One of the UFC’s finest featherweights, Chad Mendes, will face Manny Gamburyan at UFC 157, according to Grant Gordon of the Glendale News-Press. Mendes is coming off his second first round KO victory in a row after defeating Yaotzin Meza at UFC o…
Mendes is coming off his second first round KO victory in a row after defeating YaotzinMeza at UFC on FX 6 last Saturday, and has wasted no time in stepping up to fight at the historic UFC event in February, which will feature the first ever female fight in the promotion.
The event has significance for Gamburyan too, as his long-time teammate at Glendale Fighting Club and Team Hayastan, Ronda Rousey, will defend the UFC’s first women’s bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche.
Mendes’ only career loss in 14 fights came at the hands of Jose Aldo, the man some consider the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, in January at UFC 142.
Since that fight Mendes has found winning ways again and has looked all but unstoppable in his last two fights.
He’ll take on Gamburyan who’s only won one fight in his last four.
The Armenian had an earlier stint in the UFC between 2007 and 2009 when he lost The Ultimate Fighter 5 finale to Nate Diaz. He was eventually cut after dropping two fights to Rob Emerson and ThiagoTavares.
Gamburyan has also faced Aldo before, losing to him in 2010 for the WEC featherweight title.
UFC 157 will go down on Feb. 13 in Anaheim, California. The co-main event will feature a light heavyweight bought between Dan Henderson and LyotoMachida, fighting for the 205 pound contender’s spot. Urijah Faber is also slated to face Ivan Menjivar in a rematch on the main card.
Remember back in the WWF how there would be those matches that basically amounted to Razor Ramon vs. “This Guy We Found Outside K-Mart”? For whatever reason, that has basically been the direction the UFC has been taking its featherweight division in. F…
Remember back in the WWF how there would be those matches that basically amounted to Razor Ramon vs. “This Guy We Found Outside K-Mart”? For whatever reason, that has basically been the direction the UFC has been taking its featherweight division in.
For the first time ever, Zuffa has a very strong 145 lbs division on its hands.
It has a great champion in Jose Aldo. A strong top contender in Frankie Edgar. Then several top fighters behind Edgar, including Chan Sung Jung, Cub Swanson, Erik Koch, HatsuHioki and Clay Guida.
With that in mind, fans have to ask; what the hell is Joe Silva thinking right now?
In the last few months, we have seen some of the most absurd mismatches in UFC history pop up in the featherweight division. Dennis Siver vs. Nam Phan. Charles Oliveira vs. Eric Wisely. Raphael Assuncao vs. IsseiTamura.
Those were all bad, but tomorrow night on UFC on FX: Sotiropoulos vs. Pearson, we are seeing what is, perhaps, the single greatest mismatch in UFC history.
If you just said “who?” in reaction to reading “YaotzinMeza,” I can’t blame you. Meza is going to be making his UFC debut against Mendes. He has been primarily fighting in smaller southwestern promotions and has amassed a 19-7 record.
He is 7-1 in his last eight, but has not fought anyone especially noteworthy. He trains with The MMA Lab, home to Benson Henderson, Alex Caceres and Jamie Varner.
Chad Mendes, meanwhile, is unanimously ranked in the top 10 of the featherweight division. He is widely held in the top five.
He is 7-1 in the UFC and WEC and 12-1 in his MMA career (his lone loss coming against Jose Aldo). His most recent win came against Cody McKenzie in the form of a 30-second knockout. Suffice it to say tha Chad Mendes is very good.
In fairness, Meza was not Mendes‘ original opponent.
Mendes was originally slated to fight Hacran Dias. Dias is a solid up-and-comer, for sure, but he made his UFC debut at UFC 147 by beating Yuri Alcantara. Mendes vs. Dias was a questionable matchup. Dias, after all, is the sort of prospect a promotion should nurture, not throw to a fighter like Mendes.
With the way the featherweight promotion is right now, there are several incredibly compelling bouts that could have been made.
Chan Sung Jung is currently sitting without an opponent. A Jung vs. Mendes fight would be a downright great main event for a Fuel or FX card, and would be between two top fighters in a division that has its top contender status up in the air.
Darren Elkins, who is riding a four-fight winning streak over some very strong competition, is also twiddling his thumbs as you read this.
Robbie Peralta, who is 3-0 (1) between the UFC and Strikeforce, is waiting for a call from Joe Silva. Dennis Siver, who once again fought Nam Phan after beating Diego Nunes, fought six days earlier.
I could keep going on about how many actual, fair, logical matchups were passed on in favor of this. But here we are. Chad Mendes is going to fight against YaotzinMeza.
Obviously, YaotzinMeza could shock us. This is MMA. Crazy things can happen and Meza could knock Mendes out, make me look the fool and jump into the top ten in a split-second. That, though, is probably not going to happen, and I sincerely doubt the UFC is expecting anything close to this to happen.
Perhaps, and this is a reach and I know it, we might be looking at Jose Aldo officially jumping to the lightweight division after his fight with Frankie Edgar. With this in mind, the UFC might be looking to guarantee a title fight with Chad Mendes. Even then, this makes very little sense, with Clay Guida, Frankie Edgar, Chan Sung Jung and possibly Cub Swanson carrying more name value than him.
So yeah. Why is this fight happening? I have no idea.
Highly touted Nova Uniao product Hacran Dias has been forced out of his scheduled fight against Chad Mendes. MMA Junkie has the details surrounding the injury: Dias suffered an undisclosed injury in training and has been forced to withdraw from his pla…
Highly touted Nova Uniao product Hacran Dias has been forced out of his scheduled fight against Chad Mendes.
MMA Junkie has the details surrounding the injury:
Dias suffered an undisclosed injury in training and has been forced to withdraw from his planned appearance.
The Brazillian made his UFC debut at UFC 147 and won a decision against Yuri Alcantara. The win at UFC 147 extended Dias’ current winning streak to nine straight fights. He was originally scheduled to be on The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil but was skipped over and signed to a contract.
Mendes, meanwhile, has been a staple in the division since crossing over from the WEC. He had won 11 consecutive fights en route to challenging Jose Aldo for a title shot at UFC 142. Mendes was defeated in the last seconds of the first round after Aldo landed a knee to the head.
The UFC has yet to make an official announcement, but there is word that the promotion is looking for a replacement for Mendes.
The UFC on FX 6 event takes place on Dec. 15 from the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach, Gold Coast, Australia. The event will be headlined by a clash of coaches from TUF: The Smashes, with Ross Pearson facing off against George Sotiropoulos. The final fights from the show are also expected to be featured on the card.
The battery charge against UFC featherweight Chad Mendes was dropped by a judge yesterday. Mendes had been charged with sucker-punching a bar patron then fleeing the scene during a July 29th brawl at the Lacey Inn Bar in Hanford, California. Mendes faced up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Instead, he plead no contest to a lesser count of public disturbance and has paid a fine and avoids jail time.
“I have said from the beginning that the ridiculous allegations published by the media were either false or incredibly sensationalized,” Mendes said in a statement. “(Monday’s) outcome proves it.”
There clearly was not enough evidence to support the charges against Mendes and he can now look towards his December bout against Hacran Dias on the UFC on FX 6 card.
The battery charge against UFC featherweight Chad Mendes was dropped by a judge yesterday. Mendes had been charged with sucker-punching a bar patron then fleeing the scene during a July 29th brawl at the Lacey Inn Bar in Hanford, California. Mendes faced up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Instead, he plead no contest to a lesser count of public disturbance and has paid a fine and avoids jail time.
“I have said from the beginning that the ridiculous allegations published by the media were either false or incredibly sensationalized,” Mendes said in a statement. “(Monday’s) outcome proves it.”
There clearly was not enough evidence to support the charges against Mendes and he can now look towards his December bout against Hacran Dias on the UFC on FX 6 card.
With the ratings of this season of The Ultimate Fighter in a tailspin, the UFC has quickly been announcing matchups for the season finale. Unlike previous seasons, it looks as though this season’s finale won’t feature many fights between the not-quite-worthy competitors from the show, as a total of eight fights between current UFC fighters have been announced for the finale. Which is good, because most of you reading this don’t know or care about anyone from this season of TUF 16 in the first place.
The two most recent fights booked for the TUF 16 Finale are a featherweight showdown between Jonathan Brookins and Dustin Poirier and a flyweight bout between Tim Elliott and Jared Papazian.
After winning five straight fights under the Zuffa banner, Dustin Poirier would suffer a fourth round D’arce choke loss to Chan Sung Jung at UFC on FUEL 2. Despite the loss, Poirier put on a Fight of the Night – and arguably Fight of the Year – worthy performance, proving that he’s still a contender in the featherweight division despite the loss to Jung. Meanwhile, things cannot possibly be going more differently for Jonathan Brookins. After defeating Michael Johnson by unanimous decision to win The Ultimate Fighter Season Twelve, Brookins would drop a unanimous decision to Erik Koch, knock out Vagner Rocha and most recently get choked out by Charles Oliveira at June’s TUF 15 finale.
Check after the jump for the full TUF 16 Finale fight card, as well as Chad Mendes’ next opponent.
With the ratings of this season of The Ultimate Fighter in a tailspin, the UFC has quickly been announcing matchups for the season finale. Unlike previous seasons, it looks as though this season’s finale won’t feature many fights between the not-quite-worthy competitors from the show, as a total of eight fights between current UFC fighters have been announced for the finale. Which is good, because most of you reading this don’t know or care about anyone from this season of TUF 16 in the first place.
The two most recent fights booked for the TUF 16 Finale are a featherweight showdown between Jonathan Brookins and Dustin Poirier and a flyweight bout between Tim Elliott and Jared Papazian.
After winning five straight fights under the Zuffa banner, Dustin Poirier would suffer a fourth round D’arce choke loss to Chan Sung Jung at UFC on FUEL 2. Despite the loss, Poirier put on a Fight of the Night – and arguably Fight of the Year – worthy performance, proving that he’s still a contender in the featherweight division despite the loss to Jung. Meanwhile, things cannot possibly be going more differently for Jonathan Brookins. After defeating Michael Johnson by unanimous decision to win The Ultimate Fighter Season Twelve, Brookins would drop a unanimous decision to Erik Koch, knock out Vagner Rocha and most recently get choked out by Charles Oliveira at June’s TUF 15 finale.
I’d call this fight a squash match, but if Brookins’ win/loss pattern is any indication, he should probably win this fight. Of course, if I’m looking at talent, UFC experience, athleticism, level of competition and all that other silly stuff, Poirier takes this fight, no doubt.
As for the other matchup, it’s more than likely “Loser Leaves Town” when Tim Elliott squares off against Jared Papazian. Eliott stepped up to replace Darren Uyenoyama on short notice against John Dodson, but dropped a unanimous decision to the flyweight contender. Papazian, meanwhile, is 0-2 in the UFC after losing a majority decision to Mike Easton and then getting punked by Dustin Pague before losing by rear-naked choke in the first round.
For those of you keeping track, the lineup for the TUF 16 Finale looks like this:
Shane Carwin vs. Roy Nelson
Mike Pyle vs. James Head
Jonathan Brookins vs. Dustin Poirier
Nick Catone vs. TJ Waldburger
Reuben Duran vs. Hugo Viana
Vinc Pichel vs. Rustam Khabilov
Johnny Bedford vs. Marcos Vinicius
Tim Elliott vs. Jared Papazian
Also of note, December 15′s UFC on FX 6 has added a featherweight fight between Chad Mendes and Hacran Dias to the lineup. “Money” Mendes is coming off of a thirty-one second knockout over Cody McKenzie at UFC 148 that we pretty much all saw coming. He was given the rebound fight after suffering a knockout at the hands of current featherweight champion Jose Aldo back at UFC 142. As for Dias, the training partner of Jose Aldo defeated Yuri Alcantara in his UFC debut at UFC 147, improving his record to 21-1-1. An entertaining fight is to be expected when these two eventually meet up.
At one point in time, the UFC’s featherweight division seemed very lacking of talent. All of a sudden the featherweight division is featuring some of the most awesome matchups of the year including the one announced today. It’s official like a ref…
At one point in time, the UFC’s featherweight division seemed very lacking of talent. All of a sudden the featherweight division is featuring some of the most awesome matchups of the year including the one announced today.
It’s official like a referee whistle! I’m fighting hacranDiazdec 15 in Australia!
Hacran Dias has only had one fight in the UFC, but it was an outstanding performance against Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147. Dias is riding an impressive nine-fight winning streak and has an overall record of 21-1-1.
Dias is taking a major step up in competition when he steps into the Octagon against former title contender Chad Mendes. Mendes is coming off a first-round knockout victory against Cody McKenzie at UFC 148 with a vicious body blow.
Mendes put his undefeated record on the line when he challenged Jose Aldo for the Featherweight Championship at UFC 142. Mendes looked impressive early in the first round, but ate a nasty knee trying to gain one final takedown at the end of the round and was defeated by knockout.
UFC on FX 6 is scheduled for December 14th in Australia and will feature the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes. Mendes versus Dias will likely fall on the main card of the event, which will be headlined by a matchup between the two TUF: The Smashes coaches George Sotiropoulos and Ross Pearson.
One of the UFC’s finest featherweights, Chad Mendes, will face Manny Gamburyan at UFC 157, according to Grant Gordon of the Glendale News-Press.
