MMA Hot Stuff

Strikeforce: Fedor VS Rogers Predictions

Here we are, only a few days until MMA returns to primetime television on CBS and Fedor makes his debut with Strikeforce! We're also treated to a title fight for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship, vacated by Cung Le, between Jake Shields and the always colorful Jason "Mayhem" Miller. We also get to see Gegard Mousasi and Fabricio Werdum return to the cage in action against Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva respectively.

So you know the drill... my predicted winners in GREEN! 

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers

Does Rogers have a chance? Yes, just like all 31 of Fedor's previous opponents had a chance, and only one of them came away with a win (by TKO / Cut, hardly a win). You don't pick against a 97% winning percentage, and I'm not picking against Fedor.

Fedor is technically superior everywhere. Even though some say his striking isn't very technical (which it may not be by boxing or muay thai standards), he puts it all together so well that for MMA it is technical when you give consideration to takedown defense and set up. Rogers has power, and in a sport of 4 ounce gloves and multiple ways to finish a fight he certainly has a shot. As Mark DellaGrotte said in Kevin Iole's article on Yahoo! Sports "A perfectly placed punch can knock anyone out. Anyone". The problem is that Rogers has to land a perfect or near perfectly placed punch, which will be tough to do on Fedor given his footwork and agility. Ultimately I think this fight will go to the ground where the experience gap will shine through. Fedor wins by TKO / Referee Stoppage on the ground.

Disclaimer: Now if we're talking about betting the spread with my new shoe money, I'd bet on Rogers. I like the long-shots for the big payout! According to betus.com the current spread is Fedor -550 and Rogers +375! OH and because I AM a girl, I count my chickens before they're hatched/shoes before they're purchased: Here's what I want to get. Aren't they gor(geous)?LOVE!

Jason "Mayhem" Miller vs. Jake Shields (for vacant Strikeforce middleweight title)

Miller is a funny guy, the problem is Shields isn't laughing. Miller has proven that he can go the distance avoiding submissions against some of the best (see Jacare fight in DREAM), but Shields' isn't your typical Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He's all about pressure, passing guard, and making your life miserable if you're under him. The knock on Shields has always been his lack of ability on his feet, but in his fight against Robbie Lawler he showed he's not afraid to be there. Miller could use his reach and striking to avoid the takedown, but he will only be able to keep Shields at bay for so long. Look for Shields to secure the takedown, pass the guard, and finish Miller via submission.

Champ Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (non-title match)

Mousasi will dominate. Did you see Babalu? Out cold. Mousasi is a stud (at multiple weight classes). Technically sound. I see this one ending by TKO. Look for Mousasi to hurt Sokoudjou on his feet and finish him on the mat.

Antonio Silva vs. Fabricio Werdum

Even though Silva has a chin the size of a Rhode Island, look for Werdum to finish this one on the ground. His Jiu Jitsu is just too good. 

So gents, there's no need to leave your girls at home to hit the bar to watch this event on PayPerView. Since it's on CBS, throw a Strikeforce party at your house and get your girl engaged. Show her the shoes above and I promise she'll be hooked. On my site and the sport. Tell her more shoes with next week's predictions for UFC 105. 

While Roger's win against Fedor would allow those shoes to come home with me, I also have a bet consisting of bragging rights with Franklin McNeil! If you're not following him on twitter you should be. Did you see who he picked to win this weekend? If not, check out his picks on today's ESPN MMALive!

Friendly reminder, follow me on Twitter!

 

Strikeforce to air Fedor VS Rogers on CBS

MMA RETURNS TO PRIMETIME ON CBS WITH

"STRIKEFORCE: FEDOR VS. ROGERS"

LIVE ON SATURDAY, NOV. 7

Fedor, the #1 Ranked MMA Heavyweight in the World, To Be Seen for the First Time by Broadcast Television Audience

The CBS Television Network will return to the mixed martial arts (MMA) cage with STRIKEFORCE: FEDOR VS. ROGERS, to be broadcast Saturday, Nov. 7 (9:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT).  SHOWTIME Sports® will produce the four-fight event with host Gus Johnson calling the action and MMA legend Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo serving as color analysts.

In 2008, CBS aired the first live MMA fights on network television, with three successful events earning time period-winning ratings in all key young adult and young men demographics.  CBS's most recent broadcast in October 2008 ranked as the night's highest-rated program on both broadcast and cable in adults 18-34 and men 18-34, topping all other sports programming in those demographics, including the Major League Baseball playoffs and college football.

On Nov. 7, the world's Number One-ranked MMA heavyweight fighter, Fedor Emelianenko of Russia, will face undefeated American Brett Rogers of Minnesota in the marquee match up. The fight marks the first bout for the highly coveted Emelianenko since his promotional company M-1 Global signed an agreement with STRIKEFORCE to co-promote major events.

"There's no question this is a sport that is fast becoming a force in popularity and as a business," said Kelly Kahl, Senior Executive Vice President, Prime Time, CBS Television.  "We're excited to be the platform that will enable millions more to see the athlete regarded as the very best in his sport.  The Number One heavyweight on the most-watched network has a very nice ring to it."

Simply referred to as "Fedor" by fans around the world, the 6-foot, 235-pound Russian is one of the most dominant fighters in the sport.  He is a master of the Russian military combat system Sambo and boasts a record of 30 wins, one loss, no draws with 16 wins by submission, seven knockouts and seven decisions.  The 28-year-old Rogers (10-0) is a massive physical specimen standing 6-feet, 5-inches tall and weighing 265 pounds.  He possesses two of the heaviest hands in the sport of MMA, an attribute that has helped him knock out all 10 of his professional opponents.

"It is an honor to have the opportunity to bring the STRIKEFORCE brand to CBS," said Scott Coker, Founder and CEO of STRIKEFORCE.  "We are looking forward to bringing MMA back to the network and to having the world's No. 1 heavyweight-Fedor-compete for the first time on live network television against one of America's most promising young, undefeated stars-Brett Rogers."

UFC 95 to air for free on Spike TV!

It has been announcedthat UFC 95 will air for free on Spike TV!

The event, scheduled for Saturday, February 21st at London's O2 Arena, will feature a main event bout between Season 1 TUF winner Diego Sanchez and Season 2 TUF winner Joe Stevenson. The bout marks Diego Sanchez's first fight at lightweight.

The card is also set to feature Nate Marquardt versus Wilson Gouveia, Rory Markham versus Dan Hardy, Damian Maia versus Chael Sonnen, andJosh Koscheck versus UFC newcomer Paulo Thiago.

Stevenson is looking to bounce back from a recent loss to Kenny Florian at UFC 91, and get back on track for a title shot. While Sanchez is looking to make an immediate impact at his new weight class, and is coming in on a two fight win streak in the welterweight division.

The event will air via same-day tape delay at 9 PM ET/PT.

The Ulitmate Fighter Season 8 contestants

Want to catch a sneak peek of the fighters from TUF 8? Take a look here.

UFC 87: List of bars showing UFC 87. Where will you be?

UFC 87 promises to be an exciting event, whether you're looking forward to GSP VS Fitch, Lesnar VS Herring, or Florian VS Huerta, there's a fight for everyone. Here's a list of bars showing the fight for your viewing pleasure. Don't miss it!

WEC: Triple your pleasure!

This Sunday, August 3^rd, the WEC brings three times the fun with a stacked card that includes three title fights and some other great match-ups in the featherweight and bantamweight divisions.

 

Carlos Condit defends his welterweight title against Hiromitsu Miura. Condit, considered by many to be one of the top 10 welterweights in the world (and only one of 2 top 10 welterweights not in the UFC) brings his 21-4-0 record into the cage and has been unstoppable in the WEC. Condit is one of the most well rounded welterweights out there and is only getting better. He’s on a 7 fight win streak with all of his wins in the WEC coming by way of submission (and all but 1 in the first round!).

 

Miura, a veteran of Pancrase, DEEP and K-1 brings a 9-4 record and a 2 fight win streak into the cage. His last loss came at the hands of Jason “Mayhem” Miller in May ’07. With most of his wins coming by way of KO or TKO, one would think Miura would like to keep this fight standing. Unfortunately for him, Condit is no slouch on his feet. Miura is in for a tough fight, and it seems Condit has got to be a heavy favorite in this one.

 

Brian Stann takes on Steve Cantwell in his first title defense since winning the belt in decisive fashion with a KO of Doug Marshall in March. What can you say about Brian Stann? The man is 8-0 with all of his fights ending by TKO or KO, and even more impressive, he has finished all of his opponents in the first round.

Cantwell is 5-1 with 3 TKO’s and 2 submissions. His only loss was to, yes, Brian Stann by way of TKO in the first round. Stann is a former Marine that served in Iraq, so you’ve gotta believe that stepping into the cage for an organized fight is a walk in the park compared to what he saw and experienced while serving his country. I don’t see anyone in the WEC taking Stann’s belt, and eventually this guy is going to have to move to the UFC to truly test his skills.

 

In our last title fight of the night, Jamie Varner makes his first title defense against Marcus Hicks. Varner, with his 14-2 record brings a substantial amount of experience into this fight against Hicks, who sits at 10-0. If you saw Varner’s win over Rob McCullough you know his boxing skills are superb, and being a former Division I wrestler, we know his grappling is up to par as well.

Hicks, whose three WEC victories have all come by way of Guillotine Choke has his work cut out for him. However, Hicks is an explosive and powerful fighter that could catch Varner at any time. In his last fight with Ed Ratcliff he showed he’s got some serious power in his hands… that was before he caught him in a vicious Guillotine to end the fight.

 

Also on the card we’ll get to see one of my favorite featherweight fighters in Micah Miller. Micah, brother of UFC fighter Cole Miller, is bringing a 9-1 record into the cage against 10-1 Josh Grispi.

 

 

In other action, we'll see the introduction of Shane Roller to the WEC as he takes on Todd Moore. Roller, a three time All-American from Oklahoma State is the first of a team of three OSU wrestling stand-outs to make a debut in the WEC. He will be joined by his Team Takedown teammates Jake Rosholt and Johny Hendrikcs who make their debut on the September 10th card. They'll all be looking to mimic the success of another former OSU wrestling star that recently made a successful WEC debut in Mark Munoz.

 

This promises to be an exciting card!

 

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!!!!

Tit for Tat: The UFC schedules a counter to EliteXC Saturday Night Fights

According to the UFC's TV Programming schedule, they are set to air quite a bit of MMA on Spike TV during the same time slot as the next installment of EliteXC and CBS' Saturday Night Fights on July 26th. The UFC has made no secret that they will counter every competitors show with a show of their own.

First they countered the first EliteXC / CBS event on May 31st with a tribute to "The Iceman", Chuck Liddell on Spike TV, followed by a replay of his victory over Wanderlei Silva. Next they countered the Affliction: Banned card with a card of their own, thrown together at the last minute, featuring Anderson Silva VS James Irvin as well as a host of other talent. Now they are set to counter the second EliteXC / CBS prime-time card with a whole host of programming on Spike. The line-up looks like this:

Saturday, July 26thMMA Television Schedule
Time (EST)	CBS / EliteXC	Spike / UFC
4 PM		UFC: Silva vs Irvin
7 PM		UFC Unleashed
8 PM	Live – Under card Fights	Ultimate Knockouts 5
9 PM	Live – Main Card	UFC 84: Penn vs Sherk (Replay)
11:30 PM		UFC 84: Penn vs Sherk (Replay)

They didn't go so far as to pull together another fight card, but they will be re-airing the very exciting UFC 84 card featuring BJ Penn VS Sean Sherk, Wanderlei Silva VS Keith Jardine, Lyoto Machida VS Tito Ortiz and other great fights.

It's pretty clear Dana White is sending a message to every competitor that dare try and step in the sandbox, he's going to make them earn their share of the pie. The UFC, through it's wealth of fighter talent and relationship with Spike TV has the ability to pull this sort of thing off on short notice and wreak havoc on another promotions goal of attracting fans. The UFC currently has two attributes that no one else has, the ability to immediately put fights (new or replayed) on free TV, and consistent talent that is well known to the MMA fan base.

Unfortunately for competing promotions the UFC can offer high quality fights consistently on free TV. For Affliction, in the age of YouTube, it's tough for a fan to justify shelling out some hard earned money for fights they can watch later on the Internet. Especially when they can watch one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in Anderson Silva make his light-heavyweight debut on free TV.

As for the July 26th counter to EliteXC / CBS, that may be a little harder for the UFC to yank fans away from. After all, EliteXC / CBS is offering new fights on free TV, versus the UFC's re-run of older fights. The UFC definitely has the ability to make life difficult for new promotions trying to earn a fan base, and their tactics probably aren't good for the sport but then again the UFC isn't a sport, it's a business.

From my point of view, EliteXC has a few things the UFC doesn't on July 26th. They've got the rematch between Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields fighting for the EliteXC welterweight title, and Nick Diaz fighting in front of his hometown of Stockton, CA. Sorry UFC, that's too much to pass up... which is why I'll be in Stockton watching the fights LIVE!!!

Affliction Banned VS UFC Fight Night 14: Anderson Silva makes his light-heavyweight debut!

As many of you know, Affliction is set to make its MMA debut with "Banned" on July 19th from the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. They've got a pretty damn good line up for their first promtion, with fighters like Fedor, Tim Sylvia, Andre Arlovski, Matt Lindland, Ben Rothwell, Mike Whitehead, Babalu, and Josh Barnett. Not too shabby... oh yeah, and they have "The Donald" as one of their financial backers.

But what kind of company would the UFC be if they didn't offer up some competition? Did you think the UFC was just going to sit back and let Affliction, a clothing company by nature, come in and steal MMA fans away from them? Hell no... So what do they do? They create Ultimate Fight Night 14, scheduled for July 19th from Las Vegas, and (here's the kicker), it's said to be airing for free on SPIKE TV.

Now I know what you're thinking, "I thought UFN 14 was in September", well the word is that will now be called UFN 15, and we'll still get to see Nate Diaz take on Josh Neer. But for now, UFN 14 on July 19th is reported to have some good fights for us MMA fans that like free TV. As reported by MMAJunkie, UFN 14 will feature:

• Anderson "The Spider" Silva VS James "The Sandman" Irvin - More on this below!
• Jake O'Brien VS Cain Velasquez
• Brandon Vera VS Reese Andy
• Anthony Johnson VS Kevin Burns

Not a bad card for an event pulled together at the last minute. But that's clearly the strength of the UFC, they have a number of high quality fighters under contract which they can call on at any time to step up in situations like this.

After tearing through every middleweight fighter put in front of him, the question remained, "What do you do with Anderson Silva?". The only logical thing seemed to be having "the Spider" move up to light-heavyweight to see if his skills really are so amazing that they woudl negate a weight and / or strength advantage of his opponent. Although James Irvin isn't necessarily the dream opponent that we'd all like to see Silva fight (Chuck maybe?), it will be an interesting introduction into the new weight class. Irvin is a heavy hitter with a good chin. He doesn't spend much time on the ground and would much rather stand and trade punches. This plays well for Silva, as we know his striking is probably the best in all of MMA, but his ground game is also great as we saw in his fight with Dan Henderson. So if he gets in trouble on his feet, if he's overpowered by a bigger fighter, he can likely take it to the ground where Irvin isn't as comfortable.

Some of the other fights are quite interesting as well. Click to read more!

Got HDNet? HDNet Fights has a solid line-up of MMA programming for this weekend!!

HDNet has a solid line-up of MMA scheduled for the weekend! Take a look at their commercial here. Or you can view their line-up for the weekend here.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Unfiltered: Melendez vs. Thomson, which will be airing all weekend, but it premieres on Friday, June 13th at 9:00 PM PT.

Also, HDNet will be airing DREAM 4 Live! Jason "Mayhem" Miller vs "Jacare" will be an interesting fight to watch!