So much has happened since the last time I wrote. EliteXC went under (or has it?), UFC 89 and 90 are in the books, Sengoku crowned Grand Prix Champions and we are on the verge of perhaps the biggest fight in UFC history, Couture vs. Lesnar. Now, my goal for this column is not to repeat the same news and crap that many of you read elsewhere. My job is to give you a fresh look and different kind of voice. So with that being said....let me begin.
UFC 89...
UFC 89 was pretty uneventful in my opinion. Bisping got the W fighting a smart, if not boring fight. Chris Leben is the very definition of a gatekeeper in the MW division so I'm not totally impressed. I am looking forward to Bisping vs. Franklin/Henderson, although I think it sucks that this fight is months and months away. I hate TUF for this reason! Regardless, we will see how good Bisping is when he gets in the cage with one of these two. (As I write this, I was informed Chris Leben was busted for steroid use....will you fighters ever learn? Shame on you Leben! First the arrest and now steroids, do you want to be fighting in my backyard next?)
Where have you gone Brandon Vera? The future posterboy of the UFC has lost three of four, and his lone victory was not exactly inspiring or impressive. My problem is, I don't know if I can say losing to Keith Jardine is ok or not. Jardine has wins over #1 LHW Forrest Griffin and former #1 LHW Chuck Liddell but has looked like a sheep in loses to Houston Alexander (no longer a "good" loss) and Wanderlei Silva. I don't know where Vera goes from here, but he needs a win in the worst way. As for Jardine, that is another good question. A rematch with Liddell makes little sense. Griffin, Evans, Jackson, W. Silva, T. Silva and Machida are all tied up with pending fights. Who then makes sense? Anderson Silva. Let Anderson come back up to 205, smash Jardine and put himself in line to vie for the LHW title.
Sokoudjou....the jig is up man. The gameplan on how to beat you has been shown by both Machida and Cane, and now it is time for you to go back to Team Quest and elevate your game to another level, lest you become a one trick pony....ask Houston Alexander how life is going for him these days?
UFC 90...
A card that was slammed by "critics" was one I found to be pretty entertaining. Granted, I was drunk as a skunk watching it the first time, so I had to go back and re-watch it. Griffin/Sherk was magnificent, a real war. I'd put that up there with Alvarez/Hansen as FOTY candidate. I think Sherk is too much for any LW in the UFC not named BJ Penn. As soon as Penn vacates the LW division, which I think he will suredly do at some point, I bet Sherk gets the belt back. I have no desire seeing him beat up Kenny Florian again, but a match with Joe Stevenson would be pretty spectacular and I'll be pulling for Joe against Kenny later this month.
Thiago Alves is a beast. In my eyes he redeemed himself for failing to make weight against Matt Hughes, and he just looked awesome against Koschek. Credit Kos for coming in on short notice and taking the fight. Alves is certainly next in line to face GSP or BJ. Who do I like there? Alves looked huge against Kos, and will be bigger than either GSP or BJ. But while others are hanging off Alves' sack after his win, I'm taking GSP or BJ to beat him. GSP will have a great gameplan for Alves, and I just think BJ's natural ability will be too much for Alves in a 5 round fight.
Way to come in soft Werdum....good showing!
Ah, now to Anderson Silva. I don't want to beat this horse to death, but if Silva wanted to knock out Cote in the later rounds, he is a lot dumber than I gave him credit for. You don't take that kind of risk at this level. Cote has enough power to send Silva to la-la land. I don't care if you are trying to prove a point or not, but that is just plain stupid. As far as Silva not looking like the Silva we all know...so what? He won the fight, suffered little to no damage and walked out the champ. The question remains, where does he go from here? As I suggested above, a fight with Jardine is one I'd like to see. Okami/Silva II doesn't interest me a whole lot, and outside of that, we'd have to wait close to a year to see if Hendo can beat Franklin and then Bisping to get a re-match. Is that a fight I'd like to see? You bet. Can it be sold to the rest of you? I don't know.
EliteXC
Well, looky what happened here. Way to spend all that money on feeder promotions and go out of business. Mark my words, despite what has recently been said, EXC is done. They are playing games to keep the only value they have left, their fighter contracts. I assume most of you are smart readers, so you know what happened. Let this be a lesson to anyone else thinking of going to war with the UFC. Start small, make smart decisions and don't overextend yourself. You won't rival the UFC overnight, but if you build it right, you can eventually compete. It took the UFC time to become this big, but the market is big enough for a rival promotion. Lets hope Affliction can step in and compete.
Where do the big boys from EXC go from here? Who knows. Off the cuff, I bet the following: Shields to UFC, Lawler to UFC, Kimbo to Dream, Diaz to who knows and who cares. Pointless to continue as we will all follow the fallout closely.
Sengoku 6
Sengoku, the rival promotion to Dream in Japan, crowned GP champions. Congrats go to Satoru Kitaoka and Jorge Santiago for taking the LW and MW championships respectively. This is Santiago's second tourney win in a year, but I'm not sold on him. This was a 1-2 UFC castoff who I'm not sure would fair any better now. Nonetheless, it is quite an accomplishment and something to be proud of. Kitaoka now gets a date with Takanori Gomi to crowd a LW champion. Speaking of Mr. Gomi...
What the hell happened to you? Take it from me everyone, Gomi's 2005 year was as impressive a year as any fighter has ever had. For whatever reason, he has slowly fallen off since then. He was choked out by Marcus Aurellio, eeked out a split decision victory in a re-match, got choked out via gogoplate by Nick Diaz and now he puts up a stinker in a match he was supposed to win (See CroCop, Mirko & Werdum, Fabricio for recent examples). WVR has still decided to go ahead with this LW title match, but it has lost its luster, no question. I'm taking Kitaoka to pull the upset and put an end to any luster Gomi still has left. There is no longer any dispute that Eddie Alvarez is the #2 LW in the world.
Odds and Ends
We are less than two weeks from UFC 91 and Couture vs. Lesner. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a big Couture fan, but I think he may be in over his head here. I know, I know we've all said this before, but Lesnar is a little better than Couture with most of his skillsets. This includes wrestling, speed and strength. Obviously Captain America has a ton more experience but he is going to need a fantastic gameplan to beat Lesnar. Even if he does, the path gets no easier as he will get Big Nog (sorry Mir fans). Will be amazing to watch though.
Final card for UFC 92 is out, and that is a card I am pumped about. Two title fights plus Rampage/Silva III. If you guys can go out and see the first two fights, it is worth your time because they were amazing! Talk about a pair of brutal beatings....
Denis Kang inked a deal with the UFC. This would've been cooler before Kang lost 3 of 4 to Misaki, Akiyama and Mousasi. He'll add an interesting dynamic but I don't see him challenging Silva for the belt, let alone beating him. I am excited to see if Kang can't get a bigger fan base now. He certainly has the tools, but we'll see if he can restore some of that lost luster. Sure, he KOed Marvin Eastman just recently, but that was completely expected.
Some of you asked me where is the best place to find Japanese MMA. Well, the Pride DVDs are good place to start. I have the whole set excluding what ZUFFA has not released yet. Some of my choices for you to check out first would be: Pride 2000 GP, Pride 10, Pride 2003 GP, Pride 28, Total Elimination 2004, Final Conflict 2005. All solid cards with great fights. For those not looking to buy DVDs, you can check youtube or dailymotion but since ZUFFA owns Pride, you can't get very many of their fights anymore. What youtube and dailymotion do have is a fair amount of K-1 HERO'S, Sengoku and Shooto fights. Just go search for a fight or fighter and see what comes up.
Big WEC card this week, and it should be exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing Filho/Sonnen II and how Filho rebounds from his personal issues. It will also be good to see Faber do battle and see how Pulver rebounds from his loss to Faber a few months ago. I for one am on board with the WEC disbanding its heavier weight divisions. Not a whole lot of talent there anyways.
That is all for this issue folks....I'll be back after UFC 91 to see the fallout and see what else has popped up in the world of MMA. Keep sending the feedback and if you have any questions, I will do my best to get back to you. Aloha!
Editor's Note: Matt will be heading a regular mailbag feature for MMAFighting.com. If you've got questions/comments, Matt wants to hear them! Send your questions to (therealdeal44 @ gmail.com). Please include your first name and city/state.
