Author: kmowatt

If you weren’t overly familiar with the personality of Dan Hardy, heading into his March 27^th bout with UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, you probably are now. Between the interviews and the UFC Primetime series, Hardy has had a lot of opportunities to refute the critics who say the Brit isn’t worthy of a title shot (or the multitude that say he’s going to get mauled by GSP). All in all, we’d have to say Hardy’s done a good job at hyping himself and the fight; no one can truthfully say that the slugger isn’t good on the mic (or punching people).

As we’ve noted here over the last couple of weeks, for the most part, the outspoken Hardy hasn’t really let the ‘colorful observations’ fly at St.Pierre, like he threw Marcus Davis or Josh Koscheck’s way in the past. When asked why this has been so by Fighters Only Magazine recently, part of Hardy’s response was:

Every opponent is different and the thing with GSP is, obviously he is the champion and you have to show him that respect but at the same time the pressure of this fight is going to be enough to mess with his head. I think he realises that I am in the best position in this fight, going into with nothing to lose and everything to gain whereas if he loses to me it is going to put a real dent in his legacy.

Yeah, the old ‘nothing to lose’ point; does blood count? To bet on the fight head here.

Part of the reason the UFC and MMA has done so well in general (apart from the fact that watching ridiculously talented athletes attempt to brutalize the other is effin entertaining), is because consistently not just the champions or up-and-coming prospects get showcased. Why is this good? Well, because often the fighters that get airtime are damn exciting to watch; you know, the Chris Lytle’s of the world, guys that because they throw down each and every time they’re in the cage, you lose your voice for 2 days from screaming.

Well another fine example of this exact scenario is this Sunday’s scheduled middleweight tilt between James Irvin and Alessio Sakara, which will be broadcast on the first UFC / Versus card. No, neither guy is considered a world beater or resides at the top of the rankings. But, due to the fact that if you’ve seen either guy fight, your consciousness blurts out ‘striker’when you hear their name, the UFC is broadcasting the bout. Speaking on UFC.com, both Irvin and Sakara acknowledged, that their respective skill sets should make for one hell of a fight (thanks to MMA Fighting for the heads up):

“We match up so stylistically together that I think it’s going to be a great fight — it can’t not be a good fight,” Irvin says. “We know what we’re good at and we stick to it. We don’t try to do different things.”

For the entire interview and some sweet highlights (particularly Irvin’s 8 second Superman Punch KO of Houston Alexander) click here. To bet on the bout head here.

On April 17^th, a lot of North American fans will likely get a first look at Shinya Aoki, which for die-hard, MMA nerds like ourselves, seems unfathomable…it’s like someone saying they’re a music buff but they haven’t heard of Coldplay, because they only listen to music from the U.S. Now of course, this is our snobby, we have no life, way of looking at…to be fair, Japanese MMA isn’t exactly widely covered on this side of the Pacific.

So what’s the big deal? And why should Johnny lunch pail ‘I watch the odd UFC’ give a sh-t about Aoki’s upcoming Strikeforce debut? Well, he’s a damn entertaining fighter, who has been known to pull off fight winning submissions before you have time to say ‘HTF did he do that?’ Against Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez, however, Aoki’s going to be in tough. Not only is Melendez a well rounded and talented fighter, but Aoki will have to adapt to fighting in the cage, as well as, he won’t be wearing his colorful trademark spandex pants…(yeah, not something you expect to read on a MMA blog)

Speaking to MMA Weekly the outspoken (and often controversial- this is a guy that flipped his opponent ‘the bird’ after breaking his arm) Dream champion let N.A. fans know, that he’s not too worried about fighting in a cage, or wearing shorts for that matter…

“During the fight, I’m focused on my fighting. It won’t affect my fight,” Aoki said about not wearing his usual fight gear.

Should be a doozy of a tussle. Wonder what color Aoki’s shorts will be?

For MMA fans that ran out and purchased the latest in audio visual recording equipment, to ensure that they would be able to watch both the Strikeforce and UFC on April 17^th…hope you kept the receipt (of course anyone who is ‘really cool’ has had their own PVR now for years, if you’re still rockin a VCR, our thoughts go out to you). According to a report from MMA Fighting, a source close to the Spike Network, has informed the outlet that the UFC has abandoned its project to hold a live event, April 17^th, the same night Strikeforce is ready to roll with its card in Nashville (one that features 3 title fights including Dan Henderson vs. middleweight champ Jake Shields).

Really, the report makes sense; the UFC is yet to confirm any bouts for that night, now less than a month away, and with Zuffa set to run with its first WEC PPV on the 24^th, as well as UFC 112 on the 10^th, there’s already a hell of a lot on the organization’s table (which is rumored to be adorned with an image of Dana White– we’d go with Arianny Celeste, but that’s just our 3 cents).

So, there you have it; on one hand, purely for blogging purposes granted, it would have been interesting to see how a battle in Nashville between the 2 promotion’s would have played out (there were reports that the UFC was even looking into hosting an event in that city as well). But, such is life.

Lot of sweet fights coming up next month.

Is there anyone else in MMA that has more constant drama surrounding them than Tito Ortiz? Clearly “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” likes to speak his mind and gravitates to the spotlight like a hoard of moths, but it just seems like the rumor mill is always churning when Ortiz has a fight coming up.

If you’ve been following the world wide web this week then you know that there has been tons of speculation that Ortiz has been injured, had to leave the TUF set, and will not fight Chuck Liddell for the third time as scheduled. Tito and his longtime buddy / nemesis (right now it’s buddy) Dana White have denied the rumors, with Ortiz reporting on his Twitter account that he’s recovering from a serious bout with the flue. In other words, Chuck vs. Tito III is still on…right?

Well, according to a report from Five Ounces of Pain late afternoon yesterday, “sources close to the situation” informed the outlet that Tito has incurred multiple herniations in his neck, and the bout with Chuck is off.  Once again Ortiz has denied that he is injured, as when he was asked about the report on Twitter, the former champ posted:

not true!!!!!

Well lets hope Tito is indeed on the mend and things are still lined up. That said, stay tuned for the lastest report as to why Tito can’t fight Chuck, and then the subsequent denial (shoulder’s been done, so has the neck, maybe knee next?)

More news continues to surface as to the condition of Tito Ortiz, after various ‘tweets’ and subsequent rumors over the last few days, led to speculation that the former champion had been forced to withdraw from coaching on the latest season of TUF. Well, in the latest post on his Twitter account, Ortiz says that his recent hospitalization was due to a serious case of the flue, so bad in fact, he was concerned for a time that it was of the pork variety…

Nice to be home. They put 6 bags of fluid in me. I’m better now. I lost 15lb. I thought I had swine flu but I didn’t. Just a really bad flu.

Good to hear that Ortiz is on the mend (which likely means that the internet will soon be ripe with “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s” latest ‘insights’). This news seems to further squash rumors that Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell III is officially off, and supports Dana White’s recent ‘tweet’ (yes, after just a few months that term is already annoying isn’t it?) that insisted reports of Rich Franklin stepping in for Tito are false.

So, there you have it; for now, at least (in the MMA world things change before you can say ‘sources close to the situation’), it appears as though Tito is still in place to fight Chuck, Franklin will probably face Randy Couture, and James Toney will fight….