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The Next Step For UFC Lightweight Contender Jim Miller

by Guerrilla Fight on December 23, 2011

New Jersey’s Jim Miller was on a seven fight winning streak going into his fight against former WEC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson this past August. With decisive victories over Kamal Shalorus and up and comer Charles Oliveira, Miller was on the fast track to getting a UFC Lightweight title shot.

However, Henderson was dominating in his second UFC performance and earned the unanimous decision victory over Miller. Despite discovering he was sick with the mono virus and a kidney infection,

Miller does not take anything away from Henderson. Although, Jim stated “I still feel that I am the best and I can beat anyone on the planet.”

Miller will get the chance to redeem this loss when he faces Melvin Guillard, another top contender in the division, at UFC on FX1. Guillard, who is known for his devastating knock out power, is also coming off a recent loss against Joe Lauzon.

Miller is a two time Submission of the Night Winner and plans on capitalizing on Guillard’s weaknesses; his ground game. He hopes a win will put him back in title contention. The fight will air on Jan. 20 and is the UFC’s first event broadcasted on the FX network, as well as the first main event fight for Miller.

~ Kristen Brown / Guerrilla Fight

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UFC Fighter Dan Miller; A Fighter Inside and Out of the Cage

by Guerrilla Fight on December 17, 2011

The following post and 2 part video is from guest feature contributor and good friend of Guerrilla, Kristen Brown. In the videos and article below, Kristen focuses on the DJMillerFoundation — The charitable topic is timely for the upcoming holidays.

UFC Middleweight Dan Miller has fought some of the biggest names in the octagon, including Chael Sonnen, Joe Doerkson, Damien Maia, and Michael Bisping. However, it is not just these exciting performances that make him one of the toughest fighters in the UFC. Some of Miller’s hardest battles have come outside of the cage. Yet Miller takes everything in his life in stride and remains almost stoic. “People go through stuff all of the time. Stuff happens. Life happens,” Miller stated.

In May of 2009 shortly before Miller was to face Chael Sonnen at UFC 98, Miller experienced every parent’s worst nightmare; the loss of a child. A year later his son, Daniel James, was born with Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD).

Meet Baby Danny

PKD is a life threatening, often fatal genetic disorder characterized by the growth of numerous cysts in the kidneys. Little Daniel’s kidneys began failing at only two months old and he started dialysis shortly thereafter. After being hospitalized for a few months at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa., Daniel returned home to New Jersey to the care of his parents, Dan and Kristin. They have learned to care for Daniel and manage his condition. Although the two actually perform his dialysis on a nightly basis, Daniel still requires nursing care for approximately sixteen hours a day. This past September Daniel had both kidneys removed and he is scheduled for a kidney transplant in January of this year. Insurance does not fully cover the cost of the transplant, nor does it cover cost of the life saving medications that Daniel will require for the rest of his life.

Dan and wife Kristin were recently forced to move in with Dan’s parents because their house was too small for little Daniel, their youngest daughter Katie, three dogs, and a whole room full of Daniel’s dialysis equipment. Daniel just returned home from a two week hospital stint because of an infection but his spirits are returning to normal. Dan’s mother Barbara described her grandson as a “fun little boy who is learning new stuff every day. Physically he is a little slow, but cognitively and mentally he is incredible.”

On Dec. 3 Mike Constantino’s AMA Fight Club in Whippany, New Jersey held a Super Seminar to raise funds for the Daniel James Miller Foundation. Dan and his younger brother, UFC Lightweight Jim Miller train at AMA. Both Miller brothers were present, as well as UFC Middleweight Chris Weidman, amongst others notable names. Clothing and gear from UFC fighters was raffled off, including Weidman’s walk out shirt and gloves from UFC 139.

“There is so much stress and so much pressure that goes along with fighting. That’s why I look at him and think that he is amazing for what he did and is doing,” said Weidman. Weidman who has a young daughter around Daniel’s age also said, “It’s crazy to think that this guy was actually training and fighting top guys in the world while going through this type of personal issues. I’d do anything I could to help.”

And Long Islander Chris Weidman is not the only one getting involved and offering help to the Millers. “The way the MMA community has come out to support my brother and my nephew is just amazing. You see everyone from Dana White, Lorenzo Fretitta, the UFC, and the fans in general. Other fighters, like guys that Dan fought, that I fought are coming out and supporting one of their own,” said the younger Miller brother. Dan continued, “My wife and I are overwhelmed with the support. It’s really going to help Danny out.”

Everything the Miller family is going through is “very emotional“, but Jim summed it up and said, “There is no way to repay all of these people for their time and effort and monetary donations. We will continue to fight our asses off and hopefully put on good shows.” Despite all of the hardships and issues that Dan has faced over the past few years he does not take anything away from his opponents that have beaten him. He said, “I fought some extremely tough competition. The guys I fought were the best in the world.“

Of course Dan would like to return to cage some day, however, right now his priority is his family. “Obviously I’m thinking about it because it’s a part of my life. It’s a huge part of my life and I do have the desire to fight. But right now I’m trying to focus on Daniel because it’s getting closer to transplant time. So I don’t know right now I’ll be a stay at home dad.”

For more information or to donate/contact please visit:

www.danieljamesmillerfoundation.wordpress.com

www.amafightclub.com

www.pkdcure.org

DJMillerFoundation@gmail.com

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UFC 139: A Main Event The UFC Can Take PRIDE In

by Guerrilla Fight on November 19, 2011

Battle Royale: Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua

Dana White may be getting his money’s worth for Pride after all. In unquestionably the best night for the legacy of Pride Fighting since the folding of that organization, three certain hall of fame fighters originally from Pride delivered one of the best fight nights in memory.

After last week’s controversy, it’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes Dana White to explode at the post-fight press conference tonight or on Youtube in the coming days. It’s likely to be the second or third question about his regretting the choice for headliner last week that will light the fuse.

As I said last weekend, I have no problem with the UFC’s choice to go with the Heavyweight title for its premier showing on free FOX Television. It was a perfectly legitimate gamble. But it is amazing how fate just likes to poke at Dana White like a caged circus lion…

It’s all a gamble really, the whole sport is… so the result is you’re going to have some relative disappointments, and then you are going to have your barn-burners. Tonight’s co-main events were the later.

Wanderlei Silva got up off the mat (so to speak) after a string of losses that had even many of his die-hard fans calling for retirement. Wanderlei came into this fight (with a stylistically difficult Cung Le) with a distinct advantage of experience on the “big stage”. For a change, he also came with a strategy.

This was no walk-over for “Wand”, as Le’s notorious side kicking and spinning kick prowess was almost as painful for Silva as it had been for Frank Shamrock a few years back. As Cung Le demonstrated with Shamrock, a broken forearm is almost inevitable with Le if you let it go too long.

Smartly, Silva stuck to his game plan, which was to frustrate Le by staying out of his range (which is essentially anything other than extremely close or extremely far away). Silva showed remarkable restraint picking his spots, waiting for Le to slow a bit, serving up some of his own high kick medicine, and following his killer instinct at closing time.

It’s hard to say where Silva stands after this, because while Cung Le earned respect over his last several fights, he still is widely considered untested. Despite looking very dangerous at times tonight, experts will say the victory was enough to keep Wanderlei around, but perhaps not enough to do much more than that. It goes without saying, the tell tale fight for Wand is now his next one.

……………………………………………………………………………..

In the main event, two other old Pride warriors went into battle. These legit living MMA legends in Mauricio Rua and Dan Henderson put on an absolute classic. Certainly the fight will be there when it’s time for the fight of the year debates.

It wasn’t very long ago that both men were riding supremely high with reputations as the cream of the MMA crop back in Pride. But, as this sport continues to move at a lightning pace and is very unforgiving to the slightest mis-step, both men were also recently on a down cycle too.

Henderson has been back on a real streak, but you only have to go back less than 2 years to see Henderson at his worst against Jake Shields in their Strikeforce matchup. While Henderson has been back on track for several fights, Rua is only recently hitting his stride again.

After a career low-light against Forrest Griffin, numerous injuries and surgeries, a resurgence in a couple of classics against Lyoto Machida (including winning the UFC Light Heavyweight title), Shogun was back in the gutter after losing the belt in a brutal demolition by Jon “Bones” Jones.

Rua bounced up once again, looking terrific against Forrest in the rematch in Brazil just a few months ago, and so the stage was set for a fight that suddenly meant something. I say that because there was a time over the course of the last three years where this match-up could have been anti-climatic.

As I’ve stated, despite the sheer legendary nature of the names involved, had this fight been made when each guy was coming off a loss and an injury (both have had serious injuries) the excitement level for this fight would have been very different.

Not to mention, under those circumstances, beyond not expecting the best from either fighter, there was the prospect of this match-up not meaning much for either guy. Again, my how this crazy sport can turn on a dime. As it turns out, this fight would most definitely have title implications.

Had Shogun pulled out the miraculous come from behind that he nearly did, he would be close (at most 1 or 2 wins) to another title shot. As it was Henderson that hung on and claimed this battle of future Hall of Famers, both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight titles are now within striking distance for him.

It’s a shame anyone had to lose this one, and it was hard not to root for Shogun at the end of this fight, no matter who you were rooting for in the beginning of it. That’s because Shogun survived an onslaught in the early rounds that could easily have seen the fight stopped. This survival alone will be the stuff of legend one day.

Henderson himself was duly impressed, showing more respect for Shogun’s chin and heart than anyone he has ever praised in the cage before. Going into this fight, I saw it as very even, as did the odds-makers. I noted to some friends though that I had to favor Hendo for one reason… his legendary chin.

Other than Minotauro Nogueira, Chris Leben and a handful of others, Henderson’s chin stands alone in the sport’s history. We might have to add Mauricio Rua’s remarkable jaw to that list after tonight. Henderson seemed truly stunned afterwards that Shogun came back in the later rounds the way that he did.

Henderson’s only failing may be his conditioning for a 5 rounder and his over-confidence that he can turn anyone’s lights out, especially after finishing the previously “un-finishable” Fedor. Hendo needed every ounce of his granite chin in order to survive the final two rounds when Shogun’s own onslaught had him in deep trouble.

In the end, regardless of the outcome and regardless of where each man goes from here, this was an instant classic, one that we will all use as a benchmark for great fights and as a planted flag for a whole generation of fighters from the last decade that are slowly exiting the stage. This was a very big night for the UFC… and for Pride Fighting.

~ J. Wise / Guerrilla Fight – Guerrilla.Fight@Yahoo.com

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Good Guy Junior Dos Santos is Now The New Baddest Man On The Planet

by Guerrilla Fight on November 12, 2011

Junior Dos Santos defeats Cain Velasquez, UFC on FOX 1

Dos Santos Takes HW Belt In 64 Seconds

In a monumental night for the UFC, a real life Rocky story came to fruition in the form of the new UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos.

Only UFC I, Bonnar-Griffin I and the Liddell-Couture three-play are in the discussion for more important events in the sport’s 18 year history. As far as Dana White is concerned, tonight was the biggest night for the UFC since the ownership transfer of the company to Zuffa in 2001.

He said as much in recent days, and the facts are with him on this one. The national (and international) audience captured by free network television, particularly one with such strong sports programming as FOX, make this a potential game-breaker for the company. This is quite possibly a much larger earthquake than the fight which saved the organization in 2005… the aforementioned Griffin- Bonnar I.

While most experts agree that the heavyweight belt was by far the best possible gamble for the UFC to launch its network television era with, live combat sports always present a risk in terms of actual outcome. On this night many will argue that the UFC lost the wager, as the one and only fight on the premier FOX event lasted a mere 64 seconds.

To the rabid MMA fans which have managed to drag the sport from out of the darkness of the 90’s and the early 2000’s and into the light of a wholly new era in combat sports (one in which MMA now clearly dominates boxing), the lightning quick finish served up by Junior Dos Santos’ fists offered no disappointment whatsoever… only bliss.

Critics will contend that for a debut the action was insufficient to satisfy and “hook” the uninitiated. They will claim that tonight’s FOX broadcast fell short in its attempt to draft new troopers into its ravenous army of MMA devotees. These critics miss the point altogether.

Certainly it would have been nice for this fight to have fulfilled all of Dana White’s dreams and been an epic 3-5 round brawl in which the momentum swung back and forth to each brawler from minute to minute.

Yes, that scenario may have gone a long way towards immediately drafting a whole new generation of fight fans to the combat sport of this century, but to see tonight’s premier as less than a blockbuster success is to be very short sighted.

The excitement amongst long time fans of the sport, ones that have been dreaming of this day for 15 years and more, was palpable. That was the success story right there. The buzz on the Internet, in forums, on Twitter and Facebook, in text messages between fight fans and fighters and newbies alike, was at a whole new level leading up to and throughout this evening.

In the big picture tonight’s Velasquez vs. Dos Santos “blink and you missed it” battle was more about the triumph and the celebration of MMA as a prime time sport than it was about a single fight card (minimal as it was). The arrival of the UFC was the point, and MMA legitimacy is now a foregone conclusion.

The UFC story has always been about the word of mouth generated by the hard core fans which has attracted the curiosity of the uninitiated again and again in order to fortify the ranks. So whether or not the heavyweight championship contested tonight was exciting enough to take hold of a whole new audience matters little in the big picture.

The big picture is that the UFC was on FOX tonight, plain and simple. And that is a big deal. It’s big in as much as it is symptomatic of the direction of the sport, which is up, up and up. The trajectory for the sport of MMA and the UFC especially is obvious. In scientific terms “the sky is the limit” pretty much nails it.

The hard core fans brought MMA here, the hard core fans celebrated tonight, and the hardcore fans will continue to supply the converts by word of mouth. This is what makes the sport from a spectator side so special… there is an interactive element involved. The fans are the UFC, and to their credit, the UFC knows it.

This is why tonight’s matchup was a no brainer. Even if the outcome were to be slightly undesirable in terms of grabbing new devotees, there was almost no chance that the matchup was going to disappoint the core base. In that respect, this fight delivered all the dynamite that was ever packed into a heavyweight championship in MMA.

That is to say, those devotees that have been educated for a decade or more on the modern fight game understand what Dos Santos victory means on a much deeper level than does the uninitiated general public. But the public will come around. The FOX deal doesn’t really get under way until January. Tonight was just the appetizer.

What the core fans saw tonight was the arrival of the Chuck Liddell of Heavyweights. Light Heavyweight legend Liddell is of course the most familiar face of MMA throughout the world, and his ballistic stand-up style supported by a highly successful sprawl rate versus elite grapplers throughout the past decade made him the most recognizable champion in the sport’s history.

Devotees of the sport will see an evolved heavyweight mirror image of Liddell in Dos Santos. Grapplers know their only chance is to get him down, yet even the best are paralyzed into a position of total weakness by the prospect of an unsuccessful takedown.

Long time fans of MMA recognize greatness when they see it, and they are used to seeing it displayed in brief contests where you literally should not venture to the kitchen for even a few seconds during round one. That can be a big mistake… a temptation that the devotees were long ago cured of.

What should be remembered about this premier event on FOX was the caliber of the athletes. The short duration of the bout is really a tribute to how far the sport has come. This was very likely the two most dangerous heavyweights to ever face off in the Octagon, and that is saying a lot.

What should also be remembered is the character of the combatants. To say that Velasquez vs. Dos Santos is a commentary on the evolution and the maturity of the sport is an understatement. It wasn’t long ago that undesirable theatrics and reality show grudge matches dominated the pre-fight hype circulating UFC events.

The truth is, until recently the UFC was only at risk from the prospect of presenting its product to such an extended audience on such a respectable stage. Velasquez vs. Dos Santos represents a very positive corner turned in MMA. The sport now boasts a plethora of athletes of such elite quality that WWE style antics are out of place and actually absurd.

This is another triumph for MMA, for the UFC, and for the fans that raised the sport to this new height. Two more respectable (and respectful) elite athletes have never faced off in an Octagon or a boxing ring for a heavyweight belt or a belt of any size for that matter. This was a great night for MMA.

And now, after 64 seconds of excruciating tension and one bomb of an overhand right that landed perfectly behind the ear of the former heavyweight champ, we now have one of the most likeable and admirable champions in the history of combat sports.

Junior Dos Santos walked out to the Octagon in Anaheim on Saturday with great optimism to the tune of the “Rocky” theme. Not enough attendees in the crowd understood how perfect the soundtrack was and how deserved the comparison was for Dos Santos.

Junior is a movie script come to life. A self proclaimed goofball and clown, an extreme lover of life… a guy with a perpetual smile and an equally perpetual positive outlook on life. He’s also a man that overcame abject poverty in Brazil as child, propelling himself past numerous disadvantages by sheer will and heart (and not a little athleticism) to the ultimate prize in fighting.

While 90% of the audience in Anaheim was rooting for the “hometown” and proud Mexican-American Cain Velasquez, the UFC’s new champ is equally impressive and symbolizes a new high water mark for the UFC.

Junior Dos Santos, a Brazilian, is the American dream come to life. What’s more, the core MMA fans know what to make of the 64 seconds worth of quick-work Dos Santos made of Velasquez on Saturday… it means a good guy and a real life Rocky is now the new “baddest man on the planet”.

~ J. Wise / Guerrilla Fight — Guerrilla.jw@gmail.com

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Frankie Edgar Ends All Doubt In Trilogy With Maynard

by Guerrilla Fight on October 11, 2011

Lightweight Champ Frankie Edgar

There were many unanswered questions going into the third and final fight between UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

The two had fought twice before… in the first fight Maynard nabbing a close decision and the second fight ending up a draw.

Some pundits and fans believed that the champions’ days were numbered and that because he’s such a small lightweight, that he’d lose and have to drop down to the featherweight division. On Saturday they were proved wrong.

The New Jersey native would not be deterred on this night even after taking another horrible first round beating. Edgar would rally back and even the score cards in the second and third rounds, and in the fourth round, Edgar would surprise the Houston, Texas crowd with a thrilling TKO victory at the 3:54 mark.

No one was more enthusiastic about Edgar’s performance other than the UFC boss Dana White. After the win, White proclaimed that Edgar is the Arturo Gatti of MMA and is an unbelievable champion.

“Think about all the fights we’ve seen over the past 10 years or how many fights you’ve seen in your life where a guy goes out and gets hurt as bad as he did in the first round,” White said at the post-fight press conference.

“That’s move [expletive]. That stuff doesn’t happen in real life. There’s two guys I’ve seen do it: Arturo Gatti and Frankie Edgar. What he did the last time and this time; he’s an amazing human being. He’s an incredible athlete and he’s got a heart the size of this room.”

Now with Edgar evening the score with Maynard, new challenges lie ahead of the lightweight champion. A meeting with Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, or a possible fight with the winner of Clay Guida and former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson is likely.

Will the champ’s success continue? Or will the size difference finally catch up with him at lightweight?

One thing can be seen as certain after the damage he took from Maynard at UFC 136 – Edgar will not be easily dethroned.

~ Andrew Gladstone / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrillaFight@gmail.com

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UFC 140: Lyoto Machida vs. Jon Jones Headlines Toronto

by Guerrilla Fight on October 11, 2011

LH Champ Jon Jones

UFC president Dana White quickly shut down rumors that were circling of a bout between UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones (14-1) and Rashad Evans. White then announced the following day via twitter that Jones would meet former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida (17-2) at UFC 140 in Toronto.

Evans is undergoing rehabilitation for an injured thumb and will have to postpone settling the score with Jones for the time being.

As for Machida, he’s currently riding high off a devastating knockout victory over UFC Hall-of-Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture. He finished the fight karate kid style with a jumping front kick. The former champion Machida experienced some setbacks against the likes of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the title and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson prior to resuming form against Couture.

The 24-year-old “Bones” Jones will look to further cement his status as a Top 5 pound for pound in the sport by dealing with the southpaw Machida and defending his belt for just the second time.

In a recent interview for MMA Fighting, Jones stated how that he believes Machida is a far more difficult challenge compared with Evans, due to the fact he holds a win over Evans via knockout.

“I think Lyoto Machida is a tougher fight for me than Rashad Evans” Jones said to MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani. “I’m fighting the guy who knocked out Rashad Evans. Lyoto is a completely different test for me. He’s the first southpaw that I’ve ever fought.”

On December 10^th the contest between Machida and Jones will be on a stacked card that also features the highly anticipated rematch between Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and a light heavyweight tilt between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and the controversial Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz.

Will the Jones legacy flourish? Or will Machida be able to capture the title for the second time? All these questions will be answered and more as UFC 140 heads to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada.

~ Andrew Gladstone / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrillaFight@gmail.com

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UFC 135: Jon Jones Defeats Rampage, Lives Up to the Hype

by Guerrilla Fight on September 29, 2011

UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Jon Jones

This past Saturday night, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones moved his record to 14-1 after submitting former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the fourth round.

The entire fight, Jackson appeared to be flustered with the reach and couldn’t get anything going. In the pre-fight build up, Jackson mentioned that he would take Jones into deep waters and capitalize on the openings he leaves.

As it turned out, it was Jones who had pressed the action in the fourth round and submitted the 33-year-old with a rear-naked choke.

“Me and Rampage did a lot of talking and I’m just glad it’s over,” Jones said post-fight. “I’m just doing my job right now.”

Securing the win over Jackson in his first title defense, Jones has cemented his status at the top of a stacked, star-studded light heavyweight division.

The 24-year-old not only stands as the first light heavyweight to have a successful title defense since Jackson defeated Dan Henderson in 2007, he is the first fighter to finish Rampage in the world famous Octagon.

Up next for the young champion is former teammate and former UFC light heavyweight champion “Sugar” Rashad Evans. Over the course of the past few months, things have gotten rather heated between the two former teammates and Jones capped off the night explaining post-fight how he feels Rashad isn’t even close to having his number.

“I will say this about Rashad, he does not have my number. He’s not even close to having my number. Me and Rashad sparred a few times and every time we sparred I know what could have happened. He talks about the one day at practice he held me down and he lives that day in his head every day.”

~ Andrew Gladstone / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrillaFighters@gmail.com

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Ultimate Fighting Returns To Brazil: Shogun, Spider And Minotauro All Victorious

by Guerrilla Fight on August 27, 2011

Brazilians Sweep Rio Main Events

The three big name Brazilians on the card for the UFC’s first trip to Brazil in more than a decade all made easy work of their opponents. Although the card may not have been designed for a sweep, that’s pretty much how it turned out.

After mainly toying with Yushin Okami in the first round of their 185 pound title fight (standard practice for Anderson Silva), the Spider turned up the heat and set up the finish using psyche-out tactics he has often used in the past.

Accordingly, Silva dropped his hands very low in order to lure Okami into a false sense of security (as he once did to an unsuspecting Forrest Griffin), and he dropped Okami with a single jab seemingly out of nowhere.

Albeit, this was no ordinary jab. A very short right jab from Silva landed very awkwardly but flush on the right temple of Okami. That’s right, the right temple. You have to see this to understand how unusual a one punch knockdown this was.

A right hand (while fighters are squared off) doesn’t often land on the opposite side temple of the opponent. It didn’t help matters that Okami turned his head into the punch at precisely the wrong moment and angle.

Later in the second round Silva finished the job with a very short right hook that caught Okami flush on the nose. From that moment it seemed that all the fight was out of Yushin Okami.

Actually, it is tough to figure out how Okami was dropped so emphatically by this right hook, unless he was still badly hurt from the earlier knockdown. It didn’t seem to be a devastating punch. Then again, it is a hook thrown by Anderson Silva, the man that possesses the greatest striking prowess in the history of MMA.

There was very little work left to do as Okami did little more than cover up after he fell. Silva graciously through the minimum number of finishing strikes as was necessary until Herb Dean waved it off.

Once again Anderson Silva proved that there is really no opponent worth mentioning for him at 185 pounds other than 3 glaringly obvious re-matches: Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and after one more win, Vitor Belfort.

The other big stories tonight involved the second and third leg of the Brazilian sweep: Shogun Rua’s destruction of Forrest Griffin, and an incredible resurgence fight for the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

The end for Griffin also came off of an unusually landed right hand. In this case it appeared that a very powerful right hook from Rua landed flush on the side of the neck of Griffin, right where the carotid artery resides. We don’t often see a fight begin to end in this fashion, but it is a wonder that we don’t see it more often.

Most self defense styles and traditional Martial Arts specifically teach that area of an attacker’s neck as a prime target, and for exactly the reasons we witnessed in Rua’s victory.

While Rua was almost certainly aiming for the temple with this shot, the spot it landed on did just as well as the head would have, as this flush shot to the artery can really wobble an opponent and make him extremely vulnerable for several seconds with very limited motor skills.

That’s a dreadful situation to be in against Shogun, a former Pride and UFC Champ known specifically to have some of the best killer instincts in the sport’s history. Shogun made short work of Griffin from this point, finishing him with several rapid fire shots on the ground, particularly a devastating hammer fist that was essentially game over for Griffin.

My favorite moment of the night (and it was one of the brightest nights for the UFC in 2011) was the spectacular revival of Minotauro Nogueria on his home turf.

Nogueira is the singular legendary heavyweight in the history of cage-fighters from Brazil. Big Nog as his fans refer to him, had been warning the public that he was feeling healthy for the first time in many years.

That refrain is not uncommon though amongst pro MMA fighters, so you never know how true it is, or whether or not a coinciding lay-off will counteract the newfound good health. In the case of Big Nog, he was apparently deadly serious about how good he felt. Nog absorbed a few heavy shots from an extremely talented and large up-and-coming striker named Brendan Schaub.

Despite Nog’s legendary status, Schaub was favored in this one, as many devout MMA followers simply thought Nogueira had seen too many wars, taken too much damage, especially of late. Minotauro Nogueira is famous for his ability to take a punch and for several of the greatest in-fight comebacks in cage-fighting history.

In short, Minotauro’s jaw is a huge part of his legend. Only recently had opponents been able to get at Nogueira’s chin in a permanent sense. Going up against an extremely heavy hitting and athletic Schaub, there was good reason to wonder how Minotauro’s chin would hold up in this one.

Had Nog’s chin really been brought past the point of no return in recent years? The question was answered when Schaub did clip Nogueuira pretty good early in the fight, at one point seeming to significantly wobble Big Nog.

But the 35 year old living legend and Brazilian national hero shook off the damage like the Nog of old and kept moving forward. Nogueira kept pressing Schaub, and landed some hard shots of his own to the head. Despite being known for possessing the greatest BJJ skills of any heavyweight to ever fight in the cage, Big Nog’s significant improvement in his stand-up game over the last several years carried the night for him.

Schaub felt the sting and power in Minotauro’s hands and dropped onto his face, where an incredibly sportsman-like (as always) Minotauro threw the bare minimum needed to finish the young heavyweight (whom he obviously has great respect for). Nogueira’s homecoming was the highlight of the Rio card for me, for many reasons.

Anyone that has been following the sport for 10 years or more understands that Nog is the essence of the true MMA warrior. This guy is a blue collar, salt of the earth, fighter’s fighter. Never one to begin a war of words or get dragged into one, and as gracious and soft spoken a killer as has ever stepped foot in a cage, Nogueira is a special fighter… one that the UFC would do well to spotlight more.

Minotauro is a throwback, a fighter that puts no faith in trash talk, and only looks to challenge himself at every turn and to get up off the mat if he goes down… every time until his last breath. Truly one of my favorite fighters, from a similar mold as Couture and Chris Lytle (whom I also recently lauded as a favorite for similar reasons). Just shut up and fight kids. It’s as simple as that.

Nogueira was blessed with the opportunity to fight in front of his hometown for first time in many, many years. It was clearly a moment for him that was a lifetime highlight. This was emotional for Minotauro and it was simply one of the more inspiring moments in the UFC this year.

As I said earlier, Nogueira clearly had a deep respect for Schaub and no doubt sees him as the future of the sport, but for right now, as he said emphatically in the cage after the fight ended – “I’m back!” Indeed he is. “The Bull” looked younger tonight at 35 than he has in 5 years.

~ J. Wise / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrilaFighter@gmail.com

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Chris Lytle Chokes Dan Hardy’s Lights Out in Milwaukee; UFC Live 5

by Guerrilla Fight on August 14, 2011

The Fighter's Fighter: Chris Lytle

I’m starting to write this in between the 2nd and 3rd rounds, because honestly, it doesn’t matter how this fight turns out for Chris Lytle.

The fight is damn near even at this point, and no matter what happens in the 3rd and final round, this fight will be about a sendoff that was entirely fitting for a fighter of Lytle’s stature… simply one of the toughest to ever step in the cage.

Lytle naturally possesses as optimal a style as any fighter that has ever fought in the UFC… possibly not for championships, but definitively for FOTNs. In some circles that honor is worth more than a belt.

An extremely talented and technically skilled striker, Lytle always intentionally fought wild, taking his hands advantage to another level against anyone that was willing to trade with him. His quick and accurate hands were deadly enough, but odd angle overhands and hooks, often off balance, were the edge that brought a man so willing to put his chin on the line to victory more often than not.

As I’m putting this down, Lytle now is officially retired and has locked in a stunning achievement: he has never been KO’d or submitted in his career – about 60 or so pro fights.

Chris Lytle just choked out Dan Hardy who went for an ill-advised and sloppy take-down that landed him promptly in a “Lights Out” choke-out. And that’s the the other side of the coin.

Chris Lytle is a true warrior, but as the modern cage has demanded, Lytle has for a long time not been a one trick pony. Lytle could have fought smarter throughout his carreer, as exemplified by several submission victories over his last 10 fights, but he chose the warrior way.

As a testimony to his confidence in his own chin, and as a true testament to his blue collar brass balls, Lytle always preferred to chase down highlight reel fights, memorable stand-up wars, rather than to intentionally bring a fight to the ground. As many (now including Dan Hardy) have found out however, Lytle was always far from helpless when the bodies hit the floor.

As many have said, what this fight was admirably designed for by Zuffa, was a story book ending to one of the most under-recognized careers in pro MMA history. Lytle has been one of my favorites since I saw him fight in Newark in the fall of 2008. It’s one thing to appreciate a guy that puts it all on the line every time he fights when you are at home on your couch, it’s another thing entirely to understand what it means to the growth of the sport that the UFC has fighters like Chris that make crowds stand up at live events.

Chris Lytle is even more admirable than all that. To this day he’s a full time fireman, a total throwback to the early days of the UFC (talk about story book). Lytle’s career is heralded by the old guard of MMA fans, those who have a certain fondness for the rough and tumble 90s era where full time jobs on the side were the rule and not the exception.

For these reasons, and also because Lytle was never ever a sh*t talker, he is to me the model of a true mixed martial arts fighter. I seriously hope I am not alone in hoping that some of the younger guys took notes on how Lytle handled himself in and out of the cage.

The loss of a fighter like this hurts the UFC, and Dana White especially has to be less than thrilled with seeing Lytle walk. White gets criticized and praised for a lot of things, however it seems obvious he is genuinely concerned for his fighters, particularly the ones that fight like “Lights Out”. White is probably truly in admiration of the way Lytle is leaving on his own terms. This is a major victory in itself.

There is no doubt Lytle’s boxing skills, iron chin and willingness to brawl made him one of White’s favorites, particularly in his 2nd life after a stint on the Ultimate Fighter. While Dana and all of us have to recognize and deal with this loss of Lytle as a loss of part of the UFC’s backbone, it is awesome to see a warrior like Lytle go out like this.

Truly he is one of the best stories in pro MMA in 2011, and “Lights Out” Lytle is easily one of the best fighters in UFC history to never get a title shot. He is an unsung hero of the sport. It wouldn’t exist without character role players like him.

………………………………………………………….

A lot of speculation now turns to Dan Hardy. Almost immediately the chatter will turn to the likelihood (or not) of Hardy’s dismissal from the organization due to a now rather dismal record over his last 5 outings.

However, anyone that thinks Hardy will not be back is a fool. I’m going out on a limb a bit because we have seen a few stunning cuts already this year, the type we had never seen before in the UFC. This is symptomatic of the growth of the sport and the ever increasing level of competition.

Still, anyone that thinks Hardy gets cut after this fight doesn’t understand 2 things: a) how much England means to the UFC and how much of a plus Hardy is for the UFC there, and b) that White and Zuffa in general live by a code. The plain fact of the matter is that despite a very steep and stunning decline in Hardy’s stock in just a year and a half, the fact is that Zuffa rewards guys that accept their marching orders.

To be clear, I don’t think the UFC has ever fixed fights, nor do I think that they directly tell fighters how to fight. Although some fighters have taken criticism from White as though it were a directive to change their style, that confusion is just not White’s problem.

But aside from all that, there is plenty of legit unwritten guy code behind the scenes at the UFC, especially with regard to the match-ups. Anyone that doesn’t get that should set their alarm clock a little earlier.

The fact is that the UFC had some not so secret hopes for this fight, a bout that essentially was meant to carry this card. Hardy performed his duty and lost to a still tough as nails 37 year old Lytle. The fact that Dan Hardy played his role well and fulfilled expectations as the perfect style match-up to once again bring out the best Chris Lytle means that Hardy will definitely get another shot. Definitely maybe…

No doubt, he’ll probably be promptly cut tomorrow….

J.Wise / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrillaFight@gmail.com

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UFC 133 Philadelphia: Rashad Evans Ends Tito Ortiz Resurgence

by Guerrilla Fight on August 6, 2011

Rashad Sets Up Next Belt Shot

Most lines had Evans at -420, so the way this one played out came as no surprise. Nether did the manner in which the fight was brought to a conclusion.

Rashad Evans never exposed himself to any real danger, in part because he was reluctant to charge out at Ortiz off the initial bell the way he did after Rampage in his last outing 16 months ago.

After a long layoff this was a particularly wise choice by Evans, to remain relaxed and start with half a round of distance gauging. Tito’s only real chance in this fight was to catch an overly excited Rashad in a mistake early and capitalize. It was just not meant to be for the Bad Boy.

Tito always looks stiff against the new guard, and he looked particularly so against Evans who is an extremely flexible natural athlete. I was actually pulling for Tito in this one (and that’s a first for me) because the Rocky story that might have materialized with an Ortiz win would have been quite interesting, but I never had any real confidence it was going to happen.

That Rashad would use his top shelf wrestling to get this fight to the mat when and how he wanted was almost a given, and that same wrestling skill once down was largely insurmountable for Ortiz who has never been known for ground skills once placed on his back.

While Rashad has shown some rapidly improving hand skills over his last 6 bouts (minus the Machida loss), and while he has also shown some serious power in those hands, he took a conservative route tonight, despite tagging Ortiz with a nice hook in the first half of the first round.

Rashad did not hesitate to play to his strengths and he dumped Ortiz on his back with some suplex styled take-downs, once in each of the two rounds.

The second take-down was all that was required, as after several minutes in each round of exposing Ortiz to the dreaded and helpless crucifix position (or a near approximation) Ortiz was gassed and basically defenseless against a relentless and ever more confident Evans.

The end came with an exhausted (and admirable) Ortiz fighting for his life to get back to his feet, while still on his knees he absorbed an absolutely devastating knee from Rashad to the solar plexus. The fight lasted another 10 seconds and a few more strikes, but realistically the knee ended the fight.

Pro MMA fighters rarely end up in a position where a perfectly placed knee to the solar plexus is possible, but this is a great example as to why most traditional martial arts have always instructed students that the area just above the abdomen is a primary target when available.

Rashad looked outstanding after coming off a long layoff and some significant knee problems, and while Ortiz has never been a favorite of mine due to his mouth leading in front of his actions, my hat is off to him for having taken this fight on short rest and notice.

Rashad is no doubt in line for the Rampage vs. Jon Jones victor, and while Rashad has reason for an even higher level of confidence in his game, he needs to be wary of some troubling signs.

First, it is hard to image Bones Jones needing more than half a round to dispose of the now certainly beyond peak Tito Ortiz. Secondly, after the fight when Ortiz and Evans graciously put their hard feelings behind them, it was hard not to notice how significantly bigger Ortiz looked next to the victorious Rashad.

The point is, Bones Jones is substantially bigger than Tito Ortiz. Size isn’t everything, but all other things being equal, Rashad is going next into an assumed title battle against Jones Jones with a serious size problem. Yes I’m assuming Jones crushes Rampage.

I’ve been saying that Evans and all other undersized light-heavies should head for z-hills (aka, 185 pounds) since the game changing Jon Jones destruction of Shogun Rua. Simply put, given the incredibly rapid development of the current champion’s skill set, a significant disadvantage in size is going to be virtually insurmountable for any challenger at 205 pounds.

Also a significant event on tonight’s card, a once again revitalized Vitor Belfort impressed the house in Philly. We havn’t seen Vitor since he was demolished by an outstanding example of a (Seagal) reworked traditional front push kick delivered by the best striker in the sport, Anderson Silva.

And while nothing can diminish the kick (simply one of the most incredible KOs in the history of the sport), it was still mainly a sort of a trick shot.

Granted only a true master could pull off the kick the way Silva did, but I have never thought that the way that fight ended diminished in any way how great Vitor had been looking in his previous 5 fights leading up to that bout, nor have I believed that the results of that fight would have any impact on the results of the inevitable rematch.

Again, bravo to the master Silva for his elite Thai skills, but given Vitor is a bit more cautious and wary of Silva’s trickery, and assuming Vitor can avoid getting tagged with a similar shot in the next fight, Belfort has as good a chance of dethroning the long reigning Silva as anyone in professional MMA at 185 pounds in the potential do-over.

Assuming that Silva walks through Yushin Okami in Brazil at UFC 134 in a few weeks (and yes, I am assuming that also), there are really only two guys besides Belfort that deserve a fight with Silva at 185: Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen.

Interestingly, all three of the best contenders for Silva’s belt are past victims in the Spider’s web. Both Chael and Vitor succumbed to Silva more recently, while Henderson did so (after a great first round) back in March of 2008.

Vitor certainly re-solidified his claim for a rematch tonight by completely overwhelming Yoshihiro Akiyama tonight in Philly. Throw out the front kick from Silva, and Belfort’s last half a dozen fights all read like deja-vu all over again: Vitor dazes his opponent early with either a flush or grazing punch, and then swarms with a frantic killer instinct that rivals anyone in pro cage-fighting.

As Belfort dramatically declared by aiming his victorious yell “I’m back!” directly at Dana White, indeed Belfort is still in contention for the belt at 185 pounds.

~ J.Wise / Guerrilla Fight – GuerrillaFight@gmail.com

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