MMAFeed

UFC 118 is promising to be one the best MMA cards of the year. I like the card not only because you get a little bit of everything, but the televised card is stacked. Let me explain why this is card is a can’t miss.

Main Event: A title fight between Frankie Edgar and B.J. Penn. This of course is a rematch of a fight where Edgar shocked the MMA world with a decision over Penn. So, we have a title fight that is a rematch of a closely contested fight. We have great fighters and a legend in Penn, what else can you ask for in a main event?

Co-Main Event: The buildup for the fight between James Toney and Randy Couture has been billed as boxing versus MMA. I am not sure I like the spin, but it certainly will prove to most people one of two things. Either that boxers are legitimate fighters that belong in MMA or that boxers do not belong in the MMA ring. I don’t think it will prove either, but nonetheless I am interested to see how the fight transpires.

Demian Maia vs mario Miranda: A submission specialist versus a strong grappler. I really enjoy watching Maia when he is on the ground and I assume that is where this fight ends up. On the other hand, the two fighters may choose to stand and trade punches. Either way, Maia is usually very entertaining to watch, especially if you like submissions.

Kenny Florian vs Gray Maynard: Not much is being said about this fight, but this will probably be the most exciting fight to watch. It will be fun to see how Maynard’s pure strength matches up with Florian’s technical accuracies. This fight will most definitely produce the number one contender for the lightweight title.

Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis: I assume the event will get kick-started with this fight and what a way to start the night. Davis is an explosive fighter looking to gain some more momentum after dropping two of his last three fights. Diaz is a self proclaimed bad boy that always impresses me with his submissions and different ways he wins fights.

The Strikeforce event on June 26^th is bound to be one for the books as Strikeforce mixed martial arts joins up with M-1 Global to bring some of the toughest fighters in the world together within one caged ring. This is an extra special event because it combines Strikeforce MMA with M-1 Global, which allows it to be a complete world showcase of some of the world’s best fighters. This showcase has a huge title card as Fedor Emelianenko (who is actually a co-owner of M-1 Global) takes on Fabricio Werdum in a heavyweight bout that promises to entertain.

Fedor Emelianenko- also known as “The Last Emperor”- holds a record of 31-1. His only recorded loss comes from the fact that his fight with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was stopped when Emelianenko suffered a gash in the opening seconds of the fight. Even though he has a loss to tarnish his undefeated streak, “The Last Emperor” understands that numbers don’t mean anything when you’re inside the cage.

“Fedor” has been at the top as the best heavyweight in the world for the better part of the last decade. He has taken down Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović, Mark Coleman, and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira on his way there. On June 26^th, he goes up against Fabricio Werdum (the number 9 heavyweight in the world) for a showdown that’s bound to define the two fighters and the event.

Even though Emelianenko is the top heavyweight in the world he will have a lot on his hands going up against the jiu-jitsu technician, Fabricio Werdum. Werdum is known as “Vai Cavalo” or “Leading Horse” which speaks to his wild and free nature in the ring. It looks like it will be Emelianenko’s job to tame Werdum if he wants victory.

However, the June 26^th Strikeforce will not just be the main event. In fact, many more people are looking forward to the top woman in the world, Cris “Cyborg” Santos taking on Jan Finney. Most feel that Cyborg will take out Finney pretty easily and glide on to an effortless victory (even more so considering that Finney’s nickname is “Cuddles”), but Finney has been known to be scrappy making the fight a good one to watch.

Plus, seeing Cris Cyborg in action is always an event in itself:

With both the male and female champions defending their titles on the same night, the June 26^th Strikeforce event is destined to be an exciting evening for MMA fans.

By Alexia Krause – Alexia is a lifelong fan of sports and fitness. Recently, she’s been obsessed with MMA. As a result, she has joined forces with MMA Industries- purveyors of widely popular MMA T-shirts and gear. Alexia has been writing about the latest developments in MMA equipment for the past few years, and continues to bring you the latest news in the mixed martial arts world.

I was able to catch most of UFC 115 and I was pleasantly surprised with the event. Most shocking had to be the Mirko Cro Cop and Pat Barry fight. Not only was I surprised to see Barry knock down Cro Cop continuously, but the fight ended with a submission by Cro Cop. It is nice to see Cro Cop continue to improve his all around MMA skills and perform to his ability in the octagon. I am looking forward to seeing him fight again.

Martin Kampmann was very impressive in what I like to call his “I’m back” fight. The last time I saw him fight, he was destroyed by Paul Daley. Time for another step up in competition.

The main event ended as most expected, in a knockout. My gut feeling going into the fight was that Liddell would catch Franklin with a big shot. I think I was right as Liddell landed a few good shots, but it was Franklin who would deliver the knockout punch. One thing is for sure, Franklin is one tough dude fighting with a broken left hand.

Today, Dana White confirmed that eventually the WEC lightweight division will merge with the UFC’’s lightweight division. You might remember that not too long ago I suggested that it didn’t make sense to have both the WEC and the UFC. Well, this is would be one more reason to get rid of the WEC.

I understand that the WEC plans to add one or two lighter weight divisions, but I keep asking myself why add them to the WEC and not to the UFC? If you are going to keep the WEC around, why not have a lightweight division? There are plenty of fighters to fill the roster and it is an exiting division to watch. Someone please explain this to me.

I didn’t catch this live but definitely a black eye for MMA. Most of the blame is falling on Jason Miller at this point for being in the cage and aggressively requesting a rematch with Jake Shields. Of course, somehow the Diaz boys found a way to be in the middle of the action. Probably a lot more to come on this.

A friend pointed me to this video today, I think it sums up my thoughts on the judges scorecards. After the first judge scored the fight 50-45, I thought Penn had retained his belt. I still can’t figure out how somebody scored all 5 rounds for Edgar. For the record, I thought Penn won 48-47 but one or two of those rounds could have gone either way.

Anderson Silva’s performance at UFC 112 is puzzling to say the least. At first, he danced around the ring and delivered blows with surgical precision. As he had done in the past, Silva was able to strike at will and it looked as though the fight would end in the first round.

Then, something strange happened. It almost appeared to me that Silva became frustrated with Demian Maia. He started to wave his arms aggressively calling for Maia to attack him. Silva would also put his hands down and stand still begging for Maia to make his move. It had the appearance of wanting to put on a show, but came off as disrespectful.

To this point, I wouldn’t say Maia was overly aggressive, but he defiantly wasn’t avoiding the fight.

Then, about half way through the third round it happened. Anderson Silva just stopped fighting. Silva continued to dance around the ring, but instead of serving up accurate strikes he just stopped fighting.

In the middle of the fourth round, it was clear that everybody from Dana White to the casual fan was upset at Silva’s antics. To me, the biggest disappointment was that the referee didn’t deduct a point for timidity. The rules clearly state that a foul is committed when one fighter clearly avoids contact with an opponent. The ref did warn Silva late in the fifth round, but by then a warning was nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

My theory on why Silva didn’t engage is that he was scared. I believe Silva is a fighter that does his homework on an opponent and looks for specific openings and reactions to attack his opponent. When Maia became desperate to win the fight, he changed his approach and landed a few big punches. This change in style confused Silva and clearly changed the way he was fighting.

I think Maia did very well in this fight, even though he was defeated. He came out in the fourth round with one eye swollen shut and continued to try and find ways to win the fight. I still haven’t heard the judges’ scores, but I am willing to guess he won the last two rounds.

I don’t want my money back; I just want an explanation from Anderson Silva. Oh, and “I don’t know what got into me” doesn’t cut it.

UFC 112 will culminate with a fight between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia. This is a fight I thought should have happened back before Maia’s loss to Nate Marquardt, but I think it actually makes more sense now.

The lessons Maia learned in the Marquardt fight will clearly help him. According to the UFC countdown show, Maia went from training muay thai one day a week to five days a week. I don’t think this means he stands with Anderson Silva, but at least his reactions will be automatic instead of calculated.

Clearly Maia has to get this fight to the ground. The complicated part is that he has to be careful enough not to get knocked out without looking as though he is avoiding contact. We all remember what happened in the Thales Leites fight.

I would love to see this fight reach the ground, but I just can’t picture how Maia gets this done. I think Anderson Silva wins this by knockout in the second round.

Another title defense for BJ Penn and this time, it’s Frankie Edgar that gets a chance to be remembered as the guy that took the title from Penn. Clearly, most people don’t think Edgar will be the one. I agree, but Edgar is still a dangerous fighter that Penn shouldn’t take lightly.

Edgar has been fairly dominant in the UFC lightweight division having won 6 out of his 7 fights. This includes notable wins over fighters such as Tyson Griffn, Seah Sherk, and Spencer Fisher. His only loss was to Gray Maynard.

Still, Penn is crazy good with his stand up and take down defense. Edgar needs to use his conditioning to get this fight into the later rounds without taking too much damage. He needs to also take chances and be unpredictable. If Penn knows a fighters intentions, the fight is already over.

I like Penn to retain his belt and wins in the second round via choke.

The second episode of the The Ultimate Fighter has already proved to me that this will be a great season. We have all the right elements in place.

First of all, the show has great coaches. Liddell is the strategist while Ortiz is the draw-you-in likable coach. Also, it doesn’t hurt that these guys really hate each other. The strategy of Liddell is called into question early as Dana White tells both coaches he thinks Ortiz picked the better team. Liddell is quick to defend himself saying that he had done his research and you can’t always judge a fighter by one fight. Time will tell on this one.

Second, the show has interesting fighters. The most interesting may just be Jamie Yager. To make it into the house, he threw consecutive head kicks and scored a knockout in under 30 seconds of the first round. Once in the house, Yager immediately joins up with the Kris McCray and Brad Tavares and they decide to wake the entire house up using air-horns at 3:00am. I think it is easy to see there is going to be conflict in this season.

Finally, the show has some early story lines to follow. What will happen with the wildcards? Will the other fighters grow tired of Yager’s mouth? Does something happen to Ortiz that forces him to leave the show? Who picked the better team? I guess we will have to stay tuned to find out.

OK, onto the fight. Liddell, having the luxury of picking the first fight, selects Kyle Noke from team Liddell to face Clay McKinney from team Ortiz. The choice proves to be a good one as Noke catches McKinney in a triangle forcing him to tap-out.

Team Liddell 1, Team Ortiz 0.