Frankie Edgar has just confirmed that his chance of getting back his UFC lightweight belt from Benson Henderson is official. In his recent tweet today (March 6, 3:37 p.m.) he says (unedited),” Rematch anyone??…it’s on!! Thanks to @danawhite @lo…
Frankie Edgar has just confirmed that his chance of getting back his UFC lightweight belt from Benson Henderson is official.
In his recent tweet today (March 6, 3:37 p.m.) he says (unedited),” Rematch anyone??…it’s on!! Thanks to @danawhite @lorenzofertitta. Me and Henderson 2. Here we go!!”
The Answer lost his title to Smooth last UFC 144 via decision in a fight which saw the deposed champion’s face bruised and bloodied.
Edgar fought at his usual frenetic pace, but Henderson managed to land more strikes—in quantity and quality.
FightMetric confirmed that aside from hitting with more shots, Henderson also landed the heavier blows compared to Edgar.
Edgar, who gamely fought in defending his title, tried to answer everything that Henderson threw at him, but came out the more damaged fighter.
In fact, there may be no comparison as Henderson finished the fight with his face unblemished and looking fresh enough to scrap for five more rounds.
The former champion thought he won, as he was also able to land some significant punches. The most noteworthy of these was the right that felled Henderson in the fifth and final round.
But even that seemed to only stun the erstwhile challenger for just a second, as he quickly got back on his feet.
Edgar also outwrestled Henderson, scoring five takedowns to the latter’s one. However, the effectiveness of Edgar’s consummated takedowns were questioned by the fans and pundits, as Henderson was able to get up immediately every time.
Edgar has been wooed by UFC president Dana White to go down to lighter champion Jose Aldo’s featherweight territory, but the ex-champ hasn’t budged an inch.
Now he has another shot of proving why he really belongs to the lightweight terra firma—by taking his belt once again at a still to be disclosed place and time.
It happens, and perhaps it can be tolerated and “appreciated” by hardcore fans, but that overzealous arm bar-to-a-90-degree-hyperextension executed by Ronda Rousey on Miesha Tate’s upper limb will cast more shadow on MMA’s drive…
It happens, and perhaps it can be tolerated and “appreciated” by hardcore fans, but that overzealous arm bar-to-a-90-degree-hyperextension executed by Ronda Rousey on Miesha Tate’s upper limb will cast more shadow on MMA’s drive to mainstream acceptance (whatever and wherever that is).
Inside just one round in the Strikeforce main event earlier tonight, the two women fighters showed that their fighting skills are truly as beautiful as they way they look. It should be no surprise, though, that as MMA is the world’s most comprehensive legitimate combat sport, things could end up ugly.
And it did, with the manner that Rousey successfully captured Tate’s arm and Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Title.
Now here’s a passage on the protocol of the tap out, focusing on the arm bar, from an article I wrote last year:
In striking you really have to hit with maximum power to make it most effective, to come closest to knocking out your opponent, to beating an eye shut.
In grappling, it’s more deliberate: if all arm bar attempts are executed properly and explosively to the full range of motion, believe me, they will all result into broken arms.
That’s why we have the protocol of the tap.
And there have been instances when the attacking fighter catches an arm, and, sensing he’s on the brink of hyperextending it without the defensive fighter tapping out, instinctively looks up at the referee in anticipation of a stoppage.
Well, Tate was tapping out, albeit reluctantly, with only 24 seconds remaining in the first round.
Was a submission expressed by tap out not enough for Rousey? Was it really her game plan to go for broke, as in broken arm?
Or was it just the heat of the moment, especially when she got frustrated by her first arm bar attempt—which almost sank?
Maybe it was “just” the submission she was really after, but it still reached breaking point just the same, the adrenaline rush rendering her insentient to her opponent’s desperate taps.
Tate is Rousey’s second consecutive injured victim who ended up suffering a broken arm via arm bar. In her previous fight in Strikeforce, she also dealt the same finishing hold and disability to Julia Budd.
Still, it’s premature to judge Rousey’s true intent on Tate. No one can adjudicate conclusively if there was malicious intent in inflicting damage, that’s more than necessary to win, on Rousey’s part—unless she confesses.
In spite of all the “meanness” articulated during the two women fighters’ pre-fight trash talk, we can just dismiss the apparent ill will as all hype to generate interest in the just concluded championship match. (And it succeeded.)
Just the same, the sight of that vicious arm bar on the hyperextended limb will definitely have negative repercussions, based on the perception of the casual fans and the rest of the viewing public who may be relatively new to MMA. And the latter, in other words, are among those who make up the rest of the mainstream audience.
The sight of that arm will linger long in memory and become immortalized in various Internet sites on MMA. Its consequences will be more palpable in the days, weeks, and even years to come.
That championship win by ghastly broken arm could be a Pyrrhic victory for Rousey and for all of MMA—across both genders—after all.
Disclaimer: The primary photo is not of Miesha Tate’s postfight arm; it’s for illustrative purposes only.
Jon Tuck won their match in the Advanced-Pesado division and eventually bagged the gold medal in the Philippine international grappling tournament; the writer settled for bronze.
UFC Sweden tickets sold out in record time—to ticket resellers and are being resold to Swedish fans at “not so friendly” prices. While it’s true that, as reported in Sherdog.com, the tickets were “sold out in three hours, …
UFC Sweden tickets sold out in record time—to ticket resellers and are being resold to Swedish fans at “not so friendly” prices.
While it’s true that, as reported in Sherdog.com, the tickets were “sold out in three hours, making it the fastest-selling event on European soil in the promotion’s history,” the average Swedish fan is more depressed than impressed.
The UFC will debut in Sweden this April 14, 2012, as UFC on Fuel TV 2, and headlined by a light heavyweight battle between 24-year-old Swedish rising prospect Alexander Gustafsson and highly-regarded veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira of Brazil.
UFC Sweden is indeed a historical international milestone for UFC, but avid MMA fan and practitioner Bherlin Gildo of GBG MMA might as well end up outside the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm that night—with the venerable Octagon out of sight.
In our interview last February 27, the Gothenburg resident laments that,
I was supposed to buy a ticket for UFC Sweden, but the price now is 3,000 Swedish kronor (around 450 US dollars), before it was only 500 kr [about US$75.00]. There are also tickets being sold for 4,000 kr (US$600.00).
You’d think that many are really interested to watch, but it turned out the ticket sharks are the ones who bought the bulk of the tickets.
Another fan in Sweden, who preferred to be identified only as Stockholm, shared that,
“Non-official” ticket companies bought up a big bunch and the prices are now over the roof.
Nosebleed section was originally US$70.00, it has now gone up to US$250.00. Best seats are around US$1,000.00.
Not OK!
Well, as a sign of hope, it appears that the prices of the tickets being sold by the ticket resellers are already deflating. In Martin Johansson’s article for MMANytt.se last January 24, he mentioned the following quotations (emphasis in bold figures mine):
There are tickets left for the UFC: Sweden. When I did a quick search on the block, I found a ticket in the stalls for 8,000 [kr, around US$1,200.00]. There is an increase of 6,000 kr [US$900.00] for a place on the 12th row. “Sugar prices,” some may say, and to some extent, that statement is correct.
Johansson concludes with the following advice:
In order to obtain a solution for this, the authorities will have to act. What you can do is to get the authorities to understand that consumers are in a risk when they buy tickets in any other way than the original source. Write a letter, make a phone call or send an email to your local authority.
We cannot stop ticket sharks on their own, but if we work hard enough maybe together we can get the authorities to act before the UFC is coming to Sweden for next time. Because you should not have to put out 8,000 KR for a ticket just because you happened to oversleep.
It will be first come [first serve] on equal terms.
Karlo Silverio III Sevilla is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.
Here’s the link to Blocket.se, one of the popular buy-and-sell websites in Sweden, with updated UFC Sweden ticket prices.
Yasuhiro Urushitani has a chance to make history tomorrow on UFC on FX 2 “Alves vs. Kampmann,” as the very first flyweight champion and first Japanese “regular” UFC champion ever. (In 1999, compatriot Kenichi Yamamoto became UFC 23 Mi…
Yasuhiro Urushitani has a chance to make history tomorrow on UFC on FX 2 “Alves vs. Kampmann,” as the very first flyweight champion and first Japanese “regular” UFC champion ever. (In 1999, compatriot Kenichi Yamamoto became UFC 23 Middleweight Tournament Champion, but he was not considered as a “regular” champion.)
These will be the reigning Shooto bantamweight titlist’s ultimate prizes, if he surmounts first the high hurdle imposed by his fellow title-aspirant Joseph Benavidez, then proceeds to beat the winner of Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall in their four-man championship tournament in the debuting flyweight division in Sydney, Australia.
A number of his countrymen have attempted—the last being Yushin Okami challenging Anderson Silva—and all have fallen short in becoming champion of the Super Bowl of MMA.
Last UFC 144 in Saitama, Japan, less than half of the seven Japanese fighters who faced foreign opponents won in their home country. Only three sons of the Land of the Rising Sun emerged victorious in front of their compatriots, namely, Issei Tamura, Riki Fukuda and highly-regarded Hatsu Hioki.
Will Urushitani build on the pride and one-week-old wins of the three aforementioned samurais, along with the “ancient” legacy of Yamamoto, tomorrow night?
The following are the burning questions he will answer on the way to making MMA history.
Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Muñoz and Yushin “Thunder” Okami both caught the same fight-ending thundering wallop inside the Octagon. Muñoz’s happened three years ago in UFC 96; Okami’s came onl…
Mark “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” Muñoz and Yushin “Thunder” Okami both caught the same fight-ending thundering wallop inside the Octagon.
Muñoz’s happened three years ago in UFC 96; Okami’s came only last Saturday night on UFC 144.
The Filipino-American was sent to dreamland in the first round in Ohio, USA; the Japanese fell in the third and last round in his home country in Saitama, Japan.
The Filipino Wrecking Machine got wrecked in his UFC debut by Matt Hamill. On the other hand, the Thunder was silenced as a veteran by Tim Boetsch, his second consecutive KO loss, coming off a failed title shot courtesy of champion Anderson Silva.
No matter the circumstantial differences, both Muñoz and Okami met the same sleep-inducing head kick that cost them their consciousness and respective fights. (Though he didn’t fall instantaneously, it was still the kick that staggered Okami and enabled Boetsch to pummel and finish him off.)
As it happened to him first, Muñoz shared this humble assessment about his fight versus Hamill during his press conference last February 20 in Pasig City, Philippines:
He never kicked [in his previous fights]. I never really saw he was gonna kick, then I saw this big white foot coming at me.
Muñoz admitted that he was relatively raw and more of a pure wrestler when he debuted in the UFC versus Hamill, having competed in MMA previously in WEC and other promotions for less than two years.
The former NCAA Division I wrestling champion also confessed that that loss was what compelled him to concentrate more on striking, making him brave L.A. traffic for seven months to train with famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach.
Muñoz rightfully believes that his vast improvement in striking took him to where he is now, as one of the top middleweight MMA fighters of the world.
Easier said than done, especially in hindsight and from the couch, but all MMA fighters must learn this lesson from Muñoz and Okami’s losses: be prepared for any of the various attacks allowed in MMA.
A particular attack may not be your opponent’s bread and butter, but he might just pull it off as a deadly surprise.
“Protect yourself at all times” and keep your eyes wide open.
Otherwise, another speeding big white foot may come along, and you’ll never know what hit you.
Benson Henderson best exemplifies the verse from Psalm 118, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” In plain language, The Ultimate Fighter reject is now the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion. Upon findi…
Benson Henderson best exemplifies the verse from Psalm 118, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” In plain language, The Ultimate Fighter reject is now the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion.
Upon finding out that Bendo’s TUF 9 audition tape was thrown in the dustbin of MMA history three years ago, MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti shared in his article the following words of wisdom and wonder:
…the show is still as hit-or-miss as they come. Since 2009, just 21 of the 75 contestants presently hold a UFC contract, good for a lowly 28-percent success rate (not counting TUF 14).
So you’re telling me, in a season that produced just three of those 21 names, former WEC champ and new UFC lightweight champ Ben Henderson couldn’t make the cut? That seems baffling.
Well, that’s just the way it is. As the Beauty and the Beastsong goes, it’s a “Tale as old as time.”
So to all budding MMA fighters out there who undergo disappointments and frustrations in pursuit of that Octagon-framed dream, hearken to lesson numero uno, “Do not lose faith; the next Bendo could be you.”
Still, faith must be balanced and tempered by, to borrow from Karl Marx, “material basis.”
Train that flesh and bone hard and also know its limits.
To illustrate, when your 30-year-old last born son comes up to you and proudly announces, “Dad, I’m a father now!” you know your future in MMA is not too bright or too long.
Unless the UFC introduces a master’s division or you’re really intent on doing Randy Couture one better, then, by all means, go ahead.
Also, although the Good Book says that, “Faith can move mountains,” it can’t be interpreted literally.
I don’t remember any historical instance when faith alone moved a mountain, even a molehill.
They’ve always used bulldozers and stuff.
So, lesson numero dos is, “Train hard and use the right tools.”
And don’t forget to thank Bendo for being such a wonderful inspiration, firing up your MMA pipe dream even more. No, let’s just call it “dream,” my apologies.
And to Dana White and company regarding that TUF 9 lapse in judgment, “Way to go, Dana! But big thanks, too, for giving Bendo the title shot last UFC 144.”
Frankie Edgar has just confirmed that his chance of getting back his UFC lightweight belt from Benson Henderson is official.