As a fan of both fighters, Bellators first tournament winner title fight was a bittersweet affair. Even still I was going to give the fight to Soto due to his take down defense and formidable striking prowess, the only chance I was giving Warren was a 5 round unanimous decision based off of his wrestling pedigree, sub defense and inhuman pain tolerance/sheer will to persevere towards victory.

For the first round it seemed like I picked correctly, Soto started off clubbing Warren with a series of left hooks and right uppercuts that made Warren turn his back. Soto continued this assault and even added taunts reminiscent of the Diaz brothers while Warren just hung in there until the bell.

Then the second round started and everything changed. Warren had seemed to completely regained his composure and decided to start throwing punches instead of just taking them and stunned Soto with a overhand right to the temple. Warren immediately pounced and tried to pound out a tko finish but Soto tried to recover by keeping Warren in his guard and scrambling, only to give up his back while still receiving a hail storm of punches. Soto somehow got back to his feet and was pressured to the cage where he was finished with knee-left hook combo that dropped him to the canvas to be saved by the ref. Thus relinquishing his title as Bellators featherweight kingpin to Joe Warren who made his mixed martial arts debut last year in Dreams featherweight tournament, a remarkable feat for the self proclaimed baddest man on the planet.

With that all said and done I hope to see Soto again, this is his first loss and I am pretty sure he has learned a valuable lesson in dealing with an fading opponent: When you are clearly outclassing an opponent, try your best to finish them within the round.

Last week was a pretty busy week for womens mma with not one but two tournaments taking place in a 2 day span. This post will focus on the Strikeforce one night tournament since it was a one and done affair as opposed to the proper 3 month tournament that Bellator is putting on.

The 3 fights that took place were Miesha Tate vs Maiju Kujala – Good old fashioned striker vs grappler, but with 3 mins rounds which turned it into desperate takedown vs desperate takedown defense. Tate used her wrestling to neutralize the kickboxer Kujala and spent the majority of the two poor excuses for rounds pinned against the cage before being taken down by Tate. Granted Kujala was able to stifle Tate by threatening her with a guillotine. But with only 180 seconds nothing happened and Meisha Tate got the unanimous decision.

Next up – Hitomi Akano vs Carina Damm

A spirited back and forth fight between the only woman to get popped for steroids in Carina Damm and Hitomi Akano whose last fight for Strikeforce had her auditioning for Cris Cyborgs new punching bag (she failed). But Akano seemed to be a different fighter when her opponent shows up on weight and in her natural weight class of 135 lbs. With spinning back fist and crazy ground transitions this was yet another fight diluted of its potential awesomeness because of 3 minute rounds. That being said Akano was still able to reverse a bad position on the gournd to get a second round submission finish.

Tournament Final – Meisha Tate vs. Hitomi Akano

This fight reaffirmed what we have known about the state of modern mma: If you can’t wrestle, you can’t compete at the highest level. Being the finals, the opponent were given a whopping 9 minutes (a third 3 minute round) to duke it out for the shot at the title. Tate being a wrestler implemented her winning gameplan of taking the fight to the ground and doing work. Akano attempted to derail this by attempting judo throws but only succeeded in giving up her back. Even still Akano was able to threaten a toe hold/leg lock submission for the latter half of the 1st round but that was the majority of her offense for the rest of the fight.

Tate took advantage of Akano’s failed judo throw and transitions and maintained back mount for the rest of the fight. Going as far as to threaten with a rear naked choke in the final frame along with some ground and pound. Meish Tate took another lopsided decision to win the tournament and earned her title shot with the winner of Sara Kaufman vs Marloes Coenen.

Crappy round structure aside which in all fairness was due to the Arizona athletic commission not being a fan of the one tournament to begin with, it was entertaining night of fights.

And here are their stats, I can’t help but wonder how many of these lightweights are actually feather or bantamweights who couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some prime time reality show exposure. The show begins on September 15, on Spike.

J.J. Ambrose
Fighting out of: Santa Clara, Calif.
Gym: American Kickboxing Academy
Record: 12-2
Age: 23

Paul Barrow
Fighting out of: Tampa, Fla.
Gym: Gracie Tampa
Record: 2-0
Age: 24

Jason Brenton
Fighting out of: Grand Junction, Colo.
Gym: Eighth Street Impact Boxing
Record: 6-0
Age: 23

Jonathan Brookins
Fighting out of: Orlando, Fla.
Gym: Gracie Barra Orlando
Record: 11-2
Age: 24

Mike Budnik
Fighting out of: Broken Arrow, Okla.
Gym: Triton
Record: 8-4
Age: 35

Alex Caceres
Fighting out of: Miami, Fla.
Gym: Young Tigers Foundation
Record: 4-2
Age: 21

Sako Chivitchian
Fighting out of: Glendale, Calif.
Gym: Gokor/Gene Le Bell/Hayastan MMA
Record: 5-0
Age: 26

Joseph Duffy
Fighting out of: Donegal, Ireland
Gym: Falcon Martial Arts
Record: 7-0
Age: 22

Pablo Garza
Fighting out of: Fargo, N.D.
Gym: Academy of Combat Arts
Record: 7-0
Age: 26

Toby Grear
Fighting out of: Los Angeles
Gym: True Warrior
Record: 7-4-1
Age: 30

Dan Head
Fighting out of: Sharpsville, Ind.
Gym: Indiana Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy
Record: 6-2
Age: 23

Michael Johnson
Fighting out of: Springfield, Mo.
Gym: Springfield Fight Club
Record: 8-4
Age: 24

Amir Khillah
Fighting out of: Kalamazoo, Mich.
Gym: Jeremy Horn’s Elite
Record: 6-4
Age: 30

Jeff Lentz
Fighting out of: Lanoka Harbor, N.J.
Gym: Kurt Pellegrino MMA Academy
Record: 6-1
Age: 21

Sevak Magakian
Fighting out of: Glendale, Calif.
Gym: Hayastan MMA/Main Event
Record: 8-3
Age: 24

Steve Magdaleno
Fighting out of: Torrance, Calif.
Gym: VMAT MMA Gym
Record: 5-1
Age: 28

Andy Main
Fighting out of: Boonton, N.J.
Gym: AMA Fight Club
Record: 4-1
Age: 21

Cody McKenzie
Fighting out of: Metaline, Wash.
Gym: Fancy Pants Fight Team
Record: 10-0
Age: 22

T.J. O’Brien
Fighting out of: Prole, Iowa
Gym: Round Kick MMA
Record: 13-3
Age: 23

Spencer Paige
Fighting out of: Watertown, N.Y.
Gym: Central New York MMA
Record: 5-2
Age: 24

Nam Phan
Fighting out of: Garden Grove, Calif.
Gym: Ma Du Academy
Record: 15-7
Age: 27

Mike Richman
Fighting out of: Rosemount, Minn.
Gym: Minnesota Fight Factory
Record: 8-0
Age: 24

Dane Sayers
Fighting out of: Fargo, N.D.
Gym: Academy of Combat Arts
Record: 7-1
Age: 22

Ariel Sexton
Fighting out of: San Jose, Calif.
Gym: Renzo Gracie Academy
Record: 6-3
Age: 28

Marc Stevens
Fighting out of: Lorraine, N.Y.
Gym: Team Balance/Relson Gracie Academy
Record: 12-5
Age: 24

Kyle Watson
Fighting out of: St. Louis
Gym: The Hit Squad
Record: 13-6-1
Age: 30

Ran Weathers
Fighting out of: Albquerque, N.M.
Gym: Greg Jackson’s MMA Academy
Record: 13-5
Age: 28

Aaron Wilkinson
Fighting out of: Manchester, England
Gym: Wolfslair MMA Academy
Record: 6-3
Age: 23

Looks like there is some unfinished business between two of the main culprits from the Strikeforce: Nashville Brawl. The opening salvo came from Miller when he was interviewed by veteran combat sports commentator Michael ‘The Voice’ Schiavello.

Which prompted a response by Mr. 209 himself, UFC, Pride and Dream veteran and current Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz. Props to Middle Easy for the footage.

Middle Easy: Nick Diaz responds to Jason Miller.

From the Gif. wizards at the UG

Not one to let the other guy have the last word, Miller tweeted a succinct rebuttal to Diaz’s offer to fight but only at the 170 pound limit as opposed to the 185 lb middleweight max that Mayhem currently resides.

Regardless of what weight this fight is contested at (a 180 catch weight sounds fine to me) it needs to happen. Scott Cocker should be paying attention and giving his fighters props for hyping a match with out an advertising budget.

Weigh in stare down. Photos by Ester Lin

The only semi-major event going on this weekend will be Strikeforce Challengers 9 that will feature Sarah Kaufman making her first title defense against Roxanne Modaferri (check out here new highlight vid from Fightlinker.

As a fan of both fighters it will be hard to watch and even harder to pick, but I will be glad for an event this weekend. Not to mention having the site back up is pretty nice too.

A refreshing and candid conversation between Ariel Helwani and Joe Rogan about his views on mixed martial arts and commentating. Say what you will about Rogans bias or errors he makes, but I wouldn’t trade him for some soulless automaton with no visible palpable love for the sport.

Rogan gets in the zone right before he gets called up to do some stand up, here is part 2 when he is finished and they pick up where they left off. If you enjoyed this you should probably check out Rogans weekly podcast and for Candadas gift to mma journalism Ariel Helwani head over to MMA Fighting for his articles and podcast.

From Caposa

Truly brutal stuff here, I am guessing the Sandro and Frausto finishes will be in volume 2.

Props to Fight Magazine for producing these awesome videos of WEC Featherweight champ and one of my favorite fighters Jose Aldo.

The two vids cover the personal side of Aldo, from his tough upbringing and meeting the woman who would become his wife. His first sport of choice soccer/football/the worlds game/the beautiful game and how he eventually got into mma.

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

A moment in MMA history.