Author: Jake Martin

UFC 145 Fight Card: What Rory MacDonald Needs to Do to Defeat Che Mills

Rory MacDonald is better than Che Mills in every aspect of MMA.MacDonald is a champion in the making, and though Mills is an excellent striker, he can’t hang with MacDonald when it comes to the Octagon.MacDonald can win this fight standing, in the clin…

Rory MacDonald is better than Che Mills in every aspect of MMA.

MacDonald is a champion in the making, and though Mills is an excellent striker, he can’t hang with MacDonald when it comes to the Octagon.

MacDonald can win this fight standing, in the clinch or on the ground. He’s that talented. But having said that, he has to beware of Mills dangerous strikes.

In Mills first fight in the UFC against Chris Cope at UFC 138, he showcased those dangerous strikes. He dropped Cope with a nasty knee followed by some on-point punches. So he is capable of putting MacDonald down should he connect.

Considering MacDonald’s skill set and incredible poise for a 22-year-old, he’ll stay out of harm’s way. If he wants to prove a point as to exactly how good he really is, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him stand and bang with Mills.

But if he wants to be smart, he’ll most likely take this fight to the ground where he has an overwhelming advantage. From there he can set up a submission, which is what Mills has been susceptible to in his MMA career.

Of his four losses, three have come by submission, and in a fight to get into the house for The Ultimate Fighter, he lost by submission. Knowing this, MacDonald knows he can have an easy payday should he choose to take this fight to mat.

This fight is so lopsided that what MacDonald has to do to ensure a victory is keep his mind focused on the task at hand. If he goes in there and handles his business, the only image after the fight will be MacDonald with his hand raised.

MacDonald will make quick work of Mills tonight.

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UFC 145 Fight Card Final Predictions: Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills

Che Mills will be in over his head tonight at UFC 145.As good of a striker as Mills may be, he is at a disadvantage when he steps into the Octagon against Rory MacDonald, one of the greatest prospects in the sport.MacDonald is an excellent striker with…

Che Mills will be in over his head tonight at UFC 145.

As good of a striker as Mills may be, he is at a disadvantage when he steps into the Octagon against Rory MacDonald, one of the greatest prospects in the sport.

MacDonald is an excellent striker with great takedowns and a phenomenal ground game. Better put, the guy is a well-rounded mixed martial artist with no holes in his game.

After all, this is the same guy who pushed Carlos Condit, the current UFC Interim Welterweight Champion, to the limit and nearly edged out a decision before losing by TKO in a controversial referee stoppage.

Since then, MacDonald has won two fights in impressive fashion against Nate Diaz and Mike Pyle, which brings him to this next bout against a talented striker.

Mills’ striking is excellent, but with that being the only thing he’s bringing to the table—plus the fact that this is his second fight in the UFC—his chances of winning this fight are slim to none.

In his first UFC fight back in November 2011, Mills scored a TKO against Chris Cope with a perfectly placed knee, followed by some vicious punches. It was impressive, to say the least, but MacDonald is a completely different animal than Cope.

MacDonald, who has an MMA record of 12-1, is like a miniature Georges St-Pierre, while Mills (14-4) should be compared to a Dan Hardy type since he is one-dimensional. Though MacDonald has better wrestling and submission skills than Mills, I expect him to trade strikes with Mills on the feet until he proves to everyone that he can beat Mills at that, too.

Once he showcases his striking, MacDonald will most likely take this fight to the ground and finish this fight with a submission. Mills’ ways of winning this fight are limited, and a victory over one of the more impressive young talents in the UFC is highly unlikely.

MacDonald will stop Mills in the first round tonight via triangle choke.

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Is the Accessibility of MMA Its Greatest Strength?

In a modern world where technology is king, the sport of MMA creates new fans and strengthens its fan-base by making it’s product available at the fingertips of everyone.Whether it’s the UFC’s YouTube page, the company’s Facebook page or on one of Fox’…

In a modern world where technology is king, the sport of MMA creates new fans and strengthens its fan-base by making it’s product available at the fingertips of everyone.

Whether it’s the UFC’s YouTube page, the company’s Facebook page or on one of Fox’s cable networks, the UFC puts out daily content for fans, and it’s what helps separate MMA from other sports because it’s one of the few sports that goes year round. It’s easily a strong point for the sport, and I’m willing to say it’s MMA’s greatest strength.

It is for obvious reasons, such as gaining new viewers on the UFC’s media outlets and Fox networks nowadays, but perhaps the biggest reason has to be the company’s goal of making prelims a priority.

They’ve done such a good job of promoting prelims on Facebook and FX that when they don’t show a prelim, I catch myself throwing a fit.

For instance, at UFC 144, the company showed one fight on Facebook and the rest of the prelims on FX leading into the PPV. For one technology problem or another, my Facebook wouldn’t show me the fight, and I grew angry.

After a few seconds of frustrations boiling over, I realized just how upset I was getting over missing one prelim, but that’s the world that we live in today.

We live in a world that is dominated by the Internet, and such shows as The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil can be kept up with and watched online, which is in itself another example of MMA easily being accessible.

Perhaps the biggest reason why I grew so angry about missing the prelims is that the UFC has created so many new stars that I feared I would miss the birth of a new one.

An example of that would be when Michael McDonald had his first fight with Edwin Figueroa on Facebook a year ago. Because of his performance, I instantly knew this guy was going to be great, and I couldn’t wait to watch him fight again.

Now, he’s fixing to fight on his first main card at UFC 145, and I’ve already been able to see three of his UFC fights going into it. That’s called creating new stars, which is something that the sport of boxing has seemed to forget how to do, and the UFC is steadily creating these new stars because of the outlets they’re using to promote their young guys.

While the biggest fights are on PPV, the UFC does a great job of giving fans great free fights on Fox and FX, and ultimately, it’s the star-building that leads fans to want to pay to see these up-and-coming stars.

Since then, future stars like Stephen Thompson and Eric Silva have starred on prelims, and they’re quickly becoming crowd favorites.

All of this is due to of the accessibility of MMA, and it’s what will help the sport take it to the next level and is undoubtedly the sport’s greatest strength.

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MMA: Separating Contenders from Pretenders in 2012

Contenders, not to be mistaken with pretenders, are fighters that have a legitimate shot at dethroning the champion in their respected weight classes.With the champions in the UFC as dominant as they’ve been, only a certain few have a real chance at ta…

Contenders, not to be mistaken with pretenders, are fighters that have a legitimate shot at dethroning the champion in their respected weight classes.

With the champions in the UFC as dominant as they’ve been, only a certain few have a real chance at taking their belts, so from Anderson Silva to George St-Pierre to Jon Jones, finding worthy opponents can be a chore.

Lucky for them and the rest of the champions in the company, they have steep challenges placed ahead of them.

These are the real contenders, along with the real pretenders, in the UFC, and you might be surprised by which are which.

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25 Greatest UFC Title Fights of All Time

As fans of mixed martial arts, the UFC has spoiled us with one great title fight after another throughout the years.It seems as if the UFC has topped itself every year with thrilling title fights, and memorable fights like Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynar…

As fans of mixed martial arts, the UFC has spoiled us with one great title fight after another throughout the years.

It seems as if the UFC has topped itself every year with thrilling title fights, and memorable fights like Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard and Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen stand out above the rest. But are they better than the classics that built the foundation of the UFC?

From old classic like Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture to the recent heart-pounding fights like Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick, these are the greatest title fights in UFC history.

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Bellator: Who Will Make It out of the Middleweight First Round?

The race to battle one of the baddest middleweights in the world, Hector Lombard, is on.Bellator 61 in Bossier City, La., tonight will feature eight middleweights who will wage war in four quarterfinal bouts in the tournament that will decide the No. 1…

The race to battle one of the baddest middleweights in the world, Hector Lombard, is on.

Bellator 61 in Bossier City, La., tonight will feature eight middleweights who will wage war in four quarterfinal bouts in the tournament that will decide the No. 1 contender for Lombard’s title.

The talent in the tournament features some of the hottest prospects in MMA like Brian Rogers, Giva Santana, Vyacheslav Vasilevsky, Maiquel Falcao and Victor Vianna, but who will have their hand raised tonight?

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