Crazy few weeks for MMA!

Well, well, well…what an interesting couple weeks for MMA! Josh Barnett being cut from the Affliction card, Affliction scrambling for an opponent for the mighty Fedor. Speculation ranged from Vitor Belfort, Don Frye, Jeff Monson, Brett Rogers, etc!! Then Affliction cancels the event altogether, announces that it is done promoting fights (big surprise!!) and reconciles with the UFC as a sponsor. The craziness began with all the promotions going haywire trying to sign Fedor Emelianenko, Fedor and company are only interested in offers from organizations that are willing to co-promote with M-1 (which Fedor has a percentage of ownership). UFC apparantly offered Fedor a ridiculous amount of money, offered to let him wear M-1 apparel in the octogon and was willing to let Fedor compete in Sambo competitions outside of the UFC. The offer hung up on the co-promotion stipulation which the UFC would just not budge on. With Fedor now being signed to Strikeforce, this brings more interest to the uprising Strikeforce promotion. So many things to discuss and on top of that, UFC 101 is this weekend…live from Philly!! Follow along as I give my thoughts on all the madness.

First let’s begin with Josh Barnett…All I can say is, did you not learn from when you got busted in the UFC and had the title stripped from you?! How stupid to risk all you have worked for, not to mention the pay day he missed out on! Also the opportunity to fight the best pound for pound heavyweight in MMA. He has been reduced to participating in fake wrestling events in Japan…he will never be offered that crazy money that Affliction was going to pay him ever again! If he does decide to suck it up and try to get signed by the UFC, he has lost any leverage he had in negotiations. Do I think that the fate of Affliction rested on Josh Barnett’s shoulders? Absolutely not! Affliction was a sinking ship..they were done, even if the Fedor/Barnett fight would have happened. It’s a shame because I really like Josh Barnett as a person and a fighter but I also don’t condone cheating and this has definitely put a black mark on his career…only the future will tell us what’s in store for Josh Barnett…positive drug tests aside, I wish him all the best of luck.

The death of the fight promotion Affliction was of no surprise to me, I figured they were dying. The amount of money they were paying their fighters was crazy! There was no way they were going to keep up with that pace, their pockets aren’t that deep…they are now where they should have been all along, making shirts that the fighters can wear into the UFC octagon. However this does raise a question…will the other MMA companies fail like Affliction? The fight promoting business is not easy, as Affliction has demonstrated, any number of things can happen to ruin the most well thought out plan. Competition is good for the UFC, I’d rather not see a total monopoly with the UFC being the only fight promotion and reigning supreme. Like it or not, the UFC does have the deepest talent pool and if you want to fight the best fighters, eventually your going to have to step into the octagon for the UFC.

UFC’s press conference last week with Dana White was highly inticipated..people had many speculations as to what was going to be announced. I was chomping at the bit, as a fan to find out what the UFC had to offer. I was pleased with the announcements…Rich Franklin vs Vitor Belfort at UFC 103!! This will be a great fight! Really looking forward to this fight, Vitor Belfort will be a excellent addition to the UFC rostor. It was announced that Dan Henderson will get his rematch and the next crack at Anderson Silva for the Middleweight Championship. I’m glad Dan Henderson was given the nod, he really deserves it…he has won three straight fights against tough competition. I think the rematch will be different, I believe if anyone can beat Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson has the ability to crush the spider!! Yet another great fight to look forward to! Dana White also announced that Tito Ortiz is once again a UFC fighter…A surgically repaired Tito Ortiz will definitley help the UFC put ass’s in the seats and sell pay per views, Ortiz is one of the UFC’s most popular fighters…could he be used to help UFC expand into Mexico?? If I was a betting man, I would be going all in on this one haha! Not very excited about the rumored matchup between Tito Ortiz and Mark Coleman but hopefully Ortiz will get some other opponents. Dana White also announced that a deal was made with ESPN to broadcast UFC in the UK…could this be the start of something bigger with the UFC and ESPN being so close lately?? I’m starting to sense that the UFC will be on major television very, very soon.

Strikeforce has signed Fedor Emelianenko!! Holy crap! Who saw this coming? Now that I think about it, its really not all that suprising. Strikeforce copromoted with Affliction all the time. This will be a game changer in my opinion…Strikeforce has a talent pool that is getting better and better as time goes on. I bet the UFC and Dana White are beside themselves!! You can bet that the war is on! The UFC will start to counter promote Strikeforce programming but all I can say is that they better bring their A game! This is good for us fight fans because we are going to see some interesting things in the next year…I can’t wait!! As M-1 gets more exposure, it will be interesting to see what they do…I have the feeling that they are the snake, waiting in the tall grass.

UFC 101 is this weekend! Live from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!! I live in the Washington DC area and would have loved to go but I couldn’t get tickets…Some good fights on this card, I’ll definitely be amped up for this Saturday night. Here are my picks for UFC 101:

UFC 101: Declaration


Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellgrino = Winner Kurt Pellgrino (TKO)

Ricardo Almeida vs. Kendall Grove = Winner Kendall Grove (submission)

Johny Hendricks vs. Amir Sadollah = Winner Amir Sadollah (KO)

Champ B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian (for UFC lightweight title) = Winner B.J. Penn (submission)

Champ Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin (non-title fight) = Winner Anderson Silva (KTFO)


These are my picks, take them for what they are worth, I’m no expert..just a fan. We are in for some good fights this year!! I’m really looking forward to seeing what develops from Strikeforce signing Fedor, UFC’s deal with ESPN, UFC’s accusation of the Affliction fighters, Josh Barnett’s future, M-1 sneaking in the back door, among many other things. This will be good for the fans because we are guaranteed some exciting fights now because the UFC will be pulling out all the stops to destroy Strikeforce now. Until next time folks..Enjoy your MMA!! I know I will!