Are the Brazilian champions trained by Superman?

Salamu

Well, what can we say about UFC 169 that hasn’t already been said in the international press?

Well, let’s start with the fact that it was a FRIGGEN AWESOME event which lived up to all of its expectations. I mean, what else can you expect from a card which features two of the best fighters in the business today in Renen Barão and José Aldo?  Um, maybe let’s throw in a former two time Heavyweight Champion in Frank Mir as well as an up-and-coming star in Ali Bagautinov.

Ladies and Gentlemen…sit back and enjoy the latest edition of The Rear Naked Choke.

One of the best fights I have ever seen in my life was at UFC 166 where Gilbert Melendez and Diego Sanchez unloaded on each other for five rounds. The result was one of the bloodiest fights in MMa history, but also one of the best. The great thing about it was that the punches that Melendez and Sanchez were throwing at each other were not technical punches, but rather what did you say about my mother punches.

The first fight of UFC 169 between Abel Trujillo and Jamie Varner proved to be the same. As usual, the

fighters spent much of the first round feeling each other out. And then Trujillo unleashed fury on Varner that few have ever seen. How Varner survived the round was a miracle, but he came out in the second round and paid Trujillo in kind. After spending 10 minutes with my jaw on the floor wondering if I was in a dream, Varner came out and almost knocked out Trujillo, but he got cocky and Trujillo caught him with a perfect overhand right which hit him square on the jaw. Varner hit the mat like a ton of bricks and the fight set the tone for the rest of the evening. How could any fight get close to that for fight of the night?

The next fight was between the man from Dagestan Ali Bagautinov and Brazilian James Lineker. The two fighters are known for their passion and the way they approach their fights. This was always going to be a tale of contrasting styles because Bagautinov is a stand up fighter while Lineker is a high level black belt in Brazialian Jujitsu. The first round was dominated by Bagautinov while Lineker completely turned it around in the second. It came down to the final round where Bagautinov threw Lineker around like a rag doll. 

Bagautinov won the fight and showed in the process that he is a force to be reckoned with in the flyweight division. He has high level combat sambo to back up his skills which is paving the way for a new breed of elite Russian fighters who are proving that wrestling is not the only backbone to a MMA fighter. For those of you who do not know where Dagastan is…it is in the South-Western corner of Mother Russia and is bordered by Georgia, Chechnya and Azerbaijan. Basically, if you blink your eyes, you will miss it.

We then move onto the main fights of the evening. Alistair Overeem took on the former two time Heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Like the Bagautinov fight, this fight was the stand up brawler (Overeem) versus the ground dominant (Mir). Overeem ended up winning the fight, but what impressed during the fight was that he paced himself well and didn’t gas out lie he did in his previous fight which was a loss against Travis Browne. In my opinion, Mir is over the hill and should hang up his gloves while he still has the respect of the dressing room.

The co-main event of the evening saw the UFC’s only Flyweight champion José Aldo take on the divisions third ranked fighter Ricardo Lamas. While Lamas came into the ring with a hairstyle that looked like the miniature version of Billy Ray Cyrus’ mullet, it looked like the boy could bang a bit. But Aldo came in and literally kicked the shit out of Lamas. Basically, if Lamas cut off Aldo’s legs, he would have won the fight. But he also would have won the fight if he managed to submit Aldo in the fifth round. Aldo was clearly struggling and spent the majority of the round on his back defending Lamas’ half mount. If Lamas had managed to do a bit more damage in earlier rounds, I think we would have seen a new Flyweight champion.

The main event of the evening was my boy Renen Barão versus Urijah Faber. This is going to be the shortest

write up because they came out, Barão caught him badly early in the first round and unloaded on Faber who was on his ass. Faber got out and Barão caught him again, but managed to get referee Herb Dean to stop the fight. There was a bit of controversy after the fight. Faber accused Dean (very gracefully I might add) of sloppy refereeing. Faber was on the floor and being hammered by Barão, Dean asked Faber to show he was ok and Faber gave Dean a thumbs up which was behind Barão’s leg. UM…FABER…HOW THE HELL IS DEAN SUPPOSED TO SEE THIS WHEN HE IS CLEARLY WATCHING YOUR OTHER HAND?

But Joe Rogan raised a great point at the end of the fight when he asked Faber where do you draw the line between getting hammered and still being ok as opposed to getting hammered and almost dying. And Faber answered the question beautifully when he said that the line is when a fighter’s lifeless body is on the mat. Faber clearly was still ok and had a firm grip on Barão’s leg. If his hold dropped, then fair enough, stop the fight. But Dean has a responsibility to have the fighter’s best interests at heart and he was just protecting Faber.

What UFC 169 proved to me, is that I am a bit of a doos and have a lot to learn about the sport. In my last edition of The Rear Naked Choke I slammed Brazilian fighters. And it seems I was amiss because Barão and Aldo are just head and shoulders above anyone else in the sport. Even above John Jones and Cain Velazquez. Barão and Aldo come out of the same training camp and they must be trained by a person who is the combination of Fedor Emelianenko and Superman. The combinations that these boys throw are amazing. One a fighter gets slightly behind against either Barão or Aldo, they might as well not answer the bell, because they are in for a long night of hidings.

And their record speaks for themselves. Barão has a winning streak of 21 fights and a title reign spanning 532 days. Aldo has a winning streak of 16 fights and has a title reign which spans 1141 days.  Simply amazing.

Awards (in my opinion)

Fight of the Night: Abel Trujillo vs Jamie Varner

Knockout of the Night: Abel Trujillo

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Starting the year with a bang

Salamu

Things are heating up in the UFC ahead of UFC 169, which is set to start of the year with a bang. There is also significant movement in the middleweight division with call outs and challenges. And we have Benson Henderson making his first step back towards the summit of the lightweight division after his loss to Anthony Pettis at UFC 164 in August last year.

Weidman may be set for a long title reign

As I stated in the last edition of The Rear Naked Choke, the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions are

currently the drawcard divisions for the UFC. While the Welterweight division takes a break from the spotlight until UFC 171, where Johnny ‘Big Rig’ Hendricks takes on ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler, the Middleweight division is making all of the news. Since the epic conclusion to the rivalry between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, there have been a number of fighters jockeying for position.

Currently, Vitor Belfor is the Number 1 contender to challenge Weidman.  But there is a lot of movement below Belfor. After Luke Rockhold’s win over the hard hitting Costas Philippou, Rockhold called out Michael Bisping to settle two ‘small’ matters. The matters in question is of course getting closer to challenging Belfor’s top contender status, but the other matter is settling the debate over Bisping calling himself the unofficial Strikeforce Champion. The comment in question was made by Bisping during a 2012 appearance on Spike TV’s short-lived MMA Uncensored program after recently sparring with Rockhold, the then Strikeforce king. Though the remark appeared to have been made in jest, Rockhold would nevertheless like a chance to settle the score.

From my experience of Bisping (which was gained while watching The Ultimate Fighter 3), Bisping is a light hearted Brit who likes to ‘take the piss’ out of his opponents and just have fun with them. But it is one thing ‘taking the piss’ with a regular person on the street or one of your mates, it is a different thing altogether to ‘take the piss’ with a fellow cage fighter who has a trigger temper and cant wait to beat your ass like you stole something. Now Rockhold has called Bisping out and it will be interesting to see Bisping’s response. To me the fight may well prove to be a great fight as both men have shown their abilities in the ring, but it may also turn out to be a major disappointment as Bisping is currently on the comeback trail after suffering a detached retina last year. Like Anderson Silva, I think Bisping should shelve his pride and just call it a day before a more serious injury is done.

But there are two other fighters we simply cannot ignore. Mark ‘The Filipino Wrecking Machine’ Munoz and Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida. Munoz has just come back to his best after a long layoff and it has been proven that if you give a fighter a reason to fight (in Munoz’s case overcoming depression) they may be as dangerous as ever. And Munoz is no regular bum off the street corner, this boy can bang with the best. Machida is also trying to resurrect his career by making the drop from Light Heavy Weight to Middleweight where he may prove to be a problem. His fighting style suits the division and his experience may give the younger guys sleepless nights. Again, Machida is no regular bum off the street corner, and Rashad Evens and Quinton Jackson will confirm this.

Before we get to UFC 169, we see the return of Benson Henderson who is hoping to get another shot at Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis. Many thought that the loss to Pettis was a shock, but again, Pettis had the real motivation to win that fight. And he will now want to keep the belt for as long as possible. Henderson will want to prove that he is worthy of the top contender ranking when he takes on Josh Thompson at a UFC Fight Night event just before UFC 169. But while Henderson should make light work of Thompson (who is ranked number 7 in the division), there is a lot of talent stacked between the two fighters. Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez is simply a machine and proved in his fight with Diego ‘The Nightmare’ Sanchez that he is one bad ass mudda. Granted, while there is nothing like seeing two Mexicans unleash all hell on each other, if Melendez can come anywhere close to finding some of that form in a possible fight against Henderson…Henderson better have his last will and testament in order.

And then, finally, it is time to see Bruce Buffer completely lose his shit at UFC 169. And it is a highly anticipated event. Renan Barao is set to take on Urijah Faber for the Bantam Weight crown. This is a great fight because both fighters are exciting to watch. While I am not the biggest fan of Brazilian fighters in the UFC, Barao is one Brazilian I do enjoy watching. He proved his worth against Eddie Wineland (who himself is a former WEC champion Boxer) when he was not intimidated by Wineland and knocked him out with a cracker of a roundhouse kick to the head. Faber is no slouch himself. He has fought a number of top fighters in the division and prevailed over most of them. The only two that he lost against was Barao and Dominick Cruz. My prediction for the fight, a Barao victory within the first two rounds.

The undercard for UFC 169 is stacked with talent as well. The co main event of the evening sees another Brazilian champion Jose Aldo taking on Ricardo Lamas, while the fight before that is Frank Mir against Alastair Overeem. That is a great fight as both fighters got the better of Brock Lesner.

It will be an interesting event and a great way to kick off 2014, although there was disappointment when Dana White revealed that the card would not feature the upcoming matchup between Jon ‘Bones’ Jones and Glover Teixeira,  the fight between Barao and Faber is a great filler.

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Did Anderson Silva Lose his Mind?

Salamu

Over the past few months I have become very interested in Mixed Martial Arts and in particular the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And while I am by no means an expert on the subject. I will voice my opinions on the events as they unfold.

A definite end to a long standing rivalry

The latest event was UFC 168. This was a highly anticipated event as it was the continuation of the rivalry
between newly crowned UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman and possibly one of the greatest MMA fighters in the sports history, Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva.

There was much anticipation leading into UFC 168 with many saying that at 38, Silva is quite simply a spent force. He faced alot of criticism when he lost the title to Weidman where even veteran commentator Joe Rogan - who has always been a outspoken supporter of Silva - said that Silva’s fighting style of taunting opponents in the ring finally caught up with him.

At the end of UFC 162, Silva said that Weidman is a great champion and that he would not be fighting for the belt anymore. The whole world was surprised then when UFC President Dana White announced that the main event of UFC 168 would be Weidman vs Silva II.

It turns out that the viewpoint of Silva being a spent force was pretty accurate. Silva came in with a characteristic Silva leg kick, which was blocked by Weidman and led to one of the most gruesome sporting injuries I have ever seen when Silva’s leg broke. It is safe to say that we have seen the last of Silva. When former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir broke his leg in a similar fashion in a biking accident, it took him a year and a half to return to full fitness. If Silva followed the same path, he would be pushing 40 and would hardly be a threat in the division.

Is this the best MMA fighter of all time?

Whether Silva remains the best MMA fighter of all time remains to be seen. Sure he was great, and those affiliated with the UFC (Dana White and Joe Rogan) will obviously say that he is the best there ever was. But there is a small matter of Fedor Emelianenko who many other people within MMA circles consider considerably better than Silva. 

Now that Silva is out of the way, Weidman can turn his attention to Vitor Belfort. Belfort is a veteran of the octagon and made his debut as a heavyweight. He is in fact a former light heavyweight champion, so many would think that Wiedman will have his hands full.

The division that originally attracted me to the sport was the light heavyweight division. This was in the glory days of the division where ‘Sugar’ Rashad Evans, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Forest Griffon and Maurício ‘Shogun’ Rua where dukeing it out for top honors. But since the rise of Jon Jones, no one has looked to threaten him for dominance.

To me, the division which is the most open in the UFC at the moment is the welterweight division, but this was also due to the retirement of Georges Saint Pierre.  I am eagerly anticipating the fight between Jonny ‘Big Rig’ Hendriks and ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler at UFC 171.

Another division which is more open than it seems is the Heavyweight division. Although Cain Velazques has solidified his reputation as possibly the division’s longest serving champion, there are alot of fighters challenging this dominance. Travis Brown showed he can bang with the best when he knocked out the sports youngest heavyweight champion, Josh Barnett, at UFC 168. His vicious elbows and height will mean that he will be a problem for many fighters and the sooner he gets in the ring with Junior Dos Santos to become the number one contender, the better.  

MMA is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide and I wait for eager anticipation for the next big UFC event.

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!