Well the crazy house as people and the previews have shown seemed a little regular. Nobody punching through walls or fighting each other yet, but we really haven’t seen these people’s personalities yet. Its like the old MTV real worlds, people would keep up the pleasantries until they got tired of it and then BAM. I am starting to pick a few of these guys out from the crowd. I haven’t done any research on any of these guys, but Daniel Barrera and Tommy Speers seem like they have good character. Usually good character will get a fighter through hard fights and training even if they are lacking in experience.

Joe Scarola was whining like crazy the whole show and Serra was about to as he said, “have a heart attack”. Joe was wanting to call his girlfriend and kept bringing it up that he was worried she would be faithful. Not a good thing to have in your head for six weeks especially after you just lost. All the fighters in the house kept telling him it would be alright and they hoped he would stay. The previews also showed that he would also have a sit down with Dana White too. Not to good and I am sure he will get his typical Dana talk about how he should just feel lucky he is even there. This is a pretty dumb move on Joe’s part because he is almost guaranteed a fight in the real UFC later on just for being on the show. Those chances are slipping fast like a forearm cinching in around his neck.

One of the highlights was that Hughes gave out NIV bibles for everyone to read the book of Esther. He handed them out to everyone and told them to read it and to figure out who Hughes was in the story. Hughes said later that he was the Queen in the story. Maybe not the best story to bust out on fighters in hindsight, but at least Hughes was trying to inspire his fighters. Maybe next time a verbal story of one of the Old Testament battles or something would be good. Barrera a very spiritual fighter was in his comfort zone as he did the bible study. Danzig was not ok with it and said he was not there at TUF to find a spiritual side. Serra made some comments not in the presence of Hughes that Hughes was a whackjob. Maybe Hughes went around it in the wrong way, but he at least cared about a group full of strangers enough to try and inspire them. Serra on the other hand spent the whole show selling out his long time friend to his newly acquired team. The best way to get new people to trust you is not to let them see you talk that much crap and sell your self proclaimed best friend down the river. Serra told them he wanted to be on the same page as them (TUF fighters) and to let them now that he thought Joe gave up and that he was gonna kick him off the show for asking a camera crew guy about making a phone call. All in all Serra is showing his new team that he is not the best friend to be around when you are down. I didn’t really blame Serra for getting worked up about how Joe was whining, but he should have thought about it before he brought in someone he knew.

Dorian Price and Matt Arroyo got picked by Serra to fight in this episode. Dorian started freaking out way before they picked them saying he was next and this and that. I wasn’t sure why they singled him out till after the fight. He really didn’t have much power in his kicks for a Thai guy. He did catch Dorian with a good knee to the jaw, but Matt showed great composure as he kept taking him down and then pretty much smoked him that point on with ground and pound ending with Dorian giving up his back and Matt sinking a RNC.

Yahoo Sports had a story about a boxing system that scores fights better. It was converted to MMA and used at UFC 76. Not sure if this is better or not. I am sure we can find problems with both systems. I am not a big boxing guy so I can’t tell you if it is good or not or how much boxing uses it. I know there have been some MMA decisions that seemed to go either way. Maybe this system will make the split decisions far and in between or it could force fighters to throw more soft punches just to score if it ever has any future influence on MMA.

Click here for complete Jardine-Liddell stats.
Click here for complete Forrest Griffin-Rua stats.
Click here for complete Fitch-Sanchez stats.
Click here for complete Nakamura-Machida stats.
Click here for complete Tyson Griffin-Tavares stats.

Source: Yahoo Sports
Source: http://www.compustrike.com/
http://www.compustrike.com/stats/ufc76.html

Pretty decent pay per view with some big names on it. The under card doesn’t seem to have anyone to exciting, but not to say that some of the fights might not end up being exciting.

RESULTS: A long night of decision fights. All out three round wars since there were no title bouts. Alot of the main card fights were not as people predicted especially me.

Chuck Liddell Vs. Keith Jardine
(Keith Jardine Wins by Split Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

RESULTS: Chuck and Jardine came out swinging the first round and both of them landed a few combos and such. Round pretty much even with maybe Chuck winning it. Then Jardine started to come alive with killer leg kicks and body blows to the ribs one after the other. At one Point Jardine even knocked Chuck down with a punch to the head. Chuck recovered quick though and for the rest of the rounds Jardine would land more punches and killer kicks. Chuck’s ribs looked like a side of red meat. I think Jardine should have one this unanimously for sure.

It will be cool to see Chuck fight without all the pressure or hype on his shoulders to see if he does something different. Both of these guys are coming off of really bad knock out losses in the first round. I don’t think the loss has affecting Chuck much mentally like it would most fighters. He keeps saying that he is not gonna change anything or any of his training, but I hope he at least prepare differently for each fighter. Everyone says that when people fight Chuck they fight his fight and his style. I believe this to an extent, but there are alot of better fighters these days and they know how to impose there will. Not to mention that the big aura of Chuck being the SUPER light heavyweight champ is gone now. Both of these guys are strikers with Chuck being the better of the two in clinches and against cage control. I think Keith may get in a couple of good punches, but I expect Chuck to run side to side staying just out of Keith’s reach. This will start to test Jardine’s patience and he will put himself in front of Chuck just like Chuck wants. I see this one ending in Typical Chuck fashion with him getting a TKO or KO.

Mauricio Rua Vs. Forrest Griffin
(Forrest Griffin Wins by Submission at 4:45 in the 3rd round by rear naked choke)

RESULTS: Rua came out pressing some action, but Forrest held his own and quickly took over with the pace. Griffin took him down alot and controlled him better. In the second round Shogun goes from gas in the tank to empty sputtering on the side of the road. Griffin pretty much dominated the fight from here on out gaining top control and go after alot of submissions. Finally in the third round with only 15 seconds to go he sinks in a RNC.

Ouch. Forrest just got a much needed win over Hector in his last fight. To bad he was put up against SHOGUN. Even Forrest in his interview is like, “Shogun is a really good fighter and that sucks”. This division just got alot more competitive and the saying, “There are no easy fights” is going to be this way from here on out in the UFC. Everybody has seen Forrest Griffin take alot of punishment and go the distance in alot of his fights, but the Jardine fight showed that he isn’t made of steel. Shogun will probably leg kick the crap out of him and get him in some overwhelming clinches and fire away with knees. For those who don’t know Shogun to well, he is a PRIDE fighter. The reason why people keep referring to PRIDE fighters as such bad dudes is they would still do tournaments sometimes fighting some of the baddest dudes in MMA. Shogun also has never been knocked out. His last loss was to Mark Coleman because his arm broke and was one of the nastiest arm breaks in a ring that I have see. It was kind of a weird fall and it wasn’t even from a submission. The only other loss was to my man, BABLUA with a straight up Guillotine. He is most notabel these days as having KO’ed Quinton Jackson. Well if you watch the fight you can clreay see that Jackson does not get knocked out and that Quinton is trying to get his corner to throw in the towel because his rib is hurt. I am betting that everyone will talk about how he beat him, blah blah blah. Two things, he got hurt by Shogun (Gotta give it up to Shogun) and could not continue to fight and after taking several knees to the face he was still concsious. The other thing is Quinton was not training in proffesional facilities like Shogun at that time in Jackson’s career. Anyways I am seeing Shogun disable Forrest in this fight. Forrest isn’t gonna go for any crafty submission attacks or anything. He will try to fight Shogun at his best game standing up striking. I think Forrest might have a chance to make it to the second round, but it is gonna hurt alot. Shogun with a TKO in the early second round.

Jon Fitch Vs. Diego Sanchez
(Jon Fitch Wins by Split Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

RESULTS: Man oh man, the beginning of this fight started out like the old Sanchez. Fearce start down and started out by running at Fitch for a take down. Then they went back and forth the whole night. They stayed against the cage alot and Diego seemed to perfer to fight from his back as he went for submission after submission. He almost got a Guillotine, but somehow Fitch didnt even seem phased by it. Then at another time Diego had a sick Triangle choke on Fitch, but Fitch twisted out of it. Fitch got alot of dominate positions, but didnt really do anythig with them and Diego seemed to be fighting from his back to get a submission. Kind close depending on how you looked at the fight.

This is gonna be an emotional fight for me since I am a huge fan of the Diego. His career this year has been an emotional roller coaster from doctors telling him he had Hepatitis and he would have to end his career to being to weak to really fight at all in UFC 69. I don’t believe in excuses, but to all the MMA fans that have watched Diego know that he was not present in his fight with Josh Koscheck. He did step in the ring and chose to fight, but I think he wasn’t right. Anyways it will be good to see the old Brawler Diego go in there and push the pace at the high octane level that he does. Fitch even said he was training harder on his cardio because he knows what kind of fighter Diego is. Eveybody says that Fitch is the man and that people dodge him in fights, but I don’t think Diego knows how to dodge a fight. Most of the stuff I have seen from Fitch does not live up to the hype. He is a great fighter and well above average, but he hasns’t fought anybody that great yet. I don’t know about all you guys out there, but I am looking past Fitch and highly anticipating the one day that Pierre and Diego meet up. Anyways I see Diego bringing it hardcore style like he does and trying to do a little boxing (Please Diego don’t stand up the whole time), but going back to his hard tossing power house ways of dominating a fight. I think Fitch will be able to go the distance and last, but don’t expect to see him on top much. Im going with Diego winning via unanimous decision.

Kazuhiro Nakamura Vs. Lyoto Machida
(Lyoto Machida Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

RESULTS: Machida pretty much took down Nakamura alot and rained down some good punches and elbows. Webt back and forth alot, but Machida was never threatened by Nakamura.

This will probably be the most underated fight of the night. Most people don’t know how bad a dude Machida is. His record of ten wins is a list of whos who in MMA today. Click HERE to see his wins over guys like BJ Penn, Rich Franklin and Stephan Bonnar. People complain that he is a boring fighter. This is can be a disease in the upper tiers of MMA for fighters. They get all the way to the top and they forget that they are fighters and that all of a sudden get over cautious. Nakamura is another one of those fighters that will be underrated in the US for a while until people get to know him. This guy has fought alot of the hardest dudes in MMA and went the distance with a couple of them. I think this will be alot of back and forth top mount dominate positioning and so forth. Machida has one advantage over Nakamura that he has fought in the UFC cage a few times and Nakamura has not. I will go with Machida winning via unanimous decision.

Thiago Tavares Vs. Tyson Griffin
(Tyson Griffin Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

RESULTS: Pretty much Griffen contolling the whole fight with alot of intensity. Griffen would give his back up alot, but the second time he did he dropped Tavares hard on his head/neck area. Both of these guys were battling each other not really phasing the other. Tavares went for alot of submission, but could not complete one maybe because of cardio, strength or just Griffen’s defense.

Everybody loves Tyson Griffin and the excitement he brings to the crowd as he pushes the pace of each of his fights. His last couple of fights have been decisions and a little controversial to who won. This guy has a great record giving the only loss that Urijah Faber has. Anybody that watches the WEC knows how bad Faber is. Tavares hasn’t fought anybody to bad, but he has showed some great control and his experience in ground fighting. He will need it going against Griffin. Hopefully this will be fight of the night, but who knows. I think this will be the hardest fight of the night to predict. I will go with the favorite on this one and say that Griffin will win via unanimous decision.

Oh boy. Ben Rothwell is gonna have to fight for real. He has fought alot of good fights in his IFL career but none of them will be as challenging as Ricco Rodriguez. I am excited to see Ricco fighting a higher caliber guy as well.

Card:
http://www.ifl.tv/Event-Finals-FL.html
Read the whole article below.

Source:
http://www.ifl.tv/News-07Sep19-Finals-Preview-HW.html

The fight night is beginning to be a good night of free fighting. In the last couple of ones they have had two or so good fighters on there. On this UFC fight night they will have alot of above average fighters so it might prove to be several good fights.

RESULTS: Once again a fight night was awesome. All these good free fights and I am gonna stop ordering the PPV ones. Great night of good solid fights. Couldn’t have been better.

Kenny Florian Vs. Din Thomas
(Kenny Florian Wins by Submission at 4:31 in the 1st round by rear naked choke)

Din hits harder and is harder. Kenny will not be able to come up with anything that Din hasn’t seen already. Unless Kenny does a side to the head kick (Disclaimer on all fights) I think Din will out muscle and out strike Kenny into a TKO at some point in the fight.

RESULTS: Din didn’t do much at all and early on it was clear than Kenny was bringing it with everything. Din went for a take down late in round one and landed hard on his knee and kinda went to turtle position while Kenny rained down punches to the side of Din head. They probally should have stopped it but since he was blocking most of the punches with his hand it went on and it looked like since Din’s knee was hurt he rolled over and gave Kenny a RNC. Maybe he didn’t, but it looked like it.

Chris Leben Vs. Terry Martin

(Chris Leben Wins by Knock Out at 3:56 in the 3rd round)

SEE: Florian Vs. Thomas with Terry as the striker.

RESULTS: Pretty much fight of the night in my book. I was gonna give it to the Quarry fight until this one came up. I agreed with Rogan that Leben looked alot better with a clear strategy and calmness about him when he fought. Very smart and methodical. It still wasnt enough to overpower Terry at any point in the rounds. At the end of round three Terry rained in an onslaught of punches and Leben just ate them and came back and got right in front of him and started punching like crazy and caught Terry and Terry fell down cold. I was just as surprised as Leben was. Great never say die attitude.

Junior Assuncao Vs. Nate Diaz

(Nate Diaz Wins by Submission at 4:10 in the 1st round by guillotine choke)

Love ole Nate. This fight will probally showcase Nate’s ground game since Junior seems to be more comfortable on the ground. Look for Nate’s patented forward roll into guard when he gets clinched from the top on the ground. I love it and use it sometimes now. I forsee a good back and forth ground game ending early in the first with Nate dog getting a submission.

RESULTS: This one went pretty much as I expected. I liked Nates other move when someone is trying to take him down, he goes for a Kimura and uses it to distract the person as they fall to the ground. I was surprised to see Nate throw a flurry of punches at the end with everyone of them landing right before he went for the Guillotine. When Nate watched the reply even he was like, “man oh”.

Pete Sell Vs. Nate Quarry

(Nate Quarry Wins by Knock Out at 0:44 in the 3rd round)

Sell is losing alot and has already lost to Quarry. I dont see this one ending differently. Quarry with a TKO in the second.

RESULTS: This was a good fight with Sell dominating all of the fight with some really good striking. I thought he was gonna turn it around, but Quarry blasted him with a hard one and Sell fell down and Mario (REF) ran over to Sell to call it but Sell looked a little with it I guess so he didn’t end it and Quarry at that point only had to throw one down to end it.

Edilberto Crocota Vs. Luke Cummo

(Luke Cummo Wins by Technical Knock Out at 1:45 in the 1st round )

Crocota is Brazilian so I think Cummo can netralize him there. I mean Crocota lost to Taylor and Taylor just lost with an easy submission. Three degrees of MMA you could say so I don’t think Crocota is gonna come with anythin Cummo can’t deal with. Cummo is getting better everytime as a fighter so I think he will use this fight to showcase some of his striking skills while stuffing Crocota’s takedown attempts. I am going with Cummo via decision.

Leonard Garcia Vs. Cole Miller

(Cole Miller Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)

This will be a cool one to watch for all the TUF peeps. Anyone that saw Gracia’s fight in April remember this guy and how he comes to fight. Cole is slick with submission attempts so Gracia will have to be careful. This one if the toughest one to predict in my opinion. Maybe Garcia with the decision?

Joe Veres Vs. Gray Maynard

(Gray Maynard Wins by Knock Out at 0:09 in the 1st round)

This one won’t be to exciting. I expect Maynard to press the action and takedown Joe and pretty much dominate him on the ground and get a decision after three rounds of wrestling.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka Vs. Thiago Alves

(Thiago Alves Wins by Technical Knock Out at 4:04 in the 2nd round)

Alves has been doing good on his last couple of fights. One thing these guys have in common is a loss to Jon Fitch although Hironaka was able to make it all three rounds. Hironaka has also beaten Nick Diaz so this guy doesn’t seem to go away easy. I hope Alves does not take this fight lightly. Alves knows how to come back from getting beaten down and win (See Derrick Noble). Im gonna go with Hironaka winning via decision.

Dustin Hazelett Vs. Jonathan Goulet

(Dustin Hazelett Wins by Submission at 1:14 in the 1st round by arm bar)

Both of these guys are similiar and might make for a good fight. Hopefully they will both press the action and are not to overly careful. I think Goulet will end up getting this on in the end with a late TKO or a decision.

Well Mark Cuban isn’t wasting anytime. After hiring Gug Mezger as his MMA consultant, he is starting his own MMA fight promotion called HDNet FiGHTS. He will also do this all the while running other MMA promotions on his cable network HDNet.

He is also holding his first event in Dallas, TX. I don’t which thing to get excited over more, Cuban getting into the sport or all these MMA events popping up in TEXAS. The first event of HDNet FiGHTS will be on October 13th in Dallas at the American Airlines Center.
Source:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/091207dnspocuban.35580a2.html
Source:

http://15rounds.com/boxing/press/2007/09/hdnet-091207.php

The fights in Dallas at Art of War 3 were great and even had some big names. The fourth one was just announced, but the main card are two guys I don’t even know. Hopefully they will put some others on that might be more easy to remember.

“The Main Event features heavyweights Mike “The Juggernaut” Wessel Vs. Matt Thomas. Wessel has only been training for seven months, as the current strength/conditioning coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks, conditioning is not going to be an issue. “He’s got power and strength to match mine and I’m ready for this fight,” said the 29-year-old living in Little Rock, AR.Matt Thomas, who trains out of the famed Mullen’s Karate Kickboxing and Jiu-Jitsu out of Memphis, TN. As a family man, he has not only competed at The Grand Casino Tunica before, but is also very well known in the casinos throughout in the area. A crowd favorite, Thomas is a physical specimen much like his opponent and is expecting a war. His trainer, Jeff Mullen, is one of the longest-running judges for the UFC and has been in the martial arts for several decades.”

Source:
http://artofwarlive.com/news/09.07.html

This is truly a pinnacle fight for the MMA world. This will be the first fight for a combination of belts. The light heavyweight UFC belt has been the most coveted belt because of its history and its competition in its deep division. Also the other belt will be the same a PRIDE light heavy weight belt. This event will combine both of these light heavy weight belts. Dana White has not commented on Dan’s other PRIDE middleweight belt yet or what will happen if he loses his PRIDE lightweight to Jackson.

Quinton Jackson Vs. Dan Henderson
(Quinton Jackson wins via unanimous decision after five rounds)

RESULTS: Pretty much went like I thought. The poll I did had 40 people vote on it with 55% for Henderson and 45% Jackson. Nothing really exceptional to point out on this fight. Henderson came out and used his Greco to do cage clinches and a few take downs, but Jackson was able to do a few himself and dominate Henderson. Every time the stood and banged Jackson got the better of the exchanges. Good five round war.

I could about an hour going through all the pros and cons about these fighters, but at this point everyone knows now who Jackson. The guy that is the new comer this time is Dan Henderson. This guy holds two belts in two divisions at one time and in an organization with that had the same talent or more than the UFC. Quinton has the age advantage of about ten years on Dan, but Dan gets better every fight. He is a lot like Couture because he seems to get better every fighter and the older he gets. Dan has fought all the hard guys and won, but he has also lost to powerful opponents as well. He has a superior wrestling upbringing and even though Quinton had some experience at wrestling Dan was in a different class all together with his wrestling. Quinton has him on his power. Quinton is so strong and with his new training and help has gotten even stronger. I think this will help with anything that Dan does with Jackson against the cage. Dan loves to stand and use his strong right hand. Several fighters have commented on how powerful he hits with his right hand. I am sure Quinton has trained with it in mind and has a good strategy with his striking just like he did with the Liddell fight. This will be an all out war, but I think we are still seeing the tip of the iceberg with the new and improved fighter Jackson. I am going with Jackson winning via decision.

Matt Hamill Vs. Michael Bisping
(Michael Bisping wins via split decision)

RESULTS: Wow before the fight Hamill looked like he was in great shape. Bisping looked a bit smaller. I wonder if all the media and attention got to him pre fight. Maybe to much confidence. This fight ended up being rather controversial with even the London crowd sending out some boos when the winner was announced. This and back and forth with Hamill dominating alot with stand up and take downs. Bisping had a few moments, but nothing extreme enough to think he would wind up the winner. I think Hamill learned a lesson in this fight that he better not let the judges score one more of his fights. Bisping thought he won because after it he didn’t seem to be to surprised at the announcement.

Bisping showed a lot of energy and striking against Elvis in UFC 70. Elvis seemed to get him in trouble a couple of times and caught him with that knee, but Bisping showed spirit and pounded out a victory. Hamill has little experience in the octagon and claims his fame from the reality show Ultimate Fighter. Although he is powerful and can fight at the UFC level I am not sure if he will slip out a win on Bisping. I am going to go with the favorite on this one and say that Bisping will win via decision.

Mirko Cro Cop Vs. Cheick Kongo
(Kongo wins via unanimous decision)

RESULTS: Mirko came out in the beginning hard and pissed. Stalking Kongo the whole time with force and strikes. I thought this was pretty much how it would go, but then in Round two Kongo got dominate and Mirko seemed to shrivel away into survival mode. Really weird because Mirko didn’t seem to be tired.

Mirko is mad. That should be his new name. This guy does not want to end his career with a knockout like he just got in his last fight. It usually takes two or three good fights to erase one like that so I think this dude is going to come with a vengeance. Kongo is good, but I think we will see the Mirko of old show up at this fight and be nothing short of spectacular. Maybe it is the PRIDE fan in me, but I think it will happen. No comparisons, just a quick win for Mirko via TKO in the second.

Marcus Davis Vs. Paul Taylor
(Marcus Davis wins via submission with an armbar)

RESULTS: Marcus came out hard, but Paul dazed him good and tried to finish with a flurry on the ground it was so close to being stopped, but Davis got back his composure somewhat and still took a bit longer to really get it back and then right after he got Taylor’s back they rolled out and Davis shot his leg around in front of Taylors face to cinch in the armbar. Pretty good comeback to witness. Davis is a tough guy.

Marcus Davis is a lot of muscle to put on this ole Brit Taylor, but Taylor is known for his cardio. I am sure Davis will have a knock out strategy like he did in the last fight and might get one over on this guy. I think with these fighters two styles I would have to go with Davis getting a decision win.

Houston Alexander Vs. Alessio Sakara
(Alexander wins via TKO with strikes)

RESULTS: WOW, Alexander is for REAL! Came out and blew this guy up. I was glad because we got to see him on his back and saw his guard and how easy he fights to get back up. I don’t know who he is gonna fight next but I feel sorry for the guy. I mean I don’t know what Alexander needs to work on for the next fight, but maybe to try to get a TKO within under a minute next time? TKO at 1:01 in the first round. WOW! He also gave a hard shout out to MMAJunkie.com at the end. Givin props to the sponsors, cool guy.

I can’t wait to see Alexander again along with everyone else that saw him knock Keith Jardine out. This dude had an answer for everything and blasted him several times. It looked like the GSP Vs. Serra fight and the crowd had the same reaction when it happened. Alexander will have to prove on this fight that he wasn’t a fluke and win this one. I don’t think he needs to knock him out, but if he wins this he will make an instant jump into the upper tier in the UFC lightheavy weight division. This would be one of the quickest jumps to the top for a no-name fighter to take in UFC history. Alexander wins by TKO in the third round.

Watch out MMA world because a new player has emerged, Mark Cuban. I had know idea this guy was entering the MMA world like this. I know he was running that HDNet company, but after reading and interview from Sherdog HERE he and another article from MMANews.com HERE Cuban is taking MMA alot more seriously. Mark Cuban is known as a super savy business man that is always working with the latest thing in business and entertainment. For those of you that have not seen this guy, he is the one screaming at the Dallas Maverick games. He is the owner of that team and several other companies.

His addition to MMA will equal another Dana White, but with a little more business savy. Recently in the Sherdog interview with Cuban he mentioned he was interested in signing Fedor Emelianenko to fight in some of the MMA venues he airs on HDNet. If it is gonna get done this will be the guy. He didn’t become a billionaire for being dumb. The organizations that are courting Fedor have the same problems with signing Fedor. His agent and himself want to have a lot of freedom in Russia to do as the please in Sambo tournaments and any other MMA fights that are held specifically in Russia. As some of you might have noticed PRIDE had an agreement with Fedor with the exception that if any MMA event was held in his home country he could fight in it like the Bodog event that was held while he was under contract with PRIDE.

One of the most important out of both of these exceptions is the Sambo tournaments. Fedor has rubbed elbows with Russia’s top brass (See Above pic with President Putin and his brother Alexander) because of who he is and what pride he brings to the country. Fedor is the man in Russia and the Sambo tournaments are very important to him and his country that he participants in them. I really don’t think these are negotiable. These are a bit safer than MMA because of the moves and rules involved as you can see in the Sambo picture below. The deals have also noted that he wants his team from Russia to have a shot at some contracts as well. One of these people from his team most notably is his brother Alexander Emelianenko which also fought in PRIDE.

HDNet hosts alot of MMA events and is a force to be reckoned with. On a side note HDNet has aired WEC events in the past as well as others like, Steele Cage, Ring of fire and American Fight League. It will be interesting to see how Mark Cuban and Dana White’s deal with each other in the future since both of them have such an extreme personality.

Catch MMA on HDNet
http://www.hd.net/fightnight.html

MMA News.com
http://www.mmanews.com/other/More-Info-on-Mark-Cuban-and-Fedor-talks.html

Sherdog
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=8834

Another good night of free fighting courtesty of the Versus channel and Zuffa. I don’t know how long it will last, but get your fight on while you can. Beebe and McCullough will defending their belts.

Richard Crunkilton Jr. Vs. Rob McCullough
(McCullough wins via TKO Round 1 at 1:29)

RESULTS: McCullough has heavy hands. He came out and just caught one of Richards kicks like it was nothing. He then started to blast his face with strikes, but all the while still be smart and cautious and keeping just enough distance. Then he closed the distance by cage and dazed him. The dude pretty feel three times from strikes and finally the ref I think just decided to stop it since it was so one sided.

Rob will be defending his title against Richard. Both of these guys are pretty hard strikers and put people away with there fists. Both of there records are almost identical. Both of them finish most of their fights striking with a TKO or KO. Neither of them have lost a fight unless it was a decision. I don’t know about most people, but I don’t tend to count decisions against fighters unless it is how they end every fight. This is almost a perfect match up. It will probally come down to styles and which persons matches up better with their opponents. They will probally feel each other out the first half of the round to get a good read on each other and then start banging hard. I think this will be a lot of up and downs against the cage with takedowns. True to their records I think it will go to a decision with the current champ McCullough winning it.

Rani Yahya Vs. Chase Beebe
(Beebe wins via unanimous decision after 5 rounds)

RESULTS: This fight pretty much went how I though it would right up until the point that Beebe switched into a higher gear and Yahya switched into a lower gear. Beebe can fight all five rounds like it is the first 30 seconds of a fight. The kid is phenominal and can weather any storm in my mind. Yahya caught him in a vicious knee bar and Beebe’s face was in sheer pain, but the kid would tap. He had to have gotten some damage from not tapping but he rolled out and fought for another FIVE rounds. Yahya pretty much gased out and just survived with BJJ the rest of the match and Beebe took him down at will and blasted his face at will. I dont think Yahya threw one punch the whole fight. These sick BJJ guys need to start doin this. It reminded me of the Crane Huerta fight. I think Beebe will hold this belt for a while.

Beebe just won the belt in his last fight in a decision that noone expected him to win and showed a lot of experience for someone his age. He showed that he is really tough and was very impressive to say the least. Yahya is a slick little Brazilian with sick submission skills. Beebe needs to be careful and stay out of Yahya guard and I think he may be ok. Both of these guys seem to know the submission game, but I would give Yahya the favor in that respect. This one will be hard, but if I had to guess I would say Yahya catches Beebe in a submission in the second round.

Jeremiah Billington Vs. Brian Stann
(Stann wins via TKO Round 1 at 3:07)

RESULTS: Stann is pretty much a bad ass. Everyone of his fight ends in a TKO in the first round with little or no fighting back. Billington threw one uppercut. Hmm one punch. Stann needs a title fight next. This guy does not need to work his way up the ladder.

The experience factor goes to Billington, but Stan is a maniac. This dude hits and he hits hard. In Stann’s last fight he jut blasted this guy into a TKO. All of his fights have ended in the first round TKO. That’s not good for Billington, but he isn’t a slouch either with being accredited with a few TKO’s himself. I just think a fighter like Stann has been tested yet because he is blowing through all the competion in the WEC in the light heavyweight division. I think this is an easy one, Stann is a pipe to the knee kind of guy. Im going with Stann via TKO in the first round.

Jeff Bedard Vs. Miguel Torres
(Torres wins via submission (triangle choke) Round 1 at 2:30)

RESULTS: This fight pretty much went how I though it would but I did think Miguel would punch a little more. As he said after Bedard took him down, ” I stayed with him on top for a while and waited for him to make a mistake. I think this guy will be around of a while.

Both of these guys are pretty bad, but Miguel knows how to finish a fight. Not only can Miguel maul someone standing up but he can cripple you on the ground. Miguel is a brown belt under Carlson Gracie. Jeff has some good wrestling skills and can hold his own to eek out a decision, but I think this is the hardest guy he has had to fight so far. Miguel via TKO in the second.