The Featherweight pound for pounder returns!

 

That's right folks, your champ returns!

It is estimated Jose (that's pronounced JO-ZAY, not ho-zay!) Aldo will, in March, return to fighting not only to debut in the official UFC octagon, but to rightfully claim his featherweight belt.

For those of you who have been living in caves, Jose Aldo is a complete wrecking machine who has destroyed everything put in his path (ask Urijah Faber's legs) and has yet to be stopped.

Man, wasn't that Grispi guy supposed to fight him? Thank goodness he didn't, i'm pretty sure Aldo would have kicked the shit out of him.

Brace yourselves, Overeem vs Emelianenko just may happen!

There it is, ladies and gents!!

My picks for the semifinals: Fedor, Overeem, Kharitonov, Barnett.

Stay tuned...

Two legendary warriors....one will fight for the belt once more, the other will most likely leave the ufc....

While GSP makes his 6th defense against Jake Shields, two other former champions will duke it out for an epic light heavy weight battle.  Any clue as to which fighters?

Yup, you guessed it.

Captain America vs Ryu from Marvel vs Capcom 2!!!

No, really though, I'm not even lying. Captain America is really fighting Ryu! Except not in a video game, but in REAL LIFE!

Announced officially for UFC 129, you have Randy "The Natural" Couture vs Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida in the main card in Toronto.

This match will be quite interesting, as just weeks prior to the announcement, Randy himself stated that he might just retire unless he gets to fight Lyoto or Shogun.

I know people are writing Randy off early, and I don't blame them; Randy is 47 years old and is not fighting the way he used to. However, if you compare their styles, Randy stands much more of a chance than people think.  Lyoto plays a very good elusive and counter punching game, but Randy employs a lot of dirty boxing and clinchwork.  If Lyoto times his shots correctly, he may knock Randy out the way he put Rashad to sleep, but if Randy can push him up against the fence and just grind and tire him out, Randy just might be able to give Lyoto a brutal beating! No ha-dou-ken's here, son!

Randy has earned two submission wins via rear naked choke in his last 3 outings, but I don't see him submitting Lyoto, who we've yet to see get submitted. Lyoto has been knocked out once, but I don't see Randy being the second man to do that to him either. Randy has got to play smart by avoiding Lyoto's karate while employing his clinch and out wrestling the karateka.

Lyoto on the other hand just has to do what he does best: play it defensively by quick dodging and timing shots perfectly. His game worked perfectly against Remy Sokoudjou, Thiago Silva, and Rahasad Evans, and all 3 were confused and most likely infuriated by Lyoto's unique style. Lyoto is also proficient in the submission game, but even Nogueira couldn't submit Randy, and I don't think The Dragon is going to be the first man to ever submit Captain America. Lyoto might get frustrated himself if he chooses to fight Randy's fight by staying in the clinch or trying to grapple with Randy, so he needs to keep his guard up if he expects to shoryuken Randy's ass to retirement!

But, this is MMA, and you never know what is going to happen. You don't know that Randy is done...hell, Randy doesn't know if he's done, and when everyone thinks he will lose, he just kicks even more ass. And Lyoto just came off two losses in a row, you think he's dumb enough to let this one go to the judge's hands? Think not. Expect Lyoto to go for a knockout or a submission to prove he still belongs with the elite of mma.

I'm a fan of both and I know either guy has the power and the heart to reign victorious, but I believe Lyoto will take the win here. Anyone think Randy can pull this off?

Breaking news from Strikeforce

Two pieces of news in one for you today:

1. Fedor re-signs with Strikeforce.  Today should be the day I officially cease to believe any rumor containing the words "Fedor" and "UFC" in one sentence...but it probably won't be because I would probably shart my pants in excitement if he seriously did. His first fight is going to be in February against Antonio Silva in what will be Strikeforce's Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament, which leads me to the second, more important piece of news:

2. STRIKEFORCE IS HAVING A HEAVYWEIGHT TOURNAMENT!
This is probably the coolest AND smartest thing Strikeforce is putting up for the fans: while the UFC's heavyweight division took a minor hit with Cain sidelined with surgery, Brock rumored to be leaving for WWE, Roy Nelson having contractual issues, and Junior dos santos left in interim-belt purgatory, Strikeforce is strategically pitting their 8 ranked heavyweights against eachother in timely, vintage MMA fashion.
I feel Strikeforce has done some weird shit in the past, such as granting title shots after 1 win and giving their heavyweight champion an opponent who was coming off a knockout loss (only to be knocked out again), but this heavyweight tourney looks to make up for it (at least on paper...) and one has to admit that this is one of the more exciting things they have done.

Still not a fan?  Check out the line-up:

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva
Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum
Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers

If the brackets close the way they should, we might even see Fedor vs. Alistair!
I'm pretty sure Alistair is smart enough to keep away from Werdum's submission game this time and to lure him into a stand-up war, and I'm preeeeetty sure Fedor is going to straight up kick Bigfoot's big ass.

Stay tuned!!

UFC 128: Shogun vs Evans now official

 

Finally, UFC 128 is made official with the light heavyweight champion Mauricio Shogun Rua defends his belt against the former light heavyweight champion, Suga Rashad Evans.

Shogun has gone through a long knee surgery after his brutal KO over former champ Lyoto Machida and is slated to for his first title defense against Rashad on this card.

I don't see Rashad winning this one if he barely got past Thiago Silva and Rampage's punches....Shogun may just knock him clean out

Alistair Overeem is the man.

Alistair Overeem is an absolute beast.

First, he pulverizes Brett Rogers within minutes, calls out Fedor, calls out Werdum, calls out Dana White, calls out Brock Lesnar, and then decides he's just going to go and kick some ass at kickboxing.  Lo and behold, he goes to K-1 for the 2010 tournament and fucking wins the title.

THEN he comes back to Japan for their NYE Dynamite event and signs to fight Todd Duffee, the once-rising prospect who recorded the fastest knockout in UFC history over Tim Hague (but got the axe due to "attitude problems").

And to no one's surprise, Overeem just destroys Duffee.  In 19 bloody seconds. Enjoy.

This is it.

MMA has always appealed to me in ways that no other sports have.  You have your drama, your heroes, your villains; these guys beat the shit out of each other and in the end can still shake hands and smile!  You can literally have some dude who specializes in leg locks taking on another guy who loves to kick.... Where the hell else are you going to find this?!

I was a late bloomer, tuning in during Tito Ortiz' reign as light heavyweight champion in the UFC and watching Pride clips here and there.  However, I really tuned in when Chuck Liddell's belt finally passed itself along to 3 other fighters and George St. Pierre has shown again how dominant he really is to the welterweight division. And then, Brock Lesnar happened.....and I REALLY tuned in.  One of the biggest assholes in WWF is now the HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION of UFC?  I might as well have been dwelling in a goddamn cave.

Anywho, the liver shot.  One of the most dangerous ways to strike your opponent.  I've always been a knockout fan, but the liver shot was something different, like a fresh breath of air (but not for the guy getting whooped of course).  Such an elegant and precise way to end a fight in painful and dramatic fashion and is such a sweet alternative to throwing an overhand right to the jaw or to swinging a shin bone straight to the temple. Watching Bas Rutten lay one on a guy is like having been there to witness Leonardo da Vinci paint the Mona Lisa. And hence, the name of this blog!

Bas Rutten says:  Do not get hit in the liver.

Enjoy the blog! Tune in again for my overly-opinionated rants on the ever-changing affairs in the MMA world!