The speculation has officially ended. After ruling out Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez and Mark Hunt as potential replacements for Alistair Overeem to fight heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, Dana White has officially announced his pick. Late last night, Dana White sent out a tweet confirming that Overeem’s replacement will be none other than…Frank Mir.
Huh. How about that?
While we’re all sure that there’s a reasonable explanation for Alistair Overeem’s suspiciously high 14:1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, the UFC aren’t taking any chances. Rather than waiting for Overeem to meet with the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday, “The Demolition Man” has been removed from the card entirely. Draw your own conclusions.
The speculation has officially ended. After ruling out Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez and Mark Hunt as potential replacements for Alistair Overeem to fight heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, Dana White has officially announced his pick. Late last night, Dana White sent out a tweet confirming that Overeem’s replacement will be none other than…Frank Mir.
Huh. How about that?
While we’re all sure that there’s a reasonable explanation for Alistair Overeem’s suspiciously high 14:1 testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio, the UFC aren’t taking any chances. Rather than waiting for Overeem to meet with the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday, “The Demolition Man” has been removed from the card entirely. Draw your own conclusions.
As for Frank Mir’s original opponent? Josh Gross is reporting Fabricio Werdum and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva are potential opponents for Cain Velasquez. For what it’s worth, Ariel Helwani is reporting that Fabricio Werdum has been ruled out as a potential opponent, and Velasquez will more than likely fight someone who already has a fight on the card. Basically, your guess is as good as ours at this point.
So what say you, Potato Nation? Will Mir vs. Dos Santos make for a compelling fight? What does this mean for Alistair Overeem? And for Cain Velasquez? Conspiracy theories, ad hominems and recklessly wild speculation to begin in three…two…one…
Well, you can now officially stop getting your hopes up. At the post-event press conference for UFC on FUEL 2, Dana White issued the following statement about the online rally (as transcribed by BJPenn.com):
Well, you can now officially stop getting your hopes up. At the post-event press conference for UFC on FUEL 2, Dana White issued the following statement about the online rally (as transcribed by BJPenn.com):
“They can keep rallying. It ain’t going to happen… I have apologized and praised Mark Hunt for what he’s accomplished in the situation he was in. And I think this fight with Struve is a good fight for him. If he beats Struve, he’ll break in and start fighting some of the top five heavyweights in the world. Anything can happen in a fight, but in all reality, it’s not fair to Mark Hunt either, to throw the guy right in there with Junior Dos Santos for a title shot. The guy worked his way up, he beats Struve, he fights somebody in the top five. I guarantee you this, he beats Struve, his next fight will be someone in the top five that can get him closer to that title shot.”
But this begs the question: Assuming that the NSAC doesn’t buy into a pre-packaged “testosterone deficiency/replacement therapy” excuse, who do you want to see fight Junior Dos Santos on such short notice? To demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have learned nothing from my own article, I have started a #RallyForWerdum campaign of my own. Your thoughts, Potato Nation.
Get used to seeing “The Great” on Cagepotato. Siyar Bahadurzada made UFC fans take notice with his impressive Knockout of the Night winning debut against the always game Paulo Thiago, pocketing a cool $50k for the quick performance. Get used to not only seeing more of The Great’s fights, but also us referring to him as The Great as often as possible. Bahadurzada is a long name to type.
On a card stacked with submission finishes, Submission of the Night was a highly competitive bonus that ended up going to John Maguire for his beautiful armbar over DaMarques Johnson. Johnson attempted to put away Maguire with a kimura, but as Johnson overcommitted, Maguire countered with the fight ending armbar. Maguire improves to 18-3, and has now won seven straight fights.
Get used to seeing “The Great” on Cagepotato. Siyar Bahadurzada made UFC fans take notice with his impressive Knockout of the Night winning debut against the always game Paulo Thiago, pocketing a cool $50k for the quick performance. Get used to not only seeing more of The Great’s fights, but also us referring to him as The Great as often as possible. Bahadurzada is a long name to type.
On a card stacked with submission finishes, Submission of the Night was a highly competitive bonus that ended up going to John Maguire for his beautiful armbar over DaMarques Johnson. Johnson attempted to put away Maguire with a kimura, but as Johnson overcommitted, Maguire countered with the fight ending armbar. Maguire improves to 18-3, and has now won seven straight fights.
One final note, Fight of the Night honors went to Brad Pickett and Damacio Page for their back-and-forth tilt that kicked off the main card. Page succumbed to a second round rear-naked choke, marking his third straight loss under Zuffa. While Fight of the Night honors may save him from being cut from the UFC, six out of seven of Page’s career losses have come by submission. Page needs to stop being submitted if he wants to get back into the limelight at bantamweight. Meanwhile, Pickett has picked up his second Fight of the Night bonus in as many UFC bouts. His debut with the organization saw him lose to Renan Barao by first round rear-naked choke at UFC 138.
Before I even begin to analyze this card, let’s get a few things out of the way: No, there were not as many decisions on this card as last week’s smothering performances; the main event ended by submission. No, the card overall was not comparable to a ProElite event, although there was a light sparring session thrown in with the fights that we could have done without. Simply put, the main card of Bellator 65 brought a lot of decisions, but was overall an entertaining event.
The evening kicked off with the opening bouts of the season six bantamweight tournament. The first bout saw Marcos Galvao outwork Ed West on his way to a unanimous decision victory. West attempted to keep Galvao outside with kicks throughout the fight, but Galvao was able to consistently take West down and avoid submission attempts. When the fight would find its way back to the feet, Marcos Galvao threw flying knees and hard rights to win over the judges, 30-27 on all scorecards.
As for the other opening bout of the bantamweight tournament- it happened. That’s about all there is to say about Luis Nogueira vs. Alexis Vila. In a fight that saw very little action, Nogueira managed to avoid Vila’s wild strikes throughout the first round and take Vila’s back. And that’s about it; neither fighter landed anything of significance for the rest of the bout, although Vila was more active than Nogueira for the rest of the fight. Controversial decision? If there was more action, maybe. But since Vila’s offensive output was equally non-existent, it’s hard to say that either fighter deserved a victory.
Before I even begin to analyze this card, let’s get a few things out of the way: No, there were not as many decisions on this card as last week’s smothering performances; the main event ended by submission. No, the card overall was not comparable to a ProElite event, although there was a light sparring session thrown in with the fights that we could have done without. Simply put, the main card of Bellator 65 brought a lot of decisions, but was overall an entertaining event.
The evening kicked off with the opening bouts of the season six bantamweight tournament. The first bout saw Marcos Galvao outwork Ed West on his way to a unanimous decision victory. West attempted to keep Galvao outside with kicks throughout the fight, but Galvao was able to consistently take West down and avoid submission attempts. When the fight would find its way back to the feet, Marcos Galvao threw flying knees and hard rights to win over the judges, 30-27 on all scorecards.
As for the other opening bout of the bantamweight tournament- it happened. That’s about all there is to say about Luis Nogueira vs. Alexis Vila. In a fight that saw very little action, Nogueira managed to avoid Vila’s wild strikes throughout the first round and take Vila’s back. And that’s about it; neither fighter landed anything of significance for the rest of the bout, although Vila was more active than Nogueira for the rest of the fight. Controversial decision? If there was more action, maybe. But since Vila’s offensive output was equally non-existent, it’s hard to say that either fighter deserved a victory.
In the featherweight tournament semifinals, Daniel Straus picked up a unanimous decision over Mike Corey, despite having Corey in danger early and often throughout the fight. Mike Corey fought zombie-style against Straus, walking through Straus’ offense in an attempt to bring the fight to the ground. Straus was clearly tired and frustrated by the end of the fight, spitting out his mouthpiece in an effort to buy time.
This isn’t to say that Straus didn’t impress; as hard as Corey worked for the takedown, he was only successful with one takedown attempt. Straus improves to 5-1 in Bellator and 19-4 overall with the victory.
In the evening’s main event, Eduardo Dantas proved his legitimacy in the bantamweight division with a dominant victory over bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky. Makovsky found early success with his takedowns, yet was unable to do much of anything in Dantas’ guard. Meanwhile, Dantas had Makovsky looking timid on his feet, catching the champion with hard kicks throughout the opening frame.
Dantas continued to press the action in the second round, capitalizing on a Makovsky takedown with a reversal and eventually mounting the champion. Once Dantas earned full mount, the fight was all but over. Dantas set up an arm-triangle choke that put Makovsky to sleep, winning the bantamweight title. Dantas improves to 14-2 overall, including a 4-0 run in Bellator.
One final note: Lyman Good has qualified for next season’s welterweight tournament. Rather than attempt to describe his fight, let’s just show you the video. It won’t take long.
Full Results:
Main Card
Eduardo Dantas def. Zach Makovsky via submission (arm-triangle choke) – Round 2, 3:26
Daniel Straus def. Mike Corey via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) featherweight-tournament semifinal
Luis Nogueira def. Alexis Vila via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) – bantamweight-tournament opening round
Marcos Galvao def. Ed West via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) – bantamweight-tournament opening round
Preliminary Card
Duane Bastress def. Plinio Cruz via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 2:52
Will Martinez def. Terrell Hobbs via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 4:13
Scott Heckman def. Lester Caslow via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 1, 3:40 Kris McCray def. Ailton Barbosa via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Lyman Good def. LeVon Maynard via KO (punch) – Round 1, 0:13 – welterweight-tournament qualifier
E.J. Brooks def. Mikhail Malyutin via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Skip to the 19:55 mark of the video for the KO. Props: IronForgesIron.com
Imagine you wake up from a devistating spinning backfist knockout. You’re already pretty confused as it is, and now you’re finding out that you lost your fight by…unanimous decision? That’s how it feels to be Daniel Acacio, who met Pete Spratt at Amazon Forest Combat 2 last night.
Before anyone else points it out, you’re right: this technically isn’t a knockout. Spratt, who is no stranger to winning Knockout of the Day honors, landed the spinning backfist that caught Acacio right on the chin as the horn sounded for the end of the fight. So technically, this isn’t a knockout, and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, who all saw the fight in Spratt’s favor. So yes, this is technically “Unanimous Decision of the Day”- because I’m sure it matters to Acacio’s remaining brain cells and all.
Skip to the 19:55 mark of the video for the KO. Props: IronForgesIron.com
Imagine you wake up from a devistating spinning backfist knockout. You’re already pretty confused as it is, and now you’re finding out that you lost your fight by…unanimous decision? That’s how it feels to be Daniel Acacio, who met Pete Spratt at Amazon Forest Combat 2 last night.
Before anyone else points it out, you’re right: this technically isn’t a knockout. Spratt, who is no stranger to winning Knockout of the Day honors, landed the spinning backfist that caught Acacio right on the chin as the horn sounded for the end of the fight. So technically, this isn’t a knockout, and the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, who all saw the fight in Spratt’s favor. So yes, this is technically “Unanimous Decision of the Day”- because I’m sure it matters to Acacio’s remaining brain cells and all.
Aftermath of the riot. Videos of the riot after the jump.
While you were up last night planning your totally original “My girlfriend is pregnant” Facebook post, our friends across the pond were trading punches at a Lockdown MMA event. Unfortunately, the action wasn’t confined to just the cage, as unruly fans decided to ignore live event etiquette and fight among themselves. And when British people actually ignore etiquette, my god do they ignore etiquette.
This wasn’t your “Drunk, Affliction wearing fauxhawk guy trades telegraphed haymakers with drunk, Silver Star wearing tribal tattoo guy” brawl that you occasionally see at live events. This was a full blown riot that saw fans throwing bottles and chairs at each other for several minutes. Fortunately, a Cagepotato reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) tipped us off as to what started the riot, which is available after the jump.
Aftermath of the riot. Videos of the riot after the jump.
While you were up last night planning your totally original “My girlfriend is pregnant” Facebook post, our friends across the pond were trading punches at a Lockdown MMA event. Unfortunately, the action wasn’t confined to just the cage, as unruly fans decided to ignore live event etiquette and fight among themselves. And when British people actually ignore etiquette, my god do they ignore etiquette.
This wasn’t your “Drunk, Affliction wearing fauxhawk guy trades telegraphed haymakers with drunk, Silver Star wearing tribal tattoo guy” brawl that you occasionally see at live events. This was a full blown riot that saw fans throwing bottles and chairs at each other for several minutes. Fortunately, a Cagepotato reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) tipped us off as to what started the riot, which is available after the jump.
Having found this I now know that the promotion’s owner (Will Burke) is also a coach at Manchester Predators, unfortunately for him the main group of offenders last night trained with/were supporting….Manchester Predators!
Will quotes ‘This is not an ordinary MMA show – Lockdown plan on bringing something fresh to the table in 2012 and provide something you will never forget’. And this was true but for all the wrong reasons.
At a guess I’d say there were around 250 people watching (as usual 95% male audience 5% plastic over-tanned WAGS).
The violence just erupted when John Mann from Daywalkers MMA dominated his fight from start to his Guillotine finish in the 2nd. Chairs and bottles started being thrown and the whole place just emptied apart from 30 lads and bouncers beating the s**t out if each other.
Each time it seemed to calm down something sparked it back up again. It only stopped when the police arrived and most of the lads smashed through the fire exit to escape.
By the way, our reader censored “shit”, not us. Classy.
And now for one last picture of the aftermath.
UPDATE: Lockdown MMA has released a statement about the incident on their Facebook page:
Thanks to everyone who helped build and run the show last night. I can only apologise for the unfortunate early end to the show due to a few drunken yobs who decided to ruin it for everybody. Those involved should be utterly ashamed not just for last night, but for being such inferior and unfortunate human beings. Thankfully nobody was hurt, nevertheless there will be a lot of changes to the next …event to ensure that this NEVER happens again. I am especially upset for James Adamson, Dave Toole, Ashley Herrett and Rick Lawanson whose months of hard work was shamefully destroyed by events last night, I can only apologise as I know how gutted you all are after all the months of work you had put in. Will
