Diego Brandao said after he won The Ultimate Fighter featherweight tournament that he was going to take advantage of his new six-figure UFC contract and buy his mother a house. After the fight, he found out he’ll have a lot more money than he realized to lavish on his mom.
The UFC announced that Brandao will receive $80,000 in bonuses for his performance on Saturday night: The UFC’s traditional post-fight bonuses are $40,000 apiece for this event, and Brandao earned two of them.
Brandao won the Submission of the Night bonus for the impressive arm bar that forced Dennis Bermudez to tap out in the first round of their featherweight Finale fight. And Brandao and Bermudez also shared the Fight of the Night bonus.
The Brandao-Bermudez fight was a sensational display, 4 minutes and 51 seconds of action that ended when Brandao went from getting pounded on the ground by Bermudez to rolling over and trapping Bermudez in an arm bar. The fight was definitely the best of a good night of UFC fights, and Brandao’s submission was sensational.
The other bonus, $40,000 for Knockout of the Night, went to John Dodson, who won The Ultimate Fighter bantamweight tournament by knocking out T.J. Dillashaw.
Diego Brandao said after he won The Ultimate Fighter featherweight tournament that he was going to take advantage of his new six-figure UFC contract and buy his mother a house. After the fight, he found out he’ll have a lot more money than he realized to lavish on his mom.
The UFC announced that Brandao will receive $80,000 in bonuses for his performance on Saturday night: The UFC’s traditional post-fight bonuses are $40,000 apiece for this event, and Brandao earned two of them.
Brandao won the Submission of the Night bonus for the impressive arm bar that forced Dennis Bermudez to tap out in the first round of their featherweight Finale fight. And Brandao and Bermudez also shared the Fight of the Night bonus.
The Brandao-Bermudez fight was a sensational display, 4 minutes and 51 seconds of action that ended when Brandao went from getting pounded on the ground by Bermudez to rolling over and trapping Bermudez in an arm bar. The fight was definitely the best of a good night of UFC fights, and Brandao’s submission was sensational.
The other bonus, $40,000 for Knockout of the Night, went to John Dodson, who won The Ultimate Fighter bantamweight tournament by knocking out T.J. Dillashaw.
Filed under: UFCIn a wild, crazy, back-and-forth brawl, Diego Brandao submitted Dennis Bermudez to win the featherweight tournament in Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter.
The fight lasted just 4 minutes, 51 seconds, but it was one of the most exciting …
In a wild, crazy, back-and-forth brawl, Diego Brandao submitted Dennis Bermudez to win the featherweight tournament in Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter.
The fight lasted just 4 minutes, 51 seconds, but it was one of the most exciting rounds of the year in MMA: It had explosive striking from both men in the early going, and a tremendous comeback arm bar from Brandao after it appeared that Bermudez was about to finish him off with punches on the ground.
“I just waited for the right moment to choose the arm bar,” Brandao said afterward, before adding that his six-figure UFC contract would take care of his family: “Now I’m going to be able to by a house for my mom in Brazil.”
Bermudez got off to a good start, landing the harder punches and grabbing hold of Brandao near the cage, briefly attempting a standing guillotine. A minute later, however, Brandao knocked Bermudez down with a hard punch. With two minutes to go in the first round Brandao landed a hard knee that knocked Bermudez down, and Brandao then got on top and took Bermudez’s back. Bermudez managed to get back up, and then a perfect right hand leveled Brandao and left him flat on his back.
Amazingly, Brandao managed to hold on for dear life as Bermudez pummeled him on the ground, and when Bermudez got a little too wild with his punches, Brandao grabbed hold of his arm and rolled over into a textbook-perfect arm bar, instantly forcing Bermudez to tap out.
The victory makes Brandao the featherweight Ultimate Fighter winner, and it also makes him one of the most impressive Ultimate Fighter contestants the UFC has had in recent years. Brandao used his striking to defeat everyone he faced during Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter, and now he’s used his grappling to finish Bermudez in the Finale. Brandao is a rising star.
LAS VEGAS — This is the TUF 14 Finale live blog for Diego Brandao vs. Dennis Bermudez, a featherweight bout on tonight’s UFC on Spike TV event at the Pearl at the Palms.
Brandao and Bermudez are fighting to determine the season 14 featherweight tournament winner. Brandao (13-7) is an aggressive striker who likes to make quick work of his opponents. Bermudez (7-2) has a wrestling background and finished all three of his fights on the show.
Round 1: These two aren’t wasting time. They meet in the center and go right to work. In true Wanderlei Silva fashion (he did come out to his hero’s music), Brandao is putting his head down and winging those hooks. Bermudez briefly gets him down, but can’t keep him there. Good ovrhand right by Brandao. Bermudez forces him into the fence and then flies in with a kick to the body. Big shot by Brandao drops Bermudez, but he doesn’t follow him down and Bermudez is on his feet quickly. Bermudez comes back with a heavy right, and Brandao answers moments later. Brandao runs in with a knee and gets Bermudez down, slamming him back to the mat when tries to rise. Bermudez eventually gets to his feet and takes a glancing head kick on his way out. Brandao walks directly into a crushing right hand and goes down in a heap. I don’t know how his jaw is still attached. Bermudez hammers him with more punches from the top, but Brandao moves just enough to show referee Josh Rosenthal he’s still in it. Less than 30 seconds to go now, and Bermudez is pounding on Brandao. This is close to being stopped, but Brandao rolls for an armbar and locks it up from the bottom, flipping Bermudez over and forcing him to tap right away. Amazing fight, and an amazing finish. One of the best one-round fights of the year, right up there with Nick Diaz-Paul Daley?
Diego Brandao def. Dennis Bermudez via submission (armbar) at 4:51 of round one
LAS VEGAS — This is the TUF 14 Finale live blog for Diego Brandao vs. Dennis Bermudez, a featherweight bout on tonight’s UFC on Spike TV event at the Pearl at the Palms.
Brandao and Bermudez are fighting to determine the season 14 featherweight tournament winner. Brandao (13-7) is an aggressive striker who likes to make quick work of his opponents. Bermudez (7-2) has a wrestling background and finished all three of his fights on the show.
Round 1: These two aren’t wasting time. They meet in the center and go right to work. In true Wanderlei Silva fashion (he did come out to his hero’s music), Brandao is putting his head down and winging those hooks. Bermudez briefly gets him down, but can’t keep him there. Good ovrhand right by Brandao. Bermudez forces him into the fence and then flies in with a kick to the body. Big shot by Brandao drops Bermudez, but he doesn’t follow him down and Bermudez is on his feet quickly. Bermudez comes back with a heavy right, and Brandao answers moments later. Brandao runs in with a knee and gets Bermudez down, slamming him back to the mat when tries to rise. Bermudez eventually gets to his feet and takes a glancing head kick on his way out. Brandao walks directly into a crushing right hand and goes down in a heap. I don’t know how his jaw is still attached. Bermudez hammers him with more punches from the top, but Brandao moves just enough to show referee Josh Rosenthal he’s still in it. Less than 30 seconds to go now, and Bermudez is pounding on Brandao. This is close to being stopped, but Brandao rolls for an armbar and locks it up from the bottom, flipping Bermudez over and forcing him to tap right away. Amazing fight, and an amazing finish. One of the best one-round fights of the year, right up there with Nick Diaz-Paul Daley?
Diego Brandao def. Dennis Bermudez via submission (armbar) at 4:51 of round one
Filed under: UFCAll the fighters stepping into the Octagon for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Season 14 Finale will first step onto the scale at the Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale weigh-in, and we’ll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.
All the fighters stepping into the Octagon for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Season 14 Finale will first step onto the scale at the Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale weigh-in, and we’ll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.
In the fight between the coaches, Michael Bisping and Jason “Mayhem” Miller will have to make the middleweight limit of 186 pounds. In the featherweight finale, Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez will have to make 146 pounds. And in the bantamweight finale, John Dodson and T.J. Dillashaw will have to make 136 pounds.
The weigh-in starts at 7 p.m. ET and the video is below.
(Editor’s Note: The video is back up. Just hit the all free video bar.)
Filed under: UFC, NewsLAS VEGAS — In case you couldn’t tell by watching him fight, TUF 14 featherweight finalist Diego Brandao is something of a Wanderlei Silva fan. Actually, maybe fan is the wrong word. Brandao’s more like a disciple, which is why h…
LAS VEGAS — In case you couldn’t tell by watching him fight, TUF 14 featherweight finalist Diego Brandao is something of a Wanderlei Silva fan. Actually, maybe fan is the wrong word. Brandao’s more like a disciple, which is why he was thrilled to hear that his fellow Brazilian and MMA inspiration has been following his run on the UFC’s reality show.
“I want to fight like Wanderlei Silva,” Brandao said earlier this week. “That’s why I’m in MMA now, is Wanderlei Silva. The way he fights, he makes everybody in Brazil put their hearts in their mouths.”
Brandao was understandably ecstatic when he finally got to meet Silva in Vegas this week, and even more excited when he got a word of encouragement from “The Axe Murderer.”
“He told me to go kill the guy. I was so happy.”
But ‘happy’ isn’t a word most of his TUF 14 castmates would likely use to describe Brandao, who at times seemed almost dangerously intense. Some of his colleagues didn’t know how to take that, he said, but to Brandao it seemed like the only sensible approach to a sport that involves fighting other men in a cage.
“When I first get in the house, people think I’m crazy,” he said. “But I’m not crazy, bro. This is MMA. For me, it’s very serious. You can get hurt if you don’t train hard, aren’t focused. You can get [your] jaw broken, knee broken, armbar. I’m ready for that. I’m not crazy, I’m just focused on every fight.”
So far it’s yielded memorable results for the 24-year-old Brazilian. He ran through his competition on TUF, and is among the heaviest favorites on Saturday night’s finale fight card, where he’ll take on fellow finalist Dennis Bermudez, with Silva watching in the crowd.
The best part, Brandao said, is all the good he’ll be able to do for his family back home in Brazil with the money he’ll make for this fight, win or lose. They might not have gotten to watch his reality show stint along with the American audience, but they’ll reap the rewards along with him, he said.
“I feel very proud of myself. I’m going to be able to help my mom. She doesn’t know what’s going on now, but pretty soon she’s going to find out.”
Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS — On Thursday morning at 9 a.m. the UFC PR staff spread this season’s Ultimate Fighter finalists out across two conference rooms at the Palms hotel and casino and introduced them to one of the less glamorous aspects of life i…
LAS VEGAS — On Thursday morning at 9 a.m. the UFC PR staff spread this season’s Ultimate Fighter finalists out across two conference rooms at the Palms hotel and casino and introduced them to one of the less glamorous aspects of life in a big time fight promotion: the dreaded pre-fight interviews.
“It’s going to be about an hour of talking,” UFC director of media relations Ant Evans explained as he sat TUF 14 bantamweight finalist T.J. Dillashaw down to begin a series of rapid-fire phone interviews. One look at Dillashaw’s face, and you could see he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the idea.
It could be worse, Evans explained. He could be like Michael Bisping and “Mayhem” Miller, who had two or three hours of interviews scheduled. Somehow, this failed to raise Dillashaw’s spirits.
“It’s just so fast,” he told me later, once it was my turn to monopolize his time. “You’re used to not very much media attention at all, and suddenly it’s a lot.”
That’s the case for all four of this year’s finalists. In general, bantamweights and featherweights don’t get as much love as the bigger fighters on the MMA scene, and the spotlight is even dimmer outside the UFC. After fighting their way onto the reality show and then earning a spot in the finals, they’re all finding out for the first time what it’s like to stand in the spotlight. Each has his own way of adjusting to this new life on fight week.
“The first time, I cried when I saw [myself] on TV,” said featherweight Diego Brandao. “It was crazy.”
Brandao’s opponent for Saturday night’s finale — Dennis Bermudez — played it a little cooler. In the next room over, sitting with his coach, Bermudez shrugged off the media pressure.
“I did a lot of high school newspaper articles for wrestling, stuff like that,” he said. “For me, it’s like a bunch of those, I guess.”
What he was happiest about was simply being out of the TUF house and free to move about, he said. People keep telling him that his career is about to be defined by how he performs against Brandao, who seems to have instilled a deep terror into most of his previous opponents, but Bermudez isn’t sweating it just yet.
“My mindset is, it’s another fight. People are like, it’s the biggest fight of your career. Well, it’s the biggest fight of my career right now. I’m sure I’ll have bigger fights later on.”
Bantamweight John Dodson — the only fighter who was all smiles even early in the morning, practically bouncing out of his chair with enthusiasm — is taking a similar approach. It’s not a must-win, he said. Especially not for a guy who’s really a natural flyweight, just waiting for the UFC to open the division up. The way he sees it, if he puts on an exciting fight, people will remember him regardless of whether he wins or loses.
For Dodson, the show was a bit of a mixed bag. He was painted as a traitor at times for sharing fight pairing news with the opposing team, and drew the ire of his coach, “Mayhem” Miller, who Dodson did a spot-on impression of as he mimicked Miller’s cry of, “Dodson, whyyyy!?!“
“I’m not going to lie, it’s still cool to have him talking about me,” Dodson grinned.
In fact, that’s his take on all the buzz surrounding his reality show stint. That’s why he thanked those who hated him most during the show’s run.
“People were asking me, why are you thanking the haters? It’s because, if I don’t have any haters, then it means I wasn’t doing anything right. There’s a reason people were talking about me.”
And while it’s nice to be talked about, both Dodson and Dillashaw are hoping that theirs is the fight that becomes the focus of the good kind of post-event talk rather than the bad. You can be a hero or a villain, but one thing these up-and-comers have learned is that you just can’t be boring.
“I don’t want to put this pressure on myself like I have to win this fight, because I really don’t,” said Dillashaw. “This sport’s for entertainment. I just need to go out there and put on a show. I’m going to win, but I’m going to put on an awesome show and go a hundred miles an hour.”
Just don’t tell him that reward for success is more interviews. You don’t want to send the poor guy in there with mixed emotions.
Diego Brandao said after he won The Ultimate Fighter featherweight tournament that he was going to take advantage of his new six-figure UFC contract and buy his mother a house. After the fight, he found out he’ll have a lot more money than he realized to lavish on his mom.
In a wild, crazy, back-and-forth brawl, Diego Brandao submitted Dennis Bermudez to win the featherweight tournament in Season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter.
LAS VEGAS — This is the TUF 14 Finale live blog for 
All the fighters stepping into the Octagon for Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Season 14 Finale will first step onto the scale at the Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale weigh-in, and we’ll have the live video right here at MMAFighting.com.
LAS VEGAS — In case you couldn’t tell by watching him fight, 
LAS VEGAS — On Thursday morning at 9 a.m. the