UFC fans who are counting down the days to see Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier will have to wait a little bit longer.
The company announced on Tuesday that the light heavyweight champion suffered a leg injury. As a result, the titl…
UFC fans who are counting down the days to see Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier will have to wait a little bit longer.
The company announced on Tuesday that the light heavyweight champion suffered a leg injury. As a result, the title fight between Jones and Cormier has been moved from UFC 178 to UFC 182:
According to Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter, Jones has a sprained ankle and a torn meniscus:
It’s very disappointing. I started to train very hard. It’s a little discouraging, but now I have time to get completely healthy. I don’t know how hurt Jon is but we have to remember that I took this fight with a pre-existing injury. I could have fought through it, I just wish he would have done the same.
Given the hype surrounding this bout, it’s a bit of a shame that it’s been pushed back to January 2015, though it’s easy to understand the reasons for doing so.
The converse is that allowing Jones to recover will ensure that both fighters are at 100 percent by the time the pay-per-view rolls around. With a fight of this magnitude, you want both competitors to be at their very best when they enter the Octagon.
Just when you thought the UFC was growing a bit stale, Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva come along to make everything better.
Dana White confirmed on Tuesday evening’s SportsCenter that Silva has recovered from his ugly leg injury and will fight Diaz on Ja…
Just when you thought the UFC was growing a bit stale, Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva come along to make everything better.
Dana White confirmed on Tuesday evening’s SportsCenter that Silva has recovered from his ugly leg injury and will fight Diaz on Jan. 31, via SportsCenter’s official Twitter account:
White also posted an Instagram photo of he and Silva with the caption, “Lunch with the GOAT @spiderandersonsilva and just got the Diaz fight done!!!! #ufc #superfight.”
According to ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto, the fight will be at 185 pounds:
This only confirms what many UFC fans expected to happen when Diaz came back to the company after a brief semi-retirement/hiatus. The 30-year-old spoke about a potential bout with Silva in the press release announcing his return, via UFC.com’s Matt Parrino:
I’d like to fight for the title. I think that would be a big deal and worth fighting for. I want fights that will lead to a title fight. Whoever is in line and whoever has the title, that’s who I’m going to be fighting.
I’d be interested in fighting [Anderson Silva] and anything that’s going to do well. As far as Anderson Silva, I think that would be a great fight for people to see because he has my type of style.
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden didn’t make any attempt to understate what this fight means:
Fox Sports’ Mike Chiappetta joked that every precaution necessary must be taken so as to ensure the health of both fighters. If bubble wrap has to be involved, then so be it:
One of the bigger problems in UFC is the dearth of bankable stars who can guarantee huge pay-per-view buys. It’s a bit like boxing in that fans are either stuck with recycled main events or fights where one guy is light years ahead of his opponent, which leads to an underwhelming spectacle.
That isn’t the case at all here. UFC could almost do nothing to promote this fight, and it’d still cash in on a huge PPVbuyrate. This basically gives the company a license to print money. UFC 183 wouldn’t even need an undercard. Fast-forward right to the main event, and it’ll easily be one of the biggest shows of the year.
Consider that no belt is on the line and the two fighters are riding two-match losing streaks. Yet it still has both the name recognition and a relative freshness since they have never fought each other before. This is the kind of high-profile duel that helped get UFC on the map a decade ago.
When was the last time a non-title bout had this much hype?
On one side, you’ve got somebody considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the history of the sport. In addition, the complacency that seemed to seep into Silva’s last few fights should also be gone. As talented as he is, he became almost a caricature of himself.
Opposing him will be Diaz, who’s not afraid to go on the offensive. Few fighters have been more fun to watch in the Octagon than him. He can put on an enjoyable show with just about anybody, so throwing him in against Silva is pretty much a dream fight.
Diaz is also a fantastic foil for Silva for the pre-match buildup. He’ll match the Brazilian taunt for taunt and throw plenty of shade during interviews and the weigh-in. At this stage in their careers, they couldn’t have signed on for a more perfect matchup.
Nick Diaz is no longer a retiree, agreeing to return to UFC for a three-fight contract. The company announced the deal on Thursday afternoon, per UFC.com’s Matt Parrino.
‘I’ve been doing a whole lot of not getting punched around-type stuff,’ Diaz sai…
Nick Diaz is no longer a retiree, agreeing to return to UFC for a three-fight contract. The company announced the deal on Thursday afternoon, per UFC.com’s Matt Parrino.
‘I’ve been doing a whole lot of not getting punched around-type stuff,’ Diaz said Thursday afternoon at UFC headquarters. ‘I’ve been staying in shape pretty good, doing a lot of running. It’s been a good experience having this much time off.’
The target for Diaz and the UFC is to get him back in the cage early next year, but the confident 30-year-old fighter said he’d be ready to fight tomorrow.
UFC President Dana White tweeted out a photo of him and Diaz after the welterweight star signed his contract:
Fox Sports’ Mike Chiappetta is happy to see Diaz back in UFC:
Diaz‘s goal is to fight in early 2015. Everything else beyond that would likely be contingent on the success of that fight.
The 30-year-old already has a potential opponent in mind for his return bout:
‘I’d like to fight for the title,’ Diaz said. ‘I think that would be a big deal and worth fighting for. I want fights that will lead to a title fight. Whoever is in line and whoever has the title, that’s who I’m going to be fighting.
‘I’d be interested in fighting [Anderson Silva] and anything that’s going to do well,’ he continued. ‘As far as Anderson Silva, I think that would be a great fight for people to see because he has my type of style.’
MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani was told by a source that Diaz‘s first fight back in UFC will most likely be against Anderson Silva if everything goes according to plan, via MMAFighting.com’s Dave Doyle.
White, however, tweeted out that no movement has been made on a potential bout between Diaz and Silva.
Fantasy Wired’s Matt Brown believes that a Diaz-Silva fight could draw more interest than any previous fight between two guys on losing streaks:
Diaz lost his last two fights before going into semi-retirement. He was defeated by both Carlos Condit and Georges St-Pierre by unanimous decision.
That fact is largely immaterial at the moment. UFC is suffering from a lack of star power.
The company could once call upon any number of top fighters to headline a major pay-per-view, but fans are growing tired of either seeing the same guys battling one another, or the converse is watching fighters unworthy of title shots getting main events on the biggest shows of the year.
Fighting Silva would allow Diaz to prove himself as a viable title contender, while simultaneously giving UFC a bankable star to headline future PPVs.
Nobody ever wants to lose, but sometimes it’s good to make the most of a bad situation. A few fighters who tasted defeat at UFC 175 should still be somewhat encouraged with how well they fought.
Not all losses are created equally. It’s one thing to get…
Nobody ever wants to lose, but sometimes it’s good to make the most of a bad situation. A few fighters who tasted defeat at UFC 175 should still be somewhat encouraged with how well they fought.
Not all losses are created equally. It’s one thing to get completely dominated in every round. It’s something different to go down fighting until the end and make a strong case that you were the deserving winner. Even a knockout/submission result can be deceiving because all it takes is one split-second mistake, and it’s all over.
These three fighters may not have come out on the winning end Saturday night, but they at least made a good account of themselves.
LyotoMachida
In an earlier article Sunday, I made the parallel between Chris Weidman‘s win over LyotoMachida to one of Ric Flair’s title defenses from the late 1980s and early ’90s. Flair was such a great wrestler that even in victory, he made his opponents look like a million bucks, and they came out looking stronger in defeat.
Of course, Weidman and Machida didn’t work out a prearranged finish for their title bout, but the comparison remains effective.
Machida might have fallen short Saturday night, but his stock hardly took a hit. By the end of the fight, most fans were applauding him for coming back in the late rounds and giving Weidman a run for his money:
The challenger remained gracious in defeat.
“The plan was to keep the fight standing but Chris Weidman is a tough opponent,” Machida said, per Mike Chiappetta of FoxSports.com. “He’s the true champion. He deserves the title.”
Machida might have lost at UFC 175, but he still found a way to burnish his reputation in the Octagon.
Marcus Brimage
While most will agree that Machida was the clear loser in his bout, the same couldn’t be said of Marcus Brimage, who lost a split decision to Russell Doane.
ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto had the 29-year-old ahead on the cards, while Sherdog’s Jordan Breen thought that Brimage at the very least took Round 3:
All in all, Brimage could’ve had a much worse debut to the bantamweight division. He registered a knockdown on Doane in the second round and looked to be in control by landing a series of leg kicks.
The judges obviously felt otherwise, but they cannot cloud what was a strong performance from Brimage.
Alex Caceres
The burden was on Urijah Faber Saturday night. He was the more experienced fighter and the consensus pick to beat Alex Caceres. After all, the 35-year-old is now 20-0 in nontitle fights, as per Mike Johnston of Sportsnet:
There’s no shame in losing to a better fighter, and that’s exactly what happened to Caceres:
This was his chance to earn consideration as a main-card player in the pay-per-view scene. Although this is a setback, Caceres is only 26 years old, so he has plenty of time to recover and get his UFC career back on track.
UFC 175 has come and gone, and it was a great pay-per-view. With such an important show, it was important that each and every fighter made a good showing for themselves, even if it came in defeat.
Most fans are focusing on the co-main events, in which …
UFC 175 has come and gone, and it was a great pay-per-view. With such an important show, it was important that each and every fighter made a good showing for themselves, even if it came in defeat.
Most fans are focusing on the co-main events, in which Chris Weidman and Ronda Rousey defended their titles against Lyoto Machida and Alexis Davis, respectively. For Rousey, it was merely another in a line of imperious victories, while Weidman fought back much more resistance from his challenger, arguably looking more impressive as a result.
The middleweight king was one of the bigger winners on the night. Joining him in that regard were the three other stars below.
Chris Weidman
Anybody with eyes could see that Weidman was a good fighter even before last night. What he needed to do was completely silence the doubters who questioned the legitimacy of his two wins against Anderson Silva.
That line of inquiry is no longer valid. Weidman rendered it moot with a convincing all-around performance against the former light heavyweight champion, earning the nod from all three judges, 49-45, 48-47, 49-46.
He shut down Machida’s elusive, counterstrike-oriented offense with a game plan that looked similar to the ones he used against Silva. Weidman quashed the 36-year-old karate master’s unorthodox style with straight-ahead pressure, beating Machida to the punch more often than not and mixing in the occasional takedowns against the fence.
The middleweight champion wasn’t dominant in victory. Machida made a late run that nearly turned the fight on its head.
What Weidman did so well was neutralize Machida early in the fight, withstand the onslaught in the fourth round and then recover to take the fifth and ensure that the bout remained his.
Lesser champions would’ve crumbled where Weidman thrived.
Lyoto Machida
The main event of UFC 175 was like a classic Ric Flair NWA title match. The champion retains, but the challenger still ends up looking stronger in the process.
Machida was ultimately undone by his sluggish start. Some fighters might have figuratively thrown in the towel at that point—Weidman either ends the fight early or dominates the later rounds and cruises to victory.
That didn’t happen with Machida, who saved his strongest stuff for the fourth and fifth rounds. Most fight fans can appreciate a loser who goes down swinging until the end:
Machida may have lost a shot at the title, but his reputation was enhanced by Saturday night’s defeat.
Uriah Hall
There’s toughness, which Machida demonstrated, and then there’s toughness bordering on madness, which is what Uriah Hall demonstrated.
I’m no doctor, but that toe looks broken, per Bleacher Report MMA (Warning: Images are graphic and NSFW):
Hall tweeted out a picture of himself in surgery early Sunday morning getting the toe repaired:
The word incredible often gets overused, but the fact that he continued fighting—kicking Thiago Santos with the injured toe—and then went on to win the fight was incredible. That’s the kind of stuff that gets a fighter remembered forever.
As Sherdog noted, Hall was often been dogged by criticism early in his career about his mental make-up:
Nobody can ever question Hall’s toughness ever again.
Rob Font
You can’t have a much more impactful debut than Rob Font’s during UFC 175. He needed just two minutes and 19 seconds to knock out George Roop with a devastating overhand right:
Every fighter in UFC needs to start somewhere. Saturday night was a chance for Font to make a great first impression on Dana White and the higher-ups of the company, and that’s exactly what he did.
Font is already eyeing up a fight with Sergio Pettis, per UFC on Fox:
That probably wouldn’t get the 27-year-old on to the main card of a big show, but it would be another stepping stone in his UFC career.
Some have dinged the UFC recently for what is perceived to be a watering down of the product. At UFC 175 on Saturday, the company gave fans a card that more than delivered.
The co-main events featured two title defenses, with Chris Weidman and Ronda Ro…
Some have dinged the UFC recently for what is perceived to be a watering down of the product. At UFC 175 on Saturday, the company gave fans a card that more than delivered.
The co-main events featured two title defenses, with Chris Weidman and Ronda Rousey both retaining their championships.
That’s where the similarities ended, though, as Rousey knocked out Alexis Davis in 16 seconds, while Weidman relied on the judges to give him a unanimous victory.
Their victories presented some immediate questions for the future.
Does Chris Weidman Have Anything Left to Prove?
As wrong as they may have been, plenty of critics wondered whether Weidman’s wins over Anderson Silva were flukes. In the first bout, Silva didn’t really care. In the rematch, his leg no longer decided to remain in one piece.
The champ didn’t need to prove anything to the majority of UFC fans, but a small segment of viewers was unconvinced. UFC 175 was the time for Weidman to establish himself as the man, and that’s exactly what he did.
Both Kenny Florian and Fox Sports 1’s Jon Anik heaped praise upon the 30-year-old’s shoulders:
Weidman was excellent. He erased just about any doubt that remained as to his talent level.
You learn the most about a fighter when he or she is facing a moment of adversity. Machida was a more than game challenger, but Weidman answered the call and came out a better fighter because of it.
Where Does Weidman Go From Here?
The answer to that question would appear to be Vitor Belfort. Dana White said after UFC 175 that he’s planning on Weidman’s next title defense to be against the 37-year-old Brazilian, per Bleacher Report MMA:
Looking at the top challengers, Belfort makes the most sense. Silva is still ranked No. 2, but there’s no chance of Weidman vs. Silva 3 happening anytime soon. A rematch with Machida could happen down the line but not right now. Luke Rockhold lost to Belfort back in May 2013.
Belfort was supposed to fight Chael Sonnen on Saturday night, but everybody knows what happened there.
Despite that setback, Belfort remains firm in his resolve about getting a shot against Weidman.
“I’ve got my opponent already,” he said after UFC Fight Night on June 28, via FoxSports.com’s Marc Raimondi. “Everybody get in line. I have my belt fight.”
This all seems to settle it, then. Get ready for Weidman vs. Belfort.
When Can UFC Make Rousey vs. Zingano Happen?
Rousey needs something to break the mundane nature of her fights; otherwise, she and the UFC risk watching her pay-per-view appeal dwindle. Fans will only keep paying to watch for so long until they get tired of her challengers losing within a minute of the first round.
With Cat Zingano, UFC might have somebody who can at least take Rousey past the first—as Miesha Tate did at UFC 168—and possibly push the champ to the limit.
This fight would have happened already if not for Zingano’s knee injury. She went on record stating that she has a clean bill of health now.
“I’m not worried about it,” Zingano said, per Dann Stupp of MMAJunkie. “I got cleared a couple months ago to start training hard, and I’ve been doing just that since. So, I feel good. I’m strong. I’m really hitting it hard, and I’m having a good time doing it.”
The only snag now is Rousey’s possibly broken hand, per SportsCenter:
That wouldn’t be a massive delay. It all but eliminates UFC 176 as an option for their fight, though.
UFC fans who are counting down the days to see Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier will have to wait a little bit longer.