It’s no news that Fedor Emilianko is the favorite to win the fight against Andre Alrovski tomorrow night at the Affliction M-1 event. However, this begs the question, how big of a favorite? If you look at the comments from the Fedor vs. Arlovski Trailer posted a couple of months ago you’ll see that most people have pretty strong opinions one way or another, all or nothing.
My question to you is not who will win, but what will be/or should be the odds breakout be for this fight? If you say 100% Fedor and 0% Arlovski, then you’ll only be displaying your lack of mixed martial arts knowledge. I’ll start it off with my vote of 75% for Fedor and 25% chance for the former UFC Champion Andre Arlovski. And what will be the final odds as determined by the fans by fight time? 58% Fedor, 42% Andre. Chime in and leave a comment. Thanks.
Leading up to Saturday’s Affliction M-1 Global event where Fedor Emelianenko will take on Andre Arlovski, here’s some footage of Fedor in his fight preparation. After 30 hours of traveling, the camera crew catches up with Fedor in a training session, then it’s off to a Russian bookstore in New York, followed by a trip to the market where Emeliamenko stocks up on some food. Nothing too exciting, but it does show you just how humble of a guy Fedor is.
UFC 93 has a special presentation of the co-main event with the resurrection of Mark Coleman from the social security division. This fight is obviously trying to tap into the nostalgic old timer, such as myself, by bringing Mark Coleman into fight the mix against Shogun Rua who seemed to be the best Light Heavyweight in the world back in 2006.
These two fighters have met once before and the bout was prematurely stopped due to an awkward fall resulting into a dislocated elbow for Rua. A brawl broke out after the fight with an emotional Coleman refusing to disengage creating a scuffle between the Hammer House and Chute Box Academy. Truth be told, more action took place after the bout than during the event. With Coleman posturing around the ring throwing the referee around and threatening a much smaller Ninja Rua, Wanderlei Silva hops in the ring looking to appease his steroid rage. Next Phil Baroni throws his hat into the mix reducing any chance of peaceful arbitration and ultimately leaving 50,000 bewildered Japanese MMA fans waiting for Vince McMahon to hop in at any time to announce the WWE Battle Royal. Needless to say, the UFC is cashing in on this debacle and hoping to reintroduce Shogun Rua to the world after his loss to Forrest Griffin by sacrificing one its own Hall of Famers in Mark Coleman.
Mark Coleman is the first true Freestyle wrestler to capture two tournament UFC belts and the first UFC Heavyweight title. However shortly after he was quickly shown the door after three straight losses. His one dimensional approach has stifled his progress and although he came back in 2000 to win the Pride 2000 Grand Prix, it was shortly lived as he suffered an easy submission to Nogueira in 2001. Unfortunately his learning curve was still a few steps behind the industry and he has found himself on the receiving end of an ugly sprawl-n-brawl lesson from Mirko Cro-Cop and then a terrible seal-clubbing from Fedor Emelianenko in 2006.
Shogun Rua on the other hand is only 27 years old and has wins against Alister Overeem (twice), Kevin Randleman, Ricardo Arona, Nogueira’s little brother, and Quinton Rampage Jackson. He was the 2005 Pride Light Heavyweight Tournament winner and seemed to be skyrocketing over the moon until he tapped out to Forrest Griffin in 2007. With a sound elbow, time to recover and get healthy, he should have a huge advantage over the Hammer House founder.
This bout is comparing leather helmets to hard helmets with face masks. I will be cheering for Mark, but with a cringe on my face and one eye shut. This fight is not making it out of the first round and Rua will win by submission.
This weekend in Dublin, Ireland, UFC 93 will be kicking off with a great Main Event of two huge names in MMA… Rich “Ace” Franklin and Dan “Hendo” Henderson. The winner of this fight should catapult himself right into the middle of the Light Heavyweight title picture to challenge the current champ, Rashad Evans. Clearly understand this…it’s extremely easy to sit on my couch eating pizza and slamming beer to be critical of fighters when the heaviest workload I’ll be doing is racing to the bathroom between fights. Although, after 16 years of watching MMA evolve into the most complete and exciting combat sport on the face of the planet, I feel that it’s my duty to throw a few opinions out there to create some discussion on how these fights will go. With that being said, let’s get into it…
Rich Franklin (24-3) vs. Dan Henderson (23-7)
This fight will be very exciting with a lot of punches being thrown both standing and on the ground. These athletes are at a very high level with their strength and conditioning and both know how to win.
Franklin has only three loses in his career and two are from Anderson Silva (pound-for-pound the best) and one coming from Lyoto Machida (undefeated). That’s one hell of a resume, but outside of those two fighters, he’s beaten a truck load of “B” fighters and has never taken out an A-lister. He has good hands, solid muy thai, high pressure ground-n-pound, and decent wrestling. He is a good representative of the modern fighter demonstrating a high level of intelligence, solid game planning, and the ability to adapt within the octagon when adjustments are needed. This makes him the complete package.
Henderson on the other hand is a throw back to the Gladiators. He is truly a bad-ass and the alpha male. With a long history of training with Randy Couture and Matt Lindland, a resume of wins over many of the industry’s best light heavy and middleweight fighters, and a little asterisk by his name that says Olympian, there are very few names in the history of this sport that can provide a more decorated and celebrated career than Hendo.
Ultimately, the fight will be won upon who can apply and execute their game plan better than their opponent. I see the fight being a technical bout initially with Franklin possibly out scoring Henderson in the first round with more disciplined hands, but Henderson will turn this bout into a dog fight and end up bull dogging Franklin in the later rounds. His dirty boxing will slow Franklin’s pace and movement down allowing Henderson to score takedowns and applying his heavy ground-n-pound attack. Eventually, Franklin will succumb to the overwhelming pressure and will fatigue because he has never seen the strength or animosity of a wrestler of this magnitude. My prediction is Henderson by TKO in the third.
Who’s hot and who’s not in mixed martial arts? Well, we’ve all heard of Gina Carano and know she’s one of (if not the) most attractive female MMA fighters, but who else would be in the running? MMA Brawl put together an interesting list that highlights some lovely, but not so well known, MMA fighters for your preview. Spoiler: Carano isn’t number one. Agree or disagree with their picks (I happen to firmly disagree with their selection of Shayna Baszler), give it to them for spotlighting the sport’s hottest. Top Ten List Here.
And if you are interested in taking a peak at some of the least attractive female fighters in the sport, MMA Brawl has also put together a top ten list on that. Bottom Ten List Here.
Cole Miller vs. Jorge Gurgel (UFC 86) This submission was not the most spectacular we’ve ever seen, but this was applied at the end of the 3rd round against an excellent Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Both guys are slicker than oiled pigs and Miller was on the verge of losing his 2nd straight fight in the Octagon. Miller was being dominated for the entire three rounds and was on his way to losing again after a previous knockout loss to Jeremy Stephens.
He was able to use his length over the shorter and smaller Gurgel with :12 seconds remaining in the fight to slap on the Triangle Choke for the victory and to keep his contract alive in the UFC. Cole Miller is not a high profile fighter, but he came up big when his career needed it the most against a very unlikely opponent. Great submission under tough circumstances and at the right time…he gets our Sub of the Year.
It’s no news that Fedor Emilianko is the favorite to win the fight against Andre Alrovski tomorrow night at the Affliction M-1 event. However, this begs the question, how big of a favorite? If you look at the comments from the Fedor vs. Arlovski Trailer posted a couple of months ago you’ll see that most people have pretty strong opinions one way or another, all or nothing.
This submission was not the most spectacular we’ve ever seen, but this was applied at the end of the 3rd round against an excellent Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Both guys are slicker than oiled pigs and Miller was on the verge of losing his 2nd straight fight in the Octagon. Miller was being dominated for the entire three rounds and was on his way to losing again after a previous knockout loss to Jeremy Stephens.
