End Of Month MMA Wrap Up

Wow, November is over all ready and the end of 2008 is right around the corner. Where the hell does the time go? We’ve seen some exciting fights this year and it can only get better…or can it? To me it seems that some promotions are shooting for "Super Fights" to draw cash instead of singing matches with people that deserve a title match. That’s nothing really new though, is it? Anyway, I have a few things and link of interest here for this end of the month wind-down.

First up, we saw an UFC and MMA Veteran lose his title to an MMA/UFC rookie with the Brock Lesnar Vs. Randy Couture fight. With the huge difference in weight between these tow fighters there has been a lot of people questioning if there should be a weigh class within the Heavyweight class. MMAWeekly.com presented this question to the Nevada Stats Athletic Commission. Their response was "This already exists", referring to the Super-Heavyweight class. Not really the answer they were shooting for, though. You can read what other SAC’s said at MMAWeekly.com.

This month also saw the dethroning of the WEC Featherweight Champ, Urijah Faber. Mike Brown caught Faber with a huge right in the first round of this highly anticipated fight and then capitalized on a stunned Faber and beat him in to a TKO (by punches, ref stoppage). Faber wants an immediate rematch in an attempt to reclaim his lost title, but we may see a Jens Pulver/Faber part 2 instead. I’d like to see someone else (like Leonard Garcia) face Mike Brown first, but Faber definitely deserves a shot again.

Within the last 2 months there has been more controversy with ProElite and EliteXC as ProElite shut down it’s operations leaving a lot of fighters in limbo and waiting to find out what the future holds for them. Will they become free agents or will their contracts be sold to another promotion?

Dana White has been running his mouth A LOT lately. Some say he’s become a huge ego-maniac and it’s bad for the sport. Being president of one of the biggest MMA promotion is a big responsibility. With the success of the UFC and Zuffa it’s tough for smaller promotions/competition to break through. With Dana White constantly talking trash and banning other promotions, clothing lines, etc. it doesn’t make it any easier. Is Dana burning too many bridges that he could possibly use in the future or is he just doing what the execs. at Zuffa tell him to? MMAFighting.com’s Friday Mailbag discussed a few of those issues.

Bobby Lashley, another Pro-wrestler gone MMA finds himself kind of in Limbo as the promotion he is currently signed with (Kentucky’s AFL), is in an unknown status. He’s bound to his contract but it seems that after the recent success this year of Brock Lesnar, other promotions are showing interest because of the big draw of the former pro-wrestling star. Until then, Lashley will have to ride out his contract. He recently spoke to TAGG Radio, a partner of MMA Junkie. It’s a great read and I think that Lashley could do well for himself in MMA. He big, he’s quick and he’s got good cardio. We’ll have to wait and see after a few fights.

After an extremely disappointing fight and an unprofessional turn of events for Paulo Filho this past WEC 36 with his bout with Chael Sonnen, the fighter was dropped from WEC. Though the WEC is dropping their middleweight division, Filho would have been a fighter considered for a move to the UFC next year. After his loss and not being able to make weight for his last fight it was bound to happen. Right now his management says that the priority for Paulo Filho is to get his life back in order and his mind focused.

Lastly, it’s been reported quite recently that Pat Miletich is getting back in to the ring next month. Miletich will face Tommy Denny at Adrenaline MMA’s second show in the Miletech Fighting System’s backyard of Moline Iowa. Read more on that at MMAWeekly.com.

Well that wraps things up here for the Month. Moving in to December we have a handful of great MMA fights coming up that you won’t want to miss.

All Image Credit: Newscom.com