It’s Official – Anderson Silva is God.

Spiderman! Spiderman! Do anything that a spider can! Can he elbow your face off? Yes he can! Watch him jump! Spiderman! Dundunnnn here comes the spiderman!

 

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Anderson Silva is the motherfuckin man. I couldn’t quite believe it on Saturday night. He beat Dan Henderson, and beat him good! The man is a god in the ring. It’s so satisfying to watch him get into his rythm, when he really starts to feel it, and he just fires off the perfect strike with perfect timing, up down left right bang smash good night Viennese Whirl.

It was clear from the first round that he can be taken down and side mounted (somewhat awkwardly.) It would seem, then, that his kryptonite is strong wrestling. But if Dan Henderson couldn’t capitalise, who the fuck can? I know what you’re thinking. Hulk Hogan. I’m with you, but our chances of seeing the yellow-faced one in the octagon against Silva are about as likely as you growing a gigantic penis out of your shoulder and then shoulder-barging JRR Tolkien in the ear with it.

Silva rules. His run in the UFC so far has been incredible. I wasn’t that impressed by his wins over Leben and what’s his name, even the win against Franklin didn’t impress me. I never got the whole thing about Franklin… was he ever that great? Maybe I just missed the UFCs he fought on, but he beat some guy, some other guy, Ken Shamrock, and then some other guy. And suddenly he’s one of the best fighters the UFC has to offer? Anyway, Silva dispatching Henderson like that cements his status with me as “Super Awesome to the Max”.

 

 

Incredible UFC 79 pictures.

ESPN: ZOOM Gallery

PUMPED about NYE?!?!?!

So the New Years Eve MMA scene in Japan went from being about as exciting as watching men’s figure skating to as awesome as inhaling TNT whilst boning Lucy Liu during an earthquake with two tiny crocodiles nibbling on your nipples.

First, K1’s Dynamite spectacular.

We are going to see Rani Yahya against Yamamoto Kid. Kid showed in his last fight that he can be really pushed by a strong and skilled, elite-level BJJer. Yahya may not be as strong as Bibiano Fernandes, but his BJJ is world-class (as Joe Rogan would say in between frowning at Mike Goldberg’s overenthusiastic use of the word “teep”). Kid is always exciting, so this should be a fantastic fight.

We are going to see Sakuraba against Funaki. Putting aside the fact that these two guys combined ages probably reaches over 100, this is going to be awesome. Two absolute legends, and they both like a bit of the old grapple grapple, so it should be a chessmatch between two greats. Here’s hoping it’s not a fly-swatting match between two pensioners, or a yawn-inducing snooze fest a-la Gracie Sakuraba II.

Then there’s the rumours of Kharitonov, Minowaman, Tokoro, and Melvin Manhoef (last spotted ripping the heads off babies and skewering them on his penis) all competing which pretty much make this a can’t miss.

Second, the revival of Pride… or is it? A quick glance at the website ( http://www.yarennoka.com/ )reveals that Pride’s Japanese web designer clearly wasn’t out of a job for long… I also hear that Sato Daisuke will be involved. He’s the one who made all the majorly pump-tastic introduction clips for the Japanese broadcasts of Pride… I compiled a couple here.  Basically, everyone who was involved in Pride is involved in this special event. Yarennoka means “Can’t we do it?!” and was one of Antonio Inoki’s catchphrases. His others being the equally as inventive “ONE TWO THREE DAAAAAAAAAAH” and its derivate, “DAAAAAAAAAAAAA” (while slapping you in the face.)

Basically a bunch of the Japanese MMA scene’s bigwigs got together ( Monte Cox (CEO of M-1 Global), Shigeru Saeki (DEEP) and Sadaharu Tanigawa (FEG)) and decided to make a totally awesome MMA spectacular, and a shitload of cash for themselves. They all claim this is a farewell to Pride, rather than a revival. Takada is on board… you may remember him from such disasters as “Man with a nappy on bangs a huge drum for ten minutes”. Takada said he’d only get involved with Yarennoka if he could get Gomi on the card. Well that didn’t happen, but still…

We are going to see Shinya Aoki against Gesias Cavalcante. This has got Japanese MMA fans salivating harder than Gabe Ruediger in a Mister Donut. Can Aoki’s high-flying submission style beat the ape-like strength and aggression of “JZ Calvan”? (Hint: no. Aoki will take too much punishment trying to reverse boston crab JZ’s earlobes.)

Then there is the strong possibility of Fedor fighting the Techno Goliath, Choi Hong Man. While I am disappointed that such a great man has been reduced to a comedy match worthy of a K-1 main event, I am also pretty pumped to see Fedor pummelerizing the be-tumoured one’s rather large head into a giant Korean flavoured pancake. Other rumoured competitors include Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Kazuo Misaki, Joachim Hansen, Luiz Azeredo, Ricardo Arona, Gilbert Melendez, Aleksander Emelianenko, Mark Hunt… basically, it is going to be sweeeeeeeet as.

I’m pretty pumpalised about the whole thing, really.

If you’d like to keep up with Japanese MMA news, I recommend the following sites. Bookmark them if you haven’t already!

http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/
http://sukimma.blogspot.com/
http://www.fightopinion.com/

Boondock’s new highlight.

I like this guy’s work. Good sense of drama and timing without getting too flashy.

Enjoy.

Rickson and Royler demo.

From an early Pride, here’s Rickson and Royler showing off some smooth moves.

Oh, did you hear? Rickson is back! Possibly. My money is on K1 throwing huge amounts of money at him to fight Masakatsu Funaki, a Japanese legend also coincidentally coming out of retirement, in a rematch of their 2000 clash that sent Japanese fans into slobbering fits of excitement.

Pride is Dead. Join me in mourning.

According to Zach Arnold over at Fight Opinion (and he speaks the truth), Pride is dead.

After having been bought by the UFC, we were all looking forward to the Superbowl of MMA, with champions from each organisation fighting each other to discover who was the best in the world.

Unfortunately Pride ended up being rotten to the core, at least in terms of its higher management, and has basically been declared unsalvageable.

The clip below shows why this is such a savage blow for MMA.

I have yet to see an organisation that could rival Pride in terms of production and, basically, sheer fucking pump-up-ness.

The drama, the passion, the emotion, all lifted Pride much higher than just two guys punching each other in the face. It was true escapism, and you could completely lose yourself in it. Having seen Pride live, I can attest to this. Anyway, sit back, press play, and get PUMPED.