More Lightweight Rankings (nothing catchy goes with my name)

It’s time that I jump on the lightweight ranking bandwagon. Below is the list of the Top 10 lightweight fighters in the UFC and an explanation for their rankings.

1. B.J. Penn- Penn is the champion and the champ is always going to be the top dog on a ranking for any organization. On top of that Penn looked better against Joe Stevenson then Sean Sherk did against Hermes Franca.
2. Sean Sherk- since Sherk is the number 1 contender, so he (reluctantly)gets the 2 ranking here. Hopefully Penn is able to get an entertaining performance out of the “Muscle Shark” because lay and pray is not going to get the job done in that fight.
3. Kenny Florian- since his loss to Sherk, Florian has been tearing through the competition making his way back into contender status. A win against Joe Lauzon will probably clinch a title shot against the Penn-Sherk winner.
4. Frank Edgar- “The Answer” broke through in 2007 with his fight against Tyson Griffin and furthered his stock with his victory over Spencer Fisher. We’ll see what Edgar has in store of his fans in 2008.
5. Joe Stevenson- the toughness that Stevenson showed in defeat at UFC 80 was great. He was out classed by Penn yet his determination never wavered. Stevenson will be back among the elite in a short time.
6. Roger Huerta- Huerta silenced some critics with his come from behind victory over Clay Guida. Like Mahde mentioned, Huerta did something that a lot of top class fighters couldn’t do and that was finishing Guida. After a busy 2007, the Sports Illustrated cover boy will take some time off before coming back to the UFC in what will probably be another top caliber fight.
7. Tyson Griffin- the UFC has another young star in their hands with Griffin. Griffin can make any fight entertaining, and if it wasn’t for the loss to Edgar, would probably already be fighting for the title shot.
8. Din Thomas- despite Thomas’ knee coming up gimp in his fight versus Florian, he remains a top fighter in a division full of young stars. Thomas needs to regain his form before the Florian fight in order to continue his climb up the rankings.
9. Thiago Tavares- Tavares looked awful in his match versus Michihiro Omigawa, the fight that was meant as a showcase for Tavares‘ skill ended with him looking like he didn’t belong more than anything. He needs to regain the form he had pre-Omigawa in order to continue getting pushed by Zuffa.
10. Nate Diaz- the Ultimate Fighter 5 winner has been on a roll since capturing the six-figure contract. Though he was on his way to defeat against Manny Gamburyan, Diaz has pretty much walked through everyone else in front of him.

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Violent Mike is Back and Wants to Talk UFN 12

Good morning MMACrazies.

You may be wondering why you have not been seeing me on here or Mania, and there is a reason why. I’ll make a very long story short. On Friday evening someone took a left at a green light directly in front of my wife and she got into a pretty serious car accident. Getting a phone call from a stranger saying “your wife is in a pretty bad car accident, but don’t panic”, the first reaction is to of course, panic. I got to the hospital a minute after the ambulance… Car is totaled, we’ve been working with our lawyer, and she has literally 1 or 2 doctor appointments every day. In other words, it hasn’t been a pleasant week and I’ve been very busy.

So now on to the televised portion of UFN 12:

Nate Diaz vs Alvin Robinson: Since I have always been a huge fan of the Diaz brother’s, I was a little nervous about this fight because Alvin BEAT DOWN Jorge Gurgel who has great BJJ and decent standup which are similar qualities to Nate, but Nate is a MUCH better fighter than Gurgel. The 22 year old Diaz proved that he is indeed ready to step up in competition. Can anyone say Thiago Taverez??? SideNote: I was very happy to see Nick finally in Nate’s corner. I don’t think Nick has any fights coming up, but he did look much larger than usual. Yes he usually fights one weight class above Nate, but I thought he looked rather larger than usual – even considering he doesn’t have a fight coming up.

Thiago Tavarez vs Micci Omigawa: Tavarez should have finished him in the first round. Very dissapointing showing for Tavarez. If he wants to prove to be a Top 5 contender in the stacked LW divsion, then he has to finish fighers that have a losing record MMA (Omigawa was 4-5 coming into the fight).

Kurt Pellegrino vs Alberto Crane: WOW was I impressed with Batman. He was an animal in this fight. That kick to the jaw was wicked, to put it lightly. I thought the fight would be over within 10 seconds for sure. But Kurt was able to hang in there. Like I say, Crane is a BJJ guy fighting in MMA. I was impressed with that opening kick, but other than that, he did not look good on his feet. Other After that kick, Kurt simply dominated the fight. I loved when Kurt was slapping his most likely broken jaw and yelling and Alberto to bring it. I was a fan of Kurt before this fight, but now I am a big fan of Kurt. That hole in Kurts lower lip was SICK – his teeth went right through!

Patrick Cote vs Drew McFedries: A quick and explosive fight ending in KO as expected. Man oh man, does Cote have a jaw or what? The hardest punch thrown in the fight was the punch the Cote took before he put the beat down on McFedries. Working with Mark DellaGrotte is working wonders on Patrick Cote’s already impressive stand up game. Everyone but Hendo and Anderson Silva should be very weary to take a fight with Patrick Cote right now.

Mike Swick vs Josh Burkman: Zzzzzzzzzzz. What a sleeper. Burkman won round one. Round 2 was very close because not much happened, but I gave it to Swick because of the head kick. So it all came down to the 3rd and final round. Neither fighter did anything worthy of winning the round. I scored it 10-10, resulting in a 29-29 draw. One judge saw it my way. Gut I don’t know how 2 judges saw Swick clearly winning 2 rounds. I didn’t see Swick clearly win any rounds. The only round that was decisively won was round 1 by Burkman. As much as I don’t like Burkman, I think that the fight should have been a draw or Burkman should have gotten the split decision. Sidenote: The only thing that impressed me by Mike Swick was his take down defense.

So now you know how I feel about this event, what did you guys think? Please share your thoughts in the Comments Section.

SideNote: NEW YORK GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!

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UFC Fight Night 12 results coverage and LIVE fight commentary

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