Author: Chuck Mindenhall

This is the UFC 191 live blog for Paige VanZant vs. Alex Chambers, a strawweight bout at Saturday night’s UFC event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

VanZant, who is 2-0 in the UFC, will face Chambers, who is 1-1 in the UFC, on the main card.

Check out the UFC 191 live blog below.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

You know a Demetrious Johnson fight is about to happen when people are talking about Conor McGregor getting additional ink across his zoo-themed torso, and of him hijacking hashtags (Check out his latest work at the #GoBig). It’s a funny thing. With Johnson, it’s always sort of a potboiler between events, whether he’s headlining on FOX or a pay-per-view. For whatever reason, when “Mighty Mouse” has a fight on the immediate horizon — when people really are forced to focus on it — they talk less about his fight than they do preference.

Is DJ the greatest fighter going? You could make that argument. Do people care? Eh. Should they? Probably. Then why don’t we?

Indeed. Then why don’t we.

And this is where things get snagged, and one man’s sense of beauty gets streaked with another man’s mud.

For whatever reason, Johnson kicks up a conversation about the very tenants of apathy in the fight game  — both voluntary and involuntary — each time his number comes up. He is the pound-for-pound greatest at doing this, even if he is sort of a symbolic bystander in the ordeal. When he fights the argument becomes something like recognizing what is great in the cage versus what is desirable. Somehow, technical mastery by itself isn’t enough to captivate an audience. Johnson is a dynamo who adapts on the fly and executes ridiculously smart game plans. He is versatile and good-to-great everywhere. He is the embodiment of everything pure in martial arts, and his pace is that of a fast-acting stimulant.

And as he heads into tonight’s title defense against John Dodson at UFC 191 he’s pretty damn fed up. Not because people don’t care, because that’s a generalization that’s (probably) mostly false, but because people keep talking about people not caring, and people keep talking about people talking about people not caring. It’s a dizzying position to be in. Yet that’s where he forever is.

Not that the UFC has done DJ any favors over the last couple of years by constantly sticking him in headlining spots rather than coupling him with bigger-named champions. He could have benefited from being booked as support here and there. We could have eased into the idea of him being an event. But that hasn’t been the case. It’s been sink or swim for his last six defenses. And for that reason, to be Demetrious Johnson is to be a conversational piece as to what in the hell it is we’re looking at, and indeed, if we can be guilted into appreciating it.

And make no mistake: Demetrious Johnson fights contain extraordinarily high levels of guilt. 

The thing is, Johnson’s starting to get damn mad about all of it. He’s developing an attitude. His tapioca-ness is becoming somewhat bitter. Charisma? No, no, no, but he’s there’s a chip forming on his shoulder, and by god it’s fun to look at. Johnson hears the criticisms about not being able to sell a card, as well as the patronizing retorts from his defenders, saying that you’re not a fan of MMA if you’re not a fan of “Mighty Mouse.”

It’s all a little much. But Johnson’s burgeoning surly side might be his way out of this anti-attraction quagmire. Maybe not…but maybe. You can see a little bit of everything in this interview with Ariel Helwani.

During the UFC 191 conference call last week, Johnson said he was done listening to “uneducated fools” who think he’s boring. The truth is, even the doofiest duncecaps can see he’s not boring — at least not in the way we define it in fighting. He has finished four of the last guys he’s faced, including Kyoji Horiguchi in his last title defense with a single second to spare. His fighting style is not one-dimensional, nor aesthetically displeasing. He is opportunistic, and he’s looking to end the fight. But he’s not careless. He doesn’t chin-check with guys just to get a rise out of a crowd. It’s hard to fault him for that.

Like half the criticisms leveled against Johnson, even the one claiming that he faces weak competition has very little to do with him. He just goes out there and smokes whomever the UFC puts in front of him. The 125-pound division isn’t stacked, so you get the odd Chris Cariaso or Ali Baugatinov through the turnstile, so what? Ronda Rousey is facing competition that stands no chance, and yet she’s the definition of draw power.

Johnson? Not so much. In fact, people keep talking about people not caring. Why that is continues to be up for debate. Is it because he’s 5-foot-3, and a flyweight? That can’t be helped. Is it because he lacks personality? He’s too friendly? Not enough of a trash talker? Too methodical? Too great? Because he has no rival?

And see, that’s where it gets despairing heading into tonight’s main event.

John Dodson is supposed to be the guy to do away with the lack of compelling story lines. Dodson lost to Johnson via decision back in early-2013, which was DJ’s first title defense. Since then, Dodson has plowed through Darrell Montague and John Moraga, and scored a good-looking decision over Zach Makovsky. His hands are heavy, and he can match Johnson’s hummingbird pace. He has a knockout of current bantamweight champion, TJ Dillashaw. This rematch has legs. If ever there was a fight that people should want to see, it’s Johnson against Dodson.

Yet, this one feels slightly like any other Demetrious Johnson fight. Like you should feel more about it than you do, even if you don’t know exactly why that is.

After nearly two years away, bantamweight Michael McDonald is finally ready to make his return to the Octagon.

As reported on UFC tonight, McDonald’s coach Jason House said the 24-year old McDonald — who has been dealing with a nagging right hand injury for a long while — is hoping to come back before the end of 2015.

“Mayday” McDonald last competed in on UFC of FOX 9, on Dec. 2013 against Urijah Faber. Then only 22 years old, McDonald lost that night in Sacramento a second-round submission (guillotine). Before then he had gone 5-1 in the UFC, with key victories over Miguel Torres and Brad Pickett.

McDonald Renan Barao for the interim bantamweight title in Feb. 2013 in London, but came up short in his bid. He lost via submission (arm-triangle choke) in the fourth round.

Known as one of the heavier strikers in the division, McDonald scored a Knockout of the Night bonus at UFC 131 when he put away Alex Soto via punches.

Robbie Lawler’s hand injury won’t keep him on the sidelines for as long as feared.

In fact, the UFC’s welterweight champion might be able to defend his title against Carlos Condit by the very beginning of 2015.

According to a report on UFC Tonight on Wednesday, his manager Dave Martin said the injury isn’t serious, and will not require surgery. At most, the injury — which is a thumb injury on his right hand — will keep him sidelined a month, which would have made fighting on the UFC 193 stadium card in Melbourne, Australia difficult.

Martin also said that he could be ready for UFC 195 on Jan. 2 in Las Vegas should the UFC need a headliner. Which, at this point, it looks like it does.

Lawler, who trains out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, was originally booked to face Condit as the headliner for the Nov. 15 pay-per-view at Etihad Stadium. Once he pulled out of the fight with an injury, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was moved from UFC 195 to UFC 193. She’ll now headline the Melbourne card against Holly Holm, in an event that is aiming to break the UFC’s attendance record with more than 70,000 people.

UFC 195, which takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, will feature women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Sam Stout, who has appeared in the UFC 20 times since debuting with the promotion in 2006, has decided to hang up the gloves.

UFC Tonight reported on Wednesday that the 31-year old Stout (20-12-1) is walking away from the game on the heels of his latest loss against Frankie Perez at UFC Fight Night 74 in Saskatoon. Stout was technically knocked out by Perez just 54 seconds into the fight, marking the third time in a row that he’d been finished via TKO or KO.

In his previous 30 professional bouts, Stout had never been knocked out.

In a statement obtained by UFC Tonight, Stout — through his manager Rob Roveta — said the fight game had passed him by.

“It has become clear to me that I am no longer able to compete at the highest level of mixed martial arts,” the statement said. “Competing, as a UFC fighter for the last 10 years has been something I will always look back on with great pride. I want thank everyone at Zuffa for giving me the opportunity to do what I love for so many years.

“That being said, I think my best days as a fighter are behind me and it would be a risk to my legacy and my health to continue competing. Therefore I would like to announce my retirement from the sport of mixed martial arts. This is a very difficult decision for me to make, but I am excited about the road ahead, and look forward to the beginning of a new chapter.”

The Canadian Stout, who went by the nickname “Hands of Stone,” finishes with a record of 9-11 in the UFC. Among his most notable victories were the back-to-back decisions he scored over Matt Wiman and Joe Lauzon in 2009-2010, as well as his knockout of Yves Edwards at UFC 131 in Vancouver, which earned him Knockout of the Night honors. He also took home Fight of the Night bonus money six times in his career, most recently against James Krause at UFC 161.

If Dan Hardy has it his way, he’ll fight again in 2016. He’ll fight at least three more times in the UFC all told, which is the extent of his contract. He will, at some point, climb a daunting mountain, perhaps one of the bigs in the Himalayas, so that he can make himself feel insignificant enough for further self-discovery. And, by early October, he will have “sailor” listed as one of his many occupations.

Sailor Dan.

That’s because the UFC fighter-turned-commentator Hardy boarded a sailing vessel from his native England on Sunday, as part of the highly competitive Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. This is the first leg in the 10th edition of the race. By Sunday afternoon, Hardy was already floating down the Thames in London. By Monday, he was out to sea. His destination will be Rio de Janeiro, some 5,300 miles away, a port he won’t reach for more than a month.

In the meantime, it’ll be him and 23 others, drifting across the void, racing 11 other international vessels in the fleet, dealing with the elements, the cosmos and every shrinking thought imaginable — of what’s above, what’s below, and what’s inside.

And for Hardy, who was presented with the idea of sailing halfway around the world in May, such an experience was just too uncomfortable-sounding to pass up.

“They were recruiting athletes for Team Great Britain, and one of the women who works for Clipper used to work for the UFC in Canada,” Hardy told MMA Fighting a day before he and his crew set sail. “And with the way that UFC fighters are a little bit crazy, they reached out to the UFC office in the U.K. to see if I’d be interested in doing it. To be honest, I love a challenge. I love doing something different, and this is just right up my street. It’s something that I’m forced to be a beginner again, and I’m forced to learn new stuff, and to put myself into an uncomfortable situation where I have to adapt and question myself.”

Making yourself vulnerable for the public is one of the tenants of cagefighting, part of the thrill stemming from the prospect of failure. For Hardy, who trained with the Shaolin monks in the northeast of China at 20 years old, this sort of adventure is his raison d’être. He said the stakes have to be lively, and there has to be a considerable amount of doubt to overcome.

Much of what Hardy has gone through in his life has been about just that sort of conquering. He went from the monks at the Yee Hee Castle in Changchun to art school, and from there to prizefighting. Hardy was diagnosed with a heart condition in 2013 — Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome — which at least temporarily put him on the shelf as a fighter. In the meantime he has taken up other pursuits, such as working as the color commentator for UFC Fight Pass broadcasts overseas. He’s worked as an ambassador of fighting, and as an advocate for animal rights. He is a muscle car aficionado, and a punk rock connoisseur.

(Courtesy of Clipper Race)

He’s always up to something new, segueing from one thing to the next. And the idea of drifting out to sea — in a competitive race — gave him just enough of the right kind of pause to agree to it immediately.

“There are a couple of things,” he said. “One is being so far away from land; I can’t get myself back on my own accord. It’s like relinquishing that sort of control and … being a part of a team, and being part of a vessel that functions as one. That will be a challenge for me.

“But I’m looking forward to the doldrums, to the ocean just being really still and flat even though we’re thousands of miles away from anybody. That will be an experience.”

If that weren’t enough, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston — the man who founded the company, and who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe by himself, back in 1968 — gave Hardy and his crew a pep talk.

“We were just at the crew briefing,” Hardy said, “and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said to us, ‘Have a think at this — there’ll be points in the race where the other nearest human beings to you is the international space station. I was like, holy sh*t.”

Though he hasn’t had much nautical training in his life, Hardy said he had a crash course over the last couple of months to help him get used to the idea of life aboard a ship. He believes he retained a lot of the information, but expects to really catch on as the action unfolds.

“I’ve only done four weeks of training,” he said. “We do four levels of training, and we started in May. So I’ve only known about it for a couple of months really, three months. We’ve did four levels of training, one level per week, and that was all out on the boat, getting as much experience and sailing as much as we can. All of the health and safety aspects, abandoning ship, rescuing people overboard, all the stuff you need to learn before you get out on an ocean.”

His team, which is comprised of one skipper, 21 crew (including himself) and two camera people, will be in tight quarters for the duration. The Great Britain/Northern Ireland team will be racing against vessels from Vietnam, from China, and from other ports of the globe. All told, the Clipper Race lasts 11 months, with over 600 crew members participating internationally.

It’s become a very competitive race in a short time.

“There are a lot of amateur sailors, a lot of people doing it for the experience for the competition with themselves, but when you get on your boat and you’re around your crew … everybody’s very eager to get a good race started and to get a good place in the race,” he said. “That’s really what it’s all about, and that’s the motivation for keeping going.

“Especially when we can’t see any of the other boats for a week. You’ve got to keep motivating each other to keep racing and remember that there are other people chasing us and other people we’re trying to keep up with. It’s a massive thing. More than anything, you’re competing with yourself, and you’re competing with the elements.”

Asked if adventures such as this will one day come to describe his life, Hardy said that might end up being the case.

“To be honest, I’m not very good at sitting still for very long,” he said. ?”I always like to have something new to talk about, and have something new that will force me to ask questions about myself. It’s been a weird couple of years given the fact that I was sidelined from competition and I’ve been doing a lot of commentary. Although I am wanting to be as good at commentary as I can, it’s the competitiveness I’ve been missing out on.

“So this really filled the void that I need filling, and it’s going to lead to many other things. I already know it. I’m already thinking about hiking and climbing and other adventures.”

As for fighting, that’s an adventure “The Outlaw” expects to keep going. The 33-year-old Hardy — who fought Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight belt at UFC 111 in New Jersey, and won his last two bouts over Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah — never wanted to retire.

And he’s got his eye on a return.

“Most definitely, the goal is to fight again — I’ve still got three fights left on my contract with the UFC and I would very much like to have those fights,” he said. “Obviously I’ve been sidelined for a little while, and I’ve not been able to go and do the tests that I needed to do because I’ve been so busy. But once this race is over…the beginning of October we arrive in Rio, at the end of October we’ve got the massive Dublin show [UFC Fight Night 76], which is going to be absolutely crazy.

“And then in November and December, at the moment I’ve got them put aside just for training, with the intention of doing a good couple of months training camp and then going to do whatever tests I need in the U.K., to see what the doctors have to say and what their thoughts are on me getting cleared to fight. The feedback’s been good so far, so I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue. But it’s just a case of actually getting in there and getting on the treadmill and showing them I’m physically able to fight. Once I’ve done a full ocean race, they can’t really argue with me, can they?”