Ranking MMA blog
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Thursday, January 26th
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Random Thoughts
– I like that the UFC is making steps to make fights accessible to fans who cannot afford to pay $45-$55 dollars for a pay-per-view. Could you imagine if you were a fan of the NFL and you had to pay $45 to watch them play each Sunday. The UFC has to find a happy medium as far as providing quality rather than quantity.
Junior Assuncao released
– Junior Assuncao being released was a surprise. The UFC has not made their usual amount of roster cuts as of late. In fact they have been adding fighters left and right, many of whom do not possess the talent to reach the upper levels of their division. Junior Assuncao may not have been a top 25 guy at FW, but he was a tough veteran who belonged in the UFC until his performance proved he couldn’t. He just came off a close loss to Ross Pearson. The fight could have easily been scored a draw. I am guessing Assuncao must have rubbed people the wrong way. He has been a little disrespectful to his opponents at weigh-ins, so I am not sure if that was possibly a contributing factor.
Fox 2
I like Chael Sonnen in this fight. Big surprise based on the current betting odds. Sonnen is too strong and performs well in big fights. Bisping has the skills, he just seems to shrink when a fighter brings the fight straight to him.
Davis and Evans is going to be a great fight. It is tough to pick a winner since both have so many question marks surrounding them. Evans has not been active and how will he hold up for 5 rounds. Davis is a great wrestler, but struggled at times against Lil’ Nog. I think either Rashad knocks Davis out, or Davis wins a decision by out-wrestling him. I will go with Davis.
Maia vs. Weidman is close according to oddsmakers. I believe Maia wins this fight easily though. Maia is as good as it gets on the ground and his striking has improved over his last few fights. Weidman is too green to take on a fighter of Maia’s status on short-notice.
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Monday, January 23rd
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UFC rankings update
– The UFC rankings have been updated. The biggest movers following UFC on FX 1: Miller vs. Guillard were Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mike Easton, and Jared Papazian.
– Nurmagomedov pulled off the upset win over WEC veteran Kamal Shalorus. Shalorus made his UFC debut in 2011 against perennial top contender Jim Miller. Shalorus did not embarrass himself in that fight and the expectation was that he would rebound from that loss. Nurmagomedov ruined those plans. Nurmagomedov was not thought to be a highly-touted prospect, according to Leland Roling at Bloodyelbow.com. It just shows that Joe Silva and the UFC scouting department are still a reputable force in finding prospects.
– Easton and Papazian arguably put on the Fight of the Night. With the win Easton is now approaching contender status and will hopefully get a top 15 opponent next time out. As for Papazian, no shame in losing to Easton as his debut earned him a ton of respect from the fans and the UFC brass. He may be dropping to 125 once the division is officially opened up after the 4-man tournament.
Featherweight rankings challenge
– The most difficult division to rank is still Featherweight. Almost half of their division is comprised of former lightweight fighters. Many have yet to make their official UFC featherweight debut, i.e. Dennis Siver, Charles Oliveira, Cole Miller, Maximo Blanco. The UFC is likely banking on some of their 155 pound fighters to drop weight and supply new challengers for Jose Aldo. Donald Cerrone mentioned cutting some weight to fight Nam Phan and I know the UFC would love to see him enter the featherweight title picture. As of now, the only challengers for Aldo are Hioki, Poirier, and the Korean Zombie. None of those guys are bankable draws yet. Bellator has put together quite a collection of featherweight talent and in my opinion trump the UFC’s top 10 featherweights.
The UFC model for developing talent is broken
– I was hoping Strikeforce would become a tournament breeding ground that would continually pump out future contenders, but it looks as if the UFC will stick with solely The Ultimate Fighter. Unfortunately the UFC has not chosen the best available talent for the show. With the fights now being live, the UFC will put a little more effort into a fighter’s actual skills rather than their personalities that we rarely ever see develop on the show.
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– January 18, 2012 –
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Welcome to www.rankingmma.com and our blog section. We used to do articles and try to spit out breaking news, but we simply cannot keep up with the pace. We simply concentrated on rankings over the last year because that is why most readers come to this site. Yet, there has always been a longing to give passing comments towards upcoming MMA events and storylines. Thus, the blog is born. We will try to update it daily, but in all reality it will likely be a couple of times a week. So, check back often to catch up on the latest UFC and MMA news.
