(Guillard discusses his game plan for UFC 150. To summarize it in a word: Kill, kill, kill.)
Allow me to begin this article with a series of understatements:
–Melvin Guillard hits pretty hard.
-His ground game, however, is somewhat lacking.
–Donald Cerrone has a decent chin, and a slightly better ground game than Melvin Guillard.
Now, whether any of these notions has any influence over your view of how Cerrone vs. Guillard will go down is a moot point. If you were to ask Cerrone how he thinks he will fare against Guillard on Saturday night at UFC 150, however, his response would be something along the line of “Where’s that bitch Anthony Pettis? Tell him to stop ducking me!”
Confused? Well so were we when we heard Cerrone’s recent interview with Inside MMA, where he all but completely disregards the fact that he is fighting one of the most dangerous strikers in the lightweight division this weekend, and instead focused his crosshairs on the former (and final) WEC lightweight champion:
I definitely wanna go after that title, and getting a rematch with Henderson would be an honor. That’d be sweet, for the belt. But, I really wanna fight Anthony Pettis. I want him to quit crying about his hurt shoulder and step up and fight me. I don’t know what I gotta do. Just grab your purse and let’s dance, brother.
(Guillard discusses his game plan for UFC 150. To summarize it in a word: Kill, kill, kill.)
Allow me to begin this article with a series of understatements:
–Melvin Guillard hits pretty hard.
-His ground game, however, is somewhat lacking.
–Donald Cerrone has a decent chin, and a slightly better ground game than Melvin Guillard.
Now, whether any of these notions has any influence over your view of how Cerrone vs. Guillard will go down is a moot point. If you were to ask Cerrone how he thinks he will fare against Guillard on Saturday night at UFC 150, however, his response would be something along the line of “Where’s that bitch Anthony Pettis? Tell him to stop ducking me!”
Confused? Well so were we when we heard Cerrone’s recent interview with Inside MMA, where he all but completely disregards the fact that he is fighting one of the most dangerous strikers in the lightweight division this weekend, and instead focused his crosshairs on the former (and final) WEC lightweight champion:
I definitely wanna go after that title, and getting a rematch with Henderson would be an honor. That’d be sweet, for the belt. But, I really wanna fight Anthony Pettis. I want him to quit crying about his hurt shoulder and step up and fight me. I don’t know what I gotta do. Just grab your purse and let’s dance, brother.
If the odds are any indication, Cerrone will handily defeat Guillard on Saturday, most likely by taking him down and submitting him. Specifically, with a rear-naked choke. So maybe Cerrone has the right to look past Guillard. His ground game is so far above that of his opponent that it’s almost laughable, and besides, its not like Guillard has ever been a smart fighter. Just ask Jim Miller. But you know who else had a far superior ground game to Guillard, and was heavily favored to submit him inside of the first round? Evan Dunham, and look how that ended.
The point I’m trying to make is that, although Melvin may never have the all around game that Cerrone possesses, he hits harder than any other fighter in the division, and has pretty great takedown defense when he’s not throwing a barrage of flying knees. Looking past a guy like Guillard is not only foolish, it’s plain dangerous. There is also the issue of Cerrone’s pride, which could lead him to stand and trade with an arguably more lethal striker as it did in the Nate Diaz fight (granted, it’s not like Cerrone was going to take Diaz down and submit him. Just ask Jim Miller.).
Then again, Cerrone is fresh off a brilliant performance against Jeremy Stephens, another hard-hitting but limited striker who poses many of the same threats as Guillard, at UFC on FUEL 3. Cerrone basically turned Stephens into ground meat in their three round, one-sided slugfest, but does anyone else feel he is making a fatal mistake by already setting his sights on another opponent with a guy like Guillard still in the picture?
When Alistair broke all of our hearts by failing a drug test and becoming ineligible to challenge Dos Santos (who won the belt by stopping Velasquez) and then was suspended from competition for a year, we figured he’d have to get back in line, at least a little bit, for a chance at UFC gold. But The Reem has been taking the Chael-lite approach to getting a title shot, ie. talking smack about the champion.
Overeem recently said that he feels Dos Santos is ducking him. Dos Santos didn’t take too kindly to that assertion, especially since it was Overeem that managed not to show up to fight when they were originally slated to face-off.
Junior’s anger at Alistair has gotten to the point where he’s expressed a preference to fighting the dangerous Dutch kick boxer next instead of Cain. Velasquez doesn’t have all that Brown Pride just to stand aside and let Overeem talk his way into a spot he earned so when the former champ visited The MMA Hour Monday, he let his feelings be known.
When Alistair broke all of our hearts by failing a drug test and becoming ineligible to challenge Dos Santos (who won the belt by stopping Velasquez) and then was suspended from competition for a year, we figured he’d have to get back in line, at least a little bit, for a chance at UFC gold. But The Reem has been taking the Chael-lite approach to getting a title shot, ie. talking smack about the champion.
Overeem recently said that he feels Dos Santos is ducking him. Dos Santos didn’t take too kindly to that assertion, especially since it was Overeem that managed not to show up to fight when they were originally slated to face-off.
Junior’s anger at Alistair has gotten to the point where he’s expressed a preference to fighting the dangerous Dutch kick boxer next instead of Cain. Velasquez doesn’t have all that Brown Pride just to stand aside and let Overeem talk his way into a spot he earned so when the former champ visited The MMA Hour Monday, he let his feelings be known.
“For Junior, I have the most respect for him as well as a person and as a fighter. I think he represents the sport very well. But as a champion, if you have a number one contender, then you don’t normally get to choose who you fight,” Velasquez told host Ariel Helwani.
“I just think him and Overeem and him had some words spoken back and forth to each other and he wants to fight him. He really wants to fight him first, wants to beat him. But you gotta get through me first.”
Velasquez was hoping to fight Dos Santos in September but seems skeptical that that will happen now. He said he hopes to get clarity, one way or the other, on his position in the heavyweight division this coming week from White.
“I definitely want that fight with Junior,” Cain said.
“I’m going to do everything within my power to try to get that fight happening. We’ll just see how it plays out, I guess. We’ll just have to talk to Dana a little bit here and there and see where he stands.”
What fight would you rather see, nation? Reem vs. Junior or the rematch between the champ and Velasquez? We’ll be sure to pass the word along to Uncle Dana…
Amid his national television appearances, eight wins in the UFC and record-setting submissions as a percentage of wins in the promotion, it might be hard to remember that Joe Lauzon is a regular guy who not too long ago worked a nine to five office job like lots of other Americans. Shortly after he graduated from college in 2006 with a computer science degree Lauzon got a shot in the UFC and the storyline for the Massachusetts native typically went like this: Smart college kid is fighting, for some reason.
Lauzon was supposed to be an opponent in his UFC debut, nothing more, for the returning former lightweight champion Jens Pulver. Instead, he stopped the legend in the first round and six years later “Baby Joe” is still at the top of the sport – fighting on this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 card against former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner.
The twenty eight year old is as surprised as anyone.
“I never expected it to go this far,” Lauzon says, speaking of the mixed martial arts career that he began back in high school. “I thought I’d get to do it for a year or so, maybe two years. Maybe I’d make a little bit of money and then I’d have to get back to working a real job. Now I’m dreading going back to a real job,” Lauzon laughs.
Amid his national television appearances, eight wins in the UFC and record-setting submissions as a percentage of wins in the promotion, it might be hard to remember that Joe Lauzon is a regular guy who not too long ago worked a nine to five office job like lots of other Americans. Shortly after he graduated from college in 2006 with a computer science degree Lauzon got a shot in the UFC and the storyline for the Massachusetts native typically went like this: Smart college kid is fighting, for some reason.
Lauzon was supposed to be an opponent in his UFC debut, nothing more, for the returning former lightweight champion Jens Pulver. Instead, he stopped the legend in the first round and six years later “Baby Joe” is still at the top of the sport – fighting on this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 card against former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner.
The twenty eight year old is as surprised as anyone.
“I never expected it to go this far,” Lauzon says, speaking of the mixed martial arts career that he began back in high school. “I thought I’d get to do it for a year or so, maybe two years. Maybe I’d make a little bit of money and then I’d have to get back to working a real job. Now I’m dreading going back to a real job,” Lauzon laughs.
At the start of his UFC career, Lauzon maintained his full time IT job to pay off student loans. It wasn’t until after he was coached by BJ Penn and his staff on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 and received an invite to go to Hawaii to train with the champ that Joe decided to switch to fighting full time.
At the time, it was a difficult decision for Lauzon. Looking back, he says he wishes he would have made it earlier.
“If I would have known how well things would have gone, I would have made the decision earlier,” he says.
Far from being jaded, opportunities like fighting on the main card for a nationally network televised bout still get Lauzon amped. “Fighting on FOX is definitely more exciting. There’s so much exposure,” he says. “It’s obviously nice to fight on pay per view cards, but this is great because FOX is free to everyone. I think it’s cool that Dana [White] is choosing me and Jamie to give back to fans. They know we can put on an exciting fight.”
Lauzon’s last fight was exciting, but not in the way he wanted. In February Joe got knocked out with a head kick by fellow contender and former WEC champion Anthony Pettis at UFC 144 in Japan.
“That was a long flight home from Japan,” he admits. “I watched [the fight] a little bit on the plane, but not too much. Since then I’ve watched it more. I got caught with a good kick. I wasn’t as attentive as I should have been. I think I put too much emphasis on the spinning back kick and didn’t see that one coming.”
Lauzon was able to put the loss behind him by focusing on the things he can control, however. He doesn’t want to lose again, obviously, but says there is no particular pressure to not lose two in a row, even though he has yet to in his career.
“You don’t want to lose one in a row. It’s not like there’s added pressure to not lose two in a row. Its probably going to happen at some point. Winning and losing is not as important as getting in a good camp. If I had won but hadn’t gotten in a good camp, I wouldn’t be as happy that I won,” Lauzon explains.
“I lost against Pettis but I had a really good camp so I cant beat myself up over it. As long as I put in a good camp, I can feel good about my effort no matter what happens.”
(Munoz pays tribute to his favorite terrible fighter, Emmanuel Yarborough, by squashing a scrawny ginger less than 1/3rd his size.)
By Elias Cepeda
At first, what he said kind of passed by unnoticed, but when I caught it, I was forced to ask him to clarify. We were talking to UFC middleweight contender Mark Munoz about training camp for his UFC on FUEL 4 main event scrap tonight against Chris Weidman and thought to ask how things were going with the gym he owns, Reign Training Center.
Munoz opened up the Southern California fight gym a couple years ago and since that time it has grown to house not just 9-5ers seeking workouts, but some of the best fighters in the world as well. Munoz said the business was going swimmingly, spoke about some of the challenges of starting up and managing a gym and, almost in passing, mentioned that he led training for the guys.
Well, certainly not while he was in camp, right? Wrong, Munoz corrected. The fighter has, in fact, been his own head coach and trainer for all the fighters at Reign as he has readied to fight Weidman.
“I actually lead the training along with training myself,” Munoz said. “I’ve been coaching for awhile now and for me, I love running practices. I think about how to run practices and how to be able to breakdown technique and to be able to help the whole group. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years when it comes to Division I wrestling. Love to teach and to coach and get a good workout in the process. The guys love it too. They see the workouts and feel that they are catered to them. I’m glad I can accomplish both coach and competing. I’ve always wanted to do both but with wrestling you can’t really do it.”
Simultaneously fighting and coaching? That’s some Bill Russell and Pete Rose stuff right there.
(Munoz pays tribute to his favorite terrible fighter, Emmanuel Yarborough, by squashing a scrawny ginger less than 1/3rd his size.)
By Elias Cepeda
At first, what he said kind of passed by unnoticed, but when I caught it, I was forced to ask him to clarify. We were talking to UFC middleweight contender Mark Munoz about training camp for his UFC on FUEL 4 main event scrap tonight against Chris Weidman and thought to ask how things were going with the gym he owns, Reign Training Center.
Munoz opened up the Southern California fight gym a couple years ago and since that time it has grown to house not just 9-5ers seeking workouts, but some of the best fighters in the world as well. Munoz said the business was going swimmingly, spoke about some of the challenges of starting up and managing a gym and, almost in passing, mentioned that he led training for the guys.
Well, certainly not while he was in camp, right? Wrong, Munoz corrected. The fighter has, in fact, been his own head coach and trainer for all the fighters at Reign as he has readied to fight Weidman.
“I actually lead the training along with training myself,” Munoz said. “I’ve been coaching for awhile now and for me, I love running practices. I think about how to run practices and how to be able to breakdown technique and to be able to help the whole group. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years when it comes to Division I wrestling. Love to teach and to coach and get a good workout in the process. The guys love it too. They see the workouts and feel that they are catered to them. I’m glad I can accomplish both coach and competing. I’ve always wanted to do both but with wrestling you can’t really do it.”
Simultaneously fighting and coaching? That’s some Bill Russell and Pete Rose stuff right there.
To understand the significance and novelty of such a thing, one has to understand that training for a fight, or for high level sporting competition in general, is one of the most selfish endeavors humans undertake. Not selfish in a particularly bad way, but selfish nonetheless. During camp, everything is about the fighter scheduled to compete. The timing of everything from meals to training time to recreation time as well as the specifics of what those training sessions consist of revolves around the needs of the competing fighter. Everyone’s attention is on them.
So the idea of said fighter also making it his job to pay attention to the needs of the other fighters, to be the main person responsible for taking care of them in fact, is pretty rare and remarkable. And just like Rose and Russell must have had the complete respect and trust of their fellow players when they coached and managed while also playing, Munoz must have that from his teammates for this scenario to work out.
The “Filipino Wrecking Machine” says that he tries to create a familial environment and that goes a long way. “We have great fighters coming in and the gym has been attracting those guys because of the comradarie we have in the room,” he said.
“I try to create a comfortable environment, a fun environment where we step foot inside and everyone says hi to each other. There are no cliques. I’ve been to a lot of gyms where it was very cliquish. Somebody new would come in and you wanted to knock them out during sparring (laughs). But that isn’t a comfortable environment. So I like to plan events where we’re hanging out and develop a closer bond. When you have a close bond, the team pushes each other a lot more.”
Munoz has been very clear recently in saying that he believes he will deserve a title shot if he gets past Weidman. After all, he’s won four straight and seven of eight in the division overall. He was also set to face Chael Sonnen in January in a number one contender match before he had to pull out in order to get his elbow surgically repaired. Perhaps you remember vomiting upon seeing the results.
“I don’t know why I’ve been getting overlooked,” Munoz said. “I’ve been busting my butt for a long time.”
Of course, if Munoz does get the next middleweight title shot, he’ll have to face a former training partner and man he still considers a friend, champion Anderson Silva. “It’s nothing personal,” Munoz explained.
“I still consider him a friend and the greatest fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world and in the history of MMA. But at the same time, I feel like I’ve arrived. I want a chance at it. In an ideal world I would love for him to retire. But we know that sometimes it’s not an ideal world. So its gonna work out the way its gonna work out.”
But before he can even cross that bridge, Weidman is in Munoz’ way, who might be one win away from a title shot himself if he is able to secure a win tonight. In his last bout at UFC on FOX 2, he beat up former #1 contender Demian Maia, and he did it on incredibly short notice.
Weidman, like Munoz, comes from a wrestling background. But Munoz says he will still swing for the fences on the feet, with no regard for Weidman’s takedowns.
“The thing is, I have confidence in getting back to my feet. If he takes me down I’m going to pop back up. That’s how I train and that’s how I fight,” Munoz said.
“I’m going to get back up and am still going to throw bombs. That’s just who I am. I’m not a fighter willing to score points to win. I’m looking to end the fight in a moment.”
Can’t argue with that gameplan. At least not from a fan’s perspective.
(Gentlemen, no need to show me the door, because THERE IT IS RIGHT THERE!)
There aren’t many fighters in the UFC who have had longer layoffs in between fights than Carlos Eduardo Rocha. Well, maybe before this summer began, that is. Fighting just three times between November of 2010 and June of 2012, Rocha’s 1-2 UFC record included a submission via kneebar win over Kris McCray and a pair of close decision losses to Jake Ellenberger at UFC 126 and most recently, Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 3. The latter fight, which you may recall was originally scored a split decision victory for Pierce rather than a UD thanks to the general incompetency of Floridians, was a relatively lackluster affair that was dominated by Pierce’s clinch and wrestling game ala Couture vs. Vera.
It might surprise you to learn that Rocha, an incredibly decorated BJJ practitioner whose only trips to the scorecards have come in the UFC, was let go following the loss. As one might understand, Rocha was none too happy to learn of this news, and quickly vented his frustrations (mainly, those relating to Pierce’s performance) when interviewed by Tatame:
I went there to fight MMA and he wants to win by points. There were 15 minutes of pure stalling This is bullshit. And UFC fires me after a fight where the guy just stood there stalling. I had good performances and even so I was cut off. I didn’t expect this.
Ah, the Nick Diaz defense. Classy move, Mr. Rocha.
More from this interview after the jump.
(Gentlemen, no need to show me the door, because THERE IT IS RIGHT THERE!)
There aren’t many fighters in the UFC who have had longer layoffs in between fights than Carlos Eduardo Rocha. Well, maybe before this summer began, that is. Fighting just three times between November of 2010 and June of 2012, Rocha’s 1-2 UFC record included a submission via kneebar win over Kris McCray and a pair of close decision losses to Jake Ellenberger at UFC 126 and most recently, Mike Pierce at UFC on FX 3. The latter fight, which you may recall was originally scored a split decision victory for Pierce rather than a UD thanks to the general incompetency of Floridians, was a relatively lackluster affair that was dominated by Pierce’s clinch and wrestling game ala Couture vs. Vera.
It might surprise you to learn that Rocha, an incredibly decorated BJJ practitioner whose only trips to the scorecards have come in the UFC, was let go following the loss. As one might understand, Rocha was none too happy to learn of this news, and quickly vented his frustrations (mainly, those relating to Pierce’s performance) when interviewed by Tatame:
I went there to fight MMA and he wants to win by points. There were 15 minutes of pure stalling This is bullshit. And UFC fires me after a fight where the guy just stood there stalling. I had good performances and even so I was cut off. I didn’t expect this.
Ah, the Nick Diaz defense. Classy move, Mr. Rocha.
Wasn’t he the one who said he’d fight any Brazilian because it’s an easy fight? I thought he could come for me but he didn’t. He didn’t attack me on the clinch, he didn’t hit me nor let me hit him. That’s not MMA. There was one promotion (that made him an offer), but the guy didn’t wanna fight me. Now let’s move on, keep my head up. I never give up. I know I’ll get better next time so I can have another chance in the UFC.
As much as we tend to crucify (or at least condescend) fighters who bitch about their opponent’s gameplan in hindsight, Rocha kind of has a point here. Aside from the aforementioned trash talk Pierce was spouting leading up to the fight, his past two losses have come as the result of close split decisions. One could even argue that he deserved the nod in his loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 143, so the fact that Pierce seemed all too content to ride out another decision against a relatively low-level guy like Rocha seems like kind of a weak move on his part. Plus, when the BJJ guy is complaining about not being hit enough, you know the fight must have sucked.
Then again, it takes two to tango, so if Rocha really wanted to do something to negate Pierce’s wall-n-stall tactics, perhaps he should have trained takedown defense and clinch work just a bit more in the months before the fight. In either case, at least he’s looking to the future and not dwelling on this loss for too long.
And hey, there’s always Strikeforce. They still have a welterweight division, right?
(Were you the country bumpkin that called me a Guido, or was it Hughes?)
It might be just me, but every time I see or even hear Matt Serra on camera, I expect him to have a trio of deli meats clenched in one fist and a bottle of Patron in the other. He exudes the Long Island Italian meathead stereotype more than any other professional fighter out there, and although I normally despise those people, I can’t help but laugh when he launches into his shtick. It’s kind of like how if you were to take Sofia Vergara’s voice and implant it into anyone else but her, the results would be gratingly annoying rather than hilarious and enthralling.
Whether you agree or not with the above statement will likely impact your excitement to learn that “The Terra” recently…hosted (?) a video blog for the UFC called Fight Camp Insider. And wouldn’t you know it, Serra managed to not only snag fellow wordsmith Chael Sonnen for an interview, he ended up spending the whole day with him. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
Video and a recanting of the events after the jump.
(Were you the country bumpkin that called me a Guido, or was it Hughes?)
It might be just me, but every time I see or even hear Matt Serra on camera, I expect him to have a trio of deli meats clenched in one fist and a bottle of Patron in the other. He exudes the Long Island Italian meathead stereotype more than any other professional fighter out there, and although I normally despise those people, I can’t help but laugh when he launches into his shtick. It’s kind of like how if you were to take Sofia Vergara’s voice and implant it into anyone else but her, the results would be gratingly annoying rather than hilarious and enthralling.
Whether you agree or not with the above statement will likely impact your excitement to learn that “The Terra” recently…hosted (?) a video blog for the UFC called Fight Camp Insider. And wouldn’t you know it, Serra managed to not only snag fellow wordsmith Chael Sonnen for an interview, he ended up spending the whole day with him. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.
After a brief chat with Ray Longo and an assessment of how fat he’s gotten (answer: kind of), Serra embarks on a journey to a previously uncharted land known as Oregon to take a tour of Team Quest’s longtime training facility. And after a discussion of Sonnen’s pizzeria, its negative impact on his weight cut, and another fatness assessment (seriously, this episode is veering towards King of Queens territory in a hurry), Serra finally gets down to business. That business, is comparing Matt Longo’s attractiveness to that of Marlon Brando.
Simply put, these are the kind of interviews I live for. I don’t want to hear about how training camps are going, and what some guy’s gameplan is for his upcoming fight. That nonsense is whitewash at this point. We already know what everyone’s going say, even when it’s someone like Chael. I want to hear two men talk about pizza and The Godfather with metrosexual undertones. And on this front, Serra delivers in spades.
At this point, Serra is in need of slice, preferably topped with some nice gabagool, and heads over to Sonnen’s joint, known to the general public as Mean Street Pizzeria. He alludes that he is not unlike a ninja turtle in that he has an insatiable appetite for martial arts and pizza pie, which is perhaps the most accurate life assessment we have ever had the privilege of witnessing. No joke: a couple college buddies of mine from Long Island ran into Serra at a Chipotle in Huntington, where he proceeded to tell them that he once consumed a three man 36” pizza challenge by himself just down the street and stayed for cannolis afterward. All we’re saying is that Serra is less of a mixed martial artist and more of an ass-kicking philosopher. Like Kung Fu Panda.
He orders a straight slice of cheese to start. Fat joke. Martial arts. Consume pizza. The cycle repeats.
At eight and a half minutes in, Serra meets up with Chael at his place in the outskirts of town. “It’s in a nice neighborhood,” Serra remarks. You think that’s impressive? Tito Ortiz bought his own neighborhood. But what Tito Ortiz didn’t have, or at least failed to show us, was the awesome Whack-a-Mole style training device designed by Nexersys that Sonnen keeps in his house. You’ll have to see it for yourself, but it’s basically Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero for mixed martial arts fighters, and it just shot to the top of our wish lists. “If you could get this to hold a coffee, it would be Longo,” Serra jokes.
Sonnen also recounts his WEC 36 fight with Paulo Filho in which Filho both failed to make weight (changing the fight to a non-title bout in the process), and was apparently haunted by the ghosts of Xanax’s past. The good news: Filho ended up sending Sonnen the belt after he won the fight. The bad: The rest of Filho’s career.
After the tour, the crew heads back to Sonnen’s stomping grounds, where they come upon Yushin Okami mid-sparring, likely for his upcoming bout with Rousimar Palhares. Though at the time this was filmed, we imagine Okami was still expecting to face Luiz Cane, being that he is not attempting to free his ankle from a bench vice.
But even better than the pizza, even better than Okami, is the entrance of Mama Sonnen at the 12:52 mark. And believe it or not, she still holds Chael’s mouthpiece in between rounds, like a true mother should. Things conclude with an intense sparring session for Sonnen, who gets put through the ringer of Team Quest products before bidding Serra adieu.
I think it’s safe to say that Serra has found his future calling in the MMA biz. Half fighter interviews, half Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. Matter of fact, if Serra threw on a spiky blonde wig, a pair of backwards sunglasses, and a few more sweatbands, he could pass as Guy Fieri’s body double without anyone knowing the difference.
