The Juggernaut MMA News Report 06.17.09: Goodbye Cro Cop

Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 06.17.2009

The Juggernaut reviews UFC 99, covers all things TUF9 including a finale preview, examines the complete TUF10 cast list featuring Kimbo Slice and several former NFL players, laughs at Tim Sylvia in anger and sorts the news of the week. Will Josh Barnett return to the UFC? Which UFC heavyweight not named Couture is talking about retirement? All that and more in the blink of an eye!

UFC 99 is in the books and the road to the century mark is under way. The UFC's debut in Cologne, Germany should be considered a success after a solid card of fights. The only thing missing was a championship fight and nevertheless, there was a lot to the show.

The grudge match between Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy was a back and forth fight, despite the fact I had Hardy taking each round. It never appeared as if Hardy was in danger of losing the fight. Davis attempted several submissions throughout the fight including triangles and heel hooks but never was able to lock any on. In the third round, Hardy cut Davis with a wicked elbow from his guard. Davis' nose was busted open and I could not have argued had the doctor stopped the fight. The fight went to a decision a short time after. Davis seemed alright with Hardy once the bell rang but after the decision was announced for Hardy, Davis was pissed off and stormed out of the cage. Hardy was respectful in victory and could be a huge figure in the sport if he continues to improve his skills. He can certainly talk, as we found out in the build up to this fight.

I missed the Spencer Fisher/Caol Uno fight. Fisher won the decision and I hope Uno returns for another fight.

Did Mike Swick look like a pile of bones or what? The fight was just there until the second round when Swick unloaded several strikes and knocked Ben Saunders out to the mat. Swick doesn't look like the best athlete or the toughest but the man has dangerous hands and strikes. His problem may be contending with the elite competition in the division. Do you think he can outfight Georges St. Pierre? Hell no.



This is how Dana White felt on Saturday

Next came the Mirko Cro Cop fight as he took on Mustapha Al-Turk. Al-Turk was more aggressive early on but did not seem smooth at all. Cro Cop didn't take any damage and was clearly more powerful. The action here came from an accidental eye poke as Cro Cop attempted to punch Al-Turk. Mustapha could not see and covered up as Cro Cop finished him with a couple of punches and the ref stopped it. The referee did not see the eye poke (frankly, I did not either until the replay) so it appeared as if it was an average TKO stoppage. Sucks for Al-Turk but with the way Cro Cop is leaving the UFC (more on that in the NEWS section), expect Al-Turk to get at least one more UFC fight. It was such a short fight that we really cannot tell whether Cro Cop is finally "back." He did seem more confident, bigger and stronger but will he be able to match the skills of another top heavyweight? Now in DREAM, who is there to fight? Perhaps Alistair Overeem (again) after he fights for Strikeforce in August?

The other big heavyweight fight saw Cain Velasquez dominate Cheick Kongo on the ground. Velasquez's problems stem from two things. He is not a great striker as he was rocked several times in the fight and the only thing that saved him was his awesome wrestling ability. Plus, Velasquez's ground and pound needs a LOT of work. With all that said, the man is a monster. He took Kongo down at will for fifteen minutes and passed between side control, mount, took Kongo's back with no risks at all. Kongo is awful on the ground, at least against a top level wrestler. Now this shoots Velasquez up the heavyweight ladder into the same realm as Shane Carwin and the Randy Couture/Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira UFC 101 winner. On the bright side, we now know Cain Velasquez has a great chin. As for Kongo, this sucks for him. He took the fight on short notice and put his potential title shot at risk, and lost. Now he's back down the ladder with the likes of Gabriel Gonzaga. Back to work.

The main event proved to be an exciting strike war between two great fan favorites. However, the fact that Wanderlei Silva is a beloved figure, that caused the live fans to boo Rich Franklin. Yes, Wanderlei Silva made people hate Rich Franklin. Silva may have tired after the first round but he seemingly came into his own later in the fight with damaging strikes that knocked Franklin loopy. Franklin returned damaging shots to Silva in the second round which gave it to him, in my opinion. In the final round, Silva was a bad ass. He was aggressive and looking to knock Franklin out. Silva's punches looked mean but he could not stop Franklin from taking him down towards the end. Ironically, this was the only round I scored for Silva so the takedown did not matter much. This loss does hurt Silva who needs to win. Sure he is a fan favorite and personal favorite of Dana White, but you can only do so much with the man if he does not win. Plus, you have to be concerned with the man's health. If White is concerned for Chuck Liddell's well being, he should be just as concerned with Wanderlei Silva. As for his future fights, this takes away the possibility of doing Anderson Silva/Wanderlei Silva (and all but guarantees the UFC 100 match-up between Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping will crown the new number one contender to the middleweight championship). Who can Wanderlei fight in the middleweight division?

Rich Franklin can now return to the light heavyweight division with a win in his back pocket. The division is stacked but he should be well suited to join the pack. One thing to note is Lyoto Machida trains with Anderson Silva. So I assume the Franklin/Anderson Silva training relationship is now over.

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ULTIMATE FIGHTER FINALE on SPIKE



UFC returns to Las Vegas to conclude the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter in awesome fashion. Besides the actual TUF finals for two contracts (one welterweight, one lightweight), the three fights featuring main UFC fighters are good on paper. The main event shakes out the top of the lightweight division with the winner becoming a potential challenger for the BJ Penn/Kenny Florian winner at UFC 102. Diego Sanchez challenges Clay Guida with each man walking into the cage with three fight winning streaks. Guida handed Nate Diaz his first UFC loss back in January while Sanchez debuted as a lightweight with an impressive win over Joe Stevenson in February.

Both men have huge motors and will not tire down. The interesting match-up will be wrestling-wise, who has the advantage? Both are great wrestlers. On the feet, I would give the advantage to Sanchez who seems more crisper and efficient with his punches. You can never underestimate Guida however, so I am torn.

In another quality lightweight contest, Nate Diaz fights Joe Stevenson. Diaz may not be as good a striker as his brother but he is just as dangerous on the ground. Stevenson loves to use the guillotine choke and needs a win. He has lost three of his last four fights, although each loss was against top competition (Penn, Florian & Sanchez). If Stevenson is able to take Diaz down, that may be just where Nate Diaz wants to fight. In recent weeks, Cesar Gracie is 2-0 with the victories of Nick Diaz and Jake Shields of Strikeforce. Can they make it 3-0 this weekend?

Plus we will see Andre Winner fight Ross Pearson to decide the lightweight Ultimate Fighter winner. We will not know until tonight whom will fight Demarques Johnson for the welterweight contract, either James Wilks or Frank Lester. More on that fight is below in the TUF section.

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TUF10 CAST REVEALED

It took about two weeks for the cast list to hit the net but it has finally done so. The 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter is making the rounds and besides the big names, includes talent from several well known training camps. Here are the 16 heavyweights who are vying for the six-figure UFC contract.

• Wes Sims 22-12-1, Hammer House member, 0-3 in UFC in 2003-04 with two losses to Frank Mir, currently on a three fight winning streak


• Roy Nelson 13-4, lost to Andrei Arlovski and Jeff Monson


• Tom Blackledge 8-6, member of Wolfslair camp, lost to Stefan Struve


• Jim York 10-2, New Zealand born, 33-years old, knocked out James Thompson at Sengoku in March


• Darrill Schoonover 10-0, has never fought to a decision, turns 24-years old tomorrow


• Zak Jensen 7-3, lost to Brad Imes & Mike Whitehead


• Scott Junk 6-2-1, lost to Christian Wellisch at UFC 76


• Abe Wagner 6-2, three fight winning streak (although he went to a five-round split decision with Sherman Pendergarst)


• Justin Wren 6-1, three fight winning streak, 22-years old (youngest fighter in the house), trains with Travis Lutter


• Mike Wessel 6-1, lost to Antoni Hardonk (on short notice) at UFC 92


• Marcus Jones 4-1, ex-NFL player (1st round draft pick of Buccaneers in 1996), 6'6", 35-years old


• Brendan Schaub 4-0, ex-NFL player (Bills), Golden Gloves champion and a Colorado BJJ champion, trained with Shane Carwin, trains with Greg Jackson's camp and KO Fight Club in Colorado


• Kimbo Slice 3-1, 35-years old


• Wes Shivers 2-0, ex-NFL player (Falcons), 6'7 and had to cut about 20 pounds to make 265 lbs. limit


• Jon Madsen 1-0, member H.I.T. Squad (Matt Hughes' camp), wrestled against Brock Lesnar in high school


• Matt Mitrione 0-0, ex-NFL player (Giants, Vikings), trains with Jake O'Brien

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JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS

- Mirko Cro Cop screwed over Dana White and the UFC. The first and last time a fighter will ever receive a one-fight UFC contract. For those who have not followed the story, here is the cliff notes version. The UFC needed a shot in the arm to help sell tickets for UFC 99 and Cro Cop wanted to fight again. Cro Cop and UFC President Dana White stayed on positive terms over the past two years and they worked out an arrangement. Cro Cop would sign for one fight and then agreed to sign for an additional two to three fights after he competed at UFC 99. HOWEVER, Cro Cop and his management signed a new three-fight deal with DREAM. Yes, Cro Cop screwed the UFC over. Dana White did not find out about this until after UFC 99. He insisted that Cro Cop would never fight in the UFC again. White also said originally, he wanted Cro Cop to fight Cain Velasquez at UFC 99 but the Croatian superstar declined and shot down other potential fights, instead settling on Mustapha Al-Turk. Make of that what you will but it definitely reeks. Apparently, Cro Cop wanted an "easy" fight to get a win in the UFC and then took a big money offer from DREAM after promising to sign a longer UFC contract. For those who don't care to follow the Japanese MMA scene, you just watched your last Mirko Cro Cop fight.


- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the UFC heavyweight, spoke with Fighters Only Magazine and reveled his intentions to retire in 2010. Before he does, he wants to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship and fight in both Japan and his native Brazil. Nogueira last fought in Japan on New Years Eve in 2006 when he defeated Josh Barnett. Ironically, according to the records, he has yet to fight professionally in Brazil. His brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (a light heavyweight fighter) fought professionally for the first time in Brazil last month for the Jungle Fight promotion (he submitted Dion Staring). The twin brothers have combined to fight over 50 times in MMA although it's widely recognized that Rodrigo has absorbed much more damage. Rodrigo Nogueira is one of the legends of the sport and while it will be a sad time to see him walk away (if he does), perhaps it won't be soon enough after all the damage he has taken. If he ends up fighting in Japan, with or without the UFC, I would love to see a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko. The two have fought three times, all with PRIDE, and besides the errant No Contest in the second contest, Fedor is 2-0 against Nogueira.


- ESPN.com reported Friday that the long awaited female MMA bout pitting Gina Carano versus Cristiane 'Cyborg' Santos (Strikeforce, August 15th) will be scheduled for five, five-minute rounds. This is just another factor as to why this bout will be historic, the first time in the state of California that a sanctioned womens MMA bout will be scheduled for that length. However, Strikeforce officials were quick to note that future womens bout's may revert back to the normal length of three, three minute rounds. When I read that, it piqued my interest. Is it not the athletic commission's (in this case the CSAC) that regulate such stipulations? If Strikeforce is able to book this special fight to go as long as the male fights, why handicap other women? For years, every female fighter and most pundits have called for the three, three-minute concept to go the way of the dinosaur. After all, isn't that rule based on the assumption that women are inferior to their male counterparts? Obviously that is an incorrect assumption (in the sense that women cannot handle fighting one another for 15-minutes).

Last week, I wrote about why the women's championship fight should main event the Strikeforce event. About a day or two after last week's Juggernaut News Report, the promotion announced that the fight will headline. "Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg" is the official title and it will be a sight to see for sure, the first major MMA show to be headlined by a female fight. Who would have thought that would happen back in 1993 or 2005?

More news on this historic fight, it was reported by MMAWeekly that Randy Couture will both train and corner Carano for the fight. Carano trains at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.


- Dana White announced the UFC and SpikeTV have come to an agreement that extends their current TUF contract for two more seasons. Previously, The Ultimate Fighter was set for its twelfth season in 2011 and eleventh the year before. Now, both 2010 and 2011 will consist of two TUF seasons. White also talked about the success of the current season featuring a U.S. vs. U.K. format and his intentions to use it again in the future. Right now, season ten is filming in Las Vegas featuring an entire cast of heavyweights (Kimbo Slice, Roy Nelson and others). What this means for the previously planned new show on Spike is unknown. Years ago, they spoke about developing a new format for a UFC show on the network that may feature live fights. White has not commented on that recently.


- According to MMAJunkie, at the UFC 99 Q&A session for UFC Fight Club members, Dana White commented on heavyweights Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett. Once again, White relayed his frustration with dealing with Fedor's management. He has still never met directly with Fedor himself. Months back, White said if he were able to talk man-to-man with Fedor, he may be able to finally reach a deal. White dropped one interesting information nugget; if Fedor should lose to Josh Barnett on August 1st (Affliction 3), he would be interested in bringing Barnett back to the UFC. It has always been weird that Barnett never returned to the UFC since he tested positive for steroids in 2002. It doesn't seem that the bridge is burned so it looks like over the past several years, things have simply not come together to suit both parties. Josh Barnett still claims he is the UFC Heavyweight Champion because he was never beaten for the belt (he was stripped after the positive test, after he defeated Randy Couture) and the belt is still in his home. Regardless of the Affliction 3 result, I would hope Barnett and White can come together to bring in another top heavyweight.


- Cameron Dollar broke the news that he will fight Jason Dent on Saturday night at the TUF Finale. This will be Dollar's first official UFC fight while he will face a man who has been to the show before. This is the first non-finals TUF fight announced (although not confirmed) for the show. There is no guessing as to how many cast members will be featured on the show. Depending on the outcome, you may expect to see a fight between Nick Osipczak and the Frank Lester/James Wilks loser.


- Strikeforce presents its second 'Challengers Series' event this Friday evening on Showtime. The females return to fighting on the show with a bout between Shayna Baszler and Sarah Kaufman (who won a decision on the last show). News earlier in the week confirmed that like the 8/15 Carano vs. Christiane Cyborg fight, the fight this Friday will consist of five-minute rounds. Strikeforce received permission from the Washington State Athletic Commission to increase the amount of time scheduled for the fight.The promotion was unwilling to say whether five-minutes will become the norm for their women's fights. For years there has been pushes to increase the time from three-minute rounds to five. Now with the potential to fight for six extra minutes, it will be interesting to see if there is any negative outcome.

The rest of the televised Strikeforce card will feature a main event pitting Joey Villasenor against Evangelista Cyborg Santos, plus Nick Thompson vs. Tim Kennedy, Jorge Gurgel vs. Conor Heun and Cory Devela vs. Luck Rockhold.

Hopefully they can promote the hell out of the August 15 date on Friday's show because thus far, their hype has been lackluster.


- UFC 102's main card is all official. The UFC began confirming the card earlier this week. Set for August 29th at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, the main event will feature another big heavyweight bout as Randy Couture will fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The winner may be next in line for a championship shot. Also featured on the card will be Keith Jardine fighting Thiago Silva and the return (from suspension) of Chris Leben against Jake Rosholt. A big middleweight fight between Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt and a light heavyweight battle between Brandon Vera and Matt Hamill is also official.

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Lightweight Finale Set: Winner vs. Pearson

The penultimate episode of TUF9 was all fight with both lightweight semi-final match-ups. While Cameron Dollar is a solid young prospect and Jason Dent is a fine veteran, the fact was the pair of British fighters were just plain better. Andre Winner fought the takedown attempts from Dollar while hammering him with strikes. Once Dollar was able to get him down, Winner simply reversed position and won via triangle choke. While Pearson and Dent went the full three rounds, the majority of the fight saw Ross Pearson dominate. However, Dana White did proclaim he was more impressed with Dent in the loss than he was in his previous victories. Dent put up a fight and never quit, but he was outmatched.

Now the lightweight finale, to Michael Bisping's delight is an all-UK match-up. Andre Winner (9-2-1 before the show) will fight Ross Pearson (9-3 before the show). Winner is the favorite only because he was the leading candidate to be here from the start. If nothing else, Pearson has shown he can take a hit. He sure did take a lot of them from Dent. This should make for a great TV fight on June 20th (the LIVE Finale from Las Vegas).


Welterweight
- Damarques Johnson
- Frank Lester vs. James Wilks

Lightweight
- Andre Winner
- Ross Pearson


Airing tonight will be the final semi-final fight to determine the last of the four finalists for the finale (how many times can I include finale?). That means Frank Lester returns for his fourth TUF fight and rematch with James Wilks. The preview for the fight was humorous showing Lester wanting revenge against the man who knocked his false teeth out.

The fight is pretty straight forward. Lester has tons of heart and is a power puncher with little else. Wilks is a Jiu-Jitsu fighter with stand-up skills. It is tough to pick against him in this match-up.


The one thing you realize by this point is the likely chance that most of the TUF9 competitors will not be long for the UFC after the finale. It's looking doubtful that most of the cast even make it to finale fights. While only three fights have been officially announced (Sanchez/Guida, Lytle/Burns & Stevenson/Diaz), only the Dollar/Dent fight and two final TUF fights are all but confirmed.

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JUGGERNAUT VIDEO OF THE WEEK


I left this story until now because it is such a joke. Tim Sylvia fought retired pro boxer (and 48-year old) Ray Mercer in an MMA fight over the weekend. Originally, it was scheduled to be a boxing match until it could not find regulation. The only way it could be done was under MMA rules. Take ten seconds out of your life and watch the fight below.





It's so damn sad. Tim Sylvia, a former UFC heavyweight champion loses in an MMA fight to a retired pro boxer. MMA is looking pretty ridiculous in this light and there is nothing to say in response. The only thing I would say is to never expect Sylvia in the UFC again. Ever.

To cap things off, Sylvia was removed from the upcoming Affliction show. So he loses about $500,000, if not more.

What a joke.




What a busy week it's been. That is all for now, you can always check me out on Twitter. As always, thanks for reading.



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