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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 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 January 26, 2010, at 4:32 pm Wow. Always trust Tito to stir the pot a little during a boring week. From Bloody Elbow:
“I think [Liddell] had a problem,” Ortiz said. “A lot of people go through addiction. I think his deal was he was an alcoholic. He loved to party.” “He’s been sober since November, and he looks like a different person. It’s awesome. I’m proud of him – really proud of him.”
Back handed compliment much?
We all know that Liddell really liked to party. There are always pictures of him in clubs and stuff like that, but to call him an alcoholic without him ever admitting to it is just not something that you do.
Of course, Ortiz loves to talk about stuff like this in order to garner attention for himself, so no one should really be surprised.
Liddell and Ortiz will fight after they coach season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter.
By Anthony De Franco January 25, 2010, at 5:58 am Is it ever a good idea to make fun of a guy who is generally referred to as a “ninja?”
Probably not. Nonetheless, that is exactly what middleweight contender Chael Sonnen is doing. Here is what he had to say about Silva and Brazillian manager of the stars, Ed Soares. From Bloody Elbow:
“You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn’t. I’ve had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he’s so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking.”
“It’s quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, ‘jeez, they’re out there massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can’t understand them,’” Sonnen stated.
“That guy’s no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods,” said Sonnen. “That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there’s a young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon.
How concise. Sonnen is making a lot of claims, and I wouldn’t doubt if some of them are true on a small level. However, to claim that Soares and Silva have created an elaborate ruse just to keep Anderson from talking to media seems a bit insane. Also, Soares might not be the world’s most interesting man, but is his probably one of the most powerful in the whole MMA world. He controls a whole stable of superstars that includes Silva, Big Nog, Jose Aldo and others. I’d be boring if I could be rich and powerful.
Here is what Soares said in response:
“I think Chael’s a really super nice guy and every time I’ve met the guy he’s always been really cool to me. That’s weird that he would say stuff on the radio, but I think at the end of the day, Chael’s not a dumb guy, he’s a pretty smart guy,” Soares commented. “I think no one will really pay attention to what he has to say unless he probably talks about Anderson.”
“Anyone that has a mouth can say what they want,” he said. “I don’t think people pay too much attention to what Chael does. Saying that Anderson’s boring or Anderson’s this, Anderson’s that, we don’t even need to go back and see what Chael has done. If you really want to analyze Chael’s career over the past couple years, he’s had some wins, but he said he didn’t tap against Paulo Filho. If the ref wouldn’t have stopped the fight, Paulo Filho would have his arm in Brazil with him.
What Sonnen is trying to do here is clearly build a little heat between himself and Silva in order to get himself a title shot. He probably knows that The Spider is not long for the middleweight division and a chance at beating Silva is Sonnen’s shot at leaving behind a huge legacy. He also would make some nice bank in the process.
By Anthony De Franco December 7, 2009, at 12:27 pm Ladies and Gentlemen, the first UFC fighter has chose to leave the MMA paradise of the Zuffa companies and fight for Strikeforce. Former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson has signed with the San Jose based company, according to Ariel Helwani of AOL Fanhouse:
After months of speculation, Dan Henderson has finally agreed to sign with Strikeforce. FanHouse has learned that the 12-year veteran, who was last seen knocking out Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in July, recently came to terms with the San Jose-based organization on a multi-fight agreement.
At this time, it is unknown when and where Henderson will make his debut for Strikeforce.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole first reported the possibility of Henderson signing with Strikeforce in October, but at Strikeforce’s CBS event in Chicago last month, the former PRIDE middleweight and light heavyweight champion told FanHouse that he had not come to terms with the organization yet.
Henderson returned to the UFC in September 2007 following Zuffa’s purchase of PRIDE. He lost a light heavyweight title unification bout against Rampage Jackson at UFC 75 and then a middleweight unification match with Anderson Silva at UFC 82. Following those back-to-back losses, he would go on to win his next three UFC fights against Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin and Bisping.
Recently, Henderson had publicly talked about being frustrated with the fact that he didn’t receive a middleweight title shot following his victory over Bisping and that he was hoping for a bump in salary.
Henderson really doesn’t have much to complain about in the money department. For his fight against Bisping at UFC 100, he made 100,000 dollars in addition to another 150,000 in bonuses. How many UFC fighters can walk away from any one event saying that they made 250,000 dollars? Not a whole lot of them that’s for sure.
As far as what this means for the MMA landscape, It’s really nothing but good things. Right now, we are in the teenage years of the sport, and the UFC has dominated those awkward, growing years. However, that doesn’t mean that some legit competition won’t make Dana and the boys all that much better.
As for Strikeforce, I’m happy it exists because it is another place besides the highly politicized UFC for fighters to make money. This signing really makes their explosion onto the UFC’s level. Remember the key thing here is that this isn’t a guy that the UFC didn’t want. Hendo chose to sign with Strikeforce. He turned down an offer from the UFC in order to do so.
Will this lead to an exodus of fighters from the UFC? Probably not. However, it’s good for fighters to know that there is somewhere that they can go even if Dana doesn’t want them.
Possible opponents for Henderson include Gegard Mousasi, Jake Shields, and of course, Fedor. All three of those are good fights, and we’ll breaking them all down coming later today.
One thing is for sure: I wouldn’t want to be working in the UFC headquarters today.
By Anthony De Franco November 18, 2009, at 10:26 am With the last loss that the Jets suffered, the season is pretty much over. In order to get to 10 wins, the team will have to win six of their final seven games. With a rookie quarterback, a rookie head coach, and a team that is seemingly snake bit, I don’t that it’s going to happen.
However, I’m not so sure that this season is the only issue the Jets face. With Mark Sanchez at the helm of this team, there is a misconception that this is a young team that is going to get better as their movie star-esque quarterback does. The problem is that the rest of the team around him isn’t nearly as young as him, and in fact, might be considered an aging experiment that isn’t really working.
In the backfield, Thomas Jones is a back running on borrowed time. He’s 31 years old and has has over 2,000 career carries. He’s going to inevitably break down in the coming season, and when it happen slowly. It’s going to look a lot like the train wreck that the Chargers are currently going through with LaDanian Tomlinson. He’s going to fall off a cliff. Behind him, you have Leon Washington who is going to be coming off a devastating leg injury that might effect him for the rest of the career, and Shonn Greene, who has some potential, but lacks big play ability.
At receiver, Braylon Edwards is a huge problem. It’s not just that he is dropping two point conversions that are costing the Jets games, it’s what going to happen after the Jets play their final game this year. Edwards is going to be a free agent after the season. He’s going to demand that kind of contract that a receiver like Andre Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald has. Is anyone crazy enough to think that Edwards has proven he’s in that tier of wide receivers, or has earned cash of that magnitude? If you give him that huge contract, and add his deal to the big free agent pay days that they gave too of players like Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace, Damien Woody, not to mention the contract extension that they will have to give super cornerback Darelle Revis and the Jets find themselves in a situation where they may HAVE to keep Edwards, but will be crippling themselves for the future in the process.
As for the defense, the key to it remains the previously mentioned Jenkins. In the past two years, there has been two different Jet teams. When Jenkins is on the field, the defense has been as good as any in the league. He stuffs up the middle of the field and allows for the very average Jets linebacking corps to make plays. Not the mention the fact that he is one of the few 3-4 nose tackles in the league that can actually push the pocket and get sacks. The problem is that he just can’t stay healthy. In two seasons, he’s played at one hundred percent in roughly six games. The Jets also have not built quality depth behind him, meaning he can’t come off the field. What they have now is a 31 year old player who can’t stay healthy at a position where players break down quickly who is making 15 million dollars over the next three years.
Those are just a few players on the Jets that are going to be seeing their careers on the downswing over the next few years. Add an aging offensive line, and a linebacking corps that is expensive, but not very good and the Jets are not a team that is building something.
They are a team that might be in serious trouble.
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