UFC 164 results and gifs: Pettis taps Henderson

Another UFC in the books, and we have a new lightweight champion.

Anthony Pettis def. Benson Henderson via verbal submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:31 – wins UFC lightweight championship

I’d thought the most likely outcome for this fight would have involved Bruce Buffer keeping everyone on the edge of their seats as he read the judges close scorecards. Ben Henerson i snot generally the kind of man that get’s finished even if his opponent is Anthony Pettis and we saw evidence of that in their fist fight.

The round started with some control against the cage from the champion that Pettis was able to survive without taking too much punishment. No-one stamped their authority on the fight until the challenger rattled off four consecutive right kicks to the body. THese weren’t even on Henderson’s live side, but he was visibly affected by their thunderous impact. From there, it looked like Pettis made the first error of the fight bey truing a flashy cartwheel kick and ending straight on his back in guard.

However, he used this to his advantage very quickly, controlling Bendo’s position and switching his hips tight and quick to lock in an armbar. A few seconds later and a futile attempt by Henderson to escape and the verbal tap came.

In the post-fight interview the new champ was calling out José Aldo, but I think he’ll probably have to defend his new 155lb prize a couple of times before the Brazilian makes his way up to  challenge for the belt. I can;t see the UFC brass letting him drop to featherweight. I also see Pettis handling anyone the lightweight division has to offer. If I had to pick one man to give him problems it would be Gilbert Melendez, but considering how capably Showtime has handled his last four opponents I would say he will have a rough go at that.

Josh Barnett def. Frank Mir via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 1:56

Josh Barnett got a win in his return to the UFC after nearly a decade with a TKO of the always TKO-able Frank Mir. He had a perfect gameplan, rushing Mir early and throwing a barrage odf strikes to the head and body. I honestly thought he was on the way to screwing everything up when knees started missing their mark, the face became the secondary target and Mir started firing back, but I need not have had any doubt as Barnett delivered a knee which crumpled the former champ to the mat and brought the stoppage.

I think the stoppage was a tad early, but not terrible. Mir should have been allowed the chance to recover (which he did seconds later), but if Barnett had been able to throw a couple more punches Mir would have had his lights out in short order. Where’s Dan Miragliotta when you need him.

Barnett has set himself up for some high-profile fights at heavyweight now, but I don;t think he’ll ever really be in for a title hunt with guys like Velasquez, Dos Santos and Cormier around. Mir has lost three straight but still has a place in the division. He’s a good fighter who’s lost to three top 10 fighters and he could still crush most heavyweights with ease. His title hunting days are over though.

Chad Mendes def. Clay Guida via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 0:30

Chad Mendes is a stone-cold killer, and really proved it by grabbing a fourth KO in a row against a notoriously impossible-to-KO fighter.

Clay Guida had nothing for Mendes in the grappling or striking departments, and when the Team Alpha Male prospect finally uncorked the kind of punches that had the potential to end the fight the fight was well and truly ended.

Mendes is ready for an Aldo rematch now. He might not win, but I don;t think he’ll get blown up like he did last time. He’s by far and away proved himself to be the number one contender and improved his skills enough that a rematch is still compelling. If he is given one more fight before he gets that chance you won;t find me complaining though. It will just be another chance for us to see hime flex his skills and blow up another 145 pounder.

Ben Rothwell def. Brandon Vera via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 1:54

This could finally be Brandon Vera’s ticket out of the UFC. He fought quite well at first, but he couldn’t stop Rothwell putting him up against the cage and when the big mid-westerner finally turned on the power Vera was helpless.

Big Ben might want to be careful what he asks for in his post-fight interviews though. A fight with Travis Browne is likely to nring one thing his way. A severe ass kicking.

Dustin Poirier def. Erik Koch via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-27, 29-27)

This was the fight of the night for sure (despite what the official list of UFC bonuses might say). A back and forth battle with high offensive output in all areas of mixed martial arts. It looked like Poirier was done for when he was caught in a tight triangle early in the first and even when he finally managed to escape he looked like he was close to passing out. However, he gritted his teeth and swung the momentum back in his favour.

After this excellent punch ‘The Diamond’ rained down blows on ‘New Breed’ until the end of the round before following up with a second round of dominance. The punishment he dealt out in the first was so great in fact, that two judges gave him a 10-8 score despite the trouble he’d been in earlier on.

To his credit, Koch came back and won the third round, but unless he was about to score a finishing blow or hail-Mary submission the fight was Poirier’s.

Whatever the outcome of this fight my sentiments would have been the same as they are now. I can;t wait to see these young exciting fighters matched up with other high-quality featherweights for years to come. Boredom will never be an issue with these men fighting.

Prelim results

The official fight of the night was Hyun Gyu Lim’s destruction of Pascal Krausss. This was a hugely entertaining few minutes of violence, and striking to see how ENORMOUS Lim is at 170lbs. With reckless gameplanning like that he won’t be troubling the division’s elite any time soon, but he will definitely give some top-25 fighters some trouble and provide some outrageous excitement whether he’s delivering the damage or eating it.

The Jacaré award for upkick eating goes to Kyung Ho Kang, who pretty much lost his fight with Chico Camus as a result of taking this beauty.

The early contender for submission of the night was this nice guillotine from Magnus Cedenblad in the night’s opening contest.

Finally, I can’t not mention the slop-fest that was Soa Palelei win over Nikita Krylov in his return to the Octagon. The big Aussie was not impressive in his first UFC fight all those years ago, and broken rib or not, he was not impressive here. The blame can;t lie squarely at his door though. I’d herad Sherdog.com’s Jordan Breen describe how bad Krylov was on Friday, and the young Ukrainian scertyainly lived up to his billing. He played right into Paleelei’s limited abilities and deserveddly got beaten. I guess these horrorshow fight sare a bit of fun every once in a while, but I hope most of this sort of thing is reserved for the likes of Bellator and World Series of Fighting in future. It was BRUTAL to watch.

Gleison Tibau def. Jamie Varner via split decision (29-28, 27-29, 29-28)
Tim Elliott def. Louis Gaudinot via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
Hyun Gyu Lim def. Pascal Krauss via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:58
Chico Camus def. Kyung Ho Kang via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Soa Palelei def. Nikita Krylov via TKO (punches) – Round 3, 1:34
Al Iaquinta def. Ryan Couture via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Magnus Cedenblad def. Jared Hamman via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 0:57

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Dana White UFC 164 post fight media scrum

Dana gets on the mic with the assembled media to chat all things UFC 164.

For those familiar with Dana White, you will also be familiar with his brutal honesty. Occasionally this might be grossly misinformed, just plain wrong or controversial to the point he gets into a bit of bother with the media.. However, his there are times when his insistence on calling a spade a spade is admirable, particularly in the case of his criticism of the Soa Palelei/Nikita Krylov fight. That fight really deserved to be slammed, and the UFC president duly obliged.

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UFC 164 post fight press conference

Dana White and UFC 164 fighters sit down with the media after the conclusion of last night’s event.

New lightweight title holder Anthony Pettis fields questions for the first time as champion, including his future defending the belt and a potential fight with featherweight king José Aldo.

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UFC 164 Henderson vs. Pettis 2 weigh-in results and video

Every fighter was on weight for UFC 164 earlier today in Milwaukee, so there’s not too much to say really.

A few thoughts:

• Gleison Tibau us far too big to be a lightweight!
• Erik Koch and Dustin Poirier are still in the infancy of their MMA careers, but you won’t find many better or more intense fighters out there. Prepare for fireworks.
• When I hear Brandon Vera was moving back up to heavyweight I was skeptical. When I heard he weighed in at 241 pound I though his return to the division was bound to be a disaster. However, having seen his frame, he’s thicker, not just heavier. If he can keep a bit of speed from 205lbs he could give Ben Rothwell some trouble and revitalise his career.
• You would thing Chad Mendes had just dropped from the weight class above. He dwarfs Clay Guida. I predict an uncomfortable ride for The Carpenter tomorrow night.
• Henderson and Pettis look ready to go right now. This ssi very exciting.

Full preview to follow, though I’m not sure how coherant it will be. I think the breakdown of the main event might just be a list of superlatives, because this is the rematch of one of the top 5 best fights ever, and for my money the most exciting match possible to make in MMA right now.

Main Card

Benson Henderson (155) vs. Anthony Pettis (154.5)
Josh Barnett (255) vs. Frank Mir (248)
Clay Guida (146) vs. Chad Mendes (145)
Ben Rothwell (262) vs. Brandon Vera (241)
Erik Koch (145) vs. Dustin Poirier (145.5)

Prelims

Gleison Tibau (155) vs. Jamie Varner (156)
Tim Elliott (125.5) vs. Louis Gaudinot (125)
Pascal Krauss (170) vs. Hyun Gyu Lim (171)
Chico Camus (135) vs. Kyung Ho Kang (136)
Nikita Krylov (236) vs. Soa Palelei (265)
Ryan Couture (156) vs. Al Iaquinta (156)
Magnus Cedenblad (185) vs. Jared Hamman (185.5)

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Machida/Bader, Browne/Rothwell fights announced. UFC 146 heavyweight shuffle continues

Machida KOs Randy Couture in Toronto

Joe Silva sure has been a busy boy lately. The biggest announcement over the last couple of days is that Lyoto Machida will square off against Ryan Bader at the UFC‘s 4th Fox show in August. It is a shame to see Lyoto take this amount of time off between fights, but at at least his return will be against high level opposition wiith significance for the future of the division. Bader is on a bit of a roll after wins over Jason Brilz and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, though I think he will find it very difficult to continue that run against Machida who may be 1-3 in his last 3 fights, but who is still one of the very best fighters in the world.

In a small twist to this piece of matchmaking, Bloodyelbow.com reported that Machida was considering a fight at middleweight in the absence of any opportunities at 205.

I was ready to fight but the opportunity was not there. The division is lacking, it’s a bit mixed, and I didn’t know, right (who would be my next opponent)? I even had the intention of fighting at 185lbs so I wouldn’t lose the opportunity of keeping busy. I spoke to Ed Soares and (Jorge Guimarães), but they told me to be patient.

…

Look, I’m a guy that usually weighs at most 96kg (211lbs), so I don’t think there would be a problem fighting (at middleweight). My objective is to fight at (205lbs), but to make a fight at middleweight would not be a problem.

Of course, Machida has no real intention of making a run at middleweight for the time being as his mate Anderson Silva still runs things down there. However, as I have stated before, I think that Anderson will be retiring in the near future so that would leave a division open for a new champion. In a world where Jon Jones runs the light-heavyweight division it may be the karateka’s best chance of regaining UFC gold.

In a fairly quick turnaround for both men, UFC 145 victors Ben Rothwell and Travis Browne have also been matched up for the August show on Fox. Rothwell looked focused and in peak condition for the first time in a long while against Brendan Schaub at UFC 145, and seems like an ideal candidate for the still-undefeated Browne. The UFC is still trying to build up the undefeated Browne, and Rothwell is a step up from Chad Griggs, who Browne faced after a of lacklustre performance against Rob Broughton. However, this is certainly not a gimme fight for Browne, as Rothwell has the potential to ruin all but the best heavyweight’s evenings thanks to his ability to take massive amounts  of punishment and fire back with massive amounts of power.

In UFC 146 news, after stepping in to replace Antonio Silva against Roy Nelson, Gabriel Gonzaga has now been replaced by Dave ‘Pee Wee’ Herman after the former UFC title contender picked up an injury. The Nelson/Herman match up is bound to be an all out slug-fest that will be as sloppy as it will be entertaining.

On the UFC 146 Jamie Varner will return to the UFC for the first time since 2007 after putting together a 3-1 run outside of Zuffa promotions. He replaces Evan Dunham for a tough fight against Edson Barboza, who is fighting for the fist time since his memorable KO of Terry Etim in Brazil in January. This is a tough task for Varner and I would expect him to be defeated, though he definitely has a chance to upset the Brazilian if he can use his wrestling effectively.

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UFC 145 Jones vs. Evans results – Jon Jones easily defends his title

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans went down in Atlanta last night, and was another entertaining and successful show for the UFC, finally settling the Jones/Evans feud that felt like it had been running for ever. Elsewhere on the card a great mix of knockouts, submissions and fights that made it to the final bell took place as new prospects established themselves and former contenders slipped further down their divisional ladders.

Jon Jones def. Rashad Evans via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) – retains UFC Light-heavyweight title

After a fairly even first round, Jon Jones took control of this fight and dominated Rashad Evans en route to a wide unanimous decision victory. Evans had some early success, and even if he didn’t win the first round he was very competitive coming forward, keeping Jones under pressure and landing with punches and kicks. He started to fall behind on the scorecards and get outstruck in the second round after he failed to heed the advice of his cornerman Tyrone Spong and started backing up. This allowed Jones to keep Evans on the end of kicks and punches as well as throwing in standing elbows that really seemed to hurt Evans when the opportunity arose.

Jon Jones elbows Rashad Evans. gif courtesy of ironforgesiron.com

In the later rounds Evans was noticeably tired and inactive. He could not figure out how to get inside and hit Jones, and looked content to simply survive rather than go for broke and swing for the fences. Jones was very comfortable and continued to land strikes almost at will until the final bell.

Jones will match up with Dan Henderson for his next fight where he could score a victory over his 6th top-10 light-heavyweight in a row and surely cement himself as the greatest of all time in the division. Evans is convinced that he will stay at 205 pounds where he will remain amongst the top five fighters in the world at the absolute worst. However, I would hope he would consider a move to middleweight. I expect Anderson Silva to retire soon, and Evans would have an excellent shot of becoming the champion there.

Full set of results and more analysis in the full post

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans preview

UFC 145 Jones vs. Evans is the biggest MMA event so far this year with a headliner featuring two of its biggest stars.  You’ve seen all of the hype during the course of the last few week, so I’ll just get straight to previewing the main card fights.

Featherweights – Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin

The Mark Hominick post-José-Aldo-rehabilitation-tour should begin at UFC 145, as he has been favourably matched up with 0-1 UFC newbie Eddie Yagin. Of course, said rehabilitation tour was supposed to start in December in Toronto, but it ground to a halt before it ever really started when Chan Sung Jung knocked Hominick out after 6 seconds. I can’t see lightning striking twice though. Hominick will have learned from his mistakes, and he is rightfully the biggest favourite on Saturday with odds of 1/6.

Expect Hominick to start slowly and gradually establish his striking, progressing from jabs and leg kicks to combinations and power-shots  as he cruises to a T/KO victory.

Bantamweights – Miguel Torres vs. Michael McDonald

Former WEC bantamweight champ Miguel Torres was fortunately unemployed for very short period of time after the rape-joke debacle towards the tail-end of 2011. This means he is probably fighting at around the same time as he would have done without any of that ‘controversy’ taking place, and he can continue his own rehabilitation and quest to get the 135 pound title back. He comes into this fight with a 3-1 record since the WEC/UFC merger, though his only loss was a bit of a joke of decision defeat to Demitrious Johnson. In his UFC wins Torres has employed a much more conservative striking strategy, utilising his reach advantage over most of the division to establish an effective jab, keeping opponents out of range, and scoring points with the occasional flurry of strikes.

In the Johnson fight Torres was a little too content to try and score points from his back which definitely did not leave the judges convinced, and that would be McDonald’s best chance of winning as he is essentially a slightly inferior version of Torres in terms of his striking ability and grappling prowess, if not the same style. However, he is not the kind of fighter to try and employ a lay-and-pray sort of strategy, so I see a comfortable win for Torres, despite how close the odds make this fight seem

Heavyweights – Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell

Schaub put a few doubts in the minds of many MMA observers after he imploded in spectacular fashion and lost to Minotauro Nogueira after controlling much of the first round. It is worth remembering the discrepancy in experience between those two fighters though, and Schaub will surely take that fight as a learning experience and continue to improve as a mixed martial artist, as he has done rapidly over the last couple of years. He should have more than enough in the striking department for Ben Rothwell, and shouldn’t be threatened by his grappling. Rothwell is a decent heavyweight, and his UFC career has been blighted by injuries, but this is a man who was outwrestled by Mark Hunt. Schaub by decision

Welterweights – Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills

I have already expressed my opinions about this match up, Che Mills is being brought into this fight to be cannon fodder for one of the UFC’s brightest young stars. The fact that this fight is a co-main event, and was originally intended to take place in MacDonald’s home country before the event was moved further demonstrate what a showcase fight this is intended to be. Mills is a dangerous striker, but by no means the ‘elite fighter’ Joe Rogan claimed in the Countdown show. Credit to him if he can KO MacDonald, but I would expect the young Canadian to comfortably use his wrestling, and force a submission fairly early on in this fight.

UFC Light-heavyweight Championship – Jon Jones (champion) vs. Rashad Evans

After a year of bitter, bitter back and forth, betrayal, sniping and questionable hand injuries; Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will finally face off for UFC gold.

Rashad Evans has really changed my opinion of him in the last year. He has had two fights, and performed almost flawlessly in each. Apart from one guillotine scare, he absolutely demolished Tito Ortiz as he should well have done, finishing him with one of the most terrifying knees to the body I have seen in quite some time. Earlier this year, he took on elite collegiate wrestler Phil Davis and completely dominated him with takedowns and top control. It wasn’t pretty, but it was an outstanding win over a top fighter. This confirmation of his skills, and new-found ability to fight in a way that doesn’t make fights more difficult than they should be cemented him as the clear number 2 fighter in the division and the ideal candidate to take on Jon Jones.

Unfortunately for Rashad, looking at Jon Jones, you soon realise that none of this makes any difference. Jon Jones has made a case for being the best fighter in the world and the greatest light-heavyweight of all time after a year in which he beat 4 top-10 fighters in decisive fashion without even being threatened, whilst constantly improving his MMA game. Jones is tailor made to deal with all of Rashad’s strengths, and can exploit Rashad’s reach disadvantage and boxing flaws with his own unorthodox and unstoppable strikes. If Rashad is to win, I can only imagine him doing so by fighting perfectly, and connecting with one HUGE punch or gluing Jones to the mat for 25 minutes. I find this highly unlikely though, and predict that Jones will shrug off takedowns and counter Rashad’s strikes, breaking him down before stepping up a gear in the 3rd or 4th round and overwhelming his former team-mate for a stoppage victory.

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans Extended preview

The hype for one of the biggest fight of the year has started. It’s weeks away yet, but the anticipation for this fight should be feverish by the time it comes around.

Pretty much because they have to, the UFC has small previews for two other main card fights in this video. Poor old Che Mills. Even without an intimate knowledge of the UFC you can tell he’s being brought into this fight as cannon fodder for Rory MacDonald. Highlights of just one fight, British, fighting a Canadian in Canada (who happens to be a good wrestler). The prospects are bleak. I’d love it if he could score the upset though.

Also featured is a heavyweight fight between Brendan Schaub and Ben Rothwell which I’m sure most people are struggling to care about.