-
Sherwood's Memories From The Vault
By: Jeff Sherwood
The event was Neutral Grounds 13, held on a small Indian reservation in Lakeside, Calif.
Read more
What was special about this event? It was the first official mixed martial arts show that Sherdog.com was ever credentialed for. I had been to events before -- such as Kage Kombat in San Pedro, where I watched a couple of young Armenians by the names of Manny Gamburyan and Karo Parisyan -- but this was different.
I was so excited to be covering my first show that I made about six of my buddies buy tickets. It was a very cold night, and the cage was set up in the middle of a baseball field on the Barona Indian Reservation. Promoter Ryan Chenoweth was happy to have me there and treated me like a king.
My buddy, Chris Foster, and I arrived early, so we began to walk around and talk to the fighters. The first fighter we walked up to was Jeremy Horn. At that time, Horn already had 35 wins on his resume and had fought in the UFC five times. I was amazed at how friendly he was as he sat there with his Walkman at his side. -
WEC 51 Primer
By: Jake Rossen
Jose Aldo (left) file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
Watch mixed martial arts for any length of time and you’ll discover how dizzying its effects can be on your enthusiasm. A fight like Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic/Frank Mir, which dogged the weekend, can sink hearts; Thursday’s Jose Aldo/Manny Gamburyan match is likely to make everyone forget all about it.
Aldo is in that amazing physical and emotional space where he’s old enough to have power and skill but young enough to not realize he’s mortal. He’s fast, he’s aggressive, and his “strategy” consists of not appearing to have any strategy. He just moves and reacts faster than everyone he fights. One day, he’ll be defeated and his ego will leak. Until then, he’s not going to put on a bad show.
The same is true for the WEC itself, which is populated almost exclusively by fighters who can’t depend on overwhelming physical strength: that usually means a surplus of technique without the cage-clinching that’s becoming a significant part of big-guy MMA.
What:WEC 51, an 11-bout card from the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colo.
When: Thursday, Sept. 30 at 9 p.m. ET on Versus
Why You Should Care: Because Gamburyan is a fireplug with feet that’s done an incredible job since dropping to 145; because, dumb Twitter comments aside, Donald Cerrone and Jamie Varner bring out the best in one another; because Miguel Torres is trying to halt a recent career slide and hungry fighters usually equal exciting fighters; and because anything has to be better than Filipovic/Mir, including a loss of signal. Read more -
Video: Garcia-Gamburyan Preview
Video courtesy of WEC.tv. Read more
