Total-MMA.com

Your Roundtable:

IL: Iain Liddle(UK)
DW: Dave Walsh(USA)
AC: Alan Conceicao(USA)
LC: Lee Casebolt(USA)
KS: Kendall Shields(CAN)
JS: Jonathan Snowden(USA)
MS: Marc Staehling(CAN)

Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson for the first Elite XC Welterweight Title Live on CBS

DW: As fun as it is to make fun of EliteXC or anything involving Gary Shaw, this is unquestionable content. I can’t wait to see it, but this really isn’t going to wow a CBS crowd. As much as people complain about subpar displays like Kimbo Slice, that is what your average person in the audience is expecting to see.

JS: think the Shields-Thompson matchup is great and should add some much needed technical prowess to the Elite XC CBS show. But as much as I like the fight, it is hardly the biggest non-UFC welterweight battle in the history of the sport. I think that Pele-Carlos Newton and Pele-Hughes were both significantly better bouts. This might be the best non-UFC welterweight bout you could make right now though.

IL: I think this is certainly the biggest welterweight fight that can be made outside of Zuffa control at the moment, even if our resident rankings expert TOM has Drew Fickett ranked higher. Jake Shields will perennially be the number six welterweight in the world for the foreseeable future as he won’t get the chance to fight anyone above him. This is a nice bout though and should help determine how good he really is. If he is on the level that I personally place him at, then I think he will win pretty easily. I don’t think Thompson is the best from his back and it’s a near certainty that the action will head there at some point. Shields should have the better submissions too and while he will likely be slightly smaller physically I don’t think it’s a big enough factor to be relevant. This will be a real competitive fight, but I think Shields will be just a little bit better in every facet of the game. I predict Shields by submission in Round 2.

LC: Excellent matchup. I expect it to be primarily a showcase for Shields, who does everything Thompson does, only better. If the new, improved Jake Shields - the one who shredded Verissimo - shows up, this one doesn’t get out of the first round and EliteXC has a new star on their hands. Of course, if old lay and pray Shields shows up it’ll go the distance, put the show half an hour over time on its own, and lose about half the audience.

KS: This is probably the best non-UFC welterweight(ish) match-up since Shinya Aoki and Akira Kikuchi met in Shooto last year at 76kg — and did you know Kikuchi is the last man to beat Jake Shields? That, mind you, was almost four years ago. And Thompson, for his part, hasn’t lost in twelve fights over two very busy years. This should, in short, be awesome. I expect Shields to win here, but I expect Thompson to make it interesting. Almost as interesting as the fight itself: what kind of numbers CBS are able to do with this show. Was their first, strong rating the result of freakshow appeal and novelty, or a genuine indication of a network audience’s real appetite for the sport? Shields/Thompson is obviously a huge departure from the kind of main event we saw in the Kimbo/Thompson wobbly ear fiasco — a step in the right direction, to my taste, but will the numbers bear that out?

The Summer’s forgotten Title Fight: Melendez vs. Thompson

AC: Pretty damn good fight. HDNet needs programming, and going to independent promoters and saying, “hey, we will totally televise your show” is a pretty good deal for the Ring Of Combats and whatnot in the MMA landscape. Its USA’s Tuesday Night Fights for MMA. As far as the rest of the card goes, I saw nothing that Southworth did that led me to believe he can beat Anthony Ruiz. He looked so gassed after round 1, and Southworth isn’t a young guy who can just credit that to undertraining. Its a chronic issue. Nam Phan/Billy Evangelista is a sleeper sort of bout. That should be great. Luke Stewart will die in the name of chest pieces against Riggs. Just way too much strength and far too big a jump in competition.

JS: The Strikeforce show this weekend should be interesting. They don’t have Frank or Cung to draw the fans in this time, which is a shame, because the fight between Melendez and Thompson will be worth seeing. Melendez is a guy with great workrate and that almost always guarantees that his fights will be action-packed. I think he’ll weather an early storm and be able to control Thompson on his way to a decision. Gilbert is a top five fighter at lightweight. Here’s another chance for him to prove it.

IL: As much as I am looking forward to going to Glastonbury this weekend, I will be looking forward to arriving home on Monday for the sole reason that this fight will be waiting for me. Strikeforce have a real knack for getting me interested in fights that they promote and this is no exception. Josh Thomson is a slightly unknown commodity at this point because it’s been a while since we’ve seen him fight anyone approaching Gilbert’s skill level. This is not a fight that will be seen by anyone but the hardest of hardcores and that is a shame. I see Melendez winning and think it could go all five rounds, but that depends on Thomson’s conditioning. If he is not in pristine shape then the referee may step in beforehand.

KS: Am I wrong to think Melendez is going to just straight roll Josh Thomson? No disrespect to Thomson, who has looked great, but Melendez has been swimming in deeper waters for a while now (with the obvious recent exception of Gabe Lemley). I don’t have the fight-of-the-year candidate expectations for this that some do, but every Gilbert Melendez fight is at least moderately awesome, so I’m definitely watching.

MS: Melendez is the best American lightweight not named B.J., and a solid win here would further cement that status. If Gilbert does dispatch Thomson the question becomes what will he do next? Perhaps join his fellow Cesar Gracie teammates Shields and Diaz in EXC? Return to Japan to gain redemption for his only defeat? Whatever the result, we can be sure that this Friday’s fight will be well worth checking out.

Amir Sadollah’s Future with the UFC

DW: Amir showed a ton of heart and a good deal of skill, and I think that it is safe to say he’ll be pretty damned good some day, it is just a toss up right now to see if he can hang with the competition in the UFC. It’ll be interesting how they book him in the future, as it is completely unknown if even the worst guy they have under contract would be fed to him or score a win over him.

AC: He’s not ready for this. He doesn’t have the pedigree to be. No offense to him, but if they want him to be challenging for titles in 5-6 fights, god, he’s gonna get hurt. Hopefully still in fights against talent that he can develop against. I wouldn’t even consider a Charles McCarthy for like, 3-4 more fights. Maybe Dante Rivera next, or Art Santore? You know, guys like that who don’t pose a real threat but can probably do enough to force him to react to various things in the ring and have him learn. I don’t even feel comfortable with the guy fighting Yuki Sasaki.

JS: Amir seems like a nice guy and he has tons of potential. He’s also the worst fighter to ever walk away with the title “Ultimate Fighter.” He’s at the very beginning of what could be a promising career. Unfortunately, this experience could be too much too soon. In boxing, a prospect like this would be pushed very carefully, making sure he was ready before moving on to fight tougher and tougher fighters. Amir isn’t likely to have that luxury. He will be pushed too fast and will be thrown in the deep end way to early in his career. He’ll be out of the UFC in two years, but back again after taking the time to learn on the independent circuit.The best thing for his career would be for the UFC to give him a steady diet of equally inexperienced fighters for two years while he grows as a fighter. Then, you’d have a solid fighter who was ready to face top level UFC competition. The UFC is not know for that kind of patience though. He’ll probably fight Chris Leben or someone like that by the end of the year, destroying his confidence and setting him back significantly.

KS: Amir Sadollah is a breath of fresh air, a slightly different kind of character than we expect to find among the usual TUF cavalcade of mookery; his chill charisma separates him from the BOOM ANOTHER HIT IS LANDED ethos of the series as a whole. You can’t knock his performance: he looked at least good and at times very good in finishing all five of his fights to win this tournament. But what on earth do you do with him now? He’s still a guy with just one pro fight. To my eye, he’s not a big 185, but dropping down to the UFC’s most competitive division would probably be a mistake. Middleweight is probably the best fit, as (no secret here) it’s kind of a wasteland for the UFC — anything could happen in a division where Patrick Côté could soon be in line for a title shot. If you’re looking for a reason to be at least cautiously optimistic about Sadollah’s UFC prospects, look to that. I guess.

IL: Sadollah is symbolic of a problem the UFC have at the moment. The nature of so many promotions springing up and signing every available talent means they are looking to more and more inexperienced guys to pad out the TUF rosters. Sadollah was 0-0 coming into the show but has proved he has natural talent and a lot of potential in MMA. However he needs time to learn and the UFC isn’t the place to do that - even in their weakest division. It’s a pity the UFC does not have something akin to franchises around the country where guys like this could go and hone their skills until they have around ten pro fights and may be ready to step up in competition. I’d like to see him fight again soon and I’m sure they’ll find people for him to beat, but it’s inevitable that he’ll be thrown to the wolves before his time.

LC: Amir is unquestionably the worst TUF champ to date. (Interestingly, Dollaway is, by my count, better than at least three previous losing finalists.) That said, he’s a guy who had no - zero, zip - pro fights going in, and he beat Steve Byrnes (6-1 as a pro, including a UFC fight), Gerald Harris (6-2), Matt Brown (6-6), and CB Dollaway (6-0, twice). For someone with his level of experience, that’s an impressive hit list. He’s clearly got some talent. He’s good in every area, tough as hell, and charismatic. If they’re careful with him, he could be a star in a couple of years. Can he hang with a top 20 185er right now? If Patrick Cote is really the 15th best MW in the world right now, I’d have to say yes, though I’d keep him away from them and in with the Jeremy Mays and Alessio Sakaras of the world, instead. One year from now he should be a lower-end top-20 himself.