On This Day in MMA History

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (July 30th)

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson (July 30th 2011)

This was a Strikeforce event headlined by a battle between two legends of the sport. One was a fighter once considered to be the greatest of all time but who had since slipped from those lofty heights. The other was a man who made himself a legend in PRIDE and who was looking to affirm that he made the right move in leaving the UFC after having earned a title shot with his last fight with the company.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson (the build)

Fedor Emelianenko is widely considered to be the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time and he is one of the people in consideration when discussing just who the greatest fighter of all time is. Strikeforce had paid big money to secure the services of Fedor, because he was considered the best of all time. Fedor hadn’t lost a fight since 2000, although he was considered to be unbeaten as it was a loss that shouldn’t have been; Fedor lost due to a doctor stoppage, but it was the result of an illegal blow, and so the fight should have been ruled a no-contest, but as it was part of a tournament, a winner needed to be declared.

As such, Strikeforce were signing a fighter who was ‘undefeated’ and whose only blemish on his record was a no-contest, a fight stopped due to an accidental clash of heads. Fedor’s first fight in Strikforce in November of 2009 saw him face Brett Rogers, a heavy-hitting but limited fighter who had made a name for himself off of a 22-second knockout win over Andrei Arlovski in April of 2009. Fedor was wobbled early but had come back to win in brutal and decisive fashion in the second round. Fedor was then matched against former UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum in June of 2010, and in one of the biggest upsets in MMA history, Werdum halted the run of Fedor and put the first decisive loss on Fedor’s record by submitting him with a triangle choke in just 69-seconds.

It was a loss that, to his critics, proved Fedor was a paper tiger, whose reputation was based solely on his prime years and ignored the fact that, since 2005, he had yet to face an opponent who could be called top competition. Fedor then faced Antonion ‘Bigfoot’ Silva as part of Strikeforce’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, and Fedor was once again upset, with Silva scoring the TKO victory after the second round, with the doctor ruling Fedor unable to continue. The ‘myth of Fedor’ had well and truly been shattered. Of course, the reality is that Fedor hadn’t been a myth
nor had any myth been shattered; whilst Fedor was facing a bigger opponent, he had faced bigger and better in the past, and the simple fact was that, by this point, time had both caught up to Fedor and passed him by.

A pat hand doesn’t work forever, and it no longer worked for Fedor.

However, Fedor still had his supporters, and when it was announced that Fedor was going to be fighting Dan Henderson, it was considered to not just be a battle of the legends, but a chance for Fedor to regain face and stop the slide that had seen a man who was once felt to be the best of all time, to now be regarded as a relic of the past.

Dan Henderson had won one of the early UFC tournaments, at UFC 17, but had achieved his greatest success and reached legendary status, in PRIDE. In PRIDE, Henderson made MMA history by becoming the first fighter to hold two titles at the same time in a major promotion. Henderson had won the PRIDE Welterweight Championship (176lbs) in December of 2005 in Japan, and in February of 2007, in PRIDE’s second event in the US, Henderson scored a major upset when he knocked out Wanderlei Silva to claim the PRIDE Middleweight Championship (209.4lbs).

When PRIDE was sold to the UFC, Henderson made the move to the UFC, but after dropping unification fights with Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva, Henderson, like Fedor, was considered to a fighter whose time had passed. However, Henderson kept going and he won his next three fights, including a highlight reel knockout win over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. The win had secured Henderson a shot at UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, but it was the last fight of Henderson’s contract, and Henderson decided against re-signing with the UFC and instead made the jump to Strikeforce.

Henderson’s first fight in Strikeforce saw him challenge Jake Shields for the Strikeforce Middleweight Championship. Henderson dropped Shields in the first round and had him in serious trouble, but Henderson couldn’t finish Shields, and Henderson would end up gassing out and Shields would take the fight by unanimous decision. Henderson then moved back up to light heavyweight, and after beating Renato Sobral in a title eliminator, Henderson would subsequently challenge Rafael Cavalcante for the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Championship. And at Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson in March of 2011, Henderson scored the third round knockout to add yet another championship to his trophy case.

It was a victory and title win that seemed to finally vindicate Henderson’s move to Strikeforce; after Henderson had lost to Jake Shields, people wondered whether Henderson had made the right decision to leave the UFC. Now, though, Henderson was once again a champion and the anticipation began to build over who Henderson would face next. But it wouldn’t be a title defence that was next for Henderson. Instead, Henderson would be facing an opponent who like himself was a legend of the sport, but also like Henderson, was a fighter many considered to be in the twilight years of their career.

The Rest of the Card

The co-main event would see Marloes Coenen the Strikeforce Women's Welterweight Championship against Miesha Tate. Coenen had won the title from Sarah Kaufman at Strikeforce: San Jose, in October 2010, and Coenen then successfully retained the title against Liz Carmouche in the co-main event of Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson, with Coenen winning via submission in the fourth round. Tate had earned her title shot after reeling off three straight victories in Strikeforce; a submission win over Zoila Frausto Gurgel, and unanimous decision wins over Maiju Kujala and Hitomi Akano. Despite being a well rounded fighter, Tate would go into this fight as a major underdog against Coenen, who had a background as a striker but was noted for her excellent submission skills.

Scheduled to round out the main card was Tarec Saffiedine vs. Evangelista Santos and Tim Kennedy vs. Robbie Lawler

This would also be the last Strikeforce event featuring Gus Johnson as the play-by-play commentator. After tonight, Mauro Ranallo would move from colour commentary to the main play-by-play position, with Pat Miletich becoming the new colour commentator.

Card Changes

A fight between Rafael Cavalcante and Ovince St. Preux was planned for this card but was scrapped. They would eventually end up fighting each other in 2016, at UFC Fight Night 82. Evangelista Santos was set to fight Tarec Saffiedine, but Saffiedine was pulled from the fight and replaced by Paul Daley. Santos would himself then be withdrawn due to injury and was replaced by Tyron Woodley. Saffiedine would end up staying on this card and face Scott Smith. Roger Gracie was set to fight Muhammed Lawal but when Gracie was injured, the fight was rescheduled for Strikeforce World Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov in September. A fight between Ronda Rousey and Sarah D'Alelio was moved to Strikeforce Challengers: Gurgel vs. Duarte. Lyle Beerbohm was originally set to face Gesias Cavalcante, but was replaced by Bobby Green.

Marloes Coenen was set to defend the Strikeforce Women's Welterweight Championship against Miesha Tate; the fight would still take place, but the title was renamed the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Championship by Zuffa in order to maintain uniformity with the weight class names in the UFC.

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson

The opener saw Tarec Saffiedine dominate Scott Smith on his way to a unanimous decision victory. There were occasional moment of excitement, usually Smith taking a big kick or punch, but it felt like Saffiedine was reluctant to go for the kill. Saffiedine was coming off of his first career loss, so it’s possible he was playing it safe to avoid getting caught, which was always possible with someone like Smith.

Tyron Woodley and Paul Daley had a pretty boring fight, due to Woodley’s strategy of clinching with Daley and pressing him against the fence. Woodley also controlled Daley on the ground when he could take him down. It wasn’t entertaining to watch, but it was very effective, and it’s really the best way to fight against Daley because he has nothing to offer when he’s taken down.

The fight between Tim Kennedy and Robbie Lawler wasn’t much better, and it’s rare for a Robbie Lawler fight to not be exciting. There were flashes of excitement, mainly in the second round, and Kennedy got a cut on his nose that was bleeding heavily. But apart from that, it wasn’t much of a fight, and there were extended periods where there was literally nothing happening but the two fighters circling each other.

Marloes Coenen and Miesha Tate had a good fight; not great, but not bad, either. It was mostly contested on the ground, with Tate having the positional advantage when it was grappling, but when it was about submissions, Coenen was the dominant one. That was until almost three minutes into the fourth round when Tate was on top of Coenen by the fence; Tate began working for a head and arm triangle and Coenen didn’t see it coming until it was too late, and Coenen was forced to tap out for the first time in her career. Tate had scored the major upset to claim the Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Championship.

In the post-fight interview, they talked about Sarah Kaufman challenging Miesha Tate, with Tate looking to avenge a previous loss to Kaufman. That was the fight planned, Tate defending against Kaufman, but a certain Olympian had a few things to say about that.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson

Before the fight, they showed the results of a text poll, asking the question of whether Fedor will retire if he lost to Henderson. 57% said that Fedor would retire if he lost to Henderson. In the pre-fight talk by the announcers, the general tone was that Fedor should retire if he loses because it will be three in a row; Frank Shamrock said that a third loss for Fedor should be a serious wake up call, to either change up his game or retire, with Shamrock saying that if he was Fedor and he lost three in a row, he would retire.

For the record, Frank Shamrock did lose three in a row, in 1996-1997. He lost twice in Pancrase; by KO to Yuki Kondo and by unanimous decision to Kiuma Kunioku. He followed up on those by losing by split decision to John Lober. The loss to Kondo is a little unfair because that fight ended when Shamrock fell out of the ring and couldn’t continue.

Both fighters got mixed reactions when being introduced; Henderson was about 60/40 and Fedor was about 80/20.

The fight had a tremendous atmosphere. Henderson was throwing bombs early and it seemed like he was looking for the finish in what was his most likely route to victory. Henderson then clinched with Fedor and pressed him up against the fence, keeping him there for a few minutes. Fedor couldn’t escape and Henderson was making no attempt to improve or advance his position before breaking away and throwing a few more bombs. There were two minutes left in the first round and Henderson was breathing heavily and seemed to be tired. Fedor was then the one moving forward and throwing bombs, and Fedor clipped Henderson and dropped him. Fedor jumped on Henderson to throw more bombs, but Henderson reversed their position, and had Fedor’s back; Henderson clipped Fedor with a right hand and Fedor faceplanted into the mat. Fedor was out but as the referee steps in, Fedor recovered and starts to get up and Fedor and Henderson were still exchanging punches as the referee separated them, but it was all over and Dan Henderson had knocked out Fedor Emelianenko.

The Aftermath

The finish gets a huge reaction, but not all the fans are cheering and many clearly feel it was a bad stoppage, especially as Fedor and Henderson were still punching each other when the referee stepped in. The problem was that it was a flash knockout and the positioning of Henderson on Fedor made that hard to see from most angles; to a lot of the fans live, it looked like like a bad stoppage, especially as Henderson and Fedor were still fighting when the referee tried to separate them.

Another part of the problem is that the referee, Herb Dean, hesitated about stepping in to stop the fight, and by the time he takes action, Fedor has recovered, making the stoppage look really bad. But Fedor was clearly knocked out, however briefly, so the actual decision to stop the fight was good. It’s just that Herb Dean hesitated and made the stoppage look bad, when it wasn’t at all. The various replays show a lot of people in apparent shock, so the rep of Fedor, at least to the Strikeforce diehards, had still been relatively intact. If you wanted to, and a lot of Fedor fans did, you could call it a bad stoppage based on how it was handled and thus explain it away as not a real loss. But the fact remains Fedor was knocked out and it was a decisive finish, regardless of how poorly the referee handled things.

With this loss, Fedor would leave Strikeforce, thus ending Strikeforce’s co-promotional work with M-1 Global. It was that co-promotional aspect that, officially, was the big reason Fedor never signed with the UFC.

UFC 201: Lawler vs. Woodley (July 30th 2016)

This would be the UFC’s third event in Atlanta; Atlanta had previously hosted UFC 88 (Liddell vs. Evans) and UFC 145 (Jones vs. Evans). And this event would be headlined by battle of former training partners as UFC Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler defended the title against Tyron Woodley.

Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley (the build)

Robbie Lawler returned to the UFC at UFC 157 in February of 2013 and made an immediate impact with a first round TKO win over former title challenger Josh Koscheck. Lawler followed up on that with a knockout win over Robbie Voelker and a split decision win over Rory MacDonald. Those victories earned Lawler the spot opposite Johny Hendricks at UFC 171 in April 2014 in the fight to fill the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. It was a close fought battle, but it was Hendricks who came out the winner by unanimous decision.

Lawler rebounded from that loss in classic Lawler fashion; fighting twice in the next four months, Lawler gained wins over Jake Ellenberger (TKO) and Matt Brown (unanimous decision), the latter of which earned him a title rematch with Hendricks at UFC 181 in December of 2014. It was another hard fought battle, and this one went to a split decision, but it would be Lawler who walked away the winner and the UFC Welterweight Champion. Lawler would retain the title in successive wars, first beating Rory MacDonald by TKO at UFC 189 and then overcoming Carlos Condit by split decision at UFC 195.

Lawler remained the champion but both fights had been real wars, and it was felt that it would be only a matter of time before those wars caught up with Lawler, and when the next challenger for his title was announced, there was real thought given the possibility that this would indeed be the night that those wars did catch up with the champion.

Tyron Woodley entered the UFC with a 10-1 record and announced his arrival with a stunning 36-second knockout of Jay Hieron. Woodley then fought Jake Shields and dropped a closely contested split decision before scoring wins over Josh Koscheck and Carlos Condit. Woodley seemed ready for a title shot but would then lose to future title challenger Rory MacDonald at UFC 174. Not one to be deterred, Woodley bounced back with a devastating knockout win over Dong Hyun Kim before eking out a split decision win over Kelvin Gastelum. Woodley was then set to face former champion Johny Hendricks at UFC 192 on October 3rd in 2013. However, the day before the fight, Hendricks was forced out due to complications with weight cutting. Woodley was removed from the fight and in a controversial move to some, Woodley opted to remain on the sidelines as he decided to wait on a title fight he believed he had earned.

And in early May, on UFC Tonight, it was announced that the main event to UFC 201 would see Woodley get that title shot, as he would challenge Robbie Lawler for the UFC Welterweight Championship. It was a fight that many fans were looking forward to, and there seemed to be two schools of thought concerning this fight. Either the wars would catch up to Lawler, and he’d undoubtedly been in many, or the pressure of Lawler would cause Woodley to fade, something he’d done in the past when put under similar circumstances.

The Rest of the Card

The co-main event was originally going to be Demetrious Johnson defending the UFC Flyweight Championship against Wilson Reis. However, Johnson was pulled from the fight on July 8th due to an injury and the fight was rescheduled for UFC on FOX 24. Reis was expected to remain on the card, and fight Sean Santella, but Santella was removed from the fight, apparently due to insufficient time for the required medicals, and Reis would instead face Hector Sandoval, in a fight that would open up the FS2 Prelims.

The new co-main event would see a women’s strawweight fight moved up into the position, as Karolina Kowalkiewicz would face Rose Namajunas, in a match where a win for Kowalkiewicz would likely earn her a shot at divisional champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. In the other fights set for the the main card, Matt Brown would take on Jake Ellenberger, Érik Pérez would fight Francisco Rivera, and Ray Borg would face Freddy Serrano.

Card Changes

Cláudio Silva was scheduled to face Siyar Bahadurzada, but Silva was withdrawn due to injury and replaced by Jorge Masvidal. Bahadurzada would then pull out of the fight claiming illness, and he was then replaced by Ross Pearson. Ray Borg was set to face Fredy Serrano at the event, but pulled out on July 21st due to injury and was replaced by Ryan Benoit. Just Scoggins was to fight Ian McCall, but two days before the event, Scoggins announced he wasn’t going to be able to make the contracted weight due to a poor weight cut. The UFC pulled Scoggins from the fight and cancelled it altogether. McCall would still weight in, however, in case a replacement fighter was needed.

UFC 201 (the preliminary fights)

The card kicked off in explosive fashion with Damien Brown scoring a brutal first round knockout win over Cesar Arzamendia. Brown had initially dropped Arzamendia in 48-seconds with a right hook, but in the follow up, Brown almost got trapped with a heel hook. Arzamendia was still recovering, though, and when Brown dropped him again with a pair of quick right hooks, Brown pounced and delivered a pair of hard hammerfists to knock Arzamendia silly and get the win in just 2:27. This was Arzamendia’s second straight first round knockout loss and he was subsequently released.

Following a majority draw in the fight between Michael Graves and Bojan Veličković, the FS2 prelims got off to a quick start, as Wilson Reis rolled over Hector Sandoval in just 1:19, which was followed by Anthony Hamilton needing just 14-seconds to knock out Damian Grabowski. Just three weeks after getting fairly well dominated by Will Brooks, Ross Pearson repeated the feat against Jorge Masvidal, although in Pearson’s defence, it was a welterweight fight and Pearson usually fights at lightweight. Ed Herman survived a late first round flurry from Nikita Krylov but couldn’t survive a high kick just 39-seconds into the second round and Herman face-planted to the mat, completely unconscious in a nasty looking knockout.

UFC 201 (the main card)

Ryan Benoit and Freddy Serrano had a decent competitive fight. Serrano looked pretty good for guy having only his fourth pro fight. Benoit got the nod via split-decision. The next fight, between Érik Pérez and Francisco Rivera was pretty mundane for the first two rounds before they came out swinging in the third, after apparently agreeing to just throw down; it only lasted about twenty or thirty seconds before Pérez took Rivera down. It was the most excitement of the whole fight, and it resulted in Rivera being busted wide open. Pérez methodically worked Rivera over in this position for most of the rest of the round, which had the natives restless, but they were back on their feet and swinging for the final ten seconds of the fight. Pérez won by unanimous decision on scores of 30-26, 30-26 and 29-28, which is a little unfair to Rivera and makes the match sound more one-sided than it really was.

Matt Brown and Jake Ellenberger opened up explosively with Ellenberger dropping Brown with the first punch of the fight; Ellenberger went for the finish, hard, but couldn’t get it and Brown made it back to his feet. Ellenberger seemed tired already but he wasn’t too tired to land a vicious kick to the liver, felling Brown, who could offer no defence to the follow up punches and the referee halted the fight at 1:46 and Jake Ellenberger became the first fighter to stop Matt Brown with strikes.

The co-main event between Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Rose Namajunas was a decent fight, that was fairly competitive but Kowalkiewicz was by far the more dominant and Namajunas never had her in any trouble. Kowalkiewicz was landing a lot of strikes, especially in the clinch, and Namajunas didn’t have any defence for them. Somehow, this went to a split-decision, but thankfully, Kowalkiewicz got the win. If Namajunas had won, it would have been a terrible decision and I have no idea how anybody could give the fight to Namajunas. At best, she won the first round, but even that would have been a stretch.

Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley

There is a great pre-fight video package for this fight. Unfortunately, the package wasn’t much longer than the fight. Apart from a few moments of clinching against the fence, that was broken up awfully quickly by the referee, nothing really happened until Woodley hit a big overhand right that dropped Lawler and left him defenceless against the fence; a few more big punches from Woodley and what was all she wrote and we had a new UFC Welterweight Champion.

It was almost anticlimactic that Lawler’s title run, and overall run of strong performances, had ended in such quick and devastating fashion. But Lawler had been in some brutal wars over the past couple of years, so it was entirely possible that those wars had finally caught up to him.

WSOF 32: Moraes vs. Hill II (July 30th 2016)

This event would see promotion and bantamweight divisional standout Marlon Moraes defend the WSOF Bantamweight Championship in a rematch against Josh Hill. Moraes had won six straight before his first fight with Hill, a fight at WSOF 18 that Moraes won by unanimous decision. Since that time, Hill had won four in a row, and whilst only one of those fights was inside the WSOF, it was enough of a run to see Hill get another chance at Moraes and the WSOF Bantamweight Championship. The co-main event was another rematch, as Alexandre Almeida would defend the WSOF Featherweight Championship in a rematch against the fighter he took the title from, Lance Palmer.

Also on the main card, there would be a battle of the step brothers as Caros Fodor fought Ben Fodor. Ben gained a great deal of notoriety in his hometown of Seattle for his masked crimefighting alter ego, Phoenix Jones. And opening up the main card would be a middleweight fight between Rick Hawes and Louis Taylor.

Rick Hawes and Louis Taylor had a decent fight, with Taylor, the veteran, upsetting the rising Hawes with a guillotine submission in the second round.  This was Hawes’ fifth pro fight, his sixth overall, so he was giving up a lot of experience, but he was the favourite based on how he’d looked so far; in his previous six fights, he’d finished all six opponents and all inside the first two rounds. Even though this was a year ago, Hawes has yet to fight again, although he is currently scheduled to fight Julian Marquez on the August 1st edition of Dana White’s Tuesday Night’s Contender Series.

The battle of the step brothers wasn’t much of a fight, both because Caros was so much better and he didn’t show much aggression or really try and finish the fight. Caros was constantly on top of Phoenix and was content to control him and deliver enough damage to not get stood up, rather than make any real effort to try and work for a finish. Caros did make an attempt for a ground-and-pound finish part way through the third round, but that was as aggressive as he ever got en route to a unanimous decision victory. The featherweight title fight between Alexandre Almeida and Lance Palmer was acceptable fare; unremarkable but with flashes of decent action from time to time.

Marlon Moraes went all five rounds with Josh Hill in their first fight but he only needed one round and change to get the job done here. The fight was pretty boring until the finish, when Moraes landed a head kick, shin to the side of the head that dropped Hill and had him out of it but not out col, with Hill in la-la land. Outside of the spectacular finish, the fight was completely uneventful, unremarkable, and uninteresting, which is a pretty apt description of the main card, really.

As there is nothing eventful to talk about tomorrow, we will have another ‘catch up’ entry, this one covering UFC 86 and UFC 175.

[wandshogun09]

Fedor vs Hendo was wild. That was one of those fights I was torn on. I love both so it was always going to have a bittersweet feel to it. But it was certainly fun while it lasted. 

Strikeforce was the home of the crazy one rounder, wasn't it? Fedor vs Hendo, Diaz vs Daley, Rousey vs Tate 1, Lawler vs Manhoef. You won't find 4 better one rounders than that. 

[Noah Southworth]

On This Day in MMA History (July 5th) (The UFC 86 and 175 Edition)

UFC 86: Jackson vs. Griffin (July 5th 2008)

The main event to this one would have a little history to it as it would be the first time a TUF winner got a title shot, with TUF 1 winner Forrest Griffin challenging Quinton Jackson for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin (the build)

Coming off of his tremendous fight in the TUF 1 light heavyweight tournament final, Forrest Griffin had become one of the UFC’s most popular fighters. That popularity was helped when Griffin fought Tito Ortiz at UFC 59; Griffin lost by split-decision, but it was a decision that many people thought should have gone Griffin’s way. A rematch with Stephan Bonnar followed, that Griffin won, before he stumbled for the first time, a TKO loss to Keith Jardine at UFC 66. Despite not handling the post-fight interview in the best manner, Griffin remained popular, and was cheered loudly in his next fight, against Hector Ramirez in Northern Ireland

Yet, despite that popularity, Griffin was not widely respected among the more diehard fans. They regarded Griffin the same way they did most fighters from those early seasons of TUF, as media creations who were not proper fighters. So, when Griffin was matched against Mauricio Rua at UFC 76 for Rua’s debut in the UFC, those diehard fans were relishing the chance of Griffin getting beaten up by one of their hero’s, a ‘real fighter’, and they considered it a formality that Rua would beat Griffin and then challenge Quinton Jackson for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Instead, in one of the dramatic and thrilling fights of the year, Griffin withstood the early pressure and getting bloodied up to make a big comeback and, in the closing seconds of the fight, he caused one of the biggest upsets of the year when he submitted Rua with a rear naked choke. The fans went crazy, as did Griffin; in a fight where Griffin was widely expected to be the stepping stone for Rua to make his name in the US, it was Griffin who made his name by submitting one of the best fighters in the world.

With this victory, the biggest of his career, Griffin had staked his claim as the top light heavyweight contender, but before he could get that title fight, Griffin had to revisit some familiar ground

Quinton Jackson had entered the UFC in early 2007 to a measure of fanfare. As one of the most charismatic stars of the PRIDE promotion, the entry of Jackson into the UFC was highly anticipated, especially considering that he had been, at that time, the last person to beat the UFC’s biggest star, the Light Heavyweight Champion, Chuck Liddell. Jackson won his debut fight, a knockout win over Marvin Eastman, but it was not the explosive fight or finish that fans were expecting, and it muted the anticipation over a rematch with Liddell.

In fact, Jackson himself wanted one more fight before facing Liddell, but the UFC pressed forward with their plans and Jackson challenged Liddell at UFC 71 for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. It took just 1:52 to repeat his prior success as Jackson knocked Liddell out to claim UFC gold. Jackson’s first fight after that was a title unification fight with PRIDE’s Middleweight Champion Dan Henderson, at UFC 75 in London. Again, Jackson emerged victorious, with a fairly convincing unanimous decision victory over Henderson.

Heading into UFC 76, the expectation was that we would see the set up for another Jackson title defence against a former PRIDE star, Mauricio Rua, but Griffin confounded those expectations when he upset Rua with a rear naked choke. But more importantly than upsetting Rua, Griffin had secured himself the next shot at Jackson and the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. But to build up the fight, especially is it would feature the first title fight involving a TUF winner, the UFC had an ace up its sleeve to make the that fight even bigger, and in December of 2007, it was announced that Griffin and Jackson would be opposing coaches on the 7th season of The Ultimate Fighter
 
The Ultimate Fighter 7: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest

TUF 7 had the usual assortment of highlights and hijinks; Matt Riddle knocked out Dan Simmler, and in the process, broke his jaw. A fighter had to be removed from the house due to contracting a contagious skin condition. Jeremy May acted like a complete asshole to the point that even his own teammates celebrated when Matt Brown knocked him out. After being eliminated from the competition, May kept acting like a complete asshole and made anti-Semitic remarks to Jesse Taylor in an attempt to goad Taylor into hitting him so that’d be thrown out of the house and thereby give May a chance to be brought back. Quinton Jackson tantrums when decisions didn’t go his team’s way.

However, the most famous and notorious incident came after the show had finished taping; Jesse Taylor and few others had stayed over in Las Vegas. Taylor had gotten drunk, threatened casino security, did the “don’t you know who I am? I’m a UFC fighter” bit, and ended up kicking out the window of a limousine. As a result, Taylor was removed the final of the tournament, and CB Dollaway and Tim Credeur were flown back in to fight for the right to take Taylor’s spot in the tournament final, against Amir Sadollah. Dollaway won the fight and secured his place in the TUF tournament final

After all that, and just two weeks after the TUF finale itself, would be UFC 86, and Forrest Griffin would have his chance to make history and become the first TUF winner to not just earn a title shot, but become a UFC champion.

The Rest of the PPV

There wasn’t a whole lot to the rest of the UFC 86 main card. The co-main event was a fight between Ricardo Almeida and Patrick Côté. TUF 2 welterweight tournament winner Joe Stevenson faced Gleison Tibau. Former TUF 1 contest Josh Koscheck took on Chris Lytle. And the PPV portion was rounded out by Marcus Aurélio fighting Tyson Griffin.

Card Changes

The only change to the UFC 86 card was a welterweight bout between Steve Bruno and Chris Wilson being moved from this card to UFC 87.

UFC 86 (The preliminary card)

The prelims of UFC 86 were modest by modern standards; former title contender Gabriel Gonzaga was now languishing in the untelevised portion of the card, gaining a submission won over Justin McCully. Melvin Guillard knocked out Dennis Siver in 56-seconds. And Cole Miller and Justin Bucholz, Wand’s favourite fighter, scored submission wins over Jorge Gurgel and Corey Hill respectively.

UFC 86

The PPV opened up with Tyson Griffin taking on Marcus Aurelio. Griffin dominated with strikes and grappling, with Aurelio having little answer as Griffin eased to a unanimous decision victory in what was a pretty uneventful fight. Next up, Josh Koscheck used his wrestling to neutralize and control Chris Lytle for much of their fight. Lyle posed the occasional threat off of his back, but Koscheck was wise to his efforts and ended up giving Lyle a big cut that was bleeding profusely en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Joe Stevenson bounced back from a one-sided loss to BJ Penn with a win over Gleison Tibau. It was a good fight, ending when Tibau went for a takedown and Stevenson caught him in a guillotine choke, which is one of Stevenson’s specialties, and Tibau was soon tapping out. The co-main event between Ricardo Almeida and Patrick Côté started out OK, mostly grappling and ground work with a little striking. But in the third round, the action came to a screeching halt and it made a close fought fight even harder to score. It went to a split-decision and it was Côté who ended up getting the win. The victory would increase Côté’s win streak to five, whilst the loss snapped Almeida’s seven-fight winning streak.

Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin

The main event saw Jackson go into the fight as the overwhelming favourite. Jackson was considered a dangerous fighter, hard-hitting, and Griffin, despite his win over Mauricio Rua and despite being a talented fighter with a lot of heart, was not somebody people saw as a tough guy; he was seen as someone who could take beating but not give one out. As such, the consensus going into the main event that Griffin would achieved a moral victory if he could just go the distance, but that he’d take a beating in the process and may even get stopped.

The first round was fairly even, both men briefly wobbling each other, but late on, Jackson dropped Griffin with an uppercut as he came charging in and Griffin had to hold on to Jackson tight to see the last minute or so of the round out. Early in the second, Griffin landed a pair of leg kicks to the left knee of Jackson that buckled Jackson and Griffin took him down, moving between side-control and half-guard and working for submissions for the rest of the round. Not much happened in the third round, but things picked up in the fourth. Jackson landed some good punches; Griffin clinched with Jackson to take him down but ended up with Jackson on top of him. Griffin was good off his back, though, threatening with a triangle that Jackson half-slammed his way out of, and Jackson couldn’t do much with Griffin in this position. The fifth round was the most competitive of the whole fight, lots of action, although neither man was able to land that decisive blow. Griffin pressed forward more and was more aggressive, even though Jackson landed some good punches.

It was a competitive fight but the judges were in general agreement with scores of 48-46, 48-46 and 49-46 for the winner and new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Forrest Griffin. Jackson’s trainer, Juanito Ibarra, had his arm raised in readiness for Jackson to be declared the winner and the cameras just about caught him throwing his hat down in frustration. And there were some boos for Griffin’s victory; not many, but enough to be noticeable, and they got louder when Griffin did his post-fight interview.

Juanit Ibarra did plan to protest the scoring of the fight with the NSAC, but eventually decided not to when he was told that if the disputed rounds were changed, the fight would still result in a majority decision win for Griffin. It wasn’t long after the fight that Jackson fired Ibarra, but things were about to get a lot worse for Jackson.

The Aftermath

Courtesy of Wikipedia;

Quote

 

On July 15, 2008, 10 days after losing his belt to Forrest Griffin, Jackson was arrested in Costa Mesa and booked on suspicion of felony reckless driving, and felony hit and run after striking several vehicles. He led pursuing officers on a chase while driving on the wrong side of the street and on city sidewalks in his lifted Ford F-350 with his picture painted on the side. During the chase, one of the tires blew out on his truck and he continued to flee while driving on his rims. On July 18, 2008, UFC President Dana White gave an interview to Yahoo! Sports in which he said that Jackson had initially been detained for a 72-hour stay, but that had been extended. White was quoted as saying: "I think it's going to be a while before we get him back". White also claimed that before the detainment, Jackson did not sleep for four days, had not been eating, and had only been drinking energy drinks and became mentally ill from dehydration. According to White, no drugs were found in Jackson's system.

Jackson was charged with one felony count of evading police while driving recklessly, one felony count of evading police and driving against traffic, three misdemeanour counts of hit and run with property damage, and one misdemeanour count of reckless driving when he nearly hit several pedestrians. Jackson faced up to 3 years in prison if convicted. On August 28, 2008, he pleaded not guilty to all of the charges; however, on January 8, 2009, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of evading a police officer and driving against traffic, and one misdemeanour count of driving recklessly as part of a plea agreement. A judge dismissed the charges against Jackson on January 8, 2010, citing that he had successfully completed 200 hours of community service and complied with other terms and conditions.

One of the victims in the above police chase filed a civil suit against Jackson and claimed that the impact of her abdomen with the steering wheel caused her amniotic fluid membranes to rupture, ultimately resulting in the stillbirth of her baby. She requested $25,000 in damages for property damage, personal injury, and emotional distress. Farrah Emami, Spokesperson for the DA's office, said: "We reviewed all the medical records and spoke with the victim's physician, and the evidence showed that the loss of the foetus was not related to or a result of the crash caused by the defendant”.

In May 2010 the woman dismissed her lawsuit against Jackson. It is unclear if the two sides reached a settlement.

In 2014, Jackson claimed that the reason of his reckless driving was trying to reach a friend's house in order to stop him from committing suicide.

 

UFC 175: Weidman vs. Machida (July 5th 2014)

The main event to UFC 175, the UFC’s Independence Day weekend spectacular, was a UFC Middleweight Championship fight between a champion who was coming off two victories over a legend that were memorable for two very different reasons, and a challenger who was once thought to be set for a long and dominant reign as UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida (the build)

Originally planned for UFC 173, the main event to UFC 175 would see Chris Weidman defend the UFC Middleweight Championship against Lyoto Machida. Weidman had claimed the title after scoring one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, when he defeated the long-time champion, one of the best of all time, Anderson Silva. It was a fight that was memorable for all the right reasons. Weidman’s second win over Silva was memorable for all the wrong reasons. That second fight ended in the second round when Weidman checked a leg kick from Silva and Silva sustained a horribly broken leg, in one of the most graphic injuries of the modern sporting era. It would take Silva over a year to return to fighting, an achievement considered little short of miraculous.

It was just over six months since that fateful night, and now Weidman was set to defend against a very different style of fighter, but one no less difficult to beat.

Lyoto Machida was 15-0 when he knocked out Rashad Evans to claim the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Machida fought with a style that was both confounding and elusive, one that led many to think he was unbeatable, and that his reign as champion would be a long and glorious one. Instead, Machida made only one successful title defence, a controversial unanimous decision win over Mauricio Rua, before losing the title to Rua in a rematch, a rematch which saw Machida get knocked out inside of a round.

Machida had gone 3-3 since that fight and with his stint in the light heavyweight division turning into something of a dud, Machida made the move down to middleweight. Machida enjoyed immediate success, knocking out Mark Munoz in just over three minutes and scoring a unanimous decision win over Gegard Mousasi. These back-to-back victories propelled Machida to title contendership, and the former light heavyweight champion was given the opportunity to join a rarefied group and become only the third UFC fighter to win titles in two different weight classes.

Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis (the build)

The co-main event would be another title fight as Alexis Davis would be the next fighter to see if they could stop the seemingly unstoppable force that was the reigning UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, Ronda Rousey.

Ronda Rousey was 9-0 and had only gone out of the first round once. Eight of her nine professional wins had all come the same way, the armbar, a hold that Ronda had long made her trademark. It didn’t seem to matter who you were or what style you used; Ronda found a way to get you to the mat and armbar you. The only opponent who hadn’t fallen victim to the armbar was Sara McMann, who had instead been stopped after a vicious knee to the liver.

Alexis Davis was 16-5 and undefeated in the UFC. But even her three UFC victories and being a black belt in both jiu-jitsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu did little to inspire confidence in her chances against Rousey, and when the fight was announced, there were few people who didn’t believe that Davis was destined to be another victim of the ‘Armbar Assassin’.

The Fight That Never Was (for about three years, anyway)

One of the other big fights at UFC 175 was originally going to a battle of the coaches of TUF: Brazil 3, Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva. The fight had been scheduled for UFC 173 before being moved to the TUF: Brazil 3 finale on May 31st before being moved once again to this card.

That all fell apart when Silva failed to submit an application to fight in Nevada and refused to undergo a random drug test. Silva was pulled from the fight and replaced by Vitor Belfort. Then that fight fell apart when Sonnen failed his random drug test and was pulled from the fight as well. Belfort was then removed from the card due to the UFC being unable to find a new opponent for Belfort.

Card Changes

A fight between Daniel Cormier and Dan Henderson was moved up to UFC 173 to bolster than card. Kenny Robertson replaced Santiago Ponzinibbio against Ildemar Alcântara. And the fight between Stefan Struve and Matt Mitrione was cancelled on the night of the event after Struve suffered a "near-fainting episode", with this being Struve’s first fight back since being sidelined with a long-term heart issue. It meant that the main card only had four fights.

UFC 175 (The Preliminary Fights)

On Fight Pass, Kevin Casey knocked out Bubba Bush in 1:01, although that result was later overturned and made a no-contest after Casey, the son-in-law of Mohammed Ali, failed a post-fight drug test for Drostanolone, an anabolic-androgenic steroid. Luke Zachrich eased past Guilherme Vasconcelos by unanimous decision. On FS1, things got off to a rollicking good start when debutant Rob Font knocked out George Roop in just 2:19. Bruno Santos got a split-decision win over Chris Camozzi, followed by Kenny Robertson dominating Ildemar Alcântara for a unanimous decision victory with 30-26 scores across the board. And ending the prelims was Urijah Faber submitting Alex Caceres in the third round with a near naked choke.

UFC 175 (The Main Card)

Russell Doane edged past Marcus Brimage with a split-decision victory. Whenever the fight hit the ground, it was all Doane, but things were more competitive in the stand-up. Yet, whilst Doane controlled Brimage on the ground, Brimage didn’t have that kind of success when the fight was standing. Doane getting the nod was the right call but it shouldn’t have been so close as to go to a split-decision.

Uriah Hall was hoping to build some momentum off of his TKO win over Chris Leben with another victory, this time over Thiago Santos. Hall had come out of TUF 17 with so much hype, especially after what one of the most brutal knockouts in UFC history. But a lacklustre performance against Kelvin Gastelum in the TUF finals and then another dour showing against John Howard had served to stifle whatever hype was behind Hall. The win over Leben had done something to correct that but Hall still needed that signature win that would help him live up to the potential we had seen on TUF.

Hall didn’t get it here, though, and whilst he did win the fight, by unanimous decision, there were few highlights. In part, that was because Hall broke the second toe on his left foot at some point during the first round. But the main reason was something that was alluded to on commentary; Hall just doesn’t have the killer instinct. Whilst Hall has some highlight reel knockouts to his name, he has trouble pulling the trigger, of showing a consistent willingness to hurt his opponent, of going for the throat. It would be a problem that would plague Hall for most of his career.

Ronda Rousey vs. Alexis Davis

There was no doubting the talent of Alexis Davis; it wasn’t as if people were calling her untalented. They just didn’t think she had a prayer against Rousey. When Davis made her walk out to the octagon, she looked a lot more relaxed and confident than her cornermen did. They looked like they were walking to their own funeral, whilst Davis, the person actually fighting, appeared to be calm and relaxed, as if she was more than ready for the fight to come.

If you’ve seen one Ronda Rousey walk-in, you’ve seen them all; she’s driven, determined, and with a face like thunder. There were few, if any people as intense as Rousey when making their walk to the octagon. You could feel that this was a woman who you just did not want to mess with.

The fight itself, well; you heard a lot about it after the fact, and probably saw it even without watching a video. It was so quick you could fit it into a decent quality gif.

0-9 seconds; A few speculative punches were thrown
10 seconds; Rousey nailed Davis in the side of the forehead with a punch, stunning her
11 seconds; Rousey clinches with Davis and throws over with a judo slam
12 seconds: Rousey keeps hold of Davis and just punches her in the head over and over
16 seconds; the referee steps in to stop fight, and Ronda Rousey has successfully defending the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship

“The fight is over, Alexis; the fight is over”

Alexis Davis is so out of it, she spends several seconds trying to grapple with referee Yves Lavigne. It takes several attempts by the referee of telling Davis the fight is over before she stops trying to fight him and starts to realise what’s going on. I’m not necessarily a fan of Alexis; I can take her or leave her. But I thought the entire scene of Yves trying to get through to Alexis whilst supporting her in his arms was utterly heartbreaking.

For the worst of reasons, it’s one of the most poignant moments in UFC history.

Ronda’s post-fight interview

This was notable because Rogan, after getting buzzed by the production truck, tells Rousey that the main event to the August 2nd UFC 176 PPV has fallen through, and that the production team as has asked him to ask her if she will fight again on August 2nd. Rousey says she’ll talk with her team but she’ll do it, which the fans love. With the interview over, the mics are off, but Dana White goes right to Rousey and seems to apologise for what happened and White is clearly not happy as he say ssomething to Joe Rogan. Needless to say, White had no idea that was coming and shoots down the idea of Rousey fighting on August 2nd.

Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida

This is a fight that has been heavily lauded, some calling it the best fight of 2014, but I think such praise is overstating how good the fight really was. The first three rounds or so were pretty ordinary, with Weidman dominating Machida but Machida never in any serious danger. It was decent enough but it wasn’t that exciting a fight, primarily because it was one-sided. Where the fight finally picked up is in the fourth round when Machida, knowing he needed a stoppage to win the fight, started to kick things into high gear and went for the win. Weidman, who was starting to slow, was very much on the back foot in the fourth round, and Machida was looking primed to a potential fight-winning flurry when the round ended.

In the fifth round, Weidman started to get his second wind and the fight was at its most competitive and it got really exciting. Weidman got Machida down late on but he couldn’t keep him down, and the fight ended with Machida trying to pour it on but not able to put Weidman away.

Weidman would retain the UFC Middleweight Championship with scores of 49-45, 48-47 and 49-46, which was the right result although I thought the judges were being very generous to Weidman. I thought it was a clear 48-47 for Weidman. It was a big win over a name fighter, and Weidman had, to some, finally established himself as the UFC Middleweight Champion

Tomorrow is a big entry with four events discussed; Pancrase’s 1999 Neo-Blood Tournament, UFC on Versus 2: Jones vs. Matyushenko, UFC 190: Rousey vs. Correia and WSOF 22: Palhares vs. Shields.

[wandshogun09]

47 minutes ago, Noah Southworth said:

And Cole Miller and Justin Bucholz, Wand’s favourite fighter, scored submission wins over Jorge Gurgel and Corey Hill respectively.

I shuddered just reading that. Tell me this isn't the face of Satan. 

You have reminded me though, Cole Miller vs Jorge Gurgel was a really excellent fight from what I remember. Forgotten corker there and I remember it being considered a huge upset for the time that Miller was able to submit a legit black-belt like Gurgel. I'll have to watch that again soon. 

[the_mole]

Jorge Gurgel, Franklin's beat mate he was supposed to have an amazing ground game but every fight i remenber he basically stood and banged even with guys he should have been trying to take down. 

[wandshogun09]

Yeah Gurgel was terrible for that. It did result in some great fights though. This one with Cole Miller, he had a tremendous fight with Aaron Riley on the Couture vs Lesnar undercard and I vaguely recall loving one of his Strikeforce: Challengers fights but it's hazy. 

Its a shame he neglected his grappling though. He might've prolonged his career and had more success if he'd fought smarter. 

Last time I saw him he was doing the translating gig on one of the UFC cards in Brazil.

Edit - his brawl with Jason Von Flue on TUF 2 was bags of fun as well. 

[the_mole]

Was Von Flue the guy they brought in late and kept doing the "you can't see me" John Cena thing! then was flipping off the running machine, you could just tell Matt Hughes hated him the moment he saw him. Guy was a tit but so was Hughes but I obviously hope he makes a full recovery.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah that was Von Flue. He came into the house as a late replacement for someone and it seemed like Hughes really had it in for him when he came in. I might be remembering it wrong but I'm pretty sure he even handed out Team Hughes t-shirts and wouldn't let Von Flue wear one because he hadn't 'earned it' yet or something like that. 

Definitely hope Hughes makes a full recovery regardless. Twat or not I wouldn't wish something like that on anyone. 

[jimufctna24]

Add Diaz's brawl with Zaromskis to the list of epic Strikeforce 1 rounders. 

 

[Egg Shen]

Jorge Gurgel had some ridiculous fights. It's a shame they happened in Strikeforce where there weren't FOTN bonuses because Jorge would have been plenty richer.

 

[Noah Southworth]

11 hours ago, the_mole said:

Jorge Gurgel, Franklin's beat mate he was supposed to have an amazing ground game but every fight i remenber he basically stood and banged even with guys he should have been trying to take down. 

You get that a lot with wrestlers and submission guys who learn stand-up. They're think they're boxers and start trying to box, instead of using their striking to set up their ground game.

[wandshogun09]

Even Demian Maia started falling into that trap for a little while years ago. After he got KO'd by Marquardt he was really focusing on his striking, as he should, but it showed in his fights around that time that he kind of got away from his bread and butter. 

Diego Sanchez is an obvious example as well. When he was on TUF he was considered a killer grappler that you didn't want to go to the ground with under any circumstances. Somewhere along the line he decided he preferred fighting like he's a character in a video game with your 7 year old nephew button mashing his every move. 

You'd never think watching him now that he was a really good technical grappler but if you go back to watch the Nick Diaz fight, for example, it's as good as any MMA grappling fight you'll see. 

Its a double-edged sword because if he'd stuck with that style we'd never have seen those classics with Clay Guida, Martin Kampmann etc. But it's a shame he never found that healthy balance where his brawling, aggressiveness and insane toughness could compliment his strong grappling rather than replace it. 

[Keith Houchen]

I guess Rousey takes the crown of those thinking they're suddenly elite strikers and fucking up, or maybe that doofus in her corner deserves the credit.

[jimufctna24]

Don't forget Andy Wang. 

[Magnum Milano]

15 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Yeah Gurgel was terrible for that. It did result in some great fights though. This one with Cole Miller, he had a tremendous fight with Aaron Riley on the Couture vs Lesnar undercard and I vaguely recall loving one of his Strikeforce: Challengers fights but it's hazy.

He had an excellent fight with Conor Heun on the undercard of the Cyborg/Villasenor show, and I also enjoyed his fight against Billy Evangelista in Strike Force.