MMA Blog

Anderson Silva is arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He destroyed the hard headed Chris Leben with a KO, he dismantled ace striker Rich Franklin twice with strikes, he beat Nate Marquart with strikes and even though he stopped Travis Lutter and Dan Henderson by submission it was obvious his striking played a huge part in the wins. Now the UFC is searching for an opponent for Silva and coming up empty handed, from outward appearances.

Silva has an idea of his own! He wants to “box” Roy Jones Jr in a boxing ring with boxing rules. The story being reported at MMA Weekly here  states

“Silva feels that fighters in mixed martial arts are often unjustly criticized as not being as technically proficient as their boxing counterparts, a misconception that he would like to dispel. We respect Jones’ boxing ability and think he’s one of the best,” said Soares, “but we’re tired of different boxers saying that MMA fighters aren’t technical. Anderson would love to fight Roy Jones in a boxing match under boxing rules to prove that MMA fighters are technical, too.”

Has Silva really cleaned out the UFC Middleweight division so completely that he must try out another sport to face a new challenge? It sure looks like he has only a few choices in front of him.

Choice #1 - Seek to answer one of the big sports questions of this decade. “Can a boxer really put an MMA fighter to shame?” Certainly having a match in a boxing ring levels the playing field for the boxer who would be at a serious disadvantage facing  “take downs” and “Ju Jitsu”. Often you hear how a “boxer would never survive in an MMA Cage. While I agree with this, I don’t think a boxer in the cage would be a true test of skill. Look at Marcus Davis. An exceptional boxer who did poorly as a striker in the UFC but has been undefeated since becoming a student of the ground game. This match with one of our MMA legends facing a true boxing legend in the boxing ring would make the statement once and for all. If there is a fighter in the UFC that can equal a professional boxer I would say that Anderson Silva is it. So with that said let me encourage him to get in the ring and show the world that an elite UFC striker can hold his own with and elite boxer.

Choice #2 - Challenge other weight classes. We have heard of this move being considered by Matt Huges, George St. Pierre, Brandon Vera and seen it done by Randy Couture, BJ Penn and Sean Sherk. However we have never been faced with a division completely cleaned out by the sitting champion. If there was ever a call for a fighter to move to another weight class and challenge a new division isn’t it now? Isn’t that what they have always said about GSP or Hughes? When he cleans out the division he will move up a class and challenge that division. My opinion is that is what is called for here. Bring the drama on and let Silva start working on other divisions until someone can stand up to him at 185.

Filed under: Anderson Silva

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With tons of speculation running about over who was going to replace the injured Mauricio “Shogun” Rua the suspense is finally over. MMA Weekly is reporting that Rashad Evans has stepped up to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 85 . The word was that undefeated Rashad (16-0-1) was going to be facing undefeated Thiago Silva (11-0-0) in an undercard fight on UFC 84 with B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk as the main event. I personally was very interested in the Silva/Evans fight as I thought it would be a war. Now we have a whole new war. What factors into this new fight?

Rashad Evans has 11 straight wins with 6 decisions, 1 draw, 2 submissions (early in his career) and 3 KO/TKO’s. He has a wrestler background , winning the National Junior College championship at 165 lb and later at Michigan State had a 48-34 record. He won the Heavyweight division on the Ultimate Fighter season 2 and since has fought in the UFC 6 times.

Although Rashad has a good record he has been questioned for his ability to finish fights. He fought to decision with Brad Imes, Sam Hoger and Stephan Bonner mostly due to his wrestling. He was impressive in a TKO win over Jason Lambert and a devestating head kick to Sean Salmon leading people to believe he finally found his ability to end a fight. Then there was a draw with Tito Ortiz and another decision with Michael Bisping.

Chuck Liddell’s record is well known at 21-5-0 with wins over such fighters as Kevin Randleman, Vitor Belfort, Randy Couture, Babalu Sobral, Jeff Monson, Jeremy Horn, Wanderlei Silva and of course Tito Ortiz twice. Chucks only losses came at the hands of Jeremy Horn, Randy Couture (both avenged by later wins) , twice to Rampage Jackson and then a decision loss to Rashads teammate Keith Jardine. He has knockout power from his hands and feet, great take down defense and a great ability to punish anyone who chases him.

Where does this fight go? Rashad has greatly improved striking ability but nowhere near Chucks level. He will most likely go to his bread and butter, takedowns. Chuck has faced the best take down artists in Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture among others and has done quite well. I don’t see this as being a threat. Rashad has never been knocked out but then again no one like Chuck has ever tested it. I have often thought of Michael Bisping like a younger Chuck Liddel in fighting style (not as good yet for sure) and Rashad looked particularly ineffective in his fight with a less experienced and smaller striker.

How is he going to stand up to Chuck? The same way his friend Keith Jardine did. A very smart gameplan! Can he do it? Does he have the tools that Jardine does against a striker? I don’t think so. If he does have a chance he needs to be patient and wear the Iceman down. I don’t see Chuck underestimating his opponent like I think he did in Jardine.

But this is MMA and in this game if you work hard, come prepared and give it all you have anything can happen!

Filed under: Chuck Liddell, Mauricio Rua, Rashad Evans, Thiago Silva

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Was Luke Cummo submitted by a latte? In one of the funniest blog posts we have read all year the folks over at Fightlinker reported a story on March 3rd that Fighter Luke Cummo, who we are a big fan of, was suspended three months for failing a random drug test administered by the Ohio Athletic Commission for …. get this ….. extremely elevated caffeine levels beyond anything the commission had ever seen before!!!

Yes you read right!! Caffeine!! According to the article Athletic Commission standards allow a fighter to have up to 800mg of caffeine in their system. Luke Cummo is said to have over 23,000mg in his system. How is this possible you ask? Well, Luke is a different sort of person with very interesting eating and health habits as can be verified by this article his friend Ken Pavia wrote about Luke’s lifestyle. Luke has been known to drink his own urine and according to the fightlinker article he had this to say about the suspension

“Before the fight I pumped three litres of coffee up my rectum as part of an enema to break up persistent gallstones. Never did I imagine that a procedure I perform on myself regularly would result in my suspension. While I am disappointed at the narrow mindedness of the OAC and it’s inability to recognize the benefits of drinking urine and performing coffee enemas, I accept their ruling.”

OAC commissioner Warren Petty apparently went on to say. “Luke Cummo’s readings were off the chart. At first we thought there must be a mistake with the test, but follow ups showed that our original findings were accurate. This guy must have been tripping balls in the Octagon.”

Okay, for those who didn’t catch on that this story on fightlinker was a joke prior to the “tripping balls” statement let me assure you it was just another sample of the funny (some times sick) sense of humor from the guys at fightlinker. But wait there is more ….

Apparently some folks didn’t catch the joke and the story was carried as actual news on other websites including Subfighter . Now here is the funniest part. This spoof story gained momentum and was even addressed by the Ohio Athletic Commission executive director Bernie Profato, according to this article on MMA Weekly , in saying that “Only the winners were tested and those test results will not be know for approximately 10 days to two weeks. I’ll be contacting the state’s Attorney General office (on Tuesday) to see what options we have in this type of matter because this is absolutely not true.”

Now you would think that the person most angry about this would be the fighter right? Not so, and this is one of the reasons we like Luke so much. his only response came on his forum where he wrote “LOL funny story. FYI I wasn’t tested before or after the fight “.

We agree!! One of the funniest stories this year. Keep it up fightlinker and thanks for making us laugh.

Filed under: Funny, Luke Cummo

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Results  from tonights UFC 82 Pride of a Champion and our comments.

All in all this was a great UFC night with most of the under card fights as good as the main event.

Anderson Silva def Dan Henderson - submission - round 2
This was a great main event and one thing is clear… Silva is a bad bad man! I thought he would win and pretty much expected that the whole fight would go like the first round with a lot of back and forth. Anderson showed he has very good striking (nothing new there) but I found myself surprised at how effective Henderson was at the stand up in the first and I thought he started using the smart game plan in the end of the first by out wrestling Silva and grinding out punishment on the mat. The second round was all Anderson! It looked like Dan was outclassed at every turn  with knees, hand and kicks. Once again Silva worked his opponent to the ground and then in the final seconds of the round locked a body lock from Dans back and sunk in the rear naked choke. There wasn’t enough time for Hendo to wait it out and he had to tap or he was going out. Who is next for the tall Brazilian? I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yushin Okami up next for a rematch. There is drama to be played with the DQ loss on his record to Okami and the UFC is all about the drama!

Heath Herring def Cheick Kongo - split decision
I really thought this would be a perfect fight for a bathroom break but was pleasantly surprised at the pace. Heath herring unloaded right at the start, reminiscent of Randy Couture vs Big Tim, with a big right hand. Kongo was stunned a bit but recovered quickly. Herring looked in good shape and ready to trade leather all night but Kongo had different ideas and worked to show off his new ground skills. I agree with the decision and gave the first round to Kongo with rounds 2 and 3 going to Heath. Decent fight that showed Heath Herring is working back on track and that Kongo is good but just not at that top level.

 Chris Leben def Alessio Sakara - TKO - round 1
Can you say brawl? I can! These two swung for the fences and had us on our feet the whole fight up until Leben bounced Sakaras head of the canvas with punches. It is good to see Leben with a new attitude and working hard again.

Yushin Okami def Evan Tanner - KO - round 2
First let me say that I was very happy to see Evan Tanner in the octagon. I have been following his travels while he has been away on his blog http://www.evantanner.net/journal and it was good to see him back. It was a good fight with a lot of trades back and forth but ultimately I think the ring rust got the better of Tanner and he found out that Okami knees are hard enough to knock a person out. This brings me to Okami who is now 6 and 1 in the UFC (with his only loss to Rich Franklin) and seeming to be aiming for finishes instead of decisions. That, the lack of depth in the 185 lb division and the history with Anderson Silva makes me believe that he is the next title contender.

 Jon Fitch def Chris Wilson - decision
I never had any doubt in my mind that Fitch would win this one as I think he will get his first loss from George St Pierre.  What I didn’t expect was  that Chris Wilson would hold his own as well as he did. His performance tonight shows that he deserves to be in the crowded UFC 170lb division. Now if we could just see the match up of Fitch vs Karo Parisyan that HAS to happen to decide the title shot. Karo doesn’t want that fight until he has the belt and I think Fitch made a comment about that tonight saying “he doesn’t care about title shots or any of that stuff. Just give him the toughest fighters” What I heard was “I will fight anyone Karo! Why are you ducking me. If you want to be champ you gotta fight the best and that’s me.” .

Andrei Arlovski def Jake O’Brien - TKO - round 2
A dark match! Guess if you aren’t signing a new contract, it’s your last fight and you have been boring in your last few fights that is what happens. I was glad to see AA won against O’brien and I hope his strong finish in this fight helps the contract negotiations along and we see him back to his  old winning ways in the octagon soon. Maybe against Kongo or Herring.

Luigi Floravanti def Luke Cummo - decision
I had hoped to see this fight but when I read that Cummo pretty much got thrown around like a rag doll I was glad I didn’t. I like Luke Cummo and his strange ways.

Josh Koscheck def Dustin Hazelett - TKO - Round 2
Hazelett’s submission game is impressive and I expected this to be the deciding factor in this fight. I was wrong! The stand up was strong and fast as Dustin took the first round with strikes. KOS came back in the second with some great striking of his own including a head kick that stunned Hazelett long enough for Josh to pound out a TKO. This being the last fight on Koscheck’s contract made this an especially important fight for him. He has earned a good position for negotiations. I was impressed with his abilities tonight and I think we will see him keep improving.

Diego Sanchez def David Bielkheden - submission - Round 1
Jorge Gurgel def John Halverson - decision
Our picks for tonight were pretty good with 5 out of 6.
See how we do next time.

OUR PREFIGHT PICKS
**Silva def Hendo - round 3 TKO
–Kongo def Herring - Decision
**Leben def Sakara - round 2 TKO
**Okami def Tanner - decision
**Fitch def Wilson - round 2 sub
**Arlovski def Obrien - decision

Filed under: Uncategorized

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Mirco “CroCop” Flipovic was the Pride legend with the face made of concrete and a left leg ready to kick his opponents head into the 5th row in the blink of an eye. He stalked his prey methodically walking straight ahead swatting aside counter attacks in order to “finish” the fighter in front of him. We watched as he battled Fedor and seemed to hold his own. Our jaws dropped as he knocked the Axe Murderer out cold. Then he made the move to the UFC…

I for one thought of all the fights I wanted to see. How would he handle Big Tim Silvias reach? Were we going to see a stand up war between him and Brandon Vera? Then when Randy Couture came back and grabbed the belt I could only guess at what we would witness. I would have guessed wrong! I thought nothing of him against Eddie Sanchez. Against Gabriel Gonzaga he looked overwhelmed and outclassed when taken down and then to be knocked out by his own signature kick to the head. Wow! I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Until …. he fought Chieck Kongo. I knew then that the old CroCop was gone and we were left with a tired fighter who had admitted he “was too old for this shit”.

I wasn’t surprised to hear he left the UFC before the end of his contract. He was way too expensive, at $350,000 per fight minimum, for Dana White to allow him to keep up his losing ways. So what’s the answer? As the UFC does with fighters who have lost two or more in a row, they let him leave for a while to fight for another promotion. It’s a win win for them. If he loses more fights he was let go for good reason. If he finds his inner fighter again and stacks up some wins he can come back ready to take another crack at the UFC Heavyweight Championship ladder.

I personally thought he was done. Then I started reading snippets of conversation from him like

“I’m going to go back to the UFC without a doubt, although my contract doesn’t bind me to do so. The date of return depends on a possible fight with Fedor. The fight should take place on 31st December if Fedor accepts. If that fails I’ll be back in the UFC by the end of this year.” (from this post)

and

“I will take part in three fights for Dream, and then I will return to the UFC… I am not avoiding the UFC, and will come back by the end of the year.” . (from this article)

Sounds like he is on the right path. It also sounds like alot of fighters who find themselves in a losing streak.  We will see how it works out in the ring/octagon. Surely another great fight with Fedor can only help his standing with the UFC especially if he wins. I will give him a perfect opportunity to return to the UFC as the crowned “Fedor killer” and heir apparent to the UFC title. That is IF he stacks up good wins, IF he finds his fury again and IF he gets a fight with Fedor. For me that is alot of “IF’s”.

Filed under: Mirco CroCop Flipovic

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So this is the first post on our new blog. What is SFG and why are we doing this (the apparel, the website, the blog) ?

StrikeFirstGear (SFG) is a labor of love or addiction (depending on who you ask) with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. The company is run by a group of people who are fans of the sport, the fighters and the organizations putting on the events. If you are reading this then I am guessing you too are a fan of the sport. Welcome!

What is special about MMA?

It is an opportunity for a new breed of athlete to enter a confined area armed with the knowledge they have gathered, the athletic prowess they have honed through buckets of sweat and mindless practice. It is the experience they have fresh in their minds from all the punches they have thrown, limbs they have twisted and slams they have delivered against noble teamates all crashing together in kind with the pursuit of “gladiator” in mind. Walking into the cage carrying new bruises, cuts and strains along with the lingering injuries from the past and prepared to shed any thoughts except war. For the next 15 minutes all the strength, skill and heart they possess will be focused on one human being. That one on the other side of the cage who also has made the sacrifices and is eager to meet in the middle and touch gloves. 

A bit sappy I know but it is what fuels the fire for Strike First Gear. We watch it, we train it, we wear our MMA stuff proudly and now we will write about it. Not in the same kind of mindless thoughts you read in the previous paragraph (well mostly) but commentary of fights, fighters and events. We won’t always be right (not that we care) but we always call it like we see it. 

So there it is. Lets see where this goes.

Filed under: Introduction, general

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