The most anticipated day in the history of MMA is upon us. This Saturday night EliteXC & CBS team up to broadcast the first ever live MMA event on network television, aptly named “Primetime”. The average Joe will now be able to enjoy five glorious MMA bouts without having to steal cable from his next door neighbor. That my friends could be the beginning of the beginning or the beginning of the end.
Indeed this very well could be the start of great things; weekly primetime MMA programming, mainstream acceptance, and who knows just maybe someday….the Olympics! That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Fedor vs. Randy for Olympic Gold.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves because all of those hopes and dreams could come crashing to the ground in a matter of hours after “Primetime”. I’m not the first to wonder what will happen when some kid convinces his parents to let him stay up late so they can watch a new form of Pro-Wrestling, called EliteXC. Will Mommy dearest fall to the floor clutching her Bible at first sight of Kimbo and the Colossus battling like two rhinos with rabies? Will she feel compelled to call; CBS, EliteXC, or even worse Bill O‘Reilly?
If so we could be in for a rude awakening on Sunday morning? We will have the media running Russell Crowe gladiator clips, Religious freaks forming Anti-MMA lobbying groups, and Politicians who are caught in the election year cross-hairs spiting out more empty bills then the Federal Reserve.
But do I give a damn about any of that? HELL NO! I love fights, always have & always will. Even if this is a one time deal, I’ll enjoy it while I can. I personally would much rather if MMA never went mainstream. Let’s be honest do we really need more drunkards at events “booing” every time the fight goes to the ground? Do we want old people debating Gomi vs. Penn 2? And last but certainly not least do we need more people wearing those Goddamn Affliction t-shirts?
All I can do is pray that Gina Carano’s boobs fly out or Kimbo murders James Thompson and drinks his blood in the cage. One or both of those happenings should set MMA back at least 5 years. Is that to much to ask from a supreme being? I can’t be the only one praying for Gina Carano to be disrobed, although my reasons may differ from the others….fan base purity of my favorite sport would be my motivation. Yeah Right!
Enough of this venomous rant of mine. Let’s take a closer look at the nights fights and fighters.
The first televised fight of the night is between Brett Rogers (6-0) and Jon Murphy (4-2). I’d be a liar if I told you I knew anything about either one of these fighters beyond a simple description of race and hair cut. Both men are heavyweights which usually equates to heavy hitting brutes. Whose physical mass often prevents them from being as agile & fit as lightweight fighters. All of that having been discussed, heavyweights mostly stand in front of each other and club away. And if I was a guy who was watching MMA for the first time, that is exactly what I would expect and want.
The second bout to grace the history of mainstream MMA is slated to be Phil Baroni (10-9) Vs. Joey Villasenor (25-6). This is could end up being one the best match-ups of the evening . Phil Baroni has the ability to throw punches like a machine gun and does rather well against people he firmly believes he can beat. Joey Villasenor is a good technician , but has never really broke through to great success in major fights. So if I had to call it, I’d say Baroni will come out like a madman and Villasenor will either be overwhelmed and it will go to the ground or Villasenor will push the pace and Baroni’s bravado will weaken causing him to get his ass submitted or TKO’d . The only other option in my mind is if Baroni blasts Villarsenor once or multiple times and knocks him the f**k out! That’s why I love this sport anything can happen at any moment and usually does.
The third match pits Gina Carano (5-0) vs. Some other girl who is less hot then Gina. (her name is actually Kaitlin Young(4-1), but when you’re not hot who cares?) Carano is a rather good stand up fighter and I’ve had the pleasure to watch her kick an ass or two. She is what women’s MMA needs more of, Hotness! So let all hope she wins so we get to watch her again and again and again. Please!
Back to reality for the semi-headlining fight, Ruthless Robbie Lawler (15-4) vs. Scott Smith (13-4) for the Middleweight title. Robbie Lawler has the title and it’s for a reason. He has heavy hand and goes into the cage to fight not to dance around. He wants to land something big and the sooner the better. So in this fight I’d expect nothing less. Lawler will bring the fight to Smith with bad intentions, but that’s when Scott Smith is the most dangerous. Almost everyone saw him get dropped on the TUF 4 finale and rise up just in time to deliver a KO punch to Pete Sell’s mug. Smith is known for his power punching and can end a fight at anytime, but so can Lawler. Robbie likes being a Champion and that might just be what keeps him one.
The Main Event is a marketing masterpiece starring Kevin Ferguson as Kimbo Slice (2-0)! Co-starring James Thompson (14-8) as the “The Colossus” . All joking aside this could be a really really good fight. Thompson is no sacrificial lamb, I watched this guy go toe to toe with Fujita and was straight smashing him. True, he also gassed and got KO’ed but it was a good show. Kimbo is a perfect match up for Thompson because neither one in my opinion is better than the other. Their fight will be action packed with guns blazing. Kimbo is known to have good punching ability and now trains with Bas, so one can assume he has a ground game by now. James Thompson has been fighting on a international level before Kimbo ever thought to train. So if Thompson has a golden ticket it would be his experience on top of years of studying submissions. But I just might have to go with the in crowd and say Kimbo will be victorious by double handed mayhem to Thompson’s skull.
Despite who wins the fights, The fighters will all be back to fight another day but what about MMA? After the smoke clears it will be interesting to see what’s left. Can America accept this “New” sport and help it prosper or will soccer moms & boxing promoters unite and push us into the sea?

It was rumored last week, but it’s now official. The genetic freak of nature and former WWE wrestling superstar, Brock Lesnar (oh, and serious world class wrestler) was set to compete against UFC hall of fame inductee Mark Coleman, but Coleman was forced to withdraw from the fight due to a training injury and has been replaced on the card by Heath “Texas Crazy Horse” Herring.

This is a MUCH better fight for everyone involved. The fans are going to get a better fight, and for Lesnar, fighting Coleman had absolutely ZERO upside. If he had beaten Coleman, people would have called it a gimme fight just to pad Lesnar’s record. I’ve yet to talk to a single person who seriously thought Coleman could have made it out of the first round that fight. And if by some miracle Coleman beat Lesnar, it would have been a humiliating defeat.

Herring on the other hand brings a lot more credibility to the fight for Lesnar. Herring can legitimately defeat Lesnar, and as such, a Lesnar victory would be much more significant for him than a win over Coleman would have been.

I’m still amazed at the amount of people who refuse to take Lesnar seriously… saying that he’s just a gimmick… all muscle no tussle. This man is an elite world class wrestler with more power than any MMA fighter on the planet. And yes, he lost to Frank Mir… a former UFC Heavyweight Champion… but only after completly dominating Mir and imposing his considerable will on him until Mir was able to lock onto the leg. The experience of Mir trumped the power of Lesnar that night, but even in the defeat Lesnar (in my opinion) showed that he belongs on the big stage.

Despite the experience and striking advantage that Herring will have, I just don’t see how Lesnar loses this fight. Lesnar by TKO second round.

Going into Episode 9 of this season’s Ultimate Fighter, there may have been 2 quarter final fights scheduled to air, but there was only 1 fight everyone was waiting to see. Matt Brown verses a guy he’s become very good freinds with, Amir Sadollah.

Both of these guys have shown a lot of heart on the show thus far, but as much as the other contestants in the house have raved about how much Matt Brown should be feared, I’ve got to tell you I personally haven’t been all that impressed. He’s an animal, no doubt… but that savage exterior fails to cover up the fact that his hand speed is less than average and his ground game doesn’t stand up (pardon the pun) to most of the other guys in the house. Amir would be the furnace to show was Brown was really made of.

The first fight of the night was Jesse Taylor versus Dante Rivera. This fight was never even close. Jesse was the clear bully in this fight, imposing his will on Dante almost before the fight began. When the ref called for a start to the action, it wasn’t long before Taylor’s superior strength and wrestling skills manifested as he quickly took Dante down and began assaulting him with punches. That pretty much sums up the entire fight.

Dante did well to deflect much of the bombardment and showed a remarkable ability to take punishment and never look like he was the slightest bit worried… always calm and collected… but he was never able to stop Taylor from repeatedly taking the fight to the mat, securing top position and raining punched down on poor Dante’s face. Dante never posed any threat in the fight and quite frankly was never in it to start with. I was impressed with Jesse’s ability to completely dictate the fight, but at the same time unimpressed that despite his aggressive control, he was unable to finish the fight.

No brainer, Jesse Taylor wins via 2 round decision.

Next up was the fight everyone wanted to see. Matt v. Amir

The first round delivered everything people expected. These two guy came out swining, throwing punches, kicks and knees like there was no tomorrow. To my surprise, Matt looked like he was trying to take it to the ground early in the fight, but Amir was able to fight off every attempt to do so while Matt burned through enormous amounts of energy in the endeavor. Matt was a bit more aggressive, but the wild card seemed to be Amirs effortless front kicks that he was landing on Matt’s face as easily as if he were tossing out casual jabs. There may not have been a lot of power in those kicks, but they were always right on line and you could tell early on it gave Matt a moment of pause each time he considered getting within range (or staying for too long) of those kicks.

It was a very tight round up until Amir was able to sweep in a knee while in the clinch into the side of Matt’s body that clearly hurt him. His face showed visible pain and his knees buckled momentarily. By my scorecard that one knee gave Amir the round.

The second round started with Matt unleashing an early storm. A lot of strong (but as I mentioned earlier, not exactly lightning quick) punches, but nothing landed solid and Amir emerged seemingly unscathed from the exchange. The second round began looking more and more like the first until Amir was able to take Matt down and achieved a full mount position. To his credit, Matt defended himself pretty well from the mount, but through no lack of trying, was never able to come close to shaking Amir off. In a desperate attempt, Matt leveraged the cage to flip himself over, but this was ill advised since the flip only left Matt finding himself with Amir’s legs cinching around his head as he sunk a triangle on him pretty tight. It looked for a moment like Brown may escape, but once Amir began to pull Matt’s head down and really apply the pressure, Matt knew he was beat and tapped.

Winner: Amir via Triangle choke in the second round

It was an entertaining fight with some heafty exchanges, but again, the lack of hand speed hurt Brown in this fight. Amir seemed to always be able to telegraph when and where the strikes were coming. This gives me a lot of doubt for Brown’s UFC future. You can work hard on your ground game… but can you really teach speed?