BEHOLD, MY NEW MARTIAL ARTS BLOG!

When I first started Fitness Philippines, I thought it would be best if I strung together all my interests so I wouldn't ever run out of material. So, the blog was originally about my take on fitness, health, nutrition, and the martial arts. 6 months pass and I find that the topics are extremely skewed, especially considering the blog title. A good majority of the posts were concerned only about martial arts, specifically UFC events. I'm obsessed with the UFC and decided to review every match I saw in great detail. Combine that with the recent explosion in the number of events the UFC holds per month, plus a TV show, and a limited schedule that didn't allow me to post every day, and Fitness Philippines transformed into something misleading. It wasn't about fitness from the point of view of a Filipino any longer, it was just about mixed martial arts (MMA).

UFC 119 PREDICTIONS

Cro Cop vs. Mir! Bader vs. Li'l Nog! Serra vs. Lytle: The Rematch! Plus the return of The Muscle Shark and The Young Assasin! A pretty amazing card, if you ask me.

GSP IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Current UFC welterweight champion and TUF 12 coach, Georges "Rush" St-Pierre is visiting the Philippines this week for a meet and greet with fans at the SM Mall of Asia (MOA)'s Music Hall in Pasay City, Philippines, on September 25, 2010 (Friday), starting at 2:30 PM. He will be arriving in the country on September 23 for the 3-day visit. Here's Balls Channel's (the official channel that broadcasts MMA events in the Philippines) official video promotion of the event:

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

COLE MILLER VS. ROSS PEARSON

The first round was a classic stand up brawl, with Cole being the active one, mixing everything up rather well, but with Pearson showing the more refined striking abilities; picking his shots carefully and landing them with crisp precision. Both fighters' game plans were pretty clear late in the round: Pearson wanted to set up Cole for a solid knockout punch, and Cole wanted to get Pearson to the ground and submit him. The first round was rather even, though, and either fighter could have won it.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 REVIEW PART 2

Only a select few fights were aired in their entirety. Check out the first part of my review of the first episode of the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter to see what occurred there. This article focuses on the fights that were aired with cuts, and were shown as highlights. What was shown was still pretty impressive, though:

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 REVIEW PART 1

The first episode was pretty awesome, as it was literally all about the fights. I'll start by reviewing the fights that were shown on air in their entirety, and then continue with the highlights tomorrow.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

I've been very excited with this matchup for quite a while. Rousimar Palhares is a relative newcomer in the UFC, but has been quickly climbing the ranks because of his outstanding BJJ finishes. His opponent, however, is Nate "The Great" Marquardt, who has been professionally competing for more than ten years, is a former UFC Middleweight top contender, and King of Pancrase. Nate's one of the top guys in the UFC middleweight division, and if Palhares beats him, it could very well mean a top contender position for him in the near future. On the other hand, if Marquardt wins this one, then he could very well be catapulted into top contender status as well, a position so convincingly taken from him by Chael Sonnen at UFC 109.There's a lot riding on this fight, so both fighters are geared up.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES PREDICTIONS

Okay, now that I've published all of my reviews for UFC 118, I think it's a good time to post my predictions for the next UFC event coming next week, UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares:

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 5: THE PRELIMS

LAUZON VS. RUEDIGER

Diaz vs. Davis is my favorite fight of the night (and it was awarded as such), but, aside from Couture's performance against Toney, this is another of my favorite bouts of the evening. Joe Lauzon and Gabe Rueidger are both veterans of The Ultimate Fighter Season 5,but Lauzon had the better performance.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 4: THE MAIN CARD

DIAZ VS. DAVIS

This match is a real treat for those who like straight-up stand up brawls. And I do mean "brawls", and not "fights", especially considering that it's Nate Diaz we're talking about here. Diaz, who normally competes at lightweight, moves up to welterweight for this bout. Will the increased weight be a disadvantage to him, will it be the other way around, or will it just not make a difference? Considering that he looks much larger than Davis, I'd say he still had the advantage in this fight.

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.

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.