It was a seasoned veteran vs. an undefeated young up-and-coming talent when No. 4-ranked featherweight Cub Swanson met No. 6-ranked Brian Ortega in the main event of last night’s (Sat., December 9, 2017) UFC Fight Night 123 from Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. With crucial ranking positioning up for grabs, Swanson came out strong early […]
It was a seasoned veteran vs. an undefeated young up-and-coming talent when No. 4-ranked featherweight Cub Swanson met No. 6-ranked Brian Ortega in the main event of last night’s (Sat., December 9, 2017) UFC Fight Night 123 from Save Mart Center in Fresno, California.
With crucial ranking positioning up for grabs, Swanson came out strong early in his perceived area of strength. He hit Ortega with some precise punches and appeared to be on his way to winning round one. But Ortega used his slick submission skills to lock up a tight choke in the final seconds of the frame, and he looked for the same in the second.
When Swanson left his neck open for a split second, Ortega snatched it and locked on a tight standing guillotine which Swanson fought through. “T-City” made a world-class adjustment, however, cinching in the choke even further and earning the tap from the longtime contender for his biggest-ever win. Watch the highlights of Ortega’s jaw-dropping submission victory here:
UFC Fight Night 123 went down tonight (Saturday, December 9, 2017) from the Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA, and was headlined by a pivotal featherweight tilt between perennial contender Cub Swanson and submission savant Brian Ortega. Ortega earned himself yet another come-from-behind finish, eliciting the tap from Swanson in the second frame. He jumped […]
UFC Fight Night 123 went down tonight (Saturday, December 9, 2017) from the Save Mart Center in Fresno, CA, and was headlined by a pivotal featherweight tilt between perennial contender Cub Swanson and submission savant Brian Ortega. Ortega earned himself yet another come-from-behind finish, eliciting the tap from Swanson in the second frame. He jumped a standing guillotine after getting pieced up on the feet for the better part of two rounds, but the trapped Swanson had no choice but to ask out of the fight.
See how Twitter reacted to this potential number-one contender bout:
Cub Swanson and Brian Ortega are in the octagon for the #UFCFresno main event. This should be awesome.
Brian Ortega's grappling is unbelievable. Just when Cub Swanson started to loosen up on the feet, Ortega bullied him into cage, jumps on a guillotine, gets the quick tap. Wow.
On the other hand, what a revelation Ortega is. His chokes with his arms are amazing, but so is his guard. His entire repertoire is absurd. His ability to line up his subs so quickly is next to impossible.
The UFC’s Fight Night event from Fresno, California has come to an end, and what an amazing night of fights it was. In the main event of the evening, jiu-jitsu black belt Brian Ortega pulled off an amazing second round submission win over longtime featherweight veteran and No. 4-ranked Cub Swanson. The co-main event saw […]
The UFC’s Fight Night event from Fresno, California has come to an end, and what an amazing night of fights it was.
In the main event of the evening, jiu-jitsu black belt Brian Ortega pulled off an amazing second round submission win over longtime featherweight veteran and No. 4-ranked Cub Swanson. The co-main event saw Gabriel Benitez earn a unanimous decision win over Jason Knight.
And former World Series Of Fighting (WSOF) bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes pulled off a sick first round knockout win over Aljamain Sterling. Here is the UFC Fight Night Fresno post-fight press conference:
Not that long ago, the notion of a top-tier UFC fighter coming to the expiration of his contract was a silly one.
Fighters didn’t have much choice in the matter. After the death of PRIDE and then Strikeforce, the UFC had no competition. There was no pl…
Not that long ago, the notion of a top-tier UFC fighter coming to the expiration of his contract was a silly one.
Fighters didn’t have much choice in the matter. After the death of PRIDE and then Strikeforce, the UFC had no competition. There was no place for a fighter dissatisfied with his UFC tenure to go. Athletes mostly sucked it up and kept hoping for a breakthrough that would help catapult them into the land of riches and gold.
Times have changed. Fighters have seen that Scott Coker happens to be growing some mighty green grass over in Bellator, and it has given them options. They don’t think you are paid highly enough? Unhappy when you’re bypassed by lesser talents with bigger mouths? Fine. Fight out your contract, gamble on yourself and see where the chips fall. Do what Rory MacDonald and Ryan Bader and other former UFC stars have done.
You could win big. But you might lose big too.
Cub Swanson is the latest to allow himself to see the expiration of a UFC contract. Having negotiated with the UFC brass over the past six months, Swanson was unhappy with the offers being pushed across the table. And when the UFC opted to give Frankie Edgar a title shot over Swanson (likely because of Swanson’s refusal to sign a new contract), Swanson took the road less traveled.
Who could blame him? Swanson is 10-2 since 2012 and has long since become more than just the guy being double-kneed in the face in that World Extreme Cagefighting highlight.
Swanson went into his UFC Fight Night 123 bout against Brian Ortega with a gamble; with a big win, he would enter the free-agent market on a high, with multiple suitors likely attempting to wrest him away from the UFC.
He lost.
Swanson dominated him on the feet, peppering Ortega with gorgeous hooks to the body and powerful blows to the head. But Ortega discovered Swanson’s weakness at the end of the first round, nearly submitting Swanson with a D’Arce choke.
Slow-motion replays of the moment showed a clearly panicked Swanson, his eyes bulging, looking frantically for the arena clock above his head to see whether he had enough time to hold on and escape the round. He did.
But once Ortega grabbed him in the second round, pressing Swanson up against the cage, it was as good as over. T-City deftly wrapped Swanson in a guillotine, used his legs to press off the cage and hung off his opponent’s frame, applying ungodly pressure to his neck.
When Swanson tried to escape, Ortega quickly adjusted his grip to make it tighter—all without dropping from his position, hanging on Swanson’s body. With that adjustment, it was over; Swanson quickly tapped.
With the submission loss, Swanson loses an entire world of opportunity that was ripe for the taking. Bellator may still be interested in securing his services, but it will be at a far lower pay scale than it would have been had he won. And the UFC? Well, one can imagine Sean Shelby smugly grinning, at least internally; Swanson gave up his place in the driver’s seat.
If Swanson wants to stick around the UFC, he will have to do so on the UFC’s terms. And those terms are surely going to be far lower than the offers Swanson has already turned down.
This is another thing that separates mixed martial arts from every other sport. In other sports, athletes have entire seasons to make their contract-year statement. Fortunes are not usually decided in an instant. But that’s the way it goes in combat sports.
The advent of true mixed martial arts free agency is a great thing and a boon for the sport, its athletes and its fans. But it also leads to the sort of high-pressure, high-stakes scenario Swanson faced Saturday night. You can put your money where your mouth is and try to prove you are worth what you believe. More power to you; it is your right to do so.
But if that’s the route you take, you should understand that everything can backfire in the blink of an eye. And then, if you’re lucky, you will end up back where you started. But more likely, you will find yourself on a hill, trying to figure out a way just to get back to where you were before your big gamble failed to pay off.
Brian Ortega continued to make a name for himself in UFC’s featherweight division after he defeated Cub Swanson via thrilling second-round submission at UFC Fight Night 123 on Saturday night in Fresno, California.
After coming close to a sub…
Brian Ortega continued to make a name for himself in UFC’s featherweight division after he defeated Cub Swanson via thrilling second-round submission at UFC Fight Night 123 on Saturday night in Fresno, California.
After coming close to a submission at the end of Round 1, Ortega pushed off the cage and put himself in position to lock in a standing guillotine midway through the second round that forced Swanson to tap out.
The 26-year-old Ortega has moved his mixed martial arts record to 13-0 with one no-contest. He came into this bout ranked as the UFC’s No. 6 featherweight. His stock dropped after he failed a post-fight drug test in 2014 that led to a nine-month suspension, but he’s turned things around with five straight wins.
Here are the full main-card results:
Featherweight: Brian Ortega def. Cub Swanson via second-round submission
Featherweight: Gabriel Benitez def. Jason Knight via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-27)
Bantamweight: Marlon Moraes def. Aljamain Sterling via first-round knockout
Lightweight: Scott Holtzman def. Darrell Horcher via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Middleweight: Eryk Anders def. Markus Perez via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-25, 29-28)
Bantamweight: Benito Lopez def. Albert Morales via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Ortega nearly had the match won at the end of the first round, locking in a choke that had Swanson’s face looking panicked until the horn sounded to save him, as Fox Sports: UFC illustrated:
Swanson appeared to find an opening when the second round started. He was landing hard strikes and looked more confident than in the initial round.
Unfortunately, Swanson left himself open long enough for Ortega to do this:
Fellow UFC fighter Brad Tavares was complimentary of what he saw from Ortega after the submission:
When the UFC called Jose Aldo to replace Frankie Edgar in a featherweight title match against Max Holloway at UFC 218 last Saturday, Swanson did not hide his disappointment at being passed over for the opportunity, per MMA Mania’s Adam Guillen Jr.:
“I’m looking back at all the people that have gotten title fights—Chad Mendes got multiple, Frankie Edgar has gotten multiple, Aldo multiple, Korean Zombie got one out of nowhere, Ricardo Lamas got one. All the people at the top have all gotten them. Max took forever to get one and I was very vocal about him deserving a title fight. I just don’t see why in 10 years with the company I couldn’t have gotten one. I feel like maybe they don’t think that highly of me.”
Even though Swanson lost to Holloway in their previous bout, it was two years and seven months ago. But this defeat against Ortega signals another direction for the UFC to go in if it wants a challenger for Holloway.
Ironically, Ortega said before Saturday’s event he’s in exactly the position he hoped to be when he came to UFC.
“I’m on the third fight of that contract,” he told ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto. “We said that, by the time we hit that third fight and it’s time to negotiate the next deal, we want to be headlining an event against someone like Cub Swanson. And now, that actually came true. It’s pretty trippy.”
Before the main event, Marlon Moraes provided a vicious knockout of Aljamain Sterling 67 seconds into the opening round of their bantamweight bout.
Fox Sports: UFC had the highlight of Moraes’ knee connecting with Sterling, whose body immediately went limp as he fell to the canvas:
Moraes noted after the fight he wasn’t even trying to use his knee on the decisive strike, per MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani:
Regardless of what Moraes was trying to do, it worked and gave him momentum at the end of the year. The Brazil native has won two fights in the span of 28 days and should move up the bantamweight rankings after starting Saturday seventh in the division.
The thrilling wins for Ortega and Moraes give UFC plenty of hope heading into 2018. Ortega has quickly turned himself into a star and top contender in the promotion this latest win.
Moraes isn’t quite at that level yet with just three UFC fights under his belt, but back-to-back wins after a loss to Raphael Assuncao in June is making him a factor in the 135-pound division.
Cub Swanson fought tough, but couldn’t escape Brian Ortega’s choke. Swanson opened up with a leg kick. He connected with another. Ortega fired away and Swanson had no issue throwing leather in return. Another leg kick was there for Swanson. A body punch was there for Swanson. He pressed forward, but Ortega didn’t allow the […]
Cub Swanson fought tough, but couldn’t escape Brian Ortega’s choke.
Swanson opened up with a leg kick. He connected with another. Ortega fired away and Swanson had no issue throwing leather in return. Another leg kick was there for Swanson. A body punch was there for Swanson. He pressed forward, but Ortega didn’t allow the strikes to land. A push kick was there for Ortega. Ortega locked in a choke standing. They rolled on the ground. Swanson survived the round.
The second round was underway and Swanson landed a leg kick.. A high kick from Ortega was blocked. Swanson was certainly the more active striker. Ortega pushed his opponent against the fence. An uppercut inside the clinch landed for Swanson. Ortega went for the standing guillotine. He forced the tap.
Final Result: Brian Ortega def. Cub Swanson via submission (guillotine choke) – R2, 3:22
Not that long ago, the notion of a top-tier UFC fighter coming to the expiration of his contract was a silly one.