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UFC 9/16 Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City
By Zach Arnold | September 16, 2009
Event results: Observer | Sherdog | MMA Torch | AOL Fanhouse | Bloody Elbow
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Ryan Jensen vs. Steve Steinbeiss
- Welterweights: Brock Larson vs. Mike Pierce
- Lightweights: Jeremy Stephens vs. Justin Buchholz
- Lightweights: Sam Stout vs. Kyle Bradley
- Middleweights: CB Dollaway vs. Dan Miller
- Welterweights: Chris Wilson vs. Mike Pyle
- Light Heavyweights: Steve Cantwell vs. Brian Stann
Main card
- Middleweights: Nate Quarry vs. Tim Credeur
- Lightweights: Gray Maynard vs. Roger Huerta
- Lightweights: Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Huerta on the main card? Is he still quitting fighting to pursue acting?
That’s his story. I don’t think anyone believes him. They gave him Gray because Gray should beat him on paper, and if he beats Gray, well, whatever. No one likes him anyways.
Maynard is one of UFCs “4-time all-American division-alpha superstar gold medal champion wrestlers” that we hear Mike Goldberg raving about all the time.
I have no idea what any of that means, but like most with those credentials, watching a Gray Maynard fight is not unlike watching paint dry.
But he’s probably next for Penn after Sanchez, so the UFC had better pray that he gets past Huerta (not long ago everyone was talking about Florian submitting him inside a minute, and it went to a pretty close decision).
If he doesn’t get by Huerta, they’ll go with someone else. They might anyways. Its not like he’ll draw any more money than Clay Guida.
^ What Alan said.
Nobody cares about Gray Maynard. He is filling the same role versus Huerta that Jake O Boring filled versus Arlovski. If he wins, the UFC gets to bury Huerta on his way out the door. If he loses, it’s no sweat off the UFC’s brow since Maynard is boring.
I live in Oklahoma City and there is very little build-up for this show. The local radio station, the Sports Animal, has talked about it once that I have heard. On the drive into work today, I heard that they were offering “MMA” tickets…I assume UFC. Turns out it is for the fights at an Indian casino here.
MMA tickets being given away the night of a UFC event in town and they are NOT for the UFC.
Go figure.
Isn’t Condit/Ellenberger on tonight’s card as well?
Huerta looked very ripped. I was half expecting him to come in slightly out of shape, but that did not appear to be the case at all.
I agree with Steve4192. Maynard is playing the O’Brien role. Machida was actually put in the same role against Tito Ortiz. Yushin Okami would be that same guy at Middleweight.
This is an average UFC Fight Night card. Nothing overly special. If anything, the losers have much more to lose then the winner have to win (hope that made since). Most of the winners will just be another in a long line of contenders. Most of the losers will either be out of the UFC or with one foot out of the door.
I would say that any card featuring Melvin Guillard in the main event can only be described as “below average”. Still, the Maynard-Huerta fight is intriguing, namely to see whether or not Huerta is buried for this likely being his last UFC fight for some time.
I’d love to see UFC go to a format where they do a card like this twice a month or so on Spike. This would be a great Friday Night Fights card on ESPN.
I like that they only have 3 fights booked for the TV portion. So if Stann/Cantwell turns out interesting we’ll see that or either the Wilson/Pyle or Stout/Bradley fights.
Anything can happen in MMA, but Diaz vs. Guillard should be an easy submission win for Diaz.
God I hope Stann/Cantwell III goes nowhere near my television set.
Diaz, Maynard, Huerta, and Bradley are all in the UFC video game, meaning that they signed away the lifetime exclusive rights to their own likenesses away for free. Even WWE, which treats its talent like circus performers, isn’t brazen enough to do that.
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/10640/
“–Today is a huge day for WWE mid-level talent because the announcement of who is in the Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 video game which starts at 4 p.m. is huge because of the size of the royalty checks talent gets from the game.”
They signed away the lifetime exclusive rights to the use of their likenesses in UFC videogames (or perhaps MMA videogames) for an undisclosed series of current and future payments.
There’s a big difference between reality and your version of it, Ivan.
“an undisclosed series of current and future payments”
lol, did you miss the interviews in which both Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta openly acknowledged that the video game contracts were for zero dollars and that they were lifetime exclusive contracts?
They can say what they want. If those are the actual terms, then they aren’t valid contracts. Which leads me to believe that their statements are not reflective of reality, like yours.
So, when they say that the contracts that were signed by the fighters are lifetime exclusive contracts for zero dollars, the fighters are wrong, the agents are wrong, Dana White is wrong, Lorenzo Fertitta is wrong, and you are right.
Of course, those contracts are not legally valid and they would never hold up in court, but guess who’s going to sue Zuffa over it and risk getting blackballed? Nobody.
Can you provide a link to this interview? I have a hard time believing that is true. In fact i seem to remember an interview where Dana mentioned fighters get royalties.
No court in this country will uphold a contract that does not include an exchange of valid consideration.
No matter how often you or Dana insist that it is so.
Hm, that’s a potentially sketchy decision. One step away from 30-27, 30-27, 27-30. Never like seeing that.
“God I hope Stann/Cantwell III goes nowhere near my television set.”
Sounds almost like Arlovski/Sylvia 3. Lesson be learned. When guys trade TKO wins, they may be tentative in the 3rd fight.
”
They signed away the lifetime exclusive rights to the use of their likenesses in UFC videogames (or perhaps MMA videogames) for an undisclosed series of current and future payments.”
LOL, source? They were able to secure money from sponsors to get the sponsors on the video game…and those had to be approved by Zuffa first.
“No court in this country will uphold a contract that does not include an exchange of valid consideration.
No matter how often you or Dana insist that it is so.”
Yeah..but who is going to spend the lawyer fees and be able to spend 2 years locked out from fighting to go to court to fight against that contract?
Onto other things…
Crazy that 2 judges scored it 30-27 for Maynard. Fight was obviously 29-28 for him. Why does Oklahoma fly out standard Zuffa judges…don’t they have judges of their own? Weird stuff.
Maynard is the rightful #1 contender in the LW division but I can’t imagine them letting him have a title shot. Imagine PPVs where he is either elusive on the feet or smothering people for 5 rounds.
That’s the only fight on the card where the prop bet on it going to decision was the heavy favorite.
MMA fans can’t score stand-up fights. First round was clearly won by Maynard, who counter really effectively. Both Jordan Breen and Thomas Rios scored the 1st round for Maynard.
It doesn’t take two years in court to fight a “contract” that just says “I get everything you get nothing.”
I was shocked a judge gave Roger Huerta 2 rounds. Rounds 2 and 3 were clearly for Maynard. Round 1 was a tough call as Maynard had the better shots for about 4:30 of the round, and for about 30 second Huerta had a good flurry.
My thoughts on the fights….
Quarry vs. Credeur – People throw around the term “C Level Kickboxing” too often when talking about MMA striking. With that said, this fight is a perfect example of C-Level Kickboxing. To say the striking was bad is an understatement. Fun fight to watch, but it felt more like a trainwreck then anything else. Credeur needs to work on his strength. If he can’t get out from underneith Quarry, he is going to absolutely struggle against the wrestlers of the division.
Condit vs. Ellenberger – I thought the 2nd round was really close, so the split decision made sense. Condit needs to learn how to stay in control of his opponent. There is a fine line between being exciting and being too risky. Condit isn’t even close to the line. Throwing caution to the wind works against the lower level guys. It will give you a loss against the better fighters.
Maynard vs. Huerta – YAWN!! That was boring. The judge who gave it to Huerta must have fallen asleep. Can’t blame him. Huerta is a perfect example of a guy who looks AMAZING against the non top tier fighters and then looks absolutely average against the Top Tier. Maynard could be next in line for a title shot, but who would want to see that fight?
Diaz vs. Guillard – Melvin is a mental midget. He cracks under pressure every single time. Diaz is nothing more then a higher level gatekeeper. He looked crappy against Guillard for the 1st round.
Overall, the fights were fun to watch, but kind of painful at the same time.
With that said, this fight is a perfect example of C-Level Kickboxing.
Did anyone expect differently? Really? I mean Credeur is generally not very good. Never has been. Never will be. And Quarry is just run-of-the-mill.
There is a fine line between being exciting and being too risky. Condit isn’t even close to the line.
My opinion is that Condit isn’t taking risks so much as his technique isn’t that good, but he goes for it anyways. Condit makes for exciting fights against mediocre fighters and loses to good ones. He’s terribly overrated.
Maynard could be next in line for a title shot, but who would want to see that fight?
Better yet, how does he win? I can’t see how. Let him fight someone else first, imo. I don’t play this “so-and-so won X fights in the UFC WHERE IS HIS TITLE SHOT” thing others here do.
Also, Maynard totally won the first. He outstruck Huerta, which was that guy’s only hope.
Melvin is a mental midget. He cracks under pressure every single time. Diaz is nothing more then a higher level gatekeeper. He looked crappy against Guillard for the 1st round.
Somehow Diaz was only -230 coming in. Whoever was putting money on Melvin are some of the dumbest folks alive. But thanks, whoever you are! Keep on moving those lines!
Condit is overrated until he can improve his power, wrestling and ground control. Ellenberger came at him hard, exploiting Condit’s lack of power in his hands to get close, lack of TDD and lack of ground control in reversing mount. It was a good performance by him.
Guillard lost me a small bet but did come somewhat close to winning before losing in the manner I expected him to (moral victory?). Guillard is dangerous but mental midget is an appropriate term.
However, Nate isn’t anything special. His game is getting miracle subs because his opponents aren’t smart enough to avoid them. His striking is weak (though he has long arms) and his wrestling isn’t great either. The top level LWs will control where the fight takes place, and better fighters are not nearly as submittable as the guys Nate has been facing. Like they said on the broadcast – Nate is a very slow starter and can often find himself down 0-2 heading into the 3rd.
Not to say that he wouldn’t have gone down had some of Huerta’s flurries landed, but Maynard was the superior fighter in that matchup. Huerta would throw combinations and would land 1 glancing blow for every 4 punches thrown. He possibly won the first, but Maynard stayed patient and proved that he does have some skill on his feet. Credit to Huerta for improving his footwork and being incredibly tough and in great shape. Maynard is just a great fighter though – doesn’t look like he slows down much and his late round takedown dominance is somewhat reminiscent of GSP’s.
I agree Condit is overrated. Borderline Top 10 skills really. Think of this….. At Welterweight, he is Jake Shields biggest win. Really makes me take a step back and wonder how Shields would do in the UFC. Condit is proof that Shields hasn’t really fought good enough guys to have a high ranking or to really be considered one of the best.
Who knows, Shields could be….. but his current results don’t prove it.
Jake also beat Okami and Lawler two top ten MWs.
Have you seen the Shields/Okami fight? Basically everybody who has knows Okami was robber of a decision.
And Lawler is a Middleweight, as you said. So that win doesn’t do anything to his rankings at Welterweight.
A win is a win. Takanori Gomi lost his spot at the top of LW rankings after he had been robbed against Golyaev.
I also don’t understand why MW wins don’t do anything at WW. It’s safe to say that it’s more difficult to fight at higher weight. I like the way BoxRec does it.
You can argue about Shields place in the rankings, but at the end of the day most of us would rather see him fight GSP than Kampmann or Swick. I hope he’ll sign with the UFC as soon as his Strikeforce contract expires.
Wolverine, Shields beating Lawler at a higher weight is not impressive because because it happened outside of the UFC. Meanwhile, Anderson Silva KOing Forrest Griffin at a higher weight was awesome and valid evidence as to why Silva is in consideration for being the top Pound for Pound fighter along with GSP. Didn’t you get the memo?
Jeremy— I never said that any court in the country would uphold those contracts. But those are the contracts that the fighters were publicly threatened into signing. Jon Fitch was even fired for refusing to sign away his rights, then re-hired after he agreed to sign away his rights. I can’t tell if you’re just pulling my leg or if you’re really unaware of all this.
@Wolverine: You also have to look at things in context. Okami wasn’t a top ten MW at the time that Shields won a bad decision against him. Now that he is one, you can’t retroactively go back and say that it was a win over a ‘top ten guy.’
Yeah, you’re, but it’s still a worthy win. What puts Shields in top five at WW is mainly volume of his wins. With Hughes having only one win in the last two years and Koscheck losing to Thiago I don’t see anyone else (besides GSP, Fitch, Alves) who should be above Jake.