WEC: Varner Vs. Henderson Fight Picks
This is my official first card of the year in my totals.
-Jamie Varner (16-2) vs. Ben Henderson (10-1) Varner TKO 3
-Urijah Faber (22-3) vs. Raphael Assuncao (14-1) Faber Decision
-Mike Brown (22-5) vs. Anthony Morrison (10-7) Brown Submission 1
-Dave Jansen (14-0) vs. Kamal Shalorus (5-0-1) Jansen Submission 2
-Mackens Semerzier (5-0) vs. Deividas Taurosevicius (11-3) Semerzier Decision
Preliminary Bouts:
-Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2; \) vs. Charlie Valencia (11-5) Tamura Decision
-Wagnney Fabiano (12-2) vs. Clint Godfrey (11-1) Fabiano Submission 1
-Mark Hominick (16-9) vs. Brian Caraway (14-3) Hominick Decision
-George Roop (10-5) vs. Eddie Wineland (15-6-1) Roop Decision
-Will Campuzano (6-1) vs. Coty Wheeler (10-2) Campuzano Decision
Enjoy the fights, Keep the Hands Up!
John M Petit
Featured Writer/UnfilteredMMA
Jamie Varner & Knockout Representation Announce Give Away!
WEC Light Weight Champion Jamie Varner and his Management Team: KOreps.com (Knock out Representation) have just let me know they are announcing a HUGE give away.
Prizes will include:
Autograph Jamie Varner pictures
Autographed Varner signature Throwdown shirt
and other gear from KOreps sponsors.
To enter fans must ADD and SEND out a tweet mentioning:
@jamievarner
@ko_reps
@throwdownind
You will be entered to win, and they will announce the winners on Friday!
Show some support for Jamie “C-4″ Varner!
C-4 and Ben Henderson square off for the Unified WEC Lightweight Strap at WEC: 46 Varner vs Henderson.
I’m pulling for Jamie on this one folks…LETS GO C-4!
Keep the hands up!
John M Petit
Rashad Evans Survives Against Silva; Paul Daley teaches Hazelett and kids why you shouldn’t play with plastic explosives.
Tracy-Lee Combatlifestyle.com
On a day where Rashad Evans recieved his black belt in BJJ from Rolles Gracie he manages to out point Thiago Silva. Evans clearly controlled the first two rounds by making Thiago miss, and getting repeated take downs. In the third round, knowing he was down on points, it seemed like Silva was much more interested in mocking Evans’ ability to escape his punches. Thiago finally landed his hay maker, but failed to capitalize on it. Someone needs to tell Thiago: Just because you can end a fight with one punch doesn’t mean you should only throw one at a time. Silva won the fight 29-28 on all scorecards.
Paul Daley won his second knockout of the night bonus by mollywhoping Hazelett midway through the first round. Dustin was trying to close the distance when Paul showed the whole world why they call him Semtex.
Cole Miller won Submission of the night with a kimura transitioning from an inverted triangle choke.
Joe Lauzon and Sam Stout received fight of the night honors. Sam Stout out pointed Joe all three rounds. One judge even gave Sam a 10-8round.
Main Card:
Rashad Evans defeats Thiago Silva by unanimous decision
Paul Daley defeats Dustin Hazelett by KO in Rd1
Sam Stout defeats Joe Lauzon by unanimous decision
Jim Miller defeats Duane Ludwig by submission (armbar) in Rd1
Junior Dos Santos defeats Gilbert Yvel by TKO in Rd1
Prelims (Spike TV):
Martin Kampmann defeats Jacob Volkmann by submission (guillotine) in Rd1
Cole Miller defeats Dan Lauzon by submission (Kimura From Reverse Triangle) in Rd1
Undercard:
Mark Munoz defeats Ryan Jensen by submission (strikes) in Rd1
Jake Ellenberger defeats Mike Pyle by TKO in Rd2
Rafaello Oliveira defeats John Gunderson by unanimous decision
UFC 108; ShowMeMMA!
UFC 108 Quick Picks:
Rashad Evans (No. 4 LHW) vs. Thiago Silva (No. 8 LHW)
Thiago isn’t afraid to let the hands fly, and I see Sugar capitalizing on this. Rashad, although it didn’t look like it against Machida, is a fantastic counter puncher (just ask the Iceman.) I see our main event heading to the Judges card with Evans getting the unanimous verdict.
Paul Daley (No. 8 WW) vs. Dustin Hazelett
Round 2 sub for Hazelett. Paul Daley, after failing to make weight, will have his hands full with Dustin in the octagon. I see McLovin being a little cautious at first, but taking down Semtex and sinking in the sub. Dustin has fantastic BJJ, and you can tell his hard work at Team Gurgel is paying off.
Joe Lauzon vs. Sam Stout
It seems Stout is always fighting for his UFC career. He is only on this main card because of the injuries. Joe is going to use his experience and control Sam most of the fight. I think it will be competitive, but I dont see it going Sam’s way. Joe Lauzan takes this one by decision.
Jim Miller Sub 1. No secret Ludwig has no interest in the ground game. Miller will put him on the mat, and sub him.
Junior dos Santos (No. 8 HW) vs. Gilbert Yvel
I was 30 feet away from when Fedor dropped Brett Rogers, and it sounded like a car door slammed. I was 50 feet away from when Junior when he clipped Verdumm and dropped him like a bag of rocks. SCARY POWER! Yvel wants to come in and bang, but I see Junior parading his BJJ skills that the UFC has yet to see. I see Cigano taking down Yvel, and submitting him. People forget where Junior trains.
Martin Kampmann (No. 9 WW) vs. Jacob Volkmann
Kampman Decision. Kampman is way too Octagon savvy to get hurt by Volkman. I see him taking him it to Volkman, and I see Jacob scoring a few take downs. However I don’t see Volkman keeping up with Martin Kampman.
I have Cole Miller. Dan Lauzon is a young fighter, and will be around for a while. However he is not ready for the UFC competition yet. He has along time to progress, and we will see him in the UFC for ages.
I will be scoring and compiling all my picks after ufc 108 for the year 2010-so we can tell exactly how good/bad I am.
Keep the Hands up!
John M Petit
Featured writer for unfilteredmma.com
The Aoki Aftermath. Dynamite!! 2009
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, You don’t spit into the wind, You don’t pull the mask off the Ole’ Lone Ranger, and you don’t mock Shinya Aoki’s Jiu-Jitsu!
There was a lot of talk on how Unsportsmanlike Shinya Aoki was after his fight against Mizuto Hirota. Aoki Quickly took Hirota down to the canvas and mounted him all while securing his arm behind his back. After peppering him with some punches Aoki secured his arm in what seemed to be a reverse Hammerlock. Hirota was done for, but for some reason didn’t tap. Aoki rolled, and the whole arena could visibly see Hirota’s arm break.
I have to admit that it did seem pretty brutal. However, I do not blame Aoki for this. Hirota had plenty of time to tap, and the referee should have seen Hirota had no way out. Guest host Jason Miller said it best. “These are the risks of fighting. We are not Ballerinas.”
The big story after the fight was Aoki’s reaction. After stepping away, Aoki ran towards the now writhing Hirota, and gave him the finger. He then ran around the ring flipping off the crowd that booed him only two minutes and seventeen seconds before. This made a seemingly brutal situation worse.
Everyone felt disrepsected after this fight!
I was chatting with friends in japan who were at the press conference the day before. When I expressed some disdain for Aoki they quickly translated some of the text from Hirota’s interviews.
Hirota: I want to pummel him
Q: How badly will you pummel him?
Hirota: I want to say all the way to his parent’s house. But that’s actually not that far away. I want to pummel him badly, so badly that he can’t fight anymore (laughter).
Q: Concern for his Jiu-Jitsu?
Hirota: (more laughter) No.
I certainly didn’t want to see Hirota get injured, but I can see how Aoki could be offended with his comments. This was a champ vs champ fight, and everyone knows how seriously Aoki takes his Jiu-Jitsu. Add in the fact 45,606 people were booing him only minutes before, and we have ourselves a recipe for destruction. An understandably fired up Shinya Aoki!
There is a feeling that comes over me when trash talkers get molested like this. It reminds of when a dazed Rashad Evans was jawing at Machida just seconds before “the Dragon” put him on queer street. It also reminds of when Cole Miller, sank in the guillotine choke on Junie Browning, forced him to tap, and threw his black belt at him when he was still down and recovering. If Cole Miller did that unprovoked I would be railing against him.
For the record, Aoki has sense apologized for his actions after the fight to the fans and to Hirota, but had little remorse about how the fight ended. He had this to say of the submission: “Let’s name it ‘Keichi Sasahara 2010.’ Because my boss told me to take him out, so I went and did just that, and that’s why I figure I should name it after him.” Keichi Sasahara is the Event Promoter for Dream.
Keep the hands up,
John M Petit
Featured Writer for Unfilteredmma.com
WEC STRIKEFORCE PICKS!
WEC
Matchups:
Donald Cerrone vs. Ed Ratcliff Cerrone Sub 2
Anthony Njokuani vs. Chris Horodecki Njokuani tko 2
Joseph Benavidez (No. 6 BW) vs. Rani Yahya (No. 9 BW)
Takeya Mizugaki (No. 4 BW) vs. Scott Jorgensen Mizugake Dec
Anthony Pettis vs. Bart Palaszewski Pettis tko 3
Muhsin Corbbrey vs. Zachary Micklewright Corbbrey sub 2
Chad George vs. John Hosman George sub 2
Courtney Buck vs. Brandon Visher visher tko 1
Brad Pickett vs. Kyle Dietz Picket sub2
Jameel Massouh vs. Erik Koch Massouh sub 1
Strikeforce
Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez thompson ud
Scott Smith vs. Cung Le Le tko 3
Matt Lindland vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza Jacare 2nd round sub
Muhammed Lawal vs. Mike Whitehead Lawal Decision
Antwain Britt vs. Scott Lighty Brit Decision
Daisuke Nakamura vs. Justin Wilcox Nakamura Submission Rnd 1
The Only One With Nightmares is Diego Sanchez
Photo By Dave Mendel from Sherdog.com
So after BJ licked Diego’s blood off of him, and we did some NO! cartwheels outside, I really had a chance to reflect on how well The Prodigy performed last night. The stats say it all. BJ landed 149 strikes in the four plus round fight. Diego landed EIGHT!
The Stats:
Penn total strikes landed – 150
Sanchez total strikes landed – 8
Penn strikes landed to the head – 137
Sanchez strikes landed to the head – 7
Sanchez – #Take down attempts – 27
Sanchez – #Take down attempts Landed – 0
Remember those punching bags you would get as a kid. It had a round bottom and it was weighted to pop back up? That would have had more offense then Diego Sanchez had last night. I can not imagine what his plan was. Did he really think he would be able to pull BJ to the ground whenever he wanted? GSP could barely take BJ down like that. Diego thinks he was better then he really is in his head. I think he just learned that.
Im not taking anything away from Diego. He fought with ton of heart, and even though he looked like he got hit with the broad side of a two-by-six, he had a few things to be proud of. He has now been in championship rounds with a legend, and he knows the jump up in ability he now has to make. Lets not forget he also showed everyone he has a set of balls the size of two mack trucks. When you are dumb you gotta be tough.
Here is what Dana had to say on Nightmare’s condition at the post fight presser”
“In 10 years of being in this business, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody more busted up than Diego is right now. His whole lip is split open in half, in two different places. When I say split open, it’s torn down to this stuff down here (indicating a point on his chin). His forehead is as open as [Marvin Eastman] the kid that Vitor Belfort kneed [at UFC 43]. They pulled that thing wide open. I think his nose is broken. I don’t even know how Diego kept coming forward. He’s a tough kid, man. I’m almost positive his nose was broken by the third round. “
I hope people will stop questioning Penn’s focus and conditioning. He looked to be in fantastic shape, and he took no damage. i bet if the offer is right, we could see BJ Penn back in the cage FAST! Especially in the climate of questionable main events.
Congratulations to BJ on a great performance!
Keep the hands up!
-John
BJ prefers his fights bloody as hell/Rare
Karo Speaks; My Reaction To Karo’s Recent Interview
Karo Speaks-photo from www.combatlifestyle.com by Tracy Lee
I was furious when Karo pulled out of his bout with Dustin Hazelett. He was one of those fighters I really admired, and he tumbled really far after the suspension for testing positive for a banned substance. He finally took an interview with Josh Gross on his podcast Gross Point Blank ( http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/podcasts/josh_gross/ ) to explain himself. I encourage you to not only listen to this podcast, but all of his. They are top shelf.
Karo seemed to have a sense of entitlement to me. As though the MMA world is suppose to hand him another opportunity to prove himself. Part of me wanted to jump on here to blog, and rail Karo for being such an asshole. Guys spend years to get one of the few positions (when you think about it) the UFC has in any weight division. Here Karo was floundering in one those positions, and repeatedly disrespecting the sport in general.
Karo did eventually say something I hope he sticks to. He said “im going to shut up until my next fight.” His plan is to get healthy and fight as soon as possible.
I hope Karo does get healthy. His uchimattas will be missed in the octagon. However, I do not hope Karo comes back anytime soon. He has REAL issues that require REAL medical attention and care. I hope he figures out away to focus on him for a long while, gets healthy, and gets back in the gym. I think if Karo rushes this it will be a huge career ending mistake. Karo needs a little “Me” time.
Some of Karo’s friends say its an issue with pain pills (Randy Couture for one.) Karo says its an anxiety issue. None of these problems can be treated over night. There is no quick fix to either of those. I hope he has learned he can not handle this one by himself. It is larger than him right now. Karo needs to find away to get into some sort of program for either of these issues, and I was encouraged to here he would be seeking treatment soon. I really hope he does, and I really hope he takes it seriously. Karo has the heart of a lion, and I hope it comes out to deal with his problems. I just feel it could be a disaster if he comes back to soon. I think Karo should focus on his school, and developing other fighters while he sorts himself out. I am also pretty sure he can depend on the MMA community which always seems to rally behind people who are in Karo’s position.
Westwall comes clean on Connection to Hoelzer Reich
www.hr4life.com
The Hoelzer Reich Clothing witch hunt seems to be coming to a screeching halt. Every day that goes by the weaker and weaker the case against them gets. Lets face it, it was paper thin to begin with.
We are talking about a company who is doing the exact opposite of what a company would do, if they were for the causes a few MMA fans think they are. We have a company who is responding to the complaints that some people were offended by some images. They have taken your voice into consideration, and have changed them.
It seems the smoking gun in this whole issue was the connection with them and a Metal band named Westwall.
I’m going to let this unedited statement speak for itself since all the dot connecting has proven to be just a few people making gigantic leaps. I have verified this quote with a representative from the group Westwall:
” Westwall is a non-political band that deals with topics about history and plays what we call a form of “War Metal”. Westwall does not discriminate against anyone. We welcome any and all to our shows and have had many people of different backgrounds come to our shows and have a good time. True, one of the members played in a “controversial” band at one time very many years ago. However, that was in the past. Unlike some popular musicians today that have criminal records and have been involved in murders and drugs over the years, these same people also have some really controversial lyrics in their past music. Yet they are treated as “groundbreakers” and heroes of today. You can see them in Hollywood movies, commercials, in every magazine. And I also want to mention another musician that slept with children in his bed. This individuals name is treated as if he was a “messiah”. I feel this is a catch 22. I support “freedom of speech” for all of these aforementioned musicians, even if I find their lyrics deplorable. Yet, we are treated as the “boogeymen”? As to the flak that Hoelzer Reich has been catching over our band. The fine people at Hoelzer Reich heard our music, enjoyed it and sent us a free box of shirts. We in turn wore them for a photo shoot and sent them the pictures. Nothing more, nothing less!!!They did not send us any money to wear these shirts, they have nothing to do with our band and have nothing to do with the concerts/shows we play. All they know/knew of us is what they had heard on the Westwall cds. And I can’t blame them for enjoying this kick-ass band!! And you are more than welcome to look up the lyrics of Westwall and form your own opinion, also please look at our artwork. Do you see anything to merit the slander we are getting? Do you see anything offensive at all?
In closing, it is such a shame that Internet commandos (or shall I call them internet nazis?) are acting like a bunch of whimsy woo-woos. They should stop chasing ghosts, and try to actually do something productive with their lives.”
The verdict seems to be back on this one MMA fans. This was all much ado about nothing. We have the same company we had 2 weeks ago. A company trying to support the sport we love: Mixed Martial Arts. I hope the misappropriated noise on this issue will be just as loud now that we are getting to the bottom of this ridiculous inquisition.
Keep the hands up
John
Hoelzer Reich and Mixed Martial Arts.
When people push the boundaries, of what is considered the status quot, they expect to be challenged on such things. This is something EVERYONE who has been into MMA has had to deal with for a long time. Up until recently, when I described a UFC event to someone, it was either met with a wrestling reference or it was met with that look of horror-as if someone died every match. MMA was the opposite of mainstream. People branded it with every barbaric term they could think of. The beautiful part to me, beside the art of the fight of course, was the MMA fans ability to look past the bullshit and give it a chance. It bonded us all. We didn’t just see two guys surrounded by chain link trying to brain the other guy. We were willing to look past the blood, past the tattoos, past the origins of a fighter to enjoy THE best sport on the planet. Mixed Martial Arts.
A number of fans have come forward with a complaint about a company named Hoelzer Reich. People from MMA forums all over the web have been hurling slurs and slandering this company. Associating them with the Nazi’s, and other white power groups.
Hoelzer Reich didn’t choose the cookie cutter path of branding a company. They weren’t targeting cheerleaders, soccer players, or gardeners. They were targeting a certain type of subculture. Pigeon holing the subculture they were focusing on, to just MMA, isn’t giving the Hoelzer Reich the credit they deserve. Of course MMA was part of it, but it wasn’t the only focus.
Like the Heavy Metal culture, the MMA community is represented by all sorts of “outside of the box” symbols and marketing. These companies and bands brand themselves with violent images meant to capture your attention. Companies even went out of their way to embrace the violence. Companies like “kill It” and Hitman come to mind.
TapouT is no exception either. Mask(RIP), Punkass, and Scrape went out of their way to grab the eyes of the MMA world. They used images of skulls, blood smears, skeletons of angels, pit bulls, tattered and burned US flags. When they finally became successful other companies entered the market. Its how business works. Someone creates a need, and others come in to help fill the gap.
The idea, as you look at the way MMA marketing/branding has been going, is to keep pushing envelope. This happened in the imagery of Metal music as well. One guy uses a skull, and the next guy uses two skulls. Not only the imagery but the lyrics and style of metal. First it was just distort the guitars and then it was distort the guitars, but play faster. Then it was play even faster with EVEN MORE distorted guitars. Then they distorted the vocals. One after the other they all pushed the envelope. It happens in rap music too. One rapper sells drugs on the corner, and the next guy has a drug cartel, but the next rapper owns a fortune 1000 company just as a front for his drug cartel. I think you get the point.
Hoelzer Reich is just like any other MMA company out there. They KNOW they chose subversive imagery. That was part of the point. With the nature of marketing and branding of MMA it doesn’t make sense for them to make t shirts with rose gardens and scenes from vineyards on them.
Mixed Martial Arts fans; I respectfully ask you to consider the possibility of error.
Part of the reason the imagery for Hoelzer Reich was chosen is attached to the family of one of the owners. He is German. A lot of people have been saying they are not only using the imagery of mid 20th century Germany, but they believe the same things as the people did back in Mid 20th century Germany. This is a gigantic leap!
I’ve seen Kamikaze flags, communist symbols and Dixie Flags all on MMA gear-but I have never heard of anyone taking this leap until now!
Tapout is using a eagle, that looks almost identical to the one on the Olympic rings the Germans used Pictured here:
We all know, and love, the shield logo by TapouT. Its one of the cooler ones because it doesn’t have someone, as Joe Rogan described current mma clothes, “raping and breaking their d*ck off in the ass of someone.”
It can be seen here:
If you look close you can even see TapouT uses the lightening bolt too. This doesn’t make TapouT Nazis. Its a cool design. Germans are good at design, and graphics are no exception. A lot of the imagery they used is eye catching, and frankly has a sleek style to it.
Will a representative from Hitman care to comment on this eagle?
Hitman
On one of the forums someone pointed out they used of a certain type of skull used by the Nazis. This image is much older then the socialist movement in mid-20th century Germany but it is commonly attributed to Hitler’s military machine. Hoelzer Reich does in fact use that same image. Were the MMA forums pissed off when Silverstar used the same EXACT skull? Weird, I didn’t hear a thing about it.
Here is that image of the shirt:
Silverstar
Did Hoelzer Reich push the envelope when branding and marketing their company? I think they did. I think they took it a step further then most of the others. However, I would ask you to hold them up to the same standards as you used when buying other MMA merchandise when you are supporting your favorite fighters.
Hoelzer Reich has limited marketing dollars. With that money they choose to support fighters. There are easier ways of marketing then investing in fighters from the ground up. However, they give fighters money, and gear so they can focus on defeating their next opponent instead of wondering how their gym dues will be paid. For a new brand to come out of the gates and put money towards MMA fighters with signature t-shirts sounds to me like a company that loves Mixed Martial Arts. Just like you and me.
I read a post on-line of some hot-head who said he would no longer financially support a fighter he liked because of this needles noise. This is a fighter who is trying to build his career, who was excited when he found a company and a few people who believed in him, and let him focus on fighting in lieu of other things. This is a fighter who saw this as a huge step up in his MMA career. This fighter had a sigh of relief when his worries got fewer because of Hoelzer Reich. This fighter probably feels like an ass right now, because some people attached their own meaning to one companies images, but not another. It really doesn’t add up to me. I can only assume, the guy[sic. boy] who said these things, isn’t a real MMA fan or fighter. He may have a large post count on the forums, but when MMA goes in a cycle and becomes less popular he will quickly turn to the next flavor of the month. (They even said you would be arrested in Germany for wearing Hoelzer Reich’s clothing? Have you ever been to Germany? No one is arrested for their clothing. No matter what skull or font you use. It doesn’t matter what the law on the books says-its not enforced.)
The second you make anyone answer a question like “Are you a Nazi?”, or “Are you a racist?” you have won. If they say they are, you will call them morons and bigots. If they say they aren’t, you will call them liars and bigots. If you are going to slander a group of people, because of your personal feelings, you have a right to do it in our country. However, when you do not use the same yard stick for everyone, you look like a fool. I’m not saying go buy HR gear, but I am saying you should be starting boycott groups for Silverstar and TapouT if you are one of these people slandering Hoelzer Reich Clothing. There is no reason to boycott any of these companies. I can only think of reasons to support them.
Keep the hands up,
-John