Author: Jeremy Botter

UFC 150 Results: 4 Fights to Make After Henderson vs. Edgar 2

Well, that was something.This was one of those cases where a fight card that looked somewhat underwhelming on paper ended up (mostly) delivering in full on fight night. Obviously, there were a few dull spots; the Jake Shields/Ed Herman grapple-fes…

Well, that was something.

This was one of those cases where a fight card that looked somewhat underwhelming on paper ended up (mostly) delivering in full on fight night. 

Obviously, there were a few dull spots; the Jake Shields/Ed Herman grapple-fest springs to mind. But by and large, UFC 150 delivered a night chock-full of action, from the preliminary card all the way to the incredibly close main-event title fight.

Let’s take a look at what’s next for some of the winners and losers from UFC 150.

 

BENSON HENDERSON vs. NATE DIAZ

If Frankie Edgar had defeated Henderson in the main event, I would’ve been using this space to call for a third fight between the pair. And I’m almost inclined to do it anyway, just because I’d love to see those two outstanding competitors face off in endless fights between now and the end of time. 

Henderson and Edgar are incredible fighters, and both of their bouts were intriguing chess matches. And I know that a bunch of folks were up in arms that Henderson was awarded the decision. I had the fight scored 48-47 for Henderson, but I was also aware going into the decision that any of the rounds except for the first could have gone either way.

This wasn’t a robbery—it was a close fight, and any number of scorecard variations would have been fine.

So, what’s next? We already know the answer to that question. Henderson has a date in the not-so-distant future with Nate Diaz, and that should be one hell of a fight. As for Edgar?

 

FRANKIE EDGAR vs. CHAD MENDES

Edgar’s moving to featherweight. No question about it at this point. And since Aldo already has a booking with Erik Koch—and since Edgar is coming off two consecutive losses—it makes sense to get Edgar in there with a top-flight featherweight. 

Chad Mendes fits that bill. He’s a contender, and he’s coming off a big win over the hapless Cody McKenzie. Mendes deserves a contender, and Edgar is an instant contender by virtue of being the biggest name in the entire division despite not having actually fought there yet.

Better yet, it sets up a big fight for Aldo in early 2012. 

 

DONALD CERRONE vs. ANTHONY PETTIS

That was one of the best one-minute fights I’ve ever seen in my life. 

Seriously. It’s not even arguable, really. Cerrone vs. Guillard was as full of action and drama as anything I’ve seen out of a short fight in the history of the UFC. From Guillard nearly becoming the first person to knock out Cerrone, to “Cowboy” rebounding and becoming the first person to knock out Guillard, everything about this fight was awesome, and in every way possible.

And now? It’s time for the fight that’s been brewing in the media and on Twitter over the past two weeks: Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis. Two top-flight lightweights with a serious grudge and a whole lot of skill. Put them in the cage in November or December—perhaps on FOX?—and then give the winner a crack at the Henderson/Diaz victor.

I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

 

JAKE SHIELDS vs. YUSHIN OKAMI

I know what you’re thinking: Putting these two grappling-heavy fighters in the cage against one another is a recipe for pay-per-view disaster. And you might be right.

But there’s also a different scenario that could play out. When you put two grapplers in the cage against one another, a different story of fight sometimes plays out. With the grappling and clinching negated, each fighter is often forced to rely on a different facet of his game. It makes for a markedly more entertaining fight than what you’d expect.

Neither Shields or Okami had the best performance of their careers at UFC 150, but both are still forces to be reckoned with at middleweight. They may not be the kind of forces you actually enjoy watching, but they’re still forces all the same. Pairing them up might not make for an exciting fight, but it would help create another 185-pound contender.

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UFC 150 Preview: 5 Things to Watch for on Henderson vs. Edgar 2

Another day, another month and another UFC pay-per-view event.Luckily for us in the media—and perhaps your own wallet—there’s only one major UFC offering this month. After this one, we’re not due for another pay-per-view until the first wee…

Another day, another month and another UFC pay-per-view event.

Luckily for us in the media—and perhaps your own wallet—there’s only one major UFC offering this month. After this one, we’re not due for another pay-per-view until the first weekend in September when Jon Jones and Dan Henderson lock horns in Las Vegas.

There’s still plenty of mixed martial arts to be found in August, such as next weekend when Ronda Rousey returns to the Strikeforce cage. But in terms of the kinds of events you need to drop some cash for, August only has UFC 150 on the docket.

Another stroke of luck for us? This should turn out to be a pretty good card. Two of the fights—the main and co-main events—are almost guaranteed to deliver excitement. Of course, there have been plenty of times that I’ve typed those exact words, only to see a promising card under-deliver in fight action. But, I have a feeling this one’s going to be worth a watch.

Let’s take a look at five things to keep an eye on for UFC 150: Henderson vs. Edgar 2:

 

Is Frankie Edgar truly the king of rematches?

You know the statistics, and you know that the lightweight division has been in a near-constant standstill ever since Edgar captured the title from B.J. Penn back at UFC 112. Edgar defended the belt against Penn in a rematch, then went on to a draw with Gray Maynard that forced yet another rematch. And now, he’s going into yet another rematch, this time as the challenger against Benson Henderson.

There’s something to be said for the improvements Edgar made in his previous rematches with Penn and Maynard. The first fight against Penn was fairly close, but Edgar adjusted his game the second time around and cruised to an easy win. The first Maynard fight was obviously as close as it gets when it comes to MMA decisions, but Edgar adjusted his game yet again and finished Maynard in the rematch.

Is Edgar truly that great at applying in the rematch what he learned during the first tilt with his opponents? I’m not sure that’s the case. I think Edgar was simply a better fighter than Penn and Maynard, and that was borne out when he was given the extra rounds in the rematches. The more times we see opponents face each other, the more disparity we’re going to see between them. 

And unfortunately for Edgar, I believe Henderson is the better fighter, and I think you’re going to see that play out on Saturday night.

 

Can Benson Henderson score a signature finishing win?

During his run in the WEC, Henderson finished four of his six fights. He’s gone to a decision in four fights since making the leap over to the UFC.

I’d say that was due to a different level in competition, but we all know that’s not the case. A few of those WEC guys are doing quite well in the UFC, thank you very much. Granted, there’s a difference between Frankie Edgar or Clay Guida and someone like Shane Roller. But, as the UFC lightweight champ, Henderson should be expected to finish opponents on a regular basis. He just hasn’t done it yet.

Edgar is notoriously hard to finish, of course—witness both Maynard bouts for a perfect example of the Jersey native’s toughness—which means that scoring that big TKO or submission win on Saturday night is going to be a difficult task.

I’m not saying that Henderson can’t do it, because I wouldn’t be all that surprised if he did. But, I suspect Henderson will be focused on simply retaining his belt by any means necessary, and that’s fine.

 

Can Cerrone vs. Guillard possibly live up to expectations?

Two former training partners. Two dudes with a proclivity for standing and trading strikes. Cerrone vs. Guillard has all the makings of a classic. 

The fight has plenty of hype, but don’t be surprised if it’s not quite what you expect. Cerrone will want to avoid Guillard’s ridiculous hand speed and powerful punches, and if he’s smart, he’ll look to take advantage of Guillard’s weak submission defense. Cerrone enjoys putting on exciting fights and making that paper, but I think he also enjoys winning fights.

Don’t get me wrong; I still believe this will be an exciting fight. But, I’m not sure it’s going to be the three-round punchfest everyone seems to be expecting.

 

Will Jake Shields finally earn his second consecutive UFC win?

Since entering the UFC as the Strikeforce middleweight champ, Shields has yet to score two consecutive wins. Granted, he’s had some very tough fights during his run, against a murderer’s row of welterweight contenders. Well, except for Yoshihiro Akiyama, that is. But, he still hasn’t been able to pull off more than one win at a time.

He’ll look to change that on Saturday night. He’s moving back to middleweight, which means he’ll get all of the strength back that he had during his unbeaten run in Strikeforce. The welterweight cut was never easy for Shields, and it often sapped him of his energy during the last month of his training camp. That’s no longer the case.

Ed Herman isn’t an easy out, not by any stretch of the imagination. But, I’m looking for Shields to finally secure a start to a winning streak on Saturday night.

 

Who is Buddy Roberts, and how badly is he overmatched against Okami?

I don’t know much about Buddy Roberts. I doubt you do, either. And there’s a good reason for that.

Roberts is 12-2 in his MMA career, but all of those wins have come against opponents you’ve also never heard of. He beat Caio Magalhaes in his UFC debut back in June, but now, he’s taking a drastic step up in competition in facing Yushin Okami. 

This may be the single biggest step in the level of competition a UFC fighter has ever faced. Roberts is going from facing lower-level preliminary middleweights to standing across the cage from one of the best —and most physically-imposing—middleweights in the world.

This feels like one of those old WWF matches you’d watch on Saturday morning on a local syndicated station, where Hulk Hogan or another big wrestling star would face off against a local jobber you’ve never heard of. I’d never call Roberts or any other professional fighter a jobber—well, except perhaps, Sean Salmon—but this one certainly doesn’t bode well for Roberts.

It’s a way for Okami to score a rebound win after his loss to Tim Boetsch. Nothing more, and nothing less. 

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UFC 150 Fight Card: BR MMA Staff Predictions for the Main Card

UFC 150 sounded like a pretty good time for the Caged In staff here at Bleacher Report to start doing predictions for UFC pay per view events. So that’s exactly what we’re doing.
In the following pages, myself, Jonathan Snowden, Matt Roth, Duane Finley…

UFC 150 sounded like a pretty good time for the Caged In staff here at Bleacher Report to start doing predictions for UFC pay per view events. So that’s exactly what we’re doing.

In the following pages, myself, Jonathan Snowden, Matt Roth, Duane Finley, Scott Harris and John Heinis will take you through each of the five main-card fights from this Saturday’s big lightweight title-headlined event from Denver. We’ll tell you who’s going to win each fight, and we might even tell you why. 

Ideally, you should be just a little bit smarter after reading this. But we’re not promising anything.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Begin Slideshow

UFC 151: All the Pressure Is on Jon Jones When He Faces Dan Henderson

Nobody will be expecting much out of Dan Henderson when he makes his latest long, lonely walk to the Octagon on September 1 to face Jon Jones.That’s not a slight on Henderson, though I can see how it might be taken that way. It’s just that Jones has, i…

Nobody will be expecting much out of Dan Henderson when he makes his latest long, lonely walk to the Octagon on September 1 to face Jon Jones.

That’s not a slight on Henderson, though I can see how it might be taken that way. It’s just that Jones has, in a very short amount of time, utterly and completely decimated the light heavyweight landscape and rendered all challengers inept and ineffective. 

Jones’ dominance is such that his staggering advantage over his opponents can’t even be blamed on the opponents. Not anymore. Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Shogun Rua are still excellent fighters, even if some of them are just a tad bit past their primes. And in a world where Jon Jones didn’t exist, all four of them would have a very real chance of holding that light heavyweight belt. 

And so it’s easy for me to point out that all of the pressure in the world is riding on Jones heading into the Henderson fight. And you know I’m right, too. 

On top of all the hype regarding Jones—he’s already considered one of the top three fighters in the entire world at the young age of 24 years old—he’s also on the precipice of becoming the most public mainstream face of mixed martial arts, having just signed the first-ever global endorsement deal with Nike for a mixed martial artist.

That’s a lot of weight on your shoulders, whether you think you can carry it or not. And perhaps Jones can carry it with ease. He has the supreme confidence—some might call it arrogance—of the greatest athletes in the history of sport.

Michael Jordan had the same swagger. He knew he was better than you, and he’d actually get angry when you attempted to beat him, like you had the nerve to try to compete with the best in the world. The anger made him want to decimate you even further, and then he’d make you pay in spades.

Jones has it. He has the preternatural athletic ability. He has youth. He has marketability. 

And that’s why all of the pressure rests squarely on his shoulders heading into UFC 151: Because a loss would send it all crashing down, just as he’s starting to reach a transcendent level in the sport. It wouldn’t be the end of his career or even a major glitch. But it’d be a setback all the same. 

Jones gets a lot of hate from fans, for being arrogant and for his out-of-the-cage transgressions. Sure, he could be a lot less vocal about his personal life, because we’ve seen all of that talk come back to haunt him over the past six months. But every great person in life—every person who has ever accomplished anything special or out of the ordinary—was probably a bit of a jerk, because the inner drive that allows you to be great at something also forces you to overlook other aspects of your life.

Jones can be one of those people who truly accomplishes something great. I don’t care about his personal life, because what he does on his own time and his own dime doesn’t concern me in the slightest.

The only thing I care about is what I see in the cage, and what I’ve seen thus far has all the shades of greatness.

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Video: American Kickboxing Academy Says No to B.J. Penn

B.J. Penn wanted to return to American Kickboxing Academy for a portion of his camp for his now-postponed fight against Rory MacDonald.
After getting the go-ahead from AKA coach Javier Mendez, Penn’s plans were quickly shot down when Jon Fitch told Men…

B.J. Penn wanted to return to American Kickboxing Academy for a portion of his camp for his now-postponed fight against Rory MacDonald.

After getting the go-ahead from AKA coach Javier Mendez, Penn’s plans were quickly shot down when Jon Fitch told Mendez he didn’t want any part of the idea. Fitch felt it was a bad idea because there was unfinished business between he and Penn after they fought to a controversial draw back at UFC 127.

Bleacher Report’s Rick Lee recently traveled to AKA to discuss the controversy with Mendez and Fitch. 

“We didn’t see any value in it. We didn’t see any value in him coming to train here. If he comes here, he’s coming to have a training camp,” Fitch told Bleacher Report. “He’s not coming here to help anybody. He wouldn’t give back to us the way we would give back to him.”

Check out the exclusive comments in the above video. For more on the cast of characters that make up the American Kickboxing Academy, be sure to check out the new show Fight Factory, debuting August 15 on nuvoTV. 

Be sure to sound off and let us know what you think in the comments below. If you like what you see, click here for more from Bleacher Report Productions. 

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VIDEO: Is Junior Dos Santos Ducking Cain Velasquez?

UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos caused a stir last week when he told Dana White that even though Cain Velasquez is the rightful No. 1 contender for the heavyweight belt, he instead wanted to face Alistair Overeem. 
Dos Santos told White…

UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos caused a stir last week when he told Dana White that even though Cain Velasquez is the rightful No. 1 contender for the heavyweight belt, he instead wanted to face Alistair Overeem. 

Dos Santos told White that Overeem has been acting like a punk and wanted to shut him up by knocking him out. 

Well, that doesn’t sit well with the normally mild-mannered Velasquez.

Bleacher Report’s Rick Lee traveled to American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose to discuss the news with Velasquez and coach Javier Mendez. In this exclusive video, you’ll hear the former heavyweight champion and his coach discuss the Dos Santos fight and why they feel Velasquez is the rightful contender for the heavyweight belt. 

Check out the video above. For more on the cast of characters that make up the American Kickboxing Academy, be sure to check out the new show Fight Factory, debuting August 15 on nuvoTV.  

Be sure to sound off and let us know what you think in the comments below. If you like what you see, click here for more from Bleacher Report Productions. 

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