DREAM 9 Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round
(5/26/09) – Nagoya, Japan (Yokohama Arena)
No Bas Rutten tonight, instead the announcers are the trio of Michael Schiavello (PBP), Guy Mezger and Michael Kegan as they are ringside at the event. Schiavello is hyping this as the “Show of the Year” as we have the second round of the Featherweight Tournament, JZ vs. Kawajiri, Mousasi and Jacare vs. Mayhem II.
Just a reminder that in DREAM they fight 2 rounds. The first round is 10 minutes and the second is 5 minutes. The fights are not judged by the round but rather on the entire fight.
Super Hulk Tournament First Round Fight- Bob Sapp (10-3-1) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (41-30-8)
Minowa’s last DREAM fight was on DREAM 8 where he fell to former NJPW wrestler Katsoyuri Shibata by Unanimous Decision. Sapp beat Akihito Tanaka at the DREAM/K-1 New Years Eve show by TKO at the 5 minute mark. Sapp has a gigantic weight and size advantage in this fight.
R1- Sapp sat down on Minowa early and Minowa gave up his back and then got in Sapp’s guard and Minowa transitioned to an Achilles Lock and Bob Sapp tapped out. Wow, that was surprising. Great showing by Minowa, very crafty work on his part. Minowa will be fighting the winner of Hong Man Choi/Jose Canseco in the 2nd round (so that means he will be fighting Hong Man Choi).
Winner: Ikuhisa Minowa by Submission (Achilles Lock) R1 1:15
Super Hulk Tournament First Round Fight- Hong Man Choi (1-2) vs. Jose Canseco (0-0)
Jose comes out with a hot chick (apparently this is his girlfriend) who is throwing baseball into the crowd as he carries a bat to the ring. He’s going to need it to win this fight. He also comes out to “Wild Thing”. It’s rumored that he is receiving Six Figures for this fight. Choi is 7’2” 340 lbs and is not moving well on his way to the ring.
R1- Jose tried to duck and move early. He got caught by a counter punch and then started running away from Hong Man Choi, he must have watched some Khalib Starnes fight videos. Jose looked like he tweaked his knee running and then he got TKO’d via Ground and Pound. It didn’t look like Choi really landed anything too solidly but Jose wasn’t intelligently defending himself so the ref stopped the fight.
Winner: Hong Man Choi by TKO (Punches) R1
Super Hulk Tournament First Round Fight- Jan Nortje (2-5) vs. Sokoudjou (5-4)
Nortje is 6’11’ and 350 pounds. Nortje won his last MMA fight by knocking out Bob Sapp in under a minute. Sokoudjou is on a two fight losing streak and is a former UFC and Pride fighter. Sokoudjou is pretty much a one round fighter. If he doesn’t win the fight in the first five minutes then he generally gasses out and gets finished (see: Luiz Cane fight). Sokoudjou is currently training with Team Quest. Nortje has a huge size and weight advantage in this fight as Sokoudjou is a Light Heavyweight Fighter.
R1- Sokoudjou clinched him early and spent a while trying to get him to the ground but the ref broke them up. Sokoudjou lands some leg kicks. Sokoudjou gets him down and lands some Ground and Pound and the ref steps in and breaks it up but Sokoudjou keeps on punching and there is a mini melee in the ring after the fight. I don’t blame Sokoudjou though, he was probably just shocked that he actually won a fight.
Winner: Sokoudjou by TKO (Punches) R1 2:29
Super Hulk Tournament First Round Fight- Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1) vs. Mark Hunt
Mousasi has recently moved up in weight from Middleweight to Light Heavyweight. I had Mousasi as one of the Top Middleweight’s in the world prior to his decision to move up. He has an upcoming fight with Affliction against Vitor Belfort on their next show. Hunt lost in 18 seconds to Melvin Manhoef on the K-1/DREAM show on New Years. On this same show Mousasi beat Musashi in a K-1 fight in the first round. Mousasi was the DREAM Middleweight Champion but gave up the belt when he moved up in weight.
R1- Mousasi pushed him down early and took side control. Mousasi went for a kimura and got it and Hunt tapped out. Pure domination by Mousasi.
Winner: Gegard Mousasi by Submission (Kimura) R1 1:19
Middleweight Championship Fight- Tatsuya Kawajiri (23-5-2) vs. JZ Calvacante (14-2-1)
This is probably the fight that I am looking forward to most on this show. Both guys are legit Top 10 Lightweight Fighters. I don’t have JZ in my Top 10 because he hasn’t won a fight in over a year and a half but his only loss in that time period was to Shinya Aoki. Kawajiri has been very active lately and is coming off of wins against Ross Ebanez and Kozo Takeda. The announcers are picking JZ in this fight. They said that at the Press Conference yesterday that Kawajiri refused to shake hands with JZ. JZ trains at American Top Team.
R1- They stand up early and JZ hits Kawajiri with a couple of decent shots and then stuffs a take down. JZ grabs a guillotine and pulls guard but cannot hold guard. Kawajiri slams him down but JZ still is attempting to lock in the guillotine but Kawajiri pops his head out. Kawajiri got some Ground and Pound but nothing major, JZ got up but Kawajiri wrestled him back down to the mat but the ref stands them up with three minutes left in the round and the ref gives both fighters a yellow card. After some brief stand up JZ went for a take down but got stuffed. Kawajiri landed some knees in the clinch but the ref separated them again. Kawajiri hits a good combination and is threatening to pull away in this fight. Kawajiri got a take down towards the end of the round. Kawajiri ends the round with a couple of Ground and Pound shots. Kawajiri has the advantage at the end of the first round. It’s nothing that JZ can’t overcome but JZ needs to be more aggressive in the second round.
R2- Kawajiri landed a big right to start the round but JZ absorbed it although he sustained a cut on his nose from the punch. Kawajiri gets a slam and takes JZ down but JZ escapes with three and a half minutes left in the round. Kawajiri hits another right but then JZ avoids other shots and almost taunts Kawajiri. Kawajiri takes him down again. Kawajiri is two minutes away from winning this fight. This was a good fight but not quite the level I was hoping for. Kawajiri should take this by Unanimous Decision.
Winner: Tatsuya Kawajiri by Decision (Unanimous)
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Fight- Hideo Tokoro (21-16-1) vs. Abel Cullum (14-2)
In the first round of this tournament Abel Cullum defeated Akiyo Nishiura by Unanimous Decision. Hideo Tokoro lost to Daiki Hata by Decision in the first round and I don’t think they ever said why he is fighting here instead of Hata. Cullum comes out to Kid Rock’s “I want to be a Cowboy”.
R1- Cullum got a double leg about a minute into the fight but Tokoro quickly got up. Tokoro hit a good knee and Cullum held on but Tokoro caught him in an arm triangle but Cullum slipped out after being in the move for a while. Cullum then drilled Tokoro with some knees but Tokoro slipped out and went for another triangle but couldn’t get it locked in. Cullum got a takedown about mid-way through the round. Really good fight so far. Cullum grabbed a knee bar but Tokoro was able to get out by kicking Cullum. Cullum got a slam with about two minutes left in the round. Tokoro got a mount with thirty seconds left but couldn’t get anything before Cullum kicked him off. Really good and close round. The fight was pretty much even with both guys threatening to finish the fight at points and both guys fighting with a lot of spirit.
R2- Tokoro spent the first couple of minutes of the round on top of Cullum. Cullum went to get out and Tokoro caught him in a Rear Naked and finished him. Really good fight.
Winner: Hideo Tokoro by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R2 1:38
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round Fight- Yoshiro Maeda (24-6-2) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (10-6-1)
Maeda advanced to the second round by defeated Micah Miller by Unanimous Decision. Takaya defeated Jong Won-Kim by a TKO stoppage due to strikes in the second round of their fight. Maeda is the favorite to win this fight.
R1- Maeda caught a kick and landed some strikes in on Takaya before he advanced on the ground but he never really does any damage before they stand back up. Tokoro hit a good right hand to Maeda’s eye and the commentators said his eye started to well up. Maeda got another take down. Looks to me like Maeda is the superior ground guy and Takaya is superior when on his feet. Maeda nailed Takaya with a big knee but he got right up after it. Both guys exchange pretty well and Takaya also has some marks on his face. Maeda gets another take down and they almost fall out of the ring but the refs push them back in. They stop the fight to look at Takaya’s cut. The ref gives Takaya a yellow card after he stood up the fight. Maeda got tagged with about half a minute left and Takaya jumped in and threw some hammer punches and the ref stopped the fight. The stoppage looked a little early but Maeda took a while to get up so maybe not. That was an explosive finish by Takaya.
Winner: Hiroyuki Takaya by TKO (Punches) R1 9:40
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Masakazu Imanari (16-6-1) vs. Bibiano Fernandes (4-2)
Fernandes won his first round fight by Unanimous Decision over Takafumi Otsuka. Fernandes only has a career record of 4-2 but his two losses are against Urijah Faber and Kid Yamamoto. Iminari defeated Atsushi Yamamoto by Split Decision in their first round contest. Both guys have strong BJJ and submission skills.
R1- Fernandes got some Ground and Pound early but Iminari went for a leg lock and Fernandes got out of dodge. Fernandes countered a punch with a take down but couldn’t take Iminari’s guard. Fernandes countered an Iminari kick with another take down but didn’t take his guard again. Fernandes game plan seems to be to counter Iminari’s strikes with take downs and look for Ground and Pound if it’s there but being very careful of Iminari’s submission skills. Iminari seems to want to spend this fight on his back. The ref stops the fight to ask both fighters for more action. The referee issues a yellow card to Iminari since he seems content to spend a good portion of the fight on his back waiting for Fernandes to enter his guard. Iminari went for a knee but Fernandes moved out of the way and hit some Ground and Pound and then took side control but doesn’t seem to be getting much offense in. Fernandes is throwing knees from the side but doesn’t look to be landing anything solidly. Not a real exciting round. Fernandes is up so far because he’s been countering everything Iminari has tried and has gotten numerous take downs (which the Japanese don’t weight heavily) but Iminari just hasn’t really done anything yet in the fight.
R2- Fernandes grabbed an Iminari kick and swept his leg from under him. Iminari sits down in front of Fernandes and tries to get him to enter his guard. Iminari goes for a flying arm bar but gets take down and punched instead. Fernandes lands some leg kicks and Iminari looks like he doesn’t want to be here. Fernandes takes down Iminari and give him a good punch. Iminari grabs a leg but Fernandes escapes. Iminari is lying on the ground and the ref stops the fight to issue a yellow card to Fernandes. Wow. Fernandes got another take down but Iminari got out with no damage.
The fight comes to an end and I don’t see how you could possibly score this fight for Iminari. Fernandes will advance to the next round. This was a little reminiscent of Anderson Silva versus Thales Leites fight although Iminari was more aggressive than Leites was in his fight.
Winner: Bibiano Fernandes by Decision (Unanimous)
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Kid Yamamoto (17-1) vs. Joe Warren (1-0)
Joe Warren won his opening round fight against Chase Beebe by ref stoppage due to cut. This is only Warren’s second professional fight. Kid got a first round bye so this is his first fight of the tournament. Kid comes out to the Star Wars theme music. Kid is the favorite to win this tournament. Warren trains out of Team Quest and has also trained with Urijah Faber.
R1- Warren lands some shots in the clinch early. Kid responds with a good knee. Joe Warren got a take down about a minute and a half into the round. Warren stays on top but isn’t really getting much in terms of offense but does land a shot that cuts Kid between his eyes on the bridge of his nose. Yamamoto is issued a yellow card for trying to stall so the ref would stand up the fight. Kid hit a good slapping type punch and is starting to land some kicks and then a good right hook. Kid has hit some good counter hooks in this round. Kid was starting to take over the fight but Warren got another take down. This was a good first round. Warren controlled on the ground at the beginning and end of the round and Kid controlled the middle with his stand up.
R2- Kid hit a big left and then a right and Warren took them and kept coming. Warren was able to get a take down about two minutes into the round. Kid went for an arm bar but couldn’t get it locked in on Warren. They stood back up and Kid hit a good right hand. Warren got another take down at the end of the fight and gets some brief ground and pound. Kid goes for a submission near the bell but couldn’t lock it in.
This was a good fight. I think Joe Warren deserves to win this fight. I think it will be close since Japanese judges don’t judge as much on take downs.
The first judge scores the fight for Warren. The second gives it to Kid. The deciding judge gives the fight to Joe Warren. Big time upset, great showing by Warren in only his second fight!
Winner: Joe Warren by Decision (Split)
DREAM Middleweight Championship Fight: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (22-6)
This is a re-match from DREAM 4 where Jacare defeated Mayhem by Unanimous Decision in the first round of the Middleweight Grand Prix. They are fighting for the belt that was vacated by Gegard Mousasi. Mousasi originally won the belt by defeated Jacare by KO at DREAM 6. I’ve got Jacare as a Top 10 Middleweight (although at the bottom of the Top 10) going into this fight. Jacare is the favorite going into this fight. Mayhem comes out with a red skunk stripe in his hair and with a lot of pomp and circumstance. Jacare comes out by himself. Mousasi is in the ring with belt that he is presenting to the winner and is wearing an Affliction T-Shirt.
R1- Jacare went for a double leg after some brief stand up but couldn’t get the take down. Miller looks like he has a cut on the side of his face but not too close to his eye. Miller cut Jacare with a kick to his head and the ref stops the fight to look at the cut that is on the top of his head. Jason Miller is given a yellow card as Miller kicked him on his head while he was down- which is illegal in DREAM (can’t kick to the head of a downed fighter). Looks like Jacare is ready to fight so the fight is back on. Jacare gets a quick take down. Jacare’s blood is all over Miller and the ref stops the fight again. The referee is calling a time out, Jacare says he wants to continue. The referee stops the fight and it’s ruled a no-contest as the illegal kick (called accidental by referee) caused the stoppage of the fight and at the time the fight was stopped the fight had not gone on long enough to be ruled a definitive decision.
Decision: No Contest
Good show with an unfortunate ending. Tokoro/Cullum was FOTN. Kid/Warren, Kawajiri/JZ, Maeda/Takaya were also worth watching if you are an MMA fan.
So the Featherweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals lines up with these fighters (will probably take place at DREAM 11):
Joe Warren
Bibiano Fernandes
Hideo Tokoro
Hiroyuki Takaya
Here is the information on the new DREAM show:
OLYMPIA DREAM.10 Welterweight Grand Prix Final Round (7/20/09) – Saitama, Japan (Saitama Super Arena)
Welterweight Grand Prix Finals: André Galvão/Jason High vs. Hayato Sakurai/Marius Zaromskis
Shinya Aoki vs. Vitor Ribeiro
Melvin Manhoef vs. Paulo Filho
Katsunori Kikuno vs. André Amade
Welterweight Grand Prix Reserve Bout: Seichi Ikemoto vs. TBA
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: Hayato Sakurai vs. Marius Zaromskis
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: André Galvão vs. Jason High
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
UFC 98 Unaired Fights Re-Cap
UFC 98: Unaired Fights
5/23/09
MGM Grand
Las Vegas, Nevada
Lightweight Fight- Dave Kaplan (3-2) vs. George Roop (8-5)
Roop has a 3” reach and a 7” height advantage.
R1- Kaplan came into the fight with a cut on his nose and Roop opened it up early. Kaplan got a take down in the last minute of the round but didn’t do anything with it. Even fight through the first round but Kaplan was starting to figure out Roop towards the end of the round..
R2- Roop went in for a knee but got taken down but couldn’t do anything with it. Kaplan got another take down about half way through the round but again didn’t do anything before stand up. Kaplan got yet another take down. Not a lot of damage done in this round but it definitely went to Kaplan.
R3- Kaplan got another take down about a minute into the round and moved around until he got into the mount position but couldn’t do anything from this position either.
I think you have to give this fight to Kaplan. This was a competitive fight but honestly neither of these guys have the skill currently to be in the UFC. I would be very surprised if Roop is back for another fight. Kaplan might be back just based on the fact that he’s an entertaining guy.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 Kaplan, 30-27 Roop (huh?), and 30-27 Roop. Somehow the judges scored the fight in favor of George Roop by Split Decision. I though Kaplan took the second and third rounds.
Winner: George Roop by Decision (Split)
Lightweight Fight- Phillipe Nover (6-1-1) vs. Kyle Bradley (13-6-1)
Nover was the runner-up to Efrain Escudero on TUF Season 8.
R1- Bradley pushed Nover down and hit a couple of shots and Yves Lavigne stopped the fight way early.
“What is going on? Oh My God. That is a terrible decision by Yves Lavigne. Oh No. Oh Nooo. Oh No. You know we need to make a rule where if the referee screws up like that we let them fight again. Oh it was a terrible decision.” – Joe Rogan
“That’s a big, big screw up by Yves Lavigne”- Joe Rogan
I was wondering why the crowd was killing Yves Lavigne all night during the Main Show. Now I know.
Winner: Kyle Bradley by TKO R1 1:03
Welterweight Fight- Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-3) vs. Brandon Wolff (7-3)
This is an epic battle of Japan vs. Hawaii. Both guys are coming off of losses. Yoshida is coming off of a vicious knockout at the hands of Josh Koscheck.
R1- Yoshida got a take down and went for a guillotine. Wolff rolled through but Yoshida held on to the move and Wolff taped out in Yoshida’s guard.
Winner: Yoshiyuki Yoshida by Submission (Guillotine) R1 2:24
5/23/09
MGM Grand
Las Vegas, Nevada
Lightweight Fight- Dave Kaplan (3-2) vs. George Roop (8-5)
Roop has a 3” reach and a 7” height advantage.
R1- Kaplan came into the fight with a cut on his nose and Roop opened it up early. Kaplan got a take down in the last minute of the round but didn’t do anything with it. Even fight through the first round but Kaplan was starting to figure out Roop towards the end of the round..
R2- Roop went in for a knee but got taken down but couldn’t do anything with it. Kaplan got another take down about half way through the round but again didn’t do anything before stand up. Kaplan got yet another take down. Not a lot of damage done in this round but it definitely went to Kaplan.
R3- Kaplan got another take down about a minute into the round and moved around until he got into the mount position but couldn’t do anything from this position either.
I think you have to give this fight to Kaplan. This was a competitive fight but honestly neither of these guys have the skill currently to be in the UFC. I would be very surprised if Roop is back for another fight. Kaplan might be back just based on the fact that he’s an entertaining guy.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 Kaplan, 30-27 Roop (huh?), and 30-27 Roop. Somehow the judges scored the fight in favor of George Roop by Split Decision. I though Kaplan took the second and third rounds.
Winner: George Roop by Decision (Split)
Lightweight Fight- Phillipe Nover (6-1-1) vs. Kyle Bradley (13-6-1)
Nover was the runner-up to Efrain Escudero on TUF Season 8.
R1- Bradley pushed Nover down and hit a couple of shots and Yves Lavigne stopped the fight way early.
“What is going on? Oh My God. That is a terrible decision by Yves Lavigne. Oh No. Oh Nooo. Oh No. You know we need to make a rule where if the referee screws up like that we let them fight again. Oh it was a terrible decision.” – Joe Rogan
“That’s a big, big screw up by Yves Lavigne”- Joe Rogan
I was wondering why the crowd was killing Yves Lavigne all night during the Main Show. Now I know.
Winner: Kyle Bradley by TKO R1 1:03
Welterweight Fight- Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-3) vs. Brandon Wolff (7-3)
This is an epic battle of Japan vs. Hawaii. Both guys are coming off of losses. Yoshida is coming off of a vicious knockout at the hands of Josh Koscheck.
R1- Yoshida got a take down and went for a guillotine. Wolff rolled through but Yoshida held on to the move and Wolff taped out in Yoshida’s guard.
Winner: Yoshiyuki Yoshida by Submission (Guillotine) R1 2:24
Monday, May 25, 2009
UFC 98 "Evans vs. Machida" Re-Cap
UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida
5/23/09
MGM Grand
Las Vegas, Nevada
This show is highlighted by Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans defending against Lyoto Machida. This will be the first time two unbeaten fighters have fought for the belt. Also, on this card in a feature fight is Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra in what is a grudge match due to their dislike of each other.
Lightweight Fight- Sean Sherk (37-3-1) vs. Frank Edgar (9-1)
Edgar has not fought since last July when he defeated Hermes Franca. Sherk was last seen at UFC 90 when he defeated Tyson Griffin by unanimous decision. If Sherk wins this then he should be right at the top of the list to fight the winner of BJ Penn/Kenny Florian. Edgar is a Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt who trains with Ricardo Almeida, he also has a strong wrestling base and has fast hands. Sherk is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and has only lost to Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre. Edgar has a big 5” reach advantage.
R1- Lots of stand-up early with Frankie with a slight advantage as he landed a couple of nice combinations. Edgar caught a Sherk leg kick and got a take down about three minutes into the fight and held him down for a minute but didn’t inflict any damage. Good, close first round that I give to Edgar 10-9. Edgar looks like the quicker fighter. Sherk looks like he’s going to need to take this to the ground and grind it out.
R2- Sherk is more aggressive to start off the round. Frankie got a knee to the body and briefly knocked Sherk off his feet. Sherk took the first half of this round but Frankie really started to land some nice shots in the second half of the round. I’ve got Edgar taking this round to go up 20-18. Rogan made a great point in saying that Sherk just keeps doing the same thing and Edgar is doing a much better job of mixing things up and keeping Sherk unbalanced and not knowing what is coming next.
R3- Sherk got a big take down about 45 seconds into the round but Edgar got back to his feet within 20 seconds. Sherk has a small cut over his left eyebrow. Sherk went for a another take down with about 2 minutes left but got stuffed. Sherk went for a shoot right at the end of the round and Edgar grabbed him in a guillotine and pulled guard as the round ended. I think Edgar may have stolen this round. Regardless I’ve got Edgar as the clear winner in this fight although it wasn’t a dominate performance. Frankie fought a really good fight and showed some great conditioning. Big win by Frankie as I had Sherk as a Top 5 Lightweight prior to this fight.
Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.
Winner: Frank Edgar by Decision (Unanimous)
They show BJ Penn in the crowd after the fight and hype his fight against Kenny Florian.
Middleweight Fight- Chael Sonnen (23-10-1) vs. Dan Miller (11-1)
Miller is 3-0 inside the Octagon and is coming off a February fight against Jake Rosholt that he won in a tad more than a minute by guillotine choke. Miller is a Jiu-Jitsu brown belt and a submission specialist. Sonnen is taking this fight on short notice as he’s filling in for the injured Yushin Okami. Sonnen trains with Team Quest. Sonnen has lost 3 times in the UFC, all by submission, and most recently by Demien Maia.
R1- Sonnen went for a take down early and got caught in a tight guillotine. Sonnen was able to survive the early submission attempt. Sonnen is landing some good Ground and Pound and landed some really hard shots towards the end of the round. Sonnen takes round one 10-9.
R2- Sonnen got a slam but Miller grabbed a guillotine again but this one was not as tight as the first round and Sonnen ends up in his guard. Miller goes for an arm bar but could not clamp it in as Sonnen continues to get some Ground and Pound but nothing at the level of what he got in the first round. Sonnen takes this round and is up 20-18. Miller is going to need to finish this fight if he wants to win.
R3- Miller landed a good combo to start the round but then got taken down. Not a real exciting fight but Sonnen just continues to grind this fight out and is going to take it by decision.
Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.
Winner: Chael Sonnen by Decision (Unanimous)
Middleweight Fight- Drew McFedries (7-5) vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (20-10)
After two draws the odds are very strong that we will have a KO or TKO in this fight. Xavier lost to Denis Kang by Decision in his last fight. He is taking this fight on short notice filling in for James Irvin. Xavier is known as “Professor X”. He is explosive, with KO ability and good knees. Drew comes out to some Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre “Nothin’ But a G Thing”. Professor X has a 3” reach advantage.
R1- McFedries caught Xavier with a big punch early and just lays it in and the ref stops the fight. Drew hit him with some good punches and Xavier was trying to hold on but he got hit with several good punches. Great showing by McFedries.
Winner: Drew McFedries by TKO (Punches) R1 0:37
Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzystof Soszynski vs. Andre Gusmao
This is a pre-show fight.
R1- Gusmao caught him with a kick early that knocked Krzystof down but he recovered. Soszynski got him up against the cage and landed some nice shots and hit a big right hand that knocked Gusmao out. Another great showing for Soszynski. I thought early on that he was the favorite to win the TUF season he was on but he just didn’t deliver in the big fight on that show. He’s been delivering big time since getting a shot in the UFC as he is now 3-0 in the Octagon.
Winner: Krzystof Soszynski by KO R1 3:17
Mike Tyson is shown in the crowd.
Welterweight Fight- Matt Hughes (43-7) vs. Matt Serra (16-5)
This is a fight that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Both guys really want to get in there and beat each other up. The only problem for the fans is that neither guy is a likeable character so you kind of want to see both guys get their asses kicked.
“Matt Hughes. He is a dick. He’s a very talented dick. I’m looking forward to the fight. I feel like a winner already just knowing that I get to hit him in his face.”- Matt Serra
Matt Serra comes out to the theme to Rocky. Alright, so maybe Serra is a little bit likeable. Hughes is coming into this fight on a two fight losing streak (Thiago Alves and GSP). Serra’s last fight was a loss to GSP in defense of his Welterweight Championship. Hughes has a big size advantage in this fight as he is 3” taller and has a reach advantage of 5”.
R1- Serra landed an overhand right on Hughes about a minute into the fight and jumped on top of him. Hughes got back to his feet but his legs looked wobbly and Hughes tried to get a take down and looked like he recovered a bit. Hughes got a take down with a minute thirty left in the round. Hughes took his back but Serra slipped out and didn’t take much damage. Good first round. Serra is up 10-9. Hughes started to go to the wrong corner after the end of the round. It sounded like Matt Hughes asked his corner men if Serra knocked him down in the first round (it sounded like he might have asked if Serra knocked him out). They showed the re-play of Serra’s over hand right and at the same time that Serra hit him with the right his head also connected with Hughes’ chin.
R2- Hughes got a take down about a minute into the round. Serra rolled his eyes while he was in half guard and Hughes was hitting him with some side punches. Hughes basically just smothered Serra in this round but it didn’t look like he hurt him at all. They stood them up at the end of the round due to lack of action. Right now I’ve got this at 19-19.
R3- Hughes rushed him early and got a take down about a minute into the round but Serra landed in a good spot for a possible submission but he wasn’t able to grab anything. Serra went for a triangle but couldn’t grab it. The ref stands them up with one and a half minutes left in the fight. Serra reversed a take down with about 50 seconds left in the fight. Serra hit a good punch on the ground and finished the fight on top. The third round was close. They embraced after the fight and Hughes raised Serra’s arm before the decision came in. I’m thinking Serra 20-19 as Serra did more to try and finish the fight in the final round and neither guy did a significant amount of damage.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 on all score cards for Matt Hughes.
Winner: Matt Hughes by Decision (Unanimous)
Main Event: Light Heavyweight Title Fight: Rashad Evans © (18-0-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (14-0)
This should be an interesting fight as both guys tend to like to counter punch. Evans is coming off big wins against Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin and he has Yoda in his corner (Greg Jackson). Machida has an unorthodox style and is coming off of a decisive win against Thiago Silva. Rashad has never been knocked out, lands 58% of his take down attempts and has yet to attempt a submission in the UFC. Machida is the most elusive fighter in UFC history, he has never lost a round in the UFC, lands 65% of all strikes and has an 84% takedown defense. Machida is actually a favorite in this fight and the fans also texted him in as a 64% favorite. Machida is also a Karate Black Belt. Goldberg says that Machida has never been knocked down and Rogan says that he hasn’t taken a power punch since he fought BJ Penn. Rashad is a great wrestler and also has great power in his punches. Rashad is the third TUF fighter to try and defend a title successfully in the UFC (both Forrest and Serra were unsuccessful in their first title defenses).
The winner of this fight probably gets Rampage Jackson (since he was originally offered this title fight with Rashad but couldn’t go due to the short time needed to rebound from his fight with Jardine). Rashad/Rampage is a big time fight on paper that the UFC could really get behind due to all the trash talking that those guys would put on each other. I also like Rampage/Machida on paper as I think Rampage could be a difficult match-up for Machida since Rampage has solid boxing skills.
R1- No action in the first minute as Machida takes the center of the cage and Rashad dances around him. This is what I thought would happen since we have two counter punchers and Rashad didn’t really bring the action in the Liddell fight until Liddell brought it to him. Machida hits the first shot as he threw a leg kick that Rashad deflected but it sent him back into the cage. Machida landed another kick this one to the side and then Rashad answered with a kick. Machida threw a quick kick and then two quick punches all in a flurry of a second or two and Rashad went down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad recovered to his feet and they stood back up. Machida was lightning quick in that sequence. Machida takes round one 10-9 and looked good but didn’t do much damage.
R2- Machida takes the center of the cage again at the start of the round and the crowd chants “Machida…Machida…Machida”. So much for him being a boring fighter like some have said. Machida clinched Rashad but he got saved by the cage and Machida couldn’t get him down. Rashad threw a punch and missed and Machida came in with a flurry of punches but Rashad fought out of it by throwing some punches of his own. Rashad hit a side kick. Rashad came in for a looping punch but Machida beat him with a quick jab and then Machida caught him with a left hand knocking him down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad got to his feet and Machida chased him to the cage. Machida is now landing some big punches up against the cage. Machida hits Rashad with a wicked left and Rashad just crumbles to the ground as his leg falls underneath him. FANTASTIC showing by Lyoto Machida tonight. He just looked awesome. Rashad never looked comfortable tonight and Machida really just picked him apart in this fight. Machida hit him with 3 or 4 good punches on the cage and finally closed the door with the big left hand. Dana White straps the belt on Lyoto as he is announced as the NEW champion.
Winner and NEW Light Heavyweight Champion: Lyoto Machida by KO R2 3:57
“The Dragon is the champion”- Lyoto Machida
Bring on Lyoto versus Rampage.
Welterweight Fight- Brock Larson vs. Mike Pyle
This is a fight from the pre-show. I like Brock Larson a lot and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t come out on top in this fight. Pyle is taking this fight on short notice. This is Pyle’s UFC debut. Larson is a very explosive fighter.
R1- Larson took him down but Pyle countered with some submission attempts. Larson stays on top with some Ground and Pound and Larson goes for the arm triangle and gets the win. Good showing by Larson.
Winner: Brock Larson by Submission (Arm Triangle) R1 3:06
Heavyweight Fight- Pat Barry vs. Tim Hague
This is the UFC debut for Tim Hague. This is another pre-show fight.
R1- Barry hit a big right head kick and then hit another but Hague took him down at the one minute mark of the round. Hague got a guillotine and pulled out the upset. Rogan says Barry had this fight won but he just got sloppy.
Winner: Tim Hague by Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 1:42
5/23/09
MGM Grand
Las Vegas, Nevada
This show is highlighted by Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans defending against Lyoto Machida. This will be the first time two unbeaten fighters have fought for the belt. Also, on this card in a feature fight is Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra in what is a grudge match due to their dislike of each other.
Lightweight Fight- Sean Sherk (37-3-1) vs. Frank Edgar (9-1)
Edgar has not fought since last July when he defeated Hermes Franca. Sherk was last seen at UFC 90 when he defeated Tyson Griffin by unanimous decision. If Sherk wins this then he should be right at the top of the list to fight the winner of BJ Penn/Kenny Florian. Edgar is a Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt who trains with Ricardo Almeida, he also has a strong wrestling base and has fast hands. Sherk is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and has only lost to Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre. Edgar has a big 5” reach advantage.
R1- Lots of stand-up early with Frankie with a slight advantage as he landed a couple of nice combinations. Edgar caught a Sherk leg kick and got a take down about three minutes into the fight and held him down for a minute but didn’t inflict any damage. Good, close first round that I give to Edgar 10-9. Edgar looks like the quicker fighter. Sherk looks like he’s going to need to take this to the ground and grind it out.
R2- Sherk is more aggressive to start off the round. Frankie got a knee to the body and briefly knocked Sherk off his feet. Sherk took the first half of this round but Frankie really started to land some nice shots in the second half of the round. I’ve got Edgar taking this round to go up 20-18. Rogan made a great point in saying that Sherk just keeps doing the same thing and Edgar is doing a much better job of mixing things up and keeping Sherk unbalanced and not knowing what is coming next.
R3- Sherk got a big take down about 45 seconds into the round but Edgar got back to his feet within 20 seconds. Sherk has a small cut over his left eyebrow. Sherk went for a another take down with about 2 minutes left but got stuffed. Sherk went for a shoot right at the end of the round and Edgar grabbed him in a guillotine and pulled guard as the round ended. I think Edgar may have stolen this round. Regardless I’ve got Edgar as the clear winner in this fight although it wasn’t a dominate performance. Frankie fought a really good fight and showed some great conditioning. Big win by Frankie as I had Sherk as a Top 5 Lightweight prior to this fight.
Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.
Winner: Frank Edgar by Decision (Unanimous)
They show BJ Penn in the crowd after the fight and hype his fight against Kenny Florian.
Middleweight Fight- Chael Sonnen (23-10-1) vs. Dan Miller (11-1)
Miller is 3-0 inside the Octagon and is coming off a February fight against Jake Rosholt that he won in a tad more than a minute by guillotine choke. Miller is a Jiu-Jitsu brown belt and a submission specialist. Sonnen is taking this fight on short notice as he’s filling in for the injured Yushin Okami. Sonnen trains with Team Quest. Sonnen has lost 3 times in the UFC, all by submission, and most recently by Demien Maia.
R1- Sonnen went for a take down early and got caught in a tight guillotine. Sonnen was able to survive the early submission attempt. Sonnen is landing some good Ground and Pound and landed some really hard shots towards the end of the round. Sonnen takes round one 10-9.
R2- Sonnen got a slam but Miller grabbed a guillotine again but this one was not as tight as the first round and Sonnen ends up in his guard. Miller goes for an arm bar but could not clamp it in as Sonnen continues to get some Ground and Pound but nothing at the level of what he got in the first round. Sonnen takes this round and is up 20-18. Miller is going to need to finish this fight if he wants to win.
R3- Miller landed a good combo to start the round but then got taken down. Not a real exciting fight but Sonnen just continues to grind this fight out and is going to take it by decision.
Judges score cards say: 30-27 on all score cards.
Winner: Chael Sonnen by Decision (Unanimous)
Middleweight Fight- Drew McFedries (7-5) vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (20-10)
After two draws the odds are very strong that we will have a KO or TKO in this fight. Xavier lost to Denis Kang by Decision in his last fight. He is taking this fight on short notice filling in for James Irvin. Xavier is known as “Professor X”. He is explosive, with KO ability and good knees. Drew comes out to some Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre “Nothin’ But a G Thing”. Professor X has a 3” reach advantage.
R1- McFedries caught Xavier with a big punch early and just lays it in and the ref stops the fight. Drew hit him with some good punches and Xavier was trying to hold on but he got hit with several good punches. Great showing by McFedries.
Winner: Drew McFedries by TKO (Punches) R1 0:37
Light Heavyweight Fight- Krzystof Soszynski vs. Andre Gusmao
This is a pre-show fight.
R1- Gusmao caught him with a kick early that knocked Krzystof down but he recovered. Soszynski got him up against the cage and landed some nice shots and hit a big right hand that knocked Gusmao out. Another great showing for Soszynski. I thought early on that he was the favorite to win the TUF season he was on but he just didn’t deliver in the big fight on that show. He’s been delivering big time since getting a shot in the UFC as he is now 3-0 in the Octagon.
Winner: Krzystof Soszynski by KO R1 3:17
Mike Tyson is shown in the crowd.
Welterweight Fight- Matt Hughes (43-7) vs. Matt Serra (16-5)
This is a fight that I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Both guys really want to get in there and beat each other up. The only problem for the fans is that neither guy is a likeable character so you kind of want to see both guys get their asses kicked.
“Matt Hughes. He is a dick. He’s a very talented dick. I’m looking forward to the fight. I feel like a winner already just knowing that I get to hit him in his face.”- Matt Serra
Matt Serra comes out to the theme to Rocky. Alright, so maybe Serra is a little bit likeable. Hughes is coming into this fight on a two fight losing streak (Thiago Alves and GSP). Serra’s last fight was a loss to GSP in defense of his Welterweight Championship. Hughes has a big size advantage in this fight as he is 3” taller and has a reach advantage of 5”.
R1- Serra landed an overhand right on Hughes about a minute into the fight and jumped on top of him. Hughes got back to his feet but his legs looked wobbly and Hughes tried to get a take down and looked like he recovered a bit. Hughes got a take down with a minute thirty left in the round. Hughes took his back but Serra slipped out and didn’t take much damage. Good first round. Serra is up 10-9. Hughes started to go to the wrong corner after the end of the round. It sounded like Matt Hughes asked his corner men if Serra knocked him down in the first round (it sounded like he might have asked if Serra knocked him out). They showed the re-play of Serra’s over hand right and at the same time that Serra hit him with the right his head also connected with Hughes’ chin.
R2- Hughes got a take down about a minute into the round. Serra rolled his eyes while he was in half guard and Hughes was hitting him with some side punches. Hughes basically just smothered Serra in this round but it didn’t look like he hurt him at all. They stood them up at the end of the round due to lack of action. Right now I’ve got this at 19-19.
R3- Hughes rushed him early and got a take down about a minute into the round but Serra landed in a good spot for a possible submission but he wasn’t able to grab anything. Serra went for a triangle but couldn’t grab it. The ref stands them up with one and a half minutes left in the fight. Serra reversed a take down with about 50 seconds left in the fight. Serra hit a good punch on the ground and finished the fight on top. The third round was close. They embraced after the fight and Hughes raised Serra’s arm before the decision came in. I’m thinking Serra 20-19 as Serra did more to try and finish the fight in the final round and neither guy did a significant amount of damage.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 on all score cards for Matt Hughes.
Winner: Matt Hughes by Decision (Unanimous)
Main Event: Light Heavyweight Title Fight: Rashad Evans © (18-0-1) vs. Lyoto Machida (14-0)
This should be an interesting fight as both guys tend to like to counter punch. Evans is coming off big wins against Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin and he has Yoda in his corner (Greg Jackson). Machida has an unorthodox style and is coming off of a decisive win against Thiago Silva. Rashad has never been knocked out, lands 58% of his take down attempts and has yet to attempt a submission in the UFC. Machida is the most elusive fighter in UFC history, he has never lost a round in the UFC, lands 65% of all strikes and has an 84% takedown defense. Machida is actually a favorite in this fight and the fans also texted him in as a 64% favorite. Machida is also a Karate Black Belt. Goldberg says that Machida has never been knocked down and Rogan says that he hasn’t taken a power punch since he fought BJ Penn. Rashad is a great wrestler and also has great power in his punches. Rashad is the third TUF fighter to try and defend a title successfully in the UFC (both Forrest and Serra were unsuccessful in their first title defenses).
The winner of this fight probably gets Rampage Jackson (since he was originally offered this title fight with Rashad but couldn’t go due to the short time needed to rebound from his fight with Jardine). Rashad/Rampage is a big time fight on paper that the UFC could really get behind due to all the trash talking that those guys would put on each other. I also like Rampage/Machida on paper as I think Rampage could be a difficult match-up for Machida since Rampage has solid boxing skills.
R1- No action in the first minute as Machida takes the center of the cage and Rashad dances around him. This is what I thought would happen since we have two counter punchers and Rashad didn’t really bring the action in the Liddell fight until Liddell brought it to him. Machida hits the first shot as he threw a leg kick that Rashad deflected but it sent him back into the cage. Machida landed another kick this one to the side and then Rashad answered with a kick. Machida threw a quick kick and then two quick punches all in a flurry of a second or two and Rashad went down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad recovered to his feet and they stood back up. Machida was lightning quick in that sequence. Machida takes round one 10-9 and looked good but didn’t do much damage.
R2- Machida takes the center of the cage again at the start of the round and the crowd chants “Machida…Machida…Machida”. So much for him being a boring fighter like some have said. Machida clinched Rashad but he got saved by the cage and Machida couldn’t get him down. Rashad threw a punch and missed and Machida came in with a flurry of punches but Rashad fought out of it by throwing some punches of his own. Rashad hit a side kick. Rashad came in for a looping punch but Machida beat him with a quick jab and then Machida caught him with a left hand knocking him down. Machida jumped on top but Rashad got to his feet and Machida chased him to the cage. Machida is now landing some big punches up against the cage. Machida hits Rashad with a wicked left and Rashad just crumbles to the ground as his leg falls underneath him. FANTASTIC showing by Lyoto Machida tonight. He just looked awesome. Rashad never looked comfortable tonight and Machida really just picked him apart in this fight. Machida hit him with 3 or 4 good punches on the cage and finally closed the door with the big left hand. Dana White straps the belt on Lyoto as he is announced as the NEW champion.
Winner and NEW Light Heavyweight Champion: Lyoto Machida by KO R2 3:57
“The Dragon is the champion”- Lyoto Machida
Bring on Lyoto versus Rampage.
Welterweight Fight- Brock Larson vs. Mike Pyle
This is a fight from the pre-show. I like Brock Larson a lot and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t come out on top in this fight. Pyle is taking this fight on short notice. This is Pyle’s UFC debut. Larson is a very explosive fighter.
R1- Larson took him down but Pyle countered with some submission attempts. Larson stays on top with some Ground and Pound and Larson goes for the arm triangle and gets the win. Good showing by Larson.
Winner: Brock Larson by Submission (Arm Triangle) R1 3:06
Heavyweight Fight- Pat Barry vs. Tim Hague
This is the UFC debut for Tim Hague. This is another pre-show fight.
R1- Barry hit a big right head kick and then hit another but Hague took him down at the one minute mark of the round. Hague got a guillotine and pulled out the upset. Rogan says Barry had this fight won but he just got sloppy.
Winner: Tim Hague by Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 1:42
Thursday, May 21, 2009
TUF Season 9 Episode 8 Re-Cap
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 8
Last week we saw Ross Pearson (UK) defeat Richie Whitson (USA). Team UK is up 4 wins to 2 going into Episode 7. Four fighters remain that have not fought since they’ve been in the house. Welterweights Jason Pierce (USA) and David Faulkner (UK) and Lightweights Jason Dent (US) and Jeff Lawson (UK).
Jason Pierce has a staph infection on his leg. Hendo takes his guys outdoors to switch things up by playing Ultimate Frisbee. During the first segment we also learn that David Faulkner has an issue with keeping his mouthpiece in during his fights. The rest of Team USA continues to dislike Jason Pierce due to his negative attitude.
Dan Henderson picks Jason Dent versus Jeff Lawson. He picked this fight so he could give Pierce a little bit longer for his leg to heal up. Henderson calls Dent “tough to coach”. Apparently he is resistant to change and gets upset when he is yelled at and shuts down.
A couple of the UK guys done lucha masks and wrestle in the house. Just seems like the UK guys are having a lot more fun and actually get along with each other. One guys suplexes the other guy off the diving board into the pool.
Dana meets with Jason Pierce. Dana says that the doctor thinks Jason will be able to fight but Dana says he likes to talk to the fighters to see if they really want to fight. When Jason talks to Dana he definitely isn’t looking like he wants to fight to me.
“There is no fucking way this kid wants to fight”- Dana White
“If he really wanted to fight he should have said so. No matter what was going on with my leg I would have sold it, I would have fought”- Dan Henderson
Lightweight Fight- Jason Dent (USA) (18-9) vs. Jeff Lawson (UK) (13-2)
R1- Jeff shot in after about a minute and a half but Jason held him off and took his back. Jeff then quickly went for a toe hold but instead ended up in Jason’s guard and landed some Ground and Pound. Jeff picked him up and slammed him back down. Jeff passed guard and mounted with about a minute left in the round but didn’t really do anything with it and Jason worked him back to full guard. Jason actually punched his way out of guard at the end of the round. Lawson won this round as he really controlled the first round. Dent showed some life at the end of the fight and he’s far from out of this but he can’t end up on the ground again and needs to be much more aggressive on his feet.
R2- Dent stuffed a take down early and got some shots in on Lawson. Lawson clearly wants this fight on the ground and dives in and goes for a leg lock but can’t get it locked in. Lawson looks really tired. Dent stuffs another take down and gets a choke and taps out Lawson. Lawson just gassed and Dent did a good job of taking advantage of it. US draws closer as they now trail only 4 to 3.
Winner: Jason Dent by Submission (Choke) R2
“Lawson gassed out and was tired and Dent never went after it. Yes, he ends up getting the finish…he chokes him out. But far, far, far from impressive”- Dana White
Dana calls Pierce and Henderson back in to have another conversation with them and he says that after talking to Pierce he’s not going to let him fight. Dana tells Pierce that he won’t be fighting.
“If Pierce had come to me and said ‘I’m not blowing this opportunity, I want this fight, please don’t take this fight away from me’ I would never take the fight away from him. But the way I saw it the kid wanted nothing to do with the fight”- Dana White
“You want to know my true and honest opinion. He showed up here and realized that he wasn’t a fighter. You either have it or you don’t, and I don’t think Jason Pierce has it.”– Dana White
“Honestly, I think he was better off not fighter. Because he would have lost that fight.”- Dan Henderson
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn, Richie Whitson)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden, Martin Stapleton)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning, Jeff Lawson)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)
Jeff Lawson defeated by Jason Dent (Episode 8)
Last week we saw Ross Pearson (UK) defeat Richie Whitson (USA). Team UK is up 4 wins to 2 going into Episode 7. Four fighters remain that have not fought since they’ve been in the house. Welterweights Jason Pierce (USA) and David Faulkner (UK) and Lightweights Jason Dent (US) and Jeff Lawson (UK).
Jason Pierce has a staph infection on his leg. Hendo takes his guys outdoors to switch things up by playing Ultimate Frisbee. During the first segment we also learn that David Faulkner has an issue with keeping his mouthpiece in during his fights. The rest of Team USA continues to dislike Jason Pierce due to his negative attitude.
Dan Henderson picks Jason Dent versus Jeff Lawson. He picked this fight so he could give Pierce a little bit longer for his leg to heal up. Henderson calls Dent “tough to coach”. Apparently he is resistant to change and gets upset when he is yelled at and shuts down.
A couple of the UK guys done lucha masks and wrestle in the house. Just seems like the UK guys are having a lot more fun and actually get along with each other. One guys suplexes the other guy off the diving board into the pool.
Dana meets with Jason Pierce. Dana says that the doctor thinks Jason will be able to fight but Dana says he likes to talk to the fighters to see if they really want to fight. When Jason talks to Dana he definitely isn’t looking like he wants to fight to me.
“There is no fucking way this kid wants to fight”- Dana White
“If he really wanted to fight he should have said so. No matter what was going on with my leg I would have sold it, I would have fought”- Dan Henderson
Lightweight Fight- Jason Dent (USA) (18-9) vs. Jeff Lawson (UK) (13-2)
R1- Jeff shot in after about a minute and a half but Jason held him off and took his back. Jeff then quickly went for a toe hold but instead ended up in Jason’s guard and landed some Ground and Pound. Jeff picked him up and slammed him back down. Jeff passed guard and mounted with about a minute left in the round but didn’t really do anything with it and Jason worked him back to full guard. Jason actually punched his way out of guard at the end of the round. Lawson won this round as he really controlled the first round. Dent showed some life at the end of the fight and he’s far from out of this but he can’t end up on the ground again and needs to be much more aggressive on his feet.
R2- Dent stuffed a take down early and got some shots in on Lawson. Lawson clearly wants this fight on the ground and dives in and goes for a leg lock but can’t get it locked in. Lawson looks really tired. Dent stuffs another take down and gets a choke and taps out Lawson. Lawson just gassed and Dent did a good job of taking advantage of it. US draws closer as they now trail only 4 to 3.
Winner: Jason Dent by Submission (Choke) R2
“Lawson gassed out and was tired and Dent never went after it. Yes, he ends up getting the finish…he chokes him out. But far, far, far from impressive”- Dana White
Dana calls Pierce and Henderson back in to have another conversation with them and he says that after talking to Pierce he’s not going to let him fight. Dana tells Pierce that he won’t be fighting.
“If Pierce had come to me and said ‘I’m not blowing this opportunity, I want this fight, please don’t take this fight away from me’ I would never take the fight away from him. But the way I saw it the kid wanted nothing to do with the fight”- Dana White
“You want to know my true and honest opinion. He showed up here and realized that he wasn’t a fighter. You either have it or you don’t, and I don’t think Jason Pierce has it.”– Dana White
“Honestly, I think he was better off not fighter. Because he would have lost that fight.”- Dan Henderson
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn, Richie Whitson)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden, Martin Stapleton)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning, Jeff Lawson)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)
Jeff Lawson defeated by Jason Dent (Episode 8)
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sengoku 8 3/2/09 Re-Cap
Sengoku - Eighth Battle: Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round
May 2, 2009
Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo
Sengoku is back for their third effort this year. The last show was the first round of the Featherweight Grand Prix. Here is a look at the brackets for the 2nd round:
Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Mann
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Nam Phan
Masanori Kanehara vs. Chang Sung Jung
Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis
Lightweight Fight- Akihiko Mouri (6-6-1) vs. Maximo Blanco (2-1-1)
Mouri is a decorated amateur wrestler and a veteran of DEEP, Pancrase and the K-1 Hero promotion. Blanco was a All-Japan freestyle wrestling champion in High School and college. Apparently Blanco looks up to Eddie Alvarez and his backflips.
R1- Blanco got a quick take down in the first thirty seconds of the fight. Mouri caught Blanco with an arm bar but Blanco quickly rolled out of it and regaining top position. Blanco is bleeding from the nose early. Blanco dropped Akihiko with a good punch and then jumped on top in side control but couldn’t finish. Blanco hit a spinning back kick and then nailed Akihiko with a right hand and then a soccer style kick to the head. The kick was illegal based on Sengoku rules because Akihiko was down. Big mistake by Blanco because Akihiko was finished after that right hand.
Winner: Akihiko Mouri by Disqualification (Illegal Kick) R1
Light Heavyweight Fight- Travis Wiuff (54-12) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (5-0)
Nedkov is wearing an “I Love Jesus” T-shirt as he comes to the ring. He is a BJJ black belt, a solid wrestler and is undefeated. 4 of his 5 fights have ended in the first round. Wiuff is 9-1 in his last 10 fights. He fought 16 times in 2003 and 20 of his fights have gone the distance (he is 18-2 in those fights).
R1- Stanislav hits a couple of low blows early and we are in rest mode for the first several minutes of the fight. A red card is issued to Nedkov and that means that means Nedkov gets a point deduction. Nedkov hits another low blow on Wiuff. Pretty much a worthless first round due to three low blows. Nedkov gets another red card so he’s down two points (if he gets one more than he’s automatically disqualified).
R2- Wiuff got a good slam/take down to start the round. They stood back up at the three minute mark and Nedkov nailed Wiuff with a big punch but Wiuff took it well and stayed on his feet. Wiuff grabbed a guillotine but Nedkov slipped out. Wiuff takes this round and is probably up 20-16 due to the loss of points for Nedkov. Nedkov has to finish this fight in Round Three if he wants to win.
R3- Nedkov landed a good punch and jumped on top and landed some Ground and Pound on Wiuff and is destroying him in the ropes and the ref stops the fight and Nedkov kisses the referee. Really impressive come back by Nedkov after a rough first two rounds and he remains undefeated at 6-0.
Winner: Stanislav Nedkov by TKO (Strikes) R3
Welterweight Fight- Michael Costa (9-4) vs. Makoto Takimoto (4-5)
Costa’s last fight was a loss to Nick Thompson on 6/8/08 by submission. Takimoto is also coming off of a loss as his last fight was a loss to Frank Trigg on 8/24/08. Takimoto has fought a high level of competition in his brief career as he also has losses to Gegard Mousasi and Kiyoshi Tamura. This is Takimoto’s first fight at Welterweight since dropping down from Middleweight.
R1- Costa went for a high kick and a high knee early but got taken down by Takimoto. Costa was able to grab a guillotine on the ground but he was eventually able to get out of the submission. Takimoto grabbed an arm bar attempt but Costa blocked the submission. Takimoto instead grabbed a heel hook and got a submission. Pretty good fight although it didn’t last long.
Winner: Makoto Takimoto by Submission (Heel Hook) R1 3:31
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Nick Denis (7-0) vs. Marlon Sandro (13-0)
Denis defeated Seiya Kawahara in the first round of the tournament by TKO. Denis is the KOTC Bantamweight Canadian Champion. Denis showed some really good striking skills in his first round victory. Sandro is also undefeated and is the Featherweight King of Pancrase. He defeated Matt Jaggers by submission as he finished Jaggers with an arm triangle in the second round of the fight.
R1- Sandro dropped Denis with a punch and jumped on top and just destroyed him with punches. Very unexpected finish as Sandro was supposed to be the ground guy. Tremendous showing by Sandro and if he wasn’t in the Top 10 of Featherweights in the world then I would say that he is now.
Winner: Marlon Sandro by KO (punches) R1 0:19
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Masanori Kanehara (12-5-5) vs. Chan Sung Jung (6-0)
Jung is undefeated and beat Shintaro Ishiwatari in a fun fight in the first round of this tournament. Jung has won 4 of his last 5 fights in the 1st round. Kanehara won a unanimous decision over Jong Man Kim in his first round fight. Both of these fighters are considered “dark horses” in this tournament.
R1- Kanehara got the first take down of the fight a little over a minute into the round but it ends with the fighters being stood back up after several minutes. Kanehara got another take down with about a minute left in the round but Jung got it back to their feet and then Kanehara forced him through the ropes. Pretty even first round with Kanehara getting two take downs. Jung started to come on at the end of the round but I’ve got Kanehara up 10-9.
R2- Both guys swing wildly at each other during the opening stages of this round and it ends in a Kanehara take down. Jung tried to get an arm bar and looked like he got it but Kanehara slipped out and re-took his guard. Kanehara clamped in a heel hook at then end of the round but Jung held out until the bell. This was another close round with Kanehara dominating control of the ring and both guys almost finishing with a submission. I think Kanehara won this round with his last second submission attempt to go up 20-18 although it’s very close to 19-19.
R3- Jung slipped early and Kanehara took his guard. Jung landed a good knee about half way through the round and then got in a couple of more knees on Kanehara. Jung takes Kanehara’s guard and gets some Ground and Pound in the last minute of the round. Good fight and it was very close. I’ve got Kanehara taking Round One and Jung taking Round Three with both being pretty clear cut winners of those rounds. Round Two is up for grabs, I barely gave it to Kanehara. I could see a split decision here. I think if you were judging on the entire fight as a whole I would give it to Jung but round by round I give it to Kanehara.
Judges score the fight: 30-29 Kanehara, 30-29 Kanehara and 29-28 Kanehara.
Winner: Masanori Kanehara by Decision (Unanimous)
Light Heavyweight Fight- Xlexandre Riberio (1-0) vs. Kei Yamamiya (34-23-9)
Kei has fought 43 fights that have gone the distance and is 21-11-9 in those fights. He has defeated Chris Lytle, Nate Marquardt, Chael Sonnen and Denis Kang and has losses to Guy Mezger, Bas Rutten, Paulo Filho and Akihiro Gono (twice). He is a wrestler and a kick boxer. Riberio is a bjj fighter who has multiple world jiu jitsu championships but only 1 pro MMA fight.
R1- Riberio got a good take down about half way through the round. Riberio took full mount and got in some Ground and Pound. Kei gave up his back and Riberio worked for an arm bar attempt but could not end it before the round ended. Good showing in the first round by Riberio.
R2- Kei did a good job in the first half of this round avoiding a take down and Riberio seemed to tire towards the end of the round. Kei went for a flying knee but he got caught and got taken down with about half a minute left in the round and by the time Kei got mount the bell rang.
R3- Kei moved in and hit Riberio but Riberio countered punch with a strong right hand and knocked Kei out.
Good showing by Riberio. He needs to work on his cardio and if he does that then he will be tough.
Winner: Xlenandre Riberio by KO R2
They show a Ring of Honor commercial featuring Ric Flair during a break in between matches.
Lightweight Fight- Leonardo Santos (6-2) vs. Kazunori Yokota (8-2-3)
Yokota is a former Lightweight Champion from the DEEP promotion. His last fight was a loss to current Sengoku Lightweight Champion Satoru Kitaoka by unanimous decision. Santos is on a 5 fight win streak. Bas says he’s the brother of Wagnney Fabiano (current WEC and former IFL fighter). Both guys are looking for a title fight, so the winner of this fight could be in line for a fight against Kitaoka- especially if it’s Santos.
R1- Santos got a take down about a minute into the fight. Santos had his back but Yokota was able to spin through and take Santos’ guard. Yokota was able to get some decent Ground and Pound in at the end of the round to take the round.
R2- Santos went for a flying knee early and got taken down. With three minutes gone from the round Santos is able to escape and mount Yokota but Yokota rolls him back over. Nobody is really doing much damage in this round. Yokota takes this rather uneventful round to go up 20-18.
R3- Santos got a take down about 3 minutes into the round. Santos tried to take his back but got flipped over and Yokota took his guard. Another lackluster round. I’ve got it Yokota 29-28. Neither guy really looked like they did anything to try and finish this fight. Definitely a disappointing fight and neither guy comes out looking like they are championship contender caliber.
Judges score cards say: 30-28 Yokota, 29-28 Santos, and 30-29 Yokota.
Winner: Kazunori Yokota by Decision (Split)
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Michihiro Omigawa (5-7-1) vs. Nam Phan (15-5)
In the first round Omigawa defeated L.C. Davis by unanimous decision. Phan defeated Hideki Kadowaki via first round TKO in the first round.
R1- Omigawa got a quick takedown but Phan used a heel hook to take Omigawa’s guard. Phan got caught in a guillotine and ate some knees. Omigawa pulled guard with the guillotine but Phan got out of the move. Omigawa got another take down with one minute left in the round after some fairly even stand up. Omigawa got Phan up against the ropes and threw a ton of punches at him and then got him on the ground and just pounded him and the ref put a stop to the fight. Shocking upset!
Winner: Michihiro Omigawa by TKO (punches) R1
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Hatsu Hioki (18-3-2) vs. Ronnie Mann (17-1-1)
In the first round Ronnie Mann defeated Tetsuya Yamada by Unanimous Decision. Hatsu Hioki defeated Chris Manuel with a Triangle Choke in the first round of his first round fight. Hioki is the favorite to take this tournament.
R1- Hioki has a large height advantage in this fight. Hioki got a take down after one minute of fighting. Hioki got a mount about half way through the round and locked in a triangle choke and threw hammer fists at Mann and the ref stepped in and stopped the fight. Another great showing by Hioki.
Winner: Hatsu Hioki by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 3:09
May 2, 2009
Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo
Sengoku is back for their third effort this year. The last show was the first round of the Featherweight Grand Prix. Here is a look at the brackets for the 2nd round:
Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Mann
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Nam Phan
Masanori Kanehara vs. Chang Sung Jung
Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis
Lightweight Fight- Akihiko Mouri (6-6-1) vs. Maximo Blanco (2-1-1)
Mouri is a decorated amateur wrestler and a veteran of DEEP, Pancrase and the K-1 Hero promotion. Blanco was a All-Japan freestyle wrestling champion in High School and college. Apparently Blanco looks up to Eddie Alvarez and his backflips.
R1- Blanco got a quick take down in the first thirty seconds of the fight. Mouri caught Blanco with an arm bar but Blanco quickly rolled out of it and regaining top position. Blanco is bleeding from the nose early. Blanco dropped Akihiko with a good punch and then jumped on top in side control but couldn’t finish. Blanco hit a spinning back kick and then nailed Akihiko with a right hand and then a soccer style kick to the head. The kick was illegal based on Sengoku rules because Akihiko was down. Big mistake by Blanco because Akihiko was finished after that right hand.
Winner: Akihiko Mouri by Disqualification (Illegal Kick) R1
Light Heavyweight Fight- Travis Wiuff (54-12) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (5-0)
Nedkov is wearing an “I Love Jesus” T-shirt as he comes to the ring. He is a BJJ black belt, a solid wrestler and is undefeated. 4 of his 5 fights have ended in the first round. Wiuff is 9-1 in his last 10 fights. He fought 16 times in 2003 and 20 of his fights have gone the distance (he is 18-2 in those fights).
R1- Stanislav hits a couple of low blows early and we are in rest mode for the first several minutes of the fight. A red card is issued to Nedkov and that means that means Nedkov gets a point deduction. Nedkov hits another low blow on Wiuff. Pretty much a worthless first round due to three low blows. Nedkov gets another red card so he’s down two points (if he gets one more than he’s automatically disqualified).
R2- Wiuff got a good slam/take down to start the round. They stood back up at the three minute mark and Nedkov nailed Wiuff with a big punch but Wiuff took it well and stayed on his feet. Wiuff grabbed a guillotine but Nedkov slipped out. Wiuff takes this round and is probably up 20-16 due to the loss of points for Nedkov. Nedkov has to finish this fight in Round Three if he wants to win.
R3- Nedkov landed a good punch and jumped on top and landed some Ground and Pound on Wiuff and is destroying him in the ropes and the ref stops the fight and Nedkov kisses the referee. Really impressive come back by Nedkov after a rough first two rounds and he remains undefeated at 6-0.
Winner: Stanislav Nedkov by TKO (Strikes) R3
Welterweight Fight- Michael Costa (9-4) vs. Makoto Takimoto (4-5)
Costa’s last fight was a loss to Nick Thompson on 6/8/08 by submission. Takimoto is also coming off of a loss as his last fight was a loss to Frank Trigg on 8/24/08. Takimoto has fought a high level of competition in his brief career as he also has losses to Gegard Mousasi and Kiyoshi Tamura. This is Takimoto’s first fight at Welterweight since dropping down from Middleweight.
R1- Costa went for a high kick and a high knee early but got taken down by Takimoto. Costa was able to grab a guillotine on the ground but he was eventually able to get out of the submission. Takimoto grabbed an arm bar attempt but Costa blocked the submission. Takimoto instead grabbed a heel hook and got a submission. Pretty good fight although it didn’t last long.
Winner: Makoto Takimoto by Submission (Heel Hook) R1 3:31
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Nick Denis (7-0) vs. Marlon Sandro (13-0)
Denis defeated Seiya Kawahara in the first round of the tournament by TKO. Denis is the KOTC Bantamweight Canadian Champion. Denis showed some really good striking skills in his first round victory. Sandro is also undefeated and is the Featherweight King of Pancrase. He defeated Matt Jaggers by submission as he finished Jaggers with an arm triangle in the second round of the fight.
R1- Sandro dropped Denis with a punch and jumped on top and just destroyed him with punches. Very unexpected finish as Sandro was supposed to be the ground guy. Tremendous showing by Sandro and if he wasn’t in the Top 10 of Featherweights in the world then I would say that he is now.
Winner: Marlon Sandro by KO (punches) R1 0:19
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Masanori Kanehara (12-5-5) vs. Chan Sung Jung (6-0)
Jung is undefeated and beat Shintaro Ishiwatari in a fun fight in the first round of this tournament. Jung has won 4 of his last 5 fights in the 1st round. Kanehara won a unanimous decision over Jong Man Kim in his first round fight. Both of these fighters are considered “dark horses” in this tournament.
R1- Kanehara got the first take down of the fight a little over a minute into the round but it ends with the fighters being stood back up after several minutes. Kanehara got another take down with about a minute left in the round but Jung got it back to their feet and then Kanehara forced him through the ropes. Pretty even first round with Kanehara getting two take downs. Jung started to come on at the end of the round but I’ve got Kanehara up 10-9.
R2- Both guys swing wildly at each other during the opening stages of this round and it ends in a Kanehara take down. Jung tried to get an arm bar and looked like he got it but Kanehara slipped out and re-took his guard. Kanehara clamped in a heel hook at then end of the round but Jung held out until the bell. This was another close round with Kanehara dominating control of the ring and both guys almost finishing with a submission. I think Kanehara won this round with his last second submission attempt to go up 20-18 although it’s very close to 19-19.
R3- Jung slipped early and Kanehara took his guard. Jung landed a good knee about half way through the round and then got in a couple of more knees on Kanehara. Jung takes Kanehara’s guard and gets some Ground and Pound in the last minute of the round. Good fight and it was very close. I’ve got Kanehara taking Round One and Jung taking Round Three with both being pretty clear cut winners of those rounds. Round Two is up for grabs, I barely gave it to Kanehara. I could see a split decision here. I think if you were judging on the entire fight as a whole I would give it to Jung but round by round I give it to Kanehara.
Judges score the fight: 30-29 Kanehara, 30-29 Kanehara and 29-28 Kanehara.
Winner: Masanori Kanehara by Decision (Unanimous)
Light Heavyweight Fight- Xlexandre Riberio (1-0) vs. Kei Yamamiya (34-23-9)
Kei has fought 43 fights that have gone the distance and is 21-11-9 in those fights. He has defeated Chris Lytle, Nate Marquardt, Chael Sonnen and Denis Kang and has losses to Guy Mezger, Bas Rutten, Paulo Filho and Akihiro Gono (twice). He is a wrestler and a kick boxer. Riberio is a bjj fighter who has multiple world jiu jitsu championships but only 1 pro MMA fight.
R1- Riberio got a good take down about half way through the round. Riberio took full mount and got in some Ground and Pound. Kei gave up his back and Riberio worked for an arm bar attempt but could not end it before the round ended. Good showing in the first round by Riberio.
R2- Kei did a good job in the first half of this round avoiding a take down and Riberio seemed to tire towards the end of the round. Kei went for a flying knee but he got caught and got taken down with about half a minute left in the round and by the time Kei got mount the bell rang.
R3- Kei moved in and hit Riberio but Riberio countered punch with a strong right hand and knocked Kei out.
Good showing by Riberio. He needs to work on his cardio and if he does that then he will be tough.
Winner: Xlenandre Riberio by KO R2
They show a Ring of Honor commercial featuring Ric Flair during a break in between matches.
Lightweight Fight- Leonardo Santos (6-2) vs. Kazunori Yokota (8-2-3)
Yokota is a former Lightweight Champion from the DEEP promotion. His last fight was a loss to current Sengoku Lightweight Champion Satoru Kitaoka by unanimous decision. Santos is on a 5 fight win streak. Bas says he’s the brother of Wagnney Fabiano (current WEC and former IFL fighter). Both guys are looking for a title fight, so the winner of this fight could be in line for a fight against Kitaoka- especially if it’s Santos.
R1- Santos got a take down about a minute into the fight. Santos had his back but Yokota was able to spin through and take Santos’ guard. Yokota was able to get some decent Ground and Pound in at the end of the round to take the round.
R2- Santos went for a flying knee early and got taken down. With three minutes gone from the round Santos is able to escape and mount Yokota but Yokota rolls him back over. Nobody is really doing much damage in this round. Yokota takes this rather uneventful round to go up 20-18.
R3- Santos got a take down about 3 minutes into the round. Santos tried to take his back but got flipped over and Yokota took his guard. Another lackluster round. I’ve got it Yokota 29-28. Neither guy really looked like they did anything to try and finish this fight. Definitely a disappointing fight and neither guy comes out looking like they are championship contender caliber.
Judges score cards say: 30-28 Yokota, 29-28 Santos, and 30-29 Yokota.
Winner: Kazunori Yokota by Decision (Split)
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Michihiro Omigawa (5-7-1) vs. Nam Phan (15-5)
In the first round Omigawa defeated L.C. Davis by unanimous decision. Phan defeated Hideki Kadowaki via first round TKO in the first round.
R1- Omigawa got a quick takedown but Phan used a heel hook to take Omigawa’s guard. Phan got caught in a guillotine and ate some knees. Omigawa pulled guard with the guillotine but Phan got out of the move. Omigawa got another take down with one minute left in the round after some fairly even stand up. Omigawa got Phan up against the ropes and threw a ton of punches at him and then got him on the ground and just pounded him and the ref put a stop to the fight. Shocking upset!
Winner: Michihiro Omigawa by TKO (punches) R1
Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round Tournament Fight- Hatsu Hioki (18-3-2) vs. Ronnie Mann (17-1-1)
In the first round Ronnie Mann defeated Tetsuya Yamada by Unanimous Decision. Hatsu Hioki defeated Chris Manuel with a Triangle Choke in the first round of his first round fight. Hioki is the favorite to take this tournament.
R1- Hioki has a large height advantage in this fight. Hioki got a take down after one minute of fighting. Hioki got a mount about half way through the round and locked in a triangle choke and threw hammer fists at Mann and the ref stepped in and stopped the fight. Another great showing by Hioki.
Winner: Hatsu Hioki by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 3:09
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Strikeforce Challengers Series 5/15/09 Re-Cap
Strikeforce Challengers Series 5/15/09
Fresno, California
This is the second installment of Strikeforce on Showtime but the first in the “Strikeforce Challengers” series. This show will feature more up and coming fighters (sprinkled with some experienced fighters) who are looking to move up to the bigger Strikeforce shows. Mauro Ranallo is joined by Stephen Quadros. The third member of the broadcast crew is Pat Miletich. Jimmy Lennon Jr is the ring announcer.
Featherweight Fight- Bao Quach (15-9-1) vs. Tito Jones (6-2)
Quach is 9-1 in his last 10 fights. Quach is a Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu fighter. Quach has fought a high level of competition such as Waggney Fabiano and has a draw against Sengoku Featherweight Hiroki Hatsu. Tito is a wrestler and boxer and is working with Urijah Faber (Faber is in his corner for the fight). Tito is 4-0 as a Featherweight. Jones has a 3” height advantage but everything else is virtually identical. This should be a good opener.
R1- Not much action in the first half of the round as both guys are really feeling each other out and being very tentative. Tito hit 3 good hooks but couldn’t follow it up with anything. They clinched and exchanged knees. Not a lot of action, Bao hit some good leg kicks so probably took the first round just based on landing more strikes. Quadros also says that he gave round one to Bao.
R2- This round is a continuation of round one with slow action and Bao landing leg kicks. Bao just kept landing leg kicks as he circled Tito. Another blah round that had some boo birds from the fans. I’ve got Bao up 20-18 so far in this fight. The leg kicks from Bao look like they are taking their toll on Tito.
R3- Tito needs to finish the fight before this round ends if he wants to get a win. Tito hit a good right hand and then came in and hit another right hand and he jumped on top of Bao but they got back to the feet. Tito is giving Bao too much time to gather his senses. Tito hits a strong right and floors Bao and draws blood but Bao gets back to his feet and there is not much action over the next several minutes. Tito put up a great first half of the round but didn’t finish with authority. Bao won the first two rounds, Tito won round three by a wide margin. The only question is whether Tito can get enough 10-8’s to make this a draw. I think Bao wins this one by decision. This was unfortunate because Tito looks like he has some talent he just didn’t put it together tonight.
Judges score cards say: all score cards 29-28 in favor of Bao Quach
Winner: Bao Quach by Decision (Unanimous)
Light Heavyweight Fight- Anthony Ruiz (21-12) vs. Aaron Rosa (11-2)
Rosa is a 25 year old Muay Thai and BJJ fighter. Pete Spratt is in Rosa’s corner for the fight. Anthony Ruiz is a 31 year old wrestler and Muay Thai fighter. Rosa has a 3” height advantage but Ruiz has a 3” reach advantage. I’ve seen 3 Ruiz fights. Two were really boring fights and the other was a pretty boring ref stoppage due to a cut (of course Bobby Southworth was in two of these fights so it could have been his fault). I’m expecting this to go to the time limit.
R1- They threw some punches early before Ruiz clinched and went for a take down. Ruiz hit a couple of good shots out of the clinch but Rosa responded with a couple of his own until Ruiz clinched again. Rosa got a double leg and got a slam into full guard. Ruiz rolled to his back. Rosa went for the Rear Naked Choke as he also had him locked in a body triangle and it looked like Ruiz passed out and the ref stopped the fight. Good showing by Rosa and by far the best fight I’ve seen Ruiz in.
Winner: Aaron Rosa by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 4:29
Heavyweight Fight- Lavar Johnson (11-3) vs. Carl Seumanutafa (4-2)
Carl is a 25 year old wrestler/fighter. The only time I’ve seen Carl fight was on the ShoXC Elite Challengers show from 9/26/08 where he fell to Shane Del Rosario by TKO early in the second round. Carl has scored a KO in all of his victories. Lavar is a 31 year old Muay Thai fighter. Lavar has a 3” height and 2.5” reach advantage. Lavar has scored a KO in all of his victories but one. I think we are going to see this fight finished before the time limit.
R1- Wow, this was a shocking fight. Carl went in low for a take down and got caught by an uppercut and KTFO. That was unreal. This one was over before it started.
Winner: Lavar Johnson by KO R1 0:18
A commercial is shown for the next Strikeforce show on June 6th featuring Robbie Lawler vs. Jake Shields. They also hype Rafael Feijao. They cut to Mauro Ranallo who has Scott Smith by his side. Smith will fight Nick Diaz on this show. Lawler/Shields and Smith/Diaz makes for a good night of fights in my book.
“Train hard, I’m ready” – Scott Smith
Women’s Bantamweight Fight- 135 lbs- Sarah Kaufman (8-0) vs. Miesha Tate (6-1)
This fight will be three, three minute rounds. Miesha is a 22 year old submission wrestler. Sarah is a 23 year old Muay Thai and BJJ fighter. Sarah took this fight on short notice due to Kim Couture dropping out. Sarah has finished all of her fights, she is 8-0 with 8 KOs. Miesha Tate had Brian Caraway (her boyfriend) in her corner (he’s a Strikeforce fighter that scored a win on the under card of the Thomson/Melendez fight from last year).
R1- Both women land some good shots early. Tate looks like she got in a good shot or two on Sarah’s eye but Sarah seems to be getting in the better shots overall. Tate got a take down with 20 seconds left in the round so she can rest. Sarah takes the first round.
R2- Tate was able to get an early take down in this round. Somebody is cut and it looks like its Tate. Tate takes this round 10-9 and evens the score 19-19 even though she busted her nose open in that round.
R3- Tate kept going for take downs but Sarah kept denying her. Kaufman landed some Ground and Pound from a weird tradition and took this round. Kaufman wins 29-28 on my score card.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 on all score cards in favor of Kaufman
Winner: Sarah Kaufman by Decision (Unanimous)
Lightweight Fight- Billy Evangelista (9-0) vs. Mike Aina (11-6-1)
Both guys came in a couple of pounds overweight and have agreed to the fight at a catchweight of 157 pounds. Boo! Aina is a 28 year old Kick Boxer and Jiu Jitsu fighter. Aina lost a controversial split decision to Nick Diaz in Elite XC. On the flip side Evanglista won a controversial decision over Nam Phan in Strikeforce last year. Evangelista is a 28 year old Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu fighter who is fighting in his hometown tonight. Aina has a 3” reach advantage in this fight. Aina has 6 losses but has never been knocked out or submitted. Aina trains under BJ Penn in Hawaii.
R1- Pretty even fight for the first several minutes. Evangelista got a take down with around a minute and a half left in the round but Aina popped right back up. This was a close round, they ended in a clinch where Evangelista was more active. I think Evangelista probably took this 10-9. Quadros says he gave the round to Aina due to a combo he threw in the middle of the round.
R2- Evangelista got a take down about mid-way through the round and got some shots in on Aina. Evangelista hit Aina with a knee to what looked like the shoulder as Aina had one knee on the ground. On the re-play it clearly shows that the knee hit Aina in the shoulder and Aina is pointing to his jaw. Maybe the knee knocked his jaw out of place but it definitely didn’t land on his jaw. Aina cannot continue so he is going to be awarded the victory by DQ. This is a shame for Evangelista as he looked like he was on his way to a victory but you can’t throw a knee in Strikeforce (or a lot of companies) when your opponent is downed.
Interesting that they ring announcer specifically said that Evangelista was DQ’d for a knee to the head of a downed opponent when the knee clearly did not hit his head. Post-fight interview Aina said the strike hit him on the jaw. This looks to me like Aina is pulling a Cro Cop (he was getting dominated by Alistair Overeem and bowed out due to an illegal strike and said he couldn’t continue) and looking for a way out of a fight that he didn’t think he was going to win but maybe the strike to the shoulder did affect his jaw.
Dean says he stopped the fight for the knee to the head and the doctor thinks Aina broke his jaw. Disappointing Main Event.
Winner: Mike Aina by DQ (Knee to the head) R2 3:40
Fresno, California
This is the second installment of Strikeforce on Showtime but the first in the “Strikeforce Challengers” series. This show will feature more up and coming fighters (sprinkled with some experienced fighters) who are looking to move up to the bigger Strikeforce shows. Mauro Ranallo is joined by Stephen Quadros. The third member of the broadcast crew is Pat Miletich. Jimmy Lennon Jr is the ring announcer.
Featherweight Fight- Bao Quach (15-9-1) vs. Tito Jones (6-2)
Quach is 9-1 in his last 10 fights. Quach is a Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu fighter. Quach has fought a high level of competition such as Waggney Fabiano and has a draw against Sengoku Featherweight Hiroki Hatsu. Tito is a wrestler and boxer and is working with Urijah Faber (Faber is in his corner for the fight). Tito is 4-0 as a Featherweight. Jones has a 3” height advantage but everything else is virtually identical. This should be a good opener.
R1- Not much action in the first half of the round as both guys are really feeling each other out and being very tentative. Tito hit 3 good hooks but couldn’t follow it up with anything. They clinched and exchanged knees. Not a lot of action, Bao hit some good leg kicks so probably took the first round just based on landing more strikes. Quadros also says that he gave round one to Bao.
R2- This round is a continuation of round one with slow action and Bao landing leg kicks. Bao just kept landing leg kicks as he circled Tito. Another blah round that had some boo birds from the fans. I’ve got Bao up 20-18 so far in this fight. The leg kicks from Bao look like they are taking their toll on Tito.
R3- Tito needs to finish the fight before this round ends if he wants to get a win. Tito hit a good right hand and then came in and hit another right hand and he jumped on top of Bao but they got back to the feet. Tito is giving Bao too much time to gather his senses. Tito hits a strong right and floors Bao and draws blood but Bao gets back to his feet and there is not much action over the next several minutes. Tito put up a great first half of the round but didn’t finish with authority. Bao won the first two rounds, Tito won round three by a wide margin. The only question is whether Tito can get enough 10-8’s to make this a draw. I think Bao wins this one by decision. This was unfortunate because Tito looks like he has some talent he just didn’t put it together tonight.
Judges score cards say: all score cards 29-28 in favor of Bao Quach
Winner: Bao Quach by Decision (Unanimous)
Light Heavyweight Fight- Anthony Ruiz (21-12) vs. Aaron Rosa (11-2)
Rosa is a 25 year old Muay Thai and BJJ fighter. Pete Spratt is in Rosa’s corner for the fight. Anthony Ruiz is a 31 year old wrestler and Muay Thai fighter. Rosa has a 3” height advantage but Ruiz has a 3” reach advantage. I’ve seen 3 Ruiz fights. Two were really boring fights and the other was a pretty boring ref stoppage due to a cut (of course Bobby Southworth was in two of these fights so it could have been his fault). I’m expecting this to go to the time limit.
R1- They threw some punches early before Ruiz clinched and went for a take down. Ruiz hit a couple of good shots out of the clinch but Rosa responded with a couple of his own until Ruiz clinched again. Rosa got a double leg and got a slam into full guard. Ruiz rolled to his back. Rosa went for the Rear Naked Choke as he also had him locked in a body triangle and it looked like Ruiz passed out and the ref stopped the fight. Good showing by Rosa and by far the best fight I’ve seen Ruiz in.
Winner: Aaron Rosa by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 4:29
Heavyweight Fight- Lavar Johnson (11-3) vs. Carl Seumanutafa (4-2)
Carl is a 25 year old wrestler/fighter. The only time I’ve seen Carl fight was on the ShoXC Elite Challengers show from 9/26/08 where he fell to Shane Del Rosario by TKO early in the second round. Carl has scored a KO in all of his victories. Lavar is a 31 year old Muay Thai fighter. Lavar has a 3” height and 2.5” reach advantage. Lavar has scored a KO in all of his victories but one. I think we are going to see this fight finished before the time limit.
R1- Wow, this was a shocking fight. Carl went in low for a take down and got caught by an uppercut and KTFO. That was unreal. This one was over before it started.
Winner: Lavar Johnson by KO R1 0:18
A commercial is shown for the next Strikeforce show on June 6th featuring Robbie Lawler vs. Jake Shields. They also hype Rafael Feijao. They cut to Mauro Ranallo who has Scott Smith by his side. Smith will fight Nick Diaz on this show. Lawler/Shields and Smith/Diaz makes for a good night of fights in my book.
“Train hard, I’m ready” – Scott Smith
Women’s Bantamweight Fight- 135 lbs- Sarah Kaufman (8-0) vs. Miesha Tate (6-1)
This fight will be three, three minute rounds. Miesha is a 22 year old submission wrestler. Sarah is a 23 year old Muay Thai and BJJ fighter. Sarah took this fight on short notice due to Kim Couture dropping out. Sarah has finished all of her fights, she is 8-0 with 8 KOs. Miesha Tate had Brian Caraway (her boyfriend) in her corner (he’s a Strikeforce fighter that scored a win on the under card of the Thomson/Melendez fight from last year).
R1- Both women land some good shots early. Tate looks like she got in a good shot or two on Sarah’s eye but Sarah seems to be getting in the better shots overall. Tate got a take down with 20 seconds left in the round so she can rest. Sarah takes the first round.
R2- Tate was able to get an early take down in this round. Somebody is cut and it looks like its Tate. Tate takes this round 10-9 and evens the score 19-19 even though she busted her nose open in that round.
R3- Tate kept going for take downs but Sarah kept denying her. Kaufman landed some Ground and Pound from a weird tradition and took this round. Kaufman wins 29-28 on my score card.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 on all score cards in favor of Kaufman
Winner: Sarah Kaufman by Decision (Unanimous)
Lightweight Fight- Billy Evangelista (9-0) vs. Mike Aina (11-6-1)
Both guys came in a couple of pounds overweight and have agreed to the fight at a catchweight of 157 pounds. Boo! Aina is a 28 year old Kick Boxer and Jiu Jitsu fighter. Aina lost a controversial split decision to Nick Diaz in Elite XC. On the flip side Evanglista won a controversial decision over Nam Phan in Strikeforce last year. Evangelista is a 28 year old Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu fighter who is fighting in his hometown tonight. Aina has a 3” reach advantage in this fight. Aina has 6 losses but has never been knocked out or submitted. Aina trains under BJ Penn in Hawaii.
R1- Pretty even fight for the first several minutes. Evangelista got a take down with around a minute and a half left in the round but Aina popped right back up. This was a close round, they ended in a clinch where Evangelista was more active. I think Evangelista probably took this 10-9. Quadros says he gave the round to Aina due to a combo he threw in the middle of the round.
R2- Evangelista got a take down about mid-way through the round and got some shots in on Aina. Evangelista hit Aina with a knee to what looked like the shoulder as Aina had one knee on the ground. On the re-play it clearly shows that the knee hit Aina in the shoulder and Aina is pointing to his jaw. Maybe the knee knocked his jaw out of place but it definitely didn’t land on his jaw. Aina cannot continue so he is going to be awarded the victory by DQ. This is a shame for Evangelista as he looked like he was on his way to a victory but you can’t throw a knee in Strikeforce (or a lot of companies) when your opponent is downed.
Interesting that they ring announcer specifically said that Evangelista was DQ’d for a knee to the head of a downed opponent when the knee clearly did not hit his head. Post-fight interview Aina said the strike hit him on the jaw. This looks to me like Aina is pulling a Cro Cop (he was getting dominated by Alistair Overeem and bowed out due to an illegal strike and said he couldn’t continue) and looking for a way out of a fight that he didn’t think he was going to win but maybe the strike to the shoulder did affect his jaw.
Dean says he stopped the fight for the knee to the head and the doctor thinks Aina broke his jaw. Disappointing Main Event.
Winner: Mike Aina by DQ (Knee to the head) R2 3:40
Friday, May 15, 2009
WEC WrekCage 5/15/09 Re-Cap
WEC WrekCage 5/15/09
Versus
This show is from 2008. Todd Harris and Frank Mir are the announcers for these fights. Today’s show featured two fights from WEC 33 from March of 08 and one fight from WEC 29 from August of 07.
Bantamweight Fight- Chris Manuel (6-0-1) vs. Kenji Osawa (13-7-1)- WEC 33- 3/26/08
Manuel has a 4” reach advantage.
R1- Good even first round. Osawa landed better punches but Manuel landed better leg kicks.
R2- This was another very close round but not as fast paced as the first round. The fight looks like it will go down to whoever has the best final round.
R3- Manuel got some good shots in at the beginning of the round but then got clinched. Manuel hits a nice kick and Osawa is bloodied up around his mouth. Manuel gets a take down and gets Osawa’s back. Manuel really dominated this round. Manuel definitely took this round but the first two rounds were a toss up. It will be interesting to see the judges’ decisions.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 Manuel, 29-28 Osawa and 28-28 for a draw.
Winner: DRAW
Welterweight Fight- Alex Serdyukov (9-4) vs. Ryan Stonitsch (9-0-1)- WEC 33- 3/26/08
Alex has a 5” height advantage and a 2” reach advantage.
R1- Ryan came right at him with some punches but Alex fought him off. Alex ended up catching Ryan in a triangle and submitted him.
Winner: Alex Serdyukov by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 1:35
Middleweight Fight- Logan Clark (9-0) vs. Eric Schambari (6-0)- WEC 29- 8/5/07
Both of these guys are undefeated. Logan Clark’s nickname is the “Pink Pounder”. Clark has a 3” reach advantage.
R1- Schambari gets a slam into Clark’s guard. Schambari is able to stay on top of Clark for the entire round. Clark got a triangle choke for about 20 seconds but couldn’t finish the fight. At the end of the round he went for a kimura but couldn’t get it so instead he settled for some Ground and Pound.
R2- Clark got a quick flurry early but then got taken down again. Clark caught Schambari with a Gogoplata but couldn’t hold it in place. Clark went for an arm bar but Schambari again escaped the move. Clark was on his back for the majority of this round but did a great job in going for submissions and controlling the fight from his back.
R3- Clark got on top of Schambari early in this round for a change and got some Ground and Pound. Clark was working for an arm bar but couldn’t get it and Schambari got back to his feet. Schambari ended up back on top of Clark. Schambari really controlled the majority of this round.
Not a great fight but it was interesting as Schambari dominated position but Clark came closer to finishing the fight. Very close fight but I think Schambari will win due to his dominance of where the fight went and how he controlled a lot of the fight.
Judges score cards: all three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Schambari
Winner: Eric Schambari by Decision (Unanimous)
Versus
This show is from 2008. Todd Harris and Frank Mir are the announcers for these fights. Today’s show featured two fights from WEC 33 from March of 08 and one fight from WEC 29 from August of 07.
Bantamweight Fight- Chris Manuel (6-0-1) vs. Kenji Osawa (13-7-1)- WEC 33- 3/26/08
Manuel has a 4” reach advantage.
R1- Good even first round. Osawa landed better punches but Manuel landed better leg kicks.
R2- This was another very close round but not as fast paced as the first round. The fight looks like it will go down to whoever has the best final round.
R3- Manuel got some good shots in at the beginning of the round but then got clinched. Manuel hits a nice kick and Osawa is bloodied up around his mouth. Manuel gets a take down and gets Osawa’s back. Manuel really dominated this round. Manuel definitely took this round but the first two rounds were a toss up. It will be interesting to see the judges’ decisions.
Judges score cards say: 29-28 Manuel, 29-28 Osawa and 28-28 for a draw.
Winner: DRAW
Welterweight Fight- Alex Serdyukov (9-4) vs. Ryan Stonitsch (9-0-1)- WEC 33- 3/26/08
Alex has a 5” height advantage and a 2” reach advantage.
R1- Ryan came right at him with some punches but Alex fought him off. Alex ended up catching Ryan in a triangle and submitted him.
Winner: Alex Serdyukov by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1 1:35
Middleweight Fight- Logan Clark (9-0) vs. Eric Schambari (6-0)- WEC 29- 8/5/07
Both of these guys are undefeated. Logan Clark’s nickname is the “Pink Pounder”. Clark has a 3” reach advantage.
R1- Schambari gets a slam into Clark’s guard. Schambari is able to stay on top of Clark for the entire round. Clark got a triangle choke for about 20 seconds but couldn’t finish the fight. At the end of the round he went for a kimura but couldn’t get it so instead he settled for some Ground and Pound.
R2- Clark got a quick flurry early but then got taken down again. Clark caught Schambari with a Gogoplata but couldn’t hold it in place. Clark went for an arm bar but Schambari again escaped the move. Clark was on his back for the majority of this round but did a great job in going for submissions and controlling the fight from his back.
R3- Clark got on top of Schambari early in this round for a change and got some Ground and Pound. Clark was working for an arm bar but couldn’t get it and Schambari got back to his feet. Schambari ended up back on top of Clark. Schambari really controlled the majority of this round.
Not a great fight but it was interesting as Schambari dominated position but Clark came closer to finishing the fight. Very close fight but I think Schambari will win due to his dominance of where the fight went and how he controlled a lot of the fight.
Judges score cards: all three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Schambari
Winner: Eric Schambari by Decision (Unanimous)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
TUF Season 9 Episode 7 Re-Cap
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 7
Last week we saw James Wilks (UK) and Cameron Dollar (USA) both get wins. Team UK is up 3 wins to 2 going into Episode 7.
Jason Pierce and David Faulkner are the last two Welterweight Fights so it’s obvious that they will match up in the next Welterweight Fight. So they tease this fight for the first couple of segments of the show. Faulkner looked really good in his preliminary fight and I’ve got him pegged as one of the top Welterweight guys in the house. Pierce won an “unimpressive” fight to get in the house (but hey, a win is a win). Pierce says he broke some blood vessels in his foot during his prelim match.
Richie Whitson finds out that he has some kind of contagious bacterial infection. Pierce runs around spraying everything after Richie touches it.
Pierce is shown saying that he disagrees with some of the training and then he is later shown walking out during a stand up session with Diabate. In addition to Pierce’s injury it looks like Faulker has come down with an infection. So there is a lot of doubt whether this fight is going to take place as originally scheduled.
Next up is a “Coaches Challenge” and Bisping and Henderson will be playing Tennis. The winning coach gets $10,000 and each team member gets $1,500. Dana expands the rules so that they don’t have to serve in the correct boxes. Bisping says he has never played. Dan wins easily 6 games to 2 games. Bisping gets pissed off at Damarques for calling Bisping “white” but it was Cameron Dollar that actually made the comment.
Fight Announcement: Bisping picks Ross Pearson against Richie Whitson. Bisping thinks Pearson will be able to “catch” Whitson. Hendo says his concern with Whitson is that due to his skin problems he hasn’t been able to train on the mat in over a week.
Richie Whitson has a birthday and gets some cake and Cameron Dollar has some alcohol and a little cry and talks about how he wishes he had a better relationship with his parents.
Lightweight Fight- Ross Pearson (9-3) vs. Richie Whitson (4-0)
This should be a good fight. Both guys did a good job in their prelims. Pearson looks like a tough fighter. The height and reach for both of these fighters is identical. Richie was one of the two guys from the US team that really impressed me during the prelim fights.
R1- They clinch early, this seems like something Ross likes to do as he did the same thing in his prelim fight. Ross caught Richie with a good flurry but gave it up to go for a take down. Ross had the advantage but hit Richie with an illegal knee to a downed opponent. Herb Dean takes a point from Ross Pearson. Peason was able to get Richie’s back and then get an arm bar submission. Pearson is not a real fun fighter to watch but he’s a grinder and controlled this fight. So this means UK goes up 4 to 2 and I think they have a good advantage in the next fight as well.
Winner: Ross Pearson by Submission (Arm Bar) R1
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn, Richie Whitson)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden, Martin Stapleton)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)
Last week we saw James Wilks (UK) and Cameron Dollar (USA) both get wins. Team UK is up 3 wins to 2 going into Episode 7.
Jason Pierce and David Faulkner are the last two Welterweight Fights so it’s obvious that they will match up in the next Welterweight Fight. So they tease this fight for the first couple of segments of the show. Faulkner looked really good in his preliminary fight and I’ve got him pegged as one of the top Welterweight guys in the house. Pierce won an “unimpressive” fight to get in the house (but hey, a win is a win). Pierce says he broke some blood vessels in his foot during his prelim match.
Richie Whitson finds out that he has some kind of contagious bacterial infection. Pierce runs around spraying everything after Richie touches it.
Pierce is shown saying that he disagrees with some of the training and then he is later shown walking out during a stand up session with Diabate. In addition to Pierce’s injury it looks like Faulker has come down with an infection. So there is a lot of doubt whether this fight is going to take place as originally scheduled.
Next up is a “Coaches Challenge” and Bisping and Henderson will be playing Tennis. The winning coach gets $10,000 and each team member gets $1,500. Dana expands the rules so that they don’t have to serve in the correct boxes. Bisping says he has never played. Dan wins easily 6 games to 2 games. Bisping gets pissed off at Damarques for calling Bisping “white” but it was Cameron Dollar that actually made the comment.
Fight Announcement: Bisping picks Ross Pearson against Richie Whitson. Bisping thinks Pearson will be able to “catch” Whitson. Hendo says his concern with Whitson is that due to his skin problems he hasn’t been able to train on the mat in over a week.
Richie Whitson has a birthday and gets some cake and Cameron Dollar has some alcohol and a little cry and talks about how he wishes he had a better relationship with his parents.
Lightweight Fight- Ross Pearson (9-3) vs. Richie Whitson (4-0)
This should be a good fight. Both guys did a good job in their prelims. Pearson looks like a tough fighter. The height and reach for both of these fighters is identical. Richie was one of the two guys from the US team that really impressed me during the prelim fights.
R1- They clinch early, this seems like something Ross likes to do as he did the same thing in his prelim fight. Ross caught Richie with a good flurry but gave it up to go for a take down. Ross had the advantage but hit Richie with an illegal knee to a downed opponent. Herb Dean takes a point from Ross Pearson. Peason was able to get Richie’s back and then get an arm bar submission. Pearson is not a real fun fighter to watch but he’s a grinder and controlled this fight. So this means UK goes up 4 to 2 and I think they have a good advantage in the next fight as well.
Winner: Ross Pearson by Submission (Arm Bar) R1
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn, Richie Whitson)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden, Martin Stapleton)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My revised favorites are:
Lightweight: Ross Pearson (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Richie Whitson defeated by Ross Pearson (Episode 7)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
UFC Unleashed 5/10/09 Re-Cap
UFC Unleashed 5/10/09
This show is from 2006.
Light Heavyweight Fight- Forrest Griffin (11-2) vs. Elvis Sinosic (6-7-2)- UFC 55- 10/7/05
You don’t see many guys in the UFC that have a losing record. Forrest is sporting red hair for this fight.
R1- This is a typical early Forrest fight as they are standing up and throwing and Elvis looks like he’s getting the better of it. Forrest fought through and landed a couple of shots and got the finish. Forrest kept leaving himself wide open but he sort of wore down Elvis and then finished him off.
Winner: Forrest Griffin by TKO (punches) R1 3:30
Middleweight Title Fight- Evan Tanner (32-4) vs. David Terrell (9-1)- UFC 51- 2/5/05
Terrell is a Gracie jiu jitsu black belt. They show highlights of Terrell knocking out Matt Lindland in 24 seconds.
R1- Terrell got a good guillotine but Tanner got out of it. After escaping the guillotine Tanner really dominated Terrell with some Ground and Pound. Herb Dean stepped in with 30 seconds left in the round and stopped the fight.
Winner: Evan Tanner by TKO (punches) R1 4:35
Heavyweight Fight- Jeff Monson (21-5) vs. Branden Lee Hinkle (14-6)- UFC 57- 2/4/06
This is Monson’s first fight in the UFC in 4 years since his loss to Ricco Rodriguez. Hinkle has a 6” height advantage but Monson outweighs him by 12 pounds so Monson is going to have a big strength advantage.
R1- Monson overpowered Hinkle in this fight and got a submission near the end of the round. Hinkle had good position at times he just didn’t do anything with it.
Winner: Jeff Monson by Technical Submission (North-South Choke) R1 4:35
Heavyweight Fight- Tim Sylvia (15-0) vs. Wesley “Cabbage” Correira (15-3)- UFC 39- 9/27/02
This is Sylvia’s UFC debut. He is fighting out of the Militech camp. Sylvia has a 6” height advantage. Correira’s hair is striped with red and blue. He looks like a Buffalo Bill.
R1- Sylvia uses his jab well at the beginning of the fight but Cabbage opens up on him and got him on the ropes until Sylvia grabbed a clinch. Sylvia then pushed forward and used a clinch to deliver some good shots and knees. Tim hit a nice Superman punch and is just unloading on Cabbage but Cabbage has a strong chin. Sylvia is hitting some really good shots in this fight. Sylvia wins the first round 10-9. Somehow Cabbage stayed on his feet the entire round.
R2- Sylvia works some punches and knees at the beginning of the round and has really taken over this fight. Cabbage complained about a finger in the eye and the ref doesn’t stop and Sylvia just peppers him and eventually Cabbage’s corner throws in the towel as he just won’t go down. Nice showing by Sylvia.
Winner: Tim Sylvia by TKO (Corner Stoppage) R2 (1:43)
This show is from 2006.
Light Heavyweight Fight- Forrest Griffin (11-2) vs. Elvis Sinosic (6-7-2)- UFC 55- 10/7/05
You don’t see many guys in the UFC that have a losing record. Forrest is sporting red hair for this fight.
R1- This is a typical early Forrest fight as they are standing up and throwing and Elvis looks like he’s getting the better of it. Forrest fought through and landed a couple of shots and got the finish. Forrest kept leaving himself wide open but he sort of wore down Elvis and then finished him off.
Winner: Forrest Griffin by TKO (punches) R1 3:30
Middleweight Title Fight- Evan Tanner (32-4) vs. David Terrell (9-1)- UFC 51- 2/5/05
Terrell is a Gracie jiu jitsu black belt. They show highlights of Terrell knocking out Matt Lindland in 24 seconds.
R1- Terrell got a good guillotine but Tanner got out of it. After escaping the guillotine Tanner really dominated Terrell with some Ground and Pound. Herb Dean stepped in with 30 seconds left in the round and stopped the fight.
Winner: Evan Tanner by TKO (punches) R1 4:35
Heavyweight Fight- Jeff Monson (21-5) vs. Branden Lee Hinkle (14-6)- UFC 57- 2/4/06
This is Monson’s first fight in the UFC in 4 years since his loss to Ricco Rodriguez. Hinkle has a 6” height advantage but Monson outweighs him by 12 pounds so Monson is going to have a big strength advantage.
R1- Monson overpowered Hinkle in this fight and got a submission near the end of the round. Hinkle had good position at times he just didn’t do anything with it.
Winner: Jeff Monson by Technical Submission (North-South Choke) R1 4:35
Heavyweight Fight- Tim Sylvia (15-0) vs. Wesley “Cabbage” Correira (15-3)- UFC 39- 9/27/02
This is Sylvia’s UFC debut. He is fighting out of the Militech camp. Sylvia has a 6” height advantage. Correira’s hair is striped with red and blue. He looks like a Buffalo Bill.
R1- Sylvia uses his jab well at the beginning of the fight but Cabbage opens up on him and got him on the ropes until Sylvia grabbed a clinch. Sylvia then pushed forward and used a clinch to deliver some good shots and knees. Tim hit a nice Superman punch and is just unloading on Cabbage but Cabbage has a strong chin. Sylvia is hitting some really good shots in this fight. Sylvia wins the first round 10-9. Somehow Cabbage stayed on his feet the entire round.
R2- Sylvia works some punches and knees at the beginning of the round and has really taken over this fight. Cabbage complained about a finger in the eye and the ref doesn’t stop and Sylvia just peppers him and eventually Cabbage’s corner throws in the towel as he just won’t go down. Nice showing by Sylvia.
Winner: Tim Sylvia by TKO (Corner Stoppage) R2 (1:43)
Friday, May 08, 2009
TUF Season 9 Episode 6 Re-Cap
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 6
Last week we saw Andre Winner (UK) and Damarques Johnson (USA) both get wins. We also saw Michael Bisping miss one of his fighter’s fights, this was the first time this has happened in TUF history. The UK is up 2 fights to 1 but Damarques Johnson looks like the guy to beat in the house so far.
Fight Announcement- Bisping picks Martin Stapleton to fight Cameron Dollar. Good pick by Bisping in Stapleton as I think he’s one of the top Lightweight fighters in the house. Dollar is a wildcard as he seems like one of the weird apples in the house and sometimes those guys are tough outs in competitions like this.
Bisping says that he was jet lagged and basically passed out and woke up after the fight. He apologizes to Dean for not being in his corner.
Martin Stapleton is described as a good strong wrestler, with good cardio. Bisping says the strategy will be to stop Cameron’s take downs and have Stapleton use his striking to win by TKO.
Dollar says he grew up on wrestling and loves it. Dan Henderson says that Dollar is more interested in learning techniques on the ground then he is in his stand-up game. Definitely looks like Bisping is spot on with his game plan. Hendo’s game plan for Dollar is to get Stapleton against the fence and take him down and finish him. I really like how it seems like they are focusing more on game planning in this season. I don’t remember this being a big focus in previous seasons. Cameron says he is scared going into the fight but says that it’s good to fight scared.
Lightweight Fight- Martin Stapleton (UK) (5-1) vs. Cameron Dollar (USA) (4-1)
R1-Dollar got a good take down with what looked like a judo throw and quickly took Stapleton’s back. Dollar landed some decent shots and then locked in a Rear Naked Choke and tapped out Stapleton. Pretty big upset based on my thoughts going into the fight and now we are tied with UK with 2 wins and USA with 2 wins.
Winner: Cameron Dollar by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1
“The look on Bisping’s face was as nice as I was expecting it to be”- Dan Henderson
Fight Announcement: Dan Henderson picks Frank Lester to take on James Wilks. Wilks is talked up as a jiu jitsu fighter with underrated stand up. Hendo says Lester’s strategy will be to stick and move and focus on good hard punches and picking him apart on his feet.
Welterweight Fight- Frank Lester (USA) (3-2) vs. James Wilks (UK) (5-2)
R1- Wilks pushed forward for the first couple of minutes and was definitely the more under control and fundamental striker. Lester got a take down and got some brief Ground and Pound but Wilks was able to reverse and take side control. Wilks couldn’t get anything on the ground. They stood up after Wilks missed a guillotine and Frank connected with a couple of looping punches but Wilks fought back with some good punches. Wilks finishes the round with a take down. Wilks just looked like the he had superior fundamentals and that’s what got him through the first round. Wilks went for an arm triangle right at the buzzer but couldn’t clamp it in. Wilks 10-9.
R2- Lester takes a while to come out of his corner and Bisping jumps all over the referee. Lester says he has a tooth stuck in his mouthpiece and the corner works to get the tooth out of the mouthpiece and get the fight started. Wilks has an effective front kick that he works to keep his opponent at a distance and likes to work the Muy Thai clinch as well but hasn’t been as effective with that move. Frank got hit with a good punch as he was getting to his feet and then they both landed some decent shots. Wilks got a take down and took side control and quickly worked to full mount as Frank is really gassed right now. Wilks goes for an arm bar and gets it and Frank taps out. Good showing by Wilks. He didn’t look great but he looked really solid. UK regains the lead 3 wins to 2 wins. Apparently Frank lost 4 teeth (he said they were fake teeth that he lost as a kid) in this fight.
Winner: James Wilks by Submission (Arm Bar) R2
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Last week we saw Andre Winner (UK) and Damarques Johnson (USA) both get wins. We also saw Michael Bisping miss one of his fighter’s fights, this was the first time this has happened in TUF history. The UK is up 2 fights to 1 but Damarques Johnson looks like the guy to beat in the house so far.
Fight Announcement- Bisping picks Martin Stapleton to fight Cameron Dollar. Good pick by Bisping in Stapleton as I think he’s one of the top Lightweight fighters in the house. Dollar is a wildcard as he seems like one of the weird apples in the house and sometimes those guys are tough outs in competitions like this.
Bisping says that he was jet lagged and basically passed out and woke up after the fight. He apologizes to Dean for not being in his corner.
Martin Stapleton is described as a good strong wrestler, with good cardio. Bisping says the strategy will be to stop Cameron’s take downs and have Stapleton use his striking to win by TKO.
Dollar says he grew up on wrestling and loves it. Dan Henderson says that Dollar is more interested in learning techniques on the ground then he is in his stand-up game. Definitely looks like Bisping is spot on with his game plan. Hendo’s game plan for Dollar is to get Stapleton against the fence and take him down and finish him. I really like how it seems like they are focusing more on game planning in this season. I don’t remember this being a big focus in previous seasons. Cameron says he is scared going into the fight but says that it’s good to fight scared.
Lightweight Fight- Martin Stapleton (UK) (5-1) vs. Cameron Dollar (USA) (4-1)
R1-Dollar got a good take down with what looked like a judo throw and quickly took Stapleton’s back. Dollar landed some decent shots and then locked in a Rear Naked Choke and tapped out Stapleton. Pretty big upset based on my thoughts going into the fight and now we are tied with UK with 2 wins and USA with 2 wins.
Winner: Cameron Dollar by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1
“The look on Bisping’s face was as nice as I was expecting it to be”- Dan Henderson
Fight Announcement: Dan Henderson picks Frank Lester to take on James Wilks. Wilks is talked up as a jiu jitsu fighter with underrated stand up. Hendo says Lester’s strategy will be to stick and move and focus on good hard punches and picking him apart on his feet.
Welterweight Fight- Frank Lester (USA) (3-2) vs. James Wilks (UK) (5-2)
R1- Wilks pushed forward for the first couple of minutes and was definitely the more under control and fundamental striker. Lester got a take down and got some brief Ground and Pound but Wilks was able to reverse and take side control. Wilks couldn’t get anything on the ground. They stood up after Wilks missed a guillotine and Frank connected with a couple of looping punches but Wilks fought back with some good punches. Wilks finishes the round with a take down. Wilks just looked like the he had superior fundamentals and that’s what got him through the first round. Wilks went for an arm triangle right at the buzzer but couldn’t clamp it in. Wilks 10-9.
R2- Lester takes a while to come out of his corner and Bisping jumps all over the referee. Lester says he has a tooth stuck in his mouthpiece and the corner works to get the tooth out of the mouthpiece and get the fight started. Wilks has an effective front kick that he works to keep his opponent at a distance and likes to work the Muy Thai clinch as well but hasn’t been as effective with that move. Frank got hit with a good punch as he was getting to his feet and then they both landed some decent shots. Wilks got a take down and took side control and quickly worked to full mount as Frank is really gassed right now. Wilks goes for an arm bar and gets it and Frank taps out. Good showing by Wilks. He didn’t look great but he looked really solid. UK regains the lead 3 wins to 2 wins. Apparently Frank lost 4 teeth (he said they were fake teeth that he lost as a kid) in this fight.
Winner: James Wilks by Submission (Arm Bar) R2
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Martin Stapleton defeated by Cameron Dollar (Episode 6)
Frank Lester defeated by James Wilks (Episode 6)
Saturday, May 02, 2009
TUF Season 9 Episode 5 Re-Cap
The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Episode 5
Last week we found out saw the first UK vs. USA fight and Nick Osipczak beat Mark Miller by second round KO after a high kick in what was a competitive fight. Team UK is up 1-0 going into this week.
Fight Announcement: Andre Winner (Team UK) is chosen by Bisping to fight Santino Defranco (Team USA). Andre is described as quick and fast on his feet. Winner didn’t look real good in his first fight but did hit a big knee about 2 minutes in for a win. Defranco tried out for the second season of TUF but was diagnosed with two brain aneurysms and had to have brain surgery. He was cleared about 9 months later to continue his fighting career. Santino pretty much got pushed around in his first round fight but was able to come back and get the submission. I have Winner as the favorite coming into this fight.
Lightweight Fight- Andre Winner (UK) (9-2-1) vs. Santino Defranco (USA) (13-4)
R1- The first three minutes of the round were very uneventful. Defranco continued to unsuccessfully go for take downs and eventually pulled guard. Winner was able to get in some Ground and Pound and Defranco just covered up and got beat down. Winner seems like he is a good finisher and has a lot of skills but he was very average throughout the majority of the fight before Defranco just gave himself up. If Bisping can coach Winner up then he can be a contender but he needs to improve his game a lot during his time in the house if he wants to get to the finals.
Winner: Andre Winner by TKO R1
Team UK is up 2-0 and Henderson says that he needs to make sure the next pick goes his way. To me that means having Damarques Johnson, as he was the fighter that really stood out in the preliminary round. Henderson has his guys running stairs after they go down 2-0. Dissension seems to be growing among Team USA as there is a lot of bickering amongst team members.
Fight Announcement: Henderson picks Damarques Johnson to fight Dean Asaminger. Dean looked like he had good raw skill in his first fight just looked real green (only highlights were shown of his fight because it went to a decision).
Pre-Fight Bisping was not there and nobody seems to know where he was.
“In 9 seasons of the The Ultimate Fighter we’ve never had a situation where a coach didn’t show up for a fight”- Dana White
“My basic goal is just to make sure that he never wants to fight me ever again”- Damarques Johnson.
Welterweight Fight- Dean Asaminger (Team UK) (4-1) vs. Damarques Johnson (Team USA) (13-6)
R1- Damarques got a kimura and almost got a submission but lost it and gave up position. Damarques continued to work and got a triangle and submitted Asaminger. Good performance by Damarques and good work from the guard position. Damarques looks like the Welterweight to beat and has a good bit of personality as well. Bisping never showed up for the fight.
Winner: Damarques Johnson by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1
“Life is good. I’m drinking beer tonight”- Damarques Johnson
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Martin Stapleton (defeated Dan James)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- Dean Amasinger (defeated Alex Reid)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
US- Frank Lester (defeated Kiel Reid)
My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA) and Martin Stapleton (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
Last week we found out saw the first UK vs. USA fight and Nick Osipczak beat Mark Miller by second round KO after a high kick in what was a competitive fight. Team UK is up 1-0 going into this week.
Fight Announcement: Andre Winner (Team UK) is chosen by Bisping to fight Santino Defranco (Team USA). Andre is described as quick and fast on his feet. Winner didn’t look real good in his first fight but did hit a big knee about 2 minutes in for a win. Defranco tried out for the second season of TUF but was diagnosed with two brain aneurysms and had to have brain surgery. He was cleared about 9 months later to continue his fighting career. Santino pretty much got pushed around in his first round fight but was able to come back and get the submission. I have Winner as the favorite coming into this fight.
Lightweight Fight- Andre Winner (UK) (9-2-1) vs. Santino Defranco (USA) (13-4)
R1- The first three minutes of the round were very uneventful. Defranco continued to unsuccessfully go for take downs and eventually pulled guard. Winner was able to get in some Ground and Pound and Defranco just covered up and got beat down. Winner seems like he is a good finisher and has a lot of skills but he was very average throughout the majority of the fight before Defranco just gave himself up. If Bisping can coach Winner up then he can be a contender but he needs to improve his game a lot during his time in the house if he wants to get to the finals.
Winner: Andre Winner by TKO R1
Team UK is up 2-0 and Henderson says that he needs to make sure the next pick goes his way. To me that means having Damarques Johnson, as he was the fighter that really stood out in the preliminary round. Henderson has his guys running stairs after they go down 2-0. Dissension seems to be growing among Team USA as there is a lot of bickering amongst team members.
Fight Announcement: Henderson picks Damarques Johnson to fight Dean Asaminger. Dean looked like he had good raw skill in his first fight just looked real green (only highlights were shown of his fight because it went to a decision).
Pre-Fight Bisping was not there and nobody seems to know where he was.
“In 9 seasons of the The Ultimate Fighter we’ve never had a situation where a coach didn’t show up for a fight”- Dana White
“My basic goal is just to make sure that he never wants to fight me ever again”- Damarques Johnson.
Welterweight Fight- Dean Asaminger (Team UK) (4-1) vs. Damarques Johnson (Team USA) (13-6)
R1- Damarques got a kimura and almost got a submission but lost it and gave up position. Damarques continued to work and got a triangle and submitted Asaminger. Good performance by Damarques and good work from the guard position. Damarques looks like the Welterweight to beat and has a good bit of personality as well. Bisping never showed up for the fight.
Winner: Damarques Johnson by Submission (Triangle Choke) R1
“Life is good. I’m drinking beer tonight”- Damarques Johnson
Remaining Fighters:
Lightweight Fighters:
UK- Andre Winner (defeated Gary Kelly, Santino Defranco)
UK- Jeff Lawson (defeated James Bryan)
UK- Martin Stapleton (defeated Dan James)
UK- Ross Pearson (defeated A.J. Wenn)
US- Richie Whitson (defeated Paul Bird)
US- Cameron Dollar (defeated Hayden)
US- Jason Dent (defeated Rob Browning)
Welterweight Fighters:
UK- James Wilks (defeated Che Mills)
UK- Nick Osipczak (defeated Tommy Maguire, Mark Miller)
UK- Dean Amasinger (defeated Alex Reid)
UK- David Faulkner (defeated James Bateman)
US- Damarques Johnson (defeated Ray Elbe, Dean Amasinger)
US- Jason Pierce (defeated Berger)
US- Frank Lester (defeated Kiel Reid)
My favorites so far are:
Lightweight: Richie Whitson (USA) and Martin Stapleton (UK)
Welterweight: Damarques Johnson (USA) and David Faulkner (UK)
Eliminated:
Mark Miller defeated by Nick Osipczak (Episode 4)
Santino Defranco defeated by Andre Winner (Episode 5)
Dean Amasinger defeated by Damarques Johnson (Episode 5)
DREAM 8 4/5/09 Show Re-Cap
DREAM 8 Welterweight Grand Prix 1st Round
(4/5/09) – Nagoya, Japan (Nippon Gaishi Hall)
Top lightweight Shinya Aoki is moving up in weight tonight to take part in the Welterweight Grand Prix. He will try to avenge a previous loss tonight against Hayato Sakurai. The Featherweight tournament will also be continued tonight. We will also see 5 non-tournament fights featuring the likes of Jeff Monson, Ninja Rua, and Ikuhisa Minowa. There will be 11 fights tonight. The announcers are Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten.
Just a reminder that in DREAM they fight 2 rounds. The first round is 10 minutes and the second is 5 minutes. The fights are not judged by the round but rather on the entire fight.
Katsuyori Shibata (2-6-1) vs. Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa (41-29-8)
Shibata is a former New Japan Professional Wrestler. His won/loss record is a little deceiving because he has fought way above his level of talent and experience in several recent fights as he has lost to Hayato Sakurai, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Mayhem Miller in recent DREAM fights. He is winless in his last 7 fights after starting his MMA career 2-0. Minowa defeated Errol Zimmerman in his last fight on New Years Eve. Minowa has career losses to the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Paulo Filho and Evan Tanner.
R1- Minowa got two take downs in the first round and he leg lock submission attempt but Shibata reversed the submission attempt for one of his own. Minowa controlled the majority of this round and is in firm control of this fight.
R2- Both fighters received a yellow card at the two minute mark of this fight as Minowa was in Shibata’s guard after a take down but neither guy was doing much. Shibata landed some good knees and strikes in the middle of this round. Shibata took Minowa’s back and peppered him with strikes but Minowa rolled over and took Minowa’s guard. Shibata hit a nice belly to back suplex in the closing seconds and took Minowa down again. Shibata might have stole this fight as he dominated the last 3 minutes after Minowa hit the cardio wall.
And all the judges score the fight in favor of Shibata. Huge win for him as it breaks his losing streak and gives him a taste of victory.
Winner: Katsuyori Shibata by Decision (Unanimous)
Middleweight Fight- Shungo Oyama (7-11) vs. Andrews Nakahara (1-1)
Oyama is a judo fighter that holds victories over Carlos Newton, Renzo Gracie and Rodrigo Gracie. He has lost to the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Mirko Cro Cop and Melvin Manhoef (twice). Oyama has lost 8 times by submission. Nakahara comes out to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Nakahara lost his pro debut against Kazushi Sakuraba but won his second fight.
R1- Nakahara looked good early with leg kicks. Oyama went after some leg locks but couldn’t get any and got caught by TKO a couple of minutes into the fight. Good showing by Nakahara. Nakahara hit Oyama with a good punch as he was getting up from an attempted take down and then jumped on top to finish him off.
Winner: Andrews Nakahara by TKO (Strikes) R1
Lightweight Fight- Katsuhiko Nagata (4-4-1) vs. Vitor Ribeiro (19-2)
Nagata is on a 3 fight losing streak and has tough losses to Caol Uno, Shinya Aoki and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Nagata was also in the Lightweight Grand Prix and won his first round fight against Artur Umakhanov by Unanimous Decision but got matched up against Aoki in the 2nd round and got submitted. Ribeiro has not fought since Sept 2007 due to a detached retina he got in a loss to JZ Calvacante. Ribeiro has career victories over Joachim Hansen (current DREAM Lightweight Champ), Mitsuhiro Ishida and Tatsuya Kawajiri. His only losses are to JZ and Kawajiri. Nagata is a wrestler and Ribeiro is a BJJ fighter.
R1- This fight was all Ribeiro as he slowly moved into position with his BJJ and then opened up a large cut on the head of Nagata for the ref stoppage.
Ribeiro looks like a good addition to the already stacked DREAM Lightweight division.
Winner: Vitor Ribeiro by TKO (Ref Stoppage ) R1
Murilo “Ninja” Rua (16-9-1) vs. Riki Fukuda (13-4)
Looks like they are fighting at a catchweight of 195. Rua most recently has competed in Elite XC but was not offered a contract by Strikeforce after losing to Benji Radach in his last Elite XC fight. Fukuda is a Muay Thai fighter and a wrestler. Ninja is a BJJ/Muay Thai fighter.
R1- Ninja gets a take down reversed about 3 minutes in and Fukuda gets some good shots in before they get back to their feet. Fukuda hits some nice shots on their feet and Ninja is visibly hurt but is holding on. Ninja went for a triangle and then a leg lock but couldn’t lock in either submission. Ninja gets Fukuda’s back briefly and gets enough shots in to bloody Fukuda. Ninja came on strong in the second half of the first round and has the advantage going into the second round.
R2- Not a great second round as both guys are really tried. Fukuda comes on strong in the last minute and hits some nice strikes. This is going to be a toss-up for the judges.
Fukuda wins a unanimous decision.
Winner: Riki Fukuda by Decision (Unanimous)
Heavyweight Fight- Jeff Monson (19-8) vs. Sergei Kharitonov (16-3)
Monson has won his last 5 fights and this is his 3rd fight in 3 weeks. Kharitonov has finished 15 of his 16 wins by KO or submission. He has wins over Alistair Overeem, Pedro Rizzo and Fabricio Werdum. Kharitonov has been training with Overeem lately. He has also has a 5” height and 14 pound weight advantage in this fight.
R1- Monson got Kharitonov down and was able to get a guillotine type move from the north/south position and made quick work of Kharitonov. Really good showing by Monson.
Winner: Jeff Monson by Submission (North-South Choke) R1 1:42
Featherweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Daiki Hata (10-5-3) vs. Hideo Tokoro (21-15-1)
Daiki is 3-0-1 in his last 4 fights. He has split two fights with Yoshiro Maeda. Tokoro won on the DREAM 4 show by decision over Darren Uyenoyama and also beat Takeshi Yamazaki by decision on the DREAM 5 show.
R1- These guys took a while to get going but really went at each other during the middle of this round with both guys getting in some decent shots. Daiki came on strong at the end of the round and got some good punches in that floored Tokoro but he couldn’t finish him off.
R2- This was a close fight but I think Daiki is going to take this as I think he took the first round and stayed in a dominant position for the majority of the second round.
Winner: Daiki Hata by Decision (Unanimous)
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- John Alessio (24-12) vs. Andre Galvao (2-0)
Alessio trains at Xtreme Couture and Mac Danzig is in his corner for the fight. Alessio has wins over Thomas Denny and Pete Spratt and has tough losses to Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves and Carlos Condit. He lost his last fight to Paul Daley by TKO in the 2nd round back in December of 2008. Galvo is a BJJ World Champion and trains Wanderlei Silva in jiu jitsu but this is only his third fight.
R1- Galvao took Alessio’s back and got in some knees to the back of his thighs and then took the fight to the ground. Galvao lands some good hammer punches to the side of Alessio’s head as he has him clamped in with a body triangle. Galvao went for an arm bar and Alessio did a good job stopping it for a while but then Alessio flipped over and Galvao clamped it in. Really impressive showing for Galvao.
Winner: Andre Galvao by Submission (Arm Bar) R1 7:34
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Marius Zaromskis (8-2) vs. Seichi Ikemoto (18-14-5)
Marius comes out dressed in a pink wig and is dressed like the video game character Akuma. Both of Maruis’s losses are against Che Mills (who lost in the first round of this current season’s TUF to James Wilks). Ikemoto is undefeated in his last 5 fights and is the DEEP Welterweight Champion. Ikemoto has losses in his career to Yves Edwards, Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki. Marius is a kick boxer and Ikemoto is a freestyle fighter.
R1- This was a competitive back and forth first round. Marius started to land some good shots towards the end of the round.
R2- Marius tried a back flip to land on top of Ikemoto and was denied but got a good pop from the crowd. This was another close round but Marius closed the fight very strong and I think that will put him over the top.
Winner: Marius Zaromskis by Decision (Unanimous)
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Jason High (6-1) vs. Yuya Shirai (15-7)
High is coming off of his first career loss, which came to Jay Hieron by first round KO at the January Affliction show. Shirai is a Judo Fighter and High is a wrestler from the University of Nebraska.
R1- High immediately comes out and floors Shirai with a punch and then jumps on top and gets a Rear Naked Choke and the ref has to step in as Shirai will not tap but does pass out. Very impressive performance by High.
Winner: Jason High by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 0:59
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Shinya Aoki (20-3) vs. Hayato Sakurai (34-8-2)
Shinya Aoki moves up in weight from Lightweight for this fight. Aoki is one of the top Lightweight fighters in the world and is the current WAMMA Lightweight champion having defeated Eddie Alvarez for the vacant title. Aoki was 5-1 with 1 No Contest in 2008 and holds wins over Alvarez, Joachim Hansen, JZ Cavalcante and Caol Uno. Aoki’s losses have come to Hansen, Jutaro Nakao and Hayato Sakurai. Sakurai is a former Shooto Middleweight Champion who started his career 18-0-2. He has career wins over Caol Uno, Frank Trigg, Dave Menne, Aoki, Jens Pulver and Joachim Hansen. He has lost to Anderson Silva, Matt Hughes, Jake Shields, Ryo Chonan and Takanori Gomi. Aoki has a 4” height advantage but Sakurai has a 5 pound weight advantage so Sakurai is the much more solid Welterweight in this fight. Aoki is a jiu jitsu and judo fighter who likes to clamp onto his opponent like a leach. Sakurai is a Judo and Shooto fighter.
R1- Sakurai came out and went for the home run knockout but missed and Aoki clamped onto him. Sakurai powers him over and destroys Aoki with some knees and then punches. Aoki just got punked. Kawajiri is in the crowd and gives two thumbs up.
Winner: Hayato Sakurai by TKO (Knees and Punches) R1 0:27
I thought the Welterweight fights were fun. Sakurai and High just destroyed their opponents. Galvao looked very strong and Zaromskis had a good fight. Vitor Ribeiro was also very impressive in non-tournament action. Overall, this was a good show.
Here is a look at what is coming up for DREAM:
OLYMPIA DREAM.9 Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round (5/26/09)
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joe Warren
Gesias Cavalcante vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
DREAM Middleweight Championship: Ronaldo Souza vs. Jason Miller
Gegard Mousasi vs. Paulo Filho
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Masakazu Imanari vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Abel Cullum vs. Hideo Tokoro
Mirko Filipović vs. TBA
OLYMPIA DREAM.10 Welterweight Grand Prix Final Round (7/20/09)
Welterweight Grand Prix Finals: André Galvão/Jason High vs. Hayato Sakurai/Marius Zaromskis
DREAM Lightweight Championship: Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. TBA
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: Hayato Sakurai vs. Marius Zaromskis
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: André Galvão vs. Jason High
(4/5/09) – Nagoya, Japan (Nippon Gaishi Hall)
Top lightweight Shinya Aoki is moving up in weight tonight to take part in the Welterweight Grand Prix. He will try to avenge a previous loss tonight against Hayato Sakurai. The Featherweight tournament will also be continued tonight. We will also see 5 non-tournament fights featuring the likes of Jeff Monson, Ninja Rua, and Ikuhisa Minowa. There will be 11 fights tonight. The announcers are Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten.
Just a reminder that in DREAM they fight 2 rounds. The first round is 10 minutes and the second is 5 minutes. The fights are not judged by the round but rather on the entire fight.
Katsuyori Shibata (2-6-1) vs. Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa (41-29-8)
Shibata is a former New Japan Professional Wrestler. His won/loss record is a little deceiving because he has fought way above his level of talent and experience in several recent fights as he has lost to Hayato Sakurai, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Mayhem Miller in recent DREAM fights. He is winless in his last 7 fights after starting his MMA career 2-0. Minowa defeated Errol Zimmerman in his last fight on New Years Eve. Minowa has career losses to the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, Paulo Filho and Evan Tanner.
R1- Minowa got two take downs in the first round and he leg lock submission attempt but Shibata reversed the submission attempt for one of his own. Minowa controlled the majority of this round and is in firm control of this fight.
R2- Both fighters received a yellow card at the two minute mark of this fight as Minowa was in Shibata’s guard after a take down but neither guy was doing much. Shibata landed some good knees and strikes in the middle of this round. Shibata took Minowa’s back and peppered him with strikes but Minowa rolled over and took Minowa’s guard. Shibata hit a nice belly to back suplex in the closing seconds and took Minowa down again. Shibata might have stole this fight as he dominated the last 3 minutes after Minowa hit the cardio wall.
And all the judges score the fight in favor of Shibata. Huge win for him as it breaks his losing streak and gives him a taste of victory.
Winner: Katsuyori Shibata by Decision (Unanimous)
Middleweight Fight- Shungo Oyama (7-11) vs. Andrews Nakahara (1-1)
Oyama is a judo fighter that holds victories over Carlos Newton, Renzo Gracie and Rodrigo Gracie. He has lost to the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Mirko Cro Cop and Melvin Manhoef (twice). Oyama has lost 8 times by submission. Nakahara comes out to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” Nakahara lost his pro debut against Kazushi Sakuraba but won his second fight.
R1- Nakahara looked good early with leg kicks. Oyama went after some leg locks but couldn’t get any and got caught by TKO a couple of minutes into the fight. Good showing by Nakahara. Nakahara hit Oyama with a good punch as he was getting up from an attempted take down and then jumped on top to finish him off.
Winner: Andrews Nakahara by TKO (Strikes) R1
Lightweight Fight- Katsuhiko Nagata (4-4-1) vs. Vitor Ribeiro (19-2)
Nagata is on a 3 fight losing streak and has tough losses to Caol Uno, Shinya Aoki and Yoshihiro Akiyama. Nagata was also in the Lightweight Grand Prix and won his first round fight against Artur Umakhanov by Unanimous Decision but got matched up against Aoki in the 2nd round and got submitted. Ribeiro has not fought since Sept 2007 due to a detached retina he got in a loss to JZ Calvacante. Ribeiro has career victories over Joachim Hansen (current DREAM Lightweight Champ), Mitsuhiro Ishida and Tatsuya Kawajiri. His only losses are to JZ and Kawajiri. Nagata is a wrestler and Ribeiro is a BJJ fighter.
R1- This fight was all Ribeiro as he slowly moved into position with his BJJ and then opened up a large cut on the head of Nagata for the ref stoppage.
Ribeiro looks like a good addition to the already stacked DREAM Lightweight division.
Winner: Vitor Ribeiro by TKO (Ref Stoppage ) R1
Murilo “Ninja” Rua (16-9-1) vs. Riki Fukuda (13-4)
Looks like they are fighting at a catchweight of 195. Rua most recently has competed in Elite XC but was not offered a contract by Strikeforce after losing to Benji Radach in his last Elite XC fight. Fukuda is a Muay Thai fighter and a wrestler. Ninja is a BJJ/Muay Thai fighter.
R1- Ninja gets a take down reversed about 3 minutes in and Fukuda gets some good shots in before they get back to their feet. Fukuda hits some nice shots on their feet and Ninja is visibly hurt but is holding on. Ninja went for a triangle and then a leg lock but couldn’t lock in either submission. Ninja gets Fukuda’s back briefly and gets enough shots in to bloody Fukuda. Ninja came on strong in the second half of the first round and has the advantage going into the second round.
R2- Not a great second round as both guys are really tried. Fukuda comes on strong in the last minute and hits some nice strikes. This is going to be a toss-up for the judges.
Fukuda wins a unanimous decision.
Winner: Riki Fukuda by Decision (Unanimous)
Heavyweight Fight- Jeff Monson (19-8) vs. Sergei Kharitonov (16-3)
Monson has won his last 5 fights and this is his 3rd fight in 3 weeks. Kharitonov has finished 15 of his 16 wins by KO or submission. He has wins over Alistair Overeem, Pedro Rizzo and Fabricio Werdum. Kharitonov has been training with Overeem lately. He has also has a 5” height and 14 pound weight advantage in this fight.
R1- Monson got Kharitonov down and was able to get a guillotine type move from the north/south position and made quick work of Kharitonov. Really good showing by Monson.
Winner: Jeff Monson by Submission (North-South Choke) R1 1:42
Featherweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Daiki Hata (10-5-3) vs. Hideo Tokoro (21-15-1)
Daiki is 3-0-1 in his last 4 fights. He has split two fights with Yoshiro Maeda. Tokoro won on the DREAM 4 show by decision over Darren Uyenoyama and also beat Takeshi Yamazaki by decision on the DREAM 5 show.
R1- These guys took a while to get going but really went at each other during the middle of this round with both guys getting in some decent shots. Daiki came on strong at the end of the round and got some good punches in that floored Tokoro but he couldn’t finish him off.
R2- This was a close fight but I think Daiki is going to take this as I think he took the first round and stayed in a dominant position for the majority of the second round.
Winner: Daiki Hata by Decision (Unanimous)
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- John Alessio (24-12) vs. Andre Galvao (2-0)
Alessio trains at Xtreme Couture and Mac Danzig is in his corner for the fight. Alessio has wins over Thomas Denny and Pete Spratt and has tough losses to Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves and Carlos Condit. He lost his last fight to Paul Daley by TKO in the 2nd round back in December of 2008. Galvo is a BJJ World Champion and trains Wanderlei Silva in jiu jitsu but this is only his third fight.
R1- Galvao took Alessio’s back and got in some knees to the back of his thighs and then took the fight to the ground. Galvao lands some good hammer punches to the side of Alessio’s head as he has him clamped in with a body triangle. Galvao went for an arm bar and Alessio did a good job stopping it for a while but then Alessio flipped over and Galvao clamped it in. Really impressive showing for Galvao.
Winner: Andre Galvao by Submission (Arm Bar) R1 7:34
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Marius Zaromskis (8-2) vs. Seichi Ikemoto (18-14-5)
Marius comes out dressed in a pink wig and is dressed like the video game character Akuma. Both of Maruis’s losses are against Che Mills (who lost in the first round of this current season’s TUF to James Wilks). Ikemoto is undefeated in his last 5 fights and is the DEEP Welterweight Champion. Ikemoto has losses in his career to Yves Edwards, Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki. Marius is a kick boxer and Ikemoto is a freestyle fighter.
R1- This was a competitive back and forth first round. Marius started to land some good shots towards the end of the round.
R2- Marius tried a back flip to land on top of Ikemoto and was denied but got a good pop from the crowd. This was another close round but Marius closed the fight very strong and I think that will put him over the top.
Winner: Marius Zaromskis by Decision (Unanimous)
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Jason High (6-1) vs. Yuya Shirai (15-7)
High is coming off of his first career loss, which came to Jay Hieron by first round KO at the January Affliction show. Shirai is a Judo Fighter and High is a wrestler from the University of Nebraska.
R1- High immediately comes out and floors Shirai with a punch and then jumps on top and gets a Rear Naked Choke and the ref has to step in as Shirai will not tap but does pass out. Very impressive performance by High.
Winner: Jason High by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 0:59
Welterweight Grand Prix First Round Fight- Shinya Aoki (20-3) vs. Hayato Sakurai (34-8-2)
Shinya Aoki moves up in weight from Lightweight for this fight. Aoki is one of the top Lightweight fighters in the world and is the current WAMMA Lightweight champion having defeated Eddie Alvarez for the vacant title. Aoki was 5-1 with 1 No Contest in 2008 and holds wins over Alvarez, Joachim Hansen, JZ Cavalcante and Caol Uno. Aoki’s losses have come to Hansen, Jutaro Nakao and Hayato Sakurai. Sakurai is a former Shooto Middleweight Champion who started his career 18-0-2. He has career wins over Caol Uno, Frank Trigg, Dave Menne, Aoki, Jens Pulver and Joachim Hansen. He has lost to Anderson Silva, Matt Hughes, Jake Shields, Ryo Chonan and Takanori Gomi. Aoki has a 4” height advantage but Sakurai has a 5 pound weight advantage so Sakurai is the much more solid Welterweight in this fight. Aoki is a jiu jitsu and judo fighter who likes to clamp onto his opponent like a leach. Sakurai is a Judo and Shooto fighter.
R1- Sakurai came out and went for the home run knockout but missed and Aoki clamped onto him. Sakurai powers him over and destroys Aoki with some knees and then punches. Aoki just got punked. Kawajiri is in the crowd and gives two thumbs up.
Winner: Hayato Sakurai by TKO (Knees and Punches) R1 0:27
I thought the Welterweight fights were fun. Sakurai and High just destroyed their opponents. Galvao looked very strong and Zaromskis had a good fight. Vitor Ribeiro was also very impressive in non-tournament action. Overall, this was a good show.
Here is a look at what is coming up for DREAM:
OLYMPIA DREAM.9 Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round (5/26/09)
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joe Warren
Gesias Cavalcante vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
DREAM Middleweight Championship: Ronaldo Souza vs. Jason Miller
Gegard Mousasi vs. Paulo Filho
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Masakazu Imanari vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Featherweight Grand Prix 2nd Round: Abel Cullum vs. Hideo Tokoro
Mirko Filipović vs. TBA
OLYMPIA DREAM.10 Welterweight Grand Prix Final Round (7/20/09)
Welterweight Grand Prix Finals: André Galvão/Jason High vs. Hayato Sakurai/Marius Zaromskis
DREAM Lightweight Championship: Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. TBA
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: Hayato Sakurai vs. Marius Zaromskis
Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals: André Galvão vs. Jason High
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