On paper, the layout of the Bellator MIddleweight semifinals seemed in the concrete favor of a rematch between former Bellator middleweight challenger Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko and former WEC middleweight standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.Baker had ev…
On paper, the layout of the Bellator MIddleweight semifinals seemed in the concrete favor of a rematch between former Bellator middleweight challenger Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko and former WEC middleweight standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.
Baker had everything going his way after a win over one Jared Hess, but then he ran into a surefire underdog in Wand Fight Team prodigy VItor Vianna, who is notorious for being a training ally of MMA legend and current UFC 139 co-headliner “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva.
On paper, Vianna was not supposed to beat Baker, as his own punching power was not solid enough to put away a durable Sam Alvey and therefore it was presumed that Vianna needed to take the equally durable Baker down in order to find a tap.
As Baker would learn last night in the first Bellator middleweight semifinal bout of Season 5, however, multiple grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championships does not always mean that a man has inferior striking to his competition.
Alexander Shlemenko would be wise to remember this, because when Bellator 58 rolls around, he may have to contend with something similar to this, and it could cost Shlemenko his shot at a rematch with Hector Lombard.
Of course, we can talk about Lombard later, preferably when his bout with Trevor Prangley draws closer. But for right now, feel free to see what happens when you write off the striking of a multi-time Jiu-Jitsu champion.
Bellator Fighting Championships prides itself on being an organization where title shots are earned and not handed out. This Saturday’s Bellator 54 card is no different.Alexander Shlemenko hopes to earn his rematch with Hector Lombard, current Bellator…
Bellator Fighting Championships prides itself on being an organization where title shots are earned and not handed out. This Saturday’s Bellator 54 card is no different.
Alexander Shlemenko hopes to earn his rematch with Hector Lombard, current Bellator middleweight “Iron Fist,” for lack of a sugar coated label like “champion.” But his road runs through Brian Rogers, who is looking to make his own waves in the 185-pound division.
Vitor Vianna hopes to make his own waves as well, but like Rogers, the Wand Fight Team warrior is staring down a Season Two finalist also, and former WEC middleweight Bryan “The Beast” Baker has no plans on laying down for one of UFC 139 co-headliner Wanderlei Silva’s young proteges.
In addition to the Bellator Season Five Middleweight Semifinals, Bellator bantamweight kingpin Zack Makovsky will rest easy knowing Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren will be nowhere near his peripheral vision in the title picture.
But his own status as top bantamweight material is on the line as veteran Ryan Roberts looks to break through at the expense of a current Bellator World Champion.
Live on MTV2 and Epix in HD, Bellator 54 comes at you this Saturday. For anyone who needs their void filled until UFC 137 in two weeks, here’s what you all need to know about Saturday’s card.
Anderson “The Spider” Silva, arguably the most enigmatic combat sports athlete to be called “the best pound for pound fighter” in any sport, had himself a near-fatal career moment last year when he took a trip to Oakland for a UFC Middleweight Title de…
Anderson “The Spider” Silva, arguably the most enigmatic combat sports athlete to be called “the best pound for pound fighter” in any sport, had himself a near-fatal career moment last year when he took a trip to Oakland for a UFC Middleweight Title defense against a man named Chael Sonnen.
Despite the circumstances surrounding the bout—namely the controversy surrounding the Testosterone Replacement Therapy Sonnen had undergone but overdone before the fight—the MMA world remembers that Sonnen did what many hoped the Chris Lebens, Nate Marquardts, Rich Franklins and Dan Hendersons of the UFC would do and pushed Silva for four and a half rounds.
Silva had fought guys with good submission skills before, but a fighter with the ground and pound of Sonnen?
Never, and Silva was still expected to waltz through Uncle Chael, but we all know how that worked out for both guys.
Now, it’s 2011. Silva has torn through all but a few Middleweights, and Chael Sonnen found a submission that he wasn’t really looking for against Brian Stann…complete with Sonnen saying Silva sucks and Dana White thinking about a few good venues for the rematch should he decide to go with it.
MMA Junkie reported after UFC 136 this past weekend that Dana White is looking at Dallas for a venue for the card which might feature Silva-Sonnen II if Silva’s shoulder is good to go by then.
Of course, if Dana White wants to do it in a stadium and he’s talking to Jerry Jones about a trip back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area—specifically to that big place with 110,000 seats and the huge screens in Arlington—he might be making a great move.
So while Dana considers allowing my credentials, here’s why Super Bowl weekend should feature Silva-Sonnen II in Dallas, TX.
No disrespect to UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and his UFC 136 win by TKO, but if this was not the real Knockout of the Night for Saturday, October 8, 2011, then I don’t know what is.Yes, the UFC lightweight champion avenged an ea…
No disrespect to UFC lightweight champion Frankie “The Answer” Edgar and his UFC 136 win by TKO, but if this was not the real Knockout of the Night for Saturday, October 8, 2011, then I don’t know what is.
Yes, the UFC lightweight champion avenged an early-UFC-career loss to Gray “The Bully” Maynard, but the answer (no pun intended) for the question of which fight was last night’s true knockout victory of the night does not come from the UFC.
Instead, it comes from one of the finishers on the Bellator Fighting Championships 53 card—specifically an underrated Brazilian prospect named Douglas Lima.
They don’t call Lima “The Phenom” because Bellator is trying to scoop up Vitor Belfort; they call Lima “The Phenom” because of the sensationally-ridiculous manner in which he puts people away.
Don’t believe it?
Watch this video of Lima’s finish of “The Cleveland Assassin” Chris Lozano, and try and tell me otherwise.
Just another note: he faces Ben Saunders in the Bellator welterweight finals this season…so tell me, are we still supposed to be writing Saunders off as the winner of the tourney, or can we give some credit where it’s due to a clear welterweight prospect that the world’s largest MMA organization would be foolish to overlook?
The last time MMA fans saw Frankie Edgar on the same card as Gray Maynard and Kenny Florian, Edgar was fighting BJ Penn at UFC 118, the same card on which Maynard fought Florian for that infamous crack at the belt.Edgar swept BJ Penn on that card while…
The last time MMA fans saw Frankie Edgar on the same card as Gray Maynard and Kenny Florian, Edgar was fighting BJ Penn at UFC 118, the same card on which Maynard fought Florian for that infamous crack at the belt.
Edgar swept BJ Penn on that card while Florian managed to once again fight like how Kenny Florian doesn’t fight en route to a stale unanimous decision loss to Maynard.
Over a year later, Edgar and Maynard share the card with Florian, except this time, Edgar and Maynard are settling a UFC 125 split draw and Florian is trying his hand at what could be the last title shot of his career as he faces Jose Aldo.
Below the main and co-main is a clash between the rising Brian Stann and the returning motor-mouth with the grind-em-out offense in Chael Sonnen—a UFC Middleweight contention bout that follows a TUF 12 Finale rematch between Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan, as well as a shoo-in for Fight of The Night between Melvin Guillard and Joe Lauzon.
All this, plus Anthony “Showtime” Pettis vs. Jeremy Stephens, Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago and hopefully Miss Kenda Perez right here as this is UFC 136: Edgar Vs. Maynard 3, live and direct here on Bleacher Report MMA!
Dan Henderson is one of the few Mixed Martial Artists who can still bring out a full A-Game despite being considered “old school” in age. But with the fact of him not having posted up that many losses as late—and his highlight reel of…
Dan Henderson is one of the few Mixed Martial Artists who can still bring out a full A-Game despite being considered “old school” in age. But with the fact of him not having posted up that many losses as late—and his highlight reel of knockouts—the most difficult thing to believe with Henderson is that he is anywhere close to peaking or peaked.
Henderson’s ability to fight past the prime he hasn’t even hit yet is reason enough why I must question myself for asking what I am about to ask. How much fight does Henderson have left in his tank coming into his UFC 139 bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, who is not even in his thirties yet?
I have a theory for most things—the most common theory relating to why people pick fighters to win even though they don’t like them—and I also have a theory as to why someone would honestly ask this question.
It really has nothing to do with how much fight Henderson has left in him, because everyone and their mothers that resemble Jayden Jaymes in a ring girl outfit all know that Henderson will give you a fight if you pay to see a fight, whether he wins or loses.
In other words, Henderson has enough fight left in him to put Shogun away before the fight hits Round 3, and some are entitled to the opinion that Henderson has the ability to sonic-boom any chin despite his age, but that’s just it.
It’s not the pattern Shogun more-or-less created in his UFC run of losing one upset, then posting up a two-fight win streak before dropping one and winning another before restarting it all over again. Because if any man can put Shogun out, frozen cold without any question of rust or injury (apart from a shook jaw), it’s Henderson.
The reason people question how much fight he has left is because in fight years, 40 means “they should stick to training guys,” and that’s probably one of the top five most asinine things that I’ve ever heard in this sport.
Henderson will always have much to offer the sport, but whether you like the guy or not, you can’t act like Henderson has nothing left.
He has more left in his tank than anyone else would want you to believe, and that’s why I bludgeon this ridiculous question in itself. In doing so with an arguable, educated answer, I also let any doubters of Henderson realize that this is not a fight that Shogun cannot lose, despite his patterns.
He got back on a roll against Forrest Griffin in Rio at UFC 134—arguably one of the best cards of this year—but what’s stopping Henderson from laying Shogun out for 25 seconds?
Maybe it’s me underestimating Shogun or maybe I’m over-hyping Henderson.
Then again, maybe it’s because it’s not November 19th yet, so we still don’t know for sure about Henderson.
After all, we never know what’s going to happen in a fight before fight night, now do we?
On paper, the layout of the Bellator MIddleweight semifinals seemed in the concrete favor of a rematch between former Bellator middleweight challenger Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko and former WEC middleweight standout Bryan “The Beast” Baker.