MMA You Want To Watch This Week 8/30 - 9/5

I realize that all of us are still trying to wrap our heads around UFC 118 this morning.  Whether you're more awed by the fact that  1) the body snatchers apparently got Florian as well as Penn,  2) Toney tapped rather than let Randy put him to sleep,  3) Edgar proved that he's the one fighter BJ is not going to ever beat, or  4) Lauzon saved Tokyo destroyed Godzilla, it was a lot to take in.  But it's time to move on.  There are other fights to see this week, so let's discuss those now.

Actually, this is a relatively quiet week as far as MMA goes.   The only thing saving us from a long, boring, fight-less week is Bellator.  And this one should be crazy, folks.

Bellator XXVII

San Antonio, TX

Thursday, September 2nd, 8pm, FSN

I'll be the first to admit it, the heavyweight tournament fights so far have been pretty damned boring.  If you agree with me, then you're going to love this card.  The four fights we'll be watching Thursday are 3 - yes, 3 - bantamweight tourney quarterfinal bouts, and the featherweight championship fight.  We know that bantamweight fights often get crazy, and Bellator is giving us 3 in one night.  How's that for awesome?

We'll look at the bantamweight fighters in more depth later this week, so I'll just run over the matchups real quick.  We've got Ulysses Gomez (10-1) vs. Travis Reddinger (14-2), Bryan Goldsby (12-11) vs. Ed West (13-4), and Nik Mamalis (10-4) vs. Zach Makovsky (9-2).  All of these fights have the potential to be insane.  But the big news on Thursday isn't going to be the 135 tournament, because we're going to be seeing a championship fight.

Joe Soto is the reigning featherweight champion right now.  He is undefeated.  9-0 so far, and of those 9 victories, only one has gone to a decision.  Why is that noteworthy?  Because Soto is a wrestler.  In fact, he wrestled alongside Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez in college.  But he obviously does all he can to finish fights, not just grind out a decision win. 

Joe Warren, on the other hand, is a wrestler who is 5-1 and only one of his wins didn't go to the judges.  He competed in the DREAM featherweight GP last year and made it to the final, only to be armbarred by Bibiano Fernandes.  I will note quickly that the one win that wasn't a decision was a TKO, the doctor stopped the fight due to a cut on his opponent.  

So here we have two wrestlers going 5 rounds for the belt, but I'm pretty sure this won't be another boring lay and pray snoozefest.  Even when it goes to the ground, these guys aren't going to just sit there.  They'll more than likely be working the whole time.  It should be a great fight and I hope you'll be right here, watching it with me.  :)

Friday night is another good one on HDNet.  At 8pm, a quick look at DREAM 5, featuring current Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez, Kawajiri, Aoki, and Joachim Hansen.  8:30, Mike Straka is talking to Greg Jackson and Ross Pearson.  9pm, Inside MMA (BAS!) has Bellator middleweight champ Hector Lombard on the panel.  Then at 10, there is kickboxing that you MUST watch -  Best of K-1 World MAX vol. 2.  Seriously, if you have never watched kickboxing before, give it a shot.  You will love it.  Do it for me?  Please?  I promise you won't regret it!