It’s never an easy decision for friends to fight, much less former training partners, but that’s the quandary Urijah Faber was faced with when the UFC asked him to face Scott Jorgensen at the Ultimate Fighter 17 finale. The original main event wa…
It’s never an easy decision for friends to fight, much less former training partners, but that’s the quandary Urijah Faber was faced with when the UFC asked him to face Scott Jorgensen at the Ultimate Fighter 17 finale.
The original main event was a flyweight title fight between 125-pound king Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga, but a shoulder injury forced the champion off the card and sent the UFC searching for a new headline fight.
That’s when the call was made to Faber and Jorgensen to step in and fill the slot as the new main event for this weekend’s card.
While not unusual for two former title contenders to face off, it was a tough bout for both to accept because of their longstanding friendship.
Faber and Jorgensen have known each other for many years and have trained together in the past while working at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif.When the UFC called Faber and asked him to take the fight, his next call was to Jorgensen to see what he thought about two friends throwing down in the Octagon.
“We actually did have a phone conversation,” Faber revealed when speaking with Bleacher Report.“We kind of talked about not really wanting to fight much unless it was for a belt, but this was a big fight.This is something they’ve tried to put together before that we’ve been able to deflect it.At this point it just kind of had to happen.
“Scott and I are good buddies.I’ve got a team of guys here that I won’t be fighting, and that’s how that’s going to kind of pan out.You can’t not fight a bunch of guys in your weight class, especially in the top of the world.”
Beyond their friendship and status as former training partners, Faber and Jorgensen also share the same management team, which means they are routinely together during events and have worked with many of the same sponsors over the years.
It’s not an enviable position for Faber to sit in ahead of a fight, but he knows that he can beat Jorgensen up in the cage and still go back to being friends when the night is over.
“We’re going to be friends before and friends after, but during the fight it’s going to be a knock-down, drag-out, and it is what it is,” said Faber.
In terms of the technical aspect of the fight, Faber has trained with Jorgensen quite a bit over the years, but that doesn’t mean he has some special insight that can’t be found in the hours of fight footage that exist already.
Faber says that training isn’t fighting, and no matter how much effort they put into their sessions together, it’s not the same as actually facing off inside the cage.
“I don’t think it matters much.We’ve changed a lot over the years.I know the basics of Scott Jorgensen—which is he’s super tough, he’s a great wrestler, not afraid to throw punches and he’s a well-rounded fighter.He knows the same thing about me.I don’t know what he’ll take from training with me in the past or vice versa, but a fight’s a fight,” said Faber.
“It’s always so much different.It’s always so much more intense, and things happen in a split second and it’s all instinctive.I don’t dwell on that kind of thing.
“We’re going to do our thing regardless of whether we’ve seen each other before or not.It doesn’t matter.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Throughout her six-year career as a professional MMA fighter, Miesha Tate has seen just about everything and tested her skills against the best women in the world. From her climb up the ranks at 135 pounds to her eventual win over Marloes Coenen to cla…
Throughout her six-year career as a professional MMA fighter, Miesha Tate has seen just about everything and tested her skills against the best women in the world.
From her climb up the ranks at 135 pounds to her eventual win over MarloesCoenen to claim the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title, Tate has no shortage of big moments to draw from as she makes her UFC debut this weekend.
The same can’t be said, however, for her opponent Cat Zingano, who also makes her Octagon debut, but without anywhere near the same background as her opponent.
Zingano is an undefeated prospect with a perfect 7-0 record, but this will be the first time she’s stood under the bright lights that come along with the UFC. Originally, Zingano was supposed to fight under the Strikeforce banner, but canceled shows and the promotion eventually folding prevented her from ever doing that.
Now she stands on the precipice of a huge opportunity to face Tate, with the winner moving on to coach The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 opposite UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Facing Tate is a big-enough task, but Zingano does so without ever feeling the heat that comes along with the spotlight the UFC provides.
“It’s definitely something I’ve thought about because she was noticeably nervous around all of the media when we did the appearance at UFC 157,” Tate said about Zingano when speaking to Bleacher Report recently. “She was kind of just in awe of it all. You could kind of tell she was awestruck by it all. She didn’t know what to make of it, it was all exciting, it was all new. She was kind of nervous and kind of stuttering in her interviews. She just didn’t seem as comfortable with the atmosphere, and I really feel that could be a huge advantage for me.”
The concept of first-time UFC jitters is nothing new, and many veteran fighters have admitted feeling butterflies in their stomachs as they walk to the cage for the first time or hear Bruce Buffer call their name during the introductions. Being in the UFC is just a different animal than competing on regional shows like Zingano has done in the past, but she will get no warm-up fight or undercard bout to introduce her to what it’s like to be in the Octagon.
“I can’t say it’s going to make her fight any better or worse, I don’t know,” said Tate. “I do know I’m very used to it, I’m very comfortable with the media and very comfortable with the cameras in my face. It’s something that gradually as my career progressed it’s become a regular thing for me. It’s nothing out of the norm.”
While Zingano‘s resume is littered with notable names like recently crowned Invicta FC champion Barb Honchak and veteran fighter TakayoHashi, she hasn’t faced the same level of competition as Tate.
In the past few years, Tate has taken on a who’s-who list of women’s fighters, and that kind of experience is invaluable in these kinds of moments.
“I’ve fought the best in the world,” said Tate. “I’ve fought Sarah Kaufman, I’ve fought MarloesCoenen, I’ve fought Ronda, I’ve fought some really top-quality opponents. I know what it feels like to be on a big stage. I know what it feels like to be in there with top-five ranked women in the world. Those are things I can honestly say looking at Cat’s record and her history, she doesn’t have going for her.
“I don’t think she’s fought anyone in the top 10 at all at 135. She’s never fought on the big stage. I think it’s going to be a disadvantage. It’s going to be quite a shock for her.”
The odds are definitely in Tate’s favor heading into the fight, but that also mounts the pressure on her to win. To ensure her readiness, Tate picked up from her home in Washington and moved to Arizona for several weeks to train alongside UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson at his gym, the MMA Lab.
Tate is taking no chances in making sure she gets past Zingano and then sets up the biggest rematch in women’s MMA history with Rousey. The two ladies share quite a history, and Tate believes she’s destined to get one more shot at her longtime rival.
A win will also provide Tate with the chance to coach on The Ultimate Fighter, something she’s dreamt about for years. Women weren’t even in the UFC until 2013, so the chances of her coaching the long-running reality show seemed slim to none until now.
“That kind of opportunity is once in a lifetime I feel like,” Tate said about coaching The Ultimate Fighter. “It’s just one of those things that maybe when I first started my career I didn’t see as a possibility, but as things sort of unraveled as I’ve just kind of kept chipping away at this big dream; it just gets bigger and more grand and more awesome.
“There’s no way in hell I’m going to let Cat Zingano take that away from me because it’s mine. I know this is my destiny.I just know I’m the one that’s supposed to be coaching opposite Ronda.I just know we’re perfect for TV.I think we’ll both make great coaches.I can just feel it in my heart this is mine for the taking.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
It’s already been over a year since UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has stepped foot in the Octagon, and by the time he returns, it will likely be well past the 24-month mark. In May 2012, while coaching the Ultimate Fighter opposite long-time …
It’s already been over a year since UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has stepped foot in the Octagon, and by the time he returns, it will likely be well past the 24-month mark.
In May 2012, while coaching the Ultimate Fighter opposite long-time rival Urijah Faber, Cruz suffered a serious knee injury that forced him out of their scheduled fight in July and into the surgery room to repair a torn ACL.
If that wasn’t bad enough, while rehabbing the injury in December 2012, Cruz again tore the ACL in his knee and had to undergo a second surgery that put him back on the shelf and out of action.
In the meantime, the UFC has crowned a new interim champion, as RenanBarao currently represents the best of the best in the bantamweight division. He’s won the title and defended it once already, and he will do it again in June when he faces Eddie Wineland in the main event at UFC 161.
Cruz has had to sit back and watch all of this unfold while waiting for the injury to heal.
“I’m four months into rehab and I see the doctor on April 8. I go in and see the doctor and I’ll be just at four months, which means I get a whole new set of stipulations on my physical therapy, I get a whole new prescription. I should be cleared to start jumping rope and get tiny little plyo in there now. I’m still not allowed to move laterally at all. I can only go forwards and backwards and that’s to keep my tendon from re-tearing all over again,” Cruz told Bleacher Report recently. “I’m listening to the doctor very strict and I’m listening to my physical therapist very, very strict and I’m not doing anything beyond what they allow me to do. That’s just so I can get back to full form.”
Cruz pushed his body past the limits the last time while rehabilitating from the surgery—it ended with him back under the scalpel and probably out of fighting until 2014.
An athlete his entire life, Cruz now has to go into the Alliance Training Center in San Diego every day and watch his teammates train; he can only hope to get off the crutches and back on the mats one day soon. Cruz still helps teach and train his fellow fighters, but the sideline has never been his home.
The UFC’s first-ever bantamweight champion is an on-the-field kind of person. He wants to be active, defending his title and taking on a new crop of challengers, but there may be no coming back if his knee suffers another setback and a third surgery.
“It’s the complete opposite of everything I’m used to. I’m used to being able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it. That’s just how I am,” Cruz explained. “That’s not been an option for me and it’s tough. Anyone who believes they’re a champion, it’s not in their makeup to say ‘Don’t push yourself, you can’t do that because you’ll hurt yourself.’ It’s just taken my brain to a whole different dynamic altogether.
“It’s really forced me to kind of slow things down and take my time doing things. Not only so I don’t hurt myself, but also so I can break down and look at the things that have made me get injured in the past or ways to train safer. It’s everything and it’s given me a different outlook. It’s tough—I want to be competing, I want to be fighting now, I want to be fighting last month, but I have to listen to the doctors.”
Cruz has done his best to make a life for himself outside of fighting while his knee heals. He’s become a regular commentator and analyst for UFC on Fuel TV, and if there is a silver lining to this nightmare he’s been living for the past 11 months, it’s that he’s found a second career.
“So far it’s been a big learning experience but I enjoy it,” said Cruz. “The way my mind works is you make something work even if you don’t want to. The truth is this, I was out of the career that I first chose—which is fighting—because of injury, so you’ve got to make lemonade out of water. Basically, I’m making something out of nothing. That’s what I had to do to get through this time period with a positive outlook.
“Having this analyst gig has been nothing but a blessing because it’s kept me busy, it’s kept me in the MMA mindset for a long time and I enjoy doing it.”
Cruz will return to the analyst desk for Fuel TV this Tuesday when he co-hosts UFC Tonight while ChaelSonnen prepares for his bout at UFC 159 just a few short weeks away. The show tapes just a day after his next visit with doctors, so he can see exactly where he stands in terms of overall recovery and rehabilitation.
Soon after, Cruz will sit down in a meeting with UFC president Dana White to determine his next course of action. Everyone is curious if White will strip Cruz of his bantamweight title because his absence from the sport will likely reach past two years by the time he returns.
While the UFC has stripped champions in the past after failing post-fight drug tests, the only occasion in which the promotion has taken a title away from a champion due to injury was in 2005 when heavyweight title holder Frank Mir sat out of action following a devastating motorcycle crash that kept him from taking on top challenger Andrei Arlovski 14 months after the accident.
In his mind, Cruz has no doubts that he is the true UFC bantamweight champion, and he has no desire to give up the belt he earned and defended on multiple occasions but he knows that ultimately the decision lies in the hands of White and the powers that be within the UFC.
“I believe that’s the way it should be which is me fighting the champion when I come back, which I will come back. It’s no question in my mind and anybody that’s counting me out is crazy. Because I’ve been counted out before, I’ve been the guy that wasn’t supposed to win several times, and I’ve always figured it out. It’s who I am, it’s how I do it, and I’m going to do it right,” said Cruz. “Let’s be honest, Dana White is the business owner. He’s the one that runs this entire organization and the second you start thinking you’re calling the shots in a business that Dana White and the Fertitta’s built, is when you have a rude awakening of you don’t control it, they do. It’s their business and I let them make the business decisions.
“In a perfect world, I keep my title and I come back and beat down (Renan) Barao. In the business world, I don’t know how Dana’s visualizing this situation. I don’t know what he’s dealing with.”
It’s not like when he’s in the cage and Cruz can take of business for himself with an opponent. This time the control is completely out of his hands, and admittedly, it is a helpless feeling.
Cruz hopes he gets to retain his title until he can come back and challenge whoever the interim champion is at that time, but he knows the UFC has a business to run and they have to make the best decision that works for them.
“I work for the UFC and I love everything that they’ve done for me, and that’s about all I can say. I’m preparing to come back and fight for my title. That’s all I can do, I can’t make the decision. That’s up to Dana,” said Cruz. “No doubt in my mind that I’m still the champion, I’m still the best in the world, and when I come back I will do just fine against a guy like RenanBarao.
“No matter how good he is, no matter how long his winning streak is, I’m confident in my abilities and my mindset and break down anything Barao has to throw at me.”
There are numerous stories of athletes coming back from ACL surgeries. Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings suffered a ruptured ACL to close out the 2011 football season, and came roaring back with more than 2,000 yards the following season. A little closer to home for Cruz is UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who like Peterson had similar ACL surgery and has now defended his championship twice since returning from the injury.
Much rarer, however, are cases of athletes coming back from two ACL surgeries.
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III had ACL surgery in 2009, and then went back under the knife on the same knee earlier this year. Cruz and Griffin will look to join the likes of All-Pro defensive tackle Casey Hampton from the Pittsburgh Steelers, who actually had to have his ACL operated on three times during his playing career.
Never doubt the heart of a champion, though, and Cruz is hoping everyone is betting big on his return to UFC glory in the near future.
“Everybody loves a comeback,” said Cruz, “especially a comeback in a situation that is not easy to return to.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first-hand unless otherwise noted.
Irish-born fighter Conor McGregor made a great first impression with the UFC, and he already has his next fight booked on the same night he made his debut. Without any definitive plans for the UFC to return to McGregor’s homeland in Ireland, his next l…
Irish-born fighter ConorMcGregor made a great first impression with the UFC, and he already has his next fight booked on the same night he made his debut.
Without any definitive plans for the UFC to return to McGregor‘s homeland in Ireland, his next landing spot will be in an American city with plenty of Irish heritage.
UFC on Fox Sports 1 will land in Boston on August 17, and while UFC president Dana White rarely likes to book anything on the night of a fight card, it was a natural fit to slot McGregor on that show for his next bout.
“The answer is yes,” White said when asked about McGregor ending up on the Boston card at the UFC on Fuel 9 post-fight press conference.
A quarter of the people in Massachusetts claim Irish heritage, which is the highest in the United States. McGregor won’t be at home, but he’s certain to feel the love from the Boston crowd when he enters the Octagon in August.
As for his first night as a UFC fighter, McGregor will celebrate not just the win but the windfall that came with it.
According to the young fighter, prior to making his debut on Saturday, he was in dire financial straits living at home in Ireland. Now he has his contracted pay, a win bonus and an additional $60,000 for the “Knockout of the Night” at UFC on Fuel 9.
“I just got $60,000, I’m thinking of what I’m going to spend it on. Just last week I was connecting to social welfare,” McGregor revealed at the post-fight press conference. “I didn’t have money before this.
“Like I said, I was collecting 188 euro a week off the social welfare and here I am with like 60 G’s bonus and then my own pay. I don’t know what the f—k’s going on to be honest. This is the biggest one all right.”
While his fight was part of the Facebook preliminary portion of the show, McGregor received the attention of a main event fighter throughout the night and even at the press conference.
Now the UFC not only has a popular and charismatic Irishman on its roster—it also happens to have a very good featherweight as well.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Gegard Mousasi was in an impossible position this week after his original opponent, Alexander Gustafsson, was forced out of their bout at UFC on Fuel 9. Instead of facing a top-three fighter and potential title contender, he drew relative unknown Ilir …
GegardMousasi was in an impossible position this week after his original opponent, Alexander Gustafsson, was forced out of their bout at UFC on Fuel 9.
Instead of facing a top-three fighter and potential title contender, he drew relative unknown IlirLatifi for the main event. And beyond the stylistic differences between the opponents, he was already going into the fight at less than full health as well.
“Mousasi had knee problems all through his camp. He checked with his doctor and his doctor said, ‘You can make it through this fight and you’re going to have to have surgery after the fight,'” White stated.
“Kid wants to fight because he’s going to come in here and fight the No. 3-ranked light heavyweight in the world. He doesn’t want to give up this opportunity, he wants to fight him.
“Shows up here to fight him, (Gustafsson) gets stopped on a cut…we won’t even get into that. We’ll leave that alone because we all know what’s up with that. He’s training for this tall striker. He ends up fighting a short, strong, southpaw wrestler and still accepts the fight and takes it.”
Despite facing a 5’8″ Greco-Roman wrestler that most people hadn’t heard about before this week, Mousasi accepted the challenge and went on to win a unanimous decision in a fairly one-sided bout.
Mousasi consistently kept Latifi at the end of his punches and bloodied his face with jabs over the course of all three rounds. The Dutch fighter was the clear winner, but he admitted after the fight that he wasn’t about to do something stupid and become the subject of one of the greatest upsets in UFC history.
“I didn’t want to take any risks,” Mousasi admitted after the fight. “He’s got nothing to lose, so I fought smart.”
As far as his knee injury goes, Mousasi didn’t want to go into too much detail about what happened or how long it may delay his return to action.
It was bad enough, however, for him to believe that most fighters in the same situation would have likely backed out of the fight and not taken the same chance that he just did on Saturday.
“I don’t want to talk a lot about my injury. I can tell with this injury I’m pretty sure 95 percent wouldn’t fight, from other fighters,” said Mousasi. “I stepped up, I didn’t cancel the show.”
The only other detail that Mousasi gave about the injury was to say “it’s nothing small,” and obviously it was severe enough that it may cause him to undergo surgery to repair whatever damage was done.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Heading into UFC on Fuel 9, Conor McGregor had the weight of a nation on his back, as it seemed the entire country of Ireland was behind the young featherweight making his Octagon debut. That kind of pressure usually results in one of two ways—ei…
Heading into UFC on Fuel 9, Conor McGregor had the weight of a nation on his back, as it seemed the entire country of Ireland was behind the young featherweight making his Octagon debut.
That kind of pressure usually results in one of two ways—either the coal turns into a diamond or it crumbles into dust. After Saturday in Sweden, it’s safe to say McGregor is shining bright after crushing Marcus Brimage in the first round of their showdown at UFC on Fuel 9.
Heading into the fight, Brimage was very vocal about the attacks he endured on social networks from a legion of Irish fans who were supporting McGregor. The heat boiled over during the weigh-ins on Friday, when Brimage and McGregor came nose-to-nose and had to be separated on the stage.
McGregor says there was never any actual bad blood with Brimage, and in reality, the Alabama native probably let the emotion of the situation cost him in the fight.
“I just think he was getting emotionally attached and saying the Irish people are going on his Facebook, and that’s crazy to me,” McGregor said in a post-fight interview with reporters in Sweden. “Everyone of you here could stand here and spit at me and throw bricks at me and do what you want to me. It makes no difference to me. It’s emotion-free in there. You can’t carry emotions in there.
“Outside of it, it’s a game. At the weigh-ins, you feel like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. I just thought it was a game and he was emotionally attached to it.”
Emotion wasn’t involved in McGregor’s game, however, as he wasted no time setting the pace. Like a shotgun blast, he landed several uppercuts that rocked the former Ultimate Fighter hopeful. A few seconds later, the fight was over, with McGregor standing tall and asking in his post-fight interview for a little bonus from the UFC for “Knockout of the Night.”
The “Knockout of the Night” bonus is key for McGregor because he has no interest in ever earning a “Fight of the Night” bonus. To hear him tell it, “Fight of the Night” means a war of attrition, and McGregor wants to leave no doubt when he walks out of the Octagon as to who just won the battle.
“I always feel like when guys will be saying, ‘Let’s go get Fight of the Night,’ and they get up and say, ‘Let’s get Fight of the Night.’ I don’t understand that. To me that’s a loss, Fight of the Night’s a loss. Because that means the contest has to be close, and I’m not looking for close. I want to dominate and get the win,” said McGregor. “I think guys that say that—’Let’s get fight of the night’—I think that’s selling themselves short. You can tell where their career is going just by that comment alone.”
Where McGregor’s career is going is pretty evident judging by the amount of attention he received before, during and after his UFC debut. McGregor is definitely a star on the rise, and the UFC will likely promote him as such as he moves forward in his career.
The proud Irishman wore his country’s flag on his back all night, and with his first UFC win under his belt, he can celebrate in proper fashion as everyone at home continues to root him on.
“It’s a proud moment for me and it’s a proud moment for my country and I’m representing them,” McGregor said about Ireland. “It’s the stuff dreams are made of. This is only the beginning for me.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
Throughout her six-year career as a professional