Tag: Brandon Vera

UFC on FOX 4: What If None of the Light Heavyweights Look Impressive?

On yesterday’s UFC on Fox 4 media call, Dana White stirred up some controversy when he announced that the winner of the bout between Brandon Vera and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua would receive the next shot at the light heavyweight title. It shocked ever…

On yesterday’s UFC on Fox 4 media call, Dana White stirred up some controversy when he announced that the winner of the bout between Brandon Vera and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua would receive the next shot at the light heavyweight title. 

It shocked everyone as both Shogun and Vera were man-handled by the current UFC champion Jon Jones when they fought him. What made it even more surprising was when people started to really look at each fighter’s overall records since losing to Jones. 

After losing to Jones on Versus, Vera was given another shot in the Octagon. He was cut from the UFC following a loss to Thiago Silva at UFC 125. It was only after the post-fight drug tests came back that Vera’s UFC career was saved. He then won an extremely close decision over Elliot Marshall at UFC 137. 

Shogun’s road back to Jones is just as bumpy. Shogun was stopped in the third round when he fought the champ at UFC 128. It was Rua’s first and only light heavyweight title defense. Following the loss, he picked up a win over Forrest Griffin and then dropped a decision to Dan Henderson in what was the fight of the year in 2011. 

Neither fighter has been all that impressive as of late, which is why when fans went to twitter to complain, White amended his original plans for the light heavyweight title picture. 

“When the fans speak, we listen. So whoever scores the best win, whoever gets the fans excited by going out there on Saturday and looking the most impressive, he will get the winner of Jones vs. Henderson,” said White in a UFC press release. 

He added, “it is down to what these four guys do Saturday night in the Octagon. Winning isn’t enough, they’ve got to win impressively. Any one of these four fighters can take things into their own hands and make a title shot happen.”

All four fighters have lost to Jones in the past, and, at one point or another, all four have been really unimpressive in victories in the UFC. 

And that’s the nightmare scenario. 

What if no one is impressive?

What if Ryan Bader wins a boring lay ‘n pray decision over Lyoto Machida? What if Machida earns a point fighting decision over Bader? It’s very possible that a skilled Muay Thai fighter such as Brandon Vera could win by a fluke cut. And it’s just as possible that Shogun shows up unmotivated and looking like the same guy who beat Mark Coleman at UFC 93 in a lackluster fight. 

These are all possible outcomes. Now, obviously White and company expect the fighters to go and fight their butts off for redemption. And I have the same expectation. But until the night is over, there’s a huge question of “what if?”

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UFC: What the Light Heavyweight Title Picture Should Have Looked Like

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera have won a combined two fights since June of 2010, but thanks to a shocking announcement by Dana White, one of them will have a light heavyweight title shot after their fight at UFC on Fox 4.Both fighters were pul…

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera have won a combined two fights since June of 2010, but thanks to a shocking announcement by Dana White, one of them will have a light heavyweight title shot after their fight at UFC on Fox 4.

Both fighters were pulled from previously scheduled fights and put in the main event for Saturday’s fight at the Staples Center.

The co-main event will pit Ryan Bader with the former champion Lyoto Machida. 

Matchmaker Joe Silva usually gets it right with his decisions, but he made several big mistakes, not only with the matches, but in making the Rua-Vera winner the No. 1 contender.

Rua may be a big name, but he’s 1-2 in his last three fights. Vera is 4-3 since moving to light heavyweight, his biggest win coming against Krzysztof Soszynski in August of 2009. Neither of those scream out No. 1 contender.

Here’s how this weekend, as well as the light heavyweight title picture should have looked:

1. Make the main event Shogun vs. Machida 3. Machida is a bigger name than Vera, and fans love trilogies.

2. Make the co-main event Bader vs. Vera. Both had high hopes and had flashes of brilliance before suffering setbacks, and both are once again trying to climb the ladder. 

3. Pit the Shogun-Machida winner against Alexander Gustafsson. Lost in all of this is the 25-year-old Swede who’s 6-1 in the UFC, including five straight wins, including knockouts of Matt Hamill and Vladimir Matyushenko. He beat Thiago Silva, the same guy who beat Vera before failing a drug test, in April, and yet is somehow behind Vera in terms of getting a title shot? Does that make sense to anybody?

While this Saturday should be a fantastic night of fights, what follows it may not be so fantastic.

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Dana White Listens to Fans Once Again, Yanks Away Vera’s Short-Lived Dream

Never let it be said that Dana White doesn’t listen to the fans. Well, the fans on Twitter, anyway. For some reason, White considers Twitter a separate portion of the internet. To him, it’s not the same as visiting The Underground or any of the do…

Never let it be said that Dana White doesn’t listen to the fans. 

Well, the fans on Twitter, anyway. For some reason, White considers Twitter a separate portion of the internet. To him, it’s not the same as visiting The Underground or any of the dozens of digital domains where hardcore MMA geeks reside.

This is ludicrous, of course. But that’s okay, because Twitter still provides you, the average mixed martial arts fan, with a way to voice your opinion that will most definitely be heard by the UFC President.

Witness the recent Tim Sylvia signing-and-then-non-signing by Strikeforce. According to sources close to the situation, that was a deal killed entirely by fan backlash to the news on Twitter. News of Sylvia’s signing leaked out, the fans reacted in great volume on Twitter and White put the kibosh on the whole deal before it could be completed.

And now, we have yet another example of Twitter’s power. Remember yesterday when White announced, much to the confusion of everyone in the entire world, that the winner of Saturday’s UFC on FOX bout between Mauricio Rua and Brandon Vera was going to receive the next shot at the light heavyweight title? 

Well, that’s over. And you can once again blame—or thank, depending on your point of view—Twitter for the change. From MMAJunkie.com:

“Whoever wins the most impressively on Saturday night gets the shot at the title,” White said.

White’s decision comes after a rash of fan backlash following his original announcement. UFC’s social-media-savvy fanbase immediately took to Twitter to protest the decision while citing Rua’s recent losses to both current champion Jon Jones and the champ’s UFC 151 opponent, Dan Henderson – as well as Vera’s current run of just one win in four appearances – as reasons why the bout did not deserve to be considered a No. 1 contender’s contest.

White said he listened to the complaints, and he’s making a change.

“I put together the fights that fans want to see,” White said. “The fans didn’t like the Rua and Vera choice, so here it is: The guy that wins most impressively on Saturday night out of the co-main event and the main event will get the shot at the winner of Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson.”

Sure, this sucks for Vera. But let’s do some real talk for a second: Vera shouldn’t be in consideration for a title shot here anyway. Even if he pulls off the craziest and most violent knockout in UFC history—think Anderson Silva footing Vitor Belfort’s chin through the roof—Vera should still, by all logical standards, be at least two fights from getting into the title picture.

With this new setup, he still has a chance.

And in reality, his goal shouldn’t change in the slightest. Each of these four men should have been going out looking for an utterly dominant win and a great performance in the first place, because we all know how these types of proclamations can change on the fly.

Just witness the past 24 hours for a perfect example. 

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Even Jon Jones Can’t Make Sense of the Current Title Picture at 205

It’s good to know that we weren’t alone in our confusion when it was announced that the winner of either the Mauricio Rua/Brandon Vera or Lyoto Machida/Ryan Bader bouts, specifically the former, would be in line for the next title shot at 205 lbs. Given that current champion Jon Jones has walked through all four of those gentlemen before, we struggled to find the reasoning behind the alleged title shot that supposedly awaited the most impressive winner from this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 event. Then again, Rich Franklin has decided to chase after middleweight gold and revenge for a third time (which totally wont end in his untimely death), so maybe we were too quick to write off these former champions, TUF winners, and hype machines. In either case, Bones took to his Twitter account to voice his frustration, sending out the above tweet yesterday which simply states “Scratching my head.”

But perhaps even more confounding than the UFC’s apparent apathy in regards to JBJ was the realization that the light heavyweight division, one of the most stacked and competitive divisions in the UFC for some time, has nearly been cleared out in a little over a year. If Jones gets past Dan Henderson at UFC 151, something he obviously feels he is going to do as evidenced by the above tweet, there will arguably be only two viable candidates left for him to face: Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira.

Dana White has teased that the man known by the Potato Nation as “Bjones” is “ready for a big fight now”, leading us to believe that a meeting with Rashad Evans could be on the horizon. A victory over the former champ would all but cement the Swede’s position atop the division. As for Teixeira, it’s simply too early to tell. He looked great in his debut victory over Kyle Kingsbury, but needs to face at least one of the upper echelon fighters before we are convinced he is ready for a title shot. But for the moment, it appears that the LHW division needs an H-bomb like Nick Diaz needs a clue.

In other, alcohol-related Jon Jones news…

It’s good to know that we weren’t alone in our confusion when it was announced that the winner of either the Mauricio Rua/Brandon Vera or Lyoto Machida/Ryan Bader bouts, specifically the former, would be in line for the next title shot at 205 lbs. Given that current champion Jon Jones has walked through all four of those gentlemen before, we struggled to find the reasoning behind the alleged title shot that supposedly awaited the most impressive winner from this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 event. Then again, Rich Franklin has decided to chase after middleweight gold and revenge for a third time (which totally wont end in his untimely death), so maybe we were too quick to write off these former champions, TUF winners, and hype machines. In either case, Bones took to his Twitter account to voice his frustration, sending out the above tweet yesterday which simply states “Scratching my head.”

But perhaps even more confounding than the UFC’s apparent apathy in regards to JBJ was the realization that the light heavyweight division, one of the most stacked and competitive divisions in the UFC for some time, has nearly been cleared out in a little over a year. If Jones gets past Dan Henderson at UFC 151, something he obviously feels he is going to do as evidenced by the above tweet, there will arguably be only two viable candidates left for him to face: Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira.

Dana White has teased that the man known by the Potato Nation as “Bjones” is “ready for a big fight now”, leading us to believe that a meeting with Rashad Evans could be on the horizon. A victory over the former champ would all but cement the Swede’s position atop the division. As for Teixeira, it’s simply too early to tell. He looked great in his debut victory over Kyle Kingsbury, but needs to face at least one of the upper echelon fighters before we are convinced he is ready for a title shot. But for the moment, it appears that the LHW division needs an H-bomb like Nick Diaz needs a clue.

In other, alcohol-related Jon Jones news…

A ruling has finally been handed down in Jones’ May 19th DUI arrest, which was delayed on several occasions to give Bones enough time to complete his whopping two day court-mandated alcohol abuse and dependency evaluation. The champion received a $1,000 fine and a six month license suspension, a fee that he more than likely carries around in his shoe on a daily basis considering he totaled a quarter million dollar Batmobile in the accident. Meanwhile, you could face a fine of up to $200 if you were caught selling someone a 17 ounce soda in New York City. Clearly lawmakers in this country are determining misdemeanor based fines in the same fashion that the United States Treasury determines the most prudent move for failing insurance companies.

–J. Jones

Dana White Amends Decision: Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader Has Title Implications

Last night, a surprising announcement came from UFC President Dana White: The winner of Saturday night’s main event between Shogun Rua and Brandon Vera would receive a title shot. There was tremendous backlash from the public upon hearing thi…

Last night, a surprising announcement came from UFC President Dana White: The winner of Saturday night’s main event between Shogun Rua and Brandon Vera would receive a title shot. 

There was tremendous backlash from the public upon hearing this announcement, as both Vera and Shogun have been dominated by Jon Jones in previous fights, and “The Truth” is nowhere near being ranked these days.

This morning, White has made an amendment to that statement, as first reported by USA Today. The evening’s co-main event, featuring a battle between light-heavyweights Ryan Bader and Lyoto Machida, could also determine the next challenger at 205 pounds.

“I put together the fights that fans want to see,” White said. “The fans didn’t like the Rua and Vera choice, so here it is: The guy that wins most impressively on Saturday night out of the co-main event and the main event will get the shot at the winner of Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson.”

While this certainly gives the UFC more options in the event that Vera serves up an upset on FOX, we are still looking at a series of fighters who have already fallen to the reigning champion.

Jon Jones will look to defend his championship for the fourth time in September, when he battles Dan Henderson in the main event of UFC 151.

If Henderson finds himself successful in dethroning Jonny Bones, most of these matchups would be exciting for fans. Hendo vs Machida or Hendo vs Shogun II could prove to be an excellent matchup.

UFC on Fox 4: Shogun vs. Vera takes place Saturday at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. A four-fight main card airs on Fox. Prelims will air on FUEL TV beginning at 5pm EST.

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Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida React to Mauricio Rua vs. Brandon Vera Title Shot

There were contrasting reactions from Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida when reports filtered through that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera are now within striking distance of a shot at the 205-pound crown come UFC on FOX 4. Machida and Rya…

There were contrasting reactions from Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida when reports filtered through that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Brandon Vera are now within striking distance of a shot at the 205-pound crown come UFC on FOX 4.

Machida and Ryan Bader were also at one time, part of the whole title contender mix, but that has been firmly nipped in the bud in favor of the main eventers.

“Bones” Jones, who is the current UFC light heavyweight champion and has defeated the aforementioned quartet, is on course to defend his crown for a fourth consecutive time when he locks horns with former Strikeforce and PRIDE titlist Dan Henderson at UFC 151.

On hearing the news, Jones tweeted: “Scratching my head.”

With that in mind, he probably wasn’t the only one searching for answers to a decision that has left some of the MMA community up in arms.

The assumption is Jones’s head scratch was in regards to Vera (12-5-1NC MMA, 8-5-1NC UFC) getting a tilt at the title rather than towards Rua, or maybe it was both—who knows?

Nevertheless, with regards to Vera, his train of thought must’ve gone something along these lines:

Wait, what, seriously?

Vera! The same guy I grounded-and-pounded into having facial surgery, the same guy Thiago Silva face slapped until his heart’s content and the same guy who defeated an MMA nonentity (Eliot Marshall) in his last outing, thus giving “The Truth” a respectable sole victory in his last four fights.

If that was or wasn’t the case, well, during a UFC on FOX 4 media conference call, his former victim and erstwhile 205-pound champ Machida took an altogether different view (diplomatic and/or company man approach) of the entire situation.

I think the UFC always positions themselves correctly, and this fight could be a great fight this weekend. ‘Shogun’ was obviously a champion, and Brandon Vera has fought in two weight classes – he’s a great fighter, as well. This fight… could be deserving of a title shot. (via MMAMania.com).

At UFC 139, Rua (20-6 MMA, 4-4 UFC) lost an epic battle with Dan Henderson. A matchup nonetheless, that garnered Fight of the Year honors.

However, some would say, his entitlement to a title shot whilst riding a loss into the Vera fight is unwarranted.

That said, if Rua is victorious, “The Dragon” is open to a rubber match. It was the former who ended the so-called Machida era via first-round knockout back at UFC 113.

I think it would be a great opportunity for the both of us. Obviously I would love to face ‘Shogun’ again, and I think he probably feels the same way. It’s one victory to each of us right now, and I think it would be a great ideas and definitely put us in a good position for title contention.

 

For additional information, follow Nedu Obi on Twitter.

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