THE MMA WEEKLY WRAP UP for 6-9-08

ALVES DROPS HUGHES WITH VICIOUS KNEES AT UFC 85

Muay Thai fighter Thiago Alves missed weight by 4 pounds this Saturday, but was allowed to compete after his opponent, the former UFC Middleweight Champ, Matt Hughes agreed to the fight. This isn’t the first time Alves has had trouble making weight. He was suspended for eight months after UFC 66 in 2007 for using illegal diuretics to help him cut weight.

In the Octagon, however, it seemed that weight wasn’t as much of an issue as Alves’ devastating knee kicks. Through the first two rounds of their fight, Alves successfully defended against Hughes takedowns and threw up those knee kicks every chance he got. In the second round, he found an opening and leaped forward with a flying knee kick that took Hughes to the mat. A quick burst of ground-n-pound quickly ended the match.

Hughes is still set to face his arch rival, Matt ‘”The Terror” Serra, later this year. However, with both fighters coming off of respective losses, you have to wonder if fight fans are beginning to loose interest. What was once a three-way contention for the UFC Middleweight title, is now firmly settled. The title is securely held by Georges St. Pierre, while the Hughes/Serra fight is merely sideshow attraction.

Neither fighter appears to have a shot at a rematch for the title anytime soon. In fact, according to CagePotato.com, UFC president, Dana White, claims that he would like to see another big UFC 85 winner, Michael Bising face GSP in a UK soccer (football to the rest of the world) stadium fight.

Okay, Bisping had a nice, 1st round, TKO win over Jason “Dooms” Day, but let’s not get carried away. He’s nowhere near ready to take on one of the best MMA fighters in the world. Still, a Bisping/Rich Franklin fight might be pretty exciting. -Why not let him test the waters with the big fish first before sending him straight to the biggest shark in the tank?

As I mentioned last week, there wasn’t a whole lot posted about UFC 85 before the fight, and there hasn’t been hardly anything posted afterward either. No post fight interviews, no mocking videos, no big controversies, nada.

About all I’ve got for you is a short video of Matt Hughes preparing for his fight against Thiago. Is it just me, or does Hughes seem to be lacking intensity in his training? He just didn’t seem all that ‘pumped up’ for the fight. Well, here… judge for yourself;




DANA WHITE EXPLAINS THAT MMA IS A SAFE & LEGITIMATE SPORT… BUT ONLY WHEN IT’S PROMOTED BY THE UFC

UFC President was also on ESPN’s Sportscenter last week, crying foul about CBS/EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights. As expected, the primetime coverage has brought mixed martial arts controversy back into the spotlight.

Is it a sport or ‘human cockfighting’? Is it too violent or dangerous to be shown on television?

White, who has a lot of experience defending the sport, does a nice job of arguing his points.
However, he gets caught up when he tries to attack CBS’s event while at the same time defending the sport as a whole.

Dana, you can’t have it both ways. EliteXC has basically the same rules and safety procedures as the UFC. If anything, the Primetime broadcast was guilty of ending their fights too quickly.
Sure, the fireworks, dancing girls, and loud ring entrances were a bit over the top, but let’s not pretend that UFC doesn’t play loud, obnoxious music before their fights and c’mon, the UFC is famous for its ring girls.

And Dana, speaking of girls, how come the UFC doesn’t have any female fighters? The best fight on the EliteXC’s card was Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young. If MMA is so safe, why are you afraid to let girls compete?

Here’s Dana hitting his safety talking points while trashing CBS at the same time:




Speaking of EliteXC’s fallout, here’s my favorite mma critic, Bill O’Reilly whining and complaining about the event. More of the usual criticisms comparing mma to the gladiator fights of ancient Rome… whatever.



AFFLICTION BRINGS OUT THE BIG GUNS THIS SUMMER

Okay, so this week is a bit of a let down after all the recent excitement. But don’t worry, there’s still some great matches ahead this summer.

The next really, really, big thing is Pride Champion and arguably the World’s #1 Heavyweight Fighter, Fedor Emelianenko vs. the Former UFC Heavyweight Champ, Tim Sylvia on July 19th. We’ll cover the fight more as it gets closer, but here’s a quick tease.



That's going to do it for this week, but check back again soon. The Summer's just starting to heat up and we'll have a lot more to cover as we bring you the 'Best of the Web' in MMA.

Respectfully,

Rick