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« | Home | »

No surprises at UFC 153 in Rio

By Zach Arnold | October 13, 2012

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Event: UFC 153 (Saturday, October 13th)
Location: HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
TV: FX for undercard, PPV for main card

Undercard

Main card

Minnesota not-so-Nice? Dana White on Jeremy Stephens’ no-good, very-bad trip to jail

ARIEL HELWANI: “John Dodson is the #1 contender (at Flyweight). Again with the boos with the Flyweights. He finishes the fight but he doesn’t get any love. What’s going on here?”

DANA WHITE: “It’s crazy. You know, again, another fight that’s very important to both fighters. You know, the guy who wins this fight is going to get a title contender… and, you know, you get 7-8 beers in a guy and he thinks they’re supposed to run and go crazy on each other with windmills or something. He fought a very good, technical fight. They were going back-and-forth and finally he clips him and ends the fight. I mean, Jesus Christ, let these guys fight for a minute without booing them.”

****

ARIEL HELWANI: “Let’s talk about the Jeremy Stephens situation. Obviously, the fight never happened. Do you have an update on where he is right now?”

DANA WHITE: “Yes. So, let me walk you through the whole story and how this went down. I get the call this morning at 10:30 that he was arrested, um… or 11, I don’t remember what time. I went straight to the police station, the sheriff’s department here in Minnesota where I’ve been all day, back-and-forth working on this thing.

“What happened is he has an assault charge (outstanding) that turned into a warrant back in 2011 in Iowa. So… I started working down in Iowa to get this thing, you know, bail him out… whatever it was going to take to get this thing done, we were going to do. I was absolutely 100% confident that he was going to get out today and that he was going to fight. Problem is, ahem… they don’t like this kid in Iowa, OK? They… they’re going to really stick it to him in Des Moines, Iowa when this kid shows up down there. They’re going to extradite him and basically they gave me the original deal on how we would bail him out, I said no problem, we’ll get it done. Then they changed the deal when we started to work on the deal and get it done. So, they changed the deal and I agreed to that deal. Start doing the work, they changed it again.

“Every time we would cut a deal with these guys, they would change the deal. First of all, he’s been here since Monday. They arrested him Friday morning on purpose and for a reason… and all day from 11 o’clock, I just told Yves Edwards 35 minutes before the main event went on that he wasn’t fighting. Yves Edwards has been here all night, warmed up, sitting in his locker room, hands wrapped, ready to go. This guy, Yves Edwards is a true professional, old-school guy, you know a lot of these guys, ‘My head’s all messed up, I can’t…’ Wouldn’t have done the fight. Yves Edwards has been here all night up until 35 minutes before the main event, ready to fight, and that’s how long we’ve been working on the Jeremy Stephens thing when finally it’s just like, you know, they’re going to… he is not going to have a good time when he eventually gets to Iowa.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Have you talked to him?”

DANA WHITE: “They wouldn’t let me talk to him. They let me send him a note. The Minnesota sheriff’s department has been fantastic. Iowa… whole [other] ball game.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you have any idea what he did?”

DANA WHITE: “So, what I understand is it’s a warrant, an outstanding warrant for an assault charge back in 2011.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “But no details about what he did?”

DANA WHITE: “No clue.”

Event: UFC on FX 5 (Friday, October 5th)
Location: Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota
TV: FX

Undercard

Main card

Topics: Brazil, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

22 Responses to “No surprises at UFC 153 in Rio”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    The FX show has 2 quality fights for the main card. Even the undercard is suprisingly strong.

    The PPV is garbage. Maia vs. Story is a great fight for the prelims. Silva/Fitch is interesting. So is Teixeira/Maldonado. Nothing else is remotely interesting.

  2. Zach Arnold says:

    http://t.co/wSaTN89R

    So, Forrest Griffin took Xanax and failed a drug test in Pennsylvania after the Anderson Silva fight… and fought a few months later.

    Greg Sirb in action, indeed.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Keizer looks like a fool. White looks corrupt. There is no way White didnt know about the failed drug test. And he needed to save the PPV after Lesnar got injured. Easy to see the motivation for the corruption. Unbelievable.

      Makes you wonder how often this happens.

      MMA is suffering from a too much drama problem right now. I have been a fan of this sport for a long time. Seen companies go under like nobidies business. Seen some crazy stuff. I cant remember a time when the sport seemed so depressive with teenage drama and just downright filth. It certainly weakens my fandom a bit.

    • Fluyid says:

      This helps explains Griffin’s sorry effort. Possibly groggy and/or slowed down from Xanax and just generally down and out is not a good way to go into an Anderson Silva fight.

      At the same time, considering what people like Sonnen and Travis Lutter were able to do against Silva, that performance by Griffin was tough to figure.

    • Megatherium says:

      Which benzo do you guys think Bonnar was on when he fought Machida? Being the old school guy that he is, I would guess maybe diazepam.

      http://youtu.be/ZdLj52AqBnU

  3. The Judge says:

    These cards actually look great, with more than one match that I would like to see. FX is what you would expect from FX.
    I miss the days when each card was the best a promotion could forward on a given date. If there was a big fight coming up, you could bet the undercard would be stacked to the fullest to make it even bigger. These are: “how can we put on a good show and still have enough to put four more cards on in the next month?”

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    UFC is starting to weed out sone substantial talent. Either they are taking into account a reduced event schedule or they are making room for the SF fighters.

    http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/10/4/3458486/ufc-contracts-dangerous-activity-restrictions-donald-cerrone

    The UFC finally smartened up and put more restrictions on the athletes activities outside of fighting. I have thought they should have done this years ago. This is in line with the major sports leagues. I know the Yankees about a decade ago voided Aaron Boone’s contract after he got injured playing another sport.

    • Robert Poole says:

      Here’s an interesting thought. What if UFC contracts instituted a defined physical contact rule that took effect 2 weeks prior to an event? Like in particular, no sparring? I am thinking aloud here but something has to be done to stop the extremely high number of pre-show injuries. Boxing has pullouts too but if you look at the numbers UFC/Strikeforce has had this year, it blows Boxing’s pull out numbers away. So something seems to need to be done. If you eliminate striking, you’re keeping hands from being broken, major cuts on the face, ankle/foot injuries from kicks. And it just changes a bit of the order of training. Guys will have to work on striking earlier in camp and use the last two weeks for wrestling/BJJ rolling.

      I don’t know, just throwing it out there. Any other ideas?

  5. Chuck says:

    Geronimo Dos Santos pulled out of his fight against Gonzaga for whatever reason. It’s not known why he pulled out.

  6. Nottheface says:

    Any care to take a stab at trying to explain to me why Dana White would be willing to move heaven and earth to get a prelim fighter out of jail after being arrested for a felony assault and which he knew no other details, just so could fight Yves Edwards?

  7. Zheroen says:

    So, here are how things stand in the MMA landscape in regards to current regulation – assault and driving while intoxicated, acts that can cause serious harm to another individual = not worthy of any sort of suspension in regards to MMA competition. Smoking marijuana on your own free time, without any evidence that active traces were still in the system come fight time = 12 months suspension. Brilliant.

    • edub says:

      Heyoooooo

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Um no….

      If you break the law the police handle it. It has nothing to do with MMA. Sometimes the organization can suspend an athlete for it, but typically they don’t. Many baseball players have gotten DUI’s during the season and it doesn’t effect them.

      That is completely different then breaking the rules of that established sport, in which you will be suspended for.

      You are confusing jurisdictions with the types of punishments….

      • Robert Poole says:

        45 –

        I think you’re right that he’s conflating the different regulatory groups (NSAC and UFC) that he would fall under but he does have a valid point in that other major sports would and have suspended their athletes for breaking the law. You frequently see teams in NFL and MLB suspending or punishing players in relation to real world trouble they get it (ie assaults, DWIs, domestic abuse – that got Chad Johnson cut just last month). Jones didn’t face a single repercussion from UFC for his DWI and Stephens not only didn’t face any trouble but Dana White and the organization offered to bail him out.

        Let’s remember how selective UFC is in enforcing internal rules that relate to their reputation. They fired Miguel Torres once for a twitter joke about a rape van (Forrest Griffin did basically the same thing and not a single thing happened to him). Jon Fitch was basically cut over a lifetime release to be in a video game. So what you can and cannot get in trouble for is very much a cluster-you know what and for the more serious criminal penalties like what Jones and Stephens did (most certainly they are more serious than making a dumb joke on Twitter), there should be some sort of public action taken to show that UFC does not condone their fighters doing these things.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          http://m.espn.go.com/mlb/story?storyId=6515822

          See the same complaint happens about MLB.

          And it makes sense. Should you be suspended from work if you get a DUI? Nope. Then why should these guys?

          But if you do sonething while on the clock that effects your job then a suspension makes sense.

          Hence why a DUI gets no penalty from the AC’s and weed does

      • Zheroen says:

        Why does the NSAC have a ban policy on marijuana metabolites , which could ONLY indicate prior use and in no way indicate the presence of the drug being active in the system come fight time, and not a ban policy regarding reckless behavior or conduct outside of the sport?

        http://alcoholism.about.com/od/pot/a/marijuana_test.htm

        “Because marijuana stays in the bloodstream for a short time, blood tests for marijuana are usually not used, except in the case of automobile accidents and some roadside sobriety check points. Blood or saliva tests can show current intoxication. However, unlike blood alcohol concentration tests, they do not indicate a level of intoxication or impairment.

        On the other hand, urine tests for marijuana metabolites can only show recent marijuana use, not intoxication or impairment, because of the time required between smoking and the metabolites being eliminated in the urine.”

        Therefore, they have no proof at all that a recreational, non-performance enhancing drug was in Nick Diaz’ system at the time of the fight.

        Also, way to live up to your reputation as a corporate machine-defending stooge, sycophant.

  8. RST says:

    “…and, you know, you get 7-8 beers in a guy and he thinks they’re supposed to run and go crazy on each other with windmills or something. He fought a very good, technical fight.”

    Wasn’t dana the one insulting Greg Jackson and calling him sport killer for using strategy to win fights and create 3 of his current champions?!

    He’ll says whatever he thinks people want to hear at the moment like a politician.

    The words coming out of dana’s mouth have as much truth in them as vomit.

    Vomit is true as far as it does exist,
    as does dana white.
    But they’re both things that the world would be better off with less of.

    “Again with the boos with the Flyweights. He finishes the fight but he doesn’t get any love. What’s going on here?””

    Thats because dana has made it his personal mission to flood the MMA audience with twitter fans and the minds of 13 year olds.

  9. PizzaChef says:

    I’m watching the K-1 RISING 2012 WORLD GP FINAL 16 stream on Ustream.

    EMPTY ARENA. Someone said it’s a staff test run..It’s still hilarious.

  10. 45 Huddle says:

    Article Headline right now reads: “No surprises at UFC 153 in Rio”

    I disagree. Jon Fitch won FOTN. And it was actually FOTN worthy.

    Shocker.

    • The Judge says:

      I like watching Jon Fitch fight. You would be surprised at how many Jon Fitch fans you can find in an average bar, there is always a couple, telling their girlfriend or neighbor what a great no-nonsense fighter he is. Compare that to the average flyweight/bantamweight reaction and you have to wonder how good of a handle on what the fans consider to be a great fight Dana White has.

  11. klown says:

    It was the first great UFC card in a long time.

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