Author: Jeremy Botter

TUF Live: Making the Grade for Episode 3, Lawrence vs. Marcello

The third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live mostly continued the straight-forward, fight-focused ethic of the first two episodes.Team Cruz was able to maintain control of the fight picks while also dispatching one of Team Faber’s best fighters in th…

The third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live mostly continued the straight-forward, fight-focused ethic of the first two episodes.

Team Cruz was able to maintain control of the fight picks while also dispatching one of Team Faber’s best fighters in the process. Justin Lawrence maintained his status as the house favorite in beating Cristiano Marcello, who used a baffling game plan in the biggest fight of his career.

Let’s hand out grades for episode 3.

 

Justin Lawrence: A

The overall No. 1 pick on the show delivered on the hype, knocking out Cristiano Marcello in the second round to advance in the tournament. Lawrence displayed a wide range of striking skills and nullified Marcello’s takedown attempts, keeping the fight on the feet where he wanted it. Lawrence solidified himself as the top contender on the show with another good performance.

 

Rachelle Leah: A

If there were such a thing as an Octagon Girl Hall of Fame, Leah would be a first-ballot selection. Need I say more?

 

Dominick Cruz: B+

Team Cruz earned another win and kept control of fight picks for another week. On top of that, Cruz was able to spend some time gloating about last week’s surprising burn of Urijah Faber during the fight picks. It’s still early in the season, but it appears that Cruz has the best roster of fighters on his side. He also made a great fight selection in choosing Myles Jury to face Al Iaquinta from Team Faber.

 

The Production Team: B

The production crew for this season faces monumental challenges in producing the show. The film from each day must be edited in real-time and prepared for the Friday night live broadcasts. In addition, they need to cull together intriguing storylines without knowing the fight outcomes. It’s a tough challenge, but one they’ve handled incredibly well thus far.

 

Urijah Faber: C

Faber’s a nice, laid-back guy, and that’s great. But fans historically tune into TUF for conflict between the coaches and fighters. Thus far, Faber has mostly let Cruz’ barbs roll off his back. That makes him a likable dude, but we’re ready to see some of that hatred for Cruz that we’ve been hearing about for so long.

 

Cristiano Marcello: D

Marcello’s decision to (mostly) stand and trade strikes with Lawrence cost him dearly. Instead of consistently attempting to get the fight to the ground, no matter the cost, Marcello fancied himself a kickboxer. Like so many other world-class grapplers who attempt the same thing, it cost him the fight. He remedied himself a bit after the fight when he asked for a spot on the UFC Rio card. I don’t see it happening—with his early elimination from the show, Marcello will be lucky just to get a preliminary fight on the Ultimate Fighter Live Finale.

 

Chris Tickle: F

Every season of TUF has a resident moron, and it appears that Tickle is filling the role on this season. From sitting around with a gas mask on to using earrings and diarrhea to get out of training, Tickle was in rare form during this episode. He isn’t endearing himself to anyone in the house with his antics.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Gray Maynard Talks Potential Frankie Edgar Rematch, Facing Clay Guida

Gray Maynard finds himself in a strange place in the UFC’s lightweight division.The 2011 year was a banner one for Maynard. He challenged for the lightweight championship in two classic battles with former champion Frankie Edgar. But the results of tho…

Gray Maynard finds himself in a strange place in the UFC’s lightweight division.

The 2011 year was a banner one for Maynard. He challenged for the lightweight championship in two classic battles with former champion Frankie Edgar. But the results of those two fights—a draw in the first bout and a loss by TKO in the second—virtually ensure that Maynard will need to string together some impressive wins in order to get back in title contention.

The fact that Benson Henderson is now the champion will greatly help Maynard. As long as Edgar held that belt, Maynard likely wasn’t getting another crack at gold. Edgar will get a rematch with Henderson this summer, and Maynard told Heavy.com’s Duane Finley that he wants to settle the score with Edgar once and for all:

“The title has always been the goal. I would love to have the belt and somewhere along the line, get another fight with Edgar. We are 1-1-1 and we need to settle it once and for all. It has to happen eventually, and after that fight we can both be done. We can walk away knowing it’s over and that we gave MMA fans some great fights to look back on.”

But first, Maynard has a big June fight coming up with Clay Guida, in the main event of UFC on FX 4 in Atlantic City. Maynard was strongly considered as an opponent for Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez, but the UFC changed their minds.

Guida represents a chance for Maynard to make a big statement against a tough competitor who presents many of the same challenges that “The Bully” does for his own opponents:

“Since it has been out there, I’ve pretty much been gearing up for him for a while now. Guida has good takedowns, but I feel that is my area and what he lacks as a true athlete he makes up for in heart and toughness. Clay is well known for his cardio, but he also likes to mix it up and throw hands. He has a good chin, great heart and it’s a fun fight.

A Maynard win over Guida likely won’t earn him an immediate title shot. But it’ll put him back “in the mix,” as Dana White is so very fond of saying, and that’s right where Maynard wants to be.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Kimbo Slice’s Latest Boxing Fight Is an Absolute Travesty

Kimbo Slice’s foray into real mixed martial arts didn’t pan out well for the former YouTube superstar.Oh, he was fine when he was being paired up with hand-picked cans during the EliteXC days. Bo Cantrell, Tank Abbott and James Thompson were never goin…

Kimbo Slice‘s foray into real mixed martial arts didn’t pan out well for the former YouTube superstar.

Oh, he was fine when he was being paired up with hand-picked cans during the EliteXC days. Bo Cantrell, Tank Abbott and James Thompson were never going to present much in the way of actual opposition. It was a match made in heaven. 

It didn’t last. We all saw what happened once Slice decided to try his hand in the UFC. I give him kudos for even trying his hand against top competition, but his act was still embarrassing. 

And now, he’s boxing. Or at least something approximating the sport of boxing.

Last night in Springfield, Slice pushed his career boxing record to 4-0 by defeating Brian Green. With just three seconds left in the fight, Slice hit a glancing uppercut to Green’s chin and sent him crashing to the canvas.

By all accounts from live viewers in the arena, Green was handily winning the fight and was three seconds away from handing Slice his first boxing defeat. Keep in mind that Slice outweighs Green by a healthy amount. This was a fight that no sane commission in the world would have sanctioned, which is why it was held in Missouri. They don’t care about those sorts of things up there.

My buddy Mike Chiapetta over at MMAFighting had this to say:

It would be irresponsible to suggest that the late KO looked fishy, so we’ll leave that for you to decide for yourself. The early reactions, though, aren’t so favorable. Whether that’s due to Slice’s infamy or the actual punch that closes the show is up for debate. That said, we’ve seen worse finishes when it comes to lower-level boxing, so it’s all conjecture at this point, leaving Kimbo celebrate his win.

It may be irresponsible to say it, but I’m going to say it anyway: to me, this appeared to be a fixed fight. A single watch of the video, which I’ve embedded above, will lead you to the same conclusion.

Green had taken far bigger punches from Slice in the fourth round alone. The punch that “knocked him out” was a glancing uppercut that, and I mean this quite literally, wouldn’t really hurt anyone, much less knock them completely unconscious in such a comical way.

Boxing had a bad night on Saturday. We had the awful disqualification in the James Kirkland/Carlos Molina fight in Texas, and then we had Slice getting a win in a fight that was quite obviously not on the level.

Kudos to Slice for continuing to get paydays. I can’t fault him for doing it. And I’m not sure he even cares about being taken seriously. I’m not sure he ever really has.

But if he is, these are the kinds of things he’ll want to avoid in the future. If you can’t win a fight against an undersized opponent without the guy appearing to take a dive, it’s time to go back to street fights and protecting porn stars.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Rich Franklin Thinks He Can Make Another Run at the Middleweight Title

Oh, Rich Franklin. You’re such an optimist, and I love that about you.Franklin told MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco that he’d like to make another run at the middleweight title currently held by Anderson Silva:”The great Cinderella story would be for me to…

Oh, Rich Franklin. You’re such an optimist, and I love that about you.

Franklin told MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco that he’d like to make another run at the middleweight title currently held by Anderson Silva:

“The great Cinderella story would be for me to drop to 185 and make a run for the title,” he said. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about that. But I don’t want to put the carriage before the horse. I have a tough opponent in front of me, and I really need to focus on that fight first and get some momentum going.”

That would be quite the Cinderella story, to be sure. But much like Cinderella, it’s also impossible.

The UFC will never again match Franklin up with Silva. It just won’t happen. The two losses Franklin suffered to Silva weren’t just one-sided—they were complete and total destruction.

Franklin left the middleweight division and moved back to light heavyweight because the UFC wasn’t going to give him a third shot at Silva, and rightly so. Silva made Franklin look like he was a rank amateur. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. Silva was on the verge of becoming the best fighter in the world—a title he still holds to this day.

Franklin has advanced in age. He’s no longer the fighter he once was. Putting him in the cage with Silva would be an awful idea on just about every level. Franklin is better off beating Cung Le this summer—as he no doubt will do—and then moving back to light heavyweight to finish his career. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

The Ultimate Fighter Live Preview: Justin Lawrence vs. Cristiano Marcello

Tonight’s third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live features an honest-to-God big fight.That’s something we haven’t really seen in past seasons of the show, at least not since Roy Nelson smothered Kimbo Slice with his belly back on the Heavyweights se…

Tonight’s third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live features an honest-to-God big fight.

That’s something we haven’t really seen in past seasons of the show, at least not since Roy Nelson smothered Kimbo Slice with his belly back on the Heavyweights season. Justin Lawrence and Cristiano Marcello were my two picks to advance to the finals of this season, and yet here they are, meeting in the second tournament fight.

The fight came about when Dominick Cruz punked Urijah Faber at the end of last week’s episode. Cruz had control of the fight pick for this week and selected Lawrence from his team. Instead of picking an opponent from Faber’s team, Cruz instead told Faber to pick his best guy.

Faber asked his team who wanted to step up and face Lawrence. They all stayed quiet, and nobody volunteered. Cruz ultimately picked Marcello, setting up a highly intriguing striker vs. grappler battle between two favorites.

Begin Slideshow

Michael Bisping Thinks Tim Boetsch Is a Harder Fight Than Mark Munoz

Michael Bisping doesn’t mince words.It’s a trait that makes him one of the best interviews in the sport as well as one of the UFC’s most-hated fighters.Bisping joined the illustrious Gareth A. Davies on the ESPN UK Podcast and discussed several interes…

Michael Bisping doesn’t mince words.

It’s a trait that makes him one of the best interviews in the sport as well as one of the UFC’s most-hated fighters.

Bisping joined the illustrious Gareth A. Davies on the ESPN UK Podcast and discussed several interesting tidbits, including a comparison between his UFC 148 opponent Tim Boetsch and Mark Munoz.

I have never really looked at Mark Munoz and thought he looked like a particularly dangerous opponent. His ground and pound looks good, his wrestling doesn’t look all that dangerous, his stand up is suspect and he’s got a weak chin. I think Tim Boetsch is probably a harder fight.

I’m sorry, but I have a hard time taking someone seriously when they say Mark Munoz’ wrestling doesn’t look all that good.

We all know Munoz has some of the best wrestling in the sport, with the pedigree in amateur wrestling to back it up. His entire ground and pound game—which I will admit has become the most-feared aspect of his game—is predicated on his ability to effortlessly control his opponents on the ground.

It may not look like much, but it takes an enormous amount of skill and strength to do what Munoz does to his opponents on the ground.

I don’t know if Boetsch is a harder fight than Munoz.

Both fighters hit very hard and both are very strong, but I think Munoz’ wrestling game gives him an advantage over Boetsch. 

Bisping also revealed that he turned down an offer to fight Cung Le at UFC 148.

That’s a good move on his part. Le is coming off a knockout loss to Wanderlei Silva, and it would have been a step back for Bisping to go in the cage with him.

Bisping lost his last bout to Chael Sonnen, but looked great in the fight and it was much closer than the judges’ scorecards let on.

He should be inching his way towards a title fight, not away from one, and Le would have been a big step back in terms of his contending for the title.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com