Author: Elias

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans Aftermath Pt. 2

By Elias Cepeda

(UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre [right] and fan contest winner future champion Rory MacDonald)

Ok, let’s get right to the cheddar – the UFC 145 fight bonuses, which UFC President Dana White announced during the post-event presser (video of entire press conference below). It always warms the heart when the fighters who get the big bonus checks are not the big stars, and that’s what happened at UFC 145.

Ben Rothwell, Travis Browne, Mark Hominick and Eddie Yagin all earned an extra $65,000 for their efforts Saturday night in Atlanta, GA. Rothwell got the KO of the night for his come-from-behind stoppage of Brendan Schaub. Browne got the night’s only submission but it was still a good one – forcing Chad Griggs to tap out to an arm triangle choke.

Eddie Yagin and Mark Hominick both took home fight of the night honors for their back and forth war. Yagin also took home the win bonus for earning the split-decision win over the former featherweight #1 contender.

The Immortal beats The Karate Kid and GSP-lite continues to impress

Matt Brown took a little steam out of the home town Karate Kid Stephen Thompson with a unanimous decision win. Thompson burst onto the UFC scene with a nifty lead leg KO at UFC 143. Brown has a toughness that his win to loss ratio doesn’t necessarily reveal, and a win over a top prospect like Thompson helps “The Immortal” get back on the slow climb up in the welterweight division.

Staying in the welterweight division for a moment, Rory MacDonald continued to prove that he is the division’s brightest young star

By Elias Cepeda

(UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre [right] and fan contest winner future champion Rory MacDonald)

Ok, let’s get right to the cheddar – the UFC 145 fight bonuses, which UFC President Dana White announced during the post-event presser (video of entire press conference below). It always warms the heart when the fighters who get the big bonus checks are not the big stars, and that’s what happened at UFC 145.

Ben Rothwell, Travis Browne, Mark Hominick and Eddie Yagin all earned an extra $65,000 for their efforts Saturday night in Atlanta, GA. Rothwell got the KO of the night for his come-from-behind stoppage of Brendan Schaub. Browne got the night’s only submission but it was still a good one – forcing Chad Griggs to tap out to an arm triangle choke.

Eddie Yagin and Mark Hominick both took home fight of the night honors for their back and forth war. Yagin also took home the win bonus for earning the split-decision win over the former featherweight #1 contender.

The Immortal beats The Karate Kid and GSP-lite continues to impress

Matt Brown took a little steam out of the home town Karate Kid Stephen Thompson with a unanimous decision win. Thompson burst onto the UFC scene with a nifty lead leg KO at UFC 143. Brown has a toughness that his win to loss ratio doesn’t necessarily reveal, and a win over a top prospect like Thompson helps “The Immortal” get back on the slow climb up in the welterweight division.

Staying in the welterweight division for a moment, Rory MacDonald continued to prove that he is the division’s brightest young star. MacDonald took on the underrated Che Mills and, after getting tagged a little too much by Mills’ sharp striking, took him down at will and dominated on the ground.

MacDonald exhibited smooth striking-to-takedown transitions, excellent ground control and vicious, well-balanced ground striking en route to a second round TKO win over Mills. The twenty two year-old has only lost to current interim champion Carlos Condit, and that was after a fight that MacDonald was arguably winning at points.

Last week Georges St. Pierre said that he believes his fellow Canadian and training partner MacDonald will be the 170 lb champion one day. The two have said they won’t fight one another.

I’m sure they are friends and respect each other. But at least a small part of GSP not wanting to fight MacDonald is because it can’t be that much fun to do so.

Miguel Torres’ future

Miguel Torres’ year didn’t get any better with a knockout loss to top bantamweight prospect Michael McDonald. McDonald threw fast and hard punch combinations at Torres during their brief fight, with a number of uppercuts landing.

The last uppercut landed cleanly and knocked the former champion Torres out on contact. Torres has now lost two out of his last three, though this was the first decisive loss for the charismatic fighter since 2010.

More importantly, however, is how well Torres will be able to recover from such a bad knockout. He is a young man by society’s standards at just 31 years of age. But, considering his weight class, where speed and reaction time is so crucial, Torres is beyond a veteran.

There is no telling how much damage Torres’ mind and body have sustained, either. His official record stands at something around 40-5, and goes back twelve years.


(Miguel Torres could find himself in the broadcaster’s booth whenever he ends his long and illustrious career)

That’s an eternity and a huge amount of fights by MMA standards. But Torres likely has dozens more fights that will never appear on any official record. When he was still in high school he’d regularly fight multiple grown men in a single night at unsanctioned events.

Also, anyone who has seen Torres in training knows that he goes harder in practice sparring than many fighters go in competition. And we’ve all seen his warring style in the ring.

Torres has kept up the arrebentacao style and legacy of his mentor, the late, great Carlson Gracie Sr. , and he’s earned world titles, pound for pound rankings and legions of fans because of it. But at some point, his accomplished career will have to come to an end.

Only he knows if Saturday night’s knockout loss brings him closer to that moment or not. Its part of the cruelty of fight sports that careers can be considered full and long, but still leave their owners young, with fire in their heart and their families’ plates needing to be filled.

There is no pension for MMA fighters, no union that will ensure they get at least a living wage in retirement for the blood they’ve spilled and millions they’ve made for their employers. Thankfully, Torres will have a better shot than most fighters at maintaining success once he retires from fighting, whenever that is.

He is college-educated, has been a successful gym business owner for years, and has the kind of reputation – built on accessibility and genuine seeming overall friendliness and community involvement – that could keep him in demand as a trainer and television commentator for years after he hangs up his gloves. At the moment, the bantamweight division moves on with prospects like McDonald and champion Dominick Cruz, but without Torres.

Read Pt 1 of our UFC 145 Aftermath

UFC 145 Post Event Press Conference Video:

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans Aftermath Pt. 1

By Elias Cepeda

(Jon Jones successfully defended his UFC belt against Rashad Evans Saturday night)

For my money, Saturday night’s UFC 145 main event between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans was exactly what I’d want from a high-level grudge match. A quick stoppage could have led of talk of “luck,” or controversy and perhaps an immediate rematch.

Instead, the former training partners got to see each other from many different angles over the course of five long rounds. In so doing, each man passed tests they had yet to before, each got their licks in and we still had a clear winner.

In only his second career loss, Rashad Evans proved that he could get seriously hurt in a fight and keep going. The young champion Jones showed us much as well in going to a decision.

We know that Jones has the conditioning to go the distance. Perhaps more important than that, we now know that Jones, who recently steamrolled Lyoto Machida, Mauricio Rua and Quinton Jackson, won’t necessarily get frustrated when an opponent doesn’t quickly crumble under his onslaught.

Jones stayed patient, measured and effective throughout the fight with Evans, even when the challenger refused to quit after getting rocked. Jones also has a chin on him.

It would have been easy to miss because of how little he reacted to them, but Jones took some heavy single shots from Evans, right to the chin, temple and neck. And he didn’t even flinch.

By Elias Cepeda

(Jon Jones successfully defended his UFC belt against Rashad Evans Saturday night)

For my money, Saturday night’s UFC 145 main event between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans was exactly what I’d want from a high-level grudge match. A quick stoppage could have led of talk of “luck,” or controversy and perhaps an immediate rematch.

Instead, the former training partners got to see each other from many different angles over the course of five long rounds. In so doing, each man passed tests they had yet to before, each got their licks in and we still had a clear winner.

In only his second career loss, Rashad Evans proved that he could get seriously hurt in a fight and keep going. The young champion Jones showed us much as well in going to a decision.

We know that Jones has the conditioning to go the distance. Perhaps more important than that, we now know that Jones, who recently steamrolled Lyoto Machida, Mauricio Rua and Quinton Jackson, won’t necessarily get frustrated when an opponent doesn’t quickly crumble under his onslaught.

Jones stayed patient, measured and effective throughout the fight with Evans, even when the challenger refused to quit after getting rocked. Jones also has a chin on him.

It would have been easy to miss because of how little he reacted to them, but Jones took some heavy single shots from Evans, right to the chin, temple and neck. And he didn’t even flinch.

We know that Evans has single strike KO power and he did find Jones on several occasions, with overhand rights and a clean head kick, but “Bones” ate those shots and kept coming. For someone that has been so elusive and barely touched over the course of his short career, Jones will undoubtedly have some extra confidence when he watches the fight film and sees how cleanly Evans hit him several times, and how well he himself reacted and countered those shots.

That ability will serve Jones well against his next challenger, Dan Henderson. Sergio Non of USA Today is reporting that Hendo will get the next crack at Jones, possibly this summer.

Being able to effectively absorb big single shots is kind of a prerequisite for fighting Henderson, who has one-punched more than his share of top stars over the years, in three different weight classes. Does Henderson’s punch more of a whallop than Evans’? I may be alone in thinking that, not necessarily.

But even if it does, Evans certainly sets up his more varied striking attack better, so that bodes well for Jones. What we can’t possibly know is how well Jones could handle Henderson’s upper body takedowns if Hendo gets in close as Evans did many times last night.

Jones kept his perfect takedown defense streak going Saturday against Evans but Henderson could snap it…or not. Here’s why:

Henderson’s takedown ability, especially from Greco roman style clinches, are on another level compared to Evans’ or anyone not named Randy Couture or Matt Lindland. So, a Hendo focused on staying safe on the feet and getting inside could probably put Jones on his back.

Thing is, trying to “stay safe” on the feet is not really Henderson’s thing. He usually comes out guns blazing with wild punches and that’s why we we’ve seen him get so many knockouts over the years. It’s also why he’s been taken down so many times in fights by people with less wrestling ability than him.

So there’s also a good chance that Jones would put Henderson on his back, which would be disaster for the forty something mega star. In any case, with his power and wrestling ability, Henderson is an easy sell as a title challenger to Jones.

Evans to middleweight?

Where Rashad Evans goes from here is open to question. On the one hand, he fared better than anyone else ever has against Jones by simply surviving for five rounds and also hitting the champ more than a few times.

On the other hand, he’d likely have win another 2-3 fights to be considered for another title shot at light heavyweight. However, if Evans were to drop to the compelling challenger-starved middleweight division, he could conceivably get a title shot with just one win in the division.

Yeah, I know, Evans originally fought in the UFC at heavyweight, but he (like Vitor Belfort before him) was over blown at that weight. And Evans might just be overblown at 205 as well.

Evans’ skill and talent has done a pretty good job of masking what could not be ignored Saturday night – and that’s that he is a small light heavyweight, period. Sure, he looks like a He-Man action figure, but that’s the point.

Someone with Evans’ muscle proportions at light heavyweight is clearly packing on extra weight – albeit muscle – to compete at 205. Evans looked like he was fighting his uncle against Jones, and that size disparity isn’t going anywhere. Hell, Evans is shorter than many top middleweights, including, (in my eye-ball estimation) champion Anderson Silva.

If Evans can find someway to, over time, change his body composition a bit and head to middleweight, he would immediately be a legit title contender, both in terms of marketability and in terms of his skill set. He’s a former champion, one of the bigger names in the sport, so that could help him get a quick title shot, like we’ve seen with Kenny Florian.

But Evans also brings the type of speed, power and wrestling that could give Anderson Silva or Chael Sonnen problems. Immediately after his loss Saturday to Jones, Evans’ pride wouldn’t allow him to concede his chances at light heavyweight, but he didn’t slam the door on middleweight either.

“I’m a 205-pounder,” Evans said at the post-event press conference. “I’ve only lost twice…But if an opportunity happens at 185, I’ll take it.”

Read Part 2 of the Aftermath for details on fight bonuses, GSP’s protege and what the future might hold for Miguel Torres.

[EXCLUSIVE] Keith Kizer Says He Does Not Expect Alistair Overeem to Apply for Therapeutic Use Exemption

By Elias Cepeda


(Photo via Esther Lin & MMAFighting )

A week before he will appear before the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his failed March drug test and to request a license to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, the NSAC’s Executive Director Keith Kizer says that Alistair Overeem’s legal team has yet to request additional sample tests or to indicate that they will apply for a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.

“They’ve asked for no additional testing ,” Kizer told CagePotato.com. “I have talked with Overeem’s attorney and that issue has not been raised.”

“He has not indicated what [Overeem’s] defense will be, but he has not said to me, as I’m sure he would have if he was using it, that [Overeem] is on TRT,” Kizer continued. “That is not to say that they could not still make that case and ask for a therapeutic use exemption for TRT, but if they do, I’d be as shocked as the next person. We’ll all see what they do when April 24th comes around.”

When Overeem’s hearing does take place in one week, Kizer anticipates that the fighter will not have an easy road to getting licensed again. “It is going to be a very tough hearing for Mr. Overeem, to say the least,” Kizer said.

By Elias Cepeda


(Photo via Esther Lin & MMAFighting )

A week before he Alistair Overeem Gets April 24th NSAC Hearing” href=”http://www.cagepotato.com/alistair-overeem-gets-april-24th-nsac-hearing/” target=”_blank”>will appear before the Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his failed March drug test and to request a license to fight Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, the NSAC’s Executive Director Keith Kizer says that Alistair Overeem’s legal team has yet to request additional sample tests or to indicate that they will apply for a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy.

“They’ve asked for no additional testing ,” Kizer told CagePotato.com. “I have talked with Overeem’s attorney and that issue has not been raised.”

“He has not indicated what [Overeem’s] defense will be, but he has not said to me, as I’m sure he would have if he was using it, that [Overeem] is on TRT,” Kizer continued. “That is not to say that they could not still make that case and ask for a therapeutic use exemption for TRT, but if they do, I’d be as shocked as the next person. We’ll all see what they do when April 24th comes around.”

When Overeem’s hearing does take place in one week, Kizer anticipates that the fighter will not have an easy road to getting licensed again. “It is going to be a very tough hearing for Mr. Overeem, to say the least,” Kizer said.

The fact that Overeem previously failed to hand in samples for testing to the commission on time, will be relevant in the coming hearing, Kizer says.

“This is a lot different and a lot tougher [than Overeem’s last licensing hearing] come April 24th,” Kizer said. “What happened [before] is going to be very relevant. But the biggest relevancy to the commission’s decision this time will be what happened in March.”

A urine sample collected by the NSAC from Overeem on March 27th came back showing a testosterone to epitestosterone  ratio of 14:1, in excess of the 6:1 ration that the state commission allows. That test counted as one of the two surprise tests Overeem had agreed to be subjected to by the NSAC in a six-month period  as a part of a conditional license he was issued to fight Brock Lesnar in late December after the Dutch fighter tested and turned in a sample for testing weeks late.

Overeem’s conditional license expired after 2011. In order to obtain another license in Nevada to fight in his schedule title bout against Dos Santos, he has to appear before the NSAC on April 24th. The commission cannot suspend an unlicensed fighter for a failed drug test, but they can take into account Overeem’s recent screening results in deciding whether or not to issue a license to him.

Overeem’s failed test was of his ‘A’ sample. He has the right to ask the commission to test the ‘B’ sample he provided in March. Because Nevada does sometimes issue therapeutic use exemptions to some fighters to allow them to use otherwise banned substances and treatments (like testosterone replacement therapy) which could potentially alter a fighter’s testosterone levels and testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, it has been speculated that Overeem might apply for a TRT therapeutic use exemption with the commission, claiming a medical need for the therapy. As of now, that doesn’t seem to be the approach that Overeem will take while defending himself and re-applying for licensure next week.

Alistair Overeem’s Manager Says All Will Be Revealed in One Week With “Reasonable Explanation”


(Come on, would we let you down?)

So #1 UFC heavyweight title contender Alistair Overeem failed a late March surprise drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for having a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio level higher than five men of Krypton and is now scheduled to appear before the commission in one week to ask for a license to face champ Junior Dos Santos May 26th. But not to worry, Reem fans: Alistair’s manager assures that his fighter will have a “reasonable explanation” for his unreasonable levels, according to Inside MMA‘s Ron Kruck, via CagedInsider.

“I spoke with Glenn Robinson, manager of Overeem and he says he is very respectful and is hopeful that he will be granted his license and the entire team is very confident that he will be facing Junior dos Santos come May 26th,” Kruck said.

“Now Robinson wanted to make it very clear that despite other reports, Overeem did not test high for testosterone, but rather his testosterone to epitestosterone was off and he has a reasonable explanation to why that is, which he will present to the commission next Tuesday.”


(Come on, would we let you down?)

So #1 UFC heavyweight title contender Alistair Overeem failed a late March surprise drug test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for having a testosterone to epitestosterone ratio level higher than five men of Krypton and is now scheduled to appear before the commission in one week to ask for a license to face champ Junior Dos Santos May 26th. But not to worry, Reem fans: Alistair’s manager assures that his fighter will have a “reasonable explanation” for his unreasonable levels, according to Inside MMA‘s Ron Kruck, via CagedInsider.

“I spoke with Glenn Robinson, manager of Overeem and he says he is very respectful and is hopeful that he will be granted his license and the entire team is very confident that he will be facing Junior dos Santos come May 26th,” Kruck said.

“Now Robinson wanted to make it very clear that despite other reports, Overeem did not test high for testosterone, but rather his testosterone to epitestosterone was off and he has a reasonable explanation to why that is, which he will present to the commission next Tuesday.”

If the UFC hadn’t refused to replace Overeem to this point and rule out most viable possible replacements should he not get licensed — and if the NSAC wasn’t in a tricky position of dealing with their first-ever positive test from an out-of-competition surprise test, coupled with their past openness to allowing therapeutic use exemptions for things like testosterone replacement therapy — we’d say Robinson was nuts for thinking his client would get licensed. But as it stands, who knows?

Overeem can still apply for a TUE, and the commission can grant it. We’ll see what defense he gives and if the commission will buy it, in light of his toying with their emotions regulations before his last fight.

– Elias Cepeda

[VIDEO] BJ Penn Discusses Retirement Without Ever Using the Word Itself


(Come on brah, would you give up this life to wrestle with a bunch of fence holders? | Photo via FIGHT!)

My good friend Karyn Bryant, host of MMA Heat, recently interviewed former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn and asked him if he was still retired. Penn said he was grateful for the attention but that he doesn’t intend to fight right now.

“At the moment, I don’t have any plans to fight,” Penn said. “I have nothing scheduled, I’m just kind of taking it easy at this point in my life. As of right now, yeah, I’m not entering the Octagon anytime soon.”

Penn says that losing to Nick Diaz last fall was not the only reason he decided to stop competing. “The fight was a tough fight but I don’t think it was just that fight. I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said.

Bryant revealed to Penn that she had spoken to his boxing coach Jason Parillo, and that Parillo said he recently held pads for BJ. So why would Penn be hitting pads if he was retired?


(Come on brah, would you give up this life to wrestle with a bunch of fence holders? | Photo via FIGHT!)

My good friend Karyn Bryant, host of MMA Heat, recently interviewed former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn and asked him if he was still retired. Penn said he was grateful for the attention but that he doesn’t intend to fight right now.

“At the moment, I don’t have any plans to fight,” Penn said. “I have nothing scheduled, I’m just kind of taking it easy at this point in my life. As of right now, yeah, I’m not entering the Octagon anytime soon.”

Penn says that losing to Nick Diaz last fall was not the only reason he decided to stop competing. “The fight was a tough fight but I don’t think it was just that fight. I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said.

Bryant revealed to Penn that she had spoken to his boxing coach Jason Parillo, and that Parillo said he recently held pads for BJ. So why would Penn be hitting pads if he was retired?

“That’s a good question,” Penn said with a smile on his face. “That’s actually the first time I threw a punch since October, late October, since I fought. I don’t know. I was enjoying myself but I don’t know, it takes a lot. It takes a lot. These guys are the top athletes in the world, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to compete with these people and you have to want to do it and you have to be there mentally.”

Penn’s words give insight to where he is in his life right now. After over a decade of fighting, perhaps he doesn’t see himself as having the commitment necessary to compete at the elite level he always has. Then again, watch the video below for yourself and notice that Penn doesn’t actually ever use the word “retire” himself.

– Elias Cepeda

Dana White Talks International Expansion and UFC Regional Titles


(Think cell phones are hard to operate now, Dana? Just wait until you try to use ones with Hindi and Mandarin keypads.)

On the heels of breaking into another new country and the ratings success of The Ultimate Fighter‘s first international version, UFC President Dana White is open to launching regional titles for the promotion. “The bottom line is as we start kicking off all these ‘Ultimate Fighters’ in other countries, it’s going to open up the floodgates for a lot more fighters, and guys are going to need a lot more experience,” MMA Junkie reports White as saying after Saturday’s event in Sweden.

“We talked about [regional champions],” he continued. “We talked about rankings — just like boxing, guys ranked in other countries. So you end up being ranked. I don’t know. You have UFC champions, and then you have guys that are ranked in different countries. It absolutely makes sense. In the big picture, long-term, it absolutely makes perfect sense.”


(Think cell phones are hard to operate now, Dana? Just wait until you try to use ones with Hindi and Mandarin keypads.)

On the heels of breaking into another new country and the ratings success of The Ultimate Fighter‘s first international version, UFC President Dana White is open to launching regional titles for the promotion. “The bottom line is as we start kicking off all these ‘Ultimate Fighters’ in other countries, it’s going to open up the floodgates for a lot more fighters, and guys are going to need a lot more experience,” MMA Junkie reports White as saying after Saturday’s event in Sweden.

“We talked about [regional champions],” he continued. “We talked about rankings — just like boxing, guys ranked in other countries. So you end up being ranked. I don’t know. You have UFC champions, and then you have guys that are ranked in different countries. It absolutely makes sense. In the big picture, long-term, it absolutely makes perfect sense.”

White said that there are markets that are “starved” for the UFC product and that he still intends to reach India and China. The plans may be embryonic at this stage, however, as White admits that creating the infrastructure for continued international expansion is challenging.

“We’ve talked about doing two shows at the same time. We’ve talked about doing a lot of stuff. But one of the things you guys have got to understand, the hardest part is the infrastructure,” White explained. “It’s creating all this new talent, and it’s not just fighters. It’s commentators. It’s [ring announcer Bruce] Buffer‘s position. Cameramen. All the things that go along with putting on the event that we put on. It’s a lot of work.”

What do you think of regional titles, nation? And what countries do you want to see the UFC head to next?

– Elias Cepeda