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By Anthony De Franco  March 4, 2010, at 3:43 pm  Ladies and Gentlemen, start the unstoppable hype train. James Toney’s MMA trainer Juanito Ibarra said in an interview with Bleacher report that Toney’s managment wants to fight Kimbo.
“James Toney will fight anybody. It’s up to us to help him figure things out. What I would like to see and what his manager would like to see…Kimbo Slice.
“It makes sense. The weight factor makes sense. Maybe a 220 [lbs.] fight somewhere in there. Two guys who have great names. I would love to see that fight …I think that’s a great opponent …hopefully the UFC would consider something like that.”
Jason brings up a really interesting point on our twitter account. At what point to non-MMA fans stop wanting to see a fighter like either of them fight? If Kimbo loses to James Toney, he couldn’t ever defeat a guy who has a less rounded game than him. However, Toney remains a world class boxer and there is some merit to that. If Toney loses to Slice, than the world champion Boxer just lost to a street fighter known for his stand up.
Even worse, what if they go to a sloppy three round decision and everyone is worse for wear? I pray that doesn’t happen.
The fight may be a drawing monster, but I just don’t see it going very well.
By Anthony De Franco March 2, 2010, at 10:55 am Did not see this one coming, did ya?
We’ve been waiting for quite some time to hear about Fedor’s next fight and many assumed that it was going to be against Fabricio Werdum. However, it appears that Fedor’s people (Read: The Russian Government) are more interested in Josh Barnett. For those who don’t remember, Barnett was supposed to be Fedor’s opponent on the ill-fated Affliction Trilogy card.
From Sports.ru:
“I personally think that Alistair Overeem did not reach the desired level to challenge Fedor. He beat a lot of no-name opponents in Mixed Martial Arts. Overeem defeated Paul Buentello and then disappeared from the United States for more than two year, which is simply ridiculous. Also, pay attention that Werdum beat Overeem when they were fighting in Pride, four years ago.”
“We do not fight for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title. Strikeforce are our partner, and any titles whether it is UFC, Strikeforce, WAMMA, Dream… they are just medals. Fedor is above these things. We are interested in the level of our opponent and his popularity among the audience.”
“Exactly. We are more interested in fighting Josh Barnett, who is currently disqualified until September. When he returns from his suspension and if he tests clean, we might consider fighting him
Fedor is above titles? Really? We’re going as far as to say that the belt doesn’t really matter? I’m sure Scott Coker and Strikeforce just love that.
So, here we have one of the biggest stars in the world allowing these people to essentially renegade his career. They are making tons of bad decisions that really make me wonder about who’s best interest they have in mind. However, the Barnett-Fedor fight does intrigue me. There are just a lot of problems with making it happen. First off, Barnett has to get re-licensed. He tested positive for Steroids, and didn’t choose to show up for many different hearings. Second, Barnett is not currently under contract with Strikeforce. He could hold them for ransom knowing that Fedor wants him as an opponent.
Third, at some point Fedor is going to have to fight for the belt. Otherwise, the champion is going to end up like Tommy Gunn in Rocky V, or Mason Dixon in Rocky Balboa. People will start calling him a paper champion and that doesn’t end well.
Let’s just be honest, Fedor is screwing up Strikeforce.
By Jason Comack March 1, 2010, at 5:23 pm We’ve been talking a lot about MMA prospects lately and I think its time we make a certain distinction. Guys like Gian Villante, Ricardo Romero we consider prospects because they are young, relatively new to MMA and aren’t signed by a major organization.
There seems to be a trend right now where people want to rush prospects along. I’m guilty of this. I pine for Romero and Villante to be in the UFC when in truth there’s no harm to them continuing to gain experience fighting in Ring Of Combat.
The rushing of prospects also happens in the UFC. Right now people are clamoring for Ryan Bader to start fighting top ten caliber opponents. Even though Bader is no longer a UFC rookie, it doesn’t mean he isn’t a prospect and it doesn’t mean that he needs to automatically face elite competition.
Let’s compare Bader to other elite prospects. A guy like Cain Velasquez has answered every single question and he’s improved markedly from fight to fight. We saw his chin tested against Kongo, we saw him out box and KO a great boxer with an iron jaw in ‘Nog. We saw him grow, improve his weak spots. The same hasn’t happened with Bader. Against Eric Schafer we learned that Bader really needed to improve his boxing and cardio. Against Jardine we learned Bader really needed to improve his boxing and cardio.
The scouting report on Bader is the same fight to fight. He comes out like a house of fire, with explosive shots in round 1 and after that he tails off. He looks to land a power overhand right and not much else. The Jardine fight played out the same way. He gassed after round 1 (his shots clearly lacked explosiveness in rounds 2 and 3), lost round 2 and KO’d Jardine in the 3rd. Now it was a good victory, don’t get me wrong, but he didn’t really out-strike Jardine. He KO’d Jardine with a left hook and he now he joins a long list of fighters to figure out Jardine’s weakness.
Bader is still a wrestler learning how to box and he has obvious power, with time his boxing should improve. What’s worrisome is his cardio. BJ Penn has talked about “not being that IV guy” during weigh-ins and Bader is the poster boy for being “that IV guy.” Is it weight cutting that zaps Baders gas tank? Is it a poor pre-fight training camp that hinders his cardio?
The obvious fight that people want is Bader Vs. the winner of Brandon Vera and Jon Jones. If Vera wins he’s the perfect opponent for Bader, a solid technical striker with great take-down defense. However, if Jones wins that matchup should be avoided at all costs. After the destruction of Matt Hammil it’s easy to speculate Jones would cut through Bader like a hot knife through butter. Why kill one prospect to push ahead another? Couldn’t this easily be avoided?
The other question is if Jones wins in impressive fashion is Bader even a step up in competition for Jones?
I’d rather see Bader fight someone like Vladimir Matyushenko, should he get through Elliot Marshall. It would be another small step up for Bader and it would give him more ring time to get his boxing and cardio in line.
Velasquez was a wrestler who became a very well rounded mixed martial artist. Ryan Bader is a wrestler who is fighting in mixed martial arts. That’s why Cain Velasquez is ready for a title shot and Ryan Bader is very far off.
By Anthony De Franco February 27, 2010, at 6:05 am Yancy Medeiros defeated Raul Castillo via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
This is a tough fight to get excited about. It’s not that Medeiros did anything wrong, or didn’t impress. It’s that we saw him outstrike a grappler who clearly is not comfortable on his feet whatsoever. However, let’s choose to be positive. He defeated an American Kickboxing Academy member by using effective, if not dominant striking and showed some really nice takedown defense. The only offense that Castillo put together came after a low blow. That should say something.
Saffiedine defeated Terry via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
I’ll say it again: Training with Cung Le might be a mistake. I keep saying that Anthony Johnson needs to get with a real camp if he wants to be a legit contender, and we saw again here that Terry was simply overmatched. Terry has a great highlight reel TKO with a head kick, but against a tougher opponent in Saffiedine, he was peppered with shots throughout and couldn’t get a takedown. Saffiedine looked good, and I like the combination of all the different arts he combined in his attack.
Luke Rockhold defeated Paul Bradley via TKO (Knees to the Body) at 2:24 of round 1.
Rockhold was absolutely dominant. He was winning the standup battle many times over and did it by using impressive counters. The finishing sequence was impressive as he threw a couple of really nice knees against the cage to drop Bradley. Combine this win with some of Luke’s submission wins, and suddenly this is a guy that we really need to start looking at.
Trevor Prangley vs. Karl Amoussou ends by Technical Draw due to accidental eye poke from Prangley at 4:14 of round 1
Everyone is going to get on the referee for this, but it isn’t really his fault. He was a slave to a dumb rule. When someone gets poked in the eye like that, why should they not be allowed five minutes to recover? Is it any different then getting hit with a low blow? After a few minutes, unless you really got gouged, your eye starts to open and you can go on fighting. That was a good fight for four minutes, and it’s a shame that it was stopped because of a stupid rule like that.
Sarah Kaufman defeated Takayo Hashi via Unanimous Decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Kaufman was just too strong for Hashi. The reality is that 135 is not a very deep division in women’s MMA. Hashi is a 125 fighter who was fighting up in order to give Kaufman an opponent. Kaufman boxed well throughout the fight, but Hashi simply could not keep up with the Canadian fighter. The problem is going to be finding an opponent for Kaufman. Even Jordan Breen might have to dig deep into the bag of tricks to find one.
By Anthony De Franco February 23, 2010, at 3:58 pm I find this fascinating, and thought about it when we were watching the fight, but didn’t say anything beacuse I thought I must be insane. However, more and more people are starting to jump on the idea that the aussie was circumventing the system and wearing grappling pants. From MMA Fighting:
During last weekend’s UFC 110, George Sotiropoulos turned in a star-making performance in a win over Joe Stevenson, but the victory also caused a minor controversy by some who questioned Sotirpoulos’ fight attire as flouting the rules.
Sotiropoulos wore fight shorts, compression shorts, knee sleeves and ankle sleeves that left little of his legs exposed, causing some to think he exposed a loophole in the rule prohibiting grappling pants.
Although the bout took place in Australia, MMA Fighting spoke with Nevada state athletic commission executive director Keith Kizer, who oversaw a previous UFC event in Nov. 2009 during which Sotiropoulos wore the same gear.
“We had a situation where one guy had ankle sleeves, but it was that material, non-slip rubber, so he wasn’t allowed to wear them,” Kizer said. “Equipment can’t give the opponent any kind of abrasion or pain, or allow the fighter wearing it an advantage to slip out of a submission or get one clinched in.”
I mean, really? Look at the picture:
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The dude has about four inches of exposed flesh on his legs. While he doesn’t make the same kind of living on leg locks that Aoki does, you can’t tell me that it wasn’t an advantage.
You know what they say: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”
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.
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