“YAMMA Pit Fighting,” the newest organization to make a go at MMA, had it’s first show over the weekend hoping to catch the eyes and hearts of MMA fans abroad. With an old-school tournament tactic, a newer version of today’s cage, and not to mention the big named fighters of MMA’s past, the night was set to surely impress and engulf anyone who watched. So what happened? Not much of anything for the the typical MMA fan, but from a comical view it was great!

From beginning to end, the show was by far the worst MMA production in a very, very long time. To start off the ring announcers voice had you wondering if this was MMA or a night at the carnival. If his voice didn’t get you laughing, then his sayings like “the guy in the red corner with the thick cross tattoo on his left shoulder” to ” fighting out of Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes, lets catch a snook” and ” drink a cold one for Ricco” was sure to have you rolling with laughter. The actual appearance of the show looked out dated, from the words on the screen (stats, fighters,etc.) to the camera panning away from the fights and into the crowd. Last but not least, one of the commentators made comments as if it were his first MMA event ever, like after a fighter threw a superman punch or a flying knee he said “I don’t like that jumping stuff” and “is his nose broke? No it can’t be broke because they would stop the fight, you can’t continue with a broken nose” I think you get my point. It just seems a little unprofessional to jump on the the MMA scene with such a minimal attempt to give the fans not only their moneys worth, but also an amped-up night of fights.

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It seems like Blue gloves are all the fashion these days in Japan. This set were on display again at DREAM’s Inaugural show, DREAM.1, which featured a Lightweight GP with 3 Superfights. I think it’s a trick that Japanese promotions seem to be playing on those hopeful of a reemergence of a PRIDE-like presence in MMA. Not too long ago World Victory Road’s Sengoku also tried to revive this look. Like past shows, this aimed to try to refocus the MMA world back to Japan. Overall, it was a solid night of fights, that of course ended with much controversy and lots of confusion.

The controversy from this card stems from the main event, which also happened to be one of the most anticipated fights of the last few months. “JZ” Calvancanti took on Shinya Aoki in what was expected to be the eventual coronation of a new King of Lightweights. Most people, myself included, gave the winner of this bout, along with Tatsuya Kawajiri, the most likely chance of taking the whole event. I was incredibly excited when they rolled the pre-fight promos for both men, which definitely helps set the mood for the coming bout. What I least expected in my wild dream actually came true in what has to be one of the most disappointing moments I have experienced in recent MMA memory.

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First off, watching two guys with the same exact Warrior Wear half-camo, half black fight shorts made me want to stand and scream “hey guys, same team!”, but then I realized that I wasn’t watching a normal sport - this was fighting. Not that I couldn’t already tell by the second fight of the night. The first fight took the classic striker vs. grappler to the next level with some of the most nonchalant guard passes and mounts since Sean Sherk danced around Hermes Franca during UFC 73. Too bad the grappler was nearly dead from being rocked nearly a dozen times during the second and third rounds. But a lot more happened tonight. Let’s break down Strikeforce at the Dome! But wait, Bob Sapp is back on the screen laughing. He did this about 10 times randomly throughout the broadcast before his cage debut. Ok, now let’s take a quick look at the bouts.

Some of the fighters were local guys who were still only a few fights past their MMA debuts, but looking to prove themselves on live television. One of these local guys was none other the 145 pound bandtamweight grappler in the first fight, Zach “Skindog” Skinner. Even with his questionable nickname, Skinner did a nice job of eating a lot of shots to the face and the body in his attempts to submit another local fighter, Scott Shaffer. Skinner went on to win a very good back and forth fight that had a few slow points. This would be a great fight to show aspiring grapplers how important the ground game really is as Skinner was able to stop Shaffer from doing much damage for most of the bout. Both fighters were very one dimensional, unfortunately, and they both paid for it. Shaffer walked away with the loss even though he completely destroyed Skinner during the second round while Skinner did nothing by go for takedowns.

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I’m a sucker for a circus act in the fight game. I love the ridiculousness of cartoon like characters, fighting thugs and monsters of all shapes and sizes, brought from depths of strange parts of the world to beat the hell out of each other for our enjoyment. What can I say? I love a freak show. When I heard Kimbo Slice was set to fight Tank Abbot In Miami, a short ride from my home, I bought tickets immediately and danced with glee knowing I would see at least 1 minute of pure chaos and destruction. Turns out I wasn’t the only one.

After some very entertaining preliminary fights of prospects giving everything they had, the arena started to fill up and fast. I noticed many “Team Kimbo” shirts and lots of gold grills. After inspecting the t-shirt stand I bought myself a classic Kimbo shirt complete with a shiny gold grill to fit in. What amazed me beyond the Kimbo fashion was the crowd that was milling about for the fights. These were not your average mma fans. These were Kimbo fans. There is a difference. Many of these people had never seen a true MMA fight before or really seemed to care about it. The minute any fight was without action or went to the ground for longer than thirty seconds they booed. They were bloodthirsty, they wanted action and they wanted it now.

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After watching EliteXC live on Showtime tonight, I came away with the impression that EliteXC does indeed have a chance in this UFC world of MMA. To solidify my case, I ask you this: when is the last time you watched three knockouts in a row for free? Sorry, boxing doesn’t count - not in this case at least. One of the KO’s came in the form of a knee to the head. Not until the heavyweight bout between Ricco Rodriguez and Antonio Silva did we see if the judges had any idea of how to score a bout. There were a few things that we could have done without considering this wasn’t the MTV Video Music Awards, but we’ll get to that later.

The televised production overall for a free production was seamless. The fights went on without the long UFC-like delay with the overdone trash talk between fighters and it was less than two hours from start to finish. The commentating, even with Bill Goldberg, was much better than I had expected, and there was even a short interesting clip of Goldberg attempting to train with Miami-native Slice. The judging was fair, the referees stopped the fights properly and there was much respect between everyone post-fight.

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I’m a big fan of undercard fights, because unlike the main event, the fighters always have something to prove, and they always want the airtime. On the next few UFC cards, there are a few matchups that you won’t hear the UFC talk about, but they’re definitely important. Here are some of my favorite upcoming matches and some of the most interesting matchups that no one will really be talking about, both on this UFC 82 card and in the near future:

Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O’Brien

I’ll be honest, I’m really excited to see Jake O’Brien get punched in the face. It’d be an understatement to say that I don’t like his attitude, but it’s not going to far to say that I’d rather watch a Josh Koscheck marathon than watch O’Brien’s vicious laynpray. Andrei Arlovski has a very underrated ground game, which he’s pulled out of his world class sambo background, and he’s great a controlling distance. In all likelihood, this fight will end in O’Brien getting pounded or submitted, and O’Brien really has no outs in this fight, but Arlovski is going to be hungry and angry, given that he acknowledges that his last fight was a poor performance. Andrei has something to prove, and I certainly hope he brings it.

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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.

Osaka Dome- There are few things that can compare with the spectacle that is K-1 Dynamite. It’s absurdly entertaining and just ridiculous enough, so that it’s still worthy of true fight fans. This year’s event held nothing back, and the Japanese public lapped it up. With hearty helpings of good match-ups and silly novelties, Fields 2007 K-1 Dynamite ended the year with a bang.

Leading up with card was fight-legend, Kazushi Sakuraba against Pancrase veteran, Masakatsu Funaki. Funaki hadn’t battled in the ring since his loss to Rickson Gracie six years ago, but seemed calm and focused as things went underway on New Year’s Eve. A roaring crowd of over 47,000 people shouted support for both fighters, despite Saku’s overwhelming reputation.

The bout began slowly with both fighters testing the proverbial waters. Funaki peppered Saku with a punch/combination, but Saku utilized his jab and shot, scoring the take-down. The two scrambled on the mat where Fuanki attempted a knee-bar, but failed. Sakuraba returned to his feet (to the delight of the crowd) and leapt into one of his trademark stomps, but to no avail. Back on the ground, Sakuraba managed to control the side mount and succeeded in submitting Funaki with a kimura in the first round. Funaki was clearly outclassed, but it was no surprise considering his time spent away from the ring.

Japan’s bad boy, Yamamoto ‘Kid’ Norifumi, took on Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Rani Yahya. Yahya is known for his extremely effective ground-game, but Kid controlled the fight all the way through, and refused to let it go to the mat. In the first round Kid countered Yahya with a hook, and tried to go for a guillotine choke, but was thwarted. Yahya then tried for his own wild hook combination, but hit mostly air.

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I’ll admit that I was expecting two hours of boring and cheesy TUF commentary on Spike TV last night. That is until I saw a bruised Forrest Griffin and and his TUF co-pilot Stephan Bonnar as the shows’ two co-hosts. This should be a good time for all. We have the two goofiest light heavyweights in the organization discussing the best moments in the show that they helped to propel into the mainstream. We’ll talk more about their role in the history of TUF on the second part of this article. On to the Top 25!

25: Season 1 - Chris “The Crippler” Leben decides he is going to get drunk enough to urinate all over another bed. He heartedly calls it a “spritz” and makes sure that it’s rubbed into the sheets before the victim returns to his bed.

24: Season 4 - Shonie Carter wants to train with the other team and jumps into their van uninvited. He proceeds to drop the F bomb about 27 times mostly in the phrase “I don’t give a fuck” for apparently no reason. Mr. International shows how us to be dumb on television.

23: Season 4 - Mikey Burnett thinks he is a football player and runs into a wall of the TUF house repeatedly. Awesome! Sorta. I guess…

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Desperation. That’s what I saw out of UFC 77 from Cincinnati. I saw desperation on Kalib Starne’s face as his chances faded and his cut widened. I saw desperation in Brandon Vera at times, frustrated by the size and clinch of a dull Tim Sylvia, who turned it on in the third as Vera scrapped to try to knock the giant out. I saw desperation in Rich Franklin, among other things, in the intense by predictable minute he survived after the first round. I even saw it in Dana White, who didn’t appear on camera, but was spooked enough to pull the trigger on signing Brock Lesnar. I felt desperate as a fan watching UFC 77, because though it was an entertaining three hours, it seemed that something was just out of reach the entire whole evening.

I decided to experiment on this show with an adjusted scoring system. Though we’ve had problems with the ten point must system, I also never liked Pride’s scoring system, or many of the other suggestions. An adjusted 10 point must has been kicked around by many, at length by Bryan Alverez and Dave Meltzer during radio broadcasts, so I decided to tweak the idea for myself. it’s a more liberal usage, in which I decided close rounds were 10-10 (I agree Jordan Breen), but more dominant rounds would be 10-8 or 10-7, instead of the strict 10-9 most give. Also, a round that probably should have been stopped or one opponent had no offense would go 10-6, instead of 10-8. I won’t go 10-5 or lower, because it creates an unfair mathematical advantage.

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