(Dammit! This was so much easier to escape in the video game!)
On the heels of two straight submission via rear-naked choke losses courtesy of Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller, former “top contender” Melvin Guillard’s stock is probably at an all time low. The UFC, likely recognizing Melvin’s need to step up his ground game or GTFO, are not cutting him any slack, as they have paired him against 3rd degree (uh-oh) BJJ black belt (not good) under Royler Gracie (dear God) Fabricio Camoes. The worst part: Camoes is coming off a submission by rear-naked choke victory at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller.
Game. Set. Soon.
Look, we’ve got mad respect for Melvin Guillard; how can you not love someone whose idea of avoiding the takedown is repeatedly throwing flying knees? But this does not look good for “The Young Assassin,” who may very well get the boot if he is submitted for the seventh time in his UFC career come July 7th. Come on Zuffa, you can’t even give him some low-level nobody to squash first?
Matter of fact, it looks to us like the UFC is trying to punish each and every member of The Blackzilians for Anthony Johnson’s colossal mistake. Have the Zuffa attorneys not informed DW and Joe Silva that judging a certain group of people based on one isolated incident is considered profiling, and could lead to a huge backlash from said group? If we could think of any examples from American history, say from around the 1960′s, that could possibly help prove this point, we would. Unfortunately, no such example exists. Perhaps we’re just lucky.
Speaking of fighters who will find themselves in the unemployment line with another loss, it looks like a “loser leaves town” match has been booked between Leonard Garcia and Matt Grice, this one at UFC on FX 3. Currently 1-4 in under the Zuffa banner, Matt “The Real One” Grice has suffered submission defeats to Shannon Gugerty and Terry Etim and TKO losses to Matt Veach and Ricardo Lamas. Garcia, on the other hand, is coming off back to back karmic defeats in rematch bouts against Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. If Garcia were to somehow lose this one, we imagine he’d stand a better chance of sticking around than Grice, but let’s just say that a loss by either = the soup kitchen and watch the leather fly.
Coming off a successful UFC debut in which he beat down Kamal Shalorus en route to a third round rear-naked choke victory, undefeated prospect Khabib Nurmagomedov will take a huge step up in competition when he faces Gleison Tibau at UFC 148. We don’t know exactly where we’d place Tibau on our “Good, Bad, and Ugly” scale of dropping weight; ever since cutting down from welterweight following UFC 65, he has managed to make 155 lbs on most of his attempts, yet shows up looking like MuscleBob BuffPants come fight night. I guess we’d categorize him as “Freakish.” In either case, Tibau’s put together a hell of a run at lightweight, going 4-1 in his last 5 and most recently snagging a close decision victory over Rafael Dos Anjos.
In UFC on FX 4 news, TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson and WEC veteran Cub Swanson are set to lock horns in a featherweight contest. After going 5-2 as a lightweight, Pearson recently made the trip down to 145 at UFC 141 and proceeded to chase Junior Assuncao around the octagon like he was Kalib Starnes en route to a unanimous decision victory. In the aftermath of Pearson’s “Quarrian” effort, Assuncao was released by Zuffa, and still isn’t sure why. Shame.
Meanwhile, the bearer of perhaps the worst tattoos in all of MMA rebounded from a UFC debut loss to Ricardo Lamas at the inaugural UFC on Fox event with a brutal, mouthpiece ejecting TKO of George Roop at UFC on FOX 2. Swanson has gone win-loss in his last seven contests, and holds notable victories over Mackens Semerzier and that’s it. Put your money on the Brit, ladies and gentlemen.
UFC on FX 4 goes down from the the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey (*shudder*) on June 22nd.
Who ya got?
-J. Jones