As if he didn’t already have his hands full with UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub fanned the already roaring flame of “Hapa” during a September episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (NSFW language; h/t Jesse Holland of MM…
As if he didn’t already have his hands full with UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub fanned the already roaring flame of “Hapa” during a September episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (NSFW language; h/t Jesse Holland of MMA Mania).
Two months before his fight with the third-ranked Browne at UFC 181, the unranked Schaub talked about Hapa‘s decision to leave Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA to train at the Glendale Fighting Club with Ronda Rousey‘s coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.
“Obviously, I know Ronda very well, and I know that camp pretty well,” Schaub said. “I’m not going to go into detail, but I think it’s a great thing for me that he’s training there. I’ll put it like that. I think it’s a good thing for me.”
Schaub’s comments regarding Hapa‘s change in camps apparently irked the colossal Hawaiian, who offered the following advice to “Big Brown” during Friday’s UFC Fight Night 54 Q&A (NSFW language; h/t Adam Guillen Jr. of MMA Mania).
“Honestly, I don’t want to knock him out,” Browne said. “I want him to feel what it’s like to go three rounds with me. And I’ll tell you right now, this guy, a lot of people don’t rub me the wrong way, but opinions are like a——s, you need to keep them to yourself. That’s exactly what he needs to do.”
Browne’s impressive three-fight winning streak ended in his last bout when he suffered a lopsided loss to Fabricio Werdum (unanimous decision) in a title eliminator fight at UFC on Fox 11 in April.
Prior to his setback to Werdum, Browne (16-2) scored three straight KO wins and three straight “Knockout of the Night” bonuses in less than a nine-month span in 2013.
Schaub (10-4), on the other hand, has dropped three of his last five fights, including a controversial split-decision loss to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 174 in June.
Big Brown holds a 6-4 UFC record with just two of this victories coming via decision.
The UFC’s brass evidently still considers unranked heavyweight Brendan Schaub a viable contender, even after his lackluster performance in his most recent outing at UFC 174 in June.
As reported by Fox Sports, the UFC announced Tuesday that Schaub will …
The UFC’s brass evidently still considers unranked heavyweight Brendan Schaub a viable contender, even after his lackluster performance in his most recent outing at UFC 174 in June.
As reported by Fox Sports, the UFC announced Tuesday that Schaub will square off with third-ranked heavyweight and Jackson’s MMA stalwart Travis Browne at UFC 181 in December.
Schaub acknowledged the matchup with Browne via Twitter on Tuesday.
It’s official we got a fight and it’s a big one! UFC 181 in Las Vegas vs Travis Browne http://t.co/S3AmMqIT7i
A fight with Browne arguably represents the most promising opportunity in the five-year UFC career of Schaub, a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a former tight end at the University of Colorado.
Schaub saw his two-fight winning streak come to a halt when he dropped a controversial split decision to Andrei Arlovski at UFC 174.
Schaub scored the only takedown of the bout and outstruck the former UFC heavyweight champ, 65-40, including 30-12 in the significant strikes department.
Prior to his loss at UFC 174, Schaub submitted slugger Matt Mitrione with a D’arce choke at UFC 165 in February 2013. Seven months before that win, The Hybrid earned a unanimous decision over another heavy-handed boxer, Lavar Johnson, at UFC 157.
Schaub (10-4) holds a 6-4 UFC record with three KOs.
Browne (16-2-1) was riding an impressive three-fight winning streak before getting routed by top-ranked heavyweight Fabricio Werdum in a unanimous-decision loss at UFC on Fox 11 in April.
In consecutive fights in 2013, Hapa notched KO wins over a trio of top-15 heavyweights in Gabriel Gonzaga (No. 12), Alistair Overeem (No. 10) and Josh Barnett (No 6).
Browne has compiled a 7-2-1 record since joining the UFC in 2010.
Browne most recently got his ass handed to him by Fabricio Werdum, who outstruck “Hapa” to a clear-cut unanimous decision victory at UFC on FOX 11 back in April. The loss snapped a streak of three consecutive first-round knockout wins for Browne, which he earned against Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett.
Browne most recently got his ass handed to him by Fabricio Werdum, who outstruck “Hapa” to a clear-cut unanimous decision victory at UFC on FOX 11 back in April. The loss snapped a streak of three consecutive first-round knockout wins for Browne, which he earned against Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Josh Barnett.
(Huh. Now that I think about it, it’s obvious that the UFC put two title fights on this card because either Belfort or Pettis will pull out of the event due to injury. Seriously, I’m calling it now.)
(And are you f*cking kidding me with that Bruce Buffer photo? The man has abs like an action figureand he can do the splits? He is truly the world’s most complete man.)
Schaub confirmed late Saturday night that he was medically cleared before he left the arena, and his only serious injuries were psychological ones. (Schaub will be sharing his thoughts about the fight on today’s installment of his podcast, so keep an ear out for that.) Meanwhile, Andrei Arlovski isn’t exactly in a celebratory mood either. After the fight, the Pitbull lamented his performance and tried to explain why it was so flat:
(Photos by Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports, via MMAJunkie)
Schaub confirmed late Saturday night that he was medically cleared before he left the arena, and his only serious injuries were psychological ones. (Schaub will be sharing his thoughts about the fight on today’s installment of his podcast, so keep an ear out for that.) Meanwhile, Andrei Arlovski isn’t exactly in a celebratory mood either. After the fight, the Pitbull lamented his performance and tried to explain why it was so flat:
“I still feel like really horrible and um…it’s good that Dana White’s not here because he’s probably so pissed at me. He gave me great opportunity. I didn’t like my performance, my fight tonight. But for some reason I [was] nervous a lot, like you know, before the fight when I step inside the Octagon, my legs, my hands, like shook for some reason. I [was] just nervous, like [my] first time when I fought back fourteen years ago almost. But next time I promise it’s gonna be much better.”
Speaking of Dana White, the UFC president expressed his own regrets after the fight, wondering why he didn’t stick it on the prelims. But hindsight is 20/20, right? This fight had the potential to be a slugfest, just like every other fight on the UFC 174 main card. It just didn’t work out that way. On the bright side, only the most hardcore, devoted, and bored UFC fans were even watching this PPV in the first place. Schaub vs. Arlovski may be the most forgettable fight of the year, which is good news or bad news, depending on how you look at it.
It’s safe to say that anyone who’s been around MMA since before 2012 or so (RIP TUF: Live, you were too beautiful for this world) was pretty happy to have Andrei Arlovski back in the Octagon.
It had been an astounding six years since the former champio…
It’s safe to say that anyone who’s been around MMA since before 2012 or so (RIP TUF: Live, you were too beautiful for this world) was pretty happy to have Andrei Arlovski back in the Octagon.
It had been an astounding six years since the former champion competed on the biggest stage in the game, and he was once something of a big deal.
Granted he was at the top of the heap when the best heavyweights in the world were fighting in Japan, and there were only so many times you could watch him fight Tim Sylvia, he still had a certain charm.
He was exciting. He was charismatic. He was just fun to have around.
Sure, he left the UFC to get paid, but when your career of choice is 15 years of exchanging traumatic head strikes with human giants, it’s hard to blame a guy for being inspired by the bank a little.
Saturday night at UFC 174 though, it all came full circle. He was back where he belongs against Brendan Schaub, a weirdly perfect opponent for his return. Schaub is pretty good but not great, a reasonable threat standing but not wildly dangerous and alright on the ground though not a lock to get the fight there.
The ideal non-threatening threat.
If the UFC didn’t know what they had when they brought Arlovski back, Schaub was a wonderful candidate to flesh it out. A mistake or two and he’d likely capitalize, no mistakes and Arlovski could easily end up a winner.
And no mistakes was essentially what you got.
In a fight most were expecting to end with someone chasing imaginary butterflies, Arlovski and Schaub entered into a glorified staring contest where one man would occasionally windmill his arms in an attempt to get the other to blink.
There was precisely one seriously notable strike in the fight, an uppercut from Schaub that landed flush and temporarily backed the Belarusian off.
The rest of the night was two guys fighting not to lose, showing excessive respect for one another’s power and trying incredibly hard to make the judges decide who lost the least as opposed to who actually won.
In terms of scoring, the only clear round was the third. Schaub spent most of that stanza sitting in Arlovski’s guard (which, for what it’s worth, he couldn’t pass) and wailing on him with punches that did just enough to prevent a standup.
In fact, in watching the exchanges from that position, there’s an argument that Arlovski might have done more damage punching up from the bottom than Schaub did from the top.
Still, all things equal in this game, the guy on top usually curries favor with those scoring and this time was really no different.
The other two rounds though? They were pretty much a wash.
The first was a nothing round that you’d probably have to give to Arlovski based on his ability to control positioning and pacing of the fight.
The second was similar, save for that one major punch Schaub landed. Even that did no measurable damage, so it’s hard to quantify its value.
What resulted was a mild controversy that everyone other than Schaub himself will have forgotten by Wednesday. The bout was forgettable in every way, something that will deservedly be little more than a Wikipedia footnote in the careers of both men.
At the end of the day though, this is no great shame of a decision. It came down to what a judge was looking for in scoring the fight, and two of the three decided they’d favor control and imposition of a game plan over a solid punch and a solid round.
Save your outrage, folks. If anything, MMA has shown us that there will be no shortage of bad decisions to go around.
As if he didn’t already have his hands full with UFC heavyweight contender Travis Browne, Brendan Schaub fanned the already roaring flame of “Hapa” during a September episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (NSFW language; h/t Jesse Holland of MMA Mania).
