Keith Houchen Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 22 hours ago, Noah Southworth said: Tomorrowâs entry covers a variety of events, including one of the most historic nights in UFC history, and you might want to brew a cup of strong coffee, because this one is a biggie. If we can sit through a ninety minute bore, we can get through this without coffee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 6 hours ago, Egg Shen said: Rice and Rutten clearly enjoyed each others company but it wasn't a great show. Speaking of MMA shows, does anyone rememger MMA Uncensored with Mike Straka & Nate Quarry? Was that the show on Spike? I recall the first episode was a Pride special; where they revealed information about the promotion that had not previously been disclosed. I think Fedor's manager was involved.  It was an interesting watch. I didn't watch much of it after that for some reason. I remember ESPN's MMA Live with Franklin McNeil. That was very hit and miss. McNeil came across as someone who didn't know much about the sport, especially when it came to scoring fights. The issue I had with Inside MMA was that it didn't offer anything I couldn't get elsewhere. They had interviews, but Helwani's were vastly superior. They had analysis, but Jordan Breen's breakdowns were much better. I don't recall them having any big scoops or blockbuster announcements either.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 6, 2017 Author Share Posted July 6, 2017 On This Day in MMA History (July 6th) Pancrase: Road to the Championship 2 (July 6th 1994) As part of the ongoing build towards the year-end tournament that would crown their first champion, this Pancrase event was very notable because it contained the only totally worked match in Pancrase history; occasionally, Pancrase would work finishes for business reasons, even though the fight itself was real. Rather than repeat myself on the subject, Iâll just quote what I wrote about the subject a while ago;  Quote  There were works in Pancrase and there were generally two kinds of works. The first was the kind where the fight would be real but the finish would be worked. This was usually in situations where it was felt that the best thing for business would be a certain guy going over. This could be because it was a title fight and they wanted the title on or off certain guys. Or it could be because a certain result was required in order to protect Pancraseâ image.  In this case, the worked fight was between Ken Shamrock and Matt Hume. Hume was sick going into the fight and rather than scrap it, they, Shamrock and Hume, agreed to just work it. If you watch it, it is very obviously worked, but not overly so that you canât play along if you want to. This event also featured a major miscalculation involving the other form of working seen in Pancrase backfiring in a big way. Again, Iâll quote what Iâve previously written about on the subject; Quote The other kind of work wasnât a total work, but it wasnât a total shoot, in that there would be situations where the superior fighter would âcarryâ his opponent for a while before beating him. This happened a lot in the early days because there were only three top level fighters, Funaki, Suzuki and Shamrock, and it was felt that if they were the only fighters seen as being at the top, interest in Pancrase would drop because you can only watch the same three guys dominate for so long before it gets boring. So youâd get instances where theyâd carry guys for a while before putting them away, so the fight would at least be seen as competitive and it didnât like there were only three top fighters. In this case, the fight involved the top star of Pancrase, Masakatsu Funaki, against Jason DeLucia. The plan by Funaki, as later confirmed by DeLucia, was for Funaki to give DeLucia about three rope breaks, make it look like DeLucia had him in trouble, before finally beating him. About a minute into the fight, DeLucia caught Funaki a kneebar, as part of Funakâs plan to give DeLucia a series of rope breaks, with touching the ropes forcing a submission to be let go. The problem was that Funaki misjudged how far he was from the ropes and as a result, was forced to tap out, producing one of the biggest upsets in Pancraseâs short history. The event was typical for early Pancrase; the opener aside, none of the fights went longer than 5:50. The only fight of real note was Bas Rutten KOâing Minoru Suzuki with a knee to the body in 3:43. IVC 1: Real Fight Tournament (July 6th 1997) The International Vale Tudo Championship is a promotion formed in Brazil that was notorious for limited rules, that included no glove, allowing headbuts, and permitting knees and kicks to be delivered to a downed opponent, with the fights themselves took place in a ring, with netting along the bottom to prevent the fighters from rolling out of the ring. The first event hosted an eight-man tournament that involved UFC vets Gary Goodridge and Cal Worsham, as well as Ebenezer Fontes Braga and Pedro Otavio, a fighter who had a rep for being âsleazyâ due to doing a worked match in New Japan with Keiji Muto; Otavio naturally lost, and as such, got the rep for being sleazy for having âtaken a diveâ for Muto. And in non-tournament action was Dan Severn. The tournament was as violent and brutal as youâd expect with little in the way of refined technique, and submissions generally muscled into more than anything else. Case in point is a fight being won with what amounted to the âWar Specialâ double underhook chickenwing from pro wrestling. Dan Severn fought Ebenezer Fontes Braga in the non-tournament fight, which went the way youâd expect, with Severn clinching and smothering Braga a lot and using lots of palm strikes to bloody Braga up from top positio UFC 162: Silva vs. Weidman (July 6th 2013) You know, Iâm not sure that anything that happened here is really worth talking about⊠Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman Anderson Silva went into this fight as the man who was widely considered to be the best mixed martial arts fighter of all time. After bursting onto the mainstream with his UFC debut, a 49-second destruction of Chris Leben, in 2005, Silva went on to lay waste to the reigning middleweight champion Rich Franklin, and so began a UFC title reign that will go down as one of the most legendary of all time. Silva disposed of Travis Lutter in a non-title bout, due to Lutter missing weight, before starting to knock off the challengers to his title; Nate Marquardt, Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Patrick CĂŽtĂ©, Thales Leites, Damian Maia, Chael Sonnen twice, Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami all fell in defeat at the hands, and feet and knees of Silva. And if that wasnât enough, in between title defences, he destroyed light heavyweight James Irvin with one punch, and made another light heavyweight, Forrest Griffin, look like such a bumbling idiot before finishing him off with what may be the most embarrassing looking knockout in UFC history, that Griffin literally ran from the cage after the fight. Silva also made a third light heavyweight, Stephan Bonnar, look like a complete nothing; once, Silva, after escaping off of the cage from a clinch, went right back to the cage and invited Bonnar to try and hit him. Bonnar did so, and Silva ducked and dodged, and left Bonnar swinging at the air. Silva was taking fighters who had all sorts of skills and abilities, most of whom were very talented in their own right, and making them look like they shouldnât be in the same sport as Silva, let alone the same octagon. Not that it was always entertaining to watch Silva; Silvaâs fights against Leites and Maia were two of the worst fights of all time. On these occasions, Silva, for whatever reason simply shut down the fight and didnât engage. For the most part, however, it was always entertaining to watch Silva fight because not only were you seeing the best fighter of all time in action, but because you never knew just how Silva was going to make the next challenger look like a neophyte. When Silva knocked out Vitor Belfort, he did so with a front kick; nobody had ever seen a fight end like that in the UFC. Silva was showing you things you had never seen before. And it almost felt like he was doing so purely to amuse himself, to come up with a creative way to win a fight he knew long beforehand was in the bag. Then came Chris Weidman. Chris Weidman had certainly made a name for himself by the time UFC 162 rolled around. Weidman entered the UFC on two weeksâ notice, beating Alessio Sakara at UFC on Versus 3 by unanimous decision in a fight where Weidman was going in with a rib injury. From there, Weidman stacked up the victories, including a unanimous decision win in another fight where Weidman was coming in at short notice; Weidman replaced Michael Bisping against Damian Maia on the second FOX card on eleven days notice, when Bisping was himself replacing an injured Mark Munoz against Chael Sonnen. And it would be Munoz whom Weidman faced in his next fight, with Weidman finishing Munoz in 1:37 of the second round after a vicious elbow knocked Munoz silly, and putting Weidman at 9-0. It was because of these victories, with Weidman looking better every time he fought, that he was given the title shot against Anderson Silva. Yet despite that, nobody was giving Weidman a chance. And it wasnât just because of what was perceived to be a huge skill difference. There was also a huge disparity in experience; Weidman had only had nine professional fights compared to Silvaâs thirty seven. In the final week before the fight, a string of UFC fighters predicted Weidman to win for a promotional video intended to build up the fight. This was virtually dismissed that out of hand, with most fans considering it nothing more than the UFCâs best efforts to promote a challenger that everyone knew was going to be the next highlight reel finish victim of the greatest fighter of all time. Some even called it insulting that the UFC would be trying so hard to convince people Weidman had a chance. Not because Weidman was bad but because Silva was good enough that long before UFC 162 even happened, it was felt that Silva would only ever lose when father time eventually caught up with him. To them, Chris Weidman was just another âchallenger of the monthâ for the champion to dismantle in impressive fashion before moving on to his next hapless opponent. The rest of UFC 162 UFC 162 did have other fights on the card and like virtually all UFC cards it went through a series of changes and alterations. The original co-main event was to be a fight between Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas. However, when Anthony Pettis pulled out of his UFC 163 fight against Jose Aldo, Jung was moved up to replace him, and Lamas was removed from the 162 card. Rafaello Oliveira replaced John Makdessi against Edson Barboza and Gabriel Gonzaga replaced Shane Del Rosario against Dave Herman. The undercard had a couple of interesting finishes; Edson Barboza earned his second TKO victory due to leg kicks, with a win over Rafaello Oliveira. Gabriel Gonzaga knocked out Dave Herman in 17-seconds. The main card itself wasnât all that great before the main event. Cub Swanson looked good in a TKO win over Denis Siver, although it was a bad night for Herb Dean; Swanson was teeing off on Siva, who was out of it, and Swanson stopped and gestured to Dean as if asking him if he was going to stop the fight anytime soon. Thankfully, Herb finally decided to step in a mere half-dozen punches too late. Mark Muñoz and Tim Kennedy failed to excite in unanimous decision victories over Tim Boetsch and Roger Gracie respectively. Frankie Edgarâs win over Charles Oliveira wasnât that bad. The Main Event of UFC 162 Then it came time for the main event of the evening, with everyone gearing up to see just how the greatest of all time would dispatch the latest hapless challenger sent in his direction. The pre-fight video package was obviously intended to give you the impression Weidman had a chance to beat Silva. But as slickly produced as it was, as technically good as it is a promotional piece, it still didnât make you feel overly confident that Weidman will stand much of a chance. Even Joe Rogan saying âThis is the first time Iâve ever looked at a guy and I said âthis guy could be the guy; he could beat Anderson Silvaââ, does nothing to make you think anything other than the UFC is trying to sell you on the last victim of âThe Spiderâ. Whether it was because fans saw him as arrogant or because fans saw Weidman as a proper âAll America, or even because people felt sorry for Weidman, Anderson Silva was heavily booed when the lights dimmed and it was time for him to make his entrance. Even when Silva made his entrance, it was still a mixed reaction from the fans. All the while, Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan were now pushing Silva for all he was worth, as if now that theyâd paid lip service to promoting a challenger nobody could believe in, it was time to say something people could actually take seriously. Weirdly, when the fighters were introduced, it was Weidman who got booed and Silva who was heavily cheered. The first round saw Weidman take Silva down early and Weidman was doing well controlling Silva on the ground before going to a heel hook that allowed Silva to get back to his feet, the fans cheering this. With the fight back standing, Silva looked bored, seemingly not taking the fight that seriously, and when Weidman got him back up against the cage and he broke away, Silva did the same thing he did against Stephan Bonnar; he went back up against the cage and invited Weidman to try and hit him. There were more of the usual Silva hijinks throughout the round, with Silva holding his hands to his hips, laughing, and inviting Weidman to try and hit him. It was funny, but it was also very disrespectful, to both Weidman and the fans in that Silva was clearly not taking the fight seriously. In a similar vein to his actions so far, when the round was over, even though the two embraced, Silva playfully kissed Weidman on the cheek, as if congratulating him on doing his best. In between rounds, Ray Longoâs advice to Weidman was succinct and to the point; âI want you to punch a hole in his fucking chest; thatâs what I wantâ. Before the second round started, Silva was again playing mind games, Silva encouraging Weidman to fight, as if imploring him to at least try and make it exciting for the fans. The second round looked more like how people expected the fight as a whole to go; Silva effortlessly avoiding Weidmanâs takedown attempts and wild swings, making his opponent look grossly inferior, as well as the usual taunts and showboating. Weidman missed a head kick and Silva quickly responded with a lightning fast crescent kick that barely missed Weidman. And then it happened. Weidman missed a punch and Silva started backing up, Silva then almost shaking as if to pretend he got hit. Weidman kept pressing forward and Silva simply leaned backwards to avoid the punches...and then one landed, dropping Silva to the canvas. The fans roared into life as Weidman pounced, following up with ground and pound, and when the referee pulled Weidman off of the now unconscious Silva, the fans exploded into rapturous and deafening cheers. Chris Weidman had pulled off the impossible. Chris Weidman had defeated the greatest of all time. Chris Weidman had beaten Anderson Silva. âOh my goodnessâ Joe Rogan repeated over and over. âYou canât play games in the octagon. You canât get cockyâŠeven if youâre Anderson Silvaâ. The fans were buzzed like youâve rarely seen a crowd buzzed. People were in shock, with mouths wide open and hands held to heads. It was the UFC version of Werdum beating Fedor; theyâd come along to see the greatest of all time embarrass another opponent, only to see the greatest of all time embarrass himself, with his showboating antics, that had entertained fans for almost seven years, finally biting him in the ass. âHe didnât respect Weidmanâs punching power and Weidman cleaned his clockâ. â Joe Rogan And that sums up why the fight ended the way it did. Because Anderson Silva didnât respect the punching power of Chris Weidman. He dared Weidman to try and hit him, and when he did, because Silva was too busy clowning around, Weidman cracked him and knocked him out. As much as Silvaâs antics had entertained people in the past, and they had, they were really quite disrespectful, and it was poetic justice that the same antics that had entertained the fans but infuriated opponents that had wound up costing Anderson Silva his title. âHe got silly, he didnât respect his opponent, and he paid for it with his consciousnessâ. â Joe Rogan Rogan and Mike Goldberg both were stunned at what they had seen. When the result of the fight was finally announced, the fans were still buzzing, were still electric. When he was interviewed after the fight, Weidman seemed to be in disbelief that heâd actually beaten Silva, like it was something he had believed he could do but had never really thought it could happen. Silva was interviewed and got roundly booed, which was understandable in a way given that Silva had clearly not taken his opponent or the fight seriously, and that can grate if it goes on too long, as it did here in every sense of the word. Silva was asked about his showboating and his clowning around, but dodged the question; he merely said in response that he worked hard for the fight and respected the fans and the UFC, and USA. The fans reacted with more booing. Silva praised Weidman and seemed very complementary towards him, but the fans were having none of it. Silva also suggested he wouldnât go back after the title and that his time with the title was over and that he would move on to other fights. With the interviews over, Weidman exited the cage, cloaked in the American flag and with Born in the USA blaring out. The All American was now the All American hero TUF 19 Finale: Edgar vs. Penn (July 6th 2014) The Ultimate Fighter had been going since 2005 and by now was considered just a little long in the tooth. Even the addition of Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn as coaches for this season did little to add any excitement, in part because the two would, as coaches usually do, fight each other on the live season finale, and as much as people felt it was time for TUF to hang it up, they felt just the same way about BJ Penn. BJ Penn BJ Penn had been the UFC lightweight champion since beating Joe Stevenson to win the vacant title. Penn retained the title against Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez before losing the title to Edgar in what was something of an upset. It was a close fight and so a rematch was ordered, but as surprising as that loss was, it was even more surprising to see Edgar completely dominate Penn in the rematch. It wasnât even close and Penn was never in the fight. Penn rebounded from that loss with a move back up to welterweight and secured a third fight with Matt Hughes, and Penn was able to knock out his long-time rival in just 21-seconds. Despite that early success, though, Penn would struggle against much larger opponents; Penn was dominated by Nick Diaz in a unanimous decision loss and seemingly retired in the aftermath, only to return to action to answer the challenge of Rory MacDonald, a fight which saw Penn once again get dominated in a one-sided unanimous decision loss. After that second loss, Penn admitted to being undecided about his future, and Dana White joined the chorus of voices believing that it was time for Penn to retire. Penn went silent for a while before it was announced in September of 2013 that Penn would be moving down to featherweight and would coach opposite two-time opponent Frankie Edgar, with the two meeting for the third time in the live season finale. Frankie Edgar After defeating Penn for the lightweight title, Frankie Edgar rematched with Gray Maynard, who had been the only man to beat Edgar in his career thus far. The two fought in a thrilling contest that saw Maynard drop Edgar in the first round and almost have the fight won, only for Edgar to dig down deep and make a big comeback, the fight ending in a draw. An immediate rematch was made; again, Maynard dropped Edgar in the first and almost had the fight won, and again, Edgar dug down deep to make a comeback. But this time, Edgar came back to win fight, stopping Maynard in the fourth round by TKO. Edgar would then lose the lightweight title to Benson Henderson in a close fight that went Hendersonâs way by unanimous decision. A rematch would be even closer, with Henderson winning by split decision, in a fight that a lot of people thought Edgar had won. Edgar would then move down to featherweight, getting an immediate title fight with the champion, Jose Aldo. It was a competitive fight that went the distance, with Edgar now having gone the distance in six of his last seven fights. But unlike most of those fights, this one was not that close, with Aldo having done more than enough to get the unanimous decision. Edgar opted to say at featherweight, and after beating Charles Oliveira, Edgarâs involvement in TUF 19 was revealed. TUF 19 TUF 19 featured middleweights and light heavyweights, under the tutelage of Edgar and Penn and their respective team of coaches, and was pretty run-of-the-mill as TUF seasons go. It had most of the usual elements of TUF, with tension and arguments and close fights. Both coaches got two fighters to the semi-finals of the middleweight tournament but it was both Edgar fighters, Eddie Gordon and Dhiego Lima who made it to the finals. In the light heavyweight tournament, Penn only got one fighter to the semi-finals, Daniel Spohn, but he was bounced out by Matt Van Buren, who would face fellow Team Edger teammate Corey Anderson in the live final. There was a full preliminary card of action before the main card began, and it had its own share of newsworthy events. Robert Drysdale fought in what was his first, and would turn out to be last UFC fight. Drysdale choked out Keith Berish in the first round. However, Drysdale failed a post-fight drug test, having an elevated T/E Ratio of 12:1. It was Drysdaleâs second failed drug test, with Drysdale having previously been flagged for an even higher T/E Ration, 19.4:1, before his originally scheduled UFC debut. As a result, the win over Berish was changed to a no-contest and Drysdale was released by the UFC. Elsewhere, Leandro Issa was docked a point for grabbing the fence en route to his win over Jumabieke Tuerxun, and Adriano Martins scored a highlight-reel knockout over Juan Puig. The main card opened up with a Dustin Ortiz and Justin Scoggins having a good scrap. The first round was very close although Scoggins maybe edge it. The second round was firmly in favour of Ortiz, whilst the third round was more competitive, although only terms of the fighters being able to control the other; neither one did too much with it, apart from Ortiz landing a decent right hook early in the round. Ortiz won by split-decision and it was the right decision, although not by much. After Derek Lewis dispatched Guto Inocente, it was time for the first of the TUF finales, the middleweight tournament final between Eddie Gordon and Dhiego Lima. Lima was clearly giving up a lot of weight and it showed with how Gordon dominated Lima, Gordon winning in just 1:11 of the first round by TKO, with a finish where referee Yves Lavigne was several punches late in stepping in. With this victory, Eddie Gordon had won the TUF 19 middleweight tournament. Unfortunately, this was as good as it got for Eddie in the UFC, as he lost his next three fights and was released by the promotion. Eddie did get another chance with the UFC as part of recent TUF: Redemption, but lost his opening round fight. In the light heavyweight final between Corey Anderson and Matt Van Buren, things went just as quickly, with Anderson clipping Buren early and finishing him with strikes in just 1:01. It was a good stoppage this time, and even though Van Buren protested, he wasnât intelligently defending himself. Anderson would have better luck than his fellow TUF 19 winner, Eddie Gordon, going 5-3 since this fight. Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn The main event between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn was one of the saddest fights to watch in a long time. BJ Penn looked like a shot fighter just walking to the cage. It felt as if you were watching someone walk to his own funeral. The fight lived up to, or is that down to, expectations with Edgar completely and thoroughly dominating Penn. Penn was not in this fight at all, having absolutely nothing to offer against Edgar. You can argue that Penn showed heart in hanging in there for just over two rounds, but the truth was that Penn was a dead man walking. He had no business fighting at all, let alone fighting someone like Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately, the sad tale of BJ Penn continues today, the former lightweight champion and legend of the sport still refusing to hang up the gloves and call time on what was a great career, but one the gets tarnished each time Penn insists on returning to the cage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 7, 2017 Author Share Posted July 7, 2017 On This Day in MMA History (July 7th) Pancrase: 1998 Neo-Blood Tournament Opening Round (July 7th 1998) This was part of Pancraseâs tournament for new/young talent. The most recognizable name involved in this is the late Evan Tanner. Evan was making his debut for Pancrase but was already fairly experienced at this stage of his career, having a 10-1 record. His first round opponent was another name you might know, Ikuhisa Minowa. Also part of the tournament was Justin McCully, who gained recent notoriety as part of a beyond terrible angle in Bellator that was intended to build the fight between Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar UFC 73: Stacked (July 7th 2007) The name of this PPV would look hilariously ironic in its immediate aftermath. Background The main event was Anderson Silva defending the UFC Middleweight Championship against Nate Marquardt. This would be Silvaâs first title defence since taking the title from Rich Franklin the previous October; a scheduled title fight against Travis Lutter in February became a non-title affair when Lutter managed to miss weight, despite knowing for three months when heâd have to make weight. Marquardt was coming into this fight on a six-fight win streak, although one of those wins, in a notoriously bad fight against Ivan Salaverry, should have an asterisk against it as Marquardt failed a post-fight drug test. The co-main event would see TUF 2 heavyweight tournament winner Rashad Evans face the biggest test of his career, as he would take on former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. Another fight would see Sean Sherk defend the UFC Lightweight Championship against Hermes Franca; presumably this was not in the co-main event slot due to Ortizâ star power and the desire to establish Evans as a star. Sherk had won the vacant lightweight title by defeating Kenny Florian by unanimous decision at UFC 64, and this would be his first title defence. Franca was on a seven-fight win streak and that includes a TKO win over Spencer Fisher and a submission win over Nate Diaz. To date, Franca is the only fighter to ever make Nate Diaz tap out. Making his debut on this card would be former PRIDE heavyweight champion and future UFC interim heavyweight champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, as he would take on the man he had beaten twice before, once to claim the then-vacant PRIDE title, Heath Herring. Chris Lytle was in action in the prelims, taking on Jason Gilliam, after two previous choices for opponent, Jeff Joslin and Drew Fickett, withdrew due to injury. And Jorge Gurgel faced Diego Saraiva after his original opponent Jamie Varner was removed from the card for a planned fight at WEC 27. The PPV The main card kicked off with âBig Nogâ making what was a long awaited UFC debut. Nogueira was expected to defeat Herring with, not necessarily ease, but without too much trouble, especially after his previous two victories over Herring. Nogueira looks twenty years younger in the pre-fight video package, a package that strongly insinuates that Herring won his UFC debut earlier in the year. This is not true, as Herring was dominated by Jake OâBrian in a unanimous decision loss, in a fight that was hideously boring. The fight itself saw Nogueira dominate Herring in the first round until, with about twenty seconds to go, Herring cracked Nogueira with a high kick. Nogueira dropped and was clearly dazed, and if the same spot happened today, there is a very good chance that the referee steps in to stop the fight. But here, the fight kept going, and Nogueira quickly recovered as Herring jump him to follow up with some punches from side control. Herring then gets to his feet and calls for Nogueira to be stood up. Itâs a big mistake because Herring not only gives up a good position, but heâs also giving Nogueira time to recover and Nogueira is able to see the round out. The first round ends with Nogueira still a little dazed but Herring doesnât really push things in the second round and it isnât long before Nogueira has recovered enough to start pushing the pace himself and Nogueira does a great job of dominating the fight in the second and third rounds. Nogueira gets the unanimous decision victory and wins his big UFC debut, but the real story of the fight is that Herring had the fight won and failed to make his chance count. For whatever reason, Herring failed to capitalize on his chances and let Nogueira back into the fight, and the opportunity for the biggest win of his career slipped through his fingers. The lightweight title fight between Sean Sherk and Hermes Franca saw Sherk open up with a big takedown and get caught in a guillotine, but he eventually escaped and Sherk controlled Franca with wrestling for the rest of the round. Similarly, early in the second round, France caught Sherk with a great knee as he was going for a takedown, but again, Sherk weathered the storm to control Franca for the rest of the round with wrestling and grappling, and whilst Franca got a guillotine late on, it wasnât applied enough for it to trouble Sherk. For the final three rounds, Sherk was in complete control and Franca never troubled the champion at all, with Sherk getting the comfortable unanimous decision victory. And it would be the lightweight title fight that would give the name of this PPV more than a tinge of irony, with both men failing a drug test; Sherk failed in a pre-fight test for nandrolone and Franca failed a post-fight test for drostanolone, both drugs being steroids. As a result, Sherk would eventually be stripped of the lightweight title and his name, whilst not erased from the record books, is more linked to the failed test than his accomplishments as a fighter. The co-main event between Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans was greatly anticipated by a lot of the more diehard fans, who considered Evans something of a âTV fighterâ, almost a media creation, and they were therefore looking forward to him getting shown up by a âproperâ fighter. The irony being that it wasnât so long ago that those same diehard fans hated Ortiz for his pro wrestling-style persona and antics. Right away, you notice just how much bigger Ortiz is; he looks to be a weight class or two above Evans. And Ortiz put that extra weight to good use in the first round, taking Evans down and smothering him against the fence. In the second round, things were more competitive this time; Ortiz did more smoothing against the fence, but was caught grabbing the fence and warned about doing it again. And when Evans rallied and tried to take Ortiz down, Ortiz again grabbed the fence and had a point taken off. Ortiz was also still taken down. The third round was more clinching and smothering from Tito, in what really wasnât an exciting fight. The fight ended in that MMA rarity, a unanimous draw, with all three judges scoring it 28-28. We get draws from time to time, but you rarely get them unanimously, with all three judges scoring it so. Ortiz only has himself to blame here; he was repeatedly warned about grabbing the fence and paid the price. Iâm just glad he did have a point taken off, and wish it would happen more often; refereeâs tend to be far too lenient about that sort of thing. The Main Event The main event of Anderson Silva defending the UFC Middleweight Championship against Nate Marquardt actually saw Marquardt control Silva for much of the first round. Marquardt had been able to get Silva down and it highlighted what would always be Silvaâs weak point, that if you could actually get a hold of him, you could take him down. But Marquardt couldnât do much with his position of dominance and the fight was stood up. And with about a minute to go, Silva managed to tag Marquardt with a good punch, reverse the resultant takedown attempt from Marquardt, and blast away with punches to get the stoppage at 4:50 of the first round. It wasnât the kind of dominant performance from Silva that we would later see in his title reign, and he really didnât come across as someone who would later be considered the greatest of all time; he came across as a very good striker who could have problems with wrestlers and guys that are great at taking people down. But it was a decisive victory over a fighter who was really good, and whilst I would have loved to have seen a rematch between Silva and Marquardt, especially because of the initial success Marquardt had here, it was never to be. For some reason, they had Kenny Florian and Alvin Robinson go out for their fight after the main event. I would review it but I canât stand Kenny Florian. UFC 73 was a decent card overall. It featured the UFC debut of a legend, a couple of decent if pedestrian fights, and the first title defence of the man who would go down as one of the greatest of all time. UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen II (July 7th 2012) This was UFCâs biggest PPV of the 2012 and was headline by what was, at the time, the biggest rematch in the history of the promotion. UFC 148 was held in conjunction with the first International Fight Week, a week-long series of events that culminated with Tito Ortiz being inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, with Ortiz also fighting in the co-main event of UFC 148, facing former rival Forrest Griffin in the rubber match of their rivalry. Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II The main event to UFC 148 was the long awaited rematch between reigning middleweight champion Anderson Silva and the man who had done more to prove Silva was a mere mortal than anybody else had done before, Chael Sonnen. Their first fight back at UFC 117 was set up by Sonnen relentlessly knocking Silva and then, when Sonnen was announced as facing Silva, Sonnen ratcheted up the trash talk to what were, for the time, unheard of levels. There had obviously been trash talking before this, but Sonnen had a pace and a level of trash talking that really made him stand out and established Sonnen as one of the best trash talkers in the game. The first fight went completely against the grain as Sonnen dominated Silva for 23-minutes. Sonnen was taking Silva down at will, beating him up and making the greatest of all time look like anything but. The atmosphere was electric as history Sonnen was on the verge of delivering one of the biggest upsets in UFC history; and then, in his only real offensive move of the fight, Silva threw up his legs in a desperation triangle and he caught Sonnen flush and forced him to tap. The craziest ride of the year had come to a sudden and decisive end. Chael Sonnen may have lost, but the overriding story was that he had made Anderson Silva look mortal, had made the greatest of all time look so very ordinary. Sonnen had put the first chink in the armour of a fighter who was felt to be virtually unbeatable. There was immediate word from Silvaâs camp that he had gone into the fight with a rib injury, but most people didnât take it that seriously, feeling it was an attempt to excuse a poor performance, a way to explain why the greatest of all time didnât live up that billing. Sonnen Fails A Drug Test A week or so later, the story changed to something completely different, as Chael failed his post-fight drug test. All talk of an immediate rematch was shelved when it was announced that Chael had tested positive for an elevated T/E (testosterone/epitestosterone) ratio of 16.9:1. Suddenly, what had been an incredible accomplishment, pushing Anderson Silva to the absolute limit and making him look very human was seen in a whole new light. Sonnenâs achievement was tarnished forever. Sonnen was suspended for one-year and fined, but even before that suspension was over there was still talk over a potential rematch with Silva. Even though their first fight, as incredibly dramatic as it was, was clouded by the resultant test failure by Sonnen, there was still tremendous intrigue in a rematch. Would Sonnen be able to repeat his feat when he was, presumably, clean? Would Silva be able to do any better when he was healthy, or healthier? The Build to the Rematch Anderson Silva, meanwhile, continued to defend his title as Chael Sonnen sat on the shelf. Silva had put another highlight reel finish on his career montage, with a front kick knockout of Vitor Belfort. After that, Silva defended his title in Brazil against Yushin Okami and once again, he made a very good fighter look terribly ordinary. After a year out, Sonnen was finally back fighting, but he would have to earn that rematch with Silva; the UFC were reluctant to be seen as ârewardingâ a drug cheat in the pursuit of the dollar, especially in light of their recent alliance with FOX. Sonnenâs first fight back was a second round submission win over Brian Stann. The post-fight interview saw Sonnen utter one of the most famous lines in MMA; âAnderson Silva, you absolutely suckâ. Sonnen proceed to challenge Silva for Superbowl weekend, even claiming that he would leave the UFC forever if he lost. Sonnen would later dial back on that, claiming that the offer had an expiry date and Silva didnât meet it. Sonnen was then scheduled to face Mark Muñoz at the second UFC card on FOX, in a fight that was to be for the next shot at Anderson Silva. But an injury put Mark Muñoz out of action, and he was replaced by Michael Bisping. The fight went ahead and in a close contest, that some saw different to the judges, Chael Sonnen scored the unanimous decision victory over Bisping. The biggest rematch in the history of MMA was on. Tito Ortiz Retires (for the first time) The co-main event to UFC 149 would have its own emotional build, as it was set to feature what was to be the retirement fight of UFC and MMA icon, Tito Ortiz. Tito Ortiz had been the face of the UFC, the poster child, since 2000, when he defeated Wanderlei Silva to win what was then the UFC middleweight title. Ortiz would defend the title four times, during which time it would be renamed the light heavyweight title, putting the belt on the map. But it would be his fifth title defence against Ken Shamrock that would put the UFC back on the map, at a time when the UFC was flirting dangerously close to extinction. The UFC had been taken off the top tier of PPV providers after a backlash in the media, a backlash fuelled by anti-violence advocates and politicians with an agenda that had more to with their own self-interest than any concerns about violence. In late 2001, the UFC was put back on the top tier of providers, and whilst it stemmed the blood loss, that is PPV buys stopped sinking, it only stabilized the company; it didnât put in a position where it could improve. Then came the Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock fight on November 22nd 2002. The promotion for this fight was everywhere; it was all over the top sports shows of the day. It was a rivalry fuelled by Ortizâ notorious show of disrespect towards Lionâs Den fighter Guy Mezer; after beating Mezger at UFC 19, Ortiz had put on a t-shirt that said âGay Mezer is my bitchâ. This sent Shamrock into a frenzy and he had to be restrained from going after Ortiz. Shamrock was in WWE at the time but a few years later, opted to leave to rejoin the world of MMA. And one of the fights he wanted was against Tito. After the build, the fight itself was almost anti-climactic; other than one brief moment when he had Ortiz in trouble after a punch, Shamrock was never in the fight. He took a serious beating for three rounds before his corner called things off. Shamrockâs face was a mess, with lumps on lumps. But whilst the fight had been almost a letdown after the build, the returns at the gate were anything but a letdown. UFC 40 had a sold-out crowd of 13,265, a gate of $1,540,000, and had generated 150,000 buys on PPV. Whilst those PPV numbers would seem disappointing by the standards of today, for the time, they were huge; they had doubled and tripled the number of buys of every UFC PPV in the last few years. The last UFC PPV to get anywhere close to that number was UFC 9, back in 1996. Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock had put the UFC back on the map. Since that fight, Ortiz had lost the light heavyweight title to Randy Couture, left the UFC for over a year due to contractual issues, and had gone 8-6-1. Those fights included two with Forrest Griffin; Ortiz had won the first fight by split-decision, a fight a lot of people should have gone Griffinâs way. But Griffin had gained a measure of revenge in the rematch, with a split-decision win over Ortiz. Now, Ortiz and Griffin would fight one last time, in Ortizâs retirement fight, with Ortiz hoping to go out on a high note. The Rest of UFC 148 The rest of the card for UFC 148 underwent a few changes, and a pretty big fight had to be shelved. Urijah Faber was going to challenge Dominic Cruz for the UFC bantamweight title, after they had been opposing coaches on TUF: Live. However, Cruz tore his ACL and the fight was off. Faber was then going to face Renan BarĂŁo for the interim bantamweight title, but that fight was moved off of this card and rebooked as the main event for UFC 149. Rich Franklin was going to fight Cung Le, but when Vitor Belfort was injured and out of the UFC 147 main event against Wanderlei Silva, Franklin was pulled from Le bout to replace Belfort, and Le would end up facing Patrick CĂŽtĂ©. The biggest card of the year got off to a pretty slow start, with the first six fights, including the first fight of the PPV portion of the card, going the distance, with all six winners scoring six fairly comprehensive if unremarkable victories. Things picked up a little when Chad Mendes fresh off of an unsuccessful challenge for the featherweight title, destroyed Cody McKenzie in just 31-seconds, Mendes finishing him off with a body punch. A welterweight contest between Damian Maia and Dong Hyun Kim ended in an unfortunate matter, with Kim suffering back spasms after being slammed to the mat, leaving him in no position to defend from mounted strikes from Maia. Cung Le defeated Patrick CĂŽtĂ© by unanimous decision, and then it was time for the co-main event, the presumed retirement fight for Tito Ortiz. Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin III Similarly to the Rashad Evans fight mentioned earlier, Ortiz looked so much physically bigger than Griffin. Griffin was taller, but Ortiz was a lot thicker and appeared to have a very noticeable weight advantage. The first round was mostly in Titoâs favour; got Griffin down a couple of times and kept him there for a while, although they were a little more even in the stand-up. The second round saw Ortiz moved a lot slower and Griffin began to pick him apart, especially with kicks, and when Ortiz went for a takedown late on, Griffin was able to stuff it without too much trouble. The third round saw Ortiz drop Griffin early and whilst Griffin got back up quickly, Ortiz was able to take him down and control him for a while. When the fight stood back, Griffin looked the better for the remainder of the round, landing almost at will as Ortiz seemed to be too tired to mount much offense. For some reason, Griffin left the cage as soon as the fight ended, getting booed vociferously, but he soon returned. Griffin got the unanimous decision victory, and whilst the result was booed, it was a fair result, as Ortiz just had nothing for a lot of the third round. The post-fight saw Griffin grab the mic and interview Ortiz, and whilst it looked cute, it put most if not all of the spotlight on Griffin, taking away from what should have been Ortizâs moment in the sun and was a pretty dick move on Griffinâs part. The Biggest Rematch in the History of the Sport The biggest rematch in the history of the UFC had finally arrived. After even more trash talking than before, and Silva showing an anger that he had not seemed to show previously, it was time for Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen to fight one more time. The atmosphere was absolutely electric and there was tremendous anticipation in the air. The fight that everyone had been waiting on for almost two years had finally arrived. The first round saw Chael take Silva down right away and for the entire round, Sonnen was controlling and dominating Silva. Silva, the greatest of all time, was once again being made to look so very ordinary, offering nothing in the way of offense and his defence limited to literally holding on for dear life. It was complete domination from Silva in what was easily a 10-8 round in favour of the challenger. Chael Sonnen had complete shut Anderson Silva down. The second round saw Sonnen again go for the takedown, but clinch work and a grab of Chaelâs shorts so blatant the referee warned him about it ensured Silva stayed up. The two were clinched up against the fence and Chael was trying to take Silva down, but a combination of the two being pressed against the fence and Silva keeping a tight grip of Sonnenâs shorts meant the two stayed up. It was on the refereeâs blind side so he didnât initially see it, but Silva was cheating and getting away with it. And when the referee did spot it, he merely warned Silva again, who simply kept doing it. Silva was eventually able to stuff a takedown without grabbing hold of Sonnenâs shorts. Perhaps out of frustration, Sonnen went for a spinning backfist, but ended up off-balance and sat up against the fence. Silva delivered a knee of dubious legality to Sonnen, before delivering some ground and pound, his first real offense of the fight; Sonnen was able to get to his feet but was soon knocked back down and a few more punches saw the fight halted and Anderson Silva had retained the middleweight title. The rematch was far more competitive than most seem to remember it being. Whenever I hear this fight talked about, itâs always with the slant that the Silva did far better here than he did in the first fight. And in the sense that he did finish Sonnen this time out, that is true. But it gets completely glossed over that not only did Silva, like in the first fight, offer nothing on offence until right at the end, but that he blatantly and repeatedly cheated. But however he did it, Anderson Silva won the fight and ended the rivalry with Sonnen in convincing if controversial fashion. Business-wise, 148 was a major success, drawing 925,000 buys, which was, at the time, the 6th highest number of buys in UFC history. Add to that a gate of near-$7 million and a very successful International Fight Week, and the UFC came out of the week as very happy people. UFC Fight Night 90: Dos Anjos vs. Alvarez (July 7th 2016) This was the first of three events in the consecutive days, headlined by a fight for the UFC Lightweight Championship. It would be the second North American event to be aired exclusively on Fight Pass, and the main event, Rafael dos Anjos defending the lightweight title against Eddie Alvarez, would be the first menâs title fight to be aired on Fight Pass. Rafael dos Anjos vs. Eddie Alvarez For a fighter who was 8-1 in the three years leading up to his lightweight title shot against Anthony Pettis, Rafael dos Anjos seemed to fly under the radar as a genuine championship contender. It wasnât that RDA wasnât thought of as a quality fighter; itâs just that when talking about potential or future lightweight champions, dos Anjos wasnât a name that easily entered the conversation. After becoming the first fighter to stop Benson Henderson with strikes, dos Anjos still didnât generate championship buzz. It was only after he destroyed the legs of Nate Diaz with a series of vicious leg kicks that RDA started to get some serious attention. And even then, when dos Anjos was announced as the challenger to Anthony Pettis and the lightweight title at UFC 185, nobody was expecting dos Anjos do what he did, which was put on the most complete performance of his career, completing shutting down and shutting out Pettis en route to a unanimous decision victory and claiming that UFC Lightweight Championship. RDA followed that up with a TKO win over Donald Cerrone in his first title defence, putting an end to Cerroneâs eight-fight win streak in just 1:06 and finally putting dos Anjos across as a real killer in the lightweight division. Dos Anjos would have a common opponent with his title challenger tonight, although the outcomes to those fights would be markedly different. Eddie Alvarez had entered the UFC in August of 2014, after just over a year of protracted legal wrangling with Bellator, and his first opponent would be Donald Cerrone, at UFC 178. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation over seeing a top-level fighter like Alvarez in the UFC, but any hopes that were had of Alvarez being a new title contender seemed to evaporate as he put in an underwhelming performance against Cerrone, Alvarez losing by unanimous decision. Alvarez would win his next two fights, against Gilbert Melendez and Anthony Pettis, but both of those victories came by way of split-decision, and with performances that, whilst good, failed to inspire a great deal confidence in Alvarezâs chances of making it to the top of the UFC. People speculated that perhaps Alvarez was now starting to show the effects of the many hard-fought battles he had been in throughout his career. In any event, when Alvarez was deemed the next contender for dos Anjosâ title, the general consensus was that dos Anjos, who was on an absolute tear, would steamroll right through the Eddie Alvarez that had showed up in the UFC. Elsewhere on the card, the only other fight to have any serious interest in it was the co-main event, a heavyweight showdown between Derrick Lewis and Roy Nelson. These were two of the divisionâs hardest hitters so many people expected their fight to produce fireworks. Card Changes As with all UFC cards, this one had a few changes made to it along the way. The fight between John Makdessi and Mehdi Baghdad was moved here from UFC 199. And Belal Muhammad made his UFC debut, replacing Nordine Taleb against Alan Jouban. The preliminary card was fine fare and had some good finishes; Pedro Munhoz rallied from initial adversity to guillotine choke Russel Doane. And Alberto Mina TKOâd Mike Pyle, set up by a spectacular flying knee. The main card got off to a hot start with Joe Duffy flooring Mitch Clarke and then choking him out in just 25-seconds. Alan Jouban and Belal Muhammad had a good fight, with Jouban winning by unanimous decision. The Derrick Lewis vs. Roy Nelson fight turned into of a disappointment; both men tired quickly and they were too gassed to throw anything more than intermittent wild swings. Lewis did crack Nelson with some good punches, and Nelson withstood them, but the fight lacked the expected fireworks. Lewis got the win by way of split-decision but it was a win that looks better on paper than it did in reality. The Main Event The pre-fight video package before the main event did a good job of building up the fight, but the way they portrayed dos Anjos as this devastating fighter who was only ever improving and the way Alvarezâs accomplishments were almost understated, made it seem like Alvarez was a huge underdog. And he probably should have been considered as such given their respective runs into this fight. The actual fight started out with men being pretty cagey before dos Anjos made an attempt to take Alvarez down, with Alvarez able to stuff it. They separated but dos Anjos started to move forward and pressure Alvarez, and then Alvarez landed a looping right hook and dos Anjos swayed and staggered backwards. Alvarez smelled blood and began laying into dos Anjos with a very measured barrage of punches, the challenger not looking to go too crazy. Alvarez then went for a flying knee and ended up on his back, and even though dos Anjos pounced on the challenger, Eddie was soon back to his feet; a few moments later, Alvarez was again landing punches at will and with dos Anjos pressed up against the face and just taking punches, the referee stepped in to give Alvarez the TKO victory. Eddie Alvarez was the new UFC Lightweight Champion The fans, who were chanting Eddieâs name earlier, were going wild. Jon Anik, who was on commentary, really put over the victory strong, pushing Eddieâs win for all he was worth. It added to the excitement over what was something of an upset victory, certainly a victory that not a whole lot of people expected to see, and I felt it underscored how underrated Anik is as a commentator. With the win, Alvarez had now added the UFC lightweight title to his trophy case but the most interesting thing to talk about concerning Eddieâs title win is the knock-on effect it had on UFC and combat sports. If Rafael dos Anjos had retained here, it would have been he who would have defended against Conor McGregor at Madison Square Garden, a fight that was originally intended to happen earlier in the year. And a question lost in all the hoopla of Conorâs fights with Nate Diaz and his lightweight title win over Eddie Alvarez, is how would Conor have fared against Rafael dos Anjos? One could point to Eddie catching dos Anjos with a looping punch as evidence that Conor probably could have caught him too, and perhaps dropped him because he hits harder, but dos Anjos is completely different fighter than Eddie Alvarez, and any fight against dos Anjos would have undoubtedly played out quite a bit differently as well. Would that fight have ended with Conor still becoming a two-division champion? Would dos Anjos have been able to exploit the biggest perceived weakness in Conorâs game, submission defence? Or would the lessons Conor learned from the loss to Nate Diaz been enough to overcome that? And if Conor had lost, would he have then moved on to fight Floyd Mayweather? Would the fight not happen or would it have only been delayed? And how would that delay have affected the outcome of the upcoming highest profile fight in combat sports history? Eddie Alvarez win over Rafael dos Anjos answered a lot of questions about the potential of Eddie Alvarez in the UFC. But it also raised a lot of questions that must forever remain unanswered, even if they might still be great fun to debate about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 7, 2017 Share Posted July 7, 2017 36 minutes ago, Noah Southworth said: The main event of Anderson Silva defending the UFC Middleweight Championship against Nate Marquardt I remember going back and forth about this fight beforehand. The Lutter fight made me think that Nate had a real chance. Unlike Lutter, I felt that Nate could keep Anderson grounded for a extended amount of time. Similar to how Sonnen kept him grounded later on in 2010. Obviously, it didn't quite work out that way. It wasn't Anderson's most impressive win, but I came away thinking he was a slightly better fighter than I had previously given him credit for. The blueprint was still there to beat him, but it was harder to follow than I had initially anticipated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 7, 2017 Author Share Posted July 7, 2017 26 minutes ago, jimufctna24 said: I remember going back and forth about this fight beforehand. The Lutter fight made me think that Nate had a real chance. Unlike Lutter, I felt that Nate could keep Anderson grounded for a extended amount of time. Similar to how Sonnen kept him grounded later on in 2010. Obviously, it didn't quite work out that way. It wasn't Anderson's most impressive win, but I came away thinking he was a slightly better fighter than I had previously given him credit for. The blueprint was still there to beat him, but it was harder to follow than I had initially anticipated. I was in two minds when Chael got himself that first fight Anderson with a win over Nate. On the one hand, i was excited at the prospect of even more great trash talking from Chael ahead of the Silva fight. I knew it would be great and it was. Yet I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see Nate get another crack at Silva. I felt he had improved enough that I thought he had a good chance at beating Silva, especially as he had done so well the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share Posted July 8, 2017 On This Day in MMA History (July 8th) UFC 61: Bitter Rivals (July 8th 2006) This was an aptly named PPV, with the fighters in the biggest fight on the card, who werenât in the actual main event, being very bitter rivals. And after the night was over, the name of the PPV was even more appropriate, because almost everyone watching was left with a very bitter taste in their mouth. The Main Event The official main event of UFC 61 was the trilogy fight in the series between current UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia and the former champion, Andrei Arlovski. Arlovski had beaten Sylvia for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 51, with Arlovski promoted to undisputed champion when the previous champion, Frank Mir, was unable to return to fighting within an appropriate timeframe after being injured in a motorcycle accident. Arlovski would defend the heavyweight title twice before having his first rematch with Sylvia, a fight Arlovski, who had looked so dominant in his previous fights, was winning before he rushed in, got caught, and Sylvia had knocked him out to once again become the UFC heavyweight champion. The nature of the second fight, a close fight with an unexpected outcome, and a dearth of other contenders, meant that a rematch was ordered. But this was not the rematch that UFC 61 was built around or named after. Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock II UFC 61 was built around a rematch that was almost four years in the making, a rematch that, if the diehards were to be believed nobody wanted to see or could want to see. It was a rematch between former light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz, and the man who, in their first fight, had helped spark the UFC back to life; Ken Shamrock. Rather than repeat myself, I shall quote what Iâve said previously about that first Ortiz vs. Shamrock fight;  Quote  The UFC had been taken off the top tier of PPV providers after a backlash in the media, a backlash fuelled by anti-violence advocates and politicians with an agenda that had more to with their own self-interest than any concerns about violence. In late 2001, the UFC was put back on the top tier of providers, and whilst it stemmed the blood loss, that is PPV buys stopped sinking, it only stabilized the company; it didnât put in a position where it could improve. Then came the Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock fight on November 22nd 2002. The promotion for this fight was everywhere; it was all over the top sports shows of the day. It was a rivalry fuelled by Ortizâ notorious show of disrespect towards Lionâs Den fighter Guy Mezer; after beating Mezger at UFC 19, Ortiz had put on a t-shirt that said âGay Mezer is my bitchâ. This sent Shamrock into a frenzy and he had to be restrained from going after Ortiz. Shamrock was in WWE at the time but a few years later, opted to leave to rejoin the world of MMA. And one of the fights he wanted was against Tito. After the build, the fight itself was almost anti-climactic; other than one brief moment when he had Ortiz in trouble after a punch, Shamrock was never in the fight. He took a serious beating for three rounds before his corner called things off. Shamrockâs face was a mess, with lumps on lumps. But whilst the fight had been almost a letdown after the build, the returns at the gate were anything but a letdown. UFC 40 had a sold-out crowd of 13,265, a gate of $1,540,000, and had generated 150,000 buys on PPV. Whilst those PPV numbers would seem disappointing by the standards of today, for the time, they were huge; they had doubled and tripled the number of buys of every UFC PPV in the last few years. The last UFC PPV to get anywhere close to that number was UFC 9, back in 1996. Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock had put the UFC back on the map.  Since that first fight, Tito had lost the light heavyweight title to Randy Couture and had been beaten by Chuck Liddell, before beating Patrick Cote and then gaining close split-decision victories over Vitor Belfort and Forrest Griffin. Meanwhile, Shamrock had knocked out fellow veteran Kimo, but had then lost a one-sided fight to Rich Franklin and suffered an admittedly controversial knockout loss to Kazushi Sakuraba in PRIDE. Regardless of the controversial nature of the Sakuraba loss, Shamrock was seen as old and over-the-hill; a relic from the past. Ortiz, whilst neither of those things, was still disliked by the more ardent fans due to what they perceived as his âpro wrestlingâ style fabricated persona and his more outspoken statements, trash talking that would seem almost tame by todayâs standards. Combine that with what was considered a âlay-and-prayâ style, and then match that against the aforementioned old-timer, and you had a fight that the diehards were insistent that nobody wanted to see; who could possibly want to see a fight between a guy doing a pro-wrestling schtick and a past-his-prime relic from days gone by? Regardless, Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock was the fight UFC 61 was built around. However, due to the mentality that a title fight had to headline a PPV and the belief that the Ortiz vs. Shamrock fight was expected to be short and one-sided and leave people disappointed, it would be the Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovksi title fight that would serve as the official headliner to UFC 61. This would in turn be the source of much grumbling from Sylvia, who couldnât understand why, if he was the heavyweight champion and in the main event, why he wasnât getting paid the most. This would not be the first or last time that Tim Sylvia would be complaining about something. The Rest of the Card The other fight of interest on the card involved Frank Mir, the former heavyweight champion. Mir had returned to action in February of this year after being out for almost two-years after suffering injuries in a motorcycle accident. That return fight had seen an out-of-shape Mir getting battered in just 4:10 by MĂĄrcio Cruz, heavily credentialed multiple time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion. This time, Mir was facing Dan Christison, a low-level heavyweight who had been on the second season of TUF, losing his qualifying fight against Seth Petruzelli, and whose lone official UFC fight to date was a unanimous decision victory over TUF 2 heavyweight tournament finalist, Brad Imes. The preliminary card was set to feature the UFC debut of Roger Huerta, who was to face Hermes Franca. But an injury put Huerta on the sidelines, and he was replaced by Joe Jordan. The most notable fight on the undercard, though, was the UFC debut of Chieck Kongo, who defeated Gilbert Aldana by TKO. UFC 61 The PPV card started with a fight between Joe Stevenson and Yves Edwards. The fight itself was unremarkable until, in the second round, Stevenson had Edwards pressed against the cage and was in his guard. Stevenson began to land elbows to the head of Edwards and Stevenson busted Edwards wide open. Edwards was bleeding like crazy, his blood spreading over the canvas like being painted onto it. The blood was everywhere. The referee halted the fight to have Edwards cleaned up and the fight resumed, back in the same position, and right away, Edwards was bleeding his brains out once again. This was one of the bloodiest fights in UFC history. Edwards saw the round out but the doctor stopped the fight between rounds, which was the right call because Edwards was bleeding all over the place and it showed no signs of stopping without Edwards getting stitched up. Frank Mir vs. Dan Christison was bowling shoe ugly, but a woefully out-of-shape Mir was still able to get the unanimous decision victory. The Real Main Event Then came the fight the PPV was built around, Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock. Shamrockâs walk-in music is overdubbed with something generic on Fight Pass, so you donât hear Shamrock getting a few booâs at first before getting strongly cheered as he walks to the octagon. They also edit out Mike Goldberg referring to Shamrock as âthe worldâs most dangerous manâ, which I presume is down to the copyright of the aforementioned phrase. Likewise, Ortizâs walk-in music is also overdubbed and he also gets booâs at first and is then strongly cheered. The introductions are a different story, because Shamrock gets strongly booed and Ortiz gets heavily cheered. The fight starts and Ortiz immediately goes to take Shamrock down, and Shamrock shows some decent takedown defence before Ortiz finally gets him to the mat. Ortiz shuffles across the octagon and gets him pressed up against the cage; Ortiz begins laying into Shamrock with elbows and lands several good shots before Herb Dean moves in to call the fight off. The fans are irate because they see it as an early stoppage. Shamrock has popped right back to his feet and is protesting, which only gets the fans even more upset because it makes it look even more like an early stoppage; neither the fans nor Ken are happy about this. âBullshit, bullshit, bullshit.â (Which isnât edited out on Fight Pass so kudos to the UFC on that) They show the replay and whilst Tito is landing some hard shots, Ken is holding his hands up to defend himself; heâs not rocked or otherwise out of it. Ken is clearly coherent and trying to defend himself. Shamrock is so upset he storms out of the cage, still protesting vehemently, which fuels the fans because they can see Shamrock is fine. In the post-fight interview, Ortiz claims Shamrock wasnât responding or intelligently defending himself, which isnât exactly the case; Ortiz does, however, say he would be open for a rematch. Mike Goldberg and Randy Couture back Herb Dean and give the expected line about fighter safety and erring on the side of caution. Was it a late stoppage? Yes and no. It was a late stoppage by the standards of 2006. Ken Shamrock was not rocked or dazed, he was not unconscious, and he was still trying to defend himself. By all visual appearances, Ken Shamrock was still in the fight. But by the standards of 2017, it was a completely justified stoppage. Ken Shamrock might not have been rocked or dazed or knocked unconscious. But Ken was also not intelligently defending himself or otherwise trying to avoid the blows being landed on him; he was just holding up his arms and not doing anything else. It was the same situation we saw in the Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway fight; Aldo wasnât unconscious or rocked or dazed and he was holding up his hands to block the punches. But thatâs not enough to be considered intelligently defending yourself, and the Aldo/Holloway was rightfully called off. However, you cannot judge a stoppage in 2006 by the standards of 2017. You have to judge a stoppage in 2006 by the standards of 2006, and by the standards of 2006, it was an early stoppage and Herb Dean blew the call. The Rest To quell the unrest, Dana White was in the octagon and welcomed in his âfriend, Wanderlei Silva, the current PRIDE Middleweight Champion. Silva then proceed to tell us that âI want to fuck...I want to fight with Chuck, hereâ, and Chuck Liddell made his way into the octagon to accept the challenge and try and avoid any more embarrassment, and the fight was announced for November, if Chuck retains his UFC light heavyweight title against Renato Sobral. Only, the battle of the UFC and PRIDE champions never happened. In fact, the fight wasnât even signed when this angle took place, and the two wouldnât fight until UFC 79, long after PRIDE had died and Wanderlei had finally signed with the UFC. Quite what happened here is open for debate, but the general belief is that PRIDE played the UFC in order to get some publicity ahead of their US debut in October and never had any intention of agreeing to have Wanderlei fight Chuck. Josh Burkman and Josh Neer were quickly rushed out for their fight (yes; Tito vs. Ken was the third fight on the card) to try and calm the masses down. The two had a decent fight and it really wasnât all that bad, but the fans had had the wind taken out of their sails and didnât react much at all; Josh Burkman got the unanimous decision victory. The Official Main Event The trilogy fight between Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski was up next, and after the events of earlier in the evening, the UFC needed something kick ass to get the fans alive, something to fill the air with electricity. Instead, the air was filled with a 25:00 long spell of dull, dour and downright depressing cloud cover, as Sylvia and Arlovski produced one of the most boring fights in history. For 25:00 excruciatingly dull minutes, the two fighters pawed at each other with all the urgency of a casual Sunday afternoon stroll in the park. This fight, without a doubt, with complete certainly, and I can say this with confidence, absolutely sucked. Arlovski reportedly injured his leg in the second round and Sylvia may have been injured too, but thatâs no excuse for producing a fight virtually bereft of any attempt to do anything aggressive at all. If one part of the body is hurt, there are others for you to use. The Numbers The UFC were expecting a big audience and were no doubt appalled at what that audience would have witnessed. And when the numbers came in, the UFC had to be both delighted and despairing; UFC 61, built around a fight that ânobody wanted to seeâ, had drawn 775,000 buys, smashing past the previous PPV record for the company, 620,000, set in May by UFC 60 which was headlined by Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie. The UFC had pulled in their biggest PPV audience ever, and had delivered a card where the main event had been a fight so hideously boring that it put people into comaâs they still havenât woken up from, and where the ârealâ main event had ended with an early stoppage that had just about everyone irate and angry. UFC PPV numbers would remain soft or otherwise disappointing for quite a while after this night, and it wasnât until UFC 66 in December, headlined by Chuck vs. Tito II, that PPV business got back on track. But it was just one bad night, and like any bad night, whilst its effects can last a while, they donât last forever. The Ultimate Fighter: Team Joanna vs. Team ClĂĄudia Finale (July 8th 2016) The 23rd ideation of TUF was built around the menâs light heavyweight division and the womenâs strawweight division. Given that TUF is generally used to build up a fight between the two opposing coaches, it was no surprise to see the UFC pick coaches with a rivalry, although it was a mild surprise, given that men were part of TUF this season, when Joanna JÄdrzejczyk and ClĂĄudia Gadelha were announced as the coaches for TUF 23. The Rivalry Joanna JÄdrzejczyk and ClĂĄudia Gadelha had developed a rivalry ever since their first fight against each other, at UFC on Fox: dos Santos vs. Miocic, in December 2014. Joanna had won a close fought fight by split-decision, a victory that ClĂĄudia felt should have gone her way, and very likely should have. In fact, ClĂĄudia, for whatever reason, was so incensed she actually punched Joanna after the bell, later claiming to have not heard the bell and known the round was over. In any event, Joanna had won and in doing so, she had given ClĂĄudia her first defeat. Whatever her reasons for lashing out, ClĂĄudia could only watch on from the sidelines as Joanna went on to challenge reigning UFC womenâs strawweight champion Carla Esparza. It would be a fight where Joanna handed out a vicious beating en route to a second round TKO victory and with it, claim the UFC Womenâs Strawweight Championship. It could only have infuriated ClĂĄudia even more to see Joanna make full use of a title shot that ClĂĄudia felt should have been hers. In any event, injury would mean that ClĂĄudia would fight only once after that loss, a unanimous decision victory over former WSOF womenâs strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar, before getting the call to coach opposite her rival. However, ClĂĄudia intended to avenge her lone career loss, and gain not just revenge, but the UFC Womenâs Strawweight Championship. It was not going to be easy, though. After claiming the womenâs strawweight title, Joanna had retained her title twice, with a brutal one-sided beatdown of Jessica Penna being followed by a dominant unanimous decision victory over ValĂ©rie LĂ©tourneau. There had been no love lost between Joanna and ClĂĄudia since their first fight, and the tension between the two was plain to see throughout the shooting of TUF. Things were so bad that the two reportedly got into a fight at the UFC gym right after the cameraâs had stopped rolling. And whilst some felt this was just a PR stunt, from most accounts, the fight was very real, as was the bad blood, and it added a spark to a fight that was already a powder keg ready to explode. The TUF Tournaments There was more to TUF than just the coaches; there were eight men and woman all vying for a chance to win their respective tournament and with it, become the TUF champion. In the light heavyweight tournament, things didnât go so well for Team Joanna, as only one of her fights won his elimination match. However, one of Team ClĂĄudiaâs fighters was subsequently injured and forced out of the competition. He was replaced by the fighter he had beaten, Khalil Rountree, which meant two men from Team ClĂĄudia and two men from Team Joanna won were in the semi-finals, allowing teammate to be put against teammate so as to ensure a Team Joanna vs. Team ClĂĄudia tournament final. Things were even worse for Team Joanna in the womenâs strawweight tournament, as Team ClĂĄudia completed a shut-out, winning all four elimination matches. This meant that the team led by the reigning womenâs strawweight would have no further involvement in the womenâs strawweight tournament. The two tournaments had come down to two finals. In the lightweight tournament final, it would be Andrew Sanchez from Team ClĂĄudia against Khalil Rountree from Team Joanna. And in the womenâs strawweight tournament final, it would be Amanda Cooper against Tatiana Suarez, with both women from Team ClĂĄudia. As well as the battle of the coaches and the two tournament finals, there would be other fights on that TUF finale card, and as always, there were a few changes to the bill. TUF Brazil winner Cezar Ferreira replaced Scott Askham against Anthony Smith; Kevin Lee replaced Stevie Ray against Jake Matthews; and former Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks was a late replacement (25 days notice) for James Krause against former TUF: US vs. UK lightweight winner, Ross Pearson. The TUF 23 Finale The Fight Pass prelims got things off to a good start, with Li Jingliang coming back from being dominated on the ground by Anton Zafir to actually knock Zafir out cold with some ground and pound, and Kevin Lee getting a ground and pound a TKO win over Jake Matthews. The FS1 Prelims werenât quite as enthralling, with all four fights going the distance, resulting in two unanimous decisions, a split decision and a majority decision. The main card saw the action take a big upswing, with Joaquim Silva maintaining his perfect record with a 34-second knockout of Andrew Holbrook, and the âKorean Superboyâ Do Ho Choi making it three first round finishes in a row with a knockout victory over Thiago Tavares. It was this win that really made Choi a fighter to watch out for, and led to his highest profile fight to date, which weâll get to in due course. Will Brooks had a successful UFC against Ross Pearson, winning by unanimous decision, but the fight and performance failed to impress, so expectations for Brooks in the UFC were not that great. The TUF Tournament Finals Then it came time for the first of the two TUF tournament finals, with Amanda Cooper facing Tatiana Suarez in the womenâs strawweight final. Cooper initially dominated Suarez on the ground, almost getting an armbar, but Suarez soon took over and when Cooper tried to roll out from under Suarez, Suarez caught her in a D'Arce choke and choked Cooper out in 3:43 of the first round. Suarez looked good here, as did Cooper, but injuries have prevented Suarez from fighting since this night, so weâve not been able to see what kind of improvements sheâs made. The menâs light heavyweight tournament final between Andrew Sanchez and Khalil Rountree was not the most exciting of fights, with Sanchez using a lot of grappling to control Rountree for most of the fight, including lots of smothering him against the fence. It wasnât exciting but it got the job done and Sanchez won the fight to become the TUF 23 lightweight tournament winner. Joanna JÄdrzejczyk vs. ClĂĄudia Gadelha II Joanna JÄdrzejczyk and ClĂĄudia Gadelha were up next in the main event, the battle of the coaches, five rounds for the UFC womenâs strawweight championship. Over the course of TUF 23, Joanna had not come off in a great light. Her overall attitude and demeanour, as well as comments that included Joanna essentially telling ClĂĄudia to âgo back to the jungle where you belongâ had her coming across as an arrogant bully who was a racist. In any event, Joanna did not get the warmest of receptions when being introduced. The main event was a fight of two halves, with ClĂĄudia completely dominating Joanna for the first two rounds, taking her down and controlling and smothering her on the ground. They were easy 10-9s for the challenger and, under the new scoring system, may have even been 10-8s. In the third round, though, things swung in the favour of Joanna, who was starting to find a home for her strikes, with ClĂĄudia simply too tired to keep up the pace; by the end of the round, ClĂĄudia looked exhausted. The fourth round was all Joanna as she began to really pick ClĂĄudia apart, the challenger having to play defence for the entire round. The fifth round was a little more competitive, with ClĂĄudia able to go back to the grappling strategy that had worked for her in the first two rounds. But she just didnât have the strength to keep it up and even found Joanna smothering her against the fence. Joanna was still able to land strikes as well, so it was an easy round for the champion, who had come back from being totally dominated to earn a unanimous decision victory and retain her title. Even though she lost, ClĂĄudia Gadelha provided a blueprint to follow to in order to have the best chance of beating Joanna JÄdrzejczyk, which is that if youâre not a better striker, then you need to have the wrestling ability to smother Joanna against the fence or control her on the ground. Thatâs Joannaâs weakness, being on the ground, at least at the moment, and if you have the stamina to exploit that for five rounds, you can beat her. Unfortunately for ClĂĄudia, she didnât have the gas tank to keep up what appeared to be the winning strategy for five rounds. Iâm not sure there is anyone else in the womenâs strawweight division who could employ this strategy, so for the time being, Joanna looks set to reign for quite a while. Tomorrowâs entry will be the biggest yet. Such is the burden of discussing UFC 200, an event packed with incidents both before and after the fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 8, 2017 Share Posted July 8, 2017 Ahhhh, UFC 61, I looked forward to it for weeks beforehand. Ortiz had been on top form in the build up. He never came across better than he did on TUF 3. In contrast, Ken never came across worse than he did on TUF 3. Ortiz's promos leading up to the event were convincing as well. You could believe that he really did hate Ken. Perhaps if I relived all of this now, I would have a different perspective; but this is how I recall feeling at the time. As stated, the event itself was a shambles. Even in the first half of 2006 when the UFC was gaining momentum commercially, there were those who felt the promotion was a bit of a joke compared to Pride. UFC 61 gave them all the ammunition they needed. It was perhaps Pride's last stand as the outright best MMA promotion in the world (from a sporting perspective). The UFC would not produce a show of this quality again while Pride was still in business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share Posted July 8, 2017 1 hour ago, jimufctna24 said: In contrast, Ken never came across worse than he did on TUF 3. It was almost mindblowing how badly Ken came off. He was stuck in the 90s mindset of how you should train. It was embarrassing to see how time had passed him by and that he didn't even realize it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 8, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2017 Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 8, 2017 Share Posted July 8, 2017 11 minutes ago, Noah Southworth said: It was almost mindblowing how badly Ken came off. He was stuck in the 90s mindset of how you should train. It was embarrassing to see how time had passed him by and that he didn't even realize it. His training was that crap, that the UFC sent his fighters elsewhere for guidance. This wasn't picked up on the show itself, but was leaked out afterwards. The saddest thing about it all is that Ken is normally a class act. Yet on the show. he came across as a right wanker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members herbie747 Posted July 8, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted July 8, 2017 These posts are great. Thanks @Noah Southworth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 11 hours ago, herbie747 said: These posts are great. Thanks @Noah Southworth Thanks. I really enjoy writing them. I do wonder whether the longer entries are off-putting, but at the same time, the bigger events give you a lot to talk about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 9, 2017 Author Share Posted July 9, 2017 On This Day in MMA History (July 9th) KOTC 56: Caliente (July 9th 2005) The only reasons this event gets mentioned are that Charles Bennet won his fight when his opponent dislocated his thumb, and perennial jobber Shannon Ritch actually won a fight, albeit only due to disqualification. Donât worry, because normal service was soon resumed and Ritch would lose his next ten fights. Invicta FC 13: Cyborg vs. Van Duin (July 9th 2015) The main event to this would see Cyborg making the second defence of her Invicta FC Featherweight Championship against Faith Van Duin. As with, well, all Cyborgâs fights, the complaint was that she was facing an undersized and overmatched opponent. The fight going 45-seconds and Van Duin offering no resistance did little to quiet those claims. Itâs the type of fight youâll see more of in the UFC, for as long as the UFCâs womenâs featherweight division is around, however long that might turn out to be, because there just arenât enough good female featherweights to make a go of the division. Elsewhere on this event, Tonya Evinger claimed the vacant bantamweight title with a win over Irena Aldana, and Ayaka Hamasaki would earn a hard-fought split-decision win over HĂ©rica TibĂșrcio to claim the atomweight title. This was the first title defence for HĂ©rica, who had won the title from Michelle Waterson at Invicta FC 10 in an absolutely sensational fight. The other fight of interest was the opener, which saw Ronday Rouseyâs friend, Marina Shafir, getting hammered into unconsciousness in 37-seconds by Amber Leibrock. Marina took several more punches than she should have because Steve Mazzagatti was slow off the mark to recognize that Shafir was out cold. UFC 200: Tate vs. Nunes (July 9th 2016) The UFCâs biggest PPV of all time from a marketing and promotional perspective, at least until UFC 205 in November, went through so many changes, so many twists and turns, that the build up to it rivalled any pro wrestling feud. The UFC 200 Main Event The original main event for UFC 200 was going to be a rematch between the UFC featherweight weight champion Conor McGregor, and Nate Diaz. The two men had first fought at UFC 196 when Diaz, who was a late replacement for lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, ended up shocking a lot of people by choking out McGregor in the second round. Their fight had been held at welterweight, due to Diaz being a late replacement and not having the time to cut to lightweight, and the rematch was also to be contested at welterweight. However, on April 19th, Conor tweeted that he was retired, and the UFC subsequently announced that Conor had been pulled from UFC 200. Despite Conor later tweeting that he was not retired, and then claiming he was back on the card, the UFC held firm and the Conor McGregor vs. Nate Match was off of UFC 200. It was later revealed that the cause of the rift between Conor and the UFC would be Conorâs refusal to fulfil all the media commitments surrounding the promotion of UFC 200. Conor wanted to dedicate as much time as possible to his rematch with Nate Diaz, and refused to do more than what he felt was the minimum required in terms of press and media. The UFC obviously didnât see things that way, and after Conor claimed to have retired, they called his bluff and removed him from UFC 200 altogether. With the planned main event off the table, the UFC needed a new main event, one worthy of headlining the biggest PPV in UFC history, and on April 27th, it was announced that the main event of UFC 200 would be another rematch, as Daniel Cormier would defend the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against the former champion, Jon Jones. Jones and Cormier had first fought at UFC 182 in early 2015 in what was a highly anticipated grudge match. Despite some early success, Cormier seemed to fade as the fight went on, and a gleeful Jones, who further antagonized Cormier at the post-fight press conference, retained the light heavyweight title. Jones never lost the light heavyweight title in the octagon, as he was stripped of the title in April of that year, after being involved in a felony hit-and-run, which had been the latest in a long line of problems and issues surrounding Jones. Jones was removed from his upcoming UFC 187 title defence against Anthony Johnson, and Cormier took his place, Cormier then choking Johnson out in the third round to claim the vacant light heavyweight title. Cormier had then retained the title against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 192, but to many people, Cormier was not the real light heavyweight champion. In their minds, that was still Jon Jones because Jones had not lost the title in the octagon. For Cormier, this rematch was not just the chance to avenge the only loss of his career, but to solidify his status as the UFC light heavyweight champion. The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Three days before UFC 200, the worst thing that could have happened for the UFC did in fact happen. The main event to UFC 200 fell apart. Again. On July 6th, it was announced that Jon Jones had been flagged by USADA for an anti-doping violation stemming from an out-of-competition taste taken on June 16th. Jones would later plead his tearful innocence at a press conference, subsequently claiming his test failure was a result of taking a cialis pill (a drug to treat erectile dysfunction) that someone had handed to him one night. Daniel Cormier was angry and upset, Cormierâs reaction being something the UFC cameras captured in all its glory as part of their online âEmbeddedâ series of video blogs. Cormier asked if there was any way for the fight still take place, Cormier even offering to sign a waiver to allow the fight to still take place. But that was never going to happen and once more, the UFC found itself scrambling to find a replacement fight for UFC 200, this time with just three days lead time. Their saviour turned out to be a fighter that nobody ever expected it to be. Just one day after Jonesâ failure was announced, during the live broadcast of UFC Fight Night: Dos Anjos vs. Alvarez, it was announced that Daniel Cormierâs new opponent would be none other than the former middleweight champion and the fighter widely considered to be the best of all time, Anderson âThe Spiderâ Silva. To say this one caught people by surprise would be an understatement. Of all the possible replacements for Jones, Anderson Silva was one that nobody considered. There were some caveats, though; it would be a three-round fight, due to Silva having had no time to train, and it would also be non-title. For the UFC, there was still the problem of what the main event of UFC 200 would actually be. One option was to move Miesha Tateâs womenâs bantamweight title defence against Amanda Nunes up to the main event slot. Tate was a big enough name that she could fit right into the main event, and it would be a title fight as well. The downside was that, at this time, Amanda Nunes had little name value and the idea of Amanda Nunes being in the main event of UFC 200 seemed almost surreal. But it was no less surreal than the other option UFC had on the table, and it was a fight involving someone whose UFC return came as a shock to say the least. âCan You See Me Now? Can You See Me Now?â It seemed like just your normal promotional video when, part way through UFC 199, they played the promotional video for UFC 200. And it ended just like your normal promotional video, with the main car being listed on screen and fading to black. Then, someone appeared in the video that, unless you had been scouring the internet for news in the previous couple of days, nobody knew or expected to see in the UFC again. Brock Lesnar was back and he was fighting at UFC 200. Brock Lesnar had made a huge impact in his original run in the UFC. Despite falling to Frank Mir in his UFC debut, in what was only his second ever MMA fight, Lesnar would go on to claim the UFC heavyweight title by defeating Randy Couture. Lesnar would avenge his loss to Frank Mir in the main event of UFC 100, the UFCâs first milestone PPV, Lesnar then withstanding a major beating against Shane Carwin at UFC 116 before submitting Carwin to again retain his title. Lesnar would lose the heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez, and then lose to Alistair Overeeem at UFC 141 at the end of 2011, in a fight that really should have ended up being a no-contest thanks to Overeemâs drug issues but weâll get to that in due course. After the Overeem fight, Lesnar announced his retirement, in part due to health issues; Lesnar had long been plagued by diverticulitis, even requiring major surgery that resulted in the removal of 12-inches of his colon. Lesnar would eventually make a grand return to WWE on the Raw the night after Wrestlemania the following year, signing a three-year deal with the company. Three years later, Lesnarâs WWE contract was set to expire, and there was heavy speculation that Brock was considering a return to MMA. There was even talk, talk that Lesnar himself later confirmed as being true, that Lesnar had gone through a âtest campâ to see if fighting was something he could still do. On March 24th, on ESPNâs Sportscenter, Brock was the studio guest, ostensibly to announce what his next career move would be, although it was considered a given that, due to WWE and ESPNâs relationship, Lesnar wouldnât be going on if he was going to announce he was returning to MMA. And when Brock revealed that he was indeed re-signing with WWE, for another three-year deal, it was considered the formal closing of Brock Lesnarâs MMA career. Lesnar admitted a desire to keep fighting, but felt that being a father and a family man meant it was time put his dreams of a return to the octagon to bed for good. It seemed like Brock had finally closed the door for good on his MMA career. And that was what everybody believed until the hours leading up to UFC 199, when MMAFighting.com reporter Ariel Helwani broke the news that Lesnar and the UFC were close to finalizing a deal that would see Lesnar return to action at UFC 200. There had always been rumours of a Brock return and they had always been dismissed out of hand. But Helwaniâs confirmation that the negotiations were both real and serious, made the dream of a Brock Lesnar return seem more like a reality. The UFC did not respond well to Helwani breaking the news before they were ready to announce it, and weâll talk more about that when we get around to UFC 199, but the news was out. Brock Lesnar was coming back at UFC 200. Of course, the natural question was who would Lesnar be facing at UFC 200, and just a few days later, we got the answer. Lesnarâs opponent for his return would be former K-1 star, the ultra hard-hitting Mark Hunt. It was a dangerous but winnable fight for Lesnar. Hunt had fists like sledgehammers and was known for his walk-off knockouts. But Hunt was also known for having not the best takedown defence and not having much to offer on the ground once he got there. If Lesnar could avoid the heavy hands of Hunt, he had every chance of making his octagon return a successful one. The UFC 200 Main Card UFC 200 had five big fights on the main card, in addition to Cormier/Silva and Lesnar/Hunt, and two of them were title fights. Miesha Tate was making the first defence of her womenâs bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes, who was looking to become the first Brazilian female to become a UFC champion. Tate had won the title in a dramatic come-from-behind victory over Holly Holm at UFC 196; Holm was thought to be set for a long title reign after her shocking upset win over Ronday Rousey at UFC 193. Tate defied the odds, and, in a fight she was probably going to lose had it gone to the scorecards, rallied to choke Holm unconscious and claim the UFC Womenâs Bantamweight Championship. Amanda Nunes, meanwhile, had looked to be wrecking machine since her TKO loss to Cat Zingano at UFC 178; Nunes had destroyed Shayna Baszler, submitted Sara McMann, and defended against a late surge to beat Valentina Shevchenko by unanimous decision. Nunes, whilst not having the name value of Tate, was considered to be a serious threat to her title, and it was felt that a title change was a distinct possibility. With Conor McGregor still busy looking to avenge his loss to Nate Diaz, it meant the featherweight division was still in a state of limbo as McGregor, the featherweight champion, was unable to defend his title. So the UFC sought to address that by creating an interim featherweight champion, who would then face McGregor when McGregor returned to the featherweight division after completing his business with Nate Diaz. The two men selected to fight for the interim featherweight champion were two men no strangers to each other or the featherweight division. At UFC 200, it would be Jose Aldo facing Frankie Edgar. Jose Aldo had been the long-time featherweight kingpin before being unceremoniously deposed by Conor McGregor in just 13-seconds at UFC 194. Before then, Aldo had racked up seven successful title defences, one of them being against Frankie Edgar in Edgarâs debut fight in the featherweight division. Aldo had won their first fight by unanimous decision, although Frankie had made sure it was a competitive fight. Aldo had not fought since the title loss to Conor, but his status as the perennial champion of the division made his participation in the fight an obvious decision to make. Frankie, meanwhile, had reeled off five straight victories since losing Aldo, including an impress knock out over Chad Mendes, so Edgar being Aldoâs opponent made sense, and these two former adversaries would once again fight each other at UFC 200. The opener to UFC 200 would see former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez return to action for the first time in almost a year, his last being his title loss to Fabricio Werdum. Velasquez, as was his custom, it seemed, had been sidelined due to injuries, and would be looking to re-establish himself in the heavyweight division. Browne, meanwhile, was coming off of a controversial win over Matt Mitrione, controversial because of alleged repeated eye-poking from Browne. Browne would be hoping to move on from that controversy with what would be the biggest win of his career. And the Main Event of UFC 200 isâŠ? The UFC had options for which fight to put in the main event slot. They could put a title fight in that position, in which case its choices were Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar or Miesha Tata vs. Amanda Nunes. Or they could go with the fight that, by virtue of Cormier/Jones falling apart, and maybe even before then, was the biggest box office fight on the card, the returning Brock Lesnar against Mark Hunt. All three of them were viable options, but in the end, the UFC decided, as one might have expected, to put a title fight in the main event. In this instance, it would the women headlining the biggest UFC PPV of all time, as the main event of UFC 200 would be Miesha Tate defending the UFC Womenâs Bantamweight Championship against Amanda Nunes. The Rest of UFC 200 Given the nature of UFC 200, it was no surprise to see the UFC pack the preliminary fight cards on both Fight Pass and FS1. Fight Pass would see Former PRIDE lightweight champion Takanori Gomi open up the evening in a fight with Jim Miller. Gegard Mousasi was set to face Derek Brunson, although Brunson would withdraw due to injury on June 19th and be replaced by Thiago Santos. And the Fight Pass main event would see a battle of UFC mainstays, as TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez would face Joe Lauzon. The FS1 card would be opened up by UFCâs resident pet-project, Sage Northcutt taking on Enrique Marin. Former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw would be rematched against Raphael Assunção; Assunção had beaten Dillashaw by split-decision in their first fight back in October 2013. Former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks would face TUF 17 welterweight tournament winner Kelvin Gastelum; as would become his custom, Hendricks missed weight. And the FS1 main event would be former womenâs bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano taking on a woman who hoped to be a title contender herself one day, TUF 18 tournament winner, Julianna Peña. From top to bottom, UFC 200 was a stacked card, with UFC making every effort to make their biggest PPV ever a blowaway event. UFC 200: Fight Pass Prelims The first fight of the night was a bad way to start things if you were a fan of PRIDE, as Jim Miller walked through Takanori Gomi with minimal resistance, Miller TKOâing Gomi in 2:18 of the first round. It would be Gomiâs third straight TKO loss in the first round, while the victory for Miller would snap a two-fight losing streak. It took a while to get going, but once it did, the fight between Gegard Mousasi and Thiago Santos went in Mousasiâs favour, the Dutchman knocking Santos out in 4:32, the loss ending Santosâ four-fight win streak. The Fight Pass main event had expectations of being a cracker, and the finish was certainly explosive as Joe Lauzon became the first fighter to finish Diego Sanchez with strikes, Lauzon knocking Sanchez out in only 1:26 It should be noted that the mat canvas used tonight was garish looking yellow. It did not go over well with many people. UFC 200: FS1 Prelims The FS1 prelims didnât really live up the excitement of the Fight Pass fights. Sage Northcuttâs unanimous decision win over Enrique Marin was capable enough but it showed just how far Northcutt has to go before being considered event a decent all-round fighter. TJ Dillashaw eased passed Raphael Assunção with a comfortable unanimous decision victory, with Dillashaw having improved so much since their first fight. Similarly, Kelvin Gastelum didnât have a lot to be troubled by in his unanimous decision victory over former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks. And Julianna Peña put her name in the mix for top bantamweight contenders with a strong performance in her unanimous decision victory over Cat Zingano, who was fighting for the first time since her 14-second loss to Ronda Rousey back at UFC 184. UFC 200: Main Card Cain Velasquez looked great in his first round TKO win over Travis Browne. The former heavyweight champion walked Browne down before using wrestling and clinch work to wear him down with punches. Velasquez even pulled out a wheel kick to send Browne backing up into the fence. Velasquez soon took Browne down, pounding him out ot the stoppage in 4:57. Velasquez looked good here and back to near his best, but you canât help but wonder if Cainâs physical peak is passing and how he probably never reached his true potential due to so many injuries. Cain was thought to be the guy who would dominate the heavyweight division after dismantling Brock, but that never really happened. Too many injuries stifled both Cainâs career and his development as a fighter. Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar picked up where they left off in their first fight; Edgar being good enough to make Aldo work for his troubles but not quite good enough to actually trouble him. Frankie Edgar is a great fighter but Aldo was just a step ahead of him throughout. Aldo won by unanimous decision and claimed the interim featherweight title. It was expected after this performance that Aldo would either get a rematch with Conor McGregor or, if McGregor moved up to challenge the lightweight champion, that Aldo would resume his dominance of the featherweight division as champion. Whilst the former could still theoretically happen, the hopes of the latter coming to pass would seem to have been dashed at UFC 212. Next was the fight put together just two days prior, Daniel Cormier, the light heavyweight champion, in a non-title fight against Anderson Silva. Cormier was, as always, until recently, not as popular as youâd think someone like Cormier should be. Put someone like that against a sentimental favourite like Anderson Silva, who people wanted to see turn back the clock and it wasnât a shock to see Cormier getting heavily booed. Nor was it a shock when those boos became thunderous as Cormier grappled and controlled Silva on the ground for fifteen very uneventful minutes. It wasnât the type of fights fans are predisposed to liking to begin with. But have it involve a fighter who, for whatever reason, fans had yet to warm to, controlling and neutralizing a fighter who fans wanted to see repeat the performances of days gone past, and you have a recipe for one of the worst received fights of the year. It wasnât that the fight was necessarily that bad, although it was fairly boring; it was just the complete antithesis of the fight the fans wanted to see. And they let that fact be known quite vociferously. Brock Lesnarâs big UFC return was in the co-main event of the biggest PPV of the year. If Lesnar had nerves about returning to MMA, or any apprehension about facing the heavy-handed Mark Hunt, he wasnât showing it on his walk to the octagon. For his part, Mark Hunt, who knew what kind of threat Lesnar posed, was equally relaxed looking as he made his way out. One downer for this fight was that Lesnarâs walk-in music was originally going to be his WWE entrance music, and hearing that on a UFC PPV would have been surreal, especially to see what reaction it got. For whatever reason, though, UFC went with Lesnarâs prior walk-in music, âEnter Sandmanâ by Metallica. The fight itself was not that bad, and Lesnar looked pretty good considering his time away from the sport. Lesnar was pretty cagey throughout, not looking to get too much within punching range of Hunt. When Lesnar was able to get hold of Hunt, he was, eventually, able to take him down and when he did, Lesnar controlled Hunt and peppered him with punches. Lesnar didnât have it all his own way, though; Hunt blocked a takedown in the second round to keep the fight standing, and even landed a good punch that Lesnar took well. But Lesnarâs measured approach allowed him to minimize the risk, dictate the pace of the fight, and gave him the unanimous decision victory with 29-27 scores across the board. In his post-fight interview, Lesnar was humble and polite, very respectful, and after stating his support for the men who protect and serve and espousing solidarity for everyone, Lesnar got a tremendous reception from the fans. The Main Event In the main event that wasnât expected to be the main event, Miesha Tate defended the UFC Womenâs Bantamweight Championship against Amanda Nunes. Nunes looked to be quietly confident as she walked to the octagon, as if she was preparing herself for something she had already practiced many times. Tate, however, looked a little nervous, almost apprehensive, and when she let out a roar as he walked out into the arena, it felt like Tate was trying to psych herself up for the fight ahead. Even during the introductions, Tate looked nervous. Whatever nerves Tate was feeling couldnât have been helped when Nunes easily escaped her initial takedown attempt just over a minute in. Less than a minute after that, Nunes landed a powerful jab that had Miesha backing up; Nunes piled on the pressure, landing powerful, methodical punches that were clearly hurting Tate, and soon, Tate was down and in real trouble. Tate got back to her feet but she was bloodied and dazed; a failed takedown attempt saw Nunes quickly the back of Tate, and the challenger quickly worked her way into a rear-naked choke, and a beaten and bloodied Tate tapped out. Amanda Nunes was the new UFC Womenâs Bantamweight Champion and she had made it look so, so easy. Nunesâ title victory capped off what had been, on the whole, a very good night of action. The Fight Pass prelims had got things off to a great start, and whilst the FS1 prelims sort of dropped the ball, the main card, for the most part, picked it up and ran with it. The UFC were happy; a packed house of 18,202 for a gate of $10.7 million made for pleasant reading at the end of the night. Brock Lesnar had made a successful return to MMA, perhaps opening the door for another fight down the road. Cain Velasquez had also returned and had lined himself up for a contenders fight after a great showing against Travis Browne. And whilst Miesha Tate had lost the Womenâs Bantamweight Championship to Amanda Nunes, thus likely preventing a lucrative trilogy fight with Ronda Rousey whenever she made her return, the new champion came across as a genuine monster, and which would make for an interesting dynamic whenever the former champion, Rousey, decided to make her return to the octagon. Things were decidedly looking up for the UFC, especially with their debut in MSG scheduled for later in the year. The Aftermath of UFC 200 (Brock Lesnar) Unfortunately, things were not looking up for long. Six days after UFC 200, on July 15th, it was announced that Brock Lesnar had been informed of a potential Anti-Doping Policy as a result of an out-of-competition test collected on June 28. If that was bad enough, and it was, it was then announced on July 19th that Brock had failed a second test, this time an in-competition test, for the same substance that he failed the first test for. The substance was later to be revealed as hydroxy-clomiphene, an anti estrogen that is associated with steroid use, as it combats an aesthetically displeasing side-effect of steroid use; gynecomastia, aka âbitch titsâ. And whilst there are other causes for gynecomastia in a man, itâs often a red flag for steroid use. There were a number of issues surrounding Brockâs failed tests, and none of them painted those involved in a positive light. Brock was not subject to the mandatory four-month testing period that retired fighters have be put through before being able to fight again. Whilst this raised eyebrows, the simple truth about this was that Brock did not have to go through the testing period as he retired before those rules were in place, and you couldnât apply the rules retroactively. Brock, due to his part-time status with WWE, was not subject to the Wellness Policy. This meant that, in theory, Brock could have been jacked up on whatever he liked while in WWE. And whilst not proof of anything, Brockâs physique did undergo some very noticeable changes at the start of the year, suggesting that, if he were on anything, he was tapering down use ahead of a period when he knew he would be drug tested. This in turn led to an embarrassing revelation that Brock had only actually begun to undergo testing once the bout agreement was signed, and that only happened about a month or so out. And whilst Brock was tested several times, he had, in theory, plenty of time to clear his system of anything he might have been taking beforehand. The changes in Brockâs physique, if they were down to his anticipation of being drug test, certainly indicated he knew, or believed, he would fighting again in the near future. This also led to the somewhat embarrassing revelation that all part-timers, such as, say, Triple H, were likewise not subject to the Wellness Policy. Another issue was the time it took for Brockâs test results to come back. Brock was tested on June 28th but the results had not come back for almost three weeks. Again, eyebrows were raised, and it was implied by some, outright stated by others, that Brockâs positive test results were withheld so that he could still fight at UFC 200. Obviously, the UFC and USADA denied this, but to some, these and the other issues surrounding the status of Brock Lesnarâs drug testing, led to claims and suspicions of collusion. And on January 11th of this year, Mark Hunt filed a civil suit against the UFC, Dana White, and Brock Lesnar, essentially claiming just that. As of time of writing, the lawsuit is still ongoing, so where it leads and what it leads to remains unknown. Eventually, Lesnar would be suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission; on December 15th, he was suspended for one-year, retroactive to July 9th, the date of UFC 200. Lesnar was also fined 10% of his purse, a purse that, Mark Hunt, in his lawsuit, was seeking to claim. Lesnar would also be suspended by USADA, also for one-year, but this suspension was retroactive to the day he was provisionally suspended, July 15th. Lesnar remained under the drug testing auspices of USADA until February 17th when he formally informed the UFC he was retiring. Lesnarâs suspension was frozen, so if Lesnar ever decides he wants to fight again, he must serve the rest of his suspension before he is able to fight again. The Aftermath of UFC 200 (Jon Jones) On July 18th, the NSAC announced that Jones had also tested positive for hydroxy-clomiphene, as well as letrozole metabolite, an aromatase inhibitor. On November 7th, Jones was suspended by USADA for one-year, retroactive to the date of his provisional suspension, July 6th. This meant he would be eligible to fight again from July 7th of this year. Two days later, on July 8th of 2016, the UFC announced that Jones was stripped of the interim light heavyweight title, making him the first fighter in UFC history to be stripped of a title twice. On November 7, 2016, it was announced that Jones had been suspended one year by USADA. Jones will be eligible to return to competition on July 7, 2017. On December 15, Jones was also suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for one year. Epilogue UFC 200 definitely went down in the history books, albeit for not entirely positive reasons. And the after effects are still being ruminated today. Mark Huntâs lawsuit remains outstanding and the fact that it is suggests that anything could result from it. Jon Jones has yet to return to MMA, and even though he is scheduled to face Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 214 on July 29th, the scepticism over Jones actually making it to 214 is such that many feel UFC have stacked the card just in case Jones is pulled again and any negative impact on the marketability of 214 is minimized. As such, UFC 200âs place in history is immortalized forever. Even if there are many who wish some of the reasons for its place in history werenât quite so immortal. There will be no entry for tomorrow, July 10th, due to nothing substantial taking place on that date.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Southworth Posted July 10, 2017 Author Share Posted July 10, 2017 On This Day in MMA History (July 10th) DREAM 15 (July 10th 2010) I know I said there wouldnât be an entry today, but this show slipped under the radar, so youâre getting one anyway. It featured the semi-finals of the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix and in the main event Shinya Aoki defended the DREAM Lightweight Championship against Tatsuya Kawajiri. In the Grand Prix, Melvin Manhoef faced Tatsuya Mizuno and Gegard Mousasi fought Jake OâBrien. OâBrien ended up missing weight, so went into the fight on a yellow card, with a point deduction, and he forfeited 10% of his purse. If that wasnât bad enough, he ended up getting choked out in 31-seconds. Tatsuya Mizuno survived an early storm and another flurry of action to eventually get Manhoef down to the ground, and keep him there, before submitting him with a kimura. After a pair rocking entrances and a live rendition of the Japanese national anthem, Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri had a pretty short fight and it was all Aoki; Aoki got a leglock practically right away, and whilst Kawajiri defended against it, he couldnât get out of Aokiâs grip and eventually, Aoki cranked it hard and got the tap at 1:53. Cue wild celebrations complete with confetti falling from the ceiling. Shinya Aoki is one of those fighters that you would have loved to have seen in the UFC but it was something that was never going to happen. Primarily this was due to money; the UFC would have been unlikely to given Aoki a payday commensurate to what he was getting in Japan, where he was major star. The other reason is that on the rare occasion he fought in the US and was fighting the best non-UFC names, he wasnât competitive at all Aoki fought two top non-UFC names; Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez. Melendez completely shut him down for 25:00 in Strikeforce; Aoki was never in that fight for a second. Two years later, almost to the day, he faced Alvarez, and was steamrollered in 2:14 and again, was never in the fight at all. It wasnât that Aoki wasnât talented; Aoki was a black belt in BJJ and Judo. It was just he wasnât elite as an overall fighter. Aoki was likely well aware of limitations; by his own words, Aoki was satisfied in the situation he was in Japan, in both terms of money and environment. He had no reason to push himself, no reason to go outside his comfort zone. You canât really blame Aoki, but at the same time, it would have great to see him against likes of a young(er) Tyson Griffin or Frankie Edgar or Clay Guida. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.