Author: Adam Wells

If there’s one UFC event that I’m really looking forward to, it’s UFC 135.  There, newly crowned light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will defend his title for the first time against veteran Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

After a long layoff, Jackson is slowly climbing back up the ranks in the light heavyweight division.  He lost his first fight back to Rashad Evans, but then scored unanimous decision victories over Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Matt “The Hammer” Hamill.  His performance against the latter was so dominant that UFC president Dana White chose to give the controversial fighter a title shot.

As much as I love Jackson, and yes that means I’ll be rooting for him at UFC 135, I’m not optimistic about his chances against Jones.  He is a great brawler who has really improved his ground game in the past year, but Jones is just a monster.

First of all, Jones is 6’4″ to Jackson’s 6’1″.  On top of that, he has a 10 1/2 inch reach advantage.

Most important, however, is Rampage Jackson’s similarity to Jones’s last opponent, Ryan “Darth” Bader.  Like Bader, Jackson is a wrestler with a standup game that isn’t too shabby.  Bader was submitted in Round 2 of his fight with Jones.

Given how Jones’s long arms are a weapon hard to defeat, Jackson had better pray he gets one of them in an armbar and then start cranking away.  Otherwise, he will walk out of the octagon without the belt and have no choice but to fight Rashad Evans again.

Oh well.  At least an awesome feud would be rekindled.

– Josh Benjamin

On January 1, South Korean Judo fighter Dong Hyun “Stun Gun” Kim defeated Nate Diaz at UFC 125.  In his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, he made a surprising comment.

“My name is Stun Gun,” Kim shouted to the crowd.  “I want GSP!”

GSP is, of course, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who is currently on a nine-fight winning streak.  He will next face current Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz at UFC 137.

Last night, Kim took on Carlos Condit in what was expected to be an epic fight.  All signs pointed to the winner of this bout taking on the winner of St. Pierre vs. Diaz.

About three minutes into the fight, Condit tagged Kim with a flying knee and subsequent punches to score the TKO victory.  If he does indeed fight St. Pierre, the champ will be in for a rude awakening.

Keep in mind, of Condit’s 27 wins, 13 have come via knockout and 13 more have come by submission.  He is four inches taller than St. Pierre and both have equally long reaches.

Combine that with St. Pierre’s reputation for not finishing fights where he has a clear advantage, and it’s perfectly logical that Carlos Condit could take the belt from him.

If this fight actually happens, the oddsmakers in Las Vegas are sure to have a field day.

– Josh Benjamin

UFC 132 was the most important mixed martial arts event of the year. Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, two longtime WEC veterans, were headlining the card in the first ever bantamweight championship fight, and their performance would go a long way to determining the fate of the weight class for a long time to come.

And all things considered, they did a fantastic job of selling the 135-pound division to all the casual MMA fans who were watching this show.

Cruz retained the championship in a fairly one-sided fight, but the atmosphere was absolutely electric for all five rounds. Cruz was a hated man because of his brash, cocky attitude and Faber was a star playing the perfect babyface.

If things had gone bad in this fight, UFC would have had a difficult time trying to market this weight class to fans for a long time. Dana White and Joe Silva would have to stack the undercard just to pop a decent buyrate for pay-per-views.

Now, UFC has two new stars on its hands with Cruz and Faber. Cruz is an exciting and charismatic fighter who the fans love to hate. Faber has a great personality that the people gravitate towards, and even in defeat he was still loved by the people.

It will take time to get the rest of the bantamweight fighters over with a big audience, but the first fight is always the most important, and all things considered it was a rousing success. People on Twitter were clamoring for a rematch, even though I don’t agree with that sentiment, the fact that people want more from these fighters and this division is a HUGE positive for UFC.

There is nothing more that these two men could have done to sell the bantamweight division. They put on a great fight for five rounds, and the people were into everything that they did. This division, and these two fighters, will have a good, long future in UFC.

Whether you love him or hate him, and most people fall into the latter category, Dominick Cruz is still the UFC bantamweight champion following a dominant victory over Urijah Faber at UFC 132.

The thing that really separated these two men was that unique fighting style that Cruz employs to frustrate his opponents. He is so unique in the way that he attacks that no one can get a good read on what he is going to do, though Faber did seem to be the first person to have any real success against it.

But how long will that style carry Cruz in mixed martial arts?

It’s great to be so different from everyone else, but eventually fighters learn to read the way that you fight and can attack based on some tendency that a fighter has.

Back when Chuck Liddell was in his prime, everyone thought that he was unbeatable because of that rabid punch that he threw to knockout all of his opponents. But as time passed, fighters caught wind of what to look for before he threw that punch and they were able to avoid. Suddenly Liddell was beatable for the first time ever.

Cruz’s style is more complex than Liddell’s, but the premise remains the same. There is going to come a time when his stamina will not be there and he will get caught with a punch or kick and fall in defeat.

Granted, Cruz is only 26 and has plenty of good years left in him. But it’s not as if he is dominating his opponents with a lethal punch combination; he is getting by with cardio. As a fighter gets older, the cardio and stamina is always the first thing to go.

Every fighter has a shelf life on top, but Cruz’s will be shorter than most people because he isn’t getting by just overpowering people in his division. He had to come up with a new fighting style to take control of the 135-pound division.

If you only watched the main card for UFC 132, you might think that it was one of the best events of all-time. There were great finishes, terrific fights that went the distance and a great moment for a legend who hasn’t won a fight in five years. But the prelim card was really nothing to get excited about, that is until the Spike TV portion of the event started and Melvin Guillard provided some fireworks. 

Guillard has been making a lot of noise in the lightweight division for the last year and he continued that streak in impressive fashion against Shane Roller.

He knocked Roller down with a hard left to the chin, but Roller was able to work his way back up. He landed some hard knees right to Roller’s head that dazed him then dropped him with another left hand. He threw some hammer fists that made Roller’s body go completely limp and the referee stopped it three minutes into the first.

After the fight, UFC announcer Joe Rogan asked Guillard if he thought he was ready for a title shot and even though he didn’t come right out and say that he deserved the shot, he said that he hoped this put him on the map.

Later, at the press conference, he sounded like he knew what he had to do to get a title shot soon.

“I’ve been saying all week that speed kills,” Guillard said. “I came here in the best shape of my life and I was really comfortable in there tonight. I knew that I could break him. I knew that with my speed and my pace, I could make it a rough night for him.

“I really hope I get “Knockout of the Night.” I want another top contender next. I’m looking for my meal ticket to a title shot.”

He didn’t get the fight bonus, that went to Carlos Condit’s flying knee, but he set himself up for a top tier lightweight fighter in the future. I would like to see him get a shot against the winner of next month’s Jim Miller-Ben Henderson fight to determine the No. 1 contender.

The lightweight division has been so crowded at the top this year, and Melvin Guillard’s impressive performance last night and five-fight win streak have put him right in the middle of the line with all of the other guys.

Last night, the ultimate stunner in UFC history occurred.  It was in the light heavyweight bout between Ryan “Darth” Bader and Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz.  In a column I published yesterday, I predicted that Bader would win via TKO in Round 2.

Instead, the unthinkable happened.  Ortiz came out with some good sparring and basically punched Bader into a guillotine choke.  The former Pac-10 wrestling champion tapped out 1:56 into Round 1 and Ortiz’s job was saved.

To put it bluntly, I can’t believe this happened. As happy as I am for Tito Ortiz, I’m kind of hoping that he tests positive for an illegal substance just so that Bader can slowly work his way up to a title shot.

Still, I’ve got to hand it to the legend.  He clearly came out ready to fight and Bader just looked cocky.  While in the beginning one fighter’s future looked cloudy and another’s was bright, the roles have been reversed.

Either way, it’s a pretty safe bet that Ryan Bader absolutely needs to win his next fight.  This was his second consecutive loss after winning his first 12 matches.  Considering how he lost those two, he needs to work on his submission defense.

On top of that, Bader needs to start from scratch and have a tuneup fight.  Maybe fight an up-and-comer or someone on the decline just so he can get his confidence back.

Otherwise, “Darth” will be slain and if I may use a bad metaphor, the Bader Empire will fall.

– Josh Benjamin