MMA Review

What’s going on everybody, hope your week was good. Mine was tiring going back to work full-time, but it was good getting back to a consistent schedule. You can only play video games and watch daytime court shows for so many days, right? OK, bad question. It’s time for your MMA Review!

Like last week, I’ll go over each promotion and give you my thoughts:

Elite XC: They had a major program on CBS this past Saturday and I watched every minute of it. Even before it took place, I knew that the ratings would be down for several reasons. First, the second show is always a let down from the first one. CBS put a lot of promo into that first show a few months ago and had their two biggest stars Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano fighting. In this show, none of those two were fighting. Secondly, there was actually a big boxing PPV match that took some viewers.

However, I liked the card because it established the promotion. There are actually other fighters besides Kimbo and Gina. The women’s fight featured a victory by Cyborg, who is a Brazilian fighter out of the Chute Box Academy, which is one of the premier MMA training camps in the world. She is no joke and can beat a respectable amount of men. She dominated and hopefully will fight Carano because those two are probably the premier women fighters in MMA right now.

Nick Diaz picked up a victory and continued his quest for a lightweight title. I look forward to his future fight with Noons whenever that takes place.

The two title fights that were on the CBS portion of the show established two men in their respective weight classes in MMA. Lawler kept his middleweight title and showed that he’s legit. I would love to see him go to the UFC and give Anderson Silva a shot. Robbie is in the same boat as Jake Shields, who won the welterweight title.

Both men are legit top-10 fighters in their classes but have minimal competition in Elite XC.

WEC: They have a big, big show coming up this Sunday on Versus with three title defenses. Jamie Varner defends his lightweight title against an undefeated and dangerous Marcus Hicks, Brian Stann makes his first title defense against Steve Cantwell and my man, the Natural Born Killer, Carlos Condit defends his welterweight title against Hiro Miura.

I think that all three guys will keep their titles, even though Varner needs to be careful and it’s always tough defending the title for the first time, no matter who you are, just ask Georges St. Pierre.

I really want to see Condit continue his rise in the welterweight division. I love the attitude, the swagger he has, the look, and most importantly the game. He fights a very aggressive, pleasing style to view. He’s the best non-UFC welterweight in my opinion. Check this fight out if any on this card.

Affliction: It looks like Fedor will fight Arlovski in his next fight. That’s a good test and it’s nice to see two top-ten heavyweights fight.

UFC: Everything is pointing towards their amazing event next Saturday, UFC 87. I’ll have an in-depth preview of that card next week so I’ll save my opinions on that.

It looks like Silva will defend his middleweight title against Patrick Cote in UFC 90 on Oct. 25. Wow, they’re really stretching to find a middleweight contender for Anderson, that’s all I’ll say.

MISC NEWS

-Its looks like the UFC vs. Randy Couture legal battle won’t end anytime soon. It’s a shame because both sides have good points, but we’re missing out on seeing one of the greatest fighters ever practice his craft and the most important people, us fans, end up losing. Sherdog.com gives a good breakdown of the situation here if you want the details: http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/coutures-legal-battles-continue-13838

-I was going to give you a breakdown of fighting in a ring versus a cage this week. However, I found an excellent link to an article with actual fighters explaining it. I think you would rather hear their opinions then mine. Here’s the article: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f2/cage-vs-ring-big-nog-anderson-silva-other-former-pride-fighters-opinions-815846/

-Next week, I’ll have a breakdown of UFC 87 and my own top-10 fighters. Here’s a link to ESPN’s new online show, MMA Live. As much crap as I talk about ESPN, good job by them acknowledging mixed martial arts. Also, my boy Frank Mir is on the show. Love it!

I also threw in some Pride highlights. Gotta respect that.

Good fight, good night.