UFC 104: Lyoto Machida and Mauricio Rua Tonight

Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida is undefeated and has quietly worked his way up the ranks of light heavyweight. Now that he has reached the pinnacle, Machida is well known in MMA circles and beyond as a top 5 pound for pound fighter. Mauricio Rua will try to dethrone him tonight at UFC 104 in what should be an interesting fight. I expect Machida to ultimately take the fight because I think the style of this fight will slightly favor him.

Both of these guys are good strikers and good on the ground. Machida is probably better overall though and that will make a difference. Of course, we'll have to see the fight play out because Shogun will probably have some tricks up his sleeve that will make this one even more interesting than it already is.

Carl Froch Beats Andre Dirrell in Super Six Tournament

Carl Froch won a close split decision against Andre Dirrell last night in England marking the second fight of the Super Six Boxing Tournament. Dirrell fought lead with defence and Froch lead with offence. Ultimately, the two were virtually even with Froch getting the nod. Dirrell will learn from this experience and grow as the tournament moves on.

In other Super Six news, Jermain Taylor is in bad condition and checked into a German hospital after being knocked out by Arthur Abraham. He may have to drop out of the tournament and be replaced. If he does drop out, the possible replacement could be the winner between Allan Green and Edison Miranda. They'd have to set that fight up if Taylor elects to drop out.

The tournament is getting interesting now with two fights completed. Next up is Mikkel Kessler against Andre Ward next month.

Arthur Abraham KOs Jermaine Taylor

Arthur Abraham finished off Jermaine Taylor in the later rounds of their super six tournament fight via a vicious straight right hand KO. Taylor hardly moved as he lay stretched out on the canvas as the referee got to 7 and 8 in the count before realizing Taylor wasn't going any where and stopping the fight.

Many expected Abraham to take control in the later rounds when Taylor usually fades. Taylor didn't fade as much in this fight but just got caught by a wicked punch. Although he wasn't as faded as before, Taylor was stronger in the early rounds than he was in the later rounds.

Abraham takes a strong position now in the super six super middleweight tournament with him and Mikkel Kessler still as the favorites.

Super Six Tournament Set to Take Off

This weekend the super six tournament will begin to determine the best super middleweight in the world. It kicks off with Arthur Abraham taking on Jermaine Taylor and Carl Froch going up against Andre Dirrell. On Nov 21st Mikkel Kessler takes on Andre Ward to close out the first set of fights. The tournament should be really interesting and guarantees some exciting fights that should make fans pretty happy. The winner will be the undisputed super middleweight king. At the moment, Abraham and Kessler are favored with Taylor lagging the field but realistically all of these guys have a decent shot because of the high level of competition and parity between the combatants.

Make sure to keep tabs on this tournament because it will shape the future of boxing for a good while to come.

WWE / WWF stars moving into MMA

It seems that there is a fair bit of cross over appeal between WWE and MMA which is quite interesting. Outside of Ken Shamrock we have rising stars Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar who were both stars in the WWE. Amateur wrestlers who had little other option have in the past decided to make their way into "scripted" wrestling because there were no other options available. Those guys with true talent are now finding there way into the world of MMA - Lashley and Lesnar are two really good examples. In the future, you may see amateur wrestlers more readily opt for MMA as they look to become paid professionals and less of the moving between WWE type wrestling and MMA. The sport of MMA is still evolving so expect to see changes in where the athletes come from. Eventually there will be guys who trained their entire lives for MMA in the sport and little else. For now, it makes for great entertainment to see Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar fight for real in the MMA world as top flight stars.

Amir Khan will fight Dmitriy Salita in December

Amir Khan will take on Dmitriy Salita on December 5th in Newcastle, England. Salita is undefeated but largely untested and should be a fairly soft fight for Khan who is coming of a championship victory against Andreas Kotelnik.

The winner of this fight would have a mandatory challenge against hard hitting Marcos Maidana. If Khan were to win that would be a huge fight although I would expect Khan to build up to a fight like that by taking a few safer experience building fights first.

Regardless of Salita's record, the fight will be a must see as Khan will have a year under Freddie Roach and should have grown quite a bit by December 5th.

Bernard Hopkins vs Roy Jones Jr is Official

Finally, after so many years we will get to see the rematch between Roy Jones Jr and Bernard Hopkins. They have both signed an agreement to fight in 2010 at light heavyweight. They both recently appeared on a radio talk show and they seemed just as far apart from doing a deal as ever. With Roy's recent wins over Omar Sheika and Jeff Lacy the fight seems a bit more palatable then before. Bernard is still a top 3 pound for pound fighter whereas Jones had slipped significantly in recent years. The fight will be interesting no doubt as these are two of the biggest names ever in the sport. Although Roy won the first fight it was almost 2 decades ago and both fighters have evolved significantly since then. The deal for next year stipulates that they share the purse 50-50 unless there is a KO in which case the winner takes the lion's share of a 60-40 split.

It seems that Bernard has bent on his most recent stance that he get 60-40 regardless given his current level in the sport. Roy was willing to take 60-40 to the winner. Let's hope the fight does indeed happen as planned since it will still cause a stir for the sport and it's better late than never.

Kimbo Slice Loses to Roy Nelson

On the televised Ultimate Fighter 10 episode last Wednesday Kimbo Slice lost to Roy Nelson in a hard fought battle. Slice had nothing on the ground and eventually got taken down and TKO'd. Kimbo's stand up seemed to be better than Roy's but the focus for Nelson was getting Slice down and taking him out with the ground and pound. Slice never seemed hurt as he was taken down in the first and survived the ground and pound with time running out. The problem was that Slice couldn't fight back even though Nelson wasn't hurting him so the referee had to stop the fight. Nelson's harmless love taps kept slapping Slice on the top of his head and he couldn't escape. Slice's lack of ability on the ground was evident in this fight even though Nelson couldn't really hurt him - he was able to cause a stoppage because slice didn't have the defensive ground skills to get away.

Slice was good on his feet and hurt Nelson a couple of times. He also demonstrated decent take down defence against Nelson but not good enough to keep him on his feet enough to win the fight.

Not sure how much Slice can improve from here given that he is now 35 but there is no doubt he is a great student of the game and should improve.