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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 January 10, 2010, at 4:57 am Mackens Semerzier vs. Deividas Taurosevicius
I feel terrible for every single blogger that is live blogging this fight. The crazy names alone are enough to drive you mad.
Semerizer is a top prospect in the 145 lbs division. He is a former Marine that is 5-0 in his MMA career, four of those wins came by submission. Here’s the rub: his last submission win was in his WEC debut against top BJJ ace Wagney Fabiano. With a win like that in this tough division, he is looking at the fast track to the Faber-Brown-Aldo triumvirate.
His opponent is yet another alumni of our favorite regional MMA promotion, Ring of Combat. At least he would have been had he not been signed to the WEC just a few days before we were supposed to see him live. Taurosevicius is a top grappler who is 11-3 in his MMA career. The IFL veteran holds wins over Anthony Morrision and Dan Lauzon.
This should be an interesting match for anyone who loves the ground game, and I think I smell an upset.
Prediction: Taurosevicius via submission
Mike Brown v. Anthony Morrision
Brown is a member of the three man triangle at the top of the featherweight division in the WEC. His most recent fight was a dismantling at the hands of current champ Jose Aldo. Before that, he was the reigning champ who had defeated Urijah Faber twice, and destroyed Leonard Garcia. He is a huge 145er, and he possesses great all-around skills. If he has one hole in his game, it’s that he simply isn’t all that explosive. Aldo and Faber jump off the screen with their athleticism, Brown simply doesn’t. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t a great fighter. It just means that he is the likely odd man out at 145.
Morrision is another ROC veteran who is now a WECer. He’s making his WEC debut, and he’s doing it against one of the best in the world. If he plans to pull an upset, he’ll likely do it on his feet as seven of his 12 MMA wins have come via T/KO. If Brown is able to take him down, he is likely in trouble.
Brown gets a bounce back fight to pull up his stock.
Prediction: Brown via TKO
Dave Jansen v. Kamal Shalorus
Jensen is 14-0. That should be enough to get you excited, as we live in a world where upsets are the norm. If a guy has complied 14 straight wins, than he is doing something right. A wrestler out of, where else, Team Quest, Jensen had seven submission wins on his MMA record, and only two by knockout. He’s 1-0 in the WEC. In his debut, he defeated Richard Crunkilton via unanimous decision.
The problem with wrestling in MMA is that you may end up fighting a guy who just so much bigger and stronger than you that you can’t take him down. Enter Kamal Shalorus. The 32 year old is 6-0-1 in his MMA career, and if he wasn’t so old, we might be talking about him as a prospect. In his last fight and WEC debut against Will Kerr, he showed excellent well rounded skills, including sharp boxing and excellent wrestler. “The Prince of Persia” is just a HUGE welterweight. Seriously, he looks like he is scuplted out of stone.
There is a reason that Shalorus is a Jason Comack Man Crush. Expect Jensen to get his first loss.
Prediction: Shalorus via Unanimous Decision
Urijah Faber v. Raphael Assuncao
Faber is the WEC’s golden boy. How much so? He’s getting a ton of shit from MMA media because they feel that the WEC is promoting his return more so than they are a title fight. Guess what? They have to. Faber is one of the few breakout stars that the company has. He is a well-rounded fighter with excellent speed, off the charts cardio, and good power. He is a wrestler by training but also features good boxing and pretty decent submissions. How good is he? In his last fight, he challenged Mike Brown for his title. In the first round, he broke one of his hands. In the second, he severely sprained his other hands. For the next three round, he could throw nothing but elbows and open palm strikes. Yet, he still managed to almost choke out Brown in round five. That’s how great he is. He’s 22-3 in his MMA career. His losses, check this out, are to Brown twice, and UFC lightweight contender Tyson Griffin. Yea, he’s good.
There are a ton of people out there who assume that Assuncao is a sacrificial lamb for Faber. Well, in reality, he is probably the 4th best welterweight in the world. He’s 14-1 in his career, and his only loss was to Jeff Curran. He’s an ace on the ground, with eight wins coming by submission. His gameplan will likely try to be to get Faber down, but he must be prepared to threaten from the guard if he wants to win.
Prediction: Faber via Submission
Jamie Varner v. Ben Henderson
Varner is the WEC lightweight champion, but he hasn’t fought in a year. That’s right; a whole year. His last fight was against Donald Cerrone and Varner was in trouble when Cerrone hit him with an illegal knee. Since Varner couldn’t continue, the fight went to the cards and he retained his title via decision. He’s sat out since with various injuries.
Training at Arizona Combat Sports, Varner is a good all around fighter. On the feet, he’s a skilled boxer who has five knockouts in his career. On the ground, he’s a great submission wrestler. He’s got nine submission victories. Put it all together and it adds up to 16-2-2.
The WEC was banking on the Varner-Cerrone rematch to be a huge draw. The problem was that no one told Ben Henderson. When Henderson faced Donald Cerrone for the Interim title, no one gave “Smooth” much of a shot. So, all he did was execute a brilliant gameplan where he spent most of the fight in the posted mount position hammering away at Cerrone, while avoiding the BJJ specialist submissions. It was a brilliant performance that turned him into an overnight star. His humble persona won’t make anyone forget Brock Lesnar, but it also means that he won’t be satisfied with the interim title. He wants the real thing. An athletic wrestler, Henderson also possesses good standup. In addition to his wrestling, he has a purple belt in BJJ. He’s spent some time in Hilo, Hawaii working with some guy named B.J. Penn in preparation for the fight with Varner. Not sure you’ve heard of this Penn guy, but I here he isn’t bad.
While Cerrone and Varner were engaged in a year-long pissing contest, a new star was born in the WEC lightweight division.
Prediction: Henderson via Unanimous Decision
By Anthony De Franco December 15, 2009, at 4:09 pm Another battle in the burgeoning MMA war that is the Zuffa empire against Strikeforce is going to be fought this Saturday night. In one corner is the empire, bringing us a card without many names but with a decent main event and a couple of rising starts. In the other is little MMA promotion that could, bringing us one of the best prospects in MMA, a lightweight fight that could be one for the ages, and a main event star returning to the cage.
The problem is: Which one should you watch, and which should you DVR? Let’s break it down:
WEC 45
The card is headlined by the return of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone against Ed “9MM” Ratcliff. While Cerrone is a draw in the WEC, he’s really not a high level fighter by any stretch of the imagination. If we put him in the UFC lightweight division, where would he stand? Is he better or worse than a guy like Clay Guida, or an aging Sean Sherk? Let’s go as far to say that just maybe Mac Danzig could beat him. Ratcliff is a knockout artist that no one has really heard of. Could he be a star? Sure. However, he’s more likely to be a comeback fight for Cerrone.
The semi-main has a chance to be a real good fight as Anthony Njokuani tries to get his third consecutive knockout victory against newcomer Chris Hordecki. General Manager Reed Harris said that he has been trying to sign Hordecki for almost three years, so alot is clearly expected of him. However, the best case scenario for the WEC is Njokuani gets an impressive KO and a title shot.
If you are looking for a wildcard fight, check out Joseph Benavidez vs. Rani Yahya. Benavidez is a fast rising prospect out Urijah Faber’s camp, and could make a name for himself with a victory here.
Strikeforce: Evolution
The main on this card is the return of Cung Le. Le is a controversial figure in MMA, because he is one of the few “old” style fighters still being successful. He is a kickboxer, but uses some interesting takedowns and defense from the realm of San Shou. The guy he’s fighting, Scott Smith, is a former Ultimate Fighter Alumni. He’s not quite a can, but he really shouldn’t beat Le. He’s going to try and stand with a guy who broke Frank Shamrock’s arm with a kick. Not a good plan.
The Semi-main might be the best fight of the night. Gilbert Melendez might be the best lightweight that no one has eve heard of. He’s got sick cardio, great wrestling, a Gracie BJJ background, he’s really the complete package. He’s the interim champ, and is looking to unify the title against Josh Thomson. Thomson is a UFC and PRIDE veteran with some of the best wrestling in a division full of wrestlers. Let’s put it this way: Sherdog thinks that he can take B.J. Penn down. He previously defeated Melendez by decision, and this is long anticipated rematch.
The third best fight on this card is the major promotion debut of King Mo, Muhammed Lawal. He’s been touted as the next great heavyweight in MMA, and the world will finally get to see him this weekend. He’s going to move down to 205, according to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker, but will fight Mike Whitehead first. Whitehead is also a TUF alum, but has always had spotty cardio, and just doesn’t have the athleticism to hang with Lawal.
The Verdict
I don’t think there is much of a question here. Strikeforce offers a better card with bigger names. The best fight of the night is on the card, in addition to one of MMA’s up and coming stars. Tune into Showtime on Saturday, and then check out the WEC after Cung Le breaks Scott Smith’s skull.
By Anthony De Franco November 2, 2009, at 11:30 pm Anyone else besides me remember Hill? He was the guy from the lightweight season of The Ultimate Fighter who was 6′1. That’s right, he was 6′1, 155 lbs. If that’s not a huge advantage, I don’t know what is.
After suffering a possible career ending leg injury on December 10th, 2008, when he went to check a leg kick from Dale Hartt, he broke his leg. After a long road back, he is getting ready to fight again. MMA Weekly did a nice long piece talking about his recovery, and he says that he wants to be fighting again by January-ish.
If you were wondering about the leg, he said that was the easiest part of getting back in the groove.
“I’m a modest guy, but my friends say I’m a little overconfident,” he said. “For me, realizing the injury, and realizing that someone may grab that leg, it was easy for me to start throwing kicks with it. That way, I could remove doubt in my mind, and the guys I’m sparring with know that ‘he’s not afraid of the leg kick.’
“I don’t just throw it out there willy nilly anymore. I’m looking for a specific spot on your body and I’m really trying to connect, versus, when the injury happened, just reacting.”
When Hill overdoes it – and he still does, according to Kahn – teammates remind him of the value of training hard versus training smart.
“Once I get warm, it’s the same old Corey,” he said.
Hill is itching to get inside the cage again, but he wants to be smart about his return. He knows the high level of UFC fighters and doesn’t want to rush into a situation he’s not prepared for. On the other hand, he and his family have gone almost a whole year on one income (his wife works has a hairdresser).
“Fifty percent of me wants to get back out there because I’m going to be a great fighter, and the other 50 percent is financially,” he said. “We went from two vehicles to one vehicle. But we’re not doing anything that no one else in this economy is doing.”
In a best-case scenario, he hopes to be fighting “January-ish.”
“I want to not just return, I want to return as a better fighter.”
Hill is not Stefan Struve. He has some wrestling skill and freak athleticism. If nothing else, he’s another interesting fighter in a stacked lightweight division.
By Anthony De Franco October 26, 2009, at 11:08 am UFC 104 didn’t look like an amazing card on paper. It had a bunch of okay fights where we can clearly name one fighter the favorite over the other, and it had a main even that featured one of the world’s best fighters taking on a real threat to his crown.
Well, it turned out that we got exactly what we thought we were getting. Insert Dennis Green quote here. While most of the fights were pretty one sided, we did get the main event that we hoped for. We even saw Machida get upset…ohhh, wait. He’s still the champ.
Machida 48, Shogun 47: What the hell happened?
Listen, we’ve gone over this already. The whole internet is on fire because judges don’t know how to score MMA. However, I’ve said my piece about this already. I had a conversation with my father about scoring boxing, which he is a huge fan. I asked him two questions: How do boxing judges score defense, and how often do you see the “You have to truly dominate the champion” rule enacted. His answers were about what I expected: “There’s no real defined way,” and “More times than you can possibly imagine.” If judges haven’t gotten it right in 100 years of regulated boxing, why would we assume that they would get it right in fifteen years of MMA?
For the record, I had the fight scored for Rua by the following breakdown.
- Round 1: Rua 10 – Machida 9
- Round 2: Machida 10 – Rua 9
- Round 3: Rua 10 – Machida 9
- Round 4: Rua 10 – Machida 9
- Round 5: Rua 10 – Machida 9, but I could see giving to Machida because nothing happened as he is the champion.
Cain Velasquez’s Complete Dominance
Well, way to prove me wrong there big guy. Cain’s amazing takedowns were never the question. It was the lack of power that everyone was worried about. Well, due to excellent position and better athleticism than I thought that he had, he dominated a good fighter in Ben Rothwell.
Do I think he’s ready for the winner of Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin? Probably not. However, expect him to get it. His one saving grace may be the UFC wanting to put a card in Mexico City in 2010. If UFC 111 is there, they may put Cain against a mediocre heavyweight because he is such a draw in the country of his heritage.
Was the trigger a little quick? Sure, but Rothwell was getting his ass beat. Let’s be honest.
By the way, here’s a hint for Rothwell. Get some wrestling. In the UFC, if you want to strike, you have to be able to wrestle.
Who Would You Compare Ryan Bader To?
I love Ryan Bader as a prospect. I think that he is the only Ultimate Fighter winner of recent memory that has the chance to be a champ. He’s great wrestling combined with some sick power striking. He had a good gameplan against Eric Schafer. He didn’t want to get into a grappling match with a BJJ ace, so he stayed on his feet for most of the fight.
If there is a chance for him to improve (which there definitely is) it’s in his standup. While the power is excellent, the technique is awful. Bader’s got to get some boxing coaches that can teach him how to have a more consistent striking game. If he keeps heading in the direction that he is, his ceiling is Dan Henderson. If he improves his boxing, we could be saying that some hot prospect in 2015 could be the next Ryan Bader.
Stock Up
1. Cain Velasquez – I never thought that he would be so dominant. He’s gonna need to be able to stay on his feet against bigger wrestlers, and he can be outstruck by a lot of the top heavyweights right now.
2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – We thought we were going to get the hyper-agressive Shogun from PRIDE, and instead we get a new Shogun, complete with an unbelievable gameplan based upon body kicks. Already looking forward to Machida-Rua II.
3. Joe Stevenson – Another dominating performance by Joe Daddy. Jason thinks that he’s right back in lightweight race, but I think he needs one more big win. Most of the top lightweights are booked through 2010, so Joe might have to wait for his next fight.
Stock Down
1. Ben Rothwell – For all the hype that they gave this guy, he got thoroughly dominated by a fighter that a lot of people were down on. Like I said earlier, he needs to learn to sprawl if he wants to strike in the UFC.
2. Lyoto Machida – We’re so used to Machida being dominant that it was a bit jarring to watch him get repeatedly kicked in the ribs. He’s still the champ, but he’s going to have a lot to prove when he steps back in the cage against Rua.
3. Anthony Johnson – Rumble may have won, but he didn’t make weight which cost him 20% of his purse. Moreover, he finished Yoshiyuki Yoshida so quickly that he would have won knockout of the night and pocketed 60,000 dollars, but he wasn’t eligible because he couldn’t make the cut. That’s gotta be enough to make him start thinking about his cut. Wow. He claims that it was because of a knee injury, but he can’t keep starting his training camp at 220 lbs and cutting down to 170. He’s still one of the best fighters that UFC has, even at 185. Hell, he might be the 5th ranked middleweight right now.
By Anthony De Franco September 23, 2009, at 8:00 am Good to know that myself and Faras Zahabi have something in common. Listen to this interview. He gushes more about Jon Jones than I could in any given day.
I’m just saying. The dude trains the world’s pound-for-pound king. He’s gotta know what’s going on a least a little bit. Zhabi and St. Pierre go way back, and the two travel to Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting together for pre-fight training camp. Here’s the best quote from the whole video:
When I look at Jon Jones, I see a ton of GSP. I’ve said that before. He’s got incredible timing, he’s got incredible athleticism, and incredible heart, and he can do things that 99% of my guys can’t do.
Jones will take on Matt Hamill at the The Ultimate Fighter 10 finale. He reports to Montreal for training camp next week.
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