First Look at the Main Event of UFC 124! (TUF, and Travis Rael)

Lets do this.

GSP will defend his title against dark horse Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec Canada.

                                            The Crowd is already going wild. Seriously.

Let's take a look at the advantages of this fight.

Striking:

Both of these fighters have outstanding striking. Though primarily ground based, it's a known fact that when two wrestlers compete, you'll end up seeing a fist fight.  GSP is a black belt in Kyokushin Karate, which, is no joke.  Koscheck trains at AKA, home of newly crowned heavy weight champ, Cain Velasquez. In fact, two of his last four victories have come by way of TKO. However, he also has been caught by a jiu jitsu fighter, Paulo Thiago. Unimpressive, sir. Paulo Thiago was more surprised than anyone I think when he uppercutted Kos into next week.

                                                 Fork over that lunch money, Joshua.

St. Pierre however, hasn't had his clock cleaned since Matt Serra messed him up. He also avoided the heavy hands of always-mean Dan Hardy.

                  Nope. GSP never felt the wrath of a mohawked Brit quite like The Irish Hand Grenade

Who knows? Maybe GSP will be caught. The last time I gave the striking advantage to the challenger, that's what he relied on. I won't jinx my hero. (No homo, GSP is my hero. In fact, after Jose and Curtis teach me to beat people up more and more, and whomever I train with in the future; hopefully one day I can fight him.) Anyway, with GSP being a black belt, training with Muay Thai people and Phil Nurse as his kick boxing coach, I have to give him the nod. Kos is good, GSP is great.

Advantage: GSP

Wrestling and Ground Game:

Both of these fighters are outstanding wrestlers. In their first fight, GSP was taken down numerous times by Kos' Division I abilities. GSP has shown his mettle in this department against Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, and Dan Hardy. It isn't really clear who has the advantage here.

The champion has never wrestled officially, not in high school, not in college. Our challenger however has,  and he did it well. But that was then, this is now. I can't say for sure who is better at passing, working, and takedowns. It's a really tough call, so tough in fact, I have to say that their wrestling is about the same.

However, this isn't a wrestling match, this is MMA. Duh. On the ground, GSP thrives. Strikes on the ground and he has shown extreme skill in submissions, in his last title defense, he basically would have ended anyone with that armbar, or the kimura. Dan Hardy is just tough as woodpecker lips. Koscheck has rear naked choked a few people. However, it's an unreliable statistic. If Koscheck takes it to the ground, chances are GSP's BJJ black belt and his champ status will negate any sort of submission Kos will throw his way. With the clear advantage in ground fighting, I have to give this department to the champion.

Advantage: GSP


Size and Cardio

Again, another really close subject. GSP and Kos have each been featured in workout magazines, been put on youtube, and have dedicated their life to athleticism. They each walk around not very heavy, and don't have much of a cut to 170 lbs. GSP has a slight reach advantage, at 76 inches to Kos 73. Reach doesn't mean much, Matt Serra is a midget and managed to KO the champion way back in the day though. It's pretty obvious what has to happen here...

Advantage: TIE

My outlook is GSP has the advantage in fighting, but athletically and size wise Koscheck is a good match. I also have to say it; the hometown crowd is GSP's.  I don't know why Dana White would do this to Koscheck, as GSP's back will be against the wall fighting in front of his Canadian homies. They should have fought in Mandalay Bay or MGM Grand Garden, but hey, I'm not a UFC promoter, I'm just a fan and hopeful. In any case, GSP will have the crowd rallying behind him, and even though Koscheck is determined, maybe even convinced, GSP is once again nervous and will one way or the other come out on top.

My call...

GSP by TKO in the 3rd, or Unanimous Decision, but more than likely, TKO in the 3rd.

Here is a picture of what I'll be doing during the fight so no one will think I'm a curse, because...you know, Brock Lesnar and all.

Next order of business...

The Ultimate Fighter!

Nam Phan vs. Michael Johnson

It's gonna come down to who woke up on the right side of the bed. Phan is a body-shot king, with impressive cardio and the will to win. Michael Johnson is a gifted athlete (..you know what? I think that's pretty messed up, the only dark black person in the house this season, and he's been called "the athletic one" by the show and by fans. Seriously, America. Get it together, this isn't 1963) and his stand up is good to go. However, I'm a damn Nam Phan Fan and I'm gonna say Nam walks away with this one. Sorry Mike!

Jonathan Brookins vs Kyle Watson

I'm not quite sure that Kyle Watsons match ups have been against the tougher fighters in the house, as his only real challenge might have been that British guy everyone forgot about already (you know...the Wild Card fighter that Michael Johnson beat earlier in the season). These guys have been choking people out all day, and they're team mates. Jonathan has the clear experience advantage (dude fought in the WEC against Jose Aldo. JOSE ALDO, the Brazilian GSP pretty much). I'm gonna have to say Brookins slides into home this week and makes it to the finals against Nam Phan.


Last but not least, in totally unofficial, non-professional, nobody knows this guy fashion, my training partner and when I make it, team mate, Travis Rael was successful in his amateur debut. Congrats on the third round TKO man! My first steps in MMA were much less successful, as I was on the receiving end, but then again...I didn't have our coaches in Japan. Enough about me, check this out.

Rage in the Cage 146

If the album is private, well, my bad. Travis's facebook is his own, and if I get some feedback on this article, maybe I can message him to make it a public work so you can see him beating the snot out of Riley Booth, with wrestling and ground and pound.

Well friends, Americans, countrymen...I'll probably be blogging again soon, but for now, I have to get back to work...or else! Laters!

UFC 123 review, some new gear, and novice sport nutrition

Welcome back!

This past weekend was UFC 123. The card was awesome. Notably, only a couple of the fights went to decision, and they were all out battles. Aaron Simpson and Mark Munoz got robbed, because I would surely pick their fight over Joe Lauzon vs. George Sotiropolous, but hey, Dana White does what Dana White wants, because he's the maestro over a symphony of flying fists and shins, bruises, bumps, chokes and hype.  Some people in the journalism world see the UFC as an evil empire, but you know what? Tough. The UFC has been putting on the most spectacular fights with the best talent, on the most TV's and they started out with nothing. The Fertita brothers and Dana White deserve every penny they get, because they wrote the book on MMA promotion.

                                                  "Do you wanna be a F***'n Fighter?!"

No fight on UFC 123 was boring. I watched them all and even cheered a couple times. Especially when BJ Penn knocked Matt Hughes clean out in 21 seconds.

                    Bobby Hill and E.T. got drunk and 9 months later, a prodigious fighter was born.




I won't lie. I was on the hate-wagon  about BJ before this performance. He was really lackluster and disappointing in his two decision losses to Frankie Edgar. I'm still not convinced about ol' Frankie. BJ didn't really do BJ when they fought. We'll see though. ANYWAY, Baby Jay was looking mean as hell walking to that cage, and his new black shorts seemed to denote an aura of malice, a dark fiber in the material of his gumption. A real bad guy.

                                          "Come to Hilo and see me train. I swear, I'm training."


I don't know what gumption means. It sounded cool though.  The second Darth Vader reference in one blog? I know. I am trying.   Plus, what's more, is Matt Hughes is a Bible Thumper, so BJ's savage pacific islanderism is the perfect heathen reverse of Matt Hughes' good 'ol boy vibe.

                                                                              YES


Hmm...Moving on.


Rampage Jackson looked good. I gave him round one closely, and round two for sure. He lost round three, but it was an easy call, and my coach Jose and I agreed via text message on pretty much every fight. It was ridiculous. At least %500 accuracy at predicting.

                                "Joe, it seems that Jose Perez and Ben "Tigger" Clark would be way better at this than us."
                                          "But then I'd REALLY have no job Mike. Don't give the UFC any ideas...I really need it"



For all the fight outcomes, check out Wikipedia, or Sherdog. I'm not breaking much down right now. I have a meeting in 15 minutes.

In other news, I recently purchased some new gear. Another Dethroned Royalty shirt. All positive comments on it, ranging from "It reminds me of Sons of Anarchy" to "COOL SHIRT!"

Check it out!

And some new gloves from Built to Fight. They're pretty awesome, red and black in true Me fashion. Cue applause. Also some red shorts from Venum. I get all decked out looking mean and then I go tear it up at the dojo. No problems, and by the look of me you'd guess that I'm at least a level 9 badass.

In more relevant matters, I've been dabbling in this nutrition business for a few weeks now. Make that a couple months. I'm not Jenny Craig, or anything, but, I think it's pretty worth while to take a look at and think about if you're an athlete, or you don't want to be pudgy anymore.

I started out doing MMA way back in late 2009 in Japan, when me and a buddy of mine, Nick "The Roach" Murrow decided we were the new force to be reckoned with in Okinawa. Going to the Camp Kinser aerobics room, hitting the heavy bag and wrestling eachother every day put us up on a high horse. Especially when we dubbed ourselves "Team Overdose" and The Roach was victorious in his first fight. Soon, we were the kings of our own destinies, right?

Wrong dude. After more farting around the gym and watching numerous UFC videos, we figured we were hard. We even signed up to fight at Tenkaichi 48. I lost via TKO in just over a minute (Despite my poor performance, I must say that the promoter didn't have a fighter for me the day of, and as the event was taking place, some kid stepped in who was about 5 inches taller and had a good 20 pounds on me at the time.) and Roach got choked out by an officer who worked in our office building. Awkward!

That's when I realized I was pretty fat and out of shape. Why was it that I couldn't get out from under a full mount? People did it all the time in the UFC! I stood there next to that high way, smoking a cigarette, full of mixed emotions. I had just fought in front of a crowd, got paid, had a blast, but my whole head was throbbing, my left eye felt like it was coming out of it's socket and I wasn't looking forward to the nonsensical talking that was sure to follow me everywhere I went. I was pretty down trodden, and that's when I decided to make a change.

Fast forward a few months to October, and now i'm in Arizona, I started my training at Blackout, and it became clear that I was still green on this scene. This is where I start talking about nutrition.

I changed up my eating habits, cutting out all things with high fructose corn syrup (Ketchup included) and white, processed bread. I cut out fast foods, I started eating vegetables. A lot of them. Fruits, eggs, white meat, all that. No gatorade, just water, and beloved Xenergy. In addition I've amped up my gym time, but instead of wrestling my red-headed co-captain of a very novice and inexperienced Mixed Martial Arts team, I started running and doing lots of calisthenics and lots of pullups. For any reader trying to become He-Man (you know, like me) take note: there's no specific thing I'd ever tell you to do at the gym. Your goals are your own, and you have to figure out what you want to do to get there. Get into the habit of motivating yourself, as this crazy, wide world of individuals reflects, the only person who really cares about you at the finish line is you. The one healthy, useful tidbit that I can give, is that you have to, HAVE TO, do work.

That's right. If my diet could be dubbed the "No Ketchup" diet, my workout routine would be called the "Do Work" routine. Basically, if you're sore and upset and not comfortable, and you can measurably see your progress, you're on the right track.

Anyway, I'm done preaching about what I've been up to, however, if you wanna see the results, feel free to peep my facebook album about weight progress, creatively titled "Weight Progress". Every week looks pretty good, besides this past week where I dropped the ball a little bit, and didn't Do Work on monday, so I ended up being 3 pounds heavier, blah blah blah. Little bump in the road, but I'm still in 5th gear. Don't worry, blog-followers, I'll be down to 170 as a walk around weight soon enough, and I'll make the cut to 155 when I get in the cage.

That's pretty much all I've got for now. Happy Thanksgiving, and have a big bite of Turkey and your choice of alcoholic beverage for my brothers and sisters overseas, fighting and grinding out deployments in Helmand province and other parts of Afghanistan, they're missing home pretty bad, I know because I was there last Thanksgiving, it's no fun!

Until next time

at long last

Loyal followers, I apologize for the delay in writing, but...here we go.

Where to start? UFC 122 sure.

Basically this card sucked bad. Decision fest! I am disappointed in Nate Marquardt for real, but, over all, while my methods didn't come through, I picked most of the winners correctly (At least on Fantasy UFC on UFC.com)

I won't bore you with the play by play of the patty cake brigade at work. It literally put me to sleep. I mean, I was on the couch watching, and my body drifted off into a slumber, maybe it was the Cold-As-The-Rockies Coors light, maybe it was my girlfriend being in town and I was really comfortable.

But then again, it was probably just the very boring fights.

Here we see Yushin Okami engaged in combat with Nate The Great



Meanwhile, in the bantam weight division...

That there is one bad mofo. Urijah Faber. Former featherweight champion who got tired of living in Jose Aldo's shadow, so he was like "I'm gonna move to 135 and fight the meanest Japanese dude the WEC can put in front of me."

       It isn't power rangers, but it was close enough...

Urijah Faber spent 4:50 of a single round in the main event of WEC 52 (the penultimate WEC) beating the snot out of no pushover. Takeya Mizugaki is pretty B.A. so, you have to figure, choking him out was a feat.

Faber did it. No sweat.

Annnnd, I've missed two episodes of the Ultimate Fighter. This past wednesday evening, Spike TV forgot to adjust their settings for Daylight Savings ending, so when we fell back an hour, they did not, so instead of 2200, TUF is now on at 2300, and my circadian rythem isn't up to speed with those hours. After two workouts, and no xenergy in my system, that day I was feeling particularly sleepy...

  And, like a abbreviated version of Rip Van Winkle I slept for 2 hours (not twenty years) and woke up to see Michael Johnson winning by decision. I heard later through the grape vine that Kyle Watson beat old boy...Wilkinson, and the Semi's are set up with Watson Vs. Brookins, and Nam Phan vs Michael Johnson.

Funny how TUF lines Nam up with people I want to see him fight in the finals. I really wanted to see Cody guillotine his way up to the finale, visa vis Nam Phan, however, Nam Phan stamped that dudes card an episode or two back...

Oh yeah, I missed that too because I was picking up the lovely Ms. Olivia Barracchini in Tucson.

OH WELL! Looks like it's gonna be Brookins and Nam Phan in the final, they can't screw that up, only Nam Phan can, and I'm not giving Watson a chance against Brookins.

Despite being a damn Nam Phan fan, I'm going to call Brookins winning the Finale on 4 December.

That should just about cover everything recently going on in the world of MMA.

Oh. If you read this, please vote via commenting what my cage nickname should be once my coaches decide I'm ready to throw down with the best Southern Arizona has to offer. It's a toss up between

(drumroll please)

Tigger Jose came up with Tigger, making fun of my tendency (read: habit of doing) to bounce my hands up and down while moving around. I think it's sorta like an early Chris Leben. Rich thinks it's kinda like a dude who's about to get knocked out.

Chris Leben.

OR

Machine originally, "Marine Machine" but since I didn't like the fact that my cage name would be rhyming, I shortened it, despite Barry my jiu jitsu coach being able to choke me out for disagreeing. He's also a cop...and they tend to carry guns. Guns dude...guns.

Please, i'm serious. Vote!

Take a brief moment to stretch, grab a xenergy, crack your knuckles before reading the rest of this post...


.....

Alright. The end.


P.S. Yes, earlier, I was really trying hard to find a way to slip in the use of Visa Vis correctly in a sentence. I win at everything, I know. Thank you.

UFC 122 main card predictions

Hey fight fans, this coming saturday is UFC 122, Marquardt Vs. Okami

The main event is gonna be spectacular, with two of the most talented middle weights on the planet going at it for a shot at the winner of Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort. Marquardt is a more rounded fighter, and Okami is a straight up warrior. Both fighters have the potential to end this fight standing or on the ground, and it's gonna be a blow out. This matchup has controversial decision all over it. They'll both be working for a finish, and when two unstoppable forces collide, well, who knows what happens?

I'm calling Marquardt by split decision.

Also is Jorge Rivera vs. Alessio Sakara.

Talk about a stand up war! Both of these guys' have the majority of their wins coming by knockout. Straight up gun slingers, I'm telling you. I can't wait to watch this one either.

OH MAN!!!

    Rivera by KO in the second!

Andre Winner vs Dennis Siver

Another crazy match up. Both these guys are big competition in the light weight division, Winner the Season 9 Runner up of the Ultimate Fighter, and Siver is an experienced veteran of 9 UFC bouts (5-4). Winner has a size advantage, but the taller they are, the harder they fall, or, in this case, tap out.

Siver by some sort of choke in the 3rd. Guillotine. 

Amir Sadollah vs Peter Sobatta

Good thing their names rhyme, amirite?! Anyway. Sobatta has an edge in experience, but Sadollah has something Sobatta doesn't, and that's Wins in the UFC. Sobatta may finish his fights that he wins, but so far he's dropped 2 in the UFC straight. I think Sadollah will come away with this one.

Sadollah by TKO in the second...why not?

Krzystof Soszynski vs Goran Reljic

Another big match up, the first on the main card (This event is stacked to be epic). I had a vision while making my UFC.com/fantasy predictions of Krzystof Soszynski and his funny name catching Reljic in a rear naked choke. Dunno why, but that's what I'm going with. 

Soszynski by RNC in the second, against the cage and whatnot.

Check back for my post fight reviews, and in between now and then, the Ultimate Fighter weekly recap!  

A shout out to my coaches

It can be seen sometimes in my awesome blog about my awesome coaches. From left to right,

Curtis - I've linked you to his sherdog.com profile a few times, is all about dealing out pain and agony in the form of intense workouts, and instruction in the "mixed" part of Mixed Martial Arts.

Barry - When not away on business doing K-9 police work in the field, Barry is our BJJ coach and has helped my ground game come a long way.

Jose - Coach Jose is awesome. Like Curtis, gives mostly instruction on over-all MMA. Also does strength and conditioning. Of note; may be the only Steeler fan I've ever met in Sierra Vista. Word.

Rich - Coach Rich is the Muay Thai master. Back when Moby Dick was a minnow, I am told he competed hardcore in the ring. Much like the other 3 coaches, he's fairly badass at teaching people how to fight.

check out the Dojo website here if you're in the Sierra Vista area or coming here any time soon. Always want more people to come in and train with us!


Well. I'm done sucking up for the day. Check back for more MMA-related shenanigans soon!

Blackout MMA open house demonstrations!

Hey everyone. This afternoon my MMA dojo opened it's doors to the unknowing public for a demonstration in pure unadulterated awesomeness.

                       

                                            These are some baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad dudes.


You know I had my android on hand for some photos, and you can view them all here.

Pretty eventful in the way of being in Sierra Vista. Estevez Jones the WFF heavy weight champion showed up, people ate hot dogs, but me...well. I stuck to Xenergy.

Because Xenergy is an 11/10 kind of drink. Say something!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the pics, most of all the ones where Travis used his wrestling prowess to keep me on my back no homo, but my guard is pretty sicknasty, and it made for some good grappling. One of the main things I look forward to is fighting in front of an audience. The spotlight is pretty awesome, and despite my loss in Okinawa I had a blast fighting in front of a couple hundred people and getting paid to do so.

Well, girlscouts. That's pretty much all i've got right now. Check back soon for more updates in my quest to become....A professional cage fighter.

(Note: For those who didn't know, that was a spin off of the opening title to The Ultimate Fighter just now.)

Koscheck in Commotion, Another Guillotine, TUF 12 Gets nasty!

Welcome back to BenClarkMMA! Last nights episode of the Ultimate Fighter did not disappoint. Last week, Dane Sayers lost by Unanimous Decision to Sako Chivitchian, making Team GSP step back to 5-2. Still, they have a 3 fight edge in the prelims. Afterwards, Kos and GSP sat down with Dana White and hashed out the Wild Card Round.

They decided Aaron Wilkinson would take on Marc Stevens for the wild card spot. Wilkinson lost two GSP's Michael Johnson in episode 3 by Rear Naked Choke at the end of the third. No one saw reason why Wilkinson shouldn't have had a shot at competing again. The Brit showed tenacity and heart in his last match and came up just short against the most athletic competitor on the show.

Marc Stevens however, was tapped out in record time by Cody McKenzie last week, 17 seconds into the first round. Somehow, Dana White decided that he deserved a shot over Dane Sayers who fought like a mad man, being a huge underdog, and losing a decision that could have gone his way with just a bit of touch up on his techniques. Regardless, the wild card round was set.

The episode opened to Koscheck messing around with Brad Tate, the "EMT" employed by GSP for some reason. No one seems to know exactly why he's there. Kos is convinced GSP pays this guy to egg him on, and even though it's far fetched, not impossible.

Anyway. They're talking smack back and forth between doorways of the dressing rooms, when Kos makes it personal by sticking to his 'male nurse' insult as well as physical, attacking Tate with a plunger. I won't lie, it was hilarious. I probably woke my neighbors up by laughing.

After this altercation, the show continues to the weigh in. Where both teams are sitting there, and Tate begins talking smack again to Kos. However, one of Kos' fighters gets involved, and when Tate insults him, Kos flips his lid, and goes to attack this guy. When both teams get in on the action, it looks like one of those funny baseball pile ups where the Umpire gets into a fight with the manager, and then before you know it, there's a big group of pin stripes, cleats, flying fists spit and ass everywhere.

Well the situation calms down after Dane Sayers freaks out at Koscheck and storms out, angry that he got hit in the face. Koscheck feels kinda bad, and walks after him to apologize, with GSP close behind saying "Don't worry aboudit, Josh, I godit. I am unimpress' wid joor berfoormance"

When everything is cool again, the weigh in goes down and both fighters make weight. The stage is set for the wild card fight!

The first round starts, Stevens and Wilkinson square up and do a little bit of the feeling-out thing. Little jabs and inside front leg kicks here and there, and right when the fight starts to heat up, Stevens gets a perfect double leg take down

The rest of the round is pretty much Stevens almost locking in submissions, and Wilkinson surviving. Nam Phan who was cornering Wilkinson should probably stick to fighting, as he was calling out all sorts of things that Stevens could hear and work off of. Near the end of the first Wilkinson started scoring some ground and pound, but nothing major. Point wise Stevens takes it by a mile.

Round two began and this time Wilkinson decided that Boxing Day came early this year, and in the United States too. (Boxing Day is the day after Christmas in the U.K. where all Brits young and old fist fight. I wish I could make that up.)

bang bang biatch!



Right when he had a chance, Stevens goes back to his wrasslin' roots, and this time when he gets to the ground, Wilkinson guillotines him. OOPS! Right after he taps, the show cut immediately to his post fight interview and he shrugged and said "Maybe I should work on my guillotine defense..."

NO DIP, EINSTEIN!!! He got beat twice with this technique, it's embarassing. Dana White said so.

So Wilkinson advances to the quarter finals, and Stevens makes excuses about altitude and weight cut. Guess what bruh bruh, I train too. I'm 5000 feet up and I've lost about 30 pounds in the last two months, and yo, my game has come a long long way. So there.

Now the coaches get together again with Dana and decide the quarter final match ups. They come up with Brookins vs. Chivitchian, Nam Phan vs. Cody McKenzie (this is crap. i wanted to see these two in the finals. i guess next week will rock so hard because they're going to tear it up, but man, that would have been illmatic to see in the finale. I think Phan will come away with a decision) Kyle Watson vs. Aaron Wilkinson, and the big one everyone wants to see, is Bruce Leroy, the perennial black sheep of the house vs. Michael Johnson, the early favorite of the season. Leading up to that match up, GSP had his team write down names of people who they would want to fight on their own team. Everyone said Bruce Leroy! HA! Bruce Leroy (who's real name is Alex Caceres) signed his own trip ticket home by wanting to fight Michael Johnson, who is pretty obviously going to take him to school.

But we'll have to wait and find out, as this weeks episode comes to an end and I'm left sitting on my recliner getting way too pumped to see Nam Phan fight next week against Cody...

In other news, I won't get to watch it happen on TV because I will be in Tucson picking up my lovely girlfriend. Oh well, I have to balance my love life with my...other love life. Just kidding. But really...(Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, my girlfriend is more important to me than MMA. I'm just being difficult because I know she reads this.)

Stay tuned for more writing, I'll try to eek out some sick posts in between Marine Ball practice and working. Thanks for reading, and see yinz at Black Out (you know who you are!)

Hold up playa, I've got writers block...UFC and WEC to merge...BenClarkMMA pukes, laughs in your face

Sorry for the lack of updates, to the three people who actually drop by this page on a regular basis. I've been swamped at work and well. That's my excuse. I have a pocket full of more excuses, but I'm seriously lazy and...hey. Wait. You're on MY blog, I don't need to explain myself to you.

  

Now. For the main event of the posting.

A week or so ago, I'm not exactly sure when, everyones favorite UFC president, Dana White, announced that at long last the UFC would absorb the smaller, bluer WEC into it's ranks, create two new championships bantam and featherweight inside the UFC, and also unify the WEC/UFC light weight titles.

Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson are going to be fighting 16 December at the final WEC event, and the winner of that fight takes on the winner of the Gray Maynard versus Frankie Edgar battle on 1 January.

For the record, a month and some change out, I want to say this; Ben Henderson will fight Gray Maynard for the UFC title in that eventual match up, and Gray Maynard will come away with it. However, my championship bout calls have been pretty crappy, considering I called Chael Sonnen and Brock Lesnar to win. However, I don't think GSP will let me down. So hopefully, Gray Maynard won't let me down and win two in a row.

Jose Aldo is lined up to defend his title at Featherweight against Josh Grispi on New Years Day 2011. Aldos last fight was his finish of Ultimate Fighter Season 5 runner up Manny Gamburyan. So he is already the UFC featherweight champion.

Dominick Cruz is lined up to fight Scott Jorgensen also on 16 December. The winner of that will be the UFC bantam weight champion. Hooray for bantam weights.


Now for something completely different...

As I wrote about in a previous article, training for MMA is pretty demanding. Well, last night, I enjoyed a tasty salad. Seemingly, eating foliage and training to smash faces have nothing in common. Except for when you throw me into the equation.

After warming up, doing some shrimp moves, punching the crap out of some mitts, and looking hecka awesome doing it, we started to grapple. I was feeling fatigued, but couldn't figure out why. It would soon become crystal clear.

After grappling for a while, I was almost caught in an arm bar. However, I remembered my training, stood up, threw a leg over and spun out of it. My opponent gave me a leg, and I went for the heel hook. When I hit the ground, I lost all my breath and my throat tightened.  (Afterthought: I would normally have knocked this out, because my Coach Jose taught me how to do heel hooks. However, this time the aforementioned queeziness led me to not get a good hold of the achilles tendon, and my other coach Curtis who was praising my arm bar defense started expressing disappointment that I "tried that heel hook shit again." My bad, Coach!)

You see where I'm headed with this?

Yeah, made a break for the front door, went outside and proceeded to lose my evening chow. After throwing a couple buckets of water on it, sipping back some fluids, I went and did the first half of Muay Thai practice, however, I got all light headed and had to sit out. I walked around and whatnot, and some lady who sits and watches her grown-man of a son practice was being a cry baby about me throwing up outside. I found humor in her discomfort. Oh well, what was she gonna do? Do I look apologetic?

                                                     Do you smell what BenClark is cooking?

Well. The moral of this story kids, is don't eat delicious and nutritious food 15 minutes prior to working out like you're some kind of monster. Take my advice. Eat an hour beforehand, and enjoy your non-gagging exercise. It will surely benefit you when the MMA-mom in scrubs is making faces at you, and you look like a jerk for laughing about it.


Thanks for reading! Check back for tomorrow mornings recap of the Ultimate Fighter! Tonight will be the wild card match up, Aaron Wilkinson and Marc Stevens are gonna start the shooting, after 40 minutes of antics in "the house". Can't wait, and neither can you because I say so! Stay tuned and read up.

A look back at Second Chance

Well fight fans, another thursday morning, another TUF review. More cage fighters beating the snot out of eachother for your viewing pleasure.

                                           Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!


Last week Team GSP won twice, both finishes by rear naked choke. Those two fights left only two fighters left for prelim fights, and Dane Sayers (Team GSP) and Sako Chivitchian (Team Koscheck) are on deck to slug it out for the last non-wild card spot.

The beginning of the episode was typical. Fighters talking crap, Koscheck instigating a male nurse, and whatnot. This episode featured the every-season "Coaches Challenge" and it was homerun derby.

GSP and Koscheck (I'm gonna type Kos from here on out, his name is way too annoying to type fast on a keyboard, and, after all, I AM at work, gotta get this review done, son.) had three innings of ten pitches, and home runs were 6 points, outfield hits were 3 points, and infields were 1 point.

Kos smashed this competition, despite a middle-inning slight come back by the Champ. In the end, he won, and GSP said he'd do his competing in the Octagon, and they should "play hockey next time".

I agree. No one likes baseball, plus St. Pierre really looks strange with a bat in hand.


Anyway, back to what my blog is all about.

Dane Sayers comes into the fight rocking a 7-1 record. Not bad. In his elimination round fight, he was a heavy underdog, but came back to win. He also has a cool mohawk, and an AK-47 tattoo. BADASS ALERT!

Sako Chivitchian is 5-0, he's Armenian and he's good at Judo. Word up. I don't have much else to say, I covered my outlook on Armenian Ultimate Fighters in my last review. He's probably certifiable.

Well the fight is on. In round 1, it's a good fight. Coming in, Danes only advantage was striking really, which he abandoned early with a Guillotine choke attempt.

It was looking like another quick submission victory for Team GSP until it didn't, when Sako pulled his crazy eastern European head out of it, and started ground and pound. Dane did a good job the whole time of getting back to his feet, and it was good work on both fighters parts. It was easy to see that Sako earned the point advantage for the round.

In round two, Dane came out swinging, but eventually Sako worked him up against the cage, and won the second round as well, despite having worse cardio. In the end, Sako took the decision. He admitted it on the aftermath that he knew he was ahead in points, so he just "worked the clock" which is another way of saying "I was too scared of getting KTFO fighting this guy and he almost submitted me, so I held him against the cage, which is like lay-and-praying, except it looks a lot less gay. In fact, BenClarkMMA now dubs my technique 'Cage and Pray'"

Here is what I have to say to you, Sako. The video fits because I'm in an office, and my favorite fighter will tell you the same.



Well kids. Until next week, this has been exhilarating.

Famous movie characters who would be successful in MMA

I was sitting around last night brain storming about what to write about while watching Season 4 of Dexter on DVD when a little light bulb came on over my head and I figured I would run with this, to provide entertainment until I can write a review of the Ultimate Fighter tomorrow morning. Some homies were twisting my arm (get it? MMA, twisting my arm...?) about writing again because "you gotta write every day!"

So...without further adieu, Movie Characters who would succeed in the cage!

NEO

                                                                I know Kung Fu?

If you haven't seen the Matrix trilogy, I need you to lean back away from your keyboard, and smack yourself. Twice. The basic concept (for those of you whos faces are stinging with self inflicted slap) is in the future, machines become sentient, and begin to over take humanity. In an effort to survive, we humans did something silly like blot out the sun, making the world a huge barren wasteland, roamed in full by intelligent computers.

                                                 Not like Skynet, nope. No similar plot device here.

So in a future dystopian setting, humans battle machines for survival. The computers stay energized by harvesting human energy, and the bodies are plugged into a digital dream world called "The Matrix". Humanity needs a savior. He arrives in the movies, a computer hacker named Tom Anderson AKA "Neo". Neo is rescued from the Matrix by a crew of human soldiers on their ship. Epic-story ensues, the world is saved. Watch!

ANYWAY!

Neo is a perfect candidate for this article. In the first movie, he is plugged into the matrix again, where his rescuer Morpheus teaches him to bend the faux-reality to his will, and also downloads Martial Arts into his brain. Soon, they begin sparring. The rest is history, and soon our hero is doing hand to hand battle with computer-baddies and flying. It is my humble opinion that Neo might be able to take on GSP. I can see it now...

"Introducing first, in the red corner, this man is a kung fu, ninjitsu, jeet kune do, capoeira, hapkido, karate, jiujitsu and muay thai fighter, with a record of 12,203-0, fighting out of the Zion, at the center of the earth, "The Chosen One"...NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-OH!!!!"

Yep. Neo would stomp faces in the cage. No one can disagree. Shhh.

The Karate Kid (Not Jaden Smith, that movie was terrible)

That's right. The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso. If you haven't seen this movie, please pick up your keyboard and bash yourself in the face, hm...8 times.

Daniel moves to California from New Jersey to California with his mom. He has no friends and carries with him his New Jersey 'tude

                                                     NO! YOU- COME AT ME- BRO!!!!!

Daniel meets the maintenance man for his apartments, Mr. Miyagi, a wise Ryukyujin Ojisan, or for my peeps who don't speak Japanese, an old Okinawan man.  When Daniel gets jumped by bullies for talking to a girl their leader likes, Miyagi-sama jumps in to save him. Hard.

Anyway. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel-san the way of Okinawan open handed combat, Karate. Through seemingly menial tasks, Daniel becomes the perfect disciple of the Martial Arts. Soon, he's doing the crane kick and waxing cars like it's cool.

Think back to those bullies, the Cobra Kai.

Daniel-San confronts the blonde one, Bobby Brown at the All-Valley Karate Tournament. Through the matches, Daniel-san dispatches his opponents with his wax-off technique, as well as kicks to the ribs. It's pretty epic, considering it's a montage. Even Rocky had a montage!

Anyway. You see what happens next. Daniel and Bobby square off on the karate mat, and just like before, Bobby begins to hand Daniel his ass on a silver platter. No big deal, the Karate Kid goes back to his training, and pulls off a stunning KO of the Night via Crane Kick! Sick!

If Daniel-san would get some wrestling and jitsu training to pair up with his outrageous striking, and maybe gain a little weight, he'd be one bad mofo that would be adept at destroying bigger opponents.

                                                       Yeah I'm talking about you, bruh bruh

Forrest Gump

Neo, Karate Kid, they made sense. I can tell you're thinking "WTF FORREST GUMP? REALLY?" and I'm not lying. It's here, in plain grey and black.

But why? How could a gimpy, bow legged retard from Alabama possibly be an awesome cage fighter? Well. Let me tell you.

He's Forrest Gump.

This dude, against all odds learned how to run, let alone walk, without braces on his legs. He overcame his slight mental retardation to be a star running back at his state University and makes the All-American team. Oh, after college he decided he'd join the army and be awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing too many dudes in Vietnam. This is all before he meets John Lennon, and becomes a millionaire shrimpin' boat cap'n.

Plus, he has cardio unlike any other. He ran across America, like, 5 times. This is pretty intense.

Simply put, Forrest Gump has way too many out of this world experiences to NOT be a legend in the sport of mixed martial arts. Instead of running through Utah, slaying Vietcong and scoring touch downs, he could be smashing peoples faces in a ring or fenced area. Just get this guy to Greg Jacksons camp and grab some of your favorite malted hops beverage, because Forreset Gump will be doing DAMAGE.

                                               "They said I fought, like...a duck in the water. Whatever that means."


There you have it kids. Three outstanding would-be Octagon warriors, had they not been in awesome movies. I have stuff to do, like sit in my office and study up on MMA.

Until next time,
-BenClarkMMA

BenClarkMMA goes to fight night, gets surprised twice.

Well readers, it's been a good night of fights, and I, BenClark am here to write about them.

                                                        Time to blog, says I. Yo ho ho!


Patrick Cote vs. Tom Lawlor

I had high expectations for this fight. Cote being a former #1 contender for the middleweight title, and Tom Lawlor being a badass all around. I figured Cote would win, however, it wasn't to be so.

In the first round, Cote survived an onslaught of lay and pray as well as a submission attempt, an arm triangle choke. It was an impressive display of holding on for dear life. Whatever, he has ring rust I thought.

Round two was a similar story, Lawlor with a good take down with more lay and pray, and when Cote worked his way back up to the feet, Lawlor outstruck him there.

Round three, well. Lawlor outworked him again. Unanimous decision. The judges agreed and we move on.

Court McGee vs Ryan Jensen

This fight was exciting. Good trades on the stand up, and Jensen had some promising exchanges. In the end however, Court McGee after two and 1/5th rounds of pretty intense fighting secured an arm triangle choke for the win. Overcoming heroin addiction and all, I have to say my hat is off to this guy. Plus he's from Orem, Utah and one of my favorite bands, The Used, is from Orem. Nice nice nice.

Brendan Schaub vs Gabriel Gonzaga

Main card time! I was really excited to see Brendan Schaub come out to fight this evening. His opponent, Gonzaga was a worthy one. These two had a back and forth battle the entire fight, with Schaub outstriking Gonzaga in the first to a point where if it had been 10 seconds earlier, I think it woulda been stopped. Schaub took all three rounds convincingly and was awarded a well deserved unanimous decision.

Tito Ortiz vs Matt Hamill

Second fight of the Pay Per View was the teacher (Ortiz) vs his former student (Hamill) from The Ultimate Fighter season 3. Tito came out looking really sunburned, and early in the first round Hamill connected with a strike to his dome piece that left him cut and bleeding. The entire first round was good back and forth fighting, and at the end Hamill didn't quit, because he can't hear. Don't hate. I gave the first round to Hamill, barely.

The second round, was less balanced, as Hamill displayed superior wrestling and striking, schooling his former coach in the art of fist to face combat. I have to say, I am surprised; I expected more out of the Huntington Beach Bad Boy. This is a guy who consistently sleeps with Jenna Jameson. You gotta be a hard dog to nail the most famous pornstar in history out on a consistent basis.

In round three, Hamill again outworked Tito, and I was pretty sure that he took all three rounds. So were the judges. Hamill wins by Unanimous Decision.

Diego Sanchez vs Paulo Thiago
Okay. So to say that I didn't expect much from this bout is an understatement. I cannot stand Diego Sanchez, and I really didn't see much awesomeness coming from this fight. HOWEVER, being the humble writer/UFC fan/wannabe Fighter that I am, I must admit, I was caught unawares as these gents put on a spectacular fight, Thiago almost had Sanchez choked out numerous times, and Diego fought through everything and halfway through the second round became pissed. Bro, I mean pissed. He pretty much dominated the rest of the fight, holding the superior position, and ground-and-pounding his way to a unanimous decision victory. I looked at my esteemed colleague and Sergeant of Marines Eric Warren, and said "Cuz, I think this is the fight of the night." Dana White thought so too. Go me.

                                               "BenClarkMMA wants a cookie for calling Fight of the Night."

Jake Shields vs. Martin Kampmann

                                                           Jake and Martin in the heat of battle.

In the cosmic scheme of things, you will often find that your minds eye is dyslexic as Tom Cruise in a room full of mirrors. Whereas I thought that Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago was going to be akin to two old ladies fighting over the last Werthers Original, Jake Shields vs Martin Kampmann was pretty much it. Hugging it out for three rounds and pretending to kick at eachother is not what is expected of UFC fighters.

Son, I am disappointed.

However, in true badass fashion, I was correct again my call. Split decision for retard Jake Shields who needs to white out his signature on his UFC contract and go back to Strikeforce where they drink Rockstar and pretend to be a good organization.

<--Cain Velasquez vs Brock Lesnar -->

Dude. WTF.

So coming into this main event, I was sure I was a badass fight caller, going 3-1 on the Main Card so far, only because Tito is a washed up dog turd. No big deal, Brock Lesnar has this. 2 inches taller, 4 inches of reach and 20 pounds advantage DEHYRDATED?! NO PROBLEM! Right? ...right?

WRONG, BRO!

Brock came out, did a side step or two, and shot in for a tremendous take down. To thunderous applause in the bar I was sitting at. I won't lie, I was rooting for him too. Anyway. The fight continued, and Brock held Cain against the cage, not doing much, but still holding him to nothing. When they broke away, it was back and forth, and the strike game didn't look too bad on either of their parts. Until Brock did something like this..

Yes. Brock Lesnar, just like his last fight, got Rolled. However, this time, he did some kind of goofy break dance that can only be explained with the raw intensity of a Mexican freight train rolling somewhere between his left eye ball and the left side of his jaw.

                                                             Get it?   I know I'm a dick. Sue me.

The punches in bunches delivered by Cain were amazing. Though I cheered for Brock, I soon began to cheer in general. Soon, Cain had won by TKO. Yes. That was badass what happened. I admit. I was wrong in saying Cain was smoking crack. In fact, he made beating Brock look easy. I am now 0-2 on calling heavy weight title fights, because I was damn sure that Shane Carwin was going to stomp Brock at UFC 116. I suck again!

Also, my most cool and awesome coach Jose told me so, Brown Pride. Neener Neener Neener, Brock sucks on weiners.


Well kids, there you have it. The recap on UFC 121 brought to you by me, who else?

In other news, I became humbled last night as I was one step behind a guy I train with at Blackout in two grappling matches and a "Get underhooks" drill. Doesn't mean I'm terrible. In fact, I learned, which is what you should always do when you're on the mat. I was glad to work out a couple kinks in my game, because when I begin to compete, I won't be making the same mistakes. For any one who reads this who is also aspiring to become a (successful) MMA fighter, don't be discouraged by being outdone while practicing. Learn, learn, ask some questions and learn some more.

                                             This is me on the left and my coach, Curtis Washington.


Well....that was fun. Stay tuned for more MMA related writes and rants as I continue being more awesome than 3 Xenergy cans tied together sprinkled with money and topped off with sexiness.