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« | Home | »

UFC 145: Jon Jones does what Jon Jones does (plus a few big underdogs win)

By Zach Arnold | April 21, 2012

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Event: UFC 145 (Saturday, April 21st, at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia)
TV: FX prelims, PPV main card

Dark matches

Main card

March & April 2012 results

Event: Strikeforce on Saturday, March 3rd, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio
TV: Showtime

Dark matches

Main card

UFC Australia: Kampmann saves his career w/ last-minute choke

Event: UFC on FX 2 (Friday, March 2nd at Allphones Arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia)
TV: FX

Dark matches

Main card

Event: UFC Sweden (Saturday, April 14th at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden)
TV: Fuel TV

Dark matches

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 95 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

95 Responses to “UFC 145: Jon Jones does what Jon Jones does (plus a few big underdogs win)”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    UFC on FX 2 show is a fantastic show. SIX Top 10 fighters on the main card. Can’t think of that ever happening before.

    UFC on FUEL TV 2 is a solid show for that network. I think the main event should be really good.

    UFC 145 on PPV is pathetic. The main event is great. The rest of the main card is a pile of turd. There is no reason for such a lacklust PPV like this one.

    It should also be pointed out that it will be 43 days between UFC events. At least we have LIVE TUF fights, including a 2 1/2 hour card for the TUF Premier to hold us over.

    And then there is Bellator. Poor Bellator. Being counterprogrammed by the UFC AND SPIKETV!!

    • edub says:

      I agree phenomenal card. It’s gonna get completely ignored by the public though because of the large amount of flyweights on the card.

    • AfroSamurai says:

      is it not true that the McCall fight will be rematched at the co-main event on 145

  2. Dave says:

    This weekend is looking to be great, while the following UFC shows are not looking too hot.

    The Sweden show is pretty good, but 145 is awful, just awful.

    • Steve4192 says:

      “145 is awful, just awful”

      I wouldn’t go that far. Having an awesome main event counts for a lot. Granted, it is nowhere near as good as it could have been, but it is still worth buying for the main event alone. I think the PPV portion would have been better if they had buried the HW fights on the prelims and moved up Torres-McDonald and Makdessi-Njokuani, but since I watch the prelims anyway, the fight order doesn’t really matter to me.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Good article.

      I would also add that Dana White & Joe Silva also agree. Here is what they have done to him….

      1) If you stay at Lightweight, you will not get an immediate title rematch. In fact, you will have to work your way back towards a title shot, despite your title loss being close.

      2) If you want to go to Featherweight, here is a title fight with Jose Aldo waiting for you.

      They are certainly pushing him in one direction. Honestly, I can’t say I blame them much either. Watching Edgar being so undersized is not an image the UFC wants to show at the championship level. Plus, Edgar is asking for some serious brain damage later in life taking so many big shots from much larger athletes. If anything, he needs somebody to push him in this direction.

      I’m a big Frank Edgar fan, but the guy needs to drop to Featherweight.

    • RST says:

      Nice write up.

      But I think it would look bad to skidaddle so fast out of the division he made his own against the odds.

      Its not that late in the game yet.

      If he go’s down to fly, it should be by the time he needs a remake.

      But I also thought that Ben won pretty clearly.
      I was surprised that there was any controversy at all.

      I dont think Frankie needs an immediate rematch, but maybe one fight away.

      Let Ben/Pettis headline a card, and let Frankie take on a top contender, maybe Maynard, and then if he wins gets another crack at the Ben/Pettis winner.

      Although I thought Ben won pretty clearly, Frankie was close enough that it could go the other way next time.

      Give him a chance to revenge the second loss on his record, like he finally did against Maynard.

      Good writing though.

      • edub says:

        Thanks man.

        I think you make a lot of valid points. I just think Frankie should do it now before he needs to reinvent himself (ala Kenny Florian). I don’t doubt that he could beat Ben (as I’m one of the people who thought he did enough to win), I just think it’s time for him to stop giving up so much size at LW and see if he can be something extraordinary at FW (kinda selfish I know).

        Again, I think Frankie could very well be the best LW in the world again. I just think he has a better chance to put together a winstreak that transcends against guys his own size ala GSP, Fedor, and Anderson at FW.

        Not to mention his career might last longer not getting beat up every fight (even in wins).

    • The Gaijin says:

      Good article my good man!

      I don’t know if he should move down so soon, it’s not like he got blown out or anything and his resume at ’55 is pretty incredible. I agree with RST – maybe we let him fight for the #1 contender (to face bendo-pettis winner) and if he loses there or in the title fight we re-evaluate.

      I think a lot of DFW’s impulse for him to move to ’45 is to have a superfight with Aldo and to give the lower weight classes more punch with the fans.

      What kind of effect do you think his move to ’45 will have on his incredible speed advantage over his opponents? I gotta think Aldo is as fast if not faster and I don’t know if the move down to ’45 gives him an incrementally better size advantage as there’s a lot of ex-’55ers and guys like Aldo that could move up to ’55 as well.

      • edub says:

        Thanx bro. See my comment above for more in depth thoughts on the subject.

        It’s not so much just the speed that I think will get better with a drop (although I think it definitely could). It’s the wrestling. IMO right now his wrestling is the best in the world in MMA (yea I did say that). He continually out-wrestles other great wrestlers in the LW division giving up 20-25 lbs. That to me against guys his owns size, and adding in his accurate striking that will land with more force and phenomenal foot work… I just think he could be the best PFP fighter in the world.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    UFC 144 Prelim show did 1.5 Million viewers. Looks like the ratings are back up to SpikeTV level. That took less then 2 months to accomplish. By comparison, UFC 142 did 880,000, & UFC 143 did 1.3 Million.

    I expect the same thing to happen to the TUF Ratings. The first few episodes will see a small dip due to the SpikeTV confusion. That will slowly go away.

    • The Gaijin says:

      Have you seen all the internet hubbub around one of the TUF contestants being ID’d as a former gay pornstar? To me, it is what it is, and I could not care less about it – but I am very interested to see how it is handled by Zuffa and mma fans/viewers – and down the road by opponents.

      It’s a weird grey-zone as well since (1) I believe they fired Chandella over her undisclosed softcore porn past (I wonder if they knew about his), and (2) Dana has said that he invites a gay mma fighter to step forward, but being in gay porn doesn’t necessarily mean a person is gay (I think Cochrane is married with a kid, doesn’t make him straight either mind you, and was open about being in it as “gay-for-pay”) but that doesn’t mean if they let him go people won’t make it into a “homophobia”, “anti-gay fighter” issue.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        1) I could care less if somebody is gay or even gay for pay. Their sexual preferences really have no basis on my opinion of them as a person or as a fighter.

        2) If a fighter was found out to have made STRAIGHT porn in the past, would he be fired from the UFC? Nope. In fact, I’m sure his opponents would make fun of him for it before fights and get lots of laughs as a result.

        3) I think there is more benefit to having him around then any sort of backlash. It allows the UFC to say they are LGBT friendly and all that sort of stuff. Sadly, his opponents will be the one who get backlash from it if they bring it up during trash talk. Which isn’t fair because like I said above, if it was straight porn, there would be no limits as to the comments.

        But boy, does this go to show you that the famous saying is very true… And it goes something like this: “You can build a thousan bridges and never be called a bridge builder. But if you suck one dick, you are forever known as a cocksucker.”

        • The Gaijin says:

          1) Agreed. I have to say I’m a bit surprised, you always seemed like a more conservative, right leaning person. Maybe you’re just a fiscal conservative though, which in this day and age would make you a dying breed.

          2) Aaron Brink (aka Dick Delaware) and War Machine haven’t seemed to have any trouble getting fights (I realize they both got into adult films after their UFC fights and Brink’s tenure was a short one anyways) and don’t really think much came up of it in their fights.

          3) On the surface it’s LGBT friendly, but if he’s not actually gay…that idea doesn’t exactly run too deep. Re. opponent’s comments – it would all depend on the context of how they were trash talking him, if it was just straight up trashing him for being a porn star…probably no problem – but if it was “Huurrr…ur a f@GGG! You did gay porn you must be a queer, I hope you don’t try to hump me in the cage!”…yeah that’s a big issue.

          4) I had to chuckle a bit at that one.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          I come off an conservative? Wow!! Actually, I am socially liberal. Gay Marriage, Polygamy… Honestly, whatever floats peoples boats. My general rule is that if it makes people happy and doesn’t endanger others (like children), I have no problem for it.

          Fiscally, I am moderate. Sometimes I agree with conservatives. Other times I agree with liberals. Other times I agree with libertarians. It all depends on the topic and to what extreme they want to take the idea. But mostly, I am just for fiscal responsibility. Neither party is fiscally responsible these days…. So I’m out of luck on being represented by my views.

          From my own personal life experiences, I have found that the people who care most about what somebody else does with their private parts has the most issues themselves.

      • RST says:

        🙁

        Cant they just fire him for being a porn dude?

        Wouldn’t that work?

        • The Gaijin says:

          I think it would boil down to whether or not it was disclosed to them when he signed on. I don’t imagine UFC will cut him, but I do wonder what type of say FX has on the fighters that will be on the program…I don’t suspect the Fox network to be really jazzed about that.

          And why would you want them to fire him? He’s a pretty good fighter – beat Jamie Varner on three days’ notice.

        • RST says:

          “And why would you want them to fire him?”

          I was just being silly.
          (Mostly)

          If the guy can fight then let him do it.

          I’ve complained often recently that this should be a competition for the best fighter, not the most popular one.

      • Kelvin Hunt says:

        This stuff about Cochrane came out months ago…it’s not new news…I’m sure they(UFC) have heard about it…

        • Steve4192 says:

          Yep.

          His porn past was exposed after he whooped Varner, which I am sure is the fight that got him noticed by Zuffa. I seriously doubt this is a surprise to them. In fact, I think it might be a calculated move on their part to back up Dana’s claims of the UFC being ‘gay friendly’.

        • The Gaijin says:

          Thanks for the heads-up on that, I saw a few more articles after I’d posted above that it was not a secret and he wasn’t really hiding it…so as you say not “new news”. And in the grand scheme of things, not really news at all at this point.

        • RST says:

          “In fact, I think it might be a calculated move on their part to back up Dana’s claims of the UFC being ‘gay friendly’.”

          I was just about to say that if it wasn’t a calculated move that it might work out as an advantage for that very reason.

          Let the dude play, and then we can hopefully be done with it and move on.

          As far as him getting onto the main roster, I’m sorry but I’m just not interested in that.

          Kind of like how I dont like my MMA mixed with twitter, I dont really want my MMA mixed with gay porn either.

      • RST says:

        “3) On the surface it’s LGBT friendly, but if he’s not actually gay…”

        Oh believe that its never enough.

        It would only be enough for a rhetorical defence against those culinary shmucks, but some types of activist groups are NEVER satisfied.

  4. EJ says:

    Really excited about the debut of the Flyweights, I fully expect them to steal the show almost everytime they are booked.

    Also interested to see if Kampmann is ready to string some wins together again or will he make another mistake in the fight that will cost him against Alves.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      First fight between Johnson vs. McCall was a good one.

      I know it’s easy for people to see the last round be dominated by one fighter and expect him to win, but the judges got it right. Johnson won the first 2 rounds.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Martin Kampmann finally found somebody who has a lower fight IQ then he does. I didn’t think that was possible. I was particularly shaking my head when he landed that front kick and then when for a takedown while Alves was stunned.

    2) Once again the internet blows up calling a fight a horrible decision. Chael Sonnen said it best on Fuel TV…. McCall won the fight, but Johnson won the athletic contest. And as he pointed out, nobody pulled the rug out from under the athletes and changed the rules at the last second. McCall knew he had to win at least 2 rounds, and he did not.

    3) None of the “controversy” of Johnson/McCall matters much. Benevidez is the best Flyweight today and will win the title.

    4) If Johnson is healthy, then the UFC should do a quick switch and get them as the main event for the FOX 3 show. The fight wouldn’t sell on PPV, they can advertise a title fight on FOX, and introduce the division to a larger audience. Plus, the fight is going to be exciting.

    Overall, FX show was fun.

  6. BuddyRowe says:

    I would argue that if Johnson won the first 2 rounds as 10-9s then you have to give McCall a 10-8 in the 3rd. The referee almost stepped in to stop the fight twice in that 3rd round.

    • Kelvin Hunt says:

      I think the fact that everyone knew there was a possible ‘sudden death’ round influenced most people to believe that the third round was a 10-8 when it wasn’t IMO…McCall landed 24 significant strikes in the third(most of those were in the last minute)…Johnson landed 20 significant strikes…

      You have to dominate the entire round to get a 10-8 IMO…McCall may have dominated 2 mins of that round tops…

      • Mr.roadblock says:

        “You have to dominate the entire round to get a 10-8 IMO…McCall may have dominated 2 mins of that round tops…”

        That is your opinion and there is nothing to back that up. There is actually no firm criteria in MMA or boxing as to what constitutes a 10-8 or 10-7 round. It’s a general unwritten rule that in boxing a fighter loses a point for each knock down and that in MMA a thoroughly dominant round is 10-8. But there’s no firm definition.

        If a judge felt a guy was save by the bell from a stoppage it is well within his rights to score 10-8.

        • edub says:

          Gotta agree with Roadblock here. If somebody dominates for an entire round I think it should be well within a judges right to give out a 10-7 round. Because that is what should have been given out in the first round of Edgar-Maynard 2.

  7. EJ says:

    Talk about a mess, whoever it was that dropped the ball on this needs to never work on another UFC show ever again. That is inexcusable, Johnson vs. McCall was a great fight and I would have loved a fourth and deciding round. Now instead of an instant classic we get a mess that is going to screw over everyone involved smh.

  8. david m says:

    I have been watching mma for roughly 14 years. I tend to consider myself anything but a casual fan. That being said, I am totally burned out by the UFC. I only care about big fights at this point. I saw 45 Huddle mention 6 top 10 fighters being on UFC on FX2, but really, none of them mean anything to me. I have never said “I really need to get home tonite to watch Ian McCall.”

    Dave wrote that UFC 145 is a terrible card; I would entirely disagree. There are maybe 20 matchups that could get me excited in mma today, and Rashad vs JJ is probably #1 on that list. (for shits and giggles, I would say the matchups I would seek out would involve combinations of: Cain/JDS/Overeem, Rashad/Machida/JJ, Anderson/Vitor/Chael, GSP/Diaz/Condit/Kos, BJ Penn/Bendo/Edgar/Maynard, Aldo/Edgar, Urijah/Cruz).

    Other than that, it is all the same to me. I just don’t care; it isn’t like I am going to see anything I haven’t seen before.

    I tuned in for the main event last night and was happy with the quality of the fight. Poor Thiago, he was so much better than MK but still managed to pry defeat from the jaws of victory. Kampmann has a lot of technical skills but is really slow. I would like to see him vs Kos or Fitch; I think he has a good shot in both of those fights. Where does Alves go from here?

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Well, if you don’t watch TUF or Bellator, you have 6 weeks before UFC 145…. So the break is there.

      For me personally, I am liking all of these MMA fights on TV. Not only the number of cards, but also all of the undercard action on FUEL TV and SHO Extreme.

      • david m says:

        I may tune in to see TUF, now that it is going to be live. The show has gotten very stale; hopefully the switch will spice it up.

        But yea, I am looking forward to the break between events. I am in a fight-picking league, and honestly it is draining having to do research seemingly every week on a bunch of guys I’ve never heard of.

        Building anticipation is key to the fight business; whether you want to look at pro wrestling or real fighting, when there is growing tension between two combatants stretched out over time, that tension builds and draws people in. Jones vs Rashad has the best storyline in all of mma (except for maybe Diaz vs GSP if GSP had gotten the nod against Kalib Starnes, err, Carlos Condit–natural born killer my ass. More like naturally inclined to run away from Nick Diaz). I expect the fight to do close to a million buys assuming it is promoted correctly.

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    Ronda Rousey is the first female that I can honestly say has solid fundamentals in one area of fighting…. Which obviously for her is her grappling.

    Typically what we see…. Even from people like Cyborg or Kaufmann, is really bad technique. Rousey’s grappling techniques looks on par with what the guys do.

    If WMMA can get more females like this, then it will be in a much better place. I still have my doubts….

  10. Jonathan says:

    My eyebrows are raised at Misaki over Semtex. IS this for real?

  11. Darkmader says:

    It’s simple that any girl who doesn’t have takedown defense will lose against her, as nobody has the sub defense to stop her and that might not happen for years. Eventually when she wins a few more fights she’ll face Cyborg and arm bar her too. It’s almost like UFC 1 as she’s Gracie and the others are geeks.

    Most people and even Dana pretty much figured that when Strikeforce ends, WMMA does too as they are so backlogged and thin, especially with 125 starting that they can’t add them, but because of Rousey’s performance and if she keeps on winning they will put WMMA on Fuel. They need that channel to thrive and she just gave them a golden ticket.

    Funny that Luke Thomas called and talked to Sherdog (Breen)for a good 10 minutes while his own site was having a live show.

  12. Megatherium says:

    Rhondda “Valley” Rousey!!

    WAR WTT!!

  13. Nepal says:

    Daley had an odd fight plan. He must have realized he was down 2 rounds going into the 3rd. Why would he be shooting take downs? He’s not going to sub Misaki obviously and although he did cut Misaki badly, he did little else from the top all fight.

    I realize he didn’t like losing the standup to Misaki but Daley still has great power, going into the 3rd, the only way he could have won that fight was by KO and he’s not going to get that on the ground.

    The Rhonda/Meisha fight was the first woman’s mma fight I have ever looked forward to watching and it didn’t disappoint.

    Overall, enjoyable card. Couture looked very good. Bowling disappointed.

    • Chuck says:

      How did Bowling disappoint? He did fine. He went against a VERY scrappy fighter with good pop in his punch. Anybody would look like shit against someone like that if they stand in front of a fighter like that. Bowling did get hurt, but when he took Saling to the ground, Bowling did what he had to do (especially with those crucifix pins) and won. Bowling obviously wanted to win standing up, but again, he went up against a scrappy dude (he also looks almost exactly like a smaller Chuck Liddell) who clearly likes to fight and has nothing to lose. It was a fun scrap. Fight of the night was definitely Kaufman/Davis.

      Both weekend cards (UFC on FX 2 and Strikeforce) were great cards. Sucks to hear about the Jonson/McCall fight being a draw after all and NOT going to a fourth round. So I guess sometime in April they are going at it again? Awesome fight. Would love to see more. And I have to say about Rhonda Rousey…….just like Brock Lesnar when he won the UFC heavyweight title. Neither fighter deserved their respective title shots, but man oh man did they make the most of it. And another thing that needs to be said about Rousey is that she clearly knows what her forte is, and that his her grappling, especially with the throws and suplexes. She doesn’t even bother trying to do any standing striking, because she doesn’t need to! And she probably sucks at striking, and she probably knows it. Darkmader made a great comparison of Rousey with Gracie via early days UFC. Nobody is going to stop her anytime soon. She won’t let a striker type use their range, and I doubt most female strikers will be able to against Rousey. I think it’s safe to say Rousey is the greatest female fighter ever already. Yes, beating out Cris Cyborg and Megumi Fujii.

      • Vadim says:

        Its also kind of reminds me of how Royce beat a bunch of hapless fighters and truck drivers, beat like one or two decent guys who had no idea at the time on how to defend against his style, and was declared the god of MMA. And now like most of the Rousey gets to duck legit fighters like Coenan, Carmouche, McMann, and Cyborg and pick and choose amongst ill-equipped opponents in Strikeforce until someone comes along and knocks her off her perch in the next 3 or 4 years.

        The typical disrespect of all female athletes you get now, but at least there is one women in MMA that people take seriously in MMA now even if its because of her overrated looks and sex appeal.

  14. RST says:

    145 @ 135 huh…

    I never thought I would be looking forward to Ms.Cyborg!

  15. RST says:

    “Simeon Thoresen defeated Besam Yousef in R2 in 2?36 by choke.”

    Hopefully…

    j/k

    ehhh…

    “Dana White: Mark Hunt vs. JDS ‘ain’t going to happen’”

    Thats a shame.

    I guess something is only gonna happen when Dana has a chance to get laid?!

    Maybe we should be twitter bombing olivia munn?

    ““So let me just say this: everybody gets due process. Alistair Overeem will have his due process…”

    So let me just say this…

    Was King Mo, or Miguel Torres given due process?

    Maybe Due process has something to do with Olivia Munn?

    (Which is somewhat justifiable…)

    • Chuck says:

      I don’t get the Olivia Munn references. What does she have to do with Dana White or UFC in general?

      ***

      Ah, just looked it up. Got it.

      To those not in the know, I guess Dana hung out with Olivia Munn one night recently and took a photo of himself leaning on her breasts, and Tweeted about it.

  16. Megatherium says:

    Well, McDonald/Torres should be a good fight.

  17. 45 Huddle says:

    MMA Fighting has officially gone to sh!t. Instead of Ariel Helwani interview videos, we now have Luke Thomas.

    The comments are not nice to Luke Thomas on the website. I wonder why.

    At least we still have FUEL TV….

    • Dave says:

      I think they are trying to justify paying Luke’s salary? My bet is Helwani couldn’t make it so they had Luke fill in.

      Most of the comments have been moderated at this point, which makes it look even worse IMO.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      There have been some interesting media-related issues going on lately. I noticed Ariel wasn’t on Fuel either and that Karyn Bryant has been getting more face time.

      Don’t ask me why.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Bryant is still 100 times better then Jay Glazier. I have nothing personal against Glazier…. He seems like a cool guy. I just don’t think he works well for MMA.

        The guy who has really been stinking up the house lately is Kenny Florian. I always thought he would be awesome for this role, but he has been a total bust.

    • The Gaijin says:

      Helwani stated before that he had family commitments, so I don’t think this is going to be the norm.

  18. […] Fight Opinion looks at the final odds of UFC 145. […]

  19. Da Buddha Mansuedo says:

    Rashad to upset Bones.
    When Rashad takes Bones down he will panic and remember those days in practice when he had no ground game against Rashad.

    • EJ says:

      I’ve been picking Evans to beat Jones since they first announced they were going to fight. Bones sounds like he’s drinking his own kool-aid from everything i’ve seen it seems like he’s bought his own hype and bad things happen when guys do that. Evans also just looks like a guy who knows he’s going to win he doesn’t see some invincible phenom when he looks at Jones. He sees a guy he used to beat up and Evans is great as an underdog, I think he’s going to smash the hype and humble Jones on Saturday.

  20. 45 Huddle says:

    Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir for the Heavyweight Title is official.

    I’ve regained a little faith in Dana White not waiting until the 24th to announce this.

    Overeem is screwed.

    This is also a rumor going around that Anderson Silva is threatening to pull out of the Sonnen fight if it doesn’t happen in Brazil. I think he will be put in his place before that gets too bad….

    • EJ says:

      Great to hear, Mir to me was the only choice to step in and face JDS and it should be a good fight that will probably end early one way or another.

      As far as Silva goes that’s no surprise he’s been ducking Sonnen since the end of their first fight. He knows that there won’t be any last minute subs the next time he faces Sonnen and he wants nothing to do with him. Luckily the UFC needs the buys so his opinion is irrelevant, they will call him out and basically force him to man up which is hilarious considering how many people actually believe this guy is some untouchable god in the cage.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      This was the only proper move to make. It had be to done.

      I think it speaks volumes about the level of confidence in Overeem (little) that UFC cut bait and that Nevada is allowing HDNet to video tape next Tuesday’s hearing. It doesn’t mean Overeem can’t get a license in Texas or elsewhere to fight soon, but no way he was making the 5/26 fight.

      The real circus is if UFC tries to move the Anderson/Sonnen fight to Vegas. Forget the politics with Anderson – I can’t wait to see the showdown between Sonnen and Kizer, two men who have very bad blood. If there’s one guy Kizer Fife can look ‘tough on drugs’ against, Sonnen could be the whipping boy.

      We’re literally only two months away from Sonnen/Silva (if it happens). That’s crazy.

      https://twitter.com/MMAjunkieJohn/status/193565977806516224

      I know money talks, but I can’t wait for the public hearing for Sonnen to get licensed.

      • EJ says:

        Kizer got his shot to look tough already but even he knows that Silva vs. Sonnen 2 will be a monster in Vegas, so he’ll know his role this time around. To me having Silva vs. Sonnen 2 outside of the US always seemed like a misfire on the UFC’s part, this is a mega fight and Vegas was the place it should have been booked for in the first place.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Kizer will rubber stamp Sonnen. He can’t fight 3 battles at the same time without getting too much bad press for the NSAC. Overeem & Diaz make sense to wage war against because of what they just did.

        Sonnen is not worth it.

        • Megatherium says:

          I’m hoping that the Anderson tells Dana White to stuff it and retires.

          He is 37 years old now, time to get out of there with his health/legacy intact.

      • Jonathan Snowden says:

        Talking to the principles this week, there isn’t much concern about Sonnen getting licensed in Nevada.

    • The Gaijin says:

      While Mir is probably the best available choice in the circumstances, this is a squash. Dude has beat Nelson, the corpse of Mirko and Nog – and for as gritty and bad ass as Mir was in finishing that fight, Nog snatched victory from the jaws of defeat there…

      Not to mention if Mir is getting fucking lit up like a christmas tree against the shell of Big Nog – Mir is going to get murder-death-killed in their with a guy like JDS. Hey, maybe Mir can test his ground game finally and we know Mir is double tough and have a size advantage…I don’t see this going well. I think the line is like -600 for JDS.

      I’d prefer Mir-Barnett/Cormier or Mir-Werdum for a shot at JDS. But I guess they want to keep the title in play. So I guess we could have winner of Barnett/Cormier vs. winner of Mir/JDS and losers against each other?

  21. EJ says:

    One last time, after getting KTFO by Alvarez I hope we can end the Aoki is a top LW stuff. The guy is a one trick pony that has been exposed twice now in the cage, Alvarez dominated him like alot of other LW’s in the UFC would. As far as Eddie goes this is his shot to man up, he can move to the UFC and prove that he’s a top guy or he can go back to the small pond and will forever by a could have been.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      If Bellator is willing to pay UFC-level money in a bidding war, I would not blame Eddie for taking the cash and waiting for the push in 2013 from the Spike machine.

      • The Gaijin says:

        I wouldn’t blame him either, but even as a big Eddie fan, I won’t be able to defend him as being at all relevant in the “top LW” discussion.

        He’ll still have some interesting and somewhat relevant fights to justify a top 10 ranking: rematch with Chandler, Hawn (who looks like a beast at LW) and Pitbull/Cupcake…but that’s it. It would be purely for the money.

        • edub says:

          I see Bellator as what the WEC was a year and a half ago. I’d put Chandler, Hawn, and Alvarez up there with pretty much everyone in the UFC LW division. Unfortunately, rankings won’t show that.

        • Steve4192 says:

          I agree (although I wouldn’t put Hawn up there just yet)

          That said, none of those WEC guys got any respect until they came to the UFC and started kicking ass. I don’t see things going any differently for the Bellator guys. No matter how good they are, they won’t be recognized as such until they fight in the UFC.

        • edub says:

          Agreed Steve. Fair or not, until one of those guys from Bellator moves to the UFC and makes some noise they will not get credit as top tier guys.

          Side note: Why is is nearly universal that Jim Miller is the 6th best LW in the world? Take away the UFC name, and stack his record over the past 6 fights with Eddie Alvarez (who actually had top tier wins before that). Personally I don’t see a difference.

    • Vadim says:

      If George Sotiropoulos and Demian Maia can win a ton of UFC fights with just their grappling, I don’t see why Aoki couldn’t. Would he be top 5 in the UFC? Probably not, but dude would win fights and considering how rankings go would probably end up in the top ten again. His two losses at LW are against top 5 guys, I don’t think he is done just yet.

      Not to make excuses, but it pains me how people seem to have such a strong desire to flush Aoki down the drain because he has never fought in the UFC.

  22. The Gaijin says:

    My sure to be woefully incorrect picks for tonight:

    Hominick by UD or possible late TKO.

    MacDonald by domination – this guy looks like he’s going to be a real force of the future at WW.

    GraveDIGGER by TKO. Upset pick – will probably be so, so wrong, (they looked a few weightclasses apart yesterday) but Browne just looked horrid against Kongo, who is admittedly a class above Griggs…but still.

    Schaub by UD. Though I will say that Rothwell looked to be in really good shape (maybe his gas tank won’t falter after a round)…he just doesn’t seem to have anything for anyone in the UFC HW division these days.

    Jones by TKO in Rd. 3. I think the fight will be closer than a lot of ppl are predicting (and the odds show)…but in the end, I’m having a hard time seeing where Rashad can implement any part of his game on Jones. One thing Shad does have is that he hasn’t lost it before the bell rang by being in awe or intimidated by Jones. If Evans loses I would love to see Evans-Shogun.

    Undercard: Blanco (should be a barnburner), Clements, Makdessi, Danzig, Wonderboy, McDonald and Bocek .

  23. 45 Huddle says:

    All those graphics on the screen for the UFC 145 prelims need to be stopped.

    At one point, they had a graphic in all 4 corners.

    The UFC on FX graphic in the upper left corner should be combined with the time clock…. And the countdown logo was way too big…

  24. edub says:

    Jones fought a smart, safe fight. Very much looking forward to the same fans who shit on GSP all the time trying to justify this performance (I absolutely have no problem with it, just see the double standard).

    Brendan Schaub’s chin is such a detriment. You gotta wonder if there’s any point in the guy continuing to fight. He’s good almost everywhere, but that chin is just terrible.

    I say Rory vs. either Diaz or the Koscheck-Hendricks winner next. Or if they wanna keep it going slow, James Head.

    Called Brimmage a while ago, that guys is damn good IMO. A lot of speed.

    Browne vs. Rothwell make too much sense as a next fight?

    • The Gaijin says:

      “Brendan Schaub’s chin is such a detriment. You gotta wonder if there’s any point in the guy continuing to fight. He’s good almost everywhere, but that chin is just terrible.”

      Those were some really poorly thrown left hands by Rothwell. Obviously he’s a big dude with lots of weight behind his punches…but geez, those were awful, pawing half-punches that didn’t look dangerous. Schaub’s chin is THAT bad.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        The term “glass jaw” gets thrown around too often. I have seen guys get KO’d 2 fights in a row by really hard shots and people start to claim they have a glass jaw. That is not the case.

        Schaub is a perfect example of a “glass jaw”. You barely have to touch his head and he not only gets knocked down, he typically gets KO’d.

        It’s sad too, because he seems to be a hard worker with good size and some natural ability. But that chin of his really means he needs to find a new line of work.

  25. EJ says:

    I honestly cannot believe what I saw tonight from Evans, i’ve tried to put it in words but I just fall short. That was probably the most head shaking gameplan and performance i’ve ever seen from a fighter. It boggles my mind that Evans would choose against Jones to fight like and honestly I feel such disgust right now that I don’t know what to do with myself. What a disgrace, Evans is going to wake up on later today and realise that he just embarrased himself and his new team with that showing.

    • David M says:

      I didn’t have that impression at all. He was competitive, landed some good shots, and didn’t get finished. It is hard to fight someone who is really fast as well as being about 5 inches taller and having 10 more inches in reach. JJ really has no weaknesses; he got lit up against Machida on the feet, but Rashad is no Machida. Rashad did however show survival ability and avoided getting taken down and decimated with elbows. Nothing disgraceful at all. I thought he fought well.

      • Dave says:

        Ahh, I disagree about JJ having no weaknesses. He’s shown poor striking in the clinch (he had Rashad in a tight thai plumb against the cage and Rashad landed an overhand with ease, for example) and that if you get on the inside and back him up he has nothing.

        Most guys keep distance, which stays in his range and is a dumb idea.

        I’d also say from what we’ve briefly seen of him off of his back that he might not be comfortable there. Someone with good dirty boxing or thai clinch work and decent takedown defense and takedowns could do some damage against Bones.

        • David M says:

          You are right; I misspoke. I meant to say he had no weaknesses Rashad could exploit (as evidenced by my next line about Machida lighting him up on the feet). Machida was able to control the distance in the first round and make Jones hit only air. Lyoto got him going backwards and was able to land all the significant strikes that round. Nobody else at 205 can outstrike JJ at this point. I would really like to see Anderson against him, but it is not to be.

        • RST says:

          “Machida was able to control the distance in the first round and make Jones hit only air…”

          Uhh, Machida is not a good measure of anyone.

          Machida lights everybody up and makes them hit air!

          The only reason jackson got past machida is because snazzy lil punk ass joe silva gave him a heavy handed bomber on the rebound from his first KO.

        • edub says:

          “He’s shown poor striking in the clinch (he had Rashad in a tight thai plumb against the cage and Rashad landed an overhand with ease, for example) and that if you get on the inside and back him up he has nothing.”

          He has nothing? This isn’t kickboxing. If you get on the inside of Jones he typically will toss you on your head. The fact that he went for only 1 or 2 takedowns in the entire fight proved that he respected Rashad’s takedown a lot (maybe too much). Against almost everybody else in the world, let alone LHW division, he won’t have that problem.

          “I’d also say from what we’ve briefly seen of him off of his back that he might not be comfortable there. Someone with good dirty boxing or thai clinch work and decent takedown defense and takedowns could do some damage against Bones”

          Might want to completely rephrase that. He’s been on his back for literally only a few seconds in his career, so although I find it hard to find anything there, anyone’s opinion there is fine. However, somebody with “good dirty boxing and clinch work”, and “decent takedown defense”? That’s just insane.

    • RST says:

      Bad game plan, I agree.

      He did pretty well on his feet, better then I expected, but he was never going to win the fight like that.

      Henderson nailed it when he said that Shad fought Jones’ fight.

  26. RST says:

    Well I certainly hope that we can now put the Shad/Jones ugliness behind us.

    Although Jones will remain the best fighter in the world, and the mascot for fvcking your own team mates over!

    • RST says:

      Nobody can beat Jon Jones right now.

      (And isn’t that awesome that he’s willing to take on the HW champ, but shmilva refuses to budge!)

      But Shad is still a good LHW!

      If I was Shad, my revenge plan would be to pick off every contender, and then shy away from a Jones rematch.

      “We’re friends now dana, its all over!”
      (Plus your sponsoring Jones against me!)

      But in order to do that, Shad will have to come to grips with Lyoto first!

  27. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Rashad Evans is saying he has no intentions of dropping to Middleweight, which is a real shame. He coud be a dominant long time champion at that weight class. At Light Heavyweight, I fear he will always just be a really great contender.

    2) Dana White said he is interested in Lombard & Alvarez. He is already trying to push up the price on Bellator free agents. I’m not sure he cares if he signs all of them. I’m sure he wants to sign some, and then push up the market price for the rest to make things more financially tough for Bellator moving forward.

    3) Overall I thought UFC 145 was average. Some really slow fights to start the night. The main event was very soid but not really exciting. Not every event is going to be awesome.

    • RST says:

      @3, pretty much a garbage card IMO.

      It’s obvious that they were anchoring a card full of filler with the Shad/Jones fight.

  28. The Gaijin says:

    Any voracity to a rumor I just read that Overeem’s defense is going to be Viagra use….?

    C’mon man! These guys will stop short of nothing.

    But even if we were to possibly buy this, query why a young, healthy man with his physical attributes would need the assistance of Viagra…hmmmm….

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Chael Sonnen has 1 ball. Alistair Overeem has to take Viagra to get it up.

      These fighters have no shame to try and get their tests overturned.

    • RST says:

      I think we can safely assume that cheaters have no shame.

    • RST says:

      “My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone.”

      Thats kind of weird.

      Because what kind of quack back alley doctor are we supposed to believe would secretly inject a proffesional fighter with an upcoming fight with testosterone?

      I was always under the impression that doctors are pretty smart and not just ignorant buffoons who would be unaware that that is not allowed in sports and would jeopardize his clients ability to to be cleared to compete.

      Let alone a sports doctor, which is what I would assume that an athlete pays for to go to.

      (This is of course all rhetorical, because I think we’re all perfectly aware what kind of doctor Overeem is paying for to go to!)

      • Steve4192 says:

        I’m hoping that Overeem is just confused and thinks that corticosteroids are anabolic. Because if a doctor actually injected him with test to treat a rib injury, that guy needs to be sued for malpractice immediately.

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