Though Silva probably has little recollection of the last time he competed in Saitama, the Axe Murderer became an MMA superstar in Japan, where he went undefeated through his first 20 fights in PRIDE and held the middleweight title for over five years. But his current stint in the UFC — where he’s won just three of eight fights since 2007 — has suggested that Silva is nearing the end of the road, and his next bad loss could be his last. Can he come up with another heroic effort against the All American?
Speaking of PRIDE legends, longtime lightweight champ Takanori Gomi will be welcoming Diego Sanchez back to the lightweight division at UFC on FUEL 8. Gomi has won his last two UFC fights against Eiji Mitsuoka and Mac Danzig, while Sanchez is coming off a decision defeat against Jake Ellenberger in February. Sanchez hasn’t competed at 155 pounds since being utterly shredded by BJ Penn during their lightweight title fight three years ago.
Though Silva probably has little recollection of the last time he competed in Saitama, the Axe Murderer became an MMA superstar in Japan, where he went undefeated through his first 20 fights in PRIDE and held the middleweight title for over five years. But his current stint in the UFC — where he’s won just three of eight fights since 2007 — has suggested that Silva is nearing the end of the road, and his next bad loss could be his last. Can he come up with another heroic effort against the All American?
Speaking of PRIDE legends, longtime lightweight champ Takanori Gomi will be welcoming Diego Sanchez back to the lightweight division at UFC on FUEL 8. Gomi has won his last two UFC fights against Eiji Mitsuoka and Mac Danzig, while Sanchez is coming off a decision defeat against Jake Ellenberger in February. Sanchez hasn’t competed at 155 pounds since being utterly shredded by BJ Penn during their lightweight title fight three years ago.
Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Siyar Bahadurzada (WW): Coincidentally, both of these guys are coming off wins against Paulo Thiago. However, Bahadurzada hasn’t competed since April due to a hand injury.
Riki Fukuda vs. Brad Tavares (MW): Tavares is on a two-fight win streak with decisions against Dongi Yang and Tom Watson, while Fukuda retired Tom DeBlass in his last appearance.
Cristiano Marcello vs. Kazuki Tokudome (LW): Though he entered the UFC through TUF: Live, Cristiano Marcello may be best known as the guy who choked out Krazy Horse Bennett backstage at a PRIDE event. (He also competed once in PRIDE, losing a decision to Mitsuhiro Ishida in 2006.) Fresh off a decision win against Reza Madadi, he’ll be facing Tokodune, an 11-3 Pancrase vet who will be making his UFC debut.
Alex Caceres vs. Kyung Ho Kang (BW): With back-to-back victories over Damacio Page and Motonobu Tezuka — and shout-outs from Ben Henderson himself — things have been looking up for the former yard-fighter known as “Bruce Leroy.” He’ll be welcoming Road FC champ Kyung Ho Kang into the Octagon.
If fighters in the UFC aren’t being pulled from upcoming cards due to injuries, they’re serving suspensions for banned substances.That’s been one hot-button issue hanging over the promotion during the last handful of years, and welterweight competitor&…
If fighters in the UFC aren’t being pulled from upcoming cards due to injuries, they’re serving suspensions for banned substances.
That’s been one hot-button issue hanging over the promotion during the last handful of years, and welterweight competitor Dong Hyun Kim is sick of it. In fact, “Stun Gun” claims that nearly every fighter in the company is using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) of some sort.
During an interview with South Korean outlet MFight (via Middle Easy), Kim also made the bold claim that 90 percent of UFC fighters are doping:
While a lot of people believe doping tests work, just like a breathalyzer test you can get away with it by just controlling timing. Most of the steroid users just cycle and get by the tests. It’s almost like other athletes look down on you as an idiot if you don’t do steroids. It’s like non-users are bicyclists while steroid users are racing with motorcycles. But I am one of those “idiots” that don’t use performance enhancers. I would say 90 percent of UFC fighters use performance enhancers.
Although Kim has yet to face a UFC fighter who’s tested positive for PEDs, he once lost a fight against Karo Parisyan by split decision, who was later outed for using illegal painkillers.
However, several fighters have tested positive for drugs and PEDs in 2011 and 2012 alone.
As it stands, the most high profile offenders for PEDs include Stephan Bonnar, Thiago Silva, MuhammedLawal, ChaelSonnen and Cristiane Santos. Additionally, Nick Diaz, Matt Riddle and Dave Herman have also been suspended for marijuana use during this year.
Although it wasn’t exactly cram-packed with exciting finishes, UFC Macao provided us with plenty to talk about nonetheless. Let’s not act like Bruce Leroy’s Haiduken punch just didn’t happen, because it did and it was either awesome or the dumbest f*cking thing we have ever seen. We can’t tell yet.
Elsewhere on the card, some people beat some other people by decision, so join us as we decipher the judge’s scorecards and try to determine who the night’s biggest winners should face next.
Cung Le: Despite being a healthy underdog with a significant size and slight age disadvantage, Cung Le was able to deliver a spectacular knockout in arguably the most high profile fight of his career. That being said, we’re not going to fool ourselves into thinking the 40 year old is truly in the title mix just yet. At this point, Le appears to be more invested in his film career than in that of his mixed martial arts one (and rightfully so), but the man is still a draw who can both deliver exciting finishes and hang with more than most, so it only makes sense to give him another high profile, low risk fight.
The problem is, there simply aren’t that many of those kind of fights available for Cung in the UFC’s current middleweight pool. Most of the division in currently tied up and Cung has stated that he would like to take some time away to spend with his family, so we think it would be best to give Cung some time off and have him face the winner of the Hector Lombard/Rousimar Palhares battle at UFC on FX 6, or maybe Chris Leben if he is able to get by Karlos Vemola at UFC 155. Who would you prefer, Taters?
Although it wasn’t exactly cram-packed with exciting finishes, UFC Macao provided us with plenty to talk about nonetheless. Let’s not act like Bruce Leroy’s Haiduken punch just didn’t happen, because it did and it was either awesome or the dumbest f*cking thing we have ever seen. We can’t tell yet.
Elsewhere on the card, some people beat some other people by decision, so join us as we decipher the judge’s scorecards and try to determine who the night’s biggest winners should face next.
Cung Le: Despite being a healthy underdog with a significant size and slight age disadvantage, Cung Le was able to deliver a spectacular knockout in arguably the most high profile fight of his career. That being said, we’re not going to fool ourselves into thinking the 40 year old is truly in the title mix just yet. At this point, Le appears to be more invested in his film career than in that of his mixed martial arts one (and rightfully so), but the man is still a draw who can both deliver exciting finishes and hang with more than most, so it only makes sense to give him another high profile, low risk fight.
The problem is, there simply aren’t that many of those kind of fights available for Cung in the UFC’s current middleweight pool. Most of the division in currently tied up and Cung has stated that he would like to take some time away to spend with his family, so we think it would be best to give Cung some time off and have him face the winner of the Hector Lombard/Rousimar Palhares battle at UFC on FX 6, or maybe Chris Leben if he is able to get by Karlos Vemola at UFC 155. Who would you prefer, Taters?
Thiago Silva: We’re not really sure what to take away from Thiago Silva’s victory over Stanislav Nedkov, who was so gassed by the time the fight came to an end that it appeared as if a well-placed yawn could have knocked him over. Silva looked quicker than he had in quite some time in the early going, yet looked frustratingly slow and linear when it came to avoiding the Bulgarian’s lumbering takedown attempts. Sure, he’s a BJJ black belt who finally showcased his submission skills, but we know that we’ll get the best Thiago Silva — win or lose — when he’s matched up against another hard-hitting striker. Enter James Te Huna, an Australian slugger with bricks for hands and a chin that’s just as solid. Not only is it one of those “fun” fights we love so much, but it actually makes sense. Everybody wins!
Takanori Gomi: Speaking of fighters that are best left to swing for the fences against guys who will do the same, we come to “The Fireball Kid.” He’s managed to save his UFC career with two straight wins, but we’re not exactly ready to throw Gomi another contender so we can watch him get submitted again. It just hurts too much. Personally, I’d like to see Gomi face the winner of either the Melvin Guillard/Jamie Varner or the Sam Stout/John Makdessi fight. We’d be guaranteed another slugfest in either case, and if Gomi stands a chance of winning anything, it’s a slugfest. Because we’re not trying to convince ourselves that Gomi will be fighting for the title anytime soon, we’d just like to see an old friend end his career with the kind of fights that defined it.
Dong Hyun Kim: Although he’s already called out Demian Maia for a rematch of their UFC 148 contest that ended with an unfortunate rib injury, we’d like to see Kim take his grappling talents elsewhere. Specifically, against a certain Icelandic grappling phenom with a demeanor that can only be described as…stoic. We’ve all been riding the Gunnar Nelson hype train for some time know, so why not see how he fares against a seasoned veteran like Kim? The grappling exchanges between these two could become the things of legend, and when you’re dealing with a fighter as stifling, dominant, and often tiresome as Kim, that’s the best you can hope for.
And because we feel we must address this, let’s move on to the night’s biggest loser…
Rich Franklin: Well, Rich, we surely didn’t expect to see you go down like that. It’s beyond an understatement to declare that “Ace’s” best days (and chin) are behind him, but there’s no denying the brilliant and captivating career he’s had. The UFC’s go-to guy also seems smart enough to realize that he should get out of the game before he suffers any more losses as brutal as the one he suffered Saturday, because they are only more likely to happen the longer he sticks around. But if Rich really feels the need to give the fight game one last shot, I dunno, maybe match him up against Vladimir Matyushenko in a special rules match where they both sit at a table, get drunk, and compare scars?
If I were to have told you before this event that a FUEL TV caliber card will have seven out of nine fights go the distance, it is doubtful that many of you would have watched UFC on FUEL 6. If I were to have reminded you that because the fights were live from Macau, China, you’d have to wake up at 9 a.m. ET to watch said card, I’m willing to bet we would have had a pretty vacant liveblog this morning. It isn’t often that a card with so many decisions is worth waking up early for, but UFC on FUEL 6 proved to be an exception.
Expectations weren’t exactly high for the evening’s main event, a middleweight contest between Rich Franklin and Cung Le. With neither fighter in the title picture – or even near it – and forty year old Cung Le bloodletting his foot just one week before the fight, this fight had a very high bust-potential. Most of us assumed that Ace would exit the cage with his first victory at middleweight since 2008, and that we wouldn’t be missing much if we started our afternoon nap a little early.
Instead, Cung Le gave us a Knockout of the Year candidate, countering a leg kick with a devastating right hand that secured the victory just 2:17 into the fight. Being the only knockout on the card, Le took home the $40k Knockout of the Night award, but even if every other fight ended in a knockout it’d be hard not to award such a brutal finish the honor. If you happened to miss it, here it is in all of its animated GIF glory:
If I were to have told you before this event that a FUEL TV caliber card will have seven out of nine fights go the distance, it is doubtful that many of you would have watched UFC on FUEL 6. If I were to have reminded you that because the fights were live from Macau, China, you’d have to wake up at 9 a.m. ET to watch said card, I’m willing to bet we would have had a pretty vacant liveblog this morning. It isn’t often that a card with so many decisions is worth waking up early for, but UFC on FUEL 6 proved to be an exception.
Expectations weren’t exactly high for the evening’s main event, a middleweight contest between Rich Franklin and Cung Le. With neither fighter in the title picture – or even near it – and forty year old Cung Le bloodletting his foot just one week before the fight, this fight had a very high bust-potential. Most of us assumed that Ace would exit the cage with his first victory at middleweight since 2008, and that we wouldn’t be missing much if we started our afternoon nap a little early.
Instead, Cung Le gave us a Knockout of the Year candidate, countering a leg kick with a devastating right hand that secured the victory just 2:17 into the fight. Being the only knockout on the card, Le took home the $40k Knockout of the Night award, but even if every other fight ended in a knockout it’d be hard not to award such a brutal finish the honor. If you happened to miss it, here it is in all of its animated GIF glory:
As for what this fight means for the UFC middleweight division, I’m still tempted to say ”not too much.” Franklin was certainly a good middleweight champion and a great company man for the UFC, but he hasn’t been a serious title contender in years. As great of a victory as it was for Le, I’d say he’s at least two more victories away from being “in the mix” for a title shot (whatever that even means these days). May I be so bold as to suggest a fight against Brian Stann?
As for Rich Franklin, retirement seems like the most logical option. I know it’s easy to be pessimistic about a fighter’s career after watching him lose – especially the way he lost – but we’re looking at a thirty-eight year old former-champion who hasn’t won back-to-back fights in four years. There’s nothing left for Ace to do except ride his company man status into a vaguely-defined post-retirement corporate career with the UFC.
The co-main event produced a very surprising finish, as Blackzilian Thiago Silva handed Stanislav Nedkov his first career loss with a third round arm-triangle choke. Silva not only picked up his first victory in three years (drug test pending), but also his first submission victory (not counting his submission via punches over Antonio Mendes at UFC 84) since heel-hooking Dave Dalgliesh back in 2006. Being the only submission on the card, the win earned Silva the Submission of the Night bonus.
Although Silva was ahead 20-18 on all three scorecards heading into the third round, Nedkov arguably took the first round and nearly finished the Brazilian late in the second round. Despite barely making it to the third round, Thiago Silva overwhelmed Nedkov with an aggressive striking display before earning the takedown. From there, the BJJ blackbelt wasted little time locking in the fight ending choke.
Silva has never been a pushover, but he’s also never been a serious contender for the light-heavyweight championship, either. At twenty-nine years old, he still has a chance at putting together a run for the title. But if he’s going to make the most of this opportunity, he needs to get back to consistently stringing together victories, and start earning them over the deep end of the UFC’s roster.
Elsewhere on the card:
– Takanori Gomi’s split-decision over Mac Danzig took home Fight of the Night honors. Little surprise here, as this fight was a back-and-forth affair that saw both men come close to earning the stoppage. The PRIDE legend improves to 34-8 (1 NC) overall, and 3-3 in the UFC. Meanwhile, Mac Danzig drops to 21-10-1 – including a not-quite-worthy 5-6 in the UFC – but earns his fourth End of the Night bonus from the promotion.
– Dong Hyun Kim took home a unanimous decision victory over Paulo Thiago in a fight that was never exactly close. After the fight, Kim asked for a rematch against Demian Maia. Considering the fluke nature of their first meeting, I’m not surprised that he wants this fight but I doubt he gets it. Also, Thiago is now 1-4 in his last five fights and 4-5 in the UFC, so expect a Paulo Thiago-themed “And Now he’s Fired” soon.
– Speaking of “1-4 in his last five and probably about to be fired,” Tiequan Zhang actually lost to TUF alumnus Jon Tuck. Yes, the only Chinese fighter on the entire card actually lost to the softball opponent he was matched up against. And not by an indefensibly terrible decision, either: Tuck was controlling the entire fight until the third round, when he made the foolish decision to stand with the guy who desperately needed a knockout. Not to throw salt in the wound here, but Zhang’s lone victory in his last five fights came over Jason Reinhardt at UFC 127. Ouch.
– Takeya Mizugaki wasn’t exactly given a world-beater in Jeff Hougland, but he still managed to look pretty impressive while taking home a unanimous decision victory. Mizugaki ground Hougland’s face into a pulp over the course of three rounds, taking all three rounds on all three scorecards. That being said…30-25?! YOU CANNOT BE FOR SERIOUSLY, BRO!
– Attendance was 8,415, who paid $1.3 million USD. This makes UFC on FUEL 6 the second highest FUEL livegate (Only UFC on FUEL 2 was higher).
UFC on Fuel TV 6 had plenty of dull spots, but it was punctuated by several memorable scenes from the promotion’s first event in the People’s Republic of China.Not bad for a card with only two finishes in the entire night.But which moments were the bes…
UFC on Fuel TV 6 had plenty of dull spots, but it was punctuated by several memorable scenes from the promotion’s first event in the People’s Republic of China.
Not bad for a card with only two finishes in the entire night.
But which moments were the best of the UFC on Fuel TV broadcast? And most importantly, were any of them actually worth getting up for at 4:30 or 7:30 in the morning?
Yes. Even with the #RudeAwakening, these were the 14 best moments of the night.
Er, morning.
Wait, what time is it right now? Never mind, I’m probably just going back to bed as soon as this slideshow is over.
Dong Hyun Kim rebounded from an injury at UFC 148 to take a dominant decision over Paulo Thiago at UFC on Fuel 6. Kim displayed all his familiar traits in controlling Thiago on the mat from bell to bell. Although he didn’t secure the finish, the perfor…
Dong Hyun Kim rebounded from an injury at UFC 148 to take a dominant decision over Paulo Thiago at UFC on Fuel 6. Kim displayed all his familiar traits in controlling Thiago on the mat from bell to bell. A
lthough he didn’t secure the finish, the performance was still very impressive.
What Fans Will Remember From This Fight
Fans will likely recall the third round, in which Kim nearly ChaelSonnen-ed himself after missing a spinning back fist. Kim secured a takedown and looked like a spider monkey on Thiago‘s back.
It was as dominant a round in terms of pure grappling as one could achieve, given the fact that Thiago was unable to do anything except survive for five minutes.
What We Learned About Paulo Thiago
I’m personally a fan of Thiago, but it’s clear that right now he doesn’t have the skills necessary to compete against high-level opponents in the welterweight division.
He’s a meager 1-4 in his last five outings, and although he’s only lost two straight, it may be time to say goodbye to the UFC. He did nothing but survive the onslaught from Kim over the course of three rounds.
Thiago can still defeat the lower-level guys, but it seems as if he will be stuck in the gatekeeper level for the time being.
What We Learned About Dong Hyun Kim
Wow. That’s all anyone can say about the performance put on by the “Stun Gun.” Kim has always been great at holding top control but showed some of his jiu-jitsu skills by looking for a number of chokes against the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Thiago.
Kim did nearly everything right except finish the fight, and it’s hard to say anything negative about his performance.
It appears as if Kim is back and ready to make another run to the top of the welterweight ladder.
If fighters in the UFC aren’t being pulled from upcoming cards due to injuries, they’re serving suspensions for banned substances.
