UFC 146 wrap-up

The dust has well and truly settled after UFC 146 on Saturday, and there’s plenty to take away from the event now that all of the excitement has died down and fans have stopped getting carried away with their gut reactions.

First, yes Junior Dos Santos‘ title defence against Frank Mir was pretty impressive, but the result was more or less what everyone had expected, and exactly what he had predicted. What was infinitely more impressive (and quite frankly frightening) was Cain Velasquez‘s slaughter of Antonio Silva. This fight was a bloodbath, the likes of which we have not seen in a high profile UFC fight for quite some time. Though almost eveyone expected Cain to win, I don’t think anyone had predicted a fight where Silva would have zero offence, and end up looking like he’d been put through a wood chipper within 5 minutes.

Cain Velasquez makes a mess of ‘Bigfoot’ Silva’s face

Dana White has quite sensibly made JDS vs. Cain II for later this year, and I think I’d actually favour Cain for this fight. I though he would win the first fight, and a quick KO has not altered my opinion for the rematch. Yes, Dos Santos defended Frank Mir’s takedowns, but if Velásquez comes flying out of the gate diving for legs like he did on Saturday, it could be a long night for the current UFC champ.

Brock Lesnar will not be coming back to the UFC. He would not be able to compete with the very best guys in the UFC any more. Also, Daniel COrmier will not be coming to the UFC yeat to challenge for the title, he’s still locked in to a Strikeforce contract. So there.

Dave Herman should have no complaints about the fight stoppage after Roy Nelson hit him so hard he spun him around and put him on his backside. He seemed to literally not know where he was.

Stipe Miocic may never be the UFC heavyweight champion, but he is proving to be a serviceable fighter whop should do well fighting guys just outside the top-1o of the division. His boxing is good enough to pick apart grapplers and brawlers, and his wrestling is just about good enough to deal with strikers who give him a hard time. Shane Del Rosario is really not too far away from where Miocic is. He had had more than a year out of the game, and he looked very good earlier on hurting his opponent with several vicious left-body-kicks. Another guy who will never be champion, but a nice addition to the division.

Shane Del Rosario also got himself a nice gaping headwound from GnP

Lavar Johnson really needs to improve his ground game. Stefan Struve  is starting to build a decent fight IQ, having the sense to take down a terrible grappler and submit him quickly before he risked getting knocked out.

 

Full Main Card results

• Junior Dos Santos def. Frank Mir via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 3:04 – to retain UFC heavyweight title.
• Cain Velasquez def. Antonio Silva via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:36
• Roy Nelson def. Dave Herman via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 0:51
• Stipe Miocic def. Shane Del Rosario via TKO (elbows) – Round 2, 3:14
• Stefan Struve def. Lavar Johnson via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 1:05

Meanwhile, on the undercard…

Diego Brandao should be an entertaining fixtture on future PPv undercards and FX/FUEL main cards, but probably never anywhere near genuine contendership. Darren Elkins had a pretty easy time controlling him after he survived a go-for-broke 1st round.

I was good to see Jamie Varner back in the UFC and winning fights, especially such a massive upset victory over Edson Barboza. I always though Varner’s ejection from Zuffa was a little harsh, and Barboza’s hype was a little unwarranted, so this was a great little moment on the FX prelims.

Some fans may want Jason Miller to stay in the UFC, but the UFC brass clearly don’t want him there. His performance against Michael Bisping was embarrassing, and the UD loss to CB Dollaway was not good enough to change Dana White and co’s mind that Miller should be allowed another chance in the sport’s premier organisation, even if he does have a large and loyal following and he was injured this weekend.

I was a good weekend for the Brits. Dan Hardy finally got back to winning ways, and will probably have secured himself a spot on the main card in Nottingham in September. Also, Paul Sass got himself ANOTHER submission (3rd in the UFC, 12th overall in a 13-0 record) against the dangerous Jacob Volkmann, who was riding a 5 fight win streak, no mean feat in the shark tank that is the UFC’s 155lb division. Lightweights watch out. Everyone knows Sass is going to try and submit them, but they just can’t escape his quicksand-esque grappling chops.

Finally, better late than never Glover Teixeira announced his arrrival to the UFc with a quick submission of Kyle Kingsbury, and Mike Brown signed off on a successful MMA career with a win unanimous decision win over Daniel Pineda. Brown is the former WEC 145lb champion, and will be fondly remembered for his 2 fights with Urijah Faber. He retires on a 2 fight win streak in the UFC and with a total career record of 26-8. I wish him the best in his future endeavours as a coach as part of the ATT coaching crew.

Full Prelims results

• Darren Elkins def. Diego Brandao via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
• Jamie Varner def. Edson Barboza via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 3:23
• C.B. Dollaway def. Jason “Mayhem” Miller via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-26, 29-28)
• Dan Hardy def. Duane “Bang” Ludwig via knockout (strikes) – Round 1, 3:51
• Paul Sass def. Jacob Volkmann via submission (triangle choke/armbar) – Round 1, 1:54
• Glover Teixeira def. Kyle Kingsbury via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 1, 1:53
• Mike Brown def. Daniel Pineda via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

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Bellator 70 results: Rick Hawn is the lightweight tournament champion

Rick Hawn and team with the $100,000 tournament championship cheque.

Bellator Fighting Championships wrapped up their season with another entertaining evening of scraps. Highlights of the event are in the video below.

In the main event Rick Hawn, arguably the star of this season, took a unanimous decision victory over a competitive  Bent Weedman to take the Season 6 lightweight tournament title and set up a fight with Michael Chandler for the lightweight title. Weedman showed some good takedown defence and an ability to take shots and fire back, but Hawn landed with greater frequency, and was able to use his Olympic-level judo to complete a series of takedowns which were enough to win all 3 rounds on 2 of the judges scorecards.

Cole Konrad easily defended his heavyweight title with a submission of Eric Prindle 1 minute into round 1. I probably gave Prindle a little too much credit in my preview, stating that he had a puchers chance with 5 rounds to find a home for a KO punch in between takedowns from the champion. However, Konrad passed guard straight away and took advantage of some extremely porous submission defence to force the tap early. Prindle was one of the tougher fighters that Bellator has to offer Konrad, so expect plenty of dissatisfaction as he competes with C, D and E level heavyweights for the duration of his contract.

Luis Nogueira will fight Marcos Galvao in the bantamweight tournament final sfter he defeated Hiroshi Nakamura by KO after an impressive performance. Nogueira successfully shrugged off the Japanese wrestler’s takedowns, and eventually landed on his suspect chin in the 3rd round to seal the win. He should have a tougher time with Galvao, but with crisp striking like that, I could see him getting the better of Galvao’s brawling style.

In thye first fight of the main card, Rich Clementi picked up a straightforward win against Derek Campos, and on the undercard A.J. Matthews scored a remarkable knockout, throwing a leg-kick that caught Charlie Rader in the face as he fell to the mat. Video footage of that fight below.

So, that’s the end of Bellator Season 6. It has been a wonderful series of events, consistently delivering quality entertainment, and well-matched fights. The promotion is certainly established now as the clear number 2 promotion in the world. It will be a shame not to have an event to look forward to every Friday night from now on,but fear not!  Fortunately, the Bellator 2012 Summer Series starts with Bellator 71 on June 22nd with the first round of the new light heavyweight tournament.

Here’s the full list of Friday’s results.

Main Card

• Rick Hawn def. Brent Weedman via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27) – lightweight tournament final.
• Cole Konrad def. Eric Prindle via submission (kimura) – Round 1, 1:00 – Bellator heavyweight championship.
• Luis Nogueira def. Hiroshi Nakamura via KO (punches) – Round 3, 1:58 – bantamweight tournament semi-final
• Rich Clementi def. Derek Campos via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 4:18

Prelims

• A.J. Matthews def. Charlie Rader via KO (kick) – Round 2, 3:34
• Jonas Billstein def. Mike Seal via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 2:55
• Derek Arcement def. Blake Dufour via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
• Kelvin Tiller def. Jeremiah Riggs via submission (verbal) – Round 3, 3:38

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UFC 146 results: KOs and Submissions of the night

There was no fight-of-the-nigh award given out after UFC 146, but there were 2 KO and 2 submission of the night awards of $70,000 awarded after all but 2 fights finished inside the distance.

Roy Nelson got his slice for this vicious one-punch KO of Dave Herman, who was literally knocked sideways and put on his arse.

Dan Hardy also crowned his first win in 2 and a half years with a substantial cheque after dropping Duane Ludwig with a trademark hook, and finishing him with some follow-up elbows that also left ‘Bang’ with a pretty tasty scar too.

Stefan Struve picked up a sub bonus for his lightning-fast armbar on BJJ novice Lavar Johnson

Finally, Paul Sass won his 3rd UFC fight with his 3rd submission, scoring a huge upset over Jacob Volkmann and doing his bank balance no harm in the process.

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UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Mir preview

i’ll just be doing a quick preview of tonight’s HUGE UFC event in Vegas, it’s too sunny in Newcastle to be sitting indoors typing all day.

UFC 146 has the potential to be very entertaining. Stacked with heavyweights, there is the very real possibility that there will be some very big men, taking very big falls early on in fights, as they crumple under the weight of huge fists flying into their faces.

I often criticise heavyweight MMA for the general lack of skill involved, but at the top end of the main card there are some very well made fights involving high-level athletes, and the rest of the fights should be entertaining at the very least. Here’s some very brief breakdowns of the important stuff going on this evening.

Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir – UFC Heavyweight Championship

Frank Mir doesn’t take punches to the face very well, and JDS is the best at punching people in the face in the heavyweight division. Dos Santos by vicious 1st round TKO.

Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Silva

This should reselble Silva’s last fight against Daniel Cormier. Velasquez should be just too fast for the Brazilian giant, so he’ll be able to move inside quickly and rip off combinations that will topple ‘Bigfoot’ for a 1st round TKO win.

Roy nelson vs. Dave Herman

This should be a super entertaining brawl between two of the UFC’s heavyweight oddities. I favour ‘Big Country’ Nelson to take a decision or possibly get a late finish. ‘Pee Wee’ Herman is durable, but he slows down after around 6/7 minutes, and stands right in front of opponents ready to get hit. Nelson is The Terminator. Iron chin, constantly coming forward. Kryptonite for non-elite heavyweights

Stipe Miocic vs. Shane Del Rosario

A tough one to call, but I slightly favour Miocic by decision based on his decent start in the UFC and Del Rosario’s long layoff. Del Rosario is also very hittable and Miocic is capable of picking apart opponents some nice accurate boxing.

Stefan Struve vs. Lavar Johnson

Although Lavar Johnson could KO the gigantic Dutchman, he was almost submitted by Pat Barry in his last fight. Pat Barry! Struve’s ground game will be far too good for ‘Big’ Johnson, and he’ll force the tap inside the 1st 5 minutes.

All fighters weighed in yesterday as follows

Main Card

• Champ Junior Dos Santos (239) vs. Frank Mir (261)
• Antonio Silva (264) vs. Cain Velasquez (240)
• Dave Herman (233) vs. Roy Nelson (254)
• Shane Del Rosario (246) vs. Stipe Miocic (245)
• Lavar Johnson (248) vs. Stefan Struve (255)

Prelims

• Diego Brandao (145) vs. Darren Elkins (145)
• Edson Barboza (155) vs. Jamie Varner (156)
• C.B. Dollaway (186) vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller (185)
• Dan Hardy (170) vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig (171)
• Paul Sass (156) vs. Jacob Volkmann (155)
• Kyle Kingsbury (205) vs. Glover Teixeira (204)
• Mike Brown (145) vs. Daniel Pineda (146)

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Bellator 70 Preview

Sadly, Bellator season 6 comes to an end this Friday, after a series of fantastic events that have brought us great fights and memorable moments in equal measure. Bellator 70 rounds the season off with a heavyweight title fight, and the lightweight tournament final between two of the promotions most impressive performers this year.

Bellator heavyweight  champion Cole Konrad will finally fight for the first time since August last year, as he defends his heavyweight belt against the ‘winner’ of the Bellator season 5 heavyweight tournament debacle, Eric Prindle. The tournament winner was left undecided at the end of last season when Thiago Santos punted Prindle’s jewels, and the fight was declared a no contest due to an unintentional foul. Then at the start of this season, the fight was postponed once more before it was finally cancelled when Santos couldn’t make weight, and Prindle was made the tournament champ by default.

This fight should be pretty straight forward for Konrad. He is probably the best non-UFC/Strikeforce heavyweight out there, and he can use his top-class wrestling skills to dominate pretty much any heavyweight that Bellator can throw at him. The fact that he is a 1/20 favourite says it all really.

Of course, this is MMA, heavyweight MMA at that, and one big punch could upset some bookmakers. Especially when Prindle has 5 rounds to do so.

The preview continues in the full post

UFC146 Interviews

MMA Fighting has finally got it’s act together and started uploading Ariel Helwani’s interviews onto youtube. Here’s a selection of videos featuring the heavyweight stars of UFC 146‘s main card

Junior Dos Santos

Frank Mir

More interviews in the full post

UFC 151 Jones vs. Henderson trailer by NickTheFace

The latest offering from NickTheFace, a trailer for the light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Dan Henderson. The fight is scheduled for UFC 151 in September.

The Ultimate Fighter results. Andy Ogle bows out

Al Iaquinta (centre) and Andy Ogle (far right) train for their quarter final fight with coach Urijah Faber

The semi-finals have been decided for this season’s TUF, after Al Iaquinta and Vinc Pichel overcame Andy Ogle  and Chris Saunders respectively in the second set of quarter-finals.

The Pichel/Saunders fight came first, and ended with a bit of controversy after most people thought that Saunders took the 1st round, with Pichel taking the 2nd. I would disagree with that. Almost every analysis of the first round says that the round was close and could have gone either way, but if pressed Sauners had to be the winner. I would ask why? 10-10 rounds exist in MMA, and that’s how I would score the 1st round, giving Pichel a 20-19 victory.

In the fight that everyone was waiting for, Tynemouth MMA legend Andy Ogle fell short to one of the tournaments Al Iaquinta. Ogle looked tentative circling his opponent, trying to find his range, but eventually he started landing and scoring points, though Iaquinta was defending well and landing punches of his own. One of these counter attacks dropped Ogle, and though he got to his feet, he went straight back down again as he got absolutely decked by an ENORMOUS right elbow from Iaquinta, who followed up with an academic hammerfist before ref SteveMazzagatti stopped the fight.

gif via mma-core.com

Ogle remained upbeat after the fight and I’m sure he will get a chance in the UFC at the The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale next month. As I’ve mentioned before, I am biased towards Ogle being a fellow Geordie, but Jon Anik also stated that he has become a fan-favourite, and that is also the impression I get from around the internet.

To round off the show, the semi-finals were announced. They are Mike Chiesa vs. James Vick and Vinc Pichel vs. Al Iaquita. An interesting pair of fights for sure.

Also, because of Dominick Cruz’s knee injury, Renan Barao was announced as Urijah Faber’s new opponent at UFC 147 for the UFC interim bantamweight title.

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Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier Results and highlights

Daniel Cormier never stopped in his 5 round beatdown of Josh Barnett

Strikeforce held yet another entertaining event over the weekend, with 4 truly excellent fights concluding a thoroughly excellent week of mixed martial arts action. However, as good as the fights were, the overriding narrative in the event’s aftermath was once again centred around the hope that the promotion would be dissolved, and absorbed into the UFC.

Highlights of the main and co-main event in the video above.

In the main event Daniel Cormier battered PRIDE veteran and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett to become the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix champion. Cormier started the fight as he meant to go on, and used superior movement to move in and out on Barnett and punish  him with a barrage of punches and kicks. Although Barnett had some success striking, particularly with knees to the body, Cormier remained dominant and won very round on 2 of the 3 judges scorecards. The only chance ’The Warmaster’ seemed to have to win was to take Cormier down and use his catch-wrestling to force a submission. He came close once with a kneebar but for the rest of the fight DC’s Olympic level wrestling kept him on his feet, and even allowed him to hit some amazing slams, the likes of which we haven’t seen in high level MMA since the PRIDE days.

Both fighters will now have one more fight in Strikeforce before moving over to the UFC, but honestly what is the point? All of the best heavyweights in the world are in the UFC and the only opponents they could get in Strikeforce would be seriously sub-par fighters or UFC exports, who would likely be picked from outside the top 10 of the division. Fighters like this, especially Cormier who cements himself as a top 5 heavyweight with this win, should be fighting the very best.

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More discussion and full list of results in the full post.

The New Episode of ‘The Reem’

The latest episode of The Reem has arrived, and it looks to be the last one for a while. It chronicles the build up to Alistair Overeem’s planned fight with Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, as well as the fight’s collapse due to Overeem’s failed test with the Nevada State Athletic Comission (NASC). With the NASC’s suspension it looks like the next edition of this excellent video series will begin around the time Overeem’s training camp starts for his return fight over the Christmnas/New Year period

I’m still not sure where I stand on the issue of elevated testosterone, not being an expert and all. What I do know is that this whole situation is a complete mess, and I’d just like to see Overeem back in the UFC without any drama, competing against the best heavyweight fighters in the world because there will be some great fights in store when that happens.

I can’t get the link to embed the stupid thing, but you can view the video by following this link here.

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