Author: kmowatt

We’ve always been the first to challenge the charge that MMA is anything like pro-wrestling for a couple of a reasons 1) what goes down in the ring or cage is real and 2) usually that comparison comes from someone who knows less about MMA than we do about Justin Bieber. We’ll let you decide if that’s a good thing.

Now, it pains us to say it, but if someone was watching MMA for the first time during Anderson Silva’s recent, showboating riddled, UD victory over Demian Maia, they might have been able to say for a second or two  ‘see it’s not that different’ (they would have been clearly ignoring Maia’s bruised and battered face of course). Was Silva just being cocky? Was he really pissed at Maia for supposedly being “disrespectful” prior to the bout? Is he becoming a bad guy now like when Hulk Hogan did the whole wearing black thing?

Well in a recent appearance on the Brazilian TV show, Domingão do Faustão, Silva explained that he fought the way he did because he didn’t want to hit the ground with Maia (as he’s not even “close to his BJJ level”), while also stating  (thanks to MMA Fighting for the quote):

“I have nothing against any of my opponents,” Silva said. “I have nothing against Demian. I respect his work a lot.”

Huh. When Maia showed up he seemed a little uncomfortable but Silva greeted him with a big smile. Still confused? Check out the appearance here (if for nothing else than to see the female hosts asking questions).

During the opening moments of Dan Henderson’s Strikeforce debut last night, the decorated vet continued to add his ‘Hendo’s Greatest Hits’ highlight reel, as it didn’t take long to floor Jake Shield’s with his vaunted right hand (seriously, Spike’s Deadliest Warrior should test that thing for its PSI). Of course, Shields showed a ton of heart and endured, before making Henderson a fixture on the mat for the next four rounds.

For some time now MMA insiders have regarded Shields as one of the world’s best welterweights, and perhaps because he’s still relatively new to competing at 185, not too many people expected him to roll over Henderson in the fashion that he did. In Henderson’s case,  he’s never really cared for cutting down to middleweight (many here at Fix prefer to add weight hourly), and it sounds like the cut might have affected his performance (thanks to Sherdog for the quote).

“I had a good one and a half, two rounds,” said Henderson, who admitted he ran into some difficulty with his weight cut. “I just got a little tired for whatever reason. Jake had a great game plan. He covered well on top and stayed there, and I did a very bad job getting up. He deserves all the respect.”

We agree. Shields may not be a walking KO machine, but technically the guy’s a beast, and it’s nice to see Henderson giving him his props, fatigue or not. Now it’s going to be interesting to see how negotiations go between Strikeforce and Shields…two words: upper hand.

If you missed last night’s Strikeforce card on CBS, by now you’ve probably heard about the ‘this isn’t good, this isn’t good at all’ post-fight ‘festivities,’ that occurred during Jake Shields interview after defeating Dan Henderson. If we’re the first [cough] media site you’ve visited, first, that’s very flattering, second here’s a quick rundown.

After Shields was announced the UD winner over Hendo, former foe “Mayhem” Miller, kyboshed the interview before the champ could get two words in, with ‘hey buddy where’s my rematch?’ Well, Jake’s good ole boys, including Stockton’s finest, Nick and Nate Diaz, took exception, and yadda, yadda, yadda, CBS is hiring extra staff to handle the sh-tstorm of angry feedback (brawls have a funny way of doing that). Now of course, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was none too thrilled about the activities, which certainly didn’t help keep MMA in the good books with CBS (thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote):

“There’s no room in Strikeforce for that type of behavior,” Coker said. “I will not condone and reward that type of behavior. If you’re a fighter fighting at the highest level, and you’re fighting on CBS, you’re fighting on Showtime, you’re fighting for Strikeforce – or any other mixed martial arts league – there’s no room for that type of behavior.”

“This is not something that we’ll support or reward in the future.”

Yeah. Not a good way to end a night, particularly with a broadcast that featured 3 methodical and technical bouts that let’s face it, Johnny ‘what’s this ground sh-t?’ likely didn’t care for.

Just when you though the carcass of last weekend’s fight debacle between Anderson Silva and Demian Maia had nearly been picked clean, new angles and developments continue to pop up (including Dana White’s threat to cut Silva if the same thing happens in his next bout). Really, despite reassurances from Silva’s management that there’s no big conspiracy behind his antics at UFC 112, the WTF? factor to this really hasn’t been answered has it?

Well, according to the guy that faced Silva’s outburst (both verbal and physical) on Saturday, Mr. Maia, he believes people need look no further than “The Spider’s” ego (and spiders have been known to be quite bashful), to explain why the champ acted the way he did. Speaking to Tatame.com, Maia was once again asked about whether or not he provoked Silva with pre-fight banter, as the champion has claimed.

“Those who know me knows that I never disrespect anyone, especially with someone who is friends with several of my friends, like Anderson. In fact, they were wrong and want to find a justification. No need to justify, just assume “I was wrong”. Everyone does mistakes, we’re there to learn. There’s some jokes to promote the fight, that is very light compared to boxing and other sports. The problem is when you think you are so good that nobody can joke with you, then you have to review the path and size that your ego is taking you to.”

Wow. Regardless of whether you think Maia’s got Silva pinned on this, not a bad public service announcement…

For fans that are anxious to see how a former boxing champ will attempt to deal with takedowns, submissions, you know, something else besides punches (and don’t have the patience to wait around for James Toney’s UFC debut), they might want to catch Shine Fight’s May 15^th card, when former WBC / WBA welterweight champ Ricardo Mayorga squares off with UFC vet Din Thomas. Now although Mayorga had a reputation in boxing for being one bad ass dude, the 36 year-old-fighter will take on a guy in Thomas, who not only is a black belt in jiu-jitsu, he’s a pretty refined striker. In other words, Mayorga aint getting no tomato can in his first MMA fight (not sure if he realizes this however…read on).

If you’ve caught any of Toney’s recent interviews, the boxer doesn’t seem overly concerned about this whole ‘ultimate fighting thing’, and based off Mayorga’s comments at a pre-fight presser in NYC yesterday, Thomas doesn’t really scare him. In fact, Mayorga went as far to say that the family of Thomas should prepare to wear black, something about having Din’s wife, before stating that he’ll be the man and Thomas will be the woman on May 15^th…Uh-huh. Despite the verbal ‘barbs’, Din kept it together fairly well, until Mayorga lit up a cigarette (which might explain why he didn’t exactly looked ‘ripped’ at the press conference) and blew smoke in his face. That’s when sh-t almost went down.

To check out the entire presser head here and be thankful you don’t have to inhale second hand smoke (thanks to MMA Weekly for the clip).

Tomorrow night’s Strikeforce card is ripe full with MMA goodness, and although we’re pretty damn excited about Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson and Gegard Mousasi vs. “King Mo” Lawal, any regular reader here knows were pretty stoked to see Shinya Aoki’s Strikeforce debut against Gilbert Melendez. This is a guy that rocks rainbow colored spandex pants, has arguably the sport’s greatest submission highlight reel, and to top it off, he might just be crazy (unless flipping someone off after you break their arm is considered ‘well adjusted’…not exactly endearing behaviour)

Now Melendez is no joke; the Cesar Gracie fighter is not only one of the world’s best lightweights, like Aoki, he’s one of the division’s most entertaining fighters to watch. On paper, Melendez should be able to cruise to victory if he can keep the fight standing, but to Aoki’s credit, the Dream champion has a knack for getting the fight to the mat. Despite Aoki’s renowned ‘dude you gotta see this sh-t’ ground game, Melendez isn’t exactly a stranger to jiu-jitsu either, something he pointed out this week in an interview with 5thround.com.

“I’ve been training [my jiu jitsu] 7-8 hard years, I’ve been training with [Nick and Nate Diaz],” Melendez told 5thRound.com of his extensive knowledge. “I’ve seen his rubber guard; I’ve seen it for years. It’s nothing new to me.”

Melendez makes a hell of a point, not to mention that he trains with Shields as well, another guy that has spent more time on the mat than an entire high school wrestling team put together. To bet on the tilt head here.