Hijinks Inc.

Category: Sports

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 117 Aftermath

    On paper, this was a fantastic night of fights. Looking back at it, it more than delivered on all the anticipation, plus some. Here’s your recaps.

    Quick Recaps

    “We discussed yesterday about how annoying Sonnen had gotten with all of his trash talking. But… he totally dominated Silva for the entire fight. This wasn’t catching the guy in a mistake like Werdum over Fedor, Sonnen used his strengths to exploit Silva’s weaknesses and completely dominated him for the entire fight. I’ve never seen Silva go after someone like he did tonight, in beginning of the 1st and 2nd round he really attacked Sonnen instead of feeling him out for 3-4 minutes, but in the end Silva’s cocky fighting style finally caught up with him in this fight, and Sonnen backed up all of his trash talking with a very dominating performance.”

    …that was what I HAD written up before the miraculous finish by Silva. What an amazing fight! I can’t even put into words how unbelievable that finish was considering how the fight had gone. That’s why Silva is the best fighter in the world.

    All 3 rounds went as almost every Jon Fitch fight goes, Fitch trades some punches, gets a hold of the opposing fighter, takes them to the ground and goes to work. It’s not exciting, but it’s incredibly impressive. Now he’s next in line to get GSP or his own teammate, Josh Koscheck, fighting for the title.

    Guida was high octane energy the entire fight, like usual. Rafael dos Anjos posed his greatest threats whenever the fight was on the ground, continually trying to lock in the omaplata. Guida got dos Anjos up against the cage and got him to tap due to the broken jaw.

    • Welterweight bout: United States Matt Hughes vs. Brazil Ricardo Almeida – Hughes wins by technical submission (anaconda choke) at 3:15 of the 1st round.

    Hughes has looked really good in the last couple fights. I wasn’t sure he had anything left in the tank, but he’s really put together a few good performances in a row. This is his first fight after being inducted into the UFC hall of fame, and he knocked Almeida down with a strong punch, and then pounced on him to get the submission.

    I’m not sure I’ve seen a first round when more punches were thrown to knock the opponents head off… by both fighters! Roy Nelson spent most of the fight trying to defend the furious attacks from dos Santos, but quite a few got through. At one point, dos Santos front kicked Nelson straight to the jaw. Nelson took a lot of abuse, but just kept coming. I really didn’t think much of Nelson before this fight, but anybody that can take that much abuse and keep on coming forward, deserves some respect.

    I finally got back on the right track with my picks, going a perfect 5-0 on the main card thanks to the amazing finale comeback by Silva. This was the best night of fights I’ve seen in a very long time. Our next MMA event is WEC 50 on the 18th.

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 117: Silva vs. Sonnen

    The pound for pound best fighter in the world (when he chooses to actually fight) is up against an elite wrestler who’s been calling him out since day 1. It should be noted that in the past, Anderson Silva has had the most trouble against the top wrestlers he’s faced. Silva has faced a lot of scrutiny lately because of his recent lackluster matches against Demian Maia and Thales Leites, when he spent more time playing matador, and less time as the bull. Meanwhile Chael Sonnen has been spouting off so much trash talk to try and get under Silva’s skin, it’s been unbearable. I’ve got a video with a ‘best of’ Sonnen’s yapping after the jump if you want to check it out.

    As if anything was needed to ramp up the intensity of this fight after all this talking, Dana White has threatened to cut Silva from the UFC if he fights the same way he did in his last bout in Abu Dhabi. “I’m telling you right now, if he acts like that again in the ring, I will cut him,” said White. “I don’t care if he’s the pound for pound best fighter in the world. I don’t care if he’s the middleweight champion.” Now, keep in mind that Dana White is a big talker in  his own right, so I have a hard time seeing him cutting Silva, but it definitely adds an interesting angle to this fight. I wouldn’t miss this fight for anything and I expect fireworks from the main event, but regardless, the winner will face Vitor Belfort in a matchup currently targeted for November.

    The rest of the card is made up with very solid matchups as well. We’ve finally got a long delayed re-match between Fitch and Alves. They originally met back in June of 2006 and this fight has been rescheduled 3 different time. Fitch has torn through everybody he’s faced in the UFC except for his title fight against GSP. The always entertaining Clay Guida and new UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes will also appear on this card, not facing each other of course, but they should be good fights.

    Dana White also confirmed that the winner of the Nelson/dos Santos fight will get a UFC Heavyweight title shot against the Lesnar/Velasquez winner. Here’s a rundown of the fights:

    Main card

    And of course, here’s my picks: Silva takes Sonnen seriously and finishes him off (you really can’t pick against someone as established as Silva until they show a drop-off in their game, Silva hasn’t, so I’m sticking with him), Fitch to take down Alves for the 2nd time, Guida over dos Anjos, I think Hughes will outpoint Almeida for a decision victory, and dos Santos over Nelson. It should be a good card! Again, if you’re interested, the Sonnen video is after the jump.

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  • It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

    You hear that? Shh, be real quiet. Now you can hear it a bit, and it’s starting to get louder. That’s right, you guessed it, it’s football season boys and girls! We’ve got real life football (I’m sorry, that’d American football to our loyal followers overseas) being played this Sunday as the NFL preseason kicks off with the Hall of Fame game, and the NCAA season starts in 1 month!

    We’ve got 5 Mondays until the college season begins on September 2, and the NFL regular season starts 1 week after that, so we’ll take some time to cover the regular ‘preparing for football season’ rundown, beginning with a college football prediction poll. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – UFC Live 2 Aftermath

    This was a great night of fights for a non-PPV card! I’m not going to waste any of your time on pleasantries, let’s just get into the recaps:

    Jones looked very good against the experience Matyushenko. Once he got Matyushenko to the ground, he was able to get a crucifix position and rain down a bunch of quick, strong elbows, and Matyushenko was unable to defend. I’m not sure Jones really even received any damage in this fight. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more of him except for on PPV fights, he’s going to be in title contention in the very near future.

    Frankly, I’m surprised any of the judges gave Muñoz a round. Okami clearly came into this fight with the plan to avoid takedowns and keep the fight standing. He controlled the center of the octagon and did a tremendous job sprawling to neutralize Muñoz’s takedown attempts. One of those close fights that really wasn’t that close. Okami just doesn’t lose very often in the UFC, only to Rich Franklin and Chael Sonnen, who he now trains with.

    Howard has said that he never throws a set-up punch, and that was clearly the case in this fight. Every punch he threw was a swing for the fences. He tagged Ellenberger with a few good throws, but Ellenberger did an outstanding job avoiding the big damage, and taking Howard down. A few well placed elbows got Howard’s left eye to swell shut (probably some sort of broken orbital bone, it was pretty nasty). This was a good win for Ellenberger to bounce back from a very close loss to Carlos Condit in his last fight.

    Gomi did not look good in his first fight in the UFC against Kenny Florian, but he was very impressive tonight against Griffin. He landed a punch flush on Griffin’s jaw and Griffin landed face down on the ground as the ref stepped in to end it. Solid performance by Gomi.

    So in the end, I again had a disappointing night, going 2-2 on the night with my picks. I have a habit of picking against Japanese fighters in the UFC, many of them just don’t fare very well on US soil (they destroy people over there though), and they both managed to win tonight. I’ve got plenty of chances for redemption this month, with 4 more events coming up. Like I said in the intro, this was a good night of fights considering it wasn’t a PPV event. We’ve got UFC 117 this Saturday, and it might be the best card of the year, I’ll bring you that preview on Friday.

  • T.W.I.S.T. for July 25-31

    Welcome to TWIST for the week of July 25-31. NFL training camps have started, so we’ve finally got some NFL news to talk about! The MLB trading deadline also passed yesterday, so there have been a few high profile trades in baseball… ugh… baseball. When does football start?!

    MLB

    Roy Oswalt finally got traded out of Houston. The Phillies seem to always be able to grab the high profile pitchers on the market, and they’ve done it again. Oswalt then turned around and laid an egg against the Nationals in his first game with his new team. Lance Berkman has also found his way out of Houston, agreeing to waive his no-trade clause and ended up getting traded to the New York Yankees. Wow, the Yankees trade for a big name at the trading deadline… THAT’S never happened before!

    There, got that MLB garbage out of the way. All the important news from the last week after the jump.

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