Author: kmowatt

Any MMA fan surfing the net these days would be hard pressed not to stumble upon some story or discussion, regarding whether or not a UFC champ is close to ‘cleaning out the division’ (somehow when we browse the world wide web we keep stumbling upon pics of gorgeous women…). Of course with Georges St. Pierre’s recent walk through over Dan Hardy, talks continue as to who can still challenge GSP at 170; if BJ Penn takes out Frankie Edgar this weekend, similar rhetoric will really get going, and clearly for some time now, people have talked about whether or not Anderson Silva is close to mopping up as middleweight champ.

Of course there always seems to be someone around the corner, the Jon Fitchs or Gray Maynards for example, that certainly deserve a crack at the crown. In other words, there may be the potential for ‘I pray that happens’ fights if champions move up in weight (Silva vs. Machida), but is a division ever completely ‘cleaned out?’ In the case of Silva, he says he’s not even close (thanks to MMA Weekly for the quote).

“I’m actually far from cleaning out my division. I feel that there may be guys that are even better than me coming into the UFC,” said Silva “And proof that there’s tough guys in my division is Demian Maia right now. We’re going to have a great fight. It’s going to be a big fight, a big challenge for me.”

Maia, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen; we’re not saying these guys will beat Silva, but these are all interesting fights no? To bet on Silva vs. Maia head here.

 

Casual MMA fans who are looking to get up to speed on just who this Shinya Aoki dude is, will have a great opportunity next weekend, when the highly regarded lightweight takes on Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce’s upcoming April 17^th event. Here’s a quick rundown on the Dream champ- 1) Aoki wears crazy spandex pants (although not this time due to our propensity in N.A. for only fighting in shorts…) 2) he has a crazy good, OMG submission game 3) he may in fact be slightly crazy?

Of course by now, any MMA fan who frequents the internet should at least be aware of Aoki’s recent WTF win over Mizuto Hirota. Not only did Aoki break Hirota’s arm, he didn’t really seem too concerned about his crippled opponent, unless flipping the bird to someone means something completely different in Japanese culture (and we’re pretty sure giving the finger is universally known as eff you…). Speaking to MMA Junkie, Aoki said this, when asked if he’s sorry about rendering Hirota’s arm useless for several months.

“No (I don’t) because it happened during the fight,” Aoki told MMAjunkie.com

Huh. Okay. Well why did Aoki do it? Well according to Aoki, powers not detectable by the viewing audience might have had a say…

“The thought came down to me,” Aoki said. “Maybe the bad thought came down to me.”

So does tapping bring in the referee as well as ward off ‘bad thoughts’? Something to consider. Should be interesting to see how Aoki fairs against Melendez.

Heading into Demian Maia’s upcoming title shot with Anderson ‘dude he’s unbeatable’ Silva, not too many people appear to be taking out a third mortgage, to bet the house on the challenger winning (our thoughts go out to those who bet on Dan Hardy recently). After all, we’re talking about Silva here folks; a guy that often gets touched more times walking to the Octagon than when fighting in it.

Now although Maia didn’t blow anyone’s minds in his recent UD win over Dan Miller, really, if it weren’t for his ‘holy sheeet’ KO loss to Nate Marquardt last summer, maybe people would be giving Maia more of a chance heading into UFC 112. This is a man that needed less than three minutes to tap out the top contender Chael Sonnen, proving once again, that the hype which accompanied Maia about being to jiu-jitsu what sliced bread is to the world, was pretty damn valid.

So, it’s no secret that barring some unforeseen, ‘how’d that happen’ strike, Maia needs to get Silva to the floor ASAP if he has any chance of winning. Your thought’s Mr. Maia? (Thanks to MMA Weekly for the quote)

“I put a little bit more attention in wrestling because that’s what I need to do in this fight. I need to take Anderson down,” he stated recently.

Thanks for being honest. If that doesn’t happen, it could be a short main event, if Maia does get Anderson down things are going to get a lot more interesting. To bet on the bout head here.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned, while rattling on and on with each post, is that many of us here at MMA Fix have a remarkable ability to be wrong (no effin kidding right?). Case in point, last week when Thiago Alves announced the good news that he had undergone successful surgery and was looking at UFC 114 to make his return, we figured that the rematch with Jon Fitch (which had been cancelled at UFC 111 due to Thiago’s condition) “probably won’t happen” this soon. Thankfully we were wrong.

Last night UFC President Dana White posted this doozy of a ‘tweet’ on his official Twitter page:

ALVES vs FITCH in vancouver!!!!

Awesome. Totally awesome; to use the immortal words of  Jeff Spicoli. We were damn disappointed when the Alves / Fitch rematch didn’t go down on Mar. 27^th, but, thankfully we won’t have to wait too long to see it June 12^th.  Fitch appeared to emerge from his dominant UD win over Ben Saunders unscathed (what else is new?) and clearly, news of the bout with Alves only confirms it. Really, this fight makes the most sense, Alves has asked to rematch Fitch consistently over the years, while Fitch with a 12-1 Octagon record, is quickly running out of notable dudes to fight. Plus, this way White and AKA nicely side step the whole ‘I don’t care that you’re bestest buddies, punch him in the face’ drama for a few months.

One of the fascinating things about MMA is that sometimes good buddies have to get in the cage and, well, brutalize the other dude’s face. For example, although apparently Clayton McKinney and Charley Lynch are good friends, McKinney ended up erasing part of Lynch’s nose to earn a spot in the TUF house. In other words, it’s not like bowling where the worst thing you could do to your pal, is knock his beer over while getting up to take your next shot (although that could theoretically lead to fisticuffs…)

Thus, this is why the issue of fighting friends and teammates continues to be such a polarizing one in MMA, particularly for promoters like Dana White, who don’t want awesome fights punted because training partners refuse to fight each other. Now although the UFC Boss Man has got into it with other teams over this issue, White continues to get really annoyed with top welterweights Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, who won’t fight due to their American Kickboxing Academy status / friendship. You may recall that White didn’t really care for Fitch’s recent remarks about the two fighting “behind closed doors.”

 Anyways, it sounds like White is reaching his boiling point on this (thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote).

“It’s over man,” White said. “This whole ‘we won’t fight each other’ thing is over. How long can they go on when they have two of the top guys in the division and they won’t fight each other?”

Wow. This could get messy.

Ever since Renzo Gracie signed with the UFC to fight Matt Hughes on April 10^th, the jiu-jitsu guru seems to be receiving a lot more, much deserved hype. After all, this is a dude that showed no signs of pain whatsoever, while having his arm snapped by Kazushi Sakuraba (seriously that seems like 5 years ago not a decade, holy eff…) If that’s not a sign of a bad ass dude what is?

Due to the fact Renzo hasn’t fought since 2007 (you may recall his DQ win over Frank ‘how’d that illegal knee get there?’ Shamrock), Gracie has received more recognition in MMA circles recently due to fighters like Matt Serra, Jim Miller, Dan Miller and Georges St. Pierre, who have picked up a thing or two from him about bending human bodies the wrong way. One of the things that has received a lot of coverage over the last week is that GSP wasn’t able to tap out Dan Hardy at UFC 111, despite the fact that on two occasions, it looked like he could have rendered the British welterweight’s arms useless. Your thoughts Professor Gracie (thanks to MMA Weekly for the quote)?

“It was a very simple question. When he was doing the Kimura lock, instead of being at 12 o’clock, he should have been at 9 o’clock,” said Gracie. “Like his lower body shouldn’t have been here, that would give him the leverage to actually get the guy’s arm to break.”

Now remember kids; don’t try this sh-t at home or in your cardboard Octagon out back. To bet on Renzo’s upcoming out with Hughes head here.