Chicks Heart Fights

Hot fights. Hot men. Hot month. There is no other way to describe UFC 87 than hot. I’ve been elbow-deep in the Olympics, yet I still can’t escape the heat permeating from Minneapolis, Minn. for this weekend’s event.  HOT.

Let’s get out the cold compresses and dive in:

Champ Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch (for welterweight title)

GSP has looked unstoppable in his last three fights. Jon Fitch has been the next big thing for a while now, but considering how top-heavy welterweight is, this is his biggest test. Unfortunately, it’s a test he will fail. GSP’s ground game and vicious kicks will win out.

Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring

Brock Lesnar is quite skilled at picking things up quickly. His first fight with Mir made the kind of mistakes that only a beginner would make. (Or a dumb veteran.) Even though Herring won over Cheick Kongo, I’m still not impressed. I think this will be Lesnar’s first win in the UFC.

Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta

Speaking of hotness - I need to crank the AC up for this one. This has the potential for fight of the year. Both fighters go nonstop, and are technically sound. The match-up is about as perfect as it gets. I have to pick my man Roger, because, well, he’s Roger. A gal’s gotta follow her heart.

Rob Emerson vs. Manny Gamburyan

Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia

Luke Cummo vs. Tamdan McCrory

Dan Evensen vs. Cheick Kongo

Jon Jones vs. Andre Gusmao

Steve Bruno vs. Chris Wilson

Ben Saunders vs. Ryan Thomas

What the web is saying…

Cage Potato 

Bloody Elbow

Well, except for Michael Bisping. However, there wasn’t really a nice guy option in that fight. This was the rare event where the main cards live up to their hype, and we saw some good knockouts. Here is a full recap from someone who wasn’t drinking too much, and information on the fight night bonuses. My thoughts on the evening…

• Lutter’s armbar attempt in the first round was pretty weak. Franklin was in no danger of being submitted.
• Franklin was looking cut last night. As Ezra said: “He can teach me anything he wants.”
• More from Ezra: “Franklin looked better and Lutter looked worse than I anticipated.” Here’s my thing: outside of TUF, Lutter has never looked that good. I’ve always seen him as an underachiever, and last night was no different.
• I love when intelligent guys like Franklin are interviewed. He pretty much called Lutter a bitch without saying “You’re a bitch.” Love it!
• GSP in the red gi = HOT.
• At my bar, I was the only person cheering for GSP. Sorry, I just can’t cheer for the guy with “Buy and sell guns” on his shirt.
• GSP was amazing. His takedowns, knees. strikes, everything were as close to perfect as I’ve seen in a long time.
• Serra, on the other hand, looked like he had no idea just how good GSP was. Didn’t he watch the Hughes fight?
• A friend of mine asked if the knees that put Serra away were illegal. Not only were they legal, they were perfectly placed so they would be legal.
• I didn’t get to the bar until the very beginning of Lutter-Franklin, but I heard about Bisping’s match, and it sounds like his cut down to 185 was a very good move.
• Kenny Florian > Joe Rogan

I think that’s everything. I’ve got to go to church now!

This Saturday, UFC 83’s fight will be played out in front of the largest live crowd ever to watch a UFC event. The Ultimate Fighting world will converge upon Montreal, the hometown of Georges St. Pierre. (A note from GSP’s Wikipedia entry-he once worked as a bouncer at a club called the Fuzzy Brossard. So there you go.) We will have lots of great accents on this evening, with GSP, Michael Bisping, and Matt Serra all representing their ‘hoods. Rich Franklin will of course be representing Ohio, but do Ohioans have an accent? Predictions and a roundup, after the jump.

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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…)

Sad. Matt Serra has a herniated disc, and will not fight Matt Hughes at UFC 79. This will make the rest of the Ultimate Fighter decidedly anti-climactic. The whole fun of watching the tension between Serra and Hughes is knowing that there would be a payoff, and we’d get to see them beat the hell out of each other. Now, who knows if that fight will ever happen. Hughes himself has said that he only has a few fights left in him, and for Serra, a herniated disk is a tough injury to come back from.

The other question that this injury brings up is who will be the replacement. Since this will no longer be a title fight, some luster is already off the card, but an interesting fight could still be set up. I wouldn’t mind seeing Hughes/GSP. I’d like to see Karo Parisyan vs. Hughes, but I don’t know if Karo could be ready after fighting just a few weeks ago.  Though I’d like to see Josh Koscheck in that role, I think his fight with GSP showed he’s a few fights away from being at the elite level. (By the way, according to his MySpace page, Josh is fighting on March 1, opponent TBD.) I guess we’ll see how this will shake out in the coming week.

Updated: It seems that Karo has a broken hand, so I guess I won’t get to see that fight.

Of course, there is news coming out of the MMA world. MMA Junkie is reporting that Brock Lesnar will fight Frank Mir Super Bowl Weekend, a card that will also feature Patrick Cote. Now that I’ve reported on the real news, I will now answer the very important question: which fighter would fare best on Dancing With the Stars?

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Man, I guess I missed a lot when I was at the dinner party before I got to the bar. (I’m pretty sure that I’m the only person who went from a dinner party in a loft to a bar to watch the fights!) The bouncers at the bar let me know who the winners and losers were, but not much else. (more…)

… about tonight’s fights while they’re still fresh…

- Kos was outclassed, but I think that will be good for him in the long run. Diego beat him in the semis of TUF, and look at what Joshie came back to do. He is still steadily improving.

- I did not like the shorts GSP was wearing. Of course, that was the only thing not to like about him tonight. He was READY for that fight. He handled Josh on the ground and in standup.

- Josh did do a great job getting out of jams. GSP tried to put in the armbar about 12 times in the second period, and Josh got out each and every time.

- Let’s hear it for the old dude! Couture looked fantastic. By the way, he’s older than Barry Bonds.

- Gonzaga was done in the first period. There was no way he could keep up with Couture after losing that much blood.

- I wish that they had stalling calls in MMA like they do in wrestling. Gonzaga looked like a statue for half of the fight. I think that the refs should keep the action moving.

- Gonzaga didn’t even fight Couture’s last takedown before the TKO. He was done before he was on the ground.

- Unfortch, I missed the earlier fights, but my boys won. I need to see highlights of my Huerta!

Have I mentioned I love the UFC? Because I do.

This Saturday, UFC 74 will feature some of the best, if not under-hyped, fights in recent UFC history. I’ve been happily anticipating Gonzaga vs. Couture and GSP vs. Koscheck since the fights were announced. Michael David Smith (whose name sounds like that of a hot, grungy actor from the early 90’s) of Fanhouse picks Gonzaga and GSP. Desert Dog at UFC Mania picks Couture and GSP. My exciting picks, and some other things to watch for, are after the jump… (more…)