Really, Dana, Really?!?!?!?

Soooooooooooooo, every time a UFC pay-per-view is aired, you dig into your pockets and shell out $45-55(depending on if you get it in HD or not) of your hard earned money to watch it. Intermittently, you go to a live UFC show, buying tickets at exorbitant prices. Then there's the ancillary purchases of various UFC merchandise, including t-shirts, bobble-head dolls, action figures, video games, etc. You name it, Zuffa has stamped a UFC logo on it and sells it. In other words, you spend a $hitload of money on the UFC and their related products. There's nothing wrong with Zuffa trying to maximize their bottom line,
until ..................................... they insult our intelligence by promoting that absolute piece of shit fight that was Randy Couture vs James Toney!

Really, Dana, really?!?

Do you feel good about promoting that smoldering load of shit as a co-main event? As a fan who tries to push the UFC and the sport of MMA on anyone who will listen, I was thoroughly embarrassed by that spectacle. Other than sheer joy from all the money you stole from us, I can't imagine how you and the rest of the Zuffa brain trust felt after that travesty. Zuffa claims to promote the finest mixed martial arts in the world. In many cases that is true, but in certain cases, its complete fabrication and couldn't be further from the truth. First there was the Kimbo Slice experiment, which by the way, was done after tons of publicly dissing the guy as a loser, a no-talent and bad for the sport. While that was mostly true, once the guy was available, he was snatched up, locked up contractually and had an entire season of TUF built around him. What a disaster that all turned out to be. But at least that ridiculous debacle didn't cost the fans any money since "the internet street-fighting sensation" wasn't on any PPVs.

Then on Saturday, August 28th, 2010, at the first ever UFC show in Boston, James Toney entered the Octagon as a UFC fighter and MMA pro. I know, its hard to believe but its true. How the hell does that match-up even get sanctioned in the first place? A guy with ZERO mixed martial arts fights gets his first fight against a multiple time, multiple weight class, former champion with nearly 30 fights and 13 years of experience in the sport? I could care less how many boxing matches he's had. These are two very different types of combat sports. Would an Olympic wrestler fight his first pro boxing match against a boxer with comparable boxing credentials to Randy's MMA credentials? I don't think so. You see my point here. You can't make this stuff up! What you could make up though, or in this case, predict, is exactly how that fight (if you could even call it that) would play out. Gee, let's see, will Randy get an immediate takedown and finish the fight on the mat? Would that untrained, out of shape, fat bastard, look like a fish out of water on his back? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about the $750,000 worth of hype and promotion the ever so eloquent Mr. Toney did. He did such a great job of talking up the fight that subtitles were needed so people could understand what the hell he was saying. You paid Toney 750K for that garbage and REAL mixed martial artists are lucky to make ten grand? That's some pathetic bullshit right there! I also forgot that fat James "chased you all over" and "called you a pussy", so you were forced to give him a lucrative deal. Is that all it takes to get a co-main event fight in the UFC? Damn, playa!

Really, Dana, Really?!?

People will tolerate getting exploited for a certain amount of time, and then they either revolt or just walk away. Neither scenario is good for you. Treat the people that made you a wealthy man with respect. Stop insulting us and stop selling us garbage. Man up and apologize for that poorly planned transgression against us. That's the absolute least you could do after putting that out of shape, hasbeen scrub in the cage. And it doesn't make it all good because you told the world, after the fact, that he is one and done in the UFC. You already got our money! Where's our fuckin' refund?

Really, Dana, really?

MMA vs Boxing? That's the master plan approach to market that trash you called a "fight"? So, besides ripping off and deceiving your entire fan and support base, you even went after the pockets of the few boxing fans that are left? That's a new low. What's next? Shaq vs Hong Man Choi?

Treat us with some fuckin' respect, we're much fuckin' smarter than you fuckin' think! You fuckin' heard?!?

The last paragraph was written in a certain someone's vernacular. Please excuse the profanity. Sometimes you have to speak to people in their language.

Will Feijao be the Next Blackhouse Champion?!?

Feijao is, in my opinion, one of the most promising LHW prospects in the sport of MMA. The question is, will he join the ranks of his Blackhouse teammates, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Jose Aldo, Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva, as current or former champions of a major MMA promotion? I resoundingly say, YES!

On Saturday night, Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante will be getting his first crack at a legit MMA strap, specifically the Strikeforce LHW championship. His opponent is the current champ, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, who is making his first title defense. Mo surprisingly beat Gegard Mousasi in April of this year. It wasn't an amazing, dominating performance, but he did control most of the 5 rounds and definitely earned the decision. His very proficient wrestling game proved to be too much for the former champ to deal with.

Feijao sports an impressive 9-2 record with an even more impressive nearly 90% (T)KO rate. The one hiccup in his career thus far was a disappointing loss to Mike Kyle. Given what a huge LHW Feijao is, the weight cut seemed to deplete all of his energy in that fight. It definitely wasn't the normal Feijao out there. Managing weight cuts is a big part of the MMA game. He didn't do a good job of that and deserved to lose. Chalk it up as a very important learning experience. Interestingly, if Feijao does win this fight, his first defense might very well be against Kyle. If that scenario plays out, as it should, its retribution time for the talented Brazilian fighter. The only other "L" on his record was actually a DQ due to an illegal kick delivered to Marcio Cruz in an IFL fight back in June of 2007.

King Mo has been impressive in his own right. He's currently undefeated in 7 fights, winning 5 by (T)KO. Since beating Mousasi, Mo is ranked by many, in or hovering right around the Top 10. He's a very confident, somewhat cocky athlete, with serious wrestling skill. To his credit, he's smart enough to know what his strengths are and uses them accordingly, as evidenced by the Mousasi fight. Mo is a tough out for anyone!

This is easily the toughest fight yet for both of these very talented fighters. Rich Chou, Strikeforce's matchmaker, has done a very admiral job of putting this fight together. In a sense, its a classic, old school, striker vs grappler match-up. True, both fighters train in all aspects of the MMA game, but Feijao is primarily a striker and Mo is primarily a wrestler. Those are obviously their strengths and bases of fighting. Some pundits don't think Feijao is deserving of this title shot, but when the dust clears I think it will be quite obvious that he most certainly was.

The "X" factor in this fight will be Feijao's vicious, Blackhouse trademarked and branded, striking style. I like Mo, both as a fighter and a personality, but he is walking into a buzzsaw in Feijao and his patented Blackhouse viciousness. Being the intelligent fighter he is, Mo knows this, just as Feijao knows he has to deal with Mo's TD attempts. Like most fights, the winner will be the fighter who is able to impose their will and gameplan. That fighter will be Feijao!

Strategically, this fight is rather predictable. The whole world knows Mo's M.O. (pun intended) is to shoot singles and doubles, hoping to get the fight to the mat. This will play perfectly into Feijao's clinch game and nasty knees. Don't be surprised to see this fight end by KO, courtesy of a perfectly timed and executed knee from Feijao, straight into Mo's grill, as a counter to one of his shots.

This win will help to cement Blackhouse's position as the top MMA team on the planet. Straps come and go, but talent levels like the roster that Jorge Guimaraes and Ed Soares have developed at Blackhouse don't. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante is just the latest member of the team to get his shine under the bright lights of a championship fight. He's not going to let this opportunity pass him by without seizing it for all its worth. Unfortunately for King Mo, he'll be opposite him in the cage on Saturday night. With the help and support of his Blackhouse brothers, Feijao can't lose. Its not personal, its just business, and Blackhouse is in the business of winning fights and collecting straps!

That's Why He's the Campeão!

Either you are or you aren't!
Either you have heart or you don't!
Either you have balls or you don't!
Either you win or you don't?

There's no faking being a champion (campeão) and in the amazing world of MMA, look no further than Anderson Silva to understand what the word "campeão" means and see how he epitomizes the essence of that. Also, look no further than the 5 round classic battle between "The Spider" and motormouth Chael Sonnen to fully understand why the sport of MMA is so special. To his credit, Sonnen talked more bullshit to hype this fight than anyone in the short history of the sport, but he completely backed it up with determined action. He came as close as anyone can come to winning a title without actually winning a title. That ever elusive strap was all but wrapped around Chael's waist when the "campeão" finally woke up, showed his true colors, and snatched it back into his ever so greedy clutches. And he did it with only 2 minutes left in a 25 minute fight that he was badly losing!

That's Why He's the Campeão!

Let's look at some of the numbers connected to this fight.

•The most obvious was the 4 and a half rounds that were totally dominated by Chael. No one has ever done to Anderson what Chael did. EVER! Even in fights that Anderson has lost, he wasn't as thoroughly dominated and controlled as he was by Chael.

•The CompuStrike stats completely back this up. According to CompuStrike, Chael outlanded Anderson by an astounding 289 total strikes to 29. Incredibly, Anderson was hit with only a TOTAL of 208 strikes in all of his previous 11 UFC fights combined! That's absolutely INSANE!

•This was only the 3rd time a UFC championship fight was won in the 5th round!

•Anderson also set two records on that historic evening, including 7 consecutive UFC title defenses and 12 straight UFC victories. That's what you would call a productive, successful night's work, no?

That's Why He's the Campeão!

Then there's the other number$ that are sure to put a smile on Anderson's newly goateed face. He was awarded 2 separate $60K bonus$ checks for Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night. There's no arguing that those are more than deserved. Both the fight itself and the highly technical submission finish immediately became legendary moments in MMA folklore.

As Anderson pointed out in both his post fight in-cage interview and at the press conference afterward, he accomplished all this with a bad rib injury that occurred last week. He was advised by his doctor to pull out of the fight. Champions don't do that! In Anderson's words, "I was thinking about my home, my family, my kids and my grandmother who passed away three weeks ago." The injury would help explain why he looked as flat as he did for the majority of the fight. Chael's relentless attack deserves some credit as well. He was also thinking of his jiu-jitsu coach, saying, "out of respect to Nogueira, I wanted to win by submission." Mission accomplished with that super slick double-sub, a wickedly combined armbar-triangle choke. He basically "Werdumed" Sonnen with the same technical mastery that "Vai Cavalo' shockingly finished Fedor Emelianenko with. It was a beautiful thing to watch. I'm sure Big Nog was extremely proud of his student. Its that kind of selflessness that's ingrained in the fiber of all true champions.

That's Why He's the Campeão!

Say what you want about Anderson's performances in the Demian Maia and Thales Leites fights. They were more about him being bored with the lack of quality competition than anything else. He wasn't showing ANY disrespect to his opponents, his employers or the sport. Its like the kid with a genius level IQ who is bored at school because there's no challenge. Special people are sometimes hard to understand. Anderson Silva is one of those special, complicated, incredibly talented people. It must be quite a burden to be considered the absolute best in the world at what you do. We shouldn't judge unless we are in the same position.

That's Why He's the Campeão!

So what's next for the world's best pound-for-pound MMA fighter? According to Dana White, no decision has been made about who Anderson will defend his belt against next. The two options are an immediate rematch with Sonnen or Vitor Belfort getting the shot he was already given before having to pull out due to injury. I'd actually prefer seeing Vitor get the nod. Its a more interesting fight and I actually think a healthy Anderson walks through Sonnen the second time around. Interestingly, Dana compared Anderson's war with Chael to the classic first fight between Hughes and Trigg, a fight that he has previously called his favorite in UFC history. I guess that will greatly improve their strained employer/employee relationship. When asked if he was willing to grant Chael an immediate rematch, Anderson responded the way any real champion would, saying he would fight anyone that Zuffa puts in front of him. Let's see what Ed Soares has to say about that.

That's Why He's the Campeão!

Has Jones Made Enough Bones Yet?!?

•Yes, Bones Jones has looked very impressive.

•Yes, Bones Jones has made most of his wins look easy.

•Yes, Bones Jones has a very diverse, solid skillset.

•Yes, Bones Jones is ONLY 23 years old!

•Yes, Bones Jones has a very bright future in MMA.

All of the above statements are fairly obvious, but what isn't as obvious is what Jon Jones has done to be considered a threat to the the LHW strap, just yet.

I repeat, YET!

Here are some important realities that need to be injected into this debate:

•Aside from Brandon Vera, Bones hasn't beat a Top 15 LHW, arguably a Top 20-25 either.

•Bones had over a 6 inch height advantage, a 10 and a half inch reach advantage and is 16 years younger than the weathered 39 year old Vladimir Matyushenko. How can anybody not have expected him to destroy Vladdy?

•While he did dominate Stephan Bonnar and Andre Gusmao, he didn't finish either of them.


As usual, the MMA community, fans and media alike, love to rush and anoint fighters as "the next big thing" before they ever fight anyone close to the top fighters in their respective divisions. Bones is lucky, or unlucky (depending on how you look at it), to be that guy right now. While he has most definitely looked very impressive thus far, who has he beaten to warrant that kind of saintly status? Beating Vera was easily Bones' most impressive win. He literally broke "bones" in Brandon's face, no pun intended. But as any MMA enthusiast knows, Vera is hot and cold. He has the consistency of a woman's mood swings. That said, up until getting caught with that nasty elbow, Vera was very much in that fight. Jones landed the point of his elbow to the perfect location on Vera's face (his orbital socket), resulting in the damage it did. That doesn't happen very often. When closely re-watching that fight, from a technical standpoint, Bones made some mistakes. Mistakes that could have resulted in a loss. He left his arms in some very vulnerable positions. The potential for an armbar or triangle was definitely there. As we saw, Vera ended up in the fetal position before any of that happened so props to Jones for finishing the fight before those mistakes were exploited. The point is, he hasn't been flawless. There are holes in his game.

His "win" over Hamill doesn't say much. In my eyes, that was a "win", regardless of what Bones' record says. He destroyed Matt but Matt is far from a world class fighter. Hamill might actually have the worst stand-up defense in the sport. His chin has been his only saving grace, but that can't last much longer with some of the beatings he takes. He barely wrestles anymore and has zero jits skill to speak of. In other words, that "win" means nothing as far as how well Bones will fair against the top dudes in the division.

Beyond Vladdy, Vera and Hamill, what's left of Bones' wins? Jake O'Brien? The aforementioned Bonnar? Gusmao? These guys are far from MMA
world-beaters and will never be mentioned in any potential champion conversations. Rightfully so, Bones' name will be in those conversations, but at this point its premature. He still NEED$ to beat a Top 10 fighter which hasn't happened yet.

I repeat, YET!

So what's next for this rising star? Bones has said he wants a Top 3 fighter next. Of course, Rashad Evans isn't on that list since they are friends and training partners. While I respect his desire to compete against the best in the game and the confidence he has in his skills, that's not the smartest request. There's a HUGE difference between fighting a borderline Top 15-20 fighter and fighting a Top 3 fighter. I think he needs to fight a borderline Top 10 fighter like Thiago Silva, Ryan Bader or even Phil Davis before jumping that deep in the water. If he wants to fight some bigger names, match-ups with Forrest Griffin, Rich Franklin or Randy Couture would do good business and expose him to larger audiences. Hell, if Chuck doesn't decide to retire, that's an interesting fight as well, but one that Bones should win. And of course, there's a potential high profile fight with MMA newcomer James Toney that could take place at HW or a catchweight of 215-220. Bones has expressed interest in that fight after a war of words in the media with blabbermouth Toney. We still need to see how James adapts his world class boxing skills in his MMA debut against Randy Couture. I realize that a lot of those fighters are already signed for other fights, but as Dana White said, "once the smoke clears from those match-ups, a decision about who Bones fights next will be made". Lets hope Joe Silva gets Jones' next, very important opponent selection right.

Please don't misconstrue what I'm saying here. I, like most everyone else, see immense potential in Bones Jones. The operative word in that last sentence is potential. The hype he's gotten is based on what he might do down the road, not what he's already done. He's got the MMA world at his feet right now. How he handles and fairs in his next 2-3 fights will be very telling. His own trainer and mentor, Greg Jackson, seems to see this situation similarly to how I do. He's stated that there's no need to crown this kid a champ yet and no need to push him along too quickly. Given the level of his last few opponents, why jump into a fight with a Top 5 fighter? There's no reason to skip over guys in that 6-15 range. The more experience Bones gets, the better he'll progress overall and the more prepared he'll be when he starts swimming with the sharks in the Top 5. At 23 years young, he's got plenty of time to develop. The wrong decisions regarding his next 3 opponents could be detrimental to his career in the long run. He's not the first fighter to look almost invincible. Remember what happened to Vera? There was talk of him wearing the strap in 2 different weight classes. That kind of talk is long since dead.

Johnny "Bones" Jones most definitely looks like the real deal. Whether he actually becomes the real deal, only time will tell. How his career in the near future plays out remains to be seen, but there's no doubt, it will be fun to watch. As a Bones Jones fan, I look forward to his development. I just hope he doesn't get pushed in the deep end of the pool too early. I'm not completely sold on his swimming skills just yet.

I repeat, YET!