K-1 Fields Dynamite!! Results

Quick Results:

• Gesians Cavalcante vs. Joachim Hansen Cancelled (see below)
• Shinya Aoki def. Eddie Alvarez by Heel Hook in Round 1 (1:32)
• Mirko Cro Cop def. Hong Man Choi by TKO in Round 1
• Kiyoshi Tamura def. Kazushi Sakuraba by Unanimous Decision
• Hayato “Mach” Sakurai def. Katsuyori Shiabata by TKO in Round 1
• Daisuke Nakamura def. Hideo Tokoro by Armbar in Round 1
• Bob Sapp def. Akihito Tanaka by TKO in round 1
• Melvin Manhoef def. Mark Hunt by TKO in round 1 (:18)
• Semmy Schilt def. Siala “Mighty Mo” Siliga by Triangle Choke Round 1
• Ikuhisa Minowa def. Errol Zimmerman

Notes:

• The Joachim Hansen vs. Gesias Cavalcante bout was cancelled because of an apparent failed medical test by Joachim Hansen with a possible head injury of some type.  For more info check out Sherdog.com’s Article on The Cancellation
• Gegard Mousasi, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Alistair Overeem all won their respective K-1 rules bouts.

Breaking Down the UFC Middleweight Division

The Champion: Anderson Silva

The Top Contender: ?

The Next Tier:

·         Yushin Okami

·         Nate Marquardt

·         Michael Bisping

·         Dan Henderson

·         Demian Maia

·         Thales Leites

·         Patrick Cote

·         Chael Sonnen

 

On the Rise: 

·         Demian Maia

·         Michael Bisping

 

Other Notables:

·         Denis Kang

·         Rousimar Palhares

·         Martin Kampmann

·         Chris Leben

·         Ricardo Almeida

·         Nate Quarry

·         Jason MacDonald

·         Wilson Gouveia

·         Goran Reljic

·         Dan Miller

·         Dean Lister

·         Kendall Grove

·         Alan Belcher

·         Ed Herman

·         Jorge Rivera

·         Alessio Sakara

·         C.B. Dolloway

·         Mike Massenzio

·         Matt Horwich

·         Jake Rosholt

·         Amir Sadollah

 

Scheduled Fights:

·         Nate Loughran vs. Tim Credeur at UFC Fight Night 16 on December 10

·         Jason MacDonald vs. Wilson Gouveia at TUF 8 Finale on December 13

·         Yushin Okami vs. Dean Lister at UFC 92 on December 27

·         C.B. Dolloway vs. Mike Massenzio at UFC 92 on December 27

·         Denis Kang vs. Alan Belcher at UFC 93 on January 17

 

Match Ups I’d Like to See:

·         Yushin Okami vs. Anderson Silva

·         Thales Leites vs. Rousimar Palhares

·         Demian Maia vs. Michael Bisping

 

Other Thoughts:

·         The UFC Middleweight division is very, very underrated!  I believe it is because of Anderson Silva’s dominance.  The middleweight division does not have a clear number 1 contender, but from top to bottom I would put this division with any.  Albeit, the UFC’s competitors have some middleweight talents in the likes of guys like Gegard Mousasi, Jacare, Vitor Belfort, Matt Lindland, Jorge Santiago,and  Kazuo Misaki.  Not to mention the few solid middleweights from EliteXC such as Robbie Lawler, Joey Villasenor, Scott Smith, Frank Shamrock and Benji Radach.  The UFC is sure to pick some of those guys up

·         Rumor has it the UFC is in negotiations with top middleweight Yoshihio Akiyama.  I do not know if they call pull him away from DREAM and Sengoku, but that would be a huge add. 

·         The middleweight division is growing with adds like signing Denis Kang, the move of WEC’s division which will add Chael Sonnen and Jake Rosholt as well as guys like Aaron Simpson and Danillo Vilefort likely to come over.

·         Paulo Filho will not be in the UFC…yet.

·         TUF 9 will feature middleweight coaches with Michael Bisping being a lock.  The other names being thrown around are Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt and even Demian Maia

MMABlog’s Middleweight MMA Rankings

The middleweights were hard to rank down towards the last 10.  Sorry if I left some good guys out.

Rank	Name	Organization	Next Fight
1	Anderson Silva	UFC	Cote (#12), 9/25
2	Paulo Filho	UFC	Sonnen (#16) 11/3
3	Rich Franklin	UFC	Next Fight at LHW
4	Dan Henderson	UFC	Next Fight at LHW
5	Robbie Lawler	EliteXC?
6	Kazuo Misaki	Strikeforce	1/4
7	Nate Marquardt	UFC
8	Matt Lindland	Affliction	Sobral (LHW) ) 1/24
9	Yushin Okami	UFC	Lister (NR), 12/27
10	Gegard Mousasi	DREAM	Belfort (#25,) 1/24
11	Thales Leites	UFC	McFedries (NR), 9/25
12	Patrick Cote	UFC	A. Silva (#1), 9/25
13	Michael Bisping	UFC
14	Yoshihiro Akiyama
15	Ronaldo “Jacare” de Sousa	DREAM
16	Chael Sonnen	UFC	Filho (#2) 11/3
17	Demian Maia	UFC	Quarry (#18), 11/15
18	Nate Quarry	UFC	Maia (#17), 11/15
19	Joey Villasenor	EliteXC?
20	Cung Le	Strikeforce
21	Jorge Santiago
22	Chris Leben	UFC
23	Jason Macdonald	UFC
24	Martin Kampman	UFC
25	Vitor Belfort	Affliction	Mousasi (#10) 1/24

 

Others Considered: Ricardo Almeida, Rousimar Palhares, Dean Lister, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Frank Trigg

MMA News: Gegard Mousasi vs. Vitor Belfort at Affliction’s January Event

Affliction/Golden Boy’s January card is begining to be worked out. It seems likely that a super middlweight match up between Gegard Mousasi and Vitor Belfort will take place at the event according to Fighters Only Magazine

DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi expects to face Vitor Belfort on Affliction’s next MMA show in January.

Speaking to Fighters Only this week, he revealed that the US organisation wants him to fight the Brazilian, while Red Devil team mate Fedor Emelianenko may face Josh Barnett.

“I’m going to train with Fedor in preparation for Affliction in January,” he said. “I think it is Fedor against Josh Barnett and they want me to fight Vitor Belfort.”

Mousasi is part of the Red Devil International team and he shares a manager with Fedor in the shape of Vadim Finkelstein.

As well as training with Fedor, he will continue to train in his own gym in the Netherlands.

“[I have] some very good friends who each has a specialty – wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu and so on,” he explains. “If I need extra training I sometimes to go to other gyms in Holland.”

What an exciting fight this could be.  In my opinion these guys are two of the best non-UFC middleweights in the world.  I know some looked for the fight that was originally scheduled between Matt Lindland and Vitor Belfort, but I think this is a better match and may be for the Affliction Middleweight belt.  Mousasi is the DREAM middleweight champion and posted wins in the DREAM middleweight Grand Prix over guys like Denis Kang, Melvin Manhoef, and Ronaldo “Jacare” de Sousa.  This should be a great fight of good middleweight talent.

  Also on that card we expect to see Fedor Emelianenko, perhaps against Josh Barnett or even Andrei Arlovski.  I also expect to see a lot of the other guys who were initially scheduled to fight at the October event such as Matt Lindland, Paul Buentello, Ben Rothwell, Tim Sylvia, Jay Hieron, Chris Horodecki and maybe even Aleksander Emelianenko.

DREAM 6 Quick Results

Middleweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals:

Gegard Mousasi def. Melvin Manhoef via submission (triangle choke) — Round 1, 1:28

Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza def. Zelg Galesic via submission (arm-bar) — Round 1, 1:27

Middleweight Grand Prix Finals:

Gegard Mousasi def. Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza via KO (upkick) — Round 1, 2:15

Non-Tournament Bouts:

Alistair Overeem vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic ruled a no-contest due to knees to the groin

Shinya Aoki def. Todd Moore via submission (neck crank) – Round 1

Yoshihiro Akiyama def. Masanori Tonooka via submission (arm-bar) – Round 1

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka via unanimous decision

Sergei Kharitonov def. Jimmy Ambriz via submission (strikes) – Round 1

Masakatsu Funaki def. Ikuhisa Minowa via submission (heel hook) – Round 1

Atsushi Yamamoto def. Hideo Tokoro via unanimous decision  

Keita Nakamura def. Adriano Martins via split decision

Andrews Nakahara def. Dong Sik Yoon via TKO (strikes) — Round 2

Best Non-UFC Fighters

Here are the best non-UFC fighters.  This shows where the UFC is stacked and where they lack.  There competition is mainly in Affliction at heavyweight and DREAM at lightweight.  Here are the best non-UFC guys that the UFC should look to sign if possible. 

Rank	Heavyweight	Light Heavy	Middleweight	Welterweight	Lightweight
1	Fedor Emelianenko	Antonio Rogerio Nogueira	Paulo Filho	Jake Shields	Takanori Gomi
2	Andrei Arlovski	Ricardo Arona	Matt Lindland	Carlos Condit	Shinya Aoki
3	Josh Barnett	Rafael Feijao	Robbie Lawler	Jay Hieron	JZ Calvancante
4	Tim Sylvia	Vladimir Matyushenko	Kazuo Misaki	Nick Thompson	Eddie Alvarez
5	Ben Rothwell	Babalu Sobral	Gegard Mousasi	Mach Sakurai	Mitsuhiro Ishida
6	Mirko Cro Cop	Tito Ortiz	Vitor Belfort	Mike Pyle	Joachim Hansen
7	Roy Nelson	Steve Cantwell	“Jacare” de Sousa		Tatsuya Kawajiri
8	Aleks Emelianenko	Brian Stann	Jason Miller		Josh Thomson
9	Antonio Silva		Melvin Manhoef		Gilbert Melendez
10	Alistair Overeem		Murilio Rua		Vitor Ribeiro
11			Cung Le		Jamie Varner
12			Denis Kang		Ryan Schultz
13			Joey Villasenor		KJ Noons
14			Frank Shamrock		Nick Diaz
15			Yoshihiro Akiyama		Caol Uno
16			Jorge Santiago
17			Chael Sonnen

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Melvin Manhoef

At DREAM 4 Melvin Manhoef destroyed legend Kazushi Sakuraba, watch and see…  Next up for Manhoef…the semi-finals of the middleweight Grand Prix against either Jacare, Zelg Galesic, or Mousasi.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Melvin Manhoef “, posted with vodpod

 

DREAM 4 Results and Thoughts

Quick Results from DREAM 4:

Shinya Aoki defeats Katsuhiko Nagata by Submission (Gogoplata) in Round 1:  5:12
Alistair Overeem defeats Tae Hyun Lee by  KO (Punches)  at :36 of round 1
Ralek Gracie defeats Alavutdin Gadzhiyev by armbar submission at 3:02 of round 1
Hideo Tokoro defeats Darren Uyenoyama by unanimous decision
Gegard Mousasi defeats Dong Sik Yoon by Unanimous Decision
Zelg Galesic defeats Taiei Kin by TKO (Elbow Injury) at 1:05 of round 1                                                Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza defeats Jason “Mayhem” Miller by unanimous decision
Melvin Manhoef defeats Kazushi Sakuraba by TKO (Punches) in round 1

Most Impressive Performance: Melvin Manhoef

Knock Out Of The Night: Alistair Overeem

Submission Of The Night: Shinya Aoki

• Jacare proved he can fight with the best at 185 lbs.
• Shinya Aoki had an excellent submission on Nagata (a gogoplata)
• Alistair Overeem had a vicious KO
• Melvin Manhoef rolled through Japanese legend Sakuraba

Also: The Semi-Finals were announced for the lightweight Grand Prix, which is to be held in July at DREAM 5.  They are Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez and Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki. 

Who Benefited Most From PRIDE’s Collapse?

When PRIDE fell they were clearly the biggest competitors with the UFC, having many of MMA’s top guys.  They had some big time stars. Then PRIDE got into trouble and was bought by Zuffa.  So who benefited the most from PRIDE’s deminse?  There was a mad scramble to sign those guys who were now unemployed. I have been critical of the UFC’s ability to sign top PRIDE guys like Fedor, Gomi, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Arona, Kang, Mousasi, Melendez, etc. However, it looks like the UFC has done great due to PRIDE’s fall.  I ranked the PRIDE guys at the time of their collapse in order of who I would want to sign and the UFC benefited from it.  Now, the guys they have signed haven;t had huge success, but they are popular and will win eventually.  Can you imagine the UFC heavyweight divison without the influx of Nogueira, Werdum, and Herring???  The light heavyweight divison also was greatly boosted with the signings of Shogun, Wanderlei, Dan Henderson, Nakamura, and Sokoudjou.  UFC just struggles to get the lightweights. UFC signed 13 of those guys I listed and they have faired well, this doesn’t even include other guys who came in before the fall of PRIDE like “Rampage” Jackson.  Out of those guys you have some stars now in the UFC, some guys that can draw a crowd and one of them owns the belt (Nogueira).  DREAM and Affliction seemed to clean up what UFC couldn’t sign.  DREAM picked up the ligtweights, signing 8 of those PRIDE guys.  Affliction has a few signings.  So while I am critical of the UFC, let us give Dana and the UFC brass some credit for signing many of the top PRIDE guys.  I still would like to see the best of the best in one place, but it won’t happen, so this puts things into perspective and the UFC did good and benefited the most from PRIDE’s fall.

 

Name	Fight Organization Signed With
Fedor Emelianenko	Affliction
Wanderlei Silva	UFC
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua	UFC
Mirko Cro Cop	UFC (DREAM)
Takanori Gomi	World Victory Road
Dan Henderson	UFC
Josh Barnett	Affliction
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira	UFC
Paulo Filho	WEC
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira	HCF
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou	UFC
Ricardo Arona
Gilbert Melendez	Strikeforce
Fabricio Werdum	UFC
Gegard Mousasi	DREAM
Denis Kang	DREAM
Aleksander Emelianenko	Affliction
Marcus Aurelio	UFC
Akihiro Gono	UFC
Kauo Misaki	DREAM
Ricardo Almeida	UFC
Heath Herring	UFC
Joachim Hansen	DREAM
Ryo Chonan	UFC
Kazuhiro Nakamura	UFC
Tatsuya Kawajiri	DREAM
Mitsuhiro Ishida	DREAM
Alistair Overeem	Strikeforce
Kevin Randleman
Phil Baroni	EliteXC
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai	DREAM
Murilio Bustamante
Murilo “Ninja” Rua	EliteXC

HCF Is Done

Hardcore Championship Fighting is done.  Another fight promotion is our of busisness.  Sherdog reports:

The unexpected news comes after a period of optimism for the Canadian organization. HCF was expected to announce this week that it had been bought by Canadian television network The Score, which airs HCF fights.

Crawford hoped that selling to the network would put the promotion among the few legitimately vying for the No. 2 spot behind the UFC.

This shows that fight promotions are difficult to run.  Many promotions are collapsing.  HCF had a couple big named fighters signed including: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Babalu Sobral, Gegard Mousasi and David Loiseau.  Also they had guys like Aleksander Emelianenko, Mike Pyle, Rob MacDonald, and Joe Riggs assosicated with them.  I wonder where these guys will land.  Babalu and Nogueira may just go to the UFC.  Mousasi is linked with DREAM.  Those two guys would make for a stacked light heavyweight divison in the UFC.  Being the MMA fan that I am, I want the best guys to fight the best guys and the best light heavyweights are in the UFC.  9 of the top 10 are in the UFC, this would make a monopoly on that divison.  Nogueira having his brother in the UFC may help, and I look for a push for Nog to be signed to the UFC.