Cardio Freak MMA News Report 08.14.08: Save a Horse, Ride a Herring

Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 08.14.2008

Cardio Freak is back with a complete review of UFC 87. Is GSP now bulletproof? Were Lesnar's antics out of line? And who is my new favorite fighter? Plus news on the latest UFC events, Fedor fighting on New Years Eve, and Hughes being Hughes. All that and so much more. It's more visible than Brock Lesnar, it's Cardio Freak on 411.



Welcome back to Cardio Freak everyone. I am your trainer Jeremy ‘CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?' Lambert.

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UFC 87: Seek & Decision

With the conclusion of UFC 87 came the conclusion of ‘Big Fight Summer'. Lesnar vs. Herring, Florian vs. Huerta, and St. Pierre vs. Fitch capped off a summer that included highlights such as Sobral vs. Whitehead, Kimbo vs. Thompson, and Southworth vs. Ruiz. On paper, UFC 87 had the potential to be the show of year with fights ranging from "fight of the year candidate" to "why is Manny Gamburyan on the main card?" In the end, my emotions ranged from "WOOOOOO!" to "LOL @ KARO'S COUSIN!"

The card was headlined by Georges St. Pierre defending his Welterweight title for the first time against Jon Fitch. It was a battle of the #1 and #2 Middleweights in the world and it lived up to the hype.

Heading into the fight, I don't think people gave Jon Fitch a fair shake. Outside of Diego Sanchez, Fitch hadn't defeated a top Welterweight contender. He had an impressive win over Thiago Alves as well but at the time of that fight, it didn't mean as much as it would have if they fought today. I think the other problem is that his last fight before GSP was a win over an unknown Chris Wilson where he didn't look overly impressive. I foolishly put a lot of stock into that fight and didn't give Fitch the chance that I probably should have. My whole outlook on the fight was changed after watching Countdown to UFC 87 where they really built up Fitch and made people believe he had a shot at winning. I really like the thing about Fitch being a blood and guts fighter while St. Pierre is more a flawless fighter.

GSP proved that he could be a blood and guts fighter at UFC 87. He had his smooth, "riddum" moments and he almost delivered a "flawless victory" but he was able to grind it out against Fitch and make his first successful title defense.

Coming into the fight, if there were any chinks in the GSP armor it was that he was mentally weak and gun shy. Not anymore. GSP could have mentally broke in this fight. He had the chance to defeat Fitch a number of times but Fitch kept surviving. Instead of getting frustrated and making a mistake, GSP pushed harder and didn't break. I thought he cleared the mental hurdle the second he recaptured the UFC Welterweight title from Matt Serra but I still that he was a little gun shy. I was wrong. St. Pierre took everything Jon Fitch had and it didn't seem to faze him. The most amazing part about GSP's willingness to stand is that Fitch is easily the best striker he's faced since BJ Penn. He's cleared the mental hurdle, he's no longer gun shy, he's the most well dressed man in MMA, outside of his lust for pop singers turned actresses, what weakness does this man have?

I can't go any further without talking Jon Fitch and how awesome is. There are some fights that, win or lose, you know both men gave it their all and the loser gained more fans than when the fight started. This was one of those fights. Jon Fitch would bend but would not be broken by St. Pierre. Call it heart, call it guts, call it stupidity, but there's no way you can't respect a man like Jon Fitch after the fight. It's really a shame that UFC ran out of PPV time, which didn't allow Joe Rogan to speak to Jon Fitch after the fight. Fitch has never been a charismatic guy but it would have been nice to see him get a short moment in the sun after such a grueling fight. I don't know when Jon Fitch will be back, he'll probably take a significant amount of time off and he's earned it, but when he returns I'll be more excited than I've ever been for a Jon Fitch fight.

Next for Georges St. Pierre is BJ Penn, likely in December. I've said my piece on this in the passing weeks and I typed about it again in this past weeks Fact or Fiction so I won't bore everyone any more than I already do. I will say that although I don't agree with BJ Penn putting the Lightweight division on ice, pushing Florian aside for a Lightweight title shot, and pushing Thiago Alves aside for Welterweight title shot; I'm excited about Penn vs. St. Pierre 2. The only glaring weakness in either fighter is that Penn sometimes under trains but I don't think that will happen for this fight. Penn vs. St. Pierre 2 will be battle between two of the best mixed martial artists in the world and it's tough not be excited for that.

In the co-main event of the evening, THE PAIN OFFICIALY ARRIVED! I drove the Brock Lesnar bandwagon all last week and even went as far as predicting Brock by MURDER KILL but in some ways, this victory was much more sweeter. He didn't just beat Heath Herring, he BEAT Heath Herring. I got the impression with Lesnar that he would never make it out of the first round because he would either destroy his opponents quickly or gas out trying to finish and then end up losing. Instead he fought this fight more not to lose than to win, he didn't get over excited, and he controlled Herring.

Everyone keeps harping on Lesnar for not finishing Herring but lets look at the situation: Lesnar was facing a very tough opponent, he has minimal jiu-jitsu training, and he didn't want to make a mistake. With his big arms and lack of jiu-jitsu, there's no way Lesnar was going to choke out Herring all the times he got his back. I'm not worried that he couldn't finish off Heath Herring because in some respects he made more of a statement by beating up Herring for 15 minutes than he would have if he won two minutes in. He dropped Herring on the feet (after all the talk by Herring that, "he won't stand with me."), hurt him with knees in the clinch, and beat him up on the ground.

At the end of the fight, Lesnar rode Herring to his first UFC victory and then proceeded to laugh at him. Was it unprofessional? Probably. Was it something the bland UFC Heavyweight division needed? Of Course. As Lesnar put it before his first fight, "The UFC Heavyweight division needs someone like Brock Lesnar." Respect can only sell so many PPVs. A guy mouthing off and taunting to the point where you either want to see his actions continue or see him get his ass kicked goes a lot further. Why do you think Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, and Randy Moss get more publicity than Marvin Harrison? All four are great receivers but the first three are great receivers who stand out with their words and actions. People want to see what headline quote Terrell Owens says next and people want to see what celebration Chad Johnson pulls out next time he gets in the end zone. Love them or hate them, you want to watch them. As long as Lesnar keeps winning, he can lasso whoever he wants.

You knew it wasn't going to be Herring's night when That Stoppage Ref poked him in the eye before the fight even started. This man just has no luck in staredowns. Herring's face looked like ground meat after the fight and I've got to give him for surviving. According to reports, Herring didn't feel as if Lesnar didn't deserve to face him and I bet he has different thoughts now. I don't think Herring took Lesnar lightly but I also don't think he gave him the respect that he probably should have. Herring's been on a loss-win rotation since entering the UFC but he really needs to string together two wins in order to stick around. Then again, I get the feeling that he doesn't want to stick around anyway.

As for Lesnar, we see him now. And Cheick Kongo could very well see him next. According to reports, Kongo turned down the fight with Lesnar when Coleman went down with an injury and UFC isn't too happy with him because of that. After defeating Dan Evensen, Kongo said he wanted a title shot. I don't think he's getting that title shot without going through Lesnar or Cain Velasquez first. If he doesn't face Kongo next, I think they'll try the Mark Coleman fight again. My guess is that Coleman is cutting to 205 as fast as he can after seeing Lesnar's performance but a fight against Coleman could give Lesnar a victory over a Hall of Famer and a pioneer of the sport.

In a fight that lived down to expectations but was still good, Kenny Florian out-pointed Roger Huerta en route to a unanimous decision. The usually aggressive Huerta looked different in this fight, fighting more technical than usual. Down the road that could be a good thing but I think it was the wrong strategy against Florian. The old saying is, "brawl a boxer and box a brawler." Huerta tried to box with a better boxer (and I know kicks and muy thai were involved but you get what I'm saying). A year or so down the line, a more technical Huerta is a scary thing but it didn't work this past Saturday.

Kenny Florian fought a Machida-like fight and it worked. He out-struck Huerta, he controlled the pace, and he didn't make a mistake. The only thing he didn't do was FINISH THE FIGHT! Florian had a dominant position a couple times during the fight but almost looked lazy with his position. It's almost like he didn't want to be on the ground with Huerta, which surprised me. I guess Florian felt that he wasn't likely to submit Huerta because of his excellent submission defense and there was the possibility of getting swept. Maybe I'm not giving Huerta enough credit for escaping, who knows.

Where does Huerta go from here? He has one fight remaining on his contract and according to Dana White talks are far apart. Before the fight Huerta's demands were reportedly more than UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn. Now that he's suffered his first UFC loss and never really got much offense in on Florian, I assume his demands will lower. If not, Huerta will get buried in a preliminary fight for his last UFC fight.

Kenny Florian should be fighting BJ Penn next but that's not going to happen. Instead Florian stated in the post-event press conference that he wanted to fight one more time this year. I think Florian has proved that he deserves the next title shot so I wouldn't be shocked if Florian gets one of those famed "showcase fights" before fighting for the belt.

With the loss, Roger Huerta put the Cardio Freak Coin Flip 0-1. I probably shouldn't have trusted a coin with my official pick but that's my own stupidity.

Demian Maia and Jason MacDonald lived up to the hype that I created for it as these two put on an awesome grappling display. I said in the preview that I thought Maia has the skills to beat Anderson Silva and I think he proved that in this fight. His ground game is second to known and his striking looked much improved in this fight. I don't think he could beat Silva if they fought tomorrow but his skill set is the skill set you need to beat Silva. MacDonald admitted after the fight that he was dumb to take the fight to the ground and it's tough to disagree. MacDonald has a good ground game but it was obviously a few leagues below Maia's. Jason MacDonald is quickly falling into "gatekeeper" status in the Middleweight division. He'll beat most of the Middleweight fighters because he's a good fighter with a lot of skill but he just can't seem to get over the hump that puts him in title contention.

In the greatest moment on the show, Rob Emerson knocked out Manny Gamburyan in 12 seconds. Lets put the Gamburyan vs. Diaz rematch to rest for now because it's not happening unless Diaz loses to Neer. I don't think anyone believes that Emerson is going far in the Lightweight division but he put a smile on my face and he's now my new favorite fighter for the week. HOORAY ROB EMERSON!

Quick Preliminary Fight Thoughts:

*Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evensen was awesome but it wasn't because of the fight. Evensen's line about, "I should respect someone who beat Mirko Cro Cop, but I don't" was awesome. Kongo asking for a title shot because he knocked out some guy who no one has heard of was awesome. And "Lets take a look at the big screen…..or not" was awesome. I hope Kongo enjoyed this victory because he's getting wrecked by Brock or Cain next.

*Ben Saunders has a hell of a body kick. A better fighter than Ryan Thomas would have caught the kick and taken Saunders down since every other strike from Ben was a body kick but lets give credit where it's due. Saunders hurt Thomas with a body kick and then finished him with a beautiful arm bar. I don't know what was up with the whole, "I hate you Quinton" comment after the fight but maybe it's a friendly thing. I hope so for his sake.

*Luke Cummo needs to develop some takedown defense. McCrory took Cummo down at will and then proceeded to put on a grappling clinic. He almost finished the fight multiple times with a combination of rear-naked chokes and arm bars. It was a good win for McCory who is proving his worth in the Welterweight division.

*Chris Wilson bounced back from a loss to Jon Fitch by handling Steve Bruno. Wilson looked very good in this fight showing good striking, good takedown defense, and controlling Bruno on the ground. I'm interested to see what happens with Wilson next because he looked great in this fight and looked good against Fitch. He could be the real deal at 170.

*Speaking of guys who could be the real deal, Jon Jones looked good in victory over Andre Gusmao. Jones is in the stacked 205 division and I'm not saying he's going to beat Forrest Griffin any time soon but the kid is only 21 and he beat a very good opponent in Gusmao. I'm not sure how game Gusmao was for this fight though as it almost seemed like he wanted a way out, complaining about phantom knees below the belt.

This was another good event from the UFC. The three big fights delivered, Maia and MacDonald put on a grappling clinic, and Manny Gamburyan got knocked out. What more could you ask for? Next up….UFC 88~!
Playing to Your Strengths

Recent Fights added to events:

*UFC 88: Martin Kampmann vs. Nate Marquardt, Jason Lambert vs. Jason Day

*UFC 90: Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Horwich, Goran Reljic vs. Thales Leites

I see Joe Silva read last weeks column, knew I was right, moved Kampmann vs. Marquardt to UFC 88 and added my brother from another mother Jason Lambert vs. Jason ‘DOOMS' DAY! If that's not a sign that this column isn't read by Joe or Dana then I don't know what it.

Lambert is dropping to 185 after a string of defeats at 205 while Day is looking to bounce back after his loss to Michael Bisping. Both guys have good stand up so hopefully these two will just go out there and slug it out. Day has a good ground game but Bisping neutralized that game and was able to deliver good ground and pound. Lambert has strong ground and pound as well so we'll see what happens.

Also dropping to 185 will be Goran Reljic except he just beat Wilson Gouviea at 205. I said before the Gouviea fight that Reljic could be a player at 205 because of his skills. Now he's really a player at 185 because he has the same skills as Maia, is bigger, and has much better stand up. Leites will be a tough opponent but I wasn't really impressed by him against Marquardt so I like Reljic in this fight.

And finally, Ricardo Almeida returns on the card where he could have been in the main event. Horwich is an IFL signing by the UFC, a member of Team Quest, and he holds wins over guys like Mike Pyle and Benji Radach. Almeida should bounce back from the loss to Cote with a win as he's just a better fighter than Horwich but I'm interested in seeing what his mindset he's in coming into the fight. He strikes me as a guy that thrives off confidence more than anything and I wonder what the close loss to Cote did to his confidence.

In a recent interview Mauricio Rua confirmed that there are negotiations between him and the UFC for a December fight with Quinton Jackson

So what have we learned in the past few weeks? ‘Shogun' is fighting in December if he has his way. Yup, that's about it. I don't know if he'll be fighting Coleman, Jackson, or maybe another surgery but it seems like he'll be fighting in December. My guess is that neither man fights in December. Why? Because it just doesn't make sense.

Already all but confirmed for the December show is Nogueira vs. Mir for the UFC Heavyweight title and Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn for the Welterweight title. Why tack on Jackson vs. Rua when that fight could be saved for a card that doesn't have so much star power at the top? There's also talk of Wanderlei Silva fighting on the December card and if that's true, there's no way Rua vs. Jackson takes place. Hell, I'm not even sure Wanderlei Silva will be on the December card with the two title fights already headlining.

Dana White and the UFC aren't dumb. They know Wanderlei Silva and Quinton Jackson are headliners so they're not going to put them as the third biggest fight on the card. GSP vs. Penn alone is going to draw all the buys they need. Mir vs. Nog will push the buyrate further because they'll be coming off a season of TUF and Mir got over HUGE when he defeated Lesnar (which looks even more impressive after Lesnar beat Herring). The best case scenario for UFC is keep the top two December fights as they are and then have Silva/Rua vs. Jackson and Lesnar vs. Coleman/Kongo headline the November card.

Studying Tape



A tribute to the greatest man ever.

Sparring Session

Matt Hughes made the following post on his website following UFC 87:

" Georges didn't look as big as he has before and he seemed like he had gotten tired from the first round. Fitch had the game plan of countering Georges and you just can't do that. You can't counter a quicker fighter. To be honest, halfway in the third round I got up and walked out of the arena and went to my hotel. The fight wasn't the most exciting and I wanted to get out of there before everyone else was getting up to leave."

So is it safe to say that Matt Hughes was not impressed by GSP's performance? Also, what does it say about either the UFC 87 card as a whole or UFC's bonuses when GSP vs. Fitch won Fight of the Night and Matt Hughes walked out?

Maybe this is just Matt Hughes being Matt Hughes (you know, like Manny being Manny except Manny Ramirez catches a ball, high fives a fan, and doubles up a runner at second while Matt Hughes walks out the main event) but what a dick thing to post. To be fair to Hughes, he does a busted knee and no one wants to see a hobbled man fight through a traffic jam of people, do they? Oh who am I kidding, if that hobbled man is Matt Hughes then everyone wants to see it.

Underwater Ice Bath

Strikeforce announced that Bobby Southworth will defend his Light Heavyweight title against Rento ‘Bablu' Sobral on September 20th. Also on the card will be the Strikeforce debut of Kazuo Misaki as he takes on Joe Riggs

This really makes me question if Sobral vs. Ortiz is going to happen at the Affliction show. If it does, Sobral will be fighting on September 20th and then again on October 11th. I don't doubt that he can do it but you have to wonder if he would. I'm only looking forward to Sobral vs. Southworth because I hope ‘Babalu' chokes out Southworth in 10 seconds and I never have to see him again. I can't take Strikeforce serious when their Light Heavyweight Champion is Bobby Southworth. Obviously the UFC Light Heavyweight title is the only one that means anything right now but at least Sobral brings some credibility to the belt.

I'm excited for Misaki's debut because he's one of the top Middleweight's in the world. Riggs is a beatable opponent for Misaki and he's got a little bit of name value so Misaki can come in hot in the US. If Misaki wins then that will likely set up Misaki vs. Cung Le for the Middleweight title.

Affliction is discussing a possible fight between Ben Rothwell and Siala ‘Mighty Mo' Siliga for their Day of Reckoning event

For those that don't know Mighty Mo, he's a 37-year-old kickboxer with a 3-0 MMA record and wins over no one. I don't understand the match up unless they're getting Mighty Mo for cheap, which is doubtful if he's seen the payouts for the first show.

What happened to the Rothwell vs. Rizzo fight? That would have at least given Rothwell a chance to beat a guy with some type of name value. A win over Mighty Mo gives him a win over a kickboxer that no one has heard of. The only way this move makes any sense is if Rizzo is completely off the card as a salary dump method. If you're going to keep both Rothwell and Rizzo on the card, they might as well fight each other.

Cristiane ‘Cyborg' Santos vs. Yoko Takahashi will likely take place on October 4th at the EXC on CBS 3 show

So much for Cyborg not being ready to fight in October against Carano. I guess the idea is for Carano and Santos to get big wins on CBS and then build towards a PPV but I still think it's a dumb risk to take. When you have fights, book them. EXC is going to look really dumb is Santos or Carano loses because then they lose their big PPV fight. Takahashi and Kobold (Carano's opponent) are both winnable fights but you just never know.

Taking Time Off

Like every other American who enjoys sports gaming, I bought Madden 09 this past Tuesday. I'm not one of those people who says, "Madden is the same every year and I'll never buy it again" because I know I'm going to buy it every year and I always enjoy it. I went to Wal-Mart at Midnight to pick up the game, found myself 6th in a line of about 30 and was playing by about 12:30. I thought I was crazy for going out at Midnight for a video game but in line were girls waiting for the Jonas Brothers CD. Who in the hell are the Jonas Brothers?

I'm heading back to college this Sunday and venturing into the world of living in an apartment. The goal is to not burn down the place while we're under lease. Wish me luck.

Overseas Training

DREAM is currently trying to put together a New Years Eve fight between Yoshihiro Akiyama and either Fedor Emelianenko or Mirko Cro Cop

Akiyama is a Middleweight while Fedor and Cro Cop are Heavyweights. Sounds like a perfectly normal Japanese fight to me.

If this fight comes to fruition, it's an obvious business move by DREAM. Akiyama is the most hated man in Japanese MMA while Fedor and Cro Cop are beloved Japanese figures. Obviously DREAM expects Fedor or Cro Cop to MURDER KILL Akiyama, which will make them even more beloved and a bunch of people will tune in to see it. It won't be the most compelling fight in the world

Training Partners

Adam Tool, Stephen DeAugustino, Wendell Mitchell, BREN~!, and Morgan Marx bring the news.

Dustin James interviews Gan McGee. John Curry lists fights that could never be duplicated. Alex Mattis looks back at UFC 87. Scott Kuczkowski gives the good, bad, and ugly of UFC 87. Larry Csonka gives his take on UFC 87. BREN~! interview the extremely beautiful Tracy Lee. Chris Robinson lists some Zuffa superfights. Ryan Seymour looks at UFC 87 and 89. BREN~! presents Fact or Fiction featuring myself and Scott Kuczkowski.

Matt McEwen reviews UFC 47 featuring some fight called Liddell vs. Ortiz 1. Adam Tool reviews Rumble on the Rock 8 featuring a main event pitting CABBAGE VS. BUTTERBEAN! I Cheap Plug my own DVD review.

AND IT'S ALL OVER~!

That wraps it up for me folks. I'll be back next week with….wait, there's no major MMA event this weekend. That's a first Looks like I'll need to come up with something original for next week. Take care everyone.

Cardio Freak Sources: Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer, Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly, MMAWeekly, and MMAMania