Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Pictured: Poster for Born to Fight XVI, held at Cung Le’s AKA in Milpitas, CA.

With no Strikeforce events last weekend or this weekend, I’d like to focus this article on a semi-strikeforce related topic. Cung Le hosts Muay Thai tournaments, and amateur MMA events regularly around the Bay Area, and they are events to catch if you are nearby. Keep reading for more information about these events, billed as Born to Fight.

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As an obsessive MMA fan, I have a solemn duty to browse certain MMA forums in the middle of the night. Much of the time, I get the point where I begin to believe that I’m hallucinating – that I’ve entered some dream world where Mirko Crocop didn’t just fight the worst fight of his life against Frank Mir in a snoozefest that ended with him getting KOed by a knee out of nowhere. And yet I read – ‘Mirko has one last lhk’. ‘Mirko says the old fire is back’. I read an excellent article on the Fighters Only website that details one reporter’s experience spending 2 days with Crocop in Zagreb, Croatia. The only thing is, I felt like the article sounded like it was written in 2007, when Mirko just entered the UFC. Not in 2011, with a Crocop who’s gone a mediocre 4-4 in the octagon and is fighting against Brendan Schaub – a fighter who would end up with his head planted into the canvas like an ostrich if he was fighting the Mirko of old.

I’ve noticed that MMA fans alternate between being fickle and fanatically loyal towards their chosen fighters. I myself fall into the second category – just see my post about Fedor (when I thought he would retire) and you can see how emotionally attached I get to my fighting heroes. Whether it’s Shinya Aoki getting KOed or Gomi getting submitted, every time one of my favorite fighters loses I get this gut wrenching feeling that makes me just want to go to sleep and forget what happened. I don’t really see this in other sports – other than in the championship/playoff stages, fans don’t really seem to mind that much if their team wins or loses. For teams that have no shot of winning it all, there are no delusions of grandeur – only an insane Philly 76ers fan would claim that they’ll win the NBA trophy this year.

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Pictured: Comical adaption of Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce.

I woke up Saturday morning, turned on my laptop, fired up my web browser, and looked at my home screen; The UG forum. The first thread on the forum read, “Zuffa purchases Strikeforce.” I immediately think this is a troll thread, and click to see what was inside. To my complete surprise, there was a link to Ariel Helwani’s interview with Dana White which broke the amazing news to the world.

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Pictured: Shinya Aoki, shown submitting Jason Black via triangle choke above, makes his Strikeforce return April 9.

April is shaping up to be a very exciting month for MMA as well as Strikeforce. UFC 129 will shatter North American attendance records at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada and will feature two title fights-GSP vs Jake Shields, and the UFC debut of Jose Aldo who will defend his featherweight title for the first time in the UFC against Mark Hominick. Strikeforce has 2 cards in April—a challengers card on April 1, and a stacked card coming a week later on April 9.

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A very entertaining Strikeforce shows saw Dan Henderson once again utilize his big right hand to claim yet another title. We can only be glad most of us will never be at the receiving end of that bomb. In a co-main event bout, Marloes Coenen defended her title against a surprisingly game Liz Carmouche. Other bouts saw Tim Kennedy demonstrate why being a one dimensional striker in MMA is like being a blind wide receiver in the NFL. And Jorge Masvidal shows us that he can still box in a pivotal bout with prospect Billy Evangelista.

Let’s take a closer look at the nights main event and see exactly what happened: Read the rest of this entry »

Both fighters and fans largely treat modern MMA as a sport. Today’s MMA has all the trappings of a sport – there are rules and regulations to protect the athletes. There are rounds, and time limits to make the sport viewer friendly. But our sport is different from others, because underneath all the structure, it is derived from a concept that is very natural – combat.

For a moment, let’s imagine we are back in the Stone Age. It’s more or less every man for himself – if you’re attacked by an enemy who wants to steal your food, you either give up all that you own and flee, or you stand and fight. So what if your attacker is Brock Lesnar-esque? What if he is bigger, stronger, and more athletic than you? If you run, you’re forced to give up all your food, your shelter. If you have a family, your attacker may kill your best hope for genetic survival. As far as I can see, there are two options if you want to fight. You can find/make a weapon to overcome your opponent’s advantage. Or you can learn how to use leverage, and find weaknesses that exist in every human body, and use these to your advantage.

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Pictured: Strikeforce: Henderson vs Feijao is taking place this Saturday at 10 PM PT/ET from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

This week has 2 major MMA events (along with multiple other events such as KOTC, Combat USA FC, and M-1 Challenge XXIII)—UFC on Versus 3 and Strikeforce: Henderson vs Feijao. Seeing as this segment focuses on Strikeforce, let’s dive into this card!

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Good D is an important part of many sports. In basketball, the only other sport I watch with any regularity (Go Celtics!), defense is largely seen as the factor that differentiates championship contenders from the other playoff teams. In American football, stopping the other team from scoring is as important as scoring yourself. In soccer, when the best teams play each other, the result is often a draw – because the top teams prioritize stopping the enemy as much as scoring for themselves.

However, in MMA, good defense is more important than in any of the sports above.
This disparity comes from two main factors. Firstly, in ball sports, possession of the ball implies that the other team can’t attack – that’s where the old adage ‘Offense is the best defense’ comes from. Secondly, and more importantly, unlike the above sports, MMA (and combat sports in general) contain the idea of ippon – one well executed technique can end the fight in an instant.

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Hard to believe, but the final shows to be held under the name World Extreme Cagefighting are on the way. Fittingly, tonight’s broadcast of WEC 52 from Las Vegas, NV(On Versus network stateside) features the promotion’s most popular fighter, Uriah Faber, against one of the talents that it helped develop into a star for North American audiences, Takeya Mizugaki. This should be an excellent fight to cap off a pretty good show.

But it’s a sad night because it reminds me how I’ll miss this promotion when its gone at year’s end. WEC’s emphasis on the lighter weight divisions often kept the pace up and offered an overall talent pool with a bit greater depth than the more glamorous UFC or Strikeforce. Admittedly, they’d fly under everyone’s radar sometimes with the battery of MMA shows out there. I’ve sometimes wished WEC would throw in some bells and whistles, a human interest story among their broadcasts – anything. But they’ll be missed all the same. With ZUFFA eliminating the WEC brand we’ll probably not see so many of these strong bouts in the lighter classes week after week. 

Don’t it always seem to go… that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone? 

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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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