As a fan of nearly every competitive sport played in America (sorry Soccer), I appreciate greatness when I see it. Even though I am a diehard New York Jets fan, I watch Tom Brady and it is difficult to not be in awe of the excellence he displays week in and week out. As a basketball fan, I love to relax and watch LeBron James and other NBA stars light it up on a nightly basis. At his peak, it was a blast to watch Roger Federer ply his craft and simply be better than everyone else on the court. But for some reason, I can’t find that same appreciation in Combat Sports that I can in the traditional "stick and ball" sports.

I watch MMA for the excitement. The fights are unpredictable and almost always exciting. Unfortunately, I do not get pumped up to watch GSP fight. I know he is one of the greatest of this generation and possibly all time, but for some reason I just do not enjoy his fights. I love the buzz around the cards that he headlines, I love the fact that he draws in fans like few others do, but watching him perform is usually the part of the card that I dread the most. He is a very hard worker, great ambassador for the sport, and is one of the few guys that really can crossover and bring MMA and the UFC that mainstream appeal that fans and pundits alike have been coveting for years. And I don’t care.

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via draftbreakdown.com

The Kansas City Chiefs are a team that are on the way up. They have established themselves as a team that should be a consistent threat to the contenders of the AFC East. To me, they are very similar to our New York Jets. They are built around an amazing rushing game which features Jamaal Charles, Dexter McCluster, and Thomas Jones. They have an ever improving QB in Matt Cassell and a real #1 receiver in Dwayne Bowe. Their defense is very solid and will continue to improve under that coaching staff.

The one place that the Chiefs need to improve the most is on the Offensive Line. Matt Cassell was sacked 45 times last year, which puts them at 6th most sacks in the league. With that in mind, they need to draft someone who is capable of protecting the blind side in the future and also making an immediate impact.

Football.about.com has the vitals on Gabe Carimi:

Position: Offensive Tackle
School: Wisconsin
Year: Senior
Height: 6-6
Weight: 320
40-Yard Dash: 5.40

Strengths:

• Great size and strength
• Has good short-range quickness despite lacking overall speed
• Good hands, delivers a strong punch off the line
• Physical player with a little bit of a nasty streak
• Has a good power base when he plays with proper leverage
• Effective run blocker
• Great work ethic and intangibles

Weaknesses:

• Marginal athletic ability
• Lacks the agility and quick feet to handle elite speed rushers
• Tends to reach for blocks at times and doesn't maintain good balance because of it
• Doesn't have the long arms you look for in an elite pass blocker
• Plays with his pads too high at times, which allows defenders to push him into the backfield
• Doesn't always finish off his blocks aggressively

He has the experience to come in and make an immediate impact. He lacks some physical attributes, but sometimes intangibles and hard work can make up for a lack of physical qualities. He can come in immediately and provide depth to the line and can be developed into a top flight tackle with the right coaching. He might be a bit of a reach, but I believe he is the best OT left in the draft and the Chiefs really have to improve their line. Their might be better players available, but the Chiefs are at a point where they can reach a bit if it will help improve their team immediately. In a draft with very few guarantees, I think Carimi is a solid pick in the late portion of the 1st round.

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Last night, Jon Jones completely and utterly destroyed one of the best light heavyweights in the history of the sport. The fight lasted for 13 minutes and was competitive for maybe 15 seconds. It was probably the most one sided title fight ever to take place inside the Octagon.

Jon Jones has been training in MMA for 3 years. Not fighting in the UFC for 3 years, training for 3 years. When the carousel of champions at 205lbs began when Chuck Liddell got KO'd by Rampage Jackson in 2007, Jon Jones didn't even know he would be competing in MMA. 

This would be a great timeline for a rising prospect to follow. Three years into training would be considered exceptional for even getting a shot at the UFC. That is the perfect amount of time to get a feel for the sport, get some fights on the regional circuit and build some confidence. To go from rookie to consensus best fighter in the division in that amount of time is mind blowing. And Jon Jones did it not by struggling, fighting wars, or being taken to the limit. He did it with ease. 8 fights into his UFC career, he hasn't even been challenged. 

The Jon Jones era is upon us.

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MMA has one of the most fickle fan-bases in all of sports. Often times, fans invest a lot of stock (or money, for the bettors) into their predictions and are angered when they don’t come through. No fighter is immune to this scrutiny following a loss. In recent months, we have seen great fighters like Fedor, BJ Penn, and Lyoto Machida all have their records dismantled and deemed as overrated. While some dissection is often warranted and interesting to discuss, all too often the discussion digress into "Fighter X sucks and has never been any good," which is typically as far from the truth as possible.

This Saturday night, two great fighters will compete in the main event of UFC 128. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is one of the greatest, if not the best, fighters to compete in the 205lb weight class. He packs serious power in both his hands and legs and has the killer instinct to end a fight at anytime he senses his opponent is in danger. He has defeated a "whos who" in the division with wins over Rampage Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Alistair Overeem, and Lyoto Machida.

Jon "Bones" Jones is "the next big thing" in MMA. He is 23, athletic, lanky, strong, and unorthodox. He has great wrestling credentials and comes from the premiere MMA gym in the business, Jackson’s MMA. His willingness to let it flow in the cage is something to be admired considering the amount of hype and pressure being placed on his shoulders. He has wins in his UFC career over Stephan Bonnar, Brandon Vera, and Ryan Bader. He has stepped up in competition with each fight and as Joe Rogan would say, "passed with flying colors"

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In the lead up to the main event of UFC 128, every aspect of the fight has been analyzed and discussed. Physical characteristics of both fighters have been dissected and advantages and disadvantages have already been predetermined. Both fighters have had their emotional status evaluated and dissected. Jon Jones is arrogant, cocky, and just overall too high on himself for this stage of his career. Shogun is upset, feels looked over, and is angry that the young phenom has been crowned long before his hand is raised in victory. This is the Shogun Era, damn it.

The skill sets of both fighters have also been broken down, looking for even the minutest of advantages for either fighter. Shogun has more power, Jon Jones is more unique. Bones has the takedown prowess to bring down anyone; Shogun doesn't defend the takedown well. Both fighters have advantages and disadvantages in the clinch, Shogun with striking and Jones with grappling. No one is sure who will win the cardio battle, with the outcome really depending on whose camp was stronger and who dictates the pace.

The one factor that I have rarely seen discussed is potentially the most interesting variable in breaking down this fight. Consistency.

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When the discussion begins about where the best camp to train in MMA is, there are only a few gyms that pop up. Plenty of gyms have produced champions and contenders. AKA, Black House, American Top Team, Team Alpha Male, and many other gyms are filled with champions and highly ranked fighters, but usually one gym stands above the rest when talking about the sheer number of top guys to come out of a single gym.

Jackson's MMA in Albuquerque, NM is commonly considered the top gym in MMA today. At every weight class, Jackson's MMA has a contender that on anyone one night could be the best in the world. Jackson's MMA is so crowded with top talent that instead of discussing which top talents might get a shot, more discussion is made of fighters who are teammates at that gym that won't fight each other. There is so much quality talent in one place that it could potentially clog the top of many divisions in years to come if they will not fight each other. GSP doesn't look to be going anywhere, and guys like Jon Jones and Shane Carwin are always threats for the top spot in their respective divisions.

With all this success, there has to be a down side. In fighting, I don't see the downside as losing. With the exception of the rare draw and no contest, every fight produces a loser. In MMA, losing is not the be all end all. Fighters lose all the time and can come right back to the top of the heap with a few wins. One of MMA's biggest stars, BJ Penn, loses often but the fans still come out to see him fight and he is one of the biggest draws the UFC has to offer. The downside of MMA, as all combat sports, is fighter safety. Boxing offers plenty of examples of when fighters weren't protected and pay later in life, but MMA is still young and this hasn't marred the sport yet. It is coming, and it isn't as far away as we would like to think. Greg Jackson trains two of the fighters that unfortunately, I see being the poster children for MMA and fighter safety.

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Many people speculated that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be the man to guest host this year's Wrestlemania and be the one to save the show. From Dwayne's facebook page, this seems to be the case. Two hours before Raw goes live and Vince McMahon is set to announce this year's guest host, The Rock gives us a little spoiler.Vince McMahon is still the winner though, because when Brock Lesnar decided to coach The Ultimate Fighter and LeBron James decided not to bring his talents to Atlanta, Vince still managed to secure The People's Champ for his flagship PPV.

I for one can't wait to see what happens tonight. The Rock is way more entertaining than any wrestler the WWE has to offer, and in the words of Michael Cole, I hope we get some "Vintage" Rock tonight. Will this save Wrestlemania? Will The Rock ever return to WWE in a larger capacity? Will we be sentenced to 6 weeks worth of "Fast Five" commercials as punishment for indulging in the Rock's greatness? I guess only time will tell.

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This weekend, UFC 114 will be headlined by Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson, a battle between former champions and TUF 10 coaches. The bout is probably one of the most anticipated non-title fights in history, getting a lot of mainstream press coverage and "casual-fan" interest. Why is there so much fan interest for this fight? It is a number - one contender fight, but so was Hardy vs. Swick and no one really cared about that fight.

via urdirt.com

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      Earlier this week I sent an e-mail to the MMA Live show at ESPN to ask the members of the panel whether or not they thought it would be a good idea to show the preliminary bouts of a UFC PPV on Spike. As I was watching today, my question came up on the screen and both Franklin McNeil and Pat Militech answered the question.

     Now what I would like to know is what the readers of Bloody Elbow think about this idea. I would love to see all of the prelim fights, and would definatley tune into watch before a PPV event. Would anyone not like to see this? Is 6 hours of MMA too much for one sitting? Would it spoil the PPV value knowing that you will only get 5 fights, and if all 5 end quickly there is no filler fights?

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Heavyweight Heath Herring, who had been scheduled to fight Cain Velasquez in the co-main event at UFC 99, will not fight on the card as scheduled, FanHouse learned Tuesday.

FanHouse's Ariel Helwani first got the news that Herring is out. I separately confirmed with a source close to Herring that he has been battling an illness for weeks and unable to train.

It is not known at this point what will happen with Valasquez, a former Arizona State wrestler who is one of the brightest young heavyweight prospects in the UFC.

Source: http://mma.fanhouse.com/

Could this mean that Cro Cop will step into face Valasquez? The fight is off the UFC 99 page, I guess we will see what happens.

After every UFC event, I go hop online to check my fantasy picks on the UFC's Fantasy site. I always do quite well, never finishing out of the top 1%. So, when I found BE's fight picks on MMAPlayground.com, I thought that I would do well, even against people who know MMA very well. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

In the UFC Fantasy for UFN 18, I finished 88th out of 16639. I was happy with this. I thought, "Damn, I picked 10/11 fights, I must have dominated on MMAPlayground." Then, I logged on and looked. Not only did I not dominate, I didn't even compete with the top ranking members.       

Out of 87 participants, I finished 28th, 29 points below the winner. I picked 10/11 fights correctly and didn't even break the top 10. If anything, this just shows what a knowledgeable fan base that reads and participates at BE. 'Grats to everyone who did well, and I wish more people would participate in the picks for the fights. Too bad I thought Jorge Rivera wasn't that good.

In the aftermath of the best UFC event of 2008, many people are already dreaming about the next title fight in the 205 lb division. After that event, it is hard not to want to watch the 2 men who won their fights in explosive fashion fight each other next. Who doesn't want to see "Sugar" Rashad Evans vs Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, a fight between two men who both KO'd Chuck Lidell. There is only one problem when it comes to making that happen, and it happens to be Lyoto Machida.

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