Another Tuesday night has come and gone which means Fuel TV was the destination of choice for most MMA fans. At least it probably was, if A.) you are lucky enough to have the channel and B.) weren’t too busy watching Tosh.O or Sons of Anarchy. Now that I think of it, I’m guessing a total of four of you actually watched last night. Not to worry, Potato Nation taters you guys, we watched UFC Tonight and UFC Ultimate Insider for you and laboriously jotted down all the juicy news and rumors for your enjoyment. Here’s what you missed:
Reminder: UFC on Fuel 5 starts at 4pm ET this Saturday. Plan your weekend accordingly.
Speaking of UFC on Fuel 5, one half of the main event Stefan Struve attempts 4.5 submissions per 15 minutes of fighting but has 0% takedown defense. That is not a typo. He has been grounded each of the four times an opponent has attempted to take him to the canvas. I’m no expert, but isn’t that a little troubling? Maybe it’s all just a part of “Skyscraper”‘s master plan considering 16 the BJJ purple belt’s 24 victories come by way of submission. It’s kind of hard to argue with results like that.
Ariel Helwani popped on the screen for a minute to update us on the injury status of a one Jonathan Jones – and it’s not looking good. The reigning UFC light heavyweight champion has been medically suspended indefinitely pending x-rays. Let’s just hope it looks better than this.
Helwani also talked with the still recovering hipster, Rory Macdonald. As of now, he’s feeling much better and is able to do some conditioning work and hit pads.It’s not much, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, which is more than I can say for the fashion advice he’s been receiving. Moving along, Macdonald‘s doctors say he will be able to start camp in two weeks and the VADA drug testing for his upcoming fight against BJ Penn is still part of the plan as far as he knows.
Newly minted Jakks action figure UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson says he wants to defend his title as often as possible. When asked who he thought was next, “Mighty Mouse” said he’d be paying special attention to UFC on FX 5 on October 5th, when TUF 14 contender Jon Dodson meets UFC noob Jussier Formiga in a “#1 contender” bout. Make of that what you will.
Funniest line of the show came from Johnson when he said that the people booing were intoxicated, so he wasn’t really affected by it.
This week’s UFC Tonight poll question was ‘Who Do You Want To See Jon Jones Fight Next?’ The results we’re actually quite surprising. Take a look for yourself. Dan Henderson racked up 45% of the votes and was the majority decision by fans. Alexander Gustafsson had 23%, Lyoto Machida took 14%, and Chael P. Sonnen only garnered 18% of the vote. Maybe Sonnen will need to do a little more than talk smack before he gets a crack at Jones.
*****
UFC Ultimate Insider took, you guessed it, an inside look at the career of Glover Teixeira. Here’s what you should know, if you didn’t already. Teixeira has been around for awhile. He started training MMA in 2001 and eventually wound up being the main sparring partner of UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell between 2004 and 2006. Unfortunately, according to Ed Soares, the Brazilian was here illegally. You know what that means.
It took three years to get his green card, but when he finally did, Joe Silva was one of the first to know. Now back training at The Pit under the tutelage of “The Iceman” and watchful eye of John Hackleman, Teixeira is determined to make an impact in the cage. Liddell warns other 205-ers that Glover’s only getting better so they better take their shot at him sooner rather than later.
To close out the show, Joe Rogan ranked his Top 8 Greatest Flying Knees. Here they are:
#8.) Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs at UFC 145
#7.) Thiago Alves vs. Matt Hughes at UFC 85
#6.) Pablo Garza vs. Fredson Paixao at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale
#5.) Spencer Fisher vs. Matt Wiman at UFC 60
#4.) BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk at UFC 84
#3.) Carlos Condit vs. Don Hyun Kim at UFC 132
#2.) James Irvin vs. Terry Martin at UFC 54
#1.) Jose Aldo vs. Cub Swanson at WEC 41
-JM