And we’re back! After a two week hiatus we have with us 5 Oz. contributors Dustin James and Bryan Levick. They will battle it out…. okay, not so much battle as we were short on time and I gave them six questions each without responses. Still, pretend it’s a battle. With knives. This new work schedule has me whacked out of my mind….

1. The Anderson Silva/Thales Leites fight won’t even be close.

Levick: FALSE. While I don’t truly believe Silva will ever be in any serious danger I also don’t believe Leites will be a pushover. I expect him to try and pressure Silva and not wait around for Silva to get loose and comfortable. Leites has decent striking but he is not in Silva’s league but he needs to try and get Silva’s timing down so that he can attempt a takedown. The only shot that Leites has in on the ground and even there he doesn’t have an advantage. Silva’s jiu-jitsu is not under rated it is just overlooked because his striking is so masterful that he rarely has a need to use his ground skills. While I expect Silva to eventually catch Leites and put him down I also expect Leites to be well prepared and show that he has nothing to lose. I also see Silva looking to put on a better performance than the one he did against Cote but I still see Leites showing that he got earned this title shot and that he belongs in there with the best.

James: TRUE. I have a feeling that Leites is in for a long evening on Saturday night. We all know that Silva will have the advantage standing so Thales may look to keep it on the ground. Leites is fantastic at submissions, but is he better than Silva? I highly doubt it. For some reason I see Thales coming out and wanting to stand with Silva and getting rocked early. It will be the same old song and dance that it’s been for the last 2-3 years in the UFC’s middleweight division…Anderson Silva domination.

2. Nick Diaz has earned his way into a top ten ranking…. in some weight class.

Levick: FALSE: I came away thoroughly impressed with not only Diaz’ performance but his attitude as well in the Shamrock fight. He showed a lot of class at the end and he also showed that he belongs in big money matches and that he can hang with just about anyone. The only reason I said false was simply because he needs to establish where he is going to fight first. Is he going to fight as a lightweight where he would need to drop down to 155lbs as opposed to the 160lb lightweight division that EliteXC designed specifically for him. Will he fight as a welterweight as he did during his run with the UFC where he fought Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, Robbie Lawler, Joe Riggs, Josh Neer, Drew Fickett and Karo Parisyan to name a few fighters. I was surprised to see that he was actually bigger than Shamrock where they fought at a weight of 179lbs. That got me to thinking that he could fight as a middleweight and hold his own. His body has really filled out over these past few years and when I remember that he is only 25 years old I am reminded that he can fluctuate and add mass if he so chooses being that he is so young. Once he decides on what weight he wants to fight at and concentrates on one division then I think we will see him move up the rankings until then we just have to sit back and see what he does next.

James: TRUE. He is currently sitting somewhere on the bottom of my personal welterweight rankings. The welterweight division is really stacked right now with guys like Karo Parisyan, Jay Hieron, Marcus Davis & Brock Larson all looking to crack the top 10. I personally give an edge to Diaz over all the guys I just named due to the fact that the guy is 8-1-1 in his last 10 fights. His lone loss was a controversial one to KJ Noons, which the official called due to a cut so I’m not holding that one against Diaz too much. Also, you can’t forget that Diaz submitted former #1 lightweight Takanori Gomi with an awesome gogoplata at PRIDE 33. The fight was later ruled a “No Contest” due to Diaz testing positive for marijuana, which is a bummer deal for him considering it was one of the biggest wins of his career. Come to think of it, if you wanted to rank Diaz in your top 10 lightweight list…I wouldn’t shoot you for it.

3. Cris Santos and Gina Carano will actually happen this summer.

Levick: TRUE. It has to happen, it has been talked about for so damn long that there is just no other way to go for either fighter at this point. Also with both fighters having issues with making weight they are each other’s only option. Most of the women fighting are at a weight between 135-145lbs and these two have no business fighting at that weight. 150lbs is the ideal weight for both women as it eliminates any problems for each at making weight and if either one of them has “women issues” at the time of the weigh-ins they have afforded themselves enough room to cover up in case that becomes a problem. The public is clamoring to see Gina back in action and the only fighter they want to see her fight is Cyborg. The only way I see this being pushed back further is if an injury occurs or Gina says she needs a warm-up fight which could be seen as a legitimate excuse because she hasn’t fought since last October. With the way Scott Coker has been talking regarding getting Gina signed, sealed and delivered I have to believe he is building a card around these two somewhere around August.

James: TRUE. I’m giving Strikeforce some credit here. I honestly think these guys know this fight is one that MMA fans are clamoring for. EliteXC kept trying to build this fight up but the company imploded before they ever got a chance to showcase it. You knew someone out there was going to pick this fight up and low and behold here comes Strikeforce to the rescue. The guys at Strikeforce have proven thus far that they know how to run a successful MMA promotion. Once they have Carano and Santos signed, ready and all healthy, this fight will happen either on PPV or Showtime. At the Strikeforce on Showtime event the company continued to build on the heat for this fight by cutting to Carano sitting at ringside during the Santos fight. The crowd was digging on Gina and you know the Strikeforce officials smelled the money in the air. I personally watched the show with a few non-hardcore MMA fans and even they wanted to see this fight. It may be the biggest fight that Strikeforce could put on right now and one would think it will sometime this summer. The bigger question is, will either fighter make weight?

SWITCH IT UP

4. Chuck Liddell will not only defeat Shogun Rua but be “impressive” in doing so.

James: TRUE. After losing three out of his last four fights, one would think that Liddell knows he has to come out with an impressive win over Rua to maintain a spot in the top of the UFC’s light heavyweight division. I have gone back and forth on this fight since it was announced. If Rua can come out looking like the Shogun of old, I would favor him without a problem. However, with what I’ve seen of Shogun in the UFC thus far, I have not been impressed in any way shape or form. I can see Liddell coming out, keeping the fight standing of course, and letting Shogun wear himself out and then perhaps going for a killer shot that puts Rua down. I think too many people are putting Liddell off as “old” and “past his prime” now. I just don’t see it. His losses in the UFC are not bad ones at all. It’s not like the man’s fighting guys like Jeremy Horn and Vernon White anymore. He’s actually fighting the cream of the crop of the UFC’s light heavyweight division. This upcoming fight with Shogun will really give us a feel on where Liddell stands in the MMA world right now. Is the “Iceman” actually past his prime or did he just run into a few bumps in the road known as “Rampage” Jackson and Keith Jardine? On Saturday, we will get our answer!

Levick: TRUE. I don’t know if my answer is more hopeful or if it is actually something that I think will really happen. Although I have never been a huge fan of Liddell it was never because I didn’t like him it was because I liked other fighters. I respect Liddell just as much as any other fighter that is out there. He has done more for this sport than 99% of the other fighters and has never backed down from a challenge. I think Shogun is tailor made for his style as he will be aggressive and allow Chuck to use his counter striking abilities but I also see Liddell mixing it up a bit as he did in the fight against Wanderlei Silva. I really respect Chuck for realizing that an old dog can learn new tricks and going down to Florida to train with ATT. He realized there were some chinks in his armor and that he needed to be able to throw people off their guard a little bit. By attempting a few takedowns and becoming less unpredictable he gives Shogun that much more to worry about and force him to do what he does best and that is get aggressive and fall right into Liddell’s trap. I also believe that if Shogun gasses as he has in his first two UFC fights Chuck will smell the blood and go in for the kill. Liddell still trains as hard as anyone and maybe he just got into a bad groove and this may be the fight that starts his one last run in the UFC.

5. You would classify the first Strikeforce on Showtime event a solid success.

James: TRUE. Before I get started, I must note that I was out of town on Saturday night and had to watch this show on DVR on Sunday. With that said, I skipped most of the show and went straight to the fights. From what I saw of the presentation, it was fantastic. The fights were great as well with Scott Smith and Benji Radach putting on a possible “FOTY” candidate and Diaz and Shamrock battling in a fantastic main event. Not to mention the show was viewed by more than 364,000 viewers and was the third largest MMA audience in Showtime history. As of this writing the gate and attendance figures have yet to be released, but from what I’m seen thus far, Strikeforce has a good thing going right now and us as MMA fans need it. After the debacle that was EliteXC and Kimbo Slice last year, MMA needs to attract more mainstream fans who want to see Smith and Radach engage in a war rather than a YouTube fighter with no MMA skills. Strikeforce has the best chance to become a top competitor to the UFC and their first special on Showtime was a huge step toward achieving that goal.

Levick: TRUE. Over 15,000 fans a live gate totaling over $750k that to me spells success. I came away very happy with the way the card came off. The fights were exciting, the crowd was electric and the fighters fought their hearts out. The only issue I have is with the announcers. I have never liked Ranallo he is over dramatic and I can’t stand his catch phrases. I respect Gus Johnson’s overall abilities but he needs to do some MMA homework and not make outrageous statements like calling Scott Smith and Benji Radach elite middleweights. Pat Miletich is very smart, informed and when he speaks you listen because the man knows his mixed martial arts but he was a little bland for me and I would have liked to see him a bit more excited. Other than the announcing the production values were very good, there was some stars in attendance and it is always nice to show them as it adds a sense of legitimacy to the card. Almost like this is the place where everyone needs to be. I believe this was a great first stepping stone and as Showtime and Strikeforce get more acquainted with each other it will lead to even more success.

6. Miguel Torres would find success in the UFC Lightweight division.

James: FALSE. This is a great question and a tough one to answer. After much deliberating though, I have come to the conclusion that Torres would be better off staying in the WEC as either a featherweight or a bantamweight. I personally can’t see Torres having much success against naturally bigger guys like Gray Maynard, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson, and Diego Sanchez. He may be able to secure a few victories in the UFC’s lightweight division, but when it comes to the cream of the crop…I’m just not giving the guy much of a chance. Torres should be satisfied with being one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, no matter what promotion he is fighting for. Perhaps he should be thinking about a possible “dream” fight with either Urijah Faber or “Kid” Yamamoto at featherweight before he starts thinking about moving up to the UFC’s lightweight division.

Levick: TRUE. I think that Torres can do whatever he sets his mind to and if he goes about this the right way he can be a legitimate contender as a lightweight on the UFC roster. With that being said he has to slowly build himself up through two other phases of his career first. He first move would be to fight at 145lbs in the WEC. He doesn’t need to jump into the shark tank right away though. Let him build himself up as a contender as a featherweight before he gets a crack at Faber or Brown. There are plenty of fighters at 145lbs that will give him a strong enough test and tell him whether or not he has what it takes to keep moving up in weight. Pulver, Garcia and Grispi are a few names that come to mind that would test Torres enough in the beginning. If he is able to get by any of these guys then he moves on to the champ whether it be Brown or Faber. He needs to fight a few times at 145lbs first to get his body acclimated to the extra weight. Once he has found success at 145lbs he can begin to experiment with adding more weight, maybe he can find a few guys who fight at 155lbs in the WEC who may be willing to meet him in the middle. I am sure there are plenty of guys how would relish the opportunity to be the guy who stops Torres dead in his tracks. Fighting at 150lbs at first is necessary because now he is fighting 15lbs over his optimum fighting weight. Maybe he takes on Marcus Hicks or razor Rob once he is done with Celebrity Rehab and over his sex addiction. If he is able to adjust to 150lbs then he needs to fight a few fights at 155lbs in the WEC before he moves onto the UFC. Donald Cerrone or Jamie Varner would offer him enough of a test to show Torres whether or not he needs to think about taking this any further. I have no doubt in his ability and he is tall enough to carry the weight but he has to do it wisely.

And that will do it for this weeks Duel. As always feel free to comment and call our contributors names. They love that.

Welcome back to another edition of the Duel. Our leaders are away overseas and my head has been buried in a deep dark place. No, not there, I meant in the sand. I’m like the myth about the ostrich when I get frightened. Enough, being kind enough to join me this week — well actually it was last week — is Nokaut.com editor Mr. Randy Harrison. I thank him greatly for his patience.

Off to Duel:

1. Ken Shamrock’s failed steroid test will put a black mark on an already down turned career.

Harrison: TRUE. Of course it will. It won’t be a bigger mark than what’s already happened between the Kimbo nonsense and his seemingly neverending string of losses in the past four years, but it will be a black mark none the less. I was asked this question in another form and I said that it was likely for the best if Shamrock retired before damaging his legacy further, but I honestly think that it’s too late for that as well. Shamrock was a legend of the sport and someone that was thought to be one of the premier trainers in the game back in the day as his Lion’s Den camp produced quality fighters. After making his return from professional wrestling, he’s done nothing except lose and add layer after layer of tarnish to his name and his past accomplishments. This steroid test isn’t going to take anything away from what he’s already accomplished, but those are so far in the past you have to wonder if anyone would even remember them regardless of his breaking of the rules now.

Huckaby: FALSE. You actually convinced me to go the other way. How can you put a black mark on a career that is arguably blacker than any color Crayola could make? I think the steroids can and did hurt the legacy of someone like Royce Gracie that was still considered a founder of the modern sport despite the Matt Hughes fight. At this point he could get pulled over for drunk driving and spousal abuse and I don’t think it would be the top story of the week. I’m 100% open to guys fighting or performing in any way until they’re ready to hang it up. But this is no Joe Montana on the Chiefs at this point.

2. You favor Rich Franklin over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 99.

Harrison: TRUE. Silva may have caught lightning in a bottle against Keith Jardine, but I firmly believe that the time of the truly dominant Wanderlei is gone. Franklin may have been destroyed in the clinch by Anderson Silva on two separate occasions, but I would hope that he would have learned that lesson before this upcoming bout. Franklin may be a little far away from his eight-fight winning streak from years past, but outside of the Silva bouts he’s been able to put on strong showings and solid performances. That even takes into account the split decision loss to Dan Henderson earlier this year. Silva’s long winning streak may have been more impressive (16 wins, 1 draw, 1 No Contest), but that is even further in his rear view mirror. Franklin has looked good recently for long stretches in fights, while Silva has only had flashes in his bout against Chuck Liddell and the short burst of violence in the Jardine fight. Since 2005, Silva’s been 5-5, but that number is a bit misleading as he’s lost four fights out of his last five. As much as I love Wanderlei as a person and as a fighter, it’s very likely that his time has come and gone while Franklin still has plenty left in the tank. It won’t be easy and I don’t favor him by very much, but I think that Franklin should be able to stick and move enough to get a decision win.

Huckaby: TRUE. This was the first time I’d really considered both sides of this fight after going back and forth multiple times I’m going with an early Franklin advantage. On the Silva side I will say Franklin’s chin was questioned against Anderson Silva but you can’t compare him and Wanderlei just because they’re Brazilians with similar styles. Really they’re not. Well, fine, they are Brazilians but Silva is more accurate and smells blood in a much different, but deadly, way. On the Franklin side I will say the final nail in this coffin is how far Silva is from his dominating days. Franklin should hold the advantage on the grappling side and as long as he doesn’t get overwhelmed he should be fine and send Wandy one more notch down.  I’m just afraid if he eats one big shot and stumbles backward that won’t end well.

3. Kimbo Slice, expressing interest in a boxing career, would not do well at all in the sport.

Harrison: TRUE. He could do well in the sense that Butterbean does well, but I think that even that is giving Kimbo too much credit. He’s got some power in his hands as we’ve seen in his EliteXC fights and his streetfights, but his chin is questionable after the Petruzelli KO and that’s not good when you’re looking at a start in boxing. I could see Kimbo doing well against very, VERY low-level fighters and some glorified Toughmen, but if he was ever to get into the ring with a well-trained, experienced and hungry professional fighter, he’d be eaten alive. There is no way that Kimbo would be able to stick with someone who had serious boxing training and it’s very unlikely that he’d be able to land a lucky punch or two even if he didn’t get hammered right out of the gate. That’s not even getting into Kimbo’s lack of cardio, which reared its ugly head in the bout against James Thompson. If Kimbo can’t keep his wind for thirteen minutes of an MMA bout, how would he be able to have the gas to go for thirty minutes in a ten-round fight? This is all not even taking into account that Kimbo is in his late-thirties and would be hard-pressed to gain the skill necessary to make a boxing career successful at that advanced an age. Kimbo could be a boxing sideshow or possibly a feature freakshow attraction in Japan, but to suggest that he could have a successful boxing career is laughable.

Huckaby: TRUE. I’m not sure how I respond to that with anything anyone would read. You pretty much just covered everything, especially how you’re right that going 12-0 against all winless opponents is completely acceptable in boxing. Heavyweight boxing may look boring now but don’t mistake that for meaning they’re bad boxers compared to those in the past. Any of these top heavyweights would make quick work and would even with 20 prelim bouts to warm him up.

4. Affliction will actually put on a show to counter UFC 100.

Harrison: FALSE. It sounds like a good idea in theory, but I just can’t see them trying to go up against the UFC on what will likely be one of the biggest nights in the history of the company. When you add in that Floyd Mayweather is apparently looking to make his return to boxing on the same night, there’s even less of an available market in combat sports for an event like Affliction. Thinking about it from a logical standpoint, it’s hard to think of where Affliction would even be able to air the show considering that HBO could be tied up with Mayweather while the PPV market will be all over the UFC. Network TV won’t take a chance on an unproven commodity like Affliction, basic cable might, but the show would likely end up on a network with no previous MMA ties that would mean most casual fans would miss it, and Showtime is likely not going to get involved based on their deal with Strikeforce. When you also consider that Affliction would have to restructure contracts that fighters have already signed to make up for their lack of PPV revenue, this seems like it’s fuel for the rumor mill rather than an actual possibility.

Huckaby: FALSE. Would you care to wrap up the Middle East crisis now? Perhaps our economy? You’re right, absolutely no broadcast company makes any sense whatsoever, even less if you factor in Affliction being Affliction and not exactly show past success to impress them into doing it. I think television is different than most companies in that they’ve got a gentlemens agreement not going up against major programming. Super Bowl? NBC shows a Night Rider marathon. American Idol finale? ABC shows some John Stamos show. CBS puts on the Oscars? FOX puts on…. well a great new show that will get crushed and canceled. That’s how FOX rolls. Point being, television doesn’t usually go out of it’s way to compete against major events. There is always the next day. Not to mention a repeat of Law & Order: SVU would cost less and get better ratings.

5. Bobby Lashley will one day follow in Brock Lesnar’s shoes and fight in the UFC.

Harrison: TRUE. If Lashley continues to learn at American Top Team, he’s got all the same tools that Lesnar has and is actually a little less beaten up from his time spent in professional wrestling. The UFC is always looking for the best fighters and the best draws and if Lashley can put together another couple of wins and look impressive while doing so, it’s not unlikely to think that Dana White and Co. would come calling to give him a shot against some of the best in their Heavyweight division. I would say that he’s maybe a year to two years away from even getting a sniff at the Octagon if they want him to have a fair shot at making the same type of impact that Lesnar has, but you’d be a fool to think that the UFC would pass up on someone as huge, as athletic and as talented as Lashley appears to be. They’re not number one because they pass on talent, so if Lashley can prove that he’s got the goods, he’ll be in the Octagon sooner rather than later.

Huckaby: TRUE. I wanted to be nitpicky but again I can’t argue with the logic. Lashley doesn’t have Lesnar’s name value but the UFC would still pay him the most and give him the biggest stage. Though Lashley does have farther to go than Lesnar and will have to avoid an upset or two in the next couple of years before he gets the realistic call. Of course they could sign him now and throw him in there but I don’t see the pressure to do so at this point. Let other people give him the platform to get a frontpage Yahoo story about beating Jason Guida and sign him up when you feel he can handle himself against decent opponents.

6. Give me your projected winner of the NCAA tournament.

Harrison: Harold Howard. My answer to who will win any tournament of any kind (outside of the Stanley Cup playoffs which isn’t technically a tournament but I digress) is always going to be Harold Howard. If you’re comin’ on, then COME ON!!

Huckaby: Kansas. My cutesy original pick was Kansas to repeat and while they’re currently in the Sweet 16 it’s hard to argue with Pitt at this point. They’re worn down and play too many close games but you can’t deny that 1-2 punch of Levance Fields and DeJuan Blair with the bonus of Sam Young. Reminds you of that recent Okafor/Gordon UConn team.

And that is another Duel. Even I’m voting for Harrison this week, he’s too good at this. Join us next week when two more MMA writers will battle it out in The Duel!

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. This week we have 5 Oz. contributor Mr. Caleb Newby going one-on-one with 5 Oz. contributor Bren Conlan. “But there is no star this week!” True, faithful reader, but they’re okay and you should give them a chance.  And by “chance,” I mean boo them.

Off we Duel:

1. Rashad Evans should be a Vegas favorite to defeat Quinton Jackson.

Newby: FALSE. I was going to write my answers all in haiku, but Huckaby said it wouldn’t be entertaining. Now he’s threatening to write a column that way himself. Anyway, I’d suspect the line would be close with the general public split fairly evenly but I can’t help but think that Rampage will be the slightly more popular pick, and hence the favorite. But that’s a technicality to your question the more interesting question is who is really more likely to win? I may be crazy, but I’m not entirely sold on Rashad as a world beater quite yet. Rashad was a slow starter against Forrest, losing the first two rounds before catching the not quite iron chinned TUF 1 winner who isn’t known as a fast starter himself. Rampage easily has the most sound boxing in the division and of the opponents Rashad has faced. Rampage has great power. Rampage can take a punch. And perhaps most easily forgotten, Rampage has very good wrestling defense, just ask Dan Henderson. I’m by no means calling this a cakewalk as Rashad’s speed and more importantly, camp, will make things extremely interesting. Still, as of right now, I’m taking Rampage to regain the title.

Conlan: FALSE. Similar to what my fellow dueler stated, I think Jackson’s skill-set neutralizes the two areas in which Rashad Evans has shown himself to be most dangerous – wrestling and boxing. I can’t envision Evans taking “Rampage” down with any sort of consistency and he would likely eat a few nasty knees in the process if he attempts to do so. In terms of stand-up, while Evans has an advantage where speed is concerned, there’s no doubt in my mind that Jackson has the edge when it comes to power. I also think experience should play a role when determining the odds in a potential Evans vs. Jackson fight. “Rampage” has shown an ability to go five rounds. Evans has not. “Rampage” has successfully defended a UFC Championship before. Evans has not. Jackson has also proven he has a granite chin, while I can’t recall any situations where “Sugar” ‘Shad has taken a clean shot to the jaw and kept pressing forward. I’m not saying Evans can’t take a punch. I’m only saying he hasn’t shown that he can. When you take into account the afore-mentioned factors, as well as the notion Vegas usually incorporates a fighter’s popularity into the mix when determining odds, I don’t see any way “Rampage” wouldn’t enter a bout against Evans as the favorite (though I think the line would be very close and not worth betting on in terms of potential for profit).

My Five Cents: “To be the man you have to beat the man.” Does this mean nothing you former wrestling nerds? With a gun to my head maybe Rampage wins but how can you count out Evans after all he has done in the last couple of years?

2. Though if Jackson won’t be ready in time so you’d give the edge to Machida over Evans.

Newby: TRUE. Oh yeah. Seriously, that statistic on Machida’s elusiveness, courtesy of Fight Metric, speaks volumes. Opponents land less strikes on Machida than any other fighter in the UFC and opponents have a success rate of below 20% on takedown attempts on him. And now we have Machida KOing people and not just riding decisions. Again, Rashad’s best shot is Greg Jackson’s gameplanning. Gameplanning and tactics have taken a front seat lately to the point that I’ll consider Kenny Florian a live dog now due to his work with Dellegrate and Penn’s apparent lack of in depth game planning. Still, like with Penn, it’s not enough to make me go against Machida.

Conlan: TRUE. As we now know, Jackson won’t be ready by UFC 98 and Machida will be stepping into his place as the top contender to Rashad Evans’ strap. I’m favoring Machida to win the title because I’ve yet to see any holes in his game. Seriously, has the Ryu clone ever even lost a round?!? Evans, on the other hand, would have likely fallen in defeat to Tito Ortiz had “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” not lost a point for grabbing the cage in their bout, while Machida destroyed Ortiz for 95% of their fight en route to a unanimous decision and nearly finished him on more than one occasion. Lyoto’s striking is more diverse than Rashad’s and I’d argue he has better jiujitsu as well. He is methodical in the ring, intelligent in his attack, and a dangerous grappler to boot. In some ways Machida actually reminds me a bit of Fedor Emelianenko (though he’s obviously not as accomplished as the stoic Russian). Evans is good, but he isn’t on Machida’s level in terms of his overall abilities, and in fact I’d probably take him to beat any light heavyweight at this point in his career until he does something inside the cage to make me feel differently.

My Five Cents: I really can’t argue with Bren, especially considering his Dueling opponent might be mentally retarded. MMAth never works, unless you need it to prove a point you’re trying to make. Right Bren?

3. The UFC cast lesser American fighters than available to make the next Ultimate Fighter more competitive.

Newby: The fighters get worse,
Man juice swallowed and Junie.
I am done with TUF..

Conlan: FALSE. It won’t be easy to counter an argument using the term “man juice” but I’ll try and do my best anyways. After looking over the group of fighters competing on Season Nine I don’t see any significant difference in talent/experience between the US and UK rosters. If anything, the UFC/Spike are forced to cast lesser fighters in general due to the number of alternatives that currently exist as opposed to when the groundbreaking reality show first fired up and introduced millions of fans to MMA. I don’t think the UFC/Spike actually care about how competitive the Ultimate Fighter is (see: Mac Danzig) as long as it brings in ratings and builds up a few individuals who are suitable card-fillers when the show wraps.

My Five Cents: Where to start…. first of all, Newby fails miserably at trying to be funny. And by miserably I mean like a homeless person eating dog crap for nutrition. Actually that’s not even true because I’d feel for that person and give him money. Conlan is just wrong, they have to dumb down the US fight team to make this season semi-interesting, they’re trying to branch out into the UK. If they took the best TUF fighters from the US they’d destroyed the UK team, not based on “our country is awesome OMG” but we have more people and a longer tradition of MMA fighting. They have to dumb down the team to make it interesting. Wake up you two, it was just a terribly unfunny haiku and a wrong answer.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. It would be a terrible, terrible mistake for Matt Hughes to fight Anderson Silva.

Conlan: TRUE. From the standpoints that Hughes already appears to be on the downside of his career, can’t seem to beat a contender at welterweight, would be the second shortest 185-pounder on the UFC’s roster (Palhares is #1), and would undoubtedly find himself curled up in a fetal position on the Octagon’s flooring were he to compete against Anderson Silva…yeah, I’d have to say everyone’s favorite farmboy would be wise to avoid a run at the middleweight division. The former UFC Welterweight Champion is still overly reliant on his wrestling background to get the job done in the eight-sided cage, while “The Spider” has a diverse arsenal at his disposal and has not only beaten better grapplers than Hughes (Dan Henderson) but also superior strikers (Nate Marquardt). Of course, I would personally love to see Matt Hughes humbled at the hands, elbows, knees, and feet of the likable Brazilian. In that regard, I’m somewhat tempted to change my answer to “FALSE”. I mean really…how can a thought as beautiful as Hughes getting the “Rich Franklin” treatment ever be considered “terrible” or a “mistake”?

Newby: FALSE. Of course he’d lose, but this question didn’t ask if Hughes could win. What else does he have to do at welterweight? Assuming he beats Serra, there is about zero reason to build him up for an attempted GSP challenge again. Sure we figure he’d lose to a top contender, but what if he wins? There’s pretty much no upside to having him knock off a welterweight contender. Hughes needs super fights and grudge matches at this stage of his career. Silva is a super fight. Fans know him and he’d be the most “name” opponent Silva has defended his title against since Rich Franklin. Hughes would get a good payday out of it too. It wouldn’t be a mistake for him or for the UFC. It’s just a theoretical waste of a title defense. As for that fight itself, at least Hughes has the same thing going for him that Maia does…

My Five Cents: And Conlan destroys Newby. I’m fine with the fact we’d all love to see Hughes’ face get destroyed but Conlan had much better reasoning. I’d let Matt Hughes decide this debate but the 8 strippers he took home to cheat on his wife with are split 4-4.

5. Demian Maia currently poses the biggest threat to Silva’s title.

Conlan: FALSE. Maia may have jiujitsu slicker than Dana White’s dome after being dipped in a vat of Vaseline, but he remains a one-dimensional fighter who has yet to face upper-tier competition in his career. Until the mullet-rocking Brazilian submits an opponent like Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, or Dan Henderson I cannot view him as much more of a threat to Anderson Silva’s throne atop the UFC’s middleweight division than Thales Leites (who “The Spider” will be competing against next month).

Newby: TRUE. Of fighters on the UFC roster competing in the middleweight division, yes. Sure he’s one dimensional. Good. Much like Hughes, Maia would have no delusions to stand and trade with Silva. Henderson figured he could beat Silva standing and in the clinch. So did Franklin. They were comfortable and confident in their striking ability and we know how that turned out. If someone is going to beat Silva, other than catching him on an off night or bored, the most likely place to do that is on the ground and Maia can win there. Can he get it there? Doubtful. But at least he doesn’t want to test his Muay Thai.

My Five Cents: Easy win for Newby. First of all it’s true, second of all he laid out the reasons. Conlan should be as ashamed of himself as Newby was after his freakish blackout last Saturday. Poor goat.

6. Bigger UFC heavyweight prospect: Shane Carwin or Cain Velasquez.

Conlan: Velasquez. Carwin’s performance against Gabriel Gonzaga legitimized him as a force to be reckoned with on the heavyweight scene, but the fact remains he’s 34 years old and splits time between training MMA and his job as an engineer. His power is impressive, as was his resiliency after being put in some difficult positions by Gonzaga, but it’s likely his age and lack of dedication to Mixed Martial Arts will catch up with him at some point. On the other hand, Velasquez is still in his mid-20s and trains full time with one of the premier camps in the sport (American Kickboxing Academy). He has already shown a tremendous amount of potential in his five professional appearances and won’t be entering the prime years of his career for another half-decade. While I can see Carwin earning a title-shot before Velasquez and possibly even winning the UFC heavyweight strap in the process, I see Cain as a fighter who might not only one day be champion but possibly be considered one of the best big-boys to ever step foot inside the cage once he eventually hangs up his gloves.

Newby: Velasquez. Huckaby, may I say that I am enjoying this new wrinkle of occasionally adding in a non true/false question. Kudos. Prospect has to go in Cain’s favor for the reasons Conlan said, age and camp. Prospect is long term. I’d say Carwin is higher on the pecking order at this moment and the most likely to win the heavyweight strap as of today. Still, Velasquez is also quite impressive, has the camp and time on his side. His shelf life is longer.

My Five Cents: Butt-kissing will get you nowhere, Caleb. Velasquez is still an unknown commodity, awesomeness (totally a word) or not. Carwin has proven himself against a top 10 world heavyweight. I don’t care if he’s older, he’s done more. I’m the king of the Velasquez fan club but that fact remains the same. This of course has nothing to do with the fact I picked Carwin a year ago in our MMA Mock Draft while Adam Morgan picked Velasquez over me.

Judge for yourselves. Join us next week when two more MMA writers will battle it out in the greatest man-on-man battle since Hulk Hogan and King Kong Bundy at Wrestlemania II.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. Internet problems persist but a huge thank you to Sherdog’s Lotfi Sariahmed for filling in late to get this up at a reasonable time. He is a man amongst…. well, other men. He’ll be going against the always educated and formidable opponent, Me. With that said off we Duel:

1. Quinton Jackson will easily dispose of Keith Jardine on Saturday.

Sariahmed: TRUE. If there’s one thing Jardine has shown with his time in the UFC it’s that he’s been consistently inconsistent. The fashionable pick right now is to take Jardine via leg kick destruction but that’s if he could keep Rampage far away enough to prevent this from being a brawl or a battle in the clinch. At some point Rampage is going to come in and attack and leg kicks won’t be this big weapon that Jardine has at his disposal. It’s at that point where I see Rampage getting the better of the standup with his counterpunching and he just has more power than Jardine. I don’t really see it being all that close.

Huckaby: TRUE. I’ll go one step simpler, outside of the odd Liddell fight I don’t think anyone is going to take Jardine seriously against a guy with one punch knockout power. In UFC speak this fight should either go like the Rampage/Wandy fight or the Rampage/Eastman fight in terms of how long it lasts before Rampage nails a right hand that drops Jardine on his face for a ground-and-pound TKO stoppage. I’m not seeing leg kicks or anything else that gives Jardine much of a chance in this one. And we all know when that’s said it’s always blowouts like GSP/Serra where the underdog has no chance of winning….

2. Shane Carwin will continue the run and pull an upset of Gabe Gonzaga.

Sariahmed: FALSE. Even if you’re picking Carwin to win this fight no one is doing it with any sort of confidence. You’re talking about an extremely talented fighter but one who is going from fighting the likes of Christian Wellisch to Gabriel Gonzaga. The jiu-jitsu game alone is miles beyond what Carwin’s faced to this point. NOW with that said if Gonzaga decides he wants to trade on the feet with Carwin he’ll give Carwin the opening to in fact pull off said upset. But barring some colossal brain fart on the part of Gonzaga I just don’t see where Carwin is going to consistently be picking up enough points to win rounds and eventually the bout.

Huckaby TRUE. Considering I thought about changing my answer after reading that one I believe I lose. I’ll play devil’s advocate at the least and say Gonzaga lacks the one thing a successful cage fighter needs…. heart. He’s shown multiple times that you can wear him down and when he thinks he’s out of it he’ll quit. So who better than someone like Shane Carwin to control the action and upset him to the point of giving up hope? I agree that people wouldn’t be surprised if Carwin was submitted or even TKO’d but I don’t know, I think they made this fight for a reason to test where Carwin is at. They’re still not giving this fight to Cain Velasquez, are they? I believe they believe this could be a passing of the torch…. if you can pass a torch from decent to going to be decent and not involve titles or anything.

3. You believe Kirel Sidelnikov’s positive steroid test came from nose spray.

Sariahmed: TRUE. As long as everyone believes that I’m set to fight for the LHW belt come UFC 100 against Mr. Huckaby then sure. And sure, I believe him…as long as he had gone through about 110 bottles of the spray to cause the positive test. Either way he’s culpable and has to know that the nasal spray isn’t exactly your run of the mill nasal spray if you’re going to test positive for steroids because of it. Next time may I recommend Nasonex? Flonase works well in a pinch but Nasonex is really what hits the spot. Come on people, M-1’s trying to protect their guy for once…that’s all this is here.

Huckaby: FALSE. Well you’re the one that said TRUE Mr. Fancy Pants. Though nice product placement might get me a new watch from Nasonex. A nose watch. With steroids. If I may come to the defense, even if you believe the nose spray thing is complete rubbish, I need to defend some athletes when TV talking heads blame everything on them. You know full well there are doctors that give some athletes these things and tell them they’re good to go. We’ve all been on the phone with a company discussing a bill and make an agreement only to find out that employee was wrong. Well then who is at fault? I was talking to a representative of the company and they gave me wrong information. I don’t work for the energy company the same way I’m not a doctor. We have to rely on people sometimes who give us wrong information. Does that have anything to do with this? Probably not but it needed to be said.

4. You look for Hughes vs. Serra to be Hughes’ final UFC bout.

Sariahmed: FALSE. I think Hughes wouldn’t want to go out based on the one bout and probably has another big bout or two on his ledger along the lines of some big last hurrah. Hughes still sells as a name and the only real question is whether or not Hughes is still into it. Given his extensive time off with injuries and the like since his last fight, I doubt Serra would be his last bout because it would essentially amount to a one and done type deal. Can he beat the best in the division? Probably not. But Koscheck v. Hughes would certainly be fun to watch. Or if he doesn’t want to serve as a springboard for someone’s career you could always find another bout with Hughes that the people would buy into.

Huckaby: FALSE. Good points all around. The Hughes/Alves bout proved he can fill in to main event a card when needed against someone like Koscheck. Not to mention he has a newer school I’m sure he like to give more exposure to while he still can. Initially I was leaning to true but the fact is he could Royce it at this point and just fight once a year for two or three years before he goes out. He knows he’s not going to be a world champion again so why not do this on his own terms, make his money and go out how he wishes. Which would probably include lots of strippers and smashing baby birds in the name of Jesus.

5. Ken Shamrock should be considered a decent favorite over Bobby Lashley at “March Badness.”

Sariahmed: FACT. But ONLY because he has SO much more experience than Lashley and that’s it. Otherwise Lashley could kill him and the bout wouldn’t get past the commission. I’ve seen this bout compared to Lesnar v. Mir and obviously on a much lesser level. It’s not a bad comparison. Lashley’s physically imposing but doesn’t offer much in the way of any one standout MMA skill except wrestling. Shamrock’s ground game is better. His standup may be better but ONLY by default. Depending on how you want to interpret decent favorite you can say he shouldn’t be given Lashley’s physical size. But I’ll give Shamrock the benefit of the doubt here but again only based on experience.

Huckaby: FACT. But only because of experience? That’s out there, man! Yes, it’s true, I think Shamrock could make another 3 or 4 years of fights out of beating more physically gifted guys that aren’t on his experience level. He could KO Lashley or he could easily sub him…. or he could die. There’s probably a better chance of the first two but I like Lashley and his people taking this fight both of out my intrigue, using Shamrock as a name and as a stepping stone. If you’re going to lose early you might as well lose to an experienced guy with name value to bump you.

6. Give me your early favorite for the Sengoku FW Grand Prix.

Sariahmed: Marlon Sandro. Hatsu Hioki is the favorite for a lot of people but he’s shaky for me. Though to be fair I’m picking Sandro in part because there’s not as much to pick apart or not as many bad performances to look at because he’s undefeated. That’s what makes this Sengoku tourney as underrated as it is though because you have so many different guys who can win it. L.C. Davis is very interesting as a darkhorse pick if you were to have one as well. I like Sandro but mainly because there are fewer flaws i could find with him compared to everyone else.

Huckaby: Matt Jaggers. Fine, I’m picking the guy facing your guy in the first round. He won’t win but he also lives five minutes from my house and I feel the need. Kadowaki, Sandro and Davis have the best chance to me with Davis probably at the front of the list. I just see Hioki getting caught up in the second round. More than likely none of the 16 will win and someone like Bobby Heenan’s Red Rooster will come out as a replacement in the final to take home a belt. Doesn’t that always happen? I have to go with Davis.

And thank you for joining us for another Duel. We’ll be back next week to discuss UFC 96 and Dream.7 results as well as any new information and rumors to develop.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. We’re a bit late this week but with our all-star panel I feel this is acceptable. Battling it out this week are MMA Payout guru Mr. Adam Swift and MMA Junkie’s own junkie Mr. Dann Stupp.

While I’m not as cool as my celebrity guests I still request you follow me on Twitter. You have little to lose.  I currently have 8 web browsers up, my girlfriend is mad at me and I’m playing pool with bikers tonight.  How is that not interesting?

Off to the Duel!

1. Diego Sanchez will be successful in his lightweight debut against Joe Stevenson.

Junkie: TRUE. My lone concern about Sanchez heading into the fight was the cut and his conditioning. However, he took care of my concerns during the UFC 95 conference call — especially when he criticized B.J. Penn pretty badly for gassing at UFC 94. I doubt Sanchez would be that critical if he had any concerns about his own gas tank. He also said he finally has a good nutrition plan, and despite his departure from Team Jackson, his “nomad” training camp in the high altitudes of California should have him stellar fight shape. I think we see the old Diego in this fight — the one that terrorized the welterweight division.

Swift: TRUE. Everything about Sanchez’s move down to the lightweight division makes sense, now its just a matter of seeing the proof in the pudding. Like Dann said, the one thing you worry about is how the cut will affect his strength and conditioning, but I’m not that concerned. He’s a wrestler so he knows what it means to cut weight and he’s already come down from 185 to welterweight where he didn’t cut much weight and looked like somebody who would be perfect for the 155 pound division. I don’t see any reason to think that Sanchez won’t be very successful in the lightweight division. Joe Stevenson has become a gatekeeper of the division so a win here will put Sanchez on the fast track for a title shot.

My Five Cents: I will also go with true but I’m leaning toward Swift for mentioning pudding.

2. Chael Sonnen will make it two BJJ experts in a row by defeating Demian Maia.

Junkie: FALSE. I was slow to come around on Demian Maia, but he’s made a believer out of me. And while Maia and Paulo Filho are both jiu-jitsu fighters, it’d be a big mistake to draw any comparisons between the two fighters — especially in light of Filho’s two recent performances against Sonnen. Filho was a shell of his former self in those two fights, so it’d be wrong to assume that just because Sonnen hung with Filho he’ll also be able to keep up with Maia. Sonnen is a good fighter, but I believe this is the fight in which Maia pushes himself into title contention.

Swift: FALSE. I agree with Dann, you can’t compare Filho to Maia at this point. I’ve been very impressed with Maia’s work in the UFC. He’s 4-0 with four submissions and has looked like one of the few guys at 185 pounds that would be an interesting fight for Anderson Silva. Whether Sonnen tapped in his first fight with Filho or not he was in a bad position and he’s been submitted in 6 of his 9 losses. All that said, this is going to be a step up in competition for Maia so I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles a veteran like Sonnen.

My Five Cents: He did tap…. if by yelling “tap tap tap tap” you figure that a submission. In fact when I ranted about that and called Sonnen names that was the only time Caplan has ever yelled at me. I’m still not happy with Chael over that but hopefully I’ll never meet him so he won’t beat the crap out of me.

3. After turning down a fight with Josh Thomson, KJ Noons will never fight for Strikeforce.

Junkie: TRUE. (For the foreseeable future anyway.) As we first saw with the Nick Diaz fight and now with the Josh Thomson bout, KJ Noons has no problem turning down big fights. When he upset Diaz for the EliteXC lightweight belt, I think everyone was ready to rush Noons into fights with A-level fighters — everyone except Noons himself. From everything Noons has told us, he’s serious about wanting to focus on boxing. And honestly, many guys end up having just one chance to make big money in MMA. Noons isn’t there yet, and he could ruin any chance of getting there if he suffers some big losses at this point in his career. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Noons box a few times more, build up his name in some smaller shows with favorable match-ups, and then try to sign a big, career-making MMA contract in a year or two with an organization such as Strikeforce.

Swift: FALSE. I have to believe that eventually Noons will find his way back to MMA and that when he does it will probably be with Strikeforce due to the murky contractual obligations involved. Now whether that’s later this year or further down the road, I have no idea. Dann offers an interesting theory for career advancement, but I’m not sure its something I’d want to bet on if I was Noons. I think he’s had about 10 fights in boxing, so he’s probably 10-15 fights away from title contention in that sport. He would need a boxing title to generate a lucrative crossover opporunity in MMA. There are a lot of titles to choose from in boxing, but with politics and this few fights under his belt, the stars will kind of have to align for it to happen. On the other hand in MMA, he’s already near the top of the food chain at 155 after 9 fights. If I were him I’d ask for a tune-up fight in MMA, knock the ring rust off, fight Josh Thomson and see what happens. The big money is already moving from MMA to boxing, you don’t want to spend three years tilting at windmills. If he can’t hang with Thomson, boxing will still be there.

My Five Cents: While Josh Thomson is a solid fighter he’s hardly the cream of the crop that Noons needs to avoid. In fact that’s the exact fight he should be taking. He’s good at MMA but still wants to consider himself a boxer. Fun fact: If you get KO’d by Krazy Horse maybe boxing isn’t for you. Speaking of Krazy Horse, he just broke my window and stole my television.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Strikeforce made a good purchase in acquiring ProElite.

Swift: TRUE. The purchase immediately establishes Strikeforce as the number two promotion in the industry and puts them in a very compelling position moving forward. Even more impressive is the way the deal came together. Strikeforce was patient and prudent rather than rushing into things and overpaying or ignoring due diligence. Utimately it looks like they got the ProElilte assets at the price they wanted and perhaps more importantly negotiated TV deals that give them a chance to be profitable. Despite wildly different circumstances, it’s interesting to compare the Strikeforce-ProElite-Showtime transactions to the Zuffa-Pride acquisition which in comparsion looks a lot more haphazard and impulsive.

Junkie: TRUE. Assuming they could have eventually freed themselves of ProElite, I think most of EliteXC’s fighters would have signed with Strikeforce anyway. I also think Strikeforce was in a good position to score a TV deal or two even without the ProElite deal. But despite all that, I think that was a good deal for Strikeforce because it made it very clear the organization is no longer thinking of itself as a regional promotion. It went after the best talent available, spent some money, and made a big splash. For a usually quiet, nose-to-the-grindstone type of organization, this was a great way of “coming out” just at a time when fans (and even the fighters and managers) were looking for some closure. Strikeforce looks like the knight in shining armor.

My Five Cents: Agreed. Strikeforce should really be getting solid press for how they run their business. Dana White doesn’t even curse them out on a regular basis…. if he’s not doing that you know you’re doing something right.

5. Thiago Alves will take the gold away from Georges St. Pierre at UFC 100.

Swift: FALSE. Thiago Alves may very well provide the toughest test that Georges St. Pierre has faced, but I can’t bet against St. Pierre. St. Pierre is on another level right now and improving by leaps and bounds each time he steps in the octagon. Most importantly, it seems like he’s starting to put the mental aspect of the fight game together with the amazing physical tools he’s always had which is am intimidating proposition for his competitors. It will be interesting to see how St. Pierre deals with Alves’s size advantage, but ultimately I think his superior athleticism and conditioning will be hard to overcome.

Junkie: FALSE. As Adam mentioned, among the UFC’s current 170-pounders, I too think Thiago Alves has the best chance at defeating Georges St. Pierre, but even those odds aren’t good enough to topple the champ. Still, I think this fight is going to be a lot closer than most people think, and I think Alves puts up more of a fight than B.J. Penn and Thiago Alves did. In my opinion, Alves is clearly the world’s No. 2 welterweight, and at just about any other time in history, he could probably be a pretty dominant champion himself. But St. Pierre’s just on a whole other level right now.

My Five Cents: I made this statement because I too think Alves is the biggest threat to GSP. I don’t see a way GSP dominates this fight as he normally does. That’s of course assuming Alves doesn’t weigh in at 285lbs for the title fight.

6. Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz will keep it standing on April 11.

Swift: TRUE. Shamrock and Diaz are both showmen who like to bang so I expect fireworks on Strikeforce’s Showtime debut. This is a very interesting fight. Diaz will have the reach advantage while Shamrock should have a considerable edge in size and strength. A lot of the early focus has been on Diaz’s moving up to the catch weight, but for me a lot of the intrigue will be in how Shamrock handles the weight cut. He hasn’t been a big fan or practioner in his recent past so it will be interesting to see what effect if any the cut has on him physically.

Junkie: FALSE. While I think the fight will primarily stay standing, I also see this fight going the distance. In 15 minutes of action with two guys both willing to push the pace, I don’t see how this fight doesn’t go to the ground at least for a while. Additionally, there’s a small part of me that thinks Shamrock wants to teach his young opponent a lesson and maybe beat him at his own game. If there’s an opening, Shamrock could very well try to force the fight to the mat and tap out Diaz. However, I’m not saying it’s a particularly wise plan (Diaz has never been submitted, and Shamrock didn’t fare too well when he tried to beat Cung Le at his own game). Still, with what I expect to be a 15-minute fight, I think we see some ground fighting at some point.

My Five Cents: Frank Shamrock does have that Fedor in him, wanting to beat opponents at their own game. However unlike Fedor he loses. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Frank come out and do the goofy standup to mock Diaz, though you would be hard pressed to say he wasn’t impressive in his standup against Cung Le.

A big thank you to my guests, Dann and Adam. We’ll be back next week to preview future cards and discuss UFC 95 results.

And after a full month of shows we finally have a week off. On a personal note I wanted to say there will not be a Duel this week as my computer came down with short bus syndrome and didn’t work for three days. Adam Swift and Dann Stupp will go at it next week. Speaking of the computer, for those keeping track at home, Gateway wanted $60 for thirty minutes of phone support to work me through the problem. No thank you. I feel computer support should be free. I spent a couple grand on the computer, I spend money every month for DSL and God knows I support the online pornography community in mass. I put in my money, help me fix my computer. Then again I’m just from the spoiled youth generation that believes everything should be free and on the internet. Including my computer that gets me there. Moving on….

CON: B.J. Penn’s goals. It has finally crossed a line where it went from PRO to CON. Everyone loves B.J. because we live in an age where every guy tries to cut thirty pounds so they can fight the smallest and weakest people possible. B.J. Penn is one of only a handful that isn’t happy until he attains something bigger and better. But enough is enough. I understand beating Sherk, Stevenson and Pulver might not be exciting for him…. but losing three fights to GSP and Matt Hughes isn’t exciting for us. B.J. needs to take this time and make a decision he will stick with. Stay at 155lbs and dominate for the foreseeable future until a major challenge comes along…. or fight at 170lbs and stick to undercards or leave the UFC. We all know he can compete with the top few guys at welterweight but fans don’t want to see an average Penn go 3-3 against Koscheck, Davis, Parisyan and others when he could be the most dominant champion in the organization at 155. He’s like the blind kid who has a dying wish to hunt. It’s sweet and all but no…. there are apparently some things you just can’t do. Please do the fans a favor and beat up Kenny Florian. We’d love to see fights like that but if you retire or leave you’re pretty much handing us Sean Sherk laying on Gray Maynard for 25 minutes for the foreseeable future. I love you, consider this an intervention.

PRO: Stockton in da house. Last week Forbes magazine released it’s annual list of America’s Most Miserable Cities and coming in at number one was…. *drumroll*…. Stockton, California. Understand how impressive this is…. Stockton has half the population of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is only the 13rd largest city in California alone. Yet they managed to just edge out large cities such as Chicago, Memphis and Cleveland to capture the top spot of most miserable. This is a true underdog story and no doubt Nick and Nate Diaz are celebrating in the streets, urinating on sidewalks and Molotov cocktailing local businesses.

CON: Josh Neer. Minus the stupid Nick Diaz act with his arms in the air I’ve always been a fan. But I couldn’t help but make this comparison while watching his fight with Mac Danzig a second time. He’s like that opponent you have in a boxing video game early in your career that is 17-8 but you can barely beat. He’s a battle of attrition. You could be rolling your way up to 7-0 with 7 early KOs and there is the Josh Neer character who keeps jabbing you right in the face and annoying the hell out of you for 8 rounds.

CON: Guida’s entrance music. “My Hero” by Foo Fighters? Regardless of the intent or the fact it’s a good song that’s a bit arrogant to walk out to the ring to is it not? Adding to this I’m finally over the edge on the Guida bandwagon. Yes, he’s entertaining and he has a ridiculous gas tank but the fact is he’s one dimensional and all of his fights go pretty much the same way. That’s fine if he wants to throw around small lightweights but if he had to face Matt Hughes or Josh Koscheck he wouldn’t be so entertaining. He’s been around enough, I just wish he’d add a couple more facets to his game.

CON: Shovel thieves. I’m house sitting for someone and when I went over there to clear the snow I noticed someone had stolen their snow shovel off of the front porch. There were deep footprints in the snow walking straight up the middle of the yard to where it was at and back. Unfortunately the brilliant criminal walked along the sweeped street so the trail went dead at the sidewalk. Monk I am not. Actually that’s probably more Babysitters’ Club territory.

PRO: Kim looking good against Karo Parisyan. I just like to see the Asian fighters do well in the US, namely because they come over here without cutting weight while possessing no wrestling skill or cage technique. When a new Asian fighter debuts it seems to look like a kid getting thrown into the Colosseum against a lion. So when you factor in Kim more than holding his own with the fact Karo was apparently out of his mind on pain medication I say that’s a success.  He probably could have hit Karo with an actually stun gun and he wouldn’t have even flinched.

PRO: Rob Dyrdek at the show. Only because “Rob & Big” was awesome and the only show I haven’t outgrown on MTV. Is it odd I find that this means I’m mature yet at the same time I can’t watch because I want to punch everyone on that network in the face? You say double standard, I say sensible.

CON: American Psycho. Between Bonnar’s terrible performance against Jones and Christian Bale’s pathetic rant on the Terminator set I say they both lose all connection to that name. I am officially changing it to “Mexican Psycho” and awarding the nickname to Miguel Torres.

QUESTION: During the Anthony Johnson vs. Luigi Fioravanti fight you could see a moment after Luigi got hit where you could nearly read his mind. He was dazed from a punch and you could tell he was contemplating responding in one of two ways. (A) Act like it didn’t hurt and throw a couple of strikes back to keep your opponent at bay. (B) Back up a couple of steps and get your head straight but risk your opponent smelling blood and coming in for the kill. So what is the right answer?

PRO: While I’m on that fight props to Anthony Johnson. He’s working hard with some strong people for his talents and he’s very likable and well spoken. It’s nice to see a slugger who can string together some complete sentences. He just seems like someone you could take home to meet your mom. Sorry, took a weird turn there.

PRO: Rogan’s testicle comments. I didn’t fully hear it on first viewing but after a crotch shot in the opening Fight Night bout, Rogan asked why God would put the testicles right there in front for hitting. Why not at the sides? While Goldberg nervously laughed and tried to change the subject to avoid embarrassment I was actually thinking that was a great question. Is that meant to be our weakness like that Star Trek movie character that had them on his chin? Why aren’t they internal like the kidneys? Can the boys not swim that far? I think I missed the rest of the first round and I might need medication.

PRO: Tapout on the Tapout? Has anyone ever tapped out on the actual Tapout slogan in the cage? I just thought that could be a fun bonus to shoot for like everyone in the stadium getting a free taco if Albert Pujols smacks the Taco Bell sign in deep left-center field. I’m about entertainment and the fans here. If the UFC would like more ideas they can contact me. I work cheap, just ask Caplan.

CON: Change. President Obama promised change yet he comes out for his first speech on primetime television and interrupts our programming. The change I can believe in is your speech beginning at 7pm and upsetting all of the old people that are watching Wheel of Fortune. I don’t ask for much but Monday at 8pm…. House please. You may be against “torture” and “unnecessary wars” and “partisan politics” but sir you are deeply underestimating the American people if you don’t think making them miss House is even worse.

Seriously. And if you’re completely bored feel free to follow me on Twitter. I’m not really interesting but every few days I manage to surprise even myself.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. While I’m not all that interesting you should follow me on Twitter. I have no MySpace or Facebook but on Twitter I give updates on when I’m playing pool and when Caleb Newby and I are discussing inappropriate things on AIM. It’s a can’t miss. And by can’t miss I mean miss. Really you shouldn’t waste your time but if you’re already on Twitter what can it hurt?

Joining me this week are two newcomers to 5 Oz. We have contributors Mr. Cory Brady and Mr. Christopher Dolan. I thank them for joining me and off we Duel:

1. Georges St. Pierre is your number one pound-for-pound fighter.

Brady: FALSE. Determining a pound for pound best fighter has always been the type of subject that is up to tremendous speculation. There are about three or four guys out there that truly deserve mention when speaking of “the” best pound for pound fighter. My longtime personal choice, Fedor, Dana White and a whole lot of other people’s choice, Anderson Silva, followed by the two men that squared off this past Saturday, Penn and St. Pierre. Personally I still have B.J. above St. Pierre in my own personal pound for pound rankings. When discussing the pound for pound best fighter in the business you just have to throw weight right out the window and assume that the two men would meet at fictionally identical weight and determine which fighters skill set is greater than the others. In my opinion, Penn is the best at 155 pounds and St. Pierre is the best at 170 but the better overall fighter is Penn. Fedor is going to have to lose in order for him to fall from grace in my eyes and St. Pierre is a few spots away from number one right now. However, I could see a convincing win over Alves with no Vaseline moving St. Pierre up a notch in the P4P totem pole.

Dolan: FALSE. Prior to this fight I had GSP in the third place on my p4p list. My list is as follows: Fedor, Anderson Silva, GSP, Miguel Angel Torres, B.J. Penn. Now I know that list will be met with a lot of scrutiny but I stand by it. Fedor is hands down the best fighter in the world, although I just gave him the crown following his win over Arlovski. I always had Silva at number one but after looking at his opponents from 2008 I had to drop him one spot. The truth is that Fedor is 1 and Silva is 1A. As for GSP he is creeping up on the other two. Honestly the loss to Matt Serra was the best thing to ever happen to him. Since then he’s looked like a completely different fight, a man on a mission to dominate anyone that comes his way. If he keeps this up he could find himself at 1B by the years end. I know most people won’t agree for me to have Penn at number 5 behind Torres, but I personally think Torres is the most underrated fighter currently out there today.

My Five Cents: I can’t argue with the answer. Anderson Silva and Fedor are the top p4p on the planet. Props to Brady for giving Fedor but negative props for putting BJ over GSP. Come on. Dolan gives a better list (in my personal opinion) but while I love Fedor like a wife loves a husband I can’t give him Sylvia and Arlovski as if they weren’t the two easiest matchups for him in the top 10. I call draw.

2. GSP’s alleged greasing affected the outcome of the fight.

Brady: TRUE. I’m not saying that the outcome would have been different if there had been no vaseline massage but there is absolutely no way to determine that now. The damage has been done in more ways than one. The outcome of the fight was absolutely affected because it put a huge stain on what should have been a definitive victory. There will always be those that question the bouts result from this day forth and there will also be those that will question St. Pierre and his corner’s tactics in the future and more interestingly, the past. The Vaseline was applied between the first and the second rounds, precisely the time when a submission artist like Penn is the most dangerous because his opponent is not sweating as profusely as he would later on in the fight. The Vaseline on St. Pierre’s body undoubtedly made him harder to get ahold of, whether it was in the clinch or on the ground. Anyone that has any experience with something like vaseline knows that it’s not the type of substance that you can just wipe off and it’s gone. It seeps into the skin and combined with sweat could have absolutely affected the outcome of the bout..

Dolan: FALSE. I am going to be in the minority in this one but I don’t think the application of the Vaseline directly affected the outcome of the fight. Yes it will definitely put Penn, a submission specialist, at a huge disadvantage. I don’t think that it directly affected the fight in the sense that I don’t think it ever came into play. Had Penn been more aggressive in the second round and gone for a takedown and had been unsuccessful I would be singing a different tune. Even while GSP was in Penn’s guard I’m not 100% sure how much it affected anything. Penn loves to use the rubber guard and he did use it effectively to shut down GSP at first. Yes, Vaseline stays on the body and seeps into the sink but by the time the third round was underway the amount of sweat and water poured over his body by his corner would have nullified most of its effect. Now I know I could be totally wrong, but it’s just my opinion. I think the greatest damage is that we will always look at this fight and always have questions about it. This should have been the greatest fight in recent history but it will forever be tarnished by the Vaseline. It also hurts GSP going forward. His corner will always been under the microscope. Everything they bring in the cage will be scrutinized and sadly people will go back to old fights and look for evidence of cheating. It might take years for GSP to shake the effects of using the Vaseline vs. Penn.

My Five Cents: I will let everyone judge on their own accord. I’ll just quote Brady: “Anyone that has any experience with something like Vaseline knows that it’s not the type of substance that you can just wipe off….” Ain’t that the truth Brady, ain’t that the truth.

3. Moving to middleweight is a wise move for Wanderlei Silva.

Brady: TRUE. Silva has always been somewhat small for a light heavyweight and found most of his success while competing in Japan against fighters that typically did not cut the kind of weight that UFC fighters normally do. He can find relevance in the middleweight division and hopefully he can reconnect with his savagery he has displayed so many times in the past in the process. Make no mistake, just because Anderson Silva is so dominant as the champion of the division does not mean that Wanderlei will be walking into a weight class with sub par competition. There are plenty of tough fights for The Axe Murderer at middleweight. I feel like Silva will be faster and much stronger at middleweight. Will he lose some of his punching power at 185? Maybe but it won’t be that much. Silva will always have the ability to finish the fight in the blink of an eye. Another possible benefit from dropping weight classes for Silva is the fact that the people that will be punching his face will be twenty pounds lighter than he normally gets punched by so hopefully his chin will hold up better than it has been recently.

Dolan: TRUE. This is the best move Silva could have made to prolong his career and keep him relevant. The UFC’s light heavyweight division has so much depth that Silva would have found himself lost in the shuffle. At 185 he should become a new fighter. It won’t be an easy transition as there is a lot of talent at 185 but Silva will be a major player in the title hunt. His stamina and punching power should greatly improve fighting in the lighter weight class. If everything goes well we could see a potential fight with Anderson Silva by the turn of the new year. That might be a fight that would take place two years too late, but it would still be an incredible draw for the UFC and its fans.

My Five Cents: I have to go Brady here. Excellent point about Japanese fighters not cutting weight, this isn’t discussed enough. That said, I can’t get behind Wandy being lost at 205lbs. He destroyed Jardine as everyone knew he would and Jardine is now fighting Rampage. Wandy would still be a top 5 UFC LHW but when it comes to middleweight how will he fair against the Marquardts and Maias? Well shall see. Just beat up Bisping. Hard.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Lyoto Machida will get the next LHW title shot.

Dolan: FALSE. I personally think he deserves the next shot and I actually thought that after he defeated Tito. Yes I know he has the reputation of being a “boring fighter” but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s one of the best fighters on the planet. Had he delivered a KO to Tito like he did to Thiago Silva then he would face Evans. But Rampage will get the next shot at Evans as long as he gets past Jardine in March. Dana wasn’t lying that Machida will get a shot before the end of the year, just not next.

Brady: FALSE. Machida converted me from a skeptic to a believer in the blink of an eye at UFC 94 and I absolutely believe he should have the next crack at Rashad but I don’t see that happening. If Rampage beats Jardine he’s getting the title shot and I feel pretty sure that Rampage will have the answer for The Dean of Mean. Jardine has a knack for pulling off upsets so I wouldn’t completely count him out and it really would put a smile on my face if Machida got the next title opportunity but the most likely outcome will be that The Dragon will fight the winner of Evans vs. Jackson. Then maybe the winner of Shogun vs. Chuck will get a shot at Machida? Man, LHW is stacked!

My Five Cents: Well played the both of you. After this question was asked Dana White stated that Rampage was next in line, which we all know is crap. Maybe if Lyoto were more entertaining he could lose and then go on a crazy police chase and get a title shot. How about giving Rashad a gimme title fight and having Machida vs. Rampage? That wouldn’t go real well for Rampage and everyone knows it. But he’s the draw so he’ll get the fight.

5. In attendance at UFC 94 and in negotiations, Kid Yamamoto will one day fight for Zuffa.

Dolan: TRUE. I almost can’t picture a scenario in which he doesn’t end up under the Zuffa banner. I don’t think we will ever see him in the UFC but the WEC is a perfect fit for him. The best fighters at featherweight and bantamweight are making their way to the WEC so it only makes sense for him to follow.

Brady: TRUE. I see no way around it for one of the most talented little guys in the business. The WEC is taking over the lighter weight classes and Yamamoto signing with Zuffa is inevitable. It makes sense for him in so many ways. Already a mega star overseas, Yamamoto is easily one of the most talented and least talked about fighters in the business and fighting under the Zuffa banner would give the him the kind of exposure, stateside, that a fighter of his caliber deserves. I expect Yamamoto to flourish in the WEC.

My Five Cents: In a perfect world you’d both be correct. In a decent world you’d both be correct. But you’re talking about a Japanese (wish he was an) Olympic star and he’d be losing a great deal of sponsorships to move from a K-1 type banner to the WEC. He could make much more money fighting WEC loners a couple of times a year than he could actually fighting competition in the US. I hope this is true as we all want Kid vs. Faber but when it comes to a business decision I can’t see this making sense for Yamamoto.

6. Mac Danzig will rebound from his Guida loss and defeat Josh Neer on Saturday.

Dolan: TRUE. Danzig should be able to rebound no problem. Neer has fallen pray to submission attempts in the past and that could play a huge factor in this fight. I don’t think that Danzig will want to have this fight drag on into the third round. Right out of the gate look for him to push the tempo. He will need to be careful though because Neer not only posses the ability to submit Danzig but he can also knock him out. In the end I like Danzig to win this fight with a second round submission.

Brady: TRUE. I just feel Neer is out gunned in this one in too many areas, most notably the ground. Danzig’s submission skills are more polished and technical than Neer’s and that will be the key factor in this fight. I feel like Clay Guida has long been under rated in the lightweight division and his win over Danzig explained more about Guida, to me, than it did about Danzig. Danzig looked amazing in his fight with Mark Bocek who recently looked amazing against Alvin Robinson. Long story short, yeah, Danzig’s taking this one home.

My Five Cents: I’m nowhere near as confident as the both of you. Neer is a seasoned veteran who is ready for anything and everything while Danzig still has more to prove. I’m not entirely sure who I will pick yet but it’s bound to be the most meaningful fight on a ridiculously boring card.

Thank you for joining us for The Duel. Join us next week when two more MMA analysts will battle it out over Fight Night results and the latest rumors in the sport!

Again, if you wish to feel better about yourself feel free to follow me on Twitter. You’ll be more confident within days.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. We’re slightly rushed this week as we needed an emergency backup for the emergency backup and I’d like to thank our editor David Andrest for stepping in on super short notice to fill in. Joining him is the Punch Drunk Gamer himself, Dave Carpinello.

We might have been short on time but it got out! It’s the thought that counts. Again, big thank you to the Davids for stepping up this week.

And we Duel:

1. Dan Henderson won the fight against Rich Franklin.

Carpinello: TRUE. I gave Henderson a 2 to 1 advantage in the fight and I was shocked that Cecil People’s cousin at ringside scored the bout 30-27 for Franklin . Henderson was the aggressor in round 1 and 3 and round 2 could have gone to either fighter but I scored it for Franklin . Henderson was able to control the fight when he got it to the ground whether by takedown or when Franklin slipped on the canvas. I would not call the fight a convincing win for Henderson and nor would I have been shocked if Franklin won the split decision. Perception and heart make up probably 90% of who someone thinks wins a fight.

Andrest: TRUE. When the initial call of 30-27 was announced, I thought for sure the judge at ringside was scoring in favor of Henderson as well. I found myself watching the fight and waiting for Franklin to emerge and take control of the fight. Henderson seemed to do just enough to win this. That may sound harsh, or as if I’m taking something away from Henderson’s performance, but I’ll just call it an unfavorable style match up for both men.

My Five Cents: It was a fight that could go either way but Andrest is correct that it’s an unfavorable style matchup. If they fought again you’d see the same fight.

2. Mark Coleman should retire.

Carpinello: FALSE. I would have serious problems with people calling for Coleman’s retirement considering he has been in this sport longer than most fans have been watching. That being said if he doesn’t get some help with his training camp and conditioning then he may not want to fight again. It is not like he was outclassed by a fighter who is almost 20 years younger. Unless I was watching a different fight, maybe Shogun needs to hang them up if it took him 3 rounds to beat a tired elder statesman who hadn’t fought since 2006. By no means is Coleman a challenger for any title but why not a third fight with Shogun or a match-up of Hall of Famers with Randy Couture?

Andrest: TRUE. Coleman should have retired with dignity a few years ago. I have nothing against him, in fact I’m a fan, but I can not support the idea of a fighter who is clearly outmatched continuing to poorly attempt to compete on an elite level. Thank god for knee injuries, what would this fight have looked like if it were Brock Lesnar across the cage from him? MMA is young and we fortunately don’t have to read about a long heritage of fighters with obvious brain damage from injuries suffered from competition. I fear that if we continue with the Coleman, Shamrock, Sapp fights it’s only a matter of time.

My Five Cents: As I stated last week I’m not sure you can judge Shogun or Coleman on this fight. You could argue Shogun is a shell of his former self and that’s the only reason Coleman looked okay. Or you could argue Shogun is fine and Coleman performed well. While I don’t really want to see it, another fight against a UFC heavyweight could be interesting.

3. Andrei Arlovski is the toughest test for Fedor in four years.

Carpinello: FALSE. His fight against Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic back in 2005 was a great fight by both fighters and probably his toughest fight besides Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and although Arlovski has improved over the recent years; ‘Cro Cop’ circa 2005-2006 would have KO’ed him in the first round. Don’t be so quick to forget that two years ago Fedor beat a very game Matt Lindland in Bodog. Lindland cut him badly and if not for some help from the ropes, Lindland may have been able to secure a takedown and ride out a victory by stoppage. Arlovski has shown great improvement recently and he should put up a much better fight than Tim Sylvia or Hong Man Choi. Unless Fedor is unprepared or Arlovski is able land that brutal right followed up with a Muay Thai clinch; then Fedor should be able to win this fight without it going to a judges’ decision. Setting up a fight that fans have been waiting too long for – The Last Emperor versus The Baby Face Assassin!

Andrest: TRUE. Arlovski is the best athlete Fedor has fought. Many people like to discount Andrei, and prop up names like Cro Cop, to this I like to point out that the cage is much different than the ring. Honestly it is a different sport all together in my opinion. A kick boxer, boxer, or any fighter who would like to implement a strong stand up game benefits greatly by fighting in a ring. With all due respect to Mr.Carpinello, I believe Arlovski’s style benefits greatly from this and a bout with Cro Cop or anyone in the world would look much different depending on fighting surface. I think he is by far the most dangerous opponent Fedor has faced in recent memory.

My Five Cents: I have to go with true as well. I keep getting yelled at when I won’t say Fedor will destroy Arlovski. Fedor is bound to lose at some point though one can easily point to Arlovski’s weak chin, his lack of certain ground game and the fact he’s going to boxing. Unless Arlovski gets an early KO I don’t see this ending well for him.

4. Chuck Liddell will defeat Shogun Rua in April.

Carpinello: TRUE. I don’t believe that 3 months training time for Shogun will be able to improve his conditioning enough to last a 3 round fight with Liddell. It was expected that Shogun would need some time to get his conditioning back and shake off the ring rust but he looked like a totally different fighter against Mark Coleman. Liddell may have had his problems in the cage lately but his gas tank has not been the problem.

Andrest: TRUE. It pains me to say it. I think Rua is the more skilled of the two, but I agree 3 months with his current camp isn’t going to change anything. This is the second fight in a row where Rua was scheduled for three rounds and showed with three quarters of a round worth of cardio. It’s embarrassing, and painful to watch.

My Five Cents: Liddell has to be the favorite here. Some point to Liddell getting caught at times but the all-knowing Jordan Breen recently pointed out to me that even though he gets huge credit for his standup, Shogun doesn’t exactly have great one punch KO power. Probably not even enough to shake Liddell.

5. Babalu Sobral will submit Sokoudjou.

Carpinello: TRUE. Sokoudjou is an exciting fighter with a lot of upside potential but after shocking Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira opponents have caught on to his style. Babalu is veteran of many ring and cage wars and will use that experience to control this fight and eventually get it to the ground. Where Sokoudjou has shown he has little skill and Babalu will submit him in Round 2.

Andrest: TRUE. Sokoudjou just doesn’t have the skill on the ground to hang with Sobral. Unless Sokoudjou catches him early, this fight will go to the ground and the end is inevitable.

My Five Cents: I can’t argue but Sobral is more of the Arona/Nogueira mold than he is the men that have defeated Sokoudjou. If it happens a third time I think that’s going to be a skill set you just can’t argue with him beating.

6. The “PRIDE curse” is real.

Carpinello: FALSE. Dan Henderson just beat Rich Franklin, Quinton Jackson was the UFC LHW Champion and Anderson Silva had 5 fights in PRIDE before making his way to the UFC and dominating every opponent he has faced. “Minotauro” Nogueira came to the UFC and won the interim HW Title by defeating then UFC step-poster child Tim Sylvia. The whole PRIDE vs UFC debate should be closed. They are all professional fighters and some are going to be successful in the UFC like those listed above. Others will not be so fortunate such as Mirko “Cro-Cop”, Heath Herring and Wanderlei Silva. If the circumstances had been reversed and PRIDE bought the UFC a few years back, then you would probably see similar results with the UFC stars competiting in Japan on a regular basis.

Andrest: FALSE. There is no PRIDE curse. There are a number of different factors that have gone into the success or lack of success of fighters that have entered the UFC via the acquisition of Pride. I have already rambled on about Ring vs. Cage. Rule differences have played a big part. And then of course some guys just were not as good as they appeared against talent that may have been mediocre to begin with. I’d also make a case that MMA is evolving at such a rapid pace that it’s a safe bet that what worked in 2008 will not be enough to be competitive in 2010. The biggest difference in the last three years that I’ve noticed is conditioning. If you can’t go 15 minutes, you will not be successful. This has not always been the case. What is staggering is the number of fights in the last two years where the more skilled fighter has lost due to lack of preparation.

My Five Cents: I just like asking things like this as if I’m a Sherdog message board poster because some people fume. Of course it’s rule differences and a different environment, not to mention the success of many while shockingly the Nakamuras of the world didn’t catch the UFC by storm….

Again, big thank you to Dave Carpinello and David Andrest for stepping up late. We’ll be back next week to talk Affliction results and preview GSP and BJ Penn II.

And welcome back to another edition of the Duel. This week we’re sticking mostly to Saturday’s UFC 93 from the UK. Joining me this week from Sherdog is the always self-assured Jordan Breen. His opponent, the only man who can match Breen point-for-point…. couldn’t make it so instead we have Caleb Newby, a 5 Oz. contributor.

Let us Duel:

1. Rich Franklin is more likely to be knocked out than Dan Henderson at this Saturday’s UFC 93 main event.

Breen: Chintastically TRUE. No matter who you’re picking in the bout, this should be non-negotiable. Franklin isn’t a massive homerun hitter, and even his more spectacular finishes like Quarry and Hamill have been based on a prior concentration of asskicking. Flush Anderson Silva power shots could only make Henderson go wobbly and into retreat mode. Meanwhile, Franklin has always been susceptible to flash knockdowns from lesser hitters, like Tanner and Loiseau, and has been knocked out in all his losses. If one man gets arranged in a fleshy heap, it will be Franklin.

Newby: TRUE. I don’t see this as being much of an argument. I’m leaning Franklin to win this via decision, but for a legitimate knock out (not a referee stoppage) it’s easily more likely Franklin that will go to sleep. Rich has been knocked loopy twice by Anderson Silva and his only other registered loss is via TKO to another top ten pound for pounder in Lyoto Machida. Meanwhile, Hendo has never been knocked out or even defeated by technical knockout, although Silva was close to being the first before he went for the submission instead. Henderson is another MMA fighter with a legendary chin and there is no reason to think he’s lost it. Yes, yes, I know. Hunt and Nog were thought impervious to being put to sleep too. Problem with that argument is these things are mutually exclusive and have no bearing on each other. Side note: I don’t think any serious MMA analyst or fan who calls a fighter “impossible to knock out” means it in the strictest literal sense as much as they do to emphasize a point. Anyway, while Franklin is a very talented striker that can finish people, it is safer to bet in Henderson’s powerful left and right hands to bring the bout to a close if you want a UFC 92 Wanderlei-esque result.

My Five Cents: If you guys agree alot I was going to disagree for fun but I can’t even bring myself to do it here. Big ups to Newby for calling writers “analysts” instead of “experts.” Just because one can analyze things well does not make them correct. I mean you write here.

2. Either man will win another UFC belt at some point in their careers.

Breen: Stylistically FALSE. Whether it’s at 185 or at 205, if you look at the fighters who will be likely champions in the near future, neither Franklin or Henderson would be well-equipped to take the crown. Anderson Silva controls the middleweight title as long as he wants; Franklin obviously can have no say in the matter, and in a 25-minute fight which all-but-excludes the possibility of simply pinning him down to a decision, Henderson would fare no better in a rematch. By the time either fighter earns a 205-pound title shot, the champion will either be Quinton Jackson or Lyoto Machida. For Franklin, a Machida rematch would go virtually the same because of his average-at-best chin, inability to take sustained damage, and a looping striking style that is difficult for most fighters but easy counter-fodder for Machida. Against Rampage, Jackson’s cleaner counterpunching and the disparity in one-punch power would be too much for Franklin. For Henderson, a Rampage rematch would likely unfold in similar fashion with Rampage being the sharper puncher and better equipped for the five-round haul. Against Machida, Henderson’s telegraphed punching would be make him uneventful target practice.

Newby: TRUE. I’ll fess up, I nearly said false. It’s hard to imagine either dethroning Anderson Silva at 185 while 205 is so incredibly stacked that it is nothing short of a long and difficult road. Getting past Rampage, Forrest, Rashad, Lyoto, Liddell… it’s not going to be easy. That being said, both are names and have the advantage of not having to take a couple extra fights to build recognition, particularly Franklin. What put this over the top as a true statement for me though is Silva’s stated desire to retire sooner than later. If that holds up, 185 is going to be wide open again sooner than later. And let’s not forget that before Silva took over the division Franklin was widely considered the best in the division with Henderson not far behind. If Silva was going to be around another 3-5 years this would be a solid false. As that’s not the case, I’ll take my chances with one of them breaking through at light-heavyweight until middleweight opens up again.

My Five Cents: On one hand you must admire how someone like Breen just ignores Rashad Evans completely from his argument out of certainty. On the other hand I was also going to add Newby’s point that Franklin wouldn’t need to win more than a fight or two to get a title shot due to his name value.

3. Rousimar Palhares will become the third straight man to submit Jeremy Horn in the Octagon.

Breen: Unenthusiastically TRUE. Horn has been going through the motions for about three years now, and it’s unfortunate to see that lack of zest in a former elite competitor. In contrast to the zealless fashion he fights now, Toquinho comes out like a bomb and will look to loop punches and slam Horn with haste. Despite all his great offensive grappling, Horn’s ground game has always had defensive liabilities, and against a guy like Toquinho who can work a smash game or a finesse game, and has submission versatility, equally adroit at finishing from the back or with leglocks, Horn will likely be tapped for the fourth time in five fights.

Newby: TRUE. Does Horn even care anymore? I’m not ragging on the guy. He’s put in his time and more than earned the right to do whatever he wants. I wonder if there is even any adrenaline going after having over 100 professional career fights. Does he fight back yawns on his walk to the cage? These are the things I want to know. As for Palhares, he’s is a jiu-jitsu wiz and looking to prove himself. He fell short against Dan Henderson due to Henderson’s superior wrestling. That won’t be a problem for Palhares this time. For the sake of consistancy, we can root that Palhares wins via guillotine. Still, after this fight Palhares will be moving up the middleweight ranks while Horn is sent back to the smaller shows after his third straight UFC loss.

My Five Cents: How can you say he doesn’t care then say he’s going to smaller shows with a loss? And Breen more than sured up any hesitancy I might have had.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Mark Coleman’s claim that months to prepare for an opponent will lead to a better Coleman in the cage.

Newby: TRUE. Although I am not prepared to qualify it by how much better. PRIDE had a well known track record of last minute fight announcements and bout changes. It goes without saying that a full, proper training camp will produce a better fighter than a one with a few weeks to get into shape. That’s to speak nothing about Coleman’s mindset going into this fight. From what I’ve read he knows this may be his last shot and is taking his training seriously. At least he’s not fighting Fedor, he gets a potentially rusting Shogun Rua. Not to say Coleman will win, but if he does, what I wouldn’t give to have Wanderlei jump the cage and bumrush him.

Breen: TRUE. A guy like Coleman, who is up there in age and has a several life pursuits outside of the cage, is obviously going to be helped along by a greater window of time to prepare at his own pace rather than attempting to pull all his training partners to Ohio for a six-week blitz of a training camp. However, I think that a “better” Coleman in the cage is actually going to be the product of people’s assumption he’s “old” and spent, using a pair of fights against Fedor Emelianenko and his stylistic mauling against Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic as evidence. Those bouts aren’t exactly the best fights to make deep analysis as to how “past it” a fighter is, only what awaits Coleman when he faces the best heavyweight in the world or an overwhelmingly better striker who he can’t set-up double legs against.

My Five Cents: This one is going to be nearly impossible to be right about or proven. Even if he does well one can easily argue Shogun isn’t Shogun for whatever odd reason you want. Plus I really don’t think a long training camp for someone like Coleman is necessarily a good thing. We’ve seen he and Randleman talk a big game and fail miserably before. The real question is if Coleman will let Shogun pet his daughters’ heads if he loses the fight.

5. Marcus Davis will win his gatekeeping test against Chris Lytle.

Newby: TRUE. Battle of the scar tissue. This is setting up to be a slugfest that the fans will enjoy. Lytle is tough as nails and near impossible to stop, making this a difficult fight to call. I’m going on the presumption that the near entirety of the bout will be a stand up affair. Davis is the more affluent striker and should prove as much here in a tough decision victory. Against someone with less grit and determination than Lytle I’d go with a stoppage, but Lytle is Lytle and unlikely to go down. That being said, this has to be the leading candidate for fight of the night. Let’s hope a cut doesn’t spoil it.

Breen: Heavy-handedly TRUE. Despite solid technical boxing skills, Chris Lytle has shown historically (Robbie Lawler) and recently (Paul Taylor) that he’s willing to abandon fundamentals for fire-fighting. While his chin and toughness are enough to carry him through those sort of fights, given how badly Taylor was able to mark up Lytle and arguably win their bout, the much heavier handed Davis will be able to do greater damage with his hands when he forces the issue against Lytle. Furthermore, despite his boxing acumen, Lytle carries his left hand low, and often drops it while kicking or throwing right hooks. A cue like that may mean showtime for the southpaw Davis.

My Five Cents: I won’t argue with the logic from either of you, as you’re right Lytle will bang. But I love Chris Lytle so both of you can shut up. I’m an adult.

6. Gina Carano will never fight in the UFC.

Newby: TRUE. There are too many obstacles in the way to make this more than an outside shot. Gina’s contract status with EliteXC and that debacle being the first among them. While the legal dispute there cannot go on indefinitely, there are too many other variables. Dana White has changed his tune on women’s MMA, or Carano in particular, and has said he’d give it a go… in the WEC. Then there is the chance she’d sign with Strikeforce instead for the freedom it would allow her as opposed to the typical Zuffa contract. I can’t imagine Carano willingly giving up lifetime rights to her likeness in video games and allowing Zuffa to sell promotional items with her face on it unless the pot was substantially sweetened. Add to that we don’t know how long she’s going to stick around in this business with the ever present lure of Hollywood’s siren call. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 4 anyone?

Breen: Logistically TRUE. There are heavy structural considerations for the UFC all the time. There is a reason they run five divisions and the WEC’s featherweight and bantamweight divisions, which would richly benefit from the UFC veneer, are left where they are. There is a reason why right now, managers are complaining that Zuffa aren’t signing new UFC fighters until approximately April, and why many “loser leaves town” fights have been put together for the coming weeks and months. There’s always heavy logistical considerations for running the promotion, and taking on Carano would mean, at bare minimum, they’d need to put a division around her by signing talent and hosting a regular amount of fights which would promotionally rob Peter to pay Paul in a grand way. By the time Zuffa had a capacity to install more divisions, or women’s divisions, into their product, it’s far from certainty Carano would still be active in the game given her extracurricular demand.

My Five Cents: Good point on having to sign a full division. That won’t happen.

And that has been your Duel for this week. I’d like to thank Jordan Breen and Caleb Newby for competing. Join us next week when two other MMA writers will battle it out in The Duel!

Former UFC heavyweight title competitor Jeff Monson has been charged with first degree malicious mischief in Washington for allegedly spray painting an anarchy symbol on the state capitol building. The action was caught on photograph in an article from ESPN the Magazine.

The report comes courtesy of the The Olympian newspaper.

First degree malicious mischief is a Class B felony with a maximum sentence of up to ten years in prison. The graffiti on the side of the building is said to have cost more than $19,000 to remove.

Currently out of state, Monson was contacted by the paper and said while he would be in contact with police he is unsure of his next step. He stated the graffiti was an act of protest against the war in Iraq and economic disparities between the rich and poor.

Monson last competed in the UFC with a late 2006 loss to then UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Since leaving the organization, Monson has a 5-2 record outside of the Octagon with his most recent fight being a decision win over Ricco Rodriguez in December.

This Pros and Cons was supposed to be a summation of UFC 92 and K-1 Dynamite!! but I can’t find my notes for UFC 92 so you’re going to have to enjoy a dose of K-1 mixed with a couple of papers I found from months ago that I will try and make relevant now. CON: Cro Cop’s testicles. Nope, that one won’t work. PRO: My future wife at the liquor store. I don’t even know what that means. CON: Pop Tart covers.

I think you see my problem with these articles.

PRO: Cartoon fights. I am for this. When Sapp vs. Kinniku Mantaro was announced I couldn’t help but think of the possibilities. After the fight I began matchmaking. What about Giant Silva vs. Fred from Scooby Doo? Charlie Brown vs. Zulu? What about the Powerpuff Girls against Gina Carano, Felice Herrig and Michelle Waterson? You’d buy a pay-per-view of that and don’t you lie.

PRO: Chatbox. Scrolling a chatbox, as I do street corners for hookers, I saw, “breuer:I train my dogs jui jitsu, lol, and they get down pretty well.” Oh breuer, your brand of comedy will never get old…. I bet he knows a strong red lipstick lock. I’ll leave that joke for you to get.

CON: Yellow cards. I used to be a fan of yellow cards when I wanted action in my fights from Japan. Now I feel the entire idea is stale. While watching I came up with a new system I think you’ll like. The ref will pull out an orange and green card called the “Oompa Loompa Stick” as the crowd goes, “ohhhhhhhhh!” Then a midget will hop into the ring and kick both fighters in the testicles for stalling. The crowd will laugh as the fighters fall to their knees and everyone will have a merry time. You’re welcome.

CON: Sapp’s mentality and ground game. Honestly. I picked a cartoon character over Bob Sapp simply because he didn’t care any longer. How can you have that many fights and still gas out and have no ground game after 90 seconds? This is a man that used to care but after the Fujita fight he just enjoyed throwing haymakers and then quitting if the fight wasn’t over yet. I hate stepping into the head of an athlete but Sapp kills me over and over again. He doesn’t care enough for a fight against Nortje but he’s completely prepared for an amateur wrestler in a cartoon mask? Maybe he should stick to that Pros and Joes show on Spike instead of Pros and Cons.

PRO: Adjustment. I would like to make a DVD called, “MMA: Adjustment!” It will be a DVD filled with fighters changing their attire only to get absolutely destroyed by a strike from their opponent. It will include fights like Wanderlei Silva vs. Nakamura and now Bob Sapp vs. Tanaka. How great was it when Tanaka got punched in the face and had to adjust his mask only to eat another punch that sent him out? It was beautiful, really.

CON: EXC’s People.

This is only one of many. Perhaps the reason the company folded was how pathetic the people in charge happened to be. Now you’re seeing this picture and thinking, “haha, TBD!” Well it just so happens that 0:41 of Rd1 was the exact time it took for Bubba McDaniel to defeat Hose. Yet it says Hose beat TBD in the same amount of time. This is only one of many I decided to save. Well run company gentlemen, you should be proud of yourselves.  They had names wrong, weights wrong and a lack of fighter profiles.  I can’t get a job I want but this guy is probably on at Microsoft right now.

PRO: David Blaine. Nothing of importance, I just like David Blaine. Screw you for hating magic.

CON: Phone cords. Have you looked at your phone cord lately? Is it still the tangled, silly nonsense that it has always been? Have they not come up with a better design for the phone cord? Should I be mocked for this? Yes, but it’s still true. “We can put a man on the moon” but we can’t make a straight phone cord.  Ladies and gentlemen, Jerry Seinfeld.

PRO: Okami/Lister. Thank you for the most obvious result in the history of the sport.

PRO: Mir/Lesnar II. Every single person on the planet thought Nogueira would destroy Mir, probably to a decision result. While this fight isn’t exactly for #1 in the world, it is a test of your MMA judgment. Sorry Dana, it’s true no matter what you say to the internet folk that they are the only people that will read your opinions anyway. Mir absolutely destroyed Lesnar in their first fight and little has really changed since then. Lesnar can probably defend better and land better shots to the face while Mir probably wants it even more and has his submission skills at an all-time high. Who do you have? This fight should be the top early 2009 expert pick. You pick this correctly and you coast for the rest of the year. If you’re wrong you should have to work your way back up. I’m 0-3 on Lesnar UFC fights so I’ll consider myself an idiot. Can you 50/50 this better than I?

PRO: Jordan Breen.  He told me he’d touch my penis lovingly on AIM.  He and his hair need to be stopped.

CON: Fighter of the Year.  We here at 5 Oz. are going back and forth with one another about who should be named Fighter of the Year.  Anderson Silva, Rashad Evans, Brock Lesnar, Miguel Torres, Shinya Aoki…. the list goes on and on.  This has been a long debate involving me getting Andrest out of prison for assault and Caplan to settle a lawsuit for battery.  You can be sure that when the announcement is made that much effort has been put into the verdict.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. We’re moving earlier in the week with the article as most of you have probably already been drinking by Friday afternoon. Bums. I’d also like to announce a big shift in The Duel history…. if you go to Google and type “fiveou” what do you know “fiveouncesofpain The Duel” comes up as a choice. It’s a big day. You enjoy your “promotion” and “engagement” while I enjoy my slice of small, sad success.

Anyway, joining me this week is friend of the Duel (FotD) nokaut.com’s own Randy Harrison. Battling him will be the always dangerous Me. Let us Duel:

1. Frank Mir will again beat Brock Lesnar when they fight to unify the titles.

Harrison: FALSE. I doubted Lesnar when he fought Heath Herring. I doubted him again when he fought Randy Couture even though I eventually picked him to win. I’m not going to doubt him again despite the former loss to Mir. Mir looked better in the fight against Nogueira than he has even before the motorcycle accident, but he hasn’t grown by leaps and bounds since the first fight, which Lesnar almost won. When you add to Lesnar’s near-victory the fact that he now has wins over Herring and Couture in dominating fashion and that he’s still getting better and better with every fight, it could be a very difficult fight for Mir to be able to win the second time around. I will give Mir all the credit in the world for stopping Nogueira, but I just think that Lesnar is going to be too strong for him and too well-prepared to defend submissions. It won’t look like the Donkey Kong-style beating that Lesnar gave Mir the first time around, but Lesnar will take Mir down and pound him out, either to a finish or a decision win.

Huckaby: TRUE. Allow me to give you some full disclosure first. I pride myself on predicting fights, as I’m rather good at it, and these were my predictions for Lesnar’s first three UFC fights. Lesnar > Mir. Herring > Lesnar. Couture > Lesnar. As you can see I’m slightly off on those picks but I will not hide them. I have no idea what Brock Lesnar is doing and frankly with each fight of his I feel I know less about the sport. First I feel he can bang out the motorcycle accident victim who doesn’t keep in shape. Then I figure he’ll lose to the savvy vet eventually. Then the old man will overcome the odds and get the underdog win. I know nothing. With that said you have my poor pick that Frank Mir will again pick Lesnar off because he doesn’t want to be another guy that loses to him due to his arrogance.

2. Rashad Evans will hold the LHW Title through the 2009 calendar year.

Harrison: FALSE. I say false again because of how turbulent the light-heavyweight division has been for the UFC this year. The light-heavyweight division is the deepest division in the UFC outside of the welterweight division and if some of the top fighters can put together strings of quality performances there will be no shortage of challengers for Evans to have to deal with. We’ve already seen four champions in the past eighteen months and the belt has been dropped by the champion in nearly every defense since UFC 71. Now I’m not one that follows along with trends in MMA as we’ve seen that they can change on a moments notice, but in this case I think that the trend is very likely to continue, especially if Rampage gets the first title shot against Evans as has been rumored. Rampage can do everything that Evans does only better, and if the two were to meet in 2009 I’d expect Rampage to come out on top and regain his championship.

Huckaby: FALSE. Damn, I wanted to say true but Harrison’s amazing arguing skills have changed my mind. This statement basically is saying Rashad Evans will go 2-0 in 2009, considering he fought on the last show of 2008 and won’t go again until late spring or summer. What is killing me is the simple fact he did handily take out Liddell and Griffin. Though I can explain this away by saying their chins have been suspect in previous bouts while future matches with the likes of Lyoto Machida and Rampage would not give Evans the same luxury. So there you go, I agree. I wish Rashad the best but it’s simply the challengers currently in front of him that make it difficult for him to go 2-0 in 2009.

3. Dana White is correct when saying the beatings Nogueira and Wanderlei took in Japan have shortened their careers.

Harrison: TRUE. I don’t think that it’s the only reason that both men have fallen on hard times in their careers, but I do firmly believe that it has played a big factor in their recent struggles. PRIDE was famous for scheduling fighters on short notice and making their fighters compete numerous times in a year, no matter how violent the loss in their previous fight was. That’s not even counting when fighters like Silva and Nogueira would have to fight twice a night in Grand Prix final shows. When you also consider that these two were fighting dangerous men like Fedor, Cro Cop and Dan Henderson amongst others, Nogueira and Silva have both likely seen their careers mortgaged slightly by their time in Japan.

Huckaby: FALSE. Maybe to a small point but Dana is only explaining away losses and his signings. He won’t explain away any future Fedor loss by blaming it on Japan. He’s a hype man, much like Flavor Flav, but without the stench and with the lack of moral integrity. Nogueira has lost one match and that is even with White’s excuse that Nog was overcoming a Staph infection. He said it, not me. Shogun lost to a world champ in Forrest. Nog, along with Rampage, would have to be the poster boy of how PRIDE guys have done well in the UFC. Oh, you mean Gono and Chonan aren’t world champs? I’m shocked. Let’s throw Ed Herman in DREAM and see how he does. Dana is just explaining away as he always does and fanboys will defend him and haters will discredit his nonsense. Nog getting pounded in the face did not destroy his career. He lost one fight…. should he lose to Dan Evensen in his next fight I will listen.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Satoshi Ishii would be making the right move in beginning his career in the UFC.

Huckaby: FALSE. Your first MMA fight is not to be trifled with. Anyone that saw Ishii speak knows he’s not exactly the cockiest man you’ll ever meet. In Japan he could beat down a few guys, let us say a Nishijima, before going to the big dogs. In the UFC, Brock Lesnar (now a champion) gets thrown to Frank Mir. Even in Japan, guys get thrown to big boys. They would have taken care of Ishii in Japan and I guarantee you, should he sign, they’ll take care of Ishii in the states. Ishii is the UFC’s new leveraging tool to Japan. They’ll feed him opponents they think he can beat but will he beat them all? I doubt it. This is what happens when you let Seth Petruzelli fight Kimbo. This ain’t WWE.

Harrison: FALSE. Ishii is a judo gold medalist and we’ve seen from fighters like Karo Parisyan how well judo can transfer over into MMA, but we’ve also seen the flipside where fighters like Hidehiko Yoshida can flounder. If Ishii begins his career in Japan, it’s likely that he’d be able to fight a couple of cans to get himself adjusted to the differences between MMA and judo before making any huge leaps in competition. If he jumps right into the fire of fighting in the UFC in his first fight, he could be making a huge mistake as there are no easy wins to be had inside the Octagon. If he starts out in the UFC and drops his first fight or even his first two fights, it could be incredibly damaging to his career as he would be a flop in the United States and way less marketable in his home country. If he’s smart he’ll find a home in a place like Sengoku, rack up a couple of wins against some lower-level fighters and then consider making a jump to the big time.

5. Shinya Aoki’s jiu-jitsu is better than BJ Penn’s.

Huckaby: TRUE. Oh, I’m sure I’m catching crap for this. Let me state first and foremost that I would easily pick BJ Penn in an MMA fight over Shinya Aoki. Let that be clear and get through the heads of everyone. Aoki is much more aggressive with his jiu-jitsu and Penn seems to do it more for control and use his agility to stop the takedowns of great UFC wrestlers. Again, I’d take BJ Penn for the win but if you’re asking me who has the better BJJ I have to go with Aoki.

Harrison: TRUE. This one was an incredibly difficult question to answer, but I have to go with Aoki just because most of his jiu-jitsu is offensive and results in submissions, while most of BJ’s jiu-jitsu in recent years has been defensive to allow him to gain the advantage on the mat through a sweep or to get the fight back to it’s feet. I’m sure that if he wanted to, BJ would be able to tie 99% of the UFC roster in knots with his jiu-jitsu and rack up submission after submission in impressive and innovative fashion, but he instead uses it to help control fights and get them to where he wants them to be. I also went with Aoki because he’s a lot more reliant on the jiu-jitsu than Penn is. Penn has striking and has shown it on numerous occasions that it is as dangerous or maybe even more dangerous than his jiu-jitsu. Aoki has shown that if he’s unable to gain the advantage by getting the fight to the mat to use his submission skills, he’s a little out of his depth. If they were to fight in an MMA bout, I’d pick Penn to win 100 times out of 100, but in a jiu-jitsu match I’d give Aoki an incredibly slight edge.

6. Takanori Gomi will never again be a top three lightweight.

Huckaby: TRUE. I would ask Breen for his expertise but he isn’t available to me right now so I’ll go out on my sad little own. People in their prime (Gomi is 30) don’t lose two fights like this back-to-back. You’d be really hard pressed to find an example of a normal human being that did so and then came back with force. I won’t pretend to know Gomi’s problem but I do know he’s not BJ Penn and he’s no JZ Cavalcante and he’d be destroyed by both. The sick part is he’d probably match up well with Aoki as he did with Ishida. The sport is all matchups and at this stage in the sport, Gomi doesn’t match well with many of the top lightweights and I don’t see that changing.

Harrison: TRUE. I could be proven wrong by Gomi, and I’d like to think that he will prove me wrong as he’s one of my favorites, but I just can’t see it happening for two reasons. Firstly, Gomi has lost two fights in a row against fighters that he likely would have beaten handily two or three years ago. When you start losing fights that you’re essentially hand-picked to win, no matter how controversial the loss, you’re showing signs of decline. Secondly, even if he is able to put together an impressive winning streak again, fighting in Sengoku means that he will never take on the best fighters in his weight class. BJ Penn, Sean Sherk and the like are all locked up by the UFC, while Eddie Alvarez, Shinya Aoki, Gesias Cavalcante and others are tied to DREAM. Gomi will be left with the scraps, facing guys that are former IFL rejects or guys that are second-tier fighters in Japan. That’s not how you earn a top-three ranking. As much as I could be ripped to pieces over saying it, the legend of Gomi was killed when Nick Diaz choked him out in Las Vegas. Since that loss, he’s never looked the same and I fear may never look the same again.

I’d again like to thank Randy Harrison for joining me. Join us next week, again at our new earlier time, when two other MMA writers will discuss breaking news and the upcoming UFC 93 show of Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson.

Thank you for joining us for a special holiday edition of The Duel. Joining us this week to break down UFC 92 and K-1 NYE is Sherdog’s Jordan Breen. In the other corner we have our friend Dann from MMAjunkie.com. But over in the third corner we have 5 Oz. contributor Mr. Nick Travaglini and to round it out in the forth corner it is yours truly, Michael Huckaby. Double the people, double the fun. Let us Duel:

1. Forrest Griffin will retain his title at UFC 92.

Breen: Probably FALSE. The style match-up favors Rashad Evans, who shines in the stand-up when he is pitted against natural aggressors. Griffin is a go-forward fighter, but despite a good jab and leg kicks, he isn’t a heavy hitter, and when he attempts to throw power combinations, he is liable to be tagged and dropped, just as he was against Jardine and Jackson. In a 25-minute fight, Evans will get more than enough chances to put his mark on the fight with counterpunches.

Junkie: TRUE. However, I don’t think it’ll come easy. I always have reservations when it comes to betting against Team Jackson fighters since they’re always so well-prepared, and Evans is one of the best when it comes to implementing Greg Jackson’s game plans. But I have a whole new appreciation for Griffin after he defeated Quinton Jackson earlier this year. Griffin had a good game plan, great conditioning and stellar focus throughout a heavily promoted and insanely loud main-event fight. That focus is going to be hugely important against Evans, who’s been attacking his opponents at all angles. Just look at Evans’ victory over Chuck Liddell. It was a thing of beauty. He was setting up that knockout punch the whole fight, and the moment Liddell left an opening, he was flat on his back. Still, I think Griffin pulls out the victory in this one, but like I said, it won’t come easy. I fully expect Griffin to be in trouble in at least a few spots. However, I think he has the grit and determination to fend off Evans for a decision victory.

Travaglini: FALSE. This will be a boring point-fest of a fight. That being said, there are just too many physical aspects in Evans’ favor for him to lose this fight. I know, I know, Forrest has heart. Wow. I also heard this crazy rumor we all have them. Not sure if it’s true, too lazy to google it. The point being heart only takes you so far in life. And it sure doesn’t win MMA fights all by itself. Evans is faster, quicker and has technically better striking. The only area I see as a detriment for Evans is in the grappling department, and even that is questionable. It is obvious Evans is the better wrestler, but I have a feeling Griffin’s BJJ is much better than Evans. I don’t believe either of these fighters want this to go to the floor anyway, so the point may be moot. This will be a boring affair where Evans will bob, weave and feint to a unanimous decision.

Huckaby: TRUE. Let’s make it 2-on-2. I really can’t argue with any of the matchup concerns as on paper it certainly looks like Rashad has the advantage. But on Forrest’s end it always looks like he has the disadvantage on paper yet he continues to win. Rashad will probably have more damaging standup and he’s the better wrestler but I just can’t see him leaving with the belt. This is one of those situations where the round number matters. I see Rashad taking the first couple of rounds but with it being a five round fight I think Forrest rallies and takes it late via decision. With wins over Shogun and Rampage it’s hard for me to say Rashad Evans will take the belt from Forrest Griffin.

2. A +250 Vegas odd for Frank Mir against Nogueira is too generous. (note: due to my terrible wording of this sentence the statement was interpreted differently by everyone.)

Breen: Vigourishly FALSE, assuming you mean generous to Mir. Whether it is due to the fact he beat the now-mythological Lesnar in his second bout or the typical mindwarp of a reality series, Mir is being given far too much play in a fight in which his grappling strengths will likely be neutralized. Nogueira will be able to soundly outbox Mir on the feet, and this may be one of the few match-ups where Nogueira is likely the better wrestler, especially from the clinch where Mir does most of his work. On top of that, Mir isn’t exactly known for his staying power, and in a five-round bout against a guy with a history of long and grueling bouts, he’s going to be outlasted.

Junkie: FALSE. It’s not generous enough. Even with Mir at +250, I’d still pile money on Nogueira. Look, I think it’s remarkable what Mir has accomplished since the motorcycle accident in 2004. His entire leg was destroyed and the first person to find him thought he was dead. It takes a very strong person to want to return to MMA after something like that. But nothing I’ve seen during the return or on “The Ultimate Fighter” or have heard from Mir or some of the people around him lead me to believe he’s taking this fight too seriously. I had my reservations about Nogueira after the Heath Herring fight. But Nogueira’s victory over Tim Sylvia took care of my concerns and made me realize he’s still the same dominant guy we saw in PRIDE. At +250, Mir is given approximately a 29 percent chance of winning. At best, I personally give him a 20 to 25 percent chance. My money — and lots of it — is on Nogueira.

Travaglini: TRUE. Mir is a bigger underdog than the line portrays, but this may be because many of the casual fans still don’t know who Big Nog is or what he has accomplished. Personally, other than the obligatory “puncher’s chance”, I don’t see how Mir can win this fight. In any area. Mir’s stand up is atrocious. Mir is a gifted fighter on the floor, but nothing Nog can’t neutralize at the worst. Mir’s cardio is non-existent, I don’t care how many times he says he is re-dedicated to the sport. Twenty-five minutes in a cage with Nogueira is not an option for him. And I am pretty sure Nogueira is a better wrestler than him as well. I have a feeling this line will keep moving and hit around +350 or higher by fight time.

Huckaby: TRUE. Everyone agrees…. in a way. I don’t see how Mir is only at +250 as he really has no chance of winning this outside of a cut or a fluke punch. I can’t argue with a word Breen led with as Nogueira is better at everything and perhaps most importantly he can go 25 minutes while absolutely nothing suggests Mir would be ready for such a fight. Factor in that if it goes longer Nog will no doubt be winning the rounds on top of that endurance question. This is about as interesting as a Nog/Werdum rematch would be as Mir will be completely neutralized at every turn and frankly +500 seems like a better line.

3. Eddie Alvarez will avoid submissions and control Shinya Aoki to a decision victory.

Breen: Methodologically FALSE. Alvarez may very well win, and I even give him a slight edge in the bout, but should he get to the pay window against Aoki, it won’t be by slipping subs and hammerfisting. Alvarez has far too much power, and Aoki’s chin is far too ordinary. If Alvarez starts landing legit leather standing or on the ground, Aoki will get slept.

Junkie: FALSE. (To the second part anyway.) I do think Alvarez avoids the submissions, but I see him ending it via knockout rather than taking the decision victory. A lot of people gave Alvarez a very short shelf life because of his fighting style. However, he’s been one of the best “brawlers” to adapt his game to MMA. He’s still likely to swing for the fences and win a fight via knockout, but he’s made great strides in his submission defense and assuring he doesn’t leave himself in troublesome positions. And while Aoki can end a fight via submission at a drop of a hat, I think he leaves himself in vulnerable positions too often. You saw a perfect example over the summer when Aoki was TKOd by Joachim Hansen at DREAM.5. He spent all the time pulling guard and working for submissions, and all it took was a few well-placed punches from Hansen to earn the knockout. I expect the same when Aoki takes on Alvarez.

Travaglini: FALSE. Alvarez is a talent, don’t get me wrong. And as young as he is, he is only going to continue to get better. But Aoki may be the best submission grappler in the division. Yes, maybe even better than B.J. Penn. When you are done throwing your stones at me, think about it a little harder and then let me know if you still think Penn is better on the floor than Aoki. The bottom line is can Alvarez keep Aoki from taking him down long enough to take his head off. Hansen got it done because he is a much more accomplished and dangerous grappler than Alvarez which gave Aoki something to think about before he went blindly for the takedown. Alvarez will not pose that problem for Aoki. I think in 2 years this fight goes to Alvarez. Right now, it will be a learning experience for him.

Huckaby: FALSE. I’m all over the map here. On one hand I was championing Alvarez for a long time, going so far as to pick him in every round of the lightweight GP earlier this year. On the other hand I can’t believe so many people are jumping on the Alvarez bandwagon and completely dismissing Aoki after one bad fight. Everyone loses, it happens. All of that said I will contradict myself and say all of the style in this fight has to go to Alvarez. Picturing this fight in my head I see him controlling the action wherever he wants it with Aoki scrambling madly for submission attempts. If I have to settle on a final answer I’ll give Aoki the 51% chance of pulling something off in several minutes of action against an aggressive Alvarez.

4. A pick’em fight, the third time will be the charm for Quinton Jackson against Wanderlei Silva.

Breen: Tertiarily TRUE. I picked Jackson in the second fight, and while he got his face split wide, he was in the driver’s seat of his second meeting with Silva through 13 minutes, keeping Silva on the ropes and being able to finish solid takedowns off his punches. Unless there is some wilfully obtuse strategy employed by Jackson and his Wolfslair comrades, he should be able to build on what he did throughout the second affair with his improved boxing, and avoid another highlight reeling at the hands of his personal tormentor.

Junkie: FALSE. (And I really don’t understand this line at all.) This fight may look competitive on paper (even with Jackson’s two previous losses to Silva), but there are some very important real-world issues the oddsmakers seemed to have forgotten. Just five months ago Jackson was in a police chase. Let that sink in: an actual police chase in which he fled from cops, dodged spike strips and allegedly hit other cars before he was apprehended at gunpoint. It’s not exactly a fender-bender we’re talking about. He was also went to a mental-health facility after friends and family were worried about his sanity and well-being. He broke up with a longtime trainer who was also like a best friend, and every indication points to a less-than-amicable split with some very serious allegations about money. And while switching teams has yielded wonderful results for many fighters, Jackson’s was born more out of necessity. He’s obviously cleaning up his life and has a great team with Wolfslair, but that’s a ton of baggage he’s bringing into a fight with an extremely dangerous opponent — one who’s already beaten him twice before in brutal fashion. I still consider Jackson the world’s No. 2 205-pounder, but like the oddsmakers for this event, that ranking requires me to ignore some very relevant real-world concerns. I just think this fight is too much, too soon for Rampage.

Travaglini: FALSE. Silva does the unthinkable and wins three in a row against Rampage. Rampage states he is a better fighter than 4 years ago, and I don’t see it. The guy checked one leg kick in 25 minutes against Griffin. Rampage is what Rampage is, a good wrestler with excellent hands and jaw-dropping power, but no ground game, no kicks and an aversion to knees in the face. Wanderlei has show he still has the power to devastate an opponent, just ask Jardine.  We know his cardio is stellar, and Rampage has been known to get tired in the past. I think a moral win for Rampage is if he takes this to a decision, but either way I think Wanderlei Silva wins this matchup. Again.

Huckaby: TRUE. I think we’re making too much of the police chase as Plaxico Burress can shoot himself in the leg and walk around fine a couple of days later. Who hasn’t been in a high speed police chase? Seriously, name anyone in the world. O.J. Simpson? He has. That’s enough, point proven. Jackson’s control and his use of the cage will make a huge difference against Wanderlei. People make too much out of “early standups” in PRIDE, it’s more the difference between the cage and the ring. If this fight was in a ring again I’d take Wandy but with it being in the cage I think Rampage uses it as well as anyone to control his opponent and get great positioning. Does anyone else see Wanderlei being released if he loses this fight? He’s making too much money to lose the big fights when he still doesn’t have a huge UFC name. Who names, maybe only a year or two after PRIDE closes we’ll have Cro Cop, Wanderlei and Shogun all back fighting in Japan. Rampage by decision.

5. Yushin Okami will get his shot for the Middleweight Title against Anderson Silva in the first half of 2009. (note: sent two days before the Silva/Leites announcement.)

Breen: Unfortunately FALSE. The Zuffa brass don’t see Okami as the number-one-in-waiting now, and his performance against Lister will do little to change that in what should be a stylistically atrocious, but easily won fight for Okami. Okami is at a point where he needs an outstanding win to get his already-deserved shot, and Lister is nigh impossible to look great against, especially for a natural counterfighter like Okami. At best, Silva will fight twice in the first half of ‘09, and between possibilities at 205 pounds, and Zuffa’s fondness for fighters like Thales Leites and Demian Maia, it will be an uphill battle for Okami.

Junkie: FALSE. Please ignore the shameless plug, but MMAjunkie.com recently posted a story in which we learned Silva is expected to fight Thales Leites at an April event in Montreal. Despite subsequent third-party reports saying the fight is signed, it’s not. Regardless, I’m confident the fight will go on, but if it does and Silva wins, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to return before July 1. So, that makes a fight with Yushin Okami unlikely in the first half of 2009. Additionally, even if both Silva and Okami win their next fights, I’m not sure Okami gets the next fight. Silva is serious about wanting challenges at 205 pounds, and if he gets by the 185-pound Leites, I see Silva wanting to fight at 205 pounds — not 185 — in his following fight.

Travaglini: FALSE. Looks like Okami got passed over, as Silva is scheduled to fight Leites at UFC 97. I actually think Okami may lose to Lister, but that is another story. If Okami wins, he may need one more High profile win before Zuffa is sold on that matchup.

Huckaby: FALSE. Okami may lose to Lister? For shame. Looks like Okami is going to get the Parisyan treatment and lose a title shot due to injury that he’ll never be able to get back. They’ll probably make Okami win three fights in a row before they even consider it again and with the up and down world of MMA fights he probably won’t even win all of those. Super entertaining or not, I’ve always liked Okami as he’s one of the very small handful of Japanese fighters to adapt to American fighting styles. He’s a wrestler, he cuts weight and the cage benefits him. That said he apparently isn’t impressing anyone in the front office and it will stop him from getting a fight he deserves.

6. Feeling it is his best chance for victory, Mirko Cro Cop will attempt to take down Hong Man Choi.

Breen: Strategically FALSE. CroCop has never displayed any semblance of a shot, which means he’d have to take Choi down from the clinch, and while I’ll never give ssireum too much dap for its applicability to MMA, Choi happens to be versed at tussling with guys inside. Combine that with his enormous size, and the fact that he says he plans on taking CroCop down himself, and there’s not too much to believe CroCop is going to exploit Choi’s wrestling. CroCop’s best strategic choice is to get inside and land with combinations, while avoiding Choi’s skills from the Thai clinch. If CroCop continously can get inside and land while not taking knees, he takes away Choi’s punching range, and forces him to go backwards, which typically destroys any offense the South Korea’s favorite MMA mutant can muster.

Junkie: TRUE. And honestly, this fight is so beyond pointless that I feel like I’m only encouraging such stupid matchmaking by going into much detail. Anyway, I’m sure Cro Cop saw Fedor Emelianenko beat Choi with an arm-bar, and you’d have to be stupid to stand and trade with a 7-foot kickboxer. Hopefully, Cro Cop can quickly put this circus match behind him and either get completely healthy or start fighting some legitimate competition. He’s far too accomplished of an MMA fighter to end a stellar career with these types of meaningless fights.

Travaglini: FALSE. I got my Christmas laugh, thank you. Choi may fall over on top of Crocop, but there will be no actual attempts for a takedown. This will be Choi standing in the middle of the ring and Crocop running on his treadmill for dear life, landing the occasional strike. The only thing I am looking forward to in this fight is if Crocop can head kick Choi. The best case scenario here is that one of the lands clean and knocks the other out so we are not subjected to 15 minutes of stick and move.

Huckaby: FALSE. I was actually going to go with true but everything Breen says pretty much convinced me. Plus he made a ssireum reference because he’s him. Cro Cop will probably stick and move and he will pull off better combinations. I also want to make a distinction between a fight like this and a fight with Fedor and Choi. Guys like Choi and Bob Sapp can create fundamental problems for even the best fighters. Do not compare people like that to Giant Silva and Zulu. When people were insulting Fedor for taking the Choi fight I was thinking Tim Sylvia vs Choi would be an interesting fight and it certainly would be no cakewalk. I’d like to see Cro Cop take this down and wear him out to prove a point but a stick-and-move approach does seem more likely.

Thank you for joining us this week. Join us next week when two MMA writers will discuss the results of UFC 92 and perhaps some of the year in review in general. Happy holidays and enjoy the shows.

The triumphant return of Pros and Cons is upon us. I’d like to thank Condom Depot for sponsoring this article. You can’t tell from where you’re at but I have a large logo on my behind. Condom Depot: for the man that can’t look a convenience store clerk in the eyes. Or the man who collects fancy foreign condoms like they’re baseball cards.  I wonder if the guy that runs that site actually tells people what he does at cocktail parties.  “Oh me?  I sell condoms on the internet.”

PRO/CON: Brutality. For a terrible card on paper, Fight for the Troops certainly had some brutal finishes. You can almost feel the losing fighters pray that the nearest hospital is more sanitary than Walter Reed. Most of all you have to feel badly for Corey Hill for a fluke injury that happens on rare occasions. Who would have thought sporting the body type of Shaggy from Scooby Doo wasn’t ideal?

CON: Six figure contract. Is this still the same prize as season one? When the company was almost bankrupt and they were unsure about their future? This is the same company where it’s being reported that Couture and Lesnar both got around $2.6 million for their fight and these guys are celebrating a long contract worth $100,000? Don’t get me wrong, it’s better than fighting in a local hotel lobby in front of 35 people but you’d think with years passing they’d bring that prize up just a bit.

PRO: Hughes and Franklin beating on the handicapped. One of the video montages during Fight for the Troops featured former champions Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin visiting amputees and offering to roll with them.  One would expect they’d go light or let them win but what followed was a series of clips showing them submitting people with one arm, no legs or both. Now I expect this out of Matt Hughes but Rich Franklin? For Matt Hughes it was just an average 4pm on the way home from the sweatshop in his Hummer running over puppies.  You know, for Jesus.

CON: Yoshida. I knew this wasn’t going to end well from the very start of the show when Yoshida stated that he knew Koscheck was a “very popular fighter” it became apparent he didn’t watch any tape on him.

CON: Valkyrie. Did anyone else notice that when the voice over talks about Hitler being evil they show what looks to be Hitler burning a bug with a cigarette? Is that really the best way to portray his level of evil? “He burns bugs with cigarettes! MONSTER!” Who came up with the idea to open this film on Christmas? I know on a personal level I’ve always felt the one thing missing between Christmas and New Years was Hitler. They can’t possibly be counting on the Jewish viewing community. Look for the new film about Stalin to open on Easter, I hear the trailer shows him jaywalking.

CON: Anthony Johnson. He threatened to hit Burns in his “double chin” which I believe is called a dimple. For future reference, Rosie O’Donnell has a double chin, Mario Lopez has unforgetable dimples.

PRO: Anthony Johnson. With headkicks like that he can call it whatever he wants.

CON: Quitters that don’t quit. Oscar De La Hoya was just the latest in a trend of combat sport athletes that want to show they have the toughness to hang in there without actually having it. They never want to actually say they’re done but they have that look in their eyes like they want you to know they don’t want to be there. You know De La Hoya had his fingers crossed inside of his gloves. They asked Oscar roughly 80 times if he wanted to quit and he just sat there staring at the ground with an inner monologue that was no doubt cursing his corner for continuously asking.

CON: Commercials. If I see one more Bud Light commercial I’m leaving the house with a weapon and you’ll see me on the news. What was up with the Disney HD commercials early in the show? Multiple times they showed the same commercial featuring Wizards of Waverly Place and Hannah Montana. Was this really the right demographic for that commercial? Are you saying MMA fans are pedophiles? Outside of Jordan Breen that is just absurd.

PRO: Nogueira over Mir. Frank Mir was formerly one of my favorite fighters, namely due to his style and my healthy disdain for Wes Sims. Sometimes as fake as reality television can be it can show you who a real person is and Frank Mir isn’t really someone I want to like any longer. Instead of talking so much he should be coming up with a gameplan to beat Nogueira…. and considering there’s nothing he can do to accomplish that you’d think he’d put all the more time in.

CON: Miguel Torres. He’s a great fighter, I just didn’t appreciate that I was so scared of him after the last WEC show that I spent three days hiding in my bathtub rocking back and forth in the dark. Is it possible someone is more unorthodox and scarier than Nick Diaz? The fact he’s small makes him even scarier; he could be hiding in one of my shoeboxes. I’m going back to the bathroom.

PRO: Photoshoppers. Could someone please photoshop the entire Saunders/Wolff fight and just put a picture of an old woman over the head of Wolff? Perhaps Estelle Getty? That wasn’t a fight, that was a crime.

CON: Technical submission. I will give Al-Hassan all of the credit in the world for fighting that armbar but in the end isn’t that still a submission even if you don’t tap? So you didn’t tap because you didn’t want to get submitted but it still goes down as a submission loss on your record and now you have a messed up arm to go with it? I fail to see how this makes sense.

CON: Wiman’s shorts grab. How did he not lose a point for that? Or two? Or get disqualified? How on Earth does that end with no punishment whatsoever? Luckily karma kicked in and just let Wiman get beaten for several more minutes. Wiman should have kept pushing the envelope to see what he could get away with. I’m surprised he didn’t bite him, shiv him and blow a pro wrestling fireball at his face.

CON: The Heisman Trophy. I’m a massive college football fan and it pains me that this award keeps getting more and more meaningless. This week I was doing a trivia test and I had to name all the Heisman winners I could since 1980 (I got an impressive 27/29). In doing so I noticed 8 of the last 9 winners have been quarterbacks. Not even that but the voters are so lazy they don’t even care to put any thought into it any longer. There is no reason Philip Rivers shouldn’t have won it a few years ago, same for Larry Johnson. But they don’t want to look at how good the player is or how they perform in their biggest games. I suppose if I had a deadline it would be easier just to pick the white quarterback of the #1 team. Who would have thought Rashaan Salaam won it back when it had credibility?

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. I’d love to cover Fight for the Troops but being it was the middle of the week we had already assigned questions. Our two competitors this week are mortal enemies in the form of 5 Oz. senior writer Adam Morgan and 5 Oz. writer, Caleb Newby.  Try to keep it clean.

Let’s Duel:

1. A future champion will arise from this season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Morgan: FALSE. For now. It’s extremely hard to predict that a fighter from this season may win a championship someday. You’re asking me to predict the future and I’m no Nostradamus. Do I think some of the guys have championship potential? Sure. Vinny Magalhaes has some of the best jiu jitsu at light heavyweight that we’ve seen in some time. Phillipe Nover looks to be the complete package. Ryan Bader has a dominant wrestling game and as long as he continues to improve he could be a contender. Same thing with Efrain Escudero. But for me to go so far as to say that one of these guys will one day win a title? That’s pushing it. If you’d have asked me in 2005 if I thought that Forrest Griffin would one day hold the light heavyweight title, I’d have told you that you’re dreaming. It’s impossible to say true or false definitively to this statement. The current season of TUF has potential. Let’s leave it at that.

Newby: TRUE. I’ve stopped watching TUF entirely as of this year and my life is better for it. Unfortunately for Morgan, he has to recap that show, something I don’t envy. As I can’t answer this question accurately, I am going to instead make the switch Killer Bees style to Sherdog’s own Lotfi Sariahmed. Take it away Lotfi! Lotfi Sariahmed: Thank you Caleb. Obviously a champion arising from this season will take a while to come to fruition but you can go one of two ways here. For a relatively new mixed martial artist the hardest part of the game to pick up is the jiu-jitsu….Vinny already has that and its world class. Now mind you his striking stinks but every one of these fighters on this card has some glaring problem. You could also make the argument Phillipe has some title worthy potential if you buy into his striking game and his ground game being good enough. I do not but a case could be made. As for Bader he has some nice wrestling but it’s going to take a while for him to develop. So cases can be made about a lot of guys. I feel best about pinning the future title holder tag on Vinny but there are enough solid guys on this season to where I can say true and feel good about it.

2. The Ultimate Fighter reality show will last more than 12 seasons.

Morgan: TRUE. You bet it will. It’s already through its eighth season and the ninth season is already in the works with Michael Bisping and Rich Franklin or Dan Henderson as the coaches. It’s a show that draws strong enough ratings to stay on television no matter what kind of BS ends up on television. It has hardcore fans interested because of the fights and it draws in casual viewers because of the drama. It’s a great vehicle for people to get involved with the fighters on the show long enough for them to want to see what happens. Twelve seasons is an absolute lock for this awful, awful show. The least they could do would be to mix the show up a little bit, but even without a total shakeup, this thing makes it to twelve seasons with no problems.

Newby: TRUE. You’re right Morgan, except you forgot a major issue. The show has been renewed up to season twelve. That said, yes, The Ultimate Fighter is a terrible show, as evidenced by my quiting it this year. It seems I picked the right time too, with the number of bodily fluids consumed and tantrums witnessed. Still, it’s not going to be taken off the air anytime soon. Spike and the UFC need to keep their relationship strong and this show helps both parties. Neither side is going to pull the plug on this unless it is doing REALLY poorly. Due to the nature of the program, it is about impossible to do plummet down the Nielsens by season twelve. Inevitably, TUF will be renewed for another few seasons past season twelve. With a continual stream of new, young talent ready to get famous and the cheap ratings the show produces along with filler talent for any fight card (Hello Fight for the Troops!), this show isn’t going anywhere. Let’s just pray that it gets a major overhaul along the way. Or they bring BJ Penn back to coach again and screw with Dana. I’d watch that, no question.

3. The loser of Jason MacDonald vs. Wilson Gouveia will find himself unemployed.

Morgan: FALSE. This is Gouveia’s second time at 185 and it’s unlikely that with another loss he’ll be out of the UFC. Yes, he lost to Goran Reljic and has only defeated Ryan Jensen, but Gouveia is an up and comer with a lot of upside. Not to mention that losing to Jason MacDonald is not something to laugh at. MacDonald may not have the best UFC record but he is absolutely a dangerous fighter with a lot of heart and he has put on some very entertaining fights recently. He’s the perfect gatekeeper for 185 lbs. and it’s unlikely that the UFC gets rid of him. He’s the Chris Lytle of the middleweight division. Not to mention the fact that he just recently signed a contract extension. Win or lose, neither of these guys are going anywhere.

Newby: FALSE. Morgan, you’re a dummy. Except not on this point. There is no way Jason MacDonald ends up unemployed. He’s got charisma, wins over talented fighters and is a nice addition to shore up a Canadian UFC event. In fact, both MacDonald and Gouveia have won their last fights. This doesn’t smell of a loser-leaves-the-UFC event. This is more of a winner moving on to get a fight against another quasi-name to open a PPV broadcast while the loser goes to the undercard. Oh, and lest young Morgan forgets, the UFC can end their contracts whenever they want — extension or not. Guess it’s good to be boss. It’s the nature of their previous performances that will keep both around, not their contract status.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. The UFC’s treatment of AKA fighters over licensing rights is ridiculous.

Newby: TRUE. TRUE. TRUE. TRUE. True a thousand times over. For those that don’t know, here’s the short version of the UFC licensing contract. For video games, the UFC gets the fighters likeness for life, with 100% exclusivity, i.e. no other game can contain the fighter’s likeness, even after they quit the UFC for another organization. For every other type of merchandise, the UFC has non-exclusive rights, meaning they can produce as much as they want after the fighter leaves/retires although the fighter can also put out his own merchandise as well. It is absolutely asinine the amount of control the UFC lords over their roster of fighters. The counter argument of “without the UFC, these guys wouldn’t be where they are” holds very little weight as Zuffa is hardly hurting. Take reports that UFC 91 came in with over 1 million buys, and compare that to the payout for the event. It should be obvious that the UFC is doing this to further their monopoly on the sport over the long term by sabotaging current and future organizations from competing with any fighter that’s entered the Octagon. This sort of thing doesn’t fly in any major sports organizations with player’s unions and doesn’t even work in professional wrestling. I hope that more fighters take a stand against this sort of contract and until Zuffa is forced to go to a reasonable licensing agreement.

Morgan: TRUE. As Newbs clearly outlined during his dissertation above, the way the UFC handles its licensing rights with all of its fighters, not just AKA fighters, is absolutely ridiculous. Why can’t these guys sign short term deals? Why does it have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t make any sense and the cutting of Jon Fitch was simply a message to the other fighters in the UFC that they don’t care how good you are, if you don’t play nice and tow the company line then you’re gone. Period. Fitch is a guy who wants to test himself against the best fighters in the world and realizes he can only do that in the UFC. For other guys, like Josh Koscheck, it’s not that cut and dry. We may have seen Josh Koscheck in his last UFC bout this past Wednesday and that’s a shame. The UFC will be losing some good fighters from its roster due to simply being inflexible. It hurts the company’s reputation and it will end up hurting their roster. In the end, what they’re doing is allowing the competition to nab up quality fighters to bolster their roster. The UFC needs to be flexible with these types of things and unfortunately that’s not the way it’s going to go down.

5. Anthony Johnson will avenge the “eye poke fight” and knock out Kevin Burns.

Newby: TRUE. While Burns was more impressive in their previous encounter than I’d anticipated, you can’t ignore the toll the eye pokes took on Johnson. The fight should have been a no contest, but so it goes. This time around, I find it difficult to believe Johnson will lose. He is too athletic, fast and has no lack of motivation going in. With Johnson’s striking and Burns’ affinity for striking, it should end in a KO, and I’m fine with giving it to Johnson. Let’s all hope that Burns’ hand injury has healed by now. No more open punches from that man.

Morgan: FALSE. Knock him out? I doubt that will happen as Burns was hanging tough in the last fight until the 100th eye poke. Will Johnson win? Yes, I believe that he will but I think it’s unlikely that he’ll knock him out. Let’s not forget that the exact same thing could happen this time around with the way Burns punches. He’s broken his hand multiple times and punches really loose with his fingers extended. The first time Johnson gets poked in the eye in this fight, fans will be screaming bloody murder. I figure Johnson endures a couple eye pokes and grinds out a decision victory. Burns is a gamer and I doubt that he gets finished.

6. Gilbert Yvel should be allowed to fight in California.

Newby: FALSE. Yvel shouldn’t be allowed to fight anywhere that has an athletic commission, at least not until he’s proven he regrets his actions and has control of his anger. That being said, I don’t really care personally. This fight is so pointless. Yvel is fighting Josh Barnett who will win this as soon as he decides to take it to the ground. And if Yvel is denied, Barnett just waits longer to fight the winner of Arlovski and Fedor. I’d rather watch Miguel Torres vs. Butterbean.

Morgan: TRUE. Why the hell not? This is the same commission that allowed Vitor Belfort to fight again in the US after fighting overseas following a steroid infraction. And the same commission that allowed Mike Kyle to return to the cage in the same state he was reprimanded in after his vicious attack on fighter Brian Olsen in 2006. Nothing that Yvel has done is more notorious than Kyle’s attack so why not let him fight? He’s going to get tooled by Barnett anyways so no harm, no foul.

And that does it for The Duel. Next week join us when two other MMA writers will discuss breaking news, rumors and some of the newly made matches for these NYE shows.

And welcome back to another edition of The Duel. The Duel hopes Americans enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday and also wishes everyone well in coming out of hiding in your bathroom after watching Miguel Torres. This week I am joined by Sherdog’s Lotfi Sariahmed as we discuss some news, rumors and try to figure out a way to squeeze in that fantastic Fight Night for the Troops show….

LET’S DUEL:

1. Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell will fight a fourth time.

Sariahmed: TRUE. For a few reasons. The UFC loves rematches for one. They always go back to what works and this is obviously a trilogy that worked. Don’t forget the business aspect of this as well. They’re not going to put on a meaningful title fight overseas as they’ve shown so now you turn to a headlining three-round bout. And for the new audience in Germany a fourth bout between Couture and Liddell makes sense from a business perspective. I think it has the potential to make too much money. Now sure from a fight perspective the match makes very little sense…but for the UFC’s first foray into Germany they’re clearly looking to be profitable first then bring in good bouts.

Huckaby: FALSE. I haven’t seen anyone point out that this makes no sense from a US money making point of view if it’s put on in Germany. That completely eliminates that in my mind because I don’t see them putting such a massive fight on tape delay. As for the future we all know they both only have a fight or two left in them so, while plausible, I think they could be used in different ways. Granted, I could easily see this fight happening and perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my end. No two people should fight four times unless the rubber match was a draw. What happens if Couture wins? Couture/Liddell V? Please no.

2. Affliction’s Fedor vs. Arlovski card will be their final show.

Sariahmed: TRUE. It’s really hard for me to believe otherwise. How can this show be successful when it has so many things going against it? UFC 93 (Franklin v. Henderson) is the week before, UFC 94 (GSP v. BJ Penn) is the week after and HBO is putting on a pretty good fight between Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley the same night. For the combat sports fan that’s a lot of money to put down over just a three week span. That’s not even including a Fight Night scheduled for the 7th of February, UFC 95 on the 21st and UFC 96 in March. The next Affliction offering needs the “casual” fan to be interested. The hardcore fan will buy it regardless but the “casual” fan will make it profitable. Affliction is paying fighters more than it can right now and after taking a hit the first show they can’t take a similar hit this time around. But they will…which is why it’s hard for me to see there being a third show.

Huckaby: TRUE. Must you steal all of the good points? This really pains me as unlike EXC they aren’t setting the sport back a decade. Though I even have to go farther than Lotfi by saying the “hardcore fan” probably won’t be buying it either. It just so happens these wonderful “hardcore fans” are the same people that can find ways to skip purchasing events from newer promotions that are putting on fights they’ve always wished to see. It’s classy if nothing else. Though even if/when Affliction folds it is only a matter of time until UFC does have competition. It might be a decade from now but if the sport continues to grow it will eventually happen.

3. Urijah Faber will come back strong and finish Jens Pulver in their January 25th rematch.

Sariahmed: TRUE. We learned two things from the last WEC card. Urijah Faber’s style has long left him open to getting knocked out the way he did against Mike Thomas Brown in the main event. He was in trouble against both Curran and Pulver at different points in those bouts for essentially the same reason he got caught against Brown. So there’s really no doubt in my mind Faber will clean that part of his game up in the Pulver rematch. As for the aforementioned Pulver, we learned at the last WEC card that he’s more than likely on the downside of what has been an illustrious career for him. Now, with only a month’s worth of training at AMC Pankration we could still see an even more improved Pulver by the time WEC 38 comes around. So if you want to hang your hat on something for Pulver come the rematch that’s it. But I think Faber will be an even more improved fighter next time out and Pulver won’t be able to answer Faber’s challenges.

Huckaby: FALSE. He couldn’t finish him in five rounds so I really don’t see him doing it in three. Maybe I’m only disagreeing for disagreement’s sake because I could see that last Faber/Pulver fight being the last true peak of Pulver’s career. A loss after competing that hard must be difficult. I still see Faber winning the rematch but Pulver has too much fight in him and too much invested to just lay down. As for Faber fixing the holes in his game, I have a feeling he knew it was there before and didn’t fix it, I doubt what he probably considers a lucky win by Brown will really change that in him.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. An Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre superfight will actually happen.

Huckaby: TRUE. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking but if they’re willing to make a Penn/GSP rematch you would think that they’d have to be willing to make a “best p4p fighter in the world” fight to market wouldn’t they? Of course this would depend on a couple of variables, namely the one where GSP would have to beat BJ Penn, and while I’m sure he’ll be the favorite he won’t be much of one. People can argue Fedor as p4p all they want (and I do) but the fact is the connotation of the term usually refers to a smaller fighter. A Silva/GSP superfight should happen considering neither one of them really have a top tier competitor left to defeat. Yes, I believe Silva should fight Okami and GSP should fight Alves, but as of this second this superfight is not only beautiful on paper but it actually makes sense.

Sariahmed: TRUE. If for no other reason than it makes sense on paper like Huckaby said…Silva won’t have more than two meaningful middleweight title fights in 2009. If he fights only twice I won’t be the only one who’ll be a sad panda. Of course there are fights at light-heavyweight for him as well but there isn’t a fight at light-heavyweight (that can be reasonably made) that would be bigger than GSP v. Silva. They’re not giving Silva a LHW Title shot. So as long as GSP gets by Penn and Alves I don’t see why this couldn’t happen…maybe even this time next year.

5. Tim Sylvia’s next fight will take place in Japan.

Huckaby: TRUE. I’m not sure where else it would be. I loved his comment about not being sure until a week before the card since that’s how the Japanese do it. We’ve always known how difficult it must be to take a fight on a one week notice but imagine how difficult it must be after years and years of having a few months notice. Then again maybe fighters in Japan find it strange having so long to prepare and they get anxiety attacks. Humor me. Tim is a big, freaky guy and they dig that…. but unlike the others he can actually fight. I guess the main question is whether or not K-1 or Sengoku can meet his pay demands, which I’m sure won’t have dropped all that much.

Sariahmed: TRUE. Where else is he going to fight? The UFC won’t have him back after he just got killed by Fedor in 3 seconds. I mean he could fight in Adrenaline MMA but I would think he’d need one more loss overseas before he becomes completely unwatchable. Here’s a question where it’s really true by default more than anything else.

6. Josh Koscheck will be able to finish Yoshiyuki Yoshida at Fight Night for the Troops.

Huckaby: FALSE. Main event, eh? I’d love to see Yoshida do well here but I’m afraid Koscheck is just a different kind of beast. I give props to Koscheck for taking this fight, though you know he wants to get that last loss out of his mind as quickly as possible. As for the fight, Yoshida has strong striking skills that will just match up perfectly for Koscheck so long as he plays his game, which he will. Koscheck might exchange a bit to start but when he sees his opportunity or takes the first punch on his strong chin I think he’s slamming Yoshida to the ground and controlling him while landing blows. I guess the question is if Yoshida will go out to punches and elbows from his back…. and I’ll say no. We’ll also add in the fact that guys coming off of a loss usually don’t come out running and play their game methodically.

Sariahmed: FALSE. He’s had five finishes in the UFC coming to the following guys: Dustin Hazelett, Jonathan Goulet, Ansar Chalangov, Pete Spratt and Chris Sanford. Yoshida is better than all of them, including Hazelett. Not only do I think Koscheck won’t be able to finish Yoshida but I question whether or not Koscheck will win this bout. Yoshida’s judo is infinitely better than UFC’s former judo “king” Karo Parisyan and even if this fight gets to the ground with Yoshida on bottom, I question Koscheck’s ground and pound. So no, he won’t finish Yoshida…he may not even win.

And that is our Duel. Join us next week when two more MMA writers discuss the upcoming Ultimate Fighter Finale, Fight Night for the Troops results and any new news and rumors in the sport.

It seems like whenever there is a big event, every media creation known to man feels compelled to do a “special edition.” Well, why should UFC 91 and “The Duel” be any different? We’ve decided to sell out and present for you a special “Post-UFC 91 edition of The Duel.”

And in honor of this special occasion, we’re bringing in both David Andrest and Sam Caplan. Actually, we didn’t bring them in because it was a “special occasion,” they’re doing it this week because they are the only guys we could dig up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Let’s us Duel!

1. Randy Couture won round one

Andrest: False. Randy looked competitive in round 1. I heard the after show and listened to Stephan Bonner explain some theory about Randy being smaller therefore him getting up is worth more than a take down and other nonsense. The simple fact is Lesnar put up a 10-9 performance, based on effective grappling, a comparable stand up game, and obvious “Octagon” control. Randy landed some very good punches, and wasn’t nearly as brutalized as some feared he would be, but not getting beat as bad as the man before you is still getting beat.

Caplan: False. As David said, Couture fought well in round 1 but Lesnar definitely won it in my mind. I would like to add though that I don’t think Couture was trying to win the round. He really seemed to be pacing himself and was picking his spots. Everything from Couture’s perspective seemed like it was being done to build up towards later in the fight. If Couture had wanted to steal the round, he could have.

2. If Couture hadn’t taken that punch in the second round, he beats Brock Lesnar

Andrest: False. Couture takes a longer beating and continues to be controlled by the bigger stronger guy. If people re watch that fight objectively, they can clearly see it was only a matter of time. From the first time they locked up, it was clear it was only a matter of time, and it was just a case of how badly would the smaller man with the similar skill set fall victim. Sure anything could have happened, but it wasn’t going to, and before anyone even puts the thought into the back of their head it was not a lucky punch. He meant to throw it, he meant to land it.

Caplan: True. Just look at the staredown before the fight! Randy was smiling like he knew he had it in the bag while Lesnar appeared a bit nervous to me. Couture had him cut and had him starting to gas. Randy was setting up the win for the fourth and fifth round. Kudos for Lesnar to throw that punch and have the accuracy to land it behind Couture’s ear. But if he didn’t connect and the fight went on a little longer, Randy would have had him right where he wanted him.

3. Last night was the last time we’ll be graced with a fight from Randy Couture.

Andrest: False. I think last night was probably good for Couture on some levels. After the fight he seemed in a good frame of mind, did not sound defeated mentally. There are still some interesting fights for Randy, and it’s not like he embarrassed himself and looked like Ken Shamrock last night. He was just fighting in THE match up that has always given him trouble. There is money to be made with interesting super fights. Who knows, maybe a rematch down the road with Lesnar?

Caplan: True. Good for Couture on some levels? Wow, next thing you know Andrest you’ll throw out the old it was a “moral victory” cliche. Look, Couture didn’t look bad last night. He had a good gameplan and was executing it well. However, last night’s loss hurts his legacy and he didn’t look like the physical marvel that he appeared to be during the Sylvia and Gonzaga fights. Couture is 45 last night and he finally started showing some signs of his age. With super heavyweights like Lesnar, Shane Carwin, and Cain Velasquez coming up, there’s no future for Couture at heavyweight. Light heavyweight could be an option but the UFC is three times as deep at 205 as it was when Randy last competed at that weight. Randy has nothing left to prove to anyone — probably not even himself. Randy is going to go home and think about his future and realize there’s no reason for him to continue fighting.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. As far as current UFC heavyweights are concerned, Brock Lesnar is unbeatable

Caplan: True. Outside of the UFC, I think Fedor beats him and Josh Barnett gives him a lot of problems. Inside of the UFC, I don’t think anyone can touch the guy. I’m a huge Nogueira fan but I believe Lesnar is one fighter who could give Nogueira a beatdown that even he couldn’t come back from. Frank Mir? C’mon. Lesnar smashed him the first time they fought. As long as Lesnar doesn’t slack in his training, he’s going to be UFC heavyweight champ for a long time.

Andrest: False. Lesnar IS beatable. You are talking out of both sides of your face Caplan. It was you who pointed out: “If Lesnar hadn’t have knocked out Couture, Randy would have won” just two short questions ago. The list of coulds is very long. Nogueira, Gonzaga, and as much as I hate to say it Mir. We still don’t have a clear picture of what Carwin brings to a marquee match up as well. So I think it may be a bit early to say Lesnar is unbeatable.

5. Brock Lesnar can beat Fedor Emelianenko

Caplan: False. Lesnar started to gas a little last night. Randy fought cautious and didn’t pressure Lesnar for extended periods of time. Had he done so, Lesnar might have been spent by the end of the first round. If Lesnar and Fedor fought today, Fedor would smash him. Fedor’s standup is better than Randy’s and he’s got a better submission game. I realize Lesnar is still new to MMA, but he’s the same age as Fedor so even if you look three to four years from now, I still believe Fedor will be the better fighter.

Andrest: True. Fedor is better everywhere as Sam pointed out. But again we are dealing in “could” and “what if.” Could he do it? Sure he could. Why not, I can’t imagine it ever happening but Lesnar is a big, strong, fast guy. He could catch Fedor with a big shot, it’s not likely, but I guess it “could” happen.

6. The over/under for UFC 91 buys is 900,000. Do you have the over or under?

Caplan: OVER. I thought the media attention that the event received in the last week was sensational. I don’t care about the state of the economy — if people really want something, they figure out a way to pay for it. And a star studded main event like Lesnar vs. Couture is something that people will make a sacrifice for. I don’t think UFC 91 will hit seven figures, I predict it will come pretty damn close.

Andrest: UNDER. I thought the media attention that the event received in the last week was sensational. But as Dana loves to point out, nobody watches the UFC alone. I think based on only a late push by the media they may have missed out on some bars and establishments that may have purchased the event had it received the media attention sooner. This is a hard side to argue because I think they’ll do around 750,000 buys and I think it is the economy that held them back in the end. Purchasing PPVs is no longer on autopilot.

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. We were off last week as I was deathly ill and spent the better part of a week curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor. Yes, it’s carpeted. Luckily my visit to the local Scientology center removed the thetans and I’m as good as new. Dueling against me this week will be nokaut.com editor Randy Harrison.

Let us Duel:

1. Brock Lesnar represents all of Randy Couture’s weaknesses and will take his HW title.

Harrison: TRUE. I didn’t think that Tim Sylvia or Gabriel Gonzaga had a chance to do it, but I do think that Brock Lesnar will. Couture has shown in the past that he has trouble with bigger heavyweights and Lesnar will be at least 70-80 pounds heavier than Couture is come fight time. As much as Couture had speed on guys like Sylvia and Gonzaga, he’s going to be at a speed disadvantage when it comes to the athletic Lesnar. Couture has an advantage in the stand-up when it comes to dirty boxing, but if they end up in a close enough clinch for Couture to score inside with punches, it’s probably a safe bet that Lesnar will be dumping him onto his head. Lesnar is like the early years of Couture, just with more speed, more athletic ability and about fifty to seventy more pounds. While there’s always the chance that Couture could end up proving me wrong like he has proven countless others wrong before, I think that Lesnar’s athleticism, his size, and his speed are going to play a difference, and that’s even before considering any ring rust Couture has gained on his 45-year old body in his year-long layoff.

Huckaby: FALSE. Make no mistake about it, this is a punishment match for Couture. This fight was made to (a) make a ton of money and (b) get a last biggie out of Couture’s name because the UFC doesn’t think he’ll last his full contract. That said I think Harrison’s first argument makes mine. He didn’t have him beating Sylvia or Gonzaga but has him losing to Lesnar. The rule of thumb is you always pick Couture when he’s the underdog and in Vegas right now he is the underdog. Couture’s questionable chin is really in no danger unless you count brutal ground-and-pound that he should be able to escape at some point in a five round fight. As much as I respect him, I’ve always doubted Randy Couture and I just won’t do it this time. I think he has too much to prove and too many people to stick it to. This isn’t even mentioning the fact he’s fighting a guy that will give him 40 opportunities to win the fight. Lesnar does represent all of Couture’s weaknesses, that’s why the fight was made, but I’m taking Couture to have an unbelievable gameplan in this one.

2. The UFC, while making a great deal of money on the fight, hurts their credibility by giving Lesnar the shot.

Harrison: FALSE. Granted, this isn’t a match-up between Couture and Nogueira to crown an undisputed champion, but that fight wasn’t possible. They’d already begun taping The Ultimate Fighter with Mir and Nogueira and set up the pay-off fight for January, leaving them to try to find someone else to step in against Couture. The list of candidates was Fabricio Werdum, Brock Lesnar and not a whole hell of a lot else. While Lesnar may not have the MMA pedigree to be deserving of a shot, this is also a business as much as it is a sport and while Couture/Werdum may have done 400-500k just on Couture’s name alone, pairing Couture and Lesnar is a license to print money in my eyes. Couture/Lesnar is compelling for multiple reasons including Couture’s lay-off, the relative freshness of Lesnar in the MMA scene, and the fact that Lesnar is going to bring a big cross-over audience from his former wrestling days. From a business standpoint this fight makes sense, and from an athletic standpoint, they had no one else to put in against Couture on the shorter notice of the situation. Also, unlike organizations like EliteXC, the UFC has earned the right to make matches like this once in a while simply because they’ve proven time and time again that they’re going to put on quality fights that the fans will like. They have credibility to burn, even though they don’t need to give any of it up for this bout.

Huckaby: TRUE. I will not argue with you that the UFC has earned the right to make the fight or that they’ll make a ton of money and it’s smart from a business standpoint. But I think my point will best be illustrated by ESPN talking heads laughing when talking about this event and how MMA is a joke because a “2-1 guy” is getting a World Title shot. Will it bring in wrestling fans? Yeah. Was that the question? I can’t go with the “who else could Couture have fought?” argument just because Nog/Mir has been set with TUF. Because the UFC never goes back on their word, right 200 people that were guaranteed title shots and never got them? One can argue this fight is for the best of the organization and sport in the long run but again that wasn’t the query. They lose alot of lip service and respect for getting all they can out of the freak Lesnar before he’s shown up like Kimbo against someone with the right skill set.

3. If true, the UFC’s wanting to lower the pay of Fabricio Werdum and letting him walk is nothing short of pathetic. (note: Tatame reported today that Werdum has no knowledge of this and will be in the UFC.)

Harrison: FALSE. While I don’t agree with how Werdum was treated, he’s still only 2-2 in the UFC. If it was 3-1 or 4-0 against guys that were top-level heavyweights I’d be more inclined to feel insulted, but when he’s beaten a Gabriel Gonzaga who seemingly didn’t seem interested in the fight and an overmatched Brandon Vera who looks to be a shell of his former self, I’m not too torn up. The UFC has a top-four with Couture, Lesnar, Mir and Nogueira, with underneath guys like Heath Herring and Cheick Kongo, which gives them decent depth at the top of the division. When you add in blue-chip prospects like Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin in the wings, things look even brighter. While heavyweight may not be the strongest division in the UFC, there’s not such a dearth of talent that Werdum’s loss will cripple the weight class.

Huckaby: TRUE. LESNAR AND MIR!?!? Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir? You list them in their “top four” simply because they’re in some silly money making tournament that makes absolutely no sense when it comes to skill level or ranking? I remember that cold day back in…. whenever, when Dana White said he’d have “ALL OF ‘EM!” He’d have all the best baby, every great fighter in the world. PRIDE was dead and the skies opened wide! Dumping Cro Cop made sense with the amount of money he was making but Werdum isn’t making anywhere near Cro Cop money and he’s been more successful and he’s improved his game since signing with them. How can you cut loose a top 10 HW in the world and claim that you have all of the best fighters? Pathetic if true. How about next time schedule his fights better so he’s not in a trap fight with a nobody to wait for a better opponent to be ready? How many times has that happened now and why do they learn nothing?

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Kenny Florian will finish Joe Stevenson on Saturday.

Huckaby: FALSE. No one can argue that Florian continues to get better on a per fight basis but Florian is still no BJ Penn and Stevenson will present some serious ground skills. The only thing I can think of is the mid-20’s drop-off for Stevenson. Many fighters start their careers strong and amass great records before hitting a snag in the 25-27 range. Once that passes they fix the holes in their game and come back strong in their primes between 29-33. Either way, I don’t think Stevenson is on the current level of Florian but I don’t believe he’ll be getting submitted either. I look for Florian to really control the pace and Stevenson to be very slightly out of his league but I’m just not feeling a finish.

Harrison: TRUE. Kenny Florian finishes fights. He says so himself and what is the world coming to if we can’t believe everything a fighter says in the lead-up to a fight? All kidding aside, I think that Florian is past the days of being unfairly thought of as a guy that can’t finish. The only reason he ended up taking a decision over Roger Huerta in his last fight was Huerta’s unwillingness to exchange. Granted, Joe Stevenson is double-tough and has significant skills on the ground. I just don’t think that he’s going to be able to withstand Florian’s pressure and his elbows for fifteen full minutes. BJ Penn tapped an absolute geyser on Stevenson’s forehead in their fight and Florian’s elbows are known to be much more dangerous than Penn’s are. With both of them being BJJ black belts, I’m not banking on a submission, but Florian will probably be able to bust Stevenson up with some of his “Hellbows” to finish the fight.

5. Nate Quarry will continue his comeback with a win over Demian Maia.

Huckaby: TRUE. Why the hell not, I’m feeling dumb. This isn’t a referendum on Maia at all, I love him, I just think like Couture/Lesnar this is a very bad matchup for the better fighter. This one kills me because it goes against my instincts and I really can’t say I have a firm grasp on how good Quarry’s ground game is. If you put a gun to my head I’d probably take Maia but Quarry is hungry with his comeback and no one can doubt his ability to punch Maia in the face in a very punishing fashion. Not to mention Quarry is a massive man who is exceptionally strong and should have the wrestling advantage as well. Maia will need to take some punishment and hope like hell he can get this down and try to work out something. I think Quarry’s scrambling and power will lead him to some type of victory.

Harrison: FALSE. As much as I’m a sucker for a comeback story and as much as I love Nate Quarry, he’s in trouble in this one. Maia’s been working striking with Wanderlei Silva to add to his incredible jiu-jitsu skills which makes him even more dangerous now than he was before. Quarry still has his heavy hands and could ostensibly catch Maia with a flurry of shots to knock him down and out, but I just don’t see it happening. Maia is quicker than Quarry is and has a more fluid striking style that will allow him to dodge and duck Quarry’s combinations. If he can time it right, he’ll even be able to duck under and get Quarry down to the mat. While Quarry trains with Team Quest, his ground game is pretty much the great unknown. What is known is that he’s not at the level of Maia and that’s bad news for him. Standing or on the mat, Maia looks to hold the advantage and will end up taking Nate down a peg or two with a big win to stay undefeated.

6. Kimbo Slice should even briefly consider doing a season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Huckaby: FALSE. I added this because it was cute and I actually thought about it for a bit, weighing the pros and cons. The pros are big ratings (and he’d get some of that, believe me) and more exposure while that future exposure is in question. The cons greatly outweigh that of course; what, would he be fighting for a 6-figure contract? And knowing the TUF contract structure that’s roughly a 74-fight contract. However that brings in a pro…. should he win he’d be up there with Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell in sponsorship money and name value and he could milk that for a great deal of cash, much more so than he’d make fighting a fight in the UFC alone. Of course another pro/con would be Dana White laughing maniacally as he got massive ratings for the show and then again when Kimbo lost in the house quickly.

Harrison: FALSE. He’s got to know that if he got on that show, Dana White would make it impossible for him to win one fight, let alone the whole show. While Slice needs the UFC to begin to stake a claim as a legitimate fighter, I highly doubt he wants to be viewed as such these days. My guess is that he just wants to earn a few more paychecks out of the shambles that was his reputation and then ride off into obscurity with his pockets full of bread. If he wants to do that Japan is always in the market for their next freakshow. In fact a Bob Sapp/Kimbo fight might actually draw some interest here in the US as well. However, if Slice tries to get into the UFC whatever is left of his mystique will end up being crushed by some fighter with a 3-1 record that no one has ever heard of before and he’s going to be stuck in that house in Las Vegas for eight weeks to be mocked. Go to Japan and make some money, continue to do things that you can make money off of, do personal appearances, go back to beating up hobos, whatever you’d like to do Kimbo. Just stay away from the UFC. Even if Dana White is serious in his offer, you’ll only end up clowning yourself in the end.

And that is it for this week’s Duel. Enjoy UFC 91 and join us next week when two other MMA writers will be discussing the results and other breaking news!

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. This week we actually have a real debate for you as 5 Oz. overlord and team captain Sam Caplan is going up against the PunchDrunkGamer himself, Mr. David Carpinello. We’ll be discussing the aftermath of UFC 90 as well as the upcoming WEC and Sengoku events. Let us Duel:

1. When healthy, Patrick Cote deserves another shot at the MW Title.

Caplan: FALSE. Contrary to Cote’s belief, he did not f— up Anderson Silva. He clearly lost both rounds one and two and Cote’s knee buckling might have been a blessing in disguise because it might have saved him from an inevitable knockout. Cote was injured through no fault of his own but also through no fault of Silva’s or the fans. It was a freak accident and last time I checked with the commission, there is no provision that mandates a promotion give a fighter an immediate rematch if he loses via freak injury. Very few people were excited by Silva vs. Cote I, so why should we be subjected to the lackluster matchup again? I just don’t see any basis for a rematch as I saw nothing that made me feel the inevitable outcome was ever in doubt. There aren’t a lot of obvious challengers for Silva’s title so when Cote is healthy, I guess the UFC might consider a rematch because the “freak” injury might be the only angle they have at 185 with Silva. If they do go ahead with Silva vs. Cote II, I am praying that it’s either a Spike TV main event or second down from the main event of a PPV show.

Carpinello: FALSE. I have to agree with you on this one. Not many people outside of Canada wanted to see the first fight. It may have been a blessing in disguise that the fight ended when it did (not that Cote was injured) because that was definitely the most boring two rounds of the night. Cote is a very good fighter but regardless of Silva’s performance in the fight, Cote is not in his league. I also agree that just because you suffer an injury in a fight that you should not be automatically given a rematch. From what I have heard Cote may be out of action for up to eight months; by that time Silva could be the 205 lb champion.

My Five Cents: Not really much to say as you’re both right. Though if the top contender in the future is named to be Chris Leben or Ed Herman I might change my mind.

2. Anderson Silva should have to face Yushin Okami before considering a move to 205lbs.

Caplan: FALSE. James Irvin, Patrick Cote and Yushin Okami? What are you trying to do Huckaby, bore Anderson Silva to death? Silva needs to make some money and get tested. It’s so patently obvious that Silva’s next foe should be none other than Chuck Liddell. There’s no good reason for it not to happen other than the UFC might not be ready to kiss Liddell’s days as a major drawing card goodbye. A major ass kicking at the hands of Silva might be the straw that forces the media to stop writing “Fans love Chuck Liddell and are willing to pay to see him win or lose.” Perhaps I am wrong, and Liddell will remain teflon but by that point the UFC would be pushing the envelope. The bottom line is that Silva is five more fights away from retirement. Make them count. The UFC can either use those fights against opponents that offer little intrigue, or they could capitalize on Silva’s run and make memorable matchups.

Carpinello: TRUE. There are two reasons you move up in weight class. One is for the money and two is because there is no one else for you to beat in your division. Okami won on a DQ in the 1st round and so there wasn’t enough of a fight to determine if Silva would simply lay waste to him like his recent opponents. Okami is 6-1 since coming to the UFC and his only loss was a close decision to Rich Franklin. If Silva really is the best P4P fighter in the world than one more fight at 185 lbs should not be a problem. If you’re talking money then it comes down to how much more will the UFC really pay Silva. He has made enough coin so far in his career that he could probably buy the city in Brazil that he is from, Curitiba. As far as a Silva vs. Liddell match-up goes, I think that is crazy talk! Liddell may not still have the most drawing power but his following of fans is one of a kind. Only 18% of fans picked Rashad Evans to beat him in September. I could be wrong but Dana White is unlikely to put his boy into a fight of that magnitude after the image of the Ice melting on the canvas in Atlanta.

My Five Cents: I say he has to fight Okami first. Not only because of the most awesome DQ in their last fight but because the UFC gave him a title shot. While you’re both right in #1 that a freak injury does not mandate a rematch, I feel an injury leading up to a fight needs to be rescheduled down the line. Poor Karo Parisyan, annoying as he is, will never sniff that welterweight belt through little fault of his own.

3. Loser of three of his last four, Jens Pulver will be able to stop a returning Leonard Garcia.

Caplan: FALSE. Pulver is one of my all-time favorite fighters. We talk about pioneers in MMA and Pulver definitely fits the mold as one of the first viable lighter weight competitors in the sport. His exciting style of fighting help put 145 and 155 on the map in MMA. The man is also a class act. That being said, I just don’t think he has the juice needed to stop Garcia. Garcia is younger and more athletic. He also might be hungrier. After being on the shelf for a while due to legal proceedings, Garcia can train every day with a chip on his shoulder. He also has never held a major title, something that Pulver has already accomplished. It will be a great fight but I just don’t see Pulver being able to take out Garcia.

Carpinello: TRUE. Pulver is also one of my favorite fighters and I agree he is a class act. I don’t agree that he is lacking anything though as far as being able to beat Garcia. I don’t care if Garcia was in Attica, he has lost 2 of his last 4 fights including a decision to Cole Miller; whose other notable win in the UFC is over Andy Wang. Pulver lives for mixed martial arts and with the life he has lived and the obstacles he has overcome, it is impossible to count out the man who went to a five round decision against the best 145 lb fighter on the planet. He may not of won one of those rounds but he did show that he still has the heart to give everything he’s got inside of that cage.

My Five Cents: I was on the Caplan wagon until you reminded me of Cole Miller. I’m really not sure on the outcome but I’ll side with Caplan because even if Pulver wins I don’t see him finishing Garcia; the man is a beast.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Thiago Alves is a true threat to Georges St. Pierre’s title.

Carpinello: TRUE. Alves has some of the best low leg kicks in mixed martial arts. If he can utilize those kicks in combination with his strikes then he will certainly give GSP a handful. Alves has now won seven straight fights in the UFC including his last three victories over widely considered top ten fighters in his weight class. If GSP decides to stand and trade with Alves, then there could be a new welterweight Champion in the UFC.

Caplan: FALSE. HE’S MORE THAN A THREAT. Both St. Pierre and Alves are tremendous athletes and a credit to the sport. Any mainstream idiot sportswriter that tries to claim fighters aren’t athletes obviously has never seen St. Pierre or Alves compete. And as good of an athlete that St. Pierre is, I think Alves might be better. I also believe that Alves is a bad matchup for St. Pierre and if the fight was made official today, my money would be on Alves. I think he has too much power for St. Pierre and has the ability to keep the fight standing. We know that St. Pierre is a good wrestler, but so is Josh Koscheck, and he couldn’t get Alves to the mat. Thiago Alves is Georges St. Pierre’s worst nightmare.

My Five Cents: Oh Caplan with your sassy answer. SWERVE!~ We all want to see this fight and while I’m on the “Alves is awesome” bus I’m not yet taking the “Alves can beat GSP” train.

5. Paulo Filho will make a repeat performance and submit Chael Sonnen on Wednesday.

Carpinello: TRUE. Filho has had a long and controversial last 12 months. From his father calling him out for being in his eyes “less than impressive” to bouts with depression and rumors of his state of mind in general; Filho will enter this fight with a lot of pent up aggression and a sense of need to show fans that the fighter who is undefeated in 16 professional fights is back or for that matter, never left. Sonnen is a good fighter but 5 of his 9 losses have come by submission and Filho is better on the ground than Jeremy Horn.

Caplan: FALSE. Filho is superior on the ground but I believe Sonnen is the better all-around fighter. Sonnen also has the advantage of having fought Filho once before because now he knows not to try and mess around in top position. If Filho is on his back, Sonnen knows he needs to wave him back up. And there are so many unanswered questions about Filho in light of everything he’s gone through this year. Perhaps he’s back where he needs to be mentally, but again, the questions are unanswered. Where is his head at? Is he truly committed to fighting again, or does he need a payday in order to catch up with bills that accumulated while he was idle? Also, with the news that the middleweight division in the WEC is finished after Dec. 3, is there enough incentive for Filho to win? What kind of future will he have in the UFC after ruling out fighting UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva? Filho has talked about moving to 205 pounds, but he wouldn’t survive as a light heavyweight in the UFC. My prediction is that Sonnen wins via TKO in the third round and moves to the front of the line as far getting a title shot at Silva. UFC officials will sell it to us as UFC middleweight champion vs. WEC middleweight champion with the subplot that Sonnen’s last win was over Silva’s good friend. Sonnen is going to outwork Filho because he wants it more.

My Five Cents: I like Caplan’s pro wrestling style booking and he’ll soon be getting a phone call from Vince Russo. Both of you make good points so I’ll just point out again how angry I was when Sonnen pretended he didn’t yell “tap tap tap tap” in their first fight and complained about the stoppage. Maybe Paulo can leave us no doubt this time.

6. Give me your winner of Saturday’s Sengoku MW Grand Prix.

Carpinello: Jorge Santiago. Mired in mediocrity after a 1-2 record in the UFC, including a loss to Alan Belcher, Santiago has rattled off six victories in a row including winning the Strikeforce ‘Four Men Enter, One Man Leaves’ one night tournament ala ‘Mad Max’ last November. He has continued his career rebirth in Japan as he is not solely relying on just one aspect of his fight game. Whether it is by submission or TKO, Santiago is looking to finish his opponents. Nothing against the other fighters in the Grand Prix, nor would I be shocked if someone else won but I would put my $$$ on Santiago.

Caplan: Kazuhiro Nakamura. Many people who rip Nakamura as a fighter are doing so based on what they saw of him in the UFC. And while he was horrible in the UFC, he was much better than he showed. While in PRIDE, Nakamura was a very dangerous fighter and recorded some impressive wins over notable fighters. For whatever reason, he couldn’t hang in the Octagon. Maybe it was the travel or maybe it was the level of competition he fought. Or maybe it was something else? Regardless, I think Nakamura at middleweight is very intriguing. This will be his second cut to 185 pounds, so he should have better strength this time around. Santiago is a respectable fighter, but I think Nakamura’s judo will prove to be the difference.

My Five Cents: Trick question. This is a Japanese tournament, meaning the winner will somehow end up being Drew Fickett. I don’t know how…. but you know it’s going to happen.

Thank you for joining us. We’ll be back next week when two other MMA writers battle it out in The Duel!~

We’re back for another edition of the Duel. But I should warn you that in no way is this really a Duel…. it’s more of a Hug. This week 5 Oz. of Pain Presents: The Hug. This week due to a late cancellation I will be Dueling against Duel All-Star, Sherdog’s Lotfi Sariahmed. We’ll start by discussing the fall of EXC and follow that up in the second half with a preview of some of Saturday’s UFC bouts.

Let us Duel:

1. EXC’s fold will be good in the long run for mixed martial arts.

Huckaby: TRUE. Errr that was tougher to answer than I thought it would be. On one hand it was rather amazing the number of people (even those wanting serious UFC competition and holding a resentment of Dana White) laughing about the fold of EXC. On the other hand this brand wasn’t the best the sport had to offer and it was being shown to larger audiences than had ever viewed the sport. The sport was being set back a few years with the dancing ramp girls and Kimbo Slice hype giving many people a poor impression. So I suppose it’s up to every person to decide for themselves (unlike other times when I feel I should decide for them); would you rather have the exposure and upward growth or would you not want to ruin the purity of the art for the potential future benefits?

Sariahmed: TRUE. I’m going with good in the long run because it rids us of the Shaws and Jeremy Lappen (at least for now in Lappen’s case). Don’t forget this was a promotion that was run (poorly) by men who decided that Kimbo Slice was going to take them to the promised land. Couple that with trying to create their own minor league system and spending too much money too quickly and they died with it. Don’t get me wrong, I never had a problem with Kevin Ferguson but EliteXC didn’t try to bring him along like that. They wanted everyone to see the YouTube sensation. There were some good things that came out of EliteXC, primarily the women’s division of MMA, but it’s not enough to make up for everything they screwed up while they were in business.

2. With only a couple very minor plausible options for big money, Kimbo Slice’s MMA career is over.

Huckaby: FALSE. Japan is all that makes any sense to me unless another backer that wants to lose tons of money pops up thinking he can make a promotion in the states. I don’t see Slice fighting on three or four tiny shows, the only way I could see him getting a possible trip to the UFC down the line. I don’t see Affliction, I don’t see Strikeforce and believe it or not I am not picturing some Iowa Challenge-type show. I just can’t see him investing all of this time into training the sport, seeing the money he’s making, then deciding to try a new career field. He has to fight again to get his bread. I now tried to make a rye bread/wry smile joke here for if he loses again but I’m trying too hard and it’s just not working out for me today.

Sariahmed: FALSE. Japan will pay him the money he was making with EliteXC because they love the freak show fights. If he wants to go that route it’s there for him. If he doesn’t want to go to Japan (though most reports say he’s looking at it) he’d have to take much less money and work his way up. Affliction, Strikeforce and the UFC will not go the way of EliteXC and put too much time and money into him. If he wants to stay in the States he’ll have to work his way up.

3. Jake Shields will be in the UFC within 6 months.

Huckaby: TRUE. I guess by “be in” I mean signed to a contract and not technically having to fight. Nothing else makes sense for Jake Shields and he’s already played the middle of the road with EXC so he’s certainly not going to Affliction or Strikeforce or anywhere. Of course this is must easier to answer as earlier in the week after this statement was made he said he felt that was next for him. If all of the statements were like this one they’d be much easier to answer. Plus no one would read the columns full of obvious, out-dated information.

Sariahmed: TRUE. He’s made too big of a deal about fighting the best that going anywhere else besides the UFC makes absolutely no sense. He’ll be on the roster soon enough and maybe fighting a Karo Parisyan at UFC 94 (Parisyan has already said he’ll be on that card)? Just throwing it out there but if I’m right you heard it from me first.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Patrick Cote will last two full rounds with Anderson Silva.

Sariahmed: FALSE. I stopped myself from laughing uncontrollably when reading this question but come on. Patrick Cote is not better than Dan Henderson and that’s essentially what you’re implying here by saying he’s lasting past the 2nd here with Silva. There isn’t anything in his last few performances that tells me Cote will do anything different than normal. His training camp could have been outstanding. He could be in the best condition of his life. Lutter, Henderson, Franklin (twice) and Marquardt probably all said the same thing at some point. Cote is useless on the ground (go back to the Finale against Lutter for proof) and barring a miracle shot early I don’t see him withstanding the onslaught from Silva. Mind you I have one caveat to my answer and that’s Cote pulling a Kalib Starnes…but that would make me a sad panda.

Huckaby: FALSE. I almost disagreed with you here just for laughing but I was in a pickle. You say one round and it’s easy to say he will and you say two rounds and it’s easy to say he won’t. But in an attempt to rip apart your argument I must tell you previous opponents don’t matter. MMA, as you should know by now, is 90% matchup. A guy can beat Tim Sylvia in 30 seconds but need almost two minutes to beat Hong Man Choi. This is all over the board on every fighter’s record. If this were to stay a standup fight with Cote moving away a bit (but not Starnesing) I think it’s very possible. But the second Silva gets him down this fight is over and between the two facets I just can’t do it.

5. Thiago Alves will continue his run by defeating Josh Koscheck.

Sariahmed: TRUE. I actually like Alves better in this fight than I did when he was facing Sanchez. Koscheck, for as much as he’s improved his striking, is not the dynamic striker that Alves is. He’s a great wrestler but Alves isn’t exactly a novice down there and Koscheck will be the smaller fighter in this fight. So he’ll have to contend with having to take the bigger fighter down. Alves is a better fighter on the feet and is capable enough to hold his own with Koscheck on the ground to the point where, barring Koscheck laying and praying his way to a win, should go home with the win here.

Huckaby: TRUE. *$#$#(!@! I want to disagree so badly here but I’d rather be bland and right than be interesting and wrong. Look, I think Josh Koscheck has a good 40% chance to win this fight. But you see this leaves 59% for Alves to win (I’m good with math). So therefore I have to say Alves will keep winning even though something deep in the back of my head is telling me history will make it so that Alves goes no further and the WW division goes crazy again. Alves of course has the striking but I see this fight being very GSP/Koscheck in that Alves may dominate position for a bit but he’s not as good as GSP so I don’t think the results of the exchanges will be the same. Oh and for those wondering about my math above I always leave a 1% chance that a meteor will hit or Owen Hart will drift down as the Blue Blazer.

6. Sean Sherk, fighting Tyson Griffin on Saturday, will earn another UFC title shot before his retirement (he’s 35).

Sariahmed: TRUE. His cardio and all-around physical shape makes him a guy who I think could fight as long as he wants. He keeps himself in too good a shape physically and that could only help him moving forward. Now of course his skills could start to decline, though we haven’t seen it yet, so that’s a possibility. I think of it like this, if there are 2-3 lightweight title fights a year, there would be another nine fights for him to get a shot (I’m using the very arbitrary age of 38 for when Sherk retires). I think Sherk is up there to where he could get one of those shots. It’s a very vague question to say no to considering what could happen at lightweight.

Huckaby: TRUE. Bah. I was set to say FALSE here but then I remembered BJ Penn won’t stay around there forever so he’s bound to be the next best choice. Penn and Sherk are so far and away better at LW than every other man in that organization that it’s not even funny. The second Penn is gone and the title is out there, be it vacated or a Penn loss, Sherk should be able to step right in. As for this fight I don’t see how it’s any different from the Hermes Franca fight other than Tyson Griffin is better. Oh well.

I am sorry for this “Duel.” You should know I am rightfully ashamed and promise to do better next week.