CNN made me think about the end of the world last night

Well, this blog was my original MMA blog which has since morphed into CTMMANews.com. So I figured, why not use this space for some of my more generally applicable advice and musings? It's my way of giving back.

So, what to talk about? I could tackle some of our government dilemmas. Maybe give some advice as to how to get along in these harsh economic times. But nay, there is a much more pressing matter at hand. If you have been watching any late night tv, you may have heard that the world is going to end in 2012. I know right? You'd think they'd be more thorough in distributing such critical information. It's ok though because some guy in Arizona is going to jump off a cliff at 11:11 a.m. at the exact moment of the solstice, go through a portal, and keep the computer program we're all plugged into from shutting down. No I'm not kidding and I assume only Microsoft could be responsible for such shoddy programming.

While that is clearly a ridiculous interpretation of the Mayan calendars abrupt ending next year, there is no doubt that we're all doobed.(No I don't have a cold, that's how things are pronounced in my house)So what to do? No worries, I've got your Y/2/12 survival guide right here.

1) Be a ninja
- be it zombies or selfish neihbes (that's neighbors for those who don't speak "abreve") who were not prepared, you need to learn how to open a can of whoop-donkey when the cranberries hit the fan, so take a page out of my girlfriends playbook and stock up on guns and ammo before that socialist muslim craps on the Bill of Declaration of Independence and makes buying a grenade launcher illegal.

Awwwwwwww yeahhhhhhhh

2) Learn how to kill ninjas
- there's a million people out there reading this blog RIGHT NOW who are enrolling in ninja classes and buying grenade launchers and you need to learn how to kill them. This is survival and we need the cream corn of the corn crop making it through so we can repopulate the world with smart people rather than the type of people who currently don't use blinkers or can't get you're order correct at Wendys. (how hard is your job? really?)

Ninja > Pirate

3) Bunker down
- git er done and bunker down. Concrete walls underground with automated gattling guns is the way to go. Every once in awhile go top side and eat the people that tried to break into your survival fortress. The Book of Eli will try to tell you that eating human meat will make you shakey. They've obviously never watched Highlander. You eat someone and you gain their power, not to mention they can't turn into a zombie if you've already digested and pooped them out. #poopzombies

4) Friends
- you can't repopulate by yourself... only weird frogs do that... now that I think of it I'm adding frogs to my Post-Apocalypse-Axis-of-Evil...as well as hyphens because I'm not sure if they're necessary. But you need a group of friends with well rounded skill sets to keep things going. Some hunters, some farmers, maybe a chemist or engineer. Just make sure everyone you decide to live with is weaker than you so you can eat them if necessary. I've already set up my living arrangement that way. One less thing to do when the cranberries hit the fan. (Brian dies first so I can make Jon cook him)

If it comes down to survival, I WILL dropkick your baby

5) Rebuilding plan
- I've already commissioned blueprints of RalphTopia. It's going to be awesome. There's lots of arcades. Also, a statue of me as a ninja, but you can't find it, BECAUSE I'M A NINJA!!!! It's going to be where Boogertown, North Carolina is now. (Yes that's a real city. bet you a dollar)

I hear they keep it clean with the use of pickit lines.....get it? #heheboogers

6) food
- If you don't eat you can't continue being awesome, so while you shouldn't let it take your focus off of ninja-ing or practicing shooting vagabonds and gypsies (careful, they can curse you. Shoot them before they start talking or try to hand you a button. You don't want to wind up like the girl in Drag Me to Hell), get some food. Probably best to just take over an abandoned GNC and pound protein bars. The protes keep you powerful so you can continue crushing others on your way to Grand Emperor-ship.

While this guide was brief, I wanted to get the really important goals across. If you get these 6 simple rules down everything else is semantics, and no one knows what a semantic is so it's obviously not important. Good luck and God-speed

For reference, this is what Apocalypse-prepardness looks like

UFC 111 Recap

The 17,000 fans at the sold out Prudential Center this past Saturday saw a champion retain his belt and a new champion crowned in addition to the other 8 fights featured on the UFC 111 card.

On the preliminary card, local fighter Greg Soto started the night against fan favorite Matt Riddle. Riddle controlled the action through the first two rounds using good hand combinations as well as takedowns, although Soto appeared to be gaining steam. That momentum was halted however when an illegal upkick to Riddle from Soto earned Soto a disqualification in his first UFC fight. An unfortunate end to an entertaining fight.

Jared Hamman defeated Rodney Wallace by decision in their Fight of the Night performance. Both fighters came out looking for the early knock out and while that may have tired them out quickly, neither fighter gave up throughout the 3 rounds. Both men scored with hard combinations but Hamman looked to be the better striker as Wallace's wrestling saved him on multiple occasion when Hamman looked like he was close to ending the fight. The two fighters each earned $65,000 bonuses for the exciting performance.

Nate Diaz impressed in his welterweight debut, coming up from lightweight to challenge Rory Markham. While this was thought to be a classic "Grappler vs Striker" with Diaz being the Jiu Jitsu expert and Markham the kickboxer, Diaz proved the more dominant stand up fighter, landing crisp combinations before dropping his opponent and earning the TKO at 2:47 of the first round.

New jersey native Kurt Pellegrino won an exciting ground battle against fellow Jiu Jitsu fighter Fabricio Camoes via Rear Naked Choke towards the end of the second round. Camoes nearly finished the fight with the same technique early in the first, but Pellegrino was able to survive and reverse position. The finish earned Pellegrino a $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus.

In the first of two title fights, Shane Carwin continued his streak of 1st round stoppages earning him the Interim Heavyweight Championship and a unification bout with current champ, Brock Lesnar. Carwin pushed his opponent, former champ Frank Mir, into the cage early, using knees and dirty boxing to wear down his opponent. A little more than halfway through the round saw a series of uppercuts from Carwin drop Mir to the canvas where Carwin followed up with punches, causing the ref to stop the fight. After the fight, Lesnar entered the cage to congratulate Carwin, but remind him he had won a "fake belt" in the interim championship and that he'd need to fight himself to earn the real one.

The second championship bout of the night saw top pound-for-pound great Georges "Rush" St. Pierre battle Englands Dan Hardy for the welterweight title. St. Pierre seemed intent on getting the submission win, constantly passing Hardys guard and looking for chokes and armlocks. The first and fourth rounds saw Hardy in dire straights as St. Pierre looked to have an armbar and kimura locked in. Hardy though refused to tap and managed to get out of the holds to survive until the judges score cards, which unanimously saw St. Pierre taking all 5 rounds. One judge even gave St. Pierre a 10-8 round and another 2 10-8 rounds. While dominating his opponent, St. Pierre immediately received critisiscm for not finishing the fight, as Hardy came in as a +500 underdog and wasn't expected to make it the distance. The crowd at the Prudential Center voiced their dissaproval throughout the 5th and final round as the action seemed to slow. My opinion is with the two near submissions, "Rush" was clearly trying to finish. My only critique would be that after Hardy was able to escape two very close armlocks, St. Pierre could have changed his gameplan to focus more on landing strikes on the ground. Given that St. Pierre was able to basically pass Hardys guard at will, he was in position to deliver the strikes but seemed intent on looking for the submission.

Overall an entertaining card that saw some meaningful division matches in addition to the two title fights.

Behind the Record: Chris Lytle

Since 1999, Chris "Lights Out" Lytle has fought for Pancrase, HOOKnSHOOT, Cage Rage, the WEC and his longtime home now with the UFC where he has been fighting for the past 4 years. With a record of 28-17-5, Lytle has never fought for a major title but has held the HOOKnSHOOT and Cage Rage welterweight titles. He is a 4 time Fight of the Night, one time Knock Out of the Night and two time Submission of the Night bonus winner in the UFC.

Chris Lytle trains in Mixed Martial Arts part time along side being a firefighter in Indianapolis. He started training in 1998, only 6 years after the North American inception of the sport and is still competing at the highest level after 11 years. That amount of time in the sport explains a record with 50 pro MMA fights and a 13-1-1 professional boxing record. While his MMA record can appear underwhelming as far as win-loss ratio, of his 17 losses, 15 were by decision and 2 were via cut. In over 50 fights with some of MMA's best, no one has been able to submit or knock out Chris Lytle.

Lytle's early days in Pancrase saw him take some of his first losses to Jason Delucia and Shonie Carter while fighting to a draw with Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa. His UFC debut was a decision loss against Ben Earwood, a little known MMA fighter who hasn't fought since retiring in 2001 but was a top welterweight at the time. Lytle wouldn't return to the UFC for 3 years untilfighting Robbie Lawler to another decision loss. His first UFC win would come 5 months later (submitting Pete Spratt in between) with a submission of Tiki Goshen that started a great 3 year run for the fighter. From 2004 to 2006 Lytle went 8-2, losing by decision to Karo Parisyan and by cut to Joe Riggs while securing wins over the aforementioned Goshen and Spratt along with Ronald Jhun, Pat Healy and Savant Young leading him to fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter titled "The Comeback". Lytle fought his way to the finals taking out Pete Spratt and Din Thomas before losing in the finale by split decision to Matt Serra in a fight that was somewhat of a stalemate, with Serra pushing Lytle against the cage for most of the fight. Serra went on to score the upset of the century when he knocked out Georges St. Pierre while Lytle suffered a loss to Matt Hughes.

Starting with the Matt Serra loss, Lytle has gone 6-5 over the past four years (one fight being in the UFL) and delivered some of the most exciting fights in the division, as his frequent bonuses will attest to. After the unfortunate early ending to his Fight of the Night with Thiago Alves (which months prior was rumored to instead be a move to the WEC to challenge Carlos Condit for the title), Lytle came out against Kyle Bradley and knocked him out in 33 seconds, earning his KO of the Night award. He said at the time he was going to stop worrying about being technical and just come out and fight. This reinvention produced his second Fight of the Night bonus in a slug fest with Kevin Burns, the close win over Paul Taylor (you guessed it, another Fight of the Night), the much hyped battle with Marcus Davis in Dublin, Ireland (which was shockingly a Fight of the Night winner) and his recent rolling knee bar and Submission of the Night win against up and coming Brian Foster. Mixed in the list of wins was one of the bloodiest fights of 2008 where Lytle was out wrestled and cut open by Josh Koschek. Throughout the fight, Lytle never stopped searching for submissions despite the grotesque amount of blood coming from the cuts on his face. This was the only fight in a 7 fight stretch where Lytle did not win a bonus. Going 6-1 for bonuses in his past 7fights, Lytle has netted himself an extra $275,000 over a roughly 2.5 year span.

Unfortunately, Lytle's weakness being wrestling, we're likely to never see him crack the top tier of the UFC's stacked welterweight division. However, one would have to imagine that every up and coming welterweight can't help but take a deep breath before accepting a fight with one of the division toughest competitors and fans everywhere can't help but shift a bit closer to the edge of their seat and lean in towards their tv's when "Lights Out" enters the ring because win or lose, you're guaranteed to see an exciting fight.

My Proposed Jon Jones Road Map

After Jon Jones casually dismantled Brandon Vera, the talk began of how long until he fought for a title. Some have advocated letting the young fighter take his time to develop while others have said his unique potential warrants the fast lane to top level competition. Dana White however has given us a general time line.

"He's not ready for that," White said. "I'd like to see him get another year under his belt, and in that year, before he got a shot at the title, he'd have to take out Rashad (Evans), 'Rampage' (Jackson), possibly 'Shogun' (Rua) or (Lyoto) Machida, then get the title shot." - Dana White
In the past Jones has normally fought every 5 to 6 months. Given his easy win this past Sunday, one could propose a quicker turn around for his next fight, even with some time off to spend with his family, as Jones has stated is in his immediate plans. Lets say that puts him approximately around July or August. UFC 116 on July 3rd in Vegas is possible and with Brock's proposed return, it would be a high volume pay per view that would provide more exposure for a fighter the UFC is sure to want to promote heavily. In that same vein of promotion, we could also see Jones showcased again for free on UFC on Versus 2 on August 1st. However, deciding weather or not Jones gets put on free tv or a big pay per view card and when the next fight would be will be determined by his opponent.

The next opponent for Jon Jones should be another fighter on a win streak and with name value. Jones took on Vera off of a close loss to Randy Couture (who spent 15 frustrating minutes trying to take Vera down against the cage, something that took Jones only seconds on open canvas) but Vera's name value and the somewhat controversial nature of the loss warranted the match up. White's comments of Jones taking out one of the LHW elite before a title shot and those fighters being already matched up makes any of them an unlikely next opponent as the winners will be up for title shots and the losers will have a hard time coming out unscathed. So who is available for Jones on his way to a #1 contenders fight?

One up and coming fighter who is also coming off a big win is Ryan Bader. A fellow wrestler with a powerful right hand would provide a good stylistic match up and would be a great fight for the fans. This would be an excellent audience-pleaser on a Versus card. Also, Vladimir Matyushenko is a legend and has been on a streak. Jones style would force the methodical Matyushenko to have a more exciting fight than he has lately. My personal favorite potential match up, the winner of Forrest Griffin vs Lil' Nog which makes sense on many levels. Their fight is scheduled for UFC 114 in May, giving Jones 2 months to himself before starting to think about his next fight. Either fighter would be a tough and established opponent where a win would leave Jones a clear path for a #1 contenders fight against one of the top 5 of the division that White mentioned. These two fights puts us just over a year in the future with Jones potentially starting at a title shot no longer as a prospect, but as a clear cut #1 contender.

UFC 111 Implications

UFC 111 is the most stacked fight card since UFC 100. Two title fights and several matchups that are very meaningful to their divisions. Breakdowns are a dime a dozen so I want to focus more on the implications for the future that some of these fights present.


GSP vs Dan Hardy
I'll start by stating that I am assuming GSP wins this fight. I'm assuming he takes Hardy down, passes to side and takes a kimura in the 1st round and proves Hardy doesn't belong in the same cage (I think Hardy vs Paulo Thiago would have been a more reasonable matchup considering division standings although I suppose St. Pierre had to fight somebody). A victory here will leave GSP as the most dominant welterweight of all time, standing atop a completely cleared out division with the only potential contenders looking for rematches in a fight they've already lost. Fitch or Alves make a strong case for the next title shot with Josh Koschek and Paulo Thiago not far behind. While Thiago is the only one of those to not already have a loss to St. Pierre, it's hard to get too excited about the potential match up after Fitch was able to control Thiago on the ground for 3 rounds. Only just now approaching his 30's, there is no end in sight for one of the sports most dominant athletes reign over the welterweight division, and he has (wisely) stated, there is no reason for him to go to middleweight to fight a much larger Anderson Silva.

Mir vs Carwin
Obviously when a title is on the line, the implications are clear. The winner fights Brock Lesnar and no matter who wins, that fight will be huge with either Cawin vs Lesnar being a clash of the two biggest Heavyweights the UFC has ever had (in modern times) or Mir vs Lesnar completing the trilogy that Frank Mir has been able to keep fresh in everyones mind no matter who he is actually scheduled to fight. Either way, the resulting title fight with Brock will headline what is likely to be a huge pay per view card for the UFC and a tough fight for Brock coming off such a long layoff. I will say that as big of a Carwin fan that I am, I have a hard time seeing him beating Mir after a year plus between fights. Both fighters though have dynamic finishing power and like to finish things quickly so don't blink when the bell rings.


John Fitch vs Thiago Alves
This fight may not produce a clear cut #1 contender but the winner makes a case at defining himself as the #2 welterweight in the UFC and possibly the world (depending on where you put Jake Shields). If John Fitch wins here he likely gets a title shot. If he stops Thiago Alves, then he should definitely get a title shot. Alves on the other hand will need another win or two to get back to the title if he bests Fitch on Saturday. For Alves, a rematch with Koschek or the previsouly scrapped match with Paulo Thiago make for good #1 contenders fights. I am leaning toward Fitch winning in this one as while Thiago lost to GSP at UFC 100, Fitch beat Paulo Thiago and then a tough Mike Pierce while Alves has been on the shelf for 8 months due to injuries.
(visit the MMAJunkie forums for a really great look at ring rust with good hard data)

Nate Diaz vs Rory Markham
I never thought Diaz was a big lightweight so this career move will be interesting. I will attempt a breakdown here and say that, despite Markham not fighting in a year, I struggle to find a way Diaz wins this outside of Markham making a grievous tactical error. I do not see Markham taking Diaz down which eliminates Diaz's triangle and guillotines (both of which are excellent) and I also don't see Nates wrestling allowing him to get the fight to the ground. On the feet, Diaz's boxing doesn't seem to impress judges and lacks finishing power. I expect Markham to keep it on the feet, and while not being able to crack Diaz's strong chin, win a decision by landing the harder strikes throughout the rounds. Should Diaz show either improved wrestling or punching power however, he makes a case that his move up a division was justified. This match up at welterweight is a good first test for Diaz in the division but should he lose, that would put him at 1-4 in his last 5 fights and make it hard for the UFC to justify keeping him on the roster.

I'm also interested to see Ricardo Almeida at welterweight against the always tough and aggressive Matt Brown as well as Saunders vs Ellenberger, both of which should be exciting and high paced fights. I'm glad I got my tickets before they sold out.

Herb Dean and Josh Rosenthal Earn Their Pay

Refereeing was the hottest topic in MMA not even a month ago. Dana White's critiscism of Steve Mazagatti was all over vlogs and forums with fans weighing in on the issue. Last night however saw some excellent refereeing as Herb Dean and Josh Rosenthal had to make some tough calls and showed that there are refs out there who can handle the pressure and make the hard decisions.

First off was Josh Rosenthal overseeing the Sakara vs Irvin fight. Sakara's left hook hit Irvin in the eye and Irvin winced and fell to the ground holding his eye as Sakara jumped on him. Josh Rosenthal stepped in to what people initially though was a break to check the eye, but was actually the end of the fight. Rosenthal was in position to see the strike and recognized that the fist was closed when it landed. Since it was a legal strike that did the damage rendering Irvin unable to intelligently defend himself, the stoppage was a TKO win for Sakara. A perfect by-the-book call by Rosenthal who did not let the boo's from the crowd or the protestings of the fighters get to him.

The next scenario was not as clear cut but I believe Herb Dean made the best decisions possible during the Kongo vs Buentello contest. I will preface this by saying that Check Kongo needs to tighten up his game as far as fouls go. In this one fight we saw knees to the head of a grounded opponent, 12 to 6 elbows (which wether I like it or not, are currently illegal), a groin shot against the cage unseen by the ref (where Buentello also did not call attention to it aside from a look of pain) and some grabbing of the shorts. Is Kongo lucky he didn't get DQ'd? Maybe, but that result probably wouldn't have pleased the fans or the fighters. There was also a tough call where Kong had Buentello in a front headlock and was throwing knees to the head which were perfectly legal. Buentello then, without changing his body position, placed a hand on the ground to make himself grounded, rendering those same knees illegal. This was a few moments after Kongo had a point taken away for the clearly illegal knees to the head. Herb Dean stopped the action which was correct because the knees were infact illegal. However, he did not deduct a point from Kongo because he said that Buentello was "playing the game". This is why I like that call. For one, he stopped the action when the foul occured which was by-the-book. There is no arguing that Buentello became grounded and received knees to the head. It is absolutely the attacking fighters responsibility to make sure they are throwing legal techniques. Now I like the decision to not deduct a point because after throwing legal knees, he continued to do the same thing that seconds before was perfectly legal. Kongo was not in a position to see the hand change and while it is still his responsibility to do so, it was not technically an intentional foul as the previous knee was where Kongo was in position to see that Buentello was grounded.

Overall, a great night of fights where two of the fights could have ended in controversy, and while still awkward, the better fighters got the W's.

WEC Recap

At WEC 47, the fighters showed that what appears on paper doesn't always translate to the cage. Oddsmakers would have had us believe that Brian Bowles and Miguel Torres were on the road to a rematch, but Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez not only pulled upsets, but did so convincingly. This is a credit to Sean Shelby's matchmaking as his WEC 42 matchup of Cruz and Benavidez could now be a future title bout as both fighters have now themselves as No. 1 and No. 2 in the division. As such, the former top-of-the-list rematch in the bantamweight division of Bowles vs. Torres looks to be a non-title affair, and while still a fight that would put the victor back in the title mix, the loser has even more to lose with both fighters getting finished in fights they were favored to win. Shelby will have his hands full as the volatile WEC title landscape continues to shift unpredictably. Lets take a look at what these fights mean for the future.

One thing to take from Cruz and Benavidez is that your record does not show how good you are. Cruz's decision wins made some doubt his ability to finish added to Bowles big name KO over Torres equaled most people predicting an easy win for Bowles. Pat Militech on MMA Live however had analyzed his fights and the way he moved and predicted an upset that had Franklin Mcneil scoffing. Needless to say I can't wait until the next episode of MMA Live.

The flip side of the Cruz/Bowles equation had Benavidez losing a close decision to Cruz, which at the time most said that if he couldn't beat Cruz, what hope would he have against Torres? Again, not only a big win but a dominant finish for Benavidez. Torres seemed to lack his usual aggressive striking game and while he started to use his length and jab, it was too little too late.

What we saw is that big name wins and win/loss on a record had masked the fact from most people that Cruz and Benavidez are the #1 and #2 fighters in the WEC's bantamweight division.

We now likely have several rematches on the horizon. Cruz/Benavidez is a fight that before this event, no one cared about a rematch but now after their dominant marque wins is going to be the best WEC rematch outside of Faber/Brown and Cerrone/Henderson. Also, Torres and Bowles will likely get their rematch but the conotations will be much different. Instead of fighting for the title as most assumed would be the case, they are fighting for relevancy. Torres is 0-2 in his last two and Bowles got dominated by Cruz. The loser of the fight will now find themselves much further down the ladder than if the rematch was contested for a title. The third rematch from this card is a likely rematch between George Roop and Leonard Garcia who fought their Fight of the Night bout on the undercard. Garcia was supposed to destroy Roop but had it not been for a bad point deduction by the ref, Roop would have won the split decision instead of the bout ending in a dissapointing draw.

All in all a solid WEC card and good night of fights.

Other notable events on the card were;
-Scott Jorgensons violent guillotine choke win
-Javier Mendez finally getting a much deserved win
-The fact that I may not be able to emotionally handle seeing Jens Pulver fight again
-Taurosevicius vs Davis to me highlights the need for more Draws. Neither fighter in my opinion deserves to be coming off of a win or a loss in their next fight.