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Stool Gate: ‘Old Dirty Trick’ Saves Yoel Romero from Tim Kennedy at UFC 178

When there’s 10 seconds left between rounds, it’s the referee’s job to let the fighters’ corners know and to start the athletes on the path back into the cage. But with 10 seconds left between the second and third rounds of his fight with Tim Kennedy, …

And on the stool he sat, for approximately 30 extra seconds as chaos reigned. While Vaseline was applied and removed at the referee John McCarthy’s request. While athletic commission officials screamed at his cornermen. While Kennedy, who had hurt Romero badly at the end of the second round stalked the cage and stewed.

Bloody Elbow’s Brent Brookhouse didn’t consider the delay coincidental:

They were stalling and trying to give their badly rocked fighter a bit of extra recovery time. But, the referee also had told the corner to wipe Romero off. He should have made it happen more quickly and should not have allowed Romero to remain seated. But he did. Ultimately, it was Big John McCarthy who failed in his job here. And, depending on how much you think it changed the fight, it’s McCarthy who may have caused Tim Kennedy to get knocked out minutes later.

UFC President Dana White agreed, but told the media after the fight that he couldn’t blame Romero’s corner completely for the debacle.

“That’s an old dirty trick,” White said. “The thing that throws a kink in the thing is that it was our guy that put the Vaseline on. So there was nobody trying to take advantage. They called his guy in to wipe the Vaseline off. He didn’t understand what they were saying. It’s very unfortunate.”

When action finally resumed, a refreshed Romero turned the tables on Kennedy, knocking him down with a fast right hand and finishing him off with ground-and-pound. The crowd turned on the Cuban wrestler, a former Olympic silver medalist, even as he praised the fans and America in delightful broken English.

Did the delay help Romero? Kennedy certainly seemed to think so, angrily confronting his opponent backstage after the bout to plead his case. The former soldier tweeted a reference to the official Nevada Athletic Commission rules, stating:

An unarmed combatant shall not leave the ring or, if the contest or exhibition is being held in a fenced area, the fenced area, during any period of rest that follows a period of unarmed combat. If an unarmed combatant fails or refuses to resume competing when the bell sounds signaling the commencement of the next round, the referee shall award a decision of technical knockout to his or her opponent as of the round which has last been finished, unless the circumstances indicate to the referee the need for investigation or punitive action, in which event the referee shall not give a decision and shall recommend that the purse or purses of either or both unarmed combatants be withheld.

But, while things certainly didn’t go as planned, Nevada Athletic Commission Chairman Francisco Aguilar doesn’t believe there are grounds for an appeal.

“It was a bunch of things all happening at once,” Aguilar told Bleacher Report. “Our inspector had to get the grease off his face. Our inspector who was supposed to get the stool out didn’t get it out in time.”

The win moves Romero’s MMA record to 9-1. He’s won all five of his fights inside the UFC Octagon and is on the short track to a shot at Chris Weidman’s middleweight championship.

Jonathan Snowden is Bleacher Report’s Lead Combat Sports Reporter. Jeremy Botter contributed to this report.

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Demetrious Johnson Is the UFC’s Most Dominant Champion and No One Cares

There was a weird vibe in Las Vegas as Demetrious Johnson (21–2–1), the UFC’s most dominant champion, made his way to the Octagon to defend his flyweight championship.
There is no fighter in the world with the same combination of crisp stri…

There was a weird vibe in Las Vegas as Demetrious Johnson (21–2–1), the UFC’s most dominant champion, made his way to the Octagon to defend his flyweight championship.

There is no fighter in the world with the same combination of crisp striking, stellar wrestling and dangerous submissions. When it comes to pure talent, Johnson sits on the very top of the mountain, side-by-side with fighters such as Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey.

And yet, as he walked to the cage for his fifth title defense, this one against Chris Cariaso, the crowd was heading the opposite direction, about a fifth of them streaming toward the exits and the rest of their night. The champ was in the building—but no one could be bothered to care. Andreas Hale shared what he saw as people were departing:

What’s wrong is not entirely clear. There were a lot of factors leading to this mass exodus. First, and perhaps foremost, there is Cariaso, so unknown that many MMA fans literally couldn’t pick him out of a lineup when challenged by my Bleacher Report colleague Chad Dundas.

But the blame can’t be laid entirely at his feet, even after Johnson steamrolled him, finishing the bout with a vicious Kimura arm lock in the second round.

Yes, Cariaso was a particularly weak challenger, never looking even remotely dangerous. But this wasn’t Johnson’s first box-office failure. His last headlining appearance at UFC 174 set a modern record for pay-per-view futility by drawing barely 100,000 buys, according to Jason Cruz of MMA Payout (via Thomas Myers of MMA Mania).

Before moving to pay-per-view in his last two bouts, Johnson had fought on network television on three consecutive occasions. He was exposed to millions of fans. It didn’t seem to make a difference in growing his miniscule fanbase.

His reputation as a headliner is so tarnished and the interest in his fights is so low, the UFC didn’t even include the champion on a Las Vegas billboard promoting the fight card he supposedly topped.

In the past you could point a finger at Johnson’s cautious style. Over a two-year period each of his fights went the distance. But even that criticism rings hollow these days. Johnson has finished three of his last four bouts, making even the best opponents look hopelessly outclassed. But the acclaim he probably deserves is slow coming.

“I think a lot of people can get discouraged watching us because they don’t understand. People get lost in what’s actually going on,” Johnson told me last year. “A lot of the skill sets flyweights bring to the UFC can be lost in translation. Everyone is so evenly matched, and we have a lot of skills that heavyweights or light heavyweights don’t get to use. There’s a lot more moving around, cardio and constant motion.”

It may be that fans just aren’t interested in determining who the toughest 125-pound man in the world is. Johnson stands just 5’3″. Physically he’s the furthest thing from intimidating. In a sport built on the promise of big-time violence, there just is no place for a little man to shine.

In a perfect world a win like this would be a another step on Johnson’s journey toward true stardom. Instead, it’s more compelling evidence for the prosecution in the case against him as a pay-per-view fighter.

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Return of the King: Can Former UFC Champ Dominick Cruz Reclaim His Throne?

It seems ridiculous considering his placement on this weekend’s UFC 178 preliminaries, but, believe it or not, bantamweight Dominick Cruz was once one of the most dominant champions in UFC history. At the height of his career, just entering his athleti…

All the great little men of the era gave him a tumble—Urijah Faber, Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson.

None of them came close.

After dispatching Faber, his great rival, at UFC 132, and Johnson on the Versus Network, Cruz was firmly entrenched in the sport’s pound-for-pound top 10 as 2011 came to a close.

He was purpose-driven and only growing as a fighter. Against Johnson, matched for the first time in the speed department, he relied on a strong wrestling game to secure a decision. He was no one-trick pony, dancing around the cage in a confusing, chaotic whirlwind of lanky limbs, part kickboxer and part flamenco artist. Cruz contained multitudes.

Greatness, the goal for so many, had already been achieved. Only athletic immortality remained, the chance to sell fans on the primacy of the little man and finally usurp the more popular Faber as the face of the little man in a big man’s world. As a life’s works go, it was pretty alright.

The only speed Cruz knew was “rapid.” Footwork, punches, words—they all tumbled out of him at incredible speed. It was no surprise, then, that his career would pass before his eyes the same way. In the blink of an eye, it was all over.

After nearly three years of toil and trouble, Cruz will finally put a torn anterior cruciate ligament, two subsequent surgeries, a groin pull and all the lingering doubt and stress to the side to get back to doing what he does best.

It hasn’t been easy.

“It feels weird…it really does,” Cruz told Bleacher Report’s Duane Finley. “I’ve been out for so long, and I’ve turned my brain off to it because I hurt myself because I got back into the gym too soon. I basically had to turn off the mindset of being a pro athlete and change hats.

“But now, I’ve put the hat back on; I’m back to being a professional athlete again. It feels like getting laid off and then getting your job back. It’s a strange feeling, and I’m here and ready to go through with it…”

When Cruz steps into the Octagon against Takeya Mizugaki, no one really knows what kind of fighter he’s going to be. If he’s being honest, Cruz himself has no idea either. Who Cruz is today is a mystery. Who he was is revelation.

Watching Cruz on video only serves to frustrate if you’re looking for labels. He defies them. He’s cerebral and prepared, but he’s also unorthodox and bizarre. But that’s always been the case.

It’s not often you get to use the term “meth head” as a compliment, so I took every advantage of the opportunity the first time I met Dominick Cruz. Then a mere contender, Cruz was at a media breakfast in Las Vegas prior to UFC 104 and months before his WEC bantamweight title win, his first real opportunity to mingle with the gathered MMA press.

When it was my turn to chat him up, I tried to put his fighting style into words, attempting to get him to explain it to me.

“It’s almost like Bruce Lee on meth,” I told him. “You’re darting around like no one else I’ve ever seen.”

Maybe he saw the look in my eye, that passing, fleeting fear that I had gone too far with a man who could easily dismantle me and was sitting perilously close for comfort. He narrowed his eyes briefly before letting out a little laugh and letting me know what he was all about in the cage.

“I always wanted to have a style that would catch someone’s eye. There’s so many good fighters, and you have to stand out some way. My outlook on this is that we’re wearing four-ounce gloves, and four-ounce gloves aren’t very forgiving.

“So my mindset is to get hit as little as possible,” he told me. “…I thought if I don’t get hit at all in a fight, how can I lose? I decided to make my feet as fast as I could and make my footwork ridiculous because Muhammad Ali always preached about it, so it’s got to work.”

It’s a strategy he mastered before injuries finally did what no fighter could—they caught up with him. His striking defense ranks among the very best of all time, according to Fight Metric, his movement and very active offense giving opponents little time to breath, let alone to plot tactics of their own.

Whether he can do the same against Mizugaki will go a long way toward deciding if Cruz’s tale is a tragedy or the midpoint in an epic hero’s journey. A savvy veteran in his own right, the Japanese star is far from a pushover, especially for a fighter so long removed from the cage.

“All he would need to win is to time me one time being lazy with my jab. On top of that, he knows how to win rounds. He’s a veteran who knows where he is within each round,” Cruz told UFC Tonight (via Fox Sports). “…I’m going to be able to keep a fast pace, and with a three-round fight, that’s something you have to do. The pace has to be higher, and it’s that much more important to win each round than in a five-round fight.”

Anticipation, frankly, is hardly at a fever pitch. Each of Cruz’s last four fights went to a judges’ decision. He doesn’t have a single knockout or submission to his name in his nine big league fights. He’s the antithesis of Donald Cerrone and Eddie Alvarez, the high-octane fighters who are getting the attention, while Cruz languishes on the undercard.

But make no mistake—if he’s back to being the Dominick Cruz we came to respect so much over the years, he won’t just be the best fighter on this card. He might just be the best fighter in the entire world.

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Mark Hunt Deserves a Title Shot Against UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez

There’s something so cool about UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt (10-8-1)—entrancing even. He’s a human paradox, a man whose very existence defies the carefully crafted rules that govern the world of combat sports.
A gargantuan with neck tattoos an…

A gargantuan with neck tattoos and fists of granite, he should be one of the scariest men alive. A man who beats people up for a living definitely shouldn’t exude such zen and peace, even in the midst of carnage.

And yet…

In the cage there are no secrets, not when Hunt, 40, is fighting. His game is simple as games go. He wants you to make a mistake, to duck your head just a little too low, leave your chin unprotected just a little too long. And then he pounces. A man that size, old and fat to be frank, shouldn’t be able to move like that.

And yet…

A fighter who once lost six in a row, who has been hit in the head over and over again, by everyone from Jerome Le Banner to Antonio Silva, doesn’t belong among the top 10 fighters in his weight class. He’s at the point of his career when most are little more than punching bags. He lost to Sean McCorkle, for God’s sake; he shouldn’t be in contention for a UFC title.

And yet…

At the Saitama Super Arena in Japan Hunt, he sent his American counterpart Roy Nelson flailing to the mat with a brutal right uppercut and then stepped over his prone body without once changing expression. With that win he’s punched his ticket right to the top of the heavyweight ladder. Not only does he deserve it—he also can sell it.

“I want to move forward,” Hunt told the press after the fight. “I want to move up in the rankings. I want to get a title shot. My purpose is to fight for a title.”

If there’s any justice in this world, Hunt’s dreams will soon be realized. His bout with Silva was an all-time classic—the Nelson pratfall a moment that will live forever on highlight reels. It’s these things that separate Hunt from other rising contenders in a barren division.

Stipe Miocic, a Twitter sensation, hasn’t caught the eye of the casual fan inside the cage—yet. Junior Dos Santos has had his shot—twice. It’s time for the oldest dose of new blood in the sport. It’s time for Hunt.

Sure, champion Cain Velasquez has the wrestling to befuddle the former kickboxer. Standing, he has the length and skill to frustrate Hunt between takedowns. He has the cardio to go hard for five rounds, the submission prowess to defend against a surprisingly robust ground game and the team behind him to take advantage of every flaw.

Hunt shouldn’t be able to beat Velasquez—not in a million years.

And yet…

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5 UFC Stars We’d Love to See Try Pro Wrestling in WWE

Mention the words “professional wrestling” to an MMA fan and you’re likely to get one of two reactions—either a knowing nod or a disgusted sneer. No one is on the fence. There is no middle ground. You either embrace the madness or rejec…

But, like it or not, wrestling has always walked hand-in-hand with mixed martial arts.

In America, the sport was built by the Gracie family. They were trained by a former pro wrestler Mitsuyo Maeda, a Japanese grappler who shared a lifetime’s experience on the mat with the Brazilians who made ground fighting their world. Royce, the Gracie brother who dominated the Octagon in the early years, found archrivals in pro wrestlers Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn—just like his father.

Fighters like Kimo, Tank Abbott and Tito Ortiz followed their example, borrowing liberally from the pro wrestling they had grown up with on television, to become larger-than-life characters who made fans care. By the time Brock Lesnar finally arrived, a pro wrestling ethos was firmly in place.

In Japan, the connection is even more explicit. Pancrase was built by pro wrestlers who took their shoot style to the next level, keeping the strikes and submission holds and eliminating the predetermined endings. Pride Fighting Championships, likewise, was a promotion carried on the broad backs of pro wrestlers, with Nobuhiko Takada, Kazushi Sakuraba and Naoya Ogawa leading the way at the box office.

The talent flow, of course, also went the other direction. Wrestlers like Don Frye and Abbott gave wrestling a shot, and both Shamrock and Severn graduated from the independent scene to the WWE thanks to their UFC fame. Wrestlers like CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and even the Undertaker have also borrowed moves and mannerisms from the world of mixed martial arts.

It’s no one-way street.

Although we often hear about wrestlers like Bobby Lashley and Dave Bautista trying their hand at MMA, we rarely consider a move in the other direction. Yes, “King” Mo Lawal was signed to work for both Bellator and TNA—a move that didn’t quite work out for either group.

But what about WWE? That’s the big leagues, where the best of the best scrap for position, money and power. Could anyone from the UFC swim with those sharks?

I think the answer is clearly a resounding “yes.” In fact, here are five stars who would make it big in the wacky world of WWE. Have some names to add to the list? Hit me up in the comments.

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The 10 Greatest Feuds in UFC and MMA History

For some people MMA competition is enough. Two tough guys, one cage, something has to give.
But for many, dare I suggest most, simply inserting two people into the UFC Octagon is not, in and of itself, particularly compelling. We’ve seen it—dozen…

For some people MMA competition is enough. Two tough guys, one cage, something has to give.

But for many, dare I suggest most, simply inserting two people into the UFC Octagon is not, in and of itself, particularly compelling. We’ve seen it—dozens, hundreds, even thousands of times.

It takes more than just organizing an athletic contest to get our attention. We need context, story or high stakes. Is a championship on the line? Is this a battle between two distinct styles?

Best of all, though? Are they getting it on because they don’t, gulp, get along?

Modern MMA turns 21 this year. It’s old enough to have a bit of an established history, old enough for us to draw some sweeping conclusions and make some broad generalizations. Here’s one—the most successful fights at the box office are contests built on pure and unadulterated hatred.

When two fighters legitimately don’t get along, MMA fans turn into vampires in a mad hunt for blood. From the earliest days, starting with Ken Shamrock storming out of a 1996 press conference prior to his fight with Dan Severn at UFC 6, bad blood has equaled big bucks.

What follows are the 10 most intense feuds in the history of this great sport. These are the few and the proud who have either delivered in the cage, amused us in the buildup or made promoters rich.

Have more to add? Please let me know in the comments.

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