Tag: daniel cormier

Daniel Cormier vs. Patrick Cummins Is UFC Damage Control at Its Best (and Worst)

One of the great strengths of the UFC has always been its ability to make sharp turns.
Because it operates largely without concern for modern burdens like corporate policy, decorum or—really—any internal rules, the world’s largest MMA…

One of the great strengths of the UFC has always been its ability to make sharp turns.

Because it operates largely without concern for modern burdens like corporate policy, decorum or—really—any internal rules, the world’s largest MMA organization is a sleek and supple machine. Even as it trundles out of adolescence and into its early 20s, the UFC power structure remains agile, mobile and occasionally hostile.

Sometimes that’s a good thing, because when—as UFC president Dana White so often puts it—“bad (stuff) happens” the company is able to react quickly to fix the problem, keep its fans happy and keep the train on its tracks.

When you do 46 (or is it 46,000?) shows per year, that flexibility is a priceless luxury.

Of course, the fact that a multimillion-dollar company like the UFC seems to manage many of its affairs from whim to whim must also be considered one of its gravest flaws.

Take, for example, the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 170, where undefeated once and future No. 1 contender Daniel Cormier will fight undefeated random dude Patrick Cummins.

Certainly, this is a pairing that highlights both the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s emergency matchmaking strategies.

On one hand, it’s sort of fabulous that the UFC was able to respond at lightning speed to replace Rashad Evans when he pulled out just six days ago from his scheduled bout against Cormier. In any other sport, with any other organization, that probably wouldn’t have happened.

Cormier would have been left on the sideline, without an opponent and without a payday—and we know that’s not what he wanted.

Instead, after a brief social media push, the company found Cummins and offered him a chance to make his dreams come true.

A chance, frankly, that he might never have gotten otherwise.

There was no way he was going to turn it down.

The anecdote of Cummins allegedly getting fired from his job at a coffee shop for taking the fateful call from White while he was supposed to be working the drive-through was an instant classic.

A day later, when he came out with his own allegations that he once made Cormier cry during training it may have been hokey, but at least it showed he wasn’t cowed by the sheer size of the opportunity he’d been handed.

Right now, Cummins is every underdog you’ve ever read about, or watched in a 30 for 30 documentary or cheered on at a high school wrestling tournament. If you’re not moved at least a little bit by his story, you’ve likely never enjoyed a sports movie.

Or for that matter, actual sports.

The dark side of it all, obviously, is that there’s no real cogent argument that Cummins deserves to be here. He seems like a reasonably nice, reasonably intelligent guy, but he’s also a light heavyweight prospect with a meager 4-0 record who has been idle for the last nine months.

The combined win-loss total of his four opponents is 10-20-1. Meanwhile, four of Cormier’s last five opponents were Roy Nelson, Frank Mir, Josh Barnett and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.

Cummins will come into this fight as around an eight-to-one long shot, via Best Fight Odds, while Cormier is as much as a -1200 favorite. In other words, this shapes up as a mismatch of such epic proportions it’s a wonder the UFC was able to get it sanctioned in Las Vegas.

If Cummins manages to put up a better-than-anticipated fight, then maybe we can all shake hands at the end of the night and go to bed with clear consciences.

And if not? If he gets brutalized by Cormier—who seemed legitimately irked by the whole “I made you cry” angle—then Sunday morning we probably all wake up feeling a lot less enthused about Cummins’ Cinderella story.

Eight times out of 10, the UFC deserves to be congratulated for its ability to wade through crisis without getting too badly burned.

This time, if things go poorly, the fight company may have skated away from one mishap only to wander straight into a different kind of controversy.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Daniel Cormier’s Olympic Teammate Sara McMann Defends Him Against Cummins

I have racked my brain, but I cannot remember a mixed martial arts rivalry that became heated more quickly than the UFC 170 bout between Daniel Cormier and Pat Cummins.
Most of this is due to the circumstances surrounding the fight, of course. One day,…

I have racked my brain, but I cannot remember a mixed martial arts rivalry that became heated more quickly than the UFC 170 bout between Daniel Cormier and Pat Cummins.

Most of this is due to the circumstances surrounding the fight, of course. One day, Cormier was scheduled to face Rashad Evans. The next morning, Cummins replaced the injured Evans after agreeing to face Cormier on just one week’s notice.

One of the reasons Cummins got the bout in the first place was his claim to UFC president Dana White that he had “broken” Cormier in wrestling practice when Cormier was training for the Olympics. He also told White he made Cormier cry, and that was enough for White to grant him the opportunity of a lifetime.

Cummins was famously fired from his barista job at a Dana Point, California coffee house for talking to White on the phone during his shift. But it didn’t matter: He was finally getting the UFC opportunity that he’d sought for the last few years.

That night, he told his story to a national TV audience on Fox Sports Live. Cormier appeared on the show via satellite with Cummins, and the usually gregarious former Olympian was visibly perturbed. He said that if Cummins‘ story was true, it happened because Cormier was in training for the Olympics and was facing a rotating cast of fellow wrestlers, with a fresh body cycling in every few minutes.

Cormier also said Cummins had broken the first rule of the wrestling room: What happens in the wrestling room stays in the wrestling room.

Over the weekend, Cormier‘s Olympic teammate Sara McMann called MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani to give her point of view:

During these practices, we are always down on points. We have people rotating in on us. They are people in our weight class that are eating whatever they want, they’re fresh because they get breaks and we don’t. They have no pressure on them. It’s a little bit ridiculous because these practices are designed to break us. These coaches won’t stop until you are flaking out, until you are at your absolute lowest point. That’s the way it’s been in wrestling forever.

To say that he made [Cormier] cry, that’s just crazy to me.

Here’s a story for you: In the summer of 2012, I attended a media event that was designed to give journalists the experience of going through various aspects of mixed martial arts training.

One of those sessions was a brief wrestling class that was led by Cormier. It lasted roughly eight minutes, but those eight minutes felt like an eternity. After it was over, Cormier told us that we’d just experienced a wrestling room warm-up.

It wasn’t even a real training session; it was just the appetizer.

I was tired and in pain. But the real hurt came the next day, when I rolled out of my Mandalay Bay hotel room bed and quickly realized that walking was going to be a difficult proposition. I spent the majority of that day working from my bed. It was one of the more painful experiences of my life.

I tell you this story to say this: If what Cummins says is true, then I totally understand Cormier and McMann‘s response. Wrestling is a grueling activity, and the idea of hitting the mat for an extended session while fresh guys rotate in every few minutes is not pleasant.

Of course, there is a chance that none of this is true—that Cummins made something up on the spot and Cormier decided to go with it for the sake of promoting a fight.

If so, kudos to both of them. After all the talk, I’m a lot more interested in seeing one of the world’s best fighters face off against a virtual unknown than I thought I’d be.

And make no mistake about it: Cummins is outmatched and outgunned by Cormier in just about every area of mixed martial arts. But he’s not as much of a pushover as the general public is making him out to be. He has only four professional fights, but that’s partially because several opponents have backed out of scheduled fights once they found out who he was.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Cormier‘s teammate Cain Velasquez faced the same predicament before signing with the UFC. He was so fearsome that it was impossible to find opponents who were willing to face him. And when Bob Cook and the American Kickboxing Academy folks were able to find opponents for Velasquez, most of them backed out once they did a little research on the future UFC heavyweight champion.

I’m not saying Cummins is Velasquez. Not by a long shot. But I am saying he’s a lot better than the 8-1 odds he’s currently trading for at the sportsbooks here in Vegas.

It’s very likely he’ll lose to Cormier, but I suspect we’ll see him put up a fight, and that’s just about all we can ask of someone who volunteers to fight one of the best in the world on just seven days’ notice.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Four Olympic Athletes Who Should Transition Into MMA


(The bronze-medalist judoka and silver-medalist freestyle wrestler both have a shot at UFC gold this weekend. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting)

By Nasir Jabbar

UFC 170‘s headline act will feature two Olympic medalists in Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann, and was supposed to feature a third Olympian in Daniel Cormier. Though other Olympic veterans like Henry Cejudo and Yoel Romero have successfully hopped onto the MMA bandwagon, the sport isn’t for everybody. It’s a tough, grueling game that apparently has “no moral values,” according to French judoka Teddy Riner.

At the risk of upsetting another French brick shithouse, Riner’s anti-MMA stance reeks of ignorance. So in honour of UFC 170, I’m going to highlight four Olympians who have a good chance of crossing over. These athletes have either expressed an interest in MMA, supported it, or have an uncanny parallel with another well-known fighter. Lets run them down…

Travis Stevens

Outside of the Olympic games there isn’t a professional avenue for judo players, but MMA provides that opportunity, giving former judokas a chance to use their skill set to compete and make a living. Travis Stevens could be the next crossover star from the world of judo — joining the ranks of Rousey, Hector Lombard, and Yoshiro Akiyama — and he’s already considering MMA as a future career.

The 27-year-old American made his first Olympic appearance at the 2008 Beijing Games (where he placed 9th), and fell short of the podium again in London in 2012, losing out in the bronze medal match. Failing to capture an Olympic medal in two attempts puts Stevens in an awkward position. Does he jump into MMA now or wait around for the next Olympic games?

Stevens is not only a top ten Judoka in his weight division he also regularly trains under Renzo Gracie at his academy in New York, and more impressively is a black-belt in jiu-jitsu under grappling guru John Danaher. A double black belt is a testament to Stevens’ incredible ground game, which provides the perfect base to enter MMA.


(The bronze-medalist judoka and silver-medalist freestyle wrestler both have a shot at UFC gold this weekend. Photo via Esther Lin/MMAFighting)

By Nasir Jabbar

UFC 170‘s headline act will feature two Olympic medalists in Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann, and was supposed to feature a third Olympian in Daniel Cormier. Though other Olympic veterans like Henry Cejudo and Yoel Romero have successfully hopped onto the MMA bandwagon, the sport isn’t for everybody. It’s a tough, grueling game that apparently has “no moral values,” according to French judoka Teddy Riner.

At the risk of upsetting another French brick shithouse, Riner’s anti-MMA stance reeks of ignorance. So in honour of UFC 170, I’m going to highlight four Olympians who have a good chance of crossing over. These athletes have either expressed an interest in MMA, supported it, or have an uncanny parallel with another well-known fighter. Lets run them down…

Travis Stevens

Outside of the Olympic games there isn’t a professional avenue for judo players, but MMA provides that opportunity, giving former judokas a chance to use their skill set to compete and make a living. Travis Stevens could be the next crossover star from the world of judo — joining the ranks of Rousey, Hector Lombard, and Yoshiro Akiyama — and he’s already considering MMA as a future career.

The 27-year-old American made his first Olympic appearance at the 2008 Beijing Games (where he placed 9th in the 81kg division), and fell short of the podium again in London in 2012, losing out in the bronze medal match. Failing to capture an Olympic medal in two attempts puts Stevens in an awkward position. Does he jump into MMA now or wait around for the next Olympic games?

Stevens is not only a top ten Judoka in his weight division he also regularly trains under Renzo Gracie at his academy in New York, and more impressively is a black-belt in jiu-jitsu under grappling guru John Danaher. A double black belt is a testament to Stevens’ incredible ground game, which provides the perfect base to enter MMA.

Katie Taylor

The Irish boxing starlet has won a long list of medals in her boxing career competing at 60kg, culminating in her gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Traditionally for male athletes, winning a medal in the Olympics is a foundation to enter the professional ranks, with many of the top boxing promoters snapping up successful Olympians. However, the women’s boxing scene isn’t thriving, which makes a transition to MMA much more enticing.

There is a ton of buzz surrounding former boxing star turned hot MMA prospect Holly Holm, who has made short work with all her opponents in MMA, albeit against some questionable opponents. Taylor is still fairly young at the age of 27, so she has time to work on the ground mechanics before shifting to MMA. Already carrying a huge following in her home country, Taylor would be a welcome addition to the 135-pound division.

Jacob “Jake” Varner

MMA is littered with many collegiate, regional, national, you-name-it wrestling stars. Most of the best wrestlers have come out of the amateur wrestling scene in the U.S., which has served as a conveyor belt in feeding the best talent to MMA. There are only a handful of Olympic-caliber wrestlers in the sport, but freestyle wrestler Varner could potentially be another one. Varner hasn’t indicated whether he will enter the MMA bubble, but unlike his teammate Jordan Burroughs, he hasn’t dismissed it. The California native is a fan of the UFC, naming fellow wrestler Dan Henderson as his favorite fighter.

If his gold medal from the 2012 London Games wasn’t enough to prove how legitimate his wrestling credentials are, the 96kg competitor is also coached by Cael Sanderson who is one of, if not the greatest amateur wrestler to come out of the States. Like Stevens and Taylor, Varner is still relatively young at the age of 27 and could mold his MMA career on fellow Olympian Daniel Cormier. Cormier turned professional at the age of twenty-nine, and was also a small heavyweight who eventually dropped down to 205 pounds. With Varner’s elite-of-the-elite wrestling pedigree, a move to MMA could garner him just as much success as past Olympians who have competed in the sport.

Jade Jones

Another gold medalist at the London Olympics, the British Taekwondo practitioner became a overnight superstar with her performances en route to a gold medal in the 57kg division. The Korean martial art isn’t as common as other disciplines among MMA practitioners, but two fighters who have embraced it are decorated lightweight stars Anthony Pettis and Benson Henderson.

As the UFC gets ready to launch its new 115-pound women strawweight division, the promotion is still on the hunt to fill the final spaces in its TUF 20 tournament. Enter Jade Jones, who fights around the strawweight limit and could a very viable candidate. Obviously, she lacks MMA experience but at least she knows how to fight.

If Jones decided to transition into MMA, a few years of practicing the ground game would be a must, but being only 20 years old she has time on her side. As the UFC was ramping up for last year’s Fight Night in Manchester, Jones met and trained with WMMA pioneer Rosi Sexton, who became the first female British UFC fighter and was involved in the first UFC women’s bout in Europe. Now that Sexton has left the promotion, could Jones step in as the next British WMMA star?

The Ten Most Random Replacement Opponents in MMA History


(He wore his own shirt in hopes of getting MMA fans to learn his name. Instead, they all asked him if he’s a cameraman for the new Danny Trejo movie.)

By Seth Falvo

By now you’ve heard that Rashad Evans is out of his co-main event clash against Daniel Cormier at UFC 170, and has been replaced by promotional newcomer Patrick Cummins. Unsurprisingly, reactions to this announcement have ranged from “Who is Patrick Cummins?” to “UFC Books Match Between Number One Contender And Twitter User.” Cummins certainly feels like an unusual replacement opponent, but how does he stack up against other fighters who were granted a shot in the spotlight out of sheer necessity for a warm body to step in and save a fight?

Coincidentally enough, we’ll start with his next opponent…

10.) Injury Replacement Daniel Cormier Wins the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

(Photo Courtesy of Getty Images.)

The Details: Replaced Alistair Overeem against Antonio Silva at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (09/10/2011).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: It’s hard to believe that just under three years ago, Daniel Cormier such an unknown prospect that sportsbooks didn’t even bother creating odds for him to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, despite creating odds for Ray Sefo and Valentijn “Othereem” Overeem; a $20 bet on Cormier “FIELD” to win the tournament would have netted you $1,000. But when Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem injured his toe/realized fighting in the tournament was pointless and pulled out of his scheduled bout against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Cormier handled Silva so effortlessly that it was impossible not to take note. Cormier would go on to defeat Josh Barnett for the tournament title, and the rest is history.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: While Cormier may not have been high on our radars at the time, it’s hard to call an Olympic wrestler an “unknown prospect.”

On a somewhat related note…


(He wore his own shirt in hopes of getting MMA fans to learn his name. Instead, they all asked him if he’s a cameraman for the new Danny Trejo movie.)

By Seth Falvo

By now you’ve heard that Rashad Evans is out of his co-main event clash against Daniel Cormier at UFC 170, and has been replaced by promotional newcomer Patrick Cummins. Unsurprisingly, reactions to this announcement have ranged from “Who is Patrick Cummins?” to “UFC Books Match Between Number One Contender And Twitter User.“ Cummins certainly feels like an unusual replacement opponent, but how does he stack up against other fighters who were granted a shot in the spotlight out of sheer necessity for a warm body to step in and save a fight?

Coincidentally enough, we’ll start with his next opponent…

10.) Injury Replacement Daniel Cormier Wins the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

(Photo Courtesy of Getty Images.)

The Details: Replaced Alistair Overeem against Antonio Silva at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Kharitonov (09/10/2011).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: It’s hard to believe that just under three years ago, Daniel Cormier such an unknown prospect that sportsbooks didn’t even bother creating odds for him to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, despite creating odds for Ray Sefo and Valentijn “Othereem” Overeem; a $20 bet on Cormier “FIELD” to win the tournament would have netted you $1,000. But when Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem injured his toe/realized fighting in the tournament was pointless and pulled out of his scheduled bout against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Cormier handled Silva so effortlessly that it was impossible not to take note. Cormier would go on to defeat Josh Barnett for the tournament title, and the rest is history.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: While Cormier may not have been high on our radars at the time, it’s hard to call an Olympic wrestler an “unknown prospect.”

On a somewhat related note…

9.) Injury Replacement Steve Jennum Wins UFC 3.

The Details: Replaced Ken Shamrock against Harold Howard in the finals of UFC 3 (09/09/1994).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: Well, did you buy UFC 3 to watch a police officer who dabbled in ninjutsu? Of course not. You bought that card to watch Royce Gracie take on Ken Shamrock, which made things sort-of disappointing when Royce Gracie forfeited from exhaustion to crazy person Harold Howard and Ken Shamrock was unable to continue fighting in the tournament after his victory over Felix Lee Mitchell. What we ended up with was Jennum quickly submitting Howard, winning the tournament before most fans watching could even be bothered learning his name.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Because at this point in UFC history, pretty much everyone other than Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie was a random unknown (okay, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea…).

8.) Stephan Bonnar Saves UFC 153 by Getting Damn-Near Murdered by Anderson Silva.

The Details: Replaced Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar as the Main Event of UFC 153 (10/13/2012).
Why This Makes the Top Ten: With The Injury Curse of 2012 in full effect, the UFC saw this show’s main event shift from Aldo vs. Koch to Aldo vs. Edgar to The First Two Healthy Bodies We Can Find, Hopefully At Least One of Which Brazilian. What the UFC ended up getting was then-indestructible middleweight champion Anderson Silva taking on The Ultimate Fighter star Stephan Bonnar at light-heavyweight. The short-notice bout felt like the recipe for a memorable freak show fight, and it certainly did not disappoint.
Why This Isn’t Ranked Higher: As random as matching these two guys up against each other was, let’s not act like either fighter was an unknown nobody before this fight.

7.) Strikeforce Takes Zero Chances on Replacement Opponent for Bobby Lashley, Books Wes Sims to Fight at Strikeforce: Miami.


(Photo Courtesy of Sherdog)

The Details: Replaced Shane Del Rosario/Yohan Banks against Bobby Lashley at Strikeforce: Miami (01/30/2010).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: Believe it or not, there once was a time when Strikeforce was an independently owned company that was actively trying to establish its own stars. One such fighter they were hoping would become a huge draw for them was former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley, who initially agreed to a bout against decorated Muay Thai fighter Shane Del Rosario at this event. Presumably as soon as Strikeforce officials realized how suicidal the match would be for Lashley, they changed their minds and set out to book a fight between Lashley and some guy named Yohan Banks. When the commission didn’t approve the bout – possibly because they asked “Who the hell is Yohan Banks?” and were met with vacant, blank stares – Strikeforce settled for none other than infamous UFC castoff Wes Sims. And if there were any doubts that Sims wouldn’t be a threat to their crossover star, they were erased when Sims showed up looking pregnant and attempted a pro-wrasslin’ test of strength at the start of the fight.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Wes Sims may not have been the most credible opponent for Bobby Lashley, but at least he was once a somewhat-big name. He was a lot more relevant than Jimmy Ambriz – who was also being considered for the fight – ever was.

6.) The So-Very-YAMMA Pit Fighting Saga of Patrick Smith


(Photo Courtesy of Sherdog)

The Details: Injury replacement for pretty much every “Masters Division” fighter YAMMA actually wanted for YAMMA Pit Fighting 1 (04/11/2008).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: It’s almost too easy to make jokes about the YAMMA Pit Fighting Senior Circuit – or “Masters Division,” as their marketing department wanted us to call it. The short version of the events is that the old-school UFC veteran was initially brought in to replace Don Frye against Oleg Taktarov, then removed from the card when he was arrested after a high-speed chase, making his participation appear doubtful. He was brought back when not only were his crimes reduced to misdemeanors, but also when his replacement, Maurice Smith, pulled out from the card. Smith fought Butterbean at the promotion’s only event, because of course he did. Butterbean, for the record, was initially set to take on Gary Goodridge.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Because even though he hadn’t been relevant in over a decade, he was still actively competing at regional shows when YAMMA called him up to fight.

5.) Seth Petruzelli Dethrones The Baddest Man in EliteXC…*sigh* Kimbo Slice

The Details: Injury replacement for Ken Shamrock against Kimbo Slice at EliteXC: Heat (10/04/2008).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: Don’t act like you don’t know the story by now. Petruzelli was the semi-retired light-heavyweight who put on a few last-second pounds to save EliteXC: Heat‘s main event when Ken Shamrock pulled out on the day of the fight. Ironically enough, he pretty much sunk the company by saving this card. Although every MMA fan in the United States would learn his name after he became the Kimbo Killer, let’s not change history and act like he was a big star before the bout.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Well, he was a TUF alumnus, so it’s not like no one had heard of him; never mind that most of those in attendance probably never heard of TUF, either.

4.) Patrick Cummins Will Fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 170

(Photo Courtesy of MMAJunkie.com)

The Details: Will replace Rashad Evans against Daniel Cormier at UFC 170 (02/22/2014).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: I’m not writing that he has no chance of beating Daniel Cormier, but on paper he sure as hell doesn’t. The 4-0 prospect has two weeks to prepare for one of the top fighters in the UFC, and the only reason anyone is giving him a chance is because of a high school drama-esque story about Cummins making Daniel Cormier cry when they trained together. This bout is essentially a slightly more legitimate version of Shamrock vs Lober II on paper; let’s see how it actually plays out.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Because who knows, Cummins might actually win…

3.) Pro-Wrestler Sean O’Haire Steps in to Fight Butterbean #PRIDENEVERDIE

The Details: Replacement for Mark Hunt against Butterbean at PRIDE 32: The Real Deal(10/21/2006).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: The craziest aspect of this bout isn’t the fact that PRIDE replaced one of their top heavyweights with a professional wrestler; that was pretty much par for the course with them. No, the strangest part about this fight was that Mark Hunt was pulled from the card when the NSAC deemed that he held an “unfair mat advantage” over Butterbean. I guess if you consider attempting a leg drop in an MMA fight a “mat advantage,” then yeah, O’Haire actually did have a chance of winning this new, “more competitive” fight.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Because Sean O’Haire was actually 2-1 in MMA at the time, so it’s not like he was completely inexperienced when he was called in to replace Mark Hunt. Also, because if you expected anything different from PRIDE, you clearly weren’t a fan.

2.) Fred Ettish: The Excellence of Being Executed

The Details: Injury replacement who stepped in for Ken Shamrock to fight Johnny Rhodes at UFC 2 (03/11/1994).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: What happens when a point fighter actually gets into a real fight? Something so tragic that it immediately becomes the stuff of legends, apparently. You have to feel bad for Ettish, who was there to essentially play Burt Watson before being called into action against an opponent with actual fighting experience. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Why He Isn’t Ranked Higher: Two Reasons: Number one, because if he looked unprepared, it’s because everyone was unprepared for what they were getting into in those days, because mixed martial arts was so new that the very term “mixed martial arts” wasn’t even coined yet. And number two, because the UFC was still very much an infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, so it’s not like matchmakers were looking for fighters who could actually beat King Royce.

1.) Ilir Latifi: The Only Man To Ever Headline a UFC Card Who Still Doesn’t Have a Wikipedia Page.

The Details: Injury replacement for Alexander Gustafsson against Gegard Mousasi at UFC on Fuel TV 9(04/06/2013).
Why He Makes the Top Ten: When the guy who just signed you to a contract couldn’t be bothered with learning how to actually spell your name, you know that hopes aren’t exactly high for you. Latifi was a training partner of the injured Alexander Gustafsson, and presumably because every UFC light-heavyweight realized how suicidal accepting a short-notice bout against a Top Ten fighter would be for their careers – and also because Martin “Poker Face” Wojcik already made plans for that day, I imagine – the UFC signed Ilir Latifi to save the event. To his credit, Latifi managed to shed twenty-six pounds in three days in order to make weight for the fight. Too bad for him, though, was that the fight itself was completely forgettable, and he drifted back into obscurity immediately after it was over.
Why He Is Number One: Name one other person in UFC history to headline a fight card who doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Do you have an even more random replacement opponent in mind? You know you’re dying to share it in the comments section.

Patrick Cummins: How an Unknown Fighter Got the Chance of a Lifetime

LAS VEGAS — On Wednesday afternoon, Dana White was informed that Rashad Evans, who was scheduled to compete next week at UFC 170 against Daniel Cormier, had injured his knee.
Evans was scheduled for an MRI to assess the extent of the damage. Eva…

LAS VEGAS — On Wednesday afternoon, Dana White was informed that Rashad Evans, who was scheduled to compete next week at UFC 170 against Daniel Cormier, had injured his knee.

Evans was scheduled for an MRI to assess the extent of the damage. Evans said he still wanted to fight and felt like he could compete against Cormier.

White and his staff waited for the results to come back. Later that night, White was attending his son’s basketball game when he got the call: Evans was out of the fight, but he would only be out for four weeks.

Cormier was informed of the injury, and he was upset. He told White he had to fight.

“This whole cutting weight thing was hard on him,” White said during a media lunch today.

White said the weight came off easily, but that Cormier was upset that he put all the work in and wasn’t going to get to fight. White told Cormier that Evans was only supposed to be out for four weeks and that he wanted to put Cormier on the UFC 172 card in Baltimore in April.

“I was keeping my options open. I was thinking light heavyweight tournament,” White said.

“I don’t want to fight in Baltimore,” Cormier said. “I need to fight.”

“There’s nothing I can do, man,” White responded. “Plus, nobody is going to fight you on a week’s notice.”

Cormier called White twice during the game, pleading for something to be done. But White went to bed on Tuesday night believing he was powerless to help Cormier out.

When White woke up on Thursday morning, he heard about a Twitter petition for Patrick Cummins to get the fight against Cormier. Cummins, an undefeated former collegiate All-American wrestler, had publicly said on Twitter that he would be glad to fight Cormier.

White found out the details on Cummins. He liked what he heard, especially when Cummins‘ manager told White what Cummins said: When Cummins and Cormier used to train together, he claimed, he often made Cormier cry. He broke him.

White was intrigued. And so Cummins‘ manager, Ryan Parsons, was asked to get Cummins on the phone. White wanted to know if the story was true, and he wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Cummins didn’t answer White’s calls because he was at work at a coffee shop in Dana Point, California.

Parsons drove to the coffee shop and walked in. He told the manager on duty that he needed to speak to Cummins.

“He’s working,” the manager responded. “He can’t talk right now. You’re going to have to leave.”

And so Parsons got back in his car and went to the drive-through window, where Cummins was working his shift.

“Hey, I need to talk to you,” Parsons said. “I need to get you on the phone so you can talk to Dana.”

Parsons gave Cummins the phone. White asked him about his comments claiming he could make Cormier cry.

“I’m telling you right now,” Cummins said. “I made Cormier cry every time we wrestled. I broke him every time. And I’ll beat him on Saturday night.”

White was interested. But Cummins continued.

“Well, I hope I get this fight,” he said. “Because they just fired me.”

Cummins‘ manager had fired him for taking the phone call while on shift.

“You tell your manager to go f–k himself,” White told Cummins. “Head to the gym right now. We’ll call you in a little while.”

White then called Cormier and told him he had the fight against Cummins.

“I know that guy,” Cormier said with a laugh. White relayed what Cummins told him about making him cry and breaking him during wrestling.

“First of all, if anything like that ever really happened, it was because guys were cycling in on me,” Cormier told White. “I wasn’t wrestling just one guy. I was training for the world championships and they were cycling guys in on me.

“If he ever beat me, and if any of this is remotely true, he did it in some obscure wrestling room out in the middle of nowhere where three people saw it. I’m going to whip his ass on the biggest stage on earth on Saturday night.”

And that’s how Patrick Cummins, long considered one of the best light heavyweight prospects in the world, finally got his shot at the UFC.

And he’s getting the chance against one of the best fighters in the world. It’s a tough ask for anyone, much less a fighter making his UFC debut.

Cummins is just 4-0 as a professional. And yes, he is a virtual unknown to much of the MMA world. But let me tell you something: I have seen Cummins train with some of the best the world has to offer at Mark Munoz’s Reign Training Center in California, and I can tell you right now that he’s a much tougher fighter than anyone is giving him credit for.

I’m not saying Cummins is going to beat Cormier. I don’t think he will. What I’m saying is, don’t be surprised if this fighter you’ve never heard of gives Cormier a ferociously tough test.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Scratch That — Daniel Cormier Will Compete at UFC 170, Against 4-0 Prospect Patrick Cummins


(Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Durkin? What does that even mean? / Photo via MMAJunkie)

When Rashad Evans pulled out of his scheduled UFC 170 match against Daniel Cormier, Cormier was devastated. “I don’t want this work to be for nothing,” he told Ariel Helwani. “I’ve killed myself in this gym. I’ve spent ten weeks away from my family…I’d fight Chael in a heartbeat. I’d fight Anthony Johnson in a heartbeat. I’d fight any of those guys. There’s somebody out there who wants to fight. Line ’em up…I just want to fight now.”

And so, in an apparent move to keep him happy, the UFC has allowed Cormier to remain on the February 22nd “Rousey vs. McMann” lineup. No, he won’t be fighting Chael Sonnen, or Rumble Johnson, or anybody else you’ve heard of. Instead, Cormier will fight 4-0 light-heavyweight prospect Patrick Cummins, who will be making his Octagon debut.

A former two-time All American wrestler for Penn State, Cummins trains out of Mark Munoz’s Reign MMA gym in Orange County, and he’s finished all four of his pro fights in the first round. Cormier, of course, is one of the greatest MMA fighters in the world. Be sure to tune in, folks, because you might not see a bigger squash match all year. Seriously, how in the hell did the Nevada State Athletic Commission approve this friggin’ thing? KEITH, GET BACK HERE!

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Not that Cormier vs. Cummins is going to jack up the buyrate for this zombie card, but at least the entire show won’t rest on Ronda Rousey‘s shoulders now. Your thoughts?


(Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Durkin? What does that even mean? / Photo via MMAJunkie)

When Rashad Evans pulled out of his scheduled UFC 170 match against Daniel Cormier, Cormier was devastated. “I don’t want this work to be for nothing,” he told Ariel Helwani. “I’ve killed myself in this gym. I’ve spent ten weeks away from my family…I’d fight Chael in a heartbeat. I’d fight Anthony Johnson in a heartbeat. I’d fight any of those guys. There’s somebody out there who wants to fight. Line ‘em up…I just want to fight now.”

And so, in an apparent move to keep him happy, the UFC has allowed Cormier to remain on the February 22nd “Rousey vs. McMann” lineup. No, he won’t be fighting Chael Sonnen, or Rumble Johnson, or anybody else you’ve heard of. Instead, Cormier will fight 4-0 light-heavyweight prospect Patrick Cummins, who will be making his Octagon debut.

A former two-time All American wrestler for Penn State, Cummins trains out of Mark Munoz’s Reign MMA gym in Orange County, and he’s finished all four of his pro fights in the first round. Cormier, of course, is one of the greatest MMA fighters in the world. Be sure to tune in, folks, because you might not see a bigger squash match all year. Seriously, how in the hell did the Nevada State Athletic Commission approve this friggin’ thing? KEITH, GET BACK HERE!

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Not that Cormier vs. Cummins is going to jack up the buyrate for this zombie card, but at least the entire show won’t rest on Ronda Rousey‘s shoulders now. Your thoughts?