The spectacle of the early days of the UFC are a long way behind us, and there were certainly many ups and downs. The path was all new, and the learning curve was large for the people behind the scenes and the fighters in the cage as everyone lear…
The spectacle of the early days of the UFC are a long way behind us, and there were certainly many ups and downs. The path was all new, and the learning curve was large for the people behind the scenes and the fighters in the cage as everyone learned what it took to make the sport a success.
Some memories make you cringe, and some make you laugh. Make no mistake there are vivid and fond memories from the first 10 events that were ever held by the UFC. Fighters such as Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Kimo Leopoldo, Oleg Taktarov and Tank Abbott are etched in our minds.
In the fight game, you can never sit still and rest on your laurels or past success. There is always someone out there who is gunning for your status, your name or to take money off your next pay cheque.The men who hold the titles in each division…
In the fight game, you can never sit still and rest on your laurels or past success. There is always someone out there who is gunning for your status, your name or to take money off your next pay cheque.
The men who hold the titles in each division are the obviously marked, with all others below them gunning to reach the top of the mountain. Those eight champions aside, there are many other men in the UFC who for various transgressions and reasons have a target dead in the middle of their back.
Anything from a personal grudge, a previous loss, current and future status or simply a sideways stare in the back hall can get one man gunning after another man’s head in the UFC.
Here are 10 non-champions with targets on their backs.
Being a fight fan at my age means having followed this sport from the very beginning and keeping it dialed in through the many evolutions that the UFC has gone through to today.Money, business model and hype machine aside, my eyes and interest always c…
Being a fight fan at my age means having followed this sport from the very beginning and keeping it dialed in through the many evolutions that the UFC has gone through to today.
Money, business model and hype machine aside, my eyes and interest always come back to the fighters and the fights. The game was built to succeed on the backs of the old school fighters like Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott, on down to Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Randy Couture.
It seems every generation of fighters is replaced seamlessly by the next with some exciting new tricks and some familiar styles. Many of our favorite, old school fighters have been replaced by a younger version of themselves, much to the delight of the fans.
It can be a similar style, attitude or career path that mirrors the old and the new.
Here are some old school Fighters and their new school Equivalents.
After all the fight hype leading up to the show, the Score Fighting Series 5 delivered and then some from the Hamilton Place Theatre on Saturday night.In the highlight of the show for me—and clearly the “Fight Of The Night” on a card that ha…
After all the fight hype leading up to the show, the Score Fighting Series 5 delivered and then some from the Hamilton Place Theatre on Saturday night.
In the highlight of the show for me—and clearly the “Fight Of The Night” on a card that had some good bouts—Jesse “The Body Snatcher” Ronson showcased a brilliant striking game to defeat Alex Ricci via unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
Ronson was the sharper of the two from the get-go, and he knocked Ricci down with strong punches and kicks on multiple occasions in the fight. Ricci is highly skilled, as well, and despite the first loss of his career, he showed tremendous toughness and will. Ronson was technical as well as aggressive in his approach, and he is poised for bigger things in the very near future.
In the main event of the evening, hometown hero and undefeated bantamweight Josh “Gentleman” Hill dominated veteran Sarnia, Ontario native John Fraser in a fight that certainly wasn’t as close as I thought it would be.
Hill got takedowns early in Rounds 1 and 2 after Fraser came in wild and tried to strike. Once on his back, Fraser had no answer for the strength and conditioning of Hill. Hill cut Fraser in the first round with a short elbow, and he rained down punches throughout the fight. Hill took the unanimous decision win 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
The UFC should be next for him if it is looking to showcase the best in the world.
The Score once again delivered a strong card of high-caliber Canadian talent, and most did not disappoint when the cage door closed behind them.
In other main card action, Milwaukee native and Duke Rufous-trained featherweight, Rick Glenn, took out Tristan Johnson with a solid all-around performance that included takedowns that Johnson was unable to answer. Glenn won via second-round TKO and then took the mic in the post fight and called out local Canadian favorite Chris “The Polish Hammer” Horodecki for a fight on the next show.
It was announced during the show that Horodecki will be fighting on the October SFS card in Sarnia.
Kyle Prepolec bounced back after a vicious low blow that almost ended his night to defeat the always-tough Jason Meisel. I had Prepolec up in the first round when a hard kick to the groin floored him for almost the full five minutes of allowed recovery time.
He then went on and submitted Meisel with a very impressive triangle choke from the guard. He moves to 5-1 in his pro career.
Many top fighters were in attendance either cornering or supporting other fighters: Ben Askren, Sam Stout, Chris Clements, Chris Horodecki, Antonio Carvalho, Mitch Gagnon, Sean Pierson and Claude Patrick were all in attendence.
The rest of the results:
Elias Theodorou defeated Simon Marini via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jason Saggo defeated Eric Attard via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:24 of Round 1
Ryan Dickson defeated Chris St. Jean via TKO at 2:42 of Round 1
Adam Assenza defeated Taylor Solomon via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Eric Montgomery defeated Frank Marques via TKO doctor stoppage at 4:20 of Round 1
Jeff Sharkey defeated Robert Thomas via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca.
With the whirlwind of anger being directed at Jon Jones following UFC 151 being deleted from existence, only one question comes to my mind: Was Jones told that his declining to fight Chael Sonnen would cost the fans and fellow fighters the entire 151 c…
With the whirlwind of anger being directed at Jon Jones following UFC 151 being deleted from existence, only one question comes to my mind: Was Jones told that his declining to fight Chael Sonnen would cost the fans and fellow fighters the entire 151 card?
It is a very important question to ask before you blame the light heavyweight champion for the loss of an entire event.
Selfish decision or not, Jones has the right to accept or decline a fight at anytime. He signed to fight Dan Henderson, and Henderson got hurt. That leaves him and his management free to listen to the UFC’s plans and accept them or not.
Regardless of what Jones decides, the show must go on. It’s as simple as that. Word came out on Friday per USA Today that Lyoto Machida was offered to step in, in a rematch that Jones reluctantly accepted. Then, Machida declined. Why no hate towards Lyoto? Lyoto should be chomping at the bit to avenge what happened to him last December—eight days or not.
These men are highly trained athletes who should be able to fight with little notice, and we have some of them declining left, right and center.
So now, it turns out it will be Jones vs. Vitor Belfort on September 22nd at UFC 152 in Toronto.
Instead of cancelling the 151 card card and leaving fans, other fighters and themselves furious, the UFC and president Dana White should have used their muscle to force two fighters to fill in and make this card happen.
There is talk that they did not want another low-value, low-revenue event to go down, and I say that is completely the wrong approach. Stand by your roster and to hell with all those “fans” and “media” who bitch and complain about quality of card and declining pay-per-view numbers.
The UFC is playing right into the hands of those complainers by cancelling an entire card and saying it is not worthy of going off. The show must go on. If UFC 149 in Calgary was not cancelled, then no card should be cancelled, and the UFC has now opened a vicious can of worms. The show must go on. Did I say that already?
Chris Weidman told MMAFighting.com that he offered to step in and fight Jones for his belt, and we all know that Chael Sonnen was an inch away from talking himself into a shot; and people are holding him up on a pedestal. Of course these two wanted to fight. It is a win-win for both of them to get a shot at Jones.
Why not settle them both down by saying, “OK boys, you both want to fight and Jones doesn’t. You two are the UFC 151 main event. Go save the card.” Sonnen vs Weidman. Would they be as eager to put it on the line against each other? I’m not so sure.
You can say chicken Jones all you want, but we all know that is not the case. Be as mad as you want at him for not wanting to fight Sonnen and all comers. Just don’t blame Jones for the cancelling of UFC 151.
It wasn’t his decision to scrap the entire thing. All he did was decline a fight on eight days notice. If you want to be mad at someone for cancelling the card, be mad at White for making a frustrated, emotional decision that certainly can’t and won’t be good for business.
The Score Fighting Series is back in Ontario this weekend for its fifth show and it can boast that it has booked the best main and co-main event in the promotion’s young history. The 12-fight card will be headlined by an elite bantamweight fight with m…
The Score Fighting Series is back in Ontario this weekend for its fifth show and it can boast that it has booked the best main and co-main event in the promotion’s young history. The 12-fight card will be headlined by an elite bantamweight fight with major implications as John “Haggis Basher” Fraser (10-3) will put his status and experience to the test against undefeated young phenom Josh “Gentleman” Hill (8-0).
The 34-year-old Fraser has been at the top of the bantamweight food chain in both Ontario and Canada for many years now with victories over Thierry Quenneville, Eric Wilson, Chuck Mady and most recently Travis Reddinger. He brings an extremely well-rounded game to the cage with relentless submissions being his forte. Hill has burst on the scene and gone undefeated in eight fights since 2009. The 25-year-old out of Iron Muay Thai is a superior athlete with explosive speed and has taken out Randy Turner, Diego Wilson and Eric Wilson on his streak. Fraser is a step up from anyone that Hill, to date, has faced, and this fight will determine exactly where the young phenom fits in the pecking order at this stage of his career.
Before the main event gets started, fans will be in for a wild ride in the co-main as two of Canada’s hottest and best strikers will come face-to-face in the lightweight division. London’s Jesse “The Body Snatcher” Ronson (10-3) will put his skills to the test against Woodbridge native and elite kickboxer turned MMA fighter Alex Ricci (5-0). Ronson is looking better than he ever has and has six knockouts in his 10 wins and only one win going to a decision. His performance last December against veteran Tony Hervey at SFS 3 is one of the best displays of technical striking I have ever seen.
It is very early in Ricci’s MMA career, but he has an incredible amount of hype behind him right now, based on his dominant performances to date. I thought that he would be very tough in his last fight against Adrenaline Training Center tough guy Iraj Hadin, but Ricci knocked him out in just over three minutes. His speed and length are proving to be tough puzzles to solve, but Ronson is better than any fighter that Ricci has seen.
The rest of the card is packed and stacked with some of the best climbing fighters in Ontario such as Tristan Johnson, Will Romero, Jason Saggo, Ryan Dickson, Elias Theodorou, Kyle Prepolec, Lyndon Whitlock and Jason Miesel.
The Score will once again deliver a top notch show for fight fans in Ontario with many exciting and relevant fights. Hamilton Place Theatre should be raucous and rocking on Saturday night.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca.
After all the fight hype leading up to the show, the Score Fighting Series 5 delivered and then some from the Hamilton Place Theatre on Saturday night.