Earlier today (February 1, 2016), former UFC lightweight champion “Smooth” Benson Henderson announced that he would be taking his talents over to Scott Coker run Bellator MMA. Riding a two fight win streak, Henderson fought out his contract with the UFC, ending it off with a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal last November. After
Earlier today (February 1, 2016), former UFC lightweight champion “Smooth” Benson Henderson announced that he would be taking his talents over to Scott Coker run Bellator MMA.
Riding a two fight win streak, Henderson fought out his contract with the UFC, ending it off with a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal last November.
After the fight with Masvidal, it was very clear that “Smooth” was a free agent, and with the Reebok sponsorship deal limiting UFC fighters, many had expected him to jump ship and he did just that.
Henderson was quick to thank the UFC, and President Dana White even commented on the news soon after it was announced.
White, speaking with MMAJunkie, claimed that the UFC had actually offered a substantially larger deal than Bellator, but that Bellator had offered Bendo more money up front.
The UFC president also seemed to take a shot at the former champion, seemingly implying that he has declined over time:
“The truth is we made him an offer that would have paid him substantially more – like not even in the same ballpark – than he’s getting now if he were to become world champion again, but he chose their deal, which offered more up front,” White said. “He’s a former world champion who’s ranked No. 15 now. We’re looking for top-5 guys, guys that are going from 15 to 1, not the other way around.”
At the end of the day, White admitted that he was happy for Henderson, wishing him all the best:
“But I’m honestly happy for Benson. I’m not angry. Who knows? This could be the last contract he ever signs. He got the right deal for him. He’s a great guy, and we wish him all the best.”
Did Henderson make the right decision in joining Bellator?
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is the most unpredictable sport in the world. Not only when it comes to the elite combat stars that participate inside the Octagon, but also the three knuckleheads that score the action. That’s why UFC President Dana White has repeatedly hammered home the notion that a fighter should never leave it
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is the most unpredictable sport in the world.
Not only when it comes to the elite combat stars that participate inside the Octagon, but also the three knuckleheads that score the action. That’s why UFC President Dana White has repeatedly hammered home the notion that a fighter should never leave it in the hands of the judges.
Yet despite the aforementioned warning, many fights do not end before the clock does. Even in some of the more notable title clashes in promotional history, judges play a more important role than the championship caliber athletes themselves.
It’s a harsh reality when the scoring goes awry, but the sport has not evolved to the point of actually fixing the system across the board.
In accordance with the decisions that just didn’t go the way they were supposed to, here are the four most egregious split-decision calls in UFC championship history.
I’ll be honest with you, Nation: Not much of note happened at last weekend’s Fight Night event from Seoul, South Korea, so much so that the UFC hasn’t even released any actual fight highlights from the event. In the main event of the evening, Benson Henderson did his Benson Henderson thing and outpointed Jorge “GAMEBRED” Masvidal en route to a split decision victory, then both symbolically announced he was leaving the UFC and called out Georges St. Pierre. At least I think he did. It was all a bit confusing, so you’ll have to watch his post-fight interview above to get some sense of it.
What else? Oh right, guys named “Dong” — of which there were 3 on the Fight Night 79 card — went a solid (or perhaps firm) 2-1 on the evening, with Dong Hyun Kim scoring a first round TKO over Dominic Waters in the evening’s co-main event, Dongi Yang defeating Jake Collier via second round TKO in the “featured prelim,” and the other, debuting Dong Hyun Kim suffering a hellacious KO via slam to Dominique Steele in the first bout of the night. So basically, two dongs stood proud while one wilted under the pressure. Not a bad ratio, amiright ladies?
Video of Steele’s brutal slam and the full results from Fight Night 79 are after the jump.
I’ll be honest with you, Nation: Not much of note happened at last weekend’s Fight Night event from Seoul, South Korea, so much so that the UFC hasn’t even released any actual fight highlights from the event. In the main event of the evening, Benson Henderson did his Benson Henderson thing and outpointed Jorge “GAMEBRED” Masvidal en route to a split decision victory, then both symbolically announced he was leaving the UFC and called out Georges St. Pierre. At least I think he did. It was all a bit confusing, so you’ll have to watch his post-fight interview above to get some sense of it.
What else? Oh right, guys named “Dong” — of which there were 3 on the Fight Night 79 card — went a solid (or perhaps firm) 2-1 on the evening, with Dong Hyun Kim scoring a first round TKO over Dominic Waters in the evening’s co-main event, Dongi Yang defeating Jake Collier via second round TKO in the “featured prelim,” and the other, debuting Dong Hyun Kim suffering a hellacious KO via slam to Dominique Steele in the first bout of the night. So basically, two dongs stood proud while one wilted under the pressure. Not a bad ratio, amiright ladies?
Video of Steele’s brutal slam and the full results from Fight Night 79 are after the jump.
Elsewhere on the Fight Night 79 main card, Yoshihiro Akiyama dropped a questionable split decision to Alberto “Soldier of God” Mina, who should definitely consider changing his nickname before the one true SoG, Yoel Romero, makes him do it. Anyways, the by-far most entertaining moment from the bout came when Sexiyama removed his shirt.
Opening up the main card, highly-touted prospect Doo-Ho Choi continued his streak of TKO finishes, making quick work of veteran Sam Sicilia with a first round knockout. The impressive finish was made all the more impressive by the fact that Sicilia had never been finished by strikes prior to the bout. Keep an eye on “The Korean Superboy,” Nation, he’s definitely going places.
The full results for Fight Night 79 are below.
Main Card (Fight Pass)
Benson Henderson def. Jorge Masvidal by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46)
Dong-Hyun Kim def. Dominic Waters by TKO via punches at 3:11 of Round 1
Alberto Mina def. Yoshihiro Akiyama by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Doo-Ho Choi def. Sam Sicilia by TKO via punches at 1:33 of Round 1
Preliminary Card (Fight Pass)
Dongi Yang def. Jake Collier by TKO via punches at 1:50 of Round 2
Mike de la Torre def. Yui-Chul Nam by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Tae-Hyun Bang def. Leo Kuntz by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Seo-Hee Ham def. Cortney Casey by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Fredy Serrano def. Yao Zhikui by TKO via injury at 0:44 of Round 1
Marco Beltran def. Ning Guangyou by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Dominique Steele def. Dong-Hyun Kim by TKO via slam at 0:37 of Round 3
I’ll be honest with you, Nation: Not much of note happened at last weekend’s Fight Night event from Seoul, South Korea, so much so that the UFC hasn’t even released any actual fight highlights from the event. In the main event of the evening, Benson Henderson did his Benson Henderson thing and outpointed Jorge “GAMEBRED” Masvidal en route to a split decision victory, then both symbolically announced he was leaving the UFC and called out Georges St. Pierre. At least I think he did. It was all a bit confusing, so you’ll have to watch his post-fight interview above to get some sense of it.
What else? Oh right, guys named “Dong” — of which there were 3 on the Fight Night 79 card — went a solid (or perhaps firm) 2-1 on the evening, with Dong Hyun Kim scoring a first round TKO over Dominic Waters in the evening’s co-main event, Dongi Yang defeating Jake Collier via second round TKO in the “featured prelim,” and the other, debuting Dong Hyun Kim suffering a hellacious KO via slam to Dominique Steele in the first bout of the night. So basically, two dongs stood proud while one wilted under the pressure. Not a bad ratio, amiright ladies?
Video of Steele’s brutal slam and the full results from Fight Night 79 are after the jump.
I’ll be honest with you, Nation: Not much of note happened at last weekend’s Fight Night event from Seoul, South Korea, so much so that the UFC hasn’t even released any actual fight highlights from the event. In the main event of the evening, Benson Henderson did his Benson Henderson thing and outpointed Jorge “GAMEBRED” Masvidal en route to a split decision victory, then both symbolically announced he was leaving the UFC and called out Georges St. Pierre. At least I think he did. It was all a bit confusing, so you’ll have to watch his post-fight interview above to get some sense of it.
What else? Oh right, guys named “Dong” — of which there were 3 on the Fight Night 79 card — went a solid (or perhaps firm) 2-1 on the evening, with Dong Hyun Kim scoring a first round TKO over Dominic Waters in the evening’s co-main event, Dongi Yang defeating Jake Collier via second round TKO in the “featured prelim,” and the other, debuting Dong Hyun Kim suffering a hellacious KO via slam to Dominique Steele in the first bout of the night. So basically, two dongs stood proud while one wilted under the pressure. Not a bad ratio, amiright ladies?
Video of Steele’s brutal slam and the full results from Fight Night 79 are after the jump.
Elsewhere on the Fight Night 79 main card, Yoshihiro Akiyama dropped a questionable split decision to Alberto “Soldier of God” Mina, who should definitely consider changing his nickname before the one true SoG, Yoel Romero, makes him do it. Anyways, the by-far most entertaining moment from the bout came when Sexiyama removed his shirt.
Opening up the main card, highly-touted prospect Doo-Ho Choi continued his streak of TKO finishes, making quick work of veteran Sam Sicilia with a first round knockout. The impressive finish was made all the more impressive by the fact that Sicilia had never been finished by strikes prior to the bout. Keep an eye on “The Korean Superboy,” Nation, he’s definitely going places.
The full results for Fight Night 79 are below.
Main Card (Fight Pass)
Benson Henderson def. Jorge Masvidal by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 49-46)
Dong-Hyun Kim def. Dominic Waters by TKO via punches at 3:11 of Round 1
Alberto Mina def. Yoshihiro Akiyama by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Doo-Ho Choi def. Sam Sicilia by TKO via punches at 1:33 of Round 1
Preliminary Card (Fight Pass)
Dongi Yang def. Jake Collier by TKO via punches at 1:50 of Round 2
Mike de la Torre def. Yui-Chul Nam by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Tae-Hyun Bang def. Leo Kuntz by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Seo-Hee Ham def. Cortney Casey by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Fredy Serrano def. Yao Zhikui by TKO via injury at 0:44 of Round 1
Marco Beltran def. Ning Guangyou by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Dominique Steele def. Dong-Hyun Kim by TKO via slam at 0:37 of Round 3
Greetings, Nation. If you haven’t noticed by the all but complete lack of posts this week, I’ve been away from the office (and in fact out of the state) to deal with some legal issues pertaining to a…gambling snafu. Yeah, let’s go with that.
My recent absence aside, the cutbacks across the board here at Castle CP have forced us to severely limit the amount of posts we can put up per day. So I, in my infinite wisdom, figured a John Oliver-esque recap of the week’s events in a single post would be the best way to keep you in the know moving forward, should CP happen to be your lone source of MMA news. Which if it is…
But let us begin with perhaps the biggest story of the week…
Greetings, Nation. If you haven’t noticed by the all but complete lack of posts this week, I’ve been away from the office (and in fact out of the state) to deal with some legal issues pertaining to a…gambling snafu. Yeah, let’s go with that.
My recent absence aside, the cutbacks across the board here at Castle CP have forced us to severely limit the amount of posts we can put up per day. So I, in my infinite wisdom, figured a John Oliver-esque recap of the week’s events in a single post would be the best way to keep you in the know moving forward, should CP happen to be your lone source of MMA news. Which if it is…
But let us begin with perhaps the biggest story of the week…
-In news no one — I repeat, no one — could have seen coming (except us, like, a month ago), Rampage Jackson has been forced out of his UFC 186 co-main event matchup with Fabio Maldonado. OH THE SHOCK AND TERROR AND ALSO AWE. If you recall, Bellator filed a lawsuit against Jackson back in March following the news that he had re-signed with the UFC while still under one of those “crazy contracts” that the Rebney Era became infamous for.
On Tuesday, New Jersey judge Karen L. Suter granted Bellator an injunction that successfully blocked Rampage from fighting at UFC 186 at the end of the month. When asked why she backed Bellator in this case, Suter claimed that “Equities plaintiff legal talk legal talk peas and carrots.” I’m paraphrasing, but you can read the bullet points here.
-In a more positive story, the UFC announced the hiring of “anti-doping crusader” Jeff Novitzky as vice president of athlete health and performance, a huge step forward in light of the promotion’s newly-instated drug testing policies. Novitzky is the perhaps best known for leading the investigation against both Barry Bonds and BALCO back in 2002 and Lance Armstrong in 2010 while working for the FDA. Why Chael Sonnen, who called out Armstrong years before any of us were ready to hear it, has not yet been brought onto the UFC’s new anti-steroid A-team remains a complete mystery.
-Speaking of steroids, Jorge de Oliveira became the most recent UFC fighter to get nailed for stanozolol, following his loss to Christos Giagos at Fight Night 62. Oliveira has been suspended for a year retroactive to the March 21st event, and his name will likely never be spoken on our tongues again.
-Alexis Dufresne (relationship status to Andy Dufresne: Uncertain) was also caught by a pre-fight medical…for pregnancy! You see how I turned that around on you like that? Bow down to the master, bitches!!! (But seriously, pregnancy is a beautiful thing and should not be trivialized.) Following her 0-2 run in the UFC, Dufresne was set to make her Bellator debut at Bellator 137 in May until a pre-fight medical exam revealed that she was with child.
-In fight-booking news, Mike Swick has been greenlit to return to the octagon for the first time since his 1-1 run in the promotion back in 2012, which itself followed a two year absence due to injuries. The inventor of The Swickatine, Swicks Cheese, and The Swick-ffer will face off against dangerous striker Alex Garcia at UFC 189.
-For its first trip to Poland, the UFC has booked an absolutely abysmal card in Fight Night 64, as is tradition. Barring the main event rematch between Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga, the four fight main card features three fighters without a Wikipedia page, one of whom is named Sheldon. Sheldon, you guys. UFC Krakow does feature the long-awaited debut of Alexandra Albu, however, which makes this a good a time as any to remind you that she is smokin’ hot…er…incredibly marketable.
-And finally, this photo. My God, this photo. (via r/mma)
Last weekend’s Fight Night: Henderson vs. Thatch was something of a mixed bag. On one hand, it featured a main event that was both thrilling from start to finish and a solid reminder that Ben Henderson is a badass, toothpicking-chewing sumbitch in any weight class. On the other, it featured more than its share of underwhelming, glacially-paced sparring matches that stretched its six fight main card to the brink of watchability. (We’re looking at you, Dan Kelly vs. Patrick Walsh. Your fight was bad and you should feel bad.)
Frontrunners for “Worst Fight of the Year” aside, Fight Night 60 also saw Max Holloway tie Conor McGregor‘s featherweight win streak and Tim Elliott hit a Samoan Drop on Zach Makovsky (en route to a unanimous decision loss). So join us after the jump to check out all the Fight Night 60 highlights that the UFC will allow us to have, and what the hell, we’ll even throw some Bellator 133 highlights in there for ya.
Last weekend’s Fight Night: Henderson vs. Thatch was something of a mixed bag. On one hand, it featured a main event that was both thrilling from start to finish and a solid reminder that Ben Henderson is a badass, toothpicking-chewing sumbitch in any weight class. On the other, it featured more than its share of underwhelming, glacially-paced sparring matches that stretched its six fight main card to the brink of watchability. (We’re looking at you, Dan Kelly vs. Patrick Walsh. Your fight was bad and you should feel bad.)
Frontrunners for “Worst Fight of the Year” aside, Fight Night 60 also saw Max Holloway tie Conor McGregor‘s featherweight win streak and Tim Elliott hit a Samoan Drop on Zach Makovsky (en route to a unanimous decision loss). So join us after the jump to check out all the Fight Night 60 highlights that the UFC will allow us to have, and what the hell, we’ll even throw some Bellator 133 highlights in there for ya.
Holloway vs. Miller
Makovsky vs. Elliot
On the Bellator side of things, Melvin Manhoef once again made the case for him to just stop already by eating a spinning elbow from the king of spinning shit, Alexander Shlemenko, in the second round of their main event scrap. This was the third time in 7 months that Melvin has tasted such a violent defeat, and while we would normally hop on our soapbox and beg for Manhoef to retire about now, we’re going to refrain from doing so. MMA has taught us nothing if not that our opinions are useless, so we say fight on, Melvin! Pay no mind to those increasingly noticeable tremors, memory loss, and inability to pronounce words. That’s just weakness leaving the body! HYEAHH!!!
