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I’m definitely looking forward to UFC 117 although I think these two headliner fights could play out in one of two different ways: Action packed from start to finish or uneventful and boring depending on how the fighters approach it.

I’m hoping that Chael Sonnen wins the belt that night by finishing Anderson Silva. What I definitely don’t want to see is Silva dancing around the cage for twenty minutes waving his arms in the air and doing his shake and bake stuff pretending to want to attack. Hopefully for the fans, he’ll be out in good form and fight hard for the entire fight.

With the Fitch/Alves, ideally we’ll see some good ground work by Fitch and some slick striking by Alves throughout in a match that ends by either KO or submission. Both guys are tough competitors and will without a doubt be ready to fight hard all three rounds.

I’m picking Sonnen and Fitch to win. Who you going with?

Here’s the promo vid for the card…

Unfortunately I missed watching the live showing of UFC 116 (Lesnar vs. Carwin) last night but I did get a chance to sit down today and watch the main event fight that everyone including myself was so excited about.

Wow! What a fight! Brock showed us something that we weren’t yet sure that he had: Warrior spirit!

Taking an absolute beating in the first round that would have finished most, Brock managed to weather the storm –more like a friggin hurricane!– against a fighter that nobody had lasted more than one round with in the past.

I also thought he did a great job of keeping his hands up in a pretty solid fighting stance throughout the fight and displayed some great ground control when he finally got the take down that he was desperately searching for. Once Carwin hit the ground, he seemed way too exhausted to avoid the obvious arm triangle that Brock was slowly crunching him into. It’s been said that there is an escape to every technique but I beg to differ. Put yourself in a Brock Lesnar mammoth arm triangle and you’ll have two choices: Tap out or go to sleep!

Lesnar has the size, strength and wrestling technique to win fights but that would only take him so far. The fact that he has the fighting spirit to push through adversity and triumph will keep him a champion for a very long time.

Any new Brock Lesnar fans out there?

Big fight coming up this weekend!  Big as in the hype behind this fight and big as in the two monsters of men, Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin, that will be duking it out inside the octagon at UFC 116. I’m excited about that fight that’s for sure.

Throw in some Chris Leben, veteran Chris Lytle and another fight that I’m looking forward to seeing into, Pellegrino vs. Sotiropoulos,  and I think fight card may turn out pretty entertaining.

Time to make your picks for the UFC 116 Pick’em contest. Once again the winner’s prize,which goes to the reader who can guess the most correct winners, is access to any one of my MMA video training workshops (found here).

Post your picks as a comment and please keep your picks in the order of the list below as it makes calculating the results much easier.

Brock Lesnar (4-1) vs. Shane Carwin (12-0)
Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1) vs. Chris Leben (20-6)
Chris Lytle (28-17-5) vs. Matt Brown (11-8)
Stephan Bonnar (11-7) vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (19-9-1)
Kurt Pellegrino (16-4) vs. George Sotiropoulos (12-2)
Brendan Schaub (5-1) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (18-2)
Ricardo Romero (10-1) vs. Seth Petruzelli (12-4)
Kendall Grove (11-7) vs. Goran Reljic (8-1)
Dave Branch (6-0) vs. Gerald Harris (15-2)
Daniel Roberts (9-1) vs. Julio Paulino (17-3)
Jon Madsen (5-0) vs. Karlos Vemola (7-0)

Good luck!

There really isn’t a bigger star than Chuck Liddell in the sport of mixed martial arts.

The guy was born to fight. From his signature hair cut to his in-ring intensity and the way he carries himself outside the cage, there’s no denying that the guy is doing the job he was meant to do.

A strong wrestler that can strike, Chuck posed as a huge problem for any opponent that was brave enough to step inside the octagon with him. Those that did enter to face him, knew their mohawk sporting opponent had only one intention once the action started. It wasn’t to choke them, or armlock them or even ground and pound them into submission; Chuck was looking for the knockout! Scary and intimidating for his opposition, it was this mindset that made Chuck a huge hit with pretty much every fight fan out there.

Who didn’t like when he took out Tito Ortiz with strikes both times? I know I did!

For me it’s been really sad to see Chuck, a guy who has done so much for mixed martial arts, lose his last five of six fights. Even more bothersome is the way he’s lost those matches; KO’d or TKO’ed in four of them.  I really hope that any damage Chuck’s taken inside the cage over the years doesn’t permanently affect him in any way outside of the cage in his everyday life.

Should he retire?

I think so as it’s not worth risking the many years he has ahead of him by fighting in a sport that he has already achieved so much in.

Ultimately the choice is his and if he want to keep fighting I wish him all the best and will cheer him on each and every time he scraps. If he does retire,  there’s no questioning the fact that he will be remembered as one of the sport’s biggest stars for a very long time.

Thanks Chuck for the great fights and highlight reel knockouts over the years! You the man!

Wow…for a card that didn’t look that great on paper, there were some awesome battles on fight night. Highlight of the night for me was seeing Crocop win by choke! You don’t get to see that too often.

It was a real tough night for predictions. The pick’em winner won with 8 correct picks.

Congratulations to Bins69 on winning the free video workshop (check your inbox for an email from me with the details)

Alright guys, UFC 115 is taking place this weekend so that means it’s time for another pick’em contest where you can win any one of my video training workshop (click here to see them) to help you in your training.

To enter, post a comment with the names of the fighters you think will win each of the fights listed below. Remember to keep the list in the same order.

The person/people who pick the most winners correctly wins! Good luck!

Oh yeah, and keep an eye out for the strength/conditioning master Eric Wong (my coach) as he will be in the corner of Canadian fighter Claude Partick. Good luck to Claude in his UFC debut!

Here are the match ups…

Chuck Liddell (21-7) vs. Rich Franklin (26-5)
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (26-7-2) vs. Pat Barry (5-1)
Paulo Thiago (13-1) vs. Martin Kampmann (16-3)
Ben Rothwell (30-7) vs. Gilbert Yvel (36-14-1)
Carlos Condit (24-5) vs. Rory MacDonald (10-0)
Mac Danzig (19-7-1) vs. Matt Wiman (11-5)
Tyson Griffin (14-2) vs. Evan Dunham (10-0)
David Loiseau (19-9) vs. Mario Miranda (9-1)
James Wilks (6-3) vs. Peter Sobotta (8-2)
Claude Patrick (11-1) vs. Ricardo Funch (7-1)
Mike Pyle (18-7-1) vs. Jesse Lennnox (11-2)

Ever since my fight with Josh Koscheck I wondered what UFC fights would be like inside a cage smaller than the 32 foot diameter octagon that is being used now. I had spent a lot of time training in a smaller cage for that fight but looking back it would have been wiser to spar in a big open area with no ropes or cage surrounding my sparring partners and I. That’s pretty much how big the octagon feels.

The large diameter of the UFC cage combined with the fact that its 8 sides makes it really difficult to mount any offense against an opponent who doesn’t want to engage. With no real effective way to corner a fighter who is looking to simply stay out of range and move, fights can quickly become boring.

During my fight with Josh Koscheck, it was a major challenge to get him close enough to kick let alone punch, and even after I’d land a hard shot he’d be back out of range making combination punching almost impossible. I remember at one point actually leaping in at him while throwing a 4 punch combo and still couldn’t reach him with any of the strikes! My boxing coach still laughs about that moment as I think it threw me right into a take down.

The lack of striking returns from Koscheck luckily didn’t affect our fight because Josh engaged often, scoring some nice takedowns which kept our battle going on the ground.

We’ve seen a few situations  (ie. Starnes/Quarry comes to mind) where a fighter totally chooses to constantly disengage and the other fighter has absolutely no chance of catching up to them. Nate was actually running forward after Starnes at one point and still couldn’t do it.

Lately, I think the large cage has allowed fighters to slow and sometimes nearly halt the action within a fight. In my opinion this is extremely bad for the sport and will without a doubt hurt it’s growth in the future. Some fighters are scoring a takedown or two or landing a few mediocre shots and then riding out the clock because they absolutely know that their opponent will not be able to force them to fight.

Some champions don’t seem to want to take risks anymore using the large cage to move freely while fighting conservatively and winning by decision. I think is an approach that robs the audience of the huge amounts of excitement that many match-ups could have brought. As a fighter I’ve always looked at decision victories as much less than a full win. Sort of a “to be continued” since no one was submitted or knocked out in the process.

I think a smaller UFC octagon will promote action during fights and liven up upcoming fight cards. Let’s keep the UFC excitement train rolling!

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Thanks to everyone who entered the UFC 114 (Evans vs. Jackson) Pick’em contest.

The results were very close however the top spot was shared by three people all of who picked 9 of 11 winners correctly! Great job guys. I’ve decided to give you each a free video workshop instead of just the first to get their picks in.

If you’re one of the following three winners, I’ll be sending you an email very soon to find out which workshop you would like.

Andy
Art
Dmo171

Next UFC I’ll be having another contest so get your picks ready!

Last nights UFC 114 card was great at moments but lacked action many times throughout the night. I had picked Ramape to win the main event but Rashad did a great job of fighting from afar, scoring a bunch of solid take downs and a few strikes which enabled him to win by decision.

Anything is possible in this sport and the bout between Todd Duffee and Mike Russow was shocking evidence of that. Russow absorbed so much punishment in the beginning of that fight that I instantly began cheering for him to pull out the win. I thought that if he scored a take down on Duffee we might be able to see a stronger part of his game.

With a pretty weak striking game and the extra pounds he was carrying around his midsection seeming to slow him down more and more as time went on, I truly believed that completing a take down was his only hope. Luckily I was wrong. The solid right hand he landed scored him a great knockout to give him the “Rocky Balboa” style come back victory. I loved it!

Diego Sanchez was out sized in his battle last night against John Hathaway. Hathaway’s strong take down defense and capable striking made things even worse for Sanchez. Diego has beaten a lot of great fighters at welterweight but with the sport evolving like it is and fighters becoming more and more well rounded, I think his frame may be too small for the 170 lbs. division.

Another great moment was when Melvin Guillard threw and landed that killer knee strike. Ouch! What was impressive about that was that he didn’t hesitate. During a situation where many fighters would have solely tried to defend the takedown, Guillard fired off his knee strike in the midst of his defensive motions. Well done.

I truly believe if the UFC made their cage a little bit smaller we’d see more action, more solid hits, an increased pace and overall better fights. A cage with a 32 foot diameter give fighters too much opportunity to stay out of punching range, run around and run out the clock.

How’d did you like the fights?

This weekend another UFC event takes places. Number 114 taking place on this Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Time for another contest  with the winner getting full access to any one (their choice) of my video workshops. The person that can pick the most bout winners correctly wins. Once again there are 11 fights, choose carefully.

Comment on this post with your fight picks and please keep them in the same order as I have them listed.

Good luck!

Note: In the case of a tie for the top spot, the person who posted their picks first will win the prize.

Here’s the line-up for UFC 114:

Rashad Evans (14-1-1) vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (30-7)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (18-3) vs. Jason Brilz (18-2-1)
Michael Bisping (18-3) vs. Dan Miller (11-3)
Todd Duffee (6-0) vs. Mike Russow (12-1)
Diego Sanchez (21-3) vs. John Hathaway (12-0)
Dong Hyun Kim (12-0-1) vs. Amir Sadollah (3-1)
Efrain Escudero (12-1) vs. Dan Lauzon (12-3)
Melvin Guillard (23-8-2) vs. Waylon Lowe (8-2)
Luis Cane (10-2) vs. Cyril Diabate (15-6-1)
Joe Brammer (7-1-1) vs. Aaron Riley (28-12-1)
Jesse Forbes (11-4) vs. Ryan Jensen (14-6)