Mixed Martial B0nes

UFC’s Fight Night 13 is upon us tonight (Wednesday, April 2nd 2008). This event features a full stack of fighters from a number of different Ultimate Fighter shows as well as some other UFC guys under contract looking for a brawl. The fights will be aired on the SPIKE network as usual and the whole thing will last about three hours. After that, we will be treated to the next THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER. This fight card really pisses me off. You can see the entire card HERE. It doesn’t include a fight I’ve been waiting for for a LOOOONG time, so like some of the past Ultimate Fighter contestants I’m going to bitch out of doing an entire fight card analysis.

WOW! It seems like an entire world ago when we were finding out what “upper decker” meant and that Big Mac didn’t like being in the house and that grown men are always crying about something and… ok I’ll stop there. Suffice to say, I like what I saw in the tiny preview of TUF. Especially the part about fighting your way out of the house if you want to wuss out. There’s been too much whining and complaining from these guys. I already outlined just a few steps that could improve the show a while ago. I don’t think Dana got the call… at least if they get tired of getting drunk and trashing someone’s house on the UFC’s dime, they can fight their way out to palookaville.

I don’t know what to make of this card. The featured bout is Joe Lauzon vs. Kenny Florian. Bringing up almost the absolute rear is Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo. Clay was the featured fight in UFC Fight Night 12 with Ray Huerta in a match that you *really* must see again. Oh yeah, we finally get to see Manny Gamburyan and Nate Diaz in the same octagon BUT not in the SAME fight. Also, we probably wont be able to see Manny. Just Nate. I *know* Nate won TUF5, but only because Manny couldn’t continue. There has been NO rematch since and here they are together and they still aren’t fighting. I’ve already ranted about this too. UFC83’s match with GSPII vs. Serra is a part of that rant about fights we aren’t going to see. There are also other good matches like Roman Mitichyan vs. Georgie-boy Sotiropoulos that won’t be televised.

I *must* be a complete newbie biiatch not to see the genius that is Ultimate Fighting Championship. The lineup is good and has some great fighters but they could use some shuffling about. Especially if they want to promote this next Ultimate Fighter show. Hell, one of the fighters was Tim Boetsch who they dusted off the couch for UFC 81, another event with a dubious fight card. Well, I’m going to watch this… for the entire 4 hours… but, I’m not going to like it!!!

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UFC79 was as action packed as we thought it was going to be. We saw some amazing fights and the results were surprising in some of the bouts but most of them finished like we thought they would. There were a large amount of fighters coming off long lay-offs. I don’t know if this is typical in the UFC as this is only the second main event I’ve seen live. You’d think they could scare up a few more seasoned fighters for such a big fight. Luckily, the action didn’t suffer much, the guys without the mat time did that.

• Rich Clementi and Melvin Guillard came to show us a war and it was one up until the last few seconds of the first round. There was some standup action as they traded punches at first but then Clementi took it to the ground where he rules. Guillard went bye bye by rear naked choke. No huggy kissy stuff at the end of this one. There will be a rematch to be sure.
• Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Sokoudjou featured an extremely crafty veteran picking apart the “African Assassin” Soko. It wasn’t Soko dominating the standup but Lyoto. The finish to this fight came on the ground at the end of the 2nd round. Soko found himself in an arm triangle and that was all she wrote.
• Soa Palelei and Eddie Sanchez were the big boys of the night. “Big boys” meaning the 265 pounds that these two average. This fight lasted about two rounds too long. There was a lot of stand up game in this one but most of it was coming from Eddie on Soa’s face. Palelei has been out of the fight game for three years. Maybe next time they can find someone for Sanchez that will bring a game with them. The ref finally put us out of our misery late in the third round.
• Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva was the fight we’ve been looking to see for years. Well, maybe not the first minutes. They both didn’t want to stink it up by doing something stupid quickly. The first round was a standup fest and it played right into Chuck’s game. That Silva didn’t try to shoot and bring it to the ground was mysterious. The second round was about as filled with stand up pounding as we’d seen all night. It ended with with both fighters bloodied up with Silva gushing more than Chuck. The last round saw Chuck shoot first of all things. But then he settled down to pounding hell out of Silva. He moved into him with a spinning backfist and unloaded. That was about it for Silva. Chuck just hung back as the round ended than took him down to the ground in the last few seconds. There wasn’t a knockout but it was still the best fight of the night.
• Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre was scheduled right after the Liddell/Silva match. I think they were trying to knock out the audience with this decision! GSP took Hughes to the ground and dominated Hughes like crazy never really giving up the top superior position. The second round saw GSP taking Hughes down again. He slammed Hughes a number of times and completely owned him on the ground. At the end of the second it was all over for Hughes and us TUF6 fans by a verbal (”Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!!”) tapout due to a vicious arm bar. So, it looks like GSP vs. Serra is a go. WAH! This really was a disappointing showing by Hughes. Will he decide to step down and become a writer? I hope not. I’m a rookie at this, no need to compete against a veteran like Matt just yet! Stay in there and bring it on next time.
• Nate Mohr vs. Manny Gamburyan took Nate down early in the first round of their match. They traded a few punches and elbows but Manny got him by an ankle lock that maybe broke Nate’s leg. This gives us TUF fans some love by giving Manny a much deserved win in the UFC octagon. I hope we see a Gamburyan vs. Diaz rematch that proves once and for all that Manny was robbed of his chance at glory in the UFC. Watch for the Anvil in the future. He’ll be leaving a bunch of destruction in his wake!

This is it. Shake the nog induced grog that’s making your head ache. Forget about mixing it up with the rest of the soccer moms at the malls. The last great battle of 2007 UFC79:Nemesis is about to go down this weekend. Let’s see if us newbies can make any sense of it all.

We’ll take on the fodder err.. undercards of UFC79:Nemesis first.

• Mark Bocek vs. Doug Evans figures to be an action packed lightweight battle. They are both ground specialists so that figures to be a large part of their games. Look for a ground game leading to pound game. I’ll take Evans in the first.
• Roan Carneiro vs. Tony DeSouza fight at 170 lbs. DeSouza hasn’t fought a “real” match in a year so it will be an interesting test to see if his training regimen brings a win over Carneiro. I don’t see this going very long. Lack of in-game fights may be costly for Tony. Carneiro in two.
• Jordan Radev vs. Dean Lister features another fighter that’s been out of the game for a year in Dean. Look for a flurry of punches by Radev to keep Lister off the ground. Lister will be trying to match this but it may end on the ground. I’ll go out on a limb and favor the possibly rusty Lister.
• Nate Mohr vs. Manny Gamburyan is somewhat familiar territory for us newbies. Manny was the second place finisher in TUF5 losing to the other Nate, Nate Diaz by shoulder separation. By all rights, Manny would have won and he should be the The Ultimate Fighter. I’m taking Manny easily for this one and hoping he gets a shot at Diaz to prove who is who.
• Luis Cane vs. James Irvin will be a stand up, shoot down, ground and pound fest. Luis comes from the center of the MMA world: Brazil. I’m seeing Irvin wishing he was sipping some Caipirinhas instead of fists and feet on the canvas.