Demetrious 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson | UFC Betting Sites

Chael Sonnen Says UFC Title Contender Has To Go ‘Full Heel’

Chael Sonnen knows a thing or two about being the ‘heel.’

The post Chael Sonnen Says UFC Title Contender Has To Go ‘Full Heel’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Chael Sonnen wants to see Henry Cejudo unleash his inner heel.

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is set to defend his title against Henry Cejudo at the UFC 227 pay-per-view (PPV) in Los Angles on August 4th. It’ll be a rematch of the pair’s initial meeting back in 2016 where Cejudo was finished in the first round.

In a recent episode of “Beyond The Fight,” former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen explained how he’d like to see Cejudo bring out his inner heel to promote the fight (quotes via MMA Mania):

“He just wouldn’t come out of his shell,” Sonnen said. “He just simply wouldn’t do it. He just wanted to be the good and likeable guy, no matter how many times we try to grab him by the collar and say ‘Henry, that spot’s taken — the good guy is taken by Demetrious — but there’s another seat in the car.”

Sonnen believes that Cejudo’s recent campaign on Twitter was able to land him the fight:

“He came out of his shell this much [gestures] in a few Tweets on social media guess what? He got the fight.”

One thing Sonnen fears, however, is that Cejudo is already complacent with simply getting the fight. He’d like to see the former Olympian take some extra initiative to help promote the bout:

“I worry as a fan that that was his goal, and his only goal: to get the fight,” Sonnen said. “I worry as a fan that he’s not going to do his part to bring attention to this. That’s irresponsible of him. He will think it’s sportsmanlike of him, he will see it as sportsmanship. That’s also why he’s broke,” said Chael, who wrote the book on how to channel your inner-bad guy to promote a title fight.

“He just refuses to see what we’re doing here. This is a world title fight, which is a big deal. This is a rematch which historically speaking, is big business — and it’s the co-main, which is the industry’s way of saying ‘we know you can’t do your part.’ That’s not on Demetrious. A little bit of it is,” he said.

“Demetrious is involved in this too, but he’s the champion. He’s the one that gets to be himself. He’s the one that gets to be in that spot because he’s got 12 pounds of gold wrapped around his waist. He’s the guy who gets that opportunity, because he’s the number-one ranked fighter in the world. It’s incumbent on the challenger, and in this case, it’s Cejudo.”

The post Chael Sonnen Says UFC Title Contender Has To Go ‘Full Heel’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

10 Worst Judging Robberies In UFC History For 2018

Check out 10 of the worst UFC robberies from the past and this year:

The post 10 Worst Judging Robberies In UFC History For 2018 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

There’s nothing worse than a terrible decision where the winner loses and the loser clearly wins.

Unfortunately for both fighters and fight fans, it’s more commonplace than you think.

The history of the UFC has produced some awful decisions. Let’s take a look at the 10 worst robberies in the UFC, updated for 2018:

10. Sam Alvey Defeats Gian Villante – UFC Fight Night 131

As for more recent robberies, this one certainly stands out. When ‘Smilin’ Sam Alvey called out Gian Villante following Alvey’s victory in his light heavyweight debut, fight fans oddly took notice.

Sure, they weren’t the biggest names in the division, but both men are known scrappers with some thrilling knockout victories to their name.

Which is why the fight itself felt massively deflating watching it play out. Alvey resorted to the kind of extreme bouts of inactivity he’s been known for when he can’t score the knockout. Alvey did manage to knock his opponent down towards the end of the first round, but there wasn’t enough time left to finish him.

Meanwhile, Villante did his best to cut off the cage and corner Alvey. The Long Island native showed excellent Octagon control and was winning the fight beyond the flash knockdown at the end of round one.

So it wasn’t too surprising to see the crowd react the way they did once the split decision was announced in Alvey’s favor. That one knockdown apparently negated the other 14 minutes and 45 seconds where Villante controlled the fight.

An obviously disappointed and stunned Villante left the arena scratching his head at how he could have lost that fight, and fight fans were left just as confused.

Sometimes, a single knockdown can win over the judges, even more so than the remaining 15 minutes of the fight.

The post 10 Worst Judging Robberies In UFC History For 2018 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Duane Ludwig: Demetrious Johnson vs. TJ Dillashaw Needs To Happen

Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s head coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig is more than confident in his star pupil’s ability to make 125 pounds. Now that Dillashaw is once again champion, the push for a super fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson seems to be inevitable. Both Dana White and Dillashaw have actively campaigned for […]

The post Duane Ludwig: Demetrious Johnson vs. TJ Dillashaw Needs To Happen appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw’s head coach Duane “Bang” Ludwig is more than confident in his star pupil’s ability to make 125 pounds.

Now that Dillashaw is once again champion, the push for a super fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson seems to be inevitable. Both Dana White and Dillashaw have actively campaigned for the bout.

Now, the question is can Dillashaw make flyweight? Ludwig says he absolutely can:

“We were en route to fight Demetrious at one point and the direction he was taking with his strength and conditioning coach, T.J. was looking phenomenal on the mitts and the sparring and the training and he looked good, his spirits were good,” Ludwig said. “So obviously we didn’t make 125 and fight and compete, but when were were en route of that, nothing really changed. T.J.’s not a big ‘35er, so he can make ‘25. It’s not going to be easy, but he’s the most dedicated person that I’ve ever seen. He really is.”

Dillashaw took back the bantamweight belt after knocking out undefeated champ Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217. He had prior campaigned for the “Mighty Mouse” fight when Ray Borg had pulled out of his first scheduled fight with the flyweight champ at UFC 215. Johnson opted to wait to fight Borg at UFC 216 rather than take on Dillashaw.

With “Mighty Mouse” lacking a bit in terms of PPV sales, a super fight with the bantamweight champion could prove to be a hit for sales and PPV buys. Demetrious Johnson has also cleared out his division two times over, and is in desperate need of fresh title challengers, according to Ludwig:

“I think it needs to happen,” Ludwig said. “Demetrious, he’s fighting the top guys – this works out because (Joseph) Benavidez is out right now, he’s still having to wait a couple of months with his knee surgery, so it works out time-wise, so in my eyes I would like to see T.J. drop down, fight Demetrious, and then go back to ‘35.”

Are you behind a Dillashaw vs “Mighty Mouse” super fight? Can TJ make flyweight?

The post Duane Ludwig: Demetrious Johnson vs. TJ Dillashaw Needs To Happen appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

TJ Dillashaw Denies Dominick Cruz Rematch

For newly re-crowned UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, a fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson is the best fight to make. While “Mighty Mouse” has been less than receptive to it, Dillashaw has ramped up the trash talk after once again becoming a UFC champion by stopping arch rival Cody Garbrandt the November 4’s UFC […]

The post TJ Dillashaw Denies Dominick Cruz Rematch appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

For newly re-crowned UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, a fight with flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson is the best fight to make.

While “Mighty Mouse” has been less than receptive to it, Dillashaw has ramped up the trash talk after once again becoming a UFC champion by stopping arch rival Cody Garbrandt the November 4’s UFC 217.

Dillashaw discussed why he thinks it’s the only fight for “Mighty Mouse” to take during an interview on The MMA Hour on Monday.

“Why not? This fight makes sense. He doesn’t have anybody and this thing should’ve happened in August. He wants a big money fight. He wants to prove that he’s the pound-for-pound king.

“This is the step. I can make the weight. I wanted to stop him from breaking the record and he wanted to break it first, so he got that out of the way, he got to do what he wanted to do and he beat the record books.

“But now it’s time to man up and get this fight going. This is a fight that fans want to see. I keep hearing them say it and everyone’s loving it, so let’s get this done. There’s no reason to be scared now, you got to break the record.”

As for the bantamweight division, Dillashaw doesn’t see a rematch with Garbrandt or Dominick Cruz anytime soon, especially considering the way in which Garbrandt was dispatched by the current champ at UFC 217 and how Cruz refused to grant Dillashaw a rematch after winning the belt in a controversial split decisions UFC Fight Night 81.

Dillashaw has remained adamant before and after winning the bantamweight belt, which has surely given him an advantage in seeking a superfight with the UFC’s most dominant champion:

“He came by when I was taking photos with the belt (at UFC 217) and he said that I did the first step,” Dillashaw said. “So in my mind, that’s him saying, ‘Let’s get this on.’ I did the first step, because he said to the media that I wasn’t worthy of a title shot, that I needed to be a champion, that he wasn’t going to fight me because I wasn’t a champion. And he came by and said that I did the first step, so I think in his mind too, this is the fight that makes sense.”

And as for his old nemesis Cruz, Dillashaw was clear that he wasn’t interested in the match up as Cruz had already denied him a rematch:

“Cruz can suck it, man,” Dillashaw said. “He’s the one who made me wait forever. He knew he should’ve given me that rematch. He was scared. He thought he was cherry-picking by picking Cody. He was trying to hold onto that belt, get as much as he could. So if it’s up to me, he can wait. He can wait as long as I did. I couldn’t care less. I mean, I do want to beat that guy. I do want to smash because I know that I can, but I don’t care what he says. I’m going for the fight that makes the most sense for me right now, and that’s Demetrious Johnson, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

Do you want to see Dillashaw challenge for the flyweight belt? Or should the new champion focus solely on his own division?

The post TJ Dillashaw Denies Dominick Cruz Rematch appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Six Reasons Mayweather vs. McGregor Ruined An Entire Year Of MMA

What will amount to by far the biggest combat sports event of the year has also cast a long and dark shadow over mixed martial arts (MMA) ever since boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor boxed for ten rounds in August. Now several months removed from that epic showdown, it’s clear […]

The post Six Reasons Mayweather vs. McGregor Ruined An Entire Year Of MMA appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Now several months removed from that epic showdown, it’s clear now that interest in the UFC’s most recent offerings has been lukewarm at best, and almost nonexistent at worst. Whether due to weak cards or general burnout, the UFC’s cash grab with McGregor vs Mayweather has had serious implications on their product ever since, and that may take months to for UFC owners WME-IMG to fix, if they are ever able to.

We took a look at the six main reasons why this crossover event essentially ruined an entire year of MMA for the UFC.

6. Combat Sports Burnout

The rationale behind Mayweather vs McGregor was that this was the fight fans wanted to see, so this is what we’re giving them. While for casual fans that may be true, the nonstop promotion of the event has led to a kind of burnout that has robbed the rest of 2017 of ratings and viewership.

UFC Fight Night: OSP vs Okami did terrible numbers for a free card, even being beaten by Bellator’s event that same weekend in terms of viewership. In fact, almost all of UFC’s cards have suffered from lagging PPV sales and ratings with the exception of UFC 214, which will possibly be Jon Jones’ last gasp as a UFC star.

Casual fans, the coveted demographic that yields a strong influence over WME-IMG’s decision making, spent $100 for Mayweather vs McGregor, and haven’t really spent a dollar towards combat sports since then (perhaps with the exception of Golovkin vs Alvarez in some cases).

Non-hardcore fans are tired of the fight game for the time being, and while that will change, it will take the right card to get them to order a pay-per-view.

The post Six Reasons Mayweather vs. McGregor Ruined An Entire Year Of MMA appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Biggest Winners & Losers At UFC 216

Last night’s (Sat., October 7, 2017) UFC 216 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, appeared to be yet another UFC pay-per-view (PPV) card ravaged by literal last-minute replacements and uncertain weight cuts, but instead, it left us with a much better event than anticipated. Derrick Lewis’ back injury on the day of his […]

The post Biggest Winners & Losers At UFC 216 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Derrick Lewis’ back injury on the day of his fight with Fabricio Werdum left a hole in the card that was filled by Walt Harris, and Kevin Lee made weight in spite of a nasty staph infection. Two bouts were canceled when Nik Lentz failed to make weight for his lightweight bout against Will Brooks, and Harris’ original opponent Mark Godbeer was left without an opponent to face.

Yet just like that, the show went on, and the card deliver two heavy-hitting wars and a bevy of impressive submissions, including two straight armbars and a triangle choke to close out the main card’s three featured bouts.

We broke down the biggest winners and losers from Saturday night, and with all of the drama leading into UFC 216, there was a lot to analyze. Check them out right here.

Winners

Tony Ferguson:

Riding a nine-fight win streak leading into his interim lightweight title fight against Kevin Lee, Ferguson was a sort of uncrowned champion in Conor McGregor’s absence.

Ferguson battled through a difficult first couple of rounds to lock in a triangle choke in the third frame. “El Cucuy” showed he can battle through adversity and still come out on top.

Now primed for a title unification bout with McGregor, who hasn’t stepped foot into the Octagon since defeating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, Ferguson is undefeated in 10 fights and is the rightful heir to the lightweight throne

The post Biggest Winners & Losers At UFC 216 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.