Randy Couture returning to the UFC?

A whole bunch of MMA sites are reporting that UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture will return to the UFC under a new contract to face Brock Lesnar at UFC 91 in the main event and then face Fedor Emelianenko under a UFC/M-1 Global co promoted event on Super Bowl weekend. I’m not going to go into too much detail on anything because I don’t really know whats going on with it right now, but considering BJ Penn vs St-Pierre is down for Super Bowl weekend already, we could have the two biggest fights in MMA history on the one card! I doubt very much that will happen, but that was one of the first things that came to my mind when I read this.

Couture vs Lesnar is an interesting fight. I have no doubt Couture will beat him. I really doubt Lesnar will be able to take Couture down. Couture is a great wrestler and has been training in MMA for a lot longer. He knows what works in MMA wrestling wise and what doesn’t. Lesnar just dumps people on theit back and tries to beat them up. Not to mention that with Couture’s Greco Roman skills, he’ll be bringing something to the table that Lesnar won’t really have seen much of before because Lesnar is a freestyle wrestler. If Couture puts Lesnar on his back once in this fight, it’ll be over. He’ll either pound him out or he’ll submit him (with the latter being the more likely scenario). I also favout Couture’s cardio over Lesnar’s which will play a big factor considering I doubt Lesnar has the abilities yet to finish Couture.

The big thing that is on my mind is whether or not Randy Couture will remain as the UFC’s heavyweight Champion? He hasn’t lost his title in the Octagon, yet the UFC have been trying to build up Nogueira for a while and may just strip Couture because he’s been out of the Octagon too long. I also doubt that the UFC would give Lesnar a shot at the title this soon. Whether they strip him or not everyone knows he’s the champion right now. I personally think a fight between him and Nogueira is a really bad matchup for Couture, but Randy should still be the one fighting Fedor. It’s a fight that needs to happen. It’s the UFC heavyweight Champion versus the PRIDE heavyweight Champion. We’ve been waiting years to see this finally happen. If Dana White is willing to bite the bullet and co-promote the fight just so it happens that fair play to him.

This week in Boxing (30th August)

Oscar De La Hoya takes on Manny Pacquiao on December 6th
The fight was announced yesterday. Manny Pacquiao will move up to welterweight to take on Oscar De La Hoya. I’ve made my opinions very clear on this fight so if you want to know how much of a mismatch I think this pointless fight is, check out these posts:
http://angryfightfan.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/this-week-in-boxing-23rd-august/
http://angryfightfan.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/this-week-in-boxing-16th-august/
For the record anyway, all of my frustration is aimed towards the De La Hoya team for this fight. I have tremendous respect for Pacquiao for taking such a hard fight and I really hope he can find a way to knock De La Hoya out. If he can there’s no one who can really question that this man is an all-time great. I just don’t see how he can do it and don’t see at all why this is such a big fight. I’d much rather see Margarito take on Paul Williams or Cristian Mijares take on Fernando Montiel then watch this fight.

Olympic Boxing Results
Well for the first time in who knows how long the Cubans didn’t win a Boxing Gold Medal in an Olympics they competed in. The Chinese and Russians topped the Boxing Medal Tally with two gold medals each. The United States continued their fall in Amateur Boxing by securing only one Bronze Medal this Olympics.
Here’s the full results of the Gold Medal fights:

Junior Flyweight
Gold: Shiming Zou (China)
Silver: Serdamba Puredjorj (Mongolia)
Bronze: Paddy Barnes (Ireland), Yampier Hernandez (Cuba)

Flyweight
Gold: Somjit Jongjohor (Thailand)
Silver: Laffita Hernandez (Cuba)
Bronze: Georgy Balakshin (Russia), Vincenzo Picardi (Italy)

Bantamweight
Gold: Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (Mongolia)
Silver: Yankiel Leon Alarcon (Cuba)
Bronze: Bruno Julie (Mauritius), Veaceslav Gojan (Moldova)

Featherweight
Gold: Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine)
Silver: Khedafi Djelkhir (France)
Bronze: Shahin Imranov (Ajerbaijan), Yakup Kilic (Turkey)

Lightweight
Gold: Alexey Tishchenko (Russia)
Silver: Daouda Sow (France)
Bronze: Yordenis Ugas (Cuba), Hrachik Javakhyan (Armenia)

Junior Welterweight
Gold: Felix Diaz (Dominican Republic)
Silver: Manus Boomjumnong (Thailand)
Bronze: Alexis Vastine (France), Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (Cuba)

Welterweight
Gold: Bakhyt Sarsekbayhev (Kazakhstan)
Silver: Carlos Banteaux Suarez (Cuba)
Bronze: Silamu Hinati (China), Jungjoo Kim (South Korea)

Middleweight
Gold: James Deagle (Great Britain)
Silver: Emilio Correa Bayeaux (Cuba)
Bronze: Vijender Kumar (India), John Sutherland (Ireland)

Light Heavyweight
Gold: Xiaoping Zhang (China)
Silver: Kenny Egan (Ireland)
Bronze: Yerkebulan Shynaliev (Kazakhstan), Tony Jeffries (Great Britain)

Heavyweight
Gold: Rakhiem Chakhkiev (Russia)
Silver: Clemente Russo (Italy)
Bronze: Deontay Wilder (United States), Osmai Acosta Duarte (Cuba)

Super Heavyweight
Gold: Roberto Cammarelle (Italy)
Silver: Zhieli Zhang (China)
Bronze: Vyacheslav Glazkov (Ukraine), David Price (Great Britain)

Medal Tally
Countey (Gold-Silver-Bronze)
1. China (2-1-1)
2. Russia (2-0-1)
3. Italy (1-1-1)
4. Mongolia (1-1-0)
5. Thailand (1-1-0)
6. Great Britain (1-0-2)
7. Kazakhstan (1-0-1)
8. Ukraine (1-0-1)
9. Dominican Republic (1-0-0)
10. Cuba (0-4-4)
11. France (0-2-1)
12. Ireland (0-1-2)
13. Armenia (0-0-1)
14. Ajerbaijan (0-0-1)
15. India (0-0-1)
16. Mauritius (0-0-1)
17. Moldova (0-0-1)
18. South Korea (0-0-1)
19. Turkey (0-0-1)
20. United States (0-0-1)

Cazares-Calderson II, Mijares returns this weekend
The big rematch between the top two Junior Flyweights (108lbs) in the World takes place this weekend. Ivan Calderson puts his undefeated record and WBO 108lb title on the line against former champion Hugo Cazares in Puerto Rico. I think Calderon will be much more adjusted to the weight (for guys this small that extra kilo makes a difference) and I also think Cazares is struggling to make weight. Calderon should win the rematch more comfortably.
Also in action this weekend is the top Junior Bantamweight (115lbs) in the World Cristian Mijares. Mijares is one of the few titlists who is willing to fight other guys with titles and fight top fighters on a consistant basis. This is one of the reasons I think he deserves a spot in the top ten Pound for Pound best fighters in the World. Recently he’s beaten Jorge Arce, Katsushige Kawashima and Alexander Munoz and not only that, he fights every few months so he can stay sharp. Other champions could learn a lot from this guy! Mijares takes on former WBC flyweight titlist Chatchai Sasakul (64-3).

Big two weeks of Lightweights starts next weekend
All of the top lightweight contenders (bar Manny Pacquiao) will do battle over a period of eight days starting next weekend when Juan Diaz and Michael Katsidis fight to try and get back in the title picture. This is then followed by a fight for the Linear Lightweight title between Champion Joel Casamayor and two weight titlist and top pound for pound fighter Juan Manuel Marquez. Also on the same day, multi alphabet belt holder Nate Campbell gives Joan Guzman a chance to win his third world title. Two of the junior welterweight titles go up for grabs on the same day with Timothy Bradley and Andreas Kotelnik defending their respective belts. Despite the few weeks without a big fight, September 13 is doing its best to make up for lost time!

Kimbo Slice takes on ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Man’

Kimbo Slice will headline EliteXC’s third CBS card taking on UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock on October 3rd. Shamrock has won one out of his last ten fights so on paper he looks to be a stepping stone for Kimbo who has won all of his victories inside the distance including a first round knockout win over David ‘Tank’ Abbott and a 3rd round stoppage over James Thompson.

This fight is a step down from Thompson no doubt, but I really think this is a good fight for EliteXC and for Kimbo Slice. Thompson may be better then Shamrock now, but he has no where near the credibility that the former UFC Heavyweight Champion has (Shamrock was the first to hold the Superfight title so in my books that makes him the first heavyweight champion). If Kimbo knocks Shamrock out, it will attract a larger audience because people know of Shamrock because of the Ultimate Fighter and because of his years in Professional Wrestling. Despite the difference in name value, the thing that Shamrock has that no one else Kimbo has fought had is good submission skills.

Not only does Shamrock know how to put a submission on, he’s old school with his grappling and has a wide variety of unorthodox submissions; in particular his leglocks. Shamrock will catch any man alive in a leg lock if they don’t know how to defend one. Thompson could wrestle and put Kimbo on his back, but he doesn’t have the devastating ground and pound of a Fedor Emelianenko or an Igor Vovchanchyn which means he was going to struggle to finish Kimbo. If Shamrock puts Kimbo on his back and passes to half guard, I can really envision him spinning around into a kneebar and tapping Kimbo. I can also see Shamrock dropping back and tapping Kimbo with a heel hook given the oppurtunity. This is a dangerous fight for Kimbo if it hits the ground. The question that needs to be answered is whether or not Shamrock can put Kimbo there. Going off Kimbo’s last fight I think that there’s a good chance of it happening.

In my opinion this is a good fight. It’s certainly not a fight I would pay to watch, but for a card on free to air television I’d definately tune in if they showed it in Australia. This is a good step in the right direction for Kimbo and will answer a few questions of him. Basically the way I see this fight is that if Kimbo wins it in fashion, he will prove that he is better then a mid-level fighter from 2000-2001 because thats basically what Shamrock is right now. Shamrock really looked bad against Robert Berry, his wrestling looked weak and his stand-up was poor. I’m hoping he can turn back the clock a bit and make a fight out of it because I’d love to see him go out with a win. Despite the shit he talks I like watching Shamrock fight.

This week in Boxing (23rd August)

Olympic Boxing Gold Medal Matches
I bitched about the scoring last week so I’ll leave my opinions of that out this week. The Romanian boxing judge though has been suspended for ’suspected foul play’ which is a big blow for any chances of Olympic boxing taking place at London. Something will have to change for boxing to have any chance at remaining in the Olympics. The Gold Medal matches will take place over the remaining games at the Olympics. Here’s how they shape up:

Junior Flyweight
Shiming Zou (China) vs Serdamba Puredjorj (Mongolia)
Bronze: Paddy Barnes (Ireland), Yampier Hernandez (Cuba)

Flyweight
Laffita Hernandez (Cuba) vs Somjit Jongjohor (Thailand)
Bronze: Georgy Balakshin (Russia), Vincenzo Picardi (Italy)

Bantamweight
Yankiel Leon Alarcon (Cuba) vs Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (Mongolia)
Bronze: Bruno Julie (Mauritius), Veaceslav Gojan (Moldova)

Featherweight
Khedafi Djelkhir (France) vs Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine)
Bronze: Shahin Imranov (Ajerbaijan), Yakup Kilic (Turkey)

Lightweight
Daouda Sow (France) vs Alexey Tishchenko (Russia)
Bronze: Yordenis Ugas (Cuba), Hrachik Javakhyan (Armenia)

Junior Welterweight
Felix Diaz (Dominican Republic) vs Manus Boomjumnong (Thailand)
Bronze: Alexis Vastine (France), Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (Cuba)

Welterweight
Carlos Banteaux Suarez (Cuba) vs Bakhyt Sarsekbayhev (Kazakhstan)
Bronze: Silamu Hinati (China), Jungjoo Kim (South Korea)

Middleweight
Emilio Correa Bayeaux (Cuba) vs James Deagle (Great Britain)
Bronze: Vijender Kumar (India), John Sutherland (Ireland)

Light Heavyweight
Xiaoping Zhang (China) vs Kenny Egan (Ireland)
Bronze: Yerkebulan Shynaliev (Kazakhstan), Tony Jeffries (Great Britain)

Heavyweight
Clemente Russo (Italy) vs Rakhiem Chakhkiev (Russia)
Bronze: Deontay Wilder (United States), Osmai Acosta Duarte (Cuba)

Super Heavyweight
Zhieli Zhang (China) vs Roberto Cammarelle (Italy)
Bronze: Vyacheslav Glazkov (Ukraine), David Price (Great Britain)

De La Hoya vs Pacquiao still in negotiations
The De La Hoya camp has reduced their proposed 70-30 split to a 67-33 split for their fight against Manny Pacquiao. It sounds like De La Hoya really wants to beat up on another smaller fighter. Why would he face someone of Antonio Margarito’s caliber when he can fight a guy who fights the same way but is 15lb lighter? If De La Hoya is to lose to Pacquiao, it’ll seriously tarnish his legacy in my eyes and if he wins, anyone who knows jack about boxing will know it’s no career defining win.

Pound for Pound Rankings
There’s that little going on in boxing this week that I decided to share my current Pound for Pound Rankings. I was planning on putting a monthly ranking set up at some point including all divisions, but thats been put off for now. Here’s my pound for pound list though:

1- Manny Pacquiao
2- Joe Calzaghe
3- Juan Manuel Marquez
4- Israel Vazquez
5- Kelly Pavlik
6- Bernard Hopkins
7- Rafael Marquez
8- Ricky Hatton
9- Cristian Mijares
10- Antonio Margarito

A lot of people rank Margarito higher, but everyone above him on that list deserves to be there. Margarito only recently lost to Paul Williams which in my opinion keeps him down on the list behind these other guys who are above him. Should he avenge that loss, Margarito is likely sitting in the top five. The Pavlik-Hopkins winner will likely take third place behind Calzaghe, it all depends on how clear cut the victory is as well though.

Ruiz takes on Valuev next week
There is so little going on this week that I’m going to talk about a fight thats happening next week (I also don’t wanna waste a slot in a good week of boxing talking about John Ruiz, actually it really shows how little is happening in boxing when I have to talk about John Ruiz the week before he fights to fill up a post). This fight should be your typical God-awful heavyweight title fight filled with lots of holding (from Ruiz’s part anyway), not much punching and the taste of vomit in everyone’s mouth after its over. Valuev should win the rematch as well, he seems to have improved from their last fight.

This week in Boxing (16th August)

I decided to start a new feature on this site. Each Saturday I’ll post a wrap-up of what happened during that week in boxing (outside of the really mega stories which I’ll post as they happen/when they happen) and give my take on it. I read quite a few different sites as well so I’ll comment on the odd article that I find to be stupid and put crap on the author. I’m hoping this segment will actually get someone to comment on the site because I’m feeling a little lonely. I might also do an MMA version of this segment, although right now I’ll keep it to boxing because there aren’t a lot of good boxing matches happening over the next few weeks.

Olympic Boxing Results
Not really results, I just wanted to vent my frustration about the scoring. I really don’t think there will be boxing at London 2012. The scoring system has somehow managed to break the rock bottom it hit at Athens 2004 and get worse. The way they do it just isn’t logical. These fighters sacrifice so much to get there, only for their dreams to rest on whether or not three judges react to a punch within a second of each other in order to score a point. Not only do they have to worry about scoring with their shots and making the other boxer miss, they have to hope that their point is scored by this completely random scoring system. Go back to round-by-round scoring if you have to and make it three-three minute rounds instead or let the judges keep their own cumulative score over the four rounds based on punches landed on the target area and then score it for the fighter who the majority of the judges think won. Anything will work better then the current method!

Jorge Arce returns in September
Again this isn’t really about Arce, it’s about what the WBA are doing with this fight. Okay try and follow this; Cristian Mijares unified the WBC and WBA titles with a points win over Alexander Munoz. The WBA do what they always do and make Mijares ’super champion’ because he holds the WBA belt plus another title which is their fucked up policy. Now get this, without even filling the ‘regular’ WBA title, the WBA have announced Alexander Munoz will fight for the regular title, and Arce will fight for the interim title. How fucked up is that? To make matters worse, both guys are fighting average fighters. Why don’t the WBA just make these two fight because the winner will definately be the next top fighter behind Mijares and Montiel. That would be an excellent fight and something that boxing needs to happen more often; two top fighters fighting each other for the right to face the champion. Sanctioning bodies suck and as long as organisations like the WBA are allowed to do shit like this boxing will always be a second rate sport!

Joe Calzaghe to retire should he defeat Roy Jones jnr
I’m a bit pissed off by this. There are plenty of good fights for Calzaghe to take part in (well there’s at least one and possibly two). The winner of Dawson vs Tarver would make an excellent opponent for Calzaghe as would Kelly Pavlik should he defeat Bernard Hopkins (I really couldn’t sit through a rematch between Calzaghe and Hopkins). Jones jnr won’t test Calzaghe, he’s old and washed up. Calzaghe’s got plenty of fight left in him if he wants to keep going, and a win over who I think will be a top pound for pound fighter in boxing for the next five or so years will add enormous amounts to his legacy. Pavlik has to get by Hopkins first and I’m really not sure he can at the higher weight. Hopkins spoiling style and physical strength will make things ugly for Pavlik who will be forced to fight at a lower pace then he likes to. I’d love nothing more to see Pavlik mop the floor with both Hopkins and Calzaghe in his next two fights though.

Vic Toweel passes away
Arguably South Africa’s greatest boxer (I don’t know a lot about their boxing history but no other names came to mind) and former Undisputed World Bantamweight champion Vic Toweel passed away yesterday at age 80. Toweel went 298-2 as an amatuer (one of those losses came in the form of a disputed decision at the 1948 Olympics) before turning pro. He won the World Bantamweight Championship in 1950 with a 15 round points win over Bantamweight great Manuel Ortiz. ‘The Benoni Atom’ made three defences of his title before losing it to Jimmy Caruthers in 1952. During his reign he had troubles making the weight and had many fights above the Bantamweight limit. Toweel retired with a 28-3-1 record (14 knockouts) and lived the last 20 years of his life in Australia. RIP.

De La Hoya vs Pacquaio likely off
The ‘mega’ fight between top ranked junior middleweight Oscar De La Hoya and top ranked lightweight Manny Pacquiao is likely off after both parties couldn’t come to an agreement. Good Riddance! I really don’t know why people were so keen to see De La Hoya beat up a man who is 20lbs naturally smaller then him no matter how good he is in his weight division. The last thing I needed to hear on the occasions I visit message boards is how much greater De La Hoya is after a knockout win over Pacquiao. It’s bad enough as it is that people think he’s up ther with guys like Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong (I personally don’t think he’s the greatest welterweight or lightweight of the last 15 years) without this overhyped mismatch taking place. Pacquiao will instead fight Humberto Soto, who is a good fighter but will likely test the pound for pound king Pacquiao. De La Hoya will probably make Felix Trinidad saw his leg off to make welterweight and avenge that loss in his farewell fight which might infact be worse.

UFC 87 Results

Georges St Pierre UD Jon Fitch
I really didn’t think Fitch was that tough. That guy takes incredible amounts of punishment and comes out at the start of the next round like its round one! He’s Nogueira-like in his ability to recover from being battered. St Pierre looked great as usual in this fight, but he still looks a little uncomfortable standing up when the other guy can throw good shots back at him. Fitch landed some good body shots in the second round just as Serra was able to do in both of their fights. It’s hard to fault someone like GSP and this is just a minor thing, but it’s something that could get him into trouble especially if he ends up fighting BJ Penn. Penn has excellent hands and will exploit GSP’s lack of inside game if he doesn’t tighten up his defence. Also Thiago Alves is another guy who could very well exploit GSP’s inside boxing game if he doesn’t tighten it up.
Other then that minor thing, GSP looked very good considering the level of his opposition. The only guy I give a good chance at dethoring him is BJ Penn should he move up. This fight needs to happen and the rumours are that it will happen at UFC 91 in November. There’s no one at lightweight who will challenge Penn so this is the logical fight to be made. If Penn wins then there are plenty of guys at lightweight who could make things interesting. You could do what happened back at UFC 39 and 41 with the ‘road to the lightweight title’ and have Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson and Nate Diaz in a four man tournament with the winners meeting at a later event for the interim title or something along those lines.

Brock Lesnar UD Heath Herring (plus Cheick Kongo KO1 Dan Evenson)
As much as I hate to say it, Brock Lesnar is a real fighter. It’s going to take one of the top guys to beat him I think. This guy will get better with each passing fight and I think whoever beats him will either have to have top notch Jiu Jitsu (like Frank ‘Merr” does) or good wrestling to keep him standing up or enough power to land a shot to take Lesnar out. I’ve read a few people calling what Lesnar did ‘lay and prey’ My God people what fight were you watching? Lesnar battered Herring with knees and punches. He used his wrestling in a smart way and didn’t gas himself out but he kept up a good pace and kept Herring from gaining any sort of position where he could defend himself effectively. Herring has only been stopped a few times, and they were by the best so there’s no shame in going the distance with him at all.
A lot of people have been calling for the Lesnar-Kongo fight to be made. I disagree, I say remake the Lesnar-Mark Coleman fight. Lesnar needs experience and Coleman is a very good opponent for him for a number of reasons. 1) Lesnar is the stereo-typical up and comer with a bad attitude while Coleman is the Hall of Famer coming out of retirement; this fight is very marketable. 2) Coleman has equal if not better wrestling credentials then Lesnar so we may get to see how Lesnar fights off his back. Coleman is probably the only heavyweight in the UFC with the ability to take Lesnar down. 3) Coleman is a big name fighter and an all-time great, a win over him for Lesnar is a big deal in his fourth fight not to mention Coleman is 45 so he (on paper anyway) shouldn’t pose too many problems for the up and coming Lesnar. 4) Whoever wins this fight can be marketed for a bigger fight in the future. Even if Coleman wins then you’ve got the Hall of Famer having another run at the UFC title.
These things can’t be said about the Lesnar-Kongo fight. I personally wouldn’t mind not seeing Kongo fight again. His fight against Evenson was pretty bad if you ask me. For some reason he repeatedly tried to take the fight to the ground against a guy who, despite being a Norwegian kickboxing champion (I’m not sure how good that makes him) had no idea what he was doing standing up. His chin was high and his hands were low and he was asking to be knocked out yet Kongo didn’t jump on him like he should have. Lesnar would have no problems with Kongo at all. I would much rather see Lesnar fight Mark Coleman then I would see him fight Cheick Kongo, at least at this stage anyway. I personally would pick Mark Coleman against Cheick Kongo as well.

Rob Emerson KO1 Manny Gamburyan
Gamburyan was just asking to be knocked out fighting with his chin that high in the air. I’ve got a little bit more respect for Emerson’s skills after that, but I think anyone with a good right hand could do the same to Gamburyan if he keeps fighting like that.

Kenny Florian UD Roger Huerta
Huerta isn’t top notch right now, but I think he can come back and reach that level in the future. Florian clowned him and showed that he is a level above him. Huerta is just too wild and doesn’t set anything up and no matter how aggressive you are, thats not going to work against a guy with Florians experience. Huerta just needs a few more fights under his belt and he could be ready again. It’s not one of those devastating losses that will effect his career, he’ll learn from this and come back better. As for Florian, he’s definately one of the top lightweights in the World and will give anyone (apart from BJ Penn and Sean Sherk) a really hard fight. A fight I would love to see is Florian vs Joe Stevenson.

Demian Maia Sub3 Jason MacDonald
Maia is so good to watch on the ground. MacDonald surprised me with his submission defence, but Maia was just too good. I expected him to have a little bit more trouble taking MacDonald down, but his wrestling was a lot better then I gave him credit for. Maia is definately a player in the middleweight division, and with other top notch BJJ guys in the division like Ricardo Almeida and Rousimar Palhares there’s the potential for some really top notch ground fights to happen in the UFC

UFC 87 Predictions

This card sort of snuck up on me. I didn’t realise it was on this weekend until yesterday and apart from the three main fights (St Pierre vs Fitch, Florian vs Huerta and Lesnar vs Herring) I didn’t know who else was on the card. This is an excellent fight card. It might not be the most stacked UFC card of all-time but it’s certainly an entertaining card. The Florian-Huerta fight alone makes this fight card good. Anyway for the handful of people who read this rant and want to plagiarise my predictions (not sure why anyone would want to with my recent form, although I did get every Affliction fight right) here are my picks and thoughts on the fight card.

Main Card
Jon Fitch vs Georges St Pierre
(UFC World Welterweight title)
Prediction- St Pierre 2nd round knockout
I know how good Fitch is, but I just don’t see how he can succeed where others have failed before him. St Pierre is a better wrestler then Fitch, he’s a better striker then Fitch and he’s got better submissions then Fitch. Fitch has to do one of two things; he has to either get his decent at best stand-up and catch GSP with a knockout shot or he has to somehow put the guy with the (in my opinion anyway) 2nd best takedown defence in MMA (behind Liddell) on his back. GSP will feel him out on his feet then either proceed to take Fitch down and pound on him until he can’t take anymore or submit him, or he’ll keep the fight standing and destroy Fitch there. The smart move for GSP would be to take the fight to the ground so there’s no repeat of the first fight with Serra (Serra hits harder then Fitch, but Fitch has enough power to knock GSP out if he lands), but I’m sure whatever gameplan he implements will work fine. GSP by stoppage in the 2nd round, I think it’ll be with repeated punches from the mount.

Kenny Florian vs Roger Huerta
Prediction- Huerta on points
The smart pick with this fight would be Florian, he’s more experienced and he’s proven time and time again that he’s a top tier lightweight. Huerta though just has the fight in him. He reminds me of the stereotypical latino boxers who repeatedly go through anything and everything to get the win. I think Florian will beat him up in the first round before Huerta turns it around in the 2nd round and outworks Florian to take a unanimous decision in what should be fight of the night. Huerta has the edge in boxing in this fight, but Florian’s muay thai skills are very dangerous and could counter Huerta’s hands. On the ground I think Florian will struggle to use his jiu jitsu skills from underneath Huerta. Florian could very well be too much too soon for Huerta, but this is a fight that makes sense. This should be a great fight, I’ll be disappointed if it isn’t.

Heath Herring vs Brock Lesnar
Prediction- Herring 3rd round knockout
Herring’s lack of takedown defence makes me nervous in this fight, but despite Lesnar’s size I really can’t see him doing what guys like Fedor Emelianenko couldn’t and that’s finishing Herring with ground and pound (I’m fully aware Herring was stopped by Fedor, but Fedor beat the bejesus out of him for the first 8 minutes of the round before Herring reversed him and survived, the fight was stopped on a cut). Herring is as tough as they come and he’ll take some finishing. He has a huge edge standing up and I think he’ll use his leg kicks to wear down the bigger man and he’ll use his uncanny ability to survive on the ground. Lesnar will come out and take the fight to Herring and probably have a good first few minutes, after that when he doesn’t finish Herring and Herring starts landing with his leg kicks we’ll see what sort of fight Lesnar has in him. Herring to kick Lesnar’s legs out from under him and knock him out in the 3rd round.

Rob Emerson vs Manny Gamburyan
Prediction- Gamburyan 1st round submission
Really, why is Rob Emerson in the UFC? He’s an average fighter who won’t go far with not much personaility (apart from that he likes to wear a thong which I find really disturbing, not because I have a problem with anything like that, it’s just strange that such a normal sort of person has a thong fetish, it’s not even like he’s trying to be funny or something, he seems to just like wearing it) and for some reason he’s on the main card? Gamburyan’s going to fuck him up before winning by first round kimura.

Demian Maia vs Jason MacDonald
Prediction- Maia 2nd round submission
I’m looking forward to this fight between two top grapplers. Maia has been very impressive in his two previous UFC outings, earning submission of the night on both occasions. MacDonald has pulled off two submission victories over guys that on paper he wasn’t meant to beat in Herman and Leben. I give the edge in the grappling to Maia, but the edge in wrestling and stand-up to MacDonald. MacDonald should really keep this fight on his feet and avoid going to the ground with someone as dangerous as Maia. However, I think it’ll only take one takedown for Maia to win this fight by submission and that MacDonald won’t be able to keep Maia off him for the full three rounds. Maia by 2nd round armbar submission and his third submission of the night victory.

Preliminary Card
Dan Evenson vs Cheick Kongo
Prediction- Kongo 2st round knockout
I don’t know a whole lot about Evenson but if he has good wrestling he could cause an upset. I don’t think the UFC would have brought him in though if he was anything but cannon fodder for Kongo. Kongo by big first round knockout.

Chris Wilson vs Steve Bruno
Prediction- Wilson on points
Bruno is a well accomplished fighter making his UFC debut against ‘that guy who last fought Jon Fitch’ Chris Wilson. I was impressed with Wilson in that fight, he showed good stand-up and takedown defence, he just doesn’t have the game yet to compete with someone like Fitch right off the bat. The fact that he went to a decision with Fitch shows he’s good. Considering the ’octagon jitters’ are out of the road for Wilson and not for Bruno, I think this gives Wilson a huge edge. Wilson should start well, before Bruno finds his feet and makes it close in the latter stages, but doesn’t do enough to take the win.

Ben Saunders vs Ryan Thomas
Prediction- Saunders on points
I don’t know much about either guy other Thomas has a grappling background with most of his wins coming via submission and Saunders was on the Ultimate Fighter and didn’t really look like anything special. I’m very tempted to go with Thomas by submission but I always go with the guy I’ve heard in this situations. Saunders to win over the distance.

Luke Cummo vs Tamdam McCrory
Prediction- Cummo on points
McCrory is a dangerous dude. He’s shown that he can bang and also has shown he has the ability to finish the fight on the ground (although he was fighting Pete Spratt). However, I think Cummo’s unorthodox style will give him fits and Cummo’s conditioning will allow him to keep in control of the fight and take a pretty clear unanimous decision.

Andre Gusmao vs Jon Jones
Prediction- Jones 2nd round knockout
Jones seems to be a solid prospect and I think Gusmao is in over his head in this fight. Jones to repeatedly take Gusmao down and pound on him until the referee stops the fight.

Darchinyan vs Kirilov/Clottey vs Judah tomorrow

The ‘Raging Bull’ Vic Darchinyan, Australia’s number one boxer returns tomorrow with his sights set on a new ‘world title’ when he challenges Russia’s Dimitri Kirilov for the IBF junior bantamweight (115lbs) title. Despite this being for a ‘world title’ the winner can hardly call themselves a World Champion. With Cristian Mijares and Fernando Montiel holding the other three titles among them, the winner of this fight puts themselves among the top guys in the division, not on top of them. Anyway, onto the fight. This really is the classic boxer vs slugger matchup. Kirilov is extremely quick and defensive minded while Darchinyan’s nickname speaks for itself.

This fight will get better for Darchinyan as it gets older. In the early rounds Kirilov will use his speed to frustrate the Armenian-Australian while building a lead on the cards. The one thing that I don’t think Kirilov will expect is just how strong Darchinyan is. Despite coming up from flyweight (112lbs), Darchinyan will be the stronger fighter. This guy is seriously strong for his size and would be able to outmuscle world class featherweights. So despite Kirilov’s early advantage in speed, I think Darchinyan’s strength will wear him down and he’ll take Kirilov out late in the fight. Darchinyan KO10.

The other major fight taking place tomorrow is for Antonio Margarito’s IBF welterweight title which was stripped from him when he decided to fight Miguel Cotto. Zab Judah (a man Cotto knocked out last year) and Joshua Clottey (a man Margarito beat in 2006) will battle for the vacant title. How the IBF, let alone anyone else, can take themselves seriously when they pull stunts like this is mind boggling. Surely they could have let Margarito fight the man who up until last weekend everyone considered the top welterweight in the World instead of stripping him of the belt and putting two guys who aren’t even top five against each other and calling them world champion. It’s petty and it’s stupid and it’s insulting to the fans of this sport.

Clottey should beat Judah. Zab hasn’t looked that good since 2006 when he lost to Carlos Baldomir and following the beating Cotto lay on him last year I don’t think his body will respond too well when Clottey starts roughing him up. Clottey has looked good lately, even in his loss to Margarito he put up a good effort. Clottey has a significant strength advantage in this fight and I think he’ll break Zab’s spirit by the 3rd or 4th round and pound out a unanimous decision victory. Three years ago I would have picked Judah and I would have picked him without a second thought. I think he can win this fight, but I don’t think he will. Clottey by unanimous decision.

Why the Grand Prix doesn’t always work

In the wake of the recent DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix (I know it’s been over a week, but I’ve been busy) I’ve once again been left with a somewhat dry taste in my mouth regarding the final outcome. Once again in a Grand Prix, the best fighter didn’t win the tournament. This isn’t just a case of an upset happening because of wear and tear of a long tournament. In this case, the fighter who won the tournament was eliminated in the quarter finals. When Joachim Hansen came from the reserve match and then pounded out favourite Shinya Aoki (avenging a previous loss to Aoki via gogoplata at PRIDE Shockwave 2006), it got me thinking about whether the best fighter has ever won a Grand Prix?

Well of course it’s happened. Wanderlei Silva won the PRIDE 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix for one. Other then that though, in the traditional form that the Grand Prix is run under (where it all climaxes with a one night tournament) this is the only time that the tournament has run smoothly.

During the original PRIDE Grand Prix back in 2000, Mark Coleman advanced to the finals of the 8 man tournament after one fight (against middleweight journeyman Akira Shoji) to face Igor Vovchanchyn who had already fought Gary Goodridge and Kazushi Sakuraba that night. Coleman was meant to face Kazuyuki Fujita, but he withdrew after suffering a knee injury against Mark Kerr in the quarter finals.

Should Coleman have fought Fujita, its hard to imagine him being in the same shape going into the final. Fujita would have made Coleman work for the win (if he’d have even beaten him) and with Colemans known history to gas in fights that aren’t going his way (and also in fights that are going his way) it’s hard to imagine Coleman being as explosive as he was in the final. I’m not too upset about the result of this tournament though. It would have been nice for Igor to have something to recognise him being the top fighter in the World at that period of time, but Coleman winning was a great moment in MMA. However, this Grand Prix showed that the 8 man one night tournament isn’t a fair way of determining the best fighter in the World.

After this Grand Prix, PRIDE didn’t come back with another one until 2003. There, they changed the format, instead of starting with 16 fighters they used 8. This way the chances of fighters pulling out with injuries was reduced as they would only have to fight twice on the final night. This Grand Prix went off without a problem, and the best fighter won the tournament. Wanderlei Silva decisioned Hidehiko Yoshida in a war and then knocked out Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (who earlier had stopped Chuck Liddell) to retain his spot as the best Middleweight (PRIDE calls Light Heavyweights, Middleweights for anyone who doesn’t know) in PRIDE. The format worked, the fights were all exciting, the Grand Prix was a huge success. PRIDE quickly begain work on another tournament that would take place 6 months after this one.

PRIDE returned in 2004 and quickly began hyping up their 2004 Grand Prix which was to include heavyweights. They again changed the format and would hold it over three events instead of two and use 16 fighters; combining the successful parts of the previous two GPs. The trouble with doing it this way is that the more fights you have during a Grand Prix, the more chances there are of something going wrong. In this Grand Prix it went wrong in the final fight. Throughout the early stages there were upsets (like Kevin Randleman knocking out Mirko Cro Cop with a punch), but nothing that couldn’t be attributed to the better fighter winning on the night.

What happened this time was a freak headclash during the final fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira that left the fans feeling empty and the tournament final a no contest. To be fair on the Grand Prix, the two squared off again at Shockwave 2004 with Fedor winning a unanimous decision, however the fact remains that the fans again felt unsatisfied with the finish of the Grand Prix.

2005 and it was time for the middleweights (light heavyweights) again. PRIDE again used 16 fighters over three events and after a great tournament it came down to Alistair Overeem, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, Ricardo Arona and Wanderlei Silva. Arona and Silva were to finally meet after Arona had been calling out Wanderlei for five years without a title shot. In the other bracket, should fellow Chute Boxe Academy fighter Mauricio Shogun, he could end up fighting the leader of Chute Boxe, Wanderlei Silva.

Now this could be classed as nitpicking, but I really think the real winner of this tournament left with a knockout loss to his name. Wanderlei Silva was finally defeated by a PRIDE middleweight for the first time in six years when Ricardo Arona outpointed him in the semi finals. However, instead of rejoicing with a victory over his longtime rival, he had to fight Shogun on the same night! I’m no big fan of Arona, but you have to feel for the guy. Shogun probably had the hardest road to the final, defeating Rampage, little Nogueira and Overeem to make the final, but Arona gets little credit for beating Wanderlei that night because of the loss to Shogun. Wanderlei then beat Arona by split decision at Shockwave 2005 to ‘retain’ his Middleweight title.

The same thing basically happened in 2006. Fedor Emelianenko withdrew from the Open Weight Grand Prix with an injury (and was replaced by Wanderlei Silva) and after the first two events of the tournament, Mirko Cro Cop, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Josh Barnett and Wanderlei Silva were to fight it out at Final Conflict Absolute. Cro Cop drew Wanderlei Silva in the semi finals and Barnett would face Nogueira, with everyone expecting a long awaited rematch between Nogueira and Cro Cop to take place in the final.

Cro Cop eliminated Silva with a head kick and took his place in the final. In the other semi final, Josh Barnett and ‘Minotauro’ went to war. In what was a legendary ground fight between two big men, a final round kneebar attempt by Barnett, in which Nogueira was likely saved by the bell, probably won Barnett the decision. It was recognition at last for Barnett who had struggled in PRIDE after the steroid controversy following him winning the UFC Heavyweight title from Randy Couture. Instead though, Barnett would face Cro Cop that same night. Cro Cop would emerge as the winner of the tournament and enter the UFC with a lot of hype generated behind him (and then subsequently flop) while Barnett was left in relative obscurity and not given the respect he deserved after he as well lost a rematch against Nogueira at Shockwave 2006.

My last piece of evidence as to why the traditional Grand Prix format doesn’t work again comes from 2006 during the PRIDE Bushido Welterweight tournament. After defeating Kazuo Misaki in the semi finals by armbar, Paulo Filho was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury. The man to take his place and win the tournament? Kazuo Misaki! A fighter who lost in the semi finals (I guess it isn’t as stupid as the guy who lost in the quarter finals) is crowned the champion.

Now if you’re as hardcore a PRIDE fan as I am, you’d know that I left out two of PRIDE’s GPs. The 2005 Welterweight and Lightweight tournaments which were held over the PRIDE Bushido 9 and Shockwave 2005 events. The reason I left these tournaments out of my arguement is that they were run using a different format and a format that I think works really well. Instead of 16 fighters they used 8 like in the 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix.

The difference between this tournament and the 2003 Grand Prix is that instead of having the final four fighters fight twice on one night to decide the winner, they had the original eight fighters fight twice on one night to decide the finalists, then had them fight each other on the final night. This tournament was awesome, and the rightful winners were crowned. At Bushido 9, we had 12 fights between 16 of the top welterweights (PRIDE’s welterweight is everyone elses Middleweight) and lightweights. Then to finish it all off, the two best PRIDE Welterweights and Lightweights fought each other after suffering no wear and tear from a previous fight that night to decide who the best fighter really is.

I can only wonder why they haven’t run other Grand Prix like this? In fact, its mind boggling considered how popular this tournament was. The logic behind it is simple; the top fighters are less likely to be injured (and rendered useless in later rounds) because they are fighting lesser fighters on the night they have to fight twice. The anti-climax that has happened with so many Grand Prix is also less likely because you finish the tournament with the two best fighters fighting each other at a later date. I think this is something that should be considered if DREAM are to continue with the Grand Prix. In the end you want to see the best fighters fight each other, and the way most Grand Prix’s are run you just don’t get that.