Tag: Dana White

TUF 17, Episode 9 Recap: Kevin Casey vs. Bubba McDaniel Comes to a Shocking End

For once, The Ultimate Fighter 17 had some episode previews that told the story straight—the wild card match ended in a crazy finish.It wasn’t due to some fantastic finish from Team Sonnen’s Kevin Casey, and not by a KO victory from Team Jon…

For once, The Ultimate Fighter 17 had some episode previews that told the story straight—the wild card match ended in a crazy finish.

It wasn’t due to some fantastic finish from Team Sonnen’s Kevin Casey, and not by a KO victory from Team Jones’ Bubba McDaniel either—it ended in a kidney failure.

After two rounds of grappling and a huge momentum shift, it was none other than Casey who went down to injury, quitting right on his stool just before he was set to go into a “sudden victory” round against a suddenly-refreshed McDaniel.

UFC president Dana White, Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen couldn’t believe it, with Team Sonnen having to carry Casey out of the Octagon before he was put on a stretcher.

(Read the full episode play-by-play here.)

• Although the “grudge match” aspect of the fight was heavily downplayed, few of us could’ve predicted that McDaniel would be the one to play a part in sending Casey to the hospital. That portion of the season was actually spoiled for many eagle-eyed watchers fairly early in the season, but none of us knew the circumstances.

• That being said, the fight itself was a textbook case of one athlete over-exerting himself too early during the first round. Casey was the one dishing out most of the punishment, but his health issues came back to hurt him when McDaniel found his second wind and started to turn the tide in Round 2.

• With Bubba’s come-from-behind win, that makes the quarterfinals an even 4-on-4 split between Team Jones and Team Sonnen. Looks like the light-heavyweight champion did alright for himself.

• Many of the fighters had a clear idea about whom they wanted to face, but nothing was more interesting than the “Uriah Hall-Josh Samman-Colin Hart” triangle. Hall wanted to fight Samman next, but Samman and Hart both lobbied to have Uriah fight Hart first. That’s a bad look for Samman—or maybe it’s smart. Here’s how the quarterfinals wound up:

Episode 10 Matches:

Collin Hart (4-1-1) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (5-0)
Luke Barnatt (5-0) vs. Dylan Andrews (16-4-1)

Episode 11 Matches:

Josh Samman (9-2) vs. Jimmy Quinlan (3-0)
Uriah Hall (7-2) vs. “Bubba” McDaniel (20-6)**

• This is also the episode where Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones officially buried their beef during Thanksgiving Dinner. As much as this author hates to see the grudge go away, it was actually kind of touching to see him be so humble.

• Maybe the Jones/Sonnen feud doesn’t matter anymore. But why is Sonnen changing face?

• Poor Bubba McDaniel. At this point, he’s fought more rounds than everyone in the TUF house, and now he only gets a short break before having to fight the monster favorite of the show.

• It’s been a while since Barnatt knocked out Gilbert Smith, and he didn’t look like a No. 1 pick. But he will still have the benefit of the longest stretch between bouts and the most training time.

• Hey! Ronda Rousey’s going to be on the next episode! That should put some buts in seats. And judging by the timing of the taping, this actually takes place before her first title defense.

• Ruh-roh. If Uriah Hall put everyone he fought into the hospital, that means that Bubba McDaniel might be taking a ride in an ambulance in two short weeks. Yeesh. If that’s the case, then Kevin Casey might have gotten off way easier.

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10 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts for the MMA Fan

No sport has as much direct fan-to-athlete contact as MMA. That’s just a great thing for us (though it certainly causes occasional headaches for Zuffa’s PR department). Twitter is the preferred means of communication in this world of fighting people in…

No sport has as much direct fan-to-athlete contact as MMA. That’s just a great thing for us (though it certainly causes occasional headaches for Zuffa’s PR department).

Twitter is the preferred means of communication in this world of fighting people in cages (and sometimes rings).

The thing is, there are dozens of organizations, hundreds of fighters and a boatload of journalists out there that you could hit “Follow” for. Really, though, do you want to be that guy that has 9000 people you’re following and 15 followers, made up of your mother, cousin and a few computer-automated Russian hotties?

Of course not! That’s why we’re here, to help you obtain the most efficient Twitter account possible by picking out the 10 Twitter accounts you have to follow.

Sure, you could follow more, but it’s just really not necessary. You only need a few people to really keep track of MMA on the whole, and that’s what I’m here to help you with.  

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Georges St-Pierre’s Legacy: Will Not Finishing Fights Define His Career?

No one seemed surprised at the way the UFC 158 main event between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz ended. Heading into the fight, Diaz had talked the bout up to astronomical levels and it seemed on the surface that maybe, just maybe, he was the fighter …

No one seemed surprised at the way the UFC 158 main event between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz ended.

Heading into the fight, Diaz had talked the bout up to astronomical levels and it seemed on the surface that maybe, just maybe, he was the fighter to finally goad St-Pierre into a slugfest; especially after the last few weeks of verbal exchanges between the two fighters.

The real story however read much like the last five fights of St-Pierre’s career with him dominating en route to a five round decision.  There were no flashy moments where it seemed like St-Pierre was almost ready to pounce and finish Diaz.  To the contrary, for all the control and domination he had, St-Pierre’s suffocating and overwhelming style absolutely won him the fight, but didn’t ever put Diaz in any serious trouble.

St-Pierre has time and time again answered questions about his inability to close fighters down and put them away.  He then says he’s always looking for the knockout or the submission, but fighters are tough and some just can’t be taken out so easily.

Regardless of style, St-Pierre’s one-sided victories still cemented him as one of the two best fighters on the planet for years alongside UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, but his legacy is starting to slip away, as crazy as that might sound.

Make no mistake, St-Pierre is as good as advertised and may be the most well-rounded fighter in the entire sport.  His wrestling for MMA is better than virtually anyone in the world, and even Olympic-caliber grapplers can’t match his takedown rate.  St-Pierre’s jab is one of the deadliest weapons in his arsenal with the way he snaps it out at an opponent the way a cobra cuts down its prey.

But for as good as St-Pierre is on paper, his inability to finish fights now has him relegated to the third position in virtually every pound-for-pound list in the sport behind Silva and UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

In comparison to Jon Jones, St-Pierre should trump him based on title defenses and wins alone.  The Canadian just retained his welterweight title for the eighth-straight time, and it also marked his 19th win overall inside the Octagon.

Jones, meanwhile, has four title defenses since wrangling the belt away from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2011.  In his entire UFC career, Jones is 11-1 with the one defeat coming by way of disqualification due to illegal strikes against Matt Hamill.

What is the prevailing difference when looking at St-Pierre and Jones?  It’s finishing rate, pure and simple.

Jones has decimated his opponents through 11 victories with eight finishes, and in his five title fights he’s taken out four of them by submission or TKO with only one reaching the final horn in the fifth round. 

It was just a few years ago that all the MMA world could talk about when the word ‘superfight’ was echoed was Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre, but now that seems like an afterthought. Nowadays the only fight that seems to matter is Silva vs. Jones.

On Saturday night when the “typical” St-Pierre performance was brought up, UFC president Dana White even felt compelled to stand beside his champion’s style of fighting.

“I’m not defending Georges here, it’s not my job to defend him but I disagree.  I think that Georges St-Pierre fought a great fight tonight,” said White at the UFC 158 post fight press conference.  “He stood up with him and got the better of the stand-up most of the time that he was up.  Nick Diaz has an awesome style with his hands. Nick Diaz, I don’t know if you could hear it over on the media side, hit Georges St-Pierre with a body shot that you don’t hear in fights and Georges took the shot.  Georges took him down and controlled him on the ground. I thought Georges fought a great fight tonight.”

In theory, White is absolutely correct because St-Pierre controlled every facet of the game against Diaz at UFC 158. The reality, however, is a little different; in the fight game a finish counts for a lot more than a unanimous decision.

St-Pierre’s safe and strategic approach to fights will continue to get him wins, but if he’s not careful it may lose him a legacy. 

It’s been more than four years since St-Pierre finished an opponent, and that win was still somewhat anti-climactic because his challenger at the time, B.J. Penn, retired between rounds.  Now, in terms of impressive, literally wearing an opponent down to a nub and exhausting them to the point where they can’t continue is an extremely daunting task and St-Pierre did it in 20 minutes against one of the greats in MMA history.

Unfortunately, there was no highlight reel knockout.  There was no emphatic thud as Penn hit the ground after a St-Pierre kick.  There was just an image of Penn breathing heavy in the corner and his teammates throwing in the towel.

Reaching back even further, it was April 2008 when St-Pierre last beat an opponent with strikes to finish a fight.  That was his rematch against Matt Serra, who knocked out St-Pierre a year earlier in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

It’s hard to criticize St-Pierre when in reality he’s doing nothing wrong.  He’s going out and winning in emphatic fashion against fighters in one of the deepest divisions in the sport. St-Pierre also happens to be the biggest draw in all of MMA despite the fact that he doesn’t destroy opponents like Silva or Jones, and routinely draws huge numbers on pay-per-view.

The UFC 158 pay-per-view numbers are trending to the same tune as UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen 2 from last year, which was the UFC’s biggest show in all of 2012. 

If the numbers hold up, St-Pierre probably shouldn’t care what anyone says about his style or how he approaches fights, and until someone can stop him from executing that game plan it becomes a case of if it’s not broken, why fix it?

Still, for all the popularity and pay-per-view buys, St-Pierre has always said he wants to go down as the greatest fighter of all time. If he can’t start closing down the best fighters in the world and putting a few exclamation points on his performances, he may just have to settle for No. 3 behind Anderson Silva and Jon Jones.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.

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TUF 18 Coaches: UFC Needs to Make Up Its Mind: Sports or Sports Entertainment

The UFC has gone from “as real as it gets” to “as gimmicky as it gets” with The Ultimate Fighter 18.Ronda Rousey is coaching the show’s 18th incarnation against the winner of Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano. That’s a major step forwards for women’s MMA. Un…

The UFC has gone from “as real as it gets” to “as gimmicky as it gets” with The Ultimate Fighter 18.

Ronda Rousey is coaching the show’s 18th incarnation against the winner of Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano. That’s a major step forwards for women’s MMA. Unfortunately, the rest of the season’s premise isn’t as positive. 

Season 18 will be the first to feature female fighters prominently, but the season will also have male fighters…male fighters who will be living in the same house as the females. 

UFC lightweight Yves Edwards took to twitter to make a joke at the expense of season 18’s premise: 

 

 

Edwards may have been kidding, but his words ring true. Season 18 isn’t going to be about the struggles of women in MMA nor is it going to be about the fervent determination that female fighters are noted for displaying. 

It’s going to be about sex and drama. 

“Well of course! Sex and drama are just good TV; sex sells,” you say?

Sex does sell and drama is a requirement on television shows, or else nobody would tune in. However, the UFC wants to consider themselves among the elite sports organizations in the world. The Ultimate Fighter 18 proves that they aren’t. 

The NFL doesn’t need a worse version of The Real World with fights to get people to watch their programming. Meanwhile, the UFC has increasingly had to resort to gimmicks to get people to watch their “sport.”

First off, they gave Chael Sonnen a title shot against UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones.

Sonnen’s trash-talking shtick is notorious. It doesn’t just step over the “pro-wrestling” line, it long-jumps over it. In fact, Sonnen even used/stole a wrestling promo from the legendary superstar Billy Graham. 

What’s worse about giving him a title shot is that he’s coming off a loss in a different weight class. A guy who just lost to Anderson Silva was deemed good enough to go up a weight class and fight for the title.

Admittedly, the UFC was in a bit of a pinch match-making wise. Jones’ original opponent, Dan Henderson, got injured and, according to Dana White, no other contenders were willing to fight Jones. Sonnen stepped up, but Jones refused to fight him on such short notice. The event was subsequently canceled.

Had the UFC only booked Sonnen-Jones because of the tricky circumstances, it would’ve been acceptable. However, after Jones defeated Vitor Belfort at UFC 152, the UFC announced that they were putting Jones opposite Chael Sonnen on The Ultimate Fighter and giving him a title shot at the end of the season. 

Dana White‘s rationale on the decision wasn’t particularly endearing. Sonnen was given the shot because he was the only fighter willing to fight Jones after Henderson pulled out of UFC 151.

“Every one of these guys that are bitching about a title shot now, we’re offered a fight and turned it down,” he told MMAWeekly. “They refused to fight Jon Jones. Now, they’re bummed out because Chael stepped up on eight-days notice and he’s gonna coach The Ultimate Fighter and fight him.”

A light heavyweight title shot was given to a man who hadn’t fought at light heavyweight since 2005 because of a non-existent code of honor—and the hope that Sonnen’s trash talking would reinvigorate the show’s ratings.  

This fight just started the trend.

Former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar lost two fights in a row and then dropped to featherweight and received an immediate title shot versus Jose Aldo, which Edgar lost. It was a shameless attempt at a cash-grab, the match being billed as a “super-fight.”

Edgar was the only other contender at featherweight that the fans remotely cared about after Urijah Faber dropped to bantamweight (and Edgar has never been a great draw, so that says a lot about the other featherweight fighters), so they booked him in a fight with Aldo. 

But the handing out of title shots to undeserving fighters gets worse. 

Nick Diaz was given a title shot at welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre despite losing his last fight and coming of a year-long suspension. Why let a loss and a suspension get in the way of a good feud and a big payday? It’s not like Johny Hendricks was the rightful claimant to the No.1 contender spot, right? 

That’s three nonsensical title shots.

Returning to the NFL comparison, the NFL didn’t bypass the victorious playoff teams and put the Jets and the Patriots in the Super Bowl this past February because they thought the prominent rivalry between the two teams would garner better ratings.

That’s because the National Football League is peddling the sport of football. Sure, the media and even the league itself will promote “storylines” each week. Ultimately, there’s an architecture that makes sure the two best teams always compete in the Super Bowl.

The UFC has attempted to create the guise of such a structure with their official rankings, but it’s a hollow gesture. The promotion is no longer pushing the sport of mixed martial arts. As of late MMA in the UFC has morphed into a nebulous sport/sports-entertainment hybrid. 

Three fighters who were coming off losses got title shots, two of those title shots were given to fighters who were entering weight classes where they either hadn’t fought (Edgar) or hadn’t done anything significant in nearly a decade (Sonnen).  

The chicanery is continuing with TUF 18.

Making the TUF house co-ed is bringing the show to a new low. TUF was always about entertainment, but now the sport-side will be a tacked on addendum. “Watch the sex and drama this week on TUF—and yeah there’s a fight in the last few minutes but that’s not important!” 

Furthermore, when you look at TUF 18 in the context of the history of the show, it’s increasingly obvious that the UFC has had to resort to gimmicks to keep the decrepit show going. 

Ratings have been anemic since the The Ultimate Fighter moved to FX. “TUF: LIVE” failed to captivate the audience, so the UFC resorted to throwing trash-talker Chael Sonnen in against the future-of-the-sport Jon Jones. The ratings were better, but still not near what the show was doing on Spike TV.

The co-ed TUF house is just another cheap stunt to try and get another year of life out of a failing show that’s badly in need of retooling or outright execution.

This is unfortunate.

Women in MMA are finally getting their big break, only for their TUF season to not be their TUF season. The season is being shared with men and will almost definitely be sexualized to capture a bigger audience. 

Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate/Cat Zingano deserve more. Female fighters deserve more. The sport deserves more. And even the UFC deserves more, for the longer they claim to be in the same league as the NFL and its ilk while emphasizing entertainment over sport, the more ridiculous they’ll continue to look. 

There’s nothing wrong with sports entertainment. One could argue that Pride—a now-defunct promotion that rivaled the UFC—was on the sports entertainment side of the line with their elaborate entrances and freakshow fights. 

It’s just that the time has come for the UFC to pick a side and stay on that side. They can’t hire James Toney, give title shots to fighters coming off loses, and make “Real World: The Octagon” while still proclaiming they’re bigger than the NFL and just as legitimate.

 

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Dana White on Nick Diaz Not Paying Taxes: I’d Rather Have F***ing Ninjas After Me

MONTREAL — The rules Nick Diaz lives by are a bit different than the principles that most people adhere to in their everyday lives. We were all certain of that fact before he dropped yet another bomb on us at the post-UFC 158 press conference. Fr…

MONTREAL — The rules Nick Diaz lives by are a bit different than the principles that most people adhere to in their everyday lives. We were all certain of that fact before he dropped yet another bomb on us at the post-UFC 158 press conference.

Fresh off his five-round loss to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Diaz took to the microphone and let the assembled press in on a little secret: “I can’t be jumping teams. I just have to invest a little bit more, now that I have a little bit more money. You know what? I’ve never paid taxes in my life. I’m probably going to go to jail.”

That little tidbit left many of us inside the Bell Centre wondering and perhaps hoping that this wasn’t true. If there’s one group of people that will get their money from you, and if not their money, then a little bit of your time, it’s the Internal Revenue Service.

After the fight was over, UFC president Dana White offered his take on the subject.

“Nick wanted a shot at the UFC title, and he got paid a lot of money for it,” White said. “He better go pay his taxes when he gets his check. That’s no shit.

“He came out here publicly tonight and said he’s never paid taxes in his life? Holy shit. Somebody better handle that with this check and make sure this kid doesn’t end up with nothing.”

The UFC president went on to say that he may get involved in seeing that Diaz does pay his taxes. “There’s a guy I’ve been talking to—he’s Nate and Nick’s lawyer; he seems like a decent guy who’s looking out for them. I’ll probably give this guy a call and tell him that Nick said he’s never paid his taxes in his life and you might want to start working on that Sunday.”

As for how much money Diaz has made, his UFC 143 loss to Carlos Condit earned him $200,000 in salary. Odds are good that he earned the same amount or perhaps more for his fight against St-Pierre.

White also made his feelings on the IRS clear: “I would rather have f***ing ninjas after me than the IRS. I’d rather have the mob after me than the IRS. They don’t play.”

There’s never a dull moment with Diaz, and if what he said is true, don’t expect this story to quietly fade into the background.

All quotes obtained firsthand.

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St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz: Does Nick Diaz Deserve a Rematch?

Nick Diaz just doesn’t know when to quit. After being thoroughly beaten for all five rounds of his contest with Georges St-Pierre, it appears the former Strikeforce champion wants a little more.Diaz made some headlines with his post-fight talk and expr…

Nick Diaz just doesn’t know when to quit. After being thoroughly beaten for all five rounds of his contest with Georges St-Pierre, it appears the former Strikeforce champion wants a little more.

Diaz made some headlines with his post-fight talk and expressed his interest in a rematch with GSP.

“I want a rematch. Georges St-Pierre, if you’d give me a rematch, I‘d appreciate it because I could beat you. … I’m trying to retire. I’m trying to get out of this gig. But I’d like a rematch. I think I can stop the takedowns and beat him. I’m not hurt. He hits like a woman. He hits like a girl because he’s too scared to let go to get a real punch in” (MMAMania.com).

I’ll give Diaz some dap based on the fact he was able to thwart some of GSP‘s takedown attempts in the later rounds but that could also be contributed to St-Pierre visibly slowing down. And you could also move past Diaz‘s successful attempts and look at how many times (and how many minutes) Diaz spent on his back during the 25 minute fight.

The challenger was even defeated on the feet which was an area Diaz was expected to be the better fighter.

In short, Diaz had no answer for anything St-Pierre threw his way. Still, Diaz doesn’t want to go away quietly and will no doubt begin a new campaign for a rematch against GSP.

MMA fans shouldn’t expect that to come to fruition however as it’s clear the UFC is moving on from Diaz. Dana White has repeatedly told anyone and everyone that Diaz is incredibly difficult to work with and I’m sure the UFC President won’t mind having one less headache each day.

The promotion is also firmly behind giving Johny Hendricks the next shot at GSP. With Hendricks’ hand injury and St-Pierre expressing his wish to take some time off, we could be more than a few months away from seeing GSP-Hendricks.

Without all the factors from outside the Octagon, there’s the facts from the actual fight between Diaz and GSP.

Diaz lost in every facet of MMA during his contest with St-Pierre and who’s going to buy in that Diaz can do anything different in a rematch? Grinding, top-heavy wrestlers have always had great success against Diaz and it’s apparent that Diaz hasn’t fixed that gaping hole in his game.

If Diaz would’ve mounted some form of offense or at the very least took a round or two then perhaps he’d have some credibility in calling for a rematch. But instead he sounds like the sore loser he’s always been and I expect Diaz to give up the smoking habits before White gives the Stockton bad boy another shot at St-Pierre.

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