MMA Hot Stuff

A Great Month To Be A MMA Fan!

What a way to start a new year!

January is mapped out to be a killermonth for MMA Fans! This month we have four star studded events:

·         Jan. 17^th– UFC 93: Dublin (PPV)

·         Jan 24^th – Affliction: Day of Reckoning (PPV)

·         Jan 25^th -  WEC 38: Varner vs Cerrone

·         Jan 31^st- UFC 94: St Pierre vs Penn II

UFC 93 is being held in Dublin, Ireland  In the light heavyweight main event, former two-division world champion Dan Henderson will collide with former UFC middleweight king Rich Franklin in three-round war which will set the tone for the 205lbs division in 2009.

With more than just a win on the line, the winner of Franklin vs Henderson fight will be "crowned" the next coach for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter alongside Michael Bisping.

Then, 2005 PRIDE® Grand Prix Champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua returns to the Octagon™  to throw down with UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman in a rematch MMA fans thought they would never see. The pair last met in Japan in 2006, with the legendary Coleman pulling off a stunning upset by breaking Rua’s arm in the first round.

Also making his UFC debut is former PRIDE standout Denis Kang!

The match-ups for the event are:
MAIN CARD

• Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin
• Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
• Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang
• Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares
• Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Alexandre Barros vs. Martin Kampmann
• Antonio Mendes vs. Eric Schafer
• Thomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati
• Tom Egan vs. John Hathaway
• Denis Siver vs. Nate Mohr

Affliction Day of Reckoning  This event is being promoted by Affliction Entertainment and is scheduled to take place in Anaheim, California at the Honda Center. The event was originally scheduled for October 11, 2008 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. FormerUFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz will be a commentator for the event. Tickets are still available at www.ticketmaster.com

The main event features current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts(WAMMA) Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko defending his belt against former UFCHeavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski. Also on the card is Josh "Babyface Assassin" Barnett who takes on Gilbert Yvel. In a light-heavyweight match, current Strikeforce Champion Renato "Babalu" Sobraltakes on former UFC fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Matt Lindland was re-assigned from a 195-pound catchweight bout with Sobral to a middleweight matchup against former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort.

Headlining the undercard, which will be broadcast on HDNet Fights, the last IFL Light-Heavyweight Champion Vladimir Matyushenko will take on PRIDE veteran (and twin brother of Antônio RodrigoNogueira) Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

The match ups for the event are:

PPV matches

• WAMMA Heavyweight Championship bout: Fedor Emelianenko (Champ) vs. Andrei Arlovski
• Heavyweight bout: Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel
• Light Heavyweight bout: Renato Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
• Middleweight bout: Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort
• Lightweight bout: Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon
• Heavyweight bout: Paul Buentello vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

HDNet matches

• Light Heavyweight bout: Vladimir Matyushenko  vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
• Welterweight bout: Jay Hieron vs. Jason High
• Featherweight bout: Mark Hominick vs. LC Davis
• Featherweight bout: Albert Rios vs. Antonio Duarte
• Welterweight bout: Brett Cooper vs. Patrick Speight

WEC 38 will bring not only a title fight but also the highly anticpaited rematch between former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver! I don't know why but when I see these two in the cage the song "Eye of the Tiger" runs through my head. The event will take placein San Diego at the San Diego Sports Arena and is expected to air on the Versus Network.

Varner will be making his second title defense after winning the belt. His last fight was an amazing KO victory over Marcus Hicks. Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone is coming into the fight on a high note after defeatingformer lightweight champion "Razor" Rob McCullough in one of the most exciting fights of 2008. Varner has great wrestling and boxing skills, while Cerrone brings great boxing and a wicked submission game. Not to mention that Cerrone fights out of Greg Jackson's camp, so you know he'll come in prepared with a great game plan.

The match ups for the event are:

MAIN CARD

• Lightweight Championship bout: Jamie Varner vs. Donald Cerrone
• Featherweight bout: Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver^]
• Welterweight bout: Danillo Villefort vs. Mike Campabell
• Featherweight bout: Jose Aldo vs. Fredson Paixao

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Welterweight bout: Hiromitsu Miur  vs. Edgar Garcia
• Lightweight bout: Ed Ratcliff vs. Anthony Njokuani
• Bantamweight bout: Dominick Cruz vs. Ian McCall
• Welterweight bout: Blas Avena vs. Jesse Lennox
• Bantamweight bout: Scott Jorgensen vs. Frank Gomez
• Bantamweight bout: Charlie Valencia vs. Seth Dikun

UFC 94 - St Pierre vs Penn 2 In March 2006, top welterweights Georges St-Pierre and BJ Penn fought for the division’s No. 1 contender’s spot. St-Pierre earned a razor-thin split decision and went on to win the Ultimate Fighting Championship® welterweight title. Penn dropped to the lightweight division and won the organization’s 155-pound title.

Now they’re about to do it again. But this time, there’s much more at stake. UFC® lightweight champion BJ Penn looks to be the first fighter in history to hold two UFC® championships at the same time when he faces Georges St-Pierre for the UFC® welterweight championship at UFC® 94: ST-PIERRE VS. PENN 2

Also on the card is the American Psycho, Stephan Bonnar taking on the quick rising star Jon Jones, aka Bones. As well as Lyoto Machida, as he returns to the Octagon to continue his run towards a light heavyweight title shot. I also can't wait to see one of our bay area boys Nate Diaz taking on Clay "The Carpenter" Guida! You know a card is packed full of great fights when a fighter such as Jon Fitch is on the preliminary card!

The rest of the match ups are:
MAIN CARD

• Welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre vs. lightweight champ B.J. Penn (for welterweight title)
• Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva
• Stephan Bonnar vs. Jon Jones
• Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim
• Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Jon Fitch vs. Akihiro Gono
• Manny Gamburyan vs. Thiago Tavares
• John Howard vs. Chris Wilson
• Jake O'Brien vs. Christian Wellisch
• Matt Arroyo vs. Dan Cramer

As you can see, January is packed full of great MMA events, including one of the biggest fights in UFC history as BJ Penn attempts to show he's one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. My predictions will soon follow!!!Also check back for a listing of bars in your area showing the PayPerView events!

JAKE SHIELDS OPENS NEW GYM IN BERKLEY, CA

EliteXC Welterweight Champion Jake Shields recently opened a new Gracie Fighter Academy in Berkley, CA a few blocks from the campus of UC Berkley.

Shields is the head instructor at his new gym. To drop by and train with the champ, head to 2438 Durant St. Berkeley, CA!

Shields is certain to continue the tradition of strong instruction, clean technique, and quality training for which the Gracie Fighter Academies have become known.

Affliction debut proves successful, but...

This past weekend Affliction made it's MMA promotional debut with "Banned", a card featuring some the most talented heavyweight fighters in the sport, and they did so successfully. Facing many challenges such as it being their first promotion, having a few fighters not well known to US fans, and most importantly a free UFC fight card at the same time, Affliction managed to garner a live gate of $2.1M and in-person attendance of 14,832. Not bad for their first show, right?

No, not bad at all. But could they expect anything less given the high dollars they were paying this all-star line up of fighters? As reported by MMAJunkie, the payroll for their first promotion topped a whopping $3.3M! Not only that, but they had two other things in their favor:

1. They had Fedor Emelianenko in a title fight. First, Fedor is considered to be one of, if not the best pound for pound fighters on the planet, and certainly the top heavyweight in the world. Second, not many in the US really know Fedor or have seen him fight but have only heard of his triumphs, so they had the element of mystery on their side.

2. They had Tim Syliva as the sacrificial lamb for Fedor. This was great in a number of ways, first and foremost being that the majority of MMA fans can't stand Sylvia and would gladly pay to see him get his ass handed to him (which everyone suspected would happen, and in the end did happen), and second he is a legitimate opponent for Fedor (or at the very least the most legitimate opponent Fedor has had in 2 years). Even for those fans with an extreme disliking for Sylvia, they must admit it presented exciting possibilities given Tim's experience, size and skill.

Along with Fedor VS Sylvia, they had a host of other talented fighters to make up the rest of the card like Vitor Belfort, Andre Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Matt Lindland and Ben Rothwell. This was a great card, and the production was not bad for their first time out of the gate. The lighting was a little awkward, the announcers could use some polishing, and I don't exactly care to see Megadeath perform at an MMA event but again not bad for their first show.

The question that remains to be answered is, can they do it again? We may soon find out as there are rumors of another Affliction show coming this November. I believe the key to continued success will be the same as the key to the UFC's success, the number of talented fighters they can get under contract. At the end of the day, MMA fans pay to watch great fights. Most of us can put up with sub-par commentating if we get to watch a fighter like Fedor, or two great fighters battle it out. However, I don't believe Affliction will have continued success if they have the same stable of heavyweights play a game of round-robin and just fight each other. They'll need to infuse their organization with other talented fighters at other weight classes and offer MMA fans a variety of high quality fighters. They also need to find and develop some talent they can call their own, and not just rely on disgruntled former UFC fighters. MMA fans want to hear about and see "the next big thing". With the salaries Afflicition seems willing to pay fighters, they shouldn't have much trouble attracting them but they also may have set a very high bar for themselves with this first promotion.

All in all, I would say Affliction "Banned" was a success, and I'll never complain about more MMA. So here's to hoping that Affliction can continue to threaten the UFC and push them to become better, as well as becoming better themselves, because at the end of the day that just means more MMA for us!!!!

Gladiator Challenge

For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, don't forget to come out and support Northern California MMA tonight at Kezar Pavillion in San Francisco, at the Gladiator Challenge event.