Saturday’s night’s UFC on FOX show, powered by a strong last two fights, was the highest rated of the UFC’s four annual summer specials on the network.The full two-and-half-hour show did a 1.7 rating and 2,756,000 viewers, peaking with a 2.4…
Saturday’s night’s UFC on FOX show, powered by a strong last two fights, was the highest rated of the UFC’s four annual summer specials on the network.
The full two-and-half-hour show did a 1.7 rating and 2,756,000 viewers, peaking with a 2.4 rating and 3.8 million viewers for the T.J. Dillashaw title defense against Renan Barao. The three prior July shows on FOX did either a 1.4 or 1.5 rating, and between 2.38 and 2.5 million viewers. The main event would have also been the most watched UFC fight of those four shows.
The event was the most-watched sports program on television for the day, and led FOX to winning the night in both the Male 18-49 and Adults 18-49 demographics.
The overall rating was up 13 percent from last year’s show headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown. The Dillashaw vs. Barao main event was up 12 percent from last year.
The card drew consistent growth from start-to-finish.
For the main card, Joe Lauzon vs. Takanori Gomi drew a 1.3 rating, which increased to a 1.6 for Edson Barboza vs. Paul Felder, and a 2.0 for Miesha Tate vs. Jessica Eye.
The prelims from 6-8 p.m. did a 0.9 rating and 1.3 million viewers. The number was almost identical to the prior time that FOX aired the prelims, also last July, which did a 0.8 rating and 1.3 million viewers.
HBOhas uploaded HBO Real Sports’ recent report on domestic violence in mixed martial arts in its entirety. The segment, which can be seen above, was first aired last week and featured the first on-camera interview with Christy Mack, the former girlfriend of ex-UFC and Bellator fighter War Machine who was allegedly beaten close to death by the now incarcerated fighter.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Rener Gracie were also interviewed for the piece. A study conducted by HBO Real Sports concluded that the frequency of domestic violence incidents involving MMA fighters is more than double the average national rate. (Warning: the above feature is NSFW.)
HBOhas uploaded HBO Real Sports’ recent report on domestic violence in mixed martial arts in its entirety. The segment, which can be seen above, was first aired last week and featured the first on-camera interview with Christy Mack, the former girlfriend of ex-UFC and Bellator fighter War Machine who was allegedly beaten close to death by the now incarcerated fighter.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Rener Gracie were also interviewed for the piece. A study conducted by HBO Real Sports concluded that the frequency of domestic violence incidents involving MMA fighters is more than double the average national rate. (Warning: the above feature is NSFW.)
Jake Shields has never been one to make a fight personal, but he’s definitely carrying a grudge heading into his bout against Rousimar Palhares.
In a career that has spanned nearly 16 years and produced multiple world titles on various stages across MM…
Jake Shields has never been one to make a fight personal, but he’s definitely carrying a grudge heading into his bout against Rousimar Palhares.
In a career that has spanned nearly 16 years and produced multiple world titles on various stages across MMA, the slick submissions ace has earned his reputation as being one of the most laid-back competitors outside of the cage and one of the most dangerous once the ruckus gets rolling. Along the way he’s faced—and in most cases defeated—some of the best fighters to compete in the welterweight and middleweight ranks to build one of the most impressive resumes in the current era of the sport.
In doing so, the San Francisco-based fighter has racked up a lofty list of achievements and has done it without going beyond the limits of his character to fabricate fictional beef for the sake of fight promotion.
So when Shields starts lacing shots in the direction of his upcoming opponent and current WSOF welterweight champion Palhares, there is reason to believe things have drifted into the realm of personal for the former Strikeforce middleweight titleholder. He sees Palhares’ penchant for holding onto submission and knack for injuring his opponents as a bold sign of the Brazilian’s lack of professionalism and plans to teach Toquinho a lesson when they square off for the welterweight strap Saturday night at WSOF 22.
Shields said it bothers him that Palhares “is out there trying to hurt people.”
“It’s one thing to hurt someone if it happens in a fight, but it’s another to do it intentionally. We go out there to fight, and getting hurt is part of the sport, but looking to do it intentionally is just dirty. Especially in jiu-jitsu. It bothers me even more that he tries to act so nice and comes off so fake. I have a lot to get excited for in this fight.
“We put our careers on the line when we go out there, and trying to hurt someone is just dirty. It doesn’t matter if the guy he’s facing taps out, he’ll crank on it anyway and blow out the knee. That makes me not like this guy and it brings and added element to this fight. I know the kind of fighter he is and I am ready for it.”
Shields knows Palhares is capable of stepping over the line and putting his career at risk once their main event gets underway Saturday, and that has him prepared to tap into the darker side of his own psyche. Fighting is a brutal sport by it’s nature, but the sporting element typically creates an element of sportsmanship between the two competitors.
In Shields’ mind, that won’t exist when the cage door closes Saturday night in Las Vegas, and he’s ready and willing to mix it up anyway the 170-pound champion wants to get down.
“If the guy you’re fighting is playing dirty, then you have to go fight at his level,” Shields said. “You can’t be out there trying to not hurt someone who is definitely out there trying to hurt you. That’s when you have to be willing to get down to that level and do whatever it takes to get the win.”
In addition to his quest to make a statement to a fighter he believes deserve zero respect for the dangerous and illegal tactics he’s consistently displayed over the past several years, the 36-year-old Tareq Azim-trained fighter will also be aiming to add another championship belt to his mantle. Shields has spent the past decade competing at the elite levels of two different weight classes and has held a status as either champion or perennial title threat wherever he’s chosen to compete.
And while veteran resurgences have been increasing as of late, Shields sees his current run as anything but. He believes he’s doing some of the best work of his decorated career, and back-to-back first-round finishes against opponents with devastating power—like the caliber of what Ryan Ford and Brian Foster possess—go a long way to reflect that notion.
“It’s crazy to be honest,” Shields said. “I’m feeling the best I’ve ever felt, which is kind of weird with my age and being at this stage of my career to be feeling better than ever. I’m just in a good space mentally, and I’ve really started to enjoy fighting again. I really want to make a statement with these fights. I came into both of those fights with the plan to finish in the first round, and that’s what I did.”
With a victory over Palhares at WSOF 22, the American jiu-jitsu representative’s career would once again shift into a higher gear. While mixed results under the UFC banner spawned questions as to whether or not Shields’ best days in the cage were behind him, any doubts about his motivation to compete have been erased during his time with WSOF.
He’s fallen back in love with fighting, and as long as that love remains, Shields is confident he will continue to step in and give his best. When the day comes where he doesn’t feel that spark, Shields has zero doubt that he’ll walk away. And with everything he’s accomplished in his career, there won’t be anything to regret when that decision inevitably comes to call.
“I feel like I have one of the best resumes in the sport, and it’s something I definitely take pride in,” Shields said. “I’ve won multiple titles and have done it at different weights. That’s not something a lot of fighters have accomplished, and I’m proud to have done it. I certainly wouldn’t mind adding one more belt to my resume and a few more wins.
“I’m just doing it one fight at a time right now. I’ve fought for so long and have pretty much accomplished all of my goals and have done the things I wanted to do, so I’m taking things one fight at a time at this point in my career. I’m feeling so comfortable right now, and I’m enjoying it. After each fight I look at the situation and see if I want to fight again. Right now, I’m feeling great, but once you start slipping it’s time to walk away. This is a dangerous sport, and it becomes a lot more dangerous if you aren’t 100 percent committed to it.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Just when you thought Ronda Rousey’s star couldn’t possibly shine any brighter…enter one LeBron James. The best basketball player on the planet, and one of the stars of the new movie Trainwreck, recently responded to a fan on Twitter who asked him, “…
Just when you thought Ronda Rousey’s star couldn’t possibly shine any brighter…enter one LeBron James. The best basketball player on the planet, and one of the stars of the new movie Trainwreck, recently responded to a fan on Twitter who asked him, “How long would you last in the ring with Ronda Rousey?”
James seems to get that he’d be at her mercy for as long as she allowed, before deciding to end it. He went on to say that he wanted to say hello to her at the ESPYs but didn’t want her to kick his butt.
It’s worth noting Rousey retweeted his tweet, so that must mean she approves.
We won’t delve into the “could Rousey beat a man…could she beat Mayweather?” silliness by breaking down how she’d fare against James. Shaquille O’Neal already admitted he’d only last 45 seconds against her, and he’s been training in jiu jitsu for years now.
Given that the two are both now getting into the movie making business, maybe they’ll end up on the same set together one of these days. Perhaps we’ll see James cageside at one of Rousey’s upcoming fights. Wherever and whenever their paths cross, King James and Rowdy Rousey seem destined to collide at some point.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Stefan Struve enters UFC 190 coming off back-to-back knockout losses, but feels the heavyweight clash with former champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be the turning point of his MMA career.
After battling a serious heart condition, the Dutch heavyweight believes he will finally be able to live up to his full potential on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro. Speaking of his long reach and height, Struve explained how his disease, a leaking aortic valve and an enlarged heart, prevented him from fighting at his best.
“I don’t really see a disadvantage (on being so tall), as long as you use it the way you should use it. If you use it the way you should use it, then there’s not a lot of things they can do,” Struve told the media in Rio de Janeiro. “But you need to perfect things, especially since I’ve been fighting my entire career with a heart defect, fighting at 60 percent, it was difficult for me to really utilize my body at its fullest.
“Now that my heart output has improved so much, I really plan to start doing that more and more, and really just score knockout after knockout.”
Struve found out about his condition following a rough loss to Mark Hunt in 2013, and had to postpone his return to the Octagon after fainting moments before a bout with Matt Mitrione months later.
“Because of the heart problem, they had me on a certain medication that wasn’t doing well. I was pretty much getting depressed by it, and not feeling well,” he said. “There’s always pre-fight stress, I was out for a long time, coming back from a pretty serious thing with the heart. Because of the medication, my head was a mess, so it only got worse and worse in the locker room and then I had a black out. It scared me, because I just came out of a long period of time where I was a problem with my heart, so I didn’t know what exactly was wrong. But it’s not gonna happen again. I’m on a different medication and I feel amazing, and I cannot wait for August 1st and back on track again.”
Struve will be fighting in the 12th different country during his MMA career, so facing an opponent like “Minotauro” in Brazil won’t be an issue, he says.
“He’s gonna have the support of 16,000 people, so I think he’s going to try to hunt me down, but he’s not going to be successful,” Struve said. “I’m gonna pick him from the outside, he’s gonna want to take me down, and he won’t be successful, and then he’s gonna go down himself.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, since I was 15 or 16, fighting as a pro since I was 17 years old, so it’s nothing new to me,” he continued. “It’s an opportunity for me to show that I really am back after everything that happened. I left that behind me. I just need to start winning again and climb back the rankings where I belong, at the top of the world. It’s just another opponent, in another Octagon, and I’m going to take care of business.”
Nogueira became the PRIDE heavyweight champion four years before Struve made his MMA debut, and it’s kind of surreal for “Skyscraper” to think one of his childhood idols would be calling him out a decade later.
“I always believed in myself, I always believed when I was watching those fights that I would be doing that in PRIDE or the UFC, whatever,” he said. “I never thought he would call me out, but it’s the way things go. When I heard him asking for the fight, I was like ‘why not? I’ll go to Brazil, throw down with you there’.
“He’s a living legend, and he’s and amazing human being too. All the stuff he’s doing for the people here in Brazil. He’s done so much for the sport. I think I’ve been watching his fights since I was 11, 12 years old. It’s an absolute honor to fight him here. It’s going to be an amazing experience, but I’m going to take care of business on Aug. 1st. There’s no doubt about that.”
Eight of Struve’s nine UFC wins have come by knockout or submission, and he’s hoping to finish “Minotauro” at the HSBC Arena.
“He’s an amazing Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter, he’s an artist,” he said. “I believe I can submit anybody in the world, but, of course, if I can use my reach and nobody can touch me, then why go to the ground?”
With long legs and 16 submissions under his belt, Struve sends a message to fellow jiu-jitsu expert Nogueira.
“You need to really learn how to use that. You can lock up things from different angles, from angles people are not supposed to get submitted by, and I can do that,” he said of his legs. “If you got the right teacher, if you got the right tools, then these babies are dangerous.”
RIO DE JANEIRO — Stefan Struve enters UFC 190 coming off back-to-back knockout losses, but feels the heavyweight clash with former champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be the turning point of his MMA career.
After battling a serious heart condition, the Dutch heavyweight believes he will finally be able to live up to his full potential on Aug. 1 in Rio de Janeiro. Speaking of his long reach and height, Struve explained how his disease, a leaking aortic valve and an enlarged heart, prevented him from fighting at his best.
“I don’t really see a disadvantage (on being so tall), as long as you use it the way you should use it. If you use it the way you should use it, then there’s not a lot of things they can do,” Struve told the media in Rio de Janeiro. “But you need to perfect things, especially since I’ve been fighting my entire career with a heart defect, fighting at 60 percent, it was difficult for me to really utilize my body at its fullest.
“Now that my heart output has improved so much, I really plan to start doing that more and more, and really just score knockout after knockout.”
Struve found out about his condition following a rough loss to Mark Hunt in 2013, and had to postpone his return to the Octagon after fainting moments before a bout with Matt Mitrione months later.
“Because of the heart problem, they had me on a certain medication that wasn’t doing well. I was pretty much getting depressed by it, and not feeling well,” he said. “There’s always pre-fight stress, I was out for a long time, coming back from a pretty serious thing with the heart. Because of the medication, my head was a mess, so it only got worse and worse in the locker room and then I had a black out. It scared me, because I just came out of a long period of time where I was a problem with my heart, so I didn’t know what exactly was wrong. But it’s not gonna happen again. I’m on a different medication and I feel amazing, and I cannot wait for August 1st and back on track again.”
Struve will be fighting in the 12th different country during his MMA career, so facing an opponent like “Minotauro” in Brazil won’t be an issue, he says.
“He’s gonna have the support of 16,000 people, so I think he’s going to try to hunt me down, but he’s not going to be successful,” Struve said. “I’m gonna pick him from the outside, he’s gonna want to take me down, and he won’t be successful, and then he’s gonna go down himself.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, since I was 15 or 16, fighting as a pro since I was 17 years old, so it’s nothing new to me,” he continued. “It’s an opportunity for me to show that I really am back after everything that happened. I left that behind me. I just need to start winning again and climb back the rankings where I belong, at the top of the world. It’s just another opponent, in another Octagon, and I’m going to take care of business.”
Nogueira became the PRIDE heavyweight champion four years before Struve made his MMA debut, and it’s kind of surreal for “Skyscraper” to think one of his childhood idols would be calling him out a decade later.
“I always believed in myself, I always believed when I was watching those fights that I would be doing that in PRIDE or the UFC, whatever,” he said. “I never thought he would call me out, but it’s the way things go. When I heard him asking for the fight, I was like ‘why not? I’ll go to Brazil, throw down with you there’.
“He’s a living legend, and he’s and amazing human being too. All the stuff he’s doing for the people here in Brazil. He’s done so much for the sport. I think I’ve been watching his fights since I was 11, 12 years old. It’s an absolute honor to fight him here. It’s going to be an amazing experience, but I’m going to take care of business on Aug. 1st. There’s no doubt about that.”
Eight of Struve’s nine UFC wins have come by knockout or submission, and he’s hoping to finish “Minotauro” at the HSBC Arena.
“He’s an amazing Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter, he’s an artist,” he said. “I believe I can submit anybody in the world, but, of course, if I can use my reach and nobody can touch me, then why go to the ground?”
With long legs and 16 submissions under his belt, Struve sends a message to fellow jiu-jitsu expert Nogueira.
“You need to really learn how to use that. You can lock up things from different angles, from angles people are not supposed to get submitted by, and I can do that,” he said of his legs. “If you got the right teacher, if you got the right tools, then these babies are dangerous.”
Ronda Rousey has captivated the sports world with her dominance and ferocity. That said, no fighter is perfect.
With an Olympic bronze medal in judo and a dozen armbars to her credit (nine in professional MMA, three in amateur), Ronda Rousey’s strength…
Ronda Rousey has captivated the sports world with her dominance and ferocity. That said, no fighter is perfect.
With an Olympic bronze medal in judo and a dozen armbars to her credit (nine in professional MMA, three in amateur), Ronda Rousey‘s strengths are obvious. But when discussing her pound-for-pound greatness, her main area of criticism has been—and perhaps always will be—her striking.
A few days ahead of her seventh title defense, it is worth taking a look at the strides she has made in her striking.
When Rousey is in her comfort zone, she is a force of nature: predictable but almost unstoppable. She has a one-size-fits-all approach to fighting that few foes have been able to resist and none have been able to stop. It goes:
Close the distance with strikes.
Clinch when opponent gets in range.
Takedown.
Armbar.
That may seem like a stultification of Rousey, but it is not. The fact that her ability to score spectacular finishes is so thoroughly streamlined is a testament to how immensely skilled she is.
When looking at her striking, it is important to remember that her stand-up skills are vessels that deliver her to a stronger position in which to ply her grappling. “Evolution,” in this case, is not reinventing the wheel.
Too often, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts will decide they are power-punching knockout artists, while NCAA Division I wrestlers will try to become kickboxers. An evolved Rousey involves finding more efficient, more effective and, above all else, safer ways to deliver her from the Point A of her starting corner to the Point B of being on top of her opponent.
The Rousey who first made a name for herself in Strikeforce Challengers only had one way of getting to the clinch: walking forward and pumping the jab. Time and again, she would hop forward while flicking her left hand and either force her opponents against the cage (or ropes) or get them to explode forward with ugly, ineffective offense. From there? Clinch. Takedown. Armbar.
Her striking wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t clean. But it was effective in delivering her from A to B, and that’s all it needed to be. As time went on and her strength of competition rose, her striking arsenal expanded, but not in a way where she began clobbering foes with spinning head kicks. Her striking arsenal expanded in a way that better sets her up to score takedowns.
MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko wrote the figurative book for using punches to set up takedowns. The CliffsNotes version comes from Jack Slack of Bloody Elbow, who broke down Fedor‘s signature combination:
To perform feats like this Fedor utilizes what is known as Punch and Clutch. It is a concept I have written about in a little detail before, but really needs further examination, especially by modern MMA fighters. Punch and Clutch is the act of leading with a power punch, then falling into the clinch with an opponent so that one is too close to be hit with a counter punch. It has been used extensively by the light hitting Floyd Mayweather to add more authority to his attacks, and was also utilized by the great Jack Johnson almost exclusively in his attempts to gain an infighting position.
Using the clinch as the punctuation mark to a combination is a brilliant maneuver in most situations, but for Rousey in particular, it is an absolute game-changer. Offensively, it puts her in prime position to throw or trip opponents. Defensively, it allows her to stifle any potentially problematic counterpunches.
Rousey‘s “punch and clutch” is not nearly as smooth as Fedor‘s, of course, but she is wisely borrowing from the Last Emperor’s playbook, and it is paying dividends. This has been most obvious in the earliest stages of her recent bouts, in which she followed her game plan most strictly.
Check out this sequence from her UFC 168 bout opposite Miesha Tate:
While it may not seem like much, the difference is profound. With this seemingly minor tweak to her approach, Rousey is far more effective at closing the distance and scoring takedowns in the center of the cage and no longer relies on cornering opponents to set up a throw. Oh, and having a devastating right hand? That’s its own reward.
Long story short? The 2012 model of Rousey would not have been able to put together two power strikes and a huge throw in the center of the cage, as the 2014 model did against Alexis Davis.
So where does she go from here? That’s tough to call, given how little time Rousey has actually spent in the cage (30 seconds over 12 months isn’t much tape to work with).
Looking back, the biggest problem in Rousey‘s striking game is her nonexistent head movement. As stated, Rousey has gotten tagged in the majority of her fights. While she can usually turn an opponent’s forward momentum against her by trucking through her hits and tying her up in the clinch, that is an unnecessary risk that could lead to trouble.
Not to be “that guy,” but go watch the first 15 seconds of Rousey vs. Sara McMann and imagine if those punches were coming from Cris “Cyborg” Justino. That isn’t to say Cyborg would beat Rousey, but Rousey clearly has developed bad habits in her striking game that are easy to overlook because her opponents have largely been soft-handed.
All in all, however, Rousey has been getting better on her feet and, more importantly, has been getting better in the proper way. She is currently set to face Bethe Correia at UFC 190. Here’s hoping the fight goes on long enough for her to show off any recent improvements.
