ground and pound sounds about right... though rampage is a good wrestler himself, so it won't be easy taking him down...

ufc 139 is looking to be an awesome card, with shogun/hendo added to cung le/belfort and faber/bowles matchups.

135 Quick Thoughts

- Jones -vs- Jackson is a great fight. I think Jones is going to really wow people by stopping Jackson tonight. I'm not a big fan of him at all based on his personality or the way he carries himself but I definitely enjoy watching him in the cage. He's one of the most exciting fighters at the very top level and I think he's going to be sticking around the top for a little while.

- I think Hughes is being written off way too quickly. Yes, Koscheck is basically a younger and better version of Hughes but I'm not totally sold on how good he's going to look tonight. He's coming off a serious injury and stepping in to this fight on short notice. Orbital and eye injuries such as the one Koscheck suffered against GSP are notorious for having long lasting negative effects on a fighter's mentality and their comfort level when fighting afterwords. Just look at Joe Soto's last fight against Eddie Yagin after getting busted up by Joe Warren in his previous fight; as soon as Soto started getting touched near his eye he totally paniced and blew a fight he should have had no problems winning. It's not to say the same will necessarily happen to Koscheck, but it's happened to alot of guys before him and there's definitely a trend. I just don't think we're going to see Koscheck at his best at all and Hughes is still capable.

- Mizugaki -vs- Escovedo should be on the main card yet it didn't even make it onto the prelims. That's too bad, another example of the UFC leaving notable feather & bantam fights off of main cards and prelims all together. Here's hoping we see a quick finish so it'll find it's way onto one of the broadcasts. Escovedo is another guy I think is being counted out a little too quickly as well.


Peace fellas.

jonny jones is the present and future of mma. i think a decade from now we may be speaking of him in the same breath with fedor and anderson.

Fairly unexciting fight but i agree that Jones is a potential goat in the making, rampage couldn't get anything off in that fight at all, pretty depressing to watch as a rampage fan. One thing that did surprise me was how much trouble jones had in taking him down, i was expecting him to get it down in the first or second given the way he handled hammil and bader. I think the biggest test for Jones will be Machida who has great takedown defense and very technical striking, rashad is next in line now for him and i think jones has that fight in the bag. Gomi got handled pretty badly too which sucked too but nothing can sour a night where mark hunt nearly armbar'd someone, was real happy that he won and sorted out his groundgame. Good KO win for koscheck though i think everyone expected it to end that way.

Jones is definitely a serious cat. He is just so damn big (Usain Bolt like) that nobody can get near him in the striking game. His kicks are like whips and allow him to keep opponents at a distance as well as the ability to literally stick his hand out and hold guys out of range. And once you get in on him he just clinches and always gets the upper hand. The guy is unbelievable and I don't think anyone is taking that belt from him right now. I definitely don't think he's outgrown the division and should fight Anderson Silva or at heavyweight though, he's still so young into his career and reign as champion. Fights with Rashad and Machida are very apporopriate and two very worthy and interesting opponents for Jones to display and further develop his game against, win or lose. I personally think he can win both fights but both are still very formiddable and worthwhile and either could spring an upset. Not to mention Phil Davis is on his way up and could provide a very interesting style clash in the future should he keep winning and gain a little more seasoning. Jones -vs- Evans will be a big fight though and it'll be interesting to see how Rashad is able to utilize his speed against Bones. One other thing notable about Jones is how calm he is in there..

Rua -vs- Jackson 2 should be good too, assuming that one gets booked which hopefully will be a no-brainer. Despite Rampage losing in decisive fashion I thought he looked real good and he will do some damage if he continues to improve himself like he clearly did going into this fight. Rua is one of my favourites though and I don't think he's done yet so I'll be pulling for him should this fight happen.

Koscheck didn't disappoint either. I really thought he was going to come in and not be anywhere near his A-game but regardless Hughes is nowhere near his league anymore. Does anyone know if Kos is still planning a move to middleweight? If not, lets get Koscheck -vs- Shields. And if he moves to middleweight, please don't throw him into the deep end. Lets see how he can do against someone like Jorge Santiago or Palhares to start.

And nice to see the Mizugaki fight get onto the main card. How about a Mizugaki -vs- Torres rematch now?

Anyone going to be catching UFC Live 6 next weekend?

I certaintly can't complain and won't miss out on a free title fight! Cruz -vs- Johnson is nice considering Cruz has wiped up everyone else in the division but I still have to note that Demtetrius Johnson was gifted by far the biggest robbery of the year in his last fight against Miguel Torres. Torres won all 3 rounds of that fight, unquestionably. Cruz isn't a much of a finisher but I think he'll win this fight on points.

I'm also curious to see how Charlie Brenneman will look in his return after his upset victory of Rick Story and to see if Anthony Johnson can overcome the wrestling and really establish himself as a rising contender.


Peace fellas.


P.S. - anyone see Alexis Vila almost kill Joe Warren? Wow, and Alexis is a natual 125'er and Warren is a 145 pound champion. I've been following Vila for awhile now and it's nice to see him get some tv exposure, even if it's only for Bellator. It's a shame he went in that direction instead of competing on TUF where he could have almost guaranteed himself a ticket to the UFC. Alexis Vila -vs- John Dodson on TUF would make my head explode.

congratulations on your handling of Takanori Gomi, NateDizz (-:

I dont think torres/johnson was a robbery, i had torres winning it too but it was a close fight. UFC judging definitely gives a lot of preference to the guy in the top position and johnson was on top for a majority of the fight despite torres being very active from the guard position. Garcia/Nam Phan was 10x worse in terms of a decision.

Great time to be a ufc fan, lots of interesting fights coming up. The next Live on versus event looks great. Johnson/cruz will be crazy, two fastest guys in the ufc going at it, it'll most likely go to a decision as neither guy is much of a finisher but it'll be a really fun fight. Barry/Struve should be good, ive got barry by KO every struve fight ends up being a war and a lot of the time ends up with him being brutalised in near cartoonish fashion and barry is a top level striker who could put him out. Johnson/Brenneman i have johnson winning but its hard to say, rumble has the potential to beat anyone in the division with his great striking and solid wrestling base but his absurd weight cut might do more harm than good, if it goes into the 3rd there is a potential for him to gas out.

I had to watch it again and I don't think I'll ever be swayed on Torres -vs- Johnson not being a robbery. There should be no question who won the first round. Torres had Johnson on his back defending for approximately 3 minutes whereas Johnson had Torres on his back for about 1 minute and for the majority of that time he was defending Miguel's submission attemps. Easily 4 out of 5 minutes of that round Miguel was dictating the fight with offense. Demetrius really had almost no offensive output in this round.

In the second round Johnson got quite a few takedowns and spent alot of time in top position but over the course of the round Miguel threw more strikes and inflicted more damage from the bottom than Demtrius did from the top. And that's not to mention the almost constant submission attempts he was throwing up that Johnson spent nearly three minutes of the round just defending. Again, he mounted almost no offense besides the takedowns.

In the third round Demtrius definitely got the better of the striking but it was still pretty minimal. About 4 minutes of the round was on the floor and Miguel actually spent almost half of that time in top position. And again, when he was on the bottom he was constantly throwing submissions at Johnson not giving him any opportunity to mount offense. The majority of the time Miguel spent on the bottom in this fight he was still clearly dictating the action and in control.

There's no way Miguel didn't win all 3 rounds in my eyes. At most, I'll score the last round a 10-10 and Miguel still should have got three 30-28 scorecards. Instead ALL 3 judges scored the fight in Demetrius' favour.


These two guys are interchangeble for me as far how I feel about them. I'm not a huge fan of either and really didn't care who won the fight (may the better man win! or not..) but this is just the way I see it.



I'll second it being a great time to be an MMA fan though! The end of this year looks like it's shaping up very nicely and we're going to get to see some incredible fights.

Props to mighty mouse, he took cruz out of his game more than any of cruz's other opponents but he couldn't deal with cruz's size and wrestling. Very entertaining fight i thought. Curious as to who is going to be next for cruz as bantamweight is still fairly slim, maybe a rubber match with faber but i dont see that fight playing out any differently to the second meeting.

Was pulling for barry to win but i like struve too, big win for him. Beautiful head kick ko from rumble, even though the stoppage was controversial that head kick was sick. I think johnson has the potential to beat anyone at ww but hes one of those vitor like fighters who wilt when they fight doesnt go their way, he also cuts an absurd amount of weight which ruins his cardio. Wiman/Danzig was a great fight too, entertaining night of fights no doubt.

I think what comes next for Cruz all depends on whether the UFC will settle for a rematch with one of the top guys he's already beat or whether they want to get a fresh faced opponent and new name in there instead. By the sounds of things, they'll probably settle for the winner of Faber -vs- Bowles which I think is probably one of their best options given the circumstances. Seeing as how Cruz has already beaten most of the top guys ranked anywhere near himself in the UFC (Benavidez x 2, Faber, Bowles, Jorgensen, Johnson) I think they'd be reaching too far down the list to someone who's not quite deserving yet if they go outside of that group for his next opponent. I'm not saying I wouldn't be totally cool seeing him fight Miguel Torres, the winner of Pickett -vs- Pegado, or even Takeya Mizugaki but I just think it'd make alot more sense and make a much better fight to see him take a fight or two against already bested foes while the UFC tries to develop and bring up some of these other guys a little further. In a perfect world we'd be seeing Benavidez -vs- Faber to determine the next challenger but being such close teammates axes that option. Or how about Benavidez -vs- Bowles? Despite Benavidez already losing to Cruz twice, I still think he's done more than Faber to warrant a title eliminator and is the better fighter. As for Demtrius Johnson, how about the winner of Jorgensen -vs- Curran?


And how'd everyone feel about the stoppage in the Johnson -vs- Brenneman fight? It was one of those ones that was so tough to call, similar to Koscheck -vs- Thiago and Henderson -vs- Emelianenko. In all the cases it was clear that the loser in the fight briefly went limp and lost consciousness but then seemingly regained total composure upon hitting the mat. I'm still on the fence myself about how to call these ones... What do you guys think? One thing I do know is that Anthony Johnson should definitely get another fight against someone with potential to get him closer to that title shot.

Peace.

And look what's coming right around the corner - UFC 136!!

For my money - this is the best card we've seen this year, by far. UFC 129 and 126 don't even come close to this one. 137 is going to be a nice one too, but not this nice. I'd buy this one over any other PPV this year just for the three main fights alone. Just a beautiful card filled with tons of great talent and two title fights to boot. Don't miss this one!!

Ridiculous card tomorrow, i mean when you have pettis/stephens and maia/santiago on the prelims thats a good indicator that it is a stacked event. My picks are

Gray by decision though i have absolutely no idea how this one is going to play out. Frankie did well in the wrestling in the second but maybe that is due to the fact that gray got tired after the first round, i wouldn't be surprised if the fight plays out like their first encounter.

Aldo by tko or decision. Aldo is basically better at everything kenny is good at, kenny has been more successful with submissions in mma but i dont see him outgrappling aldo and i dont see him taking aldo down.

Chael by decision, if okami and marquardt couldn't stop chael from taking them down and beating them up then i dont see brian stann doing it. Chael has a habit of owning people then getting caught in a submission so i wouldn't be surprised if chael got subbed from the bottom but its unlikely i think.

Nam phan by decision. Nam phan is a more technical striker and i see him picking garcia apart though garcia would land a big shot at any point so im not counting him out at all.

Guillard by tko or ko. Guillard is the more powerful striker and has good takedown defence these days, lauzon's advantage is in the submissions but it'll be tough for him to get the fight there. Lauzon has the ability to beat anyone though especially in the first round but ive got to go with melvin here.

Pettis by decision. I see him picking stephens apart on the outside and keeping his distance from stephen's absurd ko power.

Maia/Santiago is really difficult to pick. To call santiago's jaw glass would be a compliment. Maia has improved striking and if he connects he could get the ko. Both guys are great on the ground, maia having the advantage obviously but i dont see him finishing santiago. Ill tentatively pick maia by decision.

remember, aldo got taken down by hominick... and florian is a very good wresler himself. i think it's his only ticket to potential victory against aldo. though i don't see an in-shape aldo losing to anyone anytime soon...

excellent card, indeed... sonnen-stann is going to be very interesting... and obviously the other main event... have you guys seen the video about maynard's strength posted a few days ago? the man is a bull... and it's crazy that they're the same weight class - maynard looks like he's about 20-30 lbs bigger than edgar. anyway, i also have no idea what's going to happen in this one. may the better fighter win, and i hope we get a finish this time. (so many worthy fighters waiting in line for a title shot - henderson, guida, pettis, guillard, siver, and melendez if he makes it over to ufc)

Must suck to be gray maynard, he let the fight slip away from him again after having edgar nearly finished again in the first round, i was getting a bit of deja vu after that. I did not expect frankie to finish him, great win for him now the lightweight division can get rolling again. Speaking of which crazy upset from lauzon, you can never count out 1st round lauzon, i think melvin got over confident after he tagged lauzon then he got hit back and joe dived on that submission. Was expecting sonnen to win but i wasn't expecting a submission from him, he completely owned stann and i think its a no brainer for him to go to war with anderson again. The aldo/florian fight wasn't the greatest thing ever, was kind of annoyed that florian did all that cage stalling but you can't blame him for trying to take aldo down. Florian did better than i expected which makes me think that mendes who's the best wrestler in the division could possibly give aldo some problems. Glad to see pettis win even though it wasn't particularly convincing. The nam phan/garcia fight was epic to say the least, what a war that was a potential fight of the year candidate i think.