UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub will look to rebound from his August knockout loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when he faces Ben Rothwell at next month’s UFC 145 event in Atlanta.Schaub says he’s going to bring a battle to Rothwell’s doorstep:
These guy…
UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub will look to rebound from his August knockout loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when he faces Ben Rothwell at next month’s UFC 145 event in Atlanta.
These guys know when they fight me, it’s going to be one hell of a fight. I expect the best Ben Rothwell. And I know it’s cliche to say and everyone says, ‘Oh, that’s something fighters say all the time,’ but when I say it, it’s obviously true. The previous guys he’s fought, when they rocked Ben, they don’t have the cardio, they rock Ben, they use it as a way to recover themselves.
I’m not like that. It’s going to be 15 minutes of me in his face. I can do it all. You want to strike? Let’s do that. It’s going to be a short night, though. I think if you have to list a top three toughest guys in the heavyweight division, he’s right up there. Everyone’s tough in the UFC but he’s a different caliber of tough. But just being tough isn’t going to get you the belt.
I guarantee people walk away from this fight talking about my performance rather than the main event or anyone else on the card.
I had no idea that Rothwell was still in the UFC. Seriously. He’s 1-2 during his UFC tenure and has never looked to be much more than merely passable as a heavyweight fighter. This fight should be his last one in the UFC.
This is a gimme fight for Schaub—a way for him to get an easy win after losing his momentum against Nogueira—and I fully expect him to capitalize.
After fighting professionally for seven years at lightweight with much success, Chris “The Polish Hammer” Horodecki is set to make his featherweight debut at Bellator 64 in Windsor on April 6th.
The former IFL and WEC contender is 18-3 i…
After fighting professionally for seven years at lightweight with much success, Chris “The Polish Hammer” Horodecki is set to make his featherweight debut at Bellator 64 in Windsor on April 6th.
The former IFL and WEC contender is 18-3 in his career at lightweight, but has decided to make the shift to 145 pounds for his upcoming fight against Mike “The Marine” Richman. In my opinion, it is a very wise and exciting decision for the future of this young, elite fighter.
I was able to chat with Horodecki last week at the Adrenaline Training Center in London, Ontario.
“First fight at featherweight, yes. All my fights have been at 155 but I need to make that transition, you know. I feel making 155 was too easy and, you know what, these guys at 155 are getting really, really big. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be a contender at 145.” Horodecki told Bleacher Report MMA.
Horodecki is and has been a top contender in Canada at 155 pounds throughout his seven-year professional career. During his time in the IFL and WEC, he also tangled with some of the best lightweights in the world, such as Anthony Njoukuani, Danny Downes and UFC contender Donald Cerrone.
In his next fight on April 6th, he faces Minnesota native, former cast member of the UFC’s The UltimateFighter and U.S. Marine Mike Richman. Facing the United States’ elite tough guys is nothing new to Horodecki.
“Actually, my last opponent, Mike Corey, is a Marine or former Marine with the military, and I have also had another Marine in the IFL, Josh Odom, that I competed against.”
This time it will be a bit different for the London, Ontario native and part owner of Adrenaline Training Center.
“I’ve done pretty well, they keep lining me up with these Marines, but this time they’re on our territory on Canadian soil so I got my fans with me.”
Horodecki defeated Odom via unanimous decision, and fought Corey to a controversial draw last November in a fight that many thought he had done enough to win. He remains undefeated against the United States servicemen.
Corey has since dropped down to featherweight as well, and is currently in the second round of the Bellator FW tournament. Horodecki is watching the tournament closely, and shared his thoughts on who he thinks may come out on top.
“A close friend of mine, Ronnie Mann, was fighting in that tournament, fought Mike Corey, who I was training with the week previous so it was kinda a tough one to watch, but Mike did really good, he’s a grinder. He’s got a tough fight next as he’s fighting Daniel Strauss in Windsor. It’s going to be on the same card as me. He’s kind of the sleeper right now”
Corey trains at Team Curran in Chicago with head trainer and MMA veteran Jeff Curran, as well as current Bellator featherweight champion Pat Curran, who recently won the title with an incredible highlight reel knockout of Joe Waren.
Team Curran shares a great training relationship with Horodecki and Team Tompkins, dating back a few years. Horodecki touched on the history of that valuable relationship.
“We’ve been training together for the past seven or eight years, going back and forth. When Shawn moved to Las Vegas it kind of slowed down a bit. But now we’ve decided to get the team going again, the connection and myself and Mark Hominick made the trip out last week.”
“It’s great to have that alliance again. We are going out there again in a week, and then Jeff Curran’s coming back and he’s gonna be cornering myself in my fight at Bellator in Windsor. He’s also going to be cornering Mark Hominick in UFC Atlanta in April.”
I’m looking forward to Horodecki’s debut on April 6th, and a steady climb up the featherweight division in 2012.
Photography Courtesy of Randi Lotsberg Photography/MMAOntario
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA, MMA Editor at CKSN.ca and guest blogger for Sportsnet.ca
Though the UFC’s flyweight eliminator tournament remains unfinished, there is little doubt who is poised to become the promotion’s inaugural 125-pound king.Joseph Benavidez entered the four-man tournament as a favorite and did nothing to shake the…
Though the UFC’s flyweight eliminator tournament remains unfinished, there is little doubt who is poised to become the promotion’s inaugural 125-pound king.
Joseph Benavidez entered the four-man tournament as a favorite and did nothing to shake the label when he obliterated Japanese standout, Yasuhiro Urushitani, at UFC on FX 2 this March.
Few expected Benavidez to falter in a match where he was so obviously the superior fighter, but the manner in which he handled his first-round adversary was impressive in spite of the expectations.
If there was any hope for Urushitani to pull out an unlikely victory, it had to come by strikes. Benavidez, however, beat his opponent to the punch. At just 0:11 of the second round, the California native splayed out his foe with a counter right hook that dashed the Japanese import’s hopes and placed Benavidez in the tournament finale.
Beating a fighter at his own game is by no means a new move in Benavidez’s repertoire. The Team Alpha Male product has made his mark in the sport by throwing hands with strikers and frustrating grapplers on the mat.
Miguel Torres and Wagnney Fabiano are two of the best grapplers the bantamweight division has to offer. Benavidez owns submission wins over both of them.
Eddie Wineland is regarded as one of the most dangerous strikers at 135 pounds. He fought Benavidez last summer and was able to keep the bout on the feet essentially the entire match. He suffered a decisive unanimous decision loss, along with about a gallon of blood and a properly functioning nasal passage.
Benavidez even gave bantamweight deity, Dominick Cruz, a run for his money. Twice. The second time the two squared off, “The Dominator” won a hotly contested split decision that featured extensive time in Cruz’s realm—on the feet.
Though he came up short against Cruz, Benavidez was able to establish himself as the second-best bantamweight on the planet, disposing of a bevy of top contenders and challenging one of the pound-for-pound greats to an extent no one has managed for years.
With the drop to flyweight, the UFC better start fitting his waist for a new belt.
The drop in weight class signifies a new era for Benavidez, one in which he has done away with physical disadvantages and shifted his focus from an old foe.
The most obvious advantage garnered by dropping in weight is that he will be bigger in comparison to the competition he faces. Though some of the newly minted division’s makeup will be comprised of other former bantamweights, Benavidez will be able to avoid some of the heftier 135ers. And, most importantly, he will avoid some of the taller and longer 135ers.
Benavidez stands at a diminutive 5’4″. At bantamweight, he regularly gave up three, four, five inches to opponents like Eddie Wineland and Dominick Cruz.
Right now, the tallest fighter in the UFC flyweight division is 5’5″. A nice divisional characteristic for a short fighter with a big right hook.
The next advantage Benavidez gains by dropping to 125 is that he avoids Cruz, the only man to defeat him at 135. Aside from his bouts with Cruz, Benavidez was able to weather a size disadvantage against world-class fighters. Now, he no longer has to worry about that either.
In fact, there is no champion, Cruz or otherwise, waiting to thwart the aspirations of Benavidez in the flyweight division.
When the time comes that there is a champion, it will be Benavidez himself. The American is a talented wrestler capable of controlling where a fight takes place and has the reserve skills of vicious submissions and powerful striking, rare in lower weight classes, in case he can’t play to his opponent’s weakness.
Both Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson are good wrestlers themselves—perhaps as good as Benavidez. McCall’s secondary attribute is his striking while Johnson’s is his grappling.
But here’s the thing: Benavidez is a better striker than McCall and a better grappler than Johnson.
Regardless of who joins Benavidez in the flyweight tournament finale, he will win. He can grind decisions, he has one-punch knockout power and submissions that have foiled top BJJ practitioners. He will win because he is better than either potential opponent at every aspect of fighting.
After he stakes his claim to the 125-pound throne, the UFC will have to bring in some more contenders. When that happens, Benavidez will beat them. All of them.
Nothing is sure in MMA so take this as the hyperbole it is—the only thing that may potentially separate Joseph Benavidez from the UFC flyweight title in the next five years is that he vacates his position.
If the prospect of once more challenging for the bantamweight crown becomes more appealing than dominating the flyweight division after awhile, perhaps we will see a different champion at 125 pounds. But a second flyweight champion will remain entirely contingent upon Benavidez choosing it.
Benavidez will become one of the most dominant champions the UFC has ever produced and will carve out a name for himself alongside Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, Junior Dos Santos and Dominick Cruz as the one of the pound-for-pound best in mixed martial arts.
The UFC’s lightweight division is the sport’s deepest, and while reigning UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson prepares for a rematch with former champion Frankie Edgar, top contenders Nate Diaz (15-7) and Jim Miller (21-3) will fight in a fi…
The UFC’s lightweight division is the sport’s deepest, and while reigning UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson prepares for a rematch with former champion Frankie Edgar, top contenders Nate Diaz (15-7) and Jim Miller (21-3) will fight in a five-round main event at the UFC on FOX 3 card on May 5.
Many fans are expecting to see the winner of the Miller-Diaz bout getting a title shot before the year’s end, but they also may end up fighting former WEC champion Anthony Pettis to determine an absolute No. 1 contender if the UFC decides otherwise.
Cesar Gracie, who is Diaz’s coach, broke down the matchup in an interview with Tatame.com and gave his thoughts on a possible title opportunity with a win over Miller.
I guess it’s going to be a good fight. Nate Diaz is one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC, and Jim Miller is a good obstacle to overcome. He has good wrestling skills and heavy hands, he’s strong. We’re not underestimating him, but I guess Nate is better than him both on the stand-up and on the ground.
Miller was able to rebound from a defeat to Henderson when he submitted Melvin Guillard in the very first round of their bout from January. A seven-fight win streak preceded the loss to Henderson.
Diaz has looked better than ever after two very impressive wins over Donald Cerrone and Takanori Gomi. His decision victory over Cerrone was only his second win to go the distance.
“I guess he deserves it in case he gets this win,” Gracie said. “He defeated Cerrone, who was one of the firsts of the line and had a good performance against Gomi and now is fighting another contender. Cerrone is still a top guy, so if Nate can beat up these guys he deserves to be the next challenger.”
UFC on FOX 3 will also include Josh Koscheck vs. Johny Hendricks, Rousimar Palhares vs. Alan Belcher and Pat Barry vs. Lavar Johnson.
Yesterday’s announcement that lightweights Gray Maynard and Clay Guida will meet in the main event of UFC on FX 4 wasn’t a surprise.The bout had been rumored for months. It was going to happen, so it was just a matter of figuring out where to slot the …
The bout had been rumored for months. It was going to happen, so it was just a matter of figuring out where to slot the fight on a busy slate of summer events. And it pairs two lightweights who are still near the top of the division, despite losing in both championship and contender fights over the last 12 months.
I get it. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I’ll tell you why.
Guida is the most popular fighter in the lightweight division. More than the current champion Benson Henderson and more than Frankie Edgar, Guida has a rabid following that desperately wants to see him succeed. They want to see him in title fights.
Maynard is pretty much the opposite at this point. He never endeared himself to fans even while putting on two incredibly exciting fights with Frankie Edgar in 2011, and I’d wager that only two percent of UFC fans, at the very most, would care to see him get another title shot at Henderson.
Maynard actually has a ton of personality. He’s an interesting dude when you get him away from the cage.
Talk to him about riding his mountain bike on the cliffs out in Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas, and his eyes will light up. He’ll talk to you for hours. It’s only when talking about fighting that he tends to clam up, and that has impacted his marketability with fans.
I like Guida, both as a person and as a fighter. I think he’s great, and it’s easy to see why the fans love him. But there’s no way he’s beating Maynard here. Guida is a skilled fighter, but he’s not on Maynard’s level when it comes to striking or wrestling.
The UFC is sacrificing a marketable, ready-made UFC title contender for one who won’t garner any interest from the fans for a third title shot. Joe Lauzon would have been a much more suitable opponent for Guida.
He’s coming off a loss and he presents less of a threat to Guida in the cage. The fact that Guida and Lauzon have never fought each other, despite spending years together in the UFC, makes the bout even more interesting.
I’m all for treating MMA as a pure sport, but sometimes you have to make the right decision for business purposes.
The star potential for many prospects in MMA is downright frightening without question.Rory MacDonald, Jon Jones, Alexander Gustafsson, Cain Velasquez, Renan Barao, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Erik Koch, Edson Barboza, Pat Curran and a plethora of ot…
The star potential for many prospects in MMA is downright frightening without question.
Rory MacDonald, Jon Jones, Alexander Gustafsson, Cain Velasquez, Renan Barao, Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Erik Koch, Edson Barboza, Pat Curran and a plethora of other young prospects have arrived on the scene to great fanfare and have earned great deals of respect despite losses, controversial endings and performances perceived as inferior, but their current treks toward greatness are only half of the hubbub.
The truth is that all of the aforementioned fighters are still young in their career and still have a long way to go before they even hit their primes, yet they’re already considered among the best of the division. That fact is scary because by the time they finally look like they should be hanging up the gloves, at least one of the aforementioned might have done just enough to surpass the statistics of one of the all-time greats in MMA history.
There’s never enough that we can say about the current crop of prospects, but there’s a certain crop of next-generation stars that we could very well be talking about once MacDonald, Koch, Barao, Gustafsson, Rockhold, Barboza and Curran, among others, finally evolve from the prospects of the sport into the veterans of the sport.
At this time, I’d like to introduce you all to that crop of next-generation fighters with great star potential, complete with some video on each of these young fighters.
Though the UFC’s flyweight eliminator tournament remains unfinished, there is little doubt who is poised to become the promotion’s inaugural 125-pound king.