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.

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.

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.

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

WEC 50

Cruz does best Tiger Knee impressin on Benavidez's face

Went 5-0 on the main card, that being said this card did hold some surprises for me. Namely the improved takedown defense of Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis not to mention his flashy kicks that validate his nickname.

Behold the Au Batido

Scott Jorgenson and Brad Pickett put on the fight of the night as expected, but was still contradictory due to the highly competitive yet one sided end way it was contested. In the main even Dominic Cruz defended his title and gave Joeseph Benavidez another loss in what looked like a replay of their first match up with a bit more feeling. Cruz once again used his hit and run style to frustrate Benavidez who was hoping to stay planted on both feet and hope for a counter and while he was able to land none of the strikes seemed to visibly effect Cruz nor did it change the momentum of the fight. Joeseph had his best round in the fourth where he was able to do serious damage in the clinch where he opened up the champs face with a knee.

In the end it wasn’t enough and Benavidez lost a tough split decision. With Jorgensen coming off his 5th win in a row its safe to assume he will be the next threat to Cruz’s throne and Benavidez will remain a top contender at 135 but will have a better chance at championship gold at 125 whenever the WEC gets the Flyweight division in gear.

Bellator XXV

Had another event with perfect picks on the main card. With that said it wasn’t the most electrifying of events, all fights went to decision. Dan Hornbuckle got a hard fought win after his loss in last seasons welterweight tournament as did everyone else. At the end of the day one can’t complain after the previous Bellator card had all finishes.

Strikeforce: Houston

Muhammad "King Mo' Lawal on his way to losing his title to Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante

Now onto the most notorious card of last week for all the wrong reasons. Spirited middleweight title fight aside between Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, a back and forth battle that went the distance like all other middleweight championship fights since Cung Le relinquished the title. It was an okay fight that was easily forgettable due to the bizarre goings on the rest of the card. From KJ Noons brutal round (and some would say fight) ending combination on Jorge Gurgel.

Ouch

Finishing the round strong or intentional late shot?

And then in the second round, Noons went for the kill yet again throwing what seemed to be an illegal kick/knee to a downed opponent.

It doesn't land flush but that could have been nasty.

Former pro wrestler and army vet Bobby Lashley fought and lost after the end of the 2nd round when he was visibly exhausted and dazed in his fight against Chad Griggs. Oddly enough this wasn’t the biggest story of this fight, that dubious honor will go to one of the most vilified referees in combat sports Jon Schorle and his decision to stand up a mounted Chad Griggs so that Lashley could get a cut checked and not giving Lashley his position back. Not only did this result in an already fatigued having to try to get the position back the hard way it led to him expending the little bit of energy he had left which caused him to lose the fight. Utterly unacceptable at any level.

The main event and 2nd title fight of the evening had newly minted light heavyweight champ King Mo make his first title defense against Anderson Silva training partner and resident muy thai wrecking machine Rafael Feijao. Mo was able to put up 2 good rounds, willing to trade strikes after his wrestling seemed to falter here and there. While he was getting takedowns they were proving difficult to get and it was even harder keeping Feijao on the ground.

This led to Lawal taking chances with his good but still improving stand up, unfortunately the low crouching ‘Cuban’ stance fed right into Calvancantes knees and thai clinch strikes. Despite being up at least 1-1, the 3rd round held a nasty surprise for Lawal as Feijao just pounced on Lawal after tagging him. Mo while stunned tried to get a single leg takedown to shake out the cobwebs but was met with downward elbow after downward elbow, forcing the ref to stop the fight and yet another light heavyweight champ lost his belt in his first title defense in the Strikeforce organization.

All in all a good week of fights and since I will be off work for both the Bellator and UFC cards this week expect fight picks and some twitter action from us here at theclinch.net

Really good fight for up and coming featherweight and frequent Sherdog Radio Network personality Javi Vasquez. He got to show off his pervasive and suffocating ground game against Mackens Semerzier who pulled off one of the biggest upsets of 2009 when he submitted Wagnney Fabiano.

This time around it was Vasquez doing the choking but also showing off good wrestling and bjj. Hope to see him in another fight before the year ends.

Unfortunately I will be at work this evening and will not be able to watch this live, which sucks but its my fault for assuming this was going to be a Sunday card. Bellyaching aside lets get to the picks, main card only.

Shane Roller vs. Anthony Pettis – This is a #1 contender bout for the next shot at the WEC lightweight title. Roller may be the safe bet due to his wrestling, but Pettis has the ability to finish the fight standing or off his back. Going with Pettis on this one.

Showtime via Sub

Cub Swanson vs. Chad Mendes – Swanson is a somewhat one dimensional bjj player who usually lets his reckless style of fighting gets him into trouble. Chad ‘Money’ Mendes is Urijah Fabers protege and a formidable wrestler. Mendes should take this.

Chad via UD or Sub

Scott Jorgensen vs. Brad Pickett – This is a #1 contender bout for the next bantamweight title shot. As a fan of both fighters this is a hard one to pick, Scott is a super aggressive wrestler with solid stand up and the strength of a fully matured farm animal. Brad Pickett is a crafty fighter with a deceptively good ground game for a Englishman. Both are top 10 fighters and I give Scott the edge via coin toss they are so (presumably) evenly matched.

Young Guns Jorgensen via Split Decision

Bart Palaszewski vs. Zack Micklewright – Don’t know too much about Micklewright and am expecting another standard Bartimus performance where he takes a beating and pulls out a miracle sub.

Palaszewski via sub

Main Event – Bantamweight Championship

(Champ) Dominick Cruz vs. Joseph Benavidez – On paper this rematch is a fight of the year candidate. Since the last time they fought Cruz has improved his frenetic hit and run fighting style and won the title, while Joey B has finished his last two opponents, Rani Yahya via brutal tko and then slashing former champ Miguel Torres’s face open then strangling him.

Offensive and defensive abilities aside this fight comes down to one thing, the skill set that defines the lighter weight figters and why the WEC is so exciting: Speed. More specifically who has it and who doesn’t. Dominic Cruz’s style is predicated on his ability to move in and out of striking range, frustrating his opponents and making them swing wildly so he can strike and more specifically counter his opponent at will. He also has the defensive wrestling to keep the fight on his terms. That being said if Benavidez is able to make adjustments and attack appropriately we should be in for a good, competitive fight.

I still see Cruz frustrating the Alpha Male fighter and making his first successful title defense.

Cruz via UD.

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.

Thanks to my super hectic and disorganized life I will be posting this as the undercard is underway so I will refrain for making picks for one of the most stacked prelim cards the UFC has put on this year. Now onto the main card picks tonight’s event in Oakland, California.

RAFAEL DOS ANJOS VS. CLAY GUIDA – Taking The Carpenter against my better judgment, Dos Anjos is a slick BJJ player but I’m a sucker for Guidas super aggressive style even if he doesn’t have the actual firepower to back up his pace. Hopefully he was worked on his sub defense and checking leg kicks.

Guida- via Unanimous Decision

JUNIOR DOS SANTOS VS. ROY NELSON – Nelson has the grappling advantage but when I ran across this.

I realized that Nelson may have decent boxing but can be out struck by a faster boxer. JDS is a way faster boxer. Dos Santos is going to make the Arlovski KO look G rated.

Dos Santos – via Ultra Mega Combo

RICARDO ALMEIDA VS. MATT HUGHES – Hughes is a legend and a gamer but he will turn old overnight. Depending on how dominant the finish is welterweights may stop calling out Hughes to make a name for themselves.

Almeida - via sub

Mr. Ferttita is not happy with Alves

THIAGO ALVES VS. JON FITCH – The fight that the Combat Gods did not want to happen is finally upon us. The long awaited rematch between perennial top 5 welterweights Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves is going down tonight despite weigh in shenanigans on Alves’s part. This is a tough one to call since Thiago has been out of action for over a year and Fitch hasn’t shown any signs of improvement since their first fight in which Jon finished Alves with a 2nd round tko.

If anything Fitch has gotten more cautious over time (his last finish was in 2007) and still has to rely mainly on his stifling top game and wrestling to get the W. Alves on the other hand has improved his takedown defense and to complement his slashing stand up game. That being said, I can’t pick a guy whose been out of action for this long competing at the highest levels and unable to make weight.

Fitch – via UD

Middleweight Championship

CHAMP ANDERSON SILVA VS. CHAEL SONNEN – Remarkable fight hype and trash talk aside, Silva should take this. Sonnens media antics have so little to do with how this fight plays out in the cage, but leading up to everything to most people it totally does. With that talking point taken care of this is the brass tacks of the match up.

Sonnen undoubted has the wrestling to manhandle Silva, but thats as far as his bag of tricks will go (well maybe that and conditioning/cardio but you get the idea). With his rudimentary at best stand up and lackluster submission defense, Sonnen will be lucky to make it to the 4th frame. Silva has too many offensive and defensive options along with the ability to finish in both the stand up and off his back.

Silva – via The Dance of Destruction

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