MMA weekly round-up: Silva, Couture, Griffin and Hughes

It’s that time again; another seven days in the weird and wonderful world of MMA are in the books. We at JOE realise that you probably have better things to do than trawl though the dozens of news sites out there for your weekly fix, so sit down, strap-in and enjoy another Weekly News Round-up!

By Brad Wharton

Saturday:

The final countdown to UFC 117 was in full swing, and with just hours to go until bell-time, MMA fans were still reeling from the (sarcasm on) shocking and unexpected news that Thiago Alves (who had tipped the scales at nearly 200lbs just days before the weigh-ins) had failed to make weight. As we all know, Alves walks around at 378lbs when he’s not fighting; hopefully the Dolce Diet will straighten out the bloated brawler’s weighty problems.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Dan Henderson was expressing his amazement at how much the UFC are allegedly paying Jake Shields, dubbing the former Strikeforce champion “Just not that exciting”. Henderson, as long term MMA fans will remember, earned his nickname “Decision Dan” due to the number of thrilling, high-tempo finishes in his career. Sour grapes much?

Following James Toney’s claim last week that he would be looking to knock him out, Dana White responded in typically measured fashion with a non-biased prediction for the UFC 118 co-main event. White’s pick: Randy Couture, by virtue of “Squashing Toney’s head”.

Sunday:

The MMA world was still in shock on Sunday morning, as the realisation of Anderson Silva’s incredible come from behind victory after losing 22 of the 25 minutes of his bout with Chael Sonnen tried to penetrate our tired and hung-over brains. Dana White called the bout “legendary”…we’d be hard-pressed to disagree.

Matt Hughes had an unexpected attack of modesty following his impressive submission victory the previous evening, revealing that he doesn’t want to be known as “The Gracie Killer”, despite taking out two of the family’s biggest names and their top student. I guess there really is a first time for everything!

Speaking of Hughes, his victory was made a little sweeter with the news that Uncle Dana had dipped into his pockets and handed out a $60,000 Submission of the Night bonus to the hall of famer. Other recipients of White’s infamous brown envelopes were Stefan Struve and the participants of the evening’s main event. Rumours that Chael Sonnen has used his money to by Anderson Silva some English classes are at this time unconfirmed…

Monday:

The working week started with a bang as Steve Davies returned with his expert analysis of UFC 117, as well as giving his thoughts on who’s next for the key players on Saturday’s card.

The news was coming in thick and fast on Monday. First we confirmed that Forrest Griffin would likely be facing off with rising light heavyweight terror Jon Jones at UFC 123. Great news…unless your name is Forrest Griffin. Former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley revealed that he would be eyeing a title shot in 2011. As long as he doesn’t try to use a folding chair on the Strikeforce champion, it’s alright by us.

The Monday Supplement had an in-depth look at the touchy subject of extreme weight cutting following Thiago Alves’ latest indiscretion. Elsewhere we learned that the UFC’s proposed show in Germany this November has been dealt a further blow. The Lyoto Machida v Rampage Jackson bout that was supposed to headline in Deutschland has been shifted to UFC 123 in Chicago. So much for Germany efficiency eh?

We also got wind of the full heavyweight roster for EA’s upcoming MMA game as Monday drew to a close. Gamers will now be able to put together dream matches like Bob Sapp v Tim Sylvia and Andreas Kraniotakes (don’t worry, we don’t know who he is either) v Kevin Randleman. Oh, and Fedor v Couture, if you fancy it…

Tuesday:

UK sensation Paul Daley finally learned his fate, stemming from his “Oh no he di-ent!!” moment back in May, where the feisty Brit landed a beautiful hook on Josh Koscheck…about 15 minutes too late. Daley has been handed down a 30-day suspension, which will conveniently run out in time for him to fight Jorge Masvidal on September 11^th. Nothing like a punishment that really forces someone to stop and think about what they’ve done…

Trash-talk apparently pays off at the box office, as we learned on Tuesday that UFC 117 was trending at around one million buys, without even taking into account replays. Dana White was on hand with his usual measured analysis…“If not one more f**king person buys this PPV, I’m as happy as a pig in s**t!” Dana White: Keeping it classy since 1969.

Tuesday wasn’t all good news for the White-meister though; Bellator FC have hit back at the UFC’s recent lawsuit by handing the Las Vegas-based promotion one of their own. The suit alleges that the UFC interfered with the contract of TUF season 12 participant Jonathan Brookins, who was previously signed to their roster. Someone should tell Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney to Google “EliteXC” and “Affliction” to see what happens when you get on the UFC’s bad side. Meanwhile, Josh Koscheck was doing his part for race relations, tweeting that he had “a Frenchy’s ass to kick”. Nice.

Wednesday:

Wednesday saw some interesting rumours of possible future UFC fights begin to surface. Firstly came the news that the UK’s own Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping is being lined up to face either Chael Sonnen or Patrick Cote should he come out on top at UFC 120. Moving up in weight and it appears that heavyweight icon Mirko CroCop is being slated to face TUF winner Brendan Schaub, or the sizable challenge of Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson.

The always affable Forrest Griffin shed some light on the gameplan for his upcoming clash with Jon Jones. Work the jab and keep his distance? Nope. Rush in for a takedown and put the youngster on his back? Nope. Force Jones into a dogfight in the clinch? Nope. According to Griffin, he has a much sounder route to victory over ‘Bones’…he plans to poison him.

In honour of Anderson Silva’s come-from-behind victory at UFC 117, Wednesday saw us take a trip down memory lane with a look at some of the greatest comeback victories in MMA history. We also got wind of former WWE champion Dave Bautista’s reasoning behind his recent transition to MMA…apparently after years of running around with a bunch of oiled up muscle-men pretending to fight, he wants to compete in MMA to legitimise himself. We fear that he is confusing the words “legitimise” and “cripple”, but hey, what do we know?

Thursday:

Welterweight prospect Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson had it in for the media on Thursday. After being convicted of domestic violence against his former girlfriend and sentenced to community service, anger management classes and a whole day in jail (and you though the Quebec Athletic Commission were harsh on Paul Daley…) ‘Rumble’ complained that the media were making him out to be a ‘bad guy’. Probably shouldn’t have hit your Mrs. then, Anthony…

In other news, James Toney’s coaching staff predicted that Randy Couture would be hospitalised following their UFC 118 bout. I agree…it’ll probably take a team of surgeons a good few hours to remove all of Toney’s teeth from his elbows. Understatement of the month award goes to Raphael dos Anjos. When asked how he felt after Clay Guida broke his jaw in two places, the Brazilian responded with “That caused a great nuisance”. Fair enough!

Thursday also saw the return of Bellator FC, for its third season. Fans on this side of the Atlantic will be pleased to hear that Neil Grove, the monstrous South African who now calls England home, got off to a flying start, upsetting UFC veteran Eddie Sanchez. Irish MMA fans will get the opportunity to cheer on their very own Aisling “Ais the Bash” Daly as she competes in the women’s 115lb tournament in just two weeks time.

Friday:

Strikeforce fighter KJ Noons was making his best effort not to get signed by the UFC on Friday morning, declaring the world’s premier MMA promotion to be the home of “lame ass fights”. Big words from a failed boxer who’s been scraping decisions against mediocre competition for the past year, and was once knocked out by a convicted crack dealer…but hey, each to their own.

Elsewhere, Ryan Couture talked about not being the only Couture with a big fight coming up ahead of his pro MMA debut on Friday night. When kids in the schoolyard get into the whole “my dad is harder than your dad” thing, you can bet that young Ryan had little to worry about. We also learnt the disappointing news that Ben Saunders, one of the UFC’s most exciting young fighters, has been cut following a recent 1-3 run with the promotion.

What would the week be without one final quote from James Toney? When asked on the UFC 118 press call last night who he wants to face after Couture, the punch-drunk pugilist swiftly replied…“Well the Bitch-ko Sisters won’t fight me and David Haye? He gay! So I guess I’ll take Lesnar.” Brilliant.