(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.

In my attempt to catch to current events, I made a commitment to myself to finish reviewing Yarenokka and K-1 Premium Dynamite. I started off with reviewing Yarenokka (here and here) and will probably finish some time soon, but after viewing both event I'm going to switch gears here and review some fights from K-1 Dynamite. Frankly, K-1 Dynamite was a bit better event in terms of the fact that there were many more finishes than there were at Yarenokka.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Masakatsu Funaki (Masa Funaki from here on) is dream fight for many long time MMA fans that were familiar with the Japanese MMA scene that emerged during mid-1990's and grew to being the biggest MMA scene in the world until mid-2000's. Both fighters helped start-up and popularize their respective organizations.

Masa Funaki started up the Pancrase organization in 1993, which is famous for it's special rules during it's early years, giving a start and producing numerous MMA stars and MMA personalities (Bas Rutten, Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Guy Metzger, Semmy Schilt, Yuki Kondo, Evan Tanner, Nathan Marquardt and many more). Think about this short little list, at one point or another these guys were either champions or top contenders in whatever MMA organization they've fought at the time. Masa Funaki personally built up Pancrase, a MMA organization that held over 190 events, and a big share of Japanese MMA scene in 1990's with literally his blood sweat and tears. He promoted the event, he coached and trained many of the fighters in the organization and fought in just about every show from 1993 to 2000 recording a total of 50 fights and 38 wins over various level of competition but including fighting most of the fighters I just mentioned earlier. In 2000, Funaki faced the infamous "400-0 undocumented" record fighter Rickson Gracie only to lose by RNC once the fight went to the ground. Anyways, history of Pancrase and Funaki and their impact on MMA could take numerous posts, my point here is that in mid-1990's Masa Funaki was one of the better Japanese fighters and legend in Japan. You can check out Masa Funaki in action in his early days in the very few available Pancrase tapes PANCRASE Alive Tour Vol.1, PANCRASE Truth Tour Vol.1 and PANCRASE Alive Tour Vol.2.

Kazushi Sakuraba, while getting his rise to stardom in UFC Japan, is primarily known for his background as a Japanese pro-wrestler, beating up on all kinds of Gracies and some famous BJJ fighters in an entertaining fashion and by doing so helping to propel Pride FC into a premier world class MMA organization till it's unfortunate demise.  He is also famous for valiantly fighting off and receiving 3 spectacular beatings from a now very famous Wanderlei Silva. After those spectacular beatings Sakuraba won a few fights and also received a few more not spectacular but scary beating courtecy of his mis-managers and referees (his fights with Arona and Smirnovas). Spectacular beatings aside, Sakuraba was and is a MMA legend that during his hay day provided fans all over the world with some history making fights and influenced many other fighters with numerous, new at the time, approaches/strategies in dealing with Brazilian JiuJitsu based fighters. You can see some of his legacy making in Pride FC: Pride Fighting Legacy and Pride FC: Pride Fighting Legacy, Vol. 2.

Onto Kazushi Sakuraba vs Masa Funaki fight. I really like both fighters and watched all of Sakuraba's fights and majority of Funaki's.  Obviously Sakuraba had the advantage of having more recent experience and was a big favorite in my mind, but I was rooting for Funaki, him being the earlier pioneer of MMA in Japan and an underdog, and  was kind of worried about this being his first fight in 7 years.  Funaki surprised me, while he was looking kind of stationary once the bell rang his reflexes to Sakuraba's striking were pretty fast. After a slow start of feeling each other other out by a few kicks and jabs, Funaki landed a good body kick while Sakuraba was near the ropes and followed up with a few over committed punches toward a covering up Sakuraba. This gave Sakuraba a chance to take Funaki down into Funaki's guard. When Sakuraba postured up Funaki opened guard and tried to go for a kneebar to please his fans. Sakuraba stuffed his attempt and took his back while Funaki turtled up and was still looking for a kneebar for a short while till he rolled back into the open guard. Sakuraba lightly threw a few punches and stood out of the guard and got caught by Funaki's upkick. Sakuraba was in the position to kick the downed Funaki, after all that's one of things that made him famous, but he chose not to and just engaged Funaki on the ground again and quickly getting the side mount and shortly after finishing Funaki with the most basic Kimura.

I don't know if anyone else picked up on it, but Sakuraba really tried to avoid punching or kicking Funaki on the ground out of respect. You could tell by the way Sakuraba was right after the finish and by the fact that he doesn't take it easy on anyone else.  Sakuraba had a lot of respect for Funaki and what's he's done and did not want to embarras him by beating him up and took him out with a submission, which is a much more honorable way to go out.

Did the fight live up to the dream match expectations? Kind of and no. Kind of because it actually happened and it was a decent fight considering both Sakuraba and Funaki are almost 30 and had very gruelling careers and are past their prime time. This may be would have been a little bit better fight 5 years ago. Funaki would have had a 5 year break to heal and train anew and Sakuraba would have just recovered from his second loss to Silva. With that said, I'm glad it happend and the fans of both got to actually see it no matter the outcome.

No onto another point, Funaki didn't really offer much in terms of defense to Sakuraba's Kimura. He is not alone though, there's been many fights recently where it seems like once kimura is locked, fighters don't get out of it.

The only defense to Kimura fighters are offering to their opponents, this happens time and again, is to lock their hands and push toward the direction from where the kimura is being applied from, which only plays into getting a better grip for the fighter applying the kimura. Usually two things happen, fighter applying he kimura breaks the lock and finishes the move or lets the defending fighter turn to their stomach and take their back.

There is a defense to the kimura that I've known for years, which I've learned from some dude that visited a Renzo Gracie school and I can't take credit for it. So the attacking fighter is in sidemount on my right side and already has a kimura grip on my left hand while I have both of my hands locked. I will push toward the fighter applying the kimura, but only for a split second and immediately turn in the opposite direction (the direction the kimura was being applied), unlock my hands and yank my left hand toward my left side straight out of the kimura grip. Works like a charm majority of the time. Give it a try next time in practice and let me know how it goes. Kimura's will rarely pose a threat to you now. If the description isn't clear enough, let me know and I'll try posting some pics of the escape, or even quick video.

In this week's The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 2, "mega-mma-supastar" Tito Ortiz again comes out on top and stays on the winning team Hydra. Tito again did almost absolutely nothing the whole episode, except for really trying to look like an idiot. I have a feeling that with each episode there will be more and more of that.

This weeks episode teams are tasked with making a sappy TV commercial for sad doggies. Gene Simmons and Steven Baldwin took the lead on the task. Tito also showed some initiative by pretending to be a man-secretary and writing down some note, while other team members actually did some half productive brainstorming. Well, Tito didn't take any notes, look at this pretty picture of his doodles after the meeting. Yes, you're seeing that right, that is all the talented Tito Ortiz doodled down.

After the team decided on what to do for the commercial and filmed it the two leaders for this project made a decision to get rid of whiners and productivity detractors, like Tito Ortiz, for the final editing session. Reluctantly they left and left the leadership to finish the job.

But whiners and productivity detractors, like Tito Ortiz, couldn't let it go be cause they didn't want to go to bed and stormed in like some tough looking punks into the editing room and proceeded to whine about not having any input in the final 40 minutes of editing time left.

That's exactly what the leaders were trying to avoid and like real men sent the whiner out to complain and moap to each other. That's where Tito Ortiz really shined, after all that exactly he was best at through out latter part of his MMA career as a crappy fighter.  While comlaining and moaping, he acted real tough behind the backs of those who told him to beat it, just like in MMA, he was all mouth and no results.

Anyways, while moaping in his femenine whiny voice, he proceded to tell his team mates that he wasn't going to take it and that he "owns a multi billon dollar business" and "that he is not going to leave his LIFE in the hands of others" and not do anything about it. HUH?! He was REAL mad that he didn't get a chance to contribute absolutely nothing to the project. I mean, come on, they should have at least given him a chance to contribute nothing and whine some more!

After the team did win the task of making a doggy commercial, Tito acted way too happy about it and realized that he acted like a complaining little girl and immediately jumped on everyones coat tails and proceded to ride them and trying to high five anybody any chance he got. It got real annoying to everyone quick. Check out Lennox Lewis snubbing Tito's yet another high five offer.

In all seriousness, for every time some one like Randy Couture will amaze casual MMA fans and newcomers to MMA with how elloquent and smart MMA champions can be, there will be a Tito Ortiz on some reality TV show self-proclaiming to be a champion and act and talk like an idiot. Looking at Tito, is someone really going to buy the punchline that Joe Rogan always throws out there about a lot of MMA being a "chess match"?

Till next week...Until then I'll be doing some more serious MMA posting.

I haven't blogged for a week, but when I did blog with some consistency, it appears that I actually did gain a few readers. I thank you, readers, for visiting and may be even reading some of my posts. Most importantly for me though is that I somehow turned up on fightlinker's radar (Ya know they gobble up millions of MMA blog posts a day, no matter, it's my beginner blogger tiny milestone, only important to me).

(For the readers that didn't come from Fightlinker, if you haven't come across Fighlinker yet, you should go there now. Fightlinker is one of those sites people either love or hate but keep visiting to see what's on there)

I've seen Fighlinker grow since around it's inception in May 2007 and it's amazing (again to me, after all this is mostly for my own amusement) how far they've gotten and the kick ass momentum they have in their posting schedule. While I don't always agree with them, I RARELY disagree though, they rarely keep their often real honest opinions on various MMA topics to themselves, much like Matt Hughes doesn't.

I have to confess that I used fightlinker as my only MMA news source for a few months last year. Yep...fightlinker also inspired me to start this little blog. Thanks fightlinker!

While, I can't compete with their crazy posting tempo, I mean it took them 6-7 months to get there, nor do I want to, I'll keep posting my reviews of upcoming MMA events and big happenings.

So, please, subscribe to my RSS feed to get updates delivered to you or visit me before events for my quick picks and after for my, sometimes in depth, reviews and notes.

Hayato Sakurai is one of the most exciting lightweight fighters from who has been fighting for over 11 years since 1996. While his best fighting years were in Shooto during late 90's and early 2000's, he came back strong in 2005 during Pride Bushido 9 - The Lightweight Tournament (one of the best MMA shows to date btw) and defeated former UFC Lightweight champion Jens Pulver and former Shooto Lightweight champion Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen on the same night!!! It was truly an amazing night where Sakurai was at the top of his game twice to advance to the tournament final to face also amazing Takanori Gomi. While Sakurai lost to Gomi in the final, he went on a 3 KO/TKO win streak against some tough opposition including latest Ultimate Fighter 6 winner Mac Danzig. Sakurai has sharp aggresive striking game, great, often high amplitude, takedowns and also aggressive ground and pound, and a great ability to smoothly transition between all the aspects of his MMA game. So I was really looking forward to his return to MMA after almost a year long layoff. He was facing a very average journeyman Hasegawa. It should have been an easy fight where he could put a great show for the fans.

I initially overlooked him looking kind of soft as the first 30 seconds he was landing some snappy body kicks and some punches. For about a minute after Sakurai looked great, but then I could not believe my eyes. I thought I was watching the guy who beat two tough champions on the same night and just put together 3 vicious TKO victories. What I was seeing though was barely a shadow of Sakurai's even worst moments in some of his losses. He looked lethargic, his punches had zero power standing up or on the ground. I mean he was landing punches standing up and doing no damage, taking Hasegawa down and just laying on top and not doing any real damage.

During the break after round 1 Hasegawa, I'm sure of it, couldn't believe that he was hanging in there with Sakurai and was still in the fight. His corner literally slapped, see the screenshot, some more confidence into him and in Round 2 he came out swinging at Sakurai with his chin up. Ya, with his chin up against Sakurai with the sloppiest striking out there.  But he wasn't worried one bit because even when Sakurai hit him, there was zero power behind the punches. When Sakurai would take Hasegawa down, Hasewaga would just start playing the famous rubber guard until the ref would stand them up.

I was completely shocked and disappointed by Sakurai's worst performance ever. So I apologize not even really reviewing the fight itself, it was just too painful to watch what was happening. I only hope that Sakurai had some serious injury coming into the fight as an excuse for the poor performance and not finishing his way lesser opponent. I just can't imagine that his poor preparation for the fight was to blame.

I hope Sakurai comes back, where ever he ends up fighting, and at least somewhat resembles an exciting and agressive fighter he was just a meer 10 months ago.

As I try to work toward my blogging goal for 2008 of keeping up with MMA news and happenings, I decided to start on that right away and post something really MMA news worthy.

A MMA "supasta" and "antrapranuer", Tito Ortiz was part of tonight's season premier's cast of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice TV show. Whenever a MMA personality appears on TV, even if it's a former paper champion and crappy boring fighter, all MMA news and entertainment outlets still report it like something extremely important and it's possibility to doing wonders for general public accepting MMA and treating it with respect.

Well, I'm happy to report that Tito Ortiz, very fortunately for MMA, has not spoken but a few words and only when introducing his vile girlfriend (Mr. "Eloquent" himself is still convinced he's got a catch by getting her, what's wrong with his insecure self?). He has managed to not yet make a complete fool of himself on national television and due to his team of other celebrity apprentice hopefuls like Gene Simmons, Steven Balwin, some english prick and "the shut up already, you talk too much" Lennox Lewis winning the first round of the competition. This strategy worked really well for him and he is still on the winning team.

I'm excited to see the next episode of Celebrity Apprentice with Tito Ortiz not talking at all again and hopefully not introducing his vile girlfriend any more.

You know, I used to like Tito when he used to be fearless. But on 9/24/1999, the ever tricky former interim King of Pancrase Frank Shamrock, took Tito Ortiz's fearless warrior spirit and ability to evolve to any degree as a MMA fighter and a person and turned him in to an insecure pile of scared mush that would occasionally even cry after his fights in front of everybody. Frank Shamrock even enabled Tito Ortiz to be able to talk trash in a really high pitch voice that earned him victories over the most dangerous man in the world Ken Shamrock.

Till next week's episode of Celebrity Apprentice with Tito Ortiz!

December 2007 was probably the worst time for me to get into blogging about MMA. There were just so many MMA events happening right after another that I'm still catching up on reviewing them all. At the same time it's a great time to cover MMA because there so many MMA events in December 2007 because they provided me with more than plenty to write about.

Out of the 6 events that took place I'm only about half done covering them. I'm going to finish reviewing them and try to stay up on all the current happenings.

• 12/8/2007    - UFC - The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale
  • Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale was damn good show
• 12/15/2007  - HDNet Fights - Reckless Abandon
  • HDNet Fights Reckless Abandon review - first ever stoppage due to butt flopping?! Spratt, Trigg, Miller win
• 12/29/2007  - UFC 79 - Nemesis
  • UFC 79 Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell Matt Hughes vs Georges St. Pierre thoughts and quotes
  • MMA Ninja's UFC 79 Nemesis quick fight picks
  • UFC 79 Nemesis quick results - Chuck Liddell beats Wanderlei Silva - Georges St. Pierre dominates Matt Hughes
  • UFC 79 unaired preliminary fight Roan Carneiro beat Tony DeSouza
  • Downward elbow strike was banned in UFC MMA because of Karate and brick and board breaking
  • Georges St. Pierre debuts a new slamming from the mount MMA move at UFC 79
  • UFC 79 unaired preliminary fight Dean Lister decisions Jordan Radev - UFC should not have them back
• 12/29/2007  - IFL - World Grand Prix Finals
• 12/31/2007  - K-1 - Premium 2007 Dynamite!!
• 12/31/2007  - Yarennoka - New Years Eve 2007

So up next is a series of posts on some important fights in the two Japanese New Year's eve events K-1 Premium Dynamite and Yarennoka as I think there are some important fights that took place, at least for Japanese MMA scene. After I cover those two I'll review International Fighting Leagues (IFL) 2007's final event. 

My goal for this blog in 2008 is to catch up to the ever increasing amout of MMA news/happenings, get involved more in commenting on other MMA blogs and get some discussions going here.

So Happy 2008 and drop me a line, tell me how I'm doing.

"If you want to come back to UFC this isn't the way to do it" - Joe Rogan's quote during the broadcast of this UFC 79 preliminary fight pretty much sums it up for both fighters' horribly uninspired performances.

When an extremely boring and painful fight it was to watch! Both Dean Lister and Jordan Radev should not be invited back for a long time.

Lister is GOOD on the ground (just watch some ADCC Submission Championships for proof), but he severely is still lacking in two other very important aspects of his MMA in order to even take advantage of his best skill. He's been fighting professionally since 2000 with some decent success in King of the Cage promotion and finishing up his stint there with a very close competitive loss to a UFC/Pride veteran Jeremy Horn. Around 2004 he was invited to Pride Bushido and started the step up in the competition level with one of the worst fights in history of MMA against Amar Suloev. He fought a striker with good takedown defense and neither Lister nor Suloev wanted to engage much. Suloev won on a very few landed punches. Take my word for it, it was horrible. Lister followed that fight with a triangle choke win against always tough Akira Shoji, who engaged Lister on the ground at his own peril, and a surprisingly competitive loss with a tough light heavyweight contender Ricardo Arona. Despite the decision loss, it was Lister's best fight yet and it was also what got him into UFC.

Lister's UFC career started off with quick triangle choke win (due to a nice rubber guard play) against an inexperienced on the ground Allessio Sakara. He then decisioned a veteran Japanese fighter Yuki Sasaki. Another step up in the level of competition against, a contender at 185, Nathan Marquart didn't go so well for Lister. His virtually non-existent takedowns and sloppy awkward stand up were to blame.

Everyone knows about Lister's excellent ground game, top or bottom, so fighters do not want to engage him there. Unfortunately for the UFC and the fans, he really cannot get there even if he wants to, because he doesn't have the tools. What's also unfortunate is that since 2004 when these glaring weaknesses were so glaring to the world, he still hasn't managed to improve on them. He wouldn't even have to improve both. Pick just one! Takedowns or standup. Which one Dean? How many more failed attempts of a telegraphed a mile away half ass shot to trying to have the sprawling fighter fall in to you guard will it take for Lister to learn to have good takedowns? Why's wrestling one of the most dominant aspects of MMA? Because fighters with good wrestling can dictate where the fight will take place. Does Dean Lister not get that? 

Why am I bothering writing about this boring fight between Lister and Radev? Because it's painful to see a fighter with a gift not willing to learn a way to showcase it. May be a ticket to minor leagues will wake Lister up?  Also, just like in the last HDNet fights event, fighters should be penalized for butt flopping, who does that in this day and age? UFC should take notice.

Jordan Radev, on the other hand, what in the world was his game plan coming in to this fight? His standup was just as sloppy and bad as Lister's. Why didn't he use his wrestling to score points at least? After forcing myself through watching this fight I don't care to see him fight anywhere. How did he get into UFC anyways?