UFC on FX Belfort vs Rockhold weigh in results

All fighters made weight late yesterday for tonight’s UFC event in Brazil, and we even got a little scuffle between the two headliners so we can pose question as to whether they are in each other’s heads etc…

In an unusual turn, quite a few fighters had to strip all the way down to make the weight, including Luke Rockhold.

Everyone ended up hitting the mar eventually though, even John Cholish, who needed an extra hour to cut the extra 0.2lbs to make his lightweight bout with Gleison Tibau official.

Main Card

Vitor Belfort (186) vs. Luke Rockhold (186)
Chris Camozzi (186) vs. Ronaldo Souza (186)
Rafael dos Anjos (156) vs. Evan Dunham (156)
Rafael Natal (186) vs. Joao Zeferino (185)

Prelims

Hacran Dias (146) vs. Nik Lentz (146)
Mike Rio (156) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (154)
John Cholish (156) vs. Gleison Tibau (156)
Michel Prazeres (171) vs. Paulo Thiago (170)
Yuri Alcantara (136) vs. Iliarde Santos (134)
Roger Hollett (204) vs. Fabio Maldonado (205)
Azamat Gashimov (126) vs. John Lineker (126)
Chris Cariaso (126) vs. Jussier Formiga (126)
Jeremy Larsen (155) vs. Lucas Martins (153)

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UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Rockhold preview

It’s fight night once again tomorrow. Brazil, a high-level middleweight tilt, UFC on FX. It’s not the highest profile event in the world, and the calibre of some of the fights are a little lacking, but there should be plenty of entertainment in the offing from Jaraguá do Sul tomorrow.

Vitor Belfort vs. Luke Rockhold 

This should be pretty interesting. One of those old lion vs. young wolf type of fights, except in this case the old lion is coming off one of his best wins, and presents a very real and dynamic threat.

Putting aside all TRT issues and the like, I am intrigued by this fight, particularly because it’s five rounds.

Belfort’s forté is to blast out of the gate and smash his opponents, but if he can’t do that, and he gets dragged into a war of attrition, he gets into trouble. He’s got all the tools. Quick, powerful striking, and a submission game that’s good enough to trap anyone who is less than competent  However, once he starts getting a grinding put on him, he folds. He’s a frontrunner, plain and simple.

Rockhold, on the other hand, is a master of fighting effectively and conserving energy. he fights at the pace he needs to do damage, stay ahead and win, finishing his opponent when he has to. Just look at his title fights in Strikeforce. Against Jacaré and Tim Kennedy – dangerous, well rounded, durable opponents – he fought at a pace that took him through the full five, outworking his opponents and staying out of danger. When he was matched up against an inferior fighter, Keith Jardine, he smashed him in round one.

I can see Rockhold working his way to a decision, or maybe even getting a late stoppage.

Chris Camozzi vs. Ronaldo Souza 

Camozzi has stepped in to replace Costa Philippou. Both are good fighters, and have recently put together some good runs that have got them knocking on the contender’s door.

Jacaré has been making noise for a while like he could be just that little extra step above though. His near-unrivalled BJJ, and  ever-improving striking, backed up with explosive athleticism could be the solution for damn near all of the middleweight division. I expect a tough fight for Souza, but his other-worldly grappling is something that Camozzi will never have experienced before, and he should be tapping at some point of the three rounds.

Rafael dos Anjos vs. Evan Dunham 

once upon a time Evan Dunham was considered to be the next big thing at lightweight, but he has fallen off the radar a little. He got back on track earlier this year with a win over the world’s biggest lightweight, Gleison Tibau.

Dos Anjos has always been flying under the radar, but could be set to break out with a win here, coming off a three-fight win streak, culminating in an impressive decision over Mark Bocek.

I’m going to guess Dos Anjos is quick enough with his hands and kicks to get the best of the fight on the feet, and if the fight hits the ground it will be at the behest of the Brazilian. Dunham is tough so I don;t think he’ll be stopped, but he’ll do well to come out of this with his armed raised in my opinion.

Rafael Natal vs. Joao Zeferino

This fight is also happening, and it’s a queer fight for the main card. Natal is pretty hot and cold, and Zeferino is a UFC newcomer. If this is anything other than an unspectacular way to open the show with a narrow, decision victory for one of these fighters I’ll be shocked

Prelims

Hacran Dias vs. Nik Lentz
Mike Rio vs. Francisco Trinaldo
John Cholish vs. Gleison Tibau
Michel Prazeres vs. Paulo Thiago
Yuri Alcantara vs. Iliarde Santos
Roger Hollett vs. Fabio Maldonado
Azamat Gashimov vs. John Lineker
Chris Cariaso vs. Jussier Formiga
Jeremy Larsen vs. Lucas Martins

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MMA news wrap up

So, it’s been a little while since my last update, and considering I’ll be out enjoying myself over the weekend it’s probably fair to say I won;t be updating too regularly over the weekend either, despite the UFC’s return. For now though, I’ll churn out some thoughts about the contemporary issues in out fair sport, beginning with a wrap up of some of the news from the last few weeks.

•  Pat Healy pissed hot for weed, and got his fight AND submission of the night bonuses taken away. Pretty harsh if you ask me. Just ask Jim Miller whether he feels whether a bit of marijuana affected Healy’s ability to fight in a positive way. I don’t think that was the correct way to go about things at all, and the UFC played this all wrong. Dana White has been pretty firm in his belief that cannabis gives fighters no advantage, but this time one of his fighters was thrown under the bus, and lost out on a life-changing amount of money. Having said all that, Healy knew he shouldn’t have done it, and was by flirting with a banned substance (even though it shouldn’t be) he was putting his livelihood at risk
• As a result of all this, Bryan Caraway pocketed the submission of the night bonus for the last UFC on Fox card thanks to a twitter campaign. He then went on to make sure everyone had little doubt about his thought son marijuana use, which annoyed a certain notable lightweight…
• Nate Diaz said some fairly controversial things on twitter, which could lead to some suspension time and a pretty hefty fine. His manager, Mike Kogan tried to explain away the tweets with some pretty lame excuses. I’m sure Diaz  did not have the intention of attacking an individual because of their sexuality, and was merely using a common, if completely unacceptable word to refer to a fighter as soft, but this was pretty silly.
• Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva continue to dance around a possible fight with each other. I’m not actually sure if this makes a great fight. I’m fairly certain, in fact, that Sonnen would take Silva down and beat on him for three to five rounds. Still, the build up would be fun, and drum up plenty of interest for the first UFC on FOX Sports 1 card if it is chosen to headline that.
• Mark Hunt has been having visa issues, but never feat, the heavyweight division’s other high-quality, overweight slugger Roy Nelson is waiting in the wings to step in and fight Junior Dos Santos. Nelson will probably get smashed as he did before against the Brazilian former champ, but then again, Hunt probably will be too, and they still both have that genuine chance to land that one big shot.
• Eddie Alvarez looks like he’s going to be stuck in a legal battle with Bellator for some time, and who knows what the outcome is going to be. It is such a shame he can’t be booked to fight in the UFC against the best at 155 right now.
• And finally, Brandon Vera is moving back up to heavyweight to fight Ben Rothwell. I’m not quite sure what to say about that.

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Bellator Summer Series fights announced

Michael Chandler literally crushes Rick Hawn back at the start of Bellator Season 8

Bellator MMA have announced fights for the first show of its 2013 summer series.

Bellator 96 will take place on June 19, and will be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Michael Chandler and Season 7 lightweight tournament winner Dave Jansen.

Since being bounced out of the WEC after losses to Kamal Shalorus and Ricardo Lamas, Jansen has won six straight, culminating in his capture of to tournament championship against Marcin Held in March. That is impressive, although he’s got little realistic chance of beating Chandler, arguably Bellator’s best fighter. Still, any opportunity to watch Chandler perform is one I’ll grab with both hands.

The semi finals of a four-man light heavyweight tournament is also scheduled, featuring ‘name’ fighters that have suffered losses in previous tournaments, who Bellator would clearly like to place back into contentions of contention

 Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal will take on the Kimbo killer from Elite XC, Seth Petruzelli in one match, and Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral will fight Jacob Noe in the other.

War Machine will also make his return to the cage against Blas Avena, who is 1-0 in Bellator and 8-6 overall.

Will this fight even go ahead? Who knows. War Machine certainly seems to attract misfortune. Here’s hoping he can get his career back on track though, he can be an exciting fighter to watch when he trains properly.

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What’s next for Jon Jones?

After UFC 159, another championship defence and that toe injury, Jon Jones has dispatched almost everyone in the light heavyweight division.

Who knows how long he’ll be out for, but when he comes back, it’ll be worth thinking about who he might be able to fight, because he’s running out of options.

Alexander Gustafsson

Jones said after his fight on Saturday that he wanted to fight the Swede. He said he would represent a challenge as the largest 205lb opponent that he had faced, in response to criticism that he was so often the bigger man in his fights.

While it is true that Jones is often physically bigger than his opponents, he is not the biggest light heavyweight out there (apparently walking around at about 225-230lbs), and besides, if you can make the weight (which he does every time), then you have every right to be in the division, and shouts of ‘unfair’ are not warranted in any way.

Gustafsson is big, and good fighter and a fresh challenge. He beat a legend in his last fight as well.

However, memories of that fight are beginning to fade, and he can;t wait to fight Jones now, as he’ll be out for a while now.

Also, while the 26-year-old has improved since he was soundly beaten by Phil Davis, the current light heavyweight champ could put an even greater hurting on him than that.

Lyoto Machida

The man announced as Jones’ next opponent after he out pointed Dan Henderson, and probably the only fighter Jones has defeated that people would be open to him fighting again.

Machida was able to have success in their first fight, and he has done enough by beating two high-level fighters to call for another crack at the belt. However, I still thing he is too small to endure against Jones. Once the champ can grab a hold of him, I would expect a similar result to their first fight, i.e. Machida in an unconscious crumpled heap on the ground.

Anderson Silva

What most people really want to see, unless you’re either insane, a concerned Silva fan, or would prefer Silva to fight GSP instead.

At his point, Jones and Silva are probably the #1 and 2 pound for pound fighters in the world, and they fight in weight classes adjacent to each other. Hell, Anderson has even smashed up on three fools from 205lbs already.

There are some that feel that Jones will be just too big for Silva, but consider this. Anderson Silva moves better than anyone, and why couldn’t he keep on the out side and use his vastly superior striking to knock Jones out.

I think this is one of only two fights out there for Jones that I would not be at least 90% certain he would win (I’ll get to the other one in a minute).

It’s the kind of legacy-defining fight that would single him out as not only the best fighter in the world, but the best fighter of all time.

It’s likely to make them both MILLIONS of dollars.

Chael Sonnen was right, this should be the only fight either man is asking for. This will define a generation of mixed martial arts, and it is almost guaranteed to be fantastic.

Heavyweight

I probably should have finished on that option, because it sounded like a climax, and definitely the right thing for the UFC to do with Jones.

However, there is another option that would be quite interesting, and that is a move up in weight and go for the heavyweight title

The only time this is ever considered an option for a fighter is if they have cleaned out their division, and Jones has done that.

He may have to take a fight or two to build himself up with the big boys, or if there is some unfinished business with some other heavyweight contenders and the existing champion, but I can;t see that being much of a problem for Jones at all. I would make him a heavy favourite against every fighter in the heavyweight division with thee exception of JDS, Cain Velasquez, Dan Cormier and possibly Alistair Overeem. And even then, I;d make him a slight favourite over them all bar Cain.

Jones would not be as dominant as he would be at 205lbs, but he has a great chance to whip on some huge men, enhance his legacy and win a belt at another (and the most prestigious) weight class.

The light Heavyweight wildcards

Dan Henderson, Ryan Bader, L’il Nog and Glover Teixeira or Dan Cormier if he was to drop in weight.

The least interesting option would be for Jones to stay at 205 and fight any of these men who are either not near contention just yet, or he has soundly beaten before. It is not out of the question that any of these fighters could grab an awesome KO win or build up a run while Jones is on the shelf that would separate them from the pack, but this is unlikely in my view, and the least appealing option for the light heavyweight kingpin

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Dana White UFC 159 Post-Fight Media Scrum

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UFC 159 Results, Gifs

UFC 159 played out with only a couple of genuine surprises, and the fights with top billing played out more or less how most people predicted. However, there were a few things that caught the eye (and not just wayward fingers).

UFC Light Heavyweight Championship – Jon Jones def. Chael Sonnen via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:33 

Everyone expected Jon Jones to win this fight handily, but perhaps not quite with such completely ruthless efficiency.

Sonnen came out and took the fight to Jones right out of the gate, but the champion tackled that by countering fire with fire, and taking the fight to the mat.

The challenger put up a spirited fight for a short time, but once Jones really let loose with ground and pound the fight was always going to be moments from its climax. Some observers complained that the stoppage was a little swift, but Sonnen was going nowhere and he was only going to eat more and more devastating shots.

As a little caveat to the fight, Jones fought with this nasty little injury, only realising his toe was hanging off once Jo Rogan stepped in to interview him. Then, he even went and completed his post-fight press conference obligations. He has stones for sure, and I could be wrong, but I think fans are finally starting to warm to him. Not before time too.

Jones is the greatest light heavyweight of all time, and is surely not far away from building a resume that compares to Anderson Silva’s or Georges St-Pierre’s.

Michael Bisping def. Alan Belcher via technical unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Again, the way this fight played out was entirely expected with Bisping out-landing Belcher on the feet.

What was unexpected was Belcher’s strategy of holding his hands down and just allowing Bisping to punch him repeatedly in the face.

The Brit was unlikely to get the KO, but that did not matter as he racked up punch after punch.

Of course it was unfortunate the fight had to end with that gruesome eye poke. I hope that Belcher can recover soon, because for all of his flaws, he is still an exciting fighter, and belongs just outside the middleweight top 10.

Roy Nelson def. Cheick Kongo via KO (punch) – Round 1, 2:03

Cheick Kongo doesn not have the best chin. Roy Nelson is good at stepping inside and connecting his hayeymakers with people’s chins.

Combine those two ingredients and you get this fight, entirely predictable.

Big Country will never win the UFC belt, but he’s going to knock out all but the division’s elite and remain a beloved and entertaining figure while he’s at it.

Phil Davis def. Vinny Magalhaes via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Another disappointingly predictable fight. Phil Davis kept the fight standing for the most part and used his superior (though still far from outstanding) striking to out-point the BJJ ace.

Pat Healy def. Jim Miller via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 4:02

Now this was a shock. Jim Miller was the hot favourite, a top-10 ranked lightweight with an outstanding record and level of consistency.

He came out of the gate as you might have expected, taking control of the fight and winning the first round.

The second round started, and it was like a switch had been flicked. Miller had no answer for the striking and grappling of Healy, and the New Jersey crowd was silenced as the new arrival from Strikeforce controlled position, and battered his opponent from bell to bell. There was no let up in round number three, and all chance of a turn in the tide were suffocated by ‘Bam Bam’.

He closed the show with a submission that Miller was powerless to stop, and secured himself a nice double fight and submission of the night bonus.

Prelims

The  preliminary fights didn’t provide too many highlights, but there were a couple bright spots in a series of bouts marred injury weirdness dull MMA.

Sara McMann suggested she could be a major player in the women’s 135lb division with dynamite wrestling and a impressive killer instinct. Once she had Sheila Gaff locked in that mounted crucifix she rained down a barrage of punches that forced the finish.

The other extremely impressive performance on the undercard was that of Bryan Caraway. I didn’t give him much of a chance against Johnny Bedford, who had lived up to his ‘Brutal’ moniker very nicely so far in his UFC appearances. I was shocked to find that the shy, retiring, often nervous wreck of a fighter that had often appeared when Caraway stepped into the octagon was nowhere to be seen as he completely dominated his opponent, and secured the finish with seconds to spare.

Rustam Khabilov def. Yancy Medeiros via TKO (thumb injury) – Round 1, 2:32
Ovince St. Preux def. Gian Villante via majority technical decision (30-28, 30-29, 29-29)
Sara McMann def. Sheila Gaff via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:06
Bryan Caraway def. Johnny Bedford via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 3, 4:44
Cody McKenzie def. Leonard Garcia via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Steven Siler def. Kurt Holobaugh via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

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UFC 159 Post-fight Press Conference

All your usual post-fight fun with the big winners from UFC 159.

There’s a bit missing from the start, but blame the UFC for that, not me.

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UFC 159 Countdown video

You know the drill.

Nicely produced, slightly formulaic extended previews of Saturday’s big fights.

Four fights get the countdown treatment. The first is the big light heavyweight title fight between TUF coaches Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen.

The second is Michael Bisping vs. Alan Belcher, an exciting sounding middleweight tilt which comes on the back of some amusing smack talk.

Then we’ve got Phil Davis vs. Vinny Magalhaes

Finally Jim Miller welcomes Strikeforce stand out Pat Healy into the UFC.

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UFC 159 Conference Call: Bisping and Belcher save the day

This Sonnen vs. Jones hype has really run out of steam. Their chat on this conference call was limp, lifeless and uninteresting.

Enter Michael Bisping and Alan Belcher to trade barbs and bring the conference call to life. Thank goodness

“No-one gives a fuck about Alan Belcher”

Bisping a man of measured comments as usual.

I think Bisping will win on Saturday, but he has to be careful. Not only is Alan Belcher very dangerous, he will have some serious egg on his face if he doesn’t back up his trash talk.

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