Fightville debuts this Friday in select theaters (NY/LA), video-on-demand (Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable), and digital download (iTunes, Xbox, VUDU).
Fightville debuts this Friday in select theaters (NY/LA), video-on-demand (Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable), and digital download (iTunes, Xbox, VUDU).
CagePotato Roundtable is our new recurring column in which the CP writing staff and some of our friends all get together to debate an MMA-related topic. Joining us this week is former CagePotato staff writer Chad Dundas, who now writes for an up-and-coming blog called ESPN. If you have a suggestion for a future Roundtable column, send it to [email protected].
CagePotato reader Alexander W. writes: “The Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall fight inspired my suggestion: Greatest robberies in MMA history. I’d be curious to hear the variety of opinions out there. Surely that fight was a top ten.”
Chad Dundas
There are a lot of things about Pride Total Elimination 2003 that don’t make sense when viewed with modern MMA sensibilities. How to even comprehend a world where a skinny, haired-up, suit jacket-wearing Dana White could bet Pride bigwigs $250,000 that Chuck Liddell was going to win that company’s 2003 middleweight grand prix? Or comprehend that a bizarrely dangerous and clearly-enunciating Liddell showed up in the first round of said tournament and KTFOed an impossibly svelte Alistair Overeem? Or that Overeem had an old dude in a robe and shriners hat accompany him to the ring while carrying a big foam hammer? Or that on this night somebody got tapped out with a sleeve choke? Or that Wanderlei Silva fought Kazushi Sakuraba and it didn’t just make everybody feel sad and empty?
No sense at all.
What does still sort of make sense is this: After watching Liddell sleep Overeem, there was no way on God’s green Earth that Pride judges were going to let another UFC emissary walk out of Saitama Super Arena with a win*, so they conspired to pull off one of the greatest screwjobs in MMA history when they awarded Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a unanimous decision over Ricco Rodriguez. The indisputable fact is, Ricco whipped Big Nog good that night, taking him down, brutalizing him, shaking off his feeble submission attempts and controlling pretty much the whole affair. At least, that’s how I remember it. Unfortunately, due to Zuffa’s ongoing war on Internet piracy it seems their bout will only be remembered by history and by the creepy old man who answers the queries you submit to the Sherdog Fight Finder.
CagePotato Roundtable is our new recurring column in which the CP writing staff and some of our friends all get together to debate an MMA-related topic. Joining us this week is former CagePotato staff writer Chad Dundas, who now writes for an up-and-coming blog called ESPN. If you have a suggestion for a future Roundtable column, send it to [email protected].
CagePotato reader Alexander W. writes: “The Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall fight inspired my suggestion: Greatest robberies in MMA history. I’d be curious to hear the variety of opinions out there. Surely that fight was a top ten.”
Chad Dundas
There are a lot of things about Pride Total Elimination 2003 that don’t make sense when viewed with modern MMA sensibilities. How to even comprehend a world where a skinny, haired-up, suit jacket-wearing Dana White could bet Pride bigwigs $250,000 that Chuck Liddell was going to win that company’s 2003 middleweight grand prix? Or comprehend that a bizarrely dangerous and clearly-enunciating Liddell showed up in the first round of said tournament and KTFOed an impossibly svelte Alistair Overeem? Or that Overeem had an old dude in a robe and shriners hat accompany him to the ring while carrying a big foam hammer? Or that on this night somebody got tapped out with a sleeve choke? Or that Wanderlei Silva fought Kazushi Sakuraba and it didn’t just make everybody feel sad and empty?
No sense at all.
What does still sort of make sense is this: After watching Liddell sleep Overeem, there was no way on God’s green Earth that Pride judges were going to let another UFC emissary walk out of Saitama Super Arena with a win*, so they conspired to pull off one of the greatest screwjobs in MMA history when they awarded Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a unanimous decision over Ricco Rodriguez. The indisputable fact is, Ricco whipped Big Nog good that night, taking him down, brutalizing him, shaking off his feeble submission attempts and controlling pretty much the whole affair. At least, that’s how I remember it. Unfortunately, due to Zuffa’s ongoing war on Internet piracy it seems their bout will only be remembered by history and by the creepy old man who answers the queries you submit to the Sherdog Fight Finder.
What stings the worst about the whole thing is that it’s easy to imagine an alternate universe where that decision went the other way. In that universe, maybe Rodriguez goes on to become one of the sport’s most beloved and respected figures, ascending to full-on legendary status and winning gold in both Pride and the UFC, before having his arm snapped by Frank Mir at UFC 140 without so much as changing the expression on his beautiful, leathery face. And instead it’s Big Nog who slips unceremoniously into obscurity, slumming it on Celebrity Rehab and fighting out his days at events like Israel FC, Cage Thug MMA, and Armageddon Fighting Championships.
If that universe is out there somewhere, I hope we all find it someday.
(*Yeah, I’m just guessing about all this, but it feels true in spirit.)
Look, everyone knows that a robbery in PRIDE means nothing because the whole thing was fake anyway. At least in those cases, you knew that the judges had their reasons. Here in America, we have robberies based off of pure, home-grown stupid. We produced the master karate sensai judge that thinks leg kicks are pointless. Out on the regional scene, in places like Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Arizona, we’ve seen decisions passed down that were mind-gobblingly incompetent. Try to forget that those same states are players in national politics.
So let me tell you bastards about Zoila Frausto. Frausto was fighting at bantamweight and walking around at 150 pounds before Bellator announced its only tournament for women in 2010 — at 115. It was a brutal weight cut, but Frausto made it. Throughout the tournament, her most impressive victories were over the scales. A bland weight-loss diet left her unable to train intensely, and her performances in the cage were every bit as anemic as you’d expect. She out-muscled a visibly smaller boxer in Jessica Pene in the quarter-finals, earning an uncontroversial, but uninspiring win.
Her opponent in the semis at Bellator 31 was Jessica Aguilar, a fantastically well-rounded fighter out of American Top Team. The Warrior Princess spent most of the fight backpedaling, and her face told a bruising tale after fifteen minutes. Aguilar didn’t have a scratch, but Frausto got a split decision — one of the judges gave her all three rounds. I honestly thought the judges were confused about the fighters’ identities — the decision was that bad. So Frausto advanced to the finals.
Here, at least, justice would be done. Frausto’s opponent was Megumi Fujii, the undefeated, best female fighter on the planet (she’s not a can crusher ben dammit icanthearyou lalalalalalalalalalala). Fujii had outclassed both her opponents in the tournament, and she’d have her way with this interloper and claim an American title.
Except she wouldn’t. Fujii, like some kind of insane Sakuraba with a vagina, elected to stand and box with the one-dimensional striker. Frausto does her best Leonard Garcia impression [Ed. note: Hold on, I’m getting to that. -BG], putting on an impressive show of offense without actually managing to do anything or even land most of her attacks. Fujii out-lands her, out-maneuvers her, and out-works her. But those big arm movements must be impressive from a distance. Despite Frausto’s swollen face and rapidly closing eye, one Florida judge scores it four rounds to one for her, another sees it a bit closer, one judge has a brain in his head but he’s outvoted and boom: Frausto catches another gift decision and claims the Bellator Straw-weight Championship.
Rematches with both Aguilar and Fujii have been pursued, but neither have ever materialized. To this day, the women’s rankings are skewed and Frausto retains the belt. She’s hasn’t fought at 115 since October 2010.
If you need a “real” answer, then fine: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48, which is the robbery by which all modern robberies are judged. It’s the LeBron James of robberies. Judges love Leonard Garcia because he grunts like a female tennis player when he throws punches, and that irrational love helped Garcia take a similar decision against Nam Phan in December 2010, and previously hypnotized one judge into scoring it Garcia’s way when he got blown out in all three rounds against Mark Hominick at WEC 51. But Garcia/Jung 1 has to be the worst of the lot — or anybody’s lot — because it added a foul aftertaste to the greatest MMA brawl since Griffin vs. Bonnar at the TUF 1 Finale. It’s the proverbial poop-pie at the end of a great southern meal.
According to FightMetric, Garcia shouldn’t have won any rounds of that fight, let alone two. Here’s how Bad Boy clinched the split-decision, despite being outstruck 106-71 — he scored two takedowns, and he was the aggressor for much of the fight, meaning that the faces he made while audibly whiffing his hooks were much scarier than his opponent’s, as the Korean Zombie was tagging Leonard at will. Obviously it wasn’t a career-ender for Jung, who got his revenge 11 months later. But it was such a perfect representation of what’s wrong with modern MMA judging: Striking totals don’t matter, each takedown counts for a billion points, and “Octagon Control” can always be used to justify scoring it for the guy you like better. Ugh. Terrible.
Whenever I think of a robbery, normally Matt Hamill and Michael Bisping immediately come to mind. But a fight that tops even that is Machida/Rua 1 at UFC 104. That fight was incredibly hyped because of “The Machida Era.” Everyone was so entranced by the Elusive one. The Dragon had us eating out of the palm of his hand. Besides, nobody really knew which Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would show up for the fight and to be honest, who could blame them? After multiple knee surgeries, a broken arm, and some seriously lackluster performances not many people saw this as anything but an uphill battle for Rua. Machida was even favored in the odds by over 4-1, and for good reason.
However, right from the start, Shogun took to the center of the Octagon and kept cutting angles on Machida. That set the stage for some dirty boxing but more importantly some incredibly vicious leg kicks. It was evident before the end of the first round that Shogun was landing the more damaging shots. Machida started off in southpaw, but as I said, those leg kicks quickly changed all of that, seeing as Machida needed to change stances during round three.
It became apparent in round four and five that Machida had slowed down considerably. Meanwhile, Rua kept pushing forward, landing harder strikes, cutting Machida off with angles, and pushing him against the cage. It seemed like Rua had it all in the bag. It isn’t often you find yourself agreeing with Mike Goldberg but this seemed like one of those times, a clear-cut unanimous decision for the challenger, right? Wrong.
Judges Cecil Peoples, Nelson Hamilton, and Marcos Rosales scored the bout 48-47 for Machida. Rosales and Peoples both scored the first three rounds in favor of the champion, while Hamilton gave Machida rounds two, three, and four. After the fight, Cecil Peoples stated that leg kicks don’t win fights, and further explained that he thought Machida was landing the cleaner, more efficient shots during the entirety of the fight. FightMetric, however, disagreed claiming Shogun outstruck Machida in round one (19 to 11), round two (21 to 7), round three (19 to 14), round four (10 to 4), and round five (13-6). I don’t know what three of MMA’s most experienced judges were smoking the night of UFC 104, but I would wager it smelled of shenanigans.
Remember that scene from The Hurricane, where the black Rubin Carter beats the hell out of the white Joey Giardello, yet loses on the scorecards of the blatantly racist white judges? Yeah, it turns out that the real fight was nothing like that. At all. Not that that should surprise you. That scene displayed such over-the-top biases that I’d assume something like that could never happen in real life if I wasn’t familiar with Mariusz Pudzianowksi vs. James Thompson II.
It’s not that I want to believe that the outcome was predetermined; it’s just that literally everything about the completely unnecessary rematch leads me to that conclusion. The rematch was booked for KSW 17: Revenge — an event named by the least subtle person to ever work for the Polish MMA promotion. While Mariusz Pudzianowski was unsurprisingly the overwhelming fan favorite, his only significant offensive output was a jab he landed early in the second round. Meanwhile, Thompson landed numerous takedowns and punches from the mount and side control throughout the fight. Thompson dominated, yet Pudzianowski was still declared the winner by majority decision. While a terrible decision shouldn’t always lead one to believe the bout was a work, it doesn’t help that one of the judges’ scorecards looked like this. The hometown hero had earned his revenge — on paper, at least.
The fight has since been declared a no-contest due to miscommunication between the judges, who declared the bout a draw which should have warranted a sudden-death round, and the referee. Not that it matters. Even if the miscommunication never occurred, the sudden-death round was completely unnecessary. Thompson won easily and has nothing but a no-contest on his record to show for it. Fauh-king joooooooooke, indeed.
Jared Jones
Marcos Galvao may be the most cursed man in the history of decisions. For every gift Leonard Garcia is undeservedly given, three Christmas presents are stolen from beneath Galvao’s children in their sleep, metaphorically speaking. I would quote something about the yin and yang of life, but being that I was recently ostracized from my tree dwelling commune for urinating on one too many stray animals, I will save the liberal hippie analogy for another day.
The point is, Galvao’s fight with Joe Warren at Bellator 41 was the first time in recent memory that I actually believed the judges were paid off. Fresh off his damn-near-heroic comeback victory over Joe Soto, in which he snagged the Bellator Featherweight championship, self-proclaimed (aren’t they always?) “Baddest Man on the Planet” Joe Warren decided to make a run at the Bantamweight crown. Why he was set on trying to capture two titles before defending one is beyond me, but Warren figured he’d test the waters against journeyman Marcos Galvao in a 137-pound catchweight fight back at Bellator 41. Galvao, who was riding a three-fight win streak over mediocre competition, seemed like a perfect matchup for both Warren and Bellator to display the champ’s dominance. This idea has backfired on Bellator before, and it should have backfired on them on that cool April night.
The first round was close, but clearly Galvao’s, as Warren’s main offensive output consisted of attempting wild takedowns that succeeded in getting him mounted on more than one occasion. Perhaps that was the goal, but I can guaran-damn-tee his goal in the second round wasn’t to eat as many flying knees as humanly possibly, and yet that’s how it went down. The third was clearly Warren’s, but was nowhere near the 10-8 round he would have needed to walk away with a lucky draw. Despite all this, Warren would claim victory, and Galvao’s children would go hungry for another night, because the world can be a cold, unforgiving place. Though Warren would meet his maker in Alexis Vila shortly thereafter, Galvao would wind up on the wrong end of another bullshit decision against, you guessed it, Alexis Vila. Yin and Yang, folks.
Go ahead, TRY and throw some Fightmetric stats at me for the Warren/Galvao fight; it will be as pointless an argument as the one that tree-hugging tyrant Raiyne Thomas-Kirkpatrick-Gilligan and I had before I was kicked out of Serenity Gardens. Neither of us are going to change our ways, so we’d best just move along.
Did we leave out any good MMA robberies? Let us know *your* #1 pick in the comments section.
(We’re not the only ones who see a woman in a bear suit in the background, right?)
It’s a new week, Potato Nation, and with it brings change. I, for one, will be shedding the DangadaDang “nom de plume” if you will, in favor of my actual name from now on. Will the writing be any gooder? Perhaps, but for every change, something must stay the same, as they say. And in the ever changing landscape that is the current MMA scene, it’s comforting to know that we can count on the stability of at least one thing: Fedor Emelianenko‘s desire to toss around Asian men he outweighs by a good 70 pounds. You get caught with your hand in the (fortune) cookie jar once, it’s forgivable. You get caught twice, and you’re moving into full blown fetish territory, Mr. Emelianenko.
Yes, the former PRIDE heavyweight champion recently appeared on the South Korean TV show, “Star King,” to reenact the end of the Tim Boetsch/David Heath scrap with the help of fast rising featherweight contender Chan Sung Jung. Aside from being a reminder of how much better Asian television shows are than ours (oh MXC, where hast thou gone?), the sparring session is at the minimum a silver lining in the storm cloud of disappointment that was the second UFC on Fox broadcast. Like we said, it’s a new day, and let’s just shed the memory of that card with a good old fashioned freak show exhibition to start the work week, shall we?
Join us after the jump for the glorious video, but for the love of God, turn off your speakers before you do so. If you’ve ever ordered take out from P.F. Chang’s, then you are familiar with the chaos that awaits you.
(We’re not the only ones who see a woman in a bear suit in the background, right?)
It’s a new week, Potato Nation, and with it brings change. I, for one, will be shedding the DangadaDang “nom de plume,” if you will, in favor of my actual name from now on. Will the writing be any gooder? Perhaps, but for every change, something must stay the same, as they say. And in the ever changing landscape that is the current MMA scene, it’s comforting to know that we can count on the stability of at least one thing: Fedor Emelianenko‘s desire to toss around Asian men he outweighs by a good 70 pounds. You get caught with your hand in the (fortune) cookie jar once, it’s forgivable. You get caught twice, and you’re moving into full blown fetish territory, Mr. Emelianenko.
Yes, the former PRIDE heavyweight champion recently appeared on the South Korean TV show, “Star King,” to reenact the end of the Tim Boetsch/David Heath scrap with the help of fast rising featherweight contender Chan Sung Jung. Aside from being a reminder of how much better Asian television shows are than ours (oh MXC, where hast thou gone?), the sparring session is at the minimum a silver lining in the storm cloud of disappointment that was the second UFC on Fox broadcast. Like we said, it’s a new day, and let’s just shed the memory of that card with a good old fashioned freak show exhibition to start the work week, shall we?
Join us after the jump for the glorious video, but for the love of God, turn off your speakers before you do so. If you’ve ever ordered take out from P.F. Chang’s, then you are familiar with the chaos that awaits you.
Was that a scarf hold armlock Fedor just pulled off? Someone’s clearly a Minowaman fan. And hey, this match was still a hell of a lot more competitive than Emelianenko/Ishii. Or Jung/Hominick, for that matter.
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Bellator, Rankings, FeatherweightsThe No. 1 featherweight in mixed martial arts returned to the cage at UFC 142 and needed less than one round to dispatch an opponent who entered the fight undefeated and widely regarded as the …
The No. 1 featherweight in mixed martial arts returned to the cage at UFC 142 and needed less than one round to dispatch an opponent who entered the fight undefeated and widely regarded as the No. 2 featherweight in MMA. So where does Jose Aldo go now after defeating Chad Mendes?
Aldo’s camp has indicated he doesn’t intend to move up to 155 pounds unless it’s to fight for the UFC lightweight title. So that’s probably not in the offing. And that raises the question: Are there any challengers left for Aldo at 145 pounds?
For the identity of some potential opponents for Aldo going forward, check out the latest list of the top 10 featherweights in mixed martial arts below.
Top 10 Featherweights in Mixed Martial Arts (Number in parentheses is the fighter’s previous ranking.)
1. Jose Aldo (1): What’s been so impressive about Aldo is how none of his fights are even close. Since signing with Zuffa in 2008 Aldo is 11-0, with four wins by first-round knockout or TKO, three wins by second-round knockout or TKO, one win by third-round TKO, and three wins by unanimous decision. He didn’t lose more than one round in any of the three decisions, all of which were five-round fights.
2. Hatsu Hioki (3): Hioki has a great resume, with wins over Marlon Sandro, Takeshi Inoue, Ronnie Mann and Mark Hominick twice. But he looked just so-so in winning a split decision over George Roop in his UFC debut. He’ll have to look better when he faces Bart Palaszewski back home in Japan at UFC 144 if he wants to prove he belongs in the Octagon with Aldo.
3. Chad Mendes (2): The best hope Mendes had of beating Aldo was getting him down and getting on top of him, and Aldo’s takedown defense proved to be too good. (Aldo did benefit from grabbing the fence at one point.) Mendes is a good enough wrestler to threaten almost anyone at 145 pounds, but Aldo is leaps and bounds better than him as a striker.
4. Pat Curran (4): Curran looked outstanding in defeating Marlon Sandro in the Bellator featherweight tournament final, and Bellator has a great featherweight title fight lined up for March 9, with Curran taking on Joe Warren.
5. Erik Koch (5): Koch was supposed to fight Dustin Poirier at UFC 143 in what could have given the UFC its next No. 1 contender at featherweight. Unfortunately Koch is injured and had to drop out of the fight, and a return date for Koch has not been announced.
6. Bart Palaszewski (NR): Palaszewski’s impressive win over Tyson Griffin establishes him as a potential future contender to the featherweight belt. Moving down to featherweight was a great move for him, but he’ll have a tough test on his hands against Hioki at UFC 144.
7. Tatsuya Kawajiri (9): After dropping down to featherweight last year, Kawajiri submitted both Joachim Hansen and Kazuyuki Miyata. A fight with Dream featherweight champion Hiroyuki Takaya would be great.
8. Dustin Poirier (10): Poirier will take on Max Holloway at UFC 143, and if he puts on a good show he might find himself getting Aldo next.
9. Chan Sung Jung (NR): After Aldo, the Korean Zombie might be the hottest featherweight in the sport right now. He was recognized as having the Fight of the Year in 2010 with Leonard Garcia and the Submission of the Year in 2011 for finishing Garcia with a twister in their rematch, and then he needed just seven seconds to knock out Mark Hominick. Jung is on such a roll right now that there’s some talk he could be next in line for Aldo, although that would be an extremely tall order: Jung is a lot of fun to watch, but Aldo is on another level as a striker.
10. Mark Hominick (6): Hominick is now on a two-fight losing streak after falling to Aldo and Jung, but he’ll hold onto his spot in the Top 10 for now. He’s a skilled striker who’s still only 29 years old and has a good future in the featherweight division, but he should get a step down in quality of competition, which is just what he will get when he takes on Eddie Yagin at UFC 145 in Atlanta.
Duane Ludwig was at the post office when he found out that he was now a UFC record-holder.
“It was kind of funny, the timing of it,” he said. The UFC lightweight was right in the middle of mailing off one of his signature ‘Bang’ jerseys as a Christmas gift for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, when he got word that the UFC was officially recognizing his 2006 knockout of Jonathan Goulet as the fastest in the organization’s history.
“We all know Joe’s kind of shorter in stature, but I was so excited about what was going on that I almost sent him a double extra-large jersey,” Ludwig said. “It just showed my mind wasn’t on the task at hand.”
For Ludwig, it meant a successful end to a campaign to get his eleven-second win over Goulet officially changed to a four-second stoppage, which would make his knockout the fastest in UFC history — faster than heavyweight Todd Duffee’s seven-second KO of Tim Hague in 2009 or Chan Sung Jung’s seven-second finish of Mark Hominick earlier this month.
But then, a lot depends on how you define the term ‘officially,’ and who you look to to make that distinction.
It’s a discussion we probably wouldn’t be having right now if not for one suspect time-keeper’s call in January of 2006. At a UFC Fight Night event at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Ludwig fired off a single right hand that sent Goulet crashing head-first to the mat almost as soon as the fight began. When referee Mario Yamasaki rushed in to stop it, the clock showed four minutes and 56 seconds left in the first round. But somehow, when it was entered into the official record, Ludwig’s win went down as an eleven-second finish rather than a four-second one.
To Ludwig, the difference seemed insignificant at first. He might not have even known about the discrepancy had UFC color commentator Joe Rogan not alerted him to it, he said.
“Joe Rogan actually MySpaced me — this was back when we were all using MySpace — and he told me, hey, you got screwed on the timing. I didn’t really care at the time. I said, you know, thanks and I appreciate it, but I didn’t really understand marketing back then.”
It wasn’t until three years later, when Duffee made headlines with a seven-second knockout that was immediately declared the fastest in UFC history, that Ludwig began to realize that there was real value in the distinction.
“When Todd Duffee got all that recognition for getting the fastest knockout record in seven seconds, I thought, well, that’s actually mine, and in four seconds,” said Ludwig. “Back when it actually happened, I didn’t care about the publicity or anything, but now that I’m getting older and, I guess, wiser, I understand marketing a little bit and I know that can help me and help me help others.”
“Ariel Helwani, he helped a lot because he was the first guy to publicly put Dana White on the spot about it. It wouldn’t have happened any other way, so that was really cool of him.”
On December 24, White sent out a tweet to Ludwig telling the fighter “for x mas you have the fastest KO in UFC history and it will be changed ASAP.” The news made Ludwig “happy as a clam,” he said.
But the question is, which records will reflect the change? The UFC has no control over the official time, which is kept in this case by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That governing body has thus far shown very little eagerness to admit a nearly six-year-old mistake and make the requisite changes. The NSAC offices were closed due to the holidays on Monday, and requests for comment on the matter went unreturned, but UFC officials indicated that the change could be entirely internal, with the UFC altering the records on its website and recognizing Ludwig as the holder of the organization’s fastest knockout regardless of whether the NSAC is willing to do the same.
And according to Ludwig, that would be just fine with him.
“A lot of people still don’t even know that the UFC has these athletic commissions, that they’re governed by a third party,” he said. “And of course, we know that the commissions sometimes make questionable calls, so I think the more credible source is the UFC anyway. I’m a hundred percent fine with the UFC being the one to make it official. I’d prefer that, actually.”
The way Ludwig sees it, it’s not so much about re-writing history as it is about getting the recognition he feels he’s already earned. As long as the UFC and MMA fans acknowledge what he did and allow him to honestly lay claim to the record, he said, he’s unconcerned with what the athletic commission decides to do.
“Every athlete is always looking for a way to separate himself from the pack. This is a record that will probably never be [broken]. It never happened before, and it’ll probably never happen again. It’s definitely a cool thing to have next to your name,” he said, adding, “It’s also a good story to tell the kids. When I’m old and telling that story I can joke with them and go, you better go to bed because I can knock you out in four seconds.”
The introduction of the Twister to the UFC hangs on as our choice for the top Submission of the Year.
In March, “The Korean Zombie” Chan-Sung Yung utilized a Twister to submit Leonard Garcia, demonstrating that there are still new submissions to mast…
The introduction of the Twister to the UFC hangs on as our choice for the top Submission of the Year.
In March, “The Korean Zombie” Chan-Sung Yung utilized a Twister to submit Leonard Garcia, demonstrating that there are still new submissions to master in this ever-evolving game of MMA 17-plus years after the inaugural UFC.
Since the Twister has already been covered in our Half-Year awards, let’s take a closer look at a recent submission that’s just as worthy as being called the Submission of the Year. No. 2: Frank Mir breaks Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm (UFC 140 on Dec. 10)
Long considered as one of the best heavyweight Brazilian jiu-jitsu artists, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira went over 12 years and 42 fights before he finally fell prey to a submission maneuver.
It all went down in a rematch earlier this month against Frank Mir at UFC 140. Nogueira had Mir rocked and was seemingly close to finishing Mir on the ground with punches. However, Nogueira took the risk to attempt a guillotine choke (giving up position in the process) rather than maintain control on top with punches.
Mir escaped, and that was all he needed to turn the fight around. Nogueira tried to hit the switch to take Mir’s back but Mir held on to stay on top. Mir then applied a kimura and hopped over to side mount. Nogueira tried rolling as an escape but Mir followed him, holding onto the move, breaking the Brazilian great’s right arm and forcing him to tap.
It wasn’t inconceivable that Nogueira would lose by submission. All the best grapplers are likely to submit at some point when fighting top flight competition. And Mir is no slouch on the ground. He’s been tapping out BJJ black belts since his UFC debut 10 years ago at UFC 34.
The distinguishing characteristic of this finish comes from Nogueira’s unwillingness to tap until his arm had already been broken. In a sport with no shortage of punishing sights, the image of Nogueira’s bent arm went above disturbing, and into cringe-worthy.
No. 3: Richard Hale repeats Toby Imada’s inverted triangle choke (Bellator 58 on March 26)
In March, Richard Hale made his Bellator debut with a submission as if he were a fighter 50 pounds lighter. The Bellator light heavyweight performed the 2009 Submission of the Year popularized by Toby Imada. While hanging upside down, resting on top of opponent Nik Fekete’s shoulders, Hale locked in a triangle choke to render Fekete unconscious. Hale put himself on the map by making the best out of an atypical, undesirable position.
In line with Mir’s finish against Nogueira, Jon Jones’ modified guillotine came after trailing against his opponent and produced an impressive win with a brutal finish. After knocking down Lyoto Machida in the second round and with Machida trying for the takedown to reset, Jones grabbed a front headlock and drove Machida standing against the fence. Jones then applied a modified guillotine (a guillotine with a different grip), the same finish he used to defeat Ryan Bader earlier this year but in this instance pressed Machida against the cage for additional pressure. Machida, refusing to tap, went limp and the bout was called off by referee “Big” John McCarthy. Rather than guide Machida gently to the floor, Jones released the hold sending a bloodied and unconscious Machida crashing to the mat. A definitive conclusion to perhaps the best year of an individual in the history of MMA.
No. 5: Diego Brandao’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it armbar over Dennis Bermudez (TUF 14 Finale on Dec. 3)
In one of the best fights of the year, Diego Brandao submitted Dennis Bermudez with an armbar to clinch his first UFC win and the TUF 14 featherweight title. Known for his aggressive striking style, Brandao was on his way to winning the first round before walking into a right hand. In pursuit of a TKO or at least stealing the round, Bermudez stayed on top of Brandao, actively throwing down punches. But all of a sudden, Brandao threw up his legs for an armbar and in seconds rolled Burmudez over for the win. The submission came out of nowhere in what had already been an explosive round of fighting.
The No. 1 featherweight in mixed martial arts returned to the cage at 
The introduction of the Twister to the 
It all went down in a rematch earlier this month against Frank Mir at 
No. 4: 
No. 5: Diego Brandao’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it armbar over Dennis Bermudez (TUF 14 Finale on Dec. 3)