Finally, I'm actually have some time to follow up on the quick picks I did for UFC 88. Time is definitely the most needed thing in my world. Anyways, I did pretty good with my picks this time and even the reasoning behind them. Sometimes I do know what I'm talking about.

Rashad Evans KO's Chuck Liddell (picked Liddell)- WOW.  What a nice KO for Rashad. Like I said in my picks for this UFC, the key for Rashad is to be confident in his abilities because he's entered the very top and will have to fight the very star fighters he used to watch on TV. I often compare his fight with Tito Ortiz to the very first Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes fight where St. Pierre was a little more tentative for the sole reason of facing Matt Hughes. Rashad was very tentative against Tito and it almost cost his the fight. Everytime he'd exchange with Ortiz he never leaned in to actually reach for the giant bleached head to knock it out. So confidence was a huge part of Rashad's awesome KO of Chuck. You have to give him and Greg Jackson a lot of credit for being smart and working on his confidence to go with his top notch skills. He was very disciplined with making sure he didn't act on instinct to try to take Liddell down and most importantly not to follow Chuck and play into his strength. Rashad is right up there at light heavy and probably should be either fighting Forrest Griffin for the title or face Wanderlei Silva.

Rich Franklin TKO's Matt Hamill (picked Franklin) - It was a decent fight. The most interesting thing about it was how Rich Franklin would be doing at 205. He did just fine. Definitely a good move for him and he looked to have just as good conditioning, he was nearly fresh in the third! Matt Hamill did pretty good for facing a former champ, but his lack of experience certainly showed and his takedown attempts could have been better. He never really committed. I also found it funny that the UFC called it a "comeback fight of the night". Hamill cut Franklin by an off balance jab and the cut from that wasn't vision threatening. Even with that cut though Franklin was dominating the fight, how is that a comeback? I'm also wondering how far can Matt Hamill go with his disadvantage of not being able to hear his corner? So many top fighters credit their corner men to their success.

Dan Henderson Decisions Rousimar Palhares (picked Henderson) - Henderson did some pretty effective slip'n'slide striking that only he does in the first round and made Palhares look pretty bad. First round pretty much set the tone for the rest of the fight with Henderson being just more active, controlling more and doing more damage. Palhares did have a few takedowns, a decent looking kneebar attempt in the second, but Henderson had an answer for everything. Good win for Henderson to get back on track. May be have him fight Joe Doerkson for a guaranteed exciting fight or have him face Yushin Okami for a complete snoozer and finally retire the unwated Okami from the UFC. Then line him up for another go at Anderson Silva, cause he actually posed some problems for him in their first fight.

Nate "The Great" Marquardt TKO's Martin Kampmann (picked Marquardt) - just like thought and had a sneaking suspicion that the same Nate Marquardt that destroyed Jeremy Horn may show up and he did! He wasted no time and went after the tough Kampmann like he only had a minute and a half to do it. He looked sharp doing it with a variety of strikes and combinations. I guess it helps to have Greg Jackson for a trainer and the new lightheavy bright star Rashad Evans for a training partner. Oh and to have that ugly Keith Jardine around doesn't hurt either. Now that I think of it Marquardt should probably face Dan Henderson for a shot at Anderson Silva. Excellent fight for both.

Dong Hyun Kim decisions Matt Brown (picked Kim) - I loved this fight. Cool of UFC to book Dong Hyun Kim because he is a scrapper and because he bring something different to the table. That was the appeal of early days MMA - fights between different styles. Kim definitely brings an unorthodox MMA style and it was great to see, especially because he made it effective against a tough Matt Brown. Brown actually did sort of start fighting early on but let Kim hang out on his back for most of the first round. It could have gone either way, but I don't see the result being negative for Brown because the fight was very entertaining. Can't wait to see both of them back soon.

Kurt Pellegrino decisions Thiago Tavares (picked Pellegrino) - In my picks for this UFC I said Pellegrino would have weather the ground attack by Tavares first and then take over with improved striking. Turns out I was little too optimistic for Thiago Tavares. I have to say doing a few switch steps does show you did spend some time on footwork, but it seems that's all you did. Kurt Pellegrino came out striking, put Tavares down hard and continued punishing Tavares. Like in most fights, once a dominant pace is set by one fighter the other needs a huge effort to mount comeback. That's why comebacks are so exciting - they just don't happen that often. Pellegrino beating up Tavares while never really being in danger from him was just another example. He knocked him down, mounted him numerous times.  The little time when Tavares had Pellegrino on the the bottom, Pellegrino even managed to submit Tavares with an armbar. That's my opinion on that. Tavares tapped, Pellegrino let go, but because it happened somewhat quick the ref hesitated and Pellegrino just had to keep going. Too bad Tavares didn't have the dignity to stop and admit his defeat, especially because he was badly loosing. Pellegrino finished destroying Thiago Tavares's hype and got a great win. Hope to see him back soon.

Tim Boetsch TKO's Michael Patt (picked Boetsch) - I couldn't quite remember seeing Patt before, but when his awkward self came out I recognized him from Bodog and know "Redneck Judo" was going to get another good showing from Boetsch. "Amature night"-looking fight aside, Boetsch was effective in taking out Patt. Gotta say that "Redneck Judo" is a whole lot more fun when it's effective over a more polished opponent like it was over David Heath, so I hope they match him up against a regular tougher fighter and not another awkward crappy one. Boetsch deserved that.

Jason MacDonald submits Jason Lambert (picked MacDonald) - As I said earlier this trend in fighters to keep dropping weight cause of a few losses is one of the stupidest ones out there, especially dropping down two weight classes. What was Lambert thinking when he took this fight? MacDonald is a huge 185'er, so fighting him is like fighting a 205'er. Like I thought, he had no chance. MacDonald completely overwhelmed him on the ground and submitted him. Lambert should try in WEC for a while and may be come back. MacDonald should probably fight with Kendall Grove.

Ryo Chonan decisions Roan "Jucao" Carneiro (picked Carneiro) - Like many Japanese fighters that come to train with Matt Hume, Ryo Chonan is enjoying the benefits of Hume's training and tuning by being sharper and doing better. It was a complete surprise to me how good Chonan did against Carneiro. It was a close fight with both having good moments. I kind of agree with the judges that Chonan did just a bit more than Carneiro. Good win for Chonan, he should face whoever UFC puts infront of him to prove he'll continue to improve under Hume's tuning. Tough break for Carneiro, second loss in a row. There will lot of pressure for him to win and show the tough Roan Carneiro that gave all kinds of fits to Jon Fitch. Hope he recoveres from this.

Overall, this was a great UFC card with an upset and some nice beatings that turned out about as good as it was on paper.

It's that time again, less than two hours before the event and all I have time for now is just the very quick picks for UFC 88. It's another one of those UFC cards that on paper looks average, even with Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson on it, but as it often happens can turn out to be quite exciting.

Roan Carneiro Vs. Ryo Chonan - I really hope this one actually makes it on the PPV. Roan Jucao Carneiro was one of the very few fighters that had Jon Fitch in real trouble. Not an easy fit by any standards. Coming off an upset loss to Kevin Burns he should bounce back and beat Chonan by TKO. Ryo Chonan is a Japanese journeyman who's biggest accomplishment was catching the great Anderson Silva by a jumping scissors to a heelhook submission, but hey, at least is a great accomplishment.  Should be a good fight due to Chonan's resiliency.

Jason Lambert Vs. Jason MacDonald - this match up feels like a "retirement from UFC for a while" party for Jason Lambert who has now dropped down to 185. Probably in hopes of better luck. It's an annoying trend nowadays. Lose a few fights and blame it on the fact that other guys are just "too big and strong". Yep, forget the fact that they might have done a few more pushups than you and are just a bit more skilled than you in some areas. Lambert is doing exactly this. He got TKO'd in his losses, not taken down and held down by a bigger stronger fighter. Another loss in the new for him 185 category should teach him a good lesson hopefully. It's about skill stupid! Plus, according to Jason MacDonald pendulum record, he is due for a win. Picking MacDonald by submission quickly.

Tim Boetsch Vs. Michael Patt - Patt has had a few decent wins in Bodog event and is decent on the ground with 12 submissions. Tim Boetsch is the famous for introduction to the world of the very unique style of combat Judo, the brutal "Redneck Judo". He instantly won over a great deal of fans, me including. He was just so much fun to watch and he was kicking ass while at it. Even though Matt Hamill put a damper on his quest for championship, Tim is more focused than ever and I'm sure his "Redneck Judo" is a sharp and unrefined as ever. Picking Boetsch by a vicious throw on a head.

Thiago Tavares Vs. Kurt Pellegrino - Tavares burst on the scene with some of the smoothest jiu-jitsu around and the hype around him was quite strong for a while. But you could see chinks in his beautiful jiu-jitsu based game. Tyson Griffin beat him by a close decision, then a judoka Michihiro Omigawa gave him a good run for his money. Many said Tavares had an off night, but truth was that just beautiful jiu-jitsu may simply not be enough. Matt Wiman proved that, he wasn't afraid of it and KO'd Tavares. Kurt Pellegrino can eat a huge kick and still keep coming. His record isn't the most stellar but he's been in some tough fights. I'm picking Pellegrino to get through the ground assault by Tavares and use his improved striking to beat Tavares, just follow Wiman's blueprint.

Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Matt Brown - Matt Brown is certainly tough and can win fights and finish them, but he HAD to get better at starting to fight sooner in his fights. You can not take a bunch of damage and hope it doesn't affect you too much when you're finally ready to fight back. Kim is an unknown, but based on his record it sounds like he will too come out and hurt Matt Brown for a while and may be Matt Brown will fight back or may be he won't. Picking Kim to start out early and not give Brown a chance to be in a condition to fight back effectively.

Martin Kampmann Vs. Nate Marquardt - Martin Kampmann is cool, awesome combo of dutch striking with improving ground game. However I believe in Nate Marquardt. His destruction of Jeremy Horn made me believe a little longer in his dream to eventually get a crack at Anderson Silva again. Marquardt's loss to Thales Leites was due to questionable fouls. Picking Marquardt to finish Kampmann.

Dan Henderson Vs. Rousimar Palhares - Palhares is a little muscle tank with some very slick jiu-jitsu who in his UFC debut not only submitted a very slick himself Ivan Salaverry with an armbar from back mount but also made Joe Rogan cry on the broadcast with that move. I mean honestly, while not a common move in MMA to date, it is a very common and real simple move in grappling. I just wish Joe Rogan was the one commentating Shinya Aoki pulling off gogo plata from the mount to see and hear Rogan's reaction. He would have blown up from all the excitement. Dan Henderson coming off two tough losses to two super tough guys in Andreson Silva and Rampage Jackson. He's really due to bounce back as he usually does and once again make an example of his opponent. Palhares definitely poses danger to Henderson, but Henderson's experience should bring him victory. Picking Henderson

Rich Franklin Vs. Matt Hamill - Is this a 205 fight? I'm guessing 185 is a pointless division for Franklin to be in so for now he's just going to do fights. No real meaning or a goal. And why not? Beating Anderson Silva is out of question for a few years if ever. He should be just as successful at 205 as he was at 185. May be a good move. Hamill isn't exactly an easy fight to try moving up a category. Franklin should have no problem dealing with Hamill's strong wrestling and hard punching. Picking Franklin

Chuck Liddell Vs. Rashad Evans - I don't know why but I'm not excited about this fight at all. Rashad has amazing potential, but he himself is his only hinderance to being great.  He had nothing to be afraid of in his fight with Tito, for 2 rounds he stopped himself from beating Tito up exactly the same way he beat him up in the third. If he didn't get over the fact that he is now part of the more famous fighters and should not be afraid to punch them or take them down, he'll hurt his chances bad against Chuck Liddell. Because unlike Tito, Chuck will actually hurt him. Things are just not looking good for Rashad, he hasn't fought for almost a year, he's tentative with celebrities, his height disadvantage.  Picking Chuck Liddell by TKO by Chuck's own sprawl-and-counter (tm). He was sharp against Wanderlei Silva and looked excited again to be fighting. Just hope that is still there.

Came across another recent Fedor Emelianko's interview from from his official site posted on 08/08/2008. Cool date!  He talks about finding religion, his entrance song and a few other interesting things. Read on for details.

Correspondent: Fedor, first fight according to your contract this year took place. It became one of the fastest out of Your stellar record. Did You expect such a desicive victory over Tim Sylvia?

Fedor Emelianenko: I never exect when a fight is going to end and can never tell ahead of time what is going to happen. Of course, I do want it to end as soon as possible, though I always mentally prepare myself for a long and gruelling fight.

Correspondent: Traditionally fighter's entrance is accompanied by music. This time it was a complete surprise a complete surprise when you came out to a kazak song "Stepan Razin's Dream" (Son Stepana Razina) , better known as a fold song "Oi, to ne veter" (Oi, that's not wind). What made you choose it, and who was it performed by? MMANinja's Note: as Fedor said he had father Andrei record it for him. From little searching that I did I found a version sung by a folk band. Download it here.

Fedor Emelianenko: It was my choice, I really like the song. With God's help I met a wonderful man - a priest from Nizhnii Novgorod father Andrei. When I heard him chant prayers and sing this song, I asked him to record it for me and he agreed.

Correspondent: After the fight cameras zoomed in on a moment when Your coach Vladimir Voronov placed a cross on you. You haven't had it that long. Are you a person of faith?

Fedor Emelianenko: Yes, I'm a person of faith and recently my life has changed, I will try to live my life according to God's teachings...

Correspondent: First step back to church many people make after something happened: serious illness, loss of a loved one, other tragic events... What was the reason for you to make that decision?

Fedor Emelianenko: When I met father Andrei, all my doubts left me...After being around this man, I realized that its the only right way. Through father Andrei God brought me to people who helped me realize how I used to live and how I should live going forward.

Correspondent: A disappointing incident from your last fight became an injury: a broken thumb, the same one that You already had a surgery on, put a metal plate on and so on, it happened again...According to international standards, after a fracture you can not even talk about fighting until after half a year. Does that mean that in 2008 You will not be able to fight?

Fedor Emelianenko: In reality, I don't feel a lot of pain, hand is healing and I'll hope that everything will work out. My next performance is planned in November: Combat Sambo world championships will take place in St. Petersburg.

Correspondent: Do you have plans to participate in "Affliction-2" in October?

Fedor Emelianenko: I would like to take part in "Affliction-2", but I'm not sure yet if it will happen.

Correspondent: Your younger brother Alexander was going to participate in the last "Affliction" event. What was the reason for him not being allowed to fight? Many fear if the same situation will happen at the next event?

Fedor Emelianenko: I can't comment on the situation. Alexander was in fact barred from performing from some blood tests. That's why I can't really say anything.

Correspondent: Last few years you have not trained with your brother. He moved to St. Petersburg and your training, mostly, takes place in Starii Oskol. Any plans to resume training together?

Fedor Emelianenko: It's more convinient and better for me to train in Starii Oskol. That doesn't work for Alex. From what I understand from his recent interviews, he likes it in St. Petersburg and he isn't planning to go anywhere for training.

Correspondent: A considerable group of fans went with you to America. How important is that for you?

Fedor Emelianenko: For me, of course, it's important to have people close to me, who always support me, worry about me and pray for me. I wish all of them could come with me, but none the less it was great to see guys who cheered for me at the event.

Correspondent: Are you planning to fly to Beijing to support russian athletes?

Fedor Emelianenko: Unfortunately, they way things are working out I will not be to go to Beijing. But I wish I could.

Correspondent: One of the organizers of the "Affliction" event was world famous make of stylish clothing, gothic style. You came out in an "Affliction" t-shirt as well. Do you prefer such "brave" style?

Fedor Emelianenko: I prefer a more simple style in clothing. Though I do really like "Affliction" clothes, it's comfortable. And on my t-shirt there was nothing that was against Russian orthodox, so I came out to the ring in it.

Correspondent: In one of your recent interviews we spoke about a project "Fighting Fedor". Are the participant already picked? When will it start?

Fedor Emelianenko: That's a question for Vadim Finkelstein - he leads that project. I don't know the exact time frames.

Correspondent: What are your plans for the near future?

Fedor Emelianenko: I am leaving for America to participate in a press conference. I will also be negotiating with "Affliction" company.

I didn't get a chance to do quick picks for last few UFC events, but the picks are back. Here they are this UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Obviously St. Pierre vs Fitch, Lesnar and Roger Huerta vs Kenny Florian are interesting fight, but the rest of the card on paper is so so for me.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Dan Evensen - Kongo was kinda ripped off in favor of no talent hack Heath Herring in his last fight but showed some improvement in his ground game and I think came away with a few lessons from the fight. That's all that matters in a close loss like that and Kongo will be better off. Evenson fought in Bodog several times but hasn't beaten anyone of note. UFC's heavyweight division is lacking right now so they're bringing him in to feed to Kongo. Picking Kongo by KO

Luke Cummo Vs. Tamdan McCrory - should be a fun fight as both of the guys have decent standup and like to push the action in their fights. Picking Tamdan McCrory based on his better record of winning against better fighters and his reach.

Jason MacDonald Vs. Demian Maia - another fight that has the potential to be pretty exciting from the ground game perspective. Both MacDonald and Maia's previous victories were exciting finishes. Picking Maia by submission.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Rob Emerson - Rob Emerson has actually faced several good guys like Pulver, Vasquez, Mishima in his MMA career prior to his appearance on the Ultimate Fighter TV show. Gamburyan has gotten on a few win streak, both by submissions, since list injury loss to Nate Diaz. Seems like Emerson has had issues with good ground guys in the past, so I'm picking Manny Gamburyan by a few very hard rights, takedown, some pounding and submission.

Kenny Florian Vs. Roger Huerta - after watching UFC 87 Countdown and watching the Roger Huerta segment all I can say is wow. What a story! It's amazing what he has achieved coming off his childhood experiences. He was lucky to have had the people that helped him get on his feet, but his hard work and determination kept him on course. This completely throws out his image of happy go lucky mexican college kid who's fed easy fights. Come on, Clay Guida is an easy fight?

Onto Kenny Florian. He is very intelligent and established himself as a lifelong learner of MMA. His dedication and motivation to be the best has been showing in his recent fights. With that said, I think Huerta's has more power and faster pace, so I'm picking Roger Huera by an exciting decision.

Brock Lesnar Vs. Heath Herring - picking Brock Lesnar to give Heath Herring a retirement beating. Straight right, takedown, vicious ground and pount till TKO.  Herring still sucks on the ground after 11 years of being in MMA. This will be much like Jake O'Brian's domination of Herring, only Brock Lesnar will do killer damage.

Georges St-Pierre Vs. Jon Fitch - the event will start in a few minutes, so I'm out of time. Picking Georges St. Pierre by a clean win over the blood and guts of Jon Fitch in a long exciting and gruelling fight!

Out of all the Yahoo! Sports MMA section newly minted MMA "experts" I always considered Dave Meltzer to be the best out of the bunch as he's been around MMA for a while longer than the rest. Most of the time, if I have time, I usually just quickly scan over their MMA coverage as they're often pretty bland and biased and plain bad...cough...Kevin Iole anyone?...cough...cough.

So when Dave Meltzer's Lesnar faces must-win against Herring article showed up on Yahoo.com's front page today I had to check it out. After quickly looking at it I felt compelled to comment on some of the points and errors in his article.

 "Lesnar can’t afford a second straight loss on a major pay-per-view event and still be considered a long-term main eventer."

First of all, Brock Lesnar hasn't been a main eventer in UFC yet. His UFC debut fight with Frank Mir felt like one though because of how much popularity he brought to the UFC from his WWE days and stellar NCAA background to go with that. He can very much afford a second straight loss on a major PPV event also because he, in my opinion, lived up to the hype of being incredibly athletic and fast for his size and most importantly that he put in some hard training and looked very very good for being so inexperienced in MMA. He handily beat on Frank Mir but got caught by a much experienced fighter in a possibly debilitating, however not quite there, submission and didn't want to risk a long term injury. He only made more MMA fans with his loss and created more hype and anticipation as to what he can really do in MMA. He is also a natural competitor and it will be very hard for anyone to turn a fight with him into a boring affair. So he can afford 3-4 more exciting losses with no problem for his UFC popularity at all. But that's not going to happen, he is not losing at UFC 87 - not to the sloppy Heath Herring.

Meltzer then proceeds to comment on the fact that because Brock Lesnar came in at a higher salary of guaranteed $250,000 a fight another loss could really ruin his UFC career.

"The others have been given lower or mid-level opponents to start out with to build their reputation. UFC decided that with what they were paying Lesnar, there was going to be no such slow grooming process."

Honestly? With how many PPV buys Brock Lesnar brought in with his first fight, $250,000 a fight is nothing to UFC at this point for a celebrity of sorts.  They'd need not even 6000 extra PPV buys to recoup that salary. He brought in quite a bit more than that. Come on, they just got done paying Brandon Vera nearly the same for one of the worst fights this year against a mostly unknown wrestler.

"Texan Herring has 41 pro fights over the past 11 years, in nearly every major organization. He became a star in Japan at the age of 22, and has been in the ring with a Who’s Who list of the greatest heavyweights of all-time."

"Herring, a big star during PRIDE’s heyday in Japan when he was known as “The Texas Crazy Horse” for his unique multi-colored hair, noted he’s beaten men bigger than the 6-2 ½, 277-pound Lesnar, as well as higher credentialed wrestlers. He’s best known for a 2000 win over Tom Erikson"

"Herring (28-13), is known for being difficult to finish; he went the distance twice with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their three meetings, after being submitted the first time. But he was beaten by his most famous opponents in Japan, by Cro Cop from strikes on the ground, and by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood."

Brock Lesnar isn't in much danger facing THIS Heath Herring. Yep. The same Heath Herring who showed his true skills against Jake O'Brian, who couldn't finish Brad Imes (where is he now anyways? Still doing gogo-platas at some tiny shows?), who questionably beat Cheick Kongo. 41 pro fights in the past 11 years and he never amounted to anything in nearly every major organization, besides amuzing Japanese fans with his stupid hair cuts.  His supposed wildness or crazyness only amounts to the fact that in 11 years of fighting and training here and there, he still looks as sloppy and amateurish as he did during his "wild days" of wearing leather cloaks for his fight entrances. Lesnar will retire Herring from UFC by beating him in the first round. 

Why is Meltzer talking a loss for Lesnar when he's fighting Herring? Herring hasn't submitted anyone in 5 years, let alone anybody good ever. Sorry comparing his wins over wrestlers 7 years ago doesn't make much sense. He hasn't KO'd anybody in 2 years. What he has done is get dominated on the ground by a ground game newbie Cheik Kongo and got completely tooled by a much smaller Jake O'Brian. Given all that and an enormous amount of sloppyness, Brock Lesnar's chances to lose are minimal.

Also, Nogueira submitted Herring in his second fight not first and what does "by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood" mean? I share Fightlinker's sentiments in how sad it is that Yahoo's Sports MMA has some of the biggest audience out there, especially when they often get to the front page, but their MMA coverage is being done either by very inept people with not much clue about MMA and the fact that they're very biased and often inaccurate.

This round of EliteXC on CBS wasn't too bad of a show. They've definitely improved on it in a number of areas but at the same time still have quite a bit to improve on. This time I didn't think they delivered a major disappointment to all MMA like their first attempt with CBS in May. While it was about fights for me and I didn't mind too much that the whole production portion of the first show was a complete fumble.  Kimbo and Thompson shouldn't have been a main event, but it was an ok brawl. I think MMA media overall, especially Yahoo MMA, were blowing EliteXC's production issues completely out of proportion. Come on, MMA is speeding steam-rolling train that nothing can stop it at this point.  Mere 2 months after everyone proclaimed EliteXC did SO much damage to MMA's acceptance by general public NOT too many people even remember that.

• Their intro highlight compilation is still the worst of just about any MMA show out there with any sort of budget, especially with a real TV station backing. It's outrageous in my opinion. Did they have golf highlight clip specialist make that? Scrap it, take all that good EliteXC highlight material to date and hire some of the very talented MMA highlight video makers out there in the wild of the internets. They'll probably be happy to make it for free.
• Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos vs Shayna Baszler - Wow, Cyborg's wife Cyborg is one vicious and angry woman. Training at Chute Boxe with a bunch of crazy men sure made her one of the most dangerous female fighters out there. It's a little scary how powerful and snappy her striking was. It was a great fight. I blame Josh Barnett for Shayna Baszler's mistakes though. WTF was he thinking not yelling for Baszler to let go of the damn useless toehold! She had Cyborg's leg extended for a least a good kneebar attempt and she kept cranking and wasting whatever energy/strength she had on, I'll say it again, a useless toehold. When the leg is almost straight and near a kneebar position toeholds just don't work until the leg is bent and the toes are near the butt. Then again, Baszler was just thrown down by an angry and a much stronger amazon woman and really had no choice but try for a submission, except she should have tried to get guard and work armbar/triangle. Obviously the end of the fight was a little weird, reminds me of Matt Linland vs Murillo Bustamante, where the clear winner of the fight had to interrupt their celebration, come back and win the fight again. Mazagatti and company should have known better and stopped the fight after first knockdown when it was clear Baszler wasn't ok to continue. But for a great TV moment they made, a mad at that point, Cyborg come back and beat Baszler even worse.
• Jake Shields vs Nick Thompson - Shields was again very impressive and dominated the Goatboy Thompson. Shields was great in taking every single opening and taking full advantage of it. Takedown to side, mount, guillotine from the top - like clockwork. Thompson came in with a good win streak over lesser competition and was little to confident with that stupidest looking goat beard. Shields ate him up. Who's he fighting next?
• Nick Diaz vs Thomas Denny  - I wasn't overly excited to see this fight. I mean Denny is a journey man at best with a spotty record. Crazy stupid hair doesn't buy you skills, just look at that sloppy bum Heath Herring. Is it me or has Diaz been sloppier with his boxing? I know he's got a bit of an unorthodox style, but lately he's been taking a whole lot more punishment to his face than he used to. This cost him the KJ Noons fight. This also made it kind of embarrasing when a bum like Denny landed as much as he did with his awkward striking. So Diaz TKO's Denny and I guess not gets to rematch with KJ Noons. I'm predicting KJ Noons to beat Diaz again by crisp striking and complete face busting with cuts under and over both eyes, nose and forehead. Time for a new boxing coach for Diaz to work head movement and parrying or whatever, but to just avoid eating so many damn punches!
• Antonio Silva vs Justin Eilers - Eilers is a bum that should have retired after looking just plain weird during every single of his three consecutive KO during his UFC punching bag days. So Silva beating Eilers was no surprise at all, even considering his not so stellar heavyweight accomplishments either. UFC's heavy's are a joke? Nope. EliteXC's heavy's are a complete mockery of even a half legit division. Eilers, Weizorek, Ricco Rodriguez? Even Silva himself, whose big accomplishment is beating those three bums. After Brock Lesnar chews Heath Herring up and spits him out, Herring will have a nice home and fame in the EliteXC's bum heavy division. He'll be a great fit. They'll only be missing Gan McGee.
• Robbie Lawler vs Scott Smith - Nice fight. Started a little slow because it was hard for both to just jump in the slugfest they had previously. Both knew they could get hurt. Lawler pressed the action most of the first round, but Smith rebounded nicely with a good flurry at the end. Smith made a big mistake by just hanging out after he cut Lawler. I kept wondering what he was waiting for when Lawler punched him in the liver with those sharp grazing liver punches during clinch. Those didn't get through right away,but they certainly had a major compound effect which set up the final knees to break right through to knocking the wind out of Smith and putting him down for good. Awesome job by Lawler to pick up the pace and finish the fight.

This was really decent as far as fights go. I wish EliteXC would break the bank and hire some better competition or at least some bright new blood. Other than that, they're on the right track to eventually be #3 behind WEC on Versus and UFC on Spike.

Fedor Emelianenko just had an amazing weekend at Affliction's Banned event completely overwhelming Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia with some vicious punches and winning WAMMA  Heavy Weight title.  He made a big splash with his win at the event and various MMA news media, took pictures with Donald Trump and other celebrities, wore Affliction shirts all around Las Vegas and as Dave Meltzer said he "turned into an undisputed reality" the myths of his skills and might.

You know though, he's already been there, done all that numerous times. Who hasn't been thinking for a while now that his streak just has got to end!? Everyone. He's looked vulnerable so many times, not against Sylvia obviously, but yet his opponents just can't seem to be able to take advantage of those opportunities to beat him.

Anyways, back to my point. He's been there, done that - winning big titles, beating dangerous fighters and proving many wrong. But what Fedor's also done recently, while training for Sylvia, is join the ranks of well educated MMA champions. Just a little over a month ago he defended his Physical Education diploma with "Methodology for developing of strength abilities in training samboists of 13-15 years of age" at Belgorod State University. What usually happens at the "diploma defense" is the student reads their final work on a selected topic in front of a panel of professors and then answer their questions on anything at all that has to do with the topic. No multiple choice here, you have to know your stuff!

Also same little tiny write up mentions that Fedor may get to use his education and experience at the still in construction Academy of Fedor Emelianenko in Belgorod to coach professional fighers. It'll be a really hot MMA training spot for sure.

It's amazing how Fedor managed to keep true to himself and still live in a tiny city, a little aparment and with how rich and famous he is, still finish a Physical Education degree. Congratulations to Fedor and his achievements outside the ring. More Pictures from his "diploma defense".

I've been a big fan of Japanese MMA ever since I could get my hands on some early Pancrase, Japan Vale Tudo, Rings KOK and Shooto tapes. It's the event atmosphere, the knowledgeable crowd who appreciates all aspects of MMA, fighting in the ring, leglocks, tournaments, good fighters and crazy always excited announcers - all those things combined made Japanese MMA very entertaining. I mean if you watched any of the yearly "Best of Shooto" tapes in the late 1990s and compared it to any of the other MMA around the world at the time you'd see how incredible the fights were. 

This weekend were the Finals of the Dream Lightweight Grand Prix that started a few months back with first round of the tournament. I was really excited about that card because of several late Pride Bushido stars were to participate. Unfortunately, as it often happens, even the best cards on paper do not always turn out that way. The event was so so and several fighters I was looking out for like Joachim Hansen and Hideo Tokoro were pretty flat. Especially Hansen, who has pulled some amazing grappling moves during his fights, like helicopter armbar, and has had some amazing KO victories as well. I don't know if they layoff affected him or what, but he looked lethargic against a lesser opponent and even though he still finished the fight with a rear naked choke after flipping his opponent over him from all fours right into the back mount he looked like a shadow of his former energetic self. Anyways...onto the fights.

Daisuke Nakamura vs. Andy Ologun - Classic fight between grappler vs striker, as classic as that type of fight can get as Nakamura was even wearing old style Rings shinpad boots, which I thought was awesome. Ologun is brother of Bobby Ologun, who's a some type of comedian-turned-fighter in Japan. It was a fun short fight with Nakamura trying for a kneebar after getting knocked off his feet and finishing the fight with a slick flying armbar!

Joachim Hansen vs. Kultar Gill - Kultar Gill aka Black Mamba is quick striker with some great takedown defence who's given his many mostly grappling opponents hell win or lose. He beat Tokoro twice giving him a beating while escaping numerous submission attempts. To be honest I was a little worried for Hansen because of his last lethargic performance and you have to be very alert fighting Black Mamba. Hansen did good though, he kept pressure on Gill with takedowns so much so that Gill resorted to trying to take Hansen down. Hansen countered with a Kimura and then switched it to an armbar from the bottom for the submission. Good win for Hansen.

Joseph Benavidez vs. Junya Kudo - haven't heard about either fighter before, but Benavidez had Uriah Faber in his corner which only meant that he is from a tough camp and it's going to be a good fight. Benavidez's fighting style resembled Faber's, he was quick with his takedowns, did an awesome slam and looked to have powerful punches. Kudo did catch Benavidez with a few punches and kept up with him for a bit, but they didn't seem to affect Benavidez much. Benavidez pulled off a nice guillotine choke from the mount after quickly turning Kudo over his side from all fours. I'll be looking out for Benavidez now, hopefully he'll get a shot in WEC on Versus soon.

Hideo Tokoro vs. Takeshi Yamazaki - Hideo Tokoro's claim to fame was practically beating the Royce Gracie who outweight him by more than 30lb or so. Tokoro was given a chance of a life time and took full advantage of the opportunity and fought like a little mad man. He's always exciting and has a very slick ground game. Back to this fight with Yamazaki. Great fight with back and forth action. Tokoro actually ended up out striking Yamazaki and had a few kimura attempts. Yamazaki did great at neutralizing Tokoro's great guard and passing it on several occasions. Tokoro took a deserved decision win.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Motoki Miyazawa - Hironaka is a pretty tough guy with wins over Ryan Schultz, Nick Diaz and Renato Verissimo and a decision loss to  Jon Fitch. Hironaka and Miyazawa tried to grapple for a bit with Hironaka getting a takedown and Miyazawa attempting to play rubber guard for a bit but quickly gave up. They worked their way back to standing and turned it into a striking match with Hironaka getting better and better as they went on till he finished it with flurry for a TKO from a cut. Decent fight.

Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuyori Shibata - I think Akiyama was the very first MMA fighter entrance to an opera piece and it actually pretty good. Akiyama is a judoka who's been involved in some controversy with oiling up in a fight with  Kazushi Sakuraba and generallyn know to be an a$$hole. He's had some good wins over Dennis Kang and Melvin Manhoef recently. For this fight though he was fighting a tomato can of sort in Shibata, may be cause he needed to recover after a vicious KO courtecy of Kazuo Misaki in his last fight. He was having a hard time with Shibata, who was keeping distance and striking from the outside. Akiyama finally cornered Shibata and threw a huge high kick that missed but gave him an opportunity to tie up and do a sweet judo sweep to side mount. He moved to mount and used his gi to choke Shibata completely out with a front choke. Pretty typical Judo.

Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki - Both are exciting fighters. Uno with a good mix of stand up, ground and tenacity (dig up his classic fight with Joachim Hansen!) and Aoki with his rare submission skills, he's the only one so far to pull of a go-go plata from the mount! I was very excited to see the fight even though I know that when two really good guys fight it may not be too exciting.  It wasn't the most faced paced fight, but it was great. In round 1 Aoki had a good heelhook attempt, then he took Uno's back and set up Uno to roll out straight in a tight triangle, then an armbar. As great as Aoki was moving from a submission to a submission, Uno was right there with him escaping from the jaws of defeat. Round 2 started off with Aoki taking Uno down, passsing his guard and taking his back again. Uno eventually worked his way out into Aoki's rubber guard to finish the round and the fight. Great round work and control by Aoki, he moved to the finals of the tournament.

Eddie Alvarez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri - Kawajiri a long time top lightweight and generally exciting fighter with strong wrestling and powerful striking from Shooto and Pride Bushido days. He beat Black Mamba and Luis Fermino to get to the semi finals of this tournament to face Alvarez. I haven't really seen Alvarez fight till the begining of this tournament and he really impressed me with his win over Andre Dida and then beating Joachim Hansen. This match just had to be good I thought. What a great fight it turned out! Both guys were really going for it with striking. Alvarez caught kawajiri with a great flurry and almost had him out. Kawajiri recovered and knocked Alvarez down and mounted him. Alvarez escaped to standing and they were both slugging it out out with both of them getting knocked down and still punching. Alvarez kept pushing forward and knocked Kawajiri down yet again and referee made him finish Kawajiri off on the ground. This wasn't the kind of fight to engage in as part of the tournament though. Alvarez had a big mouse with a cut under his right eye to go into the final against Aoki.

Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem - Meaningless fight? Yes. Are Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem fun to watch? Yes. Thats another thing Japanse MMA always offered over MMA - can't be serious all the time so once in a while it's ok to put on fight purely cause they'd be fun to watch!  Hunt landed a few hard shots on Overeem to start off, then he kinda just pushed Overeem down and ...gasp.. he proceeded to intelligently pass Overeems guard.  Good for you Mark Hunt! Hunt passed Overeem's guard into side mount but Overeem managed to lock in an Americana from the bottom, which he proceeded to crank like crazy and working in his legs as if he was going to go for an armbar on the other arm. He turned Hunt over and submitted him with a kimura from the guard. I wish it was longer, but it was fun while it lasted.

Tournament Final: Shinya Aoki vs Joachim Hansen - Turns out Eddie Alvarez couldn't continue with one eye shut, so Joachim stepped in as a winner of the alternate fight earlier. Hansen had a shorter earlier fight, but Aoki had a go-go plata submission win over Hansen only 2 years ago.  Aoki took a charging Hansen down and kinda took his time working for position. Hansen proceeded to literally pester Aoki with a lot of punches from the bottom and making him move. Aoke is forced to stand up and Hansen accidentaly, though lightly, kick Aoki in the groin. To Aoki's credit he takes a very short break and they restard. Hansen throws wild puches, they scramble and Aoki plays rubber guard. Hansen gets out to land some hard punches form the top. He works to get out, stands up and lands a HUGE punch falling down and finishes and stunned Aoki. Hansen in the tournament winner.

Hansen said he want's to fight Alvarez next, but for me I think Alvarez should fight Aoki to resolve the real winner of the tournament.

MMA Tournaments are so exciting to follow and Japanese MMA has always provided us with some amazing events based on the tournaments. While Dream's tournament wasn't the best ever, it was still a decent tournament with excitement and unpredictability that only tournaments can provide. MMA Fighters that won tournaments or had to fight several times in one night always stand out for me as fighters who are just a little bit tougher than others. Vovchanchyn, Fedor, Noguiera, Henderson, Silva, Shogun, CroCop, Gomi are men's men.

Versus TV network has established itself on of the major MMA destinations on cable TV in recent years. Carrying World Extreme Cagefighting live events and replays has not only been beneficial for both Versus's and WEC's exposure, but also for the millions of MMA fans that get quality MMA events on free TV. WEC has the very exciting 145lb weight class that UFC currently doesn't. WEC's current 145lb champion Uriah Faber is one of the most exciting and dominating pound for pound fighters in MMA today.

About a year ago Versus introduced MMA fans to their new reality series revealing trials and tribulations of the TAPOUT crew's quest to find future MMA star fighters that could represent the TAPOUT brand. When I first saw it, I was surprised by the show's production quality. It turns out that the show's producers also produced popular reality series like American Choppers and Dirty Jobs. First season of the show was a success and was viewed by more than 40 million viewers, so they're back with more.

I really liked the show because it gave MMA fans like me a unique look into the roots of MMA - what happens at the smaller MMA shows and yet unknown MMA fighers with promise. Stuff like that was gold during the cable PPV black out times and was only shown by a few small documentary films and now it was on weekly!  Tapout clothing is one of the oldest MMA companies that has been around since beginning of MMA rise in US. It was neat to hear their history from the founders themselves - the non-stop laughing face-painted MASK, tall and afro wearing SKYSCRAPE and the most sensible of the trio PUNKASS. Even though Tapout now is a major MMA brand that is sold even in regular mall stores and endorse major MMA stars, these guys stay down to earth and still support the small MMA shows and up and coming fighters. Over the course of the shows they've gone to different MMA camps and brought the promising fighters they picked to the shows on their own bus and at times were the only support during the fights.

From Versus TV's press release on what will be on in the Season 2 premier:

In the season two premiere, the TapouT crew travels to San Luis Obispo, Calif. to ‘The PIT’ to see one of John Hackleman’s up-and-coming MMA fighters, Scott Lighty.  Scott is accompanied by his best friend and training partner, Glover Teixeira and the crew quickly realizes the potential Glover has, and decides to sponsor both Scott and Glover who are fighting on the same card.  UFC legend Chuck Liddell, who is both Scott and Glover’s trainer, makes a special guest appearance. 

Below is the video promo for TAPOUT season 2 on Versus that starts on July 30th and will be on every Wednesday at 10 pm. Full Schedule

I'm sure it's been talked about to death by other MMA outlets, but I'm going to chime in on this anyways. Dana White says he isn't "threatened by a T-Shirt company" (Affliction Clothing's first PPV event evah), YET he goes out and puts on a free Fight Night on Spike TV with a STUPID main event with only a few decent match ups.  Ya, I get why UFC did it but as most I'm sure predicted it turned out for the worse. Anyways... I still watched it.

Anderson Silva vs James The Scrub Irvin - well, they circled for a while, sure enough Irvin throws a low kick, Silva catches it, counters and Irvin folds for a paycheck. WTF was the point?

Brandon Vera vs Reese Andy - I used to make excuses for Vera and his crappy performances after his contract disputes, which didn't do him any good, but after his tonight's performance I say stick a fork in him for a while and let him go see Tony Robbins, who did wonders for Chuck Liddell. I don't buy Vera's lack of any type of triggerering mechanism against a guy who can't take you down or strike with you on weight cutting. After the first round even a strategerist like Tito Ortiz would have realize that his opponent had nearly non-existent offence and that all Vera had to do is jab Andy's chest and follow up with some crosses or jumping knees or high kicks or wtfever. Seriously, I like Lloyd Irving's Grappling Plan and all, but he isn't doing anything for Vera's obvious flaws with his mental aspect of the fight game.

Hermes Franca vs Franky Edgar - at first I thought - cool, former title challenger vs rising star but then the fight took place. Franky Edgar kept a fast pace and Franca didn't care at all about getting taken down.  So Edgar took him down and worked him over with repeated elbows. Joe Rogan tried to defend Franca's relaxation routine under elbow assault saying he's just waiting to explode. Good timing for Rogan cause Franca did almost pull off a nice armbar, but Edgar just as nicely escaped and proceded to gift Franca with face swelling elbows. It was all Edgar most of the fight for a relatively unanimous decision.  This fight left me wondering though why would Franca just give the fight away? He's just one of those guys that tries to do everything last minute, unfortuntely for him the hard workers of the world will cosistenly come out on topof the slackers.

Cain Velasquez vs Jake O'Brien - Heavyweight division is kinda hurting so it was good to have this fight to expose Velasquez a bit. He was on a mission and he completed it with non stop punching of trapped O'Brien's head. Kudos to Yamasaki for letting it go for a while so that there weren't any doubts.

Anthony Johnson Vs. Kevin Burns - Burns did impress everyone by beating a really tough Roan Carneiro with a submission in his last fight. However Anthony Johnson made him look very average. The fight was ok until Johnson started feeling more comfortable in the second round and began to pick Burns apart, however lazy. Burns poked Johnson in the eyes about three times in second and in the third round he did it again and really deep. Johnson falls downs, he can't continue, replays show a finger jab going straight into his eye and they award victory to Burns? WTF?

Jesse Taylor Vs. CB Dollaway - I'm glad Jesse was brought back, but at the same time why make such a big deal on the TV show, take him off the Finale show and bring him back not a month later. When did he have time to go to the Alchoholics Anonymous, EH? Anyways, the fight was good, Jesse was controlling CB pretty well, till CB pulled a nice Marcello Garcia move to get behind Jesse and set up his now famous peruvian neck tie choke.

On it's own and without the stupid main event, this Fight Night was ok for me. But considering why it was put on, it was bust. Especially knowing how the competing event went. Dana should be ashamed of his ego, not willing to set up Randy vs Fedor and trying to be a bastard when others do it without him.