UFC on FX: Browne vs. Bigfoot * Discussion *

[pryko]

I've gone with Castillo, Neer, Da Silva and Ellenberger

[lightningxlock]

Bloody hell, last week it was Watson, now Neer has just shit my accumulator up! I hope my other bets dont come good now..

[Heatseeker]

I feel your pain. Good while it lasted though.

[pryko]

So far I've got 0 out of 3, haha

[wandshogun09]

Decent show, nothing spectacular. I enjoyed the prelims more than the main card actually. What happened to that Edwards/Stephens fight? I thought that was back on.

 

Browne vs Bigfoot

Shite for Travis Browne having his first loss in that manner. It's hard to tell what would have happened had his leg not fucked up so early in the fight. Fair play to Bigfoot though because he came out aggressive from the off and he did what he should do. That finishing big right hand was scary, I think Browne was pretty much done right there.

 

Wouldn't mind Bigfoot vs the winner of Carwin vs Nelson next.

 

Ellenberger vs Hieron

Thought this was pretty crap. Ellenberger was smart to pace himself but he was almost too laid back for most of it. And Hieron didn't really commit to much. Neither really grabbed the fight by the bollocks did they. Saying that, I actually had Hieron edging rounds 1 and 3 but it's not a decision you can complain about. I didn't think either really put their stamp on the fight and they both left too much to chance.

 

Formiga vs Dodson

This was looking bad until midway through round 2. Became a bit of a staring contest for long spells and as much as I hate the booing in fights it was getting to the point where I was thinking 'fucks sake, someone do something'. Dodson to his credit did something and it paid off.

 

He looked great when he finally attacked and showed that 125ers can throw with power. I know people are down on the Flyweights but I enjoyed the Johnson/Benavidez fight and I'm looking forward to Johnson/Dodson. After that though it's hard to see what's next at 125. The division is shallow as fuck.

 

Neer vs Edwards

Who saw this coming? Never expected this at all. Big win for Justin Edwards, to fight Josh Neer and not get banged up at all is impressive in itself. To tap him out that quick and take no damage was a bit of a shock for me.

 

That's 3 underdogs winning on the main card. Although I didn't think Bigfoot winning was as big an upset as Jon Anik was making out. Even if Browne never got injured, he's still proving himself whereas Bigfoot only really loses to top level opposition.

 

The prelims were great I thought. Only shit fight was Prater vs LeVesseur. Which I thought Prater won pretty clearly myself so I was surprised they gave it to LeVesseur.

 

Johnson vs Castillo

I was quite chuffed to see Johnson get the win here. I've always thought Castillo seemed a bit of a knobhead. Big comeback after that first round. I picked Castillo by submission and he nearly got it with that arm triangle. Glad I was wrong though.

 

You could see Johnson came out for round 2 much more positive and Castillo looked kind of deflated at not being able to put MJ away after such a dominant first round. The KO was nasty. Nice to see Johnson calling out a contender after, but I don't think he's quite ready for the top dogs just yet. Maybe 1 or 2 more fights. He looked good though.

 

Simpson vs Pierce

Thought this was one of the best fights of the night myself. They were both fairly vocal about being put on the Facebook bit originally and they seemed to both be out to score something impressive tonight.

 

Aaron Simpson looked like a monster at times in the first, big first round for him and I thought Pierce was in deep shit. Then another big comeback. Pierce flattening Simpson took me by surprise. I knew Pierce had big power but after that first round I didn't see a comeback on the cards for him. Fun fight.

 

Volkmann vs Roller

Be honest, who really expected a finish in this one? I didn't. Volkmann finally showed his full potential in my opinion. He looked outstanding. And Shane Roller is no joke, he's a great wrestler with good BJJ and Volkmann ran through him. He looked better in the striking as well. He always had the talent and has a good UFC record but this performance blows away anything else he's done in the UFC by far.

 

Nunes vs Palaszewski

This was probably my FOTN. This or Pierce/Simpson. Probably this though.

 

Big fan of Nunes and the first 2 rounds he looked like a beast. Good to see a more attacking side to him and it was working a treat. Bart's a dangerous striker and Nunes smacked him around early on. Showed good BJJ defence as well because Bart was threatening a lot off his back. Bart had a better 3rd round and was finally finding some success with Nunes seeming to fade and then Diego put him on his arse again at the end. Loved the Shogun diving punches into guard as well.

 

Really good fight. Glad to see Nunes with a winning UFC record now at 3-2.

 

Pretty good night of fights overall. Just thought the main card was a bit flat. Well, Dodson/Da Silva and Ellenberger/Hieron were and the injury in the main event didn't help. I got my fix with the prelims though so I'm happy enough.

 

Awards were

 

KO Of The Night: Michael Johnson

Submission Of The Night: Justin Edwards

Fight Of The Night: Nunes vs Palaszewski

 

Got $40 grand each.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Seems to be a recurring theme of late, prelims kicking arse while the main card fails to deliver. I loved every second of Nunes vs. Bartimus, and the first minute with the rush into a guillotine was gripping stuff. Well deserved FOTN. I did think of the comeback KO's, Pierce's looked more visually impressive, but Johnson came back from a worse spot and he's a TUF guy. Sucks that Stephens/Edwards never came to fruition.

 

Edwards tapping out Neer so quickly was impressive, but I was disappointed that we didn't get a longer, more competitive fight.

 

This was looking bad until midway through round 2. Became a bit of a staring contest for long spells and as much as I hate the booing in fights it was getting to the point where I was thinking 'fucks sake, someone do something'. Dodson to his credit did something and it paid off.

Yeah, on occasion I'll watch UFC with a mate who doesn't watch MMA and he'll get annoyed if they're not swinging for the fences from the opening bell. I'm glad he wasn't here this time because that entire thing was atrocious outside of the finish. I can normally justify some level of inactivity, but when the entire round consists of feints and footwork it's hard to watch.

 

I think Ellenberger was trying to control himself to avoid cardio issues, but it made the fight very tedious. I don't know what was up with Hieron, his first chance in years at the big time, he should have been more aggressive. The 3rd round he picked up some steam, but too little, too late.

 

Shame about the main event with Browne's apparent knee injury, but injury or not, the punch Bigfoot threw would KO an elephant. I'm guessing they might do Struve vs. Bigfoot next?

[wandshogun09]

Oh another thing I can't believe I forgot to mention, the promo videos for Silva vs Bonnar were fantastic. Both the hype video package and the Bonnar/Forrest sitdown thingy. Loved both and as big a fan of Anderson as I am, I'm rooting hard for Bonnar to pull off the unpulloffable next week.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

The Bonnar/Forrest thing was hilarious! "Don't punch, don't kick, submissions aren't going to work either." "So, just be nice to him?" "Didn't work for Rich Franklin." Quality stuff, UFC do great promos when they want to. I love how they're not sugarcoating the fact that it's an Anderson showcase.

 

I, too, would like to see hell freeze over next weekend.

[METAL ON METAL]

Jeremy Stephens is well fucked if the rumour going around is true, the arrest is supposedly due to a bar fight against his childhood friend (also a war vet) last year - from @frontrowbrian, seems too detailed not to have some truth about it:

 

This is info given to me by a twitter follower of mine on December 1, 2011 regarding an incident involving Jeremy Stephens. It's long.

 

Stephens was at a bar called Fat Tony's in Des Moines w/his cousin Dustin, fighter Victor Moreno, Shane (Jeremy's childhood friend)+his wife. Shane becomes angry. Someone spilled drinks on credit card. He gets loud, angry. His wife puts her arm on his shoulder. He pushes it away.

 

Jeremy Stephens, intoxicated, sees this as Shane getting physical w/ a woman. JS gets in Shane's face. Threatens him. Security comes over. Shane is being escorted out of the bar. Dustin (Jeremy's cousin) says to bouncer that's my friend. He convinces him to let him stay...

 

So Shane and Dustin return to the area where Jeremy Stephens is. Jeremy confronts him and punches Shane 10 times. Also kicked on ground. Dustin, also heavily intoxicated, joins in on beating of Shane. Shane's wife, pregnant at the time, convinces them to stop the beating.

 

Shane's wife brings him outside bar. Puts him in a car. Jeremy Stephens sees him in car, punches hole through window, drags him out. More beating

 

Stephens bails when cops show up. Shane is taken by ambulance to hospital. He spends 3 days in ICU. Here's the real interesting part...

 

Dustin is arrested and charged with the assault. Stephens allegedly offers to pay for Dustin's legal bills for him to take the fall. Stephens gets out of dodge. Has other friend drive him to Omaha to get back to San Diego. Avoid questioning. Was scheduled to be there a week longer.

[wandshogun09]

Dana was on about that at the press conference as well. Here's MMAFighting's article on it;

 

Dana White did everything he could to get Jeremy Stephens out of jail and into the Octagon for his scheduled UFC on FX 5 bout with Yves Edwards on Friday at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

 

But it wasn't meant to be. The fight was canceled and Stephens, as of the time of this writing, is still being held in a local jail.

 

"I was 100 percent confident I was going to get him out and he was going to fight," White said at the post-fight press conference.

 

The drama started Friday morning, when the UFC lightweight was arrested by Henepin County, Minn. authorities at the Marriott in Minneapolis and booked on an outstanding felony warrant.

 

White said Stephens was held on an assault charge based on a 2011 incident in Des Moines, Iowa. MMAFighting.com contacted both the Des Moines police department and the Polk County Sheriff's office to confirm the information and were told Iowa laws on warrants state that such information can only be released in person or through a written request.

 

At the press conference, White gave his breakdown of the situation, saying he did everything in his power to get Stephens released.

 

"I go straight to the police, the sheriff's department here, and start putting the pieces together on what's going on and how to fix it. I'm sure you saw from my tweeting, I was 100 percent confident I was going to get him out and he was going to fight. Basically what happened is, they do not like him in Des Moines, Iowa, where this warrant is from."

 

"Basically, he's in one of those situations where they're going to extradite him or not. We'll see what happens with this whole thing. The kid's been here since Monday, they arrest him almost at noon time on Friday after he weighs-in and everything else happens. In my opinion, they did this on purpose."

 

A spokesman for the Polk County Sheriff's office -- where current Sheriff Bill McCarthy is up for re-election -- refused comment.

 

"I cut the deal with people down in Des Moines, Iowa, to get him out," he said. "I accept that deal too. They changed the deal. Every time I accepted the deal, they kept trying to make it harder and harder and harder. You know me, especially after I tweeted the media to shut up, I was devising a plan to break him out and get him over here to come out and do this fight. So, they finally made this deal for an astronomical amount of money to make the deal, and I agreed to it, and then they did it again. So they're going to stick it to this kid big-time when he gets to Iowa. "

 

The 26-year old Stephens was raised born and raised in Des Moines, but relocated to San Diego, Calif., where he trains with Alliance MMA. White said that if a UFC fighter gets in trouble, the company will have their back whether the fighter is a star or not.

 

"Jeremy Stephens is a young kid, a young, dumb kid who made a mistake and made a bigger mistake by not taking care of it, but, he's got a side to this story everybody's got a side of the story. I look at the problem and see what it is. I'm always going to believe my guy until I'm proven wrong. I'm always going to support the guys or girls who work for us. ... There's two sides to the story. I'm going to support my guy. You don't have to be Rampage, or Jon Jones, or some of the big stars in the UFC, if you're in the UFC and you've helped us and you're a fighter here, I'm going to support you and I'm going to have your back, depending on how serious the situation is."

 

"Floyd Mayweather got to decide when to go to jail, you know what I mean? But this kid on an assault charge, couldn't have come out and fight today. When he could gone back to jail, I could have bailed him out, I would have flew him to Des Moines, Iowa to face the charges there. And they dragged me out and played games all day."

 

As for Edwards, while he was paid for the bout, he still sounded disappointed in an interview with MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani. Edwards was told 35 minutes before the card's conclusion that the bout would not go down as scheduled.

 

"I got the arena and I saw that the fights' order was changing," Edwards said. "I didn't know what was going on. My corner was trying to keep me focused, they didn't really tell me anything. Throughout the fight, my night got moved around. Toward the end of the night, Dana told me, I appreciate you being ready all night, but, I'm don't think there's going to be a fight tonight. It's one of those things where I put in all the work and it didn't happen. I'm kind of upset."

[The Natural]

The Bonnar/Forrest thing was hilarious! "Don't punch, don't kick, submissions aren't going to work either." "So, just be nice to him?" "Didn't work for Rich Franklin." Quality stuff, UFC do great promos when they want to. I love how they're not sugarcoating the fact that it's an Anderson showcase.

 

I, too, would like to see hell freeze over next weekend.

 

Here it is again:

 

[hbk4life]

That Bonnar/Forrest ad was one of the highlights of the night for me, funny stuff.

 

I was happy to see Silva get the win, I've never been sold on Browne and thought he would get knocked out in the later rounds, but I would've liked to of see how it went without the injury. Still a win is a win and I want to see Silva vs. Struve for sure and I think it makes sense to do it. Plus it's a fight I think Struve would win and I want to see him keep up this run he's on.

 

Ellenberger vs Hieron was a bit of a drag, I was expecting more from Hieron, but Ellenberger is always tough guy to really get going against.

 

Formiga vs Dodson was pretty dire as well, I was expecting a really fun fight so was a little disappointed with that fight. The finish was good though, love him or hate him Dodson is a great fighter. Johnson vs. Dodson could be a crazy fight. I'll be picking Johnson, but Dodson has the speed to keep up with Johnson and has more power in his hands so I wouldn't be too surprised to see him win via TKO/KO. I'm really looking forward to that fight. But as wand said, there really isn't too much left in the division after that fight.

 

Castillo and Pierce are two of my least favourite fighters, at least one of them lost. Great comeback from Johnson, he really does look good, he has all the tools to be a contender and should keep improving, I really like him. Gutted Pierce beat Simpson, I loved the last minute or so of the first round and thought Simpson would finish the job in the second but it wasn't to be. It was still fun to see Pierce get thrown around and beat up on though

 

Volkman looked really good, nice to see him get a finish as well.

[jimufctna24]

The Heavyweight contenders must be licking the chops now.

 

Big Foot is a obtainable scalp for most of them, I will credit Big Foot, he did go in for the kill. Browne kept very calm when his leg went he did not wince in pain, it would have been easy for Big Foot to be cautious, instead he landed big and got the win.

 

Browne is still a interesting prospect, I just hope his main weapon of speed is not taken away with this injury. It seems like guys with Basketball backgrounds do not translate well to MMA (Wes Sims anyone) but I think Browne may still have something more to offer. We will see how well he is molded once he returns.

 

Dodson gave another highlight reel performance, but it was a slow starter to say the least. Still to beat a guy who has been seen as one or if not the best at 125lbs in recent years deserves a pat on the back to say the least.

 

Anderson vs Bonnar was promoted well, the commercials went from reminding me it was happening, to getting me hyped. Its only a week away amazingly, and if I am honest I am not sure what is going to happen which is always a good thing as a viewer as it adds great anticipation.

[Supremo]

That Forrest/Bonnar ad is fantastic. They've done a great job of selling this fight by simply acknowledging and promoting it for what it essentially is; a squash match. It's been brilliantly set up. At worst we'll get another highlight reel knock out at the hands of Anderson and at best we'll get the biggest upset of all time. I can't wait.

[The Natural]

That Forrest/Bonnar ad is fantastic. They've done a great job of selling this fight by simply acknowledging and promoting it for what it essentially is; a squash match. It's been brilliantly set up. At worst we'll get another highlight reel knock out at the hands of Anderson and at best we'll get the biggest upset of all time. I can't wait.

 

You've said everything I was going to say. In complete agreement.

 

I'll add that the ad is one of, if not the best UFC commerical I've seen. I've also thought since Silva/Bonnar was announced that Silva would win but Bonnar would keep his record of never getting properly stopped by strikes or submitted.