Fight Night Rotterdam was a huge success after the UFC’s first event in the Netherlands came to a conclusion yesterday afternoon. It was a successful night for the Dutch, as all three hometown fighters emerged victorious in their respective bouts. Dutch stars such as Germaine de Randamie, Stefan Struve, and No.3-ranked heavyweight Alistair Overeem made
Fight Night Rotterdam was a huge success after the UFC’s first event in the Netherlands came to a conclusion yesterday afternoon. It was a successful night for the Dutch, as all three hometown fighters emerged victorious in their respective bouts.
Dutch stars such as Germaine de Randamie, Stefan Struve, and No.3-ranked heavyweight Alistair Overeem made the Dutch’s presence known in the MMA world with some spectacular performances.
It wasn’t just the Dutch who made a statement however, with eight of the 11 total bouts ending in finishes, UFC Fight Night 87 proved to be a huge night for many fighters in Rotterdam Sunday afternoon.
Title contenders emerged, legends fell, and hometown hero prevailed. Let’s take a look at the 5 biggest takeaways from Rotterdam’s inaugural event.
It’s beyond safe to say that the UFC made a thunderous Netherlands debut with today’s (Sun., May 8, 2016) wildly successful UFC Fight Night 87 from the Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands. That was largely due to three knockout wins by three of their home fighters in Alistair Overeem, who demolished former champion Andrei Arlovski with
It’s beyond safe to say that the UFC made a thunderous Netherlands debut with today’s (Sun., May 8, 2016) wildly successful UFC Fight Night 87 from the Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
That was largely due to three knockout wins by three of their home fighters in Alistair Overeem, who demolished former champion Andrei Arlovski with a highlight reel kick, Stefan Struve, who knocked out Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in only 16 seconds, and Germaine de Randamie, who demolished Anna Elmose with a first-round onslaught of knees.
The card also featured a bevy of other exciting finishes, furthering the success of the first-ever UFC card on Dutch soil. Watch the fighters discuss the thrilling event in the official post-fight press conference here:
If you are looking for one final clue about who most people—including the promoters—think will win Saturday’s UFC 193 main event, look no further than the fight card’s official tagline: The Rousey Revolution Continues.
Yeah. So. Uh…t…
If you are looking for one final clue about who most people—including the promoters—think will win Saturday’s UFC 193 main event, look no further than the fight card’s official tagline: The Rousey Revolution Continues.
Yeah. So. Uh…that bit of marketing doesn’t appear to even consider the possibility that Holly Holm might pull an upset over Ronda Rousey in Australia this weekend, does it?
With good reason, obviously. We have yet to see another woman bantamweight who looks like she even belongs in the same cage as Rousey. Holm comes in undefeated and possessing fearsome striking skills, but isn’t expected to be able to hang around long if the champion can get this fight to the mat.
So the questions we ask ourselves about Rousey no longer concern whether it’s possible she’ll lose her 135-pound title this week, but if she’ll lose her title, like, ever. Luckily for you, Bleacher Report MMA Lead Writer Chad Dundas and Senior Columnist Mike Chiappetta are here to separate the Rousey Facts from the Rousey Fictions.
And a boatload of other UFC 193 storylines, too!
Fact or Fiction: Ronda Rousey is Unbeatable.
Mike Chiapetta: Fiction. I would love Jon Jones’ chances against Rousey. Oh, wait, we’re talking about women here, aren’t we? Well, that changes things.
Rousey vs. anyone in her division is becoming just about the biggest lock in sports. Still, declaring someone “unbeatable” is hyperbole. Even if Rousey is as close as it gets, when you consider all of the distractions she regularly faces, focus must, at times, become an issue. From her burgeoning Hollywood career to endorsement opportunities to red-carpet and talk-show appearances, as well as personal drama spilling out into the public, her attention is divided like no one else’s in MMA.
So far, that hasn’t been any kind of issue for her when she competes. But it’s not crazy to believe this might make her more vulnerable at some point. The list of champions who have been undone by distractions is staggering. Mike Tyson was a 42-to-1 favorite when he lost to Buster Douglas 25 years ago.
Rousey’s challenger, Holly Holm, has a skill set that is elite in one area–striking. That could threaten Rousey if her mind is not where it needs to be on fight night. All it takes is one momentary lapse of focus. Is an upset likely to materialize? No. Rousey’s a lopsided favorite for good reason. She is significantly better than anyone else inhabiting her division. But the pressures of the crown have been lamented forever, and just a hint of distraction crossing over into the fighting arena can change fortunes forever.
Chad Dundas: There’s a radio ad on right now where Joe Rogan can be heard saying, “Once in a lifetime doesn’t apply to Ronda Rousey. It’s once ever—in human history!” So to say there’s a wee bit of mythologizing going on around the women’s bantamweight champion right now is an understatement.
Look, we know there are people who can beat Rousey because there are female judokas walking the planet right now who’ve done it—hence that bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. But is anyone who can beat her going to show up in the shallow waters of the UFC 135-pound class before Rousey calls it quits and rides off into the Hollyood sunset? Doubt it.
However, I think Holm will come the closest of anyone. That is to say, not very close, but I expect her to give Rousey a round or two of fairly competitive action. Call me crazy, but if Holm can stay on her bike, fight from range and maybe land a few jabs and leg kicks, I think she can make things halfway interesting on Saturday night.
MC: OK, I’ll bite. You’re crazy. I don’t expect the fight to be competitive, even though Holm can stretch things out by staying on the outside. At some point they’ll get locked up, and Rousey will toss her to the ground, and due to Holm’s ground inexperience, that will be that.
I don’t think Holm can match up with Rousey the way, say, Cris Cyborg can. Rousey won’t be able to muscle her around so easily, and Cyborg has so much more experience than Holm does. She also has the power to shock the world with a single punch. Hopefully, that fight gets made soon.
Fact or Fiction: Joanna Jedrzejczyk steals the show with an easy win over Valerie Letourneau.
CD: I’m cautiously going to say this one is fact, Mike. Maybe I’m just too bullish on Holm’s ability to give Rousey an actual fight, but I think there’s a decent chance Joanna Jedrzejczyk emerges as UFC 193’s breakout performer.
It’s clearly no accident that fight company brass are putting Jedrzejczyk and Rousey together as a package deal here. They’re hoping massive amounts of pay-per-view buyers come for Her Rowdiness and leave just as taken with the Polish strawweight champion.
Our pals at Odds Shark make Jedrzejczyk a comparably sized favorite over Valerie Letourneau as Rousey is over Holm. That leads me to believe if Holm fares slightly better than expected and Jedrzejczyk does something terrible to Letourneau, it might unexpectedly turn out to be Joanna Champion’s night.
What say you?
MC: As much as I want to agree with you, given Jedrzejczyk’s immense likability factor, ain’t no one stealing the show from Rousey. The roughly 70,000 people estimated to show up to Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium are coming to take in her star power. The pay-per-view crowd is ponying up their $55 to witness whatever it is she’s going to do. She’s become an event fighter. You don’t steal the show from those.
That said, Jedrzejczyk stands to gain more than anyone else on the card as a supporting act. As you mentioned, the UFC is clearly showcasing her alongside Rousey for a reason. If she gives the people what they want, she’ll leave a much bigger star.
CD: Well, I hope that last part is true, at least. As Rousey’s star-power continues to gobble up headlines I’m starting to feel like Jedrzejczyk is women’s MMA’s best kept secret. The only question I have about her marketability—a point originally made by my Co-Main Event Podcast cohort and your former colleague Ben Fowlkes—is whether her more violent fighting style will appeal to the non-MMA fans who tune in to see Rousey.
If Jedrzejczyk beats Letourneau bloody, will the little girls and soccer moms the UFC is working so hard to pitch Rousey to be turned off? Or will they catch Jedrzejczyk Fever?
Fact or Fiction: The Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva rematch lives up to their first fight.
MC: Fiction. I was in Australia for the first fight between them, a surprise classic that materialized out of the Brisbane morning ether. Certainly, no one came to the arena expecting a rollicking battle that saw momentum given and taken in shocking bursts. Heavyweight fights generally do not follow that kind of arc. The almost universally accepted prediction was that within a round, maybe two, one of them would land some tree-smasher of a right hand and that would be that.
Instead, it was non-stop action. When the dust cleared, it was announced that the two combined for 184 significant strikes, a UFC heavyweight record. Soon after those unofficial totals, FightMetric revised the count upward, saying the number was actually 200. Each man was knocked down once, and they combined for 321 total blows.
Afterward, UFC president Dana White was so amped that he had a one-of-a-kind rematch T-shirt made. The euphoria, however, was short-lived. Silva failed his drug test due to elevated levels of testosterone, knocking some of the luster off his performance.
As rematches go, it’s cool, if unnecessary. The rematch can’t live up to the original, if only because both men left pieces of themselves there that day.
CD: Silva and Hunt both roll into this rematch with 1-3-1 records in their last five fights. Hunt is 41, Silva 36. I guess since both these guys needed something to do and there was a big fight card coming up in Australia, it only made sense to put them together one more time.
Given that their first fight ended in that majority draw, I can even see a strange, twisted logic to it all. But we would be fools to expect another classic.
These two heavyweights both only know one way to fight—and that’s with a never-say-die, swing-for-the-fences enthusiasm that is infectious to watch and terrifying when you try to reckon with the likely fallout.
After so much wear and tear on their bodies, however, I don’t think either guy’s chin will be up to another 15-minutes of rock ’em sock ’em. This one likely starts with a furious pace, but ends with someone getting tucked in for the night before the end of the first round.
MC: I agree. Heavyweights hit so hard that one brain-scrambler is usually the only one necessary. It’s difficult to reverse momentum once one lands that kind of game-changer. It occasionally happens, but not to the extent of the first matchup between these two monsters, when neither could hold off the other’s advances. That was an anomaly not to be recreated.
As the third fight down on the card, the expectations can be tempered anyway. Like I said before, this is the Rousey show, and everyone else is fighting for a glimmer of spotlight.
Fact or Fiction: Stefan Struve reminds us he’s still viable…and a decade younger than everybody else.
CD: Fact. At this point, it’s been 19 months since doctors cleared Stefan Struve to return from a career-threatening heart ailment and 16 months since an apparent backstage panic attack scuttled his planned fight with Matt Mitrione.
Struve lost his return bout to Alistair Overeem last December, but bounced back with a victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 190. Here he takes on Jared Rosholt, who is 5-1 in the UFC, but almost let himself get knockout out by “Dad Bod” Timothy Johnson in the late stages of a fight Rosholt otherwise dominated in August.
If Struve wins this—and I think he will—it will give him two in a row in the UFC heavyweight division, which is like four in a row in any other weight class. He’ll also remain just 27 years old, which in the hoary old 265-pound ranks, makes him still just a kid.
All in all, there might be a lot to like about Struve moving forward, eh?
MC: Fac…tion? To be honest, I’m torn on this one. Sure, Struve is only 27, but he has some serious mileage on him. This will be UFC fight No. 16 for him, which is in the top 10 all-time for UFC heavyweights. During his career, he’s been knocked out multiple times, had several injuries and suffered a heart problem that nearly forced him out of the sport.
Beyond those physical issues, he’s good enough to threaten anyone, but has struggled against the best opponents he’s faced. His most significant career win is over Stipe Miocic, but if the two were to meet again, Miocic would probably be favored. Bottom line: A win over Jared Rosholt isn’t going to suddenly make anyone a believer that Struve is a true title threat.
CD: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nobody said anything about Struve being an immediate title threat. Personally, I try not to even speak the name of the cursed UFC heavyweight championship unless I have to, lest it bring some kind of terrible Cain Velasquez-esque injury plague down on my family.
But look, the 265-pound class badly needs young contenders, and if Struve puts Rosholt on ice, I think it’ll be good enough to lump him in with the current glut of guys waiting for Velasaquez and Fabricio Werdum to settle their business so they can vie for a title shot in 2016.
Struve vs. Big Ben Rothwell perhaps?
#wouldwatch
UFC 193 airs on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT on pay-per-view.
A little more than a year ago, Antonio Silva underwent surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland.
Silva spent nearly his entire life with the tumor. It caused acromegaly, a disease in which the pituitary produces much higher-than-normal levels o…
A little more than a year ago, Antonio Silva underwent surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland.
Silva spent nearly his entire life with the tumor. It caused acromegaly, a disease in which the pituitary produces much higher-than-normal levels of growth hormone. As a result, humans afflicted with acromegaly become, well, larger than your average person. André “The Giant” Roussimoff, perhaps one of the most famous international professional wrestlers of all time, spent a lifetime with the disease.
Though nowhere close to the 7’4″ he was billed at during his pro wrestling career, Roussimoff was legitimately 6’10” and roughly 450 pounds.
A giant of a man, indeed. So giant, in fact, that the disease–coupled with his now-legendary habit of eating and drinking prodigious amounts of food and alcohol—felled him at the age of 46, passing away in his sleep of congestive heart failure.
Silva never reached Andre proportions, of course. But he is still a hulking man, standing 6’4″ and cutting from 290 pounds to make the heavyweight limit of 265. And so after losing by knockout to Andrei Arlovski in September 2014, Silva had the tumor removed. He returned a few months later but lost again by knockout, this time to Frank Mir. But the important part, more important than the losses, was that Silva finally felt better. He was whole again.
“I’m feeling great after the surgery,” he told Bleacher Report this week. “Everything is better. Physically, I am better. Training is better. Everything is just better.”
Silva returned to the Octagon in August and finally got back on the winning track with a knockout win over SoaPalelei. This Saturday, he steps back in the cage to turn back the hands of time, in a way.
You see, nearly two years ago, on December 7, 2013, Silva and Mark Hunt put on one of the all-time classic fights in UFC history. Even upon repeated viewings, the bout resembles something more like a war than a mixed martial arts contest. It was bloody and brutal, the kind of fight that makes some fans scream while others cover their eyes. Silva and Hunt fought to a draw, which felt both like a loss and the only fair result. The fight was so memorable that UFC president Dana White commissioned the clothing company Roots of Fight to make a special one-off shirt, just for him, celebrating the fight. He even gave both men their win bonuses despite the fight being scored a draw.
Afterwards, the memory of the bout was sullied when it was revealed that Silva had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Silva had to give back his win bonus and his $50,000 check for Fight of the Night, and he was suspended for nine months. He’d been under the care of the UFC, undergoing testosterone replacement therapy, but still his levels were outside the normal range.
Today, the TRT era is gone. Silva believes he was one of the few who actually had a clinical need for the treatment, and he has a point, what with the tumor on his pituitary gland and all. But the rules are the rules, and Silva has to comply with them the same way others must. The era of legalized testosterone usage is now viewed with contempt, but Silva believes that shouldn’t be the case.
“It depends on how you see TRT use. Some people have a clinical condition. They need it,” he said. “But since it’s a new rule and the fighters have it in their contracts, they have to follow the rules. So I will follow the rules just like everyone else.”
Silva sees the fight with Hunt—a featured bout on Saturday’s UFC 193 card from Australia—as, essentially, an extension of their first fight. He believes winning, at the end of the day, is the most important item on his agenda. But if he can go in there with Hunt and put on a thrilling fight again? That’s the dream, because Silva loves entertaining, loves putting on a show. And doing it in front of a stadium filled with Australian fans is a great way to do it.
“That’s what I want the most, is the same fight again. It will be like fighting the sixth round,” he said. “Winning is the most important thing to me. But the perfect world is to win while putting on a huge fight for the public.”
It’s hard for Silva to describe what it’s like to be in the middle of that kind of fight. He finds himself in those kinds of spirited bouts a lot these days; his breathtaking come-from-behind win over Alistair Overeem is a high point of his career. He’s got the same switch most fighters do, the one that is flipped when things get a little crazy. Time stands still and things get a little dark around the edges, and Silva picks up his giant hands and swings them with abandon.
He’s hoping for a repeat performance on Saturday. With his track record, there’s a good chance he’ll get what he wants.
“I enjoy that. I like that kind of fight a lot,” he said. “The fight with Mark was such a great fight. Both of us gave their best, and that’s the most important thing. When you’re standing in the Octagon, when you’re inside the cage, you have to give your best, the best that you can.
“I was born to fight. I cannot imagine doing anything else.”
Mark Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva are going to run it back.
The two ranked heavyweights will clash for the second time this weekend at UFC 193. No. 8-ranked contender Hunt and No. 11-ranked Silva battled back and forth to a majority dra…
Mark Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva are going to run it back.
The two ranked heavyweights will clash for the second time this weekend at UFC 193. No. 8-ranked contender Hunt and No. 11-ranked Silva battled back and forth to a majority draw in December of 2013. It was a favorite fight of the year, and UFC president Dana White was in love with it—so much so that he sported a special Hunt vs. Silva II shirt at the UFC on Fox 9 weigh-ins just a week later.
Regardless of the extracurriculars surrounding the post-fight shenanigans, Hunt vs. Silva was an amazing fight. It has set the bar high for this rematch, and it is a mark they will fail to clear. Why?
The most obvious reason this fight will not live up to the first encounter is that each fight is unique, and it is very difficult to replicate the same results twice. Lightning rarely strikes twice. The two fighters will be making adjustments to their game plans, and that makes the fight different. Their camps are also different. Hunt has been spending time at AKA Thailand with Mike Swick.
Hunt and Bigfoot are also two years—and three fights—older. Hunt has been knocked out by Fabricio Werdum and brutalized by StipeMiocic. Silva has suffered two knockouts as well at the hands of Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir. That damage takes its toll on a fighter’s career.
It’s not particularly likely that they can withstand the same amount of brutality they went through two years ago.
Then there are differences to the fight itself, the most obvious being that this is a three-round affair, not five like their initial meeting. That singular change alters the fight drastically. Even if the fight is great, it will be cut short and fail to give us the extra two rounds we received in 2013.
Seventy of Hunt’s significant strikes and 55 of Silva’s came in the final two frames. Those two rounds were when the fight went from good to great. Hunt only landed 33 significant strikes in the first three rounds combined. He connected on 53 in the fifth round alone. As for Bigfoot? He scored on 42 significant strikes in the first three rounds while putting up 32 in the fourth.
If the UFC expected this fight to replicate the success of its predecessor, wouldn’t they be promoting the fight better?
The UFC has not featured Hunt vs. Silva II with gusto. It has been left off a lot of promotional materials, and they have even shied away from the quick and easy free Internet hits. The UFC typically posts “free fights” to their YouTube page ahead of events, and they did include a Bigfoot Silva fight—except it was against Alistair Overeem, not Hunt. Why wouldn’t they put that on their account and send it out to the masses via their massive social media following?
It’s because they have doubts about how fun this fight will be, and they don’t see the return on investment coming their way.
I am excited about this fight, but I don’t expect it to be a duplicate of the epic war they gave us previously. You should not either. It is a totally different fight that is only going to go 15 minutes at most, and recent results say don’t expect this to hit the scorecards.
Be prepared for a different, less exciting fight. Hunt vs. Bigfoot II will not be the back-and-forth battle we saw in 2013.
It looks like the UFC wants to run back one of greatest heavyweight scraps in the sport’s history.
According to a report from MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, the promotion is targeting a rematch between Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Mark Hunt for …
It looks like the UFC wants to run back one of greatest heavyweight scraps in the sport’s history.
According to a report from MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, the promotion is targeting a rematch between Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Mark Hunt for UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia.
The UFC is sparing no expenses for this Nov. 14 card (Nov. 15 in Australia due to time difference), bringing these massive fighters to an equally massive venue in Australia’s Etihad Stadium, which seats almost 54,000 fans. If the success of their first fight serves as any indication, Silva and Hunt will have the stadium rocking early and often.
Their previous encounter at UFC Fight Night 33 ended in a majority draw after each man found success throughout the fight. The rock ’em, sock ’em affair saw each man earn a knockdown, and both fighters repeatedly scored with massive blows that would’ve ended lesser men throughout the 25-minute tilt.
In all, it was unquestionably one of the greatest, most competitive fights in heavyweight history, and it’s one UFC commentator Jon Anik points to as one of his favorite moments in his professional career.
The fact that the first fight was so incredible—and the fact that it was deemed a tie—makes the rematch incredibly compelling.
The two men’s trajectories since that fight also add to the intrigue.
Both fighters are 1-2 since UFC Fight Night 33, losing twice and winning once via knockout.
With that in mind, it’s likely we’ll see a much different fight the second time around, as each man has shown a decreased ability to absorb punishment since their first encounter.
The good news is when the cage door closes, there will be no more questions, only answers. Bigfoot and Hunt will pen their responses with punches, kicks, knees and elbows to the delight of millions across the globe.
Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for an official announcement regarding this much-anticipated rematch.
If you are looking for one final clue about who most people—including the promoters—think will win Saturday’s 