The UFC has found a replacement for the injured Chris Weidman at UFC 199, as Michael Bisping will challenge Luke Rockhold on June 4, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.
Per Jason Floyd of the MMA Report, UFC President Dana Whit…
The UFC has found a replacement for the injured Chris Weidman at UFC 199, as Michael Bisping will challenge Luke Rockhold on June 4, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.
Per Jason Floyd of the MMA Report, UFC President Dana White said Jacare Souza was the top choice to fight Rockhold, but he is unable to because of injuries suffered in his fight against Vitor Belfort on May 14.
Weidman was seeking to reclaim the UFC middleweight championship that he lost to Rockhold at UFC 194, the first defeat of his career in 14 fights.
However, Weidman announced Wednesday that he is unable to compete because of a neck injury he suffered during a sparring session while training to fight Rockhold:
I am being told I’m going to need surgery. Either they take the disc out or they fuse it and I have to meet with surgeons today to figure out what they will do. The good thing is it is c6-7 which is low in the neck, so I will have full range of motion either way and will be back better then ever. I’m told it’s six-to-eight week recovery for the disc coming out and twelve weeks for a fusion.
Even though White wanted to give Souza the championship fight, Bisping is a logical second option. He has won each of his last three fights, including a victory over Anderson Silva in February.
The 37-year-old Bisping has never fought for the UFC middleweight title in 10 years with the promotion, previously losing No. 1 contender bouts against Dan Henderson in 2009 and Chael Sonnen in 2012.
Bisping and Rockhold do have a history together. Rockhold defeated Bisping by submission early in the second round at UFC Fight Night in November 2014.
That loss may have been why White was looking elsewhere before landing at Bisping, but Souza’s quick turnaround time from his last fight made it a virtually impossible fight to make. This is Bisping’s moment to rewrite the narrative that he can’t win the big one.
After years of rumors and speculation, Cris Cyborg makes her long-awaited, much-anticipated UFC debut on Saturday at UFC 198 in Curitiba, Brazil, against Leslie Smith in a 140-pound catchweight matchup.
Cyborg has been dominating the wo…
After years of rumors and speculation, Cris Cyborg makes her long-awaited, much-anticipated UFC debut on Saturday at UFC 198 in Curitiba, Brazil, against Leslie Smith in a 140-pound catchweight matchup.
Cyborg has been dominating the women’s featherweight division with Invicta for the last three years, putting together a perfect 5-0 record with five knockout wins and the Invicta FC featherweight title on her mantle.
Smith is being put in a difficult position, as she has a 2-2 record in the UFC, and the organization is seemingly using her as a sacrificial lamb to elevate Cyborg. It’s asking her to move up in weight against an opponent who traditionally fights at 145 pounds.
Before Cyborg and Smith step inside the Octagon at UFC 198, here’s a look at how both fighters have arrived at this moment.
Cyborg Highlights
Cyborg is one of the most powerful strikers in mixed martial arts. She has 15 career wins, 13 of which have come by knockout or technical knockout. Her last non-(T)KO victory was against Yoko Takahashi in October 2008.
The 30-year-old is trying to do her best Ronda Rousey impression, winning three straight matches and four of her last five matches in the first round. Cyborg surely wouldn’t appreciate her accomplishments being called an impression of Rousey, but it does help illustrate the larger point.
Here’s how Cyborg took down Charmaine Tweet at Invicta FC 11 in just 46 seconds to defend her featherweight title for the first time, via the UFC:
Cyborg’s striking ability keeps her opponents at bay because they know trying to move in for an attack will lead to them absorbing heavy punches. She’s not the most accurate striker, but her ability to throw so many hard punches per minute allows her to land more than seven in every 60-second interval.
Because opponents know they can’t try to trade blows with Cyborg, she doesn’t take significant damage. She’s got a perfect takedown defense and has a good defense against significant strikes (1.55 absorbed per minute).
There even seems to be a sense of fear coming from current UFC fighters when they had the chance to fight Cyborg, as UFC President Dana White noted on Twitter:
It’s certainly more nuanced than that, as the UFC only has two weight classes in its women’s division—strawweight (115 lbs) and bantamweight (135 lbs).
That does limit Cyborg’s potential opponents significantly, but given how big of an event her debut in the UFC figures to be, the payoff would seemingly be worth it for a top-tier contender to put on a few additional pounds.
Cyborg has also earned her share of enemies—notably Rousey—after a positive test for steroids in 2012 that led to the California State Athletic Commission suspending her for one year.
Even with the previously failed drug test, that was four years ago, and Cyborg has mended enough fences to get her shot in the UFC. She is finally getting her moment on the biggest stage mixed martial arts has to offer, so it’s up to her to make it count.
Smith Highlights
Credit Smith for stepping up to take a fight against a superior opponent. The 33-year-old is essentially a journeyman fighter, owning a pedestrian 8-6-1 career record in 15 fights. She has shown some previous power with four career knockouts, but just one in four matches was under the UFC banner.
In the promotional video made by UFC for her fight on Saturday, Smith revealed Cyborg is someone she’s been watching dating back to Cyborg’s breakout victory over Gina Carano in 2009:
The bad news, as the video also makes clear, is that Smith is going to try to outpunch Cyborg. That’s not a strategy that will lead to success, especially since her ground game has been nonexistent.
When you are going against a bigger, stronger and faster striker, the best way to counter that is by taking the fight to the mat. Cyborg can’t hit hard if she is on her back fighting off submission holds.
Smith is saying all of the right things leading up to the fight, as she did to E. Spencer Kyte of the Vancouver Sun about her mindset when accepting a matchup against Cyborg:
If someone is getting into fighting because they just want to win every single time, and they never want to get tested and they never want to get pushed, I can see why they would say, ‘No’ to a Cyborg fight, but that’s not why I’m doing it.
It’s not just to be the best fighter in the world – it’s to make progress as a human being, as a martial artist, as a person with goals and a desire to evolve and change and grow and this is the perfect fight for that.
All credit to Smith for stepping up in a prime position to take a fight no one else seemed to want, but she’s overmatched in this case. She’s a pretty good striker with some power; Cyborg is the best striker in the women’s division who has no problem knocking out anyone.
Smith’s defense isn’t good, as evidenced by the high number of significant strikes she absorbs (8.46 per minute). Cyborg moves so quickly that she doesn’t need to rely on her defense often, though she’s shown a knack for protecting herself from heavy shots.
Mixed martial arts is a sport in which every fighter has a chance to win, especially someone who is capable of landing a big punch, but Smith is entering the Octagon on Saturday as Sisyphus rolling a boulder up the mountain, unable to see the peak.
Former Bellator and WEC mixed martial artist Blas Avena was found dead at the age of 32 in his Las Vegas apartment just before noon PT on Wednesday, per TMZ Sports. The Las Vegas Metro Police Department is investigating it as a suic…
Former Bellator and WEC mixed martial artist Blas Avena was found dead at the age of 32 in his Las Vegas apartment just before noon PT on Wednesday, per TMZ Sports. The Las Vegas Metro Police Department is investigating it as a suicide.
“Arriving police and medical personnel located an adult male who was pronounced deceased at the scene,” a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metro Police Department told TMZ. “As of now, the death is being investigated as a suicide.”
TMZ noted an autopsy was conducted earlier this week, “but officials won’t name an official cause of death until further tests are completed.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion Shane Carwin offered his condolences on Twitter:
Avena last fought at Bellator 96 in June 2013. He lost by technical knockout in the first round to War Machine. He bounced around from various promotions throughout his eight-year career, which started with the Ultimate Combat Experience (UCE) in 2005.
From 2007 to 2009, Avena enjoyed his most stable partnership with WEC, going 3-3 in six fights with the promotion. He put together an 8-7 career record with one no-contest in 16 career fights.
Bellator fighter Jordan Parsons has died at the age of 25, three days after he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in Florida.
Bellator President Scott Coker confirmed Parsons’ death Wednesday in a statement emailed to Bleacher Report:
It is with…
Bellator fighter Jordan Parsons has died at the age of 25, three days after he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in Florida.
Bellator President Scott Coker confirmed Parsons’ death Wednesday in a statement emailed to Bleacher Report:
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of a dear member of the Bellator family, Jordan Parsons. Jordan was an exceptional athlete and a rising star in the sport. But more importantly, he was an exceptional young man. Jordan was hard-working, dedicated, intelligent, and a pleasure to be around. He represented all the reasons we love this sport. It is a terribly tragic loss, and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and teammates.
Glenn Robinson, who runs the Blackzilians camp where Parsons trained, told Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com after the incident that Parsons had to have his full right leg amputated.
Robinson also told Helwani that Parsons’ “heart was only working at 20 percent. He’s currently having heart surgery and that should last another hour.”
UFC fighter Rashad Evans, who also trains at the camp run by Robinson, said Parsons was in a coma and fighting for his life in an Instagram post released Sunday.
Parsons was on the south side of the intersection, walking in the crosswalk. The vehicle hit Parsons and fled, leaving him lying in the roadway. A nearby DBPD officer, Derek Chahine, arrived on scene very quickly and applied pressure to Parsons’ severe leg wound until Delray Beach Fire Rescue responded and transported Parsons to Delray Medical Center where he remains in critical condition.
Parsons had been scheduled to fight Adam Piccolottion the main card of Bellator’s May 14 event before the accident.
A North Dakota native, Parsons began his professional mixed martial arts career in 2010. He won his first seven fights and had an 11-2 career record, winning the CFA featherweight championship and Driller Promotions lightweight championship.
The whirlwind ride for UFC and Conor McGregor will have a satisfactory ending, as the 27-year-old will take on Nate Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9.
McGregor himself tweeted the news early Monday morning:
This ends one of the most unusual situations involvi…
The whirlwind ride for UFC and Conor McGregor will have a satisfactory ending, as the 27-year-old will take on Nate Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9.
McGregor himself tweeted the news early Monday morning:
This ends one of the most unusual situations involving a fighter in UFC history. McGregor and Diaz agreed to a match at UFC 200 on March 30, less than four weeks after Diaz handed McGregor his first UFC loss.
On April 19, McGregor sent out a cryptic tweet saying that he was going to “retire young”:
White appeared on SportsCenter that same day and announced McGregor had been pulled off the UFC 200 card because he was refusing to fly to Las Vegas and do the mandatory promotional activities, per ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto.
“We pulled Conor McGregor from UFC 200 and we’re working on other fights right now,” White said. “Conor did not want to come to Las Vegas and film the commercial and be a part of the marketing. He’s in Iceland training. Is Conor retiring? Only he can answer that question. I don’t know.”
One day later, White appeared on Fox Sports 1’s UFC Tonight and said the “window is pretty much closed” on McGregor being put back on UFC 200:
After nearly 48 hours of silence from McGregor’s side, he finally addressed the situation in a post on his official Facebook page:
It was still uncertain if the bout between McGregor and Diaz would be put back on the UFC 200 card following that message. He did give the company plenty of time to make it happen, as there are still more than two months to go before the show.
Despite all the controversy and White’s initial insistence McGregor would not have a spot on the landmark event, UFC is still a business. McGregor has been great for UFC on the events he has headlined, per Forbes (via SportsCenter):
Even though UFC 200 has a deep card, with Miesha Tate defending the women’s bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes and Jose Aldo challenging Frankie Edgar, the show was going to be built around McGregor.
Luckily, UFC and McGregor were able to reach an agreement. UFC 200 will take place on July 9 with the biggest star in the sport headlining the show.
After nearly 15 months, Jon Jones makes his long-awaited, much-anticipated return to the Octagon at UFC 197 in a match against Ovince Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight title.
The main intrigue for Saturday night’s main event will be s…
After nearly 15 months, Jon Jones makes his long-awaited, much-anticipated return to the Octagon at UFC 197 in a match against Ovince Saint Preux for the interim light heavyweight title.
The main intrigue for Saturday night’s main event will be seeing how Jones looks after a prolonged absence due to various legal problems. The card did lose some steam, though, when Jones’ original opponent, light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, had to withdraw due to a leg injury.
Saint Preux is a capable fighter, though he’s not nearly at the championship level. A win over Jones would certainly propel him into a different stratosphere after a lackluster 3-2 run in his last five fights.
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Johnson vs. Cejudo
Before Jones steps back into the cage, Demetrious Johnson will be defending his flyweight title against Henry Cejudo.
Even though Johnson doesn’t get the mainstream respect he deserves, there’s no denying that Mighty Mouse is one of the premier fighters in mixed martial arts. He’s on a nine-fight winning streak, has lost just once in 13 career UFC fights and is the only flyweight champion in UFC history.
Cejudo, on the other hand, comes into Saturday’s title fight as a relative unknown. He’s only got 10 career fights under his belt, four in UFC, and has been elevated into the main-event scene quickly.
Speaking to Damon Martin of Fox Sports, Cejudo certainly carries the confidence of a fighter who is ready for his close-up:
I believe I’m fresh. I believe I have the pedigree and I’ve been in these other situations before and that’s all there is to it. I’m ready. I just hope he’s ready and I hope I get the best Demetrious Johnson the world could ask for because I want to fight the best at their best. I think I’m going to be fighting him at his best.
Cejudo‘s history certainly gives him the right formula to keep up with the lightning-quick Johnson. He’s never been taken down in his career, lands nearly four significant strikes per minute and defends over 74 percent of significant strikes thrown at him.
The problem for Cejudo, at least to this point, is he’s virtually limited himself to being a stand-up fighter. He’s got four career knockouts, but they came in the first four fights of his career in the World Fighting Federation and Gladiator Challenge.
It’s strange that Cejudo has taken this tack, because he won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in freestyle wrestling.
Jeff Wagenheim of Sports Illustrated brought up Cejudo‘s wrestling history, noting it doesn’t always translate into mixed martial arts success:
This is not wrestling, though. In MMA, the less decorated wrestler often gets the best of an opponent on the mat. Georges St-Pierre, for instance, regularly had his way with foes whose resumes suggested they would be superior grapplers. Just last year, Jon Jones had a pretty good night coming to grips with Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier.
Johnson has proven himself to be a chameleon in the cage, being able to stand and trade punches or get into a mat wrestling match. He’s a more accurate striker than Cejudo, landing nearly 53 percent of significant strike attempts, and averages 3.6 takedowns per fight.
A more diverse skill set inside the Octagon is often the deciding factor in a matchup like this. Cejudo could end up pulling a Holly Holm, just using his power to stun the champion, but Johnson is rarely as over-aggressive as Ronda Rousey tends to be.
Prediction: Johnson wins via submission (third round)
Jones vs. Saint Preux
All eyes will be on Jones in the main event. If he defeats Saint Preux, it’s what was supposed to happen and UFC can work on scheduling a bout with Cormier at some point this summer.
If Jones loses to Saint Preux, however, questions about ring rust and his dedication to the sport will inevitably crop up.
There has been some evidence that Jones no longer feels invincible after everything that’s happened to him, per Martin:
The moment I realized I had to change, honestly the big moment for me was the night Anthony Johnson and (Cormier) fought for my light heavyweight championship and I saw DC walk away with it. In my mind, I beat both of those guys. I was at home with my wife and I thought to myself ‘here I am, I’m possibly one of the best fighters to ever play this sport and I’m here at my house without a belt, without a sponsor, just completely wasting talent.’
Assuming Jones has his life and mind in order, UFC will be much better for it. He’s one of the most dynamic athletes the sport has ever seen and was doing things in the light heavyweight division that no one was capable of.
Jones has never lost a legitimate fight in his career. The one blemish on his career was in 2009 when the referee disqualified him for throwing some questionable elbows at the head of Matt Hamill. He’s beaten everyone UFC has throw at him in the 205-pound division, including Cormier in his last match at UFC 182.
Saint Preux is almost an afterthought in this match, though it’s not his fault. He was thrown into this situation because of the injury to Cormier. It’s a credit to him that he took the match on short notice, especially since he has nothing to lose.
Sometimes the fighter with nothing to lose is more dangerous because they can take risks, but Saint Preux really isn’t that kind of mixed martial artist. He’s got nine knockouts among his 19 wins, though he’s not a knockout artist with 2.67 significant strikes landed per minute.
Jones is the superior athlete who needs to make an impression in his return fight. This is his stage and Saint Preux is merely a player in it.
After years of rumors and speculation, Cris Cyborg makes her long-awaited, much-anticipated UFC debut on Saturday at