The Spider Pulls It Out!!!

Chael Sonnen talked more trash than any fighter in UFC history leading up to Saturday's middleweight title fight with Anderson Silva.

Once he got Silva in the cage at UFC 117, he backed the talk up for four and a half rounds, dominating Silva until the champion finally managed to sink in a triangle choke that forced Sonnen to tap out in the fifth round.

"Chael had a hell of a fight tonight," Silva said afterward. "I knew that I was losing the first four rounds."

"It was a tough fight," Sonnen said afterward. "He's a tough guy. I came in second. What can I say? They gave me my chance and I came up short."

MMAFighting.com

See now that Silva/Sonnen fight is EXACTLY why MMA>>>>Boxing at this point. Think about it, when was the last time you saw a guy that far down on the score cards come back and win in boxing? Ain't no running, and no stalling. Cats are going for broke every second of every fight. That means sometimes the guy that's down will have an opportunity to win.

I kept wondering why Silva wasn't attempting any triangles or arm bars but he slapped both on in one at the end. Chael attempted to act like he hadn't tapped...again. But nobody was buying it and while he fought a helluva fight for 4+ rounds, you ALWAYS have to be on guard against Silva.

Maybe there will be a rematch. I expect if there is Silva will look a lot better because he definitely didn't look like himself for most of the fight. Some of that was Sonnen for sure, but some of it was him.

Old Man Strength!

Even at 47, ya'll STILL don't want it with Herschel Walker!!! (me either lol)

Now THAT'S What I Call A Promo!

Aye, check out this promo for Shogun Vs The Dragon at UFC 113




If you wanted to get me interested you did a great job!

Now That's Just Mean!

I love watching MMA not only because of the level of skill involved but also because every once in awhile you will get matches with guys who really and truly don't like each other and when that happens you can expect major fireworks. Well last night there was a match between Shinya Aoki and Mizuto Hirota which turned out to be one of those instances. Now I have to warn you before you watch the clip that there is a nasty nasty submission hold involved, a broken or dislocated bone, and some very poor sportsmanship. If you think you can stomach all that then push play.





Now over on Yahoo they are debating whether or not this will hurt Aoki, the guy who rearranged his opponents anatomy and then turned around and insulted him for good measure, and his American promotor in getting him some fights here in the US. Further they are debating whether or not this would hurt MMA in general stateside had the match been shown here.

Well maybe something is wrong with me but by God, I while I was shocked at Aoki's behavior, some part of me loved it too. Now I don't imagine most folks think like me, but I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of MMA fans do. Its like any other sport for me, when you make a big play in football or basketball or even sometimes baseball you want to both celebrate and also to make the point to your opponent that you are their better. While the one finger salute is crass, to me its not much worse than a player saying "In your face!". I have a sneaky suspicion that if boxers didn't wear gloves we would have seen some of them giving their fallen opponent the finger a LONG time ago. It is what it is.

On the other hand I am sure that for folks who don't like MMA and use words like "barbaric" to describe it, yeah they probably didn't care for the display at all. But who the hell cares what they think? Those are the same people who will NEVER like MMA and will never see it for what it is, a sport. Spending time worrying about if you are going to offend them does nothing more than kill time and energy better used on other topics. For all of the faux outrage after Brock Lesnar flipped off the crowd and his opponent after his dominating win over fan favorite Frank Mir, do you REALLY think that made MMA less popular? I don't. If anything it gave people more of a reason to watch because now they had a bonafide villain. Some of the fans would root against him, many would root for him but it never hurts to have a black hat as a contrast in any sport you can think of.

I don't think MMA would survive if this was the kind of behavior you saw after each and every match. But I don't think it hurts at all to see this every once in awhile. I can tell you this, I will definitely be checking Aoki's next match out. And somehow I bet I won't be alone.

Now Its Time For The Main Event!

I didn't actually watch the fight last night between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiaou. I knew it would be a decent fight but its not the fight I, nor many other boxing fans, wanted to see. At this point boxing is in a place where charging more than $50 for a fight that people aren't clamoring for is going to continue to erode the fan base. Its bad enough that you rarely have a "name" fighter on the undercard, but then you end up sitting through a fight that, even when exciting, wasn't really what you were hoping for.

Well Pacman brought home the victory last night with a 12th round TKO and from what I understand it was a dominating performance by him. Congratulations to him on the win but what I really hope is that his triumph now brings us all what we have REALLY been waiting for.

Money vs Pacman.

Speaking for me I can tell you that I would gladly throw down the coin to see Manny Pacquiaou and Floyd Mayweather 'throw them thangs' no matter where the venue is that they meet up or who is on the undercard. Boxing NEEDS this fight to happen now if they want to remain viable. Hell I just saw a UFC card for FREE on Spike TV yesterday with a bunch of guys who put on exciting fights for the most part. Just last week the same thing happened with the Strikeforce promotion on CBS, and in that one I got to see Fedor Emelianenko put a guy to sleep in the main event. If boxing can't finally give their fans the fight they have been wanting for the past several years then they will be sealing their fate against the likes of the rising MMA promotions.

I can tell you this, they won't see another dime of my money until that fight happens.

It is what it is.

Marcus "Big Baby" Jones

For those who don't know, one of my former teammates with the Bucs, Marcus Jones, is now in MMA and on the show "The Ultimate Fighter". From the day I heard that Marcus was going to go into mixed martial arts I have been of two minds about it. On the one hand I was worried he might get hurt because you see guys get knocked out all the time and seeing as how Jones had never trained for any of this it was likely that he might catch a couple on the chin.

On the other hand though was the potential he would have. Jones is without a doubt, hands down the strongest human being I have ever personally met. I have seen this guy do things both in the weight room and on a football field that were just amazing. Besides that he was always very athletic including being able to do a standing sommersault as a rookie IN FULL PADS.

So I was definitely looking forward to this season of "The Ultimate Fighter" to see what he was working with. He had a few fights around here with some mixed results but it was obvious that he could be a good fighter. But being on that show can portend greatness to the right guy with the right attitude.

Well after he got passed over week after week (probably because everyone was scared of his big ass) Jones, now nicknamed "Big Baby", finally got his shot in the Octogon. It was.....DAMNED impressive.



I have watched quite a few MMA matches but I don't think I have ever seen a guy Jones' size make the kinds of transitions in submission moves so quickly and effortlessly. Its likely indicative of his training with the Gracie guys down here in Florida. But I can tell you that makes him a dangerous opponent for any guy they put in front of him. I actually predicted last night on twitter that me might end up tear the guy's shoulder after socket before the match and about the only thing that stopped it was the guy tapping out so fast.

The only thing that worries me is that Marcus still doesn't look as comfortable as you would think he would doing stand up. His coach Rampage made a joke last night about him looking like a Mummy but its kind of true. He doesn't seem to let his hands go and he also doesn't show a lot of defense to the other guy's punches. That could be a problem if he comes up against a guy who really can throw hands or is a big time ju jitsu guy. With all the power Jones has I would think that his next step as an MMA guy would be to do some ju jitsu training. I love the things he can do with submissions but he is going to need to be able to slug it out every now and then at least. Especially to be one of the superstars in the sport.

And after last night I don't think anybody can dispute that he has the potential to be one of the superstars.

Mayweather/Marquez

Rather than talk about this cakewalk of a fight I figure I would post the youtube of UFC's Dana White sounding like an oracle describing why nobody should have paid to see it. Oh and just for shits and giggles, click here to read about the 4 exciting knockouts that happened pretty much at the same time on the UFC card.......which cost $10 less...