Then and Now: What has changed in MMA since 2005?

A long term dynamic develops in every sport that sticks around for a while. A section of the fan base will inevitably compare the play of today to their heroes from yesteryear.  Whether it is the baseball fan that longs for the day where they didn’t have to worry about someone using performance enhancing drugs after every home run, or the football fan that yearns for the era of hard hitting and less complaining in the NFL. One thing is a common factor; this group wishes things would go back to

Just how good are Carlos Condit’s chances against Georges St. Pierre?

With betting odds just recently coming out for November’s long-awaited return of UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, the discussion of his bout with Carlos Condit begins to heat up. Medically cleared to fight yesterday, GSP has come in as a quite sizable favorite over the interim champ Condit. Perhaps this has something to do with the huge amount of controversy stemming from Condit’s acquiring of the interim belt over Nick Diaz. More likely, it has something to do with the long reign of St.

The five biggest UFC bouts that never happened in 2012

Obviously 2012 has been a year that held huge potential for MMA. While I wouldn’t say it was a horrible year for fighting, the insane amount of injuries and other controversy that wrecked cards is unprecedented. From main events all the way down to preliminary cards, we saw an unheard never of fights shifted, canceled, and just generally thrown into the muck. UFC 151’s cancellation was just the icing on the cake in what was the weirdest year MMA has ever seen.  And it’s not over yet. Let’s take a look

Dethroning Silva: Could one of these five fighters have what it takes

Anderson Silva (32-4) is the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion. He has been called “a mutant”, a “freak of nature” and “the greatest martial artist of all time”. With 15 straight wins in the UFC spanning over 6 years, the question I am most often asked by fans, fighters and fellow scribes is “What is it going to take for someone to defeat Anderson Silva?”
There is no quick or easy answer. A shift up and down to the wrong weight class could be his undoing, likewise age could start to catch up with him, but

Thumbs Down: 5 fights that didn’t happen in 2012

It is midway through 2012, and it seems to be a bad year for injuries in the UFC. Five important fights have been cancelled or postponed this year due to injury, surgery, illness or suspension. These things are all part of the fight game and have been since day one. The nature of the sport is brutal, but injuries are not isolated to fights. Most fighters suffer their injuries in training.  As well-rounded as a UFC fighter is expected to be, it is quite easy to “overtrain”, that is, put the body