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UFC 139 (11/19 San Jose Arena): Faber, Wanderlei, Henderson, Shogun put on all-time classic displays of greatness
By Zach Arnold | November 19, 2011
Venue: HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena)
TV: PPV (9 PM EST/6 PM PST)
Dark matches
- Lightweights: Danny Castillo defeated Shamar Bailey in R1 in 4’52 by TKO.
- Welterweights: Seth Baczynski defeated Matt Brown in R1 in 42 seconds with a choke.
- Bantamweights: Miguel Torres defeated Nick Pace after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Gleison Tibau defeated Rafael Dos Anjos after 3R by split decision.
- Middleweights: Chris Weidman defeated Tom Lawlor in R1 in 2’07 with a choke.
- Bantamweights: Michael McDonald defeated Alex Soto in R1 in 56 seconds by KO.
- Light Heavyweights: Ryan Bader defeated Jason Brilz in R1 in 1’17 by KO.
Main card
- Light Heavyweights: Stephan Bonnar (+125) defeated Kyle Kingsbury after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Martin Kampmann defeated Rick Story after 3R by split decision.
- Bantamweights: Urijah Faber defeated Brian Bowles in R2 in 1’27 by choke.
- Middleweights: Wanderlei Silva (+155) defeated Cung Le in R2 in 4’49 by TKO.
- Light Heavyweight eliminator: Dan Henderson (+130) defeated Mauricio Shogun after 5R by unanimous decision (48-47).
*****
Venue: Honda Center (The Pond) in Anaheim, California
TV: Fox (all broadcast networks)
Dark matches
- Light Heavyweights: Aaron Rosa defeated Matt Lucas after 3R by majority decision.
- Welterweights: Mike Pierce defeated Paul Bradley after 3R by split decision.
- Bantamweights: Alex Caceres defeated Cole Escovedo after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Featherweights: Robert Peralta defeated Mackens Semerzier in R3 in 1’54 by TKO.
- Bantamweights: Darren Uyenoyama defeated Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Damarques Johnson defeated Clay Harvison in R1 in 94 seconds by KO.
- Featherweights: Ricardo Lamas defeated Cub Swanson in R2 in 2’16 with an arm-triangle choke.
- Featherweights: Dustin Poirier defeated Pablo Garza in R2 in 1’32 with a choke.
- Lightweight Eliminator: Ben Henderson defeated Clay Guida after 3R by unanimous decision.
Main event (TV)
- UFC Heavyweight Title match: Junior dos Santos defeated Cain Velasquez in R1 in 64 seconds by TKO.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 97 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I see some people complaining about the treatment of the undercard for the FOX show. I see this as purely a growing pains sort of thing. This won’t be an issue for the next 7 years.
And I believe Henderson/Guida will be online and on FOX Deportes. Better then nothing for the people who have to see the fight.
UFC 139 is a really good card top to bottom. It won’t be a huge seller, but it’s a really solid PPV.
LOL, Fox Deportes? Really? Well, I guess I get to watch it on my TV without having to jerry-rig up a crap PC to it then.
Is UFC 139 a Strikeforce card in disguise? Is it in San Jose? Check. Does it feature Cung Le fighting someone else who is hella old? Check. Dan Henderson in the main event? Check. Crappy light heavyweight opener, LOL, definitely check.
I’m not happy at all that Guida vs. Bendo won’t be shown on Fox, to me that’s ridiculous and wrong on all counts. Luckily they mananaged to get it on even if it’s on Fox Deportes of all places. But like i’ve said in the past there seem to be alot of these miscues as of late that never used to happen in the UFC years ago. Someone is not on their job here and if these mistakes keep pilling up then i’m seriously going to start worrying about the UFC’s future Fox deal or no deal.
I agree there are a lot of weird miscues. I think it’s mostly because the channel they are on hates them. And the channel they are going to is trying to get figure out how to start this up properly.
These shouldn’t be issues in 6 months. But if there are still issues, it’s likely a sign that White and Fertitta aren’t delegating out and doing too much themselves.
This should be an excellent card I can’t wait to see it. In the main even I think Junior dos Santos will take it in the main fight.
IMO they should have treated Guida-Bendo as a ‘swing bout’ and put it after the main event. That way, if Cain-JDS ends quickly, they could have aired a second live fight on FOX.
It seems like that was the original idea and for some reason now that’s changed. Odd situation.
Well, Fox doesn’t want it. That’s the situation.
[…] you forgot who is fighting on Saturday’s card, here you go. All the talk about Guida/Henderson is why the fight isn’t airing on Fox TV. Even if it […]
In the next 24 hours, you will see a lot of blogs doing the following:
1) Questioning the UFC for not showing Guida/Henderson.
2) Saying that the quick fight is bad for the sport and turned away fans.
Nobody could have forseen Guida/Henderson being a great fight. It could have just as easily been a typical Guida snoozefest.
And boxing spent years with Mike Tyson and quick KO’s. It never hurt their sport. Nobody paid for this fight. Nobody is going to feel cheated. If anything, it will wet their appetite and make them want to see more.
The biggest take away from this event is that FOX did right by the sport of MMA. And this event probably got tons of attention from fans.
The only thing that needs improvement…. Which will already be fixed by the next UFC on FOX card is…. MMA is not a single fight sport. It’s not boxing. MMA was built on depth of cards. That is MMA’s strength.
I’d say it will hurt revenue dollars in the future if they do these one off fights.
… for later rounds in fights.
Future FOX shows are scheduled for 90 minutes. Which means it’s likely 3 fights.
The big thing is that this fight avoided:
1) Freak Cut (like Couture/Belfort 2)
2) Bad Ref Stoppage
3) 25 Minute lay and pray
A 1 minute fight is not the best thing in the world…. But it won’t scare away anybody. The pressure is now off. As long as the UFC can continue with the young demographic, the advertisers will come.
The difference is that people saw Tyson as a unique fighter in the annals of the sport. Do people see Dos Santos as a unique fighter in the annals of the sport? I don’t think Dana White even does based on his comments. Comparing the two is sorta LOL-able.
No one buys MMA cards because the dark matches get put on or because of the depth of the card. The crappy buyrates of all these “stacked cards” in 2010 and 2011 should be enough to bury that stupid myth. They care about stars and this was possibly a star making performance for Dos Santos. I think they did everything right.
Sure Tyson was unique. One of a kind. But fans still prefer a quick KO to a Klitchko fight any day of the year.
And I’m not saying people buy cards because they are stacked. You are right. Main events do sell PPV’s.
But MMA thrives with good undercards. It is what sets it apart from boxing. A boxing fight going 1 minute typically doesn’t happen. In MMA it can much easier. Because of this, it’s better to keep the fans entertained for 2 hours prior to that potential 1 minute main event.
Dana basically even disagrees with you on the point about strong undercards per his comments in the presser. No one cares about these fights. No one. Expand PPVs + Expand TV shows + Put headliners and top feature bouts on Fox = Crappy PPV cards. Get used to it soon if you haven’t already.
It’s the glory days of boxing back again! You know, where people said “Man, why didn’t they show that killer undercard fight?”
Oh, wait, that is latter day boxing. The superstars were good enough for fans in glory day boxing. My bad.
JDS is no Mike Tyson. Not even close. He’s no more MMA Tyson than Liddell or Shogun or Silva or any other striker.
Tyson had an aura JDS never will. His fights felt like public executions in his prime. JDS’s aura is “Can he get punches in before he gasses or gets taken down.”
Plus he’s openly a sweetheart, and UFC fans only get behind “what a nice guy” fighters if they are white like GSP.
He’ll lose to Brock, then Cain will beat Brock again and JDS will be #3 or #4 (depending on Overeem) for the rest of his career.
Bendo/Guida was shown in Australia.
UK too. They showed Damarques Johnson KTFOing someone after the main event.
Frank Edgar vs. Ben Henderson will be the main event for the 2nd FOX show. That’s my prediction.
Frank Edgar can’t sell a PPV to save his life. He needs the exposure big time. And Ben Henderson can be a star based on his style.
Put in a good co-main event, and I think it makes perfect sense.
If they do that fight then, its a great fight. That’s exactly the kind of fight Fox should have on it – fights that suck for PPV but can make stars on free TV with exposure. Same here.
I think they said this was going to be on the Japan card, but they should definitely put it on FOX. There’s no way that’ll be a boring fight. 25 minute war and you have an instant star.
Dana White seemed overly invested in Cain Velasquez winning that fight,trashing both fighters in his petulant post fight rant.
He has to remove himself from the broadcast booth in future so he doesn’t wind up damaging his own product.
Dana IS the product, and if you disagree with this SHUT UP.
Hahaha
Dana was embarrassing. That was worse than the “I’m holding back tears” expression he had when Velasquez was announced as the new champ.
I know he should be upset. Cain could bring in tons of Mexican American dough, and JDS is going to be the new Anderson Silva where his fights are great but nobody gives a crap unless he fights a superstar. But since Lesnar will beat him by the summer, it won’t matter. That fight will do over a million
You really have that much confidence in Lesnar beating him? I do think it’s a bad match up stylistically for JDS.
I know Dana would cream his pants.
I see no way JDS beats Lesnar unless he knocks him out in the opening seconds.
http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/11/13/despite-perfect-night-dana-white-has-strong-words-for-critics/
Thank you boxing for shooting yourself in the foot again. Thank you Bob Arum for using a slightly racist/hypocritical comment about “particularly Mexicans”.
We can all go back to bashing boxing now.
What did Arum say? It is hard to figure out a way to bash boxing on a night that say 12 rounds of amazing action in 1 sport, and 65 seconds of action in MMA, followed by Dana White bashing both of his star fighters. One of the most ridiculous things about White’s bitching was that his criticisms of Junior weren’t even fair. I don’t think J2S has ever come close to losing a round in any of his UFC fights, including the few that went to decision. To bash your new world champion, right after he beats a guy who is an undefeated warrior, is classic Dana.
Also, it is a lot easier to talk about pressuring Junior than to do it. Dude hits like a train, has nice sharp straight punches, is hard to take down, and very strong. Cain is quite hittable; to walk forward to try to take J2S down would have resulted in Cain walking right into a right hand, instead of getting it on the ear.
“I had Manny winning this fight. Some people – ‘particularly Mexicans’ – had Marquez ahead.” — Bob Arum
Yeah, you have to protect your client, but the Mexicans thing is unclassy. He was basically trying to turn it into a racial issue. Remember, this is after he said boxing is a multicultural sport, and MMA is a sport for skin head white guys rolling around like homosexuals.
The headlines for the boxing fight are not good this morning….
People assume the sport is corrupt.
But it knocked UFC out of the press, which is bad for them. Controversy > A unknown guy winning a belt against a slightly known guy.
And you know what happens to controversial boxing fights? They do a rematch that sells even more PPVs. Boo hoo, poor Arum.
Marquez isn’t getting another shot at Pacquiao. Especially after that.
Anybody talking about headlines being bad for either sport aren’t that intelligent. Both sports had good nights.
“It is hard to figure out a way to bash boxing on a night that say 12 rounds of amazing action in 1 sport, and 65 seconds of action in MMA”
It’s pretty easy actually. In the MMA fight, the right guy won. In boxing, rich promoters found a way to keep their pockets lined.
Seriously dude? Who do you think lines his pockets more, Dana or Arum? Pac gets 5-10x more per fight than anyone in the UFC. Dana & the Fertittas keep more of the residuals than boxing promoters.
Not seen the pacman v jmm fight yet but ufc has had its share of bs decisions so it’s not just a boxing thing.
I ain’t surprised jmm again gave pacquaio problems. Floyd would ud pacman comfortably.
All boxing guys (fluyid, alan, roadblock, etc..) I would love to get your opinion on the Manny-marquez fight.
Personally, I had JMM up big before the tenth. He ended up two rounds ahead on my scorecard. Opinions?
I didn’t specifically score it, but I sort of kept a running thought of the scoring in my head as I watched it over at a friend’s house with a bunch of yapping people. I figured it to be either 6 rounds apiece or 7-5 in favor of Pacman.
The fan in me REALLY wanted it to be a draw, for the sake of Marquez. Out of their trilogy, he truly does not deserve to be 0-2-1, in my opinion.
I had it 116-112 Marquez. Great fight though. The undercard wasn’t even too bad.
Prescott gave me some hope before the inevitable slow down. It’ll be good to see Alvarado take a step up next though.
Burgos-Cruz was very entertaining too.
WTF was upwith White last night?!!
Talk about coming off like a biased a**hole. Seriously!
If I were either main event fighter or a member of their camps, I’d be majorly pissed about his postfight treatment of them.
Not that they’re in a position to do anything about it, but still…
When you have the face of a major sport that is supposed to be having it’s coming out party to the world coming across to millions of new viewers of said sport as a petulent pr*ck because “his” guy didn’t win, well that just sucks IMO. The Fertittas should be pissed.
Am I the only person who thought that Cain tapped to strikes last night? Nobody seems to be talking about it
I’m pretty sure Rogan said “He’s tapping”. It looked like it as it happened, but in the replay it looked like he was out of it and it was just his hand flopping down inadvertently as he was a little limp. If he tapped it was very weakly.
Fantastic fight between Chandler and Alvarez in Bellator. It was even better because Alvarez lost. The most overhyped fighter in MMA today. His best win was over Kawajiri yet many people had him in the Top 5.
Now he has to go back into the tournament to get a title shot again.
He was top 5. Just not anymore.
People lose, and Chandler looks like a beast. You tell me you couldn’t see him beating Bendo, Clay, Pettis, Cowboy, or any of the other UFC second tier.
All of those guys except for Pettis whose as overated as Alvarez was would mop the floor with Chandler. He’s a good young and talented guy but he’s not elite which is why him choking out Eddie is hilarious. The idea that Bellator with a straight face would try and pass him off as the number 1 LW in the world was a joke and it all came crashing down tonight. I can’t wait until they actually test Lombard whose the next overhyped guy in Bellator that is going to be exposed.
He was never Top 5. He beat Kawajiri. That’s his best win. He had no reason to be ranked in the Top 5 in 2011.
And EJ is right. The only guy he beats is Pettis from that list.
He leaves his chin out there so often that he would be very average in the UFC.
He would do fine against any of them, Cerrone leaves his chin out, Pettis has shit wrestling, Bendo has outgrappled and outstuck guys that are also rans in the UFC LW division.
His wrestling is better than all three, and his striking has come around very well.
Wide open styles likewhat Eddie Alvarez brings to the table get eaten alive in the UFC. Always has, always will.
It’s funny that on a day that Bellator tries to claim a Fight of the Year….. They didn’t even have a Fight of the Day.
Alvarez/Chandler was fantastic. But Rua/Henderson was absolutely epic…
Definitely agreed there. Rua and Hendo might be foty.
But plenty of guys have the wide open style and get title shots are long win streaks. Just look at Edgar, the guy gets tagged early by everyone. Well, gray and BJ.
Edgar has very crisp and clean boxing and great footwork. He gets hurt so badly because he is fighting in a weight class above what he should so the punches have more power to them. Plus he is slightly a slow starter.
That is very different then Alvarez who literally wings his punches. That style doesn’t work in the UFC…. Especially at Lightweight.
He gets hit clean on the button, it has little to do with him fighting up a weight class. Bj hit him clean early, Gray hit him clean early twice. Eddie has very good boxing, much better than anybody in the LW divison outside of edgar, Penn, and maybe Nate Diaz.
“He would do fine against any of them, Cerrone leaves his chin out, Pettis has shit wrestling, Bendo has outgrappled and outstuck guys that are also rans in the UFC LW division.
His wrestling is better than all three, and his striking has come around very well.”
That’s a ridiculous statement Chandler has good wrestling but he would get out wrestled badly by Guida and Henderson. Cerrone would just knock his head off, the guy has no defensive movement and was getting hit at will. Seriously you continue to vastly overate these guys Alvarez boxing is sloppy and his tdd is weak he would get picked apart and taken down by c level UFC LW’s.
No he wouldn’t. Chandler’s wrestling is easily better than both of Henderson or Guida. The only guys in the UFC at 155 who would be better are Gray and Frankie. Im not vastly overrating anybody anymore than you seem to be the second tier of the LW division in the UFC. Clay Guida is an above average LW. Ben Henderson is a little bit better, but he’s also not as good as Pettis. Cerrone is on none of their level, he just hasn’t fought a bad style match up since entering the UFC.
Saying that Alvarez’s tdd is weak after the fight him and Chandler had is ignorance exemplified. He has extremely good TDD and scrambling ability.
You clearly are overating Chandler and his wrestling just because he could take down Pitbull and Alvarez doesn’t mean he could deal with guys like Guida and Bendo. And if those guys are just average LW’s than Alvarez isn’t even worthy of being called C level. Clearly you’re too caught up in hype to see what’s clear as day neither guy is on the level of the top UFC LW’s. Both would get dominated by guys like Cerrone, Guida and Bendo the only way the could beat them is if they got the shady Bellator judges to give them a decision like he did Askren.
I like that Cerrone is a top LW in spite of beating no one remotely ranked except Siver. And that, of course, is Dennis Siver.
Again, no.
Once LWs hit the UFC doesn’t give them some magical aura. Ben is still the guy that had no way to win when Pettis used defensive wrestling to pick him apart for four rounds. Clay is still the guy that loses every three or 4 fights, and it doesn’t really matter the opponent. As Alan hinted at Cerrone is being hyped to the moon right now after a streak of good guys, but nobody top tier (Siver was borderline top ten).
Alvarez or Chandler would have a good chance against any of those three and Pettis.
Man, those chuteboxe knees break noses!
(And vintage Vanderlei Gorilla punches do too!)
That was a fun match.
A perfect example of 2 guys who are not and will not be belt contenders, but still earn their keep and enhance a card.
(Still doesn’t make up for the stupidity of Shogun/Hendo though.)
First round of Rua/Henderson was fantastic. I fear if it goes the distance is might turn ugly. Neither has good cardio….
I have Rua/Henderson a draw. Henderson won the first 3 each 10-9…. One of the round was close to a 10-8, but Rua did enough.
Rua won the last 10, including a 10-8 round in the last.
I won’t be mad if either wins…. Great fight.
Well that was the best result that I could have hoped for for Hendo/Shogun.
It was a great fight, of course.
But I still assert that it was a stupid fight to make so soon.
It was guaranteed to be a great fight, and one that should have been saved for down the line since Hondo and Shogun will be the top contenders along with Lyoto for awhile.
The combinations of these should have been spaced out accordingly and until necessary.
But thankfully it wasn’t a one hitter quitter (ahem), despite js’ clumsy efforts both of their contendership has remained intact IMO.
Whew!
And anybody who purchased a UFC for the first time after seeing it on FOX, was certainly entertained by the last 3 fights on the card.
The Facebook/SpikeTV prelims were very good. The PPV started off very poorly. And from Faber to the end it was awesome.
45 I had it the exact same score.
47-47, but I figured Hendo would get the decision.
Great freakin fight.
I agree that Hendo seemed to take the first 3.
Definately the first 2.
But then consider that Shogun was bloodied up by the 3rd.
That will have an effect on your impression and memory of it.
I’ll have to watch it again.
It was definately one of them “rewatchers”.
🙂
one things for sure, this was one of the best arguments for the 5 round non title so far!
Very good night of fights, great final. I had it a draw for sure. Midway threw the 3rd Shogun started to pull ahead. I’d say Hendo won the 3rd but would have to see it again ot be sure. It’s always hard to tell how much damage is being done with those big shots against a guy who is covering up. In any case Shogun won the 4th and the 5th 10-8.m I want to see Shogun fight Rashard next.
During post fight press conference, Dana White said he would NOT have wanted Rua/Henderson on FOX. He said the people in the room and the hardcores live in a bubble. And the general audience needs to take baby steps into MMA.
Interesting persepctive….
White also scored Rua/Henderson a draw. But nobody seems to be complaining….
I understand both points of view on it. If you show Henderson/Shogun on Fox, you spoil everyone because the bar is raised so high. But nobody was complaining about that when Forrest/Bonnar helped nudge us into the UFC boom period.
The thing about that is anybody would say that in restrospect.
(Oh my goodness giving Dana a chance to retospect history!)
We all mentioned, but didn’t really stress what could happen with Cain/JDS.
(What for, it was out of our hands.)
Maybe we didn’t really believe it untill it happenned.
Nobody would have had the forsight to purposely book Bonner/griffen to headline a darn thing at the time either!
I thought that was odd too. Why in the world wouldn’t have this been perfect for Fox?
You guys think Rua should’ve gone for an armbar at all in the last round. Hendo posted with it 4 or five times trying to get out of mount.
Could be the blood factor?
Good point, didn’t think of that.
“Could be the blood factor?”
Bummer thats a marketable attribute for a Steve Segall movie, but a shame for us.
Contradiction on a platter?
One million bucks!
Steven Seagal really hasn’t had many hits….
Anyway, yeah, I think the blood would have been an issue. They’re trying to mainstream the sport, and a bloodbath can generate a serious public-opinion backlash from mainstream press who can’t get past it.
That being said it’s not like a 64 second fight was a good outcome no matter what the UFC claim. I’m sure Dana White is very relieved that he convinced Fox to do 4 fights for the next one, where the card is judged as a whole.
I watched this fight loving it but thinking if this was on FOX you would have had 500,000 angry letters to FOX the next day.
“…500,000 angry letters…”
Dont be afraid!
Thats what they rely on!
Thats what enables them!
World heavyweight title = meaningful statement. Two random aging light heavyweights isn’t. I mean, guys, uhh, Dan Henderson headlined Strikeforce on CBS and everyone here shit on it. Now it would have been genius to have Dan Henderson headline the first ever UFC card because, in retrospect, the fight was really awesome?
Also, sure sounds like that change to having 5 round main events with nontitle bouts really hurt the card. LOL. Best thing UFC has done in 2-3 years.
“…Dan Henderson headlined Strikeforce on CBS and everyone here
shiton it…”If they did they shouldn’t have!
The best argument for that is that Dano isn’t well known.
And that has nothing to do with squat in our world!
It’s not the fact that he should have headlined the card. It’s the idea that this fight wouldn’t have been good for the FOX audience knowing it was an amazing fight between two high ranked guys.
A girl I work with who is a casual MMA fan was all excited about that fight yesterday. She came over to watch at the third round, saw blood spray off Shogun’s face and screamed. She watched for about 30 seconds and walked away.
What Dana means is a bloodbath wouldn’t have been good the first time out on FOX.
Shogun and Hendo are “random” LHWs? The
fuck? They are both Top-6 in the world, and both former World Champions. Your argument that the HW Title is the biggest statement the UFC could possibly make is enough, you don’t need to inflate it withbullshit. Not to mention that Hendo’s last three fights before last night have all kicked ass.None of this changes the fact that the UFC would be doing the exact same thing that Strikeforce did on their last network TV show. See also: Bubble, MMA.
Wow, what a great night of fights. First the Bellator title fight and then UFC actually delivers on a PPV.
Epic fight. I had it 47-47. Would have been perfect if it was a draw – not really fair to have a loser in that fight.
Hendo/Shogun is the best MMA fight I’ve ever seen.
I’ve seen probably 5,000+ MMA and boxing matches. For awhile I thought a Ward/Gatti, Catillo/Corales or Paq/JMM (1&2) fight wouldn’t be possible in MMA. Because the equivalent of a knockdown in boxing ends an MMA fight. But what happens last night was magical. I need to see them fight again.
How about Foreman/Lyle?
To me that remains the greatest fight of all time but yesterdays war between Hendo and Shogun was close.
I still need to see the Alvarez/Chandler.
Foreman/Lyle was a boxing match. One of the best boxing matches ever.
Hendo/Shogun is the best MMA fight in my opinion.
Foreman/Lyle is on the short list for best fight ever. Period.
Ibeabuchi/Tua gives it a run for best boxing heavyweight fight ever.
Wait a minute. You were saying I should compare Hendo/Shogun to Foreman/Lyle in addition to the lower weight fights I mentioned. Great point.
Bad reading comprehension on my part.
“Ibeabuchi/Tua gives it a run for best boxing heavyweight fight ever.”
Nice pull, great fight.
Anderson is out till June. Be interesting to see who Chael fights in the meantime?
Funny that Anderson is out until June. June is the rumoured Sao Paolo event for the UFC. I’m sure there is no coincidence there lol.
I’m not so I agree with all this “best fight” talk about Hendo/Shogun. I think Edgar/Maynard had TWO better fights this year alone.