The Battle on the Bayou goes down Saturday, September 17th, at 9PM ET on SPIKE TV.Headlined by a welterweight showdown between grappling ace Jake Shields and the heavy-handed Jake Ellenberger, the main card features four competitive fights showcasing s…
The Battle on the Bayou goes down Saturday, September 17th, at 9PM ET on SPIKE TV.
Headlined by a welterweight showdown between grappling ace Jake Shields and the heavy-handed Jake Ellenberger, the main card features four competitive fights showcasing several promising up-and-comers:
Alan “The Talent” Belcher vs. Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald
Erik “New Breed” Koch vs. Jonathan Brookins
Court “The Crusher” McGee vs. Dongi “The Ox” Yang
Jake Shields vs. Jake “The Juggernaut” Ellenberger
Though likely to be overshadowed by boxing’s Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz, this card is a gem for fight fans, and is free on TV to boot. Oh, and it has a few nice betting opportunities, which never hurts.
Without further ado, let’s get to the fights…
All betting odds courtesy of Bodog.eu. I take no responsibility for your crushing gambling addiction.
Yes, boring fighters exist in combat sports, especially in MMA.Sometimes it’s because they take people down and hold them there, sometimes it’s because they pin opponents against the cage for three rounds and sometimes it’s the fact that they’re just s…
Yes, boring fighters exist in combat sports, especially in MMA.
Sometimes it’s because they take people down and hold them there, sometimes it’s because they pin opponents against the cage for three rounds and sometimes it’s the fact that they’re just so hard to catch.
Now, for some people like myself, guys such as the more-elusive fighters are actually interesting to watch because you never know when they’ll pull the trigger and land their proverbial one-kill-shots on opponents, but if you’re an insomniac and haven’t gotten a good night’s rest since the sixth grade, there’s a good chance that some guys might actually help out with that.
It’s tough to say who would be the biggest cure for insomnia outside of the UFC, but wherever you look, there are guys that are just flat out boring to watch in MMA. The only reason we watch them fight is really in the hopes that whomever they face will be the man to put them in a coma.
Some of the guys you’re about to see will cure your insomnia and there might be some that may actually cause it to linger for some, but all of the men you’re about to see have been accused of being boring fighters.
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is in for the biggest and most difficult challenge of his career come Oct. 1st.He fought a close battle against one Miguel Torres and is now slated to face Dominick Cruz on Oct. 1st at UFC on Versus 6, the first free U…
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is in for the biggest and most difficult challenge of his career come Oct. 1st.
He fought a close battle against one Miguel Torres and is now slated to face Dominick Cruz on Oct. 1st at UFC on Versus 6, the first free UFC event to host a title fight since UFC 75 and the first free Zuffa event to host a title fight since WEC 53.
However, to put it simply, he is definitely in over his head if he honestly thinks he’ll be able to do what Urijah Faber and Scott Jorgensen before him were unable to do.
Mind you, Faber did defeat Cruz at Featherweight, but unlike The California Kid, Mighty Mouse Johnson is pure wrestling and ground-and-pound who has good KO power but has not been able to show it against some of the UFC’s best nor was he able to show it to some of the WEC’s toughest.
Really speaking, he’s been a mix of good grappling and good wrestling with some dominating top control and a little bit of ground and pound.
On paper, he might have the tools to beat Cruz, but the champion and his striking game have been all the more difficult to figure out ever since Cruz dropped to Bantamweight, and unless Johnson has the striking to break through the offense of Cruz, Johnson will not be able to implement his ground prowess against the somewhat takedown-prone Cruz.
To put this another way, there’s a reason why Cruz has opened as the over-overwhelming favorite in this bout.
Pound for pound, the best fighter at 135 pounds is Cruz, and with what he does bring to the fight on Oct. 1st, the most surprising thing that could come from this title bout is Johnson going five rounds without getting dropped or even slightly sore once.
Every two-to-four months, the standard hustle-and-bustle of the UFC’s fight weeks usually includes something that a marginal portion of the MMA has taken note of: a supershow-caliber event by the Tachi Palace Fights promotion at the Tachi Palace in Lem…
Every two-to-four months, the standard hustle-and-bustle of the UFC’s fight weeks usually includes something that a marginal portion of the MMA has taken note of: a supershow-caliber event by the Tachi Palace Fights promotion at the Tachi Palace in Lemoore, California.
For a regional MMA promotion (and a local MMA promotion for Californians with a love for MMA action outside of the UFC), TPF has risen in the past year and a half, not only because of their collection of talent from various promotions, but also because they have the best assortment of 125-pound talent that anyone can find in the stateside circuit of the pro scene.
Former WEC fighter Ian McCall, Darrell Montague, Jussier Da Silva, Ulysses Gomez, Mamoru Yamaguchi: All are flyweights who most fans of Tachi Palace Fights are familiar with and all were on display last weekend at TPF 10: Let The Chips Fall.
While Da Silva was able to bring the pain and dominate Yamaguchi throughout their fight, McCall submitted Moontague in the third round to become the new TPF flyweight champion.
MMA Junkie released the final earnings of the fighters from TPF 10 on Tuesday afternoon, with the combined payroll of all the fighters on the card totaling to $85,000, and the combined payroll of all five aforementioned flyweights totaled to $33,000, including the win bonuses earned by Da Silva, Gomez and McCall.
Now, I’m the last guy one should ask about salaries, but $33,000 is about the amount of money you normally see on the paycheck of a preliminary-card fighter who is fighting for the UFC, if I’m not mistaken.
Well, it’s actually thousand bucks short of what Brian Bowles and Aaron Simpson got for UFC 132, but it’s close.
Also, the $85,000 is another figure you’d only see in the UFC, although it’s a small figure you’d see in the UFC compared to some of the figures guys get paid per fight.
Then again, the UFC has existed longer than Tachi Palace Fights, so it’s a no-brainer that the fighters in the UFC would make five-to-six figure amounts.
Still, we must ask: Should we, as fans of the mainstream MMA World, start to show a little bit respect to Tachi Palace Fights?
Simple answer: Yes, we should show them respect—a lot more respect than that they’re getting now.
First off, Tachi Palace Fights is a promotion that exists because, without a suitable proving ground for Zuffa-MMA and Bellator hopefuls, the sport cannot exist, and the task of preparing the next generation of mixed martial artists in a “proving ground” for the big time cannot fall solely on local promotions and the likes of Titan FC, King Of The Cage, Shark Fights and the slightly lesser-acknowledged Legacy Fighting Championships.
Yes, there is a flyweight division of 126 pounds and under in King of The Cage, but although KOTC holds the division, it’s not a very active division, so for fans who need a break from the divisions 135-lbs to 263-lbs, Tachi Palace Fights delivers a suitable alternative.
Also, with the rising demand for flyweight MMA in the stateside pro circuit, more fans will want to see as much of the 125-lb division as humanly possible, and as the sport progresses, the division will begin to grow more in popularity as well.
That, plus after the flyweight division establishes itself, men’s MMA will have a complete and even assortment of divisions and, therefore, will not need anything more than for a fresh crop of fighters to represent the then-eight divisions.
Can the UFC do that with a 125-lb division that only features Joseph Benavidez, Demetrious Johnson and a bunch of guys who drop down to flyweight once the division is established, even though those men may not have as much business even being at 125 as Benavidez or Johnson?
They may be able to do it for a little while, but Dana White’s “all the best fighters in the world fight in the UFC” would be a null-and-void argument when it comes to the flyweights, because once Dana and Co. have to bring the axe down on some of the guys who will have run their course by that time, they will no longer have all the best flyweights in the world.
As far as fighters go, the current TPF crop—including Brazilians Giva “The Arm Collector” Santana and Jorge Lopez, new TPF featherweight champion Eddie Yagin, and WEC alumni Doug Marshall, and others—all bring individual interest and talent to what would be the next generation of mixed martial arts, and their’s is a talent that cannot stay ignored forever.
One other thing to take into account: TPF is regional, even if it serves as a national supershow-promotion that showcases talent from all over the world and focuses more on top-notch action and being a proving ground for fighters who are looking to break on through to the big time.
If there’s one key thing that should be a no-brainer to all MMA fans, it’s that no regional MMA promotion ever tries to compete with the bigger shows.
The regional pro circuits—they do what TPF has been doing, because they know what they need to do for the sport to move one step closer to becoming widely accepted by the mainstream.
The sooner we take TPF seriously as a promotion that could contribute to the next generations of the next level of competition, the closer this sport could be to becoming accepted by those who may not be quick to accept it now, and who knows:
It’s possible that that regional fighter you’re not paying attention to now, rises to the top and leads the next generation of the “top-tier competition” as pound for pound the best damn fighter in the world, period.
The date was June 26th, 2011. The event was UFC Live on Versus 4. The place was the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This was when and where I attended my first live event held by the UFC. I must admit I was overly excited for a chance…
The date was June 26th, 2011. The event was UFC Live on Versus 4. The place was the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This was when and where I attended my first live event held by the UFC. I must admit I was overly excited for a chance to see some of the best athletes in the world, competing right in front of my eyes.
I entered the arena early as I wanted to experience the arena and set-up before fans filled the seats in. The lights were dimmed and the Octagon was lit up which made for some good pictures. As fans started pouring in, the seats filled, and the excitement built. I was ready for some UFC action.
The card was changed multiple times for various reasons and the main attractions such as Nate Marquardt, Anthony Johnson, and Martin Kampmann were all removed from the card but as I looked at the fights presented, it looked to be a very good card. That statement though, was very underrated as the UFC held on of the best shows ever, as stated by Dana White himself.
The show had a lot of finishes and the fights that went to a decision were pretty entertaining. The event had a huge upset and one of the most memorable comebacks in the history of MMA.
This will go down as one of the best sets of fights on a card in a long time and I was very grateful to have experienced this in person.
Probably one of the more interesting bouts in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Brett Rogers, designated as “The Grim Reaper” in most circles of MMA due to his ability to finish fights quickly and in brutal fashion, gets the biggest test of his c…
Probably one of the more interesting bouts in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Brett Rogers, designated as “The Grim Reaper” in most circles of MMA due to his ability to finish fights quickly and in brutal fashion, gets the biggest test of his career since his title fight with Alistair Overeem in former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett.
Of course, Barnett has said that he’s no longer “Babyfaced,” so his old nickname may not apply much to him now, but the claim of being one of the best Catch-Wrestlers in the business and having a very well-rounded game–which he can use aggressively without being reckless–still applies.
Rogers has some good Muay Thai and some very notable Boxing, which is a problem for Barnett to begin with, but the key here for the “leaner and meaner” Rogers is to use some wrestling in reverse.
If this event live from the American Airlines Center in the city of Dallas, Texas–roughly 30 minutes from where I reside quite proudly, I might add–is your first event and you don’t know how to use wrestling in reverse, the basics of it is this:
If Barnett goes in for a takedown, Rogers must sprawl to stuff the takedown attempt, stand up as quickly as he can, and throw an uppercut before landing a nice one-two combo whenever possible.
If defending the takedowns opens the doors for a chance to stand in the pocket, even better, but unless Rogers has evolved to where he actually has some takedowns and some overall Wrestling that’s good enough to at least neutralize Barnett’s strengths, his best bet is to keep it standing and go for the finish.
If it’s any extra motivation: Rogers is a heavy underdog to win here tonight, so what better way to shock all of MMA (and create a stylistically intriguing fight with Sergei Kharitonov) than to knock Josh Barnett out?
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is in for the biggest and most difficult challenge of his career come Oct. 1st.