Most followers of MMA have a specific fighter that they take a liking to, maybe it was due to their combative style, personality or something out of the ordinary that got them hooked, nonetheless, from that day onwards, the fighter in question became t…
Most followers of MMA have a specific fighter that they take a liking to, maybe it was due to their combative style, personality or something out of the ordinary that got them hooked, nonetheless, from that day onwards, the fighter in question became their favorite combatant above all others.
And for said fans, being privy to certain facts about their much-loved fighter is not only a need, but sometimes a necessity, however, some of those facts can be either inaccessible or may have gone straight off the MMA radar altogether.
Still, it’s even harder to keep up with all the information flying around especially if you have several or more fighters on your list of favorites.
According to MMAFighting, Cesar Gracie has come out firing on all cylinders, claiming that the judges who adjudicated the UFC 143 main event don’t and have never liked Nick Diaz, and also asserted that it was pretty much a case of a prolonged per…
According to MMAFighting, Cesar Gracie has come out firing on all cylinders, claiming that the judges who adjudicated the UFC 143 main event don’t and have never liked Nick Diaz, and also asserted that it was pretty much a case of a prolonged personal vendetta against his charge.
“I don’t think the judges like Nick,” he said. “He comes off, he talks in the ring… Carlos was running at one point, and Nick slapped him in the face said, ‘Quit running.’ We were there for a dogfight. Carlos said he’d provide for the fans a dogfight, a great fight where they were going to go at it. That was not a dogfight. It takes two to make a dogfight. One guy running away is not a dogfight.
“I don’t know what the judges were looking at,” he continued. “They’ve never liked Nick in Vegas. They’ve never voted for him in a decision. The only one was the BJ Penn fight, and he almost had to kill BJ to get that one. I don’t think they like his attitude, a guy that’s going to go out there and talk. I think they think he’s disrespectful. They’re going to find a reason to judge against him. I don’t think he can get fair judging in that state at all.”
The cage-side judges, Junichiro Kamijo, Cecil Peoples and Patricia Morse-Jarman, unanimously scored the bout 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in favor of Carlos Condit, who also captured the interim welterweight title in the process.
Though, Gracie was mostly irked by the way he felt the judges scored the first round.
“I literally just got off my computer to watch that first round again,” he said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “And I thought, you’d have to be insane to think a guy chasing the other guy down, landing the significant punches, and running after a guy, trying to fight a guy who will not fight, that is scared to fight, and you lose? How do I tell my fighter what he should have done better? It takes two men to fight. If one guy doesn’t fight, that should be a point deducted.”
That win has now propelled “The Natural Born Killer” to the No. 1 contender to Georges St-Pierre’s championship belt, a status that has earned him the right to vie for title when next St-Pierre sets foot into the Octagon.
Conversely, following the judges’ decision, a distraught Diaz subsequently announced his retirement from professional MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). However, an immediate rematch, something which UFC president Dana White seems to be in favor of, could bring the Stocktonian back into the fold.
Though, Gracie has yet to hear anything from that quarter.
“Of course they’re not interested in a rematch,” he said. “They lost the first one.”
That said, amidst all the brouhaha surrounding the decision, and especially the way Condit was alleged to have ran throughout the bout, Gracie harbours no ill feelings towards him, though the same can’t be said about Jackson’s Submission Fighting gym.
“It’s one thing to avoid standing in the pocket, it’s one thing to know how to dodge punches and kicks, and be somewhat elusive and have great defense,” he said. “It’s another thing to turn your back and run from a fighter. That’s completely different. You shouldn’t be telling your fighter to fight like that. I think it’s a disgrace and a shame. I’ve said this before: I don’t like that camp. I’m not going to take that back,” Gracie said.
Gracie took a parting shot at the judges who presided over the bout as well as, suggesting that the overall judging system reeks of inefficacy.
“The whole judging criteria is so flawed, and that these guys don’t have anyone to answer to,” he said. “Once they’re in there, they’re not getting reviewed. You’re going to get fired because you’re obviously an incompetent judge? That doesn’t happen. It’s like the Supreme Court. You’re in there for life. You can do whatever you want and you can tell everybody basically to ‘F off’ if they don’t like it. It’s a position of total power. They’re making decisions that are ruining the sport and are ridiculous. No one’s going to get them out of there. It’s absurd if you think about it.”
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Following his controversial decision win against Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 143, Carlos Condit is now in the prime position to vie for the 170-lb. title held by Georges St-Pierre. However, a rematch and a first defense of his interim belt again…
Following his controversial decision win against Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 143, Carlos Condit is now in the prime position to vie for the 170-lb. title held by Georges St-Pierre. However, a rematch and a first defense of his interim belt against the Stockton native would make sense for a number of reasons.
Firstly, St-Pierre could be out of action for nigh on a year and secondly, to silence some of the critics with regards to the outcome of their most recent outing.
Even Dana White publicly stated that he’d be all in favor of a rematch.
“It’s crazy, but…I was thinking about it after the fight,” said White in an interview with MMAJunkie. “People are bitching, and people think that was close…we could do that fight again before GSP comes back.”
Presently, Diaz is out of the picture for the time being as he subsequently announced his retirement from MMA following the decision. However, that could all change if Condit and Co. come calling.
Though, prior to their bout, Condit’s manager Malki Kawa had intimated that he’d consider a defense of the interim title if his charge came out victorious—well, that’s not the case anymore.
The Condit camp wants nothing to do with a rematch and have their sights set on a championship clash with St-Pierre.
“At this point, [a rematch] is not something we’re looking to do,” he said. “We’re looking for Georges. People forget, Carlos waited a long time to get this fight. He was moved around, and shuffled around between fights. He won the fight. It doesn’t interest us at all. I think clearly and decisively, he won the fight. Even [UFC president] Dana [White] scored it for him. All of the opinions that matter scored Carlos as winner,” Kawa said.
Whilst “The Natural Born Killer” may have been the victor, his strategy (hit-and-run game plan) of refusing to fully engage with Diaz, suggests that he must’ve had serious reservations regarding the Cesar Gracie fighter’s striking prowess.
And now that it’s over and he’s been able to gauge what Diaz is all about, he now wants no part of him.
This leads me to the conclusion that Condit and Kawa are afraid of a rematch with the Stockton brawler and would rather wait next to 12 months for a shot at St-Pierre’s crown.
Why else would they refuse a rematch that most of the public are in eager anticipation of?
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Following his two-point deduction of Alex Caceres in the preliminary card (FX) at UFC 143, Herb Dean’s reputation as being the best referee in MMA could be brought in to question, and rightly so. Caceres unintentionally caught Edwin Figueroa in t…
Following his two-point deduction of Alex Caceres in the preliminary card (FX) at UFC 143, Herb Dean’s reputation as being the best referee in MMA could be brought in to question, and rightly so.
Caceres unintentionally caught Edwin Figueroa in the family jewels on two separate occasions: the opening stanza and in Round 2. The emphasis should be placed on unintentional, as that’s what it was. Now, if it had been a malicious attempt by Caceres to gain an advantage over Figueroa, then it would just be a case of great refereeing by Dean, but, as it turned, out it wasn’t.
The upshot of his two-point deduction has left “Bruce Leroy” with a 1-3 record in his UFC tenure, a decision nonetheless that could easily result in Caceres being released from the company if he’s not victorious in his next outing.
Rarely, if ever, is a fighter penalized two points after a second infraction. A point taken away is the norm, and a stern warning follows suit—none of which happened.
That said, his decision to call a halt to proceedings following Dan Henderson’s knockout of Fedor Emelianenko raised a few eyebrows. It was obvious that Fedor was compos mentis seconds before the stoppage. However, Dean chose to end the bout anyway, forgetting the fact that Fedor had never been stopped in his career before, meaning he should’ve been given the benefit of the doubt.
Still, it’s a decision that could be debated until the cows come home.
Herb Dean is still MMA’s premier referee. However, any more major hiccups akin to Caceres, then the jury will be out and the aforementioned accolade might just take a severe pounding.
Also, he doesn’t want to be placed in the same category as boxing’s world-renowned referee Joe Cortez, who seems to have a penchant for making some of the biggest officiating faux pas every so often.
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At UFC 143, we were expecting a slugfest for the ages. However, that never transpired, as Carlos Condit shut down the surging attacks that Nick Diaz had in store for him. Coming into the main event, Condit had amassed an incredible record of 13 stoppag…
At UFC 143, we were expecting a slugfest for the ages. However, that never transpired, as Carlos Condit shut down the surging attacks that Nick Diaz had in store for him.
Coming into the main event, Condit had amassed an incredible record of 13 stoppages and 13 submissions to boot in his 28 victories. And as a consequence, the moniker “The Natural Born Killer” was going to be symbolic in the night’s proceedings.
However, that would not be the case, as the Greg Jackson-trained fighter put a strategic nullifying clinic on the Cesar Gracie combatant.
Though his stratagem wasn’t to everyone’s liking, it resulted in Condit capturing the interim welterweight title and a date with the division’s perennial champion Georges St-Pierre.
Diaz thrives on fistic wars, and it must’ve been a rude awakening with Condit’s decision to deviate from what the Stocktonian had in mind.
From the outset, Condit’s game plan was to keep Diaz at bay, which he successfully accomplished for more or less the entire bout—dictating where and how he wanted the fight to play out.
Diaz’s attempts at pressure fighting—walking him down in view of either a toe-to-toe battle or to get him against the fence, where he could do some serious damage—bared little fruit, as Condit circled out of harm’s way while punishing him at the same time.
Though Diaz did find some success against the fence, it was short-lived, as Condit was able to distract him with his own striking and move out of danger.
This was Condit’s modus operandi throughout, synonymous to boxing’s version of stick and jab—in and out of the pocket—scoring points and giving his opponent little or no opportunity to launch any significant attacks.
What Condit proved in this matchup was his ability to adapt to certain fights—if he’d fought Diaz’s game of attempting to strike with him, it’s more than likely that Diaz would be the one on the path to St-Pierre’s crown.
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Former welterweight title contender Josh Koscheck recently parted company with American Kickboxing Academy to set up his own training camp in Fresno, California. Some believe that this could be the signal for a potential fight with close friend and tra…
Former welterweight title contender Josh Koscheck recently parted company with American Kickboxing Academy to set up his own training camp in Fresno, California. Some believe that this could be the signal for a potential fight with close friend and training partner Jon Fitch, but it’s not.
In the past both combatants have made it perfectly clear that under no circumstances will they ever step into the Octagon to compete for honors or money.
“If there’s no one else for me to compete with at 170 other than Koscheck, I’m going to move up.
[…] “No chance (we will fight),” declared Koscheck. “It’s not worth it to me. I would rather step away from the sport than fight Jon Fitch.”
Those comments continue to hold true for the former NCAA Division-I standout as he continues to stand by his words regarding any future fights with Fitch now that he’s no longer a member of AKA.
That said, “Kos” did intimate that he and Fitch would continue to help each other out as they’ve done in the past, thus leading to the conclusion that his exit from the camp that he’s called home for six years will never leave the door open for a fight with Fitch.
Though, Koscheck who defeated Mike Pierce via split decision at UFC 143 does have his sights set on both the winner and loser of the main event card, newly-crowned interim titlist Carlos Condit and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz.
“Yeah, definitely. Why not? He’s a tough guy. It would be a good fight,” Koscheck stated of Diaz.
When asked about facing Condi, Koscheck said, “There’s a little bit of history with us and we were supposed to fight tonight. I’m down.”
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