Props: Fighters Only

Wanderlei Silva expects to be offered a rematch with Vitor Belfort if the UFC signs the Brazilian middleweight.

Silva - a Brazilian middleweight himself - fought Belfort at UFC Ultimate Brazil back in 1998. Belfort stopped him in 44 seconds with a lightning fast series of punches that ran Silva backwards across the Octagon.

“That sequence of punches… I don’t know whether that was technique or anxiety. Many people told me he was dying of fear to face me so that must have been anxiety [that drove him],” he told Brazil’s Sensei Sport TV.

Like the rest of us, Silva has only heard rumours that the UFC is working on a deal with Belfort, something acknowledged by UFC president Dana White.

But he says he is open to fighting the opponent who most embarrassed him whenever the match becomes possible. “Sooner or later [the rematch] is going to happen. I’m ready to face anyone, including him.”

For now, Belfort is fighting for Affliction and will face Jorge Santiago for them on August 1st when Affliction stages its third MMA event, which will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett.

I don’t know about you, but Vitor/Wandy II sounds amazingly good to me.  Vitor coming back to the UFC after such an up and down road to do battle with a veteran like Wanderlei for the second time.  The winner of this fight would obviously give the UFC substantial reason to create and Vitor vs. Anderson or a Wandy vs. Anderson mega-title fight, which I’m sure would bring in a huge profit.  Wanderlei is a fan favorite, even if you dislike the guy, you’re eager to watch him fight in hopes of seeing him get KTFO.  Vitor’s got a strong fan base as well, and nobody dislikes seeing a successful comeback, which it appears Vitor is currently on with KO wins over Terry Martin and Matt “The Law” Lindland.  I hope following his bout with Jorge Santiago that Vitor makes the jump back to the UFC, where he ultimately belongs.

Not interested people….not at all!

MMAjunkie recently confirmed that Josh Thomson will make his first Strikeforce lightweight title defense against the guy he originally beat to win the belt, Gilbert Melendez.  I have a couple problems with this horseshit decision and I don’t think I’m the only one:

• Firstly, when the two men fought back in 2008, it was a one sided ass-kicking where Gilbert showed little offense for the entire 25 goddamn minutes.
• Gilbert hasn’t done anything since their first fight to get himself back on his winning ways, who the fuck honestly thinks the guy deserves a chance to fight for a title he basically handed to Thomson?

Now, I’m sure the reason he’s getting the shot is because he’s a fairly well known fighter in the state of California.  He’s got a big fan base, and big fan bases = more viewers, which = more money, which is why fucked up things like this happen all the time.

I expected more out of Strikeforce now that they’ve taken the big leap into being one of the major US based organizations, and I personally feel that this rematch will end just like the first.  Why didn’t Strikeforce give the title shot to Mitsuhiro Ishida?  Not only has he fought for the organization before, but he won in beautiful fashion and was the first guy to give a put an “L” on Gilbert’s professional career.  He’s the #1 contender, he deserves the shot, not the former champ who got dismantled for 25 minutes and who hasn’t won a fight since!

Below is the current card for the April 11th event, which, aside from this stupid fight, should be really enjoyable…

Main Event:

Nick Diaz vs. Frank Shamrock

Co-Main Event:

Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez (for Strikeforce lightweight title)

Undercard:

Joe Riggs vs. Jake Shields
Benji Radach vs. Scott Smith
Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos vs. TBA

Props: FightFace

Another badass monthly highlight video from Facey.  If you haven’t checked out his other stuff, I highly recommend it.  This video has everything in MMA from the month of January, to include UFC 94, Affliction: Day of Reckoning, WEC: Varner vs. Cerrone, and Sengoku no Ran 2009.

• Georges St. Pierre (170) vs. BJ Penn (168)
• Lyoto Machida (206) vs. Thiago Silva (206)
• Karo Parisyan (170) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (171)
• Nate Diaz (156) vs. Clay Guida (156)
• Stephan Bonnar (206) vs. Jon Jones (206)
• Jon Fitch (171) vs. Akihiro Gono (171)
• Manny Gamburyan (155) vs. Thiago Tavares (155)
• John Howard (171) vs. Chris Wilson (170)
• Jake O’Brien (205) vs. Christian Wellisch (206)
• Matt Arroyo (171) vs. Dan Cramer (171)

Overall it was a pretty typical weigh-in, lots of cheers for GSP, some mixed signals for BJ, which can be expected.  Georges is a huge fan-favorite and I think he’ll have the crowd behind him tomorrow night.  Some other thoughts can be seen below:

• Thiago Tavares and Manvil are going to have an awesome fight, and for the first time ever I’m actually hoping Thiago pulls off the win.
• It was nice to see Karo actually reach the scales this time.  I think he and “Stun Gun” will put on one helluva fight…and I might honestly change my pick to the “Stun Gun”.  He looked awesome and ready for war.
• Jon Fitch didn’t shake Dana White’s hand after he made weight…could it be due to getting put on the prelim card or something else?
• Akihiro Gono sported a huge black fro during the weigh-ins, and he handed it to Fitch (who put it on) during the stare down.  Gono should have given it to the bald Dana White.
• Stephan Bonnar looked, how should I say it….”frightened” by the intensity of Jon Jones.
• Diaz and Guida had an awkward stare down, but this fight is still gonna kick some ass.
• Machida and Thiago didn’t really do anything special…but Thiago gave Machida the “I’m not scared of shit” look.  That fight should be decent.
• Both Georges St. Pierre and BJ Penn looked to be in very good shape, physically and mentally.  I expect this fight to be the defining moment for one of these guys.  I don’t think the fans will be let down either way.
• Dana White might be giving out three “Fight of the Night” bonuses….Tavares/Manvil, Guida/Diaz, and GSP/BJ all have “EXPLOSIVE” written on them.

I would have had my predictions up earlier, but my school has consumed most of my life for the past week and I wasn’t able to, so I apologize for anyone who really cares about these predictions.  UFC 94 is TOMORROW, we’re mere hours away from seeing the most anticipated rematch in MMA since Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz II, and that’s between current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, and current UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn.  If you’re a fan of mixed martial arts, you’re putting everything else on hold for tomorrow to make room for this event. The main event is one of those “super fights” that comes along every once in a great while, featuring two of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.  I really can’t believe that this fight is finally going to happen!

After the jump, you’ll get the usual….some in-depth thoughts/predictions as well as some quick picks.  Once again, please don’t use these when and if you place an actual bet with monetary value, I’m not responsible for you dropping Johnny’s college fund down the pisser.

Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn (for the UFC welterweight title):

Looking on paper one might think the following:

• Striking: BJ
• Grappling: BJ
• Conditioning: GSP
• Wrestling: GSP
• Durability: BJ
• Heart: Even?

Listing the above, one might think that the fight is either going to end one of the following ways:

• BJ connects and KO’s Georges early in the first round with a punch/series of punches.
• Georges out-wrestles BJ and either stops him with elbows/ground and pound in the later rounds, or wins a decision.

I don’t see the fight going any other way, I don’t think Georges has the striking skills to knock BJ out.  BJ has shown to possess an iron chin, he just eats punches and doesn’t show any sign of injury taken from them.  I don’t think Georges has the submission skills (although he is a legit BJJ black belt) to submit BJ, and when I say “submit”, I’m referring to an actual submission move (rear naked choke, triangle, gogo), not a verbal submission due to strikes (which St. Pierre could do).  I think this fight will be determined on the basis of how well BJ comes in shape.  If he’s not prepared to go five rounds, he’s going to be in trouble given he can’t stop Georges in the early portion of the fight.  What Georges needs to do the minute the ref tells them to fight, is to come out and start pushing the pace.  Georges needs to take BJ out of his element (striking), and put him onto his back, then reign hell with ground and pound.  He needs to wear BJ out early and make him fight his pace…which is something I don’t think BJ will be able to do.

However, if Georges comes out and let’s Penn get into his grove, it’s going to be a damaging first few rounds for the Canadian, who will definitely get the hell beat out of him if he simply acts as a moving punching bag.  BJ’s hands are lethal, he’s got a lot of power and Georges has been stopped via strikes before.  If St. Pierre wants to win this fight, his superior wrestling and conditioning are his savior….

Final Prediction: Georges St. Pierre via TKO, round 4.

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva:

Both are top 205lb fighters in the UFC, both are undefeated at 13-0, both are very close to a title shot (Machida will probably get a title shot if he wins this, Thiago might need another win to get his).  I think the general MMA fan-base is riding the Machida train at the current moment.  He’s proved to be one of the most frustrating fighters in the world, he waits for his opponents to put the pressure on him and then he attacks and moves away.  He’s very defensive, yet incredibly offensive at the same time.  I personally think that this is a perfect fight for him, Thiago isn’t going to pussy-foot around the cage and wait for Machida to come to him, he’s going to come out how he normally does and get in his opponents face.  Thiago’s a very scary dude, he’s definitely the most aggressive fighter (in my eyes) in the UFC light heavyweight division, and he’s going to want to make a big statement with this bout.

I don’t think Thiago is as durable as people make him out to be.  Antonio Mendes hurt Thiago early with a head kick in their UFC 84 fight, and both James Irvin and Tomasz Drwal connected with some great shots that seemed to put him off-balance and possibly a little hurt.  I think this fight is Machida’s to lose to be honest, he’s proven very hard to take down, and once down he’s able to get right back up.  I think if Silva is going to win this bout, he needs to go full-force early, pressure Machida, get him down, mount him and then ground and pound his face until the ref stops him…anything else and I think Machida will walk away the winner.

Final Prediction: Lyoto Machida via TKO, round 2.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones:

Stephan’s coming off a long-layoff due to a shitty knee injury he sustained while training for Matt Hamill last year.  Jon Jones burst onto the UFC scene with an upset victory over the highly regarded Andre Gusmao at UFC 87.  Jones put on one helluva fight in his UFC debut, he was throwing some pretty exciting moves, and from what I remember he did it on only a few days notice.  Jones is also a very accomplished wrestler, and if you saw the Bonnar/Rashad fight a few years ago, you know that that fight was determined due to Rashad’s wrestling ability.  I personally think that Bonnar might have been out of the loop for too long, and I think we’re going to see a fight reminiscent of his bout with Rashad, which is sad because I’m a very big fan of Stephan and I’d like nothing more than to see him come out with a win.

Final Prediction: Jon Jones via unanimous decision.

Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida:

Two rising lightweights who both have some great skills, both are coming off wins over veteran fighters (Josh Neer and Mac Danzig), both would prosper a lot from a victory in this fight.  Clay Guida has shown that he can hang with the best fighters in the world, but until the victory over Danzig, he showed that he couldn’t beat them.  Guida recently said that the loss to Roger Huerta was “a blessing is disguise”, and I firmly beleive that he’s a better fighter than he was before he got submitted by “El Matador”.  Saying that, I think that if Guida wants to win he needs to do the following:

• Take Nate down
• Make Nate stand back up
• Take Nate down
• Make Nate stand back up
• Repeat for three rounds

Clay’s got the cardio and wrestling to do that, I really think that’s his only way to win the fight.  If he gets Nate down and tries to impose some ground and pound, he’ll get submitted….it’s that simple.  Nate’s a wizard off his back, and he’s got those long ass limbs which make triangle chokes the more easier.

Final Prediction: Nate Diaz vs. submission, round 3.

Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim:

This is a difficult fight to pick.  Karo’s been out of the loop due to injuries/panic attacks, hasn’t fought since a TKO loss to Thiago Alves at UFN 13 back in April of 2008, while Kim looked like shit and barely squeaked out a victory over Matt Brown at UFC 88 back in September.  I don’t have enough faith in either guy to give a solid prediction, but showing from previous track records, I’d like to think Karo is going to be the favorite due to his record and previous opponents.  I know though, if Karo shows up looking like garbage, “Stun Gun” is going to get the best of him.

Final Prediction: Karo Parisyan via unanimous decision.

Quick Picks:

Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono: Fitch via unanimous decision

Thiago Tavares vs. Manny Gamburyan: Thiago via unanimous decision

Jon Howard vs. Chris Wilson: Wilson via TKO, round 2.

Jake O’ Brien vs. Christian Wellisch: Jake via TKO, round 2.

Matt Arroyo vs. Dan Cramer: Matt Arroyo via unanimous decision

Props: MMAJunkie

Helio Gracie, the Gracie family patriarch and instrumental figure in the rise of early mixed martial arts, has passed away at the age of 95.

With his older brother Carlos, Helio, who died early Thursday is Rio de Janiero, helped create what we know today as Brazilian jiu jitsu.

With a slight build and weighing no more than 150 pounds, Gracie adapted traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu principles so that leverage and position could make up size differences between opponents.

Called Gracie jiu jitsu, which son Rorion used to help launch the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993, the fighting style would soon prove dominant. Another one of Helio’s nine sons, UFC hall-of-famer Royce, successfully implemented the strategies in early UFC events despite facing significantly larger opponents.

Royce’s and the fighting style’s success sparked the explosion of modern jiu jitsu among the martial-arts world.

The discipline, now better known as Brazilian jiu jitsu, remains a key foundation in any MMA education.

Helio, himself, also fought, oftentimes to prove jiu jitsu’s dominance over disciplines such as boxing, wrestling and judo. Many of the fights took place in front of remarkably large crowds as Helio became one of Brazil’s biggest sports stars.

Rest in Peace Helio.

Picture Props: Combat Lifestyle

I can’t believe that this rematch is finally going to go down in just a few days.  BJ has done a great job hyping the shit out of this bout, GSP has done his usual thing and kept pretty quit, slipping in a few jabs and pokes once in a while to show he’s not afraid of BJ’s mouth and will simply “do hiz talkeene in d’cage”.   This picture was taken at the UFC 94 Pre-Event Press Conference, and if you’ve got a minute, I recommend taking a peak at the other images the great folks over at Combat Lifestyle managed to shoot.  Here’s the link…

After the jump you can see an video of the conference thanks to ESPN.com

]]> http://headkickmania.com/2009/01/29/oooo-baby-3-days-and-counting/feed/ http://headkickmania.com/2009/01/27/hermes-franca-tears-acl-so-long-ufn-17-fight-with-joe-lauzon/ http://headkickmania.com/2009/01/27/hermes-franca-tears-acl-so-long-ufn-17-fight-with-joe-lauzon/#comments Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:25:05 +0000 headkickmania http://headkickmania.com/?p=890 Props: DemandMMA

“To all My Fans, unfortunately i am not gonna be able to fight UFC 17 in Tampa Florida, i just tore my ACL on my right knee last saturday….

I think you  guys deserve to hear that from me.

I just want to take care of that , and Joe lauzon you’re lucky mother fucker lololol.(J/K)

Thank you UFC,my fans, friends for the support, i was training hard and i was so excited ,but there’s nothing i can do, (could be worse), so Hermes franca will take a break for some recovery,and come back  stronger than ever like i always do!!!!”

Well that’s some shitty news. I was really looking forward to seeing that fight, which was supposed to take place on Feb 7th aka a few weeks away. I’m sure the UFC is going to get on the ball and find a legit replacement for Lauzon, I keep getting an image of Spencer Fisher in my mind, that’d a be a badass fight right there and even more interesting than the Franca/Lauzon fight. Stay tuned for more updates….

Below is the current UFN 17 fight card:

MAIN CARD:

• Joe Lauzon vs. TBA
• Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer
• Nick Catone vs. TBA
• Denis Stojnic vs. Cain Velasquez
• Steve Bruno vs. Matthew Riddle

PRELIM BOUTS:

• Rich Clementi vs. Gleison Tibau
• Luigi Fioravanti vs. Anthony Johnson
• Dan Miller vs. Jake Rosholt
• Rob Emerson vs. Kurt Pellegrino
• Matt Grice vs. George Sotiropoulos

Props: Cage Potato

Anyone who got to watch Affliction: Day of Reckoning live last weekend probably got more than a few laughs everytime former UFC light heavyweight champion and “color commentator” Tito Ortiz opened his mouth during the post-fight interviews.  Here’s a collection of some of his hilarious quotes…

Sobral/Sokoudjou:

• “Here we are with Seraldo Babalu, you did an awesome job, saw why you’re a black belt in jiu-jitsu, getting an awesome submission there, I want to tell me what you see, let’s go ahead and see by the fight, what you saw, in the ring.”
• “You showed the dominance by getting the takedown and looking for a choke in that position. We know the weakness that you had, but you actually showed the heart and determination of a champion of how tough of a light heavyweight you really are, here in the Affliction card. What do you think of the future of you, um, future opponents?”
• “Yes, and uh, my back will be better in about three months, so I know all the fans would love to see me and you get it on. You know what, you’re an awesome fighter, congratulations tonight. Everybody lets give a hand to Renato Babalu, one of the greatest light heavyweights, of the night.”

Belfort/Lindland:

• “Matt the Lindland Law…The Law Lindland.”
• “Well, Belfort, we saw you with an astonishing left hand, that’s the left hand that I used to see you knock people out time and time again, we’re gonna go ahead and go over it. Walk me through it, show me exactly what you seen with this.”
• “Well, like I said, you show your hand-speed time and time again Vitor, 185 pounds, lady and gentlemen, let’s give Vitor Belfort a round of applause, an awesome 105 pounder, you just beat the number two guy in the world, buddy, you’re on top of the world tonight!”
• “Wow! That’s all I got to say. Vitor at 185 pounds. I don’t know. I see him beating the, uh, what was it, Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart because you have two great boxers, and, man, that was amazing. That was the old Vitor Belfort that we all want to see. Him at 131 years old. He’s back for vengeance.”

Barnett/Yvel:

• “Well, here we go, we, here we go we got Josh Barnett, with a dominating fashion. Buddy, he said he wanted to stand up with you. You said you wanted to stand up with him. All the gameplans get thrown out and you shown the dominant heavyweight that you are. He wasn’t getting away from you. Walk me through the fight.”
• “Well, alright, we’re gonna go ahead show some some action from around one right here. I want you to walk me through and how do you feel as you went through this stuff?”
• “Well you should have your head high tonight, you did an awesome job, entertained every one of these fans. You did a great job, I’m proud of you buddy. Keep it up, let’s see the winner tonight, you’ll be next in line.”
• “Well, you showed what type of champion you really are. Everybody lets give a hand to Josh Barnett, the baby-faced assassin, continuing his win career. Good job Josh! We’ll go back to you Sean.”

Fedor/Arlovski:

• “July 4th has come early.”
• “I’m gonna have my interpreter here for Fedor Emelianenko. Everybody had questions on what type of heavyweight you were. You’ve showed it once on Tim Sylvia in 38 seconds. You’ve done it again against Andrei Arlovski in 3 minutes and 34 seconds. Let me tell you how you feelin right now.”
• “Well there’s always been question from other promotions saying that you weren’t the best heavyweight in the world. Well, tonight, buddy, you’ve answered those questions. You tooken out two of the former UFC heavyweight champions and you are the best heavyweight… in my eyes and I believe every one of these guys’ eyes around the world… of tonight…”
• “Well, we got to see, actually, Josh Barnett in the last fight, win in a decision. It looks like you two are going to be heading off and another chance for you to defend your heavyweight title. What do you think as Josh as your next opponent?”
• “Well the millions that are watching at home and the fifteen thousand and more in audience tonight, ladies and gentlemen, the pound for pound best heavyweight in the world today, Fedor Emelianenko, the last emperor, congratulations buddy.”

I can’t stop laughing….

“r3d d3vil” - a devout Fedor Emelienanko fanboy, posted this video over at Cameldog, and as much as I don’t like those over-committed people who hug fighters nuts like that, I can’t deny that this video does sort of speak the truth.