Dear readers, what ever little of you I may have gathered over last month, I did not stop blogging. I may have stopped posting for a little bit, but I definately not stop blogging. I'm going to keep this blog going for a long time.

 What's my excuse for not posting for almost a week? Well...I don't have some "legit" medical reason like FightLinker (I left my "get well soon" already, just in case) did recently for not blogging for merely two days (two weeks in fightlinker time I guess).

My excuses are pretty regular, you know, busy week at work where I had to be a "team player" and work off hours that could have been avoided by some proper planning, but if you've ever worked in a corporate environment you would know that proper planning isn't rewarded as much as last minute heroics on nights and weekends before a deadline.  Then because of all this work stuff you have to spend extra time with the family which leaves me with very little time for quality blogging. At least I try for own personal standard of quality, that is.

The good thing about MMA right now is that even if I missed a week, or didn't cover the last big event in it's entirety, there is another one coming up next weekend, UFC 81 in this case. So there is lots to write about and I plan to jump right back into it.

 

 

This UFC Ultimate Fight Night overall didn't stack up to the last few UFC events as far as exciting fighting goes,not even last few Ultimate Fight Night events.  The main event really put a damper on otherwise an OK show with several decent fights and fighters really trying to put a show for the fans.

I already covered Nick Diaz's exciting win over Alving Robinson and have to add that while size difference certainly gave Diaz an advantage, he showed he has skills to put away a decent fighter and will prove to be a threat to higher level 155'ers after he gets past Manvel Gamburyan.  I picked this fight wrong.

Thiago Tavares vs Michihiro Omigawa.  While myself and just about everybody in MMA media picked Tavares to easily win, Japanese judoka Omigawa, who comes from Yoshida's camp, gave Tavares a really hard time by stopping numerous takedown attempts, getting up from being taken down and escaping the backmount in the first round. In the second Tavares, and hopefully his corner as well, picked up on the fact the he has, in fact, a somewhat effective stand up game and started utilizing it. Omigawa, like many judokas transitioning to MMA, was durable, could take a lot of punishment, was in great shape but lacked the tools to go onto offensive except a seldom punch/elbow from the top. Omigawa did turn it up and decided to take the fight to the ground himself, but it was too late. Unfortunately, for Omigawa, the decision wasn't based on how good you can escape out of bad positions.  Tavares controlled the pace of most of the fight and was awarded a deserved unanimous decision.

Tavares, to everyone's surprise, encounted a very resilient judo ground fighter that frustrated him by getting out of everything Tavares threw at him. But Tavares stuck with it and controlled the fight. He has stamina, excellent ground game and improving striking to jump back into the mix with the likes of Guida, Griffin, Pellegrino and Stevenson.

Omigawa was impressive in his ability to nullify one of the best ground games out there, but needs more tools and aggressiveness to try to do damage to his opponents. I'd like to see him back for another go if he improves his attacks.

Alberto Crane Vs. Kurt Pellegrino. I picked Pellegrino to win this fight because of his awesome showing against Joe Stevenson and because of Alberto Crane's poor showing against Roger Huerta. Crane almost ruined my winning pick by landing a nice shin kick right on Pellegrino's chin and dropping him first thing in the fight. Pellegrino showed a great recovery ability and was able to escape several submission attempts from Crane who was attacking non stop hoping to catch the staggered Pellegrino. After Pellegrino disengaged from the ground, it became very clear that his stand up was superior to Crane's. He began to stalk Crane and landing shots on his face. In the end Pellegrino landed a hard shot on Crane from standing position while Crane was on the bottom. The shot landed on his eye, he closed his eyes and covered up with his hands. Herb Dean jumped in to stop the fight. Crane complained a bit about an early stoppage, but it would not have changed the outcome, in my opinion, as Pellegrino was getting more aggresive and landing more and more shots with Crane not offering much in return.

Kurt Pellegrino is a tough fighter who showed tonight he could take a hard shot to the chin and recover quickly. May be he could face Tavares next?

Alberto Crane, unfortunately, while having world class jiu-jitsu ground game, still has a sub par standup and poor takedown abilities and not much hope for improvement. If he wants to continue fight, it should probably be in smaller shows like WEC and at a lower weight - 145lb.

Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries. I picked Cote to win this fight and Cote really delivered. He didn't back down from the threat of possibly being caught with a KO punch from McFedries and pressed forward throwing kicks and combinations. McFedries looked too confident in his power and was too relaxed, which led him to let Cote get a rhythm going. McFedries cought Cote twice, but Cote, apparently, can take a hard punch. After the second time Cote got hit, he answered with a right hand/uppercut and a left hook to really hurt McFedries. To my surprise, especially because he is coming from Miletich camp, McFedries just put up his hands and dropped to the floor waiting for the referee to step in. He didn't event try to go for a takedown to try to recover there. Something didn't look right about that, especially him smiling right after the stop. Hope it's not a sign of lack of heart.

Cote is now on a 3 win streak and has been able to put his great tools, training with St. Pierre and a will to win together into a good combination. Can't wait to see him fight again, on the Montreal UFC card? I'm sure he would like that.  Also, just like his very successful training partner Georges St. Pierre, Cote was extremely respectful toward his opponent and was good on the mic.

But if Alessio Sakara (why is he still in UFC?!) keeps getting fights on ZERO merit and crappy ability, Drew McFedries should definately get another few fights because he has awesome power and comes from a good camp. Hopefully he can put his personal problems past him and come back better.

Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman. I picked Mike Swick to win this fight. He won the fight...while fighting probably one of the more disappointing "main events" of the numerous Ultimate Fight Nights.  I didn't write it here, but on some forums I predicted that both of these guys will not do good under pressure of being in the main event and unfortunately I was right. Swick's claim that one of the reason he was moving down to 170 was to bring an exciting striking style to 170 division fell flat on it's face.

Both Swick and Burkman were afraid of each other and engaged very little standing up, barring Burkman's 360 spinning round house kick attempt (big up on that, it looked cool, ala Shogun's attempt on Rampage) and Swick's occasional high kicks. Most of the fight was spend in viciously boring cycle of Burkman charging Swick to the fence, trying for a take down and Swick defending it every single time, rinse and repeat.

I can kind of understand Burkman's endless mindless unsuccessful attempts at the same damn takedown after same damn takedown, he's part of Team Punishment, right? They would rot and fester any fighter's creativity there and suppliment that with crappy cornermen advice. Burkman, you need to get out of there asap, go to Xtreme Couture Gym, you'll be inspired and get your warrior spirit and fight smarts back.

Swick gave excuses about being worried to much about same damn takedown he already defended 10+ times and not pushing with the striking because of that. He was just not ready for being a main event and a possiblity of losing, so he was too scared to make something happen with his striking. Too bad. UFC keeps pushing these The Ultimate Fighter TV Show fighters right into the deep waters. Both of the guys are good fighters and should really rethink this fight, talk to Tony Robbins and get back into it like Chuck Liddell did.

So, on the televised fights only, based on my picks from right before the event, I went 3-1. Not bad. I'll report later on how I did with the untelevised fights and what I thought about them as soon as I watch them.

I picked Alvin Robinson to outwork Nate Diaz in this match up. When making my guess for this fight I did not take into account Robinson's and Diaz's big size difference.

Diaz immediately clinched an picked Alvin up with out bending down and took the fight to the ground. There he was working to land some punches and elbows inside Robinson's guard. Robinson covered up pretty well until Diaz gave him a chance to try for a guillotine choke while trying to stand up. When they stood up Diaz slammed Alvin down into his halfguard. Alvin held onto the guillotine for a bit and let go. Diaz then passed Alvin's guard to sidemount where he tried to transition into mount where Alvin reversed him. Diaz switched to a umoplata which Robinson turned out of and ended up on bottom again. He reversed it into Diaz's guard. This is where Diaz's long legs started giving Alvin problems. Diaz quickly locked in a tight triangle on a much shorter Robinson for a quick tap.

This was another decent test for Diaz which he passed with flying colors. I think if he fights Manny Gamburyan again, who he's more than willing to fight again to settle the dispute of who really won their first fight. I'll be picking Diaz in that fight, the size advantage will be too much and Diaz knows how to use it well.

Alvin Robinson is a decent hard working guy at 155, he should avoid fighting much taller guys in the division if he can help it.

Here I am again, posting picks minutes before the event.

Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman: picking Mike Swick because even if they both slug it out in the first, he's has some stamina to go on, unlike Burkman.

Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries: I know McFedries punches like a mule, but I think Cote will pull this through by working on the fence and taking this into round 2 or 3.

Alvin Robinson Vs. Nate Diaz: I'll go for the underdog here and think Robinson will outwork Diaz.

Michihiro Omigawa Vs. Thiago Tavares:  Thiago Tavares has a very smooth ground game and some nice flying knees to go with that. This one will be over quick I'm thinking.

Alberto Crane Vs. Kurt Pellegrino: Alberto Crane may be an amazing BJJ guy, but getting punched while he's working his ground game hasn't gone well for him recently. Pellegrino is good enough on the ground to fend Crane off while repeatedly punching him. Whoever gases first will lose this one. I'm thinking Crane will gas first, so Pellegrino is my pick.

Dennis Siver Vs. Gray Maynard: Gray Maynard should have picked up a tonn of good stuff at Xtreme Couture's to beat just about anybody, including Siver tonight.

Jeremy Stephens Vs. Cole Miller: Jeremy Stephens faced tougher competition and his experience should help him through this fight with Miller. Though Miller's been training with American Top Team, another kickass camp in US. Stephens beat Saraiva fromt he same camp though... Ya, I'm sure it'll be Stephens.

Joe Veres Vs. Corey Hill: A foot difference in height should handily help Corey Hill pick up a win over Veres

Justin Buchholz Vs. Matt Wiman: Wiman's lack of stricking will cost him in this one, picking Buchholz

I already posted the pictures from Fedor Emilianenko and Randy Couture's photoshoot for Affliction in my previous post.

Following that up check out a short clip on that same photoshoot.

Fedor Emelianenko visited United States this week to meet with Affliction and Randy Couture, check the news bits on that at M-1 Global news site and MMAJunkie.

Fightlinker.com also had nice find on Fedor possibly travelling with out babysitters.

Well the meeting between Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture did take place. Hopefully they talked about actually fighting each other and how to go about fighting each other. I personally, as many of you I'm sure, would love to have this fight actually happen sooner than later.

Anyways, I came across several pics from the photoshoot for Affliction. Last one is just precious.

(reposting this because somehow this post didn't make it to my rss feed)

I was checking in on Fedor Emelianenko yesterday and saw a recent interview he did for his official website fedor.bel.ru. Unfortunately for non-russian speaking Fedor fans, the interview was only available in Russian and it had some, new to me, neat information I have not heard about Fedor yet.  So what's MMA Ninja to do? Here is my professional translation, enjoy it readers.

<<Support of those close to me adds to my strength and confidence, but at the same time adds even greater responsibility for the outcome of a fight...>>

Correspondent: Fedor, first of all, we want to wish you a Happy New Year and Christmas and congratulate you with, of course, the most important for you event - changes in your family and the birth of your daughter Vasilisa. Who let you know about this wonderful event and what where initial emotions to the news of your baby coming into the world?

FEDOR: Yes, it's true, there were changes in my family. Me and Oksana are no longer together: already two years go Oksana and our daughter Masha moved to St. Petersburg....but we keep in touch, I still see Masha and Oksana too. Now I have a new family. I've known Marina for quite a while, and, as many already know, on December 29th our daughter was born.  Marina is the one who gave me the news. Vasilisa was born when we were in Japan. Marina called and gave me the wonderful news. Baby's height - 46 centimeters, weight - 2 kg 600 g. And what were my emotions - of course joy and happiness.

Correspondent: Is Marina also from Starii Oskol? (mmaninja's note: Fedor's hometown)

FEDOR: No, she is from Tula, but very soon I'll be moving mom and daughter to Starii Oskol, I'm just finishing up remodeling my apartment and getting ready for their move.

Correspondent: How are mom and daughter feeling?

FEDOR: The baby was checked out of the hospital, she is with grandma right now, and Marina is still at the hospital, she's having some complications with her health. But everything will get better in time and, I hope, we will all be together very soon.

Correspondent: Is grandma happy that she has another granddaughter now?

FEDOR: Both grandmas are very happy.

Correspondent: Do they trust you with taking care of Vasilisa?

FEDOR: Of course (laughing).

Correspondent: Trivial and common question, who does the baby look like?

FEDOR: She looks like me. Like Marina said "she is a total you!" And I think she looks like me too, my little copy of me.

Correspondent: Were you disappointed that you had a daughter and not a son?

FEDOR: No, not at all. I'm very happy. As far as a boy is concerned - everything is still ahead of us...

Correspondent: One of your fans said something concerting to that "Marina gave daughter for New Year's present and he in return gave her another victory!" With that said we have a few questions. It was your first time fighting for "Yarenokka", what was your impression of the event's organization and matchmaking? How was it different from Pride?

FEDOR: Regarding my present to Marina - while she, of course, is glad to see me win - that wasn't my main present for my daughter's birth. For us, definitely, the baby herself was an amazing present!  Regarding "Yarenokka", I can say that it was organized by former top-managers of Pride together with M-1 Global. Japanese organize this types of event at the highest level. The event wasn't boring, all the fighters gave it their all: fights were interesting, colorful and memorable. They got the fans riled up so much that they were loud non stop.

Correspondent: Your opponent had better physical attributes than you, does the difference in weight and height (Hong Man Choi's 218 cm and 165 kg versus Fedor Emelianenko's 183 cm and 106 kg) significantly affect way you fight?

FEDOR: I felt the difference in size when I tried to take Choi down but it turned out that he tripped me to take me down instead. Then I realized that my weight is not enough and strength is not enough either, so I had to take the fight by mastery. I attempted an armbar. It's important to never forget that in our sport if you slowdown for a moment or thrash around that you never know how things will end. That's why you have to finish a submission from the first try... though in the fight with Choi I managed to finish the submission in my second attempt.

Correspondent: What do you think of the fighting form of the Korean fighter? From what I know he's had some success in K-1.

FEDOR: Yes, Hong Man Choi is on of the leading fighters in K-1. He has a fairly positive fight record there: beating Semmy Schilt, Bob Sapp and Gary Goodridge...because of that  I can say he is a very worthy opponent...

Correspondent: Many famous people came to root for you, Jean Claude VanDamme, world champion boxer Natalia Rogozina, world famous woman-sumatori (anybody know what that is?) Olesya Kovalenko. Does their support help you?

FEDOR: I'm very glad that the guys came to support me...Jean Claude, Natasha, Olesya, several guys from Starii Oskol, few people from Moscow and St. Petersburg...Thank you everyone, it really does help, adds strength and confidence, but at the same time adds even greater responsibility for the outcome of a fight...

Correspondent: When will your next fight take place with M-1 Global and do you know your opponent?

FEDOR: A fight is planned for either April or March, in America, supposedly in Chicago, opponent is unknown...

Correspondent: How many fight are you supposed to participate in this year according to your M-1 Global contract?

FEDOR: According to the contract - 3-4 fights per year, and because the contract is for 2 years, I will have 6-8 fights.

Correspondent: Besides preparing for fights, what are your plans in the near future?

FEDOR: I'm slowly building a house, at the beginning of February I'll participate in Russian Combat Sambo Championship, then mid-February there a President's Sambo Cup... I'll be getting ready for my fight in America and, of course, most pleasant thing I'll be doing is parenting my daughter!

Correspondent: Thank you for the interview. Please, accept our most sincere congratulations and we wish you kindness, peace and prosperity to your family. We hope your baby will be very healthy and that she brings you more joy every day. And of course new a professional achievements in the sport!

-- end of interview.

I thought it was pretty interesting, changes in his family, being a new dad again and his assesment of Choi. While everyone written Hong Man Choi off as a complete scrub, Fedor didn't thinks so, especially after he felt his strength and size.

What did you think?

So much to write, so little time...

Had almost no time to write any kind of preview for UFC 80, so here are my quick picks before that 10 pm replay that I'll be watching:

BJ Penn Vs. Joe Stevenson - picking BJ Penn Here, from watching the UFC 80 count down, Stevenson's stand up is still severely lacking. BJ Penn will light him up standing and offer good takedown defense.

Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Fabricio Werdum - Werdum should have never gotten another chance before Arlovski, but it's UFC - losers get more chances than winners. I mean wtf is James Irvin still doing in UFC, or Sakara ? Eh?  Picking Gonzaga by distruction.

Jess Liaudin Vs. Marcus Davis - haven't seen my Liaudin, but would like Davis to win. With a heart like Davis and his recovery skills from near defeat should get him through this one. Picking Davis

Wilson Gouveia Vs. Jason Lambert - Lambert can be dangerous, but Gouveia will dominate on the ground. Picking Gouveia

Jorge Rivera Vs. Kendall Grove - Picking Rivera, Grove just doesn't punch that hard. Rivera is due for a win after several disappointments. Picking Rivera

Antoni Hardonk Vs. Colin Robinson - haven't seen Robinson, so I'll make a guess and pick Hardonk.

Paul Kelly Vs. Paul Taylor - don't know, Paul Taylor?

James Lee Vs. Alessio Sakara - Hope Lee wins so Sakara can stop taking up spots of motivated hungry and evolving fighters. I mean how does he keep getting invited back?

Per Eklund Vs. Sam Stout- Picking Stout, just cause he's been training at a good camp with Stevenson and hopefully picked up some more ground skills

We'll see how I do with this one. Made this picks on a whim, who knows may be that a better way to pick fights anyway.