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Kings (of) MMA: Rafael Dos Anjos & Rafael Cordeiro eat the Wheaties

By Zach Arnold | March 14, 2015

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ESPN’s initial headline coming out of the UFC 185 main event was: dos Anjos embarrasses Pettis

UFC 185 on Saturday night in Dallas, Texas:

A lot of one-sided fights. And the heavyweight fight on the prelims with Jake Rosholt was… something. Mike Goldberg was hyping the UFC HW division as talent-filled. That… it is not.

As for the ladies’ title fight:

This card had nowhere near the buzz despite, on paper, looking significantly more attractive than UFC 184 at Staples Center. There was a tip off that internal projections must not have been super hot:

Irregardless of how well this card drew (or didn’t) on PPV, I have all the respect in the world for what Rafael Cordeiro has accomplished as an MMA coach over the last two decades. He’s a Hall-of-Famer when it is all said and done. He simply manages to draw the best out of the fighters he works with. Well deserving of high praise & recognition. No matter how big the stage his fighters perform on, they do well. Kings MMA.

This Patrick Wyman feature at Sherdog from last February with Rafael Cordeiro is mandatory reading material.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

8 Responses to “Kings (of) MMA: Rafael Dos Anjos & Rafael Cordeiro eat the Wheaties”

  1. david m says:

    Clay Guida has beaten both Dos and Pettis. That is something I will never be able to wrap my head around.

    In a way actually, Guida showed the blueprint for beating Pettis–pressure him and wrestle him and don’t give him room to strike.

    Khabib is going to beat Dos again, but for now, let’s give Dos his due for a wonderful performance.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    If you look at the Lightweight and Welterweight divisions…. They have a lot of fighters but no real contender depth beyond 3 or 4 fighters.

  3. Tradition Rules says:

    I,personally, thought this was the most enjoyable fight card in some time.

    Some fights where the winners controlled the fight, but the losers, for the most part, didn’t necessarily seem out of the fight.

    Esparza seemed nervous as hell, like she half beat herself before the fight even started. My friend stated that “she seemed SO serious, almost too serious, not even looking up from the floor as she walked out to the cage, not high fiving or even acknowledging any fans”. Butterflies for her first title defense? I don’t know, but as Joe Rogan said, Johanna put on a striking clinic in that fight.

    On the under card, the Peaerson/Stout fight was fun, they were bot nailing each other, weren’t afraid to exchange with each other.

    Dos Anjos looked great, Johny Hendricks was in the best shape of his career, Overeem seemed patient and mixed it up a bit. Cejudo continues to look very promising…very solid striking, great wrestling, can possibly be an over all beast if he gets his submission game down, just a very athletic guy.

    I wasn’t disappointed in this fight card at all, I feel it delivered.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      It was one of the few last minute UFC PPV purchases I had in a while and I was glad I ordered it. Mostly decisions for the PPV card, but the fights were very good.

      I would like to see the female champion defend her belt in Poland and RDA defend his belt in Brazil next. Give those other countries some title love. Besides, neither are a draw in the US right now anyways.

  4. rst says:

    Don Anjos looked incredible in that fight.
    I was never familiar with him, but looking back at the Cerrone fight for free on youtube its hard to imagine its the same guy. Thats a real achieving your goal success story.Not sure I’m a fan though after he immediately offered the ole Braz injury excuse. They just cant help themselves with their excuse addiction even after a great performance. I thought it was a little tasteless.

    Pettis didn’t look so bad and had hiz moments more then surprised.And I think we all shared that emotion with him. I think it took him a sec to realize the gravity of the situation, and then sometimes the momentum has just pulled away by then. He’ll be fighting for that belt again quickly IMO. And that will be a money rematch worth UFC putting some promotion behind.

  5. DIAZ'S PACKED BOWL says:

    Again UFC and Ruffus puts a fighter at risk for blindness, or death in the case of his other now dead fighter.

    Pettis was blind in one eye, he had a fractured orbital. for one that eye should have been thoroughly checked by the doc. Thats a fight ender and for Ruffos to just ignore Pettis claim of blindness is just sick. Rufos is just a sick pathetic individual more concerned with a scorecard than a life.

    How can ufc make ANY claims that “fighter safety” comes first with this type of repeated disgusting displays?

  6. rst says:

    “…Pettis was blind in one eye,…”

    I might have pulled out. Thats a testament to Pettis’ devotion to fly or die. There seems to be a difference between Dos offering excuses for no reason, and Pettis being a man.

  7. DIAZ'S PACKED BOWL says:

    Point is, its not up to the fighter. During the rest period are there not ufc reps making sure the fighter is not cheating or is blind? Now why didn’t that person who obviously heard Pettis say “i can’t see out of my eye” call the doctor?

    Negligence.

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