Author: Sal DeRose

MMA Knockout of the Day: Melvin Manhoef Quickly Takes Care of Mark Hunt

At K-1 Dynamite 2008, a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Jerome Le Banner was set to take place towards the end of the night. But a few days before the event, Le Banner had to withdraw and was quickly replaced with Melvin Manhoef. At the time Man…

At K-1 Dynamite 2008, a heavyweight bout between Mark Hunt and Jerome Le Banner was set to take place towards the end of the night.

But a few days before the event, Le Banner had to withdraw and was quickly replaced with Melvin Manhoef. At the time Manhoef was 22-5-1 and coming off of a loss to Gegard Mousasi at Dream 6 about three months before.

Hunt was 5-4 and coming off of a loss to Alistair Overeem at Dream 5.

The bout begins and Hunt quickly presses Manhoef into the corner. Manhoef though takes a nice swing and hits Hunt right on the button to knock him to the mat.

Manhoef then quickly stands over Hunt and puts an end to Hunt’s night not even 20 seconds into the bout.

The New Zealand native quickly found himself on the mat watching Manhoef celebrate his victory on the opposite turnbuckle.

Hunt has gone 1-2 since the fight with Manhoef in 2008. His latest fight was a second-round knockout of Chris Tuchscherer that earned Hunt “Knockout of the Night” honors.

That fight saw Hunt do damage to the eyelid of Tuchscherer. The 37-year-old Hunt is currently 6-7 in his MMA career.

Manhoef hasn’t had exactly the kind of career you would expect after a win like this. Manhoef has gone 1-4 with his only win coming against Kazuo Misaki at Dynamite!! 2009.

Manhoef most recently fought Tim Kennedy and lost in March of this year by first-round submission (rear-naked choke). Manhoef is currently 24-9-1.

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Gilbert Melendez and Cesar Gracie Looking for a Fight Inside the UFC

After his huge first-round victory over Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gilbert Melendez may have exhausted the Strikeforce lightweight talent pool.Some media outlets even have the Strikeforce lightweight champion as the second-best lightweight in the world.It’s sup…

After his huge first-round victory over Tatsuya Kawajiri, Gilbert Melendez may have exhausted the Strikeforce lightweight talent pool.

Some media outlets even have the Strikeforce lightweight champion as the second-best lightweight in the world.

It’s supposed to be “business as usual” for Strikeforce, but Melendez is open to the opportunity of fighting either Gray Maynard or current UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

“I agree and if it is business as usual people are going to want to see that fight, and maybe it can happen sooner than later,” Melendez told MMAWeekly Radio in April.

His trainer, Cesar Gracie, believes that if Melendez is to face the best competition available, Melendez won’t find it inside Strikeforce, but inside the UFC.

“I really do not believe that,” Gracie told MMA Weekly when asked if there are contenders left in Strikeforce for Melendez. “And the reason I can say that is I’m looking at the talent pool they have in there, and I don’t see who they’re going to bring up.

“Guys that are winning are guys like [Shinya] Aoki and we’ve seen that fight. It was five rounds of Gilbert completely dominating the guy and beating him, and I don’t think other guys can even get past Aoki. You’ve seen Gilbert dominate Josh Thomson, and Thomson just recently lost to [Tatsuya] Kawajiri, and then Kawajiri comes over and just gets crushed, no pun intended, by Gilbert Melendez. So for exciting match-ups, I think we’re going to have to go outside of Strikeforce.”

The same thing that’s being said about Melendez is also being said about his training partner, and best friend, Nick Diaz. Diaz has also beaten and cleared out the Strikeforce welterweight division in many eyes and many believe he should have a shot at Georges St-Pierre.

“I’m hoping that Dana [White] and these guys understand that also, and make the dream matchups that the fans really and truly want. We need to see these guys fight Gilbert Melendez over there,” Gracie said.

Gracie believes that if they are going to test his fighter, they have to test him against the UFC lightweight division.

“Gil wants to test himself. He wants that belt; he wants the UFC belt also to add to his collection of belts, and yeah I hope they put those fights together.”

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UFC 131: Shane Carwin vs. Junior Dos Santos Updated Predictions

UFC 131 just got a little more interesting. Now with Brock Lesnar out due to illness, Shane Carwin has stepped up to face Junior dos Santos.The bout was suppose to be the conclusion fight to The Ultimate Fighter 13 and give either Lesnar or JDS a shot …

UFC 131 just got a little more interesting. Now with Brock Lesnar out due to illness, Shane Carwin has stepped up to face Junior dos Santos.

The bout was suppose to be the conclusion fight to The Ultimate Fighter 13 and give either Lesnar or JDS a shot at Cain Velasquez sometime later this year.

Now though, Carwin brings an intriguing matchup to this updated main card.

Who brings home the win at UFC 131?

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MMA Knockout of the Day: Mirko Cro Cop Chops Down Big Old, Bob Sapp

In a kickboxing match between two MMA fighters, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, and big man turned Super Mario boss, Bob Sapp, one incredible knockout happened. Sapp is a big, big, big guy, and the size difference is relatively obvious. With a l…

In a kickboxing match between two MMA fighters, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, and big man turned Super Mario boss, Bob Sapp, one incredible knockout happened.

Sapp is a big, big, big guy, and the size difference is relatively obvious.

With a little bit left in the first round, Cro Cop rocked Sapp with a left punch. The punch rendered Sapp immobile and broke his face pretty well. Sapp was moving slow before that and was being tagged by the legendary kickboxer, Cro Cop.

This bout would be the last fight in the kickboxing career of Cro Cop and of course, as we all know, Cro Cop would go on to become a successful MMA fighter with highlight reel knockouts. Cro Cop ended a successful kickboxing career where he was 16-7.

Already 4-0-2 in his MMA career, Cro Cop would win his next match against Heath Herring and would fight for the Pride Interim Heavyweight Championship later in 2003.

Sapp was already 3-1 in his MMA career and has become somewhat of a freakshow fighter.  Sapp’s most recent bout was 12 days ago for the promotion, Premium Fight Night, against Atila Ucar. Sapp lost via submission (leglock) towards the end of Round 1. Sapp holds a career record of 11-8.

Just for other purposes, Sapp’s kickboxing record is 10-11 and is currently on seven fight losing streak.

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UFC 131: With Brock Lesnar Out, the Main Event Fight Is Now Even Better

My immediate reaction to changing Brock Lesnar and substituting in Shane Carwin was “Junior dos Santos will crush him.”The more I think about it though, the more of a good—and better—main event fight it will be.Carwin is deserving of a seco…

My immediate reaction to changing Brock Lesnar and substituting in Shane Carwin was “Junior dos Santos will crush him.”

The more I think about it though, the more of a good—and better—main event fight it will be.

Carwin is deserving of a second shot at a title and JDS is a great stepping stone to get there. If Carwin does get a shot at Cain Velasquez, it’s very well deserved seeing as he had Lesnar beat until he gassed.

But the fight between Carwin and JDS is more interesting now. Instead of watching Lesnar trying to take down JDS the entire fight, you get two guys who know how to strike and do it very well.

Carwin was able to get rocked and get going again as evident by his first round, knockout win over Gabriel Gonzaga at UFC 96.

But Gonzaga is no JDS. JDS has great striking ability and is very agile. The man even knows how to do the “Showtime Kick” for crying out loud. 

You couldn’t possibly put two better fighters in the cage at UFC 131.

Not to mention now we don’t have to see Carwin fight someone like Jon Olav Einemo. Einemo hasn’t even fought since 2006.

Carwin now gets a nice tough test against someone of name value and a top heavyweight in the world. Coming off an injury that required surgery.

The fight features two good strikers now that could duke it out to earn the right to face Velasquez sometime in the fall of this year.

Unlike the removal of Gray Maynard versus Frankie Edgar from UFC 130, this is a good move for the card. 

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Matt Hughes Not Impressed by GSP’s Performance at UFC 129

Note to Georges St-Pierre: Matt Hughes was not impressed with your performance at UFC 129. Not impressed one bit.Hughes wrote on his personal website about the news of Osama bin Laden’s death and about UFC 129. Hughes wasn’t totally put off by the figh…

Note to Georges St-Pierre: Matt Hughes was not impressed with your performance at UFC 129. Not impressed one bit.

Hughes wrote on his personal website about the news of Osama bin Laden’s death and about UFC 129. Hughes wasn’t totally put off by the fight between GSP and welterweight title challenger Jake Shields.

“As for the GSP/Shields fight, I really believed GSP was going to tear Shields up,” said Hughes via his personal website. “The fight didn’t go like I thought it would at all. Let me tell everybody now, I like GSP, he’s a good guy and he’s somebody I wouldn’t mind sitting next to on a plane ride or at a supper table.

“So don’t think that I’m talking out of bitterness for the two losses, I’m speaking through experienced eyes that have been in these situations. GSP actually looked worse in this fight than I’ve ever seen him before. I really feel like Georges fights not to lose, he just doesn’t fight to win anymore.”

Many people—fans and media included— have criticized GSP for his lackluster performance against Shields even with an injury to his eye. Hughes, though, thinks it’s all about the hunger of GSP that is leading to these poor performances.

“I like Georges, I like watching him fight, I wish there was some way I could help him to get that hunger back inside of him,” Hughes continued. “Georges has the potential of being so much better than what we’ve seen recently. If Jake had won one more round he would have won the fight, based on how the judges scored it. So an interesting fight and a little disappointing at being the last fight of the night.”

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