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

Shinya Aoki – minus those magic grappling pants of his – will make his highly anticipated Strikeforce debut in a lightweight title bout with champ Gilbert Melendez on the promotion’s April 17 card. Aoki’s DREAM title will not be on the line, although bragging rights will be. Aoki has made it clear he believes he’s the top 155-pounder on the planet and the way he snapped Mizuto Hirota’s arm in two during Dynamite!! 2009 on New Years Eve certainly solidified his reputation as a stone-cold killer.

Aoki vs. Melendez is the third title bout scheduled for that particular Strikeforce card. Gegard Mousasi will put his light heavyweight title on the line against “King Mo” Lawal and Jake Shields will defend the middleweight belt against Dan Henderson.

Just last week I complained that Josh Barnett isn’t fighting (outside of Japanese pro wrestling and local submission wrestling tournament) and he should be. Yes, the steroid scandal is still hanging over his head, but that’s really an issue for the California State Athletic Commission.

Well, somebody was listening because MMA Weekly is reporting that the former UFC, PRIDE and Affliction fighter has signed with DREAM and will make his promotion debut on March 22 against a still-unannounced opponent. Barnett was once the number two heavyweight in the world and has beaten the likes of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture.

I absolutely don’t want UFC welterweight contender Dan Hardy to die of AIDS or any other disease, unlike Marcus Davis, who tweeted the vulgar, vile sentiment earlier today. It’s worse than Frank Mir wanting Brock Lesnar to die in the octagon. Mir’s a loudmouthed goofball. What he said was outrageous to the point of ridiculous and a classic example of poor judgment. But Davis takes it much further.

Davis is obviously still sore about losing to Hardy via split decision last June and derailing his run toward a title shot while one fight later Hardy earned exactly that. But there’s something reprehensible about throwing out AIDS in an insult like that. If he was joking the it’s a sick, tasteless joke. If he was serious, then he’s just sick.

Besides, the death of Dan Hardy would deprive us of this napalm strike he leveled at fellow UFC fighters from the comfort and safety of his blog:

I am a big underdog against GSP and every interview, every day, in emails from fans, I’m getting asked: ‘How do you expect to beat GSP?’ and ‘Do you think you deserve a title shot?’

I am getting those questions all the time, like GSP is some kind of god and shouldn’t even have to defend his title.

GSP has already beaten most of the top contenders. They’ve had their chance, while I haven’t.

I’ve beaten everyone the UFC has put in front of me; I’ve never turned down a fight and I am not about to now.

I would have been happy having a couple more fights before getting my shot, but I was offered a spot as a late replacement against Mike Swick in a final eliminator in November, accepted, and beat him up.

It’s funny Swick is now moaning that I didn’t deserve this shot. Swick should have kept his mind off me and on his last opponent, Paulo Thiago, and maybe he wouldn’t have been beaten again.

Nate Marquardt is another guy who has been vocal that I am getting some sort of preferential treatment from the UFC.

He’s a middleweight, so I can’t see how this concerns him. But all I can say is if I don’t curl up into a ball and get blasted in one round, I’ll do better than he did in his title shot against Anderson Silva.

I’ve won four UFC bouts to get here, not-so-great Nate had three, none of which were against world-beaters.

I am very amused Josh Koscheck is still bitching his lungs out that he deserves a title shot, not me.

British fans will know Koscheck as the Fraggle-haired guy who got sparked out in one round in London a year ago, only to take his loss out on an innocent chair backstage, scoring a split decision points win over the unsuspecting piece of furniture.

If you’ve forgotten that fight (and if you blinked, you’d have missed it) you’ll see something very similar in May when Paul Daley knocks him out.

Koscheck says I have beaten nobodies but my latest win was over his supposed friend and team-mate in Swick.

How loyal. That’s why Jon Fitch isn’t improving, why Koscheck has so many one-sided losses on his record and why Swick will never fight for a title.

They aren’t really a team, they don’t have each others’ best interests at heart and clearly there’s a lack of respect in that gym.

Who the hell was the casting director for season eleven of The Ultimate Fighter? My guess is David Lynch, because this is the freakiest, douchiest, crash-test-dummiest group of fighters I have ever seen. I see at least one Dustin Hazelett, one Junie Browning and a couple of JT Taylors in the bunch. Not to mention a “published poet.” Seriously, read his and all the others’ bios over here. Although I suggest you skip that – most fight-related info is pretty meaningless at this point – and go over to Cage Potato, which has picked out a few humorous highlights, like this one:

Ben Stark was “a practitioner of the Orthodox Jewish religion until the age of 6,” which is about the most meaningless piece of biographical information one can imagine since it tells us about the religious choices he made before he was at an age where he was allowed to make choices about religion. He also breeds snakes though, and that’s pretty sweet.

TUF 11 Cast Announced

If you tuned in to Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers card you probably heard commentator Mauro Ranallo hyping a huge announcement to be made on Monday. Turns out the big news is that Strikeforce has signed glass-jawed former UFC heavyweight champ Andre Arlovski.

What? Oh, Arlovski inking a multi-fight deal starting with Antoinio “Big Foot” Silva on May 15 isn’t the big Strikeforce news?

Nope, turns out that heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, who’s been MIA from Strikeforce for a couple of years now while he fought in Japan and Europe, has confirmed to MMA Junkie that he will defend his title on that same May 15 card and his likely opponent of Brett Rogers. Good news if it’s true. I won’t believe it until I see the cage door shit, er, shut behind Overeem.

As for Arlovski, laugh if you want but I’m not as quick to write the Bellarusian off no matter how suspect his chin. Sure, he lost his last two MMA fights. Okay, he got freight-trained by Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers (in that order). But before that he’d won five in a row. And he still only 31 years old. He may never be champ, but he’s a great gatekeeper and a recognizable (i.e. marketable) commodity. Strikeforce could use that right about now, Overeem or no Overeem.

Is this one of the grossest arm breaks in MMA history? Cage Potato says it is, claims you’ll puke on your keyboard when you see it. I’m not so sure. I mean, I appreciate the hyperbole and all, but I’m not typing through this morning’s breakfast.

The fight was at Tuff-N-Uff (stupid name, stupider spelling) in Las Vegas on Friday. John Gettle, a student of Frank Mir’s, gets mount on William Kowalski, who seems to have channeled Renzo Gracie and decided that tapping is for pussies (also stupid, very very stupid).

The results are certainly cringe-worthy and wince-inducing. And there is something about the way the arm rubber bands after the snap. But I wouldn’t even say it’s the worst of the of the last couple of months. It’s nothing compared to Shinya Aoki’s brutal mangling of Mizuto Hirota’s wing. What do you think?

Just saw the ad for OxyMorons, a new film starring Tim Sylvia (and, strangely, sponsored by Affliction; watch the end of the trailer) about OxyContin addiction. A powerful – and powerfully addictive – opiate, Oxy is also known as hillbilly heroin.

Someone must think that the same people who watch MMA are the same people who like to get high. Which is maybe why Sylvia, whom Barrett wrote about earlier today, is scheduled to fight against five-time World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski this April 23 in Worchester, Mass. The event is being promoted by Butterbean.

Laugh all you want, but half of you reading this are probably high right now…

I’m finding this hilarious. Tim Sylvia was supposed to fight Wes Sims at an Adrenaline MMA show on March 20, but the Ohio Athletic Commission killed it by deeming the bout “non-competitive.” That’s an understatement. I can’t think of a less-competitive match-up not involving Kalib Starnes or Junie Browning.

But that’s not what I find so funny. No, what makes me laugh is a story I read in the Telegraph-Journal, the first newspaper I ever worked for back in New Brunswick. Turns out that MMA is coming to Saint John, NB, and it’s bringing the Sylvia-Sims sideshow with it.

The battle of the heavyweight has-been vs. never-was will headline a ten-bout International Fighting Confederation event tentatively scheduled for June 5. Never mind that nobody wanted to see Sylvia face Sims the first time it happened, at another no-name event six years ago.

Now, I’m all for MMA coming to my hometown. I think it speaks to the sport’s exploding popularity that an MMA event would be put on in such a small community. And it’s great that the first event there has managed to land a couple of fighters with UFC experience. Hell, Sylvia was UFC heavyweight champ for a while and has lost to some of the best fighters in the game (Fedor Emelianenko, Minotauro Nogueira, Randy Couture, Frank Mir) and Sims was on The Ultimate Fighter.

But something about it has the feel of the Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling cards that used to swing through town like a traveling circus when I was a kid. I’d plunk down two bucks to see guys like Leo Burke and “Big” Stephen Petitpas smackdown with the Cuban Assassin and “Killer” Karl Krupp at the Lord Beaverbrook Arena on Tuesday nights.

Maybe it’s that the event’s promoter, Jack Livingston, is more accustomed to putting on shows featuring Aerosmith and 50 Cent than pro fighters. Maybe it’s his PT Barnum shpiel, declaring Sylvia vs. Sims “a world championship fight with these two super athletes.” A fight that a lot of people – including one very important athletic commission – has declared non-competitive.

Obviously, Livingston knows nothing about MMA and is just looking at this as an opportunity to make a buck. Speaking of which, tickets for the event range in price from $59.50 to $99.50 for cageside, which Livingstone notes is a lot more affordable than similar events in Montreal that charge upwards or $300 or more. I’m assuming he’s referring to the pricey UFC cards Montreal has hosted, although he sounds pretty ridiculous comparing his little event to anything remotely resembling the UFC.

Almost makes me wish I still lived back east so I could see what all of Livingston’s fuss is about.

Here’s how it breaks down, according to the comments made in this promo video:

Georges St. Pierre is on a whole other level than everybody else in the welterweight division. Dan Hardy says that doesn’t matter because he’s has had more fights than GSP.

GSP says that Hardy is the toughest opponent he’s ever faced. Either he’s forgotten about BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, hell even Matt Serra, or he’s just being really, really, really generous.

Hardy’s plan is to hit GSP as many times as he can before he gets taken to the ground and then to get back to his feet and do it again. Okay, I’m with him on the first two parts of that plan. It’s the whole “get back to his feet” part that I’m stumbling over. Who gets back to their feet that St. Pierre doesn’t let get back to their feet?

Hardy also asks how many of the fans’ favourite fighters does he have to beat before they take him seriously. Hmm…good question. First, let’s consider all those fan favourites that Hardy has beaten – there’s Mike Swick maybe, or Marcus Davis, or maybe he means Akihiro Gono. All fan favourites compared to Hardy, who sets himself up as the heel, but none of them are what I’d call favourites in the sense that fans are buying their T-shirts and cheering them on regardless of who they fight.

Okay, on to Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin for the utterly meaningless interim heavyweight belt and a “guarantee” of a shot at Brock Lesnar’s title. Hyperbole all the way considering UFC president Dana White was clear that Cain Velasquez is also in that mix following his destruction of Minotauro Nogueira at UFC 110.

I do get a kick out of Carwin’s comment about his penchant for rendering opponents unconscious: “I’m just competitive and I know that knocking ‘em out wins.”

Oh, and Mir’s obsession with Lesnar is creepy and borderline unhealthy.

Sarah Kaufman is the newly crowned Strikeforce women’s 135-pound champion. No surprise there. Anything but a win would have been considered a huge upset. Kaufman seriously out-struck the challenger, Japanese grappling phenom Takayo Hashi, for five full rounds en route to the unanimous decision win at Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event.

She shrugged off Hashi’s few (and feeble) takedown attempts, and while Kaufman is no slouch on the ground, she had no interest in swimming with the shark, preferring to let Hashi get back up every time she was knocked down (which was often). The result was, well, it was a smart gameplan perfectly executed by Kaufman, although watching from home it reminded me of Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites. It was a little on the dull side.

Hashi was clearly powerless on her feet yet Kaufman seemed reluctant to go in for the kill. She played it safe. Safe doesn’t mean exciting but it is smart, especially when there’s a title on the line. I don’t blame Kaufman at all. She showed cage intelligence, never allowed Hashi an opening to mount any sort of serious assault.

Yes, it’s her third straight decision win after eight consecutive KO or TKO victories. As a fan, I want to see knockouts and submissions, especially from a fighter like Kaufman, who’s fully capable of pulling off both. What I got was a striking clinic – stiff, head-snapping jabs, sharp rights and inside leg kids as she stalked Hashi for 25 minutes.

After the fight she apologized to fans for not being able to finish Hashi as she’d hoped. This morning, she went for her traditional day-after-battle run. Think about that – she goes five dominating rounds (that didn’t exactly leave her unbloodied) and less than twelve hours later she’s hitting the pavement. Nothing to apologize for if you ask me.

There were a couple of other notable fights on the rather lackluster card. Rolles Gracie look-alike Luke Rockhold scored an impressive first-round TKO over Paul Bradley in their middleweight tilt. Right hooks and kicks did all the damage to the seriously outclassed Bradley. Meanwhile, the co-main event between wrestler Trevor Prangley and striker Karl Amoussou ended with a poke in Amoussou’s eye and a technical draw due to doctor’s stoppage. Too bad, too, because Amoussou looks like one dangerous cat.

A little dosey doe is going on with the June 15 UFC 115 card in Vancouver. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was expected to meet Ben Rothwell, who pulled out of their UFC 110 fight with an illness, but instead will square off with Pat Barry. Meanwhile, Rothwell will fight Gilbert Yvel, who was expected to face Barry. I really like this switch-up. It puts Cro Cop against an equally dangerous striker in Barry, a former K-1 kickboxer, while forcing Yvel to let his hands fly against Rothwell. Somebody’s going to get knocked out.

For the record, I’m predicting Kaufman by first-round TKO in tonight’s Strikeforce Challengers women’s 135-pound title bout.

I’m pretty sure most or MMA’s female fans would prefer Georges St. Pierre had made that naked workout video. They’ll have to settle for him fully clothed in this Under Armour ad. As a side note, is it just me or does Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps look like Office star John Krasinski?

My gut reaction upon seeing this Peeping Tom video of Chuck Liddell and girlfriend Heidi Northcott getting buff in the buff was to throw up a little bit in my mouth. There are somethings I just don’t need to see. Liddell’s little Iceman slapping thighs is one of them, even if it’s blurry.

Turns out the clip was staged. It’s a viral video advertising the new Reebok ZigTech sneakers, the only thing Liddell is wearing while he exercises. It’s actually the second Reebok video the Ultimate Fighter coach has been in – he appeared, along with a handful of other sports stars, in a video featuring Jersey Shore’s Pauly D and “The Situation.”

And while I may need a breath mint after watching it, I have to admit that it does the trick. Now I have no idea what it will do for sales of Reeboks (MMA fighters don;t wear shoes in the cage so I’m not sure how being associated with Liddell will help). But it is bringing MMA more mainstream exposure – latenight talking head Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the naked Chuck clip in his monologue yesterday.

Strikeforce continues to baffle with its scheduling skills. The heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum thought to be on tap for the promotion’s April 17 card airing on CBS has been moved to a yet to be scheduled May event (that will likely air on Showtime, considering there’s little chance CBS will air back-to-back cards).

That leaves Jake Shields to defend his middleweight belt against Dan Henderson and a still-rumoured bout between light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal to entertain on CBS. While it makes sense not to put all their eggs in one basket, having Fedor on that card with Henderson, Shields and Mousasi would have been must-see TV. Oh, and still no sign of heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem. Maybe Strikeforce should put out an APB.