Author: Chuck Mindenhall

This is the UFC 185 live blog for Anthony Pettis vs. Rafael dos Anjos, a lightweight bout at Saturday night’s UFC event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Pettis, who has won five straight fights, will face dos Anjos, who has won four of his past five fights, in the main event.

Check out the UFC 185 live blog below.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Round 4:

Round 5:

This is the UFC 185 live blog for Carla Esparza vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk, a woman’s strawweight bout at Saturday night’s UFC event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Esparza, who has won five straight fights, will face Jedrzejczyk, who is 8-0 in her career, on the main card.

Check out the UFC 185 live blog below.

Round 1: Referee is Don Turnage, who advises the strawweights for their title fight. Esparza in a singlet. Jedrzejczyk takes center, and begins feinting. Esparza shoots in for a single leg, and Jedrzejczyk sprawls, and clips Esparza with a good parting shot. They stand and threaten, and then Esparza shoots in for a single leg, and this time she holds onto it for the duration, and forces Jedrzejczyk to her back. Can’t keep here there, though. Jedrzejczyk right back up. Big exchange in close on fence, and Esparza lands a very nice right hand. The wrestler once again drives through the Polish fighter and puts her down, and once again Jedrzejczyk able to stand back up. Esparza is all business. Jedrzejczyk lands a great elbow that might have hurt Esparza a little bit on the fence. Esparza right into shooting for takedown, once, and then twice, and she’s thwarted both times. Now Jedrzejczyk opening up with her arsenal on fence, and she lands a couple of good shots. Jab by Jedrzejczyk. She clips Esparza again. Jedrzejczyk sprawls and prevents another takedown, and this time Esparaza — after eating a shot — dekes like she’s going to shoot and then swings. Bang! A couple of timely shots upstairs from Jedrzejczyk, and Esparza looks a little unsteady as the round ends. Wow. MMA Fighting scores R1 for Jedrzejczyk, 10-9

Round 2: Big shots from Jedrzejczyk to open the round, and she stalks Esparza to the corner. Esparza right back to her bread and butter, trying for the takedown, but again she is thwarted. Esparza just getting frustrated. She has nothing for Jedrzejczyk on the feet. Her only response is to wrestle. Again, she shoots in, and Jedrzejczyk drops her on her face. Big combination from Jedrzejczyk, and those shots land. She defends the take down again, and lands some elbows on Esparza’s temple. Body shot with a jab from Jedrzejczyk, and now a right. Esparza tries for takedown, and she’s just eating lively punches whenever she does. Esparza has no answer for this. She’s also extremely tied. Now Jedrzejczyk is teeing off. Big rangy right lands, which snaps her head back. Left jab. Esparza half-heartedly goes for takedown, and it’s feeble. She gets blasted with right hand. Repeat. Right hand from Jedrzejczyk again rocks Esparza. That jab is carrying hell in it. And there it is…Jedrzejczyk opens up with a huge combination on the feet, and Carla can’t hang in there. Jedrzejczyk is the new champion, as the referee stops the fight. Wow. Poland has a hero.

UFC 185 official results: Joanna Jedrzejczyk def Carla Esparza via TKO (strikes) at 4:17 of R2

This is the UFC 185 live blog for Roy Nelson vs. Alistair Overeem, a heavyweight bout at Saturday night’s UFC event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Nelson, who has won two of his past five fights, will face Overeem, who also has won two of his past five fights, on the main card.

Check out the UFC 185 live blog below.

Round 1: Herb Dean is the ref. Heavyweights following up the flyweights. Could be quick. They touch gloves. Reem in the orthodox stance. Oblique kick to the thigh from Overeem. Nelson trying to wade into striking range, half-protecting his head, trying to get inside the 8-inch reach advantage. Big overhand right from Nelson, doesn’t get in flush. Overeem with a leg kick, and he rolls back out. Nelson tries a body punch, but no mustard on it. Both guys looking to land the anvil, and Nelson comes in with with a flurry, landing a left hook. Knee to the body from Overeem, who is content to land and get out, land and get out. Repeat. Overeem picking Nelson apart at range, but now Nelson comes in with a bunch of huge shots on the fence as Overeem covers up. Overeem takes and takes, then returns fire. He’s fine! Wow. Now a big leg kick momentarily doubles over Nelson, who staggers on fence. His leg is already a mess, with a welt forming. Body shot from Overeem, and just as Nelson goes low Overeem lands a knee to his upper-chest. Very poised fight so far from Overeem, who is now circling. Nelson comes in and they bang bodies, nothing doing. Big knee to the body followed by a huge kick to the body by Overeem. He is landing anything he throws to Nelson’s solar plexus/stomach. Big knee to the body again, and Nelson has got to be hurting as the round ends. MMA Fighting scores R1 for Overeem, 10-9

Round 2:

Round 3:

No offense to Anthony Pettis, who during the Great Adjective Drought of 2015 still gets called “dynamic” a dozen times a day, but Poland’s Joanna J?drzejczyk is the warm spring wind. She sort of stole not only this fight week in Dallas for UFC 185, but also the “Welcome to the Show” event a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles, when the masterpiece of women’s MMA Ronda Rousey was getting set to fight Cat Zingano.

Who is Joanna J?drzejczyk?

Apparently a very cordial headhunter with a name that’s cruel and hard to master. At the weigh-ins on Friday, J?drzejczyk was so thoughtful in remembering that strawweight champion Carla Esparza had a sweet tooth — and in particular, a specific fondness for baked treats — that she brought her a cookie to the scale. Esparza, who is a smashmouth wrestler with the worst intentions, admitted that was a first. J?drzejczyk was even so good as to point out that the cookies were not laced with cyanide or arsenic or really anything other than the most wholesome ingredients.

In the fight game, respect can show up in the margins.

But what’s fun about J?drzejczyk as she heads into the co-main event of a major North American pay-per-view is that it’s almost like she’s just bumping along to the ride, like a European tourist taking in all the fresh sights and sounds. Even when she appeared on stage in overalls like the fourth (and forgotten) member of Bell Biv Devoe she came across as genuine. Everything with J?drzejczyk is wide eyed and bushy tailed. We don’t even mind tripping over all the consonants in trying to pronounce her name (put simply, it’s yen-dray-trick, with some rolled r’s and gargling on the back notes).

That’s where we stand in the novelty.

And really, J?drzejczyk’s sort of enthusiasm can only come with strange circumstances. After all, she is in Dallas because of a verdict that went her way. Back in January, she fought the nearly 3-to-1 favorite Claudia Gadelha in Phoenix, and – in a very entertaining bout in which she showed off her range of striking skills and some key takedown defense — scored a narrow decision (narrow enough that some called it a heist).

She was supposed to be Gadelha in Dallas.

And what’s fun about the fight in general is that Esparza, who won season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter to become the first strawweight champion in UFC history, was meant to be Rose Namajunas. It was the young “Thug Rose” Namajunas who was being whispered about as the “next Ronda Rousey” as the show caught up to real time.  

Esparza was supposed to be Namajunas.  

When your two principals are that defiant of narratives, you can’t help but think it will play out as a memorable encounter. You can go ahead and blink (let’s not be paranoid), but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that Saturday night’s co-main event will not be boring. It’s a true collision of styles, with Esparza’s nullifying wrestling and J?drzejczyk’s wallop.

Does the American wrestler take out the colorful striker, as we’ve seen so many times before? Maybe. But if Esparza doesn’t, just like that Poland has a UFC champion. Which would be historic, and sudden, and weird, and global…and ultimately a little untimely.

When Zingano fought Rousey at UFC 184 in Los Angeles, it was similar for the challenger. Two weeks earlier, on Valentine’s Day, the UFC visited Broomfield, Colorado, where Zingano is from. Less than a month after J?drzejczyk fights Esparza, the UFC visits Poland for the first time (April 11). She won’t appear on that card. All these near misses.

But should she defeat Esparza in Dallas, she will appear in Poland with the strawweight belt, which is the next best thing. At that point we can call her Joanna “Champ,” as she suggested we can, just to untie the American tongue. She’s thoughtful that way. Always looking out.

Whatever happens, Joanna J?drzejczyk — the surprise hit of UFC 184 and UFC 185, the one with the overalls, the baked goods and the Mutombo finger wag — has endeared herself to the fight game, which always rolls out the welcome mat for such characters.

If there’s been a knock on UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, it’s how seldom he shows up on fight cards. Pettis has fought five times in the last three-and-a-half years. Yet in that time he’s won five times. He’s taken home four end-of-the-night bonuses. He won the UFC 155-pound belt. He signed a sponsorship deal with Reebok. He became the first man to submit Gilbert Melendez. And he became the first ever UFC fighter to appear on a Wheaties box.

It’s not hard to imagine how big of a star he’d be if he fought more often.  Yet in 2015, that seems to Pettis’s his new goal. “Showtime” wants to return to prolificacy. It continues on Saturday night in Dallas, when he defends his title against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 185, just three months after defending that belt against Melendez in Las Vegas.

And to hear his longtime coach and friend Duke Roufus say it, Pettis would prefer the UFC set them up as quickly as he can knock them down.

“That’s how Anthony made his bones in this business, if you go back and look at his record in the WEC — he fought five times in 13 months coming up to the Benson Henderson fight,” Roufus said during an appearance on Monday’s MMA Hour. “And that was a tough layoff for him when he needed to sit out, just waiting for the title [shot] and [to see] what was going to happen when he fought Clay [Guida].

“But I mean, he loves to do this all the time. What I like about it is he’s kind of like a student right now who doesn’t leave school. He doesn’t have to cram for tests, he doesn’t have to catch up. He’s always in striking distance of always being in shape not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. He’s ready to fight all the time. I’m so proud of him. He’s really evolved as a man. Not that he was a bad person, but…being a really close friend in his life, I love everything he’s doing with his life right now. The person he’s becoming and what he’s doing, as well as an athlete. He’s working on so many new things.”

Pettis is only 28 years old, and is just now coming into his prime years as a mixed martial artist. That’s saying something, considering that he was the reigning WEC champion at 24 when that promotion merged into the UFC. Known as one of the game’s most dynamic strikers, he’s become equally deadly everywhere, as evidenced in his submission victories over Melendez (guillotine) and Henderson (armbar) at UFC 164.

Yet even with his star rising and so much going in his favor, Roufus says that Pettis remains the same hungry kid he met all those years ago in Milwaukee before Roufusport became Roufusport. The big difference, he says, is that Pettis has become a well-rounded human being — and yet one who’s also managed to remain eager enough to learn everything he can about MMA.

“He’s a better man,” Roufus said. “That’s what I’m so proud of. I was just in the barbershop talking about this, what makes Anthony Pettis special. Most people, when they’re doing great and you make a suggestion, ‘hey let’s try this,’ it’s, ‘what do you mean? I’m awesome. I’m perfect. I’m great.’ Anthony Pettis knows he’s great, but he’s not perfect. And what I like about it, he’s constantly picking up new tools, new pieces, new philosophies. He keeps me on my toes. I’m making myself better to make him better, and it keeps us all hungry and it keeps it fun.”

In Dos Anjos, Pettis will face not only a fighter on a three-fight winning streak, but one who has shown remarkable improvement in the stand-up game. Rafael Cordeiro’s fighter has scored knockouts of Benson Henderson and Jason High in the last nine months, along with a masterful dismantling of Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 13 his last time out.

Marking that improvement, Roufus anticipates some fireworks if Dos Anjos opts to stand in front of Pettis.

“I really like what he’s going to do, if he does it,” Roufus said. “We haven’t had a lot of guys who’ve wanted to stand with Anthony except for really Donald Cerrone. Anthony caught Joe Lauzon early, but [mainly] Donald…and that’s what we’re going to see, somebody who will stand with Anthony Pettis, and that’s my favorite fight. Because that’s where you really see Anthony Pettis showcase his skills. So if Rafael stands with him we’re going to have a barnburner of a fight, and Anthony’s going to come out on top.”

Roufus says that a busier Pettis is a more indestructible force. So, what’s his official prediction for how Saturday night’s fight will go down at the American Airlines Arena?

“Knockout,” he said. “This is going to be a fight that’s won on the feet. I got to tell you, Anthony, when he ran off that five-fight streak in the WEC and had some amazing performances — a Pettis that’s fighting this often is the most dangerous Pettis you’ll see.  You don’t want to let this kid starting fighting too often if you’re the other contenders. He said the other day I could do this four times a year easy. That’s how easy the training camps are for him. Not because he’s lazy, but because he is like the [Floyd] Mayweather of our sport, hard work and dedicated. He’s the guy [that says], ‘hey, let’s do one more round,’ or ‘hey, let’s do another session on Saturday.’ He’s the one asking me to schedule more as opposed to me telling him to schedule more. That’s why he’s going to win.

“I saw him one day against top level boxers spar 14 rounds in a row like it was nothing. Fourteen rounds. He’s on a different level. A lot of people don’t realize how strong Anthony is until actually they’re in there with him.”

Two months into Phil Brooks’ training at Roufusport in Milwaukee, he’s coming along in the mixed martial arts. Or so says his coach Duke Roufus himself, who is helping convert CM Punk the pro wrestler into CM Punk the viable UFC fighter.

Roufus appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour and said that the highest profile, zero-experience UFC fighter going is more than just a block of moldable clay. He’s a guy who can put aside his ego and get his nose dirty in the gym on a daily basis.

“He’s putting his work in, he shows up every day,” the 45-year old Roufus told Ariel Helwani. “He has a great attitude. He didn’t become successful in the WWE by accident. It’s because he was a worker and he was a value to the organization, not only in the front as a face, but in who he is. People get behind people that are easy to work with, and he’s so easy to work with. It’s awesome.

“That being said, he came in with Gracie jiu-jitsu. The natural thing he’s good at, which makes me happy, is striking. He’s a natural striker. When he did a scrimmage last week, he was pretty comfortable in the fire. He didn’t freak out, he didn’t panic. That’s what I’m looking for in new fighters. It’s not necessarily skill. You can teach skill, but you can’t teach will. Are they going to run and break during a fight, or are they going to get in there and survive the fire? And that’s what I was impressed with. I think in time, all his skills are going to advance, but if he has the mindset and the will, he’s going to do great.”

Brooks trained jiu-jitsu for a couple of years sporadically with Rener Gracie in Los Angeles around his hectic travel schedule in pro wrestling. He’s long been a fan of mixed martial arts, to the point that speculation began to grow that he was considering a transition into the literal realm of fighting long before the announcement. In December, Brooks made it official during the UFC 181 pay-per-view telecast.

That announcement, of course, was met with both excitement and outrage from the MMA community. The star power versus actual merit debate. MMA gyms, however, were rolling out the red carpet for the 36-year old CM Punk to come join their teams.

As a native of the Chicago area, Roufusport — just 80 miles away — was a comfortable fit. And with names like Ben Askren and Anthony Pettis in place to help bring him along, Brooks didn’t have to sweat his decision.

Roufus has heard the criticism towards CM Punk, and reiterated on the show that A) the fight game is about star attraction, so the UFC’s decision to sign him was a no-brainer and B) he’s not going to let CM Punk fall on his face, as so many people expect.

“Part of fighting is marquee value,” he said. “Unfortunately, other sports are about being the best. The neat thing about fighting, it’s about how many butts can you put in the seats and marquee value. That being said, I will not let Punk go out and make a mockery of himself or our sport. I love this sport. He’s putting serious work in, he’s putting serious training in, and what I love about him is the attitude. He’s so hungry, and you know what, he doesn’t expect to be treated like a prima donna. He’s running towards the fire instead of running away from it.”

In assessing where Punk is after two months, as well as how far he can go in the sport, Roufus didn’t want to put undo expectations on his new charge.

“I don’t know if he’s going to be a champion or a contender, but a lot of guys in the UFC aren’t champions or contenders — but they’re popular,” he said. “They bring fans. They’ve been in the organization for years. Guys like Clay Guida. Guys like Gleison Tibau, they’ve been in the organization — Cole Miller. They’ve been there a while. Everybody wants to be the champion, but that’s the cool thing about the UFC, it’s so hard to be the champion. That’s what makes it special. If you do contribute to the organization, you’re always going to have a job and fight for the UFC. Even a guy like Donald Cerrone who is closest to the belt I think he’s ever been, but we’ve always loved Donald Cerrone because that’s Donald Cerrone. You know you’re going to have a show when Cerrone shows up.”

As far as when he thinks CM Punk will make his UFC debut, Roufus wasn’t sure. He didn’t speculate as to whether it would be in 2015 or not, but did say that taking the appropriate amount of time to prepare was beneficial to all involved.

“I would like a year, honestly,” he said. “Because I want him to be the best product for himself, for the organization, and for the industry. I mean, I want him to go out there and put on a great fight and do great things. Again, the value…his fans are amazing. I just think that his fans…his fans are just going to elevate out sport to a whole new level. MMA is big, but we can always get bigger, and I’m a firm believer that high tide raises all ships.

“What I like about the high tide is it’s helping a lot of people chase their dreams. I’m a firm believer that the big names can help all names in our industry, which I believe doesn’t help in boxing.”