Friday, April 23, 2010

WEC 48: "Aldo vs. Faber" Fun Facts

Tomorrow night the WEC makes the leap from the Versus channel on premium cable to the realm of pay-per-view. Yes, pay-per-view, where money is either made or lost and a promotion finds out if it was a mistake signing Fedor to that million dollar contract. Well, the WEC doesn't have Fedor's price tag to worry about, so there's a possibility it may do okay. Anyway, here's some fun facts that I bet you didn't know!
  • It's widely believed that reigning featherweight champ Jose Aldo is Brazilian, but that's a misconception. He's actually from Staten Island. We can't understand him because his "Guido" accent is so thick.
  • Urijah Faber is descended from a species of aggressive rodent that dates back to the prehistoric era.
  • In his spare time, Mike Brown likes to domestic alligators at his Florida home. The number of alligators he's successfully domesticated? Zero out of twenty attempts.
  • Donald Cerrone's nickname may be "Cowboy", but he hates country music.
  • Lightweight champ Ben Henderson is Dan Henderson's kid from a previous marriage.
  • Anthony Njokuani's last name is actually a shorted version. It was originally Njokuanisngklsejgnbsluenei%2)8s2kii$@.
  • A WEC pay-per-view has less calories than a normal UFC pay-per-view, but it still has that same great Zuffa taste.

April 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings

The April 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites, as well as http://www.independentworldmmarankings.com/.

Much like the Men's Independent World MMA Rankings, which were launched inJune, 2009, the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

In the time since last month's rankings were published, the heads of two of the largest athletic commissions have clarified via e-mail that they use the same names for the weight classes in both men's MMA and women's MMA. For example, 145 pounds is featherweight, whether it's
in men's MMA or women's MMA.

The members of the voting panel for the Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).

April 2010 Women's Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on April 20, 2010

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos (9-1)
2. Erin Toughill (10-2-1)
3. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
4. Gina Carano (7-1)
5. Yuko "Hiroko" Yamanaka (8-1-1)
6. Cindy Dandois (3-0)
7. Shana Olsen (3-0)
8. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
9. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
10. Emily Thompson (3-2)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Roxanne Modafferi (14-5)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
6. Shayna Baszler (11-6)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
9. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
10. Adrienna "AJ" Jenkins (17-3)

Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Sally Krumdiack (7-3)
5. Rin Nakai (6-0)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Monica Lovato (4-1)
8. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Anita Rodriguez (3-1)

Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (19-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
7. Jessica Aguilar (7-3)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Elena Reid (4-1)

The Women's Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until her first fight in the new weight class has taken place.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.