Fifty Greatest Fights in UFC History Part 2/5

40- Thiago Alves stoppage (2nd) Chris Lytle (UFC 78)
This fight had the potential to be higher had the doctor not come up with a bullshit stoppage. Alves and Lytle engaged in a stand-up war that saw a trade of knockdowns in the opening round with Lytle going down first before he knocked Alves down later in the round and began dominating with his hands. In the 2nd round Alves landed numerous heavy low kicks that were starting to slow Lytle, but “Lights Out” was still landing his punches and after a close 2nd round that could have gone either way may have just needed to survive. However, the doctor stopped the fight between rounds due to a cut over Lytle’s eye that put a damper on what was the only good fight of the ’Validation’ card.

39- Randy Couture knockout (8:17) Vitor Belfort (UFC 15)
The fight that made Randy Couture famous in the UFC. Taking on the seeminly invincible Vitor Belfort, Couture showed the tactical ability, heart and determination that would take him to three Heavyweight championships and two Light Heavyweight championships in years to come. After taking Belfort down early, Couture began to rough Vitor up with his now famous dirty boxing and land heavy shots from the single collar tie. After several minutes of fast paced action, Belfort slowed allowing Couture to pin him against the fence and finish him with strikes on the ground.

38- Matt Hughes knockout (2nd) Carlos Newton (UFC 34)
One of the most controversial endings in UFC history. Did Hughes slam Newton intentionally or did he fall because Newton choked him unconscious? For those of you who haven’t seen it, in the 2nd round Newton secured a triangle choke and Hughes’ defence was to stand. At some point Hughes, whether intentionally or not, slammed Newton on his head and knocked him out. The controversy came when Hughes was unaware of how the fight ended, making people wonder whether or not he consciously slammed Newton. Up until the ending the fight was great, with Hughes power against Newtons ground skills in what was a back and forth fight.

37- Kendall Grove unanimous decision Ed Herman (TUF 3 Finale)
One of the many great finishes to a season of TUF. The season three Middleweight final between Team Ortiz fighter Kendall Grove and Team Shamrock fighter Ed Herman was a war. Herman dominated the first from on top, landing hard shots to Grove who was game in looking for submissions. Herman again got on top in the 2nd, but spent much of the round fighting a deep, deep triangle attempt from the lanky 6′6 Hawaiian. He finally escaped, but was now on the bottom and at the end of the 2nd round it was all up for grabs. Herman scored a takedown to start the 3rd and despite being exhausted, took Groves back and began pounding away. Grove scrambled on top after an armbar attempt and took Hermans back sinking in a deep rear naked choke in the final seconds. The bell sounded with Herman nearly out and the choke was enough to swing the fight in Groves favour. Dana White awarded both men a six figure contract and I’ve been waiting to see a rematch of this fight ever since.

36- Josh Barnett knockout (2nd) Randy Couture (UFC 36)
Barnett ended Couture’s 7-0 run in the UFC with a shocking comeback win in the 2nd round of their Heavyweight title clash. After dishing out punishment upon punishment in the opening round that was surely a 10-8 for Couture, he again took ‘The Baby faced Assassin’ down and began to punish him in the 2nd round. Barnett though showed his toughness and managed to get on top and at this stage Couture was exhausted. Barnett proceeded to finish the job and become UFC heavyweight champion. The fight was controversial in that Barnett then tested positive for steroids and was stripped of the title.

35- Tim Sylvia knockout (1st) Andrei Arlovski (UFC 59)
As with the previous fight, this was another dramatic and sudden turnaround, but even more so. Arlovski appeared to be having his way with Sylvia after dropping him with a right hand, much like he did in their first fight at UFC 51 where he dropped him and then submitted him with an ankle lock. Sylvia this time rose quickly and although he was on shaky legs the fight was far from out of him. Arlovski rushed in to finish him only to eat a well timed uppercut that dropped him and Sylvia finished him off with solid ground and pound. The ending was truly breathtaking and probably as close a finish to the Corrales-Castillo fight you’re likely to see in MMA.

34- Roger Huerta unanimous decision Leonard Garcia (UFC 69)
Yeah it was a little one sided but Garcia was game as hell and made it exciting all the way. Huerta manhandled the smaller man for much of the fight, but Garcia repeatedly fought back and made for a very entertaining fight. it’s one of those fights that truly shows off the Lightweight divisions exciting battles as they kept up a pace that would drown a welterweight for the entire three rounds. The fight would have been higher had Huerta not dominated so much.

33- Randy Couture knockout (3rd) Pedro Rizzo (UFC 34)
After the razor thin decision went Coutures way in their first fight, both guys were out to make it clear cut in the rematch. Couture’s improved stand-up in the rematch was the difference and he stood up with Rizzo, landing leg kicks to the leg kick master. The two mostly kick boxed for the first two rounds and Couture appeared to get the better of it. In the third round sensing that Rizzo was tired, Couture took it to the mat and finished it quickly with a barrage of strikes.

32- Georges St Pierre split decision BJ Penn (UFC 58)
The first fight between these two pound for pound combatants wasn’t as controversial as the 2nd (well if you ask me it was because the rematch wasn’t controversial at all) but it was a better fight. Penn, the undefeated UFC Welterweight champion who left the organisation was making his comeback to the UFC and was pitted against the fast rising St Pierre who’s only loss was against Matt Hughes for the title. Penn lit GSP up in the opening round with his hands, landing repeatedly with sharp punches that cut GSP up and made his face look like a crimson mask. GSP showed his championship heart and came back, using his superior strength and conditioning to outwork Penn in a hard fought round two before dominating him on top in the 3rd round to take a split decision.

31- Evan Tanner knockout (1st) Phil Baroni (UFC 45)
This fight is again among the more controversial endings in UFC history. Well actually, Larry Landless just royally fucked up as a referee in this fight, but credit must go to Tanner for coming back from such adversity. Baroni rocked Tanner big time in the opening seconds, dropping him and landing a barrage of hard right hands that bloodied and dazed Tanner. Landless called time off and checked the cut on Tanner, and he had roughly a minute’s respite from the onslaught. When they resumed, Tanner got the clinch and landed repeated knees to Baroni’s body and Baroni was now the one who seemed to be fading. Tanner got a takedown, moved to mount and began to unleash repeated elbows to Baroni’s face. Baroni was sort of defending himself and with a minute remaining in the round it was hard to see how he would have survived, but Landless thought Baroni verbally submitted and stopped the fight. Baroni threw several strikes at Landless as a result and had to be restrained. The two had a rematch at UFC 48 with Tanner winning clearly on points.

See also:

Part 1 (41-50)

UFC 100: Lesnar vs Mir II announced

Over the last few days the UFC has officially announced the UFC 100 card that’s had everyone talking and it’s as good as people are expecting. While there’s one or two fights that are yet to be confirmed, every fight on the main card has major implications for the division that it’s in and some of the preliminaries would easily be main card fights on a different card. The main two fights on the card see probably the two most anticipated championship fights of the year in the UFC. The card, ‘UFC 100: Lesnar vs Mir 2′ takes place July 11th in Las Vegas.

Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will make the first defence of the title he took from Randy Couture last November against UFC interim champion Frank Mir. The fight is a rematch of Lesnar’s UFC debut at UFC 81 last year in which Lesnar started fast and landed some hard shots to Mir’s face on the ground before being caught in a kneebar from the former UFC champion. Mir was then locked in to fight interim champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira while Randy Couture was fighting the UFC in court with the two coaching on the 8th season of The Ultimate Fighter. Then with Couture’s comeback and the two coaches already set to do battle, Lesnar off the back of his domination over Heath Herring got first crack at Couture and took the title. Mir then dramatically became the first man to finish Nogueira with a 2nd round knockout leading to the mega fight. (There is that man from Russia named Fedor Emelianenko who would probably beat both guys on the same night, but I won’t mention him as this is a UFC post and it wouldn’t be appropriate now would it?)

The co main event is arguably the most anticipated fight of the year now that St Pierre vs Penn is out of the way. Thiago Alves last year ran through Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck to make himself the clearest contender for St Pierre’s title that he won back from Matt Serra last April. St Pierre has defended the championship twice now with a decision win over Jon Fitch and a 4th round TKO of BJ Penn. It’s always interesting when you get a contender who has proven himself to be head and shoulders above the rest of the division up against an outstanding champion. You’ve had fights like Hughes-Trigg II, Hughes-St Pierre II, Couture vs Liddell (any fight) and if you want to talk PRIDE there’s Nogueira vs Fedor, Fedor vs Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva vs Rampage II. In all of those fights the contender for the belt had dominated all of the other contenders in the past to make themselves the clearest possible challenger for the title and all of those fights were memorable.

Also on the main card you have TUF 9 coaches Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson doing battle for what will probably be a shot at UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Then there’s another Middleweight matchup between two of the top contenders in the division with new signing Yoshihiro Akiyama who has wins over the likes of Denis Kang and Melvin Manhoef taking on Alan Belcher. The main card is likely to be filled out with the Paulo Thiago-Jon Fitch Welterweight scrap but there’s also UFC Hall of Famer Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman (I’m sorry, everytime I go to write his name I think of the way Mauro Rinallo used to always announce him as ‘Mark The Hammer Coleman’ and it just ends up typing itself) fighting Stephan Bonnar and Jim Miller vs Mac Danzig that could take the last spot on the main card. Check the MMA schedule link at the top of the page for the full card.

Post UFC 94 Thoughts

Georges St Pierre TKO4 BJ Penn
There’s a fair bit to talk about with this fight. Number one is the greasing accusations against St Pierre. BJ Penn’s camp has put in a formal complaint about St Pierre (I’m just going to refer to him as GSP from now on to save time) using vaseline on his back so he’d be harder to control and would be able to slip out of guard easier. The CSAC went off at one of GSP’s cornermen about rubbing vaseline on the back of his neck. From the video of this, it’s clear that GSP’s corner did this by accident and it’s also clear that it was a minimal amount of vaseline. Everyone needs to relax about this and not let it spoil what was a great moment in MMA. GSP was the better fighter and anyone trying to bring up the grease thing against him is either a massive BJ Penn fan who can’t handle him losing or a massive GSP hater who wants to use anything against him they can. A bit of vaseline (that was wiped off by the commission guys after it was put on his back) isn’t going to change the result of a one sided TKO to a win for Penn. People are making out that GSP won because of the grease and not because he was the better fighter.
On GSP’s performance, wow! His wrestling seems to be on another level from everyone else’s in MMA right now. His guard passing seems to get better with every fight and his boxing is also very good. It’s going to take something special to defeat GSP anytime soon. GSP made Penn fight his fight when he was fresh and then when he tired he took Penn to the ground where he was meant to have the advantage and started beating him there. I honestly think GSP is the top pound for pound fighter in the sport right now. People still hold the Matt Serra loss over him but at least he avenged it. He’s beaten every man he’s ever faced and he’s been facing top fighters since his 4th pro fight! While I think Anderson Silva would beat GSP if he moved up to challenge the Middleweight king, I’m talking pound for pound here and I think, especially with his recent form, GSP has overtaken Silva with this win.
Despite how good it was watching GSP perform like that I do feel for BJ Penn and I think it may be the end of him more mentally then physically. He’s always given off the impression that believed he could beat any man out there regardless of size and now that GSP has beaten him he may just lose the motivation. Penn probably would have beaten most of the 170lbers out there and I’d back him over a few of the middleweight in the UFC if he fought them, but against the bigger fighters he’ll always fail against the top guys. Still, he’s one tough son of a bitch and anyone ripping on him for not answering the 5th round is a fucking moron. No other man at 170lbs or below would have taken that sort of punishment for as long as Penn did, the fact that he lasted until the end of the 4th round showed that Penn is as tough as they come.

Undercards
Machida was impressive but I still have question marks over how he will perform against a good boxer. Right now I’d pick both Rampage and Rashad Evans over Machida because I think they would keep the fight standing and catch Machida as he tried to ‘run’ after he ‘hits.’ The guys he’s been beating haven’t been good crisp stand-up fighters and I think Machida will be exploited for his unorthodox ways when he fights a good MMA boxer.
Jon Jones was impressive and he’ll serve to remind me not to pick against a guy on the main card if I haven’t seen him before. I didn’t know about his wrestling credentials and I should have done my homework on him before ruling him out. Bonnar fought well for a guy who hasn’t fought for 18 months, hopefully he’s back in the cage sooner rather then later. Parisyan falls under the same category in that he looked like shit because he hasn’t been fighting much, he needs to get back in the cage ASAP. Guida moved into the lightweight elite with his win and should Penn vacate his belt, Guida could be one of the guys in contention for the fight. Jon Fitch also bounced back from his loss to GSP at UFC 87 with a decision win over Akihiro Gono.

Angry Match Maker

Georges St Pierre vs Thiago Alves/BJ Penn vs Kenny Florian
Surely I need not explain these choices.

Karo Parisyan vs Jon Fitch
Both guys were coming off losses heading into last weekends card and both bounced back with decision victories. Both guys were considered the top contenders this time last year before Parisyan was knocked out by Thiago Alves while Fitch got his shot against GSP and was beaten up for five rounds. This fight definately would help fill up any main card on an upcoming UFC.

Clay Guida vs Jim Miller/Gray Maynard
Miller and Maynard are scheduled to fight at UFC 96 and the winner of that fight joins Guida in the second tier UFC lightweights behind Penn, Florian and Sherk. A fight between the winner of that fight and Guida could determine the next number one contender and, like Parisyan-Fitch, would be a solid addition to the main card of any card.

Jon Jones vs Matt Hammill
This fight would really show us how good Jones’ wrestling is because thats the only place Hammill is going to test anyone anytime soon. While it might not have PPV main card appeal, it’d be an interesting fight on the main card of a fight night card or as a preliminary or swing bout.

St Pierre batters Penn at UFC 94

Georges St Pierre defended his UFC Welterweight Championship on Sunday with a 4th round TKO win over BJ Penn after Penn didn’t answer the bell for the 5th and final round. The win was the second successful defence of th title for St Pierre, who took it from Matt Serra at UFC 83 last year with a 2nd round TKO win. The win sets up a fight between St Pierre and number one contender Thiago Alves who is coming off victories over Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck in his last two outings. The loss also likely sets up a fight between BJ Penn, who holds the UFC Lightweight title, and number one Lightweight contender Kenny Florian.

The fighters clinched up quickly after the opening round began and St Pierre tried for the entire round to take Penn down but with no success. The fighters seperated a few times with Penn landing a hard right hand on one occassion and St Pierre landing a solid right of his own on another. The round proved to be the tactical battle many anticipated and St Pierre probably won due to his aggression. Round two was a completely different story though. St Pierre again shot in for a single leg takedown and this time managed to get Penn on his back. Working from inside Penn’s rubber guard and butterfly guard, St Pierre worked Penn over with elbows and punches while looking to pass guard. The times he managed to get to side control, Penn used freakish escapes to get back to guard but that was all he was able to do as St Pierre won the second round big.

Penn looked like the minutes rest between the second and third round did him not good as he appeared sluggish at the start of the third round. St Pierre landed solid jabs and a devastating leg kick with little attempt at defence from the former Welterweight Champion before St Pierre again took Penn to the ground. Despite being able to pass Penn’s guard more in this round, St Pierre’s offence wasn’t as dominating as in the previous round. Still, the round ended with St Pierre on top working Penn over with strikes. Penn looked even more tired at the start of the 4th and after eating several punches and leg kicks, he found himself in the familiar position of being on his back. St Pierre’s confidence was growing as he often attempted to mount Penn with little regard for the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champions guard. Midway through the round St Pierre landed his most damaging strikes of the round and after referee Herb Dean asked for Penn to fight back, ‘GSP’ turned it up. St Pierre proceeded to punish Penn with devastating punches from on top and was probably only a few seconds away from stopping Penn when the round ended.

A frustrated looking St Pierre walked back to his corner and a physically beaten Penn staggered back to his. In the corner the doctor and referee both examined Penn before JD Penn, BJ’s brother and manager told the doctor he wanted to stop the fight and awarded St Pierre with the TKO victory. The win brings St Pierre’s record to 18-2 with only five fights going the distance. Penn’s record drops to 13-5 and likely puts an end to Penn’s aspirations of winning titles in every weight division. With Thiago Alves likely next on the French-Canadian’s plate, a possible mega fight with Anderson Silva will have to wait. That fight would pit, in my opinion anyway, the two top pound for pound fighters in MMA against each other.

On the undercard, Lyoto Machida finally scored a knockout win in the UFC, knocking Thiago Silva out at the bell to end the first round. After clowning Silva in his usual way, Machida twice dropped the undefeated Brazilian and used clever inside trips on other occassions to put Silva on his back. One of these trips ended with Silva in guard and Machida delivered two bombs from a standing position that left Silva unconscious as the buzzer went to end the first round. Referee Yves Lavigne took a few seconds before calling the fight with Silva out on the mat. The win, according to Dana White, will earn Machida a shot at the title should Keith Jardine defeat Rampage Jackson at UFC 96. If Jardine is victorious, Machida will fight Evans for the belt instead.

Young star Jon Jones spoiled Stephan Bonnar’s return to the Octagon with a variety of spinning back kicks, highlight reel takedowns and a spinning elbow which nearly knocked Bonnar out in the 2nd round. Despite a late rally from the TUF1 runner-up, Jones held on for a unanimous decision victory. Karo Parisyan won in his comeback via split decision in an uneventful fight with fellow Judoka Dong Hyun Kim. Clay Guida took out another TUF winner, scoring a split decision over Nate Diaz in a fight that resembled a wrestling match. The times Diaz broke free and used his hands he looked a completely different fighter, even hurting Guida in the third round, but he spent too much time being outwrestled by Guida and was on the wrong end of a close decision.

Full Results
Georges St Pierre TKO4 (corner stoppage) BJ Penn
Lyoto Machida KO1 (punch) Thiago Silva
Jon Jones UD Stephan Bonnar
Karo Parisyan SD Dong Hyun Kim
Clay Guida SD Nate Diaz
Jon Fitch UD Akihiro Gono
Thiago Tavares UD Manny Gamburyan
John Howard SD Chris Wilson
Jake O’Brien SD Cristian Wellisch
Dan Cramer SD Matt Arroyo

UFC 94: Breaking Down BJ Penn vs Georges St Pierre

This fight is quite probably the biggest in UFC history. It’s quite possibly the biggest and most significant in MMA history. It’s not like the PRIDE vs UFC days where you only had the best fighters in the organisation fighting each other, now you have the best at 155lbs vs the best at 170lbs. It’s a first in the sport that the absolute best in the world in one weight class has moved up to fight the absolute best in the world at another weight class. While Dana White compares this fight to Hagler-Hearns I really think he needs a boxing history lesson. While that fight proved to be extremely exciting, this is more like the first fight between Roberto Duran, arguably the greatest lightweight of all-time, and Sugar Ray Leonard, the young champion who was looking for the fights that would have him ranked alongside the other Sugar Ray.

In that fight the unchallenged lightweight champion moved up and fought the new but extremely hyped Welterweight champion in what was a stacked division. Duran and Penn both have their similarities as they are extremely talented fighters but often have trouble getting into the shape they needed to be in to make the most of it. Duran suffered a loss early in his career against Esteban De Jesus, a loss he later avenged twice in extremely dominant fashion. Duran’s De Jesus is like BJ Penn’s Jens Pulver. Both fighters also proved that their skill set was so great that they could dominate much larger fighters. With Duran’s frame being suited to 135lbs, he won World titles in four weight classes all the way up to 160lbs. Penn has already won the UFC Welterweight title and has given highly ranked Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida his toughest fight to date. Leonard and St Pierre don’t have as many similarities but there are some. Leonard at that stage of his career was looking to fight the real big names in boxing with the likes of Tonny Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Duran around him. St Pierre is in the same boat looking to sit on the peak with the likes of Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Around him he has his own Hearns in Thiago Alves, a young dangerous contender, his own Marvin Hagler in Anderson Silva, the dominant, unmatched Middleweight champion and of course his Duran in Penn.

Even though the Hagler vs Hearns fight has a lot of hype behind it as far as being a great fight, the Duran vs Leonard fight in Montreal in 1979 is a much better fit for this fight. Hagler vs Hearns was two and a half rounds of mayhem inside the ring with both guys trying to take each others heads off. Duran and Leonard fought a 15 round tactical war with Duran forcing Leonard to fight him on the inside where he was at his best and Leonard trading punches with ‘Hands of Stone.’ This fight has all the makings of a five round tactical war. Both fighters are extremely well rounded and could win the fight from a number of situations. Both guys have excellent stand-up and have won fights via strikes before. St Pierre arguably has the best takedowns in MMA and BJ Penn has arguably the best takedown defence in MMA. Penn’s flexibility is almost unmatched and on his back he’ll likely prove too difficult for St Pierre to gain a dominanty position against or even half guard where he delivered so much damage to Matt Serra in their rematch last year. St Pierre’s wrestling will likely prove too much for Penn to be able to get mount or back control where his finishing ability in MMA is almost second to none. This really is a very evenly matched fight between two MMA masters.

There are two big factors in this fight; St Pierre’s chin and BJ Penns cardio. While St Pierre’s chin has only failed him once, Penn’s cardio is maybe the biggest factor in every one of his losses. In a five round fight with someone who can force the action as much as St Pierre I think this will be the deciding factor. Despite Penn cutting St Pierre’s face up in the first round of their first fight, St Pierre gave as good as he got in the first round of that fight. It really is my opinion that the fight should have been scored 30-27 for St Pierre before it was scored for Penn. Georges dominated the 2nd and 3rd round of that fight scoring heavy takedowns and working his top control. While I think Penn is a different animal now that he is training properly, I think if this fight reaches rounds three and four that St Pierre is going to take over. BJ Penn is yet to prove himself in a war or in a fight that isn’t going his way. Every one of his big wins have been in one sided fashion; Matt Hughes (first round submission), Jens Pulver (2nd round submission), Sean Sherk (one sided third round knockout); all of them Penn was in total control from start to finish. If St Pierre is getting his shots in and getting takedowns early in the fight, I think he’ll break Penn not so much mentally but definately physically. The fact that St Pierre probably fights at 180-185lbs and Penn fights at 170lbs also is a big factor as Penn has never faced someone big and athletic as St Pierre. As far as the improvement of both guys go since their first fight, I think St Pierre has improved more then Penn especially after his loss to Matt Serra.

Prediction
I’m picking St Pierre to TKO Penn in the 5th round. I think the first three rounds will be the three best rounds of MMA skill ever displayed. It will be back and forth with both guys showing high level kickboxing and excellent clinch fighting with the fight hitting the mat on occasion in St Pierre’s favour. However, sometime in the 3rd round I think St Pierre will get Penn in a bad spot and it’ll be all down hill from there. He’ll land some heavy punches or a head kick or some unanswered punches on the ground and then Penn’s cardio will fail him and St Pierre will turn up his game. St Pierre will dominate Penn with heavy punches from on top in the 4th round before finishing him in the 5th round with ground and pound. I think this will truly be an epic battle between two of the best pound for pound fighters in the world and while it may not be as electric as Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar or Thomas Hearns vs Marvin Hagler, that doesn’t mean it won’t be as good to watch. This fight on paper doesn’t look to be a bar room brawl style fight like those two matches, but it’ll go down in MMA history as an epic battle between two of the best fighters of all-time. Georges St Pierre by 5th round TKO.

UFC 94 Undercard Picks

This event, like UFC 91, is really like a boxing card. Sure there’s some fucking good scraps on the undercard, but this card is all about the main event. That’s why I’m going to give a seperate post breaking down the main event. Still, the undercard is bloody good and puts most cards to shame. Even though I think the co-feature will go in typical Machida fashion, the other fights on the card are very interesting. I could very well go 0/10 on this card, thats how well the matchups have been made.

Televised Card
Lyoto Machida vs Thiago Silva
Prediction- Machida by Decision
I think Silva is way too wild to deal with Machida’s smooth counter attacking style. Machida will frustrate him as he does by moving away a lot and hitting Silva when Silva thinks he’s out of range and eventually wear him out en route to taking a shutout unanimous decision. Silva has some serious power though and even though his stand-up is very ordinary, his punching power from on top is up there with the very best in MMA. If he can get Machida on his back I think he stands a good chance in this fight but I think Machida will control the striking and dictate the pace and win another Machida-esque decision.

Dong Hyun Kim vs Karo Parisyan
Prediction- Parisyan by Decision
A battle between two Judokas. Parisyan I feel has the edge standing up between the two fighters and I think that’s where the fight will be decided. Still, with Parisyan’s recent mental problems (okay that sounds a lot worse then it is but it’s the right description) it’s hard to know where he’ll be at for this fight. Hopefully he doesn’t pull out just before the fight again with anxiety, but then again if he does we’ll get to see Fitch-Gono which should be on the main card as it’s better then two of the other fights (this one and the Bonnar fight), but more on that later.

Nate Diaz vs Clay Guida
Prediction- Guida by Decision
Basically in this fight you have an extremely dangerous fighter with average wrestling in Diaz and an extremely good wrestler with average skills in Guida. In fights like these it’s always a case of the extremely dangerous fighter being controlled but having the game where he can end the fight at any point and them needing to finish the fight if they want to win as they’ll likely lose on the cards due to being on their back too much. Well if you put it like that it doesn’t sound like your average cliche’ but thats how it is in this fight. Guida will get numerous takedowns and if he can finish the fight he will win on points because of this. Diaz needs to work big strikes on the feet and go for submissions when he’s on the mat. This is a 50-50 fight but I’m giving Guida the edge because of his experience.

Stephan Bonnar vs Jon Jones
Prediction- Bonnar by 2nd round submission
Why why why why why is this fight on the main card instead of Fitch vs Gono? As much as I like Bonnar, the Fitch fight deserves to be on the card so much more. This fight would likely end in style as well and could be shown on the card as well as Fitch-Gono whereas Fitch-Gono has the potential to be longer and not as dramatic. Bonnar should win this fight though as long as his layoff doesn’t affect him too much. He’ll get Jones on his back and work his dangerous top game and finish the fight with probably an arm lock (I’ll take a stab at the Kimura).

Preliminaries
Jon Fitch vs Akihiro Gono
Prediction- Fitch by Decision
Fitch should win due to this physical strength. Gono has fought at the higher weight division, but Fitch is a strong guy who’ll get Gono on his back and pound away to a decision win. Gono will be dangerous with his strikes and his submissions but not enough to threaten the extremely durable Fitch. This should be an interesting fight and if you haven’t got my point from the other two fights I bitched about this in, I think this fight deserves a place on the main card.

Manny Gamburyan vs Thiago Tavares
Prediction- Gamburyan by Decision
Like Fitch and Guida, I like Gamburyan in this fight for his physical strength. Even though he’s a midget and probably could drop a weight class, he has freakish strength and as long as he doesn’t get chinned like he did against Emerson (and there’s a good chance it’ll happen with Manny’s technically retarded striking game even though Tavares isn’t a known banger, fighting anyone with your chin higher then your forehead is dangerous) I think he’ll ragdoll Tavares and win a shutout unanimous decision win.

John Howard vs Chris Wilson
Prediction- Wilson by Decision
Howard is someone I’m not very familiar with. I’ve never seen him fight and apart from the glance I took at his record before, I’ve really got nothing else to go by in this fight. Wilson is a decent fighter and I always pick the guy I know in a fight like this where one guy is unknown and doesn’t appear to have a whole heap going for him. Wilson on points.

Jake O’Brien vs Christian Wellisch
Prediction- O’Brien by Decision
Yawn. It’s strange that when Machida fights on a card he’s not the most boring fighter on it. O’Brien makes me sick (except when he’s fighting Cain Velasquez, they could match those two up every UFC card and I’d still be happy) and this fight is horrible as both guys have nothing but wrestling. O’Brien’s wrestling should prove to be better and he’ll lay and prey his way to another decision win.

Matt Arroyo vs Dan Kramer
Prediction- Arroyo by 1st round submission
Either the UFC will learn that if they want to market Kramer he should be fighting guys with no ground game, or they’ll learn that Kramer doesn’t belong in the UFC with a ground game as bad as his from this fight. Kramer will come out throwing hard punches, but will be brought to the ground and submitted even if Arroyo pulls Kramer onto his back.

2009 looking good for Boxing fans

A number of good fights are currently in negotiations for later in 2009 to add to the already impressive lineup of quality boxing matches we’ve got on so far this year. Pound for Pound king Manny Pacquiao will indeed face Ricky Hatton for the Brit’s legitimate claim to being the World Champion at the Junior Welterweight limit. The fight will take place on May 2nd in Las Vegas after earlier talks of the fight taking place in Dubai were squashed. It really would have been interesting to see what sort of an appearance Hatton’s fans would have made if they had to travel to Dubai.

Another quality fight that is in the works is the return of former undisputed Junior Middleweight Champion Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright who will return to the ring for the first time since July 2007 to face pound for pound ranked fighter and current WBO interim Junior Middleweight Champion Paul Williams. The fight is set to take place on April 11th at the Middleweight limit. Wright really has his work cut out for him facing someone as dangerous as Williams in his first fight for nearly two years but with his impregnable defence he could frustrate Williams and outbox him if he can fight near his best.

The other good fight I’m hearing about is Kendall Holt vs Timothey Bradley for the WBC and WBO Junior Welterweight titles. This is a great fight between two youngish fighters and will likely determine who the next legitimate challenger is for Ricky Hatton (that’s if Hatton gets by Pacquiao). This fight is currently set to take place in April, probably the 4th although I haven’t heard whether or not this fight has been officially signed. All three of these fights are quality matchups, and so far the boxing lineup looks good through til early May with quality fights happening every other weekend:

17th January- Andre Berto vs Luis Collazo (WBC 147lbs)
24th January- Antonio Margarito vs Shane Mosley (WBA 147lbs)
7th February- Vic Darchinyan vs Jorge Arce (WBA-WBC-IBF 115lbs)
14th February- Nate Campbell vs Ali Funeka (WBA-IBF-WBO 135lbs)
21st February- Pavlik v Rubio/Cotto v Jennings (Ring 160lbs/WBO 147lbs)
28th February- Juan Diaz vs Juan Manuel Marquez (Ring 135lbs)
14th March- Chad Dawson vs Antonio Tarver (okay, not all of them are good)
15th March- Fernando Montiel vs Nonito Donaire (WBO 115lbs)
4th April- Timothey Bradley vs Kendall Holt (WBC-WBO 140lbs)
11th April- Paul Williams vs Winky Wright
2nd May- Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao (Ring 140lbs)

So basically there’s boxing every week from January 17th right through until March 15th minus two weekends (Jan 31st and March 7th). The good thing about those two weekends is that there’s UFC PPV cards on those dates and one of those weekends is BJ Penn vs Georges St Pierre. Throw in the odd K-1 event and DREAM card plus the odd not so major boxing match and I might have to change my name to Aroused Fight Fan.

UFC 90 Results

We saw a mixed bag during the UFC today. While the main event ended unsatisfactorily (although no one is to blame as it was a freak accident), four of the other five fights we saw today were either great battles or had great finishes. The other fight was a good tactical fight but one that left the Illinois crowd and the referee who repeatedly asked both fighters to work. I won’t write the Illinois crowd off as idiots yet because it seems to happen the first time a big MMA show hits a new US state, they’re so pumped up that they boo everything that isn’t Griffin-Bonnar like. One thing that does piss me off though is idiot referees who don’t let the fighters fight. I’m not sure why stand-ups are even in the UFC anymore. They originally came in for two reasons. First reason was Dan Severn who is the Godfather of Lay and Pray, and the second reason is because back in the day when fighters were one dimensional, probably 80% of fighters couldn’t get back to their feet when they got taken down. Then add to that the fact that probably 70% of fighters couldn’t do much on top unless they were fighting a BJJ newbie, it led to some really boring fights. In this day and age, if you’re in the UFC and you can’t get back to your feet you don’t belong there. I still think stand-ups should happen in smaller shows because at lower level MMA you get the same situation that used to happen in the UFC, but in the big show with the best fighters in the World let the fighters fight!

Anderson Silva TKO (injury) 3rd round Patrick Cote
Strange fight. I’m not trying to take anything away from Cote here, but I really think Silva wanted some cage time. If he threw more then 30 strikes a round I’d be surprised. He looked nothing like he did when he took Rich Franklin apart in those two fights and Franklin is a much better fighter then Cote. To Cote’s credit, when Silva did land he took it well. He took a few head kicks and knees that would have floored lesser men. The ending was a little disappointing as Cote blew his knee out in the 3rd round and couldn’t continue. Full credit to him for repeatedly trying to get to his feet and continue, and Anderson Silva is a very classy guy for not jumping on him when he injured himself. The only fight for Silva at 185lbs is Yushin Okami. Okami is clearly the number one contender with wins over Jason McDonald and Evan Tanner as well as the close loss to Rich Franklin. Throw in the fact that Okami is the last man to defeat Silva (even if it was by disqualification in a fight that Silva should have won; I don’t care what the rules say, if you can knock someone out while on your back you deserve the win) and this is a fight that can be marketed. What I’d really like to see happen is for Silva to go up to 205lbs and rule there. Does anyone really think Rashad Evans or Forrest Griffin could hang with The Spider?

Thiago Alves UD Josh Koscheck
Great fight. Alves beat Koscheck up in the first and third rounds but Koscheck made a fight of it. Koscheck is a tough son of a bitch and even though I don’t like him, he deserves props for having a sturdy chin and heart to match it. Alves went to work with his leg kicks and high kicks and stuffed every one of Koschecks takedown attempts. He dropped Koscheck in the first round and had him in a lot of trouble in the third as well. Alves is the logical choice for the next shot at the Welterweight title whether that be against BJ Penn or Georges St Pierre. Whowver wins that super fight on Super Bowl weekend has their hands full with the Pitbull.

Gray Maynard UD3 Rich Clementi
Maynard outwrestled him, it was that simple. Maynard is one of the top lightweights in the UFC and while I think he’ll struggle against some of the better fighters, I think he matches up very evenly with the others based entirely on his wrestling ability. I’d like to see Maynard take on Emerson again if he doesn’t land a big fight, but with BJ Penn possibly staying at 170lbs, a four man tournament over two events would be an exciting way to sort out who the new champion is and I think with his last two wins (over Clementi and Frankie Edgar) he deserves a spot among those four. Throw in Sherk, Nate Diaz and the Florian-Stevenson winner and thats a good four fighters to have compete for the crown if Penn stays at 170lbs.

Junior dos Santos KO 1st round Fabricio Werdum
Wow! Santos shocked the hell out of everyone with that win. Props to anyone who called that and I know there were a few of them but I really didn’t think that Werdum would have much trouble in that fight. Santos is right in the mix now with that victory as Werdum was definately a top contender with his recent form. There’s plenty of good fights for Santos with the likes of Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, Heath Herring or Cheick Kongo all matching up well with Santos.

Sean Sherk UD3 Tyson Griffin
I never thought I’d say this about a Sean Sherk fight, but that was fight of the night out of the ones I’ve seen. Sherk took Griffin down a lot easier then I thought he would early on and even took his back twice (although as always, Griffin escaped in the most exciting way possible). In the second and third rounds as I predicted both guys duked it out with Griffin dominating the first part of the round and Sherk outworking him in the last 2-3 minutes and probably pinching the fight there. Griffin’s cardio is good, but Sherk’s is on a whole other level and that was the difference in this fight. Sherk needs to remember that he’s a wrestler more and go for more takedowns because if Griffins cardio was better today he could have been in trouble standing with him when he was taking him down as easily as he was early in the fight.

Thales Leites Submission (Rear Naked Choke) 1st round Drew McFedries
Leites likely earns another submission of the night award with this performance. He used his right leg like a third arm once he took McFedries back (after he passed his guard like he was a white belt) and left McFedries defending with one arm. Then after sliding his free arm under McFedries’ throat, he quickly locked it up and forced the tap. Good to see Leites get his TV spot at the end of the show as well after his original opponent Goran Reljic was injured forcing him off the main card.

Other Results
Pete Sell UD3 Josh Burkman
Hermes Franca UD3 Marcus Aurelio
Spencer Fisher Submission (Triangle Choke) 3rd Round Shannon Gugerty
Dan Miller UD3 Matt Horwich

UFC 90 Predictions

Two UFC events in two weeks, its hard not to like that. The good thing about this weekend is that there’s no big boxing matches to tear my loyalty between the two. The choice has been made for me and even though I have to pay for it, most UFC’s are worth the money. In the main event Anderson Silva takes on Patrick Cote for the UFC Middleweight World Championship. Also on the card are two very important fights which will establish the next contenders Welterweight and Lightweight divisions. Thiago Alves takes on Josh Koscheck in the co main event for the first shot at the BJ Penn-Georges St Pierre winner and former UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk makes his comeback against always exciting Tyson Griffin.

Main Card
Patrick Cote vs Anderson Silva
(UFC Middleweight World Championship)
Prediction- Silva by 2nd round submission
This fight could very well end in the first minute with Silva taking Cote out with a huge barrage of punches, but something Cote said makes me think different. Cote basically put the challenge out there when he said that Ricardo Almeida has a better ground game then Silva. Silva is as cocky as they come and may want to make Cote eat his words by submitting him. Either way, I’ll be surprised if this fight goes half the scheduled distance because Silva is that good and Cote isn’t my first choice for a title shot. I am fully aware that it was meant to be Yushin Okami but he broke his hand and couldn’t be ready, but Cote just flat out isn’t ready for this fight. This could get very ugly.

Thiago Alves vs Josh Koscheck
Prediction- Alves by 2nd round knockout
Koscheck steps in for injured Diego Sanchez who was originally meant to fight Alves and therefore makes this a better fight. Koscheck in my opinion should have got this fight ahead of Sanchez because he beat Sanchez last year and has beaten two good fighters since while Sanchez has been given guys that will make him look good. Koscheck should provide a better test then Hughes did for Alves based on a couple of things. First of all, Alves made weight for this fight and won’t have that size advantage that he did last time. Second, Koscheck is a better wrestler then Hughes (although he isn’t as dangerous on top because he hasn’t learnt how to do anything with it yet) and he has better stand-up. Still, I think Alves will be harder to take down then Koscheck is used to, then throw in the fact that Koscheck thinks he can strike and Alves can strike and I can see Alves punishing Koscheck with leg kicks and then knocking him out when he lacks the ability to move out of harms way.

Junior dos Santos vs Fabricio Werdum
Prediction- Werdum by 1st round submission
Like me you’re probably wondering who Santos is. I don’t know a thing about him other then he probably is no match for Werdum and he’ll probably get submitted quickly. With some of the other fights on this card, I won’t bother wasting any time on this one. Hopefully it ends quickly and we get to see one of the better preliminaries.

Tyson Griffin vs Sean Sherk
Prediction- Sherk on Points
This is a very interesting fight. Both guys are wrestlers who have excellent takedowns but both guys also like to throw their punches. This fight will probably turn into an ugly boxing match as their wrestling will cancel each other out. If one of the guys is to get the takedown on the other, I expect it to come from Sherk who I feel has the better wrestling. Sherk has excellent guard passes and could very well win this fight by submission if he gets Griffin on his back long enough. I also give Sherk the edge in the stand-up although it’s close. Griffin has a good variety of punches and this could prove a difference if they do indeed duke it out, but Sherk has good defence standing up and his straighter punches should give him an edge. I think Sherk will win with a combination of takedowns and crisper boxing and probably win rounds two and three easily after a close first round.

Rich Clementi vs Gray Maynard
Prediction- Maynard on points
I’m psyched that this fight is on the main card. The winner of this fight probably moves into the top five Lightweights in the UFC. I give the edge in striking in this fight to Clementi but Maynard’s wrestling should cancel that out. On the ground, I doubt Clementi can really get himself in a position to be able to submit Maynard, and may end up spending the whole fifteen minutes trying to maintain guard while Maynard drops hammerfists and elbows on his head. I doubt Maynard will finish Clementi, but he should overwhelm him on the ground.

Preliminary Card
Thales Leites vs Drew McFedries
Prediction- Leites by 1st round submission
Another late replacement on this card, McFedries replaces Goran Reljic who was meant to fight Leites on the main card. McFedries has a punchers chance and always does because he has enormous power, but his lack of ground game should give Leites an easy submission win and submission of the night if Silva decides to knock Cote out instead of submitting him.

Spencer Fisher vs Shannon Gugerty
Prediction- Fisher by 2nd round knockout
Another replacement here as Gugerty replaced Melvin Guillard and ruined what should have been a good fight as any fight where Guillard loses is always a good fight. Fisher should have too much for Gugerty in all aspects of the game and I don’t expect this fight to go the distance.

Matt Horwich vs Dan Miller
Prediction- Miller by 1st round submission
Miller steps in to replace Ricardo Almeida who was forced off the card with an injury. This is a battle between two IFL veterans, with Miller having competed in the IFL a few times and Horwich having fought most of his career there. I think Miller will make it 2/2 in the UFC after his rear naked choke win over Rob Kimmons at Fight Night: Diaz vs Neer. I don’t think Horwich can avoid the takedown or live with Miller on the ground. Miller by rear naked choke in the first round.

Marcus Aurelio vs Hermes Franca
Prediction- Franca on points
This is a fight I wanted to see! Franca is a BJJ black belt under Aurelio and both of these guys now hate each other. It’s student vs former teacher and the sort of storyline you’d see in a bad martial arts movie but it’s for real. If this fight hits the ground it should be a BJJ war as both guys have excellent guards and like going for submissions and both guys are very good on top as well. I think Franca has the better stand-up of the two and that’s why I’m picking him but it’ll be first to make a mistake who loses on the ground. If either guy locks in a submission, don’t expect the other to tap. This could be a really ugly ending similar to Ryan Gracie on Shungo Oyama (or Mir on Sylvia for all you UFC newbies who haven’t experienced the magic of PRIDE yet).

Josh Burkman vs Pete Sell
Prediction- Burkman on points
Sell has better stand-up and better jiu jitsu but Burkman should nullify that with his excellent wrestling ability. The other big factor in this fight is that Sell always finds a way to lose. He nearly beat Scott Smith and he lost, he nearly beat Nate Quarry in the rematch and he lost. I’d like to see Sell win, but I don’t think he will.

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.