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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist
We've got lots to cover here, and some of it has been beaten to death, but let's see if we can hit the high points in rapid fire fashion.
-As a guy who watched Tito Ortiz fight when he was the best in the world, I want to see him win tomorrow. Unfortunately it's not going to happen, and he probably should have retired after the last Ken Shamrock fight.
-Dana White is a smart guy. Letting Brett Rogers and Nate Marquardt go was probably the right move. But keeping Chael Sonnen on at the same time? Even though he didn't cost money directly by getting booted from a main event fight, he almost won the middleweight title from the most dominant champion we've seen since Fedor. What if that had happened? Situational ethics aren't the best thing, and if Marquardt is gone, Sonnen should be as well. At least Marquardt owned up to it. You can't call Josh Barnett "abrasive and rude" and dismiss him easily as a guy deserving of goodwill, then say that a guy like Sonnen has paid his dues and should be allowed back in. Sorry, but Sonnen hasn't paid any more dues than Barnett, and I'd venture to say (at least from an outside perspective) that Barnett is quite a bit more likable. Hard times, indeed.
-Urijah Faber says he has Dominick Cruz figured out. He'd better hope so, because there's not much room at the top for a guy who loses four straight title fights. He loses this one, it's gatekeeper city.
-Jamie Penick was spot on in his article about Matt Mitrione not taking a big step up too soon. No way should he fight Frank Mir next. He shouldn't fight Frank Mir for another year at least. Now Stefan Struve? That could be interesting. The problem is that the heavyweight division is pretty thin, so there's not a ton of room for bringing someone along slowly.
-I don't think Rick Story is hurt in the least by losing to Charlie Brenneman. He prepares for a guy whose wrestling is, shall we say, not a strength, then ends up fighting a guy like Brenneman on like five minutes notice? I say that's a mulligan if there ever was one. It's a win-win for the UFC, because Brenneman looked fantastic, and Story still has the win against Alves to hang his hat on.
-Should the winner of Dong Hyun Kim vs. Carlos Condit get a title shot after Nick Diaz? At first glance I don't see anything wrong with it outside of the timing... maybe the winner could fight the winner of Jon Fitch- B.J. Penn II for a title shot if the timing works out.
-It's too bad about Charles Oliveira's illegal knee. I think he probably would have won the fight against Nik Lentz, but you can't argue with the decision of the PSAC. That knee was definitely a fight-changer.
-If there's any big name that Ben Askren is probably safe calling out, it's Nate Marquardt. If you need evidence, look at what Sonnen did to Marquardt. It's hardly a gimme fight for the still-green Bellator champ, but I'd give him a pretty fair shot at winning.
-Spike TV beat the UFC's live fight night on Versus with replays of the UFC's own events. All that means is that the UFC needs to get on a bigger network than Spike. Either that or they need to make some big headlines with whatever deal they end up making, because the only way the old event outdraws the new event is if people don't know about it or they don't get the channel.
-Am I the only one who can't wait to see what Hatsu Hioki does in the UFC? It should be awesome. Here's hoping that one Japanese fighter in his prime can do something good.
-Speaking of Japan, Dana White says they're going there soon. I don't see how that's possible as Japan is a crazy place for foreign-owned companies, but stranger things have happened. I think.
-In sad news/non-news, Ken Shamrock is fighting James Toney and ProElite is going to start running events again. That is probably the last time I will think about either of those stories.
Quick Picks for UFC 132:
-Hougland over Walker by decision
-Njokuani over Winner by TKO rd. 3
-Tavares over Simpson by TKO rd. 2
-Bowles over Mizugaki by decision (Fight of the Night)
-Sotiropoulos over dos Anjos by decision
-Guillard over Roller by KO rd. 1
-Siver over Wiman by TKO rd. 2
-Condit over Kim by decision
-Bader over Ortiz by TKO rd. 2
-Silva over Leben by TKO rd. 3
-Faber over Cruz by submission rd. 2
I'm not confident in a lot of those picks (and I'm never confident in the method), which means I'm excited for this card. Should be a good one.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
