MMA You Want To Watch This Week 10/11 - 10/17

(Yes, that is Sexyama Akiyama.  Ad by Nike)

I'm getting off to a slow start this morning, between the usual "Oh, crap, it's Monday again" mood that hit when I rolled out of bed, then watching/listening to @chokewho's UFC 120 predictions, then finding out that the rumored and wished for Guida/Gomi match is actually going to happen...  a lot to process when I'm only on my third cup of coffee on the first day of the work week.  But there are fights this week, fights we all want to watch (and they're free!!!), so here we go...

There are only two events happening this week.  In honor of one of them, UFC 120, I decided to give you the pic of Yoshihiro Akiyama above.  Personally, he's not really my type (though a very nice body), but I thought that pic was pretty fantastic.  He's no Babalu though.

Bellator 32

Kansas City, MO

Thursday, October 14, 8pm, FSN 

The big fight (pun intended) on this card is the heavyweight title match: Cole Konrad vs. Neil Grove.  Grove has given us by far the most exciting heavyweight fights this season, ending both of his previous Bellator tourney fights in the first round - defeating first Eddie Sanchez, then Alexey Oleinik, by TKO.   And you may not know that Grove holds a win over James McSweeney back in 2008.  But what we don't know is what his ground game looks like, or how his gas tank is - he's 10-2, and none of his wins made it to the 3rd round.  Konrad, on the other hand, while he is 6-0, won 4 of those fights by decision.  He's a training partner of Brock Lesnar and is (sigh) a wrestler.  Not a Ben Askren kind of wrestler, or a wrestler who has bothered to learn some submissions,  but the smothering, lay and pray kind.  He's pretty new to MMA though, and hopefully he will evolve and become more well - rounded.  This fight has the potential to be exciting (first round KO/TKO) or another in a string of ho-hum bouts the like of which have plagued the entire heavyweight tourney.  

UFC 120: Bisping vs. Akiyama

London, England

Saturday, October 16, 8pm, Spike

There are several good fighters on this card, and that means several good fights.  However, I'm only going to focus on the main and co-main events, since if those don't convince you to watch, nothing will.

 First of all, Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit.  Condit lost his UFC debut against Martin Kampmann, but came back with wins over Jake Ellenberger and Rory MacDonald.  He's 25-5 right now, and I really think that this will be his toughest fight to date.  Dan Hardy (23-7) just lost to Georges St. Pierre back in March, but hey, a loss to GSP is like a loss to Anderson Silva - nothing to be ashamed of.   I'm looking forward to this fight, Hardy is always exciting to watch and Condit's last second TKO win over MacDonald was incredible (Rory himself was pretty impressive in that fight, but I digress...). 

Then, we have the main event - Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama.  My hubby and brother-in-law picked up a nickname for Bisping (not sure where it came from).  They call him Pillowfists McTeatime.  Now, while I'm not a Bisping fan at all after his season coaching TUF, I'm not sure I think that nickname is fair.  It's been awhile but the man does have a couple of KO victories on his record.  But the big deal here is that he's fighting on his home turf, and he has never lost a fight in England.  He's also going to want to put on a show for the home crowd.   Akiyama, on the other hand, is coming off a loss to Chris Leben, who only took that fight on two weeks' notice.  They won Fight of the Night for that bout, and Akiyama also picked up FotN honors in his UFC debut (and win) against Alan Belcher.  He's going to be looking to redeem himself here, not to mention earn another FotN.   So this has all the makings of a great fight.

And if, for some reason you profess to be uninspired and unimpressed with this UFC card, let me remind you of one very important fact:  IT'S FREE.   No $50 PPV this time.  Plus, it's in the UK, so the chances of having to hear the more imbecilic of American fans chanting "USA!" and generally embarrassing the rest of us are slim to none.  Instead we'll get to hear the UK fans turn the tables on us and probably be just as embarrassing.  :)