MMA Melee: Everything Old Is Old Again

Well lets begin the round up of MMA news with Kim Couture getting starched in her match with Kerry Vera and all the things wrong with it. A nice bit of revenge for the Vera family after husband Brandon Vera was screwed by the MMA judging in his bout with Kim's former husband Randy Couture, so nothing wrong there. One of the most obvious things wrong with this bout is the fact that "Sugar Free" just doesn't belong on a Strikeforce card, all be it one designed for emerging MMA talent. She has shown very little improvement in her game after her bloody debut when Kim Rose broke her nose (that rhymed!). After a win over a defeated fighter, she got co-Main Event billing on her ex-husbands name alone. As bad as that is, she was also paid $10,000 just to fight (there was no win bonus), while the Main Event winner, Tyron Woodley, was given $3,5oo to show, and a bonus $3,500 to win!

The main problem with this whole error in judgement, is that Kim Couture is not near ready to take on serious female fighters and is eventually going to get hurt. Well, hurt worse. Her takedown attempts on Kerry were telegraphed and poorly executed, while her obvious sub par striking let to an attempted stand up war where she ate vicious knee's and credible combinations in route to getting completely mauled until the reprieve TKO was given. The financial restitution and the spot she took up on the card could have been used for a promising fighter who has dedicated her life to MMA. People are already out to knock women fighting professionally, lets not give them pretty faces that are disfigured before our eyes. If we want that we'll watch "Real Housewives" on E channel.

Matchmaker Joe Silva has made an uncharacteristic error in judgement as well signing Randy "The Natural" Couture vs Mark "The Hammer" Coleman at UFC 109. I get it, two hall of famers fighting for the first time and two amateur "wrestling gods" collide, but this fight is going to suck. Randy already bored the crap out of us in his eye raising possibly fixed win over Brandon Vera, and Coleman is known for boring fights on the floor resulting in little more action than man hugging. Now there will be two geriatric has beens hugging it out for a full 15 minutes that is sure to either bore you to sleep or at least make you uncomfortable. This has to be the highest chance of an in cage heart attack ever! Neither man is near the peak of their respective careers, and a win for Randy over Mark had better not earn him a title shot! If Coleman wins, well besides the "aw good for him," people will just chalk it up to Couture is finally done. Putting this fight up on Super-Bowl weekend has a better chance of being embarrassing more than anything, and if you expect people to pay for this as a Main Event, you are high.

The UFC has also found the perfect candidate to fight Matt Hughes,....Renzo Gracie. Yes, the 13-6-1 Gracie who has not fought since 2007 when he took some illegal knee's to the dome against Frank Shamrock and faked his way out of the fight. The 42 year old has never been a world beater per say, but that Gracie name will help pad the record of future Hall Of Famer Hughes, though I doubt the fans are going to put much stock in the catchweight bout and even hardcore fans are saying "Uhh, OK I guess." Renzo is a durable opponent but so was Royce Gracie and expect a similar thrashing at the hands of the greatest Welterweight of all time this summer.

Robbie Lawler is again looking for an opponent for the December 19 show. Benji Radach's camp claims he has not had enough time for training after surgery on his right hand and I agree. Strikeforce should not get into the habit of last minute matchmaking like the Japanese organizations. Its not fair to the fighters and you can't promote the fights properly. Lawler will fight on the card but not in rematches with Jason Miller or Nick Diaz as fans had hoped. Instead it is looking more and more like a rematch with Joey Villasenor, though Strikeforce is trying to land Holland striking machine Melvin Manhoef for the bout.

It will be fireworks in Australia as "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva will now face Michael "The Count" Bisping at UFC 110! It will be the Middleweight debut for Silva who is coming off a Decision loss to Rich Franklin, and Bisping is coming off a very impressive TKO of Denis Kang. The 1st UFC trip to the land down under was supposed to be Silva vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, but the Zuffa brass thought this bout would be more interesting to fans and a bigger draw. No word yet if Akiyama will still be on the card against another fighter. The always endearing Wanderlei had this to say about his future opponent. “I need to study more English because all my friends and fans come here and talk to me. My American fans tell me, ‘hey kick his ass!’, but I don’t know what this is so much,” a very confident Silva continued.“I’m going to be kicking the Bisping ass. I don’t know what is correct but I’m going to kick Bisping’s ass for my fans,” the former champion proclaimed. You just gotta love the guy. 1 more time for Pride FC!