Archive for November, 2007

Nov 30 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/30/07

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News and notes from around the MMA world …

- I know that this isn’t specifically MMA related, but promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy thinks Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton could do 1.5 million buys. By comparison, last December’s Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz fight drew in the neighborhood of 1 million buys.

- SI.com ranks The TUF lightweights.

- Shonie Carter wants to pay his bills.

- What has Heath Herring been up to lately?

- Ben Saunders says his illness definitely had something to do with him losing to Tommy Speer.

- Greg Jackson thinks that Matt Hughes vs. GSP will be a war.

- There were three drug test failures in California recently (here and here).

Talking Points

This is the calm before the storm. There aren’t any big national shows until next weekend’s The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale, with Clay Guida vs. Roger Huerta on top. And then December becomes a very busy month. WEC puts on their 31st show on 12/12 which features an Urijah Faber title defense. Also, Jens Pulver has his first fight in the WEC at 145 pounds on that show. HDNET Fights has another show on 12/15 and then two weeks after that is the big one, UFC 79, on 12/29.

In Japan, there’s a K1 Dynamite show and M-1 Global show. Both shows are on New Year’s Eve.

Also in December is the huge boxing fight between Ricky Hatton and Money May himself, Floyd Mayweather Jr. Get your rest this weekend, because it’s going to be a busy month.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 28 2007

The Ultimate Fighter Season 6: Episode 11

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With Matt Serra out of the fight with Matt Hughes, all of their hatred for one another is moot, as far as it pertains to UFC 79. But the show must go on!

It’s Tommy vs. Ben in the last quarterfinals match-up.

The fights from last week are recapped. To freshen everyone’s memory, George Sotiropoulos and Matt Arroyo advanced in easy wins.

Matt Serra says his goal is to get Ben Saunders into the semifinals. Serra says that Tommy Speer only has one way to win (wrestling), but Saunders has several ways to win. Serra says he wants to send the farm boy home.

J-Rock says that Speer’s face is ugly from his fight with War Machine. He says he looked like the lion from The Chronicles of Narnia. Mac Danzig says that if that nasty cut was his, he wouldn’t fight, because it could be a career ending injury if it opened up again. Billy Miles says he would be ready to fight for Speer, if he couldn’t make it. Didn’t Miles lose quickly in his first fight? At least Dan Barrera put on a great fight. Put him in there for the rematch.

Speer says the stitches are out and he’s cleared to fight by the doctor. Danzig says if it were him, he wouldn’t even train for three weeks. Danzig says he’s tough, but he never said he was smart. Matt Hughes says Saunders won’t be able to submit Speer because Speer is too strong. Hughes wants Speer to throw a right hand after every high kick by Saunders.

Rude Boy says he didn’t feel like going to practice after losing his match. So he decides to act like an idiot. Well, it wasn’t only him. Rude Boy and War Machine decided to take a dump in the upper tank, rather than in the bowl, of Team Hughes’ toilet. Richie Hightower called it an upper decker. I had no idea people did this.

Team Hughes comes home from practice to see goofy, laughing, and very drunk guys from Team Serra. Danzig calls out Hightower and Hightower taunts him and Team Serra’s guys stop Danzig from giving him a beating. Rude Boy tells Hightower to shut up. Danzig says he won’t do anything to jeopardize his position. War Machine can’t wait for someone to flush the toilet.

Rude Boy says that War Machine was the one who dropped the upper decker. Miles is the first one to use the toilet and rather than get upset, he actually goes to tell Danzig in hopes that Danzig doesn’t go crazy. He tells the rest of his team and J-Rock goes crazy. He takes the top of the tank and breaks it and busts in the room where the Team Serra guys are hanging out, by kicking the door in. He gets in War Machine’s face and swipes the hat off his head and War Machine shoots in and takes him down. J-Rock has the quote of the century.

When you bring doo-doo into the equation, that’s straight hostility dude; that’s personal.

Danzig tries to get Hightower to confess, but Hightower says it wasn’t him. War Machine says he was just having fun and it wasn’t personal towards J-Rock. War Machine says it was a joke, and just for fun, and that he’s going to clean it up. War Machine tells J-Rock that he grabbed him because he thought he was going to hit him. War Machine and Rude Boy have a great time cleaning it up. Danzig says it’s not a cool prank because it’s disgusting and pathetic.

Matt Aroyo says Saunders’ technique is better and technique always beats strength.

Saunders wakes up feeling sick. Serra says he has sinus problems and that if he can’t breathe properly, it’s tough. Saunders says he’s looking to split Speer open. Saunders has a height and reach advantage.

Round One

Speer gets him in a clinch and pushes him towards the cage. Saunders hits some knees, but gets taken down. Saunders locks him in an arm bar and he’s pulling on it, but Speer doesn’t tap. Speer gets out of a triangle attempt as well. Saunders is bleeding, probably from an elbow. Speer is just on top of him, wailing with elbows. Serra is calling for Saunders to set him up for the uma plata. But Speer continues from his dominant position, throwing elbows and keeping Saunders on his back. Saunders won about a minute of that round, but Speer dominated him the rest. We’ll see what the judges liked more. The submission attempts, or Speer controlling with the wrestling.

Round Two

Speer gets him down again. But this time, Saunders is able to get back to his feet, only to go back down about 10 seconds later. Saunders tries to grab onto Speer’s arm, but Speer powers out. Saunders is very tired. This round is very similar to the first, except it’s all Speer. They get stood up, but Saunders is immediately taken down again. They are stood up again. Saunders is exhausted. He tries to throw a few kicks, but goes down again. That was Speer’s round all the way.

Winner: Tommy Speer by way of unanimous decision.

Dana White says that if Speer catches on with the right team, he can be a force in the UFC. Saunders blames his sickness for his performance. He does this while he has toilet paper stuffed inside his right nostril.

Serra, Hughes, and White meet up to pick the semifinals match-ups and Serra thinks Arroyo and Danzig should meet up and Speer and Sotiropoulos should fight. This is exactly what Hughes wants, so he doesn’t have to say anything. He tells Danzing that he’s too much for Arroyo. Danzig says that his experience is his biggest strength and there’s no way he loses. Arroyo says beating Danzig will be huge for him. Hughes says Speer is too strong for Sotiropoulos. Sotiriopoulos says he trains to beat big guys.

Next week: There are two fights next week. They tease that there’s a huge knockout, and it might be in the Danzig/Arroyo fight. As for the Sotiropoulos/Speer fight, it looks like one of them won’t be able to fight, and they have to choose someone who lost earlier, to step in. That’s a shame. That was definitely going to be an interesting one.

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Nov 28 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/28/07

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News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Dana White will be on CNBC tonight.

- Todd Martin looks at the making of Matt Hughes vs. GSP III.

- Dave Meltzer also talks about how Dana White found his replacement for Matt Serra.

- Paulo Filho says no to Chuck Liddell.

- Who is Josh Koscheck scheduled to fight next?

- Clay Guida talks about his scheduled fight against Roger Huerta at The Ultimate Fighter Finale.

Talking Points

After reading Todd Martin’s article about the Matt Hughes/GSP grudge match, I have to agree with a lot of what he said. If they pushed the match to January, it would definitely give you two good buy rates, rather than only one.

But there are also a few reasons why I think the UFC went the way they went.

In April, they are targeting Montreal as a site for a show. If that’s where they are going, Georges St. Pierre has to be there. If he fights Matt Hughes next month and doesn’t get injured, he can fight on the April show. If you push his next fight to January, it would be harder to get him on that show. If Matt Serra is ready by then, and GSP beats Hughes, that would be a natural rematch for Montreal. I have no idea if they are thinking of going that way, but it makes sense.

Also, Dana White has stated in the past that this show was going to do huge numbers. With Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva on top, it will do good numbers, but not as good as it would’ve had he beat Keith Jardine. Or even as good as if it happened last year like they wanted it to. With that being the case, White might’ve wanted to make sure he had a second hot match to make up for the fact that Liddell and Silva doesn’t have the heat it was supposed to have. And really, he did that some time back, by booking Hughes and Serra for the match anyway.

Lastly, if you take out Hughes and GSP, it’s a one match show. Sokoudjou makes his debut fighting Lyoto Machida, but to a US audience who doesn’t know Sokoudjou, it’s nothing more than just a match. And after that, the undercard is weak for a non-hardcore audience.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 25 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/25/07 (Weekend Update)

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At the end of my last post, I wondered if UFC President Dana White was going to wait for Matt Serra to recover from his back injury, or do something to change the welterweight title match that was scheduled for December 29th at UFC 79. Well, he did do something to change the title match. He added Georges St. Pierre.

According to the Wrestling Observer, as well as every other MMA news outlet, Matt Hughes will now face Georges St. Pierre for the interim welterweight championship at UFC 79. This will be the third fight between them and is the rubber match. Matt Serra will then face the winner when he returns from his injury, in a unification title match.

At UFC 50, in 2004, Matt Hughes and GSP met for the then vacant welterweight strap and right near the end of the first round, Hughes caught GSP in an arm bar and the match ended with one second left in the round. And then, in November of 2006, GSP knocked out Hughes to win the welterweight championship. But in his first title defense, he lost to Matt Serra in one of the biggest upsets of the year.

With Randy Couture’s resignation and Sean Sherk steroid hearing upcoming, the UFC was put in yet another situation where they wouldn’t have one of their title belts defended by the champion, because of Serra’s injury. It’s a good move in my opinion, as Serra doesn’t lose anything, and the UFC doesn’t lose a marquee match for their big show at the end of this year.

GSP wants to avenge his loss to Serra, Serra wants to beat up the bully Hughes, and Hughes thinks Serra is the easier win. Not a bad little hate triangle there.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 23 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/23/07

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News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Check out the my live report of the Strikeforce show from San Jose last weekend.

- Matt Serra is out of his December title defense against Matt Hughes because of injury.

- The Ultimate Fighter Season Finale card is starting to shape up.

- SI.com has an article about pay in MMA today.

- How should takedowns be judged?

- Urijah Faber goes on a cross country press tour for the WEC.

- Strikeforce leaves for Seattle to run their first non-California card.

- The IFL Grand Prix finals will air on HDNet.

Talking Points

Well, the one fight that the UFC has done the most perfect job at building up, is now off. According to several sites, Matt Serra suffered a herniated disc in his lower back and can’t train for the fight, which was scheduled for December 29th in Las Vegas. The build up has been tremendous. It’s been the focus of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, one in which Matt Serra has become one of the greatest smack talkers of all time. Before the season started, I’d read that Matt Hughes was the biggest heel of all time. But so far, though ten episodes, it’s actually Serra who is cocky and rightfully so, because his team has been so dominating.

Even though Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva is the main event, I’m not sure that there weren’t nearly as many folks who wanted to see Serra vs. Hughes settle their grudge even more. It’s going to be a big detriment to the card itself, which was shaping up to be the biggest card of the year.

We’ll have to be patient for more information to come out to see when the fight will be rescheduled, or if White does anything to change the match. I sure hope not. I want to see these guys get it on.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 20 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/20/07

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News and notes from around the MMA world …

- We have a full recap of UFC 78: Validation featuring Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping in the main event.

- Dana White says that Anderson Silva will defend his middleweight title against none other than Dan Henderson at UFC 82.

- Dave Meltzer says that UFC 78: Validation, wasn’t all that validating.

- Does NBC want to get into the MMA act too?

- Fedor Emelianenko is rumored to be fighting the Choi Hong Man on New Years Eve in Japan.

- A very clear shot of Jorge Santiago knocking out Sean Salmon.

- Tito Ortiz is a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice.

Talking Points

I received an e-mail from a reader about Saturday’s UFC card who was there live. I’m going to guess this was the same feeling that many fight fans had, even those watching on PPV. Here’s the e-mail.

This was without a doubt the worst card UFC has put on in months, if not years. No true main event. No title bouts. No grudge matches. No former champions. No heavyweight bouts.

Karo Parisian should donate portions of his winnings to the fans who got treated to a snoozefest during his ‘fight’. His bout with Ryo Chonan was the worst fight I’ve seen in some years. The crowd was booing loudly, leaving for the concession stands and falling asleep (myself included).

For the first time in North Jersey in years, UFC did a horrible job with the fight card and the fans paid the price, literally and figuratively.

Matthew Sedita

This is one of the issues with having to put on so many cards. With the UFC being as successful as it is, they are trying to put as many fights on TV that people will watch. We may have hit our barrier with this show. It didn’t have a money main event, even though Dana White tried to sell the public on it. All the regular fight fans were going to watch it anyways, but the point of a main event is to draw more than just the regular crowd. By the looks of it, I’m not sure this one did.

One of the reasons I was looking forward to the card is because though the main event was more like a match that would’ve been second from the top on another card, I thought we were getting some really good undercard matches. That is one of the good things about the UFC. They have most of the best fighters in the world, and many of them haven’t really been shown on TV. Thus, the UFC can put together some really good matches that can help make the card better than the main event suggests it will be. I was very excited for the Frankie Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher match-up, and while watching Edgar take down Fisher at will was definitely interesting from a skill perspective, it wasn’t all that entertaining because at no time in that fight did Fisher look like he was even supposed to be in the same cage. The same thing could be said for the Houston Alexander fight. He was no where near in the same league as Thiago Silva on this night and it really deflated the crowd when Alexander looked out of his league.

The lesson to be learned is that you can’t really depend on fights that look great on paper, to always deliver. The main events are what excites the fans, hardcores and non-hardcores alike. Putting two fighters in there (Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping) who seemed to fight more so to not lose, than to win, really ended the show on a sour note. And the undercard didn’t save it. Let’s hope they learned their lesson.

And thanks to Matt for his feedback.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 17 2007

UFC 78: Validation

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Here are the quick results for UFC 78.

1. Frankie Edgar vs. Spencer Fisher

Edgar easily wins the first round, by taking him down twice and staying busy from the top. Fisher did next to nothing.

Second round is very much like the first. Edgar is really controlling it and Fisher can’t keep him off. The only thing Fisher is doing is keeping him within his guard.

Third round is pretty much a duplicate of the second. Fisher did nothing. Edgar’s fight all the way.

Winner: Frankie Edgar by way of unanimous decision

2. Joe Doerksen vs. Ed Herman

Herman dominates the first round and is much stronger than Doerksen. He was dropping heavy punches and elbows from the top. Doerksen has a cut on his right eye lid.

Herman starts the round the same way he was fighting the first, but Doerksen gets a takedown and tries for a choke. Doerksen gets a triangle at the end of the round, but the bell saves Herman.

Herman throws a nasty left hook and it’s over. Doerksen went limp and Herman followed it up with a big right on the ground.

Winner: Ed Herman by way of third round TKO.

3. Ryo Chonan vs. Karo Parisyan

Parisyan controls the first round largely with his takedowns.

Chonan connects with a good punch, but it’s again, Parisyan’s round. Chonan also scores with a couple knees to the body, but Parisyan continues to take the fight to the ground and is on top for the rest of the round.

The third was mind numbingly boring. Parisyan’s round again. Very easy win for him.

Winner: Karo Parisyan by way of unanimous decision

4. Thiago Silva vs. Houston Alexander

Silva is staying away, and when Alexander gets in tight, he grabs him and they clinch. Alexander slams him down hard and grabs on a guillotine. Silva is now on top and gets the mount and starts hammering Alexander. He throws a ton of punches in a row and Alexander looks to go out. The fight is over.

Winner: Thiago Silva by way of TKO.

5. Rashad Evans vs. Michael Bisping

Evans is really active with his takedowns. He’s quick and is swinging hard in his stand-up. Easily his round.

Bisping is better in the second. Evans gets a huge takedown, but Bisping doesn’t stay down for long. They trade and each lands about the same amount. Evans looks tired. Close round.

Evans is the more tired of the two, but he’s also the one pushing the pace. He continues to go for the takedown and is landing the harder punches, but Bisping never seemed hurt or in trouble. It’s going to be a tough one to decide. I’d go Evans.

Winner: Rashad Evans by way of split decision

6. Jason Reinhardt vs. Joe Lauzon

We get one of the prelims from earlier on. Lauzon takes down Reinhardt and gets his back easily for a rear naked choke.

Winner: Joe Lauzon by way of first round submission

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Nov 16 2007

Rear Naked Ramblings - 11/16/07

Published by GG under Uncategorized

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- The match-ups for Strikeforce’s middleweight tournament have been selected, but there might be some issues with the scheduled fights.

- Dave Meltzer calls it, the “Cung Le Show”.

- If you’re within a 150 mile radius of San Jose, you’re going to get blacked out from Yahoo!’s live stream.

- Sportsline.com has predictions for UFC 78.

- USAToday.com has a story on the UFC targeting New York.

- Rashad Evans is confident in his ability and believes in himself.

- Frankie Edgar says he won’t get caught up fighting in his hometown.

- Sokoudjou has signed with the UFC and faces Lyoto Machida next month.

- Randy Couture is scheduled to be featured in a new MMA card set from Donruss.

- Kimbo Slice says he’ll fight again next February.

Talking Points

I will be live at the Strikeforce event tonight and will have a write-up of the event up sometime in the next few days.

I’m really interested in the middleweight tournament. It’s one of those things that just seems special because it hasn’t happened in a while, especially in the US. Also, watching Cung Le live is great, not only because he’s entertaining, but also because the atmosphere is insane. With his fight being in the main event tonight, I’d expect a wild crowd reaction.

UFC 78 isn’t huge on star power, but it has a chance to be a really good show. With Frankie Edgar and Spencer Fisher on the card, you’re guaranteed at least one good fight. I’m also excited to see Joe Doerksen fight Ed Herman in one of those veteran versus up and coming young fighter type battles. I think Doerksen is going squeak out a decision, based mainly on his experience. Also, Herman has struggled a bit in his young UFC career, but has won his last two bouts.

Also, I think that at this point, anytime Houston Alexander fights, it’s must see. At least, until he loses. He’s the closest thing to Mike Tyson that the UFC has and he should be better tested this time around by Thiago Silva, who is undefeated and is 2-0 in the UFC. I think the main event will be pretty good as well. People are selling Michael Bisping a bit short because of his questionable decision victory against a determined Matt Hamill in his last fight. But you can’t question the guy’s talent. He’s well rounded and is charismatic. But at this point, Rashad Evans, based on his draw with Tito Ortiz, has shown an ability to fight at a higher level than Bisping. I think the fight is going to be close and it will be Evans’ wrestling that probably controls the fight. I think he’ll win a unanimous decision.

You can see the entire card here.

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Garrett M. Gonzales
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Nov 15 2007

Interview With Anthony Figueroa

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I interviewed up and coming Strikeforce bantamweight fighter, Anthony Figueroa this past weekend. It’s the first “podcast” that I’ve done for this site. Definitely a “first” interview, though not as rough as it could’ve been.

I talk to him about a bunch of things, including how he got into the sport, his young career thus far, who his mentor is, how he balances out family with work and fighting, and his future in the sport.

Anthony fights tomorrow night at the HP Pavillion at the Strikeforce 7 show.

Listen above (though give it time to load), or right click here and save in order to download it and listen on your computer or iPod (or whatever other music player you use).

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Nov 14 2007

The Ultimate Fighter Season 6: Episode 9

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It’s quarterfinals time.

The show starts with a recap of the fight from last week, which was Tommy Speer vs. War Machine. They show Mac Danzig walking out while Speer was in the rear naked choke, before hearing cheering from his teammates, letting him know that Speer was coming back.

Matt Serra asks his team if they want to put Mac Danzig vs. Tommy Speer in the quarterfinals, thus making sure only one guy from Matt Hughes’ team gets into the semi-finals.

Dana White says he’s going to talk to Matt Serra and discuss the quarterfinals match-ups. Serra asks if he could put Danzig and Speer together. White says they can do anything, but they should do what makes sense. White calls the fighters in to hear who they want to fight. Ben Saunders wants Speer. Troy Mandaloniz wants Richie Hightower. George Sotiropoulos says he’s the best fighter in the house and when Dana asks him who had the best shot at beating him, he didn’t have an answer.

Danzig says it would be uncool of Serra to match him and Speer up, but it would also be very smart. Hughes says he would throw a fit if that’s what was decided. White announces Danzig vs. John Kolosci as the first fight. Kolosci says he wanted Danzig because everyone was afraid of him and he wanted to mash him. Serra thought Kolosci was one of those guys who could rise to the occasion. The second fight is Matt Aroyo vs. Mandaloniz. The third fight is scheduled to be Sotiriopoulos vs. Hightower. Hightower didn’t look very happy about that one. The last fight is Saunders vs. Speer. White says that Serra will need to choose who he wants to corner in the matches where it’s his guy vs. his guy. Serra says he’s not going to choose and White says Hughes is one of the best of all times and he will do the right thing. I’m not sure why Serra is surprised as if I remember, they’ve done this in every season that this was the case.

Serra is upset because Hughes laughed at his picks and then during the season, they ass raped them (meaning they won 6-2). His words, not mine. Serra is blaming this situation on Hughes, which is funny. All Hughes did was smile. Hughes is under Serra’s skin, and all he did was smile. That’s great. White says that if he can’t choose, they’ll flip a coin.

Hughes says that Serra is such a meat head. Hughes says he expects both his guys to win, so he’s happy. Danzig says Kolosci has the size and strength advantage. Danzig says he’s better, more well rounded, and has more experience and says he won’t lose.

Danzig says he’s starting to lose it in the house a bit. The guys are saying that Danzig is a grump and he’s up and down. He orders a bird feeder, trying to get humming birds to come to the house. He thinks that he’ll be able to relax watching the humming birds come to the feeder. He says the animals stay their distance because they can sense his frustration with the house. He doesn’t like being negative because it’s not good karma.

War Machine moves the bird feeder and Danzig doesn’t know who it is, but says if it keeps happening, there are going to be problems. He blames the team Serra guys. He goes off on the house.

Serra says that styles make fights, and Kolosci sold them on this fight. He doesn’t seem too positive, but says he thinks he can pull off the upset. Serra says that Danzig is a little bit more experienced than Kolosci, but not much more.

Danzig says that he hasn’t sparred much because his guys are all hurt and he says that Billy Miles hates sparring, so his sparring situation is crap. Danzig and Blake Bowman chat about how his negativity is killing his experience on the show. Danzig agrees with him and walks off, not answering Bowman’s question about if he was going to sleep or not.

Danzig writes on the wall to remind himself to be nice to Blake, have sympathy, be positive, think positive, and that he’ll get good karma out of it. Danzig says he does enjoy his company when he can look past the fact that he’s not a real fighter.

Kolosci says that they are still a team and they work well together, even though two of their fighters will have to train under Hughes. He says that no one wants to go train with Hughes because they don’t trust him to be a good corner man. If you can’t learn from more than one person, I’m not sure how well rounded you are going to be. Can you imagine someone saying that they don’t want to learn from Matt Hughes? Are you kidding?

Hughes says he’ll choose which Serra guys he wants. Serra would rather let the flip of the coin choose for them. Hughes says that Serra is taking his worst two guys and putting them up against his best two guys and making Hightower and Arroyo the sacrificial lambs. I’d think that Saunders is in the mix as Serra’s best guys. By the flip of the coin, Hightower and Arroyo go to Team Hughes. They go to talk to Hughes and Lawler and tell him that they just want to let Hughes know that it’s going to be a bit awkward just because they’ve been training with Serra for six weeks. Hughes thinks they’re being somewhat unprofessional. I’d agree with him on that one. Hughes says he’s there to make whoever he’s cornering, as good as they want to be. Arroyo isn’t sure that Hughes meant what he said.

(Really, from watching the show, it just seems that Hughes brings a different style of coaching to the table. Serra is much more of a “rah rah” kind of guy who gets to know his fighters personally and wants to be liked. Hughes is more like a drill sergeant and doesn’t care if he has relationships with his guys after the show. He just wants to make them better than they are. Hightower seems to be bothered by Hughes’ coaching style.)

Danzig says he’s not going to let someone who fights only part time, take this away from him. Danzig writes his mom’s name and his girlfriend’s name on his trunks. Danzig says that no one wants to win it as badly as he does. Really, Danzig could compete right away in the welterweight division in the UFC. I could see Sotiriopoulos competing immediately and maybe Saunders as well just because of his height, but I’m not sure about anyone else.

Round One

After a feeling out process, Danzig gets the first big blow with a knee from the clinch. He has Kolosci down, but Kolosci is back on his feet. Danzig stuffs a single leg takedown. Kolosci has him up against the cage. Danzig is throwing elbows at the side of his head and to his side. Kolosci is bleeding from the bridge of his nose. He goes for another takedown and Danzig stuffs him again and sits up against the cage and puts on a rear naked choke. Kolosci taps immediately. Danzig just wipes his brow.

Winner: Mac Danzig by way of first round submission.

Danzig says Kolosci was nervous and all of his movements were predictable. Kolosci says that he panicked when he couldn’t get the takedown. Danzig announces to his team that he loves his team and wouldn’t change anything.

Next week: It’s Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra in a bowling challenge for money! That’s going to be awesome. Serra also says he’s not going to corner his guys who are fighting their once teammates. Also, there are two fights next week, which tell me that one of them ends quickly. I’m going to guess Hightower goes pretty quickly.

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