Weird week. Lots of rumours, rumblings, movings and shakings within the MMA world.
Mousasi vs Kyotaro booked for K-1 Dynamite. If you’re wondering why this may be strange, consider that a year ago Mousasi was an MMA middleweight, that Kyotaro is the K-1 Heavyweight champion, and that this fight will be contested under K-1 rules.
Mental. FEG strike again, playing on the fearlessness of their talent to book stupid matches. I’m not saying Mousasi has absolutely no chance whatsoever, but the cards are stacked, and a particularly vicious KO could perhaps make a dent in the career of one of MMA’s most promising “rising stars” under the age of 25 – that is, if the veteran can even still be labelled a ‘rising’ star!
In anticipation of what I deem to be the TRUE Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix final, I watched both champ Sandro against challenger and Shooto champ Hioki, in their fights against the newly departed Omigawa. Halfway through the Hioki fight, I turned off the video, and struggled to avoid putting my screen through with my clenched, shaking fists. One thing the excercise did for me, however, is convince me that the Soul of Fight meeting between the Brazzo champ and the Japanese challenger will be contested between the very best in Japan. These two are the creme de la creme, for sure.
UFC will host a 2011 event in Brazil. Clearly, with three Brazilian champions, they have the potential to stack a card and give us long-suffering fans a Pride-esque showing. Booking title defences for Aldo, Anderson and Shogun would top UFC 100 in terms of heavy, unwatered quality… but then again, Zuffa will likely book one of those men, and water the rest of the card down in order to promote another numbered event within three weeks. Money talks, and Zuffa are talkative. Stacked cards are Japanese only territory.
Fedor has been involved in a “will he, wont he” scenario concerning the January 29th 2011 Strikeforce card. It was loudly rumoured that Bigfoot Silva would be the man to face him, and that it would be part of the Strikeforce 8-man Heavyweight Grand Prix. As M-1 are currently negotiating, renegotiating and re-renegotiating, it is as yet unclear (there are many conflicting reports) if Fedor will actually face Silva, and if the bout would be part of the tournament if so.
Fingers crossed. Like it or not (personally, I like M-1 as an organisation) the protracted contract negotiations will undoubtedly stick in the memory once Fedor retires. This kind of thing gives the new breed of zuffa zombie MMA fan fuel to the fire that Fedor is such blasphemous things as “overrated”, “overhyped” and “not the greatest”.
Let us hope that – tournament apart – he fights soon, fights hard, and increases his activity. One fight a year these days just doesn’t cut it anymore.
As for the Strikeforce HWGP, what an epic tournament that could possibly be. It will mark the first time since 2006 that the organisation with the most stacked heavyweight division would put on a tournament featuring those fighters.
The expected names to be involved will draw from this talent pool:
*Alistair Overeem
*Fabricio Werdum
*Fedor Emelianenko
*Antonio Silva
*Josh Barnett
*Sergei Kharitonov
*Shane Del Rosario
*Andrei Arlovski
*Brett Rogers
Fantastic stuff.
There are rumblings that Satoru Kitaoka could be heading to the UFC. If you are unfamiliar with this man, let me cut a long story short and say that he was the Sengoku Lightweight champ, and it took a fired up pre-Aoki arm-snap victim Mizuto Hirota to relieve him of that belt. He also stretched Paul Daley with ease back in Pancrase, putting a true catch-as-catch-can clinic on the now top 10, dangerous and feared welterweight.
I hope he stays in Japan. Kid, Omigawa and Kitaoka to UFC, all within the same fortnight? What next, Aoki, Sandro and Hioki? Terrible.
Just on the Brazil UFC card – rumours are that Royce Gracie will be tempted out of retirement to fight on it. How ridiculous – people used his shambolic UFC 60 return to claim that it “proved” that the “new breed” of MMA fighter was more advanced. What exactly did it prove? Back in the day, the only art Royce used was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he had no other fighting skills. Matt Hughes was a well rounded fighter, this is true. But had he not trained for 11 years in BJJ himself, could he have beaten Royce? Besides, Royce was in his 40′s by then, it was ludicrous. The fight proved nothing, except that Royce Gracie himself was one-dimensional, and too old at that stage to match up with a current star.
Chael Sonnen is angling for a fight with Wanderlei Silva. This much is obvious, given the twitter messages the outspoken American has been sending. This would certainly be one fight that even the usual patriotic American fans would be cheering for Wand in. Personally, I find Sonnen’s schtick amusing, but this time it reeks of desperation to stay relevant and in the news. After being submitted late in his title bout with Anderson, Chael failed a drugs test, and the hype surrounding his name noticeably cooled. Clearly, he wants to stay in the limelight as long as possible, and twitter beefs may well – sadly – be a decent way of going about it in the technology age.
Stay tuned – World Victory Road presents: Soul of Fight, and K-1 Dynamite previews to come.
Fletch
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