|
|
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 Anthony De Franco January 30, 2010, at 7:00 pm Here is another gem from Tito Ortiz. Now he’s claiming that the salary increases that MMA has seen over the last few years are all his doing. From MMA Junkie:
“People like (Rashad) Evans and ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Chuck Liddell – these guys are making the millions now because of me holding out. If I didn’t hold out, they’d get taken advantage of.”
… “‘Rampage’ is a guy who I’ve helped out a lot. When he came from PRIDE, he got the same contract I did – exactly the same contract as I did. I gave it it to him, and I told him, ‘This is what I’m getting, bro. This
what you should be getting.’ He did, and he got it. It’s just one of those things that I’ve always tried to help out guys like Matt Hughes, the dirtbag, and guys like that who just hate on me – probably because either they wanted to be like me or they can’t achieve as much as I have.”
Uhhh…Tito. Hughes has achieved way, way more than you. He is a no doubt UFC hall of famer, you are a guy who held the title once and has been smoked by Chuck Liddell twice. Hughes may be a dirtbag, but at least he has the cred to back it up.
Earlier this week, Ortiz claimed that Liddell had an alcohol problem. We all know Chuck likes to party, but Ortiz claimed he was an alcoholic. Not cool.
I shouldn’t be so annoyed by Ortiz. This is what he does. He uses his mouth to get attention. He says outlandish things that annoy people. We all have a friend like this. If you think you don’t then you are probably your group’s Tito.
After all he said this week, I am looking forward to Chuck throwing a looping right hook and knocking Ortiz the hell out.
By Anthony De Franco January 11, 2010, at 3:49 pm I love Twitter. Only in our generation could you stories via the horse’s mouth in less than 140 characters. According to Da Spyder’s twitter account, he’s back in the cage for UFC 112.
Da spyders fighting in abudabi April 10 so pumped
Bad grammar aside, I am one of the few people in the world that remains on the side of Grove. When he won TUF 3, he was clearly an excited kid who wasn’t ready for the big show. He’s only 6-3 since, but is coming off a win against Jake Rosholt in which he showed some nice BJJ. He’s also showed increased maturity over his last few matchups, often talking about his desire to get better because he needs to feed his family. You’d be shocked what a motivator survival is.
Let me also say that his three losses aren’t exactly bad losses eithier. He lost Ricardo Almeida, who is just awesome. He lost to Patrick Cote, who went on to fight Anderson Silva for the middleweight title. He lost to Jorge Rivera…okay, that’s a terrible loss.
Also, here is yet another name fighter for UFC 112. Since we last spoke, we found out that the man behind the Abu Dhabi Combat Club grappling championship Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has bought a small percentage of the UFC. That may explain part of the reason that the card has been so stacked. However, I still think that if they do choose to go with two title fights, Renzo Gracie v. Matt Hughes, and Kendall Grove, they are going to regret it in the following months.
By Anthony De Franco January 11, 2010, at 12:36 am Before I make my argument, I’m going to participate in a little exercise that lawyers call discovery. That means that I am going to show all my cards, expose my evidence so that the whole world can see.
1. Varner was hit with a knee that glanced his head in his fight against Cerrone. Because of that, he “couldn’t continue” and a fight where the momentum was clearly in Cerrone’s favor was stopped, went to the cards, and Varner retained.
2. He then took a YEAR off, claiming that he had two separate injuries that kept him from fighting Cerrone. People clamored for the fight, and rumors began to circulate that Varner was ducking his opponent. The two continued to verbal spar and nearly fight each time they were in the same room.
3. After Cerrone lost an interim title fight to Ben Henderson, Varner was forced to fight Henderson. All he did in the lead-up to the fight was that the WEC was promoting the return of Urijah Faber, their biggest draw, more than they were promoting his title fight.
4. Just moments into said title fight, Varner looked for the ref to stop the fight because of something with his eye. It kinda made no sense. He was just hit with a kick to the body. I’m going to assume that he lost a contact. Otherwise, I have no idea.
5. In round three, Henderson locked in a hanging guillotine. It took Varner roughly three seconds to tap. No slam, no falling to the ground to defend, no trying to power out. Nothing. He just tapped.
6. After the fight, Varner said “Boo all you want. I came to fight, he came to grapple.”
Wow. What a guy. This dude wants to know why the fans hate him so much? Look at the six examples I just provided. All of those things seem to point to the same thing. Varner simply doesn’t have much in the way of heart.
As someone who covers the sport, I really don’t hate fighters. I have certain fighters that I treat as a “home team.” When they win, I get pumped. I never, ever get excited when someone looses. However, how could you not root against Varner after all he’s done?
The best part about the whole thing is that a lot of those things are excusable if they were the only thing a fighter has done. The quick tap could have been a case where the submission was just in really deep. The knee was a weird scenario. However, when you pile it all together, it paints an ugly picture.
Jamie. Listen to me. If you want the fans to like you, here is what you do: You shut up. You stop talking. You take your next fight and you win. You still stay quiet. Lather, rinse, and repeat. It’s your mouth that gets you into trouble more often than not.
As for the quick tap, I think that we all know what that means. I’m just not going to say it because I don’t want to create enemies. However, I think we all know that we need our fighters to show a little more heart than that.
By Anthony De Franco September 9, 2009, at 3:36 pm Oh baby. Let me tell you about how excited I am for this one. In one corner, you have “The Irish Hand Grenade” who is one of MMA’s best boxers with improved Muay Thai and excellent take down defense. In the other, You have “Killa B,” who was undefeated before getting swatted back down the welterweight ranks by Mike Swick in Germany at UFC 99. Saunders is an excellent striker and makes exciting fights with just about anyone.
Another reason that this fight is awesome is that both of these fighters need this fight. Davis also lost in Germany when he dropped a controversial decision to Dan Hardy. That loss was especially difficult for Davis, who was sick of Hardy running his mouth and was threatening to kill the Brit by the time they got in the ring. Before that loss, Davis had won 7 of his 8 UFC fights, with his only loss also coming to Swick.
Expect this fight to be a standup war. Saunders lost to Swick because he was staying in the pocket too much and got caught a bunch of times. If he does that with Davis, The Irish Hand Grenade might actually kill him.
Thanks to MMAWeekly For the Photo!
|
|
Tags: 
