BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 4/25

BELLATOR 42:

The world has another Noguiera, except this one is a Luta Livre guy. Luiz Alberto Noguiera's win over Jerod Spoon was a watchable affair, certainly, but not an enthralling one either. Spoon was generally dominated standing because he stayed too far away and didn't move the way he needed to in order to line up Noguiera for his big right. Standup for him was sorta Dan Henderson like, though I suppose Spoon has a better jab and not nearly as good a right hand. Noguiera, meanwhile, sorta pitter pats and didn't do any real damage in the fight, instead cleaning up points with his low kicks and punches.

Christian M'Pumbu was the slight underdog going into this - nearly even odds, actually. He walked this fight against Tim Carpenter instead. Carpenter, at least in my mind, was going to immediately close the distance on the smaller M'Pumbu, clinch, put him on the mat, and grind on him. Instead, he showed zero standup skill by following M'Pumbu around the cage and getting hit with punches until being stopped with a 1-2 combination to the head and an uppercut as Carpenter was falling.

Ronnie Mann's fight against Josh Arocho was basically a waste of time. Already you can see how Mann is outsized here in the US and while he overpowers Arocho with sweeps or takedown defense and murders him with strikes inside the guard, you can't really expect that sort of performance against better fighters. Arocho is a jouneyman at best.

Richard Hale is a much bigger man than DJ Linderman. That I knew. What else did I learn about Richard Hale? Well, he looks a whole lot like Vitali Klitschko and even holds his hands about as high. That means he doesn't. OK, so more info that means something to me - uh, Hale moves straight back with his hands down and has nice kicks. Does this guy have a karate background? He doesn't really keep distance that well and as far as being a grappler is concerned, I feel like he's not a top control sorta guy. He never seems to really overpower people, and he didn't look at any point to purposely get Linderman to the mat. In fact, he's taken down in the second round off a single against a guy who supposedly didn't wrestle at any collegiate level. Possibly not even high school. Linderman is the same brawler sorta guy he's always been but didn't have a guy in front of him who ran out of gas in part because he never really pushed the fight the right way to make it happen. Linderman wins on the color guy's card and not the official judges because, to be honest, the judges did a good job and scored leg kicks for a change instead of jabs and wide right hands that seemed to have very little effect. Linderman spent about 3 minute of the final round on his belly defending the RNC too. Why didn't Hale transition to the armbar? The world shall never know.

BLAHHH ULTIMATE BRAZILIAN FIGHTER THING 13 ICHIBAN

So some stuff happened in the house and I went past all of it because, really, that shit sucks. Mick Bowman and Clay Harvison fought this episode. Harvison I knew nothing about and Bowman will probably win because they wouldn't put a British guy with zero talent on this show. So anyways, the fight: It kinda sucked. Sloppy standup bout in which the ultimate winner (Harvison) gassed out 7 minutes in and yet still won with a largely inactive striking attack. You know how? By fighting a guy who was juking more than jabbing and who wouldn't throw straight punches even when he could land them. Bowman just has no power in his fists and while he's clearly a good grappler on his back, sucks at wrestling and is the sort of guy who probably had success pulling guard against less technically skilled or athletically gifted fighters and tapped them. Internet even says he has three of 7 wins by submission. Maybe that's true? Boxing wise he's not much worse than Harvison if not technically superior, but he lacks mental toughness. But he does, he cries afterwards, and Harvison moves on to the next round.

There's only a couple more fights left for the first round before they do the wild card bout, and Harvison may, thanks to the pure shittiness of the fighters on, get a slot. He can't beat Javier Torres with a gun and probably loses to Len Bentley too based on what I saw here.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS

Last week: 0-2

Overall for the year: 25-12

UFC 129:

My heart says Jake Shields. And hey, he is a much bigger guy than a lot of GSP's opposition, and an excellent collegiate wrestler, and a fantastic top control guy willing to stink it out. Doesn't that sound like Jon Fitch? Look how that went. I have to pick GSP like everyone else in the world to take down Shields and grind him out. Or jab him up. Or whatever GSP wants. The big fear for me in GSP losing is that its something like a guillotine that he is caught in shooting.

Speaking of what my heart says - I'll take the bait people have left and say Aldo beats Hominick in spite of me thinking that Aldo's athleticism is hopelessly overrated and that Hominick has the kryptonite to make this interesting in the stand up. Aldo can shoot in and take down Hominick and the fight is over just like that. When you have someone so deficient in an area that you have to hope that the other guy fights stupid, you can't take him unless that person has a long standing history of fighting dumb.

Brilz is younger than V-Mat and wins. Strong wrestling cancels each other out and we get a standup fight that Brilz is unlikely to lose.

Speaking of unlikely to win, Couture isn't winning. Last good counter puncher he faced was Liddell. Sure went well, huh?

Ben Henderson is the guy UFC brass wants to win against Bocek. You can feel it. Why make that fight unless they were looking to build Henderson back up in the UFC over a long period? Size wise, no big advantage for either guy with reach or height. Submission grappling is the big difference here, and Bocek is the best guy Henderson has ever faced. I mean, its him or Saravia, right? I think Bocek loses and it takes the shine off the WEC guys big time.

Nate Diaz/Rory McDonald is a really interesting fight - I feel like McDonald is less skilled but a bigger guy naturally, and size matters. Plus, he went to war with Condit...but Condit does kinda fight to the level of his opposition. So, Diaz by submission.

Can Sean Pierson last long enough against Jake Ellenberger to take advantage of him and win the fight? Answer: No. Ellenberger 29-28. Loses round 3.

Really fast with no descriptions really given: Jason McDonald has been fighting like shit for awhile so he loses to Ryan Jensen and his 7 minute gas tank. Daniel Roberts is in way over his head against Claude Patrick, who they'll get some rub off onto with a stoppage win in front of a Canadian crowd and 7 people watching on Facebook.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Outlaws (1/21/2006)

Another new one.

------------------

We have moved closer to the future and into the wild and crazy world of 2006(!!!). Unfortunately for me, this is one of those 10,000,000 fights on one card deals and I must battle through, knowing that at the end of this disc, I will arrive at the promised land of Kyacey Uscola and Edwin Dewees beating up shitty fighters. It eminates from a casino in Arizona and Erik Apple is announcing.

1) BRYAN PARDOE vs. RYAN PRAY: Oh shit. This is gonna be bad. Pray is an lumpy independent fighter making his debut, and he sports some racist ink that some of the National Socialist sympathizers that gave that one Aryan Nations dude that fought in KOTC props would adore. Pardoe fought Frank Shamrock. He sucks, but not this bad. KOTC: getting the incredible mismatches started RIGHT AWAY.

The beating is swift. A trading of punches not unlike a junior high fist fight starts it off, and big shock, Pardoe causes Pray to be unsteady. Pardoe takes him down straight into mount, tries a weird toe hold, and eventually pounds him out. Maybe this would have been of value had a public service message been brought with it.

2) DAVID CARRASCO vs. KEITH DIXON: Carrasco is some lumpy looking kid that's like a 170lb version of Paul Buentello. Dixon knows he's not in a commission area so he has a rash guard AND shoes.

This is one of the first fights among no names that really interested me. Carrasco is able to grab takedowns twice off a single leg and an ankle pick and navigates Dixon's guard pretty well. Dixon at one point is able to scramble to his feet after an attempted slam and Carrasco gets the belly to belly and ends up in side control. He eventually takes the mount and rains down elbows until a missed swing actually gets him back in half guard. However, in the shift back, Dixon essentially gives up his right arm and Carrasco transitions into a kimura for the tap out win. He looks like a kid with some potential.

3) JOE CASTILLO vs. LEROY FORNOFF: Castillo supposedly had a previous MMA fight....in 1996, sez Mr. Apple. Fornof looks all of 17, but has apparently fought before. In fact, I've apparently seen him fight before. Damn.

Castillo's Kempo Karate hoodie doesn't fully express what he is. He's really more of a wrestler and goes for multiple takedowns on Fornoff. Fornoff responds with a multitude of submission attempts, all of which he just misses on (he slides off the side with hooks in on an RNC, Castillo pushes the legs off in a triangle choke, so on). Round 2 starts with more prodigious striking from Fornoff that leads to Castillo going down, Fornof getting on top in mount and raining down blows to win. Fornoff is a young kid who's clearly learning all the aspects at once, which is somewhat refreshing, but has come nowhere near close to mastering any of them.

4) JESSE MORENG vs. VICTOR HERNANDEZ: Hernandez' record is a joke. Moreng is a dude that's been on a bunch of KOTC cards.

Moreng basically beats him up, takes his back and chokes him out. Pretty pointless stuff.

5) TRAVIS HOOKE vs. JUSTIN SCOTT: Hooke is really fat and this is his debut. Justin Scott has two first names and thus can never be trusted.

Ghetto Fights level shit. Two totally untrained, untalented dudes throwing punches wildly and then stuff happens. Hooke wins via submission, in fact, with something approximating a rear naked choke. If I could give star ratings to legit contests, -***** here.

6) LUKE HODGES vs. JACOB CHAGOLLA: I think I heard of Hodges before, but who knows. Both guys come into the bout in good shape and that's always a positive thing. Perhaps an interesting bout is about to occur?

One thing I've not really needed to mention until here is the refereeing. Some dude with a slicked back cut is playing referee and he's abyssmal. The first round of this fight was great. Chagolla is a strong wrestler looking for GNP. Hodges is a good thai boxer with surprising submission skills. Chagolla gets a takedown right at the start and is nearly triangled. Lots of transitions and action in the fight, and with about 30 seconds left, Hodges secures an armbar from guard. Chagolla is in the midst of defending it when the referee inexplicably separates them for a standup. I was aghast. Chagolla is tired out now but had he prevented the armbar, he could have gotten Hodges back. Instead, Hodges takes his head and begins bashing knees into it up until the round ends.

The second round is marred by more horrible calls. Hodges again acquires the thai clinch and unloads shots, but in getting close is taken down by Chagolla. Chagolla ends up on top, Hodges against the cage, elevating himself and arm up to punch and then pass to side mount, when the ref again steps in to separate and stand the fighters up. Chagolla should have erased this dude's face with a right hand and gone out in infamy but instead he and Hodges continue to have a bout in which Hodges can ride his back for a minute and accomplish nothing but he gets on top and has about 5 seconds to throw a billion shots or be stood up. Hodges wins the decision in a fight that pissed me off in spite of actual skill being exhibited. I've wished harm in the form of decades of wheelchair bound gruel eating to many competitors in combat sports, however horrible that might be, and I think I've found a new candidate for such strong dislike.

7) GILBERT VELEZ vs. DANIEL MADRID: Dudes making their debut. I think Madrid is still fighting.

Fairly lame fight with Madrid constantly getting takedowns because he's way better on the ground and both guys are worthless standing. Madrid ultimately wins by RNC.

8) ESTEVEZ JONES vs. RYAN POTTER: Jones is some sort of standup fighter dude with a style that, uh, looks straight out of the SAFTA handbook. Potter is a wrestler who trains with Joe Riggs.

Imagine my surprise with this fight, which spent the first 7 minutes or so being an affront to everything I enjoy about MMA. Potter constantly takes down Jones, who is pretty chubby and not at all very good. Oddly, Jones will throw a strike once in awhile that catches the offguard Potter. Potter slams him hard, and Jones somehow hangs on through a ton of punches to get back to his feet and be slammed again. This repeats for the entire first round and most of the second. Until, miraculously, Jones bucks Potter off and stands up, landing a right hand as he does. Potter is badly dazed and a couple punches later, Jones somehow wins.

9) JON KESSLER vs. TONY ROYBAL: Kessler comes out with a black gi and Roybal is backed by David Carrasco.

Short fight. Bad standup at first, Kessler then grabs and gets a takedown, and from there he controls the rest of the fight. Eventually this leads to him getting mount and an armbar to win early in round 1.

10) CHANCE WILLIAMS vs. RON RUMPF: Rumpf is tomato can personified. Williams is the guy tomato cans beat so that they can keep getting fights.

The power of lard causes Williams to land looping shots on Rump and drop him for an early win. Somewhat surprising. At least it was brief.

11) EMANUEL NEWTON vs. JOHN LANSING: Newton has moved on to bigger and better things and Lansing is some dude you've likely not heard of.

Newton and Lansing clinch and Newton picks him up like a ragdoll and throws him to the mat. Lansing, who is clearly a naturally smaller fighter, is rolled on, eventually being stopped by strikes on the ground.

12) JONATHAN WESSON vs. PAUL O'KEEFE: Both men are making their debut. I have no idea on backgrounds of either, but Wesson is a teammate of Estevez Jones so I bet he sucks.

I was right. O'Keefe picks him up and slams the dude, then pounds him. Wesson eventually rolls a little and starts to stand up, but O'Keefe causes him to tap with what looked more like the Million Dollar Dream than an actual RNC. No hooks and both standing. Sad.

13) MATT DELL vs. SEAN CANOVA: Dell is ANOTHER pro debut. Canova is a conditioning coach from SoCal who works with Todd Medina. This bout is so important, the grave nature of the outcome demands it be the 155 POUND SUPERFIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD.

First round is dominated by Canova on the ground. Dell tried defending the takedowns well but Canova was just too good for him. Odd choice by Herb Dean, who is now the ref, to stand the fighters up while Canova had two hooks in on Dell. Canova is slightly winded (Apple talks about breathing problems he's had) and Dell is unable to capitalize because his standup is way behind technically. Second round has Dell shoot early, grab the take down, and he stays there. Eventually Herb Dean comes in to stand them up, but Canova is too tired to stand and the fight ends. Lame.

14) DEL HAWKINS vs. GABE BROCKMIER: Apple is even shocked that he's saying that a guy making his pro debut gets to fight Hawkins for the Gladiator Challenge Super Lightweight title. Yeah, MMA doesn't have a belt problem....

Hawkins laced him up with kicks to start, then picks Brockmier up, hoists around the ring, slams him, gets mount, beats him up. Brockmier is KTFO with elbows to the head from side mount.

15) KYACEY USCOLA vs. ROBERT SARKOZI: Ice Cold, a Bodogfight vet, takes on the relative of the French prime minister? Okay, maybe not. More interesting tag line though, right? Sarkozi's actually from Hungary and has been around awhile and lost to guys people have heard of like Phil Baroni. He also beat Uscola prior to this at a Gladiator Challenge show. REVENGE?

First round is almost all Uscola. Both guys are well rounded guys but Uscola is clearly the better wrestler in pedigree and in the ring and proves it by taking down Sarkozi twice and being almost unshakeable in mount. Second round is a reversal of fortune with a tired Uscola getting taken down, mounted, and beaten on until an unthinkable standup from Herb Dean breaks the action. Sarkozi responds by knocking down Uscola hard with a series of knees that nearly finishes the fight. The second round is all Sarkozi until about 20 seconds remain, when Uscola is able to hip throw Sarkozi and cuts him with an elbow just before the end of the fight. Judges decision goes to Uscola other than the obvious draw that it should have been. Blah.

16) EDWIN DEWEES vs. BUCKLEY ACOSTA: Dewees is a TUF alumni now, which is sorta weird to say. He also bled more than anyone ever on that show, probably. Acosta's bout that got him here with Aaron Brink is reviewed in detail just a couple posts ago in the look at Final Conflict (Show #4).

Acosta rocks Dewees early and drops him against the cage. Dewees is mutifaceted though and locks up an arm. Acosta is able to get out of the armbar attempt by spiking Dewees on his head, but then promptly runs into another submission attempts. This time, Dewees locks up the triangle choke and Acosta taps before the first minute is over.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Hodges/Chagolla - It was marred by awful an awful ref, but so was everything else. Good fight though.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Hawkins/Brockmier - Expected in such a mismatch, but really brutal stuff.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Dewees/Acosta - Really slick armbar attempt gets beaten with a slam, so he follows it with the triangle choke and goes home a winner.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4.5 out ot 10. The fights were all covered in shitty reffing and there was so much crap I barely remember the good.

----------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Kyacey Uscola made his way to TUF, got his dick bit by a pitbull, and lost his last two in nothing promotions.

David Carrasco hasn't fought since 2006.

Edwin Dewees has fought sporadically and won 2 of his last 6 in a span of 4 years.

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 4/18

Man, so little to review and yet it took me until 12:30AM Friday morning to see anything.

THIS IS THE ULTIMATE DUN DUN DUN DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN #13 EPISODE 4 OR 5 OR SOMETHING

Ramsey Nijem and Charlie Rader are fighting and hey, its the best fight the season has produced thus far on paper! Brock and Co. note that Rader is a state champ wrestler. Hey, that's nice. Nijen wrestled in college with real dudes and ends up dominating the fight. He comes at Rader with wild shots Rader isn't prepared to counter or defend, gets the clinch, gets takedowns, works dirty boxing, and submits him. The editing makes Rader out to be a quitter for the purpose of drama and who cares. Len Bentley leaves because, shit, he did fight his ass off.

BELLATOR 41:

We open with Daniel Straus taking on Kenny Foster - Good win for Straus. Shows solid grappling with some decent shots, good leg kicks, nice judo throws, and gets a guillotine late in the third round. He kept the pace up and wore out Foster against he cage and on the mat, eventually leading to Foster being unable to compete with Straus in the scrambles and leaving his neck out for the submission. Straus looks really good all around. One caveat though - his striking often leaves him super open and Foster got tagged a couple times.

Chad Robichaux is in a superfight! Who? Against Zach Makovsky? Who is a champ? Or something? Both guys with glitzy records at bantam. Who deserves his? Well, Makovsky. Robichaux seems a decent fighter who is hopelessly outsized here and needs to hope for a 125lb weight class to come into existence. Makovsky repeatedly gets takedowns and dominant positions. Sure, Robichaux gets out of some subs, but he gets smashed out with punches. Is that really much better?

Patricio Pitbull Friere and Wilson Reis rematch and we get a pretty interesting fight as a result. Reis and Friere end up in a sort of standup battle most of the time with Friere landing the more effective blows in rounds one and two when the fight would be at a distance. When on the mat, Reis was the technically superior grappler (as expected) and Friere was the physically stronger man (as expected) - what's nice about Friere is that he knows his strengths and works to them. Against a great grappler like Reis, he looks to control the upper body and holds at the waist rather than try to fish for singles and doubles against the cage. Control and wearing down your man is a better option than trying for takedowns you can't get. Thanks to that smart gameplan, Reis ends up eating punches late in the fight and ends up getting highlight reel KOed with a combination against the cage forcing the stoppage. Very good performance from Friere.

Marcos Galvao and Joe Warren end the night in a three round fight. If you haven't heard, this was supposedly a terrible decision that Warren didn't for a second deserve. So let's talk about what I saw in this fight: Both rounds one and two were generally won by Galvao, but were close rounds in which while he appeared to land the more effective shots, Warren was able to force him to the cage repeatedly during takedown attempts and also was able to land straight right hands thanks to Galvao's unchanged interest in moving straight back in the cage with his hands down. That in turn led to takedowns at the end of both rounds, to which Warren was unable to do anything particularly effective. So what do you score these rounds on?

Well, both guys honestly landed a similar number of shots - Unfortunately there are no fightmetric reports, but I do have Compustrike to base what I saw on: In round 1, it was 14-13 landed in favor of Galvao for standing strikes. In round 2, it was 20-15 in favor of Galvao. We're talking tight numbers here. Warren landed the only strikes on the mat in round two (one of which was a clean and effective right hand to the jaw through the guard of Galvao), but in round one, clearly the more effective shots came in the first 30 seconds on the mat as Galvao had Warren turtling up while he wailed away. So who cleanly wins the round? Does Galvao win for having defended takedown attempts over and over or does he lose them for getting tagged with right hands standing while being pushed around and taken down in spots?

I would probably have scored this fight like everyone else - 29-28 Galvao. When I think back to the moments of the fight where someone did the most damage or really hit the highlight reel, I think of Warren diving into 3 flying knees in the second round and Galvao beating the tar out of him in the first minute of the round. Its the highlight reel stuff where everyone goes "oooh" and its not like Warren then went to so comprehensively win the remainder of those rounds that he bounces back in my eyes. If anything, the rest of the round is generally even with only his takedowns to go on. But this was not an easy fight to score, and I can see just about any score in this fight but 30-27 Galvao given Warren's comprehensive top control in the final stanza.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS:

Last Week: 2-0

Overall for the Year: 25-10

BELLATOR 42:

Hale is, as I've said in the past, a very big dude. But he's a big dude I know nothing about. He's got submission skills judging from the Fekete fight, but how real are they? Was it a fluke? He's gonna tower over Lindermann, who is a tough guy and is very good at wearing bigger men out. I'm going to predict DJ Linderman by second round KO, being the feel good story of the Bellator tourneys. Hale just isn't going to be more effective with submissions than past Linderman opposition and being so big and cutting so much, he too will tire and feel the pain of looping punches raining on him.

Carpenter is a strong grappler and M'Pumbu is, well, not a great wrestler to be frank. If you can't wrestle, you can't win at a certain level, and this is that level for M'Pumbu. In spite of his cool record and the fact that he looks scary, I have to pick against M'Pumbu and treat this like a heavyweight boxing contest: robotic European can't beat a more dynamic American!

Ronnie Mann is fighting a 6-9 fighter to fill up space on the card. I could say "Hey, I predicted a fight right!" and pick Mann, but that is stupid. Of course Mann is going to win. Like fishing with dynamite.

Raging Wolf 11 (12/30/2010)

Dan Funes (who once sent me a critical email!) and Jen Boronico are announcing this MMA event from Western NY. Main event - Nuri Shakir vs. Tom Egan. Really? Oh, and did I mention its a title fight?

1) Antonio Smith vs. Frank Scalzo: Amateur bout at 145. Scalzo looks like he has a karate background?

FIGHT: Smith Unanimous Decision. Here's the fight in a nutshell; two guys clinch, one goes for an arm in guillotine, doesn't get it, gets controlled on the bottom, loses the round. This is rounds one and two. In rounds three, two guys clinch, the one with the crazy stance drops levels and gets a takedown. Very little happens. They stand, they clinch some more, the fight ends. Scalzo is the one who got the takedown in the 3rd and was on top most of the 2nd, but loses the decision. Why? How? I have no idea. (0)

Ben Saunders and Jonathan Brookins have been paid appearance fees for this event and come into the ring to waive and shit. I read not long ago that Mark Coleman was charging $2K per appearance, so I'm guessing these guys got something similar. Maybe not as good.

2) Chris Robinson vs. TJ Sumler: I feel like I've seen Sumler's name in the past. Survey says: I have! He lost to Allen Arzeno in a amateur title fight. Welterweight bout that has 3 minute rounds - still amateurs?

FIGHT: Sumler TKO Rnd 1. Sumler drops Robinson rushing in with a right hand and gets folded. So Robinson then gets hit square in the back of the head with an illegal shot, stumbles up and gets highlight KOed with a right hand. Ref jumps in and he complains. Sumler moves on. So do I. (0)

3) Luigi Fioravanti vs. Mike Guerin: Luigi is extra fat. Guerin is 10-1 and clearly more built.

FIGHT: Fioravanti Unanimous Decision. (2)

Fioravanti: There's not a lot to be said here about Fioravanti - his hands seemed to be faster, and while he's wide, he can still hit a non-moving target like Guerin's chin. Also, he's still good enough on the mat to stop Guerin from being able to do much in top control aside from throw headbutts. He's calmer in the ring and that helps him have better stamina. I dunno, he's a veteran with some skills but who physically doesn't look the part of a world class fighter and who lacks the results too, this win aside.

Guerin: What I know about Guerin is that he lacks commitment standing, throws straight shots with not a ton of force, has a decent takedown but really can't set it up, and leaves his chin out while he bends over and gives up his height. Uhhh, yeah. I just can't see much long term potential in a middleweight Jonathan Brookins, minus the lateral drop.

4) Nuri Shakir vs. Thomas Egan: YOUR MAIN EVENT for the RW Welterweight title. One guy has a career losing record who won the title against a 3-2 no name. Now he fights s 4-2 fringe name to defend.

FIGHT: Shakir TKO Rnd 3. Egan never answers the bell for the 3rd, stating that the weight cut of 16lbs was so severe, he can't continue. Even Dan Funes is shaking his head. Shakir is still a blown up featherweight who gets multiple takedowns on Egan and controls him by consistently getting the clinch and forcing the fight to the cage rather than exchange with Egan, which is Egan's lone strength. This was a chance for Egan to show that he was ready for the next level, and he's not even close. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Shakir/Egan

KO OF THE NIGHT: Sumler/Robinson

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2 out of 10. Sumler has a wicked KO, some boring decisions, a boring decision is cut short by one of the participants having laughably bad cardio.

Cage Wars 9: Staredown (3/9/2008)

Unbelievably, this show that somehow had not seen the light of day before finally makes TV. And what a show it is: Dan Severn is in the main event fighting Colin Robinson. Along with him, other Cage Wars vets like Lee McKibben, Daniel Abrol, and several others.

1) Daniel Abrol vs. Danny Van Bergen: Van Bergen is a european journeyman I'm familiar with from watching M-1. Abrol I've seen fight repeatedly in Cage Wars, and he's almost never very good.

FIGHT: Van Bergen Submission Rnd 1. KOTC special as VB closes distance, gets a big takedown, and works for a kimura. (0)

2) Tom Ahrens vs. Peter Duncan: Duncan sucks but at least puts on a good show. Ahrens defines journeyman and is from the US.

FIGHT: Duncan Unanimous Decision. I feel truly bad trying to give any sort of reasonable breakdown because I didn't pay a ton of attention to this, perhaps the most irrelevant of fights. But it wasn't too bad from what I saw - Ahrens won the first with takedowns and control, but gassed out in the second, was swept by Duncan, and basically Duncan ran shit from there. He bashed up Ahrens with some punches and knees in the third round while also nullifying any sort of offense when stuck on his back, and so he wins the fight. Like I said before about Duncan; not very good, but you like to watch him anyways. (0)

4) Tim Estes vs. Chris Stringer: Estes looks so ridiculously young.

FIGHT: Stringer Unanimous Decision. Again, another fight I tried to pay attention to and couldn't. Estes gets taken down repeatedly and beaten up on the feet, loses every round, and drops a decision. Estes does nothing to threaten Stringer from his back, so the fight is kinda a wash. (0)

5) Lee McKibbin vs. James Head: McKibbin is a guy who does a lot of things not too special, and Head is a guy from the US that looks a lot bigger.

FIGHT: Head Submission Rnd 2. Head gets down McKibbin in the first and does a decent amount of work there. Standing, both guys are hella wild. Second round sees Head being buzzed with a punch, being on his back, and he works for a triangle that he sorta sets up and takes his time with. He gets it though, and that's all that matters. (0)

6) Jimmy Mills vs. Michael Nichol: Mills has a decent overall record and hails from the US. Nichols I know has some sort of grappling background.

FIGHT: Mills Submission Rnd 1. North/South choke ends this after he takes down Nichol very early in the fight and lands a few shots. Its called an anaconda choke, but its clearly not. (0)

7) Colin Robinson vs. Dan Severn: Severn is, at this point, 49 I believe. Robinson had a chance in the UFC that did not go well.

FIGHT: Dan Severn Unanimous Decision. Horrible Dan Severn fight as they all are - he shoots in on Robinson who can't stop the double and can't do anything off his back. Meanwhile, Severn sits in half guard and does nothing round after round. Robinson may have actually won the first landing some punches standing and having Severn in trouble but gave up the second and third. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Ahrens/Duncan

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Mills/Nichol

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. Another lousy Cage Wars show. At leat I can say I've seen more than half of them.

D&R Rating: 6% (2/35)

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 4/11

Bellator 40:

Ben Askren got a nice W over the now "retired" Nick Thompson. Lots of people complain that Askren doesn't finish. What he does is the equivalent of a low power pressure fighter in boxing. You know these guys - Phillip Holiday, Juan Diaz, Raul Balbi, Leonard Dorin. You know the type. Well, okay, maybe you do. They come and come and come and come. They don't stop trying to knock you out or hurt you, they just can't. Sometimes they learn to sit on their punches more and they land those kind of big shots and end fights. Juan Diaz did for a little while. And sometimes they don't. Its a tough style to do but it makes for good bouts. Askren is fighting guys who don't have the ability to really do anything to him in terms of stuffing takedowns or making him work for the shot, so it might wear on people. Against Hieron, it would be different I think. At least more entertaining.

I said after seeing Chandler win his last fight that he would only be able to beat Woodard of the three potential opponents in his next fight. That's who he fought, and he won going away. Took him down over and over and over and over. Chandler is a one dimensional wrestler who has wrestling chokes. Typically, this is a good thing against Brazilian strikers like Patricky Friere, but I think Friere's immense size for the weight combined with a BJJ background could dismantle Chandler. Honestly, I'm not as sure now as I was a couple weeks ago.

Jay Hieron's decision win against Weedman is a classic example of the judges giveth, the judges taketh away. Hieron probably landed the more effective punches in the second but did eat some leg kicks, and totally lost the third round. Could he have lost the fight? Sure. But Weedman pushed with his shots and basically walked Hieron down. Hieron seemed to have a hellacious time getting this to the mat and had a couple shots stuffed in the second. Its like he couldn't change levels or something, which is weird for him, because its his blast double that's his bread and butter. I think he's fighting hurt and that its a knee or something similar. He shouldn't lose to Rick Hawn, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

As for the heavyweight clash of Prindle/Burns - less said, the better. Ends on a cut. Neither guy jabs or kicks. Both throw lead left hooks and right hands. Neither can throw a combination. Both were gassed very early and both look like the members of WCW tag team High Voltage. Gassed up and nowhere to go. One thing I can tell you: Prindle is goddamned huge.

Strikeforce Diaz/Daley:

Aoki made Beerbohm look stupid. Well, Beerbohm shot in and ends up getting tripped (sorta like a single - really nifty takedown), taken down, gives up the back, and loses by a neck crank of sorts. Aoki wins the battle of fancy pants.

Mousasi beat the hell out of Keith Jardine and somehow gets a draw. I'm like everyone else - how does that happen? He won every round on my card. All of them. Sure, it was 9-9 for the first, but still. That's 29-27, Mousasi. Someone scored it a draw. Yes, Jardine gets some takedowns in the first and the second, and even has some time on the top in the 3rd. But he's never there long and does nothing with it. Meanwhile, Mousasi has Jardine bleeding from almost every facial orifice as a result of the straight punches that land over and over.

Melendez was throwing that right hand as if he were Dan Henderson. Of course, Kawajiri moved straight back into it. He looked like he was in panic mode from the get go after getting tagged with a right hand as he shot in, and the Matt Hughes like 1-2 and shot never got going. Instead, Crusher took a beatin' with knees, punches, and elbows. the actual ending was pretty stunning - Kawajiri shoots desperately from outside, gets sprawled on, pulls guard, and then gets blasted with elbows until the fight ends.

What is there to say about Nick Diaz's KO win over Paul Daley that has not already been said elsewhere? It was a slam bang pow fight between guys at a certain level in the division and made for good TV. Daley could barely make it back to his stool, which means in retrospect that it was probably the right call as far as a stoppage is concerned. Meanwhile, man, Diaz got in some nice body shots again, didn't he? He just chewed up Daley with those. I dunno, its possibly the best win in Nick Diaz's career and yet its one he shares with the likes of Nick Thompson. Consider that aspect of it carefully.

ULTIMATE FIGHTER + BLAHHHHHHH

This week we are gifted a bout between Len Bentley and Ryan McGillivray. Bentley was the top dog on Lesnar's team and McGillivray is some guy. As I pointed out in my very short preview of the season, McGillivray has fought good fighters and lost to them, but at least fought them. Bentley's big step up was a lost to Cody McKenzie and a failout of the M-1 selection process. Anyhow, this is a competitive and entertaining, albiet low level fight between a couple guys who's chins get in the way of right hands and don't really seek proper takedowns. Bentley goes for an armbar in the first round that he gets stacked out of and they trade knockdowns in the first as well. In the second, McGillivray really does a better job of staying at distance and landing blows, clearly winning the round in my book. Honestly, he did a better job in the first, and while I would have been tempted to 10-10 it, I would have scored it the way two judges did. Best fight of this short season right now. Neither guy will win.

MFC 29 was reviewed separately.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS

Last week: 2-3

Overall for the year: 23-10

First really bad week where I go below .500 thanks in large part to the Mousasi/Jardine decision. Still have my head scratching. So this year, I've been reminded of two things while reviewing:

-Don't pick against a guy because you don't like his physicality and his entertainment value in past fights. I did this with DJ Linderman and I looked like a fool.

-If someone seems washed up, they probably are. I did this with picking Terry Martin to be in any way competitive, much less beat Lima, and I looked like a fool.

They are emotional things, and emotions are tough when watching fights. This week though: Short week. Just one promotion to worry about.

BELLATOR 41:

Joe Warren vs. Marcos Galvao at a 137lb catchweight: Man, Galvao is a top control grappler to the max and no chin. Warren is a great wrestler and a decent banger too. Warren is the star. Galvao is the after thought. The star is intended to win and shall, likely by decision. Normally one would be worried about Galvao winning by decision given Warren's predisposition to leaving his arms in bad places, but Galvao has never won by sub in his 13 fight career.

Patricio Freiere vs. Wilson Reis: Nothing changes in the rematch of these two fighters. Pitbull wins by controlling distance and preventing takedowns, and this time he stops Reis.

I'll skip on predicting Foster/Straus, though my feeling is that Straus wins. Foster is too unknown and Straus too untested to make any sort of safe statement here.

MFC 29 (4/10/2011)

We've got the debut of MFC in a proper round cage and also their debut in Ontario as they ran a show at the Caesars Windsor Ballroom. We've got Terry Martin, Hermes Franca, Ryan Jimmo, Pete Spratt, and Marcus Davis. Yes indeedy, this is gonna be a quality second rate show. I hope. Or not.

1) Andreas Spang vs. Ali Mokdad: Mokdad is a local boy from Windsor, Spang is Swedish but training in Vegas. No idea who either is.

FIGHT: Mokdad Submission Rnd 1. Mokdad gets the clinch, the takedown, takes the back when Spang tries to stand, and we have a KOTC special. (0)

2) Demi Deeds vs. Pete Spratt: Spratt is a legend who has never been in a bad fight. Ever. It should be noted that Spratt is now 40 years old. Both men are coming in on two loss slides.

FIGHT: Spratt Submission Rnd 2. Tough fight to break down. In effect, you have a very dull first round in which Spratt establishes the distance as well as the ability to get up from Deeds' takedowns and/or defend the shot. Deeds comes straight in, offers no angles, and doesn't really set anything up well and gets raked with punches at the end of the round for his trouble, along with low kicks. The theme continues in round 2, Spratt hurts him badly with a right hand and has to go chasing Deeds around the cage until he falls down. Spratt continues the battering there and then moves to an armbar from side control to force the tap. This is at least the second time that I can remember Frank Trigg being all wowed that Spratt does have submissions. Too bad they only work against crappy fighters. Spratt notes that he's getting old in the post fight interview. (2)

3) Robert Washington vs. Hermes Franca: Washington was on MFC 28 which I neglected to do a review of (but will soon). Franca has been on a tail spin in recent years. Now 36 (officially), he's won only one fight in his last 5, with one of the bouts being a "should be a win" sort of result against Ferrid Kheder.

FIGHT: Franca TKO Rnd 2. Horrible first round where both guys stand at distance and feel each other out. Washington tries to move his body around and throw jabs and stuff to set up his punches, but doesn't really do a good job of it. Its pretty predictable that he throws one jab and then the right hand and when he's going to close the distance. Franca times him jumping in with a looping right and Washington drops and takes a few more shots before the fight is stopped. Nothing to get excited about for anyone involved. (2)

4) Marcus Davis vs. Curtis DeMarce: Davis has fallen so, so far. From welterweight top 15 fighter in the UFC to a guy scrapping with generic lightweights on small casino shows in the course of about 36 months.

FIGHT: Davis Split Decision (2)

DeMarce: Not going to do a lot of breaking down on him because, hey, does he really matter? Some attempts at takedowns, not very good standing compared to Davis (as expected), but more often than not taken down himself or would lose position. He does damage Davis with what is said to be an elbow on the mat from the bottom, but honestly I thought it was a butt. Whatever. No biggie. You want to hear about Davis, right?

Davis: Davis fought this bout like a man trying to reinvent himself for the long run. Problem #1: That should have happened 5-6 years ago when he was in his physical prime. Problem #2: He's not that effective in doing it here against a nobody. Davis fights rounds 1 and the first half of roun 2 as a top control grappler who lies in half guard or guard and lands shots. That is astonishing to see from a guy who used to chase $50K/60K bonuses instead of wins like they were 6 figure paydays. In round 1, he clearly succeeds. In round 2, the cut that forms early on leads to a standup, and as a result of that, DeMarce comes forward and gets his own takedown. This is part of the problem of being a top control grappler - if you aren't the better wrestler, it doesn't really work as a long term plan. Yes, Davis sorta helps the matter by going for a guillotine, and yes, Davis then proceeds to shrimp and turn over and take top control on DeMarce. But this happens again and again as Davis continues to go for low kicks and knees and other strikes that are stupid to throw against a guy who is trying to wrestle you down. Especially when your hands are a million times better than the other guy's and landing at will.

My takeaways from the fight regarding Davis are this: His legs are shot. You can see it in his lack of real bounce in the ring. It looks like they're not really under him anymore and that everything he does has fragility. If you are a striker primarily and your legs are shot, your career is kaput-ski. Obviously Davis has tried to then transition to a different game, but its not really his game. And he did it far, far too late. He's not getting back to the big show and if he does, its on the basis of a Phil Baroni because he's broke and its the UFC's way of giving alms to the poor old fighters that broke down fighting for them to give them not much money in an attempt to be George Foremans and Randy Coutures.

5) Ryan Jimmo vs. Zak Cummings: Cummings is a balding grappler who is fighting above his best weight against a guy who is much, much bigger than him. Cummings also is a lousy striker, which makes the task even more difficult. Meanwhile, the MFC and HDNet continue to prop up Jimmo, one of the most boring fighters in the game. They note his 14 wins in a row coming in and compare it to guys like Jake Shields and Anderson Silva, who have beaten live bodies. 5 rounder for the MFC LHW title.

FIGHT: Jimmo Unanimous Decision. Impossible to reasonably breakdown on the basis of the fighters. (2)

Cummings comes forward with chopping right hand leads and shots and Jimmo defends them by going backwards and leaning on the cage. Sometimes Jimmo throws body kicks or low kicks. He throws about 3 right hands the whole fight. Both men are bleeding - Jimmo from a headbutt that occurs inside the first 30 seconds, Cummings from a punch to the face. Jimmo wins by inflicting actual damage on his opponent, particularly when he reverses position and ends up on top in the 3rd and 4th round landing blows and seeking kimuras.

This gets to a bigger point to make here and its about Jimmo. Boxing fans know who Jameel McCline is. He was a converted football player turned heavyweight boxer who nearly won the IBF heavyweight title in a fight against best friend Chris Byrd and came to prominence with an early KO of Michael Grant way, way back (2002? 2003?). Anyhow, I remember a poster on rec.sport.boxing saying that he hated Grant because in spite of being a huge beast of a man and being so athletic, he fought like a pussy. He never sat on his punches, leading to an abnormally low KO rate for a man his size. Here was a giant of a man who slap boxed guys he should have walked through.

Jimmo has similarities. He is this huge hulking dude who still has trouble being controlled by wrestlers much smaller than him, or at least in terms of them nullifying his offense. That's problematic. More problematic is his style. Again, huge dude, has power, what does he do? He sits on the outside and throws leg kicks. He still can't time dudes coming in to land shots, his lateral movement still isn't very good, and when dudes shoot in, he can't force them down to the mat himself and beat the shit out of them. I mean, if you can control how the grappling exchanges go, you win fights. Instead, he is a victim of wall and stall time and time again. And he sucks at avoiding punches. He leaves his chin out. 15 wins in a row is great, but man, who does he beat at 205 in the UFC? I'm clueless. I hate to say it, but give him Eliot Marshall in his next MFC fight and go from there.

6) Douglas Lima vs. Terry Martin: YOUR MAIN EVENT. MFC welterweight title is on the line.

FIGHT: Lima TKO Rnd 1. I'm shocked immediately by the size differential. Lima is two weight classes larger than Martin, who himself was actually a light heavyweight at one time. I know at that point that I had made the oh-so-wrong pick when predicting this fight. Lima catches Martin coming forward with a right hand, he drops to a knee, takes a couple more punches, and its waived off. Martin is washed up to the max. He looks like he needs to seriously consider 155 or retiring. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Davis/Demarce

KO OF THE NIGHT: Lima/Martin

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Spratt/Deeds

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 5 out of 10. There's some terrifically bad, some kinda interesting, some utterly lousy and soul crushing. This is minor league MMA defined; lots of ex UFC contenders who got somewhere short of the top fighting in a casino ballroom for scraps against no-names. None of them come out looking much better for it.

D&R Rating: 33% (10/30)

NAAFS Cage Fighting (3/20/2011)

Yet another show from NAAFS graces my screen. Tonight's main event for TV - John Hawk vs. Josh Watson at 205.

1) Tony Hodges vs. Tommy Deroia: Deroia looks like he aspires to be James Irvin.

FIGHT: Deroia Submission Rnd 1. Fast stuff as he jumps in with a push kick and punch and clinches, and Jesus, was that out of the Royce Gracie textbook? He gets this to the mat and gets the back very quickly and the choke. Not even really under the chin and hooks not really in, but still impressive as he goes to 5-0 as an amateur. No striking prowess really displayed. (0)

2) Ronda Gale vs. Holly Powell: 15 year age difference in favor of the 20 year old Powell. 115lb bout.

FIGHT: Ronda Gale. Ridiculous scoring has Gale winning 30-27 on one card and losing 29-28 on another. Solid who cares sorta fight between amateur women going nowhere fast. Powell just looks to close distance and get the clinch and stay there the entire time. Snore. The video had some choppiness to it, probably due to weather in the area. (0)

3) Josh Watson vs. John Hawk: Ridiculous hair as Watson is wearing the Roadkill/Amish beard and Hawk has a pink mohawk. I've seen Watson before elsewhere.

FIGHT: Hawk TKO Rnd 1. Again, I had some lousy video here but what I did see was an ass beating on Watson. Watson dropped his hands constantly. On defense, on offense, whenever. As soon as he'd move his hands, they would drop dramatically almost to waist level. Hawk comes out looking as sleek as he'll ever be at this weight and lands with his generic boxing, pushes Watson up against the cage, and delivers an elbow that actually fells the big goofy looking fella. A lot of GNP later and the ref steps in, way late, to call a halt to this bout. (1)

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 3.5 out of 10. I liked the John Hawk fight - not often I've said that statement in the last year or two. Deroia playing a hyper athletic version of undersized, nonathletic Gracie family member was interesting, but I don't think its a wise career path. The women's fight I've already forgotten.

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Raging Bull (12/26/2005)

Yet another MMA event from the archive.

#5
Raging Bull (12/16/2005)

I started this last night and fell asleep during the second round of the Sean Salmon fight. Oops.

Production values go WAY downhill here with a two camera Handicam shoot in a nightclub. Erik Apple is announcing via overdub, the lighting sucks, Pappa Schanke or whatever that annoying dude's name is does ring announcing (GEE THANKS I NEED THE TWO MINUTES TO GO SIGN) and shit. Your refs are Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes.

1) LEREMY JOHNSON vs. ROB KERWIN: Not listed on the insert card. No background about the fighters given. No weightclass given. 4 minute rounds because we are in the Ohio of many moons ago, in fact in the Agora Ballroom, which is like where Motorhead would play in Cleveland.

Decent back and forth action as Johnson gets the takedown, Kerwin reverses it and gets in his guard, then Johnson locks up a triangle and holds on through a few attempted power bombs out of it to get the chokeout.

2) JOSH SHOCKMAN vs. KEITH MCINTOSH: This isn't listed either. No history on either. McIntosh is a fat kid and Shockman has a bad haircut.

As is a general standard for MMA, the white dude with the worst hair wins. McIntosh absorbs a ton of well placed wide arcing, unorthodox shots from what must be a top level kickboxer (with a Naseem Hamed fetish) in the midwest in about 20 seconds and falls down. Shockman ended up in the UFC not long after and lost to Jake O'Brien. Interestingly, I've heard nothing really about either one since. Does it matter?

3) LOREN BRADLEY vs. DOMINIC QURAZZO: Another super special bonus fight not listed! Bradley has a lame tribal tattoo across his shoulder blades. Not to be outdone, Qurazzo has a bootleg Punisher skull on his back and American flag trunks. I bet he drives a pickup truck.

This goes two rounds, is primarily standup, and what happens there is with all the grace of Rosier/Frazier. Eventually the sloppy punching downs Bradley and Dominic wins for AMERICA.

4) JOSH MARTIN vs. SESSHOURMARU TAMASHII: That is an outstanding name for that one dude. I bet he loses though.

Martin gets a clinch, lands a knee, and then a bunch of elbows and bunches and the fight is done within 20 seconds. Perhaps it was "OCTAGON SHOCK" or something.

5) SEAN SALMON vs. JERRY SPIEGEL: Salmon is now the losing part of two classic MMA knockouts. Spiegel isn't any good. He's 1-10-1 in his previous 12 coming in.

If you had shown me this prior to Salmon/Rashad and told me you thought he was gonna have a legit chance to win, as many here did, I would have laughed a lot. Salmon gets his takedowns and some decent ground and pound, but shows no ability whatsoever to take advantage of what is essentially a willing loser right in front of him. Two attempts to set up the armbar and kimura go wasted in side control. He can't finish twice having Spiegel's back. In all this, he even lets Spiegel gain confidence, sweep him, and take his back with both hooks in and so they go to round 2.

Round 2 is more of the same. Salmon gets the takedown from the start, gets mount almost immediately, doesn't throw much leather from the top position because he's already gassed, switches to side mount and spends a minute and a half going for a kimura and not even coming close. Then he gets back on top, rides Spiegel till he gets his back, and Spiegel defends the RNC until time runs out. Round 3 is 4 minutes more of Salmon in side control trying to hook up the kimura and failing. Salmon wins by decision and its way less than impressive.

6) TERRY MARTIN vs. RON FIELDS: Martin is now a UFC vet, but he's actually in better shape here than he was with Irvan. Fields is a journeyman who's fought a bunch of dudes and lost to pretty much all the good ones. Apparently its a rematch too.

Fields needs distance to strike with Martin and never gets it because he doesn't know how to move in the ring. Martin forces him back, throws right hands in close when he's smothered Fields' range, takes him down, punishes him, and so on. Not a particularly incredible fight but you can see some talent in Martin here. Martin ends up getting thai clinch and then instead of throwing knees is able to get Fields in a guillotine.

7) MIKE RUSSO vs. JIMMY BOYD: I was hoping this would be a misprint and really be Mike Russow, because then it would be sorta meaningful, what with Russow just beating a top 50 heavyweight a couple weeks back. It is not. Decent fight on the ground with Russo almost getting an armbar from the bottom on Boyd, and Boyd elevating him and somehow holding him in the air for about 10 seconds until Russo was forced to let go. Boyd was eventually able to get him against the cage following that and put enough strikes on his dome to end it in round 1 via GnP.

8) TREVOR GARRETT vs. BRENDAN SEGUIN: I've seen Seguin many times over the years, and this is my first exposure to Garrett, who is essentially a nobody. Garrett is wearing thai boxing shorts, which kinda telegraphs his background.

Seguin rushes in and gets the clinch immediately, and much of the round is spent there against the fence, with a couple takedowns by Seguin that Garrett is able to worm his way back to his feet following. A third takedown proves more difficult, and the final minute is pretty much Seguin laying in side control doing a whole lot of nothing. The second round falls into the same path, with Seguin shooting immediately and getting Garrett against the cage. Garrett is able to spin him and back him up, but falls into a guillotine attempt. He survives that, then gets swept. Somewhere in this, Seguin is cut. He continues to control the fight, but Hughes has the doctor take a look at it. When the fight is restarted, Seguin gets a double leg takedown and is in top control once more. In fact, this time he's punishing Garrett with strikes against the cage. Hughes decides that as Seguin is clearly in control and perhaps a minute from a stoppage win to end the fight due to the cut, and Garrett goes from being pounded to winning instantly. Either Hughes was on the take or is enormously inept. Your choice here.

9) DERECK KEASLEY vs. JEFF COX: Cox is wearing Aoki style pants and Keasley is some dude.

They trade sloppy punching early and Keasley falls down. Cox follows him there and ends up in a triangle choke. Thing is, Keasley can't quite lock it up and so this position stays the same for about 3 and a half minutes until Cox finally pulls his head up enough that Keasley can get his foot slotted behind his knee and complete it.

10) DAN BOBISH vs. JOEY SMITH: Bobish's second career in MMA will never cease to amaze me. Smith is some dude who sucks. Fight has Smith throwing punches, falling down on his belly for no real reason, and Bobish throwing strikes until its stopped 20 seconds in. The DVD then states: "Winner: Emerson Bobish". THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Terry Martin/Ron Fields: Pretty damn one sided because of Fields' various liabilites as a fighter, but as competitive as anything on the card and displayed some real skill

KO OF THE NIGHT: Shockman/McIntosh, I guess? No KO was really astounding or unexpected.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Leremy Johnson/Rob Kerwin - Easily wins. The only submission that went down that didn't seem to take an hour to materialize and which had serious resistance.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 Horrible camera work, lots of ghosting on the long shot from the poor digital handcam being used, but some name fighters and it was thankfully short at 1:30. Brevity sometimes trumps sheer volume.

--------------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Laverne Clark and Jake Ellenberger fought at this show, sayith the intarwebz, and it wasn't on here.

Dan Bobish is fat.

Terry Martin has no chin. Neither does S

Josh Shockman lost to Cale Yarborough at a Strikeforce show.

Josh Martin was with Bellator. then you blinked, and he wasn't any more.

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 4/4

RECAP:

Strikeforce Challengers got it's own review. Check that here.

Bellator 39:

I don't do biz talk, but Bellator is spending about $1-2 per fan watching at home on TV per show. And this isn't pay cable where the network is getting $5-7 from that fan to get the channel. The network gets about .10-.2o per subscription (if that, may be free) plus ads. Odd that no one has mentioned this.

-I called Imada getting laid out. Terrible fight for that guy. Freire is now on everyone's mind as being a top independent and being a serious challenger for Alvarez. Note: Alvarez is a whole different hill of beans than is Imada. I'm not at all convinced he's a real challenge for him.

-I called Good beating Hawn. Just one problem - the judges didn't see it that way. The takedown at the end of the third probably won Hawn the fight, as everyone knows. The fight itself was nothing special - Good was very aware and afraid of Hawn's clinch and takedowns and yet Hawn was hardly all that successful with them. Instead he pushed Good to the cage and held him there trying to pummel while Good threw pitty pat punches. The fight as abjectly terrible. What was with Good's wild combination that he got taken down off of in round 2? Why didn't he jab more? He should have recognized the situation early on and skipped out on the leg kicks, pumped the jab, and stayed as far away as possible, making sure to continuously move to Hawn's left. Instead, he generally stayed in front of Hawn and his squared up figure made it easy to be grabbed onto for the body lock.

-Ben Saunders beating up Matt Lee isn't a bad thing. He did what he needed to and cut the hell out of Lee and stopped him. But Saunders looked tired after the first and he left legs out there for a much, much smaller man to grab and pick up. Everyone talks about his clinch fighting - Why is a 6'3'' welterweight specializing in the clinch? And that is why he's never going to amount to a real contender, people.

-I only ended up seeing Alvarez/Curran for about the first two rounds thanks to the show going long and me having a couple programs to record at the same time at 11PM. Oh well. Curran hangs on to survive and wasn't trying to win. Supposedly he may have taken the 5th round. I'll tell you one of these days if I get another chance to watch it.

ULTIMATE FIGHTER WITH BLAHHHHHHH:

Uhhh, fight shown this week was a somewhat interesting battle of positioning between Chris Cope and Javier Torres. Torres was claimed to be perhaps the most or second most talented guy on Team Dos Santos, which makes me very worried for the rest of the year. Chris Cope is a mildly talented brawler in the mold of TUF 9 star Frank Lester. He's a part time fighter who has a little bit of wrestling from probably high school and his time at Team Quest as well as some brawlriffic striking. Torres is obviously a BJJ guy with some kickboxing. For the record, I think Torres clearly won rounds one and two by pushing the fight where he wanted it (against the cage) and landing the better blows in the standup exchanges and in the clinch. Feeling bad or something for Cope, instead he was given the second by a couple judges and we were off to sudden death. There, Torres, dead tired, continued his same sort of wall and stall strategy only to keep losing position in the pummel and even get his back taken briefly. He was just outworked that round, and lost the fight. Torres has zero wrestling. Zero.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS:

Last Week: 3-1

Overall for the year: 21-7

MFC 29:

-Douglas Lima against Terry Martin is almost a cruel joke of a fight. Martin epitomizes wasted potential. Lima is just mildly interesting as far as potential goes. Martin has zero chin, but Lima is no great striker. In fact, having watched Lima before, I still have no idea if he can strike. At all. Martin is a decent wrestler, but he is terrible at game plans. Alternately, he's never been submitted. Jesus. I hate fights like this. I gotta go with Martin. Bigger guy, stronger guy, better wrestler, should be able to control where the fight is, and clearly a better striker based on the evidence that exists.

Strikeforce:

-Nick Diaz vs. Paul Daley is an interesting matchup for a great number of reasons. Diaz has largely owned guys standing for sometime, but Daley is not a brawler who relies entirely on pressure. He's a solid technical guy. Daley has suspect takedown defense - he seems to know what he's doing against Jake Shields at times, then gets taken down by Jorge Masvidal other times. Diaz is, frankly, not a great wrestler, and that's gonna be a problem for him. At least, it would be if I had any expectation that this fight was going there. Truth be told, Nick Diaz loses to fighters of Paul Daley's level, and I think that's precisely what happens here. With five rounds and Daley being a punching monster, I think Diaz gets the lights turned out on him here. I can see Diaz winning by submission should he get dropped and Daley follow him to the mat, but if I'm gonna suggest a winner, I'm picking Paul Daley around round 3.

-Mousasi and Jardine is an interesting fight for a great many reasons, but not the least of which is the fact that Mousasi admits to not training in a cage for this bout. All but admits he's anticipating standing and banging. And with Jardine, that is a legitimate possibility. Mousasi is probably a strong enough grappler to fight off Jardine's clinch and takedown attempts, should he bother with them, and as far as them trading punches and kicks goes - would you want to pick Jardine to win a standup fight in light of losing to an old middleweight wrestler from South Africa? I thought not. Mousasi looks good here and rebounds in his career. Jardine continues the spiral into irrelevance.

-Lyle Beerbohm was lucky to get a decision win over Vitor Riberio, who stylistically is very similar to Shinya Aoki but not as good from the bottom. Aoki is a better overall grappler and even if he sucks standing, Beerbohm is no killer. Clear difference in skills, Aoki wins by submission, possibly a leg lock.

-I want to analyze Melendez/Kawajiri, but I don't have the time to do it properly. I think Melendez wins because even though he is a naturally smaller man, he's gotten better technique wise, grown more as a fighter, and the general momentum is on his side.

Strikeforce Challengers 15 (4/1/2011)

April Fools! I'm watching this show because, uhhh, yeah. I was gonna watch it for the Big Show Review and decided instead that it deserved its own entry instead of going back 2-3 years from now and watching it again. This was at the Stockton Arena in, you guessed it, Stockton CA. Headlining the show is ex prospect Rodrigo Damm and Justin Wilcox.

1) Damion Douglas vs. Wayne Phillips: David "Tarzan" Douglas' brother against some guy who is apparently a stablemate of Wilcox.

FIGHT: Douglas Split Decision. I'm not doing a serious breakdown here because this was low level stuff. Douglas was blown up 3 minutes in and still got a W on the cards. I can't say it was entirely undeserved. He won the first 4 minutes of round 1- where the problem was there was that he lost the 5th minute by nearly getting choked out in an RNC as the bell rings. He lost the second in my book (Phillips controlled standing and on the mat) and won the third by outlanding a seemingly catatonic Phillips. But so what? Hands were at his waste and he was flat on with Phillips early. Phillips has no takedowns and Douglas' singles and doubles were barely present. Neither guy could effectively control position on the mat. This was Douglas' first fight in 30 months and it looked it. (0)

2) James Terry vs. Josh Thornburg: 165lb catchweight.

FIGHT: Terry TKO Rnd 1. Whole round is about Terry setting up the right hand. He keeps throwing it and throwing it and Thornburg really isn't doing a good job at all in mitigating it or neutralizing the striking attack. Thornburg eventually eats a low kick and he drops the hand. That happens, Terry throws the right hand, and its all over instantly. (1)

3) Lorenz Larkin vs. Scott Lighty: Once upon a time, Lighty was in K1. He was actually a lot better than the midget heavyweight the UFC has, but hell if you'll get anyone to admit that. Larkin is an undefeated prospect who replaced Satoshi Ishii. Ishii apparently lost his visa or forgot to apply or something. He's a moron. Larkin is not so dumb.

FIGHT: Larkin TKO Rnd 2. Good performance from Larkin who comes in late against a guy brought in to be a can. What can you take from that? Good question I suppose. Larkin demolished Lighty standing, where he should have had the clear advantage. That's a positive. Larkin often followed around Lighty in the ring and threw hooks and kicks, even a flying side kick. Speed wise, it wasn't competitive. Larkin was a much better athlete and fought very well. I'd like to see him fight a bunch more, of course. One thing that I thought was funny was that Larkin would start to dance and move around on the balls of his feet, and do nothing then. And eventually he'd stop and go back to being flatfooted and stalk his man. (1)

4) David Douglas vs. Caros Fodor: Tarzan is one of the best bad fighters ever. Who is Fodor? Uhhhh, no idea.

FIGHT: Fodor TKO Rnd 3. Douglas and Fodor re-enact the opening round of Damion Douglas' fight earlier in the night as Douglas forces it down, takes Fodor's back, Fodor gets out, and ends up controlling the fight standing and then on the mat over the last 2 minutes. From that point though, unlike Damion Douglas, David never starts to stick and move. Never lands the harder shots. Fodor is at least decent standing and pretty OK on the mat, and so he ends up getting takedowns and landing hard shots in the clinch and on the occasions that they are at range. Douglas is blown up early (like his brother) and ends up against the cage getting hit with knees and punches as the ref calls it off in the early part of the third. (1)

5) Rodrigo Damm vs. Justin Wilcox: This is a good fight. Wilcox was a teammate of Koscheck in college I'm told by the announcers. Damm is a solid grappler, but not in the same league as Wilcox's last win (Vitor Riberio). Wilcox is still a small lightweight...kinda like a second tier Sean Sherk.

FIGHT: Wilcox TKO Rnd 1. Wilcox basically follows around Damm, who is running for him, eventually catching him with a leaping right hand that drops Damm and cuts him badly. The rest of the round is GNP and Damm can't get off his stool in th first. Wilcox is a strong guy, no doubt about it, but he's not a big guy like I said. I still think he's too small to make big noise in MMA at lightweight. Featherweight might be a different deal, but he may not want to cut. Besides, there's nothing in Strikeforce to do at 145. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lighty/Larkin

KO OF THE NIGHT: Thornburg/Terry

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6 out of 10. Not the worst show, not the best. Some prospects that are sorta interesting but who are super embryonic and may end up being nothing.

D&R Rating: 20% (5/25)

Ultimate Glory 13: 2010-2011 World Series Second Round (3/19/2011)

1) Hidouche Lahoucine vs. Allan Gozdizky: Kickboxing bout. Very evenly matched fight with both guys doing some wild stuff (Lahoucine throws a leaping spinning roundhouse in the first!) though it gets real sloppy in the third and Gozdizky gets a yellow card for rough play and gets kneed in the balls shortly thereafter. The yellow card is the deciding factor in the close fight.

2) Nicky Covin vs. Uriel Albamonte: Dudes. Covin is the crowd favorite.

FIGHT: Albamonte Submission Rnd 1. Not much to tell about this fight - Covin comes out swinging, grabs Albamonte, and slams him down. When there, Albamonte has full guard, closes it, and goes for a guillotine. Covin taps, and the fight is over in 45 seconds. (0)

3) Filip Verlinden vs. Frederic Sinistra: Kickboxing bout at heavyweight. Filip Verlinden outworks Sinistra and actually does a decent job keeping distance. Sinistra comes out with the heavy punching style that you expect from a Samoan in K-1 style competition and basically never even attempts to check kicks. Instead, he moves his head and comes forward looking to catch Verlinden moving straight back with punches. Even when Verlinden gets against the ropes, he never allows the big punch to land.

4) Omar Samb vs. Kriss Larcin: Another MMA bout. Both guys are local.

FIGHT: Larcin TKO Rnd 1. Basic KOTC special with Larcin beating the hell out of Samb in the mount until he turns over and gives up the RNC. (0)

5) David Kyrya vs. Robin Van Roosmalen: Kickboxing bout I sorta paid some attention to. Roosmalen wins a decision and basically works over Kyrya with combinations and such, though none of the blows were really devastating. Just decent surgical kickboxing. Kyrya wasn't that bad either.

6) Nicolaj Falin vs. Nathan an't Hoft: More kickboxers. Falin wins a decision and basically beat the hell out of Hoft. Not a bad fight or anything. Just not great.

7) Danny Covyn vs. Sebastian Thirion: MMA bout! Yay!

FIGHT: Thirion Submission Rnd 1. Covyn jumps for a guillotine after about 6 seconds if standup action. He doesn't get it, Thirion gets out of the full guard, and works with strikes to get separation. Once he does, he goes for a leg lock and switches from a heel hook to knee bar to get the tap. (0)

8) Errol Zimmerman vs. Zinedine Hameur Lain: Kickboxing contest. Zimmerman breaks Lain with a high kick that he tries to check with the arm, and Lain just lays across the top rope and waits for the ref to stop it. Beatdown. Not even competitive.

9) Frederic Hainni vs. Bob Van Boxmeer: More kickboxing. Hainni wins a kickboxing contest that was kinda awkward with both guys pushing a lot and that ends with a decision following a headbutt.

10) Nicky Holzen vs. Carlos Tavares: Kickboxing match. Holzen works head and body, and Tavares ends up leaving his hands low and gets KOed hard.

11) Brice Guidon vs. Mourad Bouzidi: Semi finals of the heavyweight kickboxing tournament. Bouzidi is a gatekeeper of a lower level than Guidon. Decent matchup on paper that favors the larger Guidon and he delivers with a surprising show of power from a guy known for arm punching and decisions. He lands a strong right hand to a overly aggressive Bouzidi and drops, leading to the end of the fight in the second.

12) John Alessio vs. Siyar Bahadurzada: Welterweight tournament in MMA, round 2. Bas Rutten and mystery announcer make note of a serious difference in size.

FIGHT: Bahadurzada TKO Rnd 1. Alessio never really shoots the whole fight, getting tagged by Siyar behind the ear about a minute in and being on retreat from that point forwards. He takes a lot of knees to the head and arms but never thinks to take a knee or a point down just to get out of it. Poor guy. Bahadurzada is in tears and misses his recently deceased coach. (2)

13) Tommy Depret vs. Roan Carniero: Depret and Carniero should be on different levels, but Depret is the company boy. What happens here?

FIGHT: Depret Submission Rnd 1. Carniero has no respect for Depret's guard and pays with a straight armbar. There's not a lot to it aside from that. Carniero wants the ground, gets it, and loses. Oops. Depret some how makes it to the finals in spite of being the worst fighter on paper in the entire tournament. Well, aside from the last minute replacement of Derrick Noble. (2)

14) Wendell Roche vs. Gokhan Saki: MAIN EVENT. Also a HW semifinal.

FIGHT: Saki Unanimous Decision. Basically, Saki lands a ton of stuff on Roche, who plays the part of sparring partner. Excitement comes very late when something (what precisely, is not discovered) causes Saki's right eye to swell shut in about 5 seconds. Roche responds by not doing anything, especially not throwing left hand punches that might win him the fight. Did I mention above that this event was held in Belgium because Dutch authorities don't like the ties with organized crime the promotion may have? So yeah.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Lahoucine/Gozdizky

KO OF THE NIGHT: Bahadurzada/Alessio

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Depret/Carniero

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. If you are really hyped about kickboxing, you may get something out of this show. Its not the most important kickboxing show ever, but....uhh...okay, its not the most important kickboxing show ever. As far as MMA is concerned, not really any can't miss fights. Bahadurzada got most of the coverage afterwards and that was deserved, but as far as MMA action goes, yeah, you can do better elsewhere.

D&R Rating (MMA bouts only): 16% (4/25)

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Final Conflict (12/2/2005)

While I work on other reviews and finish them up, another review from the KOTC OF THE DAY series.

-----------------

Final Conflict (12/2/05)

Usual KOTC stuff here. We’re back to the beloved Soboba. Should be full of the usual KOTC formula bouts: either untalented dude gets tooled on the ground (Formula A) or the fight ends 15 seconds in by KO (Formula B). Erik Apple is rocking the mic along with John Alessio.

1) PAT WHITE vs. LAWRENCE GANT: Dudes that fight. Each weighs about 170. Gant rocks the rashguard.

Pat White sucks. He is taken down immediately and mounted before 5 seconds pass. He hugs Gant for awhile, then Gant punches him a couple times. White turns over and then gets submitted with an RNC.

2) KEN CADOY vs. MIKE GUYMON: Cadoy is from 808 making his debut, Guymon is from somewhere, I wasn’t paying attention. He calls himself “The Joker” and hangs out with Tapout Crew. Guess who I want to win?

Guymon rushes the shot, gets him down, Cadoy tries to get up, and Cadoy gets caught in a guillotine. Fight over. I read later that Guymon was in the IFL for a cup of coffee. Go fig.

3) BUCKLEY ACOSTA vs. DICK DELAWARE: Aaron Brink lives the life many of DVDVR’s lesser posters dream of. Acosta is some dude who is making his pro debut.

Fight lasts 10 seconds. Brink walks forward, throws a couple punches, Acosta throws him down, they scramble up, Brink walks into a right hand, its over. Acosta beats a dude who people know well in his debut.

4) RUBIN TAGLE vs. BRIAN WARREN: No idea who these guys are.

Warren wins via Formula A. GNP stoppage after a couple takedowns and Tagle gets mounted in Rnd 1. Cecil Peoples waits until Tagle as begged for a good 10 seconds to stop it. Maybe there were no verbal submissions in those karate styled kickboxing events in the 70s?

5) SHAWN BIAS vs. THOMAS KENNY: This isn’t a bad fight on paper, really. Kenny is clearly the much larger man. He also wears a shirt.

This is a shockingly good fight. Shawn Bias and Thomas Kenny slug it out through the early part of the second and then roll a plenty for the second half of the round. Round two opens with Bias almost knocking Kenny out with a right hand, but falls into Kenny’s half guard and somehow, Kenny gets a head and arm choke to win the fight. Bias taps and Herb just looks at it. And then he taps against and Herb seems confused and goes over to look. Eventually he goes out and its kinda ugly from there.

6) ALEX ZUNNER vs. MIKE BOURKE: Holy shit. Mike Bourke sighting! What else would he fight but some fat ass? I cheated and looked ahead and I will be able to share lots of moments for Alex Zunner moments with you.

Bourke and Zunner kinda swing at each other, hug, Zunner gets a takedown and side control, Bourke rolls him over, and then chokes him out Smith/Cikatic style. Wow.

7) FERNANDO ARREOLA vs. CUB SWANSON: Hahahahahahaha.

Arreola puts up some attempts at something and fails at all of it. He ends up being dropped by a right hand and then a series of kicks to the legs follow and Cecil runs in for a verbal submission a little over 3 minutes in. Swanson was way past this guy in skill and he must have known in early on.

8) GABE RIVAS vs. ROB MCCULLOUGH: Everyone and their mom has seen a hundred Gabe Rivas fights. Rob McCullough is another future WEC talent, champion in fact, who is in a fairly interesting match here on this disc.

You know, what made KOTC 7 unique is that it was the only MMA event in the wet ever done. Not intentionally, mind you, its just that they apparently ran an open air show without thinking it was a possibility. So, years later, here I am watching a KOTC show from late in ’05 and, whaddya know, it starts raining. The fight was controlled by McCullough standing and on the ground, but in Round 2 the rain starts coming down and Rivas is tripping all over himself, taking a leg kick that knocks him to the ground because he has no traction. When Rivas is knocked down for the last time, was it the right hand that did it or the fact that he was falling everywhere on a wet wrestling mat? How fucking bush league do you have to be to have rain and then not think about preventing it as an issue in the future?

9) MANNY TAPIA vs. ED NEWALU: Krazy Horse is on the mic! YES. Too bad he doesn’t really care that he’s here or supposed to entertain me, the viewer. Tapia is their 145lb champion and now is in the WEC. He’s really quite good. Newalu I’ve seen fight Ryan Diaz awhile back. They fought before in KOTC but no mention of it is ever made.

Fight goes the distance (first in a long time) and while decent is hardly the best thing ever. Some decent standup, Newalu looks capable on the ground, Tapia is good all the way around with his wrestling and standup, Newalu guarantees a loss in Round 2 by losing a point throwing a four point knee, and Tapia retains. I started to nod off during this and had to really work hard to stay conscious, honestly.

10) THOMAS DENNY vs. JAMES FANSHIER: I first mentioned Fanshier on the first show covered, and Thomas Denny is a dude who has fought on every B show there is, and thus not really needing an introduction. There’s a little highlight package that screams “XPW” and has Fanshier in the cage talking a ton of shit.

Round 1 sees Denny channel Tim Sylvia and push Fanshier into the cage. That’s pretty much all 5 minutes. Second round Denny lands a big right hand, Fanshier goes down, Denny follows with strikes, fight over.

11) KEVIN “Q-TIP” DONNELLY vs. NAM PHAN: Donnelly is listed as being from the “streets of Hisperia, California” instead of a school. He’s a white kid making his debut and he’s dyed his hair blonde. Nam Pham is a dude who has lost to all the good fighters he’s faced and beaten all the shitty fighters he’s been in with. Since many are like Donnelly, there’s a lot more Ws than Ls.

Donnelly shoots in, Phan takes guard, he gets the armbar, Donnelly taps out. 12 seconds officially. Maybe 6 in reality. They don’t even do any play by play for this.

12) BETTO CORNITA vs. BILLY BEARMAN: Cornita is coming from martial arts academy and this is his debut. Its also Bearman’s. Its also the only fight either will ever have in their careers. Obviously we’re into swing bouts here, and I’m debating why I should even watch it. Like, this is as unimportant as any match ever held. There’s episodes of I Love Lucy that are lost to time and shit like that, but this will be committed to tape forever and ever.

Then, this is all saved. Bearman wears a rashguard and Cornita is chubby, the fight ends by triangle choke for Bearman in round 1, and it doesn’t matter because Rampage has replaced Apple to do announcing. “I told you he was going to sleep. He ‘gon dream about training.”

13) AARON WETHERSPOON vs. VAL LEEDY: Aaron Wetherspoon is a bad dude and you know who he is. Leedy is a kickboxer, and Rampage says he fought him once and said he kicks hard and shit. I think I’ve seen this fight before, actually.

Fight is short and all clinch. Wetherspoon gets in close and gets underhooks, but isn’t able to take down Leedy. After a separation because of low blows, they clinch up again and a knee to the head drops Leedy a just short of 1:30 of round 1.

14) KEITH BERRY vs. JOHNNY VASQUES: Rampage almost leaves, and then apparently decides to stay, which is good, because without him, this shit becomes totally unwatchable. This is at 205. Vasques wears a shirt. Berry is a white dude who looks like someone I went to high school with.

Retardedly low level stuff with Berry winning by KO after some standup clubberin’ in short order. Rampage talks some shit about some unnamed shitty fight, and then gets a cell phone call and has to leave. You can hear him momentarily on the phone, in fact.

15) JOEY ALVARADO vs. JASON WHEAT: Alvarado comes out, and he has a shaved head and bad tattoos on his arms. SHOCKAH. CRAZY HORSE joins the crew. Alvarado wins by armbar and I'm barely paying attention.

16) LUCAS TABER vs. ROBERT DRIMI: Drimi looks way dorky. Taber looks like a high school JV football player. Drimi throws some lame sidekicks and Taber scissors the leg and gets an ankle lock. Crazy Horse and Rampage are commentating and there’s no way I can communicate how good it is.

17) ROBERT ZUNNER vs. ANTHONY MENDEZ: This fight is so awesome, its not even listed on the match list included with the DVD. Rampage regarding Zunner: “He so big, his weight isn’t even listed. He look like Bam Bam Bigelow!…If people gonna be wearing rashguards, he shoulda been one of them. He so fat, he got stretchmarks on his nipples!” Mendez wins by KO in a fight in which no talent is shown. Rampage and Crazy Horse continue talking shit about how fat Zunner is.

After the match, they continue to talk for like 3 minutes and its all gold. They’re still talking when the screen fades out and goes to credits. Rampage: “Join us next time at King Of The Cage. You get like, 20-30 fights, and from that, like, 18 good ones.”

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Rivas/McCullough - Decent midlevel stuff here with a developing McCullough and a vet in Rivas, plus weird circumstances and displays of skill from both.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Acosta/Brink - Sudden and surprising. I was taken aback.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Zunner/Bourke - You don't see "forearm to throat" everyday.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: pre Rampage/Bennett announcing: 6, during Rampage/Bennett announcing: 10. If I were a money mark running an MMA show, my crew is now lined up.

---------------------------------------------

POSTSCRIPT:

Nam Pham has somehow found his way to the UFC. For now, at least.

Keith Berry lost a setup fight on ShoXC and has been in collapse since then.

Rob McCullough was brought into Bellator...and promptly took a beating.

Thomas Denny got ripped off at the last Mark Pavelich promoted event.

Mike Bourke beat Ken Shamrock. Yes.

Mike Guymon went to the UFC, got a bunch of undeserved chances, and finally retired.