MMA Review

What’s going on everybody? Its time for MMA Review

Tomorrow is the big, big day in mixed martial arts as UFC 87 takes place with three major fights. I’m going to preview each of the fights, give you my top-10 pound-for-pound fighters and then comment on children training in MMA.

First, lets preview the three big UFC 87 fights.

-Brock Lesner vs. Heath Herring (Heavyweight). This is a classic fight between strength vs. guile. Brock is a physical specimen who may be the strongest fighter in all of MMA. His ground and pound skills are solid as shown in the Frank Mir fight. His standup/boxing is unknown because in his other two professional fights, he has gone for the takedown to take advantage of his exemplary wresting skills. I worry about two big things from Brock. First, you have to worry about his defense on the ground because Mir was able to get that knee bar in on him and submit Brock. However, Frank is an excellent Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) practitioner and Herring isn’t at that level. The second thing you have to worry about is stamina. Brock hasn’t been in the ring more than three minutes combined and he’s fighting a dude who can go.

Herring is an interesting character who has been around for a long time. He mainly fought in Japan for many years at Pride before coming over to the UFC in his last four fights. He’s 2-2 in those contests with four straight decisions. Herring has a problem finishing a fight, but he does have the stamina to last all three rounds. He will forever be known for standing up Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when he was pounding him on the ground. If Heath wins that fight, he may well be heavyweight champion right now.

I see this fight going to another decision. Brock will try to be aggressive and will get some takedowns or two and maybe get a round. However, I see Herring doing just enough to win two rounds and get a boring decision. I would like to see these guys exchange some punches and make it exciting, but I see a lot of sloppy ground work taking place. Herring in Decision.

-Roger Huerta vs. Ken Florian (Lightweight): This has fight of the year potential. There should be no worries about stamina and effort because both of these guys will come in there ready and prepared. Both guys strike decently; however, Florian has the better ground game. Ken Flo’s submissions are top notch.

The best game plan for Huerta is to hopefully just keep a blistering pace and outpoint Florian. Huerta can submit a guy or two himself so don’t be surprised to see Roger get a choke in. I also don’t like Huerta’s mentality coming into this fight. He’s complaining about making no money doing media appearances and his contract. I don’t like a fighter who is concerned with money going into a big fight.

Florian by submission in the third round.

-Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch (Welterweight): This one is for the title. GSP is on a major role right now and has no weaknesses accept one, which I don’t think that Fitch can exploit.

The scary thing is that the one thing that Fitch should have an advantage in, wrestling, GSP has become world class in only a few years. GSP was able to outwrestle Josh Koscheck, a better wrestler than Fitch, easily and made it look flawless.

You do have to worry about GSP’s chin which was exploited by Serra in their first fight. However, I don’t see Fitch getting to that chin because GSP is so focused right now.

Both guys have endurance and Fitch is an excellent worker and deserves this title shot. If Fitch wins, its not shocking because Jon is a world class fighter. However, GSP is special. GSP by TKO in the fourth round.

Ok, now its time for my top-10 pound-for-pound fighters, which will be updated every month.

Outside looking in: Dan Henderson, Carlos Condit, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Kid Yamamoto

10) Lyota Machida
9) Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
8) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria
7) Forrest Griffin
6) Miguel Torres
5) Urijah Faber
4) Fedor Emelianenko
3) BJ Penn
2) Georges St. Pierre
1) Anderson Silva

My list is pretty standard accept for one thing. I have Fedor at #4 because of his inactivity of the past few years and the lack of quality opponents he has fought. Anderson is #1 which shouldn’t be an issue and I have GSP ahead of BJ Penn because these two fought and GSP won.

There are many ways to look at a top-ten ranking like this, but I look at it this way. If every single one of those guys fought at the same weight, which one will have the skills to beat the other nine on the list? I also like versatility. Anderson, GSP and BJ have the ability to beat you in multiple ways while someone like Rampage or Torres have one way to do it. Now that one way is world class, but not enough to usurp the guys above them. I would love your thoughts on this or if you know someone who is a MMA fan, tell them my list and get their thoughts.

Finally, I linked to an article in my “Cleaning out my Links” post earlier in the week. It was about young children training MMA. Here’s the link: http://www.mmatraining.com/featured/why-i-want-my-children-to-be-mma-fighters/

First, this isn’t a completely new concept. Children have been practicing martial arts, wrestling and boxing for thousands of years. I don’t see how MMA is different because the sport combines all of those elements.

Training is good for several reasons. It preaches discipline mentally and physically. Your child gets some good exercise also.

The main issue of course should be safety. Make sure that they are wearing head gear, have extra protection for their hands and shins and just have good adult supervision.

I think that only children about 10 and up should train. There are developmental issues with younger kids training.

What do you think? Would you let your child train in MMA?

That’s all from me. I’ll have some daily posts on the Olympics on the blog the next week or two, so look forward to those.

As usual, I have the latest episode of MMA Live below for your viewing to learn more about the sport. Good fight, good night.