Five Quick Jabs

I have been really bad about updating the blog but I am back on the grind now as @ACCbiggz would say on Twitter.

I am going to start a new thing called 5 Quick Jabs. It will highlight five top stories the blogs and websites are talking about in MMA. I hope you enjoy!

1. Bellator Sets Up Initial Featherweight Tournament Match-ups

April 8
Joe Warren vs John Eric Marriott
Georgi Karakhanyan vs Bao Quach

April 15
Wilson Reis vs Shad Lierley
Patricio Freire vs William Romero

The highly anticipated Featherweight tournament will kick off April 8th in Hollywood, Florida with two quarterfinal fights featuring two heavy favorites against two underdogs.

Joe Warren, exploded on the MMA scene in 2009 with two highly improbable wins against two of MMA's best in Chase Beebe and Kid Yamamoto in the DREAM Featherweight tournament. Warren a TRUE world class wrestler, was then submitted in the finals by the highly respectable Bibiano Fernandes with a armbar in the opening round. His opponent John Eric Marriott is on a nine win streak, and has probably been one of the most active fighters in 2009. I will admit I do not know much about Marriott but it's going to be tough for any of the featherweights in this tournament to wrestle with Warren. But anyone with prowess on the ground like Marriott (half of his wins are by submission) can submit the very raw but talented Warren.

Georgi Karakhanyan is also carrying in a win streak (eight) against seasoned veteran Bao Quach. My initial thoughts are that it's Quach's fight to lose. To me, Quach has always been the sort of guy who beats most guys, except for WEC quality talent. I have Bao as a favorite, but he is known to be a slow starter in fights giving Karakhanyan a shot.

On April 15 the rest of the bracket will be filled out with Wilson Reis vs. Shad Lierley and Patricio Freire vs William Romero.

Reis, who lost in the semifinals in last year's Bellator Featherweight tourney goes against IFL vet Shad Lierley. Lierley said to MMAfighting.com that he's going to show how much he has grown. Well, he will definitely get a chance to do that against a very experienced Reis. I will still put Reis as a slight favorite because of his propensity to grind out wins.

Patricio "Pitbull" is a undefeated Blackhouse product that will go against Canadian prospect Will Romero. I think Pitbull will be able to finish the up and comer in my eyes just because I think his experience and the gym he trains with gets him a win against the Canadian paratropper.

2. The CSAC gets a new leader
George Dodd is the lucky SOB who gets to pick up the mess that Armando Garcia left behind. I'm not even going to take any of his promises or goals seriously because he needs to focus on the problems left behind rather than trying to implement anything new. Problem number one: Make sure fighters from Team Bodyshop get paid for their fights. It's terrible.

3. Challengers 6 card is finalized
On Feburary 26 we will get another card from Strikeforce which will give us only five fights one of which is a title fight for the Womens Welterweight title (the name makes no sense, but fuck it. It's Strikeforce. They don't plan ahead for anything).
* Takayo Hashi vs. Sarah Kaufman (Title Fight)
* Karl Amoussou vs. Trevor Prangley
* Paul Bradley vs. Luke Rockhold
* Tarec Saffiedine vs. James Terry
* Raul Castillo vs. Yancy Medeiros

I'm excited for any kind of MMA. The winner of Kaufman/Hashi will be looking at facing the winner of the 135 tournament later on in the year and we get to see if Trevor Prangley has anything left in the gas tank. A interesting under the radar fight is Bradley vs Rockhold. Rockhold has been a staple of Challenger's cards and a win over Bradley could send him right onto a Strikeforce main card in the future.

2.UFC 110 Main Card analysis
Cro Cop went lightly on Perosh, showing that he still can beat up unprepared fighters.

Bader hit the glass chin of Jardine after Jardine was actually winning the fight. Bader still has cardio problems but it's a good win for him.

Sotiropoulos definitely has to start fighting upper level guys and I think Mac Danzig should be in his future.

Bisping tried to make us think he had power in his hands. Right...either way, it's time for Bisping to re-evaluate somethings going on in his camp. Is the Wolfslair's good for him? I just feel like he needs a new stand up coach. Yes, he did improve his movement but his defensive boxing is still pretty bad. Wandy will continue to fight guys who could make their name off of him. A bout against Drew McFederies would make me a bit warm inside.

Cain is the man to beat in the UFC Heavyweight division. I feel like if Carwin wins against Mir at 111, he should get the shot but if Mir wins, Mir should have to face Cain. I don't want to see Mir/Lesnar III every July.

1. Mir wants Brock to die; Apology coming
Supposedly, Jim Rome the resident "Look at me. I have a show and can call out people whenever I want" person at ESPN talked about Mir's comments. Now, people said Mir is out of line and shouldn't say that he wants to kill him in the Octagon. My take: Who cares? Does anyone think this is not said at local King of the Cage fights or Ring of Fire shows? BJ Penn said he was going to make GSP "see God," when he faced GSP, but no one cared enough to make a big deal about it. Mir is obsessed with Brock and doesn't like him. This isn't news. The word "kill" is the only news here.