The Takedown MMA News Report 10.23.09: Advertisement Angst
Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 10.23.2009
411's Daniel Bonnizzio presents a last minute preview for UFC 104 and for DREAM.12, talks about champions fighting in non-title fights, Strikeforce finally getting on the ball, more fight announcements in the UFC's welterweight division and more!
Welcome to week six of
You'll notice a distinct lack of pictures and stuff in this issue as I'm having troubles working the internet. Hopefully the issue is fixed soon.
In My Opinion… Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
The point of being a champion in any promotion is to be the best of the best, and wearing the gold means that any chance you have you need to defend that idea.
However, recently we have seen so many champions booked to fight people in their own weight class, and not put their belts on the line. The most famous case of this is Gegard Mousasi not defending his newly won Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship against Sokodjou on November 7, despite the fight being held at 205 lbs. I realize that at its core M-1 is a business company but if your fighter holds the belt it is his obligation to defend that belt whenever possible.
Another example is with the promotion I had a 2-day love affair with after hearing an initial statement where Marius Zaromskis was supposed to be defending his title against Kiyoshi Tamura in his first title defense but for reasons unknown to this writer the bout was changed to a non-title fight against Myeon Ho Bae. While I'm not complaining as Bae is still a dangerous fighter as his 8-4 record implies, he should not be fighting the newly crowned champion of a division in a non-title fight of all things. This is once again FEG showing more favor to some titles over others and focusing too much on GP and not enough on titles.
The third fight announcement that finally broke the camel's back was the announcement of Jorge Santiago finally fighting again for Sengoku at WVR: Sengoku 11 against Mamed Khalidav in a fight that could legitimately be a title fight as both men are considered skilled middleweights and both men are riding enormous win streaks.
The biggest beef is if the champ loses in his non-title bout, then the organization is forced to schedule a rematch between the two as soon as possible, limiting possible fight choices for the two. Should Soko upset Gegard on the 7th, will we see a rematch for the title before Sokodjou fights Minowaman at Dynamite!!! or could Sokodjou then lose to Minowa, but still holding that non-title win over Gegard? Then the company is in a bad spot where the person to defeat their champ has the right to a title match but is then coming off of a loss. Not everyone is Randy Couture and given title shots despite their win/loss record and recent history. Name anyone else to lose two in a row and get a title shot as their next fight? Precisely.
I think that this is something the UFC is very good about, as the only times I remember the champs not defending the title in their own weight class was when the challenger did not make weight (see Riggs, Joe and Lutter, Travis). Even then I can't recall a time where the champ didn't fight to defend their title outside of Anderson Silva's trips to pound in Forrest and James Irvin's faces, or Matt Hughes's catchweight bout with the legendary Royce Gracie. While dangerous the only reason they got away with it was by being a good champ and doing a number on their division.
These other organizations need to take a page out of the UFC's playbook and defend their belt as often as possible.
And again, I will continue to beat the misshapen carcass of a horse that is the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship problem.
Strikeforce Actually Realizes They Have an Event
In their first ever-official advertisement for their huge November 7th event in Chicago, IL, Strikeforce has finally put out a commercial. It features the (second) biggest name on the card in a training-style commercial that honestly was pretty freaking good. It put the message out there that a lot of guys thought he was a big deal. My favorite? Randy Couture: "I don't think anybody's invincible…[but] he's probably the closest thing." Sheer awesome.
The images of him training, swinging that hammer to the tire, punching, running, whatever established what it sought out to do: Fedor is the real deal fighter. He works for it and it works for him. The scene of him cracking his neck? Nasty.
CBS plans to run more ads in the coming weeks, and we've already seen them at various areas from TV to football, to the internet (ta-da!!). This is great for Fedor but now we need to focus on the other big three fighters on the card; namely, his opponent Brett Rogers and the two involved in deciding the Strikeforce Middleweight Champion: Jake Shields and Mayhem Miller.
Mayhem I think would be the easiest thing to run a commercial for, because he's pretty well known from his Bully Beatdown show on MTV. For the record, when I said Fedor was the second biggest name on the card I would put Mayhem above him in terms of name recognition just from his Bully Beatdown show. Not that Fedor's not the best fighter on the card.
Shields wouldn't be too hard to market because as a member of Cesar Gracie's camp he's one of those guys that just love to fight and he'll beat down anyone.
Brett might be the hardest to market to the average fan but not to the more devout followers. The Grim has the natural charisma and he has that presence about him that makes people take notice of him. Watching him on IMMA the other day I was wowed by his eloquence. Plus, the sheer size of the man would be a good selling point. This behemoth of a fighter against the little man Fedor? Makes people wanna watch for sure.
Paulo Thiago Gets a Break
Less than a day after AKA standout Jon Fitch announced on his Facebook that Ricardo Almeida had to pull out and would be replaced by a bigger opponent, the UFC's president made it official. But who would be the replacement?
Rumors abounded that Fitch would meet Matt Hughes at UFC 106 for the first time, but these rumors were quickly proved wrong when Dana White announced that Paul Thiago was pulled from his Dec 12 bout with Thiago Alves and instead, we would be getting the rematch between the consensus top 2 and 3 welterweights Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves at UFC 107.
The first time these two met, it was all the way back at Fight Night 5 where Jon Fitch managed to give Thiago a nasty upkick and follow it up with strikes to take the TKO victory away. Since then, both men have gone 7-1 in their UFC careers with their only losses coming by way of a GSP decision in their individual bids for the UFC Welterweight Championship.
Three years is a lifetime in MMA years. Fighters often change over time, evolving and developing their skills and fine-tuning all the time. When these two meet again would Fitch again pull the win out over the Pitbull, or would Alves manage to lay on another display of his brutal Muay Thai over OOUAH?
The only problem I have with this particular matchup is that Fitch has become the super-gatekeeper of the welterweight division. He can beat down anyone not named Georges St-Pierre, and I think Alves is the same way, his only other loss (besides the GSP or Fitch fights) coming by way of triangle out of nowhere from Spencer Fisher. Should Fitch win, the only fight that would remotely make sense is a rematch with GSP, but who really wants to see another half hour of GSP turning Fitch's face into hamburger? Should Alves win, the same thing would apply where the only logical matchup would be a rematch with GSP but the two fought just this past July and it would be too soon.
I think the two fighters should have stayed on their respective cards and instead of pulling Fitch to face Alves we should have seen the rumored Fitch/Hughes fight, then match Fitch/Alves sometime in the future for another shot at GSP.
A Shogun Warrior Battles a Dragon: UFC 104 Preview
In his first ever defense of the Light Heavyweight crown, we have the Dragon taking on the challenger, Shogun Rua in a historic matchup for the main event of UFC 104, nicely co-main evented by the heavyweight battle between undefeated Cain Velasquez and IFL veteran Ben Rothwell.
If I was able to watch this card live, I totally would. Without further ado though, here are my picks:
Light Heavyweight Bout (205): Ryan Bader vs Eric Schafer
Ryan Bader, the winner of the Light Heavyweight tournament of TUF8, makes his PPV debut here and on free TV no less. Wait... Anyway, 'Darth' Bader is a great wrestler and while some will think he'll take the traditional lay n pray method here, I think that he'll use his explosive power to end Schafer's night early. Sorry Red.
Winner: Ryan 'Darth' Bader, TKO, RD 2
Heavyweight Bout (265) Pat Barry vs Antoni Hardonk:
Pat Barry vs Antoni Hardonk is another classic matchup of 'two guys coming off of losses and one needs a win.' Unfortunately for Mr. Hardonk, Pat Barry has the kind of kickboxing skills and experience that Chieck Kongo used to give Hardonk a bad night. If we don't see Pat walk away a TKO victor, he's going to use those skills to stick and run to get a decision victory.
Winner: Pat Barry, Un Decision
Welterweight Bout (170) Anthony Johnson vs Yoshiyuka Yoshida:
'Rumble' has been rumbling along in his career. His only losses thus far coming by way of eye gouge from Kevin Burns and a submission loss to No Love himself Rich Clementi, Rumble is going to try and use that wicked athleticism and huge size advantage over Yoshida to press the action quickly and end Yoshida's night as soon as it starts. Though Yoshida is a great judoka in his own right, I don't see Rumble letting him get in close enough to use that skill and Yoshida is going to take a canvas nap again.
Winner: Anthony Johnson, KO, RD 1
Lightweight Bout (155) Josh Neer vs Gleison Tibau:
Like Barry/Hardonk, this is another two-guys-on-a-loss fight, but unlike them, these guys are in the ultra-competitive lightweight division so they are going to really bust their balls to get a win here. Gleison has a deceptive record, losing by lucky guillotine to Joe Daddy and losing a controversial split decision to Melvin Guillard. The difference here is where the effort to finish is going to be. In his fights, Tibau is content to submit or ride out the decision whereas Neer looks to constantly finish his fights. Losing via wrestler-smother by the hands of Kurt Pellegrino, Neer is very active off his back and against Tibau it is likely that he is going to wind up there a lot. I see Neer's effort to finish getting him the decision win here.
Winner: Josh Neer, Split Decision
Lightweight Bout (155) Spencer Fisher vs Joe Stevenson:
Joe Daddy takes on the King himself in another 155-pound battle. Coming hot off decision wins, both men should look to finish the fight. Joe's definitely the better grappler between the two, using nice wrestling in combination with his slick jiujitsu, but standing he prefers a boxing match as opposed to Spencer's more varied assault. I don't see Spencer trying to take Joe down often, but when he does he will probably be successful because of his varied attacks to set it up, but if it hits the ground Spencer is out. Joe's superior ground skills are going to make the difference here.
Winner: Joe Stevenson, Submission (Guillotine), RD 2
Heavyweight Bout (265) Cain Velasquez vs Ben Rothwell:
"The IFL's number 1 heavyweight Ben Rothwell" takes on Cain Velasquez in this big co-main event. A nasty veteran in his own right, Rothwell has the ability to finish fights wherever it goes, something Cain showed he may have a weakness in with his UFC 99 fight against Kongo. Sure he stopped his first two fights but once he had fighters with decent chins (a steel chin in Stojnic's case) he had trouble really putting them away. Rothwell is seasoned enough to know where to put the fight but Cain's wrestling could make it difficult. Add to that the rumors that Ben is in really good shape and we'll see a different Rothwell beat Cain at UFC 104.
Winner: Ben Rothwell, TKO, RD 3
Light Heavyweight Championship Bout (205) Lyoto Machida (champion) vs Shogun Rua: Will mythology hold up as a Shogun warrior takes on a beastly Dragon? Shogun's strengths are going to be his weaknesses here as he likes to press the action hard and in flurries with no real coordination in his technique, something Lyoto likes to exploit. Machida is going to be content to sit back and wait for Shogun to tire out by taking him into the championship rounds then use that aggressiveness against him as he uses his pinpoint striking en route to a very late stoppage, almost a decision. Although I hate to say it we may see Machida go back to some of his 'boring' ways to secure his first title defense here.
Winner: Lyoto Machida, TKO, RD 5
Prelim Quick Picks
· Middleweight Bout (185) Yushin Okami vs Chael Sonnen: Okami def Sonnen, Un Decision
· Middleweight Bout (185) Jorge Rivera vs Rob Kimmons: Kimmons def Rivera, RD 1, Submission
· Light Heavyweight Bout (205): Kyle Kingsbury vs Razak al-Hassan: al-Hassan def Kingsbury, RD 2, Submission
· Heavyweight Bout (265) Stefan Struve vs Chase Gormley: Struve def Gormley, Rd 1, Submission
Entering the White Cage: DREAM.12 Preview
DREAM tries to make itself appealing to the American fans with this iteration of FEG's fighting league. This will be the first time DREAM uses a cage so it will be a new and exciting change. In addition, they will be using the American standard of 3 five-minute rounds as opposed to the marathon 10-minute first round and 5-minute second round. As per FEG tradition though elbows are still illegal. Here're the picks!!
Middleweight bout (185): Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Zelg Galesic
As much of a losing streak Saku was on before winning at DREAM.11, I feel like picking him now would be a good choice, especially against a solid striker like Galesic who doesn't seem to enjoy fighting grapplers. Saku seems like the choice here, despite the fact that Zelg's only DREAM loss has come by way of world-renowned submission artist Jacare Souza. Add into that Zelg's apparent disposition to grapplers and his loss record is 3 losses by submission, 1 TKO and Sakuraba is the choice to make. Winner: Sakuraba, RD2, Submission
Middleweight bout (185): Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
In a fight where the only positive is that one of these men will be leaving here with at least one more win on their record, it's honestly hard to pick a winner. However, to preserve the integrity of this column, I see no choice but to do some research and decide that the less lozenges person should win. And this person did manage a win over Minowaman, so he's at least logical. Winner: Katsuyori Shibata, Un Decision
Welterweight bout (168): Marius Zaromskis vs. Ho Bae Myeon
You might be able to discern how I feel about this match from my opinion above, so I'll make this brief. Marius is a striker by heart and his only losses coming from KOTC standout Che Mills. Ho Bae Myeon has an awful record. This is either an attempt to give Marius some fluff to his record or just to get him to fight. Either way, nighty night Myeon. Winner: Marius Zaromskis, RD 1, KO
Featherweight bout (139): Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Tomoya Miyashita
On paper it seems this is a good fight for the people who enjoy sluggers because between these two they only have 2 decision wins among them so neither enjoys going the distance. This is going to end early and I'll pick for the guy who seems to know more about the KO game. Winner: Tomoya Miyashita, RD2, Submission
Featherweight bout (139): Chase Beebe vs. Yoshiro Maeda
Chase needs a win here badly because if he loses, that'll be five losses in a row and his name value is already hurting a bit. On the other hand, both are still highly skilled fighters in their own rights and this will be an exciting fight that I see being the fight of the night. But, considering both men fought Miguel Torres I'll compare those losses and make my choice on that, clouded it may be. Winner: Yoshiro Maeda, Un Decision
Lightweight bout (154): Eddie Alvarez vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Another exciting fight for Japan's premier weight class gives us Bellator Lightweight Champ Eddie Alvarez fighting another vet in Kikuno. From their experiences and styles I would say the American here would hold the advantage, from his extensive fight record. Plus, the guy says he's undefeated in street fights! That's a sure fire way to let people know you're a winner! Winner: Eddie Alvarez, RD 2, TKO
Lightweight bout (154): Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Won Sik Park
I flipped a coin here to get this result. Sue me. Winner: Kuniyoshi Hironaka, RD2, TKO
Heavyweight bout (>205): Alistair Overeem vs James Thompson (rumored)
May the MMA Gods strip Alistair of his championship belt soon. This is another time Overeem is fighting a can so we can expect a short night for James here. I'm almost not a fan of Overeem's anymore. Winner: Alistair Overeem, RD1, TKO
In the Lands of the Rising Sun
Here I'll cover the happenings in Japanese MMA Another Lightweight Defense
Shinya Aoki is rumored to be defending his newly won DREAM Lightweight Championship against Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dynamite!! 2009 for the first time. Right now I see the Aoki-train keeping on keeping on and Kawajiri taps out from the Aokiplata while being heel hooked. And RNC'd. Twice.
Sengoku Gets a New Look
Starting Dec 31, 2009, it looks like Sengoku will be given a new name that I dig. Sengoku Raiden Championship somehow appeals to the Mortal Kombat fan in me.
Quick Jabs
· Jeff Curran, after a 1-4 stint in the WEC, has signed a 2-fight deal with Strikeforce. He is scheduled to meet Sam Thao in a bantamweight bout on November 7th at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers. I wholly expect him to have a great showing in Strikeforce on that night and his next fight, get resigned by the WEC, then lose another 4. As much as I love Big Frog.
· Dana White has said that the reason the UFC and Dan Henderson had stopped talking was that Dan had demanded to be the ‘highest-paid fighter' in the UFC. I wanna know how much he demanded if he would be making more than Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. Which happened to be in the neighborhood of $400,000.
· Instead of Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck will be fighting Mike Pierce at Fight Night 20 in Fairfax, VA. This, along with the other Fight Night 20 announced fights is making me really want to shell out the money for tickets to the event. Only an hour away!
· Spencer Fisher has come out and said he wants a shot at BJ Penn. In other news, so does Joe Stevenson, Kenny Florian, Clay Guida, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Nate Diaz, Gleison Tibau, Kurt Pellegrino, Josh Neer……
· Ed Soares has said Anderson Silva may not be able to fight Belfort at UFC 108, pending doctor approval. He was then very quick to refute the claim it had anything to do with Silva not wanting to fight Belfort. He then proceeded to sound like a bigger idiot.
Bozo's Corner Just stuff about me for the week.
I went back to the gym on Wednesday and ouch. Very fun though.
Been feeling sick for the past few days and it peaked today when I wasn't able to wake up until around 1300.
And that finishes the shot for today people. If you wanna say something, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say, or you can drop me a line at my email at 411takedown@gmail.com.
