In a night filled with many impressive finishes, The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale held an entertaining collection of fights across six different weight divisions.Most important of all was the main-event matchup featuring TUF 10 competitor …
In a night filled with many impressive finishes, The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale held an entertaining collection of fights across six different weight divisions.
Most important of all was the main-event matchup featuring TUF 10 competitor and TUF 16 coach Roy Nelson, a standout personality in the UFC roster for his size and attitude.
In what would’ve been a massively important fight for his division, Nelson was originally scheduled to face former interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin.
Unfortunately, Carwin’s constant injuries caught up to him, causing fellow TUF 10 alumnus and former NFL player Matt Mitrione to step in on short notice.
Further down the card, there was a good bit of drama between Melvin Guillard and Jamie Varner, along with more solid performances from the TUF finalists and two more heavyweights.
As usual, we’re here to break down those fights along with everything else on the card, separating the real losers from the real winners of The Ultimate Fighter 16 Finale in Las Vegas. Click along as we recap the entire event for you at Bleacher Report MMA.
With a weekend packed full of mixed martial arts, TUF: The Smashes held its own and provided a memorable night of fights for UFC on FX 6.Two solid brawls ended a competitive international season of The Ultimate Fighter. A much-hyped middleweight c…
With a weekend packed full of mixed martial arts, TUF: The Smashes held its own and provided a memorable night of fights for UFC on FX 6.
Two solid brawls ended a competitive international season of The Ultimate Fighter. A much-hyped middleweight contender finally emerged from his shell, and the main event delivered with a high-paced battle between two gritty veterans.
Thanks for the memories, Australia.
Without further ado, here are the 12 spots that highlighted the UFC’s sixth FX card.
Well, that didn’t take very long.Just a matter of weeks after UFC president Dana White claimed that welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre requested a fight with Nick Diaz, it appears that the match has been made.Diaz’s head trainer, Cesar Gracie, bro…
Well, that didn’t take very long.
Just a matter of weeks after UFC president Dana Whiteclaimed that welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre requested a fight with Nick Diaz, it appears that the match has been made.
Diaz’s head trainer, Cesar Gracie, broke the news to French-Canadian publication La Presse earlier today, announcing that Diaz had just signed the contact (via MMA Weekly).
According to the report, GSP vs. Nick Diaz are expected to be the main event for UFC 158 on March 16th in Montreal, Canada.
GSP and Diaz were originally slated for a “champion vs. champion” superfight at UFC 137 in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Event Center over a year ago. However, Diaz was pulled from the fight after failing to arrive for press appearances.
After St-Pierre eventually dropped from the main event due to knee injury (followed by a severe ACL tear), Diaz defeated BJ Penn at UFC 137 as the replacement headliner.
Diaz went on to lose a controversial decision to Carlos Condit for the UFC interim welterweight title at UFC 143, snapping his 11-fight, three-year winning streak. Diaz was later handed a one-year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission after testing positive for marijuana metabolites.
Meanwhile, St-Pierre successfully returned from a lengthy rehab period, defeating Condit in a title unification match at UFC 154, which also took place in Montreal.
Although it was assumed that No.1 contender Johny Hendricks would get the next title shot after his first-round knockout of Martin Kampmann, it’s apparent that the grudge match between GSP and Diaz will put Hendricks on hold for a while.
Middleweight contender Hector Lombard has a few sharp words for plenty of fighters in the UFC, with some of his harshest criticism pointed at Michael Bisping.During an interview with MMA Junkie, the former Bellator champion discussed a wide range of to…
Middleweight contender Hector Lombard has a few sharp words for plenty of fighters in the UFC, with some of his harshest criticism pointed at Michael Bisping.
During an interview with MMA Junkie, the former Bellator champion discussed a wide range of topics, talking about fighting at his adoptive home in Australia, death threats from the Japanese mafia and everything that he thinks is wrong with mixed martial arts today.
When asked about a recent encounter with Michael Bisping, Lombard revealed that he wasn’t impressed in the least by the famous Englishman:
The funny thing for me is this sport has become a joke. And no disrespect, but it’s become a joke with all these fighters trying to copy Chael Sonnen. OK, Chael was the original, right? It’s good for him what he became with all his media trash, which I have respect for him, because he was the first person who came up with the idea. And now, what’s this douchebag that’s always talking s— about me? Michael Bisping. He thinks that he’s funny. Now, he’s just copying him.
Bisping has been a noted trash-talker ever since he first stepped into the spotlight on The Ultimate Fighter, but the quick rise of Sonnen has apparently drawn a lot of comparisons between the two UFC stars. But it’s not just the talking that bothers Lombard:
I actually saw him at the elevator, and Michael Bisping has got the smallest hands I’ve ever seen in my life. He says I’m a midget. OK. Fair enough. But I squeeze his hand – I didn’t want to shake his hand, but I said, I don’t want to leave you like that because I have a little bit of education – and he was about to cry, so I let it go.
Both Lombard and Bisping are gunning for shots at the UFC Middleweight Championship, currently held by pound-for-pound kingpin Anderson Silva.
Lombard faces off against dangerous submission specialist Rousimar Palhares in the main card of UFC on FX 6 on Saturday, with a title shot potentially hanging in the balance. Lombard made his UFC debut last July, where he was upset by decision against former light heavyweight Tim Boetsch.
Bisping has a risky fight of his own coming up in enemy territory, as he faces Vitor Belfort this January 2013 at UFC on FX 7. That match takes place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and could likely determine the next challenger to Silva’s middleweight title.
Gilbert Melendez may be one of the best lightweight fighters in MMA, but he doesn’t deserve a superfight against UFC champion Benson Henderson.In fact, if “El Nino” does get called up to the UFC, he should take a number and wait for at least a year.Des…
Gilbert Melendez may be one of the best lightweight fighters in MMA, but he doesn’t deserve a superfight against UFC champion Benson Henderson.
In fact, if “El Nino” does get called up to the UFC, he should take a number and wait for at least a year.
Despite his seven-fight, three-year winning streak with six successful defenses of the Strikeforce lightweight title, Melendez just isn’t worth a main-event spot on a UFC pay-per-view card or TV event.
Harsh? Maybe, but it’s true.
Melendez isn’t a star, he doesn’t draw fans and he’s certainly no Ronda Rousey.
Let’s take a step back and dissect those statements.
Melendez Isn’t a Star
Melendez may be a Strikeforce champion, but he isn’t very popular.
It’s a trend that frankly dogged him throughout his career, as Melendez has continually been upstaged by more entertaining and marketable fighters. It’s more apparent looking at his history as a main-card draw with the company:
• Out of 10 title fights, Melendez has only headlined two Strikeforce cards. • Out of 10 title fights, Melendez has been the co-main event five times. • Out of 10 title fights, Melendez has only been advertised on the official event poster five times. • In three Strikeforce events, Melendez’s title fight wasn’t the main event or co-main event.
For someone who’s been featured in so many championship bouts with Strikeforce, the company hasn’t promoted him very much.
Compared to stars like Nick Diaz, Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, Dan Henderson and Gina Carano, Melendez is often treated as an afterthought, with his title belt thrown in to stack a card rather than lead it.
That’s a stark contrast to the UFC, who often gives its own lightweight championship fights proper main-event billing.
Melendez Doesn’t Draw Fans
One area where Melendez does stand out is poor attendance records for live events.
If you subscribe to the idea that the main event of a fight card is largely responsible for bringing in ticket buyers, Melendez and his challengers have underperformed to say the least.
Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal (the last event the champion headlined) drew an attendance of 2,995 to the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. That’s a rather poor number for the venue, which can actually hold a crowd of 16,000.
Compare it to the other events that Strikeforce held there, and you see the disparity:
• Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley—9,059 • Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman—3,502 • Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal—2,995
Strikeforce has also held 15 events at the HP Pavilion Center in their hometown of San Jose, where the most popular cards have pulled in over 10,000 fans. Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson holds the promotion’s record for the third lowest gate at that venue, barely clearing 7,000 seats.
Gilbert Melendez ≠ Ronda Rousey
But even with the raw numbers saying otherwise, Melendez told Bleacher Report that he expects to get the warm reception into the UFC that Rousey had earlier this month:
They gave Ronda the title, all kinds of respect, and I feel I deserve just as much respect as she’s getting. I think I’ve done a lot in this sport. I hold the Strikeforce title and I feel it’s a respectable one. They have always said it is the equivalent to the UFC belt and hopefully I get the same respect.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stuff in that one block of text to pick apart.
Melendez has definitely done a lot in MMA, but he hasn’t drawn anywhere near the mainstream attention that Rousey did in just two years. Just by Google metrics alone, the two champions are light years apart when it comes to mainstream relevancy with potential viewers.
People are always talking about Rousey. Melendez barely stirs conversation.
Moreover, Melendez may have six title defenses padding his record, but his fights have all been won against vastly overmatched opponents (including the overrated Shinya Aoki).
After spending so many years fighting relatively weak competition, that doesn’t give him a ton of credibility as a world champion.
“El Nino” is definitely one of the top lightweights in MMA, but he’s far from a top face.
Ronda Rousey, Alistair Overeem and Dan Henderson are living proof that it takes more than a Strikeforce belt to sell a superfight—and based on that, there’s little reason to believe that Melendez deserves an immediate shot at Bendo’s UFC belt.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.
Sorry MMA fans, you’ve got Rory MacDonald figured all wrong.During his UFC on FOX 5 bout with BJ Penn, MacDonald seemed to be adding insult to injury when he started imitating the “Ali Shuffle” in the middle of the fight.By the time MacDonald apparentl…
Sorry MMA fans, you’ve got Rory MacDonald figured all wrong.
During his UFC on FOX 5 bout with BJ Penn, MacDonald seemed to be adding insult to injury when he started imitating the “Ali Shuffle” in the middle of the fight.
By the time MacDonald apparently started to taunt his veteran opponent, Penn was already far behind on the judges’ scorecards and barely weathering the assault. This caused some fans to call out MacDonald for unnecessarily bullying the former two-division champion.
However, FirasZahabi, MacDonald’s head trainer at the Tristar Gym, tells Sherdog that really wasn’t the case at all:
“I can’t believe people perceived it that way,” Zahabi told the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show on Wednesday. “It makes no sense to me because the shuffle is a technique. It’s a way to draw your opponent’s attention. Rory did the technique three or four times, and he followed it up with a superman punch. It’s exactly what we drilled. He was trained to do that. He was not just doing it to showboat. He was doing it to execute a strike.”
According to Zahabi, he was actually worried that MacDonald wouldn’t be dominant enough against Penn, due to the “aura” around “The Prodigy” and his legacy.
That’s exactly why Zahabi didn’t want MacDonald to show Penn too much respect, saying that it was all part of a game plan to utilize the Canadian’s natural athletic abilities.
Regardless, MacDonald cruised to an extremely one-sided decision win against Penn, beating him up so badly that referee Herb Dean nearly stopped the fight standing in the second round.
Currently, MacDonald is rumored to be heading towards a fight with former interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit in a rematch of their UFC 155 “Fight of the Night” bout from June 2010. In their first match, Condit rallied late in the third round to finish MacDonald by TKO with only seven seconds left on the fight clock.
Well, that didn’t take very long.