Author: Joe Chacon

Raphael Assuncao vs. Bryan Caraway: Keys to Victory for Each Fighter

Two of the best submission specialists in the bantamweight division come together when Raphael Assuncao and Bryan Caraway fight this Saturday night in Canada for UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine.
Caraway is best known for being the boyfriend o…

Two of the best submission specialists in the bantamweight division come together when Raphael Assuncao and Bryan Caraway fight this Saturday night in Canada for UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine.

Caraway is best known for being the boyfriend of Miesha Tate, which has overshadowed a successful MMA career that spans nearly a decade. Caraway has 19 wins with only one of those coming by decision. He submits nearly everyone he faces and looks to do the same against a very strong opponent in Assuncao.

Assuncao is also stellar on the ground and uses his BJJ to dictate the pace of a fight and grind out decision wins. He’s riding a six-fight win streak and may very well make Caraway seventh on that list.

Here are the keys to victory for each fighter:

 

Bryan Caraway

“Kid Lightning” needs to do what’s made him successful up to this point. Avoid taking too many risks, protect his back, and get into a dominant position on Assuncao before Assuncao does the same to him. None of this is groundbreaking material, we’ve seen Caraway’s song and dance time and time again. He wins by submission, doesn’t have knockout power and doesn’t like to go deep into fights.

Should Caraway get into a dominant position early in the round, he can do enough to hold off a reversal from Assuncao and get the win.

 

Raphael Assuncao

Assuncao isn’t as aggressive as Caraway which may prove to be beneficial for the Brazilian fighter. Assuncao has made a living out of grinding out wins thanks to his excellent cardio and skills on the ground that allow him to earn points with the judges.

Assuncao has only been submitted once and that was over four years ago to Urijah Faber. This fight is truly a toss up, but Assuncao‘s willingness to be patient and extend a fight for all 15 minutes will eventually be his key to success in a win over Caraway.

 

Fights like this one between Caraway and Assuncao aren’t hard to predict. We know both fighters are great on the ground and the likelihood of one knocking out the other is very small. Chances are whoever can get control of the other to start each round will be able to maintain that position and win the round. It wouldn’t be surprising to see these two grind it out all the way to the end. 

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Gunnar Nelson vs. Rick Story: Keys to Victory for Each Fighter

Gunnar Nelson and Rick Story headline UFC Fight Night 53 this Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. The card isn’t generating much buzz, but the main event should do a good job of putting the finishing touches on a night of fights.
Nelson has pretty much run …

Gunnar Nelson and Rick Story headline UFC Fight Night 53 this Saturday in Stockholm, Sweden. The card isn’t generating much buzz, but the main event should do a good job of putting the finishing touches on a night of fights.

Nelson has pretty much run the table in his professional career. He has a stellar 13-0-1 record (4-0 UFC) and displays some of the best grappling skills we’ve ever seen inside the Octagon.

Story has been nothing but inconsistent over his last nine fights in which he has compiled a record of just 4-5. “The Horror” Story can hold his own on the ground, but also possesses one-punch knockout power that keeps his opponents honest.

Here are the keys to victory for each fighter:

 

Gunnar Nelson

As mentioned earlier, Nelson is an absolute stud when it comes to working on the ground and it’s really something amazing to watch. It’s no secret that’s where his home is, and the Iceland native will no doubt look to get Story down from the opening seconds of the fight.

Nelson has plenty going in his favor as Story has been submitted in the past. Nelson should also be able to easily dictate the pace of the fight on the ground and could earn a decision victory should he want to play things safe.

 

Rick Story

Beating Nelson may turn out to be too tall of a task for Story. While he does have a good wrestling base, he’s nowhere near the caliber of Nelson. Story’s best shot is going to be catching Nelson with an uppercut or a knee on a takedown attempt and then pouncing on him to secure the win with ground-and-pound.

The other chance Story has is to try and smother Nelson for the duration of the fight and earning a boring, yet important, victory.

Unfortunately for Story, both of those winning situations seem far-fetched and it’d be a surprise to see him come away with his hand raised.

 

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Felice Herrig: Is Her Sexed-Up Image Good or Bad for Women’s MMA?

The Ultimate Fighter 20 is now entering its third week and appears to be picking up some momentum in the ratings. One of the more polarizing figures in the TUF house is Felice Herrig. Herrig has made a name for herself by putting to…

The Ultimate Fighter 20 is now entering its third week and appears to be picking up some momentum in the ratings. One of the more polarizing figures in the TUF house is Felice Herrig. Herrig has made a name for herself by putting together a somewhat successful MMA career (9-5), but even more so by creating an image of herself as being the “sexy one.”

Herrig isn’t the most exciting fighter you’ll see and would be best known for her weigh-ins such as this one and this one. She’s positioned herself not only as a fighter, but as a sex symbol and she doesn’t mind it one bit.

In an interview with MMAmania last year, she explains her thoughts on how she’s perceived:

I play up the sexy side, but I’m not playing. I’m being me. I’m not doing anything I’m uncomfortable with. A lot of people think that’s what I’m all about and that I don’t care about my fighting, that I spend more time promoting myself than training. There’s only so much time in the day. I’m more dedicated than any other woman I’ve met and most of the guys. At the same time, fighting is a business. I’m promoting my brand. With women athletes, you get a lot more opportunities. It’s more intriguing to the general public if the see a woman that wouldn’t strike you as a fighter.

Most of the women on the UFC’s roster don’t play up the sex card. They don’t want fight fans to see them as people who are only popular because of their looks. They want to continue gaining notoriety for their skills inside the Octagon and quite frankly, most of them don’t have the time to do the type of photo shoots Herrig has done because they are so caught up with spending their time in the gym in an effort to have a successful fight career.

While most perceive Herrig as being a loud and obnoxious person who will do anything for attention, she’s doing nothing but good things by not conforming to how most fighters act. The way she jokes around and carries herself with such a free spirit is refreshing.

Each week we see and hear the same questions and answers from fighters. We hear them talk about their camp, who they want to fight next, what injury caused them to underperform in their last fight, etc. What’s wrong with Herrig‘s sexed-up image?

Some might say it’s bad for the sport. How? Others could say she’s not being a good role model. What kid is looking up to Felice Herrig as a role model? If anything, Herrig is showing girls that it’s okay to “be a girl,” do girly things, and do something like fight at a high level.

The UFC knows sex appeal can sell. That’s why we’ve seen Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate buck naked in ESPN The Magazine. It’s why Herrig taking off her underwear was the talking point surrounding episode two of TUF 20. Can you imagine if Herrig went on to win this show and become the first UFC strawweight champion? She’d have all the tools the UFC would need to make her as popular as their bantamweight champion.

Fighters like Herrig are needed in the UFC. Being sexy is not disrespecting the sport and the spunk she brings to the table is a welcomed addition to the UFC roster. If she can be successful inside the Octagon, it’s the fans that’ll benefit.

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TUF 20: 5 Things to Look for This Season

The latest rendition of The Ultimate Fighter debuted last week to horrific ratings that made it the worst season premiere in the storied history of the show. TUF 20 only drew 536,000 viewers which may come as a bit of surprise due t…

The latest rendition of The Ultimate Fighter debuted last week to horrific ratings that made it the worst season premiere in the storied history of the show. TUF 20 only drew 536,000 viewers which may come as a bit of surprise due to the positive chatter surrounding the show leading up to the premiere.

TUF 20 features a different format than we’ve grown to know over the years, and more importantly, an actual champion is going to be produced this season as the winner of the show will be crowned the first UFC women’s strawweight champion.

Aside from the poor ratings to begin the season, this series of The Ultimate Fighter is about as good of a chance the UFC has in resurrecting a series that has been on the decline for quite some time. The roster of female fighters should attract a surging demographic, and make for television that will generate some much needed publicity.

Read on for five things to look for during this season of The Ultimate Fighter.

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Chael Sonnen Not Expecting to Be Approved to Ref Weidman vs Silva 2

Can you imagine Chael Sonnen refereeing a UFC fight this year?
Of course you can, we all could. That’s exactly what Sonnen has set out to do. And not just any fight, he wants to oversee the Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva rematch on December 28 at UFC…

Can you imagine Chael Sonnen refereeing a UFC fight this year?

Of course you can, we all could. That’s exactly what Sonnen has set out to do. And not just any fight, he wants to oversee the Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva rematch on December 28 at UFC 168 in Las Vegas.

Sonnen told Sherdog Radio that he intends to apply to referee the fight, but isn’t holding out much hope that he’d be called upon to do so.

“I don’t think they’re going to put me in, but it’s an application,” Sonnen told Sherdog. “It’s 25 bucks. I’ve done a lot of officiating.”

This may very well be another bit by Sonnen to get some intrigue and laughter from his fans. I nearly spit my drink on the keyboard when I read he was considering doing this, and perhaps I’m late to the party, but I don’t know where “The Bad Guy” has been spending his time reffing.

Sonnen has stated he has refereed in other jurisdictions, although my research (as brief as it may have been) couldn’t lead me to even one fight in which he was listed as the referee. That’s not to say he hasn’t done it, it just appears that the fights must be for “jurisdictions” flying completely under the radar.

Of course, the chances of an active fighter being able to referee a major event such as UFC 168 aren’t great. In fact, I’d be very surprised if being an active fighter within the promotion didn’t exclude one from refereeing a fight within that same organization. The conflict of interest would be too great.

While we probably won’t see Chael taking turns with Herb Dean inside the Octagon this year, we can still hold out some hope that he’ll find a way in there after he’s done fighting.

It seems like everything Sonnen touches turns to gold.

 

 

Joe Chacon is a MMA Columnist for Bleacher Report and The MMA Corner. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

 

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Bellator PPV: Will Anyone Actually Pay to See Rampage Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz?

Sometimes I feel that as fans we are tested to see how much we remember. Somewhere along the line, a fighter will make a name for himself and, regardless of how that fighter performs after a “signature win,” we latch on to the star he once was.
There h…

Sometimes I feel that as fans we are tested to see how much we remember. Somewhere along the line, a fighter will make a name for himself and, regardless of how that fighter performs after a “signature win,” we latch on to the star he once was.

There has never been somebody in MMA more evident of this than Tito Ortiz.

Ortiz has won just one fight since December of 2006 (1-7-1), but he remains a very popular figure in the sport because of the brand he created for himself between 2000 and 2002 when he rattled off five consecutive defenses of his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

It should be noted that although “The People’s Champ” is in the midst of a stretch of futility, he has faced some of the better fighters in the division. His losses during his 1-7-1 stretch have been against:

  • Chuck Liddell
  • Lyoto Machida
  • Forrest Griffin (twice)
  • Matt Hamill
  • Rashad Evans
  • Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

With that being said, we’d really have to go back about seven years to the Ken Shamrock days if we wanted to watch a complete fight from Ortiz. Let’s face it, his win over Ryan Bader stemmed from a punch that Bader inexplicably ran into.

Ortiz’s opponent for Bellator‘s first ever pay-per-view event on November 2 will be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

We haven’t seen the old Rampage for five years, not since he knocked out Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92. Somewhere between that fight and today Quinton lost the “Rampage” and simply became another fighter who’s popularity was based on old fights and current theatrics.

Now these two men will come together in what fans hope will somewhat resemble how they fought a decade ago. Ortiz, now 38, and Jackson, 35, are no doubt going to be going back and forth with each other for the next three months in an effort to display tension and build the fight.

But will fans buy the fight?

I think so, but the price has to be right.

If Bellator thinks they are going to charge $54.95 for a HD broadcast of this fight, they are shooting themselves in the foot. They do, however, have an opportunity to launch themselves into the PPV market and show fans that they are an elite MMA organization that won’t require you to drain the bank account in the same way the UFC does.

My opinion is that $19.95 is the perfect price for the event, although I’d expect to see something more along the lines of $39.95. Anywhere in between should still attract a solid number of viewers.

Any MMA fan or member of the media who have immediately scoffed at these two veterans headlining a PPV card will no doubt have an interest in this fight when the night arrives.

It happens all the time. If you need proof, just read all the negative articles and tweets about Ortiz vs. Jackson, then jump on Twitter the night of the fight and I guarantee those same people will be watching.

We just love the sport. Most either hate or love Ortiz, and the same goes for Jackson. There is no middle ground. As long as these two don’t get hurt leading up to the fight, just seeing them in the cage together is something we’ll probably remember down the road (for better or worse).

Are you going to tell me, as a fight fan, that you aren’t the least bit interested in watching them? I don’t believe you. You’ll buckle and buy the fight just like the rest of us.

 

 

Joe Chacon is a MMA columnist for Bleacher Report and The MMA Corner. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

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