Cotto vs Pacquiao November 14!

Bob Arum today announced that WBO 147lb champion Miguel Cotto and World 140lb champion Manny Pacquiao have come to terms and will fight November 14th in Las Vegas. Details on which weight division the fight will be held in as well as what titles are on the line will come out shortly, but if all goes to plan this should be a mega fight. Cotto brings the huge Puerto Rican fan base while Pacquiao is probably the name fighter in boxing right now. I’m hoping this fight takes place at 147 and not some catchweight as I’d like to see Pacquiao fight a bigger guy without making him drop below a weight that is comfortable. Either way, Pacquiao’s firepower should be too much for Cotto and I expect a stoppage before the 10th round. More soon…..

(Jun 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

The longest reign as #1 in boxing was ended in just two rounds by Manny Pacquiao this month as he destroyed the four year champion Ricky Hatton at the start of the month to solidify his number one pound for pound status. The win drops Ricky Hatton from my pound for pound top ten for the first time since the win over Tszyu in 2005, marking the entrance of Chad Dawson into the top 10. Dawson enters over the likes of Celestino Caballero, Miguel Cotto (who’s current spot in most peoples top tens still baffles me), Tomasz Adamek (who Dawson beat), Chris John and Ivan Calderon based on an ever increasing impressive resume. A win over someone like Bernard Hopkins will propel Dawson into the top five. In what was otherwise a pretty quiet month for the sport, the bantamweights got some new blood into the top five with Yohnny Perez’s knockout win over longtime top contender Silce Mabuza last weekend. Perez is a young, exciting fighter who will likely give the winner of this months Darchinyan-Agebeko fight a good scrap.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(5) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(6) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(7) 7- Rafael Marquez (38-5-0)
(9) 8- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 9- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(NA) 10- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Rafael Marquez, Chad Dawson
Out- Ricky Hatton (loss)

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)
(9) 9- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(10) 10- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)

Active- None

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (25-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-1)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-1)

Active- Marco Huck, Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (draw), Giacobbe Fragomeni (draw)

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (28-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(5) 4- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(4) 5-  Antonio Tarver (27-6-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Chad Dawson, Antonio Tarver (loss)

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(3) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(5) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(7) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- None

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(3) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(4) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(5) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Anthony Mundine (36-3-0)
(7) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(8) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(9) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Anthony Mundine

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(1) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(2) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(3) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(7) 4- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(4) 5- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(5) 6- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(6) 7- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(9) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(10) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Kermit Cintron

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (25-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- Andre Berto

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(NA) 1- Manny Pacquiao (49-3-2)
(1) 2- Ricky Hatton (45-2-0)
(2) 3- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(3) 4- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 5- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(5) 6- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(6) 7- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton (loss)
Out- Juan Urango (moved up)

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(3) 2- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(4) 3- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(5) 4- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 5- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(7) 6- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(8) 7- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(9) 8- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(10) 9- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)
(NA) 10- Amir Khan (20-1-0)

Active- None
Out- Manny Pacquiao (moved up)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(1) 1- Humberto Soto (48-7-2)
(2) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(3) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(4) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(5) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(6) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(8) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(9) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(10) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Humberto Soto

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(7) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(9) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(10) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- None

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(10) 7- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)
(7) 8- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(9) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(NA) 10- Bernard Dunne (28-1-0)

Active- Rafael Marquez, Toshiaki Nishioka
Out- Jhonny Gonzalez (loss)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(2) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(3) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(8) 4- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(6) 5- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(4) 6- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(7) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(5) 8- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(9) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (17-0-0)
(10) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- Anselmo Moreno, Yohnny Perez, Abner Mares, Silence Mabuza (loss), Wladimir Siderenko (loss)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (29-6-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (23-4-0)

Active- Kohei Kono

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(9) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(10) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Denkoasan Kaovichit, Daisuke Naito

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(3) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(5) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(6) 6- Brahim Asloum (24-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(8) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(9) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(10) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Brahim Asloum

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (31-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(10) 9- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)
(NA) 10- Katsunari Takayama (23-3-0)

Active- Oleydong Sithsamerchai
Out- Muhammad Rachman (loss)

The Machida era has begun

Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida became the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion at UFC 98 with a 2nd round knockout over Rashad Evans. Machida looked his usual self as he gave Evans no chance to land anything significant and scored with laser-like accuracy. After an uneventful first few minutes in the opening round, Machida briefly dropped Rashad with a short left after a leg lick in the only significant moment of the opening frame. The champion was more aggressive in the 2nd round which played right into Lyoto’s hands as he made Evans miss with ease before nailing the champion and dropping him again. Visibly hurt, Evans rose but was forced back into the cage by a barrage of strikes before being knocked out with another short left hand. The win sees the third UFC Light Heavyweight champion in as many fights with Forrest Griffin and now Evans both having lost their titles in their first defence.

This win surely puts Lyoto in the pound for pound mix. While he isn’t up there with the Silva’s, GSP’s and Fedors, he sits on or just below the same shelf as Penn and Torres. He’s gone through everyone he’s faced with such ease that it makes you wonder what is needed to beat him? The grapplers can’t get their hands on him and the strikers can’t land. His footwork, reflexes and defensive instints are on another level and he’s shown increased punching power so far this year with his two knockout wins. Rampage has to be next, although he might be looking for another fight before his next crack at the title. Light Heavyweight may have just joined Middleweight, Welterweight and Lightweight as a division with a seeminly unbeatable champion.

In the co main event, Matt Hughes won the long awaited grudge match with Matt Serra by unanimous decision. Serra had Hughes hurt in the first round after he followed up a head clash with a series of damaging punches before Hughes took Serra down and briefly had his back. The second round saw Hughes score with a takedown and control the entire round doing little damage from on top. The third was almost more of the same as Hughes scored another takedown and did nothing from on top as Serra attempted several submissions from his back. The lack of action forced a stand-up by Steve Mazzagatti before Serra took Hughes down and landed some decent shots from on top. Hughes escaped as the buzzer sounded and took the decision 29-28 on all three cards.

This fight made me kind of disappointed that these two didn’t fight over five rounds back at UFC 79. Rounds four and five would have likely decided the rightful winner in a razor thin fight that could have gone either way. I actually scored the fight for Serra as I thought he did more in the third round, but it really could have gone either way. I’d like to see these two fight again ASAP as there’s no one else out there that would make for a good fight with either of them right now. It was good to see them hug after the fight and exchange compliments, although I’m sure the ill-feelings between these two are fully resolved or ever will be.

Frankie Edgar scored the best win of his career with a unanimous decision over former UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk. Sherk showed the complete lack of versatility in his stand-up game that got him in trouble against BJ Penn as Edgar boxed and moved and did it easy for most of the fight against the former champion. Sherk only attempted a takedown once and scored it, although Edgar got back to his feet in quick time. This win shakes up the division a bit and really establishes Gray Maynard as one of the top contenders as he’s beaten Edgar as well as a few other decent opponents. Also on the main card, Drew McFedries scored a devastating knockout over Xaier Foupa-Pokam in just 37 seconds. McFedries jumped on Professor X quickly and ended the fight with a barrage of hard, accurate hooks. Chael Sonnen scored his 2nd win in the Octagon with a three round domination over Dan Miller.

Preliminary Results
Brock Larson 1st round submission (arm triangle choke) Mike Pyle
Tim Hague 1st round submission (guillotine choke) Pat Barry
Kyle Bradley 1st round TKO (referee blunder) Phillipe Nover
Kryzstof Soszynski 1st round KO (punch) Andre Gusmao
Yoshiyuki Yoshida 1st round submission (guillotine choke) Brandon Wolff
George Roop split decision Dave Kaplan

(May 09) Angry Fight Fan World Boxing Rankings

Most of the action this month coming at 122 and 168lbs, the big win of the month was Paull Williams domination over Winky Wright. Due to the one sidedness of this fight, I’ve moved Williams into the top three pound for pound behind Marquez and Pacquiao. Both Hopkins and Vazquez have been sort of inactive and a win by either of them will likely be enough to move Williams down the list, but on current form Williams’ wins over Wright (who had not been dominated like that ever even by Hopkins) and Margarito puts him right up there in my opinion.
The rankings are based on all fights that happened before May 1st 2009, so if there’s a result that happened on March 1st (I’m using boxrec’s calender) then it’ll be included next month. These rankings are my own work and have absolutely no reflection on any ABC rankings or anything else but my own opinion. Please feel free to flame me in the comments section.

Weight Division (weight limit)
(Last Month) Ranking- Fighter (Record)

Pound for Pound 
(1) 1- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(2) 2- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(7) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1)
(4) 5- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(5) 6- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(6) 7- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(8) 8- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(9) 9- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(10) 10- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)

Active- Paul Williams

Heavyweight (no limit)
(1) 1- Wladimir Klitschko (52-3-0)
(2) 2- Vitali Klitschko (37-2-0)
(3) 3- Ruslan Chagaev (25-0-1)
(4) 4- Nicolay Valuev (50-1-0)
(5) 5- Alexander Povetkin (17-0-0)
(6) 6- David Haye (22-1-0)
(7) 7- Alexander Dimitrenko (29-0-0)
(8) 89- Sultan Ibragimov (22-1-1)
(9) 910- Eddie Chambers (34-1-0)
(NA) 8- Cristobal Arreola (27-0-0)

Active- Alexander Povetkin, Cristobal Arreola
Out- Samuel Peter (10)

Cruiserweight (200lbs)
(1) 1- Tomasz Adamek (37-1-0)
(2) 2- Guillermo Jones (36-3-2)
(3) 3- Steve Cunningham (21-2-0)
(4) 4- Marco Huck (24-1-0)
(5) 5- Jean Marc Mormeck (33-4-0)
(6) 6- O’Neill Bell (26-3-1)
(7) 7- Firat Arslan (29-4-1)
(8) 8- Vadim Tokarev (26-1-1)
(9) 9- Kryzstof Wlodarczyk (41-2-0)
(10) 10- Giacobbe Fragomeni (26-1-0)

Active- None

Light Heavyweight (175lbs)
(1) 1- Bernard Hopkins (49-4-1)
(2) 2- Chad Dawson (27-0-0)
(3) 3- Glenn Johnson (49-12-2)
(4) 4-  Antonio Tarver (27-5-0)
(5) 5- Zsolt Erdei (30-0-0)
(6) 6- Clinton Woods (42-4-1)
(7) 7- Hugo Garay (32-3-0)
(8) 8- Roy Jones jnr (52-5-0)
(9) 9- Adrian Diaconu (26-0-0)
(10) 10- Tavoris Cloud (19-0-0)

Active- Adrian Diaconu

Super Middleweight (168lbs)
(1) 1- Mikkel Kessler (41-1-0)
(2) 2- Lucian Bute (24-0-0)
(4) 3- Carl Froch (25-0-0)
(5) 4- Librado Andrade (28-2-0)
(7) 5- Karoly Balszay (21-0-0)
(6) 6- Sakio Bika (27-3-2)
(3) 7- Jermain Taylor (28-3-1)
(8) 8- Dennis Inkin (34-1-0)
(9) 9- Jeff Lacy (25-2-0)
(10) 10- Andre Dirrell (18-0-0)

Active- Carl Froch, Librado Andrade, Karoly Balzsay, Jermain Taylor (loss), Jeff Lacy

Middleweight (160lbs)
(1) 1- Kelly Pavlik (35-1-0)
(2) 2- Arthur Abraham (29-0-0)
(NA) 3- Paul Williams (37-1-0)
(3) 4- Felix Sturm (32-2-1)
(4) 5- Winky Wright (51-5-1)
(5) 6- Anthony Mundine (35-3-0)
(6) 7- Khoren Gevor (30-3-0)
(7) 8- Randy Griffin (24-2-3)
(8) 9- Sebastian Sylvester (29-3-0)
(10) 10- Amin Asikainen (25-2-0)

Active- Paul Williams, Felix Sturm, Winky Wright (loss)
Out- Javier Castillejo (draw)

Junior Middleweight (154lbs)
(2) 1- Vernon Forrest (41-3-0)
(3) 2- Sergei Dzinziruk (36-0-0)
(4) 3- Daniel Santos (32-3-0)
(5) 4- Verno Phillips (42-11-1)
(6) 5- Cory Spinks (36-5-0)
(7) 6- Sergio Manuel Martinez (44-1-1)
(8) 7- Kermit Cintron (30-2-1)
(9) 8- James Kirkland (25-0-0)
(10) 9- Sergio Mora (21-1-1)
(NA) 10- Jamie Moore (31-3-0)

Active- Cory Spinks
Out- Paul Williams (moved up)

Welterweight (147lbs)
(1) 1- Shane Mosley (46-5-0)
(2) 2- Miguel Cotto (32-1-0)
(3) 3- Andre Berto (24-0-0)
(4) 4- Joshua Clottey (35-2-0)
(5) 5- Carlos Quintana (26-2-0)
(6) 6- Luis Collazo (29-4-0)
(7) 7- Zab Judah (37-6-0)
(8) 8- Mike Jones (17-0-0)
(9) 9- Sebastian Lujan (31-5-2)
(10) 10- Rafal Jackiewicz (33-8-1)

Active- None

Junior Welterweight (140lbs)
(1) 1- Ricky Hatton (45-1-0)
(3) 2- Timothey Bradley (24-0-0)
(2) 3- Andreas Kotelnik (30-2-0)
(4) 4- Kendall Holt (25-3-0)
(6) 5- Paulie Malignaggi (26-2-0)
(5) 6- Ricardo Torres (32-2-0)
(7) 7- Juan Urango (20-1-1)
(8) 8- Junior Witter (37-2-2)
(9) 9- Victor Ortiz (24-1-1)
(10) 10- Vivian Harris (29-3-1)

Active- Timothey Bradley, Kendall Holt (loss), Paulie Malignaggi

Lightweight (135lbs)
(1) 1- Juan Manuel Marquez (50-4-1)
(2) 2- Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2)
(NA) 3- Edwin Valero (25-0-0)
(3) 4- Juan Diaz (34-2-0)
(4) 5- Joel Casmayor (36-4-1)
(6) 6- Joan Guzman (29-0-0)
(8) 7- Ali Funeka (30-2-2)
(9) 8- David Diaz (34-2-1)
(10) 9- Anthony Peterson (28-0-0)
(NA) 10- Breidis Prescott (21-0-0)

Active- Edwin Valero
Out- Antonio Pitalua (loss), Julio Diaz (loss)

Junior Lightweight (130lbs)
(3) 1- Humberto Soto (47-7-2)
(4) 2- Jorge Linares (26-0-0)
(5) 3- Roman Martinez (22-0-1)
(8) 4- Malcolm Klassen (23-4-2)
(6) 5- Robert Guerrero (22-1-1)
(2) 6- Cassius Baloyi (36-3-1)
(7) 7- Mzonke Fana (28-4-0)
(9) 8- Nicky Cook (29-2-0)
(10) 9- Alex Arthur (26-2-0)
(NA) 10- Sergey Gulyakevich (26-1-0)

Active- Malcolm Klassen, Cassius Baloyi (loss)
Out- Edwin Valero (moved up)

Featherweight (126lbs)
(1) 1- Chris John (42-0-2)
(2) 2- Cristobal Cruz (38-11-1)
(3) 3- Ricardo Juarez (28-4-1)
(4) 4- Steve Luevano (36-1-1)
(5) 5- Jorge Solis (37-1-2)
(6) 6- Takahiro Aoh (17-1-1)
(10) 7- Yuriorkis Gamboa (15-0-0)
(8) 8- Guty Espadas Jnr (45-7-0)
(7) 9- Thomas Mashaba (20-2-4)
(9) 10- Mario Santiago (19-1-1)

Active- Yuriorkia Gamboa, Guty Espadas Jnr

Junior Featherweight (122lbs)
(1) 1- Israel Vazquez (43-4-0)
(2) 2- Rafael Marquez (37-5-0)
(3) 3- Celestino Caballero (32-2-0)
(4) 4- Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0-0)
(5) 5- Poonsawat Krattindaenggym (38-1-0)
(6) 6- Daniel Ponce de Leon (36-2-0)
(NA) 7- Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2)
(7) 8- Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6-0)
(8) 9- Steve Molitor (28-1-0)
(9) 10- Toshiaki Nishioka (33-4-3)

Active- Celestino Caballero, Juan Manuel Lopez, Poonsawat Krattindaenggym, Gerry Penalosa (loss)
Out- Bernard Dunne (10)

Bantamweight (118lbs)
(1) 1- Hozumi Hasegawa (26-2-0)
(3) 2- Fernando Montiel (39-2-1)
(4) 3- Anselmo Moreno (24-1-1)
(5) 4- Silence Mabuza (22-2-0)
(6) 5- Wladimir Siderenko (21-1-2)
(7) 6- Abner Mares (17-0-0)
(8) 7- Joseph Agebeko (26-1-0)
(9) 8- Yohnny Perez (18-0-0)
(10) 9- Nehomar Cermeno (19-0-0)
(NA) 10- Simone Maludrottu (29-2-0)

Active- None
Out- Gerry Penalosa (moved up)

Junior Bantamweight (115lbs)
(1) 1- Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1)
(2) 2- Alexander Munoz (32-3-0)
(3) 3- Nobuo Nashiro (13-1-0)
(4) 4- Z Gorres (29-2-2)
(5) 5- Jorge Arce (51-5-1)
(6) 6- Jose Lopez (39-7-2)
(7) 7- Hugo Cazares (28-5-1)
(8) 8- Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1)
(9) 9- Jose Navarro (26-4-0)
(10) 10- Kohei Kono (22-4-0)

Active- Nobuo Nashiro

Flyweight (112lbs)
(1) 1- Nonito Donaire (21-1-0)
(2) 2- Denkaosan Kaovichit (46-1-1)
(3) 3- Daisuke Naito (34-2-3)
(4) 4- Omar Narvaez (28-0-2)
(5) 5- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (72-3-1)
(6) 6- Koki Kameda (20-0-0)
(7) 7- Takefumi Sakata (33-5-2)
(8) 8- Bernard Inom (19-1-1)
(NA) 9- Moruti Mthalane (23-2-0)
(9) 10- Jose Cesar Miranda (29-4-1)

Active- Nonito Donaire, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Jose Cesar Miranda (loss)
Out- Brian Viloria (moved down)

Junior Flyweight (108lbs)
(1) 1- Ivan Calderon (32-0-0)
(2) 2- Edgar Soto (35-5-0)
(NA) 3- Brian Viloria (24-2-0)
(4) 4- Giovanni Segura (19-1-1)
(3) 5- Ulises Solis (28-2-2)
(5) 6- Brahim Asloum (23-2-0)
(6) 7- Juan Carlos Reveco (19-1-0)
(7) 8- Cesar Canchila (27-1-0)
(8) 9- Juanito Rubillar (46-11-7)
(9) 10- Omar Nino Romero (27-3-1)

Active- Edgar Soto, Brian Viloria, Ulises Solis (loss)
Out- Nelson Dieppa (10)

Minimumweight (105lbs)
(1) 1- Roman Gonzalez (23-0-0)
(2) 2- Oleydong Sithsamerchai (30-0-0)
(3) 3- Raul Garcia (26-0-1)
(4) 4- Florante Condes (23-4-1)
(5) 5- Donnie Nietes (24-1-3)
(6) 6- Juan Palacios (25-2-0)
(7) 7- Milan Melindo (18-0-0)
(8) 8- Nkosinathi Joyi (19-0-0)
(9) 9- Muhammad Rachman (62-7-5)
(10) 10- Manuel Vargas (26-3-1)

Active- Raul Garcia

Boxing Breakdown: Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao

I really wanted to do a few posts on this fight, but I’ve been reduced to one because of time constraints. This fight is the biggest fight of the year and will be hard to top unless Pacquiao wins and fights Mayweather later in the year. Here you have the pound for pound number one fighting the dominant four year reigning champion at a weight higher then he’s competed for a title at. Both men have balls for taking this fight and it’s one of those fights that you can sit back and enjoy (unless your Phillipino or British).

Pacquiao is currently riding an incredible (incredible in terms of who he’s beaten, not the number of wins) nine fight winning streak that has included wins over Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and two stoppage wins over Erik Morales. Last year alone he captured two world titles in two different weight divisions and then dominated and stopped Oscar De La Hoya to cap off what was an amazing year. Prior to the titles he won at Junior Lightweight and Lightweight last year, Pacquiao has held the Linear Featherweight title (Pacquiao beat Barrera who beat Hamed who held all four belts at some stage during his reign), the IBF Junior Featherweight title and the WBC Flyweight title. This win would make him a legitimate three weight Linear Champion (140, 130, 126) (maybe even four as some claim he was the Linear Flyweight champion) and a six weight world title holder putting him basically in a league of his own unless you’re a De La Hoya fanboy who counts his WBO Middleweight and Junior Lightweight titles.

Pacquiao’s offensive capabilities are almost second to none. He punches with a ferocity that ranks along some of the all-time greats combining a monsterous workrate with explosive speed and devastating power. Lately Pacquiao has added solid defensive skills to his arsenal over the course of his recent five or six fights making him as dangerous a puncher as they come. Pacquiao has shown a weakness to good counter punchers like Marquez (and Barrera in the rematch for a short period) and guys who can control the range and punish him when he lunges in like Erik Morales. Hatton isn’t really either of those so you would think that he’d be able to dominate Hatton with his offense and punish Hatton’s sometimes lack of defence. However, Hatton’s in-fighting combined with his size is something we’ve yet to see Pacquiao have to deal with.

Ricky Hatton was often criticised on his way up for fighting over the hill fighters and soft touches while building up his record, but his 11th round stoppage over long time Junior Welterweight king Kostya Tszyu in 2005 will go down in British boxing history alongside great wins by British fighters like Turpin-Robinson I and Honeyghan-Curry. Hatton then moved up and won the WBA Welterweight title, before vacating it to make now six defences of his Light Welterweight crown. Jose Luis Castillo is the big name on his record since the Tszyu win, with Hatton stopping the Lightweight powerhouse with a body shot in the 4th round. The lone loss on his record came in a 2007 super fight with Floyd Mayweather Jnr when Hatton moved up to Welterweight to challenge the pound for pound king. Mayweather outboxed the Mancurian, stopping him in the 10th round.

Hatton’s style is overwhelming. While he takes punches early in the fight his aggression and physical strength especially at 140lbs are very hard to match without an impregnable defence. While Hatton has slowed down in recent fights, he always rises for the big fights as he showed in the Tszyu and Castillo wins as well as glimpses of in the Mayweather fight. Hatton’s big weapon is his foot speed as he cuts the danger zone for getting caught down rapidly allowing him to work on the inside and smother his opponents offence with his physical strength. Two things that could get Hatton in trouble are his tendancy to cut and his face first style which could spell badly if Pacquiao starts well and scores with some solid shots early on.

I’m really on the fence with this one, but I’m going for the upset and picking Hatton to win by late stoppage. I think his physical strength and body punching (should he use it) will hurt Manny in the late rounds and he physicality of the fight will be too much for the smaller Pacquiao. Hatton in my opinion has to start well to win this fight as he did against both Castillo and Tszyu. If Pacquiao starts strongly and builds a lead on the cards or causes some serious early damage on Hatton I believe he’ll ride that confidence to a one sided victory. One thing I’ve noticed with Pacquiao is that he isn’t a big fan of being hit in the body and thats going to have to be a key part of Hatton’s gameplan if he wants to win. Still, the combination of size and aggression that Hatton brings to this fight I think will cancel out Pacquiao’s speed and power and he’ll wear Pacquiao down and stop him late. Ricky Hatton by 10th round knockout.

Silva and Shogun score wins at UFC 97

Anderson Silva was extended the five round limit for the first time in his UFC career yesterday as Thales Leites basically adapted the butt-scoot technique in order to survive. Leites offered very little offence during the fight as Silva toyed with him waiting for something to counter off. The fight would probably have been the worse in UFC history had Silva not been so creative with his striking, throwing side kicks to Leites’ knee as well as jabbing at his thigh. The fight was painful to watch at times as Silva was standing within range for Thales to do whatever he pleased to him yet Thales was that reluctant to engage that he didn’t throw anything. The fight was only worstened by one of the judges who somehow thought the fight was up for grabs going into the last round and gave Leites two of the rounds. I was hard pressed to give Leites the 2nd round despite him scoring a takedown and ‘working’ from on top for a good portion of the round.

The question remains, when are the UFC going to give Silva a decent challenge. His last three fights he’s faced guys so clearly out of his league that it’s starting to damage his reputation. We know what he’s capable when he’s put in with a guy who he feels threatened by. He destroyed Rich Franklin twice as well as Dan Henderson and Nate Marquadt in performances that would make most contenders think about changing weight divisions. Actually that’s not a bad idea for Silva, maybe a forced move to 205lbs is what’s needed for his career as he’ll likely find guys in his own league up there. Or maybe should St Pierre defeat Thiago Alves they’ll make that super fight for their end of year show. There’s no one for Silva to fight at 185lbs who makes me think will bring any better a performance out of him. Maia has a chance of pulling off a victory as he’s much more aggressive with his Jiu Jitsu game, but I think we’d see Silva toy with him as he pleased as well. It’s got to be 205lbs or Georges St Pierre for Anderson Silva as far as I’m concerned.

In the co feature, Mauricio Shogun returned to form with an entertaining first round knockout of former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell. The fight was entertaining with both men landing hard shots and scoring takedowns in what was a wild first round. At one stage Shogun dropped down for a leg lock on Liddell who showed (for me anyway) surprising knowledge of how to escape the position. Then in the final minute, Shogun landed a leaping left hook that dropped Liddell and finished him with some of his famous ground and pound. Liddell rose shortly after the stoppage but was unaware of his surroundings or what had just happened.

The fight answered some questions, but left one big one unanswered. Is Shoguns conditioning there yet? He didn’t appear to gas which suggests that it’s definately better then it has been, but we didn’t see him in the 2nd and 3rd rounds where it was painful to watch him against Coleman. The questions it did answer is that Shogun has a world class skill set and it was probably his leg kicks that set up the victory. His ground game is also awesome for those of you who think on that performance that he is a striker. The other question it answered was that this has to be the end of the line for Liddell. It’s three times in his last five fights that he’s been laid out and while they were to three of the best guys in the game, you don’t want to see the guy become a punching bag. I’ve always been a big Liddell fan and while I’m also a big Shogun fan and was happy to see the guy back in form, part of me felt bad for Liddell that he went out like this. Hopefully the guy makes the right decision and retires with his health.

Also on the card, Kryzstof Soszynski scored a first round submission victory with a kimura over Brian Stann. Cheick Kongo battered Antoni Hardonk despite breaking his hand in the first round, finishing the fight with ground and pound in the 2nd round. Luiz Cane and Steve Cantwell engaged in a rather boring striking match that makes me wonder if these guys know that they’re allowed to wrestle? In a bonus fight on the PPV card, Sam Stout and Matt Wiman went to war and fought three very close rounds with Wiman getting the best of the positions and Stout doing more damage. In the end, Stout scored a close but unanimous decision (I thought Wiman won) in front of his home crowd.

On the preliminaries, TUF8 veterans Elliot Marshall and Vinny Magalhaes went the distance in a fight many people thought Vinny should of won (according to a few reports he had Marshall mounted and eating punches in two rounds while Marshall did shit) yet Marshall scored a 30-27 victory on two cards and 29-28 on the third. Canadians Denis Kang, TJ Grant and Mark Bocek all scored much needed wins, while David Loiseau copped a beating from Ed Herman and Jason MacDonald was stopped in the first round by Nate Quarry.

Full Results
Anderson Silva UD5 (50-46, 49-46, 48-47) Thales Leites
Mauricio Shogun TKO1 (punches) Chuck Liddell
San Stout UD3 (29-28) Matt Wiman
Kryzstof Soszynski Sub1 (kimura) Brian Stann
Cheick Kongo TKO2 (punches) Antoni Hardonk
Luiz Cane UD3 (30-27, 29-28, 30-27) Steve Cantwell
Denis Kang UD3 (30-27) Xavier Foupa Pokam
Nate Quarry TKO1 (punches) Jason MacDonald
Ed Herman UD3 (30-27, 30-26, 30-27) David Loiseau
TJ Grant SD3 (29-28, 28-29, 30-27) Ryo Chonan
Mark Bocek Sub1 (Rear Naked Choke) David Bielkheden
Elliot Marshall UD3 (30-27, 29-28, 30-27) Vinny Magalhaes

UFC 97 (Silva-Leites, Liddell-Shogun) Predictions

 

I left these a little later then I wanted to and I apologise to all of you who want to look good to your friends by stealing my in form predictions, but the De La Hoya retirement put it back a few days. There’s only really two fights on this card worth going into, actually there’s only one but the other is for a title so this won’t be as in depth as some of my other predictions articles. Basically this card consists of a mismatch title fight between one of the best (if not the best) pound for pound fighters in MMA against a guy who hasn’t really proven himself against top competition. Thales Leites is an excellent fighter, but he quite simply isn;t ready for a title shot against a dominant champion like Silva. Why Okami didn’t get his shot this time around I have no idea as Leites hasn’t been that much more marketed. The real fight on this card is the Chuck Liddell vs Mauricio Shogun battle in the co-feature which sees the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion against the PRIDE 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion. The rest of the card will be entertaining for sure, but nothing with any major implications.

Main Card
Anderson Silva vs Thales Leites
(UFC Middleweight Championship)
Prediction- Silva by 1st round KO
Anderson Silva didn’t look that motivated in his last title defence against Patrick Cote and seemed to cruise through the bout until Cote busted his knee. With another soft touch (compared to Silva anyway) I think Silva needs to and will make an example of Leites to basically say that he needs a challenge and it’s not safe letting these guys anywhere near him. Leites is a solid ground fighter with good power standing up and a good chin, but his stand-up is technically retarded, his wrestling is pretty average and his stamina is questionable. His top game is as good as anyones in MMA. He transitions to the back with ease, his ground and pound is world class and he has very strong submission abilities. In saying that, I really think his stand-up is that bad that if Silva opens with a barrage he’ll take Leites out.

Chuck Liddell vs Mauricio Shogun
Prediction- Liddell by 2nd round KO
I want to try and educate some of those who haven’t seen much of Shogun. The man is a ground and pound fighter. He is not and never will be a Muay Thai gun like so many claim. His hands are awful as evidenced by the fact that Coleman repeatedly caught him with his Great Grandpa jab. Shogun’s strength has always been his knees in the clinch, his striking from on top and his escapes from the bottom. We all know what Liddell’s strengths are; he avoids clinches and takedowns like they’re AIDS and he knocks mother fuckers out. I think this fight is a bad matchup for Shogun stylistically. I’m definately not one of those people who think Shogun was always overrated because the Shogun that brutalised Alistair Overeem and Ricardo Arona at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005 would stand a chance with any man. Shogun I don’t think trains as hard as he used to when he was fighting out of Chute Boxe and his physical strength doesn’t match up to Liddell’s. ‘The Iceman’ should wear him down while avoiding the clinch where Shogun is most dangerous and finish him off in the 2nd round. I’d love to see Shogun return to form and retire Liddell (not because I don’t like Liddell, not at all) so all those Shogun haters can be silenced but this fight is a bad matchup for him.

Kryzstof Soszynski vs Brian Stann
Prediction- Stann on points

Antoni Hardonk vs Cheick Kongo
Prediction- Hardonk by 2nd round KO

Luiz Cane vs Steve Cantwell
Prediction- Cane by 1st round KO

Preliminaries
Vinny Magalhaes vs Elliot Marshall
Prediction- Magalhaes by 1st round submission

Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs Denis Kang
Prediction- Kang by 2nd round submission

Jason MacDonald vs Nate Quarry
Prediction- Quarry by 2nd round KO

Ed Herman vs David Loiseau
Prediction- Herman on points

David Bielkheden vs Mark Bocek
Prediction- Bocek on points

Ryo Chonan vs TJ Grant
Prediction- Grant on points

Sam Stout vs Matt Wiman
Prediction- Wiman on points

Williams and Arreola announce their presence

That had to be one of the most one sided fights I’ve seen in a while especially considering Wright is the one who has made a habbit of dominating good fighters in big fights (ie Mosley I, Wright). Williams is certainly the real deal and no one is safe from him from 147-160lbs. That’s not to say I’d pick him over Abraham or Pavlik (because I wouldn’t) but he certainly is one of the top contenders at 160lbs as well now. The other contenders at 160 like Mundine and Gevor I think he’d have an excellent chance at beating. His workrate is simply unreal considering he throws as many hard shots as he does.

The fight really was a bad matchup stylistically for Wright but the man deserves credit for a) staying in there and taking his beating like the man that he is and b) taking on Williams in the first place. I still think there’s guys out there that Wright could beat but he might have a hard time getting them in the ring because his draw power will have dropped from yesterday. That’s not saying he fought a bad fight or anything but the facts are that he was never that popular to begin with and a loss like that will make it harder for him to get back in the upper echelon of boxing.

As for Williams, he has to be in the top five pound for pound now. I mean he’s come up from 147lbs and beaten Wright a hell of a lot more easier then Bernard Hopkins did and Hopkins is a fucking light heavyweight. I still think he’s a little open at times and thats where someone like Pavlik or Abraham could capitalise on him and catch him. We’re not sure yet how he takes a solid punch at 160lbs and there’s two of the biggest punchers in the sport pound for pound in this division in Pavlik and Abraham. I think if he fought either of them he’d probably have his chin tested at some point and it’d probably fail as most chins do when Pavlik or Abraham hit them. Then again, he might just be too fast and busy for them and bust them up.

As for the undercard, I’m thrilled to have some new blood in the division. When we had that first part of this mediocre period post Lewis, I’ve been waiting for some new guys to KO the Chris Byrd’s, John Ruiz’s and Jameel McCline’s of the division. Povetkin announced his arrival with the beatdown of Byrd and Arreola did it yesterday by dominating McCline. McCline took Byrd to a close decision, he took Peter to a close decision, he went 10 rounds with Wladimir Klitschko. For all his short comings, the guy could hang around and was a solid opponent for some of these top contenders and Arreola took him out like the trash that he is which is what we want to see from the young contenders.

As for whether or not he’d beat the Klitschko’s….. I dunno. Vitali I think couldn’t tailor an opponent better then Arreola. He’ll stand in front of Vitali, his defence isn’t particularly good and despite his power, he doesn’t have enough to dent Vitali’s chin. I give him a solid punchers chance against Wladimir though. The thing I like about Arreola is that he’s prepared to throw his punches, force the action and fight at a pace which could work well against Wladimir who tends to panic under fire. Whether or not he’d fight that way when taking Wladimir’s jab is a different story, but if he landed some of the shots that he landed on McCline he’d put Wlad on his arse pretty quick.

Boxing Breakdown: Paul Williams vs Winky Wright

 Some Easter boxing for us Australians again this year and it’s a very interesting matchup. Last year we had the Casamayor-Katsidis clash on Easter which was your typical stylist vs slugger matchup, this year we’ve got two of the more awkward southpaws facing off. IBF interim 154lb champion and pound for pound contender Paul Williams moves up to Middleweight to take on the often avoided Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright. This really is a big test for Williams who apart from the win over a pretty flat Margarito is lacking big names on his record. A win over Wright, especially a dominating one, really puts Williams up there with the elites in the game today. He’ll have come up from welterweight and done what only Bernard Hopkins has done in recent time by beating Wright and even Hopkins did it at 170lbs, a weight that really doesn’t suit Wright at all.

One of the big issues in this fight is the size of the two men as Williams was fighting at 147lbs just a few fights ago and Wright’s last outing was at 170lbs. Williams was always a huge welterweight, almost on the side of Thomas Hearns huge for the division. Williams stands at 6’1 and has an 82 inch reach, which is amazing for a Heavyweight let alone a guy fighting between 147-160lbs. So while Wright has been fighting in the higher weight divisions of late, he’s going to ge giving up around three inches in height and a whopping 10 inches in reach. The thing with Wright as well is that he’s also come up from 154lbs in the past so Williams has all the size advantages here and may even be the heavier of the two fighters by the time they’re in the ring, but then again the fact that he came in at 157lbs suggests that he didn’t have to drop much if any weight for this fight (Wright came in at 159).

The fact that both of these guys are southpaws is going to make this fight interesting. Carlos Quintana was a southpaw and he gave Williams fits in their first fight which was Williams’ only professional loss. However, Williams dispatched of him in just over two minutes in the rematch suggesting that maybe he doesn’t have problems with them. Wright’s one of the most technically awkward fighters I’ve ever seen. By that I mean you have your awkward fighters throughout history and most of them are awkward because they’re not at all textbook but they’re damn effective. Gene Fullmer is maybe the best example of this or someone like Harry Greb (if we go by what guys who have fought him say as there’s no film of him) and there’s Ricardo Mayorga in todays era. Wright is as awkward as those guys but for completely different reasons. He’s textbook to almost a ridiculous level. He has one of the best jabs in the business in terms of accuracy and effectiveness and his defence is unreal for a guy who doesn’t use a whole lot of head movement or evasive tactics. He can basically stand there and make you miss with everything and then win the fight on his jab alone.

How William’s approaches Wright’s style will be interesting. The thing Williams has that guys like Mosley or Trinidad don’t is size. Both Trinidad and Mosley we shorter or around the same height as Wright and this is where I think Williams will win the fight. His assaults can be machine gun like and coming from his range it makes countering him very difficult. Quintana had a lot of success using lateral movement and I think that’s how Wright should approach the fight because Williams’ footwork isn’t the best although it seems to improve every fight. I think Wright will have a lot of trouble getting his jab going and will be under constant fire from Williams. Wright will probably defend against the assaults well, but he won’t be able to mount any significant offence back at him and his one punch power isn’t that great so I don’t see him breaking down Williams. Williams will keep it at the range he wants it and win handily on the scorecards I think. Paul Williams by unanimous decision.

On the undercard is an interesting heavyweight matchup as Chris Arreola takes on his biggest test to date against former title challenger Jameel McCline. I don’t think I’ve let my readers know how much I hate McCline before, but I really can’t stand him at all. He’s got decent skills for a big man, but his fitness is that poor it usually lets him down. It did against Chris Byrd and it did against Samuel Peter and whether or not it let him down against John Ruiz I have no idea because I’d rather give myself a paper cut and pour lemon juice on it then watch those two fight each other I mean it’s bad enough that we have to watch them fight other opponents let alone each other. If Arreola wins this fight big, he’ll put himself into the upper echelon of the Heavyweight division behind the Klitschko’s and give boxing fans a bit of hope that there’s a saviour out there. I think he wins, but in pretty lacklustre fashion. McCline will probably do well early on, and then tire and the fight is likely to be a sloppy boring affair as are all of McCline’s fights but Arreola should come out on top due to his superior firepower and stamina (I’m assuming he has more stamina then McCline). Chris Arreola on points.

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.