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Written by Brad Taschuk
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Friday, 27 November 2009 00:00 |
 Relevance abounds this week, my faithful (and knowing many of you... faithless) readers. Both of our fighters in today's Bodega special have fights merely days apart, and both of these fighters are on the lighter end of the weight spectrum. One of these fighters (and if you haven't been following my articles I'll allow you to find out here) was also be featured in a recent piece I completed about the WEC's impending Flyweight division, because I swear, it's coming... eventually. Maybe.
As far as our two featured fighters today go, Rambaa Somdet and Ulysses Gomez are the men in question. Somdet has an extensive Muay Thai background, and prior to beginning his MMA career, actually fought a one-off K-1 fight, winning by decision. Somdet's upcoming fight has actually already taken place. On November 23rd, he took on Noboru Tahara, to determine Shooto's first Flyweight (115lb) champion, and emerged successful by way of a fairly dominating decision. Of course, because Shooto likes to make life difficult for the rest of us, their weight classes are actually all one weight lighter than the name would suggest. Gomez trains out of Marc Laimon's gym, and as one would expect from a fighter coming out of Cobra Kai, he possesses an excellent submission game. Ulysses' upcoming fight hasn't taken place yet, but he is scheduled to take part in the second show of the re-branded Tachi Palace Fights on December 3rd, against Ben Nguyen.
This fight between Somdet and Gomez took place in the old Palace Fighting Championship, and was a semifinal of their (and what I think has been North America's only) Flyweight (125lb) tournament. One unfortunate note about this fight, is that it was contested under three 3-minute rounds rather than 5-minute rounds, because that's just how Palace got down.
Before you click the link to go check this fight out, I also feel compelled to tell you that despite what your eyes and brain may want you to believe, this fight is in fact NOT in fast forward. These guys are just that fast.
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Read more... [Brad's Friday Fight Bodega - Somdet vs Gomez]
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Written by Brad Taschuk
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Friday, 20 November 2009 12:33 |
 I have to admit, right off the bat that I'm probably a little bit different than your average MMA fan. While most people were talking about UFC 105 and 106 and how two mediocre (by the UFC's standards) cards in a row certainly spelt impending doom for the organization, I was too busy literally shaking with anticipation for the showdown between Mike Thomas Brown and Jose Aldo to even really notice. When people needed to be put on suicide watch in regards to the UFC's judging, I'm baffled as to how Sengoku can allow their poster boy to lose an even more contentious decision with such little fanfare.
Some may read those types of remarks and think that I'm an elitist or a snob about MMA, but in reality, I'm just a guy who loves the sport. Whether it be in front of a crowd of 20,000 or 200, I'm just interested in seeing as many quality fights as possible. With that being my goal, years ago I expanded my horizons beyond the stable of weightclasses carried by the major organizations (LW up to HW), and started really examining the lighter guys. In doing so, I found what I consider to be my home in MMA. If you give me a choice between a WEC event and a UFC event, I'll choose the WEC 12 times out of 10. I have come to embrace the speed and technicality of the smaller fighters, as well as simply relating more to them, being 5'5 myself.
Given this love for the lighter weights, I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the WEC's newest addition, the Flyweight (125 pound) division. Even though the inception of this division has been postponed for the time being (it is now slated to start sometime in 2010), I think it's important that since the 125ers have mostly been flying under the radar, fans get primed on some of the guys they will see featured when this division does come into the equation. This is the one purpose of this article, to let you know some of the fighters the WEC needs to have in their fledgling Flyweight division. One last note, I only looked at non-Japanese fighters in this article, because the WEC may not have the power - or the desire - to draw the likes of the BJ Kojima's and Mamoru Yamaguchi's away from their contracts and sponsors in Japan.
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Read more... [5 Flyweights the WEC Needs to Pursue]
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Written by Miles Hackett
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Friday, 20 November 2009 14:09 |
 Live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, UFC 106 will be broadcast with a significantly different card than originally planned. Giving you your forecast for this event, in an attempt to redeem themselves after UFC 105: "Upset City" are:
Brad Taschuk: (38-29, 56.7%)
Jamie Hughes: (28-28, 50%)
Miles Hackett: (31-25, 55.4%)
Joshua Taylor: (36-26, 58.1%)
Jack Barrington: (27-20, 57.4%)
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Read more... [The FightLockdown Forecast - UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin 2]
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Written by Brad Taschuk
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Friday, 20 November 2009 00:01 |
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Due to the rash of MMA events we've had the privilege of watching lately (and just utter laziness on my part), the Bodega has not kept up with the times. However, despite the fact that there are actually two cards of note taking place this weekend, the Bodega shall re-open it's doors for business for at least one more week.
Our featured fight, or should I say fighter, is one who was supposed to make his return to action at UFC 106, but due to circumstances which for lack of a better term were out of his control. Dustin Hazelett has provided MMA fans with some of the more creative submissions over the past couple of years, but has been on the shelf since November of 2008 with a very serious knee injury. His return was scheduled to take place tomorrow night against Karo Parisyan, however due to what could be a myriad of reasons, Parisyan pulled out of the fight at the last minute.
Anyways, since we don't get to see 'McLovin' tomorrow night, I figured now would be a good time to take a look back at one of the earlier fights in his career, in fact, his MMA debut against Justin Hons. Check out Hazelett's MMA debut on the other side.
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Read more... [Brad's Friday Fight Bodega - Hazelett vs Hons]
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Written by Miles Hackett
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Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:12 |
Tomorrow night at The Pearl on the Palms, in Las Vegas, Nevada, WEC 44 will finally arrive, bringing us undoubtedly the most anticipated Featherweight title fight in MMA history, along with a slew of many other great fights. On the forecast panel today are:
Jamie Hughes (35-19, 64.8%)
Joshua Taylor (19-8, 70.4%)
Brad Taschuk (41-24, 63.1%)
Matt Bremner (15-12, 55.6%)
Miles Hackett (43-20, 68.3%)
Final Forecast consensus picking stats (as of Strikeforce – Fedor vs. Rogers): 46-27 (63.0%)
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Read more... [The FightLockdown Forecast - WEC 44: Brown vs. Aldo]
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