musings on mixed martial arts, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and all things mano-a-mano

Jorge Rivera is my new favourite fighter – for today. Just look at him in this video to hype his bout with Nate “Rock” Quarry at UFC Fight Night 21 on March 31. Who knew he had a sense of humour, and a self-deprecating one at that? I guess this makes Quarry Ben Affleck.

There’s really nothing more that needs to be said about this clip of Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem kicking a pad held by a little girl who’s smaller than one of his thighs. Watch his expression, the flicker of laughter that crosses his face as she falls. Maniacal. that’s the word to describe it. Maniacal.

I’ve said a few times that I believe Junior dos Santos will fight for and win the UFC heavyweight title by January of 2011. Cro Cop head kick or not, I don’t see Gabriel Gonzaga being able to solve him when they meet at UFC on Versus on March 21.

Dan Hardy is talking – better than half-jokingly, I assume – about how he’ll beat Georges St. Pierre on the ground at UFC 111 thanks to Eddie Bravo’s rubbery 10th Planet jiu-jitsu system. Meanwhile, the welterweight champ has been training with BJJ and MMA legend Renzo Gracie, who is prepping for his own bout with Matt Hughes at UFC 112.

I know I’m going to get flack for saying this but as of late I’m seriously underwhelmed by Fedor Emelianenko. Fighting the likes of Brett Rogers, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia and Hong-Man Choi are not the makings of “The Baddest Man on the Planet.”

I know he is a business man and I’m sure Affliction (at the time) and Strikeforce are great business decisions, but that makes him business savvy, not the baddest man. Long story short, I was glad to see this brief interview with Randy Couture where he talks about “Fedor needing to step and fight top-level guys.” Check out the latest on the Fedor/M-1 Global/Strikeforce contract debacle here.

It’s official: Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione will take place at UFC 113 in Montreal on May 8. The UFC confirmed the bout today after a week of rumours that had the fight bumped to a still-hazy Fight Night in April opposite Strikeforce and Mitrione bumped in favour of newly acquired boxer James Toney. Much ado about nothing on both fronts.

A few things have been stuck in my craw ever since Saturday’s WEC 47. Things that just don’t sit right, like Brian Bowles throwing in the towel with a busted hand after just two rounds.

You can call it a doctor’s stoppage but the only way for the doc to know the hand is busted is to x-ray it – or have the fighter confess that it’s broken. And Bowles seemed pretty calm and matter-of-fact about the whole thing even though it meant he’d just lost the bantamweight belt. I alluded to this in my fight recap story – I know not everyone can break a hand (or two) and keep fighting a la Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown. But it’s as though Bowles knew he was outclassed and getting his ass kicked – which he was, by a very nimble Dominick Cruz – and the broken hand was a way out.

I could be wrong but that’s how I read it. I’m not the only one, as Cory Brady over at Five Ounces of Pain makes the same call and lays out a few more pet peeves from the event that I agree with top to bottom. I especially like his trouble with tears and his assessment of Miguel Torres’s less-than-impressive performance.

This new trailer contains all kinds of Ironman bad-assery, but what’s it doing here? Well, at the 0:25 mark Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark is working out in a ring while wearing MMA gloves. And yes, I noticed that before I noticed the slinky Miss Scarlett Johansson in the same scene. Make of that what you will.

Downey is heavily into the martial arts – he studies wing chun kung fu, which you can see a lot of in his Sherlock Holmes. Not sure if he’s into MMA, though. And for you Scar-Jo fans, she pulls off a cool jiu-jitsuish move around the 2:00 mark.

Anti-climactic. That just about sums up Saturday’s WEC 47. Whether it was Jens Pulver being armbarred into retirement (again) in the first round, or former bantamweight superstar Miguel Angel Torres being choked out by a fighter half his size or champ Brian Bowles throwing in the towel after two rounds because of a broken hand, the rug was repeatedly pulled out from under the card.

In fact, Bowles’ inability to continue – and his admission that the broken hand hampered his mental game, his ability to focus on not getting his ass kicked – was jarring and disappointing. I even cracked that Urijah Faber broke both hands in the first round against Mike Brown and still went the distance, throwing wild elbows instead, and all Bowles managed was a few more minutes of damage avoidance before giving up. Not fair, I know. I stub my pinky toe and I’m on the DL for a week. Still, the quit-factor was disappointing.

But give credit to his opponent, the new champ Dominick Cruz. Busted hand or not, Bowles looked like a statue opposite the fleet-footed, stance-switching firecracker. Cruz’s manager, Matt Stansell, predicted the fight would resemble a bullfight, and Cruz was every bit a matador, dancing around Bowles, peppering the increasingly frustrated fighter with punches and kicks and the occasional takedown. I’ve little doubt that broken hand or not, Bowles wouldn’t have left the cage with the belt around his waist.

While Bowles goes back to the drawing board, the win sets up a rematch between Cruz and Joseph Benavidez. Cruz took their first encounter by unanimous decision, handing Benavidez his only loss at the same time.

Benavidez overcame an 11-inch reach disadvantage to stun Torres with a second-round guillotine submission. He waded into the pocket to land overhand rights that left Torres looking bewildered, he took Torres to the ground and opened a nasty cut on his forehead that left him looking scared, and he finished him off with the choke after a failed armbar attempt that left him and me and a lot of other people in shock. It was the former 135-pound champ’s second straight loss (he surrendered the title to Bowles last year).

Pulver, a former UFC lightweight champ and semi-legend, was a step or two behind in the few minutes he lasted against Javier Vasquez. He got taken down three times, reversed it twice but on the third found himself in an armbar that hyper-extended his elbow and in all likelihood shortened his cage career.

A couple of other notables from the card. How did Bart Palaszewski manage to hang on to Karen Darabedyan’s wrist tightly enough to pull off that armbar? By a thread, I’d wager. And Scott Jorgensen’s standing guillotine 31 seconds into the opening round that lifted Chad George off his feet and rendered him unconscious even as he was tapping was one of the most vicious I’ve seen.

Things just got messy in the battle between the UFC and Strikeforce and for once, it’s the UFC that looks bad.

UFC president Dana White has confirmed that the promotion will hold Fight Night 22 on Spike TV on April 17 – the same night that the biggest card in Strikeforce history airs on CBS.

Strikeforce has the option of moving the event to April 24, a date it had previously avoided because it would put it head-to-head with the WEC’s first pay-per-view card.

Zuffa, which owns the UFC and WEC, has thrown down the gauntlet with this latest bit of counter-programming and the whole thing could backfire. And I’m not just talking about Strikeforce conceding the date and going up against the WEC PPV, a battle – in terms of eyeballs – that Strikeforce easily wins.

I understand the desire to crush your enemies, to eliminate the competition no matter how weak a challenger you consider them to be. No mercy, sweep the leg, winner takes all, and all that.

But what does the UFC gain by stealing a little of Strikeforce’s thunder? Not only does this move by the UFC smack of egoism and pettiness, it could bite them in the ass. Set aside the entirely valid “competition is good in a free market society” argument. Never mind the fact that any MMA event getting mainstream exposure on an American TV network is good for the sport in general and thus good for all promotions. Forget about the bad PR that might waft up from the smell of such a dirty move.

Think about this: would you rather watch a free UFC card featuring Kimbo Slice and Matt Mitrione (the rumoured headliner or co-headliner) or a free Strikeforce card featuring title bouts between Gegard Mousasi and “King Mo” Lawal, Jake Shields and Dan Henderson, and Gilbert Melendez and the long-awaited North American debut of DREAM champ Shinya Aoki?

From a fan’s perspective the answer is a no-brainer. If you even have to think for a second about which card you’re watching then you’ve less sense than Junie Browning.

Sure, the UFC will shore-up the card with some other notable bouts. They tried – and failed – to lock in Matt Serra vs. Mike Swick, who pulled out with an arm injury. And I haven’t forgotten that the UFC just signed boxing champ James Toney and there’s speculation he’ll face Kimbo Slice out of the gate. Except Toney says he plans to box at least once more before making his UFC debut sometime in June or July. Still, the UFC has a big stable to draw from.

Does. Not. Matter. Free or not, I’m watching Strikeforce. Does not matter that Fedor Emelianenko isn’t on the card, that Alistair Overeem isn’t defending the longest undefended border, er, belt in all of combat sports, that Cris “Cyborg” Santos and Gina Carano aren’t on the card.

The three title fights the Strikeforce card is offering is enough to trump even the best UFC Fight Night. On that count, I’m all in.

A couple of weeks ago I started hearing a rumour that IFL vet Claude Patrick was going to the UFC. Patrick confirmed to me – off the record – that he was in negotiations with the promotion. Now, it’s a done deal.

The Toronto welterweight, whom I’ve had the pleasure of training with a few times at Toronto BJJ, has a four-fight contract in his back pocket. Patrick is 11-1, with nine first-round stoppages to his credit – eight of them by submission. Yes, he’s dangerous on the ground.

Now we just need to confirm another rumour – that his first fight will be at UFC 115 on June 12 in Vancouver. Also rumoured for the card are the threematch between Ultimate Fighter coaches Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama; Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Pat Barry; Ben Rothwell vs. Gilbert Yvel; Tyson Griffin vs. Evan Dunham; and Carlos Condit vs. Rory MacDonald.

Tonight’s WEC 47 card is tight. Undefeated bantamweight champ Brian Bowles (8-0) headlines against challenger Dominick Cruz (14-1). It’s Bowles’ first title defense since taking the belt from Miguel Torres last August. Torres (37-2) is also on the card. He’ll face Joseph Benavidez (11-1) in a 135-pound tilt that will fast-track the winner to a title shot.

But the fight I’m really eyeing is Jens Pulver (22-12-1) against Javier Vazquez (13-4). Some say the former UFC lightweight champ is washed up and maybe he is. Pulver has dropped six of his last seven, after all. But consider who those six winning opponents were – BJ Penn, Urijah Faber (twice), Josh Grispi, Leonard Garcia and Joe Lauzon. It’s not as though Pulver is taking the easy way out of the game. And I’m curious to see what he still has left.

Jonathan Snowden over at Brawl Sports has a good interview with Pulver that covers the ups and downs of his entire career. Pulver is a lot smarter, or at least a lot more self-aware and introspective, than his cage persona indicates. And if you’re at all familiar with his abusive white-trash upbringing, you’ve got to respect what he’s done with his life.

I was a guest on “Showdown” Joe Ferraro’s radio show on the Fan 590 a couple of nights ago and inevitably the subject of MMA sanctioning in Ontario came up and inevitably I got a little incensed at the foot-dragging going on by Premier Dalton McGuinty. For a guy who shares a first name with Patrick Swayze’s Roadhouse bad-ass you’d think he’d be a bit more on-board with MMA.

I know Joe’s just as livid that the sport isn’t allowed in the province – yet – but he managed to keep his cool. The wheels are turning to make it happen no matter what McGuinty says publicly. There’s an inevitability about it. And Showdown Joe is very much at the center of it (and has been for a long time). Now it’s time for you to do your part.

There’s an online petition demanding that the sport be sanctioned that Joe will hand-deliver to McGuinty (or he’ll get the door slammed in his face trying). It will take you 30 seconds to fill in your name. That’s it.

But it’s not enough. If you want MMA in the province of Ontario – not just the UFC, not just the WEC or StrikeforceDalton McGuinty or whoever, but local fights with local fighters, too – then you need to let that be known. Tell . Tell your Member of Provincial Parliament. Send them an email. Phone them. Fax them. Hand-deliver your massage to their office. I’ve made it easy for you by including links to McGuinty’s contact info as well as the MPPs. You want something, ask for it.

It’s no secret that boxer James Toney fancies himself the next UFC champion. Like the most-persistent Washington lobbyest, he’s hounded UFC president Dana White for months to get a contract. Ambushing him at press conferences, making taunting videos, calling him a “straight up ho.” Basically, he’s been stalking and trash talking the UFC. And it’s actually worked.

Five Ounces of Pain has the exclusive: the 41-year-old Toney has signed a multi-fight deal with the promotion. No word on when or who he might fight first.

So how will a pure boxer fair in MMA? And who will he face first? The answer to the first question depends an awful lot on the answer to the second. If he’s pitted against a grappler who can get the fight to the ground, well, I don’t have to spell it out for you. If it’s a striker he faces, then it comes down to all those things Toney hasn’t been training – kicks, knees, elbows, clinching, cage control, etc. (Although apparently, he’s been working with Quinton”Rampage” Jackson’s former trainer, Juanito Ibarra.)

And the UFC could go either way – test him with a submissions guy (unlikely as that would probably result in an Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites-style snorefest) or a puncher a la Kimbo Slice. Although who knows what weight Toney will want to compete at. After all, he’s a former middleweight, super-middleweight and cruiserweight boxing champion and currently holds the NABO and IBA heavyweight titles.

And for the record, he’s not all hype when it comes to his skills in ring. He’s got a 72-6 record (plus three draws and two no contests), and he’s knocked out 44 opponents.

Does Brett Rogers deserve a title shot? His last fight was a KO loss to Fedor Emelianenko. Before that he literally turned new Strikeforce fighter Andrei Arlovski into the punchline of a joke that took all of 22 seconds to tell. And before that he flattened a few cans. Nine of them, to be precise.

But is that enough to earn him a shot at Alistair Overeem’s long-undefended heavyweight belt? Especially when the man who beat him, Fedor, is far more deserving?

There’s something more to the rumour that I reported on a couple of days ago that Rogers will get exactly that when Overeem makes his return to Strikeforce in May after more than two years spent fighting for other promotions.

I’d understand if Rogers was just a tune-up fight for Overeem and not a title fight. Okay, I wouldn’t. It’s not as though Overeem hasn’t been active. He’s fought seven times since winning the Strikeforce championship in 2007 and has packed on a ton of suspicious muscle.

Overeem should be defending his belt. I just don’t see why Rogers gets the call. I’m sure wanting to keep his name in the spotlight is part of the reason. And a loss to Fedor is no black mark on anybody’s record. But to come off of a huge loss to face one of the most-feared striker’s in the sport for a belt? That doesn’t sit right.

Meanwhile, Fedor is getting two tune-up fights (he’ll face Fabricio Werdum, possibly on the same card as the Overeem-Rogers tilt) before a title shot. It’s smart in terms of milking the Russian’s marketability and building up expectations, but in the MMA game it’s about giving the fans what they want when they want it.

Look at the UFC – folks wanted to see Brock Lesnar fight for a title so he gets his shot in just his fourth bout. Vitor Belfort was a more marketable match-up for middleweight champ Anderson Silva than any of the other contenders so he gets a shot, even though Belfort had never fought at 185 pounds in the UFC.

Fans want to see Fedor fight for the title. He’s 32-1 (1) and he beat Rogers. It’s ridiculous to keep him on the sidelines. Maybe this has something to do with it.