Looking over the athletic resume of heavyweight prospect Stipe Miocic, it’s pretty clear that the die was cast when it came to him eventually becoming a professional athlete.Earned eight varsity letters in high school (baseball, football, wrestling)….
Looking over the athletic resume of heavyweight prospect Stipe Miocic, it’s pretty clear that the die was cast when it came to him eventually becoming a professional athlete.
Earned eight varsity letters in high school (baseball, football, wrestling).
Division I, nationally-ranked wrestler for Cleveland State.
Third baseman for the Cleveland State baseball team.
2009 Cleveland Golden Gloves boxing champion and National quarterfinalist.
Yet when you ask him if this was something set in the stars, he laughs it off.
“I didn’t think about being a professional,” he said. “I just loved competing. It’s just something fun to do and I’m a competitive person. You gotta do something. It keeps me out of trouble.”
That type of modesty takes self-effacing to a new level, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But behind the humble exterior lurks a fighter, and with a 6-0 pro MMA record that includes five knockouts and one submission (due to a leg kick), the 29-year old has got plenty of buzz behind him in the lead-up to his UFC debut this Saturday against Joey Beltran.
“I think I’m ready,” he said. “I’ve trained with some great guys and I hope I can produce like I have been because that’s the name of the game – winning.”
One of those guys is UFC vet Forrest Petz, and he’s given Miocic some helpful hints about preparing for the bright lights of the Octagon.
“He told me it’s you and another guy in a cage and yeah, there’s people there, but they’re not gonna help you in a fight,” said Miocic. “And that’s how I look at it.”
A native of Euclid, Ohio, Miocic has been an athlete practically his entire life, excelling in high school and then college sports. Currently standing at 6-4, 240 pounds, he certainly looks the part of heavyweight prizefighter, but he doesn’t point to his physical gifts as being the reason for his success.
“I just worked hard and it went well for me,” he said. “The harder you work the better things come out for you and that’s what happened. I worked hard in everything I did and I got lucky. I also had good coaches along the way that pedigreed me real well and helped me out as well.”
Nationally ranked as a collegiate wrestler, Miocic (who roomed with UFC vet Gerald Harris) would move from the mat to the diamond once wrestling season was over, and it’s been reported that major league scouts also had interest in the 6-4 third baseman.
“It was wherever I could play, that’s the way I looked at it,” said Miocic of life on the hot corner. “They stuck me there and I was like ‘sure, why not? I could stop a ball.’ (Laughs) If I couldn’t stop it, I’ll use my chest, pick it up and throw it to first.”
But once he got a taste of mixed martial arts when he was asked to train with PRIDE and UFC vet Dan Bobish, that was it, and he traded one glove for two.
“I love baseball, it’s a great team sport, but in MMA, it’s just you and another guy in a cage and that’s it – that’s awesome and there’s nothing better than that,” he said.
In 2006, Miocic won the first of five amateur bouts, each of which ended in the first round (three in less than a minute). Ready to turn pro, Miocic instead got a little more experience in a different realm of combat sports, as he made his amateur boxing debut in the Cleveland Golden Gloves in 2009.
“Me and my coach talked, and he was like ‘hey, let’s do some amateur boxing and see how that goes,’” Miocic recalled. “So I started doing a couple fights here and did the Golden Gloves and did well, and it helped me with my striking a lot. And I like boxing, but I missed MMA too much. You get to kick, knee, punch, take it to the ground and all that good stuff. (Laughs) Going to nationals was a good time though. My first two fights went well and the third one didn’t go my way, but that’s life, and I learned from it.”
In the National Golden Gloves tournament, Miocic went 2-1, losing to current unbeaten pro prospect Bryant Jennings in the quarterfinals, and less than a year later, he was making his pro MMA debut with a 17 second finish of Corey Mullis.
After practically clearing out the local circuit, Miocic became a favorite of fans who liked heavyweights and knockouts. Add in the fact that the Croatian-American sports trunks similar to those worn by his fistic hero Mirko Cro Cop, and it’s no surprise that people started getting antsy to see him on the big stage in the same organization as the former PRIDE star.
“He’s a legend and watching him fight is awesome,” said Miocic of Cro Cop. “He’s tough and just devastating. He works hard and he’s a great guy.”
But what about the shorts?
“I like tights, I’ve always worn them,” he laughs. “They’re just more comfortable for me; I move better, plus I don’t want a guy to grab them if I’m in a fight.”
He shouldn’t expect that to be the case this Saturday night against Beltran, a fearless brawler with an iron chin that one of Miocic’s old Louisville Sluggers probably couldn’t dent. Luckily, Miocic knows what he’s in for in Houston.
“He’s a hard-nosed dude,” said Miocic of Beltran. “Heavy hands, good chin, he likes to keep coming forward, and he’s as tough as they come.”
So how do you prepare for a guy you may own on paper, but in reality will be the toughest test of your young career? For starters, you don’t expect him to go the way of your previous six opponents.
“You gotta do what you gotta do,” said Miocic, who still works part-time as a Firefighter / Paramedic. “A W’s a W no matter how I get it. Every fight I go into, I expect it to go three rounds.”
This time he might be right. But a competitor like Miocic doesn’t mind such a prospect. When you live to compete, the longer you get to do what you love, the better.
“I’m a hard-nosed guy, I’m ready to fight, and I’m ready to have some fun and show some fireworks.”
When you hear Chael Sonnen describe life as a middleweight contender in the UFC, it’s almost as if every day is Groundhog Day.“In my life, nothing changes,” said Sonnen, who returns to the Octagon after an absence of more than a year to face Bria…
When you hear Chael Sonnen describe life as a middleweight contender in the UFC, it’s almost as if every day is Groundhog Day.
“In my life, nothing changes,” said Sonnen, who returns to the Octagon after an absence of more than a year to face Brian Stann at UFC 136 this Saturday night. “Every fight I do the same thing. I do the same thing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all my practices are the same, I work out with the same guys, and I’ve got the same coaches. Take running for example – I run the same distance and I try to beat the same time every single time. Every step I run, I try to get up those steps a little bit faster regardless of who the opponent is. I’ve never looked at opponents. I’ve had people ask me ‘what’s your strategy?’ And I’m not even looking at him. It could be anybody. I’m just looking at myself. How fast are my hands, how many punches did I throw today, did I eat the right things, how many hours of sleep did I get last night? I only look at myself. The Octagon’s the same size, Herb Dean’s hair is just as bad, Bruce Buffer’s in the shark suit either way. Nothing changes for me. The rules are the same, the rounds are the same, and my life is the exact same. My money’s the same, I wear the same t-shirt, I’ve got the same cornermen, and they can call it a title fight, they can call it a main event, they can call it an undercard – my life is no different. When that same music hits those speakers, I’ll make that same walk, put that same mouthpiece in, and do everything I can to win, regardless of what’s riding on it.”
Oh yeah, the man is back, and it’s a welcome return, not just because he’s one of the top 185-pound fighters on the planet and the lone man to push champion Anderson Silva to the brink of defeat, but because he’s one of MMA’s most intriguing figures. No one sees the game through the looking glass quite like the self-proclaimed “Gangster from West Linn,” and watching his every move has been compelling viewing for a few years now. But only before his bout with Silva in August of 2010 did the rest of the world catch up.
“I’m not doing anything different,” he said. “The media has found me, I didn’t come find them. I didn’t create a persona or sit around and come up with things to say. I don’t have any idea what you’re gonna ask me, or the next guy or any of the fans at a Q&A. I’m just up there with a microphone and doing my level best. But I haven’t changed anything; they’ve just come to me. I was the top draw when I was with Bodog, I was the top draw when I was with the IFL, and I was the top draw when I was in the WEC, and for all these same reasons. They just didn’t have the platform that Zuffa has. So I’m not doing anything different.”
In his second stint with the UFC, Sonnen has pulled off the rare trick of being a must-see athlete in and out of the Octagon. From his trio of wins over Dan Miller, Yushin Okami, and Nate Marquardt, to his stellar effort against Silva and his incendiary comments about anyone and everyone in the fight game, if you don’t know who the 34-year old Oregonian is yet, you just haven’t been around the MMA world.
Yet after a suspension by the California State Athletic Commission following the Silva fight for having elevated levels of testosterone (a result explained by his being diagnosed with hypogonadism, a condition which requires synthetic testosterone injections), and a plea bargain in a mortgage fraud case, many questioned whether he would ever fight again.
Sonnen wasn’t one of that crowd.
“No,” he quipped when asked if he ever thought that he had fought his last fight. “They can do all they want, but you can’t keep a good man down.”
It was a trying time to say the least though, as he spent more time in a suit defending himself than in his gym clothes preparing for a fight. You could say that he needed the break after a pretty hectic fight schedule over the last couple years. Again, he wouldn’t agree.
“I didn’t need any breaks, I never need a break,” said Sonnen. “You only do this three times a year anyway. It’s like you’ve got all these crybabies out there talking about ‘my wife really wants me around more.’ What a ridiculous statement. What do you mean ‘around more?’ It’s three hours a day and three weekends a year. There is no around more. You couldn’t possibly be around more. So no, I definitely don’t need a break from three hours a day and three weekends a year. I was just the opposite. I was like a good cowboy that just wants to jump back on the horse.”
So when he was greenlighted to resume his career and given a fight with the streaking Stann, who has finished all three of his fights at 185 pounds, Sonnen was ecstatic to get back to his form of normal.
“I like the whole process,” he said. “I don’t have any hobbies and I don’t have any friends, so all I have is practice. All I have is going in and training and looking forward to a date and a new challenge and stuff like that, and it was all gone – I didn’t have any of it. So I missed the whole process more than anything; I missed being one of the guys and having a goal and something to look forward to.”
You’d be surprised at how badly you can miss your routine when it’s taken away from you. For Sonnen, every minute away from the gym was another minute the rest of the pack was catching up. So going through the daily grind – even if it is only three hours a day – was like Christmas for him. Well, maybe not, but let’s just say getting the chance to do what he has done for much of his life again was a good thing.
“I don’t know if that (the routine) is the appeal, but it’s certainly the reality,” said Sonnen. “And it’s real important to keep that in mind. You’ll see so many fighters come off title fights and great performances, and in their next time out, they just look awful. You can’t get roped into any of that. I know I’m the best fighter in the world, I proved it in my last fight, and there’s nobody even close to me. The current champion isn’t even within a mile of my ability, but if I don’t do everything right, those abilities are gone overnight. The one time I quit caring about my run, the one time I quit hitting the steps, the one time I let the diet go, I’m the best, but I’m only the best by an inch. And I can go from the top of the pack to the back of it overnight. Guys do it all the time. We just saw a Hall of Famer (Matt Hughes) get destroyed in the first round by a guy with bleached hair (Josh Koscheck). Even the best guy – me – is only the best by a little bit, and you’ve got to make sure every single thing is in line every single time. That’s the hardest thing about our sport. There are so many elements and you can’t overlook any of them, and the one time you do, you gotta start all over.”
14 months is a long time in this game too, and it could be easy for many to forget August of 2010 and Sonnen’s brilliant performance against the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world in Silva. For nearly five rounds, Sonnen put on the best fight of his career and dominated Silva throughout.
“I expected more resistance everywhere from him,” said Sonnen of Silva. “From the grappling to his striking, his strategy, I just expected more resistance everywhere. So yeah, I was surprised at his lack of resistance.”
Like all great champions though, Silva had something left in his back pocket to pull out when he needed it most, and at 3:10 of the final round, a trianglearmbar ended Sonnen’s night and, for the moment, his championship quest. If not for his suspension and legal issues, an immediate rematch might have been in the cards, but for now, it’s Stann.
“This is what it is,” said Sonnen. “Brian Stann is next, and that’s fine. Look, if I had won the championship, I’m not sure Brian Stann wasn’t next anyway. He’s certainly arguable. There’s several guys that can fill that spot, but he’s definitely one of them, so no, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me.”
And the goal?
“There is no other goal than the championship.”
Since the bout, Silva has looked to be in better than ever form in knocking out Vitor Belfort and Okami, but obviously, the marquee bout for “The Spider” is a rematch with Sonnen should the Milwaukie native get by Sonnen. And Sonnen hasn’t let up with his verbal assault on the champion as we wait.
“He’s a punk and a bully, he really is, and now he’s out there trying to be me,” said Sonnen. “He’s doing everything he can to copy me. He’s wearing masks to weigh-ins and yelling at guys at press conferences, and doing everything he can do to be me. So good for him. It’s like Marshall Mathers once said: ‘they may walk like me, talk like me, dress, act, not give a dang like me, and they just might be the next best thing, but they’re not quite me.’”
Sonnen has even widened his trash talking range to encompass not just one Brazilian (Silva), but a whole bunch of them, including Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and the Nogueira brothers, among others. He makes no apologies though, and is far from shocked that fight fans have gravitated to him.
“People like respect and I’m the only respectful fighter in the whole sport,” he said. “A lot of other fighters have a real misunderstanding that lying and dishonesty is respectful. They love to bow to your face and stick a knife in your back the first chance they get. I don’t. I’ll tell you like it is to your face and then I’ll stick the knife in your back because I told you that if you turn around I’ll put a knife in your back. And that’s the difference with me. I’m honest and I’m respectful. And these guys love to say ‘Chael doesn’t have any respect.’ Well, check your dictionary at the local junior high that you flunked out of. I’m absolutely respectful and absolutely honest as well. You guys are a bunch of liars.”
“People hang on every word I say,” Sonnen continues. “People are always disappointed when I’m not talking. I do an MMA show on ESPN and they blow a fit when I’m not on there. People are throwing a protest right now online that the UFC put out their commercial for the next event and they show the two title fights and they didn’t show me and Stann. Of course people would be upset, and I don’t blame them – I’m upset too. I like hearing myself as well.”
There has been one fighter who has escaped Sonnen’s verbal wrath though, and it’s the man he’s fighting this Saturday. That’s not surprising considering that it’s almost impossible to dislike Stann. He’s also earned his place in the spotlight with his recent performances, which include knockouts of Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago. And when you hear Sonnen assess his foe, it’s clear that he has a healthy dose of respect for the “All-American.”
“He’s a tough guy in front of everything else,” said Sonnen of Stann. “He’s a real brute. He’s big and strong and he’s got a big heart, good cardio, and he can punch hard. I also think he kicks really well. He fought Santiago, who sucks, but he buckled him with a kick, and I’ve seen him use those big, powerful kicks to soften other guys up too. He used them well in the WEC back when he was kinda green. He was green in the WEC and he still won the title. So he’s absolutely a natural in there, but if I had to describe him in a word, it would probably be ‘brute.’ He’s that big, strong, tough guy that comes to fight.”
Sounds like the perfect dance partner for Sonnen’s return.
“It’s almost the opposite of the last guy I fought,” he said. “The last guy I fought was a little dancing chicken, and this guy’s more of a man that will come out and draw a line in the Octagon and say put your toe on it and let’s go.”
Admit it, you’ve missed Chael Sonnen. Well, now he’s back, and he doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon.
“I don’t ever want to be done,” he said. “I’ll never quit this sport. I’ll never be done with this business, but at some point, this business will be done with me. I’ll be one of those last guys that hangs on past the time that he should. I like it, it’s what I want to do, I do it because I choose to do it, not because I have to do it, and there is no life after this. This is what I want to do with my life.”
Admit it, Brian Stann snuck up on you. That same guy who was as raw as they come at light heavyweight while losing to Krzysztof Soszynski and Phil Davis, isn’t the one stepping into the Octagon on Saturday night to face Chael Sonnen in a pivotal midd…
Not by a longshot. But the decorated veteran of the United States Marine Corps isn’t going to gloat about his 3-0 record (all finishes) at 185 pounds and say ‘I told you so.’ But ask him if he thinks he surprised some people with his new look at middleweight, and there is no hesitation in his response.
“Oh yeah, and I knew I would,” said Stann, who has defeated Mike Massenzio, Chris Leben, and Jorge Santiago in succession since dropping from 205 pounds in August of 2010. In fact, he looks at the lead-up to his UFC 125 win over Leben as the moment when he and his coaches said ‘okay, it’s time to strike.’
“We knew that at that point in time, through my training, that I was really turning a corner,” said Stann. “And when you train with guys who are some of the best guys in the world, you can really know what your level is and you know what your strengths are and you know what your weaknesses are. And when I made the drop to ’85, it was at the same time I really started to turn a corner. I really started to train and really focus on wrestling and the technical aspect of it. I really started to develop a sound submission game and become an all-around fighter, and I started to understand the subtleties of the sport in all realms – striking, wrestling, and grappling. So we knew what I was capable of and the thing is that fans, writers, and the media, they can’t see you in the gym. They don’t get to see those things and they have to judge you based on your fights, and you have three, four months in between fights, so you can grow an awful lot when you’re a pretty raw athlete like I was just a few years ago.”
Against Leben, Stann blitzed and stopped the steel-chinned contender in a single round, but he was beginning to show signs of his development way before that. Once just a hard-hitting brawler whose tendency to leave his chin up and exposed during serious exchanges, Stann won the WEC title in just his sixth pro fight, but lost it one fight later in 2008 to Steve Cantwell, who he had already beaten in 41 seconds a year earlier. But in their rubber match in the UFC in 2009, Stann – now under the tutelage of Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn – kept his chin tucked and his fists moving en route to an easy three round win. And then when he made it to middleweight in 2010, he showed off his ground game by securing his first submission win over a solid groundfighter in Massenzio. The Leben fight was the exclamation point though, and was followed by a Fight of the Night stoppage of Santiago in May. He’s making it look easy, but it’s been anything but for the 31-year old.
“You have to do some things a thousand times before you can actually become proficient at it,” said Stann. “And it just becomes like second nature. Every single day I spend 35 minutes on the pads with coach Winkeljohn. I’m training three to four times a day every single day, drilling techniques over and over again, and it just takes time. This sport takes time and that’s why when you get guys like Jon Jones and Phil Davis, people really make a big deal out of them because this sport is supposed to take a long time to develop, and then you get some athletes that can come in and pick things up rather quickly. More often than not, those athletes are wrestlers that actually come from a background where they’ve already somewhat mastered one third of the game, which is obviously an advantage.”
Stann had no such advantages, but in the process of learning on the job (and on the sport’s biggest stage), he’s gained an even greater appreciation for what’s happening to him now and the kind of athletes who surround him every day.
“I’ve really developed an appreciation for the guys who make it to this level of the sport,” he said. “It’s not easy, and I think early in my career, while I was still active duty, I thought that while it’s obviously very much a privilege to be a professional athlete, I kinda looked at it as being a pro fighter’s easy. There’s lots of time off, you dictate your own schedule, etc. But as I’ve climbed the ranks and made it to this level, I find that you are working full-time and there is no off-season. At the top level there aren’t guys that take off two months after fights. The guys that make it to the elite level, the guys similar to Chael, the Kenny Florians, the Georges St-Pierres, the Carlos Condits – these guys are always in the gym, and I’m the same way. A week after my fight, I heal up some bruises and I’m right back out there trying to find coaches who can give me one or two moves for my arsenal or one more edge so I can continue to grow as a fighter.”
“So I’ve really grown to respect the profession and my peers a lot more in the UFC because it’s a difficult way to make a living, the income is volatile, you can’t plan certain things because you never know when your career can end, and I think we all share that bond,” Stann continues.
With comments like that, it’s no surprise that no one has decided to pick a trash talking battle with the Scranton, Pennsylvania native. Add in that he’s a war hero still active in helping out his fellow vets, a family man, and a good teammate, and the odds of him having one of those “bad blood” matchups is even slimmer. And that’s fine with him.
“I don’t need to have a grudge match,” he said. “I can have the utmost respect for a guy, and I have no problem stepping into the cage, locking the door, and wanting to knock him out because it’s just what you do at that time.”
Even the trash talking king himself, Sonnen, has had nothing but good things to say about the man dubbed “All-American” Stann. It’s a shocking development in some respects, but it’s no surprise to Stann.
“When he (Sonnen) fought Dan Miller he didn’t have a whole lot to say; when he fought Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami it was the same thing,” he said. “I just think he was so vocal for certain fights, especially the Anderson (Silva) fight, that people just expected him to be vocal on me. And I think Chael’s honest when he says if he feels a certain way and he doesn’t like somebody, he’s gonna say it. And if that’s not the case, then he’s not gonna say anything, and I think he’s being very honest with that. And we share a very important person in both of our lives in a man named John Bardis, who is one of my head coaches and one of my closest mentors that I’ve ever had in my life. And he also has a relationship with Chael, and I think their relationship has grown in the last couple years as well where Chael sought some advice from him, etc., and so in respect for John, I knew that even for entertainment purposes Chael probably wouldn’t verbally attack me, which I wouldn’t have taken personally anyway.”
And there is still the reality that the two middleweights have to fight on Saturday night, so whether there was trash talk and ill feelings or not, that cage door is going to get locked in a few days and there will be bad intentioned blows thrown. Stann and Sonnen are prepared for that, and Stann, while respectful of his foe, is also confident in his chances this weekend.
“You can look at his record in the UFC and all that, but if you look at his fights, you see a guy who hasn’t lost a round in the UFC,” said Stann of Sonnen. “Unless he’s been submitted in that round, he hasn’t lost a round, and he has been able to take every guy down and impose his will on him every single time. I’ve looked at earlier fights in his career, and it’s really the same everywhere. So there are a lot of different, unique challenges that I have to face in there. But the biggest thing that I see that’s different is that the fighters that he’s been fighting have really gone into the cage with their skillsets and that’s it, and they did not appear to be prepared for certain positions and certain things that Chael could do to them. Whereas I feel that I’ll be the best prepared fighter he’s fought in quite some time. I have gone into very uncomfortable positions, I’ve brought in the people I needed to bring in to learn how to compete in certain areas that he may try and put me in. And there’s the obvious biggest difference as well, in that I can knock Chael Sonnen out with any punch.”
Stann’s power and Sonnen’s underrated speed (just watch him close the distance in his fights against Silva and Nate Marquardt) may be the key factors in this weekend’s fight. And while Sonnen can’t match Stann’s stopping power, Stann believes he can match his opponent’s quickness.
“If you watch my last two fights, I feel I have some of the best handspeed in the middleweight division, and I’m a lot stronger than those guys, physically stronger, so he’s gonna have to really work to get me to the mat and he’s gonna have to work the entire time to keep me on the mat,” said Stann. “I’m not gonna lay there, close my guard and just hug him, hoping the ref is gonna stand us up. And I believe I can hit him harder from my back then he can hit me on top. And I’ll put my money where my mouth is on that.”
Brian Stann isn’t a big talker, so when he says he’s putting his money where his mouth is, that’s something you could probably take to the bank. And though he doesn’t have the world-class experience of Sonnen or the wrestling of the former collegiate standout, he is getting better with each fight and he’s as confident as you can get without crossing the line into cocky territory. The only problem he appears to have is that he’s lost the element of surprise when it comes to opponents who definitely won’t sleep on someone who may not be the favorite, but who is certainly no underdog.
“I didn’t expect to get a fighter the caliber of Chael Sonnen for another year or so, and here I have this great opportunity,” said Stann. “And the best part is, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m the underdog coming into this fight and there’s zero pressure on me. I can fight a hundred miles an hour; he’s got to be concerned with the amount of pressure he’s put on himself. He’s the older fighter, he’s got to get back to a title fight, and I feel a lot of these things are going to play into my favor and I know I’m gonna go out there and surprise a lot of people.”
In the fight game, there’s a fine line to be walked between instinct and intellect. Some would say if you think too much, you’ve already lost. Others opine that to make it in a sport such as mixed martial arts, if you’re not thinking one step ahe…
In the fight game, there’s a fine line to be walked between instinct and intellect. Some would say if you think too much, you’ve already lost. Others opine that to make it in a sport such as mixed martial arts, if you’re not thinking one step ahead of your opponent, you’ll never reach the championship level.
Joe Lauzon, a former IT pro who now toils in a trade with KOs and SUBs, is a tightrope walker of world-class proportions, a fiery finisher who also has the presence of mind to realize that certain decisions can’t be made on the spur of the moment.
Take his June win over Curt Warburton for example. After drilling the Brit with a beautiful combination in the first round, dropping him in the process, Lauzon moved in for the finish with a few strikes on the mat before doing some quick calculations in his head.
“I knew that I hurt him bad with the punches standing,” recalled Lauzon. “I hit him with a right hand then a left hook, I hit him with some really good punches on the ground and a super solid knee to the body, and I feel like I could have just kept punching away and got the TKO. But during that whole exchange I had a split second thing where I was like ‘I’m not gonna get Knockout of the Night’ with this because I’m having to finish the guy on the ground. So I’m gonna try and get the submission.’ He was kind of out of it on the ground, and I’m like ‘you know what? I’m gonna take the arm.’”
All of a sudden, Lauzon grabbed Warburton’s arm and yanked it skyward. Within seconds, a vice-like kimura ended the bout at the 1:58 mark. Lauzon got the victory, the Submission of the Night award, and didn’t have to second guess himself when Cheick Kongo scored perhaps the Knockout of the Year, let alone of the night, later that evening. Now that’s using the old noggin.
And despite what you may think of IT pros and hardcore videogame and internet aficionados, Lauzon is a different person when he steps into the Octagon. Like fellow lightweight contender Jim Miller, the 27-year old is really not interested in exploiting the complexities of the 10-point must scoring system. When that bell rings, he’s looking to win a fight by any legal means necessary.
That approach has earned him five consecutive post-fight bonuses (six in his last seven bouts), and each of his seven UFC wins has come by knockout or submission. Talk all you want about being a finisher – Lauzon is the real deal. And if you saw the way he ended Warburton’s night in Pittsburgh, he doesn’t subscribe to the adage that slow and steady wins the race. In fact, since his 2010 loss to Sam Stout, he may have become even more eager to take opponents out as soon as humanly possible.
“I think I’ve always had killer instinct, but there are times in jiu-jitsu and grappling and things like that where I get a submission, and I attack, but then I think, okay, I’ve got this guy, he’s mine,” he said. “And then I go slow with it because I’m looking out for the guy. I’m not looking to completely destroy someone’s shoulder or ruin their career or anything like that. But in the Sam Stout fight, I went for the shoulder lock, I thought I had him, I started going slow, and then he squirmed out and I ended up losing the fight. But I think if I had just gone in and tried to tear his shoulder off, I think I would have won that fight. It’s kind of a weird spot.”
It is a fight though, and while Lauzon isn’t looking to injure anybody, he is looking to get you before you get him, and few do it like he does.
“I think me and Jim (Miller) are very similar in grappling style, because we’re always hunting submissions,” said the Brockton, Massachusetts native. “We’re very heavy on training in scrambles and moving fast and catching things, and I think that’s where the more dangerous submission guys are. You get some guys that are very slow and methodical, but when it comes to throwing punches and things like that, guys like us, we can throw a lot of punches and do whatever, and then in a split second we can take that arm or we can take a choke or whatever you present. I think that’s the best way to train submissions for MMA. It’s not the slow, methodical sport jiu-jitsu, it’s gimme that arm, I’m gonna rip it off.”
At this point, remove submissions from the above statements and insert knockouts. When you do so, you’ll probably have a pretty accurate read on another well-regarded lightweight contender, Melvin Guillard. And considering Lauzon’s win over Warburton in June and Guillard’s knockout of Shane Roller in July, when the matchups for Saturday’s UFC 136 card in Houston were discussed, there was just one no-brainer. And UFC matchmaker Joe Silva let Lauzon know it when the New Englander was relaxing at the local Six Flags amusement park.
“You and Melvin are making my job real easy,” Silva told Lauzon.
“Right then I knew that was the fight he wanted,” recalled Lauzon. “And I said ‘Whatever you guys want, I’m always down for it.’ There have been fights in the past that I’ve taken where I thought I might be in over my head a little bit, but I’ve always said ‘let’s do it.’ And not that I think that I’m in over my head with Melvin, but he’s a super tough fight. He’s super quick, explosive, hits really hard and is more a standup guy whereas I like to be on the ground a little bit more, and I’m slowly changing that a little bit. But I’m excited and I definitely see Fight of the Night or something coming out of it. If I catch him in a submission, it’s gonna be crazy; if he knocks me out, it’s gonna be a good knockout, and if I knock him out, the same thing. No matter how it ends, I think it’s gonna be a great fight.”
You don’t hear that too much these days. Either it’s all bravado or all about the end result. Lauzon is concerned about the end result, but only as it pertains to his bout with Guillard being one that fans are talking about for the next two weeks.
“The whole ‘just win baby’ approach is kinda taking over a little bit,” said Lauzon. “I think that you don’t see nearly as many submissions anymore. We get some knockouts because people are trying to stand and still looking for it, but you get a lot of guys that are just so content with winning, whether that means shoot a takedown and just kinda grind it out or whatever they have to do. But that’s never been me, and I would fight a guy like Melvin a hundred times over a slow, boring wrestler that’s just gonna take you down and play it super safe and just grind it out. If I get knocked out, submitted, or whatever, I’m not really that upset. If I know I trained hard and I prepared hard and I lose, then so be it. But to have a guy just take you down and lay on top of you and not try to do anything, why even bother? Why fight if you want to just lay on top of something.”
So, in other words, this won’t be a defensive struggle, the equivalent of a 7-6 final score in football?
“I don’t think either one of us are gonna have defense in mind all that much,” he laughs. “We’re both trying to overwhelm the other person.”
And the great part is, they will be doing it while coming from completely different angles. Despite his wrestling background, Guillard is looking to light Lauzon up standing, and even though Lauzon’s standup has looked sharp against Warburton and in a 2010 loss to George Sotiropoulos, his goal is to take Guillard down and submit him. It’s been said that who dares wins, but what happens when both sides dare? I’m guessing it’s something good.
“I see him (Guillard) as a more evolved fighter,” said Lauzon. “Early on, he was this brawler type who had good wrestling, but if he got taken down, the fight was pretty much over. I don’t see it as that kind of fight. He’s good at scrambling back to his feet, he’s much better at defending submissions, and I don’t see this as take him down one time and the fight’s over. But I don’t see myself as a run of the mill jiu-jitsu guy either. I don’t think my standup’s amazing, I don’t think my jiu-jitsu’s amazing, but I think when I put everything together, I think I have really good transitions, and I think I switch from one gear to the next very, very quickly, and that’s where I shine.”
So don’t expect Lauzon to suddenly fancy himself a striker who wants to test out his standup against one of the biggest punchers in the division, and perhaps the sport.
“I’m definitely not falling in love with it,” said Lauzon of his standup game. “I will always be a grappler at heart. Long after I’m done training, I will always do jiu-jitsu and I will always say that jiu-jitsu is the better way to fight over boxing and punching. I would say our hands were made for grabbing things, not smashing things. (Laughs) I’ve come a long way with my hands, but if I had a guy that had a lot of boxing experience and he learned a little jiu-jitsu, I wouldn’t tell him to pull guard on Demian Maia or someone like that. I’m gonna stick to my strength. I’m gonna have to use my hands to set up things, but I’m not gonna go out there throwing bombs looking to win this fight by knockout. It could happen, but it’s not the goal. We’re not going out there looking for Knockout of the Night; we’re looking for Submission of the Night.”
Yet what may be the scariest part of Saturday night’s bout for Lauzon isn’t Guillard’s power, but his speed. Once fighters like Roller and Evan Dunham got a taste of punches delivered with precision and quickness from unavoidable angles, it was game over. Lauzon knows what he’s up against, and not surprisingly, he’s made sure that he addressed the prospect of possibly being the slower of the two come fight night.
“I think it really comes down to working out with smaller, quicker guys and being sharp,” said Lauzon, knowing that the only way to beat speed is with timing. “I’ve been doing a lot of sparring with some real quick boxers and real good kickboxers, guys trying to mimic Melvin’s style a little bit. And we work pure speed. I think Melvin looks a lot stronger than me, but I don’t think he’s gonna be that much stronger than me. That’s gonna be pretty comparable, but I think he’s very quick. If I can match speed with him or at least negate his speed, that puts me on the right path.”
Sounds like quite the intellectual approach to the fight. But will that pay off? Joe Lauzon really doesn’t care which way it goes – chess or checkers, he’s ready for anything.
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1 – A 10-year journey for D.C.’s own Mike “The Hulk” Easton finally reached the UFC Octagon, and the bantamweight marched full speed ahead in his debut at the Verizon Center Saturday night, chopping down and then stopping …
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1 – A 10-year journey for D.C.’s own Mike “The Hulk” Easton finally reached the UFC Octagon, and the bantamweight marched full speed ahead in his debut at the Verizon Center Saturday night, chopping down and then stopping Byron Bloodworth in the second round of their UFC Live prelim bout. See post-fight interview
After an energetic entrance into the Octagon, Easton stayed busy with plenty of motion, but little in the way of actual scoring. Bloodworth wasn’t able to compile anything of note either, but a couple solid strikes from the local favorite may have allowed him to take the round.
Stalking with a little more in the way of bad intentions, Easton drilled Bloodworth with leg kicks as the second round opened, and with two minutes gone, it was clear that the shots were starting to take their toll on the late replacement for the injured Jeff Hougland. As the round was coming to a close, the two locked up near the fence, and in what is usually a safe zone in terms of power shots, Easton turned up the heat with a series of right knees, first to the head and then the body, putting a hurt Bloodworth on the canvas. A series of follow-up strikes ended the bout, with referee Kevin Mulhall calling it at the 4:52 mark.
With the win, Easton improves to 11-1; Bloodworth falls to 6-2.
Oliveira came out as the aggressor, throwing wild strikes, one of which opened a cut over Edwards’ right eye. The veteran was unfazed, and as the round wore on, he began warming up, landing with hard kicks to the legs and body and adding punches upstairs and down just before the bell.
Taking the same tact in round two, Oliveira appeared to rock Edwards with his punches to the head, but as the Brazilian moved in to press his advantage, a knee from Edwards forced him to the canvas and to reset. Moments later, with his legs under him, Oliveira was hurt again and dropped by a punch. He survived an initial onslaught, but after rising and jumping back into the fray, a left head kick sent him down a third time. After a series of unanswered blows, referee Mario Yamasaki called a stop to the bout at the 2:44 mark.
With the win, Edwards ups his record to 41-17-1; Oliveira falls to 14-5.
SASS vs. JOHNSON
Unbeaten Liverpool tap out king Paul Sass made it two for two in the UFC, finishing The Ultimate Fighter season 12 finalist Michael Johnson with a heel hook in the opening round of their lightweight bout. See post-fight interview
Sass didn’t hide his intentions as the bout began, rushing Johnson (10-6) in search of a takedown that was turned away a number of times. In the process, Johnson made sure his opponent paid for every missed attempt, but the gutsy Brit wouldn’t let up in his quest. Midway through the round, the bout strayed to the mat, with Sass locking up the leg of “The Menace.” Moments later, at the 3:00 mark, Sass’ heel hook forced the tap, upping his perfect record to 12-0.
GRANT vs. ROLLER
Canada’s TJ Grant made a successful jump to the 155-pound weight class, submitting Shane Roller in the third round of an entertaining scrap that saw plenty of back-and-forth action on the mat and the feet. See post-fight interview
After eating some of Roller’s thunder early, Grant shot in for a takedown, but nearly got caught in a guillotine choke. Grant pulled off a slick reversal to get into side control, then Roller did the same thing moments later, with the fans loving every second of it. Midway through the round, Grant rose and fired off strikes from the top position, eventually settling into his opponent’s guard. After another guillotine attempt from Roller, Grant pulled free and again took the dominant position, finishing strong with strikes.
Grant (17-5) rocked Roller with a knee to the head in the opening stages of round two, with Roller returning the favor with his punches. A subsequent guillotine attempt from Roller came up empty, again allowing Grant to take the top spot against the Dallas resident. With less than 90 seconds remaining, Roller reversed position, but it was Grant almost locking up an arm at the bell.
Roller (10-5) showed an increased sense of urgency in the final round as he looked to catch Grant with one of his power shots, but it was Grant landing the telling blow, a straight right to the face. With a little over three minutes left, Roller shot in for a takedown and Grant almost caught him with a guillotine, but after powering out, an armbar attempt followed. In the midst of it, referee Fernando Yamasaki called a stop to the bout at the 2:12 mark due to a verbal tapout, incensing Roller and the fans in attendance.
“I ended up in the armbar,” said Roller. “I was trying to defend it, it got locked up tight, and the ref stopped it.”
“He made a sound like ‘arrgh.’ They told us before the fight that you can’t do that, that they’re going to stop the fight,” said Grant, giving his side of the closing sequence.
NEER vs. WISNIEWSKI
Welterweight veteran Josh Neer returned to the UFC with an impressive display of elbow strikes which cut Keith Wisniewski and brought a halt to their exciting bout at the end of the second round. See post-fight interview
“I work on my elbows all the time,” said Neer, now 32-10-1. “I respect Keith a lot. He’s a warrior.
Neer got what he wanted in the first round, as Wisniewski had no issue standing with him for the entire five minute period. But while “The Dentist” was able to jump into the lead behind a furious body attack and close range elbows, his apparent disregard for the power of his fellow Midwesterner left some defensive openings that Wisniewski was able to take advantage of.
Wisniewski (28-12-1), also making a return visit to the Octagon, closed the gap early in round two and began his own body assault, but Neer’s continuous use of elbows to the head quickly bloodied his foe, prompting a break in the action for the doctor to look at the cuts on the Indiana native’s face. After getting cleared to resume, the bout remained in limbo as Neer’s lost mouthpiece got lodged in the grill around the Octagon. When finally brought back together, Neer and Wisniewski picked up where they left off, with neither fighter willing to back down. With seconds remaining, Neer almost finished the bout with a guillotine choke, but the bell intervened. The doctor had seen enough though, calling a stop to the bout between rounds due to the severity of Wisniewski’s cuts.
“That was for my Grandpa, he’s one of the toughest guys I know,” said Neer of his grandfather, who is battling cancer.
WATSON vs. SANDOVAL
In a battle of bantamweight newcomers, Walel Watson introduced himself to UFC fans in impressive fashion, stopping previously unbeaten Joseph Sandoval via strikes in the opening round. See post-fight interview
Watson’s striking was sharp from the start, with the only deviation being a low kick the briefly interrupted the action. After the fight resumed, Watson began delivering his strikes upstairs, with a right kick to the head dropping and stunning Sandoval. The Texan shot right back up to his feet, but Watson wouldn’t let him breathe, eventually sending him to the canvas a second time with a right-left. This time, referee Mario Yamasaki had seen enough, halting the bout at the 1:17 mark.
With the win, Watson improves to 9-2; Sandoval falls to 6-1.
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1 – Unbeaten in nine fights at 135 pounds, Dominick Cruz has established himself as the bantamweight gold standard, and after a competitive, but near shutout, unanimous decision victory over Demetrious Johnson in the UFC Liv…
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1 – Unbeaten in nine fights at 135 pounds, Dominick Cruz has established himself as the bantamweight gold standard, and after a competitive, but near shutout, unanimous decision victory over Demetrious Johnson in the UFC Live main event at the Verizon Center Saturday night, he is rapidly on his way to cleaning out the division. See post-fight interview
Scores were 50-45 twice and 49-46 for Cruz, who defended his crown for the second time.
A hard right hand opened the scoring for Cruz, with his striking keeping Johnson from getting too close. The challenger used his own wild strikes to get in range for a takedown, but that initial shot was turned back by Cruz, who went on to score his own takedown. While on the mat, Cruz controlled position, bulling his foe into the fence before the two rose with a little over two minutes left. Johnson immediately went on the attack, but Cruz caught a high kick for another takedown. After standing, Johnson got his first takedown, but Cruz immediately rose. A lockup against the fence ensued, followed by some feverish striking action in the closing moments.
An early miss from Cruz to open round two allowed Johnson to get off a flurry of punches, yet Cruz quickly regained his footing and put the bout on the mat for a few seconds. Once standing, Cruz continued to control the close range grappling, yet Johnson kept pressing, landing with some leg kicks to remain in the scoring column. In the final minute, the fighters traded takedowns, with Cruz’ the more substantial of the two since he was able to keep his foe pinned until the bell.
In round three, there was a more measured assault from both men while standing, but Cruz changed all that when he was able to get Johnson’s back and then suplex him. The move drew a roar from the crowd, but there was even more of a response when Johnson escaped Cruz’ rear naked choke attempt and got back to his feet. Cruz, not discouraged in the slightest, took Johnson back to the canvas, continuing to pile up the points in the process. In the final 20 seconds, Johnson was able to get himself upright, ending the round on his feet.
The challenger showed no signs of fatigue as he chased after Cruz in round four, the champion barely slowing down either as he looked to counter. Two minutes in, Cruz got his by now customary takedown, keeping Johnson against the fence. Cruz soon worked his way into the mount position, Johnson soon working himself free and to his feet. For the first time, Cruz began to look tired as he took a couple deep breaths. He wouldn’t stop pressing though, and a takedown ensued before the two rose and scrapped on the feet until the end of the stanza.
Going for broke to begin round five, Johnson’s aggressiveness allowed Cruz to pull off another thunderous throw. The champion’s subsequent control on the mat smothered Johnson, who was simply unable to break loose. At the midway point of the round, Johnson got back to his feet and eventually broke Cruz’ grasp, but his punches were having little effect on the elusive San Diegan. By this time, Johnson had a growing knot on his left cheek, but he kept moving forward. A late takedown and some hard strikes punctuated the hard-fought bout for the champion though, leaving little doubt as to who the winner was.
“I put in a lot of work and it was a tough fight,” said Cruz. “The kid’s got a sick pace, so I had to outwrestle him.”
With the win, Cruz improves to 19-1; Johnson falls to 14-2.
If the size difference between the two wasn’t evident before, it really showed up when the bell rang and the fighters squared off. Barry began firing kicks at Struve’s legs almost immediately, tossing in the occasional punch as well. With the crowd beginning to get restless at the lack of sustained action, Struve began to get his own striking game in gear, with a couple front kicks just missing the mark. A wild flurry of activity ended the round, with Struve holding a slight edge.
The action picked up in round two, with Struve throwing head kicks and Barry trying to score with uppercuts and a head kick of his own before going back to leg kicks that reddened the inside of Struve’s left leg. After a quick close range flurry, Struve found the opening he needed as he looked for a guillotine choke and pulled guard. Barry deftly escaped, but the long-limbed Struve locked on a triangle choke. Barry lifted his foe high in the air and attempted to slam his way out of the maneuver, but Struve held on and tightened the lock, forcing Barry to tap out at the 3:22 mark.
With the win, Struve improves to 26-5; Barry falls to 6-4.
“Everyone was talking about my last fight with Dan Hardy, so I figured I had to come out and make a statement,” said Johnson.
He did.
Johnson used his kicks to avoid Brenneman’s takedown attempts in the opening minute, and after sprawling out of one attempt, “Rumble” fired off a series of crushing ground strikes – first punches, then knees. Brenneman fought his way out of immediate danger, but as the two began to rise, Johnson kept his foe from getting a bead on where the next shot was coming from. As Brenneman found daylight against the fence, Johnson was already up and loading up the finisher, a crushing left kick to the head that put Brenneman on his back, prompting an immediate stoppage from referee Mario Yamasaki at the 2:49 mark.
With the win, Johnson ups his record to 10-3; Brenneman falls to 14-3.
WIMAN vs. DANZIG
There was no abbreviated ending in the rematch between lightweightsMatt Wiman and Mac Danzig. Instead, fans got 15 full minutes of action – with the emphasis on action – from the two Ultimate Fighter alums, with Wiman pulling out a close, but unanimous, decision win. See post-fight interview
Scores were 29-28 across the board for Wiman, who scored a controversial first round submission win over Danzig in June of 2010.
Engaging immediately, the two lightweights battled it out at close range until a Danzig kick to the head allowed Wiman to take the bout to the mat. After some back and forth action, Danzig tried to sink in a guillotine choke as the two rose, and when that came up empty, he flurried on his foe. The infighting continued, with Wiman scoring with elbows as Danzig let his fists do the talking. In the final minute, Wiman pressed the action, bloodying Danzig’s nose and getting the fight to the canvas just before the bell.
With the trench warfare continuing in the early part of round two, Danzig decided to change things up by taking the bout to the mat. Wiman wasn’t flustered though, as he searched for a submission from the bottom position. Danzig, cool under pressure, broke free and fired off strikes, but Wiman again looked to grab his opponent’s arm. After escaping again, Danzig got back to his feet, with Wiman right behind him. Then it was back to the toe-to-toe battle at close range, with neither fighter giving an inch.
If fatigue was going to be a factor in the final round, both fighters did their best to hide it, as they continued to scrap with mere inches separating them. Wiman’s elbows appeared to be the harder shots, but Danzig made up for it with volume, and when he got Wiman to the mat, he made his move as he took his opponent’s back. Wiman fought loose and reversed position, delivering hard shots from the top as Danzig tried to find an escape route. With 40 seconds left, he found it, scrambling to his feet. A last second guillotine choke attempt from Danzig came up empty, but it ended the 15 minute war with a deserving flourish.
With the win, Wiman improves to 14-6; Danzig falls to 21-9-1.
