Author: Nick Caron

B/R Official Rankings for May: The Top 10 Flyweights in MMA

If UFC on FOX 3 showed us anything, it’s that the newly-created flyweight division might be the home of the most entertaining fighters in the sport today. After Louis Gaudinot and John Lineker got things warmed up early with a back-and-forth slug-…

If UFC on FOX 3 showed us anything, it’s that the newly-created flyweight division might be the home of the most entertaining fighters in the sport today. 

After Louis Gaudinot and John Lineker got things warmed up early with a back-and-forth slug-fest, John Dodson and Tim Elliott took to the cage and blew the roof off of the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, during in the preliminary bouts on Fuel TV. 

As great as the UFC flyweights already look, the division as a whole might be the most interesting in the sport for those who watch MMA promotions outside the UFC. 

Given that the division has only been around for a few months now, the biggest MMA promotion in the world hasn’t quite reached the level of top-level talent consolidation in the flyweight division that they have in most of the other divisions. 

Let’s take a look at where each of the top 10 flyweights in MMA currently compete.

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Mayweather vs. Cotto Against UFC on FOX 3: Boxing Still King, but Not for Long

Fans of combat sports were treated to a memorable evening on Saturday night as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto battled it out on pay-per-view following an entertaining fight card put on by the UFC on FOX.The ratings aren’t in quite yet for these …

Fans of combat sports were treated to a memorable evening on Saturday night as Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto battled it out on pay-per-view following an entertaining fight card put on by the UFC on FOX.

The ratings aren’t in quite yet for these events, but judging by trends on both Google and Twitter, it’s safe to assume that the Mayweather-Cotto event profited a huge number while UFC likely lagged behind the results that it pulled in from the first two events on FOX.

The night proved that while the UFC may be the fastest growing, boxing is still the king of combat all sports…

For now.

There is absolutely no denying that Floyd Mayweather is the biggest draw in fighting today. His pay-per-view buy numbers are astounding. His rival, Manny Pacquiao, trails behind him but is still by far and away the second-biggest draw.

But after that, it’s anyone’s guess.

It has been nearly eight years since the last time that a pay-per-view event headlined by someone other than Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao reached a million buys, when Oscar De La Hoya battled Bernard Hopkins. 

Pacquiao and Mayweather crack the one million buy mark with ease in every fight they have, but aside from those two marquee fighters, the sport of boxing and its influence on the mainstream sports world is on life support. 

If you take Pacquiao and Mayweather out of the equation, boxing only had two events in 2011 which reached even 100,000 pay-per-view buys. In contrast, the UFC easily surpassed 100,000 buys for every event they put on in 2011. 

As Mayweather and Pacquiao near the end of their careers, the UFC must be salivating at the possibility of finally being the pinnacle of combat sports. Who knows exactly how long boxing’s stars will stick around, but with no one waiting in the wings to take their place, boxing could be in for some serious dark days as the UFC pulls ahead, perhaps for the long haul. 

While the UFC did lose its own biggest pay-per-view buy generator in Brock Lesnar, the growth in the popularity of stars such as Jon Jones and Junior dos Santos could help make up for that. However, the biggest reason for the company’s success on pay-per-view has been its business model.

Unlike boxing, the UFC brands itself, not the fighters. 

Sure, they create stars in the process, but the focus is always on the UFC brand itself. If a main event fight gets canceled, the card isn’t scrapped—they just replace it with another fight and fans eat it up. We simply can’t get enough. That cannot and does not happen in the boxing world.

If the sport of boxing doesn’t drastically change its model, we could be talking about it in the past tense. As in, “remember when we used to watch boxing?”

We might already be past the point of no return…and the UFC is ready to fill the void.

For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: .

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UFC on Fox 3 Results: Should Pat Barry Get Another Chance in the UFC?

After suffering the third loss in his past four fights at the hands of Lavar Johnson during Saturday night’s UFC on Fox 3 event in East Rutherford, NJ, some UFC fans are already calling for the release of Pat Barry. Barry fell victim to a brutal k…

After suffering the third loss in his past four fights at the hands of Lavar Johnson during Saturday night’s UFC on Fox 3 event in East Rutherford, NJ, some UFC fans are already calling for the release of Pat Barry. 

Barry fell victim to a brutal knockout after Johnson unloaded everything he had in his tank near the end of the first round. His record in the Octagon has now fallen to a paltry 4-5 and he has still never defeated a fighter who is anywhere near the top 10 in the heavyweight division.

So should he get another chance?

For this writer, the answer is simple—of course he should.

I understand that the UFC is where the best of the best come to fight. Perhaps Barry’s loss on Saturday night proved that he does not belong in the conversation of “best of the best.” Fair enough.

But isn’t the sport about more than that?

In a division full of mammoths who often come out very flat and grind to agonizingly boring decisions, Pat Barry has been a tremendous breath of fresh air. In his nine fights for the company, Barry has only ever gone to one decision—a memorable three-round fight against Joey Beltran that saw “The Mexicutioner” literally collapse to the ground after the third round due to the amount of damage he sustained from leg kicks.

As his record would indicate, it hasn’t always been Barry who has come out on the positive side of the finishes, but the fact is that when you see his name on a fight card, you can bet your bottom dollar that he will be in an extremely entertaining fight.

Certainly being entertaining alone cannot keep Pat Barry’s job in the UFC. I get that. But when a guy like Dan Hardy, who has lost four straight bouts in the UFC, can keep his job, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand why some people are trying to put an end to Barry’s run in the UFC.

If the UFC cuts Pat Barry after this performance, they are making a huge mistake. He’s one of the most exciting fighters on the roster and he makes just about every fight interesting. He needs to be given another shot to prove to everyone that he still belongs in the Octagon.

For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: .

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UFC on FOX 3 Results: Does Nate Diaz Deserve a Title Shot?

Nate Diaz came into Saturday night’s UFC on FOX 3 main event as an underdog against Jim Miller, but he proved those odds to be very wrong in dominating the fight before earning a submission victory in Round 2. As a mixed martial arts writer, it ca…

Nate Diaz came into Saturday night’s UFC on FOX 3 main event as an underdog against Jim Miller, but he proved those odds to be very wrong in dominating the fight before earning a submission victory in Round 2. 

As a mixed martial arts writer, it can sometimes be tough to admit when you’re wrong…and this is one of those times.

On Friday afternoon, I confidently predicted that Jim Miller would control Diaz with his wrestling and out-point him on his way to a judges’ decision victory. 

Boy, was I wrong.

Not only was Miller’s wrestling ineffective, he also got completely picked apart on the feet. When the fight finally went to the ground, it was on Diaz’s terms as he quickly wrapped up a deep guillotine choke that got the submission.

The discussion is no longer about whether Nate Diaz is in Jim Miller’s league. That has been answered emphatically. The question now is whether Nate Diaz should be fighting for a title immediately.

After doubting Diaz going into this fight, I’m done. This guy is a flat-out beast and there is no doubt in my mind that he should be leapfrogging everyone on his way to an immediate title shot.

Many will point to Anthony “Showtime” Pettis as the guy who should be fighting for the title next. There’s certainly an argument to be made there after the former WEC champion was denied an immediate shot when he came to the UFC. He’s an extremely entertaining fighter who even holds a win over the current champion Benson Henderson.

But Nate Diaz did something tonight that no one had ever done to Jim Miller. In 24 fights, Miller had only lost three fights—to Benson Henderson, Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar. As good as those fighters are, none of them was able to finish Miller. 

Not only did Diaz finish Miller, he made it look EASY. 

The younger Diaz brother has gone 3-0 with three completely one-sided victories since returning to the 155-pound division. Love him or hate him, Nate Diaz deserves to be fighting for the title. 

It’s that polarizing capability that makes the Diaz brothers such stars in this sport. Nate has always followed in the shadow of Nick, but with Nick currently suspended, perhaps it’s time for the younger brother to finally take his place at the top of the MMA rankings.

Look out, Benson Henderson—Nate Diaz is coming. 

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UFC on FOX 3 Reality Check: Nate Diaz Is Good, but He’s Not Beating Jim Miller

Mixed martial arts will take center stage in the sports universe once again on Saturday night for UFC on FOX 3: Diaz vs. Miller. There are quite a few interesting bouts on this free fight card, but perhaps none has been more debated than the main …

Mixed martial arts will take center stage in the sports universe once again on Saturday night for UFC on FOX 3: Diaz vs. Miller. 

There are quite a few interesting bouts on this free fight card, but perhaps none has been more debated than the main event between lightweights Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. For one reason or another, the MMA community seems to be split on who is going to come out on top in this one.

While MMA is a sport where anything can happen, I think it’s time for a little reality check going into this fight.

Nate Diaz is a very, very good fighter. He has come a long way since his days on The Ultimate Fighter. He has wins over high-level opponents and is a definite top-10 lightweight…but to honestly believe that he should be the favorite in this fight against Jim Miller is absurd.

Just because he has the last name “Diaz” does not mean that Nate is as good as Nick. And quite frankly, Jim Miller is a fighter who is practically tailor-made to beat him in a five-round fight.

Miller is the owner of a ridiculous 21-3 professional mixed martial arts record with 10 of the wins coming in the UFC. He has beaten some very notable opponents, with his only losses coming against the very best that UFC has to offer—Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar and current 155-pound champion Benson Henderson.

What’s even crazier? Despite being the best in the world, neither Maynard nor Edgar nor Henderson could finish Jim Miller.

So where does that put Nate Diaz?

Well, let’s just say his chances aren’t very good.

Don’t get me wrong—Diaz is a beast. He has victories over Melvin Guillard and even outclassed Donald Cerrone in his most recent fight…but the skeptic in me also points to the fact that he has lost to the likes of Joe Stevenson and Dong Hyun Kim.

Sure, the loss to Kim took place in the 170-pound division which he has since moved down from, but the point remains—Nate Diaz struggles with fighters who can take him down. This was also proven in the one-sided beatdown he took from Rory MacDonald.

Jim Miller can and by all accounts should be able to take Nate Diaz down numerous times throughout this bout. Not only that, but his striking is good enough that he won’t get completely embarrassed on the feet should he struggle to get the fight to the ground.

Many will point to Diaz’s jiu-jitsu skills as a rebuttal for my argument that he will get controlled by Miller on the ground; however the the reality is that, barring some cataclysmic mistake from Miller on the ground, there is no way that Nate Diaz is submitting him from the bottom. It hasn’t happened to Miller in 24 pro fights. It’s not going to happen on Saturday night either.

Though I’m not expecting a repeat of the one-sided ass-whooping that Michael Chandler put on Akihiro Gono on Bellator on Friday night, I do see Jim Miller winning this fight fairly decisively, very likely by a judges’ decision. 

I’m sure that I’m going to get backlash on this article for telling it like it is and I’m OK with that. Sometimes these things need to be said.

Don’t call me a “hater” because I do believe that Nate Diaz is a good fighter…he’s just not on Jim Miller’s level.

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Invicta Fighting Championships: Can an All-Women’s MMA Promotion Survive?

Void of a UFC, Strikeforce or Bellator event, it was the debut of the all-women’s MMA promotion Invicta Fighting Championships which left the MMA world in a buzz this past weekend. The fight card featured some of the top up-and-coming female fight…

Void of a UFC, Strikeforce or Bellator event, it was the debut of the all-women’s MMA promotion Invicta Fighting Championships which left the MMA world in a buzz this past weekend. 

The fight card featured some of the top up-and-coming female fighters in the sport as well as some noteworthy veterans including former Strikeforce bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen in the main event.

It didn’t receive the kind of media attention that the top male-dominated promotions do, but Invicta’s inaugural show exceeded all expectations that fans could have possibly had going in.

Exciting fight after exciting fight led to even critics admitting that they were fairly impressed with what these women could do in the cage and the presentation delivered from the promotion.

Invicta may have opened the eyes of many fans who had previously written off any fight featuring two women, but the question remains—can Invicta stay in business long enough to put women’s MMA on the map as more than just a “special attraction?”

Like with most other sports, women’s MMA has struggled to keep up with its male counterpart.

While male MMA stars like Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre have become household names, women have struggled to even make it onto the televised fight cards of major promotions.

Even the biggest women’s MMA star ever, Gina Carano, after playing the lead role in a major motion picture, has struggled to crack into the mainstream. Judging by the success of the movie, she may never truly get there. 

It doesn’t help that UFC President Dana White has publicly slammed female fighting in the past, but it’s this idea that women should not be fighting one another that has been and will continue to be the biggest obstacle for female fighters and promotions like Invicta. 

While Invicta’s first event was a huge success with rumors indicating that there may have been as many as 250,000 viewers worldwide on Saturday, the reality is that the “honeymoon” factor will rub off soon and the promotion will have to make strides to stay alive.

Many promotions have come and gone and few have possessed the long-term staying power to make it through the ups and downs in the business over the past decade. 

Invicta seems different, though.

It’s not just that it’s an all-female show—those have been around in the past and failed—it’s that Invicta seems to have captured both the beauty and the physicality that these ladies bring to the cage, rather than focusing on one or the other.

Overcoming the “female on female violence” aspect will be a challenge, but Invicta’s understanding of what it is and where it’s going will keep them around for years to come. For a fight fan like myself who doesn’t care what the gender of the competitors is, Invicta is a welcome addition to my MMA calendar in 2012.

I look forward to their next event scheduled for July 28 and I truly hope that the MMA community will join me in embracing what this promotion is giving us. It’s something different… And maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all. 

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