Saturday 28 April 2012

jiMMA is back!


jiMMA has been on hiatus for a few weeks, while I have been trying out staff writing over at a Fansided blog called DocOctagon. Staff writing was fun, but I'm coming back to writing two or three times a week until I get the chance to write for a bigger blog.


Friday 27 April 2012

Jessica Penne vs Lisa Ellis-Ward Preview

Recent History


While Lisa Ellis-Ward has lost her last two fights, those losses were to two of the biggest names in the lower weight classes, Megumi Fujii and Jessica Aguilar.  For this fight, Ellis-Ward drops down to 105 lbs.  Jessica Penne is fighting for the first time since the end of 2010, for which she blames the trickiness of finding appropriate opponents in her weight class.  That fight was a submission victory over Amy Davis.

via womentalksports

Thursday 26 April 2012

Invicta FC One: Coenen vs Ruyssen Preview

Women's MMA is in the spotlight this weekend as all female promotion Invicta Fighting Championships hosts its first ever event.  The event takes place in Kansas and is streamed live through the Invicta FC website.  When you combine a really strong first card with the fact that there is no Bellator or UFC card happening this weekend, the MMA community should really keep their eyes on Invicta this weekend.

via kampfkunst

Monday 23 April 2012

Can Invicta FC Flourish?


This weekend, all-female promotion Invicta Fighting Championships will put on their first event in Kansas. With a weekend free of UFC and Bellator events, a really strong card and the event being streamed for free on the Invicta website, chances are that this event will garner some attention. With women's MMA seemingly on the rise just now, I would like discuss whether a newly started organisation like Invicta has a chance of succeeding and whether such an organisation is preferable to a Zuffa run female MMA organisation.


Sunday 22 April 2012

Jon Jones defeats Rashad Evans, Highlights Video and discussion.


At UFC 145, Jon Jones defeated Rashad Evans to retain his light heavyweight title for the third time. He did so by dominating the next best fighter in the division without getting into any serious trouble. The post fight discussion though, has seen people call the fight disappointing for one of two reasons; it was not exciting enough or Jon Jones did not look great in his win. I think Jones looked fantastic and I was on the edge of my seat all the way through the fight.


Thursday 19 April 2012

UFC 145 - Looking For Upsets

You may have heard that Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight title at UFC 145 against former training partner Rashad Evans, or you might have been living in a cave.  Anyway, it just so happens that this is just the headlining fight of a really interesting card.  It seems like the UFC has decided that since the main event is a sure fire pay-per-view seller, they can fill up the under card with lesser known fighters.  Well that's just fine because as unknown as some of the fighters may be, some intriguing fights are in the offing.  On paper, it seems like a night of fights with pretty clear favourites, so let's have a look where the possible upsets lie.



Wednesday 18 April 2012

Support jiMMA's other bits and pieces!

As well as writing jiMMA, I am also writing articles for MMA magazines and more mainstream news outlets.  Here are a few links to some bits and bobs I have been doing recently.

Huffington Post Blog on UFC 145
The Local article on UFC: Sweden
Contributions at MMAPlus Magazine

Take a look and show plently of love to MMA Plus, it promises to be an awesome, interactive digital publication!

Tuesday 17 April 2012

UFC 145 Jones vs Evans: Love Lost


One of the most anticipated bouts in the UFC's history finally takes place this Saturday as former friends and training partners Jon “Bones” Jones and “Sugar” Rashad Evans fight for the UFC light heavyweight title.


In 2005, a young mixed martial artist with a background in wrestling named Rashad Evans joined Greg Jackson's fight camp in Alburquerque, New Mexico. On the road to winning the light heavyweight belt, he helped build Jackson's gym into one of the most successful and famous in the sport. By 2009, a new young fighter was making waves in the division and Jackson asked Evans how he would feel about inviting Jon Jones into the camp. Evans was excited by the youngster's potential and took him under his wing. The two developed a brotherly relationship and vowed never to fight one another.

Monday 16 April 2012

Another Week, Another Awesome Bellator Card.

Around a month ago, I wrote a quick piece about how excited I was that Bellator was back.  In spite of the postponed and then cancelled heavy weight tournament final catastrophe, Bellator has continued to put on solid cards that repeatedly deliver, to the extent that I wonder why more people aren't watching.  This Friday sees an awesome card, headlined by Eddie Alvarez's long awaited rematch with Shinya Aoki, but also features three tournament semi finals.