More Thoughts on UFC 87

Overall, I would give the entire event a B. I thought Lesnar was great and the GSP/Fitch war was excellent, but Florian/Huerta was a total bust. The other fights had spurts of entertainment, but I was not that impressed. Sure it was exciting to see Emerson finish Manny is 12 seconds, but that seemed to be more about terrible game planning on Manny's part than Emerson's skill level. Kongo KO'd a guy who hadn't fought a professional fight since Bodog's USA/Russia event and Damien Maia submitted a tough Jason McDonald. I did think it was pretty funny that no one even talked about a possible BJ Penn versus Florian title fight and that it was immediately BJ versus GSP. Florian is certainly an entertaining fighter, but this performance was merely okay. Huerta never looked into the fight, but Florian still couldn't finish him. In my opinion it shows that the UFC really doesn't think Florian is that legit a contender if they are giving BJ a shot at the 170 title without even defending his 155 belt once. All in all, I think the event justified the $40 price tag, but I have seen better events in the past year.

Dude....Nice Right Hand!

By now you have probably seen or heard about what Brock Lesnar did to Heath Herring on Saturday night, but if you have not then you should dial it up ASAP, because you'll want to see one of the most awesome right hands ever. How is this for a guy who has no stand up? Fake the take down, fake the left hook, straight right to the eye of Herring and it was pretty much done after that. I am not going to say I predicted this result, but I knew Lesnar presented a physical challenge that Herring had never seen before or for that matter any other heavyweight fighter. At no point was Herring ever in the fight and he spent the majority of his time in the ring trying to get out from under the former pro wrestler. So much for Lesnar's lack of experience? He successfully dodged and weaved from Herring's take downs and strikes. He was so elusive that at one point he escaped a take down and strike from Herring all the while laughing at him. The question now is, who is up next for Lesnar? Mark Coleman has to look at that fight and be glad he was injured. The Hammer was an awesome and dominating heavyweight in his prime, but I don't think this version of the Hammer is up to the task physically. The two names that really standout are Gonzaga and Werdum. They both a significant talents and slightly better fighters than Herring, but not quite the level of Big Nog. This is where losing Tim Sylvia and Arlovski hurts the UFC, because you have a star in Lesnar, but the backlog of fighters in the heavyweight division is pretty short. No announcements have been made, but I would bet Lesnar is on the last card of 2008 with either Gonzaga or Werdum. My bet is Werdum.

Photo via Combat Lifestyle

MMA getting some Mainstream Blog Coverage

WithLeather.com has their thoughts on tomorrow nights action here

Countdown to UFC 87 Luke's Picks

Before we get into the analysis of tomorrow's fight I want to mention that while the Huerta/Florian part of the show last night was entertaining, the fact that they spent a scant two minutes on the Lesnar/Herring fight was ridiculous. Lesnar is the highest paid fighter on the card and he is coming off a loss. Like it or not this is a must win for him and for the UFC as well. The UFC invested a lot of dough in a thus far unproven commodity and as all fight fans know, two losses in a row is just one fight away from being banished to minor leagues. I would hold up Cro Cop as an example of how quickly things can turn south even for the most polished, experienced and devastating fighters. This sport is fickle, you either make it or you are washed up. The only fighter who has consistently comeback after devastating losses is Randy Couture and that is because he is the most mentally tough fighter ever. I don't know it seems to me that if a fighter at Lesnar's pay grade is in that desperate of a position you might want to highlight how much he needs to win, but hey that's just my two cents. Here are my picks for tomorrow night...

Main card

Welterweight Championship bout: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch

GSP's major issue is mental toughness. There is no doubt that he is probably a stronger, faster and more skilled fighter than Fitch, but if Fitch makes it a war, like he has for most of his eight victories in the Octagon, is GSP going to be able to keep his head in it for 25 minutes? Just looking at the demeanor of the two fighters GSP seems very serious and focused, now that could also mean that he is uptight and nervous, but I don't know him personally. Fitch is acting like he does before all his fights, relaxed and as if he has nothing to lose. If Fitch is able to make it a war and fight a bloody, messy fight, I think he has a great chance to win. However, he said something last night on the Countdown show that worried me and that was that he likes to get himself into the submission holds of opponents to transfer into positions of dominance. That's not going to work with a top notch fighter like GSP or really any champion for that matter. If he goes with that mentality, this fight will be over in round one or two. I am guessing Fitch goes with what he is used to and gets caught in the first or second round.

Lightweight bout: Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta

So much has been said about this fight in the media that I am not going to spend that much time talking about it. Ken Flo is the more experienced and dominant fighter, all of his wins come from KOs or Submissions. Huerta has the heart of a lion and he uses his dark childhood to overcome any adversity he faces in the ring. Huerta is an admirable character, but I don't think he has the experience yet to beat Kenny and as a result I have Kenny taking a decision victory.

Heavyweight bout: Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring

This is my fight of the night. Both of these fighters have really stepped their games up and are hungry for a victory. Oh did I mention that they are both giants and extremely athletic? Herring's comparison to King Kong versus Godzilla is not far off. I am going with Brock here, because he is desperate, I don't care what he or the UFC say, he must win this fight.

Lightweight bout: Manny Gamburyan vs. Rob Emerson

How does this fight make the main card and not Kongo? Manny wins via submission

Middleweight bout: Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia

How does this fight make the main card and not Kongo? MacDonald wins via TKO

Preliminary card
Heavyweight bout: Cheick Kongo vs. Dan Evensen

What they couldn't get a big name to fight Kongo? Evensen last fought in the now defunct Bodog Fight and is 10-2 so he should provide a decent test for Kongo. Kongo takes home the victory.

Welterweight Bout: Chris Wilson vs. Steve Bruno

I'll take Chris Wilson to win

Welterweight Bout: Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas

Ryan Thomas to win

Welterweight Bout: Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory

Carzy Luke Cummo to win

Light Heavyweight bout: Andre Gusmao vs. Jon Jones

Jon Jones to win, both fighters making UFC debuts should be interesting

UFC 87 Press Conference

Rampage looks pretty happy for a guy that is in a lot of trouble........judging by the notes from the press conference he seems to be doing okay. Heath definitely looks like he has put on some pounds since the Kongo fight, I wonder what he will look like at tomorrow's weigh-in?

Photos courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com

Brock Lesnar: A New Breed

When MMA or Vale Tudo fighting took off in the early 1990's, Brazilian Ju Jitsu was the name of the game. Take the fight to the ground and force your opponent into submission by any means regardless of the physical toll on your own body. It was a very effective style at that time because most of the competitors were over aggressive tough man types who had no clue about the submission game. Naturally, the sport evolved as more collegiate wrestlers entered the sport as a means to make a living and became very successful at defeating the Ju Jitsu style because they could effectively use their wrestling to defend takedowns and punish their opponents enough within the guard to force TKO stoppages. A result of this transformation was the dominating ground and pound, Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman owned this sport in the late 1990's and early 2000's using this punishing style. Over the past few years the competitors in MMA have evolved yet again, as a wider variety of athletes with a greater amount of physical skill have entered the sport. Now merely dominating in once style or place in the Octagon is not enough to be consistently successful in the sport. Today's best fighters are not experts at anyone martial art, but rather B+ students of all disciplines. George St. Pierre is most often used as the symbol for today's fighter, because he is strong at striking, but effective enough on the ground to stop Matt Hughes from picking him up and tossing him on his head. Okay so where does Brock Lesnar fit in? On the surface he fits the mold of Kerr and Coleman to a T. He's a former collegiate champion wrestler, loves to ground and pound and uses his massive size to overpower his opponents. All those things are true, but the difference between himself and the stereotypical wrestler turned MMA fighter is that the guy is a true athlete. Now that is not saying that wrestlers aren't athletes, but not many collegiate wrestlers go from being All-Americans to Professional Wrestlers to Professional Football players to MMA fighters. In fact, I can think of only one person who has done that and that person is Brock Lesnar. If you watch Kerr or Coleman strike on their feet they look uncomfortable and robotic, as if they are saying okay well I have to do this so I will, but I am not going to do much with it and get this to the ground as quickly as possible. When I watch Lesnar move in his fights and in his training he doesn't look that way. He is much more fluid and relaxed, the movements are natural for him. If you look at smaller ground and pound guys like Hughes or Sherk, you see the same problem and you would expect they would be better at striking because they are quicker than a huge heavyweight, but they aren't. Look at how bad BJ made Sherk look on his feet in the title fight and BJ isn't really known as a stand up fighter. I don't see that with Lesnar and the guy walks around at 290 pounds! So what does this mean for Saturday's fight? There are plenty of guys in the heavyweight division from Affliciton, Elite XC and the UFC that are that large, but none are as cut, quick or powerful that is for sure. Yes, Heath has fought some very big and talented guys like Kerr, Dan McGee, Brad Imes, and Giant Silva, but none of those guys have what Brock brings to the table. In fact, Kerr is probably the only legit fighter of that list and when Heath fought him, Kerr was coming off numerous injuries, a stint in rehab and was mentally beaten down, so I don't really see the significance of beating him. I am not promising Brock will win, because Heath has stepped up his game tremendously in the past year, but I would bet the pressure on Brock is going to bring out an awesome performance and a earn him his first W in the UFC

Here are some more thoughts on Brock from other Bloggers/Writers

Lesnar thoughts from UFC.com

Yahoo! Sports Expert Blog has some interesting info

The fight Professor gives his two cents on Brock and his chances

UFC 87 August 9th

UFC 87: Seek and Destroy Preview

This is going to be well worth the $40 PPV charge.......

GSP Talks About Defending His Title

The Texas Crazy Horse Prepares for Brock Lesnar