Rear Naked Radio

Marquardt will be on hand to discuss his upcoming UFC 109 showdown with title implications at 185 pounds against Chael Sonnen, and Miller will be talking about his bout with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Demian Maia on the same card.

If you have any questions for Marquardt or Miller, get them in on the comment section below and Brady will do his best to get them answered.

Make sure to check out the show on 1360 AM, or you can catch it right here on the web at RearNakedRadio.

The show is set to kick off on Friday evening, January 21, beginning at 7 pm ET (6 pm CT, 4 pm PT), lasting until 9 pm ET (8 pm CT, 6 pm PT) .

Live TV : Ustream

The news was reported by the Las Vegas Sun which confirmed both camps are close to signing paperwork required to make the bout official.

Barry was most recently seen scoring an emotional win over Antoni Hardonk at UFC 104 last October which landed him both “Fight of the Night” and “Knockout of the Night” honors, while Yvel will be looking to get back on the winning track inside the iconic eight-sided cage after succumbing to Junior dos Santos’ strikes at UFC 108.

Both men are known for their striking as evidenced by all five of Barry’s wins coming by way of TKO and thirty-one of Yvel’s thirty-six wins being procured in the same manner.

In a recent post to Huerta’s Twitter account, El Matador tweeted:

Ok…. Yall keep asking me when my next fight is going to be. Who on here wants to really know??

He followed that up with:

My manager@jeffclarkmma and I met with scott coker and Richard Chou with strikeforce on monday. So I believe this is where…

Huerta recently returned to action in September, after taking over a year off to focus on a movie career. He lost a close split decision to top lightweight contender Gray Maynard as the headline for UFC Fight Night 19.

Most notably known as the first MMA fighter to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated, Huerta has had an up and down relationship since signing with the UFC. Although taking part in some of the UFC most memorable bouts, Huerta was vocal about his contract, or lack thereof, with the premier organization.

Previous to his bout with Maynard, Huerta lost a decision to Kenny Florian at UFC 87. Prior to that, he was riding an 11 fight win-streak.

If Strikeforce does sign the fighter, it would put Huerta right in line for a shot at newly crowned champion Gilbert Melendez.

“I talk with Anderson again who was my friend for so long and we had our problems but we’re done with those problems,” said Silva during a recent fan Q&A session that took place from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “At this moment, I don’t want a fight with him. He’s the champion. I need to prove myself again inside the Octagon. I need to fight better.

“After few fights I would feel comfortable, but now, I don’t want a fight with him.”

So if there are no title hopes in the near future for the rebounding knockout artist, who then? According to Wanderlei, his first choice is fighting an opponent currently signed with Strikeforce, but the next name on his hit list seems like a much more realistic possibility.

“I wanted to fight with Dan Henderson, but he left (for Strikeforce),” explained Silva. “I would say Rich Franklin. Our first fight was a close match. I think I won, he thought he won. It was a tough decision. But the UFC is great with a lot of good fighters. So all fights have the potential to be a great match.”

Silva will face of with Michael Bisping at UFC 110, which is set to take place from Sydney, Australia on February 20.

Both programs are set for January 30, with the Strikeforce card airing live on Showtime.

The counter-attack from the UFC is nothing new from the promotion, who have ran such programs in sync with rival promotion’s events in the past, including Affliction and Strikeforce.

“Strikeforce: Miami” is set to take place from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida, with both programs scheduled to launch at 10 pm ET.

“Strikeforce: Miami” will feature announced bouts between Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and Marloes Coenen for the Strikeforce women’s 145 pound title, along with a welterweight battle pitting Nick Diaz up against king of the big kabosh, Marius Zaromskis, for the promotion’s vacant welterweight crown.

FiveOuncesofPain.com was also able to confirm that a bout between Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef is also expected for the card. Herschel Walker and Bobby Lashley are also expected to make their promotional debuts at the event, yet there opponents are still listed as TBA at this point.

UFC 107 was headlined by B.J. Penn’s five round destruction of Diego Sanchez in a lightwqeight title defense.

The broadcast also featured Kimbo Slice who introduced the trailer for UFC 2010 Undisputed, which will be available in stores May 25, 2010.

UFC Undisputed 2010 – Exclusive Debut Trailer

Shortly thereafter, Hughes confirmed on his website that the fight would happen. He posted:

I didn’t know if I could say anything about my next fight, but I see that Dana has let the cat out of the bag. So I can tell you what I know, on April 10th I will be fighting Renzo Gracie in Abu Dhabi. I haven’t signed any paperwork and I don’t think Renzo has either; but I think this fight is going to happen. That’s all I know, serious training will start for me at the new year.

Hughes, the former welterweight champion, is coming off a decision victory over Matt Serra at UFC 98. The future hall of famer has gone 2-2 in his past four bouts, losing three consecutive to Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves, respectively.

Renzo, who hasn’t fought since 2007, is riding a three fight win streak over Frank Shamrock, Pat Miletich, and Carlos Newton. The Brazilian will be making his first appearance inside the Octagon, and will mark the return of the legendary Gracie clan.

In addition to the news about the fight, Hughes also let the cat out of the bag about the rumored UFC venture into Abu Dhabi. Not only does his website post confirm the location of the event, but also the set date of April 10th 2010.

Edgar Garcia came in at 173 pounds for his scheduled welterweight clash against DaMarques Johnson, but has been given additional time to make the weight. Make sure to check back at 5 Oz. in the coming hours for an update on Garcia’s second attempt.

In what may come as news for many, apparently the bout between Alan Belcher and Wilson Gouveia will be a catchweight showdown at 195 pounds.

A full list of the weigh-in results for UFC 107 are listed below:

B.J. Penn (155) vs. Diego Sanchez (155)

Frank Mir (264.5) vs. Cheick Kongo (239)

Kenny Florian (156) vs. Clay Guida (156)

Paul Buentello (255) vs. Stefan Struve (247)

Jon Fitch (171) vs. Mike Pierce (171)

Alan Belcher (195) vs. Wilson Gouveia (193)

Matt Wiman (156) vs. Shane Nelson (156)

Johny Hendricks (171) vs. Ricardo Funch (171)

Lucio Linhares (185) vs. Rousimar Palhares (186)

Edgar Garcia (173)* vs. DaMarques Johnson (171)

Kevin Burns (171) vs. T.J. Grant (171)

Diego Sanchez

According to Diego, he’s already the champion; This fight is just a formality for the San Diego based fighter.

“From the moment I stepped down to 155, I knew in my heart that I was the best 155 pounder in the world,” said Sanchez during the recent Spike TV broadcast.

“I’m here to claim what’s mine. It’s my time now.”

However, in true Diego Sanchez fashion the subject of who the best in the division truly is was left up in the air after the former Ultimate Fighter seemed to contradict himself with another statement when he said, “I know he’s the best in the world at 155, and if you truly ask B.J. Penn who the best in the world at 155 is besides himself, he’s going to say Diego Sanchez.”

So who’s the best at 155 pounds? We’ll find out on Saturday night, no doubt about that. But don’t let who Diego considers to be the best lightweight in the game confuse you; According to Sanchez, he’s got B.J. all figured out.

“What’s B.J.’s biggest weakness? It’s his conditioning,” said Sanchez. “Now you know you’re fighting a guy with a never ending gas tank.

“I’m going to come forward, I’m going to cut the ring off, and I’m going to scrap. So I have a challenge for you B.J.; Don’t run. Let’s get it.”

Other bouts confirmed for the card were Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman, Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago in a rematch, Nate Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen and Matt Serra will be facing off with Frank Trigg in welterweight action.

The event has been set for February 6, 2010 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and will air live on pay-per-view.

Nogueira will be looking to make it two in a row with the UFC following his first round demolition of Luiz Cane at UFC 106, while Vera will be hoping to place himself back into the winners circle following a hard-fought unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Randy Couture during UFC 105.

While combat athletes have been suffering from accidental eye gouges since the earliest days of physical confrontation, the fact that the illegal and potentially career ending trend seems to be all the rage these days has left me wondering if the majority of the significant cases of eye gouging could truly be chalked up as “just one of those things that happen”.

Athletes have been trying to get an edge in every sport on the face of the earth since competition was a concept. From steroids, to greasing, to figure skaters hiring henchman to take their rivals out at the knees; The question as to whether some of these guys are shoving their digits into the baby blues of their foes intentionally has to be asked.

It doesn’t take a doctor or optometrist to tell me that getting something jammed deep into your eye socket is going to do some damage that will take what is often longer than the five minutes allotted in mixed martial arts event to come back from. Anyone that has had a finger stuck into their eye can attest to it being one of the most painful experiences of their lives, combined with the fact that it’s the type of pain that you often can’t just bounce back from. The blurry vision from being poked in the eye can many times last for great lengths of time, making it painfully clear that a fighter that has suffered fro a serious violation of the eye wouldn’t be back to 100% for some time afterwords.

Are fighters actually studying the eye poke? Now obviously they can’t be going all Three Stooges on their training partners in practice or they wouldn’t have anyone to train with left. No, what I’m asking is; Are guys planning on throwing out that jab open-handed to the blinker and following up with a series of punches before the poor sap has a chance to complain.

While I’d like to hope this is not the case, my common sense tells me otherwise. Is the next trend going to be to grow your fingernails out to Freddy Kruger proportions to inflict maximum damage from a poke to the eyeball? Let us not forget that while MMA is still in it’s growing stages, all one has to do is look at the history of boxing that has been littered with incidents such as cornermen serving up special cocaine laced mixtures of water to their fighters in between rounds, smearing vaseline on gloves to blind opponents, removing the padding from gloves, and a laundry list of other infractions.

While the huge majority of athletes follow by the rules laid down by the sport they chose to compete in, there will always be a small handful of …. cheaters that will look to get an edge regardless of the consequences. Even if those consequences mean leaving a fellow man blinded for the rest of his life if it means adding another victory to their belt.

While none of these following cases may have been intentional, I feel like it’s fair to point out some of the most notable examples of the dreaded eye gouge in recent MMA memory to gauge exactly how significant of a problem it promises be in the future if left unaddressed.

So follow me as we take a journey into the “MMA Eye Poke Hall Of Shame“:

Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson

In a double feature of optical punishment, both Johnson and Koscheck suffered damage to the eye when their UFC 106 welterweight showdown was all said and done. First it was Kos who cried foul after a missed knee from Johnson to the grounded American Kickboxing Academy trained fighter was proceeded by a finger to the eye which forced a halt in the contest. Then it was Koscheck’s turn to return the favor…. twice. According to Johnson’s head trainer Cung Le in a recent conversation with FiveOuncesofPain, it were those two pokes in the eye that may have played a vital hand in changing the momentum of the bout.

“Unfortunately there were a few things like Johnson getting a little overexcited with that knee, and Koscheck not closing his hand when he threw a jab,” explained the former Strikeforce champion in regards to the bout between AJ and Kos. “I think that he just got caught in the eye and the whole momentum changed. It is what it is, you know.”

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Mustapha Al-Turk AND Josh Barnett

The saying goes, “Right kick: Hospital, Left kick: Cemetery”, but you can throw in “Index fingers: Optometrist” following Mirko’s most recent use of the finger to the eye technique commonly associated with the Chinese fighting art, Wing Chun. The ending of the bout with Al-Turk came after a poke to both eyes of Mustapha had the seasoned Brit fighter running for cover. Cover which he never found as Cro Cop finished him off with strikes after the foul went unnoticed by referee Dan Miragliotta.

No stranger to pulling out victories following the placement of his fingers into the eyes of his victims, Filipovic also got away with a fight ending eye poke in his September, 2006 Pride Final Conflict Absolute showdown with Josh Barnett. The end to the pair’s third meeting came late into the first round when Barnett submitted after a foul to the eye was followed up with a series of strikes.

B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian AND Matt Hughes

Kenny Florian’s brother, Keith Florian, described Penn’s penchant for the eye poke in a conversation with FightHype.com, stating, “There are a lot of things that happened during the [UFC 101] fight that you may or you may not have seen. Kenny got poked in the eye, which BJ is notorious for. He did it against Matt Hughes twice in one fight and once in their first fight. He did it against Georges St. Pierre in both fights. He was hitting behind the head all of the time. Kenny won’t say this, but I certainly will.”

Kevin Burns vs. Anthony Johnson

In one of the most blatant abuses of the foul, Burns went on record with Joe Rogan immediately following his third round “TKO” over Johnson in the pair’s first meeting, stating that his hand was injured and he knew full well he wouldn’t be able to close his fist during the bout. Furthermore, Burns holds the dubious distinction of being the few men in sanctioned mixed martial arts to actually hold a TKO victory via eye poke on his record.

Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith I.

Lawler vs. Smith is a perfect example of what should happen in many of the eye gouge cases that are wrongfully permitted to continue. This is one of the few cases where the fight was actually brought to a screeching halt due to the foul after Lawler’s fingers sunk deep into the inner regions of Smith’s headlights in the third round of what had been an exciting give and take battle.

Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin

Franklin suffered some extensive damage to his eye after an poke in the eye from Dan Henderson during the pair’s UFC 93 meeting in January of this year. The former UFC middleweight champion wound up on the losing end of a split decision after the damage from the gouge had been done.

Chuck Liddell vs. Everyone

Synonymous with the infamous MMA eye gouge of doom, “The Iceman” has perfected the art of making pokes to the eyes work for you at the highest level of the game. Liddell has stuck his fingers into the binoculars of fighters such as Randy Couture , Tito Ortiz and Vernon White during the course of his career, with the latter of the two being finished on the immediate heels of the foul.

White actually had some extremely interesting comments in regards to his UFC 49 clash with Liddell in a conversation with 5 Oz. where he claimed it was actually Chuck’s fingers, and not his fist that brought a short ending to their bout.

“There are some guys in the sport that have a way of punching with their fingers not all the way open, but they leave their knuckles extended so the knuckle can go right in the eye, which can cause severe damage,” explained the Lion’s Den trained fighter. “As far as I’m concerned, you need to close your fists and fight like a man. I don’t have anything against Chuck, he’s doing what he needs to do to win, but sooner or later someone’s going to do it to them, and then they’ll realize what it feels like. My eye took 38,000 dollars to fix. Maybe they’re waiting until someone gets their eye taken completely out.”

Dan Miragliotta vs. Heath Herring’s eyeball

In this edition of Five Ounces’ Believe It Or Not; Did you know that referee Dan Miragliotta somehow managed to shove his finger in Heath Herring’s eye just prior to his one sided loss at the hands of Brock Lesnar? The unfortunately embarrassing incident actually occurred as Heath and Brock were brought together in the pre-fight instructions. Dan pokes Herring in the eye by mistake and “The Texas Crazy Horse” gives the longtime referee a look like he had just kissed him on the lips. Now I’m not blaming Miragliotta for what ended up happening to Herring at the hands of Lesnar during their UFC 87 meeting, but as fate would have it, the poked eye was quickly shattered by Brock in the opening moments of the bout. It was all downhill from there. Nice one Dan.

So what’s the solution you ask? I’ll point firmly in the direction of the Pride Fighting Championships (R.I.P., sniff, sniff) as to my inspiration for the quick fix in regards to the growing menace that is the eye gouge.

First off, let’s institute a yellow card program where fighters are immediately deducted a percentage of their purse if the foul is ruled severe enough to warrant the penalty. When you start talking about ten or twenty percent being docked from the paychecks of certain fighters, you’re talking about serious money. Serious enough money to give a fighter looking for an edge enough reason to play fair. Serious enough money to give a fighter not looking for an edge a reason to be a little extra careful in areas he should already be careful with; such as groin strikes and eye gouges for example.

Second off, what was wrong with the PRIDE gloves? It’s the design I’m referring to specifically. The PRIDE variation of MMA gloves featured a loose thumb, but all of the other fingers were not only connected, but padded all the way up to the top.

In my opinion there’s not a good enough reason to keep all of the fingers separated as they are right now. In PRIDE, submission artists such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had no problem pulling off a slew of submissions, and strikers such as Wanderlei Silva had no problem utilizing their clinch to the fullest.

Whether my recommendations are a glimpse into the solution of the problem or not, the fact of the matter that eye gouges will continue to be a problem within the sport until a career is ruined is an inevitability unless something is done to correct the sight threatening menace that refuses to be swept under the carpet.

“Actually I was conscious,” explained Maia. “I wasn’t knocked out, it was a knock down.”

According to Maia, Marquardt may have pulled his “coup de grace punch”, not as an act of class and respect on his obviously finished opponent, but more in fear of what may have happened to him if he had.

“A lot of people say that what [Marquardt] had done was nice, because he didn’t hit me on the floor,” said Demian in the conversation that was translated by Tatame.com. “Maybe it was, but maybe he stopped because if he misses the punch I would tangle with him and the fight would still be going on.”

It looks like current middleweight title holder Anderson Silva will not be able to compete in February as previously hoped due to the recovery process from a recent elbow surgery taking a little longer than anticipated. With Silva forced to the sidelines for an indefinite amount of time it couldn’t make any more sense than to give Marquardt and Belfort the opportunity to truly sort out who is deserving of The Spider’s next title defense.

Belfort would be bouncing back fresh off of the heels of his first round beatdown of former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin at UFC 103 while also currently riding a five fight win streak with knockout stoppages over the likes of Terry Martin and Matt Lindland along the way.

Marquardt is also riding a five fight win streak to some degree as his “defeat” suffered at the hands of Thales Leites was really a brutal beating over Brazilian that was reversed due to deduction of two points. Since his previous loss at the hands of Anderson Silva, Marquardt has put together impressive stoppage victories over the likes of Martin Kampmann, Wilson Gouveia, and most recently Demian Maia.

While there were few that could agree with one of the judges’ 30-27 (Forrest) scoring of the bout, it’s the entire decision that Tito has the biggest problem with.

“I thought I won the fight. I got fuckin’ robbed man,” exclaimed Ortiz during a recent conversation with Fighters Only Magazine. “But hey, it is what it is. I gave my heart and soul and after coming off of the injury that I had and getting surgery and coming back and fighting… I’ll be back man.

“Maybe it was a draw, but I don’t see how you can score it a 30-27 when I dominated the way I did in the first and second rounds.”

However you slice it, the fact that Griffin got the nod in the rematch creates that much more drama for a potential rubber match to settle the score once and for all. If Tito has his way, the rubber match would be coming on the heels of a coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter for both himself and Forrest.

“Oh well, it will make it better for match number three,” said Ortiz. “And like I’ve been saying, maybe Dana will make me and Forrest into The Ultimate Fighter coaches and we will get a great season out of the whole thing.”

Currently riding a two-fight win streak in the Octagon, Vera is on the heels of the most pivotal bout in his professional fighting carer as the 32 year old Muay Thai specialist will face off with “The Natural” Randy Couture in the main event of this evening’s UFC 105 card, taking place in Manchester, England.

In a recent conversation with the guys over at Fight! Magazine, Vera was forthcoming in explaining exactly why the cheese appeared to slide off the cracker when it appeared he had the world at his feet, explaining, “What happened to me is I made too much money and I started listening to the hype and started fucking around man. It was all a part of growing. I was talking to [Antonio Rodrigo] Noguiera and he was like, Brandon, I went through that shit twice—in Pride, and just last year in the UFC. I wasn’t training for shit. He told me, ‘if you hit the top then one day, one way or another, you’re going to hit rock bottom before you head north again.’ It’s crazy when you see that check, and you start counting . . . one, two, three, four, five, six . . . ”

As far as Vera’s now infamous claims of becoming both the UFC’s light heavyweight and heavyweight champion goes, don’t expect for him too shy away from those aspirations just yet. As a matter of fact, according to Vera, he’d face off with the current UFC heavyweight champion right now…..at about 210 pounds. For those of you that are keeping track, that’s a natural weight disadvantage of about 90 pounds.

“I’d fight Brock Lesnar at my weight right now,” claimed Vera. “Brock’s a beast, he’s a fucking manbeast, but he told on himself that last fight against Mir. He whupped Mir’s ass, but when he got hit his arms went straight out, he closed his eyes and put his face towards the mat.” He demonstrates this, like a child pretending to be an airplane. “He likes to be the hammer, he doesn’t like to be the nail. If you can touch Brock in the face, it’s all wrapped son. He’ll pick you up and throw you through the cage, cheese-grate you, pull you back through by your brain and punch you in the eye, but if you can touch him, it’s over. He told on himself, man, he showed his true colors that night.”

The event will take place on December 12 from Memphis, Tennessee, featuring a headlining lightweight championship bout between B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez.

Buentelllo was previously expected to face off with heavyweight wrecking machine Todd Duffee at the event before an injury forced the fast rising prospect from the card.

Appropriately coined “The Skyscraper. the 6′10″, 240 pound Struve sports a professional record of 18-3 with 14 submissions to his credit. The towering Dutch submission specialist is currently riding a two-fight win streak with the UFC with both wins coming by submission, after having dropped his Octagon debut via TKO at the hands of Junior dos Santos in February of this year.

Making his first return to the UFC in close to four years, Buentello is known as a power puncher with a penchant for knocking his opponents senseless. He currently holds an impressive UFC record of 3-1, with his last bout coming in January of this year, stopping “Baby Fedor” Kirill Sidelnikov during “Affliction: Day of Reckoning” via TKO.

This one is a clear cut case of the old school “classic striker vs. grappler match-up” at it’s finest.

A full list of the bouts expected for UFC 107 are listed below:

• BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez

• Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo

• Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida

• Jon Fitch vs. Mike Pierce

• Stefan Struve vs. Paul Buentello

• Alan Belcher vs. Wilson Gouveia

• Matt Wiman vs. Shane Nelson

• Johny Hendricks vs. Ricardo Funch

• Rousimar Palhares vs. Lucio Linhares

• DaMarques Johnson vs. Edgar Garcia

• Kevin Burns vs. TJ Grant

The most recent series of figurines is an exclusive UFC set, including Chuck Liddell, Georges St. Pierre, Rashad Evans, Kenny Florian, Clay Guida and Lyoto Machida.

A limited number of each will be available at Toys R Us prior to Christmas, with other retailers across North America will stocking the series beginning in January.

Below is a selection of photos from Round 5 UFC Series 1:

It now appears the wait is finally over for Marquardt, who is rumored to face Chael Sonnen at UFC 110. According to Sportsnet.ca, the two are awaiting bout agreements and will be added to the UFC’s debut in Sydney, Australia.

Marquardt is coming off a 21-second KO victory over highly regarded submission specialist, Demian Maia. The former Pancrase champion has gone 8-2 since joining the UFC, with his only losses coming from champion Anderson Silva and Thales Leites. Marquardt and Henderson were both top contenders for next in line at a rematch with Silva, but with those match-ups in limbo, Marquardt appears to sit on the sidelines no longer.

Sonnen is coming off a unanimous decision win over Yushin Okami at UFC 104. Sonnen is looking to build off of a two fight win streak and improve on his 2-1 record since entering the octagon. The Team Quest member was vocal about facing Marquardt following his win over Okami, quoted as saying, “…my team member Dan Henderson has a date with Nate Marquardt. I keep hearing rumblings that he wont be able to keep that appointment. If he doesn’t, I will.”

UFC 110 is rumored to be held on February 21st, 2010, with a main event bout between Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. It will mark the first time the organization will venture into the “land down under”.

THUMBS UP to Fedor being as good as advertised for his primetime debut. The pre-show hype was built around Fedor’s status as the best in the world, and he delivered upon that promise in a fantastic main event. Give some credit to Rogers (if you like) but the night obviously belonged to “The Last Emperor.” He got busted up, but a broken nose is practically a paper cut compared to some of the damage he’s taken in the past. He also hurt his hand so it may be a little while longer before he returns to the cage, and as of now it’s pretty unclear who his next opponent might be. Speaking of which…

THUMBS DOWN to the championship confusion. So if you were just hearing about Strikeforce for the first time on Saturday, how would you possibly know what is going on in the promotion? Jake Shields and Jason “Mayhem” Miller fight for the vacant middleweight belt, and that’s all well and good. Then Fedor and Rogers come out and there’s the WAMMA belt. Wouldn’t you wonder who the hell WAMMA is? Wouldn’t you also wonder why the “best fighter in the world” wasn’t fighting for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship? The casual viewer has no idea that the company’s title is currently collecting dust in a closet somewhere in Holland. The belts are only valuable if people care about them, and right now the Strikeforce heavyweight belt is worth about $5.

THUMBS UP to Jake Shields and his unstoppable grappling skills. It wasn’t always entertaining, but it’s the strategy we knew Shields would employ. He’s not a striker so there wasn’t much reason for him to try and stand with Miller. Instead he took “Mayhem” down at will and was able to control him almost the entire time, easily passing the guard and taking full mount several times. Shields may not have gotten the submissions he was going for but he did win in pretty dominant fashion. Some people want to call Shields boring because of the way this fight went down, but those same people need to be reminded that this is a guy that has finished his last eight opponents. Saturday night he was in against a guy that’s all but impossible to finish, and you saw the results.

THUMBS UP to “Mayhem“ Miller and his entrance. It had flash, which was sorely needed on this card. It’s too bad for him that the third round wasn’t 10 seconds longer (for some reason or another) but otherwise what could he do?

THUMBS DOWN to Gegard Mousasi‘s future in Strikeforce. I’m really happy that Strikeforce brought Mousasi to America, as he’s the kind of exciting young fighter they need. I’m also really unhappy that Strikeforce brought Mousasi to America, because I’d rather see him in the UFC.

Let’s face the facts, there is literally nothing for Mousasi to do in the Strikeforce light heavyweight division. Who’s the company’s top contender right now? Mike Whitehead? Former champ Bobby Southworth? Oh wait, he’s trying to get on the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” There’s Muhammed “King Mo” Luwal (who will debut in December), but he’s still relatively green as an MMA fighter and will need some building up first. I’m not sure if Strikeforce can come up with the necessary scratch to sign Dan Henderson, but if they do I’d give “Hendo” good odds to end Mousasi’s double-digit win streak. That’s just speculation though.

If Mousasi were in the UFC there would be a veritable buffet of intriguing match-ups. Machida, Rua, Silva (pick one), Cane, etc. The company is undergoing some heavy changes in their light heavyweight division, and they need all the young fighters they can get if they want the weight class to remain competitive. If I were a voice in Dana White’s head I’d be telling him to sign Mousasi at any cost.

THUMBS DOWN to not seeing the ladies. The bout between Marloes Coenen and Roxanne Modaferri was slated to be featured on the main broadcast with time permitting. The fight took 65 seconds for Coenen to get the submission win, yet they couldn’t find time to show it? Obviously the title fight ate up a lot of time, but it seems to me that they could’ve squeezed the ladies in after Mousasi finished Sokoudjou. Coenen is now slated to be next in line for a shot at Cris Cyborg’s championship, but they lost a key opportunity to create any sort of build for her on Saturday.

THUMBS UP to Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum opening the show. The night started and ended with heavyweights, and both fights were the best of the evening. Silva nearly finished this one in a hurry, but Werdum was able to survive and force this one to a second round. From there on he got to display his superior grappling, taking the second and third rounds pretty decisively. He called out Fedor at the post-fight press conference but with Fedor’s immediate future uncertain at the moment, Werdum may have to try and get his second win over Alistair Overeem instead.

Also, I say let’s see Silva vs. Rogers.

THUMBS DOWN to Strikeforce screwing two of their fighters. Mark Miller and Deray Davis were slated for a welterweight bout on the evening’s preliminary card. During the pre-lim fights, members of the media were informed that Miller and Davis would be fighting at the end of the night. Apparently Strikeforce wanted to make sure that the women’s bout was completed before the live broadcast started. According to reports, when the Coenen/Modaferri fight ended there were thirty minutes left before the live show. Once the main event ended, the media was asked to move upstairs for the post-fight press conference. Nobody was informed as to why the Miller/Davis fight had been scrapped. Apparently the fighters were getting ready to walk out to the cage when they were informed that their fight was off.

It gets worse. Reports are surfacing that Miller and Davis were paid their money to show, but neither man got a win bonus. According to a post on the Underground forums one of the fighters lost all his sponsorship money because the fight didn’t happen. These were two hometown fighters, each had gone through training camp and prepared for this night. There’s no logical reason as to why they didn’t get to fight. There was time during the preliminary portion of the card, since two of the pre-lim fights ended in under 2 minutes. There was also, obviously, plenty of time after the main event. Who cares if they would have been fighting in an empty arena?

Strikeforce had a contract with those two men and they failed to honor it. It’s a sour note to what was otherwise a successful evening, but let’s hope it’s a mistake they don’t make again.

Representatives from the dual promotions included, but were not limited to, notable names such as Mauricio Rua, Yoshihiro Akiyama, “Minotauro” Nogueira, Rogerio Nogueira, Frank Edgar, Miguel Torres, Nate Diaz, Urijah Faber, Demian Maia, Tom Lawlor, Joe Lauzon, Mark Coleman, Mike Swick, Danny Castillo, Matt Serra, Muhsin Corbbrey, Frank Trigg, Junior dos Santos, Ben Henderson, and head-honchos Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta.

Those in attendance were treated to a group dinner on Monday night in order to set the tone of professional unity, with the meal also providing an increased camaraderie amongst the fighters through personal interaction and the opportunity to professionally network as well. The UFC President took to his Twitter account to show example of both these, as he posted pictures of Bantamweight ace Torres seated alongside fellow jiujitsu practitioner Maia, as well as “Shogun” Rua engaged in a playful headlock with one-time rival Coleman.

Topics at the actual summit ranged in degrees of seriousness, focusing on subjects like fighter-safety (weight-cutting, steroids, recreational drugs), professionalism (thanking sponsors, gambling, individual branding), and show production (swing bouts, etc.). There is no word whether or not the summit will become an annual occurrence for the UFC/WEC but it seems likely given the continued growth in popularity of Mixed Martial Arts and overall expansion of the UFC.