Author: Jeremy Botter

Jake Ellenberger Doesn’t Plan on Waiting Around for His Title Shot

The UFC’s welterweight division is in a weird place these days.On one hand, the division is finally being replenished with contenders after being manually depleted by champion Georges St-Pierre over the past few years. Where there was once Josh Koschec…

The UFC’s welterweight division is in a weird place these days.

On one hand, the division is finally being replenished with contenders after being manually depleted by champion Georges St-Pierre over the past few years. Where there was once Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes and B.J. Penn, there is now Johny Hendricks, Jake Ellenberger, Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz. That’s a good thing. 

The bad news? Everyone is in a holding pattern, at least until St-Pierre makes his planned November return and has his unification bout with interim champion Condit.

We know Hendricks already has a title shot, and he’s planning on sitting on the sidelines until St-Pierre and Condit settle things. That means he’s out of action until—judging by St-Pierre’s habit of fighting just twice a year—likely next April at the earliest. 

And now the winner of Friday’s fight between Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann has also been promised a title shot. Granted, these title shots are not ironclad; they’re a way to add intrigue to a television card that may not otherwise be much of a draw. But what happens if the winner decides to wait until after Hendricks gets his own title shot next year? You’re looking at a layoff of longer than a year. 

Luckily, Ellenberger told Dann Stupp of MMAjunkie on Thursday that he’s not planning on playing that game.

It’d be a long wait. I’ve not been one who likes to wait, especially when I’m doing well…Me, I keep moving forward. I don’t want to sit out. My goal, the whole reason I’m in this sport, is to be a world champ. Getting to that (title) fight is ideal, but at the same time, I don’t want to sit out six months or even a year.

At the end of the day, Ellenberger may not have to wait. According to the official UFC twitter account, UFC president Dana White plans on making a big announcement during Thursday night’s weigh-ins.

 

 

What’s the big announcement? Given that he’s making it during the weigh-in show, I’m guessing it has something to do with the main event. Will be winner be given a shot at interim champion Carlos Condit, perhaps on the UFC on FOX show in August?

That would be interesting, wouldn’t it?

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Nick Diaz Was Paid $300,000 to Show Up for UFC 143 Press Conferences?

Remember back in September when Nick Diaz failed to show up for media obligations for his UFC 137 main event against Georges St-Pierre? We’re all familiar with the story by now, but let’s do a quick recap: As punishment, Diaz was pulled from the b…

Remember back in September when Nick Diaz failed to show up for media obligations for his UFC 137 main event against Georges St-Pierre? 

We’re all familiar with the story by now, but let’s do a quick recap: As punishment, Diaz was pulled from the bout and replaced with Carlos Condit. Diaz instead faced B.J. Penn, and that fight was moved to the main event after St-Pierre suffered an injury and Condit decided that he wanted to wait for his title shot.

Diaz lost a ton of money by not showing up for those media obligations. His contract gave him a percentage of the pay-per-view revenue, and he lost that cut after being pulled from the St-Pierre fight. All told, Diaz likely lost significantly more than $1 million, simply because he couldn’t do what every other fighter in the business considers part of his or her job.

That’s all ancient history at this point, though. But today, ESPN’s Brett Okamoto tweeted some interesting new information regarding the fine Diaz received as part of his failed marijuana test at UFC 143.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are we looking at here? 

From what Okamoto is reporting—and as best as I can tell without personally talking to Kizer—Diaz was essentially paid a $300,000 bonus on top of his fight purse just for showing up to press conferences at UFC 143. As Okamoto says, the bonus may have been paid for more than just press conferences, but Kizer told Okamoto that he’s under the impression that the majority of the bonus was based on Diaz meeting media obligations.

This is an amazing deal, at least to me. Diaz was paid a large amount of money simply for doing the things that are supposed to be a requirement for fighters under UFC contract. And he was paid that money because he no-showed the press conferences in September.

Perhaps I’m in the wrong, but this doesn’t feel like much of a punishment. Sure, Diaz would have earned more than $300,000 from his pay-per-view cut, so he’s still out a lot of money from October. But he was paid this bonus because he didn’t show up in the first place. Does that seem weird to anyone else?

I can’t lie: Diaz has a pretty good thing going on. He refuses to play by the rules that every other fighter in the UFC abides by, and in the end he’s rewarded for it with a huge bonus.

That’s a good gig, if you can get it. And it only adds to the mystery and legend that is Nick Diaz.

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UFC 147 Making the Best of Bad Situation with Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin

There are plenty of big UFC events coming up in the summer and fall months.The biggest of the year, at least out of events that are currently planned, takes place in early July when Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen hook up in the most anticipated rematc…

There are plenty of big UFC events coming up in the summer and fall months.

The biggest of the year, at least out of events that are currently planned, takes place in early July when Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen hook up in the most anticipated rematch in UFC history. And then there’s the Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson fight on September 1st; you can’t tell me you aren’t looking forward to that one, if only to see how the ageless wonder fares against one of the most talented fighters in the world.

Unfortunately, UFC 147 is not one of those anticipated events.

When it was first booked, UFC 147 looked like another major Brazil offering from the UFC. It was going to take place in a giant soccer stadium and would feature Silva going for revenge against the trash-talking Sonnen in front of his own countrymen. But issues with noise ordinances in Sao Paulo forced the event to move back to Rio de Janeiro. Then a United Nations summit put the kibosh on the soccer stadium concept.

And so Silva vs. Sonnen was moved to UFC 148 in Las Vegas, and Wanderlei Silva vs. Vitor Belfort was announced as the new main event for UFC 147. 

Silva vs. Belfort wasn’t a gigantic fight, by any means, but it had plenty of intrigue. The two coaches on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil developed some true bad blood while filming the show, and while it didn’t have the cachet of a Silva-Sonnen rematch, it was still a decent enough main event.

But then Belfort broke his hand, forcing him out of the fight and into the operating room. 

The UFC looked long and hard for a replacement for Belfort. Most of the bigger-name fighters in the middleweight division already have fights booked, so they started looking at the light heavyweight division. What they ultimately found was an old, reliable light heavyweight who was planning on moving back to middleweight to face Cung Le at UFC 148: former middleweight champion Rich Franklin.

A rematch between Silva and Franklin isn’t the greatest main event in UFC history, but it’s not the worst. Not by a long shot. The first fight—which took place way back at UFC 99—was a fun bout between two experienced veterans. I think the rematch will be more of the same.

Another interesting aspect to the fight: It’s a 190-pound catchweight bout. Off the top of my head, it will be the first 190-pound fight in UFC history. We’ve seen Franklin compete in numerous 195-pound catchweight bouts—his first bout with Silva was contested at that weight, in fact—but never 190. When the first fight happened, Franklin was in the process of moving up to light heavyweight after seeing his middleweight future dimmed by two consecutive losses to Anderson Silva.

This time around, Franklin is on his way back down to the middleweight division he once ruled with an iron fist, while Wanderlei is already competing at middleweight. With less than a month to go until the fight, asking Franklin to get down to 185 would be quite the stretch, so 190 makes a lot of sense.

UFC 147 isn’t going to light the world on fire. It’s short on name value, long on untested Brazilian prospects, and with a co-main event of Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Russow. But the UFC is making the best of a bad situation, and Franklin is once again proving that he’s willing to help his long-time employers out whenever he can. And Silva vs. Franklin 2 may not mean much for the future of the middleweight division, but I’m looking forward to it all the same.

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Roy Nelson: Brock Lesnar Would Only Come Back for a Fight He Can Win

Roy Nelson has never been a dude that pulls any punches, whether he’s in the cage or on camera being interviewed by various media outlets.Both of those traits have turned him into one of the most popular stars in the sport. That’s pretty impressive whe…

Roy Nelson has never been a dude that pulls any punches, whether he’s in the cage or on camera being interviewed by various media outlets.

Both of those traits have turned him into one of the most popular stars in the sport. That’s pretty impressive when you consider where he came from. When Nelson won The Ultimate Fighter and made his proper debut in the UFC, he was booed far more than he was cheered, mostly because he’s the guy who exposed Kimbo Slice as a silly clown fighter by holding him down with his massive belly and forcing the ref to stop the fight after hundreds of non-damaging punches.

Yes, it may seem unthinkable, but Nelson wasn’t all that well-liked back then. Most of that stemmed from UFC President Dana White‘s comments towards Nelson on The Ultimate Fighter. White thought Nelson was a fat jerk who didn’t take the sport seriously and he didn’t mind telling you so. Lots of fans glommed on to this idea, and it took Nelson more than a year to turn public sentiment in his direction.

But now, as I said above, he’s one of the most popular stars in the UFC, coming off a big knockout win over Dave Herman at UFC 146. And for his next trick, Nelson is going back to his old habit of calling out Brock Lesnar, even though Lesnar is still technically retired. I say “technically retired” because, well, no one is really sure what kind of game Lesnar was playing by showing up at UFC 146 last Saturday.

Does he want to fight? Probably not. He’s more than likely attempting to use Dana and the UFC to create leverage with World Wrestling Entertainment. Brock’s always been the guy who uses every little angle he can to create the best deal possible for himself, both in business and in life. I think that’s essentially what we’re seeing here, and I have doubts that we ever see Brock back in the UFC for a fight.

That’s not stopping Roy from offering his own pitch for a fight with Lesnar. Nelson appeared on HDNet’s Inside MMA on Monday night and said Lesnar won’t fight him because, well, he can’t beat him: 

You know what? Brock coming back, if he does come back, I would love to welcome him back to the UFC. That was a fight that I actually called him out on ESPN, before. But if they actually make him come back, or if he actually thinks about coming back, he’ll probably come back to fight Frank Mir, because I think that’s the only fight he thinks he can win. But, you know what? I would love to have that fight with Brock.

Nelson is right, but not for the reasons he’s saying in this quote. 

If Lesnar comes back to fighting—and right now, nobody outside of Lesnar’s trusted inner circle is sure what’s going on—it would be almost criminal if he fought anyone besides Frank Mir in his return bout, but not because Lesnar would automatically win the fight.

No, the UFC would make that fight simply because it would do more money than any fight in the heavyweight division. And yes, I’m including the Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez rematch in that category.

Lesnar and Mir aren’t what they used to be, but there’s still a deep hatred between the two that somehow has the ability to hook fans and create extreme interest. Even now, several years after Lesnar seemingly ended their feud by beating Mir into a pulp at UFC 100, folks are interested in seeing them square off for a third time.

But kudos to Roy for throwing his name in the mythical Lesnar hat. If the biggest-drawing fighter in the history of the sport does ultimately decide to make a comeback, I wouldn’t mind seeing “Big Country” finally get a crack at him.

And this time, I bet Brock wouldn’t pretend as though he didn’t know the rotund fellow with the absurd haircut talking trash about him.

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Dana White Is Not Going to Honor Prescriptions from Dr. Reefer

Dana White turned heads a few weeks back when he said that the UFC is mapping out a strategy to begin randomly testing the fighters they have under contract.That’s a stark difference from White’s position as recently as a month ago, but it’s the right …

Dana White turned heads a few weeks back when he said that the UFC is mapping out a strategy to begin randomly testing the fighters they have under contract.

That’s a stark difference from White’s position as recently as a month ago, but it’s the right one. As I’ve noted here in the past, the UFC introducing a random drug testing program would go a long, long way towards cleaning up the sport before it becomes an epidemic.

And make no mistake about it: there is no epidemic. At least not yet, anyway. But it could become a real problem in the future, and taking steps to avoid that now is the right move. 

White was interviewed about the proposed drug testing policies by Ron Kruck from InsideMMA and gave his first real explanation of what the promotion has in mind. But if you’re a pot smoker, White said, you’re still out of luck:

“It is what it is. You go out and you smoke marijuana, it’s illegal. I don’t care if ‘Dr. Reefer’ gave you a prescription for it, you absolutely, positively cannot do it, according to the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).

I don’t care how many lawyers you get or what happens, you cannot smoke marijuana. You cannot takes PEDs. There’s a whole list of things that you cannot do, and if you get caught doing these things, you will be fined, and you will be put on suspension.”

I don’t know who Dr. Reefer is, but he sounds sketchy and I probably wouldn’t go to him for any kind of medical advice.

White obviously discusses Nick Diaz in the above video, but he also delves into Jon Jones, Alistair Overeem and other recent high-profile cases. It’s worth 20 minutes of your time to watch the entire thing.

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UFC 146 Results: 5 Fights to Make After Dos Santos vs. Mir

We weren’t sure if the UFC’s grand all-heavyweight experiment would deliver, but I think it’s safe to say it did exactly that. In fact, it delivered in spades with one of the fastest pay per view cards in promotion history. All five PPV fights end…

We weren’t sure if the UFC’s grand all-heavyweight experiment would deliver, but I think it’s safe to say it did exactly that. In fact, it delivered in spades with one of the fastest pay per view cards in promotion history. 

All five PPV fights ended in the first or second round, and all ended by knockout or submission. That’s a far cry from the boring wrestle-fests many fans feared when the concept was first unveiled.

Hell, I’m not ashamed to admit that the card unfolded completely different than I thought it would. And that’s a good thing, because UFC 146 should ultimately go down as one of the best cards of the year.

But now, it’s time to take a look at what’s next for some of the bigger stars of last Saturday’s awesome event. Join me, will you?

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