The Day in MMA

Good afternoon, fight fans. Welcome to the Tuesday installment of “The Day in MMA.” As we get closer to the end of February I find it important to look ahead to what the spring holds just around the corner. This weekend is huge for MMA as the two biggest promotions in the sport are hosting large events.

On Friday night the UFC is hosting UFC on FX 2 which will debut the promotions newly added flyweight class (125 lbs) as the two semi-final fights for the vacant flyweight strap will take place. Also headlining the card will be a great matchup between Martin Kampmann and Thiago Alves. This is a card fight fans won’t want to miss.

And then on Saturday night Strikeforce will host its highly anticipated fight card featuring the women’s title fight between bantamweight champion Meisha Tate and number one contender Ronda Rousey. The two have verbally battled back and forth for the past couple of months and this weekend will finally settle the score. Also included on the card will be a lightweight tilt between Josh Thomson and KJ Noons and a welterweight scrap between Paul Daley and Kazuo Misaki. The fights will air on the Strikeforce home network of Showtime.

So with all of this looming on the horizon there will surely be lots to talk about in the coming days. Like, today we heard from Strikeforce welterweight contender, Paul Daley. Daley, who is fighting on Saturday, had a quote released today stating that he wants a rematch with Tyrone Woodley for the vacant welterweight belt after he wins this weekend. Here is what Daley said: “Real fighters let the fight evolve in whichever way it should go, and they fight to finish, not stall…..real lions go for the kill. I beat Woodley in my opinion, so it wasn’t that frustrating. He fought a scared fight and was tired by the second round. I feel bad that the referee’s decisions gave him the win in the judges’ eyes. Three minutes of inactivity on the floor…that’s not scoring points, and it certainly ain’t entertaining for the fans, who all cheered when it was stood back up. After this fight, the only fight I should be offered is a rematch with Tyrone Woodley for the welterweight belt. It (the division) is interesting, but I think I am the only real character left, now that Nick Diaz has gone.” If Daley can indeed pull off a fashionable win this weekend I don’t see any reason as to why he shouldn’t get another shot at Woodley, although we’ve come to find that Daley’s main weakness in his fight game has been his wrestling defense. Anyone think Daley can take out the wrestler in Woodley in a rematch? We’ll see how he looks this weekend.

The UFC 144 prelims on FX garnered a whopping 1.5 million viewers this past weekend. These are good, promising numbers for the future. This number marks the highest viewership of the UFC’s three showings on FX so far.
We also heard that Kimbo Slice will be hosting “The Ultimate Fighter Friday’s” for SPIKE TV starting on March 9th. The show will feature all the greatest moments from the past 14 seasons on TUF, and now with Slice hosting we’ll see how much viewership pull SPIKE can empty out of its UFC tank.

Today the UFC has finalized a deal that will get bantamweights Jeff Curran and Johnny Eduardo to face off at May 15th’s UFC on FUEL 3 card. This is a great matchup between two top level bantamweights. Both are very skilled and exciting fighters so this is a great addition to the card.

Jose Aldo’s coach today tweeted a fair warning to former UFC lightweight champ, Frankie Edgar. In the tweet Pederneiras said that a drop to featherweights would only lose Frankie the only fight advantage he knows: speed. At first I laughed at the tweet, then I thought more about it and realized that Andre Pederneiras is actually on to something. Frankie has always out-struck his opponents with his speed and precision. Aldo is just as fast as Edgar, if not faster. This is interesting to consider as we wait to see what Edgar does next with his career. (Still, I would love to see Aldo vs. Edgar, no doubt).

“The Ultimate Fighter 15” broke top news again today as we found out that one of the cast members was in several gay porn movies in the past (Dakota Cochrane). This is not really big news in the modern world, but in the “fight world” this is fairly rattling. It will be interesting to see how the other cast members react to the news, especially because they will be living in the same house for several weeks. As an open minded, socially accepting modernist I don’t really see what the big deal is, but for most this will surely kick up some controversy. We’ll see how this plays out in the coming days. Will this draw in more viewers, hurt the show, or not shake it up at all?

Shogun recently spoke with Tatame.com and stated that he is definitely planning on fighting Quinton Jackson again before either of them retires. When asked about the possibility of the two meeting again Shogun stated, “Absolutely. The fight against Rampage will happen eventually. It’s inevitable and UFC knows it. He won’t retire before fighting me and neither am I.” I definitely feel that this is a great re-match for the MMA world (the two last fought in PRIDE in Shogun’s 2005 MW Grand Prix championship run). With “Rampage” losing to Ryan Bader last weekend and Shogun recently losing to Dan Henderson it will be interesting to see what the promotion is going to do with both fighters. Is a rematch finally in the in-line for these two? Time will tell.

Strikeforce’s “King Mo” Lawal is fighting a serious staph infection that began after his recovery from the recent ACL surgery he had. He underwent his seventh procedure on Sunday to try and fight the infection, which can place a fighter’s career and life in danger if it is not treated properly. Our best hopes and wishes for a speedy recover go out to Muhammad Lawal. We hope to see him back in the cage when he gets himself healthy again.

And in other news Anthony Pettis explained why he deserves the first shot at new lightweight champion, Benson Henderson and why Henderson doesn’t want to fight him, Strikeforce welterweight Roger Bowling is flirting with the idea of dropping to lightweight, Michael Bisping thinks that he deserves the winner of the Sonnen/Silva II, and Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz started their trash talking early this time around.
For more in depth news, videos, and coverage be sure to visit BJPenn.com or follow me on Twitter @jchastain45

Until tomorrow, stay classy, fight fans.

-Jake Chastain
@jchastain45