I swear to you, this flashed on ESPN

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 If you were following the UFC 118 coverage this weekend, there was talk of the Boston Celtics center, "Shaq" Shaquille O'Neil and his love for MMA to help promote the event both locally and nationally. The 38 year old center who is known not only for his sheer size and lengthy basketball career, but his film, music, television and even videogame career. There isn't much that Shaq hasn't done, and he wants MMA to be no different.

Dana White and Shaq have joked about it for well over a year now, with Shaq possibly taking it far more seriously than Dana White has. This weekened saw ESPN even put up a "tale of the tape" on Shaq against the man he has called out multiple times, Hong Man Choi. Shaq has proven that he is truly a fan of the sport and probably more well-watched than most of the fans that tuned into UFC 118 this weekend, as Hong Man Choi is a South Korean fighter whose primary stomping grounds are Japan. James Toney proved a few things this weekend; that there is room for crossover and there is money to be made to crossover. The only road bump for Shaq coming out of this weekend would be the bad taste left in Dana White's mouth after paying James Toney a high six-figures to get taken down and pushed around before being choked out by Randy Couture and doing absolutely nothing in the cage to make the fight competitive.

Shaq's chosen opponent is another hurdle for Shaq's MMA dreams, as Choi's domestic appeal is quite low and he is contracted to FEG, which means you won't see him outside of K-1 or DREAM for the time being. Another problem involving Choi is his medical problems, as he had a benign brain tumor near his pituitary gland and was denied a license to fight Brock Lesnar.

So for Shaq right now, it looks like if he were to fight it would be in Japan or nowhere. Shaq is a big star and would require quite a sum of money to fight, and to put it bluntly, if you search on Google Trends for Shaq, K-1 and Hong Man Choi in Japan, K-1's name alone is far bigger than Shaq's and Choi's name has very little value.

For Shaq it would be in the US or nowhere, and as of right now it simply does not seem like UFC is going to take another risk on a crossover athlete, and at 38, moving through minor leagues seems completely out of the question. So we will just have to keep dreaming of a world where Shaq-Fu is reality.

Riki Fukuda successfully defended his DEEP middleweight title on Friday evening at "DEEP 49 Impact". Photo courtesy of: Daniel Herbertson (Sherdog.com)

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This weekend saw two DEEP titles defended, a former Shooto contender returned to action after a near three-year hiatus, and a couple interesting match-ups announced for DREAM 16 amongst other things. Here's the rundown:

-"DEEP 49 Impact" took place on Friday from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

In the main event, Masakazu Imanari successfully defended his DEEP bantamweight title as he picked up a unanimous decision victory over Tomoya Miyashita. This was Imanari's fourth consecutive victory following a loss to current DREAM champion, Bibiano Fernandes, in the quarter finals of the DREAM featherweight grand prix last year.

In the co-main event, Riki Fukuda defeated PRIDE veteran, Ryuta Sakurai, for the third time in his career. Fukuda unleashed a barrage of uppercuts and knees in the second round which sent Sakurai rolling out of the ring onto the floor, which prompted the referee to stop the fight.

-"Nitro MMA" held their first show on Friday from the Chandler Arena in Chandler, Queensland, Australia.

Cage Force veteran, Seiji Otsuka, spoiled the return of former Shooto bantamweight contender, Daniel Lima. Lima hadn't fought since September of 2007 in a split decision win over WEC veteran, Kenji Osawa. This was also Lima's debut at 125 pounds. Otsuka took home a split-decision victory over the home-town favorite.

Daisuke Nakamura picked up his second straight victory with a first round armbar submission over Australian, Jai Bradney. Prior to this bout, Nakamura had defeated Ganjo Tentsuku on the ASTRA card in April. There's no word on where Nakamura will show up next as he has competed everywhere from Strikeforce to M-1 to DREAM in the last few years.

-Japan's best 145 pound women's fighter, Hiroko Yamanaka, was in action on Sunday at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Yamanaka defeated debuting kickboxer, Sandy Furner, via forearm choke submission in the first round of their fight at a Shoot Boxing event. This bout was the only one on the card with MMA rules.

-Flyweight prospect, Fumihiro Kitahara defeated Hiroyuki Tanaka via rear naked choke submission in the second round at "Shooto- Gig North 4". The top-ten ranked, Kitahara improved to 9-1-1 on Sunday at the Zepp Sapporo in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

(DREAM fight announcements after the jump)

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Tonight saw what could possibly be seen as the definitive end of an era in MMA, and that is the end of BJ Penn's dominance at Lightweight, which has spanned an on-again-off-again seven years or so. BJ has jumped organizations and weight classes in those seven years before settling into UFC's Lightweight division dispensing with former nemesis Jens Pulver and defeating Joe Stevenson in brutal fashion for the vacant UFC Lightweight Championship. After a brief foray into the Welterweight division when he looked unstoppable, BJ was mentally and physically handled by champion Georges St. Pierre. He had a lot to prove, both to himself an the world, when he decided to defend his Lightweight championship again, and he did so in crushing displays of domination against worthy contenders Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez. His defeat of Sanchez was so crushing that it made Sanchez move back up in weight and forget about the Lightweight domination he planned.

So how does one explain BJ Penn, the greatest Lightweight in the brief history of Mixed Martial Arts getting defeated twice in a row by a fighter who for all intents and purposes could be fighting at Featherweight? We still work with very conventional wisdom when it comes to weight in MMA; if you aren't having luck at your current weight, you cut down a weight class. If you are too tired for that lower weight class, you bulk up to the one above. Frankie Edgar was told by many that he should consider moving down in weight before his astounding run in UFC's Lightweight division, and many predicted after Penn destroyed Edgar that would be where he moves to. The first bout was heavily contested, maybe it was bad judging and maybe takedowns are overrated by judges.

The second bout left nothing to question, as Edgar completely dominated Baby Jay Penn regardless of the possible excuses we hear in the coming months before Penn fights again. My cohort Jonathan Snowden argues that BJ Penn is overrated by many, making some valid arguments to that effect. I say that in modern MMA we are way too quick to write off fighters who show utter domination against great competition but when faced with a challenge end up on an often confusing end of the domination scale. It is enough to make your head spin if you attempt to figure out the logistics of this; if BJ Penn dominated Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson and was able to move up in weight and defeat a then-indestructible Matt Hughes, that means that Frankie Edgar is better than those fighters, right?

Simply stated, no. That is not how MMA works and a pitfall that many fans find themselves trapped in. Every fighter has styles that they simply cannot figure out. King Mo made this complaint after he defeated Gegard Mousasi in Strikeforce; why all of a sudden are people clamoring that Gegard Mousasi is not a great fighter, but if he defeated Mo he would be one of the best? When Shinya Aoki was dominated by Gilbert Melendez he was completely written off (as was most of Japan, sadly) and considered irrelevant. Many are right now doubting how legitimately good Anderson Silva is after Chael Sonnen used his wrestling to keep Silva on his back for the better part of 24 minutes. In the same Sonnen-related vein, many have written off top Middleweight Nate Marquardt for being outwrestled against Sonnen. 

Frankie Edgar knew how to hurt BJ Penn, and for once, a fighter who was smaller but was able to use that lack of size to his advantage in the way of speed. Edgar is a rare occasion where he is small for the weight class, but his sheer strength helps even things out, as his takedowns are lightning fast and strong. The "small" Edgar was even able to pick Penn up and slam him to the canvas. Edgar's speed was able to help him set up the takedowns and keep him away from Penn's educated hands, his wrestling and strength was able to take BJ down and keep him from gaining advantageous positions. To put it in simple terms, Frankie Edgar has the stylistic answer to the riddle of BJ Penn.

When it comes to Edgar's next challenge, Gray Maynard, it is the one man who has ever beaten him, and not only was he beaten, but nearly dominated by Maynard. This doesn't mean that Maynard could defeat Penn by default as much as it means at the time, Maynard has the solution to Edgar's riddle. We'll have to see how the rematch goes, and as for BJ Penn, don't write him off just yet, he still has some fight in him.

SBN coverage of UFC 118: Edgar vs. Penn 2

Rafael Cavalcante stuns the former Champion with a knee strike

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Strikeforce are an organization that have many small mistakes, but all of them keep adding up.

This past Saturday night Strikeforce hosted their 37th event from the Toyota Centre in Houston, Texas -- the event was headlined by both the middleweight and light-heavyweight straps on the line.

This time around Scott Coker got lucky and both bouts did not go to a decision, but if both bouts made it to the 25 minute mark would this be over kill?

Just four months prior to this event Strikeforce hosted their Nashville event which was headlined by a whopping three title fights which all went the distance clocking in at 75 minutes of bell to bell action.

As a fan watching the show I felt like it was too much for one event -- although each bout was entertaining it just felt like too much being thrown at your television in an attempt to get some viewership.

I can completely understand wanting to put on a compelling fight card for your audience but having more than one title fight on a show is just too many in my humble opinion.

Lets look at it from this angle, if a loyal and passionate follower of the sport is finding it too much for one sitting, how many of the casual viewers are going to stick around and how many are going to start flipping channels?

I realize that Strikeforce are a growing organization and have time to improve and learn from their mistakes but that's the key, are they learning from their mistakes?

I am sure I am not the only one out there who felt burnt out after watching April's Strikeforce: Nashville card from top to bottom, much like there would be many who would have felt the same way if King Mo didn't fall to Rafael Cavalcante at the beginning of the third round this past Saturday.

As well as burning out your audience your essentially throwing all your eggs in one basket with two compelling title fights on one card it doesn't create as much of a buzz around each title bout.

I don't want to seem like I'm bashing Strikeforce right now because that is not my intention, I have watched them grow for many years and I will continue to tune in but they are making all the mistakes in the book which are all adding up in the long run.

whether it be announcing tournaments that you don't follow through with or burning out your audience, Strikeforce are coming off looking like a second rate UFC organization which is not where they want to be right now.

Personally, I think these are all mistakes that Strikeforce can learn from and move forward as a better MMA promotion -- if you look to the early days of the UFC they made countless mistakes by promoting bouts essentially as death matches and today is a worldwide phenomenon.

Tim Kennedy following a cut sustained during the bout

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When it was announced that the vacant Strikeforce Middleweight Championship will be up for grabs in a bout between Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza disappointment struck keyboard warriors from all over the world.

Ronaldo Souza, better known by his nickname "Jacare" is an accomplished Brazilian-Jiu Jitsu black belt. Many would argue he is the best grappler on the planet. Many considered him a heavy favourite to win gold in the United States upon his arrival.

Tim Kennedy, on the other hand, may not have been blessed with the god-given talent like his opponent but has shown that hard work will get you a long way. The native of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, juggled his time in the military with training to become the well-rounded mixed martial artist that we see today.

Recently, Kennedy decided it was time to put his military commitments aside and focus all his efforts on becoming a Champion.

Leading into his bout with Souza, not too many gave his a chance against the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Champion. I also believed Souza would walk back to the dressing room with that ten pounds of gold before it entered the championship rounds.

But Tim Kennedy entered the Strikeforce cage with the intent of proving the world wrong and fulfilling his life long dream of becoming a Champion. Throughout the fight Kennedy landed more strikes than Souza and actually took the accomplished grappler down to the mat on two separate occasions.

Following five rounds of explosive action, it was Souza's hand that was raised to the dismay of the Houston, Texas, crowd. They wanted their American soldier to leave victorious.

I cannot speak for the rest of the fight community, but Kennedy impressed me with his performance just hours ago.

In his past four victories, Kennedy has shown a well rounded skill set and a lot of promise for his future. Against Souza he showed the world that he has the heart of a champion and will be looking to get right back into the title mix.

Photo courtesy of Fightmagazine.com. Photo taken by Paul Thatcher.

SBN coverage of WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez

Wednesday night, Anthony "Showtime" Pettis took on Shane Roller at WEC 50. Many assume that the fight was a number one contender fight for a shot at champion Benson Henderson later this year.

Going into the fight, there were a few things we knew for sure. The first was that Pettis was definitely the better striker. He has five knockouts to his name and is known for his exciting and unorthodox style. Not to mention the fact that he trains with Duke Roufus and the boys at Roufusport.

The other thing we knew was that Shane Roller was going to have the wrestling advantage. After all, he is a three time All-American wrestler from Oklahoma State, one of the most prestigious wrestling programs in the United States.

As you likely know by now, things did not go as planned for Roller on Wednesday night. It more likely resembled a nightmare in fact as no matter what he attempted, he could not implement his game plan and get the fight to the mat. When he did eventually get the fight to the mat, he was quickly and easily reversed.

Instead of landing takedowns, passing guard and adding another submission, Roller spent much of the fight taking strikes and having his takedowns blocked.  

So what gave Pettis such as advantage over Roller?

The first and perhaps most important factor was his knowledge of Roller’s game and what he brought to the table. Roller doesn’t hide the fact that he plans on taking his opponents down and beating them up from there, and Pettis took advantage of this. Going up against Roller or any other Division I wrestler, preparations should obviously include a healthy dose of wrestling.  

To help prepare for this facet of the fight, Pettis brought in Bellator welterweight contender and former Olympic wrestler Ben Askren. To me, this was the perfect choice for many different reasons. The fact that Askren wrestled at 174lb. and fights at 170lb. makes him larger than any lightweight opponent Pettis will face. By training with a large wrestler, Pettis came into the fight against Roller prepared for his grip strength and takedown ability, both pertinent parts of Roller’s game.

The other major factor is positional training and cage knowledge. This goes deeper than just blocking takedowns and was a major contributor to the success Pettis had. With Roller constantly pressing forward, Pettis kept his back to the cage for most of the fight, using it to stop takedowns and eventually wear Roller out, much the same way B.J Penn did to Kenny Florian in their championship bout at UFC 101.

It became obvious that Pettis had trained for having his back up against the cage with his ability to rotate out of the position and in numerous instances, take Roller down himself. Late in the second round when Roller finally got the mount, Pettis gripped the cage with his feet and flipped the position over. This can be directly attributed to Pettis knowing where he was in the cage, and how to use his surroundings to get out of the precarious position.

This was specific fight training at its best. With the evolution of the sport it is pertinent for every fighter at the top level to study their opponent and know what is being brought to the table.

Simply put, Anthony Pettis didn’t train to fight, he trained to fight Shane Roller, and this is something that is going to continue to be a theme in mixed martial arts for the foreseeable future. 

Gina Carano vs. Cris Santos - the most recognisable women's MMA bout

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As a loaded weekend of mixed martial arts action came to a close, we look back and what do we all remember? Was it the exciting action put forward by the 135-lbs girls on the Strikeforce card? Or was it the return to American soil of the pound-for-pound queen of women's MMA?

For many of you out there the answer to this will be "No." Following the conclusion of the Strikeforce event I visited various fight communities expecting to read about the heart displayed by Miesha Tate or the slick submission attempts by Hitomi Akano.

Instead what I found were a series of discussions relating to the attractive features of the likes of Meisha Tate and Carina Damm.

What ever happened to respecting female athletes for their god-given ability to compete? But the MMA community are not alone—in every sport women are objectified and treated as lesser than their male counter parts.

But these women don't just fight for the respect of the fight community, they fight for a living—this is how they support their families and put food on their tables.

Let's look back to the most recent UFC pay-per-view, UFC 117 headlined by Anderson Silva defending his UFC middleweight title against Chael Sonnen. Silva left with $200,000 and Hughes left with $300,000 following his submission of the night bonus.

The lowest paid athletes on that show were Todd Brown, Christian Morecraft and Rodney Wallace who each left with a comfortable $6,000 for their losing efforts.

Now if we look at this past weekends Strikeforce: Challengers 10 event, the winner of the women's welterweight tournament Miesha Tate had to compete twice on that event to get the biggest pay day of her career, $18,000.

Mixed martial arts veteran Joe Riggs earned just $3,000 less than the top ten ranked 135-pound Tate for his lackluster unanimous decision victory over Louis Taylor.

The highest paid female combatant was Gina Carano for her first round TKO loss to Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos who picked up a whopping $125,000 for her headlining appearance in 2009.

And what is keeping woman's salaries so low in the MMA world? There are a number of answers to this question but it comes down to two main points.

1. The UFC does not host women's mixed martial arts bouts—it's no secret that the UFC are the biggest MMA organization on the planet, so much so that new comers to the sport tend to believe that the sport is called UFC.

Since they are the biggest organization out there, accordingly they are the organization that will pay out the highest salaries.

Now I am not arguing that if a women's division were added to the UFC line-up that we would see girls leaving with $400,000 salaries; however, it is more likely that they will be making bigger earnings working for the franchise of MMA.

2. Take it or leave it—it's a familiar story amongst female MMA fighters. They are placed in a situation where they can take a salary of as little as $1,500 for their months of hard work and training as well as their performance on the night, or they can not fight at all.

It might seem harsh,but promoters want to make as much money as they can so they have the opportunity to return to that venue, thus they will take advantage of the knowledge that women don't have many opportunities to compete and will do so for little money.

With EliteXC now out of the picture, the highest paying promoter out there for women in North America is Scott Coker and Strikeforce—the only issue with Strikeforce is they do not run events featuring women on a regular basis.

"Mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in the world," are the words that have come out of the mouth of Dana White and keyboard warriors all over the world, as the sport evolves we all need to accept that these are women, but they are also trained professionals who compete at the highest level possible.

These girls train just as hard as the men, usually right alongside them, and when it comes time for them to perform they make a habit of stealing the show. Why should these athletes do this for so little income and respect from the people who are supposed to support them?