Bellator HW Tournament Progression

With two rounds of the Bellator HW tournament completed, the finals have been set in stone, with UK's Neil Grove fighting USA's Cole Konrad. The fighters will attempt to be crowned Bellator's first HW champion when they fight at Bellator 32 in two weeks. 

Grove, a heavy handed striker, will likely try to keep the fight standing utilizing his powerful boxing.  Konrad, an upper level wrestler, will continue with the strategy that has got him to the finals.  He'll look to take down Grove and beat on him with ground and pound.

FINALISTS:

Finalist- Neil "Goliath" Grove (10-2)- All 10 wins via TKO/KO, this UK based HW has TKO's over James McSweeney, Robert Berry and James Thompson.  Grove advanced to the second round by TKO'ing UFC veteram Eddie Sanchez in the 1st Round.  In the second round of the tournament, Grove worked over submission specialist Alexey Oleinick with vicious ground and pound, defeating him in the first round.

Advanced- Cole "King" Konrad (6-0)- 2X NCAA champion wrestler, decision victories over John Orr and Patrick Bennett in Bellator. Cole will come in very close to the 265 pound limit and look to use his improving submission and boxing skills. Konrad defeated Rogent Lloret in the 1st round via decision at Bellator 25.  In the second round, Konrad used stiffling takedowns and ground and pound to defeat Damian Grabowski via decision.

UFC: Fights For Troops

This Wednesday, Spike TV will host UFC: Fights for the Troops from Fayetteville, N.C. in conjunction with Fort Bragg. They will be raising money and promoting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Koscheck v. Yoshida is the headlining bout. Koscheck is fresh off a loss to Thiago Alves at UFC 90. Yoshida was supposed to face Karo Parisyan a couple months ago, but Karo was injured. Yoshida's last fight was an awesome 56 second anaconda choke that put War Machine unconscious.

The card also features a bout between Johnathan Goulet v. Mike Swick. Swick is coming off surgery to clear bone fragments from his elbow. Swick last defeated Marcus Davis via unanimous decision. Goulet has won two straight in the UFC over Kuniyoshi Hironoka and Paul Georgieff.

*All fighters made weight except Brodie Farber and Luigi Fioravanti. Farber and Fioravanti are meeting at a catchweight of 174 pounds.

MAIN CARD

Josh Koscheck vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Jonathan Goulet vs. Mike Swick
Razak Al-Hussan vs. Steve Cantwell
Tim Credeur vs. Nate Loughran
Jim Miller vs. Matt Wiman

UNDERCARD

Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully
Steve Bruno vs. Johnny Rees
Ben Saunders vs. Brandon Wolff
Dale Hartt vs. Corey Hill
Brodie Farber vs. Luigi Fioravanti


(Josh Koscheck pictured)

UFC 79 Recap

Thoughts by the MMA Blaster

UFC 79 was a decent show with mostly one-sided fights. It wasn't nearly as good as the TUF finale, but was far superior to UFC 78. Funny how sometimes free MMA is better than the ppv's. Anyway, here are the quick results.

Georges St. Pierre defeats Matt Hughes via sub (arm-bar) — R2, 4:54
Chuck Liddell defeats Wanderlei Silva via unanimous decision
Eddie Sanchez defeats Soa Palelei via TKO (strikes) — R3, 3:24
Lyoto Machida defeats Rameau Sokoudjo via sub (arm-triangle choke) — R2, 4:20
Rich Clementi defeats Melvin Guillard via sub(rear-naked choke) — R1, 4:40
James Irvin defeats Luis Cane via DQ (illegal knee) — R1, 1:51
Manny Gamburyan defeats Nate Mohr via sub(ankle lock) — R1 — 1:31
Dean Lister defeats Jordan Radev via unanimous decision
Roan Carneiro defeats Tony DeSouza via TKO (strikes) — R2, 3:33
Mark Bocek defeats Doug Evans via unanimous decision

GSP v. Hughes- GSP may not have wrestled in college, but he looks like an absolute stud wrestling right now. He out wrestled Koscheck in his last fight, and completely out wrestled Hughes in this one. Every Hughes takedown was thwarted by GSP, and every GSP takedown attempt was successful. GSP owned Hughes up until the armbar.
**Poll Results- MMA Blaster fans voted 22-14 for GSP.

Liddell v. W. Silva- This was an exciting fight even though there were a couple slow spots. I definitely would have liked to see a couple more rounds to this one. The two brawlers exchanged time and time again, and Liddell edged him out in most of the exchanges. Liddell was wobbled, but so was Silva. What sealed the victory for Liddell was the two takedowns. Liddell is back, but I rank one guy slightly ahead of him.
**Poll results- MMA Blaster fans voted 21-20 for Liddell.

Machida v. Sokoudjo- After the one-sided beatdown Machida laid on Sokoudjo, you would have to put him in the title picture. Machida's unorthodox karate style seemed to have Soko off his game. Machida seemed to land anything at will, and also dominated Soko on the ground.
**Poll results- MMA Blaster fans voted 17-9 in favor of Soko, you Machida fans are smart.

Sanchez v. Palelei- This was an extremely boring fight, do not watch this one. Watching this fight made me think that the UFC has to do something to sign some top heavyweights. Coming to mind are BEN ROTHWELL (29-5) and Josh Barnett (21-5). Steal some IFL heavy's.

Clementi v. Guillard- This was a pretty exciting fight as both fighters were running on a hatred for one another. If you look at Clementi's fight record, it is obvious that all his big wins have been via submission or decision. Most of his KO/TKO's have been against lower tier fighters. When the fight went to the ground a couple times, I had a feeling Guillard may be in trouble. Sure enough when Clementi got his back, he was calm and rode it out until an eventual rear naked choke with a body triangle.


Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM

*Sorry there hasn't been a post for awhile, I was up North for the holiday season.