Surprise! Anderson Silva's Manager wants Chael Sonnen to fight Demian Maia
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 9:04 PM EST
in News
5 comments
You can almost set your clock to Ed Soares coming out after a middleweight number one contender fight to say, "thanks, but maybe he should fight someone else first."
It happened after Dan Henderson beat Michael Bisping. It happened after Nate Marquardt beat Demian Maia. It happened after Vitor Belfort beat Rich Franklin. And now it has happened after Chael Sonnen beat Nate Marquardt.
Ed Soares told Joe Ferraro that Sonnen should fight Maia first:
"We are fine if this is what the UFC wants, but if you look at this logistically, Sonnen should fight Demian Maia first. Demian beat up easily, by submission, so why not make them fight first, to determine who gets a shot at the title?"
First of all, Dana White explicitly stated that this fight was for the right to fight the winner of Silva vs. Belfort. So, it doesn't matter what Soares thinks.
While it is true that Sonnen lost to Maia; Demian was knocked out by Marquardt who Sonnen just defeated. Maybe this concept is beyond Soares so we will break this down in soccer terms; it's like a round robin in the first round of the World Cup. Get it now?
The juxtaposition of this statement from Soares, after Sonnen's previous comments, including this statement, "it will be a verbal beating; Anderson Silva will be in tears" makes it extremely difficult to not view Silva's camp as picky.
If this trend continues from Silva maybe the guy should just move up in weight and wreak havoc on the light heavyweight division.
5 comments | 0 recs |
WKR Weekly Video Recap: UFC 109 Review
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 8:31 PM EST
in Weekly Video Recaps
6 comments
Wow, UFC 109 was a pretty exciting fight card. In case you missed any of the action coming out of the event WKR is here to provide you with our unique look back at UFC 109: Relentless. Or you can watch our preview episode first to then the review episode to laugh at our horrible predictions. Disclaimer: Foul language is used
WKR's Weekly Video Recaps and SBN coverage of UFC 109: Relentless
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Chael Sonnen: A Man of Many Words
by Zach Krantz on Feb 8, 2010 7:44 PM EST
in Analysis
2 comments
Despite being a heavy favorite and most people considered him the best middleweight in the UFC outside of Silva and Belfort the UFC was probably ecstatic that Nate Marquardt lost to Chael Sonnen. Chael Sonnen lacks great power, lacks strong submission skills, but if Anderson Silva beats Vitor Belfort the UFC will have reached euphoria. If you have been paying attention at all in the past few months you know why. Chael has made himself relevant due to the fact his mouth never closes and most of the time it is open he is sending verbal attacks toward Anderson Silva. Chael Sonnen will be the perfect heal in selling a championship fight against Anderson Silva.
I know MMA fans hate pro wrestling comparisons, but with both sports there are two ways to become popular: in the ring (cage) or on the mic and Chael has blossomed to the man on the mic. We as true fans should not be tricked by the magician on the microphone, but we are time and time again. When fighters hate each other and spend the pre fight interviews attacking each other it gets us revved up even more. Serra/Hughes, Trigg/Serra, Serra/Anyone, and we get excited, but in reality it does nothing to change what will happen in the cage. When the referee throws his hand down to start the fight we are presented with two athletes who ultimate goal is to physically dominate each other. If they like or hate each other we are going to see the same performance in the fight. It is the match-up and not the rhetoric that should sell a fight, but we all know that is not always the case. Do not get me wrong, Chael Sonnen is very good fighter, who has mastered an effective strategy, but I think a title fight against Silva is a bad match-up for him. Five rounds is long time for a fighter who does not finish fights against a fighter that finishes them. In three rounds of a beatdown, Chael still almost lost three times during the fight. Ten more minutes against a much better fighter is probably not a good match-up. Despite what he said, a fight against Vitor Belfort, who is not a strong finisher from the bottom, is a better match-up.
I digress though. Below I have provided the reason the UFC cannot wait for a Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva fight. Remember, these are not all of Chael's quotes in the past few months, but simply the comments about Anderson. This is all before he is even scheduled to fight Silva. We will definitely need to be listening if this fight develops. Enjoy the past and prepare for the future.
Quotes are pulled from MMA Weekly, Cage Writer, USA Today, Yahoo.
2 comments | 0 recs |
Melvin Guillard is Darth Vader
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 7:13 PM EST
in Off Topic
1 comment
Melvin Guillard goes to Team Jackson and comes out looking like Darth Vader--huh?
The above photo was taken backstage for UFC.com. The question WKR has to ask is whether the Vader mask is part of the apparel deal or if it is for intimidation. As the Dethrone shirt is entitled 'Aztec Mummy' WKR is going to guess that the mask is independent of the apparel, though we have seen Star Wars themed clothes at MMA events before.
Perhaps Melvin Guillard is just trying to break away from Simon Phoenix references (a photo comparison for those who don't watch horrible Sly Stone movies) and embrace a different science-fiction antagonist?
1 comment | 0 recs |
Jon Fitch: 'The Closed Guard is Dead'
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 6:47 PM EST
7 comments
Jon Fitch spoke to Fox Fight Game immediately after Chael Sonnen scored an upset victory over Nate Marquardt:
"Nate didn't execute a game plan very well. I think the closed guard is dead in MMA right now, unless you are Demian Maia or Shinya Aoki forget about it. You are either getting up or getting on top, forget about pulling of submissions from your back nowadays. Strong wrestlers like Chael Sonnen will just pound you out all day long."
While a lot of sites (including us) our picking up on the "closed guard is dead" part of Fitch's statement, it is important to note that Fitch provided a massive caveat--unless you are really good at Jiu-Jitsu, e.g., Maia and Aoki.
We could easily spin this story in the inverse; stating that "ground-and-pound is the end all of MMA." Well, ground-and-pound certainly works well when you have the strength of an Argonaut and the wrestling pedigree of an Olympic alternate.
Mixed martial arts is still in its infancy and is still evolving at a breakneck pace. But we shouldn't be so quick to blindly dismiss components of the sport.
7 comments | 0 recs |
Cage Cast 64: UFC 109 Recap
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 5:40 PM EST
0 comments
Cage Cast is here to recap UFC 109: Relentless.
You can download the episode here, subscribe to our RSS feed here and check us out on iTunes. The streaming version is below. Send feedback to watchkalibrun@gmail.com.
0 comments | 0 recs |
Bellator announced that Wilson Reis (9-1) will compete in the second season's featherweight tournament.
In Bellator's inaugural season Reis made the 145lbs. finals, where he lost to Joe Soto.
Only two featherweight fighters remain unknown for the tournament.
Photo via All Elbows
about 8 hours ago
Zak Woods
0 comments
0 recs
UFC 109 in Pictures
by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 1:48 PM EST
3 comments
UFC 109 is in the books but you can still enjoy these wonderful pictures from around the MMA-verse. WKR will update the post with more galleries as they go online.
FIGHT! Magazine, MMA Weekly, MMA Junkie weigh-in gallery, Combatlifestyles THQ party, Sherdog, MMA Fighting, UFC behind the scenes, and UFC.com.
SBN coverage of UFC 109: Relentless
Noticeable pictures after the jump.
3 comments | 0 recs |
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