Possibly the best match the UFC has had for a championship belt, both men are undefeated, both at the top of their game, this is a dream of an mma bout for any fan new or old alike.

Yes folks I am talking about Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and “Sugar” Rashad Evans, this fight is what championships are all about. Not very often if ever do you get to see two fighters both unbeaten compete for a belt, it is a rarity especially in an organization such as the UFC known for having the highest level of competition.

Evans is a fighter who has evolved so greatly, he started off as a simple good wrestler, and now has become something quite scary. The champ has shown he can knock people out like its second nature, due to the dynamite that seems to be planted in his hands and feet. He has a good ability to keep the fight where he wants it due to his great wrestling, and has not shown any weakness in his always evolving game. In his last 3 fights he has compiled victories over Forest Griffin at UFC 92, Michael Bisping at UFC 78, and his most devastating over Chuck Liddell at UFC 88.

Machida as well is another puzzle all in his own, making many of the guys who have fought him look very amateur as if it were their first fight. The Dragon is a great mma fighter, having started training in Shotokan Karate since the age of 3, he was awarded a black belt at age 12, since then he has trained in many other martial arts ranging from Sumo to Jiu-Jitsu. In his time of mma competition Machida has compiled wins over some great opponents such as Rich Franklin while in Japan at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, BJ Penn in K-1 Hero’s 1 in 2005. He recently recorded victories over Tito Ortiz at UFC 84, and Thiago Silva at UFC 94.

This is going to be a war, Machida showed when he fought Silva that he could handle business quick, he finished the fight with a brutal knockout in the first round with literally one second remaining. Evans I don’t need to go into about power, but you saw the train wreck that was remaining after one solid punch landed on Liddell, and the flailing man that was Griffin getting completely handled.

So both have shown they can finish a fight fast, but they have also shown us boring fights as well that were heavily criticized upon. Lets not forget the Bisping fight with Evans, or the Ortiz fight with Machida (I didn’t hate it myself, he made Ortiz look very new to the sport except for the triangle attempt at the end of the match).

I am also very curious to see the gameplan Greg Jackson developed for Evans, he has been doing nothing but amazing things with the fighters who represent his camp. Machida is probably going to be the toughest opponent Jackson has had to strategize for, and Evans has ever faced.

The same can be said for Machida, sure he has faced wrestlers but never any that can punch or kick the way Evans can. So I have to say this fight is truly a toss up in my eyes, it all depends on who implements their tactics better, and who is the better fighter that night.

One way or another we are in for a battle that can be as monotaneous as an infomercial, or the most action packed battle since a Tony Jaa flick, but either way I will be watching with both eyes glued heavily on my tv screen.

Wanderlei Silva recently announced that he had a desire to bury the hatchet and train with formal rivals Paulo Filho and Ricardo Arona, today a response was reported from Filho in regards to the invitation.

“It would be an honor, I’m very happy to have received this invitation and tell him to wait for me… What he needs from me, I’m here to help” Filho was quoted as saying to Tatame.com concerning the invite.

Filho last competed at WEC 36 where he was handed his first loss at the hands of Chael Sonnen in an extremely lackluster bout that had the crowd jeering more often than not.

However, although Filho was the WEC’s middleweight champion at the time, he missed weight which caused the bout to be changed to a non-title bout at the last minute which resulted in the title never switching hands.

Ever since Chuck Liddell has hit some rough times in his past few fights, talk has been that it’s time for the former UFC light heavyweight champion to retire. Is that really the way to go? I beg to differ, I think “The Iceman” still has what it takes to compete at a high level of MMA.

Yes, it’s true, he has been on a rollercoaster downhill it seems, in fact he has won just one of his past five fights, a unanimous decision victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 79.

This patch of losses began when he was dethroned of his title to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 71, Keith Jardine defeated him in a split decision at UFC 76, then “Sugar” Rashad Evans gave him his most devastating loss at UFC 88, and most recently he was finished in the first round when he faced Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 97.

Liddell was on a seven fight win streak since losing to Jackson at Pride: Final Conflict 2003, in these times many considered him the best in his division, and he really helped to bring MMA mainstream to the western audience. He in this time defeated such fighter’s as Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, and Renato Sobral each of whom he beat two times.

Since Chuck has hit bad times it’s been nothing but people ridiculing him to retire. I say let him do it on his own will and when he believes the time has come, and not once in all this talk do people take the time to look at who beat him.

The fighters he has garnered losses to are all considered top people in the division, Evans went on to win the title after their bout, Rampage is number one contender contender for the title, and awaiting the winner of Evans and Lyoto Machida.

Keith Jardine is in my mind a top competitor and is able to compete with anyone in the division, and Shogun just became relevant in most fan’s minds after finally showing the audience why such high praise was made of him prior to his fight with Forest Griffin.

What I am basically coming to is it seems that he is being treated like a stepping stone, and being given such high caliber fights when he is coming off losses.

If you would like to see what one of his former rivals has to say regarding his retirement, on our home page you can watch the “Fun with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson”, where Sam Caplan has a very entertaining interview with the former UFC champ.

He in short states first that “I’m not Chucks manager”, but after some convincing he gives in and shares his thoughts with Caplan. He states “Chuck is loved in the MMA community”, he is a good fighter and that he thinks he can still do it, but “he should take the right fights at the right time, Chuck is a gamer, you know he can get knocked out and come back and fight another tough opponent“ and like any fighter he understands that you need to work your way back up.

Only time will truly tell what he is going to do. If he continues to fight I think he does need to take some time off as it has shown with many fighters that it can do wonders, just look at Couture who retired only to come back and win the title in a division he had not competed in for nearly five years.

I also don’t think he will go brain dead if he has a couple more fights, for all we know maybe he just needs a couple wins to light the fire he once had burning through the light heavyweight division.

New and exciting details have been revealed regarding the upcoming UFC 2009: Undisputed video game with a scheduled release date of May 19. The game will now be featuring all three of the well known MMA apparel icons of the TapouT crew.

THQ recently confirmed the addition of the TapouT members in a report to MMAjunkie.com.

The game will will now be featuring the late Charles “Mask” Lewis Jr., “Skyscrape”, and “Punkass”, also well known for their well received mixed martial arts television show that went by the same name as the company and is featured on the Versus Network.

The decision was made by THQ after the fatal car accident that resulted in the death of “Mask”. It was mutually agreed between THQ and the remaining members of the TapouT crew, “Skyscrape” and “Punkass”, to include the trio in the final release of the title.

A full list of the characters available in UFC 2009: Undisputed are listed below:

Heavyweights:

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Brock Lesnar
Frank Mir
Brandon Vera (LH)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Cain Velasquez
Cheick Kongo
Eddie Sanchez
Heath Herring
Andrei Arlovski
Mirko Crocop
Fabricio Werdum
Tim Sylvia
Mark Coleman
Antoni Hardonk
Justin McCully

Light Heavyweights:

Chuck Lidell
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
Forrest Griffin
Tito Ortiz
Keith Jardine
Wanderlei Silva
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
Lyoto Machida
Rashad Evans
Stephan Bonnar
James Irvin
Wilson Gouveia (MW)
Houston Alexander
Kazuhiro Nakamura
Thiago Silva
Tim Boetsch
Ryan Bader (DLC)

Middleweights:

Anderson Silva (LH)
Rich Franklin (LH)
Dan Henderson (LH)
Michael Bisping (LH)
Kendall Grove
Chris Leben
Jason MacDonald
Nate Marquardt
Drew McFedries
Ricardo Almeida
Evan Tanner
Yushin Okami
Demian Maia
Martin Kampmann (WW)
Amir Sadollah (WW)
Thales Leites

Welterweights:

Georges St-Pierre
Matt Hughes
Matt Sera (LW)
Jon Fitch
Karo Parisyan
Josh Koscheck
Diego Sanchez
Mike Swick (MW)
Marcus Davis
Thiago Alves
Chris Lytle
Ben Saunders
Josh Burkman
Kyle Bradley
Matt Arroyo
Anthony Johnson

Lightweights:

BJ Penn (WW)
Sean Sherk (WW)
Kenny Florian
Roger Huerta
Joe Stevenson
Mac Danzig
Nathan Diaz
Spencer Fisher
Tyson Griffin
Gray Maynard
Thiago Tavares
Joe Lauzon
Rich Clementi
Mark Bocek
Hermes Franca
Frank Edgar
Efrain Escudero (DLC)

TapouT Crew:

“Mask”
“Skyscrape”
“Punkass”

Non-Fighters:

Dana White
Joe Silva
Mike Goldberg
Joe Rogan
Arainy Celeste
Edith Labelle
Bruce Buffer
Mario Yamasaki
Steve Mazzagatti
Herb Dean
Big John McCarthy
Juanito Ibarra
Mark Delagrotte (Career)
Greg Jackson (Career)
Eddie Bravo (Career)

The original match between Matt Hughes and Matt “Terror” Serra was set to occur at UFC 79 on Dec 29, 2007 after they were rival coaches on season six of The Ultimate Fighter, it was a title match with Serra still holding the gold since he did what most would consider to be one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and defeated Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 by TKO due to a savage flurry of solid punches. Then something unfortunate occurred, the bout was cancelled due to a herniated disc in Serra’s lower back. The replacement for the injured champ was none other than GSP who was back on his path for gold after completely dominating Josh Koshcheck at UFC 74, and earning a unanimous decision victory.

It would be a rubber match this time around and also a match for interim welterweight title. The first fight would be for a vacant title after then champ B.J. Penn had disputes and left the organization. Hughes would win their first match in 2004 at UFC 50 by a nice armbar in the first round of the fight with literally one second remaining on the clock he secured his victory and reclaimed the belt.

Their rematch would be in 2006 at UFC 65, GSP would prove to be the better fighter that night, and finished the bout in the second round due to a sharp head kick followed up by punches before the ref halted the bout. The rubber match would once again prove in the favor of GSP when he finished off Hughes with a nicely transitioned armbar in round two, forcing the Hillsboro native Hughes to verbally submit

St. Pierre would then move on to face a recovered Serra at UFC 83, this time for the official title of welterweight champ, GSP proved the first fight to be a fluke and dominated the bout no matter where it went. It was in round two when the interim champ began brutalizing the body of Serra with consecutive knees and no answer back, the ref was forced to stop the fight in favor of St. Pierre.

Since all of this occurred, Serra has been inactive after losing the title back to GSP (due mainly to injuries he was put on the shelf), Hughes had one more match where he fought on short notice to the now # 1 contender Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves at UFC 85, and in round two of the fight he was finished after a flying knee landed flush making the former division best collapse, which gave Alves the incentive to finish the fight with a barrage of followed up punches he claimed (T)KO victory and contender status.

GSP has held on very strong to the title and defended it two times since defeating the loud mouthed New Yorker, and will have his third consecutive defense at UFC 100 where he faces “The Pitbull”.

At Last…..Let’s Get ready to Ruuuumble!

So now we have a set date at UFC 98 on May 23, no injuries, two fighters, both former champs, both former rivals on The Ultimate Fighter, and they both want to beat the crap out of one another, which in my eyes usually equals fireworks and a fight that never hears all 3 rounds finish. Hughes of the two has a far more extensive career, his record is still a very game 42-7-0, Serra on the opposing end holds a record of 9-5-0 which in comparison pales. However even though he doesn’t hold nearly as many fights to his name, the Long Islander is a strong opponent who matches up very well with Hughes.

Serra is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu trained under Renzo Gracie, and was the first American to earn a black belt under the training of a Gracie on May 23, 2000. In grappling tournaments he holds wins over the likes of Takanori Gomi and others. Serra has strong hands but he is not known for knocking people out, actually his only (T)KO to his credit is the one he holds over GSP.

He currently is running Serra Jiu-Jitsu with fellow black belt, and brother Nick Serra. They of course have the Serra Jiu-Jitsu fight team which holds such fighters as Pete Sell, and Luke Cummo, which can do nothing but help in training.

On the opposite end of the rope we have Hughes who is known for his extremely strong wrestling ability, and is considered to be one of the greatest champs to ever grace the octagon (nine time welterweight champion). The former champ is also very diverse in his abilities, he has finished 18 of his opponents by submission, and 15 by (T)KO, he has strong credentials where ever it may go. The guy is capable of competing with the best, and during his prime he seemed almost unbeatable.

In over a decade of competing, the 35 year old Hughes has given us some very memorable fights. From the crazy defeat of Carlos Newton which earned him his first belt at UFC 38, to his battles with B.J. Penn, and his utter destruction of Royce Gracie, he truly deserves the respect for how much he has accomplished. Hughes currently is still running his HIT Squad team and gym out of Granite City, Illinois which houses the like’s of “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler, Matt Veach and other veterans and up and comers. He is known for being one of the hardest workers in MMA, and growing up working a farm during the year did nothing but make him stronger.

Who do you think will win?

I am not going to go and say that one fighter will beat the other, because to me this fight is really close and could go either way. Sure if it goes to the ground the Gracie trained fighter should have a dominant defense, but we have also seen that many fighters with a strong wrestling ability and decent knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu can nullify submission attempts.

Call it what you want, but I call it an excellent fight that is way too long in the making. Look for both of these fighters trying to prove that modern MMA has not passed them by like many fighters from the earlier MMA generation.

What we have seen is Serra doesn’t knock out everyone but he has the ability to finish the best given the right opportunity, and the same can be said about Hughes if not more (he is actually impressive when you look at who has beat him recently, they are all top dogs in the division).

So, yes the height will be working in favor of the HIT Squad leader being that he stand’s 5’9” in comparison to a stout 5’6”, but this is height difference that is something Serra is used to at this point in his career. To the credit of Serra he has a tough chin seeing only 2 (T)KO losses in his career.

So now with some brief history on both fighters you can make your call and tell us who you think will win when these two former champs face off on Saturday May 23 at UFC 98 which takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Nevada. Look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts regarding the fight and actually seeing the event in just under three weeks.

Can The Spider be defeated? Will his dominant reign over the UFC’s middleweight division ever come to an end? These were often the thoughts going through many viewers minds when they would get to see Anderson Silva fight.

As of late is has been quite different, Silva has been getting criticized for his past two performances. Is it that we may be spoiled as the audience, and as of late he has faced some good competition? Or is it the opposite, and Silva is just toying with his current opponents because the competition is not good enough for him?

I tend to think it’s been a little of everything but today we’re not going to talk about Silva much, but more of the possible contenders who could dethrone him of his belt and give him his first loss in the UFC.

First in line: Demian Maia

10-0 submission ace Demian Maia is considered to be a strong contender to the throne and widely recognized to be one of the elite ground fighters in the business. His most recent victory was a complete domination of WEC import Chael Sonnen, which ended by a triangle in round one at UFC 95.

This man is said to make many black belts in Jiu-Jitsu feel like nothing more than a blue belt if that. Frank Mir has been one to confess that he thought he was actually good until he rolled with Maia. This is one of the reason’s the dangerous Brazilian is Mir’s head Jiu-Jitsu coach for his upcoming fight with Brock Lesnar at UFC 100. Maia has expressed his excellent mastering of his skills in his 8 submission wins out of his 10 wins.

As it stands Maia is 5-0 since joining the UFC in 2007, he has ended every fight by submission in the UFC with only 2 of his victims making it out of round one. With the way the division is going it looks like Demian is most likely to be next in line for a title shot, all we can hope for is that he tries to bring more of a fight then what was presented with the last contender at UFC 97. I am confident he will bring his A game if he get’s to fight Silva next, one of the main reasons I am confident in his ability is because he is now fighting with the Wand Fight Team which is lead by none other than former Pride-FC middleweight champ Wanderlei Silva. Who knows if he will be next, but if I was in the shoes of Matchmaker I know who would be first in line.

Almost there: Yushin Okami

When people hear the name Yushin Okami they can’t help but think to themselves one of a couple things, one being that he is known as the very un-marketable decision king, and the other being that he is one of the most overlooked contender’s in the UFC’s middleweight division.

I can’t help but to be on the latter end of things, I see him as a clear cut contender and potentially bringing Silva some stiff competition, which seems to be missing in his previous two outings. Okami is a fighter known for great wrestling ability, a good chin, and solid stand up. Many people have complained that he has too many decision wins, well I beg to differ seeing that 8 of is 23 wins have come by (T)KO, and 4 by Submission. What that shows me is that he can be dangerous where ever the fight goes and isn’t a one trick pony.

In my opinion the match of Silva and Okami is great, because the champs last loss was back in 2006 ten fights ago to Okami at Rumble on the Rock 8. The loss occurred in the first round of the fight. After Silva had been taken down, and with Okami in his guard he threw an illegal right kick to his head knocking him nearly unconscious.

Okami in no way had been dominant of Silva during the bout, while on the feet he was continually hit with hard kicks to his leading right leg and even went down twice during the bout. It was a good single leg takedown from Okami that brought the match to the ground. Even while on the canvas Silva was able to control most of the damage Okami was trying to apply. Up until the disqualification it was still looking in favor of The Spider.

Since that match Silva has been on a 10 fight win streak and the dominant champion in the UFC middleweight division, Okami has gone 9-2 in his past 11 fights, with his two losses being decisions to Jake Shields following directly after his bout with Silva at Rumble On The Rock 9, and then to Rich Franklin at UFC 72. Both fighters are so close in records and size. They both stand at 6’2” and their records are but one win shy of being the same Silva has a record of 24-4 while Okami holds a record of 23-4.

Okami looks to improve his record in his upcoming match at UFC 98 when he faces some stiff competition in Dan Miller. If he gains a win he would be 4-0 in the UFC, and in my opinion 1 or 2 fights from the title. Finally the UFC takes him serious seeing that he was not relished away to the undercard, instead he is featured as one of the fights on the main card.

Last but not least: Nate “The Great” Marquardt

Having started off in the UFC with a good streak of 4 wins, Marquardt was suddenly derailed on his path to the title when he lost by TKO to none other than Silva at UFC 73. Since his loss it has been a rocky path in his fight back into title contention.

Following directly after Marquardt’s first TKO loss he came back with a dominating submission victory over long time MMA veteran Jeremy Horn in round two of UFC 81. He then faced a tough match in a split decision loss in favor of recent title contender Thales Leites at UFC 85. Many people felt he won this match but it was the two fouls within the fight that cost him the win.

Since his last defeat he has gone 2-0, defeating some very good competition in both Martin Kampmann at UFC 88 and Wilson Gouveia at UFC 95. Marquardt ended both fights with TKO victories.

Marquardt is the man that made Kampmann decide he was to small for the middleweight division, and forced him to move down to welterweight after being dominated and finished in the first round. When he faced Gouveia it was a tough match, but the cardio and intensity that Marquardt would bring in round three is what secured the win with a big knee and a flurry of punches.

All in all it upsets me when people say there is no more contender’s left for Silva to Fight, because in my eyes I see a line of people awaiting a fight with the always elusive champ.

Still in the mix of things:

Also a few interesting fights people should watch for are the upcoming main event at UFC 99 when Wanderlei Silva and Rich Franklin face off at a catch weight of 195, if Silva does really well this could possibly usher in a new weight class or give him the incentive to make the cut down to 185 where he could prove to be effective.

I am also looking at the winner of The Ultimate Fighter coaches, when Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson face off at the extremely stacked UFC 100. The match should be great seeing that Bisping is on a three fight win streak since dropping to 185. After he faced a split decision loss to current light heavyweight champ Rashad Evans at UFC 78. Bisping most recently recorded a decision victory over Chris Leben at UFC 89.

While on the other end Henderson has gone on a 2 fight win streak since his loss to Silva at UFC 82, he most recently beat Rich Franklin by a split decision in a close contested fight at UFC 93.

I could see it going one of two ways with these results; The winner of Bisping and Henderson getting a title shot, or facing whoever is victorious in Silva vs. Franklin. Alhough if Bisping is victorious at UFC 100, don’t be surprised if he is first in line for title contention.

Either way it’s good to see possible fresh blood in a division that many people see as lacking. I also tend to believe Silva should truly clean out his own division before looking at possible matches at light heavyweight.

As a mixed martial arts fan and someone who thoroughly enjoys video games I have long been anticipating the release of the upcoming UFC 2009: Undisputed that will be available on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles. Now, with a set release date on May 19, all that everyone wants to know is, how is it?

I recently received an early copy of the demo featuring Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Chuck Liddell, the same demo everyone will be able to get their hands on this Thurs April 23 from either Xbox Live or The Playstation Network. Now I’m going to be honest, I have set my expectations pretty high (after all the delays and production time I felt this game had better knock my socks off), well after spending some quality time together I can safely say I have had any doubts smashed like a flying knee to the face.

Included in the demo is a couple modes of play, one which I highly recommend doing first is the tutorial. If you take the 15-20 minutes to complete this you will be a lot more satisfied than trying to just learn it as you go because that can only get you so far. The other mode is Exhibition which can be played with up to two players in the demo, so naturally I grabbed some friend’s and brought them over to show them who is king of the virtual octagon in my house.

Where I feel the game truly shines is in it’s multiplayer with a room full of friends, the same way I have been doing so with Fight Night series for several years. So the first thing I was naturally worried about, is this going to be a timed demo, do I only get to fight through round one? Well the answer is no on both accounts. The UFC demo does allow the full 3 round at 5 minutes each like any standard non title fight.

So off we were on our first bout, I had chosen Shogun wanting to replicate my performance from Saturday’s UFC. While I didn’t finish it in the first round, but by the third I had done enough damage that when a solid right elbow landed flush it sent Liddell reeling back and trying to recover, unable to do so I did the only humane thing and finished it with a brutal combo of Hammerfists from the mount and sealing a third round knockout victory.

After our first bout we had about 25 more throughout the night going back and forth as we learned each fighters strength and weaknesses. What I found to be really cool and why I am really looking forward to the complete game, every character handles very unique and well fights very similar to there real life counterpart.

Liddell, I will just be honest, is a lot more of a user friendly character, what I mean is he punches slightly quicker and has the ability to finish it anytime, although on the ground he is no where as developed as Shogun’s character in the BJJ aspect of his game. So if you are looking to go and swing for the fences your first fight choose Chuck, if you want a much more well rounded character with brutal kicks, knees, and elbows Shogun does the part very well in addition to his much more evolved ground tactics.

Another thing I had been concerned about after watching so much media coverage regarding the title is something I find important….. Is there any blood, cut’s, bruises, etc.. With a huge grin I can say yes!

You see in a sport that prides itself in being “As Real As it Gets” I found this to be an important part. It seems the developers must have felt the same way because they have made an awesome facial damage system that is very fun to watch as it is brutal. In one of my already countless fights I have seen eye’s swollen near shut, bloodied noses, mouths, and of course cut’s around the face, the worst of which was a gash opened over Liddell’s right eye it was very reminiscent if the Marvin Eastman cut when he fought Vitor Belfort. The way they bleed is quite realistic, for instance if you take me down but have a gash of some sort open you will find your blood dripping onto the other fighters chest and the mat as well and leaving a tainted stain as a reminder of the war you are in.

The best part about this game isn’t how brutal it is, but how well everything works and meshes together in the controls. I want to go into the stand up a little, how it’s handled (I will put the ps3 version of controls here).

Your strikes are all handled from the face buttons, so your left/ right punches are X, Y (or Square, and Triangle respectively), and left/right kick is A, B (X, O). Now these just throw your standard hit’s in order to modify and throw either high or low you use the left shoulder buttons LB for High, LT for Low (L1 for high, L2 for low). Your character naturally reacts to where they are at, for instance if you are keeping a good distance and go for a high (or hard) punch Liddell will throw a spinning back fist, or Shogun will throw a flying knee so each character has their own style of attacks. You also can block by using the right shoulder buttons, for high attacks you hit the RB, and for low RT (R1 for high block, R2 for low blocks)

The game has a nice clinch system, if you want to secure a clinch with a simple tap of the Right stick in the direction of your opponent you will tie them up, once there you use simple quarter circle turns to secure your under hooks and once they are secured you use LB or L1 and up, down, left, or right to attempt a take down or pull guard.

Once on the ground all your progressive movements (such as transitioning from full guard to half guard) are handled by the right joystick (and a lot of those quarter circle movements to work my way to full mount). Once on your back though all these attempted transitions are thwarted the same way they are attempted through the right stick. In addition to just tying them up you do have the actual Thai Clinch that can be initiated through LB and moving the right stick in the direction of your opponent (L1 for PS3), you can punch and knee your opponent while tied up and you can whip them around with a simple up or down movement on the right stick.

To initiate a submission if you are on top is by a simple click in the right stick, by doing so it initiates a submission. Once the submission is being attempted you can either spin the right joystick clock wise or rapidly hit any of the face buttons (this is how you progress you armbar, or sink your rear-naked choke in). To attempt a take down by holding the LT or L2 and pressing the right stick in the direction of your opponent you will attempt a takedown (once attempted quick presses of the face buttons strengthen the attack) , your attempt can be stalled or stopped by pressing that same right joystick opposite of your opponent (your character will then sprawl out). There is more depth to the take downs such as catching a kick etc, but I don’t want to give away all the controls (you all need to do the tutorial for the best understanding).

So basically I would like to leave on this note, I had high expectations and the game more than exceeded what I had set forth (and this is only a demo with two characters), the demo will be available to everyone on Thursday, April 23, and the full game is going to be available on May 19. If pre-ordered from participating GameStop’s you will receive 2 exclusive bonus character’s as DLC (downloadable content), the characters you will receive are Ryan Bader and Efrain Escudero. The final U.S. release will feature Forest Griffin on the cover, while in Canada they get there more than deserving athlete of the year Georges St. Pierre.

Listed below is the full character roster (you will notice some characters can fight in multiple weight divisions if they have done so in real life).

Heavyweights:

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Brock Lesnar
Frank Mir
Brandon Vera (LH)
Gabriel Gonzaga
Cain Velasquez
Cheick Kongo
Eddie Sanchez
Heath Herring
Andrei Arlovski
Mirko Crocop
Fabricio Werdum
Tim Sylvia
Mark Coleman
Antoni Hardonk
Justin McCully

Light Heavyweights:

Chuck Lidell
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
Forrest Griffin
Tito Ortiz
Keith Jardine
Wanderlei Silva
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
Lyoto Machida
Rashad Evans
Stephan Bonnar
James Irvin
Wilson Gouveia (MW)
Houston Alexander
Kazuhiro Nakamura
Thiago Silva
Tim Boetsch
Ryan Bader (DLC)

Middleweights:

Anderson Silva (LH)
Rich Franklin (LH)
Dan Henderson (LH)
Michael Bisping (LH)
Kendall Grove
Chris Leben
Jason MacDonald
Nate Marquardt
Drew McFedries
Ricardo Almeida
Evan Tanner
Yushin Okami
Demian Maia
Martin Kampmann (WW)
Amir Sadollah (WW)
Thales Leites

Welterweights:

Georges St-Pierre
Matt Hughes
Matt Sera (LW)
Jon Fitch
Karo Parisyan
Josh Koscheck
Diego Sanchez
Mike Swick (MW)
Marcus Davis
Thiago Alves
Chris Lytle
Ben Saunders
Josh Burkman
Kyle Bradley
Matt Arroyo
Anthony Johnson

Lightweights:

BJ Penn (WW)
Sean Sherk (WW)
Kenny Florian
Roger Huerta
Joe Stevenson
Mac Danzig
Nathan Diaz
Spencer Fisher
Tyson Griffin
Gray Maynard
Thiago Tavares
Joe Lauzon
Rich Clementi
Mark Bocek
Hermes Franca
Frank Edgar
Efrain Escudero (DLC)

Non-Fighters:

Dana White
Joe Silva
Mike Goldberg
Joe Rogan
Arainy Celeste
Edith Labelle
Bruce Buffer
Mario Yamasaki
Steve Mazzagatti
Herb Dean
Big John McCarthy
Juanito Ibarra
Mark Delagrotte (Career)
Greg Jackson (Career)
Eddie Bravo (Career)