Author: admin

EA Sports is gearing up for the release of their new UFC game. And as the day closes in, they’re starting to leak more and more info on just what fans can expect from the game. The latest? Striking stats.

Video games do not represent reality. Even reality driven ones, like sports games. That’s a mantra I have to repeat to myself whenever I play them, because the moment I start thinking about these things I go just a little bit crazy. With EA Sports’ new UFC game coming up just around the corner (March 15th), the developer has started giving fans a peak at more and more of the design they can expect when they actually dive in and start playing.

Most recently, they released the full roster they have planned for the release date. No doubt it will be expanded on with DLC in short order, but it’s an interesting collection of fighters to start with. All the notable names, and a few oddballs like Mike Tyson, Bruce Lee, Kazushi Sakuraba, and CM Punk (of course).

Now there’s a new update. The first look at EA’s UFC 2 stats, with the “Stand Up” numbers for each and every in game fighter. Promise me it won’t get weird:

Reminder, these are only striking stats. I’ve highlighted a few of the weirder ones. Feel free to sound off with your own.

Heavyweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Andrei Arlovski	95	Todd Duffee	89	Frank Mir	90	Bas Rutten	93
Josh Barnett	91	Gabriel Gonzaga	86	Matt Mitrione	88	Kazushi Sakuraba	87
Pat Barry	93	Mark Hunt	94	Roy Nelson	89	Bigfoot Silva	89
Travis Browne	93	Jon Jones	92	Minotauro Nogueira	86	Stefan Struve	87
Mark Coleman	90	Shawn Jordan	87	Alexey Oleynik	84	Young Tyson	?
Daniel Cormier	89	Derrick Lewis	88	Alistair Overeem	96	Old Tyson	?
Mirko Cro Cop	95	Ruslan Magomedov	87	Jared Rosholt	84	Cain Velasquez	95
Junior Dos Santos	92	Stipe Miocic	93	Ben Rothwell	90	Fabricio Werdum	93

Light Heavyweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Ildemar Alcantara	84	Rashad Evans	92	Lyoto Machida	95	Chael Sonnen	86
Corey Anderson	86	Forrest Griffin	88	Jimi Manuwa	94	Glover Teixeira	91
Ryan Bader	89	Alexander Gustafsson	95	Gegard Mousasi	91	Young Tyson	?
Vitor Belfort	94	Dan Henderson	90	Minotouro Nogueira	88	Old Tyson	?
Michael Bisping	87	Rampage Jackson	91	Shogun Rua	91	Gian Villante	88
Jan Blachowicz	83	Anthony Johnson	96	Bas Rutten	93	Chris Weidman	90
Rafael Cavalcante	86	Jon Jones	95	Ovince Saint Preux	90	Fabio Maldonado	87
Daniel Cormier	93	Ilir Latifi	83	Kazushi Sakuraba	86
Patrick Cummins	87	Chuck Liddell	95	Anderson Silva	93

Middleweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Ildemar Alcantara	82	Cezar Ferreira	84	Lyoto Machida	93	Kazushi Sakuraba	83
Sam Alvey	86	Kelvin Gastelum	88	Demian Maia	83	Anderson Silva	94
Vitor Belfort	91	Royce Gracie	84	Nate Marquardt	86	Chael Sonnen	85
Michael Bisping	89	Uriah Hall	91	Gegard Mousasi	90	Jacare Souza	91
Tim Boetsch	85	Dan Henderson	89	Mark Munoz	87	Georges St-Pierre	92
Derek Brunson	87	Tim Kennedy	91	Rafael Natal	87	Brad Tavares	86
Roan Carneiro	84	Robbie Lawler	94	Costas Philippou	85	Elias Theodorou	87
Nick Diaz	89	Thales Leites	88	Luke Rockhold	97	Chris Weidman	96
CB Dollaway	85	Rory MacDonald	89	Yoel Romero	87	Robert Whittaker	89

Welterweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Omari Akhmedov	88	Benson Henderson	90	Hector Lombard	90	Mike Pyle	89
Thiago Alves	92	Johny Hendricks	92	Rory MacDonald	93	Kenny Robertson	86
Matt Brown	90	Matt Hughes	91	Neil Magny	88	Tarec Saffiedine	90
Carlos Condit	95	Martin Kampmann	89	Demian Maia	85	Ben Saunders	86
Nate Diaz	85	Dong Hyun Kim	91	Tim Means	90	Erick Silva	84
Nick Diaz	89	Pascal Krauss	86	Jordan Mein	89	Georges St-Pierre	95
Jake Ellenberger	88	Ryan LaFlare	88	Augusto Montano	88	Rick Story	86
		Robbie Lawler	96	Gunnar Nelson	90	Brandon Thatch	89
Kelvin Gastelum	87	Bruce Lee	95	BJ Penn	90	Stephen Thompson	95
Royce Gracie	83	Hyun Gyu Lim	89	CM Punk	80	Tyron Woodely	94

Lightweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Jose Aldo	94	Frankie Edgar	90	Myles Jury	92	Khabib Nurmagomedov	87
Eddie Alvarez	92	Paul Felder	89	Rustam Khabilov	87	Norman Parke	85
Olivier Aubin-Mercier	85	Tony Ferguson	89	Chad Laprise	85	Ross Pearson	87
Edson Barboza	91	Takanori Gomi	87	Joe Lauzon	85	BJ Penn	91
Gilbert Burns	85	TJ Grant	88	Bruce Lee	95	Anthony Pettis	95
Donald Cerrone	93	Bobby Green	88	Jorge Masvidal	90	Dustin Poirier	88
Michael Chiesa	83	Clay Guida	85	Gray Maynard	87	Diego Sanchez	86
Beneil Dariush	85	Benson Henderson	91	Conor McGregor	92	James Vick	85
Nate Diaz	89	Al Iaquinta	88	Yancy Medeiros	85
Rafael Dos Anjos	95	Michael Johnson	88	Gilbert Melendez	91
Joe Duffy	89	Chan Sung Jung	89	Jim MIller	86

Featherweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Jose Aldo	96	TJ Dillashaw	91	Ricardo Lamas	86	Yair Rodriguez	88
Makwan Amirkhani	89	Frankie Edgar	91	Bruce Lee	96	Dennis Siver	87
Mirsad Bektic	85	Darren Elkins	84	Nik Lentz	88	Jeremy Stephens	92
Dennis Bermudez	86	Urijah Faber	87	Conor McGregor	99	Cub Swanson	89
Diego Brandao	88	Clay Guida	86	Chad Mendes	89	Hacran Dias	83
Dooho Choi	95	Max Holloway	92	Charles Oliveira	87	Tatsuya Kawajiri	85
Clay Collard	85	Daniel Hooker	91	Brian Ortega	84	Dustin Poirier	92
Dominick Cruz	92	Chan Sung Jung	90	BJ Penn	90

Bantamweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Iuri Alcantara	91	TJ Dillashaw	96	Chris Holdsworth	87	Erik Perez	85
Thomas Almeida	94	John Dodson	93	Demetrious Johnson	94	Brad Pickett	89
Raphael Assuncao	86	Johnny Eduardo	86	Scott Jorgensen	88	Francisco Rivera	89
Renan Barao	92	Urijah Faber	90	Bruce Lee	97	Frankie Saenz	88
Alex Caceres	89	Mitch Gagnon	86	John Lineker	91	Joe Soto	88
Bryan Caraway	87	Manvel Gamburyan	88	Michael McDonald	93	Aljamain Sterling	87
Dominick Cruz	96	Cody Garbrandt	90	Takeya Mizugaki	88	Eddie Wineland	88

Women Bantamweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Jessica Andrade	93	Ashlee Evans-Smith	89	Lauren Murphy	86	Marion Reneau	86
Liz Carmouche	86	Jessica Eye	87	Amanda Nunes	91	Ronda Rousey	87
Bethe Correia	88	Holly Holm	97	Juliana Pena	88	Leslie Smith	85
Alexis Davis	86	Sarah Kaufman	88	Raquel Pennington	89	Miesha Tate	89
Germaine De Randamie	88	Sara McMann	84	Elizabeth Phillips	85	Cat Zingano	93

Flyweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Ali Bagautinov	89	Chris Cariaso	87	Kyoji Horiguchi	90	Sergio Pettis	91
Chris Beal	87	Henry Cejudo	85	Demetrious Johnson	97	Wilson Reis	84
Joseph Benavidez	93	John Dodson	96	Zach Makovsky	90	Justin Scoggins	85
Ray Borg	85	Jussier Formiga	84	John Moraga	91	Ian McCall	93
Chico Camus	85	Paddy Holohan	85	Dustin Ortiz	88

Women Strawweights
Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat	Fighter	Stat
Alexandra Albu	86	Carla Esparza	87	Juliana Lima	86	Tecia Torres	90
Joanne Claderwood	90	Claudia Gadelha	88	Randa Markos	85	Michelle Waterson	91
Alex Chambers	88	Seo Hee Ham	86	Maryna Moroz	87	Paige VanZant	90
Heather Jo Clark	87	Felice Herrig	88	Rose Namajunas	93
Kailin Curran	87	Joanna Jedrzejczyk	98	Jessica Penne	89
Aisling Daly	87	Valerie Letourneau	93	Bec Rawlings	89

MMAmania.com resident fighter analyst — and aspiring professional fighter — Andrew Richardson breaks down the mixed martial arts (MMA) game of UFC 196 headliner Nate Diaz, who looks to earn a massive victory this Saturday (March 5, 2016) inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lightweight boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter, Nate Diaz, is set to collide with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight roost-ruler, Conor McGregor, in a Welterweight bout this Saturday (March 5, 2016) at UFC 196 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As usual, things are rarely simple with the Diaz brothers. After fighting infrequently for a couple years and seeing his ranking fall as a result, Diaz scored an upset victory over Michael Johnson, propelling himself back into the Lightweight Top 10 several months back.

Thankfully, Diaz is already back in the Octagon, but it’s opposite a red-hot Conor McGregor on less than two weeks’ notice. Can the Stockton slugger upset McGregor and shock the world?

Let’s take a closer look at his technical skill and find out:

Striking

Diaz, along with his older brother Nick, have been taught extensively by boxing coach Richard Perez, developing their own style of boxing known unofficially as the “Stockton Slap.” This style is designed to take advantage of Diaz’s long reach and incredible conditioning, as the both brothers can push an incredible pace that really saps their opponents.

Over the years, the counter to this style of striking has been developed. Diaz stands with his lead foot turned inward — which is common in boxing — and is rather flat-footed, a pair of details that make him quite vulnerable to low kicks. Furthermore, Diaz very much fights as a pressure fighter and does great work against the fence/in the clinch, so lots of lateral movement can also throw him off his game.

Thankfully, it seems that Nathan Diaz has begun to adapt.

In his last bout, Diaz faced off with one of the division’s absolute best strikers, the highly athletic Henri Hooft trainee Michael Johnson. While Diaz still absorbed some hard low kicks, he also made a conscious effort to both check and avoid the strike rather than simply toughing it out. Since he was no longer hobbled by low kicks, Diaz was able to take over later in the bout as his opponent began to slow down.

Furthermore, Diaz showed a far more effective kicking arsenal that he’d ever displayed prior. Utilizing low kicks to the inside and outside of his opponent’s lead leg, linear kicks to the leg, and at one point a snapping high kick, Diaz effectively caught his opponent off-guard and landed solid strikes.

While Diaz now has a deeper bag of tricks, his original strengths of length and volume still apply. When allowed to work from the boxing range, Diaz is a very effective fighter.

Diaz absolutely takes full advantage of his range and uses his Southpaw jab well. He throws the strike with enough snap to make it a threat, but Diaz actually uses the strike correctly. Often, it’s simply a measuring tool, used to line up Diaz’s long straight left (GIF).

Additionally, Diaz does a nice job of drawing his opponent out with the jab. After getting touched by a jab, many fighters will look to immediately return with their own punches. Diaz is aware of this and will pull back or simply let his foe miss — reach is a beautiful thing — and counter with his own left cross or right hook.

Diaz often backs his foe into the fence, and from there he’ll move into the clinch. Diaz does a nice job keeping good head position in the clinch and ripping into his opponent’s body, which further expands his conditioning edge (GIF). For example, Diaz loves to secure an underhook, dig his forehead into his opponent’s jaw, and then relentlessly chip away at his foe with his free hand.

Knees have also become an effective weapon for Diaz over the years. He really weighs down on his foe in the clinch and is active with hard knees to the body and head. Diaz will also look to snap his opponent’s head down into the front headlock position, where he can deliver more knees (GIF).

Regardless of whether it’s at range or in the clinch, Diaz’s pressure fighting is exhausting for his opponent. Diaz simply never allows his foe a moment to breathe, and he compounds this problem by ripping to the body fairly often. While his opponent is forced to stay on edge and is firing full speed, Diaz manages to stayed relaxed and throw plenty of half-speed shots, setting up his real power shots.

Plus, the whole running Triathlons helps him out a bit.

Since fighting him is such an exhaustive experience, Diaz has become excellent at swarming opponents. Once his foe begins to tire, Diaz steps into more of his punches and usually forces a finish.

Wrestling

The largest critique against the Diaz brothers has been there lack of wrestling. Although that appears to be changing as well — Diaz did well in wrestling exchanges with Johnson and is on a different strength regiment now — it’s unlikely that it’s a strength.

On occasion, Diaz will shoot for a double leg takedown against the fence. It’s not always set up well and Diaz’s posture isn’t great, but he is actually fairly effective if he manages to get in on his opponent’s hips.

Diaz has some experience in Judo and Sambo, and that shines through in his clinch work. He occasionally will work for trips, but Diaz does his best with hip tosses. Utilizing his opponent’s underhook against him, Diaz will step across his opponent’s body and flip him over (GIF). Additionally, Diaz has utilized a similar throw after digging under the body lock, as both throws take advantage of his opponent’s attempts to hold onto the clinch/force a takedown (GIF).

Diaz’s takedown defense at this point in his career is difficult to get a read on. It looked good against Johnson, but Johnson had no real desire to grapple with the submission specialist. Prior to that bout, dos Anjos had little trouble taking Diaz down, but he also mangled his leg to the point that Diaz could barely stand up.

Which, of course, has a significant effect on his ability to defend the shot.

On the whole, it’s pretty unlikely that Diaz has blossomed into a fighter with elite takedown defense. However, he’s also not an easy man to take or hold down.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Though he’s well-known for his exciting stand up battles, Diaz is first and foremost a jiu-jitsu practitioner. A black belt under Cesar Gracie with 11 submission wins under his belt, Diaz’s ground game should not be taken lightly.

From the bottom, Diaz likes to use both the butterfly and open guard. His bottom game has evolved quite a bit over the years, as he moved from climbing his legs up high on his opponent’s shoulders to inverting in search of leg locks. Most recently, he seems to have settled on a more open, fluid guard where he looks for armbars and triangles while occasionally rolling for leg attacks.

Another of Diaz’s favorite techniques is the kimura. When on his back, he’ll wrap up his opponent’s arm and try to finish the submission or get a sweep. If neither works, he’ll roll up to a turtle position, where he can either stand or try to roll for the submission. If he stands and his opponent stills hangs onto him, then he’ll step across and go for a throw, usually while still controlling the kimura. Most recently, he used this get up to briefly toss Maynard.

Using the kimura like this is a dangerous technique, as it exposes his back. However, Diaz is confident enough in his jiu-jitsu defense to risk it.

Most of Diaz’s submissions come from scrambles, or when his opponent tries to take him down. Takedowns create space, and Diaz is excellent at capitalizing on these opportunities.

A prime example of this is his fight with Kurt Pellegrino. After dominating the first round, “Batman” shot for a single-leg takedown and slammed Diaz to the mat. While in the air, Diaz grabbed a guillotine and transitioned to a fight-ending triangle. To finish the submission, Diaz adjusted his angle and squeezed his legs, leaving his hands free for his signature celebration (GIF).

Another example of Diaz capitalizing on his opponent’s takedown is his guillotine choke finish of Melvin Guillard. Guillard shot in on Diaz with a double-leg, but left his neck exposed, allowing the Stockton native to loop his arm around the neck. From there, Diaz switched his grip and applied pressure, finishing “Young Assassin,” who did little to defend himself (GIF).

The guillotine is likely Diaz’s most dangerous submission. Diaz utilizes the Marcelo Garcia-style guillotine but adds his own twist to it. At first, he’ll snatch up his opponent’s neck and arm, as it allows him better control. As he swims the choke deeper, Diaz will wait until the opportune moment to release the arm and fully attack the neck. Additionally, Diaz often looks to roll his opponent into the mount, where he can really extend through the choke (GIF).

Conclusion

Diaz asked for this fight, and while it may not be under ideal circumstances, he now has it. If Diaz is in shape, he’s a real challenge for the Irishman, as Diaz is not one to walk into a counter punch knockout. That means Diaz has a decent chance of dragging this bout into deep water, where the Stockton-native excels at drowning his opponent with endless punches and some choice trash talk.

*****

Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt, is an undefeated amateur fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.

Anderson Silva questions why his fight against Michael Bisping was not stopped after he landed a clean flying knee in the end of the third round.

Anderson Silva is still not over his unanimous decision loss to Michael Bisping last Saturday. Although the former UFC middleweight champion is no longer accusing the commission of corruption (for the moment), he did take to Instagram to express his frustration with the outcome. Especially in the end of the third round, where he hit Bisping flush with a flying knee. It’s a blow Silva believes should have ended the fight.

“This is a sport, isn’t it ? So why do people expected me to kill my opponent?!” Silva asked.

Isso é um esporte né ? As pessoas queriam que eu tivesse assasinado o meu adversário. This is a sport, isn’t it ? So why do people expected me to kill my opponent?!

Um vídeo publicado por Anderson Silva (@spiderandersonsilva) em Mar 1, 2016 às 10:39 PST

It is unclear if Silva will try to appeal the result to the Athletic Commission as he has not expressed what his next move will be. The next step may be a fight at UFC 198 as Silva recently stated his desire to fight in his hometown of Curitiba, on May 14.

TUF 15 alum and veteran lightweight Daron Cruickshank is one of three fighters gone from the UFC roster.

After more than a dozen fights inside the Octagon, TUF 15’s Daron Cruickshank has been handed his UFC pink slip following a dramatic submission loss at UFC Boston two months ago. The 30-year-old lightweight striker confirmed the news to fans on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

I’ve officially been released. It’s been a pleasure and privilege to fight for the UFC. I am now currently looking for a fight elsewhere.

— Daron Cruickshank (@Cruickshank155) March 1, 2016

Cruickshank (16-8, 1 NC) is without a win in his last 4 bouts, having gone to a no-contest against K.J. Noons before losing three straight fights to Beneil Dariush, James Krause, and Paul Felder, all by rear-naked choke. “The Detroit Superstar” departs from the UFC with a record of 6-6 (1 NC), with the highlight win of his career coming via 1st round knockout against Erik Koch back in 2014. Cruickshank also scored a wheel kick knockout against Mike Rio in the fight preceding the Koch win.

Daron is one of three fighters whose UFC release has been confirmed within the past several days. On Saturday, Canadian welterweight Matt Dwyer announced the end of his tenure with the promotion.

I’m sorry to announce that I have been released by the #UFC Thank you everyone who has supported me! I’ll be back

— Matt Dwyer (@MattDwyerMMA) February 27, 2016

The 26-year-old Dwyer (8-4) leaves with a 1-3 record, having last competed in January at UFC on FOX 18 in New Jersey, where he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Randy Brown. His debut ended with a rough head kick KO loss to Albert Tumenov, but he rebounded nicely with a superman punch finish of William Macario in Brazil. A FOTN performance against Alan Jouban last May ended in a unanimous decision defeat. Dwyer will return to action on April 22nd against Derek Medler in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Also gone is welterweight Gasan Umalatov, as reported by Bloody Elbow’s Karim Zidan on Monday. Umalatov (15-5-1) debuted at UFC 169 in February 2014, losing a unanimous decision to current welterweight contender Neil Magny. The 33-year-old picked up his only UFC win that May, beating Paulo Thiago in Brazil. Consecutive losses to Cathal Pendred (by split decision) and Viscardi Andrade (by unanimous decision) dropped him to 1-3, and out of the UFC. Umalatov will fight in Russia later this year.

We’ll keep you to date on any more UFC roster cuts that roll in as the week progresses.

Tickets for the upcoming UFC 197 pay-per-view (PPV) mixed martial arts (MMA) event, which takes place on April 23, 2016 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, will go on sale to the general public on Fri., March 4, at 10 a.m. PT.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Fight Club members and UFC Newsletter subscribers, naturally, will be able to scoop up tickets prior to them being available for public consumption, thanks to two separate pre-sales beginning Weds., March 2 for UFC Fight Club and concluding Thurs., March 3 for subscribers to the UFC newsletter.

Click here for UFC Fight Club. To subscribe to the UFC newsletter through UFC.com click here.

UFC 197 will feature a championship doubleheader that pits UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier against reinstated nemesis and former 205-pound kingpin Jon Jones, not long after flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson collides with Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo.

Fun!

For the latest and greatest UFC 197 fight card and rumors click here.