MMA Melee 9/30/08

The MMA world is always moving and shaking, thus, here comes the Melee!
World Victory Road/Sengoku held their 5th card recently with Muhammad "King Mo" Lawal getting the TKO upset win over Travis Wiuff. A superman punch for the MMA rookie and NCAA wrestling phenom rocked the experienced Wiuff and then he followed it up with strikes till Travvy went to sleep. Nice last second debut for the Team Quest member and someone to watch for in the future.
Here are the results for the entire card
Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro def. Takashi Sugiura via TKO (strikes) -- Round 3, 4:18 -Ribeiro Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion who is making the transition to mixed martial arts. Along with his brother Saulo Ribeiro, also a multiple time BJJ world champion. At the 2008 BJJ World Championships, Xande Ribeiro repeated his 2006 victory over Roger Gracie to win the highly-coveted absolute division.
Yuki Sasaki def. Yuki Kondo def. via submission (rear naked choke) -- Round 2, 1:08* I don't mean to be rude to an MMA legend, but Kondo is going the way of the Shamrock and it may be time to retire.
Kazuhiro Nakamura def. Paul Cahoon via unanimous decision* Nice to see Nak back in action and getting a win in his Middleweight debut.
Jorge Santiago def. Logan Clark via submission (arm triangle choke) -- Round 2, 3:55 Jorge loves the tournaments (he won the Strikeforce Tournament Middleweight Tourney) and is my odds on pick for this Grand Prix.
Siyar Bahadurzada def. Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos via TKO (injury) -- Round 1, 0:22* Cyborg hurt his arm in a takedown and thus lost the bout. Tough luck for the beloved Chute Boxe member.
Kiuma Kunioku def. A Sol Kwon via decision (unanimous)
Jorge Masvidal def. Ryan Schultz via TKO (punches) -- Round 1 1:57 Two Lightweights needing wins but Jorge gets the nod over the flailing IFL alum.

Anderson "Spider" Silva's "early" retirement may be a bit premature. Silva said on a Brazil TV station that he has about a year left before he will retire. A lot can happen in a year and if he doesn't have his strap at that time expect him to re-sign with the UFC. Unless he really wants that boxing match with Roy Jones Jr.

Dan "Hendo" Henderson and Rich "Ace" Franklin may be meeting for a bout in January at UFC 93. Both men are still near the top of the Middleweights but need that "big" win to get back into the title hunt. This also stages up a Dream Bout between to uber-popular fighters with solid gold history. This could be toot sweet.

Gegard Mousasi, recent DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix winner and now Champion, may face one Vitor Belfort in January for Affliction. The Red Devil member (yes its official) who shares management with teammate Fedor Emelianenko said the "Last Emperor" will probably face Josh Barnett on the card as well. Two veeery good fights for Affliction if they can get them officially signed.

Speaking of Fedor Emelianenko, he will be returning to competition at the 2008 Combat Sambo World Championship on November 13-17 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Fedor won in the open-weight division at last year's world championship in Prague.

Jeff Monson handed Mark Kerr his fourth straight loss Saturday at the the inaugural Vengeance FC in Concord, North Carolina. Kerr was able to score the takedown early, but Monson escaped to his feet. Monson took Kerr down and worked strikes in side mount. Kerr tried to escape but gave up his back. From there Monson climbed the back of Kerr and applied a back choke with his hooks in for the win. "You know Mark's a two-time Abu Dhabi world champion," Monson said. " So I knew he was going to try and take me down, but I've been working with the American Top Team, and I feel really comfortable on the bottom, so it doesn't matter to me on the floor. I'm glad I got the submission and it worked out for me." Kerr, who has lost nine out of his last eleven fights, is now 15-10. Monson improved to 25-8.

Fan and personal favorite Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald has resigned with the UFC for quatro more fights. Karo "The Heat" Parisyan signed a massive 8-fight deal with the UFC, and David "The Crow" Louiseau may be returning as well though he may need one more win outside of the UFC to return to the Octagon.

Finally, Zuffa co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently called the gym of Xtreme Couture to inform them Brock Lesnar had injured his leg and was out of the upcoming title fight with Randy Couture. Randy's wife Kim was there and the camp began to scramble to find out what exactly was going on when they discovered the call had been a crank. Its still unknown who made the call. I'm not accusing Brock's camp of the misinformation, but it was funny whoever made the call.

Elite XC is this Saturday don't forget to watch Ken Shamrock save the financial woes of the company by sacrificing his life to Kimbo Slice for ratings!