC.com's article on Leben's recent maturing.

It may not be news to many, but in his recent interview at MixFight.ru Igor Vovchanchyn was asked what he was up to now and if he was asked to come back, would he?

I'm a businessman now. I won't come back. Sure I think about it every once in a while, but I'm 35, you know. The main problem is the injuries. I can't even strike with my right hand. I got three screws in my right elbow and one in the left. I'm about to undergo an operation on my nose as I can't breathe right. To sum things up, there is no sense in my comeback.

With all the news coming out on Fedor recently, I was wondering what was going on with Igor Vovchanchyn and if there was a chance of him coming back to MMA at some point. But he settled it for me. Igor was one of the MMA's pioneers coming out of Russia/Ukraine in 1995, winning numerous 8-men NHB (not MMA) tournaments around the world and cemented his place in MMA's early history as one of the better and more exciting sprawl'n'brawl strikers out there.