While there were plenty of serious battles in the cage, titles won and legacies secured, the really fight Saturday night was taking place on television sets across the world.
In one corner was the defending champion and kleenex of MMA—the U…
While there were plenty of serious battles in the cage, titles won and legacies secured, the really fight Saturday night was taking place on television sets across the world.
In one corner was the defending champion and kleenex of MMA—the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Practically synonymous with the sport since its debut in 1993, the promotion is the home to most of the world’s best fighters, the best television deal and an infrastructure that puts most to shame.
In the other corner is the upstart Bellator promotion. Now headed by former Strikeforce boss Scott Coker, the promotion has taken UFC’s place on Spike TV and, after biding their time for years, is finally ready to compete with the big dogs.
Normally it wouldn’t be fair to compare these competing cards. The UFC, after all, was on pay-per-view. Bellator was free on cable. Surely you’d expect more from the card that cost $54.95?
Yet, on paper, Bellator and Spike were delivering a better product. Did they win the first real competition between the two groups destined to be bitter rivals? Let’s look at the main cards fight by fight and find out.
Disagree with our ratings? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Fight fans will have their fingers on the remote control on Saturday night, as MMA’s top three promotions will go head-to-head on live television for the first time. World Series of Fighting and Bellator will both start at 9 p.m. ET with stacked cards,…
Fight fans will have their fingers on the remote control on Saturday night, as MMA‘s top three promotions will go head-to-head on live television for the first time. World Series of Fighting and Bellator will both start at 9 p.m. ET with stacked cards, joining the UFC prelims on Fox Sports 1 already in progress at 8 p.m.
It’s an absurdity of riches including some of the sport’s most exciting fighters and compelling figures. While Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar and Mark Hunt vs. Fabricio Werdum have gotten the bulk of the attention, plenty of excellent fights lurk on the undercards.
Choice can be a good thing—but it can also leave fans looking a bit like a deer in the headlights. Which fights are worth watching, and which are fine to click right past? Deciding might be a bit overwhelming.
Luckily, we are here to help. We break down all three cards and then pick our favorite fights of the night.
Disagree? Something else have your interest piqued? Sound off in the comments.
Jessica Aguilar (18-4), who defends her strawweight championship against Kalindra Faria (15-3) in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, has two messages to the women’s MMA world.
First, she’s happy where she is, fighting for the World Series of Fighti…
Jessica Aguilar (18-4), who defends her strawweight championship against Kalindra Faria (15-3) in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, has two messages to the women’s MMA world.
First, she’s happy where she is, fighting for the World Series of Fighting and flying the flag for women’s MMA on NBC sports.
“They’ve given me this opportunity” Aguilar told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. “They believe in me. They are treating me like a champion. They are just two years in, and they’ve come so far. I’m really grateful to them.”
Second?
She’s the best in the world. And don’t you forget it.
“I don’t have to make the case. It is what it is,” Aguilar said. “A lot of people say ‘Do you think you’re the best?’ It’s not if I think. I am the best. Look at my record. This is why I’m No. 1. Yeah, I am the best. I’m going to continue being the best. And I’m going to retire the best.”
It’s a bold statement, but one delivered matter-of-factly. Aguilar doesn’t exude bravado like a Conor McGregor or Chael Sonnen. Instead, it’s a quiet confidence, one bred by success, with wins over the sport’s top fighters such as Carla Esparza, Megumi Fujii and Lisa Ellis.
But confidence has never been Aguilar’s problem. It’s led her across the country to pursue film work and led her into the ring for her very first professional fight in 2006 on less than one week’s notice.
Discovered at a jiu-jitsu tournament when she demanded to compete with men if no women showed up in her weight class, Aguilar was offered a spot in the Absolute Fighting Championship for her gumption. She knew so little about MMA, she assumed the $300 the promoter mentioned was the cost to enter the competition.
“I asked ‘When do I have to pay you?’ I had done a Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament, and there was an entry fee. So I thought it was kind of the same thing. He laughed at me and said, ‘I pay you.’ So I said, ‘Wait a minute. Exactly what will I be doing?'” Aguilar said with a laugh. “I guess I was in the right place at the right time.
“At the time I had no idea what American Top Team was. I didn’t even know what MMA was. I had just been training for two months. The matchmaker was looking for a 115-pound girl. I had just moved to South Florida. I thought, ‘Nobody knows me here.’ I’m just going to do it. So I had five days to train for my first professional fight.
“Since I was a little girl I’ve always done a lot of what I want. So it wasn’t a surprise to my family. People knew if they dared me I would do it. I’ve always liked adventure. I thought, ‘OK, I’m fighting.’ I didn’t think of it as being a professional fighter. I didn’t understand it yet.”
She lost that first fight to The Ultimate Fighter competitor Lisa Ellis. But co-workers at the mortgage company where she worked bought enough tickets to turn a $300 pay day into a $1,200 pay day. And Aguilar, long a gym rat and athlete who grew up a tomboy alongside two brothers, had a new dream.
“Things just started happening very quickly. I decided to take it to the next level and join American Top Team and train with professionals and top trainers” Aguilar said. “It’s like Disneyland for MMA. They have everything. I work with the best coaches in the world. Great training partners. It’s the place to be if you want to become a professional MMA fighter.”
In 2010 Aguilar, who jumped from job to job, working as everything from a lab technician to a corrections officer, faced a fork in the road. She could pursue her dream, one that seemed a bit far-fetched at a time when Bellator’s MTV2 exposure was the best thing going for the sport’s 115-pounders. Or she could continue living a double life as a civilian/fighter.
Aguilar, as is her wont, lept into the fray. She quit her job setting up installations for Home Depot and decided to invest everything into fighting.
“I’m very fortunate and blessed that this is my full-time job. I had this goal. I remember when I quit my job and people said, ‘You’re quitting to fight? You’re never going to make money in this sport. It’s never going to happen.’
“I just decided to go for what I wanted to. Here I am today. This is all I do,” Aguilar said. “And I set my goal—to become the best in the world. I have this opportunity to become a professional athlete. I’m going to become the best at it.”
It’s been quite a journey for Aguilar as women’s MMA fought for attention and respect, she and the sport on similar trajectories. She lost to Zoila Gurgel in that initial Bellator tournament but rallied to beat women’s MMA pioneer Megumi Fujii twice.
“That was my role model. She was my idol. She still is. She was the person I wanted to be like when I started the sport, and I started getting to know the girls.
“I followed her career for a long time, and in 2012 we competed in the Bellator cage. Pretty amazing,” Aguilar said. “To get invited for her hometown in Japan for her retirement fight was amazing as well. For that fight my mom went with me, so it was a pretty cool experience.”
In 2013, after Bellator disbanded their women’s division, Aguilar signed with World Series of Fighting as their first female fighter and brand ambassador.
Though she is paid a significant $17,500 to show and $17,500 to win (more than UFC paid title contender Sara McMann to put it in context), it had to sting a little when UFC signed 11 of the best fighters at her weight class, including teammate Tecia Torres, to compete in The Ultimate Fighter just a month later.
Ever upbeat, Aguilar will look to make the best of the final two fights on her WSOF contract before exploring her future. Although the UFC has signed many of the top competitors, she insists that the division can support a career outside the ubiquitous powerhouse.
“Oh yeah—115 pounds is a deep division. You still have a lot of talent that people don’t know about,” Aguilar said. “For example, the girl I’m fighting, Kalindra Faria. She has an amazing record; she’s been around for a long time, and people don’t know her.
“That just goes to show you that there are people out there who are talented and have skills but people don’t know them. There is still a lot of talent out there that hasn’t signed. The UFC doesn’t have them all. I’m happy what the UFC is doing with the girls’ division. I have a teammate there. It’s awesome for the sport. It’s awesome for the ladies. I just want to continue fighting the best. And beating them.”
World Series of Fighting airs Saturday, November 15, at USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla., live on NBC Sports Network (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
Jonathan Snowden is Bleacher Report’s Lead Combat Sports Writer. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes acquired firsthand.
It turns out Al Iaquinta (10-3-1) knew something the rest of us didn’t.
When he boldly proclaimed he would be better than Ross Pearson standing, knowledgeable fans and insiders scoffed. Pearson, after all, was one of the lightweight division’s mo…
It turns out Al Iaquinta (10-3-1) knew something the rest of us didn’t.
When he boldly proclaimed he would be better than Ross Pearson standing, knowledgeable fans and insiders scoffed. Pearson, after all, was one of the lightweight division’s most technical strikers, a smooth operator capable of making the less savvy look lost.
“He ain’t gonna stand in the pocket and throw leather with me,” Pearson told Fox Sports before the fight. “He’s gonna try to take me down 100 percent. As soon as he feels my power, he ain’t gonna stand there. He knows if I touch him once, he’s going out.”
Iaquinta, for all his bravado, was a grappler first. A former wrestler at Nassau Community College, his striking game was still very much a work in progress.
He was, it seemed, biting off more than he could comfortably chew.
All things, of course, are settled in the cage. That’s the beauty of sport. It’s one thing for Iaquinta to talk about what he was going to do to Pearson. Anyone can talk. Some fighters, like ConorMcGregor and ChaelSonnen, have made it an art form.
In the end, action talks loudest. And “Raging” Al’s fists were screaming against Pearson. After a closely contested first round, Iaquinta dropped Pearson with a right hand and then swarmed, landing punch after punch on the hapless Brit before the referee mercifully jumped in to stop the fight.
“I said I was coming in here to strike,” Iaquinta told the crowd after the fight. “I’m confident and I train with the best guys in the world…freaking reporters at that press conference asking why I thought my stand up was better. This is why.”
In the crowd, no one was happier than UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman. Iaquinta‘s training partner at Serra-Longo in New York shadow-boxed along with the finish, thrilled at a win that will likely propel his teammate into the loaded lightweight division’s top 15.
It had the makings of a star turn—but if his fists left any doubt, Iaquinta‘s subsequent interview in the cage with UFC announcer Dan Hardy settled it once and for all.
“I’m going to go suplex a kangaroo,” he told Hardy of his future plans. “I’m going to put Jaws in the camel clutch. I’m going to make the lightweight division humble.”
It was an homage to pro wrestling great Iron Sheik. It was also a clear announcement that there is a new player at 155 pounds. Still just 27, Iaquinta could very well be on the fast-track to fame and fighting fortune.
Winning fights, at least in the post-McGregor era, isn’t nearly enough to make your mark in this industry. There are more great fighters than ever. Being a great fighter alone doesn’t cut it. You have to be entertaining as well.
Iaquinta clearly gets it. Lots of guys do. In the months to come we’ll see more and more guys attempt to catch fans’ eyes with a flashy post-fight interview. When they fall short it’s going to be brutal. But when they nail it, like Iaquinta did here, the results will be pure magic.
Al Iaquinta is for real. He said he was going to stand and bang. He delivered—and did so against one of the division’s best strikers. He’s ready for a top opponent. And this time, when he talks, we’d be smart to listen.
If there is a dividing line separating MMA into two eras, it likely belongs in the year 2001. The new millennium brought sweeping changes to the sport.
The UFC, once banned throughout the land and forced into the Deep South or states with no athl…
If there is a dividing line separating MMA into two eras, it likely belongs in the year 2001. The new millennium brought sweeping changes to the sport.
The UFC, once banned throughout the land and forced into the Deep South or states with no athletic commissions, suddenly had a shiny new veneer. Though little had changed conceptually, approval from the influential state of New Jersey and the new ownership out of Las Vegas were enough to push a once broken brand back into the national spotlight.
Under Zuffa the much maligned sport had a fighting chance. The Fertitta brothers had the juice to get the sport regulated in Nevada and back on pay-per-view. The fighters, meanwhile, had spent nearly a decade figuring out what worked and what didn’t in a real fight. They were ready for prime time.
The result was a series of spectacular fights, each year featuring numerous contests that put the barbaric and simple tussles of the early years to shame. In 1994 MMA supporters could claim the contests were much more than mere bar fights. In 2005, however, they could truly mean it.
What follows are my personal choice for best fight of each year of the past decade. This is, clearly, a subjective exercise. Fights, in a way, are like songs. Some, though not quite in tune, manage to say something meaningful nonetheless. Others, though professionally crafted, just don’t reach all the way to your heart.
These are the ones that reached mine. Have your own favorites? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
The full brilliance of Jose Aldo was on display Saturday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as he outpointed a game Chad Mendes. An instant classic and fight for the ages, it was his eighteenth consecutive win and his ninth title defense. He stands …
The full brilliance of Jose Aldo was on display Saturday night in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, as he outpointed a game Chad Mendes. An instant classic and fight for the ages, it was his eighteenth consecutive win and his ninth title defense. He stands alone as the greatest featherweight in the history of the sport, a strong contender for the elusive title of pound-for-pound kingpin.
In the cage, all of Aldo’s strengths were on display. His powerful striking, killer instinct and stellar takedown defense made it all too clear why he’s been dispatching all comers for nearly a decade.
It was only after the fight, when the roar of the crowd faded and the red lights of dozens of video cameras shined bright, that all of his weaknesses, too, came to the forefront.
Before the bout with Mendes, Aldo was vocal in his complaints about fighter pay, suggesting that the UFC owes its fighters a bigger slice of the monetary pie. It’s a fair point, though perhaps not Aldo’s to make. After all, he’s a historically poor pay-per-view performer, failing over and over again to capture the hearts and minds of UFC fans. His interview after the fight with Fox Sports’ Ariel Helwani shows why.
All week, featherweight rising star ConorMcGregor was the toast of the MMA world. The Irish sensation, likely the next challenger for Aldo’s world title, flew to Brazil and did his part to enrage Aldo’s Brazilian fanbase. If it comes off, it will be the biggest fight of Aldo’s career.
But when asked about fighting McGregor, Aldo could barely even be bothered to change expressions.
“It’s not for me to say,” he told Helwani through a translator. “That’s the UFC’s choice. I’ll fight whoever they choose.”
Those three sentences, a microcosm of his whole promotional approach, show exactly why Aldo hasn’t shared in the UFC’s millions. When handed a gift on a silver platter, or silver tongue in McGregor‘s case, he had no idea what to do with it. The universe is trying hard to make Aldo a very rich man. He, in turn, is doing his level best to screw it all up.
The UFC, too, is doing its best to ruin a good thing. While I was a vocal critic of the promotion’s strategy to take advantage of the excitement building around McGregor, preferring to see him built on Fox television and introduced to a wider audience before making a run at pay-per-view, that bird has flown.
At this point, after bringing McGregor to Brazil and all but anointing him as the next featherweight contender, there’s little choice but to jump in with both feet. That’s what makes the UFC’s decision to match McGregor with fringe contender Dennis Siver January 18th in Boston so strange.
Dana, I understand you were wowed by the response to McGregor in Boston when he fought there last year. With its large population of Irish-Americans, it’s the perfect home away from home for the charismatic Irishman. Siver, in theory, is also a perfect opponent, an older, slower slugger who seems tailor-made for McGregor‘s fleet feet and power punching.
We also both know that so many things can go wrong. What if Siver, a really good fighter after all, manages to knock the McGregor hype train right off the tracks? What if McGregor, knock on wood, is hurt during the bout or while preparing for it?
Are the marginal gains you’ll get from having McGregor appear on a late-night show on Fox Sports 1 worth the potential cost? McGregor has the very real chance to be the biggest star this sport has seen since Georges St-Pierre in his heyday. And, just like GSP’s legitimacy and popularity flowed from beating longtime stalwart Matt Hughes for the welterweight title, so too does McGregor‘s future rest on dispatching the best featherweight of all time.
The time for Aldo versus McGregor is now. No other fight makes sense. No other fight will sate fans who have now had a taste of what might be.
McGregor says he’s ready, telling Fox Sports, “It was a phenomenal contest. I have so much respect for both of them…He showed his heart and will in there. He showed his frustration as well. I feel if I connect, it will end. That’s the difference between me and them.”
We’re ready too. And, in your heart, so are you.
Dana, I know that you’re an old-school guy. I know that backing away from a pronouncement isn’t in your ethos. So how about this: As a fanbase, we will agree to pretend you never announced Siver versus McGregor. You get a mulligan. It never happened. Now let’s move on to that mega-title fight in a soccer stadium you’ve been dreaming about since Michael Bisping first became a potential contender after The Ultimate Fighter 3.
You got cute with that one, always pushing the Brit into one too many fights before pulling the trigger. The dream fight with Anderson Silva never happened. The British market stagnated as a result. Don’t make the same mistake here. You can practically see history repeating itself. Don’t let it.
The time for McGregor and Aldo is now. It doesn’t matter how it happens. A meaculpa. A convenient training injury to Siver. It doesn’t matter how. It only matters if.
The UFC hasn’t had a lot of winning moments this year. The base is dwindling, North American television ratings are sinking, and pay-per-view is at the lowest point in nearly a decade.
Here is a chance to appease the hardcore base. Make the fight that makes sense. Give us the only featherweight fight the fanbase has ever demanded.
Jessica Aguilar (18-4), who defends her strawweight championship against Kalindra Faria (15-3) in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday, has two messages to the women’s