UFC Results - Pride Fighting

Fedor vs Sylvia - July 19th

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:40:00 -0700

It's official, Tim Sylvia will be fighting the worlds #1 heavyweight (Fedor). This isn't happening in the UFC and I'm not 100% sure how we're going to be able to see it (PPV vs HDNets fights). I'll keep you posted.

Randy Couture vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Mon, 5 Nov 2007 08:19:47 -0700

In a recent conference broadcast of ufc.com, Dana White stated that the UFC would be offering a fight to Randy Couture, that fight would be against top heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira (Big Nog).

Of course, Randy Couture resigned from his contract with the UFC a couple of weeks ago, stating that he would no longer be fighting for the UFC, announcing for the UFC or otherwise. Randy stated at that time and in his own press conference later that it was a combination of money, respect and that the UFC was unable to secure a fight with Emelianenko Fedor.

Randy believes that the only fight worth fighting is against Fedor, widely considered to be the best heavyweight, if not best pound for pound, fighter in the world. At 44 years old, Randy only has a few fights left in him and he wants to fight the best.

In my opinion, Nogeuira is one of the best in the world after heavyweight. In fact if I had to rank the top four heavyweights in the world, they would be Fedor, Couture, Nogeuira and Barnett, not necessarily in that order. If Randy Couture wants to retire from the sport, all the power to him, but if he wants to quit the UFC just because they were unable to land Fedor, then complain because he heard that the UFC was going to pay Fedor a boat load of money to secure the fight...well, I don't know.

I'm a big fan of Randy Couture and whatever he needs to do, I respect that. However, as a fight fan I'd rather see Couture vs Nogeuira than a court battle between Dana White and Randy Couture.

M-1 Global sets sights on heavyweights

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:53:14 -0700

As you may or may not have heard by now, M-1 Global, a new MMA promotion which was formerly M-1 out of russia has signed Fedor Emelianenko to a 6 fight 2 year deal. The UFC has been trying to sign Fedor since they purchased Pride earlier this year, but couldn't come to terms.

There is an interesting clause in Fedor's contract which states (approximately) that M-1 will pay any UFC heavyweight champion who wants to fight Fedor in M-1 a million dollars more than the UFC will pay. I'd love to read how that section really reads.

M-1 and Fedor specifically mentioned Randy Couture although Couture still has two fights left on his UFC contract. Dana White has already said that he won't let Randy out of his contract, but Randy has already resigned from the UFC.

Randy Couture is holding a press conference on Thursday to discuss his exit from the UFC and hopefully his future plans.

If M-1 can sign Fedor, Josh Barnett and Randy Couture, they'll have the beginning of a decent heavyweight division with arguably three of the top 5 heavyweights in the world. Of course this weekend the UFC announced that they signed Brock Lesnar to a deal, Lesnar, giving some time and the proper training has the physical tools to be a dominant force in the UFC heavyweight picture.

It's worth noting the following. The UFC will not be destroyed by this. In fact, 80% of UFC fans probably don't even know who Fedor or Josh Barnett are. For example, this past weekend I had three guys over to watch UFC 77. All three guys actively train standup and BJJ at a local club. When they asked me what I thought about Randy retiring, I told them that he didn't retire, he wants to fight Fedor...none of them knew who Fedor was.

Worldwide, Fedor is a star of MMA, but for most of the TUF generation of MMA fan he doesn't even exist. A fight with Randy may or may not change that. I don't think anyone is going to spend $50 on a PPV for one fight...M-1 needs to fill out their stable of fighters and have a spectacular first card.

Quick question, any opinions on the new look for the site? I'm personally sitting on the fence between the old and new looks. Vote in the comment section.

Pride is gone for good.

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Fri, 5 Oct 2007 10:13:05 -0700

I guess this signals the end for the Pride Fighting Championships. Pride world wide closed their offices on October 4th, 2007; just 7 days from their 10th anniversary. We were all very excited when the UFC owners purchases the Pride organization, with the promise of cross promotional superfights. Here is a quote from MMAWeekly.com

Pride Fighting Championships started on Oct. 11, 1997, with the legendary fight of Nobuhiko Takada versus Rickson Gracie. With their 10th anniversary just around the corner, the venerable Japanese mixed martial arts promotion has come to an end. On Oct. 4, the Pride FC World Wide (Pride WW) office closed without fanfare and all employees were dismissed.

I for one will miss Pride. There was a stretch of time when I ordered every PPV from both the UFC and Pride. I feel like I watched so many great moments courtesy of Pride, here are some memorable ones.

Wanderlei Silva snaps Sakuraba's collar bone and wins.
Kevin Randleman KO's Mirko Cro Cop
Wanderlei Silva shows just how hard Rampage's head is...but anyone can be KO'd
Mark Coleman snaps Shogun's arm.
Bob Sapp slams big Nog on his head, but Nog comes back and wins.
Kevin Randleman slams Fedor on his head, but Fedor comes back and wins.
Don Frye and Ken Shamrock have a legends match and it was pretty close.
Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama punch each other repeatedly in the face while holding the back of each others heads.

There are too many more for me to even count. How about Coleman's heavyweight tournament win over Igor Vovchanchyn and those knees to the head.

I'll miss Pride, but I can take some solice in the fact that Wanderlei, Shogun, Rampage, Big Nog, Mirko and others will still be fighting for us. We will still see the top fighters face each other...with the exception of Gomi and Fedor.

Fedor vs the UFC

nospam@example.com (Johnny MMA) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:39:43 -0700

Apparently the UFC is offering Fedor more money than any other organization, but their contract terms are too strict for the Russian fighter.

Fedor is considered to be the best heavyweight MMA fighter in the world and UFC president Dana White has indicated a number of times that it is just a matter of time before he signs with the UFC. It looks though, in a recent interview between Sherdog and Vadim Finkelstein that the UFC's terms are just too strict. One sticking point in particular is Fedor's ability (or non ability) to fight in the World Sambo Championships representing Russia.

While it would be nice to have Fedor in the UFC, it appears that Dana's "all or nothing" negotiating tactics are not quite the way to attract this particular fighter. Of course one can also see the UFC's side of things. If Fedor gets injured fighting for another organization then the UFC's promotional dollars have been spent on nothing.

Just so that some of you can comment wildly I'm going to say this once...I think Fedor is over-rated as a fighter. People on the net talk about him like he is invincible, but he isn't. He has weaknesses, but is very durable. Look at his fights against his very top level opponents (Cro Cop and Big Nog). He hasn't been able to finish those fights, sure he won the decisions, but a truly dominant champ should have submitted Cro Cop, or KO'd Nog. Fedor hasn't fought Arlovski, Couture or Sylvia yet.

Check this out:

Arona (decision)
Sobral (decision)
Cro Cop (decision)
Big Nog (decision)
Semmy Shilt (decision)

Sure, he submitted a much smaller Lindland and an overmatched Coleman and Randleman. Still, it is Fedor's durablility, not his fighting ability which I am impressed with. Fedor recovers very well (being dropped on his head by Randleman and similarly by Coleman comes to mind). I can't help but think that a better fighter would not have been slammed by those guys at all.

Still, I believe that Fedor is #1, just above the others not way above though. He will lose, if he still chooses to fight the best.