Been a busy week at work and life in general sorry for not posting as much.

With the final major mma event of the month of August was UFC 118 and regardless of the detractors it was one of the better events of the year in my opinion. Granted there wasn’t a knockout on the prelims or main card, the event still had high level fighters and a title match. There was also a freakshow with an over the hill boxer making his mma debut only to get submitted in the first round, more on that NEVER.

The card did have its low points with Kenny Florian, despite his lauded improved wrestling getting completely tooled by the undefeated Gray Maynard. Nate Diaz kept things interesting by volume punching Marcus Davis’s face into a living impressionist sculpture. Demian Maia put on a bjj clinic on Mario Miranda and in the main event the man from Tom’s River, New Jersey erased any doubt that he was the better fighter than previous champ BJ Penn by completely dominating him for 5 rounds.

From pillar to post, Frankie Edgar dissected Penn, putting in a way more convincing mixed martial arts performance. Be it out striking Penn on the feet to taking him down, landing shots and defending against one of the most dangerous and prodigious bjj practitioners in the sport, Edgar left as little doubt as you can without finishing.

And that is where things get tricky in regards to the public perception of Edgars first title defense. It wasn’t enough to beat a future hall of famer like Penn twice, Frankie had to finish him. A feat that requires way more effort, skill and athleticism than it does to merely mention it. We are still talking about BJ Penn here a guy who was so talented he could fight at higher weight classes and lost a decision to a 220 pound Lyoto Machida and has ONLY been finished by welterweight champions Matt Hughes and George St. Pierre. While Penn is obviously far from invincible them man isn’t the type of fighter who gets finished even by high level opponents from higher weight classes. And we are still talking about the same Frankie Edgar that some people still believe is a insanely talented featherweight who just refuses to cut weight.

Hopefully fans of the sport will grow accustomed to the notion that these high level fighters that we like seeing fight, got to where they are by not only winning but defending themselves and being easy fighters to finish.

The UFC is holding its first event in Boston the hometown of many of its fighter and UFC president Dana White. This card will feature a main event that is a championsip rematch between the new champ Frankie Edgar and former lightweight kingpin BJ Penn. This lightweight filled card will also feature a title eliminator fight between perennial lightweight contender Kenny Florian and the undefeated Grey Maynard.

Oh yeah and Randy Couture is fighting a veteran boxer in the twilight of his career in James Toney, now lets get to the picks. Main card and Spike prelims only.

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

Joe Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger – Taking Creepy Joe, he has been put on too many radio shows and podcast for me to pick against him.

Lauzon via TKO

Andre Winner vs. Nik Lentz – Lentz may be a talented fighter but I can’t root for Carnival folk, Andre lives up to his name.

Winner via UD

Main card

Demian Maia vs. Mario Miranda – Going with the underdog here, Miranda is a fellow bjj black belt who should be able to stay out of trouble on the ground and pick Maia apart in the stand up exchanges, watch out for leg kicks.

Miranda via UD

Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis – This will be Nicks second time fighting at 170, his welterweight debut had him crushing Rory Markham within the first round. Marcus Davis is a solid vet and scrappy gatekeeper but has a bad habit of getting sucked into brawls/foolish exchanges. I can see Nick using that weird but effective wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man style of boxing to confuse and wound Davis en route to victory.

Diaz via 209-oplatta

Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard – This will be a title eliminator between a well rounded veteran and an undefeated up and comer who is the only man to have a win over the current lightweight champ. That being said Florian’s speed and multifaceted arsenal should keep Maynard at bay. If The Bully decides to defer to his wrestling, Kenny’s guard and bjj prowess should turn the table in his favor.

Florian via Submission

Co Main Event

Randy Couture vs. James Toney – Last week on Inside MMA I actually had to search my cable boxes options/settings screen to get the closed captions up so I could understand what Toney was saying in an interview. Before I was able to locate them I stumbled onto the aspect ratio settings and realized with awe and horror that for the 6 months of having AT&T that I have been watching everything in 4:3 standard definition at 480.

I have since changed the settings to full 1080i HD, all thanks to James Toney and his mush mouth.

That being said this is a money fight nothing more or less, don’t be fooled by the ‘Boxing vs. MMA’ tagline.

The UFC, led by former boxer-turned-promoter Dana White, has flourished. “MMA is the king of the [expletive] right now,” Toney said, which is another reason he’s here. He’ll make an estimated $750,000 to $1 million Saturday. In boxing, “I can’t get no fights.”

To envision Toney as some kind of dangerous slugger with a record full of one punch knock outs would be a perversion of reality. The man is defensive wizard who relied on counter punches, accuracy/shot placement and solid combos to defeat (out point) opponents. Even at his natural weight class where he was a force to be reckoned with over a decade ago, he still allow hubris to get the best of him. This is from his first professional loss against an also prime Roy Jones Jr.

Pride comes before the fall.

Randy may not be the fighter he used to be but he is still not the guy you want to make your MMA debut against. Even though I would enjoy the aftermath of a Toney win (for the lulz), I have to go with the obvious pick.

Couture via Submissioon

From Sherdog,

A rematch of last Saturday’s UFC 112 lightweight championship tilt between Frankie Edgar and B.J. Penn is looking likely for late summer or fall.

Representatives in both fighters’ camps told Sherdog.com on Tuesday that UFC officials have approached both sides to lock down a second bout between the lightweight fighters. No date or venue has been solidified yet. Edgar earned a unanimous decision over Penn at UFC 112 on April 10 in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., to become the promotion’s lightweight champion.

Edgar’s victory, which delivered Penn his first loss in the 155-pound division since 2002, did not come without controversy. Both the media and fans were split on the bout’s outcome, as the 28-year-old New Jersey fighter was awarded 50-45, 48-47 and 49-46 scores in a tight contest some thought Penn had won.

Whats good for the Brazilian geese is good for the American gander it seems. I was hoping there were going to let BJ tear up some lightweights and work his way back to the title putting on matches with guys who would never work their way to the belt to face him otherwise, Gomi, Guillard, Tyson Griffin etc. But with a fight so close and controversial a rematch was never that far fetched of a possibility.

I wonder whenever there is a close fight that gets a rematch, but was scored as a unanimous decision by the judges, is there any repercussions for the athletic commissions for getting it wrong. A unanimous decision as far as I’m concerned says that there is no question who won and that was not the case for the fight. With Doug Crosby the judge who scored the fight 50-45 in Edgars favor now trolling internet forums in defense of his decision. You have to start wondering if it was the right decision at all.

But I guess that’s the question the rematch will answer…I hope.

There seems to be conflicting views on the past weekends Lightweight title bout even between the mma statistic and analysis sites Fightmetric & Compustrike. Both tabulated the same very close fight between lightweight legend BJ Penn and the newly minted champ Frankie Edgar. Having rewatched the fight myself it’s still really close with every single round being highly competitive 10-9 only rounds the whole fight through. While Penn did land what seemed to be the harder, cleaner shots, Edgar could be seen as the busier fighter with his high mobility and calculated aggression.

Edgar clearly wanted it more, with Penn being content on waiting for countering opportunities and not cutting off the cage or event hinting at taking the fight to the ground, its easy to see why a judge would give the New Jersey native the nod. Another aspect of the fight that can not be tabulated by a statistical rubric is the perception of Penn and how it might of worked against him. All things considered this was a champion who had until UFC 112 had only been defeated once at lightweight and had finished every opponent since he won the title. Factoring that with Edgar coming in as a +500 underdog who didn’t get eviscerated in the first round and was able to hang with arguably the best boxer in mma in a striking exchange. You can entertain the idea of a judge seeing Edgar as the victor based solely on him not losing or looking particularly bad.

All in all I am glad Frankie won, but the fight was so close I still have doubts he is the best lightweight in the UFC, much less the world.

Now onto the other title fight, I will keep this one short since there is a veritable plethora of opinions on the middleweight champ, whose to blame, who does he fight next, why should we care, etc… This is how it breaks down in my eyes:

The ball is in Dana White’s court. He has to put Silva in fights against opponents who will try to beat him. Whether it is at middleweight, light heavy or heavyweight he has to face fighters who will attempt to hurt him. Demian Maia is a top tier middleweight, but we have to remember his shot at the title was the result of a perfect storm of injury’s and medical suspensions taking away first the intended opponent Vitor Belfort and then the #1 contender in Chael Sonnen. The match up of superstar striker vs decorated and feared bjj practitioner would have been compelling were it not one of the most tired match ups in mma and a repeat of Andersons last title defense against Thales Leites.

Contrary to popular belief I think Silva has now elevated himself into being a huge ppv draw or is on his way to being one. Granted he took the long way around to getting there, the UFC now has another heel champ to go along with their current heavyweight titleholder Brock Lesnar. Instead of taking things personally the UFC brass should be accommodating and put Silva through a gauntlet of super fights until he can stand no more. And the next time one of his opponents is unable to fight, just scrap the fight unless someone begs to take The Spider on. When Silva doesn’t feel like he is in danger or threatened he acts out, so only put him in fights where he will never have that option.

After spending the majority of the day away from the internet in anticipation of UFC 112 I did as much as I could to stay away from my laptop. Running around the backyard with my son, took out the trash, got some laundry done. As fight time approached I was tempted to go to twitter and when I did I quickly backed out for fear of some random tweet ruining the night. I wanted to enjoy the event unspoiled by any random update or outburst of the already 9 hour old event.

Well I succeeded here are few things that stuck out to me during the event.

- Mark Munoz is one tough S.O.B. after suffering one brutal first round from Kendall Grove. The Filipino Wrecking Machine rebounded in the 2nd frame used his wrestling and savage ground and pound to get the TKO victory.

-Terry Etim may have good submission offense but can’t hang with a bjj black belt.

- Phil Mr. Wonderful Davis is the man and is coming along nicely and his anaconda choke should have gotten sub of the night in my opinion.

- Matt Hughes played it safe and showed off inexplicable stand-up against a man who hasn’t fought professionally in 3 years.

- I was afraid Frankie Edgar was going to get destroyed by BJ Penn and was oddly happy when he went toe to toe with him and held his own. Edgars fundamental head movement and angles frustrated the then champ who seemed uncharacteristically sluggish after a couple rounds.

Be it his fabled bad cardio, fighting in the first outdoor UFC event in the Middle East, having to keep up with one of the fastest lightweights in the division, or a perfect storm of all 3, BJ just didn’t seem like his old self. Granted Edgar didn’t stand right in front of Penn like other challengers, while he did get hit the New Jersey native never seemed hurt. Even more surprising were the two takedowns Frankie landed in the last two frames of the fight. While I am going to rant like hell over the next title fight I am going to give props where they are due and call attention to one of the biggest underdog performances in UFC history.

Frankie “The Answer” Edgar shocked the world plain and simple.

-And now from one of the most surprising fights in recent UFC history to one of the worst title bouts in the Zuffa era. Anderson Silva the pound 4 pound greatest fighter in the world as told by Dana White put on yet another lackluster performance that went went form silly to infuriating over the course of 5 rounds as he clowned, jeered then ran away from a over matched but game contender Demian Maia. It was made crystal clear that Maia had nothing for Silva standing in the first 3 frames of the fight, which had the champ putting on an clinic that could only be be described as mma improv comedy. As Demian shadow boxed his way into striking range he was promptly greeted with the effortless array of kicks, punches and knees that we have come to expect from The Spider.

Then things got weird, when Maia tried to prep himself for some telegraphed long distance double legs takedowns, Silva began to goad and harass him to exchange in some stand up action. Being that he already tried and failed Maia opted to try to get the fight to where he had the advantage. That didn’t happen but what did will be seen as exhibit A in the case against Anderson Silva being a ppv draw. Nobody likes a cocky jackass, plain and simple all the talent in the world won’t get you fans as much as just being a humble person. Not being an English speaker Anderson’s actions and octagon decorum is how he is gauged and perceived by the public and in his past 3 fights Silva to most casual and hardcore fans is coming off like a disrespectful bully. But one who is so predisposed with mocking his opponents he doesn’t bother to actually show and prove by finishing them. Granted he did take out Forrest Griffin in his last light heavyweight bout at UFC 101. But this is the second consecutive title defense in where Silva has chosen to play it safe by only engaging on his terms and heckling his opponents for doing the same. Never had I heard such disdain and disappointment from a crowd post title fight.

On a fight card filled with grappling legends such as Renzo Gracie, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Demain Maia in a grappling and submission friendly country like Abu Dhabi it would be safe to assume that the night would be filled with outrageously competitive ground wars. Or at least if the fights were to take place entirely on the ground there wouldn’t be a litany of boos emanating from the crowd as soon as the fight went to the ground, but there were few and far between.

- Props are also in order for Big Tan Dan Mirgliotta doing a decent job as ref for once, as he tardily warned Anderson Silva to fight instead of retreat near the end of the 25 minute fight. Better late than never :/

I can only imagine the fury of Dana White after this event having to yet again apologize for the unremarkable performance of what he calls the best fighter on the planet. Coupled with the fact that both Strikeforce & Bellator are holding events this month the UFC didn’t set too high a ceiling for both organizations to surpass. If Zuffa is smart they will put their full weight and leverage of their advertising department on promoting WEC 48 along with giving the fans a break by having the organizations first ppv be at a reasonable price ($30 sounds fair to me). The shockwaves from this event will be felt in the weeks to come.

But I am done being bitter about it (for now at least)and will re-watch WEC 41 to remind myself how awesome MMA can be.