Author: kmowatt

Heading into last night’s Strikeforce “St. Louis: Heavy Artillery” event, more than a few scalps across the MMA world were scabbed up from weeks of scratching, as fans and pundits tried to figure out why Brett Rogers had earned a title shot against Alistair Overeem. After all, this was the same dude that had been dropped like a bad habit by Fedor Emelianenko, so if he became champ, wouldn’t that be sort of, you know, dumb?

Well, if you watched last night’s card on Showtime, you know the above debate ended up being as pointless as trying to rationalize the designs on 80% of MMA clothing, as Overeem pounded out Rogers in less than 4 minutes (demonstrating once again that Holland isn’t all about windmills and weed…). So here’s the obvious question right? If Fedor beats Fabricio Werdum June 26^th will he fight Overeem? Speaking to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, Strikeforce boss man Scott Coker said this:

“I feel that we’ll have a good shot to do it. I feel it’s a fight that should happen. I think when you talk about Strikeforce we’ve always tried to bring the fights that people want to see, and that’s a fight that we’re going to work really hard to put it together. Can I guarantee it? Absolutely not. It’s a fight that we’ll sit down with M-1 after the next fight with Fedor and we’ll have that conversation with M-1.”

It could happen…yeah, but let’s not plan the parade route just yet (after all Overeem just proved to a lot of mainstream fans that he in fact exists, while Fedor, well…our fingers are permanently crossed until June 26th). To check out the entire interview head here.

Now if you predicted that Josh Kosheck would cruise to a relatively easy victory over Paul Daley, provided he utilized his reedonkulously good wrestling, well done sir. If you predicted that Daley would then try to sucker punch ‘Kos’ after the final bell, you should consider getting a psychic hotline. If you then predicted that Daley would issue an apology on Monday, meh. We all knew that.

Yes indeed Mr. Daley, who has been axed from the UFC roster for his WTF actions Saturday, has predictably issued a statement;  here is a portion where he is most regretful… (thanks to MMA Weekly):

“I’ve had a long flight home to consider my actions and regret the mistake I made on Saturday. I would like to apologize to the UFC and the Athletic Commission for what I’ve done as well as all the fans and sponsors that support me.”

“I would also like to offer my sincerest apologies to Josh Koscheck who did not deserve the cheap shot I threw. He did what he needed to do in order to win the fight and get the job done, and I foolishly reacted to the situation.”

Pretty remorseful right? Well, hold on a sec, naturally…there are a few lil jabs at Koscheck in the statement well, where Daley refers to the ‘phantom knee’ incident (is Kosheck’s hair just that sensitive or are the camera angles liars?) as well as the “verbal abuse” he received from the outspoken welterweight. Interesting yet predictable stuff. To check out the entire apology head here.

A lot of people were predicting that “Shogun” Rua was finally going to be crowned champion last night in Montreal, but come on, not too many fans were thinking that Lyoto Machida’s first loss would come via ‘holy effin hell’ beatdown. After all, this is a guy that hardly incurred a scratch against several notable dudes including former champ Rashad Evans, so the image of seeing Machida with a shiner that was screaming out for sunglasses was pretty damn shocking.

Clearly after leaving their first bout in the ‘hands of the judges’ (does anyone else have their ‘hands’ talked about this much?) Rua decided to take it up another notch last night, and speaking after the bout, he had this to say about the game plan he employed (thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote):

“For my first fight, I trained and studied Lyoto Machida’s game and tried to fight according to his style – in a safer way,” Rua said. “For this fight, I knew him better, so I tried to exploit him and to take more risks and take more chances and go to try and finish the fight.”

Rua also stated that after his first bout with Machida, he noticed that the former champ was leaving himself exposed while countering off of Shogun’s kicks, and thus, a right overhand was in order…yes, seems like that was a good call. To read the full article head here.

If you didn’t watch last night’s UFC 113 card in Montreal, it probably hasn’t taken you long to figure out this AM, that Paul Daley has really sh-t the bed on his MMA career. The British slugger’s post-fight attempt to drop Josh Koscheck with a ‘whoops how’d that happen?’ punch, has according to Dana White, resulted in him getting punted from the UFC (thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote).

“I don’t care if he fights in every show all over the world and becomes the best and everybody thinks he’s the best pound-for-pound best in the world, he will never fight in the UFC ever again,” White said. “He’s done.”

Wow. Not the kind of news you want to hear when you’ve just been dominated for three rounds (and by the way, did we call Koscheck’s post fight comments or what…)

Daley wasn’t the only UFC roster casualty, as after getting stopped by Matt Mitrione, it appears as though Kimbo Slice’s current run in the promotion is done. Aside from a couple of nice slams Slice got worked over pretty bad, and although White was extremely complimentary towards the heavyweight, the UFC Boss man stated:

“That’s probably Kimbo’s last fight in the UFC,” White said.

This one we have to say we’re kind of surprised about. Yes, Slice hasn’t exactly looked like a world beater in his UFC tenure to date, but the guys sells tickets and then some. Although that was then and this is now…if you follow.

Now granted, some of us here at MMA Fix weren’t exactly sold on the whole WEC moving to PPV deal. Not because we don’t think the WEC is the sh-t (as really, how often do you say a featherweight bout sucked in comparison to heavyweight tilts), but because some of us (and a lot of you…admit it) didn’t think many people were going to shell out 50 bones for its first PPV. After all, most people aren’t going to remember 2009 for being a ‘banner year’ financially.

Anyone who watched “Aldo vs. Faber” was likely pretty damn pleased, and due to Dana White’s ‘no brand is the best brand’ promoting strategy, a lot of people probably still don’t realize that on April 24^th they in fact watched a WEC. Lead in to the PPV with one of the greatest fights ever in Chan Sung Jung vs. Leonard Garcia for free on Spike, and according to White (who has a little something invested in all this), you have the highest PPV buy rates ever, next to the UFC of course…(thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote)

“We weren’t disappointed at all,” White said Thursday in Montreal. “Second-highest mixed martial arts event ever on pay-per-view behind the UFC.”

Interesting, and this would then explain why White has no plans to change-up the ‘where’s the WEC?’ logo for its next PPV (thanks to MMA Weekly). So much for having caviar on fight nights; have to cut costs somewhere….

If the pre-fight banter between Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley is any indication of what their bout will be like tomorrow night, we’re all in for one hell of a violent treat. Now is there any actual correlation between pre-fight animosity and the actual calibre of the fight itself? Of course not. Your honor; may we present exhibit A, B, and C: Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz I, II, and III (the third bout took place on a card titled “The Final Chapter”…thankfully it’s stuck)

The Daley / Koscheck tilt has a lot of compelling storylines surrounding it though, not just because the winner will face GSP, but because it remains to be seen whether “Kos” will look to slug with Daley or take him down. Both guys clearly have a knack for temporarily ending the consciousness of their opponents, but it would seem that Koscheck’s best path to the ‘hanging curveball,’ is through his wrestling. In an interesting article by MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes, however, Kos wasn’t revealing much in terms of a game plan.

“Am I going to go out there and stand with Paul Daley or am I going to go out there and take him down? That’s what you guys are going to have to wait until May 8 to find out,” says Koscheck. “I may take him down. I may even let him up. I may knock him out on the feet just to prove a point. You never know. I’m real excited about this fight because it’s been a really hard camp, I’ve been through a lot to get here, and I think I may have a major point to prove against Paul Daley.”

We’ll be watching. To bet on the fight head here.