The Spider's Web

RUMOR: Brock Lesnar's Career In Jeopardy

2009-11-15T22:52:00.004-05:00

According to a source who heard it directly from the mouth of UFC's President Dana White, Brock Lesnar's career may be on hold for a minimum of 18 months or possibly over for good.

According to the source, Brock Lesnar has been diagnosed with a form of blood infection.

If Brock Lesnar is not able to continue his MMA career, he will be stripped of his title and a fight will be scheduled to determine who will obtain the title. Our guess would be Cain Velasquez vs Shane Carwin but that is to be determined.

Remember, you heard it hear first at The Spider's Web. Stay tuned for any updates to come.

UFC 105 Review: The Ageless Wonder Wins Again

2009-11-15T12:01:00.003-05:00

The outcome of this bought between Randy "The Natural" Couture and Brandon Vera was eerily similar to the Shogun - Machida decision. You think one fighter won, but you weren't really sure in who's favor the judges would side.

Much of the fight was a grueling Greco wrestling match up against the cage. This is where Couture has made his name in the UFC and MMA; imposing his will upon his opponent, utilizing those "dirty boxing" techniques, and slowly wearing down his opponent until he's lost the will to continue.

Naturally there will be controversy surrounding this as well. Most people would have given the nod to Vera because he's the one who inflicted the most damage. That kick to Couture's abdomen in the second round looked like it stung a bit. For a moment I thought Vera might have broken some of Randy's ribs, but that apparently wasn't the case.

All three judges decided the fight 29-28 in favor of The Natural.

“I controlled the tempo of the fight,” said the 46-year old Couture. “It wasn’t the most exciting thing to watch, but Brandon’s dangerous.”

The key word here is control. If you as a fighter build this perception in the judge's mind that you are in control then you're probably going to come out with a victory.

Vera disagrees.

“I thought I won,” said Vera, who seemed on the verge of a stoppage win in the second round. “I left it all out there.”

Vera is a good fighter, but if you expect us to believe that what you left in the octagon last night against Couture was "all" you had then you didn't deserve to win. Throughout the match Vera was allowing Couture to control him. Anytime they were in their stand-up, Vera would throw some bombs, Randy would duck out of the way and proceed to clinch Vera and back him into the cage. Time and again it seemed as if Vera didn't try to defend this tactic even though he knew it was coming. Vera knows that's Couture's game, but yet he allowed it to happen and even worse, for the most part did nothing to get out of it.

Again, Vera gave the judges the perception that he was helpless against Couture's tactics, thus the result was a unanimous decision in favor the Natural.

Vera drops back to reality in end however.

"In the sport of MMA, if you let it go to the judges, you let it out of your hands,” added Vera. “So I’m gonna take the blame for this loss, I’m gonna man up – it’s my fault, I should have finished the fight. I’m super happy that I got to fight Randy Couture, my hero, my legend, and I’m gonna let the rest of the 205 division know that I’m gonna whup your ass if you get in the Octagon with me.”

Truer words have never been spoken Mr. Vera.

In the end, Couture's domination of Vera against the cage didn't amount to much physical damage inflicted on Brand Vera, however, as stated earlier, the perception was beaten into the judge's heads over and over again.

Machida vs Shogun Left Much To Be Desired

2009-11-14T17:30:00.004-05:00

This very well could have been the fight of the century. Well ok, maybe not that great, but it had the makings of one epic battle.

Watch the entire fight here, thank me later.

Coming into this fight Machida was coming off of a very impressive win over then undefeated Sugar Rashad Evans. Rashad was clearly outmatched in every phase of the fight. Machida took advantage of Rashad's often sloppy stand-up and made him pay. Machida was looking better after every fight, and at times looked completely unstoppable and untouchable.

Shogun was also on the rise. After battle numerous injuries, mainly to his knee, he was coming coming into this fight healthier than he had ever been and wanting to show the UFC and its fans what he can do.

I remember watching a lot of his fights while he was in Pride and this guy was disgustingly good. A complete animal. So if you were wondering why Shogun was getting hyped up as the type of fighter who could give Machida a run for his money I'd suggest searching youtube for some of his old fights.

The hype proved to be true.

Throughout most of the fight the two different fighting styles seemed to cancel eachother out. Neither side had a distinct advantage. While Shogun's style is primarily based off of aggression, throughout the fight he was surprisingly patient. He knew going in that Machida loves to feast on the mistakes of his opponent. However, Shogun's precise striking abilities and constant leg kicks prevented Machida from countering any mistake Shogun might have made.

Was this the perfect formula to defeat someone like Machida? Apparently not.

Machida basically held his ground and attempted a lot of counter punches. He landed a few nice shots, but aside from that did absolutely nothing to Shogun.

While I agree that Shogun should have won the decision, I understand why he didn't. The judges weren't looking to make a guy champion unless he beats the champion. And by beats, I mean convincingly win the fight, and Shogun failed to do that.

The only thing Shogun had in this fight over Machida was his constant leg kicks. Aside from that he decided not to take any risks and didn't fight a Shogun fight. In the end, his patient strategy was the death knell in his hopes to complete his comeback and become the UFC Light Heavyweight champion.

This isn't the last time we'll see these two battle it out. There are a lot of names in the LHD, but not a lot of talent. I'd expect to see a rematch in the near future, and hopefully it will live up to the hype.