This Hot Fire

After watching this $45 UFC pay per view last night, I left disgusted that I even watched it.  Although I was disgusted its not necessarily for the reasons you think.  The MMA system is already starting to go the way of boxing, with more politics and bullshit than a senate vote.  Dana White being the lead bullshit artist.

He puts on a good show that hes “so upset” that fights don’t turn out entertaining.  That’s garbage, every sap out there paying $45 bucks to watch these jokes of fights is getting screwed and ol Dana White is laughing his ass off to the bank.  Setting up “name” fights like the retirement home match between Renzo Gracie and Matt Hughes, or pitting Anderson Silva against a joke of a fighter or letting the judges GIVE AWAY BJ Penns belt.  Give me a break Dana White, you can kiss my ass with your bullshit shenanigans.

Let me give you a little taste of the night.

First televised fight, Mark Munoz vs Kendall Grove.

This was easily the most entertaining fight of the night.  Munoz was getting his ass handed to him with some vicious shots from every body appendage Grove had.  The first round was easily his, but Munoz came back in the 2^nd with some rock hard punches and then some textbook ground and pound to force the ref to stop the fight and Kendall Grove finally lost via TKO.  No complaints.

Next Rafael Dos Santos and Terry Etim

Not exactly my type of fight, mostly ju jitsu and struggling on the ground for dominant position, but not horrible.  Eventually Rafael won by arm bar.

Now we get into the “headliners” and the biggest loads of horseshit Ive seen in awhile.

Matt Hughes vs Renzo Gracie

When the fight started I expected a pretty crappy match, but I got even less.  This fight had about 15 landed punches over 3 rounds.  IT WAS A JOKE.  The Abu dhabi fans booed their brains out before the first round even ended.  One of my friends even booed sitting in his living room.  They hardly did anything, and tapped each other with “love punches”.  They didnt lock up and the only reason any one went to the ground was because Matt Hughes kicked the leg of the exhausted 43 year old Renzo.  Renzo got knocked down 3 times this way, and on the second time LITERALLY asked Matt Hughes to help him up, which he did.  Both these guys were feared fighters, in their day, but now it’s a joke.  10 years ago this would have been epic, but now I was disgusted with Dana White for having the fucking greedy nerve to put it together. Fuck you very much White.

Next we got BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

An obvious win for BJ was picked by many here, and they were pretty much right.  Yet unfortunately BJ let it go to a judges decision and he got screwed like you cant believe.  Kevin Rogers, my MMA guy for thishotfire.com, picked Frankie Edgar and with his picks on the line walked out of the room before the official announcement.  When they said Frankie won, most of us were talking about how crappy the fight was and almost missed the actual announcement.  When they said Frankie won I was completely speechless. Not only should BJ have won but in no way should he have lost his belt because of the fight.  So let the politics begin..  With a Frankie Edgar win, Dana White gets a chance to set up a rematch, and a huge campaign for the new belt holder (I wont call him a champion.)  It was so obvious that BJ got screwed that the cameras didn’t even show him ONCE, after the decision was made.  Ive seen a couple screw jobs before, but its been awhile since Ive seen one this bad.

Now the “headline” fight

Anderson Silva vs. Demian Maia

Before starting, I need to make it clear that Anderson Silva is easily the best middleweight champion ever, and one of the best pound for pound fighters alive.  That being said, I have never seen anything like what I saw in this fight.  Anderson Silva felt disrespected that he was even forced to fight a scrub like this, and I don’t blame him too much.  But he made a joke of the headline fight, while I don’t respect him for doing this I can understand he needed to make a statement.  He danced around the ring, made ridiculous fight poses, dropped his hands to give a free shot, and at one point even jokingly hid behind the referee.  Now why would Anderson Silva do something like this? I bet I can guess…

Anderson Silva has beaten everyone in the middleweight division, everyone.  Silva has even gone up to light heavyweight and still won, but stopped because his friend is the light heavyweight champ and wont fight him.  But Dana White said he wouldn’t let him go up two weight classes to heavyweight.  So, in essence Anderson Silva wants to go up 2 weight classes to earn another belt because his training partner is the light heavyweight champion, and he wants another belt.  2 WEIGHT CLASSES. That’s insane, but hes talking and acting cocky and made a bitch out of Demian Maia last night.  Let him fight a fucking heavyweight Dana White.  Let him fight Frank Mir, Gonzaga, Randy Cotoure.  Let him fight someone who at least has a prayer at beating him and stop ramming jobber middleweights at us.  Hell, throw him in the ring with Brock Lesnar if your so angry with him.  Ill watch that fight!

All in all I was disgusted with the UFC last night.  Not the fighters, but the UFC itself.  If you saw it, then post some comments and let me know if im too far off here.

UFC 112: INVINCIBLE

Alight kiddies; guess who’s back to blow your mind with amazing knowledge and moneymaking picks for your bank account? That’s right Kevo is back.  So go ahead and pick your panties up off the floor ladies, I’m married now.  Let’s do this, ladies and gents, I present my preview of UFC 112.

-Anderson Silva (25-4; #1 Middleweight) vs. Demian Maia (12-1; #7 Middleweight)

Let’s start with the main event of this card, Anderson Silva “the god king of all the men of Persia’ against Demian “less of a shot than me VS Chuck Norris and Dolph Lungren in a fight” Maia. Let’s really be honest here, does anyone honestly thing Maia has a shot in this one? For those who don’t know Maia is a ground-fighting specialist, his ground skills are second to none in the middleweight division. For Maia to have a shot in this fight he is going to have to take Silva to the ground, which is not going to happen.  This fight is going to turn out like Thales Lietes, Silva toying with Maia like a cat and mouse.  The more interesting story here is going to be if Silva will step up and finish Maia in this fight. Personally I think he will, but this fight may end up being a boring one. I believe Maia will try to play the ground game on Silva the whole fight, but Silva won’t bite, and near round 4 or 5 he will get frustrated and then punched in the face.

Winner via 4^th round TKO, Anderson Silva

-B.J. Penn (15-5-1; #1 Lightweight) vs. Frankie Edgar (11-1; #9 Lightweight)

This fight is the one I’m more interested in than any other fight on this card.  BJ Penn who is regarded as one of the best fighters in the world is known for an all around amazing fight game. His bread and butter is his ground game, but his stand up is just as deadly.  Frankie Edgar may not be known to all as an elite fighter but he will be soon enough.  6 of Edgar’s 11 wins come by way of decision, so you know he’s got the heart to stand in a fight. Edgar’s biggest win so far of his career is when he beat former champion Sean Sherk. Edgar also has some solid power in his fists that he’s not afraid to use it.  I think this fight holds many different layers that come into play.  First being BJ Penn’s dedication.  No one can argue that over BJ’s last 2 fights he has shown the amazing abilities that he has in his arsenal.  However BJ Penn’s always been known as a guy who can’t stay on the straight and narrow for long.  I think you also have the tag line of BJ making a case to get another fight with Georges St. Pierre.  After this fight there is not much more competition for him at the lightweight division.  Either way, this fight is shaping up to be a good one. I know BJ Penn has been on a tear of late, but this would be a bet worth taking. All this being said…

Winner via 2^nd round TKO, Frankie Edgar

-Matt Hughes (43-7; #5 Welterweight) vs. Renzo Gracie (13-6-1)

UFC hall of famer Matt Hughes makes his “long awaited”? Return to the octagon against veteran and always-dangerous Renzo Gracie. This fight really doesn’t mean anything in terms of rankings or title shots. This is a one of those fights that people always wanted to see. It’s just too bad they wanted to see this fight 10 years ago.  The fact is this fight is probably going to be boring.  I see a 3 round ground battle, with Renzo trying to take down Hughes and Hughes stuffing those take down attempts. Matt Hughes doesn’t have much of that same explosive movement he used to have in any aspect of his game. This is a pretty easy one to call for the most part, Renzo hasn’t had a fight since 2007, and he is pushing 45 years old. Matt Hughes doesn’t have much left, but I think he’s got enough to take this one.

Winner via Unanimous Decision, Matt Hughes

-Terry Etim (14-2) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (13-4)

I’ll be honest, I’m not the most familiar person with these two fighters, its’ an interesting fight to put onto the main card of a PPV match-up.  However looking at both of these guys in comparison I can see why they did it. This fight is going to be fireworks. Etim who is a European based fighter with 14 wins, 11 of those wins are by submission. Dos Anjos has 13 wins, 6 of which by submission.  Both of these guys have an excellent ground game and are going to put it to the test here. This fight is going to play out like an exhibition jiu jitsu match.  Both guys are going to come out and go down quick.  Like I was saying I don’t have much film on these two guys, but I will tell you that Etim is the better fighter all around.

Winner via rear naked choke, Terry Etim

-Mark Munoz (7-1) vs. Kendall Grove (11-6)

Kendall Grove is a fighter who most believe hasn’t come close to his full potential. Many people think of him as a BJ Penn type fighter who never truly develops into that superstar.  Grove is a ground fighter with a strong stand-up game with some knock out power.  His past couple of fights has certainly showed he’s picking up his dedication to the sport. Mark Munoz is a fairly new fighter to the sport; with only 8 fights under his belt his first fight was in 2007.  Munoz has only 1 loss on his record now and that’s to Matt Hammill. Munoz hasn’t shown much in the way of stand out talent, as he’s really just a lower end fighter who the UFC throws at guys to put on a good show.  Grove should have no problems beating a guy like Munoz.

Winner via 2^nd round KO, Kendall Grove