UFC Fight Night 61: Frank Mir stamps his class over Bigfoot Silva

In a fight that will determine his fate as a fighter, Frank Mir made short work of Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva as he stopped the Brazilian in just 1:40 of the first round in their heavyweight encounter at the main event of UFC Fight Night 61 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Frank Mir (17-9 MMA, 15-9 UFC) smashed his opponent with a powerful left hook to the chin that sent Antonio Silva (18-7 MMA, 2-4 UFC) to the canvas. Mir never gave Silva a chance to recover as he immediately pounced on him and unleashed a combination of punches and hard elbows to the head that forced referee Mario Yamasaki to jump in and waive the fight off.

The upset win over the favored Silva snapped Mir's four-fight losing streak and put his retirement plans on hold as he is now back in contention in the UFC heavyweight division, while Antonio Silva saw his fortunes further sink into MMA limbo, as he now hasn't won a fight since he upset Alistair Overeem at UFC 156 in February 2013.

Born to fight: Bigfoot Silva sinks Travis Browne in one round

Heavyweight Travis Browne, at 6' 7" is big and strong; agile and mobile; deadly combinations that have given him good fortune as an MMA fighter. And Travis Browne has made a habit of steamrolling his hapless opponents in the cage. In fact, out of Browne's 13 victories, he recorded 5 wins via the very short route, all made under a minute in the first round.

Yes, Travis Browne who was undefeated, going into UFC on FX in Minnesota has been dubbed by some quarters to be MMA's rising star, and because of the manner he is disposing his opponents one after another, Browne's supporters and some MMA observers have probably entertained the notion that he is unsinkable.
Thus, oddsmakers installed him a 2-to-1 favorite to dispose veteran Antonio "Pezão" Silva in their heavyweight encounter at the Target Center in Minneapolis last Friday night.

But Antonio Silva, who throughout his career had faced, fought and scraped with the best of what the MMA world has to offer (Fedor Emelianenko, Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski) albeit with mixed fortunes, has promised to do what he does best inside the cage-

"I respect all my opponents but inside the cage, I will hurt him because I was born to fight."

But coming off two successive losses via stoppage, nobody really took Antonio Silva seriously. To many casual MMA observers, the veteran has seen better days and is ripe for the picking. Many have already fallen in love with the exciting reputation of the supposedly 'unsinkable' Travis Browne, and picked him to easily stump the Bigfoot from Brazil.

However, if there's one fighter who knows how to come back from the pits, it is Antonio Silva. Nicknamed "Pezão" which is "Bigfoot" in Portuguese, Silva has the talent, power and skills set to give any man inside the cage hell.

Travis Browne's road to oblivion began when he tried to be flashy against a very dangerous and accomplished fighter. Early in the first round, Travis Browne was a picture of confidence as he jumpstarted his attack with an overhand right that was blocked, a spinning back kick that missed and an attempted right kick that never pushed through, as Antonio Silva invaded his space and smacked him with a short right hand.

Then Travis Browne tried a jumping front kick that came short as Antonio Silva just stepped back, just out of reach. Still Travis Browne was in his element: light on his feet, bouncing and shuffling, while Antonio Silva was on guard, hands up high and biding his time to counter strike.

At more than two minutes into the fight, Travis Browne tried several unorthodox kicks: low, front and side aiming for Bigfoot's knees and shin. But Antonio Silva kicked, punched forward and attempted a takedown but was met with a high knee to the stomach while coming in. Still, Antonio Silva was not deterred and cornered Travis Browne on the side of the cage as Bigfoot employed his own trick of the trade -- trying to stump Browne's feet with his big feet for some time.

The turning point came at approximately the three minute mark when Travis Browne tweaked his left knee while trying to mount an inside attack. Less than 5 seconds later, Travis Browne unleashed a left that was easily blocked by Antonio Silva. The Brazilian retaliated with a front kick that landed on Travis Browne's breadbasket but found himself on the seat of his pants from the recoil.

Travis Browne tried his best to put up a fight, but fighting on just one good leg is just futile against a hungry and determined veteran. Travis Browne tried to adjust by turning southpaw, hiding his bad leg to no avail. Browne ate a right counter from Bigfoot as he also continuously targeted Browne's bad leg, while slowly but surely invading his opponent's comfort zone. Bigfoot stalked his prey while Browne slowly backpedaled...

Shortly thereafter, mayhem fell on Travis Browne.

And when the dust finally settled, Travis Browne saw his unbeaten run halted in 3:27 of the first round when he got caught with a right sledgehammer to the jaw that sent shockwaves to his brain, his eyes rolling and reeling from the power, he sank sideways to the canvas wherein Bigfoot pounced on him and pounded his head with short blows and quick hammers, prompting referee Herb Dean to step in and stop the beatdown.

Antonio "Pezão" Silva stamped his class over an obviously dejected Travis Browne. Thus, Antonio Silva finally won a UFC fight and improved his record to 1-1 in the UFC ; 17-4, 12 KOs overall, moving into contention in the heavyweight division.

With the first setback of his 15-fight pro career, Travis Browne needs to go back to the drawing boards and work out more on his game so as to reverse his fortune whenever he steps up his opposition. He was held to a draw by Cheick Kongo at UFC 120 in October 2010.

Note: This article was previously published on Detroit Fight Sports Examiner

UFC 146: Junior dos Santos shoots down Frank Mir

In front of a wild cheering crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos dealt former two-time UFC heavyweight title holder a beat down to retain his belt. Frank Mir, a submission expert, failed to capitalize on his expertise against the heavy-handed Brazilian. Instead, Mir elected to play into dos Santos' gameplan and paid the price.

Frank Mir failed to take the fight to the ground, a milieu where dos Santos was untested wherein he has a greater shot of upsetting the champion. After a failed takedown attempt right at the start of the fight, he elected to trade blows with Junior dos Santos, a decision that proved costly to his cause.

Continue reading HERE

UFC 146: Junior dos Santos shoots down Frank Mir

In front of a wild cheering crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos dealt former two-time UFC heavyweight title holder a beat down to retain his belt. Frank Mir, a submission expert, failed to capitalize on his expertise against the heavy-handed Brazilian. Instead, Mir elected to play into dos Santos' gameplan and paid the price.

Frank Mir failed to take the fight to the ground, a milieu where dos Santos was untested wherein he has a greater shot of upsetting the champion. After a failed takedown attempt right at the start of the fight, he elected to trade blows with Junior dos Santos, a decision that proved costly to his cause.

The defending champion Junior dos Santos, an excellent stand up striker, also has a very good takedown defense and put his weapons to good use. He peppered Mir with shots coming from all angles and shot him down with a variety of punches: hooks, straights, and uppercuts that took their toll on the challenger.

The first round was all Junior dos Santos as he stood his ground, and potshot Mir with deadly accuracy. He varied his shots well and timed Mir with good counters every time the challenger would attempt to unleash his own shots. His snipings were so effective that he  would land a hard one to the body and then follow it up with a shot to the head time and time again. Then with less than 30 seconds left in the round, he clipped Mir's temple with a huge right hook that sent him sprawling to the canvas. The challenger struggled to get up and barely survived the round.

It was the same old story in the second round, even though Frank Mir tried to use his kicks this time to ward off the attacks to no avail. Junior dos Santos unleashed and landed a bomb, bringing Mir down. The champion then asked his challenger to get up and continue fighting. Mir got up and obliged but is tagged again with another bomb -- a right straight that landed on the cheekbones. This time, Mir remained on the ground for good as dos Santos swarmed over him and bludgeoned him with everything in his arsenal, including one last hammer fist landing on Mir's cheeks, before referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.

With the win, Junior dos Santos improves his record to 15-1 while Frank Mir falls to 16-6. Official time of the stoppage was 3:04.

UFC: 119 Mir lulls Cro Cop to sleep

In the UFC 119 main event, Frank Mir dropped Mirko Cro Cop with a well- timed right knee to the kisser that was followed by a heavy right to the chin for insurance, as the Croatian lay flat on his back, to finally knock him out with just 58 seconds left in the fight. It was the highlight of a rather dull and slow fight where neither fighter was keen on fighting toe to toe as they elected not to engage each other up until the last minute. It was the end of an arduous journey for both fighters who simply did not have the will to fight which was unthinkable in their younger days.

The knockout was the culmination of the match that was spent more on holding and hugging each other rather than fighting. It was the end of a boring fight that put the fans up their seats but for the wrong reasons. It was the zenith of a fight that was characterized more by non- action than by fireworks that left the fans with no other choice but to rain the Conseco Fieldhouse with boos. It was the climax of a slow and tactical fight that ended up with no winner.

Visit Detroit Fight Sports Examiner.com for the full article

Dynamite 2009: Aoki's Antics

Shinya Aoki, Dream's colorful champion and considered to be one of the best submission fighters in the world showed no class in his win over rival Sengoku champion Mizuto Hirota.

The very impressive victory was tainted by Aoki's post fight antics when he gave the fallen Hirota the bird. It was an obvious PR nightmare for Dream's top fighter considering the fact that he once criticized several American fighters for their behavior inside the octagon as being disrespectful to the sport.

He would later apologize for the wild wayward birdie.

There was a history of bad blood between the two fighters as Hirota had defeated Aoki's friend Satoru Kitaoka for the lightweight title at Sengoku 9 in August 2009, not to mention that Hirota labeled Aoki as a "repulsive person."

Also Aoki felt insulted when the organizers put Hirota against him instead of Tatsuya Kawajiri, another top-notch lightweight for the fight.

Thus, Aoki vowed before the event that he consider the fight with Hirota to be personal and promised to give Hirota the beating that he deserved.

The much- anticipated fight turned out to be one-sided as Aoki dominated and broke Hirota's will early that culminated into the brutal bone-breaking submission.


"When I had his arm behind his back, I could feel it popping, I thought, 'Well, this guy's pride just won't let him tap, will it?' So without hesitation, I broke it. I heard it break, and I thought, 'Ah, there, I just broke it.' I was stopped afterward, but even if I hadn't been, continuing to break it more would have been fine by me."


Now, wouldn't it be awesome if he can prove his mettle against world no. 1 BJ Penn in the near future? Dana White should consider bringing Shinya Aoki to the UFC soon. If he was able to lure Takanori Gomi to cross the Pacific, I'm sure he can do the same with Aoki.

Strikeforce: Fedor Emelianenko versus Brett Rogers

Byváy Andrei ?

Andrei Arlovski, the Belorussian former UFC Heavyweight champion suffered a humiliating loss in the first round to unheralded Brett Rogers in a Strikeforce card at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri last night.

Arlovski, whom celebrated boxing trainer Freddie Roach once proclaimed as the best boxer in the MMA and has hopes of invading the ranks of professional boxing was exposed by Rogers and was never in the match as he took a left-right-left combination to the head and dropped on all fours to the mat that forced referee Big John McCarthy to call for an early stoppage.

Truly, after his brutal knockout loss to Fedor Emelianenko, Arlovski is a different fighter now. And with his glass chin, he should reconsider his ambition of boxing full time with or without Freddie Roach in his corner.

So, is it Byváy (goodbye) Andrei?

Lights Out

Saturday Night. Two fights. Same results.




Lyoto Machida's dismantling of the previously undefeated Rashad Evans at UFC 98 was an eye- opener. He will reign as the Light Heavyweight champion a bit longer than his predecessors not only because of his talent but his awkward style that baffles his opponents no end. But make no mistake about it, this Brazilian got game.



On the other hand, Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan recovered from an early knockdown in the first round to hand Johnny Gonzales another stoppage in the third round to retain his WBC Super Bantamweight crown. I am not impressed with Nishioka as fighter but on this particular occasion he rose to the challenge and poleaxed the once promising Mexican right in his own backyard to silence the rowdy crowd.


The two fights were really good but not spectacular in my book. There were flashes of brilliance but there were moments of indecisiveness. Still the winners deserved the wins.

Watch the fights here--

Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida


Toshiaki Nishioka versus Johnny Gonzales

Gone in 24 Seconds

Former Pro wrestler Bobby Lashley clobbered Mike Cook in just 24 seconds during the Maximum Fighting Championship 21 at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.



Lashley was upset with Cook earlier because Cook came in sporting a Lucha Libre mask as he taunted him and his WWE background and he made him pay for that.

Cook was cooked the moment Lashley got hold of his neck, flattened him out and choked him to submission. Referee John McCarthy stopped the fight when saw Cook's feet quivering from Lashley's stranglehold.

"I’m here for business," said Lashley (3-0). "I’m here and everyone wants to and tries to make fun of the wrestling thing. I’m real. If they want to play around, I’ll knock them out or choke them out. And that’s what I did. I choked him out and made him pay. Now he can go put the mask back on and have fun with himself."

Bobby Lashley with his size and speed has the potential to be a legitimate fighter in the MMA. But for now he is better off fighting the likes of Bob Sapp to gain the much needed experience to figure in a fight with the elite fighters like Fedor and Mirko Cro Cop in the future.

The Iceman melts under pressure

It's the end of an era. The legendary Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell (21-7) melted against the hammer fists of Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3) in the Octagon at UFC 97 Saturday night.

Referee Mario Yamasaki halted the fight when The Iceman was unable to protect himself from the head blows that Shogun is raining on him to prevent further damage. Liddell has now lost three of his last four fights.

Much as I want to see more of Chuck Liddell in the Octagon but in the brutal world of Mixed Martial Arts, I am inclined to see him to just fade into the sunset with his dignity intact. He is not the same fighter that electrified the MMA fans earlier in his career.

He's done and accomplished everything as a fighter and there is nothing left for him to prove. It's time for him to just relax and enjoy his fortune because to his legions of supporters, The Iceman was and still is a legend in the Octagon, no matter what.

Fedor, the Last Emperor

It was a brutal realization for MMA Top Contender Andrei Arlovski in the form of Fedor Emelianenko's crushing right hand as he was knocked out cold in the first round in a fight that he was winning earlier in the main event of Affliction's "Day of Reckoning" at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

No doubt, with the victory, Fedor, the pride of the now defunct PRIDE MMA organization proved that he is the best MMA fighter in the world today.

I say bring Josh Barnett on!

MMA Short Stops

Two fights featuring four of the top MMA lightweights in the world. Two fights that both ended in identical fashion.

Here's a clip of the fight between the much- heralded Takanori Gomi (29-5)against Satoru Kitaoka (24-8-9), one of the featured cards at Sengoku 7: Sengoku no Ran 2009 held today in Japan which was considered as the first major MMA event of the year.






Here's Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki in the 2008 K-1 Fields Dynamite! for the first ever Lightweight Championship of the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA)held on December 31, 2008 at Saitama Super Arena in Japan.







To see more fight clips visit Lords of the Ring...

UFC 92

December 27, 2008
MGM Grand Garden Arena
Las Vegas, Nevada



Wanderlei Silva versus Quinton "Rampage" Jackson





World Light Heavyweight Championship

Forest Griffin versus Rashad Evans

Kimbo, Sliced!

Yes Sir, Kevin Ferguson a.k.a. Kimbo Slice, the brash and arrogant Mixed Martial Arts fighter being groomed by television giant, CBS to be the face of its MMA franchise, EliteXC was TKO'd in the first round tonight by Seth Petruzelli, a young average fighter from Florida and a late replacement for Kimbo's original opponent Ken Shamrock (who suffered a cut on his left eyebrow earlier in the day while doing some routine warm- ups and was ruled ineligible to fight by doctors to his dismay).

So what's next for the much- hyped EliteXC now that their "face" was virtually "sliced" by an unknown fighter and thus exposed their king, Kimbo as a fraud?

Back to the drawing board folks.