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Beatdown: Askren, Mousasi
By: TJ De Santis
Live radio returned to The Sherdog Radio Network Monday with a brand new episode of "Beatdown." Lutfi Sariahmed was live for two hours. Joining him were MMA fighters Gegard Mousasi and Ben Askren.
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Ben Askren returns to the Bellator cage this Saturday night in a non-title affair. "Funky" will be facing former bodogFIGHT welterweight champion Nick Thompson. Askren chats with Sariahmed about the upcoming fight.
Also on Saturday night former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi will face UFC veteran Keith Jardine in San Diego, California. Mousasi chats about the fight and how Jardine being a late replacement has effected his preparation for the contest.
Check out the show and our archives by clicking here. -
Jardine at the Intersection
By: Jake Rossen
Keith Jardine (left): Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
Keith Jardine desperately needed a break at Saturday’s Shark Fights event in Amarillo -- some way of slowing what’s been a rapid descent into mediocrity.
He didn’t get it: Trevor Prangley put in two strong rounds to Jardine’s late surge in the third and got the decision. It was Jardine’s fifth loss in as many fights in a sport that can forget about you after only one.
The result isn’t surprising. Jardine’s four years in the UFC were schizophrenic, with the fighter alternating high-profile wins (Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell) with losses beneath his pay grade (Houston Alexander). The skid that cost him his primetime slot came against a series of tough guys who simply operate on a different level: Ryan Bader, Quinton Jackson, Thiago Silva. In matchmaking terms, he got fed to the wood chipper. Read more -
UFC 110 Post-Mortem: Pride After the Fall, Oz Festival, More
By: Jake Rossen
Daniel Herbertson/Sherdog.com
Three of Japan’s biggest attractions of the last decade competed in Australia Saturday, and while two of them earned wins, none of them looked familiar.
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, once the most feared striker in the sport, appeared sluggish against late replacement Anthony Perosh, a 216-pound jiu-jitsu practitioner thrown into the fight because of his geographic convenience. Despite being pitted against someone unlikely to damage him standing, Filipovic took two rounds to deliver enough punishment to warrant a stoppage.
While that fight said little about the Croatian’s current value as a UFC heavyweight, Cain Velasquez could not have been more vocal, nudging his record to a perfect 8-0 after a quick, flawless destruction of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Once considered unflappable, Nogueira has been knocked down (or out) in three of his four UFC bouts, leading to a belief that his tenure in Japan has created a body suffering far more than just his 33 years on the planet.
Wanderlei Silva looked the most impressive of the three, but virtually by default: despite a promise he had returned to his “old style,” Silva spent most of his three rounds against Michael Bisping tentative and content to stay out of any real exchanges. It was a quality win -- Bisping, despite the fan venom he draws with his mouth, is a good fighter -- but it was not a performance that will be remembered for very long. Read more -
Jardine-Bader Pre-Fight Hits
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UFC 102 Post-Mortem: New Questions
By: Jake Rossen
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Is the “old” Nogueira back?
Nogueira was suffering from a staph infection in a December 2008 fight with Frank Mir: the result was a dodgy performance that had people calling for his retirement. Time off and antibiotics have done a world of good: against Couture, he looked every bit as dangerous as ever -- and far less like the shot fighter he was assumed to be. Was that display assisted by Couture’s modest physicality, or…
Is Nogueira ready for Brock Lesnar?
Nogueira was a lean 231 lbs. for Couture, which would put him at roughly a 50 lb. weight disadvantage once Lesnar re-hydrates on fight night. That’s a lot of caloric ground to make up, but if anyone can ensnare Lesnar with some archaic jiu-jitsu technique, it’s Nogueira. -
Split Decision: UFC 102 Edition
By: Jake Rossen
Some bullet points for Saturday’s UFC 102 card and their likely counters. And yes, this is more or less playing my own Devil’s advocate. Call a doctor.
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Randy Couture hung with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza in a grappling tournament and didn’t get submitted. Antonio Nogueira won’t catch him.
But: There’s no striking in grappling -- similar to the no-crying-in-baseball-rule; punching Nogueira leaves Couture open for a different set of problems, as well as the additional 50 lbs. of horsepower than middleweight Souza.
Demian Maia has submitted nearly everyone he’s fought.
But: Ed Herman and Chael Sonnen get trapped with the regularity of tuna; Marquardt is light years beyond Maia’s previous conquests. -
UFC 102 Primer
By: Jake Rossen
Following record business for UFC 100 and 101, what can the world’s leading fight promotion do for a late-season encore?
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Visit Portland, Oregon.
Yes.
Having exhausted three of five titleholders in its previous two summer shows (four, if you count Anderson Silva’s pillaging of Forrest Griffin) the only gold up for grabs is what you find during a prospecting trip: UFC 102 will have to make do with bouts that have consequences only for contenders -- and the highly manipulative tactic of using Oregonian Randy Couture as a feature attraction. -
Keith Jardine Ready to Show Off Against Silva
By: Sherdog.com Staff
Video courtesy of UFC.com. Read more
