[INTRO MUSIC] Hello and welcome to the Hammer from 93.3 CF MU. I'm your host, Greg. Dave is not with us this week, but I am joined by my friend. Steve, how's it going? All right. So you can find us on Facebook. You can find our podcast on iTunes. You can also find our recorded shows at www.thehammermma.com. That's the hammer MMA one word. And we're also up on addicted MMA.com now. That's addicted MMA one word.com. If you can't get enough of MMA, visit addicted MMA.com for exclusive interviews, the latest news, exciting forums, and a true mixed martial arts community. Join live chats during every UFC and strike force event, addicted MMA.com. Live it, breathe it, stay addicted. So we have a nice little card to recap this week. It was the big UFC 126 card. We were so hyped for this card. Yes, we were. This was-- I haven't been this excited for a card since, probably, I don't know, GSP's last fight. Oh, yeah, probably. So it's been about to show it. It's just been a lot building up to this. Did it deliver? Huh, well, it remains to be seen. But very newsworthy show, but I can't say that I loved it. Yeah, the card was a bit-- like the names were great, but the actual action was a bit lackluster, I found. Anyway, so we're going to recap it. We're going to start with the big one. Anderson Silva, the middleweight champ, took on Vitor Belfort. Belfort was supposed to be a big challenge for Silva. Everyone was saying that his striking was going to come up and that he was going to really give Silva a run for his money. This didn't happen. Silva caught him with a front kick to the face about at 325 of the first round and just knocked him clean. So-- What do you think about that kick? Is it Silva afterwards said that Steven Segal taught him to kick? Yeah, that was pretty funny. And now Steven Segal's all back in the news, like talking about this kick. He just made Steven Segal relevant again. Yeah, yeah. And you know who's not relevant? Vitor Belfort. Yeah, it was-- It was unfortunate. I mean, I don't think he's irrelevant in the division. I mean, he just got killed by the champ. But honestly, everyone gets killed by Anderson, Silva, and that division. I have to say I'm disappointed. I was expecting a nice, like an awesome striking battle. And they circled for what? The first two minutes to that fight? Well, they were feeling each other out. And there was a point where Vitor actually caught Silva. And I thought that Vitor was going to make a real game of it. But then Silva just threw this kick and like a back leg front kick right to the face. Like, that's unbelievable. What I like about it is he was kind of like looking down. So it kind of like-- it was harder to track that kick. Well, I think he thought it was going to the body, and he didn't expect it to get him to the face. But it just-- I mean, his face just went like mashed in. It was something else. It's a shame, because I mean, I like Belfort. I think he's a class guy, but-- And another highlight, real KO for Silva. Yeah, we'll just chalk that one up. And now go right with the Griffin one. And now I don't know what happens to Belfort. Belfort was out of action for a year and a half waiting for this title fight. He got beaten quickly. Like, I guess he just goes back into the-- Back in the group pile, yeah. I mean, the pile isn't that big in middleweight. So, well, it remains to be seen. I think Silva-- I mean, Silva's eventually going to have to face GSP. Well, that's the big news that came out of this. The press conference afterwards, Dana reiterated what he's been talking about for the last few months. Yes. Now that they're there since Silva won, if GSP gets past Jake Shields, they're doing the bout. And GSP would relinquish his title and go up to middleweight. Yeah. So I mean, Okami's going to have to wait. Oh, yeah. Yeah, during the press conference, they're asking Dana, like, what about Okami? And he's like, oh, sorry. Who cares about Okami? And really, I got to say, it's not like people are knocking down like UFC's door to see Okami's have Okami fighting. I hope he gets a shot sooner or later, but it's not the priority right now. No, it's definitely not, and it shouldn't be. And I mean, it's very likely that GSP is going to get past Shields, so this dream fight will probably happen. Yeah. So we were looking forward to that. So next on the card was Light Heavyweight bout. This was supposed-- this is an interesting one. Forest Griffin and Rich Franklin. This was supposed to be a very, very evenly matched fight just because they-- and the hype special, Franklin was listing out all these attributes of Forest and he was saying, well, is that me or is that Forest? Because they both have very similar styles. And they have, like, a similar amount of fame. And now that they're in the same weight class, like, they're guys who really do feel evenly matched. Yeah. But on the show last week, I think, do we all decide-- I called Griffin-- I mean, not Griffin. I called Franklin, actually. Because I thought that Franklin was a little more technically sound and I thought that he could overcome Griffin's size. I was horribly wrong. And David and I both agreed that Franklin is likely more skilled, but he just-- that evenly matched. Griffin's going to have maybe, you know, 15, 20 pounds on him and he would use that size. And that's exactly what happened. He had at least that much. He just-- it was a unanimous decision. Griffin, at no real point, looked like he was in trouble. I mean, he controlled Franklin. He got on top of him. It was an extremely exciting fight either. Well, actually, I mean, it was-- it wasn't that exciting. It was all right. It was 29, 28. So it wasn't a complete demolish. Franklin managed to get around. But yeah, at no point did I ever think Franklin was going to win that fight while I was watching the fight. No. So Franklin is-- I guess he just goes back into the-- back into the group again. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, he's got to be somewhat near the top of that division. Like, oh, yeah. I mean, he's always kind of been at a high level in that division. Because I mean, his only recent bad loss was to Silva. There was some talk about putting with Ortiz again. If Ortiz beats a little nod-- I think that's a step down. That's horrible. That's a step down. I don't want to see that. I still consider the griffins, you know, in the top five or six guys in that division. And Ortiz is not. So I hope that doesn't happen. Then we go to the big one, at least the big one for the card for me, was the light heavyweight bout between Bones, John Bones, Jones, and Ryan Bader. This is really the fight everyone's been talking about. Yeah, it was the fight everyone's been talking about. I was excited as hell to see this. And really, Bader did not look good. This is where I feel sort of bad, because the odds on Bones were like three to one. And I thought that was kind of crazy. I'm a Bader. Yeah. And I'm a Bones fan as well. I think they're both great. We've been watching their careers all the way up. And I just thought that Bader had more of a chance. I wouldn't have guaranteed he would have won. But I thought, you know, he could hang. He couldn't hang with Bones. No, not at all. Bones. Toldio class. Toldio class. And it was-- you'd think-- I mean, Bader's a big guy. But Bones just looked so much bigger. Yep. He's got that huge, enormous reach advantage. He's got this quickness that-- I mean, it's just-- it's insane. And yeah, so he defeated Ryan Bader by a guillotine choke. No, we'll stay with Bader. I mean, he got beat up. He got-- never in that fight that he looked like he was winning anything. But I will say, in the first round, Bones was on top of him. And normally, Bones would finish a guy with his ground to pound. And Bader kept his cool-- That's true, yeah. And escaped-- I mean, he never looked offensive. Like, he never had great offense in the fight. But I did think that Bader showed that, you know, he can become an even more well-rounded fighter. And I think he'll be back. I think he's got to switch. He works at his-- he trains at his own camp. Yeah. So I mean, and he got Bones training with Greg Jackson. I mean, that's a bit of a discrepancy. It's disproportionate. And we were saying even before the fight, how much would Bader benefit from going down to like AKA and training with Kane Velasquez and Joss Kosh-Jack and John Fitch and these guys, these wrestlers who can strike. And I think he should-- because he's talented now, like he's got a natural talent. I think he should be training with better people. Yeah, I mean, not to take anything away from who he's training with right now, but there's a specific set of camps that are like your Black House, your AKA, your Greg Jackson. These are camps that are head and shoulders above all the other camps. Well, Jones is a freak natural athlete. But would he be as good as he is right now if he was in training with Jackson? No, he's training exactly. He's training with the best. I mean, you look at the Velasquez Lesnar fight. Velasquez is AKA. Velasquez is on his own, you know, with his own training guys. And though Lesnar is a fantastic athlete, Velasquez ate him alive. Because I think it's a lot to do with the fact that Velasquez trains an AKA. It's a great camp. I mean, you've got to have the natural ability. You've got to have the desire, but you've also got to have that great camp. Because the sport has evolved to such a degree where it's become a true athletic science now. There's a certain formula that you need to follow. And these camps have that formula. That's a bit of a sidetrack. I do think there need to be a few more high quality camps. Because if you get to the point where there's too many guys in the same four or five big camps, then no one's going to wind up fighting each other. Yeah, that's true. Well, I mean, I think all the camps are good, but there's only a few great ones. And guys like Bader and guys like Brock Lesnar should be training in those great camps. Yeah. Unless they can evolve or bring people in that will make their own camps great. You know, I mean, you can work on your own camp and improve your own camp. But, you know, if you really want to go for the title and keep the title for a while, at this point, there's four or five camps that are just, you know, up on that pinnacle. And it was shown in this fight. Yeah, for sure. Now, the really interesting thing came after this fight. Yeah. They came into the octagon and they offered bones. No one saw this coming. They offered bones the title shot in mid-March against Shogun. Yeah, they kept that so quiet. So apparently, Rashad blood is knee. I had no idea. Yep, so no one knew. None of the new sites. No, I don't even think anyone had any clue this was going to happen. And bones didn't know. And I don't-- I think they just didn't-- they told his camp, but they didn't tell him because they didn't want to freak him out. Imagine the pressure going into that fight knowing that you've got a title shot in that fight. Oh, that would be the worst thing to do. You let him fight naturally and then tell him afterwards. And he drops bones, drops to his knees. And like, yes, he's taking it. Oh, yeah, he's got a hoe. He's got six weeks to train for Shogun. That is a scary proposition. Well, it's in March. Yeah, it's in mid-March. Six weeks is not a lot of time to train for Shogun. A world-class guy like Shogun. However, I mean, Shogun is used to going after Rashad. And now he's got to figure out how to beat bones. Like, it's not an easy-- it's not an easy draw for Shogun, either. He's basically got six bones to get himself to school if I-- Too many, 12, six, elbows to the head. But I can't see that happening. But what I thought was kind of interesting is now, so now Rashad, he's not in this fight. He's in the same camp as bones, as we were just talking about. Guys who won't fight each other, because they're in the same camp, if bones wins his fight, Rashad's now the title picture. He said he won't fight bones. If he says he won't fight him, then he's out of the title picture, that's it. I mean, there's no rule that says you can't fight in your own camp, and it's not like Greg Jackson has a rule where you can't fight in your own camp. That's all on Rashad. Oh, Carlos Conda said he'll fight anybody. Yeah, exactly. But this is purely the rumor section of this radio show. But right before we went on the air, I was-- there's been rumblings on the internet that Jago Silva has pulled out of the Rampage Jackson fight in May, and that Rashad, who should be better by then, is slotted in. This is not the act. If this turns out that it was all rumor tomorrow, but do you think that's a more interesting fight if it happens? Not if it goes the way the first one went. Rampage Rashad was one of those fights, just one of those fights that should have been amazing. That was a ton of sizzle with no steak. It was probably so more marketable than Jago Silva versus Rampage. Oh, yeah, well, you know what? I don't know. I think that given Jago Silva's demolishing of Brandon Vera, Jago Silva looked fantastic. And those two guys are beasts. Like, when Jago Silva and Rampage Jackson are at their best and they're angry and they're ready to go, they are beasts. So if you-- Or it'll probably be a better fight. Yeah, it's going to be-- I mean, you can market it based on that, the fact that it would be a better fight. And given Rashad's last fight with Rampage, that fight was not good. So anybody who really wants to see great MMA would rather see the Silva Rampage fight. Yeah, I think it's-- And it's also fresh. It's definitely a more fresh and I think a more interesting matchup. We probably shouldn't talk about it too much more, but it's very possible that that's going to wind up happening. That late heavyweight division, there's a lot going on there. So they have to figure out who's going to face the winner of Bowen's Shogun probably by the summer. Yeah, so that'll be interesting. Light heavyweight division continues to move and shake. OK, so now we go to welterweight. We had Jake Ellenburger taking on Carlos, Eduardo Hocha. Hocha. What a very fight. Yeah. Rocha, he looked great in that first round. Amazing jujitsu. I just love watching guys like that work on the ground. And then just kind of lost at those last two rounds and just got wrestled out, everything. According to two judges, one judge gave it no. That was ridiculous. That was a bad judging. He got Allenburger winning two of the three rounds. 29-28 decision. And then the other judge goes the opposite wing. Is he unanimous decision? No. OK. I seriously think that that judge saw the domination of the first round. It was just like it went and got a snack. It took a break. But for a two round bathroom break. Because really, if you say who was the most dominant overall in the fight, who did the most? I mean, I say Rocha did it. But if you judge it round by round, there's no way he won anything like those last two rounds. On the first round. First round was a great, great ground game. That was really awesome. I really liked it because in the same calendar week, you got that fight. And you got the Jack-O-Ray fight in Strike Force. You're going to see some jujitsu guys really do it on the ground. And you don't see a net of that. Well, we were watching. I remember you were like, oh, man, this is just like the Jack-O-Ray fight. I love seeing these guys who can really work on the ground. Yeah, I mean, in the sawed all those on-fight, that was fantastic. I mean, that was a-- I don't know if that got fired at the night, but it should have. This fight kind of lost a kind of loss. Yeah, the first round was great. Yeah, I love the second two rounds. A little bit boring, but-- Bell and Burger just keeps winning. Yeah, he looked good. Other than the one decision loss to Condit. I mean, he just keeps going. Yeah, he does. I mean, and losing to Condit. There's no shame in that. So anyway, we go to the Bantamweights. Miguel Torres taking on Antonio Benjuelos. This was disappointing. You know what? I was annoyed because the crowd was booing this fight. And I didn't think it was a boo-worthy fight. I wouldn't go so far to boo it. The crowd was really hitting on it, but I was expecting some fireworks. And there wasn't a lot to this fight. Well, it was more of a calculated striking battle. Both guys, Torres was doing exactly what he should do, using his reach, jabbing, doing basically GSP did with cost check. And an awesome strategy for a great great fighter who's had a couple of losses and trying to become relevant. I mean, he went in there and he went for what he knew would be a win. I don't know, opening fight on a card I was really hyped for. I think I just won it. Well, we're also pretty spoiled by watching WEC right? I think that these fights now, these lesser weight fights, lower weight fights, are going to start to-- I mean, they're not all going to be boring. They're still going to be exciting because, honestly, I did like this fight. But I think that now the pressure is on more, and now these guys aren't throwing their hands as much and letting loose, because they know that a lot more is on the line. There's a lot more prestige. There's more money. So I think they're trying to be a little more careful. So you see a strategy like Torres was implementing there, where he, you know, you know, stick and move, use the jab. And though it's not as exciting to watch, it still got him the win. And I still found him to look really good in this fight. Yup, so. So then we go to the prelim card, Chad Mendez versus Michihiro Omigawa. And this was-- We were pretty sure what Mendez was going on this way. Oh, yeah, I mean, Mendez, he's been on a street. He's probably going to be slated in to fight Aldo or Hominek, whoever wins that. I would be surprised if he didn't get the winner of that fight in April. Oh, yeah. I mean, well, who else are you going to give to Grisby? I mean, you know, really. So this was a domination by Mendez, 3027, all the way through unanimous decision. There was a very-- Omigawa, I think, tried to pull off an armbar or some kind of submission in the first round, and it didn't really go that well. Mendez dominated him. Mendez just destroyed him. And that's a second run in the UFC for Omigawa that just really didn't go anywhere. Yeah. So I don't think he hasn't been cut, but I mean, he's really got to win that next fight. Yeah. Both of these guys were gassed out in the match. I kind of like to see that, you know, two guys who really left it all out there, and they were just so tired, they couldn't even stand at the end of the fight. You know, that shows that both guys worked hard. This wasn't that bad of a fight. It was a pretty entertaining fight. So yeah, I mean, good on the featherweights there. I like the following fight better though. Oh, yeah, Saroni and Kelly. So Donald Saroni, the cowboy, took on Paul Kelly. And this is some controversy attached to this one, where they were going to go touch gloves at the beginning of the fight. And Kelly kind of went to touch gloves and then threw an overhand. Do you think Saroni got cheap shot? [LAUGHTER] I know. I was like, after I found out, I'm like, oh, Saroni's definitely going to kick him in the groin now. [LAUGHTER] And yeah, so they went to go touch gloves instead. He took a-- Kelly took a cheap shot. Yeah, he took a cheap shot. Now, according to-- actually, Dick did MMA.com's got a little interview with Kelly. And basically, he says, you know, the same thing that he said at the post-fight interview, where he said, look, I was just trying to touch gloves and then go to work as quickly as possible. He maintains that it was not a cheap shot, just adrenaline got the best of him. And you know what, there's no reason-- why would anyone take a cheap shot? You know, it just doesn't make much sense that someone would at the beginning of the fight, throw an overhand, you know, right, and cheap shot like that. So I believe, Kelly. I really do. I think I believe him, but I also don't think it's right. Well, yeah, I mean, it's not right to do that. Like, you should-- but adrenaline can get the best of you sometimes. And I don't think he had any malicious intent on that one. He's just-- as he said, you know, he wants to touch gloves and go to work. So-- And that played one best of the night. Yeah, it did. Yeah, fight of the night. It was-- it's interesting, too, because this was a round two stoppage. Donald Saroni, well, it's a submission. Round two submission. A rear naked choke. And it was a good fight, though. The first round was awesome. I thought Kelly looked good. I thought Saroni looked a little sluggish, but still held his own. And then Saroni came out in the second round really, really, really strong. How much was the fight of the night bonus? Fight of the night bonus was 75 grand. It's good money for Donald Saroni. He's not used to making money like that. Yeah. Certainly is. Well, I mean, he's-- but he's won a lot of fights. He's had a good streak of wins, so-- But, yeah, I mean, he never made us-- he used to make-- Oh, no. He used to make $10,000 a night in WBC for a fight of the night. Yeah, but he's pretty used to getting those bonuses. So, I mean, it's a good raise, but it's not like Saroni's struggling. I could buy another wing on his ranch. On his ranch. On his ranch. Gracie, I'll be happy about that. OK, so anyway, so yeah, then we go-- well, I'll just run down the rest of the fights. Kid Yamamoto versus Dimitris Johnson. This was the Facebook fight, which actually didn't make TV. Johnson defeated Kid, being an animus decision. There probably wasn't enough time during that card to show a full decision fight from dinner card. Yeah, that could be it. I mean, and they also had it on the Facebook card, so it's not really-- it's kind of disappointing for Kid. His first fight out of dream. That is really rough. You know, I thought it's that curse. All these guys who come over from Japan, that first fight, look at Gomi, look at-- look at Shinya Oki when he came over to strike for us, like these guys, it's a tough transition. Yeah, it certainly is. That's really unfortunate because he's a huge star, and now he's losing on the Facebook prelem fight. Like, that's-- Yeah. I mean, they're not going to cut him because they just signed him. So he'll get something else. It's good for Johnson. It's great for Johnson. Johnson. Johnson just stepped up. This is Bantamweight. This is a division that is kind of fast. It's not that deep, so you can have Dimitris Johnson moving up fairly quickly. He looked fairly impressive in this last WBC fight. Was it Dimeko Paige? Was that the fight? I think so. I think it was Paige. Yeah, I think it was Paige. He might not have a stake in. So, like, this is a great little series of wins for the guy. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's looking good. I'm going to run down the other three results. We had Mike Pierce versus Kenny Robertson. This was in Waltrowweight division. Pierce defeated Robertson via TKO, 29 seconds of round two. Then there was Paul Taylor versus Gabe Roodiger. This was really cool. Taylor defeated Roodiger via KO strikes. This was 142 of round two. I was surprised that you did this at the very end of the night. Yeah. The first round was kind of dull. We were expecting the kidie on the motor fight because at the time, like, we actually missed the fight on Facebook. We didn't get a chance to see it. And we were expecting them to show it on TV, but instead they showed this one, and I was wondering why. And the first round was kind of dull, and I saw that head kiss. The second round head kick was vicious. I loved it. That was awesome. That was... Taylor crushed Roodiger. He got an award for that, right? Yeah. He got... Actually, I think they wound up sharing "Fight of the Night." At least I thought, "No, it didn't." Nope. No, "Fight of the Night" was Serenity Kelly. Yeah, it didn't get anything. Well, let's do that. Oh, yeah, I guess so, yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. That's kind of a shame. I mean, it would have been nice to throw them a bonus too, because Taylor, I mean, that was an awesome head kick. It was really, really good, but I guess I'll have to settle for his win bonus. And then Ricardo Romero versus Kyle Kingsbury, Kyle Kingsbury came into this match looking like he just got out of prison. Yes, certainly. He looked... He scared the hell out of me. He was jacked. That was ridiculous. It's quite a difference from his time in the Ultimate fighter, because he was more of the laid-back guy who talked to everybody. He came in this fight looking like a machine, and he just destroyed Romero, TKO strikes 21 seconds into round one. That looks great for Kingsbury. An awesome highlight, real thing. Guys got a new look. I mean, now he'll be on a televised card for sure next time. Yeah. I mean, I hopefully that... I mean, his physique is one thing, and his power, that's one thing. But does he have the technical ability? Has he been training, his fighting ability as much as he's been training his body? That remains to be seen. So we'll see what he does against a little stiffer competition. But anyway, so that's UFC 126. Now, this Saturday, we've got a card coming up. It's the first night of the Strike Force tournament, the heavyweight cramp-free. Oh boy. But the good part is that the tournament's going as planned since it hasn't started yet. Yeah, yeah. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm of mixed feelings of the fact that it's a heavyweight card all up and down the card. So it's five heavyweight fights. It's not the full eight-man tournament. The first two matches are two matches on the tournament, and the third three matches are the reserve fights. The reserve bouts. So the people who win those fights will get reserved chances if... When? When the injuries happen, 'cause it's going to happen. So the main event and part of the heavyweight cramp-free is Fedor versus Antonio Bigfoot- Silva. I am looking forward to this. I like the good foot. You know what? I like Bigfoot. It's always great to watch. You got to figure Fedor is going to have this. Yeah. You have to. I mean, let's... Silva got... I do like him, but he got beat up by... He got beat up in that last fight. Who did he fight? I'm trying to remember I can at the moment. Mike Kyle was it? I think it might have been Kyle. He got beat up. So I just don't know if he can... If he can hang with Fedor. That's... Yeah, that's going to be tight. I really think Fedor is going to have this. I mean, it's not like Silva is going to tap him with a triangle and catch him the way Vardoom did. And Fedor is definitely going to look to win. I mean, if he's motivated for it, you know, that's another question too. That's actually a really good question, because I mean, Fedor went, you know, essentially undefeated for so, so long, and then after you get tapped in a minute, like, what does that do to your mind game? Yeah. You know, does he feel indestructible anymore? Like... Exactly. He has to come in there with a good head on his shoulders. I do think that Strikeforce thinks he's going to win, because the fights they really want to do are Fedor vs. Overeem and Fedor vs. Vardoom 2. Well, that's the crowd. I mean, Fedor vs. Overeem is the crown jewel of this tournament. They might as well have just done Fedor vs. Overeem without all this, but, you know, they eventually... I mean, that's what the tournament's building to. But they're trying to get that done. Never put it past Strikeforce's bad luck for Silva to win this fight. Right. And really, really, Silva isn't a bad fighter at all. No, not at all. He has loss of Overeem. But I mean, he's 15 and 2. He's really bad at that first round in his last fight, but still, you have to call Fedor. Yeah, for sure. Next up, another bout in the tournament, Andre Erlowski vs. Sergey Kertanov. And I just can never bet on Erlowski anymore. Like, the guys lost his last three fights, KO'd in the first round by Fedor and Rogers, which, you know, are guys with knockout power, of course. Yeah. But I just think that Erlowski is just not the guy. I just want this fight to have the two guys come in and just swing and just give me something fun to watch. Yeah. That'd be great. Well, you'll get that with a Sergey fight. Yeah. He's had something like 20-something fights. He's only been to two decisions ever. Yeah. So hopefully it'll end not quickly, but it'll end in an exciting fashion. Because, I mean, Erlowski, he's called a pit bull for a reason. You know, he can still, he can still, you know, go and he can still, you know, have a really, really exciting fight. He's just not, I don't see him as a title contender. I think he's a, he's a little bit old. He's been around the block a few times, but he can still have an exciting fight and so can Sergey. Well, the only, the only way he's going to get himself a strike force heavyweight title shot is to beat three guys in this tournament, and I just don't see that happening. It is three guys on one side, though. Oh, yeah. True. Yeah. This tournament is very popular. You could conceivably see Erlowski getting to the final tournament. Sure. I mean, he's just got to figure out how to beat Brett Rogers. I hope that is exciting, though, because with these, with the heavyweight fights, you know, Fedor will, Fedor will be in an interesting fight, but, you know, some of these strike force heavyweight fights just really have sucked. Well, yeah. In recent history, yeah, for sure. I mean, they had, they just haven't looked good and it has to do with, I think a lot of it has to do with the depth of the roster. I mean, you've got, it's not, and whenever you compare it to UFC, you just know, I mean, UFC is just so leaps and bounds above it when it comes to depth that you're not going to, I mean, sometimes they've got to throw guys in that you've never heard of, guys that are really, really old to just fill the void. Yeah. And at least Erlowski has a name. Yeah. Now the first reserve bout in the heavyweight grand prix on the same night is Levar Johnson, who was half of my least favorite fight of all time against Lahui Mahi. Oh, yeah, that's right. Is that the challenger's fight? That's the challenger's fight, which is just like the one that almost made me give up. Was that the one that Sarah Kaufman should have been the main event, or was that a different one? I think that might have been the same night. Yeah, where she was fighting defending her title and didn't get the main event for some ridiculous reason. But anyway. And then so you've got Levar Johnson versus Shane Del Rosario, who is strike four seems really high on. He's 10 and O finishes everyone. Yeah. I hope he wins. He's a good fighter. He's the perfect guy to be in a reserve bout for this tournament. Oh, yeah. He doesn't really have the name to be in the top eight, but he's a guy who is good enough and has enough of a high point that if they dropped him in there, I wouldn't have a problem. And he has the, just a really great possibility of having a good finish. Yes. He has his name out there. It's good to have him in there because you get to see him. He comes up with a great finish. Now he's got a bit of a name. Now is something that you can market. The next reserve bout on this card is Jim Perro Villante. I can honestly say I've never seen him fight. He's seven in one. He's never fought anyone I've ever heard of in any card I've ever seen. But he is facing Chad Griggs, the fireman who beats Bobby Lashley. Oh, okay. All right. It's time for him to come back and get something going. This is sort of thing. He beat Lashley. Lashley had so much hype behind him. He had forces all behind him and he was fed, like Chad Griggs was fed to Lashley and he beat him. I wouldn't say it was the greatest fight I've ever seen. But I win like that. You have to continue to roll with a guy like this because that's a very big win. Oh, for sure. I mean, that you're beating the golden boy. Yup. Like as much as people want to say, "Oh, fate or this," I mean Lashley was the diamond. He wanted Lashley to be their Brock Lesnar. He wanted, yeah, they wanted him to be the Brock Lesnar. He had the wrestling fame. So those fans knew him. He already had a name beforehand. I mean, he had just as big of a name as Fador when it came to North American market ability and then Griggs just destroyed that. Now, here's my question about that fight. It's Griggs won that fight. Good for him. Yeah. But was he good or was Lashley really awful? We're going to find out. 'Cause Lashley looked really bad in that fight. Yeah. We're going to find out. So this is another fight on the card. I'm not expecting too much. But hey, they need these reserved bouts and these are their heavyweights. And the final reserved bout is Valentino Vereem versus Ray Sefo. Now, Sefo, he's from K-1. He's had like a million K-1 fights. He's only had a couple MMA fights, though. Love watching K-1, guys strike. Anyone who's had 70 or 80 K-1 battles, it should be pretty good. His career's not quite the same as it used to be, hasn't been, you know, he's has a lot of losses in his recent past. But, you know, Valentino Vereem, he is something like 28 and 25, I think, I think is his record. His record's not that great. These aren't guys with like incredible MMA records. I don't know. Well, once again, it's a couple of guys who you hope will provide an exciting fight. Who will give, you know, fans something to cheer for and provide a good finish or an exciting decision or something along those lines. I am very glad that the strike force is using this opportunity to shore up their heavyweight division because really the heavyweight division should be your premier division. But if I'm going to sit and watch, you know, strike force for three hours, would have loved a lighter wave fight in here somewhere. Just a variety, you know? Well, you want to promote your tournament, too. You really do. But, you know, there's something about watching a good MMA card and, you know, seeing some lightweight fights. Oh, yeah. I agree. I agree. But I think strike force is trying to go in a little bit of an interesting direction here where you're trying to put all their eggs into that basket. They really want that heavyweight tournament to solidify them and get them back what they need to be. And once four or five guys get injured, it's going to be brutal. That's my prediction. But hopefully these three fights will provide some excitement. But by the sounds of it, I mean, these are guys that can provide some excitement. I think I think these fights should actually be, for the most part, very entertaining. Yeah. There's actually not a ton of news going on this week. One thing, though, if you were listening to us in our hometown live in Hamilton, Ontario, Sean Shirk is signing this Saturday, February 13th from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Cardman sporting card store in Grinsby, Ontario. The store's at 63 Main Street West. That's about a kilometer from the QEW. It doesn't do a ton of good for our listeners online. But if you're listening locally, this sounds like an awesome way to go and meet Sean Shirk. So former lightweight champion, he's coming off a win. He's still right in the mix in the lightweight division, in a very, very deep division, too. So yeah, I mean, it'd be great to meet the muscle shark. Oh, yeah. I can't wait. And there's going to be a bunch of media there. We're going to be there. Yeah, we're going to be there. You know, and barring any technical difficulties, we should have some Sean Shirk on the show next week. Yeah, Sean Shirk, and we're also going to try and get him up, get our interview up on YouTube as well. Yeah. So we're going to ask him some good questions and see where he's at. And hopefully he can call someone out. I'm calling it right now. I need to find out who Shirk is fighting next because he's about the only guy in the lightweight division who doesn't have a dance party. I'm pretty sure nothing's been announced. I mean, I guess I'd have to look again, but as it stands, I don't think he's got anybody. So yeah, it'll be interesting. All right. And yeah, that's pretty much it. All right, guys. So you can find us at www.thehammermma.com, addicted MMA.com, iTunes Store, iTunes Facebook, And yeah, we'll just sign off now. Have a good week.
