We’ll have the results as they happen tonight.

On our website poll, Georges St. Pierre was pegged to win at a 59%-41% margin.

1. Melvin Guillard vs. Rich Clementi

Guillard flipped off Clementi after getting inside the cage.

Guillard tried to land the big punches, while Clementi was using the inside leg kick. Clementi caught Guillard and took him down, getting his back, but Guillard got up and landed some big right hands. Guillard took him down but Clementi rolled over and got Guillard’s back and got him in a body triangle and then a rear naked choke and Guillard tapped. Clementi then gave him a DX crotch chop and Guillard tried to go after him.

Winner: Rich Clementi by way of first round submission.

2. Lyoto Machida vs. Sokoudjou

Machida controlled him on the ground for more than half the round. Sokoudjou did score with a few punches and got two takedowns, but Machida wins the round simply for controlling most of the round.

Machida dropped Sokoudjou with a straight left hand. Machida spent the rest of the round going for an arm triangle and finally got it and Sokoudjou tapped.

Winner: Lyoto Machida by way of second round submission.

3. Eddie Sanchez vs. Soa Palelei

Sanchez is landing more punches, but Palelei was able to out muscle him in the clinch. Sanchez landed a nice uppercut to end the round.

In the second, Palelei lands one big punch, but the rest of the round was simply Sanchez landing punches on Palelei’s face. Both guys are tired, but Palelei more so.

Sanchez continued to land punches and Palelei couldn’t do anything. The referee ended the fight as Sanchez threw an uppercut that moved Palelei’s nose about an inch north.

Winner: Eddie Sanchez by way of third round TKO.

4. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva

The first round wasn’t as advertised, but close to it. Liddell was the one stalking Silva and Silva was the counterpuncher. They had a great trade for about 15 seconds up against the cage. Silva is taking a punch, in order to throw a punch, and so far, Liddell’s reach advantage is huge.

The second half of the second round might be the greatest striking battle I’ve ever seen. Liddell opened up Silva, but Silva withstood everything. Liddell buckled him twice and Silva kept coming. Near the end of the round, Liddell looked to have him, but got tired and went for the takedown. Simply awesome.

Liddell hit Silva with everything he had and Silva took it all. Silva was wobbly for most of the round, but he kept fighting back. Liddell tired himself out and used the last part of the round to stay away from Silva and even took him down at the end of the round. This was a great fight and was all it was cracked up to be.

Winner: Chuck Liddell by way of unanimous decision.

5. Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre

St. Pierre pretty much pulled a Matt Hughes on Matt Hughes. He took Hughes down and ground and pounded him until the end of the round. Easily, St. Pierre’s round.

St. Pierre outwrestled Hughes again. He took him down twice including one judo trip that lead to him being arm barred for the submission.

Winner: Georges St. Pierre by second round submission.

They’re going to show Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Mohr from earlier in the night.

6. Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Mohr

Gamburyan gets a takedown and puts Mohr in an ankle lock for the submission. That was quick and Mohr was in pain.

Winner: Manny Gamburyan by way of first round submission.

Labels: Chuck Liddell, Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes, ufc 79, Wanderlei Silva

We have a poll on the home page. Vote on who you think will win the 12/29 rubber match between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. Click here to vote (it’s underneath the calendar).

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and his manager are being sued by a Florida-based management and promotion company.

- Chuck Liddell says that he never considered retirement after his loss to Keith Jardine.

- ESPN.com has another story on Chuck’s chance for redemption.

- CBS Sportsline has their head to head preview up.

- Sam Caplan picks his year end award winners.

- GSP is confident, but not overconfident.

- Dave Meltzer looks at the top 10 matches of this weekend.

- UFC 79 is going to run head to head with the second half of the final game in the New England Patriots goal of a perfect regular season.

- The Yarennoka! card is set.

Talking Points

One of the two big UFC 79 matches is much easier to predict than the other. I simply think that Georges St. Pierre is too skilled and well rounded for Matt Hughes, and nothing that Hughes has done of late has shown me otherwise. Unless St. Pierre is lying to us, and he’s in fact not ready after a short training camp, he has the edge in nearly every facet of the game. He may even be a better wrestler, inside the cage, than Hughes is today. That one is hard to grasp, but it might be true. I see the fight lasting into the third round as Hughes tries to test St. Pierre and make him work a little harder than he did in their second fight, but I still see a similar result. I think St. Pierre will knock him out again, but this time in the third round.

Whenever I have to predict a Chuck Liddell fight, I have a hard time because I’ve been such a fan of his. But even looking at this in an unbiased way, the signs point towards him winning. Wanderlei Silva has lost his last two fights as well, but in both cases, he lost them in devastating fashion. He didn’t just lose, he lost badly. He took major beatings in both of his last losses to Mirko Cro Cop and Dan Henderson. In both of Chuck’s losses, he didn’t really take much punishment. Even in his knockout loss to Rampage, it was a punch that hit him right on the button and he was out. It was quick, and only really one solid punch that landed. I simply think that Silva has a better chance to get knocked loopy than Liddell does. What I hope is that both guys come out throwing, rather trying to be safe and not get caught. This fight has been a dream fight in the past for a reason and that reason is because both guys can throw bombs. I think that Silva will score early, but that Liddell will survive it all and finish him off in the second round.

If you want to contact me (I’d love to hear feedback), click here.

Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Chuck Liddell, Dave Meltzer, Georges St. Pierre, Keith Jardine, Matt Hamill, Quinton Jackson, ufc 79, Wanderlei Silva, Yarennoka

We have a poll on the home page. Vote on who you think will win the 12/29 rubber match between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. Click here to vote (it’s underneath the calendar).

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his possible career change to MMA is one of the most talked about stories right now that doesn’t have to do with the major shows this weekend. We posted about it last weekend and Adam Swift goes pretty into it in depth as well.

Speaking of boxing (I know, it’s an MMA site), HBO is running a Boxing’s Best Of 2007 series featuring their top five fights of the year. It started last night and runs through Saturday. Here’s your tie in. Floyd Mayweather Jr. is featured in two bouts.

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Todd Martin writes about the history of the making of the Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell dream match.

- Dave Meltzer has a story on the legacy of Japanese MMA at the year’s end, as well as piece on the highest rated Japanese matches on New Year’s Eve. Lastly, he writes about part three of the Matt Hughes/Georges St. Pierre feud.

- One of the most highly anticipated fights from the Yarennoka show between JZ Calvan and Shin’ya Aoki is off.

- Sean Sherk and BJ Penn continue to trade barbs. Penn needs to build up his match with Joe “Daddy” Stevenson.

- Hughes’ autobiography is scheduled to come out next week.

Talking Points

It’s a pretty slow news day so we’ll end with this.

Matt Arroyo and Allen Berube are trying to get on The Amazing Race. Here’s their wacky video.

Team UFC would definitely be something, as long as no one hits Arroyo in the ribs.

If you want to contact me (I’d love to hear feedback), click here.

Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: B.J. Penn, Chuck Liddell, Dave Meltzer, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Georges St. Pierre, HBO, Joe Stevenson, Matt Hughes, Sean Sherk, The Amazing Race, Wanderlei Silva, Yarennoka

According to ESPN.com, Floyd Mayweather is talking to Mark Cuban about fighting for Cuban’s HDNet Fights.

This doesn’t really make sense for a couple reasons. For one, Floyd Mayweather is the most talented boxer in the world. It would make zero sense for him to want to get put in an arm bar or a knee bar. I don’t think he has an amateur wrestling background because he started boxing young, so he’d be at least 2-3 years behind even being good at what makes up MMA today. Also, Mayweather is all about the money. While Cuban has money, there’s no way that a fight under his company would be able to come close to generating the amount of money that a fight under HBO Boxing would. Mayweather would probably fight in the lightweight division and who is the biggest name at that weight? Sean Sherk? B.J. Penn? Now let’s counter those names to Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton. They are nowhere in the stratosphere as far as name value. And in order to make money in MMA, you have to be able to create a fight that the public wants to see. A Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Sean Sherk MMA fight wouldn’t do half the buys that his fight with Oscar De La Hoya did.

It would make more sense for Mayweather Jr. to put his name in the hat with Cuban when it comes to the business side of things. But it doesn’t make sense for him to even think about fighting.

Labels: Floyd Mayweather Jr., HDNet Fights, Mark Cuban

We have a poll on the home page. Vote on who you think will win the 12/29 rubber match between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. Click here to vote (it’s underneath the calendar).

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Michael Bisping is dropping down to middleweight and is fighting Charles McCarthy, who is best known for being on the 4th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

- Wanderlei Silva predicts victory in his upcoming battle against Chuck Liddell.

- Chuck Liddell can’t wait.

- A die-hard boxing fan takes a look at the MMA scene.

- The UFC says no to M-1.

- UFC 80 is set, but the card isn’t all that spectacular.

- EXC is to be involved in the proposed Ken Shamrock/Frank Shamrock brother vs. brother fight.

Talking Points

I finally watched the CNBC documentary Ultimate Fighting: From Blood Sport to Big Time and thought it was for the most part, well put together. I thought Scott Wapner did his homework and asked the proper questions. The most telling part of the documentary was when he tried to ask Randy Couture questions about his departure from the UFC. Whenever you see Couture, he seems to be very genuine and likable. Here, he seemed like he simply didn’t want to talk to the host and was hurt from what had happened. It very much seems that he felt like he had to leave the UFC, versus wanting to leave the UFC.

I loved the old footage and the information about how the early UFC was really a platform for Gracie jiu-jitsu. The only segment I really didn’t like was the one about Tapout. I felt that it was a throwaway segment about what is essentially a clothing company. I understand that they were trying to show how die hard MMA fans really are, but it really slowed down the piece and I couldn’t wait for the segment to be over.

After it was over, I was also left with the idea that the UFC needs to market some of their fighters better. It seems like at every opportunity, Rich Franklin is used to show that smart, common men can fight in the UFC. But because of the global ethnicities, some of the best fighters like Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre aren’t used in pieces like this. I would’ve loved to see Quinton “Rampage” Jackson used on this kind of show as I think he’s very entertaining and enjoyable to watch. You can only use Rich Franklin for so long.

Dana White came off well as this guy who loves his job so much that he’d rather work 24 hours a day than sleep. I’m not sure how he came across to the non-fight fan, but I love to see people who passionately enjoy their jobs. They come across as hard workers and those you want working with the product you enjoy.

It is still showing on the network and you can check out their schedule to find future viewing times.

If you want to contact me (I’d love to hear feedback), click here.

Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Chuck Liddell, CNBC, Dana White, EXC, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, M-1, Michael Bisping, Quinton Jackson, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin, UFC 80, Wanderlei Silva

We have the recap on the site of WEC 31, which featured Jens Pulver’s first WEC fight and Urijah Faber’s title defense.

We have a poll on the home page. Vote on who you think will win the 12/29 rubber match between Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes. Click here to vote (it’s underneath the calendar).

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- Supposedly, Mayweather vs. Hatton didn’t do as well as predicted.

- Todd Martin talks about the possible Faber vs. Pulver fight, as well as the rest of WEC 31.

- Georges St. Pierre says he expected either Matt Hughes or Matt Serra to get hurt and stayed in shape.

- What were the payouts for the TUF Season 6 Finale?

- With the Mitchell Report in the news, Dave Meltzer looks at the drug issue in MMA.

- BJ Penn wants to win the lightweight title and then fight Matt Hughes for a third time.

- Frank Trigg and Mayhem Miller were victorious at HDNet Fights in Dallas.

- Ryan Gracie was found dead on Saturday, December 15th.

- Andrei Arlovski wants to fight for UFC in early 2008.

- Vitor Belfort wants Tito Ortiz.

- Pro Elite now owns Hawaiian based ICON Sport.

Talking Points

It was sad to hear about the passing of Ryan Gracie this past weekend. Apologies and condolences towards the Gracie family for their loss.

With The Ultimate Fighter over, there isn’t much of note going on until the big UFC 79 card. However, there is a lack of buzz for Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva. It was the fight Dana White has been trying to make for years, and outside of a Chuck Liddell appearance on the Dennis Miller talk show on the Versus Network, I haven’t really heard much about the fight. I know that the UFC goes for the heavy build on Spike TV about a week before the fight, but with a fight of this magnitude, you’d think it’d be a little different. As of now, it’s not.

If you want to contact me (I’d love to hear feedback), click here.

Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

Technorati Profile

Labels: Andrei Arlovski, B.J. Penn, Chuck Liddell, Georges St. Pierre, Jens Pulver, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, ufc 79, Urijah Faber, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, WEC