(The Daily Haymaker is a daily series that takes a look back and covers the news, fights being made, and all the other insanity revolving around combat sports. The Haymaker’s purpose is to keep you up to date with the ever changing combat sports world and also provide thought-provoking [hopefully] analysis from yours truly.)
The News
1. By god, we are leading the news section with a video game cover story!!!
Jon Jones will be one of the two UFC fighters featured on the cover of the upcoming EA Sports UFC game. The other fighter to grace the cover will be determined by a fan vote. The UFC will put Chris Weidman, George St. Pierre, Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz, Demetrious Johnson, Ronda Rousey, Michael Bisping, Daniel Cormeir, Junior Dos Santos, Urijah Faber, Alexander Gustafsson, Benson Henderson, Johny Hendricks, Chael Sonnen, and Miesha Tate in a tournament that will produce a winner based on fan voting. [note: Do you know what two things Ricco Rodriguez and Cain Velasquez have in common? They were both the first Mexican UFC Heavyweight Champion and aren’t one of the sixteen candidates for the second cover spot.]
2. Travis Browne has followed in the footsteps of his UFC 168 opponent Josh Barnett and will undergo WADA-certified random drug testing. It’s a good sign, and hopefully this will become a trend amongst MMA fighters because the last thing a developing sport like Mixed Martial Arts needs is a drug scandal.
3. MMAFighting reported that Rousimar Palhares pulled out of his upcoming submission match-up with Dean Lister at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo due to a shoulder injury.
4. The Lyoto Machida contract situation with the UFC has been settled. Ed Soares tweeted out a picture of the middleweight signing a new contract with the organization, although specifics on the deal weren’t made public.
5. A representative from the UFC informed MMAJunkie that Robert Drysdale will fight with the UFC despite his recent issues with getting licensed in Nevada because of elevated T/E levels. The plan is to put Drysdale on a card after he is medically cleared.
Fights Made
UFN 34 Singapore – January 4th, 2014
Featherweight Bout
Hacran Dias (21-2-1) vs Tatsuya Kawajiri (37-7-2)
Background: After an impressive UFC debut against Iuri Alcantara, Hacran Dias’s nine fight win streak was snapped in his most recent outing against Nik Lentz at UFC on FX 8. Despite the loss, Dias is a one or two wins away from returning to the top level of featherweight contenders. Tatsuya Kawajiri is a PRIDE and DREAM veteran that finally got his much-deserved call from the UFC. Kawajiri is riding a five fight win streak that is punctuated by victories over Michihiro Omigawa, Drew Fickett, and Joachim Hansen.
Excitement Level: 8 out of 10. Not only is this fight highly relevant to the UFC featherweight division, but it gets bonus points for being Kawajiri’s UFC debut. The only question I have for this one is how entertaining it will be.
Lightweight Bout
Katsunori Kikuno (21-5-2) vs Quinn Mulhern (18-3)
Background: Katsunori Kikuno is another one of the recent long-awaited Japanese fighter signings by the UFC. He has a unique karate striking style that has played a major factor in his five fight win streak. The average time for Kikuno’s last four victories is 89 seconds. Quinn Mulhern is a 6′ 3″ grappler that is dropping down to the lightweight class after going 3-2 in the welterweight divisions of UFC and Strikeforce.
Excitement Level: 7 out of 10. I also have entertainment questions with this bout. Nevertheless, this fight is still a must-watch because of Kikuno’s debut and Mulhern making the drop to a new weight class.
ONE FC 12 – November 15th, 2013
Flyweight Bout
Adriano Moraes (9-0) vs Josh Paiva (4-0)
Background: We’ve got two flyweight prospects in this compelling contest. Adriano Moraes is coming off of a career-victory over touted prospect Dileno Lopes and has made short work of his opponents thus far, finishing 66% of them. Josh Paiva won the KOTC Flyweight Championship thanks to a fourth round knockout of Zach Lari in August.
Excitement: 8 out of 10. The potential of these prospects as well as both fighters’ propensity for finishes earns this one a high score. The winner of this one should be on Sean Shelby’s radar.
Must Reads
1. Simply put, Jack Slack is my favorite Mixed Martial Arts writer because of his technical insight. Here’s his article on Lyoto Machida’s angle-work and the effectiveness of his feints: http://bit.ly/16AjUpu
2. Sherdog’s Tristen Critchfield wrote a viewpoint piece on his thoughts about the pay-per-view to TV transition of Bellator 106. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/1aWiqYm
3. Here’s my daily recommendation of Chuck Mindenhall’s remarkable series of revieweing each of the UFC’s first twenty years as we approach the company’s historic anniversary. Read his piece on the year 2006 here: http://bit.ly/1hdBBCi
4. Liverkick.com talked to K-1 Global’s Ned Kuruc, and the article is a must read for kickboxing fans. It can be found here: http://bit.ly/Hxrmsk
5. And Jack Slack is the first writer that I’ve featured twice in this space. On Bleacher Report he examined Eddie Alvarez’s latest outing against Michael Chandler. Read it here: http://bit.ly/1iI7azs
My Completely Arbitrary Top Five Rankings
My Five Favorite WWE Wrestlers
I used to be a huge wrestling fan. I watched everything from WWE to TNA to the independent scene to theme park matches in DDT. Growing up, professional wrestling was my best friend. As sad as that sounds, it’s absolutely true. Everyday, I knew I could come home from school and spend a few hours away from reality watching Monday Night RAW or a fantastic Ring of Honor. Watching wrestling took my mind off all the troubles in my life, and it was something that I stopped doing when I got burned out from the product in early 2012. Sure, the Japanese scene was fantastic as usual, but watching Randy Orton and John Cena for the thousandth time and 67 year-olds in the TNA main event scene just erased the love I once had for professional wrestling.
But here’s the thing about being a fan of professional wrestling. There’s no such thing as giving up professional wrestling. It might be a month, two years, two decades, but the itch to watch the sport [fuck sports entertainment] that you once loved will eventually come back. And I got that itch again, so I decided to watch wrestling again. While WWE’s top stars are mostly still the ones that burned me out on the product a couple years ago, it was still enjoyable to watch the crazy-ass sport that I love. So here’s my favorite WWE wrestlers from the two weeks of RAW I’ve seen.
1. Bryan Danielson – Even though he looks absolutely horrendous with the long hair, Bryan Danielson was one of my favorite wrestlers to watch in his Ring of Honor days. It’s great to see him on the highest level of the profession.
2. El Torito – Finally a [whatever the politically term for a midget is] that I thoroughly enjoy watching! Sorry Hornswoggle, but nothing is going to make you more enjoyable for me to watch than a dude in a bull outfit running around the ring attacking people. It’s also a plus that the dude in the bull outfit is Mascarita Sagrada, one of the best high fliers on the planet.
3. CM Punk – By far the best promo in the world, and guy whose work in the ring is a tad bit underrated in my opinion. I really think Punk is one of the best in-ring American wrestlers on the planet.
4. Tyler Black and Jon Moxley – Tyler Black and Jon Moxley are two wrestlers in a prominent faction in the WWE? Is this real life?
5. Cody Rhodes – I don’t know if it’s his boyish good looks or the Orcharana on his wrestling boots, but I’ve been on the Cody Rhodes bandwagon since his tag team days in OVW with Shawn Spears.
736923092. The Great Khali
That’ll do it for today’s Haymaker. Thanks for reading, and I’ll leave with a quote from Thomas Aquinas.
“Beware of the person of one book.”
-Dan can be reached at [email protected] or @danielgal.
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