March 13 should have been the night that we crowned a true pound-for-pound champion in boxing. We should have seen a joint effort from the sport’s two biggest promoters in Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, finally setting aside their differences to bring the fans the one bout that everyone wanted to see. Top Rank’s Manny Pacquiao vs. Golden Boy Promotion’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. would promise a unification bout at welter for boxing’s biggest ever purse, pay per view audience, and all the glory that comes with it.

But when negotiations broke down, we found ourselves watching Top Rank’s next best welter in Joshua Clottey in what felt like a subpar sparring session against Pacquiao.

So, what went wrong with this show?

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Pictured: Dominick Cruz, who recorded the biggest win of his MMA career over Brian Bowles at WEC 47.

Last weekend’s WEC 47 promised the usual WEC formula, with their typical bouts of hyperactive fast action in the light weight classes.

And, it delivered — a quality event. Unable to watch it live due to living in the UK, over the last week I’ve been able to track down one fine WEC 47 bout after another.

Along the way, we appear to have reached turning points for the WEC: first, in the shakeup of the bantamweight division; second, my issues with the promotion’s coverage; and finally, something I’d call the “talent/charisma” crossroads…

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Sam Sheridan’s first book, A Fighter’s Heart, has become a favorite of MMA enthusiasts since its 2007 release. It chronicled Sheridan’s travels around the world, training and talking with many of the fight games’ biggest names, on a quest for insight on what drives them to win — and to find his own “fighter’s heart.” Along the way were stops with Brazilian Top Team in its heyday, a stint with Fairtex in Thailand, where he fought a Muay Thai bout, and a time in Iowa, including an MMA bout, under the tutelage of Pat Militech.

Last month, Sheridan released his follow-up, A Fighter’s Mind, where he turns his focus on the mental game of the world’s fighters and trainers. He describes it as “a gift back to the fighters who gave me so much in the first book. A book for fighters, and we are all fighting something.”

Sheridan spent a few moments with Total-MMA to talk about the book last week.

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I was originally going to do a story on Cain Velasquez and his rise in the heavyweight division following his latest win but after writing out a few paragraphs I kind of felt like it was a disservice to heap so much praise on Velasquez and not give equal space to the “other” heavyweight prospect, Junior dos Santos.

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This week, Total-MMA staff writer Bryan Belangia began his monthly rankings of MMA’s top ten fighters, Lightweight through Heavyweight — including some commentary about his selections.

Next month, we will add Featherweight and Bantamweight.

Please enjoy, and feel free to comment!

Pictured: A Screenshot from WMMA 2. So, You Wanna Be A Fighter Promoter?

The popularity of mixed martial arts is exploding, with TV shows, books and films springing up all around the sport, along with the newest of mediums, video games.

Most notably, a great deal of media attention was placed on ZUFFA’s release of UFC Undisputed last year. The game had flaws, and many hardcore MMA fans complained that it failed to capture the styles of the fighters. But it seperated itself by capturing the ebb and flow of the fight on the ground, and the deadly “puncher’s chance” that is so widely renowned in our sport. Overall, it give us a reasonably accurate representation of the sport, and easily the best representation of said sport on console today.

Or is it?

World of Mixed Martial Arts II offers a very different option for gamers; and it’s one that I highly recommend.

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What a night UFC 110 was.

A prospect in Cain Valasquez turned into a contender with a vicious one round knockout over a legend in Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira. Bader continues to impress against an awkward and dangerous Keith Jardine. A more cautious Wanderlei Silva picked his spots to earn a decision over a younger (and much better than I anticipated) Michael Bisping. Even the mismatch to begin the show was made memorable, as Mirko Cro Cop hailed his overmatched opponent as showing the world what a Croatian heart is — reminding us that his Australian opponent was, like him, of Croatian heritage. All of these were punctuated by a wild Australian crowd, which contributed some of its own — at one point, hilariously chanting “Bisping’s a wanker!”

But to me, the UFC 110 highlight reel really belonged to one man: George Sotiropoulos, whose potent mix of jiu-jitsu and boxing carried the day in the fight of the night against Joe Stevenson.

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It’s fight night! Looking back at our last round of predictions, where I spent more time complaining about advancing age than any actual analysis of UFC 109, it’s hard to miss how uninterested I was. What can I say? Trying to drum up interest for Couture vs. Coleman was like bleeding water from a stone. But ZUFFA’s making me forget it tonight (unless, of course, it’s my old age making me forget things again) — by assembling as strong an MMA card we’ll get in 2010 without the luster of a title fight. It also marks the first ever UFC to grace the shores of Australia, so expect a wild crowd screaming along every kangaroo hop of the way.

This, friends, is more like it.

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As Wanderlei Silva prepares for his first fight in the UFC at 185lbs, that’s the biggest question.  Silva has now lost 5 of his last 6 fights and has only one win since returning to the UFC.  The losses though are nothing to get down about.  Many fighters have fell to the hands of Chuck Liddell, Quinton Jackson, and Rich Franklin.  The test that he faces now is much different.

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Pictured: Demian Maia being Knocked Out by Nate Marquardt at UFC 102.

Demian Maia is a world-class grappler. That needs to be said before I start to point out his flaws, and the flaws in his gaining of a title shot at UFC 112 next month in Abu Dhabi. His MMA record of 12-1 suggests a fantastic competitor – and he is – but he is far from the finished article, and far from the real deal. So let’s take a little look at Demian’s MMA journey, before we look at why he shouldn’t be next in line for the UFC Middleweight Title.

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