UFC 131: Dos Santos breaks Carwin, earns title shot......

Not too many people predicted the main event at UFC 131 would end in a decision. Even the two heavyweights battling for a title shot thought it would end quickly. The fact that it lasted all three rounds didn't make it any less of an exciting fight, and while we would have all loved a spectacular KO from either of these elite strikers they still put on an incredible show.

Props have to be given to Shane Carwin. The Engineer showed incredible heart, and improved cardio in what turned out to be an epic battle, one that he nearly lost at the end of the first round as Dos Santos rained punches down onto him, much like Carwin did to Lesnar at the end of their first round back at UFC 116 nearly a year ago, only this time he was on the receiving end. His face was bloodied, his nose broken broken, but you could still see as he stood there for the 3rd round, that Shane Carwin wanted to be a fucking fighter.

What's next for Carwin? Who know's?!? There's a plethora of rich and exciting talent in the Heavyweight division and no doubt we'll all be playing matchmaker for him over the next couple of months. If I had to make a pick, off the top of my head I'd have to say..... Carwin vs Travis Browne.

That leads us to last nights victor. One of the most fluid and effective strikers in MMA today, he's a humble man and a great ambassador for the sport, but make no bones about it Junior Dos Santos is a bad motherfucker. He skillfully picked Carwin apart last night making use of his slick jab and always effective lead uppercut. There was a great show of confidence in his boxing, especially when you think about who he was standing in front of, it was a confidence that only faltered for a moment after he got clipped by Carwin against the cage in the 2nd round. At least I think it was the 2nd, but after a joint, 6 beers, time spent drooling over our hosts Austin Martin Vantage and a cigar that made my head spin like a top, it's sometimes hard to remember all the little details.

One thing that sticks in my mind is that he even displayed some wrestling skills when she slammed his bloodied opponent to the ground, twice, during the 3rd round (again, I think it was the 3rd, so fuzzy). Dos Santos proved last night that's he's the legitimate #1 contender and a serious threat to Cain Velasquez's title.

Up next.....

KTFO...

Behold Sam Stouts impressive and brutal KO of Yves Edwards at UFC 131 last night in Vancouver. The heavy handed Canadian won KO of the Night, and a challenge from another winner on the card, Donald Cerone.

Shane Carwin is back on track for his title shot....

There were many firsts during Shane Carwin's title shot against Brock Lesner at UFC 116. It was the first time anyone had survived a barrage of punches from the The Engineer. It was the first time we'd even seen Carwin in a 2nd round! And most importantly it was the first loss of his career, a loss where he made a few mistakes, ones he won't be willing to make again.

As he stood ready for the 2nd round you could see the exhaustion in his face, and so could Brock. He knew he had nothing left, he'd left everything in round one. When he saw Brock was hurt in the 1st he went for the finish throwing everything he had at the champ, but it wasn't enough. When Lesner tightened up the arm triangle on Carwin in the 2nd it was game over.

If Carwin had picked his shots a little better on the grounded champ it may have ended a little different. Apparently we all learn from our mistakes (ok, maybe not ALL of us) and Shane Carwin will likely have learned from his loss against Brock, and he wasn't the only one that learned something that night. Cain Velasquez watched that fight and didn't make the same mistakes, his shots on Lesner were more methodical, more precise, and more effective. Carwin knows he could have beaten Brock, and so do we.

After the loss Carwin new it might be a long road to get back into title contention as it usually is. But it seems he just found a short cut, courteous of the man that gave him his first loss. With Lesner now out of his #1 contender bout against Brazilian power house Junior Dos Santos, Carwin has agreed to step in to earn a shot at Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez.

Has Carwins cardio improved? Has his back healed after surgery? Has he learnt from his costly mistakes? We'll find out June 11th.

The matchup between Dos Santos and Carwin is far more appealing to me than Lesner vs Dos Santos. These two heavy hitters will go in there to KTFO each other with extreme prejudice. Anyone that sees this thing going into the second round is nuts! But to be fair, that's what I said when he fought Lesner....

With Jon Fitch hurt, Carlos Condit may step in to face PJ Penn....

After Penn drew against Fitch I had no desire to see these guys try to hump each other to death again. Instead of a rematch I suggested here on the site a couple more exciting and interesting match ups. One of those was Penn vs Condit, and now it looks like that wish might come true.

After hearing of Fitch's withdraw from his second crack at The Prodigy, Condit said this:

"It would be an honor to fight a legend like BJ Penn, one of my favorite fighters ever. If the call comes, I would take the fight in a second."


Granted it's the bog standard "calling out" that any fighter in the UFC could have said, but this is potentially a fucking barn burner of a fight! Condit has lost only 1 of his last 12 fights, and other than his loss to Kampmann he hasn't lost since 2006! I also doubt he'll try to hump BJ into a submission. His knockout of Dan Hardy was nothing short of spectacular and proved he was ready for the next step, and this is the perfect opportunity. 


The UFC has been pretty good at putting these kind of match ups together lately. With Dan Hardy calling out Lytle, and the acceptance of that challenge, and now Condit gunning for Penn.... these guys are making Joe Silvas job a little easier! 


Both of these fights (should they happen) could prove to be two of this years best...

The Next Generation....

I haven't done well with my picks lately. I picked Vitor over Anderson, Hughes over Penn, Penn over Edgar the 2nd time, and yes you guessed it.... I picked Shogun over Bones. It's another reason I love MMA because you never know what the fuck is going to happen!!

When Jones suplexed Stephan Bonar I shot Swayze a puzzled look and said "who the fuck is this guy?!" Well now we know exactly how he is. He's the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. He's the guy that just destroyed Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in a brutally lop sided fight, something I thought I'd never say.

Almost every website is a little reluctant to start speculating just how long Jones will be champ, we've made that mistake before when Machida won the belt, but one controversial decision and one KTFO later and the Machida Era was over. We don't want to make the same mistake with Bones, but can he really be put into the same context as Machida? Personally I don't think he should, this man is something else and I truly believe that he will be the champ for a while. I don't see Rashad being able to work his game plan against Jones, but these two have trained together for a long time and they know each other very well, but will it make any difference? We'll find out soon enough.

Jones is the start of a new breed, something Joe Rogan talks about a lot. These athletes with amazing ability to learn and move forward at a phenomenal rate. Have we reached the "Jones Era"?? We'll wait till he's defended his title a few times against some top contenders and then we'll decide that. But it's probably a safe bet....

Kiss this....

Posting this to win a bet, and because it's one of the best KTFO moments in MMA.....

Eat it Swayze....

Vitor Belfort vs Wanderlei Silva 2? Maybe....

Hmm Dana White just announced that this is in the works. Anyone who isn't salivating right now can leave the blog. Go on, you can go read another page....

OK, for those of us wiping our chins let's carry on. The last time these 2 met was in 1998 in a fight that lasted 44 seconds and introduced the world to Vitor "The Phenom" Belfort. The stunning finish has been the highlight of his highlight reel ever since. Everyone remembers the fight, the lightening fast hands, and of course they remember Vitor but naturally his opponent wouldn't be remembered, he was another young Brazilian, Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva. His time for being remembered was still to come.

Now all these years later these two men have left a legacy of MMA behind them and neither show signs of stopping anytime soon. There were a lot of people (especially me) that picked Vitor, who hadn't lost since 2006, to finally dethrone Anderson. That didn't go down quite as anyone was expecting. Damn you Steven Seagal.....

After the loss, Wanderlei became one of the most exciting and beloved fighters in the history of MMA. And he still is. Despite more losses than wins lately he's still one of the biggest draws in the UFC because The Axe Murderer is always in there to KTFO some poor fuck. He looked sharp at middleweight against Bisping and a chance to avenge this loss to Vitor will get him fired up!

Bare in mind this isn't a done deal yet, but that's why we need to talk, tweet, blog, text and whatever else you kids do nowadays to let Dana know we think this is a fucking great idea.....

UFC purchases Strikeforce!! But don't get too excited just yet....

Holy fucking shit!! Who saw that one coming??

It was Ariel Helwani that broke the news during an interview with UFC President Dana White on Friday, leaving the MMA world to ponder the purchase over the weekend. Before we get too excited, don't expect a WEC/Pride type merger. As stated by White numerous times during his interview it's "business as usual", so before we all start creating our dream match ups and getting wet at the thought of Overeem vs Velasquez, or even Fedor finally making his octagon debut, it ain't gonna happen..... for now.

Strikeforce and Coker will continue to run as a separate entity from the UFC. Sure we'll see advertisements for Strikeforce at UFC events and visa versa, but that might be all. I'm sure the future will hold something different. Dana still stands by his "no co-promoting" but now that he and the Fertitta's own Strikeforce that's something that might be a little easier to do and maybe at least tempt Dana a little more!?

As big news as this is, nothing is really going to change. All we can do right now is hope that we might get the odd superfight between the organizations in the very near future.

KTFO's Top 10 Bloodiest Fights.... Part 2

5: Stefan Struve vs Denis Stojnic: UFC 99

I love the use of hammer fists in this fight! Denis really knew how to take away Struve's reach advantage, by taking his ass down and throwing huge bombs. The best part of watching this fight though had to be Joe Rogan's commentary with lines like "he's bleeding like a stuck pig", or " it looks like he got hit in the head with a hatchet" and "Oh my God, this is a horror movie! We got to finish this before Struve bleeds to death" and the classic "haha its like hot oil wrestling but with blood".
 
4: Diego Sanchez vs BJ Penn: UFC 107

I've never really been a big supporter of BJ Penn but one thing is for sure, when he shows up motivated and ready to fight he can really fuck shit up! This fight was an all out war and I have to give props to Diego for putting up a great fight against all odds. I'm surprised it wasn't stopped within the first 45 seconds when Penn knocked down Sanchez 3 fucken times! its not Until the 3rd minute of the last round when the fight stopping gash happens but trust me, its worth the wait.
 
3: Hector Lombard vs Jared Hess: Bellator 

We go to a Bellator championship ight for our 3rd bloodiest fight to see Hector Lombard. This fight is a prime example of why MMA kicks ass because every so often you get a fight that makes you look at the guy and say to yourself "What the fuck! some guy did that to your face with his bare hands!"......this was one of those fights. Hess was drenched in his own blood it looked like a scene from a gladiator movie. 
 
2: Joe Stevenson vs Bj Penn: UFC 80

Welcome to Bj's school of technicality, I love watching new fighters run there mouth off about the pioneers and then absolutely get there ass's handed to them. This is the second time we see Bj in our top 10 and let me tell you that's no coincidence. BJ bullies Joe "im gonna tell my Daddy" Stevenson for 2 rounds before slipping him into a nice RNC. I love how you can actually see the pressure from the rear naked causing the blood to spurt out of Stevenson.
 
1: Kazushi Sakuraba vs Ricardo Arona: Pride

If there is one thing Sakuraba is good at, its getting his ass kicked! He does it with such grace and elegance he almost makes it look easy! This fight has it all; big hits, fantastic take downs, submission attempts, deadly knees and blood....... lots of blood! Sakuraba first starts bleeding from the ear! then it just spreads from there. Ricardo Arona destroys Sakuraba. I mean completely dominates him. It was actually kinda sad.......OK maybe not sad but fucken Awesome! This was definitely one of the classic Pride fights. Where the fuck is Arona now? I'd love to see him in the UFC!


Contributed by Swayze

KTFO's Top 10 Bloodiest Fights.... Part 1

10: Sean Sherk vs Kenny Florian

When Sherk is on the card you know its gonna be an exciting fight because the muscle shark always fucken brings it! From start to finish Sherks rockin an 11 on the scale of 10! And the best part about it.......He's a bleeder! I'm talkin like a virgin on prom night, you know there's gonna be blood and you know there's gonna be lots of it! Kenny Florian connected with some razor sharp elbows which caused this fight to turn red, but Sherk pressed on to win this match by unanimous decision.

9: Robbie Lawler vs Scott Smith

If there's one thing an MFS fighter knows its ground and pound! From the top Ruthless lays a beating on Scott Smiths face, and with the the smell of blood in the air Lawler doesn't let up causing some nice gashes across the bridge of Smiths nose and eyebrow, making this number 9 on our list.

8: Josh Koscheck vs Chris Lytle

Holy shit! The wrestlers definitly have the advantage. After about 3 minutes of dancing around, Josh Koscheck takes Lytle to the ground and starts backing up his trash talk with his elbows. The fight pretty much stays like this until the middle of the second round where Lytle gets a slice above the eye and Koscheck goes for the stoppage, raining elbows and hammer fists down onto the gash, the blood was pooling on the mat and koscheck was using Lytles head to paint the canvas red! He was causing so much damage that lytles blood was literally trying to escape his own body and run for cover but, with hammer fists coming down the blood spatter was hitting the camera! Holy fuck, you gotta see that fight.

7: Brandon Tarns vs Drew Montgomery

Holy shit! ......that's all I gotta say........ oh no wait I got more. I know what you're thinking "who the fuck are these guys and where are they now?" Maybe elite XC wouldn't of folded faster then a piece of paper in oragami class if they promoted more fights like that insead of that joke Kimbo Slice!

6: Abe Wagner vs John Madsen

Ahhh the Ultimate fighter, finally a reality show with balls! Where else on tv will you get to see grown-ass men pulling pranks, and kneeing each other in the face?! The best part about amateur fighters is that they are all offense and no defense! And they all think they have something to prove. Well John Madsen proved something in episode one of season 10! If Abe ever was vulnerable to getting face fucked it woulda been that night because Madsen added a fucken vagina to Abes face. I'm pretty sure I saw the doctor spit on his fingers before working on that hole!


Bookmark this shit and make sure you come back soon for 1-5.....


Contributed by Swayze.

The New Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion:

Congrats Hendo! 

Last night Dan Henderson became to new Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion when he KTFO'd Feijao in the opening round of their Championship bout. 

Not bad for an old fart....

Heart Attack.....

Do you wanna be a fighter?? Diego Sanchez does...

I'm not Diego's biggest fan, he's way too fucking crazy for me, but after his fight agains't Kampmann last Thursday can you tell me a fighter that has more heart and determination?? Anyone? That's how he beat Kampmann, not because he had better striking (obviously given his face), not because he's a better wrestler, or because of Jackson's game plan, nope non of those. He beat him on pure heart, and you gotta fucking love that.

I'm not going to discuss the decision too much. The judges gave it to Sanchez and I agree with them. After the first round he led the pace, was the aggressor, scored a takedown and despite all the damage he took he still kept coming. It's a tough break for Kampmann now being two in the hole, but he's got nothing to worry about after that fight.

The fact that Sanchez stood in front of the elite Danish striker kinda shocked me, and I wasn't the only one. I expected more takedowns. You could see a genuine look of concern on Kampmann's face after each of those flurries from Sanchez, and the fact that no matter how much punishment he added to Diegos face, the yoga loving freak just kept standing in front of him?! And this wasn't the first time....

After the fight with BJ I remember saying I'd never seen anyone with so much heart. Now, after his fight with Kampmann and actually getting the win, I think I can comfortably say two things. Firstly, I don't think there will ever be another fighter in the UFC that has more heart than this kid. Secondly, I was wrong about what I said earlier, Diego may be mad as a fucking hatter, but I'm quickly becoming his biggest fan.

I fucking love mma...

I don't follow hockey, baseball, football or any other group hugging sport. I follow mma. Why you ask? Well that's a question I've been asked numerous times over the years, and my response has always been the same. You see, during almost any mma event I get to see a man, knee another man in the face. That's right, one dude takes his knee, and drives it into the other dudes fucking face!! How awesome is that??!!!!

Does it make me a sick fuck that I enjoy such a thing? Maybe. I mean there are so many things I love about MMA, there's the slick submissions, the brutal KO's, the 3 and 5 round wars, but there's something really fulfilling about someone taking a flying knee....... to the face.

There are some amazing knee/face combos out there, and sadly I've probably forgotten more than I remember. Yeah, I could do some research to remind myself, but then I'd have to do some research to remind myself, and that sounds like a lot of work. Watching Pride was when I really gained appreciation for knees being embedded into someones mouth. Shogun, Rampage and of course my man Wanderlei stand out in my foggy mind the most. Holy fucking shit, those were some crazy fights. There are some of those Japanese guys too, but I can never remember their names let alone pronounce them.

Watching Anderson beat Rich with those knees wasn't easy, but it was pretty freaking cool. And then there was WEC's Jose Aldo's double knee knockout. Double knee knockout. Double. Fucking. Knee. Knockout.

And as if almost to prove my point, Thursdays UFC event on Versus added an awesome knee/face to the list! Igor Pokrajac KTFO'd Todd Brown with an awesome knee in the first round!

My hat goes off to those who throw em, and also to those who receive em.....

Upcoming: Sanchez VS Kampmann

Diego Sanchez might be mad as a fucking hatter, but he's not stupid. And he definitely knows what asparagus is....

The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner has really come a long way since his win over KenFlo. His run for the lightweight title was one of the most memorable in recent history. The title fight against BJ proved he has more heart than anyone fighting in the UFC today, and although that run didn't end well for Sanchez, he earned more respect and more fans than he'd had before.

His return to welterweight got off to a rough start with the loss to Hathaway back at UFC 114. That was the point when we heard the same thing we always here from a fighter after a tough loss, the promise of change, of the best still to come, of fighting at their full potential. For most this is nothing more than talk, but Diego followed it all up with his impressive victory over Paulo Thiago that also earned him a Fight of the Night bonus. That slam will likely be in his highlight reel for the rest of his career.

A win over Kampmann will put Sanchez on the welterweight map again and will most likely result in a couple of other welterweights calling him out! He'd be no nearer to a title shot anytime soon, but it could lead to some interesting matchups.

For Kampmann things are a little different, he has only one thing in mind, to KTFO Diego Sanchez and getting back into the title race. He promises a return to his roots of letting those Danish hands go and start KO'ing people again. His loss to Shields is nothing to be ashamed of, and an impressive win over Sanchez will put him right back on track, but that's not going to be an easy task and he knows it.

This should be one of those fights that has action all over the octagon. If these guys find their groove and get into it, someone is getting KTFO.

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There's something in my eye.....

Tuscherer's balls must be as big as his head. After asking the ref what was hanging over his eye, the answer of "it's your eyelid" didn't deter the heavyweight. Not only didn't it deter him, I thought he was gonna KTFO the Dr. when he said it should be stopped! Damn. 

However, his huge balls couldn't deter Mark Hunt from KTFOing his ass, in style. 

UFC 127 Penn vs Fitch: Now what??

Let me start off by saying this: I thought Fitch won that fight. I was expecting a split decision in his favor, but wouldn't have been surprised if it had been unanimous. BJ wouldn't have been surprised either. 

All this talk of BJ retiring though is nuts. He just did something that no other fighter in the UFC has ever done before. He got a draw against Jon Fitch, who is arguably the 2nd best welterweight in the organization, and top 5 worldwide (yes, I made those stats up). Despite the result I thought it was an awesome fight. How many guys have taken Fitch's back and come close to choking him out? How many guys, other than GSP, go in there and actually score successful takedowns against him? That's right, there ain't too many, it's a pretty short list, and BJ Penn is on it. He's not done yet, not by a long shot. 

Also falling into the "nuts" category is talk of either of these guys getting a shot at the welterweight belt any time soon, which is just as well considering it's going to be tied up for a while between GSP/Shields, and this possible superfight we keep hearing about. There are a few other reasons that a title shot doesn't sound too exciting, one being that fact that I saw nothing in Fitch or Penn that made me even the slightest bit excited to see them face off against GSP again, nor did I see anything new in their games that would make me think they could beat him. Now if they were to face off against Shields..... that would peak my interest!

That brings me to my second point. While I have little desire to see GSP/Fitch/Penn 2, the thought of Penn vs Alves/Condit/Hardy/Kampmann/Shields does get the juices flowing a little. There are some great fights for both of these guys, before we start looking at retreading broken ground. I'm not quite so eager to see more of FItch. He's an incredibly talented fighter, but that doesn't deter from the fact that his fights are always relatively boring. I don't mean to take anything away from Fitch but his grinding out method is getting old. With so many fighters changing their styles, is Fitch better off changing a few things to excite the fans and get more respect from the UFC, or does he continue to just rack up those wins till someone figures out how to beat him?

Let's put Penn vs Fitch behind us, maybe we'll revisit in a couple of years but for now, let's move on.