Thursday, 23 May 2013 11:13

Fedor is a name that is spoken amongst MMA fans as if he were royalty, his dominance in the sport has not been emulated, even slightly. So to say that him fighting in the US again is a big deal is an understatement, to say that him in the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP, well, it is even bigger. Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva has sharpened his skill in Japan and EliteXC and two wins in Strikeforce.

In a way, the popularity of this tournament depends on Fedor Emelianenko moving forward in the tournament, but Antonio Silva is a tough opponent for any heavyweight in 2011.

The first round saw your standard Fedor action, where Fedor worked his quick hands and Silva's gameplan was to hold Fedor against the cage, using his size and strength to his advantage. The second round saw what many thought was the impossible happen, as Silva completely dominated Fedor on the ground. Ground and pound and a few near-choke attempts against Fedor. Fedor was able to persevere through most of the brutalizing and show us exactly what Fedor has done dozens of times before; tire out a bigger opponent before he makes his comeback.

Then one of th drawbacks to fighting in the United States hit us in between rounds; Fedor's right eye was swollen shut and the ringside doctors and ref, Dan Murgliotta decided that the eye was too bad for Fedor to continue, and called off the bout right after the third round. Bigfoot Silva has become the third man to hold a win over Fedor, and the second man to hold a win that fans will dispute for years.

Antonio Silva goes on to meet the winner of Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum, and the future for Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski are unknown after tonight. Fedor discusses retirement post-fight, and fans' hearts everywhere are breaking, while Dana White is smiling and saying, "that guy was never that good."

Thursday, 23 May 2013 11:13

Andrei Arlovski is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, sure it was from an era that is not well known for UFC's Heavyweight division, but to question if Arlovski was "legit" or not is a bit, well, ridiculous. He reigned supreme over UFC's division while Fedor reigned over Japan. Sergei Kharitonov has some legitimate wins from PRIDE and has competed in K-1 over the past few years, so a battle between Kharitonov vs. Arlovski is a fight that we've been waiting to see for a while, and it's happening in Strikeforce.

Arlovski comes in staring down the barrel of a long, three-fight losing streak (Fedor, Rogers, Silva), while Kharitonov hasn't faced top competition at Heavyweight in the past few years and won. Both men have a lot to prove on the world level here tonight, and this could make or break a career. Arlovski starts off strong and uses his movement and hands, but Kharitonov was patient and waited for his moment and struck, hard, swarming on Arlovski and not stopping until Arlovski was on the ground, knocked out cold.

This is Arlovski's fourth KO loss in a row, and one has to believe that he'll be dejected by this and there will be a lot of questions about his career.

Thursday, 23 May 2013 11:13

Sugar Ray Sefo, a K-1 star unlike most entered into his third professional MMA bout tonight, against the big brother of Alistair Overeem, Valentijn Overeem. Valentijn has been removed from the world of elite fighters for a while, while Sefo has yet to move up to elite competition in MMA. Both men met in a reserve bout, to see in case of an injury or draw situation who could possibly fill in during the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP.

Ray Sefo came in looking to counterstrike against the bigger and younger Valentijn, but Overeem was able to get Sefo onto the ground within one minute and twenty seconds, and about ten seconds later ha a neck crank on Ray Sefo against the cage and Sefo had no choice but to tap out. Sometimes it is heart-breaking to be a fan of Sugar Ray, as a lot of his focus of late has been on training other fighters in the fairer sport that is kickboxing, and there were rumors that he did not train as much as he should have for this bout.

Next time, Sugar Ray, next time.

Thursday, 23 May 2013 11:13

The Strikeforce Heavyweight GP is tonight, featuring Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Silva, Andrei Arlovski vs. Sergei Kharitonov and Sugar Ray Sefo in action against Alistair Overeem's big brother, Valentijn. But, just outside of Las Vegas in Primm, Nevada, Lion Fight Promotions puts on their first show of 2011. If you haven't heard of Lion Fights, they started up last year, the operation is run by Scott Kent and has given muay thai a bigger stage in the US than usually given. Tonight's card features top talents such as Malaipet and Kevin Ross and more.

The professional card breaks down as follows;

Michael Mananquil (San Francisco) vs. Malaipet (Los Angeles)

147 lbs / Welterweight title 5 rounds by 3 minutes / Full Muay Thai Rules

Chaz Mulkey (Las Vegas) vs. Douglas Edwards (San Francisco)

160 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 3 minutes / Full Muay Thai Rules

Kevin Ross (Las Vegas) vs. Sittisuk Por Sirichai (Thailand)

145 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 3 minutes / Full Muay Thai Rules

Remy Bonnel (Miami) vs. Singsir Por Sirichai (Thailand)

155 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 3 minutes / Full Muay Thai Rules

Amy Davis (Idaho Falls) vs. Emily Bearden (New York)

114 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 2 minutes / Full Muay Thai Rules

Scotty Leffler (Las Vegas) vs. Coke Chunhawat (San Francisco)

140 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 3 minutes

Shawn Yarborough (Las Vegas) vs. Brandon Banda (Concord)

175 lbs / no title 5 rounds by 3 minutes

There is also an amateur card on top of the pro card, stay tuned for the results. [source]

Thursday, 23 May 2013 11:13

Welcome back to the LiverKick.com rankings. These rankings are an attempt to break down the top 25 fighters in two different weight classes - Heavyweight, for fighters above the 77kg limit, and Middleweight, for fighters at the 70-72.5kg limit. Our rankings are based on in-ring accomplishments and recent wins and loses. We hope they reflect where these fighters currently stand, although we recognize that all rankings are inherently subjective.

February 2011

The Middleweight rankings are, in a word, a mess.

The one thing we know for certain is #1.  Giorgio Petrosyan is starting his 2nd year ruling over the division with an iron fist.  He's clearly the #1 Middleweight, the #1 pound for pound kickboxer out there, and is entering that territory of best fighter period.  The trouble is, when a division has such a dominant #1, it often means the rest of the rankings begin to falter a bit.  And that's what we're seeing now.

The race for #2 is a tough one between a lot of fighters who have real reasons not to be considered #2.  By virtue of his legendary career, S-Cup win, and six fight win streak, Buakaw Por. Pramuk retains the #2 spot, but it gets harder to keep him there.  He started showing signs of slipping back in 2008, and hasn't defeated a ranked opponent in over a year and a half.

Meanwhile, Andy Souwer, a constant factor at the very top of the ranks, just recorded his 2nd loss to an unranked opponent in the past few months, losing a decision to Abraham Roqueni.  He drops to #4, while Yoshihiro Sato moves up to #3 - more by virtue of Souwer's loss then his own victories, although he has put together a good string of wins since his very rough late 2008-early 2009 run.

Overall, the MW ranks seem to be waiting for some of their newer fighters to really stake their claim at the top.  And there are definitely some good names out there ready to move up: #10 Pajonsuk, #12 Hinata, #14 Sudsakorn, #15 Yuichiro Nagashima, #16 Chris Ngimbi, and #17 Mohamed Khamal have all made big moves lately and are poised to move even higher.  Of those names, the two that had particularly noteworthy months are Sudsakorn and Nagashima.  Sudsakorn's win over now #19 Khem Sitsongpeenong in Thailand was the biggest fight yet this year from a rankings standpoint, while Nagashima defended K-1's honor with his stunning New Year's Eve knockout of Dream champion Shinya Aoki.

As we saw in the Heavyweight division, this next month will remain somewhat of a holding pattern for the Middleweights, with nothing big scheduled in February.  But that changes in March with a host of major fights.

First up, the March 6 It's Showtime show, which features #4 Andy Souwer trying to get back in the win column against L'houcine Ouzgni; a great fight between #7 Artur Kyshenko and #9 Gago Drago; #22 Chahid Oulad El Hadj vs. Robin van Roosmalen; and #23 Leroy Kaestner vs. Ramzi Tamaditi.

March 12 is the Oktagon show from Italy with #1 Giorgio Petrosyan defending his status against the excellent Cosmo Alexandre, plus #3 Yoshihiro Sato vs. #25 Armen Petrosyan.  If Giorgio loses there I don't know what will become of the top 25.

But the big action to watch for is the July 3 It's Showtime show in Russia with #7 Artur Kyshenko vs. L'houcine Ouzgni, plus an 8 man tournament that could be the premiere Middleweight tournament of the year including #1 Giorgio Petrosyan, #4 Andy Souwer, #3 Yoshihiro Sato, #8 Murat Direkci, #9 Gago Drago, and #16 Chris Ngimbi.