The UFC Heavyweights will be the primary focus for this Saturday’s UFC 146 event which takes place in Las Vegas, Nev. The fight card itself looks very solid on paper with intriguing matchups starting on the Facebook stream, continuing on the FX broadca…
The UFC Heavyweights will be the primary focus for this Saturday’s UFC 146 event which takes place in Las Vegas, Nev.
The fight card itself looks very solid on paper with intriguing matchups starting on the Facebook stream, continuing on the FX broadcast and leading all the way to the main event on pay-per-view.
As with every UFC card, there are fighters who are under extreme pressure to perform. Whether it is to hang on to their job, win a title or defend the belt, each fighter has their own situation.
Let’s take a look at the nine fighters who are under the most pressure to perform at UFC 146.
Junior dos Santos will make his first heavyweight title defense against UFC veteran Frank Mir on May 26 at UFC 146. Dos Santos has predominately faced fighters who like to stand and trade punches. His last last four opponents have been Cain Velasquez, …
Junior dos Santos will make his first heavyweight title defense against UFC veteran Frank Mir on May 26 at UFC 146.
Dos Santos has predominately faced fighters who like to stand and trade punches. His last last four opponents have been Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, Roy Nelson and Gabriel Gonzaga.
Mir is enjoying a rebirth of sorts of his long UFC career. This fight against dos Santos will mark Mir’s 20th trek into the Octagon. Mir is 14-5 over those 20 fights.
The sight and sound of Mir’s last submission against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is still fresh in the minds of many MMA fans.
Personally, I had to delete the fight from my DVR after watching the replay a couple of times. There is nothing on television that makes me cringe more than seeing a limb snapped. Envision a kid peeking through their fingers while watching a scary movie and that’s how I looked watching the replay of Mir breaking Nogueira’s arm.
Surely I can’t be alone in that.
Forget about you and I, what about dos Santos? Is he going to have a quick trigger when it comes to tapping out against Mir?
Dos Santos is an elite power striker, there is no debating that. He also has a ground game that is solid enough to help him stay on his feet with Mir.
If Mir is able to weather the storm of punches by dos Santos and get the fight to the ground, he should be able to get the champion into a submissive position.
As soon as dos Santos feels his arm being cranked in the wrong direction, one would expect him to tap based off of what Mir has done to previous opponents.
UFC 151 is slated for September 1 and will feature a light heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Dan Henderson. For Henderson, he gets the title shot he’s been clamoring for. “Hendo” has only lost once in the last four years (Jake Sh…
UFC 151 is slated for September 1 and will feature a light heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Dan Henderson.
For Henderson, he gets the title shot he’s been clamoring for. “Hendo” has only lost once in the last four years (Jake Shields) and his MMA skills have aged like a fine wine.
In the other corner there is Jon Jones. “Bones” will be making his fourth title defense and hopes to put recent negative events behind him for good.
Here are the concerns for Jon Jones heading into his fight versus Dan Henderson.
Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Royce Gracie. Those are four names that one would be hard pressed to argue against being recognized as an all-time great for what they have done inside the Octagon.Current UFC light-heavyweight champion,…
Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Royce Gracie. Those are four names that one would be hard pressed to argue against being recognized as an all-time great for what they have done inside the Octagon.
Current UFC light-heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, has been on a streak that we don’t see too often within the UFC.
Professionally, Jones has a MMA record of 16-1. His lone defeat was by disqualification in his fight against Matt Hamill for using “12-to-6 elbows.” Other than that, he has been nearly flawless.
At the age of 24, Jones has yet to reach the prime of his career. His next fight will be against MMA legend Dan Henderson (29-8) slated to take place this Fall.
Theoretically if Jones were in his 30’s would he be considered an all-time great already? The man has 10 UFC wins and has made three title defenses. “Bones” has also earned bonuses for submission of the night, knockout of the night and two fight of the night awards.
In most sports, when the talk of a young athlete being considered as an all-time great is posed, many will discredit him simply because of his age. There is this notion that to be considered one of the best ever you have to have to prove you can maintain your success over a long period of time.
Unless you were camping in the middle of a desert over the weekend, without any connection to social media, you are aware of Jones crashing his car and being arrested for a DUI. While many people are disappointed, including Jones himself, this controversy will pass.
By the time Jones fights Henderson in September, this incident will be a distant memory and Jones will continue his quest to be one of the best ever.
How many more title defenses will it take for Jones to be considered one of the all-time greats? Or do you already have him ranked as one of the best ever?
The trilogy between Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson was completed on Saturday night at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier.After a hard-fought five rounds, Melendez came away with a very close split-decision victory (49-48, 48-49, 49-48) in a fight that…
The trilogy between Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson was completed on Saturday night at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier.
After a hard-fought five rounds, Melendez came away with a very close split-decision victory (49-48, 48-49, 49-48) in a fight that most would agree could have gone either way.
Once the decision was read, Thomson’s body language expressed extreme dissatisfaction. It appeared he was gearing up to rip the judging. Thomson’s cooler head prevailed, and he had this to say inside the cage to Showtime commentator Mauro Ranallo (via Contra Costa Times):
One thing I want to say is please don’t boo Gilbert. He’s one of the best fighters if not the best in the world. Please, he’s a great fighter man. He knows I love him he’s a great fighter. If I’m going to lose to somebody I’m glad it’s him.
Ranallo also posed the idea of a fourth fight in which Thomson responded enthusiastically with,”Who wants to see a fourth fight!”
In comparison, this is how excited Melendez was about a proposed fourth fight: “Yeah, sure whatever.”
The two men put on a great fight, but it is time for “El Nino” to move on to the UFC. As classy as Thomson was in defeat, Melendez seemed equally as disinterested in continuing his career with Strikeforce.
Strikeforce Heavyweight Josh Barnett has not lost a fight since 2006. He has a career record of 31-5 with 19 of those wins coming by submission.As Barnett heads into the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Final on Saturday night against Daniel Cormier …
Strikeforce Heavyweight Josh Barnett has not lost a fight since 2006. He has a career record of 31-5 with 19 of those wins coming by submission.
As Barnett heads into the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Final on Saturday night against Daniel Cormier (9-0), the buzz about whether or not he deserves to be back in the UFC has started to pick up once again.
“The Warmaster”, as Barnett now likes to be called, was kicked out of the UFC in 2002 after he tested positive for a banned substance following his win over Randy Couture. He subsequently failed two more drug tests later on in his career.
Dana White, at one point was firmly against bringing Barnett back into the UFC. White had this to say about Barnett in 2010:
“All of us are going to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how you deal with those mistakes. You take a guy like Josh Barnett. This guy’s tested positive three times and denies every time that he’s taken steroids, okay? He comes out with an interview last week basically saying, ‘I don’t care about anybody else; the only person I care about is myself. I got some fans out there and thanks for following me or whatever, but I’m not fighting for you. I’m fighting for me and I’m doing everything for me.’ This is a guy who single-handedly put a company out of business — single handedly put a company out of business for doing what he was doing and has zero remorse for it. Couldn’t care less. [He’s like,] ‘I don’t care that you bought tickets to that fight and were planning on going. I don’t care that Fedor flew all the way in from Russia to fight me and trained and spent his own money to do this. I don’t care that this company, Affliction, believed in me and was allowing me to make a living and I put them out of business. All I care about is me. Those are the guys that I have zero tolerance for. And that’s why he’s not in the UFC and never will be.“
Dana has always been respected for how he comes out and says what’s on his mind. He is generally not a man who wavers on his decisions, but after blasting Barnett a couple of years ago, this is what he had to say just last month:
“Josh and I have been playing nice with each other for a little while, since he got into the UFC. It’s more than just, ‘Does he win? Does he doe this?’ You gotta be able to come to terms with the guy and be able to deal with him. If he wins the fight, I can’t see why he wouldn’t come here, unless we weren’t able to make a deal with him.”
Dana’s flip-flopped stance on Barnett would make any politician envious. The difference here is that MMA fans have also learned to forgive and forget to make the sport as interesting as possible.
Unlike other sports, it appears people in the MMA world are more forgiving if an athlete fails a drug test once, twice, or in this case, three times.
There are, however, stricter drug testing procedures in the UFC now compared to when Barnett was last in the UFC (2002).
If Barnett is clean, and somehow learned from his mistakes, the UFC could certainly use his talent and charisma going forward.
Junior dos Santos will make his first heavyweight title defense against UFC veteran