Mixed Martial B0nes

Trouble comes in threes people and this month is NO exception. We’ve got major events from the UFC, WEC and EliteXC all happening within a week of each other. UFC 84 is scheduled for Saturday, May 24th. The UFC as well as UFC 84 has lived up to its name “Ill Will” for sure. What with Tito Ortiz doing battle with Dana White taking up all the news. And, Oh yeah, how about Chris Leben violating his parole by getting a DUI and then turning himself into jail? Luckily he wasn’t scheduled to fight in this one. “Ill” is certainly the operative word here. Let’s see what we’ve got…

Thiago Silva(11-0-0) Vs. Antonio Mendes(14-2-0) Here we have two very very tough customers squaring off in the Octagon. I’ll have to give Silva the edge here as Mendes is debuting in the UFC in this event. They both have impressive records but going from a small pond to the big sea is probably the experience that Mendes will have. Silva in 2.

Tito Ortiz(16-5-1) Vs. Lyoto Machida(12-0-0) Ortiz has had it with the UFC and this will be his last fight in the organization… until both he and Dana figure out that they can make more money being mad at each other together than if they we’re happy and apart. Machida is riding quite a win streak. His last fight in the UFC was a somewhat surprising win in UFC 79:Nemesis over Soko who’s fighting the undercard. I’m thinking the fading Ortiz will find his second wind and choke out Lyoto in the 3rd.

Wilson Gouveia(10-4-0) Vs. Goran Reljic(7-0-0) Here is another newcomer with a stellar record going against a salty UFC veteran. This seems to be the theme of this event. I guess, after Dana’s housecleaning this year, the stable had to be refilled with more fighters. I’m going out on a limb here and will predict a shocker win by Reljic over Gouveia in the 1st. Stranger things have happened!

Wanderlei Silva(31-8-1) Vs. Keith Jardine(13-4-1) It’s the “Axe Murderer” versus “The Dean of Mean.” Wanderlei didn’t have quite the fight he expected in UFC79 versus Chuck Liddell i.e. he lost! His days in the fight game are coming to a close so a few wins here and there would probably help his pocketbook as well as his street cred back in Brazil. He didn’t draw a cupcake in Jardine. He has earned his reputation by putting the hurt on both Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin. I thought Wanderlei was going to handle Chuck in UFC79. I was wrong. Well, maybe this time I’ll be right when I say: Silva in 3 by decision.

BJ Penn(13-4-1) Vs. Sean Sherk(35-2-1) This is the main event of the evening and for good reason. BJ, “The Progidy” has proven himself to be one recently in UFC80. Sherk proved himself last in UFC73. Although he also proved to be hopped up on performance enhancing drugs. It was a long battle for him to get reinstated to the UFC. In the mean time BJ has just been piling on the wins and training like a madman. I think Sherk will put up a good fight but then say “night night” once Penn puts a rear naked choke on him and the tappity tappity starts to happen in the 3rd.

This is one big and stacked event. The full fight card really is packed with great fighters and fights. It makes me wonder why on earth some of these fights aren’t on the main card. Oh well, at least if these fights don’t live up to the hype, there will be two more next week to calm our fears or make them worse. Trouble *does* come in threes!

This past week has come over me like a storm and I’ve been amiss in commenting on the MMA action from WEC and EliteXC that went down. We’ll cover just a little bit of each because I have to get my head straight for what will be another packed month of action. There were championships on the line in both the WEC 33 and EliteXC events. We got to see some action from Doug Marshall and Brian Stan on the WEC side. Cung Le and Frank Shamrock were battling on the EliteXC side. Who would stand and who would fall? Let’s find out!

Both champs underestimated their opponents. Let us begin with my favorite organization, the WEC. Doug Marshall came out swinging like a mad man and was seemingly doing ok with Stann in the standup game. This was his undoing. Stann was the bigger man with a better reach. At about a minute and a half in the first, Marshall fell like a brick. He might have had a chance in the ground game as Stann is relatively new at this but Marshall hasn’t showed a lot of submission work so far. Stann looks like the real deal and it will be difficult to come up with a fighter that can match him. There’s probably a few guys in the UFC that are fighting at the crowded light heavyweight division there that might chance it.

Other fights in the WEC 33 event were pretty great as well. Chael Sonnen gave the unbeaten Bryan Baker a clinic in submissions and takedowns. This puts him back into contention for the championship against Paulo Filho. Maybe this time he won’t get his arm caught in a weird position at the very last minute? Steve Cantwell took down and submitted Tim “The Wrecking Machine” McKenzie. Rich Crunkilton bloodied up Sergio Gomez something fierce. I thought they would stop the fight but Gomez didn’t seem to be affected by all that blood sloshing out the back of his head. Next time keep your hands up Gomez!

OK, EliteXC. I’ll be covering this more when the Saturday Night Fights come into play on CBS. For now, lets just say that a new King of San Jose was crowned on Saturday, March the 29th. King of San freakin’ Jose???!? I guess that makes me the King of South East La Mesa 7-11′s Back Alley. Frank Shamrock had no answer for Cung Le’s legwork. I wish I could have seen this in person. Finally! A MMA’r that knows how to kick! Cung kept piling on the kicks to Frank and kept him at arms length which is exactly what kicks are great for. Shamrock was able to get inside a few times and lay the wood down on Le, but it was too little too late. He complained in between rounds that his arm was killing him. He was right, there was a fracture and he couldn’t continue. Cung is KING! well… of San Jose at least.

Holy Smokes! We’ll be getting a bunch more action from both WEC and EliteXC later this month. EliteXC will get major support from CBS TV for its Saturday Night Fights. It also helps that Kimbo (Flippin’) Slice will be headlining that card. WEC 34 will feature a title match between Little Evil Jens Pulver and Uriah Faber. Wow. That will be something else. Best part of all? It’s all free as in BEER! Let’s all pop a frosty beverage and get comfortable for some good old fashioned head smashing!

Oops! I guess I am… I’ve looked at my stories for the last couple of months and it’s REALLY looking like I don’t spend any time on anything other than the UFC and it’s little bro the WEC. I guess it’s kind of understandable but there are other leagues and types of martial arts out there. It’s just that the UFC and the WEC keep pumping out event after event and it’s hard for a guy with a day job to keep up. Soooo, without further adieu, here are five other happenings in the world of MMA that are worth checking out:

1) The World Combat League. This is Chuck Norris’ baby. If you like standup action and can’t stand the site of two half naked guys hugging each other for 3 to 15 minutes, this is the place for you. He’s organized it into a team sport. There’s no pu$$yfooting around here. You go flat out for 3 minutes and don’t you dare back down. It’s some pretty exciting stuff in an oddly old school way.

2) The International Fight League. If you want the teams and the grappling together, then you have to go here to the IFL. They try to inject a little bit of the NFL nomenclature here so you’ll here a lot of “it’s different once you get to the playoffs” and “it is what it is.” It still *IS* MMA though. So if you need MMA with your NFL, this is the league for you.

3) Yaw Yan Ardigma Makati. Fighting from the Far East. Filipino MMA is pretty brutal stuff. We likey!

4) Elite XC. This league has been around for a while and fights could be seen on Showtime but there really hasn’t been any reason to pay up for these fights until now. Why now? 2 words: Kimbo Slice.

5) The Iron Ring on BET. BET???!!? Yes *that* BET. And again, there really isn’t any reason to waste your time watching this show except for two… no make it THREE big aaaaish words: KIMBO FREAKING SLICE!