(Cheick Kongo had never seen Deliverance before, yet in that moment, he somehow knew what was coming. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
We know, we know, it’s probably not a good idea to solely base someone’s employment status with the UFC on the existence of their UFC.com profile, but speculation is the hamster that keeps the wheels of intellectual transcendance and creative spontaneity spinning here at CagePotato. That, and a shitload of coke. For the hamster.
Aaaaanyway, word was passed along this morning that longtime heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo no longer has a fighter profile on UFC.com, which can only mean one thing in today’s UFC economy: BANISHMENT.
In all honesty, anyone who noticed how much money Kongo was making even in defeat probably could’ve seen this coming. His legendary come-from-behind KO over Pat Barry aside, Kongo has looked like a shell of himself ever since Frank Mir made good on his promise to change him as a fighter at UFC 107. Once a feared striker, the Frenchman seemed like a fish who had intentionally leaped out of water in his pair of grappling-heavy snoozer decisions over Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan, the latter of which we dubbed the worst fight of 2012. Kongo would find no relief in his once-adored striking game, either, suffering two first round knockout losses (to Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson at UFC 144 and 159, respectively) in his past three contests.
While it would be easy to take pot shots at a guy who has subtly threatened us with physical violence before, we are going to take the high road here. So join us after the jump for look back at some of Kongo’s greatest hits.
(Cheick Kongo had never seen Deliverance before, yet in that moment, he somehow knew what was coming. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.)
We know, we know, it’s probably not a good idea to solely base someone’s employment status with the UFC on the existence of their UFC.com profile, but speculation is the hamster that keeps the wheels of intellectual transcendance and creative spontaneity spinning here at CagePotato. That, and a shitload of coke. For the hamster.
Aaaaanyway, word was passed along this morning that longtime heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo no longer has a fighter profile on UFC.com, which can only mean one thing in today’s UFC economy: BANISHMENT.
In all honesty, anyone who noticed how much money Kongo was making even in defeat probably could’ve seen this coming. His legendary come-from-behind KO over Pat Barry aside, Kongo has looked like a shell of himself ever since Frank Mir made good on his promise to change him as a fighter at UFC 107. Once a feared striker, the Frenchman seemed like a fish who had intentionally leaped out of water in his pair of grappling-heavy snoozer decisions over Matt Mitrione and Shawn Jordan, the latter of which we dubbed the worst fight of 2012. Kongo would find no relief in his once-adored striking game, either, suffering two first round knockout losses (to Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson at UFC 144 and 159, respectively) in his past three contests.
While it would be easy to take pot shots at a guy who has subtly threatened us with physical violence before, we are going to take the high road here. So join us after the jump for look back at some of Kongo’s greatest hits.
After a seven-year run that included 18 fights in the organization, veteran heavyweight Cheick Kongo is a UFC fighter no more.His management team today made the announcement.
(Even in the face of despair, Fletcher always maintains a sunny disposition. Via Colin’s Twitter account.)
Although not completely unexpected given his current 0-2 record in the promotion, the UFC’s recent firing of TUF: Smashes lightweight runner-up Colin “Freakshow” Fletcher might represent one of the fastest post-TUF firings for a finalist in the show’s history. After dropping a tepid decision to fellow runner-up Mike Ricci at UFC 158, the news of Fletcher’s firing was passed along over the weekend via Colin’s twitter. As one would expect, “Freakshow” maintained his sunny disposition in the face of despair:
Fletcher now joins TUF 6’s Tommy Speer, TUF 8’s Vinny Magalhaes, and TUF 1’s Brad Imes as the only TUF finalists to not be given a third fight (or second post-TUF fight) in the UFC before getting axed. To be fair, Imes was eventually brought back to face Heath Herring at UFC 69, but that was before the time of The Great Deluge.
Dire times are upon us, Potato Nation. Dire times.
A video of Colin’s closest friends and family reacting to the news is after the jump.
(Even in the face of despair, Fletcher always maintains a sunny disposition. Via Colin’s Twitter account.)
Although not completely unexpected given his current 0-2 record in the promotion, the UFC’s recent firing of TUF: Smashes lightweight runner-up Colin “Freakshow” Fletcher might represent one of the fastest post-TUF firings for a finalist in the show’s history. After dropping a tepid decision to fellow runner-up Mike Ricci at UFC 158, the news of Fletcher’s firing was passed along over the weekend via Colin’s twitter. As one would expect, “Freakshow” maintained his sunny disposition in the face of despair:
Fletcher now joins TUF 6′s Tommy Speer, TUF 8′s Vinny Magalhaes, and TUF 1′s Brad Imes as the only TUF finalists to not be given a third fight (or second post-TUF fight) in the UFC before getting axed. To be fair, Imes was eventually brought back to face Heath Herring at UFC 69, but that was before the time of The Great Deluge.
Dire times are upon us, Potato Nation. Dire times.
Now, let’s see how Colin’s closest friends and family have taken the news…
At least it will be great to see the old gang again, right Colin? RIGHT COLIN?
(Seriously, all he’s missing is a lisp and an army of lawyers to enable his incoherent conspiracy theories and he’d fit right in with the 209 crew.)
We’re not ashamed to admit that — despite his many shortcomings both inside the ring and out — Josh Neer will always be one of our favorite fighters. Embracing an “old school,” entertainment over strategy mentality that saw him score back-to-back Fight of the Night awards during his second run in the UFC, the Iowa native has been throwing caution to the wind since 2003 and holds nearly 50 fights to his credit (including notable victories over Mac Danzig, Melvin Guillard, Duane Ludwig, and Joe Stevenson) despite his relatively young age (30).
Josh Neer (33-13-1) has been released following 3 straight losses inside the Octagon. ‘The Dentist’ a veteran of the sport, was last in action at UFC 157 where he lost a decision to Court McGee. Prior to that Neer had been finished by both Justin Edwards and Mike Pyle.
Also among the fallen…
(Seriously, all he’s missing is a lisp and an army of lawyers to enable his incoherent conspiracy theories and he’d fit right in with the 209 crew.)
We’re not ashamed to admit that — despite his many shortcomings both inside the ring and out — Josh Neer will always be one of our favorite fighters. Embracing an “old school,” entertainment over strategy mentality that saw him score back-to-back Fight of the Night awards during his second run in the UFC, the Iowa native has been throwing caution to the wind since 2003 and holds nearly 50 fights to his credit (including notable victories over Mac Danzig, Melvin Guillard, Duane Ludwig, and Joe Stevenson) despite his relatively young age (30).
Josh Neer (33-13-1) has been released following 3 straight losses inside the Octagon. ‘The Dentist’ a veteran of the sport, was last in action at UFC 157 where he lost a decision to Court McGee. Prior to that Neer had been finished by both Justin Edwards and Mike Pyle.
Also among the fallen…
Brock Jardine: 0-2 in the UFC, was last submitted via a crazy kneebar from the back mount/hiplock at the hands of Kenny Robertson at UFC 157. Prior to that, Jardine dropped a unanimous decision to Rick Story at UFC on FX 4.
Caros Fodor: 0-1, brought over in the Strikeforce acquisition and dropped a split decision to Sam Stout at UFC 157. Damn, that seems kinda hasty.
Jon Manley: Also 0-1, Manley was apparently part of the cast of the already forgotten TUF 16 and faced fellow contestant Neil Magny at UFC 157, where he wound up on the wrong end of a UD loss.
Farewell gentlemen, you may be lost but you will never be forgotten…unless you were on TUF 16.
(In an even stranger turn of events, it was revealed that Vollkmann was actually required by law to wear that shirt whenever he was within a half mile of a playground.)
My God how the time flies. You might not have realized it — mainly because he is the type of fighter that screams “Facebook prelims” — but outspoken Minnesotan (new band name, called it) Jacob Volkmann has been fighting for the UFC for upwards of three years now, and has collected an impressive 6-4 record in the promotion. Outside of the octagon, Volkmann gained notoriety over the years for once threatening to rip off President Obama’s arm and subsequently receiving a visit from the Secret Service, an incident he would parlay into hundreds of thousands of tens of dollars in hideous, neon orange t-shirt sales.
But unfortunately for all of us Tea Party-supporting, lay-n-pray aficionados, Volkmann’s avant-garde experiment that dared combine the gripping excitement of wrestling clinics with the comic stylings of Neil Hamburger has come to an end, at least for now. Volkmann announced earlier today via his Twitter that he has been cut by the UFC following his loss to promotional newcomer Bobby Green at UFC 156:
(In an even stranger turn of events, it was revealed that Vollkmann was actually required by law to wear that shirt whenever he was within a half mile of a playground.)
My God how the time flies. You might not have realized it — mainly because he is the type of fighter that screams “Facebook prelims” — but outspoken Minnesotan (new band name, called it) Jacob Volkmann has been fighting for the UFC for upwards of three years now, and has collected an impressive 6-4 record in the promotion. Outside of the octagon, Volkmann gained notoriety over the years for once threatening to rip off President Obama’s arm and subsequently receiving a visit from the Secret Service, an incident he would parlay into hundreds of thousands of tens of dollars in hideous, neon orange t-shirt sales.
But unfortunately for all of us Tea Party-supporting, lay-n-pray aficionados, Volkmann’s avant-garde experiment that dared combine the gripping excitement of wrestling clinics with the comic stylings of Neil Hamburger has come to an end, at least for now. Volkmann announced earlier today via his Twitter that he has been cut by the UFC following his loss to promotional newcomer Bobby Green at UFC 156:
Volkmann’s loss at UFC 156 was his second in his past three fights. Combine that with Volkmann’s somewhat lackadaisical style and you’ve got yourself all the justification you need to send him adrift. However, ”Christmas” also stated on his Twitter account that the decision to cut him was that of Joe Silva’s, not Dana White’s, which means that Volkmann more than likely turned down a fight recently.
After starting his UFC career with a rocky 0-2 run in the welterweight division, Volkmann made the drop to lightweight in 2010 and put together five straight victories before getting caught in the patented Sassangle at UFC 146. Volkmann would rebound from the loss with his strongest octagon showing at UFC on FX 5, where he would score his only UFC finish by strangling WEC veteran Shane Roller inside of the first round.
Volkmann’s subsequent loss to Green at UFC 156 dropped him to 6-2 in the lightweight division. Meanwhile, Leonard Garcia still has a job despite losing his last 4 UFC contests. It just goes to show that “entertaining in defeat” will always trump “boring in victory” in the UFC. Not exactly a terrible business model if you ask us.
In a relatively surprising turn of events, 11-fight UFC veteran Aaron Simpson — whose contract expired with the promotion following his second round KO loss to Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 5 — has not been offered a new contract and has subsequently left the UFC.
The two-time All American out of Arizona announced his drop to the welterweight division in April of 2012 following a 6-3 run at middleweight and was expected to face Jon Fitch at UFC 149. Fitch was forced to bow out with a knee injury shortly thereafter and Simpson was eventually paired up with Kenny Robertson at UFC on FUEL 4, a fight he ended up winning by way of unanimous decision. In his next fight, Simpson squared off against the aforementioned perennial welterweight contender in Pierce. After dropping Pierce in the first round, Simpson would unfortunately find himself KO’d for the first time in his career* following a beautifully placed counter right hand on Pierce’s part early in the second.
But it’s not all bad news for Simpson, who has already signed a four fight deal with upstart promotion World Series of Fighting according to Ariel Helwani. And in an ironic twist of fates, Simpson will find himself competing at the promotion’s upcoming second event scheduled for March 23rd. “A-Train” will be stepping in against fellow UFC veteran Josh Burkman, who was expected to face undefeated prospect Ryan LaFlare at the event before LaFlare jumped ship to join the UFC.
In a relatively surprising turn of events, 11-fight UFC veteran Aaron Simpson — whose contract expired with the promotion following his second round KO loss to Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 5 – has not been offered a new contract and has subsequently left the UFC.
The two-time All American out of Arizona announced his drop to the welterweight division in April of 2012 following a 6-3 run at middleweight and was expected to face Jon Fitch at UFC 149. Fitch was forced to bow out with a knee injury shortly thereafter and Simpson was eventually paired up with Kenny Robertson at UFC on FUEL 4, a fight he ended up winning by way of unanimous decision. In his next fight, Simpson squared off against the aforementioned perennial welterweight contender in Pierce. After dropping Pierce in the first round, Simpson would unfortunately find himself KO’d for the first time in his career* following a beautifully placed counter right hand on Pierce’s part early in the second.
But it’s not all bad news for Simpson, who has already signed a four fight deal with upstart promotion World Series of Fighting according to Ariel Helwani. And in an ironic twist of fates, Simpson will find himself competing at the promotion’s upcoming second event scheduled for March 23rd. “A-Train” will be stepping in against fellow UFC veteran Josh Burkman, who was expected to face undefeated prospect Ryan LaFlare at the event before LaFlare jumped ship to join the UFC.
This is Pedro Nobre, the TUF: Brazil alum who made his UFC debut last weekend at UFC on FX 7 against fellow Brazilian Iuri Alcantara. As you can tell from the neck brace he is sporting in the above photo, his debut did not go well. Alcantara landed a few supposedly illegal shots to the back of Nobre’s dome, and likely in an effort to make up for his poor performance during the Alessio Sakara/Patrick Cote debacle at UFC 154, referee Dan Miragliotta waved the bout off and declared it a no contest when Nobre was unable to continue.
The only problem was that 90% of the shots Alcantara landed, if not all of them, were neither illegal nor all that devastating (at least from our perspective), which prompted Dana White to post the following on Twitter:
In fact, White became so enraged by Nobre’s Oscar-worthy performance that he recently all but completely closed the door on Nobre’s future UFC aspirations.
After the jump: White’s scathing comments, along with a gif of the stoppage.
This is Pedro Nobre, the TUF: Brazil alum who made his UFC debut last weekend at UFC on FX 7 against fellow Brazilian Iuri Alcantara. As you can tell from the neck brace he is sporting in the above photo, his debut did not go well. Alcantara landed a few supposedly illegal shots to the back of Nobre’s dome, and likely in an effort to make up for his poor performance during the Alessio Sakara/Patrick Cote debacle at UFC 154, referee Dan Miragliotta waved the bout off and declared it a no contest when Nobre was unable to continue.
The only problem was that 90% of the shots Alcantara landed, if not all of them, were neither illegal nor all that devastating (at least from our perspective), which prompted Dana White to post the following on Twitter:
In fact, White became so enraged by Nobre’s Oscar-worthy performance that he recently all but completely closed the door on Nobre’s future UFC aspirations.
When White was pressed on the Nobre’s future in the UFC at the UFC 158 press conference yesterday, not only did he state that Alcantara had received a win bonus despite the no contest ruling, but that he “doubted” Nobre would be invited back to the octagon anytime soon:
I think he’s a fantastic actor. Did you hear he’s walking around Brazil with a neck brace on right now?
And as it turns out, Nobre did not suffer any long term injuries as a result of the fight, and recently told MMAJunkie that he was eager to get back in the octagon to rematch Alcantara:
We are both fighters with similar characteristics, who fight always moving forward. I wish to return to the octagon soon. In case the UFC asks for a [rematch], to remove any doubt, we would do everything to make it up to the audience.
Unfortunately for Nobre, it doesn’t look like he will be getting that chance. Check out a GIF of the stoppage right here, courtesy of our friends at Fightlinker. Whether you feel Nobre was legitimately unable to continue or not is ultimately a moot point; the real question to ask yourself is whether or not the shots that were responsible for ending the fight were illegal or not. And unless you’re Mr. Magoo, you’re probably going to say they weren’t.
[UPDATED]
According to multiple sources, Nobre has indeed been released from the promotion, along with Ken Stone (2-2 UFC, victim of two of themost brutal knockout losses of all time during his WEC and UFC runs), Byron Bloodworth (0-2 UFC) and Josh Janousek, who was set to make his promotional debut on short notice against Michael Kuiper at UFC on Fox 6, but recently pulled out with a last-minute injury.
Nobre recently responded to the allegations that he was faking an injury via Sherdog.com:
At no time during the fight did I complain about blows to the neck because I was almost knocked out there and did not know where the blows were coming. And nobody asked me also if I could continue, they just asked what hurt. Then I thought I had lost [the fight]. Only at the hospital did they tell me that it had been ruled a no contest. It was a bad thing to have taken the victory from Yuri, but when I reviewed the fight, I saw that the blows really came on the neck. It is illegal, so the no contest was fair. I felt the blows when I turned back. I was almost knocked out already. If he did not land those blows to the neck, he would have achieved a fair victory. As for the crowd, I did not understand why they called me quitter because, as I said, in my mind I was leaving to the hospital after losing by TKO. I saw the repercussions on the Internet, and I was sad. Everyone who has been following my career knows me. Everyone knows the character I have, but [some are saying] that I gave up the fight. Gee, brother, I was knocked out. The referee stopped it; the fight was over. I did not ask to stop, and they did not ask if I wanted to continue.
