|
|
By Anthony De Franco  March 8, 2010, at 4:05 pm  I’ll save everyone the normal speech about how the WEC fighters are treated like second class citizens because they weigh less than 155 pounds. I’ll skip right to the interesting notes.
- Joseph Benavidez wins the night by making 29,000 in his victory. I was surprised when I saw this, but more power the Joe for getting that money. In a preview of a future article, it’s only a matter of time before Joe is the man at 135.
- Miguel Torres made 26,000 in a loss. This makes me wonder he had a symmetrical win bonus. If he made 52,000 in a victory, that is UFC money right there. This is a good sign.
- Of course, this is the last card before the first WEC PPV, and you all should be ordering it. Remember, PPV revenue means more money for the fighters. Think of them.
Here is the full list:
Televised Card:
Dominick Cruz ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Brian Bowles ($12,000)
Joseph Benavidez ($14,500+$14,500=$29,000) def. Miguel Torres ($26,000)
Javier Vazquez ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Jens Pulver ($14,000)
LC Davis ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Deividas Taurosevicius ($9,000)
Bart Palaszewski ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Karen Darabedyan ($4,000)
Preliminary Card:
Scott Jorgensen ($8,000+$8,000=$16,000) def. Chad George ($3,000)
Chad Mendes ($4,000+$4,000=$8,000) def. Erik Koch ($3,000)
Anthony Pettis ($3,000+$3,000=$6,000) def. Danny Castillo ($9,500)
Leonard Garcia ($14,000) fought George Roop ($3,000) to a split draw
Fredson Paixao ($2,000+$2,000=$4,000) def. Courtney Buck ($3,000)
Ricardo Lamas ($5,000+$5,000=$10,000) def. Bendy Casimir ($3,000)
By Anthony De Franco March 8, 2010, at 3:55 pm We’ve been lamenting the effect that Fedor has had on Strikeforce for sometime now. He costs too much for a company that was building slowly, and since he’s come in there has been nothing but trouble for Scott Coker and company. Now, it turns out the Fedor could miss serious time. From MMABay:
MMABay Radio can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that WAMMA heavyweight champion, Fedor Emelianenko has suffered a hand injury in training that could see him sidelined for a number of months, putting his latest fight with Fabricio Werdum in doubt.
The news was revealed to Chris Greenman while on the floor at the Arnold Exhibition today in Columbus, Ohio while discussing the state of the Strikeforce heavyweight division with a source close to the situation. It has since been confirmed by a further two reliable sources.
Strikeforce have been in negotiations with M-1 Global and Fedor over the fight with Werdum on May 15th in St. Louis, Missouri for a number of weeks, although it has been well publicised that these talks had not been going well. Now with the news of an injury surfacing, this fight could be pushed back to the end of the summer at best if contract wranglings can be sorted out.
Oh, well. Now, Strikeforce can actually keep some money from that show and call it “profit.” Crazy idea.
I’m being a little unfair. It’s really not Fedor, it’s M-1 Global his management company that insists the Fedor is good enough to be worth special rules and other things of the like that make me angry. For example, M-1 takes almost half the television revenue from each event that The Last Empereor appears on. How is Strikeforce supposed to survive like that?
Trust me, the longer he is out, the better off the San Jose-based promotion is.
By Anthony De Franco March 7, 2010, at 3:39 pm Stock Up
- Joseph Benavidez – I did not see that one coming whatsoever. Miguel Torres was the class of the division for so long that no one could have ever guess that he would lose to someone like Benavidez. He had the reach advantage, the experience advantage, and had been improving his striking with Mark DellaGrotte. However, Benavidez charged ahead and stifled just about any offense that the mullet could muster and dominated Torres from bell to bell. We can only assume that a rematch with Dominick Cruz is on the docket.
- Dominick Cruz – Speaking of the new banntamweight champ, Cruz impressive dispatched of Brian Bowles using a jumpy, movement based style that left me confused. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t beleive that it will work against someone who is an equal athlete to him, but for the moment he is the champ. Expect the aforementioned rematch sooner than later.
- Scott Jorgensen – How about that guillotine? He lifted Chad George up off the ground and than let him go and left him laying on the floor. With that performace, Jorgensen enters the top five at 145 and will likely need just one more win before getting his title shot.
Stock Down
- Miguel Angel Torres – Things are looking grim for the former champ. There was a time where Miguel was at the bottom of the pound-for-pound top 10. Now, he is coming off two consecutive losses and has seemingly been passed by three separate fighters at 135. Will he ever gt back to being dominant? It’s not looking good.
- Jens Pulver – It seems like I’ve wrote this column six times now. Pulver remains a legend of the sport, but simply can’t cut it anymore. He came out with a terrible gameplan. He knew that Javier Vasquez wanted to take him down, but instead of concentrating on his sprawl, he was throwing kicks. It didn’t make much sense. Now a loser of 9-of-13, you’d have to assume that he is done as a fighter and will concentrate on coaching.
- The WEC – With the move to pay-per-view coming, the best thing that could have happened to the WEC was the fighters that already have name recognition winning. Guys like Torres and Brian Bowles winning was an important step towards creating stars that can headline money making cards that aren’t named Urijah Faber. However, they now have to start all over again with Cruz and Benavidez. Not good.
By Anthony De Franco February 26, 2010, at 6:25 pm No one was surprised when we found out that Paulo Filho backed out of his fight at Bitetti Combat last night. However, most assumed that Filho was still suffering from emotional problems that have haunted him for years, but according to Filho, the problem was with money, not his mind.
From Tatame:
“What happened was this, we never came to a financial agreement. Their offer fell far short of what I’m accustomed to and that undermines the career of a fighter,” said the fighter, who revealed that problems with payment from the previous two editions of Bitetti Combat also influenced his decision.
Yea….okay. Filho remains remarkably unreliable. I would be horrified to book him on anything right now. If they never agreed on money, why in god’s name would they put his name on the card and confirm his fight. Why wouldn’t he say something before a week away from the card?
A whole lot of this doesn’t make sense.
By Jason Comack February 21, 2010, at 12:55 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?
Chris Lytle: Lytle is a much better fighter then he shows in the ring. He’s content with banging out KO’s, fights and submissions of the night and banking the extra cash. Lytle is a much crisper boxer then we’ve seen as of late but the truth is his giant hay-maker of doom punches have put money in his wallet so he’s unlikely to stop them. Against Brian Foster we were reminded that Lytle does in fact have a submission game as he won with a devastating knee bar.
Lytle has settled nicely into the gate keeper role. He’s a guy you can put either on the under-card or a Spike TV Prelim/Fight Night and know your going to get a solid fight. His role is taking on young guys who are ready to move up in competition and while there’s a bunch of fights that make sense a lot of the young welterweights are already booked in fights.
Rory MacDonald; The 20 year old Canadian welterweight is an exciting prospect. However he’s been rumored to be fighting Carlos Condit at UFC 115. Rick Story and Nick Osipczak are fighting each other at UFC 112. Amir Sadollah and Dong Hyun Kim are fighting each other at UFC 114. T.J Grant and Johny Hendricks are fighting at UFC 113.
So due to timing issues most of those guys are out of the equation. So whose left?
Paulo Thiago: Thiago has been fighting top guys non-stop. This fight would give him a chance to hone his skills, he’s still very raw, and give him a win against a solid welterweight. Let’s not kid ourselves though Thiago isn’t going to take such a drastic step down in competition.
Matt Serra: That already happened and my wallet still is hurting.
Rob Kimmons and Mike Pierce: Pierce and Kimmons are fighting on UFC Live: Vera/Jones on March 21rst so the timing works out nicely. Pierce, 10-3 (1-1 UFC), took out Brock Larson is his UFC debut and then lost to Jon Fitch. Obviously there’s no shame in losing to Jon Fitch and in fact he looked very good in that fight. Kimmons hasn’t enjoyed much UFC success, 2-2, but is moving down to welterweight for the first time.
Ben Saunders and Jake Ellenberger: Saunders was originally set to take out Martin Kampman before a horrifying gash knocked hm out of the fight. Ellenberger is 1-1 in the UFC and much like Pierce has looked good even when he’s lost. He lost to Carlos Condit in his UFC debut but lost a close split decision, he followed that up by beating Mike Pyle.
Saunders is 4-1 in the UFC and a win over Ellenberger would probably put him in line to fight bigger fish then Lytle. If Ellenberger does win however Lytle would probably be a fight in his range.
Ricardo Almeida and Matt Brown: Almeida is moving down from middleweight, where he had sucess and draws Matt Brown as his first opponent. Brown is riding a fight win streak and is 4-1 in the UFC. Almedia would probably draw a bigger name if he wins considering his original opponent before injury was Jon Fitch. Brown already fought and lost to Lytle although it was outside of the UFC.
Nate Diaz and Rory Markham: The less sane Diaz brother is moving up in weight because well in his own words “I don’t make enough money to cut to 155.” Diaz is 6-3 in the UFC and a marketable fighter because of his personality. Markham had success in the IFL but has struggled as of late. He lost is UFC debut to Dan Hardy and has struggled with injuries since.
If Diaz can beat Markham I can’t think of a more perfect fight then Diaz/Lylte. Your bound to get a fight of the night with both guys winning wild hay-makers at each other. Unlike Gray Maynard Lytle actually has the boxing acumen to make Diaz pay for his goofy striking style. Also unlike Gray Maynard if he gets KO’d he really doesn’t care. Lytle and Diaz would also be a wildly entertaining scrap if it hit the ground.
Diaz has to get by Markham first but, Lytle Vs. Diaz would be awesome as a Spike TV Prelim or Fight Night fight.
By Anthony De Franco February 8, 2010, at 8:27 pm I am still amazed by how many people think that strategy is a big part of mixed martial arts. How much money does Greg Jackson have to make before people realize that having a good corner is just important as being well prepared for your fight.
Just ask Mark Coleman. Coleman brought former Randy Couture confidant Shawn Tompkins to the cage with him, and Tompkins gave him some TERRRIBLE advice. Here’s what Josh Gross of SI.com had to say about it:
“Coleman made Couture’s night easy when, at the advice of his trainer Shawn Tompkins and the despite the fact it has never been his path to victory, he chose to stand and trade.”
“…Shortly into the bout, Coleman carried the attitude of a confused athlete, one who was thinking instead of fighting.”
“Between the first and second round, Coleman looked up at Tompkins as the Canadian offered instructions on how to keep distance and how to fire off combination. I’m fairly certain he would have loved if Tompkins told him to run out there and take a shot on a double-leg. If you’re going to go out, go out at what you do best.”
Who besides Tompkins could possibly believe that Coleman had any chance standing and trading with Couture? Over the last few years, Couture has drilled his boxing to the point where it is on par with his wrestling. He has some of the best head movement in the game. As supposed to Coleman, who had no head movement.
What a joke.
|
|
Tags: 
