Author: Cody Guinn

TUF Finale: Does Jake Ellenberger Deserve a Title Shot with a Win over Kampmann?

The UFC’s welterweight division looked to be weakening a year ago, but as of right now, after the lightweight division, the welterweight division is stacked with talent. While it’s always good to have talent from top to bottom in the divisi…

The UFC’s welterweight division looked to be weakening a year ago, but as of right now, after the lightweight division, the welterweight division is stacked with talent. While it’s always good to have talent from top to bottom in the division, it sometimes causes a problem when it comes to the guys at the top.

This is the case in this division and with the Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre still injured and interim Champion Carlos Condit choosing to sit on the sidelines and wait for him to heal causes the top to become a little cluttered.

Johny Hendricks is coming off back-to-back wins over former No.1 contenders Jon Fitch and most recently Josh Koscheck. Dana White has said that Hendricks looks to be the No.1 (or I guess two in this case) in the Welterweight division, but what about Jake Ellenberger?

In my opinion, Ellenberger is the most underrated fighter currently in the UFC. He’s undefeated since 2009, which was a very close split decision loss to current interim champion Carlos Condit, and is coming off an impressive victory over Diego Sanchez as well as knocking out former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and UFC welterweight No.1 contender Jake Shields.

On June 1, at the Ultimate Fighter Live Finale, Ellenberger will be in action once again against Martin Kampmann where Ellenberger will attempt to move his winning streak to an outstanding seven wins in a row.

If Ellenberger defeats Kampmann, does he deserve a title shot more than Hendricks?

It’s hard to say due to the fact both men have beaten such similar competition and seem so evenly matched. Hendricks is only on a four-fight winning streak, but he is only the second man ever to defeat both Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck; the other being Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.

Ellenberger, on the other hand, has looked dominate on his winning streak with the only minor bump in the road being his close matchup with Carlos Eduardo Rocha at UFC 126 in February 2011. Ellenberger is one of those fighters who looks almost completely like a new fighter each fight, and that is a main reason I believe he holds the greatest threat to champion St-Pierre.

If Ellenberger comes out and finishes Kampmann, I believe it is safe to say that he deserves a title shot more than Hendricks does with the mess that is the top of the Welterweight division and it looking like it won’t be October or November until St-Pierre and Condit can fight.

That being said, this leaves more than enough time to possibly have an official No.1 contender fight between Ellenberger and Hendricks if Ellenberger wins this Friday night, but, as we all know, the UFC seems to never be in favor of doing things the simple way.

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UFC 146 and the Next Great UFC Idea: An All Flyweight Free Card

If you watched last night’s fights on Fuel TV and Fox, a few things caught your eye. One, Nate Diaz is one bad dude. Two, the flyweights are the most excited dudes in sports. If you saw the battle between Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall a few m…

If you watched last night’s fights on Fuel TV and Fox, a few things caught your eye. One, Nate Diaz is one bad dude. Two, the flyweights are the most excited dudes in sports. If you saw the battle between Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall a few months ago at UFC on Fuel 2, then you sort of already knew the Flyweights were amazing and exciting, but last nights performances by John Dodson, Tim Elliott, and Louis Gaudinot gave everyone a new outlook on how fun this division is going to be.

So with that said, and the UFC 146 all heavyweight card on the horizon, it makes me think: what if the UFC had a card on FX or possibly even Fox that’s main card was five flyweight fights? Can you say exciting? Now, yes, the Flyweights are currently not very well known by many casual MMA fans, but what better way to display them than to hold a card like this?

The card could come around October and feature the flyweight championship fight between Joseph Benavidez and the winner of the Demetrious Johnson-Ian McCall II coming this summer. Also, feature a co-main event of the loser of Johnson/McCall against John Dodson to possibly determine the next flyweight championship contender.

Then, feel out the card by possibly booking a match-up with Yasuhiro Urushitani and, if the UFC will go ahead and sign him, the previously ranked number one Flyweight Jussier da Silva. Round out the main card with two awesome matchups between Louis Gaudinot and Tim Elliott and a matchup between Chris Cariaso and Darren Uyenoyama.

That is just a card I through together for the sake of this article, but if that was the actual card, it would be the fastest paced main card in UFC history! And all them fighters I named, with the exception of da Silva, are already on the UFC roster, so imagined if they went out and signed some other top-ranked flyweights such as Haruo Ochi, Mamoru Yamaguchi, Sean Santella, or Nam Jin Jo? It would make the card even better and all the fights would shake up the UFC flyweight title picture.

Although fans aren’t going crazy about the flyweights just yet, after a card like last night, fans want more and creating a card like this would without question leave fans wanting even more and give the flyweights the attention and respect they deserve without having to bring each one up one by one through the prelims.

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UFC 146: Could Overeem ‘s Failed Drug Test Alter the Strikeforce Grand Prix?

The biggest news in the MMA world this past week was UFC heavyweight No. 1 contender Alistair Overeem failing his pre-fight drug test and likely being pulled from the main event at UFC 146 against UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.With rumors …

The biggest news in the MMA world this past week was UFC heavyweight No. 1 contender Alistair Overeem failing his pre-fight drug test and likely being pulled from the main event at UFC 146 against UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

With rumors of Overeem out, many have speculated who will replace him and receive a title shot at UFC 146.

Many thought the shot would go to Frank Mir, who deserves it the most in my opinion, but Dana White has recently stated on Twitter that the Frank Mir-Cain Velasquez fight will happen. Fans on Twitter and Facebook have been trying to rally for the shot to go to Mark Hunt, as well as some rallying for the shot to go to Fedor Emelianenko. Neither of them seems very likely.

The most likely heavyweight to receive the shot is Fabricio Werdum, who is coming off one of the most impressive performances of his career in his domination of Roy Nelson at UFC 143. Werdum is currently scheduled to fight Mike Russow in Brazil in June, but I’m sure if given the opportunity to fight for the title, Werdum would take it.

The big thing about that happening is current champion dos Santos knocked out Werdum in the first round back in 2008, so fans most likely wouldn’t be very hyped for the matchup.

So, who else is there? Dan Henderson said he’d do it, but that’s highly unlikely to happen.

The only guys left I can think of are the two Strikeforce Grand Prix finalists: Josh Barnett and Daniel Cormier. I think White could possibly talk to both guys about the opportunity to come over to the UFC and one get a title shot and one put into a title contention fight. I think it would be nice to see Barnett face dos Santos for the title and Cormier face Shane Carwin in his return, or vice versa.

Either way, it could very well be a possibility and could mark the end of Strikeforce as we know it.

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