But did you really expect him to beat the guy someone who could exploit his biggest weakness? As I noted back on November 5th of last year, the UFC picked a bad opponent for their rising star. Noted for his ground and pound in MMA and his amateur wrestling skills back in college, Lesnar needed to go up against someone who would try to stand with him. Heath Herring, Cheick Kongo (who is actually up against the former in UFC 82), or even the big and boring Tim Sylvia.

Lesnar did, however, take Mir down early in the fight and land some heavy punches which left the former heavyweight champ dazed. I actually thought Lesnar had a chance to end the fight, but Mir was able to pull through and submit Lesnar with a kneebar. It was exactly what I expect - Lesnar came out swinging, but he left himself open after hastily attempting to ground and pound someone who wasn’t Moo Soo Kim.

Overall, I was impressed with Lesnar and I feel he has amazing potential if he could just slow himself down. It sounds weird, but it was almost like his punches were too quick. He didn’t take his time to pick Mir apart when he had the change. I can see Lesnar walking through many heavyweights if he can work developing a better MMA style if the near future.

I’m just hoping a lot of people didn’t drop a lot of money on Lesnar because of the betting odds. I also wish I would have bet on Mir’s submission win during the opening round.

With a fight finally under his belt, Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen’s long 2007 lay-off will not be repeated in 2008. The Norwegian born fighter has stated that he will take part in FEG’s next show, which is set to take place in March. Also announced on that card are 2 Time K-1 GP champion Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti and Shinya Aoki, who will be facing each other. Although no opponent is confirmed, it is believed that it will most likely be one of Japanese origin. Hellboy is no stranger to the Hero’s circuit. Not too many people remember that Hellboy actually fought in Hero’s before making the jump to PRIDE. He debuted against Caol Uno and won by KO due to a Knee. Strangely, FEG and Hellboy are together maybe be chance. He was originally signed on to take part of the Yarennoka!! 2007 show but was switched mid-way, when it was announced that FEG participation would occur. He would go on to secure a win over Olympian Kazuyuki Miyata.

Sticking with FEG, they put on a great show in Japan for the 1st MAX (Middleweight Artistic eXtreme) tournament of the year. This weekend was filled with MMA action, but K-1 was definitely a must see for me. I didn’t have a chance to follow the full MAX circuit last year but this year I plan on it. There was a couple of attention grabbing fights that were a must for any combat sports fan. It was the 1st big K-1 show in 2008 and it definitely did not dissapoint.

I’ll quickly go over the bouts as they appear on the FEG fightcard and not the order in which they were broadcast.

The only aired preliminary bout was the one involving HIROYA and Robby Hageman. If your memory serves you well, than you can remember to New Years when K-1 put on an under 18 yrs. tournament in Japan to possibly find the next best Japanese Talent and star. HIROYA was one of those teenagers involved. He faired well and made it all the way to the finals were he lost a decision to YUDAI. Here was a chance to get back on the winning track against Robby Hageman, who was representing the Dutch contingency.

I expected HIROYA to basically steam roll the Dutch fighter considering the number of fights he had under his belt and his performance at the the Dynamite!! show but the Hageman proved alot tougher than appeared. Even though the fight was stopped, it was stopped a bit controversially (early). HIROYA looked rather liveless and very uncomfortable with Hageman’s height advantage. If anything I feel Hiroya was the bigger loser of the bout. Also reportedly, could partake in the K-1 World MAX 2008 Championship Round of 16, where hopefully his career doesn’t get ended by experienced MAX competitors. He didn’t look impressive but the boy is 16 and will definitely improve within the coming years.

The 1st bout televised fight of the night was the fight between Artur Kyshenko and the colorful Shingo Garyu. For those who haven’t seen Garyu, the man is something to behold. He’s really entertaining to watch. In one of the weirdest clips I’ve ever seen, Garyu is trying to blast away at this guy and he starts like touching gloves in the middle of the exchanges, kind of like he was playing patti-cake than continued to try and decapitate his opponent. He’s not the most serious individual but he’s always fight. Kyshenko on the other hand is pure business. He is definitely a favorite this year to take the World MAX title. His last 2 years are nearly flawless stumbling only against an ultra-inspired Masato at last year’s MAX Finals and an overtime loss to HAYATO. Personally, he’s my pick to be champion this year. Anyways, this fight definitely lived up to the hype from staredown to the end.

Both men came to receive instructions and Garyu just crossed his arms faced the his body towards the crowd and tilted his head sideways to look at Kyshenko. The bout started and Garyu proved a little more than advertised especially against somebody of the caliber of Kyshenko. Kyshenko did manage a couple of trips but to no luck really. He worked Garyu’s body in normal Kyshenko fasion and set him up for a big punch that saw Garyu go down. Garyu beats the count but is again met with a nice left hook that sends him down. He beats the count for a 2nd time but only to be met with another solid left that sent him crashing down. Kyshenko gets the KO win and is definitely on a good route to becoming a top MAX fighter.

The 1st GP bout of the night pitted Nigerian born Andy Ologun, younger brother of Bobby Ologun, against veteran Yuya Yamamoto. Both men had the exact same K-1 record of 2-3 and wanted to get some wins around their belt but most importantly win the GP. Ologun seemed incredibly calm, while his counterpart Yamamoto was constantly pressing forward and hitting Ologun with combinations. Yamamoto definitely threw alot more than Ologun but Ologun’s strikes were alot more powerful and damaging and his work from the clinch especially the knees were devastating. Ologun did manage to drop Yamamoto quickly in the 2nd round but more of the same followed thoughout the fight. The 3rd round was again the same except both men increased their punch rate, especially Ologun compared to previous rounds. Even though he did outwork Ologun, Yamamoto was not awarded the decision and Ologun would advance to the semifinals.

The 2nd GP bout pitted Keiji Ozaki and his always weird pants against Yasuhiro Kido. There wasn’t necessarily too much action in the 1st or 2nd round but all of that was out the window in the 3rd. Both men stood and began just unloading on each other. Ozaki trying his traditional spinning back fists and spinning back kicks, while Kido just stood and outboxed Ozaki’s wild attempts. At one point it was all Kido just going to work on Ozaki’s head but he managed to stay up and continued to take lots of damage to the point that the referee gave Ozaki a standing count with only 10 seconds left. The count basically sealed the win for Kido, whose height seemed to be a huge factor in the scheme of the fight. Kido would advance and face Ologun.

The 3rd GP fight saw MAX veteran TATSUJI take on Hiroyuki Maeda. Maeda came into this bouts with no K-1 wins and was a clear underdog but that didn’t stop him. He started at a very quick pace from the get go and it payed off for him as he saw TATSUJI quickly dropped. TATSUJI managed to beat the count but should’ve rather stayed down. He was visibly still shaken and was pounced upon by Maeda, who didn’t forgive. The referee had no choice but to end the fight standing, which resulted in a huge upset.

The 4th and final of the 1st round bouts was definitely the most even and one of the best of the night. The 2 men, HAYATO and RYUJI, were definitely there to fight. Both men seemed very intent on exchanging and not necessarily to keen on defending punches. At one point in the 1st round, the punishment that HAYATO was receiving seemed very unhuman as RYUJI just unloaded on his face but to no success. This would cost RYUJI, who clearly expended too much energy and was than almost finished by HAYATO as he hurried to try and finish strongly in the round. It was almost a mirror image in the second as RYUJI again began pouring it on. As he was tiring HAYATO threw a desperation blow to try and sedate RYUJI and lucky for him it caught RYUJI and sent him down. Visibly angry over this momentary lapse of judgement, he stood back up and continued the fight through the 2nd and an uneventful 3rd. Like the Ologun-Yamamoto fight, the man who scored the knockdown was victorious, even though they were less pressing and landed less strikes.

Now in the semifinal round the pairings were: Ologun vs. Kido and Maeda vs HAYATO and 1 win seperated these 4 men from the Finals. The 1st bout was Ologun vs. Kido. This was a pretty even match from the beginning. It was apparent that whatever Kido could do, Ologun could too. Also, Kido didn’t necessarily have the height advantage he sometimes enjoys. Both men were countering almost everything on par and it was kind of uneventful in the 1st. The closest thing to any different action was a trip later in the round by Ologun and Kido landing a couple nice shots to stagger Ologun but no real damage was done. Round 2 was almost an extension of the 1st. Both men were throwing a nice number of high kicks. Also, it should be noted 1 thing that I found strange and kind of almost useless was during the clinches Kido would throw heel strikes ala Royce Gracie to the back of Ologun’s Hamstrings. Not too much action as Kido gets a unanimous decision win over a visibly disgruntled Lil Ologun and advances to the finals.

The 2nd semifinal bout would prove entertaining, while it lasted. Maeda and HAYATO went to work for the 1st 3 minutes. It was eerily similar to HAYATO’s 1st round fight against RYUJI as HAYATO again would find himself recieving way to many shots and not going down. Of course, he is human so with about 20 seconds left he goes down. He’s very vulnerable at this point and you can tell that only 1 real good shot is needed to seal the deal. Thankfully for HAYATO the round comes to an end as he stumbles to his corner. Even more incredible is the fact that during the break Doctors deem Maeda not able to continue for some reason and HAYATO luckily advances to the Finals after a weird turn of events.

There were 2 super-fights that night, the 1st one being Kyshenko-Garyu and the 2nd being the much anticipated match-up between Yoshihiro Sato and Buakaw Por. Pramuk. Pramuk as we all know is a K-1 MAX legend, who along with Andy Souwer has won the MAX Title on 2 different occasions (2004 and 2006). Sato himself is no slouch with 2 consecutive MAX Japan Tournament Titles (2006 and 2007), but no of those really compare to Pramuk’s accomplishment. The odds were clearly against Sato, who had a bad showing at the MAX Finals last year. Sadly, the broadcast only showed the 3rd round of the bout for some unknown reason. Both men were clearly exhausted in what seemed to be a very even ordeal all the way through. The 3rd round was also close and it was left in the decisions of the judges, who all had the match as a draw. Luckily, the 1 round extension period was aired.

There are many things that separate pretenders from contenders and Buakaw symbolized the champions spirit in this extension. He looked like a man on fire. He went out and threw everything possible to try and win this fight. Though visibly tired he threw harder and harder to try and finish Sato. It was very obvious that Pramuk would not settle for a loss. When it mattered most he went stronger. Towards the end of the fight he did suffer a bit of a scare though when he got caught but only stumbled for 1 second. Time ran out and again it was up to the judges to place a verdict. Pramuk got the win but only by a split decision.

Finally, the moment that these men have endured punishment for. The Final: Yasuhiro Kido vs. HAYATO proved to be the best fight of the night and not necessarily because it was for the Title but mainly because of the action that went on. Sadly, this fight would end as fast as it would start. Both men obviously came in not so great shape due to the fact that both had gone to decisions earlier and also logically because it was their 3rd fight that night. HAYATO looked quick to press the action but was caught of gaurd and caught a punch that sent him crashing down. HAYATO would get up but again to only go back down. At this point all hope had basically dwindled until HAYATO again got up and managed to connect a nice blow to Kido, who now found himself knocked down. It was a bizarre turn of event. HAYATO was dancing around getting his step back. Quicker than you can say comeback, HAYATO was again caught and put down for good. 4 knockdowns in a span of 1 minutes. It was surreal. Yasuhiro Kido was now the K-1 World MAX Japan tournament champion after a long night and also earns himself a spot in the upcoming K-1 World MAX Championship Tournament Round of 16.

Great night of fights and hopefully the rest of the shows are as great as this.

Russian model Anna Loginova wasn’t just a pretty face and a toned body. Apparently, she could hold her own as a high-profile bodygaurd protecting men from attackers in Moscow. One of these men even included a fellow fighter; boxer Kostya Tszyu. Before she was thrown out of her own luxury SUV as it was stolen on Sunday, Loginova had talked about using Jiu-Jitsu to thwart a potential car-jacking a few months back.

“So while I was closing my car, a guy of 30 years old or slightly older jumped on me,” Loginova said. “So I did a jujitsu move — I bent his hand that grabbed mine, and struck him in the face with my elbow. It was a total surprise for him.”

Unfortunately Loginova was found dead on a busy Moscow street while her vehicle, a Porsche Cayenne, was recovered a few blocks away. A sad day for Russia as the model was well known amongst the public. Loginova learned that everyone, even mixed martial artists, have a limit; the hard way.

RIP fellow MMA enthusiast Anna Loginova.

It was announced today that Takanori Gomi has finalized a deal with World Victory Road and is signed on to fight on the star studded March 5 show. “The Fireball Kid” is coming off a year long lay-off and looks to regain his winning ways and silence the critics. Gomi is shrouded in controversy especially when it comes to the usually chaotic issue of rankings. Some feel that he is the consensus number 1 Lightweight Fighter in the World, while others seem enraged at the notion of putting a 1 next to his name. It’s very hard to find another fighter in his weight division who has faced as much current World Class competition and come out victorious.Wins over Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri, Mistuhiro Ishida, and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai give Gomi a strong case but recent droughts of inactivity leave it open for discussion, not to mention 1 loss and 1 NC in the last 2 years in which Gomi looked less than spectacular in.

The Fireball Kids start in SHOOTO to his future stint in WVR seem like complete opposites when you reflect on his past and current skill sets. It’s really weird to think of Gomi as a wrestler using takedown to secure positions and also winning decisions seems kind of a thing of the past. He became SHOOTO’s World Welterweight Champion at 20 years old beating Rumina Sato by Decision. His reign as World Champion would last about 2 years until he was derailed by Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen, whom squeezed out a very close decision. Desiring to pursue different ventures he ended up fighting the talented BJ Penn in Hawaii, where he suffered his 1st stoppage loss.

I think many people would agree that Gomi’s rise was due to the push of the BUSHIDO series in PRIDE. He would make his PRIDE debut at PRIDE 2 were he was part of Team Japan against Team Chute Boxe. He was the only successful Team Japan member to secure a win. His came over Jadson Costa and little did anyone know that a mini feud with Chute Boxe would ignite his career. He was also the 1st PRIDE Lightweigh to headline an event at BUSHIDO 5 were he took on the colorful Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett and secured a submission win. Also at Shockwave 2004 he shocked many when he knocked out former UFC Lightweight Champion, Jens “Lil’ Evil” Pulver in which basically was a Kickboxing match because of the lack of takedown attempts by either men.

Bushido 7. Other than being one of the best shows in MMA History, it holds a real turning point in Gomi’s career. I think if you hadn’t heard or seen him before that you would get a rude awakening after this event. It pitted the Fireball Kid against Chute Boxe’s Luis Azeredo, who had just come off a great showing against Luis “Buscape” Firmino in one of the best bouts in BUSHIDO history. It was very evident that neither men wouldn’t necessarily look to put the fight on the floor but rather keep it completely on the feet. Azeredo’s style and quick pace pushing looked like it was throwing Gomi completely off his game and comfort zone until eventually the 2 “legal” punches that caught Azeredo put him to sleep. Even a sleeping Azeredo wasn’t ready for what occured next as Gomi continued to strike at him even though he was knocked out and wouldn’t stop until he was constrained by Daisuke Noguchi and many others of the PRIDE reffing and judging staff. One thing I’ve also noted about this fight is the need of Pres. Sakakibara to enter the ring to cool emotions, which is something rarely ever seen in PRIDE. Sakakibara almost never entered the ring unless for a Title Match or GP Final, unlike other certain attention loving Promoters/Presidents.

This ignited a short Feud with Chute Boxe that even saw PRIDE bring in former Cage Rage Champion Jean Silva to fight Gomi. But 2005, his 2005 was definitely marked by his perfect performance at the Inaugural BUSHIDO GP, BUSHIDO 9. He faced and displayed massive heart and sportsmanship against Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri and again rematched Azeredo and eventually won a decision that saw him face the other bracket winner and former mentor, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai at Shockwave 2005. Gomi would go on to beat Sakurai by Knockout and go on to crown himself Grand Prix champion and the 1st (and only) PRIDE Lightweight.

As high as he got, the Fireball Kid would be extinguished when he was dramatically and unpredictably submitted by Marcus Aurelio. He would need to a comeback fight, which presented itself in the shape of David Baron, which he won. He faced Aurelio for the Title at the final BUSHIDO show, BUSHIDO 13, were Gomi looked like anything but himself. Unwilling to really engage and ultra-hesitant, Gomi secured a lack luster decision win over Aurelio. It seemed that the secret was out there. Gomi had no submission defense and was incredibly weak on his back. He faced Mitsuhiro Ishida at Shockwave 2006, and just steam rolled him in what was expected to be a very competitive fight. Gomi would again experience the bitter taste of defeat in what was one of the best fights of 2007 against Nick Diaz. This fight was a back and forth battle for the 1st couple minutes until a very weak and gassed Gomi would become target practice against Nick Diaz’s peppering boxing style. Gomi was stopped by the than rare Gogoplata, but the loss would be changed to a no contest due to Diaz testing positive for banned substance.

Ok… If you’ve never seen Gomi fight or even heard of him (I hope not) than there’s kind of a breif summary of his career and accomplishments. Why 1 year? Why did it take a whole year for the number 1 lightweight in the world to see action again? I think its very sad that fighters like Gomi, Ishida, Kawajiri, Hansen, Aoki, and Sakurai went over 8 months without seeing action and I think it was the than understandable notion that PRIDE would return. There were hints that PRIDE would in fact make a comeback and all the fighters and public may have been mislead into believing this myth. Sadly, the fans suffer but the fighters are completely helpless and ill-informed. The T-Blood fighters in PRIDE just sat around thinking that PRIDE would eventually reemerge and basically waited and waited. They saw nothing happening and just still waited. They didn’t make any money due to this inactivity. It’s sad to think that talent is just waiting around and waiting for things that weren’t going to ever happen to occur.

Sadly, I think that Gomi, like others, may not get to comfortable in their new World Victory Road home. The promotion is yet to secure a TV Deal and seems destined to fade away sooner than later. I do hope that it will stick around and give fighters a home and a decent way to pay for things they need. As for his 1st opponent, I do believe they will secure somebody of a decent caliber. Maybe somebody like a Yusuke Endo or Artur Oukmahanov is possible but maybe someone even up the food chain like maybe a rematch with Joachim Hansen. Any of these would prove to be great. I’m just anxious to see the Fireball Kid getting back to what he does best, which is putting on some epic fights.

It looks like MMA Junkie has learned that The Ultimate Fighter Season 7 had a “big” change in format. Yes, just one and it’s really not what we had expected, but it’s better than nothing. If that is the only big change this year, is that going to be enough to keep viewers from complaining about the lack of real action on the show? Maybe. Is it going to be enough to keep the entire show interesting? Well, no.

With the news that The Ultimate Fighter will initially feature 32 fighters, you may be wondering how the show will be able to keep track of 32 guys over the course of two hours or less. Well, with 16 matches determining the 16 fighters to stay on the show, we’ll quickly learn who stays and who goes and the 16 losers won’t get their 15 (or even just 10) minutes of fame.

In just one or two episodes, we can expect up to 16 fights - most likely crammed into a highlight of fight inexperience and wrestling abilities. While that sounds like a good reason to watch the upcoming season, it really only gives us a reason to watch the first couple episodes. After the initial fights, should we expect the same boring “16 fights in a house” drama? For the sake of all viewers, I certainly hope not. Let’s see if the UFC had some other ideas for TUF 7 before we start complaining again.

There is speculation that Olympic Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida might not be fighting another Gracie after all. Yoshida, who was supposedly going to match up against Roger Gracie, might not get the chance to fight the 2005 Abu Dhabi 88+ kg and Absolute Weight class Champion as originally reported. GracieMag.com had originally reported that Yoshida vs. Gracie was close to finished but there is still a chance for that to change. The name Josh Barnett has been thrown around as a possibility to face the Japanese Judoka.

There seems to be a weird lust in Japan for seeing their Idols get smashed, literally, by bigger fighters on a constant basis. I guess popularity comes at a very heavy price. Ikuhisa Minowa, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Kazushi Sakuraba have all been subjected to this kind of treatment. Not to mention fighters some of the time get the discourtesy of not having a “tune up” fight to get their careers rolling, which is definitely the case with Kazuhiro Nakamura, who questionably has one of the craziest looking records in MMA. In his 1st 2 years of fighting he’s faced Wanderlei Silva, Igor Vovchanchyn, Dan Henderson, Murilo Bustamente, Kevin Randleman, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on 2 occasions and 1 of those being his MMA debut.

Both men (Yoshida and Barnett) last saw action at PRIDE 2006 Shockwave show were both men fell to their opponents. Barnett had a hard fought rematch with Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, while Yoshida saw himself nearly forcefully retired at the hands of the “Colossus” James Thompson, which proved to be a very brutal fight. I see it highly unlikely that Barnett is actually the person who Yoshida will face in March. I think that the Yoshida vs. Gracie match-up, while still kind of obscure and weird, is more likely to happen considering that Gracie is already confirmed at the event and opponent-less, and that talks about a potential Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett match-up are sprouting up. We’ll see from here to March what happens and how this all unfolds.

Speaking of March, it was re-officially announced that Shinya Aoki vs. Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti will still happen on the inaugural HERO’S or DREAMS show of 2008. No sure word if we’ve seen the end of HERO’S, but signs show that HERO’S will be changed. Another rumored match-up for this event is the Jeff Monson vs. Sergei Kharitonov fight. Kharitonov was supposed to fight “Might Mo” at Dynamite!! 06 but that fight was axed from the show silently. March is definitely going to be a great month with UFC 82, Sengoku, and the New FEG Show all happening at relatively the same time.

A crazy 2007 left us with a lot of questions and discussion to last us a while but 1 fight, Misaki vs. Akiyama, definitely gave us a lot to talk about in early 2008. Was it legal? Was it wrong? His hand was down.. etc. We saw lots of good arguments from both sides but finally I feel some justice was done. Even though we rarely see it in MMA, we saw a fight overturned due to video and photo evidence that the Grabaka Hitman, Kazuo Misaki illegally struck, the always controversial, Yoshihiro Akiyama with an illegal kick in their much anticipated bout at Yarennoka!! 2007.

I think that it is a great thing that the Yarennoka!! staff and FEG went back and reviewed the issue at hand and came out with a fair and honest decision, which was also a not so lenient one. We see very often in fights were fighters are unable to continue due to illegal strikes and are usually awarded the fight. The case was this with Yoshiyuki Yoshida’s less than spectacular win at the Cage Force Tournament Finals in December against Dan Hardy, where he was not only awarded the tournament title, but also a 4 Fight UFC deal too. I think the judging should have been the same for this fight. The fight should definitely be awarded to Akiyama like we’ve seen so often in the past. My only thought is that the reason why this fight wasn’t given to Akiyama is for reasons that don’t necessarily pertain to fighting but that’s a whole different story.

Where do they both go from here? Akiyama is recovering from an injury sustained in the bout, which definitely sidelines him to until March. FEG is having a show in March but I doubt Akiyama will be participating in it due his need to recover. Misaki on the other hand will be very active when he meets Shooto World Champion at 83 Kg. Siyar Baharduzada at the Inaugural World Victory Road (WVR) Show, Sengoku also in March. Also recently announced was the match up between Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos against Makoto Takimoto and Phil Baroni vs. Sanae Kikuta. Also, the 3rd standout member of the Grabaka squad, the colorful Akihiro Gono was supposed to see action against the very talented, Jon Fitch, but Gono was forced to pull out due to an injury he suffered.

If this is true, their may be a very marketable free agent floating around. Time is running out in the relationship between the UFC and Tito Ortiz. The UFC believes that Ortiz is no longer the fighter he once was, and that he is no longer worthy of the pay check that he desires. Tito, once a world champion in the UFC, has became more of a celebrity than a fighter of late. He is currently on the television show Celebrity Apprentice, he runs his own clothing line and is dating Jenna Jameson. With all of the time he has spent on television, I am curious how much training he has done.

Over his career he has fought the likes of Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Ken Shamrock, and Forrest Griffin, but the biggest fight of his career has been with Dana White. Throughout his career the two haven’t exactly seen eye to eye. It was bad enough to schedule a three round boxing fight that never happened. It seems that feud is still continuing between the two. It has been reported by multiple sources that the two have been in contracts talks for over 6 months, and Ortiz even skipped Dana and went to Zuffa. He still had the same results, and still doesn’t have a new contract.

At this point it does not look like the UFC will renew his contract. This means in the future a bidding war could ensue. This winner of this war will get one of the highest profile fighters in the history of the UFC, a former Ultimate Fighter Coach, and former UFC Champion. That in itself is will attract fans. If he goes to an organization such as HDNet Fights, he could help lift them into the limelight. Add Tito to a card with Floyd Mayweather at 155 and you have a monster fight card! Marc Cuban is not a dummy, and he would market such a card to the extreme.

No one knows what the future holds for the UFC or Tito Ortiz. Unless he fights and loses again, or fades away in the sunset, he will continue to be a popular fighter. People want to see him fight, and will pay to do so. Tito needs to get back in the gym and commit to training. He has the ability to be a superstar in other organizations. The UFC has left him behind. He will never be champion again in the UFC. He can’t beat Evans, let alone Chuck or Rampage. He is better off leaving the UFC, and starting a fresh career somewhere else. If he can not rejuvenate his career somewhere else, then it may be time to hang it up and use his celebrity status to make a paycheck.

Back on December 6th, I wrote an article detailing Videosfight.net and their theft of online MMA blog content. I had noticed that the site was receiving trackbacks (people clicking links from other sites that pull up MMA Opinion articles) from one site in particular nearly every day. After simply opening one of the links, I saw that the site was taking works from many other MMA sites in the midst of what seemed like 20 Google Adsense advertisements. Obviously someone wanted to make some money off of our work.

The owner of the site, Jeff Hudson, was contacted via email. No response. I pleaded my case to Yahoo! after receiving word from a few other bloggers (Zach Arnold of FightOpinion and Kris of UFC Daily), but nothing happened. After talking back and forth with Kris, he mentioned contacting Google since Jeff Hudson and his site were violating the Google Adsense policy of stealing content and placing advertisements where they could be mistaken for literary content.

It looks like Google was able to do something to help us out. Although they haven’t yet contacted me in regards to the site being taken down, but Videosfight.net is no longer taking our content. If you look at one of the trackback links (the link for “Putting Fighters on a Pedastal is here) you can see that it has become another one of those bland “search” spam sites which just links MMA sites. The site was up and running last week and now it has been reduced garbage within a matter of days. Thanks Google and thanks to everyone for their support.

MMA Opinion and the MMA blogging community: 1 VideosFight.net: 0

A few days back their was brief mention that the Hero’s circuit would soon become extinct, while this is yet to be completely confirmed, reports have surfaced that this is in fact a close reality. “Dreams” as the new show is allegedly called with look to merge what some have dubbed “Zombie PRIDE” (Dream Stage Entertainment Crew) with K-1 Hero’s and create a sort of default MMA leader in Japan. If this is in fact true, than I guess it would be good in some regards because we may be able to see shows like “Yarennoka!!” more frequently and hopefully with the same talent pool.

Another fighter making the jump stateside is the 1st and only King of Pancrase for the 141 pound division, Yoshiro Maeda. Don’t be fooled by Maeda’s 2 appearances in PRIDE. He was originally riding a 14-0-1 record when he met Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett and suffered a very violent knockout at Bushido 7. You also have to remember that PRIDE’s Lightweight Limit was 160 lbs., which is higher than Maeda is used to fighting at.

A fighter who might actually going back to Japan is the charismatic and always entertaining, Phil Baroni who recently commented on receiving offers from various promotions. Though it wasn’t clear if it was Hero’s or WVR, it would make more sense that WVR would try and contact him considering they are really trying to stock up their 183 lbs. division with the likes of SHOOTO 83 kg. World Champion Siyar Bahadurzada, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, and Makoto Takimoto. Also, don’t forget that it was recently found that they had also offered 2 PRIDE Grand Prix Champions fight. Those 2 fighters being Kazuo Misaki and Takanori Gomi.

For those not too familiar with WVR or World Victory Road here is something I posted a month ago talking about the details that have been released about WVR thus far.

According sources at Sherdog, the very highly anticipated match between Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti against Shinya Aoki is off. Allegedly, “JZ”, a 2 time K-1 Hero’s GP Champion, has had surgery and hasn’t actually trained 1 day for this fight.

Quick Question: WHY DID THEY ANNOUNCE THE MATCH IF THEY KNEW THIS WASN’T GOING TO HAPPEN?

If you feel the same way I do, than you are incredibly infuriated by the notion that this fight won’t be happening and the fact that they allowed us to believe that it would be. This fight by many fans standard was the “real” main event. Definitely, not taking away from Misaki vs. Akiyama BUT the only real buzz-kill about that fight is the fact that Misaki looked far less than spectacular in his fight against Frank Trigg at PRIDE 33. When you compare that to the tear that both JZ and Aoki have been on, the announced main event sort of lacks in comparison.

There will definitely be more confirmation of this as days come but with Christmas only 4 days ago, I feel like someone has come into my house and stolen a present that I was soon to enjoy. JZ is not the only Hero’s Lightweight recovering from surgery. Vitor “Shaolin” Ribiero has too been recovering from a recent surgery and hopes to be ready to come back to his phenomenal days we were accustomed to.

Our 1 shred of hope is that this hasn’t necessarily been confirmed, but strangely no mention of this surgery was made in an interview that Sherdog themselves had with JZ recently. Calvancanti on the interview says that he had planned on training with BTT and completely convinced me that this fight was happening. Sadly, Hope is what we have, and I’ll take it. This definitely has potential to be one of the best Lightweight matches of the year and to have it taken away would be a definite shame.

To fight Fedor Emelianenko?

From MMA Weekly’s coverage of HDNet Fights of the Cory Mahon vs. Chris Bowles fight last night:

Following the match the broadcast team spoke with current UFC heavyweight champion Randy “The Natural” Couture. Couture said he is not retired and plans to fight Fedor Emilianenko as soon as his UFC contract expires.

If this is true, MMA enthusiasts rejoice! We can finally determine who really is the #1 heavyweight in the world.

Will Dana White and the UFC attempt to stop Couture? Let’s wait and see.

As reported by Gryphon, the main event of the much anticipated Yarennoka!! 2007 is a battle of 2006 Grand Prix Champions, Kazuo Misaki vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. This certainly comes as a huge surprise considering much hype surrounding the controversial Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi match up. Akiyama, who boasts a 10-1 record, all stoppages, was quoted earlier this month as saying that his win over Kang was merely luck and that he believed that Misaki’s win over Kang was well deserved and not accidental. Misaki, will enter this bout after a 10 month lay off. His last fight was a very disappointing loss over Frank Trigg at PRIDE 33. Misaki looks to get on his winning ways and hopefully find the same success that he did in 2006. Emelianenko vs. Choi is scheduled to be the Co-Main Event.

Thanks to our newest “Crush”, Gina Carano. Here’s a pic of Carano in full Gladiator gear ready to knock some female competitors off their feet.

I wonder if she is allowed to fight while she is working as an American Gladiator? Anyone?

The rest of her photo gallery as an upcoming gladiator can be found here.

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.

If you couldn’t afford shelling out $12.95 for 6 issues of Fight! Magazine, today is your lucky day. Actually the month of December is your lucky month because you can get your hands on a year subscription for only $9.95.

Go to the Fight! Magazine website and click the yellow “Subscribe Now” button. Take a survey and save $3. Not a bad deal at all, my MMA loving friends!

P.S. - Now is the time to laugh at the Fightlinker guys because it’s $20 a year for them and no discounts!

By: Kris Hartrum

Nagoya, Japan - November 25th, 2007

It was a lively afternoon in Nagoya as the fifth installment of Nagoya Heat went underway. With a large crowd of vivacious fight- fans, it was sure to be a passionate day of victory, blood and overcoming. In the open-weight, headlining fight, the towering Alex Robert managed a win over K-1 veteran, Tatsafumi Tomihira in a fast paced 3 rounder that left the crowd reeling in the excitement.

The first round opened furiously, as Tomihira managed a beautifully executed uppercut, knocking Roberts down for the eight count. Immediately taking the offensive, Robert answered with a flurry of good punch/kick combinations and aggressive footwork.

Read the full story

As reported by MMA News and his wife in the TXMMA.com forums, fighter Sammy Vasquez is still hospitalized following a knockout loss on October 20th.

More bad news was reported on Friday as Vasquez apparently suffered a stroke after reported improvements. You can view of his wife’s posts on the forum to learn more. You can donate to the family as well.

Not only is this bad news for the Vasquez family, it’s a huge blow to the MMA community and the sport as a whole. While boxing has avoided most of the media fallout, MMA has not been as lucky lately. With many inaccurate stories reporting regarding the fights and the fighters, MMA still has a growing list of enemies. If Sammy Vasquez does not make it, I expect the media to jump back on the bandwagon to claim MMA is evil on their front pages again.

It was bound to happen one time or another even though Mixed Martial Arts is far from the top of the list of the most dangerous activities. There are more deaths and head injuries from cycling than MMA. Banning the Tour de France won’t solve a thing. Claiming that MMA is deadly is far from the truth, but one major news story can change the opinions of many.

Although I certainly hope Vasquez can pull through for the sake of his family, but I also worry about the bigger picture as well.

Donations can be sent to the Texas MMA Fight Shop:

TEXAS MMA FIGHT SHOP
c/o Sammy Vasquez
5720 Mobud
San Antonio, Texas 78238