If our past pleas to him are any indication, God pretty much lets this MMA stuff sort itself out without much interference. That’s not to say that The Fates don’t follow the sport, and they had front row seats for the prelims at last night’s Bellator 55 event.
If there’s ever a good time to showboat, it’s when you’re pretty much dominating your opponent. From that standpoint, Edgar Garcia‘s timing was impeccable. With the sounds of the opening bell still reverberating through the air, Jacob Ortiz was crouched low and looking for the takedown, but with his first few attempts stuffed before they even really got started, he had little option but to duke it out with the former UFC competitor and look for an opening. And so Ortiz circled away throughout the first round with awkward footwork and hands down around his waist, getting tagged in the exchanges and eating a score of brutal leg kicks. When he did finally get to uncork a big right to Garcia’s jaw, his opponent seemed unfazed, tapping his own chin and inviting more blows. As Garcia would soon learn, Karma doesn’t care for such bravado.
If our past pleas to him are any indication, God pretty much lets this MMA stuff sort itself out without much interference. That’s not to say that The Fates don’t follow the sport, and they had front row seats for the prelims at last night’s Bellator 55 event.
If there’s ever a good time to showboat, it’s when you’re pretty much dominating your opponent. From that standpoint, Edgar Garcia‘s timing was impeccable. With the sounds of the opening bell still reverberating through the air, Jacob Ortiz was crouched low and looking for the takedown, but with his first few attempts stuffed before they even really got started, he had little option but to duke it out with the former UFC competitor and look for an opening. And so Ortiz circled away throughout the first round with awkward footwork and hands down around his waist, getting tagged in the exchanges and eating a score of brutal leg kicks. When he did finally get to uncork a big right to Garcia’s jaw, his opponent seemed unfazed, tapping his own chin and inviting more blows. As Garcia would soon learn, Karma doesn’t care for such bravado.
After absorbing a few more solid leg kicks, Ortiz lunged in with a massive overhand right, connecting squarely on Garcia’s jaw. Whatever power may have been lacking in his earlier punch was clearly being saved for this one, as Garcia dropped face first to the canvas. Ortiz managed to rattle off a couple of follow-up shots for good measure before being dispatched by the referee. Not that further proof was needed, but this solidifies the theory that taunting your opponent before knocking him out is awesome for you, while taunting your opponent before getting knocked out is awesome for us.
(The end of Dustin Neace vs. Akira Corassani…OR WAS IT?? Gif props: IronForgesIron)
After Dustin Pague’s victory last week — which brought Team Mayhem up 4-0 on the scorecard, FYI — Dustin asks his team if they could do a quick “Glory to God” cheer, which Jason Miller actually participates in, even though he’s a die-hard atheist who usually loves to mess with religious people. That just shows what kind of coach Miller is. He let his fighter have his moment, and he didn’t even make Pague participate in a “Glory to Science” cheer afterwards.
As the fighters return to their prep-rooms, Diego Brandao is in Murderous Brazilian Mode (what else is new), and starts to yell at Steve Siler for some reason. “I’m gonna take you head off, bidge!”, etc. Michael Bisping explains that he’s unstable and just wants to fight. Fortunately, he’s in a welcoming environment for that sort of thing.
Mayhem gives Dustin Neace a cowboy hat with a B on it, which stands for “Beast,” his nickname. Josh Ferguson — previously known as “the dude in the cowboy hat” — lays down accusations of swagger-jackin’. (“Come on man, I got one thing going for me here, and you gotta rip it off?”) Oddly enough, Ferguson’s hat also has a ‘B’ on it, even though his nickname doesn’t start with that letter. Unless one of you knows its actual significance, I’m just going to assume it stands for “bumpkin.”
(The end of Dustin Neace vs. Akira Corassani…OR WAS IT?? Gif props: IronForgesIron)
After Dustin Pague’s victory last week — which brought Team Mayhem up 4-0 on the scorecard, FYI — Dustin asks his team if they could do a quick “Glory to God” cheer, which Jason Miller actually participates in, even though he’s a die-hard atheist who usually loves to mess with religious people. That just shows what kind of coach Miller is. He let his fighter have his moment, and he didn’t even make Pague participate in a “Glory to Science” cheer afterwards.
As the fighters return to their prep-rooms, Diego Brandao is in Murderous Brazilian Mode (what else is new), and starts to yell at Steve Siler for some reason. “I’m gonna take you head off, bidge!”, etc. Michael Bisping explains that he’s unstable and just wants to fight. Fortunately, he’s in a welcoming environment for that sort of thing.
Mayhem gives Dustin Neace a cowboy hat with a B on it, which stands for “Beast,” his nickname. Josh Ferguson — previously known as “the dude in the cowboy hat” — lays down accusations of swagger-jackin’. (“Come on man, I got one thing going for me here, and you gotta rip it off?”) Oddly enough, Ferguson’s hat also has a ‘B’ on it, even though his nickname doesn’t start with that letter. Unless one of you knows its actual significance, I’m just going to assume it stands for “bumpkin.”
Siler tells Mayhem that John Dodson has been the mole on their team, feeding the fight selections in advance to Team Bisping. Mayhem decides to use it to his advantage. The plan is to make Team Bisping think that he’s picking Siler vs. Brandao next, when he’ll really be picking another house-rivalry, Neace vs. Akira Corassani. “Akira’s gonna be fat, Dustin’s gonna be in shape, and Diego’s gonna be really pissed,” Miller explains.
Dodson takes the bait when he sees Siler act like he’s trying to cut weight for a fight. Meanwhile, Neace is cutting in secret, like a teenaged daughter of divorcing parents. Wow. I kind of feel bad for that one. Anyway, the plan works, and Team Bisping starts getting Diego ready for war.
Under the cover of darkness, Team Blue steals Neace’s cowboy hat in retaliation for his swagger-jackin’. Neace can’t find it later, assumes Akira is fucking with him again — even though it wasn’t Akira’s idea — and he’s like a race car in the red. He loads up a garbage bag full of garbage, and…I’m not sure what he intends to do with it. But back at the gym, he scatters Team Bisping’s gear all over their room, so there.
When he discovers the mess, Bisping thinks it was a team prank that Mayhem put his guys up to, and starts making wild, derogatory assumptions about the cleanliness of Miller’s house. Neace and Akira shout at each other for a while. Akira wants to fight him right then, bare-knuckle, in the garden (?). Neace responds in his usual style: “We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon. We’re going to fight soon.”
And yeah, they’re still running that Tiger Schulmann’s MMA commercial where Louis Gaudinot claims to be ranked #11 in the world. I think he meant “on this particular reality show.”
The fight selections are chaotic. Neace and Akira are at DEFCON 1, jawing at each other during the lineup. They’re so angry that they start ripping off famous Mike Tyson quotes. Dustin Neace (Miller’s #3 featherweight) vs. Akira Corassani (Bisping’s #2 featherweight) is made official for the next match. Akira immediately walks up on Neace and gives him some forehead to forehead contact. Neace reacts by shooting on him. The coaches have to jump in to separate the fighters, which leads to some shoving and shouting between Miller and Bisping.
John Dodson: “All this happened ‘cuz of me. Hey, shit happens.”
After the melee, the teams compose themselves and Miller announces next week’s fight, even though he hasn’t won this week’s fight yet. Maybe Bisping is just too pissed to care. But really, no matter who wins, it’s pretty much assumed that Steve Siler (Miller’s #4 featherweight) would be fighting Diego Brandao (Bisping’s #1 featherweight) anyway. And now it’s official. Brandao does wind up getting screwed a bit by Mayhem’s trickery; he already cut to 151 pounds, and now he has to wait a week to fight.
Mayhem confronts Dodson and explains that he caused a lot of issues with the team. And that’s pretty much it. There really aren’t any consequences, though you wonder how the rest of the team is going to treat him after this. And I mean his actual team, not Team Death Leprechaun.
Akira’s takedown offense is a little bit off, so Tiki Ghosn works with him on getting up off the mat. Good screen-time, Tiki!
Bisping no-shows the weigh-ins, just like he no-showed the fight-selections in last week’s episode. His fighters look pretty bummed about it. But hey, at least he hasn’t missed one of their fights yet. He finally shows up, lifting a big paper bag as explanation. It is never explained what’s inside the paper bag.
After the weigh-ins, the big ‘M’ that denotes Mayhem’s parking space is placed in the handicapped spot of the gym’s parking lot. Just wait, that will become very important later.
Neace says he won’t tap to a submission, but he might hold a choke a little longer. Akira wasn’t impressed with Neace’s double-leg at the fight-announcement. And here we go…
Round 1: Akira lands first with a leg kick, a hook, and a body kick. A spinning back kick misses, and Bisping scolds Akira for trying the fancy stuff. Neace scores with a leg kick, and another, but Akira returns some punches. Neace stalking. He whiffs a backfist and some follow-up punches, but lands a counter when Akira swings on an overhand right. Neace’s reverse kick is caught, and Akira dumps him on the mat. Akira enters his guard and throws down a big elbow. Neace tries to lock him down, but Akira sneaks in another nice punch. Neace looking for an arm. More punches from Akira. Neace grabs a heel hook and cranks it. Akira taps — I mean, very clearly, he taps — but Herb Dean doesn’t see it. So when Neace eases up, thinking the fight is over, Akira keeps fighting, and escapes to his feet. Team Miller shouts “HE TAPPED” in unison, but it’s too late now. Neace scores a takedown. Akira gets to his feet and lands a hook at the end.
Round 2: They trade hooks. Akira is on the move, attacking forward with punches, then clinching against fence. A short elbow from Akira, followed by some knees to Dustin’s legs. They separate. Both guys miss backfists. (Seriously guys, it’s enough already with that shit.) Neace goes to the body with a punch and a kick. Akira drops Neace with a punch, and throws down big shots at Neace against the fence. Akira stays on top, punching down, smothering Neace. Neace looks for a triangle, but can’t get it. He desperately tries to make something happen from his back in the round’s closing seconds, but Akira stays out of danger, keeps busy, and keeps his position.
Before the decision is even read, Akira goes over to Neace’s stool and basically does this to him. There’s another near-scuffle, and Miller (I think?) shoots water at Bisping. Keith Kizer has to step in and be an adult, telling Akira to get his shit together unless he wants to be suspended and kicked off the show. Akira Corassani def. Dustin Neace via majority decision, which implies that one judge gave the first round to Dustin on the basis of, you know, ending the fight.
And so, Akira scores the first win for Team Bisping, in the most bullshit way possible. But that’s life. Sometimes you win, sometimes a tow truck comes to drag your Mustang out of the handicapped spot.
I’ll never figure out how Kim Couture is still getting fights. She isn’t skilled. She isn’t exactly loved by the MMA community. And while you’ll get media attention for putting her on your fight card, it’s usually at the expense of having your good fighters ignored so that the inevitable freak show bout can receive extra criticism. Is any attention truly better than no attention?
Kim Couture fought Suzie Montero, a Muay Thai fighter who once fought Gina Carano, who was making her MMA debut. If this fight was a warm-up for Kim Couture’s planned transition to professional kickboxing, then perhaps Kim should train more. Or at least she should train with consenting sparring partners. Couture now drops to 3-6 in her MMA cash grab.
The saddest part is that W-1 MMA had some real news emerge from last night’s card. For starters, W-1 announced that it has agreed to terms with UFC veteran and TUF Season 2 winner Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. While details are still unclear, Stevenson is expected to make his debut with the promotion in early 2012. The fight will be Stevenson’s first fight since being cut from the UFC in August.
I’ll never figure out how Kim Couture is still getting fights. She isn’t skilled. She isn’t exactly loved by the MMA community. And while you’ll get media attention for putting her on your fight card, it’s usually at the expense of having your good fighters ignored so that the inevitable freak show bout can receive extra criticism. Is any attention truly better than no attention?
Kim Couture fought Suzie Montero, a Muay Thai fighter who once fought Gina Carano, who was making her MMA debut. If this fight was a warm-up for Kim Couture’s planned transition to professional kickboxing, then perhaps Kim should train more. Or at least she should train with consenting sparring partners. Couture now drops to 3-6 in her MMA cash grab.
The saddest part is that W-1 MMA had some real news emerge from last night’s card. For starters, W-1 announced that it has agreed to terms with UFC veteran and TUF Season 2 winner Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. While details are still unclear, Stevenson is expected to make his debut with the promotion in early 2012. The fight will be Stevenson’s first fight since being cut from the UFC in August.
Also of note, TUF 13 alumnus Chuck O’Neil defeated Marcus Davis in the main event of the evening. In an otherwise close fight, O’Neil used his reach advantage to control the distance, and opened a nasty cut on Davis’ forehead with an elbow from top position in the third round. O’Neil improves to 9-4, while Davis falls to 20-9. The loss snaps a three fight win streak for Davis.
Chuck O’Neil def. Marcus Davis via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Luis Palomino def. James Edson Berto via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
John Manley def. Sabah Homasi via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Alan Arzeno def. Tom Waters via TKO, 3:12, R2.
Nathan Coy def. Patrick Mikesz via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Kenny Moss def. Bruno Reis Da Maria via submission (shoulder choke), 1:46, R2
Frank Carrillo def. Joseph Watson via KO (uppercut), 2:37, R1
Suzie Montero def. Kim Couture via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Giovanni Brugnoni def. James Wynn via submission (guillotine choke), 0:57, R1
Michael Trujillo def. Eric Raposo via TKO, 0:55, R1
Anthony Garavito def. Davaun McKoy via submission (keylock), 2:57, R3.
Michael Quinones def. Denis Sejdievski via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Shlemenko vs. Rogers from last night’s Bellator 54
If last night’s Bellator 54 in Atlantic City, New Jersey was a preview of things to come, then under no condition should you skip the finale of this season’s middleweight tournament. Unless you don’t like watching exciting brawls and devastating knockouts. In that case, I really don’t know why you’re here in the first place.
Alexander Shlemenko and Brian Rogers both promised a knockout before the fight, and it quickly became apparent that neither man planned on breaking that promise. A back and forth battle from the opening seconds, the fight saw each fighter land hard shots to his opponent. In the second round, however, Shlemenko’s superior clinch game helped him get the better of Rogers, as Shlemenko rocked Rogers with knees to the head before the referee stopped the fight. Alexander Shlemenko is now 42-7 in his MMA career, and 6-1 in Bellator.
The evening’s co-main event, Vitor Vianna took home a quick TKO over Bryan Baker. From the start of the fight, Baker showed little respect for Vianna’s striking. Bryan Baker chose to throw bombs at Vianna in hopes of getting a quick finish. Bryan Baker chose poorly.
Shlemenko vs. Rogers from last night’s Bellator 54
If last night’s Bellator 54 in Atlantic City, New Jersey was a preview of things to come, then under no condition should you skip the finale of this season’s middleweight tournament. Unless you don’t like watching exciting brawls and devastating knockouts. In that case, I really don’t know why you’re here in the first place.
Alexander Shlemenko and Brian Rogers both promised a knockout before the fight, and it quickly became apparent that neither man planned on breaking that promise. A back and forth battle from the opening seconds, the fight saw each fighter land hard shots to his opponent. In the second round, however, Shlemenko’s superior clinch game helped him get the better of Rogers, as Shlemenko rocked Rogers with knees to the head before the referee stopped the fight. Alexander Shlemenko is now 42-7 in his MMA career, and 6-1 in Bellator.
The evening’s co-main event, Vitor Vianna took home a quick TKO over Bryan Baker. From the start of the fight, Baker showed little respect for Vianna’s striking. Bryan Baker chose to throw bombs at Vianna in hopes of getting a quick finish. Bryan Baker chose poorly.
In a non-title bantamweight scrap, Bellator champion Zach “Fun Size” Makovsky took home a first round north-south choke against a game, but overmatched Ryan Roberts. The victory marks Makovsky’s eighth straight. Meanwhile, Roberts is still searching for his first victory in Bellator, having lost a unanimous decision to Eric Marriott at Bellator 32 in his last appearance with the promotion.
Also of note, those of you who watched the prelims on Spike.com have noticed that Bellator has signed UFC veteran Maiquel “Big Rig” Falcao. The 28-4 Chute Boxe product is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with twenty three of his victories ending via knockout. Unfortunately, you probably remember him for beating Gerald Harris at UFC 123 in a fight so boring that both men were subsequently bounced from the UFC. To be fair, Big Rig was technically cut due to legal issues. Hopefully Falcao will add more exciting fights to a middleweight division already full of them.
There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.
This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.
There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.
This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.
But then it was time for Garner vs. Grishin. In a fight between two heavyweights who have never heard of a treadmill, Garner’s game plan involved some occasional strikes in order set up the clinch against the ropes with Grishin. Despite a lack of action, both men were exhausted by the end of the first round, leading to even more stalling and even slower punches as the fight continued. Because this was a title fight, fans were punished for whatever sins they have committed with two additional rounds. Despite almost finishing Garner with an armbar and a triangle choke in the championship rounds, Grishin tapped out from strikes during the fifth round. Kenny Garner is now the M-1 Global Interim Heavyweight champion, and coincidentally, I no longer consider interim championships significant. If you thought that fight was boring to read about, just imagine actually watching it.
In the main event, Light Heavyweight Champion Vinny Magalhaes took a break from training with Fedor for his upcoming clash with Jeff Monson in order to defend the title against Mikhail Zayats. Throughout the fight, Zayats was actually getting the better of Magalhaes. Zayats outstruck Magalhaes, and managed to stuff the ADCC gold medalist’s takedown attempts. But Mikhail Zayats picked the wrong time to drop his hands, and was dropped by the champion with a right head kick. Vinny Magalhaes now improves to 9-5-1 with the victory.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
Frankie Edgar: There weren’t many of us out there who picked Edgar to finish Maynard in such decisive fashion, let alone with strikes. But with his brilliant come from behind win, Edgar showcased yet another ever improving aspect of his game, and has emphatically earned his spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, though maybe not as high up as Dana would think. Though it seems Gilbert Melendez is destined for the next shot, we think the winner of the Ben Henderson/Clay Guida match deserves it just as much, if not more. Henderson presents many of the same challenges to Edgar as Maynard did, so it would be interesting to see if he would fare any better. And the thought of seeing Edgar and Guida bounce around like they had just tasted sugar for the first time is enough to give us an epileptic seizure.
Jose Aldo: I may be in the minority here, but I wasn’t exactly blown away by Aldo’s performance against “Kenflo” this past weekend. Yes, his takedown defense looked great, but let’s not forget that wrestling has never been Florian’s strong suit. Chad Mendes, on the other hand, has absolutely dominated past opponents with his wrestling, and his stand up is improving by the day. If he can get inside on Aldo, we could be seeing a very different kind of riddle for Aldo to solve. But outside of Mendes and a possible future rematch with Mark Hominick, there don’t seem to be many featherweight match-ups at the moment that spark a lot of interest. Lightweight however, is an entirely different story…
Chael Sonnen: You have to be one arrogant son of a bitch to think that you cannot only hand pick your future opponent’s, but pick the day on which you will fight them as well. Luckily, Chael Sonnen’s arrogance is beginning to take on it’s own persona, and it’s getting harder and harder to disagree with the guy. He dominated a game Brian Stann despite being away from the octagon for over a year, and he made it look easy. Dana White has admitted it would be foolish not to book this rematch, and for once we’re in agreement with “The Baldfather.” Some people are arguing for a Dan Henderson rematch, given he gets past Shogun, but considering that fight is being held at light heavyweight, we don’t really see why the winner would necessarily deserve it over Sonnen, especially since Shogun clearly has no middleweight aspirations. Book it Dana…book it and they will come.
Joe Lauzon: It took “J-Lau” less than a minute to end Melvin Guillard’s hopes of getting the next lightweight title shot and remind us of why he is one of the most dangerous guys in the division. Though his cardio has long been questionable, there’s no doubting the kid’s killer instinct, and it would be nice to see him put together a nice win streak for once. Giving him a crack at the winner of Siver/Cerrone or Dos Anjos/Tibau would really help thin the herd of potential contenders, and that is one thing the lightweight division could use. Another option, and perhaps the one with the biggest potential for fireworks, would be Nate Diaz. This is of course based on the assumption that Nate Diaz decides to hang out at lightweight for a while, and who knows with that guy.
Demian Maia: Maia’s victory over Jorge Santiago was about as typical as could be expected. It showcased his well known ability to control a fighter on the ground while highlighting the fact that his stand up still has a ways to go. Matching him up against someone like Alan Belcher would really let us know where exactly he stands in the middleweight division, but the grappling fanatic in me would really like to see how he’d fare against someone like Rousimar Palhares, who’s striking is quickly becoming as tenacious as his ground game.
Anthony Pettis: After being wrestlefucked by Clay Guida in his UFC debut, the final WEC lightweight champion seemed eager to prove that he is constantly improving upon his weaknesses with a takedown oriented victory over Jeremy Stephens. A fight against someone equally well rounded, like Jim Miller, would be a nice measuring stick for Pettis, as would a match against the resurgent Sam Stout. Or if we really wanted to see how far his wrestling is coming, we could wake Gray Maynard up and throw him in “Showtime’s” direction.
Oh, and can someone throw Jorge Santiago a fricken bone? The poor guy has had about the worst run of luck in the UFC that I can remember, and I’d really just love to see him pull off one of these again.
We’ll let you decide the loser’s fates in the comment section…choose wisely.
