According to MMAJunkie.com their sources inside Xtreme Couture told them, negotiations are ongoing between the UFC and the camps of both Randy Couture and Fedor Emelianenko. This fight would happen in January or February providing Couture gets by another rumored opponent, Brock Lesner. The Lesner-Couture fight would take place in Portland, Oregon November 15th at UFC 91. Does anyone really believe a Couture-Fedor fight would happen anywhere but the UFC? There’s not a chance Dana White would let this one get by him. White may be a lot of things but dumb is not one of them. The thing is, what are Couture’s chances of getting past Lesner? He’s notoriously had a tough time against big wrestlers and although he never ceases to amaze me, all I can think of is ‘what if Lesner connects with the same straight right hand that he did against Herring’. Couture may want to rethink this one. Are they serious? The prize you get for beating Lesner is Fedor! That’s a prize you can keep.

Chuck Liddell says he’s 100 percent healthy and his eyes are on Rashad Evans. I would hope Liddell’s not overlooking Evans; I think we all saw what happens when “The Iceman” doesn’t appear focused (Keith Jardine). Evans, you can bet will be ready; a win over Liddell would seriously alter his standing in the light heavyweight division.

Tito Ortiz was on HDNet’s “InsideMMA” discussing his free agency. I’m never one to bash fighters and I don’t believe this is bashing, but does anybody really care. I think Tito is good for the sport, you can’t deny that you either love him, or hate him, and he can sell a fight. On the other hand, I think he is completely overrated. The last time Ortiz finished a fighter off, other than Ken Shamrock, was Elvis Sinosic way back on 6/29/01. That’s over 7 years ago! Since that time, Tito has had 7 wins, 2 unanimous decisions (Matyushenko, Cote) 2 split decisions (Belfort, Griffin which was questionable) and 3 TKO’s over Ken Shamrock. With that record, he’ll have to bank on his personality to land a big deal.

Speaking of Ken Shamrock, it was announced this past week his next opponent is non other than Kimbo Slice. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. Shamrock is yet another guy with enough talent that he could beat Kimbo but it’s a safe bet he wont. For those who don’t know, Shamrock has lost 5 in a row and 7 of his last 8. In the 5 most recent losses, he’s been (T)KO’d in each one. So EliteXC matches the 44-year-old up with a heavy-handed striker? Seems like an obvious outcome. My opinion, bring on Brett Rogers and let’s see what Kimbo is all about.
Enjoy the fights and lets all hope these rumors become reality. It would certainly make things interesting in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

Champ: BJ Penn
Kenny Florian stands to be the #1 contender after beating Roger Huerta. Although Florian looks better with each fight and took apart a very good Huerta, does anyone really believe he can beat Penn? Sean Sherk who beat “KenFlo’ was destroyed by Penn. While the lightweight division is stacked, there’s such a wide margin between Penn and everybody else, which is why he’s looking to move up to take on St. Pierre. Bottom line unless he vacates the belt he’ll be champion for quite sometime.
This brings us to the Welterweight division:

Champ: George St. Pierre
This division is also loaded with talent but again GSP just dominated the #1 contender (Fitch). Matt Hughes is out of the equation, Matt Serra will not catch lightning in a bottle twice and GSP has already defeated Josh Koscheck. Who does that leave us with? Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves, Marcus Davis and Mike Swick. All are very good fighters but not at the level of St.Pierre, at least not yet. Ironically, the one guy who does stand a chance is not even in the same weight class (BJ Penn). When Penn and GSP do meet, which they more than likely will at the end of the year, after all is said and done, Penn will be holding both titles.
There’s even more of a gap in the middleweight division.

Champ: Anderson Silva
Is there anyone out there that can beat this guy? Maybe, but we haven’t seen him yet. All you have to do is look at what he did to both Rich Franklin (twice) and Dan Henderson. Silva made it seem as though they were in the cage for their first time. What’s insulting to the fans, is every time there’s a new opponent for him, the UFC (Joe Rogan, Dana White) tries to convince us the guy has a chance. Don’t you love it on the promo’s when Joe and Dana will say “ this is stylistically a bad match-up for Silva, he’s never faced anyone with this kind of wrestling”. The fact is, there’s nobody in the middleweight division that can touch him, I’m not sure there’s a light heavyweight that could beat him. Now for the light heavyweight’s.

Champ: Forrest Griffin
I can’t say the same for this division; it’s pretty much up for grabs. Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva, Thiago Silva, Shogun, Rampage, Chuck Liddell or even Anderson Silva could be champ within a year or so. That’s what makes the light-heavies fun to watch, anyone can beat anyone. Examples: Thiago Silva beat Houston Alexander who beat Keith Jardine who beat Liddell and Forrest who beat Shogun, anything can happen. My prediction is Forrest won’t be champ a year from now. The heavyweight division is similar to the light heavyweight.

Champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Everybody likes to beat up on this division because it’s not as stacked as the others; still there are some very good fighter’s there, especially when you look at the new guy’s. Cain Velasquez is on a tear and Brock Lesner in a year’s time could be simply unstoppable. By the way I predict this to be his next test (Lesner-Velasquez). You also have Frank Mir and a very underrated Fabricio Werdum to add into the mix. It’s a little early to tell but Shane Carwin seems to be solid as well, and let’s not forget Gabrial Gonzaga. This is not that bad a division; will any of the aforementioned be able to dethrone Big Nog? There’s always a chance but probably not for a while, this most likely won’t happen for a year or so. At that time I believe Lesner will be the guy to do it and once he’s had that amount of experience he’s going to be very scary and hold the belt for as long as he wants it. That’s my Gut feeling anyway.

On to the fights. Josh Barnett was able to avenge a loss against Pedro Rizzo with a devastating KO in the second round. If Barnett fought more often he could still be a top-ten heavyweight. Andrei Arlovski and Ben Rothwell put on a spirited fight. Rothwell sure can take a beating, a lesser man would have packed it in long before the third round, which is when Arlovski was finally able to KO him. It appears Arlovski is back to being a force in the heavyweight division.

In the Main Event Fedor Emelianenko simply overwhelmed former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. This fight wasn’t even close as Emelianenko came out throwing bombs until Sylvia hit the canvas and quickly gave up his back before tapping out to a rear-naked choke. Emelianenko is now the WAMMA heavyweight champion and unquestionably the best heavyweight in MMA.

This sets up all kinds of great match-ups in the future. The obvious, which is Randy Couture-Fedor, as soon as Couture’s contract is up with the UFC in October. How about a Fedor-Arlovski match to follow.
Having watched how dominant Emelianenko and Arlovski were, don’t be surprised if you see Dana White make a big pitch to bring both of these guy’s to the UFC as well as resign Couture. It would make the UFC’s heavyweight division by far the best in MMA, which can’t be said right now. Hasn’t Dana been saying all along he only wants the best fighters in the UFC; he could make that happen if he’s willing to spend the money. White needs to do this and he needs to stop insulting the fans by saying “Fedor is not the best heavyweight” he just ran through the former UFC champ in 36 seconds.

As far as Affliction is concerned, don’t waste your money on cheesy gimmicks like bringing in bands like Megadeth. Worry more about production value, bringing in and keeping the best fighters you can and get a cage.

Let’s be honest, Anderson Silva is the best striker in the UFC, maybe in all of MMA. Yes, he’s moving up a weight class to light heavyweight but he walks around at over 200 pounds so I don’t see this being a problem for him. James Irvin is also a very good striker (knocking out Houston Alexander in 8 seconds in his last fight) but he’s not at the level of Silva. However, we have yet to see Silva’s chin get tested, sure he’s taken some shots but nothing that’s put him in any major trouble. Irvin has proved he has the power to do just that. When it comes to the ground game it’s a no brainer, the advantage goes to Silva. All that being said, this is still a very intriguing match. How will Silva do against a stronger opponent? If Silva walks through Irvin like he has everyone else, where does he go from there? What if Irvin KO’s Silva like he did Alexander? Lot’s of questions will be answered Saturday night. My prediction: I stopped second guessing Anderson Silva after the Dan Henderson fight (yes it took me that long) and James Irvin is not a top ten light heavyweight. I believe Silva will win, and no, it won’t go past the second round. Sure anything can happen but some things I’m fairly certain about and Anderson Silva continuing his dominance is one of them.

Now for the fight that’s so big, Dana White had to give us the Silva –Irvin match for free. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia is as big a fight as we’ve seen in quite sometime. My only wish is that this would take place in a cage and not a ring (not a huge fan of the ring). Emelianenko is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA, the only problem is he doesn’t fight that often and the fighter’s he’s taken on recently haven’t been top-level guy’s ( Matt Lindland is the exception, he however was much smaller than Fedor). Still, Fedor is a beast that just keeps coming at you. His striking is very good but his ground-and-pound maybe the best in MMA. Add that to that the fact he never panics and always seems to have a great game plan. Tim Sylvia is a monster at 6’8” and takes on the best the heavyweight division can throw at him. He doesn’t always put on the best show and he doesn’t always win but he’s willing to fight anyone. Sylvia has good stand-up and a decent sprawl. He may be able to keep Fedor at a safe distance with his jab but that didn’t work against Randy Couture. A lot of people are picking Sylvia in this one even though he’s the underdog, let me tell you there’s a reason he’s the underdog. “Big Tim” likes to fight at his pace, which is a slow pace, Fedor likes to push the pace unlike any heavyweight out there. That could cause problems for the big man. My prediction: Emelianenko by TKO round 2.

Like I mentioned earlier, of course there’s a chance Sylvia can win, anything can happen on any given day. I feel as certain of Fedor and Silva winning on Saturday as I did the New England Patriots beating the Giants in the Super Bowl. OH wait….

I was always taught that if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all. Unfortunately in regards to Saturday night’s EliteXC-CBS event I have to go against this (sorry Mom). I knew before watching this not to expect too much, what I saw was less than I expected. I’m all for protecting fighters and stopping fights if someone is in serious trouble but this was ridiculous. In the Robbie Lawler-Scott Smith fight (which by the way was actually a pretty good fight), Smith who inadvertently was poked in the eye seemed ready to continue when the Doctor stepped in calling the fight off. I didn’t see any cut that would have prevented him from continuing and Smith was ready to go.Gina Carano looked impressive (despite not making weight) as she battered a very tough Kaitlin Young, in what was another fight with a questionable stoppage. I believe the only reason this fight was stopped was because she is a female. This by the way was arguably the fight of the night.Phil Baroni proved he may still be able to sell a fight with his “trash talking” but his fighting skills are fading fast. Joey Villasenor overwhelmed the brash Baroni, getting the TKO at 1:11 of the 1st rd. Maybe Baroni would be better suited for the WWE, (he does put on a good show, until fight time).Brett Roger’s continued his winning ways with his TKO win over Jon Murphy. This wasn’t much of a contest, Murphy landed an early shot, and then it was all Roger’s. Rogers is the best of a very weak heavyweight division.Now for the Main Event, what a joke! Kimbo was exposed, as we all knew he eventually would be. He has zero ground skills and had trouble getting the knockout on a guy with a notoriously weak chin. In fact the first 2 rd’s went to James Thompson, then sticking with the pattern of the night, the ref stepped in a little too early yet again. Yes, Thompson looked out–on-his feet as Kimbo landed some solid shots in the 3rd but doesn’t Thompson always have that look? The fact is, Kimbo is the face of EliteXC and Gary Shaw is not going to let him lose. He’s not even the 2nd best heavyweight in EliteXC, there’s no way he gets past Brett Rogers or Antonio Silva, just how long can they ride the Kimbo wave? I don’t begrudge Kimbo or EliteXC for doing this, it’s working (they received 6.5 million viewers) but this event seemed like some sort of sideshow. From the announcing to the refereeing to the cheesy dancers and ring entrances, I was actually embarrassed. Was this a real sport I was watching? Or Pro Wrestling? It’s a good thing EliteXC has hooked up with CBS to air free events because after this debacle there’s no way anyone would order these fights on pay-per-view.

The IFL was in Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena this past Friday night for what were some exciting fights. Headlining this card was a Heavyweight Championship battle between Champion Roy “Big Country” Nelson and former UFC fighter Brad Imes. Nelson defended his belt by TKOing Imes at 2:55 of the first rd. “Big Country” has not been defeated in over a year and has won his last 4 fights by (T)KO. As good as Nelson has been, it’s hard to know how good he is until he fights a top Heavyweight. I’m sorry but Imes is not that guy.
Dan Miller pulled off an upset when he submitted Middleweight Champ Ryan McGivern via kneebar. Miller improved his record to 8-1 with the victory. It was the 2nd time in McGivern’s career he has lost to a kneebar. Miller is certainly a guy to keep an eye on.
Ryan Shultz retained his Lightweight belt with a victory over Deividas Taurosevicius by unanimous decision. I’m not sure this should have been unanimous, as this was a very close fight. My thinking is, if you’re the challenger you can’t leave it up to the judges they usually go with the champ.
Overall, a good night of fights.
Sengoku 2 Ariake Colosseum Tokyo, Japan
It’s good to see Kevin Randleman back in action. After being out with a nasty staph infection along with other ailments, he returned to defeat Ryo Kawamura by unanimous decision. It would be nice to see “The Monster” fighting back in the states. I’m not sure about the UFC but he would add a lot to the Elite XC roster.
Headlining this card was heavyweight Josh Barnett who defeated Jeff Monson by unanimous decision. This guy is a top heavyweight in any organization and with the UFC’s heavyweight division thinning out; Barnett would be a great addition. Dana White has stated he wants the best fighters and Barnett is right up there.
Speaking of the UFC they just announced UFC 87 Seek and Destroy: This will go down August 9th at the Target Center in Minnesota. Headlining the card will be the Brock Lesner-Mark Coleman fight. The other confirmed fights are Kenny Florian-Roger Huerta and Cheick Congo-Dan Evenson. It will be good to see Coleman back in the Octagon although I can’t help but feel he’s only been brought in to give Lesner a big name to beat. Florian and Heurta should be a great standup fight and if it hits the ground their both great there as well.
Interestingly, President of EliteXC Gary Shaw recently said, “I think I can reincarnate Ortiz” obviously speaking of Tito. As most know Ortiz has stated his upcoming fight with Lyoto Machida will be his last in the UFC as long as Dana White is their President. My question is, if Tito is still under contract with the UFC and Shaw is basically saying he wants to sign him, would that be considered tampering? I’m not sure, but EliteXC could certainly use Ortiz’s marketability. Who knows maybe we’ll be seeing an Ortiz-Kimbo Slice fight by the end of the year? Can you imagine the pay-per-view numbers that would bring in?

There hasn’t been a whole lot going on the last couple of weeks in the MMA world but things are going to get pretty busy the next couple of months. However, there have been a some stories worth mentioning and that’s what I’ll touch on today.

I’ve been trying my best to avoid all the Kimbo Slice hype but now he’s being featured on ESPN’s E:60 and next month he’ll be gracing the cover of ESPN Magazine. So it’s kind of hard to ignore. I have no problem with Gary Shaw of EliteXC bringing Kimbo along slowly, (he hasn’t been training MMA for that long) but don’t insult us (longtime fans of MMA) by saying he’s a legit MMA fighter. His two pro fights have been absolute joke’s, Bo Cantrell tapped and Kimbo wasn’t even hitting him, while Tank Abbott simply should not be fighting anymore. From all the interviews I’ve seen of Slice he seems like a decent guy and pretty respectful to other fighters (other than calling out Chuck Liddell). Eventually he’ll have to face a real MMA fighter and he’ll be exposed. Until then EliteXC will continue to feed him has-beens and never-will-be’s all the while telling us he’s the real deal. His next opponent James Thompson could ruin EliteXC’s plans as he definately has KO power but his chin is not exactly made of granite, so it will be interesting to see how this one unfolds. The one positive is Kimbo fills seats! And bringing new fans to this sport is not a bad thing. Just don’t expect to see a great display of Jiu-Jitsu.

So Tim Sylvia finally gets his wish. Sylvia has stated several times he would like to take on Fedor Emelianenko, it appears this will happen on July 19th at an event being put on by the Affliction clothing line. This will be Fedor’s first real test in quite sometime, or will it? People seem to be split on this one, I for one think Fedor will run right through “Big Tim”. Not to take anything away from Sylvia but if he thought Randy Couture was tenacious wait until he gets in there with Fedor. I just don’t think he can fight at the pace Emelianenko likes to set. What makes this interesting is that it now gives Couture and Fedor a common opponent. If Sylvia wins it makes Couture-Fedor less appealing, if Fedor wins it will really turn up the heat for an eventual Super-Fight between the two best Heavyweight’s in MMA. My opinion is Fedor wins and we see Couture-Fedor in the UFC for the BIG end of year fight.

I feel for the sports fans from Montreal. First they have to watch their Montreal Canadiens get beat by their rival Boston Bruins. Then they have to endure one of the worst UFC’s in quite sometime. At least they got to see their hometown hero George St.Pierre win back his title, as he easily defeated Welterweight Champion Matt Serra. St.Pierre showed when he comes prepared to fight there’s not many in his weight class that can handle him. This wasn’t much of a fight, but neither were many of the others with the exception of the Mac Danzig-Mark Bocek battle.
Bocek proved he’s got heart as he got bloodied and beaten but kept fighting until Danzig was able to choke him out. Danzig looked very good, although I thought he should have been able to finish this fight sooner. That may just be a testament to Bocek’s toughness. Michael Bisbing, who I’m not a huge fan of, looked very good in his new weight class and even had me rooting for him. It wasn’t as much wanting Bisbing to win, but rather his opponent Charles McCarthy to lose. McCarthy after taking several punches and knees started making faces as if to say is that all you got. Bisbing showed him there was more where that came from as he battered Charles with even more punches and knees until the end of round 1. As the round ended McCarthy lay on the canvas unable to continue, Bisbing winner TKO. My thoughts, if you’re going to showboat and antagonize your opponent back it up. Anyone can stand there and get pummeled, which is just what McCarthy did. The embarrassment didn’t end there. What was Kalib Starnes thinking? I thought this was a fight. I don’t get into a cage because I would get killed, but if your job is fighting–fight. Starnes meanwhile put on a clinic in back-peddling. Sure he hung on for three rounds, due to the fact that Nate Quarry couldn’t catch him but in the end this even going to decision was laughable. The best part of the fight was Quarry’s post fight tribute to Rocky 4 (“if you can change, then I can change, we all can change”) referring to the Canadians booing him then cheering him. If all this wasn’t bad enough we had to watch as Travis Lutter completely gassed against Rich Franklin. I’m a big Lutter fan, but first not making weight (against Anderson Silva) for a title shot, then seemingly out of shape against a guy known for his cardio is inexcusable. It was hard to say how good Franklin looked because Lutter looked that bad. I tell anyone who’ll listen how this is such a great sport with the best athletes and to be honest that’s not what I saw last night. All and all it was not a great night of fights. McCarthy and Starnes embarrassed themselves and Lutter was out of shape. However, George St.Pierre looked like a champion and Matt Serra showed he’s a class act and gracious in defeat. I just hope the record 22,000 fans that showed up would do so again knowing this was not a typical UFC event. Usually we’re entertained by the fights, not the antics of the fighters.

Every time Karo Parisyan gets on track for a shot at the title something happens to derail him. This time it was a knee to the jaw by Thiago Alves. Speaking of Alves, he is right on the doorstep having just beat Parisyan, he hasn’t lost since his 6/28/06 loss to Fitch. I would like to see an Alves- Josh Koscheck bout before either gets to face whomever the champ will be. That still leaves us with Sanchez, Burkman, Chris Lytle and we can’t forget about Matt Hughes. I don’t think Fitch could wait another 3-4 months for the winner of Serra-GSP. He’ll need to fight before that. My prediction is we’ll see a Fitch-Hughes fight added to a card in the next couple of months. Although Hughes may simply want to wait and be ready for his inevitable fight with Serra. Either way, because most of these guy’s are still so young, we’ll have some great match-ups in this weight class for years to come.