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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 27, 2010, at 6:05 am Yancy Medeiros defeated Raul Castillo via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
This is a tough fight to get excited about. It’s not that Medeiros did anything wrong, or didn’t impress. It’s that we saw him outstrike a grappler who clearly is not comfortable on his feet whatsoever. However, let’s choose to be positive. He defeated an American Kickboxing Academy member by using effective, if not dominant striking and showed some really nice takedown defense. The only offense that Castillo put together came after a low blow. That should say something.
Saffiedine defeated Terry via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
I’ll say it again: Training with Cung Le might be a mistake. I keep saying that Anthony Johnson needs to get with a real camp if he wants to be a legit contender, and we saw again here that Terry was simply overmatched. Terry has a great highlight reel TKO with a head kick, but against a tougher opponent in Saffiedine, he was peppered with shots throughout and couldn’t get a takedown. Saffiedine looked good, and I like the combination of all the different arts he combined in his attack.
Luke Rockhold defeated Paul Bradley via TKO (Knees to the Body) at 2:24 of round 1.
Rockhold was absolutely dominant. He was winning the standup battle many times over and did it by using impressive counters. The finishing sequence was impressive as he threw a couple of really nice knees against the cage to drop Bradley. Combine this win with some of Luke’s submission wins, and suddenly this is a guy that we really need to start looking at.
Trevor Prangley vs. Karl Amoussou ends by Technical Draw due to accidental eye poke from Prangley at 4:14 of round 1
Everyone is going to get on the referee for this, but it isn’t really his fault. He was a slave to a dumb rule. When someone gets poked in the eye like that, why should they not be allowed five minutes to recover? Is it any different then getting hit with a low blow? After a few minutes, unless you really got gouged, your eye starts to open and you can go on fighting. That was a good fight for four minutes, and it’s a shame that it was stopped because of a stupid rule like that.
Sarah Kaufman defeated Takayo Hashi via Unanimous Decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Kaufman was just too strong for Hashi. The reality is that 135 is not a very deep division in women’s MMA. Hashi is a 125 fighter who was fighting up in order to give Kaufman an opponent. Kaufman boxed well throughout the fight, but Hashi simply could not keep up with the Canadian fighter. The problem is going to be finding an opponent for Kaufman. Even Jordan Breen might have to dig deep into the bag of tricks to find one.
By Anthony De Franco February 7, 2010, at 2:28 am Stock Up
- Chael Sonnen – Fuck. The UFC’s newest super-villian seems to actually have something behind his insane rants. We all knew he could wrestle, but no one expect Nate Marquardt to be taken down so easily. Sonnen said that both the flying knee and the guillotine by Nate almost put him out. Best case scenario: Anderson Silva defeats Vitor Belfort and then ends Sonnen’s life with Muay Thai knees.
- Paulo Thiago – Thiago had Swick timed so quickly that the American Kickboxing Academy student couldn’t land anything. Thiago is no joke in welterweight division, and don’t be surprised if he gives up his police job to start training full-time. For some reason, Jason and I both agree that we see him getting the Paul Daley v. Josh Koscheck winner.
- Randy Couture – Obvious? Listen, we all knew that Randy was going to win this fight. It was designed for him to win. The next big fight at 205 is Machida and Shogun. If Machida wins, don’t be surprised if we see Randy get his shot for another light heavyweight championship.
Stock Down
- Nate Marquardt – My bad. I wrote a whole article about how Nate was the next big thing at 185, and then he loses. The sad part? I still beleive it. Take some time to go and train takedown defense against Georges St. Pierre and then come back in a couple of months. My only concern is that someone like Nate who relies so much on knees and kicks will always be susceptible to takedowns.
- Frank Trigg – It’s been fun Frank. This is likely a career for the Rochester, New York native. He said that he would quit if he was cut from the UFC, and after being knocked out by Matt Serra, he’s likely to be cut. Frank should head back to the broadcast booth. He’s better than most out there right now.
- Mike Swick – That’s two losses in a row for Swick. I think that we’ve seen that Swick just isn’t championship material. While his striking is excellent, he just lacks the overall level of skill necessary to really make a mark at 170. Swick can still carve out a career hanging around the top 10, but don’t expect him to get to the top of the mountain. Leave that to his teammates, Koscheck and Jon Fitch.
By Anthony De Franco February 3, 2010, at 4:42 am I’m clairvoyant. I must be. Just the other day, I was talking about how Tyson Griffin doesn’t have a fight announced. Now, he’s going to be taking on his training partner Evan Dunham at UFC 115. From Bloody Elbow:
A lightweight showdown pitting the returning Tyson Griffin against the emerging Evan Dunham is on tap for UFC 115 on June 12 in Vancouver.
MMAWeekly.com sources on Tuesday night said the bout has been agreed to, but not yet signed.
Here is another case for Dana White to use against the wonderful fighters of the American Kickboxing Academy. They refuse to fight each other, which is causing a HUUUGE log jam in the Welterweight division.
As for the fight, Dunham is an impressive 10-0 and coming off a win against Efrain Escudero where he almost broke the TUF 8 winner’s arm. However, he is running into a buzzsaw in Griffin.
Griffin is in the top tier of lightweights right now alongside Frankie Edgar, and Gray Maynard. As a matter of fact, if he doesn’t get hurt, we could be seeing him take on B.J. Penn at UFC 112. I think alot of people have forgotten how good he is in his absence.
Give me Griffin via TKO early.
By Anthony De Franco January 19, 2010, at 5:57 am Yesterday, Jason discussed the possibility of Diego Sanchez returning to the welterweight division. Now, that Diego has confirmed it, let’s take a look at another lightweight that has decided that he likes to eat too much to fight at 155.
Nate Diaz is not what you think of when you think of a fighter who can afford to move up in weight. He’s long and lanky, but isn’t exactly made of muscle. He isn’t close to the strongest guy at 155. So, how does this make any sense?
Simple. It doesn’t. It’s just another in a long line of bad decisions made by the Diaz family.
Nate is going to get manhandled at 170. He is a BJJ black belt under Cesar Gracie, so we know that his ground game is top notch. However, he still has not developed any sort of stand-up to back it up. He also struggles with his takedown defense, as shown when he fought a stronger man in Melvin Guillard. In fact, if he wasn’t so good off his back, the gameplan against Diaz would always be to take him down and pound him into oblivion.
So, here is my main question: If Guillard is taking him down with ease, how is going to deal with Jon Fitch? or Josh Koscheck? or, god forbid if he got that far, Georges St. Pierre? Is he going to be able to submit any of those guys from his back? Nope. Not only are they some of the best submission defenders in the division, but they all have extensive jiu-jitsu training. St. Pierre is a black belt, Fitch is a black belt in Guerilla jiu-jitsu, and although Koscheck doesn’t have a rank, he trains with Dave Camarillio at American Kickboxing Academy, so you know he knows what he is doing.
Those are the top guys in the division. Could Diaz beat some other welterweight fighters? Maybe. I’ve gone through the whole UFC welterweight crop. Out of those here are the guys Diaz has a shot against: Matt Serra, Phil Baroni (If he can take him down), and Rory Markham. Conveniently, rumors have Diaz taking on Markham at UFC 111.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Diaz will struggle at 170, and be forced back down in weight. However, we all know that Nate doesn’t live in the same reality that the rest of us do. After all, he thinks that Gray Maynard chokes people out.
White belt.
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