UFC 118 REVIEW PART 3: FLORIAN VS. MAYNARD

Kenny "Kenflo" Florian is one of those fighter's who's definitely better every time he gets in the cage, not because the preview specials or commentators tell you so, but because you can visually tell the difference. Literally every time  he steps into the cage, you can see that he's once again sharpened up his already impressive Muay Thai and BJJ skills. He showed incredible stand up skills and footwork against Japanese phenom Takanori Gomi, and I was looking for him to display a comparable, if not much better performance against Gray "The Bully" Maynard.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 2: COUTURE VS. TONEY

Who honestly thought this was going to go any other way? In an industry first, current boxing champion James Toney fights UFC fighter Randy Couture in order to see if boxing really is better than MMA, and vice versa. Most people accurately predicted the outcome of this fight the moment it was announced.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 1: EDGAR VS. PENN

Which side were you on when Frankie Edgar beat the man many proclaimed to be the best lightweight in the history of the sport? Did you believe that Edgar truly won that fight decisively or did BJ just have a very bad night? How did you react when Edgar wanted to fight Gray Maynard and avenge a previous loss rather than give BJ an immediate rematch?

UFC 118 THOUGHTS: PENN VS. PACQUIAO?

Watching the August 20, 2010 episode of Inside MMA, I was hit with a rather interesting thought. Maximum Fighting Championship owner and president Mark Pavelich commented that the UFC 118 match between Randy Couture and James Toney, isn't nearly as good representation as it's supposed to be. This is because both fighters are already in their 40's (Couture is 47 and Toney is 41), which is the age range that many fighters retire at, if they actually make it that far. Pavelich proposed that younger, more relevant fighters of their respective sports be the representatives. He specifically names a Clay Guida / Manny Pacquiao fight. 

UFC 118 PREDICTIONS

Here are my predictions for UFC 118. As usual, I'll keep them short and sweet and leave my actual thoughts for my reviews of the fights.

WEC 50 REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

As I mentioned in the first part of my review of WEC 50, a good majority of the fights in this organization of lighter-weight warriors are composed of wild, nonstop, brutal action for 3 or 5 rounds straight. This is true for the main event, and this is true for most of the main card as well.

WEC 50 REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

I actually only began watching WEC events less than a year ago, so I'm not nearly as familiar with the fighters as I am with the ones from the UFC. Seeing as the organization has reached the magic number 50, though, I feel that it's high time I threw in my own thoughts about this particular MMA organization.

HOW TO BE FIT LIKE THE OLD SPICE GUY

Isaiah Mustafa, better known as "The Old Spice Guy" has had an explosion of popularity recently thanks to this commercial:

THE SYLVESTER STALLONE WORKOUT

Sylvester Stallone is a 64-year old man and, as you might have heard, he has a brand new movie that just came out called The Expendables. Wait a minute ... he's a 64-year old man still making old school, 80's style action movies?! And with powerhouses like Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Jet Li, and Jason Statham?! How does he do it?

Okay, okay, fine. Sly's admitted to using human growth hormone to bulk up for his recent movies, but all that muscle he's currently carrying around is more a result of hard work at the gym and a decent diet than the supplements he's taking, however ethically questionable some of them might be.



Sly already revealed his secret formula for diet and exercise a few years back with his book called Sly Moves.I have the book and have read it several times. I like it very much because it not only reveals Sly's current philosophy on working out and eating right, but also his background and how he came to be a big star today.


In the book, Sly talks of all the crazy exercise and diet regimens he went through starting from Rocky I, and how he basically took all his experiences and molded them into something simple and effective. 

THE EXPENDABLES MOVIE REVIEW

Expectations. That’s what "The Expendables" is all about. It has an air of hype around it that just builds tremendous expectations in certain audience members. It has to, what with some of the “greatest action heroes of all time” all in the same movie. As such, I believe that this is the film’s greatest accomplishment, as well as its greatest failure.

I’ve read several reviews of the film and most of them are negative. Almost all of them point to the fact that this is a brainless action film that’s more a waste of time than almost anything else. Others were simply tremendously disappointed because they set their expectations too high and this film didn’t deliver.

Me? I loved the living hell out of this thing.

I didn’t come into this movie expecting a good storyline. Not at all. Sly Stallone has gone on record several times before the premiere that this would be just a balls-out action movie with a very simple storyline. He made this out to be the greatest thing ever, but he always alluded to the action, and never the story.

THE TRAILER:

TEKKEN MOVIE REVIEW 2: THE EXTREMELY GEEKY VERSION

You’ve probably already read my general thoughts on the film, but if it not, please check it out first! This review is basically a continuation of the first one, but with added notes that the hardcore Tekken and fighting game fans might want to know. As such, this contains MASSIVE SPOILERS. You have been warned.

MY TEKKEN BACKGROUND

Anyway, as I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge fan of Tekken but I’m not nearly as into the series as I am with Street Fighter, though. I played it religiously from Tekken 1until Tekken Tag Tournament(the fourth installment in the franchise), but then skipped Tekken 4,and came back only for Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.I actually haven’t even bought and played Tekken 6,but it has nothing to do with my hatred for the Bob character, I swear. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t have bought and played Street Fighter IVas well, right?

Tekken Movie UK DVD Box art

It’s just that I didn’t have the budget when the game first came out, and I just kept putting off buying it. I’m currently a full time graduate student at one of the top universities in my country, blogger, and I still work out and practice martial arts very regularly, so I don’t have that much free time for video games at the moment. When I do buy a video game, I tend to play that for months and months on end. Right now, I’m currently replaying Grandia because it came out on the PSN, which I alternate from time to time with Super Street Fighter IV.

So that’s my Tekken background in a nutshell. Am I any good at the game? Well, I can say that I’m decent, but nowhere near what many would truly qualify as “good”. I just tend to play around and not take it too seriously.

TEKKEN MOVIE REVIEW

I recently had the chance to see “Tekken”, the live action adaptation of the very popular video game franchise. I am a huge fan of fighting games, and of course, I love Tekken as well. As one would expect, this is a martial arts movie. I have to stress, however, that this is a low budget effort, and what many would correctly term a “B Movie”. So, if you completely despise these types of flicks, then you know what to expect, and that’s pretty much all of the pieces of this review that you need to read. If, however, the thought of this being a low budget chop-socky affair doesn’t bother you in the least, then read on!

THE TRAILER:

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 7: FINAL THOUGHTS

STRUVE VS. MORECRAFT

Stefan Struve has been known to be a very well rounded fighter in the heavyweight division, with excellent striking and grappling skills. But when he came up against Christian Morecraft, his skills seemed to be just a bit lacking. He clearly lost the first round to the UFC newcomer. “Dominated” would be an understatement. Morecraft quickly gets Struve on the ground and ground and pounds him for nearly 4 straight minutes. Struve has tremendous heart, though. He kept active the entire time by defending every chance he could and throwing submission attempts every once in a while. There were several times when referee Herb Dean seemed very close to stopping it, though, but Struve kept at it and survived until the end of the round.

The second round begins and Struve’s face is busted up. Morecraft quickly pressures him against the cage with a flurry of punches, but Struve gets one clean counter in and BAM! Knocks Morecraft down and after some ground and pound of his own, finishes the fight less than a minute into the second round. Astonishing comeback from “The Skyscraper”!

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 6: FITCH VS. ALVES

Activity level. That’s pretty much what made this fight. During the weigh-in, Thiago Alves supposedly could not make the weight by half a pound and refused to cut it, choosing instead to lose 20% of his purse. With the money he’s currently making with the UFC, that’s a pretty huge sum, and something not a lot of people would agree worth losing over cutting only half a pound. But when you’re willing to lose a tremendous amount of cash just to avoid losing that little weight, you know something’s wrong.

ALVES' SURGERY

This fight was originally supposed to take place at UFC 107,but an anomaly of some sort in his brain that required immediate surgery forced him to drop out. As one would expect, it was quite a harrowing time for Alves, but the surgery was a complete success and he recovered very quickly from it.

REVENGE!

Alves had previously lost to Fitch at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 5, way back in 2006, so this is yet another revenge match on the card. Another interesting motivation is that whoever wins this fight gets the top contender spot against the winner of the St-Pierre / Koscheck fight at UFC 124. Alves certainly had a lot riding on this fight. Unfortunately, his performance didn’t really show it. While he wasn’t exactly lazy throughout the fight, his activity level seemed rather lackluster, especially compared to that of his opponent’s.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 5: GUIDA VS. DOS ANJOS

Clay Guida. Wrestler. Striker. Engine with unlimited fuel. Wild man. Carpenter. Dude with extremely crazy hair. He actually reminds me a lot of Blanka from the Street Fighter series by the way he looks and acts, but I digress. Guida is primarily known as a dominant wrestler who likes to grind his opponents out until they have nothing left to give. He literally never runs out of gas. Never. And he goes full steam from the very first bell to the very last. Rafael Dos Anjos, on the other hand, is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert who is also known to possess some incredible Muay Thai. So, he could knock Guida out or possibly submit him.

THE FIRST ROUND

For most of the first round, it would seem that the former was the most likely to happen. The round took place almost entirely on the feet and Dos Anjos seemed to be getting the best of Guida in the stand up game every time. Guida’s no slouch in his kickboxing, but Dos Anjos was obviously performing a level higher that night.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 4: HUGHES VS. ALMEIDA

Alright, revenge match time! “You killed my master!” Or rather, “you defeated my master”. After Matt Hughes defeated legendary MMA fighter Renzo Gracie at UFC 112, Ricardo Almeida, one of Gracie’s top students, apparently targeted Hughes and asked specifically for this fight. He seriously wants to avenge the loss of his instructor. Hughes, on the other hand, doesn’t think the same way. He’s not Gracie hunting or bearing a grudge or anything. He just wants to fight and win impressively against whoever the UFC puts in front of him. Just another day in the office.

And what a day in the office it was! After a few quick exchanges and getting comfortable, Hughes landed a clean left hook on Almeida’s jaw and toppled him to the other side of the cage. He immediately capitalizes, jumps on top of him, gets his head in a classic wrestling headlock, SQUEEZES, and puts him to sleep.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 3: NELSON VS. DOS SANTOS

Roy “Big Country” Nelson” is not your average MMA fighter. He is an extraordinarily fat heavyweight that does not look the least bit athletic, yet he comes always fully prepared to fight, has a chin that can take a ton of punishment, has knock out power in both hands, can go three full rounds without seeming to get tired, has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has years and years of experience in the sport. He was a former champion in a different organization and, after winning the tenth seasonof The Ultimate Fighter, is now steadily climbing the ranks of the UFC heavyweight division.

I previously wrote that Big Country seemed slimmer in his fight against Stefan Struve than he did in The Ultimate Fighter, and I believed that I would see similar progress in his preparation against Dos Santos. This was not the case. Though Nelson thoroughly prepared for this matchup, his belly did not make it obvious.

Junior “Ciganto” Dos Santos, on the other hand, is a young man in the sport of MMA, but has quickly shot up the ranks of the UFC heavyweight ladder, defeating all of his opponents in a very particular decisive manner: namely, a fierce knockout. If he does the same against Roy “Big Country” Nelson, then he will get a title shot against the winner of the Lesnar – Velasquez fight at UFC 121 in October.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 2: SILVA VS. SONNEN

I've already written at length about the hype that culminated into this main event but what actually happened?

Anderson catches Chael very early on in with a straight right, but Chael remains composed, striking back at the champion. The two exchange punches and kicks for a while, and Sonnen does a very impressive roll escape after Silva catches one of his kicks. The crowd cheers for Silva.

Then, the near-unthinkable happens: Sonnen manages to sneak past Silva’s usually impenetrable stand-up defenses and dazes him with a clean left straight punch. Silva backs up, but strikes back at his charging opponent. Silva takes Sonnen to the ground, but the challenger quickly stands up and delivers several more clean punches to the champion’s chin. Oddly enough, Silva wasn’t defending any of them. In fact, he had his hands down.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 1: INTRO TO THE MAIN EVENT

Should Chael Sonnen win? Does Anderson Silva deserve to stay UFC middleweight champion? These thoughts flooded mixed martial arts fans from across the globe for months on end as Chael Sonnen, an extraordinary wrestler who has beaten a who’s who of champions and top contenders in various organizations throughout his professional MMA career began his epic series of verbal tirades against the current middleweight champion of the UFC.

Sonnen, part wrestler, part politician, and all mixed martial artist, had been talking some of the most extreme forms of trash against champion Anderson Silva for months and months on end, partly to hype up the main event, partly to deliver more confidence to himself, and partly because he actually believed the stuff he was spewing. In a recent interview with Ron Kruck on Inside MMA, Sonnen explains that he never once talked trash against Anderson Silva, simply because he defines “talking trash” as making stuff up just to make your opponent look bad. He says that he never once made any of the negative talk he shared with the various media sources up. He says he believes it all to be true, even when he says that Silva could never be taken down before because he was always soaked in baby oil. He even outright calls him a “cheater” for doing so.

WHAT IS FLEXIBILITY?

Flexibility is the range of motion of the body or its specific joints. it involves the interrelationships between muscles, tendons, ligaments, and the joint itself. The best way to improve upon it is to undertake flexibility or stretching exercises.

STRETCHING AND INJURIES

1. No solid scientific evidence has been gathered to state that flexibility does, indeed, prevent injury during physical activities.

2. Stretching before a physical activity can even cause injury because it reduces force production and power output.

UFC LIVE: JONES VS. MATYUSHENKO REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

TYSON GRIFFIN VS. TAKANORI GOMI

This match was an excellent start for the rest of the event, and, strangely enough, slightly mirrored the main event. Takanori Gomi has been professionally competing in MMA for some time now, and he is a legend over in Japan. His UFC debut, however, was under a slightly negative banner when he lost against one of the top lightweights in the organization, Kenny Florian, at UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Gomi. Despite that, I predicted that The Fireball Kid would take the loss as another important lesson in MMA and use his vast experience to steadily climb the ranks of the UFC.

How right I was. Tyson Griffin is known as an extraordinary striker, and by all rights, he definitely is. Some people were thinking that he might initiate a similar strategy to Kenny Florian’s, when he out-boxed Gomi during their matchup. Griffin came out swinging almost as soon as the bell rang, and Gomi answered. After only a few exchanges, Gomi landed a clean right hook and face-planted Griffin only a minute into the first round. Griffin complains to referee Jason Herzog that it was an unfair early stoppage, but he was clearly knocked out.

UFC LIVE: JONES VS. MATYUSHENKO REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

Wow, just … wow. If I had to sum up this fight in only a handful of words, it would be “quick, clean and brutal”. Jon “Bones” Jones clearly does not mess around. Here’s a guy that everyone knew was going to be the next big thing. The question was, how big, and how long until he got there? Jones only had 11 pro fights under his belt before this one, and only 5 of those in the UFC. Regardless, all of them were extremely impressive, including even his only loss against Matt Hamill for the illegal elbows at the Ultimate Finale 10.He was clearly winning that fight until the disqualification occurred. Every time he stepped into the cage, it was a clear step up in competition, and every time, he exceeded all expectations.

Now, it’s time to face The Janitor. Vladimir Matyushenko is a serious veteran of the sport. He’s been fighting professionally since 1997, has 24 wins out of 29, and has fought a lot of talented competition over the years. Some, including myself, actually,  had given this fight too easily to Jones, saying that his youth and athleticism could be more than a match against Matyushenko’s experience.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: TRUTH OR MYTH?

Sports fan around the world have heard the term “Home Court Advantage” or at least one of its variations (“home town advantage”, etc.) from the mouths of the announcers and commentators of their sport of preference at one point or another. It signifies a distinct advantage for an athlete or team of athletes when they play a game (match / fight / or whatever is most applicable) in their home town.

IS IT REAL?

But is this phenomenon really true? Does the extremely positive energy of a hometown crowd really transfer over to an athlete or team of athletes and give them the power to surmount all odds? If you’ve been participating or at least been watching sports for some time, you’ve probably noticed that the answer is sometimes “yes”, sometimes “no”. But is there some hard data to all this? Is the answer actually a resounding “yes, home court advantage does indeed exist”, and that the other times were actual data aberrations of some sort? Or is it the other way around? Is it a 50/50 chance, like if you flip a coin? Or, if it exists, is the ratio actually more one-sided, like 70/30, or even 90/10? Does it exist for all sports?