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By Anthony De Franco  February 13, 2010, at 3:54 pm  It’s the best striker in MMA versus the best grappler in MMA. Anderson Silva will step into the cage with Vitor Belfort in Abu Dhabi, replacing the injured Vitor Belfort.
From the horse’s mouth at UFC.com:
“It’s always tough when a top fighter like Vitor Belfort has to pull out of a big title fight, but we have found a high quality replacement,” said UFC President Dana White. “Top contender Chael Sonnen was not available due to injuries sustained in his fight with Nate Marquardt, so top six middleweight Demian Maia will step in to fight for the title. Maia is an Abu Dhabi grappling champion, a five-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, and he is 12-1 in MMA and coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 109. Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia will be a matchup between MMA’s best striker and MMA’s best grappler.”
The difference? Maia’s standup remains well below average and Anderson Silva’s ground game is still above average. Silva will and should be a huge favorite in this fight, as Maia has much less of a chance of defeating Silva than Belfort did.
This does raise other questions about the middleweight division though. Will Vitor Belfort receive a title shot upon getting healthy or will he have to re-earn number one contender status. If he faces Chael Sonnen, there is no guarantee that he’d win. Most of Vitor’s losses are to guys who were able to put him on his back.
By Jason Comack February 12, 2010, at 3:48 pm Mike Chiapetta reported last night that Anderson Silva will still fight at UFC 112. And he will be fighting as a middleweight.
White gave no indication as to who Silva might face, but said the fight will be in the middleweight division, indicating that “the Spider” will indeed defend his belt. At last Saturday’s UFC 109, Chael Sonnen soundly defeated Nate Marquardt and was promised a title shot after Belfort and Silva squared off. Now, with Belfort out, Sonnen seems the most likely possibility, but no sure thing.
Now the question Zuffa is asking themselves is who.
Chael Sonnen: Already was the number one contender but he can’t spar until March 9th. Considering how bad his cut was it seems unlikely that he would rush back to training.
Damian Maia: Logical choice but his eyelid is cut badly. He’s been medically suspended till August.
Yoshiro Akiyama: Sexy-Yama has been out of action for a while and is available. He’s a force of personality in Japan, not America. His record, 13-1, is worthy of Silva and he’s ranked in or around the top 10 by most MMA sites. The question is will American fans buy it? Will Ed Soraes approve?
Yushin Okami and Alan Belcher: Both are in the same boat. Middleweights in the top 10-15 range, that are coming off a loss. Okami got whooped by Sonnen while Belcher lost a close fight to Akiyama. Not sure the UFC or Ed Soraes are eager to see either of these guys in a title fight.
If Anderson is fighting at Middleweight Akiyama seems to be the only fight that makes sense.
By Anthony De Franco February 9, 2010, at 7:17 am I always like to highlight well done videos and pictures from across the web. People are a lot funnier than the realize most of the time.
Here is another one from the Bloody Elbow community, from a guy who refers to himself as LBO.
Come on, that’s funny.
By Anthony De Franco January 25, 2010, at 5:58 am Is it ever a good idea to make fun of a guy who is generally referred to as a “ninja?”
Probably not. Nonetheless, that is exactly what middleweight contender Chael Sonnen is doing. Here is what he had to say about Silva and Brazillian manager of the stars, Ed Soares. From Bloody Elbow:
“You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn’t. I’ve had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he’s so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking.”
“It’s quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, ‘jeez, they’re out there massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can’t understand them,’” Sonnen stated.
“That guy’s no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods,” said Sonnen. “That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there’s a young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon.
How concise. Sonnen is making a lot of claims, and I wouldn’t doubt if some of them are true on a small level. However, to claim that Soares and Silva have created an elaborate ruse just to keep Anderson from talking to media seems a bit insane. Also, Soares might not be the world’s most interesting man, but is his probably one of the most powerful in the whole MMA world. He controls a whole stable of superstars that includes Silva, Big Nog, Jose Aldo and others. I’d be boring if I could be rich and powerful.
Here is what Soares said in response:
“I think Chael’s a really super nice guy and every time I’ve met the guy he’s always been really cool to me. That’s weird that he would say stuff on the radio, but I think at the end of the day, Chael’s not a dumb guy, he’s a pretty smart guy,” Soares commented. “I think no one will really pay attention to what he has to say unless he probably talks about Anderson.”
“Anyone that has a mouth can say what they want,” he said. “I don’t think people pay too much attention to what Chael does. Saying that Anderson’s boring or Anderson’s this, Anderson’s that, we don’t even need to go back and see what Chael has done. If you really want to analyze Chael’s career over the past couple years, he’s had some wins, but he said he didn’t tap against Paulo Filho. If the ref wouldn’t have stopped the fight, Paulo Filho would have his arm in Brazil with him.
What Sonnen is trying to do here is clearly build a little heat between himself and Silva in order to get himself a title shot. He probably knows that The Spider is not long for the middleweight division and a chance at beating Silva is Sonnen’s shot at leaving behind a huge legacy. He also would make some nice bank in the process.
By Jason Comack January 21, 2010, at 3:55 pm When the UFC signs an international star I get giddy.
Whenever the UFC signs an international star my friends that are casual MMA fans ask “who is this guy and why should I care?” Usually if you give me 15 minutes acces to Daily Motion and Youtube I can make a pretty convincing case for just about anyone.
Ramapage Jackson? Show the Arona slam. The dominant performance over Liddell (in Pride.) And just about any interview he’s ever done. Like the one where he talks about what he’s going to do when he wins the Pride belt. “When I shit I’m gonna shit with the Pride belt.” Or what about when he said to El Guapo that his strategy was to “whoop that ass.”.
Vitor Belfort? The Phenom. The 8 second KO over Wanderlei. The unfortunate kidnapping of his sister. The highlight reel of KO’s. Easy. Anderson Silva? The entrance to the ring as Michael Jackson. Any of his highlight reel KO’s.
Gomi? Thinking…still thinking. I can’t think of one single achievement in Gomis career that really stands out. He had an epic winning streak but fought his fare share of cans along the way. Does he really have any singular stand out moments?
This was made obvious when they showed Gomi at UFC 108 and the crowd reacted with indifference. Who’s this guy? Oh he’s an old pride lightweight champ. Is he any good? Yea, but he might be past his prime, he’s lost 2 of his last 4 fights. Does he have a shot of beating Penn? No, actually they already fought once and Penn beat him convincingly.
To me this is why the Gomi signing makes no sense. Because the above conversation is the way any MMA fan would describe Gomi to someone who didn’t know who he was.
Why Gomi, why now? Did Dana White get his Japanese lightweights confused? Did he mean to sign Shinya Aoki?
The loigcal answer is simply Gomi is the one that got away. When the UFC and Pride merged Fedor and Gomi were the two fighters that Dana White coveted that he couldn’t get. Now he has a chance to get Gomi and he got him.
The more abstract answer is that the UFC is planning on holding a card in Japan soon. I’m not claiming I have any inside info, I’m just connecting the dots.
Between the Pride stars of old, Machida, Gomi and Sexy-ama the UFC has more then enough talent to appease the Japanese crowd.
Think the Japanese crowd wouldn’t eat up Lesnar vs. ‘Nog? What about Akiyama vs. Anderson or Wanderlei Silva? Machida vs. Jackson? Gomi vs. anyone really? Hell, you can even dig up Mirko Cro-Cops corpse and hope he head kicks someone.
The UFC is dead set on perusing the international market. That much is obvious. First Abu-Dhabi then the world. It only seems logical the UFC would put a card in Japan.
By Anthony De Franco December 2, 2009, at 2:00 pm Come on. Everyone has to be impressed with how little Jon Jones Man-Love I’ve presented since UFC 100. I’ve purposely stayed off his jock this time just to prove that I can, but now, just a few days before his fight, I am in full on clinging to his leg, hype mode.
Jones, the ultra-athletic, super exciting prospect from Endicott, New York will take on Matt “The Hammer” Hamill on Saturday, and it will mark Jones’ coming out party to the main stream audience.
The gameplan, which will be provided by fight strategy master and Jones’ new trainer Greg Jackson, should be to stand and strike with Hamill, an incredibly decorated wrestler. However, Jones doesn’t think that going to the ground with The Hammer is a death sentence. From Bloody Elbow:
Matt had a great collegiate career, but it was so long ago. If you were a great wrestler, unless you’re all about wrestling every day, and still training at that level, you lose a lot of it. And for people to say that Matt’s just gonna take me down, hold me down, ground and pound me and beat me that way, it’s just ridiculous. I can’t wait to show the people that I’m a fresh wrestler out of college. Matt’s college career was like ten years ago. This time last year I was warming up for tournaments. I’m a wrestling coach now at Ithaca College, I wrestle at Cornell University all summer long, so I think it’s funny that people are giving him that huge gap in the wrestling department, and I can’t wait to make Matt prove that he’s a better wrestler than me.”
… “I’m gonna continue to be a grinder and continue to work hard, improve, and keep my head on straight. I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.”
Uhhh…I have chills. Anyway, while I don’t have any doubt that Jon Jones could leap tall buildings if he wanted to, I don’t want to see him on the ground with Hamill. Instead, he should be standing and moving against a much slower opponent.
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