The Specialists
An aMMAzing Week in Review: Top Stories, The Ultimate Snitch, Surprise of Week, Dumbass Statement of Week, Funniest Awkward Moment of Week, more (debut column!)
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Oct 10, 2009 - 2:52:29 PM

By Brent Henderson, MMATorch Week-in-Review Specialist


Dream 11 Featherweight Tournament Complete; Sokoudjou & Minowa Advance

The Japanese have done it again. A land that is known not only for its beautiful architecture, technological advances, sushi, origami... you get the picture, have now given us the 11th installment of Dream. While it wasn’t quite as good an offering as the Nintendo Wii, it did have a few interesting matchups which could lead to much better pairings down the road. With that being said, I’ve got to go ahead and talk the 341.7 lb elephant in the room. Bob “The Beast” Sapp.

Mr. Sapp is 1-4 in his last 5 fights; with the 1 win being against an opponent making his MMA debut. I’m guessing GSP would not be impress wid his performanze. Watching Sapp swing wildly as he bulrushes his opponents at the beginning of his fights brings to mind what would happen if James Thompson and Tank Abbott ever had a baby... a baby that cries when it gets punched in the nose.

Luckily for you, the readers, I’ve come up with a solution. Step 1: sign “The Beast” to fight anyone, whether it be Miguel Torres, or Fedor. Step 2: Add 1 win to the record of the opponent, and 1 loss to Sapp’s record. Step 3: Profit. It’s a win-win situation for both fighters and the fans since we’ll never have to endure watching Sapp flailing around like an upside down turtle trying to right himself. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest we can continue with the fights.

Sapp vs. Sokoudjou: Sapp came out swinging, and missing. Soko took him down with a single-leg, and as usual, beat him around the head and neck area until the referee finally put us out of our misery and called the fight 1:31 into round 1.

Aoki vs. Hansen: Overall, this was a pretty slow-paced matchup with a lot of chess-like maneuvering. The referee, who apparently is not a chess fan, issued yellow cards to both fighters for lack of action. In the end, Aoki got a hold of an arm, and when it comes to Aoki, that’s all he needs. Aoki wins via tapout with 4 seconds remaining in the fight to become the new Dream Lightweight Champion. Afterwards he reiterates his desire to fight the best in the world, which includes BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.

Fernandes vs. Takaya: This was a very close, exciting, title fight to end the Dream Featherweight Grand Prix Tournament. There was a lot of back and forth action in what turned out to be a stand up war with Fernandes winning the inaugural Featherweight title via split decision.

Choi vs. Minowa: This was just another Speedo vs. Goliath style bout that we’ve come to expect from the Japanese, who seem intent on ruining smaller fighters way before their time (i.e. Wanderlei vs. Hunt, Sakuraba vs. Crocop, etc.). Minowa brought his Speedo and a freshly shorn mullet into the fight against “The Techno Goliath”, but it didn’t seem as if the Speedo would be enough to slay this giant as Minowa found himself on the wrong end of a beatdown through the 1st round. Fortunately for Minowa, a very slick heel hook applied in the 2nd round did the job.

Sakuraba vs. Williams: Let me start by saying that Sakuraba is by far my favorite fighter of all-time. He is the reason you’re reading this article today. I’ve been a fan of MMA since UFC 1, but I became a diehard MMA fan after the Pride Grand Prix 2000 Saku vs. Royce fight. I encourage anyone who’s reading this and hasn’t seen that fight to do so immediately. Oh yeah, I probably need to tell you the only way Royce would take the fight was if it had no time limit, so make sure you clear your schedule before you start watching. Saku took this fight on one weeks notice, and you could tell he wasn’t in fighting shape, and is nearing the end of one of the most impressive, innovative careers in all of MMA. He was given an opponent with a professional boxing record of 29-8-1, but who was making his mixed martial arts debut in Rubin Williams. The match started with Sakuraba landing several powerful leg kicks, which clearly hurt Williams. Saku then successfully attempted a single-leg takedown, and threw several punches to the head and some slaps to the body of Williams before securing a kimura and forcing Williams to tap at 2:53 of the first round.

The Ultimate Fighter Season 10, Episode 4

Last week saw the highest ratings ever for the SpikeTV based series due to Kimbo Slice fighting former IFL Heavyweight Champion Roy Nelson. It was reported that 6.1 MILLION people tuned in to watch the final 15 minutes just to see how far the “Street Certified” Slice had come in his evolution from backyard/boatyard brawler to a legitimate MMA fighter. After the fight, we were teased with Marcus Jones having some type of medical issue, and Dana telling Kimbo he might get another shot at fighting on the show. This was an obvious attempt to keep the average “I saw Kimbo fight online, and he’s the baddest man on the planet” fight fan tuning in just in case their hero caught a break, and was given another chance to fight.

Since this is my first column, you guys don’t know that I had a lot of preconceived notions about Kimbo, just like a lot of you may have, and I have to say he has changed my mind about him. He really seems eager to learn, and help out in any way they need him, which is refreshing since the coaches for his team don’t seem to care one way or the other about their fighters. In this week’s episode titled “The Snitch”, we learned that Matt Mitrione apparently couldn’t be trusted with secrets.

Matt Mitrione

Team Rashad, whose team happens to be 3-0 leading up to this episode, started deciding matchups for the rest of the first round fights with all of his team promising to keep this info to themselves. Unfortunately, Mitrione immediately told Scott Junk of Team Rampage, and then the rest of Team Rashad found out about his snitching shortly thereafter. Mitrione has stepped forward this week to say he had a secret agreement with Junk that they would share information, but he was thrown under the bus after Junk told other members of Team Rashad that Mitrione had snitched. Blah, blah, blah, everybody’s mad at Mitrione, blah, blah, blah, snitches get stitches (I heard that on BET one time, and have been dying to use it), and now Team Rashad is probably going to have to change their original plans as to who’s fighting who. Anyways, Team Rashad chooses Brendan Schaub to fight Demico Rogers.

The fight begins and Demico quickly takes down Schaub and winds up in his half guard. He drops several elbows and then attempts to improve position, but promptly screws up going from half guard to full mount giving Schaub the perfect opportunity to sink in an anaconda choke forcing the tapout, and giving Team Rashad a 4-0 lead. The biggest thing I took away from this episode is Rampage is not only a horrible coach, but he’s coming across as just a horrible human being.

Demico is obviously devastated after being eliminated, and Rampage refuses to bring in a stool, or even let another coach bring in a stool for the fallen fighter to sit on. He then walks away talking trash about how Demico got caught in an anaconda choke as Rashad is in the Octagon comforting the heartbroken fighter. I liked Rampage a lot before this season, but his actions through just 4 episodes are having a Matt Hughes-like Effect (MHE) from season 2 on me. Rampage needs to start mentoring and supporting his fighters before he loses what little respect he still has from his quickly diminishing fan base.

Sorry guys, Fedor is taken...

I know this will break the hearts of many Fedor lovers, but it seems Fedor is preparing for his November 7th matchup on CBS with Brett Rogers by... getting married?! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for The Last Emperor, but could he not have waited a couple of months to tie the knot? Brett Rogers isn’t the most well rounded fighter I’ve ever seen, but he is definitely somebody with a ton of power who should not be taken lightly, and getting married 1 month out from a HUGE fight on network television seems pretty ill-advised even though I wouldn’t say it to his face... I like living.

Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou added to November 7th Strikeforce card

It has been confirmed that current Strikeforce Light-Heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi has agreed to face Sokoudjou in a non-title bout to help round out what is turning into a pretty nice card for the first network Strikeforce event. Mousasi has looked incredible in his last few fights, and I personally don’t see Soko giving him much trouble, but there is always a chance for an Arona/Lil Nog type ending.

Mark Coleman out, Forrest in vs. Tito at UFC 106

Mark Coleman tore his MCL and had to withdraw from his fight with Tito Ortiz. Forrest Griffin now gets a chance to not only redeem himself after the worst performance of his life vs. Anderson Silva, but he also gets a chance to avenge a controversial split decision loss at UFC 59 to Ortiz. This is an interesting matchup in more ways than one. I’m intrigued as to how a healthy Ortiz will look after so much time out of the ring, and to see if he still truly has the desire to compete for the Light-Heavyweight title. Even more than that, I think all fight fans are curious to see how Forrest reacts in his first fight back after such an embarrassing beating at the hands of Silva. Will he take the loss and grow from it, or will he never mentally recover? I guess we’ll find out soon.

Alistair Overeem returns to action on October 17th against... Sylvester?

Seriously? Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem once again continues to frustrate MMA fans by fighting people who NO ONE cares about, or even knows for that matter. Who is this Sylvester character? His name is Tony Sylvester, and he holds a professional record of 11-2, but don’t get too excited about that record too quickly. His biggest win to date is against Sherman Pendergarst. Just in case that name doesn’t sound familiar, Houston Alexander just recently decimated Mr. Pendergarst via leg kicks in the 1st round. This fight does absolutely nothing for me, but I don’t think anything would make me happier than for Sylvester to KO Overeem just to teach him a lesson. The lesson in this scenario would be, don’t fight people who don’t deserve to be in the same ring with you. There is absolutely nothing for Overeem to gain from this fight. If he wins, it’s expected. If he loses, then he loses to a guy who lost to Chris Tuchscherer, which would be a perfect storm of happiness for me.

Matt Hughes wants to fight...

Somebody? Fresh off of signing a four-fight extension Matt Hughes has decided he doesn’t want to fight Koscheck, Swick, Fitch, Hallman, or anyone else who may have a chance to beat him. I’ll agree that Hughes is one of the greatest Champions the UFC has ever seen. With that being said, the game has passed him by. So, who does Hughes want to fight next? According to a recent interview at heavy.com:

"As far as who I fight next? You know, looking at these younger kids who are wanting to come in and be the next world champion or be the next contender, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know if I'll take on those guys.  There are plenty of older guys out there with big names who can fight, too. I like to take fights where I've got something to win. If I take a fight against Mike Swick or Josh Kosheck, I've really got nothing to gain from that fight besides a paycheck and beating somebody up. They've got more to win than I do. Those aren't the kinds of fights that interest me. Royce Gracie was a big fight, you know? It was a huge name, a guy that had won the old tournaments in the beginning. Those are the fights I like; the ones I can really get revved up for and get motivated. Those are the kinds of fights that gets me into the gym ready to train and work."

So, who are all of these older guys with big names you can fight? And, if you think you’re going to take a fight with Swick or Kos just to get a paycheck and beat them up then you are more delusional than I previously thought.

Surprise of the Week: NFL Great Herschel Walker signs with Strikeforce

Herschel Walker will fight for Strikeforce probably sometime in 2010 at the ripe old age of 47. A lot of eyebrows were raised when the news was announced because the last time Walker competed in anything was during his stint on Celebrity Apprentice. I know this will surprise a lot of you, but Dana White actually had something to say on the subject:

"I think it's ridiculous," White told Mike Chiappetta on the Inside The Ultimate Fighter podcast. "People think we're anti-competition? We're anti-dumb competition. Doing stupid things like this, putting a 50-year-old guy in the Octagon for the first time, and then going out there putting out press releases like it's a big deal because you signed a 50-year-old Herschel Walker? Are you serious?"

So Dana, how do you really feel about Strikeforce signing Herschel? I do think if Herschel wants to fight, and the doctors clear him then I think he should be able to compete. I mean the guy is an athlete who has a 5th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and is training with AKA in San Jose for 8-12 weeks, so who knows what can happen.

Strangest semi-MMA Moment of the Week: Don’t cross (dress) these guys!

Apparently a group of MMA guys who train together decided to get dressed up as women, and go out for a night on the town to blow off some steam... sounds normal enough, right? Some drunk guys started harassing them, and then this happened:

CLICK HERE (http://www.break.com/index/thugs-get-beat-up-by-transvestite.html)

Dumbass Statement of the Week: War Machine

Need I say more? Just in case you missed it: War Machine says he can no longer stand living in America.

I think that, eventually, I’m going to have to move out of the country because I don’t think I will be able to survive in the United States too much longer before going to jail... Because I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with beating somebody up. I think a lot of guys just need to get beat up.

A lot of guys, they act like idiots when they’re out and they need to get beat up. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, in this country, when you beat somebody up, you get arrested, and it’s too hard for me to follow the rules, man. One day, hopefully, I can leave the country and live somewhere so I can be more free...

In almost any other country you get into a fight, nothing happens. It’s not a big deal; it’s not like you are killing somebody. It shouldn’t be against the law to fight. Back in the day, in America, you could fight and nothing would happen. The cops came and break it up. There’s a lot of countries, I know for a fact, you get into a fight and nothing happens. They break it up and you go your separate way; it’s not a big deal. You know, sometimes people, they need to get beat up. That’s their fault for acting stupid. I think, definitely, they’ll be idiots in other countries, but if I beat them up, nothing happens.

You stay classy, War Machine...

Funniest/Most Awkward Moment of the Week Award: Tito vs. Mark Coleman’s Manager

I learned of Coleman pulling out of UFC 106 via a “tweet” Tito posted from his Twitter account that read:

"Coleman,coleman,coleman to bad he sissies out!!! Who's next??? I'm kicking someone's ass on Nov 21st!"

Probably not the most professional thing Tito could have said, but when have we known Tito to be professional? After hearing what Tito had said, Coleman’s manager, and friend of more than 20 years, Mike DiSabato, responded with the following:

“Mark Coleman is not a talker, he is a fighter. He is a Hall of Famer who has fought a Who’s Who of great fighters. Tito says “sissy”? Please. He can prove Coleman is sissy on January 2nd if he wants,” was DiSabato’s response to the comments during a conversation with Fighters Only.

“The only thing Coleman is afraid of when it comes to Tito is contracting swine flu from that dirty ass d-bag. We all know where he lays his head down at night. Tito wants to get personal with a legend? OK, let’s get personal – we can all go to our porn collections and watch what Tito sleeps with night after night.”

Oops! Looks like someone might have taken things a little too far... DiSabato has since apologized to Tito and wife Jenna Jameson, but not before my friends and I had a good laugh at DiSabato’s statements. I know he was just taking up for his friend, but I’m pretty sure Coleman can take care of himself, so maybe next time just be a manager and try not to talk.

One Last Thing:

You're welcome. (http://tinyurl.com/bonusforthereaders)

I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading “An aMMAzing Week in Review.” I’m new to this and would appreciate any, and all feedback and/or suggestions for future columns. To keep my personal account separate, I have opened a new Twitter account. If you’d like to follow me, my username is http://www.twitter.com/aMMAzingTorch, or you can send suggestions/comments to: aMMAzingTorch@gmail.com.

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Brent Henderson is the MMATorch Week-in-Review Specialist. He has been watching MMA since UFC's first PPV. Provide feedback to him at aMMAzingTorch@gmail.com or visit his Twitter page by the same name: http://www.twitter.com/aMMAzingTorch.

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