Demetrious Johnson’s quest for history was finally realized Saturday at UFC 216.
As usual, he made it look easy.
Johnson systematically demolished the overmatched Ray Borg in their co-main event fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, securing a one-of-a…
Demetrious Johnson’s quest for history was finally realized Saturday at UFC 216.
As usual, he made it look easy.
Johnson systematically demolished the overmatched Ray Borg in their co-main event fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, securing a one-of-a-kind flying armbar three minutes, 15 seconds into the final round.
The win boosted Johnson past Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history, at 11, and reinvigorated the discussion about whether he may already be the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
As a cherry on top, Johnson also pulled off one of the most impressive finishing sequences ever seen in the Octagon.
With roughly three minutes gone in the fifth round, the champion slipped behind Borg and tossed him in the air as if trying to take him down with suplex. As Borg came back to earth, Johnson slung his legs over the challenger’s shoulders and locked up the arm bar.
Borg tried to fight through the pain and escape, but finally tapped out and conceded the win—and history—to Johnson.
“I’m not in the business of getting hit and taking concussions,” Johnson told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in the cage when it was over. “That s–t’s way overrated, I’m telling you. I’m the business of getting in here and making a fool of you, throwing you in the air like a bag of potatoes, throwing you down between my legs and breaking your arm.”
We’ve never seen a fighter quite like Mighty Mouse in the UFC.
Johnson is too good for any other flyweight to handle. He’s so technically flawless, so well-rounded and so smooth that he’s made child’s play out of picking off the division’s top contenders one by one since winning the belt in 2012.
Johnson already has many observers convinced he’s the best to ever lace four-ounce gloves. If anything, however, his dominant performance against Borg—and the unorthodox way he ended the fight—only underscored the problem with his all-time great title reign.
Perhaps partly because he faces no close competition, Johnson has toiled in relative obscurity while surpassing Silva for sheer number of consecutive championship defenses.
As the Octagon’s smallest male titlist (5’3″, 125 lbs), he hasn’t connected with a large portion of the UFC audience. Hardcore fans celebrate his fights, but they typically fetch mediocre TV ratings and poor pay-per-view buyrates.
Even as he broke Silva’s record Saturday, Johnson did it as the co-main event in support of Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee’s scrap for the interim lightweight title.
If Johnson is ever going to convince his doubters he is the greatest and have a chance at locking down the popularity he deserves, he needs bigger challenges.
There has been talk that his next fight might be against the winner of the men’s bantamweight title bout between Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw at UFC 217 next month. By all means, it’s time for the UFC to book—and for Johnson to accept—that fight.
If not Garbrandt or Dillashaw, perhaps a rematch with former 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz would be in order. It was Cruz, after all, who handed Johnson his most recent professional loss, back in 2011 when Mighty Mouse was still fighting at 135 pounds.
It’s time for Johnson to take on the biggest challenges he can find, even (maybe especially) if that means stepping outside the flyweight rat race. He’s outgrown it, and it’s time to book him in higher-profile matchups while he’s still in his athletic prime.
Even this victory over Borg seemed to come at a cost for Johnson, as it took longer than first planned for him to pass Silva on the all-time title-defense list.
Johnson and Borg were originally scheduled to square off at UFC 215 in September, but Borg withdrew during fight week due to medical reasons. The bout had to be rescheduled for four weeks later at UFC 216.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s relationship with the UFC appeared strained during the lead-up to this bout. He clashed with UFC President Dana White while trying to find an opponent. UFC brass wanted Johnson to fight Dillashaw, but the champion insisted on breaking the consecutive title-defense record against a bona fide member of the flyweight class.
Now that Borg has been dispatched, there’s no reason to put it off any longer.
Granted, 125-pound contenders Henry Cejudo and Sergio Pettis are scheduled to meet at UFC 218 on December 2. Barring an injury or other unforeseen complications, that bout will produce a worthy No. 1 contender in the flyweight division.
But Johnson just defeated Cejudo via first-round TKO in April 2016, and it seems impossible the 24-year-old Pettis could be ready to dethrone Johnson so early in his UFC career.
Either guy would be a fine next opponent for Johnson, but they lack the sizzle of a bout with Garbrandt or Dillashaw.
For now, Johnson has proved all he can by taking on the flyweight rank and file.
It’s high time he and the UFC put their heads together and figure out how he can go big.
Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee will compete on Saturday at UFC 216 for a chance at MMA’s richest prize.
And no, that doesn’t mean the UFC’s interim lightweight title.
That makeshift championship will be a nice bonus and—depending on who emerges vict…
Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee will compete on Saturday at UFC 216 for a chance at MMA‘s richest prize.
And no, that doesn’t mean the UFC’s interim lightweight title.
That makeshift championship will be a nice bonus and—depending on who emerges victorious this weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas—either Ferguson or Lee will make a fine interim 155-pound king. More than just a scrap over the gold, however, this pair should probably think of their main-event bout as an audition.
After all, the winner stands a decent chance of being ConorMcGregor‘s next opponent, whenever the actual lightweight champ returns to the Octagon.
McGregor last week made his first public appearance since his mega-hyped boxing match with Floyd Mayweather on August 26. During an interview with British journalist Caroline Pearce in Glasgow, Scotland, at an event called “An Evening With ConorMcGregor,” the 29-year-old Irish fighter appeared eager to get back to action.
McGregor also mentioned a laundry list of possibilities for his next bout.
“I’m sitting on a loss in my mind,” he said of moving on from his 10th-round TKO defeat by Mayweather, via MMA Fighting’s Peter Carroll. “So I’m just seeing what options are there.”
McGregor listed a rematch with Mayweather in boxing or MMA as well as a potential meeting in the Octagon with boxer Paul Malignaggi among his hopes and dreams. From the outside looking in, however, both those options seem somewhat far-fetched.
On the more realistic side of things, McGregor said he’s also eyeing a third fight against Nate Diaz or a title defense against a top lightweight contender like KhabibNurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje or the winner of Ferguson vs. Lee.
Most observers believe McGregor‘s pick will be Diaz.
A trilogy fight with the Stockton bad boy will earn McGregor the most money, and his advisers have already said they’d prefer it. On top of that, it’s a winnable matchup for McGregor, since he defeated Diaz via majority decision in their most recent meeting in August 2016.
But McGregor also knows Diaz drives a hard financial bargain in negotiations and told Pearce last week that if Diaz “starts to price himself out” of a third fight (h/t MMA Junkie), he might not want to wait. McGregor warned he might simply move on to a unification fight against the winner of Ferguson vs. Lee.
If that came to pass, it might well make MMA purists happy. They’ve been complaining about McGregor‘s unwillingness to defend his UFC titles since he beat Jose Aldo for the featherweight strap in December 2015.
Now he’s been away from the sport for over a year, those criticisms seem more valid than ever. McGregor‘s last UFC appearance was his lightweight title win over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016, and afterward he announced an extended absence from competition—one that lasted until he boxed Mayweather this summer.
The delay was long enough for the UFC to twice set up interim title fights.
First, the company moved to put Ferguson opposite Nurmagomedov at UFC 209, before Nurmagomedovwas hospitalized during his weight cut. Now it will be Ferguson and Lee vying for the interim gold and perhaps the opportunity to coax McGregor off the bench and into the cage.
As always, however, McGregor calls his own shots.
“It’s got to excite me,” McGregor said, via Carroll. “Let me see what these two fools do this weekend. We’ll see what the energy is like.”
Effort shouldn’t be a problem for Ferguson and Lee, both of whom are high-energy performers and savvy enough to know exactly what’s at stake here for both of them.
Especially for Lee, this fight represents a life-changing opportunity.
The 25-year-old Michigan native has been ticketed as a potential star since arriving in the UFC in early 2014. That said, his in-cage resume to this point doesn’t exactly scream immediate title contender.
Lee is 9-2 overall in the UFC, but hasn’t faced much top-flight competition. His current five-fight win streak includes four consecutive stoppages, but also features names like Efrain Escudero and MagomedMustafaev.
His most recent victory, over Michael Chiesa in June, was a main event affair, but was mostly notable because Lee and Chiesa managed to stoke some excitement with their on-stage scuffle during a press conference in May.
On the plus side, Lee has a very high ceiling and obvious charisma. In the new, WME-IMG owned UFC, that was enough to fast-forward the No. 7-ranked lightweight to an immediate interim title shot.
As far as this big step-up in competition against the uber-tough Ferguson goes, Lee’s certainly not lacking in confidence.
“When you look at it, and you say a man is tough, and that’s his biggest attribute, that ain’t good for him…,” Lee said this week at a media lunch, via MMA Junkie’s Simon Samano. “That just means it’s going to take a longer ass-whooping.”
A win here immediately forges Lee as an elite lightweight, wraps a title around his waist and puts him in prime position to score a future date with McGregor. As far as one-night opportunities go, it’s hard to top that.
Most of the same is also true for Ferguson, with one exception: we already know El Cucuy is elite.
Ferguson has been fighting in the Octagon since 2010, has put up a record of 12-1 and has been taking on high-level competition—Josh Thomson, EdsonBarboza and Rafael dos Anjos, for example—for at least the last couple years.
More recently it has felt like it was only a matter of time before the 33-year-old Californian got a crack at the gold. Ferguson is one of a handful of 155-pounders whose careers have been sidetracked by McGregor‘s protracted absence. While this fight seems like Lee’s big break, it feels as though it’s a long time coming for Ferguson.
As for Lee’s meteoric rise to an interim title shot, the longtime contender doesn’t seem to mind. He said this week during a media lunch he thinks Lee deserves it. Well, sort of.
“Kevin Lee has got more heart than half these dudes in the Top Five,” Ferguson said, via Junkie’s Samano. “Since he’s got more heart, we’re going to go in there and give you guy a f–king show. … He’s a very well rounded fighter. He’s an athlete. … [But] I know how to beat this kid. He’s mentally weak, like half the roster in the UFC.”
Ferguson is going off as a 2-to-1 favorite for this fight, according to Odds Shark. If he emerges victorious here, his exciting style and status as an eager trash-talker also make him a compelling opponent for McGregor down the road.
The Irishman, though, continues to control the most lucrative real estate in the sport.
After coming out of the Mayweather fight even more famous than before, McGregor has the entire UFC roster and most of boxing angling for a bout against him.
That’s why when Ferguson and Lee meet this weekend at UFC 216, winning the interim lightweight title will be high on the priority list—but impressing McGregor in the process may be even more important.
It’s borderline miraculous that Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Holly Holm appear to be closing in on a women’s featherweight title fight for UFC 219.
Not so long ago, these two women were both down and out, with Justino facing a lengthy doping suspension an…
It’s borderline miraculous that Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Holly Holm appear to be closing in on a women’s featherweight title fight for UFC 219.
Not so long ago, these two women were both down and out, with Justino facing a lengthy doping suspension and Holm reeling from three straight losses. The 145-pound division itself had been so problematic it seemed possible the UFC might scrap the whole thing while it was still in its infancy.
Yet somehow, here we are, with Justino vs. Holm suddenly looming as the biggest women’s MMA bout on the horizon.
If the money is right, both parties have already said they’re game, and Justino is very publicly campaigning for a spot on the company’s end-of-the-year pay-per-view Dec. 30 in Las Vegas.
Not only does this booking represent a complete reversal of fortunes for both Cyborg and Holm, but it’s also a commentary on the state of WMMA—which is slumping toward the end of 2017 right along with the rest of the UFC.
Back when Ronda Rousey reigned as women’s bantamweight champ from 2013-15, there was no more vibrant storyline than the arrival of women in the Octagon. Rousey was the promotion’s biggest star and her popularity put the UFC’s female fighters on equal footing with the men, a rarity in professional sports.
Following her absence after back-to-back losses, however, women’s MMA finds itself without a focal point and therefore on uncharacteristically shaky promotional ground.
New 135-pound champ Amanda Nunes has given her division a modicum of stability, but the bantamweight hasn’t yet connected with a large portion of UFC fans. Add in her last-minute withdrawal from UFC 213 and a questionable split decision win over Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 215 this month, and Nunes has ways to go before establishing herself as a reliable drawing card.
At strawweight, Joanna Jedrzejczyk continues to be unstoppable and a favorite of the hardcore MMA set. Her impending bout against Rose Namajunas will be a crackerjack, but it will take third-tier billing on a jam-packed UFC 217 card on Nov. 4.
Meanwhile, the women’s flyweight division is still a work in progress. The ongoing Season 26 of The Ultimate Fighter aims to crown the UFC’s first women’s 125-pound champion, but it remains unclear how viable that division will ultimately be—or whether Jedrzejczyk will merely add its title to her already impressive collection.
That unexpectedly leaves Justino and Holm—perhaps two of the only proven draws left in WMMA—to carry much of the load.
But turn back the clock a year or so and that was certainly not the way things were trending.
Holm’s loss of the women’s bantamweight title to Miesha Tate at UFC 196 touched off a lengthy and difficult stretch for her. She dropped her next fight to Shevchenko in July 2016, then a third straight to Germaine de Randamie at UFC 208 in June.
The losing streak effectively squandered the momentum Holm had established upon arriving in the UFC, when she notched a pair of wins and shocked the world by knocking out Rousey at UFC 193.
At the same time, her relationship with her UFC bosses appeared strained. In March 2016, White blasted Holm’s longtime manager, Lenny Fresquez, as “an old boxing guy who thinks he’s smart and he isn’t” (via MMA Fighting’s David St. Martin) for putting her into the fight with Tate in the first place.
Already 35 years old, it’s clear Holm needs to act fast to preserve her status as a top-level UFC star.
Justino’s on-again, off-again feuds with company brass have also been well-documented.
Long regarded as one of the best fighters in MMA, Justino was already the former Strikeforce and current Invicta FC featherweight champ when she landed an overdue UFC contract in March 2015.
Prior to that, she had publicly beefed both with White and Rousey. A bout between Rousey and Justino was a frequent topic of internet speculation but never seemed close to fruition.
Even after officially joining the UFC, things didn’t go all that smoothly for Cyborg.
For starters, since the UFC didn’t yet have a featherweight division—which would have been Justino’s natural landing spot—her first two bouts were contested at 140-pound catchweights. Then, when the organization finally did institute the 145-pound class, it couldn’t come to terms with her in time for its inaugural title fight.
Instead, the UFC put the championship on De Randamie after she edged Holm via decision.
To make matters even more circuitous, Cyborg failed a drug test in December 2016. The transgression threatened to sidetrack her for up to two years, until the UFC and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency retroactively granted her a therapeutic use exemption for a banned diuretic and wiped away the suspension.
After that, it was all systems go. The UFC stripped De Randamie in June due to her unwillingness to defend the title against Cyborg. Justino then defeated Tonya Evinger for the vacant belt at UFC 214 and now stands poised to take her place as one of the UFC’s more marketable champions.
Just as quickly, Holm revitalized her own career with a head-kick knockout of Bethe Correia three months ago. The victory abruptly made her the consensus No. 1 contender in both the bantamweight and featherweight divisions—and it’s Justino that makes the most sense as an opponent.
Justino has duly established herself as the most fearsome woman on the planet, but it has been a long time since she has faces truly elite competition. Holm will certainly fit the bill in that regard, as a former UFC champ and a decorated striker in her own right.
Cyborg is known as an aggressive knockout artist and Holm is at her best against opponents who bring the fight straight to her. Stylistically, it couldn’t be much better.
More importantly, both fighters possess notable fan followings and their bout should move the needle more than anything Nunes or Jedrzejczyk could come up with at this point.
In a year when the UFC has struggled to book big fights, the best option available at the moment is to book this all-star matchup for the 145-pound title.
That means giving fans Cyborg vs. Holm before the end of 2017.
Rory MacDonald seems to have found some extra swagger since arriving in Bellator MMA.
Perhaps there’s good reason for that.
Long regarded as one of the top welterweights in the world, the 28-year-old MacDonald quickly established himself as the No. 1 c…
Rory MacDonald seems to have found some extra swagger since arriving in Bellator MMA.
Perhaps there’s good reason for that.
Long regarded as one of the top welterweights in the world, the 28-year-old MacDonald quickly established himself as the No. 1 contender for Bellator’s 170-pound title by breezing to a second-round submission win over Paul Daley in his promotional debut in May. Now that he’s set for a Jan. 20 bout against champ Douglas Lima, MacDonald is intent on proving he’s a level above the rest of the company’s best.
He said as much last Saturday, when he showed up for a public faceoff with Lima dressed like a cat burglar and threw some of his trademark stone-faced barbs at the two-time Bellator titlist:
MacDonald surprised the fight world in March 2016, when he announced he would become a free agent after his UFC contract lapsed. He’d been fighting in the Octagon since the age of 20 and amassed a record of 10-3, while taking on a slew of big UFC names, including Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley, Carlos Condit and Nate Diaz.
He was also considered the heir apparent to Georges St-Pierre’s throne as the hero of the frenzied Canadian fight market. When Bellator officially landed MacDonald in August of last year, it was considered the biggest acquisition since Scott Coker took over the organization in June 2014.
Despite leaving the UFC on the heels of back-to-back losses and suffering from a couple of lingering injuries, MacDonald appeared to be the sort of athlete who could make a difference for the up-and-coming company.
Exactly what that difference looks like still remains to be seen. MacDonald has already said he’s out to win not only Bellator’s welterweight title, but its middleweight belt, too. This week during a candid and wide-ranging interview with Bleacher Report, he said becoming a two-division champion might not be good enough, either.
If he gets his way, MacDonald could well try for the Bellator light heavyweight title, too.
Here, The Red King talks about his departure from the UFC, his new home in Bellator, his biggest personal fantasy matchups as well as the impending return to the Octagon of his friend, St-Pierre.
Bleacher Report: You got the chance to go face to face with Douglas Lima this past weekend. As a fighter, do you get anything useful from just being in the same physical space as your opponent? Can you look in their eyes and tell anything about them?
Rory MacDonald: During the staredowns, sure, you get to see how they are in a tense situation. You see how relaxed they can be. You can kind of see what’s behind the eyes a little bit. He seems like he’s going to be ready for a hard contest, but I could tell that he’s nervous. He knows he‘s stepping up a level, so it‘s going to be a big night for him.
B/R: How do you envision this fight between the two of you going?
MacDonald:I see it as two well-rounded guys, but I do believe that I‘ll be putting him out of his comfort zone. I think he‘s one of those guys who will fire back when he‘s pushed, [but] I‘m going to take him past what he‘s normally used to from the other guys he‘s fought. I‘ve seen how he‘s reacted to some pressure and I think there‘s some major holes there.
B/R:What exactly do you see as his comfort zone and how do you take him out of that?
MacDonald:He‘s long, he‘s a big guy. He does well when he‘s standing. He‘s obviously going to be hard to take down and strong on the ground, but I do believe that under my pace and my relentless attack, he‘s going to break down slowly but surely. You‘re going to see the end. The walls are going to close in on him.
B/R:You‘ve been in Bellator for a little over a year now; what‘s life outside the UFC been like so far?
MacDonald:I‘m really happy, besides not getting a fight [immediately] after the Paul Daley fight. I‘ve waited a long time. There‘s some frustration there, but I‘m looking forward to the future and a big year in 2018. Besides that frustration, everything‘s been really good.
B/R:You‘ve got one win in Bellator. Is it starting to feel like home for you yet?
MacDonald:Absolutely. I‘m comfortable fighting anywhere. I‘m treated pretty well here. I‘m a happy man.
B/R:You‘re obviously one of the higher-profile fighters in that organization and you‘re a young guy, still in your athletic prime. What do you see as your role in Bellator? Are you interested in being the face of that organization?
MacDonald:I think I have the potential to be [the face of the organization]. I think I could put some new blood into this organization. I think I can make it rise to being—in the eyes of the fans—a legitimate place for top-level competitors. I think my performances are going to open a lot of eyes. I think also the better matchups will be here in the future. I think the matchmaking will be more willing to put on some very cool contests.
Speaking for me, at least, they know that I‘ll fight anyone and I think that gives them a lot of leeway with putting on some very cool things that the fans might not usually be able to see in the UFC—where there is a lot of oversight into what opportunities people get.
B/R:Over the last couple of years Bellator has used older fighters like Tito Ortiz, Chael Sonnen and Fedor Emelianenko to promote its higher-profile events. Do you think that strategy will change if you become the champion?
MacDonald:Absolutely. That tide is shifting into a new age. It‘s coming in Bellator. We still need some more new blood, some more current guys. But those [older] guys got the attention and brought Bellator up to where it is today. We‘re going to see the continuing shift and the growth of Bellator.
B/R:Would it be worthwhile to you to fight any of those older guys as a special attraction or a money fight? Or do you want to keep fighting the highest level competition?
MacDonald: Me and Chael have expressed interest in fighting each other. I don‘t know about any of the other older guys, but I know me and Chael have had our interests in fighting each other. We‘ll see if he‘s actually man enough to step in there with a guy like me.
B/R:Have you been around Chael at all personally?
MacDonald:Yeah, you should listen to his story about our interaction [when he went] on Ariel Helwani.
B/R:Yeah? How‘d that go?
MacDonald:Oh, we had an elevator incident. You should check that out. Chael always tells a pretty interesting story.
B/R:Did he tell it accurately?
MacDonald:Yeah. Chael is a very good storyteller. I think he says it best.
Note: Watch Sonnen tell the story of his elevator encounter with MacDonald at the 14:48 mark in this video:
B/R:One of the ways this sport has changed in the last couple of years is that guys don‘t seem to be confined to their weight classes anymore. They don‘t just have to chase the title; they can fight at almost any weight to chase the biggest money fights. Is that a good direction for the sport, do you think?
MacDonald:I think it‘s not for everybody. I think there are some special fighters that should move up and down, but not everybody. I think that would be chaos. I think for the general [health] of a division, it should be structured, but for the top-tier guys that are dominating, I think it‘s exciting for the fans to see new tests, to see new competition. I think that brings more excitement to the structure. Once you‘ve got a guy who‘s been to the top and beaten the [other] guys [in his weight class], nobody wants to see that structure anymore, once they‘ve gotten in that position.
B/R:Are you interested in jumping up in divisions even higher than middleweight? Would you go up to light heavyweight or even heavyweight if the matchups were right?
MacDonald:I would fight light heavyweight. I would. It would be obviously a very intense preparation for that. I would have to be very mentally strong for that, which I do believe I already am. I carry a natural fighting mindset that maybe most current fighters don‘t have, as far as contending with larger men. I think I‘m good for something like that, where a lot of others might not be.
B/R:I know that‘s where Chael has been fighting. Is there anybody else you look at in those higher weight classes and think, ‘Hmmmm, that‘d be interesting‘?
MacDonald:Well, if I won the middleweight title I would have to say that I would want to fight for the light heavyweight title. But let‘s not get too far ahead of ourselves. I still have to fight for the welterweight title, so…
B/R:One thing at a time.
MacDonald:Right.
B/R:What did you make of Ben Askren saying he‘s going to retire after his next fight, but that he‘d consider sticking around to come fight you if it was for a title in Bellator?
MacDonald:You know what, I‘m very perplexed by that man. He says a lot of these things but there‘s no action taken on his part. If he was really serious about fighting the best in the world, why is he fighting over there [in ONE FC] against who knows who? I don’t know who he‘s fighting or when he‘s fighting—no one knows. I think he made the decision to go over there for a reason. He‘s comfortable over there, he doesn‘t want to move. So, he‘s in a spot where it‘s easy to say those things when he doesn‘t have to make any real hard decisions. It‘s not real, so I don‘t get too worked up about it. If he decided to take action and get over here or to the UFC, I would take it serious, but until then it‘s just another guy on the internet talking.
B/R:So you think he‘s just blowing smoke?
MacDonald:Yeah, I do, a little bit. If he wants to do something he has to take action and get control of his career. I don‘t know what the man‘s up to or what his situation is, but I‘m not too worried.
B/R:Let‘s say you beat Lima to become champion. What‘s next for you? Do you want to go up and go for the middleweight title immediately or would you rather stick around at 170 and defend that belt?
MacDonald:I’d have to see the lay of the land at that point, but considering [Gegard] Mousasi and—I forget who he‘s fighting for the belt—they‘re fighting in, I think, October? [Alexander Shlemenko is his opponent on Oct. 20.] I would say let’s fight three months or two months after I fight Lima, if things go well. I told Rich [Chou] as the matchmaker. I don‘t know, though. I don‘t know where their vibe is or where their head is. Maybe I‘ll have to speak to Scott [Coker] about it and see how things are. But they know I‘m willing and able, so the cards lay in their hands. If it was my decision, I’d be fighting for the middleweight title a few months after I fight Lima for the welterweight title. I think that keeps the ball rolling and keeps it exciting.
Then we see if there‘s a welterweight contender or—who knows—maybe that fight with Chael. Who knows. You never know who is ready to go or who is the most exciting at that point. Whatever makes the most sense, I‘m game.
B/R:Let‘s say you can do some fantasy matchmaking and book whatever fights you want. After Lima, what are Rory MacDonald’s three dream fights?
MacDonald:I mean, I‘d love to fight Conor McGregor, if we‘re going to talk like that. He‘s the star of the show. Woodley, I‘d like to get that fight back. Maybe another go with Lawler or Stephen Thompson; I‘d like to run those ones back.
B/R:Physically how are you? After taking 10 months off between Stephen Thompson and Paul Daley, are you fully recovered?
MacDonald:Yeah, I’m feeling really good. After the Daley fight, I was ready to keep the train rolling and fight right after, but unfortunately they didn‘t give me that opportunity. But with even more time off, I‘m feeling even better.
B/R:As you prepare for Lima, where are you doing your training?
MacDonald:Most of it in BC [British Columbia, Canada] at Toshido MMA.
B/R:So, not at Tristar?
MacDonald:Some of it, but not most.
B/R:I was going to ask you if your path has crossed with Georges St-Pierre at all while he’s training for his comeback.
MacDonald:Yeah, of course. I think right as I left on vacation he was just starting his camp. He was doing good.
B/R:What are your thoughts about him coming back to fight Michael Bisping? Does that make sense to you as a career path for GSP?
MacDonald:Yeah, sure. Anytime a star comes out of retirement for a fight, it‘s a big show. That‘s what he‘s about. He‘s gotten to that point in his career after so many [title] defenses. That‘s what people expect—big fights against champions or whoever is relevant at the time. It kind of cool for him.
B/R:Do you think he wins that fight?
MacDonald:Yeah, I’m confident that if he focuses on his strengths and uses his wrestling and his top position, it shouldn‘t be a hard fight for him.
You have to admire the pure audacity of Gohkan Saki.
As the former K-1 and Glory kickboxing champion prepares to make his UFC debut against Henrique da Silva on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 117, Saki is setting his own expectations sky-high.
“I’m glad I…
You have to admire the pure audacity of Gohkan Saki.
As the former K-1 and Glory kickboxing champion prepares to make his UFC debut against Henrique da Silva on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 117, Saki is setting his own expectations sky-high.
“I’m glad I finally can announce that I have signed an exclusive long-term contract with the UFC,” Saki wrote on his Facebook page in May. “[I am] the best investment the UFC has made since Conor McGregor.”
Then there’s his social media presence, which is, in a word, brash:
All told, it’s clear Saki’s not exactly taking the cliched one-step-at-at-time approach to his fledgling MMA career—and perhaps with good reason. If he can channel his experience, athleticism and fearsome punching power into success in his newfound sport, his ceiling might be as a future title contender in the puddle-shallow UFC light heavyweight division.
Considering it’s at least possible that the 205-pound weight class will now be moving forward without Jon Jones—in the wake of the longtime titlist’s latest drug test failure—perhaps Saki can even one day wear the gold.
Despite the fact he comes to the Octagon sporting an 0-1 professional MMA record, there’s ample reason to believe the Turkish Tyson can be successful in the Octagon. He spent 15 years earning his keep at the highest levels of kickboxing, facing off with the likes of Alistair Overeem, Tyrone Spong, Ray Sefo and Melvin Manhoef.
Saki compiled an 83-12 record—including 59 knockouts—with one no-contest and earned a reputation as one of the toughest outs in combat sports. He even famously fought Overeem in the final of the 2010 K-1 Grand Prix tournament with a broken arm (and lost).
Another thing to admire about Saki? The knockout artist has impeccable timing.
After two years away from the ring, the Netherlands native, who turns 33 on October 19, is poised to enter a light heavyweight division that is both starved for new stars and as competitively wide-open as it has ever been. Depending on which way the appeals process goes from here, Jones could be facing up to a four-year ban. If that came to pass, it would mean everything we thought we knew about the 205-pound pecking order would be null and void.
After losing to Jones via highlight-reel knockout at UFC 214 in July, Daniel Cormier has been reinstated as champion. At age 38, however, and with his drawing power assumedly at an all-time low, Cormier’s future remains unknown.
If ever there was a time for a new and popular force to take the division by storm, this is it.
Perhaps that opportunity was too much for Saki to pass up after sitting idle for so long.
“I stopped for two years, and I felt an emptiness,” Saki said this week, via MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco. “I came back on a bigger stage, the biggest martial arts organization in the world, the UFC, with a lot of challenge for me. I am hungry again, and it’s time to open a new book and finish my career in the right way.”
To do that, Saki will have to prove he’s much more than just a stand-up fighter. At the very least, he’ll have to have widened his skill set to include enough defensive wrestling to keep people from taking him down.
Can he manage it? At the time of his UFC signing, Bleacher Report’s Scott Harris was only willing to give his chances a soft “maybe.”
“Clearly, he’ll be the best striker in the UFC light heavyweight division immediately upon arrival,” Harris wrote. “Just as clearly, his ground game will be an area his opponents will work to exploit. But there’s a pretty good chance UFC matchmakers won’t throw him into the cage with Cormier right off the bat, either.”
With just a few days to go before UFC Fight Night 117, the Da Silva matchup makes Harris looks downright prophetic. From the outside looking in, this fight shapes up as a nice, hanging curveball that Saki can knock out of the park in his UFC debut.
After starting his career on 10-0 tear fighting exclusively in Brazil, Da Silva won his first two UFC fights but has since dropped off a cliff. He comes into this bout amid a three-fight losing streak that most recently saw him get knockout out by Ion Cutelaba in just 22 seconds in June.
Da Silva is primarily a muay thai fighter and is listed as a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He’ll have a slight reach advantage over Saki but otherwise matches up as just the sort of competition the decorated kickboxer should want to face in his first UFC bout.
Saki’s decision to leave the Glory organization and fully dedicate himself to MMA has MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta sounding fairly complementary about his approach so far:
“After sporadically training in the sport’s various disciplines in the past, this recent stretch has been immersive, and Saki has shown his willingness to put himself in uncomfortable positions in order to achieve growth, regularly traveling to learn with different camps. Among his most notable trips was a five-week sojourn to Sweden’s AllStars Training Center to work out alongside intra-divisional contenders Alexander Gustafsson and Ilir Latifi. Saki has also trained extensively with the Turkish national wrestling and boxing teams, along with Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Ertan Balaban.”
A lot, of course, remains to be seen.
We don’t yet know if Saki will be able to shore up his ground skills enough to compete at the UFC level. We don’t know if his somewhat diminutive size—6’0″ and 220 pounds—will allow him to hang with the true giants of the division. We don’t know if his speed and technical kickboxing will be enough to outweigh those potential drawbacks.
But his mere presence here is enough to spark some excitement.
It has been a long time since the 205-pound division had a dominant pure striker in its midst. For viciousness, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort and Rampage Jackson spring to mind as champions. For technique, Lyoto Machida does, too. Alexander Gustafsson has always been long on potential but has fallen short in big spots.
Saki might have an uphill climb ahead of him if he truly wants to be champion. He might end up being surprised how hard it is to become the next McGregor.
For now, however, the buzz about his impending debut feels appropriate.
And the light heavyweight division has no choice but to take buzz wherever it can get it.
Moments after dispatching late replacement opponent Alex Reyes via first-round knockout in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 116, Mike Perry started strutting around the cage like a rooster.
Literally.
Perry put his hands on his hips, flapped his ar…
Moments after dispatching late replacement opponent Alex Reyes via first-round knockout in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 116, Mike Perry started strutting around the cage like a rooster.
Literally.
Perry put his hands on his hips, flapped his arms like wings and worked his neck back and forth in an exaggerated chicken dance. His feet scratched at the canvas—like a proud yardbird throwing seed—and then he let loose a maniacal laugh.
The message—that the 26-year-old is rapidly becoming the cock of the walk at welterweight—was obvious. For its sheer weirdness, the gesture was also pure Platinum Perry. UFC fans have become accustomed to his non sequiturs since he arrived in the Octagon in August 2016.
In just a bit more than a year, the hard-swinging Perry has established himself as the sort of 170-pound knockout out artist people either love or love to hate. The rooster strut was a new wrinkle, but Perry has been putting on bizarre shows and ruffling feathers—no pun intended—each step of the way to his 4-1 promotional record.
After blowing through Reyes in just one minute, 19 seconds, he let it be known he’s ready for a step-up in competition.
“I’ll give you a name right now because I know you’re gonna ask,” Perry told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik in the cage. “Everybody wants to see me beat up Robbie Lawler.”
This suggestion drew cheers from the announced crowd of 7,005 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Maybe there were a few groans mixed in there too. For audacity, the callout was also classic Perry since on its face a matchup between him and Lawler makes no sense.
But you know what? It’s so outrageous it just might work.
The UFC needs all the sizzle it can get as it prepares to close out its relatively underwhelming 2017 slate with 13 events in 15 weeks. Lawler is a borderline legend among hardcore fans and Perry—whatever he is—has done all he can in a short period to make himself stand out amid the company’s endless parade of cookie-cutter fighters.
Everything about Perry is in some way performative—from his gaudy collection of tattoos to Saturday’s over-gelled mohawk to his deliberate and theatrical way of speaking. Even his fighting style is like something drawn up at UFC central casting.
Not all of the press he’s earned has been the good kind. Some of it has been ugly even by the low, low standards of professional cage fighting. Prior to his UFC debut against Hyun Gyu Lim at UFC 202, Perry’s cornermen were caught on tape making racial comments about Lim. Later, a picture emerged online of Perry in blackface.
As Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden wrote in April, UFC fans have wrestled with Perry’s presence in the company. His victories inside the Octagon have been electrifying. Outside of it, he seems like major league trash. As Snowden wrote:
“It goes without saying that none of the above passes for acceptable behavior. Frankly, it’s more than a little disgusting. Perry is gross, unstable and probably not fit for polite company. If you wanted to picket UFC for employing a man like this, no matter how good he is at his job, I wouldn’t be opposed. As a human being, Perry is an anathema, rightly shunned by decent folks. As the purveyor of violence inside a steel cage, however, he’s exactly what I want to see. That’s a thought that troubles me.“
Put more simply: People would tune in to see Perry fight Lawler, either to watch Perry get some comeuppance from one of the organization’s most popular fighters or just because the bout itself would be stylistically bonkers.
Lawler has been having slugfests in the UFC since a few months before Perry’s 11th birthday back in 2002. His unlikely rise to the welterweight championship in 2014—after pit stops in organizations like Strikeforce and EliteXC—earned him MMA immortality. Even before that, his hard-nosed style had lodged him squarely in the hearts of fans.
As a fighter, Perry exhibits the same mindset. He has only one speed, he moves only forward, taking as many punches as he must in order to uncork his jaw-jacking right hand.
Putting him in the cage with Lawler would be like lighting a stick of dynamite and tossing it over the Octagon fence. Plus, Perry’s peculiar antics juxtaposed with Lawler’s stone-cold, monotone media presence would be just the kind of weird MMA fans tend to gravitate toward.
If Perry won, it would make him as a legitimate contender at 170 pounds. If he lost, it would most likely be because Lawler had done something terrible to him. From a promotional standpoint, that’s a win-win—and may well be enough to outweigh the drawbacks.
Chief among those detractions is that, while Perry has been an outlandish presence, he hasn’t done anything to earn a bout with a fighter the caliber of Lawler.
Perry came into the Reyes fight unranked in the welterweight division and just one fight removed from a unanimous-decision loss to Alan Jouban in December 2016. He was supposed to fight Thiago Alves on Saturday before Alves pulled out for undisclosed reasons.
Reyes, a natural lightweight, made his UFC debut on just a few days’ notice and against one of the hardest punchers at welterweight. It wasn’t the sort of fight he was going to win or the kind of matchup that was going to elevate Perry’s standing at 170 pounds.
But it was fun while it lasted.
Reyes moved well and landed a leg kick or two before Perry tracked him down near the fence, roughnecked him in the clinch and landed a knee to the face that ended the night for his smaller opponent.
It went just as Perry might have drawn it up—and the KO earned him one of the UFC’s $50,000 performance-based bonuses—but it didn’t mean much.
Lawler, meanwhile, is a former champion and a perennial top-of-the-food-chain performer. He’s ranked as the No. 1 contender at 170 pounds and, in July, defeated Donald Cerrone via unanimous decision on the stacked UFC 214 pay-per-view card.
Perry’s biggest win to date in the UFC was his second-round KO of Jake Ellenberger in April, but he’s never fought someone with the profile or the skill set of Lawler.
Perhaps it’s time that changed?
If anybody can stop the chicken dance, it’s going to be somebody like Robbie Lawler.
Demetrious Johnson’s quest for history was finally realized Saturday at UFC 216.