UFC Fight Night Condit v. Kampmann Picks

Carlos Condit over Martin Kampmann – I’d give the standup to Kampmann, and I respect his submission skills, but I think Condit controls the positions of the fight.

Ryan Bader over Carmelo Marrero – Darth Bader shouldn’t have many problems.

Tyson Griffin over Rafael Dos Anjos – Not an easy road for Dos Anjos

Cole Miller over Junie Browning – Please?  Cole has the tools, but Junie is training with a decent team, this could go either way…

Gleison Tibau over Jeremy Stephens

Ricardo Almeida over Matt Horwich – Please don’t gas Big Dog

Brock Larson over Jesse Sanders – Should be…

Nick Catone over Tim Credeur – Can you tell I’m flipping a coin now?

Jorge Rivera over Nissen Osterneck – yup.

Rob Kimmons over Joe Vedepo

Tim McKenzie over Aaron Simpson – Experience

Ryan Jensen over Steve Steinbeiss – Moving on…

…I wish the UFC would do more to push some of these younger guys.

USA Today/SB Nation Heavyweight

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Now the real game begins…

In my opinion, the most wildly inaccurate of the rankings.  Fedor at #1 is elementary, but Barnett and Arlovski at 2 and 3 are better than Dane Cooks entire schtick.  Barnett could very well drop MMA to go compete in puro and play Warhammer on Saturdays, and Arlovski just got KTFO.  Frank Mir is easily #2 right now, and I hate to say this, but Brock should be 3 or 4.  Crushing Randy and the Herring are not small feats in a thin division.  Then I’d drop in Nog and Barnett almost interchangably.  Then add Randy, Sylvia shouldn’t be on the list since he’s a boxer now (hahahahahahahah).  Oh yeah, then there’s Alistair Overeem who though losing a K-1 bout to Remy Bonjasky (nothing to be ashamed about) is transformed as a heavyweight and could conceivably crush anyone on the list and be much higher.  Werdum and Carwin could be higher as well.  I’d put Arlovski right behind Napao to be honest.  Beating Rothwell and Nelson aren’t exactly feats of champion magnitude.

USAToday/SB Nation Light Heavyweight

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Rashad at number 1 is a gimmie, but I’d have Lyoto at number 2, being undefeated, possibly never having lost a round, and finally fighting for a title and all…Rampage is right at number 3 from there, Chuck is way too high, Wanderlei is too high, Jardine is about right,  Shogun is too high, and Hendo, Franklin, and Cane should move up.

USAToday/SB Nation Middleweight

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Ah, the vaunted middleweight division.  In the #1 spot, is demon lord Anderson Silva.  The rest is irrelevant (just kidding).  At #2  Yushin Okami is the right choice here.  Henderson, Marquardt, and Mousasi are interchangable, and Robbie Lawler is too high.  Way too high.  Demian Maia is correct and I’d insert Leites into Lawler’s spot.  Filho should drop, Sonnen is too high, no one cares about Cung Le, and can somebody give Vitor some love?

USAToday/SB Nation Welterweight

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GSP, Alves, and Fitch are exactly correct.  I would raise Koscheck, drop Hughes, drop Condit (only a little, he’s about to be tested), drop Karo (pending his suspension), raise Swick, and raise Sanchez.  What a wonderful mess.  Paulo Thiago will drop after Fitch, and Anthony Johnson is one to watch if he gets by Matt Brown.

Also, Gono should be ranked #1 in the hilarious entrances poll.

SB Nation/USA Today Rankings -Lightweight

Bloody Elbow, part of the SB*Nation has partnered with USA Today for weekly MMA rankings.  Let’s break it down (I’ll only hit top 10 or 15 as the top 25 is sketchy at best, and not totally relevant to the title picture):

Let’s look here, BJ is good at 1.  Aoki at 2 is a tough sell, he’s the WAMMA champ which is a negative, and he fights up and down competition.  Florian and Sherk are fine and Alvarez is placed about right.  Hansen, JZ, and the Punk are ranked well.  I personally would switch Crusher and Kitaoka.  Also, Gomi has no business on this list right now, and Jamie Varner should be higher, but not much.

Dude where’s my posts!?

There’s not been anything remotely newsworthy, so I’m consolidating some of the small stuff….

….Speaking of small,  Bobby Lashley got his win over Ken Sham…er…Jason Guida.  Next.

Mayhem Miller hosts Bully Beatdown on MTV, and I wonder if it’s possible for the show to succeed for Mayhem’s sake while MTV fails for the world’s sake.  Next.

The long awaited rematch of Mike Brown and Urijah Faber takes place June 7th and it will be on Versus.  When Brown handles Faber, hopefully people whine about how Faber has been overrated all along and a bunch of other tedious whining.  If he loses, then he’s #2 at FW until he loses again for Miguel Torres moves up in weight.  Also, it’s kind of disappointing that Mike Brown doesn’t get more props than he does.   He’s a bad bad man, who fights smart, technical, and desires to improve.  I’m on the warwagon.

King Mo won, Ninja of Love will hopefully fight Korean Zombie in a battle for the ages, and Sengoku continues to put on entertaining cards.  I really wish I had HDNet.

Finally, Bloody Elbow has partnered with USA Today to publish MMA rankings every Thursday.  This is great MMA exposure, and I’m glad to see USA Today jumping in deeper with the growing sport.   Hopefully the rankings themselves will be solid…

Sengoku VII Picks and Commentary

Starting with fight of the year candidate:

James Thompson over  “Big” Jim York – Gong and dash, Megapunk in a display of animalistic savagery seen only in the pages of “Good Housekeeping”.

LHW bout that could kill the career of a future star:

“King” Mo Lawal over Ryo Kawamura – Kawamura has some power in his hands, but the Murfreesboro, TN native should continue his ascent towards being known as Rampage: The Next Generation.

Featherweight GP Opening Round Bouts:

Hatsu Hioki over Chris Manuel – easily Hioki, and Chris Manuel has a name similar to a 1980s era WWE jobber.  I said jobber for all you smarts out there.

Hideki Kadowaki over Nam Phan – Kadowaki has submitted Rumina Sato which is no easy feat, not to mention Nam Phan is inconsistent at best.

LC Davis over Michihiro Omigawa – Davis looked decent in the few IFL bouts I’ve seen him in, not to mention his victory over Bao Quach.

Marlon Sandro over Matt Jaggers – Cool name aside, I see Sandro winning via decision.  Next!

Kim Jong Man v. Masanori Kanehara – No clue.

Shintaro Ishiwatari over Chan Sung Jung – I’ve played enought Call of Duty to know that zombies are only dangerous in numbers.

Ronnie Ushiwaka over Tetsuya Yamada – Experience is the deciding factor here, plus is Yamada is barely out of high school.

Nick “Ninja of Love” Denis over Seiya Kawahara – Watch Out!  Ninja!  Zombie expert ninja that is.  Hopefully this bracket doesn’t fall so that Ninja of Love faces Korean Zombie or there wi..er actually,  I hope that Ninja of Love faces Korean Zombie.  The columns will write themselves!

So, looking back at this card we have:

-Kings

-Ninjas of Love

-Korean Zombies

-High School Kids

-WWE Jobbers

-James Thompson

I really wish I had HDNet.

Faile.

Credit to Sam Caplan Here

So, Atencio is playing along with this mind numbing stupidity.  It’s like they never wanted to have a chance…

News and Notes from the Past Week

-Ken Shamrock.  Steroids.  Shocked, really, just shocked.  So, who does Bobby Lashley fight now? Simple, the obvious 2nd choice.  Jason Guida

-BJ said some crazy stuff in an interview that didn’t actually happen.  This is only mentionable for one reason, it makes me realize that should this appeal be decided in BJ’s favor, then the Thiago Alves coronation is ruined.

-Kevin Randleman signs with Strikeforce.  I want to believe.

-In my opinion, NY politicians who are against MMA regulation aren’t very bright.

After last weeks tragedy, let’s hope this week remains quiet.