The first time that Joanna Jedrzejczyk fought Claudia Gadelha, the fight was so close that many bemoaned the fact that Jedrzejczyk was the one who got her arm raised in the end. That was in December, just a little over seven months ago.
Since that time Jedrzejczyk has captured the strawweight title by shutting down inaugural titleholder, Carla Esparza, and followed that up with a dominant performance against Jessica Penne in June, whom she finished via third-round TKO.
When Gadelha defeated Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro this past Saturday, the lines opened up for a rematch. And though Gadelha’s performance opened a lot of eyes, the Polish champion Jedrzejczyk still thinks the Brazilian challenger should have another fight before getting a crack at her belt.
“I think she lost with me and that she should have another fight before title shot but, you know, it’s Dana’s choice and I’m very happy,” she said during an appearance on The MMA Hour on Monday. “I’m ready for her.”
The 27-year-old Jedrzejczyk (10-0) has become an overnight star in the UFC, even turning bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey into a gushing fan. The two met a couple of months back when the UFC unveiled the Reebok fight kits in New York City. Rousey has called Jedrzejczyk a “fighter’s fighter,” and has been very complimentary towards Jedrzejczyk since she put the beatdown on Penne in Berlin.
Jedrzejczyk is also very much a fan of Rousey’s, who is coming off a 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Jedrzejczyk she said she wouldn’t mind training with at the Glendale Fighting Club in the San Fernando Valley, if it’s possible.
“Yeah, why not?” she told Ariel Helwani. “I would like to visit some gyms and train a little bit before I start my camp in Poland. So yeah, why not. I could maybe visit Ronda’s gym and we could train together.”
Jedrzejczyk suffered a broken thumb in her fight with Penne, which as temporarily sidelined her. When asked when she’d like to return to action, she said she could possibly return as early as December.
That’s also expected to be around the time frame of Rousey’s next title defense against Miesha Tate. The UFC has said that it is looking at a possible show at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, using the trilogy fight between Rousey and Tate as one of the attractions. Another possibility that’s been talked about – within the media and with fans, anyway – is in having Rousey defend her belt in a headlining role next, with Jedrzejczyk versus Gadelha as the co-main event.
Asked if she would like a scenario like that, Joanna “Champion” said she would.
“I was super-happy when I heard about that, so yeah,” she said. “I like it so much.”
As for what she thought of Gadelha’s performance at UFC 190, the statement she made to enforce the rematch, Jedrzejczyk said she was impressed.
“Yeah, she did well,” she said. “She’s very strong. This is what I said before, and I think that she’s one of the best in my division. But she didn’t respect that, because she was talking about the split decision and other sh–. But yeah, I’m happy for her that she won. She did a great job, and that’s all. Jessica Aguilar, she said she’s No. 1 in the strawweight division. She thought that she’s was one of the best, but she’s not.”
After her victory over Aguilar, Gadelha used the post-fight interview in the Octagon to her advantage, calling for the title shot. Jedrzejczyk said she appreciated that, too.
“[Claudia] was very respectful, and I like it so much,” she said.
The first time that Joanna Jedrzejczyk fought Claudia Gadelha, the fight was so close that many bemoaned the fact that Jedrzejczyk was the one who got her arm raised in the end. That was in December, just a little over seven months ago.
Since that time Jedrzejczyk has captured the strawweight title by shutting down inaugural titleholder, Carla Esparza, and followed that up with a dominant performance against Jessica Penne in June, whom she finished via third-round TKO.
When Gadelha defeated Jessica Aguilar at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro this past Saturday, the lines opened up for a rematch. And though Gadelha’s performance opened a lot of eyes, the Polish champion Jedrzejczyk still thinks the Brazilian challenger should have another fight before getting a crack at her belt.
“I think she lost with me and that she should have another fight before title shot but, you know, it’s Dana’s choice and I’m very happy,” she said during an appearance on The MMA Hour on Monday. “I’m ready for her.”
The 27-year-old Jedrzejczyk (10-0) has become an overnight star in the UFC, even turning bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey into a gushing fan. The two met a couple of months back when the UFC unveiled the Reebok fight kits in New York City. Rousey has called Jedrzejczyk a “fighter’s fighter,” and has been very complimentary towards Jedrzejczyk since she put the beatdown on Penne in Berlin.
Jedrzejczyk is also very much a fan of Rousey’s, who is coming off a 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Jedrzejczyk she said she wouldn’t mind training with at the Glendale Fighting Club in the San Fernando Valley, if it’s possible.
“Yeah, why not?” she told Ariel Helwani. “I would like to visit some gyms and train a little bit before I start my camp in Poland. So yeah, why not. I could maybe visit Ronda’s gym and we could train together.”
Jedrzejczyk suffered a broken thumb in her fight with Penne, which as temporarily sidelined her. When asked when she’d like to return to action, she said she could possibly return as early as December.
That’s also expected to be around the time frame of Rousey’s next title defense against Miesha Tate. The UFC has said that it is looking at a possible show at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, using the trilogy fight between Rousey and Tate as one of the attractions. Another possibility that’s been talked about – within the media and with fans, anyway – is in having Rousey defend her belt in a headlining role next, with Jedrzejczyk versus Gadelha as the co-main event.
Asked if she would like a scenario like that, Joanna “Champion” said she would.
“I was super-happy when I heard about that, so yeah,” she said. “I like it so much.”
As for what she thought of Gadelha’s performance at UFC 190, the statement she made to enforce the rematch, Jedrzejczyk said she was impressed.
“Yeah, she did well,” she said. “She’s very strong. This is what I said before, and I think that she’s one of the best in my division. But she didn’t respect that, because she was talking about the split decision and other sh–. But yeah, I’m happy for her that she won. She did a great job, and that’s all. Jessica Aguilar, she said she’s No. 1 in the strawweight division. She thought that she’s was one of the best, but she’s not.”
After her victory over Aguilar, Gadelha used the post-fight interview in the Octagon to her advantage, calling for the title shot. Jedrzejczyk said she appreciated that, too.
“[Claudia] was very respectful, and I like it so much,” she said.
Every now and again the UFC builds up a good enough head of steam to reopen talks of an event at AT&T Stadium in Dallas — or, as it’s known in plebian culture, Jerry World. Though there’s much footsie going on under the table during such moments, these flirtations always end up turning somebody’s footballs Cowboy blue.
If history has shown us anything it’s that Dallas always becomes Vegas when you really get right down to it.
Yet after Ronda Rousey defeated Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and the numbers were “trending” into wild sectors of the imagination, so too went the idea that an event at the 100,000-plus capacity stadium was imminent. Never mind the opposition, Rousey’s star power has now reached mythological proportions. Now you’ve got celebrities swooning over Our Sport’s icon like she’s a modern day bogeyman, akin to a Medusa figure that shouldn’t be looked directly in the eyes. She’s the “it” thing in pop culture; the casuals are openly wondering how long their toughest friends might last in a locked cage with her. Like with Mike Tyson in the vicious 1980s, there’s always an overly philosophical person in the bunch who insists they could survive more than minute, so long as they dodge and run. This time it was Lolo Jones.
At the same time, there’s Conor McGregor, who at UFC 189 had the numbers popping off the charts as well. His upcoming featherweight title unification bout with Jose Aldo is considered by some the biggest fight in UFC history. Should the UFC book a fight card with McGregor and Rousey together, AT&T Stadium in Dallas might as well be the Roxy for The Rolling Stones. It’ll be packed tight enough to turn the fire marshal’s knuckles white.
And that’s exactly what Dana White says the UFC is looking at doing. Piling McGregor and Rousey under the same roof, and opening up that roof so that God can watch. Regardless of who Rousey is fighting — in this case, the annuity known as Miesha Tate — that’s big business. Any card even remotely near the orbit of December 5 (which is the date they’re gunning for) will be covered in soot from this mushroom cloud.
At that point all other events — at least momentarily — cease to be events.
Which begs the question: Is it a good idea to have both of your transcendent stars together, just as they reach such a level of transcendence? Dude. See, that’s the thing. I don’t know. I think so, but I can’t be sure. It feels stupid to say it’s a bad idea, but it feels gratuitous to go whole hog the other way.
The Irish firebrand McGregor can sell out Croke Park in Dublin fighting anybody, whether it’s Jose Aldo, Joe Duffy or Nik Lentz, doesn’t matter. And Rousey, who is all the awe right now, could sell out an ordinary NBA arena just doing an open workout. They are the biggest stars in the sport by gulfs and chasms. Condensing that star power for a single blowout card almost can’t help but diminish one or the other, right?
Somehow, that feels like it should matter.
For instance, who would headline? At UFC 189, McGregor and Aldo headlined above the welterweight title fight between Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler. As the Irish were quick to point out, it was “The McGregor Show,” and everybody else was incidental. This included Aldo, who fell out in the last couple of weeks with a rib injury, and was replaced by Chad Mendes. It didn’t matter who McGregor was facing; he was the event.
McGregor as a co-main feels counterintuitive.
Then again, so does Rousey in that spot. Rousey’s stardom at this point is unparalleled in MMA. Brock Lesnar carried wrestling fans into the sphere of literal fighting, which was big for crossover intrigue. Rousey? Rousey translated the sport of MMA into a million languages. She’s a role model for girls, the envy of fellow athletes, the threat to male machismo, the inspiration for self-realization. Fighting is what she’s good at, but a byproduct of that is that she’s changing culture.
No, Rousey is a lot of things, but at this point a co-star isn’t one of them.
So what would the UFC do? Which one do you admit is the lesser in this situation? Do you cough up all your charms in a single night? Or do you let them carry their own cards, individually, as the sport emerges from the gray plateau of previous years?
It’s a tough one. The MMA landscape changes so drastically every six months that a fête like this potential Dallas event may never come around again. After all, we’ve been talking about an event at Dallas Cowboys Stadium for years and nothing’s come of it yet. Here we are doing it again.
Does it happen?
It’s wait and see, but if the only hang-up we have is deciding who should headline a million-watt mega-card, then we’ve officially — and finally — got the right kind of problems.
Every now and again the UFC builds up a good enough head of steam to reopen talks of an event at AT&T Stadium in Dallas — or, as it’s known in plebian culture, Jerry World. Though there’s much footsie going on under the table during such moments, these flirtations always end up turning somebody’s footballs Cowboy blue.
If history has shown us anything it’s that Dallas always becomes Vegas when you really get right down to it.
Yet after Ronda Rousey defeated Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and the numbers were “trending” into wild sectors of the imagination, so too went the idea that an event at the 100,000-plus capacity stadium was imminent. Never mind the opposition, Rousey’s star power has now reached mythological proportions. Now you’ve got celebrities swooning over Our Sport’s icon like she’s a modern day bogeyman, akin to a Medusa figure that shouldn’t be looked directly in the eyes. She’s the “it” thing in pop culture; the casuals are openly wondering how long their toughest friends might last in a locked cage with her. Like with Mike Tyson in the vicious 1980s, there’s always an overly philosophical person in the bunch who insists they could survive more than minute, so long as they dodge and run. This time it was Lolo Jones.
At the same time, there’s Conor McGregor, who at UFC 189 had the numbers popping off the charts as well. His upcoming featherweight title unification bout with Jose Aldo is considered by some the biggest fight in UFC history. Should the UFC book a fight card with McGregor and Rousey together, AT&T Stadium in Dallas might as well be the Roxy for The Rolling Stones. It’ll be packed tight enough to turn the fire marshal’s knuckles white.
And that’s exactly what Dana White says the UFC is looking at doing. Piling McGregor and Rousey under the same roof, and opening up that roof so that God can watch. Regardless of who Rousey is fighting — in this case, the annuity known as Miesha Tate — that’s big business. Any card even remotely near the orbit of December 5 (which is the date they’re gunning for) will be covered in soot from this mushroom cloud.
At that point all other events — at least momentarily — cease to be events.
Which begs the question: Is it a good idea to have both of your transcendent stars together, just as they reach such a level of transcendence? Dude. See, that’s the thing. I don’t know. I think so, but I can’t be sure. It feels stupid to say it’s a bad idea, but it feels gratuitous to go whole hog the other way.
The Irish firebrand McGregor can sell out Croke Park in Dublin fighting anybody, whether it’s Jose Aldo, Joe Duffy or Nik Lentz, doesn’t matter. And Rousey, who is all the awe right now, could sell out an ordinary NBA arena just doing an open workout. They are the biggest stars in the sport by gulfs and chasms. Condensing that star power for a single blowout card almost can’t help but diminish one or the other, right?
Somehow, that feels like it should matter.
For instance, who would headline? At UFC 189, McGregor and Aldo headlined above the welterweight title fight between Rory MacDonald and Robbie Lawler. As the Irish were quick to point out, it was “The McGregor Show,” and everybody else was incidental. This included Aldo, who fell out in the last couple of weeks with a rib injury, and was replaced by Chad Mendes. It didn’t matter who McGregor was facing; he was the event.
McGregor as a co-main feels counterintuitive.
Then again, so does Rousey in that spot. Rousey’s stardom at this point is unparalleled in MMA. Brock Lesnar carried wrestling fans into the sphere of literal fighting, which was big for crossover intrigue. Rousey? Rousey translated the sport of MMA into a million languages. She’s a role model for girls, the envy of fellow athletes, the threat to male machismo, the inspiration for self-realization. Fighting is what she’s good at, but a byproduct of that is that she’s changing culture.
No, Rousey is a lot of things, but at this point a co-star isn’t one of them.
So what would the UFC do? Which one do you admit is the lesser in this situation? Do you cough up all your charms in a single night? Or do you let them carry their own cards, individually, as the sport emerges from the gray plateau of previous years?
It’s a tough one. The MMA landscape changes so drastically every six months that a fête like this potential Dallas event may never come around again. After all, we’ve been talking about an event at Dallas Cowboys Stadium for years and nothing’s come of it yet. Here we are doing it again.
Does it happen?
It’s wait and see, but if the only hang-up we have is deciding who should headline a million-watt mega-card, then we’ve officially — and finally — got the right kind of problems.
With Ronda Rousey’s 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia on Saturday night at UFC 190, the one thing that we knew with certainty coming in is now official — Rousey will defend her title against Miesha Tate next. Though the time and place is yet to be determined, Tate and Rousey will have their trilogy fight.
And with Rousey having essentially cleaned out the women’s bantamweight division in just six UFC fights, she looks at the pending Tate fight as a unique challenge.
At the post-fight press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Rousey (12-0) said that Tate’s familiarity of her intensity in the cage eliminates the shock factor that other challengers feel.
“Every fight is a challenge,” Rousey said. “This [Correia] fight was a challenge in its own way, and I think one advantage that I do have over my opponents is they don’t really know what they’re coming into when they get in there. They can watch as much footage as they like but they don’t know what it’s like to be in there with me.
“And I think that’s why Miesha is one of my greatest challenges, because she already has an idea of what she’s getting in there with. I know I’ve improved a lot since the last time we fought.”
Tate and Rousey first fought in 2012, when Rousey won the 135-pound title from Tate in Strikeforce. They met again at UFC 168 in late-2013, which ended the same way the first encounter did — that is, with Rousey tapping Tate out via armbar. The lone distinction that Tate had the second time through was that she lasted until the third round in the fight before succumbing.
In 12 professional fights, Tate is the only one to get out of the first round with Olympic judoka Rousey, which in the world of silver linings stands for something. And Rousey says she’s well aware that Tate has has gained something in the way of experience heading into the third fight.
“I don’t have the element of surprise,” she said. “And I know she’ll bring in something different every single time, so I’m eager to see what she comes up with this time.”
Tate (17-5) has won four straight fights to put herself back into contention. Her last fight was a unanimous decision against Jessica Eye at UFC on FOX 16 on July 25 in Chicago. UFC president Dana White said on Saturday night that it’s possible Tate-Rousey III could land on the same card as Conor McGregor-Jose Aldo, which is being looked at for a December show at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
With Ronda Rousey’s 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia on Saturday night at UFC 190, the one thing that we knew with certainty coming in is now official — Rousey will defend her title against Miesha Tate next. Though the time and place is yet to be determined, Tate and Rousey will have their trilogy fight.
And with Rousey having essentially cleaned out the women’s bantamweight division in just six UFC fights, she looks at the pending Tate fight as a unique challenge.
At the post-fight press conference in Rio de Janeiro, Rousey (12-0) said that Tate’s familiarity of her intensity in the cage eliminates the shock factor that other challengers feel.
“Every fight is a challenge,” Rousey said. “This [Correia] fight was a challenge in its own way, and I think one advantage that I do have over my opponents is they don’t really know what they’re coming into when they get in there. They can watch as much footage as they like but they don’t know what it’s like to be in there with me.
“And I think that’s why Miesha is one of my greatest challenges, because she already has an idea of what she’s getting in there with. I know I’ve improved a lot since the last time we fought.”
Tate and Rousey first fought in 2012, when Rousey won the 135-pound title from Tate in Strikeforce. They met again at UFC 168 in late-2013, which ended the same way the first encounter did — that is, with Rousey tapping Tate out via armbar. The lone distinction that Tate had the second time through was that she lasted until the third round in the fight before succumbing.
In 12 professional fights, Tate is the only one to get out of the first round with Olympic judoka Rousey, which in the world of silver linings stands for something. And Rousey says she’s well aware that Tate has has gained something in the way of experience heading into the third fight.
“I don’t have the element of surprise,” she said. “And I know she’ll bring in something different every single time, so I’m eager to see what she comes up with this time.”
Tate (17-5) has won four straight fights to put herself back into contention. Her last fight was a unanimous decision against Jessica Eye at UFC on FOX 16 on July 25 in Chicago. UFC president Dana White said on Saturday night that it’s possible Tate-Rousey III could land on the same card as Conor McGregor-Jose Aldo, which is being looked at for a December show at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
With MMA’s lawless origins, it would be tempting to call Rousimar Palhares a throwback to other times. But the truth is, even eye gouging was too inhumane for the original spectacle. All the way back in the early-1990s it was understood that sight, as a coordinating sense, can be useful in hand-to-hand combat. Digging eyeballs from the socket has never been encouraged by the sanctioning bodies or really anybody not directing cult horror films.
Yet in 2015, well into the era of unified rules and sophistication, there was Palhares trying to dig his thumbs into Jake Shields’ eyes. This is a new twist in the Bizarro World of Palhares. In the second round of his welterweight title defense at WSOF 22, Palhares had to be warned by none other than referee Steve Mazzagatti to keep his fingers out of Shields’ orbs. Palhares, as he is known to do, met the caution with a look of confusion before proceeding to do what Palhares does best.
You know…win controversially.
By the third round, “Toquinho” was torquing Shields’ arm off his shoulder in a Kimura, and Shields tapped quickly, obviously and with no small amount of panic. Palhares, never one to accept a man’s mercy so easily, held on for an extra beat or two. It might not have seemed entirely malicious if this was the first time. But it wasn’t. To go along with the new twist of gouging eyes, Palhares lived up to his villainous self by once again holding a submission just past the threshold of proper sportsmanship.
That’s the part that requires audacity. And that’s the part that the Nevada Athletic Commission and WSOF should focus on when they review the fight. That when it comes to holding submissions too long, Palhares is incorrigible.
As Shields pointed out at least 30,000 times leading up to the fight at Planet Hollywood on Saturday night, Palhares is a dirty fighter. That Shields made the fact a prominent feature in every interview he gave made it so the follow-up questions for Palhares heading in centered on a variation of this question: “Does it bother you to be called a cheater?”
Turns out it doesn’t.
Palhares, apparently, is as dense in the head as he is in body. He was suspended at UFC 111 for holding onto a submission too long against Tomasz Drwal. He was cut from the UFC when he did it again against Mike Pierce. WSOF’s matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz has defended Palhares as his champion and as a redemption case for the last two years, even as he gave Steve Carl’s heel an extra rotation after the tap. So to hold a submission against Shields worked as a violation of not just the rules but of trust, decency, character, sportsmanship and good sense. Innocence, which has been Palhares’ defense going back to Drwal, is no longer a part of the equation.
Palhares has to know better. Palhares never will. Even if he got his arm raised, what Palhares did was less than Jake.
Shields had to go to the hospital after the fight to have his eyes examined after suffering blurred vision. He was livid with not only Palhares, but with Mazzagatti, who always finds himself in the cage when sh*t hits the fan. Shields was actually fighting the right fight. He was neutralizing Palhares for the better part of two rounds, going to the ground with him but keeping the dominant position on top. But then it changed. Shields says the thumbs in the eye was the turning point.
He didn’t bemoan the fact that he lost so much that Palhares rolls along as a “blatant cheater.”
And really, that word “blatant” stands out in the end. Palhares had already been cast as a cheater — or, in the very least, a man who doesn’t exactly get bogged down by rules. But prizefighting on this level rarely plays out in private. Even if this fight was buried by UFC 190 and the phenom of Ronda Rousey, it was still a very public encounter. Everyone could see Palhares, yet again, bending the rules and a man’s limb at the same time under the bright lights. The thumbs to the eye weren’t exactly concealed either. Television is television. His blatancy, after already calling so much negative attention to himself, is the real slap in the face. That implies he doesn’t care.
What the WSOF and the NAC end up doing with Palhares is still to be determined. Suspension? Fines? Banishment? All would be justified. What is determined is that Palhares, in spite of all the criticism, simply cannot (or will not) change.
And at this point we’d all be suckers to expect him to.
With MMA’s lawless origins, it would be tempting to call Rousimar Palhares a throwback to other times. But the truth is, even eye gouging was too inhumane for the original spectacle. All the way back in the early-1990s it was understood that sight, as a coordinating sense, can be useful in hand-to-hand combat. Digging eyeballs from the socket has never been encouraged by the sanctioning bodies or really anybody not directing cult horror films.
Yet in 2015, well into the era of unified rules and sophistication, there was Palhares trying to dig his thumbs into Jake Shields’ eyes. This is a new twist in the Bizarro World of Palhares. In the second round of his welterweight title defense at WSOF 22, Palhares had to be warned by none other than referee Steve Mazzagatti to keep his fingers out of Shields’ orbs. Palhares, as he is known to do, met the caution with a look of confusion before proceeding to do what Palhares does best.
You know…win controversially.
By the third round, “Toquinho” was torquing Shields’ arm off his shoulder in a Kimura, and Shields tapped quickly, obviously and with no small amount of panic. Palhares, never one to accept a man’s mercy so easily, held on for an extra beat or two. It might not have seemed entirely malicious if this was the first time. But it wasn’t. To go along with the new twist of gouging eyes, Palhares lived up to his villainous self by once again holding a submission just past the threshold of proper sportsmanship.
That’s the part that requires audacity. And that’s the part that the Nevada Athletic Commission and WSOF should focus on when they review the fight. That when it comes to holding submissions too long, Palhares is incorrigible.
As Shields pointed out at least 30,000 times leading up to the fight at Planet Hollywood on Saturday night, Palhares is a dirty fighter. That Shields made the fact a prominent feature in every interview he gave made it so the follow-up questions for Palhares heading in centered on a variation of this question: “Does it bother you to be called a cheater?”
Turns out it doesn’t.
Palhares, apparently, is as dense in the head as he is in body. He was suspended at UFC 111 for holding onto a submission too long against Tomasz Drwal. He was cut from the UFC when he did it again against Mike Pierce. WSOF’s matchmaker Ali Abdel-Aziz has defended Palhares as his champion and as a redemption case for the last two years, even as he gave Steve Carl’s heel an extra rotation after the tap. So to hold a submission against Shields worked as a violation of not just the rules but of trust, decency, character, sportsmanship and good sense. Innocence, which has been Palhares’ defense going back to Drwal, is no longer a part of the equation.
Palhares has to know better. Palhares never will. Even if he got his arm raised, what Palhares did was less than Jake.
Shields had to go to the hospital after the fight to have his eyes examined after suffering blurred vision. He was livid with not only Palhares, but with Mazzagatti, who always finds himself in the cage when sh*t hits the fan. Shields was actually fighting the right fight. He was neutralizing Palhares for the better part of two rounds, going to the ground with him but keeping the dominant position on top. But then it changed. Shields says the thumbs in the eye was the turning point.
He didn’t bemoan the fact that he lost so much that Palhares rolls along as a “blatant cheater.”
And really, that word “blatant” stands out in the end. Palhares had already been cast as a cheater — or, in the very least, a man who doesn’t exactly get bogged down by rules. But prizefighting on this level rarely plays out in private. Even if this fight was buried by UFC 190 and the phenom of Ronda Rousey, it was still a very public encounter. Everyone could see Palhares, yet again, bending the rules and a man’s limb at the same time under the bright lights. The thumbs to the eye weren’t exactly concealed either. Television is television. His blatancy, after already calling so much negative attention to himself, is the real slap in the face. That implies he doesn’t care.
What the WSOF and the NAC end up doing with Palhares is still to be determined. Suspension? Fines? Banishment? All would be justified. What is determined is that Palhares, in spite of all the criticism, simply cannot (or will not) change.
And at this point we’d all be suckers to expect him to.
Now that they have settled things in the Octagon, Saturday night’s bantamweight challenger Bethe Correia had a moment to think about the lead-up to UFC 190.
Heading into her fight with Ronda Rousey, Correia made off-color remarks about hopin…
Now that they have settled things in the Octagon, Saturday night’s bantamweight challenger Bethe Correia had a moment to think about the lead-up to UFC 190.
Heading into her fight with Ronda Rousey, Correia made off-color remarks about hoping Rousey wouldn’t “kill herself” after losing to her. The comments made the fight more personal for Rousey, whose father committed suicide when she was a young girl.
In the end, it was Correia who was knocked out in 34 seconds against Rousey in Rio de Janeiro. And in the aftermath, Correia was asked if she regretted making those comments, which served as fuel for Rousey through her training camp.
“I don’t regret anything, and everything I said was very sincere,” Correia said during the post-fight press conference. “It was my point of view and it was what I believed in. I think I did a great job. The event was wonderful. It wasn’t the result I wanted, but I think that everything I said was something that I thought. I’m a very sincere person and I don’t take back anything that happened. But of course with this fight, I have a lot of lessons that I learned.”
Correia was knocked out by Rousey (12-0) along the fence just half-a-minute into the action. Asked to assess her performance and to put a finger on what went wrong, Correia said it was a bad sequence of events.
“I started out well,” she said. “I think she felt my strikes and she tried to grab me, and I defended the takedown. But those things happen. Her hands landed and that’s her merit, and I really felt it. But I thought I was doing the right game, which was to attack, counter-attack, defend her takedowns and hit her. But at that moment I slipped. I got up and she connected a good punch, and that’s what happened.”
The loss was the first of Correia’s career. She now has a professional record of 9-1.
On a night when everybody expected Ronda Rousey to dominate, the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champ did just that.
Rousey scored a 34-second knockout victory over Brazilian Bethe Correia in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 190. Crazily, this was the long…
On a night when everybody expected Ronda Rousey to dominate, the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champ did just that.
Rousey scored a 34-second knockout victory over Brazilian Bethe Correia in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 190. Crazily, this was the longest fight she’s had in a year-and-a-half. Rousey’s previous victories — over Alexis Davis and Cat Zingano — lasted a grand total of 30 seconds.
And for her quick dismantling of the previously undefeated Correia Rousey pocketed an extra $50,000 in bonus money. The UFC announced that Rousey was among the four fighters from Saturday night’s card to be awarded an end-of-the-night bonus.
Also receiving a Performance of the Night bonus was Demian Maia, who put on a grappling clinic against Neil Magny earlier on the main card. Maia dominated the ground game against Magny — who was riding a seven-fight win streak — en-route to a second-round submission (rear-naked choke).
The Fight of the Night bonus went to the old familiar warhorses Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mauricio Rua, who fought a back-and-forth battle in the co-main event. The two met a decade ago during the 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix, in one of the more memorable fights on record. Just as he did then, “Shogun” emerged as the victor against “Lil’ Nog” on Saturday night, winning a unanimous decision.
Maia, Rua and Nogueira all took home an extra $50,000.
