UFC 121: Cain Velasquez Dethrones Brock Lesnar

   One big array of punches from Cain Velasquez is all he need to take down the "baddest man on the planet", UFC's heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. And as the whole crowd of Anaheim, California explodes to joy of  Cain's victory, the former champ Lesnar leaves the Octagon, bruised and bloodied on UFC 121.

   Lesnar started and showed why he is the champ by barging right into Velasquez using his strength as his advantage. But on every Lesnar offense resulted into Velasquez's instant defense-offense combination of punches. As the two traded punches in the middle of the first, Lesnar had a bad left eye already. Velasquez had Lesnar with a big punch that sent down the champ. But Lesnar got up again. And with Velasquez sensing the end of Lesnar, he followed it up with a set of punches that sent Lesnar again. As the challenger pummeld the champ, the referee had enough and stopped it at 4:12 of the first round.

   With the win, Velasquez became the first Mexican heavyweight champ of the UFC.



(TheBloggerSays: Really good fight. I was really rooting for Cain to pull this one up. Good overall performance by Cain really paved the way for him. I think Lesnar just didn't expect this kind of opponent.)

The Battle Of Combat Sports

   After last weeks "Boxing vs. MMA" bout between boxing champ James "Lights Out" Toney against UFC star Randy "The Natural" Couture live on UFC 118 PPV, many fans and sports athletes have been wondering on which combat sport is dominating the other, based on PPV sales, gate attendance and the winner between two fighters of different sport.

   Today's sport stars like UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley and Bob Sapp all became professional wrestlers first before trying out their skills in MMA.While Anderson Silva, Eric "Butterbean" Esch, Marcus Davis hanged up their gloves to pursue a MMA career. Other notable fighters like Vladimir Kozlov, Ken Shamrock, Sylvester Turkay and Daniel Puder are all trained MMA fighters who transitioned to WWE, a sports-entertainment wrestling brand. 

   With all people buzzing around and wondering, The Fighting Pride asked some sports analyst to take on topics varying from transitioning fighters to which brand is better than the another.

   Asked about why do fighters, despite being on the peak of their career, switched from boxing or pro-wrestling to MMA, one of Philippines' most-respected sport analyst Ed Tolentino said: "MMA offers an intriguing challenge  to anyone who is engaged in particular discipline. The offer of big bucks for short bouts is very tempting. In most cases, wrestlers and boxers who are already over-the-hill switch to MMA switch to salvage whatever remains in their careers. Rare is the case of Brock Lesnar. But note that he only joined MMA after he failed make it as a football player in NFL."

   In 2009, MMA's "UFC 100" PPV garnered the most PPV buys for the year while boxings "Fire Power: Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto" have the second most buys. That's why the fight fans are having thoughts, is the boxing losing it's fans to MMA world? "No. Die hard boxing fans as are loyal as they come." says Anthony George of Zutes Sports Show. "There seems to be more MMA gyms in the U.S. than boxing gyms.UFC is the biggest brand in all of combat sports and young guys are attracted to that. The trouble is, boxing is not attractive enough to young people." Archer added. Tolentino seems to agree with the boxing's rich stories by saying that: "Boxing has a lot of history behind it. However, they need to police it's ranks to keep MMA at a safe distance." 

   With Couture of MMA defeating Toney of boxing, some fans assumed that MMA is the one really dominating the world of combat sports. But Lesnar, a NCAA champion and former WWE wrestler himself, proved to be that even a man form another sport can become a MMA champ. How do really former boxers and wrestlers fare in MMA? "Nowadays, there is not just one discipline that will amke it in MMA, you have to be well rounded. Wrestlers do well in MMA because it allows most of them to pick-up the BJJ discipline a lot easier than folks with no wrestling base." says Archer. 

   And asked if Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., two of the boxing world's best fighters, do stand a chance in MMA, Tolentono said: "Yes. As long as you have legitimate martial arts background, you can excel. Pacquiao and Mayweather are legit boxers."

(TheBloggerSays: It's good to have Mr. Tolentino and Mr. Archer to have this conversation. I do really believe in what they say, and I respect it.. Thank you guys.)

Lesnar Still Champ

   If the fight ended in the first round, challenger Shane Carwin could have ended as the champion. But it wasn't the way the fight ended on the second round as Brock Lesnar retains his heavyweight belt via arm-triangle on UFC 116 at Las Vegas, Nevada.

   Carwin proved his strength early on as he chased the champ when he knocked him down with a huge uppercut. As from the looks of by the end of the 1st round, Carwin has it going when he left Lesnar bloodied to his corner. But the 2nd round turned to be for Lesnar as he took the tired challenger to the mat and went for the submission at 2:19.

Lesnar, Booker T Disses Batista About His MMA Plans

   Former WWE champs Booker T and Brock Lesnar, UFC's heavyweight champ, both criticized Dave Batista, also a former WWE champ, about his confirmation that he will be joining the likes of Lesnar and Bobby Lashley or entertainer-wrestlers who jumped to MMA.

   In a recent interview by TMZ, Batista confirmed that he will be joining MMA in a company called Strikeforce. But TMZ also learned that Batista haven't signed up yet with the company.

   TMZ also posted an interview with Booker T, who had a real backstage fight with Batista in 2006 saying he won't "last 5 minutes" with Bobby Lashley and he don't think Batista can match-up with the big boys of Strikeforce.

   While in an interview with MMAFighting.com, UFC champ Brock Lesnar asked about Batista, he responded "Get in line. Everybody and their dog wants to get into fighting. Next question, We're talking about a heavyweight championship fight, not some wannabe."