Has George Sotiropoulos Arrived or Have We Just Not Noticed?

Last Saturday at UFC 110 George Sotiropoulos proved the majority of fans and pundits wrong by dominating the heavily favored Joe Stevenson everywhere the fight went. Weather on the feet, in top position or from his back, Sotiropolous was never in trouble and always had Stevenson defending either his crisp striking or a slew of diverse submission attempts. While Stevenson had a few moments of brilliance diving for a D'arce choke and getting top position late in the 3rd round, the 30-27 score that George received hardly tells the whole story.

Already fans are breaking down Sotiropolous vs Penn, maybe less because of his win over Joe "Daddy" and more because there doesn't seem to be any challenges for Penn inside the UFC lately. One lightweight that fans have always wanted to see Penn pitted against, Shinya Aoki, has fought Sotiropolous in the past. The fight can be watched here on MiddleEasy dot com.

http://middleeasy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1626:aoki-vs-sotiropoulos-is-so-perfect-of-a-fight-that-it-already-happened-and-we-have-the-video&catid=35:events

While George spent much of the first round protecting his knees from Aoki's heel hook attempts and ended the fight with an unfortunate groin kick, George fought well against one of the worlds top lightweights. It's likely George has been overlooked due to going through The Ultimate Fighter show and losing on that show to Tommy Spear, a fighter who has since been dropped from the UFC. During that TUF loss however George was poked in the eye several times and was fighting a man huge for the welterweight division, let alone Georges home division of lightweight.

After a perfomance like the one against Stevenson, Sotiropolous' next fight should be against a top 5 opponent. Perhaps Sean Sherk, Gray Maynard or Tyson Griffin or even the winner of Gomi vs Florian would appropriate next level opponents and a quality win over either would put George within sight of BJ Penns belt.

MMA Promotions Control Over Match Ups Has Pros and Cons

MMA is unique in that promoters have control over their matchups. This has been a blessing and a curse in that hardcore fans see fighters like Jon Fitch and Yushin Okami passed over because their style doesn’t sell, while big names or charismatic fighters like Brock Lesnar or Dan Hardy seemingly get to jump the line to a title shot. There is also the positive side where fights that end like Machida vs Rua can be instantly re-matched to give fans the closure they want and promoters often listen to both fighters and fans and create fights like Davis vs Lytle. It will be interesting to see if this model persists as the sport grows and even one day big promotions change hands. While it’s harder to dodge a worthy challenger than in boxing, the potential does remain for promoters to hand pick matchups and promote the fighters they want.

UFC 110 Main Event Illustrates Changing of the Guard

It first happened at UFC 65 when Georges St. Pierre took the title from Matt Hughes. We saw a changing of the guard when the younger fighter defeated the legend. We are approaching an epoch in this young sport where the pioneers and legends are reaching retirement age. I believe we will see more marquee fighters retire in the next two years than in all of MMA past combined. As that happens, we will see more fights like the upcoming UFC 110 main card bout of Nogueira vs Velasquez. As hardcore fans continue to bet on and pick fights, they will start having to gauge how talent and athleticism weigh against experience and technique; intangible attributes with no easy conversion scale. On February 21st will Nogueira teach the younger fighter a lesson, or will Velasquez show us that Nogueira’s wars have finally caught up with him?

UFC Relentless: Aftermath

Randy Couture defeats Mark Coleman

Randy Couture finished an outclassed Mark Coleman in the second round via rear naked choke. The first round saw Randy with great angles, stiff jabs and 1 2 combinations consistently hit a stiff and robotic looking Coleman. The last few minutes were Coutures signature clinch and dirty boxing against the cage that drained the last out of Coleman. The second was a continuation of the first with Randy taking the fight to that mat and mercifully opting for the submission rather than the TKO.

According to Dana White, this win put Couture back in title contention at Light Heavy Weight. Pundits and fans however are not all in agreement. While Couture continues to defy conventional age limitations, his recent fights with Antonio Rogrigo Noguera and Brandon Vera have raised questions on how he will fare against elite strikers. While there is no doubt that his clinch and wrestling still outclass the level of most fighters, Noguera's hands and Vera's feet put Couture in danger of being stopped in both fights.

White said in the post fight press conference that Randy is somewhere in the middle of the winners of the upcoming Machida VS Rua rematch and the long awaited grudge match of Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. It's hard to say how Randy's wrestling would match up against these elite knock out artists but one would think with how active he's been (3 fights in 7 months) we're likely to see another Captain America fight before he gets matched up with any of the aforementioned victors.

WEC 48 Pay Per View

The votes are in: Most MMA fans say they are not willing to pay $44.99 to watch WEC 48. Despite putting their biggest names on a card, three top-10 featherweight fighters and two big title fights that both have "Fight of the Year" potential, the community is apparently not willing to pay. I personally will buy this card because I simply cannot pass up seeing this caliber of MMA. However, one would think the WEC, for its pay-per-view debut, would have scheduled it on a slower month in today's tighter economy. Also, for a product people are used to getting free, they could have started at a lower price. Aside from that, a star-studded card like this is perfect to be the WEC's first pay-per-view event, and we would be naïve fans to think that the WEC could remain active and increase fighter pay based solely on free shows.

Ralph "RJCT" Purificato
Wallingford, Conn.