The Juggernaut MMA News Report 08.05.09: The Who Needs Fedor Edition
Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 08.05.2009
The Juggernaut brings you all the news on Fedor finally signing a deal, previews of UFC 101 & WEC 42, the latest look at the August 15th Strikeforce card, Kenny Florian discussing his biggest fear and much more!
Who Needs Fedor?! Let's Talk UFC 101~!
The first of what should be another hundred UFC PPVs takes place on Saturday night. The undercard may be lacking but the double main event more than makes up for it.
Can Kenny Florian prevent a similar situation from happening?
In the night's sole championship fight, lightweight king B.J. Penn will defend his belt against Kenny Florian. Penn is 13-5-1 but considered one of the best fighters of his generation despite being walloped at the hands of Georges St. Pierre in a welterweight fight in January. Penn defeated Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk in lightweight fights in 2007 and 2008. He is looking to make a successful second defense of his title this weekend. His challenger, Kenny Florian is the clear number one contender having won six straight fights. His only loss as a lightweight came against Sean Sherk over two years ago. Since then he has defeated Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Alvin Robinson, Din Thomas, Joe Lauzon, Roger Huerta and Joe Stevenson. Florian probably would have received this title shot earlier had Penn not decided to move up in weight to fight GSP. Despite that, Florian is fighting the best he has since entering the UFC. He mixes Muay Thai with jiu-jitsu to defeat his opponents with submissions, wicked elbows or simply outlasting them. Well known wrestlers Huerta and Stevenson could not control Florian at all. The last time Penn lost a lightweight fight, it was the famous upset loss to Jens Pulver over seven years ago. Penn offers a great mix of boxing, jiu-jitsu and wrestling. Despite the UFC 94 fight, Penn is extremely tough to take down, let alone keep him down and pound him out or submit him. If Florian can take him down, he will likely look to rain down elbows and cut Penn, but Penn is famous for being able to stay on his feet and wear his opponents down with striking.
In the co-main event, a light heavyweight bout will see middleweight champion Anderson Silva (24-4) fight Forrest Griffin (16-5) in what should definitely be an exciting fight. In fact, it was mainly booked because the UFC wanted to motivate Silva to have an entertaining fight after recent stinkers against Thales Leites and Patrick Cote. Everyone knows how dominant Silva has been even though his light heavyweight debut came with a knockout win over James Irvin last July. Silva has beaten every comer and has rarely looked weak (I still can only think of one time, during the Travis Lutter fight at UFC 67). He has an explosive mix of Muay Thai striking skills, jiu-jitsu and the ability to not take a lot of damage (before Lyoto Machida made it famous). On the other hand, Forrest Griffin is famous partly for his willingness to get hit. In fact, he has said many times that he can only calm down during a fight once he's punched in the face. Griffin has had some setbacks during his UFC career (losses to Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans, and the gold too) but then he goes out and shocks the world by choking out Shogun Rua or defeated Rampage Jackson to win the 205-championship. Griffin loves to stand and bang and it's almost a guarantee this fight will turn into a kick boxing match. The question is, can Griffin contend with Silva's clinch fighting, or will he end up like Rich Franklin?
Expect a similar look following this weekend's fight...if he's not sleeping.
The undercard features an array of bouts from mostly the middleweight division. TUF alumnus Kendall Grove returns to the octagon for the first time since March to fight Ricardo Almeida. Grove is 10-5 while Almeida is 10-3 and coming off a decision victory against Matt Horwich in April. Prior to his loss to Pat Cote at UFC 86, Almeida was riding a seven-fight win streak. TUF7 winner Amir Sadollah will FINALLY have his first PPV fight this weekend when he challenges Johnny Hendricks. Sadollah's only pro fight was his finale win over CB Dolloway last summer. Since then, injuries have forced a few fights to be delayed until now. Hendricks is 5-0 and will make his UFC debut here after going 2-0 in WEC. He last defeated Alex Serdyukov by decision in March. Hendricks is known for his wrestling. Interestingly enough, so was Dolloway when Sadollah upset him with a submission victory. Located on the prelim portion of the card will be Thales Leites. Ouch! That's what happens when you have a stinker of a fight in a main event of a PPV. Leites is 14-2 and has not fought since losing an ugly unanimous decision to Anderson Silva in April. Now he will fight 13-7 Alessio Sakara. Sakara is 4-4 in the UFC having never won two fights in a row. He last fought in September and knocked Joe Vedepo out with a wicked head kick. Expect Leites to win using his explosive jiu-jitsu (which would have been nice if we could have seen it back in April, oh well).
Who Needs Fedor?! STRIKEFORCE~!
Well how about that. A week after negotiations between Fedor Emelianenko, M-1 Global and the UFC fell apart, the best heavyweight of all-time has officially signed with Strikeforce. According to the first news reports, Strikeforce will co-promote future shows with M-1 (a sticking point to any possible UFC deal), the business that Fedor is part owner of. Fedor is going to make his Strikeforce debut in the fall and it will air live on Showtime.
No financial figures have been made public yet but the deal is for three-fights and one year. Fedor will also be allowed to fight in Japan if scheduling permits.
The question becomes, who does he fight? The first possibility should become Alistair Overeem. However, according to comments from Strikeforce head Scott Coker, it seems they will wait to build to a Fedor/Overeem fight. He had to cancel a fight for next weekend due to a lingering hand injury. Well, he should be healthy after two to three more months of rest and rehab. That's a fight that would headline any Japanese MMA show, let alone Strikeforce. The only other choice that rings loud is Brett Rogers. Rogers wanted to fight Fedor if there would have been an Affliction show but Strikeforce would not agree to lease him out. Now, Rogers may get that opportunity, albeit for a lot less money.
Who else is there? Is Kevin Randleman going to try and finish Fedor like he could not do before? How about Bob Sapp? Highly unlikely. Josh Barnett does not appear to be an option if he could not be licensed in California recently. Other heavyweights like Ben Rothwell and Paul Buentello just signed with the UFC, not that either matching up with Fedor would have kept the masses dreaming.
Who do you want to see Fedor fight in Strikeforce?
Lastly, you know this pisses off UFC President Dana White off to no end. His biggest competition (even if the separation between the UFC and Strikeforce is bigger than the Nile) signed the big white whale and will offer his fights on cable television. You have to think whenever he does fight, the UFC will counter-program the hell out of it, perhaps showing the UFC 100 rematch between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir for the first time on Spike. Picture the ads, "Brock Lesnar, the best heavyweight in the world defends the UFC championship...," you know it is going to happen. What can you say, oh well. So Fedor is not going to be fighting inside the octagon anytime soon, if ever, there are worse things to happen in the sport (such as YAMMA).
Now we can safely say where the best fighters in each weight class are. Lyoto Machida (best light heavyweight), Anderson Silva (best middleweight), B.J. Penn (best lightweight), Georges St. Pierre (best welterweight), Mike Brown (best featherweight) and Miguel Torres (best bantamweight) all fight for Zuffa. Fedor Emelianenko (best heavyweight) and either Gina Carano or Cris Cyborg (best female) fight for Strikeforce.
Do I need a reason for posting another Gina Carano video? Nope, but she is fighting next week.
WEC 42 Preview
WEC is back in the saddle again with their first show since the legendary battle between Mike Brown and Urijah Faber in June. This time, it's the bantamweights on showcase as the best in the world and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Miguel Torres defends his WEC championship against Brian Bowles. The fight was set to take place earlier but was forced to delay when Bowles sustained a back injury. Now it's put up or shut up time for Bowles, the 7-0 fighter. It will be tough to think Bowles can stand and trade with Torres. Three of Bowles' four WEC wins have come by choke submission. Torres (at least 37-1) is too complete a fighter to be bullied on the ground at this point by Bowles and I expect a TKO victory early in the fight.
Joseph Benavidez, the bantamweight Urijah Faber protege, is back in the cage and riding a 10-0 record against 13-1 Dominick Cruz (whose lone loss came against Faber). The winner here may be next in line for a shot at the championship later this year. Both men have impressive victories in WEC with Benavidez defeating Danny Martinez and Jeff Curran while Cruz beat Charlie Valencia, Ian McCall and Ivan Lopez. This may be as equal a match-up will be on this card but I may have to give the edge to Benavidez for his grappling talents.
Another big bantamweight fight is set between Takeya Mizugaki and Jeff Curran. Mizugaki was Bowles' injury replacement and took Miguel Torres to a five round decision. Curran has not had much recent success in WEC losing to Faber, Mike Brown and Benavidez. Let's face it, anything can happen but if Miguel friggin' Torres could not finish Mizugaki, can Curran? Curran will be looking for his 30th professional victory.
In his first fight since losing in his hometown against Mike Brown, Leonard Garcia is set to return. The former top featherweight contender will fight Jameel Massouh (21-5) who lost his WEC debut in April against Rafael Assuncao. Also on the card will be a fight previously scheduled for Affliction, (13-2) L.C. Davis challenging Javier Vazquez (13-2). Vazquez is on a four-fight winning streak that began with a 2003 win over Robert Emerson. He is 3-0 since 2007 with a pair of submission wins most recently. Davis has competed for the IFL, Affliction and Sengoku promotions. His first loss came against current WEC contender, Wagnney Fabiano while he lost his most recent fight in March to Michihiro Ogawa.
Check out WEC 42 this Sunday night on VERSUS~! They routinely put on entertaining shows so go out of your way to watch.
Dana White Gives Major UFC Conference Call
(author's note: this section was written prior to the news of Fedor's signing with Strikeforce.)
The big hyped conference call conducted by UFC President Dana White last Friday failed to break any earth shattering news, but did bring to light some interesting tidbits. First and foremost, contrary to previous reports (namely the Los Angeles Times), Fedor Emelianenko did not sign with the UFC. One week ago, news began to spread stating Fedor and the UFC had reached a deal and it would be announced soon. That did not happen. The UFC reportedly did offer Fedor a monster contract in terms of money (rumored to be upwards of $5 million per fight for six fights) and leeway (permission to compete in Russian sambo competitions). However, the UFC never agreed to co-promote with M-1 Global, the Russian fight company that Emelianenko is part owner of. Fedor's management have made it clear that the only way the top heavyweight will compete in the UFC is if they agree to co-promote. That simply will not happen because the UFC would have nothing to gain from obliging that request. For those wondering, M-1 denies the reports that the UFC offered Fedor anywhere close to $30 million guaranteed, playing the P.R. game (and epically failing!).
Now where does this leave Fedor? Who knows, and frankly, we should stop caring (at least somewhat). He is not coming to the top MMA promotion in the world (with the greatest collection of top heavyweights in the world). Whether it is in part because Fedor dislikes the use of elbows or the octagon, or perhaps he has no say and this is all the doing of his management group or others in Russia, who knows. Let's face it, the masses don't know who Fedor is and don't care. It's about time we realize while Fedor has been the best heavyweight for most of this decade, his time is coming to an end with the emergence of Brock Lesnar who will now be fighting better competition more frequently than Fedor will over the same period.
Anyway, more UFC news ahead.
TITO ORTIZ IS BACK! This was one-half of the funniest news bulletins during the presser. The other was White saying he did not want to talk about Fedor, then doing just that to conclude the phone conversation. Tito Ortiz, once Dana White's biggest enemy, is back in the family. The two have amended the problems that made them want to kick each other's asses and will be doing business again. The funny part was listening to Tito talk about how much Dana was a man of his word and treated Ortiz wonderfully when months ago, Ortiz would freely discuss how much of a snake White was to him. I guess money and time do change things. Ortiz talked about his wanting to fight the top competition (and correctly) and the best 205ers are in the UFC. He mentioned how the only worthy light heavyweights in Strikeforce were Babalu Sobral and Frank Shamrock and Ortiz opined how easily he could defeat both. Ortiz is coming off back surgery and insists he feels the best he has in years. He will resume training shortly and plans to fight once before the end of the year. Dana White talked about the likelihood we shall see a fight pitting Ortiz against UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman perhaps in November.
That match-up is not odd as Ortiz would be the favorite against Coleman. Both are tremendous wrestlers known for their ground and pound (Coleman is credited with inventing it in modern MMA) so it would be an interesting match-up in that sense.
The other news was confirmation from Dana White as to which Affliction fighters were signed to either UFC or WEC contracts. Signed to fight in the UFC include Paul Daley, Ben Rothwell, Chase Gormley, Paul Buentello, Dan Lauzon and Rafaello Oliveira. Signed to compete in WEC include Mark Hominick, L.C. Davis and Javier Vazquez. Dana White bluntly stated he had no interest in signing either former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski or Tim Sylvia. Both have lost multiple fights in a row and would likely command higher priced contracts than they deserved at this point. However, White has said previously that he likes Arlovski and would be interested if he can string together some wins elsewhere.
The biggest name being brought over from Affliction right now will be former UFC champion Vitor Belfort. He has not competed inside the octagon since losing to Tito Ortiz at UFC 51 in 2005. Right now, he is on a four-fight win streak having last knocked out Matt Lindland at the second Affliction show back in January. Belfort will headline UFC 103 against Rich Franklin in a catchweight bout. First, the fight was set to be fought as a light heavyweight bout but Belfort insisted it be at 195 lbs. instead. This fight was changed from the previously scheduled fight between Franklin and Dan Henderson, what would have been their rematch. According to Dana White, they decided to change the main event after fan feedback was anything but excitement towards it. UFC 103 will go head to head with Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s return to boxing in nearly two years when he fights Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19th. You can bet many people will be watching the buyrate info of the two PPVs to see where things stand as far as business goes for both boxing and MMA.
Dan Henderson is now the undisputed number one contender to Anderson Silva's middleweight championship. Their fight will be scheduled after Silva's fight with Forrest Griffin (this weekend) is in the books and they know how Silva's health is. I would guess we could see Silva vs. Henderson 2 on the big New Year's show in January (the UFC will not have a New Year's Eve PPV this year).
The other big announcement was confirmation that UFC will air on ESPN U.K. in Europe beginning Monday when the network debuts. There was no news as far as ESPN in America although White said they were in negotiations with more networks than ever after the success of UFC 100. Whether it's ESPN or ABC, do not be surprised if the UFC begins a new relationship with either before the end of the year. One of White's long time dreams was to replicate the old boxing Tuesday night fights show with the UFC and he may be able to do so not too long from now.
Lastly, Dana White confirmed that the buyrate info for UFC 100 is in excess of 1.5 million. The accurate number believed by most is around the 1.7 million mark which is astounding. It is the biggest buyrate for any MMA show in history and among the top PPVs ever including boxing and moreso than any pro wrestling show. Dana White is now looking into jumping off the Mandalay Bay building after he promised in the aftermath of UFC 100 that if the show did 1.5 million buys, he'd jump off.
Let's hope he survives whatever he ends up doing. Better yet, let's pray.
JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS
- Josh Barnett's B-sample came back positive for the same anabolic steroid his initial sample tested positive for. This means it was not a lab error and in all likelihood, Barnett knew what he was doing when he ingested whatever chemicals that forced him to test positive. What does this mean? Well, he is not suspended since he was never granted a license in the first place. But it would be extremely tough for either the UFC or Strikeforce to trust him enough to invest money in him being clean and passing future drug tests. Barnett is negotiating with Sengoku for a possible return in November. However, Sengoku office director, Takahiro Kokuho has said he would support drug testing Barnett before he would fight, even in Japan.
- (SPOILER ALERT for Friday's HD-NET Airing) Sengoku's Ninth Battle took place over the weekend. In the main event, Mizuto Hirota assaulted Satoru Kitaoka with a barrage of knees to win by TKO in the fourth round. Hirtoa is now the Sengoku lightweight champion having beaten Kitaoka, who is a top-15 ranked lightweight according to 411mania. Elsewhere on the card, Masanori Kanehara won a split decision over Michihiro Omigawa to be crowned Sengoku's 2009 featherweight grand prix champion. Kazuo Misaki, despite legal troubles (his purse was donated to charity and he is expected to be suspended), landed a beautiful flying knee on opponent Kazuhiro Nakamura and then choked him out with a rear naked choke to win. Dan Hornbuckle defeated Akihiro Gono by knockout with a right high kick that left Gono motionless in the ring. He had to be removed via a gurney. For full results, check out 411mania's quick hits here.
- WEC 43 will receive some support in the form of at least one fight previously scheduled for Affliction. Mark Hominick will fight Deividas Taurosevicius and Muhsin Corbbrey will challenge Anthony Njokuani. The event will be headlined by a main event for the interim lightweight title when Donald Cerrone fights Benson Henderson. The legitimate champion, Jamie Varner is still nursing injuries sustained during his fight with Cerrone. WEC 43 is set for early September and will air on Versus. Besides the title fight, the other three confirmed for TV fights include the following: Damacio Page vs. Akitoshi Tamura; Dave Jansen vs. Richard Crunkilton; and Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis.
- According to 411mania's own Dan Plunkett, Joe Stevenson will fight Spencer Fisher in a lightweight bout at UFC 104 in October at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Both fighters are coming off victories with Stevenson besting Nate Diaz recently and Fisher defeated Caol Uno in June. Fisher is riding a three-fight win streak heading into this next battle.
- Next week's Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg televised card looks like this: Main event female super fight between Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg in a five-round fight to decide the first 145lb female champion. Gilbert Melendez will defend the interim lightweight belt against Mitsuhiro Ishida in a five-round fight and Babalu Sobral will defend the light heavyweight belt against Gegard Mousasi in a five-round fight. Those three fights in addition to Nick Diaz fighting Jay Hieron in a five-round fight to decide the new welterweight champion. The show starts at 10:30pm eastern (7:30pm pacific).
- Fabricio Werdum finally has a confirmed opponent for the Strikeforce show next weekend. Previously, he was set to take on Alistair Overeem until his injury forced the fight to be delayed. Now, Werdum will fight Mike Kyle and it likely will not make television with four scheduled title fights (see above). Werdum is one possibility to fight Fedor Emelianenko later this year, as long as he wins this fight on August 15th.
- The UFC 103 card is so "stacked" that the lightweight contest between Tyson Griffin and Hermes Franca has been bumped to the preliminary portion of the card. The five fight guaranteed televised portion includes (main event) Vitor Belfort's UFC return vs. Rich Franklin, Cro Cop vs. Junior Dos Santos, Martin Kampmann vs. Mike Swick (potential #1 contender to GSP's title), Frank Trigg's UFC return vs. Josh Koscheck and Efrain Escudero vs. Cole Miller.
*UPDATE* As of Tuesday morning, the fight between Griffin and Franca was moved back to the UFC 103 main card. The powers that be have swapped it with the Escudero vs. Miller fight which will now take place on the preliminary part of the show.
- Simply put, Dana White's response to the news of Fedor Emelianenko's signing with Strikeforce: "Fedor is a [expletive] joke. He turns down a huge deal and the opportunity to face the best in the world to fight nobodies for no money. I feel sorry for the real fight fans. I wanted to make the deal, but it takes two and it is very obvious Fedor doesn't want to fight the best, and doesn't give a [expletive] about the fans."
- The UFC Fight Night special set for September 16th (prior to the debut of TUF10) may have its televised card all set with four bouts, but welterweights Brock Larson and Mike Pierce will duke it out on the prelim card. The four main bouts feature Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard in the main event, Roger Huerta (in the final bout of his current UFC contract) vs. Gray Maynard, Carlos Condit vs. Chris Lytle and Tim Credeur vs. Nate Quarry.
- Strikeforce announced plans to create an interim middleweight championship due to the fact that reigning champion Cung Le has been busy working in films. In fact, Le has never defended the belt since defeating Frank Shamrock to win it in March 2008. The current plan is for Jake Shields to fight an opponent to decide the interim holder and then have a unification but with Le not too long after. Good luck with that, I say.
- A lightweight bout expected to be held at UFC 103 in September will now move to UFC 104 in October. Sean Sherk will fight Gleison Tibau in Los Angeles according to sources. Sherk will begin his attempt to rise up the ladder after losing a decision to Frankie Edgar recently.
JUGGERNAUT VIDEO OF THE WEEK
This week, in keeping with themes, this video is a brief interview conducted with Kenny Florian. Learn what his biggest fear in life is, a major life goal in the works and how the man likes his eggs.
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Thanks for reading another Juggernaut. Next week expect all the post-101 & 42 news and coverage in addition to a Strikeforce preview. Plus, maybe Dana White will blow another gasket and provide even more fun for all. Tune in next time, same time, same channel (411).
