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GSP Injury Fallout: Dana White Should Make BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz 5 Rounds

There is a lot to talk with the recent unfortunate news that Georges St-Pierre has pulled out from his UFC 137 bout with Carlos Condit due to a knee injury. Dana White has announced that the co-main event between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz will now move i…

B.J. Penn vs. Nick Diaz Should Be Five Rounds

When the UFC made the move to change non-title main events from three rounds to five rounds, the announcement was met with almost universal approval from hardcore MMA fans.

Great fights deserve five rounds, and sometimes when two great fighters meet, it takes five rounds to really turn a decent fight into a truly great one.

The Edgar vs. Maynard trilogy wouldn’t have been great without those two extra rounds, and fights like Jackson vs. Machida, Penn vs. Fitch and Jackson vs. Evans might have actually had a chance at greatness had they been contested over five rounds instead of three.

Penn vs. Diaz is one of those great fights that deserves the dignity of five rounds, and really, those extra two rounds really add far more intrigue.

In this writer’s opinion, Penn is a superior boxer, wrestler and BJJ player, and Nick Diaz’s only really big advantage over Penn is his renowned conditioning.

I greatly favor Penn in a three round fight and think that he’ll easily win the first two rounds before conditioning becomes a big issue. But because Diaz is a highly durable fighter, contesting the fight over five rounds makes the fight far more interesting, and a Diaz victory far more possible.

The only real negative is for bettors who have put money on Penn, counting on Penn to be the better fighter over three rounds.

UFC 137 Needs a New Co-Main Event

While B.J. Penn vs. Nick Diaz is a serviceable main event, the loss of GSP and Condit seriously damages the overall value of the pay-per-view card to the point where simply moving up a fight from the undercard isn’t satisfactory.

If the UFC wants to salvage the card and make it worthy of hard-earned fan dollars, they should seriously consider adding a new co-main event.

Josh Koscheck has stepped up by offering to fight Condit, but that fight can’t really happen.

The UFC needs St-Pierre to fight as frequently as possible, and while putting a potential title challenger on the sidelines might seem wasteful, it’s better than waiting another two months for a new challenger to emerge if St-Pierre can return to action in that time line.

Still, White should consider inserting Koscheck or another high-level fighter in there somewhere, because UFC 137 needs help.

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Gary Shaw Backs Dana White on Fedor Emelianenko’s Horrible Management

UFC president Dana White and boxing promoter Gary Shaw rarely agree on things publicly, but in a video recently released by FightHubTV.com, Shaw backs up White’s claims about how difficult it was to deal with Fedor Emelianenko’s management group, M-1 G…

For years White had been criticized by fans and media for not dealing with Emelianenko’s management. Many fans felt that White’s refusal to come to an agreement was a result of arrogance, stubbornness or his abrasive attitude in negotiations.

In his video interview with FightHub, Shaw reveals that he tried to sign Emelianenko on multiple occasions but was turned away by unreasonable demands on the part of M-1 Global. Shaw explained:

I thought M-1 was very difficult to deal with. It wasn’t only Fedor, they wanted to be the co-promoters and the managers, and they wanted you to put on so many Russian fighters of theirs on every show. Nobody’s worth that price. Maybe if Fedor had the right management from the beginning he might have been in the UFC and been a huge star…

These claims from Shaw echo the sentiments of White, who also claimed that M-1 Global was too demanding and argued they were responsible for ruining Emelianenko’s career.

While Emelianenko has made a lot of money from the past few years, dealing with the Russian hasn’t been so profitable.

BoDogFight briefly promoted MMA before closing after having lost a reported $38 million.

Affliction Entertainment held two shows featuring Emelianenko and were financial failures before Josh Barnett’s pullout caused the cancellation of a third and, ultimately, final straw for the promotion.

Most recently, Strikeforce’s financial backers pulled out shortly following Emelianenko’s second consecutive loss in the promotion, expediting Strikeforce’s sale to Zuffa LLC, UFC’s parent company.

Many feel that Emelianenko’s failure to gain momentum in Strikeforce is a big reason for the promotion’s struggles, as Strikeforce’s hopes of holding a marketable pay-per-view were dashed, and without such a pay-per-view, Emelianenko wasn’t worth what Strikeforce was paying (he reportedly made $1.5 million and $400,000 for his losses to Henderson Fabricio Werdum, respectively).

While Emelianenko supporters have argued that it isn’t his fault that the promotions have failed, the fact that seemingly everybody who deals with him loses money should say something about how utterly futile M-1 Global is as a strategic partner and so-called “co-promoter.”

Even though the facts seem to back Shaw, his opinion might come as somewhat of a surprise from MMA fans who know that White and Shaw aren’t exactly on friendly terms.

Shaw has criticized White’s management style, in particular in relation to his handling of Kimbo Slice.

For his part, White has criticized Shaw as a boxing promoter and went after him when Shaw was promoting MMA fights for EliteXC. When responding to one of Shaw’s criticisms, White once referred to Shaw as “a moron.”

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UFC 135 Aftermath: Why Matt Hughes Should Keep Fighting

UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes was knocked out brutally for the second straight fight, and in the aftermath of UFC 135 it seems as if most people want the MMA legend to finally hang up the gloves for good.Matt Hughes’ retirement has been a long time com…

Matt Hughes’ retirement has been a long time coming, as he’s been talking about retiring for years. Even before his second fight with Georges St-Pierre, Hughes was already saying that he thought he only had a few fights left.

More recently, Hughes has admitted that if the choice were his wife’s, he’d be retiring.

Despite all that, it is this writer’s opinion that even if Hughes isn’t ever going to be a top contender in the UFC again, there’s still plenty of good fights out there for him.

Why Fighters Need To Retire

When Dana White expressed a desire for Chuck Liddell to retire, it wasn’t because Liddell was losing. It was because Liddell was showing obvious signs of physical and mental deterioration. Liddell has always been a man of few words, but in his later years his speech became more slurred, and his once famously rock-solid chin was crumbling.

This isn’t the case with Hughes. Yeah, he’s been knocked out, but he’s not showing the kind of physical deterioration that was evident with Liddell, he seems mentally clear and, unlike Liddell, Hughes’ game never revolved around his chin anyway.

Why Matt Hughes Is Losing

In his last three losses, Hughes has fought three opponents famous for knockout power and stellar defensive wrestling.

Josh Koscheck was a NCAA D-1 champion.

BJ Penn is so hard to take down that even former heavyweight champion Randy Couture said that he had difficulty taking Penn down.

Thiago Alves is good enough at defensive wrestling that Koscheck couldn’t get him down when they fought.

These kinds of fighters didn’t win because Hughes is getting old. They won because they’re tough matchups for Hughes stylistically.

Most fighters don’t have nearly as strong wrestling as these three, or knockout power for that matter, so I fail to see how losses to these three shows that Hughes couldn’t be competitive in the welterweight division.

Plenty of Interesting Matchups Remain

Interesting matchups left for Hughes include a fight with Diego Sanchez, Hughes’ original UFC 135 opponent before Sanchez pulled out due to injury.

Dennis Hallman might not be a relevant name, but a lot of fans still want to see Hughes try one more time to beat the man who has submitted him twice.

Aside from these fighters, there are even more relevant fights available for Hughes, if he’s looking for a real challenge.

Nick Diaz is seen as an elite welterweight, but given Hughes’ wrestling and dominant top-position grappling, I think that’s a surprisingly winnable fight for him.

Hughes Doesn’t Want To Retire

If Hughes was overly concerned with holding the belt again, that would be a problem.

Chuck Liddell’s insistence upon fighting top guys who could get him back into title contention basically sealed his fate.

Matt Hughes isn’t in that boat though. He’s been happy these past few years fighting against well-known opponents regardless of the title implications.

If Hughes wants to keep fighting, and he’s content in finding opponents that are a little less daunting than BJ Penn or Josh Koscheck, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t.

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Shaq Retires: How Long Before His UFC Debut?

With news that Shaquille O’Neal has announced his retirement on the social media tool Tout, there are many questions being asked, and much to discuss.Where does Shaq fit into the pantheon of basketball greats?Why did Shaq have to announce his retiremen…

With news that Shaquille O’Neal has announced his retirement on the social media tool Tout, there are many questions being asked, and much to discuss.

Where does Shaq fit into the pantheon of basketball greats?

Why did Shaq have to announce his retirement right before the NBA Finals?

Why are some sites saying Shaq tweeted his retirement while others are saying he retired via Tout?

What the heck is Tout?

All these questions and more will get their fair share of play over the next few days.

As an only casual basketball fan, my concern is more toward the future: When is Shaq going to fight in the UFC?

Shaq has long been a UFC fan, and friend of UFC president Dana White.

More than just a fan, Shaq has been training striking and grappling for years and has in the past joked about fighting the likes of Chuck Liddell, Hong Man Choi and even recent UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

He’s even an unlockable character in the video game UFC: Undisputed.

Although O’Neil is retiring from basketball at least partially due to lingering injuries, it seems likely to me that Shaq takes at least one MMA fight.

The most likely candidate for O’Neal would be Korean kickboxer Hong Man Choi, a 7’2″ giant best known for beating up a sad looking Jose Canseco and getting arm-barred by Fedor Emelianenko.

While a fight between Shaq and Choi would be nothing more than a freak show, it’s hard to ignore the appeal of it being a HUGE freak show.

Although Dana White has said that he doesn’t like putting on freak show matches, James Toney’s fight against Randy Couture should tell us otherwise.

It seems to me like only a matter of time before Dana White and Shaquille O’Neal have a meeting to schedule The Diesel’s UFC debut.

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Roy Nelson’s Problem Is Not Pneumonia

According to Cagewriter, Roy Nelson was suffering from pneumonia days before his bout with Frank Mir.There’s no reason to doubt Nelson, and if he says he had pneumonia, his word is to be believed.That said, pneumonia is not Nelson’s problem, and I hope…

According to Cagewriter, Roy Nelson was suffering from pneumonia days before his bout with Frank Mir.

There’s no reason to doubt Nelson, and if he says he had pneumonia, his word is to be believed.

That said, pneumonia is not Nelson’s problem, and I hope that he doesn’t use it as an excuse going forward.

While it’s true that pneumonia could have been a factor in his poor physical condition last weekend, that doesn’t explain how tired he looked last summer against Junior Dos Santos.

During the Dos Santos fight, Nelson was breathing heavily, dropping his hands and often staggered backwards without having been hit. That’s called being tired.

The reason he wasn’t as tired in that fight as he was against Mir is because the Mir fight last week was a far more grueling wrestling match.

If the Dos Santos fight was a wrestling match, Nelson would have looked just as exhausted, and if he ever has to fight Brock Lesnar, Nelson is going to look even more exhausted if he survives longer than a round.

While Nelson’s explanations are legitimate, this isn’t the time for excuses.

If Nelson stays fat, he’ll look fine if he’s winning and able to control the pace, and he’ll look exhausted when he’s getting wrestled, beaten up and struggling to get off his back.

Losing weight can only help with his conditioning, and any excuse that stops Nelson from losing weight is a roadblock to his possible future success as a fighter.

Roy Nelson: Mike Dolce is calling.

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Joe Rogan and the Leg Kick

If there are two things that I’ve learned from years of UFC fight commentary, they are as follows:1. Mike Goldberg could be replaced by a soundboard with almost no noticeable difference on the PPV broadcast.2. Joe Rogan loves leg kicks.It is the latter…

If there are two things that I’ve learned from years of UFC fight commentary, they are as follows:

1. Mike Goldberg could be replaced by a soundboard with almost no noticeable difference on the PPV broadcast.

2. Joe Rogan loves leg kicks.

It is the latter observation that I will be writing about today.

If you happened to be watching the Facebook prelims last Saturday, you might have caught a glimpse of the fight between Michael McDonald and Chris Cariaso.

The fight was a close and competitive one that could easily have been scored either way, but what was most obvious to me was that Rogan called a ton of leg kicks by Cariaso, but made a much smaller deal of the right-hand counters landed by McDonald.

This is nothing new.

Forrest Griffin‘s fight with Rashad Evans comes to mind as good example of a fight where Rogan was quick to give credit for Griffin’s leg kicks, but gave almost no credit for hand counters.

Admittedly, Evans deserved to lose the first two rounds of his fight with Forrest, but if you were listening to the commentary without video, you would have thought it was a blowout, which it clearly wasn’t.

Another notable example is the first fight between Lyoto Machida and Shogun Rua.

While once again, Rua’s kicks played a big factor, the hand counters by Machida went largely uncalled for much of the fight.

In the picture above you’ll clearly see Machida clearly landing a strong blow to Rua’s chin, but during the fight commentary, it was Rua’s body kick that received the Rogan call.

Unfortunately, Mike Goldberg pretty much acts as a Joe Rogan thermometer, so when Rogan isn’t calling the counter punches, those punches remain uncalled.

I don’t know what it is exactly that makes Rogan so quick to call leg kicks, but trust me, it’s apparent.

Perhaps the best example came when Anderson Silva fought James Irvin.

Irvin threw a leg kick and Anderson destroyed him with a killshot to the face.

“Nice leg kick.”

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