MMA Roundup: Lesnar, Mir, Evans, Shamrock, Other Shamrock, Diaz and more

Man oh man, what a week it has been in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Any week in which we have both Shamrock brothers in the news is a week I consider good…ish.

Let’s start with the news from the reigning champions of MMA, the UFC.

UFC 100 would be a huge event no matter what was on the card. The number 100 is a milestone many tried to keep MMA from reaching. Just think back to the late 90’s, when John McCain was petitioning to get MMA banned in the US, the UFC was just getting out of it’s “No Holds Barred” era, and many people viewed the sport as “human cock fighting”. Say what you will about the Feritta brothers, Dana White, and the TapouT Crew (one of whom passed away this week), but without them MMA would have never made it this far.

Just over a month ago it seemed White and company planned on relying on the number “100″ itself to sell the event. They shot down rumors of all titles being on the line that night, they made clear the superfight of our generation between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre wouldn’t happen, and they had planned to have Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir have their rematch to unify the Heavyweight title at UFC 98. Well what a difference a month makes.

None of this is “official” yet, but the current plans for UFC 100 have Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping facing off in the traditional battle of Ultimate Fighter coaches, GSP is supposed to defend his title against Thiago Alves, and of course the much delayed rematch between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar for the unification of the UFC Heavyweight Title.

While the UFC is trying to make UFC 100 something special, they still had a UFC 98 that was missing a main event. It was initially announced that if Quintin “Rampage” Jackson defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 96 he would face off with “Sugar” Rashad Evans for the UFC’s Light Heavyweight Title. Rampage defeated Jardine, had a face off with Evans immediately following the fight, and promptly had to pull out of the fight.

It appears Rampage will be undergoing surgery on his jaw to fix an injury suffered during training for his bout against Wanerlei Silva last December. Now Evans is set to face off against Lyoto Machida. While it is much to early to make predictions, I can tell you that the champion is the early underdog in this fight. Not that I would ever gamble online, but if I did, I may have already taken Evans at +160 in this one.

In order to move away from UFC news, I would like to mention that I will be attending Wrestlemania 25 on April 5th in Houston, Texas. What does this have to do with MMA you ask? Let me tell you, part of this week’s big news involved two former WWF/E champions.

Former UFC Heavyweight and WWF Intercontinental Champion Ken Shamrock was supposed to face the former WWE US and ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley at the upcoming Roy Jones Jr.-promoted Boxing/MMA March Badness event. Well, Ken Shamrock has since been suspended for a year from fighting within the US due to testing positive for steroids. Lashley is now scheduled to face off against Clay Guidas’ bigger, not-as-talented brother Jason. Lashley has come out in the last few days saying he wouldn’t mind taking the Shamrock fight to Japan where they don’t uphold US suspensions.

My last little bit of news involves two of the most entertaining fighters in MMA.

Frank Shamrock (adoptive and estranged brother of Ken) will be facing off against perpetual menace to society Nick Diaz. For the record, I am a Frank Shamrock fan. I want to see him fight and I enjoy his spirited verbal sparring most of the time. Nick Diaz I see as a person who has no respect for the sport and the prototype of all that is wrong with meat head fans/fighters. That being said, I am super excited that Strikeforce is making this match-up happen. It could turn into the most entertaining build up to a match since Ali Foreman. As we get closer to the April 11th Showtime fight I will preview more, but for now I will just leave you with quotes from both men. These come courtesy of Cagepotato.com:

“Someone asked me the other day how my comeback was going so I guess I’ve come back. I love fighting. I love this art. I want to thank Nick Diaz for the opportunity and just warn him that when I punch his head and he lands in the second row he’ll need someone to catch him.” — Frank Shamrock

“Frank can talk all he wants, but I’m going to beat him up. Let’s see how much he fights back.’’ — Nick Diaz

MMA Round Up: UFC 93 Preview, Affliction, Then UFC Again.

Believe it or not there is a UFC PPV this weekend. I know you all are watching the build for UFC 94 with the St. Pierre Penn rematch and the UFC Prime-time but that event doesn’t happen for 2 more weeks. You need to drop $54 dollars this weekend to watch a sub-par card in the mid afternoon on a Saturday to prove you’re a true hardcore UFC fan.

Now I call it a subpar card because chances are you only know 4 fighters; 5 if you are a fan, as I am, of Chris Lytel. I pick his fight against Marcue Davis to be fight of the night. I also pick him to win because he’s a hometown guy. Those 4 fighters are all facing each other, so it’s a $54 event on PPV, featuring 2 fights that are solid undercard matches on most events, or great free matches for a fight night on Spike.

Then in two more weeks there is a rematch between two of the greatest fighters in the UFC in Penn and St. Pierre. I don’t know about all of you, but I am planning on finding a bar with a low cover charge for this weekend.

Now, a preview of those two main events for this weekend’s UFC 93, which are: Rich Franklin Vs. Dan Henderson and Mark Coleman Vs. Mauricio Rua.

Franklin V. Henderson Preview

This is interesting because whoever wins will probably end up the coach on the next Ultimate Fighter. Franklin has been fairly adamant about not wanting to be a coach and “Hendo” has keep to him self about it. I would like to see Henderson get a rematch with Anderson Silva. He seemed to be a bit out of it in their last match and Silva dominated him. I think a rematch and a more focused Henderson would be a great fight. As for my Pick, I have to go with Dan Henderson even if he is 1-2 since returning to the UFC.

Mark Coleman V. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua Preview

This fight is actually a rematch. Coleman won the first fight back in Pride F/C when Shoguns’ arm broke. It was a freak accident and not any type of decisive win, but a win for Coleman none the less. When picking this fight you have to think about a few things:

First of all, Coleman is 44 and just came out of retirement. He’s old for a fighter, and while Randy Couture has shown no signs of aging (the Brock Lesner fight is an abnormality until I see him lose to someone who isn’t a freak of nature), can the same be said about Coleman? How many people can beat father time like Randy? Also, Coleman has never fought in the modern age of the UFC. A lot has changed since he last choked out Dan Severn.

As for Rua, well his first, and last fight in the UFC saw him completely gas out against Forrest Griffin. There was a time when Rua was considered the best at 205, but those were the old Pride days. As we have seen time and again (forget Anderson SIlva and Rampage), the old Pride vets haven’t been able to make a great transition to the UFC. Also, if his brother, “Ninja” Rua is any indication of how these guys train now that they are no longer part of Chute Box Academy, then Shogun will probably gas out if the fight goes past the first. I am picking Coleman in the second.

As mentioned before, Affliction is presenting it’s second PPV offering next weekend. Their attempt to make you part with your cash is offering the best heavyweight match up of the year (I know it’s early).

Andrei “How taste my pee-pee?” Arlozski Vs. God (known around MMA circles as Fedor Emelianenko).

Let’s face it, no one is giving Andrei a chance in this fight. Hell, Vegas has him at +275. Now, even if he is fighting Fedor, Arlovski has a few things going for him. Mainly, he has Freddie Roach in his corner. Sure Freddie is a boxing guy, but he is the guy that trained Oscar De La Hoya while he was good, then showed Manny Pacquiao how to dismantle everything about Oscar after De La Hoya burned him.

If Andrei can keep this fight standing he stands a real chance at beating Fedor based simply on his corner. The otherthing Adnrei has going for him, the fangs. I cant stress this enough. The fanged mouthpieces make the fighter who wears them. If Arlovski wears the fangs to the ring he will win this fight. My pick, and my money are going to Andrei… no mattter how much I regret it.

Quick note, it is being widely reported this could be the final Affliction PPV. While having the highest payroll in all of MMA has allowed them to creat the best Heavyweight division, the lack of promotion and ticket sales have greatly hurt the company. I wouldn’t expect another PPV from them, so this may be your last chance to see Fedor fight a true top 10 heavyweight. These guys make their money off of high priced T-shirts, loosing money on a television expansion just doesnt make much sense to me.