In the wake of his thunderous knockout loss to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, some folks around the MMA blogosphere have been talking up Wanderlei Silva’s need to drop down to the middleweight class. Sam Caplan of Five Ounces of Pain outlines the case:

“…Forget about considering the move, it’s time to just go ahead and make it. Silva is not what he once was and can no longer swim with the sharks in the UFC’s stacked light heavyweight division. He needs to move down in weight in an attempt to reinvent himself in a division that isn’t anywhere near as deep as 205 and contains fewer power punchers.”

I will agree that Silva has been looking less and less like his former self these past two years, but declaring that a move to middleweight would solve The Axe Murderer’s problems is a weak argument at best. The unfortunate reality is that if in fact Wanderlei’s game is suffering that heavily, a move to middleweight will not turn him back into the world beater who dominated the Pride circuit.

Lots to talk about so let’s get to it: “The Ultimate 2008” delivered and delivered huge. The order of the bouts was all over the place but I can’t complain. The show was well paced and absolutely packed with fireworks and surprises. Kudos to the UFC for capping off the New Year strong.

Upset of the year? Try upset of the decade.

Wow.

I can’t really think of a better phrase to sum up my thoughts on Frank Mir dominating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira the way he did. Wow.

Just…Wow.

It’s not as if Rashad Evans, Quinton Jackson, Cheick Kongo and the rest of the winning crew weren’t equally impressive last night. But given the odds, the storyline, and the worldwide general consensus, Frank Mir’s performance absolutely stole the show, and for anyone who thinks otherwise- think again about what Frank Mir just accomplished.

UFC 91 is in the books and before I even get into the main event, I would be remiss if I did not comment on the hustle and flow of the pay-per-view as a whole. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen every single fight of the night on the telecast before, but I’m not about to complain about it. Whether is was to make a good impression on ESPN or just a matter of the UFC having their business together, UFC 91 delivered in the face of a lot of hype and a seemingly underwhelming undercard. Let’s get to it…

ShoXC “Herman vs. Schall” is likely to be most remembered not for its quick stoppages, but for its poor refereeing. Of the four fights I was able to watch (Herman-Schall, Khalidov-Guida, Lapsley-Stumpf, and Shlemenko-McDaniel) three of the fights saw mistakes by the referee.
In the evening’s main event between Dave Herman and Kerry Schall both fighters [...]

As I write this piece while occasionally sipping from my seasonal Oktoberfest brew, I can only imagine that somewhere, Dana White has an ear-to-ear smile plastered across his evil little face. And I bet Sean Gannon is grinning a bit as well. Despite “Heat” sporting a very strong card which entertained me to the [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: A petition requesting former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner be posthumously inducted into the UFC hall of fame can be signed here. — KK
I once wrote that Evan Tanner’s excursions were, if nothing else, unnecessary, and in my opinion they were. But that is what separates people like Evan Tanner from the rest [...]

First and foremost, I’m obligated like every other keyboard warrior in the blogosphere to formally apologize to Rashad Evans for not giving him a snowball’s chance in hell at winning on Saturday night. There, official kudos have been dished out, all is well.
Now everyone else and their mother are forecasting the blank future for Liddell, [...]

While things did not play out exactly as I imagined on Saturday night (see Brock Lesnar), I must admit that for the first time in a good while, I feel like I really got my moneys worth out of a UFC pay-per-view. Even my older brother, who doesn’t know jack about squat when it comes [...]

The jam packed MMA weekend is finally over and I have taken sufficient time to watch and re-watch both Affliction:Banned as well as UFN 14. My initial thoughts are on Affliction’s potential for long term growth, and of course the comparison between “Banned” and Ultimate Fight Night 14. Let’s get right to it.
If they have [...]

I understand the title I chose for this write up seems insulting and that to the more casual viewer, last nights inaugural batch of network MMA was pretty darn satisfying. However for the true (and yes, judgmental) MMA hardcores out there the night had a serious wreak of disappointment. Why? Because something just didn’t feel [...]