UFC 159: What's Next For The Winners?

UFC 159: What's Next For The Winners
by Chris Houten - @houts4thewin

Jon Jones 

Jones will most-likely be out now for 6 to 8 weeks while his toe heals. From there I'd love to see the Jones vs Silva superfight, but I think its more-likely we will see Jones vs Gustaffson or Machida. 

Personally I want to see Machida have another shot at Jones, purely for selfish reasons because I think Machida has the best chance of beating Jones with the style he employs - see round 1 of their previous fight, but realistically Gustaffson deserves the next shot.  

Michael Bisping

Bisping was simply brilliant on Saturday night. His cardio looked fantastic as always, he looked to be hitting harder than normal, and beat a solid striker in Belcher to the punch everytime. 

Bisping will be taking some time off following his win over Belcher to go under the knife, to correct a trapped nerve in his neck. Following the surgery I think a fight against the winner of Phillipou vs Souza should be next for Bisping. The winner of Bisping vs Phillipou / Souza would have a real claim at a title shot in a division which would be crying out for a challenger should Silva be victorious over Weidman........... if the mysterious superfight does not happen. 

Roy Nelson

According to Dana White, Daniel Cormier is most-likely next for Roy Nelson. 

Not gonna lie, I like it, I like it alot. Cormier's hand speed vs Nelson's one punch KO power, Cormier's wrestling vs Roy Nelson's Jui-Jitsu - awesome fight, end of!  

Phil Davis

Phil Davis' striking looked better than ever on Saturday...... but its still not quite there - yet!

I'd like Davis to fight the winner of Texeria / Te Huna next, with the winner in the mix for a title shot.  

Pat Healy

I was really impressed with Pat Healy on Saturday night, not only did he beat a tough opponent in Jim Miller, he finished him - a feat only previously achieved by Nate Diaz in Jim Millers 27 fights. 

Last week in "Fights to make after Fox 7" I wrote I would like to see Josh Thomson take on the winner of Miller and Healy, and I would still like to see that fight happen. It just makes sense - both guys coming over from Strikeforce, both are coming off impressive finish victories over top 10 UFC lightweights, and both seem hungry to carve a place in the top 10 of the UFC lightweight division.

Cage Warriors 53 - So Good Even My Mrs. Loved It!

Cage Warriors 53 - So Good Even My Mrs. Loved It!

By Chris Houten - @houts4thewin

 

As I sit here with the mid week blues, I can't help but dreaming of the past weekends MMA, and while I should be thinking about the UFC – new TUF champ, new No.1 contender in the womens Bantamweight division, I can't help but think of the excellent show, Europe's finest, Cage Warriors put on.

I am a huge MMA fan, If I'm not writing about it, then I am talking about it, and if I'm not talking about it then its only because no one is around, and I'm most probably thinking about it. As a family man, I usually commit my Saturday nights to my wife – its only fair for the amount of work I do on this website during the week. Now don't get me wrong, I never miss a Cage Warriors event, but because of my commitments – happy wife, happy life after all. I usually end up watching the events back later on, or catching a highlight package. However covering the build up to CW 53 and the team interviewing most of the main card including Jim Alers and Joanne Calderwood, I knew I had to watch this one live.

So I got up on Saturday morning and took myself off to work, with the plan of convincing the Mrs. that watching Cage Warriors 53 live would be much better than the return of BGT. Lunch time rolled around, and I went for it:

Babe, you know I love you don't you? Can we watch @CageWarriors tonight - it would be wrong not to! :) @misshouts, I tweeted so the love of my life could pick it up when it suits her, and carried on with my day, only to receive a tweet back later that read: as long as you bring some yummy snacks home.......the fights better be good!

"Boom, we're on" I thought. I finished work, blasted over to Tesco, picked up as many snacks as I could to keep the little lady happy and headed home. Got in had a couple of games of WWE 13 with the little man (let him win of course......honestly) before tucking him tight in his Super Mario Blanket, and shimmed down the stairs ready for an excellent night with my first love..... and my wife.

We sat down in the living room, with the iMac set up on the coffee table, I dimmed the lights, and once again I was reminded "the fights better be good". Assuring her it would be I clicked the play button on the Cage Warriors website..... damn its not connecting, emergency tweet "anyone else having problems getting the stream going for CW53", couple of refreshes, and we are live.

Before I go any further let it just be known that my Mrs. is a pretty big mma fan, by choice not just on account that she lives with me. 

I make this point as the first fight on the main card - Doolan vs Pennington was a ground battle, and one for us connoisseurs. By now, I'm going to simply presume you have all watched the card so I won't rehash the fight, but I will say it was a cracker. One which we both looked at each other nodded and said good fight.

Next on the card was Seery vs Paul Marin which brought on the debate of who looked harder. Being the son of a potato eating ditch digging paddy from Donegal , I was obviously backing the Irishman, and the Mrs. she was backing the other guy  - I say other guy because I couldn't see past a Seery victory to even consider his opponent. This meant war, for bragging rights............... and for who would do the washing up the next night.

You should have seen my joy when the kick landed - no washing up, no being mocked, no being beaten..... BY A STINKY GIRL, I turned into a big kid, I did a few laps around the coffee table and a victory dance, in fact I think I was more excited with the win than Neil Sheery himself.

We torn on the battle of the Jasons also - Jason Ball vs Jason Cooledge, and lets just say double or nothing proved to be a bad idea, and not for me!

By the time we got to Joanne Calderwood vs Sally Krumdiack my good half was completely buzzing. Before the start of the fight she said to me "who are we supporting in this one" so explained how we want the Scottish girl to win and he began to tell here about her record etc. before being cut off by shouts of "come on  Jo Jo", "Hit her", "go on".

By the end of the night the Mrs. was officially Cage Warriors biggest fan, in fact that much so she was asking when the next event was so we can go. So here's to Cage Warriors, I official salute you! Not only did you put on an excellent event on Saturday, you have have just saved me having to watch Saturday Night TV bullshit, atleast a couple of times this year -well done!