Category: MMA

UFC 79: Nemesis

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Tomorrow night UFC 79 is on tap. Although there will be several fights, only two matter. Liddell vs Silva and Hughes vs St.-Pierre.

How can ya not go with Liddell? Maybe because he’s lost his last two fights? I’m not sure who will win that one, but I’d bet a bunch that it doesn’t go the distance.

Hughes vs St.-Pierre is the rubbermatch since each fighter has a victory over the other. I’m leaning towards St.-Pierre, but probably won’t make a final decision until right before the fight.

So, any ZONErs inclined to make some predictions sooner?

UFC 78 Results

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Let’s take a look at the results of last night’s UFC 78 matches.

Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans was the main event. Evans scored a split decision victory to remain undefeated. Both Chris and I picked Evans to win [although Chris thought it would be by a 2nd round TKO and I felt it would be by decision… still Chris and I are 1-0 with our picks].

Thiago Silva vs. Houston Alexander – both Chris and I went with Alexander. Chris thought it would be a quick KO and he was right. Unfortunately, it was Alexander who was KOd making Chris and I 1-1 with our predictions.
We had the fight as David Terrell vs. Ed Herman, but it ended up being Joe Doerksen losing to Herman so our predictions are out the window.

Chris predicted Ryo Chonan to upset Karo Parisyan. That didn’t happen. Parisyan won by unanimous decision. So I’m 2-1 and Chris drops to 1-2 with our predictions.

Frank Edgar defeated Spencer Fisher by unanimous decision. Chris took Fisher making him 1-3 while I went with Edgar leaving me 3-1. If only we’d made a bet…

UFC 78 Predictions

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UFC 78 takes place on Saturday. Let’s take a look at who’s fighting and who I and our guest commentator, my son Chris aka Coach Shooter pick…

Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans is the headline fight pitting two undefeated fighters [and winners of the Ultimate Fighter title]. Coach Shooter takes Evans in a 2nd round TKO. I’m going with Evans as well, but I think it’ll be a decision… if it ends early it could be Bisping getting the W.

Thiago Silva vs. Houston Alexander – both Coach Shooter and I are going with Alexander. Coach Shooter says that it’ll be a quick KO within the first two minutes.


David Terrell vs. Ed Herman: Coach Shooter and I differ on this one. He thinks Herman will win a bloody decision, but I see it going for Terrell.

Ryo Chonan vs. Karo Parisyan. In what I think could be the most exciting fight of the night, Coach Shooter is predicting an upset win for Chonan. I’ll stick with Parisyan winning by submission.

Frank Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher. Spenser “the King” Fisher will get his crown knocked off according to Coach Shooter. I’m not so sure. Okay, to make it interesting, I’ll go with Edgar.

Tune in Sunday to see who wins the fights and the predictions!


Catching Up with the UFC

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As we got ready to watch last night’s UFC pay-per-view my nephew asked me why I hadn’t posted my fight predictions. To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about the card. Sure, Silva vs Franklin was THE main event, but most folks [me included] felt that Silva would win. The under-card consisted of a few other fights that less than twelve hours later I’m hard pressed to remember. I know that Stephan Bonner beat somebody… and Tim Sylvia scored a unanimous decision over Brandon Vera. Bah!

Actually I was interested in the main two fights. I’m not a big fan or either Tim Sylvia or Brandon Vera so I didn’t care who won, but I was interested in seeing how each man would combat the other. Sylvia used his size to full advantage and wasn’t afraid to trade punches. He deserved the win.

The main event brought Anderson Silva to Franklin’s home town but the crowd made no difference. Anderson Silva looks to be unstoppable at this point. Who can beat him? And what will Rich Franklin do now that he knows the first fight wasn’t a fluke?

It was interesting to note that former pro-wrestler Brock Lesner has been signed by the UFC. He’s a bruiser no doubt, but how will he fair against a true MMA fighter? Whatever the outcome, you can bet that his first fight will have a lot of people watching.

The next pay-per-view will be UFC 78 Validation on November 17th. The card will consist of Frank Edgar Vs. Spencer Fisher, Ryo Chonan vs Karo Parisyan, David Terrell vs Ed Herman, Thiago Silva vs Huston Alexander, and Michael Bisping vs Rashad Evans. You can be sure that I’ll post my predictions before the fights and I’ll make the same offer that I made to my nephew — send in YOUR predictions and we’ll discuss them before the card.

Some Surprises and a Disappointment

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Last night’s UFC 75 card provided some surprises and one major disappointment.

Houston Alexander vs Alessio Sakara

Alexander was coming off a first round knockout of Keith Jardine [who’s a pretty tough dude]. Although Jardine had jumped all over Alexander and looked to be headed for an early KO, Alexander weathered the storm and ended up knocking out Jardine. So, was Houston the real deal or simply the beneficiary of a lucky punch?

The fight starts quickly with both fighters aggressively moving in. Sakara takes Alexander down, but can’t keep him there. Alexander is strong but sloppy. He’s throwing punches and lands a knee which puts Sakara down for the count. I’m somewhat surprised to say that Alexander could be a real contender. I hadn’t even mentioned this fight in my pre-fight post due to the fact that I wasn’t convinced that it would have much meaning. Alexander winning so quickly and easily twice in a row against good fighters has changed my opinion.

Micro Cro Cop vs Cheick Congo

I was surprised at how big Congo is. The guy is in shape and huge. My prediction was that Cro Cop would win and he did take the first round. The second and third rounds were Congo’s and I think that the difference was that he fought most of the first round backing up. Cro Cop pushed the action and Congo seemed ill at ease. For whatever reason, Cro Cop allowed [or couldn’t stop] Congo’s forward motion in the last two rounds and he easily won a unanimous decision.

I have to admit, I was surprised the Cro Cop lost.

Matt Hamill vs Michael Bisping

I like both of these guys, but felt that because Bisping had more experience and was a more rounded fighter, he’d pull out a victory. Talk about surprises and even disappointment.

Both men came in shape and ready to fight. I thought that Hamill would rely on his superior wrestling skills to take down Bisping, but in the end Hamill wouldn’t be able to end it and Bisping would pull out a victory. My guess is that’s what Bisping thought as well. Well, we were both wrong… sort of.

Hamill came out and stood toe-to-toe with Bisping. He not only was winning the stand-up, but when he took Bisping down, he let him up, only to punish him with more hard punches. The first round was easily Hamill’s. The second round looked to be more of the same. Bisping was backing away looking for an opening, but Hamill continued to land the better shots. Bisping knew that he couldn’t take Hamill down, so what he really needed was Hamill to make a mistake. When Hamill took Bisping down, he let him up rather than make a mistake and get caught in a submission. Round 3 was basically more of the same.

I had the fight two rounds to one for Hamill. Everyone watching the fight with me felt that Hamill had won [some even gave him all three rounds]. The judges must have been watching a different fight. Bisping won on a split decision! I was surprised and disappointed. I was disappointed because of the bad decision and surprised because Hamill had come out and defied expectations. He didn’t rely on his wrestling and won the standup against the more experienced fighter.

We’ll see more from both of these warriors. My guess is that at some point they’ll have a rematch. Who knows, maybe even the judges of their fight will get to see it.

Rampage Jackson vs Dan Henderson

I picked Henderson to win because I thought that his Olympic-level wrestling skills would be enough to defeat Jackson’s punching power. Although Jackson couldn’t knock out Henderson, he was still too strong, quick and skilled for Henderson to do much with. Jackson’s skills were better than I gave him credit for, and I had him winning a pretty easy decision. So did the judges.

Overall for the night, I was 1-2 on my prefight predictions. The sad thing is that the one fight I did predict right should have gone the other way.

UFC is FREE Saturday

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The UFC is back this Saturday with more action. This time its FREE and on SPIKE starting at 9pm.

The main event pits Rampage Jackson against Dan Henderson in a title vs title match. Sounds like the WWE, doesn’t it. Well, I can assure you it’s not. Both men are 6’1″ and about 205 pounds. Their records are fairly similar [Jackson is 27-6, while Henderson is 22-5]. I’ve never seen Henderson fight, but most claim he’s the real deal. I was shocked that Jackson took out Chuck Liddell so easily, so it makes me hesitant to go against him. Still, Henderson is one tough wrestler… ok, I’m going with Henderson.

Matt Hamill brings his 5-0 record against Michael Bispings’ perfect 14-0 streak. These two seemed destined to meet up when they were both contestants on The Ultimate Fighter 3, but Hamill’s injury took him off the show before they could enter the octagon together. Now they’ll determine who the best fighter is… and I’m going with Bispings’ experience.

Micro Cro Cop comes off a devastating knockout loss to face Cheick Kongo. Cro Cop wins or his stock drops off the charts. That being the case, I’m taking Cro Cop.

Am I wrong?

 

UFC 73 Summary

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Alright, let’s take a look at the results of last night’s UFC 73: Stacked.

The first fight of the night was Heath Herring Vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. I thought that this would be one of the easiest picks of the night. Although I was correct that Nogueira would win, it wasn’t easy. From the start Nogueira had his way, taking Herrring down and peppering him with blows. Herring managed to get to his feet, but it appeared to be just a matter of time since Nogueira was stalking him and landing punches and knees at will. Suddenly Herring landed a wicked head kick and Nogueira was down and nearly out. Herring was too cautious about going to the mat after Nogueira and this gave Nog additional time to slowly stand up. Time ran out before Herring could close the deal.

Round Two started and Nog was still wobbly. Herring, perhaps fearing that Nog was trying to lure him in, elected to stay back and it wasn’t until Nog regained composure and started pressing the fight that any real exchanges took place. Nog takes Herring down and lands some punches. Herring gets to his feet and Nog starts stalking him again.

Round Three is more of the same. Nog takes down Herring who escapes and then is stalked by Nog. The fight ends and Noguiera wins a decision. Herring did much better than I would have guessed. In fact he could have won the fight in the first round had he not been overly cautious. That will probably haunt him for quite a while. I do think that Herring’s showing was good enough to get him another top fight in the UFC.

Hermes Franca Vs. Sean Sherk was the best fight of the night. It went five full rounds and although Sherk dominated throughout the fight, Franca was never out of it. From the opening it was action with Sherk going in for a takedown and Franca countering with a guillotine choke. Sherk escapes and the fight is on. Each round went pretty much the same way, Sherk would shoot in, Franca would land a huge knee [that would have knocked out most fighters] and Sherk would shake it off and dominate from the top position. Sherk wins a unanimous decision and looks amazing doing it.

Rashad Evans Vs. Tito Ortiz was probably the most anticipated fight of the night. Tito begins with a quick takedown but is unable to do any real damage. Rashad gets up and the two exchange blows without either gaining much. Tito does get cut, but it appears that it’s from a fingernail. Round one ends with the nod to Tito.

Round Two is more of them going at each other without either gaining the upperhand. Near the end of the fight Rashad goes in for a takedown and Tito grabs the fence [for the second time] to avoid going down. Tito is penalized a point as Rashad finally gets Tito to the mat. Tito reverses and gets Rashad in a guillotine choke. Although Rashad is in trouble, time runs out. Since Tito lost a point, I call the round even [and later I learn the judges do as well].

Round Three starts and although Tito begins to press the fight, it appears that he’s gassed! Late in the round it is obvious that Rashad is in much better condition and he begins to take the fight to Tito. Rashad gets a big takedown and begins raining huge elbows on Tito. Luckily for Tito the bell sounds to end the round which goes to Rashad.

According to my scorecard the fight should end in a draw. I’m wondering if the judges feel the same… but they do and the fight ends in a draw. I’m sure that this will lead to a Ortiz vs Evans II.

Nate Marquardt was a huge underdog against Anderson Silva. I felt that if Marquardt could avoid Silva’s knees he would win. I was wrong. Marquardt was able to take Silva down, but couldn’t gain enough of an advantage to do much. After they were stood up, Silva clocks Marquardt who immediately tries for a takedown. Silva cracks him again with a right and Marquardt goes down to the mat and the fight is stopped. Silva wins via technical knockout.

UFC 73 provided us with 4 good fights. I don’t know who is out there that will beat Sherk or Silva. Herring isn’t done in the UFC and Nogueira isn’t the invincible warrior that we were led to believe. Neither Tito nor Rashad convinced me that they’re ready for a title shot.

Next up is UFC 74 which pits Randy Couture against Gabriel Gonzogna and George St. Piere facing Josh Koscheck on August 25th. You just know we’ll be talking about that as the fight date gets closer!


UFC 73 is Stacked

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Saturday’s pay-per-view, UFC 73, is called Stacked for a good reason. It features four fights that all [well, at least three for sure] that could headline any MMA card. Of the four main fights, three are tough to call, but I’ve given it my best shot. “X” marks my predicted winner.

Heath Herring Vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is the easiest prediction of the night. Herring has lost to Noguerira twice before and I don’t think Saturday will be any different. Nogueira will get the win and maybe by knockout.

Hermes Franca Vs. Sean Sherk should be a very good fight… maybe the best of the night. Franca is on an eight fight winning streak and has wicked jiu-jitsu skills. Sherk’s conditioning is unmatched… maybe his strength too [pound-for-pound]. Will Sherk’s wrestling skills, conditioning and strength be enough to defeat Franca? I think so. I see Sherk retaining his lightweight title by decision win.

Rashad Evans Vs. Tito Ortiz is perhaps the most anticipated fight of the night. It means the world to both fighters. Evans needs a win to keep his undefeated streak alive and to earn him a title shot. Ortiz has to have a victory to show everyone his best days aren’t behind him. This is a tough one to call. Evans is undefeated, has excellent wrestling skills and has knocked out his last two opponents. Ortiz is bigger. He’s been in the spotlight before. He knows what he needs to do to win. If he can take Evans down, Ortiz could win by stoppage. If he can’t Ortiz is in for a long night. I’m going to give the nod [a slight nod] to Ortiz.

Nate Marquardt Vs. Anderson Silva. Another tough one to call. This one’s for the middleweight title. Silva destroyed Rich Franklin to win the title when Franklin elected to stand and trade shots. I don’t think that Marquardt will follow that example. I’m going to pick an upset here and say Marquardt by decision.

I know that many of you follow UFC and MMA... so have I called it right?

Ultimate Fighter & Kimbo

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Last night The Ultimate Fighter Finale took place. There were several very good fights including Manny Gamburyan Vs. Nathan Diaz for the “title” and Jens Pulver fighting BJ Penn to settle an old score. Before we look at those fights, let’s check out the under card.

Cole Miller easily beat Andy Wang by a TKO at 1:10 of the first round. Miller is one of those guys that doesn’t look tough, but is.

Joe Lauzon is another kid who doesn’t look tough, but he proved otherwise when he beat Brandon Melendez with a rear naked choke at 2:09 of the second round.

Although Doug Evans seemed to easily win the first round, Roger Huerta won by a TKO in the second.

In the most controversial fight of the night, Gray Maynard and Rob Emerson’s bout was labeled a “No Contest”. Maynard dominated the first round and looked to end things in the second when he picked Emerson up and slammed him to the mat. Emerson was already in pain and the slam was sure to end it. When they hit the mat, Emerson tapped and the fight was over… except for the decision… which was ruled a no contest. Here’s why: when Maynard drove Emerson to the mat, he also slammed his own head into it and knocked himself out! The decision was that since neither man was able to continue, the fight was ruled a “No Contest”.

In a post fight interview Maynard tried to argue that he wasn’t out, but simply tired. This was patently NOT THE CASE. Maynard was knocked senseless by his own slam and to argue otherwise [especially as the video of him with his eyes rolled back and then waking up and trying to raise up but instead falling over] was ridiculous. I do think that an argument could be made that since Emerson tapped before it was clear that Maynard was out, he should have won. Maynard was dominating and had he not knocked himself out would have won.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Nathan Diaz was somewhat anti-climatic. Gamburyan won the first round despite repeated efforts by Diaz to gain a submission. The second round ended abruptly when Gamburyan shot in for a takedown and dislocated his own shoulder! [At least he didn’t knock himself out.] Diaz was awarded the “title” of the Ultimate Fighter for season five and a six figure contract with the UFC.

The final fight of the night was Penn vs Pulver. Penn had won in their previous meeting five years ago. There had been bad blood between them since. That all ended when BJ Penn submitted Pulver with a rear naked choke at 3:12 of the second round. Both Penn and Pulver congratulated each other on a tough fight and even agreed to work together in the future. I was glad to see that their feud had ended. I like both of these guys and couldn’t decide who I would pull for. Ultimately, I like that Penn won and things were settled.

Season Six of the Ultimate Fighter is set to have Matt Serra and Matt Hughes as opposing coaches and we can be sure that they’ll fight in the finale.

In other MMA news: last night Kimbo Slice easily won his mixed martial arts debut against 46-year old former heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer. Kimbo submittd Mercer with a guillotine at 1:12 into the first round. Kimbo then issued a post fight challenge to “Tank” Abbott to fight on September 14th. Kimbo is best known for his extremely popular “underground” fights that began appearing on You-Tube. It will be interesting to see how Kimbo does when he meets an real MMA fighter.

Rampage Melts the Iceman

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UFC 71 was an exciting card with more than a couple of upsets. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson kept his undefeated streak against Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell intact by scoring a first round TKO. Rampage was the aggressor throughout the round with both men willing to trade blows. Rampage landed a shot on the button and Chuck went down with Rampage right on him raining blows. The fight was stopped and rightly so. Rampage is the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. I was also looking forward to the fight between Karo Parisyan and Josh Burkman. I figured that Karo would win and he did fairly easily. Karo is a tough guy who irritates the crowd with his cockiness. I’d love to see him in a rematch against Diego Sanchez or perhaps even a title shot. The biggest surprise of the night was in the Houston Alexander / Keith Jardine fight. I figured Jardine would win fairly easily and that looked to be the case… for about 30 seconds. Jardine moved in and immediately rocked Alexander. The fight looked to be over quickly and it was, right after Alexander came back with a punch that stunned Jardine! Alexander then swarmed Jardine throwing punches from all angles and a knee to boot. Jardine was down and out.

So the string of upsets continues. It started with Hughes losing his title to St. Pierre, Franklin losing to Sylvia, Sylvia [the heavyweight] losing to Couture, St. Pierre losing to Serra and tonight Liddell losing to Jackson. Jackson’s next fight is against Dan Henderson. My guess is that Jackson will hope to be the underdog!

Iceman vs Liddell

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Chuck Liddell, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion has only lost three times in his career. He has avenged two of those losses and hopes to do it again this Saturday night when he takes on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. The last time these two met, Jackson won fairly easily with a TKO in round 2. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fight ends in much the same manner as before… only this time with Liddell getting the victory!

Bad Blood Leaves bad Taste

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I’m a big fan of the UFC. I never miss The Ultimate Fighter. I seldom miss Ultimate Fight Nights, Inside the UFC, or UFC special events. Heck, I even can be drawn out of the house to attend the pay-per-views! In other words, UFC programming seldom disappoints. I would have said never disappoints, but I recently watched “Bad Blood: Dana White vs Tito Ortiz.”

If you’re a fan of the sport then you probably know that Dana White [co-owner of the UFC] and Tito Ortiz [one of the top fighters in the UFC] used to be good friends. This was before White took over the UFC and still acted as Tito’s manager. After that they had a terrible falling out and became bitter enemies.

So they decided that they’d end their feud in the ring. White used to box and Tito challenged him to a three round boxing match. The thing ended up taking on a life of it’s own. White had to have the bout sanctioned and fans were clammoring to see it.

The thing of it is, the fight never took place. For all of the hoopola, Tito decided two days before the event not to fight. He probably figured it was a no win situation for him. If he beat up Dana White, it would have been expected and he could come off as a bully. If he lost or even looked bad though, it could hurt his reputation as a fighter. So he bowed out.

Did that stop the UFC and SPIKE TV from hyping the event? No. In fact the show is airing several times. So let me save you an hour of your life: If you tune in expecting to see Dana White vs Tito Ortiz, you won’t. You’ll see a big build-up and a lot of hype but ultimately no pay-off. So my advice is to skip it and instead tune in to one of the other UFC shows, at least they have never disappointed!

Serra Stuns the World

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There’s an old cliche: That on any given night one athlete / team can beat another.

Last night Matt “The Terror” Serra stunned the world by knocking out George St. Pierre in the first round. Nobody [except Serra himself] thought that St. Pierre would loose. As we were getting ready to watch the fights, I told my son, “The only shot Serra has is if he rocks GSP and then jumps on him. Serra can punch and punchers always have a chance.” Even knowing that, I didn’t think that Serra would win so quickly and decisively. Congrats to Serra. My guess is that he will next fight Matt Hughes. Serra would be a huge underdog… just like in his fight against GSP. I doubt that will matter to Serra.

The fight I really wanted to see was Josh Koscheck vs. Diego Sanchez. I figured that this would be the action-packed fight of the night. Sanchez was undefeated [19-0] and had beaten Koscheck before. There was a lot of bad blood between the two and both repeatedly promised in interviews that they would knock the other out. The reality is that the fight was less exciting than the pre-fight interviews. I do have to congratulate Koscheck. I thought that the fight would go to Sanchez since his stand-up was better. Well, you couldn’t tell that from what happened in the cage last night. Koscheck was quicker, landed more punches, and made Sanchez pay each time that he tried to score. Koscheck did enough to win and ended Sanchez’s undefeated streak. My guess is that these two will fight again. If so, I just hope that they live up to their hype.

The most exciting fight of the night was Roger Huerta vs. Leonard Garcia. Huerta won a unanimous decision, but the fight was far from one-sided. These guys threw punches in bunches, went to the ground, reveresed each other repeatedly and at times each looked on the verge of being knocked out or knocking out his opponent.

Overall it was a good card. I’d say that the fans got their money’s worth… but one cliche per post is probably enough.

Couture Shocks the World!

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Last night 43-year old UFC Hall of Famer, Randy Couture shocked the world by not only winning, but by dominating Tim Sylvia for all five rounds to take back the UFC heavyweight championship belt.

Going into the fight most people in the know were predicting another win for Sylvia. At 6’8″ and 263 pounds, Sylvia had a 6″ height advantage, a 40 pound weight advantage and was 13 years younger than Couture. The word on Couture was that he didn’t do as well when he fought as a heavyweight and he didn’t do well against strikers… and Sylvia is one of the biggest and hardest hitting strikers in the game. All of that didn’t matter though once they were in the ring. BIG PROPS to Randy Couture!
[And for those interested, Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes both won their comeback fights!]

Who Thought Hughes Would Lose?

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Last night UFC 65: Bad Intentions was held. The main event was Matt Hughes defending his title against George St. Pierre. Despite the fact that GSP was considered to be far and away the best challenger, most folks didn’t REALLY think that he’d defeat Hughes. The consensus seemed to be there’s Matt Hughes and then a notch down George St. Pierre and then several notches down were contenders for the third spot.

 

Well, last night George St. Pierre ended any discussion that didn’t start with him in the first spot. Not only did GSP defeat Matt Hughes, but he did it soundly by a KO at 1:25 of the second round!

There were other fights on the card and you can see all results HERE, but my guess is you’re probably still shaking your head over the Hughes loss.