The Super Fight
Anderson Silva retained his Middleweight Championship at UFC 126, fanning the fires of anticipation over the possibility of a “super fight” between himself and Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.

UFC president Dana White confirmed that if St-Pierre should successfully defend his belt against challenger Jake Shields on April 30, the UFC would indeed set up a match between the two dominant fighters.

The UFC later confirmed that the super fight will not happen if Shields wins the title. The whole point of the super fight is that it would pit two virtually undefeated champions against each other – two fighters who are interchangeable at the top of most people’s pound for pound rankings. If Shields wins, GSP would drop way down on that list.

Uncle Dana also confirmed that once Georges makes the move to 185, he will stay there. Which begs the question, what of the welterweight belt? Would it immediately be vacated? Imagine for a moment that St-Pierre retains his belt at UFC 129. Sometime in the future, Silva and St-Pierre could fight for the middleweight belt on the same card that two top contenders fought for the vacated welterweight belt. GSP could hand it over.

Or, maybe GSP would keep the belt and possibly be the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold a belt in two weight divisions, should he beat Silva.

Fat Rampage
At UFC 126, Jon Jones was announced as the next challenger for the Light Heavyweight Championship, due to an injury to scheduled contender Rashad Evans. Current champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua made it known afterwards that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had first been offered the fight, but turned it down. He intimated that Rampage had used phony excuses to get out of a fight he didn’t really want.

But Rampage has only just begun training for a scheduled fight on May 28 and is still packing around Christmas weight. The championship fight takes place in only six weeks. As Jackson has stated, most of that time would be dedicated to losing the extra weight and not enough time would be put in to actually training for his opponent.

Jones, on the other hand, had just fought Ryan Bader, finishing him in the second round. He was not injured and was obviously in fight shape. In the post-fight press conference, he informed the media that he would actually be taking a few days off before going back and beginning to train for Rua.

While I personally believe that fighters should always be training and ready to fight at a moment’s notice, I know that is not always the case. For Jackon’s part, he does want to fight Shogun, but he wants to get in the cage at as close to 100% as possible. I don’t blame him. Only an idiot enters a title fight unprepared.

“Rashanda” Evans
I like Rashad Evans. I do. But his announcement this week that, if his friend Jon Jones should defeat Mauricio Rua, Evans would either drop to middleweight or go up to heavyweight, to avoid fighting his friend, is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard.

This is a sport. In no other sport does someone decline to compete against a friend. What would happen if Serena Williams refused to challenge her sister Venus in a tennis match? Six Sutter brothers played in the NHL back in the day. At no time did they all play for the same team, which means <gasp!> they had to play each other!

Matthew Barnaby and Rob Ray are like best friends, but they were the enforcers on their respective hockey teams. It was not unusual for them to have dinner together, then face off against each other on the ice, then go out for beers afterwards. The irony there is that, when they fought on the ice, it was because they were pissed off at each other. But this is mma – you don’t have to be mad at your opponent, you just need to defeat him. So why can’t you fight your friend?

By refusing to fight a friend, I believe it actually hurts mma in terms of being considered a sport. Too many people still think of mma as “human cockfighting”. In that context, it’s totally understandable that you wouldn’t want to fight your friend. But as a sport, there is absolutely nothing wrong with beating up your friend, because that is the object of the game. Just like taking all your friend’s money is the object of poker.

Strikeforce Tournament
This Saturday marks the beginning of Strikeforce’s much-ballyhooed heavyweight tournament. When it was first announced, I admit I was not as excited about it as I maybe should have been. I’m not a big fan of heavyweights anyway, but that’s not why. When I looked at the matchups, they just didn’t make sense to me.

For one thing, I didn’t understand why the current champion should have to fight in a tournament. Shouldn’t he fight the winner of any tournament?

But okay, so Alistair Overeem – the current champion – could get knocked out in the first round. Fine. But if he should make it to the second round, he could possibly face the top uncrowned heavyweight in Fedor Emelianenko. In the second round? Shouldn’t that be the fight we look forward to as the finalé?

Okay, so we take these two anomalies and accept them as we do. But, what about the belt? I mean, if Overeem should lose at any point in the tournament, how can he keep his belt? At one point, it came out that every match the champion was involved in would be a five-round title fight, meaning the belt could conceivably change hands as many as three times during the tourney. I like that! That suddenly made the whole thing 100% more interesting to me.

But then the official announcement came that the title would definitely not be on the line during the tournament. The winner of the tournament would fight Overeem at a later date. Which brings us back to, why is Overeem in the tournament? If he wins the whole thing, he can’t fight himself. And whomever he defeated to win the tournament would be the next contender, but he wouldn’t be eligible since he was just defeated by Overeem.

Is Strikeforce banking on Overeem losing one of these fights? The way they banked on Dan Henderson taking the title from Jake Shields?

This tournament showed a lot of promise and I believe the way it has been configured is only hurting Strikeforce. Believe me, I want to see Strikeforce succeed in all that they do, and many of their ideas are great, but too many are poorly executed.

And despite my reservations over those aspects of this tournament, I can’t help but look forward to this weekend, when we will see “The Last Emperor” take on “Bigfoot” (Antonio Silva), as well as the hopeful return of one-time UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski fighting against veteran up & comer Sergey Kharitonov.

Dan Henderson celebrates his knockout of Babalu Sobral; photo courtesy of sherdog.com

This past Saturday in St Louis, Missouri, STRIKEFORCE invaded with a fight card that could potentially deliver the heavy artillery of definitive finishes. And in four of the five fights on the main card, we were witnesses to perhaps four of the top ten mixed martial arts knockouts of all 2010. Some will argue that they were indeed the top four knockouts this year—all on one card!

Unfortunately, many fight fans had to choose between watching the UFC’s TUF 12 Finale or STRIKEFORCE.  If you were me, you flicked the channels back and forth between Showtime and Spike TV, hoping not to miss anything spectacular. It continues to be afflicting when the two top mixed martial arts organization have simultaneous live fight events. This should not happen.

The event marked the third time that STRIKEFORCE has put on an event in St Louis.  Each time has been quite successful, with an average attendance of over 8,000 fans.  Other than San Jose and Fresno, California, St Louis seems to have become their favorite location to host events. This has been fueled by many of the local fighters and gyms in the St Louis area, with local talent such as Jesse Finney and Tyronne Woodley priming fight fans for more  STRIKEFORCE events and fan participation.

RESULTS & ANALYSIS

Dan Henderson  vs.  Renato “Babalu”  Sobral
—Henderson[#8 mw] defeated Sobral via KO (Punches) at 1:53 of round 1

A rematch 10 years in the making, Henderson beats Sobral again, this time by vicious  ground and pound and an eventual knockout.  At age 40, the decorated mma star and international wrestling stalwart, Hendo is out to prove that he still has a lot left in the tank.  Last year, he won Knockout of the Year in mma.  And in 2007 at age 37, he won Fighter of the Year. The former UFC top contender at middleweight and light heavyweight, Henderson will receive strong considerations for a title in early 2011 against champion Rafael Cavalcante, who knocked out then champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to win the title.

Paul Daley  vs.  Scott Smith
—Daley defeated Smith via KO (punch) at 2:09 of round 1

One guy that knows how to get the crowd behind him is England’s Paul Daley.  His ring entrance included wearing a pro baseball cap of the St. Louis Cardinals.  This was the fight that many fans coveted the most; two fighters who are known for the knockout power. This was perhaps the most brutal knockout of the night! The muay thai and boxing specialist, Daley continues to rack up Mike Tyson-like one-hitter-quitters to his opponents.  Short in stature, and very strong physically, he has a similar build.  Smith was caught with a quick left hook, that knocked him out unconscious before he hit the canvas face first.  Daley’s striking techniques looked improved, and after the fight he politely called out top welterweight contender KJ Noons. However, Noons is healing from injuries and might return as a lightweight.

Robbie Lawler  vs.  Matt Lindland
—Lawler defeated Lindland via KO (punches) at 0:50 of round 1

Matt Lindland, the 2007 Sydney Olympic Silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling picked the wrong guy to stand and bang with, as he quickly became the latest victim of Lawler’s rock hands that sent him flopping to the canvas.  Lindland was actually awakened from his hard fall to the canvas, quickly tried to recover, and instinctively tried to get in a defensive ground position, only to be met with a perfectly timed drop punch that knocked Lindland unconscious again.  At age 40, we’re left wondering if we’ve seen Lindland fight for the last time, losing 3 of his last 4 fights. As Lawler’s nickname indicated, that knockout was devastatingly “Ruthless!”

Antonio Silva  vs.  Mike Kyle
—Silva [#10 hw; #3 up & coming hw] defeated Kyle via TKO (punches) at 2:49 of round 2

Comeback of the Night award undoubtedly goes to “Big Foot” Antonio Silva.  If you’ve ever seen this guy fight, you’d find out that he’s perhaps the biggest-boned fighter in all of mixed martial arts! Kyle, a light heavyweight top contender stepped up and took this fight on less than 2 weeks notice.  At fight time, despite Kyle being a huge man himself, Silva probably outweighed him by over 50 pounds. Early in the fight, Kyle rocked Silva, sending the giant flopping down on his buttocks.  The fights looked very bleak for Silva in the 1st round.  Silva began to recover, and showed good cardio for such a large fighter.  Once Silva was able to mount Kyle in the 2nd round, you feared the worst for the smaller Kyle who had no defense for the powerful and looping ground and pound punches that rained down on him, eventually knocking Kyle unconscious. Silva, with hands the size of pro wrestling’s Andre The Giant, Kyle should feel lucky to come out of that finish with his career still in tact.

Benji Radach vs. Ovince St. Preux
—St. Preux defeated Radach via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-25)

The first fight of the main card; a fight between two relative unknown fighters.  The quiet before the storm; this fight shouldn’t have went the distance as OSP dominated the veteran Radach, pummeling and pounding him for 3 rounds as the numbers above indicate!  The fight became a snooze and fans booed, as the ref continued to allow the punishment and slowed action. A replacement fight on the main card when former NFL and Pro Bowl/All-star running back, Herschel Walker(48) came down with an injury.

One of the most anticipated mma events in recent time is finally upon us as Strikeforce gives us an elite main card of notable fighters.  There’s a little bit of everything for all sorts of mma fans encompassing this event.   And the best part about it is that it’s all free for mma fans in the USA and those watching on cable in Canada, as it will be broadcast live on CBS (tape-delayed on the west coast).

It’s unheralded to find 3 title fights all on one card.  And this coming Saturday, a ton of mma fans will tune in to see a potentially action-packed and high drama fight card. Read more »

Catch the latest current news updates of all pertinent headlining news from ESPN MMALive! MMALive is an espn.com live-cast that puts out a continuous 30-40 minute show every 10-15 days.

Their latest show includes guess mma analysist Pat Miletich, joining Jon Anik and Franklin McNeil.  Kenny Florian is usually partnered with Franklin, but Pat Miletich is standing in for this episode.

In this video episode, predictions are given for WEC 47 main card. Also discussed is the recent signing of future boxing hall of famer James Toney to the UFC.  ESPN Radio host Steve Cofield also gives a preview of TUF 11, and his enthusiasm for yet another potentially improved show.  Mr. Big Muscle UFC newcomer Todd Duffee makes an appearance and discusses his purpose for fighting at the current moment.  Duffee, holding the UFC’s fatest knockout honors is slated to fight Chicagoan Mike Russow (12-1), who’s both a mma veteran, and a veteran Chicago Police Officer.  Russow has 8 wins by submission….AND 7 of them are from different submission holds!

Strikeforce CEO Steve Coker is interviewed and tackles a plethora of topics across mma.  He talks about Fedor Emelianenko not being included on the May card, King Mo Lawal, and the booking of Japanesse sensation Shinya Aoki and the signing of Andrei Arlovski.  Coker gives us Arlovski’s next opponent.

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