2010: The Year of the Powerbomb

Here are the main card results from Watchkalibrun.com. The gif is from Middle Easy the pic is from MMA Fighting.

Main Event

* Shane Del Rosario def. Lolohea Mahe via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:48

* Sarah Kaufman def. Roxanne Modafferi via knockout (slam) – Round 3, 4:45. Sarah Kaufman retains Strikeforce 135lbs. Women’s title.

* Bobby Voelker def. Cory Devela via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).

* Mike Kyle def. Ron “Abongo” Humphrey via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:2.

* Caros Fodor def. Thomas Diagne via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

I could have gone 5-0 if I had the guts to go with my head over my heart in the championship bout. Alas my enjoyment of both fighters made that too difficult to deal with. That being said the bar has been set for female fight of the year with Kaufmans first title defense against Roxy Modaferri. It was a tug of war from the opening frame but as the fight wore on it was Kaufmans athleticism that won her the fight.

Most of the fight was spent jockeying for position in the clinch with Roxy threatening with trips and takedowns, one of which she got in the first round. In the second Sarah go to show of her combo punching in a few stand up skirmishes where she clearly had the upper hand. In the third both fighters spent time on their backs. When the challenger Modaferri was in top position she had a hard time advancing or landing strikes against the champion who did her best to not take damage and kept her at bay.

When the tables were turned Kaufman was wary of the threats inherent in the guard of Modaferri and while defending what looked to be the beginning of an submission (probably an armbar). Sarah Kaufman made good on her word to make a statement for being put on bigger cards by hoisting Modaferri off her back and slamming her unconscious. A finish so dramatic that I would venture it and the Zoila Frausto smashing of Rosi Sexton will both be up for knockout of the year.

The rest of the event was entertaining with only one decision in the Fodor vs Diagne fight at the beginning of the main card. An unexpectedly good night of fights from a sleeper of a card that was a gem for anybody who watched it.

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.

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.

Photo by the great Ester Lin

At the MGM Grand in Las Vegas this weekends UFC event thanks in no small part to last weeks upset of consensus #1 heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. Will feature a championship bout that should shake up the rankings even more as current champ Brock Lesnar defends his belt against undefeated interim champ Shane Carwin. I will be focusing on the main card and spike prelim bouts.

Main Card

About as close as were going to get to the real thing

UFC Heavyweight Championship

Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin

I doubt I can offer any special insight into this bout or uncover some unforeseen angle/variable. Since the aftermath of UFC 111 when Carwin won the interim strap people have been salivating over this fight. The similarities between these two opponents are uncanny at best, both have won NCAA titles (Brock D1, Shane D2), have ridiculous reach (Lesnar 81′, Carwin 80′) and both fighters swing the two biggest glove sizes in the UFC (4XL for Brock, 5 for Shane). Both men have relied on their hulking size and nigh superhuman athleticism to overwhelm their opponents.

They will finally come face to face with an opponent who can cancel out their athletic prowess in one another. Lesnar may have a slight edge in wrestling but Carwin is no slouch in the rasslin’ department and is the more multifaceted fighter than Brock who has to get you down and maintain top position before he does his most effective damage. Lesnar is also coming off a 10 month plus lay off due to illness, a major hurdle for most fighters especially one with as little cage time as Lesnar who is competing at the highest level possible. These combined disadvantages do not bode well for the current champ. I expect Carwin to make short work of him

Carwin – via TKO

Co-Main Event
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben

Leben is stepping in for Wanderlei Silva on short notice to face Sexyama. The Crippler is a good company man and will make this an exciting fight. Akiyama on the other hand went from fighting an mma legend/superstar to now having to deal with an iron headed brawler who is can derail his title aspirations. If Leben can pressure Akiyama into a brawl, he may win, but Sexyama strikes me as a guy who knows he needs to win and will do his damndest to grind out a win.

Akiyama – via Split decision

Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar

Bonnar is REALLY washed up.

Soszynski – via UD

George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino

When two seasoned grapplers step in the cage you will either get a ground war or bad kickboxing. Since Sotiropoulos has some professional boxing experience, Pellegrino is a wrestler primarily I will give George the edge in being well rounded and having more tools. This fight is evenly matched and should get an awards bonus (fight of the night or sub) I see Sotiropoulos continuing his flawless UFC career.

George Greek Noise – via UD

Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown

Another fight destined for a awards bonus is a rematch between two exciting welterweights. I see Lytle busting out his submission skills once again.

Lytle – via Sub

Spike TV Prelims:

Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer

Brocks training partner vs Carwins lol. I like Schaub but Tuchscherer’s wrestling pedigree will come into play. Logic be damned.

Schaub – via Sub

Seth Petruzelli vs. Ricardo Romero

The Kimbo killer returns to the UFC, I hope this new guy isn’t as good as his record makes him out to be.

Petruzelli – via TKO

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

Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com gets a post event interview with Strikeforce Heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem.

The interview covers the ups and downs of the past couple years for The Reem, who reiterates his desire to face Fedor, despite all of the M1 shenanigans. Good luck with that seeing as how the organizations CEO is having trouble getting the appropriate parties to the negotiation table.

Naysaying aside that would be a good fight if they could somehow pull it off.

The father and one of the trainers of the current UFC light heavyweight champion is with Ed Soares (Machida’s manager) and Ariel Helwani fromMMAFighting.com.

If ingesting waste fluids is the key to invincibility, I will gladly see my favorite fighters lose than know they drink their own piss.