UFC 115-The Rumors Were True

About a month ago, rumors emerged on the internet stating Chuck Liddell would not be facing Tito Ortiz in his return to the octagon, despite being rival coaches on TUF 11. The rumors stating Liddell would now be facing Rich Franklin, former UFC middleweight champion and high school teacher. The rumors were dismissed within hours by Dana White (or so the websites said). However, the UFC website reported on their news section today that the main event of UFC 115 will now be Franklin vs Liddell in the light heavyweight division. The rumors stated Ortiz was not able to complete his role on TUF 11 and was replaced by Franklin. These rumors have not been disproven or proven yet, and Dana has stated he will not tell the fans why the change has taken place and states that we will find out by watching the Ultimate Fighter show this season. Bottom line is UFC 115 will now be headlined by Liddell vs Franklin which is probably a better fight than a third Liddell Ortiz fight in which Liddell has won both of the previous fights.

And good news for the young MMA Blogg-this is the 100th post! Thank you all for reading!

Post UFC 112

It seems the support UFC champions receive from fans is going down hill. GSP was scrutinized after grinding out a win over Dan Hardy at UFC 111 and not finishing the fight (although he tried many times). GSP, however, had many fans (including myself) defending his performance while many other fans simply thought, "I'm not impressed by his performance!" Well this weekend had a lot in store for UFC/MMA fans across the world. BJ Penn lost his belt to Frankie Edgar in a fight in which Edgar looked dominant throughout the fight landing quick combos and having constant movement which even allowed him to dodge BJ's quick jab. Edgar looked great and received the undisputed title, leaving scrutiny on BJ now by some fans now. Now let's get into Anderson Silva's performance. When George St. Pierre fought Dan Hardy in NJ, he sunk in a tight armbar and kimura which Hardy, being tough as nails, defended successfully and did not tap. GSP also landed 2 strong punches right to Hardy's chin which did not even phase the Brit, and nobody can say he didn't try to end the fight. Hardy was just too tough an opponent to finish, and if he had any sort of takedown defense, he could have kept the fight standing and won some rounds on the judges' scorecard at the very least. Silva, however, can not be defended by fans. He began the fight show boating and acting like Rashad Evans in the ring, but he was striking and connecting with his strikes in the first two rounds. Round 3 brought a whole new fighter into the ring-Silva was yelling in Portugese at Maia and rounds 4 and 5 showed Silva running around the cage dodging Maia completely and just slipping out of his takedowns. Silva was even warned by the referee to stop running around the cage or he would be docked a point. The fight, while humorous, was not worth the PPV or the price of tickets to watch the show live. Needless to say, Dana was furious after the fight. This video sums up everyone's feelings towards the fight:

GSP was scrutinized heavily last week for not ending his fights, but after UFC 112 many could argue he is the best champion the UFC has right now-BJ Penn lost his belt and there is a new, fresh champion holding the belt with no title defenses, Silva's performance was lackluster and a disgrace, Lyoto Machida is being scrutinized for his performance against Rua and many think he lost the fight, and Brock Lesnar does not have as many title defenses as GSP and is likely to lose his belt in the near future to either Shane Carwin, or if Carwin does not dethrone Lesnar Cain Velasquez will.
Before this post closes, let's examine the Matt Hughes vs Renzo Gracie fight. The anticipated fight almost went the distance giving fans plenty of action in the bout. Hughes used a Forrest Griffin technique by delivering a series of leg kicks which ended up buckling Gracie many times in the third round. Hughes was able to finish the fight via TKO in round 3 by kicking out the leg of Gracie and delivering a rapid fire of punches. UFC 112 had many entertaining fights and some great performances by the fighters on the card, with the exception of Anderson Silva.

UFC 112 Fight Videos

Phil Davis vs. Alexander Gustafsson- Download This Video

Mark Munoz vs. Kendall GroveDownload This Video


Terry Etim vs. Rafael Dos AnjosDownload This Video


Matt Hughes vs. Renzo GracieDownload This Video


Franky Edgar vs. BJ PennDownload This Video

Edgar vs. Penn pt. 2Download This Video


Anderson Silva vs. Demian MaiaDownload This Video



Silva vs. Maia pt. 2
Download This Video

How to Watch UFC 112

Now some MMA fans, including myself, were confused leading up to UFC 112. The UFC ads only showed the 7 PM PST/10 PM EST PPV time slots available for viewing, and that this show time would air a previously recorded show. However, this is not the case! Anyone can watch LIVE on PPV at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST. Now these timings are weird, and many fans will not be able to watch the live show, but it will still be available for replay at 7/10 PM, just don't look at any MMA website, including the UFC page until you watch! Check back tomorrow at 10 AM PST/ 1 PM EST for a live stream right here on MMA Blogg!

And look below for the official UFC 112 weigh in results:

UFC Middleweight Championship

Demian Maia (184) VS Anderson Silva (185)

UFC Lightweight Championship

  Frank Edgar (154) VS BJ Penn (155)

Renzo Gracie (171) VS Matt Hughes (170)

Rafael Dos Anjos (156) VS Terry Etim (154)

Mark Munoz (185) VS Kendall Grove (185)

Phil Davis (204) VS Alexander Gustafsson (205)

John Gunderson (154) VS Paul Taylor (155)

Rick Story (169) VS Nick Osipczak (170)

Brad Blackburn (170) VS DaMarques Johnson (170)

Matt Veach (155) VS Paul Kelly (156)

Mostapha Al Turk (235) VS Jon Madsen (252)

UFC 114 Fight Card Finalized

The epic grudge match which was promoted heavily by TUF 10 is finally set to take place. Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans had their share of smack talk on the reality show, and will be headlining UFC 114. Not only will this fight provide entertainment for the fans, but will also determine the next challenger for the shot at the light heavyweight title against the winner of the UFC 113 Maricio Rua Lyoto Machida fight. The Rampage Rashad fight will not be the only fight fans will want to see either, check out the full fight card listed below:
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Rashad Evans
Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller
Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow
Diego Sanchez vs. John Hathaway
Amir Sadollah vs. Dong-Hyun Kim
Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon
Melvin Guillard vs. Thiago Tavares
Luiz Cane vs. Cyrille Diabate
Aaron Riley vs. Joe Brammer
Jesse Forbes vs. Ryan Jensen
The UFC is going all out with the upcoming events, giving us star-studded cards. Strikeforce is also putting out some great events (especially the upcoming Strikeforce:Nashville card with 3 title bouts) and these next few months will be great for MMA fans out there! UFC 114 has great fighters throughout the card and the main card is packed. I would have liked to watch Sadollah fight on the main card but hopefully Spike will be broadcasting this fight for free on May 29!

Post Fight Night 21

What an exciting night of fights from North Carolina! Let's start off with Big Country. He is the real deal, and if there were any nay-sayers out there after he won the Ultimate Fighter season 10 competition, they have probably been silenced by now. It took Roy Nelson only 39 seconds in the first round to take out Stefan Struve. Skyscraper's reach is 83 inches and dwarfed Nelson's reach of 74 inches, but this did not make the slightest difference as Nelson rocked Struve with a big overhand right and finished the fight by raining down shots on Struve who remained grounded after being buckled by Nelson. And Nelson handled himself after the win by showing his humor and graciousness by complimenting Struve and jokingly calling out James Toney.

Takanori Gomi was the last Pride Lightweight champion and seemed to be one of Kenny Florian's biggest challenges yet. However, KenFlo stuck to his game plan and looked like a champ in his fight. He threw many jabs (similar to BJ Penn's jabs) to The Fireball Kid's head and landed a vast majority of them. Florian also studied Gomi's game and that showed when he took caution to cover up against Gomi's right hooks. After an impressive and entertaining stand up battle which favored Florian, KenFlo was able to submit Gomi with a rear naked choke. This win brought Florian closer to another title shot, and maybe the third time will be the charm for Florian who has suffered two losses in title bouts to Sean Sherk as well as BJ Penn.

And how can this post be complete without mentioning the power mishap in the Bojangles Coliseum. This was a UFC first, and was a major problem for the event, as the power was cut during the announcement of the Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve fight. The power could not be brought back fast enough and for the viewers watching on their televisions, Caol Uno's fight against Gleison Tibau was broadcasted (Uno lost in round 1 in 4 minutes 13 seconds via TKO).

UFC 111 Fight Videos

Mark Bocek vs. Jim Miller:




Kurt Pellegrino vs Fabricio Camoes:


Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin:

Georges St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy:
Part 1:


Part 2:

Post UFC 111

It seems UFC fans have developed a theory that fighters are only great
when they have standup wars with their opponents. Dan Hardy, had he
practiced takedown defense, could have lit up fireworks in his title
shot against Georges St. Pierre. The Outlaw's standup is incredible
and could have knocked out GSP. However the champion was able to take
down Hardy at will and utilize his ground game, perhaps his greatest
strength aside from his wrestling. Rush was 100% with his takedown
attempts and was able to attempt a few submissions while Hardy
defended all of them-2 of the greatest moments of the fight was Hardy
getting trapped in an armbar and kimura but did not tap and was able
to fight out of both of the champion's submissions attempts. I was
watching the fights live in Newark and the crown responded negitavely
whenever the fight stayed on the ground. This response by fans
continued post fight on Twitter as Dana White recieved angry tweets
stating how boring the fight was. MMA has many aspects to it and the
ground game is a significant part, and fans need to realize that. The
excitement of a fight should not be measured by the stand up battle as
it was last Saturday. Some tweets included fans stating that if they
wanted to watch a wrestling match they would watch their local college
matches. Well if fans just want to see standup brawls, why not watch
boxing?

Change in UFC 111 Main Card

Today was an eventful day for the UFC, Rampage Jackson signed a 6 fight contract and is not out of the UFC as many previously thought. But that is not the top story today. Thiago Alves was scheduled to fight Jon Fitch in a Welterweight bout this Saturday at UFC 111. However, Thiago failed his medical exam after doctors found an irregularity in his brain after a CAT Scan. Dana is going to fly Alves out to see a specialist as he believes this injury could be serious and career ending while Alves is not concerned. Pitbull is, however, upset that he will not be able to fight on Saturday. Jon Fitch will not be scrapped from the main card, but Jake Ellenberger will be as Ben Saunders will now be fighting Fitch instead of Ellenberger.

UFC 111 Main Event Breakdown

UFC 111 is on March 27 is 3 days away, with the main card beginning at 7 PM PST/10 PM EST. The main card has 2 title bouts and is a huge step up from the other PPV events the UFC held since the start of this year. So here is a breakdown of the main event- Georges St. Pierre vs Dan Hardy:

GSP is considered one of the world's top pound for pound fighters, currently ranking in the top 3. His wrestling is phenomenal and he appears to be a machine when he fights. However, the holes in his game are in his standup. Now that is not to say his standup isn't great-it is just not his strong suit. Dan Hardy is an excellent striker and appears to be the one who can take out GSP. With a counter left hook and devastating knockout power, Hardy should definitely not be looked passed. If Hardy can land a few of his haymakers, even GSP could fall. And The Outlaw has confidence in his ability to take out GSP. In an interview about his upcoming title shot, he said, "Those GSP fans betting the house on him, there's going to be a lot of homeless GSP fans the day after." GSP fell to Matt Serra back at UFC 69, so he is definitely not super-human as many of his fans may argue, and this Saturday just might bring in a new UFC welterweight champion.