Tag: UFC

  • The MMA Minute – Fighter Profile: Royce Gracie

    The month of September is an unusual one in the world of MMA. We’ve got 2 weekday fights and only a single weekend PPV. To fill this void for The MMA Minute, and to help further educate you in the world of MMA, I’ve decided to bring you fighter profiles. Similar to my articles on the history of MMA, the UFC, and the other main organizations, these will be fancy reproductions of the Wikipedia pages for these fighters, as well as some of my own thoughts, and tidbits from other great websites.

    We really can’t start anywhere else other than Royce Gracie. This is the man that captured all of our imaginations and really helped facilitate the sport MMA in the United States. I’ll cover his career record, bring you some highlights, and do my best to reflect what this fighter represented in the grand scheme of Mixed Martial Arts… after the jump! (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 118 Aftermath

    We’ve heard about the “MMA vs Boxing” arguments, which would win and in which scenarios, we finally found out tonight. Here’s your quick hits:

    Quick Recaps

    • Welterweight bout: United States Nate Diaz vs. United States Marcus Davis – Diaz defeated Davis via technical submission (guillotine choke) at 4:02 of round 3.

    Diaz was expected to outwork Davis on the ground, the former boxer Davis was supposed to dominate the stand up. Diaz peppered Davis with punches and opened up a nasty cut in the first round. He continued landing punches throughout the second, and finally got him down to the ground and finished him off in round 3.

    The rest of the fights after the jump. (more…)

  • The MMA Minute – UFC 118: Edgar vs Penn 2

    Let’s face it, B.J. Penn is the best lightweight fighter of all time and one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, his loss against Edgar in Abu Dhabi was a ‘traveshamockery‘. He just wasn’t himself in the fight and there’s no way he’s going to let it happen again. I’ll be very surprised if this fight is even close. However, there are some really good fights to back it up! Good job UFC, back to back home runs in the scheduling department. If this card comes anywhere close to the excitement of the last two pay-per-views, that will be an impressive run for the organization. Here’s the fights:

    Main card

    My first thought is that these are fairly easy to pick, but those are almost always the ones that come back to get ya in the end. But I gotta go with my gut and pick Penn to reclaim the lightweight belt, Couture to teach Toney a lesson in MMA, Maia over Miranda, Florian over Maynard (barely, it’s really hard for me to pick against Maynard, but Florian just does a fantastic job of preparing for fights and has looked head and shoulders better than everyone not named B.J. Penn), and I like Diaz over Davis. Looking forward to the fights!

  • 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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