Month: November 2013

Watch Standout Fighting Tournament 2 Live on Bloody Elbow

Posted on by Zane Simon in Events, Front Page, Videos

Another Regional fight card takes place today, this time from Brazil, and once again it’s on right now on Bloody Elbow, live and streaming. The card features former Light Heavyweight UFC prospect Luiz Cane facing Fabio Silva, and much maligned Carina Damm facing Daiane Firmino, along with a host of regional fighters. Check out all the action right now.

Main card:
Luiz Cane vs. Fabio Silva
Edson Franca vs. Joao Isidoro
Diogo Cavalcanti vs. Paulo Silva
Allan Nascimento vs. Alex Silva
Carina Damm vs. Daiane Firmino

Undercard:
Marcos Rodrigues dos Santos vs. Neliton Furtado
Claudio Godoy vs. Marcio Teles
Cemir Alves vs. Serginho Vieira
Walter Bruce vs. Allan Popeye

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Leandro Issa faces off against Russell Doane in a battle of UFC newcomers

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

When Russell Doane vacated his KOTC title back in 2012, immediately after winning it, I assumed it was because he was on his way to the UFC’s bantamweight division. Instead, it was PXC and, frankly, a mixed bag of results. Doane, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, went 1-2 fighting in PXC, but in-between losses he managed to pick up a few wins as well, fighting under Destiny MMA, and most recently defeating former UFC fighter Jared Papazian at Tachi Palace Fights. Following this most recent win he was picked up by the UFC, Fight Sport Asia has the news of his signing.

27 year old Doane is a product of one of Hawaii’s more notable gyms, the 808 Top Team, which is home to regional standouts Harris Sarmiento and Falaniko Vitale. He’ll carry a 12-3 record with him into the octagon, with his only recent losses coming to current PXC champ Michinori Tanaka via submission and a split decision to recent PXC title challenger Kyle Aguon. His record is otherwise pretty well split between submissions and TKOs/KOs, with only two of his victories coming via decision.

Watching him fight, a few things are notable. Doane has really fast hands, even for a bantamweight. And he not only throws with power, but moves his head as he throws. he ducks a bit, which better fighters will take advantage of, but isn’t a terrible flaw. His wrestling, on the other hand, is really systematic (and not in a good way). He’s not afraid to get in to the clinch and work for takedowns, but is better working trips from the body lock than going for pure shots where he tends to muscle guys. He has a very competent ground game, scrambles well and sticks with dominant positions. He needs some defensive work as he tends to get caught backing up and trying to shell away from strikes. It should be noted as well that Doane seems to have almost no kicking game, which turns him into something of a poor man’s Eddie Wineland.

Doane’s opponent for his UFC debut will be another newcomer in Evolve MMA product Leandro Issa. The 30 year old Issa is 11-3 in his seven year MMA career. He has a couple of big wins over Masakazu Imanari and Soo Chul Kim, but Kim was later able to avenge that loss via second round TKO. He’s had a win over the decent Yusup Saadulaev since, but it’s hard not to take notice of his poor showing against Kim in their second go-round.

Issa trains out of Evolve MMA alongside regional prospects Eddie Ng and Leandro Ataides. Like many successful MMA grapplers, he appears to be a bit of a front runner, with almost all of his submission victories coming early in the first round. He has however, only seen the judges three times in his 14 fight career.

Watching Issa fight, he definitely comes from the Brazilian ideology that sees striking as nothing more than a free-form method of chucking your body at someone. He throws the kind of right hand that can only be called “overhand” because he stops himself before turning it into a full revolving windmill. He backs straight up when defending and tends to look away when getting hit. Of course there’s a flipside to all this (and a point to the wild offense) which is that he’s pretty slick on the ground. He’s exceptionally clingy, which is tough for bantamweight, where fighters tend to all be fantastic scramblers, and as is evidence by his many wins, he’s got an aggressive submission game. Eventually I worry about how strong his takedown game is as there are very few fighters who find success in the UFC’s bantamweight division with his skill set.

To get us better acquainted, here are videos of each of their last fights.

Russell Doane vs. Jared Papzian (This is the full Tachi Palace Fights 17 card. Doane vs. Papzian is at the end):

Leandro Issa vs Yusup Saadulaev:

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Watch Fight Nights: Battle in Minsk as Andrei Arlovski takes on Andreas Kraniotakes

Posted on by Zane Simon in Events, Front Page, Videos

There’s a big Heavyweight clash going on in Minsk, Belarus today featuring Andrei Arlovski as he takes on 17-8 German heavyweight Andreas Kraniotakes. It’s part of a nine fight live card and it’s streaming right here on Bloody Elbow, so check out all the action.

HERE IS THE LINK TO THE FREE EVENT STREAM

Here’s the complete card:

Andrei Arlovski vs Andreas Kraniotakes
Abdul-Kerim Edilov vs Maciej Browarski
Andrei Danilov vs Marc Vlieger
Magomed Magomedov vs Allan Love
Alexey Repalov vs Tarrance Williams
Artem Kazersky vs Said Kasha
Eduard Muravitskiy vs Viktor Tomasevic
Pavel Katrunov vs Dmitriy Maslennikov
Alexander Melnik vs Bogdan Kotlovyanov

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Shogun puts the brakes on middleweight talk

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC Interview, UFC News

Recently, Mauricio Rua’s weight has been a point of interest. Long considered one of the smaller fighters in the light heavyweight division, he has given fans critical of his recent performances, and seemingly poor conditioning, a glimmer of hope that he might be dropping down. When asked, he’s mentioned several times in the past couple months that a move to 185 lbs is a distinct possibility.

“Maybe I can [drop down to middleweight] and maintain my performance,” he said.

“I would need to think about it, but that’s something that can happen.”

– Transcription via Elias Cepeda (FOX Sports)

But now, as his fight date looms and questions continue it appears that he’s softening his stance somewhat. He spoke to MMAjunkie about the possibility of a future cut to middleweight:

“That’s a question everyone asks, about dropping to middleweight,” Rua recently said. “I’ve talked about it a lot with my manager and teammates, but I never gave serious thought to dropping in weight class. It could happen, but for now I am not thinking about it as I am booked to fight in my weight class, as a light heavyweight.”

…

“To be honest, I would have to undergo some medical examinations regarding the possible weight drop,” said Rua, who recently marked his 12-year anniversary as a pro MMA fighter. “My walk-around weight is around 104, 105 kilograms (about 230 pounds). So to go down to 84 kilograms, I’d have to drop 20 kilograms (44 pounds).”

There’s no question, if Rua is walking around at 230 lbs, as he states, that a drop to middleweight would be incredibly hard. A change down a division may mean a change in his entire training system. And for a fighter who is as established in his career as he is, that may be nearly impossible.

Either way, Rua finds himself with his back against the wall when he faces James Te Huna on December 7 in Brisbane, Australia. Excepting a quick win over Forrest Griffin, Rua hasn’t looked like a fresh fighter since his 2010 title run. He’s made a few camp changes in that time as well, so there could be some attribution of poor training environments for the still only 32 year old fighter. But if he can’t get past Te Huna next month some more serious career evaluation may be in order.

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Report: UFC picks up Russo-Ukranian heavyweight Alexey Oleinik

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

Superkarate.ru reports the UFC has signed longtime Russo-Ukranian heavyweight, Alexey Oleinik. Oleinik, who has bounced a bit between heavyweight and light heavyweight throughout his career, will enter the UFC on a nine fight winning streak including victories over Dion Staring, Jeff Monson, Tony Lopez, and most recently Mirko Filipovic. At age 36, he’s one of the more traveled vets on the MMA circuit, holding an overall record of 48-9-1.

Oleinik trains principally out of the K-Dojo Warrior Tribe in the US, home to top welter weight prospect Albert Tumenov. He’s more recently joined the Oplot Team as well, leading to a large number of his recent fights coming under the Oplot Challenge banner. Of course, it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses in Oleinik’s long career. He was part of the 2010 Bellator Heavyweight tournament, which saw him gain a split decision victory over Mike Hayes, before dropping to Neil Grove via a 45 second TKO.

Watching him fight, it’s still easy to see his flaws at play. Most notably, he’s just not a striker, and never will be. He wings huge, looping punches at opponents, hoping to get them to raise their guard and open up to his following shot attempt. As a grappling oriented heavyweight he’s got a nasty submission game and a willingness to do anything to drag the fight to the mat. But like many other large grapplers, the more tired he gets the more his striking deteriorates. However, with his experience and in a field that still contains very few wrestlers or grapplers, there are a lot of good, solid fights for him in the UFC.

Outside of MMA Oleinik was the 2005 Combat Sambo world champion and is a fourth degree Jujutsu black belt. Watching him slap a wicked neck crank on Filipovic was pretty fun (unless you’re exceptionally nostalgic), so it should be interesteing to see what he can do against the Matt Mitriones, Shawn Jordans, and Brendan Schaubs of the world.

He has a history of fighting at light heavyweight as well, so who knows, maybe he’ll drop and give that division a much needed injection of talent. To get us acquainted, here’s his fight against Jeff Monson from June of this year:

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Update: Team Quest Thailand sends misleading tweet about fighter signing

Posted on by Zane Simon in Asian MMA, Front Page, UFC News

UPDATE: Apparently this is all wrong. Despite pre-announcement rumors that Sparv was on the UFC’s list for Singapore, and despite a tweet that was meant to lead readers into thinking Sparv had signed with the organization, he is not in fact part of the UFC’s January 4th card. FightSport.fi has the report straight from Sparv:

Of course, the UFC is making its way to Singapore at the beginning of january, but Sparvia not see the card.

– “It’s not true. I have the following a match in Singapore, but it is not the UFC,” Sparv laughs. – translation via Google.

There are still rumors swirling that the UFC may have picked up Garrick Seah, Dave Galera, Jon Delos Reyes, and Roldan Sangcha-an as well. But at this point any initial reports should be taken with a grain of salt… Stay tuned for confirmation and for breakdowns of each of the UFC’s new fighters as their signing is announced.

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Rich Franklin is scaling back on his fighting career

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC Interview, UFC News

Former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin appeared on AXS TV recently to talk about winding down his UFC career. Back in May he was talking about taking another couple of fights before looking to hang up his gloves, but now it sounds like he sees the end as being a little nearer, telling AXS TV that he’d like one last fight before ending his career.

“You know, I lost my last fight, and that really kind of solidified my decision to make this my last fight coming up. I know that took me out of title contention and so for me to get back into the title hunt would be a couple years’ worth of work and I know that. I’m 39, I’ll be 40 next year and it’s getting to the point where it’s late in my life and it’s really too late to have that title run so I started questioning, what am I really fighting for, if I can’t make it to the title anymore? I know I’m not in title contention anymore and I realize that so, that’s how it is.”

Win or lose, Franklin should be remembered as one of the best fighters of his generation, with wins over Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, and Evan Tanner sprinkled among a 13 year career at the highest levels of the sport. While his championship run may not have been particularly memorable for it’s length or his opponents it represents a pinnacle of achievement that few other fighters in this sport can claim.

Post fighting it looks like he’s going into the health food industry as he’s been working to open a chain of juice bars in the Los Angeles area. He’s already got the Mike Dolce seal of approval, so who knows? Maybe we’ll all be drinking Franklin’s ZeLin brand juice before long.

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Bellator 109 Gifs & Results: Shlemenko puts a hurting on the Rhino

Posted on by Zane Simon in Bellator, Front Page, MMA Results

Friday night fights have come and gone with a big end of the season card from Bellator which saw Alexander Shlemenko put his title on the line against Doug Marshall, Alexander Sarnavskiy vs. Will Brooks, and Rick Hawn vs. Ron Keslar. With appearances from Blagoi Ivanov, Terry Etim, and Goti Yamaguchi. There was plenty of good action with some exciting knockouts, a couple of strong submission finishes and soem all out wars. Check out all the action and the highlight gifs via our own Zombie Prophet.

Featherweight Bout: Lester Caslow def. Jay Haas via Sub (Guillotine) at 2:44 of Round 3

This was a decent fight, Haas and Caslow traded one and two punch combinations from the outside for most of the first round, with Caslow landing with a bit more regularity and pop. The second started the same way, but midway through the round Caslow got a takedown and worked some decent ground-and-pound and top control. He went for a Peruvian necktie late in the the round, but lost the submission right before the bell. In the third Caslow really started to push the action and after a bit of clinching on the fence created a little space and caught Haas with a hard right hand. He locked up the guillotine soon after to end the fight.

Lightweight Bout: Brent Primus def. Brett Glass via Sub (RNC) at 3:20 of Round 1

Primus came out throwing fast one-two combinations at Glass early, who was holding his chin a bit high. After a bit of inconsequential exchanging Primus shot in and took Glass down. Glass looked pretty lost on bottom, gave up mount, rolled and gave up back mount and got choked out.

Lightweight Bout: Bubba Jenkins def. Ian Rammel via TKO (strikes) at 2:38 of Round 3

Much hyped prospect Bubba Jenkins returned after his first career loss. He looked way more powerful than Rammel early, but ducked into a hard kick going for a shot. Rammel went for a takedown, got stuffed and spent a lot of time on the bottom. After a stand up Jenkins shot in and took him down again. The second saw Jenkins once again out-grapple Rammel for most of the round. In the third he hurt Rammel early with strikes and Rammel went for another sloppy takedown. Jenkins jumped on top of him and was eventually able to pour on the strikes from top control for the win.

Fight end:

Potential illegal knee right before the end:

Catchweight (152 lb) Bout: Goiti Yamauchi def. Saul Almeida via KO (punches) at 2:04 of Round 1

Yamauchi came out like a house on fire and just started winging hooks at Almeida who seemed totally overwhelmed by the onslaught. Eventually Yamauchi caught him with several hard shots and put him away.

Heavyweight Bout: Blagoi Ivanov def. Keith Bell via Sub (RNC) at 3:59 of Round 1

Bell came out aggressively trying to pop in and out of range with hard strikes, he caught Ivanov watching him early and stunned him a bit. Ivanov backed into the cage and Bell charged in with a flying knee that sent Ivanov crashing to the canvas. Ivanov was able to regain his composure but seemed tentative, he eventually got Bell into the clinch where he was able to drag him to the canvas and take his back for the rear naked choke finish.

Lightweight Bout: Mike Bannon def. Ahsan Abdulla via Technical Sub (arm-triangle choke) at 1:51 of Round 1

Bannon started the round with some crisp boxing. He was able to box his way into the clinch where he got the takedown. On the ground he was able to secure the mount where he locked up the arm triangle and move to side control. Abdulla gave the thumbs up that he was fine and then passed out a few seconds later.

Lightweight Bout: Terry Etim def. Patrick Cenoble via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-26)

Etim shot for the takedown immediately to start the round and chained together a nice double, single, to trip string to get it. He kept clinging top control for a good minute before standing for some ground and pound. After a bit of scrambling Etim regained back control and rode out the round looking for the submission. After some tentative striking early in the second Etim shot under a wild uppercut from Cenoble and took him down. After a standup Etim was able to control the fight at range. Etim had another largely controlling round in the third and though he ended up on bottom to end the fight he maintained strong grappling control for the win.

Lightweight Tournament Finale: Will Brooks def. Alexander Sarnavskiy via Unanimous Decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)

Brooks shot in for an early takedown which got stuffed. After the failed takedown he and Sarnavskiy spent a lot of time exchanging at range with Sarnavskiy landing the harder shots. Eventually Brooks shot again, got stuffed and the fighter clinched against the fence. After a solid 30 seconds of clinching the Brooks finally got the double and took Sarnavskiy down. Sarnavskiy got back to his feet and the fighters traded hard knees in the clinch.  Brooks got another takedown and finished the round in top control. Brooks pressed for the takedown at the start of round 2 and secured it. He spent the remainder of the round landing consistent shots from top control. Brooks got another takedown early in round three and spent the round landing brutal shots to Sarnavskiy who had blood pouring into his eyes from cuts. Brooks tried for a RNC late, but couldn’t get it.

Welterweight Tournament Finale: Rick Hawn def. Ron Keslar via KO (punches) at 0:55 of Round 3

Keslar caught Hawn early with a couple of early hooks pressing the standup. He landed a hard knee to the body as Hawn backed up and Hawn folded up. Keslar stood over him to keep him on the ground and landed a few more hard shots, but couldn’t create the consistent offense. Hawn made it back to his feet and started finding his range. Hawn and Keslar traded in and out at range for a couple minutes until Keslar found the clinch and landed a few hard knees along the cage to end the round. They continued to circle at range in the second with Hawn finding better timing on his jab and keeping Keslar at bay. Hawn popped Keslar a bit at range, moved in with his right hand behind Keslar’s head and threw a gaggle of short upprecuts in the clinch that badly rocked Keslar. Hawn followed up with a couple hooks, and a similar series of left uppercuts. Keslar circled out into a big right hook which put him down and ended the fight.

Middleweight Title Bout: Alexander Shlemenko def. Doug Marshall via KO (Liver punch) at 4:28 of Round 1

Shlemenko started tentatively and shot for an instant takedown, Marshall shook his head and sprung back to his feet. They traded a few lunging strikes from the outside and Shlemenko dived in for another takedown, which Marshall stuffed. After a few wild strikes from both fighters Shlemenko lunged in and caught a double leg takdown, but Marshall exploded quickly back to his feet. Marshall threw a low blow, but no break in the action and Shlemenko hit him with a  couple hard kicks and knees to the body. A lot of single strikes traded. Marshall tried to unload a series of right hooks and Shlemenko hit him hard to the liver with a hook and Marshall doubled over. Several more hooks to the body and Marshall was done.

That’s all from a big night of fights for Bellator that saw Alexander Shlemenko set the record for MW title defenses and two new tournament champions crowned. That’s also the Bellator season finale, but be sure to stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for MMA news, updates, fight announcements and pre & post fight breakdowns.

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UFC signs lightweight Frank “Sitkayan” Trevino

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

It looks like the UFC is starting to gear up for it’s first trip to Mexico City (expected for sometime this spring) and has picked up undefeated former welterweight Frank Trevino in preparation for the promotions first trip to Mexico. MMAjunkie has the report.

Trevino, 31, is undefeated at 11-0, fighting almost entirely out of South Texas Fighting Championships. He’s spent the majority of his career at welterweight, but will be dropping to lightweight for his UFC debut. A product of Macaco Gold Team, under Jorge Patino, (the stateside home of Charles Oliveira) Trevino’s record is well split between submissions, knockouts, and decisions. Similarly his opponents are a mixed bag of regional prospects, journeymen, and overly green competition, he has no notable wins to date.

Watching his fights, there are a few worthwhile points to take note of. First and foremost, Trevino certainly looks to have been undersized for welterweight (and formerly middleweight) and it probably served him well on the regional circuit where he was faster and had more energy than his competition. Otherwise, he has a decent mix of strikes and a willingness to throw them all, sprinkling headkicks and knees liberally into his arsenal. He strikes much more comfortably in the clinch than he does at range where his abominable footwork often gets in his way. He has nice elbows inside though and has at least one KO via elbow strikes from the clinch. His ground game looks pretty raw and is based much more on strength than technique, a problem that has often gotten him into trouble against larger fighters.

No debut date or opponent has been set for Trevino, but he’s gunning for the UFC’s first trip to Mexico sometime next spring. Honestly, without a lot of improvement, he’s going to struggle, even at the bottom end of the UFC’s lightweight division. Here’s some footage of one of his more recent fights to get us acquainted:

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UFC signs two new flyweights for TUF 18 Finale

Posted on by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

As more Bantamweights drop to 125 lbs the UFC’s flyweight division has become a center for expansion. Now it looks like Zuffa is helping the process along with the signing of two top flyweight prospects. The UFC announced via Twitter on Wednesday that it has signed Joshua Sampo and Ryan Benoit to fight at the Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale on November 30th.

Josh “The Gremlin” Sampo enters the UFC with a 10-2 record amassed largely on the US regional scene. He has wins over experienced big show vets in Antonio Banuelos and Alexis Vila to his name and his only losses have come to equally experienced competition in Will Campuzano and Mike French. Sampo is a wrestler grappler by nature working out of St. Charles MMA, alongside another top flyweight prospect Alptekin Ozkilic.

Watching what little footage there is to be found of Sampo, he tends to keep range with teeps and leg kicks on the outside where he’ll look to brawl his way into the clinch. In general he closes distance well with a good variety of technique and has strong defensive striking, but gets himself off balance a lot in exchanges. Once inside he mixes in double-leg takedowns and trips and has generally decent shot timing. He was a collegiate wrestler at the NAIA level and is currently a high school wrestling coach along with his MMA career, so obviously his wrestling game is his bread and butter. He appears to be rounding it out nicely with Jiu Jitsu however, so it will be interesting to see where he fits in the grappling heavy flyweight division.

His opponent for his first fight in the UFC will be Ryan “Baby Face” Benoit. Benoit is a Janjira Muay Thai product (the same gym that produced Bellator contender David Rickels) and has spent most of his career with Legacy FC. His 7-2 record is spotted with a recent decision loss to Anthony Birchak (in a thrilling MFC fight at 135 lbs) and an early career loss to regional vet Tim Snyder. He has a win over UFC vet Joseph Sandoval, but otherwise very little depth to his record.

Watching his fights, it’s easy to see that Benoit possesses rare power at flyweight. Not one of his seven wins has gone past the second round, with six coming by KO/TKO. His grappling and defense need a lot of work, but like many of the more athletic flyweights he scrambles well and has decent submission defense. He also listens well to his corner and doesn’t panic under pressure, both things that will serve him well against a top control grappler like Sampo. At just 24 years of age he has time, but he needs to round his game out to compete in the UFC.

For a closer look at Ryan Benoit, here’s the link to his fight against Anthony Birchak (it won’t tell you much about his strengths as he lost decidedly). Here’s Josh Sampo’s fight against Alexis Vila to get us familiar with him:

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