Author: kmowatt

When your buddy, training partner and MMA legend gets throttled in front of millions of fans, casting widespread doubts as to whether or not his time as a contender is over, what do you attribute it to? A bad day of course; we all have them, except usually our off days consist of running out of donuts by 9:04AM, rather than having a world class fighter brutalize our face repeatedly with punches.

In the wake of “Minotauro”” Nogueira’s stunning and abrupt stoppage loss to Cain Velasquez Saturday night, the future hall of famer’s teammate, UFC light-heavyweight champ Lyoto Machida, recently ‘tweeted’’ (thanks to Tatame for the quote):

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t his day. Cain is very well and hit it in the spot. MMA is like that, you can win or lose in seconds. I was very sad with Minotauro’s loss, because I know he worked hard to this fight. But I liked Wanderlei (Silva’s) fight, always in his aggressive style, fighting forward. He won and he deserved it”.

Yes, we agree, Cain did a damn fine job at hitting ‘the spot.’ Many people likely thought Velasquez could defeat Nog, but not too many people probably expected the AKA heavyweight to do that ‘well.’ Machida’s comments about it not being Nogueira’s day are understandable, but, even die hard Nog fans must be wondering if the legendary fighter is still capable of making another title run.

And as far as Machida’s comments on Wanderlei, can’t argue with that either; Silva looked good. See what a new face can do for you?

If you can think of a better way that Cain Velasquez could have proven that he’s ‘the real deal’ than by pasting “Minotauro” Nogueira like he did last night, we’d like to hear it (and no, ridiculous answers like ‘8 second KO by dropkick’ don’t count, even if that would be totally awesome). We all knew that Velasquez was a damn fine talent, but the hand speed he demonstrated last night should definitely give other elite heavies like Shane Carwin, Frank Mir, and of course, Brock Lesnar, pause for thought (although maybe that’s what Nog did…).

At any rate, it sounds like Velasquez’s ‘holy sheeet’ performance last night definitely resonated with UFC boss man Dana White (thanks to Sherdog for the quote).

“Because of Brock’s absence, it’s a little plugged up right now in the heavyweight division, but this guy?” White said. “In my opinion, Nogueira’s probably the best heavyweight of all time, and (Velasquez) absolutely demolished him tonight. He’s for real and he’s in the line right now.”

It’s interesting that the man that defeated Nogueira on two occasions, a certain Fedor Emelianenko, was glossed over by White (but not terribly surprising considering the source). Now partial opinions aside, the internet is already buzzing today about the possibilities of Velasquez vs. Lesnar. It will be interesting to see if the winner of Mir vs. Carwin is ready to throw down against the champ in July, if not, Velasquez will be stepping up to the plate.

After it was announced last night that Wanderlei Silva had defeated Michael Bisping by Unanimous Decision, with 29-28 scores across the board, Bisping didn’t have too much to say about the decision when speaking to Joe Rogan immediately after. Perhaps this was due to the fact that it sounded like 90% of the Aussie fans in attendance adored “The Axe Murderer” (and with a moniker like that how can you not…) while ‘support’ for Bisping, well, it was a little thin.

Well, according to a report from MMA Junkie this AM, Bisping became a little more ‘honest’ during last night’s post-fight press conference. Now although the Brit credited Silva for being “a legend” and for “doing a great job”, (get ready for the carpet pull) Bisping also had a few things to say about the judge’s decision.

“Personally, apart from the guillotine  – and I got dropped in the third round – but apart from the guillotine attempt off the takedown in the second round, as far as round two, I really didn’t have any offense come my way. I felt I clearly won those two rounds.”

“I’m healthy,” Bisping said. “I’m good to go. I feel like I could do another three rounds right now. … I’d love to get a rematch with Wanderlei someday, but I want to keep fighting top guys.”

Now it was a damn close (and entertaining) fight, but scoring the second and particularly the third round to Wanderlei is no big stretch either. Rematch? Not right away. Sounds like Silva could be fighting Yoshihiro Akiyama next.

Yesterday we reported on the growing tension (‘beef’’, ‘tiff’,  ‘smack talk,’ whatever slang you prefer) between Strikeforce Light-Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi and rising prospect “King Mo” Lawal. In an article from MMA Junkie, Mousasi offered a few cutting remarks about the accomplished wrestler, ranging from admitting he doesn’t care for Lawal’s whole crown shtick, dislikes Mo “challenging constantly,” or to his contention that Lawal looks at himself in the mirror “24 hours a day.”

Well in a video interview from MMA Prime.TV, Lawal took a break from training to offer a rebuttal to Mousasi’s ‘constructive criticism.’ Lawal stated that he hasn’t “called out” fighters like Fedor Emelianenko, but rather, that he’s just willing to fight “anybody.” Then the real ‘pot of gold’ in the entire interview came shortly after, when Lawal offered this doozy of a quote:

“Yeah I look in the mirror. I look in the mirror a lot. Everybody looks in the mirror if they look as good as me; you know what I’m saying, so he can go f—k himself. And this trash talk, he needs to talk to somebody else about this trash talk, he’s corny as hell. Sounds like Kermit the mother f—kin Frog.”

Damn. No one likes to get compared to the adorable and oddly sounding Kermit; that’s some harsh and hilarious sh-t. Perhaps Mousasi should look into training with Matt Serra or “Mayhem” Miller, not so much for the MMA, but to prepare the mother of all comebacks. This is getting pretty, pretty, pretty good.

(that’s Perosh on the right…don’t feel bad, 2006 is a blur for us too)

The name Anthony Perosh has probably been googled a thousand times more this AM than it has over the last five years combined, as MMA fans scramble to find out more about ‘some dude from Australia is fighting Cro Cop now.’ Some may remember his UFC losses to Jeff Monson and Christian Wellisch in 2006; others, like us, strain to recall their own phone number…

The official UFC site has an interesting piece up about the 37 year-old-fighter, who got ‘the call’ from matchmaker Joe Silva yesterday, asking whether or not Perosh would be willing to step in for the ill Ben Rothwell at UFC 110. According to the report, Perosh originally said no to the offer, (due to the fact that he and his Croatian parents look up to Cro Cop) but later decided he couldn’t pass on fighting “one of the best guys in the world.”

The good news for Perosh (and us fans) is that the veteran hasn’t been sitting around on the coach, drinking Foster’s Lager  and gorging on Vegemite (you probably haven’t learnt this much about Australia since Crocodile Dundee), he’s been busy training.

“Thankfully, I’ve been training for the last six to eight weeks and so I’m fit, ready and am prepared for the fight,” says Perosh. “I’m not looking to make any excuses after the fight, whatever happens. I won’t complain about not being fit or taking the fight on short notice.”

Nice. Now let’s sit back and watch the magic unfold. To bet on UFC 110 head here.

Okay, now Mirko “Cro Cop”Filipovic hasn’t been exactly lighting up skulls so far in his UFC tenure, but that said would you want to face the feared striker with goo in your left eye, a wobble in your step, while being doped up on cough medicine? Would a deer want to be tied to a tree during hunting season?

In case you haven’t heard the UFC announced last night that Ben Rothwell has been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s UFC 110 bout due to illness. No details were provided about what exactly is plaguing “Big Ben”, so our little run down of ‘symptoms’ was based on nothing really….Stepping up to the plate on short notice (while demonstrating rather large kahunas) will be Anthony “The Hippo”” Perosh (no that is his real nickname) . The Australian will meet Cro Cop having compiled a record of 10-5; Perosh has fought in the Octagon twice before losing to Jeff Monson and Christian Wellisch in 2006.

Have to sort of feel for Cro Cop too in this scenario, no offense to Perosh, but Rothwell is a much more well known fighter. If Cro Cop had blown Rothwell out of the Octagon Saturday people would be talking…if he beats Perosh…not so much (unless of course he folds Perosh like a lawn chair with one of his patented kicks).

The UFC has also announced that Australian vets Chris Haseman and Elvis Sinosic will no longer fight due to a shoulder injury Sinosic has incurred.  Sh-tty news for old school Aussie MMA fans.

To bet on UFC 110 head here.