Every surging talent in the fight game inevitably reaches a point where the time to show and prove comes front and center. For up-and-coming welterweight Ryan LaFlare, that moment will arrive this Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro.
Thus far in his six-y…
Every surging talent in the fight game inevitably reaches a point where the time to show and prove comes front and center. For up-and-coming welterweight Ryan LaFlare, that moment will arrive this Saturday night in Rio deJaneiro.
Thus far in his six-year career as a mixed martial artist, the 31-year-old New York native has amassed a flawless record where he’s notched 11 victories without a single defeat. In addition to developing a knack for winning fights, LaFlare has also taken progressive steps toward bigger things as he’s won all four of his showings inside the Octagon.
Those elements combined to bring his next outing under the UFC banner to fruition where he will face former middleweight title challenger turned welterweight contender Demian Maia at Fight Night 62.
Where his bout against the jiu-jitsu ace is not only most notable of his career from a competition standpoint, a turn of events that saw the card’s original main event drop out pushed LaFlare into his first headlining slot on the sport’s biggest stage. Those conditions set the stakes even higher for what has the potential to be a pivotal juncture on LaFlare‘s push up the 170-pound ladder.
He recognizes both the opportunity and dangers squaring off with Maia will present. He knows the lively Brazilian fans will create a lively environment in Rio, but the Team Blackzilians representative is confident he’ll have what it takes to rise to the occasion on Saturday night.
“I’m ready to go out here and show the world what I’m all about,” LaFlare told Bleacher Report. “No one really knows me that well and this is my shot to really show everyone I’m here and I’m here to win. This is the perfect time for me to get a big fight like this. I’m more than ready, and everything is falling into place right where I want it to be.
“I’m used to it by now,” he added in regard to competing against a Brazilian in their home country. “I only have four fights in the UFC and I’m not a veteran, but all four of my fights were pretty much in enemy territories. I’ve been to AbuDhabi, Sweden and Brazil before, and once that Octagon door locks, it’s just me and him in there.”
Where LaFlare has shown solid striking skills during his time competing inside the Octagon, his all-around game will certainly best tested against Maia. The 37-year-old Brazilian is widely considered to have one of the best pure jiu-jitsu games in MMA, and he’s built a solid career resume by applying that skill set to opponents who weren’t prepared to handle the dangers of his complex ground attack.
LaFlare has trained hard to ready himself for Maia’s biggest threat inside the cage, and he relied on his teammates in South Florida—namely multi-time world champion Gilbert Burns—to ensure his jiu-jitsu skills will be sharp once things go live at Fight Night 62.
“I’m training with some of the best grapplers in the world on a daily basis,” LaFlare said. “Luckily, Gilbert Burns is fighting on this card as well and we’ve been training a lot everyday. He’s the best training partner I could have as far as his jiu-jitsu skill level and I’m ready.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Anderson Silva isn’t ready to walk away from the Octagon just yet.
While the former middleweight king is currently mired in controversy over failed drug tests leading up to and following his bout against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, it appears “The Spider” in…
Anderson Silva isn’t ready to walk away from the Octagon just yet.
While the former middleweight king is currently mired in controversy over failed drug tests leading up to and following his bout against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, it appears “The Spider” intends to press on.
The 39-year-old Brazilian striker is still yet to have his hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who will undoubtedly hand Silva a suspension and fine for his infractions. Silva’s team recently asked for an extension with the NSAC, and until the hearing takes place, there is no way to set a possible timeline for when Silva could return to action.
Yet sources close to the former long-reigning 185-pound champion remain optimistic.
As Ariel Helwanireported on Wednesday’s installment of UFC Tonight, those close to Silva are saying he will not retire and believe he could back to competing inside the Octagon as early as New Year’s Eve. And while the fighter and his camp have posed several different approaches when news of his failed tests went public, it now appears the focus is being put on the pound-for-pound great’s eventual return.
Should Silva return after the inevitable layoff that is heading his way, it will mark another long stretch of absence from competing inside the Octagon. His bout against the former Strikeforce welterweight champion marked the end of a 13-month stint on the sidelines for Silva, who was recovering from a broken leg suffered in the second round of his rematch with champion Chris Weidman at UFC 168 in December of 2013.
Although Silva may ultimately return to compete under the UFC banner, just what impact the failed drug tests will have on his legacy remains to be seen.
While Silva himself has gone on public record multiple times since the results were issued to claim he’s never used performance-enhancing drugs, a series of test results say otherwise. This of course poses the question as to just how far back these transgression goes, and that doubt has the potential to mar what has otherwise been one of the most spectacular careers in the history of mixed martial arts.
Per Helwani‘s report Wednesday, it appears Silva is eager to press on with his career and continue to compete inside the Octagon, which is a subtle change from the uncertainty he showed toward his career following his victory over Diaz. Immediately following his bout at UFC 183, Silva addressed the media in the post-fight press conference and revealed his need to spend more time with his family.
While those sentiments likely remain intact, his current rough stretch of controversy seems to have motivated the former titleholder to keep his competitive fires burning.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Throughout his career in mixed martial arts, Frankie Edgar has been a difficult fighter to categorize.
The undersized fighter with an oversized heart was a common descriptor in his days in the lightweight division as The Answer played the role of …
Throughout his career in mixed martial arts, Frankie Edgar has been a difficult fighter to categorize.
The undersized fighter with an oversized heart was a common descriptor in his days in the lightweight division as The Answer played the role of perennial underdog even in fights where championship gold was on his side of the equation. And in some ways, that paradigm wasn’t all for naught.
There were few in the MMA community who thought the hard-nosed New Jersey native could shatter the aura of B.J. Penn when they collided in AbuDhabi. And when he did, it seemed to be more of a not-quite-at-his-best Penn more than it was a stellar Edgar.
Furthermore, when Edgar doubled up his beating of The Prodigy six months later in Boston at UFC 118, the chatter leaned more on a Penn—who was widely regarded as the best 155-pound fighter in the history of the lightweight division—having lost his edge more than it was Edgar coming into his own.
This storyline would continue to surround Edgar for the next three years as he was consistently locked in rematches and trilogy bouts with rivals new and old. In some cases, like his memorable tilts with Gray Maynard, the lion-hearted Edgar would overcome tremendous adversity and cement his legacy as a fighter you absolutely had to put away or he was going to keep coming with everything he had until the final bell.
And while the same tenacity would be displayed in a pair of bouts with Benson Henderson in 2012, both bouts were closely contested affairs that saw the judges’ decision go the other way.
Edgar was undoubtedly disappointed in what transpired in those fights. But if there is one thing to be learned about the former lightweight champion, it’s that he’s constantly moving forward in every regard. Even in light of great accomplishments, Edgar is the modest type where he throws a shrug and a smile, then moves the attention of the moment onto whatever is coming next.
That’s just how game Frankie Edgar is. So much, in fact, that when he decided to drop down to featherweight and the UFC offered him a title shot against Brazilian phenom Jose Aldo, he was all in.
As it would go, the fight was another hard-fought affair with Edgar bringing his classic late-round dynamics, but it wasn’t enough to tip the balance of the fight. Aldo emerged victorious, and the former 155-pound king was handed his third consecutive loss.
Yet rather than focus on how the fight put him in a dubious place of having suffered three consecutive setbacks, Edgar saw something in what transpired with Aldo that told him things would be different should they ever get into the Octagon again.
“Jose Aldo is a very impressive fighter,” Edgar told Bleacher Report last October. “You look at the way he goes in there and just steamrolls guys. He didn’t do that to me. He’s not going to do that to me, and I can’t wait to get in there with him again.”
Following the loss in his featherweight debut, Edgar did what he’s always done, as he dug in and turned things around. The results have been outstanding, as three straight dominant performances have him once again sitting within striking distance of another championship opportunity. Where the pressure of adversity has been known to sink the most talented fighters, resilience is an attribute Edgar has in spades.
He’s consistently proving that the storyline should have never been anything other than a fighter, father and husband who has consistently been one of the best at what he does almost as long as he’s been doing it. Every avenue in life is going to come with ups and downs, but Edgar is going to fight to be successful as long as he has the chance to do so.
“I never paid attention to anyone who may have written me off,” Edgar told Bleacher Report in a recent interview.
“The people who matter to me, my coaches, teammates and family never stopped believing in me for a second. Those are the people that truly matter to me. If I listened to the things everyone out there had to say, I would probably lose my mind. I’ve always believed in myself. Even with the bumps in the road and all of those things, I’m here and still plugging away. I never let people get me down.
“I don’t think you have time to look back in this sport. Especially with how fickle people can be and you are only as good as your last fight. That’s 100 percent true. There are so many fights going on now that it’s tough to remain in people’s minds for a long time. You can put on a killer performance one day, then the next weekend someone else puts on a great performance, and everyone forgets about what you did a week before that.
“You have to make sure you don’t lose that next fight because months will pass before you’ll get another opportunity,” he added. “There will be a million fights in between. You have to keep winning and pushing forward, especially with how fast things are moving nowadays.”
Where Edgar originally made his name for putting on gritty, barn-burner affairs inside the Octagon, his recent stretch of fights have come with an entirely different tone. The same elements of his style are present, with the perpetual-motion footwork and quick switches and level changes behind a solid boxing game, but the results have been far more lopsided that in his past efforts.
The 33-year-old featherweight beat the brakes off of Penn in their trilogy bout last July, then followed that performance up by thoroughly dominating—then finishing—surging contender Cub Swanson during their collision at Fight Night 57 in November.
Therefore with different results, the question becomes: What exactly has changed in Edgar’s approach? And where the answer to such inquiries are typically filled with bravado and self-appreciation, once again the modesty of a man who has continued to push himself shines through.
“I can’t really say what it is to be honest with you,” Edgar said. “I feel like I’m always training hard and putting everything I have into every fight. I’m just coming into my own I guess. I feel like I’m in my prime, and all the experience I’ve had and all the years I’ve been doing it all comes together. I’m hitting my stride I guess you could say.
“It’s tough to say I’m seeing things different out there because I listen so much to my corner. I can’t say I’m seeing things better, but maybe they are seeing things better or more clearly now. I’ve been fighting at the top for a long time. It’s not like I was never good before and now I’m finally winning fights. I was the champion at one time or another. Now, I’m able to dominate a bit more, and I’m able to be a different fighter too.
“People are impressed with one thing you do from one fight to the next, and it’s because you did the work to improve your game in the time between those fights,” he added. “Every fight is different, and you have to keep growing. You can’t stop in this game, man.”
With Edgar’s constant pursuit of greatness comes another big fight on his path as he will face former WEC featherweight champion and longtime poster boy for the lighter weight classes in Urijah Faber. The East Coast native will square off with The California Kid when the UFC makes its debut appearance in Manila for Fight Night 66 on May 16.
The two fighters have been working in different weight classes during their respective careers, but a potential bout between Edgar and Faber has been one fight fans have wanted to see for quite some time. Both have remained at the forefront of whatever division they’ve chosen to compete and managed to obtain consistency, which is arguably the most difficult task to achieve when competing at the highest level of MMA.
The fight’s announcement sparked a huge reaction from the MMA community, and Edgar knows this is the one fight that made absolute sense. With the featherweight title locked up until Jose Aldo and ConorMcGregor handle their business at UFC 189, he needed to make sure whatever step he took had the potential to elevate him back into a championship opportunity.
And he has zero doubt a victory over the Team Alpha Male leader will make that happen.
“I’ve been a front-runner, a contender or a champion for quite a bit of time,” Edgar said. “You can say that about Urijah too. He’s always in the mix. He’s always close to a title shot, and that just adds another element of excitement to this fight.
“Anytime you get a win over a guy like Faber it’s going to add to your legacy and your career. Obviously my goal is to make my next step a title shot, and beating Urijah is only going to add to my chances of making that happen. If it’s a dominant win, I’m not sure how it can’t lead to a title shot.
“I can honestly say I’ve heard more people talking about this fight than any other fight I’ve had so far in my career. I don’t care what label people put on it or if they call it this or that; I know everyone is going to be into it. I was walking through the airport recently and people were even talking about it there like, ‘Oh, you’re fighting Urijah Faber. I can’t wait to see that fight.’ People are excited, and it makes me excited.
“I’m the No. 1 contender right now, and there is no one I can fight that is going to put me any higher in the title picture,” he added. “I figured why not fight a guy like Urijah who has done so much in his career? He’s a legend in the lighter weight classes, and he’s highly ranked himself at 135-pounds. For the most part, he only fights championship fights so why not? Why not add him to the list?”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
There has been a lot of promotional muscle put behind Paige VanZant, and her fellow strawweight Tecia Torres is none too happy about it. And for good reason.
Not only does “The Tiny Tornado” own a win over the 20-year-old Nevada native, but she is also…
There has been a lot of promotional muscle put behind Paige VanZant, and her fellow strawweightTecia Torres is none too happy about it. And for good reason.
Not only does “The Tiny Tornado” own a win over the 20-year-old Nevada native, but she is also currently ranked seven spots above “PVZ” in the current UFC rankings system for the 115-pound collective. Yet, despite those details, it’s VanZant who grabbed a Reebok sponsorship, and her upcoming bout against Felice Herrig at UFC on Fox 15 is elevated enough to make the promotional poster.
The recent women’s strawweight title bout between Carla Esparza and Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 185 this past Saturday in Dallas didn’t receive that push on the original version of the event’s promotional efforts, but nothing is promised in the ever-evolving world of fight promotion at the highest levels of MMA.
Torres admits she understands how certain things play out in the fight game, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it one bit.
She recently discussed her feelings toward the promotional push VanZant has received during a media scrum at UFC 185 last Saturday in Dallas.
There’s a little part of me that is jealous of the spotlight Paige is getting since I did beat her. She’s fighting Felice and I think that’s a good matchup for her because I think they are on an equal level. I’ve thought about it a lot and I think I really want Felice to win just because of the spotlight Paige is getting. I want Felice to win because I want people to see—not that she’s just a pretty face—but that’s she’s not on my level. I’m not saying I like Felice better—I think Paige is a cool girl—but I’m going for Felice in that fight.
While Torres has no control over where the UFC puts its promotional push, the one thing she can continue to do is continue her climb up the strawweight ranks. Although she had a rough run on Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter, she bounced back strong at the finale event, where she put a lopsided beating on Angela Magana to take the unanimous-decision victory and earn her first official win inside the Octagon.
The 25-year-old American Top Team representative will get her next opportunity to prove herself inside the cage when she faces another former housemate in Angela Hill. The two scrappy strawweights are slated to throw down at UFC 188 on June 13 in Mexico City.
With Joanna Jedrzejczyk recently dethroningCarla Esparza at UFC 185, the path to a title opportunity in the women’s 115-pound division is wide open. Torres plans to prove what she’s made of once again against Hill and show the decision-makers in the UFC that she truly deserves their attention.
I’m just going to show the world with my hands who ‘The Tiny Tornado’ is again in June. I know a lot of people expected me to win the show. It went a different way, but I really feel I’m a better fighter with my own camp, my teammates and my family around.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Anthony Pettis won’t be forgetting what happened at UFC 185 any time soon.
Not only the did the surging lightweight champion have his title taken away by Rafael dos Anjos, but it also was done so in brutal and prolonged fashion. The Kings MMA figh…
Not only the did the surging lightweight champion have his title taken away by Rafael dos Anjos, but it also was done so in brutal and prolonged fashion. The Kings MMA fighter jumped out to a red-hot start in the bout as he rocked the Duke Roufus protege with the first hard left hand he threw. The punch landed flush on Pettis’ right eye and snapped his head back upon impact.
The strike from “RDA” put the Milwaukee native on his heels, and on the defensive is where he would stay throughout the entire five-round affair. Whether against the cage or off his back, Pettis was constantly battling to weather the barrage of shots dos Anjos was launching at him. The end result was a lopsided beatdown of a champion who had built his reputation for lightning-quick first-round finishes where he’d taken little to no damage.
That certainly wasn’t the case Saturday nightm and UFC President Dana White gave an update on the former champion’s health during his interview on the Fox Sports 1 UFC 185 post-show.
“He got stitches on his eyebrow,” White said. “Not a bad cut. He got seven stitches, and he’s got a concussion. He said after he got hit with that first shot he wasn’t feeling right for the rest of the fight.”
While the 28-year-old lightweight’s bumps and bruises will certainly heal, it will be interesting to see how he rebounds from the loss to dos Anjos at UFC 185. Pettis’ game is fueled by confidence, and from that, he’s been able to pull off some of the most creative techniques to ever be displayed inside of the cage. Yet, there was no flash in his game at UFC 185, as his confidence appeared zapped shortly after dos Anjos’ left hand found its mark.
There is also the additional factor of the bout being an extended one-sided beating. It’s one thing to lose a fight and/or a title via knockout or quick submission, but it’s an entirely different animal to come out on the business end of a 25-minute onslaught. While time will eventually tell the tale as to whether or not Pettis can reclaim his “Showtime” status, what happened at UFC 185 jolted many in the MMA community. And of that collective, Dana White was certainly a member, saying, “I didn’t think anybody could do that to Anthony Pettis.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
As the saying goes, “Everything is bigger in Texas.” And that certainly was the case for UFC 185.
With the promotion’s 2015 campaign getting off to a memorable yet rocky start in the new year, the biggest stage in MMA put a major focus on its return to…
As the saying goes, “Everything is bigger in Texas.” And that certainly was the case for UFC 185.
With the promotion’s 2015 campaign getting off to a memorable yet rocky start in the new year, the biggest stage in MMA put a major focus on its return to Dallas on Saturday night. Rather than the normal pay-per-view format of surrounding a pair of high-profile fights with a mixture of recognizable names and ones fans are likely to have never heard of, the Las Vegas-based operation used the guns-blazing approach for UFC 185.
The card’s lineup was stacked from top to bottom with interesting matchups, with the top of the bill anchored by highly anticipated title fights in the women’s strawweight and men’s lightweight divisions. Carla Esparza, The Ultimate Fighter 20 winner and inaugural women’s 115-pound champion, put her title on the line for the first time against Polish upstart Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Meanwhile, pound-for-pound phenom Anthony Pettis returned to action to square off with seasoned veteran Rafael dos Anjos with the 155-pound title up for grabs.
While other bouts on the card fueled fight fans’ excitement in the lead-up to UFC 185, the title tilt between Showtime and the Kings MMA representative definitely held the most electricity. Pettis has been a wrecking machine since joining the UFC fold back in 2011, but where the Duke Roufus protege built his name on defeating a collection of former champions and contenders during his time atop the 155-pound fold, Dos Anjos accomplished many of the same tasks to earn his shot at championship gold.
The Brazilian’s title shot at UFC 185 was as hard-earned as any in recent memory, and it set the stage for a crucial showdown for the top spot in what is arguably the most talent-stacked division in the UFC. The main event on Saturday night was figured to be a barnburner, but once the action began, it was all Dos Anjos.
The Rafael Cordeiro-trained fighter dominated Pettis from start to finish to earn a lopsided unanimous decision and become the new champion of the lightweight division. Not only did he pull off the most impressive performance of his career, but his victory capped off one of the best redemption stories in the history of mixed martial arts.
Let’s take a look at the good, bad and strange from UFC 185.
The Good
On November 15, 2008, Rafael dos Anjos made his UFC debut.
On that night in Las Vegas, the young Brazilian became highlight-reel fodder courtesy of an uppercut from Jeremy Stephens in the third round at UFC 91. At the time, RDA wasn’t much more than a jiu-jitsu practitioner who was looking to make good in mixed martial arts, and if the way things went down against Lil Heathen and Tyson Griffin in his next bout were any indication, his time under the UFC banner was going to be short-lived.
Fast forward six years and the Kings MMA representative is the new lightweight champion thanks to his five-round thrashing of Anthony Pettis at UFC 185. Like most of his bouts at the elite level of the 155-pound fold, Dos Anjos came into his bout with Showtime as a heavy underdog, and once again the Brazilian veteran rose to the occasion. He dominated the Duke Roufus-trained fighter throughout the 25-minute affair, battering Pettis in a fashion no other man before him had done.
It was a spectacular performance from start to finish and one that will put the definitive stamp on Dos Anjos‘ climb to prominence. With the 155-pound division hosting a collection of hungry contenders in waiting, it won’t be long before he’ll have to defend his title. That said, March 14, 2015, in Dallas is a night that belonged entirely to him.
*** There were a lot of jokes made about Joanna Jedrzejczyk‘s name coming into UFC 185, but in the aftermath of her trouncing of Carla Esparza in Dallas, “champion” is the only label that matters. The Polish striker punished The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 winner, putting on an absolute clinic in the co-main event. After Jedrzejczyk stuffed several of Esparza‘s takedowns, the champion had nothing to offer as the challenger smashed her with one heavy shot after the next.
With Esparza barely surviving the opening round, Jedrzejczyk picked up where she left off in the second and finished The Cookie Monster with a flurry of shots to become the new champion of the women’s strawweight division.
*** The story going into his bout with Matt Brown at UFC 185 was how in shape Johny Hendricks appeared to be. BiggRigg may have had a new look going into Saturday night, but it was old-school Hendricks that defeated The Immortal in Dallas. The two-time NCAA D-I national champion went to his wrestling early and often as he put Brown on the canvas continuously throughout the fight. The end result was Hendricks’ earning the lopsided unanimous-decision victory and positioning himself to face the winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald at the end of 2015.
*** Championship belts are to be collected in the eyes of Alistair Overeem, and The Demolition Man took another step toward a shot at the UFC heavyweight crown by defeating Roy Nelson Saturday night. While his performance was a curious mix of efficiency and evasion, Overeem controlled the action at range, where he tagged Big Country with body kicks.
Nelson dropped him with a big left hand late in the fight, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide of the fight. Overeem took the unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards and picked up his third victory in his last four outings inside the Octagon.
*** Elias Theodorou came to UFC 185 determined to keep his unblemished record intact and take another step up the middleweight ladder at the expense of RogarNarvaez. The Ultimate Fighter: Nations winner wasted zero time getting to work as he set a hard-charging pace from the opening bell that kept the Corpus Christi native on his heels in defense mode.
While the opening round was close, The Spartan poured it on in the second frame and pounded out Narvaez to earn the TKO stoppage. With the win, Theodorou has now won three bouts inside the Octagon and will draw a bigger name in the 185-pound fold for his next outing.
*** While Sergio Pettis doesn’t carry the accomplished resume his brother had built, the amount of hype surrounding him often casts the opponents he faces in the long-shot role. That was certainly the case Saturday night with Ryan Benoit, as many assumed the hometown fighter would serve his purpose as a steppingstone for the younger Pettis‘ entry into the flyweight fold.
The opening round of the fight supported this notion as Pettis battered Benoit at every turn throughout the first five minutes. Victory seemed like a foregone conclusion, until a perfectly timed left hook from Benoit leveled the Duke Roufus-trained prospect.
Benoit’s shot crumpled Pettis to the canvas, and the young Texan immediately pounced on his wounded opponent. He unloaded a flurry of shots as Pettis attempted to recover, but Benoit’s flurry was simply too much, and the bout was stopped early in the second round. While the victory over Pettis is the biggest of his career, Benoit will lose a few sportsmanship points for throwing a kick at the Milwaukee native shortly after the referee stepped in. Nevertheless, it was a phenomenal comeback for Benoit, who has plenty of reasons to celebrate after his victory at UFC 185.
*** As the last man to defeat Irish sensation ConorMcGregor inside the cage, there was a lot of buzz surrounding Joseph Duffy’s official Octagon debut at UFC 185. The scrappy Irish lightweight lived up to expectations as he made quick work of Jake Lindsey, finishing The Librarian with a vicious flurry midway through the opening round. Duffy planted a left head kick on Lindsey up against the cage followed by a brutal body shot that put the Kansas native on the canvas and forced the referee to stop the fight.
While Duffy was impressive in his debut, his trainer FirasZahabi told Joe Rogan post-fight that he was going to drop down to featherweight for his next bout in his pursuit of McGregor. Starching your opponent and then putting a target on the hottest commodity under the UFC banner made Duffy’s showing at UFC 185 a great example of how to make a memorable first impression.
The Bad
Few fighters have competed in the UFC’s lightweight division longer than Sam Stout has.
Hands of Stone made his promotional debut back in 2006 and has been mixing it up inside the Octagon for the better part of the past decade. Yet, consistency has always been an issue for the Ontario native, and those woes continued Saturday night against Ross Pearson. Despite a gritty effort to get the job done, the seasoned veteran ate a blistering left hook from The Real Deal that sealed the deal for Pearson. With the loss, Stout has now suffered back-to-back setbacks and has been defeated in three of his last four showings.
Where Stout was once considered one of the gamest fighters in the 155-pound ranks, that status has come into question over recent years. His tendency to “give one, take one” where wins and losses are concerned kept him relevant while the lightweight division was developing, but the current shark-tank status at 155 moves is no place for inconsistency. At 30 years old, Stout should just be coming into his fighting prime, but 19 UFC appearances—and losses in 10 of those bouts—could have well taken their toll.
The Strange
Living up to the hype is a difficult task to accomplish, and Sergio Pettis is currently in the process of figuring this out.
While The Phenom had won three of his four showings inside the Octagon coming into his bout with Ryan Benoit at UFC 185, the Duke Roufus-trained fighter had yet to put on the caliber of performance to match the level of expectations attached to his name. When the bout against Baby Face began, it appeared the 21-year-old striker was well on his way to getting that done. He was battering Benoit at range and controlling and punishing his opponent when the action went to the canvas.
Everything seemed to be going to plan for Pettis until he drifted in on an exchange in the second round and was floored by a left hook from Benoit. Dazed and hurt on the mat, Pettis attempted to scramble and recover, but Benoit poured it on, and the referee stepped in to stop the fight. With his second loss in four showings, Pettis will lose a bit of luster on his highly touted status. That said, the skills he possesses are obvious, and both of his losses have come abruptly in fights where he had been dominating the action.
There will be plenty of time for Pettis to come into his own inside the Octagon, but there is a limited amount of time and errors allowed where hype and expectation are concerned. This especially rings true when his older brother is one of the most accomplished and exciting fighters in the sport, which undoubtedly creates an even loftier pedestal to reach.
While there was a minimal amount of strange inside the Octagon on Saturday night, a poor choice from the UFC’s production team brought the noise in the awkward department. With the Dallas crowd worked up from a good night of fights, the UFC decided to do a close up of former Cowboy-turned-Philadelphia Eagle DeMarco Murray on the pay-per-view portion of the card.
Dallas fans are passionate about their football and equally driven in their hatred for their rivals in Philadelphia. The departure of the Pro Bowl running back from “The Big D” was big news earlier in the week, and when Murray’s face hit the screen on Saturday night, a strong chorus of boos immediately followed.
From the look on Murray’s face, it was clear he not only wanted to get out of the American Airlines Center but the city of Dallas in quick fashion.
In closing, the durability of Roy Nelson has become the stuff of legend. The former IFL heavyweight champion has put on some of the grittiest performances in the current era of the sport, and the heart he displayed in bouts against Junior dos Santos and Fabricio Werdum are memorable examples of how difficult the Las Vegas native is to finish.
On Saturday night at UFC 185, The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 winner added another battle to his resume as he and Alistair Overeem mixed it up for 15 minutes of heavyweight violence. And although Nelson ate one big body kick after the next, he was still throwing heat until the final bell. He even dropped Overeem with a powerful left hook late in the final round but was unable to finish and lost the bout on the scorecards.
It was an unfortunate turn for Nelson, who has now lost four of his last five fights, but he’ll be damned if he’s not one of the toughest outs to ever step into the Octagon on fight night.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Every surging talent in the fight game inevitably reaches a point where the time to show and prove comes front and center. For up-and-coming welterweight Ryan LaFlare, that moment will arrive this Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro.