5. Houston takes a dive to Kimbo

THEORY: UFC wants people to still come watch Kimbo so they have Houston throw the match to Kimbo at TUF 10 finale.

WHY IT’S STUPID: While Houston definitely did not look like the fighter we are used to, his actions weren’t without reason. Kimbo has the resume of being a big striker and can knock you out if you make a mistake. It’s 100% possible Houston was scared of this and wanted to play it conservative.

4. Hendo is sent to SF as a plant by UFC

THEORY: UFC has the money and will to sign Hendo if they wanted to. The point is they don’t want to because they want to plant Hendo in SF as a double agent. The theory believes that if Hendo can dismantle SF on the inside, the UFC will be back in a monopoly position at which point Hendo will make a convienient return.

WHY IT’S STUPID: While I like Hendo and think the UFC made a mistake, I do have to side with Dana on a couple facts. If Hendo was asking for as much as he reportedly was, then it’s not unreasonable at all for them to let Hendo go given Hendo’s status. Also it makes no sense for the UFC to play this shell game and risk driving more publicity to SF.

3. The Cro Cop anomaly

THEORY: Cro Cop’s sudden return and departure from the UFC left fans with a lot of questions wondering why he took the win and ran. The theory is that there was a multiple conspiracy collaboration between the UFC, Dream, and SF to let Cro Cop come in for one match so that the UFC could boost ticket sales in Germany.

WHY IT’S STUPID: Cro Cop did not fight with Dream or SF after his win against Al-turk. He also went to go and fight at UFC 103 which shows it wasn’t just a one fight deal. It is possible that UFC needed some help with sales and that Cro Cop could pull in better numbers in Germany than Duffee, but it’s not even close to the extensive inside job people made it out to be.

2. Griffin takes a dive to A. Silva

THEORY: Silva’s two lackluster matches against Leites and Cote had damaged the stars image. UFC needed to get Silva back on the map. Griffin gets fight of night pay off to lose to Silva who needs a comeback.

WHY IT’S STUPID: Anderson has always been better against fighters who push the action. Forrest is one of the most aggressive fighters in the UFC which plays 100% to Silva’s strength. Silva is simply just that good. After all was said and done it was a good match and was deserving of fight of the night. Also Forrest would never take a pay off…..ever.

1. Dana White collapses Affliction

THEORY: Dana White convinces Affliction to tamper with Barnett’s drug test to show he was positive for steroids. This gave Affliction an excuse to collapse the organization so that UFC would be able to sign all their fighters. In return Affliction would get to come back to the UFC as a sponsor.

WHY IT’S STUPID: This is the worst one of them all. There is no way that such an elaborate scheme would be pulled off. Affliction simply just didn’t know how to manage a fight club plain and simple. They put too much money in their fighters and didn’t have any back up plan for when things went down the tubes. It was no surprise that they collapsed.

Any MMA fan knows that the cutting system in the UFC is so subjective it’s not even funny. Some people with even records or slightly worse are cut where as you have others who have lost three fights in a row and still have their jobs. Bottom line it’s not the fairest thing in the world but it is what it is. One of the most recent victims of the UFC buzz saw is Jake Rosholt. Now normally the UFC makes pretty good cuts but in this case I feel they made a mistake, and so I will now give the 5 reasons why I think the UFC should rehire Jake Rosholt.

5. He has a unique corner – I mean how many corners will shout out to you other matches that happened in the past to let you know what to do next. Not many. If you wanted the Grove match you could hear his corner yell “Machida Sokoudjou! Machida Sokoudjou!” Not exactly sure why but entertaining to say the least. The even funnier part is I think the strategy was actually WORKING too.

4. He has a great resume – I mean look at these stats: won the 184-pound NCAA Division I wrestling title in 2003, the 197-pound title in 2005 and 2006, 4-time All-American, and 2004 Big 12 Conference champion. He was also the 15th three-time NCAA Champion in Oklahoma State history and 10th four-time All-American. If those results don’t just scream potential I don’t know what does.

3. He can stand up too – A lot of wrestlers will tend to just be content with taking the match to the ground and laying and praying which can sometimes lead to quite a boring match. However Jake showed in his last match that he can stand up with the best of them and throw bombs when he needs to. He has a nice assortment of weapons and he can be a great example for all wrestlers to expand their style to not just having everything go to the ground.

2. He was winning against Grove – when I saw the fight I was willing to bet money that he would be the one to come out on top but fate had other plans. Jake was definitely winning the fight on the feet and on the ground, he just got caught in a bad position. It really does happen to even the best sometimes. Even though the loss did mark him with a 1-2 record, I would think that a little slack can be given for him to at least have had a shot at the final fight on his contract.

1. He beat Chris Leben – and not just beat him, submitted him. Leben is one of the toughest fighters in the middleweight division. Not only that, Jake was facing Leben coming off a loss to Dan Miller. What is interesting is usually you face an easier opponent after you have had a loss not a harder one. The odds were certainly not in Rosholts favor, but he pulled it off. I really do think that win should have bought him the last two matches on his contract no matter what.

There is a lot of good debate in the MMA world. It can range from discussions on who the best pound for pound fighter is to what is the best style to dominate any given weight class. However, if there is one universal agreement that can be determined it would be these two things. One, Steve Mazzagatti is the worst referee in MMA and two everyone hates him. Dana White just recently went on record saying that Mazzagatti shouldn’t be allowed to watch MMA let alone ref it. With such strong words, I decided to take a look back at Steve’s record and pull out the matches that contain his top 5 worst calls ever. LET’S GET IT ON!

5. Varner v.s McCullough - Seriously Steve? A time out? This isn’t basketball, football, or any other kind of ball. Fighters don’t get to call timeout during a match especially when they are on the a** end of an a**beating. Thanks to Mazzagatti, Varner was able to stall a beating he was taking from McCullough in order to get his mouth piece back in. He not only stopped the momentum but gained a precious 30 seconds to recover which lead to him to come back and knock McCullough out.

4. Doerksen v.s Macdonald - It’s bad enough that Mazzagatti has a track record of stopping fights too early, but it’s even worse that he can’t keep THAT consistent. In a sick twist of irony Mazzagatti admitted to making a mistake when he allowed Macdonald to continue hitting Doerksen with additional hammer fists even after the match was thought to have already ended. At least when other refs mess up they err on the side of caution.

3. Burns v.s Johnson - I understand that Mazzagatti is a ref and not a police investigator but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that Kevin Burns most likely did not take out Anthony Johnson with a legitimate strike. This is even after Mazzagatti had warned Burns not once, not twice, but FOUR times that his open hand strikes were a danger to Johnson’s eyes. Once Johnson had gone down the way he did clutching his eye, common sense would lead us to think that Burns poked him in it. But noooooo Mazzagatti instead decides to award Burns the TKO. Remind me to never let Steve on a criminal jury.

2. Velasquez v.s Rothwell - The funny thing about this stoppage was, there were 5 other times Mazzagatti could have stopped the match where it would have looked less suspect then the point where he DID stop the match at. It was like Mazzagatti was saying during the match “nah stopping it here would be too obvious I’ll wait for when it looks a lot closer”. To no one’s surprise Mazzagatti ended the match by pulling Cain off Rothwell as he was on his way to standing up. Who the heck stops a match when the fighter in trouble is on his way to a recovery? Granted Rothwell was getting his a** handed to him no doubt, but Mazzagatti’s stoppage was poor and very fitting for number 2 on this list.

1. Mir v.s Lesnar I - There have been many horrible mistakes made by all refs throughout the history of the UFC but this one has got to take the cake. I thought that Mazzagatti giving Lesnar a point deduction for back of the head strikes was bad but who knew it was about to get even worse. It has been argued that Lesnar would have won the match if Mazzagatti had not paused it but what is also pretty nutty was that Brock didn’t really get a warning. Then the piece de resistance. Mir gets Lesnar in an ankle lock and you could have literally done your taxes during the point where Lesnar started tapping and the point where Mazzagatti decided to stop the fight.

Kimbo Slice. Is there anyone more surprising than this guy. Just a few months ago I had written a blog entry on the 5 reasons why I hate the man. Now I’m writing an article on why I think I was WRONG on a few things. Why would I do this? Like I said from the beginning, I like to be fair in my opinions and if a fighter is changing my opinion it is only fair to make that known. I never thought I would say this, but TUF is actually sort of making me start to LIKE him. I don’t know how, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with the following five reasons why I will be rooting for him in his fight against Roy Nelson.

1. He’s checking his ego – I would have been willing to be money that as soon as Kimbo set foot on the set of TUF he would be gun slinging his enormous ego and disrespecting everyone from the fighters to the coaches. Man was I in for a surprise. Not only were there comments from other fighters about how Kimbo asked for their help with his ground game, but his performance in the last episode showed how much he wants to learn and wants to listen to his coaches including Rampage. If anything, that episode just showed that Roy Nelson had a bigger ego than Kimbo. Who would have thought it?

2. He’s has potential – I was always willing to give Kimbo the fact that he could beat up anyone on the street with no fight experience, but I for sure thought that he was too dumb to ever pick up or learn anything of any significance. Once again, I am totally wrong. In the last episode he showed how well he was able to pick up new ground moves. The word they used to describe it was perfect, it was like he was a sponge. I was very impressed by this. Granted it was only practice, but the little that he did learn and demonstrate looked great. I also can’t ignore the fact that Rampage has good comments about Kimbo’s skill. If it’s good for Rampage, then it’s good for me.

3. He’s the underdog – It’s perfectly clear that Roy Nelson is the clear favorite in this fight and as a result I always want to root for the underdog. Kimbo for sure has his work cut out for him, but I do think after seeing his progress in training that he actually has a chance to win this match and it’s always fun to see an upset.

4. I don’t really like Roy Nelson – Since day one Roy sort of rubbed me the wrong way. First with his comment on that he believed that he was the big announcement and not Kimbo. I mean, really Roy? Don’t get me wrong, being the former IFL heavyweight champion is nothing to scoff at, but do you really think that just being the former title holder makes YOU really any more special than the rest of the fighters trying to enter the UFC? Then after I saw his behavior to his coaches it made me just want to see him lose even more. Granted Roy you do have more experience then the rest of the fighters, but you have not made it yet and it never hurts to perfect the basics. Your coaches are giving you instruction for a reason and to answer back with an ego is not a good look. If Kimbo beats him, I think it will help humble him some.

5. I want to see Dana eat crow – I mean seriously who doesn’t? It’s like every MMA fans guilty pleasure when they get to see Dana White wrong about something. He even said himself that a lot of viewers would be tuning into this season just for that reason. The one thing that I will always remember is that smug smile he had on his face when he was talking about this topic. It was a smile that said “yea i know everyone is hoping that Kimbo does well, but I totally think he is not going to and I’ll be right like I always am”. So I’m rooting for Kimbo if for nothing else just the chance to take Dana down a peg. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving.

The Gatekeepers. An interesting community of fighters within the UFC. We know them and we love them. They have solid records and show that they can go toe to toe with the best when they want to. Yet, they just can’t seem to break that last bit of resistance to achieve the belt. There is always one or two fighters that are just a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, a little bit better. As a result the gatekeepers, silent and loyal, find their place in the UFC to test up and coming fighters as well as verify seasoned veterans. We count down the top 10 gatekeepers in the UFC today.

10. Chuck Liddell – Chuck comes in last on this list because his gate keeping status appeared very late in his career. Chuck is one of the greatest champions we have had in the UFC so it’s not fair to place him high on this gate keeping list. However, after he lost his title to Rampage things unfortunately became stale for the Iceman. His loss to Rashad Evans allowed Evans a shot at Griffin for the title which he eventually went on to win, and his loss to Shogun now allows Shogun to fight Machida for the heavyweight title at UFC 104. Chuck at the tail end of his career was a perfect example of the gate keeper, but with his extreme success in his prime we can easily forgive him for it.

9. Joe Lauzon – Where the heck is this kid’s title shot? He’s 5-1 in the UFC with notable victories over fighters like Jens Pulver and Jeremy Stepeans. His only loss came at the hands of the much talented Kenny Florian who would go on a couple wins later to fight BJ Penn for the lightweight championship. Since his loss Joe has been going back to work consistently flying under the radar testing fighters as they come into the octagon. With the amount of talent Lauzon has it’s a mystery to when he will get his time to shine. But once he does (as i’m certain he will) I will get to happily take him off this list.

8. Heath Herring – The Texas Crazy Horse definitely has some key wins to his name both from Pride and the UFC. The heavyweight division is only now picking up steam so it make sense that there are not many gate keepers in this division. However when we look at Herring’s record it for certain fits one. His main losses in the UFC include a loss to Nogueira which lead to Antonio winning the interim title match against Tim Sylvia. He also lost that infamous match against Brock Lesnar that put Lesnar on the path to facing Randy Couture for the title shot. While Herring’s performance has seemed to have plateaued since the days of pride it’s never smart to count out The Texas Crazy Horse.

7. Matt Hamill – A solid fighter by no doubt Matt is an inspiration to deaf people everywhere that you can do anything you want. That being said, Hamill has shown that he is no slouch in the UFC with a record of 8-2 with going to decision only twice. So what’s holding him back from greatness? Well his two losses were pretty big ones. The first was to Bisping in a controversial call by the judges. That set Matt back a little. Then his loss to Rich Franklin not long after kept him in his gate keeping status. However with two wins a row after that loss to Franklin and with a match coming up against Jon Jones, Matt has the chance to break through the barriers that have been holding him back. However, a loss to Jones will put him right back so he needs to be careful.

6. Joe Stevenson – It might be a little unfair to have Joe as high on this list. After all he did work hard in the beginning to get his title shot against BJ Penn which he would go on to lose. It’s more so what happened after the title shot that gives him a gate keeper’s label. He had two losses in a row both to Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez. Kenny’s title shot was directly from his win over Joe and Diego’s win in the very next fight put Diego right behind Kenny. Joe is on docket to currently fight Spencer Fisher and if he wins this match I’d be willing to bet money that he will be in the running for the title once again.

5. Stephan Bonnar – I feel bad putting Stephan on this list. Why? Cause this guys had SUCH freaking potential. After his fight against Griffin on TUF 1 finale, I knew that I was going to see great things from this fighter. After 3 wins in a row right after that I was starting to feel good about my prediction. Then things started to slide. He had two losses in a row to future champions Evans and Griffin. Even though he won his next two fights, his loss to Jon Jones a newcomer to UFC began his gate keeping status again. With a match against Mark Coleman it was clear that Dana was testing to see if Mark was fit to stay in UFC and Bonnar was the perfect pick for that. A long with that loss Bonnar has once again slipped back into limbo. My fingers are crossed though for a Stephan Bonnar comeback.

4. Chris Leben – We all know when Chris’s gate keeping status first got it’s start, does the name Anderson Silva ring a bell? In my opinion that fight was the turning point for Chris, after that loss which allowed Silva to fight Franklin for the middleweight belt Chris losses started to rack up. He lost matches to relative newcomers like Jake Rosholt and Kalib Starnes effectively saving those two fighters from being cut from the UFC. His loss to Bisping allowed Dana to put The Count as a coach for the 9th season of the ultimate fighter leading up to one of the most anticipated matches at UFC 100. Fans of the crippler are hoping that soon he’ll be able to get his stuff together to get back on top.

3. Josh Koscheck – This fighter has been in the UFC since 2005. A clear veteran of the octagon Josh has shown very good success over his 4 year career since the ultimate fighter 1. With a record of 11-4 in the UFC you would think Josh would be further ahead then he is. That is until we take a look at the losses he DID have. First, there was his loss to GSP who would get to go on to face Matt Huges for the interim WW title and win. Then there was his loss to Thiago Alves who got to then go on to face GSP for the title only to lose. His recent loss against Paul Thiago also shows gate keeping as it was Thiago’s debut in the UFC. His win over Frank Trigg will hopefully allow Josh to pick up steam once again, but given how long this guy has fought it might be hard to tell when, if ever, he will finally get a chance to make a move.

2. Keith Jardine – Keith is essentially the same thing as Josh just in the LHW division. Also fighting since 2005 Jardine is a seasoned veteran of the octagon with a record of 6-5 in the UFC. Not bad. However this medicore record has simply kept Keith in one spot and I haven’t seen him really budge from it since. Granted he has a couple nice wins over fighters like Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin, but his losses have consistently been to fighters he should have been able to get over like Stephan Bonnar and Houston Alexander. Throw in his two recent losses to Rampage and Silva and we find Keith in a tight spot. Assuming he still keeps his job we have to reasonably think that Keith is going to be stuck in that spot for a long time.

1. Rich Franklin – There are fighters who just end up as gatekeepers in their own division. There are even fighters who move away from a division only to become a gatekeeper in another division. But there are gatekeepers that are so good at doing their job that an ENTIRE division is made just for them to do it. Enter in Rich Franklin. Rich sports an incredible MMA record of 26-5 with a 12-4 record in the UFC. Two of which were lost to the greatest pound for pound fighter today Anderson Silva. After the second title loss Rich was hoping to find movement in the Light Heavyweight division only to find himself testing Matt Hamill and Dan Henderson. The icing on the cake comes when a 195 catchweight division was created so that he could verify Wanderlei. Once that was done it was time for the moment of truth. A catchweight fight with Vitor Belfort, to which Rich lost badly. Now Vitor is first in line for a title shot against Anderson Silva. Rich is by no question one of the best in the game and still has some fight left in him, but we have to ask ourselves how much further he is able to get in ANY division he’s placed in and whether or not he’s doomed to keep gates for the rest of this contract. Sorry St.Peter, but you got nothing on Rich Franklin.

MMA has come a long way from it’s beginnings in 1993. Over the past 16 years, fighers have brought different styles to the tables all of which have shapped Mixed Martial Arts into the powerful sport it is today. From birth of the term “Ground and Pound” to BJJ essentially becoming a prerequiste to participating in MMA, we take a look at the 5 fighters who helped get us there.

5. Randy Couture – Anderson Silva maybe the one who perfected the art of clinch fighting with the incorporation of deadly knees, but it was Randy Couture who first brought it to the forefront of fighters minds. It didn’t matter whether he was standing or if he was on the ground. His ability to repeatedly punish his opponents with vicious punches in one of the most awkward positions was innovative to say the least. Though clinch fighting is not used by as many fighters as other strategies, you can’t help but notice that in the hands of the master it can be one of the most deadly.

4. Ken Shamrock – Shootfighting? What kind of art is that? This question was most likely on a lot of people’s lips when they first heard of it. But it didn’t take long for UFC veteran Ken Shamrock to show how powerful the art actually is. By utilizing the ability to close the large gaps between fighters and controlling the fight after it hits the ground, shootfighting opened up new doors to wrestlers wanting to break into the MMA world. Thanks to Ken Shamrock, the skills of shootfighting can still be seen in the likes of greats like Matt Hughes and George St. Pierre.

3. Chuck Liddell – Focusing on strike based styles in mixed martial arts is by no means innovative, but developing an entire strategy around it was. Chuck Liddell, a long with a few others like Tim Sylvia, developed a stratgey called sprawl and brawl. The theory was that if it was in your best interest to keep the fight standing, then you better know how to keep the fight standing. Chuck Liddell was able to be victorious in many of his fights being able to keep the fight on his own terms. With the rise in wrestlers and submission fighters coming into the pool, strikers needed something to help level the field and they got it with Chuck Liddell.

2. Mark Coleman – It’s one thing to spawn a fighting style, another to spawn a catch phrase, and another to spawn a catch phrase that spawns endless merchandising. Mark Coleman may not have known how influential and innovative his fighting style was, he may not even known what it was called. But he knew it worked and after people saw him fight they knew it worked too. To this day “ground and pound” is not only essential to learn for every fighter interested in MMA, but it’s one of the key phrases that links MMA culture to the public. “Ground and Pound” can only mean one thing, when you say it you know what it means, and we have Mark Coleman to thank for that.

1. Royce Gracie – Call it cliche or obvious, but there is no doubt that Royce Gracie (along with the entire family) is the most innovative MMA fighter of all time. Since the beginning at UFC 1 Royce Gracie in one fell swoop showed the dominance of submission grappling using his family’s style of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu now just commonly known as BJJ. Styles, themes, and rules have come and gone in the years since UFC started but the one thing has stayed constant and that is the application of BJJ. You can’t name one fighter that hasn’t learned even the basics of BJJ before they have set foot in the Octagon. It is the unwritten prerequisite of MMA and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.