The Tuesday Leg Lock Report 05.20.08

Posted by Justin Thomas on 05.20.2008

The Tuesday Leg Lock is back with a huge preview of UFC 84. Also, WVR: Sengoku II was this Sunday and I give my thoughts on Randleman's return and Barnett vs. Monson. Plus, thoughts on Kimbo vs. Tyson, Damm's suspension, TUF 8 coaches and more.

Welcome to another edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock Report! This Saturday UFC 84 will finally take place and I have a big preview of it. World Victory Road Sengoku II is history and I give my thoughts on Randleman's return and Barnett's battle with Monson. Some other news, which feature a photo of MIKE TYSON~! Don't forget to check out our roundtable later in the week and next week I'm going to have a review of UFC 84 as well as a preview of EliteXC CBS card. Hm, I might start working on it already. Anyways, scroll down to get your Tuesday dose of Mixed Martial Arts news!




UFC 84 Preview



Ah yes, the long awaited UFC 84. This event will feature a lot of top ranked light heavyweights, but it will be headlined by the lightweight championship match. A much better card then UFC 83, in my opinion and I'm really interested in it.

-Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (4-2 MMA) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-7 MMA). I am really sad that this fight is not on the main card. I think that Soko is still a Top 10 Light heavyweight and Nakamura isn't far from it. They've both got popular in Japan and both of are coming of losses to Lyoto Machida. The Japanese fighter is more of a gatekeeper, but you can't deny his accomplishments. Nakamura is certainly more experienced fighter and despite not having a spectacular looking MMA record, his losses were against the likes of Machida, Rogerio Nogueira (2 times), Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Josh Barnett, Mauricio Rua. Those were some top fighters in PRIDE. Also, Nakamura holds victories over Randleman, Bustamante and Vovchanchyn. I don't know what he's doing in the UFC, as he would certainly get more love in DREAM or WVR and I guess he's already waiting until his contract with UFC ends. Sokoudjou is looking to rebound from his loss to Machida, knock out another PRIDE veteran and make a good impression to the American fans. It's hard to say if Sokoudjou learned anything from his loss, but Kazuhiro has a good chin and I doubt he'll get knocked out. If the fighters end up on the ground, it's Nakamura's territory and I think he'll be able to score points there to earn a decision victory. I'm just not sure, if this victory will mean anything for him.

- Wilson Gouveia (10-4 MMA) vs. Goran Reljic (7-0 MMA). Wilson is 4-1 in the UFC and is a very well-rounded fighter. He has a BJJ black belt, but he also showed his striking skills by KO'ing Jason Lambert in his last fight. Reljic is also very good on the ground and is undefeated, but he hasn't faced tough competition yet and he is making his UFC debut. I think that Goran has a lot of potential, but this is a bad match-up for him, because Gouveia won't get submitted and Wilson should have a striking advantage. Plus, he has more octagon experience and I see him winning the fight by KO or by Judges' decision. However, I won't be surprised if Goran pulls off an upset.

-Antonio Mendes (14-2 MMA) vs. Thiago Silva (12-0 MMA). Another UFC debut here tonight. Antonio replaced Rashad Evans, who was the original Silva's opponent. Mendes' strength, as I understand, is Muay-Thai, but I haven't seen any of his fights. He's riding on an 11 fight winning streak. Thiago Silva is 12-0 and he's a well rounded fighter, with BJJ and Muay-Thai skills. This fight could go either way, but once again, I'll give the edge to the UFC veteran here. Thiago looked real dominant in his UFC bouts and I'd love to see a striking war from these two guys.

-Tito Ortiz (15-5-1 MMA) vs. Lyoto Machida (12-0 MMA). Actually, Lyoto is the third undefeated fighter on the main card. Machida is known for making other fighters look bad and for his boring, but effective, style of fighting. He holds victories over BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, Sokoudjou, Nakamura and others. We have yet to see how good he really is, but so far his MMA career has been impressive, even though he achieved most of his wins by decision. Ortiz, is of course the legendary UFC fighter, who once was the dominant UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, but after he lost to Couture and Liddell, he stopped looking so dominant against younger fighters and achieved most of his victories by decision. Maybe Tito left all of his glorious days behind, maybe he never was so good. Well, Dana White could care less. He wants Tito to draw some more buys, lose and be made to look bad. But it is really hard to tell who's going to win. Ortiz, despite not looking very good nowadays, still managed to defeat Forrest Griffin, Patrick Cote, Vitor Belfort and didn't win against Rashad Evans just because the referee took away a point from Tito. I've never seen Machida in any danger in a fight and I don't see Tito pounding out him. This bout will go to decision, folks. In my opinion, Lyoto has both - better striking and a better ground game, and he should win via unanimous decision.

-Wanderlei Silva (31-8-1 MMA) vs. Keith Jardine (13-3-1 MMA). This is the fight I'm waiting for the most. I am a big fan of Wanderlei and I want him to finally get a win and reestablish his career. Silva is on a 3 fight losing streak and needs to win badly. Wanderlei is an aggressive striker and likes to put on exciting fights, but that might lead to him losing here. Silva just doesn't look like a smart fighter. He has a BJJ black belt and could use his ground skills a lot more, but he refuses to, because that is not what he considers to be exciting and basically uses these skills for defense only. I was surprised that Wanderlei didn't try to use his leg kicks or knees more in the Liddell fight. Everyone loves striking wars, but if Silva won't implement any gameplans into his fights, he won't win. MMA is evolving and even the most talented fighters need strategies to win fights. Jardine is from Greg Jackson's camp and he used his leg kicks to win a decision against Liddell and he didn't exchange punches with Chuck much. I think he'll use the same plan against Wanderlei too. Keith certainly needs to avoid trading punches with Wanderlei, unless he's very confident in his abilities (he was confident when he faced Houston, wasn't he?). I see Jardine winning the bout via decision. Silva would then drop down to middleweight and try to stay in the UFC with victories there.

-BJ Penn (12-4-1 MMA) vs. Sean Sherk (32-2-1 MMA). These two are both awesome fighters. BJ Penn has excellent stand up and BJJ skills. However, Sean Sherk is very strong and he is a master of taking an opponent down and controlling him there. I disagree that Sean is a boring fighter, he has plenty of wins by submission outside the UFC and it's very difficult to finish fighters, who are good at BJJ like Franca, Florian or Diaz. And "The Muscle Shark" really does not have many chances to finish BJ Penn. The Hawaii native needs to keep the fight on the feet and try to use his striking skills. Penn says he wants to take down Sherk and put him on his back, but I REALLY doubt that could happen. He looked in great shape in his last fight, but who knows, maybe he has become lazy again. But still, Sherk is a wrestler, he's very strong and it would not be smart to try a takedown on him. Sean could be put on his back by sweeping only, in my opinion. Anyway, if BJ shows up motivated, I see him winning the fight. He has more tools to do it, maybe it'll be by a knockout or by submission. Sherk is an outstanding fighter himself and even if he loses this fight, he'll remain the #2 Lightweight in the UFC.


WVR Sengoku II thoughts



I couldn't find a poster for this event, so I just put a small logo here, I mean really small. Anyways, I didn't see the whole event, but I watched Randleman vs. Kawamura and Barnett vs. Monson on DailyMotion and YouTube, so I'll give my thoughts on those two matches.

-Kevin Randleman (17-12 MMA) vs. Ryo Kawamura (8-3-2 MMA).

My god, I hate Kevin Randleman. As a fighter, I mean. He looks like a bad ass, he says he'll knock out his opponents, he talks a lot of shit, but, when the bell rings, he rarely delivers and everytime he's only looking for a takedown and he only wants to win a decision, by laying and praying. In the first round of this fight, we saw that Randleman has not changed. He was as boring as ever. Kevin was not able to secure a takedown, but he had Ryo's body locked up for almost the entire round and he certainly won it. The second round was a little bit different, but, unfortunately, not action filled. Randleman tried for a few takedowns, but wasn't successful. Ryo didn't do much either, but he looked better in striking, plus, he tried for some submissions and that was enough to take the second round. The third round was perhaps the most exciting round. Randleman yet again looked lost on the feet and desperately tried a takedown. He didn't get it, but controlled his opponent in the clinch. Kawamura landed some nice shots to Kevin's body, tried a kimura in the clinch and definitely was more active. I'd give the fight to Ryo, but of course judges disagree and award it to Randleman. Bad decision, in my opinion, as Randleman did virtually no damage to Ryo, got only one takedown in the entire fight and the only thing he managed to do, was to push Ryo against the ring ropes. Kawamura didn't do much either, but at least he tried to finish the fight by punching and trying a submission. Oh well. Apparently, Randleman was injured, but somehow, I don't believe that his career will be "resurrected".

-Josh Barnett (22-5 MMA) vs. Jeff Monson (24-8 MMA).





I was really surprised to see these two engage in a striking battle in the first round. Barnett looked a lot better on the feet. He used leg kicks, punching combinations, knees and even a spinning back kick! Monson looked lost, he didn't throw many punches and only tried to lock in a clinch and get the takedown. No doubt that Josh won this round. The second round was a little different, Monson managed to take the fight to the ground, but didn't look that good there. He punched a little, got into the side mount, tried a choke, but was unsuccessful and Barnett stood up and then he executed a takedown. He wasn't too active there either, stood up and threw some nice knees at Monson and took him down again to end the round. Once again, I gotta give this to Barnet, although this one was close. But excellent ending by Josh and his better striking skills earned him the round. The third round was not too exciting, but Barnett totally dominated it. He used his knees to drop Monson, controlled the fight on the ground, tried a toe hold and heel hook, but was unsuccessful. I'd say this round was 10-8 Barnett, but I'm not sure what the scoring system is in Sengoku. Anyways, no doubt who the winner is and Josh really deserved the victory. He looked good on the feet and we all know that his submission skills are great. Bad performance by Monson, it certainly doesn't look like he could go on another 16 fight winning streak…

OTHER NEWS

Mike Tyson vs. Kimbo Slice!!! This is only a rumor, by the way. And I don't care one bit about this fight. Tyson is no longer the best boxer in the world, he's lost his last two fights, he's retired, he's out of shape, he has no MMA experience, and he should be as far away from a ring/cage as possible. Here's how Tyson looks, by the way:



Kimbo Slice (2-0 MMA) would destroy Tyson simply by taking him down and submitting him, just like he submitted Ray Mercer. And this would prove nothing. Let Kimbo Slice face some serious competition and not retired boxers, please.

Carina Damm tests positive for Nandrolone. I can't say I'm surprised. Women's MMA is evolving and this is part of the evolution. Carina (9-3 MMA) signed with EliteXC so this suspension must be disappointing to her. But if Sean Sherk was able to come back, she will too! And she will go down in history as the first woman MMA fighter to be suspended for using banned substance. AND she could still have a bright future ahead of her. Nothing wrong here, but let's hope similar thing won't happen to our beloved Gina Carano!

Nogueira and Mir to coach TUF8 I've already discussed this a few weeks back, when the rumors first came in and my opinion hasn't really changed. Mir does not deserve a title shot, but he was one of the best choices to coach. Anyways, somehow, I'm sure that this next season will get the worst ratings in TUF history. Nogueira could be a good coach, because he has worked with students before and really knows what he's doing, but he isn't marketable and I'm afraid he'll get subtitles when speaking and that basically says that his English sucks. He could still get on well with his students, but that won't make the season interesting. Also, I wonder if there'll be any changes in this season. We'll once again have two weight classes, but will that mean more fights? Changes need to be made to "The Ultimate Fighter" or I'm afraid that this show won't last much longer…

Kongo vs. Evensen at UFC 87. Not that I care too much about this match. Evensen (10-2 MMA) is making his UFC debut and Kongo (11-4-1 MMA) is coming off a loss to Herring after defeating Cro Cop. Cheick is a boring fighter with a poor ground game and his victory against Mirko was pretty much a fluke as I'm sure that Mirko would beat Kongo in a rematch. I don't know much about Evensen, but I hope he wins this one, just because I dislike Cheick.

BYE BYE!

And that wraps up another edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock report. Thank you for reading and please leave some comments. See you all in the UFC 84 roundtable. And next week's report will be huge with UFC 84 review and a preview of EliteXC CBS show.