February Month in Review.

First of all, many many major apologies for the lack of update in this blog. Shortly, before UFC 94, I finally managed to land a full-time job at a production company and due to the hectic and unpredictable nature of my work, I had not much time to update the blog and bring in as much news as I can.

To make up for it, this will be the first of two Month in Review updates looking at the happenings and on-goings in the MMA world throughout the two months. The March Month in Review will happen once I'm done watching the recent K-1 WORLD GP 2009 in YOKOHAMA event. Let's take a look at some of the more notable happenings in the month of February:

UFC 94: St-Pierre vs. Penn 2
- UFC 94 took place on January 31st and thus deserves to be talked about for a bit in this entry. In the semi-main event, Lyoto Machida proved to be the better undefeated Brazilian fighter, surprisingly knocking out a tougher Brazilian fighter in his opponent, Thiago Silva, right at the buzzer at the end of the first round! With the win, Machida's record improves to a perfect 14-0.
- The main event of UFC 94 saw Georges St-Pierre make a successful defense of his UFC Welterweight Title by defeating UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn in what was a one-sided affair as Penn had trouble getting in offense throughout the later rounds. Penn's exhaustion and what seemed like an unwillingness to continue forced the doctor and his team to call off the fight, awarding the victory to St-Pierre!
- A huge fight like that isn't one without controversy. Several days after losing to Georges St-Pierre, B.J. Penn immediately filed a complaint to the Nevada State Athletic Commission regarding St-Pierre's body being somewhat greasy. This was due to one of St-Pierre's cornermen rubbing vaseline on his face and his shoulders as part of a routine breathing technique St-Pierre uses in his fights during intervals to calm him down in tensed situation. St-Pierre had mentioned that he would never cheat to gain any unfair advantage over his opponent, although he did admit in regards to the vaseline being used. Despite that, many critics, analysts and even UFC President Dana White himself said that with or without vaseline on St-Pierre's body, it would have no effect on the outcome of the fight.

UFC signs two top Japanese fighters!
- Making his return to the UFC in close to six years is none other than popular HERO'S and DREAM lightweight Caol Uno! Uno will be making his return to the Octagon when he faces Spencer Fisher at UFC 99 in Cologne, Germany. It will be his first appearance in the Octagon since his loss to Hermes Franca back at UFC 44 in 2003. Uno's last fight was a loss against current WAMMA Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki during the semi-final of the DREAM Lightweight GP at DREAM.5 last year.
- While one fighter returns, another fighter debuts and boy is it a big one! In what many considered quite a surprise, the 2006 HERO'S Light Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Akiyama has signed with the UFC! The controversial, yet popular Zainichi fighter who fought for HERO'S and DREAM is set to make his Octagon debut at the huge UFC 100 event in Las Vegas, Nevada when he faces middleweight contender Alan Belcher! Belcher had defeated another former HERO'S and DREAM fighter, Denis Kang, who made his debut in the UFC at UFC 93 in Ireland. The question is would the outcoe be the same for the man many netizens dub Sexyama?

K-1 WORLD MAX 2009 JAPAN Tournament!
- This year's K-1 WORLD MAX JAPAN Tournament took place at the Yoyogi Gymnasium in Tokyo with an interesting mix of fighters, including K-1 WORLD MAX newcomer, NKJF Super Welterweight Champion Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima, known for being a crossplayer (a person who cosplay's anime/manga/video game characters of the opposite sex). However, the outcome was truly surprising as Taishin Kohiruimaki, the 2004 and 2005 WORLD MAX JAPAN Champion whom not many predicted to win, took the tournament win and became the first ever three-time WORLD MAX JAPAN Champion, defeating Yuya Yamamoto in the finals! With the victory, Kohiruimaki will be one of 16 fighters from around the world competing for the chance to become this year's K-1 WORLD MAX Champion when the FINAL 16 Tournament emanates from the Marine Messe in Fukuoka this coming April.

UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson
- UFC 95 emanated from the O2 arena in London, England and the main event saw welterweight fighter Diego Sanchez make his debut at lightweight against veteran Joe Stevenson. Sanchez put on an impressive performance in his lightweight debut, defeating Stevenson via unanimous decision to take the victory and proving himself to be a force in the lightweight division!
- Other results from the main card saw British welterweight Dan Hardy knocking out Rory Markham with a devastating KO, Nate Marquadt defeating Wilson Gouveia via TKO and both Demian Maia and Paulo Thiago earning Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night honors respectively when they defeated Chael Sonnen and Josh Koscheck in their fights.

Ken Shamrock's ups and downs.
- UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock competed at the WarGods: Valentine's Eve Massacre event where he defeated Ross Clifton via armbar submission. Shamrock's victory allowed him to gain momentum in his upcoming proposed bout against a fellow WWE alumni in Bobby Lashley at the boxing and MMA hybrid PPV event promoted by Roy Jones Jr. in March.
- Unfortunately for the former UFC Superfight and WWE Intercontinental Champion, Shamrock tested positive for three banned substances following his fight against Clifton. The appeal is still in pending, but Shamrock was unable to compete in his fight against Lashley. More on Lashley's fight in the next update.

That's it for the month of February. If there is ever any significant happenings in that month which I had missed out on, do lemme know and I'll add them in.

Sources: Sherdog, MMAJunkie.com, MMAFighting.com and Nightmare of Battle