Author: Ben Fowlkes

In San Jose, UFC Benefits From Groundwork Laid by Strikeforce

Filed under: UFCSAN JOSE, Calif. — At least for local MMA fans, the HP Pavilion might as well be the house that Scott Coker built. Strikeforce held its first event here in March of 2006 — the first sanctioned MMA event in the state of California — a…

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Cung LeSAN JOSE, Calif. — At least for local MMA fans, the HP Pavilion might as well be the house that Scott Coker built. Strikeforce held its first event here in March of 2006 — the first sanctioned MMA event in the state of California — and both the venue and the city served as its home base for the next five years.

That’s why it felt a little odd to walk into the HP Pavilion for Friday afternoon’s weigh-ins and see the UFC’s logo splashed around the arena. This was where Fabricio Werdum upset Fedor Emelianenko. It’s where Gina Carano and “Cyborg” Santos became the first women to headline a major MMA event.

And now, with Strikeforce firmly under Zuffa control, it’s the UFC that’s reaping the rewards of a vibrant market full of passionate fight fans.

For Cung Le, it seems especially strange. The hometown favorite has yet to fight in an MMA bout outside of San Jose, and his contest with Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 will mark the first time he’s set foot in a cage that didn’t belong to Strikeforce.

More Coverage: UFC 139 Results

“I’m trying not to think about it,” he said earlier this week, adding that it was “an honor to be in the UFC.”

Le made his MMA debut at that first Strikeforce event, knocking out Mike Altman in the first round in front of what was, for the U.S. at the time, a massive MMA crowd of more than 18,000 fans.

For Coker, you might think it would be a little bittersweet to see his old friend now working for his former rivals, but speaking to MMA Fighting from Las Vegas (where he’s attending Friday night’s Strikeforce: Challengers show) the San Jose native insisted he was genuinely happy for Le.

“I’m excited for him,” said Coker. “I think it’s a big fight, and I’m not just saying that.”

The way Coker sees it, the success of combat sports in the Bay Area — from the early days of his kickboxing promotion to Strikeforce’s warm reception there as an MMA promotion — has a pretty simple explanation.

“It wasn’t until the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s that a lot of the martial arts instructors started moving to America,” he said. “…Before that, very few people did martial arts in America. What happened was, when the martial artists came over to America, most of them settled in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Seattle, because those were the ports of entry. That’s why when you look at the Bay Area, you know, I remember at one point counting about 80 [martial arts] schools just in the South Bay part of the Bay Area.”

The success of local fighters, such as the American Kickboxing Academy’s stable of top talent, has helped maintain local interest in the sport over the years, but the UFC has historically shied away from promoting events in the area. It brought UFC 117 to Oakland last summer, but San Jose has always been Strikeforce’s stomping grounds.

Until now, of course.

So now that Zuffa owns his promotion and the UFC is moving into the building where some of the greatest moments of his professional life took place, what will it be like for Coker when he flies back to San Jose on Saturday and walks into the HP Pavilion to watch a fight there as a spectator? At least for now, even he isn’t quite sure, he said.

“We’re all one family now. But to me, how is it going to feel to walk into the HP Pavilion [for a fight] and have it not be Strikeforce? I’ll be able to answer that when I walk in there. I really don’t know yet.”

 

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UFC 139 Weigh-In Results

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Tom Lawlor as Steven SeagalSAN JOSE, Calif. — The UFC 139 fighters took to the scale to make it official at the HP Pavilion on Friday afternoon, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing all the way.

There was trouble early when several fighters missed weight, some badly, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan claimed that there was a discrepancy between the California State Athletic Commission’s scale and the one fighters had been using to check their weight backstage. The problems were mostly confined to the first few fighters to weigh in, however, with those higher up on the card clocking in on the mark with no apparent problems.

Just to make things more interesting, middleweight Tom Lawlor did his best Steven Seagal impression on his way to the scale, and things got a tad physical on the stage when Rick Story got too close for Martin Kampmann’s liking. All in all, an interesting day on the scales in San Jose.

Full weigh-in results are below.


Main card (pay-per-view)

Dan Henderson (203) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (205)
Wanderlei Silva (185) vs. Cung Le (185)
Urijah Faber (136) vs. Brian Bowles (136)
Martin Kampmann (170.5) vs. Rick Story (170.5)
Stephan Bonnar (205) vs. Kyle Kingsbury (205)

Televised prelims (Spike TV)

Ryan Bader (205) vs. Jason Brilz (204)
Michael McDonald (136) vs. Alex Soto (135)

Internet prelims (Facebook.com)

Tom Lawlor (185) vs. Chris Weidman (185.5)
Gleison Tibau (155) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (155.5)
Miguel Torres (137)* vs. Nick Pace (141)**
Matt Brown (171) vs. Seth Baczynski (171)
Danny Castillo (155) vs. Shamar Bailey (158)**

* Torres came back to the scales and, on a third attempt, weighed in at 136 lbs.
** Pace and Bailey will both be fined 20% of their respective purses.

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Filed under:

Tom Lawlor as Steven SeagalSAN JOSE, Calif. — The UFC 139 fighters took to the scale to make it official at the HP Pavilion on Friday afternoon, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing all the way.

There was trouble early when several fighters missed weight, some badly, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan claimed that there was a discrepancy between the California State Athletic Commission’s scale and the one fighters had been using to check their weight backstage. The problems were mostly confined to the first few fighters to weigh in, however, with those higher up on the card clocking in on the mark with no apparent problems.

Just to make things more interesting, middleweight Tom Lawlor did his best Steven Seagal impression on his way to the scale, and things got a tad physical on the stage when Rick Story got too close for Martin Kampmann’s liking. All in all, an interesting day on the scales in San Jose.

Full weigh-in results are below.


Main card (pay-per-view)

Dan Henderson (203) vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (205)
Wanderlei Silva (185) vs. Cung Le (185)
Urijah Faber (136) vs. Brian Bowles (136)
Martin Kampmann (170.5) vs. Rick Story (170.5)
Stephan Bonnar (205) vs. Kyle Kingsbury (205)

Televised prelims (Spike TV)

Ryan Bader (205) vs. Jason Brilz (204)
Michael McDonald (136) vs. Alex Soto (135)

Internet prelims (Facebook.com)

Tom Lawlor (185) vs. Chris Weidman (185.5)
Gleison Tibau (155) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (155.5)
Miguel Torres (137)* vs. Nick Pace (141)**
Matt Brown (171) vs. Seth Baczynski (171)
Danny Castillo (155) vs. Shamar Bailey (158)**

* Torres came back to the scales and, on a third attempt, weighed in at 136 lbs.
** Pace and Bailey will both be fined 20% of their respective purses.

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Army Vet and Dolphin Trainer Alex Soto Faces Tough Debut at UFC 139

Filed under: UFCSAN JOSE, Calif. — Alex Soto still isn’t completely sure what went wrong in his Ultimate Fighter audition. At the time it seemed like he’d done everything right.

“I went there, tried out, did everything good,” he said. “I grappled in …

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Alex SotoSAN JOSE, Calif. — Alex Soto still isn’t completely sure what went wrong in his Ultimate Fighter audition. At the time it seemed like he’d done everything right.

“I went there, tried out, did everything good,” he said. “I grappled in front of Dana White, Joe Silva, and made it to the next phase, hitting the mitts. I made it all the way to the interview process, but I never heard anything back.”

Maybe it was the interview, he thought later. He was in the middle of a weight cut for a fight he had later that same week, so maybe his personality didn’t shine the way it could have. Then again, Soto’s coach, Manny Hernandez, has his own theory.

“It was the beard,” said Hernandez.

To hear Hernandez tell it, this wasn’t just some scruff from a few days of not shaving. It started just below Soto’s eyes and only got worse from there.


“Me, his manager, his coaches, we all said, ‘What’s with the beard, Teen Wolf?'”

Okay, Soto can admit now, the beard didn’t help. That’s part of why he shaved it. But even though he didn’t make it on TUF, things worked out when the UFC needed a late replacement to take on Michael McDonald at UFC 139 and Soto just happened to be in top shape since he was already preparing for a local fight on that same night. Even on 12 days’ notice, he couldn’t turn down the chance to get in the UFC.

Now Soto finds himself facing one of the organization’s top young bantamweight talents on the Spike TV prelim portion of the card, and the UFC officially has its first professional dolphin trainer under contract.

No, that’s not a typo.

In addition to his MMA career, Soto currently works for the U.S. Navy training dolphins. It’s a career path he got into after working as a diver at Sea World, where he initially cleaned tanks. When the park was looking for an employee adventurous enough to get in the water and work with the animals, it found one in Soto, who’s always up for a thrill.

For instance, consider his early experiences with MMA. After taking what he thought would be a pretty standard bout in Tijuana, with gloves and shinpads for extra protection, he got word that, actually, not everybody had shinpads. Or gloves, for that matter. And oh yeah, this bare-knuckle fight was in a nightclub.

“So turns out it was just a straight-up brawl,” said Soto. “It was a great experience. I don’t think I’d do it again, but it was a great way to start my career.”

For the 27-year-old Soto, that trip to Tijuana was actually something of a homecoming. He was born in the border town, and lived there until he was 12, when his family immigrated to the U.S.

Soto was in high school during the terrorist attack on 9/11, and that event made him feel like he had to do something to defend his adopted homeland, he said. So right out of high school he joined the Army. Before he knew it, he was shipping off to Afghanistan.

“I remember how I felt on 9/11,” said Soto. “It was a scary feeling. It was, you know, terrorizing. And that’s what I thought about when I went to Afghanistan was, the way that I felt that day, I want to do something about it.”

Soto was deployed with the 25th Infantry’s Long-Range Surveillance Detachment — a special unit that he was motivated to join largely because it was supposed to be difficult to get into.

“I’m always looking for adventure,” he explained. “It was a tryout where they put us through hell for about three months, and I made the team.”

When Soto came back home, he began to turn his focus toward an MMA career with the help of Hernandez and the rest of San Diego’s Team Hurricane Awesome. That puts him in regular sparring sessions with Strikeforce 135-pounder Liz Carmouche, who Soto jokes is just one of the bigger fighters he has to face on a regular basis, now that she’s “put on a few pounds” between fights.

“We go hard,” Soto said. “We don’t take it easy on each other.”

He’ll need the benefit of those training sessions against McDonald, who at just 20 years old is considered to be one of the UFC’s future stars at bantamweight. Maybe it’s his status as a rising contender, or maybe it’s the fact that Soto took the fight on less than two weeks’ notice, but oddsmakers seem to like McDonald’s chances, tabbing him a 5-1 favorite on Saturday night.

That’s alright with Soto, and with Hernandez, who said he was “ecstatic” when his fighter got the call for what many expect to be a rough entrance into the UFC.

“Whatever’s meant to happen will happen,” said Hernandez, who recounted telling Soto when he first joined the gym that he could go as far with MMA as he wanted to. Soto still remembers that day well, he said. At least so far, Hernandez’s words have proved true. After all, he did start out in a bare-knuckle fight in a Tijuana nightclub.

“Now I’m here in the UFC,” Soto said. “The biggest stage in the world.”

From Afghanistan to the dolphin tank, Soto’s already led an uncommonly interestingly life. Now the next chapter is set to begin on live TV. Whatever happens, at least this time an ill-advised beard won’t be to blame.

 

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UFC 139: By the Odds

Filed under: UFCThe UFC invades San Jose on Saturday night for an event at Strikeforce’s longtime stomping grounds in the HP Pavilion, and at least on paper UFC 139 looks like one of the best fight cards of the year.

Oddsmakers have already had a look…

Filed under:

The UFC invades San Jose on Saturday night for an event at Strikeforce’s longtime stomping grounds in the HP Pavilion, and at least on paper UFC 139 looks like one of the best fight cards of the year.

Oddsmakers have already had a look at the card and determined their favorites. Now it’s our turn. Who knows, we might find a crazy underdog somewhere in here to carry us to the promised land.

Dan Henderson (+110) vs. “Shogun” Rua (-140)

In the past couple years it’s seemed like you never know for sure which “Shogun” you’re going to get until midway through the first round. Will he show up fierce and in shape, or soggy and slow? Fans have been willing to cut him some slack after injury layoffs, but a five-round battle with a grinder like Henderson could get ugly for the Brazilian if it makes it into the later rounds. If it remains a kickboxing match, you’ve got to like Rua’s chances. But Hendo seems to have a special gift for turning what looks like a nice, technical bout on paper into a messy, nasty affair in the cage. The more rough and tumble it gets, and the longer it goes, the more this fight favors Henderson. If he can wear Rua out in the clinch and on the mat in the early going, this is a very winnable fight for him.
My pick: Henderson. At these odds, it’s worth small action, but I wouldn’t go big on the off chance that we saw a sharp “Shogun” or a Hendo who suddenly starts to look his age.


Wanderlei Silva (+115) vs. Cung Le (-145)

I have to imagine that if Le’s acting aspirations hadn’t already resulted in him losing a fight he should have won, the line on this would be considerably more lopsided. It’s not that Silva’s got no chance. Power is always one of the last things to go, though Silva’s trademark aggression is high on that list as well. He could conceivably get in close and smash Le with a big hook, or snatch him up in a Thai clinch and knee him like he’s “Rampage” Jackson and it’s 2004 all over again. More likely though, Le will keep him at a distance with his kicks, sticking and moving all night long. Le might not be known for his knockout power, but these days, Silva isn’t known for his ability to take much a shot. If Silva were somewhere north of a 2-1 underdog here, I could see taking the risk. But to get Dan Henderson odds on a fighter who is younger, but clearly further past his prime, that doesn’t seem like such a good deal.
My pick: Le. I’ll save it for the parlay, and a part of me will continue to hope I’m wrong, since I’m not sure I can handle seeing Silva get knocked out again. I also can’t justify picking him, though.

Urijah Faber (-250) vs. Brian Bowles (+195)

I realize Faber is far more popular — Bowles realizes it too, in case you’re wondering — but this seems a tad ridiculous. You’re telling me that of all the fighters on the main card here, the biggest underdog is the guy who was champion of his division as recently as March of 2010, who has only lost one fight (via injury TKO, to the current champ), and who is facing a guy who has not held a belt since November of 2008, despite multiple chances to win one? I’m sorry, but I have to call shenanigans here. This is a much closer fight than the odds reflect. Faber deserves to be the favorite, and I understand why he’s got the bigger fan following, but cool hair and an almost disturbingly laid-back attitude isn’t enough to justify a line like this. In a straight-up pick, I’ll take Faber. Even then, however, I won’t feel totally confident in it. With a line this lopsided, I pretty much have to roll the dice on Bowles. If I didn’t, I’d hate myself in the morning.
My pick: Bowles. He might look like Opie Taylor going up against Point Break-era Patrick Swayze, but it’s not a beauty contest, people.

Martin Kampmann (+115) vs. Rick Story (-145)

If you ask me, this is the closest fight on this card. It could go so many different ways, and almost no outcome is unfathomable. Because of the unpredictable nature of this particular style match-up, my gut instinct is to stay away from it entirely. But then, that’s not much fun, and it doesn’t make for the most interesting of betting odds columns, either. With that in mind, I’ll go with the guy who I think has the more diverse skill set, not to mention a little more experience against top-level opponents. That’s Kampmann, but not by much. We’re talking slim margins on this one, which is not something I like to bet on.
My pick: Kampmann. But if I were you, I’d opt to stay out of this one. Like Hemingway said of bicycle racing as compared to horse racing, this is one where you don’t need to bet on it in order to enhance your enjoyment of it.

Kyle Kingsbury (-150) vs. Stephan Bonnar (+120)

Bonnar is a big, tough guy who’s been around the block and earned the right to keep going around even now, when it’s very clear that he’ll never challenge for a title or even get closer than the announcer’s table to one. But against Kingsbury he finds himself facing an opponent who’s probably a little faster, a little stronger, and just generally more athletic. Kingsbury was very green when fans first saw him on TUF, but he’s improved drastically since then and has four straight wins to show for it. Bonnar’s no easy opponent for anyone in the light heavyweight division, and you can rest assured that’s probably going to make you work for the full fifteen minutes, but if Kingsbury does what he’s capable of this should be his fight.
My pick: Kingsbury. Another one for the parlay.

Quick picks:

– Miguel Torres (-340) over Nick Pace (+260). I suppose it’s possible that Pace is on Torres’ level. We just haven’t seen any evidence of it yet.

– Danny Castillo (-300) over Shamar Bailey (+230). No offense to Bailey, but Castillo probably faces tougher fights in the gym on a regular basis.

The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: Le + Kingsbury + Torres + Castillo

 

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Urijah Faber Says Dan Henderson’s a ‘Unique Cat,’ While Hendo Says Very Little

Filed under: UFCSAN FRANCISCO — Maybe someone should tell Dan Henderson that he’s about to headline one of the better UFC pay-per-views of 2011.

While they’re at it, maybe they should also tell him that the match-up is kind of a big deal to the fans…

Filed under:

Dan HendersonSAN FRANCISCO — Maybe someone should tell Dan Henderson that he’s about to headline one of the better UFC pay-per-views of 2011.

While they’re at it, maybe they should also tell him that the match-up is kind of a big deal to the fans who always wanted to see Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua mix it up back when they were both in Japan’s Pride organization, and if he wins there just might be a title shot in it for him.

Not that I expect it would make much of a difference to him, nor would it generate any outward displays of enthusiasm, but it might be nice just to know that he knows it.

If you weren’t already used to his sleepy pre-fight demeanor, you might have been forgiven for mistaking his laconic performance at the UFC 139 press conference on Thursday afternoon for disinterest.


Again though, that’s only if you didn’t know the guy. It’s only if you weren’t familiar enough with his sense of humor to recognize that, when asked about the differences between training for a three-round fight and a five-round fight, he was just trying to have a little fun by replying, “The difference is two rounds.”

You’d also have to know him well enough to know that, when he deflected talk about getting back into a title shot, suggesting that the winner of his fight with Rua might not be deserving of a crack at the champ if it ends up being “a boring fight and not a whole lot happens,” he wasn’t trying to be difficult so much as honest.

After all, this is the same man who, at Wednesday’s open workouts, insisted that he’d never actually been all that passionate about pursuing a rematch with middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and that, sure, he wouldn’t mind winning a UFC title, since that was “definitely on the goal list.”

Maybe that’s just what happens when you’re a 41-year-old fighter with more than 14 years in the sport, and you’ve won big fights in every major organization. Maybe you show up to press conferences in a little conference room on the edge of the San Francisco Bay, and you still can’t get too terribly worked up about the man you’re about to fight in a cage just two days from now.

Fortunately for us, UFC bantamweight Urijah Faber was there to tell us a story about Hendo — a story that told us more about Hendo than Hendo would likely ever tell us about himself.

As Faber told it, he was a former wrestler in his first couple weeks of MMA training, and he ended up on the mat with Henderson during a training session in a Sacramento gym.

“I was just going in there, going for the kill, and of course I went against a guy who’s another great wrestler and bigger and more experienced and everything and he was just killing me and he was like, ‘Man, don’t you know any jiu-jitsu?'”

The answer, Faber said, was “not really,” which only earned him a shaming from Henderson, who pointed out that another smaller fighter, Javier Vazquez, was able to hang with him thanks to his jiu-jitsu skills. The message was clear enough to Faber, who said he also started asking around about Henderson’s training regimen because “I was trying to get a feel for how the best guys did things.”

“I was asking his training partner how much he runs, and he said, ‘Dan hasn’t ran in 13 years,'” Faber said, before recounting a story about the year Henderson spent “partying” instead of training, only to then enter and win a national wrestling tournament.

“This guy’s a unique cat,” said Faber. “He’s like a pirate or something.”

Here’s where you naturally pan to Henderson himself, looking for a reaction, briefly forgetting who you’re dealing with.

“I guess I got no comment about that,” he replied.

Of course not. Why would he? When you’ve got exploits like Henderson’s, both in the cage and out, you don’t have to talk about them. You can let others do it for you.

 

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Surprise! Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles Aren’t Big Fans of Dominick Cruz

Filed under: UFCSAN JOSE, Calif. — Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz wasn’t at the UFC 139 open workouts on Wednesday afternoon. He didn’t have to be. Between Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles, the champ managed to loom over nearly every conversation ev…

Filed under:

Urijah FaberSAN JOSE, Calif. — Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz wasn’t at the UFC 139 open workouts on Wednesday afternoon. He didn’t have to be. Between Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles, the champ managed to loom over nearly every conversation even in absentia, though his former foes weren’t exactly singing his praises.

For instance, when asked what he thought of Cruz’s decision win over Faber in July, Bowles seemed unimpressed.

“It was a typical Cruz fight,” said the former WEC 135-pound champ. “He did what he did. He was able to dance around and keep from being on bottom. He does what he does. He just executed his game plan and does what he does best. He hits you without getting hit. A typical Cruz fight.”

If that sounds like Bowles isn’t in a hurry to get his popcorn and locate the edge of his seat every time the champ defends his belt, that’s no mistake.


As Bowles said of Cruz: “If he’s fighting on TV, I’m not watching him as a fan because I like watching his fights. I would be watching because he’s my competition and I’m trying to take something from it. If he wasn’t in my weight class, I probably wouldn’t watch him fight.”

Faber, however, insisted he follows every fighter mostly because he’s “a huge fan,” and claimed that he actually enjoys watching Cruz fight. But even that praise had a needle hiding behind it.

“I think Dominick’s style is entertaining. It’s not dangerous. It’s not a guy you’re scared to fight. Anybody, you shouldn’t be scared to fight him either,” Faber said, adding, “It’s not that he doesn’t hit hard, it’s that he doesn’t hit hard enough to hurt me.”

It’s almost enough to make you forget that Bowles and Faber are fighting each other on Saturday night, not Cruz. Maybe it’s the lack of any personal rivalry between the “California Kid” Faber and, as UFC PR man Dave Sholler jokingly tabbed him, the “Southern Gentleman” Bowles. Or maybe it’s just that former champs can’t stop thinking about the current champ and how much they’d love to snatch that hardware from around his waist.

As Bowles put it, “The belt is the most important thing, I think, in doing what you’re doing. If you’re not wanting to be a champion, then you probably shouldn’t be in it. Another thing is, if I’m not trying to be champ, the guy standing across from me probably is. He might be training harder. I train like I’m fighting for the belt every time.”

Faber has good reason to do the same since, at least for the past few years, it sure feels like he’s fighting for the belt every time, or at the very least fighting for the chance to fight for the belt next time.

Then again, as he sees it, that’s not a mistake of marketing so much as the natural and justifiable order of things.

“If [Bowles] is the number one contender and I beat him, then what’s the sense of going any lower than that?” Faber said. “It doesn’t make any sense. If he beats me, that’s a different story. But I’m not going to let that happen. There’s a reason I’ve been at the top of the weight class — any weight class — since I started this sport, and that’s because there’s not many guys up there that can beat me.”

Of course, you could also make the case that one reason why Faber never falls far from a title shot is his popularity with fans. With or without the belt he’s still one of, if not the biggest draws below 155 pounds, and some would say that the UFC grants him special treatment because of it. Why else would exactly half of his last eight fights have been title fights, even though he lost all of them?

Bowles thinks he has a pretty good idea. Not that he’s terribly upset about it.

“Some people are going to be popular and some people aren’t. Sometimes you’re just gifted with that. It’s like the cool kid in school: you don’t know why he’s cool, but he is. I happen to not have it. Some people have it. Faber has it. It is what it is.”

For Bowles, a win over Faber might be a chance to get some of that popularity to rub off on him, or at least get enough of the pixie dust to earn him another shot at Cruz.

For Faber, it’s a chance yet another crack at that same title. This time he even has a plan for how to get through to the dense judges at cageside.

“You’ve got to paint a picture that a kindergartner could understand,” Faber explained. “So [if] attempting 12 takedowns and getting one is what I have to do to tell them that, hey, I’m going to win this fight, then so be it. If slap-boxing and touching a guy a couple times instead of knocking him down is what I’ve got to do, I’ll do some of that in addition to knocking him down. You’ve just got to do more.”

Not that he’s still stewing over that loss or anything. Not at all.

 

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