At UFC 92, Frank Mir shocked the world by dominating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and becoming the first man to stop him with strikes. He has since secured a submission victory over Kongo, a knockout over Mirko Cro Cop and a dominant decision over Ro…
At UFC 92, Frank Mir shocked the world by dominating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and becoming the first man to stop him with strikes. He has since secured a submission victory over Kongo, a knockout over Mirko Cro Cop and a dominant decision over Roy Nelson.
Three years later, after numerous surgeries and rehabilitation, Nogueira pushed himself back into the heavyweight picture with an impressive first-round knockout of Brendan Schaub, earning himself a rematch with the first fighter to finish him.
Nogueira will be looking to prove to the world that defeating Schaub was a sign of things to come, and that, when healthy, he can beat any heavyweight on the planet.
Mir will be looking to prove that he was, and still is, a better fighter than Nogueira, and will look to make a statement.
In the main event of the evening, Mark Munoz continued his rise by defeating Chris Leben.Two competitive rounds of Munoz’s intermittent ground and pound resulted in enough damage to Leben’s face for his corner to call a stoppage.It is likely that Munoz…
In the main event of the evening, Mark Munoz continued his rise by defeating Chris Leben.
Two competitive rounds of Munoz’s intermittent ground and pound resulted in enough damage to Leben’s face for his corner to call a stoppage.
It is likely that Munoz’s next opponent will be the winner of Miller vs. Bisping. Munoz thinks he’s already proven himself though, and said he’s ready for the champion, Anderson Silva.
While Munoz did come out with the win over a dangerous opponent, nothing about his win indicated he was ready for the champion, or even the top five of the division.
Munoz’s greatest strength is his ground and pound. However, he doesn’t have the elite MMA wrestling to go along with it.
There’s no denying how impressive his pure wrestling is. He is easily one of the most credentialed college wrestlers to ever try his hand at MMA.
But his MMA wrestling simple isn’t as good. This was made abundantly clear in his loss to Yushin Okami. He succeeded in only 1-of-15 takedown attempts and did no damage on his successful takedown.
He would later be outwrestled by C.B. Dollaway before securing an impressive knockout victory, and landed less than half of his takedown attempts on Maia.
Even against Leben, Munoz was often able to get back to his feet without much damage. He even took down Munoz a few times.
If his standup were good enough to beat those enemies whom he couldn’t take down, then would still be a threat to top middleweights.
However, this simply isn’t the case.
In between stopping the vast majority of Munoz’s takedown attempts, Okami bested Munoz on the feet. Munoz would later arguably be outstruck by Maia.
Both Maia and Okami are unspectacular strikers. Maia has been improving, and his performance against Munoz was his best display, but historically his striking has been poor and his striking didn’t look too sharp against Santiago.
Ultimately, there is no top-five middleweight that Munoz has a huge striking advantage or huge grappling advantage over.
There’s no reason to believe Munoz would grapple much better against Okami if the two fought again. And if Okami could best Munoz, it should be easy to imagine what Sonnen could do to him.
And given his performances over Maia and Okami, it’s easy to imagine what Belfort, Stann and Silva could do to Munoz. While he’d have a wrestling advantage over those three, it wouldn’t be big enough to compensate for his huge striking disadvantage.
Munoz is an average striker and an above average wrestler, and he will probably continue to find some success before being pushed for a title shot. But in a division whose upper echelon has some of the best grapplers and greatest strikers in the sport, Munoz falls short.
At UFC 137, BJ Penn and Nick Diaz faced off in a battle of elite welterweights. In one of the most exciting fights in recent memory, Diaz came back from losing the first round by giving Penn the beating of his life en route to a decision victory….
At UFC 137, BJ Penn and Nick Diaz faced off in a battle of elite welterweights. In one of the most exciting fights in recent memory, Diaz came back from losing the first round by giving Penn the beating of his life en route to a decision victory.
Diaz will be getting the next title shot, reclaiming the shot he lost when he was demoted to co-main event for missing some pre-fight press conferences.
Condit is probably next in line after Georges St. Pierre.
Fitch and Ellenberger are also very close to a title shot. A little further, but not too far off, are Anthony Johnson and Rory MacDonald.
The division is stacked with talent, and GSP will be busy for a while.
I’ve decided to rank GSP’s most threatening potential future challengers, how those challengers would beat him and vice versa.
UFC 137 may have lost its main event, but don’t be fooled. While the card may have lost name power, it has not lost in excitement. BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will serve as the main event in a fight that simply can’t be unexciting.There will also be tw…
UFC 137 may have lost its main event, but don’t be fooled. While the card may have lost name power, it has not lost in excitement. BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will serve as the main event in a fight that simply can’t be unexciting.
There will also be two exciting heavyweight matchups. Matt Mittrione steps up in competition and gets to test his skills against Cheick Kongo. Mirko Cro Cop may well be fighting his last fight against Roy Nelson.
The night also features the debut of Hatsu Hioki, the most highly-ranked featherweight outside the UFC. He’ll be greeted by George Roop. Not to mention the bantamweight bout between Jeff Curran and Scott Jorgensen.
BJ Penn has recently said that there’s no reason he can’t be the welterweight champion, and is trying to work himself back up the welterweight ladder. He re-entered the division by knocking out Hughes in the first round and fighting to a draw with Jon …
BJ Penn has recently said that there’s no reason he can’t be the welterweight champion, and is trying to work himself back up the welterweight ladder. He re-entered the division by knocking out Hughes in the first round and fighting to a draw with Jon Fitch. If he beats Nick Diaz, he’ll be one step closer to a title fight.
Some people probably wouldn’t be interested in seeing GSP vs. Penn III, since history suggests that GSP would dominate Penn like he did in their last outing. But Penn is still one of the strongest fighters in the division. He is a superb striker with great takedown defense who is a bigger threat off his back than most. If Penn beats Diaz and his next opponent persuasively, it is very likely that GSP vs. Penn III could be a reality. Here are three potential fights for BJ Penn after beating Nick Diaz.
George St.Pierre is one of the best fighters in MMA today. He has defended his welterweight title six times since taking it back from Matt Serra, and has outclassed all of his opponents to date.However, one thing he has been either unable or unwilling …
George St.Pierre is one of the best fighters in MMA today. He has defended his welterweight title six times since taking it back from Matt Serra, and has outclassed all of his opponents to date.
However, one thing he has been either unable or unwilling to do is finish his opponents.
Some people argue that Matt Serra destroyed GSP’s psyche when he finished him with strikes in their first outing, but I don’t think that’s true. GSP followed that loss by defeating Koscheck, submitting Hughes and dominating Serra en route to a TKO victory.
His first few title defenses also showed his finishing power. While he couldn’t finish Fitch, he rocked him multiple times and left his face a bloody mess. He put a similar beating on Penn, whose corner ended the bout going into the fifth round.
However, as his championship has worn on he has started fighting much more safely. That much is undeniable.
With each title fight he appears to put less effort into finishing his opponents. Alves has a poor ground game, but GSP didn’t fish for submissions, he just methodically pounded on him.
GSP passed Hardy a few times and went for submissions, but he was largely content with doing average ground-and-pound from Hardy’s guard.
Against Koscheck and Shields he made incredibly little effort to finish. He threw almost exclusively jabs against Koscheck, and wouldn’t pursue Shields on the ground after rocking him.
But he’ll reverse his current trend when he fights Carlos Condit at UFC 137 for a few reasons.
For starters, Condit never stops attacking.
In his losing battle to Jake Shields, he continuously landed blows from the bottom while simultaneously looking for submissions. Shields ultimately got the better of him, but Condit didn’t make it easy.
GSP hasn’t fought someone as active as Condit on the ground. GSP is the higher-ranked and overall better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, but it still wouldn’t be wise to flirt with Condit’s guard for five rounds.
Once down, it would be advisable for him to pass with the explosiveness and frequency, and try to land powerful bombs from the top position while fishing for submissions of his own.
On his feet, Condit is extremely aggressive and dynamic. The jab alone won’t be enough to deal with Condit. GSP will have to use his kicks, knees and combinations to punish Condit for leaving himself exposed in his aggressive attack.
GSP always says he’ll go for finishes, and going into his fights I think he means it. But once he gets in the cage he finds it too easy to win without taking risks.
However, Condit isn’t weak anywhere. He won’t put up the lackluster fight Koscheck and Shields put up on their feet or the weak fight that Hardy and Alves had on the ground.
He’ll push GSP, and GSP will push back, and leave the octagon with his first finish since his second title defense.
In the main event of the evening, Mark Munoz continued his rise by defeating Chris Leben.