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Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Roy Nelson take care of business at #UFC 146
By Zach Arnold | May 26, 2012
Event: UFC 146 (Saturday, May 26th)
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
TV: FX for prelims, PPV for main card
Dark matches
- Featherweights: Mike Brown (-150, 3 to 2 favorite) defeated Daniel Pineda after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Light Heavyweights: Glover Texeira (-220, 11 to 5 favorite) defeated Kyle Kingsbury in R1 in 1’53 with an arm-triangle.
- Lightweights: Paul Sass (+170) defeated Jacob Volkmann in R1 in 1’54 with an triangle arm-bar.
- Welterweights: Dan Hardy (-115) defeated Duane “Bang” Ludwig in R1 in 3’51 by TKO.
- Middleweights: CB Dollaway (EVEN) defeated Mayhem Miller after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Jamie Varner (+400) defeated Edson Barboza in R1 in 3’23 by TKO.
- Featherweights: Darren Elkins (+200) defeated Diego Brandao after 3R by unanimous decision.
Main card
- Heavyweights: Stefan Struve (-130) defeated Lavar Johnson in R1 in 1’05 by arm-bar.
- Heavyweights: Stipe Miocic (-160, 8 to 5 favorite) defeated Shane Del Rosario in R2 in 3’14 by TKO.
- Heavyweights: Roy Nelson (-220, 11 to 5 favorite) defeated Dave Herman in R1 in 51 seconds by KO.
- Heavyweights: Cain Velasquez (-400, 4 to 1 favorite) defeated Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in R1 in 3’36 by TKO.
- UFC Heavyweight title match: Junior dos Santos (-500, 5 to 1 favorite) defeated Frank Mir in R2 in 3’04 by TKO (punches).
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ARTICLE COMMENTS ABOUT THE EVENT.
Event: UFC on Fox 3 (Saturday, May 5th)
Venue: Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey
TV: Fox (all network affiliates)
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Karlos Vemola defeated Mike Massenzio in R2 in 1’07 by submission (choke).
- Bantamweights: Roland Delorme defeated Nick Denis
- Featherweights: Dennis Bermudez defeated Pablo Garza after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Danny Castillo defeated John Cholish after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Bantamweights: Louis Gaudinot defeated John Lineker in R2 in 4’54 by choke.
- Welterweights: John Hathaway defeated Pascal Krauss after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Flyweights: John Dodson defeated Tim Elliott after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Michael Johnson defeated Tony Ferguson after 3R by unanimous decision.
in R1 in 4’59 by submission (choke).
Main card
- Heavyweights: Lavar Johnson defeated Pat Barry in R1 in 4’38 by TKO.
- Middleweights: Alan Belcher defeated Rousimar Palhares in R1 in 4’18 by TKO.
- Welterweights: Johny Hendricks defeated Josh Koscheck after 3R by split decision.
- Lightweights: Nate Diaz defeated Jim Miller in R2 in 4’09 by submission (choke).
Event: UFC on Fuel 3 (Tuesday, May 15th)
Venue: Patriot Center (Fairfax, Virginia)
TV: Fuel
Dark matches
- Bantamweights: Azamat Gashimov defeated Alex Soto after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Bantamweights: Johnny Eduardo defeated Jeff Curran after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Rafael dos Anjos defeated Kamal Shalorus in R1 in 40 seconds with a choke sleeper hold.
- Lightweights: TJ Grant defeated Carlo Prater after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Cody McKenzie defeated Marcus LeVesseur in R1 in 3’05 by submission (choke).
- Middleweights: Brad Tavares defeated Dongi Yang after 3R by unanimous decision.
Main card
- Middleweights: Tom Lawlor defeated Jason MacDonald in R1 in 50 seconds by KO.
- Light Heavyweights: Igor Pokrajac defeated Fabio Maldonaldo after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Bantamweights: Yves Jabouin defeated Jeff Hougland after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Donald Cerrone defeated Jeremy Stephens after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Amir Sadollah defeated Jorge Lopez after 3R by split decision.
- Featherweights: The Korean Zombie defeated Dustin Poirier in R4 in 1’07 with a choke.
Event: Strikeforce Heavyweight GP tournament finals (Saturday, May 19th)
Venue: HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena)
TV: Showtime
- Gian Villante defeatedDerrick Mehmen after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Carlos Augusto Filho defeated Virgil Swicker after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Isaac Vallie-Flagg defeated JZ Cavalcante after 3R by split decision.
- Chris Spang defeated Nah-Shon Burrell in R1 in 3’25 by TKO.
- Rafael Feijao defeated Mike Kyle in R1 in 33 seconds by choke.
- Strikeforce Lightweight title match: Gilbert Melendez defeated Josh Thomson after 5R by split decision.
- HW GP tournament finals: Daniel Cormier defeated Josh Barnett after 5R by unanimous decision to win the tournament.
On a recent edition of Chronicle Live on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area, Daniel Cormier said the winner of the Cormier/Barnett fight would have a “plus-one” situation where they would fight a UFC fighter next.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 145 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It was bound to get lost so will re-post it here.
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….
He didn’t use viagra, but his defense is just as flimsy. He is done for a year….
For a guy who acts all calm and cool…. He certainly has a lot of drama in his life. Busted for elevated T/E…. getting sued by his former camp….
yeah…that just seemed like way too bizarre a defence to ever be true. Not that this one is any better…Overeem is screwed.
“…. He certainly has a lot of drama in his life. Busted for elevated T/E…. getting sued by his former camp….”
WOAH, WOAH, WOAH…back that truck up young man. You were the front runner on what a bunch of scammers, liars and thieves GG was and how they were really the new M-1 and AO/UFC were doing the right thing by getting away from there, etc., etc.
So you’ll excuse me if I think it’s mighty convenient that suddenly you’re using that as good fodder for you to throw some dirt at him.
GG is certainly scum. But Overeem was part of that scum for years.
After the huge letdown from last night this Fox card can’t come soon enough. I need something to get the horrible taste of last nights Evans performace out of my mouth. I haven’t been this down after a big UFC Main Event since Okami embarrased himself against Anderson and now look at his career.
UFC on FOX 3 goes hard.
That Strikeforce card is just awful. Aside from the main event, I think the undercard to 146 is a better set of fights at this point (and that’s not saying much about the 146 undercard).
Real talk, I think its BS that they got Daniel Pineda curtin jerking. That fight is like a bright light compared to the rest of those fights on the undercard. Put the winner of MTB/Pineda vs Hioki stat.
Right now Zuffa is scheduled to have 19 events through the first 6 months of the year. That is even more amazing when you realize they took 6 weeks off between shows in March/April.
The FOX 3 main card is good. All 4 fights are quality. The problem with that show is that there is no fight to get the casual fans interested. Whatever ratings they get for that show will likely be the bottom of what they can do on that channel.
The FUEL TV 3 card isn’t very good, even for a FUEL TV card. The Strikeforce card has one really good fight.
UFC 146 is the best card of the month. I wonder who they will get to fight Roy Nelson.
I think UFC on fuel 3 is going to be a sneaky good card. A lot of guys with a lot to prove on that event.
The main card for UFC 146 is fun, but my god is that undercard horrendous and losing the JDS-Overeem main event was a killer in my mind.
I think you make a good point about the FOX card. It seems weird to just have number 1 contender matches and stuff like that on primetime television. It doesn’t seem like that way is taking full advantage of the medium, you don;t see other sports leagues saving their big events for pay per view.
Dave Herman vs Roy Nelson would be cool stuff. Maybe they resign Sean McCorkle on short notice. Other then that I really can’t think of anyone on their roster unless they signed a local guy.
I think Jon Olav Einemo would be a fun opponent for Roy Nelson. Would Sean McCorkle be able to make weight? His last fight, in Bellator, he fought at a 285 lbs. catch weight. Matt Mitrione would be a good opponent too.
Officially Gabe Gonzaga will face Roy Nelson. Its going to be a shame if Shane gets his UFC debut pushed back farther, hopefully they can find someone to take the fight on short notice.
Einemo was cut and officially retired. Mitrione vs Del Rosario would be pretty cool.
Wow, 146 is a heck of a card.
I would have rather seen pretty much all of those dark matches over everything on the card last weekend except the headliner.
ufc on fox and fuel, 3 and 3, stink and stink.
FUEL TV is adding 12 Golden Boy Boxing cards a year.
This a positive for the UFC. Right now, they are the only thing to watch on FUEL TV. A little mid-level boxing could definitely help out.
I think all signs point to by the end of 2013, FUEL TV will be in closer to 70 Million homes, mostly in HD…. And the UFC will be getting 500,000 or so per show.
UFC 145 prelims got 1.6 Million viewers. It would seem that their events ratings are still doing good numbers. All 6 prelim shows have done been ratings then the last. It’s really just TUF that is struggling. I think they need to find a new format.
It’s more than likely the day the show is on, Friday is the worst day for TV ratings, move to another night and ratings would go up. Saturday isn’t much better either but it’s more of a MMA/Boxing night.
From Bloody Elbow from the NSAC hearing….
“- Overeem tested positive for 14:1 (as we knew). Overeem tried to flee the building at time of random test, jumped into a car and sped off despite being told that he had to stay to give a sample. Claims he “didn’t realize” he needed to stick around and was going to an interview, then changed story that he was going to talk about his battery case, then changed story again that he was going to try to avoid Golden Glory serving him papers. UFC says they made it entirely clear that he needed to stick around.”
I think that makes it 100% certain that he also avoided the test for the Brock Lesnar fight. That fight should really be changed to a no contest at this point.
Bellator this past weekend did 109k. How much money you want for that Eddie?
He made about $1 for every viewer on TV. That’s UFC PPV level payouts based on the percentages. lol
Bellator also released Jay Hieron. They are having a real problem getting established fighter to enter more then one tournament. Both Hieron & Alvarez balked at the idea.
Bellator format is great for keeping fighter pay down and creating a solid prospect here or there. But it doesn’t work for a fighters overall career.
I’m liking Zag/Nelson.
That actually makes sense!
Apparently Joel Silva was looking for the TV remote and found his brain in between the couch cushions.
Cain/Bigfoot is still wasteful though IMO.
So now mmatv is reporting that Overeem got his junk from Dr. Hector Oscar Molina!
The Texas Ripper!
I just read about this guy like last month.
The details are in the MMtv article:
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/398941/Overeems-Texas-doctor-has-troubled-past/
I assumed that he would have already been suspended by now after what he has already been caught doing?!
Although IMO opinion this doesn’t exonerate Overeem more than prove that if he would go to THIS GUY, will all the money that he makes, that he’s shopping for the “right” doctor!
[…] UFC May 2012 fight cards | Fight Opinion […]
Well thats not good for Pee Wee at all.
He probably shouldn’t have taken this fight.
And even though I really like Pee Wee I’m running out of heartbreak for him if he’s going to keep making stupid decisions like refusing to join a legit gym or advance his training.
The UFC on FOX Main Event is coming up shortly. So far this has been a great card. Exciting fights, good pacing, and it seems like the UFC/FOX relationship is finally hitting its stride.
The only thing this card is missing is that big name…. And the ratings are likely to show. But that can be fixed for the future.
I can see why they picked this date to have the card. First, the Mayweather fight will mean people will be watching fights all night long. Second, it seems like half of the commercials are for summer blockbuster movies.
– The Fox suits had to be thrilled that UFC produced four fights within 2 hours.
– Joe Rogan was in heaven describing Alan Belcher’s neck crank submission attempt on Palhares and then was downright stoked at Nate Diaz’s choke on Jim Miller. He made sure to point out that Diaz was forcing Miller to bite his own tongue off before tapping out.
– I had to laugh at Nate Diaz putting over Gilbert Melendez as the #1 fighter – not because of the actual claim but because he did it on national TV without any hesitation. Balls.
– It’s hard to figure out where to peg Nate Diaz right now. He lost badly to Rory MacDonald, who is on fire, but easily beat Jim Miller. Who does that say more about, Rory or Miller?
– Lavar Johnson and Pat Barry had the loudest crowd reactions on the TV portion of the card.
– The Johny Hendricks/Josh Koscheck fight was the crowd-killer that it appeared to be when first booked on paper. Koscheck lost that fight more than Hendricks won it.
– That video package leading up to Hendricks/Koscheck may have been the weirdest attempt at hype of all time.
– “Dude, that is one tough dude.”
– There was a lot of insider baseball going on during the announcing tonight with Goldberg & Rogan. A lot of incongruous observations on their part. Goldberg had a rough night in terms of being yelled at in his ear, as he stuttered on several transitions from commercial. I suspect cross-feed in the ear was driving him mad.
– It was fascinating to see the insecurity about blue-chip sponsorship get addressed in the first fight (Pat Barry/Lavar Johnson). Your main sponsors tonight for UFC on Fox were Xyience & Muscle Pharm (what is this, 2007?). Randomly, out of nowhere, Rogan starts droning about Pat Barry being sponsored by Alienware and how proud he is of the big sponsors UFC is attracting. It came out of nowhere.
– I can’t erase the image of Bruce Buffer repeatedly saying “Big” Johnson repeatedly.
– Rogan commented that Rousimar Palhares looks like an action figure. Well, given that New Jersey doesn’t publicly release failed drug test results, we won’t know if he naturally looks like one.
– That was a damn fine showing by Belcher, who attacked the strength of his opponent and stayed patient until he just threw bomb after bomb.
– The hyperbole was out of control on this show. Pat Barry is an ‘elite’ kickboxer… unless he’s getting tagged by Cheick Kongo or pounded by Lavar Johnson. Junior dos Santos is the ‘best boxer ever at Heavyweight.’ Frank Mir is the ‘best submission specialist’ ever at Heavyweight.
– Speaking of Lavar Johnson, it doesn’t speak very well of him that Pat Barry so easily mounted him and nearly submitted him.
– Funniest hyperbole of the night was the ad read for The Ultimate Fighter proclaiming that this season of the show has produced ‘some of the most epic TUF fights ever.” Yeah, if you mean epic in terms of being all-time stinkers & ratings-killers, sure, that’s epic in a kind of a bad way.
– Has anyone seen that new Tapout XT infomercial with Jon Jones, Diego Sanchez, Carlos Condit, Donald Cerrone, and Miesha Tate hawking that P90X/Insanity-style workout DVD set for $120? There is something about watching Cerrone in a cowboy hat hawking Tapout XT that makes it all worth watching.
– There were several big underdogs who won big in UFC this weekend (both on TUF & on Fox show). Not a great week for betting favorites.
You accentuate all the negatives, yet speak on none of the positives of the show. I’m not going to do your job for you, but yes there were plenty of things that went right about tonite. Probably more good than bad. But that’s not what you do. This is absurd.
Ed. — You amuse me. Thought it was a fun night of fights. I wrote down my observations from the show real-time, so nothing manufactured.
Spot on for the most part Zach, at least where I was sitting from. I expected more from the Hendriks/Koscheck fight. I don’t think Lavar Johnson is a quality heavyweight, but damn, was that fun to watch, and in the end, this is a spectator sport. I’d love to see more fights like that, and less like Koscheck/Hendriks.
Also, balls for Belcher to go there and beat Palhares at his own game.
15 lb and no reach advantage can go a long way in explaining why McDonald looked so good against Nate.
The shout out to Gil was awesome.
On the sponsorship point, I agree that Rogan’s Alienware comment was weird, especially when the average person has no idea they’re Dell.
It seemed like they were having a lot more issues with the production than usual. Mike Goldberg isn’t especially good or anything, but he’s done enough live shows with commercials that I would guess it wasn’t 100% his fault.
On top of that, I tried watching the hour long Fox Deportes prelim show (since I don’t get Fuel) and they were having massive issues with the wrong graphics coming up and replays being frozen. Did the Fuel show have the ridiculous TNA-ish quick camera cuts during the flyweight fight that were on Fox Deportes?
Also, after three shows, I still don’t get why they’re directing Spanish speaking viewers to Fox Deportes and not Fox’s own SAP feed. I believe they do have one, and if they don’t, why not carry it anyway? If it’s there, is plugging Fox Deportes a Fox thing or a UFC thing?
Zach, I’m going to let you in on a little secret re: the commission in New Jersey releasing the results of drug tests. They don’t, but what they do is make sure the official results are changed in the mixedmartialarts.com database. So if you want to see if anyone pissed hot and the commission had the fight result overturned, just check to see if the official results have changed in a few weeks.
I actually do this all the time for local fighters. Caught quite a few that way.
So if Palhares lost and got suspended, what then?
I was going to go on a rant about how pathetic Jim Miller looked tonight but I can’t do it anymore. It seems that for most of this year all I’ve done is bash guys like him and Evans who’ve had beyond idiotic gameplans and suffered embarrassing losses.
But I just don’t have it in me anymore, so from now on instead of assuming that guys are going to fight to their strengths. I’ve going to assume that they will all fight with the IQ of Palhares, that way if they surprise me it’ll be a good thing not leave me wondering what the hell these guys are thinking in these fights.
I honestly think the issue with Miller is that he just wasn’t that great to begin with and was really overrated – I don’t want to say that as a slight or to take away anything from Diaz – but how he was ranked as a TOP FIVE LW for this long has been a mystery to me.
I mean he went on a nice win streak, but his best wins were Tibau and Guillard who not really Einstein-ian in their fight IQ and has lost anytime he faced top 10 guy (Bendo, Maynard, Diaz). He’s still a great test for what level a fighter someone is (good or elite) and only has 4 losses so I’m not giving up on the guy.
Ultimately, I really don’t get how it was just accepted that he’s a top 5 guy at 155 but people bitch about Eddie A being considered up there (and currently is ranked #11). I know, I know, I am an Eddie mark – but I feel like I’m not going totally on a limb here if I say that if Michael Chandler or Eddie were in the UFC and got the roster of opponents he was given they’d be considered a perennial title contender too. Flame away.
Stann/Lombard is the main event for FOX 4. It’s sort of a huge middle finger to Bellator & SpikeTV…. “Thanks for spending lots of $$$ on promoting Hectord Lombard. Now we will sign him from you and gain all of the profits from it.”
Plus Eddie Alvarez was sitting cageside with Dana White.
I can’t imagine SpikeTV is going to want to spend $10+ Million a year on an organization that is just becoming a feeder system to the company they lost.
“Rogan commented that Rousimar Palhares looks like an action figure. Well, given that New Jersey doesn’t publicly release failed drug test results”
Since when? I can’t remember the last failed test in Jersey, but I remember the NJSACB releasing the drug test results for the last several UFC cards there, so if they didn’t release this one that would in itself be news.
If you get suspended, they don’t announce the suspension.
Upon reflection, I see your point.
Ok EJ, I would like to hear what your gameplan would have been. Or better yet, what gameplans you have used in any of your fights.
As for the loss, well Jim Miller got beat. You can’t make any excuses. But to say he looked pathetic is just silly. Obviously, Diaz was able to fight the fight he wanted to and deserves all the respect in the world for it, but Miller is not the kind of person to make excuses and I think would readily admit he loss to the better fighter that night. Of course if their paths cross again, who’s to say Miller won’t get the win back, but in the right now it was Nate’s night. I don’t see how it makes Miller pathetic.
I’m not gonna pile on EJ, but I feel like that’s typically the excuse he comes up with when he’s been ranting on and on about someone and how they were gonna run roughshod on their opponent or upset them or whatever. It seems to happen after a lot of events recently. Sometimes I can’t disagree but sometimes I think you can just say – well, I guess I was wrong about that and/or maybe the guy just wasn’t as good as I thought he was…I dunno – YMMV.
I certainly can’t speak for EJ, and I don’t think Miller looked pathetic, but when every single fighter in the last three years who has taken Diaz down early without letting him get his boxing started and punched him without letting him up has beaten him, many of whom were not as good at wrestling or BJJ as Miller, seeing Miller content to box on the outside without even trying takedowns until he’d already been beaten up and dropped was pretty frustrating.
Nice to see that at least someone else here gets it, like i’ve said in the past I never have a problem with a guy losing a fight if the other guy is just better.
But when a talented veteran like Jim Miller who has a clear advantage in wrestling ignores that and comes out with a horrible gameplan. What more can I do but to call him out on that, I mean listening to his gameplan after the fight made me even more angry.
It’s sadly become a pattern of alot of veteran guys these days, it seems that they aren’t even trying to come up with a good gameplan or fighting to their strenght. And it’s lead to alot of embarrasing performances mostly in Main Events, hell i’m still trying to find out what Rashad was trying to do against Jones.
Simply put if Nate would have stuffed all of Miller’s takedowns and beaten him, i’d be the first to give him props for fixing the holes in his game. But that’s not what happened and just like I can praise a guy when he does good, i’ll sure bash him when he fights like an idiot and that’s how Miller fought.
See that’s the thing, you can plan and plan for a fight, but sometimes they just don’t work when put in motion. Could I see someone being frustrated, yes I can. I don’t see how it makes Miller am idiot, it just shows that Diaz happened to be better that night.
Except that’s not what happened, Miller said that his strategy was to press Nate and push the pace on him. That is simply an idiotic gameplan and if I knew that he was going to use that strategy i’d have changed my pick.
My problem isn’t that Miller lost all fighters lose, it’s that he had a dumb strategy and didn’t use his biggest weapon which is his wrestling. Same thing with Rashad against Jones, I’m still baffled that he thought trying to box with a guy with that big a reach was going to win him the fight.
Fighting stupid to me is the worst thing you can do, most of all if you’re a multiple fight veteran that should know better like Miller is.
Agreed some, with both of EJ and fd2 about Jim Miller.
My prefight prediction was Miller by split-decision because I thought he was an intelligent fighter, and come in with a noted game-plan. He did not, and that’s on him and his coaches. Personally, the only thing that annoys me is watching a fight that could play out as a chess match between two evenly matched individuals because of style differences, and instead getting one where one plays right in to the others game-plan.
On the other hand, I really don’t think Miller is that good. I’ve thought he was overrated for quites some time anyway. I just thought his style would favor him against Nate. Unfortunately for him, he thought it was a good idea to abandon his wrestling against a notoriously below average wrestler.
UFC on FOX 3 got an overnight of 2.25 Million viewers. The final numbers will likely increase slightly, but certainly will not be over 3 Million.
I think Dana White & Lorenzo Feritta are f#cking up these FOX Fights big time.
These are the gateway shows. These are the shows to get more attention for the PPV’s and the UFC in general. They need to either break even or slightly lose money on these shows in order to bring in new fans.
Having main events like Diaz/Miller or Lombard/Stann just isn’t going to cut it. Instead of putting on 5 PPV’s in 3 months (June, July & Aug)…. Skip out on one of those PPV’s and put Aldo vs. Koch on FOX. Title fights sell. Add in Lombard/Stann and Machida/Bader…. And that is what a FOX card SHOULD be looking like.
These guys just do not get it. This is a huge opportunity and they somehow think they can be stingy with the level of fights they are proving.
I think it is obvious right now that Dana White is living a little too much inside the MMA Bubble and isn’t fully capable of understanding what the casual fans want. Both FOX Shows and FX need huge overhauls that Dana White is completely blind too.
I couldn’t agree more. I think they’re overestimating the value of the “UFC” name to sell the shows. Fans have already shown they are wise to this on ppvs and have been much more discriminating in which ones they’ll buy and they’re showing the same with the free TV stuff too. You will get a certain hardcore base that watches everything you put on, the next level of fans that aren’t hardcore but know more than the champions and big names and will watch if they think certain fights are exciting or worthwhile and then you’ve got the casual fans that will watch only if they’re given a reason to and not just because “The UFC is on Fox tonight.”
I get that he’s got his principles and they’ve been successful doing what they’ve done – but his argument/mindset of “If you don’t like it, don’t f##king watch it – we think it’s awesome and so do 3 million fans!!!” needs to go and quickly. Once you start telling your customers and the consumer base that you don’t care what they think and don’t take their feedback seriously you start going places you really don’t want to.
The problems with TUF shows exactly the problems with their listening skills. FOX says they want live events for that Friday spot. Their fans tell them that TUF is stale and needs change. And yet they keep trying to get water out of a stone. The writing has been on the wall for 3+ years with TUF. But they are not listening.
Now, all of these things are UFC vs. FOX problems. As a fan, I really enjoyed UFC on FOX 3. I thought it had quality fights that are typically on PPV. And overall the amount of free MMA has increased. Those are great things. But trying to tell friends about that last event was impossible. It basically went like this: “Hey, the UFC is on FOX tomorrow. Nobody you really know is fighting but it is some quality fights.” So if I can’t make the hard sell to people, it means it is not a good event for FOX.
FOX and TUF shows need to be re-evaluated and become much more important for the UFC to really benefit.
Wow, I come back and 45 is giving Dana White honest assessments. What did I miss? (just kidding.)
Tito and Forrest should have been the main event on this show, instead it’s on a stacked PPV that doesn’t need them since Silva/Sonnen is the draw.
I don’t know about Jose Aldo drawing much better. He can have an exciting fight, but nobody knows who he is. He’s a Brazilian guy who doesn’t speak English and has his big win against a guy only seen as a superstar to the hardcores. “See the man who destroyed Faber!” won’t mean anything as a pitch to casual FOX viewers.
And I don’t agree that a title fight is an automatic draw. UFC title fights on PPV aren’t selling what they used to, and those are titles with histories fans care about. Nobody cares about the 145 pound title but hardcores. So I think the fight still does much lower than Velasquez/Dos Santos’ rating.
Maybe not Aldo, but then Cruz/Faber 3. These small guys could use the exposure and it would draw solid ratings.
My point is that they need to have a major step up from Diaz/Miller….
Well, to be realistic, the UFC scored lower ratings than EXC or Strikeforce ever did, and they managed that merely three shows into their run. 45 Huddle can’t even spin that.
I’m sure Fox is tickled to be spending 90 million a year or whatever was claimed on UFC programming when they’re delivering lower ratings than reruns and barely winning demographic splits to 6 month old Law and Order episodes. After all, CBS supposedly lost their minds over spending $1 mil a show to get the same kind of result. But what part of this isn’t and wasn’t predictable all along? I guess things could be worse. They could have had the first half of the year that boxing had: Atrocious fights and controversy everwhere.
Also, since I rarely get the opportunity so I just wanted to toot my own horn for omnisciently calling Lavar over Barry. Barry has terrible fight iq and is massively overrated as a stand up/K1 level fighter and Lavar was way too big, aggressive and hard hitting for him. Make no bones, Johnson is totally lost on the ground but he’ll clean out the lower b and c division of the HW ranks…I’d love to see him fight Mitrione, Miocic, Rothwell or Browne.
“he’ll clean out the lower b and c division of the HW ranks”
I don’t know about that.
While he is certainly capable of beating anyone who is dumb enough to stand with him, guys who can wrestle a little bit and have a legit ground game will beat him easily. His recent losses to Shawn Jordan and Shane Del Rosario exposed the exact same weaknesses that his loss to Brian Olsen exposed six years ago. The guys ground game is atrocious, and it hasn’t improved at all since his debut.
I could definitely see Johnson wiping out the ‘stand and bangers’ in the lower echelon of the HW division, but I could just as easily see him string together some ugly losses to grapplers who refuse to play that game.
Well for starters, wasn’t it you and I that had a similar discussion about Lavar before where you held firm that Barry was far too technical on the feet for him? 🙂 j/k – can hardly bust on you for that b/c in a vacuum I’m sure he is – but as I said his fight IQ is So.Bad.Dude. and Johnson could bully him in a brawl.
Aren’t almost all the lower b and c level guys just that though – Stand n bangers.
Schaub, Rothwell (though he looks re-focused after Schaub), Mitrione, De Fries, Griggs, Broughton, Morecraft, Hague, Tuscherserhserererer, Herman.
I could see him losing to the upper B’s like Struve (if he’s not trying to be a homeless man’s Schilt), Nelson, Gonzaga or Russow (if he grapples), and Miocic as well. And guys like Browne will at least start out trying to trade leather, so I can see him be in some exciting tilts even if he does end up flailing around like Griggs on his back.
What is sad is that Lavar Johnson is a Top 25 Heavyweight in MMA. It shows how weak that division continues to be.
I am legitimately interested in seeing how Del Rossario fares. He looks like a pretty good prospect so hopefully they don’t throw him to the sharks to prove UFC HWs “are better” than SF HWs – and to their credit Zuffa has handled them pretty well thus far – as he’s basically faced D and E level guys outside of his last win over Lavar.
And 45 – it wasn’t that long ago that Gary Goodridge was considered a top HW…so hey, we’re making *some* progress!
Agreed with both of you.
I’ve never seen Johnson before.
Has his game just been stagnant for years like Steve4192 says?
And like you both said he’ll be a good gatekeeper in good fights with other gatekeepers from what I saw last night.
But he’ll have to put some effort into a few more tools for his toolbox to do more then that.
Maybe finally getting into the big leagues will be his inspiration to get serious and better.
But the weird thing is that some people will do that, and some people just wont.
You just cant always tell which one they’re gonna be.
Although whether or not he seeks out some higher echelon ground training then what he’ll get from his freshman gym team is usually a good hint were his goals are at.
Thats were PeeWee is failing.
Very true The Gaijin….. At least the sport has come a long way from the days that guys like Goodridge, or a puffed up Middleweight like Igor Vovchanchin were the creme of the crop of the division.
Even Light Heavyweight is rather thin these days. It’s strong for about 15 fighters deep, and then there is basically nobody. And it would be even worse if guys like Evans, Machida, and Rua competed at their natural weight class of MW.
MMA’s depth really doesn’t start until Middleweight. Boxing is the same way. There really is little depth at Heavyweight and Cruiserweight. When you take an athlete and take all of his fat away, and then also have him cut weight…. Having guys who are bigger then 185 is somewhat rare.
Boxing at MW, is pretty much the UFC’s LW division.
I agree that is where the talent starts to get a lot bigger in boxing (going down from HW), but MMA’s talent is still stacked at LHW, WW, and LHW. That can be attributed to wrestling being situated around those classes in college, and high school (149 and 157, 165 and 174, 197 and smaller HWs now in the NCAA).
Struve is a homeless man’s Schilt and is right there for a guy like Johnson to level in highlight reel fashion. Russow and Nelson are very different stories because those guys can wrestle and can take volumes of punishment. He can’t graduate past those guys.
Lavar looks like a good brawler.
Strong, decent chin.
He’s the kind of fun fight material thats good to have on the roster.
And at least standing, he looked as “fast” and flexable as Cain often looked with his striking, especially in Cains first few fights.
He might get much better like Cain did.
And were jackson is just being stupid (as usual) by complaining that UFC dosn’t try hard enough to find someone who will stand there in front of him, the HW’s are mostly strikers so Lavar will have plenty to keep his hands busy while he polishes a ground game.
He already has the first baby steps to a pretty good sprawl game though.
Barry looked so small.
I know Lavar is a big guy, but Barry always looks small.
His chin might not be bad, but he’s just to small for the monsters roaming the HW plains these days.
That he’s learning some ground game is a nice effort, but he really needs to get serious about his diet and go for the 205 remake.
Then he can be the monstrous Lavar Johnson to somebody else’s Pat Barry.
But what the heck was up with him just standing there at the end?
Why didn’t he circle out and run away before it was to late?
He might also need a copy of strategy for dummies.
Wow, Talent looked great!
Always liked that guy, happy for that.
I’m still not that impressed with Nate.
He looks pretty good sometimes, but he didn’t look so great against Miller more than a foot taller and probably a foot reach advantage.
Of course that kind of natural advantage at that weight could take him pretty far.
Him and Ben could be a good match of bigger 155’s.
Is NO one going to say anything about the pretty damn entertaining Mayweather Cotto card last night?!?! I thought PBF clearly won but Cotto was very good and certainly not “shot” as some people seem to think. PBF didn’t play it safe either and slugged it out in the pocket more than expected…he was just too good. But getting older may be a part of it an he’s just forced to slip more now than he used to rather than make it a track meet.
Interesting to see who’ll be next….Berto/Ortiz 2 winner perhaps? Maybe a Cotto rematch if the box office was big enough but I’d like Cotto to get a W or two first.
I’d love to see Canelo vs. Cotto but I think it’s too early yet and Cotto is just miles better than a worn out Moseley or the corpse of Kermit Cintron.
Edub (I think it was you, but maybe it was Mark or Alan) – are you buying Canelo yet?
Not sure. I really thought Mosley would beat him, and that his poor performances of late were do to fighting PBF, Manny, and the notoriously boring Mora. However, after watching the “deer in headlights” act for a third straight time in a big time fight he is definitely done. Now is that not giving enough credit to Canelo? I really don’t know. I will say that if Canelo and Cotto fight I won’t be so quick to dismiss the cinnamon man. He’s looked great in his past couple performances, no matter who he fought against.
On a side note: I’d personally like to see Cotto walk away after Saturday. He’s no where near as bad as Mosley, and I think he still could compete with the top tier of the division. But, I really have always loved him as a fighter, and would like to see him keep a decent quality of life. He’s always been in wars, he was bludgeoned by plaster filled gloves for 11 rounds (allegedly), Manny really beat him up bad after the 6th in their fight, and he’s not getting any younger no matter how great of a trainer Pedro Diaz is (I personally think he might be the best in boxing).
I say walk away after the great performance he just gave. Instead of possibly turning into Mosley in 4 or 5 years.
And as for who’s next for Mayweather: SERGIO “MARAVILLA” MARTINEZ!!!
A guy can wish can’t he?
I’d love to see Sergio-PBF…unfortunately I just don’t think he brings in the money to make it worthwhile for Floyd to fight such a dangerous and much bigger guy – is Sergio-PBF going to make for a better box office than Cotto 2, Ortiz 2, Khan, Canelo or any other number of guys…I think the answer is no. I can imagine they might also try to bleed Maravilla down to some stupid catchweight if they ever did take the fight.
I’m not that surprised he beat up Mosley given Mosley’s age and huge size disadvantage. It isn’t a negative or anything that he beat the hell out of him. I mean, honestly, he needs names, Mosley is a name, he has that scalp. As for who he should beat next – he is super young and still a bit raw. I have no problem with him continuing to fight some solid gatekeeper and veteran fighters in the division right now while guys get weeded out. Paul Williams would be a tremendous fight if you’re looking to make a HBO ready fight. If you’re looking just to headline a cheapie PPV, Carlos Quintana is a very servicable name. Honestly, he’d probably beat the winner of Spinks/Bundrage II. Trout has a bauble but I’m not convinced he beats Delvin Rodriguez. Down the line, Mayweather/Alvarez is a big time fight, as are fights with the likes of Cotto, James Kirkland, or Sergio Martinez.
I’d keep him away from Paul for now. Williams is damaged goods, but still could give Alvarez problems. A loss to a guy who in back to back fights was cannon fodder for Sergio, then a recipient of one of the worst decisions of all time will kill him drawing wise. I also think Trout loses to Delvin. I think the Quintana makes the most sense as he just won on the same night, and will probably be a KO victim. I wouldn’t mind Kirkland or Bundrage either, mean/tough guys that I think Alvarez would cruise thru.
However, in all honesty I wouldn’t mind him going against Mayweather or Cotto right now. It’d be a big money fight for him against Cotto, and I actually think his size would play a big factor there. Agaisnt Mayweather, he could probably get close to 20 mil because of his drawing power in Mexico. He’d lose, but it’s Floyd. Nobody would fault him for that.
I think khan may fight khan if he gets past Peterson. Khan would like to fight at least one fight at 147lbs before facing mayweather but if the offer is there he won’t turn it down. Maybe berto if he beats Ortiz but his gonna have to look good doing it.
I can’t see the Martinez fight happening, Sergio has said he would go to 150lbs but thats stupid. I like that Floyd doesn’t go the catchweight route and if he can’t face Sergio at 160lbs then dont have the fight.
Mosley has to retire. His got a banging chick and should quit boxing now. Then again didn’t his ex wife take a lot of his money and even got a couple of the belts.
Floyd isn’t averse to doing catch-weight bouts. Just ask Juan Manuel Marquez. However, it is likely that if he fought Martinez it would be at 154 so it would just be at JMW instead of MW. That wouldn’t be bad either considering Matinez is a natural 154 lber.
What i meant sorry was floyd takes on champions at the fighting weight. i.e the cotto and dlh fights. Even if Martinez was at 154lbs come fight night would be way over 154lbs while Floyd would be 150 or so. To me thats just not worth the risk for Floyd especially when Martinez isn’t a huge draw.
Ah, I got ya. That’s a fair point. He did take on De La Hoya and Cotto at their respective weights.
However, i would disagree on Martinez being much more on fight night. He cuts next to know weight for his fights at 160. He’s never even hit the 160 limit. His past few fights he’s been at 157 or 158. On fight night I think he’d have a no more than a 7 or 8 lb advantage (which is still a decent one).
It’s more or less a dream scenario. Martinez provides a lot of rist, and that is the type of fight Floyd usually avoids.
The other reason there are not a lot of good HW and LHW is that if you are athletic and big you play football, baseball, or basketball.
Kevin Iole on twitter saying early estimates @ 2 mil buys. That cant be right can it. That would be an insane number.
Anything over 1.7 mil would be a great number!!
That wouldn’t surprise me Cotto can draw when paired with a mega star like Floyd. I’m Puerto Rican and I know that pretty much everyone in my city ordered the fight. I can imagine that Ricans everywhere also bought the fight add to that PBJ’s fans and those who just get the big fights. And I won’t be shocked to see them get close to 2 million which would pretty much make it a lock for a rematch which makes since early next year.
Tonight’s Fuel show was very good. It’s a shame hardly anyone saw it. Zombie/Poirier was likely FOTY so far; Maldonado/Pokrajac would have been FOTN most nights though it was marred by questionable judging. Dongi Yang was probably robbed in his fight with Tavares as well.
All in all, it was a fantastic Fuel, main card and prelims, with the Amir fight being the only dud. If only more people could get Fuel.
I don’t think Maldonado or Yang were robbed. Both of those fights were way too close for either fighter to consider himself ‘robbed’. I didn’t agree with the judges decision in either fight, but I can understand how they came to the conclusion that they did.
I think Maldonado’s fight has to be classified as a robbery. He landed the better shots in each round, and controlled where the fight took place after the first round.
Maybe I’m just as in love with his body shots as Kenny was.
Yeah it sucks not having Fuel on Comcast, luckily Fox Sports Deportes ended up showing the fights so it was a nice treat on a Tuesday.
I was also very impressed with Cowboy’s performance against Stephens tonight. I was very hard on him after his pitiful showing against Nate, but it looks like that loss has refocused him and he’s going to go on another run. I’ve always said that he is his own worst enemy, all the talent in the world but mentally he has things to work on. But one thing about his is that he always comes back after a loss more focused and better and while Stephens isn’t a top LW he’s tough and was going to bring it and Cowboy passed that test.
I don’t think Cerrone ‘bounced back’ from the Diaz loss, nor did he need to. He just outclassed by a better fighter that night. There are only a few guys who can do that to him, and he just proved tonight that Jeremy Stephens is not one of them. I don’t think he looked any different than he usually does. The only difference was that he had an opponent who he could handle.
Agreed with all of that.
Cerrone looked worlds different than he did in the Diaz fight which to me is still one of the more baffling things i’ve ever seen. I’ve seen him lose before, but him showing up tight and gassed and letting Nate get in his head was shocking to say the least.
That’s why I was very interested to see how he would respond against Stephens who was going to preassure him and bring the fight to him like Diaz did. Cerrone passed that test and looked refocused and very sharp and handled Stephens with ease. Hopefully he’ll use the Diaz debacle and loss like he’s used the ones in the past to make him better, because the sky is the ceiling with Cowboy he’s just his biggest enemy sometimes.
Stephens and Diaz are worlds different as opponents. Cerrone could afford to fight differently because he wasn’t eating 1-2’s to the chin consistently.
Nate got in his head because he is the better fighter, and when Cerrone doesn’t press the wrestling advantage (which he may or may not have) he’s a guy who’s cannon fodder to somebody with Diaz’s style, length, and punch-rate.
That’s a big reach, i’ve seen almost every fight Cerrone has been in and i’ve never seen him look as bad as he did against Diaz. He looked stiff, gassed and simply out of it from the start nothing like he had in any other fight against any other opponent it was baffling.
You can put that on Diaz but me I put that on Cowboy, it reminded me of when he got tapped quickly against Bendo in their rematch. That was the only other time i’ve seen him not be on his game but since that fight you’ve seen the improvement in his entire game. And if the Stephens fight was any clue than he’s about to do the same, that’s another reason I like him he actually learns from his loses unlike some fighters.
That’s not a reach at all. What is a reach is to excuse a fighters loss for imaginary reasons, instead of giving credit to the guy that beat the crap out of him for 3 rounds.
Diaz has had two fights recently where he looked great against what people thought were top tier opponents. One guy fought with an insanely stupid game plan, as he was a D-1 wrestler who decided to try and out strike him. The other one is primarily a striker with no wrestling background (although it is improving mightily) that simply got beat at his own game. One can be equated to an off night, terrible game plan, yada yada yada (although I personally never thought he was that good anyway). The other didn’t have much more to offer other than what he got beat with on fight night.
I feel like all the arguments being put forth here are circular in the logic presented. I like Nate Diaz a lot, but he’s barely a .500 fighter in his last 10 fights. Give him a couple wins against guys who may have been wildly overrated and lack the skill set and style of the sorts of fighters that traditionally gave him trouble, and suddenly all those losses don’t matter. There’s a long tradition of stupid internet fans stan’ing for guys and demanding title shots anytime anyone ever wins 3 fights in a row, regardless of circumstance, and Nate Diaz is squarely in that zone.
Who in this conversation said anything about Diaz being anything more than “better than Donald Cerrone”?
Its the “skys the limit” and “looked great against what people thought were top tier opponents” talk about Cerrone and Diaz that made me believe points were being made aside from the obvious conclusion one would draw comparing the two’s success.
That’s exactly what happened though. Nate Diaz looked great against 2 guys who were universally ranked in either the top 5 or top 10 when he fought them. One of those guys was a prototypical guy who usually beats him (who did indeed fight with a terrible game plan).
I guess I just don’t see what in that situation screams overrated. On Cerrone I’d agree somewhat, but only if people try to paint him as anything more than a borderline top 10 fighter.
Cerrone’s rise to the top 10 came out of hype, not from results. His best win is who? The German kickboxer? People adored him and talked about what a world beater he was in the WEC when he hadn’t beaten anyone there either. I guess the success of Ben Henderson has blinded everyone as to where the WEC lightweight class has otherwise gone to in the time since that promotion folded. So does Nate Diaz’s win impress me? Not a great deal. Jim Miller is another guy with a bunch of wins, none against really great competition. He’s a consensus top 5 because Tibau has lots of muscles and pretended Shalorus was good once.
Here’s what will impress me: When Nate Diaz fights a guy who’s a dominant top control wrestler and beats them. Since, you know, he pretty much hasn’t ever done that.
“Here’s what will impress me: When Nate Diaz fights a guy who’s a dominant top control wrestler and beats them. Since, you know, he pretty much hasn’t ever done that.”
That’s pretty close to what Jim Miller is. The only other people that could be classified as more dominant top level wrestlers in the UFC LW division are Guida, Maynard, and Edgar. If you want to be impressed by him beating a top tier LW, then I would agree. But he just fought a very good wrestler, and game-planning aspects aside he dominated him.
“Cerrone’s rise to the top 10 came out of hype, not from results. His best win is who? The German kickboxer? People adored him and talked about what a world beater he was in the WEC when he hadn’t beaten anyone there either. I guess the success of Ben Henderson has blinded everyone as to where the WEC lightweight class has otherwise gone to in the time since that promotion folded. So does Nate Diaz’s win impress me? Not a great deal. Jim Miller is another guy with a bunch of wins, none against really great competition. He’s a consensus top 5 because Tibau has lots of muscles and pretended Shalorus was good once.”
All of that sounds good on paper. It does. The problem with it is, there’s really nobody else that would deserve the moniker of being “underrated” compared to the guys from the WEC. The guys from Bellator are underrated I feel, however they have no real strong argument against the former. Gil just barely scraped by the guy who lost to Kawajiri, and won a bull shit decision against Calvacante (I still have him at #2 now). So what else should people think of these guys? Cerrone has a win over Siver who was top ten at the time off his win over George Sotiropolous, and hasn’t lost to anybody other than Ben Henderson or Nate since a Varner.
I personally have Nate at #7 right behind Mike Chandler and Eddie and Donald at #10. People rankings them higher than that could definitely be overrating them, but it wouldn’t really be by that much.
The LW class of the WEC (Cerrone, Pettis, and Henderson specifically) are a combined 11-2 since moving to the UFC. That’s kind of hard to argue.
That’s pretty close to what Jim Miller is.
Except that he isn’t. He’s closer to it than Cerrone or Gomi, but that goes without saying. Guys like Tibau or even Dennis Hallman might be tough outs for Nate Diaz. He won’t fight them because there’s no reason to sacrifice his potential moneymaking ability with those fights, but he’s not taking on those kind of fighters. Good matchmaking.
The problem with it is, there’s really nobody else that would deserve the moniker of being “underrated” compared to the guys from the WEC.
When I look at what Rafael Dos Anjos has done compared to Cerrone, honestly, they’re about equal. The difference is placement on the card, which is because Cerrone is a white tough guy archetype who speaks English. If you want to pick the top three guys from the WEC in terms of UFC record, awesome. Shane Roller went 1-3. Anthony Njoukani is 2-2. Shalorus is 0-3. Downes is 0-2. Jamie Varner is being dragged up from the Bush Leagues to give a couple guys Ws. Henderson has had some success, and that’s great, but Cerrone is being promoted to look like a star and Pettis was spinning his wheels going nowhere until KOing the legendary Joe Lauzon.
Nope thats pretty much exactly what he is. Much better than Dennis Hallman (a guy who still hasnt even technically made LW yet, and biggest win in the past however long is john makdessi). Tibau isnt anything better considering he couldn’t do it to Miller.
Cerrone isnt apart of that shitty crew though. Mentioning those names with cerrone, pettis and henderson makes close to 0 sense. Donald Cerrone is 8-1 in his last 9. Rafael Dos Anjos is 3-2 in his last 5.
Varner just beat Barboza.
^
Yes EJ, I also thought Cerrone had a strong bounce back showing. The Brazilian vet Johnny Eduardo, a personal favorite of mine, also had a good fight performance, I thought.
I will never understand the fascination with Cerrone. Decent fighter. Not much more than that.
Watched the last two bouts. Don’t care about Amir and wasn’t much interested in his fight. Main event was a decent scrap. Jung was getting plastered with pushed jabs and robotic right hands from Poirier, which seemed to be his only offense. Poirier made me wonder how bad the 4 guys were that he beat, given that he made the Zombie look like Karelin when it came to defending take down attempts and how bad his striking was. Jung clearly dominated the fight on the mat and then refused to go there and just chose to stand and bang instead. I get that it was entertaining, but it also showed me that he wouldn’t last 3 minutes with Aldo. Good gatekeeper type who the UFC should throw some more fights like this at before they even consider the possibility of a title fight.
Yeah, I don’t understand the Cerrone hype either.
I thought Poirier vs. Jung was FOTY so far. But I agree that both get wrecked against Aldo.
I understand the Cerrone hype.
He’s fun to watch and he’s a quality fighter. He can mix it up on the feet, submit you off his back, and has improved his wrestling to the point where he can’t be easily taken/held down anymore.
He might not be championship material, but he can put on a competitive scrap with just about everybody in the LW division. Not everybody can be a champ. That doesn’t make him any less entertaining.
“Good gatekeeper type who the UFC should throw some more fights like this at before they even consider the possibility of a title fight.”
If not the Zombie, then who?
Hioki doesn’t want a title fight yet and Aldo has cleared out the rest of the division (after he gets done with Koch). The champ has to fight somebody, and Zombie’s resume is as good as anyone else not named Hioki. Aldo-Jung is no worse than Penn-Stevenson, or GSP-Hardy, or Silva-Leites/Cote/Maia, or Liddell-Horn. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a bite out of a big old shit sandwich when there is no other food available.
The UFC should strike while the iron is hot. Zombie’s stock is as high as it is ever going to get. Book him in a title fight now rather than risking him getting Roop’d again.
You can use anyone in his place since nobody saw Zombie’s last fight. The fact that it isn’t a very good fight featuring a fighter who isn’t a draw on PPV only exemplifies why it isn’t a particularly good fight to make unless you’re looking to put Aldo on free TV and give him a highlight reel KO.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take a bite out of a big old
shitsandwich when there is no other food available.”First off,
fuckyes to this comment. Bravo sir.Secondly, I agree. Give him the title fight now while he’s decently ranked, and has some momentum going. That way when Aldo tees off on him Aldo gets some hype out of it.
I also think putting it on as a FOx main event would be a good idea.
What is the rush though? Aldo has a title defense still, then you might have 3-4-5 months before he’s back in a cage.
Good point.
He’ll probably get a title fight since it appears they don’t want Hioki in with Aldo.
He’ll get murdered.
I have to also say that I think this fight proved more about Poirier than it did about Jung. Most people (including myself) were just overrating before this fight IMO.
The offered him the title fight that Koch is getting. He said he wasn’t ready yet and wanted to get more experience in the Octagon before fighting Aldo.
Ah, never knew that. Jung is definitely the right decision then.
“He’ll probably get a title fight since it appears they don’t want Hioki in with Aldo.”
Huh?
The UFC already offered Hioki a title fight and he turned it down. Hioki don’t want Hioki in with Aldo.
I didn’t know that, when did they offer him the fight and he turned it down?
I don’t remember Zuffa actually offering Hioki the title shot. I remember after Hioki’s win against Bart P. he was asked in an interview if he wanted a title shot against Aldo next, and he said he wanted one more fight before getting the shot. And I remember hearing that Dana White agreed with Hioki. I think I’m right. If anyone can correct this, then please do so.
Life is too short to spend watching UFC house shows.
But not too short to comment on them on the internet?
Multi-tasking at work > watching fights that have literally no title implications.
Well….
The main event definitely had some title implications.
I will say that it was literally 15 minutes away from my house, and I had no plans of ever going unless I got free tickets.
fair enough edub. I guess it speaks to how burned out I am on mma that I don’t even know the title situation anymore. I couldn’t pick either of the main event combatants out of a lineup. With so many new weight classes, and with a talent pool entirely unknown to just about everyone but the hardest of the hardcore, the UFC has an uphill battle to get people to care.
Cerrone is a good kickboxer in a crowd of wrestleboxers. Kickboxers are rare enough in MMA and Cerrone’s striking just looks good. It’s flashy, violent, and remarkably effective even against the very top of the division.
It’s not good enough to win him a title, Diaz showed that much, but it wins him plenty of fans.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/28740/ufc-on-fuel-tv-3-ratings-event-draws-173000-fuel-tv-viewers.mma
Terrible ratings. Spin, spin, spin
Those are probably the third highest ratings in fuel TV’s history though.
They’re going the wrong way though. Each fuel event has gone down after the one before in numbers.
I think the first Fuel event was on a “free” weekend
here’s the link http://mmajunkie.com/news/27359/fuel-tv-offers-free-preview-week-ufc-on-fuel-tv-1-included.mma
Lol @ barnett.
What a schmoe.
I dont get what Cormier is supposed to do in SF for one more fight though?!
Beat up on Kyle just for good measure?
And how many times does Melendez have to fight Thompson?
He’s just gonna get so bored of that that he’ll lose eventually, just for a change of scenery.
That promotion is kinda dead.
There are maybe 7 guys there worth a damn, and who just dont belong there.
Funny thing is that even though I disagree with a some of the things Dana/joel do, they were probably the best chance to salvage anything out of SF.
Apparently any pencil pushing executive type cant just run an MMA promotion via spreadsheets.
Cormier has the best skill set in hw mma. I am not saying he would beat Junior Dos (I don’t think he would), but he has the best chance of anyone. He can take anyone down, he can’t be taken down, and he has fast hands with a lot of pop. He also doesn’t seem to have the chin problems that led to Cain getting dropped 3x by Cheick Kongo and (as I predicted) massacred by J2S.
Way to stop your short of saying he can win. Dont sugar coat him all the way up in saying he is the best but would lose to a guy isnt entirely complete as a fighter.
Best skill set is not the same as the best. Cormier is a much better grappler than J2S, and certainly has a more well-rounded skill set. That being said, J2S’ striking game + takedown d is too strong of a combination in my opinion. He is like a more athletic version of Chuck Liddell in his prime but with better hands.
Terrific performance by Cormier. Though it must be said, Barnett was just about the perfect opponent sttles-wise for the AKA product to showcase his skills against. The difference in speed was a nightmare for Barnett from the start & his catch wrestling abilities never threatened at all. Had Cormier not broken his hand again in round one, he probably would have stopped Barnett inside the distance.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room. Cormier’s fragile right hand.
Let’s hope that this surgery he has scheduled takes care of the issue, because if it doesn’t I can’t see Dana getting behind a guy that can only fight once every 10 months or so. It’s just not practical. The UFC is a business & it can’t afford it’s most prestigious belt tied up in a injury prone fighter. So, I don’t see a title shot in Cormier’s future until he can prove to be more durable.
Oh & lest we forget, there’s that odd, “plus one” deal to factor in as well.
It’s just … silly. And I just don’t see the point in it.
What good does it do for Dana to send over one of the UFC’s heavies to basically kill off the division in Strikeforce?
Who does he send over?
A lower echelon guy for a mean nothing fight?
A middle of the road-type? If so, why waste a decent fight that they could have used on a UFC event to introduce Cormier to it & it’s fans?
Does Dana send over a momentum killer that is a legit threat to beat Cormier? Basically reducing the entire Strikeforce Grand Prix to a massive, expensive waste of time?
Showtime basically just gave the UFC their Heavyweight division, it was a compromise. Showtime wants one more decent rating and a number one contenders match for the UFC HW belt will probably do good numbers.
The UFC will probably send over Werdum (if he wins in Brazil) with the winner fighting the UFC champ.
I had Thomson winning that fight 3 rounds to 2 but I could see it going either way. Outside of that though I have to comment on how much Melendez and the Diaz Brothers are the biggest pricks in MMA and I hope for nothing but losing streaks for all of them. They are completely non-humble jerks and every time they open their mouths they come off as the most arrogant a-holes ever, not to mention what a bunch of whiners.
Bring on that much needed Cruiserweight Division!! These small Heavyweights have no chance!! lol
Smaller Heavyweights have always ruled the division. Cormier himself has suprised me with how good he has become…. But that size athletes dominating the division does not.
Sure, because a 30-4o pound weight advantage in a fight is no advantage at all.
And while we’re at it, we should probably dispense with the FW and BW classes. Ater all, Frankie’Two Times’Edgar has done so well at LW, at LW.
Always dominated? Not really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_Heavyweight_Championship#Heavyweight_Championship
Most of the smaller heavyweight champs were during the “dark ages” of the sport. Then guys like Josh Barnett, Ricco Rodriguez, Tim Sylvia, Frank Mir, etc. started winning the belt. Since Josh Barnett won the heavyweight title, the only smaller heavyweight to win the title was Randy Couture, and that was his third reign. The only middle range heavyweights to win the title since were Andrei Arlovski (still pretty big), and JDS (still pretty big, just that he’s 240 lbs. and not 265).
To put things in perspective, Maurice Smith, who won the heavyweight title, was 5-7 going in the fight against Tank Abbott, becoming 6-7 after winning.
What would the range for a MMA Cruiserweight division be? And would it simply supplant what the heavyweight division is now? I mean, if 99% of all the “good” heavyweights move down to the new cruiserweight division, then what is left?
I would think a cruiserweight division would be 220-225 and maybe up heavyweight to 285-300.
A cruiserweight division would probably consist of Daniel Cormier, Jeff Monson, Travis Wuiff (who somehow got down to 205. He’s a big dude), Randy Couture if he ever came back, Pat Barry, Cro Cop, maybe Dos Santos (might be too much of a weight cut), maybe Roy Nelson if he cuts, maybe Struve, maybe Werdum, whoever else. Maybe even light heavies going up like Jon Jones or whoever else.
There are still tons of guys who couldn’t make that weight that could be solid heavyweights, especially if heavyweight becomes 285-300 like I mentioned. I’m not saying there should be a cruiser division, but it would definitely be a competitive field.
The idea would be to move the LHW bar back to 200 and set the new cruiser limit at 225. You would pick up a couple of the very largest LHW’s to combine with all of the small to mid-size HW’s. You wouldn’t really be creating more weight divisions, you would be dispensing with the truly ridiculous 265+ division so it would even out, you would just trade an inactive division for one that did have some activity.
The cruisers would become the glamour division with the best fighters and the top cruiser would usually beat the top giant, but we would see the Lesnars of the world fight at 300+ and the giants would be marketable ticket sellers.
Make your predictions for the fights right here.
Also — over/under: 400,000 PPV buys.
Am I the only one that thinks that 5-1 is a bit out of whack?
I think Mir’s got a fair shot in this fight.
No, Mir’s stand up isn’t on the same level as J2S, but he CAN punch hard enough to keep him honest. And his knees are nasty in the clinch. So, while he has little chance in a prolonged striking battle, he can’t be dismissed. He’s a big dangerous dude & if he can get even one opportunity on the ground…
5-1 is crazy odds. More like 2-1 or 3-1 tops.
Zach,
Over 400,000…. It will do 600,000
JDS by destruction
Cain by domination
Struve by strangulation
Roy by smothering til gas
Miocic, maybe
Between 400-450,000 buys
The only two fights I am aware of are JDS via 1st round death and Cain via first round death, although given how
shittyhis chin is, Bigfoot could shock the world, but probably won’t given his own awful chin.dos Santos
Velasquez
Johnson
Nelson
Del Rosario
Barboza
Brandao
Dollaway
Volkmann
Ludwig
Texeira
Brown
500,000
Meltzer said internally that if they got more that 500k they would be elated. That’s not going to happen as they will get 415k. The Brazil PPV is going to break records in all sorts of way, but not in a good way either.
You can’t do straight up bets on the main card. Parlay Cain, Junior, Struve and roll with that instead.
Mir via sub
Cain via tko
Herman via decision
Miocic via ko
Struve via sub
500k buys give or take 50k
I would say 350k buys. A foreign champ with limited charisma against a guy who the public has seen get absolutely massacred multiple times before. There isn’t much drama here.
450,000 buys, which would make Zuffa really happy from what I hear.
JDS via TKO
Cain via TKO
LAVAR!!! via KO and gangsta walk-off (he should really get submitted in short order, but I am not getting off the LAVAR wagon)
Nelson via sub/mounted crucifix chinese water torture
Miocic UD (SDR off for 15+months and first fight in the Octagon – bad recipe)
I’ll say 475k for buys.