On the Monday after the biggest win of his UFC career, 23-year-old Max Holloway was still feeling good about his UFC on FOX 15 performance against Cub Swanson. Feeling good, that is, but not feeling like it wasn’t destined to happened.
From his home in Waianae, Hawaii, Holloway was a guest on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. He said that though he and his camp game-planned to beat Swanson up on the feet, he had a premonition that he would submit the longtime MMA veteran.
“I just felt confident with my tools — I said, it’s the confidence you need,” he told Ariel Helwani. “If you’re not confident in this sport you’re not going to get very, very far. It was crazy — I had a dream about that finish. I had a dream I was going to submit Cub with a guillotine. I told my jiu-jitsu coach, I said I had a dream that I’m going to sub Cub by guillotine. I called him, and he said, ‘I don’t know man, just stick to the game plan and go punch people in the face – do what Max Holloway does best and if it happens it happens.’”
Holloway dominated Swanson for most of the first before sinking the guillotine late in the third round. With the victory, he has now won six in a row in the featherweight division since losing to Conor McGregor back in August 2013. Though he didn’t specifically call anybody out after stopping Swanson, Holloway did say he wanted to avenge his career losses.
And on the MMA Hour, though he insisted he didn’t care who he stood across from next, the loss he’d most like to get back is the one against McGregor. In that fight, the Irishman suffered a torn ACL late in the second round en-route to a unanimous decision victory. Holloway is the only fighter to go the distance with McGregor in five UFC fights.
“I’ll fight whoever,” Holloway said. “[But] I’d love to get that McGregor fight. Everybody was like, ‘oh, McGregor beat you with an ACL,’ that he destroyed me this and that. I was like cool, you know, because not a lot of people knew I was injured [too]. I came out with it, people were like, ‘oh you know he’s making an excuse now, he comes out two years later’…and that’s because I didn’t want to cry about it. I’m not that person. But it just gets to a point where these guys keep saying, ‘you got annihilated, the guy had a blown ACL, blah blah,’ and it’s frustrating.
Asked what the nature of the injury was, Holloway elaborated.
“I got a high ankle sprain in the first 30 seconds of that fight,” he said. “I kicked him in his knee and then I kicked him in his elbow right in the first 30 seconds, and I just could not move. I tell everyone, go watch any Max Holloway fight — when do I ever move straight back? Go tell me. Go point out any fight. If you watch my fights you know that wasn’t me.
“A lot of people were like, ‘that was the best you,’ this and that and the other stuff, but McGregor got hurt at the end of the second round. He got hurt on the ground. So I was thinking, that’s my point exactly. Those guys say he’s going to knock me out the next time — he had two rounds to knock me out before he got injured. So where was it? I don’t see it.”
With McGregor lined up to fight for the 145-pound belt in July against longtime champion Jose Aldo, that Holloway-McGregor rematch is unlikely to happen next. Still, Holloway made a big statement by dominating Swanson on national broadcast television, which boosted his stock in the rankings.
Not that Holloway says he pays attention to the rankings.
“Yeah, you know I don’t care too much about the rankings. I don’t believe too much into them,” he said. “You see guys fighting non-ranked guys getting ranked, guys winning against non-ranked guys and moving up. It’s ridiculous.
“And at the end of the day I’m a firm believer that we’re all in second place. They should just put two beside everybody’s name, you know? Because there’s only No. 1 guy out there, and that’s the champion. If you don’t have the gold belt around your waist, you’re in second place right now. I don’t care where anybody put me. It’s great, it was awesome, I was happy because I was moving up because of the fighter pay with this Reebok thing, but I guess they just came out with the stuff saying that they changed it.”
On the Monday after the biggest win of his UFC career, 23-year-old Max Holloway was still feeling good about his UFC on FOX 15 performance against Cub Swanson. Feeling good, that is, but not feeling like it wasn’t destined to happened.
From his home in Waianae, Hawaii, Holloway was a guest on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. He said that though he and his camp game-planned to beat Swanson up on the feet, he had a premonition that he would submit the longtime MMA veteran.
“I just felt confident with my tools — I said, it’s the confidence you need,” he told Ariel Helwani. “If you’re not confident in this sport you’re not going to get very, very far. It was crazy — I had a dream about that finish. I had a dream I was going to submit Cub with a guillotine. I told my jiu-jitsu coach, I said I had a dream that I’m going to sub Cub by guillotine. I called him, and he said, ‘I don’t know man, just stick to the game plan and go punch people in the face – do what Max Holloway does best and if it happens it happens.’”
Holloway dominated Swanson for most of the first before sinking the guillotine late in the third round. With the victory, he has now won six in a row in the featherweight division since losing to Conor McGregor back in August 2013. Though he didn’t specifically call anybody out after stopping Swanson, Holloway did say he wanted to avenge his career losses.
And on the MMA Hour, though he insisted he didn’t care who he stood across from next, the loss he’d most like to get back is the one against McGregor. In that fight, the Irishman suffered a torn ACL late in the second round en-route to a unanimous decision victory. Holloway is the only fighter to go the distance with McGregor in five UFC fights.
“I’ll fight whoever,” Holloway said. “[But] I’d love to get that McGregor fight. Everybody was like, ‘oh, McGregor beat you with an ACL,’ that he destroyed me this and that. I was like cool, you know, because not a lot of people knew I was injured [too]. I came out with it, people were like, ‘oh you know he’s making an excuse now, he comes out two years later’…and that’s because I didn’t want to cry about it. I’m not that person. But it just gets to a point where these guys keep saying, ‘you got annihilated, the guy had a blown ACL, blah blah,’ and it’s frustrating.
Asked what the nature of the injury was, Holloway elaborated.
“I got a high ankle sprain in the first 30 seconds of that fight,” he said. “I kicked him in his knee and then I kicked him in his elbow right in the first 30 seconds, and I just could not move. I tell everyone, go watch any Max Holloway fight — when do I ever move straight back? Go tell me. Go point out any fight. If you watch my fights you know that wasn’t me.
“A lot of people were like, ‘that was the best you,’ this and that and the other stuff, but McGregor got hurt at the end of the second round. He got hurt on the ground. So I was thinking, that’s my point exactly. Those guys say he’s going to knock me out the next time — he had two rounds to knock me out before he got injured. So where was it? I don’t see it.”
With McGregor lined up to fight for the 145-pound belt in July against longtime champion Jose Aldo, that Holloway-McGregor rematch is unlikely to happen next. Still, Holloway made a big statement by dominating Swanson on national broadcast television, which boosted his stock in the rankings.
Not that Holloway says he pays attention to the rankings.
“Yeah, you know I don’t care too much about the rankings. I don’t believe too much into them,” he said. “You see guys fighting non-ranked guys getting ranked, guys winning against non-ranked guys and moving up. It’s ridiculous.
“And at the end of the day I’m a firm believer that we’re all in second place. They should just put two beside everybody’s name, you know? Because there’s only No. 1 guy out there, and that’s the champion. If you don’t have the gold belt around your waist, you’re in second place right now. I don’t care where anybody put me. It’s great, it was awesome, I was happy because I was moving up because of the fighter pay with this Reebok thing, but I guess they just came out with the stuff saying that they changed it.”
NEWARK, N.J. – Luke Rockhold may have solidified himself as the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division with his resounding victory over Lyoto Machida on Saturday night, but in the weeks leading up he was going through some travails.
Rockhold admitted that he was battling a bout of bronchitis when he fought at UFC on FOX 15’s main event in Newark. He also explained why he suddenly had a bald spot on the back of his head, which wasn’t there just a couple of weeks ago.
“I just try to take everything as a blessing in disguise,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “You can’t bitch about every little thing that happens. I’ve got a bald spot. I went surfing and hit my head, and I had to glue it a couple of weeks ago. Training with a super-glued head is tough. It’s not a real bald spot. I actually had to shave that off to train.”
Everybody had a laugh as Rockhold explained this, and showed the little circle of missing hair to the media and friends that had gathered at the Prudential Center. He was surfing in his native Santa Cruz trying to relax and get away from training when the accident occurred.
If that weren’t enough, Rockhold was also battling bronchitis.
“Bronchitis sucks,” he said. “I felt a little sluggish [in the fight], but whatever. I knew I was going to go out there and handle my business. Things happen, but whatever.”
Rockhold dominated the former light heavyweight champion Machida from midway through the first round on. After getting the Brazilian fighter on the ground, he was able to put Machida away in the second round via rear-naked choke at the 2:31 mark. With the victory Rockhold made an emphatic statement that he should be next in line to face the winner of Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman’s title fight at UFC 187 in May.
However, with the No. 1 contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza scoring a first round submission victory over late-replacement Chris Camozzi in the co-main event Saturday night, Dana White wasn’t ready to declare Rockhold next in line just yet.
NEWARK, N.J. – Luke Rockhold may have solidified himself as the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division with his resounding victory over Lyoto Machida on Saturday night, but in the weeks leading up he was going through some travails.
Rockhold admitted that he was battling a bout of bronchitis when he fought at UFC on FOX 15’s main event in Newark. He also explained why he suddenly had a bald spot on the back of his head, which wasn’t there just a couple of weeks ago.
“I just try to take everything as a blessing in disguise,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “You can’t bitch about every little thing that happens. I’ve got a bald spot. I went surfing and hit my head, and I had to glue it a couple of weeks ago. Training with a super-glued head is tough. It’s not a real bald spot. I actually had to shave that off to train.”
Everybody had a laugh as Rockhold explained this, and showed the little circle of missing hair to the media and friends that had gathered at the Prudential Center. He was surfing in his native Santa Cruz trying to relax and get away from training when the accident occurred.
If that weren’t enough, Rockhold was also battling bronchitis.
“Bronchitis sucks,” he said. “I felt a little sluggish [in the fight], but whatever. I knew I was going to go out there and handle my business. Things happen, but whatever.”
Rockhold dominated the former light heavyweight champion Machida from midway through the first round on. After getting the Brazilian fighter on the ground, he was able to put Machida away in the second round via rear-naked choke at the 2:31 mark. With the victory Rockhold made an emphatic statement that he should be next in line to face the winner of Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman’s title fight at UFC 187 in May.
However, with the No. 1 contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza scoring a first round submission victory over late-replacement Chris Camozzi in the co-main event Saturday night, Dana White wasn’t ready to declare Rockhold next in line just yet.
There were so many torches being passed in Newark it began to look like the mob at the castle’s gate. Beneil Dariush out-grappled grappling ace Jim Miller, and declared himself ready for the top ten space of lightweights. Aljamain Sterling leapfrogged Takeya Mizugaki in the bantamweight picture, making himself the next, next, next big thing from Ray Longo’s. Paige VanZant, just 21 years old, stunned about everybody by hanging a 30-26 on Felice Herrig.
You’ve got to love these prospects. And then there was Max Holloway.
Here’s the thing about Max Freaking Holloway — he’s 23 years old and incarnating into something special before our eyes. His one-sided handling of Cub Swanson on Saturday night was methodical, technical, visceral and, from the opening moments, inevitable. There’s something about the gleeful stalking and the way he sizes people up that goes well beyond his years. His striking is on point, and everything else in his mechanics is built around keeping that striking to the fore. It’s as though he learned the “mixed” in the martial arts merely as a means to very “specifically” set people on fire with his fists and feet.
We knew it. We just didn’t know it.
And the perennial top ten fighter Swanson couldn’t get much going throughout the fight at UFC on FOX 15. Whenever he got within range Holloway was lighting him up the New York skyline. Whenever he got out of range he was still under pursuit, still getting marked up from other time zones. Whenever he closed the range completely, the incoming limbs halved into elbows and knees. Swanson was overwhelmed. Holloway was just getting rolling. Eventually, with just a minute to go in the fight, Holloway put Swanson away with a guillotine. He thanked Jesus, and reminded everyone why he is called “Blessed.” He shouted out his coaches. He turned to Hawaii. Later he vowed to avenge his losses. And really, those losses are why we’ve been lulled into ignoring him as anything more than one of Conor McGregor’s early conquests. It was Conor that put Holloway behind the eight ball. And that he did it with a torn ACL speaks louder and louder about how good McGregor truly is.
Here’s the thing, though. The 23-year old Holloway isn’t the 21-year old Holloway who was fed to McGregor in 2013, just as the 22-year-old McGregor that lost to Joseph Duffy has little in common with the one getting long-form profiles in Esquire. Nor is Holloway the precocious (yet raw) 20-year-old that debuted in the UFC against Dustin Poirier.
If a symptom of youth is learning, then Holloway has lived several lifetimes already in the UFC, where he’s now fought 13 times. And since that loss to McGregor he has won all six of his bouts, and finished five. In the stacked featherweight division, where people like Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes are vying for title shots behind McGregor, there’s yet another threat getting bigger in the rear-view mirror.
And that’s Holloway, who grew up fast and mean in well-lit cages. At this point, he is in that proverbial mix. If matchmaker Sean Shelby wanted to play back a fight with Dennis Bermudez, say, who won a split decision against Holloway right before the McGregor fight, suddenly that’s a barnburner. A Holloway-Poirier do over? Book it. A Holloway-McGregor sequel? Now you’re talking. Maybe they could do it in Honolulu.
But the loss to McGregor might have been the best thing to happen to Holloway. Since that time he’s gotten more comfortable in the cage, and more humble outside of it. His performance with Cub Swanson might have been an eye-opener for some, but it was the expected outcome from Holloway himself. He spoke like a man who’d been there before afterwards. He spoke like somebody who was happy that people caught up to where he’s at.
On a night of breakout performances, his stood out as something extraordinary. In the end the sentiment changed from “Holloway’s a fun fighter to watch” to “Damn Max Holloway, we thought we knew but now we know.” In other words, Saturday will go down as the night that Max Holloway truly arrived, and what he does from here on out becomes pretty fun to think about.
There were so many torches being passed in Newark it began to look like the mob at the castle’s gate. Beneil Dariush out-grappled grappling ace Jim Miller, and declared himself ready for the top ten space of lightweights. Aljamain Sterling leapfrogged Takeya Mizugaki in the bantamweight picture, making himself the next, next, next big thing from Ray Longo’s. Paige VanZant, just 21 years old, stunned about everybody by hanging a 30-26 on Felice Herrig.
You’ve got to love these prospects. And then there was Max Holloway.
Here’s the thing about Max Freaking Holloway — he’s 23 years old and incarnating into something special before our eyes. His one-sided handling of Cub Swanson on Saturday night was methodical, technical, visceral and, from the opening moments, inevitable. There’s something about the gleeful stalking and the way he sizes people up that goes well beyond his years. His striking is on point, and everything else in his mechanics is built around keeping that striking to the fore. It’s as though he learned the “mixed” in the martial arts merely as a means to very “specifically” set people on fire with his fists and feet.
We knew it. We just didn’t know it.
And the perennial top ten fighter Swanson couldn’t get much going throughout the fight at UFC on FOX 15. Whenever he got within range Holloway was lighting him up the New York skyline. Whenever he got out of range he was still under pursuit, still getting marked up from other time zones. Whenever he closed the range completely, the incoming limbs halved into elbows and knees. Swanson was overwhelmed. Holloway was just getting rolling. Eventually, with just a minute to go in the fight, Holloway put Swanson away with a guillotine. He thanked Jesus, and reminded everyone why he is called “Blessed.” He shouted out his coaches. He turned to Hawaii. Later he vowed to avenge his losses. And really, those losses are why we’ve been lulled into ignoring him as anything more than one of Conor McGregor’s early conquests. It was Conor that put Holloway behind the eight ball. And that he did it with a torn ACL speaks louder and louder about how good McGregor truly is.
Here’s the thing, though. The 23-year old Holloway isn’t the 21-year old Holloway who was fed to McGregor in 2013, just as the 22-year-old McGregor that lost to Joseph Duffy has little in common with the one getting long-form profiles in Esquire. Nor is Holloway the precocious (yet raw) 20-year-old that debuted in the UFC against Dustin Poirier.
If a symptom of youth is learning, then Holloway has lived several lifetimes already in the UFC, where he’s now fought 13 times. And since that loss to McGregor he has won all six of his bouts, and finished five. In the stacked featherweight division, where people like Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes are vying for title shots behind McGregor, there’s yet another threat getting bigger in the rear-view mirror.
And that’s Holloway, who grew up fast and mean in well-lit cages. At this point, he is in that proverbial mix. If matchmaker Sean Shelby wanted to play back a fight with Dennis Bermudez, say, who won a split decision against Holloway right before the McGregor fight, suddenly that’s a barnburner. A Holloway-Poirier do over? Book it. A Holloway-McGregor sequel? Now you’re talking. Maybe they could do it in Honolulu.
But the loss to McGregor might have been the best thing to happen to Holloway. Since that time he’s gotten more comfortable in the cage, and more humble outside of it. His performance with Cub Swanson might have been an eye-opener for some, but it was the expected outcome from Holloway himself. He spoke like a man who’d been there before afterwards. He spoke like somebody who was happy that people caught up to where he’s at.
On a night of breakout performances, his stood out as something extraordinary. In the end the sentiment changed from “Holloway’s a fun fighter to watch” to “Damn Max Holloway, we thought we knew but now we know.” In other words, Saturday will go down as the night that Max Holloway truly arrived, and what he does from here on out becomes pretty fun to think about.
NEWARK – One of the breakout stars of UFC on FOX 15 in New Jersey was a fighter from nearly 5,000 miles away.
Hawaii’s Max Holloway was able to submit the perennial top-10 fighter Cub Swanson on the main card in Newark on Saturday night. After dominating much of the action on the feet, “Blessed” Holloway finally sunk a guillotine choke at the 3:58 mark of the third and final round.
And afterwards, when given the platform to call his shots and declare what he’d like to do next, Holloway deferred.
“You know, I’m not a matchmaker, it’s not my job,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “We’ll see what [UFC president] Dana White, Sean Shelby and Joe Silva want to do with me. We’ll take it one step at a time, and that’s all you can do right now, and it’s been working out for us.”
The 23-year old from Waianae has now won six fights in a row since losing a unanimous decision to the featherweight title contender Conor McGregor at UFC Fight Night 26 in 2013. Five of those victories have come via finish — two submissions, and three TKO/KOs.
Holloway declared himself a striker during the post-fight press conference, saying you’ll never see him trying to take anybody down. While he didn’t have anybody specific in mind on who to face next — though he did say he wanted to avenge his losses to McGregor, Dennis Bermudez and Dustin Poirier — Holloway did have one request.
“All I got to say is that I got a good team, I had a great camp and we’re doing great things,” he said. “Dana White, come to Hawaii. Bring one down to Hawaii. Let’s get one. We’ve got like seven UFC fighters, I want to fight on one back home.”
NEWARK – One of the breakout stars of UFC on FOX 15 in New Jersey was a fighter from nearly 5,000 miles away.
Hawaii’s Max Holloway was able to submit the perennial top-10 fighter Cub Swanson on the main card in Newark on Saturday night. After dominating much of the action on the feet, “Blessed” Holloway finally sunk a guillotine choke at the 3:58 mark of the third and final round.
And afterwards, when given the platform to call his shots and declare what he’d like to do next, Holloway deferred.
“You know, I’m not a matchmaker, it’s not my job,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “We’ll see what [UFC president] Dana White, Sean Shelby and Joe Silva want to do with me. We’ll take it one step at a time, and that’s all you can do right now, and it’s been working out for us.”
The 23-year old from Waianae has now won six fights in a row since losing a unanimous decision to the featherweight title contender Conor McGregor at UFC Fight Night 26 in 2013. Five of those victories have come via finish — two submissions, and three TKO/KOs.
Holloway declared himself a striker during the post-fight press conference, saying you’ll never see him trying to take anybody down. While he didn’t have anybody specific in mind on who to face next — though he did say he wanted to avenge his losses to McGregor, Dennis Bermudez and Dustin Poirier — Holloway did have one request.
“All I got to say is that I got a good team, I had a great camp and we’re doing great things,” he said. “Dana White, come to Hawaii. Bring one down to Hawaii. Let’s get one. We’ve got like seven UFC fighters, I want to fight on one back home.”
This is the UFC on FOX 15 undercard blog for the UFC on FOX 15 event at the Prudential Center in Newark on Saturday night.There will be seven fights on the UFC on FOX 15 undercard. Eddie Gordon vs. Chris Dempsey, Diego Brandao vs. Jimy Hette…
This is the UFC on FOX 15 undercard blog for the UFC on FOX 15 event at the Prudential Center in Newark on Saturday night.
There will be seven fights on the UFC on FOX 15 undercard. Eddie Gordon vs. Chris Dempsey, Diego Brandao vs. Jimy Hettes, George Sullivan vs. Tim Means, Takeya Mizugaki vs. Aljamain Sterling, Corey Anderson vs. Gian Villante, Ovince St. Preux vs. Patrick Cummins and Beneil Dariush vs. Jim Miller will be featured.
Check out the UFC on FOX 15 undercard live blog below.
Felice Herrig and Paige VanZant might be the first fight on a major main card to carry such an uncompromising air of…aesthetics…and that of course makes for many little quibbles. The purists in this sport (all half dozen) will point up the total disregard for the meritocracy in play here. The 21-year-old VanZant has exactly one fight in the UFC, and she might have been losing it until she wasn’t. Felice Herrig has only one officially, though her appearance on The Ultimate Fighter 20 makes it feel like she’s been around much longer.
They won, though, and that sets up a clash between two undefeated UFC strawweight prospects (read: pretty blonde assassins!) in a spot on Big FOX. You know this is the way to go. Don’t act like you don’t. Casual fans are a gray finicky mass of 18-to-35’s with libido that rages on for days. Casuals are the damndest set of lukewarm eyes to ever be so coveted. Casuals are the reason to drink.
And let’s face it, Herrig likes to post provocative pictures on her social media accounts. VanZant isn’t apologizing for being a second-generation Nicole Eggert. The UFC ain’t dumb. Matchmaker Sean Shelby ain’t either. They know what resonates. Everybody knows the demographic. Everybody knows that this is a fight where people put down the remotes. So, to roll out a lazy cliché that UFC president Dana White is fond of using, it is what it is.
It. Is. What. It. IS. Besides, let’s not forget that both can fight. That’s the actual transcendent piece of information…you know, that second part that sort of fills in all the surface narratives.
VanZant is a legitimate prospect who trains in Sacramento with the seemingly exclusionary Team Alpha Male. She only just became legal to drink in March yet this will be her sixth pro fight. Against Kailin Curran she took home $50,000 for fight of the night. She was losing on the scorecards but caught Curran late and turned the tables. Delicate? Not exactly. That face has been punched plenty, and the truth is she ladles out punishment with the best of them.
If anything, a fight with Herrig, the seasoned kickboxer, could be too much too soon. In the wide open world of the strawweights, title shots are not the far-fetched things that you find in other weight classes. Not too many people know much about anything, nor how this might offset that. We’re still in the education process of who’s who. Not many people thought Poland’s Joanna Jędrzejczyk would become the champion so fast, or that she had the tools to beat Carla Esparza. And even before that Vegas got a little flustered when it put Esparza as the underdog against Rose Namajunas, for reason that didn’t seem entirely sporting.
So Herrig has a big chance here to make a statement against VanZant on a big stage. Ditto VanZant. She can turn some heads by getting by the toughest challenge of her young career. The winner will be in a nice position to call some shots.
And ultimately, that people are caught up a little in the aesthetics isn’t a bad thing. At least not for Herrig or VanZant. It’s the way it is, it’s the way it is, it’s the way it is. Namajunas was being labeled the next Ronda Rousey for reasons that didn’t jibe strictly to technique and fighting style, nor even her untame attitude that she got from the mean streets of Milwaukee. Marketability is as shallow as it is ranging.
No? In March 2012 Sarah Kaufman and Alexis Davis went to war in Columbus, Ohio, battering each other for three rounds. Go back and watch that fight. It was good enough to stand among the best of the year, but it was overshadowed almost completely by a fight on that same card. That was the night when Rousey won the Strikeforce belt from Miesha Tate. The math is yours to do.
VanZant and Herrig will fight on the main card tonight, while a week later Kaufman-Davis II will happen in Montreal on the UFC 186 prelims. What does that tell us? Not much, other than everything you need to know.
Felice Herrig and Paige VanZant might be the first fight on a major main card to carry such an uncompromising air of…aesthetics…and that of course makes for many little quibbles. The purists in this sport (all half dozen) will point up the total disregard for the meritocracy in play here. The 21-year-old VanZant has exactly one fight in the UFC, and she might have been losing it until she wasn’t. Felice Herrig has only one officially, though her appearance on The Ultimate Fighter 20 makes it feel like she’s been around much longer.
They won, though, and that sets up a clash between two undefeated UFC strawweight prospects (read: pretty blonde assassins!) in a spot on Big FOX. You know this is the way to go. Don’t act like you don’t. Casual fans are a gray finicky mass of 18-to-35’s with libido that rages on for days. Casuals are the damndest set of lukewarm eyes to ever be so coveted. Casuals are the reason to drink.
And let’s face it, Herrig likes to post provocative pictures on her social media accounts. VanZant isn’t apologizing for being a second-generation Nicole Eggert. The UFC ain’t dumb. Matchmaker Sean Shelby ain’t either. They know what resonates. Everybody knows the demographic. Everybody knows that this is a fight where people put down the remotes. So, to roll out a lazy cliché that UFC president Dana White is fond of using, it is what it is.
It. Is. What. It. IS. Besides, let’s not forget that both can fight. That’s the actual transcendent piece of information…you know, that second part that sort of fills in all the surface narratives.
VanZant is a legitimate prospect who trains in Sacramento with the seemingly exclusionary Team Alpha Male. She only just became legal to drink in March yet this will be her sixth pro fight. Against Kailin Curran she took home $50,000 for fight of the night. She was losing on the scorecards but caught Curran late and turned the tables. Delicate? Not exactly. That face has been punched plenty, and the truth is she ladles out punishment with the best of them.
If anything, a fight with Herrig, the seasoned kickboxer, could be too much too soon. In the wide open world of the strawweights, title shots are not the far-fetched things that you find in other weight classes. Not too many people know much about anything, nor how this might offset that. We’re still in the education process of who’s who. Not many people thought Poland’s Joanna J?drzejczyk would become the champion so fast, or that she had the tools to beat Carla Esparza. And even before that Vegas got a little flustered when it put Esparza as the underdog against Rose Namajunas, for reason that didn’t seem entirely sporting.
So Herrig has a big chance here to make a statement against VanZant on a big stage. Ditto VanZant. She can turn some heads by getting by the toughest challenge of her young career. The winner will be in a nice position to call some shots.
And ultimately, that people are caught up a little in the aesthetics isn’t a bad thing. At least not for Herrig or VanZant. It’s the way it is, it’s the way it is, it’s the way it is. Namajunas was being labeled the next Ronda Rousey for reasons that didn’t jibe strictly to technique and fighting style, nor even her untame attitude that she got from the mean streets of Milwaukee. Marketability is as shallow as it is ranging.
No? In March 2012 Sarah Kaufman and Alexis Davis went to war in Columbus, Ohio, battering each other for three rounds. Go back and watch that fight. It was good enough to stand among the best of the year, but it was overshadowed almost completely by a fight on that same card. That was the night when Rousey won the Strikeforce belt from Miesha Tate. The math is yours to do.
VanZant and Herrig will fight on the main card tonight, while a week later Kaufman-Davis II will happen in Montreal on the UFC 186 prelims. What does that tell us? Not much, other than everything you need to know.
