Cheick Kongo's Blogs
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5 Questions: UFC 107
By: Jake Rossen
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
Sanchez or Penn: whose cardio chokes first?
There’s not much enthusiasm left to beat the tired drum about B.J.’s lack of cardio conditioning, particularly in light of recent, long-form fights. (A TKO loss via mugging against Georges St. Pierre being the exception.)
Doesn’t matter: if Sanchez is at all likely to overcome Penn, his best chance remains in the championship rounds, where he can keep Penn going backwards and wasting oxygen on resisting aggressive takedown attempts.
This all assumes Sanchez has the cardio for the last ten minutes, which is no guarantee: he’s never seen the back two in his career. And while he’s often looked fresh enough at the conclusion of three, he’s never seen three against Penn.
Will Mir’s muscle be binding? Read more -
Kongo Looks to Teach 'Big Mouth' Mir a Lesson
Video courtesy of UFC.com. Read more -
Kongo/Mir Rumored for UFC 107
By: Jake Rossen
Per MMAJunkie, Frank Mir may get the sharpest striking test of his career to date if he meets Cheick Kongo at UFC 107 on December 12 in Memphis.
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Both Mir and Kongo are coming off high-profile losses, Mir to a bullying Brock Lesnar and Kongo to Cain Velasquez. It will be interesting to see how Kongo reacts to Mir’s level of grappling, which has rarely been a factor in Kongo’s bouts -- and how Mir’s cardio conditioning will respond to a resisting frame, since he may be required to go in for a takedown.
The winner will still be a fair distance away from a title shot, which is expected to go either to the winner of the Randy Couture/Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira bout on August 28, or the survivor of Shane Carwin/Velasquez on October 24. -
Kongo’s Trainer Analyzes Recent Loss, Future
By: Loretta Hunt
Much has been said about Cheick Kongo’s decision to accept a last-minute bout against heavyweight upstart Cain Velasquez at UFC 99 on June 13 in Germany.
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Kongo, who was considered on the periphery for a title shot after three consecutive nods in the Octagon, dropped Velasquez (6-0) three times in the bout. However, the heavy-handed Frenchman lost a unanimous decision after spending a majority of the bout on his back pinned underneath the two-time Arizona State All-American wrestler.
Kongo (13-5-1) took the bout on three weeks’ notice to replace an injured Heath Herring. Many fans are asking why. -
UFC 99 Post-Mortem: Foreign Relations, Falling Axes and More
By: Jake Rossen
Despite misinformed opposition from typewriting German stormtroopers -- due to the time difference, it was actually 5 p.m. ET on a Tuesday in 1995 -- the UFC made a successful debut in Cologne on Saturday, offering up a card that was surprisingly robust in the weeks leading into their kitchen-sink 100th event.
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In a bout that had reverberations through the deep 195-pound division, Rich Franklin managed to ace Wanderlei Silva in a three-round decision. Though Silva appeared to easily fatigue -- perhaps he shouldn’t have hunted, killed and eaten that wild boar the evening before -- he was the more aggressive of the two in the latter 10 minutes; the premise of scorecard victimization will come up repeatedly in his the coming weeks. Franklin, meanwhile, seemed relieved that he didn’t have to put another paycheck in the hands of his plastic surgeon. -
UFC 99 Red Ink: Velasquez vs. Kongo
By: Jake Rossen
Cain Velasquez has logged less than three years and only five bouts as a professional, but he’ll enter the Octagon Saturday as a favorite over 19-fight veteran Cheick Kongo. Why? More tools in the shed. If he’s in trouble standing, he can take it to the mat, where others have controlled Kongo before.
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But pressure can make men out of monsters. Kongo is a brick with arms, his ground game is much improved since a decision loss to Heath Herring, and has knees exactly as damaging as you’d expect from a 6-foot-4, 230-pound kickboxer. Whoever wins is still likely to see a doctor.
