UFC on FOX 17 is official for Dec. 19 at the Amway Center in Orlando, FL, the UFC announced Wednesday on UFC Tonight.
Without a year-end pay-per-view to follow it, the card is expected to be the final UFC show of 2015.
UFC on FOX 17 marks th…
UFC on FOX 17 is official for Dec. 19 at the Amway Center in Orlando, FL, the UFC announced Wednesday on UFC Tonight.
Without a year-end pay-per-view to follow it, the card is expected to be the final UFC show of 2015.
Ronda Rousey was named the eighth-highest earning female athlete in the world in a recent study conducted by Forbes.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champion was the lone combat sports competitor to grace the list, breaking into the top-10…
Ronda Rousey was named the eighth-highest earning female athlete in the world in a recent study conducted by Forbes.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champion was the lone combat sports competitor to grace the list, breaking into the top-10 with estimated “salary, winnings, appearances, licensing and endorsements” earnings of $6.5 million from June 2014 to June 2015.
Rousey (12-0) saw her stock skyrocket over the study’s 12-month window, propelled in large part by a pair of victories in a combined 30 seconds of fight time. Rousey defended her UFC title with a stunning 16-second knockout of Alexis Davis in July 2014, then topped herself with an even more ridiculous 14-second submission of Cat Zingano in Feb. 2015.
The latter victory over Zingano cemented Rousey as a legitimate pay-per-view star. Despite its relatively lackluster undercard, UFC 184 sold nearly 600,000 estimated buys — a number that, had it come just two months earlier, would have made it the highest-selling pay-per-view of 2014.
Forbes estimated that Rousey drew $3 million in fight earnings and $3.5 million in endorsement earnings over the course of the study. Within that time frame, Rousey appeared in three big budget films — The Expendables 3, Fast and Furious 7, and Entourage — and landed endorsement campaigns with Reebok, Metro PCS, Monster headphones, and Buffalo David Bitton, among others.
Rousey’s latest title defense, a dramatic 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia at UFC 190, is expected to be the highest-selling UFC pay-per-view thus far in 2015, with a final buyrate that may approach seven figures. The performance, coupled with an increase in attention from mainstream audiences, vaulted Rousey into a level of fame that is rare to see in mixed martial arts.
She announced a new ad campaign with fast food chain Carl’s Jr. following the Correia fight. She also inked a deal with Paramount Pictures to produce and star in a film based around her best-selling autography, My Fight/Your Fight, along with landing a future role on the Mark Wahlberg led Mile 22.
Rousey is undefeated in her mixed martial arts career and has yet to be taken past the third round. She has defended her UFC title six straight times, with the last four of those title defenses ending in 66 seconds or less. Her next fight is unannounced as of this writing, but is expected to be a third date with former Strikeforce titleholder Miesha Tate.
Tennis star Maria Sharapova topped Forbes’ list, totaling earnings of $29.7 million. Rousey was one of just three non-tennis players to make it into the top-10, joining NASCAR driver Danica Patrick (No. 4) and golfer Stacy Lewis (No. 9).
Diego Sanchez’s career has been one long, meandering road when it comes to the scales. He debuted in the UFC a decade ago, winning The Ultimate Fighter 1 as a blown-up middleweight. Since then he’s rotated between welterweight and lightweight to varying degrees of success, even making a memorable run to a title shot at 155 pounds.
But now he’s readying to do something that’s only been done once before in the UFC: drop down to featherweight and test the waters in his fourth different weight class.
“That’s where the sport has gone right now,” Sanchez said Monday on The MMA Hour. “Everybody is cutting weight. I see 155-pounders who are big. These guys are big. Even just seeing Nate Diaz in real life, he’s a guy, he’s big. He looks 180-190, maybe even 200 pounds. So for me, I’m like, well, I’m tired of being the small guy. I want to be the big guy. I want to be the guy with more power. I want to be the guy with better wrestling.”
Sanchez (25-7) is listed at 5-foot-10 with a 72-inch reach, so while he isn’t the biggest lightweight out there, he’s also far from the smallest. Only one other person in UFC history has attempted the same feat Sanchez is attempting, and that’s TUF 1 castmate Kenny Florian.
Florian was also listed at 5-foot-10, and his 2011 experiment left him with mixed results — he was able to secure a title shot at featherweight, but he ultimately lost to 145-pound champion Jose Aldo. In retrospect, Florian has described the weight cut to featherweight as one of the worst experiences of his life. His body failed him in the hours before the Aldo fight, leaving him ill-prepared for the five-round war he waged against the Brazilian.
But Florian’s experience aside, Sanchez is encouraged by the trends he sees around him, including one that’s seen lightweights like Jeremy Stephens drop down and achieve quick success at 145 pounds.
“I see all these long, strong wrestlers, like Luke Rockhold, Jon Jones — they’re wrestlers but they’re long,” Sanchez said. “They have long distance, long reach. And for me, my whole career — I started at 185, I dropped to 170, I fought most of my career at 170 — even at 155, I feel like I just have always been the smaller guy. A smaller, shorter guy playing the same gameplan, trying to get inside of the long reach and get people down to the ground.
“And all in all, the real truth is, when I saw Conor McGregor drop down to 145, the guy is my size, if not bigger. Straight up. The guy is my size, if not bigger. And I was like, wow, look at this guy, he’s holding a huge size advantage going into all of his fights. He has the reach. He has the leverage. It just made sense. To be able to see someone my size do it and do it effectively and do it correctly, it just made sense for me to do it.”
While Sanchez is 2-3 over his last five fights, he very well could have been 0-5 if his controversial decision wins over Takanori Gomi and Ross Pearson had gone the other way. He remains a big name though, largely because of his pass successes and penchant for exciting fights, so UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby presented him a golden opportunity for his 145-pound debut on Nov. 21.
Ricardo Lamas is currently the No. 4 ranked 145-pounder on the UFC’s media-generated rankings, and a win over him at The Ultimate Fighter Latin America 2 Finale would instantly vault Sanchez’s name into featherweight title contention.
“We started talking and he said lets do it,” Sanchez said of Lamas. “Let’s give the Mexican fans the fight they deserve. Two Latinos who aren’t afraid, who are going to throw down, who aren’t going to play that ‘run around the ring, ring around the rosie’ type of fight. A man’s fight. We’re going to throw down for the Mexicans and it’s going to be awesome.
“I know the guys are faster (at 145),” Sanchez added. “I get that. Everybody tells me that. I know that. I train with fast little guys who are like jackrabbits. But it’s just a decision that I wanted to do, and it’s been an exciting adventure. With great sacrifice comes great reward, and that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for great reward, big fights, and look, here we go. I got it. No. 4 in the world, Ricardo Lamas. I go in there, I do what I know I can do to this guy, dominate him, finish him, and I’m in the mix at 145.”
Sanchez, a 33-year-old American of Mexican descent, called the fight in Monterrey a “dream come true.” He said he’s walking around at 175 pounds right now, plans to shed 10 pounds over the next two weeks, then start working on a 20-pound weight cut for November.
While it’s not lost on Sanchez that he’s the only remaining figure from TUF 1 still active in the sport, he was always the young gun of the cast, so it’s not exactly surprising either. Sanchez now hopes to finish his career with a successful run at 145 pounds, and even despite his last few flat performances, he believes he has plenty left in the tank to get it done.
“I want to do it as long as I can,” Sanchez said. “As long as I can do it effectively and as long as my body is holding up. We’ll see how things go at 145. I do it for the passion. I don’t do it for the money, I don’t do it for the fame. I don’t do it for my legacy. I do it because I love it, above all. I think it’s the funnest thing in the world.
“I’m 33 now, and I want to fight as long as I can. I would be happy to be like a Dan Henderson or a Randy Couture, but we’ll see. Every man has his day when it’s time to call it quits. That’s in God’s hands. I’m a believer. I’m a believer that my destiny is in God’s hands and when it’s time to step away from the sport, it’s time to step away from the sport. But as far as I’m concerned right now, even with injuries and stuff, I’m going to fight through it. I’m not going to quit. I’m not a quitter.”
Diego Sanchez’s career has been one long, meandering road when it comes to the scales. He debuted in the UFC a decade ago, winning The Ultimate Fighter 1 as a blown-up middleweight. Since then he’s rotated between welterweight and lightweight to varying degrees of success, even making a memorable run to a title shot at 155 pounds.
But now he’s readying to do something that’s only been done once before in the UFC: drop down to featherweight and test the waters in his fourth different weight class.
“That’s where the sport has gone right now,” Sanchez said Monday on The MMA Hour. “Everybody is cutting weight. I see 155-pounders who are big. These guys are big. Even just seeing Nate Diaz in real life, he’s a guy, he’s big. He looks 180-190, maybe even 200 pounds. So for me, I’m like, well, I’m tired of being the small guy. I want to be the big guy. I want to be the guy with more power. I want to be the guy with better wrestling.”
Sanchez (25-7) is listed at 5-foot-10 with a 72-inch reach, so while he isn’t the biggest lightweight out there, he’s also far from the smallest. Only one other person in UFC history has attempted the same feat Sanchez is attempting, and that’s TUF 1 castmate Kenny Florian.
Florian was also listed at 5-foot-10, and his 2011 experiment left him with mixed results — he was able to secure a title shot at featherweight, but he ultimately lost to 145-pound champion Jose Aldo. In retrospect, Florian has described the weight cut to featherweight as one of the worst experiences of his life. His body failed him in the hours before the Aldo fight, leaving him ill-prepared for the five-round war he waged against the Brazilian.
But Florian’s experience aside, Sanchez is encouraged by the trends he sees around him, including one that’s seen lightweights like Jeremy Stephens drop down and achieve quick success at 145 pounds.
“I see all these long, strong wrestlers, like Luke Rockhold, Jon Jones — they’re wrestlers but they’re long,” Sanchez said. “They have long distance, long reach. And for me, my whole career — I started at 185, I dropped to 170, I fought most of my career at 170 — even at 155, I feel like I just have always been the smaller guy. A smaller, shorter guy playing the same gameplan, trying to get inside of the long reach and get people down to the ground.
“And all in all, the real truth is, when I saw Conor McGregor drop down to 145, the guy is my size, if not bigger. Straight up. The guy is my size, if not bigger. And I was like, wow, look at this guy, he’s holding a huge size advantage going into all of his fights. He has the reach. He has the leverage. It just made sense. To be able to see someone my size do it and do it effectively and do it correctly, it just made sense for me to do it.”
While Sanchez is 2-3 over his last five fights, he very well could have been 0-5 if his controversial decision wins over Takanori Gomi and Ross Pearson had gone the other way. He remains a big name though, largely because of his pass successes and penchant for exciting fights, so UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby presented him a golden opportunity for his 145-pound debut on Nov. 21.
Ricardo Lamas is currently the No. 4 ranked 145-pounder on the UFC’s media-generated rankings, and a win over him at The Ultimate Fighter Latin America 2 Finale would instantly vault Sanchez’s name into featherweight title contention.
“We started talking and he said lets do it,” Sanchez said of Lamas. “Let’s give the Mexican fans the fight they deserve. Two Latinos who aren’t afraid, who are going to throw down, who aren’t going to play that ‘run around the ring, ring around the rosie’ type of fight. A man’s fight. We’re going to throw down for the Mexicans and it’s going to be awesome.
“I know the guys are faster (at 145),” Sanchez added. “I get that. Everybody tells me that. I know that. I train with fast little guys who are like jackrabbits. But it’s just a decision that I wanted to do, and it’s been an exciting adventure. With great sacrifice comes great reward, and that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for great reward, big fights, and look, here we go. I got it. No. 4 in the world, Ricardo Lamas. I go in there, I do what I know I can do to this guy, dominate him, finish him, and I’m in the mix at 145.”
Sanchez, a 33-year-old American of Mexican descent, called the fight in Monterrey a “dream come true.” He said he’s walking around at 175 pounds right now, plans to shed 10 pounds over the next two weeks, then start working on a 20-pound weight cut for November.
While it’s not lost on Sanchez that he’s the only remaining figure from TUF 1 still active in the sport, he was always the young gun of the cast, so it’s not exactly surprising either. Sanchez now hopes to finish his career with a successful run at 145 pounds, and even despite his last few flat performances, he believes he has plenty left in the tank to get it done.
“I want to do it as long as I can,” Sanchez said. “As long as I can do it effectively and as long as my body is holding up. We’ll see how things go at 145. I do it for the passion. I don’t do it for the money, I don’t do it for the fame. I don’t do it for my legacy. I do it because I love it, above all. I think it’s the funnest thing in the world.
“I’m 33 now, and I want to fight as long as I can. I would be happy to be like a Dan Henderson or a Randy Couture, but we’ll see. Every man has his day when it’s time to call it quits. That’s in God’s hands. I’m a believer. I’m a believer that my destiny is in God’s hands and when it’s time to step away from the sport, it’s time to step away from the sport. But as far as I’m concerned right now, even with injuries and stuff, I’m going to fight through it. I’m not going to quit. I’m not a quitter.”
Watch Derek Brunson vs. Sam Alvey full fight video highlights from UFC Fight Night 73’s main card above, courtesy of FOX Sports.
UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Saint Preux took place Aug. 8, 2015 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. Ranked middleweight Derek Brunson (14-3) took on veteran Sam Alvey (26-7, 1 NC) on the night’s main card, which aired live on FOX Sports 1. Catch the video highlights above.
For more on Nunes vs. McMann, catch the recap by MMAFighting.com’s own Marc Raimondi.
Watch Derek Brunson vs. Sam Alvey full fight video highlights from UFC Fight Night 73’s main card above, courtesy of FOX Sports.
UFC Fight Night: Teixeira vs. Saint Preux took place Aug. 8, 2015 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. Ranked middleweight Derek Brunson (14-3) took on veteran Sam Alvey (26-7, 1 NC) on the night’s main card, which aired live on FOX Sports 1. Catch the video highlights above.
I have a confession to make. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with ‘BattleBots.’ I’m not talking about the same kind of obsessed I was with Pokémon or Power Rangers, or whatever other flavor of the year was sucking hundreds of hours from my life. I’m talking about the type of obsessed where this stuff was a legitimate priority. Fiery explosions and ‘Twisted Metal’ style carnage? Are you kidding me? It was almost too cool for my little brain to handle. From first sight, no weekend was complete until my dad and I gorged ourselves on the spectacle of two super-sized robots shredding each other into weaponized scrap metal.
Of course I, and many others, eventually moved on to other pursuits (albeit, in my case, pursuits just as violent). ‘BattleBots’petered out after two years and five seasons, and robot fighting shifted underground, seemingly resigned to live out the rest of its days as another niche YouTube rabbit hole for random nostalgia hunters to get buried in for hours upon hours.
But just like the possibility of Fedor vying for a UFC title, the pastime of mechanical machismo underwent an unexpected revival in 2015. ABC took a flyer on a six-episode reboot of the ‘BattleBots’ series — a mini-tournament of sorts to test the waters — and you know what, it actually ended up being pretty fun.
Old favorites and new slaughterhouse brutes alike collided in a 16-bot bracket, with over 4.62 million people tuning in to see underdog Biteforce capture the ‘BattleBots’ title in the season’s finale. The show’s surprisingly strong viewership seized an easy stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in its Sunday timeslot, likely ensuring a more robust second season. And one of MMA’s own, Kenny Florian, was right there in the middle of the action.
The former two-time UFC title challenger landed the familiar role of cageside commentator, the color man to the mechanized chaos. Florian has been a common sight in the broadcast booth at UFC Fight Nights for several years now, and with the ‘Battlebots’ trial run over, he reflected with MMAFighting.com on the challenges of his new gig and the exhilaration of seeing two steel beasts rip each other to shreds.
(This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.)
Shaheen Al-Shatti: So congratulations, first off. Now that it’s all over, how do you feel about the season? Did it live up to your expectations coming in?
Kenny Florian: It was so much fun, man. I didn’t realize the kind of sounds and impacts I would hear being there next to the Battlebox! It was insane. I’d watched it on television in the early 2000’s, but I’d never been there for an actual fight. It’s just a whole different experience. You had no idea what was going to happen on those impacts, especially with those horizontal spinners. Every time it felt like watching a car accident. These are 250-pound boxes of metal just are smashing into each other at insane speeds, all for that moment of surprise where you have no idea what’s really going to happen.
And you can make the comparisons to mixed martial arts. You had the kind of grappling-style bot. You had the striking-style bot. It was really, really interesting, and getting an idea of what these engineers went through — it wasn’t just one sleepless night, but sleepless night after sleepless night of putting these robots together, then throughout the tournament of what they had to do, staying up until 5 a.m. (to do repairs), taking turns sleeping, the different metals they had to use in a pinch.
I mean, some of these bots were almost $100,000 for a competition where you can win $60,000, so it was a labor of love for a lot of these guys. And you hear about these backgrounds, they worked for the Department of Defense, for NASA, we had a plumber — they come from all different backgrounds, so it really was fascinating.
SA: I have to admit, man, I didn’t foresee Biteforce winning at all. Every match, I thought he was going to lose.
KF: I know, right?! He was like the Royce Gracie of the competition. He was this little grappler, this little underdog who kept going in there and coming out, and every time it’s like, ‘Wow! How the hell did he do that?’
SA: I wonder, did all of this almost feel familiar? Like, at any point did you feel like you were back to calling fights, if only because of all the chaos?
KF: Absolutely! Except it was, like, with way more fear because I had no idea what the hell was going to happen. It was so cool. I think from being around this sport, being around mixed martial arts for so long, you kind of get used to it. When you see knockouts, you start thinking ‘oh yeah, that’s normal, I’ve seen that before.’ You see things so many times. But there was this newness that I think was pretty exciting in calling these fights.
SA: I watched Battlebots back in the day, but I hadn’t seen anything in a long, long time. And right away, it was clear to me that the horizontal spinners were total game-changers. ‘Rumble’ Johnson in bot form, just here to maim and destroy you. With so many wild fights, what was the most memorable moment for you to call?
KF: The Bronco vs. Stinger match was unreal. Stinger was kind of this wedge-lifter-bot who would get underneath people, pin them up against the screws and put them outside of the Battlebox. Bronco went in there and was struggling for a little bit, but then Stinger got lit on fire from his own flamethrower and got flung up into the air and stuck outside of the Battlebox. And it was just spectacular. It was a great fight while it lasted, just back-and-forth and with an utterly spectacular finish.
I remember the slow-mo, I can still play it in my mind — the bot on-fire, flipping up in the air. Knowing what Bronco was capable of doing — I mean, that thing can lift like 1,300 pounds and fling it up in the air something like 10 feet, that’s how powerful that flipper was — so it was pretty freaking cool, man.
SA: (Laughs.) There were times where it seemed like you were genuinely terrified to get hit by shrapnel.
KF: Oh man, so we were behind machine-gun proof glass. And I think for, like, the first three or four fights that we called, literally every single fight shrapnel flung at us at insane speeds. It was going right at (play-by-play man) Chris Rose’s head every, single time. And he would duck behind me. Like I don’t know what it was, he was trying to use me as a human shield. But he would duck and flinch every, single time, despite knowing that we were behind that glass. It was so funny.
I kept laughing and making fun of him, and then there was a fight down the line where a biiiiiiiig chunk of metal flew right at my head, and man, luckily I was behind that glass. But I did the same thing! I had to flinch and jump away! Thank God that stuff was there, because I certainly wouldn’t have my head today. It’s pretty spectacular being there. It’s a surreal, crazy experience.
SA: I was honestly surprised at how well the show did in the ratings. Given that you guys may very well get a second season, what kind of response have you gotten from fans and viewers of the old show? Has it been a positive response for the most part?
KF: It really has. More than anything else, I think the engineers wanted to feel respected. They wanted to feel like what they were doing could be appreciated and be celebrated. And I hope that it came across that way because these guys really are so impressive at what they do. They just wanted to be taken a little bit more seriously. In the past ‘Battlebots’ competitions, I think it was kind of more seen as a joke. And listen, there’s humor to it. There’s a lot of humor to it, and it’s funny sometimes, but I think when you’re making fun of the engineers themselves, you’re not giving them the proper respect.
They want to be seen more as a sport, as hopefully we were able to convey that a little bit more. I know from talking to these guys and seeing what they did, seeing just some of the hard work and what these guys do, what they’ve been through, they certainly have my respect. It was all very impressive and I was fascinated by all the different kind of style match-ups. And again, it just kept taking me back to the early mixed martial arts days, the different styles — what style is going to beat what? You may be great at this style, but maybe not the other. It was really a case of rock-paper-scissors. So it was a very cool experience for me.
I have a confession to make. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with ‘BattleBots.’ I’m not talking about the same kind of obsessed I was with Pokémon or Power Rangers, or whatever other flavor of the year was sucking hundreds of hours from my life. I’m talking about the type of obsessed where this stuff was a legitimate priority. Fiery explosions and ‘Twisted Metal’ style carnage? Are you kidding me? It was almost too cool for my little brain to handle. From first sight, no weekend was complete until my dad and I gorged ourselves on the spectacle of two super-sized robots shredding each other into weaponized scrap metal.
Of course I, and many others, eventually moved on to other pursuits (albeit, in my case, pursuits just as violent). ‘BattleBots’petered out after two years and five seasons, and robot fighting shifted underground, seemingly resigned to live out the rest of its days as another niche YouTube rabbit hole for random nostalgia hunters to get buried in for hours upon hours.
But just like the possibility of Fedor vying for a UFC title, the pastime of mechanical machismo underwent an unexpected revival in 2015. ABC took a flyer on a six-episode reboot of the ‘BattleBots’ series — a mini-tournament of sorts to test the waters — and you know what, it actually ended up being pretty fun.
Old favorites and new slaughterhouse brutes alike collided in a 16-bot bracket, with over 4.62 million people tuning in to see underdog Biteforce capture the ‘BattleBots’ title in the season’s finale. The show’s surprisingly strong viewership seized an easy stranglehold on the No. 1 spot in its Sunday timeslot, likely ensuring a more robust second season. And one of MMA’s own, Kenny Florian, was right there in the middle of the action.
The former two-time UFC title challenger landed the familiar role of cageside commentator, the color man to the mechanized chaos. Florian has been a common sight in the broadcast booth at UFC Fight Nights for several years now, and with the ‘Battlebots’ trial run over, he reflected with MMAFighting.com on the challenges of his new gig and the exhilaration of seeing two steel beasts rip each other to shreds.
(This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.)
Shaheen Al-Shatti: So congratulations, first off. Now that it’s all over, how do you feel about the season? Did it live up to your expectations coming in?
Kenny Florian: It was so much fun, man. I didn’t realize the kind of sounds and impacts I would hear being there next to the Battlebox! It was insane. I’d watched it on television in the early 2000’s, but I’d never been there for an actual fight. It’s just a whole different experience. You had no idea what was going to happen on those impacts, especially with those horizontal spinners. Every time it felt like watching a car accident. These are 250-pound boxes of metal just are smashing into each other at insane speeds, all for that moment of surprise where you have no idea what’s really going to happen.
And you can make the comparisons to mixed martial arts. You had the kind of grappling-style bot. You had the striking-style bot. It was really, really interesting, and getting an idea of what these engineers went through — it wasn’t just one sleepless night, but sleepless night after sleepless night of putting these robots together, then throughout the tournament of what they had to do, staying up until 5 a.m. (to do repairs), taking turns sleeping, the different metals they had to use in a pinch.
I mean, some of these bots were almost $100,000 for a competition where you can win $60,000, so it was a labor of love for a lot of these guys. And you hear about these backgrounds, they worked for the Department of Defense, for NASA, we had a plumber — they come from all different backgrounds, so it really was fascinating.
SA: I have to admit, man, I didn’t foresee Biteforce winning at all. Every match, I thought he was going to lose.
KF: I know, right?! He was like the Royce Gracie of the competition. He was this little grappler, this little underdog who kept going in there and coming out, and every time it’s like, ‘Wow! How the hell did he do that?’
SA: I wonder, did all of this almost feel familiar? Like, at any point did you feel like you were back to calling fights, if only because of all the chaos?
KF: Absolutely! Except it was, like, with way more fear because I had no idea what the hell was going to happen. It was so cool. I think from being around this sport, being around mixed martial arts for so long, you kind of get used to it. When you see knockouts, you start thinking ‘oh yeah, that’s normal, I’ve seen that before.’ You see things so many times. But there was this newness that I think was pretty exciting in calling these fights.
SA: I watched Battlebots back in the day, but I hadn’t seen anything in a long, long time. And right away, it was clear to me that the horizontal spinners were total game-changers. ‘Rumble’ Johnson in bot form, just here to maim and destroy you. With so many wild fights, what was the most memorable moment for you to call?
KF: The Bronco vs. Stinger match was unreal. Stinger was kind of this wedge-lifter-bot who would get underneath people, pin them up against the screws and put them outside of the Battlebox. Bronco went in there and was struggling for a little bit, but then Stinger got lit on fire from his own flamethrower and got flung up into the air and stuck outside of the Battlebox. And it was just spectacular. It was a great fight while it lasted, just back-and-forth and with an utterly spectacular finish.
I remember the slow-mo, I can still play it in my mind — the bot on-fire, flipping up in the air. Knowing what Bronco was capable of doing — I mean, that thing can lift like 1,300 pounds and fling it up in the air something like 10 feet, that’s how powerful that flipper was — so it was pretty freaking cool, man.
SA: (Laughs.) There were times where it seemed like you were genuinely terrified to get hit by shrapnel.
KF: Oh man, so we were behind machine-gun proof glass. And I think for, like, the first three or four fights that we called, literally every single fight shrapnel flung at us at insane speeds. It was going right at (play-by-play man) Chris Rose’s head every, single time. And he would duck behind me. Like I don’t know what it was, he was trying to use me as a human shield. But he would duck and flinch every, single time, despite knowing that we were behind that glass. It was so funny.
I kept laughing and making fun of him, and then there was a fight down the line where a biiiiiiiig chunk of metal flew right at my head, and man, luckily I was behind that glass. But I did the same thing! I had to flinch and jump away! Thank God that stuff was there, because I certainly wouldn’t have my head today. It’s pretty spectacular being there. It’s a surreal, crazy experience.
SA: I was honestly surprised at how well the show did in the ratings. Given that you guys may very well get a second season, what kind of response have you gotten from fans and viewers of the old show? Has it been a positive response for the most part?
KF: It really has. More than anything else, I think the engineers wanted to feel respected. They wanted to feel like what they were doing could be appreciated and be celebrated. And I hope that it came across that way because these guys really are so impressive at what they do. They just wanted to be taken a little bit more seriously. In the past ‘Battlebots’ competitions, I think it was kind of more seen as a joke. And listen, there’s humor to it. There’s a lot of humor to it, and it’s funny sometimes, but I think when you’re making fun of the engineers themselves, you’re not giving them the proper respect.
They want to be seen more as a sport, as hopefully we were able to convey that a little bit more. I know from talking to these guys and seeing what they did, seeing just some of the hard work and what these guys do, what they’ve been through, they certainly have my respect. It was all very impressive and I was fascinated by all the different kind of style match-ups. And again, it just kept taking me back to the early mixed martial arts days, the different styles — what style is going to beat what? You may be great at this style, but maybe not the other. It was really a case of rock-paper-scissors. So it was a very cool experience for me.
Chad Mendes has only watched his loss to Conor McGregor once since UFC 189, and it’ll probably be some time before he decides to do so again.
“It hurt to watch,” Mendes admitted Tuesday on The MMA Hour.
“It’s something I still think about. Sometimes (I) lay in bed still thinking about it. It’s definitely going to take some time to get over it, but you know, that’s just part of the game.”
Mendes ventured into the shamrock whirlwind on less than two weeks’ notice to challenge McGregor for the UFC interim featherweight strap on July 11, and though Mendes controlled the early stages of the fight, McGregor’s promise of a second-round knockout ultimately proved prophetic. The Irishman chiseled away at Mendes’ gas tank until drowning the weary American under a salvo of punches in the closing moments of the second stanza to seize gold.
While the loss was painful in and of itself, the thing that irks Mendes the most is that he was winning the fight right up until the moment he gave it away. And if he could do it all over again with a full camp to prepare for five rounds, he’s confident the outcome would be different.
“110-percent, no doubt in my mind,” Mendes said. “I’m not making excuses. I’m not sitting here saying that’s the reason why I lost. But I feel that if I am completely prepared for that fight, I win that fight. Every single time.”
The experience was a wild one for Mendes (17-3), and even two past title shots against Jose Aldo couldn’t have prepared him for the spectacle that McGregor brings. A seemingly endless barrage of Irish fans invaded Las Vegas for the entirety of fight week, breaking records and giving the event a big show feel that’s often missing from UFC pay-per-views.
Mendes and McGregor trash-talked each other all throughout the proceedings, and come fight night, Mendes looked to make good on his word. He owned the first round, scoring three big takedowns and blasting McGregor with hard elbows from top position, then appeared to be well on his way to repeating the feat in the second before his cardio failed him and the accumulation of McGregor’s precise strikes became too much.
“His only way of beating me was tagging me on the feet,” Mendes said. “And you know, he does a really good job of being in your face. He has that, like, Diaz style of punching. But anyone who can move around and stay light on their feet and take this dude down wins that fight every single time. I just, after scrambling around, and fighting for the amount of time that I did, I just wasn’t able to get back to my feet and be light on my feet.
“I was stuck, and that’s when he was able to tee off and that’s why I lost. So I truly believe that if I was able to keep that bounce in my step and move my feet, keep that footwork going, that I wouldn’t have been tagged and the round would’ve ended. We would’ve gone back and round three would’ve been just like round two. So it sucks. I think that’s the hardest part, because I know I can beat this guy, and I was so close.”
Mendes points to one sequence, in particular, that turned the tide of the match. After controlling a majority of the second round from top position, Mendes looked to pass McGregor’s guard and lock up a fight-ending mounted guillotine. For a moment he appeared to nearly have it, but McGregor deftly squirmed out and retook his feet with a minute to go. The exchange left Mendes winded, and a few more hard shots from McGregor were all it took to signal the beginning of the end.
“I remember in that situation just feeling like, alright, I have complete control here,” Mendes reflected. “He didn’t feel like he had anything off his back. He wasn’t trying to stand up. He was keeping closed guard. He didn’t feel very strong or very controlling off the bottom, so I figured I’m going to pass guard and I feel like I could probably submit this dude. Watching past fights, seeing his losses, we knew that was something that was very possible.
“That’s one of the things that upsets me the most. If I would’ve just stayed there and kept solid position, stayed in guard and just kept landing elbows, the round would’ve ended, I would’ve stayed on top. But I mean, that’s the sport. We takes risks. We get in there and we fight another human being. And that was a risk that I took. I tried to finish the fight, and he scrambled and he was able to get back to his feet.”
The loss served as one more instance of what is becoming a familiar refrain for Mendes. Much like his Team Alpha Male mentor Urijah Faber, Mendes is now 0-3 in UFC title opportunities, and he could be stuck in no-man’s zone for the immediate future with losses to both the interim champion and reigning titleholder.
Still, the experience was unquestionably the biggest payday of Mendes’ career, and an unexpected one at that. It didn’t hurt Mendes’ stock much either, as he’s still the No. 3 ranked featherweight in the UFC’s media-generated rankings. So while there were plenty of negatives to come out of the situation, there were more than a few positives as well.
“It’s a loss. I got the big ‘L’. It sucks. But it was two weeks of craziness,” Mendes said. “The whole Aaron Lewis thing, just being able to walk out to him singing my walkout song, looking back at him as I’m walking out and just seeing the crazy, crazy Irish fans. At the time, it’s overwhelming. I had Irish guys talking crap to me in the hallways and stuff, walking to and from workout rooms back to my hotel. Just to see the amount of passion and support these guys have for our fellow athletes is crazy.
“Their countrymen, they just back them up so much. I honestly wish that we had that more in America. It’s something that, it’s just crazy to see, you know? The same thing with Brazil. When we went to Brazil and fought a Brazilian there, it was crazy how much the entire country has their athletes’ back. That’s something I’ll something I’ll never forget. Getting in there on short notice, the biggest fight of my career, against a guy who is going to be in the sport for a long time, it’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
Chad Mendes has only watched his loss to Conor McGregor once since UFC 189, and it’ll probably be some time before he decides to do so again.
“It hurt to watch,” Mendes admitted Tuesday on The MMA Hour.
“It’s something I still think about. Sometimes (I) lay in bed still thinking about it. It’s definitely going to take some time to get over it, but you know, that’s just part of the game.”
Mendes ventured into the shamrock whirlwind on less than two weeks’ notice to challenge McGregor for the UFC interim featherweight strap on July 11, and though Mendes controlled the early stages of the fight, McGregor’s promise of a second-round knockout ultimately proved prophetic. The Irishman chiseled away at Mendes’ gas tank until drowning the weary American under a salvo of punches in the closing moments of the second stanza to seize gold.
While the loss was painful in and of itself, the thing that irks Mendes the most is that he was winning the fight right up until the moment he gave it away. And if he could do it all over again with a full camp to prepare for five rounds, he’s confident the outcome would be different.
“110-percent, no doubt in my mind,” Mendes said. “I’m not making excuses. I’m not sitting here saying that’s the reason why I lost. But I feel that if I am completely prepared for that fight, I win that fight. Every single time.”
The experience was a wild one for Mendes (17-3), and even two past title shots against Jose Aldo couldn’t have prepared him for the spectacle that McGregor brings. A seemingly endless barrage of Irish fans invaded Las Vegas for the entirety of fight week, breaking records and giving the event a big show feel that’s often missing from UFC pay-per-views.
Mendes and McGregor trash-talked each other all throughout the proceedings, and come fight night, Mendes looked to make good on his word. He owned the first round, scoring three big takedowns and blasting McGregor with hard elbows from top position, then appeared to be well on his way to repeating the feat in the second before his cardio failed him and the accumulation of McGregor’s precise strikes became too much.
“His only way of beating me was tagging me on the feet,” Mendes said. “And you know, he does a really good job of being in your face. He has that, like, Diaz style of punching. But anyone who can move around and stay light on their feet and take this dude down wins that fight every single time. I just, after scrambling around, and fighting for the amount of time that I did, I just wasn’t able to get back to my feet and be light on my feet.
“I was stuck, and that’s when he was able to tee off and that’s why I lost. So I truly believe that if I was able to keep that bounce in my step and move my feet, keep that footwork going, that I wouldn’t have been tagged and the round would’ve ended. We would’ve gone back and round three would’ve been just like round two. So it sucks. I think that’s the hardest part, because I know I can beat this guy, and I was so close.”
Mendes points to one sequence, in particular, that turned the tide of the match. After controlling a majority of the second round from top position, Mendes looked to pass McGregor’s guard and lock up a fight-ending mounted guillotine. For a moment he appeared to nearly have it, but McGregor deftly squirmed out and retook his feet with a minute to go. The exchange left Mendes winded, and a few more hard shots from McGregor were all it took to signal the beginning of the end.
“I remember in that situation just feeling like, alright, I have complete control here,” Mendes reflected. “He didn’t feel like he had anything off his back. He wasn’t trying to stand up. He was keeping closed guard. He didn’t feel very strong or very controlling off the bottom, so I figured I’m going to pass guard and I feel like I could probably submit this dude. Watching past fights, seeing his losses, we knew that was something that was very possible.
“That’s one of the things that upsets me the most. If I would’ve just stayed there and kept solid position, stayed in guard and just kept landing elbows, the round would’ve ended, I would’ve stayed on top. But I mean, that’s the sport. We takes risks. We get in there and we fight another human being. And that was a risk that I took. I tried to finish the fight, and he scrambled and he was able to get back to his feet.”
The loss served as one more instance of what is becoming a familiar refrain for Mendes. Much like his Team Alpha Male mentor Urijah Faber, Mendes is now 0-3 in UFC title opportunities, and he could be stuck in no-man’s zone for the immediate future with losses to both the interim champion and reigning titleholder.
Still, the experience was unquestionably the biggest payday of Mendes’ career, and an unexpected one at that. It didn’t hurt Mendes’ stock much either, as he’s still the No. 3 ranked featherweight in the UFC’s media-generated rankings. So while there were plenty of negatives to come out of the situation, there were more than a few positives as well.
“It’s a loss. I got the big ‘L’. It sucks. But it was two weeks of craziness,” Mendes said. “The whole Aaron Lewis thing, just being able to walk out to him singing my walkout song, looking back at him as I’m walking out and just seeing the crazy, crazy Irish fans. At the time, it’s overwhelming. I had Irish guys talking crap to me in the hallways and stuff, walking to and from workout rooms back to my hotel. Just to see the amount of passion and support these guys have for our fellow athletes is crazy.
“Their countrymen, they just back them up so much. I honestly wish that we had that more in America. It’s something that, it’s just crazy to see, you know? The same thing with Brazil. When we went to Brazil and fought a Brazilian there, it was crazy how much the entire country has their athletes’ back. That’s something I’ll something I’ll never forget. Getting in there on short notice, the biggest fight of my career, against a guy who is going to be in the sport for a long time, it’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
