Gray Maynard, owner of the worst tattooes this side of Alan Belcher

Frankie Edgar fought a great fight last night, and he deserves our respect for it.  I had Edgar winning all five rounds.  Against a monster like BJ Penn, that is impressive. 

Congratulations are also due Gray Maynard, who did what he always does: win the fight via decision.  Maynard took a normally outstanding Kenny Florian completely out of his game.  That, too, is quite an accomplishment.

Still, I can’t help but feel the lightweight division is a little worse for wear after Saturday night’s quasi-upsets.  Maynard vs. Edgar is going to be tough to sell.  It can’t headline a card, and without the belt involved it probably wouldn’t even pass for a co-main event.  And there is just no way that fight is getting finished, so it has to be put in a card with at least one guranteed barn-burnerto balance it out.  Leben vs Wanderlei Silva, if that ever happens, would be a good fight to pair with Maynard/Edgar. 

For the past three years, there have been two lightweights I’ve been consistently excited to watch: BJ Penn and Kenny Florian.  The fact that they both lost to guys that can’t finish doesn’t bode well for the lightweight division’s future.  People aren’t going to tune in to watch Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.  That might be harsh, but its true.  Penn and Florian were the human highlight reels.  Now, the thrill is gone.
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The Ultimate Fighting Championship invades Boston, Massachusetts for the first time when they enter the cage at the TD Garden for “UFC 118: Edgar vs. Penn II.”

In the main event, Frankie Edgar will look to silence the critics and prove that his win at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, where he captured BJ Penn’s title, was no joke. Penn will also be looking to make a point of his own as he goes out to get his title back.

The night’s co-main event is one of the most anticipated matches of the year as UFC Hall of Famer and 5-time world champion Randy Couture welcomes the loud-mouthed and highly decorated world champion boxer James “Lights Out” Toney to the octagon.

Also on the card is a lightweight fight between Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard to determine the division’s next number one contender, Demain Maia will look to bounce back from his unsuccessful attempt at the 185-pound title as he faces off against Mario Miranda, and Nate Diaz will throw down with Marcus Davis in a welterweight bout.

Here are the predictions for UFC 118:

MAIN CARD

• MAIN EVENT: Champ Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn (for lightweight title)

PREDICTION: BJ Penn def. Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision

• Randy Couture vs. James Toney

PREDICTION: Randy Couture def. James Toney via second-round TKO

• Demian Maia vs. Mario Miranda

PREDICTION: Demian Maia def. Mario Miranda via first-round submission

• Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard

PREDICTION: Kenny Florian def. Gray Maynard via unanimous decision

• Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz

PREDICTION: Nate Diaz def. Marcus Davis via first-round TKO

BONUS PICKS (Spike TV Prelims):

• Joe Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger

PREDICTION: Joe Lauzon def. Gabe Ruediger via second-round submission

• Nik Lentz vs. Andre Winner

PREDICTION: Andre Winner def. Nik Lentz via first-round TKO

Mike Pierce (171 lbs) vs. Amilcar Alves (171 lbs)
Nick Osipczak (171 lbs) vs. Greg Soto (170 lbs)
Dan Miller (185 lbs) vs. John Salter (185 lbs)
Andre Winner (154 lbs) vs. Nik Lentz (155 lbs)
Joe Lauzon (156 lbs) vs. Gabe Ruediger (155 lbs)
Demian Maia (184 lbs) vs. Mario Miranda (185 lbs)
Nate Diaz (171 lbs) vs. Marcus Davis (170 lbs)
Ken Florian (156 lbs) vs. Gray Maynard (156 lbs)
Randy Couture (220 lbs) vs. James Toney (237 lbs)
Frank Edgar (154 lbs) vs. BJ Penn (154 lbs)

Is it just me, or could these two totally star in a buddy film? (source: mmaweekly.com)

If you’ve been listening to the hype leading up to UFC 118, you’ve by now heard the phrase “boxing vs MMA” hundreds of times.  I understand why everyone involved wants to sell it that way, and I don’t really mind.  Anything that puts asses in the seats is fine by me.  Sure, one of these guys looks like Grimace and the other is damn near 50, but this is clearly a fight some people want to see.  I am one of those people.  I’ve been waiting for this day for months; this day of reckoning.

Many MMA traditionalists are ashamed the UFC is letting the Toney circus roll into town.  I can understand why.  More than any fan base, we all want the best for our sport.  We defend its honor with righteous indignation at the slightest insult.  We’ve been battling misconceptions for years, and to some, this fight must seem like regression.  A step back towards the sport’s sordid past. The past responsible for the very misconceptions we rail against.  It’s easy to see a fat, washed up James Toney flapping his gums and think “This is beneath us.  It’s beneath this sport we love.”

I think that view is shortsighted.  Yes, Toney is a clown.  But there is meaning here.  In a way, this fight is exactly what its being billed as.
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Yesterday, Fedor Emelianenko and his management stated that they would like a match with Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem in November or December of this year, but after Overeem spoke to MMAFighting.com it was clear he had other intentions.

Overeem’s next fight will be for K-1 and he has no intentions of fighting anyone but Fabricio Werdum under the Strikeforce banner.

Here is a transcript of Overeem’s interview with Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting:

Ariel Helwani: Have you decided when and where your next fight will be?
Alistair Overeem: Yes, I’m going to fight in the K-1 tournament, so my first fight will be October for the Final 16 in Korea. If I win the fight, I will advance to the Final 8 in Japan. That fight will be in December.

Why isn’t your next fight going to be for Strikeforce?
I’ve stated many times that Strikeforce was my number one priority, but after Fedor lost to Werdum, I had no intention of fighting somebody other than Werdum. I came to the States to challenge the winner of the fight and that was Werdum, so no need to fight somebody else. Furthermore, I like K-1 very much and there are not many opportunities to stay fighting in K-1, so I want to fight if I still can. One of my goals is to be K-1 champion and this is my chance.

Emelianenko has now said that he would like to fight you by the end of the year. Is that possible at this point?
No, unfortunately not. The reason is because if I enter the Final 16 and win, I will fight the K-1 Final in December. My decision was made because nothing was certain and Strikeforce and M-1 didn’t act fast enough when I made my decision to start K-1 training. Now I read on the internet that Fedor and his management want to fight me all of sudden. Do they really need two months of thinking and negotiating? I think it’s a little strange to be honest. If Fedor challenged me right after the fight it would have been something to take in consideration, but the M-1 management started to say that all the polls on several websites stated that people rather have a Fedor vs. Werdum rematch then a fight against me. There we have another lie by M-1 because every poll I have read stated the opposite and showed that everybody want to see Fedor versus me. Check their current poll at their own Web site (laughs).

Scott Coker recently hinted at the fact that Antonio Silva would be your next opponent. Does a fight against “Bigfoot” interest you?
No, not at all. When I fought Brett Rogers there was much criticism over how the champion could fight a fighter that lost his last fight. If you co-promote with people that have their own demands it’s hard to make good and logical fights. If you look at another big MMA organization in the States, you can see that they have a clear road map of who’s fighting who and which fighters are entitled to get a shot at the championship belt. Having a clear virtual ranking is one of the reasons they are successful because they can hype fights. You can debate if I’m the number one in Strikeforce using results of the past, but the fact remains that Fedor signed with Strikeforce and chose Werdum instead of me. We all know that in every organization Fedor is more than welcome to fight straight for the belt due to his stature and experience, but if his management decided that they would like a tune-up fight and then Werdum before fighting me they are taking a risk. Fighting in a organization is just the same as climbing a ladder. If you lose, you will fall a couple of steps down and if you win you go up. It’s not fair to other fighters that are climbing the same ladder. So to make a long story short, I’m the champion, which means I’m number one, not based on ranking but because I’m wearing the belt.

Number two is clearly Werdum because of his win over Fedor and Antonio Silva. Fedor losing means he’s number 3 and Antonio Silva, who came back from a loss against Werdum by defeating Arlovski is clearly the number 4. So in that case, Fedor should fight Antonio Silva and the winner of that fight should fight against the winner of a bout between myself and Werdum. It’s just that simple — it’s not rocket science.

Does a part of you think that the Fedor fight will never happen now?
If Fedor stays in Strikeforce and beats Antonio Silva and I win my fight against Werdum, then there is a big possibility that I will face him. So I still think I will meet him in the cage eventually.

Do you still have an issue with the way M-1 has handled this situation?
Everybody knows that I’m not crazy about those guys. I personally think that they don’t know how the US market works. They have a different mentality and culture. The way they use Fedor as a trophy is, in my opinion, not how a management team should work. They should have the interest of the fighter as the number one priority and sometimes I have the feeling that Fedor doesn’t know what M-1 is demanding behind his back. I don’t want to go in to details so I won’t. All I can say is never have I witnessed a management manipulating and using the amount of tricks as Fedor’s management has done.

Has this whole process been frustrating for you?
In the beginning I took it personally because of the things Vadim [Finkelstein] and M-1 we’re saying in the media and I wanted to fight him bad, but now that he lost I was like, ‘What goes around comes around.’ So now I will move on and focus on my own career.

Jason “Mayhem” Miller has been calling out Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz for quite some time. Since the post-fight brawl when Mayhem challenged Nick’s teammate, Jake Shields, Mayhem has been calling for a shot at the champion. However, it is expected that Miller would want Diaz to jump up to middleweight to fight and that is not likely according to Diaz’s manager.

Cesar Gracie told MMA Junkie, “Trust me, that’s not the fight they have for him. It’s someone else, and it’s almost a done deal.”

That “someone” Gracie was referring to is KJ Noons. Noons and Diaz are set to have their rematch on October 9th for the welterweight title.

“There’s no doubt Miller is a very good fighter; anybody who can go five rounds with Jake Shields is a good fighter,” Gracie said. “But his record for his last five fights is not really something to boast that much about. It’s not really a win-win situation for Nick to go to 185 just because Miller is just making a challenge.”

“If you want to call out the champion, that means you’re prepared to go to his weight,” Gracie said. “If you’re not prepared, don’t call him out. If he just wants to fight Nick, come by the academy and Nick will oblige him on the spot, at any weight.”

Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will be putting his 170-pound title on the line for the first time since earning it in spectacular fashion over Marius Zaromskis earlier this year.

Diaz will face off against K.J. Noons on October 9th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.

The bout will mark a highly anticipated rematch as Diaz will look to avenge his most recent loss. When the two faced back in 2007, the bout ended in a controversy as Noons was awarded the TKO victory due to cuts.

Noons is riding a six-fight win streak and most recently earned a beautiful knockout win over Jorge Gurgel at this past weekend’s “Strikeforce: Houston” event. Diaz is also on a long win streak — seven — but hasn’t stepped in the Strikeforce cage since January. His most recent bout was in Japan as he submitted Mach Sakurai in the first-round.

UFC 121 will be headlined by a heavyweight championship bout between Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez. The event — which will take place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California — has recently added another heavyweight contest to the card.

The Las Vegas Sun is reporting that TUF alum and Hit Squad member Jon Madsen (6-0) will be stepping into the cage against the heavy-handed MMA veteran Gilbert Yvel (36-15-1).

Since returning to the octagon, Yvel has dropped back-to-back fights to top contender Junior Dos Santos and IFL veteran Ben Rothwell. Yvel will be looking to rebound and hand Madsen the first loss of his career with a spectacular knockout.

In an interview on LowKick.com, Fedor Emelianenko’s manger Vadim Finkelstein dropped some interesting bits of information.

Many would like to see a rematch between Fedor and Fabricio Werdum — who submitted the No. 1 ranked heavyweight in their last fight. However, Werdum will be out for a while and recovering from an injury. Finkelstein has some plans:

We plan to organize an interim fight for Fedor. We are considering two options: Japan and Russia. We have a lucrative offer from the Japanese partners, who are interested in Fedor fighting on the New Year’s Eve. This is the most interesting option for us. But we are also not exluding an option that Fedor Emelianenko will fight in Russia, sometime in December. We have to organize another fight for Fedor, as Fabricio Werdum is currently injured and no one knows when he will come back. Strikeforce have absolutely nothing against the rematch, that’s exactly why we are planning the last fight on Fedor’s contract to be against Werdum.

Finkelstein also commented on the three fights he is most interested in making for Fedor.

Of course, this is Brock Lesnar. But this fight will never happen. UFC President Dana White will always delay the fight between Fedor and Lesnar, finding more and more excuses. They offered us a one-sided contract, under which all rights for Fedor will belong to the UFC. Of course, this turn of events did not suit us, so we tried to compromise by offering to organize a joint show. And you know how it ended. Now this fight can be only dream. Randy Couture is also a very interesting opponent – he’s a living legend of MMA, as well as Josh Barnett. Well, of course, fight with Werdum, who, unlike all the above, will be required.

(Photo by Ester Lin/Fanhouse)

At UFC 117, middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen nearly shocked the mixed artial arts universe as he was well on his way to capturing the 185-pound title over top pound-for-pound fighter Anderson Silva before the champion threw up a last second triangle to retain his belt.

Immediately following the match, fans were calling for a Sonnen-Silva rematch and UFC president Dana White confirmed this morning on Sportscenter that the fans will get what they want. Lance Pugmire of the LA Times is reporting that the rematch could be held on the New Year’s Eve card or the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend event.

There was also talks that Vitor Belfort could be the next in line for a shot at Silva, but he will have to wait for the winner of Silva-Sonnen II. In the meantime, Belfort will be fighting in November and a likely opponent is Yushin Okami.

“I talked to Lorenzo (Fertitta) this week and will return in November,” Belfort said. “I just asked him to not be (on the November card in Germany). I’m tired of traveling. I would like to return to fighting here in America. According to my conversation with Lorenzo, my opponent will not be Sonnen, but another guy that will be decided soon,” Belfort said.