This can either be taken as me being either super efficient or outrageously lazy. But this site needs an update and there has been a deluge of mma news/fight announcements/fight cancellations and other goings on in the wild and crazy world of mixed martial arts.I was thinking of doing a link post, cuz hey man everyone else is doing it. But I will just stick to my regular weekend picks post along with an in depth look at all silly side incidents around the event.

Dream.15 Weigh in photo from Sherdog.com

Shinya Aoki (70 kg / 154.3 lbs) vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri (70 kg / 154.3 lbs)
Katsunori Kikuno (70 kg / 154.3 lbs) vs. Gesias Cavalcante (70 kg / 154.3 lbs)
Gegard Mousasi (93 kg / 205 lbs) vs. Jake O’Brien (did not weigh in; reportedly still cutting)
Tatsuya Mizuno (92.5 kg / 203.9 lbs) vs. Melvin Manhoef (90 kg / 198.4 lbs)
Michihiro Omigawa (64.8 kg / 142.9 lbs) vs. Young Sam Jung (64.8 kg / 142.9 lbs)
Mitsuhiro Ishida (65 kg / 143.3 lbs) vs. Daiki Hata (65 kg / 143.3 lbs)
Kazuhiro Nakamura (83.8 kg / 184.7 lbs) vs. Karl Amoussou (83.5 kg / 184 lbs)

Aoki’s comments on his opponents physique has put him on the spot at the moment.

Kawajiri: “I don’t really like to take a look at men’s bodies, so I didn’t really look at him. He said he’ll surprise the fans. I’ll make sure ours will be a shocking fight,”

Aoki: “I like both men and women. His body is a nice body, and if we both fight with men’s spirit, we can have a fight that everyone wants to see.”

A fight that was first seen as a battle that would answer the question of who is Japans best lightweight has turned into an awkward look at a fighters sexual orientation.

If that wasn’t silly enough, poor Ricco Rodriguez who was rumored to fight Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem. What took place resembled a period peice comedy of errors more than matchmaking for a major mma promotion.

“During my training I found out that Andrei Arlovski was not going to be my opponent, and they changed opponents numerous times. I’ve heard names like Tim Sylvia and Minowa. At one point, I received notice that they had found a opponent but that the Dream heavyweight title was not on the line anymore. With all the changes and the title fight no longer a possibility, I simply had to turn down the opportunity.

“The next day, I immediately took a flight to San Jose to hype up my possible fight against the winner of Fedor Emelianenko or Fabricio Werdum. I then heard rumors that Dream had booked me in a fight against Ricco Rodriguez. I want to make it very clear that I never verbally agreed to fight him and I never signed a contract with Dream to fight him. I feel very sorry for Ricco Rodriguez’s camp if they still think the fight is on, and I apologize to my fans that have bought a ticket to see me compete. I hope this statement has shed some light on the unfortunate situation.”

The fun doesn’t end there for Rodriguez, after UFC vet and Dream light heavyweight tournament competitor Jake O’Brian failed to make the 205 pound weight limit. Dream turned to Ricco to take his place against Gegard Mousasi.

Shenanigans squared

And yes, this is the tournament that was actually my first article on theclinch.net evar! The event went from the standard 16 man tournament to 8 and now a paltry 4. Consisting of just Mousasi, Manhoef, O’Brian and some guy named Tatsuya Mizuno. Now that all the known drama has been noted lets get to the picks.

Main Event: Dream Lightweight Title Bout

Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

This will be Aoki’s chance to show if he has improved since his unanimous decision loss to Strikeforce Champ Gilbert Milendez. Granted it was his first fight in a cage and this will be contested in the ring. But Crusher Kawajiri has the same wrestler/boxer style that seemed to give Aoki fits. Since his loss Shinya actually spent some time over at Ceasar Gracies gym to improve his game. It would be awesome to see if he has some new tricks up his sleeve. That being said I still see his static cling grappling game getting nullified by a more athletic fighter and Aoki losing his belt.

Crusher via crushing TKO

Dream Light Heavyweight Tournament: Opening/Semi Final Round

Gegard Mousasi vs. Jake O’Brien

Just like the Aoki/Kawajiri title fight, the main question in this fight is whether Mousasi has learned to avoid or get up from takedowns. Lucky for him O’Brien is a huge step down in actual wrestling talent.

Mousasi – via sub

Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Melvin Manhoef

Manhoefs chin issues aside, he should be able to bully and terrorize Mizuno for an exciting first round stoppage.

Manhoef – via Savagery

Gesias Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno

JZ is a beast shares many similarities with current UFC Light Heavyweight champ Shogun Rua. His muay thai based stand up is nasty, he also possesses underrated ground game and is injury prone like nobody’s business. Surprisingly enough Kikuno is a contemporary of former UFC lhw champ Lyoto Machida with his modified for mma kyokushin karate striking, namely his liver piercing crescent kick. Ring rust aside Cavalcante has this fight in the bag, unless JZ gets hyptonized by Kikuno’s creepy chesire grin and gets owned like Andre Dida.

JZ – via Sub

Michihiro Omigawa vs. Young Sam Jung

Poor Sam Jung, the man is brought in for a good old fashioned Japanese fighter over Korean can crushing. Seeing as its Michihiro “I hold a BS decision win over Marlon Sandro” Omigawa I will hope it blows up in his face. But I am not completely delusional.

Omigawa – via boring decision

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Daiki “DJ.taiki” Hata

Kawajiri’s teammate Ishida should be able to take this. Lets hope that Hata at least makes it exciting/gives up his back and gets Ishida-plexed.

Ishida – via UD

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Karl “Psycho” Amoussou

Nakamura is going to get blitzed by a frenchman.

Amoussou – via living up to his nickname

From MMA Junkie

Two weeks ago, budding female prospect Zoila Frausto (7-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC) wasn’t even a part of Bellator Fighting Championships’ upcoming 115-pound female tournament.

Now – courtesy of a devastating knockout of Rosi Sexton – Frausto is in the tournament and already training for a planned matchup on Aug. 19.

The “Warrior Princess” today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) that the promotion intends to match her up against Jessica Pene (7-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC) at Bellator 25.

Now that she has fought her way in, all she has to do is make weight and kick ass in what is looking like one of the more compelling tournaments of Bellators third season.

Photo from mmabookings.com

A tragedy occurred this weekend that should remind us all the dangers inherent in combat sports. From Sergio Non at USA Today.com.

Michael Kirkham, 30, has become the second man known to have died in the United States from injuries sustained in a mixed martial arts fight.

Kirkham, a lightweight who was nicknamed “Tree” because he stood 6-feet-9 and weighed 155 pounds, was making his pro debut Saturday night in Aiken, S.C., after a handful of amateur fights. He was knocked out in the first round and did not regain consciousness before passing away Monday morning.

Kid Nate over at Bloodyelbow.com also wrote a piece that features a video one of Kirkhams amateur bouts. With news still forthcoming along with the autopsy it is too soon to claim what was the cause of death. Hopefully this tragedy will be a reminder to fighters, promoters, fans, managers, trainers, athletic commisions and all those involved in combat sports to be diligent in their efforts to strictly follow and adhere to safety guidelines/laws/regulations. In hopes that events like these remain the rarest of anomalies.

Rest in peace to Michael Kirkham and condolences to his friends and family.

UPDATE

From MMA Junkie,

As the South Carolina Athletic Commission conducts an inquiry into the death of MMA fighter Michael Kirkham, the trainer of his opponent is attempting to raise money for the fallen fighter and his family.

Mark Greubel, who trained and cornered Carlos Iraburo for the fight this past Saturday that took Kirkham’s life, has helped arrange donation methods to cover funeral costs and a trust fund for Kirkham’s five children.

…

Kirkham, nicknamed “Tree” for his lanky 6-foot-9 frame, fought the 145-pound Iraburo at a catchweight of 150 pounds.

Kirkham did not carry life insurance and has five children.

Greubel said there are five locations where donations can be dropped off in person: The Pizza Joint in the Georgia cities of Augusta and Evans and the S.C. city of Aiken; the Limelite Cafe in Augusta; and his gym, Greubel’s MMA, also in Augusta.

Donations can be made online via PayPal at Michael Kirkham Memorial Fund. A link to the fund is also available on http://www.greubelsmma.com.

“I think with a nationwide effort we could definitely cover his funeral costs, but my ultimate goal is to have some trust funds set up for the guy’s children,” Greubel told MMAjunkie.com.

Also from local South Carolina news channel WJBF:

According to Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton, autopsy results confirmed that Michael Kirkham died from a subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain due to the injuries/blows to the head he received during the MMA match. Toxicology is pending. Manner of death is to be ruled as accidental. The Aiken County Coroner’s Office is still awaiting the video of the fight from the SC Athletic Commission.

Since I personally have not medical experience I will defer to Wikipedia to explain the specific type of hemorrhage Kirkham suffered.

A Subarachnoid hemorrhage in British English) is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the brain. This may occur spontaneously, usually from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, or may result from head injury.

Fans and the MMA media are still up in arms over the events of last weekend & rightly so. A main stay of both the top 3 in both the heavyweight division and P4P mma trinity (alongside GSP and Anderson Silva) his loss suffice to say is kind of a big deal. The messianic overtones of Fedor and his mystique have been displayed in the most literal of interpretations.

UFC PPV/Showtime?!? The dream of co-promotion lives on. From Bloody Elbow

Even ESPN got in on the action, albeit incorrectly labeling the event a UFC & Showtime collaboration. Promotional misnomer aside, the idea that something big happened in the world of UFC/MMA/human cockfighting was noticeable even amongst the casuals and passers by.

From the silly to the sobering truth, mma fans will find a way to cope and eventually move on. If anything the upset of upsets brings up to a new revelation of Mr. Emelianenko’s new found humanity, we will no longer assume invincibility and now will have to really analyze his fights. Realistically assessing the threats his opponents pose and vice verca. In the end this fight made Fedor what he always wanted to be seen as a fighter and not a god

Bellator announces the last 2 fighters for their upcoming 8 woman 115 tournament. Both articles from MMA Junkie

Aguilar hitting pads. From mmajunkie.com

Bellator Fighting Championship officials today announced the eighth and final participant in the promotion’s season-three female tournament.

American Top Team fighter Jessica Aguilar (8-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC) rounds-out the eight-woman field in the 115-pound tournament.

“This is my dream,” Aguilar stated in today’s official announcement. “Bellator is giving us 115-pounders a shot at showing the world what we can do. Whoever wins this tournament will have the right to say they are truly the best in the world. I just couldn’t pass up that opportunity.”

And undefeated Irish phenom Aisling Daly

Undefeated Irish female Aisling Daly (9-0 MMA, 0-0 BFC) is the latest addition to Bellator Fighting Championship’s upcoming season three women’s tournament.

“Bellator is the No. 1 organization in the world for women’s MMA right now, so I jumped at the chance to sign,” Daly stated in the official release. “They have all of the best female fighters in the world signed, and I firmly believe that whoever wins the tournament is the best pound-for-pound female fighter in the world. That’s my goal, and that’s what I’m coming to the U.S. to do.

“Nobody will remember who finishes second.”

Daly joins Jessica Aguilar (8-3 MMA, 0-0 BFC),Lynn Alvarez (5-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC), Megumi Fuji (20-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC), Angela Magana (9-4 MMA, 0-0 BFC), Rosi Sexton (10-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC), Jessica Pene (7-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC) and Lisa Ward (12-5 MMA, 0-0 BFC) as confirmed participants for the season-three tourney.

With Fujii being the early favorite, it is safe to assume that in a tournament filled with vets, phenoms and the always unexpected darkhorse that this particular tournament my steal the show in season 3. Even though we will get to see both of Strikeforces female champions fights soon Cyborg vs. Finney this weekend & Kaufman vs Modaferri July 23rd. Bellator is making the right moves to overtake and replace Strikeforce as the organization for elite female mixed martial artist.

UFC Fighters Frank Mir and Anthony Johnson have something in common. Both fighters have recently made statements in regards to changing weight classes.

Here is an article from Fighters Only with Frank Mir and his reasoning behind the proposed change in weight division. Pic from MMA Weekly.

Frank Mir, The Beefcake version

“Right now I have a couple months off, so I’ve actually been toying with the idea of maybe going down a weight class. Since I don’t have a fight for a couple months, I’ve just been watching what I eat and see what my natural weight will fall now at now, since I have lifted a lot lately to add size,” he said to MMA Figures.

“I’m kind of curious where I think I would fall at. Because some of the guys I train with that are light-heavyweight, and our bone structures are the same. Sometimes I stand next to Forrest Griffin and I think I’m in the wrong weight class.”

While Mir did hit the 265lb weight limit in his last fight with Shane Carwin, he still had trouble dealing with Carwins nightmarish power. Suffering a loss in similar fashion from current Champ Brock Lesnar last year at UFC 100 gave Frank the idea to bulk up in the first place. Now after going 1-2 against the next gen of heavyweights, his next move seems to be a 180 from his previous plan of trying to fight muscle mass with muscle mass.

Anthony Johnson has the same idea but is going up rather than down a weight class. At 6′2 Rumble is one of the tallest welterweights in the division. Where he stands to gain by being the bigger man come fight time, he loses come time for the weigh ins where he looks less than impressive and more like he is auditioning for a sequel to The Machinist.

From. MMA Junkie

Now as a person who has actually seen the man in in person I can personally vouch for his hugeness. And yes, the other handsome devil in the photo is yours truly, and I don’t mean the broad from Snow Crash. All jokes aside, his move to middleweight has been speculated for a while. From MMA Junkie

“He has to maintain a very diligent cardio routine to stay in striking range of 170 (pounds),” Johnson’s manager, Ken Pavia, today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Because of his knee injury, his weight has gotten up a little bit, and we don’t want to delay his comeback because of a weight issue. So we’re entertaining the possibility of taking a fight at 185 (pounds).”

The history of Rumbles trails and tribulations making the 170 pound welterweight limit is well documented. And even cost the fighter a knock out of the night bonus. This along with the unknown long term effects of weight cutting in a young combat sport, make the idea of moving up a weight class seem smarter the longer you consider it.

Last but not least, props to Steve4192 for the pic. It pretty much inspired the entire post.

Some good news has been released in regards to Jared Hess and his freak knee injury from Alex Shlemenko at Bellator 20.

First a brief write up on the nature of the human knee and pic of the injured, disappointed, but still game fighter from Sherdog.com.

The human knee is beautifully designed for the majority of what man has asked of it in the last 500,000 years. The simple structure is near ideal for following the perambulations of migrating antelope or fleeing predation from the alpha predators primitive man evolved among. However, as Jared Hess demonstrated in his bout with Alexander Shlemenko last Thursday at Bellator 20, the dynamics of an MMA fight can far exceed what nature designed the knee to endure.

The knee joint is composed of the long bone of the femur resting on the relatively flat plateau of the tibia (the primary bone of the lower leg). The femoral condyles transmit the weight of the body to the smooth, cartilage-covered menisci of the tibia. The patella, or kneecap, is not truly a component of the joint. The joint is bound tightly together by four ligaments, which are small bands of dense connective tissue. Within the deep notch of the femur, “crossing” from anterior to posterior, and vice versa, run the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments.

To either side of the joint, providing stability against forces applied to the sides of the knee, are the medial and lateral collateral ligaments. It was one of these, the LCL, that Hess felt give way in the first takedown of the first round, well before anyone but the fighter and the referee noticed anything amiss.

While I did suspect that the knee was damaged earlier in the fight, I was incorrect in blaming the 2nd round heel hook. But Hess was trying to avoid Shlemenko’s stand up game for obvious tactical reasons. Here is the view of the fight and current situation from the figthter himself, interview via MMA Junkie.

Hess after tko (knee injury) loss at Bellator 20

“The thing is I really didn’t even feel it at the time,” Hess stated in the announcement. “I don’t know if it was my adrenaline, but all I could think about was trying to finish that guy.”

Hess assures fans that the injury is not as bad as it looks in pictures, though doctors say it will take him four to six months to recover.

“I had a chance to watch it on TV after the fight, and I think it really looked a lot worse than it is,” Hess said. “It’s a bad tear, but the three other ligaments (the ACL, the PCL and the MCL) are all fine.”

…

Hess, who now lives in San Diego, is optimistic that he’ll pick up where he left off when he gets healthy. When he does, he wants a chance to avenge the Shlemenko loss. (The Russian now advances to the season-two finals).

“The thing I’m most upset about is that, in my eyes, I was winning that fight,” Hess stated. “I’d love to get a rematch with [Shlemenko] once I come back.”

Rebney said he’s more than happy to welcome Hess back.

“Jared Hess is really a throwback to the kind of warrior mentality that existed long ago,” Rebney stated. “I can’t say enough about the character that Jared displayed in our cage last week. Immediately after his knee buckled and the referee forced Jared to sit down, he turned to me and started asking me to step in and tell the referee that he should be allowed to finish the fight.

We here at The Clinch wish Hess a speedy and complete recovery.

Good news from MMA Junkie,

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Strikeforce Challengers 9 could feature recently crowned Strikeforce women’s welterweight champion Sarah Kaufman (11-0 MMA, 3-0 SF) against fellow 135-pounder Roxanne Modafferi (15-5 MMA, 0-1 SF).

And before anyone freaks out over being 0-1 in the organization, lets put it in perspective.

Modafferi, meanwhile, would fight for Strikeforce for the second time. Serving as a late replacement for Erin Toughill, the Japanese-based American moved up a weight class and ultimately suffered a first-round submission loss to notable Marloes Coenen.

Since that loss, Modafferi scored a submission win over Molly Helsel at a King of the Cage event, and on May 21, she edged female standout Tara LaRosa (18-1 at the time) via split decision in a heavily praised “Moosin: God of Martial Arts” pay-per-view bout. Modafferi has now won eight of her past nine fights.

It will suck for me personally being a fan of both fighters, but this fight has to happen. Roxy has been performing like a woman possesed and is a more than worthy challenger for Kaufmans title. But with a little over a month to prepare and this being Roxy’s 3rd fight of the year. I can’t help but wonder if this fight isn’t coming off a bit rushed.

Props to Middle Easy, for getting the scoop of scoops.

The regional political council of the party “United Russia” approved the list of candidates for internal party elections – the primaries. In the list of 58 candidates. No less than 10 000 United Russia vote will determine the best, and who will receive the first place in the party list in the upcoming October elections in the Belgorod Regional Duma.

The list of early voting have 24 newcomers who have never participated in elections to the legislature. One of the achievements was the inclusion in the list not only members of United Russia, but also simply to party supporters and even non-party candidates. This is for example the managing director Combine KMA Ruda Vladimir Tom and CEO JBK-1 Yuri Selivanov. They are not only members of the party, but also by working in obldume fourth convocation, not included in the United Russia Duma faction.

Among the most notable candidates, in addition to the deputies (Anatolia Zelikow, Victor Filatov, Vadim Cage, Valeria Skruga, Ivan Kulabuhova, Vladimir Kulikovsky) – a famous athlete Fedor Emelianenko, the new director of Belarusian State Technological University Sergey Glagolev (by the way, non-partisan), director of the Institute of Public and municipal government BSU Alexander Mamatov.

Now fighters and politics are far from a new phenomenon, with such notables like Manny Pacquiao, Matt Lindland and Chael Sonnen providing recent precedent. But its the possibility of this being the end of Fedors career that seems to almost dwarf the announcement of Emelianenko’s political endeavors.

Fedor will be running for a congress seat in Russia for the pro-Kremlin party ‘United Russia’. The party is dominant in the country and holds around 80% of the seats in the senate and Fedor will be representing his region. That’s a fact… Now the accompanied rumor is that after Fedor fulfills the last two fights in his Strikeforce contract, he will retire from MMA.

If this is true the Werdum and possible Overeem fights could be the end of the line for Fedors MMA career. While it will be a somewhat anticlimactic finish, since the possibility of Fedor and M-1 Global ever coming to agreeable terms with Zuffa. Maybe bowing out gracefully is the next best thing.

Toney would benefit from this guy in regards to self promotion.

His smack talk game needs stepping up something fierce.