Strikeforce Welterweight contender Tarec Saffiedine talks to Clinch Gear Radio about his upcoming fight with Tyron Woodley. Saffiedine (10-2) will face Woodley (7-0) in the main event of Strikeforce Challengers 13 January 7th 2011 on Showtime.hot air ballooning rafting downhill skiing helicopter skiing ocean scuba diving
You can call him the "Decisionator," but damn Dominick Cruz is entertaining. Cruz won his eighth straight fight last night, with a unanimous decision blowout over Scott Jorgensen. He became the first UFC bantamweight champ by putting on a clinic in every area of the game.
Cruz (17-1) was impossible to hit. His counterstriking game was brilliant. The 5-foot-8, 135 pounder was tough to take down. When he did hit the floor, he popped up quickly. His combinations are some of the best we've ever seen in MMA. Jorgensen is a good fighter but he was made to look silly.
His style is completely unique. There are some good counterstrikers in MMA, and many more who are good defensive fighters, but Cruz's combination of the two is baffling opponents right now.
That's not a bad comparison to Lyoto Machida, but Cruz is a much better grappler than the former light heavyweight champ. Last night, when he wanted to take it to the ground, Cruz executed perfectly. Jorgensen is a former Div. 1 wrestler at Boise State and got dominated in clinch situations.
There's also a mental hurdle to overcome when you face Cruz. It's got to feel like he's clowning you in the cage. The opponent has to refrain from losing his cool.
The comparison to boxer Prince Naseem Hamed is interesting. He mocked opponents for years before getting torn apart by the very composed Marco Antonio Barrera. The Prince's success was part talent and part creative matchmaking.
Let's face it, Cruz has faced some pretty good opponents. Joe Benavidez is no slouch and Brian Bowles is an above average MMA striker.
Who has "real technique?" Does that even matter. Until you're in there and Cruz is bouncing all over the place and landing strikes from crazy angles, do you really know if a disciplined striking game will chop him down? Urijah Faber's striking has gotten better, can he do it? Miguel Torres is a good boxer, but he can get a little out of control too.
Joe Rogan once made the mistake of overreacting to Machida's win over Rashad Evans, saying we were on the verge of the "Machida Era." Are we making the same mistake here if we say this could be the "Cruz Era?" He's only 25 and seems to have it all.
Listen here to hear Cofield and Adam Hill from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas as they talk about the victories by Cruz and Anthony Pettis.
It was a little sad to see the WEC close its doors last night. The card was representative of everything that hardcore fans liked about the promotion. In the main event, Anthony Pettis served as a prime example of what made the WEC so much fun.
The promotion featured lots of young fighters with well-rounded games and endless stamina. Because the money wasn't great and jobs are hard to come by in MMA, most of the guys fought their asses off. You rarely saw a match with a guy trying to cruise to a victory or playing it safe.
Last night at WEC 53, when the Pettis-Ben Henderson fight was tied going into the final round, the 23-year-old Milwaukee native didn't come off his stool looking to eek out the win. He was aggressive and nailed one of the best moves in MMA history to seal the victory - "The Showtime" kick.
With just over a minute left in the fight, Pettis ran up the side of the cage and landed a kick right Henderson's kisser (0:24 mark). He got the win, grabbing the final WEC lightweight belt and the first shot at the winner of Frank Edgar and Gray Maynard in the UFC.
The first time I saw Anthony Pettis in a WEC cage was back at WEC 41 in Sacramento. He took apart Mike Campbell that night and I remember thinking why did Zuffa put this kid in the WEC? He's absolutely good enough to fight right now in the bigger UFC.
Pettis also had an unreal back story. As a teen, he came home to discover his father had been murdered. Pettis then turned to fighting and training MMA. He went pro at 20 and debuted with WEC at 22. Less than 18 months later, he's locked up a shot at the UFC's lightweight title.
Pettis is exactly what people were talking about five years ago when they said, watch what happens to this sport when the young kids who are training in MMA gyms now arrive. Most of the future stars won't come from a specific discipline. From a young age, they'll have trained in jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing and kickboxing.
That's Pettis. We called it back in November at the time of the merger, tabbing Pettis the No. 4 fighter on a list of WEC stars moving over to the UFC. That was four spots ahead of Henderson who actually had the strap.
Pettis came through last night but took it to another level with that kick. There were countless fighters on Twitter saying they'd never seen anything like it and further admitting they couldn't do it. That's high praise. The kid deserves it and may have a big future on the bigger stage.
Listen here to hear Cofield and Adam Hill from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on ESPNRadio1100 in Las Vegas as talk about the victories by Pettis and Dominick Cruz.
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K-1 World Grand Prix Final 2010, [ Semi Final ]
Jake Shields goes one on one with MMACanada.net in Montreal following Georges St-Pierre's successful defeat of Josh Koscheck. Shields is the next man in line for the title shot and thinks his wrestling and Jiu Jitsu skills are superior enough to dethrone GSP in their upcoming title fight. Don't miss this one on one with former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields
