The Good Dan Henderson: In a fight between what many consider two legends of MMA it would be Dan Henderson who would emerge victorious over the man once considered the best fighter in the sport, Fedor Emelianenko. Despite the numerous accolades and achievements each fighter had accumulated throughout their careers this was looked at as a legacy fight and before it even started it felt so. Being as MMA is still a relatively new sport you rarely have a fight where both fighters elicit loud applause for both participants which happened here. Once the bell rang both fighters came out swinging wildly and while Fedor appeared to land first it would be Henderson who placed the first effective punch catching a charging Fedor with a left hand that put him on his heels. After some clinching against the cage the fighters seperated and started swinging for the fences. Once again it would be Emelianenko who would land first and it appeared he may have hurt Hendo as he stumbled backwards off balance. Fedor rushed Henderson who fell to his back and much like in his loss to Fabricio Werdum, Emelianenko got overeager in his attempt to finish the fight. Fedor was dropping punches down on Henderson but Dan swept him, got side position from behind and hit Fedor with a hard right hand uppercut dropping Emelianenko face first to the mat. Henderson landed a few more punches on a downed Fedor before referee Herb Dean was able to stop the contest. There were initially some protests that the fight was stopped too soon but given Fedors position and the refs perspective I see no issue with the stoppage. Regardless of any controversy, credit to Dan Henderson who added yet another impressive win on his ledger and at age 40 shows no signs [...]

The Good Amir Khan: Well that didn’t turn out as expected. Along with alot of other boxing fans I was  anticipating Saturdays fight between Amir Khan and Zab Judah in what figured to be a competitive match-up. Unfortunately that didn’t happen as Amir Khan was in control of the fight from begining to end while Judah brought next to nothing to the dance. Khan used his reach advantage and peppered Judah from distance with jabs and straight rights over and over. As for Zab, he did little aside from throwing a counter left that rarely found it’s mark. The fight would end under unusual circumstances in round 5 as Khan hit Judah just below the beltline dropping Zab. Referee Vic Drakulich would proceed to reach the 10 count with no effort by Zab to get up. Judah protested the stoppage immediately believing he had been fouled but it was for naught as Khan would be declared the winner. Numerous replays showed the punch in question appeared to hit Judah in the abdomen as opposed to his balls, for lack of a better term.   Either way it’s hard to envision the fight ending in any other fashion than Khan emerging victorious as he was doing more damage to Judah as the fight wore on, evidenced by Zabs face which was bloodied. Credit goes to Khan for having a good gameplan and sticking to it which lead to his most impressive win to date. Bigger and better things lay ahead for the IBF and WBA junior welterweight champion including a potential bout with Timothy Bradley to determine who is the top dog in the 140 pound division. As for Zab Judah, we’ll get back to him shortly.

The Good Grady Brewer: Talk about the shock of the weekend, this was definitely it in my humbled opinion as Grady Brewer scored an upset win by TKO over undefeated prospect Fernando Guerrero on Friday Night Fights. Lets set things straight, Brewer is no bum in any sense of the word but since winning his season of The Contender in 2006 things haven’t gone as planned. Brewer had only fought six times in the last 5 years heading into the bout due to a combination of injuries and contractual issues and had lost his most recent signifigant fight to Erislandy Lara. Obviously Brewer was brought in as “the opponent” in this match, a veteran fighter with a name that Guerrero could get some rounds in against. The two noticeable factors going into the fight were Brewers age, 40, and that Guerrero was moving down to 154 pounds. Brewer stunned Guerrero with a right in the fourth round and never let him off the hook, knocking his down into the ropes. The young Dominican got up but Brewer followed up causing Fernando to fall down after which the referee waved the fight off. Call it the curse of Friday Night Fights 2011 which has seen a handful of undefeated fighters be dealt their first loss, but one things for sure, this was a big win for Brewer who himself said it was bigger for him than winning The Contender. As the old adage goes, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, perhaps in boxing we shouldn’t judge a fighter by his age.   Adrien Broner: Sometimes in life we have to give credit where it’s due even if we aren’t the biggest supporter of a certain individual. This is the case with myself in regards to Adrien Broner who notched a crushing first round stoppage over [...]

  Upon doing research for the recent episode of The Science Of Violence radio show I realized that including last weekends UFC 130 there are six consecutive weekends featuring “major” MMA events. As a fan of the sport it goes without saying that I was excited to learn of this as I’m sure are most fans. I imagine now that th site is up and running I, along my cohorts will be discussing some of these events as they draw near so for the moment I’ll just give a quick glimpse on some of the fights that are most intriguing to myself in the upcoming weeks.   First up is this Saturdays Ultimate Fighter season 13 finale which is headlined by former WEC Lightweight Champion Anthony ‘Showtime’ Pettis making his UFC debut against lightweight stalwart Clay Guida. Pettis enters this fight with a ton of momentum coming off his title winning effort over Ben Henderson in one of the best fights last year highlighted by what has been dubbed the “Showtime kick”. For those who have yet to see it Pettis launched himself off the cage and landed a kick to Henderson knocking him down in the final round of a back and forth fight. The kick has since been shown on numerous sports and even non fight related shows which along with Pettis’ appearance on Mtvs reality show World Of Jenks has signifigantly boosted his profile. Pettis was awarded the next UFC lightweight title shot but since champion Frank Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard fought to a draw that opportunity has since been delayed.   As for this matchup, though Guida has shown technical improvements since joining Greg Jacksons camp I favor the more dynamic Pettis in this one. I do anticipate an entertaining bout as Showtime has earned his moniker on numerous occasions and 2 of Guidas more exciting fights, [...]