Today’s edition of the Morning Commute features more fights being added to UFC on Fox, UFC 154 news, the first fight announced for what could be the last Strikeforce card and quotes from Jake Shields.  All that plus this day in history with a former UFC title holder making his professional debut.  Give it a listen or download it to your favorite mp3 player of choice.

Chris Camozzi just came back from Brazil after fighting at UFC 153 against Luiz Cane. He won the fight and handed Cane his second loss in a row and put himself on a three fight win streak. Now Camozzi is seeking a named fighter for his next fight and we caught up with him to talk about the fight and what is next.

How’s things going today?
Going great. Just enjoying some time off now. Got back home a couple days ago and just been hanging out and catching up on stuff.

I gotta ask, what was it like just being in Brazil?
Brazil was awesome. The weather was great. The atmosphere for fighting is definitely awesome. The fans there are really passionate, and it was just a big dream of mine to go down there and fight, especially with what I’ve heard about the fans and how encouraging they are about the sport. Even though they weren’t necessarily rooting for me, it was still cool to be a part of it.

You flew in on a Sunday and fought on Saturday. How was the fight week different there than, say, when you fought here in Chicago?
Yeah, definitely the weather. No, you know, as soon as I’d get into town it’s strictly business for me. I just get down to it, I keep training. I do a lot of pad work and stuff to get my weight down. I try to stay out of the sauna as much as I can because it depletes you a little bit. So the only thing I did different was I was down training with Team Moraes down there and Diego Moraes  who had my corner, you know he’s got a couple gyms down there in Rio, so I got a chance to do some Jiu Jitsu at their gyms and check it out a little bit. B ut other than that I didn’t do any fight scene or anything like that. Just strictly business, and then I stayed a couple days after to enjoy Rio.

You battled Luiz Cane who was making his middleweight debut. Prior to the fight you stated that you believed he wouldn’t be much bigger than you as you are a big middleweight. Did you feel that way in the cage?
Yeah, I felt like we were pretty close in size, but I definitely felt strong in there, which is always a factor in there, too. You wonder if guys coming down weight are gonna be a lot stronger than you, and I didn’t feel that way at all. I think I prepared well. I train hard, I lift heavy and stuff, and I just prepare myself, and I try to be the biggest I can be in there and still make weight the right way.

The fight was close; how’d you feel inside as it was going on? Did you think that you were winning the fight the whole time? 
I felt like I was winning. But in my head in the fight I just try to tell myself, “You gotta finish. Don’t count on the judges or the scorecards.” So I try not to think about it too much. Right afterwards before they announced the decision I was thinking about it, and I figured I won, and Luiz actually told me, “I think you got this one.” So I felt pretty confident in it, but you never know. It made me nervous, and I hate that. You know, winning is so much more satisfying when you can finish the fight with submission or knockout or TKO. So there’s definitely work for me to do. I need to be getting to the point where I’m not getting decisions.

Was there something that your corner told you after round one that caused you to come out just a little bit more aggressive?
I felt like I ended the first round pretty well. I thought I caught him a little bit. I just watched the fight yesterday, actually, and it looked like his leg were a little rubbery right at the last punch of the round. And not just that, I train to come into fights a little bit different than other people. We’re here training mile high in Denver, so I always try to finish better than I start. I tend to start kind of slow and finish – start getting faster. I think in the third round I can usually push the pace better than most guys. My manager and my coaches are actually kind of getting on me to try and start fast and finish fast because they get a little nervous, too. ‘Cause sometimes I start really slow in the first round.

You bloodied up Cane’s nose and were landing more frequently as the fight went on. How much do you think the blood played a factor in the fight?
It’s hard to say for everybody, but for me, personally, when I start seeing the guy’s bleeding it makes me not think about being tired. It makes me want to keep going. I’m like a bull you know I see red and I wanna keep going. But just the opposite, if I’m bleeding I don’t really care. I’m kind of a bleeder anyway – I get bloody noses all the time training and stuff, so hopefully not everybody judges it that way ’cause I don’t know if I’ve had many fights were I didn’t have a bloody nose or something. I guess if I know I’m cut it kind of makes me feel a little bit more rushed which is good sometimes, too. So I guess all in all it kind of helps me altogether.

You are now 6-2 in your UFC career. Where do you think you stand in the middleweight division?
I think I definitely took a step up with that win, and I’m hoping that they give me another bigger name on my next fight. I know a lot of the middleweights are tied up right now, but there’s great fighters out there that I think would be exciting fights for me. I know Wanderlei Silva doesn’t have an opponent that I know of – which would be like a dream come true for me because that guy’s one of my idols in the sport. I know Patrick Cote and Alessio Sakara are fighting, too, and I think either one of those would be a good match-up for me. I’m just looking for a name opponent. I wouldn’t mind fighting Jake Shields, either. Guys that are gonna help me take another big step up and move up the ladder. All I can do is hope for that stuff, but when it comes down to it I gotta fight whoever Joe Silva and Dana White tell me to.

Are you hoping to get back in the cage this year?
It just all depends, actually. I’m waiting to hear from the doctors. I didn’t get banged up too bad this last fight, but I did fracture my nose. I don’t know how bad yet. They’re supposed to give me a call back – I just got it x-rayed the other day. But I don’t think it’s going to be too long of a process. I actually bought some headgear with a bar across it, so I’m probably gonna try and spar this Friday. As long as I’m not getting smashed in the nose and getting it injured more I should be good to go, so we’ll see.

Where can the fans find you at?
Follow me @chriscamozzi on Twitter. I got my fan page going on Facebook it’s just Chris Camozzi fan page. And my website that I’m always pushing and we’re always doing concepts and stuff on – chriscamozzimma.com. Any of those. I appreciate the support.

Any sponsors or people you want to thank?
First and foremost my team at Factory X and my management Ingrained Media. Those guys are the ones that help me win and help me get paid. And a big thank you to the lead singer of Hatebreed Jamey Jasta been a big sponsor of mine for a while. Fear the Fighter clothing line, Hyabusa, Swole Sports nutrition, Tool King and Instituto Recao. You got Masters of Disaster which is a cool show coming out on HD TV and you’ll probably see me on there. Let’s see… Fightnewsweekly.blogspot.ca. And I think that’s everybody.

What is Masters of Disaster?
It’s a cool show for HD TV. These guys are starting a reality show where they go in and they clean up after natural disasters and stuff like that. I had the opportunity to go down and work with them and help them out for the fires here in Colorado where they helped restore a house for this family. They clean all the fire damage, all the charred stuff, they replace everything – it’s just pretty cool. They do floods, they do tornadoes, they do anything. But it should be a pretty cool show, it’s pretty interesting. And me getting to go help them out… it was cool to see how they recover from stuff like that and how they help people.

Today’s Morning Commute features quotes from Anderson Silva on fighting Chris Weidman, GSP and Jon Jones, as well as Jake Shields being suspended and The Ultimate Fighter ratings. Sit back and listen to the short podcast or download to your favorite mp3 player and listen to it on your way to work.

UFC 144 took place on Saturday February 25 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan (though it happened on Sunday morning locally in Japan). The pay-per-view was super-sized with seven fights airing live during the broadcast. Including the first fight of the night between Issei Tamura and Tiequan Zhang that was originally aired on Facebook, all twelve fights ended up being broadcast either on FX or during the pay-per-view broadcast.

On RecapRadio Brent Todd and John Petit had given their predictions for the event. Even just going with the winners they thought would win, Todd went 2-5 and Petit went 4-3. The results were some of the most exciting and craziest in recent history.

The submission of the night award was easy to hand out as there was only one submission. Vaughan Lee defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto by armbar late in the first round. The two each blasted the other with big punches with Yamamoto nearly finishing early in the round. But Lee was able to recover and after Yamamoto was hurt, Lee rushed and locked in a triangle. The submission looked deep, but Yamamoto wasn’t tapping. Lee switched to an armbar and that was all that was needed to earn the tap.

Five fights ended by either knockout or technical knockout making the decision for who would earn the $65,000 bonus difficult. The first fight of the night between Tamura and Zhang was a great start to the night as Tamura landed a vicious right that sent Zhang to la-la-land.

Still part of the preliminary fights, Takanori Gomi showed some of what made Gomi so popular as he was able to earn a technical knockout over Eiji Mitsuoka. In the second round while both fighters seemed extremely gassed, Gomi started to connect with his strikes. It wasn’t long before Mitsuoka wasn’t responding and Gomi just unloaded everything he had into punching Mitsuoka until the referee was forced to stop the fight.

Both Tim Boetsch and Mark Hunt had impressive knockouts in their bouts against Yushin Okami and Cheick Kongo respectively. Boetsch was losing his fight to Okami badly. Knowing he was down two rounds to none Boetsch came out in the third swinging. He staggered Okami with a straight punch. Boetsch smelled blood and swarmed with tricky uppercuts. The assault of uppercuts continued until Okami fell to the floor in a bad way and Boetsch landed two more before the ref stopped the fight.

Many felt that Hunt was going to be seriously outmatchedand outworked by Kongo. But that never happened. Early in the fight Hunt dropped Kongo but decided to let Kongo get right back up. The second time he wasn’t as nice as he swarmed Kongo and rained down punch after punch until Herb Dean was force to save Kongo from eating any more damage.

With Boetsch’s come from behind knockout and Hunt’s impressive striking display it would take a special kind of knockout to earn the extra $65,000. And an impressive knockout did happen. Anthony Pettis and Joe Lauzon seemed happy to trade punches. Pettis lands a kick to the body on Lauzon but Lauzon continues to press forward. Pettis threw another kick, Lauzon went to block it low, but the kick sailed high and connected perfectly on Lauzon’s head and Lauzon was unconscious.

The main event screamed Fight of the Night award even before the first punch was thrown. Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson have been in several battles that were amazing and exciting. Edgar caught nearly every one of Henderson’s kicks and then proceeded to punch him in the face for even throwing a kick. But Henderson had more than just kicks at the ready as he blasted Edgar with straight punches that bloodied up Edgar quickly. The fight was a twenty-five minute back and forth battle that was extremely close. The judges had their work cut out for them but in the end they awarded the fight to Henderson crowing a new champ. Even though Edgar lost, he still pocketed an extra $65,000 for the performance as the fight was deemed the Fight of the Night.

Quick Results
Benson Henderson defeated Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 49-46)
Ryan Bader defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Mark Hunt defeated Cheick Kongo via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 2:11
Jake Shields defeated Yoshihiro Akiyama via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Tim Boetsch defeated Yushin Okami via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 0:54
Hatsu Hioki defeated Bart Palaszewski via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Anthony Pettis defeated Joe Lauzon via knockout (kick and punches) – Round 1, 1:21
Takanori Gomi defeated Eiji Mitsuoka via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:21
Vaughan Lee defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:29
Riki Fukuda defeated Steve Cantwell via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Chris Cariaso defeated Takeya Mizugaki via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Issei Tamura defeated Tiequan Zhang via knockout (punch) – Round 2, 0:32

After three consecutive losses in the middleweight division, Yoshihiro Akiyama decided he needed to drop down to the welterweight division. His first test will be at UFC 144 when he meets former number one contender Jake Shields.

At first glance one has to question why are these two being put together. Many are quick to remember Shields and his rise to stardom outside the UFC which included a run in the middleweight division. He had put together one of the longest winning streaks in the welterweight division and there was a lot of high hopes for Shields.

Akiyama on the other hand has a massive fan following and fans wonder who he has upset in the UFC based on the competition he has faced since signing with the leading promotion. His promotional debut he fought a dangerous striker in Alan Belcher winning a split decision. It was then followed up with three losses in a row to Chris Leben, Michael Bisping, and Vitor Belfort. All arguably some of the best strikers the UFC has to offer.

And some fans were left scratching their head when it was announced that he would be fighting Shields at UFC 144. Upon further dissection of this fight thought, it makes sense for Akiyama to fight Shields.

Shields has lost two fights in a row, the first time in his career that has happened. After putting together a fifteen fight win streak, Shields winning ways was snapped when he fought Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight title. Shields had little answer for St. Pierre’s striking and wrestling and lost a unanimous decision. The only plus he was able to take away from the fight was he won two rounds according to the judges’ scorecards.

His follow up fight was supposed to put him right back in the mix in the welterweight division. He faced Jake Ellenberger at UFN 25 who at the time was on a four-right win streak finishing three of his opponents. But days prior to the fight Shields’ father passed away. Regardless of how physically prepared Shields was for Ellenberger, the loss of his father had to play a factor in his mental game. Shields ended up getting knocked out with a brutal knee and subsequent follow up punches.

So now both fighters are on the verge of losing their place in the UFC. Akiyama with a three-fight losing skid and Shields on a two-fight. If there’s one thing that’s been proven with fights like these, it’s when a career is on the line, the fighter brings it.

One will undoubtedly give the striking advantage to Akiyama and the wrestling advantage to Shields. The question that needs to be answered is who’s submission game is better. Akiyama has some sick Judo skills but hasn’t been putting them on display. Shields has a very aggressive jiu jitsu game as seen during his time in Strikeforce but since in the UFC hasn’t been able to showcase it as much either.

This is going to be a statement fight, and unfortunately for Akiyama I think it will be his last in the UFC. Shields will likely come out of the gate and swarm Akiyama rather than even try and trade punches. His top game is going to be so overwhelming I am expecting Akiyama to break early in the second round and Shields will be able to grab a submission for the victory.

On the February 21st edition of RecapRadio hosts Brent Todd and John Petit had a variety of topics to discuss. We kicked off the show talking about the lack of mma that happened over the weekend on a national level. With two weekends in a row without a UFC event it was rather surprising that there wasn’t a national show to take stage.

Carson Beebe then joined the show to talk about his upcoming fight for Legacy Fighting Championship. It is his first fight back at 135 since auditioning for The Ultimate Fighter. He discussed his wrestling, managing his time, and trying to rep Chicago while down in Texas.

After Beebe we moved on to give our thoughts on the UFC on Fuel TV 1 card. Petit was the victor in the predictions for the week so hats off to him.

With time running out and some sidetracking curbed, we settled in to give our thoughts on UFC 144 and our predictions. There were some differences this week in the predictions and both of us made compelling arguments for our respective fighters. Here’s how the fight predictions broke down:

Brent Todd:
Joe Lauzon Sub Round 2
Bart Palaszewski KO Round 1
Yushin Okami UD
Jake Shields Sub Round 2
Cheick Kongo UD
Rampage Jackson TKO Round 2
Frankie Edgar UD

John Petit:
Anthony Pettis UD
Hatsu Hioki UD
Yushin Okami UD
Jake Shields TKO Round 2
Cheick Kongo TKO
Ryan Bader UD
Frankie Edgar UD

Use the player below to listen to the full show.

The UFC returned to Louisiana on Saturday September 17 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Jake Ellenberger and Jake Shields headlined the event, while two fighters from the Chicagoland area (Mike Lullo and Mike Stumpf) were on the preliminary card. The main card was shown live on SpikeTV featuring four fights including the returning from injury fighters Alan Belcher and Court McGee.

Alan Belcher doesn’t show any ring rust against Jason MacDonald
Alan Belcher was coming off of what many thought could have been a career ending injury. Sidelined for sixteen months and two eye surgeries later, Belcher made his return to the octagon against Jason MacDonald. MacDonald quickly tied Belcher up and looked for a takedown. But Belcher stayed strong and didn’t give one up. MacDonald looked to power his way into a takedown, only Belcher wound up on top. MacDonald tried to goat Belcher into a couple of submissions, but Belcher landed a big right hand that hurt his foe. Several shots later it was nearly halted, but MacDonald was able to regain for a moment. Belcher continued his assault and just before the four minute mark earned the victory.

Erik Koch wins his fourth straight with victory over Jonathan Brookins
Erik Koch stated he felt a fourth victory could put him in title contention and he did just that with his win over Jonathan Brookins. Brookins for all fifteen minutes looked to try to control Koch against the cage and work for a takedown. But they came few and far between and even when they did, Koch would stand back up. Koch whenever he got the chance pounded on Brookins with a variety of strikes depending on the range. When they were separated Koch used his jabs, hooks and high kicks to throw Brookins off his game. When they were clinched or on the ground he used short peppering shots to frustrate him. In the end they all added up as Koch earned a unanimous decision.

Court McGee shows massive cardio against Dongi Yang
The two middleweights McGee and Yang went to battle from the opening bell and did not stop until the final bell. McGee in the first and second rounds was able to dictate the pace and landed kicks and jabs. Yang would counter a good amount of McGee’s strikes keeping the rounds fairly close to call. The third round the action lit up as Yang landed a big right hand that sent McGee stumbling. A flying knee followed by Yang but he was unable to finish McGee. McGee escaped the trouble and landed multiple punches to the nose and mouth of Yang, bloodying him up bad. As time was running out McGee took the fight the ground and got the mount. He worked a couple of punches then tried to end the fight with a top mounted guillotine. Time ran out and in the end McGee earned the victory.

Jake Ellenberger upsets Jake Shields
The main event didn’t last long. It took less than a minute for Ellenberger to earn the TKO victory over Shields. Shields started the fight trying to use a pawing jab to set up a takedown while Ellenberger wanted to throw leather. After the two clinched, Ellenberger threw a knee to Shields’ belly that bent him over enough for Ellenberger to land a knee flush to the head of Shields. It sent the former number one contender to the canvas where Ellenberger unloaded a flurry of shots to the side of his head, forcing the ref to stop the fight.

Quick Results
Jake Ellenberger def. Jake Shields via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 0:53
Court McGee def. Dongi Yang via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-28)
Erik Koch def. Jonathan Brookins via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)
Alan Belcher def. Jason MacDonald via verbal submission (punches) – Round 1, 3:48
Vagner Rocha def. Cody McKenzie via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 3:49
Evan Dunham def. Shamar Bailey via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Lance Benoist def. Matt Riddle via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Ken Stone def. Donny Walker via technical submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:40
Seth Baczynski def. Clay Harvison via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 1:12
T.J. Waldburger def. Mike Stumpf via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 3:52
Robert Peralta def. Mike Lullo via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Justin Edwards def. Jorge Lopez via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Long time WEC competitor Jeff “The Big Frog” Curran (29-12-1) has signed a deal with Strikeforce and plans to fight for the organization on the preliminary card for the big November 7 event at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois that will feature a heavyweight battle between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers.

No opponent has been named for the Chicago-based fighter.

Curran operates his own mixed martial arts gym, Curran Martial Arts, in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He has dropped his last four fights including loses to Mike Brown and Urijah Faber. Curran has competed in all of the major organizations such as the UFC, PRIDE, the IFL, and the WEC throughout his 12 year career.

“The Big Frog” is also scheduled to fight at his XFO event on December 5.

The current lineup for “Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs Rogers” is now:

Main Card

•    Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers

•    Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Jake Shields (for vacant Strikeforce middleweight title)

•    Champ Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (non-title match)

•    Antonio Silva vs. Fabricio Werdum

Preliminary Card

•    Erin Toughill vs. Marloes Coenen (CBS reserve fight)*

•    Jeff Curran vs. TBA*

•    Shamar Bailey vs. John Kolosci*

•    Deray Davis vs. Mark Miller*

•    Jonatas Novaes  vs. Christian Uflacker*

*not officially announced by Strikeforce officials yet

MMA Recap has confirmed with officials close to the event that Deray Davis (5-1-1) will in fact be fighting Mark Miller (9-5) at the November 7 “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers” event.

Davis last fought at “Bellator Fighting Championships 6″ where he lost to Jesse Juarez by technical knock out.  Prior to the loss Davis was on a four fight win streak.

The Chicago based Miller last appeared on season nine of “The Ultimate Fighter” where he was eliminated in the first round after a brutal high kick from Nick Osipczak.  Miller has not had a fight since September of 2008 where he lost to Mike Pierce.  Prior to the loss, Miller was apart of the IFL winning two of his four fights for the promotion.

Strikeforce Fedor vs. Rogers official card now includes:

• Fedor Emilienko vs Brett Rogers
• Jake Shields vs Jason Miller
• Deray Davis vs Mark Miller

 

It’s official.  Strikeforce executive Mike Afromowitz confirmed with MMA Recap (mmarecap.com) that the November 7 event would in fact be taking place at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.  The event is to be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko (30-1) taking on knockout artist, Brett Rogers (10-0) and will feature a co-main event with Jake Shields (23-4-1) moving up to the middleweight division to take on Jason Miller (22-6) for the vacant middleweight title.

Mike Afromowitz stated, “Yes – we have been approved to do the event at Sears Centre outside of Chicago.  Tickets go on sale on Monday morning at 10 a.m.  In addition there will be a presale, beginning on Friday morning and ending Sunday evening, for Strikeforce e-newsletter subscribers.  Fans who sign up for the newsletter will receive the pre-sale code in an email.”

The Sears Centre Arena has played home to other mixed martial arts events in the past including the IFL and Adrenaline MMA.

The main portion of the card will air live on CBS.  This marks the return of MMA to broadcast television since EliteXC folded up in October of 2008.

For more information about Strikeforce and to sign up for their e-newsletter visit www.strikeforce.com