As MMA evolves, the received wisdom is that the effective, well-rounded fighter should study martial arts that teach striking, wrestling and submission grappling. In light of this and for historical reasons, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Wrestling have become the favorite styles of many aspiring cage warriors. But to the knowledgable martial artist, there seems to be a weird superfluity in this recipe: Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu appear to teach overlapping skills. So does the martial artist who wants to streamline his focus really need both, or is one of these arts superfluous?

The answer is that a martial artist does not need both, because one of them is as superfluous as a truck-stop hooker's PhD. That art is Wrestling, an art that as currently taught is inferior to Judo or Jiu-Jitsu in fighting effectiveness, range of applicable skills, and practical efficiency.

In fact, Wrestling is only still being taught or recommended in MMA because the first crop of UFC fighters (who were very influential on the evolution of its culture and training methods) were drawn largely from American Collegiate Wrestling backgrounds. Due to their emotional attachment to their first sport and natural tendency to teach and promote what they knew, they have been reluctant to admit that wrestling became redundant when Jiu-Jitsu became an MMA staple. Let me explain why it did.

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Us maniacs are a special people. We cant just have normal days coming across normal people whom lead normal lives. We need stimulation.

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*Consider this a refuge from the dead horse that is Condit - Diaz*

Maniacs,

I need your selections for QOTW!

Remember that the criteria are : the quote must be funny/witty and it must be relevant to the MMA topic at hand.

Instructions:

Step 1 - Copy and paste your choices in the thread.

Step 2 - Rec the suggestions in the thread.

For example : Poster X copied and pasted Poster Y's comment as a candidiate. If you agree that Poster Y's comment is funny then you would rec Poster X's suggestion. That's it.

The top 5 suggestions with the most recs will be featured.

This article was originally published at JIMMA.

The UFC's first event on Fuel is happening this Wednesday night and features an important bout between Jake Ellengerger and Diego Sanchez. Jake Ellenberger has been making waves in the division and is seen by many as one of the pack pushing for a title shot, should Carlos Condit decide to defend his belt without waiting for the return of Georges Saint-Pierre. Diego Sanchez is an interesting character with a non-stop aggressive style. In recent years he has been battling various demons in his life and his nickname change from "The Nightmare" to "The Dream" is supposed to represent a changed man. Either way, this is one of those fights where to powerful forces collide and the consequence will surely be an explosion.

UFC on FUEL TV: Sanchez vs. Ellenberger (LIVE) 2.15.12 (via fueltv)

Recent History

• Diego Sanchez has had two Fight of the Night victories in a row, most recently against Martin Kampman.

• Ellenberger is on an impressive 5 fight win streak, including a huge scalp in Jake Shields.

Styles

Ellenberger is massive at 170lb. He has an immensely powerful wrestling style and manages to bully most other fighters. In recent years he has shown a diverse and powerful striking skill set too, as we saw with his brutal knockouts of Jake Shields and Mike Pyle.

Diego Sanchez has one of the most famously intense styles of fighting in MMA today. He pushes a pace that almost nobody can deal with and is wild and almost reckless in his aggression. He is on a bit of a decision streak at the moment, going the distance in his last three fights, but his fights are exciting nevertheless. Sanchez is an accomplished wrestler and submission grappler and loves to use those skills to control a fight, but he is just as likely to use his wrestling to keep the fight standing for a brutal scrap.

Head to Head

Jake Ellenberger's nickname is the juggernaut and it is pretty appropriate. When he is moving forward he is nigh on impossible to stop. Sanchez is something of an indomitable force himself and that is what makes this fight so interesting and exciting. Sanchez has an unstoppable pace and intensity and Ellenberger has unstoppable power and physical domination.

With Ellenberger the bigger, stronger fighter, it may well be him who manages to dominate the wrestling and clinching. For Sanchez, the key will be staying on the feet and attempting to pick Ellenberger apart with sharp boxing. That is where Sanchez will have a problem. He loves to move forward and make fights messy. I wonder if he will have the discipline to stay away from Ellenberger's big bombs and powerful wrestling and I wonder whether he has the skills and footwork too.

To me, it seems like Ellenberger is a huge favourite as he is likely to be the one who controls where the fight takes place and the pace of the action. This more or less takes away Sanchez's main advantage.

Prediction

Ellenberger will dominate but Sanchez is tough to put away. Ellenberger by unanimous decision.

via t1.gstatic.com

The verbatim transcripts you are about to read reveal the intricate behind the scenes communications between Dana White and the various parties involved.

Pause.

It is all a product of my imagination. No phones were hacked, no privacy invasions were committed, I don't know any of these anonymous people, and any resemblance with actual phone conversations would be purely coincidental.

It's a waste of time to you but it's mma related and I get to put my sentence structures and grammar to test. Flag me.

Pause.

Bitches.

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I want to start out by saying that MMA is my favorite sport behind American Football. I have been watching since I worked at Movie Mania and borrowed/stole all the stores UFC vhs tapes, watched all of them over and over again showing all my friends how awesome this shit was. I have enjoyed watching the old Pride fights. I have enjoyed watching the first few seasons of TUF. I have enjoyed watching Matt Hughes, Franklin, Tito, Randy,Bj, introduce the general public to the UFC. I enjoyed watching GSP dethrone the long time champ in Hughes. The Spider destroying Franklin. And of course Chuck Liddells run as baddest man on earth. Then something happened……….

It seemed to be a good thing. MMA/UFC was bringing the sport mainstream. I was excited, still am excited. But now guys seem to be afraid to fight. Make that they r afraid to lose. It has become all about out pointing the opponent. Greg Jackson’s camp is the one who has become the leader of game planning and doing just enough to outpoint the opponent. Now is it smart and does it work, hell fucking yes this shit works. I get why u would do it, cause a win is a win and another win moves u up one more notch in the division. But damn this shit is getting boring!

I am also sick of the scoring debate. 10-9/ no it was a 10-8 round, Diaz was robbed, Bisping won not Chael. The scoring is just flat out STUPID. A 10-9 system was designed for boxing, not MMA. When r we gonna come up with a solution.? Im also sick of oh he was the aggressor, he walked him down. Dude, just because one guy stalks and initiates does not mean he is controlling the octagaon (Lenorard Garia comes to mind for this point). Im also sick of, oh he got the takedown he deserves to win that round. Even though the guy got up a half a second later after the takedown. U have to do something with the takedown. Also tired of guys gassing. Penn, Hendo, shogun, wiedman, Johnson, etc. I don’t care why u r gassing, don’t gas, u r a professional athlete.

I also feel there r to many cards. The top talent is spread out to thin. Don’t get me wrong I love watching MMA all the time. Recently we got like 4 weeks str8 with MMA on tv. But that has made the cards weaker. I miss the old days of stacked cards. I miss watching cards like 112. That card had the Spider, Maia, Penn, Edgar, Hughes, Gracie, Story, Phil Davis, Munoz, all on that card. The cards now have questionable Main event fights. Anyone else getting fed up with all this stuff?????

I don’t have the answer but here are some suggestions, feel free to tweak, discuss, make fun of cause I know there will be people who will.

First, how about making fights 5, 3 minute rounds. The fight will still be 15 minutes, but making rounds shorter would make guys less hesitant to go for something big. For example, A really good striker can let loose not fearing a takedown, cause in a 5 round fight they can afford to lose a round or 2 because they got aggresive and maybe got taken down and sat on for the entire round. The BJJ guy can throw a slick risky sub attempt not having to fear again getting put in a bad position and losing round cause guy just sat on them for rest of round. In a 3 round fight if u lose 1 round cause u went for something and then got stuck being on your back, well now u have to post a shutout the last 2 rounds just to win the fight. Or heaven forbid u get a point taken away for something. Damn your fight is pretty much over in a 3 round fight. I think 5 rounds will help some of these issues. Not to mention a few more rounds means a few more minutes in a fight between rounds to catch a blow.

2nd, we need to figure out how to score and judge fights. Just cause a guy is the aggressor does not mean he is winning a close round. Leonard Garcia is a perfect example that just because u r aggressor u should be win a close round. Some guys r counter fighters, its not their style to walk down an opponent. They should not get penalized for for proper footwork and using angles to manuver around the cage. Scoring also needs to be tweaked. Judging takedowns, leg kicks, sub attempts, improving position, etc. How do u score it? Everyone scores it different and that leads to the huge problem we have now with all the inconsistent judging. I don’t think the judges r stupid, I think they like all of us don’t have a correct way to score a fight, therefore must make guess work out of close rounds. Look on this website, the message boards r like 50-50 on who wont the Condit-Diaz fight. Does that make us stupid or does it put us in the same boat as the judges. Meaning different eyes or mindsets dictate who wins a close fight. The 10-9 does not work and taking points away in a 3 round fight is also stupid. U cant make it up in 3 rounds. In a 12 round fight like boxing a point deduction does not mean as much. So as far as taking points needs to be looked at as well.

I also want the TUF shows to concentrate on the talent in the house. I don’t care who is coaching if the guys in the house blow. I want to see ready to fight in the UFC prospects on the show. That means paying more money to guys on the show maybe. Giving the winners bigger than that bullshit 6 figure contract spreadout thru like 6-8 fights. Last season was better and I hope new the format changes help this next season.

The last thing I don’t have a suggestion on how to fix. So I will just say I miss, the all out wars in the cage. I don’t care to watch the point fighting that has become the standard lately in the UFC. Maybe this is just due to lack of top notch fighters fighting on every card. Or maybe its that the talent is so much better these days that they just offset each other in the cage. Whatever the reason, I just hope these kind of fights find their way back to MMA more often.

There is so much more I would like to discuss and debate. However I don't want to ramble on anymore than I just did. So I will leave it up to u Mania, to discuss and debate how we can make one of our favorite sports better. And if u r gonna get on here and pick apart my writing flaws and poor grammar, save it, I dont care. I just want to discuss ways to make MMA better.

This isn't a list of fighters who I think are contenders for the belt in their respective weight divisions any time soon. Nor does it include any fighters who have really faced any serious competition yet. So that means incredible prospects like Rory MacDonald, Renan Barao, and Michael McDonald who have proven their mettle and stepped up to steeper competition won't be listed.

These are guys just flying onto the radar now, either with a dramatic entrance to the UFC, or by virtue of their absolute dominance on the undercards. I'm sure there are many notable mentions, including 23-year-old Ronny Markes who is fighting in three days time, but you can add those in the comments if you like.

6. Nick Denis, Canada

Division: Bantamweight
Age: 28
Disciplines: Black belt in Kyokushin karate, purple belt in Brazilian Jujitsu
Record: 11-2, 10 by knockout
Last Fight: Jan. 20, 2012, won by KO at 0:22 of round 1
Next Fight: Unknown

You don't make an entrance into the UFC more dramatically than Nick Denis did, more impressive because of the fact that he brutally knocked out his opponent in a division that only sees about a half dozen knockouts in a single year. Denis knocked out 6-1 Joseph Sandoval in just 22 seconds, using vicious elbows to the head at close range, which added his tenth knockout victim of his career.

A black belt in karate, Denis brings heavy power to the bantamweight division that's supplemented with a respectable ground game in not only the Brazilian pastime, but wrestling as well. Denis was 5-0 at bantamweight, winning the Canadian KOTC championship before jumping to featherweight and going 4-2. Since dropping back down he has added two more wins to his undefeated record at that weight.

Denis should face a much more serious challenge on an undercard now. An Yves Jabouin or even an Eddie Wineland sounds about right (although the UFC might not throw a winner against a guy on a two-fight losing streak).

via assets.sbnation.com

5. Paul Sass, England

Division: Lightweight
Age: 23
Disciplines: Brown belt in Brazilian Jujitsu
Record: 12-0, 11 by submission
Last Fight: Oct. 1, 2011, won by submission (heel hook) at 3:00 of round 1
Next Fight: Was scheduled to fight Evan Dunham Jan. 28 but was injured

Let's face it, Paul Sass might just have the worst standup in the Lightweight division. But it doesn't matter. He will submit you. Since entering the UFC he has two first round submissions, including a heel hook over TUF alum Michael Johnson, displaying an incredible amount of patience before sneaking in the hold.

Sass also holds a notable submission over fellow Brit Jason Young, expected to face Akira Corassani in Sweden. Another weird jujitsu prodigy who fights well above his belt colour, Sass has a diversity of ways to finish guys: 7 triangle chokes, 3 heel hooks, and an armbar. He's been to the judges only once, winning a split decision over BAMMA lightweight champion Rob Sinclair in 2009. With 10 first round finishes, Sass is no slouch.

Although scheduled to take a huge jump in competition against Evan Dunham, he was sidelined with an injury and replaced with Nik Lentz, who got mauled. An opponent of similar depth would be nice to see, like a Jacob Volkmann where his grappling would be tested, or a TJ Grant.

via cdn0.sbnation.com

4. Diego Brandao, Brazil

Division: Featherweight
Age: 24
Disciplines: Black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu
Record: 14-7, 8 by knockout
Last Fight: Dec. 3, 2011, won by submission (armbar) at 4:51 of round 1
Next Fight: unknown

Let's face it, Brandao may be a dark horse but he's a hell of a wild ride. His slick submission in the first round of the TUF Finale 14 against Dennis Bermudez was as quick as it was surprising. This isn't just a guy who goes headhunting with his wild punches, but a man who can finish a fight instantly on the ground. His transition into the armbar was as quick as any I've seen before.

Brandao may be 4-0 since his previous loss in May of 2010, but he has a history of being tagged. As well as being nearly knocked out by Bermudez, he has been put to sleep or had the referee step in to stop the beating on four occasions. And although his wild style is electrifying to watch, it's also frightening to think what might happen if he meets a technical fighter like a Dustin Poirier.

Let's find out. Dynamic striker and WEC alum Cub Swanson is coming off a beatdown of George Roop. It would certainly test where Brandao is in the pecking order of things.

3. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Russia

Division: Lightweight
Age: 23
Disciplines: International master of sports in combat sambo
Record: 17-0
Last Fight: Jan. 20, 2012, won by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:08 of round 3
Next Fight: unknown

When Khabib entered the UFC and absolutely floored WEC veteran Kamal Shalorus with an uppercut in the first round, he made a dramatic announcement in the stacked UFC lightweight division. Finishing the notoriously tough Shalorus a few seconds quicker than Jim Miller, widely considered a top-five ranked lightweight, means that Khabib is for real.

As others have said before, Khabib is a well-rounded fighter with ridiculous power and quick attacks. He has wrestling, jujitsu, sambo and boxing and can beat a fighter in any of those areas. Although he looked a little tentative in his first UFC fight, let me reiterate that he finished a guy who had been previously undefeated until he met Jim Miller. The fact that he's only 23 years old makes it all the more frightening.

So who's next? Good question. Testing him against Edson Barboza might be fun, since both are undefeated. But whoever he fights next, it better be somebody with a great chin.

via cdn1.sbnation.com

2. Jim Hettes, United States

Division: Featherweight
Age: 24
Disciplines: Brown belt in Judo, purple belt in Brazilian Jujitsu
Record: 10-0, with 9 submissions
Last Fight: Dec. 30, 2011, won by decision (unanimous)
Next Fight: unknown

Nobody thought much about Jimy jumping into the UFC and subbing TUF fighter Alex Cacares. Most people assumed that "Bruce Leeroy" was simply another TUF can getting his ass handed to him by a ordinary fighter. But when Hettes absolutely dominated Nam Phan like nobody has ever dominated a fighter in a three round fight before, we knew different.

Perhaps the only thing that saved Nam Phan from being submitted in that 30-25 mauling was the fact that he owns a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu, though as it's been noted by several people already, it doesn't seem plausible that Hettes is only a purple belt. After starting his professional career with six first round submissions, he had three second round submissions before he faced Phan, and they were all as varied as they come: triangles, rear-naked, heel hook, armbar, guillotine. The kid literally does it all.

What Hettes needs now is clearly a giant step up in competition. Like, I'm talking a quantum leap. When you're winning fights 30-25 against an entry level UFC fighter like Phan, you need a Mike Brown or a Darren Elkins. One more win over a gatekeeper like that and Hettes is looking at the top of the division.

via cdn1.sbnation.com

1. Erick Silva, Brazil

Division: Welterweight
Age: 27
Disciplines: Black belt in Judo, black belt in Brazilian jujitsu
Record: 13-2 (some would say 14-1)
Last Fight: Jan. 14, 2012, lost by DQ (punches to the back of the head) at 0:29 of round 1
Next Fight: unknown

Whether or not you agree with the disqualification of Erick Silva at UFC 142 in Rio, one thing is certain. Erick Silva is an animal at welterweight. Among his first two UFC appearances, he has two stoppages in a combined 69 seconds and 10 of his 13 wins have come by knockout or submission.

Although he's had two fights in the UFC, it might surprise you to know that Silva has never actually left Brazil. Or maybe he has, but all 16 of his fights have taken place in his homeland. Well, it's probably time to test Silva on American soil against a tough opponent and see whether anyone can survive a full minute with him in the cage.

The good news for Silva is that the welterweight division is the weakest in the UFC outside of heavyweight. Josh Neer is on a huge winning streak and is the kind of guy who would provide a real well-rounded war for Silva. And if not Neer, then Dong Hyun Kim would be a slight step up. Either way, the power in his hands to date have so far been very impressive.

So, are there any prospects you're dying to see fight again? Leave em in the comments.

What's up Maniacs?

Here is a special edition of Beermania for the UFC on Fuel TV: "Ellenberger vs. Sanchez" mixed martial arts event, which takes place this upcoming Wednesday (Feb. 15, 2012) from the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska.

Normally I would use two beers from the respective states of the two main event contestants; however, there are not too many beers from Nebraska (Jake Ellenberger) or New Mexico (Diego Sanchez) that make it to the rest of the country.

Nonetheless, If your looking for something from those areas, I suggest Nebraska Brewing Hop God, or Chama River Brewing Jackalope IPA. Meanwhile, for this edition of Beermania, I'm keeping it gangster and going with an East Coast vs. West Coast theme.

Check it out:

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Matt Hume steps in to separate Bob Sapp and Rolles Gracie at the One FC weigh in. Courtesy of www.mmaddict-indonesia.com

Bob Sapp and Rolles Gracie almost came to blows at the ONE FC weigh-in last night. Referee Matt Hume had to step in to separate them and CEO / Owner Victor Cui was almost knocked to the ground in the ensuing melee.

Sapp continued to eyeball Gracie throughout the photo shoot and weighted in at 145 kg, a little leaner than normal, for a fight he says he has been training hard for and is determined to win.

All the other fighters made weight at the first attempt. The event is set to get underway at 7:30 pm local time with the undercard available free of charge and the main card costing just $10.

Complete One FC weigh in results are as follows:

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