The Takedown MMA News Report 11.13.09: Saturday Night F(r)ights

Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 11.13.2009

Take a journey with 411's Daniel Bonnizzio as he takes an extensive look at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers, a possible Matt Hughes fight, his thoughts and predictions for UFC 105, and news about Japan!

Welcome to another edition of...



Please forgive me for skipping the last few weeks of the column. Unfortunately due to me being lazy, I was unable to get one up in time or at all for these past two weeks but no more. Here's the return!

In My Opinion…
Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
Jake Shields is the man. Not just because he is on an immense fight streak, not just because he pounded on Mayhem Miller for five straight rounds to clinch the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship, and not just because he is a consensus top-5 welterweight in the world. He's the man because he took the initiative to make a permanent jump up to middleweight to fight closer to his more natural weight, and he's done it in fantastic fashion. Submitting Ruthless Robbie Lawler in two minutes, then taking on the a top-flight middleweight in Mayhem Miller for the title and winning is fantastic.

At UFC 104 we saw a travesty in Anthony Johnson reportedly walk into training camp weighing in at 220 pounds, meaning to fight at the imposed limit for the welterweight division, he would have to cut nearly 50 pounds to compete. He missed that weight by a wide margin, and as such missed out on 20% of his paycheck and the KO of the Night bonus he was sure to have received after removing Yoshida's head like that.

Weighing more than some Light Heavyweights do prior to cutting weight, Johnson moved through two other perfectly acceptable weight classes just for that size advantage. I feel that, even if he stopped at the 186 limit for middleweights, he could still be just as dangerous. He is a massive welterweight, and would still be a larger-than-average middleweight.

Cutting weight, while a historic part of combat sports, is dangerous and unnecessary. The short-term advantages you may have during your match may not be enough to counter the possible ill-effects of cutting weight over a lifetime. Constantly shredding weight away, then replenishing nearly 75% of that weight in one night cannot be healthy and I think that if more fighters fought closer to their natural weight, with the addition of a cruiserweight division at around 230 pounds, we would have much better fights, more healthy fighters, and a better product.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that I refuse to cut weight for my wrestling matches…

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Saturday Night Fights is Right!


Can you say wow? Despite a few troubles here and there Strikeforce made a real impact with this show. Headlined by a pair of fights and real fan would salivate at, we saw Jake Shields successfully move up to the middleweight division to fight Jason ‘Mayhem' Miller for the recently vacated Strikeforce Middleweight Championship, in a fight which saw Jake control Miller for the better part of 25 minutes en route to a well-earned unanimous decision victory. On the same card we saw the Last Emperor take on Brett Rogers in a clash of heavyweights that saw Brett leave a broken man.

The first round saw Rogers use his size, strength, and cage experience to bully Fedor around, landing shot after shot and breaking Emelianenko's nose before the horn sounded for the end of the round. He even managed to land the very first shot of the match.



In the second, we saw Fedor much more active, and during the last clinch exchange we saw Fedor land a massive hook flush to Rogers's face and made the big man crumple.

I honestly will say that I thought Brett had a real chance, but after reviewing the fight, while Brett was winning on points to that point, Fedor was in no real trouble despite suffering a massive nose break. Brett was getting winded pushing Fedor around and I guarantee that had the fight gone on longer, Brett would have gassed out, letting Fedor take him down easily and getting submitted with a trademark armbar. And for the record, to the haters commenting in the recap, I did not pick Brett because of a lucky punch or anything, I thought he would be able to use combinations to wear Fedor down to the point where he would eventually KO him. Bleh. The only real sad part of the fight was afterwards, where we saw Brett break down, and then on top of it we found out that Fedor's hand is broken (again) and he won't be fighting for another few months. CURSE YOU FEDOR'S HAND!!

In the other heavyweight fight of the night we saw Antonio "Big Foot" Silva make his US return against the recent ADCC Absolute Division winner Fabricio Werdum. Congrats, Werdum. This fight went kind of how I thought it would go for 1.4 rounds. In the first round, Silva was chopping Werdum down, keeping him away from the mat and just dominating on the feet. Up to the middle of the second, same thing, but then we saw Bigfoot gas out and Werdum took over, looking as fresh as always. Werdum started to get the better of him on the feet, and when the fight hit the ground Werdum's superior skills helped him immensely. Werdum managed to clinch the win here, and also grabbed what I would say is the right to be Fedor's next opponent, because God knows that Alistair won't be fighting in the US anytime soon. While some aren't, I am actually kind of looking forward to Werdum/Fedor. Sure Fedor is great at judo and sambo but I think that once the fight hits the ground Werdum's skills surpass Fedor's and he has the advantage. Sadly though, Werdum has shown to have a somewhat suspect chin, and if Junior dos Santos can push that button, Fedor is going to smash it.

Gegard Mousasi, in a non-title bout, stopped Sokodjou about halfway through the second round from serious ground and pound. Sokodjou did what Sokodjou does: beast his way through the first few minutes, then run totally out of gas and gets owned. Up til then he put on a true Judo clinic for us, with some nice hip movement and a sick Osoto gari that would have spelled good night for Mousasi were the cage not there.



I honestly think that if Soko had pushed the pace a little more in the beginning he could have overwhelmed the already-overwhelmed looking Gegard and take the upset. Sadly, it was not to be and instead we saw Mousasi extend his winning streak to 14 in a row. Where Mousasi goes next from here I don't know because outside of the UFC, the only big Light Heavyweights I can think of are Dan Henderson (free agent), King Mo, and Babalu, and he already demolished Renato. Sigh.

Miller/Shields was basically all the same thing: Shields takes Miller down, holds him down, tries to submit him while Miller tries to stand up. The only real exciting part was at the end of round 3 when Miller had in a tight rear naked choke he was not letting go. At that point it was tap or nap for Shields, and unfortunately the horn saved him from his first official loss at 185. The other point I laughed at was seeing a good-old wrestling guillotine.



He came back strong for the rest of the fight and snatched a well-earned unanimous decision win over Mayhem to claim the vacant belt. I thought that Miller was the more active fighter, but that was more because he was trying to get out of Shields's stifling jiujitsu and try to win. Hopefully we can see a rematch in the future because I think if these two meet again the result would be different.

All in all, a great show but it wasn't without its faults. Some people didn't get to fight (thought Strikeforce tried to remedy that by paying both men the show money plus their win bonuses), there wasn't enough emphasis on the Strikeforce product (all I saw was Saturday Night Fights and a bunch of the CBS eyes everywhere), and once again Strikeforce devalues their titles by not making them the focus of the show. This focus was Fedor/Rogers, and while that's nice, seeing them put more value in titles would be nice. Granted, if the fights ended EXACTLY the same way, we would have left with the Shields/Miller grapplfest instead of Fedor removing Rogers's head, but the end result would still be the same. Hopefully we'll see it done better at Strikeforce: Evolution come December 19, but I'm not optimistic. Nick Diaz, quit smoking the dope now, I wanna see Diaz/Hieron at Evolution for the 170 pound title.

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Hughes vs Gracie…II?


Not quite what you think. As of now, a rumored fight for UFC 109 is Matt Hughes taking on another member of the Gracie Family in Renzo Gracie. With the two fighters not competing at the same weight class, I potentially see another catchweight bout in Hughes's future. Renzo normally competes at 185 (where Royce Gracie found his success at) and Hughes fights at 170. Perhaps a 178 pound catchweight would suffice for this one?

I'm excited to hear this announcement, because first off it's another Gracie fighting, and secondly it gets Hughes back into the Octagon. I believe Hughes is well past another shot at the title so long as the current welterweight roster lies in front of him, but now would be the time for him to start taking superfights much akin to this one. If Hughes wins, it's great! He gets another win over another Gracie and stays somewhat relevant. If he loses, eh. It was catchweight, it was against a Gracie, he's in his twilight, and the excuses can run on forever.

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It's the Truth… Naturally: UFC 105 Preview

Making his debut to free TV is Randy Couture, and going back to the super deep Light Heavyweight division, no less. His opponent: a young and hungry man who was once crowned the future of the UFC Heavyweight division, Brandon "The Truth" Vera. This is a do or die fight for both men if they want to make it anywhere in the 205 pound division, as a loss for one is from an old man, and the other is his third in a row. I'll be catching this live and will be cheering for the Natural…naturally. On to the picks!

Light Heavyweight bout (205) – Randy Couture vs Brandon Vera: Both of these men need this win to stay relevant in this super-deep division, but one of them needs it more than the other by a long shot as he makes his re-debut to the Light Heavyweight ranks. Couture's famous strategy of bullying people against the cage and using his superior Greco skills to punish them with dirty boxing will not work as well here as Vera himself is a highly accomplished Greco wrestler in his own right and won't be as lost as some of Randy's previous opponents. If Vera wants to win he's going to have to stay away and pick Randy apart with his superior Muay Thai skills. We could definitely see Vera take the win here easily, but something tells me that Captain America is going to come out with another perfect gameplan to take the decision victory away here.

Winner: Randy Couture, Decision

Welterweight bout (170) – Mike Swick vs Dan Hardy: Both men running with a winning streak in the highly competitive welterweight division, the potential Fight of the Night could determine GSP's next challenger. Dan Hardy has shown some pretty skilled striking and is all around a great fighter, but for some reason he has not impressed me as much as someone like Swick. Swick's famous fast hands and intelligence of knowing when to take the fight to the ground are going to be huge difference makers here. While Hardy is riding an impressive win streak, he has yet to really dominate somebody like Swick has, and Swick is used to competing at high levels. I just think that Swick's speed is going to be too much for Hardy as he uses the first round to get into Hardy's head and finishes him in the second after employing his famous Swick-o-tine.

Winner: Mike Swick, Submission, RD 2

Middleweight bout (185) – Michael Bisping vs Denis Kang: In his bounce back fight Michael Bisping needs to look good or else he's going to be labeled an Ultimate Failure much like the oft-mentioned season 6 winner Mac Danzig. While not quite as high competition as Hendo, Denis Kang provides some serious competition for the Brit. However, I think that Bisping's ever-improved boxing, along with his solid BJJ will be enough to outlast Kang into the third round where we could see Bisping use his peppering punches to stick and weave his way to a TKO victory.

Winner: Michael Bisping, TKO, RD 3

Lightweight bout (155) - James Wilks vs Matt Brown: This is one of those fights where the TUF winner gets and easy first win to build him up. His opponent is tailor made for him to beat. James Wilks has some impressive grappling to his name and doesn't look completely lost on his feet. Matt Brown, while solid, has weaknesses in his game, one of his biggest being his lack of grappling skills. I see Wilks submitting him early on to get his first non-TUF win.

Winner: James Wilks, Submission, RD 1

Lightweight bout (155) - Ross Pearson vs Aaron Riley: The third TUF winner on the card tonight sees Ross Pearson taking on Aaron Riley in the other Fight of the Night candidate. Both men are solid on the feet and as we saw at the TUF finale Ross can really throw the leather around if he wants to. While I like seeing Riley fight I think that he's not going to be able to keep Pearson from running him over, but I don't quite see Ross being able to finish him.

Winner: Ross Pearson, Decision

Prelim Quick Picks
· Lightweight bout (155) – Terry Etim vs Shannon Gugerty: Terry Etim, Submission, RD 2
· Lightweight bout (155) – Paul Kelly vs Dennis Siver: Paul Kelly, Decision
· Lightweight bout (155) – Andre Winner vs Roli Delgado: Andre Winner, Decision
· Welterweight bout (170) – Paul Taylor vs John Hathaway: John Hathaway, TKO, RD 1
· Welterweight bout (170) – Nick Osipczak vs Matt Riddle: Matt Riddle, Decision
· Light Heavyweight bout (205) – Alexander Gustafsson vs Jared Hamman – Jared Hamman, TKO, RD 2

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The Ultimate Fighter is Chickeny!

In this week's installment of the Ultimate Fighter we got the first quarterfinal fight, a crazy fun prank by Rampage on Team Rashad, yet another Kimbo return tease, and yes, even a Keith Jardine sighting!

Rashad opens up by saying that he feels this round of training should be the guys basically training themselves, because he doesn't want to show any kind of favoritism to any other fighter. Solid idea, but it could potentially backfire. Rampage decides that today's prank would be to put not one, two, but five smelly chickens into Rashad's rent-a-car. It backfired though, as Rashad's team decided to re-enact Rocky and chase the chickens. They may have even choked one a bit. Ultimately, they caught them and let them go. Something about animal cruelty and lunch, I dunno.

Following his fight, Matt Mitrione had been complaining of headaches and feeling sick. Classic concussion signs. He gets taken to the hospital and stays there overnight, and is currently waiting on medical clearance to fight. He says if he gets cleared, he'll fight. Go him.

This week's fighters were Team Rashad's Justin Wren and Roy Nelson. The fight itself was great and much better than the Mitrione/Junk fight by far. Despite both guys being grappling experts, the fight was primarily on its feet with the first round decisively going to Wren. He was quicker on the draw than Roy, and rocked him a few times to boot. Roy only survived by landing a miracle clinch to stay up. Round two started much the same expect Roy got his bearings and managed to outstrike Justin, pulling the trigger faster and landing some big shots. Justin got rocked and stayed rocked, looking foggy the rest of the fight. It went the (semi) full distance and Roy got the nod with a majority decision in a fight that everyone (myself included) should have gone to the third. However, if that happened, the only thing I think would have changed was it would have been a unanimous decision instead of a majority, or Roy would have stopped Wren midway, because he was on his way to a ‘W.'

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In the Lands of the Rising Sun
Here I'll cover the happenings in Japanese MMA
A Middleweight Champion Falls… Kind Of
And as you can see, it happened. At Sengoku 11, Sengoku Middleweight Champion and GP winner Jorge Santiago was scheduled for a non-title fight against another top-flight middleweight in Mamed Khalidov. The fight went down, with Mr. Santiago looking like the favorite to win. He did not.

Midway through the first round, Khalidov landed a nice shot that crumpled the champ. The champ went down, the fight was stopped, and Khalidov won. Yet, he is not the champ.

Now what? The only logical point would be to schedule an immediate rematch, barring injuries, with Santiago/Khalidov for the title. The only sad part would be that it would not be the same fight. Santiago would be better prepared, and would be more cautious. With a title on the line, he would fight not to lose, and that usually spells defeat for the challenger.

Hopefully Khalidov gets what he deserves in a rematch for the title.

Dynamite!! Has Some Fights
The annual year-end show for Japan has got some nice fights scheduled to happen. In a K-1 fight, we have Masato vs Andy Souwer. In more K-1 action, we have the K-1 KOSHIEN semi-finals happening with Hiroya vs Masaaki Noiri, and Katsuki vs Shota Shimada.

In MMA news, we have the finals of the Super Hulk officially set for the year-end show with fan favorite Minowaman taking on judo expert Sokodjou. Sokodjou will be coming off a devastating TKO loss from Gegard Mousasi, so look for him to really push the envelope to get the ‘W' here.

In other Dynamite!! related news, Sengoku looks to have called off their year-end show due to troubles finding a broadcast outlet. Rumors abound that they may co-promote the show with DREAM so the year-end show has K-1, DREAM, and Sengoku fights. Not bad. Go Japan.

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Quick Jabs
· The previews have now officially changed from advertising Lesnar/Carwin for UFC 106 to Griffin/Ortiz II. Originally, I was totally ready to throw money at Zuffa for this. Now, I am slightly hesitant to pull out my wallet.
· SpikeTV has sent out press stuff saying they are officially showing some more freelim fights for UFC 106. These fights are Kendall Grove vs Jake Rosholt, and Ben Saunders vs Marcus Davis. They must be looking for exciting fights.
· The final rating for the Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers show was 2.5 and around 4 million people, with the main event drawing in a rating of 3.3 with about 5.46 million. Not bad for a Russian nobody really knew. Go you. In other news, UFC: Main Events managed to draw in a combined 2.14 million for a 9PM showing and 11PM showing. Go you as well.
· Cain Velasquez vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria has been confirmed as UFC 108's main event, with the winner being declared the number 1 contender to the Carwin/Lesnar fight. I for one hope to see Cain win, if for no reason other than that I want to see Brock do this again.

Go Brock.

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Bozo's Corner
Just stuff about me for the week.
Found a new BJJ class. Hope to start it soon. Need to buy a gi though.

I'm going to expressly apologize to everyone involved in these columns. I have anything but professional in writing these and getting them out to you. I hope that it doesn't happen again, and that you all can forgive me for skipping these past few weeks.

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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 [e-mail].