Armchair Matchmaker: UFC 118 Edition

(There he goes again, trying to steal the victory. Photo courtesy of CageWriter)
Here’s what we know: Frank Edgar will make his next title defense against Gray Maynard, who routed Kenny Florian on Saturday night. Dana White is done with James Toney, …

Frank Edgar BJ Penn UFC 118 photos MMA
(There he goes again, trying to steal the victory. Photo courtesy of CageWriter)

Here’s what we know: Frank Edgar will make his next title defense against Gray Maynard, who routed Kenny Florian on Saturday night. Dana White is done with James Toney, even though James Toney might not be done with MMA. Nick Osipczak, John Salter, and Gabe Ruediger could very well be receiving "Dear John" letters from the UFC as we speak. As for UFC 118‘s other winners and losers, their fates are yet to be decided. But as usual, we have a few opinions on the subject…

BJ Penn: The Prodigy spent 2007-2009 destroying all the top talent in the UFC’s lightweight division, then looked completely uninspired in two consecutive fights against Frankie Edgar. Either Penn has fallen off his game dramatically or Edgar is just a terrible style matchup for him — and we won’t really know the answer until Penn’s next fight. What’s obvious is that lightweight has been Penn’s most effective weight class in general, and going back up to 170 would be a terrible idea, especially while Georges St. Pierre still rules the roost. The UFC should give Penn a rebound fight against a name opponent who’s a little further down the ladder, but will test BJ’s desire to fight. That’s right, folks, it’s time for BJ Penn vs. Takanori Gomi II. Gomi is born-again after starching Tyson Griffin; add in Gomi’s history with Penn, and you have a co-headliner that any pay-per-view card would be lucky to have.

read more

Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC 118

Filed under: UFCThe UFC’s grand James Toney experiment is over, according to Dana White. Whether it was a success or not depends on the hypothesis you started with, but unless you happen to be Toney or one of his hype men, chances are you saw this comi…

Filed under:

The UFC’s grand James Toney experiment is over, according to Dana White. Whether it was a success or not depends on the hypothesis you started with, but unless you happen to be Toney or one of his hype men, chances are you saw this coming.

But while this fight was undoubtedly a sideshow attraction from the very beginning, it did have some benefits. For one, it got some attention from the types of fans and media who might not otherwise have cared about this card. It seems a little doubtful that they all became instant converts upon seeing Gray Maynard lay on top of Kenny Florian, but who knows.

The important thing is that the opportunity to have a famous boxer compete on MMA’s biggest stage finally presented itself, then refused to stop presenting itself, then mumbled some absurd, semi-coherent threats at everyone within earshot, and then the UFC finally made it happen. Now that we’ve done it, let’s not do it again until we find someone willing to put in the work and take it seriously.

Now on to the big winners, losers, and everything in between from UFC 118.

Joe Lauzon, Nate Diaz, Marcus Davis Each Win $60,000 Bonus

Filed under: UFC, NewsJoe Lauzon, Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis each pocketed a $60,000 performance-based bonus at Saturday’s UFC 118 in Boston, Mass.

Lauzon, a Boston native, spoiled Gabe Ruediger’s return by dominating Ruediger before tapping him out w…

Filed under: ,

Joe Lauzon, Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis each pocketed a $60,000 performance-based bonus at Saturday’s UFC 118 in Boston, Mass.

Lauzon, a Boston native, spoiled Gabe Ruediger’s return by dominating Ruediger before tapping him out with an armbar. Lauzon won the Submission of the Night. Lauzon has now won a post-fight award in each of his last three fights and the armbar was Lauzon’s third career Submission of the Night.

Diaz and Davis threw down for nearly three rounds until Diaz rendered Davis unconscious with a choke. No stranger to post-fight awards, the two shared the honor for Fight of the Night. It was Diaz’s fourth and Davis’ third Fight of the Night award.

UFC 118 saw five submissions and five decisions — and no knockouts.

UFC 118: By the Odds

Filed under: UFCUFC 118 in Boston is just a few hours away, so in order to get a perspective on the action from the people who are paid to know winners from losers, let’s examine tonight’s main card betting odds.

With one new champ defending his tit…

Filed under:

UFC 118 in Boston is just a few hours away, so in order to get a perspective on the action from the people who are paid to know winners from losers, let’s examine tonight’s main card betting odds.

With one new champ defending his title against the man he took it from, and one boxing great crossing over into a brand new sport that he seems to only barely understand, you’d think there would be a vast difference in the odds on the two co-main event bouts. In reality, the two lines are more similar than you might think, and they favor neither the champ nor the big-mouthed boxer.

Let’s break it down below and see who the smart choices are at UFC 118.

Fighter vs. Writer: UFC 118 Predictions With Pat Miletich

Filed under: UFCIf you’ve heard MMA legend and former UFC champ Pat Miletich’s contributions to the Strikeforce: Challengers broadcasts or his analysis on ESPN’s “MMA Live,” then it won’t surprise you to know that Miletich had a lot of really insightfu…

Filed under:

If you’ve heard MMA legend and former UFC champ Pat Miletich‘s contributions to the Strikeforce: Challengers broadcasts or his analysis on ESPN’s “MMA Live,” then it won’t surprise you to know that Miletich had a lot of really insightful things to say when I called him to play Fighter vs. Writer for UFC 118.

So insightful, in fact, that it immediately made me wonder why I was dumb enough to choose Miletich to go up against, when I’m a dismal 1-4 in this series so far.

So the bad news is that I’m up against a superior MMA mind this week. The good news is that I got to hear Miletich break down the upcoming card, which includes one fight where “The Croatian Sensation” says there’s an epic beating in store for one of the interested parties. Can you guess who?

Yeah, you probably can. But you should still read all about how both Miletich and I see the main card playing out on Saturday night.

UFC 118 Card

Preliminary card * Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Amilcar Alves * Welterweight bout: Nick Osipczak vs Greg Soto * Middleweight bout: Dan Miller vs John Salter Preliminary card (Spike TV) * Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik Lentz * Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger Main card * Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus […]

Preliminary card

* Welterweight bout: Mike Pierce vs Amilcar Alves

* Welterweight bout: Nick Osipczak vs Greg Soto

* Middleweight bout: Dan Miller vs John Salter

Preliminary card (Spike TV)

* Lightweight bout: Andre Winner vs Nik Lentz

* Lightweight bout: Joe Lauzon vs Gabe Ruediger

Main card

* Welterweight bout: Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis

* Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs Gray Maynard

* Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda

* Heavyweight bout: Randy Couture vs James Toney

* Lightweight Championship bout: Frankie Edgar vs B.J. Penn