It was only about a week ago that fans were looking at UFC on FOX 4 with a bit of disappointment as a seemingly unimportant main event between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera was set to headline the network television fight card. We…
It was only about a week ago that fans were looking at UFC on FOX 4 with a bit of disappointment as a seemingly unimportant main event between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera was set to headline the network television fight card.
We later learned that the winner of the Rua-Vera fight would be the No. 1 contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
While that added some interest to the fight card, many fans were very frustrated with Vera—who had only won one of his previous four fights—being a potential challenger for Jon Jones. Those against the decision flooded Twitter, imploring UFC President Dana White to reconsider.
On Tuesday afternoon, the fans’ wishes were granted as White announced that the most impressive winner of the two fights between Brandon Vera and Shogun Rua, and between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader, would be the one who gets the next UFC title fight.
With all four fighters now in play for a shot at Jon Jones, the conversation can now begin—who is the most likely fighter to leave UFC on Fox 4 as the No. 1 contender for Jon Jones’ UFC title?
To answer that question, here is a power ranking of each of the four contenders and their likelihood to be Jon Jones’ next opponent.
Women’s MMA has found its home in Invicta Fighting Championships. They may not be the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in the country, but the ladies of Invicta FC have quickly risen to a surprising level of prominence within the sport after…
Women’s MMA has found its home in Invicta Fighting Championships.
They may not be the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in the country, but the ladies of Invicta FC have quickly risen to a surprising level of prominence within the sport after just two shows.
If this past Saturday night was any indication, it’s only going to get better.
Invicta battled through technical difficulties on their free internet video stream, which led to many fans missing some action, but the promotion frantically worked behind-the-scenes to get the stream back up. Once the stream was fixed, it was smooth sailing from there.
Those who opted to wait out the delay were were delighted to see a high-quality production that rivals anything that a non-Zuffa promotion has on the market today. But it was the countless entertaining fights that truly made Invicta FC 2 a memorable night.
Fans in attendance were white hot in support of the combatants throughout the entire event and caught a glimpse of what this promotion can truly become in the coming months and years.
Alexis Davis made an emphatic statement of her dominance in her second-round submission victory over former Smackgirl champion Hitomi Akano. It was Davis’ fourth win in her past five fights, with the only loss coming in a tightly contested loss to the 135-pound current Strikeforce No. 1 contender Sarah Kaufman.
Other winners on Saturday night’s fight card included Liz Carmouche as she submitted Kaitlin Young, one of the top female strikers in the world, Julia Budd in her one-sided TKO victory over Elina Nilsson, and 2004 Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann as she won the main event in a barnburner of a fight against Shayna Baszler.
Women’s mixed martial arts still has a ways to go before it catches up to men’s, but with Invicta FC now firmly entrenched as the top women’s-only promotion in the country, things are certainly looking up for the ladies of the sport.
Invicta FC president Shannon Knapp felt the love from the MMA community and thanked the fans, her team and the fighters for a wildly successful event via the Invicta FC Facebook account:
“What an amazing night of Women’s MMA. Thank u to our fans who stayed with us during our live stream difficulties and believed in Invicta FC. 28 women entered our cage and half had their hand raised in victory but no one left the cage defeated. Invicta FC provided a Cage of Their Own and each and every female warrior fought with heart and soul. Thank u to our fighters for making Invicta FC the premier event for WMMA.”
Invicta FC will return on October 6 with its third card, which will also feature its first title fight. Invicta FC 3 will be headlined by an atomweight championship bout as Jessica Penne battles the unbeaten Naho Sugiyama in a 105-pound clash.
When news broke Monday that the UFC on Fox 4 headliner between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua Brandon Vera will determine a No. 1 contender to challenge current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, the MMA world let out a collective groan in frustr…
When news broke Monday that the UFC on Fox 4 headliner between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua Brandon Vera will determine a No. 1 contender to challenge current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, the MMA world let out a collective groan in frustration.
UFC President Dana White then amended that news, noting that the winner of Rua-Vera won’t necessarily get the next title fight, but rather whoever wins most impressively between Rua-Vera and the other light heavyweight fight between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader, will be the next challenger for Jones.
It’s true that the news makes Saturday night’s fight card significantly more intriguing, however the decision to give Brandon Vera an opportunity to potentially compete for a UFC title still leaves many fans scratching their heads.
Vera is coming off of a win over Eliot Marshall, but he had lost his previous three fights in devastating enough fashion that the UFC opted to cut him from the roster. When it was later revealed that Thiago Silva had submitted a falsified urine sample for his fight with Vera, the loss was later turned into a no-contest…but everyone remembers the beating he took nonetheless.
Prior to that devastating thrashing which gave him a horribly broken nose, Vera was on the receiving end of yet another highlight reel butt-kicking as an elbow from Jon Jones broke his face in three different places.
Needless to say, prior to the uninspiring win over Marshall, who has since been cut by the UFC, Vera had been on a terrible streak of losses which had all but completely eliminated the hype that surrounded him early in his UFC career.
Yet somehow, much to the surprise of just about everyone, Vera was given a fight against former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Worse yet, if Vera somehow wins that fight,could be be the one to challenge Jon Jones for the title next.
It’s true that Jones has completely steamrolled through the UFC’s 205-pound division, so there really aren’t many obvious contenders for the belt.
But Brandon Vera? Really?
This is a guy who, at the current moment, barely cracks most top-25 lists, let alone top-10 lists. There has to be someone else who would make for a more interesting No. 1 contender.
Both of them, and others, would be significantly better opponents for Jon Jones than Brandon Vera.
I mean no disrespect to Brandon Vera as a fighter because he certainly does have the talent to get back to being a top contender, but winning one fight against a guy who is no longer employed by the company, after three straight losses, should not put someone in a championship contenders’ fight.
The decision has been made, though, and the winner of Shogun-Vera or Machida-Bader will get his chance to dethrone Jones.
Come Saturday night, we could be talking about the rematch that no one wants to see—Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones.
If you haven’t heard by now, you’ll probably be excited to learn that former UFC welterweight No. 1 contender Nick Diaz has begun putting out feelers for a potential superfight with current 185-pound champion Anderson Silva. The story fir…
If you haven’t heard by now, you’ll probably be excited to learn that former UFC welterweight No. 1 contender Nick Diaz has begun putting out feelers for a potential superfight with current 185-pound champion Anderson Silva.
The story first broke on GracieFighter.com with Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, noting that Diaz “will respectfully ask for a fight with Anderson Silva, a fighter he respects and would like to challenge.”
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the Internet has quickly taken this story and run with it, creating a hype for a fight that, put quite simply, will not be happening—at least not anytime soon.
Don’t mistake this as anyone saying that this fight wouldn’t be interesting. It absolutely would be. Nick Diaz always creates a unique challenge for his opponents, and Anderson Silva is the king of figuring out the flaws in his opponents and exploiting them in dramatic fashion.
But that alone isn’t enough to make this fight happen.
Nick Diaz’s suspension doesn’t even run out until February 2013. Even if he were to get back in the cage immediately following the suspension, that will still mean that he has been out of active competition for over a year.
Does anyone really think that a fighter who has been out of the cage for an entire year, who lost his previous fight (even though some, including myself, would argue that decision), is ready to step into the cage with the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter on the planet?
Get real.
While Anderson Silva is likely open to the idea of fighting Nick Diaz, it’s not his call to make. Sure, he has some sway in who his opponent will be, but the end decision is always made by Joe Silva and those making the decisions behind the scenes within the UFC.
While they don’t always make the right decision, they’re certainly batting a high percentage. They know when to promote certain fighters, what fights fans want to see and what fights make sense for them to provide at a given time.
Unfortunately for Diaz, at this moment in time, there really is no compelling reason for the UFC to book him in a fight against the top middleweight in the company other than perhaps a one-time pay-per-view payoff.
Gracie later explained that, for Diaz, the middleweight title is not the ultimate prize.
“It’s not about the title, we don’t want a title. If it were to be at 185 we don’t want the title,” Gracie told MiddleEasy.com. “Nick isn’t trying to be disrespectful to all the great middleweights out there, our camp doesn’t want that. There’s a lot of great middleweights out there that are in line for a title shot. This is about fighting, a superfight.”
Diaz and Gracie may very well be sincere in the statement that they do not want a title fight, but the problem is that, for the UFC, having Anderson Silva compete in non-title bouts is an extremely dangerous proposition.
They’ve done it before, but the UFC is risking a ton by having their 185-pound champion compete in non-title bouts, particularly if that bout takes place at 185 pounds.
For the other fighters, challenging Anderson Silva is about winning the title. However, it’s also about being the guy to finally beat Anderson Silva. That is a career-making win for someone like Chris Weidman or Michael Bisping, two of the current top contenders at 185 pounds.
Beating Anderson Silva in a title fight after he loses a fight to a natural welterweight just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
From a business standpoint, the Diaz-Silva fight just does not make sense. We all want to see it happen in the cage, but don’t hold your breath—it’s not going to happen.
The UFC interim bantamweight title bout is almost here, and if you’re looking to watch UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao live tonight on your computer, look no further. Along with with the preliminary fights on Facebook and Fuel TV, UFC 1…
The UFC interim bantamweight title bout is almost here, and if you’re looking to watch UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao live tonight on your computer, look no further.
Along with with the preliminary fights on Facebook and Fuel TV, UFC 149 is sure to be one of the more fast-paced events in 2012, and the winner between Faber and Barao should have his shot at current UFC 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz in the future.
In addition, middleweight Tim Boetsch will battle the debuting Hector Lombard, who completely ran through the Bellator 185-pound division.
If it’s the pay-per-view card featuring Faber and Barao that you want to watch on your computer or phone, then you should strongly consider checking out the UFC’s various live streaming partners.
Yes, there may be some poor-quality free streams elsewhere, but they can often be unreliable, and there is always a strong chance of viruses and malware with any illegal stream.
So why not put all of that concern to rest and invest in an online stream that will actually work, won’t mess up your computer and won’t leave you wondering if the cops are going to come knocking on your door?
For as little as $44.99, you can watch the UFC 149 pay-per-view from three different locations online:
UFC.tv, the organization’s own online streaming service.
Yahoo! Sports, one of the world’s largest sports websites.
Or the most viewed online streaming service, UStream.tv.
Lastly, you can also choose to party-up with your friends and talk together from across the country while you enjoy UFC 149: Faber vs. Barao on Xbox LIVE through the UFC app.
Whichever option you choose, however, will provide you an excellent-quality live stream of tonight’s UFC 149 pay-per-view, which starts at 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT.
Don’t be fooled by other websites that say they are offering a free live stream of the event.
Support the sport you love and order the event in high quality. You won’t regret it!
Fans who attend Saturday night’s Driller Promotions: Downtown Showdown 8 will be treated to what is expected to be a highly entertaining co-main event featuring one of Minnesota’s best in Rich Taylor as he battles rising prospect from North…
Fans who attend Saturday night’s Driller Promotions: Downtown Showdown 8 will be treated to what is expected to be a highly entertaining co-main event featuring one of Minnesota’s best in Rich Taylor as he battles rising prospect from North Dakota, Ryan Burwick.
Taylor, a former Augsburg college wrestling teammate of Bellator and UFC stars such as Roger Huerta, Carey Vanier and Marcus LeVesseur, has been steadily rising through the ranks in the midwest. He will be looking to solidify his spot as one of the very best featherweights in the area with a win on Saturday night.
He won’t have an easy road, though, as Burwick has been on a three-fight winning streak with all three victories coming in the first round (including two submissions).
“He’s a great BJJ guy, so that’s always dangerous,” Taylor told Bleacher Report MMA. “But I don’t really worry about my opponents so much. I try to concentrate on what I’m going to do.”
As a champion in Brutaal, Taylor has experience going as deep as five rounds in his fights which could make for an interesting challenge for Ryan Burwick, who has only gone to a decision once in his career.
“We definitely looked at the fact that he hasn’t been to the later rounds. When you get deep into fights, that’s really when you can test a fighter’s heart,” Taylor said. “I’m definitely looking to bring him into deeper water and push the pace on him. Hopefully I can break him.”
Though the fight against Burwick came along smoothly, Taylor admits that previous opponent, promoter and management issues kept him out of the cage for longer than he would have preferred.
“I was offered some fights, but a lot of them were out of the country. One of them fell through. I was just kind of waiting for the right opportunity,” he said. “I was really hoping that I would get a shot in the big show for the UFC. I’ve been looking forward to that.”
Taylor has not fought since October of 2011, but his new manager Monte Cox could be the behind-the-scenes change that finally gives him the opportunity to compete for the more high-profile promotions.
The 145-pound division might be the weakest weight class in the UFC and that could play out very well for Taylor who believes that he will be ready to compete at that level when he finally gets the call.
“I think the 145 pound division is a little bit thin until you get up to the top guys like Aldo and Mendes,” Taylor admitted. “I think I can compete with any of those guys, even the top guys I think I could give a fight to. I just really want that chance. I’m ready for it physically, I’m ready for it mentally.”
Though he hopes that a win on Saturday will put him over the edge, Taylor understands that timing is everything. With the UFC releasing fellow Minnesota 145-pounder Pat Schilling in June, it could be the perfect time for Taylor to finally get his chance against an opponent who called him out over a year ago.
“He called me out at one of the shows and I accepted the challenge. Then I guess [Schilling and his management] kind of backed out,” Taylor said. “I don’t know if there was maybe an injury or what occurred—maybe they were waiting for something on a bigger show. I got a couple different stories. I didn’t take it personally, though. I would love to mix it up with him if he wanted to go back and finish up what we had going. I’d love to get in there and scrap with him.”
Another frequently-discussed opponent for Taylor is Mitch Jackson, the top-ranked Minnesota featherweight according to MNMMANews.com, and the only man who currently sits above Taylor on that list.
“I think that’d be a good fight. A lot of people want to see that,” Taylor said about a potential bout with Jackson. “I tried to get that fight awhile ago, but I guess he was going into some tournament and the fight never happened.”
Before he gets to rumble with Schilling or Jackson, though, Taylor will need to get through a very dangerous opponent in Ryan Burwick. Taylor believes he’s up to the challenge and that those in attendance will go home satisfied by his performance.
“I predict that I’m knocking Ryan Burwick out,” Taylor said. “That’s what the fans want to see and that’s what I’m going for.”
Tickets are still available for this big fight card in Minneapolis and will be on sale at the door with prices as low as just $35/ea.
When news broke Monday that the