UFC 181 is nearly here, and the stacked card will be sure to satisfy your MMA appetite.
The show is headlined by two championship fights. The co-main event is for the lightweight title when champion Anthony Pettis takes on Gilbert Melendez. The main ev…
UFC 181 is nearly here, and the stacked card will be sure to satisfy your MMA appetite.
The show is headlined by two championship fights. The co-main event is for the lightweight title when champion Anthony Pettis takes on Gilbert Melendez. The main event will be for the welterweight strap when Johny Hendricks and top-ranked contender Robbie Lawler meet in a rematch.
Three more fights line the main card including a heavyweight attraction between Todd Duffee and Anthony Hamilton.
The final pay-per-view of 2014 may be the best the UFC has offered all year long. The betting odds on the main card are enticing to boot.
We are here to assist you by giving you more information on the action taking place this Saturday. The lines given will continue to move up until the fights take place. Before heading off to risk your hard-earned money, let’s take a peek at what you should expect during the main card at UFC 181.
2014 has been a rough year for the UFC. Among the missing pieces have been fighters who can draw.
In that time, one of the company’s premier talents has been women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
The talented bantamweight has drawn eyes from outs…
2014 has been a rough year for the UFC. Among the missing pieces have been fighters who can draw.
In that time, one of the company’s premier talents has been women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
The talented bantamweight has drawn eyes from outside the MMA world to her fights, and with the UFC adding a brand new women’s division to the fold, perhaps it would be the women who could help push the UFC back in a positive direction.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 was pushed as a fresh take—a seeded tournament that would determine the inaugural champion of the strawweight division. They signed several top fighters for the season. In theory, everything was in place to make the inevitable winner a decent draw for the company.
That does not look to be the case.
The ratings for the show have not been great, but is that a sign women’s MMA cannot draw? I say no.
The ratings are not great, but that is in large part due to the network that it airs on. Fox Sports 1 is still growing, and many sports fans still have no idea where to locate it. Add that to the show being old and tired, and that is not a recipe for success.
As the season has drawn on, there has not been a standout fighter that captivates fans like Rousey can.
Why is that?
Stars are not made. Stars have an “It Factor,” and the cast of TUF 20 lack “It.”
The editing has not helped, either.
When the show has focused on the fighters in the house, it has largely been on bickering and bullying.
Some of the fighters, such as Randa Markos and Rose Namajunas, have stood out in the cage. However, they have failed to do so on the show.
The lack of stars coming off the show does not mean this section of the sport is not bankable, though.
Women’s MMA still has a long way to go in its growth. We are not seeing the depth the other divisions have—or the quality. Once that comes, we will see more marketable athletes filtering into that side of the sport. MMA has proven that the women in the sport can deliver interest.
A fighter does not have to headline a pay-per-view telecast to be bankable. Fighters such as Urijah Faber have made a good living by generating their interest from cable TV fight cards. That is the much more likely scenario for women’s MMA.
The landscape of MMA and television is changing. PPV is dying. Using that as the benchmark for being a bankable fighter is not going to be an accurate measure for success.
The novelty of women’s MMA has worn off, and they are still generating interest in their fights. They are just missing more marketable, elite-level talent. It is about depth. That is still growing, and the UFC’s platform will only push more women to take up the sport as well as watch it.
Bellator and Strikeforce have already shown that the women can steal the show and get fans on their feet in the past when they were promoting women’s fights. The UFC is slowly bringing it to a larger audience.
Television ratings for a bland formatted TV show are not indicative of future success. The UFC is building divisions that will be bankable and help their bottom line. It will just take time to see it grow, but it is coming.
The UFC is set for a historic run of top-notch fight cards. Ten events will take us through the end of 2014 and to the beginning of 2015.
What are the best fights you’ll have to watch? That’s what we are here to tell you.
The UFC has been criticized as…
The UFC is set for a historic run of top-notch fight cards. Ten events will take us through the end of 2014 and to the beginning of 2015.
What are the best fights you’ll have to watch? That’s what we are here to tell you.
The UFC has been criticized as of late for poor events, but that won’t be the case over the next three months. They have loaded the next 90 days with a fantastic slate of fights for us all.
Exciting stylistic matchups, title tilts and much more help round out the action. This isn’t a scientific list, and you may have your own favorite upcoming fights. Title bouts and interesting storylines helped to elevate some matchups up the list.
This ranking features fights in seven different weight classes.
These are the top 15 fights you’ll see starting Saturday through February’s UFC 184 pay-per-view.
The Ultimate Fighter is in the quarter-finals now, and this week’s fight was between No. 4-seed Jessica Penne and No. 5-seed Aisling Daly.
Penne defeated Lisa Ellis in the first round, and Daly beat Angela Magana to advance.
When the referee started th…
The Ultimate Fighter is in the quarter-finals now, and this week’s fight was between No. 4-seed Jessica Penne and No. 5-seed Aisling Daly.
Penne defeated Lisa Ellis in the first round, and Daly beat Angela Magana to advance.
When the referee started the action they came out to the center of the cage to get to work.
Penne took a finger to the eye early on, and Herb Dean halted the bout long enough for her to clear her vision. Penne decided to stop fighting at a distance soon after and put Daly’s back against the fence. Daly reversed the position and attacked the body well. Penne landed a few nice strikes herself, but she was more concerned with positioning. Daly got a takedown late in the round, but did not want to test Penne‘s guard.
It was a close first round, but it appeared that Daly got a slight edge.
Penne was more successful on the feet at the start of the second. She then went back to the clinch game. Daly got another takedown, but again let Penne right back up. Penne‘s reach was a factor on the feet. After being touched up, it was Daly who closed the distanced. The fight hit the floor, and Penne managed to take top position. She got full mount and then back mount as Daly tried to stand.
Penne ended the second round in dominating position and even the fight.
Penne got a takedown early in the third round. Daly tried to work back up, but Penne got her back. Penne slid off and was on her back, but actively working for a submission. Penne got back into a better position and fired off good ground and pound. Penne got back into Daly’s half-guard. Daly spent the majority of the third fighting to just get to a better position with no offense. Daly got back to her feet with 40 seconds remaining, but couldn’t do anything with the time.
It was a solid third round for Penne who took the unanimous decision to advance to the semi-finals.
Next week will feature both remaining quarter-final bouts—Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Torres & Joanne Calderwood vs. Rose Namajunas.
Note: The highlighted matchup is the fight that will air next week. Tecia Torres replaced Justine Kish on Team Pettis following an injury that forced Kish out of the competition.
Jessica Penne is seen working on a puzzle of the TUF logo. These poor fighters can’t even get a regular puzzle in the house.
As Daly and Penne are on the same team, Team Pettis, they are still training in close quarters to one another. Pettis says he is taking a step back and letting them dictate how they’ll train. Penne works closely with Justine Kish.
A portion of the show was spent with an in-program advertisement for Harley-Davidson. The fighters had a “Harley Boot Camp” to learn about the bikes and how to ride them.
Daly expressed concern that the coaches may have more a personal connection with Penne, and wonders if that will come in to play with how they handle this fight. It is tough to know from the editing how legitimate this concern is, but it would be tough to handle mentally entering a fight in this environment.
ConorMcGregor showed up to surprise Daly. He spoke to her one-on-one, and then spoke to the rest of the team. McGregor noticed a tension in the room of Team Pettis. It seemed to boost Daly’s mood.
With this being a quality fight there was not much time for anything else in this episode. They made their walk to the cage about halfway through the episode, and this week’s offering was all about a high-level fight between two of the best on the show.
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto (18-6, 1 NC) will return to the UFC for the first time in three years when he steps inside the cage on February 28, 2015 at UFC 184.KID’s return was posted on the UFC’s Japanese website on Tuesday evening, and h…
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto (18-6, 1 NC) will return to the UFC for the first time in three years when he steps inside the cage on February 28, 2015 at UFC 184.
Salazar made his UFC debut in October in a loss to Mitch Gagnon. He succumbed to a rear-naked choke in just two minutes and six seconds.
Yamamoto was one of the most highly regarded lighter-weight fighters in the world for a number of years. He spent the majority of his career fighting for K-1, where he came away with one of the fastest knockouts in MMA history to that point: a four-second KO of Kazuyuki Miyata in 2006.
The success of KID hit a wall when he joined DREAM in 2009. He lost back-to-back fights to Joe Warren and Masanori Kanehara before earning a victory against Federico Lopez in 2010. It was after that victory that Yamamoto finally signed on the dotted line for the UFC.
The Japanese superstar did not find success inside the Octagon in his initial run. Three fights between February 2011-February 2012 ended in losses. His UFC debut came against current UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.
Yamamoto is now 37 years old, and the successes he once had are all but a distant memory. His fight at UFC 184 will hope to bring back flashes of his brilliance in a fight against Salazar.
After dropping his initial UFC fight, Salazar is now being given a golden opportunity to make a name for himself with a victory against Yamamoto.
As the UFC rebounded from a rough 2014, the Yamamoto vs. Salazar bout is another exciting addition to the 2015 slate.
UFC 184 is headlined by two title fights. In the main event, Chris Weidman defends his UFC middleweight championship against Vitor Belfort. The co-main event features Ronda Rousey putting her UFC women’s bantamweight title on the line against top contender Cat Zingano.
UFC 184 hails from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Cub Swanson entered UFC Fight Night 57 with a title shot hanging in the balance, but as he tried to climb the ladder to claim his shot, Frankie Edgar was there to pull him back down.
Edgar dominated the fight for nearly 25 minutes on Saturday and got t…
Cub Swanson entered UFC Fight Night 57 with a title shot hanging in the balance, but as he tried to climb the ladder to claim his shot, Frankie Edgar was there to pull him back down.
Edgar dominated the fight for nearly 25 minutes on Saturday and got the rear-naked choke stoppage in the closing seconds of the bout.
Swanson stuffed a couple of takedowns early, but Edgar closed the first round by finally putting Swanson on his back. The takedowns kept coming. Swanson could not get up off his back to have success on the feet. Edgar didn’t just control him; he pummeled him.
What’s next for Swanson?
Don’t expect a bout with a Top Five opponent for the current No. 2-ranked featherweight contender. The rest of the Top Five are tied up in bouts or don’t make sense following this performance. So, who does that leave? Let’s take a look at three solid options for Swanson’s next task.
Dustin Poirier
Poirier is coming off a loss to ConorMcGregor, but he is still a Top 10 featherweight. This is a good stylistic matchup for both men to shine. How do I know that?
Poirier and Swanson put on a quality fight in the beginning of 2013. Swanson got the unanimous-decision win.
This has already proved to be an entertaining fight, and the two fighters are in roughly the same place in the division. This bout makes sense on paper, but only if the UFC is keen on the idea of a rematch that we saw almost two years ago.
NikLentz
Lentz is 4-1 in his last five bouts. The lone loss came at the hands of No. 1-ranked Chad Mendes.
The wrestler got in the win column again over Manny Gamburyan in May.
After Edgar took him down time and again, this is a good chance for Swanson to redeem himself. Lentz is going to go after the takedowns relentlessly and give Swanson plenty of opportunities to demonstrate his takedown defense has improved.
It’s a learning fight.
We know what the major hole in Swanson’s game is, and pitting him against another quality wrestler will show us how much he has improved before he gets another shot at the upper echelon of the division.
Dennis Bermudez
Much for the same reasons that Lentz is a good option, so is Bermudez.
There are two key differences: Bermudez is more entertaining and ranked higher than Lentz.
Bermudez is the No. 7-ranked featherweight. Bermudez vs. Swanson would be another high-end matchup the UFC can promote for a Fox Sports 1 card or even a UFC Fight Pass event. It’s marketable.
Bermudez has good wrestling and can test Swanson, but he also loves to brawl. It is a solid matchup to test both men. Bermudez was on the brink of moving into the Top Five earlier in November but came up short against Ricardo Lamas.
I believe this to be the best fight the UFC can make for both men. It will give one a second consecutive loss, but in the stacked featherweight division, there will be plenty of chances to rebound. This is a solid fight to put the winner right back in the thick of things.
Bermudez, Lentz and Poirier are quality options, as it would be a shame to see the UFC stick Swanson back in the cage with a fighter outside the Top 10.
2014 has been a rough year for the UFC. Among the missing pieces have been fighters who can draw.