UFC on Fuel - Struve vs. Miocic Primer

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s shadier than PRIDE.

 UFC's running a free card from England tomorrow, which is good, but it's not on tape delay to the US, so prelim fights start at like 1:30 ET.  Normally when I do an event primer I cover the entire card, but I've got to be honest, there are a lot of dudes on the undercard that I don't know anything about (This isn't really that different from most cards, I'm just using it as an excuse to be lazy), so I'll just cover the main card.

Welterweight:  “Beautiful” Che Mills vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig

• Mills’s Style – Muay Thai
• Ludwig’s Style – Kickboxing
• Prediction – Ludwig will do a knockout upon Mills to make the Englishers sad.
• Thoughts – Ludwig is way cool, because he’s got one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history against JohnathanGoulet, plus he did the crane kick pose while beating the crap out of ShadSmith one time.

Welterweight:  John “the Hitman” Hathaway vs. John Maguire

• Hathaway’s Style – Freestyle
• Maguire’s Style – Gypsy Jiu-Jitsu
• Prediction – Maguire via submission

Lightweight:  Paul “Sassangle” Sass vs. “Handsome” Matt Wiman

• Sass’s Style – Jiu-jitsu, Luta livre
• Wiman’s Style – Brazilian jiu-jitsu
• Prediction – Sass by triangle/heel hook combo, since those are the only ways he wins fights.

Bantamweight:  Brad “One Punch” Pickett vs. Yves “Tiger” Jabouin

• Pickett’s Style – Striking
• Jabouin’s Style – Striking
• Prediction – I’m taking Pickett by knockout

Welterweight:  Dan “the Outlaw” Hardy vs. Amir Sadollah

• Hardy’s Style – Boxing, child fighting
• Sadollah’s Style – Muay Thai
• Prediction – Sadollah will outpoint Hardy to a decision.  He might do some wrestling to Hardy, too.

Heavyweight:  Stefan “Skyscraper” Struve vs. Stipe Miocic

• Struve’s Style – Jiu-jitsu, tall
• Miocic’s Style – Wrestle-boxing, baseball
• Prediction – Struve with a submission on Miocic
• Thoughts – Struve falls down in funny ways a lot

Check out Struve falling down in a floppy, baby giraffe heap after the jump!

This Week in Dumb MMA Stuff

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s dirtier than Chieck Kongo.

Fights - UFC is back, yay!  I did super awful in my predictions, but I'm not that concerned, there is current A-League MMA in my world again!  The fight section is going to be pretty much all UFC 152 related.

Baczynski vs. Thoresen

Seth Baczynski dropped Simeon Thoresen with a nice overhand left to help start out the night.  Clearly the “Polish Pistola” was a higher caliber opponent for Thoresen (I AM AN AWFUL PUNSTER, PLEASE HELP!)

Magalhaes vs. Pokrajac

Vinny Magalhaes finished Igor Pokrajac with a beautiful armbar.  Igor complained the next day about getting submitted, whining that he didn’t want a grappling contest, but a fight, yet he’s the doofus that initiated a trip takedown on the jiu-jitsu blackbelt.  In the paraphrased, garbled words of Scott Steiner, I’ve got no sympy for Igor Pokrajac.

Check out action from the main card, plus much more after the jump!

UFC 152 Open Discussion

Come, join me at With Leather (The best comedy sports blog in the world) as they host an open discussion thread for UFC 152.  Get a badge, make jokes, have fun times!  I'm Lobster Mobster, so tell me how dumb you think my opinions are!

With Leather UFC 152 Open Discussion

UFC 152 Primer

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s more confrontational than a Diaz.

UFC 152 is coming up on Saturday (YAY, FINALLY LIVE UFC FIGHTS AGAIN!) and it features two title fights.  I am so crazy excited, it is crazy how excited I am.

Prelim Fights (Facebook)

Welterweight:  Kyle Noke vs. Charlie “the Spaniard” Brenneman

• Noke’s Style – Boxing (Kangaroo-style)
• Brenneman’s Style – Wrestling, being a Joe what defeated some Pros
• Prediction – Brenneman wrestles upon Noke for a decision

Bantamweight:  Mitch Gagnon vs. Walel “the Gazelle” Watson

• Gagnon’s Style – Wrestling
• Watson’s Style – Jiu-jitsu, sleuthing
• Prediction – Gagnon wrestles upon Watson for a decision, though I would like for Watson to win (based solely on him being born down in the West Texas town of El Paso, though I'm not sure if he fell in love with a Mexican girl there)

Welterweight:  Seth “Polish Pistola” Baczynski vs. Simeon “the Grin” Thoresen

• Baczynski’s Style – Freestyle
• Thoresen’s Style – Brazilian jiu-jitsu
• Prediction – I think Thoresen will out-grapple Baczynski and submit him

Check out the rest of the card after the break!

This Week in Dumb MMA Stuff

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s worse than Pete Spratt’s submission defense.

Fights – There weren’t any major promotions putting on fights this weekend, but the Z-leagues are always doing something.

Legacy Fighting Championship 14

Jeff Rexroad vs. Lucas Pimenta

Gif by https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA

Jeff Rexroad submitted Lucas Pimenta with a pretty wonky triangle choke in their Welterweight title fight.  The triangle usually has the opponent’s arm doing part of the choking, but it looks like Rexroad’s arms are the only thing with direct contact on Pimenta’s neck.  It got the job done, which is all that matters.  Congratulations on the title, Jeff!

Check out more LFC 14 and other MMA stuff after the break!

Rad Fights of Yesteryear - Frye vs Takayama

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s less entertaining than Shamrock vs. Severn II.

Don “The Predator” Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

Who Are These Jerks?

Don Frye is a propaganda cartoon of America brought to life, born from the union of a football and an apple pie, raised by a bald eagle to fight everything with his fists of fury and a bitchin’ mustache.

Yoshihiro Takayama is a dyed blond pro wrestler that decided to give real fighting a try, to hilariously disastrous results (Oops, guess I should have left if a mystery if the guy who only knows fake fighting is capable of real fighting).

Why Should I Care About This Dumb Thing?

 

Prior to the fight starting, Frye and Takayama have a pretty intense stare down during the referee’s instructions that I’m chalking up to Don Frye being really awesome.  Takayama’s no slouch, though; he towers over Frye and does his best at mean mugging, but ultimately loses due to his lack of a boss mustache.

The fight is nothing more than a brawl, a wild, beautiful, amazing brawl.  Frye and Takayama trade punches early and often before both men grab a hold of single collar clinches.  This allows each man the opportunity to repeatedly punch his opponent in the face while offering no chance of defense.

Things are now AWESOME!  The pace slows down to prevent both men’s punching hands from igniting, and they move to body clinches.  Now knees are getting thrown in addition to face punches.  Takayama throws Frye down, but Don’s back to his feet pretty quickly, only taking a knee to the head on his way back up.  We’re back to single collar ties, or AWESOME TIMES, then body clinches, and this continues back and forth until a brief lull allows the referee to call for a break.  Don gets the mouthpiece he dropped returned to him, and Takayama gets his busted up face checked out by the ring doctor.  Nothing seems to be too dangerous, so the fight continues, and they’re back to wild brawling.  The body clinches return, and Takayama tries for another takedown, but just ends up pulling Frye into mount.  Don unloads some ground and pound, and the referee has seen enough (Takayama’s probably had enough, too), ending the fight.  Frye wins by first round TKO, while Takayama must deal with his slow transformation into a Lumpy Space person (Oh my Glob, face punches are lame!)

What Did We Learn?

• Striking defense is for idiot babies
• Only face punchings are important, this was Takayama’s downfall, as he attempted body shots and knees far too often
• The Mustache Triumphs the Blond Dye-Job
• Pro wrestling is a poor substitute for actual fighting skills 

This Week in Dumb MMA Stuff

Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog that’s less polite than Shinya Aoki after breaking arms.

Fights - There were no major fights, and there will never be any more major fights again (I'll get to this in the news section), so let's look at some Z-grade fights.

K-1 is a kickboxing organization, and I really don't pay enough attention to it.  They put on an event this past Saturday, so I decided to watch it, and I realized I need to pay more attention to K-1.  The fights were fun and exciting, with lots of finishes.  Since the format is only 3x3-minute rounds, the fighters don't waste time and just attack.  Here's Part 1 and Part 2 for your viewing pleasure.

Brett Bassett vs Mike Ling

Here's two guys fighting in Jordan, but not for very long.  Bassett catches a kick from Ling and drops him with an overhand right.

Paulo Filho vs Murilo Rua

Paulo Filho had a rematch with Murilo Rua in Brazil that was six years in the making.  Filho won the first fight by unanimous decision.  The years have not been kind to either man, as Filho has battled mental health issues and drug addiction, while even before the first fight, Rua has suffered a lot of brain trauma from multiple knockouts.  This fight doesn't go the distance, nor does it make it out of the first round or even minute.  There's some controversy about the stoppage by referee Mario Yamasaki, but I'd much rather have an early stoppage than someone like Rua take undue punishment.  Of course, to me, the real issue is either man being allowed to fight, but Brazil is crazy about MMA

News - Lots of news items, most of them are pretty depressing for fight fans.

Urijah Faber Sups Upon the Metaphysical Milkshake

Here is former WEC Featherweight champion Urijah "the California Kid" Faber on Rainn "Dwight Schrute" Wilson's van-based talk show, Metaphysical Milkshake, talking mostly about his book, or rather, his "mem-wire", The Laws of the Ring.  Urijah is a fairly charismatic guy, and he's not a horrible person, so I'm always happy to see him do well, even if I mock his Team Alpha Male group's methods.  And, of course, I can't forget Urijah's vacation experience in Bali that resulted in the line "It takes more than twelve Balinese with weapons to kill the California Kid"

Potential Warning - Semi-Gross Images

Chris Weidman had elbow surgery to remove some animal cracker chunks that somehow got lodged inside his arm, so of course he had to share the photographic evidence.  Also included is a picture of Mark Munoz's similar elbow-chunk haul from earlier in the year.  Weidman should make a decent recovery to fight for the number one contender spot if there actually are any more UFC fights ever again.

End Potential Gross Images

As for the constant comments about no more UFC, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Jose Aldo have both pulled out of their fights at UFC 153 due to injuries.  I fully expect this to continue until all fighters are hurt all the time and this "sport" of MMA is canceled entirely.

Don't forget, TUF 16 premieres this Friday.  Luckily everything has already been taped, so it's a thing that we will get to see!