Junior Dos Santos and the heavyweight division

Cain Velasquez captured the UFC heavyweight belt in October of 2010. He was subsequently injured and couldn't defend his title until November of 2011 against Junior Dos Santos (JDS). JDS stuffed takedowns, blocked kicks and landed a bomb that put Cain out in 64 seconds. What was odd was the hype preceding this bout. The UFC sold Cain as a fighter with "zero weaknesses" and as a dominant fighter. It was an odd way to hype the fight as Cain is a great but flawed fighter. This isn't revisionist history either...I picked Cain to beat Brock and I picked JDS to beat Cain before both bouts happened. Cain is a very predictable fighter and has proven to be vulnerable in certain areas. JDS, on the other hand, has not looked vulnerable in any of his UFC bouts to date.

Cain is a great fighter with an unlimited gas tank. He has good power and a great wrestling base. The flaw I noticed immediately is that he has poor striking defense. He gets hit A LOT. In his fight against Cheick Kongo in June of 2009, he was rocked badly three times. His wrestling base helped him survive and outlast Kongo in that bout. Even against Noguiera and Lesnar, both victories for Cain, he got hit often and hard. Against a striker land finisher ike JDS, you can't make mistakes like this. This is why I also think JDS will steamroll Alistair Overeem when they fight in May. Against Werdum in June of 2011, Werdum was consistently able to land a lot on Overeem and lost a close decision. Werdum does not hit anywhere near as hard as JDS does. And all JDS needs is one opening to land a knock out blow.

The winner of Cain and Frank Mir (per Dana White) gets the next title shot against the JDS/Overeem winner. Assuming JDS and Cain win, why would anyone assume a fight between them would go any differently? Cain doesn't have the striking to stay on the feet and JDS proved in the first fight that he could stuff Cain's takedowns. Mir's ground game against JDS would be very interesting but JDS trains under Noguiera so he should be able to hold his own on the ground and stay out of trouble. Mir has never shown a great takedown game so I'm not sure he even could get it to the ground in the first place. If it stays a striking battle, I see JDS finishing Mir as well.

I think JDS will hold the belt for a long time. He's beaten grapplers (Werdum, Struve, Gonzaga), wrestler/striker hybrids (Roy Nelson, Shane Carwin and Cain) and pure strikers (Gilbert Yvel and Mirko Cro Cop). If he takes out Overeem, that would be a win over a recent K-1 champion. With all of the hype surrounding Jose Aldo, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva (rightfully so), JDS should be getting more hype as well. He's on his way to clearing out his division in the most stacked version of the heavyweight division in history. I might be getting too ahead of myself but I see JDS taking out Overeem and then taking out the Mir/Cain winner. Obviously, anything can happen in MMA but JDS has been that dominant and shown such a diverse all around game. I find his style fascinating because it's very predictable but it's so effective. He stuffs takedowns, throws minimal kicks and looks to land bombs with his fists. He's like a Chuck Liddell 2.0. Great athlete, great chin and a finisher.

Best of Pride Fighting Championships, Shogun Rua vs Alistair Overeem 2

This is a new feature that we are going to do just to show respect to the legends and showcase fights that people may or may not have seen before. This fight took place at Pride 33 in 2007 in the city of Las Vegas. To new MMA fans, Shogun may look like he is unbeatable one minute, a mere mortal the next. To clear things up, the guy has had 3 major reconstructive knee surgeries. I'm not laying out any excuses, just stating facts. As you can see from his earlier fights, he was a pent up ball of aggression in the cage. He now fights a lot more measured and intelligently as he doesn't have the explosiveness he had when he was younger.

Before Alistair Overeem became "Ubereem", he was a skinny, Dutch striker that fought at 205 pounds. He had varying success in Pride and this video is actually a rematch from their first meeting, a fight in which Shogun won by TKO.  In Shogun's UFC fights, he is a very good striker and often keeps the fight standing. In his Pride days, Shogun liked to drag guys to the ground and then unleash holy hell on them. He had/has some of the most devastating ground and pound in the sport. A recent example is his second fight with Lyoto Machida. He drops Machida with an overhand right and then he immediately follows Machida to the ground and lands in full mount. These are finishing instincts that are impossible to teach.

Anyways, in the above fight, Shogun and Overeem stand for a bit before going to the ground. Overeem doesn't want any part of Shogun on the ground due to Shogun's grappling advantage. They eventually hit the ground and Shogun immediately goes for kimuras as Overeem looks to sweep and get the fight back to a standing position. Overeem eventually gets the fight back to a standing position but then throws an ill-advised knee. Shogun catches the leg and takes him down with a single. From there, it is Shogun in top position looking to rain down blows. I won't spoil the ending but the bout ends in highlight reel fashion.

Mark Hunt, the year of 2012 and how did we get here?

As a former Pride Fighting Championships fan (started in 1999, ended in 2007), I became absolutely enthralled with certain fighters. Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, the Noguieras, Rampage Jackson (begrudgingly, long after his feud with Wanderlei was over)  and many, many others. One fighter that was a must see fighter was Mark Hunt. Hunt entered Pride straight off of a K-1 championship and was immediately thrown into the deep end of Pride. He recorded decision victories over Cro Crop and Wanderlei (the win over Wanderlei has always been heavily disputed but a win is a win) before he ran into trouble.

"The Super Samoan" then quickly lost 4 straight fights. This sounds unforgivable until you look at whom he lost to: Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem (pre-Ubereem) and Gegard Mousasi. Pride was then bought by the UFC and Hunt went to K-1 for a match with Melvin Manhoef. Two things of note here: Hunt was known for having an IRON chin in his Pride days. Secondly, Manhoef was/is known for hitting harder than sh**. Well, Manhoef won this round and KO'd Hunt in well under a minute. This would obviously make it 5 losses in a row at this point.

If this was a movie, here's the scene where our conquering hero wanders off into the abyss, searching his soul and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. In September of 2010, the UFC announced that Hunt was set against Sean McCorkle (really, really funny guy outside of the cage). Everyone gave a collective "HUH?" before Dana acknowledged that Hunt's Pride contract was so iron-cladden that he wasn't able to ignore Hunt's contract demands and had to honor the existing contract. The fans shrugged their shoulders and wished for the best. After a McCorkle victory by armbar, the majority of old Pride fans sighed but realized that Hunt was no longer the wrecking machine he had been in Pride. In February of 2011 for UFC 127, again Hunt was announced as a UFC participant (facing Chris Tuchscherer) and (again) Dana said he was obligated to give Hunt fights.

Going into the Tuchscherer fight, most fans were very concerned. Tuchscherer had shown above adequate wrestling ability in the cage and had shown a decent chin. Hunt was coming off of six consecutive defeats. Hunt had never been out-struck (aside from Manhoef) and had lost all other fights via submission to better grapplers and submission artists. Well, Hunt stuffed multiple takedowns, was able to get up after being taken down and gave us the most anti-climactic KO victory in history. He landed a quick uppercut, glanced down briefly at his opponent, saw the damage he had caused, nonchalantly put his hands in the air and walked away. Tuchscherer was clearly out on his feet and the Australian crowd went wild! Hunt had given us one memorable knockout for old time's sake.

Fast forward to September of 2011. Hunt is doing battle against Ben Rothwell on the undercard of Jones/Rampage, a monstrous heavyweight known for his iron chin, good wrestling and size. Hunt and Rothwell both survive the Denver altitude and Hunt wins a unanimous decision. Hunt even got Joe Rogan and the Denver audience to go crazy due to his arm bar attempt in the second round. Crazy stuff. Side note here: absolute respect is a must to Rothwell here. Rothwell survived multiple Hunt BOMBS and was able to go the full three rounds. Warrior. Any other heavyweight with the possible exception of Roy Nelson would have been KO'd in this fight.

Now, here's where things get a little surreal. I knew (absolutely KNEW) that Hunt was going to win against Cheick Kongo. Let me explain why: Hunt was a much better striker, had a better chin and hit harder. Kongo had shown a tendency to wrestle strikers in the past but he secured takedowns mostly from the clinch. Well, Hunt out-weighed Kongo by more than 30 pounds so I felt Hunt would be able to shrug them off. Anyways, I felt so confident on it that I debated all week about placing a $100 bet on Hunt. Hunt closed at +280 odds which means (for people who don't know much about gambling) I would have received my initial $100 back, with an additional $280 in profit with a Hunt win. Being the genius I am, I didn't bet on the fight. Hunt wins via thunderous KO in round 1, I yelled "I knew it!!", silently cursed myself for not betting and a legend is re-born.

To recap: Hunt started off his career 5-0. He then loses 6 in a row. He is only given fights in the UFC because the UFC couldn't pay him off. Rallies back to win 3 fights in a row over an increasingly difficult schedule in the UFC for an overall record as of right now at 8-7. He has momentum in his favor, iron chin, iron fists and what looks to be an ever improving ground game and improving takedown defense skills. He can stand with anyone in the division....this includes Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem and Cain Velasquez. But what if they look for the takedown? Can Hunt get up? Can he avoid submission attempts from guys like Fabricio Werdum, Barnett (if they fight again) and Noguiera? Honestly, I have no idea. It's just been nice to see a guy lose 6 fights in a row, steady the ship and get right back in there and find success. He has re-dedicated himself to MMA and is training his ground game and wrestling religiously with an eye on a UFC title. Rumors are swirling that he'll face off against Stefan Struve next (** edit: this has been confirmed by the UFC for May of 2012). Struve is known for great grappling and a questionable chin. Can Hunt land a bomb before Struve is able to take him down and bring him into the grappling world?

Will Hunt win or even challenge for the UFC heavyweight title? Probably not but we do know that he'll either win or lose by going down swinging and looking to entertain the fans. In this era of point fighting and winning by all means (even if it involves zero risk taking and boring the heck out of the fans), it'd be nice to have a challenger and/or champion like Hunt.

Brock Lesnar vs Alistair Overeem, intriguing for many reasons..

This week's marquee fight between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem is intriguing for many reasons. First, how will Overeem deal with the takedown? In his last 3 fights (Werdum, Duffee and Rogers), he looked great in each except against Werdum. What was the difference? Werdum was looking for the takedown the entire fight. Overeem was not able to plant his feet and throw due to him worrying about the takedown. Werdum isn't know for his explosive takedowns but guess who is? Lesnar. What's to stop Lesnar from bullying him into the cage, wearing him out for a round and stopping a gassed Overeem in round 2?

This entire fight will be decided in the first 90 seconds. Can Lesnar get a takedown? Can Overeem land something significant before being taken down? Overeem has K-1 credentials (won in 2010) but how will that translate against a wrestler like Brock? Can Brock take a big knee or punch from a K-1 striker? Overeem is obviously a very strong guy but grappling muscles > kickboxing muscles.

The big elephant in the room is all of the distractions that Overeem has had during his training camp leading up to this fight. He had to fly back to Holland due to his ailing mother. At the same time, this caused him to miss a test for PED's (performance enhancing drugs) by the commission. He got everything squared away and was given a conditional license. At the same time, critics wonder why he was given an additional 28 days to take a test. This would give plenty of time for a person to cycle out illegal drugs in their system. PED accusations have actually followed both men but it must be acknowledged neither man has tested positive to this point. Additionally, Overeem did test negative a week ago and will be subjected to 3 random tests in the upcoming 6 months.

Drama aside, 2 great fighters + 2 guys who always look for the finish + 500 plus pounds of muscle = one helluva fight coming up on 12/30.

Lesnar vs Overeem at UFC 141