(Photo:Sherdog.com)

So 2010, looks to be well on the road to another injury plagued year and it really should be expected considering the nature of the sport.  Because it is a sport and entertainment… one man’s set back becomes another man’s opportunity.  The set back in this case was for UFC veteran and recent returnee, Vitor Belfort, who was slated to meet Anderson Silva in a title match @ UFC 112 after easily dispatching Rich Franklin in his first fight back with the organization.  In the lucky corner, stands Demian Maia, who was edging so close to this fight last year, before suffering a devastating KO loss to a surging Nate  Marquardt that dropped him back down a few rungs.

With Belfort injured, the logical choice would have been Chael Sonnen who has been mouthing off about wanting a chance to expose Anderson Silva and just came off a big win over fellow top contender Nate Marquardt.  With Marquardt getting the loss and Sonnen too injured from the last fight to compete so soon, the UFC turned to Maia as their replacement pick.

As per the Dana White on UFC.com;

“It’s always tough when a top fighter like Vitor Belfort has to pull out of a big title fight, but we have found a high quality replacement,” said UFC President Dana White. “Top contender Chael Sonnen was not available due to injuries sustained in his fight with Nate   Marquardt so top six middleweight Demian Maia will step in to fight for the title. Maia is an Abu Dhabi grappling champion, a five-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, and he is 12-1 in MMA and coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 109. Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia will be a matchup between MMA’s best striker and MMA’s best grappler.”

So, while it may not be the top 2 Middleweight fighters in the UFC competing for the title at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, it is still a pretty intriguing match-up.  Silva has shown some vulnerability on the ground and Demian Maia is undoubtedly one of the best ground fighters in the organization.  Maia showcased some budding striking skills at UFC 109 where he pulled out a convincing decision victory over Dan Miller in what was almost purely a stand-up fight.  That means little against a top level striker like Silva, but it may give Maia just enough time to get the fight to the ground and is at least an indication that Maia is realistic about the dangers of staying one dimensional while trying to make a run at a the title.

So… Maia can certainly get KO’s quickly like we saw from Marquardt, so the smart money is still on Silva to end this early. If he plays around too much though, and doesn’t take Maia as a serious opponent as he has been prone to do in recent fights, Silva could end up on the wrong side of some serious BJJ skills and wondering what went wrong.

It’s not the fight I would necessarily pick given a single chance to upset Silva’s title run, but when it airs on April 10th, it’s still a fight that I would pay to see.

(Photos:Sherdog.com) 

Well, it didn’t take long for this one to fall apart.  The UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout between Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva, tentatively scheduled for April’s UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi, has apparently been scratched due to a should injury suffered by Belfort.

Belfort had been attempting to train with the injury (avoiding the use of that arm) but after receiving a proper diagnosis, has been forced out of the fight. 

tatame.com posted the following bit of news on the subject:

“Jayme Sandall, Karate trained of the challenger, revealed to TATAME.com that Belfort had a shoulder injury, but he doesn’t know how bad it is. “He was training but not using the arm for a long time because of the injury, he said he’d stop for a while. He said he’d have it scanned to know how bad it is, but I don’t talk with him for 15 days and I don’t know about the results”.

In case this news confirms, it’ll be the second time that the UFC is forced to postpone the battle, which was set to the UFC 108 event in January 2, but Silva had to cancel the fight due to an elbow surgery. “

The news was also confirmed, albeit in minimalist terms,  via Dana White’s Twitter   where he posted the following short story;

 So…bad news for fight fans, but maybe good news for Chael Sonnen who has made a lot of recent comments about being someone who can expose Anderson Silva.  Sonnen was scheduled to fight the winner of Silva vs Belfort anyway after his recent domination of Nate Marquardt at UFC 109 placed him in clear title contention.  Looks like Sonnen will get a chance to back up his comments sooner than later.

(Photo: Kenneth Cappello- as posted at vitorbelfort.com)

Vitor “The Phenom” Belfort first debuted with the UFC back in 1997, and after moving between the UFC and Pride (among other ) organizations over the past 12 years, has come back home again to make a run at the Middleweight title.  Belfort is known for fantastic hand-speed and KO power and with the rest of the division… and some of the Light Heavyweights already taken out by Anderson Silva … Vitor’s return to the UFC was certainly geared towards a title match.

Taking a very serious fight against Rich Franklin, Belfort was able to step immediately into title contention after stopping Franklin in  a very quick 3 minutes by TKO. Prior to that fight, only Anderson Silva had been able to stop Franklin in his 7 year career with the UFC and considering Franklin has only ever been beaten by the MMA elite (Anderson Silva x 2, Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida)  just getting a win, let alone a stoppage over Franklin is a considerable achievement for any fighter.

After going a perfect 10-0 in the UFC, Anderson Silva who has definitely been praised as one of the best MMA talents in the world, has begun to wear on fans a bit … hey, it’s human nature to get bored.  While he has been a great champion in terms of highlight reel footage, he has also had some lacluster moments in the Octagon  which included a failure to engage and finish and moments of extreme showboating (see Leites, Cote, Griffin).

It seems the fans are ready for a change, if not a challenge and Belfort is the UFC’s answer to this dilemma.  While Belfort’s career record of 19-8-0 is not as stellar as Anderson Silva (25-4-0),  or even Rich Franklin (25-5 0)… he has a lot of tools to challenge the champion; namely that speed, power and the intangible factor of just riding a hot streak.  Belfort is peaking while Anderson, while greatly skilled is stagnating while discussing boxing matches and retirement.

 The 2 fighters are set to face each other at UFC 112 on April 10th in Abu Dhabi, in what has been reported to be an outdoor venue which should be another interesting component of the fight. Regardless of the outcome, with a challenger like Belfort, Silva will not have an opportunity to play games in the Octagon, at least not without risking his belt in the process.

Both fighters have never been KO’d, but Anderson Silva has never been TKO’d either and Belfort has on 2 occasions in the past…both times by Randy Couture.  If Silva can take out Belfort, then a chatty Chael Sonnen is ready, willing and waiting in the wings for his crack at the belt.

From a pure fighting perspective, you have to appreciate Anderson Silva’s skills although he has never really appealed as a UFC champion in terms of promotability.  The low PPV buy rate for Anderson Silva main events have been widely discussed in the past and generally result in the need for a solid co-main event to draw the fans into parting with 50 bucks.  Based on that fact alone, here’s betting that the UFC wouldn’t mind some new talent sporting the Middleweight Championship belt in 2010.

As usual…time will tell. 

 (Photo:Sherdog.com)

Ariel Helwani from MMAFighting.com had a chance to catch up with Chael Sonnen after his tough but convincing victory over Nate “The Great” Marquardt last night and as usual a lot of the comments from Chael were pretty entertaining.

When asked about his future title shot against the winner of  Vitor Belfort vs Anderson Silva, Chael was quick to note that he hopes the winner in Silva.  Not because he necessarily wants to beat the better fighter to earn the title, but because “Vitor is the better fighter.”

Sonnen went on to state that he will have lots to say about Silva if that match up becomes a reality and that leading up to the fight;

“It will be a verbal beatdown.  Anderson Silva will be in tears before it’s all over”. Upping the ante a bit more, Sonnen stated (about Silva) ” Look…this guy is no more real than the Loch Ness Monster and if he needs me to expose him I will.  I tell ya, the guys in the back know who the tough guy is.  If we walk in the back and Anderson says put on Hip Hop and Chael says put on Country, I guarantee it’s gonna be a Hoe Down… So as far as him being the bully of the playground, his 15 minutes of fame are up.”

Classic commentary for sure… (Click the play button to check out the full interview below)

 (Image:UFC.com)

Following the main event showdown between Patrick “The Predator” Cote and Anderson Silva at UFC 90, Silva left with his big shiny belt buckle while Cote got to take a busted up knee home with him.  Apparently this was an aggravation of an old injury for Cote and it had flared up just weeks before the event.  Stephane Patry, Cote’s manager advised that the injury first occurred prior to Cote’s January bout against Drew McFedries but Cote has been dealing with the occasional blow outs while attempting to stay active and maximize what was his 4 fight win streak . 

It is likely the same injury that forced Cote out of UFC 83 fight card in Montreal where he was originally scheduled to meet Alan Belcher.  That bout turned into a stellar debut for fellow Canadian MMA fighter Jason Day.  regardless of the source of the injury, Cote will reportedly be out of action for 6-8 months as he undergoes medical treatment.

“For him to be six to eight months off with that kind of surgery means that there’s a lot of work to do in his knee,” Stephane Patry, Cote’s manager, told The Canadian Press on Monday from Montreal.

 Cote mentioned that he had triggered the injury again while delivering a body kick to Silva in the second round.  I’m not sure if the picture for this post is that kick, but I can’t recall seeing many knees look like that!  Bad luck for Cote, but that’s what happens when you roll the dice with an injury.  As for the champ,  Anderson”The Spider” Silva, much has been made of his in fight antics against Cote that still have not been fully explained, but looked like a mix of stalling and elaborate showboating.

It’s unknown if Cote will get another shot at Silva when he is healthy again.  Cote may not even be a Middleweight by that time as the UFC struggles to find competitive matches at 185lbs for the fighter who has become known as the most lethal striker in all of MMA.

The UFC was recently in Chicago as part of a press conference to promote and support their UFC 90 event scheduled to take place at the Allstate Arena on  October 25th.  The PPV event features a Middleweight title match between the dominant champion, Anderson Silva and the hard hitting Patrick Cote.  Both fighters were on hand to promote the event, although as with most UFC road show events, the first trip to Chicago for the UFC is looking to set gate records and pack in the fans who don’t often get the opportunity to attend a live event. 

Check out the video footage from the press conference, provided by the UFC.  The dialogue with Anderson Silva trying his best to use English in his comments to the press, combined with Cote’s own heavy French Canadian accent, makes for an entertaining audio experience. 

 (Courtesy: UFC.com)

All jokes aside, Silva is obviously the heavy favorite in this match and rightly so considering the decimation of his UFC competition to date.   That said, Silva is at least selling it like he’s not taking Cote lightly in the least.  Showing Cote some respect, even if only for his striking power makes a lot of sense as he’s taken out Scott Smith, Kendall Grove , Drew McFedries and Ricardo Almeida in his last 4 outings.  In fact, Cote has only lost one fight in his last 8 (against Travis Lutter in the TUF 4 Finale) while taking wins over current UFC talents Jason Day and Jason MacDonald in other organizations.

Not to hype the fight too much, but Cote may have more than a one punch shot at winning this fight.  He better be training for some weakness of Anderson Silva.  Chris Leben shares a similar skill set foundation to Cote, with huge punching power and a rock solid chin and we all saw what happened to him against Anderson Silva.

As for Cote, he jokes in the press conference video that, ” He has been training and working a lot on his lucky punch…” so he is very much the realist as far as popular opinion regarding his chances in this match.

Check out a brief interview with Dana White following the Chicago press Conference where he addresses many of these topics. (courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times)

  As far as I see the fight, no matter who gets put in against Silva these days, a lot of fans will scream mismatch.  Patrick Cote has shown a lot of tactical growth as a fighter and he possesses some of the most powerful punches in the Middleweight division.  Power and a gameplan, combined with a great chin give him as good a chance as anyone in the division from where I am sitting (which is btw, comfortably on my couch - away from Anderson Silva).

(Photos:Sherdog.com)

It’s not official yet, but the rumor mill is buzzing with the new that the UFC has scrambled to put together a July 19th Fight Night event to counter the Affliction PPV debut scheduled for the same night.  As noted on Sherdog.com, the fights will be less than conventional due to the time constraints, but they will be interesting … and free to boot.

 The tentative card will have a main event featuring Middleweight Champion extraordinaire, Anderson “The Spider” Silva Vs. James “The Sandman” Irvin in a Light Heavyweight showdown.  Irvin brings plenty of punching power, although that seems to be a recipe for disaster based on Silva’s past opponents who chose to stand with him.

Value adds include:

 Brandon Vera fighting a 205lbs as well, in a quick turnaround following his sketchy loss due to referee stoppage in his UFC 85 bout against Fabricio Werdum.  His opponent was originally rumored to be Wanderlei Silva although that deal apparently fell through and now he will face IFL standout Andy Reese who holds a 7-1 pro record.

Cain Valesquez and Jake O’Brien are also scheduled to meet as per an MMAJunkie.com posted rumor.

So, certainly a few more fights to be announced for this one.  It is an interesting move and to me at least, shows that the UFC is somewhat concerned with the pressure that Affliction is applying with this event.  With the UFC event airing for free on SpikeTV, the UFC should win out with viewers in real time, although I expect that many fans will purchase the Affliction event as well. 

The UFC move should sting Affliction, but with options to purchase and watch later, the Affliction event should still draw a respectable crowd…. or maybe I will tape the UFC event… ?  It’s nice to have options, and that’s what Affliction is banking on after all.

Polls are a great way to get a view into popular opinion and among MMA fans, opinion is rarely in short supply.  With the most recent poll we asked which current Champion you felt would lose their belt first?

The response was good in terms of numbers of votes and it also provided a clear view of how the fans view the current UFC champions.

Here are the results of the poll:

It’s hard to disagree with the results for the most part.   Antonio Nogueira is a new champ and his performances have been somewhat inconsistent outside of the UFC.  The biggest surprise to me was that 28% of those who voted thought Rampage would be next in line to lose his belt.  The charming champion is due to meet Forrest Griffin on July 5th following their TUF 7 coaching assignments.  Not sure if the vote means that Griffin will take that belt or someone else? 

The next 3 fighters are tough choices as they are all considered among the top pound for pound competitors in the game.
BJ Penn has the least consistency in his career, regardless of where he is today, but I’m not sure who people think is going to take his belt?  GSP is always a favorite, although he showed some vulnerability against Serra the first time round.
Anderson Silva has shown very little weakness and has purely dominated his competition in the UFC… for that reason, you voted him least likely to lose his belt in the near future.

Solid picks from everyone… now on to the next poll!

 (Photo: Sherdog.com)

Does Rich Franklin need to get bigger? 

Everyone knows that Rich Franklin has run into a Brazilian brick wall that goes by the name of Anderson Silva, but what does that mean for the former champ Franklin, as far as next steps? In a recent interview with MMAWeekly, Rich Franklin’s manager, Monte Cox commented on Rich’s position in the UFC and where the future might take him in terms of fights and weight class. 

“He’s fought almost everybody in the 185-pound division,” said Cox. “There are some guys that he could fight, but if he beats them it knocks them out of title contention. And nobody is looking to see Rich and Anderson Silva 3 right now, including me.”

It’s a very true statement.  Rich is certainly in the elite level of the Middleweight division, but as he keeps knocking off potential contenders for Anderson Silva’s belt, he stalls the division.  Rich has had two chances at Silva’s belt and while he may be stubborn enough to go after “The Spider” a third time, I don’t know that I could bear to watch Rich get KO’d like that again.  To be fair, it looks like the styles make fights phenomenon… Rich is good enough to be the champ, just not against Anderson Silva. (Anderson wins 8 out of 10 times for sure)

Read the rest of this entry »

 (Photo:UFC.com)

Talk about hitting a guy when he is down…

In an ironic twist, the UFC teaches Lutter about how to cut weight by dropping his 185lbs in as much time as it takes to leave a voice mail.  Yes that’s right, a voice mail…. at least that’s the way that Lutter is describing the situation on his MySpace page.   Lutter left the following note to let fans know that he has been dropped by the organization following his UFC 83 loss to former Middleweight champion Rich Franklin,

“Friday afternoon I was told by my manager that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had left my him a message on his  phone that I had been released from my UFC contract because of my 2 losses in a row. “

It’s not entirely earth shattering news, as there has been widespread speculation that the UFC would be dropping a lot of fighters to lean out the divisions.  At the same time though, it seems to have caught Lutter by surprise and probably rightly so, when as a fighter looking for positives after losses, he can see that he had the two of the best Middleweight fighters in the world in trouble.  Lutter arguably had Anderson Silva as close to finished as any fighter in the UFC after failing to make weight for the freebie UFC 67 Championship bout which was a gift for winning his division on The Ultimate Fighter ‘The Comeback” series. 

Giving Lutter the UFC 83 bout against Franklin seemed to indicate that all was forgiven for the not making weight fiasco and an indication that Lutter was still a respected fighter in the division.  In a recent interview with Fight Ticker, following the loss to Franklin, he mentioned that he still had 4 fights remaining on his contract and didn’t worried about losing his position with the organization.  In fact he spoke of next steps and missed opportunities with a sense of realism;

“I think I can beat Franklin. I think I can beat Silva. I’m not lacking for confidence. I still think I can beat them. I’m going to train to fight my next opponent with the idea of hopefully getting in the ring with both of them again. I don’t have a vendetta against either one of them. I don’t give a crap about that. I just want to be considered one of the best in the world. Right now, I’m not on a good path for that.

Perhaps the nail in Lutter’s coffin was a comment in the same interview stating that he believed Matt Lindland was the best Middleweight fighter in the world today.  Having fought Silva, Franklin and Lindland(losing to all), Luter has earned to right to an opinion, although picking the non-UFC fighter may not have been his best play after dropping his second consecutive fight in the organization.  Either way, there are a lot of fight promotions out there now and Lutter would be a big name for any of them, so fights and money shouldn’t be an issue.   Lutter also made reference to contacting some boxing coaches to improve his stand-up game.  Nothing is final in the UFC, so we may not have seen the last of Travis Lutter yet, although at 35 years old the odd certainly aren’t getting better for the struggling veteran.