Author: Ben Fowlkes

Kenny Florian Not Worried About Maynard’s Wrestling, Thanks to Help from GSP

Filed under: UFCEvery fighter wants a chance to compete in front of a hometown crowd. At least they think they do. There’s no hassle with airports, no strange restaurants, no frantic searches for a health food store so you can stock your hotel room wit…

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Every fighter wants a chance to compete in front of a hometown crowd. At least they think they do. There’s no hassle with airports, no strange restaurants, no frantic searches for a health food store so you can stock your hotel room with gluten-free whatever. It’s familiar. It’s home. And it doesn’t hurt that you get to walk out on fight night to a unanimous chorus of cheers.

But sometimes home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not when every local media outlet wants a piece of you and every person who ever sat next to in a high school geometry class wants you to get them a ticket to the fights.

That’s the situation Boston native Kenny Florian is in this week. On Saturday night at UFC 118 he takes on Gray Maynard in a fight to determine who will get the next crack at the UFC lightweight title, and he does it in front of a hometown crowd that will place its hopes and expectations for a local victory onto his narrow shoulders.

“It can be a little distracting,” Florian told MMA Fighting. “But it’s stuff I’ve dealt with before. People want you to get them tickets to every fight. You have to win every fight. You always have your fans supporting you and people in your corner expecting you to do well. That’s just how it is.”

Falling Action: Best, Worst of Strikeforce: Houston

Filed under: StrikeforceYou can learn a lot about what a fighter is made of by the way he loses. Take “King” Mo Lawal and Bobby Lashley, for instance. Both suffered TKO losses at Strikeforce: Houston, but both showed us something completely different a…

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You can learn a lot about what a fighter is made of by the way he loses. Take “King” Mo Lawal and Bobby Lashley, for instance. Both suffered TKO losses at Strikeforce: Houston, but both showed us something completely different about their respective characters in the process.

Lawal absorbed some brutal knees and punches from a heavy-hitting Brazilian, and he was still scrambling for a desperate takedown right up until the end. When “Big” John McCarthy finally stopped the fight, Lawal pitched face first onto the mat, completely spent after trying everything he could to claw his way back from the brink of unconsciousness.

Lashley, on the other hand, looked like he didn’t even want to get up and walk to his corner after winning the first round. The cut under his eye clearly rattled him, and a few minutes later he was so exhausted he could barely lift his arms or defend himself.

Why Nick Diaz vs. ‘Mayhem’ Miller Is Fight Strikeforce Needs Now

Filed under: StrikeforceLet’s start with what we know: 1) Jason “Mayhem” Miller really wants to fight Nick Diaz, so much so that he went to the trouble of having a special t-shirt made for the occasion. 2) Both men were central participants in a well-p…

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Let’s start with what we know: 1) Jason “Mayhem” Miller really wants to fight Nick Diaz, so much so that he went to the trouble of having a special t-shirt made for the occasion. 2) Both men were central participants in a well-publicized post-fight brawl on CBS back in April. 3) Diaz will be fighting someone in a Strikeforce event on October 9. 4) Miller’s calendar is clear right about then.

If you’re like me, you did the math on all that and arrived at one answer: “Mayhem” Miller and Nick Diaz should fight each other at Strikeforce’s October 9 event. Case closed, right?

Not so fast, apparently. Here it is late August and Miller insists he’s not been offered a fight with Diaz, nor does he expect that Diaz will agree to fight him at all, despite Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker’s previous assurances that the fight would happen within “eight months to a year.”

The MMA Wrap-Up Looks Back at Strikeforce: Houston

Filed under: Strikeforce, VideosSome nights the hardest thing is finding an interesting topic to talk about once the fights are over. Other nights the only problem is narrowing it down to just one interesting topic.

As you’ll see in the video below, t…

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Some nights the hardest thing is finding an interesting topic to talk about once the fights are over. Other nights the only problem is narrowing it down to just one interesting topic.

As you’ll see in the video below, the Wrap-Up struggled with this very problem after a crazy night at Strikeforce: Houston. After a little internal debate, we turn our attention toward former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley, who began like a hurricane on Saturday night only to turn into a tepid breeze within about ten minutes of action against Chad Griggs.

So what does this mean for Lashley’s MMA career, and for Strikeforce’s attempts to trade on his pro wrestling star power by putting him into bouts where he’s an almost excruciatingly heavy favorite each time out? To find out, you’ll just have to watch the video.

Strikeforce: Houston Results in a Night of Upsets and Controversy

Filed under: StrikeforceOn paper, Strikeforce: Houston looked like it would be a night where a series of favorites stampeded to easy victories. Then again, they don’t fight on paper.

“King” Mo Lawal got off to a good start in his first Strikeforce lig…

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On paper, Strikeforce: Houston looked like it would be a night where a series of favorites stampeded to easy victories. Then again, they don’t fight on paper.

“King” Mo Lawal got off to a good start in his first Strikeforce light heavyweight title defense. He slammed Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante to the mat, deftly avoided most of his offensive assaults, and seemed like he was in complete control.

Then in the third round the Brazilian challenger found his range in the stand-up game and unloaded on Lawal with hard right hands and a series of knees to the head that left the champion wobbled. After dropping Lawal with a left-right combination, Cavalcante poured on the elbow strikes until referee “Big” John McCarthy called a stop to the bout at 1:14 of round three, making “Feijao” the third man to hold the Strikeforce light heavyweight strap in 2010.

“My strategy was to block his takedowns in the first and second rounds, because I knew he was going to get tired, and that’s what I did,” Cavalcante said in the post-fight press conference.

Bobby Lashley Faced His First Real Test, and Tasted His First MMA Failure

Filed under: StrikeforceHOUSTON – Former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley came into his bout with Chad Griggs at Strikeforce: Houston as an overwhelming 8-1 favorite. A little more than ten minutes later, he staggered out of the cage beaten, bloodied, and wi…

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HOUSTON – Former pro wrestler Bobby Lashley came into his bout with Chad Griggs at Strikeforce: Houston as an overwhelming 8-1 favorite. A little more than ten minutes later, he staggered out of the cage beaten, bloodied, and with his hype bubble officially burst.

It was a fight that was supposed to be a showcase for Lashley, but somewhere in there in turned into an actual test. It was the first real challenge that Lashley has faced in his relatively short and sheltered MMA career. Instead of rising to the occasion, he wilted under the pressure.