“Forget all about that belt tomorrow, son.” (Video: YouTube/UFC)
Last night’s weigh-ins in the bag and we are officially one step closer to go-time. While these events are a mere formality in the fight business—I mean, who would show up unprepared, right?–they do give one more opportunity for fans to cheer or boo the fighters of their choice, and one more opportunity for fighters to win the mental war. With those assignments in mind, the men on stage and those in the bleachers made the most of the evening.
Though Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen have taken second billing on this evening’s card, they’ve more than pulled their own weight in the promotions department. While Chael has drawn plenty of hype for this bout, he’s largely focused the spotlighton himself with little attention paid to his opponent whatsoever. Bisping on the other hand has been in full heel mode in recent interviews, embracing his role as the bad guy and verbally attacking his foe whenever possible. Last night he responded to a chorus of boos by brandishing the ‘Stockton Heybuddy‘, a move that seemed to cost him a sponsor, at least momentarily. If these two jawing in the staredown didn’t get you amped for their bout, there’s little I can do for you.
Despite the main event being a mixed martial arts bout, much of the back-and-forth between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis has centered on wrestling credentials. “Mr. Wonderful” was undoubtedly the more decorated of the two during their NCAA careers, though Evans feels his in-cage ability will expose Davis’s “trash technique”. Upping the ante once more before they glove up, Davis sported a Penn State singlet as he hit the scales. Face to face, both men exuded incredible confidence and not a shred of intimidation.
Full weigh-in results and a video of the Evans-Davis face-off after the jump.
“Forget all about that belt tomorrow, son.” (Video: YouTube/UFC)
Last night’s weigh-ins in the bag and we are officially one step closer to go-time. While these events are a mere formality in the fight business—I mean, who would show up unprepared, right?–they do give one more opportunity for fans to cheer or boo the fighters of their choice, and one more opportunity for fighters to win the mental war. With those assignments in mind, the men on stage and those in the bleachers made the most of the evening.
Though Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen have taken second billing on this evening’s card, they’ve more than pulled their own weight in the promotions department. While Chael has drawn plenty of hype for this bout, he’s largely focused the spotlighton himself with little attention paid to his opponent whatsoever. Bisping on the other hand has been in full heel mode in recent interviews, embracing his role as the bad guy and verbally attacking his foe whenever possible. Last night he responded to a chorus of boos by brandishing the ‘Stockton Heybuddy‘, a move that seemed to cost him a sponsor, at least momentarily. If these two jawing in the staredown didn’t get you amped for their bout, there’s little I can do for you.
Despite the main event being a mixed martial arts bout, much of the back-and-forth between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis has centered on wrestling credentials. “Mr. Wonderful” was undoubtedly the more decorated of the two during their NCAA careers, though Evans feels his in-cage ability will expose Davis’s “trash technique”. Upping the ante once more before they glove up, Davis sported a Penn State singlet as he hit the scales. Face to face, both men exuded incredible confidence and not a shred of intimidation.
Main Bouts (on Fox): -Rashad Evans (205) vs. Phil Davis (205)
-Chael Sonnen (185) vs. Michael Bisping (185)
-Demian Maia (186) vs. Chris Weidman (185)
Preliminary Bouts (on Fuel TV):
-Evan Dunham (155) vs. Nik Lentz (155)
-Mike Russow (251) vs. Jon Olav Einemo (253)
-Cub Swanson (145) vs. George Roop (145)
-Charles Oliveira (144) vs. Eric Wisely (145)
-Michael Johnson (156) vs. Shane Roller (156)
-Joey Beltran (228) vs. Lavar Johnson (252)
Preliminary Bout (on Facebook):
-Chris Camozzi (185) vs. Dustin Jacoby (185)
It looks like ESPN and the FTC aren’t the only entities with the UFC in their crosshairs. Sometime around 5pm EST the UFC homepage was taken over by a group identifying themselves as the “Underground Nazi H4ck3rGr0up”. The splash page featured a bizarre anime-style sketch of Adolf Hitler with the names of the guilty parties. Streaming in the background was some song so god awful that even Shazam refused to identify it.. The site is still hijacked as of the posting of this story.
The hack is likely to be in retaliation for UFC Executive VP Lawrence Epstein’s interview with the LVRJ in support of SOPA.
It looks like ESPN and the FTC aren’t the only entities with the UFC in their crosshairs. Sometime around 5pm EST the UFC homepage was taken over by a group identifying themselves as the “Underground Nazi H4ck3rGr0up”. The splash page featured a bizarre anime-style sketch of Adolf Hitler with the names of the guilty parties. Streaming in the background was some song so god awful that even Shazam refused to identify it.. The site is still hijacked as of the posting of this story.
The hack is likely to be in retaliation for UFC Executive VP Lawrence Epstein’s interview with the LVRJ in support of SOPA.
Rutten says that he previously advised his fellow Dutchmen at Golden Glory to avoid “Cigano” at all costs. Overeem punched (and kicked) his ticket to the title bout by tearing Brock Lesnar apart “piece by piece” at UFC 141. Despite that stellar performance, Bas doesn’t give Overeem much of a chance against the champ.
“I’ll be leaving with all of the women from rows K-M, and there’s nothing you chumps can do to stop me.” (Pic: FirstPost.com)
Rutten says that he previously advised his fellow Dutchmen at Golden Glory to avoid “Cigano” at all costs. Overeem punched (and kicked) his ticket to the title bout by tearing Brock Lesnar apart “piece by piece” at UFC 141. Despite that stellar performance, Bas doesn’t give Overeem much of a chance against the champ.
“I think Alistair, everything he does is one single shot because he knows he’s got that glass jaw as well. He’s been knocked out quite a few times in the past, even by Chuck Liddell as well. Every time when he punches, one hand is up. He throws single shots; he doesn’t throw combinations. You saw that when he fought Werdum. Werdum was actually tagging him more than he did to Werdum. I think that Junior dos Santos, with his combinations, his reach, I think he’s going to tag him and he’s going to throw combos and I think that yeah, he’s going to take this fight.”
Quick finishes are a hot trend in the UFC’s heavyweight division right now, and both men have proven that they can turn someone’s lights out in short order. Do you agree with “El Guapo” that Junior’s hands will prove too much for Overeem? Bigger question: What do you think of Bas’ opinion that the former Strikeforce champ would have his hands full with Cheick Kongo?
Before the dust had even settled from the organization’s debut on FX, the push began for UFC 143‘s headliner. The battle for the interim Welterweight belt is getting the full “Primetime” treatment with an in depth, behind-the-scenes look at Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit. If you were too busy to catch the first installment of the series, bully for you. We’ve got the video above and some notes after the jump for the soft-headed.
Before the dust had even settled from the organization’s debut on FX, the push began for UFC 143‘s headliner. The battle for the interim Welterweight belt is getting the full “Primetime” treatment with an in depth, behind-the-scenes look at Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit. If you were too busy to catch the first installment of the series, bully for you. We’ve got the video above and some notes after the jump for the soft-headed.
It looks like someone at the Zuffa office got a thesaurus for Christmas. “Enigmatic” is the early buzzword to describe Diaz and the sort of behavior that we’ve so lazily branded as “crazy”.
The narrator cites Lodi, California as Diaz’s home. Did the former Strikeforce champion finally take those community college courses on purchasing a house, move out of Stockton proper, and relocate to the “Zinfandel Capital of the World”? Don’t fret, readers—Lodi is still officially in the coveted 209 area code.
Having previously complained that no members of the media want to visit him and get to know him, how does Diaz welcome the all-access film crew to his gym? By literally shutting the door on them so he can meet with his coaches and train, of course.
“He doesn’t like the pretentiousness of what he has to do in the media, and he’d rather not do it. He doesn’t want himself opening up. He’s actually trying to close parts of himself, preparing himself for war. They’ll ask him to go do a press conference with his adversary, when in his mind he’s preparing himself to beat the hell out of that guy in the cage. And if you’re going to tell him to sit there and make nice with the guy, he has trouble coming to terms with that.” Cesar Gracie
“Nick understands something: the fight starts when you sign on dotted line. You see the staredowns and everything, and guys get a little crazy. You really can’t out-crazy Nick Diaz, you just can’t. He’s going to do things to cause a reaction from his opponent. It’s literally like he’s playing a high-power chess game.” Cesar Gracie, adding fuel to the rumors that the winner of Diaz-Condit will take on Garry Kasparov sometime in June.
“I don’t think he’s a bad guy at all. Is he trained to go and talk in front of the camera? No. He is not a speaker; he is not a poster boy; he is not a salesman. He just likes to do what we do. He likes to fight.” Val Ignatov, confirming our suspicions that Diaz hasn’t been formally groomed for dealing with the press.
“I think the things that brought Carlos to MMA are what brings a lot of young men to MMA. And that is you have this drive, this need, this testosterone, this anger, and it’s got to go somewhere.” Greg Jackson
“Nick definitely has holes in his game. He kind of makes up for that by just being tough, by being able to take a lot of punishment. The question is whether he’s going to be able to take as much punishment as I’m going to dish out.” Carlos Condit
“Carlos was never the fastest, he was never the strongest. He was never really the most technical. But what he had from a very, very young age is an incredible competitive spirit. He hated to lose.” Carlos Condit’s dad, who could easily fill in for “The Most Interesting Man in the World”.
“Back in the day, so this is 21 years ago when I had Nick in my class, it’s just the way he was. Nick was Nick, and Nick was going to do what he was going to do. And if he felt like doing that at that moment, that’s what he was going to do.” Diaz’s second grade teacher.
“I pulled the fire alarm in class. I don’t know why I did that. I was just standing by it, and I was screwing with it, and I knew it was a fire alarm or something. I was in second grade. I just didn’t really understand how a fire alarm worked, cause I would just kinda mess with it, and I kinda started, I didn’t mean to pull the fire alarm, but I was screwing with it too much. And I ended up pulling it, and I was like, ‘Oh no, I did not just do that!’ And I was the only one standing there. I’m like, ‘it went down’. I was like, she’s like, ‘you pulled it!’ And I was like, ‘oh.’ It was bad.” Diaz, reliving an event which, despite being a relatively common and innocent childhood prank, seems to have left deep emotional scars that haunt him till this day.
“It didn’t surprise me. I was like, ‘Oh, Nick!’ Since all of this I looked on YouTube and saw some videos of him because I haven’t seen him since he was a kid . He’s the exact same. He doesn’t make eye contact. He talks very slow and deliberate. He takes a breath between words. I mean when I saw him on that video he was the exact same kid.” Diaz’s second grade teacher, whose shocking refusal to use adverbs explains how Nick ended up fighting in a cage for a living.
“They had an issue with my attendance already, because I didn’t have good attendance anyways, because I didn’t want to show up at school and end up having to blast somebody. And you don’t know if you’re going to get shot or stabbed or jumped at school because that’s what happens to everybody else. It’s not like I’m, oh I’m paranoid or something. I’m not paranoid…” Nick Diaz, sounding just like every paranoid person we’ve ever known.
“Sometimes he gets upset. When you ask me why he gets upset, it’s his inability to express himself verbally. That’s why he’s a fighter. But when he gets in that ring he’s a poet. A poet in motion.” Steve Heath, Diaz’s last MMA coach, hitting the nail on the head.
Guillard choking, in every sense of the word. (Photo: UFC.com)
While the ‘UFC on FX’ debut may have lacked the big names of UFC 142, the fights themselves packed just as much fire-power. For the second straight week, six fighters were able to put away their opponent and double their earnings in less than a round. Punches, chokes, and a torrent of brutal hellbows were all used to send grown men into la-la land, and we’ve got the GIF’s to prove it.
Guillard choking, in every sense of the word. (Photo: UFC.com)
While the ‘UFC on FX’ debut may have lacked the big names of UFC 142, the fights themselves packed just as much fire-power. For the second straight week, six fighters were able to put away their opponent and double their earnings in less than a round. Punches, chokes, and a torrent of brutal hellbows were all used to send grown men into la-la land, and we’ve got the GIF’s to prove it.
Brazilian fans are credited with being the most raucous audience in the world, and last night’s fighters gave them plenty to cheer about. Six of the nine bouts ended via knock out or submission*, with five of those stoppages coming in the first round.
Chokes, knees, and even a spinning wheel kick punctuated last night’s fights (*as did a controversial referee stoppage). Pop on in for a motion picture tribute to UFC 142.
Brazilian fans are credited with being the most raucous audience in the world, and last night’s fighters gave them plenty to cheer about. Six of the nine bouts ended via knock out or submission*, with five of those stoppages coming in the first round.
Chokes, knees, and even a spinning wheel kick punctuated last night’s fights (*as did a controversial referee stoppage). Pop on in for a motion picture tribute to UFC 142.
