UFC 96: Jackson vs Jardine...if you watched this on tv, you might of mistaken it for the newest edition of the "UFC Ultimate Knockouts" DVD, because seven of the ten fights ended in either a knockout or a technical knock out. Overall for my predictions i got eight right, and two wrong.
The first preliminary bout of the night had Aaron Riley going up against "Sugar" Shane Nelson. This fight was ruined due to bad reffing. As soon as Riley hit the ground and Nelson landed one or two punches the referee called a stop to the fight, even though Riley was clearly about to get back to his feet and did not seem to be hurt. In the post fight interview, UFC President Dana White was furious about the call, and Nation Wide Arena was exploding with explicit chants towards the ref.
The next preliminary bout of the night showed the return of Brandon Vera as he took on Micheal Patt. Vera came into this fight only winning one of his last four fights, with his last fight being a split decision lost to top ten light heavyweight contender Keith Jardine. Many believed if Vera lost this fight that he would be cut from the UFC. But he showed up ready to prove his haters wrong, and won a second round TKO in dominant fashion after dropping Patt with a vicious leg kick...and no, not a kick to the head, he kicked Patt so hard on his leg that he fell back onto his head.
Next up was Tim Boetsch versus Jason Brilz. In the first round, Tim "The Barbarian" destroyed Brilz on the feet, but then from the second round up until winning by decision Brilz was able to keep Boetsch on the ground and control the fight to pick up the W.
Then it was onto Kendall Grove taking on Jason Day. Although Grove came into this fight off of a split decision win over the late Evan Tanner, Dana White had announced that if Grove was to lose, he would be cut from the UFC. Grove stepped up when it mattered and won with an impressive knock out, and proceeded to do his signature grave digging celebration to pay tribute to Tito Ortiz.
The last preliminary fight of the night had the world's toughest nerd, Tamdan McCrory, going up against Ryan Madigan. Although McCrory got dominated in his last fight against one of my personal favorite fighters, Dustin Hazelett, he controlled the pace this entire match up and went on to win by tap out due to strikes.
Now onto the main card, the first fight of the night featured one of the UFC's most skilled wrestlers, Gray Maynard, as he went up against Jim Miller. Just like I predicted in the UFC 96 preview blog, Maynard used his wrestling and strength to his advantage to work his way to a win by decision.
Next on the card was WEC veteran but UFC newcomer Mark Munoz versus Ohio Native Matt Hamill. When Hamill came out the arena exploded, people in Ohio love Matt Hamill. Even though Matt is deaf, he defiantly felt the vibration going on in that arena. And he didn't come up short of impressing his native Ohio fans, he won knockout of the night by kicking Munoz in the side of the head, and left Mark leaving the ring in a neck brace.
The third fight on the pay per view card had Ultimate Fighter alumni Matt Brown touching gloves with Pete Sell. Just like the first fight of the night, this ended due to bad reffing, but instead of stopping too soon, this stopped too late. For about two minutes Brown continued to just beat on Sell while Sell was unable to defend himself, and the whole time Dana White is banging on the cage yelling to the Yvels to stop the fight.
The nights co-main event of the night showed off two of the UFC's top heavyweights as Gabriel Gonzaga went up against the hype machine that is known as Shane Carwin. A lot of people had fell into the hype that Carwin is unbeatable because of his 10-0 record going into this match up, but in truth I don't know of anybody who could name one person Carwin had beat going into this fight, because they were all cans who were cut from the UFC soon after. Gabriel Gonzaga on the other hand has taken on a list of veteran UFC greats, and has already had one title shot. The fight started off all Gonzaga, who dominated Shane on the feet, and broke his nose with a punch. But despite being beat on for the first two minutes, Carwin silenced the haters with a one punch knockout on Gonzaga. Although Carwin won the fight, I am still not totally convinced. Other then his incredible knockout, he just didn't have an answer for Gabriel's striking, and Gonzaga is more of a submission fighter then a striker, which makes me wonder what Carwin could do against a top Heavyweight striker such as Cheick Kongo. I look forward to seeing who he is matched up with next.
And finally, the main event of the evening had MMA superstar Quinton "Rampage" Jackson taking on the always dangerous, awkward style fighter that is "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine. This was defiantly one of the most exciting fights I have seen in a long, long time, thanks in a big part to great calls being made by the ref. It was a stand up war with both men being rocked multiple times, including Jardine getting dropped twice and taken down twice. Every time that the two would tie up in a clinch, the ref would very quickly separate them, which kept it an extremely quick paced match. Jackson went on to win the fight by Unanimous Decision, but Jardine deserves all the respect in the world, because many, many people were saying that he would be knocked out in the first round, but he gave Jackson a very tough fight.
Thank you for reading my recap of UFC 96, look back in a few weeks as I will have a new blog up focusing on the upcoming Ultimate Fight Night.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
UFC 96 Preview
This Saturday, March 7th, UFC will be proud to present UFC 96 from Columbus, Ohio. The main event of the evening pits former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson against "The Dean of Mean" Keith Jardine. But before I get around to that, as always with preview blogs, I'll go around whats happening in the UFC. With a surprise turn of events, it is now being said that there is a small possibility that Fedor will come to the UFC for UFC 100 to fight Randy Couture, but that is not as likely as Couture taking on Antonio Nogueria at UFC 101. The biggest MMA news this week though would defiantly have to be the UFC signing middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama. While most American fans arent familiar with Akiyama, he is an overseas sensation. He sings, dances, is a male model, but for the most part is regarded to as the man who could dethrone Anderson Silva, and now that he is in the UFC we will hopefully be able to soon find out.
In other news, here is how the upcoming months are looking main event wise. At UFC 97, Anderson Silva will be defending his Middleweight Championship against Thales Leites, in my opinion Thales does not yet deserve a title shot, but then again the UFC is running out of people to throw Silvas way. Also that night, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell returns to action after being brutally knocked out by "Sugar" Rashad Evans to take on Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Shogun's cardio looked absolutely terrible at UFC 93 against Mark Coleman, but he has been training with Wanderlei Silva's cardio coach, and i think he will be more then ready to take on The Iceman. UFC 98 is shaping up to be a really good card, with the Main Event being Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 2 and Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra. Like i said in my UFC 95 preview, UFC 99 will feature Wanderlei Silva vs Rich Franklin, and then at UFC 100 the only match-up we know of right now is Welterweight Champion George "Rush" St. Pierre defending his title against the always dangerous Thiago Alves.
And now onto my UFC 96 predictions, like always ill just do quick picks for the prelims. I have Shane Nelson (12-3) over Aaron Riley (27-10), Brandon Vera (9-3) defeating Micheal Patt (15-3), Jason Brilz (16-1) over Tim Boestsch (8-2), Kendall Grove (11-5) over Jason Day (17-6), and lastly Tamdan McCrory (11-2) defeating Ryan Madigan (5-0).
Now onto the main card, the first fight of the evening has Gray "The Bully" Maynard (7-0) taking on Jim Miller (13-1) I see this fight going Maynard's way throughout the whole fight, he has such good control over his opponents to where he can keep their back to the mat the whole fight, and thats how i see him beating Miller, winning by decision via lay n' pray. Next up is a light heavyweight bout where Matt "The Hammer" Hamill (7-2) going up against Mark "The Philippine Wrecking Machine" Munoz (5-0). If you look at the betting lines, Munoz is listed as a huge underdog, but in my opinion Munoz will dominate this fight. Munoz is an excellent striker, winning his last two fights in WEC by knockout, while the only two times Hamill has went against strikers he has lost. Hamills only hope in this fight would be to out wrestle Munoz, but i don't see that happening because Munoz is also a very good wrestler, and because of that i see this fight staying on the feet. Next on the card is a very interesting match up to me, Pete "Drago" Sell (8-5) against Matt Brown (11-7). Many will remember Brown from The Ulimate Fighter: Team Jackson vs Team Griffin, while Sell is not as familiar to the casual fan. Matt Brown is an excellent striker, while Sell has a pretty decent ground game, but i see this match up being more of a kick boxing match, with it going to decision after a very bloody fight, and Brown winning the decision. Now to the co main event, which has top ten ranked heavyweight Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga (10-3) taking on the quickly rising, undefeated, Shane Carwin (10-0). This is a hard match up to call, just because of the lack of talent Carwin has faced, but that being said he hasn't had a fight go past the first round and makes quick work of all of his opponents. But i still think Gonzaga will just be too much for him, i see Napao winning by TKO. And now onto the main event, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (29-7) versus Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine (14-5). A lot of people are saying the UFC is feeding Jardine to Rampage to get Jackson a title shot for UFC 100, but i tend to disagree. Quinton's most recent loss came to Forrest, who won a controversial decision over Rampage by controlling the fight with kicks. But when Jardine fought Griffin, he beat Griffin in the same way that Griffin beat Jackson, with kicks. To me, that shows that Jardine has stronger kicks then Griffin, and with Rampage having trouble checking Forrest kicks, Jardine could very easily win this bout by decision. But with that being said, I still have Jackson picked to win by Knock Out.
Well that wraps up my picks for UFC 96, I am traveling to Columbus for the event, so next Monday when my recap goes up I am sure I will have a few stories for you guys. Thanks for your support, and feel free to comment.
In other news, here is how the upcoming months are looking main event wise. At UFC 97, Anderson Silva will be defending his Middleweight Championship against Thales Leites, in my opinion Thales does not yet deserve a title shot, but then again the UFC is running out of people to throw Silvas way. Also that night, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell returns to action after being brutally knocked out by "Sugar" Rashad Evans to take on Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Shogun's cardio looked absolutely terrible at UFC 93 against Mark Coleman, but he has been training with Wanderlei Silva's cardio coach, and i think he will be more then ready to take on The Iceman. UFC 98 is shaping up to be a really good card, with the Main Event being Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 2 and Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra. Like i said in my UFC 95 preview, UFC 99 will feature Wanderlei Silva vs Rich Franklin, and then at UFC 100 the only match-up we know of right now is Welterweight Champion George "Rush" St. Pierre defending his title against the always dangerous Thiago Alves.
And now onto my UFC 96 predictions, like always ill just do quick picks for the prelims. I have Shane Nelson (12-3) over Aaron Riley (27-10), Brandon Vera (9-3) defeating Micheal Patt (15-3), Jason Brilz (16-1) over Tim Boestsch (8-2), Kendall Grove (11-5) over Jason Day (17-6), and lastly Tamdan McCrory (11-2) defeating Ryan Madigan (5-0).
Now onto the main card, the first fight of the evening has Gray "The Bully" Maynard (7-0) taking on Jim Miller (13-1) I see this fight going Maynard's way throughout the whole fight, he has such good control over his opponents to where he can keep their back to the mat the whole fight, and thats how i see him beating Miller, winning by decision via lay n' pray. Next up is a light heavyweight bout where Matt "The Hammer" Hamill (7-2) going up against Mark "The Philippine Wrecking Machine" Munoz (5-0). If you look at the betting lines, Munoz is listed as a huge underdog, but in my opinion Munoz will dominate this fight. Munoz is an excellent striker, winning his last two fights in WEC by knockout, while the only two times Hamill has went against strikers he has lost. Hamills only hope in this fight would be to out wrestle Munoz, but i don't see that happening because Munoz is also a very good wrestler, and because of that i see this fight staying on the feet. Next on the card is a very interesting match up to me, Pete "Drago" Sell (8-5) against Matt Brown (11-7). Many will remember Brown from The Ulimate Fighter: Team Jackson vs Team Griffin, while Sell is not as familiar to the casual fan. Matt Brown is an excellent striker, while Sell has a pretty decent ground game, but i see this match up being more of a kick boxing match, with it going to decision after a very bloody fight, and Brown winning the decision. Now to the co main event, which has top ten ranked heavyweight Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga (10-3) taking on the quickly rising, undefeated, Shane Carwin (10-0). This is a hard match up to call, just because of the lack of talent Carwin has faced, but that being said he hasn't had a fight go past the first round and makes quick work of all of his opponents. But i still think Gonzaga will just be too much for him, i see Napao winning by TKO. And now onto the main event, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (29-7) versus Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine (14-5). A lot of people are saying the UFC is feeding Jardine to Rampage to get Jackson a title shot for UFC 100, but i tend to disagree. Quinton's most recent loss came to Forrest, who won a controversial decision over Rampage by controlling the fight with kicks. But when Jardine fought Griffin, he beat Griffin in the same way that Griffin beat Jackson, with kicks. To me, that shows that Jardine has stronger kicks then Griffin, and with Rampage having trouble checking Forrest kicks, Jardine could very easily win this bout by decision. But with that being said, I still have Jackson picked to win by Knock Out.
Well that wraps up my picks for UFC 96, I am traveling to Columbus for the event, so next Monday when my recap goes up I am sure I will have a few stories for you guys. Thanks for your support, and feel free to comment.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
UFC 95 Recap
Welcome back to “MMA Authority Blog,” with UFC 95 over and done with I am here to give you my recap on how I felt about last Saturday’s fights. I’ll start off with quick results for the preliminary card.
Paul Kelly defeats Troy Mandioniz via unanimous decision. Evan Dunham defeats Per Eklund via technical knock out. Mike Cienolevicz defeats Neil Grove via leg lock. Junior Dos Santos defeats Stefan Struve via technical knockout. And lastly, Terry Etim defeats Brian Cobb via technical knockout. So now to the main card, in the opening bout of the night it was former TUF standout Josh Koscheck going up against UFC newcomer Paulo Thiago. I’ll be the first to admit when I am wrong, and I was defiantly wrong about Paulo, I didn’t think he had what it takes to come in and beat a fighter like Kos in his UFC debut, but he went in there and TKO’d Koscheck with a beautiful left hand in the third minute of the first round. I’m really interested to see who the UFC will throw at Paulo next, and I also wonder what could be next for Koscheck, with the only thing I see for him being a possible fight with Karo. In the next match of the night it was Brazilian Jujitsu expert Demian Maia taking on Chael Sonnen. Like I predicted in my previous blog, Maia took this fight pretty easy, winning by submission in the second minute of the first round. Next up was Nate “The Great” Marquardt versus Wilson Gouveia. Marquardt looked extremely well in this fight, mixing up his strikes well using kicks and knees, and even paid tribute to Shonie Carter by getting a spinning back fist in there. Nate won by technical knockout in the third minute of the third round. The next fight on the card was the return of “The Outlaw” Dan Hardy taking on Rory Markham. Before this fight, Rory was making comments saying that Hardy had no punching power, but Hardy made him eat his words by knocking him out in the very first minute of the first round with a right hand. And lastly, the main event of the night pitted Joe “Daddy” Stevenson against the man making his lightweight debut, Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez. Let me tell you, Sanchez is going to be a threat to the lightweight division, he went in there against Stevenson who is one of the very top lightweights in the UFC, and wore him out for three rounds to eventually win by unanimous decision.
So overall for the card, I went 7-3 on my picks. In two weeks the UFC will be presenting UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine from Columbus, Ohio, so be looking out for my preview blog early in that week, where I will also provide an update on things going around in the UFC such as future match ups, backstage controversies, and an update on the Fedor/Lesnar negotiations.
Paul Kelly defeats Troy Mandioniz via unanimous decision. Evan Dunham defeats Per Eklund via technical knock out. Mike Cienolevicz defeats Neil Grove via leg lock. Junior Dos Santos defeats Stefan Struve via technical knockout. And lastly, Terry Etim defeats Brian Cobb via technical knockout. So now to the main card, in the opening bout of the night it was former TUF standout Josh Koscheck going up against UFC newcomer Paulo Thiago. I’ll be the first to admit when I am wrong, and I was defiantly wrong about Paulo, I didn’t think he had what it takes to come in and beat a fighter like Kos in his UFC debut, but he went in there and TKO’d Koscheck with a beautiful left hand in the third minute of the first round. I’m really interested to see who the UFC will throw at Paulo next, and I also wonder what could be next for Koscheck, with the only thing I see for him being a possible fight with Karo. In the next match of the night it was Brazilian Jujitsu expert Demian Maia taking on Chael Sonnen. Like I predicted in my previous blog, Maia took this fight pretty easy, winning by submission in the second minute of the first round. Next up was Nate “The Great” Marquardt versus Wilson Gouveia. Marquardt looked extremely well in this fight, mixing up his strikes well using kicks and knees, and even paid tribute to Shonie Carter by getting a spinning back fist in there. Nate won by technical knockout in the third minute of the third round. The next fight on the card was the return of “The Outlaw” Dan Hardy taking on Rory Markham. Before this fight, Rory was making comments saying that Hardy had no punching power, but Hardy made him eat his words by knocking him out in the very first minute of the first round with a right hand. And lastly, the main event of the night pitted Joe “Daddy” Stevenson against the man making his lightweight debut, Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez. Let me tell you, Sanchez is going to be a threat to the lightweight division, he went in there against Stevenson who is one of the very top lightweights in the UFC, and wore him out for three rounds to eventually win by unanimous decision.
So overall for the card, I went 7-3 on my picks. In two weeks the UFC will be presenting UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine from Columbus, Ohio, so be looking out for my preview blog early in that week, where I will also provide an update on things going around in the UFC such as future match ups, backstage controversies, and an update on the Fedor/Lesnar negotiations.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
My UFC 95 Picks
First off i would like to welcome all of you reading to my blog, "MMA Authority Blog." This is my first blog, and you can expect to see many more whenever something is going down in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. So I'm going to go over my picks for this coming Saturdays UFC 95 card, but first let me talk about a few things going on right now. In the upcoming months, Fedor Emelianenko is set to meet with UFC president Dana White to discuss possible contract negotiations. For if you are not familiar with Fedor, he is considered by many, including myself, to be the number one pound for pound fighter in the world. He has notable wins over Tim Sylvia, Antonio Nogueria, and Gary Goodridge, with his most recent victory coming over former UFC Champion Andrei Arlovski at the Affliction 2 card. If Dana was able to get Fedor to sign with UFC, that would really shake up the Heavyweight division. In other news, former Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva is set to take on former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin on the UFC 99 card. Former Pride stand out Mirko CroCop is also set to make his return to the UFC that night against an unnamed opponet who is expected to be Randy Couture.
Now on to my UFC 95 picks. Im not going to take too much time on the prelims, but I have Paul Kelly (8-1) defeating Troy Mandaloniz (3-1), Per Eklund (15-3) defeating Evan Dunham (7-0), Neil Grove (7-1) defeating Mike Ciesnolevicz (17-3), Junior Dos Santos (7-1) defeating Stefan Struve (20-2), and Terry Etim (11-2) defeating Brian Cobb (15-4).
Now to the main card, the first fight of the night is Josh Koscheck (12-3), former Ultimate Fighter standout, going up against Paul Thiago (7-0). Koscheck is coming into this fight after receiving knockout of the night at the Fight for the Troops card where he knocked out Yoshiyuki Yoshida. For Paul Thiago on the other hand, this will be his UFC debut. I have Koscheck winning due mostly to experience, for Thiago this will be his first time fighting live on television and in front of a huge crowd, and that is something that takes most a little getting used to. The next match up on the card is Demian Maia (10-0) taking on Chael Sonnen (23-9). I believe that Maia is going to take this one fairly easy, in his last fight he looked very impressive winning by rear naked choke in the first round against a very dangerous fighter in Nate Quarry. For Sonnen, this will be his first fight in the UFC since 2006, although he did continue fighting in WEC, where he most recently won by decision against Paul Filiho. Again, I believe Maia takes this one fairly easy. Next up we have an interesting match up where Nate "The Great" Marquardt (30-8) will be taking on Wilson Gouveia (12-5). Marquardt made quick work of rising superstar Martin Kampmann at UFC 88, picking up a TKO in the first two minutes of the first round. Gouveia is also coming off of an impressive win over Jason Macdonald, where Macdonald tapped out to strikes. This will be an interesting match up, but no matter how I look at it I see Marquardt coming out on top. Up next we have Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (20-6) facing off against Rory Markham (16-4). Hardy barely slid by Akihiro Gono at UFC 89 winning by split decision, while Markham made a name for himself in his UFC debut where he had a memorable head kick knock out of Broodie Farber at UFC: Silva vs Irvin. While Markham looked like the better fighter when you look at both fighters previous match ups, Markham went up against a scrub while Hardy was able to defeat a veteran fighter in Gono. I see Hardy winning this fight. And finally in the main event of the evening, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (34-9) will be tested against the always dangerous Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez (21-2), who will be making his debut at 155. Sanchez will be entering this fight coming off of a TKO victory over Luigi Fioravanti at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale, who was recently released from the UFC. However Stevenson wasnt as fortunate in his last fight where he had a dissapointing defeat against Kenny Florian, who is going on to fight B.J. Penn for the Lightweight Championship sometime in the upcoming months. I pick Sanchez to win this fight seven times out of ten, however I do expect it to be a very close and exciting fight.
So there is my picks for this Saturdays free night of fights, be sure to check back sometime Monday to see my review and reaction to UFC 95.
Now on to my UFC 95 picks. Im not going to take too much time on the prelims, but I have Paul Kelly (8-1) defeating Troy Mandaloniz (3-1), Per Eklund (15-3) defeating Evan Dunham (7-0), Neil Grove (7-1) defeating Mike Ciesnolevicz (17-3), Junior Dos Santos (7-1) defeating Stefan Struve (20-2), and Terry Etim (11-2) defeating Brian Cobb (15-4).
Now to the main card, the first fight of the night is Josh Koscheck (12-3), former Ultimate Fighter standout, going up against Paul Thiago (7-0). Koscheck is coming into this fight after receiving knockout of the night at the Fight for the Troops card where he knocked out Yoshiyuki Yoshida. For Paul Thiago on the other hand, this will be his UFC debut. I have Koscheck winning due mostly to experience, for Thiago this will be his first time fighting live on television and in front of a huge crowd, and that is something that takes most a little getting used to. The next match up on the card is Demian Maia (10-0) taking on Chael Sonnen (23-9). I believe that Maia is going to take this one fairly easy, in his last fight he looked very impressive winning by rear naked choke in the first round against a very dangerous fighter in Nate Quarry. For Sonnen, this will be his first fight in the UFC since 2006, although he did continue fighting in WEC, where he most recently won by decision against Paul Filiho. Again, I believe Maia takes this one fairly easy. Next up we have an interesting match up where Nate "The Great" Marquardt (30-8) will be taking on Wilson Gouveia (12-5). Marquardt made quick work of rising superstar Martin Kampmann at UFC 88, picking up a TKO in the first two minutes of the first round. Gouveia is also coming off of an impressive win over Jason Macdonald, where Macdonald tapped out to strikes. This will be an interesting match up, but no matter how I look at it I see Marquardt coming out on top. Up next we have Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (20-6) facing off against Rory Markham (16-4). Hardy barely slid by Akihiro Gono at UFC 89 winning by split decision, while Markham made a name for himself in his UFC debut where he had a memorable head kick knock out of Broodie Farber at UFC: Silva vs Irvin. While Markham looked like the better fighter when you look at both fighters previous match ups, Markham went up against a scrub while Hardy was able to defeat a veteran fighter in Gono. I see Hardy winning this fight. And finally in the main event of the evening, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (34-9) will be tested against the always dangerous Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez (21-2), who will be making his debut at 155. Sanchez will be entering this fight coming off of a TKO victory over Luigi Fioravanti at The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale, who was recently released from the UFC. However Stevenson wasnt as fortunate in his last fight where he had a dissapointing defeat against Kenny Florian, who is going on to fight B.J. Penn for the Lightweight Championship sometime in the upcoming months. I pick Sanchez to win this fight seven times out of ten, however I do expect it to be a very close and exciting fight.
So there is my picks for this Saturdays free night of fights, be sure to check back sometime Monday to see my review and reaction to UFC 95.
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