Author: kmowatt

This AM we posted the unfortunate news about Vitor Belfort’s bum shoulder, an injury that will not only kybosh his previously scheduled April 10^th bout with Anderson Silva, but it will likely sideline “The Phenom” for much of 2010. As soon as the injury was announced, Dana White told Yahoo’s Kevin Iole that Silva would remain on the card, leading us to theorize that the middleweight champ might take on another 205 pounder. Well, as the day unfolds, it looks like we were totally effin wrong…

According to an updated report from MMA Fighting, White has told the media outlet that Silva will remain at middleweight for UFC 112, he will defend his belt, and that a new opponent will be determined. Now due to the fact that rising contender Chael Sonnen was a little beat up after his ‘dude this guy is f-kin good’ win over Nate Marquardt Saturday, and further, because of the Republican’s political aspirations, we figured Sonnen being ready for April 10^th was less than likely.

Wrong again…as the MMA Fighting report goes on to say that although the cuts Sonnen incurred at UFC 109 will prevent him from sparring until March 9^th, (via medical suspension) apparently the ‘outspoken’ wrestler has gone on record saying he was going to keep training, in case this exact scenario played out.

 Huh. So we’re hitting zero for today. We’ve done worse. So Sonnen vs. Silva April 10^th? We shall see…

Late yesterday the internet was ablaze with reports that Vitor Belfort had dropped out of his upcoming April 10^th bout with middleweight champ Anderson Silva, due to a shoulder injury. Well not only have those reports been confirmed several times over, but Sherdog.com is reporting this AM that Belfort has  already had surgery on the injured shoulder. If you’re familiar with the ‘sporting world’ then you know that having your shoulder operated on isn’t like having a boil lanced; Belfort is going to be on the DL for a damn long time.

“I’m feeling good, and according to the doctor, in four months I can start returning to training little by little. Now I have a long journey of work with physical therapy every day. I think before the end of the year, I’ll be back in the Octagon. No matter if it’s fighting for the belt or not, I’ll be back 100 percent.”

Sh-tty. Note that Vitor’s not expecting to be back until the end of the year. So what now? Should Chael Sonnen start shining up his wrestling boots?

Dana White apparently told Yahoo’s Kevin Iole that Silva will stay on the April 10th card, which would mean that Sonnen would have to begin a camp ASAP, to fight at UFC 112. Just a hunch here, but due to the fact that Sonnen just shared his fists with Nate Marquardt last weekend, and is doing the whole ‘running for office’ thing, we’re thinking the UFC will throw Silva another notable light-heavyweight to devour.

The last couple of weeks the MMA world has been ripe with ‘critical observations’, although to be fair, Chael Sonnen has been responsible for 90% of the more noteworthy zingers. Today we were fortunate (or not depending on your view) to stumble upon a couple more ‘ouch’ comments, courtesy Paul “Semtex” Daley.

Since arriving in the UFC Daley hasn’t been shy about sharing his thoughts on various fighters with the media, a ‘gift for gab’ that has no doubt been accentuated by his stoppage wins over Martin Kampmann and Dustin Hazelett. (You may recall Daley’s back-and-forth with Mike Swick in the fall)

In May, Daley is supposed to face Swick’s teammate Josh Koscheck, another dude who rarely hears the words ‘oh come on Josh, tell us what you really think.’ Well, it appears as though Daley is going to be a willing participant in the ‘lets get you motivated’ department, as the Brit had a few choice words for “Kos” in a recent interview with Sidecontrol (including Koscheck’s ’it’s not sun bleached’ hairdo).

It’s going to be an entertaining fight, but I predict it being short and I predict Koscheck getting knocked out quite brutally to be honest with you, ‘cos I don’t like the guy ‘cos his hair’s shit! (laughs)

He is a fraggle! I’ve got a few competitions coming up, so look out on Facebook and my website. ‘Get Koscheck a new hairstyle’ because the one he’s got is just not working for him.

This is going to get good. Real good.

Earlier in the week news surfaced that Martin Kampmann was off the upcoming March 27^th UFC 111 card due to a cut he received in training. The Dutch fighter had been scheduled to fight Ben Saunders (which would have been a damn entertaining fight), but because of Kampmann’s injury, the ATT fighter will now face Jake Ellenberger. (Thanks to MMA Weekly for the heads up)

Kampmann confirmed the cut earlier this week by ‘tweeting’:

Out of UFC 111. I got a huge cut in training and can’t do any contact for a while.. Bummed out about it.. But hoping to fight again in may!!

Well it’s now become apparent that the Kampmann’s utilization of the word ‘huge’ is in fact a gross (pun intended) understatement. Today the welterweight also ‘tweeted’ a pic of the cut, which, due to the fact it looks like someone hit Kampmann above the eye with the claw of a hammer, we’ve only posted a link to it. For those of you who prefer not to see gaping wounds on humans we suggest moving along.

Kampmann (16-3) is coming off a submission win over Jacob Volkmann at UFC 108 in January, after getting stopped by Paul Daley at UFC 103 in September. Good thing they say that scars ‘add character.’

In an interesting story posted on MMA Junkie today, American Kickboxing Academy teammates Jon Fitch and Cain Velasquez apparently disagree as to whether or not jiu-jitsu’s hallowed closed guard, is an effective position any longer to end a fight in modern MMA. Fitch told Fox Fight Game recently (and we’re paraphrasing here in our own colorful manner), that unless you’re submission wizards like Demian Maia and Shinya Aoki, forget about working for subs from the guard as dudes like Chael Sonnen will beat the living hell out of you.

Now, Velasquez is heading into a bout with “Minotauro” Nogueira, a guy who knows a thing or two about brutalizing an opponent’s body and or consciousness from the guard. When asked to share his thoughts on Fitch’s recent claim that essentially the closed guard has passed on, Velasquez reportedly said:

“I don’t believe that,” Velasquez said. “I believe everyone’s dangerous, especially Nogueira on the ground.”

Yes, a wisely chosen response Mr. Rising Contender; the last thing you would want to do is tell the world that ‘you’ll retire if you ever get tapped out from the guard,’ only to have Big Nog slap on one of his patented triangle chokes.

The sport’s evolving, soon guys are going to be turning pro that learned to pass the guard before they could walk, or drilled rubber guard every recess throughout elementary school. That’s some scary sh-t.

To bet on Velasquez vs. Nogueira head here.

If you weren’t gonged out your mind, or were watching UFC 109 with real MMA fans who pay attention to all of the fights, perhaps you caught Saturday’s heavyweight tilt between Rolles Gracie and Joey Beltran. If you didn’t see it, or incase you’ve already forgotten about it (which is completely understandable), the jiu-jitsu star Gracie looked awful in his Octagon debut, demonstrating WTF stand-up skills before gassing completely out (the gas tank was running on fumes as round one ended). Beltran went on to stop the grounded and breathless Gracie early in round two.

Well according to Gracie’s buddy and fellow jiu-jitsu champion Braulio Estima, injuries are the reason why Rolles debut was more disappointing than Terminator Salvation. Estima told Gracie Magazine:

“His performance wasn’t even near what we and he expected. He carried a ton of injuries in training. He hurt his rib and had to stop training for a few weeks (Rolles also injured his foot). But he was excited about fighting and put a lot of pressure on himself,” he says.

As the Gracie story goes on to state, it’s interesting that in an earlier post fight interview with Gracie himself, the heavyweight did not mention any injuries. Huh. One would think that unless Rolles rolls to a win in his next UFC tilt, his Octagon tenure could be a rather short one.