Chicks Heart Fights

It’s 6:40, and my couch is so comfy. Alas. I do have to go to work, but before I head in, I wanted to share some links with you.

• Jason Bryant of Intermat has moved his blog to a free site. Check it out for daily musings on the wrestling world.
• U.S. Senior Nationals are this weekend in Vegas, and they will have a bearing on the Olympic Trials. The Mat provides a preview of freestyle.
• Sadly, my man Mike Zadick did not qualify the US for the Olympics at 60 kg. He has one more chance on the first weekend of May.
• Chuck Liddell has been forced to drop out of UFC 85 due to a hamstring injury. Dana White is going to have to do some fast wheeling and dealing, because without Liddell-Evans, that card is pretty weak.
• Kalib Starnes was cut from the UFC yesterday. This is hardly a surprise, considering Starnes’ embarrassing performance at UFC 83 this weekend. In a sport where almost anything goes, the one thing that does not go is ducking a fight. I doubt any other large fighting organization will sign him. It will be interesting to see where he lands.
• Dana White says that Serra-Hughes is still a possibility.
• Finally, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has an excellent profile of the Cornell wrestler who is fighting cancer, Adam Frey.

Wow. I am in a good mood. Good fights, good friends, good beer. Tonight, we saw the vindication of a legend, the validation of the “next big thing,” and a CVS bag. More, after the jump:

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… and I’m pretty darn excited about this line-up.

Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva

Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

Rich Clementi vs. Melvin Guillard

Eddie Sanchez vs. Soa Palalei

YAY! Sure, these aren’t the fights we were expecting, and Silva vs. Liddell is about a year too late. Nonetheless, this promises to be a great night of fighting. My thoughts, and what writers around the web are saying, after the jump. (more…)

You got no fear of the underdog, that’s why you will not survive! - Spoon, the Underdog

If there was any theme for last night’s fights, it was the triumph of the underdog. My man Forrest came into the fight against Shogun more ready than he has ever been. Shogun looked like he was not expecting the fight to go into the third round, and he had clearly not trained for all three rounds. Granted, he sustained a pretty bad cut, but so did Forrest. He looked exhausted for most of the third round. As for Liddell and Jardine, though Chuck is an excellent striker, he does have a better ground game than Jardine. Why not try to get him on the ground? Raise your hand if you think Chuck is done? Yeah, me too. Since he is such a striker, he takes more blows to the head than your average MMA-er. Strikers walk on the edge, and one punch too many can be catastrophic. I hope that he hasn’t fallen off the edge, and that he knows when to walk away. Kudos to Jardine for a well-fought match. After the jump, what is being said around the Web. (more…)

I have caught the last two pay-per-view fights at a bar not too far from my home. It’s your regular, neighborhood sports bar. Because of various circumstances, I usually go to watch the fights by myself. I sit with the bouncers or at the bar, watch the fights, have a few beers, and come home and post here. Generally, the women at this bar are with boyfriends/husbands. A few of these women are fight fans, but most of them are just tagging along for the drinks. For those women, I write this post. Next time you ladies go with your boyfriends/husbands to watch a fight at the bar, keep these simple rules in mind:

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So, that was an interesting night… I clearly couldn’t pick a fight to save my life. Winners: Fitch, Forrest, Jardine. Some thoughts for the evening: (more…)