Frank Mir promoted to title shot against JDS

My reaction to Mir getting promoted to title shot -

I'm happy with the UFC's decision to promote Frank Mir and here is my reason why.

Frank Mir is most deserving
Allistar Overeem is a beast of a man but did he deserve the title shot after only beating Brock Lesnar? I don't think so I think it was just a huge draw which is what the UFC always goes with.

No other fighter in the UFC Heavyweight division has climbed back up like Mir has, I know there are Mark Hunt supporters who will argue all day and night about this but in my unbiased opinion Mir has fought a higher caliber of guys to get back up and has looked very good against them. Hunt is getting there but a couple more wins against solid heavyweights and he's right there and he believe me he will fight for the title very soon. Mir has won 4 out of 5 and 3 strait, he deserves the title shot.

Mir is coming off not only his but one of the all time most impressive victories ever. Mir just submitted the best BJJ guy in all of the Heavyweight Division by snapping his arm. When you think of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira you do not EVER think that he will be submitted but Frank Mir showed us in a blaze of glory how good his bjj game really was and destroyed Nogueira's arm. Before that he was pretty rocked and fighting off instincts, so that just shows you how much fight is in Mir. Point being he's riding a huge wave of momentum and confidence.

Mir took out JDS's teacher what do you think Mir would do to JDS if the champ is not very very careful? Mir poses a whole new set of threats to the champion. Instead of a Reem vs JDS striker vs striker title fight you got a Striker vs Grappler fight. If Mir can SOME HOW take JDS down the champ is in serious trouble but I'll give you my take on the match up in a separate post.

I'm very happy that Mir is getting a chance to fight JDS for the Championship. This is a good case of the most deserving getting the fight. It's kinda a shame that he only got the shot cause the biggest draw got busted with a ridiculously high Testosterone level.

Hey make sure you check back in when I give my Frank Mir vs JDS opinions on the match-up and follow the blog on twitter @FightJabber for MMA discussions and updates on new blog posts!

Read more

FightJabber presents Epic Fights Segment

Introducing a Fight Jabber segment were we revisit some really good past fights MMA, Kickboxing, Boxing, and BJJ (gi and no-gi). I should probably point out that each fight that I find on the internet and share here is not my property I didn’t illegally copy/record the fight I simply discovered the videos existence else where and am sharing it on my blog but I am not hosting the content on my website.

So now that we’re clear on that, this weeks fight revisits UFC 72 Were two UFC new comers battled out a incredibly exciting and technical grappling war. Also a heads up I found this vid on what appears to be a Japanese site (not sure) sorry best I could do.

This weeks fight is Clay Guida vs Tyson Griffin

Read more

UFC 145 Reaction

Instead of your typical Recap format I'm going to do a Reaction type format only discussing things that I noticed that are worth talking about so here is my reaction for UFC 145.

Stephen Thompson was exposed for having a weak ground game
Mike Brown handed the Wonderboy his first EVER Pro loss. Insane, there was so much hype around Stephen Thompson and I'll admit I really took to Thompson, I didn't think he'd lose to Brown but I knew he would probably have problem with the elite wrestler heavy division. What Brown showed the Fight World is that Thompson has a weak Ground game. Brown is a great crafty ground fighter but if you go up the division ranks everyone is on an elite level of wrestling. As good as Thompson's stand up is 5 time world champion caliber it isn't worth anything if he's on his back. Another hole in Thompson's game is, his cardio isn't were it needs to be. He had couple of chances to finish Brown but he didn't have enough gas in the tank to lay it on him. Thompson is a hell of a talent but he needs to address these holes if he wants to compete with the upper tier of the division.


Mark Hominick got robbed
Eddie Yagin won a split decision against Hominick but I think the judges got this one wrong. Yagin did hurt Hominick twice but he never had him close to being finished. Hominick was able to stay composed and get back up and then land a ton of technical shots. I think Hominick out boxed Yagin but I guess the judges decisions were influenced alot by those knockdowns. This sucks for Hominick cause he is a title challenger but has hit a very bad stretch lately, hopefully the UFC lets him stay.

Brendan Schaub made a huge mistake, cost him the fight
Schaub made a terrible mistake last night that cost him not only the win but his place in the ranks. He is one of those fighters that is steady in the middle of the division a couple fights out of the top tier and this loss pushes him further down with like the Pat Barry's and the Matt Mitrione's I believe this win pushes Rothwell up to like the Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt level in the division. Schaub had Rothwell hurt in the fight but if you study tape on Rothwell you would know you gotta hit that guy with a sledge hammer for him to go down. No disrespect to Schaub's power he has an iron fist but I think he should of been smarter. He engaged in a trade with Rothwell which is not smart, if he stayed back and picked his shots better he might of finished him or at least took that round undoubtedly. This just shows me that Schaub is a hell of a talent but still has some more pieces of his game that he has to put together.

Rashad fought Jones' fight
Rashad had all the tools in the world to pull off an upset against Jones' but he didn't use them. He shot for like 3 take downs or so which weren't even close and then he went back to trying to fight Jones' from the feet and kept getting blasted by elbows from striking range. I thought Rashad would try to get the fight down at all cost, close the distance get a clinch, push him against the cage, go for takedowns or throws from the clinch but he didn't. I might have to watch it overs but I don't think they clinched much and Rashad definitely didn't try to take him down from close quarters. Another great job by Jon Jones to fight his fight we're he is leaps and bounds better then every guy he has fought so far. It looks like Jones' only test now is Dan Henderson. As for Rashad all he can really do is keep getting better or maybe drop down to 185.

An overall good fight card stay tuned here for my other fight reactions or follow me the blog on twitter @Fightjabber and lets talk MMA and Fighting.

Read more

Bellator 66 Reaction

Bellator consistently providing great shows and Bellator 66 didn't disappoint. Bellator 66 featured the Lightweight Semi Finals and the Middleweight Semi Finals along with a Light Weight match between Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki.

Starting off with the first lightweight semifinal match between Thiago Michel and Brent Weedman. What I really liked about this fight was Thiago Michels stand up, he looked incredible with his kickboxing but Weedman responded very well and took over the fight with his ground game. Weedman didn't land nothing too devastating from the ground but he did manage to control Michel very well often finding himself hammering down strong knees from side control. Overall a very nice fight to start off the event. Weedman took the victory and advanced to the Lightweight Tourney finals.

The next lightweight semifinal match was between Rick Hawn and Lloyd Woodard. Rick Hawn really impressed me with how well he could stay focused and stick to his game plan. In this fight Woodard really tried egging Hawn into a slug fest. Woodard dropped his hands alot and was talking alot of shit but Hawn had none of it. Hawn effectively pressed Woodard into the fence and worked the clinch for the first round. In the second round Woodard did exactly what I expected him to do, come at Hawn hot with his hands down and sure enough he got cracked with a strait punch that dropped him game over for Woodard Hawn advanced to the Lightweight finals to face Weedman.

The first middleweight semifinal match was Maiquel Falcao vs. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky. I cant say Falcao really impressed me in this fight even though he won he was highly regarded for a devastating power puncher but it looked like Vasilevsky's footwork was able to help him evade most of the power shots. Falcao did show me he had an excellent defensive guard and even went for a arm bar early in the first round. Although it seemed like Vasilevsky was owning the first two rounds Falcao came to late in the 2nd and was able to start landing on Vasilevsky. In the third it was all Falcao which earned him a someone surprising unanimous decision win over Vasilevsky.

The second middleweight semifinal was Brian Rogers vs. Andreas Spang and this one was a fierce barn burner. Rogers who has impressed me in last years tourney came in guns blazing hurting Spang and often, however in this fight I realized that Rogers still has alot to learn before he can move up to the next level. Roger had Spang hurt and backing up early in the first when Rogers went for a kick but slipped what seriously impressed me about Spang is how quickly he capitalized on the small window that Rogers gave him. Spang ended up taking his back and had a RNC nearly locked in but Rogers was able to defend it well and got out of it. Then Rogers kept landing huge shots on Spang but was never able to get him out of there. In the second it was more of the same, just when you thought Spang was finally gonna go down he caught Rogers with a clean counter and dropped him and then followed up with a vicious hammer fist to seal the deal.

The main event was a super fight rematch between Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki. The two battled back in 2008 were Shinya Aoki won by a leg lock. This fight was a turning point for Eddie Alvarez, coming off a loss to Michael Chandler and losing his Bellator LW Championship a loss to Aoki would be devastating for his career. Alvarez was able to win the fight by TKO after rocking Aoki in the first and then raining down blows to stop the fight. Eddie kept the fight standing we're he had a advantage and avoided the ground game of Aoki at all cost and it got him the win. Now we're no sure what's next for Alvarez but a UFC contract might be in the cards for the former Ruler of the Bellator LW Division.

Overall it was a very entertaining card and Bellator delivered once again! Check in for more reactions for next weeks Bellator card, and the UFC 145 Reaction.

Read more