Author: MattSaccaro

UFC Fight Night 51 Results: Andrei Arlovski KOs Bigfoot Silva


(Fight Pass shows only get the stock image treatment. / Photo via Getty)

You might not have noticed since all the other MMA sites were reporting about Floyd Mayweather Jr. tonight, but the UFC had an event on Fight Pass, UFC Fight Night 51.

Efrain Escudero made his (unsuccessful) return to the UFC against Leonardo Santos. Santos controlled the first round of the encounter. However, Escudero managed to drop Santos in the second with a right hand. It appeared to change the complexion of the fight as Santos became deflated and tired. In the third, Escudero was light on his feet and it looked like he’d pull away with the decision. This wasn’t meant to be. Santos found some source of inner strength (or Escudero stopped paying attention; who knows) and landed a huge takedown. From the takedown, he managed to take Escudero’s back and held the position until the round ended. This was enough to give Santos the unanimous decision victory.

Get the recaps for the other fights after the jump.


(Fight Pass shows only get the stock image treatment. / Photo via Getty)

UFC Fight Night 51 happened on Fight Pass tonight. You might not have noticed since all the other so-called “MMA” sites are too busy writing about Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ugh.

So was this event worth checking out? Kind of. When it becomes available for replay on Fight Pass, watch the main event. Despite that fight being the only one really worth watching on the main card, we recapped some other higher profile fights from the event.

Efrain Escudero made his (unsuccessful) return to the UFC against Leonardo Santos. Santos controlled the first round of the encounter. However, Escudero managed to drop Santos in the second with a right hand. It appeared to change the complexion of the fight as Santos became deflated and tired. In the third, Escudero was light on his feet and it looked like he’d pull away with the decision. This wasn’t meant to be. Santos found some source of inner strength (or Escudero stopped paying attention; who knows) and landed a huge takedown. From the takedown, he managed to take Escudero’s back and held the position until the round ended. This was enough to give Santos the unanimous decision victory.

In the co-main event, Gleison Tibau fought Piotr Hallman. Here’s a protip on this fight: Skip it. Tibau displayed his characteristic lack of conditioning. He torched his gas tank with a large flurry in the beginning. The rest of the fight was basically just non-stop clinching against the cage with zero activity. Hallman managed to cut Tibau with a knee to the head late in the third round. It didn’t matter though; Tibau got the decision because he spent more time pushing Hallman against the fence than Hallman spent pushing him against the fence. Even Jon Anik described this fight as “exhausting” to watch.

The main event: Andrei Arlovski took on Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in a rematch of their Strikeforce bout from 2010. This time, Arlovski was the one who got his hand raised. The fight didn’t last long. Bigfoot was slow and plodding, Arlovski was agile and had much faster hands. Eventually, Arlovski tagged Bigfoot with an uppercut that dropped him flat on his ass. Arlovski pounced on Bigfoot and landed a series of hammer fists that put Bigfoot out cold. We’re hesitant to say Arlovski is “back” but he could be back.

Here are the complete results:

Main Card

Andrei Arlovski def. Antonio Silva via KO (punches), 2:59 of round 1.
Gleison Tibau def. Piotr Hallman via unanimous decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Leonardo Santos def. Efrain Escudero unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Wendell Oliveira via TKO (punches), 1:20 of round 1.
Iuri Alcântara def. Russell Doane via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Jéssica Andrade def. Larissa Pacheco via submission (guillotine choke), 4:33 of round 1.

Preliminary Card

Godofredo Castro def. Dashon Johnson via submission (triangle armbar), 4:29 of round 1.
George Sullivan def. Igor Araújo via KO (punches), 2:31 of round 2.
Francisco Trinaldo def. Leandro Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Sean Spencer def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Rani Yahya def. Johnny Bedford via submission (kimura), 2:04 of round 2.

Bellator 124 Live Blog: Main Card Results and Commentary

Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.

On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.

Please stand by…

Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.

On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.

Please stand by…

Ryan Couture vs. Tom Bagnasco

L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues

Liam McGeary vs. Kelly Anundson

Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran

Is Fedor Coming to Bellator? Scott Coker “In Dialogue” With M-1


(Photo via Getty)

Scott Coker wants to see Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture.

Yes, it’s 2014 and whispers about this “dream fight” from ages past are still happening.

“That’s a fight I would personally love to see,” Coker said after Bellator 123. “But I just don’t know if it’s going to happen.”

When pressed as to why he was pessimistic, Coker cited Couture’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

However, Coker did not that he was currently talking with M-1 and was going to be speaking with Couture next.


(Photo via Getty)

Scott Coker wants to see Fedor Emelianenko vs. Randy Couture.

Yes, it’s 2014 and whispers about this “dream fight” from ages past are still happening.

“That’s a fight I would personally love to see,” Coker said after Bellator 123. “But I just don’t know if it’s going to happen.”

When pressed as to why he was pessimistic, Coker cited Couture’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars. However, Coker did not that he was currently talking with M-1 and was going to be speaking with Couture next.

“All I can say is that we’re in dialogue with M-1, but that’s all I have to say at this time about that,” he said about bringing the retired Fedor Emelianenko into Bellator.

And regarding Couture, Coker was equally mum.

“We’ll see him next. We’ll talk to him and see what he has to say.”

For the record, Couture is 51 years old and Emelianenko is 37. The UFC attempted to book this fight in 2007 and failed. Affliction tried to book this fight as well but ended up going out of business.

It seems that this fight is just one of MMA’s great “what-ifs.” And now that it’s 2014, it should stay that way.

Bellator seems to be obsessed with recreating MMA from 2007. While that seems like a smart goal–MMA in 2007 was great–you can’t recreate 2007 in MMA with 2007′s fighters. They’re all too old now. Recreating the MMA boom won’t come from recycling faded stars until they’re in their late 40s (or older in Couture’s case). While names are certainly important for Bellator, new talent is even more important. They obviously need to hire some names to draw attention to the product, but this attention should then be used to highlight younger prospects in the company, not some pipe dream from seven years ago or a some ridiculous, pro wrestling-like stunt.

Invicta FC 8 Summed Up in One GIF


(GIF via r/MMA)

Invicta FC 8 aired on UFC Fight Pass last night.

A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium to broadcast their shows on…or so we thought.

After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.

People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’re not kidding either. Her age is unknown. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.

Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).


(If GIFs had sound you’d be hearing “THISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHT.” / GIF via r/MMA)

Invicta FC 8 aired on UFC Fight Pass last night.

A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium on which to broadcast their shows…or so we thought.

After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.

People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’d love to know how old she actually is but her age is unknown. No joke. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.

Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).

We got to see Katja Kankaanpaa capture the Invicta FC strawweight title with a plucky submission win over Stephanie Eggink. Eggink controlled the first four rounds of the fight and nearly finished Kankaanpaa on multiple occasions. In the fifth round, Kankaanpaa caught Eggink, who seemed to disregard Kankaanpaa’s chances so late in the fight, in a d’arce choke. For some reason, the announcer called it a “dragon sleeper choke.” Cool, sure.

Other fights:

Tonya Evinger absolutely wrecked Ediane Gomes, dominating her in the grappling department and ultimately submitting her with an armbar. In her post-fight interview, Evinger said her game plan was simply to “kick someone’s ass.”

Women’s MMA pioneers Roxanne Modafferi and Tara LaRosa met on this card. Modafferi looked like a different fighter. Her striking and footwork improved about a thousand times over since we saw her in the UFC. She picked LaRosa apart en route to a unanimous decision.

DeAnna Bennett scored an incredible liver kick KO over Michelle Ould. The kick was brutal enough to have Ould reeling for several minutes after the fight was over.

Veronica Rothenhausler couldn’t continue her streak of knocking out her opponents in the first round. She managed to clip Charmaine Tweet in the first few seconds of the fight, but Tweet recovered quickly and proved to be far too much for Rothenhausler to handle. Tweet took control of the fight, dragged Rothenhausler to the mat, and finished her with ground and pound.

There were two fights of note on the prelims:

Irene Aldana defeated UFC-vet Peggy Morgan in a totally one-sided match-up. Aldana submitted Morgan with a rear-naked choke after flooring her multiple times with powerful strikes.

Alexa Grasso became 5-0 after defeating Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision. Grasso could potentially be a big name in the future. She’s conventionally attractive, talented, and Mexican–which will likely cause the UFC to call her up as they seek to expand in Mexico and Latin America.

The complete results of Invicta FC 8 are below:

Main Card

Michelle Waterson def. Yasuko Tamada via TKO (knee and punches), 4:58 of round 3.
Katja Kankaanpaa def. Stephanie Eggink via submission (d’arce choke), 2:03 of round 5.
Tonya Evinger def. Ediane Gomes via submission (armbar), 3:31 of round 1.
Roxanne Modafferi def. Tara La Rosa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
DeAnna Bennett def. Michelle Ould via TKO (liver kick), 1:34 of round 2.
Charmaine Tweet def. Veronica Rothenhausler via TKO (punches), 4:05 of round 1.

Preliminary Card

Irene Aldana def. Peggy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke), 2:51 of round 1.
Alexa Grasso def. Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
Jodie Esquibel def. Jinh Yu Frey via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-27).
JJ Aldrich def. Delaney Owen via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).

Here’s a Video of the Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar Brawl (That Was In No Way Staged)

Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar got into a brawl last night at Bellator 123.

It wasn’t a Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier brawl.

It wasn’t even a Strikeforce: Nashville brawl between Mayhem Miller and Nick Diaz’s crew.

It was a terribly phony, laughable, obviously staged “scuffle” that brought down an otherwise stellar Bellator card.

Get the rundown after the jump.

Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar got into a brawl last night at Bellator 123.

It wasn’t a Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier brawl–the kind where you scream “JUST BLEED” and start shadowboxing.

It wasn’t even a Strikeforce: Nashville brawl between Mayhem Miller and Nick Diaz’s crew–the kind where your eyes can’t leave the TV screen and your heart races.

It was a terribly phony, laughable, obviously staged “fight” that brought down an otherwise stellar Bellator card.

Here’s the rundown:

Bonnar and Ortiz are in the cage. Bonnar tries to take the mic away from Jimmy Smith, who does his duty as a broadcaster and doesn’t let Bonnar take the mic. Bonnar starts insulting Tito Ortiz, saying that everyone who has ever associated with Ortiz hates him now. While Bonnar is going on this rant, you can see a guy in a mask beside him. Bonnar continues his rant and then points to the masked man.

The man begins to unmask. It’s…it’s…

Justin McCully, a former friend and training partner of Tito Ortiz.

Saying the crowd went mild would be too generous. The audience had zero reaction to McCully. This was to be expected as he was a forgettable journeyman who went 2-2 in the UFC and hasn’t fought in three years. Even some hardcore fans might not have remembered McCully, whose claim to fame is beating Antoni Hardonk and Eddie fucking Sanchez.

Then Bonnar started making Jenna Jameson references. Ugh.

It didn’t get any better when Ortiz started talking. Thankfully, he didn’t say much. He called both Bonnar and McCully drug addicts, then shoved Bonnar and a bunch of people came in to separate them. Literally five minutes later an ad ran promoting Bonnar vs. Ortiz (with clips of the “brawl” that happened minutes ago). The match will run on the same night as UFC 180, which is headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum.

This was not MMA’s finest moment by a long shot.

Was it the dumbest thing in the history of MMA? I’ve written about MMA and dumb shit in the past, so I can safely say it’s not the dumbest. It is, however, certainly among such esteemed company as Bob Sapp fighting a cartoon character and Mayhem Miller’s tirade on the MMA Hour in terms of abject stupidity.

It’s a shame this pathetic charade had to play out during what was one of Bellator’s most exciting cards to date. Bellator is in a peculiar position. They have Scott Coker bringing in some much-needed Strikeforce vibes but then they also have the lingering remnants of Bjorn Rebney’s booking. Even when fired, one casts a shadow. In addition, it seems as if Spike/Viacom is spoiling Coker’s plans. Coker never resorted to such pro wrestling hysterics during his time at Strikeforce (the Nashville brawl wasn’t staged and nobody was “unmasked”). It’s uncharacteristic of him to suddenly do it here. If you ask us, choreographing the brawl wasn’t his doing (though he’s just as guilty for letting it happen).

Bellator became a Twitter trend last night. So if nothing else, the farce that was last night’s brawl got the casual fans interested but the cost was any and all credibility Bellator had built up since hiring Coker.

Will the UFC Be Signing Ben Askren Soon?


(Photo via Getty)

The same chorus emerges every time the UFC makes a questionable signing.

“You sign this guy but not Ben Askren?”

The MMA world might not have to type this sentiment out on Twitter and r/MMA much longer.

“I think if he keeps winning, he could get a shot over here,” Dana White said at the UFC 177 post-fight media scrum. His words on Askren took a bizarrely conciliatory tone. Check them out after the jump…


(Photo via Getty)

The same chorus emerges every time the UFC makes a questionable signing.

“You sign this guy but not Ben Askren?”

The MMA world might not have to type this sentiment out on Twitter and r/MMA much longer.

“I think if he keeps winning, he could get a shot over here,” Dana White said at the UFC 177 post-fight media scrum. His words on Askren took a bizarrely conciliatory tone:

Listen, Ben Askren said a lot of stupid sh-t when he left, but I don’t care about stuff like that. I could care less about any of that. We’ll see how the kid fights, what he keeps doing, and we’ll go from there. Contrary to popular belief–well, no, I do hold grudges if you’re a real idiot. Yeah, I’ll hold a grudge until the day I drop dead.

But with fighters, I don’t really do that with fighters. These guys are built differently than everybody. They’re tough, man, and this is what they do for a living, and they’re going to say stuff like that. If Tito (Ortiz) could come back to the UFC, anybody can come in here. Believe me, because there’s nobody on earth I hated more than Tito. And Tito came back. You don’t have to like them to do business with them. So we’ll see.

At least White acknowledged that he holds grudges better than Russian slap-fighters can puncture pieces of paper. Maybe the declining PPV numbers have made Uncle Dana desperate?

Unfortunately, Askren didn’t seem too keen on White’s words:

So it looks like we’ll be seeing Askren crush cans in ONE FC for a little while longer. What a shame.