Bellator Fighting Championships began its sixth season with a featherweight title fight that delivered great action, as Pat Curran took the title from champion Joe Warren, knocking him out with big punches in the third round.
I…
Bellator Fighting Championships began its sixth season with a featherweight title fight that delivered great action, as Pat Curran took the title from champion Joe Warren, knocking him out with big punches in the third round.
It was a great showing for Curran, who continues to look like not only the best featherweight in Bellator but one of the most powerful strikers in the featherweight division in all of MMA.
For Warren, it was his second consecutive knockout loss. Warren is a great wrestler but has problems with his striking, and he has talked about attempting to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling. It remains to be seen whether he returns to the cage at all.
After Warren at first looked like he was going to control the first round with his superior wrestling and clinch work, Curran exploded with a high kick and a couple of flying knees that had Warren wobbling around the cage. Warren recovered nicely, however, and after being in big trouble he actually finished the first round by taking Curran down and getting on top of him as the round ended.
The second round was less eventful, as Curran continued to win the stand-up exchanges but without any of the spectacular striking he showed off in the first round, while Warren managed to take Curran down but couldn’t do anything on the ground.
And then in the third round Curran’s striking became spectacular: He bashed Warren against the fence with punches over and over again, and it was shocking that Warren could even stay standing. The referee allowed the fight to go on for a long time before Warren finally fell to the ground and it was stopped, making Curran the winner.
In addition to Curran taking the featherweight belt, Bellator began the process of determining its next featherweight title contender with the quarterfinals of its eight-man tournament, with Marlon Sandro, Mike Corey, Alexandre Bezerra and Daniel Straus advancing:
— Sandro dominated Roberto Vargas, winning by first-round submission with a rear-naked choke after beating Vargas up with punches. Vargas showed toughness and a willingness to stand and trade with Sandro, but he also showed that he’s just not on Sandro’s level.
— Corey pulled off an impressive upset over Ronnie Mann, surviving a Mann onslaught in the first round and controlling the second and third to win 29-28 on all three judges’ scorecards.
— Bezerra sunk in a rear-naked choke and forced Kenny Foster to tap out with just three seconds remaining in the second round.
— Straus beat Jeremy Spoon by unanimous decision, 30-27 on one judge’s scorecard and 29-28 on the other two cards.
In other Bellator action, Josh Shockley beat former Ultimate Fighter contestant Shamar Bailey by unanimous decision in a one-sided affair. Bailey entered the fight with a reputation as a good wrestler, but Shockley dominated him on the ground.
And the show started with a brutal mismatch in which Genair da Silva, who was removed from the featherweight tournament for failing to make weight, repeatedly hurt Bobby Reardanz with leg kicks and finally put him away with punches on the ground for a third-round TKO.
Can Joe Warren retain the Bellator featherweight championship against two-time Bellator tournament winner Pat Curran? Or will Curran hand Warren his second consecutive loss? And which four featherweights will take the next step…
Can Joe Warren retain the Bellator featherweight championship against two-time Bellator tournament winner Pat Curran? Or will Curran hand Warren his second consecutive loss? And which four featherweights will take the next step toward earning a shot at the Warren-Curran winner?
I’ll try to answer those questions as I pick the winners at Bellator 60 below.
What: Bellator 60
When: Friday, the main card starts at 8 p.m. Eastern on MTV2
Where: Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, Indiana
Joe Warren vs. Pat Curran
Warren has transitioned from being one of the best Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world into an impressive start to his mixed martial arts career, beating Kid Yamamoto in just his second career fight and then earning the Bellator featherweight title. However, in Warren’s last fight he was brutally knocked out by Alexis Vila.
And that’s why I don’t much like his chances against Curran. That fight had me questioning Warren’s chin and his striking defense, and Curran is a powerful striker. I like Curran to take the belt from Warren.
After losing to Curran in the Bellator featherweight final, Sandro earned an easy win over Rafael Dias in November, and I see him getting another easy win here. Vargas is a solid fighter with a 12-1 record, but he’s never beaten anyone nearly as good as Sandro, who’s one of the most dynamic featherweights in MMA. I like Sandro to win in exciting fashion.
Wagnney Fabiano was originally scheduled to face Mann but had to drop out with an injury, and although Corey is fine by the standards of a late-notice fill-in, he’s a much easier opponent for Mann than Fabiano would have been. Corey is a good wrestler who can control his opponents on the ground and has never been submitted in 14 pro fights, but Mann is excellent off his back and has a good shot of making Corey tap.
Bezerra went 4-0 in Bellator in 2011 and is now in a Bellator tournament for the first time, getting a short-notice opponent in Foster, who was added to the tournament on just a day’s notice when Genair da Silva missed weight. Bezerra is a fun fighter to watch because he can finish opponents in a variety of ways, and I think he’ll finish Foster.
Spoon is an interesting prospect who has built up a 12-0 record without fighting many high-quality opponents. I don’t think he’s quite ready for Straus, a good wrestler who should be able to take him down and control him for a decision.
Ronda Rousey is the best female mixed martial artist in the world.
Does that sound crazy? It might, less than a year after her first professional fight. But the reality is that in less than a year Rousey has fought five times, …
Ronda Rousey is the best female mixed martial artist in the world.
Does that sound crazy? It might, less than a year after her first professional fight. But the reality is that in less than a year Rousey has fought five times, won them all, finished everyone in the first round and, on Saturday, defeated a high-level opponent in Miesha Tate and done it in convincing, impressive fashion.
The other reality is that the other fighters who have a case to be No. 1 woman in the world — Cris Cyborg, Zoila Gurgel and Megumi Fujii — all have pretty significant strikes against them. We’ll get to that after we get past Rousey.
And so Rousey is at the top of our list of the best women in the world, which is below.
Top 10 pound-for-pound women in MMA
(Editor’s note: The ranking from the last time we ranked women are in parentheses)
1. Ronda Rousey (5): Tate is a very strong, very experienced fighter who entered Saturday night with a 12-2 record, having never been submitted in her career. And Tate is also a smart fighter who knows how to execute a game plan. But Rousey is so good at what she does — using a judo throw to get on top in side control and then locking in an arm bar — that it didn’t matter. You could make the case that Rousey is a one-trick pony who doesn’t do anything other than rely on her judo and lock in arm bars, but that’s a little like saying that Mike Tyson circa 1988 was a one-trick pony who didn’t do anything other than knock his opponents out.
2. Cris Cyborg (1): What do we do with Cyborg now that she’s suspended for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs? Some would say she doesn’t deserve to be ranked at all, but I don’t want to ignore the fact that she spent the last few years as the greatest force women’s MMA has ever seen. If you think Cyborg was just a steroid-fueled monster who won’t win if drug tests force her to get clean, well, that’s a valid opinion. But I believe Cyborg is a skilled and talented fighter who will be prepared for big things when her suspension ends.
3. Zoila Gurgel (2): Gurgel is a phenomenal fighter. She’s 11-1, her only loss is to Tate in a fight in which she was fighting above her natural weight class, and she’s the only person to beat Megumi Fujii. Unfortunately, she’s fought only once since beating Fujii and is currently nursing a torn ACL. There’s no word on when she’ll return.
4. Sarah Kaufman (7): Kaufman put together an outstanding striking display in her victory over Alexis Davis, and she’s going to be a tough opponent for Rousey. Kaufman is 15-1 in her career, she has a win over Tate on her record and her MMA experience and striking accumen go far beyond Rousey’s. If she can execute an evasive game plan that keeps the fight standing and avoids Rousey’s clinch, Kaufman has a chance of winning that fight.
5. Megumi Fujii (4): Fujii is now a whopping 25-1 after her first-round submission win over Karla Benitez on New Year’s Eve. Bellator should book her for a rematch with Gurgel.
6. Miesha Tate (3): An elbow injury from Rousey’s arm bar may keep her on the shelf for a while, but Tate will be back. She’s an impressive fighter who just ran into a force of nature in Rousey.
7. Marloes Coenen (6): Coenen lost her spot in Strikeforce because she was a casualty of the battle between Zuffa and Golden Glory, but I’m hopeful she’ll return. She could be a very good matchup for Rousey in the future, but up next she has a fight with Romy Ruyssen on April 28.
8. Jessica Aguilar (8): After beating Patricia Vidonic last month, Aguilar is now on a four-fight winning streak since her split decision loss to Gurgel in 2010.
9. Tara LaRosa (9): Once considered the best female fighter in the world, LaRosa has been inactive for a year and has been largely forgotten while fighting in smaller promotions. I’d love to see her step into the cage in Strikeforce or Bellator.
10. Alexis Davis (10): Davis put together a very game effort against Kaufman, fighting through an ugly cut and putting Kaufman in trouble on the ground at the end of the third round. She’d be a logical future opponent for Tate.
Ten days after he lost the UFC lightweight title to Ben Henderson, Frankie Edgar has been given a rematch.
Edgar confirmed the news on Twitter with a message thanking UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta for m…
Ten days after he lost the UFC lightweight title to Ben Henderson, Frankie Edgar has been given a rematch.
Edgar confirmed the news on Twitter with a message thanking UFC President Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta for making the rematch happen. The news was then confirmed on Twitter by White.
“Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson rematch will be this summer,” White wrote.
The decision is a departure from what White had previously indicated was his preferred choice: In the press conference immediately following Henderson’s unanimous decision victory over Edgar, White said he thought Edgar should move down to featherweight to challenge champion Jose Aldo, and that Anthony Pettis deserved the next shot at Henderson.
But White has apparently been persuaded by Edgar, who has insisted that lightweight is the right division for him, and by the fans who have asked for Henderson-Edgar 2.
That means Edgar will now be in the unusual position of fighting the same opponent back to back three consecutive times. First Edgar won the lightweight title from B.J. Penn in 2010 and then defended it against Penn later that year. Then Edgar fought Gray Maynard to a draw to start 2011 and then beat Maynard later in 2011. Now Edgar has lost to Henderson to start 2012 and will get another shot at him later in the year.
This also means that Pettis has missed out on a lightweight title shot he thought he had earned for the second time. Pettis beat Henderson to become the last World Extreme Cagefighting champion and was promised a shot at the UFC lightweight title when the UFC absorbed the WEC, but that title shot was taken from him when the Edgar-Maynard draw necessitated a rematch. Now Pettis is once again being passed over.
Pettis’s next step is unclear. But what is clear is that we’ll see more of the same at lightweight: Ben Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar for the title.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia wants back inside the Octagon.
Sylvia said Monday on The MMA Hour that he is desperate to prove that he belongs in the UFC heavyweight division, and that he’d gladly accept whatever co…
Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia wants back inside the Octagon.
Sylvia said Monday on The MMA Hour that he is desperate to prove that he belongs in the UFC heavyweight division, and that he’d gladly accept whatever contract the UFC offered him.
“Have me come in, put me against Stefan Struve, Cheick Kongo, (Matt) Mitrione,” Sylvia said. “I’ll fight anybody. I don’t care. And see if I can hang with them. If I can’t, I tell you what, it’s going to be a hell of a fight.”
Sylvia said he invested the $800,000 he made for his loss to Fedor Emelianenko and is doing fine financially, and that now he just wants to prove himself in the UFC. In fact, Sylvia said he would accept a contract that pays him only $5,000 to show up and another $5,000 to win, which is as low as a UFC contract gets. For that matter, Sylvia said he’d be willing to fight for free.
“If the UFC comes to me with an offer for $5,000 and $5,000 I would take it,” Sylvia said. “I know that’s very entry level money but I’d have an opportunity to win Knockout of the Night and make $50,000.”
Sylvia said he disagrees with those who say the UFC heavyweight division is leaps and bounds better now than it was when he was the champion. Sylvia acknowledged that there are a handful of great heavyweights whom he’d struggle to beat, but he said he thinks he would defeat most of the UFC’s top heavyweights.
“I don’t agree with any of that. Right now you have three studs: Alistair, Junior and Cain, and the rest are OK,” Sylvia said. “There’s also Frank Mir and Shane Carwin, but besides the Top 5, if you put me in there I’ll beat them all.”
Sylvia said he currently weighs 295 pounds and would be able to get himself down to the UFC’s heavyweight limit of 265 if the UFC gave him that chance. The only obstacle, Sylvia said, is that he doesn’t think the UFC wants him.
So why not? Sylvia knows that the UFC is in the business of giving fans the fights the fans want to see, and he said he has reached out to fans through social media to ask him why they’re not clamoring to see him in the Octagon again. He said some fans have told him he has a boring style, but he says the biggest problem is that fans don’t know enough about him.
“I just want to know why, how come the fans don’t like me,” he said. “Basically it’s because they don’t know me.”
And the best way for the fans to get to know Sylvia is for the UFC to promote him again. He’ll be waiting by the phone.
When Cris Cyborg beat Gina Carano on August 15, 2009, it was the biggest night in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. But as great a night as that was, there was one clear and immediate problem: What else could top it?
W…
When Cris Cyborg beat Gina Carano on August 15, 2009, it was the biggest night in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. But as great a night as that was, there was one clear and immediate problem: What else could top it?
We found out on Saturday night: What could top that night was not another great fight for Cyborg (she’s only been in mismatches since then and is currently suspended for using steroids) and not another great fight for Carano (she’s making movies and unlikely to fight again). What could top that night was the feeling that there might really be a legitimate division with multiple impressive fighters able to compete in a series of great fights. And that’s what the Strikeforce 135-pound women’s division gave us on Saturday night.
Ronda Rousey stole the show by submitting Miesha Tate in the main event and winning the Strikeforce women’s 135-pound title. But Sarah Kaufman also put together perhaps the best performance on the undercard in her victory over Alexis Davis. Now we’ll see a Rousey-Kaufman title fight, and we’re starting to see what it looks like when a promotion has a deep women’s weight class and can put together multiple high-quality fights in that weight class.
UFC President Dana White’s stated opposition to having women in the UFC has always been that there aren’t enough good female fighters to put together an entire women’s division. And he’s had a fair point on that score: As much fan interest as there was in the 145-pound title fight between Cyborg and Carano, Strikeforce never had a deep 145-pound division.
But the 135-pound division in Strikeforce right now really does have enough talent to assemble a full weight class. In addition to Rousey, Kaufman, Tate and Davis, Strikeforce has Amanda Nunes, Julie Kedzie, Germaine de Randamie, Liz Carmouche and the ability to bring in women from other promotions who want to show they’re the best in the world at 135 pounds. (I remain hopeful that former champ Marloes Coenen will find herself back in Strikeforce.)
I’m more interested in the Strikeforce women’s 135-pound division than I am in the Strikeforce men’s 155-pound division, where one fighter stands so far above the rest that there really aren’t any good fights for the champion. (More on that in a minute.)
Women’s MMA still has a ways to go before it’s accepted as broadly as men’s MMA, and even though Strikeforce and Showtime deserve all the credit in the world for bringing women’s MMA this far, they can do more. (For starters, Showtime announcers Pat Miletich and Frank Shamrock can stop calling the grown women who fight in the cage “girls.”) I’d like to see at least one fight in the women’s 135-pound division on every single Strikeforce show, until it no longer feels like a big deal when we get big female fights.
But Saturday night did feel like a big deal, and I’m glad it did. Rousey, Tate, Kaufman and Davis stepped up in a big way.
Strikeforce Notes
–Strikeforce simply has no lightweight challengers for Gilbert Melendez. The idea that Josh Thomson, who was loudly booed after winning an uninspiring decision on Saturday, and who hadn’t won a fight in a year and a half before that, is now the No. 1 contender to Melendez’s title is crazy. It’s time for Zuffa to either move Melendez to the UFC or move a Top 10 UFC lightweight like Gray Maynard or Clay Guida to Strikeforce so that the best years of Melendez’s career aren’t wasted on sub-par opponents.
— I loved the arm-triangle choke that Pat Healy used to submit Caros Fodor. I don’t think people realize how good Healy is. He’s on a four-fight winning streak and has won seven of his last eight, and over the course of his career he’s beaten good fighters like Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Dan Hardy and Maximo Blanco. I like Healy a lot.
–Jacare Souza offered up a perfectly fine performance against Bristol Marunde, but really, this fight just shouldn’t have been booked. Marunde is a 12-7 fighter who had never fought for a major promotion before, and he just didn’t belong in the same cage against Jacare. I realize Strikeforce didn’t have many options when Jacare’s original opponent, Derek Brunson, had to drop out because his vision wasn’t good enough, but Zuffa needs to be able to find better late replacements than Marunde.
Strikeforce Quotes
Mauro Ranallo: “What did you think about your performance tonight?”
Josh Thomson: “It was s–t.”
Ranallo: “OK, elaborate. Why do you think it was that bad?”
Thomson: “How else do you explain it was s–t?”
(This may have been my all-time favorite post-fight interview.)
Good Call
Referee Mark Matheny’s second-round stoppage in the Roger Bowling-Brandon Saling fight came at just the right time: In the first round, when Bowling got into a crucifix position and pounded away on Saling, Matheny gave Saling every opportunity to try to defend himself, and eventually Saling got a hold of Bowling around the back of the head and earned the opportunity to finish the round. But at the start of the second round, when Bowling got a crucifix on Saling again, it was clear that Saling was just taking too much punishment to make it through the round, and so Matheny stepped in and stopped it to protect Saling.
Bad Call
There were multiple instances on Saturday night, most notably in the Ryan Couture-Conor Heun fight, when the referees allowed some blatant fence grabs to go by without so much as a warning. Grabbing the fence is a foul, and it needs to be enforced as a foul. MMA referees let it go way, way too much.
Stock Up
Ryan Couture’s victory over Conor Heun was by far the best performance of his MMA career. Prior to Saturday night Couture had a record of 3-1, and the three opponents he had beaten had a combined record of 8-8. But Heun is a legitimate opponent who entered the fight with a 9-4 record, and Couture took the fight to Heun, controlling him easily. This was a positive sign that Couture can be a good fighter, and not just a fighter who gets booked because he has a recognizable name.
Stock Down
Scott Smith has been in some of my all-time favorite fights, but he just doesn’t have it anymore. Since his great 2009 comeback knockout over Cung Le in 2009, he’s gone 0-4 and has looked progressively less impressive with each passing fight. If I were advising Smith I’d tell him he’s had a great career, and should bring that great career to an end.
