Hijinks Inc.

Tag: mma minute

  • The MMA Minute – Strikeforce Houston: King Mo vs. Feijao

    Strikeforce 27 is coming up tomorrow, also known as Strikeforce Houston: King Mo vs. Feijao, and it brings us 2 championship fights. See, fledgling organizations need to put on really big shows to be a draw because the mainstream fans just don’t recognize many of their fighters like they do with the UFC. However, Strikeforce is the only real competition to the UFC, so they have to do their best to grab whatever talent happens to be available.

    Regardless, anytime you get to see 2 championship fights, it’s a good card. Here’s what we’ve got:

    Main Card

    For the picks, I’m going to go with the undefeated Lawal to retain his belt in the Light Heavyweight Championship. The Middleweight Championship is actually a fight for the vacant Middleweight belt, which was vacated by Jake Shields when he left Strikeforce to join the UFC, I’ll take Souza in that fight. As for the last two, they aren’t flashy, but they could be interesting; I’ll take Noons over Gurgel and the former WWE wrestler Lashley over Griggs.

  • The MMA Minute – WEC 50 Aftermath

    Hey kids, sorry for the delay on posting these. I haven’t actually been able to watch these fights yet, it’s been a crazy week and I just didn’t have the time. But the show must go on! So, rather than breaking down the fights on my own, I’ll point you to Sherdog’s outstanding coverage, and thank you for stopping by! Here’s the results along with how I fared on the night.

    Main card

    • Bantamweight bout: United States Scott Jorgensen vs. England Brad Pickett – Jorgensen defeated Pickett via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
    • Featherweight bout: United States Cub Swanson vs. United States Chad Mendes – Mendes defeated Swanson via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
    • Lightweight bout: United States Shane Roller vs. United States Anthony Pettis – Pettis defeated Roller via submission (triangle choke) at 4:51 of round 3.

    The Palaszewski/Micklewright fight was added late, I didn’t make a pick for that fight. I went 2-2 on the rest of the card, picking Jorgenson over Pickett and siding with Cruz to retain the championship. For an admitted non-expert on all things WEC… not to shabby!

  • The MMA Minute – Major MMA Organizations (non-UFC)

    After a busy week in the MMA world (2 events in 1 week!) we resume our series reviewing the history of MMA and it’s major organizations. To this point, we’ve had a 2 part series on the history of MMA (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2), and followed that up with another 2 part series detailing the history of the UFC (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2). I could break down all the other mainstream organizations and draw this out, but I’ve decided instead to just cover them all with a few quick blurbs in this single post, hope you don’t mind.

    We have 3 organizations left to cover: Pride, which was purchased and absorbed by the UFC, WEC, which is owned and operated by UFC, and Strikeforce, which is really the only realistic competition to the UFC. Of course, nobody knows for sure unless they were to square off, but many believe that outside of a handful of fighters, many in the Strikeforce organization aren’t quite up to par of what the UFC offers. But competition will bring out the best, so it’s all good for the fans.

    We’ll cover the history of these 3 organizations after the jump. (more…)

  • 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.

    (more…)