Bleacher Report - Articles by Leon Horne

Fedor Emelianeko's Injuries the Thorn in Strikeforce's Side

Leon Horne — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:28:46 -0500

After a fairly successful Saturday night for Strikeforce's first card on a major television network, the organization might find themselves in a bit of a conundrum.

Strikeforce's acquisition of highly coveted heavy weight Fedor Emelianenko was without question part of a plan to turn itself into a big promotion capable of going toe to toe with the UFC.

Prior to acquiring the services of Fedor, Strikeforce was a small local American promotion. Strikeforce hosted events for free on Showtime and never threatened the UFC with pay per view or major television network cards.

In fact Dana White who is very quick to berate and tear down the competition, never really had anything mean to say about Strikeforce as an organization.

Unlike Affliction and other promotions that have either been gobbled up or destroyed by the UFC, Strikeforce has never been subject to the aggressive and systematic counter programming the UFC is notorious for when the competition is broadcasting their fights. That is until now.

Dana White has been taking his shots at Strikeforce and is probably rather bitter with the fact that Strikeforce ended up with Fedor.

This past weekend we saw UFC programming on Spike TV on both Friday night, during Strikeforce's ShoMMA 4: Gurgel vs Evangelista on Showtime and Saturday night for Strikeforce: Fedor vs Rogers on CBS.

Make no mistake Strikeforce is now on the UFC hit list.

That being said, Strikeforce's Saturday night fights on CBS were all entertaining bouts and the preliminary numbers are showing that it was a successful campaign despite the UFC counter programming.

You know what they say, “Too much of a good thing can be bad”, so Strikeforce should definitely take their time with the Russian phenom and use his contract wisely.

Of course, any organization is going to want to ride the momentum of their last event into the next one and you can't space out your money makers too much.

A fighter that gets a good draw for your company should realistically be fighting at the very least twice a year and at the most four times a year.

This is where Strikeforce finds themselves a bit tied up with Fedor Emelianenko.

After his fight with Rogers, it was revealed that Rogers' jab to open the first round did in fact break Fedor's nose and on a heavier note Fedor damaged his left hand at some point in the fight.

The damage to the left hand is going to take a good 4-6 months to be at full strength, which means the soonest we'll see Fedor in the cage is May of 2010. That is a long time.

Strikeforce is certainly not going to be very comfortable having one of the faces of the organization on the shelf for so long.

Strikeforce picked Fedor up to challenge the MMA world as a top promotion and now they will have to go a six month stretch without him.

Things like this happen to the UFC, but unlike Strikeforce the UFC has multiple fighters in each division that can save a fight card and bide them some extra time while their stars heal up.

Strikeforce is going to have to handle their upcoming cards carefully and they are going to have to put a lot of effort into promoting them.

Of course Strikeforce has some more talent behind Fedor, guys like Mousasi, Jake Shields, Alistair Overeem (if he ever comes back to defend his belt), Brett Rogers, possibly Dan Henderson, possibly Arlovski and maybe Barnett if he can get a licence to fight.

The problem with the guys on Strikeforce's roster is they aren't the kind of draws that the top fighters in the UFC are.

Fedor Emelianenko is integral to Strikeforce's development and he can't do much for the organization while he is on injured reserve.

There are somethings working in Strikeforce's favour and they might be able to weather the storm without Fedor.

The UFC's biggest draw Brock Lesnar is out for 3-6 months with mono. Anderson Silva is out due to required elbow surgery. Lyoto Machida is on a 60 day suspension due to the injuries sustained in his last fight. Georges St. Pierre has been hampered by a groin injury since his last fight in UFC 100.

Clearly a lot of the UFC's big draws are out with injury as well and this bodes well for Strikeforce.

On top of that, Fedor injuries aside, from the fight quality and viewer statistics standpoint Strikeforce's first major card on CBS did well for itself.

Not having Fedor is like a thorn in Strikeforce's side, but with proper scheduling and promoting they could get through the next six months without Fedor in the cage, only time will tell.

Five Points To Take from Strikeforce: Fedor Vs Rogers

Leon Horne — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:09:41 -0500

Fedor Emelianenko Is the Best and Rogers Is No Slouch

Fedor showed the world once again why he is the best heavyweight in the world and arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter as well.

That being said, a round of applause needs to be given to his opponent, Bret Rogers. Rogers fought a hard first round, busting open Fedor's nose with a stiff jab and controlling him along the fence.

Many fans and media alike felt that if Fedor were to get the fight to the ground, it would be game over for Bret Rogers.

On the contrary, the fight went to the ground on more then one occasion in the fight and Rogers didn't look too uncomfortable.

Rogers's scramble is excellent. He escaped a Fedor submission attempt and came very close to ending the fight via ground and pound from the top position.

We didn't see any submission offence from Brett Rogers, but he definitely has a great ground game to go with his excellent stand up.

Fedor basically showcased what he did in the Arlovski fight. Even though Fedor looks like he may be in a for a tough fight, he is only one haymaker away from taking the fight from his opponent.

When I say haymaker, I don't mean lucky punch, because even though it may look lucky, Fedor has done this too many times to be considered a lucky punch.

Rogers appeared to have taken his loss pretty hard, wanting a rematch as soon as possible. I had to chuckle a little bit; Rogers sounded like he wanted a rematch to happen tonight.

Fedor was humble in victory once again thanking his opponent and everyone who watched.

Bottom line here is, Fedor is still the best heavyweight fighter on the planet, and if you are a betting man, don't bet against him.

Jake Shields Does What Is Needed To Win

Jake Shields respected Jason Miller's stand up and used his wrestling to take Miller down and control the fight.

Miller was game for this fight, but he wanted to keep the fight standing and failed to make the grade.

For the few seconds that the fight was standing, Miller looked like he totally outclassed Jake Shields.

Even on the ground, Miller at one point sunk in what would have been a fight-ending rear naked choke, his only enemy was the clock and Shields was saved by the bell.

Aside from the rear naked choke attempt, Shields dominated and controlled Miller on the ground, gaining dominant positions throughout the match.

The fight was booed by the fans due mere fact that Shields didn't really put Miller in any danger. In fact, even though Shields controlled the fight and had the unanimous decision, Shields looked like he took more damage then Miller did.

At the end of it all, Shields knew Miller was a tough fight and at the risk of putting on a boring fight, did what he had to to win the fight.

The old saying goes: “You have to take the belt from the champion,” and unfortunately for Miller, he didn't do enough.

Gegard Mousasi a Dangerous Light Heavyweight

Gegard Mousasi took on Thierry Sokodjou in a light-heavyweight non-title match, which makes absolutely no sense.

Gegard Mousasi is the Strikeforce light-heavyweight title holder and both guys made the 205 lbs weight limit. On the off chance that Sokodjou won the fight, Gegard still would have been the Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ.

That being said, Gegard showed why he is a light heavyweight to watch out for.

This fight played out much like the Fedor vs Rogers fight later on in the night.

Sokodjou, who had been struggling against top flight competition and unable to put together a nice chain of wins came to fight tonight.

Sokodjou arguably won the first round using his Judo to take Gegard down with some nice takedown reverses and throws.

Gegard attempted a take down that looked to put Sokodjou flat one his back, but Sokodjou used his incredible hip strength and flexibility to land on top.

The problem for Sokodjou is, for as good as his Judo is, once he gets the fight to the ground in a dominant position, he looks like a fish out of water. Sokodjou's ground and pound isn't spectacular, and he doesn't have event the simplest submissions in his tool box.

In the second round, Gegard finally scored a take down that put him in top position. From there, Sokodjou's game off his back was exposed and Gegard quickly ground and pounded his way to victory.

Even though it looked like Sokodjou was in shape and ready to take it to Gegard, Mousasi showed the world why he should be considered a top ranked light-heavyweight fighter.

Antonio Silva Looked Good, but Where is his Gas Tank?

Fabricio Werdum put his win streak up to two since his devastating knock out loss to the UFC's up and coming young gun Junior Dos Santos.

Werdum beat the “Big Foot” Silva via unanimous decision after losing the first round.

Silva came out strong in the first round landing dangerous knees, punches, and elbows to Werdum's face. Silva definitely won the round and looked like he was going to finish this fight at some point or win it by decision.

In the second round, Silva looked tentative and wasn't landing with the power and accuracy he had in the first round. Silva, to put it bluntly, was gassed.

Werdum saw this, realized he wasn't in trouble in the stand up, and would be able to get the fight to the ground.

Werdum got Silva to the ground and on his back and was vying for the submission. Silva, even though he was gassed, was pretty crafty and managed to defend against all of Werdum's submission attempts.

Unfortunately, winning one round in a three-round fight by a land slide and following it up with two rounds of no offence doesn't win fights in MMA.

The Werdum vs Silva fight more than ever showed the importance of being ready to go all three or five rounds in a fight, maybe Silva will get on the treadmill a bit more before his next fight.

Does the UFC have to Worry About Strikeforce on CBS? Yes and No.

The UFC definitely edges out Strikeforce on presentation marks.

Many older mixed martial arts fans have voiced their disdain for the UFC's presentation and the fact that it focuses solely on the 18 to 35-year-old demographic.

Strikeforce's presentation looked more like a professional wrestling show than it did a mixed-martial-arts competition.

The fireworks, flames, cheesy entrances (Jason “Mayhem” Miller), and overall pro wrestling atmosphere made it look like Strikeforce was trying to appeal to the 10 to 18-year-old crowd.

The fights on the other hand were pretty entertaining and lived up to their hype, particularly the Fedor vs Rogers main event and Sokodjou vs Mousasi co-main event.

That being said, the UFC is no stranger to putting on exciting cards themselves.

Gegard is making a case for being one of the better light heavyweights in the world.

This doesn't hurt the UFC much, because the best light heavyweights are still in the UFC, with guys like Machida, Mauricio Rua, Rashad Evans, and even Anderson Silva, who normally fights at middle weight.

So what does the UFC have to worry about? The fact that Strikeforce has the best heavyweight in the world and another tough one to back him up.

Fedor dealt with a much larger and stronger opponent in Brett Rogers and dispatched of him in “Fedor” fashion.

That being said, Brett Rogers put on an excellent showing against the Russian and made a strong case for being a very legitimate top-10 heavyweight fighter.

The problem for the UFC is that as long as top heavyweight talent like Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers, and Alistair Overeem are fighting in other organizations, it is going to be hard to legitimize their heavyweight division.

Fighters like Lesnar, Carwin, Mir, Velasquez, and Dos Santos are going to have to face Fedor at some point.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is considered one of the UFC's top heavyweight contenders and he has lost two battles against Fedor in the past.

Making it very hard for Dana White and company to argue that Fedor isn't all he is cracked up to be especially after knocking out a guy like Brett Rogers, who is just starting to hit his peak years.

On the flip side, many people will argue and with reason that Fedor will not solidify himself in mixed martial arts history until he fights current UFC champions and contenders.

The problem for the UFC is that as long as Fedor is winning, Strikeforce should still be around. If they are around long enough, they could make some money, and if they make some money, they could lure some UFC heavyweights over.

All that being said, Strikeforce needs some UFC heavyweights fast because besides Brett Rogers and Alistair Overeem, there isn't much left for Fedor to face.

Marcus Jones Surprises Viewers with Skill

Leon Horne — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:07:27 -0500

Let us be honest with each other here, Marcus Jones is a beast of a man with a lot of power and strength.

He reminds me of a rangier version of UFC heavy weight champion Brock Lesnar.

All that size and power aside, fans, starting from the first episode, were probably doubting whether he'd be a legitimate contender.

The coaches had fighters do some workouts in the preliminary evaluations and when it came to Marcus' conditioning, he looked about ready to have a heart attack.

Marcus is seen walking around with a big limp and what appeared to be a lot of pain in his right knee earlier on.

Finally, later in the season fans get the feeling that Marcus Jones might be out of the series for good after his body released enough sweat to fill a bath tub. Kimbo seriously thought he was going to get his second chance—he may still get it after seeing the preview for next weeks episode.

Although those scares probably had fans doubting Big Marcus, the producers threw in little tidbits here and there of Marcus brutalizing his practice partners when they were supposed to be going easy each other.

The funny thing here is that Marcus felt like he was going easy and the other fighters simply felt that Marcus simply is not aware of the kind of power he has.

Marcus's striking appears rudimentary at best and he admits to not being used to hitting people in the face or getting hit in the face for that matter.

To top it off, although Marcus is powerful enough to take the fight where he wants it go, there was not much time spent showing off his technical skills.

When looking at the final picture of Marcus Jones as a fighter, fans are under the impression that he is a big powerful guy who can take people down and control them and that's maybe about it. The problems being that he appears to have no gas tank, he isn't used to hitting people in the stand up, and is scared to get hit himself.

So even with the size advantage on his opponent Mike Wessel, Marcus Jones looked like he was in for a hell of a fight.

Mike Wessel is one of three fighters on the show who has fought in the UFC before. He is a powerful striker with a 6-1 record, three wins by knockout, one via submission, and two decisions.

Wessel going into this fight appeared to be the more well-rounded fighter in comparison to Marcus. Some fans may argue that Wessel still is the more rounded fighter, but Marcus made a case for his own skill set, especially on the ground.

Wessel came out swinging for the fences and Marcus looked unsure how to deal with it, he kept his arms out in front and as Quinton Jackson said “He looked like Black Frankenstein...He was reaching”.

One definitely have felt that Marcus had to get this fight to the ground and get it there quick.

The fighters clinched and Wessel attempted a trip take down. Marcus spun Wessel and turned Wessel's trip attempt into his own take down.

Marcus lands in top position and quickly attempts a kimura and almost succeeds before Wessel rolls out of it giving up his back.

Marcus is now looking for the rear naked choke and Wessel once again craftily spins into Marcus' guard.

Uh oh, big dominant Marcus is on his back, what is going to happen now?

Well big Marcus slaps on an arm bar out of nowhere and not just any arm bar, he slapped on a Frank Mir arm cracker. In fact, many of the fighters cage side actually thought they saw Wessel's arm break.

Needless to say, Wessel tapped quick and the fight was over in a flash.

Of course, Marcus's chin wasn't tested and neither was his stamina, but we did see Marcus's monstrous power.

More importantly the fans saw for the first time that Marcus actually has some excellent MMA ready Jiu Jitsui and he knows how to roll on the ground.

I, along with many fans, were probably skeptical of the former NFL defensive linesman. Marcus is 36, his knee looks a little banged up, his stamina looked bad early on, he doesn't like the striking game, and he doesn't have a martial-arts background.

Aside from his big power, no one was sure what Marcus's skill set was.

With his submission win over Mike Wessel, Marcus Jones definitely looks much better then many of the other contestants looking to be the next Ultimate Fighters .

On a side not, hopefully things work out for Mike Wessel it seems like he was looking for a way to pay the medical bills for his wife who is battling cancer.

Winning the show was undoubtedly part of his plan to help his wife battle through this wicked disease. This is definitely a situation where universal medical care seems like it could really help.

Off to the quarter-finals and hopefully some good fights like the one we just saw will continue through to the season finale.

Kimbo Slice vs Houston Alexander: EliteXC

Leon Horne — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:21:21 -0500

Déjà vu, the feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation at a previous time.

Explanations and theories range from past life experiences, drug effects, disorders of the mind or the most simple explanation that certain past experiences in life closely resemble the new situation and those memories are evoking the déjà vu.

In the case of a potential face off between Kimbo Slice and Houston Alexander at The Ultimate Fighter 10 season finale fight fans are probably getting that feeling.

One could argue that fans are experiencing déjà vu with Kimbo vs Houston not because of mental illness or drug use, but because we have seen this scenario once before.

Anybody remember the time when Kimbo Slice was the poster boy for the now defunct EliteXC mixed martial arts promotion?

Kimbo Slice most certainly isn't the poster boy for the UFC, we can leave that to guys like Georges St. Pierre.

That being said, Kimbo most certainly is the poster boy for season seven of the UFC reality show “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Advertising promos for this season always involved footage and dialogue of Kimbo Slice. Other more experienced veterans like Roy Nelson, the man Kimbo lost to in episode three, are not mentioned or shown in any of the television promos for the reality series.

Even with Slice's episode three loss to Roy Nelson the producers have been keeping the fans interested by painting a picture which suggests that injury of another fighter is going to allow Kimbo Slice to get back in.

Kimbo Slice has won over some new fans while being on the show.

He has exhibited a rather humble demeanor, willingness to learn and unlike some of the other competitors on the show Kimbo came into the reality series in what appears to be great shape.

The fight scheduled for the finale with Houston Alexander is the exact fight Dana White was criticising EliteXC for.

Of course Slice vs Alexander spells highlight knockout and from an economical stand point is probably as bankable as turkey a few days before thanksgiving.

These are two guys that love to “stand and bang”, they both hate the ground and judging by their losses either of them can be knocked out.

This fight definitely provides great entertainment value and is for sure marketable material.

Judging by the low quality of the fights and fighters so far this season, the ultimate fighter finale needs some star power and whether people like it or not, Kimbo brings that power.

Dana White took his shots at Kimbo and EliteXC whenever he had the chance.

Mr. White felt that Kimbo had no mixed martial arts skill and that EliteXC was feeding him guys who hated the ground game, were over the hill and/or had a weak chin.

For the most part Dana White was right and it wasn't until the washed up Ken Shamrock was forced to pull out of his bout against Kimbo Slice that we saw Kimbo exposed.

A pink haired former UFC light heavy weight fighter by the name of Seth Petruzelli knocked Slice out in the opening seconds of the EliteXC main event.

Kimbo was exposed and EliteXC met it's fate which was in the graveyard of mixed martial arts promotions trying to compete with the UFC.

Now Dana White has Kimbo Slice fighting a 37-year-old fighter, who is 2-3 in his last five bouts, hates the ground game and has only one significant victory over the falling Keith Jardine.

Of course Houston Alexander has the intangible knockout power, but so did Tank Abbott.

Houston fights the right style for Kimbo's game, Houston is going to want to “stand and bang” and he has shown in the past that he can be knocked out.

Kimbo does have quick powerful hands and as evidenced in his fight with Roy Nelson he has a pretty decent sprawl. That being said, once Nelson managed to get the fight to the ground Kimbo looked like a fish out of water. Against Alexander, the ground is the last place Kimbo will be.

Just as Dana White was saying that EliteXC was spoon feeding Kimbo Slice, the UFC is doing the very same thing.

Kimbo should be fighting guys that are all around fighters, guys who can win it standing up and on the ground.

The only way Kimbo Slice is going to develop into a mixed martial artist is if he learns some basics in wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Of course Kimbo will never be totally well versed in the ground styles of mixed martial arts, but if he learns how to get back to his feet and how to defend the take down like our old friend Chuck Liddell then he will have a fighting chance at this sport.

As long as the promotions who are courting Slice are more interested in the pay per view sales and ratings as oppose to trying to develop and evolve Kimbo's career, he will remain the internet street fighting sensation that never could.

If Kimbo loses to Houston Alexander, one would expect the UFC to drop Kimbo Slice from their roster.

One could only wonder, would chapter three of this déjà vu unfold with Kimbo ending up in Strikeforce?

Mixed Martial Arts new Catch-Phrase: "Stand and Bang"

Leon Horne — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:15:26 -0500

The mercurial UFC president Dana White has made the phrase "Stand and Bang" popular by utilizing it whenever two fighters go toe-to-toe with reckless abandon.

In fact, the catchphrase is becoming so popular, it is following in the footsteps of another popular mixed martial arts saying: "Tapout".

An upstart fight-wear company has actually named the company "Stand N Bang." They represent fighters Rob Kimmons, Houston Alexander, and Jeremy Stephens.

Unlike it's predecessor "tapout", which represents the action where an opponent submits by tapping on their opponent or the canvas, "stand and bang" is often being associated with mixed martial art bouts that aren't so much about the martial arts and more about being a bar room brawl.

This could not have been evidenced more than in episode No. 7 of the current Ultimate Fighter season where Matt Mitrione defeated Scott Junk via decision.

The fight started off with a bang, Mitrione was throwing crisp combos and landing everything on Scott Junk.

Junk looked out of his league against Mitrione, not defending well and showing no offense whatsoever.

After three minutes or so into the first round what looked like a lopsided fight turned into the last five kilometers of an Ironman triathlon.

Both fighters looked exhausted, particularly Mitrione. All of a sudden Scott Junk started landing punches and finished the first round looking as if all was not lost.

In round two, both fighters were barely able to throw strikes, neither could they keep their hands up to protect their face. Defense did not seem to matter because anything the fighters tried to throw at each other either did not land or had no power.

Mitrione managed to win the decision, with the only reason being his explosive start out of the gate.

Dana White immediately said the fight looked great, both fighter were "Throwing Bombs" and willing to "Stand and Bang".

The problem with what White said? The fight wasn't great and even though they were "standing and banging," their punches lacked power and martial arts technique went out the window as both fighters emptied their tanks faster then a drag racer on the strip.

Catch phrases are fun and usually welcomed with open arms. Remember phrases like "Eat My Shorts" from The Simpson's or one of my personal favorites "Chillax ".

One just has to go to urbandictionary.com to learn about any popular expressions that you come across.

To "stand and bang" is being presented as a good thing, the problem with it is it should not mean to abandon technique and defense or to "swing for the fences".

Of course every fan loves to watch a stand up battle with both fighters taking their shots. When fighters "stand and bang", the fans are usually happy.

That being said, the sport is called mixed martial arts and fights like Mitrione vs Junk are not an accurate representation of what two fighters who like to stand and bang should look like.

If new fans to combat sport want to see the true definition of "standing and banging" please watch Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva.

Hopefully the saying "stand and bang" is here to stay, but for the right reasons.

"standing and banging" should not become synonymous with "bar room brawling" or "street fighting." For if it does, it will fall the way of catch phrases like the Ninja Turtles' " Cowabunga", which was cool at the time, but not cool enough to cement itself forever in a generation's vocabulary.

Machida Vs. Rua: A Close Fight, Judging Criteria Explains Why

Leon Horne — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:31:15 -0400

Last weekend’s main event at UFC 104 made armed bank robbery look like a petty crime, well at least to many die-hard and casual fight fans alike.

Three mixed martial arts judges, one of whom goes by the name of Cecil Peoples, felt that the Rua leg kicks and clinch knees aside Lyoto Machida beat Mauricio Rua unanimously.

Many fans are livid. In fact UFC commentator Joe Rogan was so shocked he coined a follow up to his “Machida Era” line to now being the “Machida Error”.

After sitting back and watching the fight again the fight looked a lot closer then fans make it out to be. A lot of Rua's leg kicks that looked like they landed were actually blocked or missed upon slowing down and rewinding the film.

These blocks and misses are something the ring side judges were able to see well in real time.

What the fans may have misinterpreted is in fact a tribute to the high speed at which Rua was throwing his leg kicks and Machida’s incredible elusiveness as a fighter.

Fightmetric.com had Mauricio Rua landing twice as many strikes as Lyoto Machida. Unfortunately, fight statistics don’t tell the whole story of an MMA fight that goes to the judges.

In order to understand some of the reasons why Machida vs. Rua was so close and why Machida was awarded a unanimous decision one has to consult “The Unified Rules for Mixed Martial Arts ”.

I’ll admit I was not aware of all the details and nuances of MMA judging criteria and I will wager that most of the fans screaming “bloody Mary” after the decision don’t know them either.

I figured this would be a good time to read up on the MMA Judging Criteria.

First of all a fight is judged round by round by three judges, the winner of a round is awarded 10 points and the loser is awarded 9 points or less. If the judge feels the round was a stalemate, each fighter gets 10 points awarded.

Due to the fact that a fight is judged round by round, a judge cannot watch further rounds and then re-score earlier rounds after.

Case in point, Rua landed knees and kicks to the legs of Machida in the first two rounds. Machida never looked badly hurt in rounds one or two and arguably three. In rounds four and five Machida looked slowed down by the kicks to the legs and he looked tired.

However, the three judges can’t watch the fourth and fifth rounds and think that theRua leg kicks and knees in earlier rounds seem to have done more damage then appeared at first, let’s go change the scores in the earlier rounds.

MMA judging criteria simply does not allow for that.

Now what exactly is an MMA bout judgement based on exactly?

A fight is judged based on effective striking, effective grappling, octagon or ring control, effective aggressiveness and defence, the weight attached to each area gets lower as we go down the list from effective striking to defence.

Obviously as stated in the rules, if a fight takes place on the canvas most of the time, then effective grappling becomes more important then effective striking. This was not the case in Machida vs. Rua seeing as how the fight was fought standing up in its entirety.

Effective striking means the fighter who lands more heavy strikes. Rua landed more strikes, but were they necessarily heavier then Machida’s strikes? In rounds one to three I would argue no.

Rua lost his footing a total of three times after Machida landed strikes and combos in rounds one to three. Machida on the other hand does not stumble or look phased after any of Rua’s attacks in rounds one to three.

Rua also slid into failed take down attempts to try and avoid further damage from knees to the body thrown by Machida.

Machida never backpedalled uncontrollably in to the cage or shot for take downs after Rua strikes landed in rounds one to three.

In rounds one to three Machida arguably landed more heavy strikes then Rua and Rua landed more strikes overall.

This situation makes the rounds very difficult to judge and without knowing what unfolded in rounds four and five it is easy to see how a judge could have given the striking advantage to Machida in rounds one to three.

In rounds four and five, Rua lands more strikes with more power then Machida, but being given two rounds out of five no matter how lopsided they are will not win you the fight.

There was no ground game in this fight so effective grappling did not really play a factor in this fight.

Next up is probably the most argued point in the fight, Octagon control.

Fans who felt Rua deserved the fight argue that he pushed the pace and maintained control of the octagon. Please read the following definition of octagon control.

“Fighting area control is judged by determining who is dictating the pace, location and position of the bout. Examples of factors to consider are countering a grappler’s attempt at take down by remaining standing and legally striking; taking down an opponent to force a ground fight; creating threatening submission attempts, passing the guard to achieve mount, and creating striking opportunities.

This is where I would argue that Rua and his corner were not aware of what Octagon control is defined by in the judging criteria. Why you may ask?

Rua attempted and failed at nine take downs. After three failed take down attempts anyone with common sense would expect a fighter to abandon the take down and keep it standing. Unless the fighter felt getting their opponent to the ground was an important key to victory.

What Rua effectively showed the judges by attempting and failing nine take downs was that he desperately wanted to get the fight to the ground, but he could not get it there.

The argument that take down attempts show that the fighter is being active and trying to control the octagon isn’t anywhere in the judging criteria, many people are under the guise that it is.

Judges have to follow the criteria when judging a fight; they can’t make up new rules or criteria on the fly.

On the flip side, Lyoto Machida stuffed nine of nine take down attempt by Rua. Telling the judges he didn’t want any part of the ground game that his opponent appeared to have desperately wanted.

Machida not attempting any take downs enforced the fact that he is a striker who wants to stay on his feet.

Rua landed effective leg kicks no doubt, that is where the majority of his strikes landed.

That being said, after landing an effective leg attack on Machida, Rua would often back out and not follow up with a striking combos. Rua was showing a lot of respect for Lyoto’s counter striking abilities.

Lyoto on the other hand would follow up his heavy strikes or counter strikes with striking combos that would stumble or back up his opponent, particularly in rounds 1-3.

Is it really that shocking that maybe the judges gave octagon control to Lyoto Machida? After reading the judging criteria, I would say that at the very least it isn't a log shot.

Mauricio Rua, his corner men and any other mixed martial artist should know that failed take down attempts fended off by your opponent aren’t going to help you in the scoring of a fight.

After three, maybe four failed take down attempts, Rua and his corner men should have realised that these failures were hurting octagon control as oppose to aiding it and stopped the attempts.

I would argue that a few of those failed take down attempts were after Rua took damage from Machida, particularly knees to the body.

Although it is a good technique to avoid damage, in order to score points with the judges according to the criteria they abide by Rua had to make those take down attempts count.

As far as effective aggressiveness goes, the fighter that moves forward and lands strikes without getting hit is being effective. Moving forward and landing a lot of strikes while taking a lot of strikes is not effective.

The fighters in rounds one to three were very close to one another, Machida moved forward and landed a lot and he countered a lot of Rua’s kicks with his left hand. Rua on the other hand landed a lot of effective leg kicks and moved forward himself as well.

As far as defence goes, both fighters were defending well as evidenced by the fact that neither fighter was finished. Machida was hit more, but his elusiveness turned a lot of potential heavy strikes into weak ones and he defended nine take downs.

Rua avoided damage by attacking and backing out, he also avoided potential knockout blows by limiting himself to throwing kicks as oppose to hands. Rua had a very good game plan against Machida.

Of course this fight was very close and with the way rounds four and five went, it is very difficult to accept the fact that Machida was awarded the victory.

However, if one watches the fight a few times and actually pays attention to the unified judging criteria, one can definitely appreciate the fact that the fight was much closer then first observed.

Rua’s game plan was the right one to beat Machida, but two things cost him this fight. His corner men telling him he was winning the fight at the end of round 3 and continuing take down attempts that never saw fruition.

The result wasn’t as wrong as people may have thought and I think a rematch is most definitely required. I along with all the other MMA fans out there are looking forward to watching the Karate master and the Muay Thai specialist go at it again.

Scott Junk vs. Mitrione: Where Is the Cardio? A Disgrace to Sport and MMA

Leon Horne — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:19:27 -0400

Has anyone ever just gone and hit a heavy bag for a little while to work up a sweat? You can have great stamina, but it doesn’t take much work on the bag before you realize you aren’t the Energizer Bunny.

Fighting, whether it’s on the ground or standing up, is an exhausting activity.

That being said, what viewers have seen thus far on The Ultimate Fighter 10 The Heavyweights has been both a disgrace to the sport of MMA and sport in general.

It’s not just the level of stamina the heavyweights have been displaying, it is also their attitudes.

Having a guy who claims to have so many voices in his head that he can’t concentrate unless he is knocking someone’s head off screams schizophrenic.

Then proceeding to let Mitrione step in the cage when he should really be in some therapy sessions is terrible and doesn’t help the sport in any way.

Not to mention Rampage Jackson’s mauling of the gym door after going down 0-7 as a coach in the competition.

Obviously there are some good guys on the show, but overall, the show has been a disgrace both in terms of talent and in terms of character.

After witnessing guys empty their gas tanks like a dragster screaming down the strip, it really begs the question, are the TUF 10 heavyweights in worse shape than your average Joe?

In the first episode, former NFL linesman Marcus Jones looks about ready to die in the stamina evaluations.

Fight No. 2 between James McSweeney and Wes Shivers looked like two guys ready for full on heart failure.

Wes Shivers, after the first three minutes of round one, was bent over with his hands on his knees like an Ironman that just crossed the finish line. The only difference being that Shiver didn’t finish a 227-kilometer (142 mile) race.

Even worse, Shivers’ opponent, McSweeney, was so tired, he couldn’t land a winning combination to put away the defenseless Shivers.

Roy Nelson looks like the fat kid that always sat out in the dodgeball competitions in elementary school. Kimbo Slice looks shredded and in excellent shape for 35 years old.

Fight No. 3 involved Roy Nelson wanting nothing of the stand up battle with Kimbo Slice after taking a couple of stiff shots.

Nelson took Kimbo to the ground, got him in the crucifix, and basically held Kimbo down with his belly while landing shots with the power of a five-year-old wrestling with his siblings.

Kimbo obviously lacks the necessary ground skills to compete in mixed martial arts (key word being “mixed”).

Nelson obviously lacks the physical shape and stamina to ever be taken seriously.

No wonder Dana White and fans of the sport were disappointed with the Kimbo vs. Nelson result.

Now all this is not to say that there are no professionals on this season’s Ultimate Fighter.

Brendan Schaub and Demico Rogers both look in shape and soon ready for the UFC.

Justin Wren looked great against Wes Sims and he appears to have a level head and great attitude.

Although Wes Sims’ fighting abilities are fleeting, he doesn’t have much to prove considering he has 37 professional MMA bouts and 22 wins under his belt.

Sims is on the show for the reality aspect: He loves the camera and he is a practical joker who appears to have a good heart. Sims makes the show outside the fights fun to watch.

The last fight to have aired in Week Seven between Matt “the voices in my head” Mitrione and Scott Junk really cemented it for me.

Mitrione came out like a race horse that heard the gun shot. He was landing crisp, clean combos and throwing with power. In fact, Scott Junk looked completely out classed.

Scott Junk hadn’t landed anything up until the halfway point and he wasn’t defending very well.

All of a sudden, Mitrione looks exhausted, Scott Junk starts landing big shots and Mitrione isn’t defending well and isn’t throwing anything with accuracy or authority. He looks finished.

In the second round, both fighters looked exhausted and if it hadn’t have been for the first half of the first round, Mitrione could have easily lost this decision or been forced to go to round three.

Rampage is understandably frustrated after dropping to 0-7 in TUF 10 competition as a coach. Once again true to his name, Rampage goes on a “rampage.” No, Mr. Jackson didn’t drive over innocent bystanders in his off-road pick up, he only destroyed a door this time.

Generally speaking, Rampage seems like a decent guy who really likes to compete and enjoys joking around. The problem is, the guy isn’t a coach, he wasn’t put on this planet to teach and there is nothing wrong with that.

It was clear in TUF 7 that Rampage Jackson didn't have the coaching mind.

The question is, why did the UFC ask Rampage back to coach? It was clear that he wasn’t cut out for the job. Even Rampage admits he isn’t a coach himself.

Not only is TUF 10 chalk full of guys with no gas tank, they have brought in what appears to be borderline sociopaths.

Of course it is reality television and Matt Mitrione could be a perfectly normal guy. The fact of the matter is do you want to portray MMA fighters in the way Mitrione has been portrayed in TUF 10 ?

Other fighters in the house have been keeping bets on when Mitrione and Zak Jensen will snap. TUF 10 members have wondered whether Jensen and Schoonover with his tattoos of decapitated little girls are maybe serial killers.

In order to grow MMA as a sport, you need to market stand up athletes who are not only great athletes, but who possess great character.

Guys like Georges St. Pierre, Randy Couture, Lyoto Machida, Kenny Florian, and a handful of other mixed martial artists are what makes me and many other fans of the sport respect this sport and the excellent athletes that sit at or near the top of their respective divisions.

Now I obviously understand the fact that moving 240+ lbs of weight around at the speed and intensity that is required in a mixed martial arts bout isn’t an easy task. It takes a hell of a motor to be able to carry a heavyweight body through two rounds, let alone the three to five rounds of the UFC.

However, when you see heavyweights like Cain Velasquez, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira push the pace of a fight through the full three- to five-minute rounds, it really makes the fan wonder, can these TUF 10 heavyweights actually compete with the UFC’s best?

Obviously, some of the guys on TUF 10 are works in progress, but with that being said, a guy like Cain Velasquez is 27 years old and some of TUF 10 competitors are in their mid to late 30s.

Can guys like Marcus Jones and Kimbo Slice really close the gap with a guy like Velasquez, who appears to be leagues ahead of them? My first impression is no way.

Demico Rogers, Brendan Schaub, and Justin Wren are young guys who look in shape and ready to learn; they are the guys with the most potential on this show.

Roy Nelson has the skill to roll with the best in mixed martial arts, but he is in terrible shape and he looks as if he could fight at 205 lbs.

I am all for having guys of all walks of life, different shapes, and styles in sport. It provides a great role model and motivation for overweight children who want to play sports. For example, I loved watching all 250 lbs of Jerome “Twinkle Toes” Bettis punish linebackers.

That being said, no matter who you are or what you look like, if you are a professional athlete, you have to look good at what you do and you need to have a strong character that can be respected as opposed to being ridiculed.

If the rumour mill is right, TUF 11 should be featuring welter and middle weight fighters. Obviously, it is easier to find solid athletes who weigh between 170 and 205 lbs than finding 265+ lb guys like Brock Lesnar or Shane Carwin.

So TUF 11 should feature a stronger roster than TUF 10 . Hopefully, the show looks for guys who like to joke around but don’t come off as psychopaths while they are at it.

Pioneer Of Modern Day MMA Mirko Filipovic Calls It a Career

Leon Horne — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:29:35 -0400

That's it, folks. After losing via verbal submission to Junior Dos Santos, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has put his fighting days behind him.

Mirko looked scared to engage on Saturday night at UFC 103, his pattented devastating head kicks weren't there, and he seemed to be in survival mode for a good portion of the fight.

Cro Cop did land some nice hard lefts on Dos Santos, but they didn't phase the younger, stronger fighter.

On the other hand, Cro Cop ate knees and punches that resulted in him not being able to see properly. Those vision problems were what ultimately halted the fight in the third round.

"Obviously, I can't break my mental block in the Octagon," Filipovic said. "I have twenty years of training like a spartan behind me. It has caught up with me. My body is broken down. I've been worn out."

He no longer has the drive anymore and he felt it in his fight with Dos Santos. Not only that, but he could feel that Dos Santos' drive was very likely stronger then his.

He admitted that the fight was not worthy of the fans' hard-earned money.

Unfortunately for Cro Cop he never really got a handle of the UFC octagon and bows out of the UFC with a dismal 2-3 record.

Alas, let's not dwell on what happened in the UFC. Mirko Cro Cop finished his career with a 25-7-2 professional record and 19 wins by knockout. He has a highlight reel against top fighters that other fighters must envy.

Holding vicious knockouts and victories over fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring, Josh Barnett (twice), and Kevin Randleman is certainly nothing to scoff at.

He also brought Fedor Emelianenko one of his toughest tests to date in a three round war that went the distance—something that happens rarely against Emelianenko.

In addition to his exploits in mixed martial arts, Cro Cop has been an active member of parliament for his native country Croatia, works on the Croatian Anti-Terrorist Squad, has made a foray into the film industry, played soccer professionally, and last but not least is a loving father and husband.

Retirement is never an easy thing for an athlete. Doubts are voiced, questions are raised.

But at the end of the line, Cro Cop had a hall of fame career in the sport and it is nice to see that he values his health more then his desire to keep fighting.

Strikeforce Vs. The UFC: a Comparison with Other Professional Sports

Leon Horne — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:30:53 -0400

Strikeforce has become the new “David” in the “David and Goliath” saga of The UFC vs. the rest.

With the signing of coveted Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce have positioned themselves as the main competition for the mixed martial arts juggernaut The UFC.

Since the Fertita brothers and Dana White have taken over The UFC, one thing has been clear since the beginning; there is no room for any top tier mixed martial arts organizations besides The UFC.

The UFC has a “take no prisoners” attitude towards any competition that might challenge the well being and legitimacy of The UFC. Using a combination of media slander, counter programming and bullish tactics The UFC makes other promotions fold.

The UFC has gobbled up longtime rival PrideFC , put Elitexc out of business and brought Affliction back to making t-shirts.

Many people would argue that healthy competition is good for a business and there is no doubt, it is.

Where healthy competition should be coming from is another story all together and this article will attempt to answer that question and hopefully put to rest some of the arguing that has plagued the MMA community the last few years.

A brief overview of the other professional sports in the world would tell you that the leagues and organizations that manage the sports do not really have much competition within their respective sports.

The competition for any given professional sports organization comes from other sports, not other operations with in their respective sports.

When professional leagues and organizations have faced competition the competition has unfortunately been forced into bankruptcy or gets gobbled up by the big boys.

Let’s have a look at professional hockey to start things off.

The NHL has been in existence since 1917 and has been the big player in professional hockey ever since. Young players around the world from Russia to Canada dream of playing in the NHL.

In 1972 a league by the name of the World Hockey Association tried to go toe to toe with the NHL.

The WHA signed some big players challenging the old “reserve clause” which meant a player would be retained by a team if they wanted at the expiration of the player's contract.

Players like Bobby Hull and other top players jumped ship to join the WHA.

Building up franchises in cities where the NHL hadn’t gone and signing European players is how the WHA tried to make their organization challenge the NHL.

Ultimately, WHA teams ended up relocating on numerous occasions and players didn’t stay in the WHA due to financial difficulties.

By 1979 the WHA ceased operations and four WHA teams were absorbed into the stronger and more viable National Hockey League.

To this day there hasn’t been much competition for the NHL.

Of course there are plenty of second tier professional and semi-professional leagues in existence today, but none have challenged the NHL to the extent the WHA had.

Leagues like the ECHL, AHL and IHL have provided a home for players who were never meant to be in the NHL and for players who need a little bit of time in the minor leagues before hopping over to the big league.

The KHL is a major professional league in Russia, but unlike the WHA they haven’t challenged the NHL. In other words, they haven’t embarked on the rocky road of distributing in North America or signing NHL prospects.

So far the NHL has a symbiotic relationship with the second tier leagues. The second tier leagues act as a proving ground for future NHL prospects and provide entertainment for the die hard hockey fan and the fan that can’t afford the major league tickets.

Next up, the sport of American football, the NFL being the end all and be all of pro football has had some competition in the past.

The AFL went in to direct competition with the NFL from 1960 until 1969, taking half of the first round draft picks in 1960 and signing a television deal with NBC.

Competition was so fierce that both the NFL and AFL held the draft on the same day with players often being drafted by both leagues.

Ultimately the NFL won out and the AFL merged under the NFL banner.

One other league, the XFL entered the professional football mix for 1 season in 2001.

They made their season in the NFL off season, which was a good choice, but everything else the league did lead to the XFL's demise.

The XFL advertised themselves as a major professional football league, spending a lot of money on television deals and marketing.

Unfortunately they did not have the quality of play to back up their talk and they were bumped off the map.

Two leagues, the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football league currently co-exist along with the NFL.

The CFL has concentrated on advertising their product in their home country of Canada and have done nothing to challenge the NFL’s dominance.

The Arena football league has no aggressive marketing campaigns, they play on a different stage providing variety to fans and they are quite confident in remaining a second tier organization.

Again, both the CFL and AFL are a sanctuary for hidden talent that needs some time and exposure before going to the NFL and for players who would never be able to make the NFL.

Player salaries, ticket pricing and television exposure are a reflection of the fact that both the CFL and AFL are second to the NFL and aren’t doing anything to challenge that.

Two sports similar to mixed martial arts in terms of it being man to man competition are golf and tennis.

Both professional golf and tennis are governed by one organization the PGA and ATP respectively.

Why would one argue for another professional organization to govern tennis or golf? Who would like to see Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in separate leagues, never facing off against each other? Imagine never seeing Tiger Woods playing on the same green as Jack Nicklaus or Sergio Garcia.

A professional sport is supposed to showcase the highest level of competion in the world. Having multiple leagues in which the best of each league never face each other is contradictory to the basic premise of what professional sport is.

Strikeforce up until now was always considered a second tier mixed martial arts operation flying under the UFC radar. Strikeforce built fighters and the UFC would pick some of them up, it was a good relationship.

One just has to take a look at professional boxing to see how multiple organizations claiming their stake as the best can damage a sport.

Boxing was an awesome sport to watch when the best fought the best across every weight class.

Now there are four sanctioning bodies, the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO. I don’t pretend to be a boxing connoisseur, although I do appreciate the “sweet science” and from what I understand having four sanctioning bodies in professional boxing has been nothing but bad news for the sport.

Competition doesn’t need to come from within the sport in order to make the sport go to the next level.

There is enough competition outside of mixed martial arts that the professional organizations have to deal with. Competition between the organizations that make up MMA chokes off the sports development.

Mixed martial arts already has to compete with the NFL, NHL, NBA, PGA, ATP and various other professional sports organizations that have been around for the better part of a century.

The other top sports in the world are already forcing the UFC to put out a good product to the fans if they want to stay afloat.

Of course Dana White is too obnoxious and the UFC has certain image problems that the management should be shaking itself away from.

That being said, The UFC is the mixed martial arts organization with the deepest pockets and the most success, just like the NHL and NFL were when their respective sports were just budding.

Just like the NFL and NHL, the UFC will remain at the top and any existing or budding organizations who try to go “toe to toe” with the UFC will either be swallowed up by The UFC or be forced to go under.

For the betterment of the sport, there is no reason to beleive that The UFC's vision of being the one and only top mixed martial arts promotion is bad for the sport.

The best athletes in the world should compete under one banner no matter what the sport is, which leads to another argument, why is Fedor Emelianenko not in the UFC?

Lesnar, St. Pierre, and Henderson: Good Wrestlers Win Big at UFC

Leon Horne — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:28:51 -0400

In the aftermath of a historical UFC 100 event, one thing is for certain, strong wrestling is a key to success in MMA, especially when combined with another discipline.

By looking at the breakdown of UFC 100 one can see that out of the 11 fights that took place on July 11, seven of the winners have a strong wrestling base.

On the main event card, four of the five winners have some of the top wrestling skills in MMA today. All 5 main event losers are not known for having a wrestling background or wrestling skills.

Dan Henderson didn’t necessarily use his wrestling to win his bout against Michael Bisping.

However, the mere fact that Henderson was a former Olympic wrestler and that Bisping is known mostly for his striking forced Bisping to keep the fight standing.

The combination of Henderson’s wrestling, tough chin and strong right hand spelled disaster for Michael Bisping.

From the get go, Henderson was landing the majority of the shots and it was clear that Henderson’s shots were doing more damage then Bisping's.

That being said, Michael had no choice, but to stand and bang with Henderson because on the ground there was no way Michael could have won the fight against Henderson.

In the second round, a strong right that Henderson committed to fully landed flush and put Bisping to sleep before he hit the mat.

A final flying right hand landed on the motionless Bisping sending him off for a CAT scan and serving him a big old slice of humble pie.

Next up was Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves.

Although Georges is known for his very well rounded style of fighting, his bread and butter is his ability to take down his opponent, control him and land some devastating blows from the top.

Alves is not known for his ground game. He has demonstrated excellent take down defence in previous bouts with Matt Hughes and Josh Koscheck and we all knew he could bury people with his devastating Muay Thai knees and kicks.

Unfortunately for Alves, Georges St. Pierre used his superior reach to keep a safe distance between him and Alves and to out point his opponent.

Once Alves pressed forward and tried to close the distance with St. Pierre, Georges would shoot for the take down and put Thiago on his back. In fact St. Pierre took Alves down on 12 occasions out of 13 attempts, a rather staggering statistic.

Once on the ground, Alves Muay Thai was neutralized and he was reduced to defending Georges ground and pound and submission attempts. Alves couldn’t use any kind of ground offense simply because Georges maintained solid top control and didn’t leave any space for Alves to attempt any submissions.

Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar II was the main event of the night. Surprise, surprise, another wrestler turned in another dominating performance.

Brock Lesnar is a former NCAA wrestling champ and he is a physical specimen to say the least.

For as much as Frank Mir reiterated the point that strong submission skills can neutralize size and strength in the first bout between he and Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar showed that being able to control your opponent and dictate where the fight goes is equally as important.

Lesnar brushed up his submission defence not allowing Frank Mir any space to slap on an arm bar or knee bar. Lesnar smothered Mir, controlled his wrists and pounded him into darkness.

When Mir showed he could stand with Lesnar, by delivering an elbow and two devastating knees, Lesnar brought the fight back to the ground and finished the fight shortly after.

Finally, Jon Fitch beat Paulo Thiago in a unanimous decision.

Not the barn burner that the other fights were on the main card, but again another good display of how a wrestling background compliments a mixed martial artist so well.

Paulo Thiago is a submission specialist who had been on an 11 fight win streak of which seven were finished via submission.

Jon Fitch a Purdue wrestling standout has also trained heavily in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the combination of the two are what allowed Fitch to take Thiago down when he wanted, defend against submission attempts and control his position through out the match.

Clearly wrestling has its place in mixed martial arts and it is probably one of the more important disciplines a fighter can have in their arsenal and there are a couple of reasons why.

Take down defence, most great wrestlers know how to sprawl and avoid the take down.

A good wrestler who holds a striking advantage over their opponent can use their take down defence to keep the fight standing. Then the wrestler can use their superior striking to out point or knock out their opponent. Chuck Liddell has demonstrated this on numerous occasions.

Take down offense, most wrestlers know how to get their opponent to the ground and get them there quickly.

Sometimes a fighter knows their opponent can knock them silly if they are forced to stand and bang. But, when a fighter knows how to wrestle, they have the comfort of knowing they can take the fight to the mat, like Matt Hughes and Brock Lesnar have done on more then one occasion.

The clinch game, a lot of wrestlers especially those trained in Greco Roman wrestling, know how to work out of the clinch.

Randy Couture an outstanding Greco roman wrestler and mixed martial artist made his living by brutalizing his opponents with dirty boxing from the clinch. One just has to watch Couture's bout with Gonzaga to see the damage that can be done out of the clinch.

Dan Henderson is another example of a strong wrestler who works great out of the clinch.

Finally control on the ground. Wrestlers know how to gain position and control an opponent on the ground. They can work effectively to gain position and use their technique to eliminate any space that some of the games better submission artists need in order to work their magic.

Lesnar showed that the ability to control your opponent on the ground combined with powerful ground and pound can be any mixed martial artist’s nightmare.

Ground control and positioning are also what made Mark Coleman’s and Tito Ortiz’s mixed martial arts career.

Contrast this with the two other major ground and take down disciplines that are utilized in mixed martial arts and you can see the advantages that a strong wrestling base can provide.

Judo is pretty much the martial art of throwing. A great judo practitioner will be able to throw their opponent to the mat time and time again with great power and explosiveness, Karo Parisyan has demonstrated this in many of his MMA victories.

Unfortunately Judo doesn’t teach a fighter how to fight once on the ground, it only teaches the fighter how to put someone on the ground.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is probably one of the most important martial arts used in MMA along with wrestling. Submissions can allow a fighter to finish much bigger and stronger fighters. Just watch the legendary Royce Gracie tap out opponents weighing 30+ pounds more then him.

Unfortunately Jiu Jitsu doesn’t teach fighters much about how to take an opponent down effectively and if there is no space to grab a limb a Jiu Jitsu fighter is reduced to defending strikes from the top, which can be especially hard against a well trained wrestler.

Another problem with Jiu Jitsu is it teaches almost nothing about clinch work, or take down defence.

All this is not to say that wrestling is the key to winning MMA fights, but when combined with good striking or another ground discipline like Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it can be a very difficult puzzle to crack for opponents who aren't well versed in the wrestling discipline.

Clearly when combined with good striking, wrestling can neutralize many fighters no matter how strong they maybe in any other discipline. This was evidenced by Dan Henderson and his heavy right hand against Michael Bisping or Georges St. Pierre’s elusive Karate and explosive take downs against Thiago Alves.

When combined with great Jiu Jitsu a wrestler can not only control his opponent on the ground and work from dominant position, but the fighter can also defend against submissions and attempt submissions of their own. This was clearly demonstrated in the Jon Fitch/Paulo Thiago fight.

Finally, when combined with devastating ground and pound the results can be jaw dropping as was seen when Lesnar knocked out Mir from top position in their second fight this past Saturday.

Of course this is mixed martial arts and many disciplines are required to become a successful fighter.

However, UFC 100 demonstrated how the tools of a good wrestling base can be used to control a fight both standing up and on the ground, something none of the other disciplines offer.

Roddick and Federer: The Tennis World Is Bitter Sweet

Leon Horne — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:58:19 -0400

Not more than two months ago, Rafael Nadal was on top of the ATP sitting at world No. 1, having won the 2008 French Open, Wimbledon, the Olympics, and the 2009 Australian Open.

Nadal had himself a tremendous 2008, and was shaping up to have a great 2009.

Federer, on the other hand, had really come down a notch. He was still showing up in almost every slam final, but his performances didn't have that superhuman aspect that fans were so used to seeing.

Seems like many fans and the media were living in a false reality prior to this year’s French Open.

Most people were under the impression that Rafael Nadal would win the French Open for the fifth consecutive time.

Many people were probably also expecting Federer to tie Sampras’ 14 slam record in Wimbledon by beating Nadal in another marathon match for the ages.

To top it all off, many naysayers felt that although Roddick had a big serve and would always go deep in the slam draws, his game had ultimately topped out and was unable to compete against with the top five in the sport.

Well, with the French Open and Wimbledon gone and past, reality bites.

The self proclaimed “King of Clay” Rafael Nadal bowed out of the French Open in the fourth round to eventual finalist Robin Soderling.

Federer’s fleeting invincibility is all of a sudden back and with a vengeance. Federer not only tied Sampras’ 14 slam record and recorded his first French Open victory, but he broke the record just a few weeks later at Wimbledon 2009.

No surprise that Federer won Wimbledon though, right?

True, but it wasn’t against who we thought it would be. Nadal was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon due to injury.

Nadal is down and out with tendinitis in both knees, and hopefully it isn’t for the count.

Federer broke Sampras’ record against none other than Andy Roddick, no not Andy Murray.

Roddick showed the media and fans up, dispatching of Lleyton Hewitt in five sets and the Federer upset pick of the draw Andy Murray in four sets.

Of course, Roddick only had two wins in 20 meetings with Roger Federer. For as good as Andy Roddick’s serve is, Federer has always been able to read it and, for the most part, has never struggled with Andy Roddick’s game.

With Nadal out, who would have thought this year's Wimbledon final would be as epic as last year's marathon five setter?

Roddick came out looking like he completely re-invented himself.

Most players and coaches would tell you that the touch required to volley at the level of the game's greatest volleyers is something that can’t be learned or taught. There has to be a certain innate talent or ability.

However, Roddick came in volleying like he never had before, getting to balls that he would have never got before, and making passing shots that normally would have gone long or wide.

On top of all that, Federer, who usually reads Roddick’s serves like an open book, took 31 service games to break him, yes 31 service games.

Roddick took the first set 7-5. Federer won the second and third sets in a tie break.

Roddick was almost up 2-0, but he squandered a 6-2 lead in the tie break.

Roddick came back and won the fourth set 6-3, breaking Federer early. Roddick’s confidence was unwavering and now, more than ever, it looked like he might be able to beat Roger on his best surface.

Alas, at 14-15 Federer in the fifth set with the players on serve, Federer got the ever so important break to beat Roddick 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, and 16-14.

Roddick could not have played a better game against the living legend. He threw everything but the kitchen sink at him, but Federer statistically played one of his best games ever, hitting 50 aces and 107 winners to 38 unforced errors.

As a fan of tennis, this victory was bitter sweet.

And, as Roger himself said in a post match interview, it’s unfortunate that a draw can’t happen in tennis.

Both players today were champions, and, as much as it hurt people to watch Roddick struggle with what just happened, it felt great to witness history in the making as Federer made Sampras' record fall.

In a post match press conference, Roddick made a statement that really defines who Federer is:

“He gets a lot of credit for a lot of things, but not a lot of the time is how many matches he kind of digs deep and toughs out. He doesn't get a lot of credit for that because it looks easy to him a lot of the times. But he definitely stuck in there today.”—Andy Roddick (Wimbledon.org)

It is true, as much as Federer's fluid play makes the game look effortless and easy to the casual fan, it is his determination and unwavering confidence that defines him.

When down double or even triple breaks, he will pull out a couple of service aces.

When about to lose a set point, he hits an incredible cross court volley or an impossible passing shot.

When the pressure is on, Federer grits his teeth and weathers the storm until the sun shines on him once again.

He really has become the definition of a true champion.

There you have it, Nadal lost the French Open, his No. 1 ranking, and he is out with injury. Roger Federer won his first French Open, his sixth Wimbledon, and cemented himself as the greatest of all time winning 15 slams.

Finally, Roddick has shown the world that you can re-invent yourself late in the game and has picked up a lot of fans in the process. Roddick isn’t as washed up as people thought he was.

With Roddick’s resurgence, Nadal's injuries, and Federer’s second wind, the rest of 2009 is shaping up to be a rather interesting season in the ATP.

One thing is for sure, the other top 10 players, like Del Potro, Murray. and Djokovic better not take Andy Roddick lightly in the upcoming tournaments.

Rafael Nadal's Withdraws From Wimbledon

Leon Horne — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:19:44 -0400

Just today, defending Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal has announced that he will not be defending his Wimbledon title.

The 23-year old sixtime grand slam champion and Olympic gold medalist had a great 2008 and beginning of 2009.

In 2008, Nadal won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the Olympic singles title. Nadal also was a semifinalist for the 2008 US Open.

To open 2009, Nadal joined a very short list of open era players that have won a grand slam on every surface by winning the 2009 Australian open. This list includes the likes of Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, and now Nadal.

After the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal has been struggling. His legs which have always been a cornerstone of his game are now becoming his worst enemy.

Rafael Nadal lost to Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters final on clay, the surface that made him. Rafael Nadal losing on clay is a rarity considering his 179-16 ATP record on clay, including just five losses since 2005.

The loss in Madrid wasn’t a complete shock because he has lost on clay in master’s series events once before in 2007 to Roger Federer in Hamburg and last year to Juan Carlos Ferrero in Rome.

Next came the shocking 2009 French Open. Nadal since 2005 had captured the title four times in a row, equalling Bjorn Borg’s record and looking like the most dominate clay courter ever.

To many tennis fans' dismay or delight, Nadal lost in the fourth round to Robin Soderling. Soderling went on to lose the finals.

Nadal losing and Djokovic being ousted from the tournament really opened the door for Roger Federer, who has been chasing the French Open since the start of his career.

Federer put Soderling away in straight sets and captured the elusive French Open championship completing his career Grand Slam and tying Pete Sampras' record of 14 career slam victories.

After the French Nadal pulled out of his usual Queen’s grass court tournament as a warm-up to Wimbledon, citing the pain he has been having in his knees the last few months as the main reason.

Now the two-time Wimbledon finalist and current champion will not be present at the start of next week to defend his title.

On the bright side, Nadal is reportedly suffering from tendinitis. Tendinitis, although painful, is not a major knee injury that requires surgery. Nothing in the knee is broken.

However, tendinitis is a chronic condition and something that, although curable, is difficult to get rid of with out a lifestyle change.

Nadal relies heavily on his fitness and ability to run to win his matches, which is hard on the body. Nadal has a warrior spirit, and I am sure with the right amount of time and rehab he will be back up to par.

Federer’s chances of winning his sixth Wimbledon title and beating Pete Sampras’ 14 slam title record are greater then ever.

Nadal has been in the final against Federer at Wimbledon over the last three years. Nadal put an end to Federer’s win streak last year in a marathon five-setter that was dubbed as one of the greatest matches of all time.

There is no doubt that Nadal has been Federer’s greatest competition, and one can only hope that this year’s Wimbledon will be as exciting as last year’s was.

Federer is a great champion of the game, and if anyone deserves to win and break the slam record it is Roger Federer.

Not only does Federer have a chance at beating Sampras’ record, but he also has a chance to really close in on Rafael Nadal’s No. 1 ranking.

Every athlete has their peaks and valleys through out their career. In fact, it was around this time last year that people were beginning to wonder if Federer was reaching the end of his career. Look at where Roger Federer is now, back on top of cloud nine.

Here’s to wishing Nadal a safe and speedy recovery, and to a great Wimbledon tournament in which records can be broken.

Mirko Cro Cop May Still Be with the UFC

Leon Horne — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:04:56 -0400

Mirko Cro Cop, after beating Mustapha Al Turk, was rumored to have already signed for three fights with Dream.

The only time the UFC has ever signed a fighter to a one-fight contract ended up looking like a big burn for Dana White and company.

Apparently in an article from the Croatian news source Jutarnji.ht, Mirko Cro Cop claims he has not signed with any organization yet. Cro Cop is upset that Dana White listened to the rumors as opposed to coming to him directly.

For what it's worth, this may not be the last we have seen from Cro Cop in the UFC.

UFC 98: Lyoto Machida Answers Questions and Erases Any Misconceptions

Leon Horne — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:18:36 -0400

In the second round of the UFC 98 main event, Lyoto Machida answered all the questions and misconceptions the MMA world had about him prior to this fight.

Rashad Evans couldn’t hit Lyoto he only landed twice over two rounds and Lyoto was able to knock Evans Silly in the second round to take the light heavyweight title.

In all honesty, Rashad Evans looked bewildered by Machida and didn’t look very comfortable exchanging with Machida from the get go.

Evans’ best chance would have been to go back to the basics and try to deal with Machida on the ground.

Machida has good Jujitsu and he has trained in both Sumo and wrestling and as we saw in the Ortiz fight he knows how to stuff a take down. That being said, Evans started his professional career wrestling opponents to a decision. Against Machida it seemed like going back to the basics, which is wrestling, would have been the best bet for Rashad.

Going into UFC 98, there were a lot of questions and assumptions surrounding Lyoto Machida and the potential that he may one day be the light heavy weight champion.

To name a few, many fans said Lyoto was a boring fighter who outpointed opponents to a decision victory. People feel Lyoto will be a boring champion because of his style and the language barrier. Can Lyoto deal with the stronger fighters of the UFC like Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin or Quinton Jackson? Can Lyoto take a power punch and stay in a fight?

Now any questions and misconceptions that both critics and fans of Lyoto Machida have had were all answered and erased last night.

Let’s put things into perspective, Lyoto has knocked out two UFC fighters with a combined record of 31-2-1 and those two losses were the ones handed out by Machida back to back. That means 32 other fighters have tried to beat Rashad Evans or Thiago Silva and have failed, Machida is the only one to beat them.

Lyoto has finished seven of his 15 victories, the last two by vicious knockouts not to mention a brutal knockout of the former UFC champion Rich Franklin (24-4-1).

Lyoto Machida isn’t boring, he confuses his opponents and once they slip up they pay dearly and both Evan’s and Thiago Silva paid that price.

One could argue that Machida’s chin still hasn’t been tested to the full extent and most people would have to agree.

But I would like you think about this statement, Machida’s 15-0 record and the fact that he is the least hit fighter inside the UFC answer’s any questions one may have about his chin.

It doesn’t matter if Lyoto Machida has a weak chin or a strong chin.

If you haven’t been hit with a power shot in 15 fights and you’ve stepped into the ring with guys like Thiago Silva, Rashad Evans and Rich Franklin, the test of time tells us that whether Machida's chin is strong or weak is a moot point.

One of the more important questions answered by Lyoto’s performance tonight was answered in the post-fight interview.

Although he needed to have the translator to explain the questions asked to him by Joe Rogan, he answered them in good English and even played to the crowd.

He took the microphone from Rogan and basically empowered his fans by telling them if they have dreams they can and should do everything to make them possible.

Any athlete that speaks to his fans like that is going to gain respect from the fans and critics alike because those kinds of statements are empowering to everyone.

Machida, much like Rashad Evans, has realised that it takes more then just being a great fighter to be a champion.

Although Machida’s English is not perfect, it is very evident that he has been working hard at learning the language and he knows how to please the crowd.

As for Machida’s style, Joe Rogan put it perfectly, Karate on it’s own in MMA isn’t enough, but combined with Sumo, Jiu-jitsu, Wrestling and Muay Thai, the elusiveness and timing unique to Karate becomes a very valuable asset.

On a side note, for as cocky as Rashad Evans is when he wins, he is equally as humble in his losses.

Evans did the post-fight interview even after being knocked out and he did it with a smile. Rashad tipped his hat to Lyoto Machida, basically saying that Lyoto was too much for him tonight.

As for Lyoto’s next opponent, Rampage Jackson, I expect a similar outcome to Lyoto’s last two victories. Rampage Jackson doesn’t have anything new to bring to the table that could pose a threat to Lyoto Machida’s title besides having a lot of experience.

Until next time, in the spirit of Machida's victory, follow and realize your dreams my friends.

Beyond the World of Sports from Warrick Dunn to Roger Federer

Leon Horne — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:18:07 -0400

Athletes today are more then just athletes they are professionals in the spot light. How an athlete conducts themselves outside of their respective sports has an effect on how the public looks up to them.

One just has to look at the dog fighting ring that Michael Vick was involved in or the pictures of Michael Phelps smoking from a bong to see how badly ones public image can be stained.

One of the best ways for an athlete to be a true champion is not just defined by their success in their sport, but by what they do with their fame and fortune to make the world a better place.

Not something that is always discussed in the sports world, but is of great importance is the philanthropic efforts made by the great athletes of the world today.

In the past athletes didn’t always have a life of glamour, the money wasn’t great for the amount of time an athlete had to make their mark and as soon as the body broke down, that was it.

Today in most professional sports, athletes are getting tremendous salaries to do what they do best.

Athletes are making enough money in annual salaries and endorsements to the point that even two to three successful seasons in any professional sport could set an athlete up for life.

Athletes today are also being looked up to by the youth and the choices athletes make and the way they conduct themselves has an impact on impressionable minds, no doubt.

Showing a child who looks up to you that helping out in the community on the local, national and international levels has positive effects and can be gratuitous can do a lot for the future and well being of society.

We’ll start by looking at the NFL and United Way joint program.

This is a good starting point because the NFL and United Way have done a tremendous job at promoting the ideas of getting involved and volunteering to help out in the community.

Ask any football fan what they think of when they here the words The United Way and many will think of the commercials featuring NFL players who are helping out in their community.

The NFL and United Way partnership has been in existence for 35 years now.

Currently the two are aiming to increase by one third the number of youth that are leading healthy safe lifestyles.

Bob Saunders is a player who is profiled on the main United Way website. He currently partakes in the offering of free football camps for youth who wouldn’t normally be able to afford these kinds of camps.

In addition, Saunders has been donating tickets and t-shirts to kids in the Indianapolis area since 2006 in addition to organizing and hosting events and outings for underprivileged youth.

One of the NFL’s best when it comes to philanthropic efforts is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ running back Warrick Dunn.

Warrick Dunn has created two of his own Charities and is a founding member of the Athletes for Hope organization as well.

Warrick Dunn’s Homes for the Holidays program is a program that was established to help struggling single parents purchase and furnish a home for their family.

Dunn provides the down payment for the house and companies in the areas where he works provide furniture and supplies to set the family up. So far Dunn has helped buy homes for close to 100 families with this charity.

Since forming The Warrick Dunn Foundation the foundation has received 5 million dollars in charitable donations.

The Athletes for Hope Organization is an organism that was founded by Warrick Dunn and 11 other well known athletes.

The foundation was designed to help other professional athletes get involved with a cause and to inspire people world wide to volunteer and support their community.

All that Warrick Dunn has done off the field has obviously provided him with much satisfaction and it sets a good example for the people who look up to him today.

Warrick Dunn will not only be remembered for the touchdowns he scored, but also the charitable efforts he made to make the world a better place.

Hopefully we as fans can look at these examples and realize the impact it can have on a community and even the world.

Of course Warrick Dunn and Bob Saunders aren’t going to fix all of the worlds problems by themselves. However, with the work of many people humanity can make the world a better place at all levels.

Take a cause that is close to your heart and think about what you would like to do to help.

Whether there were people in your family who were touched by cancer or your town’s youth programs are lacking funding, find a way to get in there and help.

Evaluate what you can donate, whether it is your time and expertise or your money, every little bit can help when many people are giving.

For example my work has a program with Centraide (the United Way) where I donate a portion of my pay check to the organization and I can even ask that it be used towards a specific cause.

Everybody with a full time job can afford to donate a little bit of money to an organization or cause of their choice. If you don’t have a full time job, maybe you can donate some of your time.

Although most of us will never reach the stardom of athletes like Warrick Dunn, Andre Agassi or Roger Federer, rest assured if we offer to help out in anyway with a cause that is dear to our heart we will be making a difference that will be remembered.

UFC 98: Jackson vs. Versus Evans, Too Bad for Lyoto Machida

Leon Horne — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:11:41 -0400

UFC 96 turned out to be decent for a card that on paper didn’t look as good as some of its predecessors.

There were no title fights and the point of UFC 96 was to decide match-ups for future UFC events and to help fallen or less experienced fighters get into the bigger picture.

I am going to focus on the impact of the main event which involved former UFC light heavy weight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson against a tricky, but up and down fighter in Keith Jardine.

The fight was exciting, but both fighters didn’t look like they were at their best. Jardine by the end of the first round looked exhausted and Rampage wasn’t capitalizing.

The fighters had some good exchanges with both of them getting tagged. That being said, Jardine was on the receiving end of the harder shots in the exchanges.

If Jardine would have put more time in on the cardiovascular aspect of his training I think he could have come out victorious.

Due to Jardine’s lack of conditioning Jackson took advantage of Jardine having his hands down and his sloppy footwork on a few occasions.

For Jackson, what was surprising was the fact that despite Jardine’s lack of conditioning he was unable to finish the fight.

If it weren’t for the last exchange where Jackson scored the knockdown on Jardine, this fight could have been a split decision for Jackson or maybe even Jardine.

After the vicious knockout Jackson handed to Wanderlei Silva, it is a little surprising that Jackson was unable to finish this fight in similar fashion.

In any case, it is back to the drawing board for Keith Jardine who has two wins and three losses in his last five fights.

For Quinton Jackson it is on to a title shot against Jardine’s close friend and training partner Rashad Evan’s.

There is one thing that is worrisome for Jackson. Although Jackson brutally knocked out his former Achilles heel Wanderlei Silva and defeated Keith Jardine in a decision, since his loss to Forrest, Jackson has not fought a top opponent in their prime.

Rashad Evans beat the man that snatched away Jackson’s title, Forrest Griffin. Rashad Evans has heavier hands then Jardine and although his conditioning has been suspect as well, Rashad is going to have better fitness then Jardine did last night.

Evans, unlike Wanderlei Silva is not on the tail end of his career and unlike his training partner Jardine, he hasn’t lost.

Quinton Jackson is going to have his hands full against Rashad Evans. Not to mention the fact that Evans’ training partner Jardine who lasted 3 rounds with Jackson is going to be giving Evans tips and pointers along the way.

A lot of die-hard MMA fans were probably pulling for Keith Jardine to somehow win this fight against Quinton Jackson for one reason, Lyoto Machida.

Machida like Rashad Evans has 14 fights on his resume and hasn’t lost one of them. Both Evans and Machida leave most of their fights relatively undamaged.

Machida is in fact the fighter that has been hit the least in the UFC.

Machida’s style is based on Shotokan Karate which is based on accurate counter striking, timing, angles and distancing. Some people call it a boring style, but it is very efficient and effective in the octagon.

Some people question Machida’s knock out power, but he holds devastating knockouts over Rich Franklin and more recently a "knockout of the night" against Thiago Silva.

Machida has a tendency of frustrating his opponents, because as hard as they come at him, they can never seem to connect. This frustration usually costs his opponents dearly.

Evans against Machida would be interesting because Evans like Machida is a patient fighter who waits to deliver his knockout punch.

Some fans say an Evans-Machida fight would probably be boring, but one of them would have to engage at some point and that’s where things would get interesting.

Although it makes sense that Quinton Jackson get a shot at the title after winning two in a row since losing the belt, it would also make sense if Machida were to be offered the title shot as well.

Machida has been waiting for a title shot for a while considering he is now 14-0 in MMA and 6-0 in the UFC.

The UFC has probably offered Machida to either take on another opponent or to wait until the outcome of the Evans vs. Jackson title fight.

By taking on another opponent Machida takes the risk of losing and going back to the bottom of the long light heavy weight ladder.

If Machida chooses to wait it could be a little while before the light heavy weight champion is ready to fight Machida.

In any case die-hard fans around the world are excited by the fact that Machida is getting closer and closer to that title shot even though Jackson didn’t lose to Jardine last night.

UFC 94, Australian Open Final and Super Bowl XLIII One Wild Sports Weekend

Leon Horne — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:05:11 -0500

It isn’t often that sports fans can sit down on the weekend and watch some of the biggest moments in sports history unfold in three different sports.

To kick the weekend off fight fans will be treated to the highly anticipated welterweight title fight between the current UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and the current light weight UFC champion B.J. Penn.

This will be the second fight between St. Pierre and Penn. Georges St. Pierre won the first bout via a controversial split decision.

The first round was dominated by B.J. Penn who picked Georges apart with his boxing. In the second and third rounds, George St.Pierre won them by utilizing his explosive take downs and superior wrestling abilities to score points and control B.J. on the ground.

Both fighters have improved leaps and bounds since their last meeting, particularly Georges St. Pierre.

Georges hasn’t reached the peak of his career just yet, but he is definitely riding the wave. He has compiled a 17-2 professional record and he has taken the welterweight belt from two former greats in Matt Hughes and Matt Serra.

St. Pierre has also defended the title in dominating fashion against one of the division’s top contenders in Jon Fitch.

Georges St.Pierre is a hard worker he worked as a bouncer and garbage man while studying in Kinesiology. If anyone has seen his training sessions you will see that he is a man that has a lot of focus and dedication and he brings that to the table in every facet of his life.

Despite St. Pierre’s success, he remains one of the most humble athletes on the planet, which is one of the reason’s he was voted as Canadian athlete of the year.

Georges has respect for each and every opponent he faces, never will you see him insult another opponent in pre- or post fight interviews.

He also has respect for what professional fighting really is. Georges wants to be the best at what he does, but he isn’t the kind of the guy that looks for fights outside of the octagon. He has even stated that as a bouncer he would use words more then anything else to rectify situations.

B.J. Penn, the prodigy, one of the most decorated American martial artists to fight in the UFC. Penn was the first American to win an international Brazilian Jiu Jitsui tournament and he has compiled a 13-4 mixed martial arts record.

B.J. Penn is one of the most fearless competitors in mixed martial arts today, which is illustrated by the fact that he seems to have no problems fighting up in weight classes.

He will be fighting for the fifth time at welter weight, he has also twice fought at middle weight and one of his biggest fights was in an open weight class against a 215 pound Lyoto Machida, B.J. weighed in at 187 pounds.

Although B.J. Penn hasn’t won everything outside of his natural weight class which is lightweight, he has always held his own.

Penn beat former UFC welter weight champion Matt Hughes and he beat both Gracie brothers at 185 lbs.

Penn did lose to Hughes as well as George St. Pierre at welter weight, but the matches were competitive. Against Machida who had a 30 pound weight advantage, Penn lost, that being said B.J. managed to hang around for all 3 rounds.

In the Lightweight division B.J. has been virtually untouchable where he is 9-1-1 and currently holds the lightweight title.

In the past people often questioned B.J. Penn’s dedication and focus, pretty much the opposite of Georges St. Pierre. People often felt that he showed up to fights out of shape and didn’t take his training nor his opponents very seriously.

Since Penn has been back in the UFC, he is showing a new found dedication to the sport and this new found dedication and focus is one of the reasons many fans feel B.J. might be able to upset Georges this Saturday.

Unlike St. Pierre, Penn often likes to hype his fights by talking trash to his opponents. Penn did not fail, he has called Georges a quitter and said that the UFC 94 bout is to the death.

Why is this event so big? It could be the first time a UFC fighter holds two division titles at the same time, B.J. Penn has the chance to hold both the lightweight and welterweight titles if he were to beat St. Pierre.

St. Pierre on the other hand has everything to lose this Saturday. Penn will still have a title belt win or lose, St. Pierre has to win to keep his belt.

If St. Pierre wins, he will have two wins over Penn and another title defence. That being said, there is much more to lose for Georges. If Penn wins, Georges loses the welterweight belt to a guy who fights his best in a weight class lower.

The winner of this fight will defend the title against top welterweight contender Thiago Alves.

Next up for this big sports weekend is the Australian Open men’s singles final, featuring none other then the former world number one and current number two Roger Federer and the current number one Rafael Nadal.

This match up is history in the making. Federer will be playing for his 14th slam title to tie himself up with the legend “Pistol” Pete Sampras. Nadal will be playing to become the second player to win a slam title on all three surfaces.

The only player to have won a slam on all three surfaces is Andre Agassi.

This will also be the seventh slam final between Federer and Nadal a record rivalry in itself. Not to mention the fact that 14 of the last 15 slam finals have featured either Federer or Nadal.

Although the head to head is 12-6 for Nadal, fans must not forget that 3 of those 10 wins for Nadal are on clay. On the hard courts and grass courts the Federer-Nadal rivalry is much closer.

To get an idea on how strong the rivalry between these two tennis greats really is fans just need to take and afternoon and watch the 2008 Wimbledon final.

Federer started the match off looking flat and going down two sets. Federer won the next two sets and brought the match to a fifth set. Nadal ultimately won the match in just under five hours and this final went down as one of the greatest matches in the history of the game.

Last season was a difficult season for Federer, he lost the number one spot to Nadal and he struggled with mono early in the season. Federer finished the year off strong winning the US open.

This year has started off well for Federer at the Australian open. Federer breezed through his matches with the exception of his match against Thomas Berdych where he had to battle back from two sets down.

Federer beat Del Potro and Roddick handily in straight sets to get to his 18th slam final. Federer had the luxury of winning his last two matches quickly and has been able to rest up for the upcoming final.

Nadal is coming off one of his best years on the tour so far, he won the French Open as usual and went on a 32 match win streak where he also won Queens, Wimbledon and the Rogers Cup in Canada. He also won the Olympics and took over the number one spot.

Like Federer, Nadal breezed through his Australian Open matches. However, unlike Federer who faced a tough Berdych early on in the tournament, Nadal met his toughest opponent in the semi-finals less then 48 hours from the final.

Nadal faced his fellow countryman Fernando Verdasco in an epic battle and tournament record match that lasted over 5 hours. Both players were serving lights out and service breaks were far and few between.

Many fans and analysts are speculating that because of the marathon match Nadal had against Verdasco, the time to recover will not be enough for him to compete with or beat Federer in the final.

People must not forget who Nadal is, he is a physical specimen, he is the most athletically gifted player on the tour right now and he has a motor that is second to none. If anyone can recover from a 5 hour semi-final it is Nadal.

With Nadal’s fitness level, his warrior spirit and mental toughness there is no doubt in my mind that he will be ready to push Roger this Sunday. Whatever the outcome this semi-final match up is history in the making.

Last, but not least in this action packed weekend is Super Bowl XLIII. A match up between the NFL’s top defence in the Pittsburgh Steelers and one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses in the Arizona Cardinals.

What’s special about this Super Bowl? The Steelers have a chance to increase their already impressive Super Bowl record to 6-1. It could also be their second Super Bowl win since 2005 for the Steelers.

On the other side of the coin we have the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals until this year have not won a championship in 60 years and they are won of the biggest losers in sports history. This is their first Super Bowl appearance ever, even though the team has been around since 1898.

Each team brings a certain something to the table for Super Bowl XLIII.

The Steelers boast the best defence in the NFL and are nasty against the run.

In his last game Ben Roethlisberger showed the form he had when he won his first Super Bowl in 2005.

The Steelers bring to the table a team that relies on low scoring games with key drives that not only result in points, but also burn the clock.

The Arizona Cardinals are lead by tough veteran Pro-Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner and Pro-bowl wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin. Fitzgerald and Warner have been lights out this playoff run.

Boldin was injured early on in the playoffs and has struggled since then. However, with the two-week layoff, expect him to be in full form on Sunday.

The secret to the Cardinals success this season has been their defence. Throughout the regular season one could argue that the Cardinals had one of the leagues worst defences especially against the run.

In this playoffs not only have the Cardinals’ offence been lighting things up, their defence leads the playoffs in the turnover margin.

The Cardinals have also shown that they can shut down some of the leagues leading rushers in Michael Turner, DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart and Brian Westbrook.

Both Warner and Roethlisberger have won a ring before, but Warner has lost a super bowl as well. Kurt Warner knows how it feels to win and lose in the Super Bowl. It will be interesting to see which quarterback is able to handle the pressure better.

Many sceptics felt the Cardinals did not deserve to make the playoffs with a 9-7 record, because their division was so weak and they struggled so much out of their division.

The Cardinals playoff run has certainly silenced the critics. Regardless the Cardinals are the underdogs in this match just like they have been in every game they have won this post season.

Yes defence wins championships and the Steelers do have the number one defence and the Cardinals’ defence was at the bottom.

In the playoffs however, the Cardinals defence has stepped things up and are definitely more then capable of keeping the Steelers’ offence in check.

On that note, I wish everyone a great UFC 94, Australian Open, Super Bowl XLIII and most of all a great weekend.

As for my predictions, St. Pierre will win by knockout or technical knockout in the 3rd round, Federer will beat Nadal in five sets and the Cardinals will upset the Steelers by 14 points.

Fedor Knocks Out Arlovski, The Aftermath for the UFC and the Heavyweight Picture

Leon Horne — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:54:48 -0500

The WAMMA heavyweight title was put on the line last night by Fedor Emelianenko, going up against the former UFC heavyweight champion and No. 1 heavyweight contender Andrei Arlovski.

This fight was one of the most anticipated fights in MMA for 2009 because of what was at stake for Fedor Emelianenko.

Obviously, the B.J. Penn vs. St. Pierre fight and the Mir vs. Lesnar fight are going to have a lot of hype behind them as well, but this fight was definitely up there.

Many fans and analysts were torn on who would win the battle.

Arlovski has excellent boxing skills and many thought if the fight stayed standing, Arlovski could win by picking Fedor apart and knocking him out or grinding out the decision.

Fedor, on the other hand, doesn’t have the most technical boxing, he is up to 30 wins and with one technical loss aside, Fedor is pretty much undefeated.

Fedor does possess knockout power, has an incredibly strong chin, and on the ground he can submit the best in the business.

The fight started and Arlovski came out to keep the fight standing. Arlovski was landing 50 percent of his punches and up until near four minutes it looked like Arlovski was winning the round.

Fedor was only landing 38 percent of his punches and he looked like he was having a lot of trouble dealing with Arlovski’s superior striking ability.

At around 3:40 in the first round, Arlovski landed a kick and sent Fedor back into the corner.

Arlovski got greedy and instead of picking Fedor apart as he had been doing he tried to go for a flying knee as Fedor bounced off the ropes.

As ugly as Fedor’s striking looks, he swung a right hook as Arlovski was flying through the air and caught him on the chin knocking him out for the win.

One concern I had at the conclusion of this fight was Arlovski's chin.

In six career losses for Arlovski, five have been by knockout. Although Fedor has some power, the shot he caught Arlovski with wasn't something that would have necessarily put some other heavyweight guys out cold like Arlovski.

The problem for Fedor was the fact that he has never fought in the UFC. He hasn’t fought guys like Frank Mir, Randy Couture, and Brock Lesnar all UFC heavyweights who are in the top 10.

Since Fedor hasn’t fought in the UFC, fans who are sceptical of Fedor have said he can’t be the best until he fights UFC heavyweight champions who are in their prime.

With the win over Arlovski, Fedor has fought three former UFC heavyweight champions and won.

Back in Fedor’s Pride days, he beat Nogueira twice via unanimous Decision. Nogueira was the UFC heavy weight champ up until losing to Mir at UFC 92. Just this past summer, Fedor beat former another UFC Champion Tim Sylvia in 37 seconds.

Up next people and analysts are expecting Fedor to take on No. 3 contender Josh Barnett. Many questioned Josh Barnett’s courage in the past because every time Barnett was offered Fedor, he seemed to find a reason to turn it down.

Something I wasn’t aware of before last night was the fact that Fedor and Barnett are both good friends. Each fighter in their postfight interview stated the fact that they were good friends and Fedor even seemed to dodge the question about a possible Barnett fight.

Maybe the two are close enough that they aren’t completely sold on the idea of fighting each other. Fans and media will have to wait and see what unfolds.

Although many people were questioning Fedor before this fight, many more people will be questioning the UFC heavyweight division now that Fedor put Arlovski and Sylvia away so quickly.

Dana White in recent interviews was receiving questions on whether he thought Fedor was the best heavyweight in the world.

In one response, White basically said he didn’t think Fedor was the best in the world because he would need to be fighting at least three to four times a year to get that title. White also said he would be pulling for Arlovski in this fight because he used to be one of his guys.

The media and fans must be anxiously awaiting a response from White after seeing the results of last night’s fight.

It is going to be awfully difficult for White to deny the fact that Fedor right now is the best heavyweight in the world and arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world as well.

White has expressed his frustration in the past about trying to sign Fedor and that Fedor’s camp does not seem co-operative.

In fact it has been so hard for White to sign Fedor that he even lost his No. 1 heavyweight Randy Couture because he wanted a fight with Fedor. Of course, there were other reasons why Couture left, but if Fedor was there for Couture to fight, one could argue he would have stayed.

Obviously all is not lost for the UFC, they have the strongest MMA organization in the world. Frank Mir became the first fighter to finish off Nogueira, a task not even Fedor himself could manage.

Yes one could argue that Nogueira was not in top form, but the fact of the matter is that in almost all of Nogeuira’s fights he has eaten punches round after round and then magically manages to submit his opponent before the final bell.

Against Mir it was no different. Nogueira ate punches all through round one and the start of round two. However, instead of Nogeuira getting the submission, Mir knocked Nogueira out.

One could attribute this outcome to the fact that Mir is probably the next best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artist in the heavyweight division. Although he didn’t submit Nogeuira, he wasn’t going to let Nogueira submit him either.

Secondly, the UFC has Brock Lesnar, who shares the heavy weight title with Frank Mir.

Although Brock Lesnar has a lot to learn, he has shown the world of MMA that he is serious about the sport and with every fight he is given he comes out looking better.

Lesnar’s main assets are his size, extreme athleticism, his wrestling, and his very heavy hands. Lesnar needs to keep working on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, particularly his submission defence and boxing. Lesnar has heavy hands, but his striking is rough around the edges.

Lesnar at this point may not be ready to fight a guy like Fedor, but in the next year or so he will be and his next fight with Frank Mir will do a lot to answer that question.

Besides Josh Barnett, there aren’t many opponents left for Fedor to fight outside of the UFC. Fedor has pretty much put away any challenger that has come his way in dominating fashion.

On the other hand, the UFC heavyweight division seems to have gotten back on track with the signing of Lesnar and Nogueira, the return of Couture, a fully recovered Frank Mir and a back on track Gabriel Gonzaga.

However, with Fedor Emelianenko hanging around outside the UFC and beating all the opponents thrown his way, it is going to be pretty difficult for Dana White to claim his heavyweights are the best out there.

One of the main problems with trying to sign Fedor is the fact that he loves competing in his native fighting style of Sambo. In the UFC, it is pretty clear that you can’t compete in other fighting events while you are under contract.

So somebody is going to have to bend if Fedor is going to fight in the UFC.

Regardless, fans around the world are going to want to see Fedor fight the worlds best and after Barnett, the only guys left are in the UFC.

It is in the interest of both the UFC and Fedor Emelianenko to join forces at some point.

If Fedor signs with the UFC, the UFC will have the best heavyweights in the world. For Fedor, he will have the chance to really solidify himself as the GOAT of MMA.

Fedor isn’t getting any younger, and the UFC heavyweight division can’t get much stronger, considering they have half of the top 10 heavyweight contenders in the world.

So a message to Dana White and Fedor Emelianenko, settle your differences and make something happen by late 2009 to early 2010.

Dark-Horse Cardinals Have Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald To Thank

Leon Horne — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:28:20 -0500

The Arizona Cardinals came into the 2008 season as one of the worst franchises to ever set foot in the NFL.

To put it in perspective, this post-season is the first time the team has won two playoff games in a row in 60 years. The Cardinals are also making their first appearance in a championship game since 1948.

A defining moment in franchise history for the Cardinals happened in 2006 against the then 5-0 undefeated Chicago Bears. The Cardinals were the underdogs, but surprisingly that night they held a 23-3 late 3^rd quarter lead.

The Bears' quarterback Rex Grossman turned the ball over an astonishing six times during the game.

I remember Tony Kornheiser saying “If the Cardinals find a way to lose this game, they may as well pack the whole thing up, tear down the stadium and put up a hot dog stand, because this team is cursed”. Harsh words no doubt, but with the way the Cardinals had been playing, no one could deny it.

What happened? The Bears scored two touchdowns on defense and another one on special teams to win the game 24-23 in less than a quarter and a half of football.

The Cardinals didn’t pack up shop for 2007-2008. The Cardinals managed to improve from 5-11 in 2006 to going 8-8 in 2007. However, they once again missed the playoffs.

The Cardinals came into this season with a very strong passing attack thanks mainly to receivers Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and veteran quarterback Kurt Warner. In all other facets of the game, the team was a big question mark.

Arizona came out in 2008 better than previous years, starting the season off 5-3 and winning at home, something they couldn’t do in the past.

The reason for winning at home is in part due to their new indoor stadium. Fans are willing to come and cheer at games where they aren’t melting into puddles in the stands.

Towards the end of the season the Cardinals faded, going 9-7 and losing two of their last three games. Not a way to go into your first post season in years.

Another cause for concern is the fact that the Cardinals only won three games played outside of their division, and their division had a terrible regular season record.

Not one NFC West team, besides the Cardinals, finished the season with a winning record.

Many NFL fans didn’t even feel the Cardinals deserved to be in the playoffs, based on the fact that they played in one of the NFL’s weakest divisions and that they really only seemed competitive against teams in their division.

Obviously, the Cardinals were heavy underdogs coming into this season’s playoffs. Their offense had no running game, passing 66% of the time, and their run defense was suspect at best.

Everyone knows that, traditionally, in order to win in January, teams need to be able to defend the run and they need to be able to run the ball, something the Arizona Cardinals had yet to do in 2008.

First up for the Cardinals, in an NFC wild-card game, were the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons were the wild card team despite putting up an 11-5 record.

The Falcons have a top running back in Michael Turner, who rushed for 1,669 yards, and rookie quarterback Matt Ryan is the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.

On paper the Falcons looked like a team that could have exposed Arizona’s rushing defense and controlled the game by controlling the clock.

Although it was an exciting second half, the Cardinals pulled out a 30-24 victory. What surprised most people was the fact that the Cardinals managed to run 47% of the time and that Edgerrin James finally got going with 73 yards on 16 carries.

In addition to finding their running game, the Cardinals stepped up and totally shut down the Atlanta Falcons' running attack, holding them to 60 yards through 4 quarters.

It is no surprise that the Cardinals, whose passing attack is very potent, had another successful outing in the wild-card game against the Falcons. Warner threw for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns. Boldin and Fitzgerald each had big touchdown catches.

Fast forward to week two of the playoffs, where the Cards were slated to face off against the 12-4 NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers.

The Panthers, unlike the Falcons, have a veteran quarterback in Jake Delhomme and pro-bowl wide receiver Steve Smith.

In addition to the passing attack, the Panthers leading rushers DeAngelo Williams and

Jonathan Stewart combined for 2,350 yards rushing and 28 rushing touchdowns.

In addition, Carolina had a more dangerous pass rush and overall tougher defense in comparison to the Atlanta Falcons.

On paper, it seemed that the Panthers were going to the NFC Championship game this weekend.

The Cardinals, 10 point under-dogs, totally shut down the Carolina Panthers 33-13.

The first drive of the game saw the Panthers score within the first three minutes, highlighted by a 31-yard run by Williams and a nine-yard touchdown run by Jonathan Stewart.

After watching that first drive by the Panthers, everyone probably thought, "Okay, this game will go the way it was supposed to."

Not giving up, the Cardinals, after exchanging punts, scored on a drive that was highlighted by a 48-yard circus catch by pro-bowl receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

From then on, the Panthers turned the ball over six times and the Cardinals cruised to a comfortable victory, limiting the Panthers to only 75 yards rushing, even though Pro-Bowl receiver Anquan Boldin sat the game out with a sore hamstring.

What is the reason for the Cardinals’ success in the playoffs and proving doubters that they deserve to be here?

The Cardinals have a great passing game with big play potential. Okay, we all knew that. Arizona got their running game going and they have been able to stop the run, definitely a big part of why they are successful now.

However, there are two other big reasons that fans may not be aware of.

The Cardinals have been good at limiting big running plays, and they were fifth in takeaways this season with 30. In the playoffs, they have held steady and lead all other teams with 9 takeaways and a +7 in the turnover category.

As messy as it is, when a team is winning the turnover battle, it is very hard to lose the game, unless it’s a 2006 Cardinals-Bears Monday Night game.

Now the Cardinals find themselves in a battle of the birds for a place in Super Bowl XLIII this coming weekend as they face the Philadelphia Eagles.

Philadelphia is another cagey team that has had its ups and downs this season. In fact it was almost a miracle that the Eagles even made playoffs this season.

McNabb was benched in week 11, but since then he has been making the plays to stay on the field and keep his team in the hunt for a ring.

The Eagles thus-far have managed to get by the Minnesota Vikings and last year’s Super Bowl Champions, the New York Giants.

That being said, McNabb is known for his up-and-down play and the Eagles, for as good as Brian Westbrook is, are not known as a run-first team.

Arizona, if they play like they have been playing this post season should have no problem bottling up the Eagles running game. As for the passing game, McNabb is easily rattled, and history shows that in the clutch, he often times comes up short.

On the other hand, Kurt Warner already has a ring and has been to the big show twice in his career with the St. Lois Rams. Warner is a veteran quarterback who knows how to handle the big situations.

On the other side of the ball, the Eagles' defense has been lights out. When your secondary is made up of guys with the last names Samuel, Sheppard, Dawkins and Brown, you know they will give the best passing attacks their toughest challenge.

The problem for the Eagles is that Anquan Boldin, who was out against Panthers, will most likely be back with the Cardinals for the NFC championship game.

Larry Fitzgerald, with no Anquan Boldin on the field against the Panthers, was still coming down with balls in double coverage as long as he could get a hand on them.

Throw in Boldin and the Philadelphia secondary is going to have their hands full.

The strength of Arizona’s passing attack at full strength could possibly open up the Cardinals running game once again this post season.

I expect a tight game up until the fourth quarter, and a turnover or two by Donovan McNabb later on in the game will probably allow the Cardinals to put the game away.

Of course, the Cardinals are still heavy underdogs for the Super Bowl. The Steelers and Ravens of the AFC have the number one and two defenses in the NFL, respectively.

Yes, the Pittsburgh and especially Baltimore offences aren’t what you would call spectacular. However, the Ravens and Steelers thrive off of keeping their games low scoring and relying on key possessions and plays to put the game away in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals have come a long way since last season, and although they are the underdogs, don’t be surprised if they manage to pull an upset and come away with their first championship in what must feel like a millennium for Cardinals fans.

Although Kornheiser was harsh in his statements during the 2006 Bears-Cardinals Monday night game, changing stadiums for the Arizona Cardinals seems to have been a good choice for the team.

NFC Semifinals: Cardinals/Panther and Eagles/Giants

Leon Horne — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:43:19 -0500

Wild-card weekend has passed. There were some very exciting games and some surprise endings. Now we are getting ready for some interesting matchups in the NFC semifinals this coming weekend.

The 9-7 Arizona Cardinals will be making a trip out to Carolina to face the NFC South division champs, the Carolina Panthers.

Both Carolina and Arizona are divisional winners. That being said, the combined record of Arizona’s division was 22-42. Carolina played in one of the NFL’s most competitive divisions having a combined record of 40-24.

Coming into the game this weekend, Carolina is coming off a bye and Arizona is coming off a surprising 30-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

The Falcons had a league leading rusher in Michael Turner and Matt Ryan at quarterback was rookie of the year.

The Cardinals struggled late in the regular season and their defence was terrible against the run. Against Atlanta, the Cardinals shut down Michael Turner and their explosive offence was clicking on all cylinders.

Although the Cardinals ran a video game style offence during the regular season, rushing only 34 percent of their plays, they got their rushing game going against the Falcons with Edgerrin James.

Carolina, on the other hand, finished their season strong going 4-1 in their last five games of the regular season. Arizona is going to have their hands full with the Carolina Panthers this weekend. Unlike Atlanta, Carolina has a few more weapons on offense, an experienced quarterback and a Pro Bowl receiver.

Carolina presents Arizona with a three-headed demon, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran for 2351 yards and 28 touchdowns. The other head of the demon is Pro-Bowl receiver Steve Smith, who caught 78 for 1421 yards and 6 touchdowns.

Arizona is going to have to play the run even harder then they did against Atlanta because Carolina has been running all over teams. What makes defending the run more difficult against Carolina is the fact that they have veteran deep threat Steve Smith and returning veteran receiver Muhsin Muhammad.

Arizona won’t be able to cheat up with the safety Antrel Rolle like they did against Atlanta, because Rolle is going to have to be ready to help over top against Steve Smith.

Carolina is going to have to deal with an explosive Arizona passing attack.

Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald are both going to the pro-bowl after combing for 2469 yards and 23 touchdowns. Throwing to the two pro-bowlers is veteran quarterback Kurt Warner who is also going to the pro-bowl and has won a Super Bowl in 1999 with the Rams.

Carolina is going to have to count on their leading pass rusher Julius Peppers and their secondary to try and shutdown Arizona’s aerial attack. If they concentrate on the Cardinals' aerial attack too much, Arizona maybe able to get their running game going for the second week in a row.

Carolina should come away with this game, they had the better regular season record, their defence is tougher and they have a much better rushing attack.

About the only place Arizona has the upper hand on Carolina is their passing attack.

Everyone knows hard running and tough defence wins championships, it will be up to the Cardinal squad to prove otherwise. I would expect this game to be a high-scoring affair, possibly surpassing 50 points.

This brings us to our next NFC semifinal matchup between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles faced Minnesota in the playoffs, and although it wasn’t a blow out, the result was expected.

The Eagles defence has been lights out the last few weeks and their secondary is loaded.

Minnesota, although good against the run on defence and running the ball on offense with Adrian Peterson, doesn't have a strong enough passing game, mainly due to inexperienced quarterback Tarvaris Jackson. The passing defence on the Vikings has been suspect at times as well.

The New York Giants are last year's Super Bowl champs.

The Giants dominated the NFC East division in spite of great adversity after the loss of players like Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, and the drama surrounding Plaxico Burress.

Luckily for the Giants, pass rushers Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka have filled in nicely for Strahan and Umenyiora.

On offense, although the Giants’ passing game is far from spectacular, they have three great running backs. Jacobs, Ward, and Bradshaw have averaged a league-leading 157 yards per game for the Giants.

The regular season games between the Giant and Eagles were split one a piece, with each one being won by less than a touchdown.

The Eagles-Giants game is really dependent on one thing: Donovan McNabb.

If McNabb is on, I think the Giants will have trouble winning this game. If Donovan does like he has done in many past playoff games and starts throwing interceptions at key moments, then the Giants will win this game for sure.

In the end, we will probably see the Carolina Panthers face-off against the New York Giants in the NFC Championship game. Carolina is stronger than Arizona in almost every aspect of the game and the New York Giants have a stronger running game and have been more consistent than the Eagles have.

In any case, a great weekend of football lies ahead of us and will bring us that much closer to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay, FL.

IIHF World Juniors Canada-Russia, Jordan Eberle the Hero

Leon Horne — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:08:05 -0500

Living in the great frozen north of Canada, makes it difficult not to be a fan of the good old hockey game. I would imagine hockey plays the same role for people living in another sub zero country called Russia.

Last night’s Canada-Russia semi-final game didn’t disappoint any hockey fans around the world.

The photo above demonstrates how Russian goaltender Vadim Zhelobnyuk and the whole Russian sqaud felt with 5.4 seconds left in the 2009 IIHF World Juniors Championship Canada-Russia semi-final.

Canada and Russia have always shared a very strong rivalry on the international hockey scene even when Russia was still part of the Soviet Union.

One just has to look back at the 1972 Canada-Soviet hockey series and how bitter the rivalry was in that series, a movie based on that series was made in 2006 for CBC.

Russia leads the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship since its inception in 1977 with 26 medals and Canada is a close second with 24 medals. Canada and Russia are the top countries in world junior hockey the next team behind these two teams is Finland with 12 medals.

With the rivalry and storied history between the Canadian and Russian junior teams, clearly Saturday Night’s semi-final game was the hot ticket. Especially considering Canada knocked Russia out of the finals in 2008 and beat them in the finals from 2005-2007.

The scoring started early two minutes into the first, as Brett Sonne put in his first of the tournament. However, in what ended up characterizing the game for the rest of the night, Maxim Goncharov of Russia scored three minutes after Sonne to tie the game 1-1.

Patrice Cormier put Canada back on top seven minutes in to the first period 2-1 only to have Dmitry Klopov score 16 seconds later. The first period finished 2-2.

The first period was high paced and finished pretty even with Canada having 11 shots on goal to Russia’s 12. Canada was more disciplined in the first period with two penalty minutes to six minutes for Russia.

The second period was rather one sided with Canada out shooting Russia 13-3 and Russia spending close to half the period on the penalty kill.

Despite Canada’s excellent power play through out the 2009 campaign, Russia managed to hold Canada to one goal in the second period due to great play in nets by Russia’s Vadim Zhelobnyuk and good defense.

The score at the end of the second period, 3-2 for Canada, which brings us to the action packed third period.

The third period started with a bang after Evgeny Grachev scored a minute into the period tieing the game once again at 3-3.

Shorthanded five minutes in, the ever so skilled forward Angelo Esposito showed why he was not a player to be passed on for team Canada. Canada gained the lead once again making it 4-3.

Not to be outdone, with the two man advantage, the persistent Ruskies came back less than a minute later on a Sergei Andronov powerplay goal, 4-4.

Now the story of the game took a turn, with two minutes and 20 seconds left Russia gained the lead for the first time in the game off of Klopov’s second, making the score 5-4.

Canada did not look as sharp as Russia in the third period and being down 5-4 with just over two minutes left, fans of Canada’s team were abandoning hope for a fifth straight gold medal.

Now Canada pulled the goalie with just over a minute left and they were making plays and peppering the Russian net. Russia had a chance in the last minute to put the game a way when a shot from Russia’s end went wide and missed the net leading to a face-off in the Russian end.

Now with desperation setting in and Canada doing anything possible to keep the puck in the Russian end, Jonathan Tavares blindly shot one at the net which was blocked by a Russian defender.

The Russian defender failed to control the puck after blocking it and Eberle snatched the puck up. With the puck on his stick, Eberle made a move and put the puck high and in to the Russian net for his second of the night and more importantly tieing the game 5-5 with just 5.4 seconds left.

The third period ended even 5-5, with the shots 13-10 in favor of Canada. Canada played a little less disciplined in the third spending six minutes in the box to Russia’s two.

In overtime the tempo was high and both teams had their chances although Canada seemed fired up and Russia seemed content in trying to wait it out until the shootout.

However, both goaltenders maintained their composure and the sudden death overtime finished with no winner. Off to the over time shootout, a fitting end to a game between a rivalry of such great proportions.

Although the Russian goaltender stopped 35 of 41 shots and Tokarski 23 of 28 shots, it was Tokarski who would steal the show.

Tokarski did not allow one Russian shooter to score in the shootout. Meanwhile Canadian shooters Eberle and Tavares both scored high on the Russian net minder Zhelobnyuk to secure a 6-5 overtime victory.

Another chapter to the epic Canada-Russia rivalry has been written. With Canada moving on to the gold medal match against Sweden and Russia moving onto play Slovakia for the bronze medal.

Sweden has not lost yet in this tournament and they have outscored their opponents 26 to 6 and interestingly beat Canada’s last opponent Russia 5-0 in the round robin. It will be interesting to see how Team Canada matches up with the Swedes and whether it will be as close as Russia-Canada was this coming Monday. Go Canada!

After Frank Mir's KO of Antonio Nogueira at Heavyweight, What Will 2009 Bring?

Leon Horne — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:14:01 -0500

Last night's UFC 92 and what has been happening in the UFC heavyweight division over the last couple of months is raising some interesting questions and topics for discussion.

At last night’s UFC 92 year end event, we saw Frank Mir complete his resurrection after a second round knockout of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, marking the first time Nogueira has ever been finished in a fight.

Frank Mir’s win was impressive because of the way he won the fight. Mir and Nogueira are both black belt Brazilian Jiu Jitsui fighters. Mir beat Nogueira in the second round by flooring him with combinations and then finishing it with ground and pound.

Everyone favoured Nogueira because his Jiu Jitsui is the same and probably better then Frank Mir’s. People felt Frank Mir had no stand up and Nogueira is a great boxer. Mir looked like the better striker last night and he dictated the fight from the opening seconds in the stand up.

Now let us have a look at the heavyweight division and where things stand going into 2009.

The UFC heavy weight division was looking pretty weak at the beginning of 2008. The division had no identity, Couture was gone, Mir hadn’t done much, Tim Sylvia was gone, Gonzaga slumped and the only good thing seemed to be Nogueira.

The UFC made a big risky move bringing in untested amateur and professional wrestler Brock Lesnar. In Lesnar's first fight Frank Mir put his first back to back wins together since his motorcycle accident.

Mir was losing the fight badly being grounded by Lesnar’s heavy hands. With Lesnar standing and Mir down, Mir took advantage of Lesnar’s newness to the sport and secured the kneebar early in the first round.

From there, Lesnar beat Heath Herring in a lopsided decision.

Couture came back after being out of the UFC for over a year to fight Lesnar. Lesnar knocked Couture out in Couture’s first title defence since returning. Lesnar is now 3-1 and will be facing Frank Mir to unify the heavyweight titles.

Lesnar showed the world in the Herring fight that he can control fights on the ground, he also showed that he has very heavy hands in all three of his UFC bouts and he showed that he can take a punch in the Couture fight. Lesnar’s Jiu Jitsui is still untested since the Mir fight, but there is no doubt that he is getting better.

Couture coming back is also a big thing for the UFC heavyweight division. Although Couture is old, he fought well in his bout with Lesnar even though there was a 50 pound weight difference in Lesnar’s favour. Couture has stated he's still learning as a fighter and in my opinion there are still some good fights for Couture in the heavyweight and/or light heavyweight divisions.

Mir beating Lesnar and then winning against Nogueira in convincing fashion puts him on a three win streak and is 2-0 against top 10 fighters in that streak. Mir’s last win will move him up from his eighth position in the WAMMA rankings and he is definitely one of the hotter heavyweights on the market now.

What is good about Mir is he has great Jiu Jitsui, he has one of the best comeback stories ever, and he is one of the most well spoken heavyweights in MMA. Whether Mir wins or loses to Lesnar is a moot point, if he loses people will realize Lesnar really is a dangerous heavyweight, if he wins then people will see that Mir is nearly unstoppable.

Nogueira lost to Mir, but is still considered a dangerous opponent and still a top 10 fighter. I would like to see him comeback and fight against Randy Couture in his next match up.

To round out the UFC heavyweight division, Gabriel Gonzaga is working his way back up the ranks. Rookie Junior Dos Santos looks to be developing into a great heavyweight early in his career. Finally, another big undefeated wrestler Shane Carwin is working his way up and should be seeing some bigger competition in 2009, his next fight being against Gabriel Gonzaga.

The UFC heavyweight division now has five fighters in the WAMMA top 10 and looks much stronger then it did last year.

Let us move onto the other heavyweight division over in Affliction.

Affliction has a pretty stacked heavyweight division and prior to the Mir win over Nogueira I would say it was much stronger than the UFC heavyweight division.

Affliction owns the number one heavyweight in the world in Fedor Emelianenko, who for all intents and purposes has never lost and has beaten great heavyweights in Nogueira, Sylvia, Mirko Filipović and a host of other heavyweight greats.

Fedor will have a big test going up against the number two heavyweight contender in Andrei Arlovski. If Arlovski wins it will open up a huge can of worms for people who argue that Fedor is untouchable and that the UFC heavyweights are nothing unless they go up against Fedor.

However, Fedor is starting to run out of fights in Affliction. Basically Fedor is facing Arlovski and after that there is no real challenge left for him with the exception of Josh Barnett. The problem with Barnett is he constantly seems to be avoiding Fedor, citing “scheduling” conflicts as a reason why they couldn’t make a fight happen.

No doubt Fedor is the undisputed number one heavy weight and probably number one pound for pound fighter in the world. He is pretty much undefeated through 32 fights and only seven of his 29 wins have gone to a decision.

If Fedor wants to continue his career as the undisputed number one heavyweight in the world for a few more years, there a couple of things that he needs to do. Fedor needs to get through Arlovski and he's going to have to be more cooperative with the UFC.

Fedor, whether he likes it or not is going to have to face UFC top heavyweights like Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar at some point and it has to happen before these fighters start declining. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t just for Fedor’s legacy, top UFC heavyweights like Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar will always be questioned as long as Fedor is around.

It is in both the UFC’s and Fedor’s best interest to try and figure out a way to have Fedor face some UFC top ranked heavyweights before their careers start fading and vice versa.

Basically for 2009, Fedor needs to beat Arlovski.

A Barnett-Fedor fight has to be organized for mid-summer 2009.

Frank Mir needs to fight Lesnar, whoever wins is irrelevant the loser will just have to go back to work.

Nogueira should fight Couture sometime in the summer or fall of 2009.

Once all that is said and done, the UFC and Fedor’s camp need to figure out a way to see UFC heavyweight champions get some fights with Fedor by 2010.

UFC 94: St. Pierre vs Penn—BJ Penn Has a Puncher's Chance

Leon Horne — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:20:06 -0500

Super Bowl XLIII won’t be the only major sporting event taking place on the weekend of January 31st 2009. UFC 94 is scheduled to hold another one of those increasingly popular “Super Fights” between George St. Pierre and B.J. Penn.

Many people probably look at my title and scoff at it. That being said, there are a lot of facts to support the view that St. Pierre is the favorite and Penn’s best chance maybe a puncher’s chance.

Obviously George St. Pierre doesn’t have many cracks in his game that can be exploited. St. Pierre is 18-2 in MMA with a loss via submission at UFC 50 to Matt Hughes and a TKO due to strikes at the hands of Matt Serra in UFC 69. In both cases St. Pierre won the rematches in rather dominating fashion.

St. Pierre beat B.J. Penn in a close decision at UFC 58 and many people feel the fight could have gone Penn’s way as well. Since then, aside from the Serra loss, St. Pierre is riding the peak of his career and seems to be at his absolute best. His last fight against Jon Fitch, the top Welterweight contender showed that he is in a class of his own.

Even though Fitch hung in for the whole five rounds, he was outclassed and basically proved to the world that he has an iron chin and not much more.

B.J. Penn on the other hand sits atop the Lightweight division with the only real challenger remaining being Kenny Florian who is on a six fight win streak. B.J. Penn is 13-4-1 lifetime in MMA and in his four losses three have gone to a decision.

Penn is one of the top BJJ fighters in the UFC, but he's very balanced, with five knockouts, five submissions and three decision wins on his resume.

Clearly Penn is a natural lightweight which can be seen simply by looking at his MMA record where that three of his four losses in MMA were against fighters in heavier weight classes. This is not to say B.J. can’t fight in a heavier weight class, he did hold the Welterweight belt at one time. However, Penn is not in his comfort zone when he is fighting in higher weight classes.

The last Penn - St. Pierre match was at the 170 lbs limit, so it would have been nice to see this match-up fought at the 155 lbs limit. That being said, St. Pierre is not a natural lightweight and his frame would not really let him get down to a legitimate 155 lbs considering he already cuts down 15-20 lbs to fight in the welterweight division.

The main reason Penn has losses at the higher weight classes is because he doesn’t put on weight that gives him a strength advantage in my opinion and it seems to slow him down. In addition, he is only 5’9" and sports a 70” reach at best, to put it in perspective, St. Pierre is 5’10" and has a 76” reach. The gap in reach is the same as the gap between Couture and Lesnar and we saw how that affected the outcome of the fight at UFC 91.

All this being said, my opinion is still that B.J. Penn’s best chance at winning the fight is to “Catch” St.-Pierre with a heavy fist and knock him out.

Although George St. Pierre is arguably one of the best pound for pound fighters in MMA, there is a weakness that makes him vulnerable to any fighter with some knockout power, his chin. Unlike his countryman and last opponent, Patrick Côté and Jon Fitch, St. Pierre can get knocked silly pretty easily.

Some people may argue that St. Pierre is 18-2 in MMA and has only been knocked out once. However, I would venture to say that in his loss to Serra the initial shot that sent him reeling wasn’t a shot that would have put some of the fighters with the tougher chins on ice. Yeah, the first shot dealt by Serra didn’t put St. Pierre out, but it clearly threw him way off his game.

In his last fight, St. Pierre clearly dominated the whole fight and Jon Fitch looked more like a walking zombie then an MMA fighter at the final bell. However, there were a few points in the fight where Fitch connected and each and every time he connected it looked as if St. Pierre saw some stars.

Does this make St. Pierre a weak fighter? Of course not, he will be in the UFC hall of fame when all is said and done and will go down as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world along with Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko.

I am simply pointing out that if there is a crack in George St. Pierre’s game that can be exploited it is his chin.

In my opinion George St. Pierre’s wrestling will allow him to defend against Penn’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsui on the ground and in the stand up St. Pierre’s height, reach and striking advantage will probably lead to a St. Pierre victory if it goes to a decision. I think Penn’s best shot is to keep the fight standing and be patient in looking for solid head shots that would allow him to move in for the finish.

I won’t deny it, I am a George St. Pierre fan being a Montreal native and the chips are clearly on St. Pierre’s side. But, training a strong chin isn’t really possible thus making him vulnerable to anyone who can throw a punch.

In any case after this fight takes place there aren’t many options as to where these fighters are going next. Kenny Florian has been patiently waiting for his title shot and unless Penn beats St. Pierre and vacates the light weight belt, Florian-Penn is the next logical fight.

As for St.-Pierre, there is no real welter weight contender and St. Pierre will find himself in another super fight against Anderson Silva at a catch weight or 185 lbs.

In any case with a big heavyweight fight between Lesnar and the winner of Mir-Nogueira, 2009 looks to have some exciting match-ups in the UFC.

My Prediction, St. Pierre wins by another decision or knockout.

UFC 91: Brock Lesnar Fights Randy Couture, A Lot on the Line for Both

Leon Horne — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:18:15 -0400

Putting together the Couture vs. Lesnar fight for the UFC from a business standpoint is absolutely huge. The number of pay per views will probably be record breaking for the UFC on November 15no doubt.

We know Lesnar can draw a lot because ratings at UFC 87 were through the roof (my countryman St. Pierre's match vs. Fitch played a big role in that as well). Now throw in Randy Couture who is coming out of retirement for a title defence, the sky is the limit.

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, the draw power of this fight will be great, but this fight is a very high risk affair for both fighters.

Lets face it, Brock Lesnar has shown MMA followers that he is big, he is strong and he is extremely quick for such a big guy. Putting two MMA veterans to the ground with one solid right hand in the Mir and Herring bouts is no easy feat for any fighter. He has quick heavy right hands and he can wrestle extremely well.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves either though. Lesnar has only three fights under his belt and a 2-1 record so far. Lesnar’s wins were dominant ones. He made Min Soo Kim tap out due to strikes in the first moments of Round One.

In his last win he dominated Herring from start to finish after a strong right hand landed early in the first to crack Herring’s ocular bone.

However, Lesnar was unable to finish Heath and pretty much rode the fight out by maintaining side control and not going for much.

Not going for a finish in the Herring fight was probably the smartest thing Lesnar could have done in that fight. Fans were shown in the Mir fight that although Lesnar can completely overwhelm an opponent with his sheer size and athletic ability, he is a green fighter and he can get caught in a submission.

Lesnar knew he had hurt Herring and that if he used his strength and wrestling abilities to maintain a dominant position while protecting his limbs he would cruise to a lopsided decision in his favour. Going for a finish and then being submitted or caught by Herring would have been a big step back for Lesnar.

It was in Lesnar’s one loss that people realized he has a lot to learn and that for all the strengths that are on his side, just like every other fighter he will need some time. He came out dominating Frank Mir and at 1:30 in the first round while standing over a dangerous Frank Mir, he was submitted via a Frank Mir heel hook.

Now on the other side we have the tried and tested Randy Couture. Couture is one of the scariest fighters to bet against for the mere fact that when he is the underdog he usually upsets the favourite and comes away with victory.

A few things about Couture have to make one respect the guy’s grit and desire. The guy is no major heavyweight, unlike Lesnar who has to cut to make weight, Couture shows up to heavyweight bouts at 6’1 and around 225 pounds. Lesnar will have a 50 pound advantage come fight night.

Secondly, Couture is 45 years old and somehow has found success well after his mid thirties and into his mid-forties. Couture is a fighter that knows how to win the clutch matches, he is 16-8 in mma and 9 of his 16 wins were in title fights in both the heavy weight and light heavy weight divisions.

That being said, Randy Couture isn’t invincible, the guy does have eight losses in 24 MMA bouts. What makes him so scary is the fact that he is usually the underdog or people tend to doubt whether he can win against some of the bigger stronger opponents he has faced.

Some of those opponents include Tim Sylvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett all fighters who weigh in at over 250 pounds and have had strong careers fighting in mma events around the world.

What makes Randy a winner in all of these matches is his heart and his ability to come up with a fight plan and execute it. He is an excellent wrestler and has shown that he can dominate even the big guys in the clinch using his dirty boxing tactics. He fights to a fighter’s weaknesses and exploits them.

The only criticism one could have is that when his game plan doesn’t workout the way he wants it to, he tends to stubbornly stick with his plan as opposes to pulling something out.

Why is this match huge for both fighters?

Lesnar is in his fourth professional MMA fight and there are a lot of fan boys and there are a lot of haters. Plain and simple—Lesnar wins, he takes Randy Couture’s heavyweight title and whether he deserved the shot or not he shows everyone that he can beat the best in the world.

It also would act as another great stepping stone for him in the sense that he would get to defend the title right away against the winner of the Mir/Nogueira fight.

Lesnar loses to Randy and it will slow his MMA career down and he’ll have to start from the bottom and work his way up like every other MMA fighter. The main thing being that he will have lost two of his first three fights in the UFC, not a good start for any fighter.

I’m sure Lesnar feels this pressure and there is no doubt in my mind that he is training hard each and every day.

For Couture this fight is of equally massive proportions. Why? Couture has been looking for a way to fight the number one heavyweight in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. In fact it was part of the reason why Couture left the UFC.

Couture signed up for the Lesnar fight with the incentive that the UFC was going to make a big effort to make a Couture/Fedor fight happen.

If Couture wins against Brock, he will have to face either Nogueira or Mir to defend his title once again and then one can only imagine that Fedor Emelianenko will be next up on the list.

If Couture loses to Lesnar, the whole Fedor fight will lose much of its appeal. I’m sure many people including myself would still like to see this fight happen, but that fight simply won’t have the same kind of buzz surrounding it.

Finally, it will bring up the question have Couture’s better days finally passed him by? Every career comes to an end and the word veteran is pretty much defined by Couture who, at 45 years old, is still a title holder and willing to step in to the ring and fight with the best.

A loss at UFC 91 to a rookie fighter like Lesnar could mean the end of the road for Randy Couture.

All in all UFC 91 will probably bring in record pay per view numbers and I know I will be watching. The Couture/Lesnar fight is of epic proportions and each fighter is putting a lot on the table in this one and unless it comes out no contest there will be a victor and someone will going back to the drawing board or maybe even into retirement.