Author: Guilherme Cruz

Georges St-Pierre retained the welterweight title via split decision against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 in Las Vegas, Nevada, but the controversy is still the major topic two days after the championship fight.

St-Pierre left the cage with the victory with judges Sal D’Amato and Tony Weeks scoring the bout 48-47 in his favor. Glenn Trowbridge was the only judge to score the bout 48-47 in favor of the challenger, and referee Mario Yamasaki, the third man inside the Octagon in UFC 167’s main event, agrees with him.

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“I’m inside the cage so I can’t see the fight as the judge sees it, but I thought Hendricks won the fight,” Yamasaki told MMAFighting.com. “I thought Hendricks dominated the fight, it was brutal, and I was surprised when they gave St-Pierre the win. But I’m not the judge. I look at the fight with different eyes.”

Yamasaki scored the fifth round in favor of St-Pierre, and that was it.

“The first round was slow and could have gone either way. Hendricks dominated the second one. The third was close and could also go either way, and the judges gave it to St-Pierre. When the fight was over, I thought Hendricks won every round except the last one,” he said. “But I have to watch the fight again to analyze it as a judge.”

UFC president Dana White criticized Keith Kizer and the Nevada State Athletic Commission following the post-fight press conference. Yamasaki doesn’t believe White is in a position to criticize the NSAC, but agrees that they need to change the way they prepare the judges.

“As a promoter, (Dana White) can say anything he wants,” he said. “He has never done a judging course, so he analyzes the fight as a fan.

“But (NSAC) needs to do only one judging course to set one criteria on how to analyze a fight. Every referee does his course, so they teach their way to judge a fight.”

The judges weren’t the only ones to receive criticism after the five-round battle in Las Vegas. Yamasaki, who stopped the action in the second round so Hendricks could put his mouthpiece back in immediately after the challenger rocked St-Pierre, was questioned for his actions.

“The rules say that when the mouthpiece falls and the action continues, I can’t stop the fight,” he said. “Hendricks kept pressuring, but then they started working in the clinch, so I stopped it. I wouldn’t have stopped the fight if he kept punching. I’m there to protect the athlete. There’s no reason why I would let him hurt his mouth.”

Patricio Freire enters the Bellator cage tonight to fight for the tournament title for the third time in three years, but he’s a different man today.

At 1-1 in tournament finals, “Pitbull” (20-2) meets Justin Wilcox at Bellator 108 in Atlantic City, N.J., to earn another shot at the featherweight title. Coming off dominant wins over Fabricio Guerreiro, Diego Nunes and Jared Downing, the Brazilian vows to finish the Strikeforce veteran to get one step closer to his dream.

“He’s a very durable fighter and I believe it’s going to be a great fight for the fans because I’m going straight forward as soon as the fight starts,” Freire said. “I believe in the power of my hands. He’s durable, but he will go down.”

Freire’s only loss in his last seven Bellator fights happened in a title fight against Pat Curran, who recently lost his title to Daniel Strauss. “Pitbull” defeated Straus at the season four tournament final, on May 2011, and he believes he can do it again.

“I’m really confident going into this fight,” he said. “I know I have a tough opponent, but I will beat him and fight for the Bellator title again. That’s my goal and I know I have what it takes to do it. I train hard every day to become the champion and nobody will stop me this time.”

Bellator 108 is headlined by the catchweight bout between Quinton Jackson and Joey Beltran, and also features Alexander Volkov vs. Vitaly Minakov for the heavyweight title.

GOIANIA, Brazil — UFC Fight Night 32 wasn’t a good night to be Brazilian.

Brazilian fighters went 4-5 in Goiania, Brazil, on Nov. 9, giving them their worst night in a UFC card in the country. Dustin Ortiz, the first “gringo” to step inside the Octagon that evening, guaranteed the first win for the foreigners with a third-round TKO victory over Jose Maria Tome.

“I felt like I was behind on the scorecards, especially in the first one,” Ortiz said after the fight. “It was pretty close, but he got takedowns on me and took my back. In the second, I came there and tried to listen to my coach.”

Ortiz was behind in all three scorecards, and he knew he had the finish Tome to earn his first UFC win.

“I hurt him, but I couldn’t let my hands go,” he said. “I got the takedown and felt a little more comfortable there. So, going into the third I knew I had to be more aggressive, get the takedown and try to end the fight. I knew I had to end the fight.”

Tome protested after the stoppage, claiming that Ortiz had hit him several times with punches in the back of the head.

“The referee explained it perfectly well in the back,” Ortiz said. “If you’re hitting him and he turns his head, you get one punch and you need to change it to the other side because he has his head turned. So it was going back and forth, back and forth.

“I heard the referee say ‘protect yourself or I’ll stop it,’ so I just let them go, hit harder and fastest I could. You can see it. Go back and watch it, you’ll see.”

Ortiz also had to fight back to defend a couple late-round guillotine chokes, and he said Tome was close to get the finish in the end of the opening round.

“The first one that he had was the one that was closer to get the finish, but I’m not going to give up,” he said. “I’ll go out before I give up. I’m so much better than I did tonight.”

The American flyweight improved his MMA record to 12-2 with a ninth stoppage win, and his victory meant more to him after everything he went through to step inside the Octagon.

Ortiz got to Brazil only two days before the weigh-ins after several flight issues.

“I didn’t really let it bother me,” he said. “To be honest, I felt it in my legs. We flew two and half hours, turn around, went back, and then we had to come another ten hours. They had trouble with the navigation and they felt it was unsafe for us to continue to fly. It was safest to turn around, fix it and then fly back.

“Just trying to get acclimated with everything, my legs were just dead when I was cutting weight. No water in me. My legs were dead. I definitely felt it warming up and going into this fight. I knew I was trying to stay on my toes but my legs weren’t there, so that’s why I was trying to get the takedowns but it didn’t help when he kicked the s— out of my legs.”

GOIANIA, Brazil — Santiago Ponzinibbio pulled out of the TUF: Brazil 2 finale with an injury, and Leonardo Santos, the guy he beat in the semifinal, earned the trophy. Five months later, Ponzinibbio finally made his UFC debut, but Ryan LaFlare had his hands raised in the end.

Undefeated in MMA, LaFlare didn’t have an easy night at UFC Fight Night 32 in Goiania, Brazil, on Nov. 9, but he did enough to leave the cage with the unanimous decision victory.

He’s not happy with the way he won, though.

“Yes, I’m always (disappointed when I don’t finish the fight). I’m used to finish my fights, and I couldn’t do it in my last two fights,” LaFlare said after the three-round battle. “I really wanted to get the finish. I hurt him with that knee in the end, rushed on top of him to try the finish, but he came back because I missed a lot of the shots. And then he hit me with a couple shots, so I had to pay for my mistakes.

“I don’t like to fight like that, I like to fight for the finishes. My submission game is actually really good, so that’s why I believe I was a little disappointed.”

Ponzinibbio had his good moments in the fight when he rocked LaFlare, but Long Island’s own played smart to recover.

“I was a little dazed, I wanted to make sure I could clear my head and continue to fight,” he said. “One of the things my coach explained to me was ‘don’t turn this into a scrap, don’t play his game.’ When I got rocked, instead of tucking my chin and throwing bombs, I’d play the safe way. And it worked out.”

LaFlare is 2-0 in the UFC with a pair of victories over TUF veterans, and he wants more.

“You know, keep feeding me the Ultimate Fighter guys,” he said. “I thought I should have been on the show a couple seasons ago but I didn’t make it. Everything happens for a reason, but I wanna prove that I should have been there. Give me someone tough. I’ll fight whoever. I’m only getting better from here.”

He asked for it, and UFC said “yes”. Four days after his win over Ponzinibbio, UFC announced that LaFlare will return to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 9, on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, CA, to replace an injured Kelvin Gastelum against TUF 11 winner Court McGee.

At 9-0 in MMA, the Ring of Combat veteran sees a parallel between his career and Chris Weidman’s, who earned a shot at the UFC middleweight title with the same record as his after building his career at ROC.

LaFlare doesn’t expect to fight for the title anytime soon, but looks up to Weidman as an inspiration for his MMA career.

“I’ve known him since I was 18, and he was a lot better wrestler than I was,” he said. “We both got to MMA right at the same time. We were from the same camp, we both trained together and I see him all the time.”

GOIANIA, Brazil — Santiago Ponzinibbio pulled out of the TUF: Brazil 2 finale with an injury, and Leonardo Santos, the guy he beat in the semifinal, earned the trophy. Five months later, Ponzinibbio finally made his UFC debut, but Ryan LaFlare had his hands raised in the end.

Undefeated in MMA, LaFlare didn’t have an easy night at UFC Fight Night 32 in Goiania, Brazil, on Nov. 9, but he did enough to leave the cage with the unanimous decision victory.

He’s not happy with the way he won, though.

“Yes, I’m always (disappointed when I don’t finish the fight). I’m used to finish my fights, and I couldn’t do it in my last two fights,” LaFlare said after the three-round battle. “I really wanted to get the finish. I hurt him with that knee in the end, rushed on top of him to try the finish, but he came back because I missed a lot of the shots. And then he hit me with a couple shots, so I had to pay for my mistakes.

“I don’t like to fight like that, I like to fight for the finishes. My submission game is actually really good, so that’s why I believe I was a little disappointed.”

Ponzinibbio had his good moments in the fight when he rocked LaFlare, but Long Island’s own played smart to recover.

“I was a little dazed, I wanted to make sure I could clear my head and continue to fight,” he said. “One of the things my coach explained to me was ‘don’t turn this into a scrap, don’t play his game.’ When I got rocked, instead of tucking my chin and throwing bombs, I’d play the safe way. And it worked out.”

LaFlare is 2-0 in the UFC with a pair of victories over TUF veterans, and he wants more.

“You know, keep feeding me the Ultimate Fighter guys,” he said. “I thought I should have been on the show a couple seasons ago but I didn’t make it. Everything happens for a reason, but I wanna prove that I should have been there. Give me someone tough. I’ll fight whoever. I’m only getting better from here.”

He asked for it, and UFC said “yes”. Four days after his win over Ponzinibbio, UFC announced that LaFlare will return to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 9, on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, CA, to replace an injured Kelvin Gastelum against TUF 11 winner Court McGee.

At 9-0 in MMA, the Ring of Combat veteran sees a parallel between his career and Chris Weidman’s, who earned a shot at the UFC middleweight title with the same record as his after building his career at ROC.

LaFlare doesn’t expect to fight for the title anytime soon, but looks up to Weidman as an inspiration for his MMA career.

“I’ve known him since I was 18, and he was a lot better wrestler than I was,” he said. “We both got to MMA right at the same time. We were from the same camp, we both trained together and I see him all the time.”

GOIANIA, Brazil — Santiago Ponzinibbio pulled out of the TUF: Brazil 2 finale with an injury, and Leonardo Santos, the guy he beat in the semifinal, earned the trophy. Five months later, Ponzinibbio finally made his UFC debut, but Ryan LaFlare had his hands raised in the end.

Undefeated in MMA, LaFlare didn’t have an easy night at UFC Fight Night 32 in Goiania, Brazil, on Nov. 9, but he did enough to leave the cage with the unanimous decision victory.

He’s not happy with the way he won, though.

“Yes, I’m always (disappointed when I don’t finish the fight). I’m used to finish my fights, and I couldn’t do it in my last two fights,” LaFlare said after the three-round battle. “I really wanted to get the finish. I hurt him with that knee in the end, rushed on top of him to try the finish, but he came back because I missed a lot of the shots. And then he hit me with a couple shots, so I had to pay for my mistakes.

“I don’t like to fight like that, I like to fight for the finishes. My submission game is actually really good, so that’s why I believe I was a little disappointed.”

Ponzinibbio had his good moments in the fight when he rocked LaFlare, but Long Island’s own played smart to recover.

“I was a little dazed, I wanted to make sure I could clear my head and continue to fight,” he said. “One of the things my coach explained to me was ‘don’t turn this into a scrap, don’t play his game.’ When I got rocked, instead of tucking my chin and throwing bombs, I’d play the safe way. And it worked out.”

LaFlare is 2-0 in the UFC with a pair of victories over TUF veterans, and he wants more.

“You know, keep feeding me the Ultimate Fighter guys,” he said. “I thought I should have been on the show a couple seasons ago but I didn’t make it. Everything happens for a reason, but I wanna prove that I should have been there. Give me someone tough. I’ll fight whoever. I’m only getting better from here.”

He asked for it, and UFC said “yes”. Four days after his win over Ponzinibbio, UFC announced that LaFlare will return to the Octagon at UFC on FOX 9, on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, CA, to replace an injured Kelvin Gastelum against TUF 11 winner Court McGee.

At 9-0 in MMA, the Ring of Combat veteran sees a parallel between his career and Chris Weidman’s, who earned a shot at the UFC middleweight title with the same record as his after building his career at ROC.

LaFlare doesn’t expect to fight for the title anytime soon, but looks up to Weidman as an inspiration for his MMA career.

“I’ve known him since I was 18, and he was a lot better wrestler than I was,” he said. “We both got to MMA right at the same time. We were from the same camp, we both trained together and I see him all the time.”