Benson Henderson best exemplifies the verse from Psalm 118, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” In plain language, The Ultimate Fighter reject is now the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion. Upon findi…
Benson Henderson best exemplifies the verse from Psalm 118, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” In plain language, The Ultimate Fighter reject is now the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion.
Upon finding out that Bendo’s TUF 9 audition tape was thrown in the dustbin of MMA history three years ago, MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti shared in his article the following words of wisdom and wonder:
…the show is still as hit-or-miss as they come. Since 2009, just 21 of the 75 contestants presently hold a UFC contract, good for a lowly 28-percent success rate (not counting TUF 14).
So you’re telling me, in a season that produced just three of those 21 names, former WEC champ and new UFC lightweight champ Ben Henderson couldn’t make the cut? That seems baffling.
Well, that’s just the way it is. As the Beauty and the Beastsong goes, it’s a “Tale as old as time.”
So to all budding MMA fighters out there who undergo disappointments and frustrations in pursuit of that Octagon-framed dream, hearken to lesson numero uno, “Do not lose faith; the next Bendo could be you.”
Still, faith must be balanced and tempered by, to borrow from Karl Marx, “material basis.”
Train that flesh and bone hard and also know its limits.
To illustrate, when your 30-year-old last born son comes up to you and proudly announces, “Dad, I’m a father now!” you know your future in MMA is not too bright or too long.
Unless the UFC introduces a master’s division or you’re really intent on doing Randy Couture one better, then, by all means, go ahead.
Also, although the Good Book says that, “Faith can move mountains,” it can’t be interpreted literally.
I don’t remember any historical instance when faith alone moved a mountain, even a molehill.
They’ve always used bulldozers and stuff.
So, lesson numero dos is, “Train hard and use the right tools.”
And don’t forget to thank Bendo for being such a wonderful inspiration, firing up your MMA pipe dream even more. No, let’s just call it “dream,” my apologies.
And to Dana White and company regarding that TUF 9 lapse in judgment, “Way to go, Dana! But big thanks, too, for giving Bendo the title shot last UFC 144.”
The UFC will travel to Sydney, Australia, for the UFC on FX 2 fight card. The card, headlined by a main event between welterweight competitors Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann, will take place on Saturday, March 3 in Australia, but due to the differing…
The UFC will travel to Sydney, Australia, for the UFC on FX 2 fight card. The card, headlined by a main event between welterweight competitors Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann, will take place on Saturday, March 3 in Australia, but due to the differing time zones it will be broadcast in North American on Friday, March 2.
Alves and Kampmann will both look to capitalize on victories in their last bouts. Alves defeated UFC newcomer Papy Abedi in his last fight, while Kampmann is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Rick Story.
In addition to the main event, the card will feature the first two flyweight fights in the UFC’s history as Joseph Benavidez takes on Yasuhiro Urushitani and Demetrious Johnson meets Ian McCall in the first round of the UFC flyweight tournament. The victors will meet at a later date, with the winner of that bout being crowned the UFC flyweight champion.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to make history at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia with a UFC on FX 2 fight card that features the UFC debut of the flyweight division.The card is headlined by a welterweight showdown between Thiago “T…
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to make history at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia with a UFC on FX 2 fight card that features the UFC debut of the flyweight division.
The card is headlined by a welterweight showdown between Thiago “The Pitbull” Alves and Martin “Hitman” Kampmann.
These two 170-pound fighters have the ability to put on a fireworks display that would make a New Year’s Day celebration look like sparklers at a Little League Baseball game.
Despite being forgotten by most fans, Alves and Kampmann are still very much in the title picture. A victory could easily put either fighter another win or two away from a shot at UFC gold.
Before the welterweights do battle, the UFC kicks off its inaugural flyweight tournament to crown the first-ever UFC flyweight champion.
Fans get to see a pair of exciting semifinal bouts that feature former UFC title contender Demetrious Johnson against Tachi Palace flyweight champ Ian McCall and former WEC title contender Joseph Benavidez vs. Shooto bantamweight champion Yasuhiro Urushitani.
These predictions include Bleacher Report Featured Columnists John Heinis, Dale De Souza, Dan Hiergesell, Nedu Obi and myself, Jordy McElroy.
The time has come once again for you to feast on some manly induced knowledge in preparation for the upcoming fights. Snatch a cold beverage out the fridge and get comfortable. It’s prediction time.
I will be the first to admit that many of my predictions don’t turn out very well. Before I put together a column or slideshow on how I think a fight card will turn out I like to read up on not only the statistics, but also find out who these less…
I will be the first to admit that many of my predictions don’t turn out very well. Before I put together a column or slideshow on how I think a fight card will turn out I like to read up on not only the statistics, but also find out who these lesser-known fighters really are.
Shortly before Lavar Johnson’s UFC debut I looked up his professional record. I saw he was 15-5 with 13 of those wins coming via knockout. He was coming off of two consecutive losses and faced a hungry fighter in Joey Beltran, who had never been knocked out.
As soon as Johnson dropped Beltran I leaped off the couch (I didn’t dance on it like Tom Cruise). I was ecstatic. My beer dropped, the dog was barking, and my wife was doing her normal roll of the eyes. I wasn’t overly excited because I finally nailed a prediction, but rather I was happy for a man who has overcome such a tough road to be where he is today.
Johnson is scheduled to face Pat Barry on the main card at UFC on FOX 3 in May. While this is a milestone in his eight-year professional career, it pales in comparison to what he accomplished on July 5, 2009.
On that tragic day, Johnson earned his greatest victory by staying alive.
He was in Bakersfield, California attending a family reunion that coincided with the Fourth of July holiday. The party carried into the early morning hours of the next day when according to Bakersfield police, three teens walked past the residence. One of the teens pulled out a firearm and started shooting.
Johnson was struck by three bullets. He was hit in the hip, forearm, and abdomen. In a 2010 interview with Bleacher Report, Johnson said, “I was awake the whole time. I just tried to stay calm and save my energy.”
Just 10 months removed from being shot three times, Johnson returned to the cage and beat Lolohea Mahe by TKO in the second round of a Strikeforce Challengers event.
Johnson now finds himself in the spotlight. He is going to be on national television facing a respected opponent in Pat Barry. Barry and Johnson are going to put on a good old fashioned slug fest for the FOX audience.
Should Johnson beat Barry it would propel him into the top 15 of the division. A loss, however, could very well put the brakes on his UFC career.
It is no secret that Johnson most likely only has one chance to launch himself up the heavyweight rankings. He will be 35 years old this year, and that does not leave much room for error.
Age is certainly just a number for Johnson. He is a motivated individual who does not take a single day for granted.
Stop watching MMA. Pride is dead, Fedor’s mystique is gone, the unified rules are awful and the UFC is a haven for “lay and pray” artists and fighters who avoid real fighting at all costs. That’s what some misguided “fans” would have you believe.&…
Stop watching MMA. Pride is dead, Fedor’s mystique is gone, the unified rules are awful and the UFC is a haven for “lay and pray” artists and fighters who avoid real fighting at all costs.
That’s what some misguided “fans” would have you believe.
If there’s one thing that’s hurting MMA, it’s nostalgia run amok.
For some reason, fans across the Internet keep forgetting that it isn’t the early 2000s. Fedor Emelianenko is not the world heavyweight champion, the best fighters at 205 are not in Japan, there are no yellow cards and knees/kicks to the head of a grounded opponent are not legal—deal with it.
When bad things happen in modern MMA, people look back to Pride Fighting Championships as if it was some kind of paragon for the sports world. But Pride had its demons; it was far from the pure and perfect organization people would have you believe.
Pride did bad things. They allegedly fixed fights (if you go buy Gary Goodridge’s estimate, 90 percent of fights in the promotion were fixed, tried to influence the results of fights by giving the preferred fighter more time to train and they also allegedly didn’t pay fighters.
The UFC treats me better than Pride. I don’t know what [Pride’s] problem was but they wouldn’t promote me at all, they cheated me out of money from dolls and t-shirts, not paying me…
When my contract was up and we were negotiating and I wanted more money and they were telling me ‘Oh, but you’re a nobody.’ This was after I had fought in the Grand Prix and beat Igor Vovchanchyn. Even after I went to that K-1 fight and represented them in K-1, they were mad I won that K-1 fight! Just stuff like that…
Igor Vovchanchyn, I got two weeks notice [for the fight]. Ninja, two weeks notice. It was bad. The tournaments were fixed. They said they drew numbers from a hat. It was all set up for Wanderlei to win. It was really bad. Even in some fights they would stand you up when you were winning, different stuff like that.
Pride did bad things. More bad things than fervent Pride fans accuse UFC president Dana White and Zuffa of doing. While Zuffa cares enough about fighters to offer them insurance and—before insurance was implemented—pay for injuries received while fighting. Pride simply shrugged their shoulders.
Rampage Jackson again shed light on the subject of Pride’s failings the same interview with Fighters Only:
Yeah, take yourself to the hospital. I remember my people taking me to the hospital. I think they used to have a van there sometimes. But in the UFC if you get hurt even in practice in a fight, Dana will say ‘Come on, come to my doctor’ and they will pay for it. The UFC is really good about that. That’s one thing I really like about the UFC compared to Pride, the UFC is really good like that. But if you got hurt in practice getting ready for a Pride fight…[laughs]. And if you got hurt in a fight, like I got my hand broken over there, they don’t care.
It was just the way they treated you. Not all the fighters got treated like that. The Brazilian fighters got treated well, and Cro Cop and stuff like that they got treated well but a lot of the American fighters probably feel the same as me. They probably wouldn’t say anything but I don’t care.
It seems that for every good point about Pride (their generally higher level of talent, rules more conducive to exciting fights, theatrical entrances, grand prixs), there was a bad point to offset it.
Hindsight is not only 20/20, but it’s viewed with selective memory; the “old days” are always better for some reason.
So some fans might be longing for the “good old days” of MMA, but the truth of the matter is that those days never existed.
The finest hour of MMA is here and now.
Fighters who will be referred to as “the greats” of our generation are putting on amazing fights for us, the UFC is extending is reach across the globe with international versions of The Ultimate Fighter and the sport is emerging into the mainstream and has made it onto FOX.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson tried his best to pull off a vintage performance at UFC 144.But a preexisting knee injury hindered his performance and cost him a valuable win against light heavyweight prospect Ryan Bader.The loss left Jackson feeling disappo…
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson tried his best to pull off a vintage performance at UFC 144.
But a preexisting knee injury hindered his performance and cost him a valuable win against light heavyweight prospect Ryan Bader.
The loss left Jackson feeling disappointed, and he discussed the extent of the injury in his post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani.
“I got hurt and I couldn’t run much, so I had to cut a lot of weight,” Jackson said. “A big part of me wanted to pull out of the fight, when I got hurt, but I didn’t want to disappoint the Japanese fans.”
Jackson was noticeably stockier than usual at the UFC 144 weigh-ins a day before, as he missed the 205-pound weight limit and tipped the scales at 211 lbs. As a result, he was forced to forfeit 20 percent of his fight purse.
Jackson has now dropped back-to-back fights for the first time in his career and is now 9-4 in the UFC.
Benson Henderson best exemplifies the verse from Psalm 118, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.” In plain language, The Ultimate Fighter reject is now the Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion.