Friday MMA Review 5/8

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

– Gina Carano (above photo) looks pretty hot as a pin-up girl.

– Toby Imada pulled off the most epic submission in MMA history against Jorge Masvidal at last weekend’s Bellator event.

– Hatsu Hioki, Marlon Sandro, Michihiro Omigawa, and Masanori Kanehara advanced to the semi-finals of Sengoku’s featherweight grand prix.

– Team U.S. and Team U.K. split a pair of quarterfinal fights, while a bounty offered for knocked-out teeth hilariously backfired on Wednesday’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter. Plus, will Rampage Jackson return for season 10?

– With Houston Alexander’s hand injury, UFC 98 becomes the second-most-cursed card in UFC history. Nevertheless, the show must go on, and Matt Serra has taken over video-blogging duties to promote it.

Two new people will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame the day before UFC 100 in July. The smart money’s on Charles “Mask” Lewis and Chuck Liddell.

– Speaking of UFC 100, a new viral effort has been launched to get the crowd to chant “Fedor!” immediately following the Brock Lesnar/Frank Mir main event, pretty much just to screw with Dana White.

– Despite getting KTFO’d, Benji Radach is appealing his April 11th Strikeforce loss to Scott Smith.

– Your chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to UFC 98 from CagePotato.com ends on Monday!

Follow the Scores Report editors on Twitter @clevelandteams and @bullzeyedotcom.

Friday MMA Review 4/24

Here’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

– Chuck Liddell stepped into the cage (and got knocked out) for the last time, while Anderson Silva and Thales Leites put on one of the most boring title fights in UFC history at UFC 97 last Saturday. Regarding the Silva/Leites scrap, UFC prez Dana White said “I’ve never been embarrassed of a UFC fight like I was tonight,” while Silva’s manager tried to do damage control.

– The Iceman may be retired from the fight game, but it seems like his acting career is taking off. Meanwhile, Andrei Arlovski is going to appear in the next Jean-Claude Van Damme joint.

– Nick Osipczak put the Brits up 1-0 with his crushing head-kick knockout of Mark Miller on Wednesday’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

– Gina Carano does it for love, not money. Yeah, right.

– Pro wrestler-turned-fighter Bobby Lashley will be colliding with cartoonish brawler Bob Sapp in a June pay-per-view event that will also feature Affliction’s vice-president actually fighting on the card.

– Congenital amputee Kyle Maynard makes his MMA debut tomorrow night. But will it be a triumph or an ill-advised freak show?

– Speaking of freak shows, lightweight grappling-genius Shinya Aoki and world’s-best-heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko will be tangling in a “special sparring exhibition” next week in Tokyo. Ah, what’s a 70-pound weight-difference between friends?

– Enter our “Underground Heroes” giveaway and win a pair of tickets to UFC 98! And if you’re going to the May 23rd event, be sure to check out our fan’s guide to Las Vegas.

MMA Pound for Pound Rankings

MMA FightersThe Love of Sports ranks the top 10 current pound for pound MMA fighters. The intro explains how the writer, E. Spencer Kyte, compiled the rankings.

1. Much like the BCS, strength of schedule counts. While Anderson Silva made like The Governator and kicked the bejesus out of “The Predator,” he still stands behind Georges St. Pierre, whose performance against Jon Fitch was far more impressive than “The Spider” showed against Patrick Cote.

2. You don’t fight, you don’t get ranked, simple as that. Randy Couture’s undoubtedly one of the best pound for pound practitioners in the business when he’s inside The Octagon. Problem is, he hasn’t set foot inside The Octagon since August 2007. Same rules apply to Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.

3. After those other two, it all comes down to personal preferences.

1. Georges St. Pierre
“Rush” still stands at the top of the heap, primarily for the reason already mentioned above. The secondary reason would fall to #3 – he’s Canadian, I’m Canadian.

2. Anderson Silva
What else is there for this man to do? Regardless of how uninspiring his win at UFC 90 may have been, he’s still won eight fights in a row and doesn’t have a challenger at 185. Maybe Dana White should stop being critical of him and give him the dream fight against Chuck Liddell he’s been asking for.

3. Fedor Emelianenko
The more I think about “The Last Emperor” and his destruction of Tim Sylvia at “Affliction: Banned,” the more I think he deserves top billing on this list. As the fine folks at Fighter! magazine so intelligently said it, Emelianenko did to Sylvia in 36 seconds what it took Randy Couture five rounds to accomplish.

4. B.J. Penn
Personally, I really would’ve liked to see “The Prodigy” take another fight in between waiting for GSP in early-ish 2009. Kenny Florian was willing and waiting, but that’s just the fight fan in me complaining. A win over GSP would not only avenge an earlier loss, but also send Penn to the top of this chart.

5. Urijah Faber
Hurricane Ike could only delay Michael Thomas Brown’s destiny to be added to the roll call of challengers disposed of by “The California Kid.” Words can’t explain how much I’d love to see Faber tack on five or 10 pounds, move up to lightweight and really show if he’s as good as we think he is or simply the big fish in a shallow featherweight pool.

No Kimbo Slice? Oh, I forgot – he’s a fraud.

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