What We Learn’t From UFC 126

 

Eastern Fail…

The influx of Japanese fighters in the UFC seems to have been an absolute fail. Omigawa and Yamamoto both fought on the card and both failed to defeat their opponents. Wrestling seemed to be the kryptonite of both fighters and if they’re going to be a success in their US careers, they’re going to have to sure up their takedown defence, so they can implement their own game plans.

 

Have your cake and eat it…

Gabe Ruediger doesn’t seem to be UFC quality and it’s been shown in both of his fights in the UFC. How many fighters have you seen get a beatdown so hard that it makes you feel sorry for them? You could see it in Ruediger’s eyes, when he was on the cage and Taylor was letting his hands fly that he simply could not handle what was being dished out to him.

 

Ring Rust? What Ring Rust?

Forrest Griffin looked pretty good for a fighter who had been out for over a year with injury. He admitted that he felt a lot of ring rust going into the fight, but he controlled Rich Franklin considerably, and it’s not exactly Franklin’s fault, because the size difference was so much, it was slightly ridiculous. Once Griffin was able to get him to the floor, we knew it would be hard for him to get back up simply because Griffin is such a gigantic man. Whose next for Griffin? I’d like to say the winner of the Matt Hamill vs Phil Davis fight, as he’s been out for so long that he needs to fight the young lions of the LHW division.

 

One man’s pain is another man’s pleasure…

As I’m not a fighter, I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose. However, last night I think Ryan Bader had the most character building loss of any fighter in MMA history. He lost arguably the biggest fight of his career against Jon Jones, he lost his unbeaten record and what he didn’t know is that he lost the chance to go and fight for the UFC LHW title in March. Much respect to Jon Jones though, who had another dominating performance, but Ryan Bader has to bounce back from this loss otherwise it could potentially consume him.

 

Anderson Silva: Best fighter ever?

You can say what you want about Anderson Silva, you can boo him, cheer him, at the end of the day, it doesn’t particularly matter how we feel about Silva, because the facts speak the truth, the man is the best fighter alive. Vitor Belfort is a tough man, has a fantastic chin and probably had the best tools to defeat Silva…he got knocked out, with arguably the knockout of the year…and we’re only in February. I’m looking forward to the possiblity of GSP Vs Silva fight, because I’d have no idea who wins it.

UFC 126 Results

Preliminary card

• Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs. Kenny Robertson

Pierce defeated Robertson via TKO (punches) at 0:29 of round 2.

• Light Heavyweight bout: Ricardo Romero vs. Kyle Kingsbury

Kingsbury defeated Romero via TKO (strikes) at 0:21 of round 1. This bout aired on Spike TV following the Mendes vs. Omigawa fight.

• Lightweight bout: Paul Taylor vs. Gabe Ruediger

Taylor defeated Ruediger via KO (strikes) at 1:42 of round 2. This bout aired on the PPV broadcast following the Silva vs. Belfort fight.

Preliminary card (Facebook Stream)

• Bantamweight bout: Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Demetrious Johnson

Johnson defeated Yamamoto via unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, 30–27).

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

• Featherweight bout: Chad Mendes vs. Michihiro Omigawa

Mendes defeated Omigawa via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

• Lightweight bout: Donald Cerrone vs. Paul Kelly

Cerrone defeated Kelly via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:48 of round 2. This bout aired on the PPV broadcast following the Taylor vs. Ruediger fight.

Main card

• Bantamweight bout: Miguel Torres vs. Antonio Banuelos

Torres defeated Banuelos via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

• Welterweight bout: Jake Ellenberger vs. Carlos Eduardo Rocha

Ellenberger defeated Rocha via split decision (27–30, 29–28, 29–28).

• Light Heavyweight bout: Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader

Jones defeated Bader via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:20 of round 2.

• Light Heavyweight bout: Forrest Griffin vs. Rich Franklin

Griffin defeated Franklin via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28).

• Middleweight Championship bout: Anderson Silva (c) vs. Vitor Belfort

Silva defeated Belfort via KO (strikes) at 3:25 of round 1 to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship.

Countdown To UFC 126

UFC 126 Predictions

 

Miguel Torres Vs Antonio Banuelos

 

For those UK fans who have never seen Miguel Torres fight, one could argue that he’s one of the greatest Mixed Martial Artists to live. Sadly, for us we never got to watch any WEC events on TV, but with the UFC merging with the WEC, we now get to see some of the great lighterweight fighters go head to head. Torres is one of the standouts of the bantamweight division and has a ridiculous number of wins via submission.

What the records don’t mention is that Torres, usually beats the crap out of his opponents before he submits them as his stand up is more than solid. Banuelos is no walk over, but I truly believe that Torres is back to his best, after being inconsistent in his last few fights and will win this fight

 

Jake Ellenberger Vs Carlos Eduardo Rocha

I was really impressed with Jake Ellenberger when he fought John Howard. Ellenberger is a strong wrestler who has some vicious ground and pound. Although Carlos Eduardo Rocha is a really good BJJ fighter, I don’t think he has fought anyone on the level of Ellenberger, who has the potential to make a huge leap into the elite welterweight fighters in the UFC in 2011. Ellenberger will probably stand with Rocha as he won’t want any of Rocha’s submission game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he took him down and tried to ground and pound him.

I feel that as good of a submission artist is, Rocha’s submissions will be nulified by the strength of Ellenberger, ultimately giving Ellenberger the win.

 

 

Jon Jones Vs Ryan Bader

Arguably the most anticipated fight on the card, one could assume that Jon Jones Vs Ryan Bader is a look at two potential future champions at the beginning of their careers and a battle to see who is truly ready to make the real step up in competition. Bader is unbeaten in his career and is a quality wrestler from Arizona State University (the home of Cain Velasquez and C.B Dollaway) so he’s got a fantastic wrestling base.

However, don’t think that Bader is going to attempt to lay and pray as he’s got knockout power in both hand and is constantly evolving. The one problem for Bader is his cardio and the fact that he has the tendency to gas in later rounds. If he was fighting anyone else, I’d most likely go with Bader, however he’s fight Jon Jones. Jones is any fighter’s worst nightmare. He’s fast, unpredictable, strong and most importantly still evolving. Both of them are young and could be champions in the future, but Jones has evolved further in his career compared to that of Bader. I’ll have to go with Jones for the win.

Forrest Griffin Vs Rich Franklin

Two UFC legends collide in a fight that has “absolute war” written all over it. Both fighters are looking for another win to take further up the ladder of the light-heavyweight division. Griffin hasn’t thought in well over a year, after getting surgery on his shoulder, and any momentum he had coming off his win against Tito Ortiz in 2009 has probably vanished. Franklin is coming off an impressive victory against Chuck Liddell, but let’s not forget that Franklin wasn’t looking to fantastic until the knockout of Liddell, who had already been knocked out a fair few times before the fight (see Rashad Evans vicious knockout).

Franklin has the advantage as he certainly hasn’t got as much ring rust as Griffin. However, I think that Griffin has the strength advantage and won’t be bullied by Rich Franklin who is usually bigger than his opponents. Griffin is a gym rat who wouldn’t step into the cage unprepared and I feel that with his skill set, he certainly has this fight.

I’ll just put this out there, winner of the Jon Jones /Ryan Bader fight vs. the winner of Forrest Griffin/Rich Franklin fight. Certainly possible…

 

Anderson Silva Vs Vitor Belfort

Many fights have been dubbed “Fight of the Century”, but when my mother who knows nothing about cage fighting asks me who Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort are, I have to truly wonder if this is the fight of the century. In his last fight, Anderson proved that even when he’s been heavily dominated, he can finish off fights and that’s an incredibly important trait for a champion to have. There wasn’t an MMA fan on the planet who didn’t think that Chael Sonnen was the new UFC Middleweight champion, until Anderson locked on that Triangle Choke. Vitor on the other hand is a completely different fighter to Chael, because where Chael had fantastic takedowns, his stand-up was weak. Yet he still managed to stand up with Anderson and knock him down a few times in the process. Vitor may not take Silva down, but his stand up is so good, that he isn’t afraid to let his hands fly and just unleash strikes on Anderson. Vitor is also an ex UFC Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight champion, so like Anderson he knows and has what it takes to win. The main issue is that if Vitor is dropping down to 185, that’s a HUGE weight cut for him. He’s made it once and that was against Matt Lindland. You have to question his cardio and whether he could potentially last five rounds with Silva. I don’t think he can. If he can hit Silva hard, within the first round, then he can win this fight, but Silva is too elusive, too technical and too good at this game. According to some sources, Silva used to bully Belfort when they trained with each other in Brazil, many years ago. I don’t think he’ll bully Belfort on the fight, but I think he’ll pick up the win. Prediction: Silva TKO

UFC 126 Preview Trailer

SERIOUSLY excited for this!

UFC 126 Trailer

Potential Coaches For Next Seasons TUF

With TUF 12 coming to an end this week, the question in the back of everyones mind is “Who are going to be new coaches for TUF13?” There hasn’t been much information regarding who is going to be on the show or whose going to be coaching, but here are MMA UK’s picks if we had a say in the matter.

Urijah Faber & Miguel Torres

With the introduction of the Bantamweights and Featherweights to the UFC, this would be a great way to introduce to the new MMA world some of the greatest MMA fighters to grace the cage. A lot of UK based MMA fans would have never seen WEC and may not know who Urijah Faber or Miguel Torres are and that’s a shame. This would be a great way to introduce these two fantastic fighters to a new audience and showcase their skills and accomplishments to those who never saw them fight in the WEC. If Torres can get past Banuelos, then these two could definitely be the next coaches on the show.

 

Jon Fitch & BJ Penn

With their upcoming fight in Australia announced at the last UFC event, this would be a great way to promote these two fighters. It’s interesting that Fitch was a guest coach on this seasons TUF and has recently said that he’d love to be a coach on the show and Penn has already coached on the show, so he knows how the show works and what needs to be done. It could also help cause some animosity between the two fighters as neither of them have any particular issues with each other.

The winner of Frankie Edgar & Gray Maynard Vs The winner of Ben Henderson Vs Anthony Pettis

For those that don’t know already, the winner of the Ben Henderson/Anthony Pettis fight is going to take on the winner of the Frankie Edgar/Graymaynard fight.  Any of these four fighters would make great coaches on the show. Edgar’s ever evovling skills and work ethic would be a fantastic thing for fighters to learn from, whilst Ben Henderson’s ground skills are certainly something any rookie fighter could get learn from. However, what I think would make great TV and also a great experience for the fighters on the show would be Gray Maynard and Anthony Pettis coaching. I’m not sure if many people heard Maynard onf the TJ De Sanctis MMA Radio Show after his win against Kenny Florian, but he exuded the sort of swagger that I didn’t know he had. We always knew he was confident, but he showed it in such a way that made me think that if they gave this guy some screen time and he exhbited that sort of persona, then the UFC have a star in the making.

MMA fans and some non-MMA fans are already emotionally invested in Anthony Pettis after his time on “World Of Jenks”. He gained a tremendous amount of fans from the show and by giving him even more screen time, coupled with the fact that he has fantastic coaches and a very unique and watchable style of fight, Pettis would be a fantastic choice for a coach on the show.

 

Forrest Griffin & Rich Franklin

Is it too late for this to happen? I don’t know…I hope not. These two would be awesome as coaches. We’ve already seen Forrest dismantle Rampage Jackson’s crew of misfits when they were on TUF with each other. I don’t think the same would happen if Franklin was a c0ach on the show. It would be interesting to see these two veterens of the sport have a battle of the minds TUF and have that coincide with that in the cage.

MMA Heat Video With Rich Franklin

Awesome interview with one of the all time greats in MMA

The MMA UK Show with Aundre Jacobs Episode 1

 

Welcome to the first Episode of The MMA UK show. We’realways trying to push the boundaries with he site and get more people to check it out and get into MMA, so hopefully this is well recieved. Make sure you leave positive and negaive feedback as I’m always trying to better the site.

Cheers

What Type of Mind-set is needed to be Successful in MMA? A Guest Post by Raymond from ZenMyFitness

Raymond Ho is a legend – Fact. This man is my training yoda. If you enjoy going to the gym as much as I do, then his blog ZenMyFitness is a fantastic read. He mixes the spiritual and mental aspect of working out with the physical to give you a a complete and satisfying outlook on your training regime. Raymond is pretty new with MMA, but has an interesting, unique outlook on MMA.

Check out this fantastic entry…

Once you enter the Octagon there is no turning back!

Sounds very dramatic doesn’t it?

Don’t take it lightly nor should anybody else who decides to enter the ring without serious consideration of what might occur. Train all you like, have a few bouts but the cage is where your mind journey begins by acknowledging the outcomes and its consequences of this brutal sport.

 

An Essential Sport?

Yes, to us mere mortals it looks just like a brawl. However, to a fighter on stage it expresses not only a basic extinct to survive but as an MMA fighter they see it as an opportunity not to fear pain but to embrace it. Something not all of us possess but we can get a snap shot of how MMA fighters think.

Only the slightest twist of thoughts and we turn one of the fastest growing sports in the world into an Art. We could create analogies with respect to Lao Tzu’s “The Art of War” or give it a Zen spin of words but I think its best not to follow the obvious.

I prefer to have a different understanding of the possible outcomes and no better than to look out of the same corner of a “Cut-man”. A cut-man is a person responsible for preventing and treating the physical damage to a fighter during the breaks between rounds of a full contact bout.

The rules of full contact sports stipulate that these injuries can cause a premature match stoppage, which counts as a loss to the injured fighter. The cut-man is therefore essential to the fighter and can be a decisive factor in the outcome of the match.

These cut-men (not the ringside Doctor) typically handle cuts like swelling, nosebleeds and lacerations. A famous cut-man is Jacob “Stitch” Duran who has patched up many fighters in his time. His career experience ranges everything from Thai Boxing to the current MMA.

A quote from Stitch “… MMA is far bloodier than boxing. These guys will have multiple cuts to the middle of their forehead or their scalp. Head cuts bleed a lot. And the cuts are deeper, because of the elbows and knees. It’s bone on bone!”

So let’s look at some of the outcomes through Stitch’s eyes. In a match where Corey Hill broke his leg in two against Dale Hartt. Firstly, a cut-man could not do anything anyhow. All Stitch could do was comfort him.

Corey’s leg was literally separated in two, his foot going another way. It even freaked Stitch out, a veteran of the game. The psychology and fighters mind-set is extremely important to live and breathe every day for him to succeed. It’s not just something you turn off or on.

Corey looked at Stitch while lying there and says “Stitch, I almost had him”.

Now that’s the mind-set of a warrior and you need to carry that throughout a fighter’s life. Battle scars can be expected and even immortalised. Forest Griffin took a cut right between the eyes in a match against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Blood everywhere but Stitch waved his magic and the blood disappeared and enabled Forest to continue his epic battle. It was a great fight to watch, it got the point where they both had little energy left and barely could keep their hands up for guard.

Watch this video and you can see even though their attempts to bludgeon each other with hands, feet and elbows they still manage to carry this surprising respect for each other throughout the match.

 

An unbelievable frame of mind when somebody is trying to knock port holes into you.

In fact if you look at the cover of the video game “UFC 2009 Undisputed” it clearly shows that head cut.

Is MMA just a hybrid mixture of wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, boxing and kick boxing or could it really be an Art? Apply the right amount of philosophy and thought into it and not only is it a meaningful test of skill and strength but most importantly, you develop a modern day warrior’s mind-set.

The team here at MMA UK would like to thank Raymond for contributing such a fantastic article to the blog. You can check out more of his insightful views at Zenmyfitness