Roger Huerta Vs. Doug Evans

Evans came out hard with take downs and gave Huerta a lot of trouble in the beginning. Huerta had some good defense. Evans got Huerta’s back and dominated him alot in the first round. Huerta came out pissed at the beginning of round two and came with it and even though Evans showed to be really strong Huerta got a take down and went from back to side and ground and pounded into a TKO.

Floyd Sword Vs. Thales Leites

Well, Leites finally got his Arm Triangle Choke. This was the same choke he tried to get at UFC 69 when he fought Pete Sell, but was unable to do it. As soon as he landed it on Sword he pulled out of half guard and went to 45 degrees and that was it.

Rob Emerson Vs. Gray Maynard

Emerson came out with a bald head which was different, but he fought a little better on the ground. Other than that he was about the same and was dominated by Maynard. Round one ended with Maynard on top pounding on him. Emerson limped to his corner because of an apparent rib injury on his right side. Maynard took Emerson down and left his head down in Emerson’s arm. Emerson came down and was wrought with pain and tapped out on Maynard’s arm, but Maynard rolled off in a haze. The docs said Maynard was unconscious too so they ruled it a no contest. It was weird and Maynard freaked out and said he wasn’t out. I don’t think he was completely out, but he was differently hazy because at one point when he rolled of he stuck his face deep in Emerson’s crotch.

Brandon Melendez Vs. Joe Lauzon

Joe had good take downs and Melendez wasn’t able to do much. Melendez gave up his back alot, but Joe wasn’t able to land any submissions. Round one ended with Joe having Melendez in a heel hook. Brandon finally fell into a triangle of Joe’s after rolling Joe off his back in round two and tapped out.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Nathan Diaz

Manny came out strong and took the fight to Nate. the fight was pretty much Manny being on top and Nate trying for submissions. Round two started and immediately Manny went for a take down and popped his shoulder out of socket. He was quick to say that it happened in the fight with Joe. He was out of MMA for two years because of shoulder problems so hopefully he can keep them from happening again or the cards will be stacked against him.

Andy Wang Vs. Cole Miller

This one went about like I thought with Cole dominating from trh get go. Wang just doesn’t bring anything to the MAM world even though he is supposed to be a black belt in Jiu Jitsu. Cole kicked Wang in the head and finish him with a TKO. The ref stopped it a little quick, but my crystal ball says he wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

Jens Pulver Vs. BJ Penn

Man I expected Jens to land a couple of punches, but other than that his defense on the ground was good. BJ was on him the whole fight mostly on the ground. BJ did a cool transition from a side back control to an arm bar, but Jens kind of fought and BJ let it go quick. BJ then got Jens in a good Triangle Choke, but it didnt even phase Jens somehow ad he got out of it. Round two started and Penn got his back and sunk a rear naked choke in quick and Jens tapped. BJ didn’t want to let the choke go and the ref had to fight his hands loose. They hugged and all that stuff and split way with BJ wanting to go back up to 170 and Jens headed to the WEC to fight at 145. Prety much went like everyone expected.

Jens Pulver Vs. BJ Penn
(B.J. Penn def. Jens Pulver via submission rear naked choke at 3:12 of R2)

Well the Saturday night fight between Jens and BJ is highly anticipated for a lot of reasons. Since the TUF show aired these two have been shown a lot on TV. BJ Penn is favored to win as he was the first time these two matched up. Vegas odds show Penn as a favorite to win. This fight should be pretty easy to guess I would think for people. Unless BJ doesn’t show up to fight and makes a horrible mistake I think he will catch Jens quick in a submission. Jens better hope he can catch and stun BJ before BJ takes him down because I think that will be his only prayer at this point. BJ has never been knocked out, but Pulver is a KO king over the past with his fights. Who ever can showcase their main talent will be able to pull this one out. I am really sure this will not go to the judges. I am going with BJ getting a submission in the first round.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Nathan Diaz
(Nathan Diaz def. Manvel Gamburyan via injury dislocated shoulder at 0:20 of R2)

I am so excited to see this fight. The three guys I have been pulling for since episode 1 were, Diaz, Manny and Lauzon. Two out of three ain’t bad I guess. These two fight hard and powerful. Manny lives up to his name pit-bull when he fight and Nate can take anything that someone dishes out to him. I hope Manny doesn’t sit on Nate and ride out the clock. It seems like a family tradition to go to the judges. I really can’t guess who is going to win this one, but I will go with my favorite of the two Nate with a triangle choke in the second round.

Roger Huerta Vs. Doug Evans
(Roger Huerta def. Douglas Evans via TKO strikes at 3:30 of R2)

Huerta will out skill Evans from start to finish if it last longer than one round. Evans is a MMA fighter with only fights in Alaska. This isn’t a good mixture for facing an MMA experienced fighter like Huerta. I have never heard of him nor seen Evans fight, but I did see Huerta at UFC 69 go to war for three solid rounds. I think I am going to have to go with the Matador on this one winning by TKO in the first round.

Floyd Sword Vs. Thales Leites
(Thales Leites def. Floyd Sword via submission arm triangle choke at 3:50 of R1)

This fight will probably be a good grappling fight on the ground. Both of these guys are good with submission and will be a good match-up. I saw Leites at UFC 69 try to get his opponent Pete Sell in some sort of triangle for like 3 minutes straight. Once he sees a submission he keeps going for it. Hopefully Leites will not eat up the clock with attempts. I think this one will be hard to call, but I am going with Leites with a submission in the third round.

Well I don’t want to brag, but I was 3 out of 4 for my UFC 72 predictions. Might even been 4 out of 4 because of a close split decision that could have went either way. Lets get to it.

Rich Franklin Vs. Yushin Okami

Pretty surprised by how this went down. Not alot of clich take down wars like I anticipated or the fact that Rich was flatter than I thought he would be. I thought Rich was trying to prove himself with this fight. He did by winning, but he seemed to crutch through it with Okami. I really thought we were gonna see the old Rich, but I don’t thin he is back in the Octagon yet. This fight may look good a year from now on his record, but not for those that paid to see it. Rich needs to get up on his striking because Forrest and Fisher seemed to have found out the secret and are raising the UFC bar. Rich eeks out a decision.

Forrest Griffin Vs. Hector Ramirez

Forrest must have been imagining this fight during all the months of training. He came out like he had fought Ramirez before. His combos were firing on all cylinders and his striking was all pro. Reminding me of Fisher’s performance in a recent UFC Fight Night against Stout. I love to see leg kick chop a bad ass down and Griffen did just that. For those of you at home that think these shouldn’t‘ hurt that bad, do me a favor and go to your local MMA school and have someone leg kick you with there shin at medium power and just maybe you might fall down without screaming. Griffen came to this fight with the whole MMA package. All he needs to do is to get better at finishing and he will hit it big. He has already, but people dont like decisions as much as Ko’s. I.E. Karo still trying to get a title shot. Griffen in my mind gets a dominant decision.

Jason MacDonald Vs. Rory Singer

Well the winner of this one was like I expected, but not what led up to the win. Singer came to finish this fight quick, but Jason was able to defend well with his Jiu-Jitsu experience and a well timed bell in his favor. The triangle at the end of round two by Singer must have woken Jason up because he came on hard and strong and eventually gave Singer a ground and pound he could not recover from. Jason wins with a TKO.

Tyson Griffin Vs.Clay Guida

I am glad I didn’t bet on this fight because I would be going looney tunes right now. Back and forth war. All things aside I was so happy to see a knee bar used in a UFC main card event. Who would have known this would be the fight of the night. Both of these guys dominated hard on each other with in my mind Clay coming out on top with the decision. Turns out though Tyson wins by split decision. Eddie Bravo scored Clay winning at 29-28. I think I am gonna go with Bravo on this one. I think the Jiu-Jitsu legend might have the scoring advantage.

Bass Rutten gets the PRIDE announcer Mauro Ranallo punked by Mirko Cro-cop. Really funny.

Cro Cop scares Mauro Ranallo
Uploaded by psykojojo

Some words to describe the UFC Fight Night card on 6-12-07 were lackluster, boring, filler card fighters. If you watched the fights they were anything but that. It was a KO clinic and an all out WAR between fighters.

Sam Stout Vs. Spencer Fisher

This was an all out war between these two guys. Fisher pointed at Dana White when he entered the octagon and was feeling pretty good. He even got on his tippy toes as a joke when Big John McCarthy did the center ring introduction. He must have known something we all didn’t. What he knew was how great his striking would be tonight. They both opened up round one with a few mutual flurries, but when that subsided Fisher effortlessly striked Stout apart. Fisher did not stick with one combo alone as he went down a list of jabs, crosses, knees, leg kicks and body shots. For some reason Fisher’s face looked the worst of the two, but Stout was the one taking the beating. This rematch Fisher was obviously not effected by the weight cutting like he had been the first time. He out struck Stout in every round making him look really slow. I started counting the left jabs he was landing in the third round just for fun and he was up to nine good ones. Stout remained up and with his face looking good even though he must have caught three hundred punches. He got dazed one time at the end of the first round by a left from Fisher. Fisher was humble in his victory saying it was a draw. All I gotta say is, “Fisher watch the tape!”

Roan Carneiro Vs. Jon Fitch

I was excited to see the fight between Jon and Roan. It was filled with action, but with all the KO’s and wars it actually was the slowest. Roan came out strong in the first and got two takedowns and tried to land an Anaconda choke, but Jon defended well. He did say that he saw some tweety birds right before he pulled out of it in the last moment. He defended well against this ex Pan American champ. In the second though Jon caught Roan with a couple of cross jab combos and ended up getting his back. Roan was rocked so Jon slowly crept the rear naked choke in and got Roan to tapout.

Jordan Radev Vs. Drew McFedries

Jeez these guys gave some sleepy pre fight interviews. Turns out McFedries was the sleeper. He came out and uppercutted Radev into an oblivion. One he knocked Radev out in the first he rained down some of the hardest post knockout punches I have ever seen. I felt bad for Radev. I am sure he will feel those all the way back to Romania. After the KO, McFedries was so excited he threw the ref Jorge Alonso to the side. No points for the refs Drew! He knocked Radev out in 33 seconds of the first round.

Jason Black Vs. Thiago Tavares

Jason Black came out all bad as the urban legend from the Miletech camp that hadn’t been in the UFC yet. Well he showed why he hadn’t been in the UFC yet. He got dominated for two rounds. He spent the whole time defending as Thiago put on a Jiu Jitsu clinic for the fans as he went for a few submissions. Thiago kept the pressure on the whole fight with relentless ground strikes as he kept Black on the canvas. He worked Black until he got him in a triangle and sunk the head in to have Black tapout in the second round. This guy Tavares is now 16-0 in the lightweight division. I don’t know either to laugh that his English is so bad that they had to use subtitles on him or to laugh that he looks like the 70’s guy. Either way this guy doesn’t need to work on much of his game because it is polished.

Anthony Johnson Vs. Chad Reiner

This was fight was so fast I don’t know if I should even try to do a blow by blow. Johnson came out with a left hook and then finished him with a second left hook and dropped Reiner flat. This was done in 13 seconds. Oh and by the way, Johnson is undefeated.

Sam Stout vs Spencer Fisher
(Fisher defeats Stout via unanimous decision)

Spencer Fisher in my mind is one of the favorite UFC fighters to watch in the “Lightweight” (:-) thanks Faybio) class. It crushed me when he lost to Hermes Franca by TKO since it was Spencer’s first loss that wasn’t a decision. I still think he is a tough dude and will not let this rematch with Sam Stout go to the judges again. If this fight goes to the third round I think we will see an even more explosive Fisher trying to end this fight before the end of the third round. In fighting styles I believe Spencer has what it takes to finish a fight and Sam Stout it better at chalking up points with leg kicks and so on. I think Fisher will win this rematch by a Submission or TKO in the third round. Spencer Fisher also just had another baby girl to add to the family so he will have one more reason to fight for.

Roan Carneiro Vs. Jon Fitch
(Fitch defeats Carneiro via rear naked choke at 1:07 of round two)

I am really excited about this fight. This will be an opportunity for the UFC fans to see an up and comer Jon Fitch. Jon Fitch is one of the UFC smart fighters that will take a couple of hits to set something up. He takes a while to warm up in the ring, but when he does the opponent is usually dominated for the rest of the fight with clinches, elbows and hammer fists. I still think Fitch still needs to work on defense skills and maybe a little more conditioning to become a more elite polished fighter. Fitch has also submitted Shonie Carter by striking, one of my favorite ways for a fight to end. Roan Carneiro will give Jon a little trouble in the beginning, but these guys will probably end up clinching a lot with Fitch keeping the pressure up and sucking the life out of Roan so he can land a submission or ground n’ pound ending. I think Jon Fitch will finish it in the third round not letting it go the judge’s scorecards.

Jordan Radev Vs. Drew McFedries
(McFedries defeats Radev via knockout at 0:33 of round one)

Both of these guys have been successful in a lot of small time MMA fights and are still trying to establish themselves in the UFC. Each one of them has fought one or two hard fighters. McFedries is a good striker and is well rounded coming form the Miletich fighting system. Radev is also a good striker, but has a stronger wrestling background he can rely on. This one will be close probably going to a decision with Radev coming out on top with the judges.

Great episode with two good match up fights. One was between Corey and Nate Diaz and the other between Manny and Matt Wiman.

I was ready for some good fighting last night. The first bout between Nate and Corey was different than I thought. Corey came out as a different fighter and had improveded his game ten times more than he had with the Emerson fight were he eked out a decision. Corey kept the pressure on Nate the whole time. Corey had Nate close to the cage and was on top of Nate when someone from Corey’s corner yelled, “get him against the wall”. This proved to be a bad call because Corey dropped one arm under the leg to help move Nates body closer to the cage wall and Nate sunk in a Triangle pretty easily. I thought Nate would dominate the whole fight, but Corey came out strong and was a whole lot better this time around. I have a renewed faith in Corey now and I think might be an up and comer soon in the MMA world.

The fight between Matt Wiman and Manny did not disappoint either. Manny came out like I thought he would and sucked the life out of Wiman. It just took a little longer than I thought. Wiman had a lot of fight, but Manny proved to be the aggresor. The whole time BJ Penn is yelling, “do a triangle, do an arm bar Matt, do anything!” I wish I had a sound clip cause it was cracking me up. Manny threw a mean elbow on Wiman that made the ref stop the fight so the doctor could check it out. The doctor was pretty quick to give the thumbs up. Manny dominated both rounds and ended up winning the decision.

Karo showed up and trained with Manny and Nate said his piece to Karo about being cool that Karo beat his brother Nick Diaz. Then at the end it looks like something is gonna be stirred up for the next episode between Karo and Nate as they squared off in the previews for next week.

June 16th isn’t just the night of UFC 72. In Las Vegas the IFL will be closing the season that day with their team sport, but also starting the only MMA playoffs to date. This will mark the second year this IFL league will have a playoff between team fighters. Bas Rutten’s old team the LA Anacondas and the Tokyo Sabres have already reached playoff status. The Anacondas were a good team last year and this comes as no surprise, but the Sabers’ were stinking it up so bad last year that Ken Yasuda fired all of his fighters from the 2006 season. I guess it has proven to be a good move.

The teams left to battle it out for playoff spots are Ken Shamrock’s Lions, Carlos Newton’s Dragons, and Renzo Gracie’s Pitbulls. The Lions will be the underdogs for this shake-out so I will be rooting for them. Plus it would be nice for Ken Shamrock to win with a team he has worked on for two years now. There are a few scenarios that could play out that each team could move up or down pending these matches, but I am content to root for Shamrock. All the other teams did great last year and it would be good to see some fresh faces in the playoffs. With any new team sport you try to level the playing field so that one team doesn’t dominate every year and take the entertainment value out of it. GO LIONS!

Rich Franklin Vs. Yushin Okami
(Rich Franklin defeats Yushin Okami via unanimous decision)

Rich Franklin is in for a fight on June 16th during UFC 72. He is fighting Yushin Okami and Okami is gaining speed in the recognition category. His last opponent Mike Swick credited his great fighting and was quoted as saying, “nobody knows who Okami is, but I know how hard of fighter he is”. After the first round ended Swick sat in his corner and told his guys, “This guy is really strong”. Okami started his UFC career in UFC 62 with a decision over Alan Belcher. Not many casual MMA fans were familiar with this guy and just wrote him off as an under card due to his international start. He keeps coming though; fight after UFC fight and with close fighting dates too. At first glance you might think 21-3, not to bad for MMA. Look at his fight dates, he fights every two months it seems. Not much time to train for an opponent, but does he need to? Doesn’t really seem like it lately. He came in as a replacement for Martin Kampmann with only six weeks to prepare for Franklin. Something tells me he doesn’t take a lot of days off. Okami has already fought Silva the champ of his middle weight class once winning by disqualification in the first round. If Okami beats Rich, a title bout will be right around the corner.

Rich isn’t a roll over fight by any means. If you look at his record he has some big names in the win column. Rich is an ex middle weight champion having beaten Evan Tanner twice, Marvin Eastman (One of the few to defeat Rampage), Ken Shamrock, Nate Quarry, and David Loiseau. It wasn’t until his bout with Anderson Silva that Rich fell prey to those pesky knees. He also contributed it to not training as hard and letting all those success distractions get to him more than they should have. It will be interesting to see if we will get the old Rich Franklin back this fight. I miss that guy and would love to see him back in the UFC. He said he was training for this fight hard and if he does this guy is a TKO machine. Im giving this win to Franklin by TKO in the third round.

Hector Ramirez Vs. Forrest Griffin
(Forrest Griffin defeats Hector Ramirez via unanimous decision)

First off Hector Ramirez might not seem like a threat to Griffin, but he has a similar let’s bang style much like Griffin. Take a look at Hector’s record; he beat Kendall Grove with a powerful KO punch which seems to be one of Hector’s strengths. To bad he has to fight Griffin. Forrest has showed over and over again that he can take a punch until he faced Keith Jardine. I still believe Griffin has a strong chin, but just can’t make a mistake like Jardine did in his fight with Houston Alexander in UFC 70. Jardine complained that he had to fight a UFC newcomer and took the fight lightly.

As long as Griffin brings the fight I think he can get a decision over Hector in the end of the fight. I see this fight having good striking with Forrest’s reach advantage and Hector’s brawling spirit. In the end this will be going to the judges with Griffin getting his hand raised after a three round striking war.

Rory Singer Vs. Jason MacDonald
(Jason MacDonald defeats Rory Singer via technical knockout strikes in round two)

In another fight of the night you have two athletes that can go the distance. I think these two guys could submission themselves into a tired third round. Rory recently did this with Josh Haynes. It ended up being a slow motion third round that went to the judges. With both of these fighters being submission masters I think we might see some slams or possible striking. Sometimes both fighters of the same discipline respect each others talent so much that they almost prefer to fight in another style. With both of these guys only chalking up one TKO per fighter I think it be going to the judges. I give the slight advantage to Jason MacDonald since he has fought more MMA fights, fought tougher opponents and seem to be able to finish faster than Rory. I am going with MacDonald winning in a unanimous decision.

Clay Guida Vs. Tyson Griffin
(Tyson Griffin defeats Clay Guida via split decision) ????

In this fight I believe Clay will overwhelm Tyson with better wrestling and takedowns. Tyson is just coming off a loss from Frank Edgar who also will be showing up soon in UFC 73. Tyson is no slouch, but I think Clay has more experience and will be able to finish quicker with a submission in the second of third round.

Why would I call this an exhibition? If you saw the card or the fights you would know why.

First off one of my favorites Royce Gracie Vs. Kazushi Sakuraba was the main card. Sakuraba has been nicknamed as the Gracie hunter by many because he is always willing to fight them and has defeated four of them. This fight was a rematch from an earlier Royce loss, but this time Royce defeated Sakuraba for the first win in the Gracie family category. It was great that Royce got a win at age 40.

The other exhibition largely publicized match was between Johnnie Morton and Bernard Ackah. Johnnie Morton was a NFL player turned MMA fighter or should I say tried MMA fighting. This event was his first professional fight and you could tell. Both of these guys came out swinging like it was their first time. Maybe I should back up, Bernard has had two fight now after this one. What really steamed me was Johnnie Morton got paid $100,000 to fight, pending his drug test :-). You have all these great fighters in the MMA world eating out of cans living in their cars next to the gyms and you sign a guy from the NFL with no fight experience and pay him that much. Must have been those great NFL agents.

K-1 should stick to what they know. There were a couple of good fights, but with all the hoopla surrounding the ticket sales it wasn’t exactly a UFC event with good matched fighters. For as much money spent you could have at least hired someone to kill the DJ. They had a DJ blabbing during the fights and you didn’t know whether to listen to the announcers or the DJ’s shout out to some song. I hope not alot of new MMA fans were tuned into Showtime. Good going Showtime at least this wasn’t on all the free cable channels for the world to see.