Gas tanks on E: Lashley and Baroni win, but look exhausted

Bobby Lashley and Phil Baroni picked up wins last night at Titan Fighting Championship 17 in Kansas City, but neither did much to ease questions about their stamina issues.

Lashley pummeled 215-pound John Ott on the ground, but looked tired in the opening minutes of the second round. The former WWE star tried to put a positive spin on the lackluster decision win, 29-27, 30-27 and 29-27.

"No, no no ... I didn't punch myself out [in the first round]. I was looking for something that wasn't there. I felt good. I needed to spend some time out there," said Lashley.

The 6-foot-2, 252-pounder did get in his 15 minutes, but it was rough sledding at times. In the second and third, when it was standing, Lashley could barely hold his arms up and when he did throw punches, they lacked sting.

On the ground, Lashley (6-1) landed some good shots, but Ott wouldn't give in.

"Not as good as I wanted to, but it's a victory. We have stuff to work on, but I felt good out there. I felt like I was in control the whole time. That's what important," said Lashley.

HDNet MMA analyst Frank Trigg refused to put a positive spin on Lashley's effort.

"He showed he can't finish a fight unless it's a guy like Wes Sims, who stands there and let's himself get beat up," Trigg said. "Basically what he is, is a high caliber college wrestler, who spent some time in the WWE, that's crossed over into fighting without learning anything else."

Lashley, just six fights into his MMA career, was trying to get things back on track after a bad loss against Chad Griggs at a Strikeforce card last August.

Lashley, 34, was manhandling Griggs in the first round, but couldn't finish him. He tired badly and was blasted out in the second round. Following the fight, Lashley hit a Houston-area hospital complaining of abnormal fatigue during the match. He was eventually diagnosed with mononucleosis. He went four months with zero training, Five weeks ago when he signed with TFC, Lashley said he felt great.

Clearly, the bout with mono wasn't the only issue. The thickly-muscled Lashley appears to have only four or five good minutes in his gas tank.

Baroni is 27 fights into his career and is still battling a similar issue. "The New York Badass" beat a kid with five pro fights, but it wasn't easy. Baroni, who used to consider MMA wrestling kind of wimpy, was forced to scrap a striking gameplan. He scored takedowns against Nick Nolte (3-3) in each round and looked to grind down the clock. Baroni (14-13) limped across the finish line with a unanimous decision victory, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28.

"I was really tired there. I was really tired in the second," Baroni said. "He got me with some good knees to the body. Give him credit, more than saying I was out of shape. I was in shape. I had to take the fight to the ground because [of the knees]."

The 30-27 score was baffling considering Baroni, leaning against the cage for much of the final round, basically allowed Nolte to beat the snot out of him with knees, kicks and punches.  Booing and screaming loudly, the Kansas City crowd didn't appreciate Baroni's efforts.

"I needed a win. I could've stood there and made it a shootout, but I needed the win. I'll give Nick Nolte another fight. Thank you very much. I appreciate all the applause. I'll do a little better next time," Baroni said sarcastically.

Abe Wagner, a former "Ultimate Fighter 10" alum, failed to build on the momentum from his upset win over Tim Sylvia in January. He lost via submission (rear-naked choke) against Aaron Rosa.

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Strikeforce Diaz vs. Daley Predictions

by Michael David SmithIn what promises to be a highly entertaining fight card, Strikeforce is back in action Saturday night with its welterweight and lightweight titles on the line, and two more live fights that promise to be exciting. We've got the full preview right here.

What: Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley

Where: San Diego

When: Saturday, the Showtime televised card starts at 10 PM ET.

Predictions on the four televised fights below.

 

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Jones on Jay Leno: The champ is a crime-fighter and a flirt

As was mentioned on Kirstie Alley's Twitter, Jon Jones made quite an impression on the actress before their appearance on "The Tonight Show." Once sitting next to Jay Leno, Jones said that Alley was hitting on him. He also detailed his crime-fighting adventures before he beat Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to win the light heavyweight championship at UFC 128.

It's early in his championship reign, but it's already fun having Jones as the champ. He's eager to show his personality and makes an excellent spokesman for MMA. Not to mention, he clearly made a new MMA fan in Alley.

See the second part of the interview here, and tell us what you think of Bones' appearance on network TV in the comment section or on Facebook.

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Gegard Mousasi Embracing Time Out of Spotlight

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CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- MMA Fighting spoke to Gegard Mousasi about his fight against Keith Jardine at Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley, changing opponents a week before the fight, how he has improved since he last fought for Strikeforce and training with Fedor Emelianenko in Holland.

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Richard Hale Learned Inverted Triangle Choke Night Before Bellator Fight

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Bellator light heavyweight Richard Hale is a quick learner. When Hale submitted his opponent Nik Fekete with an inverted triangle choke a week ago at Bellator 38, it was a move he had learned of just the night before.

Hale's inverted triangle was the second seen in Bellator. The first, performed by Toby Imada on the fifth Bellator card in 2009, is arguably the most talked-about moment in the promotion's history.

"It was just fresh in my mind," Hale said Monday on The MMA Hour. "What Bellator does is they play their highlight clips for best 10 knockouts, 10 best submissions, whatever at the weigh-ins that night before and so we were just watching that, me and my boxing coach were just like, "Wow, that was real smooth! Very clean move, nice technique, everything else and it was a great way to end the fight."

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