Filed under: UFCDuke Roufus has had better days. The coach and head of Roufusport in Milwaukee is feeling the effects of watching his students Anthony Pettis and Danny Downes fall short this past Saturday at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale.
Duke Roufus has had better days. The coach and head of Roufusport in Milwaukee is feeling the effects of watching his students Anthony Pettis and Danny Downes fall short this past Saturday at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale.
“I’m still emotionally drained about it,” Roufus said Monday on The MMA Hour. “They’re great guys, great people. The emotional roller coaster in this sport is so tough sometimes.”
Just last December, Roufus was enjoying the highs of the sport. At WEC 53, Roufus oversaw Downes earning his first WEC win over Zuffa prospect Zhang Tie Quan and Pettis pulling off an amazing “Showtime” kick en route to capturing the WEC lightweight belt.
Roufus said Pettis wasn’t himself that night even while warming up and one of the things they will work on is for Pettis to perform effectively regardless of whether or not he’s on an “on” or “off” day.
“We have not see the last of Anthony Pettis,” Roufus said. “There’s so much unlimited potential with Anthony. We just gotta get it together. Now he’s human again and sometimes that’s better. The spotlight is constantly on. It’s almost too hard. Too much, too fast sometimes.”
Although his takedown defense was his downfall, Pettis fought an exciting fight against Clay Guida and even debuted the “Showtime Two,” a spinning back kick off the cage.
“That’s the one you can say with Anthony Pettis,” Roufus said. “He’ll never be guilty of being boring in the UFC Octagon. He was throwing up submission after submission. I’m not upset at him. I’m only upset for him.”
Pettis was promised a UFC title shot after winning the WEC title, but chose to stay active rather than possibly sitting out a year waiting to see how the Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard rivalry unfolds. Still, even in loss, Roufus believes it was the right decision to accept the fight against Guida.
“Who knows when the title shot is going to happen?” Roufus said. “It’s one of those things … And as well, obviously consistency, there’s some things we’re going to work on with Anthony. I rather know now than later.”
Filed under: UFC, NewsLightweight contender Clay Guida was the highest earner with a $74,000 purse at Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale in Las Vegas, according to the salaries reported by the UFC to the Nevada state athletic commission.
Lightweight contender Clay Guida was the highest earner with a $74,000 purse at Saturday’s The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale in Las Vegas, according to the salaries reported by the UFC to the Nevada state athletic commission.
Guida made $37,000 to show and another $37,000 as a win bonus for his decision over Anthony Pettis. Former WEC champion Pettis took home $10,000 in the loss.
Filed under: UFCI’ve always wondered what Ultimate Fighter winners do with their cut-glass trophies. It looks like something you might get for being the most improved player on a high school water polo team, so I’d be surprised if too many recipients h…
I’ve always wondered what Ultimate Fighter winners do with their cut-glass trophies. It looks like something you might get for being the most improved player on a high school water polo team, so I’d be surprised if too many recipients have it displayed prominently in their homes.
I keep expecting to see one show up on Ebay, but then who would buy it? I have no idea, but maybe Tony Ferguson will get a chance to find out. He’s our latest reality show winner, joining a diverse group that has had wildly varied post-grad results.
So what does Ferguson’s win mean, and how far has Anthony Pettis fallen after putting his title shot on the line against Clay Guida? The answers to those questions and more await you, as we sort through the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between after the TUF 13 Finale.
Biggest Winner: Clay Guida
Any lightweight who has ever considered a strategy that involves tiring Guida out only needs to look at him bouncing around in the post-fight interview after three hard rounds to know what a bad idea that is. Against Pettis, Guida showed that a non-stop motor and a wealth of quality experience to draw upon is sometimes all you need to get your hand raised. The decision victory was Guida’s 29th win and his 40th pro fight overall. Even Guida would probably agree that Jim Miller deserves to be ahead of him in line for a crack at the belt, but “The Carpenter” is definitely in the conversation now. What he lacks in sheer talent, he makes up for with work ethic and a willingness to get right in your face and stay there all night. How can you not root for a guy like that?
Biggest Loser: Anthony Pettis
Pettis gets this distinction less for his performance than for what it cost him. He didn’t fight poorly, but all it took was fifteen minutes on a Saturday night for him to go from number one contender to the middle of a crowded pack. Not that it needs to be anything more than a minor setback in the long run. He’s young and has a lot of potential, but Guida showed us all that there are some holes in his game. Some of that is just inexperience. He caught a big break in the third round, yet couldn’t capitalize on it. It’s also possible that he’s trying to force those crowd-pleasing kicks a little too much, which resulted in more interesting misses than useful hits against Guida. He lost his title shot with the defeat, but it’s not the end of the world. If he uses it as a learning experience, this will be nothing more than a speed bump in a promising career.
Best Prospect: Tony Ferguson
He can wrestle and he can swat – a combination that makes him a man to be taken seriously. If we’ve learned anything from 13 seasons of TUF, however, it’s that winning the show is not quite the career-crowning achievement it’s made out to be. What it is, is a nice start for Ferguson and a chance to develop in the UFC with a little more slack than most new hires get. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend calling out guys like Amir Sadollah. While there are benefits to being proactive about matchmaking, the TUF winner usually gets to ease into the big time a little more gently. I don’t want to say he should expect an easy fight in his first post-TUF appearance. There aren’t many of those to be found in the UFC. But there are easier fights out there, and with them, a chance to get comfortable in the Octagon. Just because you’re a reality TV hero, it doesn’t mean the roads are all paved with gold now. Just ask Efrain Escudero.
Least Certain Future: Ramsey Nijem
He looked great on TUF, but all it took was one lunging left hook from Ferguson to stiffen him up like stale toast. He’s obviously got talent, but he also seems like he might not be quite ready for the UFC just yet. He’s now 4-2 in his career, and his most high profile wins were reality show exhibition bouts. He might still turn into a legitimate UFC fighter, but he’d better do it soon. It doesn’t take much to go from TUF finalist to TUF footnote. Just ask Kris McCray. And Vinny Magalhaes. And Luke Cummo. And…you know what? I think you get it.
Biggest Win Under Dire Circumstances: Ed Herman
After losing three of his last four and sitting out with a recurring knee injury for nearly two years, Herman was desperate for a big victory. Knocking out a tough opponent like Tim Credeur in less than a minute is a good way to get back on the map. Herman should consider it a temporary stay, and one possibly aided by the fact that Credeur had been out of action nearly as long as he had. Now Herman has to hope that he’s more successful in his comeback than he was before his initial injury.
Most Disturbing Trend: Ken Stone‘s recent KO’s
He was on the business end of a brutal slam knockout back in December, then got pounded out by Scott Jorgensen in the first round on Saturday night. Two scary knockouts in a row – all in a six-month span – is never good for your career prospects, but it’s even worse for your brain. While we still don’t know a ton about knockouts and long-term brain health, we do know that it’s a bad sign when a fighter keeps ending bouts asleep on the mat, especially when the knockouts start to come easier and easier. Maybe Stone could take some time off and reevaluate. Even if he doesn’t want to, it’s quite possible that the Zuffa contract axe will do it for him.
Most in Need of a Step Up in Competition: Kyle Kingsbury
The decision over Maldonado was his fourth straight victory in the UFC. Now that his skills have caught up to his size and natural athleticism, he seems like a guy who might actually go places in the light heavyweight division. It’s hard to know for sure though, since the UFC keeps giving him opponents who are all at roughly the same level. Jared Hamman, Ricardo Romero, Fabio Maldonado – all are tough guys, but it’s not exactly a steady climb in quality of competition. Now’s the time to throw Kingsbury into the deep water and find out if he can swim.
Least Convincing Effort: Josh Grispi
It’s strange to think that not so long ago, this guy was considered a credible challenger for Jose Aldo’s title. The fighter who showed up to face George Roop on Saturday looked like a man who would have preferred to be almost anywhere else. It’s never a good sign when your cornermen are all but begging you not to quit between rounds. He made it into the third, but just barely, and he didn’t need much encouragement to crumble up and collapse after Roop hammered him with a body shot. Any fighter is going to have his good nights and bad nights, but Grispi has fallen off hard lately. Might be time to sit down with his coaches and talk about what he’s really trying to accomplish here.
Filed under: UFCAnthony Pettis entered 2011 having been promised a UFC lightweight title shot. His loss to Clay Guida at Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale ensures that he’ll end 2011 without having fought for the title.
Anthony Pettis entered 2011 having been promised a UFC lightweight title shot. His loss to Clay Guida at Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale ensures that he’ll end 2011 without having fought for the title.
But make no mistake: Pettis is an elite talent with a bright future, and he’ll fight for a UFC title some day.
Pettis probably shouldn’t have been promised that lightweight title shot in the first place: The UFC made that promise because Pettis was the last lightweight champion of World Extreme Cagefighting, and giving the reigning WEC champion the first crack at the UFC belt seemed like an easy fight to promote. But the truth is, the lightweight division in the WEC was never anywhere near as good as the lightweight division in the UFC, and winning the WEC belt didn’t make Pettis deserving of a crack at the lightweight title.
In that respect, Guida might have done Pettis a favor on Saturday night. Losing a one-sided decision to a good but not great UFC lightweight in Guida might make it clear to Pettis exactly what he has to improve upon.
Pettis needs to work on his wrestling and his takedown defense, but at age 24, he still has plenty of time to make those improvements. From all appearances he has both the athletic ability and the motivation to get better, and it’s not like Guida exposed limits to Pettis’s talent — Guida just exposed limits to Pettis’s skill set. That can be fixed with time and work.
Even in losing to Guida, 30-27 on all three judges’ scorecards, Pettis showed glimpses of why he’s such an exciting fighter. He reeled off a brilliant spinning kick in the second round, and in general he got the better of the striking exchanges. He just wasn’t able to keep Guida from putting him on his back. Pettis can learn enough wrestling and takedown defense that in the future, when he’s getting the better of the striking exchanges, he’ll be able to keep the fight standing up rather than winding up on his back.
There are a lot of reasons to like Pettis outside the cage: He’s a good-looking, personable, intelligent young man with an interesting life story and a willingness to share that story with fans.
But the big reason for fight fans to like Pettis is that he’s already done great things inside the cage, and Guida showed him exactly what he has to do to get better. Pettis is five years younger than Guida, six years younger than Frankie Edgar and eight years younger than Gray Maynard. He’s going to keep getting better for a long time, and eventually he’ll earn a title shot. Even though he’s not there yet.
Notes from UFC 130 — Jeremy Stephens dominated Danny Downes for 15 minutes to win a unanimous decision by scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 30-26. Stephens is now 20-6 in his MMA career, and 4-1 in his last five, with the only loss a split decision to Melvin Guillard. Stephens is so experienced that a lot of people don’t realize how young he is: He just turned 25 and still has plenty of room for improvement. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stephens is fighting for the lightweight title some day.
— The first fight on the Spike TV broadcast, Chris Cope vs. Chuck O’Neil, really didn’t belong on a live UFC broadcast. Cope and O’Neil are both young and inexperienced and still honing their rudimentary skills, and they belong on undercards or in smaller promotions, not on the main televised card of a UFC event.
— The statistics coming out of the Fabio Maldonado-Kyle Kingsbury fight were interesting. According to CompuStrike, Maldonado had a very slight edge over Kingsbury in total strikes landed in their fight: Maldonado landed 91 strikes to 90 for Kingsbury. But while Maldonado is just a puncher, Kingsbury mixed in kicks and knees: Kingsbury out-landed Maldonado 60-0 in total leg strikes. Fight Metric scored the fight 29-28 for Maldonado, but all three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Kingsbury.
Quotes from UFC 130 — “I heard something pop and I said, ‘It’s broken, it’s broken.’ But Danny Downes, I kid you not, is a tough son of a gun.” — Stephens, saying he thought he broke Downes’ arm with a kimura during their fight, and crediting Downes for the toughness not to tap out.
— “It’s unbelievable. … I can’t describe it. Oh my God, it’s amazing.” — Ed Herman after knocking Tim Credeur out just 48 seconds into the first round of their fight. It was great to see Herman, who’s been injured and out of action for close to two years, having a reason to celebrate again.
Good call The UFC was smart to put all the preliminary fights on Facebook: There was a lot of good action on the undercard, and hard-core fans are always delighted to watch all the MMA they can. The decision to put the fights on Facebook wasn’t announced until Friday evening, but this is something that the UFC should make permanent: It’s a great way for the promotion to connect to its most enthusiastic fans.
Bad call Joe Rogan, explaining that MMA judges sometimes score a round giving more weight to the end of a round, said, “Schoolyard logic applies to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Rogan was explaining that MMA judges sometimes judge rounds as if they were seeing a schoolyard fight and judging it based on who was winning at the time the teachers pulled them apart. I support Rogan’s repeated calls for improved judging in MMA, but I wish Rogan would stop suggesting that a fighter can “steal” a round just by getting a takedown at the end. Schoolyard logic shouldn’t apply.
Stock up Scott Jorgensen bounced back nicely from his loss to bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, knocking out Ken Stone in the first round. Jorgensen is a serious talent who deserves to be recognized as one of the elite fighters at 135 pounds.
Stock Down It’s hard to believe that when the UFC and WEC merged, Josh Grispi was considered the No. 1 contender for Jose Aldo’s featherweight title, because in two UFC fights, Grispi has looked like garbage. First, Dustin Poirier whipped Grispi for three rounds at UFC 125, and then George Roop dominated Grispi on Saturday night. It’s a good thing Grispi never got his chance to fight Aldo, because Aldo would tear Grispi apart.
I don’t know what’s happened to Grispi recently, but I hope he gets his fighting career back on track. He’s only 22, so he has plenty of time to turn things around, but he’s gone from dominating everyone he faced in the WEC to getting dominated twice in the UFC.
Final thought
Tony Ferguson was the bad boy in The Ultimate Fighter house this season, and his behavior on the reality show was unacceptable. But he’s also a very talented fighter who looks like he’s ready to do big things in the UFC. I could see him having a Chris Leben-style career in which he eventually becomes better known for his hard-hitting style of fighting than his brash nature outside the Octagon.
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsClay Guida defeated former No. 1 contender Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision at Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale, but according to UFC president Dana White, the dominant win didn’t help “The Carpenter” secure a li…
White told MMA Fighting on Saturday that Jim Miller “is still ahead of [Guida]” in the organization’s lightweight rankings despite Guida’s win on Saturday night.
Miller (20-2) has won his last seven fights in a row. He is scheduled to meet Ben Henderson at UFC on Versus 5 on Aug. 14 in Milwaukee.
Current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was scheduled to defend his title against Gray Maynard at last week’s UFC 130, but injuries suffered by both fighters forced the bout to be canceled. It has yet to be rescheduled, but White said last week that he hopes to rebook it in the fall.
Miller’s only two losses have come against Maynard and Edgar. The AMA Fight Club member lost to Maynard at UFC 96 in March 2009 and dropped a unanimous decision to Edgar at Reality Fighting 14 in November 2006.
Filed under: UFC, NewsLAS VEGAS – Following Wednesday’s final regular-season episode of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC has filled its fight card for Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale.
In the championship bout to crown the next “Ultimate Fighter,” finalists R…
LAS VEGAS – Following Wednesday’s final regular-season episode of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC has filled its fight card for Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale.
In the championship bout to crown the next “Ultimate Fighter,” finalists Ramsey Nijem and Tony Ferguson will meet for the title and a guaranteed UFC contract. The two welterweights won their semifinal fights in an episode that aired Wednesday night on Spike TV. Additionally, the UFC has made official for the televised main card a bout pitting losing semifinalists Chris Cope and Chuck O’Neil against each other.
And four other TUF 13 cast members will see action against each other on the preliminary card on Saturday: Shamar Bailey vs. Ryan McGillivray and Justin Edwards vs. Clay Harvison. The UFC and Spike made those fights official Thursday morning.
Bailey, a Strikeforce veteran, was one of this season’s favorites and was coach Junior dos Santos’ top pick. He advanced to the quarterfinals, but was upset there by Cope. The Indianapolis firefighter has trained alongside UFC vets Chris Lytle and Matt Mitrione, both also veterans of “The Ultimate Fighter.” His opponent, McGillivray, was dos Santos’ second pick. He, too, lost his quarterfinal fight. The five-year Canadian veteran started his career with Maximum Fighting Championships in Canada. Nine of the 11 wins in his pro career have come by submission.
Edwards, who trains in Ohio with Jorge Gurgel, lost his first fight in the house to Ferguson, who went on to reach Saturday’s finals. In his pro career, Edwards is 6-0 – with six first-round stoppages. The last five have come by submission with four by guillotine. Four of his wins have come in less than one minute. Edwards’ second pro fight was for Bellator, and he also has a win over Josh Rafferty, from TUF 1, on his resume. Harvison, who fought for Brock Lesnar‘s team, won his first fight this season before losing to Nijem in the quarterfinals. The 6-1 pro has fought all seven of his bouts in Georgia, and all six of his wins have come in the first round.
Seven of the eight quarterfinalists from TUF 13 are on Saturday’s card. Only Zach Davis is absent, replaced by Edwards. Davis lost a quarterfinal fight to O’Neil, but suffered torn retinas in both eyes and was told by doctors on the show that he should no longer fight.
Saturday’s TUF 13 Finale takes place at The Pearl at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The main card, which will air live on Spike, features a highly anticipated lightweight contenders fight between Clay Guida and Anthony Pettis, the last WEC lightweight champion. And Ed Herman and Tim Credeur meet in a middleweight bout, the return to action for both after nearly two years off because of injuries.
Duke Roufus has had better days. The coach and head of Roufusport in Milwaukee is feeling the effects of watching his students Anthony Pettis and Danny Downes fall short this past Saturday at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale.
Lightweight contender 
I’ve always wondered what Ultimate Fighter winners do with their cut-glass trophies. It looks like something you might get for being the most improved player on a high school water polo team, so I’d be surprised if too many recipients have it displayed prominently in their homes.
Anthony Pettis
Clay Guida
LAS VEGAS – Following Wednesday’s final regular-season episode of “