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By Anthony De Franco  March 9, 2010, at 6:42 pm  Everyone wondered what was next for Paulo Thiago. After going 2-1 against the American Kickboxing Academy’s welterweight Triumverate, Thiago is considered an elite prospect and someone capable of making a run at Georges St. Pierre’s title. Up next for him will be Danish striker Martin Kampmann, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
“According to sources close to the negotiations, both sides have verbally agreed to the bout and should sign official agreements as early as next week.”
Thiago is coming off a victory over Mike Swick in which he showed good, powerful striking and the ability to finish via submission with a textbook d’arce choke. I’m not quite sold on him yet as a contender for a belt, but I am a beleiver that he can make some noise at the top of the welterweight rankings.
As for Kampmann, I’ve never been quite as high on him. At UFC 103, Paul Daley outstruck a guy who is supposed to be one of the most dangerous welterweight standup fighters in the world. Since then, He guillotined Jacob Volkmann at UFC 108, which proved exactly nothing to me.
Expect Thaigo to continue his assault on the summit of the Welterweight division.
By Anthony De Franco February 15, 2010, at 8:11 pm It appears that everyone in the world has put their two cents into the recent conversation about the state of the closed guard. Recently, Bloody Elbow put up another article with people’s thoughts about it. The one that I would really like to look at is the words of Japanese lightweight Shinya Aoki. This whole thing started when Jon Fitch said that the closed guard is dead, but mentioned Aoki as someone you still uses it well.
However, that didn’t stop Aoki from agreeing with Fitch.
I heard Jon Fitch said “The closed guard is dead in MMA” oh,yes,yes,i agree! absolutely Yes!!
Long time closed guard means present my lose by decision to opponent. If I am closed position, I have to recover quickly.
Pressure of sweep & submission…..but it is prolog of stand.how can I stand again from guard? it is united technic of submission, sweep,and stand…..We need groud technic to stand again. Do you know it?……….Sorry I can not explain it perfectly,,,it….I want to say “MMA IS MMA.”MMA is not “striking + Ground”…so , it is called as MMA!!
While Aoki’s english is suspect, his point remains correct. The best course of action in a modern day MMA fight is to stay off your back at all times. Fighters who have good wrestling are simply too good to allow the space necessary to pull off a submission from the bottom.
However, there is some merit to being able to work from the bottom. I’m going to make a bold prediction here, but I think we are going to see sweeps become a lot more common over the next few years. The sweep is the quickest way to improve position from the bottom for guys who don’t want to stand back up. If BJJ guys start focusing more on the ability to sweep rather than submissions from the bottom, they could turn it into a more frequent occurrence, and maybe even a serious weapon.
For those who aren’t as skilled, the bottom game is going to equate to the ability to stand back up. The fact that there are so many wrestlers who still don’t look like the have the ability to stand back up is amazing to me. Wrestlers simply need to learn to hip escape, or at the very least make sure that they don’t get taken down.
Is the closed guard dead? Kinda. It’s dead in the way that Royce Gracie used it back in the day. There is no more waiting for your opponent to make a mistake. There is an effective way to use the guard, and that is finding a way to sweep or stand.
By Anthony De Franco February 15, 2010, at 10:00 am Remember Jason High? He’s the guy who got head kicked by Marius Zaromskis in the finals of the DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix. Now, the young, athletic wrestler is in the UFC and will make his debut on Fight Night 21 against Charlie Brenneman, according to SB Nation.
Although High is coming off a vicious knockout loss to Marius Zaromskis at the finals of the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix back in July, the gifted wrestler and Antonio McKee prodigy has been training hard and keeping a high profile in the Twitter world. The KC Bandit has notable career victories over BJJ phenom Andre Galvao, and UFC vets Kevin Burns and James Giboo.
Brenneman’s signing was announced earlier this week by the AMA Fight Club in New Jersey, also home to UFC fighters Dan and Jim Miller. The former D-1 wrestler at Lock Haven University and winner of the first season of Spike’s Pros vs. Joes, Brenneman is riding a five-fight winning streak which includes four stoppages.
High really impressed me on that card. He showed a ton of ability in a short time and is 9-2 total is his career. His best wins are against BJJ phenom Andre Galvao, and former UFC fighter (and intentional eye-poker) Kevin Burns. His losses are to Zaromskis, and MMA’s most underrated fighter, Jay Hieron.
Brenneman is from New Jersey. Shockingly, that means that he’s fought on a Ring of Combat card. That is his only loss of his blooming career, and it came to current UFC fighter John Howard. Charlie is a former college wrestler at Lock Haven University (I’ve called one of their football games. Don’t ask.) and had a top 12 finish at nationals. He lacks high profile wins, but has some wrestling pedigree.
So, what do we get when we throw two wrestlers in the cage? A sloppy boxing match! Look for High to come out on top by being more athletic and explosive.
By Jason Comack February 4, 2010, at 9:39 pm Mac Danzig (18-7-1) vs. Justin Buchholz (8-4)
The Fighters: Danzig came into the sixth season of the Ultimate Fighter as a favorite. The King Of The Cage and Pride vet had amassed enough quality wins to justify his presence in the UFC even without TUF. His post TUF career hasn’t gone as planned however. He’s 2-3 in the UFC and has lost three fights in a row. No UFC fighter that isn’t a star isn’t going to survive a four fight losing streak.
Bucholz has also struggled in his UFC career. He’s 1-3 in the UFC with his lone win being over a very green Corey Hill.
Both fighters desperately need a win and this is most definitely a “loser leaves town” match.
Breakdown: Despite his recent failings, 2-5 in his last seven fights, Danzig is a 3 or 4 to 1 favorite depending on where you look. That says a lot more about his opponent then it does him. Bucholz clearly isn’t a guy ready for UFC competition. He brought a 7-1 record into the Octagon but it was clearly inflated by fighting local bums. Look for Danzig to mix it up both standing and on the ground as he cruises to an easy decision win.
Prediction: Danzig Via Unanimous Decision
Melvin Guillard (22-8-2) vs. Ronnys Torres (14-1)
The Fighters: Can you believe Melvin Guillard is still only 26 years old? It certainly seems like he’s been around forever. Most likely it feels this way because Guillards career has been a consistent stream of disappointments. Every time he takes a step forward he seems to take two back the next fight. The former Ultimate Fighter Season 2 contestant began his career at 170 pounds. He went 1-1 at welterweight before dropping down to lightweight. Since dropping to lightweight Guillard is 5-4 in the UFC.
Guillards talent is enormous. He’s a gigantic lightweight whose sheer athleticism and explosiveness will remind you a lot of Kevin Randleman. Guillard has a great shot and terrific power in his hands. However, Guillard has an Achilles Heel. He is a terrible submission fighter. All four of his UFC losses have come via submission. If you remember he was dominating, understatement, Josh Neer before being stupidly caught in a triangle choke. It looked like someone attacked Neers face with a tack hammer (as Guillard stupidly jumped into Neers guard to finish him off he was caught in a triangle.) Most recently he was caught in a guillotine against Nick Diaz that could have easily been avoided. If he fought with any kind of game plan he could have easily won both those fights.
It’s also outside the cage that Melvin has had troubles. After his loss to Joe Stevenson, Guillard accused Stevenson of using HGH. Not so ironically after that fight Guillard was caught with cocaine in his system in a post fight drug test. He was fined $2,100 and suspended 8 months.
The reason Guillard, unlike so many fighters, is getting second and third chances is because he’s insanely talented. He has wins over Marcus Davis, Denis Siver and Gleison Tibau. Those are very quality wins and it’s insanely frustrating to watch Guillard not maximize his god given ability.
While Ronnys Torres is making his UFC debut the talented Brazilian is no push over. Torres is 14-1 and one of Brazils top prospects. He trains with the highly regarded, and highly underrated, Nova União team. The dude trains with Jose Aldo, Paulo Thiago and many other talented fighters.
Breakdown: Sadly for Guillard this fight seems to be designed for him to lose. As I said his Achilles Heel has always been his submission defense and that is the area that Torres excels at (7 of Torres 15 wins have come via submission.) If there’s one area of concern for Torres it’s that he might not be coming into this fight 100%. He had to pull out of Fight Night 18 and 19 with various injuries.
If Guillard wants to win this fight he needs to take a page out of Chuck Liddells book and reverse wrestle. Torres isn’t good enough to take Mevlin down and it’s unclear if he has that same knack for pulling guard effectively like Damien Maia does. Knowing Melvin he’ll stun him with a power shot and go in recklessly for a finish and get submitted.
Prediction: Torres via Armbar Round 2
*Bonus* Random Fun Fact: Torres holds a win over Luiz Azeredo. Azeredo is one of only 4 men to ever beat Anderson Silva. Azeredo also holds a win over top welterweight contender Paul Daley.
By Anthony De Franco February 1, 2010, at 6:19 pm Everyone is excited about Bobby Lashley. We saw what Brock Lesnar was able to do with some size and excellent wrestling ability. That’s why everyone is pumped to see Lashley take the next step and show us that he could a champ.
Did his win over Wes Sims really do that? Nope. Not at all.
Let’s break down what happened. As the video starts, Lashley grabs a sloppy double leg that could only take down a man who has no center of gravity and a complete lack of conditioning. Sims than adjusts into the stupid position where he holds the back of his legs, allowing Lashley to pepper him with little Brock Lesnar-esque shots to the head. Once he breaks the hold, Sims tries for an armbar, but is too busy be punched in the face to latch it in.
They end up back in guard, where Sims actually closes his guard. Then, he goes back to the high guard, grabbing the back of his legs and gets punched in the face repeatedly again. Lashley posts up, and drops bombs for about a minute until the fight was stopped. However, he does get Sims’ back, and is not able to finish.
So, how do you grade this performance? He defeated a guy who is a punchline in MMA circles by stopping him in the first round. He never passed guard, he never was able to truly dominate. Does this mean that he is ready for a step up in competition? Probably, but we are talking a Mike Whitehead step up, not a Fedor, Brett Rogers step up.
By Anthony De Franco January 22, 2010, at 10:22 pm There’s been a lot written about Nick Diaz over the last few months. Unfortunately, not a lot of it has been very good.
Since August, when Diaz pulled out of a fight due to refusing to take a drug test he knew he would fail, he’s become kind of a joke in the MMA world. People have focused mainly on him as a marijuana user rather than a elite level mixed martial artist.
Diaz has an opportunity to make everyone forget that on January 30th when he takes on Marius Zaromskis for the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title. He has a chance to remind everyone that he is one of the best fighters in the world at 170, or he could simply be known as the guy who has to fight in Florida, because they don’t care that he smokes pot.
Crossroads: Thy name is Diaz.
Let’s look at the positives. Diaz is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under Cesar Gracie. I don’t care who you are or what’ve you done, if you have a black belt from anyone named Gracie, you are kind of a big deal. However, we all know that every fight starts standing and Demian Maia can tell you what happens if you can’t achieve a takedown quickly as a BJJ specialist.
What makes Diaz special is his ability to box. Well, it’s not that he is the most technical boxer in the world, it’s that he has naturally heavy hands. While the equation for power in MMA is not exactly science, Diaz natural talent seems to make up for the fact that he is a bit sloppy on the feet. Add that to a long reach that allows him to keep opponents at bay with a jab and his standup game is more than just good enough to get him to the ground, it’s good enough for 11 T/KO victories.
The problem with Diaz has never been his skill level or his physical traits. The problem is in his head. The problem is that he has long had this attitude where he beleives that it’s him (and in some cases his brother) against the world. It’s been his tendency to fail drug tests. It been things like fighting Joe Riggs in the hospital after his fight. It’s making anti-UFC and getting himself unceremoniously banned from the biggest, richest MMA company in the world.
If Diaz could only get out of his own way, he could be great. On January 30th, he’ll face “The Whitemare”, but he’ll also be facing himself. If he shows up in shape, and at the top of his game, we could see Nick Diaz as the first dominant Strikeforce champ.
If he doesn’t, then we could be seeing the beginning of the end of his relevancy.
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