MMA Hot Stuff

WEC 46 Predictions and Random Thoughts Like Grizzly Bears

This Sunday, the WEC crew will blow into Sacramento for what feels like Urijah Faber's thirtieth fight at the ARCO arena. I'm kidding but you have to admit the ARCO arena is his second home. In his back yard with the stand filled with his friends from afar. All of that and I'm not even talking about the main event. Who doesn't love watching the California Kid though..? My predictions are below. Winners in green.

Finally, we're going to see the Lightweight title unified. As you may recall, Jamie Varner walked away with a very controversial win over Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 38, when the fight was stopped in the fifth round when Cowboy hit Jamie's temple with an illegal knee while Jamie was down. After given the alloted amount of time to recover, Jamie said he could not continue due to double vision (and a broken hand). Well, that was almost a year ago. Jamie has been recovering and during that time the WEC set up an interim title bought between Cowboy and Ben Henderson. Ben beat Cowboy via unanimous decision (in a pretty rad fight getting them fight of the night bonuses -cha-ching) to win the Interim Lightweight Championship. So here's how I see it. You have Ben (aka Smooth) coming off a spectecular win, and has been training with elite fighters including Kenny Florian and BJ Penn. And we know Jamie likes to throw punches. Although having said that he hasn't been in the cage for almost a year (most likely will be a bit rusty). I expect Ben to take Jamie down early and submit him. I don't foresee this going past the second round. For extra points I expect Ben to get him in a Rear Naked Choke. 

What do we know about Urijah... He doesn't like to lose. And has only lost to one person in the past four years (Mike Brown; twice). He'll be facing Brazilian Raphael Assuncao who has an impressive record of 15-1 (currently on a 6 win winning streak). This very well could turn out to be a great fight but see it going to the ground early. Urijah is coming off that last loss to Mike Brown and has something to prove in front of his home crowd. I see Urijah winning by submission (via something fancy like a guillotine).

Who doesn't love watching guys enter the cage that are undefeated! Well lucky for us because Dave Jansen is just that. Undefeated with a record of 14-0! His last win was against one of my other favorite WEC guys; Richard Crunkilton via unanimous decision. Dave is set to face (also undefeated) Kamal Shalorus; fighting out of Austin TX. Don't mess with Tex. Speaking of don't mess with Tex Kamal is not only a grappling instructor but also partner at American Combat Association. I point this out because Dave has been successful on the ground but this time, if he doesn't get Kamal there he might be in trouble. I'm picking Kamal to win by TKO in the first. I'm anxious to see this fight.

I LOVE fighters that love to fight. That's what I think of when I think of Mike Brown. Well that and grizzly bears for some reason. Mike just fought on the WEC 44 card in November, and lost by TKO to Jose Aldo. Mike's facing a pretty experienced fighter (although making his WEC debut), Anthony Morrison.  When Mike was asked what he thought of Anthony he said he's quick and a hard hitter. He's also coming off a win against Alvin Robinson just weeks ago. For me, it comes down to grizzly bears. Mike will take this. And I have a feeling he's going to show us his redemption by beating Anthony by TKO. Early, I'm saying the end of the first round.

What's the saying, "strike while the iron is hot?" That's exactly what comes to mind when I think of Mackens Semerzier. He just shocked everyone during his WEC debut in October when he submitted Wagnney Fabiano in the first round. Not a bad way to make your debut with the WEC. Well he's back to face Deividas Taurosevicius and he's nothing to laugh at. His record is 11-3 where he also fought on WEC 43 and won via split decision against Javier Vazquez. I'll say I think Mackens is a future contender for the WEC. I expect him to win by submission.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know. Either leave a comment or send me an email. Rachel@mmahotstuff.com

 
 

VERSUS To Air WEC Greatest Knockouts II

Grab your popcorn and beer (hey don't judge me) or set your Tivos, because you're in luck! VERSUS will air WEC’s Greatest Knockouts II on Wednesday, October 7, at 9 p.m. ET! You'll see Mike Brown, Urijah Faber, Miguel Torres, Jose Aldo plus many other elite WEC fighters showcasing some of the biggest knockouts in the WEC! Sa-weet! Which knockout are you excited to see again?

VERSUS TO AIR HIGH-ENERGY SPECIAL

 WEC’S GREATEST KNOCKOUTS II   

ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, AT 9 P.M. ET

 

NEW YORK, N.Y. (October 6, 2009)— VERSUS, the exclusive cable television home of World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC®), will air WEC’s Greatest Knockouts II on Wednesday, October 7, at 9 p.m. ET. The hour-long presentation will feature fight highlights from some of the biggest knockouts in WEC history.

The show will feature fight highlights from August 2008 to the August 2009 match in which Brian Bowles defeated Miguel Torres, one of the pound-for-pound best fighters in MMA, to earn the bantamweight title. Also included are the knock-out fights from Mike Brown’s featherweight title win over Urijah “The California Kid” Faber in November 2008 and Jose Aldo’s amazing eight-second knock-out of veteran Cub Swanson in June 2009.

The show will re-air on Saturday, October 10, at 12 a.m. ET, immediately following the network’s live WEC fight featuring Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone against Ben Henderson in a bout that will crown the interim WEC lightweight champion.  The live fight will air at 10 p.m. ET and will originate from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The WEC brand is recognized as one of the premier mixed martial arts organizations in the United States. Founded in 2001, the WEC features many of the most prominent athletes in the sport of mixed martial arts today. Owned and operated by WEC Holdings LLC., and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., the WEC produces live and taped events annually that are distributed through the Versus network. WEC programming is also available on Fox Sports en Espanol. In addition to its U.S distribution, WEC programming is shown on the TSN network in Canada and Cadena Tres in Mexico. For more information and current WEC fight news, visit wec.tv. World Extreme Cagefighting® and WEC® are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by WEC Holdings, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions and are licensed to WEC Productions, LLC.

VERSUS celebrates real competition across all platforms (VERSUS.com, VERSUS on Demand and VERSUS HD) and is the national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the IndyCar® Series as well as best-in-class events such as The Tour de France, the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and Professional Boxing.  The network also offers collegiate sports featuring nationally-ranked teams from top conferences such as the Pac-10, Big 12, Mountain West and Ivy League. VERSUS features the best field sports programming on television and is a destination for sports fans, athletes and sportsmen to find exclusive, competitive events and original programs, such as Sports Soup and Sports Jobs with Junior Seau that audiences can't find elsewhere.  VERSUS, a wholly owned company of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is distributed via cable systems and satellite operators throughout the United States.

 

# # #

Nominations for 2009 World MMA Awards closes on Wednesday

Who do you think was the BreakThrough Fighter of the Year? Best MMA Promotion? 

As a reminder, the nomination stage for the 2009 World MMA Awards closes this Wednesday (tomorrow), Sept. 30. 

The World MMA Awards, which is operated by Fighters Only magazine, is viewed as one of the most prestigious awards for the sport, awarding in 18 different MMA related categories

Nominees will be announced on Oct. 5, and final voting will then run until Dec. 5. Winners will be announced at a Dec. 30 "Oscars-style" black-tie ceremony, which streams live on Versus.com (and throughout January on Versus) from The Joint at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. 

"Response to the World MMA Awards has been huge this year with thousands of fans worldwide taking part," Fighters Only CEO Rob Hewitt recently stated. "Nominations have been very diverse, and ... most of the categories are still wide open." 

The categories range from Fight of the Year to KO and Submission of the Year to Best MMA Brand and best MMA Media Source. MMA equipment manufactures also vie for a variety of categories. 

But before you place your vote I encourage you to take a minute and think about things. What makes someone the Best Fighter of the Year? Is it the number of wins? Is it the most vicious KnockOut? The biggest upset? Or is it because of heart and dedication?

Another category is Best MMA Journalist. I've thought a lot about this one (for obvious reasons). Always keep in mind the best Journalist may not be the one that breaks every 'story'... Sadly, fact checking has taken a back seat more often than not over being the first to the party. And then there are times the stories are known weeks before the story actually gets out but can't be discussed for confidential reasons. I personally take pride in the fact that while I consider many Fighters (UFC, WEC & Strikeforce) my personal friends, a lot of the information I hear I keep to myself. I'm so proud of what my friends have accomplished and there are times I know the information is just best left unsaid or unwritten. I want them to have time to train in private for a fight before it's publicly announced who their next opponent is. Who do you consider to be a Journalist that writes funny or interesting stories? Gives a different perspective than the 12 other sites that covered the same thing the day before.

So now that I've given you something to think about, please hurry and vote. 

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/MMAHotStuff

MMAHotStuff Co-Hosted MMAScrapsRadio Guest WEC Mike Brown

This evening I co-hosted on MMAScraps Radio! Special guest was WEC Mike Brown. I was nervous and I'm sure I will only get better (I hope). 

Please show your support by following us at Twitter.com/MMAHotStuff Twitter.com/MMAScraps Twitter.com/MMAScrapsRadio

UFC 100 FanExpo - Who will be there?

Today the UFC® confirmed the fighters that will be attending the first ever UFC^® Fan Expo™. The two day expo will be held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas July 10th and 11th. The fighters that will be at the expo for meet and greets will be UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida, UFC Hall of Famers Royce Gracie and Randy “The Natural” Couture,  and former world champions Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, “Suga” Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. UFC contenders Kenny Florian, Steve Cantwell, Shane Carwin, Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis, Tyson Griffin, Clay Guida, Dustin Hazelett, Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, Martin “The Hitman” Kampmann, Josh Koscheck, Joe Lauzon, Junie Browning, Nate Marquardt, Gray Maynard, Karo Parisyan, Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez, Sean Sherk and Mike Swick will also be meeting fans, along with The Ultimate Fighter winners Nate Diaz and Efrain Escudero.

 Fans of the PRIDE Fighting Championships will have the chance to re-live the excitement of Japan’s classic organization as well, with MMA icons Renzo Gracie and Gary Goodridge being joined by “The Texas Crazy Horse”, Heath Herring, and Brazilian superstars Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

And if that’s not enough MMA star power, the premier fighters of the WEC will be on hand to sign autographs, with current champions Miguel Torres, Mike Brown, and Jamie Varner sharing the convention center floor with Urijah Faber, Jens Pulver, Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez, Donald Cerrone, Leonard Garcia, Ben Henderson, and Alex Karalexis.

For a list of bars/restaurants showing the historic UFC 100 Pay Per View event - check out this link.

WEC Brown vs Faber RECAP

I know I know.. this post is way later than I expected given I was actually AT the event. I've been busy working a new project. More on that later.

WEC put on a great event on Sunday. The crowd was everything you'd expect with it being in Sacramento. EVERYONE in the ARCO Arena went crazy for Urijah. If the guy had sneezed they would have cheered for him.

The first fight on the main card was Josh Grispi vs veteran Jens Pulver. The crowd showed love for Jens but it didn't take Josh long to win the fight. He caught Jens in a guillotine choke 0:33 seconds into the first Round. Jens mentioned the possibility of retiring after that loss. Win or lose Jens is one of those fighters that will always draw a crowd.

The second fight on the main card was between Donald Cerrone and James Krause. Cerrone came into the fight as a heavily favorite against newbie Krause. This was Krause's first fight in the WEC. While they did trade some blows standing, it was Cerrone who walked away with a win by rear naked choke in the first round (4:38).

Does anyone out there know the quickest TKO in MMA? Anyone? Because the SHOCKING fight between Jose Aldo and Cub Swanson very well may be the quickest. After they touched gloves Aldo came in with a FLYING KNEE to Swanson's face. Unfortunately for Swanson he also managed to somehow duck into the knee (at least that's what it looked like from my view). Cub immediately went down and crawled into a ball on the mat in what had to be extreme pain. Then Aldo came in and landed a couple punches while Cub was down to seal it. The entire thing took eight seconds. EIGHT. I had just sent my dad a twitter msg as the ref was giving the "obey my command" speech. I said "Dad this will be a good fight, Aldo is great and Cub is one of my favorites in the WEC." Send. Then it was over. I'm sure it was over before my dad had a chance to even read the Direct Msg through Twitter. Then I got one back that said "Ouch." And yes, I agree. Ouch. The crowd immediately started talking about Jose getting the winner between Brown and Faber. We'll see....

THE MAIN EVENT....Defending WEC Featherweight Champ Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber. Again the home town crowd couldn't get enough of the California Kid. The corn rows. The entrance music. And I get it. He's their California Kid from their home town. But the disrespect of Mike Brown was a little surprising. Flipping him off as he walked out. Again I get the enthusiasm, but show the guy a little respect he is a person after all. Okay, sorry, that was the girl in me.

If you didn't have a chance to watch the fight Sunday night and weren't smart enough to record it, VERSUS will be replaying it. It's a must watch fight.

It ended up going all five rounds and the judge's scored it as an unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47) but Urijah broke his right hand pretty early on. Even with the broken hand he continued with intense kicks and almost got Mike in a deep choke in the fifth round that got the crowd's hopes up. Brown showed everyone why he's still the WEC Featherweight Champion! To quote a very smart person, "Mike Brown is a man... With that beard, I think he'll kill a bear after he fights Urijah. Enough said.

As of this morning, Urijah was heading into surgery to repair his broken right hand. Oh if you want to see a picture of the xray you're in luck because Urijah twittered it 

Looks like according to his twitter there's a possibility his left hand may be fractured as well.

While Mike is strutting around his living room wearing the belt as I type this, I'm sure we'll see a do-over between these two. Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber III ?

WEC Brown vs Faber II Weigh-Ins Today

Just a friendly reminder the weigh-ins for the WEC Brown vs Faber II fights are happening today and they're FREE and open to the public! Come out and support your favorite fighters as they strip down and get on the scale.

Live at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium at 4pm PT. Doors open at 3:00pm PT.

Can't make it to the weigh-ins? You're in luck because you'll be able to watch the weigh-ins on line - LIVE!

Q&A with the WEC's Bantamweight Champion Miguel Angel Torres and WEC fighter Brian Bowles immediately follows the weigh-in.

For more information go to http://www.ufc.com/live_videos/index.htm

ESPN MMALive

Here's today's ESPN MMALive episode..

Miguel Torres filled in for Kenny but fellow tweeps (twitter peeps) you can still get your Kenny fix by going here: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4231291

First up was the big news about Kimbo Slice joining the cast of TUF 10. Seems everyone agrees this is a great move by Dana White by bringing Kimbo on the show. As you may know Dana hasn't been shy about his opinion of Kimbo. Seems to me Kimbo will definitely bring the more casual fans to the sport
and of course us MMA Addicts will tune in to see this one time street fighter YouTube sensation try to prove himself. Also as part of the cast are  four ex NFL players. The loser in this may be Strikeforce for not being able to come to an agreement with Slice. Love him or hate him Slice definitely brings viewers!

Stephan Bonnar via satellite says it shows Kimbo has character by joining TUF cast.  Saying Dana has been critical of Kimbo from he beginning but Kimbo is showing he has character by accepting this challenge from Dana.

We can't forget that Kimbo is coming in with options. He has expressed his desire to box so if this doesn't pan it out he has that back up plan! TUF 10 will debut  Sept 16th.

Also discussed:
Rua and Lyoto may meet in October

This Sunday Mike Brown will defend his title against Urjah Faber. Urijah was on the show via satellite saying he knows Brown is a tough opponent. He said he made one small mistake in their last fight. Migel asked how he expects to win this sunday and Urijah's response was " Anyway. My hands are good and I've proven that before. I can submit guys as well. I'll be bringing my A game."

Also this weekend, Robbie Lawler and Jake Shields will face each other at a catch weight of 182lbs. Robbie was on MMALive via satellite and said he won't leave anything behind. Not impressed or worried about Jake moving up a weight.  Jon Anik picked Jake to win this fight.

Pulse question this week: Is Quinton making the right decision by not fighting Lyoto and coaching on TUF 10?  What are your thoughts?

Buy or Sell - Kimbo will win his first fight on TUF.

ESPN MMA Live

Here is this weeks installment of ESPN's MMA Live. Can I just say that I love this weekly show? Great job ESPN for putting this out there for the fans.

This week's show spends some time on the controversial topic of Kyle Maynard's MMA debut. You may Kyle as a congenital amputee that found success in wrestling and then went on to pursue his dream of fighting. His dream has been met with mixed reviews. Hear what Kenny and the crew think of Kyle's achievement and future in the sport. Also, Kyle joins the crew live to discuss his love for MMA and why he wants to fight. What does Kyle have to say to the naysayers out there? Find out!

Say what you will about Kyle's place in MMA, but you must admit he's got heart and courage and you have to admire his determination.

The crew discusses the addition of Anderson Silva VS Forrest Griffin to the UFC 101 card. And apparently Kenny read my post about fighting styles, because he agrees this will be an exciting one given Griffin's aggressiveness and Silva's counter-punching style.

We hear about updates to the June 6th Strikeforce card. Jeff Sherwood joins to discuss the Sherdog top 10 pound-for-pound fighter rankings.

And Kenny takes us to Cambridge Culinary School of Arts for some tips on "healthy living" through turkey chili. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't see Kenny and Keith demonstrate the "chicken wrist", but the chili recipe looks GOOD!

For The Love Of TWITTER

Twitter has taken over the world. You have rockstars, athletes, CEOs, politicians, Oprah and everyday people like me on Twitter. Oh, and my mom! I can't forget to mention her. Hi mom!

Dana White is one of those rockstar/athletes, hell he's probably even considered somewhat of a politician, is he not, that's on twitter. While I think it's great he's on there and adopting this social media monster, he's not quite there just yet. Sure he tweets. But for you to be a successful tweeter, you have to be interactive. One might even say you have to be SOCIAL. I know, weird right? You have to respond to people when they say something to you. You have to follow people. I mean real people not just those that you get as default friends when you sign up (think Tom from MySpace).

In addition to Dana, the UFC and WEC also have official accounts (updated: you can also follow Reed Harris!).  Did you know Kenny Florian and BJ Penn are also on Twitter? Wow, I can't wait to see what my friends feed will look like the night they face each other at UFC 101. Classic Tweets coming up fo'sure.

Here is a pretty thorough list of my peeps that are on twitter. Think of them as my tweeps. I think Shaq coined that phrase so I want to give credit where credit is due. <3 Shaq.

Look at this list as my #followfriday post. If you don't know about #followfriday, tweetdeck, twackle, or twitpic, please feel free to contact me. I'd be happy to help!

Key People To Follow:
http://twitter.com/danawhiteblog
http://twitter.com/reedharriswec (WEC General Manager & GREAT Tweeter)
http://twitter.com/UFC
http://twitter.com/weconversus
http://twitter.com/HDNetFights

Great Tweeters And Know How To Tweet - Follow Them!
(umm do you see a pattern with these)
http://twitter.com/Officialbjpenn
http://twitter.com/Kenny_Florian
http://twitter.com/JoeLauzon
http://twitter.com/joerogandotnet

Working On Twitter Account, Stay Tuned But Start To Follow Now!
http://twitter.com/GilbertMelendez
http://twitter.com/FerociousPhilly

Good Reading Material But Not Interactive. Follow At Your Own Risk!
(if you're the owner of one of these accounts, let me help you!)
http://twitter.com/frankshamrock
http://twitter.com/CarlosCondit
http://twitter.com/NateRockQuarry
http://twitter.com/AndreiArlovski
http://twitter.com/ForrestGriffin
http://twitter.com/urijahfaber
http://twitter.com/ryanbader