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.

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.

B.J. Penn reaches his potential, I need to do the same

I was unable to see the latest UFC pay-per-view event because I was in Florida, however, my boy, B.J. Penn won his lightweight title fight against steroid boy Sean Shrek and rightfully claimed his title as the best lightweight in the world and arguably the top pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world. Actually, B.J., GSP, Anderson Silva or Uriah Faber can make this claim, but that’s another post for another day.

For those not familiar with B.J., he’s considered the most talented MMA fighter in the world, maybe ever. When he’s focused and in top condition, there isn’t anyone who can beat him. He was the youngest and fastest guy to ever earn a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. To put that in prospective, it takes guys close to 10 years or more to achieve what B.J. did in only a few years. He’s been the first American to win international jiu-jitsu tournaments, including the Mundials in Brazil, which is like the Super Bowl of the sport. That’s why his nickname is the Prodigy, which is the most apt nickname for any fighter I know. He’s the only guy besides Couture to hold a UFC belt in two separate weight classes, welterweight and now lightweight. He also has wins over Gomi, Renzo Gracie, Matt Hughes and many others. He was just a beast in every weight class.

The problem with B.J. in the past was that he knew he was talented and didn’t have to train as hard as other guys to achieve his goals. He would get lazy and not come into fights in shape and lose focus. This caused him to lose a lot of fights he shouldn’t have and even balloon himself up to fight in the heavyweight division, which is not his natural weight class.

The key to B.J.’s new focus was two things. Actually it was one thing merged into two. Penn was fighting as a welterweight and just getting by until Dana White and the UFC told him that he had to move to lightweight to stay relevant. Furthermore, he was given the chance to become a coach on the Ultimate Fighter, a reality show that trains future MMA fighters in a competition to gain a contract with the UFC. The coach on the opposite team was Jen Pulver, someone that Penn lost to earlier in his career and the two didn’t like each other.

So, Penn was forced to move out of the 170-pound division and train hard to make lightweight, which is 155 pounds. He would have to watch his diet, stay in peak condition longer and become a more mature fighter.

Penn becomes an excellent coach, beats Jens in their fight, defeats Joe Stevenson for the interim lightweight title and finally beats Shrek for the true lightweight title.

It’s just happy to see someone finally realize his talent and focus on becoming the best fighter that he could. Even though it took him being in his late-20’s to have the light come of and focus, at least he found it.

It makes me realize that I need to fulfill my potential in all aspects of my life, professionally, personally, physically and everything in between. I have to improve every aspect of my life if I want reach my goals.

I have a lot of God-given abilities that I must utilize and not waste. Sometimes I feel that I don’t do that, but after seeing B.J. do his thing, its time for me to do mine.