A short and sweet fan post by our resident MMA know-it-all, Walter over at Bloody Elbow.

It brings up some interesting points about rankings within MMA’s Featherweight class.

Sorry for the late recap, been a busy week at work mma awesomeness aside. In my 2 years of actively watching & following this sport I have never experienced a fight as intense as the UFC 117 main event title fight between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. For the majority of mma fights you can tell who is the better fighter minutes into the first round. And as the fight progresses you may get to see if the opponent is either a slow starter, completely out of their leage, a victim of a bad style matchup or even injured.

Due to the many offensive options in mma and other factors like fatigue and overconfidence there is always a chance that a capable fighter can snatch victory out of the clutches of defeat (Duffe vs Russow). But rarely in high level mma do you see an elite fighter get put in the worst of positions:

Competing with a nagging injury that turns into a significant one.

Against an opponent whose offensive strength is your biggest defensive weakness.

Your title as champion and barring an unimpressive performance your job itself is on the line.

Anderson Silva faced all of these things, in Chael Sonnen who not only possessed the wrestling pedigree to give him fits, but also attacked with a reckless abandon devoid of the fear and trepidation most of Silvas previous opponents exhibited. For roughly 23 minutes Silva went from nigh invincible pound for pound demigod to a very flawed and human fighter who took a shellacking at the hands of a perceived gimme of a challenger in Sonnen. The previous 6 months of supposed delusional fight hype actually looked like legitimate threats, Cheal was clobbering the previously hard to hit champ, many times with a variety of strikes, from the devastating

to the desperate,

Mongolian Thunder Chops ftw

In the end it was all for naught with minutes left in the fight quite possibly the greatest comeback win in mma miraculously revealed itself in all its rapturous beauty.

The sub that sealed the greatest comeback in MMA.

Shattering loss aside, Sonnen is in the rare company of fighters who come off as winners even in defeat. He has also given the middleweight division the greatest gift of all: hope. Chael made the demi-god champion in Silva look like another mortal. In regards to a rematch I am going to have to say no to it, even though it would do gangbuster ppv sales. Chael has to win another fight and show some improved finishing skills, as he learned the hard way 5 rounds with Anderson Silva is too much time for him to find a way to finish.

The way I see it, if Anderson not only wins but finishes Sonnen again how does that look on his record years from now. I can already see future generations looking at his record and complaining about how he fought unworthy and flawed opponents and one guy back to back. Now if Sonnen manages to win the rematch, that would put them 1-1, does Silva get a rubber match? With the champ out until March 2011 it should be enough time for Chael to get another fight in. Preferably the winner of Okami vs Belfort a fight that needs to happen, you hear me Joe Silva.

The rest of the card was pretty entertaining, even the Fitch vs Alves rematch was entertaining near the end when it seemed Fitch was close to choking out the Brazilian. Alves survived to the bell losing to Fitch again, at least this time it was a UD instead of getting tko’d. Other highlights included Matt Hughes busting out a wrestling submissin (front headlock, Dave Schultz choke) Clay Guida improving his striking to the point were he is breaking jaws, but still using his scrappy top position grappling forcing his opponent to tap via injury. Heavyweight contenders Junior Dos Santos and Roy Nelson had an entertaining but one sided fight which got Junior his first decision win in the UFC and Nelson his first loss. Proving that a solid striking defense can preserve your conscience against the JDS express, if you don’t mind taking a beating in the process.

This was a card to remember and has set a high water mark for mma events in August and some would say the year. Only greedy fans like myself will hope that it will be outdone.

Been slacking hardcore recently, so I will just cluster bomb some of the more notable news in mma.

From MMA Junkie

Jon "Bones" Jones

Jon Jones: Heavyweight is an option.

Just four fights into his UFC run, many mixed martial arts fans are already calling for a light heavyweight title shot.

But as Jones prepares for a showdown with veteran grinder Vladimir Matyushenko (24-4 MMA, 5-2 UFC) at August’s UFC on Versus 2 event, the soon-to-be-23-year-old told the crew of ESPN’s “MMA Live” that he’s not necessarily just focused on a 205-pound title. “Bones” might eventually go up to heavyweight, too.

“This training camp has been really tough for me, actually,” Jones said on the most recent episode of “MMA Live.” “I got up to about 231 (pounds) for the first time, and I’ll be 23 on Monday. I feel as if I’m growing into a more adult body.

“Who knows what the future holds for me. I’m always training hard, and I’m going to start to focus more on weightlifting in my off-time. You heavyweights gotta watch out because you never know what’s going to happen.”

This may come as a shock to some but anybody who saw how young and huge Jones was when he made it into the UFC (6′4 & 21 years old) it wasn’t that much of a stretch to think he would outgrow the weight class he started in. If he continues to grow in skill and experience as well as size a move to heavyweight would be seen as a smart one for one of the most promising prospects to enter the sport in years.

From MMA Fighting,

A World Cup sans South America, for shame FEG 2.0

FEG Announces Partnership with PUJI Captital, Declares War With UFC

DREAM and K-1 promoter FEG announced Friday that it is entering a partnership with Shanghai-based investment bank PUJI Capital that could be worth 20 billion yen ($230 million).

K-1 President Sadaharu Tanikawa stressed that FEG had not been sold and in fact it will now be setting its sights much higher.

“This is a declaration of war against the WWE and UFC. From Asia, we will take the world,” Tanikawa stated.

Tanikawa admitted that expansion to American soil would be futile at this stage and under the watchful eye of K-1 creator Kazuyoshi Ishii, they will set their sights on the rest of the world.

“Mr. Ishii is completely supporting us. We won’t stand a chance in the American market so we will spread to the rest of the world.”

….

A call for a drastic change in Japanese MMA has been needed since the collapse of PRIDE, even Tanikawa admitted himself.

“When K-1 and PRIDE were competing against each other, 80% of the martial arts market was in Japan. It is now the opposite and Japan is only 20%. We were worried that Japan would be left behind if we let this continue, it is unacceptable. We needed to change our business model.”

“We’ve let Dana White get a lead on us. Before (Shinya) Aoki beats (Gilbert) Melendez, we must win as promoters.”

With last weeks Dream event we saw Shinya Aoki defend his belt and unofficial title as the best Japanese fighter currently competing in MMA. This victory could also been seen as a defeat or moot point considering how utterly ineffectual Aoki was in his fight against Strikeforce Lightweight Champ Gilbert Melendez. Dream also seemed to be in a transitional period from its revamped lighter weight clsasses to this weeks announcement, Fight Entertainment Group (FEG) may be making a case for long awaited fanboy fantasy of a vibrant high level mixed martial arts scene reminiscent of the PRIDE glory days.

Alternate Business Model Graphic. From Middleeasy.com

Wishful thinking aside this partnership will have to produce results first before this is taken seriously. Even if the declaration of war against two major organizations (WWE and UFC) was just a figure of speech. The sentiment of wanting to compete at the highest levels promotion wise is very palpable. Until this partnership produces compelling cards it will be seen as another sad story of investors looking to make a quick buck off of the illusory cash cow of mixed martial arts. Both White and McMahon giving a crap about this is unlikely but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility if they did take this news into consideration.

At the end of the day when combat sports and sports entertainment organizations compete: The fans win.

From Bloody Elbow

Jake Shields is Officially signed to the UFC Unofficially…huh!?!?

It’s official. According to Graciefighter.com, the UFC has signed the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Jake Shields (25-4-1) to a contract. They also announced that the #3 ranked middleweight will drop back down to join the UFC welterweight shark tank:

Jake Shields will be debuting at the 170lbs weight division in the UFC. After careful consideration and consulting with UFC representatives it was determined Jake would be finally going back to his original fighting weight.

Jake’s opponent is one of the UFC’s top contenders and will be announced shortly.

Seeing as how there was the Aldo vs Faber photo op with Dana White led to Shields contract not being renegotiated and his belt being put up for an fantabulous 8 man middleweight tournamet that got derailed thanks to The Lone Star State not allowing combat sport tournaments. From MMA Fighting

Strikeforce officials would not comment on the proposed tournament last week, telling MMA Fighting only, “We aren’t doing a tournament there.”

But TDLR administrator Greg Alvarez confirmed to MMA Fighting on Saturday that Strikeforce wanted a one-night, bracket-style tournament for the Houston show, which will air live on Showtime. But Alvarez said that request was denied.

“They asked if it was possible and I told them that when Tough Man was outlawed, the state also did away with tournaments back in 2001,” Alvarez said.

Sec. 2052.254 of Texas’ Combative Sports Occupations Code specifically deals with tournaments. The code states: “An elimination tournament may not be conducted in this state.”

Which led to the subsequent title fight between Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Tim Kennedy for the Strikeforce middleweight belt and Shields heading to the UFC.

And lastly, how about some Bobby Lashley news, eh?

From Bloody Elbow.

Bobby Lashley’s opponent at the upcoming Strikeforce show in Houston will be IFL and Rage in the Cage veteran Chad Griggs.

Not much to say here other than “Lashley better not pull out of this fight or risk the mma community completely writing him off”.

That should be enough binge blogging for the day. And now to enjoy a weekend without fights, if that is possible.

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

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

Maybe the guy in the corner knows something we don't?

Photo from Sherdog.com

I can’t get enough of this KO, not only does it herald Sandro as one of the elite fighters of the featherweight division. It is just one damn beautiful to behold. Marlon Sandro is the new Sengoku featherweight champion.

From Middleeasy.com

Seeing as how his only loss was a very questionable decision from biased Japanese judging, you could argue it as highly dubious.

Bloody Elbow has a write up of this win and Sandro’s stunning metamorphosis from solid featherweight to nightmarish finisher who just may be the best in the world at 145. That being said he needs to come to the WEC to prove it, even though WEC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo is his campmate. Depending on whether one of the two change weight classes, it may be best for them to rule their roost from different orgs.

From MMA Junkie

A potential fight between two of the world’s top 155-pound fighters outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship is one step closer to fruition.

Just hours after officials from Bellator Fighting Championships distributed a press release campaigning for a fight between their lightweight champ, Eddie Alvarez, and Strikeforce lightweight title-holder Gilbert Melenedez, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said he’s open to co-promoting the champion-vs.-champion bout.

“If the stars align and we can work out all the terms and conditions and timing, we’d do it,” Coker told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Of course we would. Why wouldn’t we? Let’s go do this.”

With the likes of Frankie Edgar, B.J. Penn, Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, Jim Miller and Diego Sanchez, the UFC has a stronghold on the world’s best 155-pound talent. That, of course, has long been the case and given the promotion just about every major lightweight fight of late.

But Alvarez vs. Melendez would pit two of the world’s top-10 lightweights against each other. And with the UFC’s upcoming Edgar vs. Penn II and Florian vs. Maynard bouts, it couldn’t come at a better time.

The long running idea of “Co-promotion aka The Scourge of Boxing” being bad for MMA is starting to ring hollow with possible super fights like this being in the works. The sheer objectivity obliterating nature of having the best fight the best regardless of promotional allegiance while not entirely new to mma, it is still rarely seen. Hopefully both organizations can come to an agreement and make this mma fanboys dream a reality.

Thanks to Bloody Elbow for the pic.

Before the main event of last weekends UFC, there was a co main event welterweight title eliminator between TUF alum Josh Koscheck and English slugger Paul Daley. Starting with a well documented pre fight war of words the two displayed a spirited dislike for one another. But from the pre fight presser to the weigh ins for the event it was apparent that the online sniping and chastising was masking real and palpable loathing for one another.

Then came the actual fight, which ended up looking like your average striker vs grappler bout with the grappler maintaining dominant position for the entirety of the bout. As far as fights between two top 10 opponents vying for a title shot goes this was still a pretty unremarkable fight all around. It also was the second fight in a row in which an illegal strike (knee to a crouching opponent) grazed the pompadour of Josh Koscheck, who still reacted as if he took the blow flush to the temple and was allowed to recover despite multiple angles of slo-mo replay saying otherwise. But that and the entire fight paled in comparison to the following 10 seconds after the final bell of the bout.

After getting up Paul Daley followed Koscheck to give what most would think was going to be some sort of post fight embrace of good sportsmanship, but what was transpired was thecomplete opposite. Daley struck Koscheck with a cheap shot left hook that was blocked and was immediately separated by the referee Dan Mirgliotta and so began the what now seems to be the end of his career in the UFC

From MMA Junkie,

“He’s done,” White said after the event. “I don’t give a [expletive] if he’s the best 170-pounder in the world. He’ll never come back here again.

“There’s no excuse for that. These guys are professional athletes. You don’t ever hit a guy blatantly after the bell like that, whether you’re frustrated or not. It was probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen because he is a talented guy, and he is one of the best 170-pounders in the world.”

Given a day to rethink his actions and stew in the resentment of his own designs, Daley did the right thing and issued an apology. Here it is in its entirety,

“I’ve had a long flight home to consider my actions and regret the mistake I made on Saturday. I would like to apologise to the UFC and the Athletic Commission for what I’ve done as well as all the fans and sponsors that support me.”

“I would also like to offer my sincerest apologies to Josh Koscheck who did not deserve the cheap shot I threw. He did what he needed to do in order to win the fight and get the job done, and I foolishly reacted to the situation. There is no excuse for my actions and I know what I did was very unprofessional. I was immensely frustrated by a collection of things that took place throughout the fight as well as leading up to it, but I’m certainly not trying to condone or excuse my actions.”

“Josh implemented his game plan perfectly taking me down and staying on top of me for the majority of the fight. I was also frustrated about him claiming (and acting like) I knee’d him in the head on the ground when it was clear for all to see in the video replay that I didn’t connect at all with the knee I threw. Then finally, the verbal abuse Josh hit me with in the final 30 seconds of the fight simply pushed me over the edge and my frustrations came out as I knew I’d lost the fight, was unhappy with my own performance and had then been ridiculed by my opponent to top things off.”

“This is certainly no excuse for my actions; I fully deserve to be punished for what I did and hope that everyone I have disappointed can forgive my rash decision. I feel very disappointed in myself for losing my cool and hope that I am able to address my temperament and bounce back from this low point in my career.”

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed by what I did and hope that together my team and I can get through this issue. It will be a long road back from where I am now to earning the trust and respect of the UFC and the MMA fans that have supported me for so long, I know I’ve let you all down but I’m determined to make it up to you all.”

Now comes the waiting game for any following developments to what seems will be an ongoing process of arbitration and or adjudication for what really happened. Koscheck has admitted to using abusive language which Daley alluded to being the reason why he lashed out. Both the in cage smack talk and post fight blow fall under fouls as stated by the UFC’s rules

24. Using abusive language in the ring or fenced area.

27. Attacking an opponent after the bell has sounded the end of the period of unarmed combat.

As cliche as it is two errors of judgment do not inexplicably justify themselves nor do they cancel each other out. What should hopefully transpire is a full review of the incident with suspensions and fines handed to the guilty parties. But a instant life time ban just seems way to reactionary and knee jerk for a major sports organization.

Infinitely more heinous acts have transpired in other major sports leagues from the rampant PED and steroid use in the MLB. NBA stars having altercations involving firearms being drawn. Or the NFL and their having to deal with their stars being accused of sexual assault along with other players convicted of
vehicular manslaughter.

Compared to those incidents a blocked cheap shot may seem negligible, but it should be dealt with in the same manner as any other major sports orgs, by first letting the guilty parties be subjected to the law of the land. After that’s been dealt with then fine, suspended or combine the punishment and when that is done let the athlete redeem themselves and compete.

Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in the end in regards to Daleys outburst. People make mistakes but I personally believe if own up to your error make an effort to change and do better, you should be given a second chance.

The early rumblings around the net for last weekends ppv debut of the WEC is looking good. Here from Heavy.com is the jist of the current speculation.

Last Saturday’s “Aldo vs. Faber” event was surrounded by many questions, with the most important being this: how would the event fare on pay per view? Even though viewers never once saw the World Extreme Cagefighting logo, this was, for all intents and purposes, the first WEC show on pay per view. How would viewers respond to the addition of traditional UFC elements like Dana White, Joe Rogan, Mike Goldberg and Bruce Buffer?

According to sources in the cable industry, early estimates indicate that the show did between 150,000 and 200,000 buys on pay per view, a number that has to be considered a resounding success internally…

This news coupled with the surprisingly good ratings for the prelims that aired on Spike. Its safe to assume that the ppv gambit played off. The only question left is weather Zuffa will keep to two orgs seperate or at least fold the feather & bantamweight divisions into the UFC.

I’m am primarily happy that the card was good and now that the smaller guys have the full force of the Zuffa hype machine behind them, things are only going to get better.