|
|
By Anthony De Franco  March 11, 2010, at 9:00 am  There are a bunch of people who are rooting for Bobby Lashley to fail. After Brock Lesnar came over from the WWE, people were worried that others would follow. Since Lashley was the next to attempt it, he has drawn a ton of heat from the hardcore MMA fans.
However, what they don’t realize is that Lashley does have some real talent. A strong wrestling background in his back pocket, he is training with American Top Team to improve the other areas of his game. While he hasn’t been tested yet, he is 5-0, and sure to start facing tougher competition in Strikeforce.
It does have the look of a WWE t-shirt, doesn’t it? I do really like the look of the lightning graphics.
MMA Warehouse has this one for 35.99.
For more TapouT shirts, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco March 5, 2010, at 5:23 pm The new rumor making the rounds is that the previously announced Kimbo Slice-Matt Mitrione fight that was pulled off the UFC 113 will headline the UFC’s event on April 17th. This would serve to hurt the ratings of Strikeforce’s CBS card. According to Brent Brookhouse:
With the announcement of the UFC holding an event on April 17 and now news that the rumored Mike Swick vs. Matt Serra fight is off due to Mike Swick’s injury there has been much speculation on what fights will run on the event.
Despite rumors from Carmichael Dave on The Underground that James Toney would make his MMA debut against Kimbo Slice on the event, I have heard from a solid source that the most likely option right now is to move the scheduled Kimbo Slice / Matt Mitrione fight from UFC 113 up a few weeks to the Spike TV card.
Outside of putting Brock Lesnar on free TV, which will NEVER EVER happen, Slice is probably the biggest ratings draw that the UFC carries right now. People from all walks of life will tune in to see the internet brawler take on the former NFL player and completely forget that the Strikeforce card is on.
The CBS card will outdraw the UFC purely by the fact that it is on CBS, but the if the UFC can do a decent number, they are taking eyes away from Strikeforce.
What will we do? Probably watch the UFC, and make sure to switch over for the only good fight on the Strikeforce card: Gilbert Melendez killing Shinya Aoki’s stupid pants.
By Anthony De Franco February 28, 2010, at 5:57 am One of Brock Lesnar’s training partners, Cole Konrad, has been dubbed a hot prospect by just about everyone in the MMA world. Last night, he fought at Matrix Fights 1 in Philadelphia, defeating Joel Wyatt by TKO. Shortly after, both Cole and Bellator proudly announced his signing with the up and coming MMA promotion.
Konrad was proud to moving up the ranks so quickly:
“I’m excited to sign with Bellator. It’s a great opportunity to fight for a great company and I’m just really excited for what the future holds with this company.”
While Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was excited to sign the huge heavyweight for his upcoming season:
“Cole Konrad brings some great characteristics to the table that could make him a force at heavyweight. Brock Lesner’s dominance in the UFC has shown the impact that an elite, world-class wrestler can have in the heavyweight division. As a two-time NCAA heavyweight champion who is aggressively rounding out his MMA arsenal, Cole’s potential is unlimited. We are happy to be teaming up with him and, as a company, we are excited with what the future may hold.”
“We are happy not only to announce our long-term deal with him but to reveal that fans will be able to see his next fight on one of our nationally televised May events on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo.”
We here at the 3SS have been watching Bellator put together the best young talent in the country and wondering what the hell Strikeforce is doing. As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by in the last few months that Jason and I haven’t discussed Bellator quickly coming up in Strikeforce’s mirror. Now, they steal another amazing prospect from them in the form of Konrad.
The scary part about Konrad is that he could be everything that people think that Brock Lesnar is. While Lesnar is the UFC champ, there are still those, including us, that have been unimpressed with his wrestling game. What will happen when he goes up against a guy who is his size? We aren’t so sure that it’s going to be as easy as his last three fights have been.
Konrad possesses the wrestling skills, but has not really shown that he can adapt them to MMA. While training with Lesnar, Sean Sherk, and all the other pro fighters at Minnesota Martial Arts, I’m sure that he’ll develop quickly. It’s yet another steal for the Bellator organization.
By Jason Comack February 27, 2010, at 2:01 pm Last night in Wilmington Massachusetts Judo standout Rick Hawn notched his 4th MMA victory. At 33 years old Hawn might be too old to be considered a prospect but despite his age he has serious skills that make you believe he can make it to the next level.
Hawn is one of, if not the, most decorated judo practitioners on the MMA circuit. Check out Hawn’s judo resume.
Olympic Teams: 2004 (Ninth)
World Championship Teams: 2007
Pan American Games Teams: 2007 (Bronze)
Pan American Championship Teams: 2004 (Fifth), 2002 (Bronze), 1999
Hawn confirmed, according to a Sherdog.com report, that his next fight will be March 15th in North Carolina on the Shine Fights PPV, against Braulio Estima. Estima is a renowned submission grappler who will be making his MMA debut. While it’d be better for Hawn to take on more well rounded and experienced opponents it’s good to see him staying very active.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
Cole Konrad has his second career MMA fight tonight as he looks to improve his 1-0 record agaisnt Joel Wyatt and Matrix Fights 1 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Konrad, 25, is a decorated wrestler out of the University Of Minnesota. Konrad, while at the University Of Minnesota won two NCAA titles. The first came during an undefeated junior season of 2006 and he followed that up with another undefeated, title winning performance in 2007.
A decorated wrestler is always a very dangerous MMA fighter no matter how green they are. We’ve seen it with Brock Lesnar, Phil Davis, Muhammad Lawal and Josh Koscheck (in the beginning of his career.) Obviously there’s a whole lot to be intrigued about when talking about Konrad. He’s got the size of a modern day heavyweight, 6′5 265, and trains with a great camp at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts. For a guy who aspires to be Baby Brock who better to train with.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
Keep a close eye on Hawn and Konrad both have the skill sets to one day be champion.
By Anthony De Franco February 22, 2010, at 3:34 pm I wasn’t surprised that Cain Velasquez won. I was shocked by how he won.
My staunch opinion on this fight was that he was going to have to take Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira down and leap into the danger zone that is Nog’s guard. He would have to show improved Jiu-Jitsu defense and ride out fifteen minutes of danger to get himself closer to Brock Lesnar.
Of course, that didn’t happen. Cain chose to bypass all that hard work for a quick overhand right and a follow up shot on the ground. He finished Big Nog’. He broke the unbreakable.
Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM
Of course, now we all have to sit here and talk about how good Cain is and he is clearly great. However, I’ve noticed a really disturbing trend in the last couple of days. People are beginning to underrate Brock Lesnar. I’m not quite sure the reason why. Maybe it’s been because he is out of action for so long. Maybe it’s because people who follow the sport generally don’t like him very much. Nontheless, I’ve heard more Brock hating in the past few days than I’ve heard in the last year or two.
“The myth about Brock is that he is a great wrestler.” someone turned to me and said after the Cain/Nog fight. I rolled my eyes at him. It’s not that I don’t value his opinion, because he is right. Lesnar is not the super wrestler that people think he is. However, the same people were talking about Lesnar’s size being insurmountable not too long ago.
I think this is part of the reason that I had such an easy time transitioning from being a football writer to a MMA writer. The same kind of bandwagon jumping happens far, far too often in both sports. One win or loss does not a season make. Nor a fighter. Nor anything else. Particularly when it’s an early knockout with four ounce gloves.
The reality is that Cain weights 245 lbs. He has good standup, with power that has finally manifested itself seven fights later. He is a far superior wrestler than Brock. He has all those advantages.
So, what does Brock have going for him? Being roughly the size of Mount Rushmore. He will enter the Octagon roughly 50 pounds heavier than Cain. Here’s what I want you to do. Weigh yourself. Than, find someone who is roughly fifty pounds bigger than you. Now imagine that person had almost zero body fat. Yea, that just happened.
So, here is where I stand on Cain: I’m a fan. I like Cain. I like the no nonsense style. I love the pride he has in his heritage. I adore the “Brown Pride” tattoo. However, I would still pick Brock over him any day of the week.
I hope I’m wrong but I’m not.
By Anthony De Franco February 22, 2010, at 2:08 pm A long time ago, we were excited by the fact that Fathead has signed a deal with B.J. Penn. It was another step towards being recognized as a mainstream sport.
Well, get excited again. This time it’s the whole UFC. From MMA Junkie:
After announcing a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship earlier this month, Fathead has now rolled out seven featured fighters from its UFC line.
The popular wall-graphics company has selected four current champions and three top contenders whose lifesize likenesses are available for $99.99 each.
Fighters include heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, middleweight title-holder Anderson Silva and lightweight champ B.J. Penn, as well as contenders Jon Jones, Junior Dos Santos and Nate Marquardt.
How awesome is this? Really, there is a good chance of a 6′4 light heavyweight impersonating Bruce Lee being on my wall pretty soon.
|
|
Tags: 
