Wanderlei Silva Banned For Life from Competing in MMA

"The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva

The Nevada State Athletic Commission just banned Wanderlei Silva from competing in MMA for life and fined him $70,000. The reason? Silva ran away from a drug test.
I wonder what is worse: running away from a test or failing a test. Here is an example for you: Chael Sonnen tested positive for three (yes, not one, but three) different banned substances and got away with a two year suspension. On the other hand Wand never got caught with anything, but was banned indifinitely...
I don't know about you, but I'm thinking the UFC benefits the most from the situation. Wanderlei is no longer the draw that he used to be. He does have an army of loyal hardcore fans, however he's unknown to the Fox newbs that now represent the new casuals. So, with his not so stellar UFC record, he is no longer "moving the needle" for the organization, and what is important to note here is that the UFC profits from the masses of casual fans, not from the minority of hardcore MMA sycos.

With his recent attack on the UFC (see the video below), Wanderlei Silva declared war to his employers and now they are more than happy to see him go away. Things couldn't have turned better for Dana White & Co. - the Commission did their dirty work for them. Let's face it - a ban in Nevada is same thing as a ban in every other state. If you get banned in Nevada, no promoter would want anything to do with you.
Wand is now done with the UFC and he can't go compete elsewhere either, so no Bellator for him.

What's next for Wanderlei Silva, folks? I'd say a new year's eve freak show fight in Japan makes sense for him.
War Wand!

Brock Lesnar is not an easy prey for Aistair Overeem

Brock Lesnar doing his thing

Zuffa have a pleasant gift for all the MMA fans out there - UFC 141 features a main event bout between Strikeforce's former champion Alistair Oereem and the former UFC champion Brock Lesnar. A fantasy matchup that the fans have demanded and now have it given to them. Good job, Dana!

You know that I'm the last person on Earth to make predictions. With that said, I feel that Brock Lesnar is going to beat Overeem.

I just watched Brock's newest "I'm back after the surgery" video (the one where he shot an innocent buck deer) and to me Brock looked super fucking depressed, mentally beat up and almost... hmmm...  crazy?
His mumbling about still being the baddest man on the planet didn't look scripted to me. It looked like Brock really had lost his mind.
It's not a surprise after the horrible experience he had gone through - the guy just lost 30 centimeters of his colon bowel, so he most probably is not in a good physical shape either.
Add to this the fact that Brock Lesnar is considered to be an one-trick pony, a newbie and a learner of the game of MMA, a glass-hearted gold digger and a Zuffa cash cow who is afraid to get punched in the face, and you may start to think that he'd be an easy prey for Alistair Overeem.
I mean, Overeem is that unstoppable Dutch striker, he is the Strikeforce champion and the K-1 GP winner, so Lesnar has no chance against him, right?

Let me explain why you punks are all Wrong.

It's very easy - this fight is a super bad matchup for Overeem.
Lesnar may not have a whole lot of diverse tools and weapons in his arsenal, but the guy has the only thing that is required to beat Overeem: Wrestling - the skill that so many MMA fans fail to understand is the single most important martial art in the whole game.
I know what people are going to reply to this and I kind of sorta agree with that: Lesnar's wrestling is a tad overrated. Maybe it is!
But no matter how mediocre Brock's wrestling has become, it is still *WAY* better than the wrestling skills of the fighters Overeem's been fighting so far. Brock has scored a takedown in every single one of his fights. Including against a top wrestler in Cain Velasquez.

So you can forget about Overeem stuffing Bock's takedowns. Lesnar is not Werdum - he simply takes people down at will, and when he takes them down, he fucking runs through them. His top control and the pressure he applies on a grounded opponent are hard to overcome. Plus I am pretty sure that 90% of Lesnar's training camp will be focused on taking Overeem down and mauling him from the top position.

In  other words, I am pretty sure that Overeem is going to be taken down by Lesnar.
I'm tired of listening to all those claims about how good Overeem's ground game is. The Reem's grappling is good, and it is more than OK in the standup - he has submitted quite a few people with a standing guillotine... but great grappling skills from the guard he does not possess.
So what the fuck is The Reem gonna do from the bottom? Triangle Brock?
And let's not forget that Overeem CHOKES in big fights and that he has one of the weakest chins in the HW division. Once Lesnar starts ground and pounding him, I don't see him coming out of this.

So, will Overeem beat a sick, depressed, weak, coming from a 12 month lay off Brock Lesnar?
I wouldn't bet the house on that!
Brock Lesnar by ground and pound KO.

Shamil Zavurov vs Yasubey Enomoto - M-1 Challenge XXV

Shamil Zavurov (left) vs Yasubey Enomoto

Let's start with the obvious - the Unanimous Decision was a robbery.
All Zavurov did in this fight was lay on top of his opponent and that was it. And this was strange to watch because Shamil is a banger and loves the top position, has vicious ground and pound and so on... But this time he did zero damage from his "dominant position" and it looked like all he was trying to do is to score points from the takedowns. He really looked like a "GSP meets Jake Shields meets John Fitch" hybrid.
Even more - Shamil Zavurov was getting caught in submission hold after submission hold with every move he tried to do on the mat.
I guess initially Zavurov genuinely wanted to try to do something on the ground but Enomoto was shutting him down completely with every new attempt and Zavurov was unable to do anything from the top.
So, at one point it became obvious that Zavurov's takedowns were not gaining him anything.
Still, he kept taking Enomoto down and laying on top of him him while getting almost subbed in slick octopus grips every 30 seconds or so.
I'm watching the fight again and I don't see how even a super-biased-red-mafia-bribed Russian judge can score this fight for Zavurov.
That's insane!!!
Enomoto was totally dominating this fight from the bottom *AND* in the standup.
Oh!
And let's talk about the referee restarting the fight after Enomoto had Zavurov in a guillotine but got tangled in the ropes. The ref restarts the fight in the center of the ring but doesn't allow Enomoto to put Zavurov back in the guillotine choke.
Enomoto starts protesting - he wants his guillotine choke hold back.
The Russian referee thinks for a second, sees that he can't handle the situation and goes like: "You know what, I guess it would be best for all of us if I just stand you up, guys". And indeed - he fucking stands them up and restarts the fight from the standup!
I was outraged. Didn't know whether to laugh or to punch my monitor.
Fucking bush league reffing there.

The good news is there will be a rematch soon. And I welcome the idea. I'm sure everybody who saw this fight would do too.