We had quite the weekend in mixed martial arts action, didn’t we?
Things kicked off Friday night with the newly-revamped Ultimate Fighter Live and didn’t stop until Bob Sapp’s awful sham of a performance on Sunday morning’s Super Fight League debut in India.
Let’s take a look at the latest and greatest from the MMA world.
The Ultimate Fighter Live Debuts to Mostly Rave Reviews
We got our first look at the reboot of the UFC’s reality series on Friday night, and it was a good viewing experience.
From the start of the show, it was clear that we wouldn’t be seeing the same old Ultimate Fighter. With just over two hours of airtime dedicated to the show, I wasn’t quite sure how they would fit all 16 elimination fights into the broadcast. They fixed that problem in a hurry, announcing at the top that all of the elimination fights would be one round.
The new format added plenty of excitement to the event. It forced fighters to try and finish fights early and gave a sense of urgency to the whole thing. We saw exciting finishes and a few decent prospects, but we also saw some of the highly-touted favorites—including a few fighters I previewed during a column last week—lose before ever making it into the house.
I’m still a big believer that the show needs commentary, however. Watching the fights unfold in complete silence was a little unnerving, and the occasional thoughts thrown in by Dana White, Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz really didn’t add much to the show.
This likely won’t be a glaring problem once we move to just one fight per show, but it stood out like a sore thumb on the debut. Jon Anik is already in the house, so there’s no reason not to use him.
Out of the fighters who actually won and moved into the house, I think you have to keep an eye on Justin Lawrence and Cristiano Marcello. Lawrence displayed some incredible striking in dispatching favorite James Krause, and Marcello proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s going to be the best jiu-jitsu artist on the show.
And yes, that includes Faber and Cruz and likely anyone else they bring in to help coach the grappling side of things.
Atrocious Refereeing Nearly Gets Joe Warren Killed
Jeff Malott may be a perfectly serviceable referee. I’m not all that familiar with his previous work.
What I do know, however, is that Malott did one of the absolute worst refereeing jobs in the history of the sport on Saturday night in the Joe Warren vs. Pat Curran title fight at Bellator 60.
If you missed the show, I’ve got a video of the finishing moments embedded below. It’s cringe-worthy, to say the least. By my count, Curran drilled Warren with more than 40 needless punches and knees.
It’s one of the worst stoppages I can remember.
Warren was scheduled to try and make the Olympic team just five weeks from now. He’s 35 years old and this is his last shot at making the team after sitting out the last Olympics due to a failed marijuana test.
And yeah, Warren probably shouldn’t have taken an MMA fight just five weeks before the Olympic trials, and certainly not a championship fight in a weight class above his natural weight.
But this atrocious stoppage will almost certainly prevent Warren from going to the trials, and that’s a real shame.
Bob Sapp Embarrasses the Sport Once Again
I tried to tell you that Bob Sapp was going to take another dive in his Super Fight League main event against James Thompson on Sunday. Some of you agreed with me, but a lot of you called me out for being “disrespectful” to Sapp and what he’s accomplished over his career.
And then, once again, Sapp was involved in a criminally shady ending to a mixed martial arts fight.
Here’s the gist, for those of you who missed it: Thompson took Sapp down when the fight began and stayed on top of him for a few seconds. Sapp reversed it, leading me to believe that, for once in the last five years, he actually came to fight.
He even got Thompson in a Salaverry crucifix and started unleashing some ground and pound. It looked like “The Beast” was back.
And then Thompson reversed Sapp, grabbing a double-leg and rolling him over. Sapp ended up on his back and immediately tapped as if his entire life depended on it. He held his hamstring, signaling that he suffered a leg injury during the reversal.
Never mind that instant replays showed nothing of the sort. Color commentator Phil Baroni tried to make sense of it, but there was no real way to sell it as a legitimate injury.
And then, as if to add insult to a faked injury, Sapp got to his feet and walked around the cage with nary a limp in sight. He even bounced up and down a few times for effect.
This was a farce. But that’s always the way things are when Bob Sapp is involved. Once again I find myself hoping that promoters will stop booking him, but I fully realize that it’s not going to happen.
Sapp has a good gig. Go in for a fight, take a dive and get paid $30,000 to do so. I can’t blame the big man for riding the gravy train. But shame on promoters like Ken Pavia and Super Fight League for enabling him.
Quick News Bites:
- The UFC will roll out UFC Primetime specials for the Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans and Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem fights. I’m told that most UFC pay-per-view events will get the prime-time treatment throughout the rest of the year. The Jones/Evans Primetime will debut April 6, while the Dos Santos/Overeem version will premiere on May 11. All episodes will air on FX, with repeats airing on FUEL TV. As per usual, each series will feature three episodes in three consecutive weeks with a real-time look at each fighter’s preparation for their main event bouts.
- The full television lineup for UFC 145 has been finalized. The FX Prelims broadcast features John Makdessi vs. Anthony Njokuani, Matt Brown vs. Steven Thompson, Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs and Miguel Torres vs. Michael McDonald.
- Bellator has a video game coming out this summer. It’ll be available as a download for XBox Live and Playstation. It’s being developed by the same people who made Supremacy MMA, which doesn’t bode well for the quality of the game.
- The six-fight main card for UFC on FUEL 2 is now finalized. That’s the one headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva.
Videos of the Day
Pat Curran nearly kills Joe Warren at Bellator 60, and referee Jeff Malott allows it to happen: I’ve already spoken at length about this travesty, so I won’t go into it again.
Super Fight League 1 replay from India: Watch the full Super Fight League 1 event replay. It’s an event that my colleague Jonathan Snowden believes is one of the worst of all time. He’s right.
Benson Henderson shows off his signature moves: The UFC lightweight champion details some of his unique moves on Ultimate Insider.
New Fights Announced:
Here’s a quick look at all of the fights announced over the weekend.
- Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Russow (UFC 147)
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