Dynamite 1 Fallout

It was Bellator's Big Night. An event they had spent months hyping. The basket they put all there eggs into. It not only featured a big title fight with Tito Ortiz who for better or worse has come the face of Bellator in recent years challenging. It also featured a one night tournament and it was a hybrid show with Glory Kickboxing rules fights. The truth is Bellator could have done three separate shows with each of those as the hook. Instead though they went for broke. And I can't help but feel the event was a let down. Don't get me wrong I have seen worse shows. By no means were these the worst fights I have seen. But this show just felt like a missed chance. Instead of a major event it felt like two average shows put together.

Of course the biggest news coming out of Dynamite 1 was Fedor Emilenko's return to MMA and his reunion with the founder of Pride. Fedor's return will headline a New Year's Eve event that will be broadcast on Spike TV. The problem for Bellator is this show appears to one they have nothing to do with. The announcement began with Kevin Kay of Spike TV not Bellator boss Scott Coker introducing it. No mention was made of Bellator during the segment. Some have suggested Bellator will co-promote the unnamed event but it didn't come off that way. If they were going to co-promote or even loan one of there fighters as Fedor's foe it would have made all the sense in the world. Instead Fedor, Kay, and Nobuyuki Sakakibara stood together as Scott Coker snuck into the photo at the last second.

Production wise I really felt like I was watching a Pride FC tribute show and I mean that in a bad way. One thing Coker had going for him was the fact Strikeforce came off as it's own product. Same with Bellator back when it started. But since Viacom took over more and more it feels like Bellator is about using stars from other companies. For better or worse Tito Ortiz has become the face of Bellator. The spent big money on Phil Davis and brought in veteran Josh Thompson. Davis can be viewed a coup given his top five ranking but the fact Thompson I don't they really needed to go after. Thompson entered the show on a 3 fight skid. On top of that he's nearing age 37 and had openly talked about retirement. Honestly I feel Bellator would have been better off giving Thompson slot to another younger fighter. And I'm not the only one the feels this way as current Bellator Lightweight champion Will Brooks lashed out at the company on Twitter after Liam McGreay's interview was cut short to let Tito Ortiz talk.

Now like I said this felt like Pride Tribute show and it was clear that is what they were going for. In all the build up for the event we were reminded time and again about the old Pride and K-1 crossover shows. The stage was built to look like Pride's old event. They not only brought out fighters for a parade but even spent money to bring in Pride's old announcer. The problem is they are not Pride. Pride was it's own thing. It had it's own rules it had the best fighters in the world. Bellator might hope it can win over fans looking for a Pride fix but honestly I think those fans will just watch Fight Pass

The In Ring Action- The main card started with the first match of the tournament Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal taking on Linton Vassell. Over the last few years Mo has tried to be come more of pure boxer. It seemed like a recipe for disaster given Vassell's massive reach. But Lawal got more brawl style in this time landing a number of power punches that hurt Vassell in the first round. Surprisingly Mo didn't seem like he tried to finish often allowing Vassell to recover and get back into fight. Post fight King Mo blamed a slick canvas. He clearly slipped early on and fighters on the prelims also slipped. Vassell had better second round but never took control. It appeared Lawal had stamped his ticket to the finals but suffered an injury during the fight that took him out. The second fight of the opening round featured Phil Davis' Bellator debut against former champion Emmanuel Newton. In his two prior fights coming in Newton has looked awful and that trend continued here. Newton never got going and Davis easily took him down and submitted him. It gave Davis his first finish since 2010 but the problem is it doesn’t' show Davis is any better. Newton doesn't represent an elight fighter just another guy Davis would have easily beat in the UFC.

Than it was time to move to the Glory portion of the night. Calling it Glory isn't fair as only one fight featured Glory fighters instead two of the fighters were about promoting Bellator fighters using Kickboxing fights. Keri Anne Taylor-Melendez entered with a 2-1 Kickboxing record but hadn't fought in years. Still though she looked much better than her Hadley Griffinth who was making her kickboxing debut. Griffinth has fought MMA in the past but in six pro fight and eight total counting her armature career she only won once. It was a terrible mismatch. Melendez through great combinations landing at will. Griffith looked nervous and unable to land anything. There was never any doubt that Melendez was going to win. Now I have no problem with having Women fight but the problem is this wasn't the start of Glory doing a women's division. It was made clear Melendez will soon debut for Bellator. The second Glory Rules fight saw Paul Daley battle Fernando Gonzalez. Both men have kick boxed in the past but are more known as MMA fighters.

I really don't get this. Daley had openly called out Glory's best. Why giving him Nikey Hozelkin was unlikely there were still plenty of good fighters Glory could have used. That said I would assume it was Bellator or Viacom that came up with this. Using the Glory ring and name but just hoping Daley would score a big knockout and not have to worry about the ground game. The MMA side of things picked up with Josh Thompson making his Bellator debut. Thompson was given an easy win over Mike Bronzoulis. It was clear Bronzoulis had no answers for Thompson on the ground as The Punk stopped a three fight skid. Finally some actual Glory Kickboxers stepped into the ring as Saulo Cavalair re-matched with Zack Mwekassa for the vacant light heavyweight title.. Last time Cavalair knocked the Black Beast out with a head kick and tried to replicate that magic. The fight was good. Sadly the Glory Light Heavyweight division was built around Tyrone Spoong who had fought for Glory since a leg injury. And former champion Gokhan Saki who vacated the title after a contract dispute.

Than it was time to return tournament and the last thing Bellator wanted to happen happened. Going into this event Bellator made it clear they would have an alternate bout but didn’t' want the winner to actually advance. They even modified the rules to give the judges two chances to pick a winner in event of a draw. They had said “If the winner of a round cant' advance than the loser will.” The commission though stopped that. King Mo suffered a rib injury and was unable to move on. Under Bellator's modified rules that should have meant Linton Vassell got a second chance. Except the California Commission refused to allow that saying Vassell had taken to many punches in the head. Instead Francis Carmont advanced. Carmont has mostly fought at middleweight. He was a mid to low level fighter in the UFC. Davis easily knocked him out. But it's hard to be impressed by it. The UFC would be ripped to pieces if they had booked this fight. Of course Davis won this fight he's a better fighter from a higher weight class.

Finally it was main event time. For better or worse Bellator has built itself around Tito Ortiz. They put him big fights. They keep doing Unrivaled specials to hype him up. Early on Ortiz manged to score a takedown and seemed to turn back the clock until he was caught in an inverted triangle by champion Liam McGeary. The fact McGeary was so easily taken down by Ortiz is worrying but he still managed to get the win. Ortiz who is usually an excuse machine opening declared this was the best he's been in years and gave McGEary the credit for what he did.

Biggest Winners

RFA and WSOF- Both companies put on very good shows that were better than Dynamite. Hopefully people checked them out. Bellator is clearly number 2 in terms of size but it's not number 2 in terms of putting on the best show.

Liam McGeary- He kept the title. Even with all the promotion built around Ortiz most knew going it McGeary should win. Still though fights like this scream trap. And down side of losing isn't people going “He lost to a legend.” Its people going “He lost to a guy that one like one fight in the UFC since 2006. It juts shows how bad Bellator is.” The win doesn't make McGeary elite but it shows he's not a can. Also a win over Phil Davis will get people talking. Plus if nothing else McGeary can smile knowing he jacked up what ever plans Viacom had.

Phil Davis- Similar to McGeary, Davis was expected to win. But how many times have we seen heavy favorite upset? Davis did what he needed to do he came into the event in shape ready to fight. Why there are doubts about how good the men he beat are compared to fighters he's already faced and beat. Still though Davis got his first finish in years and than capped off the event with another one.

Biggest Losers

Glory- This show did get a lot of press and the idea of having Kickboxing and MMA could be a good hook. Glory has often tried to use MMA fighter to promote the company. This could have been a great chance to win over MMA fans. The problem as I said above was the fact two of the three Glory Rules fight weren't with Glory fighters. When I watch Glory I see high level technical fighters and many great finishes. Two of the fights were pretty one sided mis matches. Also it doesn't help none of the fighter were finished. With two of the winners moving back to Bellator, Glory can't even promote them on upcoming cards.

Emanuel Newton- Remember when this guy was on a winning streak held the Bellator Title and could be argued as a legit top ten fighter? Man that seems like forever ago. The warning signs were there against Linton Vassell. Newton looked off in the fight and needed a fifth round submission to keep his title. That could be explained away as one bad night one bad match up than he looked even worse against Liam McGreary this time there would be no last second finish to save his title. Worse for Newton he tested positive for Pot. Newton talked a good talk before the fight. Admitted he had taken things to easy. Had bought own hype to much. Than Newton went out and looked awful against Phil Davis. Yes Davis was the heavy favorite going into the event. But that is 3 awful fights in a row and 2 bad losses in a row. Newton is 45 fights into his career you have to wonder if his best days are behind him.

World Series of Fighting 22 A Disgrace

Like most people on Saturday night I was caught up in Ronda Mania. But I was very aware of the World Series of Fighting Card taking place head to head with UFC 190. And I think lost people I wasn't expecting to be very news worthy. In it's own way WSOF 22 was more news worthy than the UFC show but for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to wait until I had actually seen the whole event. I wanted to wait until a little time passed so I wouldn’t get caught in in the imedant furry and only have seen a quick clip. And now all I can saw is it was a disgrace. Which is to bad because the fighting action was very good. But no one is talking about the fights or who the two champions that retained there titles will fight next. Instead we are talking about a brawl between three fighters that work for the UFC and how once again how dirty a fighter Rousimar Palhares is.

Now I will conceded that stuff like this has happened before not just in MMA not just in combat sports but in sports in general. So this is not “They will kill the sport,” rant. But just because it's happened before and I'm sure will happen again doesn't mean we shouldn't try to punish and make it clear stuff like this won't be tolerated. Now to be fair to World Series of Fighting there is only so much they can do. And there is a lot of blame to go round for everything that happened and some people are pretty much out of the promotions reach.

Let's start with Rousimar Palhares who is most definetly in the control of Rey Sefo and company. Time and again during Palhares' career he has held submission holds even after his opponent has tapped out. Once again on Saturday that appeared to be the case. Jake Shields managed to control the majority of the fight against Palhares even able to block his trademark leg locks. But as the fight wore on it soon became clear Palhares was going after Shields' eyes. Shields repeatedly complained to the referee about the tacit. Now upon watching the fight I made it a point to watching Palhares and what he was doing with his hands. And yeah several times it was clear Palhares went for the eyes. By the end of the fight both of Shields were discolored showing sings of repeated attacks. At one Steve Mazzagatti did warn Palhares that he would take a point but than never did take a point even as Todd Harris and Bas Rutten pointed out Palhares went fight back to doing it.

The eye gouging was bad enough but that wasn't the end of it. Once again Palhares won via submission and once again it appears he held onto the hold to long trying to injure his opponent. This has been a recurring controversy throughout Palhares career. Back in 2010 after beating Tomasz Drwal he was suspended for holding the heel hook to long. Than in 2013 he was fired form the UFC when he did the same thing Mike Pierce. Those are the two time he has been punished. There are other fighters where Palhares has held onto the submission including his previous fight with Jon Fitch even after the tap out. When he won the WSOF welterweight title it appeared he gave an extra turn on Steve Carl's ankle. Palhares always claims innocence but the fact is time and again he's been in situations like this.

Lets compare Palhares to Ndamukong Suh a pro football player for those that don't watch the sport. Suh is an incredible talented player and viewed as the very best defense tackle in the game today. He's also been voted direst player in the game repeatedly by his fellow players. A while back Suh sacked Bears QB Jay Cutler. The hit was violent and Cutler went down hard. Almost immendently people began to call it a dirty play. The referees didn't flag it and the NFL even issued a statement that upon reviewing the play it was a clean hit. But because people remember Suh's two stomping incidents or that time he violently twisted at the head of Jake Delhome everyone assumed Suh had to have done something wrong. And that is where Palhares is at.

If this had been pretty much any other fighter most people would have just moved on. But its Palhares who has a reputation so as a result we are watching any time he gets a submission. And yeah after watching it and even rewinding the end it appears he did crank on the hold after Shields had submitted. It looked like he was trying to injury Shields. It was clear Shields was tapping out on Palhares and than he only increased the pressure. Any submission hold can be dangerous but a hold such as a knee bar or kimura that puts pressure on a joint or bone can cause a break. We have seen this happen a number of times in MMA. The most memorable might be Frank Mir breaking Big Nog's arm. When a fighter taps out they are looking to avoid injury.

On Monday when the Nevada State AC issued the list of medical suspension from the event Shields was on it. One of the injures he suffered and will be cleared for included his shoulder. Why we don't know for sure that the submission and the extra crank caused the injury it's still something to think about. Fighters get injured all the time and easily enough when the bout is perfectly clean. Having a guy that isn't listening to the rules or willing to trying and injury people makes it all the more dangerous. Often combat sports promoters or officials will talk about how important fighter safety is. Can they keep making that claim with a guy like Palhares around?

Palhares has already issued a statement insisting he's not a dirty fighter. He's claims he's just fighting to the instruction he's been given. Except we saw him ignore the repeated warnings about eye gouging. Todd Harris and Bas Rutten speculated it might be a language barrier but even Rutten backed on that since attacking the eyes is disallowed in any MMA promotion. Plus Palhares is a very experienced fighter who has fought in America or under the unified rules of MMA enough times he should know anyway. Also getting back to reputation it's hard to buy the idea he's just an innocent misjudged person as many times as he's been linked to being dirty.

Now this isn't all on Palhares. World Series of Fighting does shoulder some of the blame. The young promotion signed him almost right after he was let go by the UFC. I get why the company did it. Palhares was a hot free agent and they company needs some name value talent to attract more casual fans. But by signing him and singing him so quickly they were taking a risk. The risk he was going to keep being the kind of dirty fighter that was let go by the UFC. By putting him in a title fight away they risk a main event could turn into what we saw on Saturday. That said its risk vs. reward the reward is a talented fighter with some name value briging in new fans. And well as I said Palhares is hardly the only fighter with a bad reputation. Hell look Mike Tyson even after biting an ear off people still flocked to his fights. Andrew Golota a boxer was disqualified twice vs. Riddick Bowe for low blows and was rewarded with a WBC title shot.

When Palhares was signed Rey Sefo claimed he had made it clear that he wouldn't stand for anything like that in his company. He seemed to look the other way when Palahares gave Steve Carle's leg an extra crank and didn't do much in the wake of the Fitch fight. To be fair to Sefo both looked bad but a neither time a commission step in. After the Shields fight Nevada did withhold Palhares win bonus and is reviewing the situation. On Sunday night WSOF Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz issued a state through social media that he and Rey Sefo had viewed the fight and felt Palhares had cranked on the hold to long. And that they company would issue a statement on Tuesday

Than Tuesday came and to my shock WSOF stripped Palhares of his title and suspended him indefinitely. I was convinced the punishment would have been just a reason to book a rematch with Shields. Which I will admit would most and likely draw ratings and good live attendance just based on the fallout from WSOF 22. This is an actual punishment and I hope World Series of Fighting force Palhares to take it a step further and undergo some type of therapy. But if I had been in charge I would have fired him. Sefo did say there is a chance Palhares is done with the company. Most and likely Palhares will be back and pretty much be put in a big fight.

As I said I think Palhares should have been fired. At some point your not a young guy that is going to change. At some point you are who you are and no matter how much you claim or people try to get you to change it's not happening. Palhares has already been suspended once and got fired from the top company in the sport and still he continues to hold onto submission holds to long. The odds are he will keep doing it. Yes but letting him go Palhares you lose a talented fighter and yes again I believe a Shields and Palhares rematch will draw money. But if you cut him he's longer your problem the next time he refuses to break a hold. Let him become either Bellator or One FC's problem. Besides I'm a firm believe that ex UFC fighters are going to grow WSOF they need to build up there own stars along side guys like Shields.

The other person who harbors the most of the blame well besides Palhares is Steve Mazzagatti the referee for the fight. Mazzagatti's short comings as a referee are pretty well documented. Several fighters have admitted they hate having him referee and even requested he not referee there fights. Dana White has made it clear he despises Mazzagatti and has mover and over again called him the worse referee in MMA history. This fight was example of bad referging. Fairly early on Mazzagatti warned to Palahres to stop going after the eyes. At one point he even warned him if he did again he would take a point. Which actually is fine except as Palhares kept going after the eyes he never took the point. As a result Palhares had no reason to stop going for the eyes.

Now in a MMA fight that at most has five rounds losing a point is a big deal. It seems most referees are reluctant to take a point in MMA outside of blatant rule break. But Palhares eye attacks were pretty blatant. And Mazzagatti said “You do it one more time I'm taking a point.” And Palhares again went after the eyes several times. Even later in the fight as Shields was complaining he claimed he would take care of it. But still no point deduction came.

Jake Shields is not completely blameless in this either. Going into the fight he talked of trash. Now that could just be hyping the fight. And most of his trash talk was centered on his feeling Palhares is a dirty fighter. The real issue him throwing a punch after the fight was stopped. I understand why he did it. Poked in the eyes over and over again another fighter trying to injury him after he had submitted. The longer the fight went on the more and more pissed Shields became between the cheating and having a bad referee not do anything. So of course he snapped and reacted. That said some type of punishment should happen just a simple fine though.

There might have been another reason to be Shields was pissed off. He might have even been pissed at two of his old buddies for steering up trouble as he was being introduced in the cage. Nick and Nate Diaz once again found themselves in a fight outside the cage. The Diaz brothers have been in a number of these over the years even one at prior Shields fights. Sometime before the main event The Diaz brothers got into a confrontations with Khabib Numagomedov a fellow UFC fighter. Much like Palhares has a number of incidents inside the ring the Diazs have had incidents inside and outside of the ring including a number of fights.

The most infamous was back during the Strikeforce days. Jake Shields had just beat Dan Henderson when his post fight interview was crashed by Jason Mayhem Miller. Shields shoved Miller away and the Diaz brothers along with Gilbert Melendez went after Miller. Before that Nick had brought into the cage during an Elite XC show to set up a rematch with KJ Noons. Again a brawl broke out after Diaz flipped off Noons father. And even before that Nick while in the hospitle being checked out after a fight with Joe Stevenson decided to try have the rematch with Stevenson right than and there. And often Nate has been right alongside his brother steering up trouble.

So like Palhares we have fighters with a bad history. Now The Diaz brothers and Numagomedov are not under contract to WSOF they work for the UFC. Ali Abdel-Aziz a VP for the company already announced that the Diaz brothers are banned for life. I should point out that Abdel-Aziz is also Numagomedov's manager. But based on the history along with a few photos from before the brawl it appears Nate Diaz should shoulder most of the blame. And honestly I think the UFC should inflict some type of punishment on the Diazs.

The UFC supposedly has a Fighter Conduct Policy and lets look at the facts of the brawl. The Diazs have a history in situations like this, they were not fighting so you can't blame it was heat of the moment. Outside of the fights outside of the cage they have been problem employes on a number of occasions. Nick Diaz is supposedly retried again along with facing a suspension from a drug test failure. Nate though is still supposed to an active UFC fighter. Khabib Numagomedov has reportedly requested a fight with Nate Diaz when he's finally able to return from numerous leg injures.

But I feel that would actually be rewarding Nate Diaz. At the time of writing this Nate Diaz is ranked 15^th in the UFC rankings he's by appearances several fights away from a title shot and really based on his lack of activity and a number of losses should have to earn his way back to higher ranked and higher profile fights. Numagomedov is currently undefeated at 22-0 he's ranked third. In many ways he's well past Diaz and really just a tune up fight away from a title shot. I understand that Numagomedov wants some revenge and it would be sweat to beat Diaz in the cage. But again Diaz should be rewarded with a big fight for doing something like this at another MMA event.

The brothers will always have there fans for there behavior who get a kick out of there stuff. But me and yeah this is just me and it's easy to be all high and mighty with other peoples money but I think he should punished. It doesn’t have to be extreme but some type of fine would make me happy.

UFC Fight Nights Fallout

Its been a very busy July for the UFC. UFC 189 and a show on the main Fox Network would be big enough but they also packed it with three Fight Night events. (Fight Morning in one case) So who were the biggest winners? Who took a very bad loss? And what comes next?

Biggest Winners- Holly Holm- Although The Preachers Daughter won her UFC debut many felt it was underwhelming. Of course its not uncommon for a fighter to enter the UFC with a lot of hype and struggle with “UFC Jitters.” Hell Carlos Condit lost his UFC debut. But still Holm needed an impressive win. The former boxing champion dominated Marion Reneau for three rounds. Holm showed off not only her boxing skills but her kicking game as well. Why she didn't get the finish she came close quite a few times. With two wins under he belt Holm has set herself up to challenge someone in the upper rankings and maybe get on the road to a title shot. Before entering the UFC some felt Holm's stand up might be the answer to champion Rousey's judo she's a step closer now.

Stephan Thompson- Rocked early by Jake Ellenberger Thompson recovered and came back to score a highlight reel finish with a spinning hook kick. Thompson also manged to stuff the wrestling of Ellenberger showing he's grown since the loss to Matt Brown. Having shined in his first main event on a big weekend Thompson seems to be on the verge of a break through. Chris Wediman has heavily hyped him, his lone loss was years ago against a tough veteran fighter. While Thompson may not have the big personally of a Connor McGregor he does have the unique fighting style that fans will remember. It's also the kind of fighting style other fighter will struggle to figure out.

Frank Mir- As Dana White said this week Mir is the last man standing of fighters that were in the UFC when the Zuffa bought it. While Mir is still not that far removed from a long losing streak he' snot won two in a row via knockout. Mir's career has so many ups and down you could never make it a movie since no one would believe it. The former world champion may not have another title run in him he could be the guy that derails a few others title shot dreams.

Joanne Calderwood- After being upset by un-ranked Maryna Moroz when she submitted ninety seconds in Calderwood needed a win. When original opponent Bec Rawlings pulled due injury she again found herself matched up with an unknown un-ranked opponent this time in the form of Courtney Casey. Calderwood looked venerable early but recovered quickly and dominated the second and third rounds on her way to a decision win. It was a good reminder of how good Calderwood can be. As she said post fight she over came the demons of her last fight. Another loss to a fighter she should beat would have been devastating to Calderwood standing this win gets her back on track.

Michael Bisping- Like Frank Mir, Bisping seemed like he was heading for the end of his career now for the first time since 2011 he's on a winning streak. To Bisping's credit his losses weren't simply him there were things like Belfort being pumped up on TRT, the long layoff due to his eye injury before the loss to Tim Kennedy, and the fact Luke Rockhold is a beast who dominated elite fighters like Machida and Jacare. While it was no doubt a tougher fight than he wanted Bisping manged to beat a fighter with a lot of momentum. He also kept his record perfect in the UK.

Biggest Losers Jake Ellenberger- This is tough for me to write as I admit I'm biased and a fan of Ellenberger. But there is no denying the loss to Thompson is a bad one for Ellenberger. His lone recent wins comes over Josh Koscheck not exactly a high quality win at this point. On the one hand Ellenberger's losses are to men like Lawler and MacDonald who just fought for the title and to Gastulum and Thompson up and comers with great potential. But it wasn't all that long ago Ellenberger was trying to break into title contention. While his fighting style should keep him safe from the cut list there is no denying The Omaha Nebraska native is going down a peg. Instead of main events or main card fights odds are he will find himself on Prelims or opening main cards on free TV.

Edmond Taverdyan- Thanks to the success of Ronda Rousey, Tarverdyan became a trainer in demand for many fighters. Besides Rousey out the Glendale Fight Club comes fighters such as Ellenberger, Travis Brown, and the rest of the Four Horsewomen. The problem is outside of Rousey none of those fighters have had much success. Ellenberger has suffered tough losses and been finished three times. Browne went from being a title contender under Greg Jackson to a lower top ten guy. Marina Shafer has sufferd two knockouts, Jessamy Duke is 1-2 in the UFC with two consecutive losses and Shayna Basler went 0-2 and has already been cut by the UFC. Rousey give Tarverdyan a lot of credit for her success. But it seems to be a case of a naturally great fighter who's strength matches perfectly with the style Tarverdyan likes to train. He might be the perfect trainer for one Rousey but he's yet to show success with other fighters.

Bec Rawlings- The straw weight fighter was forced to pull out her fight with Calderwood due to injury. That's hard enough for any fighter. Even worse for Rawlings she had to watch Calderwood look venerable early on. She no doubt has to wonder what if she had been in there? A win over Calderwood would have been big for Rawlings now she can only wait to heal up.

Scott Jorgensen- The Young Gun entered the UFC with a stellar 12-4 record since than he's 3-11. With yet another loss this time to veteran Manny Gamburyan it's getting very hard to justify Jorgensen's place on the UFC roster. While a number of his losses are to upper level fighters like Barao or Faber he also doesn't have a big win under the banner. He already tried to move down to fly and it didn't work. A move to featherweight would make him a smaller fighter in a tough division.

What comes Next- Time play to match maker for some of the fighters that were on this card. Frank Mir in a tough sport having been with the UFC so long he's face a large number of guys already on the UFC's roster. And in some cases a rematch doesn't make much sense. The loss to Overreem was so one sided you can't see a sudden turn over with Mir coming back. Someone like Andre Arlovski or Stipe Miochio seem to be in line for a title shot and honestly facing each other or higher ranked JDS or Cain Velasquez makes more sense for them. For Mir one name stick out. Stefan Struve who like Mir's had some amazing wins and bad loses. Both have shown an ability to get submissions with good striking. Like Mir Struve finds himself as a ranked fighter but not in title contention. If Struve can beat Big Nog at UFC 190 the fight makes even more sense. Holly Holm needs a stiffer test she's now 2-0 in the UFC and a perfect 9-0 in her career. A perfect fight for her would be former title challenger Alexis Davis. A strong MMA vet with good striking in her own right Davis has already faced and beaten a number of high level fighters in her career including Sarah Kaufman and Jessica Eye. For Holm it would be the biggest win of her career for Davis being the one to take the 0 could help move her back into title contention. Joanne Calderwood is now 2-1 in the UFC but she's yet to face another highly ranked foe. That's why Bec Rawlings made sense for her. While Rawling doesn't have the greatest record she's los to some good fighters. I say if Rawlings can heal up try to make the fight again.

I think a perfect fight for Jake Ellenberger would be Brandon Thatch. A win over Thatch would be a good confidence builder for Ellenberger who beats a fighter with potential but isn't as deeply talented as guys like Gastulum or Thompson. For Thatch Ellenberger is a tough vet with big win but but a beatable fighter. He doesn't appear to have the same ground game as Henderson or Nelson who did beat Thatch.

Why Signing Fedor Emelianenko Is A Bad Idea

Fedor Emelianenko one of the few fighters with a legit claim as great of all time announced he is interested in returning to MMA. Of course this has already set of tons of speculation of where he could fight. Could he finally join the UFC? What about Bellator which is run by Scott Cocker who he's worked with in the past? WSOF could potentially put itself on the map if they could sign him. Well I'm here to say that if a promotion wound up signing Emelinenko they will wind up regretting it.

Lets start with facts Fedor is thirty eight years old. For every fighter like Randy Couture that defied the odds into middle age there is someone like BJ Penn. Try as he might by moving up and down in weight, taking time off, changing his camp Penn hit a wall had three horrible final fights. While time off might have helped Fedor heal up old injures it could also mean he's very rusty since he hasn't been training. When George Foreman launched his comeback to boxing after over a decade off it took him several fights to begin looking like an elite heavyweight again. Would Fedor be able to last long enough to knock off any rust? And that's if he's able to even get close to fighting elite competition.

Part of the reason Anderson Silva had surpassed Fedor on many pound for pound lists was due to level of competition Fedor had begun to face. His last win on a major US card was over Brett Rogers. While Rogers was viewed as an up and comer at the time. After the loss to Fedor though Rogers never developed into an elite fighter. He was cut from Strikeforce after ___ losses in a row. The night fight for Strikeforce is where it appeared Fedor was heading for the end. He was submitted by Fabrico Werdum. After that loss he was badly beaten up by Bigfoot Silva and in his final Strikeforce fight he was knocked out by Dan Henderson. So you have a fighter whose beast days were in a company that is long dead in Pride. The last time fans in the US saw him it was losing three in a row. There are a large number of MMA fans that never saw Pride outside of Best of Pride the TV show and UFC Fightpass.

Fedor did win the final three fight of his career to date. However those were not against elite fighters. One was against Jeff Moonson an aged fighter who has not been an elite fighter in years if he ever was one. Another was against Pedro Rizzo a star from the UFC dark days but again hadn't scored a big win in a long time. Also none of the three fighters he beat have even gotten close to an upper level promotion since their fight with Fedor. How many new fans are going to be willing to watch WSOF or Bellator if they sign him and have him main event a show? And remember a big reason to invest the big money it will take with Fedor will be to hopefully win over new fans. How much will an aged fighter long removed his last quality win really draw?

Another question who would he really fight? The lion share of elite fighters in general are under UFC contracts. Bellator does have some good heavyweights in terms of attack pure curiosity the best option might just be Kimbo Slice. Of course I wouldn't hold my breath on either fighter agreeing to that or various reasons. I can't recall any heavyweight WSOF has with out looking it up first I admit. Now on flip side to that of course any young fighter that would beat Fedor would have a big win to build his career on.

Now lets to the real reason why I think any company signing Fedor would be a bad idea. Financial he wouldn’t be worth it. Fedor and his M-1 Global company have had numerous negotiations with UFC parent company Zuffa. Many has criticized Dana White for not being willing to make a deal. White claims it on Fedor and his people as they are unwilling to consed on several demands. A big one if co promotion. M-1 Global also puts on MMA events. The UFC simply wants to pay Fedor as a fighter. By Co-promoting an event that would mean he would paid extra money. A great deal extra including cuts of the tickets sales and pay per view buys. I understand why Fedor would ask for this stuff as it's his body on the line and numerous boxers have similar deals.

That said I also don't blame the UFC for refusing him. The UFC doesn't need Fedor Emilenko. Having him and doing a big fight with Lesnar or Couture could have done huge business. The UFC was making huge money and they still do very well. Affliction a company that spent huge money and singed Fedor giving into his demands because they wanted him and believed they needed him it was dead after two shows. Now to be fair Affliction was spending so much odds are it may not have lasted but the large money owed to Fedor as both a fighter and as a promoter didn't help things. Than there is Strikeforce. Scott Cocker did run a good show and the promotion lasted for several years. Like Affliction they signed Fedor when a UFC deal didn't happen.

And people that worked for Strikeforce admit why Fedor did help draw good attendance and ratings the money he was owed due his deal meant those shows didn't make huge money for Strikeforce. Many people look at Viacom and assume “They have billions they can pay anything.” Except that's not how business works. Companies are not just looking to make profit they are looking to make maxim profit. If Bellator does sign with Fedor and say he draws two millions dollars worth of business. But if they have to spend 1.5 million it may not make sense for Viacom's suites. And than look at the end of Strikeforce. It's backers pulled out partly due to the fact they saw how much money was being spent on fighters with out big returns. And what happened the UFC swopped in and bought out Strikeforce.

The one company that would be able to last if they signed Fedor would be the UFC. Fedor wouldn't be seen as a make it or break it deal for the company. The UFC like the WWE is for wrestling or the NFL is for pro football is the seen by many as the only whole industry. People use the term Ultimate Fighting when talking about the sport. For Bellator who has done a lot to close the gap on the UFC the last few years but who have they done that? To large part it been reaching out and signing former UFC fighters to contracts. Many of those fighters are names like Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, or most recently Josh Koscheck. All fighters that entered on losing streaks. All fighters the UFC seemed to not be overly interested in. And in Jackson's case he fled back to the UFC. Bellator has already tied up a lot of money in older fighters how much would Fedor really add? Also I'll be interested o see what happens when notable Bellator fighters such as Pat Curran or Pitreco Pitbull are free agents will they depart like Eddie Alvarez did?

There is no denying the legend Fedor has become over the years. But Strikeforce showed simply having Fedor doesn't mean you will last forever. And what if he start to win? Does it really say Fedor's back Fedor's still the best? No it doesn’t' because no matter how much people may like to deny it the best talent is in the UFC. Fedor winning would simply send the message that Bellator has such a thin Heavyweight roster even a fighter well past his prime can come in and win. Fedor is a legend but he's not worth money and he doesn't bring the creditability either at this point.