Thursday, September 30, 2010
R.I.P. Greg Giraldo
Greg Giraldo passed away yesterday at the age of 44 of what is being called at the time of this writing an "accidental overdose of prescription medicine". I didn't know the man personally but I thoroughly enjoyed his brand of humor and always looked forward to his yearly appearances on the Comedy Central Roasts.
My condolences go out to his family and friends. Rest in peace, Greg. Your pain is over. Thanks for the laughs.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
WEC 51 Picks: Someone Is Drinking A Gallon Of Milk
Before we get into our picks, we decided that for every event there will be a little wager. The low man with the worst picks will need to pay up on a certain bet decided by the rest of us. For our first time around, we decided on a classic, the "Gallon of Milk Challenge". The loser will video tape it, post it to youtube, and it will be posted all over the internet for everyone to see.
Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan
Deowade: Aldo - He's too fast and too smart to jump in unprotected like Mike Brown did. I expect this to look alot like Aldo/Brown, except with a short annoying Armenian guy getting his ass whipped. Aldo via TKO in the 2nd.
MostDiabolicalHater: Manny has nothing for Jose here.....NOTHING!!! - Aldo by whatever the hell he god damn pleases KO Rd. 2
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: This is one of those fights where before hand everyone is saying how Aldo has cleaned out the division. It’s an interesting matchup due to Manny’s judo background but Aldo is a killer with a Chelsea smile, no way he loses this fight.
Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner
Deowade: Cerrone - After losing to Benderson so quickly, Donald has to have some serious motivation to come back and break someone. Varner is going to want to stand and bang, but he'll quickly try and take it to the round once Cerrone starts beating that ass. Cerrone via Submission in the 3rd.
MostDiabolicalHater: After all the talk ( and there has been an avalanche of it) these two finally meet again in the blue cage. This one will be intense but I have to go with Varner because like Kurt Angle said at WrestleMania 18, "Enough with the freakin cowboy hats. You're not 8 years old anymore, please!" - Varner, Decision
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: I’m not sure which Cerrone will show up. As much as I hate to say this, Varner is consistent and will end up beating the hell out of a mentally broken Cerrone.
Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia
Deowade: Torres - This a gimme fight for Torres. Valencia has been around for a minute, but he's not a world beater by any means. If Torres can go back to being the aggressive Zorak look-a-like that he was before Brian Bowles sent him to the Land of Wind and Ghosts, then he's got this in the bag. Torres via Una. Decision
MostDiabolicalHater: As much as I despise Miguel Torres annoying twitter persona, he gets back on track here. - Torres, Sub, Rd. 1
BarackLesnar: Torres should probably outclass Valencia in every area. Miguel might play it safe to make sure he wins so UD is what my gut says.
ThisRedEngine: Miguel’s fight to lose and my guess is that he does, I think his confidence is shook and I have questions about his chin after Brian Bowles sent him on a trip to visit invisible Jesus. Charlie Valencia is my dog pick via TKO.
Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop
Deowade: Korean Zombie all day - Roop is going to get his ass handed to him on Thursday night. Jung can take insane amounts of punishment, and then throw it right back at his opponent. Jung TKO in the 2nd.
MostDiabolicalHater: The Korean Zombie and his amazing t-shirt return and get their first WEC victory here. - Chan Sung Jung - Decision
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: A highlight fight for Jung. Roop tried to mean mug him during the weigh ins and since he isn’t from 209, looked ri-goddamn-diculous. Jung TKO in the 3rd.
Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick
Deowade: Garcia - He's always entertaining, has heavy hands, and (as we saw in his last match) can take a beating. Sorry Hominick, Garcia via TKO in the 3rd.
MostDiabolicalHater: The other half of the standandbang war to end all standandbang wars is fighting on this card too....Shit. Let's say Garcia TKO rd 3.
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: The other zombie is fighting a very technical fighter in Hominick. If it turns into a dick measuring contest to test each other’s power, it’s Garcia all day. Garcia via TKO in the 3rd.
Mike Brown vs. Cole Province
Deowade: Brown - They brought Province in to lose. Nothing more needs to be said. Brown via MANSTRENGTH Submission.
MostDiabolicalHater: Mike Brown on the undercard??? Oof. Brown takes this one and gets his ass back on the main card. Brown. TKO rd 2.
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: Glad to see everyone else’s mind is blown about Brown being on the undercard. Provice has everything to gain and hopefully he fights like it. That said, Mike Brown will smash him for however long he wants.
Chris Horodecki vs. Ed Ratcliffe
Deowade: Ratcliff - Horodecki makes childish mistakes (no pun intended) and took 3 rounds to put away some dude that stepped in on a few days notice. And 9 mm has to have some serious pent up rage after Cerrone went Vale Tudo on his nutsack last December. 9mm via KO.
MostDiabolicalHater: Horodecki's experience gives him the edge in this one - Horodecki, Decision
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: There was a time when Horodecki was destined for greatness. Then he was beaten up by his big brother, Ryan Shultz, and hasn’t looked the same. Ratcliffe by hilarious KO.
Diego Nunes vs. Tyler Toner
Deowade: Diego Nunes - Don't know much about either of these two, but Nunes last win was over tougher competition. So I'm going with him.
MostDiabolicalHater: Nunes, Decision
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: Diego Nunes as he’s faced tougher competition. Good for Toner though I guess for getting a chance to fight a decently named fighter?
Antonio Banuelos vs. Chad George
Deowade: Banuelos - Chuck Liddell's manservant should take this one. He's durable and has heavy hands. Plus I can't stop thinking about Scott Jorgensen strangling Chad George at WEC 47.
MostDiabolicalHater: Banuelos, Sub, rd 2.
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: Banuelos is proven, trains with Chuck and is one of the few fighters from that camp that have show any sort of potential. I like him via Submission in Round 3.
Demetrious Johnson vs. Nick Pace
Deowade: Nick Pace - He pulled off the illest flying knee that I've eve seen in MMA. That's the only reason that I'm picking him.
MostDiabolicalHater: Pace, Decision
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: Nick Pace is a highly touted prospect. I don’t trust peope who say that someone is a highly touted prospect cause I don’t like disappointment. So I’m betting on Demetrious Johnson to win in the first round.
Tie Quan Zhang vs. Pablo Garza
Deowade: Quan - I've only seen a few videos on Quan, but he seems solid. And I know nothing about Pablo Garza, So I'm going with "The Mongolian Wolf" via Submission.
MostDiabolicalHater: Now we will see if Tiequan Zhang has the goods to become a crossover star (how bright exactly that star will be allowed to shine in the WEC who knows) in a battle of unbeatens. I say he makes good on the hype. Tiequan Zhang, TKO rd. 1
BarackLesnar:
ThisRedEngine: Quan is the fighter that Zuffa hopes can deliver the Chinese market. But it also is very telling with how they have booked his first fight. Pablo Garza was featured on TUF 12 where he lost in the elimination to make it to the house. He does have some skills and I don’t like when promotions try to book easy fights for marketable fighters. That said, Quan is very good and shouldn’t have a promblem making his debut. TKO RD 1.
MMA Gear That Doesn't Suck: Scramble Stuff
As we all know, most MMA gear is god awful. Skulls, glitter, dragons, chains, brass knuckles, and weird markings that look like skeet stains. But there are still a few rebel designers that actually make clothing that is wearable (and actually quite stylish). Today's featured piece is the Scramble "No Attack Groin" Tee. Matthew Benyon (the shirts designer and the man behind thegrapplingdummy.com) explains his thought process behind this awesome Tee (which comes in both Red and Navy Blue):
This tee is inspired by the British stiff upper lip, and Yuji Shimada, Janglish-spurting Pride referee who started every match with those immortal words... "No elbow above neck. No attack groin. No grab rope. Crean fight, crean fight!"
I ordered mine already, and I'll be rocking the hell out of it in Japan. You should probably check the rest of his gear at scramblestuff.com too.
WEC 51: I CARE! Jose Aldo vs. Manny Gamburyan For The Faberweight Title!
Part III of the "WEC 51: I CARE" series, a drunkdepth analysis of the fight between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan. In the first post, I discussed how it extremely odd how the WEC marketing department has failed to promote such an event and how the media mouth pieces that Zuffa usually relies on have been quiet with this stacked card. The second post was mildly detailed about the main card, which has two former title holders as well as a fight of the year candidates Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung doing battle with Mark Hominick and George Roop respectively. The best fight though wasn't covered in those two posts, the proverbial "cherry on top" which is Jose Aldo defending his belt against Armenian wrecking machine Manny Gamburyan.
Jose Aldo was signed by the WEC in 2008, and competed on WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver in a fighter where he was the underdog against the former Featherweight kingpin Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira. Nogueira was the Shooto king from 1998 to 2005, so for an unknown fighter in Aldo, there weren't exactly high expectations. Jose was able to defeat "Pequeno" in the second round, and later on a positive test for Boldenone, which provided Alexandre second loss in a round, this time to the California State Athletic Commission. In a move to build up the young Brazilian, the WEC slow tracked him with fights against TUF 12 contestant Jonathan Brookins, Rolando Perez, and Chris Mickle, all of which ended in highlight reel fashion. His second real test in the WEC was against Cub Swanson, who was coming off a Fight of the Night decision win over Hiroyuki Takaya. Jose Aldo did some major surgery on Swanson's face by creating a vagina over his eye. It's a surgery usually only completed in the seediest streets of the third world. With a 5-0 record, Aldo was rewarded with a title shot against Mike Brown, who had two wins over Urijah Faber and stopped a streaking Leonard Garcia by arm-triangle. Needless to say, Aldo was the underdog once again, but at the end of the night TKO'd Brown in the second after the ATT fighter was unable to maintain top control when he was able to get the takedown. The last time we saw Aldo in action was at the inaugural UFC Presents: Aldo vs. Faber Championship event. Jose Aldo took on the face of the WEC, Urijah Faber, in the first WEC pay per view to date. For five rounds, Aldo leg kicked the California pretty boy to geriatric status. If it weren't for Faber's buttchin, the fight would have ended in spectacular fashion. This fight cemented Aldo as the best Faberweight of all time.
Manny Gamburyan made his name using the UFC marketing machine, as a cast member of The Ultimate Fighter: Pulver vs. Penn (TUF 5), as a member of Jens Pulver's team. The "Anvil" was able to absolutely destroy a completely overwhelmed Noah Thomas in his first fight by kimura in the first. His second fight was a tough test as he took on Matt Wiman, a UFC veteran. He was able to out muscle the Oklahoma Top Team fighter to a unanimous decision victory. Gamburyan was again faced with a UFC vet, when he faced the season favorite, Joe Lauzon, who had recently come off a knock out victory over Coach Pulver at UFC 63. In avfight that I consider one of the best of the season, the Armenian judoka was able to outwork the fighter from Massachusetts to earn a spot at the finale at the Palms in Las Vegas. After thoroughly working Nate Diaz for the first five minutes, Gamburyan attempted a throw only to dislocate his shoulder, thus ending his Ultimate Fighter dreams. At 5'5", Gamburyan was outsized, and after going 2-2 in the UFC, decided to drop to 145 and compete in the WEC. His first fight was against John Franchi, who earned a split decision victory over TUF 12 washout and former X Games star Mike Budnik, at WEC 41: Faber vs. Brown II. Manny was able to outwork and outmuscle Franchi to earn a Unanimous Decision victory. After this fight, due to his marketability coming off of TUF 5, Manny was fast tracked. He faced Leonard Garcia at WEC 44, in a very close Unanimous Decision victory where the score cards showed Gamburyan the winner 30-27 and 29-28x2. A fight with Mike Brown to determine the number one contender at WEC 48: Aldo v. Faber, had the judo player end the fight in spectacular fashion via knock out halfway through the first round.
The fight on Saturday will be a clash of styles with Jose Aldo possessing the more technical stand up game and sound BJJ game against Manny Gamburyan's heavy handed boxing and Judo game. Manny has done considerable work on his wrestling as well and possesses the skill set to create a very interesting fight. Rarely does a high level judo player make the transition to MMA as working without a Gi is often detrimental to the judo game. Manny has been able to make this transition seamlessly and if the fighters end up clinched, don't be surprised to see Aldo tossed on his head and finished with some ground and pound. My pick though is with the Brazilian, he is more proven and has been on a tear since splitting his time between Nova Uniao and Black House.
Tomorrow, part IV will be posted: "WEC 51: I Care! History of the Faberweight Belt!" In the meantime, please listen to Bloody Elbow's Luke Thomas interview with Manny Gamburyan
get high with a little help from my friends,
going to try with a little help from my friends
Not saying that I plan on being the Ringo of this blog, I just wanted to point out that a blunt (much like a sandwich) always tastes better rolled by a friend. I've never written in a public forum besides BloodyElbow, so I expect a lot of encouragement from my three friends that are always there for me when I need them. Weed, booze, and opiates. They not only are there for help and a false sense of confidence, but they'll also take the blame when I fuck up. If any of my posts look like I copy and pasted together some of my comments from BE I probably did. Enjoy.
ThisRedEngine Presents: Terrible Gambling Advice! WEC 51 Edition
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Caffeine, Samurai, and a Drum kit: A look back at DREAM.16
I took a nap around 10:00 pm Friday night, and woke up around 2:00 am to get my Japanese MMA fix. Dream.16 started off with a video that had to be conceived during a long night of Sake shots and a marathon of "The Seven Samurai" and" Crush Groove". TK pounded on the drums, Aoki flipped us off whilst looking like the 3rd (Japanese) Diaz Brother, and Saku......well, Saku was Saku. Michael "The Voice" Schiavello and Frank "FML" Trigg (our MC's for the night) donned Lucha Libre masks and even performed a mock fight.
Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. James Thompson
This was like watching two drunk dudes fight over beer nuts. Thompson still doesn't accept THE FACT that his chin is about as strong as a warm glass of water. Yamaguchi rocked him more than a few times, but this time Thompson had a GAME PLAN (Shocking, I know). His game plan of Thai Clinching and throwing weak knees wasn't enough to impress the Japanese Judges though. Yamaguchi won a split decision, to which Thompson commented by saying that he'd been raped by the judges....
My thoughts: Thompson needs to learn to protect his chin, and they both need to improve on their cardio.
Mitsuhiro "The Endless Warrior" Ishida vs. Akiyo "Wicky" Nishiura
Not even going to sugar coat it. Ishida gave Wicky the Lentz treatment. Endless takedowns (most were stuffed to Wicky's credit) and inflicting no damage WHATSOEVER in dominant positions. This may have been a one sided fight (as far as controlling the pace), but Wicky unleashed bursts of violence on Ishida's face every single chance that he got. Long story short, Ishida won a split decision by controlling the fight but Wicky destroyed his face.
My thoughts: Ishida needs to look for the finish. Having dominant position and not doing anything with it is like having a winning scratch off ticket and not cashing it in.
Kazuyuki "Little Hercules" Miyata vs. Takeshi "Lion" Inoue
At this point my Caffiene buzz was wearing off. Schiavello's almost schoolgirl-like admiration of Miyata's physique was a bit creepy... But that was nearly forgotten after Inoue had us sit through a weird Japanese-English Rap/Spoken Word/Hypeman act that lasted like 23 minutes (nly to have him walk out to Eminem's "I'm not afraid"). Miyata looked absurdly diesel as usual [pause] and Inoue rocked shorts with fur on them.....Yea, kid was rocking fur on his trunks. By anyway, this match was similar to Ishida/Wicky in that the wrestler dictated the pace of the match. Miyata landed 2 consecutive German Suplexes on Inoue in spectacular gifworthy fashion, and Inoue had a weird stance that looked like a 4 year old that really had to pee. Miyata won a unanimous decision, since Inoue had nothing for him.
My thoughts: Inoue needs to improve on his Takedown Defense.
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Cole Escovedo
I'm not going to act like I know what was going on while they rolled around on the ground for two minutes. All I know is that Omigawa capitalized on Escovedo leaving his arms in places that they don't belong. That Straight Armbar was pretty grizzly. After the fight, Omigawa addressed the crowd saying that he is "The Center of the Featherweight Universe". I don't agree, but he's certainly providing a good argument.
My thoughts: Time to come to the WEC Mr. Omigawa
Hiroyuki "Streetfight Bancho" Takaya vs. Chase Beebe
FEG brought Beebe in to lose against Takaya and he did just that. Not just lose but get KTFO'd. There's nothing to really say about this fight other than Takaya threw a crap load of punches at Beebe's head until he hit the mark. Once Beebe hit the ground, Takaya proceeded to drop 4 depth charges on his jaw to put him out. And not just out but OUT. Beebe complained about the stoppage......but that was after he woke up. Let that marinate. He had to wake up to make a complaint.
My thoughts: Chase Beebe needs to take a loooooonnnnngggg break from MMA and reassess his career. Remember when he was ranked Top 10? What happened to that boy?
Minowman vs. Satoshi Ishii
Ishii walked out to Antonio "The Chin of God" Inoki's Puroresu Theme, which is pretty damn gangster if you ask me. Minowa walked out to his usual techno and Michael Schiavello had his usual Minowaman-mangasm. Ishii's striking and footwork are still terrible, but he made up for it with Man Strength Judo. Minowa tried to pull off a Heel Hook but Ishii had an "I see what you did there" moment and rolled out of it pretty easily. Ishii spent the rest of the match throwing Minowa around and taking his back to earn a Unanimous Decision. Was it exciting? Not really, but It showed that Ishii is actually taking this serious.
My thoughts: Ishii needs to become a little more aggressive with his grappling and work on his striking. Also, Michael Schiavello needs to work on being impartial. Trying to make an excuse for Minowa losing during the live telecast is not a good look, son.
Shinya "The Baka Survivor" Aoki vs. Marcus "Maximus" Aurelio
Ummmm. There was lots of grappling and Aoki out blackbelted a BJJ Black Belt. He showed off some decent Ground and Pound too.
My thoughts: Aurelio needs to work on his Mixed Martial Arts game as a whole. Being really good at one thing and not even decent at anything else won't get you anywhere these days. Just ask "The Baka Survivor".
Kazushi "The Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller
*sigh* DREAM reanimated Sakuraba yet again to get some ratings. After the entrances the actual fight wasn't even close. Mayhem played Wack-A-Mole with Sakuraba's head for a little while before throwing a peace sign at the cameras. He then mercifully ended the match with an Arm Triangle Choke.
Thoughts: Sakuraba needs to retire. Like 2 year ago, when Manhoef drove his head into the canvas. Mayhem needs to finish up his contract with Strikeforce and head to the bigger big show.
Gegard Mousasi vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
I dozed off after the Sakuraba memorial match. So, I didn't watch this one. Still haven't seen it. But from what I've read it went exactly how I thought it would. Mousasi showed up looking uninterested, beat an opponent of a lesser skill level, and collected a Paycheck.
Thoughts: Mousasi needs a steady flow of quality opponents.
All in all the show was decent, but it was lacking something. Maybe it's the lack of credible competition. Maybe I've grown to expect more Freak Show fights. Or maybe I'm falling out of love with Japanese MMA. I'll give this card a 3/5.
WEC 51: I care! Main Card Previews!
Part II of my "Does anyone even care?" WEC 51 series, here are the previews for the main card. How good is the maincard? Well the show opens up with with a fantastic fight between former featherweight title challenger Leonard "The Mexican Zombie" Garcia against Mark Hominickand ends with Jose Aldo fighting Manny Gamburyan for the Featherweight belt. The fact that there is no marketing around this card is mind blowing. The fact that normal Zuffa press outlets like Yahoo and Heavy.com haven't posted any stories is even more so. In three days Zuffa will put on arguably the most stacked WEC card, with the only comparable one in recent memory being Aldo vs. Faber, a card that lacked the WEC brand. WEC 51 is strong enough to be the brand's second foray into PPV and the fact that we are seeing it for free makes us very fortunate as MMA fans.
Leonard Garcia vs. Mark Hominick
Leonard Garcia is probably the most fun fighter ever. I can't remember a fight of his that didn't remind me of a dust cloud type fight you'd often see in cartoons. He burst onto the scene with a barnburner of a fight with Roger Huerta at lightweight in the UFC in a fight that made both fighter's careers. Mark Hominick has quietly been making a name for himself in the WEC as a member of Team Tomkins. Both fighters are highly entertaining, albeit with differing styles. Leonard Garcia is a balls to the wall, throw bombs till the other fighter isn't standing while Hominick is a more classic kick boxer. This fight is a great way to start out the night and I'd expect fireworks. My prediction is that if Leonard can bait Mark into a slugfest, he walks away with a nice KO win, but Hominick is usually smart enough to not caught up in such fights. I like Garcia though as he's more proven at the top level.
Chan Sung Jung vs. George Roop
The other half of "Brothers Zombie" takes on TUF veteran George Roop. Chan Sung Jung impressed many American fight fans with his war with Leonard Garcia. In a decision that could have gone either way, he walked away as the loser, if only on his record. He now gets another shot at impressing the WEC crowd with a fight against George Roop. Roop had a decent showing on The Ultimate Fighter as a member of Team Mir, and like most fighters that season, suffered from a lack of air time because of Junnie Browning. George Roop is an extremely lanky fighter who doesn't do anything particularly great but is decently well rounded. This fight was most likely booked as another Jung highlight bout but Roop has the ground game to pose some threats to the Korean if the fight does hit the mat. I'm picking the more proven commodity and going with the zombie.
Miguel Torres vs. Charlie Valencia
Miquel Torres has hit some hard times recently. Once touted as the best Bantamweight fighter and arguable top ten pound for pound, he is now faced with a must win situation after dropping his last two fights. His record is a combination of fights with unknown fighters and top competition. Since his loss to Brian Bowles, hie hasn't had the same aggressive style that one made him a fan favorite. Charlie Velencia is an extremely talented fighter who just never is able to step up. Zuffa had big plans for him when they first purchased the WEC, sending Charlie on a media tour with Urijah Faber as the Hispanic face of the organization. Unfortunately, he has been disappointing and those plans never came to fruition. This really is a fight between two former faces of the organization. I think Torres should take this by being more well rounded, but two losses are tough for a fighter to mentally come back from.
Donald Cerrone vs. Jamie Varner
The first bout was marred with controversy. Donald Cerrone is a terminator, a fighter who may not always win, but will always send his opponent to the hospital for some sort of medical treatment. He has an aggressive submission game and a nonstop "in your grill" kickboxing style. If athletic commission testing had the capabilities, Cerrone would test positive for being a Skynet T-800. Jamie Varner is a completely different fighter. He has an incredibly underrated wrestling game with fantastic boxing. Unfortunately for Varner, he also like to complain about anything and everything regarding his opponents after fighting them. His most famous line "I came to fight, he came to grapple" after losing to Benson Henderson, showed that he hasn't matured as a fighter, and doesn't take losing particularly well. I like Cerrone in the rematch but it really depends on if he comes in mentally strong. He tapped to Ben Henderson in the rematch extremely quickly without fighting off the submission attempt. If that same fighter shows up on Thursday, I fully expect Jamie Varner to do the worm across the WEC logo.
Part III will have a write up of the championship bout between Jose Aldo and Manny Gamburyan.
Lesnar v. Velasquez - Heavyweight Main Event Redemption
The Main Event is the finale. It is the last thing the audience sees and it can either send you home thrilled (Silva v. Sonnen) or pissed (Mir v. Cro Cop). It has the potential to either save or ruin an event. To be the fitting culmination of an epic night or a rotten taste in the fan's collective mouths. Thankfully, the UFC Heavyweight Division is about to be redeemed at UFC 121.
At UFC 121 Brock Lesnar will be attempting to set the record for UFC Heavyweight Title defenses that he currently shares with Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture, against the undefeated AKA product, Cain Velasquez. Brock is fresh off his 2nd round submission of Shane Carwin and Cain was last seen turning Big Nog's lights completely out in Australia.
Lesnar has not been in a boring fight in his career. Some may find his 3 round bludgeoning of Heath Herring to be boring and that is perfectly acceptable. I happen to enjoy a good dismantling. With devastating power, a smothering top game and incredible quickness Lesnar makes every fight a must watch.
Cain Velasquez has been brought along slowly in his UFC career. While Brock was thrown straight to the wolves, Cain has been allowed to fight low-mid tier fighters while improving his game. Cain showed he was ready for the upper echelon when he KO'd Noguiera. Now he gets his chance to derail the Brock Lesnar train and put the stamp down that he is the best heavyweight in the UFC and maybe in the world.
To me, this is Brock's fight to lose. He will have 30lbs on Cain when they step into the cage and his control on the ground coupled with the size advantage is a lot to overcome. Cain's only hope is to knock Lesnar out on their feet. The problem with that is that Brock Lesnar just took the best shots that the heaviest hitter in the division could dish out and walked out of the cage the champ. Cain Velasquez's power is not even in the same realm as Carwin's. Cain also has opposite cardio of Shane, but it turns out that is a good thing since Shane showed us his cardio would have fit in great with the cast of TUF 10.
This fight will not be boring. It will not disappoint. These two are both fantastic wrestlers but Brock has fought two high caliber wrestlers already in Carwin and Couture. The only wrestler Cain has fought in MMA is Jake O'Brien. Will this matter or will Cain's stand up game make the wrestling aspect a moot point? One thing is for sure, nobody will be kicking themselves for buying the PPV when the credits roll.
Monday, September 27, 2010
WEC 51 is coming up...does anyone care?
With an extremely busy MMA filled weekend with a Dream event and a UFC card, you would normally expect very little press for the WEC card. Under normal circumstances both organizations would receive plenty of press with the WEC being put on the back burner. That was not the case however. Both cards were received with very little fanfare and even less media attention. It was almost as if the MMA media as a whole (including blogs) were less concerned about two fight cards in 24 hours than they were about Chael Sonnen allegedly testing positive for PEDs.
UFC 119 was an important card but very underwhelming. Sean Sherk and Evan Dunham fought for relevancy, one to maintain it in an every changing division, and the other hoping to gain it in hopes of moving from a prospect to a contender. At the end of the fight both fighters showed that they could compete with the best of the division. Unfortunately, the fighter also fighting for relevancy last night, was met with a knee to the face in an extremely boring main event. Mirko Cro Cop, since leaving PRIDE for the UFC has be a shell of his former self. He seemed to have made adjustments in his game when he was able to choke out Pat Barry. It gave hope to his fans that maybe he was still able to compete at a moderately high level. Unfortunately, that man did not show up last night. He didn't seem to want to be there. He was timid and you could see a once great fighter fade before your eyes. The biggest story after last night was that Dana White didn't give Frank Mir Knock Out of the Night award for the incredibly boring fight. Yes, it was that underwhelming of a night.
Dream 16 was actually worse, if that's even possible. As the first leg of the two part event called "Save Our Company", the staff at FEG stacked the card with as many ratings friendly fighters as they could in a last ditch hope to their television partners that it was still a viable company. Satoshi Ishii looked dominant against a much smaller Minowaman in a fight that was strictly booked for a ratings grab. DREAM 16was on paper the best card the company could put on, but when the night was over, everyone who stayed up to watch the event was left disappointed. The biggest question after the event was if websites would rank Gegard Mousassi in the top 5 now that he has a Light Heavyweight Belt again.
So with these two events having little press before and even less after, why isn't anyone talking about WEC 51? It's perhaps the most stacked card since the Aldo/Faber championship event. The card is so good that Mike Brown, the unanimously agreed number four featherweight in the world, is fighting on the undercard. That's absurd! Writers/Bloggers/Fans complain about the lack of mainstream interest in the obviously exciting WEC but show that same attitude. This is an event to promote yet less than 400,000 people will see it.
Finally a point I'd like to bring up: The media can say that it isn't their responsibility to promote these fights, and to a certain extent they are right. They aren't promoters. They are the media who are supposed to cover a sport that they supposedly care enough about to write in some sort of a capacity. This event failing is no more the responsibility of the WEC marketing department as it is the responsibility of every writer out there. There are fans who may not have known about this event who check blogs/news sites. The fact that there is no coverage on Yahoo or CBS or Sherdog is laughable.
I guess my question is: What's your problem?