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Brock Lesnar Brings MMA to WWE

Brock Lesnar has officially returned to the WWE and has already created quite a commotion. With his return and feud with Cena that has been happening inside the ring, Lesnar is getting the big attention. Since leaving the UFC, MMA fans and wrestl…

Since leaving the UFC, MMA fans and wrestling fans alike are still curious about what is going on with him, and if Lesnar would be implementing more MMA moves into his wrestling routine.

It seemed in his last meeting with Cena, a double-leg takedown and some ground and pound works for him in a ring or a cage.

Now it seems Lesnar has gone one step further to make sure that his MMA legacy is not soon forgotten.

While his return to the WWE had him wearing his “Lesnar” muscle shirt, he has now apparently switched to a more familiar image.

Image of Lesnar’s New Outfit

Now Lesnar’s wrestling outfit will consist of his famous shorts from inside the Octagon. He now dons the red and black shorts, sponsored by Jack Links of course, but the biggest and most obvious change to his attire is the sporting of MMA gloves. While they are logo-less, they are still in the fingerless and black style of his MMA days.

Lesnar will not be competing barefoot, and is wearing wrestling boots, which is the only difference between what his attire was in the UFC minus a mouthguard and such.

A very interesting idea to have, but time will tell how fans of both MMA and the WWE will respond to this. WWE fans will probably welcome this new look and new feel of “realism” coming into the ring, but the MMA fans may see it in a different light.

While some will be intrigued and find it comical that he is wearing his MMA stuff, others might see it as a bad association with MMA.

While Pro Wrestling and MMA have been pretty much in sync and no major conflicts (aside from competitive PPV buys) there are still fans assumingly that do not wish to associate the UFC, which markets itself “As Real as it Gets” with the WWE, which is notorious for being scripted.

While some of these concerns may be merited, Lesnar’s new attire will surely bring out some discussion in regards to approval and disapproval from both organizations.

How do you feel about Lesnar’s new attire? Do you think it has ANY sort of impact on MMA/Wrestling? If so, in what ways?

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How Would Bellator Champions Fare in the UFC?

Season 6 of Bellator is in full swing, with tournaments beginning to take shape and championships switching hands. Out of all this, I got to wondering how well each champion would fare in the UFC.Currently, Bellator has seven weight class championships…

Season 6 of Bellator is in full swing, with tournaments beginning to take shape and championships switching hands. Out of all this, I got to wondering how well each champion would fare in the UFC.

Currently, Bellator has seven weight class championships, which is what the UFC has, minus the flyweight class.

Let’s examine how each champion would do.

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What Should Dana White Do with Gilbert Melendez?

There are many in the MMA fraternity who would call Gilbert Melendez the best lightweight in the world. But Melendez is not a happy man. Last week Strikeforce announced that he would defend his lightweight title against Josh Thomson…for the third tim…

There is some justification for the decision to pair the two again: Both are 1-1 in their previous encounters and a rubber match could decide the better fighter once and for all (P.S., it’s Melendez). However, the matchup also reflects the paucity of viable challengers for Melendez who now sits frustrated in an organisation struggling to contain his talents.

In an interview with MMA Junkie Radio last week, Melendez was philosophical.

“I was hoping for something better, for some top talent, and it didn’t work out,” he said of his third match against Thomson, adding he wanted, “Something to raise my stock.”

“You want to be the #1 guy, and right now, it seems like it’s put on hold for a minute… I’ve just got to have fun, do what I do, and stay focused on kicking butt.”

Last March when Zuffa bought Strikeforce, most assumed that Melendez would be quickly snapped up by the UFC, hot on the heels of fighters such as Nick Diaz. Melendez was coming off a first-round TKO victory over Tatsuya Kawajiri and was on a five-fight winning streak. But Dana White told him to wait.

At the time there were promises made to “El Nino” that Zuffa will make sure he has top-level opponents, perhaps some cross-over matches with UFC lightweights, but a year on, that hasn’t materialised.

After his win over Jorge Masvidal last December, Melendez was quick to vocalise his impatience with his paymasters.

“I’m proud to be a part of Strikeforce, and Showtime’s amazing,” Melendez said. “But you know what? They need to bring some guys over here to challenge me.”

Many names have been put forward—Anthony Pettis, B.J. Penn, Gray Maynard, Jim Miller—but none have materialised.

With notable wins over Clay Guida and Shinya Aoki, Melendez is clearly in a different league to the rest of the lightweight division in Strikeforce. His talents are being wasted and he knows it.

But Strikeforce has a contract with Showtime and Zuffa has to honour it. Just last December, Zuffa extended that contract until 2014. Melendez himself extended his own contract with Strikeforce on the back of promises of dream matchups. But Melendez is still left looking through the UFC shop window, with his nose pressed up against the glass, wondering what he has to do to get the challengers he deserves.

Much will depend on what Zuffa wants to do with Strikeforce. The UFC has already raided a slew of its talent, including its entire heavyweight division, and the promotion’s website right now is nothing but a landing page.

All this suggest that Zuffa is ready to wind down operations at Strikeforce which could mean, that over the next two years, there is unlikely to be a fresh injection of lightweight talent for Melendez to face. And that’s a waste of a talent.

#RallyForGilbertMelendez!

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Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans: 5 Bold Predictions for Title Bout

Fight fans love to see a contest when both opponents greatly appreciate and admire each other. This is not that fight. Even though fight experts have this pegged as a relatively easy win for the champion, this bout between Jon Jones and Rashad&nbs…

Fight fans love to see a contest when both opponents greatly appreciate and admire each other. This is not that fight.

Even though fight experts have this pegged as a relatively easy win for the champion, this bout between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will feature more than its fair share of surprises.

The war of words between Jones and Evans has been fast and furious, and some of the talk between these two could even make Muhammad Ali blush. Real or manufactured, the verbal battle has caught the attention of many fight fans, and when the two lock up for the Light Heavyweight Championship this Saturday, it will be must-see.

On paper, Jones has everything in his favor. Youth, size and reach are all huge advantages for the man they call “Bones,” but don’t make the mistake of discounting the skill level of Rashad Evans.

Evans is a legit wrestler with excellent takedowns and competent stand-up, and he should be Jones’ biggest challenge to date. Besides a sizzling rivalry finally coming to fruition, here are some of the surprising things to look for in this weekend’s showdown.

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UFC Ultimate Insider’s Counterpunch: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans (Part 2)

Before UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champion Rashad Evans face off inside the Octagon this weekend at UFC 145, the two former teammates face off in the second part of Counterpunch. The long-awaited grudge match will give Evans a …

The long-awaited grudge match will give Evans a second chance at winning a title, something that he has been waiting more than two years for. When he defeated Quinton Jackson at UFC 114, the title shot was on the line, but he decided to sit out and wait for then-champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to heal from injuries.

When Evans and Rua were scheduled to face each other at UFC 128, Evans got injured and was replaced by Jones. Jones would dominate Rua to become the youngest champion in UFC history and set up the match between himself and Evans.

After Jones suffered an injury that delayed the bout, Evans decided to fight anyway while waiting for Jones to heal up.

Evans has fought twice since the Jackson fight, defeating both Phil Davis and Tito Ortiz. His latest bout in January saw him win a dominant five-round decision against Davis.

Jones sealed off one of the most impressive years for any fighter when he took out former champions Jackson and Lyoto Machida after defeating Rua and Ryan Bader. He finished every one of them.

The pay-per-view event will be broadcast live from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga.

Other bouts on the card include Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills, Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell, Michael McDonald vs. Miguel Torres, Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin and Mark Bocek vs. John Alessio.

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‘Rally for Mark Hunt’ Final Thoughts: Sure Was Fun While It Lasted

I have impeccable timing. A few days ago I wrote about why I had decided to join the “Rally for Mark Hunt” movement. A day later, one single day later, it was reported that Dana White had effectively handed down a death sentence to the caus…

So now I’m putting up a post that is one-third response and two-thirds “it was fun while it lasted,” hence the name of the article. Three days later.

As I said: impeccable timing. Nevertheless, let’s begin.

Would it have been so bad if Hunt challenged for the UFC heavyweight championship? I don’t think so. If I go into specifics we’ll be here all day and we’ll skew far away from the good-natured intent of this post.

But just off the top of my head: Brock Lesnar, three-fight win streak, a vocal and passionate fan following, styles make fights, Frank Mir sucks against strikers, something something, Overeem cycles horse meat.

Feel free to debate any of those points at your leisure, I’ll more than likely join in on the conversation. But, for now, let’s move on to the core argument of this little blurb:

Sure was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?

Admit it: We like arguing. Sports fans argue, but MMA fans tend to take things to the next level. You know you secretly love it. I know I do.

And while some of the debate and some of the threads turned really nasty and hateful on both sides, for the most part I really enjoyed both reading and discussing the pros and cons of Hunt getting a shot at the UFC heavyweight championship.

Also, let’s not forget how, for the briefest of instances, a large section of the MMA world stood united under the “Rally for Mark Hunt” banner.

This extended way past just a bunch of fans trying to get their voice heard. Popular MMA Web sites featured prominent news stories covering the growing movement. Several pro fighters gave their thoughts (mostly of support) through Facebook and/or Twitter. Even NickTheFace, the be-all and end-all when it comes to UFC hype videos on YouTube, posted a “Rally For Mark Hunt” video.

So, yeah—it was a whole hell of a lot of fun while it lasted.

And I hope that’s what we all take away from this situation, in all honesty. Yes, I do think it sucks that White responded to such an interesting and engaging movement with one single sentence. Yes, I do think UFC fans should feel slighted that White more or less swept all this under the rug.

But even if we didn’t accomplish our goal of getting Hunt to replace Overeem, we still accomplished something important. Despite being some of the most polarizing, opinionated, argumentative fans in all of sports, for the briefest of moments we were united as one.

And I’m damn proud of that.

I hope you are, too. I don’t regret jumping on the “Rally For Mark Hunt” bandwagon. I can even laugh at myself and realize how funny it is that a day after I jump on the bandwagon and give my big rallying cry, we finally got our answer: a big, loud “not happenin’.”

But no regrets, so I’ll say it again: It sure was fun while it lasted.

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