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.

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 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.

You may be asking yourself why I’m hosting The Duel this week and not Huckaby. Funny story. Moments before the Affliction PPV started I received a frantic message from him asking me to step in and host this shindig due to his internet having died. Fast forward to midweek and I need a late substitute for one of the participants… and guess whose internet is back up. So that’s how we got here.

Battling head to head this week are two Five Ounces of Pain writers that know each other well. Perhaps even intimately. Yes, this week we have Michael Huckaby taking on the new guy, Brendhan Conlan.

Let’s Duel:

1) Josh Barnett will fair better than Fedor’s recent opponents, either by winning or by lasting into the third round.

Huckaby: TRUE. I was really flip-flopping on this one, going back and forth and making arguments in my head. Initially I was going with false because Barnett has obviously had trouble in the past with big punchers that don’t have a large lack of ground skill. Barnett has to know he’s going to be in a boxing match for a bit and he won’t be getting the best of it. On the other hand, Barnett will train for this fight like no other and will probably have a solid game plan going in. He can avoid submissions and probably stop from catching a looping hook on his way to getting routed in a decision.

Conlan: TRUE. One thing this fight definitely won’t be is an advertisement for washboard abs. That being said, Barnett will still walk into the bout sharing a height/weight advantage similar to ones possessed by Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia, yet he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses – something that can’t be said about either of Fedor’s victims in Affliction. While I’m not prepared to say he will defeat Fedor if/when they fight, I definitely feel “The Babyface Assassin” has an above-average chance of enduring Emelianenko’s assault for at least ten minutes en route to a probable loss. I think the always-entertaining Barnett’s grappling is certainly elite enough to handle Emelianenko’s submission attempts, and I think his stand-up is solid enough to weather most of what Fedor will throw at him.

My Five Cents: Maybe I’m too swayed by Fedor’s recent outings, but I see him winning and winning in fairly dominating fashion. Points to both Huckaby and Conlan for reminding me how game of an opponent Barnett is. Still, I’ll take Fedor in ten minutes or less.

2) Should Fedor defeat Barnett, Fedor still needs to capture the UFC heavyweight title to cement his legacy.

Huckaby: FALSE. Tuning in your Dana White earpiece this week? Fedor not only doesn’t have to be in the UFC to cement his legacy but he didn’t even need to beat Sylvia or Arlovski to do so. That was simply a bonus. I’m sure people would like to see Fedor/Couture or Fedor/Lesnar just for fun but the outcomes as of now would hardly be in any question. I really wish Fedor would retire after a potential Barnett fight because he’s bound to lose sooner or later. It’s no coincidence that most long time fighters go out losing 5 or their last 6 fights and the last thing I want to see is Fedor lose before he goes away for good.

Conlan: FALSE. I suppose it depends on how you view the word “legacy” as it pertains to Mixed Martial Arts. Does he need to step inside the Octagon and beat Mir, Couture, and/or Lesnar to solidify himself as the best of all time in the eyes of the mainstream media and the many Zuffa Zombies out there? Yes. Does he need to do so to in order to earn the same label from his peers, MMA journalists, and well-informed fans? Absolutely not. Dana White may be running the biggest MMA promotion out there, but the UFC is still a company awarding contendership to fighters with Brock Lesnar’s professional record and BJ Penn’s recent history in the welterweight division. Winning the organization’s heavyweight championship can in no way define the career of a man like Fedor Emelianenko. He is already the finest Mixed Martial Artist the sport has seen to date and chewing up Sylvia/Arlovski in record time was simply affirmation of his greatness. His status is essentially that of Michael Jordan coming out of retirement to win three more NBA titles.

My Five Cents: Great arguments by both. Huckaby with Fedor retiring before age catches up with him and Conlan bringing the point that people who know the sport already give Fedor the respect he deserves. Of course he doesn’t need the UFC title to cement his legacy.

3) Having now lost three of his last four fights, it’s fair to call Sokoudjou’s wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona “flukes”.

Huckaby: FALSE. Truth be told I picked Sokoudjou to knock out Babalu simply because he fit the mold of Little Nog and Arona. We all know and see the gaping hole in Sokoudjou’s game now but that doesn’t change the fact he bashed their brains in previously. You could argue they didn’t take him seriously and knowing what they know now they’d change their gameplan up but that doesn’t make the first fight a fluke. Yes, people made too big of a deal over a guy clinching and punching someone to death…. Houston Alexander does that. Sokoudjou is still young in the sport and he’s not on that top tier but those wins were earned and frankly I’d probably pick him over at least Arona again.

Conlan: TRUE. Using the word “fluke” to describe a fighter who trains to land a punch and does so to a victorious result makes me cringe, but for the sake of this topic I’m going to agree with the assessment that Sokoudjou’s wins over Arona/Nogueira were “flukes” in the sense he’s in no way the human dynamo he was made out to be after beating them. Arona has faced superior competition over his career, yet only has one more loss than the Team Quest judoka while owning eight more wins. Nogueira is in the same boat but with less losses and more wins. While it’s hard to say what sort of shape Arona is in after such a long layoff, I’m positive Nogueira would beat Sokoudjou more often than not if the two were to fight ten times, and I think the same could definitely be said of the Ricardo Arona fans came to know in PRIDE. Sokoudjou is certainly talented and is still in his early twenties, meaning that he has a great foundation upon which he can continue to build throughout his career, but he’s presently a Mixed Martial Artist with questionable cardio and confusingly bad grappling/submissions skills. He needs to compete against other fighters with similar records in order to give him the opportunity to increase his abilities, experience, and confidence. Meanwhile, “Little Nog” should be taking on the best 205-pounders available.

My Five Cents: I’m most concerned with Sokoudjou’s consistent lack of cardio. Once round one is over, so is he. Maybe it’s time to leave Team Quest.

4) Georges St. Pierre will finish B.J. Penn at UFC 94.

Conlan: TRUE. If fate plays out as I hope it might, at least based on Penn’s “UFC Primetime” statements regarding GSP’s loss to Matt Serra, not only will St. Pierre finish Penn but he’ll do so by making Baby Jay tap out via strikes. Personal feelings aside, I think Penn is by far one of the most talented fighters to ever call MMA his home. His jiujitsu and boxing skills are among the best in the sport if not the very mountain-top every other Mixed Martial Artist should be climbing towards daily in training. He is an icon in the sport and can easily be labeled an all-time great. That being said, he is often his own worse enemy courtesy of an egocentric approach to life that’s likely been fueled by his upbringing and the natural talent he’s been blessed with. He appears to feel he’s owed things in life; that success is not always something you strive for but that is usually handed to you on a silver platter. Why hit the gym hard and eat right when you’re the best in the world? Why treat opponents seriously when you few them as being inferior to you in every way? That sort of internal dialogue led to Penn showing up in less-than-stellar shape earlier in his career and seemed to be a ship he righted after losing to Matt Hughes. However, at least as it pertains to comments he’s made during the build to UFC 94, as well as what I’ve seen on “UFC Primetime”, the narcissistic BJ Penn is back and with him is a diminished approach to training and a gross underestimation of his forthcoming foe. If “The Prodigy” was to receive credit for his physical appearance as it pertained to having improved conditioning when he stepped onto the scales as a reborn lightweight, he deserves equal criticism for letting his physique slide on the road back to 170 pounds. MMA is by no means a bodybuilding contest but it’s foolish to think fitness counts for absolutely nothing when two individuals lock up in a cage. I don’t get the impression that Penn feels he needs to have added anything to his arsenal to beat St. Pierre in their rematch. I think he believes he can walk into the Octagon, repeat his performance in their first bout, and alter the outcome by attacking a slight bit better and defending a smidge more. What I feel he’ll find out is that Georges St. Pierre HAS been steadily improving over the past few years and is a stronger fighter both mentally and physically than the first time they fought. I see GSP wearing Penn down over the first two rounds and then pounding him out in the third or fourth frame. He may not have been able to finish Jon Fitch, but truth be told I’m pretty sure Penn wouldn’t either if he and Fitch faced off as welterweights.

Huckaby: TRUE. This one is painful because I still don’t believe St. Pierre has a great ground defense and he’s going to be tested by Penn so long as BJ doesn’t decide to get all cocky and exchange again. He’d hold his own but like last time he’d find himself on the bad end of a decision. In fact the only reason I can really go with true on this is due to the fact it’s a five round fight and I still don’t have enough confidence in Penn’s stamina until it’s proven otherwise. St. Pierre is better than he was the last time they fought. Penn is better than he was the last time they fought. A hungry Penn is a scary Penn but people seem to always hop from bandwagon to bandwagon when it comes to Anderson Silva, Fedor and GSP. Whoever happens to have fought last is the best p4p fighter in the world. A win by GSP on Saturday and he’ll go back to the top of the list.

My Five Cents: You’re both crazy. Penn’s going to win. I say this based on purely objective reasoning and without the influence of my mancrush on him. I promise.

5) The winner of St. Pierre and Penn is the rightful pound for pound king.

Conlan: TRUE. The MMA community’s viewpoint on both athletes’ pound for pound status is fairly consensus as ranking them both within the top four alongside Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko. Some people might want to add a dash of Miguel Torres or pinch of Rashad Evans to the mix but for the most part you can always count on St. Pierre and Penn being labeled as two of the elite fighters in Mixed Martial Arts. Be that as it may, it’s only logical to think the winner of their bout at UFC 94 should be considered the cherry on top even though Emelianenko and Silva should be viewed as being in a photo-finish second place to whoever it is that emerges victorious this Saturday night.

Huckaby: FALSE. I’ve always had a problem with “best pound-for-pound” needing to be a small guy. Fedor and Anderson Silva are the two best p4p fighters on the planet right now and have been for a good amount of time. That’s not to say the GSP/Penn winner and Miguel Torres aren’t up there, they certainly are, but I don’t even a think a win on Saturday catapults either one of them to the top of that list after the carnage Anderson Silva and Fedor have left in their paths. Neither GSP nor Penn have the resume that Fedor, Silva or Torres have, nor do they have a fairly recent loss. A loss here is more of an elimination from the top 5 p4p in my opinion.

My Five Cents: Right now I’m inclined to go Fedor, but should GSP or Penn demolish and dominate the other (and not due to a quick KO) it’s going to be all the more difficult to decide. I get both arguments here. I just don’t know which is the right one.

6) You personally find Lyoto Machida fights entertaining and exciting.

Conlan: TRUE. I wouldn’t say I’ve found every single one of his matches to be edge-of-my-seat thrilling, but in large part I’ve enjoyed seeing Machida’s technical wizardry and methodic approach to earning his dubyas. His fights may not be packed with action from start to finish but Lyoto has delivered more than a few highlights in his career. When an undefeated fighter has knocked out Rich Franklin, landed a sick knee to Tito Ortiz’s ribcage that nearly did the same, choked Sokoudjou out, and dropped a couple jumping head-stomps on BJ Penn en route to victory, how can his bouts – at least for the most part – NOT be considered exciting/entertaining to watch?!?

Huckaby: FALSE. Oh wait, I’m an MMA writer so I should be forced at gunpoint to say true. Saying Machida fights are interesting is like the MMA equivalent of saying you like some lame indie band to impress all over your music geek friends. Lyoto is awesome and with a win over Silva he deserves his title shot…. that makes him good, not entertaining. I don’t mind a good majority of your fights being decisions, I just ask that at some point in the fight it looks like you might finish them when you’re completely dominating. He’s stylistic and methodical and that’s entertaining in the same way a well choreographed movie is entertaining. However sometimes instead of Citizen Kane you just want to watch some things blow up.

My Five Cents: Big points for the Citizen Kane line, I think that captures it quite well. I’m in the same boat. Machida’s fights are entertaining in the aspect where you wonder how long it will take someone to figure him out.

That’ll do it. Enjoy the fights this weekend and we’ll be back next week with two more MMA writers from somewhere on the interwebz. I’m sure there will be much UFC 94 fallout to cover… such as what happens now with one man holding two UFC titles at once. Hey-oh!

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.

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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!

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.

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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.

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.

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. This week we have 5 Oz. contributor and all around special man, Mr. Nick Travaglini. In the other corner we have 5 Oz. editor and contributor, Mr. Matt Cava.

I should also note that Matt Cava is traveling on business to New York City so I will be filling in for him on the second half. LET US DUEL:

1. Michael Bisping will finish Chris Leben on Saturday.

Cava: FALSE. Bisping is 16-1 with 11 (T)KO’s – he is a man that finishes fights. And finishes them in exciting fashion with big-time striking. However he’s facing hard-headed Chris Leben who: 1. doesn’t lose very often (18-4) and 2. doesn’t get knocked out often (only KO loss was that savage beating by Spider Silva). This fight will feature fireworks, with both dudes throwing furious leather, but I feel their chins will allow each to go the distance. When Bisping has faced above-average-UFC-level-strikers (Rashad Evans, Matt Hamill) he doesn’t fare very well (loss to Evans and a skin-of-your-teeth decision over Hamill). Leben is a more dangerous striker than both those guys, so I see Bisping circling, picking his spots, but not doing enough damage to knock Leben on his butt. I predict a Decision victory by Bisping, but not a true “finish”.

Travaglini: FALSE. I will go one step further than my cohort and predict Leben will win by 3rd round tko. Bisping is a talented fighter and very well rounded. But a quick glance at his 18 professional fights and the two best strikers he has faced were two converted wrestlers in Matt Hamill and Rashad Evans. He got picked apart on the feet and lost to Evans and he was picked apart on the feet and should have lost to Hamill. The fact that Leben will be the best striker he has faced is scary but also very telling. As impressive as Bisping has looked, he has been protected for most of his UFC career. This fight in his first dip in the deep end of the pool. Leben is no top ten middleweight, but he hits like one. One thing is for sure, no matter what the outcome Bisping will have his chin tested. I don’t think Bisping has the power nor the technical prowess to finish Leben, and if he lets him hang around long enough Leben will stop him.

My Five Cents: I will say your arguments are very telling but I don’t see it. The fact people are picking Leben to win this fight is strange to me.

2. As the fight looks closer to being finalized, Frank Shamrock will destroy Ken Shamrock.

Cava: TRUE. Sh*t man I hope so! Frank has every motivation in the world to smash Ken. He even has imaginary motivations that he will conjure up and make youtube videos about. In addition to his motivations, he has youth and superior skill on his side. What is Ken bringing to the table? He can’t even overwhelm his warm-up partner the morning of a huge payday, how the hell is he going to compete with a pissed off Frank Shamrock?! I sincerely wish Ken would stick to coaching and become a respectable coach/icon of MMA, like a Renzo Gracie or Pat Miletich. Sadly, my heart tells me we are NEVER going to see this fight. Likely another case of a lotta hype with no payoff.

Travaglini: TRUE. Certainties in life: The sky is blue, water is wet and Ken Shamrock will never win another professional fight. Sorry Ken, you’re an icon, be satisfied with that and ride on into the sunset. This fight has life insurance risk written all over it. Ken gets knocked over by a stiff breeze anymore and hasn’t submitted an opponent since 2001. Although Frank is no young buck himself, he is far superior at this stage of his career. I see a long hospital stay in Ken’s future before he gets the proverbial hint. Time to retire Ken.

My Five Cents: I will not argue with the hilarity on either side.

3. KJ Noons is scared to fight Nick Diaz.

Cava: FALSE. Scared is a strong term. Karl James Noons is both a boxer and an MMA fighter. One would think that fear isn’t part of his gameplan. Butterflies or nervousness maybe but straight up fear? I can’t believe fear is the reason he ducked Diaz. In my humble opinion, Noons declined to defend his championship belt against Nick Diaz on national television for a mixed bag of reasons: bad advice from his management, the bumbling way EliteXC handles its fighters, payscale differential between he and Diaz and quite possibly a lack of desire to be an elite MMA fighter. The sport of MMA is still very young, pure MMA fighters have fought for a couple hundred dollars per fight or less, just for the chance to step in the cage. Rarely, do you hear stories of a MMA fighter totally backing out of a big time fight for contract reasons. MMA fighters crave the opportunity to continue to blossom in the sport. Boxing is a different story. Contract disputes are commonplace. Grandstanding is a part of the management landscape in the “sweet science”. In MMA, only the biggest names in the business (Tito and Randy) have made a stink about contracts. The sport is simply too young for up-n-coming fighters to find reasons not to fight. My read on this situation is that Noons grew up in boxing, his people have boxing backgrounds, and his commitment to MMA is not as strong as a guy like Nick Diaz.

Travaglini: TRUE. I need to clarify this answer. I don’t believe he is physically scared of Nick Diaz. You don’t become a professional MMA fighter and professional boxer and have a fear of any fighter. But I do believe he is scared of what Diaz can do to him and that is expose him. Noons is a talented fighter, I cannot deny him that. But it wasn’t that long ago that Noons was an up and coming prospect who was knocked out by Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett. He still has huge holes in his game and is no where near a complete fighter. Whether Noons wants to admit it to anyone, even himself, Nick Diaz is a complete MMA fighter and represents what Noons strives to be. If they fought 10 times, I believe Diaz would win at least eight of those. It’s a reality that Noons is all too aware of and will not risk the exposure of that reality without worth-while compensation. And who could blame him?

My Five Cents: I believe he is. It can be called a “contract dispute” all day but in the end he doesn’t want to fight Nick Diaz and that will look a certain way.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Brandon Vera will get back on track with a win over Keith Jardine.

Travaglini: TRUE. Only because maybe is not available. This is only true if Vera finishes Jardine in an exciting and decisive fashion. I think Vera has allowed a lot of doubt to creep into most fans’ heads with his two losses at heavyweight and uninspired decision win over Reese Andy. I feel like Brandon Vera hasn’t been the same fighter since his protracted hold out with the UFC about a year and a half ago. The dynamic, exciting fighter who finished opponents has not made a return appearance and if he doesn’t soon, the always fickle MMA fanbase will start to write off Vera. As much as we like to think otherwise, it is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sport, and if Vera doesn’t stop Jardine before the 15 minutes are up it will take a toll on both his fans and his upcoming contract renegotiation with the UFC. They pay him a lot of money, but he earned that money on his previous fights. They will use any excuse to save themselves a few bucks if he isn’t performing. Not only does he need a win, but he needs an exciting finish.

Huckaby: TRUE. I can’t argue with Nick here, Jardine’s poison is anyone who can punch him in the face and Vera can certainly do that. I am in no way a fan of Vera but he should be superior to Jardine in this fight and knock him out. Also agreed on the fact Vera hasn’t “been back” yet…. people hate it when we agree and think we should make out but you’re absolutely right.

5. Give me a percentage that you believe Fedor will defeat Andrei Arlovski in January.

Travaglini: 100%. I will take these softball questions all day long. These make me look smart and that is hard to do. Fedor hasn’t fought a striker of this caliber since Mirko Filipovic and we all know how that turned out. This fight can be summed up with one word, pressure. Arlovski doesn’t respond well to pressure and Fedor may be the best in the weight class at applying pressure. Arlovski was pressured by Tim Sylvia and he was knocked out and bullied around the octagon in both losses. Fedor is the most explosive 230lb pudgy man I have ever seen and that combined with his power and ring experience I see no reason not to believe that Fedor won’t rush Arlovski and stomp a mudhole in him. The best Arlovski can hope for is his athleticism and foot work keep him away from danger, but backing away from Fedor is not a way to win the fight. You need to step in the pocket and trade with Fedor, and hope you catch him before he catches you if want to have any hope of beating him. Fujita did it and Mark Hunt did it, and although they hurt him neither could finish him. Fedor is the best heavyweight on the planet until proven otherwise.

Huckaby: 94%. You can’t go 100% in any fight, even if it seems obvious and stupid. While I think Fedor’s striking is sadly underrated and Arlovski isn’t really that good, you can’t really go 100% on anything. It’s the same problem the people at PtI seem to have on ESPN. Fedor will be fairly aggressive, assuming the fight happens, and push the action and beat on Arlovski. It’s fairly sad that Fedor will probably lose in my lifetime and not be considered the greatest fighter in the history of planet Earth. Quit while you’re ahead and be awesome.

6. I asked this last week but it’s rather slow and I enjoyed the outcome…. the third time will be the charm as Rampage Jackson will defeat Wanderlei Silva.

Travaglini: FALSE. As an unabashed fan boy of Wanderlei Silva, I do not approve of you even mentioning the idea of him losing to Rampage. That being said, I would be lying if I said Rampage didn’t have an excellent chance of finally pulling out the win against my favorite fighter. The memory of the three losses before he maimed Keith Jardine in 36 seconds is still fresh in my mind. Combine those with the fact that a properly motivated Rampage Jackson is still one of the best fighters in the world can place doubt in even the most diehard fans. The fact is Wanderlei performed manual rhinoplasty on Rampage the first two times, and if Wanderlei comes in healthy there is every possibility he could do it again. Style matchups are style matchups and unless Rampage changes his entire MMA game in the next 10 weeks, he is still the underdog in this fight. Wanderlei Silva will win a third time. The question is will the crowd throw their hats in the octagon to celebrate the hat trick?

Huckaby: TRUE. I would like to start by saying my spellcheck does no recognize “rhinoplasty” so while it is a word I will dismiss it. I believe Rampage has gotten nothing but better since joining the UFC and Wanderlei Silva has never found a real home there. Fight formats, rules and cage/rings mean more than people give them credit for. Rampage is more at home using his wrestling and striking in a cage than in a ring. Wandy, like Shogun, is at a loss without the tools he used to have. I love Wandy as well but Shogun has the advantage here.

That has been our Duel. Join us next week when two (or apparently three) more writers will fist fight for superiority.

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. Joining me this week is nokaut.com editor and all around wonderful man, Randy Harrison. On the other side is 5 Oz. editor, contributing writer and blatant homosexual, Mr. Adam Morgan. Let us Duel:

1. Kimbo Slice’s defeat means doom for the EXC brand.

Harrison: FALSE. I wouldn’t go so far as to say DOOM, but it’s certainly a fairly crippling blow to the eyes of mainstream fans when the guy you’ve built into an unbeatable monster ends up getting taken out by a replacement fighter in less time than it takes to correctly spell Petruzelli. There are a lot more problems for EliteXC than just Slice losing. There’s the loss of face from promoting a main event that didn’t happen (whether it’s their fault or not, perception will be that they dropped the ball), and the inability of the company to be able to promote and make new stars outside of Gina Carano and Slice despite having talented fighters on their roster. They’ve mismanaged the brand pretty horribly since the beginning of the CBS deal and it’s rather telling when more of the people I’ve talked to after the show were talking about the Affliction ads throughout the show more than anything on the show except the Slice upset. That’s the kind of marketing they should have been doing themselves from the beginning but they’ve just never gotten it. While Slice’s defeat may possibly be the first in many death blows to the company, I won’t go so far as to say it’s the only one because there have been problems in EliteXC forever (the Slice/Thompson fight, the KJ Noons debacle, Gina’s constant missing weight, the shady beginnings of the company with Gary Shaw) and the problems in combination are what will eventually doom them.

Morgan: FALSE. It’s hard to disagree with Randy here in regards to the damage that’s been done with Kimbo’s loss. It’s a huge blow to the company because their star has now been “exposed” to a degree by a UFC washout. But it’s not the end of the world. EliteXC has some good fighters and they still have Gina Carano, who I believe can carry a card by herself without Kimbo Slice. Not only does she have the look but she’s also very good. EliteXC can put the brand on her back, bring women’s MMA to the forefront and provide other good fights as a backdrop. The real saving grace here is the last minute partnership with Affliction. Affliction has real stars, top level fighters, and a willingness to work with EliteXC. Without that partnership EliteXC is dead in the water. The only way anyone is going to compete with the UFC is if they co-promote. These two brands have done it once with Arlovski and Nelson and they desperately need to continue to do it to have any chance of competing.

My Five Cents: It’s probably true. Ratings might be good but CBS, like all networks, doesn’t give a damn about the product they just want the numbers. These are the same people that figured Lawler vs. Smith would get ratings. Kimbo losing is an embarrassment and probably a death blow to the company.

2. Though Slice should be commended for taking the fight and not disappointing the fans.

Harrison: TRUE. I will give him props for that. He took a fight against a fighter who was much more dangerous than Ken Shamrock was and took his loss like a man. I can’t say the same for his camp or his fans, who were apparently hurling death threats at Petruzelli and making him fear for his safety in the cage. It would have been easy for Slice to take his ball and go home, or to hold the company up for a ton of money because he was in the position of power and the man people wanted to see. He didn’t, he fought, and he lost, which says a lot about his “anytime, anyone, anywhere” thing being atleast mostly true. If the reaction to the change in main event from the live crowd seemed a little harsh (lots of booing when the announcement was made), imagine what the reaction would have been like if they had announced the main event was cancelled. It’s funny to think that in the course of three hours, Slice may have saved the company from ruin by taking the fight and possibly put them a lot closer to the end by losing it.

Morgan: TRUE. I would argue with Randy on this one but I can’t go the other way because I have been saying this since the fight ended. You have to give it to Kimbo for even taking the fight. The people came to see him, they paid money to see hi, and he gave them what they wanted even if it didn’t turn out the way he’d like. He could have packed his bags and went home. Instead he took the fight on short notice and provided a main event for the evening. Now, is it sort of suspect that he and his camp demanded more money to fight Petruzelli? Sure, but who cares? Milk it for all it’s worth. There’s only so much time a 34 year old beginner has in this sport. Get in where you fit in and make your ends. Dap to Kimbo for making the fight go off for sure.

My Five Cents: Points to both for the pathetic Kimbo Slice entourage and Morgan’s rap-like final comments. Has anyone answered the age old question about why Kimbo’s entourage thinks they can fight? It’s like Madonna’s backup dancers thinking they can sing, it’s cute but you are where you are for a reason.

3. The third time will be the charm as Rampage Jackson will defeat Wanderlei Silva.

Harrison: FALSE. As much as I think that Rampage will be the favorite in this one, considering all of the mitigating factors, I think that it’s very likely that Wanderlei will be able to make it three-for-three against Jackson. Sometimes fighters will just have their opponent’s number. Jackson should know this better than anyone else because he had Chuck Liddell figured out well before the rest of the MMA world did. Silva just seems to be the type of fighter that is tailor-made to beat Jackson and this was even before Wanderlei decimated Keith Jardine in May and before Rampage’s loss and subsequent legal problems. Silva looks like he’s found the Silva of old and Jackson is on some pretty shaky ground with a big loss in the cage, the loss of his trainer and longtime friend and the betrayal that situation entailed, his arrest and court dates (which are still pending), training with a new fight camp, etc. etc. I really think that this is adding up to a fight where Jackson will put up a huge effort because he wants to erase everything that has happened in the past but that he’s going to come up just a little bit short to a seemingly revitalized Silva. This one might be a bit more competitive than their first two fights considering how much Jackson has grown in terms of his confidence as a fighter since those PRIDE bouts, but I still think that Silva is going to run the table.

Morgan: TRUE. Finally I get to disagree. All legal issues aside, Rampage has evolved tremendously as a fighter since his last fight against Wanderlei Silva. It’s not even close. Wanderlei is a great fighter but he’s no longer the guy that dominated PRIDE’s middleweight division for years. There has been a changing of the guard in this sport. Wanderlei Silva, in my opinion, will never compete for the UFC’s 205lb. crown. Not only has Jackson competed for it but he’s captured it and defended it. And he didn’t do those things against scrubs either. He KO’d Chuck Liddell and outlasted Dan Henderson in a five round war. Those are two guys that Silva has recently lost to. There’s no fight in the world that Jackson wants more than a chance at redemption against Silva. He is the better fighter at this point in the two mens’ careers, there is no doubt in my mind about that.

My Five Cents: There is nothing I like more than reading arguments and being swayed back and forth, well played. I will let the commenters determine who is correct.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. Jared Shaw and Jeremy Lappen act incredibly irresponsible basically rooting at cage side.

Morgan: TRUE. There’s no doubt in the world that Jared Shaw, at the very least, acts irresponsible when he’s at cageside watching Kimbo fight. I don’t know about Lappen but Shaw has been unprofessional in the past and I’m sure he’ll continue to do so as long as he’s with the company. At EliteXC’s first CBS event when Kimbo fought James Thompson he was the first person in the ring congratulating Kimbo, practically laying on top of him and screaming in his face after the fight was over. He claims this time that he wasn’t cheering but that he was arguing a strike to the back of the head. Yeah right, Skala. We see through that facade. Just go back and look at the replay and tell me he’s not visibly shaken by the fact that Slice lost. You don’t see Dana White at cageside rooting for his favorite fighter. Well, unless it’s someone who’s fighting against Tito Ortiz. ProElite, as a company, is about as unprofessional as they come. To even have Jared Shaw as the face of the brand is embarrassing. The fact that they haven’t yet recognized this speaks volumes about where the company’s headed.

Harrison: FALSE. Since this question includes Jeremy Lappen, I’m forced to say false, even though I think that there is indeed incredibly irresponsible behavior going on at cageside at every EliteXC event, the Kimbo events especially. Every time I’ve seen Lappen, either on television or in person, he seems like he’s fairly level-headed when it comes to the fighting aspect of things. With all of this stuff going on with the main event from “Heat,” he looks a little two-faced in some of his statements, but he’s not an outright cheerleader. Jared Shaw, on the other hand, was so incredibly off the charts during that main event that I couldn’t even believe my eyes. I’ve never understood how Jared Shaw has essentially lucked into being the top man in the company, but my guess would probably be that it was through the family connections with Big Daddy Gary starting the deal up. His cheerleading during Kimbo’s fights and his shouting at officials during the bouts are ongoing is just asking for more trouble as it tends to look kind of bad when the guy in charge is screaming at officials who are chosen by the State Athletic Commissions to call bouts in a certain manner or to make certain calls. The last thing this company needs right now is more trouble.

My Five Cents: I had to be an idiot and add Lappen’s name didn’t I? At the very least we can all agree that Jared Shaw is pathetic and he’s setting the sport back five years at the very minimum.

5. You believe Seth Petruzelli was offered more money by management to keep the fight with Kimbo standing.

Morgan: FALSE. Kind of. I believe it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that Petruzelli was offered more money to keep the fight standing but I also think Petruzelli could have misspoke. Do I believe that there was some sort of enticement for a knockout bonus or to make the fight exciting? Sure. Do I believe that Petruzelli was bribed straight up? I have to doubt that.

Harrison: TRUE. As much as it really pains me to say it, when you shake the Magic 8 Ball on this one all signs are seemingly pointing to Yes. Petruzelli made the statement, probably not realizing that it was going to get as much play as it did, and then he retracted it once the hailstorm began. Earlier this week there were rumblings that Ken Shamrock had been made a similar offer and while there hasn’t been a confirmation of that allegation, there hasn’t been much of a denial either. When that is added to the fact that EliteXC officials have been double-speaking, with Jeremy Lappen being the most notorious culprit, it doesn’t look promising. Lappen, when he spoke to SI.com, stated that there was a knockout bonus but no submission bonus. When he spoke to ESPN.com, he stated that there were bonuses offered for knockouts, submissions and fight of the night, which contradicts what he had said just two days earlier. That’s not even counting the Benji Radach statement that he was offered no such bonus for his fight. Granted, these bonuses could be negotiated into fighter’s contracts before the show, but if you’re trying to tell me that Petruzelli would have had that clause negotiated into his contract for an undercard fight against Aaron Rosa that seems silly, and to suggest that he negotiated it into his contract in the three hours before the fight, that’s even sillier. I’m really hoping that it’s not the case and that there is a simple explanation for all of this, but there hasn’t been one yet, and as the old saying goes “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”.

My Five Cents: You have to go with Harrison here, not even including Petruzelli’s comments this is several degrees of fishy.

6. CBS will be smart and actually wait until EXC’s top draws are ready for their fourth show.

Morgan: TRUE. One would hope that CBS learned from the July show that putting on a show without top draws is a great way to have disastrous ratings. The ratings in July weren’t terrible but they certainly weren’t the same kind of ratings we saw with the first CBS show and now this last CBS show. The kind of show they ran in July belongs on Showtime. Lots of names that hardcores know and want to see but not a lot of people that Joe Casual will tune in to see. If they haven’t learned their lesson then shame on them. No one’s going to tune in to see mid level fighters on a mid level show. They want names, they want knockouts, and they want action. If you can’t provide that to them without your stars then you need to wait until they’re ready. Otherwise it will be another flop.

Harrison: TRUE. They’ll wait because they want the ratings and don’t really care what it does to the company to get them. The problem with having the same fighters working over and over on these CBS shows is that there is hardly any chance for EliteXC to be able to make new stars for the shows that follow when their draws either can’t fight or end up hurt. With the situation the company is in, it seems like it might end up being a moot point but EliteXC needs to be able to draw a rating with a show that doesn’t feature Kimbo or Gina and then I would be impressed. Right now, it’s coming across as if EliteXC is a company built around two people, which has to be a bit of a slap in the face to all of the rest of the fighters who have given their blood, sweat and hard work to the company. If they’re going to have any chance to be able to continue with this CBS deal and grow to possibly square off against the UFC one day for US MMA supremacy, they’re going to have to figure out a way to be able to get people to watch when they don’t have their two golden geese throwing hands.

My Five Cents: I’m going with Morgan simply because of “Joe Casual.” It’s much like Palin’s “Joe Six-Pack” but I like it much more…. a part of me wishes that were my name.

This was another edition of The Duel. Please join us next week when two different MMA writers will scratch and claw their way to Duel supremacy.

Welcome back to another edition of The Duel. This week we have a special guest in the form of the host of the creatively named Jordan Breen Show on Sherdog, Jordan Breen. Battling him is a not so special guest but someone that enjoys sniping back and forth with him, 5 Oz. Michael Huckaby. We’ll be previewing EXC on CBS as well as recently announced bouts between Franklin and Henderson as well as the obviousness of Rua and Coleman. Let us Duel:

1. Kimbo Slice will absolutely destroy Ken Shamrock.

Breen: FALSE. Anderson Silva absolutely destroyed Chris Leben. Georges St. Pierre absolutely destroyed Matt Hughes in their rematches. BJ Penn absolutely destroyed Joe Stevenson. Those are prolonged, one-sided emasculations. Meanwhile, Ken Shamrock routinely fills the loss column courtesy of flailing slaps from Sakuraba and painfully pushed punches from Buzz Berry. If and when Mr. Ferguson wins, I fail to see a way he could put on a convincing clinic and “absolutely destroy” Shamrock, since if he lands one serious punch, Shamrock will be beamed directly to Queer Street. Unless Kimbo is going to keep beating on him when Shamrock inevitably leaps up to protest the stoppage, I don’t see a way for absolute destruction to transpire.

Huckaby: TRUE. Oh I see what you did there, stating “absolute destruction” must take a bit of time and is more of a dismantling. My dictionary says “destroy” means to demolish, do away with or, in case of an animal, put it to death. I suppose you’re right on your definition but the fact is Shamrock will probably try to roll for a kneebar or clinch up immediately. Ferguson will then more than likely toss him off like a rag doll and unload several punches, one of which will put Ken Shamrock on a stretcher. I love how cocky Shamrock is about this by the way…. or atleast the way he’s talking about it. Good luck with that.

2. Joey Villasenor deserves the next EXC MW title shot against Robbie Lawler on November 8th.

Breen: FALSE. Joey Villasenor “deserves” the next middleweight title shot more than any other guy EliteXC can drum up for November. However, he was plunked by Ninja Rua, who was everything short of forcibly penetrated by Lawler, and should have lost to Riki Fukuda, but was awarded the win by a panel of judges featuring a guy who was legitimately busier arguing with a broad in the crowd and talking on his cell phone than watching the fight. Ryan Jensen and Phil Baroni are nice plumes for your chapeau, but don’t really make you “deserving” unless you’re dealing with the unfortunately low relativist standard imposed by EliteXC.

Huckaby: TRUE. It is referring to the low relativist standard imposed by EXC. Plus I’d like to see if Villasenor can come back from that embarrassing loss to Lawler at the PRIDE USA show a couple of years ago. While no one can argue Villasenor is Paulo Filho or Matt Lindland, they can’t get Paulo Filho or Matt Lindland so I’m not really sure what else they could have done here. I’m sure someone will name someone else who is available we’re spacing out on but as far as I’m concerned EXC only really has three or four middleweights at the current time that they can face off against one another on the main card.

3. Jake Shields will retain the EXC WW Title over Paul Daley.

Breen: TRUE. Paul Daley is young, dynamic and top-notch in the trash talk department. Unfortunately, he’s the same guy who was soundly outwrestled and outgrappled by a desperate Luiz Azeredo. While I would have hope if not faith that he’s worked on his ground game in the span since, he’s facing a guy so much better than him in that regard that unless he’s going to tag in Andre Galvao or Marcelo Garcia when he gets taken down, he’s going to be completely outclassed on the mat. Props to Daley for a wickedly transparent fake retirement to escape from the trashy clutches of Cage Rage, but he’s not going to make it to the end of the first round.

Huckaby: TRUE. I don’t know what else to add to that as it’s pretty much spot on from beginning to end. I also have to say he probably won’t make it through the first round as the classic “puncher’s chance” fights rarely to never go that way and it’s only a reason to argue for an outcome that’s fairly unrealistic. Shields will clinch him up against the cage, get a trip takedown and work from there for the armbar or choke. Sorry if I’m totally shocking anyone with that. It’s alright for Daley, as Breen said he’s very young and as long as he continues improving his ground game the sky could be the limit.

—-SWITCH IT UP—-

4. With the rematch now official we’ll go back in time. Shogun Rua’s arm injury in their first fight was a fluke and not a special wrestling move.

Huckaby: TRUE. While I can’t believe we have to wait all the way to January for the bout but I think this will once and for all quiet those psychopaths that argued Coleman’s tackle TKO win in PRIDE was not a fluke but a clever wrestling maneuver. Oh it was a wrestling maneuver I suppose but it’s to trip a guy, not for him to fall awkwardly and snap a bone. Many people, myself included, have wanted this rematch for some time to finally get some clips of that post-fight brawl all over TV again. Go forth Shogun and show them what really should have happened the first time.

Breen: TRUE. Obviously. It was a nice finish on the takedown, and it was Rua’s own fault for attempting to post on his arm while falling on his face, but, “special wrestling move?” This statement sucks, Huckaby. I really would’ve rather done Pulp or No Pulp. (editor’s note: Jordan is referring to a proposed question of which type of orange juice is better.)

5. Also official, Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson would be the most exciting fight possible in the current UFC MW division. (note: I accidentally wrote middleweight originally even though I answered knowing it was at LHW and forgot to change it.  Sorry.)

Huckaby: TRUE. People have wanted this fight from the time Dan Henderson came over from PRIDE to the UFC. No Anderson Silva fight is going to be very exciting at this point — unless you consider a 10 second knockout exciting. Personally I find excellent top tier fights to be the best, even if they’re boring because you usually don’t realize it while you’re watching, and Hendo and Franklin are the best outside of Anderson Silva. I can’t wait for this fight and I’m sure I’ll be giving much more commentary when my excitement wears off and I can clear some thoughts. I don’t really see Franklin finishing Henderson, though after his outing against Silva who knows. Fighting it at 205lbs is probably the best move as I think Henderson belongs there and Franklin doesn’t have much else to do. This will be more of a test for Rich Franklin at a bigger weight and his future there. A Franklin win is probably best for the UFC as he can go on and face the best 205lbers while we’ve already seen Henderson lose to Rampage.

Breen: TRUE. Partially, first of all it’s excitement factor at 185 is irrelevant since the fight is taking place at 205 pounds. Secondly, I’m not sure that it’s a fight I would single out for balls-out, straight-fire in terms of action. However, it’s two high level guys who have been left largely aimless due to Anderson Silva merking mooks, and therefore it makes complete sense. On top of all that, the style match-up is thoroughly interesting. Henderson has trouble with guys who have striking versatility, and Franklin definitely has the tools to be aggressive, to counter, and force Henderson to be a one-dimensional right-handed windmiller from the outside. Conversely, Franklin’s chin is always murmured about as iffy, and he has a propensity to get tagged with power shots against guys with less power in their right hands than Henderson. I’m all for it.

6. HDNet acquiring IFL’s assets makes sense.

Huckaby: TRUE. I actually changed this from false when I saw it was only for $650,000 and liabilities. Sure it would have been nice to get some of the fighters but we all know they’re doing this for the video library and more television. In that sense I can’t really compare this to EXC apparently going deep into the red recently and I think it all started with their happy purchasing powers of smaller shows among other mistakes. I guess time will tell but for a channel like HDNet which could use more programming and currently has plenty of money I don’t see how this is going to hurt them.

Breen: TRUE. More programming options are better than less programming options, and as you pointed out, the price tag isn’t exactly exorbitant. However, fans really don’t care about the IFL at this point, and it’ll largely just serve as something you can throw on if you’re stone bored and you have an HD TV in front of you. I guess there’s no way to spin it as “bad”, but I really can’t meet this with anything more than abject ambivalence. We could have done Prairie Dogs vs. Gophers, or at least discussed the best up-and-coming 86-pound blue chippers out of Indochina. Don’t you want to be relevant?

And that does it for another Duel. Again, my bad on #3, I’ve been scatter brained all week. Breen put up with him and was his usual annoying self.

Join us next week when two other MMA writers will battle it out in the Duel!