Fighter Futures: Renan Barao

It remains to be seen if Renan Barao will defend the Interim Championship while he waits for a returning Dominick Cruz. He could defend it, sure, but the only fight that really makes sense would be a rematch with Faber and no one is clamoring for that fight right now. What this fight proved for Renan is what we already knew: that he is an elite level bantamweight, only now he has a recognizable and impressive name on his resume. The creation of a Flyweight Division (in my opinion) has stripped the Bantamweight’s talent pool leaving Barao, Faber, and Cruz miles ahead of the competition. While I would like to see an Interim Champ who remains active, I doubt Renan will, purely due to lack of a true challenger.  

Fighter Futures: Tim Boetsch

He is now 4-0 since dropping to Middleweight and Tim Boetsch is one of a few possible challenges for Anderson Silva, but realistically speaking, Boetsch is at least two fights out from challenging for a title, and he is yet to prove he can hang with the upper echelon of the division. If the UFC feels Boetsch is ready for a step up I think he will be paired with the loser of Bisping/Stann which would put him on hold until December. Another possibility is Alan Belcher; Belcher has been in and out of headlines since TKOing Palhares, but no opponent has been inked. The winner of a Boetsch/Belcher match up could be paired with the winner of Stann/Bisping in a title eliminator, allowing all men to stay active with only minimal downtime while giving Anderson Silva his typical six to seven months between title defenses. 

Fighter Futures: Hector Lombard

Well, the hype train has been derailed, a 25 fight win streak has been snapped, and Dana White wants Hector Lombard to drop to 170. Things are not looking good for the former Bellator Champion. First of all, I seriously doubt a move to 170 is in the cards, Lombard is 34 years old and I doubt he can restructure his body and continue to make the cut; besides 170 is jumbled enough without adding another name to the list. I think Lombard will remain at middleweight and become another Jake Shields, overhyped outside the UFC, struggles to transition, and will probably hang around the middle of the pack. He will probably get one more semi-big name fight before he becomes just another face in the crowd, possibly the winner of Okami/Palhares or a returning Mark Munoz.

UFC148 Recap: Cote/Le

I recently discovered that I have a massive man-crush on Patrick Cote, so watching him lose to Cung Le was very similar to being the weird kid in high school who hides under the bleachers at football games so you can watch Ashley the brunette cheerleader, as she throws her legs in the air and continues to try and rally the home team even in the face of defeat, and god, if you only had the time to talk to her, but science class is only 45 minutes long and your lab tables are on other ends of the room and after class you go in opposite directions. That was all one sentence. Cote seemed to play a little too cautious which I found disappointing, I thought he would have gone for broke in his first fight back in the UFC. I wonder what Ashley is up to these days…

UFC148 Recap: Ortiz/Griffin 3

I’ve never cared for Forrest Griffin, but also never had a reason other than I just didn’t like him; kind of like how when you’re a kid you hate vegetables, only to grow up and declare your independence in the rebellious act of becoming a vegetarian leaving your parents completely indifferent because you are finally eating everything they have been trying to feed you for sixteen years. Sorry, I got off on a tangent there, but teenage rebellion is stupid, you’ll figure that out someday. I thought Tito won that fight, in fact according to Chael Sonnen Math, Tito did win that fight. I just invented Chael Sonnen Math, but you can use it on your next college examine, just hope you don’t have to deal with any triangles. Boo Yah, arithmetic humor, bet you weren’t expecting that. This was supposed to be about Forrest and Tito, but F-it.

UFC148 Recap: Silva/Sonnen 2

There has been a lot of buzz left from Silva/Sonnen 2 and frankly, I don’t understand why. I sincerely doubt Anderson was greasing, he was nervous, and whatever small amount of Vaseline he was able to apply seemed irrelevant as Sonnen took him down in under 10 seconds. The short grabbing was strange but had no effect on the outcome. Next came the knee and the “bad intentions” behind it. I’m sorry, but this is MMA, there are no good intentions, the object is to incapacitate the other. “It was too close to the head of a downed opponent,” so what if it was close, the most accurate striker in MMA put his knee where he wanted it. Honestly, I think we all wanted a more exciting fight and right now, after two years of build-up, we’re all a little disappointed that we didn’t get five rounds of fireworks.