Tag: Antonio Silva

MMA Top 10 Heavyweights: Alistair Overeem Moves to No. 2

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Alistair Overeem defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of UFC 141.Alistair Overeem has been a wrecking machine for the last few years, winning eight straight MMA fights and five straight kickboxing fights without really even being threatened. Overeem doesn’t just win, he wins in dominant fashion.

So after his most recent dominant win, over Brock Lesnar at UFC 141, Overeem has climbed another rung up the ladder of our heavyweight rankings, moving into the No. 2 position, behind only UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Overeem: How will he react to fighting dos Santos, an opponent who hits just as hard as he does? How would he do if a good wrestler put him on his back? Does he have a good enough gas tank to last deep into a five-round title fight?

But what we do know about Overeem is that he has just concluded a 2011 in which he beat Fabricio Werdum and Brock Lesnar. Among heavyweights, only dos Santos beat better opponents than that last year, and only dos Santos ranks ahead of Overeem in our newest Top 10, after the jump.

Top 10 heavyweights in mixed martial arts
 (Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)
1. Junior dos Santos (1): As great a striker as Overeem is, I favor dos Santos in their eventual heavyweight title fight because I think dos Santos will prove to be quicker to the punch and capable of out-landing Overeem. I don’t think Overeem is the man to take the title from dos Santos.

2. Alistair Overeem (3): The last time Overeem lost an MMA fight, it was to Sergei Kharitonov in 2007. Overeem is a completely different fighter now than he was then — physically he has undergone a transformation that has seen him put on about 30 pounds of muscle, and he’s a much more effective striker now. It’s remarkable how far Overeem has come.


3. Cain Velasquez (2): Although dos Santos quickly dispatched Velasquez in their November fight, Velasquez has the combination of wrestling pedigree, athletic ability and heavy hands that makes him a threat to take the title back from dos Santos, something I could easily see him doing in the coming year.

4. Frank Mir (8): After getting knocked around by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira early in their fight, Mir did a great job of holding on, waiting for his opportunity and finding the winning submission. A fight with Velasquez next would make a lot of sense for Mir, and if he wins that he’d be next in line for a title shot.

5. Fabricio Werdum (5): Werdum will make his UFC debut against Roy Nelson at UFC 143, in a fight I expect him to dominate. Werdum is better in every phase of the sport than Nelson.

6. Daniel Cormier (6): Cormier will fight Josh Barnett, likely in the spring of 2012, in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix final. Barnett will be Cormier’s toughest test to date, but I expect Cormier to pass that test with flying colors.

7. Brock Lesnar (4): If Lesnar is really retired I’ll remove him from the heavyweight rankings, but I’ll keep ranking him for now while we see if he changes his mind. It would be easy to view Lesnar’s MMA career as a disappointment considering how his losses to Overeem and Velasquez went down, but it was a lot of fun to watch this incredible physical specimen could dominate good opponents like Heath Herring, Randy Couture and Frank Mir, and I’ll never forget the heart he showed in his comeback victory over Shane Carwin. He’s been great for the sport.

8. Shane Carwin (7): Back injuries have taken a toll on Carwin’s career. He’s expected to return in mid-2012, but athletes in their late-30s with bad backs don’t often return to top form.

9. Josh Barnett (9): Barnett has a huge opportunity to show against Cormier that he still deserves to be considered among the truly elite heavyweights in the world — which he always was until his third failed drug test made him persona non grata in American MMA. Although the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix hasn’t gone quite as planned, the Barnett-Cormier final is a great, great matchup.

10. Antonio Silva (10): Bigfoot has been inactive since his knockout loss to Cormier, but he should be a great addition to the UFC heavyweight division. He’s currently recovering from shoulder surgery, and if the timing works out it would make a lot of sense to have him make his UFC debut against Carwin.

 

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Alistair Overeem defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of UFC 141.Alistair Overeem has been a wrecking machine for the last few years, winning eight straight MMA fights and five straight kickboxing fights without really even being threatened. Overeem doesn’t just win, he wins in dominant fashion.

So after his most recent dominant win, over Brock Lesnar at UFC 141, Overeem has climbed another rung up the ladder of our heavyweight rankings, moving into the No. 2 position, behind only UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Overeem: How will he react to fighting dos Santos, an opponent who hits just as hard as he does? How would he do if a good wrestler put him on his back? Does he have a good enough gas tank to last deep into a five-round title fight?

But what we do know about Overeem is that he has just concluded a 2011 in which he beat Fabricio Werdum and Brock Lesnar. Among heavyweights, only dos Santos beat better opponents than that last year, and only dos Santos ranks ahead of Overeem in our newest Top 10, after the jump.

Top 10 heavyweights in mixed martial arts
 (Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)
1. Junior dos Santos (1): As great a striker as Overeem is, I favor dos Santos in their eventual heavyweight title fight because I think dos Santos will prove to be quicker to the punch and capable of out-landing Overeem. I don’t think Overeem is the man to take the title from dos Santos.

2. Alistair Overeem (3): The last time Overeem lost an MMA fight, it was to Sergei Kharitonov in 2007. Overeem is a completely different fighter now than he was then — physically he has undergone a transformation that has seen him put on about 30 pounds of muscle, and he’s a much more effective striker now. It’s remarkable how far Overeem has come.


3. Cain Velasquez (2): Although dos Santos quickly dispatched Velasquez in their November fight, Velasquez has the combination of wrestling pedigree, athletic ability and heavy hands that makes him a threat to take the title back from dos Santos, something I could easily see him doing in the coming year.

4. Frank Mir (8): After getting knocked around by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira early in their fight, Mir did a great job of holding on, waiting for his opportunity and finding the winning submission. A fight with Velasquez next would make a lot of sense for Mir, and if he wins that he’d be next in line for a title shot.

5. Fabricio Werdum (5): Werdum will make his UFC debut against Roy Nelson at UFC 143, in a fight I expect him to dominate. Werdum is better in every phase of the sport than Nelson.

6. Daniel Cormier (6): Cormier will fight Josh Barnett, likely in the spring of 2012, in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix final. Barnett will be Cormier’s toughest test to date, but I expect Cormier to pass that test with flying colors.

7. Brock Lesnar (4): If Lesnar is really retired I’ll remove him from the heavyweight rankings, but I’ll keep ranking him for now while we see if he changes his mind. It would be easy to view Lesnar’s MMA career as a disappointment considering how his losses to Overeem and Velasquez went down, but it was a lot of fun to watch this incredible physical specimen could dominate good opponents like Heath Herring, Randy Couture and Frank Mir, and I’ll never forget the heart he showed in his comeback victory over Shane Carwin. He’s been great for the sport.

8. Shane Carwin (7): Back injuries have taken a toll on Carwin’s career. He’s expected to return in mid-2012, but athletes in their late-30s with bad backs don’t often return to top form.

9. Josh Barnett (9): Barnett has a huge opportunity to show against Cormier that he still deserves to be considered among the truly elite heavyweights in the world — which he always was until his third failed drug test made him persona non grata in American MMA. Although the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix hasn’t gone quite as planned, the Barnett-Cormier final is a great, great matchup.

10. Antonio Silva (10): Bigfoot has been inactive since his knockout loss to Cormier, but he should be a great addition to the UFC heavyweight division. He’s currently recovering from shoulder surgery, and if the timing works out it would make a lot of sense to have him make his UFC debut against Carwin.

 

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MMA Top 10 Heavyweights: Junior Dos Santos Moves to the Top

Filed under: UFC, Rankings, HeavyweightsJunior Dos Santos has had a rather amazing UFC career. Signed to make his debut against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, Dos Santos was such a big underdog that some people suggested he was only brought to the UFC beca…

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Junior dos Santos celebrates after his win at UFC on FOX.Junior Dos Santos has had a rather amazing UFC career. Signed to make his debut against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 90, Dos Santos was such a big underdog that some people suggested he was only brought to the UFC because it would give Werdum an easy win on his way to a heavyweight title shot. Instead, Dos Santos knocked Werdum out in the first round, beginning a UFC run that would lead to him taking the heavyweight belt from Cain Velasquez on Saturday night.

There’s nothing the least bit fancy about what Dos Santos does: He just hits the other guy really, really hard. Dos Santos is 8-0 in the UFC, and he finished six of his opponents with punches, while winning the other two fights by lopsided unanimous decision, battering those two opponents with punches for 15 minutes each. And yet even though everyone who steps into the Octagon with Dos Santos knows what’s coming, no one can do anything about it.

Dos Santos has never had an easy opponent: Between Werdum and Velasquez his victims were Stefan Struve, Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel, Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin. And yet Dos Santos always makes it look easy.

So there’s little doubt that Dos Santos is at the top of our heavyweight rankings. For the rest of the rankings, see below.

Top 10 heavyweights in mixed martial arts
(Editor’s note: The individual fighter’s ranking the last time we did heavyweights are in parentheses.)

1. Junior Dos Santos (2): The biggest question for the UFC’s bottom line is how many of the new viewers who tuned in to see the fight on Saturday night are now Dos Santos fans who will pay to watch him again. Dos Santos isn’t a proven pay-per-view draw yet, but he’s an appealing and likable fighter who has just reached by far his biggest audience yet.

2. Cain Velasquez (1): I firmly believe that Velasquez will be back. Velasquez has too much talent and too much work ethic not to be fighting for the heavyweight title again some day in the future.

3. Alistair Overeem (3): I think Overeem would represent the most interesting possible opponent for Dos Santos. Overeem is the one fighter in the heavyweight division who might actually be a better striker than Dos Santos, and if Overeem can beat Brock Lesnar on December 30, then some time in 2012 we’ll see Overeem and Dos Santos go at it.

4. Brock Lesnar (4): Lesnar was articulate and engaging in his commentary role on the UFC on Fox broadcast, and seeing him again was a reminder of just how important a star he’s become to the UFC. His fight with Overeem will likely be the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw of 2011, and if he wins that fight his bout with Dos Santos would likely be the UFC’s biggest pay-per-view draw of 2012.

5. Fabricio Werdum (5): In the last four years Werdum’s only losses have been to Dos Santos and Overeem, while he’s had impressive victories over Gabriel Gonzaga, Brandon Vera, Mike Kyle, Antonio Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Werdum fights high-level opponents and usually comes out on top, and I’m excited about the prospects of seeing him back in the UFC soon.

6. Daniel Cormier (6): The 9-0 Cormier has hardly even been tested so far in his MMA career, including a dominant first-round knockout victory over Antonio Silva in September. He’s set to face Josh Barnett in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix final, and if he wins that fight, the logical next step would be a shot at the UFC heavyweight title.

7. Shane Carwin (7): Carwin has lost back-to-back fights to Lesnar and Dos Santos, and his bad back is expected to keep him out for several more months, so he may drop in the heavyweight rankings soon.

8. Frank Mir (8): Mir has won two in a row since being knocked out by Carwin a year and a half ago, and in December he’ll try to make it three straight wins with a rematch against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. If Mir wins that one, he’d make a lot of sense as the next opponent for Velasquez.

9. Josh Barnett (9): Although UFC President Dana White has badmouthed Barnett many times, there’s little doubt that he’ll be welcomed back to the UFC if he beats Cormier to win the Strikeforce tournament.

10. Antonio Silva (10): Bigfoot’s future is a bit murky because the future is murky for everyone who’s still on the Strikeforce side of the Zuffa roster. But in the UFC there are a lot of very interesting fights for Silva. A UFC debut against the loser over the Overeem-Lesnar bout would be a huge heavyweight fight to make in 2012.

 

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Gilbert Melendez and the Strikeforce Fighters That the UFC Should Sign

Ever since UFC President Dana White told the fans that Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez would be heading to the UFC “as soon as possible,” everyone has been gushing over the possible super fights that could result. White has also …

Ever since UFC President Dana White told the fans that Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez would be heading to the UFC “as soon as possible,” everyone has been gushing over the possible super fights that could result. 

White has also expressed interest in reacquiring the services of BJJ specialist Fabricio Werdum. Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix finalist Daniel Cormier said he is waiting on his call from the UFC as well.  

What Strikeforce fighters need to be brought into the premiere Zuffa organization for the good of the sport? 

Here’s five fighters that need to make their way into the Octagon by early 2012 at the latest.  

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UFC: Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva Could Soon Be in the UFC Heavyweight Division

Antonio Silva may have been knocked out by Daniel Cormier last month in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, but we may soon find him fighting for the UFC.Silva—like much of the big names in Strikeforce—could soon find himself with forme…

Antonio Silva may have been knocked out by Daniel Cormier last month in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, but we may soon find him fighting for the UFC.

Silva—like much of the big names in Strikeforce—could soon find himself with former Strikeforce heavyweight champion, Alistair Overeem, in the UFC. 

“He has a contract with Strikeforce, but Strikeforce is now controlled by the UFC and we’re watching Strikeforce fighters going to the UFC all the time,” Silva’s manager Alex Davis told TATAME.

“UFC’s heavyweight division is big, but they could have even more, and I’m sure Bigfoot will be in the UFC real soon,” said Davis.

Silva would join some big names in the UFC and would look to to once again climb up the heavyweight rankings.

Silva holds notable career wins over Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski and Mike Kyle.

Davis said nothing is written in stone yet and that he hopes his client will one day step foot inside a UFC cage.

“There’s a lot of great fights for him inside the octagon, and he’ll shine there,” Davis said.

On top of Overeem, Silva would join Strikeforce names like Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Nick Diaz and Dan Henderson if he were to join the UFC.

 

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With Hand in Cast for Two Months, Daniel Cormier Faces ‘Worst-Case Scenario’

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Daniel CormierDaniel Cormier knew his right hand was broken almost as soon as it connected with Antonio Silva‘s head, but it took a while for the pain to set in.

“It was just the adrenaline,” he told MMA Fighting this week. “I was on such a high.”

Maybe that explains why Cormier kept hitting Silva with his broken hand throughout the first round of their Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal bout, and why he thinks it was lucky for him that the fight ended in the first round.

As Cormier explained, “If we’d have fought 15 minutes, I’d have kept throwing that thing all 15 minutes.”

It was only when the Strikeforce heavyweight and former Olympic wrestler woke up on Sunday morning that the pain really set in. Then he knew it was almost certainly broken, and a trip to the doctor back home confirmed his suspicion.

On Friday, Cormier’s hand goes into a cast for the next six to eight weeks. During that time he plans to work on improving his kicks and his cardio, he said, but even when the cast comes off he doesn’t know how long it will be before he’s able to “start punching” and get back into full training and sparring mode.

It’s a difficult situation, since he doesn’t want to rush it and end up re-injuring himself. Then again, he knows Strikeforce wants to wrap up the Grand Prix in the first quarter of 2012, which means he needs to be ready to fight fellow finalist Josh Barnett by then or else risk being replaced.

“This is terrible for me, man,” Cormier said. “This is worst-case scenario. With when they want the fight to happen, and me being the kind of guy who wants to deliver those type of fights, to have an injury like this. The thing that makes it so difficult is, I think Josh is so good. I need to have a ten-week training camp to prepare for that fight, so this is worst-case scenario for me.”

As Cormier sat at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night, listening to Strikeforce’s Scott Coker saying that the organization “would consider another fight” if Cormier wasn’t available in time for the finals, he wasn’t terribly shocked, he said.

“I guess I was thinking that the show has to go on. I really do want to be a part of it. It means a lot to me, knowing I got this opportunity, and I saw that [Grand Prix] belt and I instantly wanted that belt. I want to be one of the champions in Strikeforce, because that’s where I started. It’s where I had my first fight. …But I can’t act that surprised, because I got my opportunity [to join the Grand Prix] for the same exact reason.”

The last time Cormier had an injury this serious was when he broke his arm wrestling in 2002. That healed faster than doctors expected, he said, so he’s “just hoping I have something in me that makes me heal fast so I can start training, and get the type of training camp I need to fight Josh.”

Cormier’s big concern is not just that he won’t be ready in time, he said. While Strikeforce hasn’t announced a date for the Grand Prix finals yet, he should be out his cast by mid-November and could be ready to start sparring at least by early 2012, if not sooner. But will that leave him enough time to get a full training camp in before he fights Barnett? And if not, what then?

“Everybody always tells me that I made big improvements from fight to fight to fight,” Cormier said. “Well, if I’m injured for two months, what if I don’t make that much of an improvement from my last fight to the fight with Josh? That’s why I say it’s worst-case. This is the fight where I have to make the most improvement just to be where I need to be to beat the guy.”

As Cormier sees it, “I have to win this fight.”

And yet, with his right hand in a cast for the next six to eight weeks, there isn’t a whole lot he can do at the moment to move himself closer to that goal. Maybe the best he can do now is wait and hope.

 

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Daniel CormierDaniel Cormier knew his right hand was broken almost as soon as it connected with Antonio Silva‘s head, but it took a while for the pain to set in.

“It was just the adrenaline,” he told MMA Fighting this week. “I was on such a high.”

Maybe that explains why Cormier kept hitting Silva with his broken hand throughout the first round of their Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinal bout, and why he thinks it was lucky for him that the fight ended in the first round.

As Cormier explained, “If we’d have fought 15 minutes, I’d have kept throwing that thing all 15 minutes.”


It was only when the Strikeforce heavyweight and former Olympic wrestler woke up on Sunday morning that the pain really set in. Then he knew it was almost certainly broken, and a trip to the doctor back home confirmed his suspicion.

On Friday, Cormier’s hand goes into a cast for the next six to eight weeks. During that time he plans to work on improving his kicks and his cardio, he said, but even when the cast comes off he doesn’t know how long it will be before he’s able to “start punching” and get back into full training and sparring mode.

It’s a difficult situation, since he doesn’t want to rush it and end up re-injuring himself. Then again, he knows Strikeforce wants to wrap up the Grand Prix in the first quarter of 2012, which means he needs to be ready to fight fellow finalist Josh Barnett by then or else risk being replaced.

“This is terrible for me, man,” Cormier said. “This is worst-case scenario. With when they want the fight to happen, and me being the kind of guy who wants to deliver those type of fights, to have an injury like this. The thing that makes it so difficult is, I think Josh is so good. I need to have a ten-week training camp to prepare for that fight, so this is worst-case scenario for me.”

As Cormier sat at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night, listening to Strikeforce’s Scott Coker saying that the organization “would consider another fight” if Cormier wasn’t available in time for the finals, he wasn’t terribly shocked, he said.

“I guess I was thinking that the show has to go on. I really do want to be a part of it. It means a lot to me, knowing I got this opportunity, and I saw that [Grand Prix] belt and I instantly wanted that belt. I want to be one of the champions in Strikeforce, because that’s where I started. It’s where I had my first fight. …But I can’t act that surprised, because I got my opportunity [to join the Grand Prix] for the same exact reason.”

The last time Cormier had an injury this serious was when he broke his arm wrestling in 2002. That healed faster than doctors expected, he said, so he’s “just hoping I have something in me that makes me heal fast so I can start training, and get the type of training camp I need to fight Josh.”

Cormier’s big concern is not just that he won’t be ready in time, he said. While Strikeforce hasn’t announced a date for the Grand Prix finals yet, he should be out his cast by mid-November and could be ready to start sparring at least by early 2012, if not sooner. But will that leave him enough time to get a full training camp in before he fights Barnett? And if not, what then?

“Everybody always tells me that I made big improvements from fight to fight to fight,” Cormier said. “Well, if I’m injured for two months, what if I don’t make that much of an improvement from my last fight to the fight with Josh? That’s why I say it’s worst-case. This is the fight where I have to make the most improvement just to be where I need to be to beat the guy.”

As Cormier sees it, “I have to win this fight.”

And yet, with his right hand in a cast for the next six to eight weeks, there isn’t a whole lot he can do at the moment to move himself closer to that goal. Maybe the best he can do now is wait and hope.

 

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Two Sheds Review: When Barnett and Cormier Advanced to Strikeforce’s WGP Finals

Having recently reviewed Strikeforce’s recent Challengers show, it’s now time to take a look at more recent events such as the semifinals of their Heavyweight World Grand Prix tournament, shown live in the early hours of this past Sunday mo…

Having recently reviewed Strikeforce’s recent Challengers show, it’s now time to take a look at more recent events such as the semifinals of their Heavyweight World Grand Prix tournament, shown live in the early hours of this past Sunday morning on primetime here in Britain.

The show began in the lightweight division as Grizzly Redwood tribute act Pat Healy went up against Maximo Blanco.

This proved to be an explosive, and at times controversial encounter. The two began by exchanging quick combinations before a leg sweep from Blanco sent Healy down.

But a few moments later when the fight was on the ground and Healy looked like he was going for a heel hook, Blanco connected with several kicks to Healy’s head, an illegal move under the unified rules.

Healy was checked over by the doctors and cleared to continue, while Blanco was docked a point for his infraction.

The break seemed to light a fire under Healy. From that moment on he took control of the fight, taking Blanco down, and going to work with the ground and pound as the first round came to an end.

He continued his good work into the second, countering Blanco’s superior speed with two more take downs, and after tying up one of Blanco’s arms, he locked in a rear-naked choke at the second attempt for the submission win.

It was up to light heavyweight for the next fight as King Mo Lawal faced Roger Gracie.

This one featured quite a lengthy feeling out period. In fact, it was so lengthy it wasted well into the third minute. They caught each other with the odd punch and kick, but apart from that nothing much happened.

That was until King Mo connected with a big right hand that dropped Gracie like the proverbial sack of spuds. Gracie looked out of it before he hit the ground, and the referee wisely stepped in to give Lawal the knockout win.

The only title fight of the show saw Luke Rockhold challenging Jacare Souza for the Middleweight title.

This has to be one of the most competitive fights I’ve seen this year. We were treated to five rounds of non-stop back and forth action, and it was a joy to behold.

Each man had their moments, and there were many of them, and while the majority of the pundits expected this to be a ground battle, this was mainly a striking affair. Both men got in their share of kicks and punches, with Rockhold in particular looking very impressive, and not looking like a man who’d been out of the game for nearly two years.

There were a few brief forays to the ground, but most of the grappling came in the form of clinches against the cage, and when the fight came to an end they both looked like they could go another five rounds.

With the fight going the distance it was left to the judges to decide the outcome, with Rockhold taking the unanimous title winning decision. A fantastic fight here.

Then it was on to the Heavyweight World Grand Prix semifinals, beginning with Antonio Silva against Alistair Overeem’s replacement Daniel Cormier.

To say that Cormier put in a great performance here would be an understatement. While everyone was expecting Bigfoot to take the win, it soon began to look like the replacement fighter hadn’t read the script.

As soon as his big right sent Silva down to the mat, the fight turned in his direction. The Brazilian was obviously hurt by the blow, and seemed annoyed when Cormier would score with a take down and refuse to follow him down, unwilling to play his game.

Moments later, a beautiful combination, which was ended with a right uppercut, sent Silva down once again. Two hammer fists followed, but by then it was all over as the referee stepped in to give Cormier the knockout win.

The second semifinal saw Josh Barnett taking on Sergei Kharitonov.

While the first semifinal was a great striking battle, this one saw some dominating ground work from Barnett. After exchanging a few combinations with Kharitonov, Barnett took the Russian down to the ground.

The former UFC champ dominated from there. Kharitonov seemed lost as Barnett went to work, and after Kharitonov turned over Barnett took his back, later moving to the side as Kharitonov rolled over so he could apply a head and arm choke for the submission win.

In conclusion, this was another quality show from Scott Coker and his crew. A quality undercard was highlighted by the remarkable Middleweight title fight between Souza and Rockhold, and both of the tournament semifinals delivered style wise, with Cormier’s knockout win over Silva the highlight of the night for me.

So once again Strikeforce’s recent offering gets the thumbs up. It’s a shame that we’ll have to wait until sometime next year for the tournament finals though!

Don’t forget to check out my website at twoshedsreview.blogspot.com. Hopefully my nephew will finish the new banner soon!

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