(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. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (32-11) has a new opponent and date for his debut fight in Bellator. Rampage will now face recent UFC cast-off Joey Beltran (14-9, 1 NC) at Bellator 108 and Cheick Kongo (19-8-2) also has a new opponent as Peter Graham (9-5) has stepped up to face the French heavyweight in place of the injured Vinicius Queiroz (7-3) at Bellator 107.
2. Another one bites the dust. Both Lucas Martins (14-1) and Johnny Eduardo (26-9) are injured, so their expected fight at UFN 32 has been scrapped.
3. In an interview with MMAJunkie, Vitor Belfort (23-10) said that he plans on fighting into his forties. I’m sure that Belfort will be an athletic forty-some year-old, but whether or not he competes at that age is entirely dependent on whether Bellator still exists.
4. Reebok will sponsor Johny Hendricks (15-1) for his upcoming welterweight title fight against champion George St. Pierre. Hendricks will the best fighter to sport Reebok as a sponsor in the Octagon.
5. On twitter, Tito Ortiz (16-11-1) tweeted that he plans to return to training in six weeks. While I’m not a doctor, isn’t it a bit insane to only take a six week lay-off after FRACTURING YOUR NECK?!
6. Cage Warriors has signed English Lightweight Curt Warburton (12-4). The former UFC fighter has won five of his last six contests, with four of those fights taken place in BAMMA. The signing was a good move by Cage Warriors as it adds depth to their lightweight division.
7. Roy Jones Jr. will continue his preparation for Anderson Silva [the ETA of that fight is July 2073] with a match against Bobby Gunn on December 4th.
Fights Made
Bellator 108 – November 15th
Light Heavyweight Bout
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (32-11) vs Joey Beltran (14-9, 1 NC)
Background: Rampage is coming off three consecutive UFC losses to Glover Teixeira, Ryan Bader, and Jon Jones. Beltran is also winless in his last three outings, all in the UFC. Beltran’s fight against Igor Pokrajac ended in a no contest, and he lost to both Fabio Maldonado and James Te Huna.
Excitement Level: 6 out of 10. What this fight lacks in division relevancy, it brings in potential fight quality. Being an aggressive fighter, Beltran could serve as the catalyst that brings out the entertaining Rampage of old.
Bellator 107 – November 8th
Heavyweight Bout
Cheick Kongo (19-8-2) vs Peter Graham (9-5)
Background: After being let go by the UFC following his knockout loss to Roy Nelson, CheickKongo was victorious in his Bellator debut against Mark Godbeer. In his first appearance with Bellator, Graham extended his win streak to eight with a unanimous decision win over Eric Prindle.
Excitement Level: 4 out of 10. Both of these heavyweights are 38 years old. Thirty. freaking. eight. Oh how bright the future of the Bellator heavyweight division is.
WSOF 7 – December 7th
WSOF Featherweight Championship
Georgi Karakhanyan (22-3-1) vs Rick Glenn (14-2-1)
Background: Karkhanyan is one of the top featherweights outside of the UFC and Bellator. He’s riding an eight fight win streak that includes wins over Waylon Lowe, Hiroyuki Takaya, and Micah Miller. The 24 year-old Rick Glenn rose up the WSOF ranks with his knockout of Alexandre Pimental at WSOF 2 and a decision win over Artur Rofi at WSOF 5. Glenn hasn’t lost a fight since his fifth professional appearance.
Excitement Level: 7.5 out of 10. Rick Glenn is an under the radar name at featherweight that poses some problems for Georgi Karakhanyan. This fight adds much-needed depth to the WSOF 7 main card.
The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale – November 30th
Welterweight Bout
Sean Spencer (10-2) vs Sergio Moraes (8-2)
Background: Sean Spencer replaces an injured Zak Cummings for the bout against Sergio Moraes. Spencer lost his first fight in the UFC to Rafael Natal, but he rebounded with a victory over Yuri Villefort at UFN 28. Sergio Moraes was a contestant on TUF: Brazil that lost in the semi-finals to Daniel Sarafian. Moraes has submitted his last two opponents after dropping his first UFC contest to Cezar Ferreira.
Excitement Level: 3 out of 10. A win for either fighter would certainly boost their chances of taking on higher-ranked 170 pounders, but this fight just doesn’t do much for me from an excitement standpoint.
Cage Warriors 63 – December 31st
Lightweight Championship
Ivan Buchinger (24-4) vs Steven Ray (14-4)
Background: Buchinger’s only loss in his last seven fights was to Conor McGregor, which in retrospect, isn’t something to be ashamed about. Since his loss to McGregor, Buchinger has submitted Mick Sinclair and Jamal Magomedov while decisioning Jason Ball. Ray is a young Scottish lightweight that could end up being the second fighter from his country to compete in the UFC. But first, he must beat Buchinger.
Excitement Level: 5 out of 10. What’s on the line here is a potential call from the UFC. While I wouldn’t expect either fighter to get picked up right away following a win, a loss here would be drastic to one’s chances of signing with the world’s top MMA promotion.
Must Reads
1. Chuck Mindenhall continues his year-by-year look at the UFC’s 20 year history with a review of 2011, the year that UFC purchased Strikeforce. Read it here: http://bit.ly/HuOHdK
2. Luke Thomas of MMAFighting had an intriguing interview Bellator Featherweight Champion Pat Curran. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/Hv8A4o
3. MMAOddsBreaker’s Reed Kuhn did a quite bit of analytical research to see if there was any correlation between winning and fighting at a fast pace. Read his findings here: http://bit.ly/17tJ6RD
My Insane Sports Parlay of the Day: First, a recap from yesterday’s parlay. I went for 3 for 1. My Celtics (+8 1/2), Red Wings (+1 1/2), and University of Cincinnati (-3) picks all came through, but the Cardinals lost. Thankfully, I won’t be making any baseball picks for a while.
My parlay for today is the Bengals (-3), Washington State (+12), Warriors (+6 1/2), and the Anaheim Ducks (+1 1/2).
That’ll do it for today’s Haymaker. Thanks for reading, and I’ll leave you with a quote from Tito Ortiz.
“I’m in the best shape of my life.”
-Dan can be reached at [email protected] or @danielgal.
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