UFC 161’s co-main event, a heavyweight tilt between fan favorite and on-again, off-again title contender Roy Nelson and striker Stipe Miocic, is a matchup nobody wanted, really.Nelson is in desperate need of a fight that advances him toward a title sho…
UFC 161‘s co-main event, a heavyweight tilt between fan favorite and on-again, off-again title contender Roy Nelson and striker StipeMiocic, is a matchup nobody wanted, really.
Nelson is in desperate need of a fight that advances him toward a title shot, as he is the proud owner of the UFC heavyweight division’s longest active winning streak. Miocic, meanwhile, is a legitimately skilled prospect, but he is still reeling from the loss to Stefan Struve last year.
Regardless, the fight is upon us, and we’re here to bring you all the details.
So, how is this heavyweight tilt playing out? Find out right here!
Roy Nelson and Dana White don’t like each other very much. That’s pretty obvious to any outside observer. That said, “Big Country” hasn’t actually done anything to get in trouble beyond pushing buttons with MMA’s top promoter…until now. I…
Roy Nelson and Dana White don’t like each other very much. That’s pretty obvious to any outside observer. That said, “Big Country” hasn’t actually done anything to get in trouble beyond pushing buttons with MMA‘s top promoter…until now.
In a UFC 161 pre-fight interview with Ariel Helwani for MMAFighting.com, Nelson was asked how he felt about fellow heavyweight contender Daniel Cormier saying he wanted to fight him “for Dana White.” Nelson, unwisely, labeled the beef an “Uncle Tom move.”
For those not in the know, the label “Uncle Tom” is a reference to the abolitionist tome “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, which effectively humanized the struggle of slaves in the 1800s. Today, however, the label of an “Uncle Tom” is typically made to refer to someone (usually an African-American) who goes out of their way to be subservient to another (usually to a white person), or actively tries to conform to the standards of white society.
The term has come up in MMA in the past. Back when Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson were exchanging verbal jabs, both Evans and at-the-time Strikeforce light heavyweight champion “King” Mo Lawaltook issue with Jackson’s portrayal of himself as less-than-intelligent, labeling him in an interview with ESPN an “Uncle Tom” for playing into the “ignorant stereotypes some black men tend to get labeled with.”
The major difference between these instances, of course, is that Lawal and Evans are both African-American, while Nelson is not. The term carries racial weight, which makes it something public figures such as Nelson would be wise to keep out of their vocabulary.
Nelson has never previously said, done or been accused of anything racially-charged, has an ethnically diverse training staff and entourage, and is friendly with many prominent black mixed martial artists. There is nothing to indicate that this is anything more than a faux pas on Nelson’s part.
However, the UFC is actively trying to stamp out political incorrectness these days, and were quick to suspend former lightweight title contender Nate Diaz for using a homophobic slur. While what Diaz did is worse than Nelson’s allegation, this incident, in combination with his history of turmoil with Dana White, could reasonably get him a slap from the UFC’s disciplinary staff.
Nelson is scheduled fight up-and-comer StipeMiocic this Saturday. Look for any possible backlash from the UFC to come after the event.
When an event like UFC 161 gets repeatedly slapped with injuries, but still remains an interesting night of fights, it’s tough not to praise the alleged geniuses behind the UFC’s matchmaking. That said, there are still way more than a few instances whe…
When an event like UFC 161 gets repeatedly slapped with injuries, but still remains an interesting night of fights, it’s tough not to praise the alleged geniuses behind the UFC’s matchmaking. That said, there are still way more than a few instances where you can ask “what were these guys thinking?”
Over the last twenty years of MMA, we’ve seen some amazing fights, but we’ve seen just as many that simply shouldn’t have happened.
Whether these flops were wasted opportunities, gross mismatches or just plain-and-simple incompetence, there are plenty of candidates for this list. That said, which fights qualify as the worst matchmaking mistakes in MMA history?
In case you haven’t heard, Ronda Rousey’s first true UFC title defense has been turned upside down, with Cat Zingano (1-0 in the UFC) pulling out of the fight due to a knee injury. Since, she has been replaced by the champ’s de facto arch-rival, Miesha…
In case you haven’t heard, Ronda Rousey‘s first true UFC title defense has been turned upside down, with Cat Zingano (1-0 in the UFC) pulling out of the fight due to a knee injury. Since, she has been replaced by the champ’s defacto arch-rival, Miesha Tate. Just like Anthony Pettis vs. Jose Aldo and Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre, the UFC is lining up fights that detract from the value of their belt.
Unlike those fights, however, the UFC ended up taking a page out of boxing’s book. The world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion is protecting one of their champions.
Miesha Tate is one of the three known commodities in women’s MMA these days, both in terms of skill and drawing power. The other two, of course, being Ronda Rousey and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos.
Skill-wise, Tate is no slouch but does not shine especially brightly in any area. With the current state of the UFC’s women’s division, that will make it difficult for her to remain an elite fighter.
As our own Jonathan Snowden once put it, women’s MMA right now is like jumping back to the mid-1990s. Each fighter is a converted expert from another combat sport, but actual well-rounded mixed martial artists are hard to come by. That makes it very difficult for Tate, who possesses unremarkable striking and above-average (but simply above average) grappling.
Her record shows precisely this, with two of her losses coming at the hands (or feet) of two of the best female knockout artists in women’s MMA in Sarah Kaufman and Kaitlin Young, while the other two coming from the 2008 Beijing bronze medalist in Judo, Ronda Rousey, and four-time All-American wrestler Cat Zingano.
Miesha Tate may or may not be better now than when she got her arm famously pretzeled by Rousey (she likely is, given her age and training with Team Alpha Male). However, it takes more than 18 months or so to become able to ply a wrestling-focused gameplan on somebody who has an Olympic medal for, essentially, takedown offense and defense.
That adds up to Tate vs. Rousey being one of the most lopsided stylistic matchups in the UFC’s women’s division, and that is the biggest reason they are setting up a Rousey vs. Tate 2.
Yes, yes. I know. Locking two of MMA’s most bitter rivals in the same room for a couple months will make for an exciting season of The Ultimate Fighter at a critical juncture for Fox Sports 1. It will also probably provide a modest boost to Rousey‘s PPV numbers.
However, while Rousey‘s feud with Tate is memorable for those who witnessed it unfold…that isn’t actually all that many people. Rousey, truly, found an overnight success so quick and clean that nothing and no one else ended up accompanying her en route to stardom. The sudden media attention that turned towards Rousey turned exclusively towards her, and not to her feud with Tate.
It is only a moderate percentage of genuinely hardcore MMA fans that saw the fight between Rousey and Tate. Because of that, it is hard to simply brush this off as the UFC’s latest cash-grab. More than likely, this is an active effort to keep the champ away from the two big threats that are waiting just around the corner.
Who would those fighters be?
There have only been three women’s fights in the UFC thus far. The only female with a win in the UFC outside Rousey is Zingano Olympic wrestling silver medalist Sara McMann. McMann, on paper, is the most likely to dethrone Rousey, and could arguably be favored if the two fought today.
Wrestlers have historically had the edge against Judoka in MMA, and there are very few wrestlers on par with McMann. Rousey, just seven fights into her career at this point, is still a work in progress, and would likely find herself in the same awkward position that Judo converts like Rick Hawn and Karo Parisyan found when fighting guys like Jay Hieron and Diego Sanchez.
Outside McMann and Rousey, there is one more high-level grappler to discuss in accomplished Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt Alexis Davis. Davis is currently scheduled to face European striker Rosi Sexton at UFC 161, and is a big favorite going into the fight. Davis, like McMann, is a difficult matchup for Rousey, who would likely have great trouble securing one of her fabled armbars against a submission artist of her caliber.
While the numbers for UFC 157 are unconfirmed, projections peg the buyrate to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 buys or more. That instantly puts Rousey alongside Jon Jones and Anderson Silva among the UFC’s top draws behind Georges St-Pierre.
That is a gravy train the UFC needs to keep chugging with hints of a possible GSP retirement. A Rousey loss would be incredibly inconvenient for the promotion at this point, and they clearly recognize this. Booking Rousey vs. Tate massages the odds of a lengthy championship reign for the UFC’s leading lady, and they could very easily follow it up with another Rousey-friendly matchup once Zingano is back on her feet.
Does Rousey need to be protected? Maybe, but probably not.
Regardless, the UFC is tilting the women’s division around to minimize potential pitfalls for Rousey.
When you look at the UFC’s lightweight division, it is intensely difficult to figure out who should actually be considered a “top 10” fighter. Seriously, check out the rankings. Weighing who should be on that list is incredibly difficult, a…
When you look at the UFC’s lightweight division, it is intensely difficult to figure out who should actually be considered a “top 10” fighter. Seriously, check out the rankings.
Weighing who should be on that list is incredibly difficult, and on the individual panelist rankings, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Evan Dunham, Joe Lauzon and Jamie Varner all pop up.
That said, there is little trouble sorting out tiers, as Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis and Gray Maynard find themselves squarely below the champ, followed by Josh Thomson, Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone, while other possible entries get slotted in from there.
On the flip side, though, is the light heavyweight division. There is truly, honestly, no difficulty in selecting the top 10 fighters in that division, but sorting them out in any satisfying way is intensely difficult.
When Zuffa first bought out Strikeforce in 2011, fans and media alike wondered aloud how well Strikeforce fighters would fare in the UFC. When Derek Brunson first took on Chris Leben, it started a still-ongoing display that the guys fighting out there …
When Zuffa first bought out Strikeforce in 2011, fans and media alike wondered aloud how well Strikeforce fighters would fare in the UFC. When Derek Brunson first took on Chris Leben, it started a still-ongoing display that the guys fighting out there in San Jose were in no way the slouches some dismissed them as.
While the California-based promotion’s former middleweight champ, Luke Rockhold, just suffered a brutal loss to Vitor Belfort, the Strikeforce alumni have still been performing admirably on the whole.
So why is this? What factors have contributed to this storm?
In case you haven’t heard,