UFC 122, an overview.

The UFC has been making some of it's most recent cards free to air on Spike. While you might say this is a great opportunity for people to have a chance to become interested in MMA, it's not always what it makes it out to be. The UFC always hypes out their events to be much more than expected, it's lackluster events makes me turn my head and watch past PRIDE fights which in my opinion are much more exciting. Anyway enough of me ranting, this card seems like an okay card  with Nate Marquardt vs. Yushin Okami headlining the card, along with Dennis Siver vs. Andre Winner, Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara, Amir Sadollah vs. Peter Sobotta, and Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Goran Reljic. I don't expect high hopes off this card as I have with the previous cards. Marquardt vs. Okami will be the fight everyone is looking forward to. Marquardt's strength and power in his hands will collide with Okami's masterful technique. Rivera vs Sakara should be interesting, both strikers with knockout power in their strikes should prove to set fireworks in the octagon. Siver vs Winner does not interest me much, however on paper it should be a good fight (Siver's aggressive striking with Winner's cautious and counter striking). Sadollah vs. Sobatta is the 2nd most fight I'm looking forward to (being a Sadollah fan) with Sadollah's technical Muay Thai striking and Sobatta's grappling ability. Last fight on the main card is Soszynski vs Reljic. This should be an interesting grappling battle, as both are mainly submission artists (Soszynski by Kimura anyone)? More to come when the event comes inching closer.

^{~ Vincent Saengsombat}

Dana's Major Announcement: The Merge

The face that only a mother could love. The UFC's master-mind Dana White (above) announced that the UFC and its sister promotion the WEC have just officially merged. You might be saying to yourself "holy shit." So am I my friends. I was expecting this goofy bastard to announced that "Cain Velasquez was the new champion", that "He has decided on the new coaches and color scheme for the next season of the Ultimate Fighter" or that he "Just saved a bunch of money on his insurance by switching to Geico". Luckily that was not the case. This is a huge for everyone involved in the process. It's sad to see the WEC go, but we now have a Bantamweight and Featherweight division in the UFC. Also, the UFC's Lightweight division will be much more competitive with the addition of the WEC's LW division. Guys like Ben Henderson, who is the WEC's LW champ, will have to test his skills against the UFC's LW elite like BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, Gray Maynard, Sean Sherk, and eventually Frankie Edgar (if he defends his title on January 1st at UFC 125). Joining Ben Henderson will be stars like the WEC's Featherweight champ Jose Aldo, the WEC's Bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz, and other contenders of these various divisions like Urijah Faber, Miguel Torres, Anthony Pettis, Scott Jorgenson, and Donald Cerrone.

If your a fan of MMA and you're upset about this big move, there must be something wrong with you. This potentially means better, more stacked cards and more free fight cards on Versus per year. We shall see if the WEC's stars can handle the big step in competition and show they are now "UFC Champions."

By Shawn LeLievre

Sherdog's Top 10 Pound-For-Pound Fighters

1. Anderson "The Spider" Silva (27-4)

2. Georges "Rush" St. Pierre (20-2)

3. Jose Aldo (18-1)

4. Frankie Edgar (13-1)

5. Jon Fitch (23-3, 1NC)

6. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (19-4)

7. Jake Shields (26-4-1)

8. Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida (16-1)

9. "Suga" Rashad Evans (15-1-1)

10. Gilbert Melendez (18-2)

Does this Top 10 look familiar? The answer is YES. Sherdog's P4P Top 10 has not made one change since their last P4P list. I would have expected them to move Jake Shields a spot up after his lackluster split-decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121. I honestly think he doesn't deserve to be at #7 on this list. The top three have engraved their names onto this list and will probably stay there for a while. In my opinion, there are three things wrong with this list:

1. Fedor Emelianenko is not on this list. To some, he was "exposed" back in June when he was submitted by Fabricio Werdum. Fedor is a human, and was eventually going to lose. I think it is utter bullshit to completely drop him from the list after being given #3 back before this loss. I will always stand by the fact that he should always be on this list

2. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is only number #6. Why is this a problem you ask? Because he is one spot behind the talented wrestler Jon Fitch. Jon Fitch has 5 straight Unanimous decision victories and is looking for another shot at GSP's WW title, which is a lost cause. The only thing Jon Fitch has proven to me in the past 2 years is that he is unable to finish an opponent. On the otherhand, Shogun is a champion and just "KTFO'd" Lyoto Machida which is an incredible feat. I just think that they should switch places on this list. It doesn't really mean much, but it would make me as an MMA fan happier. Just sayin'.

3. Cain Velasquez should be on this list somewhere. I sort of wish there was an 11 spot, because all of these guys to deserve to be on this list, but so does Cain. Why? Because he just completely dethroned Brock Lesnar and exposed Lesnar's striking ability. He also proved that size doesn't matter. Alot of fans, me being one of them, were not going to be surprised if Lesnar used his size to pressure Cain and take him down. This was not the case. Cain proved he has great wrestling and ended up finishing Brock by TKO late in Round 1. The guy is 9-0 with 8 TKO/KO's. That's showing something. If he beats the #1 contender Junior dos Santos in their future match up, hopefully Cain can jump onto this prestigious list.

By Shawn LeLievre

Quote Of The Day

"If size mattered, the Elephant would be the king of the jungle" - Rickson Gracie