Robbie Lawler Admits to Relying on KO Power “Too Much”

If you didn’t have a chance to catch last night’s Strikeforce card in L.A., well, your life will continue, naturally, but it’s just a tad incomplete. Okay, maybe not as incomplete if you were to miss Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, but still, you should do some rectifying pronto…The card had some damn entertaining fights […]

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If you didn’t have a chance to catch last night’s Strikeforce card in L.A., well, your life will continue, naturally, but it’s just a tad incomplete. Okay, maybe not as incomplete if you were to miss Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin, but still, you should do some rectifying pronto…The card had some damn entertaining fights and the main event tilt between Robbie Lawler and Renato “Babalu” Sobral certainly didn’t disappoint.

Now anyone that has followed the career of Lawler, knows that he’s pretty skilled at crumpling dudes into unconscious piles of humanity with just one punch. Lawler was getting brutalized by Melvin Manhoef in his last fight, until, well, see above. In his bout with Sobral last night, Lawler never managed to land one of his trademark punches, and afterwards,  the HIT Squad fighter conceded that perhaps he was looking for the home run shot too much (thanks to Sherdog for the quote).

“I thought I was going to knock him out — plain and simple,” said Lawler. “It was inevitable that (I was going to) put my hands on him and knock out him out and it just never happened… When you can knock people out, sometimes you rely on that a little too much, I think.”

Although Sobral’s face looked like it had been caught under a rugby scrum, the UFC vet landed plenty of kicks and punches to the body of Lawler and probably had the edge in cage control. In other words, if Lawler had scored more often, things would have been different. To read more of Lawler’s thoughts on the fight head here.

Keith Jardine Planning to Use “Own Style” vs. Matt Hamill

It wasn’t too long ago that Keith Jardine was viewed by most as a legitimate contender in the light-heavyweight division. Now although his career hit a major hiccup courtesy Houston Alexander’s right hand in May, 2007, after Jardine speed bagged Forrest Griffin at UFC 66, the Greg Jackson fighter went on to beat Chuck Liddell […]

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It wasn’t too long ago that Keith Jardine was viewed by most as a legitimate contender in the light-heavyweight division. Now although his career hit a major hiccup courtesy Houston Alexander’s right hand in May, 2007, after Jardine speed bagged Forrest Griffin at UFC 66, the Greg Jackson fighter went on to beat Chuck Liddell by Split Decision at UFC 76. Lots of people were talking “Dean of Mean” for understandable reasons.

Since then, however, Jardine hasn’t had much success; aside from a decision win over Brandon Vera in October, 2008, the former TUF competitor has lost four out of five fights, three times by KO. So what the hell has gone wrong you may ask? Well, according to Jardine, his recent troubles may be due to the fact that he’s gotten away from the WTF? Hands down, chin tauntingly out approach, he used to employ (thanks to Sherdog.com for the quote).

“I don’t want to get too philosophical, but I went through a phase of really trying to polish up my boxing — keep my hands up all the time. Just being a real polished boxer, that’s not me,” he said. “But it’s good, I learned a lot of stuff. Now it’s about trying to bring that together with my own style… and just have fun and loosen up and relax a little bit.”

Not something you hear everyday…but, whatever works right? Of course on Saturday night, Jardine will square off with Matt Hamill, in a bout that could determine whether or not Jardine remains on the UFC roster. We’ll be watching. To bet on the fight head here.

Paulo Thiago Concedes Poor Performance at UFC 115

You may or may not have been surprised by many of the outcomes at last weekend’s UFC;  we’re fans of Chuck Liddell,  but let’s face it, if you were really super-duper-shocked to see him get knocked out again, well, we’re guessing you make an X with your arms anytime you do something cool…
One of the more surprising performances on […]

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You may or may not have been surprised by many of the outcomes at last weekend’s UFC;  we’re fans of Chuck Liddell,  but let’s face it, if you were really super-duper-shocked to see him get knocked out again, well, we’re guessing you make an X with your arms anytime you do something cool…

One of the more surprising performances on the card was Martin Kampmann’s UD win over Paulo Thiago, not necessarily because the Danish welterweight won, but how he won. Everyone should know that Kampmann’s no slouch on the ground, but really, to see him walk over a BJJ black belt like Thiago on the mat was pretty impressive no?

For Thiago, the loss was a definite setback, especially coming off his memorable ‘holy eff that was nice’ choke-out of Mike Swick in February. In a recent interview with the Brazilian publication Tatame, it sounds like Thiago is understandably disappointed with how things played out at UFC 115.

“I didn’t fought well at all, man. I couldn’t do it, I froze… I went forward on the beginning of the fight, but then I got stuck there. I don’t know what happened, but I couldn’t play my game and he won”, said Thiago. “I couldn’t make my game plan… Maybe I could have done better, but I didn’t. Now I have to study this fight, try to see my mistakes, improve my mental state and make it up with myself”.

It will be interesting to see who the UFC matches up against Thiago next and how he performs. As far as Kampmann, he reportedly wants a bout with Dan Hardy. Yes, that would be most satisfactory indeed.

Report: Chael Sonnen Withdraws from Oregon State Senate Race

Any regular reader of MMA Fix knows that we’ve taken great steps (not really, as nothing we’ve ever done could be categorized as ‘’great’) to cover Chael Sonnen’s amazing gift for entertaining / infuriating gab. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s about to fight middleweight champ Anderson Silva, so naturally, that many more microphones […]

chael sonnen

Any regular reader of MMA Fix knows that we’ve taken great steps (not really, as nothing we’ve ever done could be categorized as ‘’great’) to cover Chael Sonnen’s amazing gift for entertaining / infuriating gab. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s about to fight middleweight champ Anderson Silva, so naturally, that many more microphones have been heading his way.

Now, like him or hate him, Sonnen has been involved in a wee bit of controversy lately, due to the fact that a writer from the Huffington Post, didn’t exactly care for a ‘tweet’’ that appeared on what was believed to be the wrestler’s Twitter account (calling the comments, which were directed at Silva’s manager Ed Soares, “racist and xenophobic”). Sonnen was running for the Oregon State Senate, and although there seems to be quite a bit of evidence to the contrary, the fighter and his campaign announced soon after that the Twitter account was a fake.

Well, Fight Magazine is reporting today that Sonnen has withdrawn from the senate race, and no, it apparently has nothing to do with ‘Tweetgate.’ According to the story, which includes a statement from Sonnen himself, he has dropped out of the race due to “a real estate case that requires a ruling. If the ruling is adverse, I would be disqualified from running for office until 2011” (In addition to ‘ultimate fighting’, Sonnen is also a real estate agent).

Huh. Well, as Sonnen also conceded, looks like he’ll have plenty of time to prepare for his August 7th throw down with Silva now. Should be a good one.

Report: Thiago Alves Medically Cleared for UFC 117

If you’re having a bad day and are in need of some good news, MMA Junkie is reporting that Thiago Alves has been medically cleared to begin fighting again by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, and as a result, the punishing welterweight will face Jon Fitch at UFC 117, August 7th. Just a […]

alves kicking koscheck

If you’re having a bad day and are in need of some good news, MMA Junkie is reporting that Thiago Alves has been medically cleared to begin fighting again by the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, and as a result, the punishing welterweight will face Jon Fitch at UFC 117, August 7th. Just a refresher, in case your job entails inhaling computer duster hourly, Alves had been scheduled to fight Fitch at UFC 111, until pre-fight testing revealed an abnormality in his brain. The American Top Team fighter underwent successful surgery and is now free and clear to resume brutalizing dudes in the Octagon. The report from Junkie included this comment from the NJSACB’s Nick Lembo:

“Mr. Alves is medically cleared as of today to resume his career as a professional mixed martial artist in the UFC,” Lembo wrote in an email to MMAjunkie.com. “It is a pleasure to be able to clear Thiago and allow him to return to what he loves doing after all he has been through.”

Awesome. So, there you have it, Alves will finally get a chance to avenge his previous, 2006, TKO loss to Fitch. If you haven’t been keeping score, the only other guy to beat Alves since (over 8 fights which included bouts with Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck and Karo Parisyan) is Georges St. Pierre. The only dude to beat Fitch in 13 Octagon appearances is also GSP, so yeah, this fight is kind of a big deal.

Tim Kennedy Believes Speed Key to Win Over Trevor Prangley

With the MMA world still abuzz with speculation as to whether or not Chuck Liddell will finally call it quits, not to mention the daily drama / intrigue that always accompanies the UFC (perhaps you’re following Chael Sonnen’s recent memory lapses regarding his Twitter account), tomorrow’s Strikeforce card seems to have really been lost in […]

strikeforce

With the MMA world still abuzz with speculation as to whether or not Chuck Liddell will finally call it quits, not to mention the daily drama / intrigue that always accompanies the UFC (perhaps you’re following Chael Sonnen’s recent memory lapses regarding his Twitter account), tomorrow’s Strikeforce card seems to have really been lost in the shuffle. Perhaps, just mentioning it has caused you to say ‘oh shit that’s right, there’s a Strikeforce Wednesday.’

Now granted, you may not weep uncontrollably if you don’t have Showtime and can’t catch the card, but the headliner between Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Robbie Lawler definitely has the potential to be damn exciting, as does the Tim Kennedy vs. Trevor Prangley tilt. Prangley is a UFC vet that could give a lot of top middleweights a run for their money, while Kennedy continues to impress, with his only loss since 2001 coming against “Mayhem” Miller. In a recent interview with Fight Hype, the Army Ranger had this to say about facing Prangley tomorrow:

“He’s a great wrestler and he’s hard to take down and he has a great chin as well, but he’s slow. He’s slow on his feet and his footwork is not that great. I would like to pick him apart a whole bunch on the feet and finish him with an exciting knockout, like all the fans want to see.”

To read more about Kennedy’s thoughts on the bout head here. To wager a little casholla, head here.