Strikeforce cagefighting champion Nick Diaz is only 26 years of age, but the young Stockton California native has fought in almost every legit MMA promotion there is, including a three-year, 10-fight stint with the biggest and best one, the UFC. All his matches have been tremendously entertaining, the best one possibly being the "news reel-style" knockout win over a heavily favored Robbie Lawler at UFC 47 in April of '04. Diaz, in my opinion, is one of the top "pound for pound" fighters in the world today, and the eldest of the two fighting siblings was recently in Las Vegas to race in the Xterra Triathlon, an "iron man" contest; but ...

  While many people have complained that Dan Hardy is not a worthy challenger for UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre, and there is a solid argument to be made there, it's also worth emphasizing that any opportunity to see one of the best martial artists in the young history of our sport perform is not to be missed. To celebrate this rare treat I thought I would do a Judo Chop on one of the moves most associated with St Pierre: the superman punch.  In his most recent fights, especially his triumphs over the highly credentialed amateur wrestlers Jon Fitch and Josh Koschek, ...

   There may not be a scarier moment in a fighter's life than when they are told something could be "career ending." That's the nightmare that Thiago "Pitbull" Alves faced just before his fight at UFC 111 when an MRI and CAT scan revealed a brain anomaly that concerned doctors enough that they would not clear him to fight. At that point, Alves started to deal with the harsh realities of not only his fight career being in jeopardy, but simply said when the word "brain" is uttered by any doctor followed by "problem," the worst thoughts start trolling around in your head. "When my manager called me on Wednesday he told me I was not going to ...

After having successful surgery to repair a brain anomaly just last week, Thiago "Pitbull" Alves will indeed get back to action as quickly as he had hoped with the original match he was preparing for in March when he faces Jon Fitch in Vancouver at UFC 115 in June. The announcement was made late Sunday night by UFC president Dana White via his personal Twitter account. Alves and Fitch met for the first time nearly four years ago, with Fitch coming out on top via TKO after a vicious upkick stunned the Brazilian, and he finished the fight with punches on the ground. Ever since that time, Alves has been gunning for another shot at Fitch and the ...

Over the past few years, we've seen a number of situations in which a fighter works his way up to the number one contender spot, loses the title fight, and then spends the next few years proving that he can beat anyone in the division except the champion.  Jon Fitch and Rich Franklin come immediately to mind, and now Kenny Florian finds himself in a similar position. Florian has to be considered the favorite against anybody in the UFC lightweight division besides BJ Penn.  The next logical fight for Florian is Gray Maynard, and while it's a tough fight, I would pick Florian to win it.  If he does, he'd effectively knock off ...