Elton Hobson | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

MMA: Is TRT Becoming the Default Excuse for Cheating in MMA?

I’m going to do something in this article I once thought I’d never do.I’m going to agree with BJ Penn.Recently, the pride of Hilo took to Twitter to vent his frustration about the Nate Marquardt/TRT scandal. In his usual measured, dip…

I’m going to do something in this article I once thought I’d never do.

I’m going to agree with BJ Penn.

Recently, the pride of Hilo took to Twitter to vent his frustration about the Nate Marquardt/TRT scandal. In his usual measured, diplomatic style, Penn explained that the recent rash of TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) cases in MMA was, in his educated opinion, “B.S.”

Amen, brotha (editor’s note: the author of this article is not BJ Penn’s “brotha” in either the biological or Hulkamaniac sense of the word).

It was a little surprising to find myself siding with the vitriolic Hawaiian. I remember the last time Penn made so public an outcry—the seemingly endless BJ/GSP “Greasegate” fiasco—I spent pretty much the whole time doing this.

It was just a three-month long biblical rain of facepalms. It sucked.

Yet here I am, shaking my clenched fist of indignant rage right alongside him.

Maybe it’s because I’m starting to feel like I’m caught in MMA “Groundhog Day” every time another fighter gets busted for having enough testosterone in their system to fuel a high school basketball team.

The script reads something like this: suspicions are raised after Fighter X takes a piss test that melts the Daisy cup (or whatever) faster then a lougie from this guy. Fighter X breaks out the violin to tell one of the two default excuse stories for steroids in MMA.

The first story revolves around Fighter X somehow not knowing that one of the many “supplements” he grinds into his morning bowl of Wheaties each day contains enough testosterone to kill a Centaur.

The second story—and the one that has become the du jour favorite—usually starts with a heart-wrenching story about misspent puberty’s, failing personal lives and the all-important symptom of “not feeling like myself” lead Fighter X to seek out medical advice.

Usually, this comes from a trench coat wearing “doctor” who’s degree is neatly scribbled on the back of a napkin from Harvey’s (which also doubles as his office).

The problem? Low testosterone levels, of course! The solution? Some nice, totally legal, medically approved shots of liquid cheating in your left ass cheek, stat!

Am I being cheeky here (OK, pun intended)? Of course I am.

Yet in both Chael Sonnen’s case and Nate Marquardt’s (the two most recent high profile cases of TRT in MMA) there is considerable suspicion to be cast on their respective physicians.

In Marquardt’s case, his application was all wrapped up except for the minor problem of his doctor being not USADA approved and being reg-flagged in the state of New Jersey. Whoops.

In Chael Sonnen’s case, well, he brought this guy to his CSAC hearing. This guy didn’t bring an M.D.

Let me be clear: I don’t mean to completely discredit the millions of people who take TRT for sound, medically justifiable reasons.

I just find it hard to believe so many of those millions chose to pursue Mixed Martial Arts as a career path.

Look at Chael Sonnen, possibly MMA’s most (in)famous TRT case. The normally abrasive Sonnen told quite a sad story when he was dragged in front of the CSAC to explain why he had taken testosterone in advance of his UFC 117 fight with Anderson Silva.

Rather then go with the obvious reason (“Because I was fighting Anderson freakin’ Silva, and I didn’t think I could smuggle a baseball bat or a .44 Magnum int the Octagon in m trunks”), Sonnen broke into a long soliloquy about non-functioning gonads and critically low testosterone and a non-existent puberty and the challenges of living with a disability.

Never mind the fact that while Chael was battling this debilitating handicap, he was also winning high school, state and national wrestling championships.

Quite a feat for a man who needed a doctor’s needle to even achieve “normal” levels of testosterone, wouldn’t you say?

Or what about Shane Carwin, a teammate of Marquardt’s at Grudge Training Centre and a man who looks like someone stretched Bruce Banner’s skin over The Hulk’s body. A federal investigation revealed Carwin once had equine growth hormone (yeah, horse steroids) mailed to his house.

Carwin recently said there was “nothing to comment on” in regards to those now year-long steroid allegations. He then stuck his fingers in his ears, stuck out his tongue at Ariel Helwani, and ran away shouting, “La la la la! I can’t hear you!”

And then there’s Marquardt himself, who to his credit has been much more forthcoming and remorseful then either Carwin or Sonnen.

I want to believe his sad tale of failing marriage and lost energy and the dreaded “not feeling like himself”. I do. I really do.

But then I remember his 2005 suspension for PED use and his use of the tried and true “Story A” (the supplements in the Wheaties one) to explain away the infraction. I remember his post-fight scrap with Renzo Gracie in Pancrase, his attempt to piledrive Thales Leites and the accusations of greasing from Rousimar Palhares.

And it all adds up to a plate full of excuses and half-truths I don’t think I can swallow.

You know the old adage about where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Well right now Nate Marquardt’s house is billowing smoke from every door, window and crack, while he stands out front trying to tell people that he merely left the cake in the oven too long. Again.

It almost makes me respect Josh Barnett, MMA’s most despised PED user, for the audacity and the—can I call it honesty?—of his “excuse.”

His explanation (to the extent he even has one) pretty much boils down to, “Yeah, maybe I took steroids. Maybe not. Maybe f**k yourself.” Blunt. Unremorseful. Real.

It beats the multitude of fighters who are pissing in fans ears and telling them it’s rain. Or to use a more fitting analogy, are leaking chemical whatever into commission approved testing cups and telling them it’s piss.

I won’t get into the morality or “rightness” of PED use, which is a whole discussion in and of itself. If we’re going to outlaw them, and react with anger and disappointment as fans when someone gets caught using (which we always do, don’t lie) then we need to not be satisfied with the same lame excuse—or worse, no excuse at all—time after time.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, well, better blame your non-functioning gonads.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson: Big Fight or Even Bigger Waste of Time?

While watching Strikeforce a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the repeated ads for the upcoming Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko super fight. It reminded me of old boxing advertisements, epic and cheesy at the same time. I me…

It’s the stoic Russian killer vs. the all-American hero. The titanic clash of old school vs. older school, I suppose. A battle of monosyllabic fight handles for the ages.

Fedor vs. Hendo.

I’m not going to lie, those 30-second spots left me pretty pumped. Excited, even. This is a fight that seems like a big deal. It’s a meeting of two of the sports all-time greats in a stylistic matchup that should guarantee fireworks.

I was sold. I couldn’t wait for this fight. Yet, as I sat there waiting for my MMA-induced high to subside and contemplating how many relatives I’d skip this Christmas to afford my Showtime subscription, a more ominous thought occurred to me.

What the hell does this fight even mean, anyway?

Isn’t Fedor done? Wasn’t he contemplating retirement a short while ago? If he’s not done then surely he’s “done,” having dropped back-to-back crushing defeats in his last two outings. The “Fedor Mystique” is gone, and what’s left is a fighter well outside any HW title picture and likely too advanced in years (make that ice cream cones) to make a run at 205.

And Hendo? He’s technically the Strikeforce LHW champion and riding two pretty good wins. However, I don’t think any amount of wins over an aged Fedor will erase the memory of welterweight Jake Shields riding “Dangerous Dan” like a Christmas pony for five rounds just last year. Like Fedor, Dan seems to be on the backside of “the hill” looking down.

I don’t mean to come off as disrespectful of either guy here. I’m fully aware that I’m talking about two of the heads on MMA’s Mount Rushmore. In fact, both guys are packing so much testicular fortitude that when they come fact to face the universe is in danger of imploding.

Still, does this fight actually mean anything? Does it have any implications at all in the mythical “bigger picture” besides just being a fun fight? Let’s run through all the different scenarios, shall we? For instance, this fight could have huge implications if, let’s say…

Hendo Wins

Man, this would be big for Hendo if he were to come out with a win. It could very well be the biggest single win of his storied career. The sort of thing that could define his whole legacy.

OK, so Hendo’s legacy was “defined” when he Falcon Punched Mike Bisping out of his shoes at UFC 100. So, call this the second biggest win of his career (assuming he wins, of course). Even though his last fight was for a world title and the one before that was a title eliminator, this belt-less, “meaningless” fight would give a boost to Hendo’s career far greater than those last victories combined.

If Hendo can find a way to drive the nail in Fedor’s coffin, then I think the first thing he’ll do is laugh at all the haters who derided his jump from the UFC to Strikeforce. He’ll laugh at Dana White, who he has indirectly conned into paying him more money, just as he wanted. He’ll laugh at his friend Randy Couture, who’s big money super fight with Fedor he managed to steal. He’ll laugh at all the haters who wrote him off after the Jake Shields loss.

I see a win here giving Dan enough of a boost for one last UFC run, if and when Strikeforce gets folded into the larger organization. Maybe (big maybe) enough of a boost for one last shot at UFC gold—assuming Hendo feels like tangling with Jon Jones or Anderson Silva.

Fedor Wins

I’ll put this as simply as I can: If Fedor can turn around his recent slump and beat Henderson, then Vadim Finkelstein has a very good Sunday morning ahead of him.

I’m sorry folks. I love me some Fedor, but I don’t see a win for him here meaning very much for his career. Hendo’s (relatively) old, possibly past his moment and still under the cloud of his blowout loss to Jake Shields. Beating him isn’t going to cause the masses to come rushing back to the man once held as a living god by most MMA fans.

On the other hand, a Fedor win is just the sort of thing to put some wind in M-1 Global’s sails. In fact, I could see Finkelstein and company shooting Scott Coker an email on Monday morning with the title “RE: New Contract Demands, A**wipe!”

That’s what a Fedor win means here as far as I’m concerned. A solid but hardly significant victory for a man who’s already done it all in MMA, and a whole new reason for M-1 to be a pain in Coker’s backside and irk the hell out of fans for the next six months.

Nobody Wins

If there’s another draw in a big fight this year, I swear MMA fans are going to riot. Aside from that, wouldn’t a draw be the perfect conclusion to this “fun” fight? Nobody loses, nobody wins. It’ll be like the fight didn’t happen, except that it did. I almost hope this happens now, actually.

Hendo/Fedor Gets KO’d

Let the bandwagon jumping begin. “Fedor’s shot!” “Hendo’s got no chin anymore!” “Time to retire!” “None of their wins ever mattered because of this one loss!” “DEY TOOK OUR JERBS!” There’s nothing MMA fans like more then consigning another poor soul to the ol’ MMA graveyard.

Seriously though, enough of my ramblings. Do you think Fedor vs. Hendo means anything, or is it just a “fun” fight with no serious repercussions?

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Is Sam Stout a Top-10 LW? 5 Fights He Should Take Next to Prove It.

If you’re a fighter and your nickname is “Hands of Stone,” then it follows that you better have some impressive KO’s on your resume. If you don’t, well, people might start to call you out on your choice of fight handle.Tha…

That was the awkward spot that London, Ontario native Sam Stout found himself in for most of his UFC career. A student of the well-known kickboxing guru Shawn Thompkins, “Hands of Stone” acquired a solid reputation as an exciting, tough fighter with good technical striking. Unfortunately, his lack of clean KO victories also earned him the stigma of being “pillow-fisted”.

I blame the nickname. Fight fans take shit s*** seriously. Just listen to how angry the crowd gets the next time Geroges St-Pierre “Rush”es through another 25 minutes title defense, or the “Dead of Mean” Keith Jardine gets called a really, really great guy (usually by the dude who just knocked him out).

Luckily for Sam, that awkwardness is a thing of the past.

This past Saturday at UFC 131, Stout notched a beautiful—and scary—knockout of respected vet Yves Edwards. Not only did the win validate his choice of fight moniker, it also erased another stigma that has plagued Stout over his UFC tenure: his perception as a “middle of the pack” contender.

Oh, I know fans will debate the imponderable rankings value of an Yves Edwards KO until the cows come home. But you can’t deny that aside from Shane Carwin’s battered mug (another tragic case of fist-to-face-idosis) andKenny Florian’s Laura Flynn Boyle impersonation at Featherweight, Stout’s KO is “the story” coming off this past UFC.

It’s what fans are talking about. It’s the fight they’re rewatching on their PVR’s. It’s the gif they’re tweeting to their friends on Monday morning. Now that he’s not a “pillow-fisted gatekeeper” any more, the biggest question facing Stout is “what next?”.

Of course, I have a few thoughts on the matter. Here are the top five fights I’d like to see “Hands of Stone” take next to prove he really is a top-10 Lightweight.

Dennis Siver: C’mon now, tell me this fight would be anything but totally f****** awesome.

On the one hand, you have Stout, one of the most reliably exciting fighters in the lightweight division. He’s won “Fight of the Night” five times in his UFC career. And against him, we put a guy who could very well have just walked off the set of the latest “Universal Soldier” movie.

Siver has something of a buzz going about him currently, following his upset win over rising star George Sotiropoulos. He has a penchant for devastating people with his spinning back kick, which he throws like he’s fighting in “The Kumite” and not the UFC. His German-Russian background gives him a demeanour somewhat akin to the Terminator when he fights.

Some might doubt if Sam has the power on the feet to hang with Dennis. I think this last fight with Edwards went a long way towards answering those questions. Still, regardless of outcome, this fight would be a guaranteed fireworks display on the feet. Have those “Fight of the Night” bonus cheques written and ready to be cashed—assuming Siver beats Matt Wiman in a few weeks time, that is.

Donald Cerrone: Here’s another fight where you know—you just know—that neither guy is going to be sitting back.

“The Cowboy” has complained recently of a lack of top fighters willing to step up to the plate and throw down with him. Or a perceived lack of fighters willing to step up. Or what could possibly be construed as a perceived lack of fighters willing to step. Or maybe someone just looked at him the wrong way backstage.

Either way, Donald Cerrone is proud, pissed off, and dropping sexist and homophobic slurs like he’s “that Uncle” after too many visits to the punch bowl on New Years.

If he’s looking for a game opponent, he need look no further then Stout. Since Cerrone himself has a reputation for being “pillow-fisted”, this fight would be a good chance to erase that stigma against a fighter with an iron chin. Plus, both these guys have legit kickboxing credentials, so the stand up battle should be a heck of a lot of fun.

Anthony Pettis: Speaking of legit kickboxing creds, one need look no further in the LW division then Anthony Pettis.

Ok ok, so the guy’s no K-1 Grand Prix champion or anything. But can you really speak of the inventor of the “Showtime Kick”—as well as a dozen other funky moves he regularly debuts on opponents—without a little reverence?

I think over the course of his WEC/UFC run, Pettis has proven he is one of the better strikers in the lightweight division. Throw in his ever improving BJJ game and tendency to make fights really damn fun (see a theme emerging here?) and I see an interesting stylistic challenge—and a hell of a fight —for Sam Stout.

George Sotiropoulos: Assuming the UFC brass believes Dennis Siver to be too steep a challenge for Stout, they could always give him the man he just beat.

Up until that loss, “G-Sot” was considered 155′s hottest rising star. A BJJ prodigy under noted instructor/Gumby-meets-Towlie offspring Eddie Bravo, Sot seemed to be on the fast track to a LW title shot.

That is, until he ran smack dab into the angry left foot of Dennis Siver. Then he ran into it again. And again. 15 minutes later, and his title shot was vaporized faster then a puddle in the Australian Outback/Joe Rogan’s medicinal grade bud bud on 4/20.

This would be less of an “action” fight for Stout, as George would clearly look to take this fight to the ground rather then stand and trade. Still, Stout has “ever-improving” wrestling (thanks, Goldie!), especially take down defense. The last time he fought a guy who tried to take him down, we got the epic war that was Stout vs. Lauzon.

Spencer Fischer: Here’s my personal pick, folks. All of the above fighters would make for a damn good fight.

Only Spencer Fischer would guarantee a classic for the ages.

These men first met in Stout’s Octagon début, with Sam taking the win over late-replacement Fischer after an epic three-round battle. When they met again, a more well prepared Fischer edged Stout in another epic three-round battle.

So let me do some quick math here. Two fighters in their primes, having met twice before in two of the most exciting lightweight fights of all time, with the score tied at 1-1. Matchmaking doesn’t get any more obvious then this, ladies and gentlemen.

The UFC needs to finish this trilogy. For Spencer, for Sam, for the fans, for everyone. Epic trilogies where both men are tied one apiece in two seriously epic fights DO NOT go uncompleted. Not in any MMA universe I care to inhabit.

The UFC should book Sam vs. Spencer 3, put it on a free card, and give a fitting conclusion to one of the best trilogies in the history of the LW division.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC: Why Mirko "Cro Cop" vs. "Minotauro" Nogueira II Should NOT Happen

Nostalgia can be a funny thing.It plays with the senses, confounds reason, and clouds memory. Like a drug, it impairs proper judgement and good sense in favour of a high that’s progressively harder and harder to achieve.In combat sports, nostalgia is a…

Nostalgia can be a funny thing.

It plays with the senses, confounds reason, and clouds memory. Like a drug, it impairs proper judgement and good sense in favour of a high that’s progressively harder and harder to achieve.

In combat sports, nostalgia is a fun, almost vital part of the fan experience. No sport fosters an emotional fan connection like one-on-one fighting, and that’s a connection that can stay strong in the face of time’s cruel onward march. Time and again, we forget the obvious realities of the fight game while we rally once again around a beloved fight or fighter.

Most of the time, when it comes to fighting, nostalgia is like pissing your pants: sure, it feels all warm and fuzzy while it’s happening, but once it’s over you’re left with a big mess, and an even bigger embarrassment.

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk surrounding a possible rematch between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira at UFC 134 in Brazil. That isn’t really a surprise to me as both men are some of the most legendary figures in all the sport. Their names in a headline will, for good or ill, get fans talking.

No, what surprises me is that the reaction has been largely positive. As in, people actually want to see this fight happen.

So I’m going to go ahead and throw a cold glass of water on those (potential) plans before the sport of MMA finds itself once again with a spreading stain on its pants and an embarrassed look on its face.

I can already hear the howls of the MMA faithful as they pour out of the woodwork to burn me in effigy. How dare I desecrate the names of two of PRIDE’s greatest legends! In fact, if MMA hardcores had a “holy trinity” it would be these two men along with Wanderlei Silva (Fedor having been excommunicated to the M-1 underworld).

But beyond rabid fandom, there is a legitimate argument being put forward for making this fight.

“Both guys are old and past their moment,” the argument goes, “so why not have them square off now in a fun, just for the hell of it fight? What’s the harm?”

It’s ironic, because just last weekend MMA fans were railing against the perceived pointlessness of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Shane Mosley fight. And now, within the space of a few days, here they are calling for a fight that has “pointless” written all over it.

I realize the analogy isn’t a perfect one. Manny Pacquiao is by no means over the hill, and any PPV with his name on it—be it Pacquiao vs. Jose Canseco, Pacquiao vs. Zulu, even Pacquiao vs. His inner doubt—is a cultural event.

But Shane Mosley certainly is. And the perception of this fight from fans top to bottom was that it was a “keep busy” fight, a filler fight for Pac-Man in lieu of a serious, actual, Floyd Mayweather-inclusive fight.

In other words, barring a fluke Mosley win, it was utterly pointless. Boxing fans accepted it, but MMA fans were livid. To paraphrase Gus Johnson, such things don’t happen in MMA.

Yet here we are, talking about dragging a bell-rung and injury plagued Nogueira out for another dance with Mirko Cro Cop’s ghost. I think a large part of this has to do with how unbelievably awesome their first fight was, back in the halcyon days of PRIDE. If you’ve never seen it, then for God’s sake stop reading this article and go watch it! Few fights in all of combat sports have ever been so emotional and dramatic.

In fact, if you had to judge based on this fight alone, you’d be forced to to conclude that Antonio Nogueira is one of the baddest men who ever lived.

And he is. So is Mirko, for that matter. But their moment has passed, and the magic of their first clash will never be duplicated.

Look at what made their first fight so exciting: Mirko’s incredible striking and Antonio’s cast iron chin.

Today, Mirko’s striking consists of high-fiving Pat Barry and absolutely refusing to pull the trigger, while Nog’s iron chin is a thing of the past. In two of his last three, “Minotauro” has been knocked cold by guys who had a reputation for “pillow-fists” BEFORE their fight with him.

Call me crazy, but that doesn’t exactly seem like a recipe for a fun rematch. Instead, it looks like the makings of a classic fistic disaster.

My grandfather served in the air force in the Second World War. My friend’s grandfather served in a similar position in the German Luftwaffe. If they ever actually fought, I guarantee their battle was dramatic, emotional, scary, and pulse-pounding every single second.

If they fought again today, it would be two old men circling each other, tentatively poking each other with their canes.

That’s not a fight I want to see. And neither is Mirko Cro Cop vs. Minotauro Nogueira II.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 131 Fight Card: Can Brock Lesnar Overcome Junior Dos Santos’ Striking?

There’s something that never sat quite right with me in the latest round of Star Wars films—and no, I’m not talking about George Lucas’s complete inability to render believable human interaction on the screen. That’s a dead horse anyways. No, th…

There’s something that never sat quite right with me in the latest round of Star Wars films—and no, I’m not talking about George Lucas’s complete inability to render believable human interaction on the screen. That’s a dead horse anyways.

No, this is more of a storytelling problem. In Revenge of the Sith it’s established pretty clearly that Count Dooku, played by Christopher Lee (and continuing the unfortunate Lucas trend of giving major bad guys names that sound like poop) is the superior jedi to Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor. This is established over multiple confrontations and is even mentioned in a line of dialogue.

So when Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker defeats Count Dooku and rather easily at that, it would seem to establish a pretty clear hierarchy: Anakin Skywalker>Count Dooku>Obi-Wan Kenobi. That seems pretty obvious, no?

So when Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker fight in the films climactic final battle, logic tells us that Skywalker should defeat Kenobi handily. Instead, spoiler alert, he is handed a crushing defeat.

What is the point of this nerdy diversion?

Just to say that styles make fights, folks – even in a galaxy far, far away.

When Brock Lesnar faces off against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 131 on June 11th in Vancouver, there won’t be any mystery what the stylistic question is heading into the fight.

Can Brock Lesnar overcome Junior Dos Santos’ striking?

Of all that Lesnar has lost over the last year—his heavyweight crown, his love of red meat, the respect of the Canadian health care industry—none has been more damaging to Brock then the loss of his “aura” of invincibility. And a good deal of that has been due to just how poor Lesnar has looked on the feet in his last couple outings.

It started against fellow man-monster Shane Carwin, who battered Lesnar to within an inch of his life in their UFC 116 tilt. Sure, Lesnar came back to win it eventually, but he sure looked shaky on the feet against Carwin that first round.

Of course, Shane Carwin is the hardest hitting fighter at HW, so fans largely have him a pass on that one. Against Cain Velasquezl however, the free passes came to a halt.

Once derided for his “pillow fists,” Velasquez absolutely shellacked Lesnar on the feet. What made it worse was Lesnar’s reaction to said shellacking. The moment fist touched face, Brock’s poise and composure went out the window. The “Baddest Man On The Planet” stumbled backwards like a drunk elephant, desperately trying to cover up before flopping down to the canvas.

It wasn’t exactly his proudest moment. And since that loss, the critics have come out in full force.

“Lesnar can’t take a punch!” “Lesnar’s chin is a myth!” “Brock hasn’t been training his striking!”

These calls more than anything have hounded him since his one-sided title loss.

And they haven’t exactly been helped by the swirl of rumors regarding his less than stellar striking training while in camp.

Case in point: Lesnar brought respected kickboxer (and high-fiver, to boot) Pat Berry into camp— supposedly with express instructions not to punch Brock in anything resembling his face. Seems kinda counter-intuitive, no?

Or how about the one where Brock fired respected MMA coach Greg Nelson, who’s worked with Sean Sherk, Matt Hughes, Nick Thompson and Kaitlin Young? All because Nelson broke the vaunted “cone of silence” surrounding Lesnar’s bout with diverticulitis.

Now Lesnar’s camps are managed by Marty Morgan, who has proven cred as a wrestling coach, but not much in the way of striking acumen.

All of this has added up to paint an unflattering portrait of the man who was and very well could be again, far and away the biggest draw in MMA today.

So leading into the fight with Dos Santos, an explosive striker with hands like Tomahawk missiles, many fans have seemingly written off Lesnar. Dos Santos will simply exploit the weakness already laid bare by Carwin and Velasquez and pop Brock one right in the squash. The fight, presumably, will then take care of itself.

Well, in a strange way, those fans are absolutely right and absolutely wrong, too.

Is it safe to write off Lesnar’s striking? In this fight, I think it is. That’s not to say Lesnar can’t improve his stand up game whatsoever, because that would be absurd. The man is a freak athlete with the dedication, time and resources to improve in any discipline he so chooses.

It’s just that in this fight, such improvement would be incidental to the outcome of the fight. In other words, Lesnar could do nothing but train boxing with Freddie Roach, kickboxing with Duke Rufus, and front kicks with Steven Seagal every day from now until the fight, and he still won’t have close to as good a striking game as Junior Dos Santos.

So if I were him, I’d throw that notion out the window all together. Since the dawn of MMA, those with mediocre stand up have compensated for it with monster wrestling. Lesnar is just the latest in a long line of champions cut from the same cloth as Mark Coleman and Matt Hughes.

Lesnar has been the inferior striker to every opponent he’s ever faced. Frank “Mur” was the superior striker. Heath Herring was the superior striker (on paper, at least). Even Randy Couture was a superior striker, TKO victory notwithstanding.

In fact, that Randy fight may have done as much harm to Lesnar as any stomach virus, at least as far as mindset goes. It convinced him he could be competitive and even victorious on the feet. The crushing setbacks of his last two fights have hopefully convinced him otherwise. Knocking out a faded (and much smaller) Randy Couture does not mean you’re ready to stand with a Carwin, Velasquez or Dos Santos.

Instead, Lesnar needs to dance with the girl who brought him: wrestling.

He’s much bigger than Junior, and likely much stronger as well. Lesnar should implement a Couture-esque game plan in this one, standing on the feet just long enough to bull-rush Dos Santos to the cage and hold him there. From there, he can work dirty boxing, takedowns, grind Junior’s gas tank down (we saw in the Roy Nelson fight that it’s not exactly infinite) and stay out of trouble.

The question in this fight isn’t, “Can Lesnar overcome the striking of Junior Dos Santos?” but, “Can Junior Dos Santos overcome the wrestling of Brock Lesnar?”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 130: 5 Reasons Frankie Edgar Will Retain His Title Against Grey Maynard

When Frankie Edgar and Grey Maynard first met, it was on the under card of a “UFC Fight Night.” There wasn’t any fanfare, slick promotional videos or “Countdown” specials or even much media attention. Maynard out-wrestled …

Maynard out-wrestled Edgar to a unanimous decision that night while Kenny Florian and Joe Lauzon fought in the main event (just think about that for a moment).

When they met again, it was in the main event of UFC 125. This time, Edgar was the reigning, defending UFC lightweight champion, having just dethroned longtime LW kingpin BJ Penn in back-to-back fights. Maynard was the unstoppable juggernaut/lay n’ pray artist of the LW division, plus he held that earlier win over the champ.

While their title fight was undoubtedly significant, it was viewed as something of a “dud” UFC PPV. Fans and media wondered if the taciturn Frankie and the unexciting Grey would generate enough interest to keep UFC 125 from bombing on PPV.

What a difference a fight makes.

When Frankie Edgar and Grey Maynard meet at UFC 130 for the third and presumably final time, it will be in one of the biggest UFC PPVs and most-anticipated title matches of 2011.

Their second fight—and first battle for the UFC LW crown—at UFC 125 was an early contender for Fight of the Year (really early when you consider it happened on January 1st).

In my opinion, that’s an honor it still holds. No fight so far this year has delivered as much drama and excitement as their five-round war, which fittingly (some would say disappointingly) ended in a split draw, about as inconclusive a finish as one can have in an MMA contest short of a doctor’s stoppage.

Luckily for fans, we get to see them do it one more time. The question for LW champion Frankie Edgar remains the same, however: Can he find a way to overcome the only man to ever best him inside the Octagon?

Now, the stakes are even higher, as Frankie’s record vs. Grey is 0-1-1.

For Frankie, this fight is everything. It’s his whole legacy, even more so then the Penn fights. Win, and he’s firmly planted at the No. 1 LW and one of the top fighters in all MMA. Lose, and he’s ejected from the LW title picture, possibly forever.

Can Frankie find “The Answer” to Grey Maynard when the men square off for the “three-match” in Las Vegas?

Here are five reasons why the pride of Toms River, New Jersey could surprise fans and critics, as he frequently does, and walk out of UFC 130 with five pounds of gold still strapped around his waist.

Begin Slideshow