After a United Nations convention in Rio forced the UFC to change the original venue, the UFC announced that UFC 147 will still take place on June 23 in Brazil. Specifically, Estádio Jornalista Felipe Drumond – commonly refered to as the “Mineirinho” Arena – in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais will house the event.
Mineirinho Arena is the largest indoor arena in Brazil, capable of holding 25,000 people at full capacity.
Needless to say, the UFC is pretty excited about booking the venue. In a press release sent out by the UFC, UFC Managing Director of International Development Marshall Zelaznik issued the following statement: “It is great for our fans and for the UFC to be able to stage events in new parts of Brazil. The UFC is exploding everywhere in the country and Minas Gerais, being the third biggest state in the country, seemed like the perfect place for this.”
UFC 147 will mark the first time that the promotion held an event in Brazil outside of Rio de Janeiro since UFC Brazil was held in Sao Paulo on October 16, 1998.
Let the speculation over UFC 147′s location end.
After a United Nations convention in Rio forced the UFC to change the original venue, the UFC announced that UFC 147 will still take place on June 23 in Brazil. Specifically, Estádio Jornalista Felipe Drumond – commonly referred to as the “Mineirinho” Arena – in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais will house the event.
Mineirinho Arena is the largest indoor arena in Brazil, capable of holding 25,000 people at full capacity.
Needless to say, the UFC is pretty excited about booking the venue. In a press release sent out by the UFC, UFC Managing Director of International Development Marshall Zelaznik issued the following statement: “It is great for our fans and for the UFC to be able to stage events in new parts of Brazil. The UFC is exploding everywhere in the country and Minas Gerais, being the third biggest state in the country, seemed like the perfect place for this.”
UFC 147 will mark the first time that the promotion held an event in Brazil outside of Rio de Janeiro since UFC Brazil was held in Sao Paulo on October 16, 1998.
Unsurprisingly, the event will be heavy on Brazilian talent. With Silva vs. Sonnen II being moved to UFC 148, UFC 147 will now be headlined by a fight between TUF Brazil coaches Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva. The pair initially met at the aforementioned UFC Brazil, as Vitor Belfort knocked out Wanderlei Silva in only 44 seconds. A heavyweight bout between Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow, as well as the Middleweight and Featherweight Tournament finales from TUF Brazil, are also officially a go for UFC 147.
Coach Dominick Cruz and his coaches are giddy on how good they think James Vick will be. At one point they are off in a corner of the gym almost snickering at how no one but them knows how good the lanky young fighter is.
“He’s making it to the finals,” Cruz says.
Cruz says that Vick listens well and is an open book.
Dana White comes in and for some reason is the one to make the announcement that Cruz has torn his ACL and is out of the fight with Faber, though he will stay on as coach. We all knew at this point that Cruz had injured himself this week, but I guess I expected that this week’s episode would have footage and put a little more drama into it.
It is just as well because we need all the time we can get for tonight’s two matchups of Cruz’ James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Faber’s Mike Chiesa.
Coach Dominick Cruz and his coaches are giddy on how good they think James Vick will be. At one point they are off in a corner of the gym almost snickering at how no one but them knows how good the lanky young fighter is.
“He’s making it to the finals,” Cruz says.
Cruz says that Vick listens well and is an open book.
Dana White comes in and for some reason is the one to make the announcement that Cruz has torn his ACL and is out of the fight with Faber, though he will stay on as coach. We all knew at this point that Cruz had injured himself this week, but I guess I expected that this week’s episode would have footage and put a little more drama into it.
It is just as well because we need all the time we can get for tonight’s two matchups of Cruz’ James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Faber’s Mike Chiesa.
Fight Time!
Proctor vs. Vick
Rd 1
Vick backs up Proctor with jab and left kick feints for a minute then lands a one-two-three to the body combo. More feints and pawing jabs from Vick as he stalks Proctor.
At just under a minute, Proctor shoots in for a double leg takedown but gets stuffed by Vick. Proctor lands a clean over hand right to Vick’s chin.
Vick forces a Thai plum and lands knees to the body and his own overhand right. Vick lands an uppercut, Proctor lands a cross, hook combo. Vick responds with his own cross that lands. Proctor fires back, lands and Vick hits back with a head kick that is mostly blocked.
Vick lands a right cross from a distance, using his reach. Proctor comes in closer, throws a body kick but is countered with a left hook. Another uppercut from Vick lands. Proctor lands a straight cross, Vick swings and misses with a head kick.
Rd 2
Vick keeping Proctor at the end of his long arms with feints. And a left body kick and left jab.
Proctor shoots in and gets a big slam but Vick stands right back up. Proctor grabs hold of Vick’s next from the side with a rear-naked choke type grip, Vick defends and gets a single leg takedown – landing in side mount.
Vick looks indecisive and uncomfortable from the side mount and stands up, letting Proctor go. Proctor lands a nice right hand to the face. Vick lands an uppercut to the head and two knees to the body.
Proctor counters an uppercut from Vick with a straight cross with thirty seconds left. Proctor finally making Vick pay for keeping his hands so low and lands two more right crosses.
–
Decision time!
Vick wins both rounds on all judges’ scorecards. “I feel like everything is coming together for me at the right time.”
Fight Time!
Chiesa vs. Lawrence
Rd 1
Lots of feints and then the young Lawrence begins making mistakes. First, he throws a head kick with no set up at the wrestler Chiesa, who uses that to slam him onto the ground. Lawrence snaps back up to his feet where he is pressed up against the cage by Chiesa.
From there, Lawrence turns and gives up his back while trying to escape, gets taken down with Chiesa on his back. Lawrence successfully turns into Chiesa and puts him on his back, in full guard.
Chiesa shoots his hips up for an armbar attempt. Lawrence stands and defends. Chiesa slaps on a triangle attempt and again Lawrence defends. He is in Chiesa’s half guard now, raining punches down.
Chiesa recomposes to the full guard and locks it up high. From the full guard Chiesa throws non-stop combinations of sweep, keylock and guillotine attempts at Lawrence, who defends. Lawrence backs Chiesa up on the fence but Chiesa manages to throw another triangle attempt on with under one minute left. Chiesa throws elbows to Lawrence’s head from the triangle position until the horn sounds.
Rd 2.
Lawrence comes out with a body kick and almost gets taken down again for it. Coach Cruz immediately begins yelling out that he should use “boxing only” on his feet to avoid making Chiesa’s job of taking him down easier.
Lawrence doesn’t and immediately throws a head kick. Now Lawrence is swinging with his fists – he lands a big overhand right and then a left hook that stuns Chiesa. Lawrence lands another left hook but follows up with a body kick that Chiesa grabs and nearly takes him down with again.
Lawrence frees himself up and Cruz yells out that he throw no more kicks. Lawrence lands another big overhand right, followed by a left hook-overhand right combo to the head of Chiesa.
Chiesa throws a double jab, Lawrence backs straight up, and the second jab lands. Chiesa throws a spinning reverse elbow but Lawrence closes the distance, jams him up and the elbow doesn’t land. Chiesa throws and lands a flying knee to the head of Lawrence.
Lawrence is finding his range now, mixing up head and body punches in combos. One body shot lands flush and drops Chiesa to the mat, face first!
Lawrence follows up and throws punches at the turtled-up Chiesa. Lawrence then chooses to grab the torso of the downed Chiesa, giving Mike a chance to go for a submission.
Chiesa grabs ahold of Lawrence’s left arm and torques a keylock. Lawrence stands and defends. Lawrence back in Chiesa’s full guard. Chiesa lands elbows, Lawrence stands with five seconds left and throws punches. The horn sounds.
Dana White is in the cage, announces that we are going to a sudden death victory round three!
Rd 3
Chiesa throws a knee, Lawrence grabs it and slams him to the mat. Lawrence is in Chiesa’s full guard. Chiesa sits up and sweeps Lawrence over.
Chiesa is in mount and begins raining down punches on Lawrence. Lawrence covers up but makes no attempt to escape and most of Chiesa’s punches get through.
The referee stops the bout one minute into the third round. The gym erupts in cheers and hooting from Team Faber.
Chiesa tells Jon Anik that this was the toughest fight of his career.
As expected, it was a great idea to pit two heavyweight knock out artists against one another for the Fox audience. Lavar Johnson and Pat Barry swung for the fences and beat the tar out of each other for almost a whole round before Johnson stopped Barry with punches.
Johnson now has two consecutive entertaining UFC wins under his belt, after back to back Strikeforce submission losses. He’ll likely get at least a couple more style-friendly sluggers to duke it out with from the UFC since he’s performed so well against them thus far.
Barry’s situation may be a little more complicated. The former K-1 fighter always brings it in his fights, is fan-friendly and has some big wins on his resume. But he’s also now lost three out of his last four fights and five out of his last eight. One would imagine he’ll get at least some more fights from the UFC given that he won his prior fight and how exciting he was, even in defeat, against Johnson.
As expected, it was a great idea to pit two heavyweight knock out artists against one another for the Fox audience. Lavar Johnson and Pat Barry swung for the fences and beat the tar out of each other for almost a whole round before Johnson stopped Barry with punches.
Johnson now has two consecutive entertaining UFC wins under his belt, after back to back Strikeforce submission losses. He’ll likely get at least a couple more style-friendly sluggers to duke it out with from the UFC since he’s performed so well against them thus far.
Barry’s situation may be a little more complicated. The former K-1 fighter always brings it in his fights, is fan-friendly and has some big wins on his resume. But he’s also now lost three out of his last four fights and five out of his last eight. One would imagine he’ll get at least some more fights from the UFC given that he won his prior fight and how exciting he was, even in defeat, against Johnson.
Alan Belcher may have just capped the stealthiest rise to title contender in the UFC with his first round TKO win over Rousimar Palhares. Belcher defended a flurry of leg-lock attempts from Palhares expertly, allowing his He-Man shaped opponent to gas out, before putting on a ground striking clinic and finishing the fight himself.
Belcher has only lost one time since September of 2008, and that was a controversial decision to Yoshihiro Akiyama. He’s now piled up four consecutive finishes against solid competition and, short of Chael Sonnen, Mark Munoz and Hector Lombard, there are not many other names other than Belcher’s to consider as #1 middleweight contender.
We got exactly what we could have expected out of the matchup between former NCAA Division I wrestling national champions Josh Koscheck and Johny Hendricks – a wild slug fest. Top wrestlers like Koscheck, Hendricks and Dan Henderson often carry with them nasty one-punch natural knockout power, which they typically wield with reckless abandon. After all, they don’t usually have to worry about being taken down no matter how much they over extend themselves on strikes.
That’s what we saw with Hendricks and Koscheck. They each threw nothing but power shots, in spurts, in between mostly failed takedown attempts. Koscheck appeared to hurt Hendricks in the first round, but Hendricks landed nearly twice as many total strikes as Koscheck, including big uppercuts and straight lefts that landed flush, didn’t seem to face Koscheck, but left the right side of his face swollen badly.
In the end, two judges saw it for Hendricks and one for Koscheck. The fight was close but since Koscheck was gifted a decision over Mike Pierce in his last outing, you can’t feel too badly for the recently liberated long time American Kickboxing Academy fighter.
The good news for Koscheck is that he looked like his old self against Hendricks, after seeming flat against Pierce. Also, the dude has a plane, so, you know…it’s all good.
With as crowded and muddled as the talent-heavy lightweight division title picture is these days, some might have wondered if Dana White’s pre-fight statement that Nate Diaz would get a title shot if he beat fellow contender Jim miller was premature or dubious in its logic. But after beating Miller via second round guillotine submission, Diaz has three consecutive wins over former champs or top contenders.
What’s more is that Diaz beat Miller so emphatically and decisively. Miller is not an easy man to stop, in fact, Diaz is the first person to do so.
No one can say that they wouldn’t want to see the volatile and exciting Diaz take his pin-point striking and nasty submissions and challenge Frankie Edgar or Benson Henderson at this point.
To put it mildly, I’ve been skeptical about Bellator’s non-title fights in the past. They’ve all been total squash fights, and light-heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu actually managed to lose his against Travis Wiuff back at Bellator 55. Last night didn’t exactly make me a believer in non-title fights, but I won’t act like I wasn’t impressed with lightweight champion Michael Chandler after his performance against Akihiro Gono.
Chandler followed up his brilliant fourth round rear-naked choke over Eddie Alvarez back at Bellator 58 with a quick TKO over Akihiro Gono. After catching Gono early with a straight right, Chandler pounced on a stunned Gono and rained down punches until he earned the stoppage. Michael Chandler improves to 10-0 overall, with six fights ending in the first round.
At the post-fight press conference, Akihiro Gono announced his retirement from MMA. Gono has lost three fights in a row, and his record now stands at 32-18-7. His most recent victory was a unanimous decision over Diego Gonzalez at Sengoku 12 in March 2010. While it’s never easy to watch an icon of the sport retire, it’s even harder to watch him continue to lose. Thanks for the memories, Magic Man.
To put it mildly, I’ve been skeptical about Bellator’s non-title fights in the past. They’ve all been total squash fights, and light-heavyweight champion Christian M’Pumbu actually managed to lose his against Travis Wiuff back at Bellator 55. Last night didn’t exactly make me a believer in non-title fights, but I won’t act like I wasn’t impressed with lightweight champion Michael Chandler after his performance against Akihiro Gono.
Chandler followed up his brilliant fourth round rear-naked choke over Eddie Alvarez back at Bellator 58 with a quick TKO over Akihiro Gono. After catching Gono early with a straight right, Chandler pounced on a stunned Gono and rained down punches until he earned the stoppage. Michael Chandler improves to 10-0 overall, with six fights ending in the first round.
At the post-fight press conference, Akihiro Gono announced his retirement from MMA. Gono has lost three fights in a row, and his record now stands at 32-18-7. His most recent victory was a unanimous decision over Diego Gonzalez at Sengoku 12 in March 2010. While it’s never easy to watch an icon of the sport retire, it’s even harder to watch him continue to lose. Thanks for the memories, Magic Man.
In Welterweight Tournament action, Bryan Baker survived an early salvo from UFC veteran Ben Saunders to pick up a unanimous decision victory. Saunders appeared to have Baker in trouble early, attempting numerous submissions, including a flying triangle and a triangle transitioned into an armbar that appeared to have Baker locked up. However, Baker defended the submission attempts from Saunders well, and found success with his takedowns throughout the rest of the fight.
Surprisingly, not only did Baker earn numerous takedowns throughout the fight, but he also got the better of many of the standup exchanges as well. Saunders managed to find success in the clinch, but in the end, it wasn’t enough to earn the victory. Baker improves to 18-3 overall, and will meet the winner of Karl Amoussou vs. David Rickels in order to determine who gets the next shot at Bellator Welterweight champion Ben Askren.
Also of note, the Ontario, Canada crowd was treated to a victory from Canadian fan-favorite Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford. Ford earned a second round TKO over the always game Luis Santos. After getting rocked early, Ford crumbled Santos with a brutal knee to the body and kept punching until he earned the stoppage. Ford improves to 18-4, with only one victory coming by way of decision.
And oh yeah, a heavyweight bout between Damian Grabowski and Dave Huckaba happened. Grabowski won by unanimous decision. Trust me, that’s all you need to know.
Full Results:
Main Card:
Michael Chandler def. Akihiro Gono via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 0:56
Bryan Baker def. Ben Saunders via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Ryan Ford def. Luis “Sapo” Santos via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 1:24
Damian Grabowski def. Dave Huckaba via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Preliminary Card:
Will Romero def. Matt Veal via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:25
David “Bo” Harris def. Nick Kirk via (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Cosmo Alexander def. Lorawnt-T Nelson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Nordine Taleb def. Matt MacGrath via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:30
Dom O’Grady def. Nathan Gunn via submission (armbar) – Round 2, 4:51
“Whoooooaaaa…says here this thing is a ‘Rousimar Palhares’. We’re already legally dead.”
Yesterday, while you were making terrible Star Wars jokes and/or mourning the death of MCA, lawmakers in “The Green Mountain State” were busy passing a bill to regulate the sport of mixed martial arts. Vermont is now the 46th state in the United States to regulate our sport.
My initial reaction to this news was probably the same as yours: “That’s nice.” Our second reactions were probably also pretty similiar: Damn, New York. You let the state known for its organic-granola crunching, Birkenstock wearing hippies regulate MMA before you did. Get your shit together. For real this time.
“Vermont’s legislation of the sport of MMA is further evidence of the continued growth and success of our sport in this country,” said UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. “We are pleased that fans in Vermont will now have the opportunity to watch a live UFC event in their own backyard, and look forward to making that happen.”
“Whoooooaaaa…says here this thing is a ‘Rousimar Palhares‘. We’re already legally dead.”
Yesterday, while you were making terrible Star Wars jokes and/or mourning the death of MCA, lawmakers in “The Green Mountain State” were busy passing a bill to regulate the sport of mixed martial arts. Vermont is now the 46th state in the United States to regulate our sport.
My initial reaction to this news was probably the same as yours: Vermont isn’t exactly the biggest state in the union, but it’s always great to see a state start regulating MMA. Our second reactions were probably also pretty similiar: Damn, New York. You let the state known for its organic-granola crunching, Birkenstock wearing hippies regulate MMA before you did. Get your shit together. For real this time.
“Vermont’s legislation of the sport of MMA is further evidence of the continued growth and success of our sport in this country,” said UFC Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta. “We are pleased that fans in Vermont will now have the opportunity to watch a live UFC event in their own backyard, and look forward to making that happen.”
You have to appreciate the optimism, but where exactly will a live UFC event be held in the state of Vermont? Vermont’s most prestigious professional sports team is a Single A baseball team called the Vermont Lake Monsters. Vermont’s biggest stadium, Centennial Field, holds 5,000 people. It’s largest indoor arena, Gutterson Fieldhouse, barely holds 4,000 people. Even the smallest, least interesting UFC cards should expect more than 4,000 people.
I’m personally thinking that Bellator is far more likely to visit Vermont before the UFC does, but I’ve been wrong before.
Of the 48 states with the necessary regulatory bodies to oversee mixed martial arts (I’m not surprised, Alaska and Montana, but I am still very disappointed), only New York and Connecticut do not currently regulate MMA. You’re back on the clock, New York. Try not to screw up this time.
Props: Supersindo.kr. Picture of Kang in action available after the jump.
I don’t know how to break this to you, so I’ll just be blunt about it: Remember when a victory over Denis Kang actually meant something? Yeah, those days have traveled the same road as Pepsi Jazz. After a disappointing 1-2 run in the UFC, “The Super Korean” has gone 2-3-1, which includes his current three fight losing streak.
And now, the once dominant PRIDE middleweight is competing on this season of Korea’s Dancing with the Stars.
If you’re wondering how the Korean DWtS differs from the American version (you aren’t, but play along), Director Shin Myeong-hoon recently told The Korea Heraldthat their version “will focus more on dancesport (competitive ballroom dancing), which has its own fan base.”
Granted, I’m not exactly a dance critic. In fact, I didn’t even know competitive ballroom dancing was a thing until that last sentence. But from the looks of this picture from last night’s episode, Denis Kang is about to suffer a loss far less dignified than his recent loss to Jesse Taylor:
Props: Supersindo.kr. Picture of Kang in action available after the jump.
I don’t know how to break this to you, so I’ll just be blunt about it: Remember when a victory over Denis Kang actually meant something? Yeah, those days have traveled the same road as Pepsi Jazz. After a disappointing 1-2 run in the UFC, “The Super Korean” has gone 2-3-1, which includes his current three fight losing streak.
And now, the once dominant PRIDE middleweight is competing on this season of Korea’s Dancing with the Stars.
If you’re wondering how the Korean DWtS differs from the American version (you aren’t, but play along), Director Shin Myeong-hoon recently told The Korea Heraldthat their version “will focus more on dancesport (competitive ballroom dancing), which has its own fan base.”
Granted, I’m not exactly a dance critic. In fact, I didn’t even know competitive ballroom dancing was a thing until that last sentence. But from the looks of this picture from last night’s episode, Denis Kang is about to suffer a loss far less dignified than his recent loss to Jesse Taylor:
So what say you, comments section? Does Denis Kang last longer on DWtSthan Chuck Liddell did? That’s a match that Kang might be able to win.
