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| DREAM 5 recap: Joachim Hansen steals the show to become 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix winner Posted: 21 Jul 2008 07:58 AM CDT
With most of the hype surrounding the Affliction pay-per-view (PPV) and the UFC event on Spike TV, it seemed like the DREAM card, which featured the conclusion of the lightweight grand prix, wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved. However, after watching all three events I’m not sure if the DREAM event wasn’t the best of the three. The tournament — to this point — had been highlighted by the fight of the year candidate in the quarterfinals between Eddie Alvarez and Joachim Hansen, as well as the submission mastery from Shinya Aoki. There were a lot of people who thought the winner of that great quarterfinal fight had a great chance to win the whole tournament even though Aoki was still maintaining his position as the favorite. What nobody expected was for an eliminated fighter to actually be the one who would be crowned the champion when everything was all said and done. Here’s how it played out. Aoki won his semifinal bout against journeyman Caol Uno by unanimous decision. He used a strong jiu-jitsu attack, throwing nearly every submission attempt in the book at Uno. To Uno’s credit, he defended everything nicely, but his lack of an offensive attack clearly led to his demise in the eyes of the judges. The other side of the bracket featured Eddie Alvarez against Tatsuya Kawajiri — a completely different style fight. Both of these guys like to bang … and bang they did. This was a back and forth all out war. Each fighter was pushed to his limit and both guys looked to be close to defeat more than once. But in the end it was Eddie Alvarez — the dark horse from Philadelphia — who landed the last flurry that ended the tournament for Kawajiri. It was just another crowd pleasing performance from Alvarez and it looked as though he’d be in the finals against Aoki. But his night took an unexpected turn and his tournament was brought to a disappointing end when a cut he sustained from one of the many Kawajiri punches swelled his eye almost completely shut, causing the doctor’s to force his withdrawal. What had started off as a great night of fights abruptly turned into a total feeling of disappointment. However, with Alvarez now out, there still had to be an opponent for Aoki in the final. The show had to go on. Strategic planning by the Japanese promotion had Joachim Hansen and Kultar Gill competing in an alternate match just in case. Hansen was able to weather an early storm from the “Black Mamba” and he locked up an armbar midway through the first round. After the win “Hellboy” found himself suddenly right back in position to win the tournament. Winning that title was not going to be easy though. He would have to avenge a first round submission loss to Aoki from a couple years ago in order to do so. Ever the opportunist, Hansen was not going to let a second chance to win this tournament go by. He made quick work of Aoki even after getting taken to the ground almost immediately after the opening bell. His strength and power proved to be a problem for the submission artist, as Hansen pounded him out for a technical knockout win just a little over four minutes into the match. Eddie Alvarez was one of the first guys in the ring to congratulate Hansen, and a the newly crowned champion respectfully announced his first defense would be against the Philadelphia native. Alvarez vs. Hansen II — sign me up for some of that! The rest of the card was littered with numerous quality submissions. Not allowing elbows to the face on the ground takes the submission game to a whole new level. I’m still not sold either way as far as the rules go, but I really enjoyed watching all the submissions tonight. Mark Hunt fell victim to one of those submissions in his return to the ring after nearly a two year absence. Alistair Overeem — who was fighting on three days notice — easily secured a shoulder lock less than two minutes into the fight. Hunt still has that massive power, but he clearly had some ring rust. Perhaps this win will mean Overeem will get the match against Mirko Cro Cop he’s been begging for the last couple of months. That would be an exciting fight to watch if Cro Cop is ever healthy enough to actually fight. Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Hideo Tokoro, Joseph Benevidez, Yoshihiro Akiyama and Daisuke Nakamura were all impressive in victories as well. Hironaka was coming off losing three of four in the UFC and Benevidez is a Urijah Faber trainee who moved his professional record to 8-0. All in all, I was impressed with the event tonight. Despite the disappointment of Alvarez being forced out of the finals, this was still a fun card to watch. I can’t even imagine how sick it would have been had Denis Kang, Nick Diaz, “Mach” Sakurai, “Kid” Yamamoto and Cro Cop all competed as originally planned. I think these events are only going to get better and better, starting with DREAM 6 which will feature the conclusion of the middleweight grand prix. Can’t wait! For DREAM 5 results and blow-by-blow coverage click here. |
| Posted: 20 Jul 2008 10:28 PM CDT
HDNet will air the event live beginning at 2 a.m. ET. MMAmania.com will provide up-to-the-minute results below for those who are unable to see the event live. Check in early and often right here to get your MMA fix. And feel free to leave as many comments as you like. Let’s get to it.
Lightweight Tournament Final Joachim Hansen defeats Shinya Aoki by TKO (strikes) with 5:43 remaining in Round 1 and wins the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix: Aoki was able to get the fight to the ground almost immediately after the opening bell, but the resilient Hansen, who was fighting with nothing to lose, kept battling. He was able to land some hard strikes from the bottom, and worked his way to the top position. From there he landed more punches that clearly took a toll on Aoki. It didn’t take many more of those shots from a guy with the power of Hansen to finish the fight, and the ref finally had to intervene. Joachim Hansen is the new DREAM Lightweight Champion. Lightweight Tournament Semifinals Eddie Alvarez defeats Tatsuya Kawajiri by TKO (strikes) with 2:27 left in Round 1: This was a great fight! Alvarez started off a little slow, but got better the more he got hit. What looked like a technical chess match early on, quickly turned into an all out slugfest with both guys getting floored at different times. It seems like when Alvarez gets stunned or hurt in a fight, he just decides to throw caution to the wind, and it always seems to turn the momentum in his favor. He won the exchanges with his speed and finished the fight with his power. He took some damage, but I think he’ll be in good shape for the finals. Aoki will be a stiff test for him though. Alvarez has faced all strikers in this tournament so far. Aoki is going to be a drastic change of styles. Should be interesting. Shinya Aoki defeats Caol Uno by unanimous decision: Aoki, without a doubt, has one of the most aggressive submission games in mixed martial arts. Uno did a very good job of defending, but that’s pretty much what the entire fight consisted of…Aoki attempting submissions and Uno defending them. We’ll see later on in the finals how important not finishing this fight was, as far as cardio goes, but he was impressive nonetheless. I don’t know if there’s a submission attempt in the Brazilian jiu jitsu handbook that he didn’t throw at Uno in this fight. Solid victory for the favorite to win this tournament. Lightweight Tournament Reserve Bout Joachim Hansen vs. Kultar Gill by submission (armbar) with 7:27 seconds remaining in Round 1: This tournament reserve fight looks like it’ll be just a formality. Both Aoki and Alvarez look like they’ll be able to compete in the finals. But this is a good win over a tough opponent anyway for “Hellboy.” Gill looked decent early on with some crisp striking, but the crafty Hansen found the armbar in the first round and secured another win. UPDATE: Wow! In a heartbreaking, and equally shocking turn of events, it has just been announced that Eddie Alvarez will not be able to compete in the final against Aoki. Apparently a cut he sustained in his semi-final bout with Kawajiri has caused his eye to swell shut, and it’s too much of a concern for the officials to allow him to fight again tonight. So disappointing! Hansen is a worthy opponent for Aoki, but Alvarez earned this fight, and it’s an absolute shame he won’t be able to finish up what has been a great tournament for him. Non-Tournament Bouts Alistair Overeem defeats Mark Hunt by submission (shoulder lock) with 8:47 remaining in Round 1: Hunt came out throwing some powerful blows and when Overeem went for the clinch, Hunt easily threw him to the mat. That turned out to be a bad decision though. Overeem was able to capitalize from his back, and locked up a shoulder lock that forced Hunt to tap. Very nice win for Overeem, who took this fight on three days notice. Impressive. Yoshihiro Akiyama defeats Katsuyori Shibata by submission (choke) with 3:28 left in Round 1: The Japanese professional wrestler, Shibata was a huge underdog, but put up a solid fight early on before getting choked out by the talented Akiyama midway through the first round. Akiyama wore a Gi, and used it to secure the choke that put Shibata to sleep from the mounted position. Hideo Tokoro defeats Takeshi Yamazaki by unanimous decision: Tokoro was the more effective striker in this fight and went for more submissions than Yamazaki. He was, however, given a yellow card after two apparent low blows in the first round, but that didn’t make a difference in the final decision. They each had their moments. Both guys stayed pretty active, but Tokoro was more aggressive early on and always seemed to have an answer to Yamazaki’s attacks, which was more than likely the determining factor in the eyes of the judges. Pretty close fight though. Kuniyoshi Hironaka defeats Motoki Miyazawa by TKO (cut) with 59 seconds remaining in Round 1: Coming off losing three out of four fights in the UFC, Hironaka got back into the win column in his first fight back in front of the Japanese faithful. It was no cake walk though. He had to hold off a scrappy Motoki Miyazawa. It was close early, but Hironaka seemed to get better as the fight wore on. It got pretty bloody late in the first round. Miyazawa had a nasty gash above his eye that ultimately caused the officials to stop the bout with just under a minute remaining. Good win for Hironaka. Joseph Benavidez defeats Junyo Kudo by submission (guillotine) with 7:18 remaining in Round 1: With WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber in his corner, Benavidez stayed undefeated, going to 8-0. He slammed Kudo hard early in the fight and worked his way into a position to secure a very tight guillotine choke. It was a solid performance, and this kid looks like a dynamite prospect for DREAM. We’ll see him again for sure. Daisuke Nakamura defeats Andy Ologun by submission (armbar) with 3:39 left in Round 1: The K-1 veteran, Ologun looked to be building some confidence with his striking early on, but Nakamura showed him the MMA game is more than just striking as he caught him with a slick armbar immediately after pulling guard at 3:39 of the first round. Nice way to kick off the event. They’re going to go right into the semi-finals now. Aoki and Uno are up first. In addition, MMAmania.com will provide a quick recap of the action once all the results are in. Enjoy. |
| Cain Velasquez talks Jake O’Brien UFC fight (Video) Posted: 20 Jul 2008 10:04 PM CDT He also provides background on the “Brown Pride” tattoo across his chest: Note that this was conducted by his training partner, Josh Koscheck, just days before Cain stepped inside the Octagon. |
| MMA Quick Quote: Is Fedor next fight against Randy Couture? Posted: 20 Jul 2008 09:31 PM CDT
– WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko provides some post-fight comments after his 36-second destruction of former UFC champion Tim Sylvia at Affliction: “Banned” on July 19. The match up with Randy Couture has been beat to death ever since “The Natural” relinquished his UFC title last year to pursue a fight with the Russian Sambo specialist. That talk will likely now heat up again — Couture was in the ring after the main event fight and the two fighters were interviewed on camera. Couture is prohibited from fighting in any other promotion until his legal situation with Zuffa is resolved. However, we should get some further clarification on that matter before the month is out. |
| Anthony Johnson responds to Kevin Burns eye poke at UFC Fight Night 14 Posted: 20 Jul 2008 09:05 PM CDT
Props: Yahoo!Sports.com Quoteworthy:
Anthony Johnson talks about the technical knockout loss to Kevin Burns at UFC Fight Night 14 last night. “Rumble” received an accidental finger in the eye in the third round, which caused him to crash to the floor in agony. The referee thought he was dropped because of an uppercut (which grazed him) and waived off the fight. It was controversial; however, the officials don’t have the benefit of instant replay. And Johnson’s reaction to the eye poke made it appear that he was hurt with a punch and not a finger. Regardless, both fighters were classy after the bout. Perhaps we will see a rematch down the road sometime soon. |
| Dana White: ‘It’s going to be awhile before we get [Rampage] back’ (Audio) Posted: 20 Jul 2008 08:43 PM CDT |
| DREAM 5 lightweight grand prix tournament concludes tonight on HDNet Posted: 20 Jul 2008 06:53 PM CDT
Believe it or not but the mixed martial arts action this weekend continues. The conclusion of the lightweight grand prix tournament for the Japanese mixed martial arts promotion, DREAM, is set to take place late tonight. The action will air live from the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan, on HDNet beginning at 2 a.m. ET. The 16-man tournament has now been played down to the final four. The semi-finals and final will both take place tonight and a champion will finally be crowned. Creative submissions whiz, Shinya Aoki, will meet journeyman, Caol Uno, in one half of the semi-finals. Aoki has been super impressive so far in this tournament with his submission game. He is the clear favorite to take the title tonight. The other side of the bracket has a different feel to it with two fighters who love to bang. The winner from this side certainly can’t be over looked to win this thing either. Philadelphia native, Eddie Alvarez, is the lone American representative remaining. He’ll take on Tatsuya Kawajiri in what looks to have the makings of a classic slugfest. If it’s anything close to the quarterfinal fight between Alvarez and Joachim Hansen, we’re in for a treat. Speaking of Hansen, he’ll face Kultar Gill in the tournament reserve bout, which basically means if any of the semi-finalists get hurt or are unable to continue, the winner here will take their place in the final. Hopefully, this fight is just a formality, as well as a showcase fight for Hansen. Besides the tournament champion being decided tonight, there will be at least four other fights on the card, including Mark Hunt’s return to action for the first time since 2006. He’ll take on Alistair Overeem in a heavyweight affair. At one point this card was looking stacked. However, Mirko Cro Cop had to withdraw because of an injury and so did “Kid” Yamamoto. The Nick Diaz vs Hayato “Mach” Sakurai welterweight title fight was also pushed back because of scheduling errors. If those guys could have remained on the card, this had the potential to be a great event. But there’s nothing like the final night of a Japanese grand prix tournament, making this event still something to be excited about. The conclusion of that alone is more than worth watching. MMAmania.com will be up into the wee hours of the night, providing live updates for those who can’t watch the event live. Check in early and often right here for all your DREAM 5 coverage. |
| Affliction Banned post-fight recap and final thoughts Posted: 20 Jul 2008 01:15 PM CDT
There’s quite a bit to discuss since it was the first-ever show for the clothing company turned mixed martial arts promotion and several of the top heavyweights in the world were booked to compete. Let’s start with the bad or “low lights” of the production. And I mean that quite literally. It was a dark atmosphere for most of the evening. At times it seemed like the fights were taking place within a smoky saloon on the outskirts of a far-off town. In addition, the camera angles seemed distant. And because the ring was absolutely MASSIVE it was hard to feel a part of the action. The audio was low and it was sometimes hard to hear the announcing team, which was good but not great. Jay Glazer didn’t do a horrible job; however, he doesn’t have that pop in his delivery like a Mike Goldberg or Mauro Ranallo — the kind of pop that gets you excited for a fight even if it’s a sleeper. Ring announcer Michael Buffer was great as usual. In-ring post-fight interviewer and color commentator, Big “John” McCarthy, was serviceable. The ring entrances and filler video need some work. Megadeth was cool to open the show, but after that it just gave me more time to use the restroom or flip over and see what was going on over at Spike TV. Most if not all fans would rather see fights (not all of them made the broadcast) instead of an aging heavy metal band. Overall, it was an average showing in regard to production. Not bad for a “T-shirt” guy and his crew putting on their debut show. But flipping back-and-forth between pay-per-view (PPV) and Spike TV showed that the differences are night and day. Now it’s time for the good.
I was nearly asleep until Josh Barnett woke everybody up with that sensational stoppage of Pedro Rizzo. It looked like it was going to be a technical battle with neither fighter really laying it all on the line. Then, “The Baby Face Assassin” exploded with a left hook that dropped the Brazilian. Barnett charged in to finish him off, but the damage was done. “The Rock” was out cold, like, well, a rock. Andrei Arlovski and Ben Rothwell followed quickly thereafter and continued to maintain the energy that Barnett and Rizzo unleashed. Arlovski — who has been training with boxing training savant, Freddy Roach — looked sharp and powerful throughout the fight. Rothwell hung in there and did land some nice shots. But rather than retreating and circling (he had so much room with which to work if he wanted) like Arlovski has done in his recent past when he meets resistance, he instead fired back and beat up the Miletich product. “The Pitbull” appears to be back and ferocious one again — that combination to end the bout in the third round was brutal. Watch out.
And then there was the main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia. The Russian came out guns blazing as if his intentions were to silence the critics — UFC President Dana White chief among them — as soon as possible. And he did just that, taking a page out of Randy Couture’s playbook and storming the giant with a barrage of well-placed haymakers that found there mark. Sylvia dropped and the wily Sambo specialist pounced, sinking in a rear naked choke and winning the inaugural WAMMA heavyweight strap. Fedor made it look easy … something he has been doing his entire career. He doesn’t even seem to put any effort into his expressions or behavior. He’s pretty much even-keeled regardless of the situation, whether it’s fighting former champions or feeding some white ducks.
He’s the man. And hopefully a fight with Barnett is on the horizon. Randy Couture was brought in the ring after the win likely to hype up a match between the two legends. But this writer has little to no interest seeing that match up before a Fedor-Barnett showdown. That’s a fight that should have happened several years ago. And one that should happen sooner rather than later. Congratulations to Vitor Belfort for his knockout win over Terry Martin. The former UFC champion looked fantastic at 185 pounds. It took him a little while to get going, but when he did he did it right. That was a great fight-ending finish. It’s too bad Martin’s chin got abused again … he demonstrated some much improved boxing technique. And nice job by Mark Hominick submitting a very tough Savant Young. I didn’t see that one coming — I didn’t expect him to win much less pull off a submission. Even though there were a handful of good fights, it was clearly the “Big Three” that saved this show — Barnett, Arlovski and Fedor. Any promotion would be thrilled to have the trio as its cornerstones. And it would behoove Affliction to market the hell out of them for the next show. I’d buy it … again. To check out Affliction “Banned” results and blow-by-blow coverage click here. |
| UFC Fight Night 14 post fight recap and final thoughts Posted: 20 Jul 2008 10:57 AM CDT
Anderson Silva, making his light heavyweight debut, took just over a minute to dismantle James “The Sandman” Irvin. “The Spider” landed a perfectly placed overhand right to counter a kick by Irvin. Irvin was dropped immediately and had no chance to recover against a finisher the caliber of the Brazilian. If there were any doubts before on whether he was too small for light heavyweight, those have been put to rest. Silva looked huge at 205 pounds. And Irvin was supposed to be the bigger and stronger guy, but that wasn’t the case. It was clear Silva was bigger right from the opening stare down. One of the other main concerns coming into this fight for Silva was if he would be slower at the heavier weight. From what I saw, if anything, he was faster. James Irvin isn’t the best fighter in the world by any means, but he’s a very tough guy that hits hard and strikes fast. Silva beat him to every punch and just completely dominated him. That kind of size and speed is so scary. There’s no doubt in my mind that this guy could hold any belt he wanted to.
He continues to impress every time out, and in my opinion, he is the best fighter pound for pound on the planet. Fedor Emelianenko was more than impressive tonight as well, but Anderson Silva’s name belongs right there next to his. They’re the two best fighters in the world and there isn’t much doubt about it. For me, Fedor vs. The Spider will be taking over as the fight I’d like to see most … even though that probably won’t ever happen. I can’t even call them number one and number two. Calling either of these guys number two would be an insult. Brandon Vera also made his debut at light heavyweight. He was expected to walk right through Reese Andy, but the IFL veteran proved to be formidable. He took a lot of punishment from Vera and kept coming forward. By the third round both guys were gassed. Maybe it had something to do with the weight cut for Vera, but he came in weighing under the 205 limit and looked like he was in great shape. I think it was just a tougher fight than he expected. Light heavyweight is a great weight class for him. Despite not getting the finish, I was still impressed. His Muay Thai was crisp throughout the fight. He tied Andy up multiple times with that clinch and landed numerous damaging knees. He also landed some nasty body kicks — a couple of which put Andy on the mat. He didn’t get the knockout, but he got the win. And there are some very intriguing match ups out there for him at 205 pounds. Frankie Edgar got back to business after losing to Gray Maynard a few months ago. He took Hermes Franca down time and time again and controlled most of the fight en route to earning a unanimous decision. His gameplan was identical to the one he used against Spencer Fisher in victory. Frank Edgar is a top lightweight in the UFC. What that says about Gray Maynard, I don’t know, but Frank Edgar can scrap with anybody. CB Dollaway slapped what Joe Rogan referred to as a “Peruvian Necktie” on Jesse Taylor in the first round of their fight. I’m sure it will win submission of the night (it did). It was nasty and came out of nowhere when it seemed like Jesse had a good position. CB needed to prove he was at least the second best fighter to come from this season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” and I think he did that. The welterweight match between Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Kevin Burns ended with some controversy. Near the end of the back and forth war, Johnson took a nasty finger to the eye. It looked at first like Burns connected on a big uppercut that knocked Johnson out, but replays showed the eye rake, and the whiff on the follow up uppercut. In all fairness to Burns — because he fought great — Anthony Johnson was robbed. In the last main card fight, Cain Velesquez made short work of Jake O’Brien. He trapped his arms and landed numerous unanswered strikes. Once the ref knew O’Brien had no chance to get out, he had to stop the fight. He remains undefeated (4-0) now with two wins in the UFC. O’Brien was known as one of the tougher heavyweights after beating Heath Herring last year, but this is two losses in a row for him. He’ll need to step up his game to keep his job in the UFC. All in all this was a solid event for the UFC, capped off by another legendary performance from Anderson Silva. They put this card together on short notice, and I didn’t mind missing the Affliction card for it. Of course, I was able to catch the Affliction main event right after the UFC and am on my way to watch the rest right after I submit this. Plus DREAM 5 tomorrow night. What a weekend. |
| UFC Fight Night bonuses and awards for ‘Silva vs Irvin’ Posted: 20 Jul 2008 10:36 AM CDT
UFC Fight Night 14: "Silva vs. Irvin" at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 19 is in the books. And on a night when some of the biggest — literally and figuratively — fighters in the sport were in action just up the dial, the participants on the Spike TV card held their own. Especially Rory Markham. The gritty International Fight League (IFL) and mixed martial arts veteran — who was making his Octagon debut — had a SCARY knockout via head kick over Brodie Farber in round one of their welterweight tilt. Hopefully, Farber is fine. We know Markham is — he’s $25,000 richer because he scored the “Knockout of the Night.” It’s well deserved. Here are the special fight bonuses for “Silva vs Irvin:”
Each fighter received $25,000 for their efforts in addition to their respective base salaries, which we will pass along as soon as humanly possible. It's good to see Franca earn some extra scratch even in defeat. He’s a good guy and a talented fighter. And that 12-month suspension must have hit him hard in the wallet. Hope to see him back in action real soon … Edgar, too. For complete UFC Fight Night 14 results and blow-by-blow coverage of the main card action click here. |
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