Archive for the 'Bryan Belangia' Category

So Strikeforce has gone from a small to medium sized San Jose based promotion with a lot of local talent and a few big names to network television and cable TV in very quick fashion but you have to wonder are they getting too big too fast. 

In Strikeforce’s MMA debut they came out guns blazing with a lineup that included Frank Shamrock, Cesar Gracie, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, and the MMA debut of Cung Le.  The event still holds the record for the largest paid attendance for MMA in the United States. 

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Pictured: New lightweight kingpin Frankie Edgar celebrates his victory after UFC 112

Our rankings for lightweight through heavyweight have been updated. Please give them a look (in case you missed, our rankings are at the left hand margin) and give us your thoughts. Total-MMA staff writer Bryan Belangia offers his commentary for each selection, as well as some overall thoughts:

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Pictured: Kenny Florian

Kenny Florian has proven to be one of the best lightweights in the world, but for a guy who’s already gotten two title shots- is he still improving?

This is a topic that’s been discussed all over the internet since Florian’s technical dismantling of former lightweight star Takanori Gomi.  A lot of what’s been written and said has had the same sentiment- that Florian is a better fighter now than he was when he last fought BJ Penn in August of last year.

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Pictured: Kenny Florian and Takanori Gomi yawn their way through a “staredown” at yesterday’s weigh-ins

Remember back when UFC seemed to hold a show every six weeks or so? In a given month, a MMA fan’s time was sentenced to one PPV, with something here and there on TV, with the occassional time off for good behavior? Friends, those days are gone. With this, its third live event in less than two weeks; ZUFFA clearly expects you to be committed to your relationship.

Eh… well, there are lots of worse problems to have.

UFC Fight Night 21: Florian vs. Gomi, tonight airing from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, doesn’t appear to have quite as strong a lineup as the last “free” outing, UFC on Versus: Vera vs. Jones, at least not on paper. But, like they say, the fights don’t happen on paper. The Versus show’s succession of quick knockouts left some fans feeling a little empty anyway, and so maybe this one will exceed expectations. It definitely boasts an interesting main event, with the UFC debut of former PRIDE standout Takanori Gomi against Kenny Florian, who is looking to continue his road back to contention following a one-sided loss to lightweight kingpin BJ Penn last Summer.

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UFC kicks off a busy two weeks tomorrow night, with possibly their best-ever live show on “free” US Cable TV. The first ever “UFC on Versus” card eminating from Broomfield, Colorado features a pair of excellent co-main events, with four fighters among or near the top ten in their divisions battling it out to get ahead of their respective packs. Waiting in the wigs is next Saturday’s UFC 111 and Fight Night: Florian vs Gomi on the 31st. Oh yeah, and another one of those reality show things that I got kind of sick of about two years ago…

Anyway, the staff has weighed in, so on to the show!

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Brandon Vera (right) dominant vs. Frank Mir

After Brandon Vera’s first two fights in the UFC, he was touted as the next big thing.  This was a guy who was not only finishing his fights- he was doing it early and viciously.  On top of his in-cage performance he was showing that he had great charisma in his post fight interviews - calling out Chuck Liddell and voicing his prediction that he’d be the first to hold a belt in two UFC divisions at the same time.  Somewhere along the way, something changed.

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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!

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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