Young Guns' Sweep Completed: Retiring of the Old Guard at Heavyweight

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 29, 2010

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Which of these four men will be Champion in the end?

• Brock Lesnar 29.4%

• Shane Carwin 35.3%

• Cain Velasquez 18.5%

• Junior dos Santos 16.8%
• Total votes: 119

Who are the greatest heavyweights in MMA history?

Any list should include: Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Frank Mir, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović, Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Bas Rutten, Mark Kerr, Dan Severn, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and Ken Shamrock.

Some have faded into retirement, and some are still fighting today.

How many are legitimate contenders for the UFC Heavyweight title? None!

In contrast to every other division, the UFC heavyweight division has been completely cleaned out by newer, younger, and terrifyingly good fighters.

After UFC 111, the heavyweight division has just completed its total rebirth. Old familiar legends have been dropping like flies and new faces have taken over the division.

The first step was on April 21, 2007 at UFC 70. Coming in as a huge underdog, Gabriel Gonzaga delivered a crushing head kick to Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović . After that day, Cro-Cop would never be the dominant fighter he once was.

Cro-Cop would put his career back together, and took yet another run at success in the UFC. Unfortunately for Mirko, Junior dos Santos was in the way, and Junior stopped his return to greatness dead in its tracks at UFC 103.

Nov. 15, 2008, at UFC 91, Brock Lesnar defeated legendary champion Randy Couture by TKO and took his Heavyweight Title. Couture tried to come back, but lost the very next fight to Antonio "Minotauro" Rodrigo Nogueira, effectively ending his heavyweight career in MMA.

Josh Barnett has effectively juiced his way to irrelevance. He might be great, but can he stay off the steroids long enough for it to matter? At this point, he UFC is going to be as interested in Barnett as a blood bank in interested in a 30 year heroine junkie.

Fedor Emelianenko is not a factor in the UFC title hunt for obvious reasons. He's not in the UFC, and I don't think he ever will be. That is by his own choice of course.

After beating Randy Couture at UFC 102, Nogueira was back in the title picture and looking to move a step closer to a shot at the belt.

At UFC 110, the always impressive legend Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira was dropped well out of title contention at the hands of Cain Velasquez with a vicious first round knockout.

Coming into UFC 111, only one legend from the past was clinging to legitimate title contention. Frank Mir had already been thoroughly beaten at UFC 100, but his loud mouth, trash-talking, and an impressive first round win against Cheick Kongo had him back in the hunt.

At UFC 111, Shane Carwin’s crushing TKO victory dropped the final legendary heavyweight form title contention.

Frank Mir’s loss to Carwin finished the sweeping out of the old guard. The Heavyweight Division is now ruled by four new faces:

Brock Lesnar

Shane Carwin

Cain Velasquez

Junior dos Santos

Which one will reign supreme as the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion?

Fear This: Shane Carwin Destroys Mir, Earns Title Fight with Brock Lesnar

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 27, 2010

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Who will win at UFC 116, Brock or Shane

• Shane Carwin 63.9%

• Brock Lesnar 36.1%
• Total votes: 61

After many months of speculation and hype, Shane Carwin has finally fought again.

This wasn't just any fight.

This was biggest fight of his life to date. Taking on the one and a half time UFC Heavyweight Champion is no small challenge (and yes, I'm counting his time as Interim Champion as 1/2).

This is the rededicated Frank Mir who went from pure submissions artist to knocking out Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cheick Kongo in brutal fashion. This is the Frank Mir that desperately wanted to avenge his loss to Brock Lesnar.

All he had to do was get past Shane Carwin.

Well, it didn't exactly play out that way. After this one-sided beatdown, Mir is just going to have to wait.

To his credit, this is the longest fight of Carwin's career—and that's not saying much since he too didn't survive the very first round.

No shame in that Frank. Nobody has ever survived one round with "The Engineer."

The almost forgotten mass of hype seems to have been confirmed. Shane Carwin is the real deal! The man is a beast!

It was absolutely shocking to see, even though I said it would happen. Shane Carwin was grinding away at Frank Mir in the clinch. And then Shane got one of those sledgehammer fists free, and let his left hand fly with devastating results.

Mir was stunned . Several more of those crushing left hands and Mir crumpled to the floor, where Shane Carwin pounded out the victory. UFC fighters and fans alike got a resounding reminder that this man has the most dangerous hands in all of MMA.

This means we'll see a fresh face to challenge Brock Lesnar for the title at UFC 116 on July 3. Frank Mir already accounts for two-fifths of Brock Lesnar's career fights, so I'm glad we won't be seeing Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir 3 in July.

Mir is a first-rate fighter, but he was manhandled by Brock twice already. Time to see another challenger with a different skill set. And Carwin should give Brock all he can handle!

Brock is faster and probably a slightly better wrestler than Shane Carwin. Still, the disparity in wrestling skill is much less significant than you see when comparing Brock Lesnar to Frank Mir.

Carwin has better hands than Brock with more dangerous knockout power. He has Brazilian Jiu Jitzu skills, which is something that Brock Lesnar has never given us any indication of in his fights.

It's impossible to say whether Brock or Shane is the stronger man. If I had to guess, I'd say Brock but how can we truly know for certain?


As for the other results from UFC 111:

Matt Riddle might be the first fighter to win by DQ that I can remember who was absolutely dominating the fight right up to the disqualifying blow by Greg Soto . Not much reason to complain about this result.

Jared Hamman ground out a convincing three round Unanimous Decision over Rodney Wallace.

Rousimar Palhares brings his tally of heel-hook submission wins to five. His latest victim was Tomasz Drwal . With five of his 11 total victories, I think we can safely guess what Palhares favorite move is.

Ricardo Almeida pulls out a somewhat unexpected win by rear-naked choke over Matt Brown .

We're going to be subjected to Nate Diaz' loud obnoxious mouth a whole lot in the near future, as the younger Diaz brother absolutely destroyed Rory Markham by ground and pound TKO in round one. Diaz has every right to be proud of this victory, but you just know that we're all going to want to duct-tape his mouth shut in the next few days.

Jim Miller squeezes out a razor close Unanimous Decision victory over Mark Bocek .

Jon Fitch wins by Unanimous Decision once again, adding Ben Saunders to his list of victims. That brings Fitch's UD tally to 12, and we should now be able to comfortably modify his name to Jon "UD" Fitch.

I love Jon Fitch, but I do wish he'd finish an opponent every now and again. He won in dominant fashion though, and hopefully this locks up a title shot for Fitch.

Batman returns! Kurt Pellegrino came, he saw, he choked Fabricio Camoes out in the second round. Slightly surprising ending as Caomes looked like the busier submissions fighter at the beginning of the fight.

And in the main event, George "Rush" St Pierre did to Dan Hardy exactly what everyone expected: He issued a non-stop beat-down to "The Outlaw" from start to finish. Props to Dan Hardy for actually surviving that brutal beating for a full five rounds!

Quite a night of fights!

Black Power Triumphs – UFC on Versus

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 23, 2010

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Who's winning streak will end first, Jones or Junior?

• Jon Jones 53.3%

• Junior Dos Santos 46.7%
• Total votes: 30
  

Sunday was a very black day indeed.

1.) First off, the Black House triumphed again! Blazing hot Junior Dos Santos took out Gabriel Gonzaga with an impressive first round knockout. Shame on anyone who still doubts “Cigano” the man looks like an unstoppable force right now.

Can somebody get this man a title shot already? The Black House gym already three of Zuffa’s title belts (Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo). Let’s see if they can make it four!

Ideally, Brock Lesnar’s second-string dance partner for this summer, Cain Velasquez would be the ideal match up for Junior. Just as long as Brock does not require Cain’s services as substitute title-fighter of course.

2.) If anyone ever wanted to know, “what is the best strategy for beating Paul Buentello in embarrassing fashion,” Cheick Kongo has shown us the way.

Paul is a boxer-brawler with incredible punching power, but he’s not very good with his kicks and striking from the outside. He’s also a pretty mediocre grappler though has very good takedown defense.

Formula to win: Fight a striking match with kicks from the outside. When Paul Buentello inevitably closes to unload a flurry of punches, immediately shoot for the takedown. Deny him the chance to stand and trade punches.

But here’s the trick: You’ve got to successfully score the takedown. Prior to Sunday night, if you had told me that Cheick Kongo would take Buentello down at will, I’d have laughed.

I’m not laughing now!

Welcome to the UFC Cheick Kongo the wrestler and takedown artist. What did you do to the old Cheick Kongo anyways?

Soon, we may find ourselves bidding a fond farewell to Paul Buentello’s latest run in the UFC. Paul is one of the last extremely successful one-dimensional fighters in MMA.

I can’t imagine that Dana White will give up on “The Headhunter” just yet. He’ll definitely get one more fight. Lose that one and Dana will send Buentello packing. Three strikes in a row and your out.

3.) Jon Jones doubters have been put on notice. Not only can “Bones” can beat down the best of them. He can consistently make very good fighters look very bad.

What more can be said than this: This was Brandon “The Truth” Vera. You remember, that one guy that Randy Couture simply couldn’t figure out how to take down despite three rounds of trying?

That same Brandon Vera got taken down EASILY by Jon Jones. Not just once but more or less at will. If Vera had survived into the later rounds, this would have been a takedown and slam festival.

Let us offer our deepest condolences to Brandon’s face. The elbow Jones delivered to stop the fight broke Vera's face in three places.

Matt Hamill got a dislocated shoulder courtesy of Jonny “Bones” Jones. Brandon Vera got a shattered face. Now you’ve gotta wonder, who’s crazy enough to be Jones’ next victim?

This was an excellent showing and an excellent card. The clearest indication that it was a very good night: There were THREE recipients for knockout of the night honors.

UFC Title Fight Round Up Part Two: Welterweight – The British Are Coming!

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 11, 2010

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Who is the biggest threat to GSP right now?

• Dan Hardy 17.2%

• Jon Fitch 13.8%

• Paul Daley 22.4%

• Paulo Thiago 8.6%

• Josh Koscheck 13.8%

• Nick Diaz 8.6%

• BJ Penn 15.5%
• Total votes: 58
  

This year should be an interesting year in Mixed Martial Arts. The return of Brock Lesnar, the rematch of Machida vs Shogun and Strikeforce making it's run at trying to compete with the UFC.

The UFC is currently blessed with three champions that every MMA expert out there considers unbeatable kings of their divisions: BJ Penn, George St Pierre and Anderson Silva.

But saying that a fighter is unbeatable is one thing. It must be put to the test fight after fight in order to remain true. Some voices out there clamor for the dominant champions to retire so their divisions can be interesting again.

I couldn't disagree more.

There is absolutely nothing in this world that does more to promote your sport like a dominant champion. How much did Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson hurt boxing by their domination? They didn't. All they did was massively increase the popularity of boxing.

The Miami Dolphins, Pittsburg Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots all took turns dominating football, and the sport has risen to greater popularity than anyone would have imagined.

There's nothing like a living legend to put your sport on the map. New fans have something constant for a point of reference in each weight division. Long-time fans can spend countless hours trying to figure out "who's gonna beat the champ and how are they gonna to do it?"

Almost across the board, the title picture for each and every weight class gives us plenty to talk about.

So proceeding to Welterweight:

Current Champion: George St Pierre [19 wins, 2 losses] George St Pierre is an incredible athlete. His only career losses were to former or future champions and in both cases a valuable lesson was learned. Against Hughes he learned that too much respect for your opponent was foolishness. Against Serra he learned that in spite of his outstanding striking skills, anyone can get caught on the button and knocked out.

So you have to prevent it from ever happening again. George has adapted his game to avoid losing to strikers by nullifying their ability to strike in the clinch and in takedowns. His ground game completely outclasses any Welterweight in the world today. The trouble with finding good match ups for GSP is simple: He's already beaten all the best Welterweights in the world.

So what do you do? For now you go to up-and-coming stars. And when that fails you resort to rematches with guys he's already beaten.

Next challenger for Welterweight Title: Dan Hardy

Dan Hardy [23-6] - "The Outlaw" is unquestionably a tough fighter with a lot of talent. Hardy is probably a better fighter that a lot of people give him credit. He hasn't lost by stoppage in five years. He's on a 4-0 win streak in the UFC. What we've seen from Dan Hardy is a fighter, who consistently wins, but not always in impressive fashion. Against GSP, Dan would need to stop an unstoppable takedown machine. Once it goes to the ground, it's all GSP. Hardy is tough and he'll make a fight out of it, but I don’t think his takedown defense is up to the task.

My prediction: St Pierre by ground and pound TKO/KO in round 3.

Contenders who are on the verge of a title shot:

John Fitch [21-3] - Fitch is an amazing fighter. With a record of 11 wins and 1 loss in the UFC, nobody has ever beaten him in the octagon but GSP. The problem with Fitch is that he's not that much different of a fighter since losing a five round beat-down to GSP two years ago. If he beats Thiago Alves and earns himself a title shot, I think it's only right that Fitch gets another crack at GSP. I also think it'll be de ja vu all over again, with GSP winning every round but Fitch never stopping.

My Prediction: George St Pierre by Unanimous Decision.

Paul “Semtex” Daley [23-8] - Everybody loves a devastating striker, and Paul Daley just might be the most dangerous 170 pound striker in the world right now. 18 of his 23 wins came by knockout. But his glaring weakness is in the past has been his ground game, with 5 submission losses there. If he can beat Josh Koscheck, he'll have proven that he can beat a guy with elite wrestling and grappling skills. If your takedown defense is good enough to stop Koscheck, you just might be able to keep the fight with GSP standing long enough to actually use that devastating power to full effect. IF Semtex actually gets to the title shot by beating Koscheck, then I'm going to go way out on a limb by predicting an upset.

Paul Daley by 2nd round KO.

Paulo Thiago [13-1] - There have been few fighters who have made a bigger splash in the UFC recently, all while garnering minimal attention. Paulo has chalked up stoppage wins over Koscheck and Swick, and beating fighters of that caliber means your a contender. A Unanimous Decision loss to Jon Fitch means you get to sit down and wait awhile for a title shot. Thiago has an excellent ground game and enough power in his hands to KO Josh Koscheck, which is no small feat. With a win over Martin Kampmann, Paulo Thiago could line himself up for a title shot in the very near future. And how would the fight with GSP go?

I'm predicting George St Pierre by TKO in Round 4.

Josh Koscheck [16-4] - Here's your long-shot contender. Josh Koscheck already lost to the champion in 2007. Since then, he's lost to Thiago Alves and Paulo Thiago. At this point, Koscheck needs to string together a few impressive victories in a row in order to build a case for himself for a title shot. Beating Anthony Johnson was a good first step. Beating Paul Daley would be another solid step in the right direction. Rematch wins over Thiago Alves and Paulo Thiago would seal the deal. So how does Josh stack up against George St Pierre? I would say he's very similar to GSP -- almost a rough copy of the champion. He's also inferior to GSP in all areas. Koscheck would make a good fight of it though.

My prediction: George St Pierre by 5th round TKO.

The Welterweight division is the one division that the UFC absolutely dominates. There are very, very few legitimate threats to GSP outside the UFC.

You have Nick Diaz, Jay Hieron, Akihiro Gono, Dan Hornbuckle and Marius Zaromskis. Out of that group, the best Welterweight outside the UFC is Nick Diaz. While he was with the UFC, he struggled against UFC Welterweights. Since leaving, he's chalked up a lot of wins, but it certainly hasn't been over top competition. I don't think I'm really sold on Nick Diaz as the guy with the tools to dethrone George St Pierre.

George St Pierre is an incredibly dominant champion. If there is an MMA fighter you could point to as an example of a perfect specimen, it would be George. He has great skills everywhere: Great striking, great wrestling, great Brazilian Jiu Jitzu, overwhelming strength, incredible work ethic and he’s constantly adapting and improving. It makes finding the right formula for beating him a daunting task indeed!

GSP is the best in the world. He seems unbeatable right now. But in order to remain the best in the world, you've got to continue to fight and beat the best in the world.

UFC Title Fight Round Up Part One: Lightweight

by

Kevin Sampson

Correspondent Written on March 09, 2010

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Who has the best chance of beating BJ Penn?

• Frankie Edgar 8.7%

• Gray Maynard 5.4%

• Takanori Gomi 10.9%

• George Sotiropoulos 26.1%

• Shinya Aoki 31.5%

• Eddie Alvarez 17.4%

• Mizuto Hirota 0.0%
• Total votes: 92

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This year should be an interesting year in Mixed Martial Arts. The return of Brock Lesnar, the rematch of Machida vs Shogun, and Strikeforce making it's run at trying to compete with the UFC.

The UFC is currently blessed with three champions that virtually every MMA expert out there considers unbeatable kings of their divisions: BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

But saying that a fighter is unbeatable is one thing. It must be put to the test fight after fight in order to remain true. Some voices out there clamor for the dominant champions to retire so their divisions can be interesting again.

I couldn't disagree more!! There is absolutely nothing in this world that does more to promote your sport like a dominant champion.

How much did Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson hurt boxing by their domination of the sport? Well, actually they didn't! All they did was make themselves household names and massively increase the popularity of boxing in the process.

The Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, and New England Patriots all took turns dominating football, and the sport has risen to greater popularity than anyone would have imagined.

There's nothing like living legends to put your sport on the map. New fans have something constant for a point of reference. "Oh so this Georges St Pierre guy is unbeatable at Welterweight, got it." Long-time fans can spend countless hours speculating about "who's gonna beat the champ and how are they gonna to do it?"

Almost across the board, the title picture for each and every weight class gives us plenty to talk about.

Let's begin at Lightweight.

Champion: BJ Penn [MMA record: 15 Wins, 5 Losses, 1 Draw] [* 12 Wins, 1 Loss and 1 Draw as a Lightweight]
Next Title fight: BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

Contenders who may be in line for a title shot in the near future:

Frankie Edgar - Good technical striker with adequate ground game. Not the world's greatest in either area of course, but good enough to hold his own against almost anyone. Frankie probably won't be looking to take the fight to the ground, so he'll have to beat Penn at the striking game, a very tall order indeed. My prediction: BJ Penn by third round TKO/KO.

Gray Maynard - Gray reminds me so much of Jon Fitch, and he seems to fit that role at Lightweight. Powerful and strong wrestler with decent striking. Most importantly, he always fights a way to squeeze out a win. And like Fitch, you could add "Unanimous Decision Victory" as a nickname. Maynard has some power in his strikes, but he's not a very good technical striker.

BJ has more power and better technique at striking. The key to this match up is takedown defense. If Diego Sanchez couldn't get BJ to the ground, I don't think Gray will do much better. Even GSP had a hard time taking down BJ Penn.

Even if Gray can get BJ to the ground, he's outclassed there as well. My prediction: BJ Penn by fourth Round KO/TKO.

Takanori Gomi - Any potential fight between "the Fireball Kid" and "the Prodigy" is contingent on one thing. Gomi has to beat Kenny Florian. I don't think he can, but if he does then he deserves an immediate title shot. Gomi is still technically the Pride FC champion since no unification bout ever occurred yet .

He's a very well rounded and very experienced fighter. His greatest strength is in his striking. He has a pretty good ground game but it's the weakest part of his arsenal. If he can get past Florian, I predict Gomi will lose the same way he lost in their last fight: Submission in the Third Round.

George Sotiropoulos - Here is your dark horse in the running. George just got past the gatekeeper Joe Stevenson. Now we'll see how he does against the big dogs at Lightweight. The more I look at George Sotiropoulos the more it strikes me that this guy is a lot better than anyone realizes. I'll feel a lot more convinced of that if he can win a fight against a top 10 Lightweight.

The only way he gets a title-fight is by winning his next two fights, and they're guaranteed to be against top notch fighters. This will tell us a lot more about how good George really is. If he wins through, my prediction is BJ Penn by Unanimous Decision.

The Lightweight Division is one of the few instances where most of the compelling match ups would be with non-UFC fighters. Truthfully, the most interesting potential matchups remaining for BJ Penn right now are with fighters that are not in the UFC:

Shinya Aoki - Probably the only Lightweight in the world who is probably better than Penn on the ground, Aoki is a brilliant ground fighter. He's so good at it that his abysmal striking game is seldom ever exposed. Shinya Aoki is the consensus No. 2 Lightweight in the world right now.

The challenge before him is that BJ Penn is almost impossible to get to the ground. If the UFC can make this fight happen, be prepared for Aoki to pull guard all night, but fail to get it to the ground. My prediction: BJ Penn by fourth round KO/TKO

Eddie Alvarez - Eddie Alvarez is the best challenge in the world for BJ Penn right now. He's is superb on the ground or standing. He's just an incredibly tough dude. Eddie is probably an even match for BJ standing and trading strikes. He's not BJ equal on the ground, but has the wrestling and grappling credentials to keep the fight standing. My prediction: BJ by Split Decision.

Mizuto Hirota – Hirota is very similar to Eddie Alvarez. Tough as nails and good in every aspect of MMA. In his 17 fights, he has never been knocked out and had never been submitted until Shinya Aoki just recently did the honors on Dec. 31, 2009. Hirota refused to tap and had his arm broken, proving that he's very tough but probably a bit foolish. My prediction: BJ by third round submission.

To be perfectly honest, I think BJ Penn defeated the two biggest threats to his title on the planet in his last two fights: Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. Florian in particular has absolutely dominated at Lightweight. He never loses to anyone outside of a title fight.

The fighters outside the UFC are no better than the UFC's list of contenders, but they are better than what's left in the UFC. I think Diego and Florian can beat all three of these non-UFC fighters. Trouble is, they already lost to the champion in convincing fashion, so a rematch will be a long time coming for either of them.

BJ Penn seems unbeatable at Lightweight right now, but for that to remain true, he has to continue to prove it against the best fighters in the world.