Category — DREAM

Who are the best up-and-coming MMA fighters under the age of 25? An interesting question, which Derek Bolender over at the Bleacher Report, sets of to answer.

Most of the usual suspects are on the list – UFC rising star Jon Jones (9-0), who is on a collision course with the light heavyweight champion; Brazilian WEC fighter Jose Aldo (15-1), who will face featherweight champion Mike Brown in November; Jorge Gurgel-trained jiu-jitsu black belt Dustin “McLovin” Hazelett (12-4 MMA), who is in a stacked welterweight division with Georges St. Pierre at the top. All safe bets given what they’ve accomplished so far and the potential each exhibits.

Then he tosses in WEC bantamweights Dominick Cruz (14-1) and Rani Yahya (15-4), who is also an ADCC submission wrestling champion. Two reasonable choices there.

He dips into the Bellator FC fighters pool to nab featherweight champion Joe Soto (7-0) and lightweight Jorge Masvidal (18-4), who is best-known for being on the receiving end of a highlight-reel standing inverted triangle choke from Toby Imada. Interesting but not obviously good or bad choices.

And he tries to make a case for The Ultimate Fighter season five winner Nate Diaz (10-4 MMA). Sure, he’s been in three UFC Fight of the Night winners but he lost two of them, and he’s coming off back-to-back losses to lightweights Clay Guida and Joe “Daddy” Stevenson, who are gatekeepers at best. He needs to stop the slide when he headlines September’s UFC Fight Night 19 with Melvin Guillard or his stock will flatline.

And there’s a couple who are on the list that seem completely out of place. If this is a list of the ones to watch for down the road in a year or two, then why are Strikeforce/DREAM light heavyweight champion (and Fedor Emelianenko’s striking coach) Gegard Mousasi and WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner on the list? They’re at the top of their respective divisions in their respective promotions. The only reason to consider them up-and-coming is because they’re not in the UFC (and because both of them will likely accomplish a lot more than the titles they currently possess, I suppose).

A more interesting – and revealing – list might be ten up-and-comers with fewer than 10 professional fights. It certainly would provide a crystal ball peek into the future of mixed martial arts. Wonder who would make that list?

I’ve been saying for a while that Gegard Mousasi is someone to watch. I’m not alone in this opinion. The Dutch-Armenian has amassed an impressive 26-2-1 professional MMA record.

He’s beaten Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, Denis Kang, Melvin Manhoef, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Mark Hunt and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. He’s the DREAM middleweight champion and DREAM middleweight Grand Prix champion. He’s the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion (as of this win over Sobral last Saturday). In October, he’ll fight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at DREAM 11.

He is fast and strong and supremely confident (just look at the way he glances into the camera prior to the start of the Sobral fight) and also completely calm and relaxed and scary. His name brings to mind Miyamoto Musashi, the famed 17th-century Japanese swordsman and author of The Book of Five Rings. And he’s only 24 years old.

This M-1 promo video is one of the best I’ve seen. It has a documentary feel, no ridiculous narration, no pounding house beats or rap music, it doesn’t over-hype or oversell Mousasi’s accomplishments or talents, just lays it out there, very low-key, like Mousasi.

A couple of things stand out: he doesn’t have the best training (although, as the second clip shows, he has worked out with Fedor Emelianenko) so imagine how good he’d be if he got into a top-flight camp; his back-to-back wins on the same night over Manhoef and Jacare, simply stunning; his rather plainly spoken statement near the end about wanting to be the middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight champion.

Props to Joel Gerson over at Revolution MMA for sending me the promo video.

Josh Barnett has to be pretty happy that Fedor Emelianenko has signed with Strikeforce instead of the UFC. Now Fedor’s the biggest villain in MMA instead of him. At least, that’s the way it seems among MMA fans, or to be more precise, among UFC fans.

There’s a column on Five Ounces of Pain about how fans (UFC fans specifically) are pissed off at Fedor. They say the world number one heavyweight is “scared and is ducking the UFC’s heavyweights,” that he has to fight in the UFC “to cement his legacy,” and that by not signing with the UFC he is “fighting scrub competition.”

The piece, by Caleb Newby, is a rebuttal to all of these statements, and a pretty good one. Boiling it down: Fedor is 30-1 and has beaten Nogueira twice, Cro Cop when he was at his peak, both Sylvia and Arlovski when it meant something and was scheduled to take on the number one contender Barnett until he failed a drug test, and just because he’s not fighting Brock Lesnar doesn’t mean he’s ducking anybody; the UFC could only enhance Fedor’s already substantial legacy (whatever the hell a fighter’s legacy is; it’s kind of nonsensical really). Newby concedes to a degree on the last point that Fedor will face weaker heavyweights but then Newby isn’t taking into consideration the new Strikeforce/DREAM alliance that strengthens their heavyweight division substantially.

Not a huge surprise: Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has signed on to fight at a Strikeforce event on October 25, according to Gracie Mag. It’s all part of the Strikeforce-DREAM co-promotion deal reached Monday.The story doesn’t say, but I’m guessing he’ll face fellow BJJ specialist Jake Shields for the newly created interim middleweight belt. October is also when heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko is expected to make his Strikeforce debut, so don’t be surprised if it’s on the same card at Jacare vs. Shields.

The only downside in all of this is that Jacare was supposed to have a rematch with Jason “Mayhem” Miller at DREAM 11 on October 6 but you can consider that cancelled. Or maybe they’ll announce tomorrow that Miller’s on the Strikeforce card as well and they’re just shifting venues for the fight and my Shields guess is way out in left field.

Okay, so what now? That’s what everybody’s asking now that the dust has settled. Affliction is gone and Fedor Emelianenko, the most-prized fighter on the planet not already in the UFC, has signed a three-fight deal with Strikeforce.

It was a deal with the devil that the promotion had to make, that the UFC practically put a gun to their head and forced them to make. Strikeforce needs a big name, the biggest, so they can have something to market, to bring in ratings and lock down that elusive primetime CBS deal they’ve been chasing. Gina Carano was the first piece of the puzzle.

Tito Ortiz was supposed to be the second. The former UFC light heavyweight champ was all-but-signed to a four-fight Strikeforce contract when UFC president Dana White buried the hatchet and re-signed him. Ortiz would’ve given Strikeforce another marquee name, a franchise player to throw into the marketing mix. When he disappeared off the table they then had no choice but to go after Fedor even though the UFC was also interested. Hell, most of us thought the UFC was a done deal and that Strikeforce had no real shot. How wrong we were.

And now Strikeforce is crossing its fingers that Fedor doesn’t turn into their Kimbo Slice, someone who collapses after one punch. God forbid if Fedor loses his first fight with Strikeforce.

So they sign Fedor, steal him out from underneath the UFC. And suddenly, a bridesmaid outfit like Strikeforce is looking to walk down the aisle. That’s not going to make Dana White very happy. Oh, he’ll talk a good game about how competition is healthy, how it’s good for the sport, but really he wants to crush them. To him, mixed martial arts is like the NBA or NFL. And there’s only one NBA or NFL. If you’re the best, you play for the best, the UFC, or you don’t play at all. In effect, war has been declared.

Now, Strikeforce is not raising the white flag, or shoring up their defenses, or sitting around with their thumbs up their asses praying that their Fedor gambit is enough to put them over the top. Because it isn’t. You can’t build an entire organization around one franchise player. And they know it.

Except they have a problem: they have a pretty thin roster of heavyweights for Fedor to fight – current champ Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers (who knocked out past-his-best-before-date former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski in 22 seconds but is relatively untested otherwise), Fabricio Werdum (who choked out Emelianenko’s younger brother, Aleksander, three years ago but just got knocked out by UFC up-and-comer Junior Dos Santos) and that’s about it.

That must’ve played a part in Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker’s decision to sign a partnership with the Japanese DREAM fight promotion. As he revealed on The Carmichael Dave Radio Show on Monday, the number two MMA promotion in America is forming an alliance with the number one promotion in Japan.

It’s a deal that opens up potential foes for Fedor. It could also see the former PRIDE FC champion fighting in Japan, where he’s worshipped like a god. And because his contract isn’t exclusive, as it would’ve been with the UFC (save for combat sambo competitions), it leaves the door open for him to fight in Japan’s annual New Year’s Eve blockbuster show, because it just doesn’t feel like the holidays until the Russian beats the crap out of some pituitary case at the super-hulk sideshow while we sip champagne and count down to midnight.

Besides more opponents for Fedor, it provides Strikeforce with access to an entire pool of top-ranked fighters: Joachim Hansen (DREAM lightweight champion), Shinya Aoki, Marius Zaromskis (welterweight champion), Bibiano Fernandes, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Joe Warren, Hiroyuki Takaya and Hideo Tokoro. And the two promotions already share the services of former DREAM middleweight champion and current top Strikeforce light heavyweight contender Gegard Mousasi, who also happens to be under contract with Fedor’s management, M-1 Global.

Suddenly, Strikeforce (or Strikeforce/M-1 Global/DREAM) cards become must-see events, and could have the ancillary effect of pushing non-UFC fighters further up the world rankings. Dana White will have a harder time convincing people that the best fighters in the world are in the UFC (he’s already lost the best, Fedor).

But as Michael Rome over at Bloody Elbow asks, What did Strikeforce really get when they signed Fedor? He’s not well-known outside of MMA circles (although the past two weeks of media attention will certainly improve his name recognition), he’s been slagged by fans for not fighting the best despite a 30-1 record, and his pay-per-view drawing power is sub-par; as Rome points out, Fedor’s best PPV was against Arlovski and it would be considered a complete disaster for even the worst UFC show.

And how will the UFC wage war? By scheduling monster PPVs around Strikeforce events (call it counter-programming, MMA-style), and by offering fighters contracts that they really can’t refuse. Never mind Fedor – if he actually wins his three fights in Strikeforce to become champion, and that’s a big fucking “if,” then we’ll talk about whether White would try to poach him. What about Brett Rogers (Brock Lesnar’s going to run out of opponents eventually), Jake Shields or Nick Diaz? Their contracts will expire and the UFC will come knocking. What about Gina Carano? The UFC might not have a women’s division now, but when I spoke with White last year he was already considering the possibility. Carano’s about as marketable an MMA fighter as there is. And the UFC has a far bigger war chest than Strikeforce (if Donald Trump and Mark Cuban, two of the richest, craziest businessmen in the world, couldn’t make a go of Affliction, what chance does Strikeforce have if the UFC really sets its sights on putting them out of buiness?).

Put another way, Dana White will take a page from Conan (the barbarian, not the talkshow goofball) and rape and pillage Strikeforce if only to hear the lamentations of Scott Coker.

So what can Coker do? As Dave Meltzer over at Yahoo! Sports points out, signing Fedor was a good opening volley. They already have a deal with Showtime, which wants to focus on PPV events, which runs counter to Strikeforce’s agenda thus far. That may have to change. Strikeforce is also working on a deal to air fights in network primetime on CBS, which is under the same corporate umbrella (Viacom) as Showtime. MMA was a ratings hit for CBS when it aired Elite XC fights, thanks in large part to the marketability of larger-than-life characters like Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.

Strikeforce still has Carano (for now) and now they’ve got the number one fighter in the world. The question is whether they can capitalize on him. MMA diehards will watch, but what about the casual viewers, or the mildly interested non-fan? Of course, Fedor’s only half the equation, which is why the DREAM deal is so important – Fedor needs strong opponents who can also be packaged and sold to the public. He also needs to not lose. I can’t emphasize that enough. He must not lose.

His first fight will likely be a gimme of some sort, certainly an easier road than the UFC and Lesnar presented. It won’t be a title shot against Overeem. Strikeforce will want to let the hype on that one marinade a little bit. But it will air on Showtime in October. Expect his second fight to test his primetime potential if the CBS deal can be worked out. If that happens, he’ll be the most-visible MMA fighter in history. That raises the stature of the sport and Strikeforce and will piss Dana White off even more (especially since he’s been trying to get a network TV deal for quite a while). For the third fight they bring in Overeem, assuming neither he nor Fedor have lost, which is a very big assumption and makes the whole thing an even bigger gamble for Strikeforce. The moment Fedor loses Dana White gets to declare whoever the UFC heavyweight champ is at the time – likely still Lesnar – as the best fighter in the world.

If you’re still confused about why Fedor signed with Strikeforce it’s pretty simple. Sure, the UFC deal was probably more personally lucrative (somewhere between $2-$60million per fight once a share of PPV revenues were tallied plus the promotional boost fighting in the biggest fight promotion in the world provides). But the UFC wouldn’t allow for M-1 Global to co-promote events. The sole sticking point.

Or so I thought until I remembered all the smack talking White has done in regards to the fighter, which ceased during the last few weeks only to begin anew once Fedor signed with Strikeforce, to wit: “Fedor is a fucking joke. He turns down a huge deal and the opportunity to face the best in the world to fight nobodies for no money. I feel sorry for the real fight fans. I wanted to make the deal, but it takes two and it is very obvious Fedor doesn’t want to fight the best, and doesn’t give a fuck about the fans.”

Fedor certainly hasn’t forgotten. “Numerous times have I read Mister White’s statements on Internet concerning myself. In my opinion, allowing yourself to say those things is not a sign of a gentleman or a grown man at all!” he wrote in an open letter to White last year. I have to believe that simply not liking your new boss is a good enough reason to turn down a job, especially when money really isn’t an issue (i.e. Fedor is already loaded).

So Strikeforce makes their play, takes their gamble, rolls the dice, puts most if not all of their eggs in Fedor’s basket (not unlike the now defunct Affliction). And let’s say it works. Consider this: If the Fedor fight on CBS is a success, how many fighters, how many UFC heavyweights, might be interested in a piece of that when their contracts end? All you need is the first domino to fall. Randy Couture still wants a crack at the Russian (and it’s not like he’ll ever seriously contend for either the light heavyweight or heavyweight belt again). What about a quasi-semi-sorta-but-not-quite-retired Chuck Liddell? Or old Pride enemy Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira? Or Frank Mir? Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic? Or Cheick Kongo? Or anyone else already vanquished by or not interested in fighting Lesnar? Hell, even Lesnar could jump ship for a chance to feed his ego and prove he really is the best heavyweight in the world while drinking whatever damn beer he wants. Suddenly, Strikeforce is where all the baddest heavyweights go. Followed by the light heavies, the middleweights, welterweights and so on. Dominos, man, dominos…

But first, Fedor Emelianenko has to win.

Oh, and he needs to learn to speak English, fluent English, the kind of English that can sell Nike shoes to the legless. Because Strikeforce is going to need him to do lots of interviews, sign endorsement deals, make commercials and not come across as a Gulag commandant.

I’ve watched this fight a couple of times, now. Finally found an embed of it. It’s from Monday’s DREAM semi-final between jiu-jitsu ace Andre Galvao and Jason High, who won a split decision and went on to get knocked stupid by Marius Zaromskis in the welterweight final. I still don’t know how High escaped the first round without getting submitted. Galvao was unloading with kneebars, armbars, rear-naked chokes and the kitchen sink.

As “Nuke” LaLoosh would say, underdog Marius Zaromskis (11-2) announced his presence with authority at Monday’s DREAM 10 welterweight grand prix in Saitama, Japan.

The Lithuanian striker delivered a pair of devastating head kicks that knocked out tournament favorite Hayato “Mach” Sakurai (35-9-2) in the semi-finals and American Jason High (8-2) in the final to win the first-ever DREAM welterweight title.

While High tried to grapple with Zaromskis he gave the fighter too much space to work with and Zaromskis made him pay dearly with a swift right leg that sent High “astral traveling,” as the DREAM commentator put it.

It was a similar story against Sakurai, starting with a flying knee by Zaromskis to start the match. Zaromskis continued to be aggressive, winging punches and knees at his opponent that eventually opened up cuts above and below Sakurai’s left eye. But it was a left high kick that dropped the Japanese favourite followed by rapid-fire left hands that ended it.

High made it into the final by surviving against Brazilian submission ace Andre Galvao (3-1), who attempted submission after submission in the opening 10-minute stanza. Round 2 saw High stay on his feet and pick Galvao apart to earn a split decision.

In non-tournament bouts, grapplers Shinya Aoki and Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro opted to trade punches and kicks with Aoki coming away with a boring win. Former Ultimate Fighter alcoholic Jesse Taylor out-wrestled Korean judoka Dong Sik Yoon, who appeared to break his ankle and verbally submitted. Slugger Melvin Manhoef pounded Paulo Filho but couldn’t break the submission specialist, who locked in a game-ending armbar.

In a lightweight superfight, karate kid Katsunori Kikuno took down, mounted and ground-and-pounded his way to a win over Brazilian striker and Toronto BJJ fighter Andre “Dida” Amado.

Toronto BJJ striking coach Andre “Dida” Amado will enter the ring against DEEP champion Katsunori Kikuno at DREAM 10 on Monday in Saitama, Japan.

The Brazilian knockout specialist and former Chute Boxe fighter is coming off a K-1 loss to Buakaw Por Pramuk. Dida, who is trained by his brother, Mauricio “Veio” Amado as well as jiu-jitsu aces Saulo and Xande Ribeiro, is 6-3 and holds a decision victory over the highly regarded Caol Uno and, in his only other DREAM appearance, suffered a TKO defeat at the hands of Eddie Alvarez. He’ll be in tough against Kikuno, who is is 11-1-1 and has won his last eight bouts, six of those by way of knockout or TKO.

Dida vs. Kikuno is one of four non-tournament bouts on the card. The others include WAMMA lightweight champ Shinya Aoki against fellow jiu-jitsu phenom Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro; Dutch berzerker Melvin Manhoef collides with former WEC middleweight champ and BJJ standout Paulo Filho; and Korean judoka Dong Sik-Yoon takes on Jesse Taylor, The Ultimate Fighter season 7 cast member who’s best known for getting drunk and kicking out a limousine window. (The last I heard of Taylor he was being fitted for a Peruvian necktie by fellow TUF 7 castmate CB Dolloway at UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Irvin.)

Of course, the focus of the event will be the semifinals and finals of the welterweight tournament, which was created in a bid to crown a 168-pound champion.

Japanese veteran Hayato Sakurai (35-8-2) takes on unorthodox Marius Zaromskis (9-2) and on the other side of the brackets jiu-jitsu ace Andre Galvao (3-0) faces off against the explosive Jason High (7-1). Sakurai is coming off a 27-second destruction of Shinya Aoki at DREAM 8 thanks to knees and ground-and-pound. Zaromskis’ last bout on the same card saw him attempt a back flip into Seichi Ikemoto’s guard en route to a unanimous decision win. Galvao submitted John Alessio by armbar at DREAM 8 while High choked out Yuya Shirai to advance.

The winners of the semifinal bouts will meet in the final later in the same evening.

Here’s the lineup:

Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals

Andre Galvao (3-0) vs. Jason High (7-1)

Hayato Sakurai (35-8-2) vs. Marius Zaromskis (9-2)

Welterweight Grand Prix reserve bout

Seichi Ikemoto (18-15-5) vs. Tarec Saffiedine (6-0).

Non-tournament bouts

Shinya Aoki (20-4) vs. Vitor Ribeiro (20-2)

Jesse Taylor (11-3) vs. Dong Sik-Yoon (4-6)

Paulo Filho (16-1) vs. Melvin Manhoef (23-5-1)

Andre Amade (6-3) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (11-1)

Kevin Iole over at Yahoo! Sports is reporting that heavyweight contender Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has signed a three- fight contract extension with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

There’s been plenty of confusion surrounding Cro Cop since UFC 99 when rumours emerged that he was leaving the UFC after just one fight to go fight in the Japanese organization DREAM, even though UFC president was under the impression that they had a verbal agreement for two more fights. And just last week UFC honcho Lorenzo Fertitta took a private jet to Croatia last week to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Doesn’t matter, it’s settled and Cro Cop will face Junior dos Santos at UFC 103 in September in Dallas.

Of the non-UFC 100-related news to come out of the media scrum held by UFC president Dana White following Thursday’s UFC 100 press conference, the biggest news was what he had to say about heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s supposed deal with Japan’s DREAM organization and his possible return to the UFC: “Like I said at that last press conference in Germany, he and I had a deal, and I think he’s going to honor the deal…I have said this many times and I’ll say it again: there’s some crooked shit that goes on over in Japan. They’re all crooked. There’s some sneaky shit going on over there, and that’s always a big problem, you know. These guys who are in the fight business over there, for my Mexican friends, ‘No bueno. No bueno.’”

As for whether Cro Cop will face up-and-comer Junior dos Santos at UFC 103, as rumoured, White says, “That’s the fight I would like to see happen.” Dos Santos was scheduled to fight Justin McCully at UFC 102 but McCully confirmed on MMAjunie Radio on Wednesday that the fight isn’t going to happen, which leaves the door open for Cro Cop vs. Dos Santos,WhiteW obviously.