Author: kmowatt

Okay, if much of your life consists of surfing MMA new sites endlessly (with the odd break of course when your boss is nearby looking over your shoulder), then it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to hear that at the UFC 113 pre-fight presser today in Montreal, Dana White has confirmed that the winner of this Saturday’s Josh Koscheck / Paul Daley tilt will face Georges St. Pierre next. Any chance then we might hear the ‘I am not impressed with your performance’ post-fight Octagon bit from GSP Saturday? Probably not. If Koscheck wins you can probably bank on some sort of less than reserved challenge to St. Pierre and some responding Canadian angst though.

So, what to make of all this? Well, of course there’s a chance that Daley will stop Koscheck to earn the title shot, but unless he also demonstrates ‘dude, he’s really improved his wrestling’ abilities, will most people think he’s got a shot at beating GSP? Non.

If “Kos” wins, and if he does so in impressive fashion, then of course that could make for an interesting match-up against the champ, but still, it wasn’t that long ago that St. Pierre cruised through him for the UD win. Perhaps in either case, this is why there’s also talk of the winner coaching opposite of St. Pierre in the next season of TUF. There’s nothing like a little ‘reality TV’ to do some trash talking, ferment hatred and hype up a fight. To bet on UFC 113 head here.

With much of the pre-UFC 113 hype understandably surrounding Lyoto Machida vs. “Shogun” Rua II, and of course, Paul Daley’s “fraggle” dig at Josh Koscheck, the fact that Patrick Cote is about to fight for the first time since October, 2008, has kind of got lost in the shuffle. After all, although his UFC 90 bout with Anderson Silva would eventually be categorized as another WTF? performance by the middleweight champ, Cote surprised many by making it into the third round. And even then, it was a knee injury, and not Silva’s fists that brought the bout to an end.

So, what makes Cote’s return even that much more sweet, is that he’s taking on another aggressive slugger in Alan Belcher. Really, as long as Cote doesn’t show up in the Octagon Saturday night with too much cage rust, this tilt has all the makings for FOTN. Speaking to MMA Weekly recently, Cote had this to say about his game plan for Saturday:

“Everybody knows my style. I like to punch, I like to throw my feet, and I’m a striker,” Cote said. “I’m not afraid to go on the ground and wrestle with this guy, but for sure if he’s ready to stay on his feet, I’m going to stay on my feet.”

Yes, dudes like Kendall Grove and Drew McFedries can testify as to how Cote evidently enjoys punching, and Belcher has always demonstrated that first and foremost, he’s a Muay Thai kind of guy. Sounds like a win-win for us fans no? To bet on UFC 113 head here.

It wasn’t too, too long ago that MMA fans and pundits were busy talking about how Vitor Belfort would fair against Anderson Silva, after the feared striker took out Rich Franklin in the first round at UFC 103 last September. Well, as you probably well recall, a ton of sheeat has gone down since then, and with a trashed shoulder to Belfort here, and Chael Sonnen working over Nate Marquardt there, Belfort’s title aspirations haven’t exactly been burning up the internet.

The hype surrounding Sonnen’s upcoming title shot on the other hand, continues to build, something which no doubt has been helped along nicely by the Oregon fighter’s tremendous gift for gab, as well as his punishing wrestling abilities. In fact, while talking to Tatame.com recently, Mr. Belfort had this to say about Sonnen’s upcoming bout with Silva.

“Each fight is different; I can’t say how it is going to be… For sure Sonnen will be a great challenge, and I’m pretty sure the fight will be tied. They are two good fighters, now is up to us to wait”, said Belfort.

We agree. Sonnen is a hell of a lot different than Silva’s last few opponents, but, we are talking Anderson Silva folks. This is the dude that tapped out Sonnen’s old school training partner Dan Henderson in the second round. Belfort goes on to say in the report that he hopes to be back by September; it will be interesting to see, will the UFC throw him in against the champ, whether it’s Sonnen or Silva? If not, then who?

After Randy Couture earned back-to-back wins over Brandon Vera and most recently Mark Coleman, you didn’t have to be a member of Mensa international to theorize “I think “The Natural” might get another crack at the 205 title.” After all, we’re talking about one of the sport’s greatest champions ever, so no; it doesn’t matter whether Couture’s latest wins actually entrenched him in the #1 contender position.

Now of course, Couture has a huuuge bout coming up in August against James Toney, not because anyone really expects the boxing champ to win, but because every fight fan and his or her dog, will probably tune into see just how ‘charismatic’ Toney fairs. If Couture gets the win, you know the UFC will examine matching up the 46 year-old-wonder against the winner of Lyoto Machida vs. “Shogun” Rua II. Speaking to MMA Weekly, Couture had this to say about getting another shot at championship glory:

“I think within the next six months I’d like to be in line to fight the winner of the Machida/Shogun fight,” said Couture during an interview with MMAWeekly Radio…”I’m going to be in Montreal to watch that fight very attentively. I think it’s going to be a great fight,”

Naturally, the winner of the May 29^th Rashad Evans vs. “Rampage” Jackson is also going to have a strong case for being next in line for a title shot, but really, since neither guy is pushing 50, that can probably wait.

To bet on Machida vs. Rua II, or any other bouts from this weekend’s card in Montreal, head here.

Yes, even one of the cheesiest shows to ever ‘grace’ the TV screen, “The Facts of Life,” had it right with its theme song in that sometimes you have to take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have…well, maybe it’s best to stop there. The point we’re trying to make (in a roundabout and nauseating way) is that although things were looking up today with word that Fedor Emelianenko will fight Fabricio Werdum June 26^th, reports have also surfaced stating that Forrest Griffin is injured and will no longer compete at UFC 114.

Now not only is that sh-tty news because Forrest is always damn entertaining to watch fight, but his scheduled bout for May 29^th was particularly intriguing, because it was supposed to be against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Yeah, “Lil Nog”, the guy that lived up to the hype that surrounded his UFC debut and then some, by pounding out Luis Cane. According to report by TMZ.com (and confirmed by several other outlets) a shoulder injury has forced Griffin off the card. That definitely sucks.

In a follow up from MMA Junkie, they are reporting that noted wrestler Jason Brilz will step in and face Nogueira at the end of the month. Now Brilz may not have the star power of a former champ like Griffin, but he’s done pretty well at this whole ‘ultimate fighting’ thing, putting together a record of 18-2-1.

To bet on UFC 114, which will feature “Rampage” Jackson vs. Rashad Evans in the main event, head here.

Yes, small miracles do happen (if the headline read “Fedor Emelianenko to fight Brock Lesnar”- well, then we’d be talking walk on water type of sh-t), and just when many around the MMA world rightfully shrugged with doubt when talk of Fedor fighting this summer surfaced, BAM!, good news. Yes, Strikeforce has finally confirmed that “The Last Emperor” will fight Fabricio Werdum June 26^th, at the HP Pavilion, in San Jose, California.

Now, if you’ve taken a 2 month hiatus from the world wide web then you might be thinking ‘wasn’t Fedor supposed to fight Werdum anyways?’, well yes, but the Russian’s management, M-1 Global, apparently didn’t care for how their brand was ‘under utilized’ to promote Emelianenko’s Strikeforce / CBS debut in November (you may recall hearing a million person gasp that night when Fedor dropped Rogers). For the last few weeks there have been various reports (including the odd ‘does Fedor even have a contract with Strikeforce?’ wink-wink-nudge-nudge from people like Mr. Dana White) as to whether or not an agreement would be reached between M-1 and Strikeforce, which would get Fedor fighting again, you know, sometime in 2010.

And speaking of CBS, the answer is nope; the June 26^th bout is set to roll on Showtime. Not getting Fedor up on network TV one more time seems like a step back no? At any rate, there’s some sweet, sweet fights coming up over the next two months and the schedule just got that much better.