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By Jason Comack  February 21, 2010, at 7:31 pm  After each major Mixed Martial Arts event, our very own matchmaker, Jason Comack, does his best Joe Silva and breaks down all the possibilities for the fighters who waged war last night in a little feature we like to call: What’s Next?
Mirko Cro-Cop and Wanderlei Silva are easy to pick opponents for. Dana White suggested at the post fight presser that Mirko would fight Ben Rothwell who he was originally intended to face. Considering Mirko took minimal damage and Rothwell just had a stomach bug that fight could happen soon. Keeping Mirko active can’t be a bad thing, especially if he’s training as hard as he claims he is. One fight to also keep an eye on is Mirko/’Nog which will always be a draw overseas even though it doesn’t have the title implications it use to.
At the presser White mentioned the long rumored fight of Yoshihiro Akiyama vs Wanderlei Silva is something they would consider. When Silva learned that Akiyama was campaigning to fight him he perked up and said that he wanted to fight Akiyama. That fight would be a big draw overseas particularly in Japan. I’ve long believed that the UFC was keeping Akiyama as it’s ace in the hole for a Japan card. The UFC brand will never take over in Japan but MMA is gigantic there. Putting Silva/Akiyama on a card might be the only way to get Japanese fight fans interested in a card.
Speaking of Cro-Cop his opponent Anthony Perosh endured himself some UFC goodwill by taking the fight on such short notice. Perosh was well over matched against Mirko but will likely get another shot in the UFC. If and when he does get another fight it will come in the light heavyweight division.
Perosh will likely be used as a “can” to get a fighter that desperately needs a win, a win. Off the bat two names come to mind: Stephan Bonnar and Keith Jardine.
Jardine is on a three fight losing streak, normally the UFC axe would be close to chopping Jardine but I believe he’s firmly safe on the UFC’s roster. Jardine has fought too many top guys and has wins over too many top guys (Griffin and Liddell) to allow him to go to another organization, cough Strikeforce cough. Jardine is the exact kind of gatekeeper that Strikeforce lacks. But in order to keep Jardine’s credibility he needs to face some sub-par competition.
Other then the aforementioned Perosh here’s some light-heavyweights that would make sense for Jardine to fight:
- Brian Stann last fought at UFC 109, so the timing works, where he got dominated by Phil Davis.
- Kyle Kingsbury beat Razak Al-Hassan at UFC 104.
If Jardine can’t beat any of those guys then he doesn’t deserve to be in the UFC.
By Anthony De Franco October 14, 2009, at 10:07 am Well, here we go again. Anderson Silva appears to have cooled on the concept of fighting Vitor Belfort. At this point, it appears that there aren’t many people that Silva does want to fight. Here’s the Sherdog blog post that I got this from:
On a bad day, nothing less than Mothra would appear to get Anderson Silva out of bed in the morning. The UFC’s middleweight champion and manager Ed Soares told MMA Weekly that they take some issue with Vitor Belfort being chosen as Silva’s next contender. (The bout is rumored for January 2.)
“Vitor has not fought in the UFC at 185 pounds,” Soares said. “Now, I know people can say Anderson fought for the belt after one fight, and that’s true, but he fought at 185 pounds. At 195 pounds, he [Belfort] didn’t make weight, at first. So he couldn’t make weight at 195 pounds, but now he’s going to fight for the title at 185 pounds?”
Is any MMA manager getting more face time right now than Ed Soares? I feel like right now he does more than most fighters right now. Anyway, isn’t this getting a little absurd at this point? Who does Silva plan on taking on next? There have been rumors flying around that Frank Mir wants a piece of The Spider, but does anyone really want to see that fight? Even at heavyweight, Silva’s standup would probably be too much for Mir. Soares swears that the winner of a Nate Marquardt/Dan Henderson should get the first shot, but the UFC isn’t crazy about putting either of those guys in the cage against Silva as he’s already beat them both.
This is what happens when the fighters start getting too much power. I liked it better when no one was taking advantage of the matchmaking good will of Joe Silva and the UFC. Anderson, just fight who they tell you. Trust me, they are TRYING to make you look good.
By Anthony De Franco September 7, 2009, at 12:38 pm I love it when Kevin Acee breaks news. It makes me feel important considering we had him on Fourth Down on WCWP way before he became the go to Chargers guy that he has become. Today, he’s making some conjecture about the future of star outside linebacker Shawne Merriman, and the news isn’t good for the former Maryland star. Here’s the jist of it from Rotoworld:
According to beat writer Kevin Acee, this will be Shawne Merriman’s last season with the Chargers.
Acee said this week’s issue with Tila Tequila has no bearing on his status with the team. Merriman’s contract is up at the end of the season and the Chargers weren’t going to bring him back anyway. But Acee then speculates that Merriman could end up parting ways with the Chargers before this season is over, in part because general manager A.J. Smith is sick of dealing with Merriman’s off-field issues.
I already speculated this much, but it’s interesting to hear it from a source that is so close to the team. We already know that A.J. Smith holds no loyalty to his players from the Drew Brees-Phillip Rivers debacle, and in this case it’s not like Merriman has earned any loyalty to begin with. As for him being cut before the end of the year, It would be shocking to me if that happened. He’s still an elite level pass rusher, and a team like Green Bay would kill to have a guy like him.
It’s just like I said yesterday, If rookie Larry English performs well, Merriman is as good as gone.
By Anthony De Franco August 22, 2009, at 12:00 pm My god. Does this man ever stop? Will he ever fight at 185 again, or is that belt just going to disappear in the back of his closet? What is his obsession with fighting up?
For those who have no idea what I am talking about, Sherdog is reporting that Anderson Silva is going to move to heavyweight now, This is after his most recent bout was at 205 lbs, when he dismantled Forrest Griffin at UFC 101. Silva is still the 185 lbs champ, and has a number one contender waiting for him in Dan Henderson. He has also discussed dropping his title in an effort to pursue the biggest fights.
The endgame of all of this is easy to see. He wants to fight Brock Lesnar. Simply put, that would be the biggest fight in MMA history, and if nothing else, would put a ton of money in his pocket before Silva walks away into the sunset, or into the boxing ring to fight Roy Jones. That being said, we’ve always said on this site that in order to beat Lesnar, you would need to have at least comparable size to stop his takedowns. Silva would walk into the ring at 215 or 220 compared to Brock’s 280. Not good, but if anyone could stop Brock, it would be the man who I frequently refer to as a ninja because of his skills on the feet.
However, am I the only one thinking that this is getting a little bit ridiculous? Imagine if Silva played any other sport. Think about this for a second, what if Andre Johnson decided that he had done all that he could playing wide receiver and wanted to play safety. Could you imagine the backlash? Beat writers would crucify him, talking heads would talk about how selfish he is, and his teammates would want to kill him. However, since he is a fighter we let him get away with it. Isn’t it the same thing? One guy who thinks that there is no one that can keep up with him doing one thing, so he decides to do another.
Personally, I think it’s getting hard to take Silva too seriously.
By Anthony De Franco July 25, 2009, at 3:38 pm I’ve been waiting for the dust to settle on this whole deal before I make any comments, but I have a strange feeling that I am beginning to get a beat on what is going to happen.
For those who don’t know, Josh Barnett’s positive drug test forced Affliction to cancel their upcoming card. Already hemorrhaging money, the clothing manufacturer deciding to simply call it quits. Now, they have secured a deal with Dana White and the UFC to once again become a sponsor and go back to making clothing as their sole profit center. First off, This is a surprising move from the UFC’s despot leader. He’s known as being brash and unforgiving, and the fact that he is allowing someone who challenged him for the throne back into his company is shocking. I bet Affliction had to pay a huge sum of money to get that deal done.
Well, with that hashed out, what happens to all the fighters? We’ll go one at a time:
- Josh Barnett - With his legacy permanently tarnished, I don’t see anyway that he is getting back in an American MMA ring anytime soon. He’ll probably go back to Japan and earn some of that crazy Yakuza money, but he’ll forever be remembered as a two-time steroid user and the man that killed Affliction.
- Fedor – Not even going to try to spell his last name. There have been rumors of him going to the UFC, but I think people are forgetting one important fact: The Russian Government is a huge part of the negotiations for Fedor. They want him to be treated like he’s Alex Rodriguez, and I just don’t think that it’s going to fly in the UFC. As recently as the other day, we posted an interview with Fedor where he talked about the “terms of the contract” with the UFC being “Unacceptable.” Sorry, Don’t expect Fedor and Brock anytime soon.
- Vitor Belfort – It’s done. He’s going back to the UFC. Dana has already said that he wanted him back in the fold, and now that he is a ture free agent, it’s going to happen. He’ll get a couple of tuneups and then he’ll get Anderson Silva.
- Gegard Mousasi and Jay Hieron – Call this a plea to Dana if you will. Sign these two guys. Of the two, Hieron is the more expendable, but please at least sign Mousasi. He’s a damn good fighter that no one knows about yet, and he deserves a shot in your light heavyweight division. Hieron is a Long Island guy who I would like to see succeed. He’s got good wrestling and decent enough stand up that he could make some noise with some improvement.
So, it’s down to just two American MMA promotions. I like both Strikeforce and the UFC, and I think that both of them have their merits. However, It’s a shame that we keep losing MMA companies. The more fights, the better, and now we are being robbed of a pretty good card, and maybe future pretty good cards from Affliction as well.
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