Following her first-ever UFC loss to Rose Namajunas and a successful stint on “Dancing With The Stars” where she finished in second place, popular women’s strawweight Paige VanZant is set to return to fighting. “12 Gauge” announced on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” today (Wed., June 23, 2016) that she will fight Bec Rawlings at August 21’s UFC on
Following her first-ever UFC loss to Rose Namajunas and a successful stint on “Dancing With The Stars” where she finished in second place, popular women’s strawweight Paige VanZant is set to return to fighting.
“12 Gauge” announced on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” today (Wed., June 23, 2016) that she will fight Bec Rawlings at August 21’s UFC on FOX 21 from Vancouver, British Columbia. VanZant stated her excitement for the bout:
“I am so excited about this match-up. I think it’s perfect. Especially coming back into the UFC after being away with ‘Dancing with the Stars’,” said VanZant. “I love Canada… I can’t wait for this one.”
VanZant will look to rebound from a dominant submission loss to surging contender Rose Namajunas in the main event of UFC Fight Night 80 last December, the first stoppage loss of her MMA career. With holes to fix and haters to prove wrong, VanZant said the time of “Dancing With The Stars” helped her be rid of some prior nagging injuries from training:
“The few nagging injuries I had in my two previous UFC fights are completely gone, because I haven’t done the impact training, the head-on collisions,” VanZant said. “It actually really helped. It was great cardio and kept me in shape… I really miss MMA and the UFC.”
The 22-year-old fan favorite was also reported to have signed on for a significant role in the upcoming martial arts film “Kickboxer: Retaliation,” but has instead turned down the part in order to focus on training.
She’ll face an opponent with more momentum in Rawlings, who recently secured her second straight UFC win by defeating Seohee Ham at March 20’s UFC Fight Night 85 after submitting Lisa Ellis at UFC Fight Night 65 in her native Australia last May. The win streak comes at a pivotal time for the Aussie, as she lost her UFC debut to Heather Jo Clark at the The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 20 Finale in late 2014.
But VanZant still holds the higher ranking at No. 10 over the unranked Rawlings, making this a vital statement bout for both women.
UFC on FOX 21 also features the featherweight debut of former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, who will meet Brazilian jiu-jitsu wiz Charles Oliveira.
A women’s strawweight contest started the main card of UFC Fight Night 85. The two combatants were Seo Hee Ham (16-7) and Bec Rawlings (7-4). Ham countered Rawlings early in the fight. She connected with a left hand to the jaw. Rawlings landed her own left hand. A straight left hand found the target for
A women’s strawweight contest started the main card of UFC Fight Night 85. The two combatants were Seo Hee Ham (16-7) and Bec Rawlings (7-4).
Ham countered Rawlings early in the fight. She connected with a left hand to the jaw. Rawlings landed her own left hand. A straight left hand found the target for the South Korean bruiser. “Rowdy” landed a clean right hand. Ham kept giving her opponent problems with the left hand. The two exchanged punches with Rawlings landing the more powerful strikes. Ham ran into a left hook. A head kick from “Rowdy” was blocked to end the round.
Rawlings was active at the start of round two. Ham found the mark with a push kick. Rawlings slowed down a bit to find her rhythm. A body kick from Ham found the target. “Rowdy” caught the leg of her opponent and completed a takedown. Rawlings thwarted a triangle attempt and took the back of Ham. She transitioned to an arm bar attempt, but Ham escaped. Ham connected with combinations. She ducked a spinning back fist and grabbed a hold of her opponent. A body kick from Ham landed as round two came to a close.
Ham landed a combination and a push kick at the start of the final round. Rawlings went for a takedown and wound up in Ham’s triangle. “Rowdy” landed some knees to the side of Ham while still in the triangle. She escaped the position. Ham landed a knee to the body while her back was against the fence. Rawlings maintained Octagon control, pressing Ham against the cage. Ham landed another knee to the body and the two fighters battle for control. The two broke free as the final horn sounded.
The score totals were read and “Rowdy” was declared the winner. Two of the three judges gave Rawlings a very questionable 30-27 score.
Final Result: Bec Rawlings def. Seo Hee Ham via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
The UFC crowned its first women’s strawweight champion last night. Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas tore through the cast of The Ultimate Fighter season 20 and met one another in the finals.
Namajunas had a great showing in the first round, but in the second and third, Esparza’s wrestling and power became too much for Namajunas to handle. She took Namajunas down at will and controlled her easily, eventually taking her back in the third round and securing a rear naked choke.
Get the fight card’s complete results — including KJ Noons vs. Daron Cruickshank and Charles Oliveira vs. Jeremy Stephens — after the jump.
Namajunas had a great showing in the first round, but in the second and third, Esparza’s wrestling and power became too much for Namajunas to handle. She took Namajunas down at will and controlled her easily, eventually taking her back in the third round and securing a rear naked choke.
The card’s co-main event featured Jeremy Stephens and Charles Oliveira. The contest was one-sided, with Oliveira taking Stephens down repeatedly and nearly locking in arm-bar after arm-bar. To Stephens’ credit, he managed to escape every one — even the harrowing arm-bar attempts where his arm was completely extended. However, he barely landed any significant offense throughout the fight. Oliveira just smothered him too much with constant pressure in the wrestling department as well as unending submission attempts. The judges awarded Oliveira with a unanimous decision win.
Here are the complete results from the TUF 20 Finale:
Main Card
Carla Esparza def. Rose Namajunas via submission (rear naked choke) 1:26 of round 3
Charles Oliveira def. Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
KJ Noons and Darron Cruickshank ends in a no contest via accidental eye poke, 0:25 of round 2.
Yancy Medeiros def. Joe Proctor via submission (guillotine), 4:37 of round 1.
Jessica Penne def. Randa Markos via split decision (28-29, 30-27, 29-28)
Preliminary Card
Felice Herrig def. Lisa Ellis via submission (arm-bar), 1:53 of round 2.
Heather Jo Clark def. Bec Rawlings via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Joanne Calderwood def. Seo Hee Ham via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).
Tecia Torres def. Angela Magana via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Aisling Daly def. Alex Chambers via submission (arm bar), 4:53 of round 1.
Angela Hill def. Emily Kagan via unanimous decisio (30-27, 30-26, 30-27)
(Here’s what the TUF 20 bracket looks like after episode 1; click image for full size version. Team Pettis is in green, Team Melendez is in purple. Props: Reddit MMA)
Last night’s premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned ended with Invicta FC standout Tecia Torres losing in a major upset, when she dropped a three-round decision to the relatively unheralded Randa Markos. If you think that’s a “spoiler” because you haven’t watched the episode yet, well, now you know how the rest of us feel. Due to some epic screw-ups by the UFC production team, the Torres/Markos result was briefly revealed on the broadcast before the fight had even aired, and UFC.com posted an episode recap while the show was still going on. Those are spoilers, my friends.
But all that weirdness aside, TUF 20 episode 1 was a highly satisfying two hours — and not just because the CagePotato logo appeared on the broadcast several times (!) in footage from Rose Namajunas’s Invicta fights. In an interesting change of format, the 16 strawweight competitors were given seeding-numbers based on their rank in the division, and placed into a bracket; #1-ranked Carla Esparza will fight #16-ranked Angela Hill, #2-ranked Joanne Calderwood will fight #15-ranked Emily Kagan, and so on. Coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez still got to pick their teams based on which fighters they liked best after an evaluation session — and they’ll still decide the order of the fights — but they weren’t given the seed-numbers beforehand. It worked out like this…
Instead of giving you a scene-by-scene rundown of everything that happened on the show, we’d like to debut the TUF 20 Checklist, which will hopefully hit the major themes that you’ll be seeing each week. Here we go…
(Here’s what the TUF 20 bracket looks like after episode 1; click image for full size version. Team Pettis is in green, Team Melendez is in purple. Props: Reddit MMA)
Last night’s premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned ended with Invicta FC standout Tecia Torres losing in a major upset, when she dropped a three-round decision to the relatively unheralded Randa Markos. If you think that’s a “spoiler” because you haven’t watched the episode yet, well, now you know how the rest of us feel. Due to some epic screw-ups by the UFC production team, the Torres/Markos result was briefly revealed on the broadcast before the fight had even aired, and UFC.com posted an episode recap while the show was still going on. Those are spoilers, my friends.
But all that weirdness aside, TUF 20 episode 1 was a highly satisfying two hours — and not just because the CagePotato logo appeared on the broadcast several times (!) in footage from Rose Namajunas’s Invicta fights. In an interesting change of format, the 16 strawweight competitors were given seeding-numbers based on their rank in the division, and placed into a bracket; #1-ranked Carla Esparza will fight #16-ranked Angela Hill, #2-ranked Joanne Calderwood will fight #15-ranked Emily Kagan, and so on. Coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez still got to pick their teams based on which fighters they liked best after an evaluation session — and they’ll still decide the order of the fights — but they weren’t given the seed-numbers beforehand. It worked out like this…
Instead of giving you a scene-by-scene rundown of everything that happened on the show, we’d like to debut the TUF 20 Checklist, which will hopefully hit the major themes that you’ll be seeing each week. Here we go…
Did the “ladies bring it” in the episode’s fight?: Yeah, they absolutely did. Tecia Torres dominated the first round against Randa Markos, battering the Iraqi-Canadian with her trademark side-kick and some painful-looking oblique kicks. (Torres was also aided by Herb Dean’s less-than-stellar officiating.) When Markos tried to take the fight to the ground, Torres wouldn’t let her. But Markos came alive in the second frame, eventually dragging Torres to the mat and smashing her with ground-and-pound. It was clear that both women were fading during the sudden victory round, but once again, Markos managed to score a takedown late in the round, and held Torres on her back until the final horn, which was enough to earn her the nod from all three judges. It was a truly gutsy performance from Markos, who we figured didn’t have a chance in this one.
Most absurd Dana White exaggeration (tie):
– “It’s the most important season we’ve ever done.” I think he meant “with the obvious exception of season 1.”
– “One of these girls is literally gonna become one of the biggest stars in the world.” Oh man. Demetrious Johnson is ten pounds heavier and has a penis, and he still can’t get over with fans.
Best tease of a scene from a future episode: At some point in the season, Dana White will have to console a crying “Rowdy” Bec Rawlings in a back room at the TUF gym. That usually means “injury,” but we’ll see. Poor Rowdy Bec. Also, one of the women passes out during a weight cut at one point.
Scariest quote: “Those women are my food.” — Angela Magana. Holy shit. Take this thing back to Baltimore! Thug Rose gets an honorable mention for her speech about how she enjoys hurting people.
