On This Day in MMA History

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 4th)

UFC Fight Night 28: Teixeira vs. Bader (September 4th 2013)

The UFC travelled to Belo Horizonte, Brazil for a Fight Night card headlined by a light heavyweight contest, with one fighter on the verge of a title shot and the other looking to build his own momentum in what was one of the UFC’s most competitive divisions.

Glover Teixeira vs. Ryan Bader (the build)

Glover Teixeira’s UFC debut had been much anticipated, not just because of his record but because his debut had long been pushed back due to visa issues. Teixeira, coming into the UFC with a 17-2 record, made up for lost time with one-sided 1:53 submission victory over Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 146, a performance that meant a lot to Teixeira because his idol, Mike Tyson, was in attendance. Teixeira then had a brutal and almost as one-sided battle with Fábio Maldonado, with Teixeira winning when the doctor stopped the fight between the second and third rounds.

Teixeira had his highest profile fight to date next when he took on Quinton Jackson on the main card of a show broadcast on the FOX network. Teixeira won the fight by unanimous decision, but the fight and performance had failed to live up to expectations, with Teixeira struggling far more than expected. Teixeira put that performance behind him with another one-sided victory, this time a submission victory over James Te-Huna at UFC 160.

Teixeira was making a rapid climb up the ladder and at UFC Fight Night 28 Teixeira was put in a position to get that signature win he needed to secure himself a shot at UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, when he was matched against TUF 8 Light Heavyweight Tournament winner Ryan Bader.

Ryan Bader had his own reasons for wanting to face Jones, beyond challenging him for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. It was Jones who had given Bader his first ever loss in MMA at UFC 126, a victory which saw Jones rewarded with a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship which was then held by Maurício Rua; Jones would go on to beat Rua and start one of the more storied title runs in UFC history.

Bader was then put against Tito Ortiz with the idea of rehabbing Bader with a victory over a legend with a name. Instead, Ortiz stunned everyone by submitting Bader in just 1:56.

Bader was given a little easier competition the next time out and he knocked out Jason Brilz in just 1:17. Bader followed that with an uninspiring unanimous decision win over Quinton Jackson before Bader once again fell short against a big name opponent, as he suffered a second round knockout loss at the hands of Lyoto Machida on a card shown on the FOX network.

Again, Bader faced easier completion when recovering from a loss as he finished former title challenger Vladimir Matyushenko in just 50-seconds. Bader was back on track but he needed to put a string of victories together, to hit a consistent run of form if he wanted to move up the ladder and get closer to both gold and revenge, and at UFC’s 28th Fight Night card, Bader would get the chance to keep his run going, as well as get the chance to prove he could win against the big names in the light heavyweight division, when he faced Glover Teixeira in Bader’s first appearance in the spotlight of a UFC main event.

The Rest of the Card

The co-main event of the evening would see a fight that could have implications for the title picture in the middleweight division, a title picture that had recently been shaken up by the stunning upset of long-time champion Anderson Silva by Chris Weidman.

Ronaldo ‘Jacaré' Souza had world-class jiu-jitsu and came to the UFC with a 17-3 and 1 no-contest record, a run which included a reign as Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and victories over Jason Miller, Matt Lindland, Tim Kennedy and Robbie Lawler. Souza’s final fights in Strikeforce saw him get first round finishes over Bristol Marunde and Ed Herman, with Souza continuing the pattern in his UFC debut against Chris Camozzi. If Souza wanted to keep that run going he’d have to defeat a tough and well-rounded opponent.

Yushin Okami was one of Japan’s best fighters and had made it all the way to a title shot at Anderson Silva at UFC 134, but Okami fell in defeat to the consensus greatest fighter of all time. Okami followed that by being on the wrong end of one of the most remarkable comebacks in UFC history, when, after two rounds of domination, he was rocked, dropped and stopped by Tim Boetsch after just 54-seconds of the third round. Okami rebounded with three straight wins, over Buddy Roberts, Alan Belcher and Hector Lombard. Okami was once more surging towards a title shot, but to do that, he had to avoid becoming another victim of ‘Jacaré'.

In other main card fights, Joseph Benavidez would face Jussier Formiga. Benavidez had registered back-to-back wins since losing to Demetrious Johnson in the tournament final to crown the inaugural UFC Flyweight Champion, and with the flyweight division still growing a win here tonight might be enough to get Benavidez a rematch with the champion. Formiga, meanwhile, was 2-1 in his last three fights and was hoping to put together his own run of victories, Formiga coming off a win over Chris Cariaso.

Piotr Hallman made his UFC debut against Francisco Trinaldo, with Trinaldo having won his last two fights, both wins coming by way of an arm triangle. Rafael Natal took on Tor Troéng, with Troéng on a great run having won five straight. And the main card opener would see another UFC debut, as Ali Bagautinov, riding an eight-fight win streak, would go up against Marcos Vinicius.

Card Changes

A fight between Raphael Assunção and T.J. Dillashaw was scheduled for this event but was delayed due to ‘minor’ medical issue with Assunção. Godofredo Pepey withdrew from his fight against Sam Sicilia citing injury, and was replaced by Felipe Arantes. Sicilia himself then withdrew from the fight, to be replaced by newcomer Kevin Souza, formerly the featherweight champion of the Jungle Fight promotion.

Kenny Robertson was to face João Zeferino but Robertson pulled out of the bout citing an injury and was replaced by UFC promotional newcomer Elias Silvério, the former Jungle Fight welterweight champion. Johnny Bedford pulled out of his fight against Hugo Viana, claiming an injury; Wilson Reis was briefly linked as replacing Bedford, in what would be his UFC debut, but then Viana pulled out claiming an injury, and the fight was cancelled.

Marcelo Guimarães withdrew from his fight against Keith Wisniewski, citing an injury, and was replaced by a newcomer, with another former Jungle Fight champion making his UFC debut, as Ivan Jorge stepped in to replace Guimarães.

UFC Fight Night 28 (the preliminary fights)

Sean Spencer edged Yuri Villefort by split-decision. Ivan Jorge defeated Keith Wisniewski by unanimous decision in a fight lots of clinching and pressing against the fence, but not a whole lot of action. That same pattern was repeated in Elias Silvério’s unanimous decision win over João Zeferino. Lucas Martins choked out Junior Hernandez in just 1:10, with a rear naked choke. Kevin Souza slipped past Felipe Arantes by unanimous decision in a fight that had long periods of boredom punctuated by brief flurries of excitement.
 
UFC Fight Night 28 (the main card)

Ali Bagautinov vs. Marcos Vinicius was an OK fight; it had some excitement and it had some extreme boredom. The fight was fairly competitive although Bagautinov looked to be the stronger and more powerful of the two, and this was reflected in the finish with Bagautinov dropping Vinicius with a straight right hand and then landing a few more before Mario Yamasaki made an almost casual attempt to stop fight at 3:28 in the third round.

Rafael Natal vs. Tor Troeng had a really good fight, very entertaining throughout. The highlight was in the first round when they went through a series of sweeps and reversals on the ground. For the most part, this was an even fight that had lots of back-and-forth, but as the fight went on, Natal put his stamp of authority on the action and Troeng was mostly defending and simply trying to survive, and it was Natal who earned the unanimous decision victory.

Francisco Trinaldo vs. Pitor Hallman was another good fight, with Trinaldo dominating Hallman in the first round, landing some very heavy kicks to the body; one stunned Hallman and had him almost turning his back and backing up, with Trinaldo later landing a liver kick that dropped Hallman, who did well to hang on and see the round out. The second round saw Trinaldo start out strong but he quickly slowed down and it was obvious his efforts in the first round had tired him out. Hallman came back into the fight and he was very aggressive; Hallman got the fight to ground and stunned the crowd into a silence by submitting Trinaldo with a nice looking kimura.

Joseph Benavidez vs. Jussier Formiga ended with Benavidez showing some of the effects of Duane Ludwig’s coaching at Team Alpha Male, with Benavidez stunning Formiga with an uppercut and then dropping him with a knee to the chest. Formiga took several shots before Mario Yamasaki finally made his second pathetic attempt of the night to stop the fight, one that resulted in Formiga taking a few more shots before it was finally over in 3:07 of the first round. This was Benavidez’ third straight victory since his split-decision loss to Demetrious Johnson at UFC 152 in the tournament final to crown the first UFC Flyweight Champion, and this win would be enough to earn Benavidez a crack at the flyweight title.

For some reason, they have Okami come out second and get introduced second, even though Souza is the Brazilian and it would make more sense for him to be in that spot because it would build up the reaction he would get and make it bigger.

Yushin Okami vs. Ronaldo Souza saw Okami survive a wild barrage of punches from Souza early on; Souza was waylaying Okami something fierce. Okami survived that barrage but he couldn’t survive the second; Souza dropped Okami with a big right hand and then battered Okami with more right hands to get the stoppage in 2:47 of the first round. The win would extend Souza’s winning streak to five fights. For Okami, this loss snapped his three fight win streak and he would be released by the UFC just 23 days later.

Glover Teixeira vs. Ryan Bader

The atmosphere for the fight was pretty good, but the Brazilian fans usually do make for a good atmosphere when one of their own is fighting.

Very early, Bader tried to take Teixeira down but couldn’t quite get it done; Bader then went for a guillotine choke, got the hold, but quickly let it go for some reason, which allowed Teixeira to get hold of Bader and eventually press him against the fence. Teixeira and Bader traded pressing each other against the fence for about a minute. It turned into a striking battle after that and Bader was doing a lot of backpedalling. Teixeira was caught lunging in for a big punch and Bader clipped him, knocking Teixeira off-balance momentarily and Teixeira ended up backed up against the cage. Bader tried pouring it on and he was throwing some heavy shots but he left himself open and got clipped and dropped; the fans erupted, with one woman screaming especially loudly and Teixeira went for the kill and when the referee stopped the fight, the fans erupted again.

Jon Anik was quick to note that Teixeira was now 5-0 in the UFC and that he had won 20 straight fights. They’d been pushing Teixeira all night as the next challenger for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship if he won this fight, and this victory cemented Teixeira as the man in line for the winner of the upcoming title fight between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165.

Numbers

Attendance: 5,126
Ratings: 539,000 average (main card) 277,000 average (preliminary card)

Next time out, we talk about WEC 30: McCullough vs. Crunkilton, UFC Fight Night 50: Jacaré vs. Mousasi, Bellator 123 and UFC 191: Johnson vs. Dodson II.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 5th)

WEC 30: McCullough vs. Crunkilton (September 5th 2007)

This show would be headlined by Rob McCullough defending the WEC Lightweight Championship against Richie Crunkilton. The co-main event was Chase Beebe defending the WEC Bantamweight Championship against Rani Yahya, who was replacing an injured Manny Tapia. Jens Pulver was schedule to make his UFC debut against Cub Swanson but had to pull out due to injury and the fight was rescheduled for WEC 31. And on the preliminary card, Donald Cerrone would make his WEC debut, taking on Kenneth Alexander, who was a replacement for Sergio Gomez.

Of minor note is that the stand-ups with Todd Harris and Frank Mir have all been re-dubbed and they’ve done a terrible job with synching up the new audio with the video.

Jeff Bedard vs. Miguel Torres was the WEC debut of Torres, and after getting taken down, Torres showed great composure off his back as Bedard kept him grounded, and Torres surprise Bedard with a tight triangle to get the tap out in 2:30. Jeremiah Billington vs. Brian Stann was a totally one-sided fight as Stann walked right through Billington, destroying him standing up and in the clinch before pounding him out for the TKO. Billington came into this fight with a 10-1 record but a check of his opponents shows that they were all either cans or guys who had little if any experience. Billington’s record includes two wins over MMA’s most notorious jobber, Keith Allen, as well as a win over an opponent who was 1-22. Billington would fight once more after this, taking on Troy Osbourne in what was Osbourne’s first and only fight, before himself retiring. I guess some people don’t have the heart for fighting if they’re not facing cans and no-hopers.

Chase Beebe © vs. Rani Yahya was for the WEC Bantamweight Championship. This was a great fight; the first round saw Yahya completely dominate Beebe on the ground, going for one submission after the other, always controlling Beebe and coming close time and time again to getting a submission on tight. After the first round, though, it was all Beebe; whether Yahya gassed out or lost his spirit over not getting the win, he had nothing left. Beebe dominated Yahya with grappling and positional control, even going for submissions of his own against the jiu-jitsu expert. Yahya threatened with submissions on occasion but his efforts were ineffective and for the most part, Yahya was just fighting to survive rather than fighting to win. The fight went the distance with Beebe easily retaining his title by way of unanimous decision.

Rob McCullough © vs. Richard Crunkilton was for the WEC Lightweight Championship. This was the complete opposite of the Beebe/Yahay fight; a short brawl with nothing in the way of technique. This was just two guys swinging for the fencesk McCullough delivered the first punch, the hardest punch, and, most importantly of all, the last punch. This fight lasts for 89 frenetic seconds and is worth watching, as is this entire show.

WEC were known for action-packed cards that were high on excitement and WEC 30 is a prime example of this, making WEC 30 well worth a watch.

UFC Fight Night 50: Jacaré vs. Mousasi (September 5th 2014)

This was the fifth UFC show to take place on Connecticut, but their first since UFC 55 back in 2005. It would be main evented by a fight originally set to take place at UFC 176, but rescheduled when that show was cancelled. It was a major fight in the middleweight division, one that was expected to directly impact on an increasingly crowded title picture and, to add a little more spice, it was a rematch from a contest that had taken place in 2008.

Ronaldo ‘Jacaré’ de Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi (the build)

Ronaldo ‘Jacaré' Souza had world class jiu-jitsu and entered the UFC as a former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, with Souza having wins over the likes of Matt Lindland, Tim Kennedy and Robbie Lawler on his résumé. Souza scored first round stoppages in his first two fights in the UFC, a submission win over Chris Camozzi and a TKO win over Yushin Okami, giving him four first-round finishes in a row. Souza’s streak of finishes ended with his next fight, a unanimous decision win over Francis Carmont, but it gave him three wins in three fights in the UFC and extended his overall winning streak to six-in-a-row.

For his fourth UFC fight, Souza would be facing a top-level opponent, one who was dangerous in all areas and, like Souza, was determined to make his mark in the middleweight division.

Gegard Mousasi came into the UFC like Souza, as a former Strikeforce Champion, with Mousasi formerly the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion. Mousasi had also been the DREAM Light Heavyweight Champion and DREAM Middleweight Champion. Like Souza, Mousasi had a few familiar names on his list of victims; Mark Hunt, Melvin Manhoef and Renato Sobral had all fallen to Mousasi prior to his UFC arrival.

And one name on Mousasi’s list of victims was all too familiar to Souza as Souza himself had lost to Mousasi, back in 2008 as part of DREAM’s Middleweight Grand Prix. The fight itself didn’t last too long, only 2:15 and it came with the rarest of finishes; Souza was on top of Mousasi and trying to pass his guard when a well timed upkick caught Souza flush and knocked him out cold. The victory put Mousasi’s winning streak at the time to 11 fights.

Mousasi entered the UFC as a light heavyweight, and his first fight was scheduled to be against Alexander Gustafsson; Gustafsson was a late scratch due to injury and was replaced by his training partner, Ilir Latifi. Mousasi won the fight but immediately moved back down to middleweight, although Mousasi’s first foray as a UFC middleweight saw him drop a close fought contest to Lyoto Machida. Undeterred, Mousasi entered a Fight of the Night performance in his next outing, a first round one-sided victory over Mark Muñoz in Berlin, Germany.

It put Mousasi back on track but his next fight wouldn’t be easy as he’d face the resurgent Souza, who had now won six-in-a-row, but it was challenge Mousasi would have to overcome in order to climb the middleweight ladder.

The Rest of the Card

The co-main event was expected to be a heavyweight slugfest as Alistair Overeem took on Ben Rothwell. Rothwell had alternated between losses and wins in his last eight fights, although his last win shouldn’t be counted as he failed a post-fight drug test for elevated testosterone levels and was suspended for nine months. Overeem was no stranger to drug issues himself, in part due to his incredible gain of muscle mass over the years, his literal running away from a drug test at a press event from UFC 146, and the resultant kerfuffle that entailed. Overeem was also coming off of victory, over Frank Mir, and we had two fighters eager to stand out in the heavyweight division.

Also on the main card, Derrick Lewis would take on resident scumbag Matt Mitrione. Lewis was coming off a brutal knockout win over Guto Inocente, whilst Mitrione, a competitor on season 10 of TUF, had also knocked out his previous opponent, Shawn Jordan. Opening up the main card would be a great lightweight fight, as Michael Chiesa, TUF 15 Lightweight Tournament winner, would face Joe Lauzon.

This would also be the first time that the UFC and Bellator would be running shows on the same night, although with the UFC show starting later, the only direct head-to-head competition would be the overlap between the end of Bellator’s show and the start of the UFC’s.

Card Changes

Two bantamweight fights, Kimura vs. Ian Entwistle and Chris Beal vs. Rob Font, were set to take place, but Entwistle and Font both withdrew from their fights citing injuries. Kimura was then matched against Beal but Kimura would also withdraw due to injury and was replaced by Tateki Matsuda. Chas Skelly replaced an injured Andre Fili against Sean Soriano, which was a surprise move because Skelly had fought just 13 days prior to this Fight Night taking place.

Charles Oliveira missed weight, coming in at 150lbs, well over the 146lbs limit for non-title featherweight fights. Oliveira was docked 20% of his pay, which went to his opponent, Nik Lentz. The fight was then set to take place as a catchweight contest, but Oliveira was pulled from the fight on the day of the show, as he fell ill due to problems with his weight cutting.

UFC Fight Night 50 (the preliminary fights)

Chas Skelly scored a unanimous decision win over Sean Soriano in a grappling-heavy fight, and Skelly’s performance was all the more impressive given that he’d fought just 13 days previously. Skelly was gassed by the end of the fight and was breathing heavily throughout the post-fight interview, where Skelly said that the two weight cuts in such a short space of time had been a killer. Chris Bealbeat Tateki Matsuda by unanimous decision in a good, very competitive fight. Beal used grappling and positional control to offset the striking of Matsuda, who was landing some nasty leg kicks during the first half of the fight.

Rafael Natal beat Chris Camozzi by split-decision in a fight of two halves; Natal dominated the first  round-and-a-half before gassing out, at which point Camozzi took over and dominated the rest of the fight. It all came down to the second round and who you gave it to; Natal had won the first round and Camozzi won the third, with the second round being the decider. Al Iaquinta TKO’d Rodrigo Damm in the third round of a fight that Iaquinta dominated. At one point in the third round, Damm was knocked down and wanted Iaquinta to come down to the ground but Iaquinta wisely refused. Damm then refused to get up and Herb Dean threatened to call off the fight if Damnn didn’t get up; Dean even crossed his arms as if to call off the fight, and he paused and gave Damm one last warning and Damm finally got the message and stood up.

John Moraga submitted Justin Scoggins in the second round of a decent fight, that Scoggins was dominating for most of its duration. The finish, though, is one of my favourite of all time. Scoggins went to take Moraga down and Moraga caught Scoggins in a guillotine choke; Kenny Florian is doing commentary and he confidently states that Moraga is too flat on his back and doesn’t have the position to finish it. Three seconds later, Scoggins taps out and Florian is left stunned.

UFC Fight Night 50 (the main card)

Michael Chiesa vs. Joe Lazuon had a good, very even and very competitive fight with the advantage going back-and-forth. The end came in the second round after Lauzon opened up a nasty cut above the fight eye of Chiesa; the cut was bleeding profusely, causing the referee to pause the fight to allow the ringside doctor to check the cut and the doctor called the fight off. Chiesa was understandably upset but it was right call because the positioning and the severity of the cut would have hampered Chiesa’s vision. The stoppage gave Lauzon the most finishes in UFC lightweight history.

Derrick Lewis vs. Matt Mitrione lasted around 30 seconds, with Mitrione catching Lewis with a forearm/punch as Lewis rushed to deliver a punch of his own; Lewis was knocked down and Mitrione finished him off with more punches. Mitrione then stood over and taunted Lewis for no apparent reason as the referee stepped in to stop the fight.

Alistair Overeem vs. Ben Rothwell was a delightfully average heavyweight fight, contested entirely on the feet. Overeem was landing the better shots, both punches and kicks, and he was delivering some real good kicks to Rothwell. But it was Rothwell who landed the first big shot, one that had Overeem a little wobbled and looking to tie up and gain some time to clear his head. Not long after, Rothwell landed a punch right above the ear of Overeem, almost on top of his head, and that dropped Overeem and stunned him; Rothwell dished out some more punches and that was enough for the referee to stop the fight at 2:19 in the first round.

On the replay of the finish, we saw Rothwell deliver the ‘Rothwell Shuffle’, a nifty little dance number that has gained cult status among a certain segment of fans.

Ronaldo ‘Jacaré’ de Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi

The main event saw Souzap put ina great performance, Souza dominating and confounding Mousasi for almost the entirety of the fight. Whether the fight was standing or on the ground, and it was on the ground for most of its duration, Souza was in complete control. Souza’s pressure was relentless once the fight was on the ground and Mousasi simply had no answers for Souza’s submission game; all he could do was play defence and try and fend off the jiu-jitsu ace as best he could. Mousasi’s defence couldn’t last forever and it finally crumbled late in the third round, with Souza tapping Mousasi with a nice guillotine choke.

This win put Souza’s streak at seven-in-a-row, whilst Mousasi had now alternated wins and losses in his last four fights.

Notes

Fight of the Night: Michael Chiesa vs. Joe Lauzon
Performance of the Night: Ben Rothwell and Ronaldo de Souza

Numbers (see below)

Bellator 123 (September 5th 2014)

Going head-to-head with the UFC, Bellator 123 was headlined by a rematch as Pat Curran defended the Bellator Featherweight Championship against Patricio Pitbull. It’s pushed as a grudge match and it definitely feels like one based on their respective comments. We’ve also got Lavar Johnson vs. Cheick Kongo, as well as King Mo and the debut of Bobby Lashley.

Lavar Johnson vs. Cheick Kongo started off with Kongo getting rocked and momentarily dropped, but as Johnson pressed his attack, Kongo dodged a punch and took Johnson down. Kongo then stayed on top of Johnson for a couple of minutes, doing the bare minimum to avoid being stood up before starting to rain down punches. Johnson turned his back and Kongo hooked Johnson in a rear naked choke and got the tap in 3:27.

Before the Bellator debut of Bobby Lashley, they ran video features on both Lashley and his opponent. Josh Burns. Burns looks like a puffed up muscle head, bald and tattooed and he plays into just about every negative stereotype there is about MMA fighters. The Lashley video package included clips from TNA and Lashley comes off as such a nice guy, someone you really want to get behind.

Josh Burns vs. Bobby Lashley saw Lashley take Burns down very quickly and work him over from top position for the rest of the round, with Lashley also going for a top wristlock and a kimura. The first two minutes of the second round had literally nothing happening and then Lashley went for a takedown and took Burns down to the mat. Lashley transitioned into the mouth and began pounding away on Burns, who tried to get up and this gave Lashley the chance to sink in the rear naked choke and Burns tapped out. Lashley gets the win but doesn’t look overly impressive, even if he at least looked reasonably polished in what he did.

Tamden McCrory vs. Brenan Ward last eighteen seconds as McCrory used some nice boxing to knock Ward silly. This was McCory’s first fight in five years and his debut at middleweight; McCrory had retired because he felt MMA was taking him away from his family too much. It didn’t look like he’d lost a step.

Before the next fight, they run a video package on ‘King’ Mo, focusing on the term ‘dick riding’ and tying it in to Lawal’s controversial unanimous decision loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 120, which they show footage off and they also show Lawal’s post-fight comments aimed at the then-Bellator president Bjorn Rebny, who he calls a dick rider. Luke Thomas, MMA reporter, does some talking head comments and he says that Bellator were doing everything they could in order to make Jackson their new golden boy and that it seemed like Bellator didn’t want Lawal around.

The way this is all presented, while it’s vague enough that they have plausible deniability, it came across like they wanted you to believe that the fix was in against Lawal. Of course, Scott Coker showed up in mid-2014, and Lawal, who is providing comments, is suddenly all smiles as they once more emphasize the message that Lawal was unhappy under Bjorn.

Dustin Jacoby vs. ‘King’ Mo Lawal started off with Lawal dominating with his wrestling in the first half of the first round, with the second half seeing things slow to a crawl. The second round turned into a sloppy-as-hell brawl and Lawal battered Jacoby around before knocking him down and pounding on him long enough for the referee to stop the fight at 1:13 of the second round.

Lawal gets a smattering of boos throughout his post-fight interview. Lawal respond by flipping off the fans once the interview is over.

Back from the break and ‘Mr Personality’ Scott Coker is interviewed and announces the November 15th date for the fight between Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar. Ortiz and Bonnar are both in the cage and this is where they ran that horrible, horrible angle with Justin McCully under a mask. Ortiz, who has a rep for being a good talker, was terrible, stumbling over his words left and right. This whole sorry mess was a complete and total embarrassment. If you were a first time viewer and you saw this, you’d walk away thinking the MMA was just as worked as wrestling and that there was no way it could be real if it had nonsense like this going on.

The sad part is that this bullshit worked and the fight between Ortiz and Bonnar would end up drawing some monster numbers for Bellator, and we’ll talk more about that down the road.

Pat Curran © vs. Patricio Freire – for the Bellator Featherweight Championship was a decent but not outstanding fight, the kind of fight that you’ll be moderately entertained by and then completely forget about once it’s over. It was close, even, although the bigger moments, the few that there were, were generally in favour of Freire. I had it 48-47 for Freire, whilst the judges had it 48-47, 49-46 and 49-46 for the winner and new Bellator Featherweight Champion, Patricio Pitbull. You can hear a smattering of boos but the fight was close enough that it’s not wrong for Freire to have won the fight.

Numbers: UFC 50 vs. Bellator 123

This was the first live head-to-head battle between the UFC and Bellator, and whilst not a comprehensive victory, it was the UFC who came away with the stronger numbers. The main card for UFC Fight Night 50 drew 911,000 viewers on FOX Sports 1, whilst the main card for Bellator 123, on Spike TV, drew 667,000 viewers.

The live attendance battle was won by Bellator, although they had booked a bigger venue. Bellator 123 was held at the Mohegun Sun and drew 7,109 fans for a gate of $302,010. UFC Fight Night 50 was at the smaller Foxwoods Resort Casino, and drew a near sellout of 4,086 for a gate of $479,620.

The only actual overlap occurred between 10:00pm and 10:45 pm, with the UFC’s opener, Michael Chiesa vs. Joe Lauzon, going head-to-head with the Pat Curran vs. Patricio Freire main event on Bellator. The UFC would edge that particular battle, with 781,000 viewers to Bellator’s 728,000.

UFC 191: Johnson vs. Dodson II (September 5th 2015)

The originally planned main event to this show was to be Daniel Cormier defending the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against Alexander Gustafsson, but that fight was moved back to UFC 192. Instead, during broadcast of UFC Fight Night 71: Mir vs. Duffee, it was announced that the main event to UFC 191 would be rematch between the UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson, and the man who pushed him to the limit in their first encounter, John Dodson.

Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson II (the build)

If there was one fighter happy to see the introduction of a flyweight division, it was Demetrious Johnson. Despite having success as a bantamweight, Johnson was undersized for the weight class. Johnson found an immediate home in the flyweight division, being entered into the four-man tournament to crown the division’s first champion; Dodson would beat Ian McCall and then Joseph Benavidez to become the inaugural UFC Flyweight Champion.

Johnson’s first title defence would headline a FOX network event and it would see Johnson pitted against perhaps the only man in the flyweight division who would come close to matching his speed and quickness, John Dodson. Their fight was competitive and Dodson pushed Johnson all the way, but in the end, it was Johnson who walked out the victor retained his title. Johnson’s next two title defences would also headline FOX network events, as Johnson submitted John Moraga and delivered a brutal knockout to Joseph Benavidez.

From the FOX network to PPV, Johnson headlined PPV’s for his next set of title defences, with Johnson defeating Ali Bagautinov, Chris Cariaso and Kyoji Horiguchi; the latter fight set a UFC record, as Johnson scored the submission victory at 4:59 of the fifth round, the latest finish in UFC history, a record that will never be broken.

Demetrious Johnson had looked dominant as flyweight champion and had yet to drop a single round in any of his title defences. With one exception, and it would that exception, that one opponent to have taken a round off of the champion, who would get one more chance to not only take a round off of Johnson, but take the UFC Flyweight Championship away from him as well.

John Dodson came to the UFC through TUF, Dodson being part of the bantamweight tournament on TUF 14. Dodson won the tournament, knocking out TJ Dillashaw in the finals, but Dodson would then move back down to flyweight, his usual weight class. Dodson would score wins over Tim Elliot and Jussier Formiga, the latter coming by way of TKO, to earn his first shot at the UFC Flyweight Championship at UFC’s sixth show on the FOX network.

Dodson pushed the champion, Demetrious Johnson to the limit and the fight would go the distance. But despite going close on the scorecards, Johnson would walk away from their encounter still the UFC Flyweight Champion. Dodson was not down for lon, as he knocked out Darrell Montague in his next fight, then defeated John Moraga by TKO (doctor stoppage), before beating Zach Makovsky by unanimous decision at UFC 187.

It was a run of impressive victories that put Dodson back at the top of the flyweight contendership ladder, and at UFC 191, Dodson would headline his first PPV as he would once more get the chance to wrest the UFC Flyweight Championship from Demetrious Johnson.

The Rest of the Card

The co-main event at UFC 191 would be a battle of former UFC Heavyweight Champions, as Andrei Arlovski took on Frank Mir. Arlovski and Mir were first set to face off way back in 2005 when Mir, as UFC Heavyweight Champion, was sidelined due to injuries; Arlovski won the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship with the intention that he’d face Mir in a unification fight when Mir had recovered. But Mir’s recovery was slow and Arlovski ended up being promoted to full champion status and the fight never took place.

Their careers had taken divergent paths since that time; Mir remained a UFC mainstay, whilst Arlovski left the UFC in 2008 before returning in 2014. Mir had suffered four straight defeats before scoring back-to-back wins over Antonio Silva and Todd Duffee, whilst a resurgent Arlovski had won all three of his fights since returning to the UFC, putting his current win streak at five. It was a clash between two fighters whose heydays may have been long ago, but who still had plenty to offer.

Elsewhere on the main card, Anthony Johnson would look to rebound from his defeat to Daniel Cormier for the vacant UFC Light Heavyweight Champion as he took on the heavy handed Brit Jimi Manuwa. Corey Anderson, winner of TUF 19’s Light Heavyweight Tournament, would take on Jan Błachowicz. And the opener would be the women’s strawweight division’s poster girl, Paige VanZant facing Alex Chambers.

Card Changes

Raquel Pennington was to fight Leslie Smith at UFC 192, but Smith was forced out due to injury and Pennington was matched against Liz Carmouche at this show. Days later, Carmouche pulled out of fight citing an injury, and she was replaced by Jessica Andrade. The Pennington vs. Andrade fight would be a rematch, with the two having previously faced each other at UFC 171; Andrade had won that fight by split-decision. Andre Fili was to face Clay Collard at the event, but less than a week after the fight was announced, Fili withdrew from the fight due injury and was replaced by Tiago Trator.

UFC 191 (the preliminary fights)

Joe Riggs beat Ron Stallings by disqualification in the second round, with Stallings getting DQ’d for throwing an illegal upkick. Riggs only real success came early in that round when he dropped Stallings with a nice one-two punch combination. Riggs was in top position when Stallings landed the upkick, and the referee, Jason Herzog, either didn’t see it or didn’t realize it was illegal because it was only when Riggs’ corner yelled out about Riggs being grounded that Herzog stopped the fight to allow the doctor to check Riggs. Riggs, who had injured his eye earlier in the fight, was checked by the doctor and whatever Riggs said caused the doctor to stop the fight. On commentary, Joe Rogan noted that the kick hit Riggs in the jaw, and with the eye being injured in the first round, if the fight was stopped because Riggs complained he couldn’t see, then regardless of the upkick, Stallings should have won because the fight ended as a result of a legal move. And if it was the illegal kick that stopped the fight, it wasn’t intentional and therefore the fight should have been ruled a no-contest.

In the post-fight interview, Riggs said that the kick caught him in the eye, but watching the kick in slow-motion shows that the kick hit him in the jaw, like Joe Rogan said it had. Riggs and Stallings were both 32 but Riggs looked so much older than his years.

Joaquim Silva beat Nazareno Malegarie by split-decision in what as decent but unmemorable fight, that was almost entirely a boxing match. Tiago Trator beat Clay Collard by split-decision. Even though Collard has an extensive amateur boxing background, Trator showed the tighter and more technical punches. Collard, showed some flash and exuberance, clearly feeling he needed to make an impression. It didn’t help, and Collard seemed to have been released after this loss and he’s yet to fight again.

Raquel Pennington came from behind to submit Jessica Andrade late in the second round. The first round was fairly even but the second round saw Pennington on the defensive, taking some heavy leg kicks and getting picked apart in the stand-up. Pennington survived a guillotine choke. Late in the second, Andrade was on her back and in a scramble, Pennington managed to get back of Andrade and get a rear naked choke; Andrade held on as best she could but tapped out right before the round ended.

John Lineker beat Francisco Rivera in one of the craziest two-minute fights you will ever see. The first minute was OK but nothing special. And then things got crazy, as Lineker and Rivera proceeded to throw the wildest bombs you’ve ever seen. These two guys weren’t swinging for the fences; they were swinging for far beyond the stars. It was absolutely insane. Rivera got knocked down and was getting battered, but he made it to his feet and kept the unrestrained slugfest going. Rivera was rocked and dropped a second time, went for a takedown as much to catch a breather as anything else, but Lineker hooked a guillotine choke and Rivera tapped out. Needless to say, this is a must-see fight.

Ross Pearson beat Paul Felder by split-decision in what was a pretty solid fight. Felder was the aggressor throughout the fight, he was landing more, and his more diverse arsenal gave him more weapons to use, and he used them all and to give Pearson a solid beating. How Pearson won the fight is a mystery and giving Pearson all three rounds, as one judge did, was especially egregious.

UFC 191 (the main card)

Alex Chambers vs. Paige VanZant was entirely one-sided with Chambers providing all the resistance of a tackling dummy. Paige looked to be a competent fighter, average at best, but as Joe Rogan alluded to on commentary, and he probably didn’t intend to make it seem so negative, it tells you a lot about the strawweight division that someone as inexperienced as Paige is the #7 ranked contender, Rogan noting the disparity between #7, Paige, and the champion, Joanna Jędrzejczyk. Paige got the submission at 1:01 of the third round with an armbar.

Corey Anderson vs. Jan Błachowicz saw Anderson put in a solid workmanlike performance to dominate Błachowicz for all three rounds. Most of the fight was contested with Anderson in top position and whilst he did work Błachowicz over, it’s not as if Anderson went for the kill at any point, and he was content to beat up on Błachowicz whilst not putting himself at risk.

Anthony Johnson vs. Jimi Manuwa was an OK fight, not as exciting as most Johnson fights because he used his grappling to control Manuwa on the ground and Johnson’s grappling isn’t good enough to be entertaining to watch, although he still managed to pound on Manuwa as he controlled him. Manuwa was taking shots whenever the fight was standing, and in the second round Manuwa finally got dropped, with a few more shots knocking him out and stopping the fight. It was good win for Johnson but not the most outstanding of performances.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Frank Mir was our co-main event of the evening and a battle of former UFC Heavyweight Champions. This fight sucked as hard as both fighters were sucking wind after three minutes. Wait; did someone just say ‘three minutes’? Up until the half-way point of the third round, the fight consisted of slow motion brawling and either fighter pressing the other into the fence or simply holding on for dear life. The lone moments of excitement came when Mir appeared to clip Arlovski and drop him, although the normal holding pattern, in every sense of the word, soon resumed. Arlovski won the unanimous decision, with one judge, Adalaide Byrd, even giving him all three rounds. The result and especially that scorecard is complete nonsense. Arlovski did virtually nothing of note the entire fight. I’m a fan of Arlovski and I wanted to see him win this fight, but even I knew he lost.

Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson II

This is the main event of the evening, presented by a TV show that only lasted one season. Quick, without looking it up; what was the TV show in question?

Bud Lite, the perfect beer for whatever happens. Guess I’ll go pass out a case at the scene of a drink driving accident where some old lady has been splattered across the windscreen of a Nissan Cherry.

This wasn’t a great fight as much as it was a great performance by Demetrious Johnson, who dictated the action for almost the entire fight. John Dodson had his moments, and I gave him the second round because he was the more aggressive and managed to start tagging Johnson, but for almost entire 25:00 it was Johnson who was the faster, quicker, who controlled the pace and direction of the fight.

Johnson is a great fighter to watch if you want to see one of the most, if not the most technically proficient fighter in the sport today. Everything Johnson does look crisp, smooth, and there is never a foot out of place; Johnson is as polished as you can get. The problem is that if you’re looking for an entertaining fight, something engaging, Johnson just doesn’t deliver on that aspect. It could be the style or it could be his size or his utter lack of an engaging personality, but Demetrious Johnson just does not engage you as a viewer unless you’re watching purely for the technical aspect of his work, and that more than anything else is why Johnson, for all his talent, doesn’t draw on PPV.

It reminds me of a story Kevin Sullivan once told about Eddie Graham, the promoter who ran Championship Wrestling from Florida and who was considered one of the premiere booking minds in the business.

Sullivan told a story of watching Tony Charles and Les Thornton wrestle, and Sullivan was watching the match with Graham. Graham loved to book Charles and Thornton against each other because they could have great technical matches. After the match was over, Sullivan turned to Graham and said that that was one of the best matches he’d ever seen in his life. Graham replied with something along the lines of “yeah, it was a great match, but I couldn’t sell a ticket to it”.

That’s what you get with Demetrious Johnson; superb technical action that, unfortunately, doesn’t draw without an engaging personality behind it.

Numbers

Attendance: 10,873
Gate: $1,362,700
PPV Buys: 115,000

Fight of The Night John Lineker vs. Francisco Rivera
Performance of The Night: Anthony Johnson and Raquel Pennington

The official payouts to each fighter as reported by the Nevada State Athletic Commission;

Demetrious Johnson: $191,000 (includes $58,000 win bonus) def. John Dodson: $60,000
Andrei Arlovski: $225,000 (no win bonus) def. Frank Mir: $200,000
Anthony Johnson:  $230,000 (includes $115,000 win bonus) def. Jimi Manuwa: $24,000
Corey Anderson: $58,000 (includes $29,000 win bonus) def. Jan Błachowicz: $34,000
Paige VanZant: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus) def. Alex Chambers: $12,000
Ross Pearson: $90,000 (includes $45,000 win bonus) def. Paul Felder: $18,000
John Lineker: $48,000 (includes $24,000 win bonus) def. Francisco Rivera: $23,000
Raquel Pennington: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Jessica Andrade: $20,000
Tiago Trator: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Clay Collard: $10,000
Joe Riggs: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus) def. Ronald Stallings: $12,000
Joaquim Silva: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Nazareno Malegarie: $10,000

Next time, we talk in detail about two shows; UFC 88: Breakout and Invicta FC 8: Waterson vs. Tamada, and pass comment on Pancrase: 1997 Anniversary Show.

 

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 6th)

UFC 88: Breakout (September 6th 2008)

The UFC came to Atlanta for a PPV that would be headlined by one of their biggest stars, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, facing one of their rising stars, a man who was himself looking to become UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell (the build)

Rashad Evans entered the UFC through TUF, winning the heavyweight tournament on TUF’s second season. Evans immediately moved down to his normal weight class, light heavyweight; his initial fights were close, with Evans eking out a split-decision wins over Sam Hoger and a majority decision win over Stephan Bonnar. Evans finally scored a decisive win, over Jason Lambert, at UFC 63, with Evans getting the win with a second round knockout. Evans then followed that up with one of the greatest and most dangerous looking knockouts in UFC history when he head kicked Sean Salmon and knocked him out cold; Salmon was unconscious for several minutes before being stretchered to the back. It’s a finish that will be on the UFC highlight reel for as long as the company exists.

Evans next fight saw him face his most high-profile opponent yet as he took on former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz at UFC 73. It was a hard fought contest that Ortiz would dominate, yet it would go to a draw, with all three judges scoring the fight 28-28; Ortiz had been docked a point in the second round for repeatedly grabbing the fence and it had cost him the victory. Evans then headlined his first PPV as he took on Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 78. Again, it was another close fight with Evans slipping over Bisping by split-decision.

Evans had a penchant for close fights and because of this, when it was announced that he would be facing Chuck Liddell, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, the widely held belief going into the fight was that Liddell would use Evans as springboard back into the title picture.

Chuck Liddell claimed the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 52 when he knocked out Randy Couture, and in the process avenged his upset loss to Couture at UFC 43. Liddell’s first title defence saw him avenge his first ever loss in the UFC, with Liddell stopping Jeremy Horn in the fourth round of their championship fight when Liddell injured Horn’s left eye socket and left him unable to see properly. Liddell then faced and defeated Couture again in their trilogy making fight at UFC 57, with Couture retiring from MMA after the contest.

For his next fight, Liddell was again faced with a familiar foe as he defended his title against Renato Sobral at UFC 62; the two had previously faced off at UFC 40, with Liddell winning with a spectacular head kick knockout. Liddell needed just 95-seconds to TKO Sobral, making it look easy in the process and cementing his status as the king of not just the UFC’s light heavyweight division but of the whole promotion

Any doubts about Liddell’s stardom were erased at UFC 65 when Liddell’s title defence against Tito Ortiz became the first PPV in UFC history to exceed 1 million PPV buys. Liddell’s next title defence was yet another rematch, his sixth consecutive rematch, as he defended his title against former PRIDE star Quinton Jackson. The two had first fought in 2003 during PRIDE’s Middleweight Grand Prix; on that occasion, Jackson had won when Liddell’s corner pulled him from the fight due to injury.

Liddell’s run as champion came to a stunning end in just 1:53 when Jackson clipped Liddell, dropping him to the mat, with the follow up barrage of punches knocking Liddell out cold, albeit momentarily. It was a shock but not a major upset, as Jackson was considered a top light heavyweight and had beaten Liddell once before. The same couldn’t be said about Liddell’s next fight at UFC 76, when Liddell faced journeyman fighter Keith Jardine; in a stunning upset, Jardine employed a tremendous gameplan to shock the MMA world with a split-decision win over the former light heavyweight champion.

Liddell looked stunned when the result was announced, as did everyone else; recently signed Wanderlei Silva held his hands to his head in complete disbelief. Not that the result would matter in the short-term as the long awaited Liddell vs. Silva fight would still take place at UFC 79; it was a fight that had long been teased and was now finally here. And whilst it didn’t quite much up to the almost mythic debate the dream fight had stirred up over the years, it was still an epic battle and one that Liddell came out the winner in with a unanimous decision victory.

Liddell was back on track but he needed one more big, high-profile victory before he could once again challenge for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Liddell was set to get that chance against Rashad Evans. The fight was originally set as the main event to UFC 85 in England, but Liddell tore his hamstring during training; Liddell posted a picture online of what his leg looked like at the time and it looked nasty. The fight was postponed and would instead take place at UFC 88, as Liddell faced Evans, with the winner moving forward to challenge Forrest Griffin for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship, with Griffin having wrested the title from Quinton Jackson at UFC 86.

The Rest of the Card

The two main support fights were a battle of the old-guard versus the new-guard, as Rich Franklin would take on TUF 3 standout Matt Hamill, with Franklin moving up to light heavyweight for this fight. Dan Henderson would face the submission specialist Rousimar Palhares. The rest of the main card would see Dutch striker Martin Kampmann facing former Pancrase Middleweight Champion Nate Marquardt and Matt Brown take on South Korean Judoka Dong Hyun Kim.

UFC 88 (the preliminary fights)

Ryo Chonan beat Roan Carneiro by split-decision in a decent fight that was almost purely grappling and positional control, so your personal enjoyment will vary depending on how you feel about that type of fight. Tim Boetsch battered Mike Patt into senselessness in 2:03. Jason MacDonald survived a guillotine choke at the end of the first round to submit Jason Lambert with a rear naked choke in the second. Kurt Pellegrino beat Thiago Tavares by unanimous decision in a really good, very competitive fight, one definitely worth a watch. There were two moments of controversy in the second round, with Tavares getting away with a very blatant eye poke, which gave him time to recover after taking a real beating in the first round, Tavares then taking over for the rest of the round. The second moment of controversy was that Tavares clearly tapped to an armbar during the fight but the referee didn’t see it and the contest kept going. When the decision is announced, Tavares and his corner storm straight out of the cage and show not even the slightest hint of sportsmanship.

UFC 88 (the main card)

Matt Brown vs. Dong Hyun Kim was a good, very competitive fight. Most of the first round saw Kim on the back of Brown, with this taking place over two periods, in between a brief stand-up battle. In the first period, Kim was on Brown’s back as Brown was standing and Kim had him in trouble. Later, Brown almost had Kim in trouble but that ended up with Kim again taking the back of Brown. The second round was almost all Brown; it was mostly standing, with Brown landing a number of punches and working over the body of Kim, and when it went to the ground, Kim was playing defence the whole time and was even caught in an arm triangle near the end of the round. In the third round, the pace of the fight slowed down a lot and most of the round saw either Brown or Kim grappling the other but only holding on and not doing anything else. However, late on, Kim managed thrown Brown down and ended up in top position, with Kim throwing down elbows for the rest of the round and in the process he opened up a pretty good cut above the left eye of Brown.

I thought the rounds were pretty clear, with Kim winning rounds one and three and Brown winning round two. Kim won but it was a split-decision, as one judge, Cecil Peoples, somehow gave Brown rounds two and three; Brown definitely won the second, but there just isn’t any credible way to argue Brown should get the third round, especially when Kim was able to do more with his grappling and busted Brown wide open. The result wasn’t a popular one with the fans, and Jorge Gurgel, who was in Brown’s corner, was stunned, but there really wasn’t any way to score the fight than 29-28 for Kim.

Joe Rogan, when interviewing Brown, said that it seemed to him that Brown had controlled the fight with his defence and his pressure. If Rogan genuinely thinks that, then he was watching a completely different fight to the one that actually took place.

Martin Kampmann vs. Nate Marquardt was a middleweight fight but the first thing you notice is the size disparity between the two; Marquardt looks to have a good 20lbs weight advantage, at least. Marquardt clipped Kampmann with a head kick about a minute in that knocked the Dutchman off-balance and Marquardt swarmed Kampmann with punches, kicks, and knees from the clinch, and Kampmann was dropped and the fight called off after just 1:22. It’s worth noting that Kampmann wasn’t knocked out, which speaks to his toughness considering the huge size disparity between he and Marquardt.

Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares was Henderson’s third fight in the UFC since his return the year before, but his first non-title fight. This wasn’t particularly engaging and there a lot of times where there was literally nothing happening. Palhares kept trying to take Henderson down and finally succeed in the second round, but he couldn’t keep Henderson on the ground for long and Henderson was able to extricate himself from the submissions that Palhares tried to hook him in. The third round was especially excruciating to watch, with the only moment of excitement coming late on when Henderson dropped Palhares with his overhand right, but in the process ended up with his leg hooked up with Palhares’ legs and Palhares used that to pull Henderson down to the mat with a heel hook, but nothing came of it. Henderson won the fight by unanimous decision.

Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill had a first round that felt more like a sparring session than a fight, with neither Franklin nor Hamill fighting with any real intensity. Late on, Hamill ducked a punch to take Franklin down, with Franklin throwing his legs up for an armbar, but even that felt like two guys going through the motions of a practice session. Things picked up a little in the second round with Franklin slowly picking Hamill apart with kicks, Franklin focusing on the body of Hamill, who couldn’t get anything going and couldn’t come close to taking Franklin down. Franklin landed a body kick early in the third that dropped Hamill, who turtle up and the referee moved in to stop the fight. Matt Hamill was way out of his league here and it was very obvious throughout.

Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell

The main event was now upon us. Before the fight, Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan pump out the hype and the stats; Liddell had an 85% success rate of defending takedowns, and his average time on the ground after being take down was just 13.5 seconds. Evans was successful on 60% of his takedowns and 22% of those were by slams. A text vote shows that 81% of fans think that Chuck Liddell will win this fight.

Evans is roundly booed when he’s introduced whilst Liddell is given an almost entirely positive, superstar reaction.

The first round saw both a tactical approach from both fighters, with Liddell moving forward throwing loose, wide punches in what seemed like an attempt to bait a reaction from Evans, as Liddell is best known for being a counterpuncher. Evans, though, wasn’t biting and he was content to throw punches to try and catch Liddell coming in but not press the attack himself. It was interesting to watch from a technical standpoint and if you’re a fan of watching fighters fight strategically, you’d enjoy it, but the fans in attendance weren’t overly enthralled and a smattering of boos could be heard quite frequently throughout the round.

The second round started out in a similar fashion but Liddell was starting to move forward quicker and the two were starting to exchange punches in the pocket as the pace of the fight clearly started to pick up. Then, just before the two-minute mark, Liddell’s circling around had been able to manoeuvre Rashad back up against the fence; both seemed about to launch a punch, and as Liddell threw what looked like a speculative punch, Evans threw a huge overhand right and cracked Liddell right in the chin and Liddell dropped to the mat like he’d been shot by a sniper.

Your winner by knock the fuck out is Rashad Evans.

“Like a lightning bolt out of nowhere”

The building goes electric; it’s not cheering or booing, although there are some boos, rather the place is just buzzing like they’ve witnessed a major event that you don’t cheer or boo, you just react to. Herb Dean tries to support Chuck and as he’s holding him, Chuck’s head limply drops down in a rather disturbing looking manner.

As Rashad walks around the octagon, you can see the reaction from those at ringside; Dana White looks stunned and Kenny Florian looks like someone just told him his dog died and he’s about to go into major denial about it. Everyone else is stunned, with the classic reactions of hands to their heads or over their mouths, and it’s about now that you can hear Rashad’s wife start to scream and she doesn’t stop for quite a while.

As the initial buzz starts to die down a little, you can start to hear the booing really kicking in. Chuck is getting tended to and he’s starting to come around but he’s clearly still out of it. They show several replays of the knockout, and whilst Goldberg and Rogan try to call it as both men throwing big shots and Rashad’s landing first, Chuck’s punch was thrown lazily and it was never going to land.

They show four different replays from four different angles and it’s the fourth replay that leaves the lasting impression because it’s shot from behind Chuck and the way Chuck’s neck snaps when Rashad’s punch hits is so brutal and graphic. When they replay the different angles again, they don’t show the one from behind and whenever this knockout has been shown again over the years, they rarely if ever show the angle from behind so they’ve clearly made a conscious decision to avoid using that particular replay as much as possible.

When the decision is announced, the fans mostly boo Rashad and I think this is where a lot of the simmering resentment towards Rashad started; Rashad destroyed the most popular fighter on the roster and I don’t think the fans ever forgave him for it.

UFC 88 was a pretty solid show but it could have been the worst show of all time or the best show of all time, because the only thing people remember from it is that Rashad Evans obliterated Chuck Liddell with one punch. It’s one of the most memorable knockouts in MMA history, let alone UFC history, and, for my money, it’s the most brutal knockout in UFC history.

Numbers

Attendance: 14,736
Gate: $2,600,000
PPV Buys: 480,000

Fight of The Night Kurt Pellegrino vs. Thiago Tavares
Knockout of The Night: Rashad Evans
Submission of the Night: Jason MacDonald

Ryo Chonan: $30,000 ($15,000 to show, $15,000 to win) def. Roan Carneiro: $9,000
Jason MacDonald: $44,000 ($22,000 to show, $22,000 to win) def. Jason Lambert: $17,000
Tim Boetsch: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 to win) def. Michael Patt: $5,000
Kurt Pellegrino: $24,000 ($12,000 to show, $12,000 to win) def. Thiago Tavares: $13,000
Dong Hyun Kim: $46,000 ($23,000 to show, $23,000 to win) def. Matt Brown: $8,000
Nate Marquardt: $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 to win) def. Martin Kampmann: $15,000
Dan Henderson: $250,000 ($100,000 to show, $150,000 to win) def. Rousimar Palhares: $7,000
Rich Franklin: $100,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 to win) def. Matt Hamill: $10,000
Rashad Evans: $120,000 ($60,000 to show, $60,000 to win) def. Chuck Liddell: $500,000

Invicta FC 8: Waterson vs. Tamada (September 6th 2014)

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Invicta. For a while, they were putting out the most consistently entertaining shows in MMA, and this show was right in the middle of that period. It was headlined by Michelle Waterson defending the Invicta FC Atomweight Championship against Yasuko Tamada. Waterson had won the title from Jessica Penne at Invicta FC, in one of the best fights of the year, regardless of gender, and a fight that really made me a fan of Waterson. Tamada competed for the JEWELS promotion in Japan, a promotion that Invicta had a working relationship with, and several fighters from JEWELS would make the journey to Invicta FC over the years.

The main event also featured one of the biggest disparities in ages between fighters we’ve seen in a long time, as Waterson was 28 and Tamada was 47. Tamada had started fighting at the age of 38 and this would be her 26th fight; in all that time, Tamada had never been stopped and only two of her fights had not gone the distance. Perhaps because of Tamada’s age more than anything else, Waterson was the -1125 favourite and Tamada the +575 underdog.

The co-main event would see Stephanie Eggink take on Katja Kankaanpää for the vacant Invicta FC Strawweight Championship, with the title being vacant since Carla Esparza, the former champion, joined the UFC. Invicta FC 8 would also feature the third fight between veterans Roxanne Modafferi and Tara LaRosa.

Invicta FC 8 would also be the first Invicta event to be broadcast on UFC's Fight Pass as part of the new deal between Invicta and UFC.

The show opened with a great video package featuring comments from most of the fighters to set up their respective fights. Michael Schiavello is doing commentary. I know some people don’t like him, but Schiavello, to me, is a great announcer.

JJ Aldrich vs. Delaney Owen was the pro debut of Aldrich, who had gone 7-4 as an amateur. Owen was 2-0 as a pro, with her amateur record being 7-2. Both women were very rough around the edges and given the lack of polish from two fighters with the number of fights they’ve had, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they should be looking to change camps. But both women are young, 22 and 21 respectively, and they’ve got plenty of time and room to grow. It was fairly competitive, but Aldrich was a little too much for Owen on this occasion and she won by unanimous decision.

Jodie Esquibel vs. Jinh Yu Frey was a fight that had its moments but too many of them. Frey was unlucky not to get the finished in the first round because she was pounding away on Esquibel and the fight easily could have been stopped and it probably should have been. The second and third rounds were close. Esquibel ended up winning on a split-decision, but that’s a bogus call because the first round was as clear a 10-8 as you could possibly get; Frey had Esquibel done and dusted and it was only poor officiating that meant the fight wasn’t stopped, and when a fighter does that to their opponent, that’s meant to be a 10-8 round.

Ashley Cummins vs. Alexa Grasso had a decent fight with some good action interspersed throughout. It was pretty competitive for all three rounds, and whilst I had Cummins edging the rounds, the judges saw things differently and Grasso won by unanimous decision.

Irena Aldana vs. Peggy Morgan was the first fight of the night to not get out of the second round, with Morgan taking a real beating and being left bloodied up as Aldan submitted her with a rear naked choke. Aldana had come into this fight with three straight KO wins in total fight time of a little over a minute, so Aldana came out of this fight with some serious momentum.

Veronica Rothenhauser vs. Charmaine Tweet was another fight with a first round finish and this one had a lot of sloppy striking, both women clearly needing a lot of work on their boxing and considering this was Tweet’s tenth pro fight, I’m not sure what it says about her or her training. In any event, she still had enough to get the first round TKO finish.

Deanna Bennet vs. Michelle Ould was an OK fight with Bennet showing some nice knees in the clinch throughout the fight. The body work seemed to pay off as Bennet landed a kick to the body of Ould in the second round, with Ould having the delayed reaction before falling to her knees and clutching her chest, with the referee quickly moving in to stop the fight as Ould held up her hand to signal an apparent surrender.

Roxanne Modafferi vs. Tara LaRosa in the battle of the veterans was a decent fight with nothing standing out as either good or bad. Modafferi was able to keep ahead of LaRosa for the whole fight and was just the better fight in all aspects, with Modafferi easily winning the unanimous decision. Modafferi wasn’t particular outstanding and if you’ve only seen Modafferi during these period and haven’t seen anything of her post-TUF 18, you’d have no idea how much she’s improved.

Tonya Evinger vs. Ediane Gomes was the best and most exciting fight of the night thus far, and it was another one-round affair. Evinger took Gomes down with a trip and there was a mad scramble that ended up with both women going for a submission on the other. Later, Evinger got another takedown and almost got caught with an armbar. The end came when Evinger got another takedown and then transitioned into the mount; Evinger pounded away on Gomes, who tried to scramble free but left her arm open and Evinger caught it in an armbar to get the submission. This was really good while it lasted.

Stephanie Eggink vs. Katja Kankaanpaa – for the vacant Invicta FC Strawweight Championship was the co-main event of the evening. This was a very good technical fight but it lacked the fireworks that would appeal to more casual fans. Eggink had a big reach advantage and long legs, which she put to very good use throughout the fight and on two occasions Eggink secured a triangle choke but Kankaanpaa was able to hang on and survive. Going into the fifth round, Kankaanpaa was assuredly behind on the scorecards and it didn’t look like she had any answer for the reach and long legs of Eggink, but a scramble on the ground gave Kankaanpaa the chance to ensnare Eggink with a D’arce choke and after a few moments of struggle Eggink was forced to tap out and Kankaanpaa came from behind and earns the Invicta Strawweight title.

Michelle Waterson © vs. Yasuko Tamada – for the Invicta FC Atomweight title was the main event of the evening. As I said the first time around, this was a one-sided pounding and Michelle Waterson was swinging the hammer. Waterson was teeing off on Tamada at will, landing punches, kicks, knees, and whatever else she felt like throwing. Tamada showed virtually no strike defence, got in virtually no offence of her own; I don’t think she landed more than one or two punches, if that, the entire fight. The only positive thing you can say about Tamada is that she showed guts and heart by staying in there and refusing to give up when it was clearly from very early on that she didn’t have a chance in hell of winning. Waterson became the first fighter to ever stop Tamada, with the referee stepping in at 4:58 of the third round.

This wasn’t the best of Invicta FC as the earlier fights dragged things down, but overall, this was a solid night of action.

Other Notes for September 6th

Pancrase: 1997 Anniversary Show (September 6th 1997)

This was one of Pancrase’s biggest shows and was headlined by Yuki Kondo defending the King of Pancrase title against Jason DeLucia. Kondo was an unlikely top name for Pancrase as he didn’t appear to a top-level fighter, but the decision was made to gave him the chance to be ‘the man’ and Masakatsu Funaki, the founder and top star in Pancrase, had put him over for the KoP title in April of 1997, in of those ‘business finishes’ that Pancrase did from time to time.

The fight between Kondo and DeLucia was a good Pancrase-style fight, in that it was almost entirely grappling, the kind of fight that probably wouldn’t play well in front of an American audience who weren’t into the style or the personalities involved. It was fairly even and more competitive than you’d think considering DeLucia never really impressed as a fighter. The fight almost went the distance, with the end coming at 27:22 when Kondo submitted DeLucia with a toe hold. As ever, you can really see the conditioning of Pancrase fighters because the fight was contested at a fair clip with no real down time outside of a few momentary breaks here and there.

Next time out, two events get talked about; Bellator 98 gets a full rundown, whilst passing comment is made about Pancrase’s 1996 Anniversary Show.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 7th)

Bellator 98 (September 7th 2013)

Bellator 98 was headlined Alexander Shlemenko defending the Bellator Middleweight Championship against Brett Cooper. The two had previously fought at Bellator 44 in a three-round fight, which Shlemenko won by unanimous decision. Also taking place this evening would be the four quarterfinal fights in Bellator’s new middleweight tournament, with the winner of the tournament earning themselves a shot at the Bellator Middleweight Championship.

Patricky Freire vs. Derek Anderson was a decent fight; Freire showed a more complete game and he had Anderson trapped in a triangle in the second round that Anderson managed to survive. But Freire tired after that, slowing down for the remainder of the second round and staying slow for most of the third round too, giving Anderson his chance to get back into the fight. It went the distance and Anderson won the unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three scorecards. The Brazilian corner showed complete disbelief at the result, as if it never entered their mind that Anderson could win.

Perry Filkins vs. Jeremy Kimball was the first middleweight tournament quarterfinal and it was a decent fight, if a little sloppy in places. Kimball looked to be the more well-rounded fighter of the two and whilst he has a way to go, Kimball has got a lot of potential; he has a nifty little takedown, executed in a manner that I don’t believe I’ve seen before. That said, he almost got TKO’d in the second and Kimball was lucky the referee let him see out the round. Kimbell was gassed by this point and  heended up getting submitted at 4:18 of the third round.

Justin Torrey vs. Brenan Ward was another tournament match and it saw Ward coming in as a late replacement, and there was also the added backstory of Ward and Torrey being former training partners who do not like each other. The fight was decent and whilst both fighters had their moments, Ward looked to be the better fighter; he had some nice takedown throws and decent ground-and-pound. Torrey ended the first round with a huge mouse under his left eye that almost shut the eye. The mouse exploded and was bleeding profusely in the second round, with Ward TKO’ing Torrey with ground-and-pound from the half-guard.

Jason Butcher vs. Giva Santana was our third middleweight tournament fight, and it was definitely the young vs. the old as Butcher is 28 and Santana is 41. Santana dominated the first round as he quickly got the fight to the ground and controlled Butcher throughout, Santana constantly working for submissions. But that seemed to tire Santana as he was clearly gassed coming out for the second round, and it didn’t last long with Butcher dropping Santana early on in the round and then pounding away for the TKO victory.

Mikkel Parlo vs. Brian Rogers was the fourth and final middleweight tournament fight, and it had a good first round but the second and third rounds couldn’t match it. The first round was either the two men circling each other or the two men lighting each other up, and whilst both landed some good shots Parlo rocked Rogers and had him a little wobbly and weary. The second and third rounds were almost entirely Parlo riding Rogers on the ground and controlling him from top position, and those rounds lacked the action of the first and Parlo would get the unanimous decision victory.

Alexander Shlemenko © vs. Brett Cooper – for the Bellator Middleweight Championship was our championship main event. This was a good brawl, very exciting at times, and it was far and away the best fight of the evening. The best round was the second because it had the most excitement, with both fighters having the other in trouble; Shlemenko came very close to being stopped and there are some referees who would have stopped it so Shlemenko was lucky to see the round out. After that, though, Shlemenko was just that much better than Cooper and whilst the action and excitement tapered out near the end, it was still a fun fight. Shlemenko won by unanimous decision on scores of 48-47 on all three scorecards, although those scores make the fight seem much closer than, overall, it really was.

Pancrase: 1996 Anniversary Show (September 7th 1996)

There are just a two fights from this show that merit commenting on.

Yuki Kondo vs. Frank Shamrock was a pretty good fight, with Shamrock dominating the first half. Shamrock moves around in a very different manner to most of the Japanese fighter and the way Shamrock carries himself, his natural talent is quite clear to see and you can tell he’s got a lot of potential at this point. Kondo managed to land a well time slap that seemed to turn the fight more into his favour and Shamrock was definitely on the back foot after that. This fight is notable for being the first and only time Shamrock was knocked out in a fight, but the result should have an asterisk beside it; Kondo landed a knee that knocked Shamrock backwards and Shamrock fell out of the ring and couldn’t continue. The fans pop huge for the win but it’s not quite the decisive win the record book indicates, and whilst it did seem like Kondo was on his way to a decision victory, we don’t know for sure how things would have turned out before Shamrock’s spill out of the ring.

Bas Rutten © vs. Masakatsu Funaki – for the King of Pancrase Championship is notable because Funaki was said to have gone into this fight with the intention of having a great fight rather than to necessarily win. That isn’t to say that this was a worked fight, at least not in the traditional sense and Rutten himself is clearly going all out. For his part, Rutten has always maintained that he’s never done a worked fight in his life and whilst there is no reason to doubt Rutten’s sincerity, Rutten may very well have been in a worked fight and not known it; the only guy who needs to know a fight is being worked is the one doing the working.

The fight itself has no obvious holes and there wouldn’t be any if Rutten is going all out. However, the final few minutes of the match are classic pro wrestling; Funaki gets dropped and dramatically rises to his feet at 9 to avoid getting TKO’d. Funaki then gets dropped a few more times, always just beating the count, before finally getting knocked out with a knee to the face, with Funaki being left with a bloody and presumably broken nose.

It’s a good fight with a dramatic finish, although whether you consider it a worked fight or a real fight with a worked finish, or something in between, probably depends on how you feel about fighting with the intent of having a great fight rather than to win and whether that constitutes working a fight.

Next time out, we talk about UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo and UFC 75: Champion vs. Champion.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 8th)

UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo (September 8th 1995)

We go back to the early days of the UFC with one of its tournaments, where the rules were limited and the understanding of the fight game even more so. It was a time when it was still discipline vs. discipline and when the idea of cross training, of training in different aspects of fighting, was something practiced by very few.

Coming into this tournament, the fighter considered the favourite by the insiders was a man who was interviewed at UFC 6, Brazilian Marco Ruas. At the time, much about Ruas’ background was vague, in part because Ruas, or at least his management were intent on keeping him as much of an unknown quantity as possible.  But people knew enough, that he’d competed on vale tudo tournaments and had experience in fighting, to know that he was probably very dangerous and likely the biggest all-round threat in the tournament.

Other participants in the tournament included UFC 6 veteran Paul Varelans, the 6’8 300+lbs ‘trap fighter’, Harold Howard, Mark Hall, and Ryan Parker, whose entry was of major interest to martial arts fans.

Parker was one of the big stars of the karate magazines that were around at this time. A lot of the magazine stars, both of karate and other disciplines would knock the UFC and decry the UFC, but steadfastly refused to accept the open invitations to take part. They made grandstand challenges of their own and would always find a reason not to actually step foot into the octagon and put their skills and techniques to the test. The reality is that fighting in the UFC would expose that most of what they pushed in the magazines just didn’t work in a fight and that a lot of the beliefs surrounding karate, and other martial arts had no basis in reality whatsoever. It’s why in the early days of the UFC, some people thought it was fake, because it didn’t match up to the fiction about fighting that they’d come to believe in.

Also at UFC 7, we had the big Superfight, as Ken Shamrock defended his Superfight Championship against friend and sometimes training partner, Oleg Taktarov. Taktarov earned his title fight by winning the UFC 6 tournament. It was a fight Shamrock was reluctant to take because of his friendship with Taktarov, but it was a fight that he really couldn’t turn down considering Taktarov’s tournament win and that the Royce Gracie rematch he wanted was never going to happen.

UFC 7 (The Tournament)

Gerry Harris (Kyokushi-kai) vs. Paul Varelans (Trapfighting) lasted all of 67-seconds, with Varelans bullrushing Harris, taking him down to the mat and punching away; Harris gave up his back and after momentarily working for a choke, Varelans simply elbowed Harris in the head a few times and Harris gave up.

Mark Hall (Tae Kwon Do) vs. Harold Howard (Karate/Jiu-Jitsu) was another short and sloppy fight, with Howard literally grabbing Hall around the neck and powering to the mat. Hall quickly reversed position and spent about a minute punching and elbowing Howard, bloodying him up, before pushing him up against the fence; before Hall could rain down punches, Howard conceded the fight. This was something of an upset and the fans weren’t too happy with Hall winning, although Howard quelled that somewhat when he beckoned Hall over and the two embraced. Howard was very conciliatory towards Hall in the post-fight announcements and he showed the kind of class and sportsmanship that the critics of the UFC insisted it lacked.

Remco Pardoel (Jiu-Jitsu/Judo) vs. Ryan Parker (Okinawan Karate) saw both fighters wearing gi’s and this played into the fight with Pardoel quickly using a shoulder throw to take Parker down. Pardoel used a rudimentary looking scarf hold before transitioning into mount, Pardoel then holding a lengthy choke of some kind that clearly wasn’t working, and the fans booed the apparent inactivity before Pardoel then worked into a lapel choke to get the tap. It was a completely one-sided fight but Parker deserves credit for being the only one of the big magazine stars who was willing to put his skills to a real test.

Larry Cureton (Kickboxing) vs. Marco Ruas (Vale Tudo) opened up with Ruas walking right into a front facelock, and Ruas used the positioning to slam Cureton to the mat. Ruas took the mount but Cureton managed to reverse the position, Cureton then pressing Ruas up against the fence. Not a lot happened after that, which the fans booed, and the end came when Cureton stood up so that he could punch down at Ruas; Cureton left his leg open and Ruas grabbed the leg, pulled Cureton to the mat and submitted him with a heel hook.

Mark Hall (Moo Yea Do) vs. Paul Varelans (Trapfighting) didn’t last long as Varelans powered Hall to the mat with a headlock, Varelans keeping hold of Hall and punching away before going to the mount and working for a keylock, with Hall tapping out before the hold could be fully applied.

Remco Pardoel (Jiu-Jitsu/Judo) vs. Marco Ruas (Vale Tudo) saw Ruas again walk right into a front facelock, which Pardoel used to press Ruas against the fence for several minutes. Not a lot happened in this fight other than Ruas working hard to go for a leg lock or heel hook of some kind that he couldn’t apply properly. The end came when Ruas took the mount on Pardoel, who immediately tapped out before Ruas could do anything. Whether Pardoel tapped out because he was tired or because he didn’t want to get hit was never made clear.

In between fights, they announce the Ultimate Ultimate for December, with a one-night tournament intended to involve the best of the best. Jeff Blatnik interviews Tank Abott, who admits he lost at UFC 6 before he wasn’t prepared for the altitude and claims that he won’t be hindered with poor conditioning next time.

Ken Shamrock © (Shootfighting) vs. Oleg Taktarov (Sambo) – for the UFC Superfight Championship went the full 33:00 (30:00 plus 3:00 overtime) and outside of some punching and clinching in the final few minutes, the entire fight consisted of Shamrock being in the guard of Taktarov and punching him intermittently. Once in a while, the referee ordered a stand up but fans were soon back watching the riveting fun of Shamrock laying in Taktarov’s guard and doing practically nothing. There’s playing a chess match, a patient waiting game, and then there’s just laying there and doing nothing and that’s what we got here.

Marco Ruas (Vale Tudo) vs. Paul Varelans (Trapfighting) had a very pro wrestling-style storyline of the smaller man slowly chopping the big, lumbering giant down to size. Outside of a several minute period where Ruas was holding Varelans as Varelans was facing the fence, holding him and not letting go, and a moment where Ruas again walked into a front facelock to dictate the action, the fight consisted of Varelans stalking Ruas and Ruas whittling away at Varelans with kicks to the leg. Varelans’ leg slowly got more and more red and it kept getting weaker and weaker, and just shy of the thirteen-minute mark, Varelans finally fell. Ruas pounced and delivered a quick barrage of punches and John McCarthy stepped in to stop the fight.

Ruas’ cornermen rush into the octagon to celebrate with Ruas and among them is a young Pedro Rizzo.

The tournament was pretty entertaining and very enjoyable, but the ‘superfight’ really dragged things down and hurt the overall quality of the card. Of note is that the live PPV overran, so a lot of cable companies cut the show before it had actually ended. This was the second time something like this had happened; it first happened with UFC 4. In some ways, it was another affirmation that the UFC was real; at this point, there were still people, although it was mostly those in and around pro wrestling, who thought the UFC was worked and by going long again and again costing themselves a ton of money, it showed that the UFC was real because nobody would intentionally cost themselves that much money just to try and prove a falsehood. Of course, as with the recent claims that Conor vs. Floyd would be a worked fight were shown to be nonsense, the people espousing those ideas came up more with their cockeyed theories as to why they were still right and it would take a few more years before a certain section of people accepted the UFC for being the brutal reality that it is.

UFC 75: Champion vs. Champion (September 8th 2007)

All through the heyday of PRIDE, especially when the UFC started its ascent into greater popularity, the question a lot of the more ardent MMA fans wanted answered was who had the better fighters, the UFC or PRIDE? The more devoted fans of each promotion were certain of the answer; in their minds, their chosen promotion had the better fighters, and all sorts of rationales were conceived to downplay the fighters in the ‘enemy’ promotion.

Eventually, PRIDE would fold and be purchased by the UFC, and one of the fighters who made the move over was PRIDE’s Welterweight and Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson. This gave the UFC the chance to promote the elusive champion vs. champion match, even though it was purely a symbolic designation as Henderson ceased being a PRIDE champion when PRIDE ceased to exist.

But it also meant that, of a fashion, MMA fans would finally get the chance find out just who had the better fighters, or at least the better champions, when Dan Henderson face off against his UFC counterparts. The way PRIDE structured their weight classes, their middleweight division was the equivalent of the UFC’s light heavyweight division, and their welterweight division was the equivalent of the UFC’s middleweight division. Henderson was therefore set to face off against Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva with the only question being who would he face first.  As it turned out, timing, more than anything dictated the answer, as Silva was set for a title defence against Rich Franklin at UFC 77, a title shot Franklin had earned at UFC 74 with a win over Yushin Okami.

So the deal was done and the fight was made; at UFC 75, to be held in the UK at the O2 Arena, the first ever UFC vs. PRIDE Champion vs. Champion fight would take place, as UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Jackson would take on PRIDE’s last ever Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson.

Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson (the build)

Quinton Jackson had been one of PRIDE’s most flamboyant stars, compiling an impressive 13-5 record with the promotion. This run included a fight with Chuck Liddell as part of PRIDE’s 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix, a tournament held at a time when PRIDE and the UFC had something of a working relationship. Jackson won the fight when Liddell’s corner stopped the fight due to an injury to Chuck. This meant that when the UFC acquired the contract of Jackson after buying out the WFA, the fight fans most looked forward to from Jackson was the rematch with Liddell, one that would this time take place inside the Octagon.

Jackson’s first UFC fight was at UFC 67 against Marvin Eastman, and whilst Jackson won the fight, it wasn’t the exciting and dynamic performance people expected out of Jackson. Even Jackson himself wanted one more fight in the UFC before facing Liddell, who was now the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. But the UFC wanted to make the match quickly rather than run the risk of either Jackson or Liddell losing and derailing their plans, and so Jackson challenged Liddell for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 71.

Jackson shocked the UFC faithful when he knocked Liddell out in just 1:53 to claim the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. But no sooner had Jackson won the title than the first man who would come after it was brought into the cage, and Jackson faced off against PRIDE Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson.

Dan Henderson had fought in one of the early UFC’s, winning the middleweight tournament at UFC 17 where he defeated Carlos Newton by split-decision in the tournament final. Henderson then went to RINGS in late 1999, a promotion in Japan that had started out as worked shoot company but had, by this time, evolved into a pure shoot. Henderson won their 1999 King of Kings tournament, with a controversial unanimous decision win over Renato Sobral in the tournament final.

Henderson then signed with PRIDE, where his first fight was against Wanderlei Silva, a fight that Silva won by unanimous decision to give Henderson his first loss in MMA. Henderson would move past that to become one of PRIDE’s most prominent fighters, but it would not be until 2005 that Henderson claimed his first championship in PRIDE when he won their Welterweight Grand Prix to become the inaugural PRIDE Welterweight Champion.

Henderson was now one of PRIDE’s top stars and a champion, and with his Olympic background it was only natural for Henderson to compete at PRIDE’s US debut, PRIDE 32, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 21st 2006. Curiously, Henderson’s fight would neither be a title fight nor contested at welterweight, as Henderson would face Vitor Belfort in a fight at light heavyweight. Henderson would end up winning the fight by unanimous decision.

If that fight didn’t seem to make sense, the next one did, as, at PRIDE’s return to the US in February the next year, Henderson would challenge Wanderlei Silva for the PRIDE Middleweight Championship. Silva had run roughshod over the middleweight division in PRIDE, losing only one fight at middleweight during his time as champion, a non-title fight to Ricardo Arona, and it was a loss that Silva would eventually avenge. This fight would give Henderson the chance to make history by becoming the first fighter to ever hold two titles at the same time in a major promotion, but to do so, Henderson would have to overcome one of the most vicious and violent fighters in all of MMA.

Always one to upset the apple cart, Henderson pulled off one of MMA’s biggest shocks when he not only defeated Wanderlei Silva, but did something that no middleweight had ever been able to do to Silva before; Dan Henderson knocked Wanderlei Silva out cold. It made Henderson a double champion as he now held PRIDE’s Welterweight and Middleweight Championships, and Henderson would be the last man to hold either of those titles as PRIDE would go out of business just a few months later.

It also meant that when Henderson signed with the UFC, he would be the man in one of MMA’s most historic fights, the first ever battle of a PRIDE champion and a UFC champion, and at UFC 75, Henderson would get his chance to make history one more time by becoming the first fighter to ever hold championship in both PRIDE and the UFC.

The Rest of the Main Card

The co-main event would see Britain’s most popular fighters, Michael Bisping, take on Matt Hamill. These two men had developed a very personal rivalry over the course of season 3 of TUF, which both men were part of. They were both in the light heavyweight tournament and had been set to face off and perhaps settle that rivalry in the semi-final stage, but Hamill was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to injury. Bisping would go on to win the light heavyweight tournament and become the first British fighter to win TUF. Hamill would return to action on the live TUF 3 finale, and as both fighters progressed in the UFC, their collision seemed imminent and these two rivals would finally face off at UFC 75.

UFC 75 would also see former PRIDE superstar Mirko Cro Cop make his return to action after suffering one of the most spectacular knockouts in UFC history in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Cro Cop had been on course for a shot at UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture before Gabriel Gonzaga laid waste to those plans with the perhaps the most famous high kick finish in UFC history. For Cro Cop, this was his chance to prove he could still hang with the best but he wouldn’t have it easy against Cheick Kongo. Kongo was a dangerous striker with a background in kickboxing and had proven to have knockout power, although with Cro Cop having the far more extensive experience in both kickboxing and MMA, it would be a huge test for the French competitor.

Also on the main card, the Boston native Marcus Davis, who played heavily on his Irish heritage, would face England’s Paul Taylor. Davis had a boxing background, whilst Taylor had kickboxing background, so their fight was sure to be a barnburner. And Houston Alexander would look to prove that his stunning arrival at UFC 71 was no fluke as he took on Alessio Sakara. Alexander entered UFC 71 as a complete unknown, but on a card that saw Quinton Jackson beat Chuck Liddell, Alexander walked out as the hottest fighter on the roster after his destruction of Keith Jardine. Jardine was coming off a TKO win over Forrest Griffin and had felt insulted over having to face an unknown fighter, but Jardine was feeling not much of anything after Alexander battered the ever loving shit out of him and left Jardine face down and unconscious in just 48-seconds.

UFC 75 (the preliminary fights)

Jess Liaudin defeated Anthony Torres in a fight where Torres took quite a battering before the fight was stopped. Dennis Siver TKO’d Naoyuki Katani in the second round of a pretty good scrap. There was a nice moment in the first round when the fans popped for Katani pulling guard. Thiago Silva TKO’d Tomasz Drwal in the second round of another hard-hitting fight. Gleison Tibau dominated Terry Etim on his way to a unanimous decision victory.

UFC 75 (the main card)

Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara was Alexander’s first fight since his explosive debut at UFC 71 when he destroyed Keith Jardine. This fight went exactly like you’d expect, a short and violent brawl, lots of heavy hits, Alexander dropping Sakara with a knee from the thai-clinch and then pounding him out for a nasty looking TKO. Joe Rogan proclaimed that Alexander is for real and that the questions have been answered. Alexander was primed to shoot into the UFC stratosphere after two explosive back-to-back victories, but alas, Alexander would not live up to the early promise.

It’s a shame that Alexander couldn’t follow up on his two big wins because he had the personality and backstory to be a star in the division. It’s also worth mentioning a point I brought up when talking about Chuck Liddell at UFC 54; Alexander, like Liddell, was a small light heavyweight, especially compared to the light heavyweights of today.

Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor was a hell of a brawl, just two guys throwing with very bad intentions. Taylor dropped Davis with a head kick and then hammerfisted Davis like his life depended on it; somehow, Davis survived and powered to his feet whilst having a grip on Taylor. Davis then took Taylor down and began pounding away and now it was Taylor who survived a battering. But Taylor couldn’t shift Davis off of him and it ended up with a scramble and Davis secured an armbar to get the submission in 4:14. This was a fantastic brawl and one of the better one-round fights you will see.

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Cheick Kongo was a fine fight but it lacked the fireworks and explosiveness that many were likely expecting in a battle of the strikers. Cro Cop was walking Kongo down in the first round, but Kongo countered that by clinching up and pressing Cro Cop against the fence. That was Kongo’s strategy for much of the second round and it almost backfired when Kongo was warned twice for low blows; a third warning would have resulted in a point deduction, although that should have happened with the second low blow. In the third round, Kongo was the one walking Cro Cop down, and as Joe Rogan noted, Cro Cop doesn’t do well when he’s the one getting pressured and the bout fizzled out with more clinching from Kongo at the end. Kongo won on 29-28 scores across the board, and it’s a major victory for Kongo even if the fight itself did not impress.

It should be noted before the next fight that on the Fight Pass version of this event, Matt Hamill’s walk-in music, which was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’, is overdubbed, and whilst that’s understandable, they dub in some awful rock music that sounds as generic as they come. As soon as the first bars of the music hit, the fans start booing and jeering and even the Spike TV version of the broadcast doesn’t get across just how hated Hamill was live in the arena. Bisping comes out to ‘London Calling’ by The Clash, and like with Hamill’s walk-in music, it’s been overdubbed on Fight Pass by some truly awful generic rock music.

Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill was a decent fight with little downtime. Hamill was pushing forward for the majority of this contest and Bisping was rarely the one coming forward. In the first round, Hamill was walking Bisping down and the wrestler became the striker with Hamill tagging Bisping a lot and bloodying him up, keeping him on the back foot, and Bisping had little in the way of answer for the pressure of Hamill. The second round was very similar and whilst the fight wasn’t exactly one-sided, Hamill was the dominant fighter, dictating the pace and the action, and showing improved striking. Not only that, Hamill was actually dominating the stand-up battle and that was a huge surprise considering the striking background of Bisping. It wasn’t total domination but it was enough that Hamill clearly won the first two rounds, and it wasn’t until the third round that Bisping was able to make it a competitive fight and start stuffing takedown attempts, but Hamill was still able to take Bisping down in the second half of the third round. I had it 30-27 for Hamill although if you want to be generous you can give Bisping the third round.

In what would be the most controversial decision of the year in the UFC, Bisping was awarded the fight by split-decision. There were initially loud cheers but they soon gave way to vociferous booing, and neither Fight Pass nor the Spike TV broadcast really got across just how negative the live reaction to this result was; in the building, the booing and the negative fallout simmered for a good 10-15 minutes and it took forever for people to ‘come down’.

Hamill didn’t totally dominate Bisping and Bisping was never out of the fight, but he wasn’t ‘in’ the fight until the third round and it was only in the third round that the fight started to become competitive. You could give Bisping the third round, though that would be a stretch, but there just isn’t any way to give Bisping any of the first two rounds. Hamill was constantly backing him up, Bisping couldn’t stop the takedowns of Hamill, Hamill was landing more punches and had bloodied Bisping up, and was in complete control of the pace and action.

It’s not a term to throw around lightly, but this was a robbery of the highest order.

Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson

The main event of the evening was the UFC Champion vs. PRIDE Champion dream fight. Even ten years later, it still feels strange that such a historic fight was held in the UK; were such a fight to take place today, it certainly would be held in the US, probably in either California or Nevada.

The fight itself was rather disappointing, both as a ‘dream’ fight and a fight in general. There was a lot of clinching against the fence that didn’t really lead to anything, although there was some clinching that saw either Jackson or Henderson at least try and work the other over with punches and knees. There were some decent punching exchanges here and there, that Jackson seemed to get the better of, but they were few. There were never any moments where either fighter was in any kind of serious danger, so there was no real drama. Had this been any other fight on the card, it might not have been so bad, but this kind of fight in the main event meant the night ended on a bit of a downer.

I scored the fight 48-47 for Henderson, giving him rounds one, two and five. The only round I felt was close enough to go either way was round three. The judges disagree and they award the unanimous decision to Jackson, with scores of 48-47, 49-46 and 49-46.

Adding to the lukewarm at best reaction to the fight was the fact that it went the distance. This meant that it ended at around 11:15pm. Because of that, a lot of fans had to make a decision; stick around for the rest of the fight or go home early so they don’t risk missing the last bus or train home, with a lot of fans having come to the arena by way of public transport. And even for those fans that did stick around, a lot of them didn’t wait for the decision; as soon as the fight was over, they were heading for the exits and the arena was barely half-full when the announcement was made of Jackson’s victory.

Numbers

Attendance: 16,235
Gate: $2,700,000.

Fight of the Night: Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor
Knockout of the Night: Houston Alexander
Submission of the Night: Marcus Davis

UFC 75 would be one for the record books in more ways than one, as it achieved what was, at the time, the highest audience for an MMA show in history. The show peaked at 5.6 million viewers during the main event, with the show getting a rating of 3.1. It was the highest rated show of the night in men aged 18-34 and men aged 18-49.

 

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 9th)

UFC 3: The American Dream (September 9th 1994)

We’re going back almost  to the beginning with UFC 3, a tournament that would feature Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, the introduction of a pair of cult favourites of the early days of the UFC, and one of the more outlandish ‘spectacle’ fights in UFC history.

As with the first four UFC shows, this was strictly a one-night tournament which meant that the action tended to breeze by when you skipped over the talking and whatnot that went on between the fights themselves. Something that became apparent in the pre-show video package, because it showed the finishes of past fights in quick succession, is that Royce Gracie wouldn’t immediately let go of the submission hold when his opponent tapped. It took a good few seconds and some referee intervention before Royce would let release the submission he had applied.

The main announcer is Brian Kilmeade and he is joined by Jim Brown and former stuntman Ben Perry, a man who possesses a head of hair that looks like it wouldn’t budge an inch in a wind tunnel.

They run a video package that shows a convention-like get together of everyone before the event, and another video package that talks about the differences between the ‘punchers’ and the ‘grapplers’ a very vague definition that makes it even more obvious that the feel for these early events is just so, so much more different that what the UFC and sport of MMA has evolved into. We also have John McCarthy as the referee, and he looks a lot thinner.

UFC 3 (The Tournament)

Emmanuel Yarbrough (Sumo) vs. Keith Hackney (Kempo Kung-Fu) is one of the more famous fights of the early days of the UFC, not only because of the visual a 200lbs man going up against a 616lbs behemoth, but because of the opening moments of the fight which saw Hackeny drop Yarbrough with a big punch. Yarbrough recovers enough to bullrush Hackney out of the cage; the door wasn’t secured very tightly in these days. The fight resumes and it doesn’t go for much longer before Hackney drops the giant monster with another punch and Hackney just keeps punching and punching and punching Yarbrough in the head before McCarthy finally steps in to stop the fight.

Ken Shamrock (Shootfighting) vs. Christophe Leninger (Judo) is next and the first thing you notice is how much smaller Shamrock looks than he would do in later UFC appearances; Shamrock would pack on 15lbs of muscle, at least, by the time UFC 6 rolled around.

Shamrock quickly takes Leninger down and spends about a minute in his guard before the two exchange headbutts. There is a scramble and Leninger throws his legs up for a submission but he fails to catch Shamrock, who manages to get Leninger on his hands and knees and up against the fence. Shamrock has the left leg of Leninger hooked, almost like in amateur wrestling and he begins working for a choke before Leninger rolls over to his back. Shamrock threw a few punches with Leninger holding his arms up to defend before Leninger has had enough and taps out at 4:49.

Roland Payne (Muay-Thai) vs. Harold Howard (Karate) opened up with the strikers throwing bombs and then grappling, rolling around for a bit with neither gaining any real advantage. The fight gets back standing and Payne pushes Howard back up against the fence; Payne lands a knee but Howard responds with a series of wild punches, all of them landing, the last of which catches Payne atop the head and sends him spiralling to the mat, and as Howard moves in for the kill the referee steps in stop the fight, and Payne is also tapping out and the fight is over in 46-seconds. Payne is the local favourite so there is a noticeable segment of fans that are booing the outcome of the fight.

Royce Gracie (Jiu-Jitsu) vs. Kimo (Taekwondo) has the most notable entrance of the UFC so far, with Kimo coming out in hooded robe and carrying a cross on his back that was so big it would send Regan MacNeil running for cover. Kimo had the notorious Joe Son in his corner, and whilst he was promoted as a black belt Taekwondo fighter, Kimo would later admit to having had very little actual training. Gracie immediately rushes Kimo back up against the fence and desperately tries to take him down but Kimo not only manages to stay standing, when Gracie does get him off his feet, Kimo actually ends up getting the back of Gracie. Kimo stays on the back of Gracie and then rolls him over and Kimo is now in the guard of Gracie. As they exchange punches, Gracie keeps throwing his legs up to try and catch Kimo in a submission but Kimo is always able to break away from any submission attempts.

They get to their feet with Kimo still having a tight grip around the waist of Gracie. Kimo drags Gracie to the mat and once again ends up in his guard, and this time Gracie is able to throw his legs up and catch Kimo in a submission, Gracie getting an armbar and Kimo taps out.

This was, by far, Gracie’s toughest fight in the UFC so far and he’s clearly exhausted as his corner celebrates with him. Gracie has to be held up and helped to the back, whilst Kimo is able to stand under his own power.

In between the fights, they announce that Felix Lee Mitchell is replacing Keith Hackney against Ken Shamrock, with Hackney pulling out due to injury, having injured his hand by punching Emmanuel Yarbrough over and over and over again.

Felix Lee Mitchell (Kickboxing) vs. Ken Shamrock (Shootfighting)  sees most of the fight consist of Shamrock pressing Mitchell against the fence as Mitchell tries to stop himself being take down, which he’s able to do, in part because he grabs the fence, which is a legal move at this time. Once Shamrock does get Mitchell down, he soon works his way into a rear naked choke to get the tap. As you hear Ben Perry, off-mic, repeatedly saying “Ken won’t interview”, a weary and limping Ken Shamrock is helped to his feet by the referee.

Harold Howard looks really focused coming out for the next fight, whilst Royce looks completely shattered as the ‘Gracie Train’ goes to the octagon. In the cage, Royce looks out of it, slumped against the fence and it appears the corner are talking to him and the referee.

Royce Gracie (Jiu-Jitsu) vs. Harold Howard (Karate) never happens as Royce is helped out of the cage, unable to fight. This doesn’t count as an official loss because the fight never started but it’s a pretty strong statement in regards to Kimo that he pushed Royce far enough that Royce couldn’t fight again that night.

In between fights, Kimo and Joe Son rush into the octagon to parade around and celebrate over Royce not being able to fight. Jim Brown also brings up the interesting point that had Royce withdrawn from the fight in the back, then Harold Howard would have had to face an alternate. They talk about an alternate fighter, Steve Jennum, possibly fighting, but don’t come out and say why, before showing a bunch of clips of the fights that have already taken place. They then reveal that Ken Shamrock won’t be coming out for the final and that Harold Howard will fight Steve Jennum, and they show a video piece on Jennum.

Harold Howard (Karate) vs. Steve Jennum (Ninjitsu) sees Howard open up with a rolling karate kick that misses. They ended up grappling and Howard gets Jennum in a tight guillotine choke but as Howard drops down to the mat, Jennum rolls with the momentum to end up in Howard’s half-guard. Howard doesn’t let go of the guillotine and Jennum ends up breaking free and the fight is back standing. They start swinging and Jennum even keeps his hands down as if to goad Howard into throwing. Jennum gets a hold of Howard and executes a modified takedown, ending up in the mount; Jennum starts delivering punches, not landing many of them, and whilst it’s not anything dangerous by today’s standards, Howard taps out right as the towel comes in from his corner, and Steve Jennum has come out of nowhere to win the UFC 3 tournament.

There’s a big celebration; Howard is interviewed as he leaves the cage and he’s rather magnanimous about the whole thing, and Howard shows, as he would at UFC 7, a great deal of sportsmanship. Jennum is presented with a giant cheque for $60,000. The fact an alternate came out and could fight fresh, when his opponent had already fought, didn’t sit too well with a lot of people and that would be rectified for the next UFC with two fights between alternates, who would then be on deck if a replacement fighter was needed.

This was the first UFC where it seemed like ultimate fighting, the term ‘mixed martial arts’ not yet part of the combat sports lexicon, could be something with a long-term future beyond the one-night tournaments. The UFC was still in a relatively embryonic stage at this time; the rules were still limited, the use of alternates needed work, and the knowledge and understanding of fighting was still prehistoric compared to the level it would eventually reach. But it felt like something special, and it felt more raw and organic than it does now, even if the overall product has evolved a hundredfold.

Bellator 28 (September 9th 2010)

Georgi Karakhanyan beat Anthony Leone by unanimous decision in a rather uneventful fight, with Karakhanyan dominating with grappling and ground control. Eric Schambari beat Matt Horwich by split decision, although I don’t know how Horwich won the second or third rounds as Schambari was controlling him on the ground or against the fence for the vast majority of those two rounds.Carey Vanier beat Rich Clementi in another fight that went to a split-decision, with Clementi dominating round one and Vanier dominating round three, and round two being the decider; it was close, but I thought Vanier did enough to edge it. By virtue of his win, Vanier clinches a spot in the lightweight tournament set to begin in early 2011. Eric Larkin much walked right through Marcus Andrusia, almost submitting him very quickly with a guillotine choke before pounding on him a little and going for another guillotine choke that this time did get the tap.

Before they sign off, Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith hype up next week’s heavyweight tournament semi-finals, as well talking about the men’s bantamweight tournament and the semi-finals of their first women’s 115lbs tournament.

Next time out, we talk about PRIDE FC: Final Conflict Absolute, Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, Bellator 49, and UFC 203: Miocic vs. Overeem.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 10th)

PRIDE FC: Final Conflict Absolute (September 10th 2006)

This PRIDE show would feature the semi-finals and finals of its Openweight Grand Prix, a 15-man single elimination tournament. There were only 15 men in the tournament because Fedor Emelianenko received a bye in the first round; Fedor would actually never fight in the tournament, though, officially pulling out due to injury. Fedor’s place in the tournament was taken Wanderlei Silva, the reigning PRIDE Middleweight Champion.

One of those semi-finals would see Josh Barnett face Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira in a battle of catch wrestling vs. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Barnett earned his spot in the semi-finals with submission wins over Aleksander Emelianenko and Mark Hunt, while Nogueira submitted Wagner da Conceicao Martins and scored a unanimous decision win over Fabricio Werdum.

The other was a battle of the famed strikers, a rematch from PRIDE 20, as Wanderlei Silva would face Mirko Cro Cop. Silva, who replaced Fedor Emelianenko in the quarterfinal stages, beat Kazuyuki Fujita to get to the semi-finals of the tournament, while Cro Cop had TKO’d Ikuihisa Minowa and Hidehiko Yoshida. The first time Silva and Cro Cop fought, it went to a draw, but the tournament format meant that there would be a winner in the rematch.

Other fights of interest on the card would see Cyrille Diabate making his PRIDE debut against Maurício Rua, and Ricardo Arona would fight Alistair Overeem.

PRIDE FC: Final Conflict Absolute

The show opened with an anime-themed video package before we had the usual ceremonial introduction of the fighters before the show, although the ceremony itself wasn’t quite up to the usual PRIDE levels. This was because the recent Yakuza scandal, with news recently breaking of Yakuza involvement with PRIDE, had resulted in PRIDE losing the television deals that essentially paid for its existence, and would eventually result in the demise of PRIDE itself.

Yosuke Nishijima vs. Evangelista Santos was completely one-sided; Nishimjima survived an opening barrage of punches, kicks and knees, only to get taken down. Nishijima then got mounted, pounded on, and finally he was choked out.

Before the first semi-final match in the Openweight Grand Prix, we get comments from both Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop, and neither fighter likes each other. Cro Cop is especially critical of Silva’s attitude and the way he behaves.

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Wanderlei Silva – in the Semi-Final of the Openweight Grand Prix saw Silva coming in as the heavier fighter and the middleweight, the equivalent of a light heavyweight in the UFC, was 4lbs heavier than Cro Cop, a heavyweight. Cro Cop was really, really good in this fight, using pinpoint punching to drop Silva twice, both times Cro Cop going for ground-and-pound in the guard of Silva. Silva was literally hanging on to survive and got a yellow card, thus earning a 10% fine, for stalling. Silva also spent several minutes having his right eye examined due to a large mouse swelling up; Silva was in real trouble. Cro Cop began to land kicks to the body of Silva and this set up the finish with Crop Cop flattening Silva with his famed left high kick and Silva was knocked out. Cro Cop had booked his place in the Openweight Grand Prix Final and now he sat back to wait to see who it was he would be facing.

Josh Barnett vs. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira – in the Semi-Final of the Openweight Grand Prix was an awesome fight, just tremendous stuff. It was mostly contested on the ground, Barnett and Nogueira working for submissions and positional control, with plenty of attempted reversals, although only a few were successful. Part way into the first round, though, Barnett did drop Nogueira with a good punch, but for the most part the stand-up exchanges that took place were pretty even. As was the ground aspect of the fight and Barnett and Nogueira both had each other in trouble; Barnett had to fend off an armbar as the first round was winding down although he managed to manoeuvre his way out of it.

This fight was incredibly close and the decision could go either way, but I would just about go with Barnett on the basis that the ground game was too close to call but Barnett had the better lucking in the stand-up. The judges are equally divided and it goes to a split-decision and it’s Barnett who gets the nod and moves on to the final to take on Mirko Cro Cop.

Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Sergei Kharitonov was a tidy little contest, almost entirely a boxing match with the action only going to the ground right at the end. It seemed like Kharitonov was getting the better of things, and Emelianenko was backing up a lot, but when Emelianenko started firing back Kharitonov egged him on which was a bad move because Emelianenko landed a couple of good punches that dropped Kharitonov; Emelianenko capitalized with more punches on the ground before delivering a series of powerful knees to the head of Kharitonov that had the referee rushing in to stop the fight.

Tae Hyun Lee vs. Ricardo Morais saw the muscular Morais, whose name may be vaguely familiar to fans of the RINGS promotion, win a very sloppy and quite terrible fight by TKO, with the fight getting stopped in 8:08 when Lee couldn’t continue due to his left eye being swollen shut. Interestingly, the commentary on the Fight Pass version of this show is the Japanese commentary rather than the American commentary we’ve had for the previous fights.

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Yoshihiro ‘Kiss’ Nakao was another fight that had the Japanese commentary; it wasn’t any good and Nakamura won by unanimous decision. To show how poorly the fight was received, the fans booed the announcement of the result, which Japanese fans rarely if ever do.

Cyrille Diabate vs. Maurício Rua was a battle of men known primarily as strikers but most of the fight took place on the ground. Diabate had some initial success with striking, putting his range and reach to good use, so Rua took the fight to the ground which is where it generally stayed from that point on. Diabate could get up but Rua would take him back down. After one such scramble from Diabate to try and get to his feet, Rua begin kicking at Diabate’s head and stomped his head over and over to get the very brutal knockout victory, the first knockout loss in Diabate’s MMA career.

Ricardo Arona vs. Alistair Overeem was a fairly short fight, not overly exciting. Arona actually dropped Overeem after a calf kick, to the incredulity of Frank Trigg on commentary. The end came with Arona in control of Overeem on the ground, having his back; Arona was peppering Overeem with short punches, nothing too big, but Overeem tapped out after a punch, for reasons not made clear. Arona landed one more hammerfirst for good measure before getting up.

Josh Barnett vs. Mirko Cro Cop – in the Final of the Openweight Grand Prix had the ceremonial playing of the national anthems of both men before the fight began, which is a nice touch and something I’d like to see in Bellator or the UFC, before the big fights, to add to the occasion. The fight itself was very intense and the first couple of minutes saw Barnett and Cro Cop exchange kicks and knees, and although Cro Cop was getting the better of it, Barnett did open up a cut by Cro Cop’s right eye that necessitated a timeout so that it could be checked by the doctors at ringside.

Cro Cop spent a lot of the fight in the guard of Barnett, working him over with short punches as Barnett tried his best to work for submissions. The fight was eventually stood up and Cro Cop began walking Barnett down, finally dropping him with a good body shot. Barnett survived a barrage of hammerfists but was hanging on for dear life. The finish came as the two were scrambling for position and Cro Cop jammed his finger into Barnett’s eye, causing Barnett to exclaim “oh shit” and hurriedly tap out. The commentary tried to play it off as a strike that caused the submission but it was obvious even watching live that it was a finger to the eye that caused the submission from Barnett. Now, whether it was deliberate on the part of Cro Cop or an unfortunate accident is another matter.

It’s worth noting that Cro Cop had, before the tournament, stated that he would retired if he failed to win the Openweight Grand Prix. Usually, fighters who talk of retirement aren’t at their best, but that wasn’t the case with Crop Cop.

With that, the final to perhaps the best openweight tournaments in history concludes a very memorable tournament and a pretty good. night of.There were a pair of stinkers but the three tournament fights delivered, especially the Barnett vs. Nogueira fight which was one of the best of the year and a fight definitely worth checking out.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (September 10th 2011)

This Strikeforce show would feature the semi-final matches in Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix. In the main event, Josh Barnett would take on Sergei Kharitonov. Barnett had submitted Brett Rogers in his quarterfinal match whilst Kharitonov had knocked out Andre Arlovski. On the other side of the bracket, Daniel Cormier would be fighting Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva. Cormier was a replacement for Alistair Overeem, who had beaten Fabricio Werdum, with Overeem citing an injury as his reason for pulling out of the tournament. Silva, though, earned his spot in the semi-finals with the biggest win of his career when he upset Fedor Emelianenko.

Also on the main card, Ronaldo 'Jacaré' Souza would defend the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship against Luke Rockhold, Roger Gracie would be fighting ‘King’ Mo Lawal, and Maximo Blanco would face Pat Healy.

For some reason, even though have all the individual fights of the main card on Fight Pass, the main card as an entire event is not up. In situations like this, where they have all the main card fights but not the actual broadcast, I think it would be a good idea to join the fights together and add that edited show to the library of the promotion, so that it fills the gap and saves time.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (preliminary notes)

In the two results of interest on the preliminary card, Alexis Davis TKO’d Amanda Nunes in the second round. Nunes started off with a flurry, although it lacked the power and zip of her more recent flurries. Nunes was less muscular and not as tight physically as she is now. Davis clinched up with Nunes to press her against the fence in the second round, tiring Nunes out, and whilst Nunes later delivered a great looking judo throw to take Davis down, Davis soon scrambled into top position and controlled Nunes on the mat before pounding her out for the TKO win. And Rafael Cavalcante knocked out Yoel Romero in the second round. The first round was boring with nothing happening but a lot of circling and Romero moving a lot more than he really needed to. Romero pushed for the finish in the second round with a flurry of punches but Cavalcante took them well. The end came after Cavalcante missed a head kick but clipped and dropped Romero with a backfist on the follow through. Romero got back to his feet but was caught with knee, dropped with another punch, and one more punch on the ground was enough for the referee to stop the fight.

Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (the main card)

Maximo Blanco vs. Pat Healy had a pretty good fight, plenty of back-and-forth action throughout. A moment of controversy in the first round was when, with both fighters on the ground and both going for heel hooks or leg submissions, Blanco gave Healy three quick kicks to the face, bloodying him up. The referee stopped the fight because it was an illegal move; the doctor checked on Healy, who said he was OK to keep going, and before the fight resumed, the referee, Gary Copeland, deducted a point from Blanco. It made the round a 9-9 because Blanco had just about edged it. The second round was good, too and Healy twice managed to get Blanco in a submission. The second time it was a rear naked choke, with Blanco on his back and Healy on the side of Blanco, with his leg hooking Blanco’s arm. It looked rather uncomfortable but both Frank Shamrock and Pat Miletich felt Healy needed to have the back of Blanco to get the full effect; and right as they say that, Blanco taps out.

During the fight, Mauro Ranallo says that Blanco has never been submitted in his 11 fight career. This statement is wrong on two counts. First, Blanco has had 12 fights and Blanco’s record showing that he had had 12 fights was displayed when Blanco walked out. Second, Blanco has been submitted before, three years previously in Pancrase by the household name that is Daisuke Hanazawa.

Roger Gracie vs. Mo Lawal was boring beyond belief with lots of circling and not much else for almost the whole first round. Then, with around thirty seconds left in the round, Lawal lands a overhand right behind the ear of Gracie, dropping him; Lawal knocks Gracie out with the next punch and lands one more before the referee steps in to stop the fight. This was Gracie’s first loss in MMA.

Ronaldo 'Jacaré' Souza vs. Luke Rockhold – for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship was a fine but unremarkable fight that was just about decent enough to hold your attention but possessing absolutely nothing that you’ll remember once it’s all over. It was a close fight and both Souza and Rockhold, especially Rockhold have improved a lot since this fight took place. It’s also interesting to note the size difference between this Rockhold and the Rockhold currently in the UFC. Strikeforce Rockhold look like a good sized welterweight but UFC Rockhold looks to be a big middleweight; somewhere over the past couple of years, he’s managed to pack on a good 15lbs of muscle, all while staying the same weight class. The fight was competitive throughout but I thought rounds one, three and four were, whilst not necessarily decisive still had clear winners. I scored the fight 48-47 for Rockhold, giving Rockhold rounds two, three and five and giving Souza rounds one and four, although I could very easily have scored it for Souza. The judges score the fight 50-45, 48-47 and 48-47 for Rockhold and he is the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion. The 48-47s are understandable scores but that 50-45 is just baffling.

Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva – Semi-Final in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix didn’t take long to heat up as Cormier decked Silva after just 45 seconds. After a short period on the ground, the fight was back standing and Cormier was soon tagging Silva forcing the Brazilian to go for a takedown to try and get away from the striking. Silva spends a lengthy period on his back and trying to bait Cormier to come into his guard but Cormier doesn’t take the bait. Back standing, Cormier drops Silva with an uppercut, knocking him silly and Cormier lands a pair of hammerfists before the referee can get in to stop the fight. The fans pop and Mauro Ranallo is putting Cormier over huge on commentary.

Josh Barnett vs. Sergei Kharitonov – Semi-Final in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix opens up with an exchange of punches, Kharitonov backing Barnett up against the cage for a while before Barnett clinches with Kharitonov and tripping him up to take him down. Barnett mounts Kharitonov, controlling him on the mat; Kharitonov gives up his back and then turns to his back again, all the while trying to defend against submissions but he can’t do it forever and Barnett submits him with an arm triangle.

The finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix are set and it will see Josh Barnett take on Daniel Cormier.

Watching this after the PRIDE Openweight Grand Prix only highlighted just how mediocre this show was. Not that it was bad, but there just wasn’t much to get really excited about.

Notes and Numbers

The numbers were an utter disaster for Showtime and Strikeforce as the show drew a meagre average of 274,000 viewers. In comparison, the previous Strikeforce show, Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson drew an average of 571,000 viewers. And Bellator 49, which aired earlier in the night on MTV2, drew an average of 235,000 viewers. Live attendance was also paltry with one estimate pegging the attendance at around 2,000 people,

The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Ohio Athletic Commission;

Josh Barnett: $150,000 (no win bonus) def. Sergei Kharitonov: $100,000
Daniel Cormier: $100,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus) def. Antonio Silva: $100,000
Luke Rockhold: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus) def. Ronaldo Souza: $70,000
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal: $85,000 (no win bonus) def. Roger Gracie: $80,000
Pat Healy: $17,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Maximo Blanco: $13,000

Bellator 49 (September 10th 2011)

This show featured the beginning of an eight-man affair welterweight tournament; the eight-man tournament was a staple of Bellator under the rule of Bjorn Rebny. Before the fights begin, they show some stats for the eight welterweight fighters competing tonight; combined, they have a record of 153-29, with 128 knockouts or submissions, and 91 first round stoppages.

Steve Carl vs. Douglas Lima was a good ground-based battle; Carl landed a big right hand early in the first round that had Lima doing a funny dance. Lima fell to the mat and Carl pounced but found himself having to defend a heel hook. I thought it was an even fight and whilst Carl was on his back a lot, he was being very active and I felt he was threatening just as much as Lima was. It went the distance with Lima getting the unanimous decision on two 29-28s and one 30-27. Of note, the judge who gave Lima the 30-27 was the late, great Jeff Blatnik.

In between fights, they promote next week’s middleweight tournament, and names that you’d recognize include Sam Alvey and Alexander Shlemenko. Kurt Pellegrino joins Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith at the commentary table to pimp up his coming out of retirement to sign with Bellator and that his first fight will be against Patricky Pitbull.

Dan Hornbuckle vs. Luis Santos wasn’t particular exciting outside of the last few moments, when Santos landed a head kick that seemed to wobble Hornbuckle; Santos tried to get the finish but couldn’t manage it. Santos won by unanimous decision.

Chris Cisneros vs. Ben Saunders was almost entirely one-sided with Saunders, outside of the final minute of the first round, completely dominating Cisneros on the ground for the first two rounds. Saunders controlled Cisneros with positional dominance and worked him over a little, but it was mostly just controlling him rather than going for the finish. That changed in the third, Saunders very quickly grabbing the Thai clinch and unloading with knees to the face and chest, dropping Cisneros and Saunders only landed a few punches before the referee had seen enough and stopped the fight.

Chris Lozano vs. Brett Weedman opened up with a wild exchange that saw Weedman get wobbled and then Lozano get dropped, with Weedman controlling Lozano on the mat for most of the rest of the round, with Lozano’s only real moment of offense being a pretty good judo throw. The second round was an absolutely incredible brawl, a total slugfest with back-and-forth punches; it was a total war and easily one of the more exiting rounds you’ll see in this or any other year. The third round saw Lozano have to fend off a very game Weedman, but he did and Lozano dominated an opponent who was always trying to make a fight of it but was just too tired to do so. Lozano took the unanimous decision victory with 29-28s on all three scorecards.

UFC 203: Miocic vs. Overeem (September 10th 2016)

The UFC would come to Cleveland and the main event would see a Cleveland native defend the UFC Heavyweight Championship against the most decorated heavyweight striker in UFC history.

Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem (the build)

Stipe Miocic entered the UFC with a 6-0 record and a modicum of buzz after a string of finishes on the regional circuit. Miocic’s debut was against Joey Beltran at UFC 136 and Miocic won the fight by unanimous decision, the first time in his MMA career that one of his fights had gone the distance. Miocic followed up on that with a 43-second knockout of Philip De Fries and a second round TKO win over Shane Del Roserio. Miocic then got his first chance to headline a UFC show when he faced Stefan Struve in the main event of UFC on Fuel TV 5, held in Nottingham, Englaind.

Miocic’s first main event would also herald his first career loss, as Struve TKO’d Miocic in the second round. Miocic came back from that loss with unanimous decision wins over the hard-hitting Roy Nelson and former heavyweight title challenger Gabrial Gonzaga, before Miocic destroyed Fábio Maldonado in 35-seconds in Brazil, with Maldonado replacing an injured Junior Dos Santos at late notice. Miococ would eventually end up facing Dos Santos in the main event of UFC’s 13th show on the FOX network but once again Miocic was unlucky as he lost a contentious unanimous decision to the former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

Not one to stay down for long, Miocic came back with a TKO win over Mark Hunt in Australia, a fight Miocic dominated, before knocking out Andre Arlovski in just 54-seconds at UFC 195. Miocic’s run of destructive finishes meant that when Cain Velasquez pulled out of his return title match with UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum at UFC 196, it was Miocic who got the call to replace him. But Miocic would be forced to wait for his chance at gold as Werdum refused to fight Miocic on short notice. The fight between Werdum and Miocic was rebooked as the headliner for UFC 198 in Brazil and the underdog Miocic shocked the Brazilian faithful into silence with a stunning first round knockout of Werdum to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion and give Cleveland its first world championship in 52-years.

It was a major upset and one shook up the heavyweight division, with Werdum, who had looked like such a complete fighter since his return to the UFC, seemingly set to hold on to the UFC Heavyweight Championship for quite some time. Yet Miocic wouldn’t have any time to rest on his laurels as his first title defence would be against the man widely considered to be MMA’s best heavyweight striker of all time. For added pressure, Miocic would be making this title defence in front of his hometown fans in Cleveland, Ohio.

Alistair Overeem came into the UFC as the fighter many felt was the best heavyweight striker in MMA history. Overeem’s striking background included a run in K-1 that saw him win the 2010 World Grand Prix, with Overeem defeating the famed kickboxer Peter Aerts in the final. Overeem’s debut in the UFC was a big one as he faced former UFC Heavyweight Champion and former/future WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Overeem won the fight by TKO, with Lesnar retiring from MMA afterwards, although the victory over Brock would be marred by issues with the drug testing for both this fight and Overeem’s next fight.

Overeem had competed against Brock under only a provisional licence due to repeated failures to provide a satisfactory sample for a pre-fight drug test. The win over Brock earned Overeem a shot at UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, but a spanner was thrown into the works when, at a media event in the run-up to the event, Overeem was told by a commission representative that he was being selected for a random drug test. Overeem’s response to this request was to literally turn tail and run to his car and drive off. Overeem only returned to the building where the media event was taking place to submit to testing when he was told that failure to comply would constitute an automatic fail.

Overeem took the test and failed miserably, having been found to have a T/E ratio of 14-to-1, more than double the allowable limit. This test failure meant that Overeem’s win over Brock should have been ruled a no-contest because he violated the conditions of the provisional license that was fighting under at the time, but as tends to happen in the wacky world of commissions and drug testing, what should have happened didn’t happen and Overeem’s win over Lesnar stood.

Regardless, Overeem served suspension he was subsequently handed and returned to action, with a noticeably different body, but his return was an unsuccessful one as he was sensationally knocked out by Antonio Silva in the third round at UFC 156. Overeem suffered another knockout loss in his next fight, as Travis Browne scored one of the more memorable come-from-behind victories in UFC history on the first UFC show on the new FOX Sports 1 channel.

It seemed like Overeem’s career was starting to falter and the fact that this came at the time of increasingly more enhanced drug testing, far more enhanced than Overeem had been used to in his career so far, led many to question not just how good Overeem could be in this more stringent environment but whether his chin had gone. Overeem kept going and his next fight saw Overeem fight more conservatively in a unanimous decision win over former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. But just when it seemed like Overeem had learned to adapt, he suffered another upset loss, this time to Ben Rothwell with Rothwell knocking Overeem out in the first round at UFC Fight Night 50.

Yet anyone expecting Overeem to withdraw into his shell were disappointed as Overeem rebounded with a knockout of Stefan Struve, a unanimous decision win over Roy Nelson, and, in his biggest victory to date, a TKO victory over another former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Junior Dos Santos, the man he was meant to fight at UFC 146. It wasn’t only a big for Overeem inside the octagon but a big win outside the octagon as well; the JDS fight was the last one on Overeem’s UFC contract and Overeem gambled on letting the contract run out, figuring that if he beat JDS, he could get an even bigger contract than he would have received had he renegotiated prior to the JDS fight.

The gamble paid off and Overeem signed a new and very lucrative contract, one that paid him $800,000 per fight, and that’s not even taking into account any bonuses tied into PPV buys.

Inside the cage, Overeem would continue to win big as he won his fourth straight fight, a knockout win over Andrei Arlovski, and it was a victory made all the sweeter for Overeem as it was in the main event of a show held in his home country of Holland. Overeem had won four straight, three by stoppage, and it was enough to give Overeem his long-awaited shot at the UFC Heavyweight Championship, and this time there would be no last-minute change of plans and Overeem would go into enemy territory at UFC 203 to challenge for the biggest prize in MMA today.

The Rest of the Card

The official co-main event of UFC 203 was a clash between top heavyweight contenders, but the real co-main event, the fight getting secondary status in terms of promotional build-up, and a fight with as much interest as the main event and, in some ways more, was one of the most controversial fights in UFC history, controversial because one of participants wouldn’t just be making his UFC debut but he would be making his MMA debut as former pro wrestling superstar CM Punk entered the Octagon to take on Micky Gall.

If CM Punk surprised people by walking out of WWE in January of 2014, it was only because they expected him to leave in July of that year. July was when his contract was set to run out and it was no secret that Punk was unhappy about a lot of things and the expectation was that Punk would do what most wrestlers do in that situation; go home, take a break, and come back when they’re refreshed. But Punk didn’t do that and it was a complete shock to just about everyone when, after the first fight of UFC 181, Punk did a stand-up interview with Joe Rogan and it was announced that CM Punk had signed with the UFC.

To say that diehard MMA fans hated this announcement would be like saying that the Elephant Man had a little puffiness around the eyes. They were outraged, far more so than when Brock Lesnar signed with the UFC; at least Brock had a background in real sports, even if those diehards generally chose to ignore that fact because they wanted their anger to be a righteous one. Punk, though, had no real sports background; he’d trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Rener Gracie, but that was the about extent of Punk’s background in competitive sports.

The question over where Punk would train was soon answered when he joined Roufusport MMA Academy in January of 2015. Injuries and surgeries delayed Punk’s UFC debut until 203, but the biggest question regarding Punk’s debut was over who he would face. Anyone with any kind of experience in MMA would take Punk apart, so Dana White played the odds and Punk’s opponent would be the then-unknown Mickey Gall. Gall had a background in BJJ and he had a 3-0 amateur background and had won his sole professional MMA fight. Gall earned his UFC contract through the fight and faced Mike Jackson on the undercard of UFC Fight Night 82, ostensibly to decide who would face Punk, but the reality was that Jackson was little better than Punk and Gall walked through Jackson in 45-seconds.

So, Gall had ‘earned’ the chance to face CM Punk in Punk’s MMA debut, and in an ironic twist, the fight would take place in the very same arena where Punk had walked out on WWE.

Punk had been training in the 18-months since his signing and he had undoubtedly put in the hard work, but there remained questions, not over Punk’s desire or his work ethic, but the simple fact that he would be 37 years old at the time of fighting, and he would coming into the fight off of a 15-year wrestling career filled with bumps, bruises, and broken bones, not to mention a previously fractured skull.

Regardless, Punk had put in the work in the gym and it was time to see if the hard work would enable Punk to defy the odds and pull of what would be a major miracle.

The actual co-main event was a heavyweight rematch between Travis Brown and Fabricio Werdum. The two had previously headlined UFC’s 11th FOX network event in a title eliminator; Werdum had won the fight by unanimous decision and he’d go on to beat Mark Hunt for the interim UFC Heavyweight Championship and then beat Cain Velasquez to claim the official UFC Heavyweight Championship. Yet Werdum would lose the title on his first defence, to Stipe Miocic, and the former champion needed a big win to get back in the title mix.

Browne’s fortunes were mixed after the first fight with Werdum, as he’d alternated wins and losses in his next four fights. Browne needed the win as much to gain stability, to put together an actual run of victories than to became a player in the heavyweight division, although a win over a former UFC Heavyweight Champion would almost certainly shoot Brown right near to the list of title contenders.

Originally, though, Werdum was to have faced Ben Rothwell, but a torn meniscus and an ACL injury sidelined Rothwell and Browne took his place.

Also on the main card, Jimmie Rivera, who was 19-1, would get the biggest fight of his career as he took on former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber. River was on an incredible 18-fight win streak, whilst Faber was coming off an unsuccessful challenge of Dominic Cruz for the UFC Bantamweight Championship so a win was vital for both men.

And opening up the main card would be a women’s strawweight fight between Jéssica Andrade and Joanne Calderwood. Andrade had recently moved down to strawweight and had made waves with her first fight in her new weight class, as Andrade delivered one of most brutally one-sided beatings in recent memory to former title challenger Jessica Penne at UFC 199. Calderwood, meanwhile, had won her last two fights, one of which was against Valérie Létourneau in what was the first ever women’s flyweight fight in UFC history. It was a hotly anticipated battle of the strikers that would kick things off on PPV at UFC 203.

Card Changes

A lightweight fight between Erik Koch and Drew Dober, that had originally been booked for UFC 195 but was scrapped when Koch withdrew due to injury, was scheduled for this show but it was once again scrapped when Koch once again withdrew due to injury. Dober would end up facing Jason Gonzalez. Mairbek Taisumov was to face Nik Lentz, but Taisumov was removed from the fight due to alleged visa issues and replaced by newcomer Michael McBride. McBride would end up missing weight, coming in 158lbs and he was subsequently fined 20% of his purse, with the money going to Lentz.

And in a day of drama, an incident with a faulty elevator at the hotel the fighters were staying at resulted in CB Dollaway being injured and forced out of his fight against Francimar Barroso; Barroso was removed from the card.

UFC 203 (the preliminary fights)

Yancy Medeiros submitted Sean Spencer in the second round with a rear naked choke, Medeiros setting up the submission by dropping Spencer with a nice head kick.

Drew Dober clipped Jason Gonzalez with a right hook and then blitzed him with a barrage of punches that left Gonzalez slumped on the mat for the first round knockout. Nik Lentz dominated Michael McBride on the ground en route to a second round TKO. Brad Tavares edged past Caio Magalhaes by split-decision in an underwhelming fight with lengthy clinch work against the fence and a lot of circling. Bethe Correia beat Jessica Eye by split-decision in another fight that was lacking in moments of excitement, the decision getting loudly booed due to Correia not being very popular with the fans.

UFC 203 (the main card)

Jessica Andrade vs. Joanne Calderwood opened the card with a fairly one-sided fight as Andrade was just too strong for Calderwood; once Andrade took her down, there wasn’t anything Calderwood could do and Andrade wound up submitting Calderwood with a guillotine choke in 4:38.

Uriah Faber vs. Jimmie Rivera was a pretty poor fight, almost entirely consisting of a lot of movement and feints from both fighters, and Rivera landing a few leg kicks. Faber’s best moves were repeated low blows in the first two rounds and a nasty eye poke in the third. Other than that, Faber offered little in this fight, as was the case with Rivera, although they exchanged some punches and kicks late in the third. Rivera won by unanimous decision but it’s a win that looks better on paper than it does in real life, because the fight was really boring.

CM Punk vs. Micky Gall

Micky Gall came out first and his walk-in music was the only song it really could be, Gall coming out to Toni Basil’s famous one-hit wonder from the 80s, “Mickey”. Joe Rogan mentioned on commentary that Dana White was initially against the idea of Gall using “Mickey”, but that the power of the internet changed his mind. Punk came out to his WWE walk-in music, Living Color’s “Cult of Personality”. One of the more ridiculous statements I saw online concerning this fight was that Punk coming out to Cult of Personality showed that he wasn’t taking the fight seriously. Yes, someone genuinely believed that Punk’s choice of walk-in music proved that he wasn’t taking the fight seriously. Interestingly, in both cases, the songs remain intact on the Fight Pass version of this show; usually, anything close to a notable song is replaced by horrible generic music, but not this time.

The fight itself went exactly as almost everyone knew it would; Gall walked right through Punk, took him down, and choked him into submission. The chances of it going any other way were pretty remote given the respective backgrounds of both fighters. And whilst Punk clearly didn’t look UFC calibre, he at least looked like had a clue of what he was doing and he wasn’t completely bewildered. Really, Punk looked about as good as he was going to given that Gall, despite being 2-0 as a pro, was so much more experienced in both jiu-jitsu and MMA.

You can knock the fact that Punk had his first ever fight in the UFC and it really is absurd for someone to have their first ever fight on a UFC PPV. But Micky Gall didn’t belong in the UFC, either. In fact, if it wasn’t for Punk, there’s no guarantee he would ever have made it to the UFC at all. That’s not to say that Gall isn’t talented, because he clearly is. But as ridiculous as it is for Punk to make his MMA debut on a UFC PPV, it’s just as ridiculous for a 2-0 fighter to be on a PPV or even be in the UFC at all. That’s something that gets overlooked in the outrage over Punk’s entry into the UFC.

Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum II

Despite opening up with a flying kick from Werdum, this was a fight more notable for the non-fighting aspects. A few minutes in, Browne called a timeout because of an apparently dislocated finger and the referee actually gave it to him, going completely against the rulebook. You don’t give a timeout because a fighter asks for one; if a fighter is injured, he’s either able to fight through and therefore the fight keeps going, or he can’t fight through it and the fight is called off. You don’t get a timeout to get the injury treated. The referee is Gary Copeland and he’s an otherwise good official but he blew this one so badly that he should have been taken off the rotation of available referees and sent on a refresher course.

The only other excitement in the first round came late on when Werdum dropped Browne and almost finished him with a rear naked choke. The second round wasn’t much better; in fact, it was worse and the fans weren’t shy about booing. In between the second and third rounds, Edmond Tarverdyan, Brown’s trainer, indeed Browne’s entire corner, offered virtually nothing in the way of constructive advice. The third round is more of the same and the fight ends with a torrent of boos.

The action isn’t over, though, because Werdum and Edmond start exchanging words; Edmond is tensing up and backing up as he mouths off at Werdum and Werdum responds by lashing out at Edmond with a kick. The two make to go for each other and their respective corners, as well as the referee step in to break it up. Even Bruce Buffer steps in to figuratively and literally provide a buffer. According to Werdum, Edmond said “shut your mouth you motherfucker”. There is no equivalent to the word ‘motherfucker’ in Brazilian Portuguese so they have no frame of reference for the world as an insult, so to call someone from Brazil a motherfucker is to literally accuse them of fucking their own mother. Such an inference does not go over well in any of the South American countries, where mothers tend to held in very high regard and who you just don’t insult unless you want to start a rumble.

It’s all settled down, of a fashion and Werdum is announced as the winner by unanimous decision, which elicits a ton of booing, although that’s more because of how bad the fight was than any actual dislike of Werdum.

They run a bumper for UFC 204, Bisping vs. Henderson II, and in a moment of poor quality control, they include Henderson admitting that he knew Bisping was unconscious when he threw that diving hammerfist to Bisping at UFC 100. The UFC made a point of having Henderson backtrack on that statement on the night and they also made sure to downplay that admission because it makes Henderson and the sport look really, really bad, so why they’ve left it in the bumper when there is no real need for it is just strange.

Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem

The pre-fight video package is quite excellent and it really gets across the idea that not only is Stipe being a world champion a big thing for Cleveland but that it’s a really big deal for Stipe to defend his title in front of his hometown fans. Stipe comes across such a babyface and Overeem, without necessarily intending to, comes across as the subtle heel, saying that he’s the guy to ruin the dream for everyone.

Overeem comes out to the PRIDE theme and he is so, so hated by the fans. This is a level of booing that you just don’t get much of these days. Naturally, Miocic gets a superstar reaction and like with the booing, it’s a level of reaction that you don’t see a lot of.

The fight was very dramatic live and had a tremendous atmosphere. Overeem got heat right away by doing a lot of backing up and also literally running from Miocic to get out of bad positions. This made the reaction all the more bigger when Overeem drew first blood and dropped Miocic with a quick straight right; Miocic was stunned and Overeem pounced, going for his trademark guillotine, but he couldn’t properly control Miocic and the champion escaped from the hold, much the delight of the fans. Even though Miocic was clearly still a little stunned, he was still the one pressing the action as Overeem continued to back up and jog out of any disadvantageous position he got into.

Overeem couldn’t evade Miocic for too long and he soon found himself backed up against the fence and getting tagged with jabs around the body and head. Overeem managed to manoeuvre his way off the cage but he was still backing up and away from Miocic. The end comes after Overeem throws a lazy thrust kick and can’t pull his leg back quickly enough to stop Miocic from grabbing the leg and upending Overeem and ending up in his guard; Miocic stands up enough to began throwing down punches, eventually breaking Overeem’s guard and knocking Overeem out cold, Overeem taking a few more punches before the referee rushes in to stop the fight and the fans go completely insane.

The Aftermath

The fans are going bananas and it’s one of the loudest reactions to a victory ever seen in the UFC. The Croatian fans, for Miocic is of Croatian descent, are especially ecstatic over the outcome. The fans are still buzzing when the result of the fight is eventually announced. Miocic’s post-fight interview is so great; he sends the fans even crazier by leading the fans into a pro-Ohio chant. The whole scenario would completely baffle people who think the hometown hero should be laid out or otherwise turned into a complete geek so the fans are left angry. The fans are still energized and cheering when Miocic finishes his interview and leaves the cage.

In a move that he would later admit was a bad idea, Rogan interviewed Overeem as he’s recovering from being knocked out. Overeem gets booed, obviously, but the booing get louder when Overeem says he felt Miocic tapped from the guillotine choke. Replays of the choke show that Overeem’s claim is untrue but Overeem maintains Miocic tapped.

Notes and Numbers

Attendance: 18,875
Gate: $2,600,000
PPV Buys: 450,000

Fight of the Night: Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem
Performance of the Night: Jéssica Andrade and Yancy Medeiros

The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Ohio Athletic Commission. It doesn’t include sponsorship money or any unofficial bonuses, nor does it include the Performance and Fight of the Night bonuses.  The total disclosed payout for the event was $3,056,000.

Stipe Miocic: $600,000 (no win bonus) def. Alistair Overeem:  $800,000
Fabrício Werdum: $375,000 (includes $125,000 win bonus) def. Travis Browne:  $120,000
Mickey Gall: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus) def. CM Punk:  $500,000
Jimmie Rivera: $48,000 (includes $24,000 win bonus) def. Urijah Faber:  $160,000
Jéssica Andrade: $46,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus) def. Joanne Calderwood:  $25,000
Bethe Correia: $50,000 (includes $25,000 win bonus) def. Jessica Eye:  $25,000
Brad Tavares: $56,000 (includes $28,000 win bonus) def. Caio Magalhães:  $20,000
Nik Lentz: $76,000 (includes $38,000 win bonus) def. Michael McBride:  $12,000
Drew Dober: $38,000 (includes $19,000 win bonus) def. Jason Gonzalez:  $10,000
Yancy Medeiros: $48,000 (includes $24,000 win bonus) def. Sean Spencer:  $17,000

Other Notes for September 10th

Gladiator Challenge 42: Summer Slam (September 10th 2005)

This show gets mentioned purely for the main event, as Tyson Griffin faced Urijah Faber. It would be for Faber’s Gladiator Challenger Bantamweight Championship, and Griffin would hand Faber his first ever MMA loss, with Griffin knocking Faber out just five-seconds into the third round.

Next time out, we move to September 12th, to talk about PRIDE 7 and Bellator 124.

Correction; I've made a correction in the Overeem section. It turns out that when Overeem was told he had to submit to a random drug test, he actually did drive off in an effort to avoid getting tested.

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 12th)

PRIDE 7 (September 12th 1999)

The show has a wacky open with a lighting rig pulling up a curtain on all four sides of the ring, amidst  light and sound show that includes gun-fire and helicopter sounds. As always, the fighters are brought out before the action begins.

Daijiro Matsui vs. ‘Dirty’ Bob Schrijver wasn’t that good of a fight but it was a great spectacle with Schrijver living up to his nickname, accruing two yellow cards and then getting disqualified. The actual fight was mostly Matsui taking Schrijver down and controlling him on the ground. The first yellow card Schrijver got was for stalling, the second was for punching Matsui before the referee had officially restarted the fight, and the disqualification came when Schrijver stomped Matsu in the back of the neck after the first round and ended. I guess when you’re jacked up and your temper is already short, these kind of things just happen to take place.

Carl Malenko vs. Wanderlei Silva saw Malenko, real surname Ognibene but he also used the surname Greco as well as Malenko, taking on Silva in Silva’s PRIDE debut. Malenko dominated the action in the first round, taking Silva down and holding him down; Silva was able to reverse positions and escape a couple of times, but Malenko was always able to take him down, although Silva came closest to finishing the fight, mainly because he was the only who tried, with vicious knees from the clinch and a rear naked choke attempt late in the first round. You can tell who PRIDE is behind because Stephan Quadros on commentary says that Silva completely outgrappled Malenko in the first round, which is utter nonsense. Bas Rutten is riding Silva’s nuts just as hard as he also completely downplays Malenko’s efforts.

The second round is almost all on the ground and Silva does much better this time, countering Malenko’s early success and controlling Malenko for most of the round and working for chokes, which Malenko is able to defend against, Silva also throwing in knees from the clinch. It was a clear win for Silva under PRIDE judging criteria but it was by no means the one-sided fight that the commentary very desperately wanted you to think it was.

Enson Inoue vs. Tully ‘don’t call me Blanchard’ Kulihaapai didn’t last long, with Inoue, who was wearing full judo gear, taking Kulihaapai down, controlling him on the mat before transitioning into a tight armbar for the submission.

Branco Citivic vs. Maurice Smith was a fight that didn’t go to type, with the battle of the kickboxers being most a grappling battle. Citivic took Smith down with headlock throw early on but Smith soon reversed positions and had control of Citivic. When the fight got back standing, they clinched and Citivic grabbed the ropes to stop from being taken down, earning himself a warning and what seemed like a point deduction. Smith took the fight back down to them mat, got into side-control and was working for a submission when Citivic suddenly tapped out from what looked like a forearm choke.

Larry Parker vs. Akira Shoji was a tediously dull fight that generally had three elements to it; Shoji in the guard of Parker and Parker holding tight, Parker on his back and refusing to stand up, and lots of circling with the occasional punch thrown. It was mostly the first two elements with smatterings of the third, and it made for a boring, boring fight. The only change in pattern was late on when Shoji managed to tag Parker with some good punches, bloodying him up. It goes to a draw and for reasons not explained, they go to an extra round. In the extra round, Shoji lands a good leg kick and then cracks Parker with a good punch, before normal service is resumed and Shoji is stuck in the guard of Parker with Parker holding on tight. The fight again goes the distance and Shoji wins by unanimous decision after the extra round.

Anthony ‘dive’ Macias vs. Kazushi Sakuraba sees future PRIDE legend (he wasn’t quite there yet) Sakuraba taking on the ‘mad dog’. For some reason, Stephan Quadros brings up Macias’ fight with Dan Severn at UFC 4, touting it as a classic that saw Macias ‘come to rumble’, even though Severn suplexed Macias out of his boots and choked him out in short order. This fight was pretty entertaining as Sakuraba was clearly going in with the idea of having an entertaining fight, and Sakuraba was helped by the fact that Macia was clearly not in Sakuraba’s league, therefore making it easier to Sakuraba to get away with his showmanship. Bas Rutten’s commentary was particular awful here. The end came when Sakuraba had had enough of playing around and almost effortlessly worked his way into an armbar for the submission.

Mark Kerr vs. Igor Vovchanchyn was the main event, a classic wrestler (Kerr) vs. striker (Vovchanchyn) battle. This fight was terrible. Aside from a flurry near the start and a flurry at the finish, almost the entire fight was Kerr in the guard of Vovchanchyn, having taken him down, with Kerr just holding Vovchanchyn down and doing very little from his position. And sometimes, Kerr did nothing at all but lay there. It was tedious. The end came after Vovchanchyn managed to get out from under Kerr; as Kerr went to take Vovchanchyn back down, Vovchanchyn stuffed the takedown, and Kerr ended up in his hands and knees. Vovchanchyn landed some knees to the head of Kerr, knocking him out. Vovchanchyn celebrated his win and he was declared the winner, but as the announcers, who were otherwise terrible all night explained, knees to the head of an opponent on all fours are illegal. The result of the fight would subsequently be overturned and the fight was ruled a no-contest.

PRIDE 7 was not one of PRIDE’s best efforts and it would take a while longer for the promotion to really get going.

Bellator 124 (September 12th 2014)

This Bellator show would feature the finals of the light heavyweight tournament, as well as a title defence by Bellator’s reigning Light Heavyweight Champion, as Emmanuel Newton defended the title against Joey Beltran.

Tommy Bagnasco vs. Ryan Couture saw Couture win in the first round, by submission, in a fight that was completely unremarkable in every way. LC Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues started out pretty wild, both men throwing bombs, but it soon settled down; Davis showed his fence grabbing skills were top-notch, getting away with two blatant and deliberate grabs of the fence. The basic story was Davis controlling Rodrigues on the ground whilst fending off submissions, which pervaded throughout the fight and Davis won by unanimous decision.

Kelly Anundson vs. Liam McGeary was the final of the light heavyweight tournament and it was a pretty good fight even though it only went one round. Anundson took McGeary down early and the fight consisted of Anundson trying to work McGeary over as McGeary kept going for submissions off of his back. It finally paid off for McGreary near the end of the round when he managed to trap Anundson in an inverted triangle choke to get the submission. It was a great looking submission and McGeary wins the fight, the tournament, and now gets a shot at Bellator’s Light Heavyweight Championship.

Emmanuel Newton © vs. Joey Beltran – for the Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship saw Newton having the DX theme for his walk-in music. This did not get a pop. The first round wasn’t much to write home about; a lot of clinching and nothing much else. Things picked up in the second round with Beltran pressing forward and throwing punches and Newton going for spinning kicks; Beltran managed to land some strong punches, enough to take the round. Newton was clearly tired coming out for the third and Beltran was stalking him down. The third round was similar to the second, only now, Newton was spamming spin kicks and attempts at the spinning backfist; it was like a video game where one player goes for the same attacks over and over and over again. Newton threw so many spinning attacks that one was bound to land eventually and it did at the 3:07 mark; Beltran was knocked out cold by a spinning backfist and Newton had retained his title and was next set to defend against Liam McGeary.

It wasn’t a particular good fight and Newton failed to impress, especially with his gassing out by the third round

Invicta FC 14: Evinger vs. Kianzad (September 12th 2015)

The original main event was to be Livia Renata Souza defending the Invicta FC Strawweight Championship against Alexa Grasso, but Grasso withdrew from the fight due to injury. The new main event would see Tonya Evinger’s defence of the Invicta FC Bantamweight Championship against Pannie Kianzad moved up from the co-main event slot. The day before the event, however, the fight was made non-title when Kianzad failed to make weight. Deanna Bennett also failed to make weight for her fight against Katja Kankaanpää.

Invicta FC 14

Felicia Spencer vs. Rachel Wiley was decent while it lasted. This was the pro debut for both women, with Spencer going 5-1 as an amateur and Wiley going 1-1 on the amateur circuit. Spencer showed a lot of potential in a fight she dominated. Spencer spent some time in side-control and in the crucifix position, elbowing the shit out of Wiley and giving her a huge hematoma on the forehead. Eventually, perhaps a little later than he should have, the referee decided he’d seen enough and stopped the fight.

Amanda Cooper vs. Aspen Ladd was the second pro fight for both women, and while they both have amateur experience, Cooper’s amateur run was the more extensive of the two. That made it something of a surprise when Ladd dominated Cooper for much of this contest, Ladd especially showing great ground control in the second round. Ladd kept control of Cooper for almost the entire second round, bloodying her up as she went for submissions, Ladd finally getting the tap late on with an armbar.

Rosa Acevedo vs. JJ Aldrich saw Acevedo having missed weight, hitting the scales at 118lbs. That extra weight did her no good when Aldrich had her trapped against the fence and delivered a knee to the liver; Acevedo was stunned and left wide open to two more knees, and as she dropped, Aldrich landed a third knee then a punch before the referee could step in and halt the fight at just 2:24.

Jinh Yu Frey vs. Liz McCarthy was a decent, competitive fight, but it left no real lasting impression. Frey won by unanimous decision.

Sharon Jacobson vs. Jamie Moyle was a solid fight, Jacobson using a lot of pressure with the clinch game to control the action most of the fight, although there were some decent striking exchanges in there as well. Jacobs won the fight by unanimous decision.

Megan Anderson vs. Cindy Dandois had a first round where Dandois dominated Anderson on the ground; Dandois quickly had Anderson the mat, controlling her and then going for several submissions. Anderson survived an armbar and a mounted triangle, supplemented with punches, before finally managing to escape and get to her feet to see out the first round. In the second round, Dandois soon took Anderson down, albeit after a bit of a struggle, with a headlock takeover, but Anderson was able to get back to her feet. Dandois then pulled guard on Anderson and locked up a triangle; it took a while and included Anderson trying to escape and roll out of it and Dandois trying to switch position on the triangle, but Dandois eventually got the submission. Cindy Dandois has a pretty rocking ground game.

Andrea Lee vs. Rachel Ostovich was pretty entertaining as one-sided fights go. The first rounded ended with Ostovich trapped in a rear naked choke and the second round ended with Ostovich mounted and getting pounded on, both times Ostovich getting saved by the bell. In the third round, Lee busted Ostovich open with a knee to the head, the blood splattering all over the canvas. Lee was all over Ostovich, in every sense of the word at the end of the round and had her in a tight armbar as the round ended. It looked like Ostovich had seen the round and the fight out, but it was soon explained that Ostovich had verbally submitted right at 4:58. Andrea Lee looked really, really good and I would expect her to end up in the UFC at some point.
 
Roxanne Modafferi vs. Mariana Morais was a decent fight as Modafferi was starting to show some of the improvements she would make after joining Syndicate MMA. Modafferi is still a little rough around the edges but you can still see a big improvement since her time on TUF. Modafferi got the TKO near the end of the third round, although she probably could have gotten the same finish in the second round, but for some reason, the referee, John McCarthy, felt that a trapped and mounted opponent taking a series of punches and offering no real defence should keep taking punches.

Deanna Bennett vs. Katja Kankaanpää was the co-main event of the evening, a catchweight fight because Bennett missed weight. This was a really good grappling contest, with very few striking exchanges. Despite having the weight advantage, Bennett was on the defence for the much of this fight as Kankaanpää was pretty relentless and had Bennett in trouble a few times. The fight went the distance and in a quite terrible call, Bennett won by unanimous decision. This was a really good fight with a really bad outcome. Kankaanpää was robbed, plain and simple.

Tonya Evinger © vs. Pannie Kianzad was the non-title main event. It was entirely one-sided with Evinger completely dominating Pannie Kianzad, who offered little in the way of offense and was on defence almost the entire fight. Despite Kianzad having come in the bigger fighter, Evinger was able to press her against the fence or keep her down on the mat, and there was little Kianzad could do about. Evinger was dominant controlling Kianzad and working for submissions, and I guess you can credit Kianzad for being able to defend for as long as she did. It ended in the second round with Evinger dragging Kianzad to the mat and eventually pounding her out. Evinger might not be a top-level fighter but she’s good enough to an effective gatekeeper in the women’s bantamweight division.

Invicta FC 14 was a pretty solid show and whilst it didn’t have a blowaway fight, it did have some strong fights and strong moments and is worth watching.

Next time out, we talk about Bellator 99 and UFC Fight Night 51: Bigfoot vs. Arlovski, as well as make passing comment on Strikeforce: Young Guns III and WSOF 13: Moraes vs. Bollinger. Because not a lot happens on September 14th, we’ll also be making comment on Pancrase: 1998 Anniversary Show and WSOF 5: Arlovski vs. Kyle.

[jimufctna24]

On 23/09/2017 at 9:01 PM, Noah Southworth said:

PRIDE FC: Final Conflict Absolute

That is one of my favourite MMA shows ever. I was lucky enough to view it only 4 days after it occurred, and without reading spoilers. The two stinkers that Noah referred to were cut from the version I watched (I believe it was the Bell PPV version). I was treated to a thrill ride from start to finish. I was firmly in Barnett's corner. Out of the 4 remaining participants in the Open Weight GP, he was the one I liked the most. Sadly, it wasn't quite Barnett's night,in the end. It was Cro Cop's night to shine, and without question, the peak of his career. 

It was Pride at its very best. If this would have been their last stand in Japan, it would have been for the better. They would have gone out on an incredible high, instead of the whimper they went out on in April of the following year. 

11 years have gone so fast. 

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (September 13th)

Bellator 99 (September 13th 2013)

Bellator 98 would feature the start of a new eight-man featherweight tournament, with the winner of the tournament earning themselves a shot at Bellator Featherweight Champion Pat Curran. The main event would be one of those tournaments fights and it would see Bellator’s former featherweight champion Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire taking on Diego Nunes, with Nunes making his Bellator debut after being released by the UFC.

Andrew Fisher vs. Joe Taimanglo was the first tournament fight of the evening. Taimanglo, even though he was giving up height and reach, was walking Fisher down for much of the fight and peppering him with good punches throughout. Fisher seemed to have no idea on how to use his reach to his advantage. It went the distance and Taimanglo won the unanimous decision, although one judge, Herb Dean, gave Fisher one round, which is a stretch to say the least.

Akop Stepanyan vs. Justin Wilcox saw Stepanyan slowly picking Wilcox apart with kicks to the leg and the body. It wasn’t until half-way into the second round that Wilcox was able to take Stepanyan down, but just before that, he’d taken a kick to the back of the head; once Wilcox took Stepanyan down, it was made apparent that the kick had opened up a massive cut on the head of Wilcox because it was bleeding profusely. Stepanyan tried to scramble out from under Wilcox but Wilcox took his back and choked Stepanyan unconscious.

Houston Alexander vs. Vladimir Matyushenko was our lone non-tournament fight of the evening. It was a pretty poor fight, including a second round where literally nothing happened. If people were expecting any kind of fireworks, they were rewarded with the dampest of damp squibs. Matyushenko won by unanimous decision.

Desmond Green vs. Fabricio Guerreiro was another fight that failed to engage. Green had trouble whenever Guerreiro had a hold of him, especially in the second round. Green finally got a hold of Guerreiro in the third round but could do nothing with it, and when he finally escaped, that was the last of the action and the fight went a boring 15:00. Guerreiro won the unanimous decision. Green was clearly stunned but he can’t blame anyone but himself.

Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire vs. Diego Nunes saw the much anticipated debut of Nunes in Bellator and, well, it did not go well. After a minute or so of circling each other, Nunes charged into Freire and got caught with snapping left hook and was knocked out cold, Nunes did a slow motion collapse to the mat, face first and out cold, in what was one of the better knockouts of the year.

Numbers

Ratings: The show averaged 660,000 viewers, peaking at 809,000 viewers for the main event.

UFC Fight Night 51: Bigfoot vs. Arlovski (September 13th 2014)

The UFC returned to Brazil for what would be their first card in the nation’s capital, Brasília. It would be headlined by a heavyweight rematch as Andrei Arlovski took on Antônio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva (the build)

Andre Arlovski had returned to the UFC in June after an eight-year absence, with Arlovski going 8-5 with one no-contest during his time outside the UFC. During the aforementioned absence, Arlovski had tangled with his opponent tonight, Silva, in Strikeforce, and on that occasion it was Silva who had come out the winner with a unanimous decision victory. Arlovski had maintained a winning record since that fight and had won three-in-a-row going into this Fight Night main event, so another win for Arlovski would do wonders, especially as the heavyweight division in the UFC wasn’t the deepest and a good run of form could very well put Arlovski within reach of what had previously seemed like an improbable championship opportunity.

For ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, after the win against Arlovski, he had gone on to secure the biggest win of his career with a TKO victory over the legendary Fedor Emelianenko. Yet Silva was unable to capitalize on the momentum that that victory had given him, and since the Fedor fight Silva had gone 4-3 with one no-contest, the no-contest a result of Silva failing a post-fight drug test.

This would be Silva’s first fight back since that failed drug test and resultant suspension and Silva, and Arlovski, would be looking to get a victory, with Silva likely feeling especially emboldened in front of his countrymen.

The Rest of the Main Card

The co-main event would be a lightweight fight between Gleison Tibau and Piotr Hallmann. Both had alternated between wins and losses in their last three fights, yet only one of them would break the pattern and walk away the winner. Łukasz Sajewski was set to face Leonardo Santos, Sérgio Moraes was to take on Santiago Ponzinibbio, Iuri Alcântara would fight Russell Doane, and a women’s strawweight contest pitted Jéssica Andrade against Valérie Létourneau.

Card Changes

Mike Rhodes was to face Paulo Thiago at this show but was forced out of the fight due to injury. Rhodes was replaced by Joe Riggs, who was making his UFC return. But Riggs was then forced out of the fight after accidentally shooting himself with a gun. Replacing Riggs was Sean Spencer. Wendell Oliveira made his UFC debut as a replacement for Sérgio Moraes against Santiago Ponzinibbio at the event; Moraes pulled out of the fight citing a lingering knee injury. Former Jungle Fight Women's Bantamweight champion Larissa Pacheco replaced an injured Valérie Létourneau against Jéssica Andrade. Łukasz Sajewski was to debut against Leonardo Santos, but Sajewski was pulled from the card, with Santos instead facing Efrain Escudero and Escudero's intended opponent Francisco Trinaldo facing Leandro Silva.

UFC Fight Night 51 (the preliminary card)

Rani Yahya submitted Johnny Bedford in the second round with a kimura. This was a rematch a fight held back in April at UFC Fight Night 39: Nogueira vs. Nelson; that fight was ruled a no-contest after an accidental clash of heads, and it’s memorable for the massive bitch fit that Bedford threw when the result was announced. Bedford was expecting to be declared the winner and when that didn’t happen, he began stomping around the octagon in a quite humorous strop. Sean Spencer completely dominated Paulo Thiago on his way to unanimous decision victory; Thiago would be released after this loss, his third in a row. Leandro Silva somehow beat Francisco Trinaldo by unanimous decision even though Trinaldo dominated the fight. George Sullivan was dominant in a second round TKO win over Igor Araujo . And in the final preliminary fight, Godofrado Castro caught Dashon Johnson with a triangle whilst Johnson was in his guard and raining down blows.

UFC Fight Night 51 (the main card)

Jessica Andrade vs. Larissa Pacheco opened the main card off with a completely one-side fight, Andrade overwhelming Pacheco from beginning to end, and at times it seemed as if Pacheco didn’t know what to do. Andrade finally tapped Pacheco out with a guillotine choke just before the end of the first round.

Iuri Alcantara vs. Russell Doane saw a superior fighter, Alcantara, matched up against an opponent with relentless pressure, as Doan was constantly going for takedowns and usually getting them. The fight had a whiff about it with a dubious stand-up called by the referee, whilst Doane was in control and actually working for something, as well as Alcantara getting the unanimous decision despite Doane dominating and controlling the fight throughout.

Wendell Oliveira vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio was a short fight with a violent ending; the two fighters exchanged punches before Ponzinibbio dropped Oliveira with a big left hand, Ponzinibbio then battering Oliveira into unconsciousness in a mere 1:20.

Efrain Escudero vs. Leonardo Santos was the classic case of a fight that you’ll forget about once it’s over. Santos dominated the grappling, Escudero dominated the striking, and it would be Santos getting the unanimous decision victory.

Piotr Hallmann vs. Gleison Tibau got off to good start as Tibau dominated Hallman with a mixture of striking and ground work. But as the fight went on, the quality sank with each passing minute, although the fight actually got more competitive; the fight went to a split-decision, and unsurprisingly Tibau got the win.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva

These two fighters had two things in common; heavy hands and chins of a dubious quality. It was therefore expected by most that this fight had the potential to be a short one and that is exactly how this played out.

The first couple of minutes played out with both men throwing punches but using head movement and footwork to avoid most blows thrown. The pace slowed for a minute before Silva started walking Arlovski down; Arlovski then came forward himself and nailed Silva with a pair of right hooks that dropped Silva and left him stunned; Arlovski then pounced with some vicious hammerfists to knock Silva out cold and gain the victory in 2:59. Naturally, the Brazilian fans went silent once their hometown favourite lost before the booing finally started.

It was a strong win for Arlovksi to give him his fourth win in a row, and his second since returning to the UFC.

Notes and Numbers

Attendance: 8,822 (7,649 paid)

Fight of the Night: Gleison Tibau vs. Piotr Hallmann
Performance of the Night: Andrei Arlovski and Godofredo Pepey

Piotr Hallmann lost his post-fight bonus when he failed the post-fight drug test, with Hallmann testing positive for drostanolone, an anabolic steroid.

Other Notes for September 13th

Strikeforce: Young Guns III (September 13th 2008)

Of note from a Strikeforce show based around the younger talent, hence the name, was the main event, which featured Luke Rockhold in just his third professional fight. Rockhold faced Josh Neal, with Rockhold winning in 1:48 by submission due to punches.

WSOF 13: Moraes vs. Bollinger (September 13th 2014)

The original main event was going to see Marlon Moraes defend his WSOF Bantamweight Championship against Josh Hill. However, Hill was forced out of the fight due to injury and he was replaced by Cody Bollinger and due to the short-notice nature of the replacement, the fight would be a non-title catchweight fight at 140lbs. Yet on the day of the weigh-ins, Bollinger informed officials that he wouldn’t be able to make the 140lbs weight limit and the catchweight was increased to 147lbs. Bollinger had a history of missing weight and was even kicked off of TUF for failing to make weight.

Just before the main event, Bollinger’s trainer claimed that Bollinger would be around 170lbs when he stepped foot into the cage. However much Bollinger weighed, it did him no good and he was submitted in the second round with a rear naked choke.

Other Notes for September 14th

Pancrase 1998 Anniversary Show (September 14th 1998)

In the top fights from this show, former King of Pancrase Champion Bas Rutten, in what would be his last fight for the company, TKO’d Kengo Watanabe in 2:58, with Rutten bloodying and beating up Watanabe with palm strikes leading to the finish. Similarly, Kazuo Takahashi TKO’d Minoru Suzuki in 8:06 with palm strikes. The biggest star in Pancrase, Masakatsu Funaki, couldn’t overcome the biggest fighter in Pancrase as Semmy Schilt knocked out Funaki in 7:13 with a punch to the body. In the case of Suzuki and Funaki, they had taken a lot of punishment during their careers, as well as having put their bodies through overtraining, and by this point they were well past their physical primes. The main event would see Guy Mezeger defend the Pancrase Openweight Championship against Ryushi Yanagisawa; the fight went the full 30:00 and Mezger won due to Yanagisawa losing more points during the fight.

WSOF 5: Arlovski vs. Kyle (September 14th 2013)

The main event was originally to be Anthony Johnson taking on Andrei Arlovski, but Johnson was forced out of the fight due to injury. Also set to take place were the semi-final matches in a four-man tournament crown the first WSOF Middleweight Champion, with the two fights being Elvis Mutapcic vs. Jesse Taylor and David Branch vs. Danillo Villefort. However, on the night of the event, a member of the New Jersey Athletic Commission claimed to have seen Mutapcic take an unknown and undisclosed medication in the locker room before the fight, and the fight was cancelled as a result. The cancellation was announced during the broadcast.

In the tournament fight that did take place, David Branch beat Danillo Villefort by unanimous decision. And in the main event, Andrei Arlovski beat Mike Kyle by unanimous decision.

Next time out, we talk about EliteXC: Uprising and UFC Fight Night 22: Marquardt vs. Palhares.

[Carbomb]

Did Bigfoot really have a chin of dubious quality, though? I only ask because I remember that war with Hunt, and he was taking some meaty, meaty shots and not going down.

[ColinBollocks]

Depends. Post-TRT Bigfoot is a bum of concerning standards, but when he was on the Stallone juice he was able to mix it up with anyone not names Cain Velasquez.

Still one of my favourite moments ever was watching him pound on Overeem, when Overeem was up there with Mir in our very own MMA Twat List.

[Noah Southworth]

32 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Did Bigfoot really have a chin of dubious quality, though? I only ask because I remember that war with Hunt, and he was taking some meaty, meaty shots and not going down.

 

1 minute ago, ColinBollocks said:

Depends. Post-TRT Bigfoot is a bum of concerning standards, but when he was on the Stallone juice he was able to mix it up with anyone not names Cain Velasquez.

TRT Bigfoot did take some good shots from Hunt and stay up, but that version of Silva was also knocked silly by Daniel Cormier and Cain Velasquez, twice. It really would have been more accurate to quantify the quality of Bigfoot’s chin with the fact that this was his first fight off of TRT, and I’m kicking myself for letting that one slip by.

[Carbomb]

Nah, that's fair enough, it's not something that is immediately obvious, I guess.

I was always a bit mystified by the decision to prohibit Bigfoot from using TRT; I was under the impression he needed it to stay normal, rather than enhance his ordinary performance, given the imbalances caused by his acromegaly.

 

[ColinBollocks]

100%. If there is anyone in MMA that should get an exemption, it's Bigfoot. However, you just can't trust him not to abuse it, which is why the UFC/USADA wouldn't allow it.

I'm very much of the opinion that he just shouldn't be fighting in the UFC. They got there in the end, but it was fight after fight of Bigfoot getting a glove on his head and flopping to the floor.