This past Saturday the UFC held another Fight for the Troops event to benefit wounded soldiers. I commend the UFC for putting together such events and apparently they raised well over a million dollars to go towards treating soldiers with serious head injuries. Now onto the fights....
Charlie Brenneman vs. Amilcar Alves: Not much to comment about this fight. Brenneman is a stellar wrestler and he used to it to constantly ground Alves and wear him out with top control and ground and pound.
Waylon Lowe vs. Willemy Freire: See comments from Brenneman fight.
Rani Yahya vs. Mike Brown: When the tale of the tape came up on the screen I made the comment that I had no idea Mike Brown was 35 years old. Despite his age I felt like Brown was going to walk through Yahya thanks to his superior striking. I also thought that Brown's strength would allow him to get out of any trouble he got into on the mat. Boy was I wrong. Brown played right into Yahya's gameplan and was simply outgrappled for three rounds. Brown really didn't offer anything in this fight and I worry that his days as an elite fighter are behind him.
DaMarques Johnson vs. Mike Guymon: I don't know how Johnson didn't win submission of the night. Body triangle subs are pretty rare and are pretty friggin sweet. Johnson is one of those guys who will continue to put on good fights, but will never really crack into the elite. I'd love to see the guy fight Matt Brown. For those of you who didn't see the post-fight backstage video, Mike Guymon seemingly retired from fighting in a pretty heart-breaking moment. Best of luck to whatever he chooses to do from here.
Yves Edwards vs. Cody McKenzie: A lot of people are giving McKenzie some love for hanging tough in this fight. I on the other, hand feel as if that praise is unjustified. Edwards destroyed McKenzie on the feet and even when McKenzie got Edwards down to the mat his ground work seemed sloppy. He even took Edwards's back several times and could do nothing with the position despite being touted as some ground expert. In the end Edwards got the better of McKenzie and choked him unconscious with a rear naked choke.
Matt Wiman vs. Cole Miller: I wasn't all that excited for this fight but was immediately intrigued when Wiman and Miller were talking shit to each other from across the cage. As for the fight, all I can say is wow. I've always been kind of "eh" in regards to Matt Wiman. I've never really been particularly impressed with anything he's done aside from get knocked out by Spencer Fisher, but he looked like an absolute animal in this fight. Miller looked like he got hit early in the 1st and was shook for the rest of the fight. From there it was all Wiman dominating with some brutal ground and pound.
Pat Barry vs. Joey Beltran: Not the coming out party it should have been for Barry, but a win is a win I suppose. Barry definitely had a look in his eyes that he was going to be more aggressive and look for the finish, but unfortunately that didn't translate into smart fighting. Barry was getting hit with a lot of punches when Beltran threw wild combos, and when Barry had Beltran hurt with the legs kicks he didn't continue to throw them. Barry is a talented fighter but he barely got past a mediocre heavyweight at best and even then he didn't look all that impressive.
Mark Hominick vs. George Roop: The only thing I got out of this fight was ... well there's Jose Aldo's next victim.
Matt Mitrione vs. Tim Hague: I understand that a lot of people think it's a little too late for Mitrione to be a top-level fighter due to his age and lack of experience, but I still have high hopes for the guy. He's aggressive, he's athletic as hell, and he has some big power. Hague isn't a UFC caliber fighter, but he's definitely a step up over guys like Big Baby and Kimbo and Mitrione still passed the test with flying colors. I'm very excited to see this guy take a step up in competition and I think he'll do very well.
Melvin Guillard vs. Evan Dunham: Holy shit that was one hell of a beating. Dunham is fairly notorious for being a slow starter and he certainly paid for it in this fight. Guillard has improved leaps and bounds since his early days, but I think any mention of him getting near a title shot is way way way premature. I still have memories of the guy getting handled by grapplers, so I'd like to see him get by a high level grappler before we start talking about his chances of wearing gold.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
MMA Mind Dump
Well once again work and other things have kept me from posting as much as I would like. This is just going to have to be one of those things where my levels of effort making need to rise and I promise that is what I'll do. Since a lot has gone on in MMA since my last post I'm just going to post a bunch of quick thoughts and come back with some more well-planned and detailed articles, as well as some contributions from Billy and Brian.
The Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament rules have been announced and I think the biggest surprise is that Overeem's title will not be on the line. The winner of the tournament will get a shot at Overeem's title, which seems silly to me considering Overeem could win the tournament, thus leaving no title match to set up, or Overeem could not win the tournament, meaning he lost a fight at some point yet remained champion. The Strikeforce Heavyweight title doesn't have much legitimacy as is, and this set up could only make things worse.
Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar will be the coaches on the next season of the Ultimate Fighter, which will be an all welterweight season. The coaches will then fight at the end of the season to determine who will face Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight Title when the champ returns from injury. I have two thoughts when it comes to this decision: 1) It's a brilliant move by the UFC to put Lesnar in as a coach. While he is still fairly new to the sport he will bring monster ratings to a show in need of help and just because he has limited experience, he will bring a stellar cast of assistant coaches from the Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy. 2) I'm not sure why Lesnar is getting the chance for another title show so soon, especially since he lost the title in a very one-sided fight. Also, if we learned anything in the fight between Cain and Brock it was that Brock doesn't take a punch to well. Not being able to react well to getting hit is something that might come back to bite Lesnar once again as he will be facing the UFC's most dangerous heavyweight striker.
Earlier this week I bought a ticket to UFC 128 which will take place in Newark, New Jersey, and will feature a Light-Heavyweight Title fight between Shogun Rua and Rashad Evans, Urijah Faber's UFC debut against Eddie Wineland, Brendan Schaub versus Mirko Cro Cop, Jim Miller versus Kamal Shalorus, and Yoshihiro Akiyama versus Nate Marquardt. I'll be tweeting live during the fights so be sure to follow me at @JustinCohee.
Rumors have been going around that Shinya Aoki is considering retiring from MMA after his KO loss to kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima in an exhibition match at K-1 Dynamite!!! 2010. Aoki has always had a bit of an attitude problem, so hearing this really doesn't surprise me, but I'll be shocked if he actually goes through with it. Aoki didn't seem to take the fight to seriously and he paid for it, but I have trouble believing he'll end his career on such a sour note.
Shane Carwin is set to return to the UFC after successful neck surgery at UFC 131. Carwin's opponent has yet to be announced, but options are looking limited. Lesnar and Dos Santos are obviously tied up with each other, Carwin already walked through Frank Mir, and Roy Nelson is rumored to be facing Mir next anyways. Carwin is coming off a loss, but it only came after he dominated the then-champ for a round. I'd like to see Carwin take on Cheick Kongo next. Most of the top guys are already tied up and a fight with the imposing Kongo would be easy to sell. Kongo isn't my favorite fighter in the world, but it's hard to deny that he's a talented striker with big power.
The Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament rules have been announced and I think the biggest surprise is that Overeem's title will not be on the line. The winner of the tournament will get a shot at Overeem's title, which seems silly to me considering Overeem could win the tournament, thus leaving no title match to set up, or Overeem could not win the tournament, meaning he lost a fight at some point yet remained champion. The Strikeforce Heavyweight title doesn't have much legitimacy as is, and this set up could only make things worse.
Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar will be the coaches on the next season of the Ultimate Fighter, which will be an all welterweight season. The coaches will then fight at the end of the season to determine who will face Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight Title when the champ returns from injury. I have two thoughts when it comes to this decision: 1) It's a brilliant move by the UFC to put Lesnar in as a coach. While he is still fairly new to the sport he will bring monster ratings to a show in need of help and just because he has limited experience, he will bring a stellar cast of assistant coaches from the Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy. 2) I'm not sure why Lesnar is getting the chance for another title show so soon, especially since he lost the title in a very one-sided fight. Also, if we learned anything in the fight between Cain and Brock it was that Brock doesn't take a punch to well. Not being able to react well to getting hit is something that might come back to bite Lesnar once again as he will be facing the UFC's most dangerous heavyweight striker.
Earlier this week I bought a ticket to UFC 128 which will take place in Newark, New Jersey, and will feature a Light-Heavyweight Title fight between Shogun Rua and Rashad Evans, Urijah Faber's UFC debut against Eddie Wineland, Brendan Schaub versus Mirko Cro Cop, Jim Miller versus Kamal Shalorus, and Yoshihiro Akiyama versus Nate Marquardt. I'll be tweeting live during the fights so be sure to follow me at @JustinCohee.
Rumors have been going around that Shinya Aoki is considering retiring from MMA after his KO loss to kickboxer Yuichiro Nagashima in an exhibition match at K-1 Dynamite!!! 2010. Aoki has always had a bit of an attitude problem, so hearing this really doesn't surprise me, but I'll be shocked if he actually goes through with it. Aoki didn't seem to take the fight to seriously and he paid for it, but I have trouble believing he'll end his career on such a sour note.
Shane Carwin is set to return to the UFC after successful neck surgery at UFC 131. Carwin's opponent has yet to be announced, but options are looking limited. Lesnar and Dos Santos are obviously tied up with each other, Carwin already walked through Frank Mir, and Roy Nelson is rumored to be facing Mir next anyways. Carwin is coming off a loss, but it only came after he dominated the then-champ for a round. I'd like to see Carwin take on Cheick Kongo next. Most of the top guys are already tied up and a fight with the imposing Kongo would be easy to sell. Kongo isn't my favorite fighter in the world, but it's hard to deny that he's a talented striker with big power.
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