The official Bleacher Report MMA middleweight rankings for March 2012 are in and there are some interesting changes from what we saw last month.The peak of the rankings remained the same, but the spots below saw some shifting as we saw a consensus top-…
The official Bleacher Report MMA middleweight rankings for March 2012 are in and there are some interesting changes from what we saw last month.
The peak of the rankings remained the same, but the spots below saw some shifting as we saw a consensus top-three middleweight knocked off by someone who wasn’t even in the top-10 previously.
The top two fighters in the division are tentatively set to meet sometime later this year, but nothing has been officially announced, and at least one of the competitors is still under the impression that the fight won’t happen.
They aren’t the only top fighters in the division, though, and in this list we’ll be counting down the top-10 fighters currently competing at 185 pounds.
If you’re looking for some free MMA to watch from the comfort of your own home on March 3, then look no further than the Driller Promotions live web stream of “Downtown Showdown III” on SterlingMN.com.The event will take place at the downtown Hyatt in …
If you’re looking for some free MMA to watch from the comfort of your own home on March 3, then look no further than the Driller Promotions live web stream of “Downtown Showdown III” on SterlingMN.com.
The event will take place at the downtown Hyatt in Minneapolis. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. Central and limited tickets are still available to be purchased through Vitalculture.com. Tickets start at just $30 for this exciting event.
The fight card will feature a total of 12 professional and amateur fights including the main event between two of the area’s best when featherweights Matt Veal and Courtney Buck step into the cage.
A few other fights to note include the semi-main event featherweight bout between Mike Plazola and Dan Kiser, a 135-pound grudge match between Brandon Buchholz and Fred Freeman, and Andre “The Diva” Tieva’s professional debut as he battles fellow bantamweight Dan Wales.
John Castaneda will also defend his Driller Promotions lightweight amateur title against a very formidable opponent in Mitch Field.
Here is the final card:
PROFESSIONAL FIGHTS—
145 — Matt Veal (9-7) vs. Courtney Buck (10-5)
145 — Mike Plazola (14-8) vs. Dan Kiser (6-2)
155 — Derek Varin (3-0) vs. Chris McCalister (3-1)
150 — Stephen Watt (4-2) vs. Ben Locken (2-0)
135 — Dan Wales (2-3) vs. Andre Tieva (0-0)
135 — Brandon Buchholz (7-8) vs. Fred Freeman (2-0)
135 — Craig Early (5-6) vs. Floyd Hodges (10-4)
AMATEUR FIGHTS—
155 — Mitch Field (3-1) vs. John Castaneda (7-1)
170 — Branden Bell (5-2) vs. Cameron Gilliam (3-1)
135 — Zac Paletta (4-0) vs. Randy Lene (5-2)
170 — Kevin Rush (2-2) vs. Corwin Nichols (2-0)
180 — James Clark (6-3) vs. John Melina (1-1)
Those in the area should make their way down to the Hyatt in Minneapolis, as experiencing MMA live is a completely different experience than watching it at home. However, it is definitely great to see the technological advancements being put to good use in the MMA world.
Again, the event will stream live at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night, March 3, on SterlingMN.com.
Friday night hasn’t traditionally been associated with the UFC in America, but it was the one-night home for the promotion as they headed to Australia for UFC on FX 2: Alves vs. Kampmann. In addition to the welterweight main event, the fight ca…
Friday night hasn’t traditionally been associated with the UFC in America, but it was the one-night home for the promotion as they headed to Australia for UFC on FX 2: Alves vs. Kampmann.
In addition to the welterweight main event, the fight card also included the exciting start to the 125-pound flyweight division in the promotion in the form of a tournament. The first round of the tournament took place from Sydney with Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall getting things started and Joseph Benavidez and Yasuhiro Urushitani competing in the second bout just minutes later.
The official results are now in the book, but as always, there’s more to it than that. There were a couple controversial moments during the night and often times the official results don’t show those kind of things.
With that said, let’s take a closer look at the real winners and losers from Friday night’s fight card.
Saturday night’s Strikeforce main event between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey has been the talk of the MMA world this week, but there is another fight on the card that may hold just as much importance to the future of women’s MMA as the titl…
Saturday night’s Strikeforce main event between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey has been the talk of the MMA world this week, but there is another fight on the card that may hold just as much importance to the future of women’s MMA as the title fight does.
It just barely missed being featured on the main card, but the bantamweight bout between Alexis Davis and Sarah Kaufman brings the total to four of the top 10 female fighters in the sport competing on one night.
In the weeks leading up to the fights being announced, Davis and Kaufman both expressed desire to be the ones fighting for the title above Rousey, who has only fought twice for the promotion.
In the end it was Rousey who got the title fight, but Davis was certainly happy to receive her consolation prize in the form of a rematch with Kaufman.
“I thought the chances of me getting a title shot were few and far between,” Davis told Bleacher Report MMA. “But I’ve always been a fan of Sarah’s and this is a huge opportunity for me. It’s the next best thing.”
Kaufman handed Davis a loss in her professional debut, a fight in which she learned a lot about herself and the way her body reacted to the nerves of competing in front of an audience.
However, the length of time between that fight and the one on Saturday night means that there isn’t much she can take from her opponent’s fighting style.
“That fight was what? Five years ago now? It just seems like we’re two totally different fighters now,” Davis said. “I do remember that Sarah is very strong. She’s a very aggressive fighter and you can tell that from watching a lot of her videos. I’ve just got to play it smart.”
Playing it smart will be a big key because Kaufman is a bruiser who has absolutely battered countless opponents when they’ve made mistakes. As confident as she is in her own abilities, Davis understands that she is likely in for the toughest fight of her career.
“She’s the former champion of Strikeforce and not only that, but she’s one of the best in the world,” she said. “That’s the best part about fighting for Strikeforce. You get that opportunity to fight the best.”
The odds-makers have set Davis as around a +400 underdog for the fight, giving her another chance to star in a role that she has become very familiar playing.
“I love it. [Being the underdog] is kind of like my good-luck charm,” she laughed. “I’m always the underdog, so I don’t mind it at all. But it kind of makes me want to prove it. Like a, ‘Don’t count me out’ kind of thing.”
If Davis is able to overcome the odds and come out with a victory, she will likely be next in line to compete for the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight championship against the winner of the main event between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey.
While Davis wasn’t shocked to see herself as the underdog in her own fight, she was surprised to see that odds-makers had made the challenger, Rousey, a fairly significant favorite against Tate.
“I was a little surprised to hear that Ronda is the favorite,” Davis said. “I know Ronda has some great wins on her record, but this is a championship fight. It’s not a three-round fight, it’s not a one-round fight. We’ve never seen her out of the first round. I think [odds-makers] didn’t give Miesha enough credit.”
She’s not looking beyond her fight on Saturday, but when pressed on the issue, Davis did admit that she does have a preference on who her next opponent would be.
“I think I would rather fight Miesha just because I know she’s more well-rounded,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot more of her fights, so I can study her game, but I also think it’d be a good matchup between us.”
Regardless of who she fights next, Davis will be looking to make sure that the next time she steps into the cage, she’s competing for a title.
That all starts on Saturday night when she finally has the chance to avenge the first loss of her career on what could be the biggest fight card in the history of women’s MMA.
For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: @NicholasCaron.
A special Friday night UFC fight card featuring the welterweight bout between Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann will be beginning of the upcoming, action-packed MMA weekend. The event, which is the second full fight card to appear on FX, is part of th…
A special Friday night UFC fight card featuring the welterweight bout between Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann will be beginning of the upcoming, action-packed MMA weekend.
The event, which is the second full fight card to appear on FX, is part of the new deal that the UFC signed with FOX and its affiliates heading into 2012.
Friday fights have been a staple of boxing for quite some time, but due to the event’s location in Sydney, Australia, the UFC will be looking to break into the market by playing the event live in the United States on Friday night.
Here’s what you need to know…
PRELIMINARY CARD—
Where to watch: Fuel TV
When: 6:00pm EST
How: Check your local listings for availability.
MAIN CARD—
Where to watch: FX
When: 9:00pm EST
How: Check your local listings for availability.
For your convenience, Bleacher Report has also put together a list of the full fight card including the preliminary bouts on Fuel TV, the main card on FX and the non-televised preliminary fight.
Non-televised Heavyweight bout: Oli Thompson vs. Shawn Jordan
Preliminary card (Fuel TV) Featherweight bout: Mackens Semerzier vs. Daniel Pineda Welterweight bout: TJ Waldburger vs. Jake Hecht Middleweight bout: Kyle Noke vs. Andrew Craig Featherweight bout: Cole Miller vs. Steven Siler Light Heavyweight bout: Anthony Perosh vs. Nick Penner Light Heavyweight bout: James Te Huna vs. Aaron Rosa
Main card (FX) Middleweight bout: Court McGee vs. Constantinos Philippou Flyweight bout: Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall Flyweight bout: Joseph Benavidez vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani Welterweight bout: Thiago Alves vs. Martin Kampmann
Make sure you don’t miss this event as the 125-pound flyweights make their debut in the promotion in the first round of the four-man tournament!
For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: @NicholasCaron.
Once considered one of the most fearless, intense and unbelievably skilled fighters on the planet, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson seems to have struggled in some of his recent bouts. It’s not just in the cage, either. I…
Once considered one of the most fearless, intense and unbelievably skilled fighters on the planet, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson seems to have struggled in some of his recent bouts. It’s not just in the cage, either. It’s outside the cage when he should be preparing for his fights that he just does not seem to be putting in the same type of dedication that he used to.
At UFC 144, that lack of dedication came to a low point when he was defeated relatively easily by former The Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader.
“I’m disappointed,” he bluntly said. “I think Rampage is so talented. I just question whether he wants to do this anymore and have been since probably the A-Team movie.”
Jackson has never been a fan of training, even going as far as to say that he hates it at times. But never has he done what he did on Friday afternoon when he stepped on the scale a ridiculous six pounds overweight at 211 pounds for a bout at 205.
The Jackson camp claims that there was an injury that prevented him from making the target weight, but they did not inform Dana White of that any time prior to the day of the weigh-ins.
“I had no clue until the day of the weigh-ins. That’s when they told me,” White said.
After the loss, Jackson did speak to White for a brief moment, apologizing for what had happened both in the fight and at the weigh-ins.
“He said ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I want to fight again’ and ‘I’ll come back’ and ‘I want to be better’, so we’ll see what happens,” White said.
There has been some speculation as to whether there really was an injury or if Jackson just wasn’t taking this fight as seriously as some he has competed in before, just due to relative lack of name value of Bader.
Jackson has not confirmed this speculation, but the UFC president didn’t seem to disagree that it was a possibility.
“I HATE guys saying, ‘I’m not motivated for this fight.’ Well, you better get motivated because guess what – Ryan Bader’s motivated to kick your ass.”
And kick his ass, he did. Bader beat Jackson up for 15 minutes, out-striking him by a total throughout the bout of 109 to 30 according to FightMetric scoring. Bader also added four takedowns throughout the contest compared to just one from Jackson.
Rampage is always going to be looked at as one of the most entertaining fighters in the sport, but when the UFC president is calling someone out for a lack of motivation and desire to fight, it’s likely only to lead to one of two things. Either it’ll light a fire under him and inspire him to get back to taking things seriously, or he’ll take the complete opposite way and that might even be more interesting to see at this point.
Either way, these next few weeks and months could be very interesting for the fighting future of the former champion.
For more MMA news, fighter interviews and opinions, follow Nick Caron: @NicholasCaron.
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