Author: Ben Fowlkes

If GSP-Diaz Fight Is Sign of the New ‘Business as Usual,’ Count Me in

It’s hard to imagine it now, but back when UFC president Dana White first used the phrase “business as usual” (many, many times) to describe what life would look like for Strikeforce after the Zuffa purchase, it wasn’t a punchline. He meant it. Sort of…

It’s hard to imagine it now, but back when UFC president Dana White first used the phrase “business as usual” (many, many times) to describe what life would look like for Strikeforce after the Zuffa purchase, it wasn’t a punchline. He meant it. Sort of. Maybe he even believed it, or at least he expected us to believe it.

That lasted about fifteen minutes.

Now, with the announcement that Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz will face Georges St. Pierre at UFC 137 this fall, we can finally put it to bed for good and forget we ever even considered taking it seriously. Snatching Strikeforce’s champ and signing him to a new contract so he can fight the UFC champ? Not business as usual. Not even close. And we should all be very, very glad.

After UFC 129, when White was asked whether a GSP-Diaz fight was even possible under the current contracts, the big bossman replied that he could probably do whatever he wanted to do with Diaz – if he wanted it badly enough.

Translation: if fans get vocal enough about wanting to see this fight and no other, we’ll move mountains to make it happen if we have to.

Fans were, so the UFC did. While a GSP-Anderson Silva superfight might get some people’s motors running, putting it off in order to allow St. Pierre a chance to cement his welterweight status once and for all is the move that makes more sense. GSP-Diaz is the fight that feels like it absolutely has to happen, and now it will.

Sadly, such is not always the case in combat sports.

For instance, remember back when Diaz versus “Mayhem” Miller seemed like the bout that made the most sense for Strikeforce? You know, since Miller was an MTV star who’d been jumped by Diaz and crew on live network television, and since the two couldn’t be in the same building without wanting to murder one another?

That fight would have promoted itself, but Strikeforce couldn’t make it happen. Between discrepancies over the weight the two would fight at, and CBS’ irrational hatred for Miller, nothing ever got done. It was a perfect moment, but the moment passed with nothing to show for it.

Or take Diaz’s recent boxing ultimatum. Unless the UFC gave them St. Pierre, Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, told MMA Fighting in early May, his fighter was going to take his talents to the boxing ring for a bout with Jeff Lacy. Whether you think trading leather with the big gloves would have been a good idea or a horrible one for Diaz, in the end it was his decision to make. Strikeforce had given him a contract that allowed for it, so who was going to stop him?

Obviously, it doesn’t serve Zuffa’s interest to let Diaz get punched in the face by a washed-up former boxing champ while the UFC welterweight champ suffers from a dearth of compelling challengers, so it did what it had to do to talk him off the ledge. As Gracie put it in an interview with USA Today, the UFC “compensated [Diaz] for not boxing,” and in the end it got what it wanted.

More importantly, the fans got what they wanted. The cross-promotional champion-versus-champion fight that seemed so unrealistic that it was hardly even worth talking about a year ago was now a reality with a date and a venue. While we can’t pretend there are no down sides to having so much power in the MMA world consolidated under one Las Vegas roof, it’s moves like this that remind us of the considerable upsides.

If Strikeforce were still its own, independent organization, sure, that would make for better negotiating positions for fighters. It would give them more options, especially in the early or late stages of their careers (see also: Dan Henderson).

At the same time, then we’d probably never see Diaz fight St. Pierre. We’d probably never get a chance to find out who the best welterweight fighter in the world was. We’d just guess and speculate and argue, which is what we’ve been doing for the past few years, and – honestly? – I think we’ve gotten all the fun we’re going to get out of that exercise.

That was the old business as usual. This is the new one. And while it’s not without its potential pitfalls, so far there’s also a lot to like.

 

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In Search of Comeback Victory, Credeur and Herman Walk Parallel Paths

Filed under: UFCIt’s almost a shame Tim Credeur and Ed Herman have to fight each other at the TUF 13 Finale this Saturday night.

In another line of work – another life altogether, perhaps – they might have been something other than just opponents. On…

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Ed Herman.It’s almost a shame Tim Credeur and Ed Herman have to fight each other at the TUF 13 Finale this Saturday night.

In another line of work – another life altogether, perhaps – they might have been something other than just opponents. One might have been the only person who could understand what the other has been through in the last two years. With all the recent struggles they have in common, they might have even been friends.

In another line of work, maybe. Not this one.

21 months. That’s how long it’s been since Credeur’s last fight. Herman has him beat, but not by much. He blew out his knee at UFC 102 in Portland, Ore. just 18 days before Credeur stepped in against Nate Quarry at UFC Fight Night 19 in Oklahoma City for what would be his last bout for nearly two years.

Neither of them knew it then, but they were each in for a long wait and an emotional rollercoaster ride before they would get back in the cage again. They certainly had no way of knowing that, at the end of it all, they’d be returning against someone who had walked a similarly hard road.

“When I heard his name I thought, this is a good fight for me. This makes sense,” said Herman, whose blown ACL resulted in travails that were at least somewhat typical for a pro athlete, unlike Credeur’s.

Herman knew something was wrong when he felt a sharp pain in his knee after a first-round takedown by Aaron Simpson that night in Portland.

“He took my knee out in the first round, but I had never really had a serious knee injury so I didn’t know what was wrong with it,” Herman said. “I knew something was wrong, but I wasn’t ready to bow out.”

In the second stanza he tried to throw a head kick – “probably not the smartest thing I could have done,” Herman can admit now – and he went down in a heap. Everyone in the Rose Garden knew the fight was over just by looking at the way he rolled on the mat, holding on to his knee like it might fall off if he let go.

Herman had surgery soon after, began physical therapy two days after that, then got right back into training as soon as he was cleared and promptly blew the same knee out again that January.

This is about the time that he started to wonder if he’d ever fight again. And if he didn’t, what would he do instead? What if the knee never got back to full strength? How would he make a living? What would his future look like?

Down in Louisiana, Tim Credeur was asking himself some of the same questions, only for him the answers were even less certain. Things were looking good at first. He had a fight scheduled against Tom Lawlor at UFC 113 – his first “UFC with numbers,” he recalled – but when he went in for his pre-fight medicals, that’s when his plans began to unravel.

“I guess about three weeks before I was supposed to go to Montreal, they found something in my brain scan,” Credeur said. “They had no idea what it was or what it could do.”

They knew it was small – about the size of a freckle or a mole, according to Credeur – and they knew it was located too near to his brain stem for any kind of surgery to be a realistic option. They also knew that while they tried to find out exactly what it was they were looking at, Credeur was officially out of action.

“I just knew that I wasn’t going to be fighting, and that’s one of the main ways that I support my family. I was walking to my car thinking, what do I do now? Do I just go have a hamburger or something? Do I go fishing for three months? What?”

Then the phone rang. It was his wife, calling to give him some good news. She was pregnant with their first child. Credeur was going to be a father. That is, if he lived that long. If the mysterious mark on his brain that no one could tell him anything about didn’t turn out to be something that would get him first.

“This phone call happened within like ten minutes of me getting out of the doctor’s,” Credeur said. “I mean, where do I even begin?”

So he decided not to begin at all. He told her how happy he was about the pregnancy. He didn’t mention the words ‘brain abnormality.’ He didn’t tell her that he’d be sidelined from fighting for the foreseeable future, or that he had no idea what was about to happen to him – or to their growing family.

Not at first, anyway. It didn’t seem like the right time. But eventually it had to come out.

“It was kind of crazy,” Credeur said. “We weren’t even sure whether I was going to be around for the baby, or if I was, how I was going to support my family. Really, what I did was throw myself into my other business, which is teaching at our academy. It was kind of a blessing in disguise, because now our academy has gotten so big and is doing so well that I really don’t need to fight. We’ve got so many great instructors and the city has really grown with the sport. It’s amazing.”

Eventually the doctors came back with good news. That spot on Credeur’s brain? It was most likely something he’d had all his life. A birthmark, of sorts. Totally harmless.

“[The doctor] said, ‘You know, I’m a brain doctor, so cage fighting with four-ounce gloves would not be my recommended life choice, but you’re in no greater danger than anyone else.’ That was great to hear.”

Once he had the greenlight to start sparring and fighting again, Credeur soon set his sights on a June return. It seemed only fitting that he’d get matched up against Herman, who has been out just a tad longer than he has. If it takes a little while to knock off the ring rust, at least he’s facing someone with the same problem, so there’s no excuse.

But to Herman, it seemed like a sensible match-up for more than just one reason.

“Tim comes to scrap,” he said. “That’s what I like about it. He comes forward and he likes to get after it. He’s not the type who’s going to run from me or squeak out a win. He comes to finish, just like I do, so it’s going to be a good fight and a good one for the fans, but especially for me.”

But while it’s nice to have these dueling storylines of long struggles through adversity, they can’t both have a happy ending on Saturday night. Someone has to win, which means someone else has to lose in his big comeback fight.

And since both men are coming off losses in their last outing, the future for this weekend’s loser might have still more adversity in store, and they know it.

“Honestly, if I don’t win this fight, I don’t deserve to be there,” said Herman. “It’s always kind of like that because [the UFC is] always bringing in new guys, and there’s always someone else who can take my job.”

It’s the same for Creduer, who lost a decision but earned a $30,000 Fight of the Night bonus in his last fight. He found himself on the microphone pleading with the UFC not to cut him after that one, because he knows that exciting fights and tales of personal redemption are nice, but they aren’t enough in a business where winning means everything.

“I don’t care that much about Fight of the Night,” said Credeur. “My wife was excited, for sure. But when I got back [to the locker room], I was still crying in the shower, no doubt about it. I’m passionate about this sport and about what I do, and a loss is a loss is a loss. There’s no other way to go about it. I take them hard because there’s nobody else to place the blame on. That’s what I love about this sport. That’s what’s great about it.”

 

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Shane Carwin, Junior dos Santos Both Looking for the KO at UFC 131

Filed under: UFCOn Tuesday’s media call, UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Junior dos Santos made very clear what fans should expect to see when they meet in the Octagon on June 11, and it’s more or less what most people were already expecting.

“Let’s…

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On Tuesday’s media call, UFC heavyweights Shane Carwin and Junior dos Santos made very clear what fans should expect to see when they meet in the Octagon on June 11, and it’s more or less what most people were already expecting.

“Let’s face it, both dos Santos and I got to where we’re at right now by knocking people out on our feet,” Carwin said. “I think we’re both explosive fighters and I think the fans are going to…have a real treat at UFC 131 when it gets to that main event, knowing both guys have knockout power in their hands.”

Dos Santos echoed the sentiment, adding that while he usually feels most comfortable in the stand-up game, he’ll have to be more wary of Carwin’s striking than he would have been of Brock Lesnar’s.

“Me and Shane Carwin are good standing fighters,” dos Santos said. “I believe so much in my boxing. My boxing bring me here until now, and I feel very comfortable fighting on my feet. So I will try to keep this fight standing, but I’m ready to fight wherever I need.”

Not that it should come as a surprise that these two heavyweights should continue to look for the KO in this number one contender fight, of course. Carwin and dos Santos sport identical 12-1 records, and both owe more than half their victories to knockouts.

But for both men, facing an opponent with dangerous striking skills is a significant change from the original plan. Dos Santos was initially slated to face Lesnar, who’s known much more for his wrestling than for his stand-up. But when he withdrew due to a recurring bout of diverticulitis, Carwin was pulled from his match-up with submissions specialist Jon Olav Einemo and shuttled into bout with dos Santos, where the stakes and the quality of competition were instantly higher.

“I don’t know if there are any warm-up fights in the UFC,” Carwin said of Einemo. “You’re fighting a top group of guys in the world who have competed to get to that level and Jon was no exception. He was basically a gold medalist in jiu-jitsu and training with one of the top striking teams in the world. He was a very tough opponent and just hasn’t run the same course that Junior dos Santos has run through the UFC, so either way I had to make sure that I was prepared to come in there and fight at my best.”

Dos Santos, who said his training camp didn’t change much as a result of the opponent switch, acknowledged that he will have to adopt a different approach on fight night now.

“The strategy now is going to be a little bit different, because with Brock I could use my boxing more [easily] for me with him. With [Carwin], now I have to be…a little more cautious.”

By the time they step into the cage, both men will have been out of action nearly a year, but for very different reasons. After his loss to Lesnar in a UFC heavyweight title fight last July, Carwin opted to have a neck surgery that kept him on the shelf for several months. Dos Santos decided to take a coaching spot opposite Lesnar on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ rather than wait for current champ Cain Velasquez to get healthy enough to defend his title.

Dos Santos last fight was a decision victory over Roy Nelson, but that was nearly ten months ago, which is “too much time without fights,” he said.

On the flip side, it’s probably a little easier to deal with the layoff when you’re coming off a win. For Carwin, the last fight on his record is still a bit of a bitter memory, though he said he tries to extract as many positives as he can from it.

“I learned a lot. I learned some things about picking my shots a little bit more when you get someone hurt or get them down. I learned that I had to try and do some things with my nutrition and my cardio – I don’t know if it was so much a cardio issue, but we’ll see,” said Carwin, who added that he’s slimmed down to the 250-pound range thanks to a “mostly organic” diet given to him by Grudge Training Center fighter and nutritionist Josh Ford.

As for the loss itself, Carwin seems to be doing his best to put it behind him.

“It’s part of life. I’m not going to dwell on it. There were plenty of positives, but the one thing I can say is that I left everything in the Octagon. I was barely able to walk out of there. I didn’t hold back; I put every ounce of energy I had into that fight. When I walked out that cage door, I knew that in my mind. So I was okay with myself, I just knew that I had things to work on.”

Against dos Santos, he confronts an opponent with the ability to test not only his staying power, but also his boxing skills and his chin. Both men seem well aware of the risks in this particular fight, even if they have slightly different opinions on who is favored more by a toe-to-toe striking battle.

“We’re knockout artists,” said Carwin. “That’s how Junior fights and that’s how I fight. I just believe in my power and my strength in boxing, and he believes in his. We’ll find out come June 11th.”

 

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Kurt Pellegrino Mulling Retirement, Says He’s ‘Stepping Away from MMA’

Filed under: UFCIt’s been a good run for UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino, but it may be coming to an end, at least for the near future, according to a recent post on the fighter’s website.

In a posting titled, “Kurt Pellegrino stepping away from MMA…..

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It’s been a good run for UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino, but it may be coming to an end, at least for the near future, according to a recent post on the fighter’s website.

In a posting titled, “Kurt Pellegrino stepping away from MMA…for now,” Pellegrino (16-6) writes that he has opted not to renew his UFC contract because he is “choosing to take some time off and step away from the sport as a fighter.”

Last May Pellegrino told MMA Fighting that he would likely retire if he lost another fight in the UFC because it would mean he would “have to start all over again…and I don’t know if I can do that.”

He then lost a unanimous decision against George Sotiropoulos that July, but continued on and suffered a split decision loss to Gleison Tibau at UFC 128 this past March.

“Never in my career have I lost two fights in a row and my last fight’s decision in particular was especially hard for me to swallow to be honest,” Pellegrino wrote on his website on Tuesday. “Even last year when i was on a 4 fight win streak I still was questioning myself. This has made me reconsider what my next step will be competitively.”

Pellegrino added that he wants to “take the time to regroup, refocus, and rethink what it is that I want to do going forward,” which may include competing in grappling tournaments and improving his boxing, as well as “maybe even try my hand at a pro boxing fight.”

“I want to have fun training again, bottom line,” Pellegrino wrote. “Most importantly I want to spend more time with my family. My daughter is four years old and I can’t tell you how much of her life I’ve missed dedicating my life to training for fights. I did so willingly and I’ve made a lucrative career with the UFC, but I’m not sure I could ever say any amount of money was worth it. My wife and I just welcomed a baby boy and I can’t bare the thought of missing as much of his ‘firsts’ as I did my daughters.”

Pellegrino made his pro debut in a victorious effort against Mac Danzig at WEC 4 in 2002, and made his first UFC appearance at UFC 61 in 2006, where he suffered a submission defeat at the hands of Drew Fickett.

He racked up a 7-5 record in the UFC, but was plagued by chronic back problems in recent years, prompting him to publicly question how much time he had left in the sport.

While Pellegrino wrote that fans would “hopefully” see him back in the cage some day, he didn’t rule out the possibility that this hiatus from MMA could become permanent.

“It is bitter sweet to possibly end my career on a loss and something I will have to deal with on my own, but overall it has been a rewarding 11 years for me and I want the end to be on my terms and no one else’s,” he wrote. “Its hard to make a decision like this, but I feel its best for me to step away for now and time will tell what the future will bring for me. I don’t want to retire, but I need to find myself and find my love for this sport again.”

 

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The MMA Wrap-Up: Post-UFC 130 Edition

With UFC 130 in the books, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look the value fans got for their money out of Saturday night’s main event, and what lasting repercussions it might have heading into a busy summer stretch.

Check out the full video below.

 

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With UFC 130 in the books, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look the value fans got for their money out of Saturday night’s main event, and what lasting repercussions it might have heading into a busy summer stretch.

Check out the full video below.

 

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Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC 130

Filed under: UFCPerhaps the best thing we can say about UFC 130 is that it’s over. It started out as the event that would finally put the Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard saga to rest, and it ended up with “Rampage” Jackson in a main event bout that even he …

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Perhaps the best thing we can say about UFC 130 is that it’s over. It started out as the event that would finally put the Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard saga to rest, and it ended up with “Rampage” Jackson in a main event bout that even he wasn’t terribly excited about.

But now that the dust has settled and the Octagon has been packed away one more time, let’s look back over Saturday night’s action to see whose stock soared and whose plummeted into the basement of the MGM Grand.

In the wake of UFC 130, here are your biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.

Biggest Winner: Brian Stann
Sure, it makes for a great storyline to see the former Marine beat somebody up on Memorial Day weekend, but forget that for a minute. Stann took on the Sengoku middleweight champ in a fight that was supposed to be a serious test of his skills, and he practically breezed through it with the perfect mix of poise and aggression. He didn’t lose his cool when he had Santiago hurt early. He didn’t lay back too much and let good opportunities slip by. He did exactly what he needed to do, and he got perhaps the biggest win of his career. He also pocketed a Fight of the Night bonus, which is a nice way of reminding everyone that you were one of the few bright spots on an otherwise forgettable fight card. Plus, $70,000 buys a lot of hot dogs and apple pie.

Biggest Loser: Roy Nelson
There’s no questioning his toughness or his ability to take a shot. But his cardio? That’s a different story. You never want to end a round by immediately doubling over and putting your hands on your knees like an out-of-shape businessman who was forced to take the stairs for the first time in ten years. Let’s just say it sends the wrong message. Nelson got overpowered and outworked by Frank Mir, but the worst part is that by the end he just seemed grateful to get out of there and go home. We’ve seen him go the distance before without looking like he needed to have a defibrillator handy in his corner, so I’m not sure what accounts for this poor showing. Whatever it is, he’d better figure it out quick. The UFC seems less inclined to give Nelson the benefit of the doubt that it has extended to others.

Least Compelling Case for a Title Shot: “Rampage” Jackson
The hard part about fighting a guy who the current champ already demolished is that it provides an unavoidable counter-example that your performance will be measured against. Everyone will recall that Jon Jones straight-up assaulted Hamill, while Jackson carried him the distance. Not that the fight was close, mind you. Jackson stuffed all Hamill’s takedowns and put some leather on his face whenever he felt like it. Trouble is, he didn’t feel like it quite enough down the stretch. He’d explode with a combo, wait to see if Hamill was still standing, then catch his breath before trying it again. It’s a competent showing, sure, but not the kind that screams out for a shot at the belt. Jackson is undoubtedly one of the best light heavyweights around, but that means people are going to expect more out of him than what he showed on Saturday night. Whether he has any interest in giving it to them remains to be seen.

Most Impressive in Defeat: Miguel Torres
If nothing else, Torres proved once and for all that you just can’t win a decision off your back in MMA. If it was at all possible, he would have done it on Saturday night with his many, varied attempts at a finish against an opponent who was content to hold on and maintain top position. You could argue that a takedown is an effective way of controlling the fight and dictating the action, so Demetrious Johnson won it fair and square – and you’d probably be right. At the same time, it was Torres doing most of the work to actually end the fight and/or make something interesting happen. It didn’t get him the victory, but it does get him a tip of the cap, for whatever that’s worth.

Least Impressive in Victory: Frank Mir
We know “Big Country” is tough to put away. The Junior dos Santos fight proved that much. But it never looks good when you have an opponent who is almost too exhausted to stand and you let him hang around for the full three rounds with his tongue practically hanging out of his mouth. At times it seems like Mir takes an unfair amount of criticism, particularly from Dana White. But then you stop and ask yourself, even after two straight wins over two name heavyweights, would I really want to see Mir anywhere near a title fight? Not unless he bought a ticket.

Most Surprising: Rick Story
With a decision win over Thiago Alves in the UFC, Story joins a very exclusive club with some strict membership requirements. He did it with a game plan that played brilliantly to his own strengths while taking Alves’ mostly out of the equation, and he also proved that he can take a punch (or a knee) and keep right on coming. Alves is by far the best fighter Story has ever beaten, and he did it in a fight that really wasn’t even close on the scorecards. That’s six in a row for the young welterweight. He keeps this up, and things will get serious in his career very quickly.

Most Memorable: Travis Browne‘s KO
Whenever the 6’11” Struve gets knocked out it always makes for instant highlight reel material. Like a building being imploded, his collapse to the mat looks so awkward and takes so long that it makes a lasting impression on everyone who sees it. That’s bad news for Struve, but great news for Browne, who put himself on the map with a perfectly timed Superman punch. Even if he never does anything else with his MMA career, that knockout will live on in highlight packages for years. It should also instantly erase the bitter memory of Browne’s unimpressive draw with Cheick Kongo at UFC 120. Nothing like a crushing knockout to resurrect your reputation. Now let’s see what he can do with it.

Least Likely to Remain Employed: Kendall Grove
The decision loss to Boetsch marked his third defeat in four attempts. What’s worse, he was never really in the fight. It was takedown, top control, scramble to the feet, then rinse and repeat all night long. By the third round, everyone knew what Boetsch was going to do, yet Grove couldn’t even come close to stopping it. It made for a pretty boring fight, which didn’t do Boetsch any favors, but the only thing worse than winning a fight in that fashion is losing one the same way. Grove is now 7-6 in his UFC career. Most of the fighters he beat recently were later cut from the UFC, which tells you something. He’s been hovering over the chopping block for a while now. My guess is the ax is about to come down.

 

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