Hermes Franca returned to MMA competition last Thursday at Extreme Fighter: Nordeste in Fortaleza, Brazil, and was smashed in 34 seconds by Marcio Breno. Franca looked rusty for a reason; the former WEC lightweight champion and UFC title contender hadn’t competed in over three years, due to his prison stint for sexually abusing an underage jiu-jitsu student, and his subsequent deportation back to Brazil.
If you’re into karmic justice, watch the video above. Franca swings some decent leg kicks early, but Breno drops him with a right cross at the video’s 1:47 mark and bounces his head off the canvas a few times with shots from above, causing the ref to jump in. Eventually, Franca makes it back to his feet and the crowd chants something at the 2:20-2:32 mark. (Are they saying “Hermes”? And if so, are they doing it sarcastically? I can’t tell.)
Releated thought:This list from 2008 has become woefully outdated in the year 2014. Most of those guys would be off the list due to inactivity. New version to come soon…
Hermes Franca returned to MMA competition last Thursday at Extreme Fighter: Nordeste in Fortaleza, Brazil, and was smashed in 34 seconds by Marcio Breno. Franca looked rusty for a reason; the former WEC lightweight champion and UFC title contender hadn’t competed in over three years, due to his prison stint for sexually abusing an underage jiu-jitsu student, and his subsequent deportation back to Brazil.
If you’re into karmic justice, watch the video above. Franca swings some decent leg kicks early, but Breno drops him with a right cross at the video’s 1:47 mark and bounces his head off the canvas a few times with shots from above, causing the ref to jump in. Eventually, Franca makes it back to his feet and the crowd chants something at the 2:20-2:32 mark. (Are they saying “Hermes”? And if so, are they doing it sarcastically? I can’t tell.)
Releated thought:This list from 2008 has become woefully outdated in the year 2014. Most of those guys would be off the list due to inactivity. New version to come soon…
Love him or hate him, Chael Sonnen did what few other men in the sport have been able to accomplish: he made you believe he could take out Anderson Silva. Whether it was his pre-fight promises to dump the champion on his ‘prissy little ass’ or the ease with which he did so in the opening round, for the first time in a long time you doubted Silva’s invincibility. In a time when injuries and injunctions have quashed the UFC’s most emotionally-charged and meaningful fights, ‘The American Gangster’ would not shut his mouth until you were convinced that his fight mattered. To be fair, he never shut his mouth; it was shut for him.
For those who think he’s bad for the sport, you should have checked your pulse when he worked his way to mount. It raced. You should check the ticket sales for this event. It’s a new US record. You should think back to so many of Anderson’s other battles marred by inaction in the cage and indifference in the champ. They sucked. You don’t have to root for the bad guy, but someone has to lose these fights, and it may as well be a loud-mouthed son of a bitch who refers to himself in the third person.
Anderson may not be flying home with the pocket full of Sonnen’s teeth that he desired, but he will be toting an extra twelve pounds of gold. Though he may be slightly disappointed, he’ll have a much easier time getting through airport security.
Love him or hate him, Chael Sonnen did what few other men in the sport have been able to accomplish: he made you believe he could take out Anderson Silva. Whether it was his pre-fight promises to dump the champion on his ‘prissy little ass’ or the ease with which he did so in the opening round, for the first time in a long time you doubted Silva’s invincibility. In a time when injuries and injunctions have quashed the UFC’s most emotionally-charged and meaningful fights, ‘The American Gangster’ would not shut his mouth until you were convinced that his fight mattered. To be fair, he never shut his mouth; it was shut for him.
For those who think he’s bad for the sport, you should have checked your pulse when he worked his way to mount. It raced. You should check the ticket sales for this event. It’s a new US record. You should think back to so many of Anderson’s other battles marred by inaction in the cage and indifference in the champ. They sucked. You don’t have to root for the bad guy, but someone has to lose these fights, and it may as well be a loud-mouthed son of a bitch who refers to himself in the third person.
Anderson may not be flying home with the pocket full of Sonnen’s teeth that he desired, but he will be toting an extra twelve pounds of gold. Though he may be slightly disappointed, he’ll have a much easier time getting through airport security.
Seconds into his rematch with Chael, “The Spider” found himself in a familiar spot. The champ spent much of his first fight with Sonnen on his back getting walloped, and the first round last night was no different. A survivor of war-torn West Linn, Sonnen showed no fear as he brought the fight to Silva right from the opening bell, but as he learned in their first encounter it’s how you finish that matters most, and once again Chael came in second place in an ass-kicking contest.
You can point to vaseline or shorts-grabbing or ‘illegal’ knees–and you will–but right now Silva is the best in the world. He has been for a long time, and he will continue to be so until someone takes him out. Who could possibly do it? I have no clue. Silva is so far ahead of the rest of the pack that none of his potential opponents seem credible, and it’s tough to get excited for a title fight when you don’t believe that the challenger can do the unthinkable. I was excited for this fight. Thanks again, Chael.
Silva’s victory sets two UFC records—most consecutive title defenses (10) and most consecutive wins (15). His $75k “Knockout of the Night” check puts him one bonus shy of tying Chris Lytle‘s record 10 UFC Performance Bonuses.
If our past pleas to him are any indication, God pretty much lets this MMA stuff sort itself out without much interference. That’s not to say that The Fates don’t follow the sport, and they had front row seats for the prelims at last night’s Bellator 55 event.
If there’s ever a good time to showboat, it’s when you’re pretty much dominating your opponent. From that standpoint, Edgar Garcia‘s timing was impeccable. With the sounds of the opening bell still reverberating through the air, Jacob Ortiz was crouched low and looking for the takedown, but with his first few attempts stuffed before they even really got started, he had little option but to duke it out with the former UFC competitor and look for an opening. And so Ortiz circled away throughout the first round with awkward footwork and hands down around his waist, getting tagged in the exchanges and eating a score of brutal leg kicks. When he did finally get to uncork a big right to Garcia’s jaw, his opponent seemed unfazed, tapping his own chin and inviting more blows. As Garcia would soon learn, Karma doesn’t care for such bravado.
If our past pleas to him are any indication, God pretty much lets this MMA stuff sort itself out without much interference. That’s not to say that The Fates don’t follow the sport, and they had front row seats for the prelims at last night’s Bellator 55 event.
If there’s ever a good time to showboat, it’s when you’re pretty much dominating your opponent. From that standpoint, Edgar Garcia‘s timing was impeccable. With the sounds of the opening bell still reverberating through the air, Jacob Ortiz was crouched low and looking for the takedown, but with his first few attempts stuffed before they even really got started, he had little option but to duke it out with the former UFC competitor and look for an opening. And so Ortiz circled away throughout the first round with awkward footwork and hands down around his waist, getting tagged in the exchanges and eating a score of brutal leg kicks. When he did finally get to uncork a big right to Garcia’s jaw, his opponent seemed unfazed, tapping his own chin and inviting more blows. As Garcia would soon learn, Karma doesn’t care for such bravado.
After absorbing a few more solid leg kicks, Ortiz lunged in with a massive overhand right, connecting squarely on Garcia’s jaw. Whatever power may have been lacking in his earlier punch was clearly being saved for this one, as Garcia dropped face first to the canvas. Ortiz managed to rattle off a couple of follow-up shots for good measure before being dispatched by the referee. Not that further proof was needed, but this solidifies the theory that taunting your opponent before knocking him out is awesome for you, while taunting your opponent before getting knocked out is awesome for us.
