You can watch UFC 79 live on Pay Per View on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 10PM EST live from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.

While many fans of MMA watching last nights WEC middleweight title fight between Chael Sonnen and Paulo Filho May feel that Filho looked unimpressive, or undeserving of his top two ranking. Thats because for most of the fight, he was being manhandled and punished by the unranked Sonnen, before securing an armlock from the guard at the 4:55 mark of the 2nd round.

However, it’s important to remember that in the opening 10 seconds of the first round, Sonnen landed two solid right hands to Filho’s face and then slammed him on his head. This is (to my jiu-jitsu way of thinking) where the fight really begins.

You see, Jiu-jitsu isn’t about Hollywood style frenzied action, or high lite reel KOs. It’s about being able to defend yourself against a bigger, stronger, attacker who is trying to beat the crap out of you. Witch is exactly what we saw last night. Sonnen was doing a pretty good job of pushing the “action” by trying to KO Filho via GNP, but when he was in Filho’s open guard, he made a white belt mistake (reaching out) and got what he deserved. It goes to show that no matter how bad the situation is, as long as you can breath, and think, you can capitalize on your attackers mistake and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And that is the essence of Jiu-Jitsu!

Just when you think this card could not get any better, it does. It was announced that the Yarennoka!! 2007 mega card would have 4 new participants. This announcement came simultaneously to the addition of 1 bout to the K-1 Dynamite!! 2007 show. The added bouts were…

Yarennoka!! 2007

- Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kazuo Misaki

- Murilo Bustamante vs. Makoto Takimoto

K-1 Dynamite!! 2007

- Bob Sapp vs. Bobby Ologun

The emphasis on the 2 traditionally lighter weights in PRIDE is very apparent and kind of makes it feel more like a Bushido show, which is a great thing considering Bushido style shows were some of the best cards in PRIDE. I think this is most likely due to the contribution of Shigeru Saeki, one of the directors of Bushido. 3 of the 4 fighters are also former PRIDE fighters, excluding Akiyama. Read the full story

Update: Link to actual video in the article. Continue reading for more!

The controversy surrounding the Paulo Filho/Chael Sonnen fight has the MMA some people wondering if Paulo Filho still has what it takes to be the WEC middleweight champion. After Sonnen claimed that Filho was “out” following a vicious beating from the Olympic wrestler in the first round, Filho was able to turn the tables on his opponent and end the fight on his terms later on. And while Filho may not be able to hang on to his belt for much longer, can Sonnen really be the one to take it away from him?

Sonnen lost the bout at the end of the second round via armbar at the hands of his nearly-gassed opponent. While some, Sonnen included, have protested that he did not physically or verbally “tap out”, the referee ended the fight after realizing that Sonnen’s arm was hyper extending. The crowd wasn’t happy, but hey, it kept Sonnen from losing his arm on live television. Stoppages can be a good thing.

What’s amusing about Sonnen’s defeat is that he has admitted to not working his ground game in the past. “Why?!” you may ask. Well Sonnen had his answer during the Amar Suloev pre-fight interview with BodogFight this summer. His reasoning may be as controversial as the ending of his recent fight.

In his BodogFight interview, Sonnen stated that he doesn’t do a lot of submission work because that involves lying on his back and wrapping his legs around another man. He is a Republican and doesn’t do that sort of stuff.

Well Chael, I’m sure Filho appreciates the fact that you are a Republican who doesn’t want to hone his ground game as a MMA fighter. While Filho keeps his belt, you are feeling the wrath of not appreciating jiu-jitsu in MMA.

The link to the video is here at the 2:05 mark where Sonnen begins talking about his stand-up game. Sonnen actually comes off much worse in the video.

It’s going to be a bad day for baseball, it’s been a rocky year for the NFL, and boxing seems to be the jealous middle-child these days. What’s making MMA shine?

To a blogger and enthusiast like me, the answer seems pretty evident. MMA is expanding, learning, and garnering the interest of new fans each day. The whole “new-ness” of the sport is really helping at a time where fans are hearing about controversy, death, and greed from the likes of other professional atheletes. NFL football players are lining the front pages with car accidents and crimes. Baseball players are being exposed as steroid junkies. The NHL is still tinged by the bitter taste of a players strike to ended an entire season before it started. And then we having boxing - it seems that they have some MMA-related complaint every day.

Fortunately for MMA, it has blown up at the perfect time. For the ahtletic enthusiasts who tire of negative controversy, MMA seems to be the place to go. And that, my MMA-loving friends, is a good thing.

Well it looked pretty on the monitor, but it was a small crowd in the venue. Still, great as independent MMA goes. Perhaps a move out of the comfort zone of Vegas, much like the TUF series, would do WEC some good. After all, there was enough room last night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for me to come off the couch, I mean out of the press box, and actually have a seat on press row.

Business aside, the fights were good, the favorites mostly won, but the road to getting to the finishes was at least exciting. In more then one fight the favored fighter took a beating and faced some real adversity, but then came back to win. The trade off to that may have been a few very quick fights, and one suspect ref stoppage. Entertainment with a touch of controversy packed in a sport. I think that’s what we call a good show.

Read the full story

With this month winding down and New Years around the corner K-1 has finally scurried and secured 3 more fights for their annual Dynamite!! show. I recently discussed the letdown that this show was after a very good year of competitive and enticing MMA action and I feel that the 3 bouts, while not necessarily the highest caliber will definitely serve to entertain.

- Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen vs. Kazuyuki Miyata

- Melvin Manhoef vs. Yosuke Nishijima

- Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa vs. Wanger de Coneicao Martins “Zuluzinho”

As my MMAOpinion.com counterpart, Mariusz Korczak, wisely pointed out, many organizations are working together to fill voids in their corresponding shows. “Hellboy”, who was originally scheduled to fight on the much anticipated Yarennoka!!, has finally been given an opponent but on a completely different show. This should come to no surprise to anyone considering the number of FEG talent appearing on the Yarennoka!! card. Hansen, who was recently quoted as saying that he would rather fight free than for Zuffa, won’t be necessarily fighting the highest caliber of competition.

Read the full story

I have a preview of WEC 31 up at MMAPredictions.com for those interested in a detailed break down of the show which is VERY novice friendly. If you don’t know much about the show and the fighters, give my preview a look.

Also, I’d like to thank Brandt Delorenzo, who runs this site, for giving me the opportunity to write here, and also for not standing in the way of other opportunities.

I start with Zach Arnold’s FightOpinion.com as a columnist today, something Brandt has been very supportive of me doing. Thanks also go out to Zach Arnold for working with Brandt to make this transition easier, and also for being supportive of smaller sites.

My first column can be found here.

In the coming days I’ll  be scaling my columns back and you’ll see a host of other writers who will be debuting their work here. I will still be involved in the site, and will continue to write for MMAOpinion, but alot of your day to day reading will be a group of talented new writers.

Alot of exciting things to look forward to at MMAOpinion.com, and I’m excited to remain involved with the site. Thank you.

MMA has gone through many milestone changes this year. The end of Pride FC. Promotions openly working together. UFC expanding into new territories. This has produced some interesting results, and the trend seems to continue.

Recently DSE has announced a surprising event. Humorously called Yarennoka!, or in English “Can we do it!”. Strange title considering the fight card isn’t complete with the event less then 3 weeks away. Regardless, DSE has quickly allied itself with other big promotions to pull off this event which they hope will be a spectacular farewell to Pride FC.

Is it truly a farewell or the beginning of something bigger? Promotions such as M1 Global, K1, Shooto, Deep and Strikeforce are supporting Yarennoka! If they can collaborate effectively, we might be on a cusp of a new era in Japanese MMA.Between such promotions the sharing of fighters would lead to a true “Superbowl of MMA” feel.

Yarennoka fight card half way done looks intriguing. The talent on it exceptional and it smells a lot like a Pride FC Shockwave card.

Confirmed Fights:

Shinya Aoki vs. Gesias “JZ” Calvancante
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez vs Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luiz Azeredo

Rumored Fights:
Main Event: Fedor Emelianenko vs Hong Man Choi
Kazuo Misaki vs Yoshihiro Akiyama

Rumored Fighters:
-Ricardo Arona vs TBA
-Aleksander Emelianenko vs TBA
-Murilo Bustamante vs TBA
-Mark Hunt vs TBA
-Roman Zenstov vs TBA

If they can do it, we might see one of the best MMA cards ever. It’s too early to tell. Time is running out for DSE.

Can they do it?? I truly hope they can.

These two images from the Huerta-Guida fight on Saturday tell a very exciting story.

In fact, this fight is being called one the best fights of the year by quite a few people in the community. It’s undeniable that both Huerta and Guida put on an amazing show and both of these guys deserve to continue fighting in the UFC for as long as they continue to show this kind of determination and spirit in the cage. For those who still didn’t see the fight, the first two rounds were dominated by Guida who routinely had his way with Huerta by the way of takedowns.
Guida, in his classic frenzied style, refused to slow down going into the third round even though he could have easily won via a judges decision. That, my friends, is a true MMA fighter right there. Hats off to both fighters and I can’t wait to see a rematch. If you want to see an animated gif of these two fighters as they prepare to start the third round, click the link to continue on.

Read the full story

With year-end shows right and left, it is no surprise there is a plethora of Global MMA action for us to enjoy in these last days of 2007. The most apparent and most anticipated of these year-end shows are without a doubt UFC 79: Nemesis and Yarrenoka!! 2007. This month alone, 10 days, we’ve had a stellar close to the Cage Force Tournaments, the TUF Finale and Cage Rage 24, which on paper seemed to be great competitive and entertaining cards. Of course, we as MMA aficionados expect this month to be one of the busiest and most action packed of the year along with September.

With daily announcements on confirmed matches for Yarrenoka!! and the UFC hype machine working at full blast, our mouthes salivate and truly anticipate the end of this year expecting a great end to this wild, chaotic, and fun MMA year. We expect and anticipate most major MMA promoters to go all out and try to end the year in a great and productive way but FEG (Fighting and Entertainment Group) is drowning in the shallow end of a large MMA pool. Sadly, a usual delicacy in our yearly MMA diet, K-1’s Dynamite!! has proven this year to be spoiled left overs.

With the end of the highly anticipated and very disappointing K-1 World Grand Prix Finals just one day ago, FEG must hurry and scramble to try to secure a decent card in less than 20 days. Can they do it?

Read the full story

Press row at the Palms was packed, so I grabbed a seat in the invisible press box, right next to the great Hunter S. Thompson, who’s alter egos never quite left Las Vegas. He couldn’t get tickets down the street either, or so I imagine.

In reality, there was probably a seat for me in one of the cage side press rows, had I applied for a credential and they not seen “.com” at the end. Last night a real promotion job was done in Vegas, and most of the press went for closer observation. I won’t mention any names as to why there were empty seats in the Pearl, but suffice to say it wasn’t a Countdown to Liddell and Silva, but the gentlemen were there 24/7, even if their profession was rumored to be as dead as Mr. Thompson. Sad I can’t include the aforementioned men in such a great sell job, but Mr. White doesn’t like giving up control to those fine folks at HBO like Mayweather and Hatton do. Oops, I’ve said to much. Read the full story

It was no secret that a big announcement was expected tonight during the Ultimate Fighter finale. Could it be a CBS television deal? More UFC 79/80/81 fights? Fedor vs. Couture? No more crying in the octagon during victory speeches? More Liddell vs. Silva commercials? We have been asking for those, haven’t we?

After being shocked by Roger Huerta during the main event, I was hoping for some good news to shake up the UFC and it’s overall “expected” performances (see UFC 78 and tonight). To be honest, it was a tad better than I hoped. At least the Koppenhaver/Rollins fight was exciting when I was expecting a lopsided bout. Everything else aside from the main event was just plain. Mac Danzig won. We knew that 12 weeks ago.

Apparently Mr. White says the next Ultimate Fighter season is going to be “different.” Also, one of the coaches will be Ultimate Fighter Season One winner Forrest Griffin. You can find out who the second coach is by watching the Video Game Awards on Spike TV on Sunday night at 9PM EST.

So what does it all mean? Apparently the UFC has heard our cries for change. The Ultimate Fighter has gotten bland over the past couple seasons and it’s easy to understand why. The fighters are isolated, the drama isn’t really dramatic at all, and the ratings are dropping due to the overall production of the show.

I’m hoping the other coach is Stephan Bonnar. I hope it’s not Rampage, but many sources are pointing towards the outspoken light-heavyweight champ and it would make sense from past shows.

Everyone loves Roger Huerta. He makes women swoon wherever he goes. Men only wish they could fight with his tenacity and personality. He’s a youthful 24 and already a Sports Illustrated cover boy. He’s unbeaten in the UFC – nearly in his career - and the company sees him as there meal ticket in markets like Mexico and Latin America. Forget cities, we’re talking countries and regions! Yep, everyone loves Roger Huerta. Except the five percent nation; the MMA hardcores.

Read the full story

I’ve been dragging my feet in posting this, but myself and MMAOpinion were quoted in an SI.com article. Unfortunately, it was on the untimely death of Sam Vasquez. I went back and forth on wheather to post it, as I’m proud to have been quoted, but it certainly isn’t a topic to brag about.

The important thing is the article was well written and important, and I hope everyone who hasn’t read it earlier in the week checks it out. The Vasquez death is something I welcome speaking about. Feel free to e-mail me at johnnyp@mmaopinion.com

Round 1 begins.

After my initial article about VideosFight.net stealing MMA content, I was given enough information to begin the process of stopping this useless website from stealing more of our hard work and tossing it onto a visually inadequate website with an overabundance of Google Adsense banners.

Not only is VideosFight stealing the content of MMA Opinion and other MMA news/blog sites, they are abusing Yahoo! MMA content as well. While I do not have enough time or money to approach someone in Chicago with a cease and desist letter, the lawyers at Yahoo! have plenty of experience with this kind of stuff. Many thanks to Zach at FightOpinion for the information.

So, the battle begins. I have sent an email to Yahoo! regarding the theft of their material. I have also sent an email to Mr. Jeff Hudson kindly asking him to stop using our content without my permission. After all, the bottom of the site says that all material is copyright MMA Opinion. I certainly did not give Jeff any rights to our hard work.

I will keep everyone up to date on what happens.

I’m going for a first round submission or knockout. Nobody wants a judges decision these days anyway. There could possible be a Cecil Peoples in the legal system out there and that could just be bad.

If this goes to the second round, I’ll be looking to do some damage of my own. After all, this is an opinion site and spreading the word of a literary thief is perfectly legal.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not considering the attention the Vasquez death is finally receiving, yesterday’s (blindsiding) item in Dave Meltzer’s daily update fell through the cracks. That is to say, the UFC story was not readily picked up by big time MMA blogging brass. I’d seen a note elsewhere that Matt Serra was hosting a UFC PPV party in NYC in lieu of not being able to compete. However, I did not see that the party had been moved from some Long Island dance club (not literally) to a bigger venue. What a sign of the times when even the announcement that UFC has rented out Madison Square Garden for a showing of the UFC 79 gets panned. And I get arguments about the lack of marketing stars or big fights like Liddell-Silva?! Read the full story

We are getting close to wrapping up the Ultimate Fighter Season 6 and I wanted to take a look back at all of the fighters that were pardoned from The Ultimate Fighter during the past six seasons to see where they presently stood in MMA. Some of these fighters were removed from the show willingly or due of injury while others were yanked off television at the hands of an angry Dana White. I did not include fighters who did not make it past Week 1 because there’s nothing to really take from their performance on the show. In the end, we can determine if The Ultimate Fighter was a stepping stone for fighters or merely advertising for the UFC. Then we’ll take a look at how these guys stack up to the ex-TUF fighters who are still in the UFC.

Noah Inhofer: This spectacled fighter seemed like he had a chance to shine as a TUF 3 contestant back in 2005, but things quickly changed after he received a message from his girlfriend stating that there were some problems back home. Inhofer decided he wanted to leave immediately and end his stint as an Ultimate Fighter to be with his friends and family. This is where the famous Dana White “do you wanna be a fighter” speech comes back to the show after the first season. Although White was able to paint a very sharp picture of a possible career-ending decision to Inhofer, this didn’t stop him from leaving and the now ex-UFC fighter went on the record after departing the show to defend his actions.

“People say that they would give up everything for the ones they love. I feel honored that I actually got to do that, not that she was the lone reason,” Inhofer said in an interview Thursday afternoon. “The point is, I knew she was hurting, and I’m not the kind of person that could let that go. It would have been selfish of me to know she was going through these hard times without me being by her side.”

It wasn’t just all about leaving the show either. Inhofer claims that the producers added some drama to the situation as well.

“All of the things on there happened, but they’re taken out of context,” he said. “Also the producers can find things in order to push you in a certain direction.

“If you had a TV show where everyone got along, people wouldn’t watch it.”

Read the full story