BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 3/28

For M-1 and Titan FC, see the individual reviews.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT 24:

-Noguiera defended the takedown! What a job Mark Munoz did in camp for him! I mean, Rodrigo Noguiera did previously beat another strong wrestler in Matyushenko, but I considered him possibly washed up at that time. Still, Noguiera didn't win the fight. After stuffing the doubles in the first, Davis eventually starts working for single and gets those and controls the second and third rounds. His striking is still a bit shaky and robotic. The high kicks are especially uncomfortable looking coming from him. The shot is not super fast - maybe he works on it more now, but a pure power wrestler in the vein of V-Mat, Bader, or Tito isn't gonna get the job done to beat Jon Jones. Not no way, not no how. Noguiera meanwhile regresses to gatekeeper status again. Another fight with Shogun makes sense, as does a Tito fight, a rematch with Bader, a rematch with Brilz, and hell, lots of other fights. He's a good all purpose dude to have around.

-Dan Hardy can't stop the double. That is the story of the fight with Anthony Johnson, who remembered that he was a wrestler first. Joe Rogan specifically points to the grazing high kick in round 1 and resulting top control for Johnson as when he thinks the lightbulb went off in Johnson's head. Do I agree? I dunno. Probably not. Johnson doesn't even set up the shot with strikes - Hardy comes forward, Johnson is bouncing around on his toes, and then he just shoots and gets deep penetration with the shot. Hardy comes away looking just as one dimensional as everyone supposed he was coming in. Anthony Johnson, meanwhile, is like the black Mike Swick. Too small to be an effective middleweight at an elite level, not talented enough to really run with top welterweights but more effective at 170 so long as he can make weight by overpowering lesser guys. Where does he go now? A Koscheck rematch?

-Amir Sadollah is the MMA version of a pressure fighter in boxing. Pressure fighters come forward, throwing combinations, never hurt guys with one shot, and just break you down with the assault. Sadollah was helped in this by Damarques Johnson's poor ability to control the action on the mat when on top. Seriously, Johnson's attempts to pass guard were some of the most poorly suggested ever imaginable. He could have laid in half guard and ground down some of Amir's energy and landed some shots. Instead he lost dominant position twice looking to try and improve on it. Foolish. Amir can't break eggs with his shots, but they do accumulate, and if your opponent isn't that well conditioned, he will fold. Amir also has another problem - he can't wrestle. Still. Don't think he ever will at this point. UFC is giving him good development fights right now but how long will they be willing to keep this up when almost no one remembers Sadollah or what season he's from? I don't remember what season he's from.

-Korean Zombie lands a twister against a guy who's grappling is...uhh....questionable. Oh who cares. Neither one will make a mark in the elite tiers. This was for fun and Jung proved to have changed his approach.

-I tried to watch Hathaway/McCray but got bored and my mind would drift. Hathaway still can't wrestle and McCray is just too generic and mediocre to take advantage of dominant positions or to bang out Hathaway standing (where he was superior to Hathaway). Hathaway gets a couple trips and some sweeps and wins a competitive fight. Problem here is that McCray isn't really a competitive guy at 170 and frankly, Hathaway sorta isn't either. The momentum of the Sanchez fight is long gone now. What we have in the welterweight division is the UFC attempting to manufacture another contender out of the morass of second tier fighters by not matching these guys against one another, and instead putting them in with weaker gatekeeper style fighters. This has led to Anthony Johnson and Carlos Condit sticking their heads up above the rest of the group for right now, wrong or right. IMO wrong and Kampmann is better than either. But who cares about my opinion when most MMA fans are blithering idiots who can't see actual star potential or look at pro fighters rationally as to what they offer? Condit makes for exciting fights against not so good fighters and so he is deserving of skipping over all the guys who actually have beaten people at his level or above, and that's too bad for people like me, who want to see fights that aren't a wash. Oh well. More Koscheck style jab fests, ahoy! At least these guys who will get the shit kicked out of them are white and speak english, so the UFC won't waffle about booking the fights.

I know it sounds like complaining, but really, the UFC should and does know better than this. Maybe its all they can think of doing with the pool of guys from #7-#27?

ULTIMATE FIGHTER:

-Did I really see this shit correctly? This is the list of fighters? Shamar Bailey is who I'm most familiar with and he won the opening bout of the show by laying on German kickboxer Nordin Asrih for two rounds in side control or half guard. His shots were basically uncontested and this was an easy, easy fight. Bailey lost to the son of legendary dirt track racer Steve Kinser and Justin Wilcox in the cage. To be blunt, he's a strong guy and a good wrestler but not much else. Certainly no one to get excited about in the UFC. The rest of the cast, as best I can give opinions on:

Ramsey Nijem: DII/DIII wrestler for Utah Valley, beat a legitimate fighter in Scott Casey.

Len Bentley: Southern fighter. Lost to a McKenzietine. Made it to the M1 Selection Finals and lost.

Charlie Rader: 14-4 Pro record features no meaningful wins. Oddly, he has a meaningful win listed as an amateur bout against Josh Rafferty in Bellator from 2009. Did as well with Adrien Miles as did Dave Menne.

Anthony Ferguson: Win over David Gardner by what appears to be GNP, as well as a W against James Fanshier. Also has lost to Karen Darabedyan.

Ryan McGillvray: Lots of experience against good fighters, unfortunately he's lost to most all of them. Still, experience counts when so many guys totally lack it. BTW, he's serving a suspension from the NSAC. So, yeah. He probably doesn't win.

Mick Bowman: British.

Keon Caldwell: Southern fighter who suffered a submission loss to one of the Lima brothers. Notable in that there's not a lot of BJJ masters on this show.

Clay Harvison, Chris Cope, Chuck O'Neil, Javier Torres, Zack Davis: No notable things to be said at this moment.

Its a crap shoot as far as who wins. Gun to my head, I pick Bailey, I guess. I think Nijem and Rader are the most interesting to see otherwise. I feel like Bowman wouldn't be here if he couldn't fight a little bit, so he should be interesting to see. Cope and O'Neil come from good schools and that may make them better prepared.

BELLATOR:

-M'Pumbu got exposed terribly last year and here in the states it can be expected to happen against. Chris Davis, his opposition for his first US fight, was basically unknown and had suffered losses to modern Jeremy Horn and Vinny Magahales. He got some decent GNP in the first round but as the fight dragged, M'Pumbu was able to generally go for decent submission attempts and totally controlled the third round. He got down Davis after landing some punches, and then beat him up from riding the back landing punch after punch until Davis slumps from a shot to the temple, forcing a stoppage. He's got some decent striking (though his chin is often up while he throws) and his submission grappling is good. However, he is a lousy wrestler.

-Fekete and Hale - I know neither. But man, Hale is a big, big dude. Fekete is a serious wrestler and he's skilled, gets down Hale and looks to take him down again and slam him during a scramble from side control. What does Hale do? An inverted triangle. An inverted triangle. Holy crap. Fekete doesn't even tap, he goes out cold.

-DJ Linderman looks totally different as a light heavyweight. Smaller man as he was at heavyweight, but with the weight down, his cardio is up even more. Against Davis, who is the better wrestler, he again wears him down as he did against the much larger Mario Rinaldo and gets takedowns and lands strong punches at range. Davis is mouth open and gassed, leaning back into shots, and has to shoot in desperation after a particularly hard left hand shot in the second. Linderman still shows that like against Rinaldi, his ability to defend the shot and hold onto position isn't that great, but when the opposition is so tired as it is here, he can hang on. Linderman ultimately wins by TKO after landing lots of punches, takes Davis, throws him to the ground from Thai plumb, and crushes him with a right hand while Davis is on all 4's. Linderman is a sprawl and brawl guy from the days of 2003 and I admit being very surprised that he was successful here. I wouldn't rush to bet against him elsewhere in the tourney.

-Tim Carpenter's win over Daniel Gracie should be a surprise but I didn't really feel that way. Gracie never really adapted to MMA well and Carpenter, a BJJ black belt himself, actually controlled the grappling action and actively went for dominant positions and submissions. He had the mount and two armbar attempts in round 1 alone. On the feet, he tagged Daniel Gracie with punches and rocked him in the second and third. It wasn't a perfect fight, because honestly, he should have tapped him with all the positions he had. But it was solid. And he showed a gas tank that will be key in beating future opponents.

STUFF I MISSED AND CAUGHT UP ON:

Fight for the Troops 2!

Cole Miller vs. Matt Wiman: Cole Miller is a BJJ guy at heart and walks forward punching like one in this fight. The downside of doing that is Wiman counters him as he closes the distance, Miller sucks at infighting, and he gets taken down repeatedly. Wiman takes round after round after round as a result. You can't say that Wiman looks noticeably different in his approach - its just a terrible gameplan for Miller that negates his positives that leads him down the road to a big L.

Joey Beltran vs. Pat Barry: The most overrated striker in the recent history of heavyweight MMA fighting some brawler dude. How does it go? As you'd expect. What I found interesting about this fight was the complete absence of a game plan from Beltran. Apparently his idea was to stand at range from Barry and get kicked? Great idea, dude. He repeatedly finds success pushing Barry to the cage and beating him up with dirty boxing. So does he keep after it? No, because it won't get him a fight of the night bonus and will have him released if he does lose. Instead, he fights stupid and takes a billion leg kicks. Somehow he hangs on to the end of the fight, winning one round on some cards (likely the first) and then dropping the second and third. Barry still can't wrestle, is still small, and still depends on other guys being mediocre to beat up on them.

Joker Guymon vs. Damarques Johnson: Guys who got a UFC contract off of merchandising deals? Joker, of course. Oh, he has some OK wins too, but he didn't get the chance because of his skills. So what happens? Johnson takes him down, gets on top, and eventually transitions to back control. Then Joker taps out to a body triangle after getting straightened out. Joke is on me for watching!

Cody McKenzie vs. Yves Edwards: Still astounded this fight happened. Cody is really a featherweight and should drop. He still is a terrible athlete and is a one trick pony, but who knows. Featherweight sucks. Cody does the usual job of a Gracie BJJ guy and rushes with strikes to get a clinch. Yves is kinda good standing and so this begins to look like it will be a terrible beating. And that's basically what happens. If you are looking for positives from McKenzie, its that he is very tough and can take a hellified beating. He pulls down Yves Edwards and actually has back control for a significant period in the second. But he's not that strong, Yves is too crafty a grappler himself, and after being forced to keep scrambling for position, Edwards eventually reverses position and gets his own RNC. Fighter meets gatekeeper, doesn't pass.

George Roop vs. Mark Hominck: Another sure to be beatdown. Roop stands and bangs and he's fighting a guy who is a lot, lot better than him at that. And that's what we get. Roop doesn't know how to use height, leaves his chin up, and gets demolished. Right hands, left hooks, whatever. They land with impunity because Roop moves straight back, doesn't jab, doesn't throw front kicks, doesn't clinch.

Mike Brown vs. Rani Yahya: Brown is on the wrong side of his career fighting in a division seeing an influx of new talent from a weight class he got bounced out of. Yahya, a last minute replacement who was better suited for 135 than 145, should be a guy he walks through and dominates throughly by taking and holding down. Or by banging out standing where Yahya sucks. So what really happens? Brown lands a strong overhand right over the wild strikes of Yahya, and that's how its looking to go. But Yahya just keeps running and moving, throwing off Brown. That's not good. Then Yahya shoots a single. Brown defends it initially, but keeps getting dragged down and can't get separation. In the second, Brown again goes to strike with Yahya, but then does the astonishing and initiates the clinch. Why do that? Why put yourself at risk instead of strike? Brown is on top and does nothing there after nearly being guillotined. After the standup by the ref, same thing happens. Who is making Brown's gameplans for him? Is he just not capable of executing? Is he that ingrained to wrestle? With Yayha's decision to go to flail and shoot at the start, Brown is again on the defensive and now too tired to do anything about it. He gets taken down and slowly gives up position from full to half guard, then gives up the back, is flattened, and gets Brown beat the hell up with punches. Yamasaki gives Brown a reprieve due to shots to the mohawk area and again its another flail and shoot and Brown can't fight it off.

Hague was a good opponent for Mitrione and his development, wasn't he? Stand and bang guy who is smaller than Mitrione and less of an athlete. Mitrione's southpaw stance is something no one talks about. Hague never threw the straight right to counter and instead ate left hands over and over that he didn't see coming. Joe Silva is hella small too. I keep forgetting about that. And his hair! But back to Mitrione. This is a fairly soft touch intended to build up his record and confidence. Not much past that. He's not at the level that Schaub is but hey, that's expected. He has a long time in the game to get better.

Evan Dunham had no answers for Melvin Guillard's one-two. Never changed the speed up on his closing with Melvin, never came behind his own jab, never set the distance, didn't keep his chin down or use lateral movement. Got caught flat footed and was put out as a result. Melvin needs more wins against this level of competition before anyone can reasonably start to believe in him.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS

RESULTS: 3-3

OVERALL FOR THE YEAR: 18-6

STRIKEFORCE:

Weird card with what looks like a Bodog headliner in Rodrigo Damm vs. Justin Wilcox. Damm has never been a great grappler from the bottom, and Wilcox is a pretty darn good one from the top. Put that together with Wilcox's superior wrestling and Damm's losses in 3 of his last 4 and its pretty clear that Wilcox is getting another W. Does he stop Damm? Nah. I don't think so. So he will in 2 rounds.

BELLATOR:

Is it really a newsflash that Pat Curran won't beat Eddie Alvarez? He's not a good enough BJJ guy to do it, and while I think Alvarez is actually getting wilder and more hittable in the standup now than he was 3 years ago, I don't think Curran is the guy to expose him. Alvarez by TKO, crowd goes wild.

Tournament Fights: Lyman Good may have not been able to stop the takedowns of Ben Askren, a potentially undersized grappler, but Askren was a great wrestler who is a ball of kinetic energy being unleashed in the cage and who seeks dominant positions and punches. Rick Hawn is an undersized welterweight who hasn't shown explosive shots and active grappling, but instead shows the game of a flat footed wrestleboxer. Can't bet against Good in this fight. I just can't do it. Good probably would be wise to go to the clinch early and test what precisely Hawn offers for throws and physical strength. See where his technique is or if he plans on overpowering him. If its the latter, then beat him mercilessly.

Toby Imada is everyone's favorite journeyman. Unfortunately, journeymen are journeymen for a reason: They aren't good enough to stay in one place and establish themselves as contenders. Patricky Friere is a lot like Thiago Alves to me. Maybe not as good - somewhere between Thiago Tavares and Thiago Alves in terms of doing similar things with grappling and being willing to look for KOs. Now, Toby Imada got robbed against Pat Curran, but otherwise since 2007 in MMA aside from the KO to Eddie Alvarez hasn't lost. I will agree to this, for whatever that statement means. He has even beaten a guy who I still think is a better fighter in him in Jorge Masvidal. Proof is on youtube! if Friere is willing to take down Imada, he deserves to get submitted, swept, or otherwise lose the fight. But if he plays the smart game and stands at a distance and beats him up, he should stop Imada. And that's a big win for the guy. Way better than Rob McCullough.

Titan Fighting Championships 17 (3/26/2011)

We're back at Memorial Hall in Kansas City for this event featuring a bunch of crappy names and like, no good fighters. Basically. Mike Schiavello and Frank Trigg are announcing this event headlined by Bobby Lashley and John Ott. Ott is a middleweight who is blown up to heavyweight.

1) Jon Hollis vs. Anthony Gutierrez: Nondescript local lightweights. As amateurs, Gutierrez beat Hollis. As pros, will it be different? Noteworthy fact: Hollis has his own name tramp stamped on him.

FIGHT: Gutierrez Submission Rnd 1. Hollis is a decent wrestler, but not much else. With Gutierrez having a height advantage, Hollis decides to take down Gutierrez repeatedly and take his chances. Hollis leaves his head or arm in over and over and over again and submission attempts just keep coming from Gutierrez. With 40 seconds left in the round, a triangle choke forces a tapout for Hollis. (0)

Here is a hype piece for Phil Baroni after the opener so we can all hear about how Phil Baroni, late in his physical prime, is about to make a comeback after fighting like shit for years.

2) Nathan Schut vs. James Krause: Schut is 13-4 against non-names but is a lifetime wrestler. Krause lost in Bellator and WEC and bounced from both. He is a lot taller and younger.

FIGHT: Krause TKO Rnd 1. Schut doesn't prepare at all for strikes and was thinking takedown when he gets hit with a headkick he didn't see at all. Fight is done and its 30 seconds in. (0)

3) Alonzo Martinez vs. Aaron Derrow: Derrow was getting the hell beat out of him when he beat Rich Clementi by miracle sub. Martinez is some guy who I saw in the last TFC show. Honestly, this is an irrelevant bout, but you know what? It is well matched.

FIGHT: Martinez Majority Decision. The first time I tried watching this, I was drunk. I felt that was a bad way to go. So I watched again later sober. Man, this is a good fight! (2)

Derrow: Derrow is the kind of un-athletic BJJ guy that works from the bottom all the time. You know that guy. He's tall, gangly,throws terrible punches as he rushes forward to get the clinch, but has to pull guard or get taken down to do anything. To win regularly as such a guy, you have to be insane tough and incredible from the bottom. Derrow is tough. He is just OK from the bottom. He's just not gonna be that kind of guy in the Noguiera/Maia/Diaz vein. His punches coming forward are really bad, but you expect to see a guy like this push shots and wander forward looking to clinch.

If you take the tact that he's never going to really concentrate on striking or MMA as a career, that's fine. Pushing punches and coming forward at least gives you the chance of backing someone straight up and landing as they keep going backwards. He actually gets Martinez with a few shots this way at the end of the first. But counter shots and the like - that is where champions are made. He hurts Martinez so badly in the 3rd that he gets like two solid minutes of beatdown out of it with a single right hand counter as Martinez comes in wild. If that had happened in the first round, he'd have won. Instead. he gets a 10-8 on one card to get a draw and 10-9 on the other two, earning him a defeat.

Martinez: Undersized compared to Darrow, he's just OK at most everything, has decent submission defense, better takedowns than his opponent, and his striking is more consistent, albeit still wild by any reasonable discussion. He's a good gatekeeper type for guys looking to get to the D level in the sport.

4) William DeSouza vs. Eric Marriott: 150 lb catchweight? I think? I dunno. Who cares.

FIGHT: Marriott Unanimous Decision. Very difficult fight to break down. DeSouza is a guy who has some degree of grappling skill but wasn't close to having enough strength or technique to take down Marriott. This was a major issue, because skillwise he was getting beat up standing and on the bottom, while there were a couple attempts at leg locks, there weren't any real scares to keep Marriott honest on top. In effect, you saw in the very first round that DeSouza could not win. Marriott is hardly unbeatable - he's strong, yes. But he's flat footed and keeps his hands very low. He doesn't really have an explosive shot either.

In my weekly discussions with Lee Casebolt, he mentioned to me that he hadn't seen a fighter like DeSouza in a major MMA show such as this one since 1997. As he put it, who comes into a cage today with nothing other than brown belt level BJJ? (0)

5) Nick Nolte vs. Phil Baroni: Finally, we reach the main card. Before the fight, viewers are treated to a sort of Baroni promo shot at AKA in which Baroni shows off his incredible digs that he shares with Justin Wilcox upstairs, above the gym. Apparently he is now cohabitating in a 300 square foot room with Nolte, sleeping in a twin bed, and eating meals Wilcox cooks up on a camping stove while still spending money on fake tans and shit. Wasn't this guy married again? I know he got foreclosed on, but really now.

FIGHT: Baroni Unanimous Decision. Nolte isn't the story here. He fights a good gameplan that keeps him in the fight and takes Baroni deep where Phil is always, always terrible. Humorously, he throws a pair of spinning heel kicks in the third, one of which lands to the mush. Baroni's gameplan is that of top control wrestler, and wrestling was never really his strongest point. He was a sprawl and brawl wrestler at his best. As a top control wrestler, he doesn't have the cardio nor the GNP to dent guys. An argument can be made for Nolte to win this fight, since he pushed Baroni into the cage and landed some dirty boxing for the majority of the first before being taken down and controlled, and in round 3 he landed a ton of bad ass strikes that hurt Baroni and nearly finished a gassed Phil before gassing totally himself and being taken down and held down for 2 minutes. Baroni arguably then has lost every fight since his 2008 Icon Sport bout in which he KOed Ron Verdadero. (2)

6) Aaron Rosa vs. Abe Wagner: Rosa has grown horizontally into a middle of the road heavyweight. Wagner has been one for awhile now too. Fairly competitive bout, right?

FIGHT: Rosa Submission Rnd 2. Not really that competitive. Wagner's chin up, hands down striking style and poor wrestling means he loses here. He gets dropped in the second coming forwards and ends up having his back taken as a result and choked out. In the first he is beaten in the exchanges, pushed around by the chubby Rosa, and taken down off a single and held there for a good chunk of time. Abe's a decent athlete but he's not a great wrestler, and Rosa isn't one either but he's at least competent. Rosa establishes himself with this win as a guy like Devin Cole who operates well outside the top 25/30/maybe even 40 and plays gatekeeper with more talented athletes. (2)

7) Bobby Lashley vs. John Ott: Main event for the night, and preceded with a feature on Lashley that showed him in ice baths and hot saunas to recover for his merciless training sessions. Ott was a middleweight and not a very good one either, making him a seemingly easy foil for Lashley.

FIGHT: Lashley Unanimous Decision. This is the kind of fight that someone wins and still gets completely exposed on. It was one thing for Lashley to have such a tough time years ago with Jason Guida. He was young and inexperienced then and also a part time fighter still pro wrestling. Today, 2 years later, he should be past it. He's not. What Lashley had then he still has. He has a lot of muscles and an OK blast double that puts Ott down on the mat in every round. What he also has is a poor gas tank, no submission skills whatsoever, and a poor IQ as far as positional control is concerned. What was Lashley doing rocking forward with his feet off the mat inside of Ott's guard? Pushing down using gravity? Ott has guts and taunted a completely gassed out Bobby Lashley in the early going of round 3 while doing nothing to win. He came forward with wild strikes and got taken down, losing the round. Whatever. Ott says afterwards that he wanted to win and Lashley asks for a step up. Rosa/Lashley is a decent fight I suppose but has

the potential of unbridled suckage. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Derrow/Martinez

KO OF THE NIGHT: Schut/Krause

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Gutierrez/Hollis

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10. The fights with names were absolutely dreadful and yet entertaining in being so bad. The rest was forgettable with one entertaining but meaningless contest. Actually, the DeSouza/Marriott fight could also be slotted as "so bad it was good".

D&R Rating: 22% (8/35)

M-1 Challenge 23 (3/26/2011)

M-1 got 4 shows on Showtime thanks to Fedor being, uhh, Fedor, and this is the first of those. Ranallo and Milietch are announcing this show for Showtime and we've got a bunch of fights between dudes I have barely ever seen.

1) Alexander Saranavskiy vs. Beau Baker: 155 lb bout. Baker has wins over Tom Speer and Mario Stapel, so he is not totally bad. Saranavskiy is 12-0 against nondescript competition.

FIGHT: Saranavskiy Submission Rnd 2. Story of the fight is such - Baker wants takedowns, doesn't really set up the shot, just sorta tries to walk through shots. Saranavskiy defends the attempts and lands a million arm shots. Unfortunately, Saranavskiy should have ended this in the first with all the punches and knees landed, but like I said; they had nothing behind them. Pure arm shots. More of this happens in the second, and after one particularly bad attempted takedown attempt, Baker tries to back out and turns around to run away and Saranavskiy jumps on his back and takes him to the mat. There's a body triangle and a RNC soon after. (1)

2) Jason Norwood vs. Mojo Horne: 185 lb bout. Norwood is a top level wrestler, and Horne isn't. Oh, and he's like 7 years younger too.

FIGHT: Norwood Unanimous Decision. What I can tell you about Horne is that which I could have told you before - he's not a great wrestler. He's not even a very good submission guy from the bottom. He's basically a striker and he gets taken down over and over and over again. Norwood, meanwhile, is a great wrestler. He's not a good striker, and so he doesn't even try to trade. He goes for singles or doubles or singles or doubles. And that's it. Horne has some offense early in the second round as he tries to fight off Norwood's attempts at a takedown and lands a couple punches and knees, but Norwood just keeps pushing and pushing. Norwood on top doesn't do a lot either. He's sorta a human blanket who prefers to hold his man down from the half guard rather than land blows in the full guard or rear up in mount to get leverage. (1)

3) Vinny Magalhaes vs. Jake Doerr: 205. Vinny loves to pull guard and that's been his career downfall from TUF to the present. Jake hasn't fought in two years and is a "judo specialist" moving up from middleweight who also happens to be shorter and older.

FIGHT: Magalhaes TKO Rnd 1. Magalhaes drops Doerr immediately with a left hand and we are headed to KOTC Special Land. The fight ends with Magalhaes on top with a body triangle on and having the back of Doerr landing blow after blow to the head. (1)

4) Tyson Jeffries vs. Magomed Sultanakhmedov: Middleweight title up for grabs.

FIGHT: Sultanakhmedov TKO Rnd 2. In the first round, Jeffries is trying to do things right and keep his foot on the outside of Magomed's lead foot and throw the right hand. But he throws slowly, he doesn't jab, and most importantly, he can't check kicks at all. Sultanakhmedov lands low kicks over and over and over and then throws body kicks over and over and over and man, it looks bad on Jeffries. There's a takedown for Sultanakhmedov too and he ends up in side control, and yet he prefers to stand out of a dominant position to go back to striking.

As the second goes on, Jeffries actually gets a trip takedown after absorbing more low kicks. Even though he has mount, he never postures up, never goes for anything, and gets bucked when he finally seems to consider it. Back to the standup and Sultanakhmedov throws more kicks up and down, and this fight starts to get ugly. The last 30 seconds was me yelling at the TV demanding a referee stoppage as punches kept landing, kicks kept landing, and knees kept landing while Jeffries wasn't intelligently defending himself or coming back with anything that could change the outcome of the fight. Horrible stoppage. So, so late. Sultanakhmedov wins a vacant title. Problem for Sultanakhmedov as he fights better opposition: He's too small to be a successful middleweight at 5'9'' and with his body type. (1)

5) Artiom Damkovsky vs. Jose Figueroa: Lightweight title bout. Damkovsky is defending his title. Figueroa has lost to every good fighter he's faced, but he is from ATT.

FIGHT: Figueroa TKO Rnd 2. Beatdown again. Damkovsky is basically a striker and not a very good one. Figueroa lands the superior shots standing and gets trip takedowns any time he's close enough to have the clinch. Damkovsky's nose breaks after going face first into that mat during the 1st round. Figueroa from that point just smashes the hell out of Damkovsky, keeps getting takedowns, and eventually pounds out Damkovsky from the mount. Am I going to pretend that Figueroa is a real prospect now? No. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Figueroa/Damkovsky

KO OF THE NIGHT: Sultanakhmedov/Jeffries

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Saranavskiy/Baker

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10. Uhhh, so nothing here was really good and some dudes got destroyed and that was it. Skill level is like any other lousy MMA show except that you have Russians.

D&R Rating: 20% (4/20)

WEC 4: Rumble Under The Sun (8/31/2002)

EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST. Ryan Bennett and Jeff Cole (???) are the announcers for this event, coming straight from the Mohegan Sun Hotel/Casino in Uncasville, CT. Main event - Jeremy Horn vs. Aaron Brink. Pretty amazing! Production is...amazingly bad. Like, you hear lots of dudes at the desk talking to the truck and a lot of dead air. And this is the first 10 minutes! Place is just dead - barely anyone there. Takes like almost 15 minutes for anything appreciable to happen. Lots of pyro and Kid Rock: What a different era.

Tons of legit fighters appear at the booth - Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Jens Pulver, Pat Militech, among others.

1) Bao Quach vs. Jeff Curran: Wow, now that is an opener! Both guys were at featherweight here and have risen and dropped since. Curran fought in WEC at 135, and Quach was at 140 with EXC and may be a bantamweight now. Both regularly fought at LW.

FIGHT: Curran Decision. Its not stated that its a unanimous or split decision, so, uhh, "decision". Good competitive fight. By the time the bout is over, 45 minutes has passed from the start of the show to that point.

Quach: Quach is really flat footed here and quite the boxing robot. His grappling though is very strong. He repeatedly gets Curran down with his shot from the outside, but does very little with the position. Curran's active guard prevents him from doing any real damage, and Curran lands better and more stuff while standing. He also gets dominated a bit in the clinch should Curran be able to defend takedowns or initiate it. I think its fair to say that Quach is smaller than Curran also.

Curran: Big Frog is a decent fighter and looks somewhat put together here. He's a master of nothing, but skilled at most everything to some degree, which in 2002 was very rare at any weight class. He gets a thunderous slam on Quach in the second that's pretty impressive and also goes for several submission and sweeps him in a move that probably earns him the victory all the way back in the middle of round 1. (3)

2) Mike Swick vs. James Gabert: Middleweight contest featuring a future welterweight contender and some guy.

FIGHT: Swick Unanimous Decision. You see one of Swick's long time flaws here - reaching with punches. Gabert doesn't go down for anything. Seriously, Swick beats him upside the head forever and he doesn't go down once. He does cut Gabert on the skull with a high kick in the second but that's about the worst it gets. Gabert, for his credit, may be the much shorter man, but he comes forward constantly, does get inside some of the punches, and lands his own right hands on occasion. He also forces Swick against the cage, though when they clinch, often Swick is able to turn him and start throwing knees. Decent performance early in Swick's career. (2)

3) Jason Jones vs. Randall "Randy" Rowe: This Jason Jones isn't black and dutch; rather, he's bald and fights with Rico Chipparelli. Rowe is from the "Dog Pound" and hails from Middletown, CT, an old mill town that has very little going for it except a nice Tibetan restaurant. Oh, and that college that Hillary Clinton went to.

FIGHT: Rowe DQ. Rowe actually gets a takedown on a much larger, much better (on paper) wrestler and stays there the whole first round. Jones at the end of the first has a triangle choke on and he damn near finishes the fight when the bell rings. The ref breaks them and Rowe is laying down looking basically out. Jones stands over him and waits for him to sit up well after the round is over, then throws a punch. Why? No idea. Just stupid shit. Jones never won a professional MMA bout according to Sherdog, losing 7 times in the seminal Utah promotion Ultimate Combat Experience.

4) Eric Mainiai vs. John Rallo: Mainiai's pro debut against some guy.

FIGHT: Rallo TKO Rnd 1. Fun fight for how long it lasted. Rallo rocks Mainiai, who has a terrible stance for striking, then slams him to the mat with a huge bodyslam. He loses top position going for an armbar but gets the fight back to standing after rolling out when Mainiai goes to north/south and shows the world he has no idea really what he's doing. Standing, more right hands come in from Rallo and a couple knees, and Mainiai turns and runs and the ref stops it. He then complains because, hey, he was gonna mount some real offense and defense from that position! (0)

5) Christian Wellisch vs. Jay White: Man, two journeymen of today locking horns when they were young bucks of yesterday.

FIGHT: Wellisch TKO Rnd 3. This is the sort of fight Dana White loves - cheap, mildly skilled guys throwing leather on top of leather for 3 rounds, landing punches squarely and rocking each other. Both guys are grapplers who robobox and that's fine, particularly in 2002. Wellisch is the better wrestler and White is the better guy in terms of getting submissions on the bottom, so we see Wellisch get the majority of the takedowns and spend the majority of the time on the mat in top control dodging submission attempts and landing shots. Standing though is where most of the fighting takes place, and there they have hands down and wing bombs for the better part of 3 rounds.

Two key events take place - in the first round White drops Wellisch with a punch, and Wellisch curls into fetal and gets hit in the back of the head, as its the only thing he offers as a target. It initally looks like this will be a TKO in the first for White, but after a couple minutes of discussion, its decided to restart the bout and penalize White for the rabbit punch. Absolutely absurd. The second key moment is the final takedown in the third round. Wellisch seems to hang back in the round reserving what energy he has left for a double from way outside, and he gets White down. He stacks White up when there's an attempt at a heel hook, and Wellisch ends up in mount raining bombs and White verbally quits due to strikes. White is carried out on a stretcher. (1)

In between fights, we are joined by CHUCK LIDDELL, who says he is trying to stay busy.

6) Zack Light vs. Tony Fryklund: Light is with Team Punishment and moving up to 185 against the long time MFS product.

FIGHT: Fryklund Submission Rnd 1. Another epic ref fuckup - Light gets repeated takedowns on Fryklund and at one point looks for the heel hook. Then after having taken top control inside the guard, Light ends up in a kimura from the bottom and Fryklund cranks the arm. Then, for reasons we can only guess at, the ref stops the bout. He claims he heard a verbal tap, but the fighter immediately disagrees and its a whole mess with the crowd chanting "You Suck" to the ref. This is like the 4th botched fight in 6 on this card. (2)

FRANK SHAMROCK does an interview in the ring, states that he was hoping to fight Ricardo Almedia and broke his leg. States he will be fighting again soon or never again. Not sure. States he will fight in Mohegan Sun in January/February of 2002.

7) Kurt Pellegrino vs. Mac Danzig: Oh, the good old days! When high level prospects fought other high level prospects at a very early stage of their careers!

FIGHT: The second round was good MMA - guys going for submissions, changing positions, striking, everything. The first and the third rounds; Well, it represented an imposition of Pellegrino's will, essentially. You see him work for takedowns early in both, get them, and get to half guard and do not much. The ref occasionally stands it up, but its lather, rinse, repeat. The second changes this as Pellegrino rushes in with strikes and Danzig counters with his own successful double and he operates out of the full guard of Kurt for awhile. All the chains of attempted submissions and strikes come out of that. Easy decision for Batman Pellegrino, as he shows his strengths and not much more. Both guys are clearly very green. (3)

8) Richard Crunkilton vs. Luciano Oliveira: Crunkilton is seen these days trying out for TUF like, every season. Oliveira no one knows about.

FIGHT: Crunkilton Submission Rnd 1. Crunkilton gets stuck in the clinch early by Oliveira, and instead gets tossed down, goes for a triangle choke out of the mount, and then rolls over and forces the submission. Takes like 10 minutes to do the post fight interview for the new WEC lightweight champion as the mic barely works. Crunkilton looks like he's 19 here. (1)

9) Jeremy Horn vs. Aaron Brink: Brink has gone on to fame as a porn star and drug addict. Jeremy Horn has gone between three weight classes (here as a heavyweight) and fought about 1,000,000 times.

FIGHT: Horn Submission Rnd 1. KOTC special - Horn with the single, immediately takes the back, RNC. Like 1 minute in length. OK, internet says 54 seconds. Horn gets a title belt and says nice things. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Quach/Curran

KO OF THE NIGHT: Wellisch/White

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Crunkilton/Oliveira

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5.5 out of 10. There's some clunkers on the show but some good prospect vs. prospect fights that now look pretty interesting to the average Joe. Like the WEF and the WFA, these were times when high profile prospects and aging stars could find themselves on cards of this caliber. Today, the only elite fighters on similar shows weigh 125 lbs, regardless of their sex.

THE BIG SHOW REVIEW: Week of 3/21 Pt. 2

UFC REVIEW CONTINUED:

-Jim Miller made Shalorus look as ordinary as I expected. He's better striking, he's faster, more technical, much better at submissions, etc. When Shalorus shot in the second, it led to him getting his back immediately taken and rode for two minutes. He couldn't even recognize the foot lock Miller openly gave him by crossing his feet. Miller started seeing Shalorus ducking his head and began in the third round by ending combinations with uppercuts. He wiffs a few times then catches him, hurting Shalorus and leading to the ending knee and punching spree. Fights like this honestly don't do anything for Miller but build confidence, and that's really not the worst thing in the world. He needs a fight with Clay Guida before making the step up to a title contest, but he's being brought along nicely IMO. Just needs that experience of a wrestleboxer with straight, fast punches. Miller never led the exchanges and never needed to either. Shalorus was that predictable and slow.

-Forgot to reference Assunciao getting laid out by Koch. This is another example of guys dropping down to 145 when its viable and destroying the mainstays of the division. Koch timed the hook beautifully and was generally doing a very good job setting the traps and counters beforehand. In that talent wasteland, who knows what he can do?

-Brendan Schaub didn't make a fan out of me beating the shell of Cro-Cop. Yes, the takedowns looked good. Almost like tackles. But Cro-Cop's takedown D has been tested and failed on numerous occasions in the last couple years. Plus - the top of the division are guys with All American awards as wrestlers. Some of the guys beneath them are in the same boat. Schaub is athletic and changes levels well, but his striking is slow to develop. So much one punch at a time stuff that a better guy is going to take advantage of fast. A rematch with Roy Nelson would be interesting, I suppose. Meanwhile, Cro-Cop is finished and has been for a long time. You'd be insane to have denied it even two years ago.

-Eddie Wineland, a guy who by all accounts is a lousy wrestler, forced Faber to work very hard for takedowns in round 1. That is the big takeaway from the fight with Faber and Wineland. Faber is still short for a bantamweight, he still holds his hands too low, and he's still very fast and tough to time. He had a tough time really bothering Wineland with his slapping punches until later in round 3, but I think it was clear that Faber was landing the better stuff in round 1 and won all three stanzas. But the takedowns - you know, there was this beauty in round 2 where Faber gives a feint and then sorta floats his way straight into the wheelhouse of Wineland, scoops up the lead leg, and then trips the back one. It was marvelous. But against Cruz, I have a feeling it doesn't work now. Cruz moves and movers need to have the ring cut off and you need to shoot for center mass punching them. Faber doesn't do that. He relies entirely on his athleticism. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong and Cruz really isn't any faster than Wineland, but I don't believe that to be true and so I don't see Faber having an easy time putting Cruz on his back or beating him.

-Dan Miller isn't a very good middleweight. What else is new? Marqhardt is bigger, throws harder, gets better position, and can fight his way back up from takedowns like nobody's business. Miller just throws crappy punches and tries to get takedowns off Marqhardt's more spectacular leaping kicks and punches. Speaking of Marqhardt leaping: What the fuck was that technique he was using? He keeps his distance then jumps in and then throws punches? Uhhh, dude. You are not Roy Jones. You are not fast enough to move in and out linearly like that and not get timed by much better fighters. Or even just OK fighters, which is how you lost to gatekeepers like Okami and Sonnen.

-Gleison Tibau vs. Kurt Pellegrino can best be described as "a fucking mess". Both men are firmly entrenched in the position of "journeymen" and in turn, this should be a sort of crossroads fight where one is demoted out of the UFC and the other keeps their place. Instead, what we get is a tepid, nigh unwatchable affair with neither man trying to win the 3rd and final round, and only one round comprehensively won by either man (Pellegrino wins the second off the strength of his striking, a solid right hand on Tibau, and a takedown). Tibau probably wins the 3rd round off the strength of his own takedown with 45 seconds left along with his more orthodox but robotic and slow boxing. Pellegrino pushes what little action occurs in the first round but neither guy lands anything. Its a split decision and I would have been fine with a draw.

-Njoukani and Barboza put on the FOTN as the folks running the show thought, and I guess I agree. It was a decent, skilled standup battle that while it wasn't a fever pitched exchange of winging punches was pretty fun to watch. Barboza really believes strongly in the kicks. That's fine. Just one issue; MMA is ruled by wrestlers. Wrestlers live to catch guys throwing kicks. If Anthony Njoukani can take you down, you will be planted on your back for an entire fight against Clay Guida. Barboza's wild spinning kicks are also just begging for double leg takedowns to counter them. And to be entirely honest, I can see why people would feel like Njoukani was robbed here. It was a close fight in which Njoukani outworked Barboza in both rounds 2 and 3 but lost the last 45 seconds in such decisive manner that it probably altered the judges' perception of the entire 5 minute period. Its nice to outland your opponent, but if they can wobble you once in a round where you do little more than jab then, judges will remember that. If they take you down too? You better get busy.

-The less said about Catone/Phillipou, the better. Constantinos still can't stop the shot and still can't do anything from the bottom. If he wasn't on his back, he was against the fence and unable to do anything. Catone can wrestle and even if Philipou can strike well, it doesn't matter if he keeps being taken down and mauled. Might as well cut him after this.

I didn't see the other two fights, so yeah. Well, OK. I saw a little of Benevidez/Loveland. Man, Benevidez had a helluva time getting him down, didn't he? That's the problem with being too small for your division sometimes. Already you're seeing scrub 145lb fighters move down and make noise or at least be competitive with the top of the class.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS

Titan Fighting Championship: I could easily run my record up predicting two of the fights, but that's not fun. Instead, the co-main event is Abe Wagner, TUF alum, against ShoXC alumni Aaron Rosa. Aaron Rosa fought in a stinker against Devin Cole that he didn't deserve to win, and lost to some light heavyweights that aren't really at the next level or anything. On the other hand, Abe Wagner is a tough guy to explain. He KOed a former UFC champion, sure. He was also KOed in 8 seconds by Travis Browne and went to a split decision with Sherman Pendergarst. Don't even ask about TUF. In short, while Devin Cole is a strong wrestler with some striking ability and also the willingness to have whatever it is that assault in the fourth degree tied up with sexual harrassment means, he is markedly different from Abe Wagner, who has no wrestling background but instead played football at Michigan Tech.

Rosa may look soft, but he's skilled in ways Wagner isn't, and he doesn't typically wade into wide shots. He'll beat Wagner down and possibly KO him in the early stages.

Bellator 38: Again, only one fight I'm willing to predict - Raphael Davis and DJ Linderman is a fight between a foreign born product with some wins over legit opposition where, as best I've seen, he was dominant. On the other side, you have Linderman, who has heart, isn't as good a grappler, and as the "bigger man" was effectively just fat. Davis, meanwhile was plenty soft as well. But again; this is about who is more skilled, right? Davis is more skilled. He does more things well. Linderman might hang on for a decision but it seems like I get the winner right and the pick of how wrong. Since my inclination is a decision win for Davis, I'll say Davis wins by second round submission.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT 24:

Phil Davis/Antonio Rogerio Noguiera is one of those fights you can only do when you really don't care who wins and you feel like it doesn't matter. Everyone is focused on Davis' wrestling, and Noguiera, like his twin, has problems with dominant wrestlers. He's also not as good as his brother from the bottom, though he certainly is skilled. Davis hasn't faced an equally skilled submission wrestler or striker to Noguiera, and he may be less willing to seek the takedown knowing that he could fall into Noguiera's traps on the mat. Standing, Noguiera won a bronze at the Pan Ams. I know more about it than anyone else because I watched the entire tournament. No matter how its framed, yes, it is impressive. So anyways, a pick: I think Noguiera wins, beating the young prospect probably by decision. There you go with that.

The undercard is interesting to me for a few fights - Dan Hardy and Anthony Johnson are fringe welterweight contenders, but Hardy does nothing well and isn't the kind of athletic and physical specimen that Johnson is. Nor is he as big. Hardy can hit plenty hard and Johnson's chin might be there to get hit, but I would be surprised if he lands real leather. Johnson is a big favorite for a reason, and I think he stops Hardy.

There's a lot of mediocre TUF guys on the undercard I can't be bothered to type about, but there's some other stuff I can get up for. Jon Madsen is a high level amateur wrestler and still undefeated as a pro. Mike Russow is also a high level amateur wrestler - not undefeated as a pro. On the other hand, Russow has face by far the better level of competition. Madsen will be a legitimate prospect in the division if he beats Russow...I'd think he's even better than one compared to Schaub. But talking about beating Russow and beating Russow are different things. In the end, experience matters and Russow has it along with talent. He beats Madsen and maybe even stops him with a keylock.

Also, finally: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung: It was Krazy Horse/Syraipai for a new generation the first time. Rarely are wild brawls like that in the rematch. If you ask me who looked the worse for wear, or hell, asked anyone with eyes, they'd say the Korean Zombie doesn't look the same. I agree. Garcia by deserved decision.

Tuff-N-Uff Fights: Future Stars of MMA 3 (1/7/2011)

John Morgan and Dave Farra are announcing this event from the Orleans' Mardi Gras Ballroom. All bouts are amateur fights. 2 minute rounds all around and judging by the referee's shirt, sanctioning comes through the ISKA.

1) Casey Picard vs. Cody Hamm: Uhhhh. Some people. They aren't even of drinking age, these two. 160lb bout.

FIGHT: Picard TKO Rnd 1. KOTC special, basically. Hamm complains about the stoppage, but whatever. Picard is picking off Hamm's wild shots and then slams him down out of a bodylock, immediately taking side control. He mounts Hamm and punches him until the ref stops it. (0)

2) Joshua Morgan vs. Tyler Jeppsen: Again: More guys I don't know. Morgan is 29. 185lbs.

FIGHT: Jeppsen TKO Rnd 1. Wild grappling from both early on and Morgan cuts himself from what looks to me to be either A) contact his face makes with the canvas less than 30 seconds in or B) an accidental headbutt when the two clinch. Nothing is learned about either aside from that Morgan's stance for striking reminds me of Dan Severn in 1997. (0)

3) Raul Sandoval vs. Jesse Romero: Romero is from Couture's gym.

FIGHT: Romero Unanimous Decision. Sandoval is the better fighter standing and trading, but that's not all MMA is, right? Romero takes down Sandoval over and over again, attains dominant positions, and lands OK GnP, particularly in round 1 (where he mounts Romero). In rounds 2 and 3 he spends almost the entire round on top. (0)

4) Jessamyn Duke vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith: Evans-Smith is the "local" favorite having sold a few tickets to friends and being from California. Duke is from KY. Why did she come all the way to Vegas to fight for no money? Hmmmm.....

FIGHT: Evans-Smith Unanimous Decision. Duke is a kickboxer sorta. I say sorta because she can kick and that's about the only evidence of skill. Zero takedown defense. I mean, she gets taken down off an armdrag. Duke is "active" from the guard but so loose, she comes nowhere near actually locking anything up. Later in the fight, Evans-Smith is landing punches repeatedly and doesn't even have to do anything but walk forward to get to the range she wants with Duke. Evans-Smith is a top control grappler, but compare her to like Jessica Eye (who is only recently a pro) and I'm not horribly impressed yet. Still, she is young. (0)

5) Lee Henry Lilly vs. Joey Angelo: These guys each have 5-6 ammy fights - welterweights.

FIGHT: Lilly Unanimous Decision. Angelo and Lilly threw wild stuff at each other that didn't connect, but Lilly had takedowns in every round. When the rounds are 2 minutes, being on top for 1 minute pretty much guarantees you won. Angelo has good size but I don't think much of his technique or athleticism. Lilly seems to be a wrestleboxer type but that's not a bad thing. No idea what his credentials are. (0)

6) David Tompkins vs. Troy Remer: 10th Planet vs. Xtreme Couture in this one.

FIGHT: Remer Unanimous Decision. Competitive fight. Tompkins is much taller and should be working from long range on Remer. Unfortunately, he keeps on kicking against the wrestler, and when he does that, Remer closes the distance and gets to the clinch. The fight is fought in the clinch or the mat probably 75% of the time, with Remer getting the takedown in every round. Based on his control of Tompkins by pushing him around the ring or taking him down, Remer wins the first and second, but then loses the third when Tompkins immedately sweeps him and lands a number of blows in the closing seconds. (0)

7) Jon Gorton vs. Jonathon Rodeffer: Rodeffer is a Team Tompkins disciple. LW bout.

FIGHT: Gorton Unanimous Decision. First round is an exhibition of wild striking, but the second and third are all about takedowns from Gorton. Rodeffer is a dirty fighter - he grabs almost every rope at the same time to prevent a takedown, and also claims to be hit in the groin when he's taken down with a double. (0)

8) Cesar Campos vs. Josh Grevas: LA Boxing vs. Xtreme Couture. Campos has an appreciable height advantage. Grevas has been off from fighting for 3 years.

FIGHT: Campos Unanimous Decision. Grevas goes for takedowns and gets them on occasion, but has trouble dealing with the submissions thrown back at him by Campos. Standing, its not even close. Grevas throws wide punches from the outside and gets tagged coming in. Grevas kinda stinks the fight out with his style, unfortunately. (0)

9) Ronda Rousey vs. Taylor Stratford: Women's bout. Both are undefeated. Rousey is a Olympian judoka.

FIGHT: Rousey Submission Rnd 1. So, here we have the most impressive performance of the show. Rousey and Stratford end up close enough for the clinch early and Rousey gets an outside trip and then starts going for submission after submission and submission. She gets a straight armbar and its all over. (1)

10) Giovani Zavala vs. Gabriel Garzon: Heavyweights - in shape ones! Zavala is 31, however.

FIGHT: Zavala TKO Rnd 1. Garzon and Zavala swing and swing and then they clinch. Zavala gets pushed to the corner and after a lack of action, they work to separate themselves. Garzon does it all wrong, leaving straight out and with his hands down and head up. He gets clocked behind the ear with a punch and goes down hard.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Rousey/Stratford

KO OF THE NIGHT: Garzon/Zavala

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Rousey/Stratford

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 2.5 out of 10. Man, aside from Rousey's fight, nothing to get excited about here. The only potential pro prospects I really saw from this show based on where they are now are Casey Picard, Lee Henry Lilly (as a lightweight), and Jon Gorton. None of those I feel too strongly about. They could be the random 6-5 guys fighting on any generic club card in this country just as well as they could develop into UFC level gatekeepers and FOTN chasers.

D&R Rating: 2% (1/60)

IFL: ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 2007 (9/20/2007

This is a little strange because, hey - its not really a review of a fight card as much as it is the one IFL commercial DVD. It opens up with a bunch of commercials for stuff like the USO, Muscle Milk, Headblade, and a bunch of other junk. There's only 7 fights on the DVD, but they are pretty nifty ones, I gotta admit. This show generally emanates from the Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, but there's some bonus fights from god knows where. Kenny Rice and Bas are your announcing crew. This is Pitbulls vs. the Silverbacks (Renzo vs. Miletich for coaches).

For those who've forgotten: IFL rules are unified rules with some changes - no elbows at all, 4 minute rounds, and yes; a ring.

1) Delson Heleno vs. Jake Ellenberger: First bout of the night and we've got a couple really high level guys. Ellenberger is actually a substitute for Rory Markham.

FIGHT: Heleno Submission Rnd 2. Not much of a breakdown to offer here - Heleno and Ellenberger are in the clinch from the very start of the fight and Heleno keeps working and working and working for trips and body lock takedowns. Ellenberger's a good wrestler and fights most of them off throughout the first , getting put on his back only briefly a couple times. In the second, the trip comes early in the round and the entire rest of the fight is fought on the mat. Heleno is great on top, getting to mount and flattening Ellenberger out, though doing little damage. Ellenberger bucks him into the full guard, only to get swept himself and armbar'ed late in the round. (3)

2) Bart Palaszewski vs. Devidas Taurosevicius: Two guys who ended up in the WEC and went no further.

FIGHT: Taursevicius Submission Rnd 2. Kinda surprising in retrospect that Taurosevicius went from looking like a future star in this bout dominating Palaszewski and then flamed out so dramatically at both 155 and 145. Bartimus was taken down in the first after tentative striking and absorbed a lot of punches to the face for the majority of the round while Devidas was almost kept on the mat with a rape choke. Second round, we see a body lock and Palaszewski gets the takedown and gets on top. Hey, that's good! Then Taurosevicius gets a high guard, grabs the left leg to give the appearance that he's going for a leg lock, but transitions into an armbar. Palaszewski thinks to try and pull the arm out and it breaks instead. Ugly. (3)

3) Ricco Rodriguez vs. Ben Rothwell: I remember wanting to see this fight so bad and when it hit TV, it was as highlights of round 3 only. Ricco, of course, is a former UFC champion. Rothwell is now in the UFC and had been on a huge run at this point.

FIGHT: Rothwell Unanimous Decision. Again, not a big breakdown to do here because what was done was so simple in some ways. Ben Rothwell is the better man standing by an appreciable amount. Rodriguez, meanwhile, does little offensively aside from some low kicks and going for two guillotines, neither of which was very deep. Every time Rothwell gets put in the guillotine, he pulls his head out and starts punching, earning him (IMO) every round. This really isn't the easiest fight to watch though. Lots of pushing and hugging. (4)

4) Ryan McGivern vs. Fabio Leopoldo: Middleweight contest. Neither guy is really special - McGivern actually won the IFL Middleweight title when they moved to individual belts later on in the dying days of the promotion. Leopoldo should lost his prior two fights coming into this having been given a gift against a young Gerald Harris.

FIGHT: McGivern TKO Rnd 2. Beatdown city. Leopoldo does nothing effective in this fight, isn't able to get takedowns, isn't competitive on the feet. McGivern takes advantage of Leopoldo's wide guard and the fact that he drops his head every time McGivern comes forward with strikes and throws uppercuts over and over and over again. He drops Leopoldo three times with uppercuts and the last one puts Leopoldo down and out for awhile. Heckuva TKO. McGivern only fought twice after the IFL went under and seems to have retired following a loss in Bellator in 2010. (2)

5) Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Andre Gusmao: Both guys got to the UFC and did very little when they made it there. This fight will also decide who is the IFL Team Champion for 2007. Its a rematch for a fight that Gusmao won in 2007.

FIGHT: Gusmao TKO Rnd 1. Ciesnolevicz comes forward not really setting up the shot and eats a high kick. He stumbles and goes down and Gusmao follows up with punches before the fight gets back to the feet ever so briefly and a knee finishes the bout. Really, the high kick was a grazing shot - if it was flush Ciesnolevicz may never have woken up. (2)

Show is over, Pitbulls are the champs.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

BONUS#1: Daniel Gracie vs. Wes Sims: Jens Pulver is joining the crew for this bout at the Trump Taj Mahal. Its actually a rematch from the Gracie Fighting Championships. Ricco is in the corner for Wes Sims. Also, no Bas and instead we have Steven Quadros! Weird. Fight is from 6/3/2006.

FIGHT: Gracie Submission Rnd 1. Wes Sims gets taken down off an inside trip very early in the bout and is in the half guard, and at that point, the fight is basically over. Gracie moves to mount, Sims gives the back up and stands, and Gracie holds on the whole time. Sims tries to dump him over the top rope but the Herb Dean kinda keeps the rope up holding it and Sims ends up passing out from the choke and collapsing with Sims on his back. Gracie's people rush the ring and are like landing on top of an unconscious Sims. Daniel Gracie goes on to be KOed by Allan Goes and disappears for 5 years before returning at the one and only Israel Fighting Championships Show ever held to date. But let's not be unfair here - he is returning soon to fight with Bellator. (1)

BONUS #2: Shad Lierley vs. Chris Horodecki: Man, another version of "what the hell happened?" Horodecki just wasn't willing to make the sacrifices to cut to 145 where he was better physically suited and now he's outside of the big promotions looking in after being a can't miss prospect once.

FIGHT: Horodecki Unanimous Decision. This is the fight that is popularly considered the greatest in the history of the International Fight League. (4)

Horodecki: Once a young phenom, Horodecki is largely seen as being washed up these days. He just had a lot of big beatings when he lost and this war also didn't do any good for his neurological health. Horodecki had the rep of being a big bopper in TKO and had some nice wins early in his IFL career, but since 2007, Horodecki's career has more than doubled in experience, he's dropped 3 fights, and he hasn't gotten a single win by TKO. Maybe Lierley was the proof that his punching power was totally overrated, because lawd almighty, he hit him with everything about a hundred times each. Horodecki also shows that he's not particularly good at stopping takedowns and isn't any sort of overpowering grappler from his back.

Lierley: Its not often that you can say about a guy that it was a terrible thing to be in a notable fight of the year contender 3 fights into his career. But that is what happened here to Shad - he gave Horodecki everything he could handle in a losing effort and absorbed a lot of stuff in doing so. He's a great tough pug, but the final analysis of this fight and his career isn't positive. You get hit a lot like this, it can ruin you. On top of that, being so competitive with a guy so highly regarded as Horodecki meant that he skipped a few levels of development and ended up in with fighters who were well above his skill level. He dropped to 145 in 2008 for his next fight with Wagnney Fabiano and literally made that guy's hype train before the WEC. Then he goes to Bellator in 2009 and goes 1-1 there beating journeyman Nate Murdock and then losing to a similar sort of shooting star phenom in Wilson Reis.

As a fighter though: Lierley is a wrestleboxer with a wide boxing guard and poor movement. He has a tremendous chin and his takedowns are OK, but nothing stands out about his skill level. In top control against Horodecki he is not that active. He also doesn't have the same level of cardio and is pretty well past it in the 3rd round. But he can see the punches coming from Horodecki and stays in the fight as a result. Wild stuff when he throws but it occasionally sets up the shot.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT/DVD: Lierley/Horodecki

KO OF THE NIGHT/DVD: McGivern/Leopoldo

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT/DVD: Gracie/Sims

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW/DVD: 7 out of 10. This is a pretty entertaining (in general) set of bouts with a cult classic included, a couple wild submissions, some beatdown KOs, and one sorta lousy but important fight.

D&R Rating: 54% (19/35) Highest rating attained thus far. If you score it solely as the 5 fights from the night in question alone, its a 56% instead.