It seems like this fight has been in the making forever and it’s finally here. We don’t generally see this type of weight differential unless it’s in the heavyweight division, but Fedor weighed in at 16 pounds heavier than Henderson. When they were standing next to each other, there didn’t seem to be that large of a difference, but we’ll see if it matters inside the cage. Miesha Tate also tries to take the 135 women’s title from Marloes Coenen in a five round fight with five minute periods.

1. Tarec Saffiedine vs. Scott Smith

Saffiedine wins the round simply by controlling the action. He is out-quicking Smith and beating him to everything. Smith’s trying to load up on shots, but can’t really get off. Smith is cut over his left eye. Smith isn’t moving well and is pretty hittable.

Smith is a shot fighter. Saffiedine landed some wicked combinations including a shot lead left-hook and right low kick. Smith either has the worst stand-up defense or Saffiedine has tremendously fast hand and foot speed. Smith took some harsh punishment.

Saffiedine did a great job of switching back and forth in between stances, throwing off Smith’s timing. And he was just tagging him. Smith tried to press the action late, but could never catch him.

Winner: Tarec Saffiedine by way of unanimous decision

2. Tyron Woodley vs. Paul Daley

Lots of inside fighting, but the biggest shot was probably a low blow by Daley. Daley did a good job at stuffing the takedowns, but neither guy had an advantage.

Well, this one isn’t a classic. Woodley got him down and held him there for nearly the entire round. He grabbed a single and took him down, pushed him against the cage, but Daley stayed active and didn’t get in any bad positions. Near the end of the round, it was Woodley on the bottom and Daley got a couple shots in.
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I expect the telling of Victor Ortiz’s childhood is going to make him a much bigger star than he is. That’s the key to selling this fight. Mayweather is going to sell most of it, but Victor’s story could be the difference in whether this fight does good business or great business.

Big D and I are back to discuss The Summer Of Punk. CM Punk has been the talk of the wrestling world and it all started based on a promo that captured the attention of fans who hadn’t really paid that close attention to WWE of late. D and I chat about the first promo, the build up to the match against John Cena, the match itself, and then the aftermath.

I have to apologize for the audio. I wasn’t home to do the podcast so we used a recording service. Hopefully it’s not too bad.

Catch Big D at his home front, Superfriends Universe.

Right click to download or stream below.

Photo of CM Punk is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

When last night’s Raw show was over, I felt ripped off.

As a two hour television show, Raw was great. Rey Mysterio beat The Miz to win the WWE Championship in a really good match to start the show. When Mysterio is given time to do his thing, there are very few better than him. Triple H made a few proclamations, one being that Jim Ross is back on TV, and hopefully for good, however long good is. John Cena beat Mysterio for his newly won championship at the end of the show in another good match (thanks to Rey). And then the cult of personality came back. CM Punk walked to the ring and stood toe-to-toe with John Cena, raising his belt in the air after Cena raised his.

Now, if someone told me all of those things were going to happen over a month span, I’d have been pretty excited. The fact that they happened within a span of a two hour show bothered me. WWE may have missed the boat here. To me, the key to the CM Punk angle was that his win over John Cena at Money In The Bank was so important and meant so much that he didn’t really have to wrestle again. It should’ve been Cena, not Punk, who was reactive and begging for a rematch because he lost. Maybe that’s where they will still go and having Punk come back to one-up Cena is only there to make Cena anxious about getting his rematch.

(And wouldn’t this thing be hotter if Cena didn’t have the “interim” title? Shouldn’t he be chasing his ass off right now?)

What doesn’t make sense to me is that if Triple H re-signed Punk, what was all the Comic-Con stuff about where Punk insulted his wife? Yep, insult a man’s wife and he wants to throw millions of dollars at you to bring you back after you disrespected his father-in-law and made him go crazy. I guess they can figure it all out and make it logical at the end, but I have my doubts. I really thought the CM Punk angle was one that they could’ve stretched out for months to crescendo into something really hot. Last night, he looked like a superstar, but he’d only been gone from TV for one week and the steam is already coming off.