Strikeforce purchased by UFC

Strikeforce has been bought by the UFC already months ago but still we have not really seen how this acquisition is going tom play out for the fighters. I have been surprised to learn about Fedor still fighting for them after two losses on his record and being out of the Grand Prix.

Fedor vs Henderson I think will be an interesting match up as both have a potential to win this fight in my opinion. Henderson looked real good against the very dangerous Feijao and Fedor has all the skills he needs to take this fight since Henderson has really the same weakness which is the ground game. I don't think Fedor will submit Hendo and this fight will mostly be decided on the feet. It will be interesting whether Fedor will come in better shape and better prepared this time because his lack of technique in bjj which was compensated by outstanding natural ability has now been exposed.

The main Strikeforce events to now look out for though is the Grand Prix and the fights at light heavyweight. Solid fights like Werdum vs Overeem are going to happen and we all hope soon. I want also to see Mousasi fight again soon against Feijao or one of the top guys. The problem for him is that he has been fighting some weak competition or overrated competition and now he needs to take his career on to a new level if he wants to meet guys like Shogun and Jones in the ring. He also needs to get better at dealing with wrestlers. He is still getting taken down which he needs to avoid if he wants to meet guys like Jones and Evans and stand a decent chance. I think he has the potential but needs to be more aggressive and close the holes in his game.

Scott Coker needs to leverage the new marketing resource that the UFC has and also needs to make the fights happen. Too many delays and match making problems are just hurting the brand really.

Diaz vs Cyborg

Strikeforce puts on a great show quite often but this time I really enjoyed the fights. The BJJ level of the combatants and the Diaz vs Cyborg show was simply exceptional. Roger Gracie in particular was perfect in what he did this weekend. He took Trevor Prangley down, mounted him while preventing him to try to climb the cage to standing and then submitted him with a rear naked choke. One takedown, one submission attempt to seal the win in the first round. It was all jiu jitsu, the Gracie style.

The other fights were also nice. Jacare did well against a dangerous Lawler but you could see that on the ground Ronaldo could do anything he wanted. Takedowns were good as well.

Diaz I thought fought a smart fight but really I agree with the fans that he does need to fight some tougher opponents. There are plenty to choose from in fact in several nearby weight divisions if not his own. Dream has some good guys too.

Looking forward to Fedor vs Bigfoot Silva now. This is going to be for sure anthers solid event, plenty of other fights would love to see in action too including Mayhem who I think would have been a much more interesting fight for Jacare. King Mo and Gegard Mousasi need to return to the cage. Not sure who they would fight, but there are some choices.

Been rewatching Pride tapes, miss Ricardo Arona, he was real good!

Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix

The new Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix that is about to begin on February 12 2011 with the Fedor vs Antonio Big Foot Silva event is one of the most exciting MMA events that is to take place this year. I think all of the fans are looking forward to this one.

Apart from perhaps Cain Velasquez vs Junior Dos Santos, for me the most exciting fights would be Fedor vs Overeem or anyone in the Grand Prix for that matter. Overeem is also a very exciting fighter and is going to attract a lot of attention going in to this fight with his exciting fighting style and dominant striking ability.

Well Done Scott Coker!

Fedor vs Silva

Fedor Emelianenko is certainly an intriguing fighter to follow. Once
considered the greatest pound for pound fighter in the world,
following to the shocking loss to Fabricio Werdum, he is now looking
to return to the octagon and fight some of the best fighters out hhere
at heavyweight.

Antonio Silva in my opinion presents an interesting challenge for
Fedor. On the one hand Fedor has the chance to prove the world that he
still has what it takes to compete with the new generation of
fighters. On the other hand this fight is important for Fedor as a
second loss would really put him off his career track and out of the
Grand Prix.

Fedor in my opinion has all the skill necessary to win this fight. He
is just far more talented than Antonio Silva but technically on the
ground I still think Silva is technically more proficient. It would be
interesting to see Fedor on his back in this fight.

It looks to me that Fedor has learnt almost nothing if anything from
the loss to Werdum. While I see Anderson Silva training with Ronaldo
Jacare and GSP learning from Roger Gracie and Braulio Estima, Mr.
Emelianenko and his coaches clearly think they know it all when it
comes to he ground game. We shall have to see.

I saw a video of Barnett kind of defending Fedor a little, but really
what I think is that I have never seen Sambo fighters pass the guard
well for years. While he can punch from the guard for sure, passing is
clearly not his strongest area, and while he did escape all of those
submission attempts of Nogueira, Rodrigo was never at the level of say
Werdum or Arona on the ground. Arona by the way also had Fedor in some
serious trouble. Had Arona been allowed to punch Fedor from the mount,
I am not certain Fedor would have been able to win there.

This is going to be an exciting fight. I would love to see Fedor in
the second round of course, so let's hope he can indeed get passed
Silva. His conditioning needs to improve, he needs to find sparring
partners, and a new manager if you ask me. Good luck to him.

Strikeforce Heavy Weight Division - That Good?

Everyone keeps saying that the Strikeforce HW division is becoming a real powerhouse and is the best in the world and specificly better then the UFC but is this really true?

Well, lets start with Fedor. Fedor, Fedor and Fedor has not fought much since he got triangle choked out in 69 seconds to Fabricio Werdum, a guy that went 2-2 in UFC and got fired. Well, it looks like he won't be fighting any time soon and certainly not before Q1 2011 when the negotiations are going to begin between Strikeforce and the weird guys from M1.

Next up is Barnett. He has talked and talked about how he could beat anyone at the UFC and now has signed with Strikeforce. The truth is and I agree with Dana White on this is that Josh does not really care about anyone but himself and the money. He will walk away from Strikeforce or the UFC if it suits him. The guy just doesn't care about anybody or anything and he feels absolutely no guilt about Affliction MMA going down in flames. Why would someone want to trust him it is unclear, a guy with a bunch of failed performance enhancing drug scandals.

After that you've got Werdum who I actually respect and Antonio Silva who has a real future in MMA as well. Both guys are great in my opinion but just won't make it to the big UFC stage because they don't speak english. Well, they've already fought but these guys are real, they will fight anyone any time.

Overeem or OBEREEM, the champion, the vicious striker with a guillotine choke that has sent even Vitor Belfot tapping out in Pride is the real deal. I'm really impressed with him and I think he will soon be moving over to the UFC once he accomplishes his dream in becoming the K1 champion this year. Dana White will sign this guy and I think Overeem will agree when he finds out that Fedor is too scared to fight him and Werdum is probably the last bout he will have left at Strikeforce.

Well, thats it guys. Lets not mention Kharitonov and Aleks Emelianenko. Both of these guys are really out of shape and should not be fighting in their condition. I hope they do join some good MMA team soon though.

Fedor fighting?

I love the way Fedor and his management behave. First they react by wanting a rematch straight away. Then they realize that Werdum is not fighting and they challenge Overeem who they did not want to fight before and since Overeem is now busy (and they knew this and that is why they challenged him) they don't want to fight until next year.

Shit! what happended to fighting Antonio Silva, Josh Barnett or even Kharitonov?! Well, all of them are still strong opponents for Fedor and losing to one of these guys would send Fedor out of the top-10 rankings all together.

So what does M1 together with Fedor decide instead? Ah!! lets not fight until Q2 2011 and meanwhile just negotiate endlessly with Strikeforce. Now Scott Coker says to us (the fans) that Fedor is too busy to fight this year and that his schedule is full..... I'm luck WHAT!!!???? He is not fighting anybody, what is he doing? Last year he fought once, the year before he fought basically once since Arlovski was like in January.

I think basically the guy should either retire or fight. I think he still loves to shine like this unbeatable champion where as really his is a judo/sambo fighter with good but not elite ground game and heavy hands who is not in shape to fight anymore at the top level. The guy just needs to face it. Either you train properly with good sparring partners (take Roger Gracie and learn the triangle armbar setup) and compete 2-3 times per year as a real champion or you retire.

Fedor is an amazing fighter but this whole idea that he is still the greatest and that Sambo is the best is crazy. There are monsters out there like Brock Lesnar, like JDS, like Overeem and Werdum. These guys are at the very top now and for Fedor to go and say that Lesnar vs Carwin was a fight between two second-rate fighters is just stupid. Lesnar or Carwin have huge weapons against Fedor. If he thinks he can easily beat them, he just need to step up because talk is cheap and those guys are real dangerous, no one can deny that. Join UFC or Strikeforce. Right now Fedor belongs to neither. He works with M1.

The Feared Triangle Choke

It seems the triangle choke will forever go down as one of the most lethal moves in MMA. A move that caught the great Fedor Emelianenko thanks to the crafty skills of the ADCC champion Fabricio Werdum.

It is the same move that saved Anderson Silva from losing his title in UFC 117 allowing him to come back from behind when defeat was only minutes away.

Lastly, you had to love the skill and precision with which Ryan Couture (son of Randy Couture) applied the move at Strikeforce Challengers on August 13. It was precise. He moved his hips, controlled the leg and applied the deadly hold by forcing the head down to tighten it further.

The triangle has proven to be a deadly move, almost impossible to escape once locked in, it is worth perfecting.

Reasons Why Fedor Lost!

Here are some of the primary reasons Fedor lost this fight however:

1. Fedor has never trained with decent sparring partners for grappling. Instead he trains in Stariy Oskol with Sambo guys that are nowhere near as technical as somebody like Fabricio Werdum. These guys don't have a guard as technical and as difficult to pass as Werdum's so I think this is part of the reason why Fedor got so confident there. What Fedor needs to do is something that is normal for many top fighters. Anderson Silva, GSP, BJ Penn, Machida and Lesnar all train with elite BJJ players and ADCC level grapplers. Fedor needs to leave Stariy Oskol and train with good sparring partners.

2. Training facilities and trainers. Fedor's conditioning may be decent but his coaches are part of the reason why he lost. Not many people know that Fedor was not made by his current trainers he has today in fact. They inheritted Fedor, the awesome machine that could dominate Pride. He now needs to consider whether he may really benefit from modern MMA training and coaches.

3. People around Fedor. Fedor has a lot of people around him who are there to get his money and use his fame. Starting from Rinat Layshev, Igor Petrukhin, Vadim Finkelstein and ending with a crazy guy they have over there who things sauna and "Banya" is training. They are extremely arrogant and talk so much shit it is unbelievable and thank god for Fedor people outside of Russia don't hear this crap. They were saying that Sambo is the best martial art in the world, Fedor is the best fighter in the world, and on and on. These guys are screwing with his training and his mind.

4. Religion and priests. We never knew Fedor like this but when priests start to accompany you to fights that is the worst sign you can have. "God wanted Fedor to lose?", if Fedor is not insane, he will be soon with these guys. I am telling you that those priests have been messing with Fedor's head for ages. Now Fedor has to go and prey instead of training. Good luck Fedor if you carry on like this.

5. Bring the wife. Fedor has not been taking fighting seriously for a few years now. He is told by his mates that he is unbeatable and that he can relax i gather. That is why he lost in Sambo last year - he did not train, and he was doing movies before the Arlovski fight that even his trainers started talking before being told to hush hush.

remember he got married just before the Rogers fight? Now he brings his fight to San Jose, bad sign.

Lastly, Fedor went in to MMA to make money for his family. This was a mean machine who was training with nasty guys like Volk Han. I think Fedor forgot where he came from and how hard he had to work to get there, who made Fedor. He should really look for outsiders to help him here. Speak to Mousasi and GSP, speak with guys that have accomplished something. Train with Roger Gracie.

Fedor has to do a lot of work before he goes in and fights again. The fact that they already want the next fight in September and that he will never leave M1 is a bad sign.

Five Top BJJ Players Getting Famous

5. Pablo Popovitch

Hats off to the guy that beat Marcelo Garcia in the ADCC which is what he did in 2009. Pablo Popovitch, if you ever seen him fight, is an incredible grappler. Incredibly skilled, talented and powerful grappler that has been for years been overshadowed by the Marcelo Garcia phenomenon. Pablo really does deserve praise and someone to follow this year.

4. Braulio Estima - Gracie Barra is proud of its champions and Braulio Estima's performance last year has been more than impressive. Not only was he able to dominate everyone in his own division at ADCC 2009, he looked also unbeatable in the absolute taking gold thanks to his inverted triangle choke he does so well.

Braulio is a true champion and a very accomplished BJJ fighter having been BJJ champion many times before. Although for years outshined by guys like Xande and Ronaldo Jacare, Braulio is really showing his worth nowadays and will surely do well in mixed martial arts as well.

3. Demian Maia - there are few talents in BJJ who can make UFC fighters look like amatuers. This is what Demian can do literally playing with his opponents once the fight reaches the ground. Although Maia could not takedown Anderson Silva in his last fight, surely he has a great career ahead of him in the UFC once he improves his wrestling and striking.

2. Ronaldo Souza - Jacare is one of the most athletic and yet incredibly technical fighters. Having dominated the jiu jitsu and grappling scene for years, he turned to MMA with great success. Ronaldo is able to take down even the most versatile fighters with ease and once on the ground, they are helpless to resist him. His last fight against Villasenor in Strikeforce confirms this.

With his takedowns looking the better than most wrestlers and striking rapidly evolving, Ronaldo Souza will very soon be the middleweight Strikeforce champion. Good luck to him.

PS: Jake Shields I think got scared of how good Souza really is and has run off to the UFC.

1. Roger Gracie - when you look at what Roger Gracie has accomplished so far, he can't help giving credit to his achievements. He is the first fighter to win the BJJ Worlds Absolute 3 times and the only guy to submit all of his opponents in 2009 worlds by taking mount. He is also the only guy to submit all of his opponents in ADCC 2005 winning both his own weight and absolute. This guy is truly the greatest BJJ specialist ever and one of the best grappling stars in the world.

Roger is an extremely humble and hard working guy and is a great pleasure to see him compete. I just wish he fights MMA more.

I would personally also love to see him fight in Sambo just for fun, as Rigan Machado and Rickson did just to see how he would do. The rules are different but it would be interesting to see how BJJ vs Sambo does these days.

Jiu Jitsu Prevails: Fedor loses to Werdum

How unbelievably arrogant were the M1 Global commentators in the Fedor vs Werdum Strikeforce show. The crap that comes out of the mouth of Finkelstein, Igor Petruhin and Rinat Layshev and their friends is unbelievable.

Propoganda message number 1: "Sambo is the best" - yeah they go on and on that Dana White nor any of the brazilian know what Sambo is. That Fedor can do anything he wants to a jiu jitsu fighter because he is the best in the world, no one can submit this guy, blah, blah blah. I think at some point even Fedor decided he could do his sambo tricks on Werdum.

Basically what happened was Fedor went in and forgot who he was dealing with. When he fought Nogueira he understood how dangerous Nogueira is from the guard. He was very cautious despite trying to GNP Nogueira.

This time however he tried to pass Werdum's guard with no respect for Fabricio's guard game and submission abilities. What happened, well, it turns out Sambo and Fedor are not invincible after all. I guess Fedor forgot the Arona fight and what happened there.

For some reason he decided he could do more than just land strikes from the guard. He tried to pass the guard and naturally Werdum landed a nice triangle choke. Vai Cavalo locked it in quick and real nice and once its locked, well, unless your name is Roger Gracie you are not getting out. That means even if your name is Fedor Emelianenko, you are still going to tap. That is what happened.

After that basically the guys commenting the Russian side of the show started to feel embaraced, embaraced that Fedor lost, embaraced by how little chance they gave Werdum and tried to explain that this was like an accident etc etc

The thing is though, these guys give so little respect to guys like Fabricio Werdum, who is just as much of a star in jiu jitsu as Fedor is in Sambo. Fabricio shook Fedor's hand and spoke about how much respect he has for Fedor.

The M1 team however do exactly the opposite. All they talk about is Fedor, Fedor, Fedor. That is a genius, a professor, the best fighter in the world, unbeatable and on and on and on. Not only do they not show any of the other fights in Russia but they don't even talk about Fabricio Werdum when he enters the arena.

I'm not even sure whether they actually know anything about Werdum. All they seemed to talk about when Werdum was entering the arena was that how little cheering there was.

Fedor, I think the guy is great but with all this crap around him and some of the crap that he believes in, he is wrong about some things. He got arrogant I think in this fight and gave too little respect for Werdum.

At the same time the problem is that these guys believe that Sambo gives you all the ground game that you need. BJJ on the ground is superior however and this has been proven. When did we ever see someone good from Sambo win the ADCC. Sambo is great for throws, but on the ground, it is simply not a complete art.

Now I am not saying Fedor can't win fights without jiu jitsu, but what I am saying is that if Fedor was as wise as his people say, he would train in proper facilities where he would benefit from being exposed to elite BJJ guys, elite Wrestlers etc. You can't just sit there in Stary Oskol and practice Sambo and Boxing all day long thinking this is all I have to know.

Guys from Greg Jackson's gym and many other top gyms in the US these days have a much better training programme then what Fedor could have.

Honestly how can one train for an ADCC champion without at least a BJJ specialist as a training partner. He should have gone to Roger Gracie's academy in London and practiced. He has no one to test him back in Stariy Oskol. I just hope Fedor steps down from whatever throne Finkelstein put him on and starts thinking about how to get better.

Of course he should listen to his coaches, but shit, they should have told him this ten years ago. They have the money, just not the will. They paid for it this time.

Fedor vs Werdum on 26 June

Many believe that Werdum does not have a chance against Fedor in this fight but having red some different perspectives, I have to agree with Fedor and Couture in saying that indeed Fabricio Werdum could be a dangerous opponent for Fedor, especially on the ground.

While I don't believe Vai Cavailo will be able to do anything to Fedor from the guard. Werdum needs to take Fedor down and pass his guard which I believe he will not have much of a problem doing.

The key will be to keep Fedor on the ground and go from submission to submission. I believe Werdum could try to either submit him from side control. After all we have seen Mark Hunt lock in that americana. Another possibility would be to take Fedor's back and try to submit him from there.

While many believe that Fedors ground fighting is incredible, I would have to disagree. Fedor is a great armbar specialist but talking about his positional ground game, I think it is nowhere near top-jiu jitsu level. Fedor had trouble passing Cro Cop's guard and Ricardo Arona showed that Fedor can be dominated on the ground with elite BJJ.

While it is a difficult to task to beat Fedor, I agree with Arona that this is the key for Werdum, to escape the danger standing and go for the takedowns. Fedor's KO power of course makes him exceptionally dangerous and I think no one can really predict what will happen.

I thing for sure though, Fedor is extremely quick and Werdum will have to be as quick in this fight to control and take advantage of his strengths.

Watched the Arona fight just now. I think this one really shows how many different holes Fedor has in the ground game. He does not really have a guard, could not stop Arona from passing it at all, trying to do this guillotine choke which clearly was not doing anything. He gave his back and got mounted so many times and if Arona could strike to the head from the mount, Fedor would have been in a lot of trouble here.

Arona's takedown's are probably on part with Werdum's so Werdum should use this strategy to gain a dominant position and work from there. This is a dangerous opponent for Fedor, maybe even as dangerous is Lesnar. I think people don't realise that Werdum cannot be submitted and the only way Fedor can win this I think is by keeping it standing and trying to KO Fabricio. Very excited about this fight.

Strikeforce signs Kharitonov and Overeem

Big news for Strikeforce that has come to my attention. I think I managed to miss this one last week. According to MMA Junkie, on the 17 June, Scott Coker announced that Valentijn Overeem and Sergei Kharitonov, two great Pride heavyweights have signed with Strikeforce.

I am thrilled about this of course, to see more competition in the Strikeforce Heavyweight division and more Russian representation at the top.

Sergei especially has been long considered one of the top heavyweights until recently and actually I have been surprised that it took so long. Now all they need is convince Ricardo Arona to return and this organization would be doing great.

Of course the key would be to focus on raising new talent of course but now they at least have a chance to test themselves against the top guys in the sport. With Fedor retiring, a new generation of fighters needs to come to Strikeforce in the heavyweight division.

Personally I would love to see several fights in this category now including Kharitonov vs Brett Rogers or Valentijn Overeem vs Bobby Lashley. It would be a great show if we got to see some of these big guys face each other.

As a jiu jitsu fan however for me it is always exciting to see some jiu jitsu talent in action and that is why I would love to see Jeff Monson and especially Ricardo Arona in the mix at Strikeforce. This is the place where they should be competing right now. For Arona, there are a few interesting matches at LHW including guys like Gegard Mousasi.

Kharitonov has a strong Sambo background though and his punching power is on par with Aleks Emelianenko, so I think its going to be interesting how he does in his first fight.

Strikeforce HW division I feel now has a lot of technical and powerful strikers and it would be great if apart from Fabricio Werdum there could be some more wrestlers/jiu jitsu players. I don't really count Bobby Lashley as I think he needs a few big career fights to prove he has what it takes to transition to MMA.

Fedor Next Fight Poll Closed!

So it looks like after 85 votes we can really get a sense who the fans want Fedor to fight next. Everyone's impression has been confirmed.

I have the greatest respect for Fabricio Werdum. He is one of the jiu jitsu greats and his stand up is rapidly improving as we saw in the Antonio Silva fight.

Nevertheless, MMA is NOT jiu jitsu as many jiu jitsu guys would like to believe, and at this game Fedor who is ranked #1 in the world should be fighting someone in the top-5. His contract does not allow him to do so and some of the fans would like to see him fight at least a decent opponent.

I therefore took some top-10 heavyweights in the world and put together a poll to give us all a chance to see who really is the fighter that Fedor should face next.

My view of course is that he should fight the best. The UFC wants to sign Fedor and it is the organization that has the top fighters. Fedor cannot hope to stay at the top defending his record against barely top-10 opponents.

Alistair Overeem's display of skills against Brett Rogers was impressive but is he really a top-5 fighter? It looks like a portion of the fans will settle for second best and have Overeem vs Fedor but the fight that everyone really wants to see (apart from M1-Global) is Fedor vs Lesnar. Make it happen Vadim!

If Shane Carwin (undefeated) goes in and KOs Lesnar, we could have a new #1 ranked heavyweight very soon. A win over Werdum would prove little for Fedor on the other hand.

Strikeforce Heavy Artillery - Great Success

I don't think there is an event this year that can even compare itself with Strikeforce Heavy Artillery. The fight card was great, the action was great, the commentary was poor as tradition but then you can't have it all.

Overeem is a beast, he looks on top form, at his peak and Vadim should be even more afraid then he was before. They don't want him to fight Fedor because look at him. He made Brett Rogers look like a child.

Respect to Brett Rogers, but he really needs to get in the gym. He has been exposed as a novice and he really needs to get his wrestling going and submissions too. He seemed to just collapse and then on the ground he looked even worse. Hard training is the only way to get better.

Jacare is the new golden boy of Strikeforce and he really deserves to be. He is such a great talent but also a really hard worker. He is really getting those takedowns but also landing the accurate strikes.

Andrei Arlovski just does not look like himself anymore. He did look slow and not controlling the action at all. Antonio Silva was not threatened even for a minute there. Something needs to change.

I like Andrei, but all this stuff on youtube he does it is just over the top. You look the way he trains and then you look how Brock Lesnar trains. You can then see why Brock is the HW UFC Champion and Andrei is on the way down in Strikeforce.

Roger Gracie I enjoyed a lot in the cage. The guy basically didn't do much MMA preparation, just jiu jitsu but I loved the way he delivered those jabs on Kevin. In the end I would have loved to see some more ground work but still it was cool. Kevin did the right thing trying to avoid going to the ground but it was going to happen eventually.

Great event, thank you Scott Coker!

Strikeforce Heavy Artillery Showcase for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Wrestling has really done so well in the UFC, particularly with the dominance of powerful wrestlers in the heavyweight division, that some have even started to discount brazilian jiu jitsu in favor of boxing and wrestling.

This weekend we will have an opportunity to see some huge BJJ stars, demonstrating what they are capable of in the cage.

Firstly we will see Roger Gracie, perhaps the best grappler and jiu jitsu player ever, testing himself against the well-known but at the end of his career Kevin Randelman.

Roger will have to make sure he does not get knocked out by "the Monster" who is known to be a hard puncher, knocking out Mirko Cro Cop back in the days of Pride.

Nevertheless, it is certain that Kevin will be no match for Gracie on the ground. I can see Roger going for the RNC choke after taking the back or doing his classic armbar from the guard which he used to submit Ron Waterman.

The fight really puts Roger on the map in Strikeforce and I agree with observers who see Roger on a fast track to meet with Mousasi, Sobral and King Mo Lawal.

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, who is scheduled to meet the very tough Joey Villaseñor will likely be no less exciting and I can see this fighting being more competitive.

Joey has good hands and it will be a task for him to keep the alligator at bay which may be tough to do considering Souza's great takedown ability both from the top and bottom.

On the ground, there is no doubt that Jacare will dominate anyone in his division and I think it is only time before he comes in to face Henderson or Mayhem Miller.

One of the main reasons in fact for Jake Shields to leave the UFC right now is Ronaldo Jacare. Following the win over Henderson, Jake Shields is in a great bargaining position with the UFC. Better than every before.

At the same time in Strikeforce there is a high probability that Shields will lose. Having delivered a less than stellar performance against Miller, nearly getting submitted in the process, Jake Shields will most likely have difficulty delivering a win against Ronaldo Jacare. Jake is simply not at this level in grappling. He has great takedowns, but once he is on the ground, he will likely get submitted by a guy that has overwhelming technique from the top and bottom.

Watch the trailer below:

Blog Poll Results Review - Who Fedor Should Fight

It looks like out of the 58 votes made so far, the result is obvious. Even though some of us truly believe that Fedor does not have to join the UFC and trade Vadim Finkelstein for Dana White, 50% of you believe Fedor should fight Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is the #2 fighter in the world. He is the UFC champion, champion of the organization that has four out of five top heavyweights in the world. Brock is also as many say a great big threat to Fedor and M1 Global/Vadim Finkelstein.

The second most popular vote is Alistair Overeem and I am not surprised. Overeem is in Strikeforce and wants to fight Fedor. He also challenges Fedor and says his management have been evading him. Why? Because they are genuinely worried Fedor may actually lose to this guy vs. Fabricio Werdum who most agree does not have the skill set to defeat Fedor.

If you try to be objective about this, the following logic clearly does not work. Vadim Finkelstein keeps saying that he would rather have Fedor fight Barnett then Overeem. Why? Because Overeem is a "steroid bully". But the argument breaks down when he says that he would rather have Fedor face Barnett. But Barnett can't fight in the US because of steroid abuse. It is very convenient also because this way Fedor can't fight neither Barnett or Overeem. Huh!

The truth is though, if Overeem is not a candidate, then Fedor will fight someone not in the top-10. Antonio Silva does not deserve to fight Fedor and there is no one else. All the top fighters are in the UFC and Fedor has to go there.

Fedor Emelianenko Ranked Number Four Heavyweight in the World

Fedor Emelianenko and his M1 friends have been picking fights for years. After a scare with Brett Rogers last November, we have not seen any action apart from endless renegotiating for more money and marketing.

At the end of the day, its not just whether you win or not, but who you fight. You can't just avoid fighting the best for five years and then say you are the best in the world. Hell, I could go and fight some people who have never trained a day in their life and win every time. That does not make me the best in the world.

Look at the poll I have running so far. We have 25 votes of which 60% are for Lesnar and only two votes for Fabricio Werdum. Now I am a huge Fabricio Werdum fan and I would rather see this fight than have Fedor do sparring in Stariy Oskol all summer, but beating Werdum does not make Fedor the best in the world.

You have to fight top-5 ranked fighters regularly to be called the best. I don't care if Fedor fights twice or even once a year. I don't like it but at the end of the day thats what he may want, but to say this crap that the guy is the best in the world when he fights guys like Werdum is still not good enough. Sherdog and other guys must realize this now and make an adjustment. The ratings must not be biased and we need to be fair to every fighter. There must be a fair system based on which a fighter is ranked at a certain spot. If he does not get so many points over a certain period but still wins the fights, he should be moved down.

Say Tim Sylvia was winning each fight but was fighting guys outside the top five all the time. Then you had guys like JDS, Carwin, Lesnar and Velsaquez all winning their fights. Tim Sylvia would still have been champion of UFC if he did not face tough guys like MIr and Fedor included. He stepped up and fought top-5 fighters.

M1-Global can shut up about Fedor being the best if he does not fight the best. When Sherdog and others do move Fedor down, this will benefit MMA enormously. M1 would realize that they cannot carry on the way they do marketing to fans over the world that they have the best fighter. They will have to make a deal. Everyone wants a deal. Dana White does. Vadim does not and this is the problem.

Sherdog Move Fedor Down!!!

Strikeforce Nashville April 17 2010

Whether you love or hate Strikeforce, there is one thing that one has to admit and that is that they put on great fights. Strikeforce Nashville is going to be one of the most spectacular shows this year with three championship bouts between some of the top rated fighters in the world.

Dan Henderson will have a chance to prove that he is one of the greatest still facing Jake Shields who has been on a winning streak for years, overcoming his opponents with great wrestling and jiu jitsu.

Shinya Aoki will face Gilbert Melendez and here again we will have to see how Aoki can take a well-rounded fighter with striking ability in Melendez. Aoki's judo takedowns and awesome bjj will however no doubt put Melendez in danger.

It is always exciting to see the great champion Gegard Mousasi in action especially against such an athletic and big mouthed US wrestler in Lawal. King Mo will have to show that he is not just a great wrestler with some striking skills but that he can deliver the real deal from all angles of the MMA game.

The bes part about the show of course is that it is actually free on CBS. Watch it live and enjoy the best fighters in the world go head to head.

Here is the trailer below:

Fedor No Longer Relevant

Fedor no longer relevant among the top MMA heavyweights! Brock Lesnar #1, Shane Carwin #2, Junior Dos Santos #3 and Cain Velasquez. By deciding to fight fighters outside the top-5 for five years, he has made himself irrelevant in the MMA Heavyweight Division.

Strikeforce's Fabricio Werdum is the last real challenge for the fighter many called the best ever. Fedor could retire today and will probably be called the greatest MMA fighter ever but if he wants to be rated above the fighters mentioned above, he needs to fight top level talent who have both great striking skills and ground game.

The whole world is baffled by Fedor's willingness to stay with M1 Global and not sign with the UFC, an organization that has signed all the top talent that is around today with perhaps the only exception being Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

The story with Gegard Mousasi and the visible interaction between Strikeforce and M1 has done a lot to expose Vadim Finkelstein and M1 Global. Many say that Dana White is the most hated personality in mixed martial arts. I strongly disagree. Both Fedor fans, Fedor haters and all the other fans in MMA unite under one flag. They want Fedor to sign with the UFC and they hate M1-Global and its head, Vadim "The Evil" Finkelstein AKA Frankenstein.

Gegard Mousasi is a great fighter who has been missled by the people around him. The most baffling story was him being paid I think like a total of $4000 for his work in the Fedor vs Rogers show. Amazing. You can see that he was not comfortable to discuss this on youtube and was angry with his managers.

Gegard signed up with Red Devil and M1 because he was interested to learn from the best fighter in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. But while he got the benefit of learning from Fedor's experience, he was also taken on by Vadim who knew how to extract the benefit from Mousasi while not paying him what he was due.

Appy Echteld (M1-Global) it turned out, appears to have lied to Gegard about the offer UFC proposed which led him to sign with Strikeforce. The refusal of M1 to give Mousasi a stake in the promotion, led him further away from the Russians and the lies and underpayment in the end pushed him to find another great fighter to learn from and get the true story about the UFC and what they are.

Gegard Mousasi turned to Georges St. Pierre to get his help and advice, not only in training but also in the management side. It is good timing that after spending time with GSP's camp and training with these guys, he decided to leave M1. No more brainwashing for fighters, its time to join the UFC to meet the best.

Who does Mousasi have left to fight after Lawal? The answer is Dan Henderson and then nobody. Even if he does not fight Hendo, it was not like Hendo was in the top-10 in the LHW division. Good choice to join the UFC then where you have Shogun, Machida, Rashad Evans and lots of other worthy competition with a diverse range of skills.

I think Gegard made the right decision. He went to the GSP camp, benefitted from the training and its true that Gegard really needs to develop his wrestling further. He also had a chance to hear the real story about what the UFC are and how they treat fighters. Fedor needs to listen and make a decision based on hearing both side and not one. If he fights for the fans, he should do what the fans want from him, which is to fight the best. Its getting ridiculous. Its like having Brazil national soccer team pick matches that they could easily win like playing soccer against India or maybe some small island. Great fighters need to be well paid for their hard training and work they put in but make fights that people want to see.

Check out the poll on who should Fedor fight and lets find out who the fans really want. Maybe Fedor will pay attention and I will send the result to Fedor's website.

Strikeforce Challengers 7 - Andre Galvao vs Luke Stewar

Andre Galvao fighting at Strikeforce Challengers 7 and securing a narrow split decision victory of Luke Stewart, tough Ralph Gracie BJJ black belt himself. Still, I expected more from Andre in this fight.

Check out the videos below: