WEC 49 had some interesting bouts  (June 20th) as did Strikeforce Fedor vs. Werdum (June 26th). I’ll just highlight a couple of the fights and link to some results for each. But let me just say they were worth watching!

The main WEC fight was a battle between Jamie Varner and Kamal Shalorus that was marred by Shalorus kicking Varners family jewels three times. Kamal lost one point. If you get a chance to watch this fight you’ll see Varner getting the best of Shalorus in most clashes but Shalorus has a good chin. Even without the penalty point taken away from Shalorus I had Varner ahead on points easily. The fight went the distance and much to my surprise two judges were split with the third calling for a draw! Results here.

Here is a video of Fedor vs Werdum (don’t know how long it will be up).

I was not really that surprised by this result as while Fedor is a great fighter – he has pulled out some surprising wins at times. But wow – Werdum really pulled off the win while Fedor was trying to pummel him on the ground! Results here.

The fight I really enjoyed on this ticket was Scott Smith vs Cung Le rematch. Le fought this bout better than I’ve seen him so far by choosing his shots and fighting a bit more defensively. Le easily out classed Smith this time and found a home for his decisive spinning rear kick that Smith had so much trouble with in the last fight. Here is a video of this match up.

This has been a good month for MMA fights. There were some other really interesting match ups but I wanted to highlight the Smith vs Le as my favorite. What was your favorite this month?

I am excited to announce that on June 26th Showtime is airing “Strikeforce and M1 Global: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum” that will include Chris “Cyborg” Santos vs. Jan Finney. Who has not heard of Fedor as one of the best heavyweights today. Unfortunately he has not fought in the UFC but he will be facing a top heavy weight in Fabricio Werdum.

In this post I’ll introduce the fighters in some video and give an overview of each. I don’t know much about Jan Finney but most of you have heard of Chris “Cyborg” Santos after her decisive win over Gina Carano and her title defense over Marloes Coenen. Here is an overview of Werdum.

It was interesting to see Randy “The Natural” Couture saying (at 3:22) that Fedor was going to have to fight top level guys again. Some of that has to be guys loyal to their organizations and some contract limits. From what I can see of Fedor – he seems to be a very well versed MMA fighter that has the Judo background like Fabricio. Here are a couple of highlight videos.

Both of these fighters have what it take to walk away with the win. I like that Fabricio has jiu jitsu, muay thai, boxing, and judo skills to the table. Both of these fighters have won some big bouts. I’ll have to say this one is too close to call for me although I would bet most everyone expects Fedor to win.

Chris “Cyborg” Santos is seemingly unbeatable in MMA right now. Her wins against Carano and Coenen were decisive. Here is a Cyborg vs Baszler video for your perusal.

I found a couple of old fights with Finney but most recently here is a Women’s MMA Roundup video that includes some Finney information.

While Jan “Cuddles” Finney looks to be a good fighter, I don’t see her lasting beyond the first round with Chris “Cyborg” Santos. Cyborg threw Coenen around the cage during the title defense won that match easily. So if Finney does have something to bring to the table – I will be pleasantly surprised.

I hope you have enjoyed this overview of a couple of the matches in the upcoming Strikeforce & M1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum event and please let me know if you have any insight about these fighters.

Tonight CBS is airing Strikeforce Nashville (April 17, 2010)! UFC 112 featuring among other great fights was Silva vs Maia (although many will disagree with me) and on April 24 Aldo vs Faber will fight in Sacramento as well as another fighter I like to track, Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson will fight  Masako Yoshida at the Spring Brawl in Fargo, North Dakota!

In this post I’ll mostly talk about both Silva vs Griffen and Silva vs Maia as I was the most excited I have been in a long time to see a truly great fighter get in the ring (octagon) and own a couple of other fighters. As I said most people like to see the guys meet in the middle of the ring and duke it out like WCL matches!

Not me! I’ve always said fighting is fighting is fighting. The only thing that matters is if you win or not… making the other guy/gal look like a novice or knocking him or her out is gravy… I’ll save my view for later but first here is a trailer for tonight’s fights.

I like Henderson and Sheilds just fine so this should be a fun night. I also like the other guys on the card. Now getting back to Silva, when he fought Griffen at UFC 101 he seemed to be toying with Griffen. I would say that he used his timing and distance to make Griffen look foolish. Not many fighters could do that with Griffen as I’ve seen him win some tough fights.

Why did a fighter like Griffen seemingly fall so easy? I think Silva understands what it means to use distance an timing to his advantage. He (Silva) seemed to have great boxing skills beyond what one would expect of a Muay Thai fighter (more akin to a Muhammad Ali in my view) and he also really understands what timing and distance is in a fight! Watch this video (hopefully it stays up):

Now in UFC 112 Silva used the same timing and distance to keep Maia off for 5 rounds but he did not seem to go for the kill! Many would see that as a failing as they paid all that money to see the fight. But remember what a fight is – to win the bout within the frame work of the rules. If one is ahead in points – why risk it? I remember when Cung Le fought Scott Smith – Le was ahead easily and then risked everything by continuing to engage Smith. While I as a fan applaud his spirit – I question the strategy as the only thing that matters is if you walk away with the win! Here is that fight if you want to see it.

Ahh seeing the beginning of that fight is good to see Le kicks. As a former point fighter – I really love to see basic karate type skills working in MMA. But the point with this I am trying to make is why would one attack when he is clearly ahead? I would coast to a point and try not to muck up things too much.

One story comes to mind where I employed this strategy. We had a visiting Navy fighter from a Japanese school that was doing well against all comers in my school. That was a feat in it self but this guy was not modest. He was a light weight and had some mean foot sweeps that made him a worthy opponent.

I was matched up with him after I saw what he did to my peers. I opted to hang back and use distance and timing even though I had a 20 pound weight advantage on him (that did not help the heavy weights). We played around for a while and I hit him and he was not able to hit me. You see I was fighting defensively and using my reach to my advantage. He got mad and challenged me to a sudden death match!

For those of you do don’t know that just means the first point wins. We enlisted three judges and went to it. I danced around for a few minutes until I saw him getting frustrated (I had all of the time in the world). I waited until he overextended himself and threw a loose-fast inverted counter punch in and out and scored! He got mad again and wanted a rematch! I took off my gloves and walked away.

You see it is only important that one wins within the framework of the rules presented – whether it be MMA, kick boxing, boxing, wrestling, jiu jutsu, street fighting, or self-defense! Winning is everything although being a good sport is an honorable thing to do.

Here is a link to Silva vs Maia at UFC 112 for your perusal if you did not see it: Silva vs Maia. I think the first rounds Silva was clearly ahead and then seemed to get a bit tired in the later rounds. That did not keep Silva from using timing, movement and distance to his advantage. Even though Maia did well in the later rounds – he still got owned by Silva and lost. The fans did not like this fight but I thought it was masterful (as a former fighter)!

There you have my thoughts and there where many more great fights that I did not mention. I did like Penn vs Edgar and Hughes vs Gracie. I’ll close with a preview of the PPV Aldo vs Faber next week!

I am a MMA fan that likes to watch the fights that are easily available without watching PPV! That means I just have an overview of the sports from some of the various leagues such as UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, M1, and K1 (probably a lot more too). What I am trying to say is while I opine on the fights I watch; if you were to use me as your sole source of information about men’s and women’s MMA – you would probably be missing a lot.

I’ve been following Strikeforce as I am able (I don’t get Showtime anymore) and just found out that Sarah Kaufman beat Takayo Hashi to win the Strikeforce Women’s Welterweight title!

In this post I will give an overview of the Kaufman vs. Hashi fight and give the latest on Michelle Waterson’s latest fight. I will also speak of some of the (many) exciting MMA fights coming soon in the WEC, UFC, and Strikeforce. Here is a promo video done before the Kaufman vs Hashi fight. I’ll post the four links of the actual fight (not sure how long they will be good) if you want to go to youtube and watch it.

Here are the links:

• Kaufman vs. Hashi 1 of 4
• Kaufman vs. Hashi 2 of 4
• Kaufman vs. Hashi 3 of 4
• Kaufman vs. Hashi 4 of 4

Watching this fight I noted that Kaufman was able to fight her game plan – staying on her feet and out boxing Hashi. Hashi got knocked down several times during the rounds but Kaufman did not follow her down to the mat. Kaufman was able to avoid the ground game altogether with her sprawl and strength.

The fight went poorly for Hashi, losing every round with the final score of 50 – 45. I’m not sure but I would say Hashi would have had a better chance had she been able to get Kaufman to the ground. Kaufman to her credit kept to her game plan and did not give Hashi any openings. This was a very disciplined fight on Kaufman’s part.

Shop these mat shoes for MMA.

The WEC has a couple of fights coming up soon. The first on 3/6/10, Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz is highlighted below. I have seen Bowles fight before and this one should be good (and free on versus TV). Torres and Pulver will be fighting on different bouts too.

The WEC has the much anticipated Jose Aldo vs Urijah Faber for the title on 4/24/10 on Pay Per View (PPV). I guess I am going to miss this one unless I find it on the internet. You see my budget and the cable company had a disagreement. I cannot afford to pay $100 dollars a month on TV with some pay channels. I’ve striped down to the bare minimum of channels for $15 bucks a month and spend another $15 on Netflix! I now watch more movies than I ever could from the cable company for about 1/4 of the price. Here is Urijah speaking about that fight.

UFC 114 on 5/29/10, looks to have some good fights… Rashid Evans vs. Rampage Jackson. Also among the many match ups, Machida vs. Rua  is happening. Here is some video of the highlights of Evans and Jackson.

Strikeforce is making an announcement Monday. I believe it might be about the headliner fight on their 4/17/10 event. My guess is it will be a Shields vs. Henderson proclamation.

The Karate Hottie, Michelle Waterson has apparently won a match at the Extreme Beatdown 6 event against Rosary “Ro” Califano in the first 15 seconds of the first round. I was not able to find any video of this. Why, you might by wondering, do they call Michelle Watterson the Karate Hottie? Here is one of her latest videos modeling at bikini.com. Don’t be fooled by her looks folks, this lady can fight!

Do you remember the post I did about Michelle appearing in the Megadeth, Head Crusher, music video? Well here is a training video for that spot.

In case you don’t remember that music video, here it is (don’t know how long the link will work). If the link breaks – you can find this on youtube.

I hope you have enjoyed my comments on some current and future MMA events.

After watching the video of Strike Force’s Chris “Cyborg” Santos’ latest win, I wonder, is 2010 going to be the breakout year for women’s MMA? We have watched Gina Carano rise to become one of the most recognized female fighters and then lose the title fight to Cyborg in 2009. There are more women kick boxers/Muay Thai fighters learning how to do jiu jitsu so they can compete in MMA so I ask you – Is 2010 going to be the year of women’s MMA?

In this post I will talk about if this is the year women’s MMA is going to take off. I will talk a bit about the perception of women’s MMA in general and the required skill sets. Here is an overview of women’s MMA created in mid-2009.

So let tackle the question on many people’s minds… what do you think of women fighting in general? Many men past puberty (before puberty women were as strong as men) think that since they are generally bigger and stronger – they are better fighters! So why watch women fighting (I mean if you are looking for good fighters)?

I think the perception that women are sugar and spice and everything nice and did not fight, was one that many girls and boys grew up with – I know I did. But in today’s society and with woman’s liberation, women today face the same challenges that men used to and many have to face them alone! Here is a video of a reporter vs a woman for context.

So what I am trying to say whatever prejudices you might have grown up with – the paradigm has shifted and today there are some really great women fighters! Women fighters that could hold there own with most men!

Get ring timers from boxing and MMA.

Sorry for the tangent but I wanted to get that off of my chest. Getting back on track for this topic, I believe that 2010 might just be the break-out year for women’s MMA! Think about this; in the old days when boxing reigned supreme, you would not have thought women’s boxing matches were as good as men’s boxing matches! I think that is because while boxing is a good form of fighting, it does to some degree depend on physical strength to pull it off.

I feel the same about women’s wrestling – physical strength is as important as learning the move. But with MMA (kick boxing, muay thai, jiu jitsu) moves, technique, flexibility, conditioning are as important as strength!!!

What I am trying to say is for women to get good at MMA, they have to master the requisite skill set that includes; jiu jitsu, punching, and kicking. Additionally some transition skills would help women out (like judo). Here is a video demonstrating how women can apply jiu jitsu moves to other women and stronger men.

The jiu jitsu makes a lot of sense for women because if they are taken to the ground – they will have an idea of what they can do in a real self-defense situation! Here is a girls muay thai training class in Belgium.

I still do not think there is any substitute for boxing training for one to have good inside hands although muay thai certainly does have some devastating knees and elbows thrown from the inside.

There is not anything quite the outside karate hands and kicks in modern MMA today. Sure I’ve seen some fighters that do use some karate techniques (Lyoto Machida and Cung Le) but they are in the minority.

So the answer to the question, is 2010 going to be the year of women’s MMA will depend on the caliber of the competition. It would be hard to take off with just a few great women fighters. According to Astrid Binanic of the Examiner here, 2010 should be an exciting year of women’s MMA. It is possible the FSC might take on a woman’s flyweight division. If that happens it would give a huge boost to women’s MMA.

I look forward to great things for women’s MMA in 2010. Here is a Women’s MMA Submission Roundup video to close this post.