Chael Sonnen denied Anderson Silva the chance to take the fight standing by taking him down at will. Sonnen was the busier fighter on the ground and he managed to keep Anderson on his back the whole time. The only chance that Anderson got to strike was the first few seconds of the round. Chael managed to capitalize on every opening and made Anderson pay for his mistakes. Anderson did not have a chance to bully Sonnen at all in fact he was the one who was bullied in this fight. Chael would have won this fight if it went to the judges decision but in the end Anderson Silva turned the tides of battle in his favor by choking him out with only a minute and ten seconds left in the fight.

After all the trash talking that Chael did before the fight he was very disappointed with the results of this fight. “I came back with a silver medal. I wrestled for a world championship, I came in second. I fought in the WEC for a world championship, I came in second. Now, I fought in the UFC and again, I’m a runner-up and it hurts really bad” Sonnen said during the UFC 117 post fight press conference. Sonnen also wants another crack at the UFC Middleweight Championship belt, he even challenged all belt holders telling them: “If you’ve got the belt , I’m coming after you.”

The biggest winners of UFC 115 are Rich Franklin, Mirko Cro Cop, and Carlos Condit. Carlos Condit won Fight of the Night, Mirko Cro Cop won Submission of The Night, and Rich Franklin bagged the knockout of the night. Each of these fighters went home with a cool $185,000 bonus.

Rich Franklin broke his arm at about two minutes into the fight. He considered himself lucky to have gotten the opportunity to finish the fight right away. Franklin said:” if this went three rounds I don’t know how I’m going to win this one.” He capitalized on Chuck’s tendency to over commit on his punches and caused Franklin to slip an uppercut on a charging Liddell. At least Chuck went out with a great note. Aside from the punch that knocked him out, Liddell was actually performing very well. For once in his mma career he actually showed that he’s well versed in kickboxing. He rarely throws any kick in his past fights and this time he broker Rich Franklin’s arm after blocking a high kick. If Chuck wasn’t too eager on the last seconds of Round 1 and survived, he may have actually won the fight. But now this legend must rest, and Dana thinks so too. Kudos to Chuck Liddell for launching Mixed Martial Arts to what it is today.

Meanwhile, Mirko Cro Cop proved all his naysayers wrong by submitting Pat Barry. It looked as if Cro Cop was done for in the first round after being dropped twice by Barry’s punches. I think Barry could have finished Cro Cop right then and there if he just went forward and pounded a downed Cro Cop. Instead, Barry let him stand up hug Cro Cop a little bit, only to get defeated on Rounds 2 and 3. Dana white tweeted: “Pat barry learned a VERY expensive lesson tonite…… MIRKO COP IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!!!!!!!!.” Mirko slipped a rear naked choke on the third round.

The most controversial fight was Rory McDonald Vs Carlos Condit. McDonald showed that he’s not scared of the former WEC Welterweight Champion by dominating Condit at the first two rounds of the fight. Both fighters were charging each other with reckless abandon and pumped up the sold out stadium. On the third round, Condit turned the tides of battle by viciously ground and pounding McDonald. McDonald was eating a barrage elbows and punches that seem to have fractured his orbital bone. Rory wasn’t defending himself very well and it looked like he was progressively getting out of sync at Condit’s offense. With only seven seconds left, the referee decided that enough was enough and gave the fight to Carlos Condit. Although the fans were outraged by the decision, Dana White supported the referee’s decision. On the post fight press conference Dana mentioned: “I want the refs to make the right call and the right decision. I’d rather see it stopped early than late. “

Here are The Winners of the PPV Card:

• Rich Franklin def. Chuck Liddell via KO (punches) – Round 1, 4:55
• Mirko Cro Cop def. Pat Barry via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 3, 4:36
• Martin Kampmann def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Ben Rothwell def. Gilbert Yvel via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Carlos Condit def. Rory MacDonald via TKO (strikes) – Round 3, 4:53

Winners of The Under Card:

• Evan Dunham def. Tyson Griffin via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
• Matt Wiman def. Mac Danzig via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:45
• Mario Miranda def. David Loiseau via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:07
• James Wilks def. Peter Sobotta via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-28, 30-27)
• Claude Patrick def. Ricardo Funch via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 2, 1:48
• Mike Pyle def. Jesse Lennox via technical submission (triangle choke) – Round 3, 4:44

Some fans thought that this was a crappy card because of the obvious lack of big name fighters aside from Rich Franklin, Mirko Cro Cop, and Chuck Liddell whose careers are declining. Meanwhile, some people in major mma forums are saying that this is one of the best fight cards ever because of the shocking results that ensued during the match, aka Carlos Condit pulling a last minute victory and Cro Cop changing his ways and destroying Pat Barry. Was UFC 115 underrated?

Chuck Liddell (+115) lost four of his last five fights and spent some time on Dancing with The Stars.  His last fight was last April 2009 where he was knocked out by Shogun Rua. After UFC 97 Dana White officially declared that Chuck Liddell is done for and will not fight again. But now here he is trying to reclaim his glory against Rich Franklin(-145) . Rich is 1-2 in his last 3 fights and was knocked out by Vitor Belfort.

Rich Franklin is not really known for his knock out power, he’s more of a technical fighter that prefers to strategically break his opponent down and win on the later rounds via TKO or submission. Meanwhile, Chuck Liddell only has one game plan which is to go there guns a blazing and knock his opponent out with one punch which is not always the case as evidenced by his last five fights. Then again, Rich Franklin has a weak chin which is great news for Chuck Liddell. Chuck claims to be in the best shape of his life thanks to his time off and a better camp. I’d like to think that Chuck might actually win this fight but he’s out of commission for over a year and Rich Franklin is more versatile and consistent compared to Chuck Liddell.

Meanwhile, the co-main event of this fight is Pat Barry(-150) Vs. Mirko Cro Cop (+120). Pat Barry is a vicious up and comer in the heavyweight division and will definitely pose a serious threat against Mirko Cro Cop. Mirko is not himself lately and he’s not the terrifying kickboxer that he once was in Pride anymore.Can Mirko somehow rekindle the fire that he had in Pride?

Anything is possible in MMA. One guy could be dominating all three rounds but get knocked out in the last five seconds. If you like taking risks and bet on the underdogs you could make some serious bank.

You can find the full Betting Lines on BetUS and if you bet there you can receive up to 115% in cash bonuses.

Urijah Faber easily dominated the featherweight division for two years until he met Jose Aldo and made easy work of him. He came out of the fight with a badly injured leg that needed to be rehabilitated and worked out again just to regain the lost muscle volume. Right now his record stands 2-1. He hesitated to move down because his close friend Joseph Benavidez competes there, but his decision is final and he’s now competing in the Bantamweight division.

Takeya Mizugaki is one of the most exciting fighters in the Bantamweight division. He recently put up an interesting battle against Miguel Torres. Although he was a last minute replacement, he was able to put up a good fight against one of the top guys in the division and was given a lot of props for being able to stand with Miguel Torres. He later won 2 consecutive fights against Jeff Curan and Rani Yahya.

Will Mizugaki be able to shock the world and beat the California Kid? Or will he serve as a stepping stone for Faber to dominate the division?

The 28 lightweight fighters will battle it out until only 14 of them are left. After that, a wild card bout will ensue in which the winner will advance to the quarter finals.

The official coaching staff of GSP and Josh Koscheck was recently revealed by MMA Junkie. Check them out below:

Team St-Pierre includes jiu-jitsu aces John Danaher and Shawn Williams, Muay Thai specialists Phil Nurse and Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, and St-Pierre’s longtime MMA coach, Firas Zahabi.

Team Koscheck includes Strikeforce heavyweight/Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier, boxing coach Teddy Lucio, American Kickboxing Academy founder/former kickboxing champion Javier Mendez, AKA head MMA trainer Bob Cook, and noted Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo competitor/coach Dave Camarillo.

Who do you think will be a better coach, GSP or Koscheck?

The boxing media was recently shocked because of a video of Floyd Mayweather saying that he will focus his attention for Make-a-Wish foundation for the rest of this year. He even said that he will take the time off for another two years. Is Money May really this charitable? Or is he simply ducking Pacquiao? Good thing his uncle Roger Mayweather is willing to knock some sense back to Floyd’s brain. Roger thinks there’s just too much money on the table and choosing time off over 100 million dollars is just plain stupid. He also thinks delaying the fight for another two years will only make him older and may not be able to perform as efficiently as he does now. He thinks Floyd should kick Manny’s ass first then he can go on and do whatever the f*** he wants.

Meanwhile, Roger firmly believes that Manny is on A-Side Meth, an ancient PED that was apparently used by filipinos 500 years ago to render themselves bulletproof. Seriously? Bulletproof? Roger said: “That mother***** is on the A-side meth, that’s what the f*** he’s on,” “It’s called the A-side meth. He on that or he on something else. The A-side meth is what they used to have 500 years ago. Remember when the Philippines were fighting the US soldiers? They were shooting them motherf****s with 45s. And 45s were bouncing off their motherf****ng a$$. They weren’t even dying!” from the Filipino Sports Examiner.

Manny Pacquiao recently agreed to Floyd’s blood testing demand. Arum confirmed that Pacquiao is ready to fight Floyd and that the ball is in his court now. It looks like Floyd’s time off is not final yet. Will this fight actually happen?

Cotto was the busier fighter right from the beginning as he smothered Yuri with stiff jabs and hard body shots. It was a one sided battle and Cotto was winning every round. Foreman’s luck went from bad to worse as he twisted his knee on the seventh round. The accident seem to have done significant damage as he limped his way through the seventh round only to go down again.

Foreman’s wife urged his trainer to stop the fight on the eighth round. He threw in the towel midway through the round. The ref angrily threw the towel back and asked Yuri if he wants to continue. The great champion that he was he opted to continue despite the obvious pain he was suffering from his right knee.

Cotto smelled blood and upped his offense on the ninth round until he finally destroyed Foreman with only 42 seconds left.

Miguel Cotto wins his third title in a stunning fashion. What’s next for the Puerto Rican fighter now?

Now that the future of Pacquiao – Mayweather fight looks even bleaker, Pacquiao vs Cotto 2 could be the next best thing. Freddie Roach expressed his interest on this fight even before this event. Can Pacquiao go for an eight world title by fighting Cotto again?

Dana White made no qualms about his intent to sign Jake Shields to the UFC. “Everybody knows he doesn’t want to be there anymore. They suck, we don’t, and he’s coming here” says White.  Will UFC fans finally see the mythical GSP VS Jake Shields fight?

The execs of Showtime doesn’t feel that the loss of Shields will break the division and they’re confident of their current roster. After all, they still have Jocare Souza, Nick Diaz, Dan Henderson, Cung Le and a bunch of other top fighters from DREAM that are willing to crossover to Strikeforce  because of their unique partnership. The loss of Jake Shields may be disappointing for them but its not the end of the Strikeforce Middleweight Division.

If Shields and Strikeforce doesn’t come to terms they plan to put up an eight man tournament that will be held on August 21 where the winner will become the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Jake Shields is ranked in the top ten welterweight fighters in MMA and GSP himself wants a piece of Jake Shields. His move in UFC will definitely give him top competition and find out for himself if he really is one of the top fighters in the world. Do you think Jake Shields is a threat at the UFC Middleweight division with Anderson Silva dominating it right now? Or can he even usurp GSP from his throne?

” He’s(Josh Koscheck) not the same fighter that I fought the first time and I’m not the same guy that he fought the first time. We’re two, more different fighters, better than we were last time. It will be interesting.” says GSP.

This is indeed a very interesting match up since they faced each other already at UFC 74. They’re definitely not the same anymore and it’s almost going to be like a whole new fight all over again. Some say that Josh Koscheck is better at standup than GSP but I think it’s going to be the same story again when these two fighters meet in December.

George St.Pierre and Josh Koscheck is currently coaching the latest season of the Ultimate Fighter and is scheduled to fight some time on December during the show’s finale.

Do you think Josh Koscheck evolved his fighting style enough to beat the mighty GSP?

Watch the video of this interview below:

In a prefight interview for the DREAM organization in Japan Nick had this to say:

“I’d like them to see that I’m the best mixed martial arts fighter pound for pound in the world.”

He later added comments about UFC Welterweight champion and pound for pound great Georges St. Pierre.

“Yeah, I think it’s a good fight for me, Georges St-Pierre.”

“I was actually in line to do the same stuff he did,” Diaz said. “I made it to the UFC before him but I was just really young and inexperienced when I got there.”

Diaz would go on to question the judging in the losses he received while fighting under the UFC banner. Nick is a good fighter but until he beats St. Pierre he is not pound for pound good.