(heavy rock music) - Hello and welcome to Hammer. It is another Wednesday show. Thank you for listening. I'm your co-host. I'm Dave joined by my friends. - Greg, how's it going guys? - And Steve, hey. - So we've got a great show for you as we always try to do for this Wednesday night. You were normally listening to us live at 93.3 CFMU. You are not doing it this week because we've been preempted by the basketball season, but we can still be found on the hammer MMA.com on iTunes. And of course, we will be broadcasting this on Thursday. So if you're a part of the morning show and you're not used to hearing us, thank you and you can normally find us on Wednesdays. - A little harder to find, but we're still out there. - We're here for you guys. We do it for the fans. And we've also been kicked out of our normal booth and we're down the hall. So it's a little bit awkward in here. If you can't hear us, please do write in on our website and we'll see if we can fix the mics a little bit to get us up to our normal production quality. So we're gonna review the results of Frank Edgar versus Gray Maynard from this Saturday. As well, we've got a little bit of a preview about the Strike Force Challenges card coming up. And of course, we have news as always. - It'll be a brief Strike Force Challenge. - It'll be very, very brief because. - So pretty with its challenge. - So for anybody hanging in there waiting for our in-depth Strike Force Challenges preview, maybe not gonna show for them. - It was gonna happen in the week, after they fire a model or not. - Yeah, let's hope so. - So we begin with Gray Maynard and Frank Edgar. This was the main event. Frank Edgar was defending his championship for the second time against Gray Maynard. His first defense was of course a former champ or BJ Pan. Now Gray came in looking great, hit Franky with a really, really good shot. Make him do a back flip. This was incredible. - This is Brock Lesnar impression. - Pound it 'em for the first round. Just devastating beatdown on Edgar. Edgar managed to survive the first round. It was a very, very close thing. And the second round he came back and obviously he managed to put the hurting on Maynard. Came right back. Just bombarded Maynard, bombated a couple looking for the headshot. He never got it. - The only comeback I can think of that even rivals that was Condit on Never a McDonald. - Honestly, this was way more than that. - And this was much longer. - Yeah, this was much longer. - And not just in striking, 'cause we know that Edgar can strike around. He was out wrestling Gray Maynard. - At one point in the second round, he picked Maynard up on his shoulder, spun him and slammed him. He slammed Gray Maynard. - And that was the only time. He took him down numerous times. - And he was stuffing everything. He was stuffing all of his takedown. - We thought that the story was gonna be Maynard's wrestling. It was Franky Edgar's wrestling. His footwork was phenomenal. He blocked or dodged every shot. Pummeled him in the second round. - Think about this. Franky Edgar, he out struck BJ Pan and out wrestled Gray Maynard. - Yeah, phenomenal. - It's insane. - Now, he's a $6 million man or something. - So, Franky definitely won the second round, the fourth round. The fifth round was a little bit close, although I do have Franky winning that one. Now, the first round was a 10-8 beatdown for Gray Maynard. It was definitely 10-8. Maynard got four different knockdowns off striking in the round. - And every judge gave a 10-8, when the judges don't give a lot of 10-8. - According to Showdown, Joe, it was a 10-7. - Oh. - I watched him and they connected the other day. He gave it a 10-7. I think that's overkill. - I've heard that thrown out there too, but-- - You know what, I think it's too much. - 10-8's right. - 10-8's right because Franky definitely had striking in there. He was definitely hitting back, particularly towards the end of the round. - Yeah. - So, it wasn't as exclusive as a 10-7, but it was definitely 10-8. - I originally thought, I hate giving 10-8's when I score, and I originally was like, oh no, 10-9, but then I looked at it again. Yeah, it's a 10-8. - It's a pretty serious one-sided beating. - Now, of course, this makes the controversial rounds the third and the fifth. The third, Franky Edgar was in definite control the entire round for about four and a half minutes. - Oh yeah. - In the last 30 seconds, Maynard managed to get a dragging takedown, took him some time, but he got it, and he logged right into a kill team. Franky got him in a guillotine right at the, but by the time Franky locked in that guillotine, it was about five seconds left in the bell rang. - If I was being generous, I would give him the 10-10 round. Like, it could be a draw. There's no way that was a Maynard drama. - To me, I don't see how one takedown with 30 seconds left, which you give up a guillotine choke. You took him down into a guillotine. - And you've been dominated for the entire round. - One takedown does not negate four minutes of striking, particularly when you walk into a finishing submission. If this round had gone on 30 seconds longer, Franky Edgar wins this fight, 'cause that choke was deep. - It was pretty deep, yeah. - Like, that's enough for a 10-9 for me, but I'm not gonna complain too hard for if it was a draw. - Yeah, but you know, and then the fifth round, if this was ridiculous, Franky Edgar completely outstruck him. Neither guy managed to get a takedown. They were both stuffing each other repeatedly. Gray-mannered some of the couple power shots, hit one. Didn't look to hurt Franky Edgar too much, but at this point, I think he's just too numb from the beating he took in the first round. - Yeah. I thought that this round was actually closer than round three. - Absolutely. - Like, I thought that if there was a possible draw round, I thought it would be more round five. - Yeah, I thought it was the other way around. I thought that Edgar Handley had a 10-9 in the fifth round, but the third round was very reasonably a draw, like-- - So-- - But still, these are closed rounds we're talking about, and a close fight, and it was a draw, and you don't see a lot of those in a five round five. - By my call, if you give the first round 10-8 for a manard, and every other round 10-9 for Franky, Franky wins at 48-46. One judge gave it that. - Yeah. - Now, if you give 10-8 in the first round, and you say that the third round manard won off a takedown, it becomes 47-47, a draw. - Yeah. - Which is what one judge gave it. - Which is still possible. - If you give it, manard picks up the 10-8 in the first round, 10-9 in the third round, off the strength of the one takedown for performance of a beating. - A dubious win, but a win, yeah. - And then in the fifth round, you give him the win there for no damn reason I can see. (laughing) Then you give manard the win, which one judge-- - Unless they gave manard a 10-7 in the first round. - No, they did not. - They did not, they gave him 10-8. All three judges gave the first round. - So yeah, so you did have one judge who did think it was 48-46 for manard, which I think is a little crazy, but I don't disagree with a 47-47 draw. - Yeah, I don't disagree either. - So my call, which I feel was one of those accurate, was Frank Hager won this fight. I do think you can make the argument that there was a draw based on the third round. - Exactly how I feel. - Which, you know, I can definitely accept that argument. To me, there was no argument whatsoever that manard won this fight. Manard did not win this fight. The best you can say is he won one round. - Yeah. - And then he was pretty convincingly thrashed for the rest of this fight. - And after this, they showed, after the fight, after they called it a draw. They showed Frank Hager in the locker room, and he was in tears. And like, what do you guys think? It's just because he really thought he won the fight 'cause he thinks he's never gonna shake Graham Anard like. - That he's never gonna, well, not only that, but he's never gonna shake this whole, like, nobody taking him seriously as a champion. - Yeah, this was a hard fight. - Especially if he thought he won that fight. - Exactly. - This is a hard fight. I mean, the draw was, I can agree with the draw. It was a good call. You know, the fight was pretty close. - And actually, a better call than a lot of the judging we've seen recently. - Yeah, you know, and I think that even if you'd gone with the third judge who gave a manor giving it a draw, it would still be a draw, just be a majority draw, just a split draw. But with that being said, because the third judge screwed it up, if that third judge got it right and called it an Edgar Nguyen, Edgar'd be walking out with manor done and moving on. He said he's gonna fight manor again. - Yeah, and Pettis gets a back seat. - Pettis gets a back seat. - And so Anthony Pettis, the WBC champion, he was supposed to get the winner and how, who knows when or if that's gonna happen. He's gonna be fighting in between now and then. Yeah, it's really shook. This draw actually shook things up a lot, but if you go into this fight, the Frankie Edgar great manor fight, no one is really all the hyped about it. You know, we like these guys where we're into it, but there was no real passion anybody had for this main event. Now people are into it. People got into that fight. - Yeah, that fight got Frankie Edgar over. - What a fun, amazing fight. People are talking about these guys. - This was a phenomenal fight. If this fight had happened on December 31st, that would have been my fun of the year. That would have been better than that, Pettis versus Henderson. Very, very close. - I would personally go that high, but I would put it in the running for sure. It was excellent. - It would be close. I still liked Bendo Pettis better, but it would be close. - An excellent fight. And people thought that these people, no one disagrees that Edgar and Manard are great fighters, but no one thought this was gonna be, everyone thought it was gonna be a long, boring decision. And it was exciting. It was a great fight for 25 minutes. - Incredible fight. I mean, it's worth tracking this fight down to watch it. And I mean, you know, both guys look like stars. Now with Shogun and Machita, their first fight wasn't a huge draw, even though both of the two of the talent was talented guys in the world. - Right. - After Shogun got robbed, their second fight became a huge draw, particularly when Shogun vindicated himself. - Oh, that's second fight was massive, but this is different. There's no robbery here, and you won't see anybody disagreeing with the draw too strongly. I don't think it's right. - Because you're not just gonna draw it. - People have more respect for both of these guys now. - It's a star making performance for both guys. - Yeah. - Manard looked phenomenal. Frankie Edgar looked also phenomenal. Both guys submitted themselves as being two of the most exciting guys in the division. - And with BJ Penn over the division, you need two guys like this heading up this division, two guys that have claimed the best lightweights in the world. - Well, the lightweight division is only getting better and better 'cause you got this influx of WEC guys, plus you've got this great fight at the top, because I mean, the criticism of the lightweight division was that, oh, it was top week now that Penn is gone, because nobody understood what they were dealing with. Nobody knew, oh, Edgar, you know, Manard, they didn't give them a lot of credit. - They didn't know Penn is gonna explode. - Like, but now these past two fights, the Pettis Bendo fight, and now this Manard night-- - To me, this year is the year of the coming out party for the lightweight division. - Absolutely. - And I'll tell you why. Although BJ Penn is a huge draw and a wonderful fighter, he also has a very methodical style relative to being a lightweight. He does not fight like a lightweight. He fights like a big, tough guy who can take you down and beat you with a jab. Now, it was much like Shirk used to do. These lightweight fights that are being seen lately are so much faster pace and so much, you know, they're taking more of an influence from the WEC guys. They're going up there and looking to make a show of it. I mean, this fight, for two guys, they have a reputation for being born point fighters. - There's nothing boring about this fight. - This fight was incredible. - The thing is, even though he's got the reputation, had the reputation, I've never found Frankie Edgar to be born. - No, I mean, either. - I don't know where that even came from. It's just 'cause he goes to the decision, I suppose. - And he goes to the most always, but he's always exciting. And now, I mean, he's the UFC's Little Mac from Mike Tyson's Punch-In. - Yeah, he is. - He's the little guy who beats people that they don't think he can be, and people are gonna get behind that. People are already getting behind it. I think he's gonna be a huge star. Another fighter, too. He keeps winning. - If he beats Maynard and Pettis, and managed to make it out of this year with that belt on his waist, you know, if he makes it through four title defenses, which is completely realistic, 'cause he's already got two on his belt. - Yeah, he might finally get the respect he deserves. - This guy is gonna become something special. And if he doesn't, if he ends up losing it to Pettis, Pettis is kind of phenomenal, too. So, I mean, there's definitely stars waiting to be made in this division. - So the word is, what's with Pettis now? I mean, who do you give him? They're gonna make him fight while he waits for Maynard and Edgar to settle their differences. - It's such a sad thing for Pettis. I mean, their initial opinion was they're gonna go ahead with Pettis versus Frank. - They actually announced it at the press conference. - Yeah, they did. - Gray Maynard almost started crying. He lost his mind. He looked destroyed, and then they changed their mind afterwards. - Well, it doesn't make sense to, like you have to give the rematch. One, because it's gonna draw like crazy. And two, because it's fair. - I do my one sort of difference on this. - The other thing, you can't have a guy walk around with a W.C. belt and the U.C. belt. - You gotta pull the trigger. - You gotta pull the trigger on Pettis while he's hot. I mean, everyone's talking about Pettis right now. - That kick, yeah. - You gotta keep him busy. - Frankie versus Gray is gonna draw eight months from now where there's a three round or a five round. - Exactly. - Pettis versus Franky might not draw. - Should he unify this belt and gay Maynard the winner? - Unless you give Pettis another half decent fight and have it look spectacular again. - Yeah, I'm like, "We're gonna fight." - Oh, there's guys. - There's guys that like, look at how deep the lightweight division is, you can find somebody. Come on. - So I don't personally like the fact that Pettis got put aside for a while, but you know what? It's also, you've got all of us to settle this issue. Now you've got three top guys in the division. It's great, great fight, great event, great everything. - So we move forward, we had the middleweight fight. Chris Lehman came out looking to defeat Brian Stan, the war hero who the UFC once very, very badly to become a huge star. Unfortunately, Lehman was not able to act as a spoiler here. Stan outstrapped him pretty convincingly. - Well, you Lehman, Chris Lehman. - I just killed him, took him with a knee to the face, dropped him, just pounded on him. The ref called it TKL, three minutes and three seconds. - He's only the second guy ever, KO Lehman. The other guy was Anderson Silva. - Yeah, I know. Like with Lehman's chin and the reputation he's got behind his chin, I could not believe how badly Brian Stan beat him up. - Also Stan's a big guy and he dropped down to middleweight. I mean, this guy obviously has power, but who just thought he could, he would handle a guy as tough as Lehman like that. I mean, that was unbelievable. - He had a Lehman, almost convinced them that he was Anderson Silva dead, Anderson Silva did it a little bit less time. - Oh yeah, but I think it's Anderson Silva. - This is a good category of guys to be in. Afterwards, Brian Stan called out Wanna Leh Silva, which is a great move. I think that's the new tradition in the middleweight class. You call it Wanna Leh Silva if you win. Everyone's been calling it, Silva. - I think it's the right move to call it. - This actually makes sense. - But does Stan do it? - They wanna push Stan. - Oh big, yeah. - He wants to take him to face Anderson Silva for the title so badly. Dana would probably put him in a title fight if it didn't make, you know. - If you could, if you could actually get away with it. - If you could actually get away with it. - If you think about this, Anderson Silva came in, beat Chris Lehman, afterwards the fans voted and said to put him with Rich Franklin, he fought Rich Franklin in a second fight for the belt and won it inside of it a percent. - Yeah. - It's a different time back then. - And there's also like 90s. - There's also like 90s. - You're going back a little bit of time. This is 106. - Plus you have Balfour and you've got O'Kami. There's a million there blowing containers in the middleweight. - O'Kami's already guaranteed the shot, is he not? - Yeah. - So Balfour's got the shot. - We've seen how guaranteeing it's how the shot works, but it is. - Well assuming there's not a draw. - Exactly. - I mean, O'Kami could've got, he could've got Fitch. - Unless he could've got Fitch, yeah. - But what I did like-- - He's not wearing enough together. - It's true. What I did like about Stan is Stan was like, "Hey look, I want to call it Silva "because I want to prove I can hang with these guys. "I want to beat the names. "I want to be the tough guys." He's not like looking for any easy fights. He wants to be-- - I say, I don't think he's like a media title shot, but I think he's one win away from being a legitimate contender. - My only reason why I say not is because he just dropped down into this division. I'd like to see a guy get a few win. I mean, I know Vidor Balfour's got a shot after one middleweight fight or one almost middleweight fight. - One catch. - Okay, that's great, right? But I would like to see him beat a couple of guys, especially because he's got time between two more title defenses. - And he's done a pretty solid job of cleaning this division out. I think if he polishes off Vidor Balfour next month, which is entirely likely, by the time he's ready to fight again, give Stan Silva, as Silva takes on O'Kami, Stan's got one more fight. If Stan wins two more fights, three wins in division, that's enough-- - I'm cool with that, but not one more. - Particularly the way that Aircine is beating almost everyone on the division. - Yeah, like Vidor, feed Bryan Stan Damian Meyer. - That's actually not a bad idea. - Damian Meyer's not really a feed though. - You know what, he's still with Vidor. That's a very logical next fight for him. If you can't get Silva. - Bryan Stan will crush Damian Meyer. - Also another guy who's hanging around the division not doing anything, it's Marcourt. - Yep. - Marcourt doesn't have-- - Yeah, it's true too. - I think it's time to put Marcourt there, the title division though. I mean, how many-- - Yeah, he's lost a couple of big guys. - He's lost a couple of big guys. - As much as I, Marcourt's awesome. - Great fighter bud. - I'm such a fan of Marcourt, but it just sounds-- - Just kind of back him out a little bit. - But you got Munoz, you got Kenner Grove, you got Marcourt, you got Damian Meyer. They're all sitting in the division. - Well, they're like this. - You got this ping. - Yep. - What's this big dude? - He's fighting Rivera in February. - But I mean, like-- - They're about to care. - He's fighting in February. - Yep, there's plenty of times. Yeah, I do think Silva's a good choice though. - There's definitely guys available. - I just want to see Vondrelay fight again. - Yeah. - Come back, Vondrelay. - It'll have been a year by the time he comes back. - So we go for it. Brian Stan is starting to make a performance. Well, Don, Brandon, we go forward to Brandon and Vera, but Silva, Brandon, Vera, also-- - It's still breaking before this. - Also the star of the disaster. - Now, the story here was they're both very, very good strikers, both with great Mai Tai. And everyone expected the advantage that Vera was going to have was that he's such a phenomenal wrestler. He's got such a phenomenal wrestling background. He's also got that Brown belt and GG Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He looked like a guy who's never rustled in his life. What was that? - Another thing about these guys that makes them similar is that both of them really like to spew the trash. - Yep. - They're both something else and it comes. - The story of this-- - Except one of them can back it up. - Yeah, the story of this was-- - I don't think so. - The story of this was Taggle Silva, who was a legitimate top 10 ranked fighter, crushing an upstart. He struck with Vera, Vera looked OK. The fight ended, he couldn't end up being pushed against the cage, Silva grabbed him, took him down. For the first round, he basically passed his guard and beat on him. - Oh yeah, this was just-- - Three or four minutes. - In fact, well, that will be ridiculous. - Silva, Vera lied completely, went up on his back. He did not defend himself, did not recover guard, did not look to get up, did not look to attempt his summations from the bottom. Basically, he just kind of lay there and took it. Afterwards, Silva got up, clapped at him and laughed at him. Vera jumped up and got in his face. They went back to the corners. Vera came out very fast in the second round. - Yeah. - Taggle-- - Often. - No, that was the third round. - Oh, it was the third round. - Silva took him down again, pounding him again for the second round. - Right. - Then in the third round, Vera came out, kicked him in the side, got a body shot, tripped, took him down. Instead of following up, he decided to jump up in the air, throw up his hands and-- - Yeah, you should have followed up. - He celebrated, like he went around to Mario Kart. - He should have followed up on that. That was his-- You could tell that Taggle Silva got under his skin at that point. And Taggle Silva's game plan, I mean, other than destroying him on the ground was to get under his skin as well, I think. And it definitely worked, because if you're going to drop a guy who's been dominating you and you just stand there and put your arms up, you've got to jump on him and do something, it's your last chance as the third round. - After you've won two rounds set very solidly. - Yeah, so-- - Instead of following up, Brandon Vera threw his arms up, Silva got back up, took Vera back down, threw him up against the cage, and for the next four minutes of the fight, proceeded to play Brandon Vera like a drum. I am not even kidding about this. He literally at one point played Brandon Vera's back as if he's playing bongos. Vera tried to defend himself. So when Taggle started open hand slapping him across the face until Vera just went limp. And Taggle just kept slapping him and playing him like a drum for the play that day. - Taggle said after this that the reason he did that was to alter position so that he could get a better shot at a submission and just sort of get under Vera's skin so that Vera would turn-- - Open himself up. - Open himself up to a submission, which I understand. And I think that might actually be true. - He was just being a jerk and I don't have a problem. - That's fine. - And I actually said this today the next day like I really don't like when guys like kind of fool, like I like when guys trash talk. When guys get in the ring and like play around it's kind of weird but it's Brandon Vera. I kind of don't mind. - Well if you're playing, the thing is though, if you're playing around and it's entertaining, it's different like Anderson Silva jumping around like a fool and going on his knees and putting his face into somebody. That bothers me. This didn't really bother me because it added to the fight. It really did add to the fight. - This made the fight entertaining. - Yeah, it was already entertaining. - It was already entertaining. - A guy being taken down and smothered. - I didn't find it, I didn't find the fight itself boring either but I'm saying this added to the fight as well. - It definitely added to it. And I mean, I can't be more upset than Brandon Vera. As Brandon Vera got up after taking this terrible beating, his nose is completely off his face. - He looked like a Picasso. - He's like going Wilson time's time. - Yeah. And instead of like being upset or like, you know, he's laughing, he's smiling, he's smiling. - Showing off his nose, playing to the camera. - He took off his hat and did a bow for the crowd. So I mean, if he's cool with it, I'm cool with it. - I figured how angry he could be. - Brandon Vera, new career is a job. I was drawn. - How angry could it be? - He gets to go home to Carrie Vera. - Yeah, it's true. That's exactly it. I mean, look at his wife. (laughing) Nobody can stay sad when you're married to Carrie Vera. - Well, what's next? - Unless Carrie Vera is in the noses. So, Tago Silva, your name is decision, 3027, 13026. Next we go to Nate Diaz versus Donghal and Kim. Nate Diaz-- - This was another good fight. It was really good. - Nate Diaz is another brown belt in Jiu Jitsu, just like Brandon Vera. He showed a little bit more ability of defending himself from the ground. (laughing) - Yeah, just a little. Nate Diaz is from the bot. I mean, I can't think of anybody who's better than Nate Diaz when he's on the bot. - He's great, but I guess a Diaz gray fighter, really liked the guy, but he-- - That's a better. - Well, okay, well, okay. - A skilled martial artist, a poor strategist. - That's a strategy, that's a strategy. - Actually, his last, his only four losses in the UFC have been to Kim, Maynard, Joe Daddy, and Guida. The guy can't defend wrestling at all. And when he's on the ground, he tries to submit the guy. That's not always gonna work. You need to be more well-rounded than that. - Well, it'll work to a point, but when you're with, like, these guys are all, they're not only good wrestlers, but they're also wrestlers who don't rest. - Like either. - They're unlimited supplies of energy. They're energizing their money. - Yeah. - When Kim-- - Kim was gas in that third arm, pretty badly. - Yeah, but at the rate-- - And he's still very good at keeping his position. - And he's got a reputation for being like, grind, grind, grind. Like Guida never runs out of energy and Maynard's same thing. So when you go up against guys with these seemingly limitless gas tanks that just keep on working and working, it's a terrible strategy. - And I love to see Diaz work his Jiu-Jitsu in that, but he just, he can't beat wrestlers, not like this. And it's really hurting him. - So Kim took him down pretty easily, all three rounds. The third round-- - He didn't come alive in the third round. - The third round, Kim was gassed out. Diaz managed to jump up and just pump him. But he couldn't put him away. It looked like he was getting close, but Kim just managed to hold on there. In the second round, Diaz is saying that he feels like he won that round because he struck more from the bottom. Unfortunately, I was-- - I disagree. - I didn't really watch that fight. He's struck with a lot of like taps and slaps and like occasional-- - Yeah, it was nothing significant. - It wasn't like Masashi, where he almost killed Mohamal Laul from the bottom. - Yeah. - You know, this is the guy who got laid on and beat on. - Yeah, you can't just change the way people are gonna look at the fight overnight. I mean, if you're really gonna put more emphasis into striking from the bottom in the rules, it's gotta be in the rules. You can't just say, oh, I struck him more from the bottom. Yeah, well, so have 10 other guys who've lost fights legitimately. - Well, but also if you're gonna say you're gonna struck him more from the bottom, you better strike him from the bottom. You better hit him with some elbows. You better beat him up. You better black his eye. - Oh, on his toes. - He's one of his eyes. - On his feet, Diaz will box the crap out of you. The guy knows how to strike, but those strikes from the ground, it was nothing. - Yeah, the strikes from the ground is that he pushed his shoulder. You know, you don't come to me like, "Oh, I pushed his shoulder twice," and he gave me a huge hook to the face once. So I win the round 'cause I got double the strikes. You'd push his shoulder. He gave you a giant hook, which gave you a huge crushing black eye. - This was such a bad match up for Diaz. - Absolutely. - Not only was he facing a really amazing wrestler, but he didn't have a reach advantage, and it hit his bread and butter. - He is so reliant on that reach advantage. - His reach advantage, I mean, on the feet, he always relies on the reach advantage, as he should, as most really great tall boxers should. And when it comes to the ground, he works from the bottom, he gets his submissions. That's a strategy. Well, this was a terrible match. - And that's the problem with Diaz going up in weight class to a weight class where all of a sudden, everyone's got some height and some reach. - Just think, he doesn't feel comfortable at lightweight. He's lost in between. Like, he's like Diego Sanchez. He just can't get comfortable in either of these weight classes. - Yeah, well, it's true. - It remains to be seen how Diego does, and he actually endeavors 'cause he looked great in his last match. - But for Diaz, you know, now like, Dong Hyung Kim, yeah, sure, Dong Hyung Kim has the same size and reaches them, but realistically, a Walter weight, GSPs, it's just as big. Rumbled taunts are bigger, you know. - I mean, there's so many, yeah, there's so many bigger guys. I mean, he'd have someone gets a cost-check. - Shield, a burger, fitch, cost-check, all these are big guys with big reach. - And they're all wrestlers, long for the most part. - So, then we go forward. Clay Geweater versus Tackenor and Gomi. Gomi, the story of his life, is he either pummels you in Tanaka or he gets tapped out. - The first round Geweater came up looking at a phenomenal. He's jumped around like a monkey. He was fighting like, like, Gomi Cruz. Completely frustrated Gomi striking. Gomi didn't look like you could get his hands on the guy at all. - He looked confused. - Clay Geweater looked even more like like a ping pong ball than he normally does. He was all over the place. - He looked like the guy fighting monkey-style kung fu from Bloodsport. - Yeah, he really did. - With his wild hair flipping around. - Yeah, yeah. - Pick Gomi to get a slam to win the first round. Second round, got the slam again. This time he went right to a guillotine choke, finished it out, four minutes, 27 seconds in the first and second round. So this was submission of the night and Quigway picked up another $6,000. Well done, sir. - Yeah, great match up for Geweater. - He's won three in a mile. - It's been in a row with three submissions. - Three by submissions, yeah. - He's looking really good. He's starting to get in that conversation. - I've never been a huge supporter of Geweater, but I've always said, I love it if a wrestler learns how to finish when he gets a guy to the bottom. Geweater's got infinite tank, tough, tough chin, good wrestler, and he's starting to develop a submission game that when he gets on top of you from the bottom, he starts going for some chokes. There's some pretty nasty toes. - He's reinventing himself. - Yeah, though, I mean, though, watching Geweater in a stand-up was fun, it's not the strategy he needs to incorporate, he needs to get the wrestling done. - Well, the man with the towel, Greg Jackson, he said, you know, now you're a submission fighter and it's working for him, he's winning. - That works fantastically. - You come in with Damian Maya of the lightweight division. (laughing) - Well, except not completely boring. - Yeah. So, pre-layman cards, I showed up on ION TV, Rogers, and-- - Of course, he's ESPN in the UK, I think? No, it's all free TV. - ESPN UK, free TV. Phil Brony came out with a big right hook and knocked down Tavares, didn't work. Tavares came back, came with a flying knee and just pummeled him. Interestingly enough, the beating that Tavares gave Brony is very, very similar to the Brony highlight, real beatings, guy lying in the corner, getting pummeled with strike after strike after strike. With this, Brony makes his exit, time to go. He was kind of-- - He was kind of a go. - Tavares? - 13 and 13, I mean. - For Tavares, the ultimate fighter veteran, great win. Tough go. - Good win, yeah. Good win, I mean. - I wouldn't go as far as to say this is a catapulting win, but it's better than the win. - It definitely doesn't keep a job for a little while. - Well, in the middleweight division, you know, there's definitely something-- - Yeah, that's true, this is middleweight. - It's starting to get a little bit of a faster division now. So then we go forward, Marcus Davis came out looking pretty solid against Jamie Stevens, really outboxed, not rustled him for the first two rounds. In the third rounds, he showed up on his little bit of gassy. - Yeah. - Jamie Stevens hit him with a great hook, knocked him out. - Dax on, it's going to be 33 seconds, knock on the night for a little heat in Stevens. - And a really interesting one, though. Josh Grisby. - Is Josh Grisby versus Dustin Boya. - Josh Grisby was the number one contender for Jose Aldo's featherweight belt. - Not anymore. - Aldo got injured, Grisby was just a tune up fight. Just something to do while he waits for his title shot. - He got annihilated by Dustin Boya, who's really, we gotta be honest, he's no one. - But he's no one? I mean, I don't know what, I mean, time point. - I'm saying he's unskilled. - Yeah. - He's a young fighter, he hasn't built a name for himself. Really Grisby's only 22, so this is about a 22 year old and 21 year old. - Yeah, yeah. - Boya crushed him in the striking all three rounds. Had him taken down a couple times, Grisby wasn't able to use a submission game. Boya managed to get out of it all times. Every single time they went back on their feet, Boya was rocking him with everything. He hit him with hooks, hit him with kicks, hitting him changing levels on him. Grisby looked lost on his feet. And Rogan made the point, if you get beat up this badly by Dustin Boya on your feet, pose it all the way down. - What was it all the way down? - What was it all the way down? - What was it all the way down? - What was it all the way down? - For you to fight, yeah. - After that performance, he obviously doesn't deserve a title shot. - So Dustin Boya picks up the win. The other guy who picks up a win is Claude Hominek. - Mark Hominek. - Mark Hominek, sorry, who is going to have most likely be the second man to take that one. - He was the other option for Jose Aldo's title. And now, actually, he has a fight coming up at fight for the troops, I think. He wins that, he's going to get a title shot. So a very good night for Mark Hominek, who is probably at home. - This will be the first time we'll be cheering against Jose Aldo. - That's right. - When Mark Hominek faces him. - And honestly, for Dustin Boya, he took a Grisby's no joke. He took out Grisby, which is a very impressive. Grisby's going to come back pretty strong. You see him doing some dominant submissions soon. Boya, pretty good striker. - And they have himself in one night. - That's ultra fast division too. I mean, this is not a division with a really, really deep roster. So that's something for him. Couldn't have come at a better time against a better opponent. - Yeah, good for him. - So Mike Brown picked up a split decision loss against Diego Nunez. Jacob Volkin picked up a split decision in win against the Black Fador Antonio McKee, who made his UFC interview. After 10 years of winning, he lost to Volkin. - Oh, yeah. Well, first UFC fight loss. - I feel so bad for Mike Brown. They really do. - Apparently, it wasn't televised. I actually haven't seen it, but apparently it was a very good decision fight. Like, he looked very competitive, but I mean, he really needed a win. - Yeah. - Then we're going to start cutting guys. And he's not safe. - And featherweight it. I mean, featherweight, I think he's still slightly safe just because the division is not, not, is not that deep. - Yeah. - We don't normally cut a guy after a split decision. This was a great loss. - Oh, he didn't get cut. But I mean-- - He's one of the few guys that's recognizable still in the featherweight division. I mean, you're going to try and build the division. You kind of need Brown. - I'm still saying guys got to turn it around. - Oh, he's got to win this next fight for sure. - And Daniel Roberts, who's wrestled with some star, star, set a Jiu Jitsu, managed to take down Greg Soto and get a Kimura at three minutes and 45 seconds in round one. This one actually made it onto the pay-per-view, so good to work there. Daniel Roberts, he's actually impressed me in his last two outings. He's got some good submissions. So didn't pick up submission the night this time, but honestly, I think it's probably as good as Grita's choke, so-- - I think so, too. I really thought that that was going to be some mission at night. - That was my call. - Yeah, it seems-- - That's probably the give to Grita's. So look for Roberts, he's in the welterweight in Toph Rossello, who can cement you. - Yeah, cool. - So what do we have for the news? - Well, news this week, actually. Chill Sun has pled guilty to a money laundering charge. (laughing) - He is a Republican politician. - This is from an old real estate sale back in the day. - So he is going to be a fine, possible jail time. - What is Gordon Gacko? - He's been indefinitely suspended from the UFC by Dana White. It's not good. He's had to give up his real estate license, so obviously, the maximum charge for this is 20 years in jail, but he's not going to get that. But he probably won't even do any jail time, but this isn't good at all. - So in about what, in the last couple of months, he's had the steroid bust-- - This is good at what we do on a toilet. - The next, he's going to-- - He's serious trouble in the UFC, he's in different suspension. This guy was a guy who could have come back and had one of the pay per views of the year against Anderson Silva. Instead, he's probably not going to be coming back at all. - I think a second scandal is next on the list. That's the natural progression. - He's a Republican politician. - Well, at this rate, I did that, or he's going to shoot a Kryptonite laser at Superman again. - The jail is-- - Like this guy is just, this guy just can do no right. - Realistically, I think at this point, he's probably going to make a presidential run. (laughing) - You know what? - He's got the politics background. So this is a good, he had been calling out Von der Le Silva on Twitter, and people were thinking they might actually get the ultimate fighter coaching slot. - Yeah. - Not anymore. He's suspended, we may not see him for a while. His title dranger guy. - Brian Stan Von der Le Silva. - On ultimate fighter? I don't have too much of a problem with that. - Great point, sorry. - This came out minutes after we got off the air last week. Kay Velasquez is injured, he's going to be out for about six to eight months. He injured his rotator cuff in the fight with Brock Lesnar, apparently, which I don't think he would make up. So I think he was legitimately injured in that fight. This is unfortunate because him and junior Dossantos were supposed to have a title shot in April, likely. - Yep. - In The Roger Center. - In The Roger Center, that was the rumor. Not official, but that was the rumor. - We were looking really, really forward to that. Now with Kane now, which is unfortunate for me 'cause I'm-- - Dossantos wants to keep busy. Dossantos wants to keep busy and 'cause Kane's gonna be a year between title defenses. They're talking interim title. - Now Dana said if unless they're sure that the guy won't be back until it's been a year, like isn't booked, so it's too early to say interim title, but it's always a possibility. - They're definitely starting to float the idea. The feelers are out and they've also made a lot of interesting shifts in the heavyweight division, particularly Mir who had been booked to fight, or Struv had been booked to fight Schwab. - First it was Mir versus Shob, then it got switched to Struv versus Shob, and now it's Shob versus-- - Versus Crow Cop. - Versus Crow Cop. Things are moving, things are happening. - It looks like they freed up Mir and also Brock Lesnar. - Now I don't wanna start any crazy rumors here, but if I was booking, it would be Junior Dossantos versus Brock Lesnar, the winner gets the title with Shob because you get to rejuvenate Brock Lesnar with a win, which is always a win. - He's your money maker. - And if Junior Dossantos beats him, nobody knows Junior Dossantos right now. You beat Brock Lesnar, look what it did for Kane Velasquez. - Exactly. It's a win win. - It's a win win. - And the other thing is keeping in mind Brock and Lesnar, or Brock and Mir are both really good contenders for the Ultimate Fighter job, coaching that as well. - This is a fight that I would consider the polling plans for Lesnar Mir, and I wouldn't have said that a couple months ago. - So they're definitely moving some guys around there. So look at Struv, Mir, and Lesnar and Dossantos. - They think last week they made the decision while we're on the air, and we're gonna be a week behind on the news. - And Fedor just signed a four-fight deal with Strike Force. - Really? - Yep. - After not completing his three-fight deal. - So he's doing another fight on that deal. - So I believe it's gonna be four fights total. Now this is because the reason why they had to sign him for so many fights is because they're doing a Strike Force heavyweight title tournament, Eight Man. And they need to, if you're gonna do a-- - Great way to make some names. - It's a great way to make some names, and if you're gonna do that, you need to guarantee that the guy entering the tournament is still gonna be around three fights down the tournament. - No knowing Strike Force, they'll probably find a way to make it-- - The first fight in the tournament is Fedor versus Antonio Bigfoot Silva on February 12th. - If you're doing a tournament, why wouldn't you see these guys at other ends of the tournament? - Would you wanna know who the other two guys in that half of the bracket are? It's apparently it's over him in Virdo. - Ooh, so you've got your four big names and your champion. - So who's in the bottom half? - Why is your champion in the heavyweight tournament? - Okay, so when the champion's in the tournament, which means really it's just a whole bunch of title matches. - Yeah, really. - As opposed to a tournament. Hey, if you said Strike Force could do anything right, including a tournament, but you also have your four biggest contenders in the same half. - In the same bracket. - The other half of the tournament, we have Josh Barnett, Andre Arlowski, Brett Rogers, and Sergey Karanoff, I don't even know how to pronounce this last time. So those guys, I guess one of those guys is gonna wind up getting a title shot some day. - Oh my God. - I think they messed this up. - No, I think what they're worried about is the fact that they might not have all these guys, so they want them to face each other as quickly as possible so they get the fight. - This means that they are fairly certain that this eight-man tournament will actually never be fully completed. This is a way, actually, this is a way-- - This is a foreign tournament. - This is a way to trick over even Fedor into fighting each other. - To fight each other. - Into fighting each other. (laughing) - No, it's a tournament. It was random, I swear. - Ridiculous, but on the plus side, we're probably actually gonna see these guys fight. Maybe, possibly. - This something's gonna happen. - And then the winner gets Brett Rogers at the end. - Hey, come on, Arlowski. - Okay, maybe I'll knock it in. - Barnett, come on, guys. - This is kind of big news for us, 'cause the Big Rogers Center show coming up in Toronto, it's local for us. They've announced a couple of fights for the show, George St. Pierre versus Jake Shields. A very likely Randy Coachere versus Leo D'Ivo. - He didn't announce that one for that as the coming event. Now, I've been saying for a while, Coacheres at the end of the career, if you're gonna pull the trigger on him, you gotta pull the trigger on him now. - This is the perfect match for him. - He said he's gonna retire. The only reason he's gonna come back is if he's gonna fight Machida or Shogun. Machida's a good fight from, Machida's proven to be vulnerable to a good wrestler with a conclench. And if he gets past Machida, he's won three in a row already. If he gets past Machida, you can put him with Shogun. - You have to give him, well, if Rashad beats Shogun, you can just win her. - He gets the winner. - The fans, the fans, as you win, watch. The fans will pay to see Coachere go for a title against Shogun, and if Shogun manages to beat him, which is entirely likely, it's gonna cement him as a top guy in the division. - Or Rashad. - I don't even think that it's just a title fight. The fact that Coachere is in a significant match against Machida, people will care. People only care about Randy when he's in the hunt. - Yes. - When he fights, when he's just down on the card somewhere, nobody cares. - Yeah, we're just playing Coleman, who cares, but when he's fighting-- - It's impossible to. - When he's going for a title shot, and it's looking like they're gonna move him, say, hey, if you're gonna retire, we're gonna give you one last title run to either get it done or get out. - And you know what, if he loses, which is very possible facing Machida, I mean, Machida needs to win real bad. - Machida's, but Machida's definitely a beast. He's definitely very-- - Yeah, and he needs to win. - So, yeah, I think it's a great fight and a good Coleman event. - And he'll also put on Ben Henderson in this card, where I'm so-- - Where's his Mark Bocek? - Because I'm a big Beno fan. Now Mark Bocek's a hometown guy, so I'm gonna be torn. I love Bocek, but I love Beno too. And the thing with Beno is, he's really, really hard to submit, and Bocek really, really relies on the submission game. - Yeah, so this is Beno's got this. I mean, as much as I hate to say it, 'cause Bocek is Canadian and Beno's got this. - So the Toronto cards looking pretty good. What's not looking so great is K1 and Dream did their huge Dynamite New Year's Eve show. It's like it'd been a 10-year tradition for K1 to do a giant New Year's Eve show, and it was the worst rating they've ever done. The company is taking four months off to re-evaluate their finances. - Oh, man. - This is trouble, and I don't just mean this is bad for K1 and Dream. This is bad for the MMA scene. Guys don't have the option to go to Japan, without these guys around. American fighters don't have the option to go there if they can't fight for strike force or UFC. - Yeah, these guys that are having trouble here can go that are reinvigorated at their career or hide from top competition, they're either feeling right or not. (laughing) - And on a very good point, on the plus side, it means that old frames got no other choice, he's got to finish the tournament. - Yeah, strike force. - Yeah, strike force. - So strike force benefits for someone who's even more incompetent than they are. - Now, for Dream, I've been saying for a while, they've been in trouble, 'cause if you can't pay your fighters, it's usually the main side. - And now that the cancer is spread to K1. - Keep in mind that, yeah, both these companies are owned by the sole overarching company, - By Fiji. - My thought is they're gonna full dream into K1. - Dream will be the first one to go. - They'll keep K1 alive. They'll sacrifice Dream to keep it. And a lot of those Dream guys are gonna be jumping ship to come to the UFC. - But you can't save this financial trouble just by closing Dream. I mean, if they're in this deep, I mean, serious, serious changes have come out. - Considering strike forces cross promotion with Dream, you think more guys from Dream are gonna go to strike force rather than UFC? - I think a lot of them are gonna go to strike force, but keep in mind that the top guys like Kim Yangoto, they're gonna come out. - He's already signed. - He's already signed. - Yeah. - So these guys are looking for a lifeboat and the best company you can be in is you. - The life yacht. - They're Dream's number one fighter is now in the UFC. They're number one draw. Guys are jumping ship. It's not a good scene. Overing was very close to being a star in K1 over there, like a huge, huge national star, but maybe he'll never get the chance. - Oh, Dream has a pitcher with him with three belts. The strike force heavyweight championship, the Dream heavyweight championship that he won. - And the K1 tournament. - And the K1 role grand champion championship. And it's still not enough to save this company. - Yeah. - So, but out the side, this is actually a pretty entertaining card. It was seven hours, including a lot of 20 minute musical skits and a lot of dancing girls. - These are always seven plus hour cards. And people did not tune in. - I'm not gonna abuse you with everything. A couple of interesting results in this. Shinyi Oki was fighting an F1, K1 guy. The rules were gonna be one round, K1, one round MMA. Shinyi just grabbed the ropes for the first round, the K1 round, to make it through to the MMA round. - Yeah. - Then he immediately for the double leg, the K1 guy figured he was gonna go for it, jumped me, knocked him out. The guard Masasi managed to out point Kyle Tara, which is the Dream heavyweight champion. So Masasi, who was a plus 200 underdog going into this, beat the heavyweight Dream champion. - Yeah, good for him. - Looks good for him. Alistair Overeem took on Todd Duffy. Duffy was mostly recently in the UFC. He's very, very big. The fastest doggo in the UFC history. - And he got a very fast knock out again. Unfortunately, more on him. 19 seconds. Alistair Overeem need him to death or to put him as well with some right hooks. - Well, I mean, as talented as Duffy, as much promises he showed, I mean, putting against Alistair Overeem, is it obvious how that bite's gonna go? - Oh, everyone expects it to be a bull thing, but I mean-- - They just needed a guy to feed to him. If he's the guy that took it on six days notice, yeah. - They need someone to take the shot for the Dream heavyweight channel, why not? Even if you win, you're on a bunch of my reposition, if you lose, who cares. To me, the big thing is good guard Mysosse, showing off his incredible striking skills. Getting kind of tired was no joke. Kinda tells us-- - Yeah, I'm glad. 'Cause I like Mysosse, I'm glad he's-- - For guys looking at fights in the States and strike force. - I wish he would go to UFC. I would love to see Mysosse in UFC. - Will he sign that freaking six fight deal with strike force? I don't give him any fights. - I know, I know, I can't believe he signed that. - But as I said, these guys can't come and fight in K-1, at least for the next four months. So maybe they'll take more strike force cards, and maybe the strike force cards will be better. We'd steal in one of Mysosse. - And we've got a strike force challenger's card coming up this Friday. I know, they're minor league shows, like series of shows. - They call this a minor league show. All their top prospects are on this, including some guys that should probably be in that heavyweight tournament. - But as we read this down, there's not one name that's gonna draw a rating for them, which makes it the minor league show. Nothing against these guys talent, but the main event is Tyrone Woodley versus Toureck Sefidin. - Now Tyrone Woodley's becoming a fairly big star in the Walter Wade division. If he beats Sefidin, he's looking to go after Diaz. - He should. - He's on the short list for a title show. - Keep in mind Paul Daley is also in this division. And Tyrone Woodley is an incredible wrestler with a good chin, so he's got a good shot against both of those guys, both of them struggling against wrestlers, both of them struggle against guys that are good from the top position. - And then there's Daniel Cormier versus David Cole. Cormier is the guy that everybody's taught on. - The best wrestler in the heavyweight division, which is a division full of wrestlers. He's gonna eat Cole live. Cole Cormier is gonna make a big name for himself in the heavyweight division. The only thing is he's very, very small for heavyweight. So it's gonna be interesting to see if he can actually get it done. - Like an OSP, Open St. Pro. He's by his third fight in two months or something? - Yeah, he's funny as well. - Well, he just had a big win on the main strike for his card. After that he had a big win over the Anton Brit fight, right? - Yeah. - So I mean, OSP, he's a guy that they think is gonna be their GSP in the light heavyweight division. - And like I said, I'm not completely sold on the guy, but I like guys who keep busy. And even who fights three times in a month and a half, I'm very impressed by it. - Why are you such a cost check? - Exactly. - And honestly, he's taking on one Humphrey. OSP reminds me a lot like a poor man's bones, and they definitely want him to be a bones. - Yeah, he's got a long way to go. But yeah, you know what? Another win is we'll get him on the fast track. And then there's a women's fight also on the main card, Amanda Nunes versus Julia Biden. I gotta say, I love the strike for his women's division. I don't know whether these guys, girls, girls, guys in a, you know. - Figuratively speaking. - Yes. But yeah, so I don't know, this card's on Friday nights. It's maybe entertaining. I'm not sure how many people are gonna watch it, but you know, we will. - We'll watch it and we'll get back to you on how it goes. Probably also gonna run down the lightweight division. - I'm thinking next week, there's about 60 lightweights floating around in the UFC right now since they observed the WBC. There's no other cards coming up next week. So we'll probably run down that whole division. Just run down all the guys. - He's gonna make the card and he's not. - Exactly. - So with that being said, thank you for tuning in and listening to us on 93.3C from you. And also on the Hammer MMA and the iTunes Store. Have a great, here's a great show. Thank you for tuning in. - Have a good week.
