Remy Bonjasky has some words of wisdom.

Props: MMAMania

Dear Fans,

In 2003 and in 2004 I won the K-1 Grand Prix. There I had tears in my eyes, because I was happy to win. Winning with a DQ is very disappointing to me because I worked hard for the final and that’s why I had tears this time. I hope that this will be a lesson to all the ring fighters, if you can’t stick to rules, don’t play the game.

Kickboxing great Remy Bonjasky was obviously directing those words to his nemesis, K-1 “bad boy” Badr Hari, who was disqualified in the K-1 World Grand Prix 2008 final round for stomping on Remy’s face after sending him to the mat, which according to K-1 rules is 100% illegal.  Remy was unable to continue, thus Badr was DQ’d.  K-1 came down rather hard on the Morroccan fighter for his disobedience and foul play, to include stripping him of his K-1 heavyweight title and making him forfeit all of his pay for the event.  I felt that was a pretty good punishment considering, and I really hope the two of them meet for a third time, so that they can settle the score.  I’m sure K-1 officials will make it happen sometime in 2009.

UFC 92 Predictions (Updated!)

In less than one week, the UFC is having their last event of 2008.  They’re going out with a bang, UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 not only features two title fights, but one highly anticipated grudge match between Wanderlei Silva and Quinton Jackson.  Current UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin will look for his first title defense by defeating current #1 contender and undefeated fighter “Sugar” Rashad Evans, and Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueria will look to hang onto his UFC interim heavyweight title by defeating former champion Frank Mir.  We all know that the winner of the Minotauro/Mir fight will then face current UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar for the undisputed heavyweight title at an undisclosed event in 2009.  I’m going to go through the main card, give my thoughts and predictions for this event. Once again, take these with a grain of salt, I don’t take responsibility for you using these to make real-money wagers and losing horribly….After the jump you can start the “official” post.

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MMA in the year 2008.

I stumbled across a video while browsing MegaVideo tonight, it’s a little over 30 minutes long and literally covers just about EVERYTHING that took place in the “MMA world” this past year, to include clips from Affliction, BodogFIGHT, DREAM, EliteXC, IFL, Pancrase, Strikeforce, Sengoku, WEC, and the UFC.  If you’ve got the time to kill, I highly recommend watching it, I thought it was a great highlight video which showcased some amazing fights throughout the world.  You can see the video after the jump….enjoy.

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Chuck’s looking for payback…

Props: MMAMania

Looks like former UFC lightheavyweight champion and future UFC hall-of-famer Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell is looking for some redemption at UFC 96 on March 7th, 2009.  Here’s what Liddell had to say during a radio interview on The Tom Leykis Show:

“There’s been a few names. We have Jardine listed, we want him in March.”

Everyone who saw UFC 76 back in September of 2007 knows what happened in the main event.  Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine upset Chuck and any chance of him getting another shot to reclaim what Quinton “Rampage” Jackson snagged from him at UFC 71, his championship belt.  Keith used accuarate and powerful low kicks to break down the former champion en route to a split decision win that night, which was considered a pretty big upset (+300 or 4:1 according to BestFightOdds.com), and no doubt brought many questions into the minds of the MMA fans, which included:

• Did Chuck take the fight with Jardine too lightly?
• Is Chuck on the down-slope of his MMA career?

Chuck rebounded with a unanimous decision victory over former PRIDE middleweight champion Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79, but was once again upset with a brutal 2nd round KO by The Ultimate Fighter 2 heavyweight winner Rashad Evans.

Following his upset victory over Liddell, Jardine was put up against the man Liddell defeated at UFC 79, Wanderlei Silva.  It only took 36 seconds for ‘The Axe Murderer” to brutally knock Jardine out, giving him his 2nd KO loss in 3 fights and seriously putting a halt to his run for the belt.  Jardine did however bounce back with a split decision win over Brandon Vera at UFC 89: Bisping vs. Leben, which has now put him back on the map as far as 205lb contenders go.

I’m not a big fan of either guys to be honest, and as much as I don’t want to see this fight, I think it makes sense to have the UFC set it up.  Both have proven to be pretty inconsistant recently, and I think whomever wins this fight will really deserve to still be in the UFC.  Chuck, bottom line dude…if you lose this fight, your career at 205 done.  If you can’t get past Keith Jardine, you’re no use to the UFC lightheavyweight division, you’ll simply be the “over the hill gatekeeper” and we all know you don’t want to be that.   I recommend if you lose, move up to the heavyweight division and try your luck there….what else do you have to lose?  Jardine, if you lose this fight….I think you’re going to be out of the UFC, plain and simple.

Sengoku no Ran 2009, Can’t wait!

Props: Japan-MMA

Japan-MMA recently reported of a few more fights added to the already stacked Sengoku no Ran 2009 event which takes place on January 4th, 2009.  First off,  let me tell you how much it sucks to not be able to see these events live.  Having HDNet does wonders for the DREAM and now K-1 events, but they’ve been able to do nothing when it comes to the Sengoku events, which I personally think are better than DREAM and will ultimately take over as the dominant MMA organization overseas in Japan.  Back on topic though, like I said the one-man army at Japan-MMA (a great guy by the way), has supplied us with an updated fight card that just looks better and better:

Opening Fights:

Lightweight: Maximo Blanco 1-1-0 (1NC) vs. 5-5-1 Seigo Inoue
Light heavyweight: Hidetaka Irie vs. Minoru Kato

Fight Card:

Heavyweight: Antonio Silva 11-1-0 vs. 7-1-0 (2NC) Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao
Light heavyweight: Muhammed Lawal “King Mo” 2-0-0 vs. 15-4-2 Yukiya Naito
Light heavyweight: Hidehiko Yoshida 8-6-1 vs. 27-6-3 Sanae Kikuta
Lightweight: Takanori Gomi 29-4-0 vs. 23-8-9 Satoru Kitaoka (For Sengoku lightweight championship)
Middleweight: Jorge Santiago 20-7-0 vs. 21-8-2 Kazuo Misaki (For Sengoku middleweight championship)
Lightweight: Eiji Mitsuoka 14-6-2 vs. 12-6-0 Sergey Golyaev
Heavyweight: Dave “Pee-Wee” Herman 13-0-0 vs. 7-3-0 Choi Mu Bae

Just looking at this card makes me happy, there are some excellent matchups here to include Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki, as well as Gomi vs. Satoru.  My only complaint is the fact that Gomi is getting a chance to fight for the belt after suffering an upset loss to Sergey Golyaev at Sengoku 6,  it’s disrespectful to Golyaev, who should be rewarded for defeating one of Japan’s future legends. Instead he has to fight Eiji Mitsuoka (one could argue the winner of the Golyaev/Mitsuoka fight should get the first shot at the newly crowned champ), but still….I firmly believe that Gomi took his last fight lightly, it showed in his performance, and I don’t think he’s deserving of a title fight.  I know, I know….he’s TAKANORI “THE FIREBALL KID” GOMI, no doubt he’s one of Japan’s biggest MMA stars, the Japanese people love him and Sengoku might sign their own death warrant giving a title shot to a Russian instead of the arrogant Japanese native, but it’s not fair, and I don’t like it.

Another interesting addition is that of EliteXC’s first heavyweight champion Antonio Silva, who if you remember popped for steroids following his EliteXC title fight with Justin Eilers earlier in the year.  The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC), suspended Silva from competing within the US for a year as well as a $2500 fine.  Fine for Silva right?  He’ll just go fight in Japan.  Unfortunately for him the CSAC will prevent him from ever fighting again in the states if he seeks fights elsewhere during his suspension, this has obviously brought up a lot of controversy and arguments with how althetic commissions operate, but as of right now, if “Bigfoot” does fight at the event, his future with the US based MMA organizations might be forever tarnished.  Silva’s set to fight “Kiss” Nakao, who if you don’t remember, gained his nickname for planting a little smooch on Heath Herring back at K-1 Dynamite!! 2005, which led to this:

Now, Nakao isn’t as bad as that video makes him out to be, he’s got a 7-1 record and has decent striking and submission skills….it should be a pretty good fight.  Japanese Judoka legend Hidehiko Yoshida will return to action and fight Pancrase fighter Sanae Kikuta, I personally can’t wait for this fight considering I’m a HUGE fan of old school Pancrase, something Sanae proudly represented for a long time.  King Mo returns for another tough test , fighting Yukiya Naito, who’s currently riding a 6 fight win streak and brings both striking and submissions into the ring with him.  I think this one could be fight of the night no doubt, I’m really looking forward to it.  Last fight I want to mention is the Dave Herman/Choi Mu Bae fight.  Herman’s a beast, self-trained fighter whose completely dominated everyone he’s fought in the US.  Choi’s a veteran of both PRIDE and Pancrase, and comes into this fight looking to rebound from a submission loss to Marcio Cruz at Sengoku 3.  I expect Herman to win this fight, but Choi’s got the power and the support behind him.

Overall, this should be an amazing event, I’ll give a more detailed rundown of each fight when the event nears closer.

Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson for UFC 95 Main Event?!? (UPDATE!)

Props: MMAMania

**UPDATE** - Now it appears that the Sanchez/Stevenson bout will act as the co-main event for UFC 95, no main event as been added yet….

UFC 95 kicks off on February 21st, 2009, in London England.  If you remember a few weeks ago, current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva declared that he wasn’t looking to fight on this card, which could have been against fellow Brazilian submission guru Thales Leites.  Numerous thoughts/opinions sparked over that decision by the champ to include the following:

• Anderson is a busy man and February wouldn’t give him enough time to properly train for a title fight
• Anderson believes that Thales is a chump and not good enough to merit a title fight

So, the UFC doesn’t have the support of Anderson, so where do they go?  Ahhh…how about bring in two winners from different seasons of The Ultimate Fighter and have them fight?  Seems like a good idea considering Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans (both TUF winners), are set to battle at UFC 92 next Saturday.  Now enter Joe Stevenson and Diego Sanchez. Stevenson, the welterweight winner of season 2, will look to rebound from a submission loss to Kenny Florian at UFC 91, whereas Diego, the middleweight winner of season 1, will look for his first victory at 155lbs after competing in the welterweight class where he found relative success with the exception of back-to-back losses to Josh Koscheck (UFC 69) and Jon Fitch (UFC 76).   This fight is appealing to both hardcore fans and the “TUFers” (people who became fans of MMA by watching The Ultimate Fighter) for the following reasons:

• Anyone who saw Joe Stevenson’s one-sided asskicking by BJ Penn at UFC 80 cannot respect the guy for doing what he could to hang in there and not lose, he was given the chance of a lifetime to win that belt and defeat one of the sports greatest. He was destroyed, cut open, blood literally squirting out of his head and extemely emotional when it was over, but no doubt he deserves the respect of everyone who sees that fight….if you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here to watch.
• Both Diego and Joe are go-getters.  They fight to win, they always come prepared and ready for a war, they’re strong-minded fighters who firmly believe they are the best and that they can beat everyone in their division.  Both guys are finishers, submission experts with great well rounded skills.  Anyone who’s seen Joe Stevenson’s amazing gullotine knows that when he locks that on, you’re done.  Diego is like a rapid monkey when he fights, changes levels in incredible fashion when working the clinch, superb ground and pound, and extremely improved striking which he showcased against Luigi Fioravanti at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale.  If there’s two guys who can make a fight exciting and a fight of the year candidate, it’s these two..

Now here’s the problem.  When people get ready to pay $45 for a PPV, most of the time they expect a championship fight as the main event….we’re not getting that here.  We’re not even getting a fight for the next #1 contender for the UFC lightweight title after Kenny Florian gets his crack at the belt, the lightweight class is so stacked right now there’s no telling where these guys will go if they win or lose.  What we’re getting is a just a typical 3-round fight.  People might be pissed about that, me personally…I could care less, I’ve ordered every UFC PPV since I can remember with the exception of UFC 62 (and that’s because we just moved to San Diego and didn’t have time to get it installed).  I love this matchup, I love watching both of these guys fight, and I no doubt give the UFC my money to see it.

There is a way to remedy this though, so it’ll appeal to both the casual fans who might be hesitant to dish out the $$$ for the PPV, and the hardcore fans, who simply want to see a badass fight (which is what this main event is going to be):

• Make it a free event.  UFC 95 is being held in London, the same place that both UFC 70 and UFC 75 were held, both of those were free on Spike TV and did relatively well with the ratings.  It benefits the fans, as well as the UFC by making them not look like d-bags for making people pay to see a non-title fight as the main event.

As of right now, the only other fights on the card as the following:

• 170lbs: Rory Markham vs. Dan Hardy
• 155lbs: Terry Etim vs. Justin Buchholz

Now, I’m a BIG fan of Rory Markham, so that just reinforces my standings on paying $45 for the PPV…..but he’s got one fight in the UFC, a smashing headkick KO over Brodie Farber at UFN: Silva vs. Irvin a few months ago.  He’s fighting Dan Hardy, a UK fighter with a huge fanbase over in his motherland, but once again, only one UFC win, and it was a split decision win over Akihiro Gono on the prelim side of the card at UFC 89.  Markham might have some credibility with the US fans due to his run in the now-defunt IFL, but Hardy’s still a relative unknown.  Same can be said for both Buchholz and Etim, Etim’s a Brit, strong following in the UK, but lacks the fanbase over here in the states…Buchholz has one well known win and that was over TUF 5 castmate Corey Hill at UFC 86, which if I remember correctly was also a preliminary fight and not broadcast at the main event.

It’s pretty simple if you ask me, and if I were running the UFC this is how’d I’d do it:

• Lacking star power, no title fights, and taking place overseas = FREE on Spike.
• Lacking star power, no title fight,  in the states = Make it a UFC Fight Night FREE on Spike.
• Star power, title fights, overseas = PPV.
• Star power, title fights, in the states = PPV.

It’ll be interesting to see how this card turns out and what the UFC plans on doing with it in terms of broadcasting….stay tuned for more updates.

Oh Alistair….when will it end?

Props: Fighters Only Magazine

“Like I’ve always said, he doesn’t want to fight me.  CroCop faked his injuries in our previous fight and now he has chosen not to fight me and instead fight Choi. He knows very well he doesn’t stand a chance against me. I pounded him, I cut him up on the left and right eye, I fatigued him with the knees and he didn’t hit me once.  I would love to have a rematch but I seriously doubt if he will ever accept. For me he is not a objective anymore. His fighting career is one step away from being finished.”

Well, I can’t blame the guy for saying what he said, and I personally can’t stand Overeem.  There is some truth to the above statement:

• Overeem was dominating Cro Cop before the unfortunate knees to the balls.
• Cro Cop’s career is in jeopardy if he loses the fight with Hong Man Choi at K-1 Dynamite!! 2008.

What’s I think is false are the following:

• Cro Cop did not “fake his injuries” in their first fight, here is proof.  That’s a pretty legit shot to the nads if you ask me, and I don’t think there was any trick camera move to make it appear more deceiving than it really was, Overeem’s simply using that a extra baggage to make Cro Cop look more like a chump.
• I’m a firm believer that Mirko will fight Overeem again.  I don’t know when, I don’t know where, but I’m sure he’ll eventually want to settle the score and find some redemption in their embarrassing first fight.

Overeem’s not a nice guy, he’s never been nor will he ever be.  He’s been in positions numerous times to be the better man, yet he’s constantly taking on the role of the bitter badass who thinks everyone is ducking him.  I’m really past that, I think we can all say right now that Mirko and Overeem are on different levels when it comes to performances, Overeem’s been winning a lot of fights lately, blowing through legit competition in Paul Buentello, submitting a game but submission-inexperienced Mark Hunt, dominating a complete can in Lee Tae-Hyun, and submitting a guy clearly over the hill, Gary Goodridge.  Mirko got KTFO by Gabriel Gonzaga, lost a decision against Cheick Kongo, destroyed a can at DREAM.1, and then had his no-contest with Alistair.  Looking at the facts, it’s pretty clear that right now, both are on different levels.  One could even argue that Overeem’s fine with dismantling people lower than him skill wise.  Looking at his most recent wins with the exception of Paul Buentello, the people’s he’s fought are either:

• Completely outclassed from head to toe
• One trick pony’s with weaknesses where Alistair is strong
• Past their prime and shouldn’t even be fighting

Personally, I’d like to see Overeem shut his mouth about the whole Cro Cop thing, and sign with an organization with some real threats to him, the UFC.  I highly doubt he’ll make the step over there though, and I could give off numerous reasons why, but those are just opinions with no factual based evidence, so I won’t…….but either way, I’m tired of him running his mouth about a poor guy who’s had a rough couple of years looking to slowly build himself back up to be able to compete with the top guys.  Grow up Alistair.

Andrei Arlovski is ready for a war.

Former UFC heavyweight champion and current #1 contender for the WAMMA heavyweight title Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski appeared on this weeks episode of “Inside MMA”, an exclusive HDNet program.  Arlovski, as most know, is set to battle one of the most feared fighters in all of MMA, the WAMMA heavyweight champion and PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelienanko at Affliction: Day of Reckoning in January of 2009.   Arlovski reached his #1 contender spot with a KO victory over former IFL heavyweight Ben Rothwell at Affliction’s debut event, the same event where Fedor claimed the newly created WAMMA title by brutally dismantling former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in a mere 36 seconds, submitting him with a rear-naked choke.  As you can see from the video, Arlovski doesn’t appear to be at all fazed by the mystique and fear that Fedor puts into many people’s minds, including MMA legend Frank Shamrock and former Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez.  It’ll be great to see this fight go down, Arlovski seems to be completely focused and physically ready to give a war to a man who hasn’t tasted defeat in almost 8 years.   After the jump you can see “The Pitbulls” thoughts on Emelienanko…

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UFC Fight Night 17 is taking shape!

Props: MMAMania

Event: UFC Fight Night 17
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2008, at 9 p.m. ET on Spike TV
Location: University of Southern Florida (USF) Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida

Main event:

155 lbs.: Hermes Franca vs. Joe Lauzon

Fight card:

155 lbs.: Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer
265 lbs.: Cain Velaquez vs. Denis Stojnic
185 lbs.: Amir Sadollah vs. Nick Catone
155 lbs.: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Rob Emerson

2009’s first UFN event is coming in February, right now the card is full of some great lightweight matchups as well as the return of Ultimate Fighter Season 7 winner Amir Sadollah. The main event, if you couldn’t already tell from the title, is a lightweight fight between Joe Lauzon and former UFC #1 contender Hermes Franca. I’ve been a fan of Lauzon since he was thrown to the wolves at UFC 63 against Jens Pulver only to come out and brutally knock him out in under a minute.  Franca’s a game opponent, I think his BJJ is a little sloppy, but no doubt the guy’s got a lot of heart, very durable, and packs a friggin’ punch, as you might’ve seen when he sent Spencer Fisher flopping around the cage at UFN 8 back in 2007.  Lauzon doesn’t have the wrestling like Frankie Edgar does, so he won’t be able to control Franca on the ground for 15 minutes, I think this fight will end up being a stand up battle, and I think someone’s getting TKO’d.

**Update** - Cain Velasquez will be facing UFC newcomer Denis Stojnic, who sports a 5-1 record, with all but one of his victories coming via decision.  He trains and fights out of the Holland based camp Golden Glory.  No surprise who I think will win, Cain via smashing.

Justin Levens and Wife Found Dead…

Props: Sherdog.com

Light heavyweight Justin Levens and his wife Sara McLean-Levens were found dead Wednesday from gunshot wounds in their home in Laguna Niguel, Calif., the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed to Sherdog.com. Levens was 28 years old.

“Preliminarily, until they finish the investigation, it is being looked at as a murder-suicide,” said Lt. V. Wilson.

Wilson said deputies and investigators were dispatched to the residence Wednesday after being informed of the deaths. Wilson would not identify who had found the bodies and/or contacted authorities, though a CBS 2 online report said the mother of the deceased female had discovered the bodies and called police, who arrived around 2:30 p.m. PST.

An investigation into the deaths was opened on Wednesday, which Wilson described as “ongoing.”

It sucks reading things like this, and what’s really strange is last night I was looking him up on Sherdog, wondering when he’d fight next and if he’d ever get out of the slump he was in when it came to winning fights.  Leven’s started off his career going a perfect 7-0 before dropping his first fight to Scott Smith via KO, he then got the call from the UFC, where he made his debut at UFC 59, fighting the recently deceased and former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner.  Leven’s was submitted in the first round via a triangle choke, and then KO’d via a knee dealth by Jorge Santiago at UFN 5, two months later.  Between June of 2006 and his last fight in October of 2007, Leven’s went 2-5, his most recent fight was a submission loss to Kenny Ento at Palace Fighting Championship’s 4.

It’s a tragic thing to wake up and read about, I hope both he and his wife rest in piece, and I hope that both families somehow find resolution and peace from all of this.

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