I haven’t watched a lot of Bellator shows, just a few fights here and there, but never a whole card. But last Saturday I was home and had nothing to do, so I watched the first Bellator show in Canada.
I was pretty impressed. They put on a very good product. They have some good established fighters and a lot of up and comers.
And it looks like they’ve put a lot of time into recruiting because they have guys from all over the world. Guys from Argentina, Brazil, England in addition to the Americans and Canadians.
The fights were really good and I enjoyed the commentating. Overall it was a good event.
I also really like that format, the tournament style. Obviously doing it all on one night doesn’t work — there’s too much wear and tear and possibility for injuries. But I like the idea of doing a tournament over 3-4 months. It makes for exciting fights and builds anticipation for the next ones.
I thought Chris Horodecki did well. I’m a big fan of Shawn Tompkins’ guys and their style of fighting. It will be interesting to see if they can get Chris into the welterweight tournament and maybe get him a shot at that Bellator title.
I think they have a great upcoming season of fights in that tournament. Obviously their champ Ben Askren is an establish wrestler, but he’s got a big mouth and talks a lot of crap so I hope they can give him a good guy to fight for the title.
Speaking of Askren, for a guy who hasn’t done a whole lot in the sport yet, he talks a lot of smack. He likes to take a pot shot at every welterweight out there. Personally, I really would have liked to see Bellator sign Nate Marquardt for one super-fight against Askren. I think people would have really loved to have seen that.
I tend to agree with Nate — there were an awful lot of people kicking him when he was down. Whatever happened, right, wrong or indifferent, he’s now been cleared to fight. It would be nice to see those guys who were calling him out to put their money where their mouths are and fight him now.
I didn’t see Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers card but Sarah Kaufman had an impressive win. And now this week we’ve got a big women’s fight and this is really going to tell us if Zuffa is going to keep women’s MMA around or not.
Gina Carano at one time was the face of women’s MMA, but with her apparently stepping away and focusing on movies, they may be in need of a new face.
Cyborg kind of took over but her contract has expired, so now they’re really grasping at straws to see if women’s MMA is worth keeping under the Zuffa banner. We all know Dana White’s not the biggest fan of it and although the women fighters are incredibly skilled, I don’t know that people will buy a PPV headlined by a women’s fight.
This weekend is going to play a huge part. If Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate can put on an exciting fight and people enjoy it and the reaction is positive then maybe it will last and Kaufman will get a chance to fight for the title again. But I think it’s hanging on by a thread and we need a big performance for it to last.
As for the main event of Saturday’s show, I don’t even know if anybody’s super excited about Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson. Even Fedor’s manager said he’s tired of fighting.
I think this is his last contracted fight and I’m not sure how motivated he is for this. Is the guy just going to go in there and fulfill his obligations, collect a paycheque and then step away from fighting? He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who cares whether he goes down fighting or just fades away.
And with that, on to my picks…
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson
I’m picking Hendo for sure. I always enjoy watching him fight. And I’ve seen some pictures from his training camp, he looks like he’s in fantastic shape for someone who’s 40 years old.
Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate
I’m a big Coenen fan. I didn’t think she looked great in the last Carmouche fight, but I think she’s extremely dangerous on the ground and she’s durable. And Tate is more of a wrestler-type fighter. I don’t think it’s a great game plan for her to put Marloes on her back. I’m going with Coenen.
Tim Kennedy vs. Robbie Lawler
This is a good fight. Robbie Lawler always has that one-punch knockout power, so you can never count him out. But overall Kennedy has looked pretty solid in all his fights, even in his loss to Ronaldo (Jacare) Souza. I’m going to go with Kennedy.
Paul Daley vs. Tyron Woodley
Woodley’s a good up and comer, but I think Daley’s a big step up for him, so I’m going to go with Daley. By left hook.
Scott Smith vs. Tarec Saffiedine
I didn’t even know Scott Smith was still fighting. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I just hadn’t heard much about him since he fought Cung Le. They’re both bangers. Saffiedine comes from a kickboxing background and likes to stand and trade. But I’m going with Smith, the guy’s a warrior.
Gesias (JZ) Cavalcante vs. Bobby Green
I don’t know anything about the other guy, and that means it must be terribly mismatched if he’s fighting JZ. He came in last minute as an injury replacement for Lyle Beerbohm, but he’s in deep water against Cavalcante.
Alexis Davis vs. Julie Kedzie
I don’t know much about these two ladies either, but clearly I have to go with the Canadian Davis.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about something unrelated. I was reading about Cub Swanson being the first guy to take advantage of the UFC’s new health insurance. He took a knee to the face while training at Greg Jackson’s gym and he shattered his nose, orbital bone and broke his jaw. He used up his entire $50,000 in coverage for surgeries, and thankfully it was there for him.
And then my friend Ryan (The Kid) McGillivray from Alberta was also down at Jackson’s and took a knee to the face and had his nose broken in 20 places and he was having surgery on Wednesday. (For a picture, click here. Warning: it’s not for the squeamish.)
My question is: how do you throw a knee that hard in training that you can shatter a guy’s nose? Is that really necessary in training? At my gym in Red Deer, we have a very strict rule in training: if you’re going to throw a knee, it should never go faster than quarter speed. It’s almost in slow motion, just to acknowledge the opening was there for it.
I’ve trained at a lot of gyms, and I don’t know if that’s common at training that you throw a knee that hard. It’s certainly not anywhere I’ve been.
I called Ryan to ask how he’s doing and just spoke to him briefly but he said he didn’t expect it coming. The guy wasn’t wearing any knee pads, and it came full force. And now his doctor is saying he may never fight again, because even if he’s able to repair the nose, he may never be able to take a punch.
It surprises me that at such a highly esteemed gym that that’s allowed. I have all the respect in the world for Greg Jackson and his gym, I’ve trained there but I don’t remember anything like that — sparring at full speed — being allowed.
Unfortunately Swanson is out for what looks like six months and Ryan may never be able to fight again. They might want to rethink full-speed sparring even if in full knee pads.
Now I’m heading to California to watch the CrossFit games. Every year they do a number of workouts to qualify, and it’s like the Olympics of CrossFit. It’s exciting and very motivational to watch. We went last year and decided to go again this year. So we’ll be at the Home Depot Center Sports Complex in Carson, Calif., for the events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I trained Wednesday and Thursday’s my usual day off, so I just took a weekend off and will return Monday, hopefully extremely motivated after watching the games. Any crossfitters out there, who may be checking it out, come and say hello!