Posted by Tommy Hackett on 28th August 2010
Pictured: Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn square off at UFC 118 weigh-ins yesterday. Picture from Tracy Lee of CombatLifeStyle.com
The TD Center in Boston takes center stage for one of UFC’s bigger shows of 2010 tonight, as BJ Penn rides into New England to try and take his lightweight crown back from the man who took it from him: Frankie Edgar. UFC 118 also features the MMA debut of James “Lights Out” Toney (I think this is a bad idea, but hey, it’s a free country), squaring off against UFC legend Randy Couture, and a strong undercard to boot — including Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis.
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Posted in Bryan Belangia, David Bateman, Jacob Lawton, UFC | No Comments »
Posted by Jacob Lawton on 24th August 2010
Pictured: Sengoku 14’s official poster. Jorge Santiago and Kazuo Misaki battled for the Sengoku middleweight title this week — in what Total-MMA writer Jacob Lawton calls a fight of the year candidate.
As a group, Total-MMA has offered no coverage of the recent Sengoku event thus far. And who can blame us? Strikeforce was held the same night, and in the lead up to the event WEC had another of their edge-of-the-seat exciting shows. So let me remedy that now. On paper the card was standard Japanese fare – a collection of hometown boys with “squash matches” against various foreigners, the first rounds of the SRC Welterweight Grand Prix and Asian Bantamweight Grand Prix, former BJJ Mundials champ Leonardo in action. The main event was a rematch from the beginning of 2009 Jorge Santiago vs. Kazuo Misaki for the Sengoku Middleweight strap. The first fight between the duo was great – four and a half rounds of Misaki dominance capped by a Santiago come-from-behind submission – but this fight was the far superior. Please, click the link below and watch the fight before reading on through the event analysis, which continues after the jump. I do not lie when I say this is a fight of the year contender.
Check the video out: SRC 14: Santiago vs. Misaki II
While you get an energy drink and calm down, I’ll go ahead and analyze the rest of the card.
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Posted in Jacob Lawton, Sengoku | No Comments »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 21st August 2010
Pictured: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza weighs in for StrikeForce: Houston yesterday. Photo by Esther Lin courtesy of StrikeForce. Total-MMA staff agrees on the result of every bout but Souza vs. Tim Kennedy!
It hasn’t been all smiles under the warm California sun for our friends at StrikeForce. The San Jose-based promotion has taken a few hits in its recent attempts to go “international” — among them, the defection of middleweight champion Jake Shields, an embarassing showing on national TV, and most recently, injury issues with their newly crowned champion Fabricio Werdum. But as the lineup for tonight’s StrikeForce: Houston show illustrates, they still have the roster to put on a strong show.
A light heavyweight title bout which would be a good offering on any ZUFFA show headlines, while the absence of Shields makes way for two of the game’s grittiest to take center stage, to contest the vacated middleweight crown. A solid undercard airs in a webcast on Sherdog.com, including the sublime jiu-jitsu of world champion Andre Galvao against old favorite Jorge Patino.
So maybe sometimes things fall apart… but they still end up okay, at least for this viewer who just wants to catch some good MMA action on a Saturday night!
Tonight’s show is handicapped by Jacob Lawton (JL) and me (TH). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Jacob Lawton, Strikeforce, Tommy Hackett | 2 Comments »
Posted by Jacob Lawton on 18th August 2010
Pictured: Dominick Cruz & Joseph Benavidez face off at the WEC 50 weigh ins yesterday. Photo by Tracy Lee of CombatLifestyle.com
Today’s bantamweight division is like a time warp ten years into the past. It’s a fantastic situation of utter chaos, much like the major weight classes were at the turn of the century, which, in my humble opinion, makes for riveting viewing. It’s top dog has already changed twice over the past twelve months, and you wouldn’t bet against it happening again tonight as champ Dominick Cruz (15-1) and Urijah Faber protoge Joseph Benavidez (12-1) go at it for the WEC strap in a rematch of a fight that took place just last year. It was the fight that secured Cruz his title shot, his perfect footwork and dizzying head movement taking him to an unanimous decision over a frustrated Benavidez, who could not work his grappling game at all as he liked. That particular duel is intriguing, but so is the top of the bantamweight division in general. Let’s try and unravel the twisted mass of the top five or so bantamweight fighters currently fighting in the WEC…
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Posted in Jacob Lawton, Rankings, WEC | No Comments »
Posted by Tommy Hackett on 7th August 2010
Pictured: Anderson Silva refuses to acknowledge Chael Sonnen at the weigh in yesterday. Picture by Tracy Lee of CombatLifestyle.com.
UFC 117: Silva vs Sonnen is on tonight, live from Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA, promising a lively night of fights… and maybe answer a few questions.
Will Matt Hughes earn the “Second Gracie Hunter” moniker that Jacob likes so much? Will Anderson Silva come out of his shell and really come at somebody, now that he’s been offended by all the trash talk? With every matchup featuring a Brazilian vs an American, will “U-S-A” chants drown out the commentary? Will we see a slower and more methodical game at the top of the card or will the glamorous strikers have their day in the sun? Or does it matter? As Oakland Radiers legend Al Davis used to say — “Just win, baby…”
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