WEC, Strikeforce, UFC 99 and Fedor in the UFC?
A few quick thoughts for a Monday...
*Anyone else surprised Mike Brown was able to retain his WEC featherweight title over Urijah Faber last night? Impressive performance and a very solid show.
*Jake Shields was very impressive in his submission of Robbie Lawler in Strikeforce’s show Saturday. He’s fun to watch and I’d love to see him in the UFC, against the other best welterweights in the world.
*Brett Rogers is a fine fighter, but knocking out Andrei Arlovski in 22 seconds? No knock on Rogers, but that’s a quick fall for Arlovski. I wasn’t impressed with him towards the end of his UFC days, but he looked impressive in the first few minutes against Fedor Emelianenko. He was winning the fight before his colossal error in judgment. He went from having a shot at taking down Fedor to getting knocked out in less than 30 seconds by Brett Rogers. That’s quite a fall.
*Gina Carano finally signed with Strikeforce and will face Cris Cyborg in the August event. It’s good to see Carano back in the limelight as she’s the torchbearer for women’s MMA. Hopefully she’s getting paid what she deserves in Strikeforce. That should be a great fight. The only real question is what happens after that (rematches?) since those are the two biggest fighters in women’s MMA.
*A very interesting read from CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel on the UFC breaking through the mainstream sports wall with the addition of Kimbo Slice on The Ultimate Fighter and the inevitable signing of Fedor Emelianenko after his fight with Josh Barnett in August. A Fedor-Brock Lesnar main event would be the highest-grossing UFC PPV ever.
*UFC 99 is this Saturday and in my opinion, it’s a very underrated card. Granted, it’s not great, it’s not going to be as big as the next two UFC shows, but there are some entertaining fights on this card. Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva should be very interesting and I think the Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders fight could be a darkhorse on that card. I’m excited to see the Cheick Kongo vs. Cain Velasquez bout but could care less about seeing Cro Cop fight again.
*Anyone else surprised Mike Brown was able to retain his WEC featherweight title over Urijah Faber last night? Impressive performance and a very solid show.
*Jake Shields was very impressive in his submission of Robbie Lawler in Strikeforce’s show Saturday. He’s fun to watch and I’d love to see him in the UFC, against the other best welterweights in the world.
*Brett Rogers is a fine fighter, but knocking out Andrei Arlovski in 22 seconds? No knock on Rogers, but that’s a quick fall for Arlovski. I wasn’t impressed with him towards the end of his UFC days, but he looked impressive in the first few minutes against Fedor Emelianenko. He was winning the fight before his colossal error in judgment. He went from having a shot at taking down Fedor to getting knocked out in less than 30 seconds by Brett Rogers. That’s quite a fall.
*Gina Carano finally signed with Strikeforce and will face Cris Cyborg in the August event. It’s good to see Carano back in the limelight as she’s the torchbearer for women’s MMA. Hopefully she’s getting paid what she deserves in Strikeforce. That should be a great fight. The only real question is what happens after that (rematches?) since those are the two biggest fighters in women’s MMA.
*A very interesting read from CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyel on the UFC breaking through the mainstream sports wall with the addition of Kimbo Slice on The Ultimate Fighter and the inevitable signing of Fedor Emelianenko after his fight with Josh Barnett in August. A Fedor-Brock Lesnar main event would be the highest-grossing UFC PPV ever.
*UFC 99 is this Saturday and in my opinion, it’s a very underrated card. Granted, it’s not great, it’s not going to be as big as the next two UFC shows, but there are some entertaining fights on this card. Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva should be very interesting and I think the Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders fight could be a darkhorse on that card. I’m excited to see the Cheick Kongo vs. Cain Velasquez bout but could care less about seeing Cro Cop fight again.
Kevin Richardson has been a fan of mixed martial arts competition ever since UFC 3, when 600-pound sumo wrestler Emmanuel Yarborough was beaten by Keith Hackney. Kevin will cover the world of MMA — in Baltimore, nationally and internationally. He plans to take readers into the locker rooms and MMA schools, where they'll hear from local fighters and trainers. If you have a news tip or suggestions for the blog, please 
Comments
Yes, I was surprised Mike Brown won, but was also really, really impressed with him. He just seems really solid and for some reason reminds me a lot of a smaller Matt Hughes. Tough break for Faber with his hand (hands?) as I do think it would have been a different fight had he not hurt it/them. Then again, with hurt hands, you've always gotta credit a hard nugget, right? Okay, I've gotta ask this too and please don't think this is disrespectful because I do not mean it to be...it is simple curiousity. Does anyone know what happened to Scott Jorgensen to make his skin look like that? I looked all over the internet to find out but couldn't. It really looks like painful acid burns, but for some reason I don't think that's what it is. Anyone know? Oh, and I'm one of those people that will be skipping UFC 99...in difficult financial times, I just can't see that as being worthwhile for $45. However, as much as I'm looking forward to 100, I think I'm more excited about 101!!!
Posted by: Nicholas Sadaka | June 8, 2009 4:36 PM
Disagree with you about seeing Crocop...heard he had been training well for this....sadly he has been a big disappointment but hopefully we see the old Crocop
Posted by: tat.com | June 8, 2009 8:13 PM
I was very shocked that Mike Brown beat Urijah Faber,especially with both admtting to a certain degree that the first match was pretty fluky.How does a guy go fro being unstoppable to losing to the same guy twice.I think Mike Brown is solid,but still don't see him as having Faber's ability or skill?Almost makes you wonder,MMA is starting to like like WWE in some respects.
Posted by: Burt from Essex | June 8, 2009 8:52 PM
If Cro Cop shows up as the old Cro Cop when he fought in pride...look out! He is fun to watch.
Posted by: Dan | June 8, 2009 11:17 PM
Couldn't care less about Crocop? That's the fight I'm most interested in!
Posted by: ProCannonFodder | June 9, 2009 4:00 AM
"and the inevitable signing of Fedor Emelianenko after his fight with Josh Barnett in August"
I wish it was, but from all the research I have carried out searching google news daily it looks far away still.
The last I heard from Fedor on the subject was that the contracts posed by UFC are far to extreme without much give and take. For example the fighter is not allowed exit the contract on it's expiry if he is undefeated.
There are other factors as well. The sambo ban and Fedor's manager Joost Raimond is from M-1and wants a cross-promotion one fight deal with the UFC of fedor vs the winner of UFC 100 (Lesnar vs Mir). That is not going to happen as if Fedor wins (which is highly likely) then the UFC are left with a very much disputed heavyweight champion.
Posted by: luke | June 9, 2009 6:01 AM
I'd be surprised if Brown had retained the belt against a healthy Faber, but with two busted hands Urijah had to resort to throwing elbows with his right and open handed bitch slaps with his left. Tough to win a championship fight without the ability to punch with either hand. I was impressed that Faber was able to make the fight somewhat close in those conditions. Aldo deserves a shot before Faber gets another, but I'd like to see Brown vs. Faber 3.
Posted by: Corey | June 9, 2009 9:43 AM
MIKE BRWON UNDISPUTED WEC CHAMPION, WATCH OUT UFC, JAKE SHIELDS A GREAT WELTER WEIGHT, GINA CARANO VS SANTOS GREAT FIGHT TO SEE, LETS HOPE FEDOR SIGNS WITH THE UFC, HE COULD BEAT EVERY HEAVYWEIGHT THERE
Posted by: MARIO MAYANS | June 9, 2009 5:40 PM
Tough break for Faber in both aspects of the word. I believe that he would of won had he not broken his hand. He was still very aggressive as he got in close to deliver his elbows. And a few times his submission attempts just couldn't be locked in due to his hand. I for one think there will be a 3rd fight between these two even though Faber is 0-2 in the series.
Posted by: todd | June 11, 2009 3:43 PM