MMA Review

Welcome to my second installment of the Friday MMA Review.

Once again, even if you aren’t a mixed martial arts fan, you can like this post. I try to speak in generalities to give you an idea of what’s happening in the MMA world today.

This past week has some outstanding fights that were enjoyed by all. This Saturday, Elite XC will have their second network TV event on CBS, which I will watch with high anticipation. I think that the best way to do this is to list each fighting organization and give you my thoughts:

Elite XC: On Saturday, we will get to see the rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith for the middleweight title. These two guys gave an excellent effort in their last fight and it ended unnecessarily. However, Lawler is the better fighter and should win this one easily.

Jake Shields and Nick Thompson square off for the welterweight title as well. Shields should take care of business in this one.

Don’t get persuaded to not watch these fights because it’s not the UFC. Lawler is no joke and I think would give Anderson Silva a run if they ever fought. Shields is legit too and would be an even fight against Georges St. Pierre.

Finally, Nick Diaz squares off against Thomas Denny. Diaz should win this fight if he stays away from the bong! Ha, I make myself laugh sometimes. Seriously kids, stay away from the weed.

UFC: Last Saturday, the UFC had their Fight Night event featuring the main event of Anderson Silva vs. James Irwin. Silva looked sick. People kept talking about how Anderson was moving up in weight from middleweight to light heavyweight and that would be a problem. I didn’t see that happening because Silva is a big and lanky guy anyway and carries his weight evenly. He looked pretty much the same physically. He made James Irwin look like an amateur. Silva wants to go back to middleweight, but I think he should stay at light heavyweight if you ask me.

The rest of the card showed some interesting stuff. I love Brandon Vera and his potential. He a minority, has a good personality and usually has a fighting style that’s aggressive and exciting. However, he has looked weak in his last few fights and his recent win against Reece Andy was troublesome. Hopefully he can get his stuff together at light heavyweight and I just heard that he’s fighting Keith Jardine, which is interesting.

Frankie Edgar and CB Dollaway looked good in wins. BTW, Dollaway’s finisher, the Peruvian Neck Tie, is classic and may have to be my nickname in the future.

The person who looked the most impressive however besides Silva was Cain Velasquez in his win over Jake O’Brien. Cain is an impressive heavyweight who has a pleasing style to view. The UFC is starving for some new heavyweight contenders and Cain may be that guy in the next year. His potential is amazing.

On Saturday, Spike is replaying UFC84 which featured the title fight between B.J. Penn and Sean Sherk. I won’t be watching that because I’ve seen the event already,

UFC 87 on August 9 is shaping up to be an outstanding PPV with GSP facing Fitch for the welterweight title and some other good bouts. My preview of that will come closer to the event.

Affliction: The main event was both a good and bad thing, but you can blame Fedor for that. The man is a beast. Fedor is the man and no heavyweight is going to stop him. He made Sylvia look like a little kid out there fighting.

Arlovski looked good in his fight as well and I believe that he’s going to fight Fedor later this year, which is a fight that everyone wants to see and would represent progress in the heavyweight division.

There were two intriguing parts to the event. One, look at the salaries that some of these guys got: http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/CSAC-Sylvia-Arlovski-Lead-Affliction-Paydays-13758

The fact that Sylvia made $800,000 for that fight is crazy. Those figures are straight salaries and don’t include potential percentage of PPV profits and endorsements. Affliction won’t last long if they keep paying guys those salaries. However for MMA fighters in general, this is a good thing because they can use those figures when they negotiate new deals with the various fight leagues and the pay has increased.

The second thing about the event was that the fighting took place in a ring and not a cage. Since there isn’t a fight coming up next weekend, I’ll break down why this is a big deal. The cliff notes version of this is that one of the two main reasons that Fedor will probably never fight in the UFC is because of the cage. I’ll break that down more next week.

For Fedor, the main reason that he isn’t in the UFC is that it really doesn’t work with his business plan as a fighter. If he signed with the UFC, he would have to exclusively fight for that company. Fedor makes a lot of money fighting for various federations in Europe and Asia, specifically Japan and they don’t do business with the UFC.

If he wanted to fight in a sambo tournament in Russia or do a New Year’s Eve fight in Japan and make high six figures doing it, he can’t do it in the UFC because it’s an exclusive deal.

I was just happy to see the man fight in America. He needs to fight more in general and from what I’m hearing from his camp, this is going to happen.

That’s all from me, enjoy the fights and I hope to hear from some of you after Saturday.

Here’s a video showing the painful side of MMA.

Sunday Reflections (MMA Review Edition)

This weekend was a good time for mixed martial arts with two major events taking place.

I’ll get to this more on Friday with my MMA review, but I’ll give you a quick review.

I saw the entire UFC Fight Night, which was a decent event. Anderson Silva did what was expected by defeating James Irwin. Silva did look thicker as a light heavyweight, but he really looked the same. The scary thing about Anderson is that he was a super huge middleweight and a solid sized light heavyweight. If he wants to stay at 205, he definitely can.

Brandon Vera is one of my favorite fighters, so I was disappointed in his performance. He got the win, but you can tell that even he knew that his performance was sub-par.

The rest of the fights were ok. I’ll give you more Friday.

I didn’t see the Affliction card, but I did go to my sources and saw the Fedor/Sylvia fight. Not much here to say but Fedor won.

I’ll see the rest of the fights by Friday and have more info in my MMA review.

Until then, here’s are two video montages of MMA action.

Friday MMA Review

Hey everyone, I’m going to try a new segment on Fridays called “Friday MMA Review.” Just like Sunday Reflections, hopefully it becomes a sensation and the nation awaits for its post. Cool logo, right!

This Saturday is a big day in the world of mixed martial arts.

First, prayers are with Rampage Jackson right now while he tries to get his life settled. Unless you’ve been under a rock the past few days, Rampage, the former UFC light heavyweight champion who just lost a fight this past Saturday, has had some incidents the last few days and is currently getting mental treatment in a hospital. The entire MMA world hopes he gets well because he’s a good guy and a great fighter. Just hope he gets better.

OK, on to the events. The new MMA promotion, Affliction, will launch its first pay-per-view event, Banned, this Saturday. The main event includes former Pride promotion champion Fedor Emelianenko (try saying that name fast ten times in a row) and respected top-10 heavyweight and former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia. Fedor is pictured below.

Fedor is considered by many, including myself, the top heavyweight in the world. Some even consider him the top pound-for-pound fighter. Another guy can make that claim. I’ll get to him later.

The thing about Fedor is that he has excellent speed for a heavyweight and if the fight gets to the ground, he's a machine. He can submit you in any position and his ground and pound is legendary. He also never loses his cool and stays calm the entire time. The facial expression you see in the above picture, he stays like that the entire time. He can't be broken.

The thing about Fedor that makes this fight exciting is that he hasn’t fought someone major in over a year, Matt Lindland. Furthermore, the last time he really fought a top-10 guy who was primed was Crocop in August, 2005. He will definitely get a challenge from Sylvia.

Many people don’t like Sylvia because he’s a big, tall, lanky guy who you want to be more aggressive with his size. He’s 6’7’’ and weights a legit 265. I actually don’t mind Sylvia.

The added thing about this fight is that Fedor will be fighting in the USA for only the second time in his career. The hardcore fight fans, which I guess I have to put myself in this group, know all about Fedor, but a lot of people who only know about UFC fighters or Kimbo Slice and are marginal fans may underestimate Fedor because he looks bored all the time and pudgy.

Don’t let his looks fool you. He is a bad ass and no joke. Also, he may be only 6’0’’, which is short for heavyweight, but height makes no difference to this guy.

Who do I like in this fight? As much as I like Fedor and think the world of him, I’m going to take the upset and pick Sylvia. For someone like Fedor who is used to fighting several times a year, a year layoff is a big deal. Also, everyone underestimates Sylvia, but love him or hate him, he’s a legit fighter. I think Tim frustrates him to a decision.

The rest of the card is very solid.

You have heavyweight Andrei Arlovski, another former UFC champ, against a solid fighter, Ben Rothwell. If this fight was three years ago, the Pitbull aka Andrei kills Rothwell. However Arlovski hasn’t been the same lately, so it really depends on which Pitbull shows up.

Another former UFC heavyweight champ, Josh Barnett, faces Pedro Rizzo to round out the heavyweights, while former UFC light heavyweight champ Babalu and that same Matt Lindland are on the card.

This is a good first card for any promotion. You have Fedor and the rest of the fighters that I’ve mentioned.

Of course, the current king of the MMA world, the UFC, wasn’t going to sit back and just let this PPV go off without competition.

The UFC has responded with a free fight night on Spike. The main even is a match between current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and James Irwin in a light heavyweight match. Silva is pictured below.

For those of you unfamiliar with the weights, the max pounds for middleweight is 185 and for light heavyweight is 205. So, Silva is moving up one weight class.

Many consider Silva, including me, the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Anderson can do it all. His stand up fighting is sick, especially with the mui thai clinches and knees. His ground game is legit, being a jiu jitsu black belt. He has good defense. There are really no weaknesses in his game.

Irwin is a legit light heavyweight and not a pushover. If Irwin happens to win this fight, even if the odds are against him, it wouldn’t be completely shocking. However, I see Silva winning this fight.

The thing that people forget to remember is that Silva “walks around” at around 210-215 even when he’s fighting at middleweight. The extra weight won’t be as big of a deal for him as other guys trying to move up a weight class.

The rest of the card is decent. I’m looking forward to Brandon Vera’s debut at light heavyweight against Reese Andy. Vera was getting too small at heavyweight and I think he can make a decent run in another weight class. He has to get past Andy first.

Hermes Franca is also facing Frank Edgar. Franca is a fun fighter to watch and hopefully he can put his steroid past behind him.

So there are two questions, which event should you watch and what does this mean for the state of MMA?

First, try to watch both of them because each of them have quality fights in them. I’ll probably watch the UFC event from a bar or home and then use some other sources for the Affliction show.

This is a really, really good thing for MMA. The UFC can’t be the only place where fighters can practice their craft. A monopoly in MMA is a bad thing. This is why we need the WEC, Elite XC, Affliction, Strikeforce, Dream in Japan and some other promotions. I want to see as many interesting fights as I can.

As for Saturday, we get so see probably five of the top heavyweights in the world fight on one card, including Fedor. The guy is that special. On the other card, we get to Silva expand his horizons and his claim as the top fighter in the world. And it’s free!

Give these shows a chance or just talk to me on Monday, because as some of you know, I’ll talk you to death about it. Until then, here’s some Fedor highlights! The frist song on the video is his entrance song, which is the best in all of MMA and maybe in sports in general. War Fedor!