Invicta FC 7, WSOF 7, and Hunt vs Bigfoot

Barb Honchak is a rising star in WMMA.

This weekend held many MMA events worth noting.  From Australia, the UFC lead things off and did so with a bang.  Mark Hunt and Antonia "Bigfoot" Silva put on a heavyweight fight for the ages.  While I agree that this was one of the best heavyweight fights of all time, I do not think it belongs in the Fight of the Year conversation.  MMA is more of a "What have you done for me lately?" sport than any other major sport.  People have short memories at times.  I think this fight was boring up until the mid point of the 3rd round.  However, the fight was incredible down the stretch.  I do not think it was nearly as exciting as Melendez/Sanchez, Alvarez/Chandler 2, Wanderlei Silva/Stann, Gustafsson/Jones, or Grice/Bermudez though.  Greatest heavyweight fight?  Maybe.  But not even close to Fight of the Year in my books.  I actually think start to finish that Hunt vs JDS was more entertaining.

Also on that card, Shogun Rua put himself back on the map with a sick KO of the Night against James Te-Huna.  Te-Huna is fun to watch but is now 0-2 in his home country of Australia and will likely never live up to his potential.  Shogun now has options at 205 and 185, but personally I like him fighting at light heavyweight.  I say a rematch with Dan Henderson is in order.  If not that, maybe he would be the perfect guy to take on Rich Franklin in what will be the last fight of Ace's career.  Shogun has never been in a snoozer of a fight so he can continue to be on the big stage so long as he wants to keep fighting.

Ryan Bader had one of the more vicious beatdowns of recent memory with his 1-sided whooping of Anthony Perosh (who needs to retire).  Soa Palelei also made a statement, finishing Pat Barry in the first round.  Barry plans to drop to 205 in the future.  Clint Hester and Dylan Andrews had a fun fight until the shoulder of Andrews popped for the 2nd time in as many fights.  This time he had to stop because of it and took the loss.  Lastly, Bethe Correia won a split decision over Julie Kedzie.  Kedzie is a women's MMA pioneer but she came up short in 2 controversial split decisions in her UFC career.  She retired from fighting saying she has more to offer as a coach than a fighter.  Takeya Mizugaki also had a notable win over Nam Phan on the prelims.

Predictions for UFC FN 33: 4/7

If you are in to the Women's MMA scene, Invicta FC is the organization for you.  They have put on a bunch of great cards and have a plethora of stars on the rise.  In case you missed it, the entire event is available to watch for free online HERE.  I highly recommend you at least check it out.  Carla Esparza's first title defense was cancelled but the 2 other title fights were entertaining and a hugely important fight between Tecia Torres and the always sexy and entertaining Felice Herrig stole the show.  Barb looked great in defending her belt in the main event and Murphy won the vacant 135 pound crown.  Worth noting, Zoila Gurgel was upset by Vanessa Porto in an entertaining scrap as well.  Tecia Torres got called out by Carla Esparza following her win.  It is unknown whether Torres will get a title shot next or if the originally scheduled title fight between Esparza and Claudia Gadelha is still on for a different event.

Predictions for Invicta FC 7: 2/4

WSOF 7 was also a decent card.  I put these events in order of how entertaining they were, so WSOF was last.  However, partial amputee Nick Newell yet again won with a first round submission.  I said he should fight Justin Gaethje for the WSOF Lightweight title next, which he will likely do.  I believe Gaethje has a title fight scheduled with somebody else, but I assume he will win again and him vs Newell should generate a lot of interest.  Jesse Taylor won a snoozer to advance to the vacant WSOF middleweight title fight.  Whoever wins between him and Branch will likely get completely destroyed by Yushin Okami.  Lastly, Georgi Karakhanyan won the vacant featherweight title against Lance Palmer.  While this is a good achievement, he is not on the same level as the top 2 featherweights in Bellator, let alone any of the top 10 UFC featherweights.  This division needs more competition.  WSOF really only has a good lightweight and welterweight division currently.

Predictions for WSOF 7: 3/3

Weekend totals: 9/14
2013 totals: 184/315=58.4%