Tag: Gabriel Gonzaga

UFC Fight Night 64: Gonzaga vs. Cro Cop 2 Fight Card, Live Stream, Predictions

On Saturday, a rematch that has taken nearly eight years to come to fruition will main event UFC Fight Night Krakow in Poland at the Tauron Arena. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will attempt to gain revenge from one of the most devastating head-kick KOs in …

On Saturday, a rematch that has taken nearly eight years to come to fruition will main event UFC Fight Night Krakow in Poland at the Tauron Arena. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will attempt to gain revenge from one of the most devastating head-kick KOs in mixed martial arts history when he faces Gabriel Gonzaga.

The UFC’s Joe Rogan sets the stage for the rematch with a little background information in the hype video below.

Hardcore UFC, Gonzaga or Cro Cop fans who are interested in watching this rematch unfold, take a gander at the viewing information, fight card and predictions in the table below.

Just below the table is a closer look at the predictions for the main event, as well as the co-featured bout between Jimi “Poster Boy” Manuwa and the home-standing Jan Blachowicz.

 

Oldies But Goodies?

The broadcast for UFC Fight Night Krakow might be run on fossil fuel, because the main event has two dinosaurs set to do battle. The rematch between Gonzaga and Crop Cop is somewhat compelling, but in all honesty, it’s happening about five to six years too late.

Gonzaga is 35, and he has lost two fights in a row. He’s clinging to a spot in the UFC’s heavyweight rankings and quite possibly a spot on the promotion’s roster.

The Brazilian is aware of the urgency surrounding the fight. He told Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting:

This fight keeps me alive in the UFC. If I lose this fight, the UFC will probably… Everybody knows how the UFC works. Three losses, it’s rare who stays in (the UFC) after that, and I want to stay in the UFC, so I have to win this fight.

Cro Cop is 40 years old, and he hasn’t beaten anyone of reasonable notoriety since he submitted Pat Barry in 2010. That was the last time he won in a UFC cage. He lost three UFC fights in a row following the win over Barry.

Saturday’s bout against Gonzaga marks his return to the big company.

Perhaps the desperation from both men will help create a special moment, but I sincerely doubt it. We can expect Gonzaga to take Cro Cop down as soon as possible in an effort to utilize his size and strength advantage. That’s what most thought he would do in the first fight before he uncorked the infamous head kick that shook up the MMA world—and Cro Cop’s brain.

In his prime, Cro Cop didn’t have much in the way of a ground game. He has even less in his arsenal at 40. Gonzaga will complete the Cro Cop sweep with a less than thrilling win by submission.

 

Manuwa Bounces Back

Following his first pro defeat at the hands of Alexander Gustafsson, Jimi Manuwa is looking to rebound against tough Polish light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz. Per the tweet from UFC UK, Manuwa has an eye on improvement. Blachowicz won his UFC debut when he scored a TKO win over Ilir Latifi in October 2014. He’s a versatile fighter with powerful strikes and a good ground game.

To make matters tougher for Manuwa, he’ll have to face Blachowicz in his home country. Blachowicz is uber popular in Poland, so the fans will be loud in their support of the local fighter.

With all that said, Manuwa‘s athleticism and devastating striking attacks will keep Blachowicz off balance. The speed difference between the two should be very noticeable.

Blachowicz has to take the fight to the ground to have a chance, but I believe Manuwa will be prepared to stop the takedown attempts.

Look for Poster Boy to light Blachowicz up with a head kick or punch that silences the crowd and ends the fight early. Blachowicz has never been stopped on strikes in his career, but it’ll happen for the first time on Saturday.

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UFC Fight Night 64: Mirko Cro Cop, Gabriel Gonzaga and the Rise of Throwback MMA

We’ve seen the future of MMA—and the future is the past.
Naturally, Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar are to blame for this. When those two old codgers met last November to coast around the Bellator cage for three tepid rounds, nobody expected …

We’ve seen the future of MMA—and the future is the past.

Naturally, Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar are to blame for this. When those two old codgers met last November to coast around the Bellator cage for three tepid rounds, nobody expected it to be the year’s most influential fight.

But while the action was retrograde, the ratings took us back to the glory days.

Suddenly, 40-year-old pensioners are the new hot prospects. It’s strange to think that our sport so eagerly goes in for nostalgia when its own modern history dates back less than 25 years, but as 2015 crawls past the first quarter turn, that’s what’s up.

How else to explain the fact that heavyweights Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga—combined age 75, combined experience 26 years, combined record 5-7 in their last dozen bouts—will meet on Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night 64?

How else to explain that Bellator MMA is preparing to offer up Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock as the headline attraction of its “tent-pole” event in June?

Or that world’s two largest MMA promotions are currently embroiled in a legal tussle over 36-year-old professional malcontent Quinton “Rampage” Jackson?

In case you missed it, it’s brave new world out there, people, and that world is graying around the temples.

If nothing else, Bellator’s recent throwback hiring strategy has proved some of the old guys can still draw. They are, in fact, big business—bigger even than many of their younger, better counterparts. For whatever reasons, evidence suggests there are millions of fight fans out there who will gladly tune in for the slower, more deliberate action of the senior tour, while letting altogether more relevant attractions pass unnoticed.

Have to admit, there’s a certain comfort in the familiar names. Maybe they remind us of a time when our sport felt new and exciting, when it felt like required viewing. If those names are attached to faces just slightly flatter than we remember, pecs a touch droopier and knees a bit creakier, perhaps it only adds to the fun.

Cro Cop-Gonzaga II is a rematch eight years in the making and one nobody asked to see, but it should fulfill the relatively low-stakes entertainment quota of a Saturday afternoon on the UFC’s digital subscription service.

Cro Cop is back in the UFC after a three-and-a-half year absence and already four fights removed from a short-lived retirement. His first run in the company began with sky-high expectations in 2007, after a long and distinguished tenure in Pride. There was a time when he could legitimately be considered one of the two or three best heavyweights in the world, but he slumped to the kind of 5-6-1 UFC record where the losses were far more memorable than the wins.

By the time he closed things out with three consecutive defeats in 2010-11, we figured we’d seen the last of the feared striker whose “right kick hospital, left kick cemetery” quip was the “don’t be scared, homie” of the early 2000s.

Now he’s back, having found himself a lucky beneficiary at the singular intersection of motive and opportunity that is MMA in 2015. Can you still fight? Do people know who you are? You’re hired!

Conspiracy theorists might speculate the UFC re-signed the 40-year-old kickboxing legend just to keep him from joining Bellator’s growing stable of old warhorses. Maybe there’s some truth in that, too. Cro Cop vs. Ken Shamrock? Cro Cop vs. Kimbo Slice? Cro Cop vs. Cheick Kongo? It stands to reason the honchos at Zuffa don’t want us getting our grubby paws on those fights.

Think of the ratings!

But let’s not kid ourselves, the UFC also has more pressing issues than the matchups that may or may not be scrawled on Scott Coker’s dream board.

The fight company still needs warm bodies to fill out its hard-charging live-event schedule. It’s a plus if those bodies come equipped with hairlines recognizable to most MMA fans, and it’s a full-on Yahtzee if they maintain marketable personas in the far-flung parts of the world where the UFC insists on holding its Fight Pass exclusives.

All things considered, the UFC probably couldn’t find a much better headliner than Cro Cop for its first foray into Poland. Sure, the guy is actually Croatian, but chances are he’s still a draw in the region, and when has the UFC ever worried about the details?

We’re talking broad strokes here, baby, and that includes matching Cro Cop up with the man who sent his first Octagon tenure into tailspin with an unexpected—and painful! And painfully ironic!—head-kick knockout way back at UFC 70.

Gonzaga has also been on a downward slide of late. He’s just 2-3 in his last five and will come into this bout on the heels of a 2014 where he dropped two straight (to Stipe Miocic and Matt Mitrione, if you’re keeping score).

He’s also been cast here primarily for sentimental purposes, affording Cro Cop the opportunity to avenge that bitter and embarrassing loss on something close to home soil. 

But Gonzaga also has a better-than-average chance to win this bout, and so he may end up playing the additional role of enraging the Polish fans by just taking Cro Cop down and submitting him. He’s currently going off as a bit more than a 2-1 favorite, according to Odds Shark.

Nobody is at all sure what to expect, and that’s probably part of the appeal, as well. We will watch them fight, and the action will be great or it will be terrible or somewhere in the middle. We will laugh or cry or just type “meh” into Twitter and then go about our weekend business.

But at least for a little while, it will feel like we’re among friends.  

It remains to be seen if either Cro Cop’s or Gonzaga’s UFC career will extend beyond the weekend. If the Bellator conspiracy talk holds any water, perhaps the UFC will be forced to hold onto them, and either way maybe they can join guys like Ortiz, Shamrock and Slice in unexpectedly bright and lucrative futures.

Then again, the future seems less and less important these days.

At least, not nearly as important as the past.

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Gabriel Gonzaga: ‘I Don’t Have Nothing to Prove to Nobody’

Eight years ago, Gabriel Gonzaga initiated the precipitous decline of Mirko Cro Cop, one of MMA’s greatest heavyweights, by landing the head kick heard ‘round the world and cashing in on an unexpected title shot.
Sitting backstage at UFC 70…

Eight years ago, Gabriel Gonzaga initiated the precipitous decline of Mirko Cro Cop, one of MMA’s greatest heavyweights, by landing the head kick heard ‘round the world and cashing in on an unexpected title shot.

Sitting backstage at UFC 70, Gonzaga didn’t know what to expect. He was headlining his first UFC event against a man wielding a weapon beneath the left side of his torso. “Right leg hospital, left leg cemetery” was Cro Cop’s frightening way of describing his head kicks.

For years, Cro Cop had built a legacy off decapitating domes with a left high kick so powerful it haunted fighters’ dreams. Gonzaga was relatively unknown at the time, especially to casual fans, and he didn’t speak a lick of English.

Thousands gathered in the then-named Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom, to watch Gonzaga fail. It’s the cold truth for most young fighters attempting to topple a legend.

Some fans didn’t even know Gonzaga’s name when he entered the Octagon eight years ago. But after that night, no one would ever forget it.

“Everything was new, and I didn’t talk English that well,” Gonzaga said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “I was trying to understand stuff, but I was really confident that I had trained well for my fight. I wasn’t expecting to do that. I just did it.”

By “it,” Gonzaga is referring to the jaw-dropping head kick he landed on Cro Cop, leaving the former Pride Grand Prix champ cold on his backside, folded like a contortionist. The world would never look at Cro Cop the same again. He was instantly downgraded from UFC contender to an aged legend well past his prime.

Gonzaga, on the other hand, gained a cult following all the way to his UFC title loss to Randy Couture.

But the tables are turned this time around. Gonzaga is now a longtime UFC veteran, a fluent English speaker and the favorite heading into his rematch with Cro Cop on Saturday in Krakow, Poland.

Cro Cop, who has spent the last four years grinding away in other promotions, has looked forward to an opportunity to face Gonzaga again and rewrite history.

“It was one of the fights I will never forget, and I just want a rematch with him,” Cro Cop told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I can’t say I will beat him, but I will die trying.”

Cro Cop’s determination has Gonzaga equally fired up about the rematch. While Napao insists he has nothing to prove Saturday, he doesn’t plan on leaving Krakow a loser.

“That’s really important to know that someone wants to knock me out so bad. So I need to be aware that it’s a dangerous place and be ready to fight well,” said Gonzaga. “I’m here, I have been here in the UFC. I don’t have nothing to prove to nobody and just need to do my job and do it as best as I can because he wants to try to knock me out, and I don’t want to be knocked out.”

A chance to redefine history isn’t all that’s at stake. Both men could also be on the UFC chopping block.

Gonzaga is coming off back-to-back losses to Stipe Miocic and Matt Mitrione. Meanwhile, Cro Cop still carries the weight from his previous UFC run, which he ended with three straight losses.

 

All quotes were obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted. Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.

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Cutting Through The Bullsh*t: UFC on FOX 13 Edition


(Photo via Getty Images)

Before the main card action was underway this past Saturday night, we had a pretty eventful weekend already.

The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale saw a new women’s strawweight champion crowned, as Carla Esparza submitted Rose Namajunas in the final, after a string of pretty decent fights.

Then came UFC on FOX 13, headlined by a heavyweight fight featuring Junior dos Santos against Stipe Miocic. The prelims were strange but sufficient, Henry Cejudo winning his debut, younger-than-he-looks Joe Riggs suffering an injury in his Bellator superfight against Ben Saunders, John Moraga being dropped by Willie Gates after complaining about a low blow to the official, last-minute food poisoning for Derek Brunson, Jamie Varner retiring after a loss with hopes of starting a fighter union, Ryan Jimmo’s terrible seats, Phil Baroni’s shlong, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk outpointing Claudia Gadelha (who pulled a Paul Daley in the heat of the moment, but apologized right away) to go on to face Esparza in the near future.


(Photo via Getty Images)

By Alex Giardini

Before the main card action got underway this past Saturday night at UFC on FOX 13, we had seen a pretty eventful weekend already.

The Ultimate Fighter 20 Finale saw a new women’s strawweight champion crowned, as Carla Esparza submitted Rose Namajunas in the final, after a string of pretty decent fights.

Then came UFC on FOX 13, headlined by a heavyweight fight featuring Junior dos Santos against Stipe Miocic. The prelims were strange but sufficient, with Henry Cejudo winning his debut, younger-than-he-looks Joe Riggs suffering an injury in his Bellator superfight against Ben Saunders, John Moraga being dropped by Willie Gates after complaining about a low blow to the official, last-minute food poisoning for Derek Brunson, Jamie Varner retiring after a loss with hopes of starting a fighter union, Ryan Jimmo’s terrible seats, and Joanna Jedrzejczyk outpointing Claudia Gadelha (who pulled a Paul Daley in the heat of the moment, but apologized right away) to go on to face Esparza in the near future.

All those happenings revolved around a huge story that broke in the afternoon courtesy of Bloody Elbow, but don’t worry, we’ll get to that in a bit.

The stage was set for the remaining four fights on prime time television, featuring three heavyweight battles and a lightweight battle consisting of one dude that apparently makes heavyweights shit their pants.

Speaking of which, Nate Diaz was buried by the UFC as soon as the show got underway, with footage of the Stockton fighter walking out on his pre-fight interview. And frankly, we can’t blame him, because who wouldn’t get sick of answering how you’re going to topple your foe for the past seven years?

Let’s get the two opening fights out of the way, as Matt Mitrione excelled in somewhat of a crossroads fight, knocking out Gabriel Gonzaga in two minutes. Mitrione’s performance couldn’t have been any better, as he clocked Gonzaga and followed up with fight-ending blows, and even had to deliver the last kiss when referee Herb Dean failed to stop the fight and allowed Gonzaga to take one last brutal shot that clearly knocked him out.

It was great to see a healthy Stefan Struve compete again after his fainting spell at UFC 175, and it’s safe to say nearly everyone that was familiar with that story felt a little nervous about the “Skyscraper” stepping inside the cage again. There were no conditioning issues, but unfortunately, Struve suffered his fifth knockout loss in the UFC at just 26 years old. Alistair Overeem brutalized his fellow Dutchman with ground-and-pound, leaving his younger opponent on the receiving end of a beatdown.

It’s hard to say where this leaves the “Demolition Man,” but at least the K-1 Grand Prix champion isn’t in hot water, and will most likely take on Mark Hunt or the night’s main event winner.

Back to Diaz, he came in nearly five pounds overweight for his lightweight tussle against Rafael dos Anjos, meaning the battle was contested at a catchweight. It was as one-sided as they get, with the Brazilian brutalizing Diaz’s lead leg, forcing the former 155-pound title challenger to limp early. In the end, dos Anjos was better than Diaz everywhere, and even mauled him on the ground for what it’s worth.

At the post-fight presser, UFC President Dana White, who was already not fond of his fighter’s actions, expressed his concerns about Diaz’s future, citing he gets serious or retires. We don’t have crystal balls, but chances are Diaz won’t retire, and that thought is laughable, since White is more or less suggesting the younger Diaz brother — who always “played the game” unlike his older brother — doesn’t have options elsewhere. His manager Mike Kogan is buddies with Bellator boss Scott Coker, not to mention the promotion’s new matchmaker. The case of Diaz will presumably develop in the coming days, yet if there were ever a time for a fighter to lash out after his company tried to put a suit and tie on him, it’s now.

And we freaking love every second of it.

The main event saw Junior dos Santos defeat Stipe Miocic by unanimous decision, although the two 49-46 scorecards were downright terrible. The firefighter clearly won the opening two rounds, clocking the Brazilian with his crisp boxing and had the former heavyweight champion in a bit of trouble. The Brazilian came on strong for the remainder of the fight, dropping his foe, but took the same amount of damage in the five-round slugfest.

It was one of those fights where you can’t have a problem with JDS winning, or losing, for that matter. It was a close fight, and although MMA blowhards are susceptible to call robbery every time they don’t agree with the judges, this was one of those “either/or” cases. The criteria to be a judge must be a high school degree and 48 hours of community service working at a Salvation Army, yet we already knew that. However, the fight wasn’t exactly an instant classic, as some journalists would have called it. It was damn good, and maybe one that needs a rewatch on Monday morning with a few slices of leftover pizza for breakfast. But please, refrain from saying it was “one for the ages” and all that jazz.

Who knows where this leaves JDS, though, if Cain Velasquez beats Fabricio Werdum in the next few months. Werdum has a loss to dos Santos, so that’s compelling, but Velasquez mauled the Brazilian twice, so it’s kind of senseless. It’s a question that will be relevant until his next fight is announced (which could be against a former rival in Overeem), so let’s not dwell on specifics and let the chips fall where they may. Still, there’s a growing concern for how much damage dos Santos takes. Some bust and bleed easy, however, he’s starting look a tad like Miss Piggy.

So, all in all, UFC on FOX 13 proved to be a damn good night of fights, capping off a weekend where the promotion crowned a new champ and Rousimar Palhares held on to Jon Fitch’s leg for too long elsewhere. Credit the UFC for the latter half of 2014 being relatively awesome, as they are currently on a good run of exciting fights these past few months minus a crop of fights being canned due to injuries.

With a new sponsorship deal and controversies like failed drug tests, a rankings overhaul done by “proper” media, and domestic abuse not far away, 2015 can’t come any sooner, with news breaking yesterday about a class action lawsuit against UFC officials, with their own fighters (and managers) challenging them in the court. Apparently, it’s for $100s of millions of dollars, stemming from the promotion “abusing their market power to intentionally and systematically cripple the free market,” and cites the Reebok deal, too.

There have been plenty of game changers in the past, but this one is huge. And it couldn’t have come at a better time, with the UFC inching closer to dominating the whole landscape of fighting, while the fans and observers have to resort to keeping up with over 40 events a year. Just when we thought this carnival sport had stolen our souls (let’s face it, it did), there’s actually hope for the future.

UFC on Fox 13 Results: Full Fight Highlights from the Entire Main Card

Junior Dos Santos earned a questionable decision over Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 13. The fight main-evented one of the more “stacked” (please forgive the cliche) Fox cards in recent memory.

In addition to JDS vs Miocic, the card featured Rafael dos Anjos vs. Nate Diaz, Alistair Overeem vs. Stefan Struve, and Matt Mitrione vs. Gabe Gonzaga.

How did these matches play out? Check out the video highlight packages below and see for yourself after the jump.

Junior Dos Santos earned a questionable decision over Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 13. The fight main-evented one of the more “stacked” (please forgive the cliche) Fox cards in recent memory.

In addition to JDS vs Miocic, the card featured Rafael dos Anjos vs. Nate Diaz, Alistair Overeem vs. Stefan Struve, and Matt Mitrione vs. Gabe Gonzaga.

How did these matches play out? Check out the video highlight packages below and see for yourself.


In the opening bout, Matt Mitrione out-hustled a plodding Gabe Gonzaga, scoring an early TKO. Mitrione even did a bit of meta-gaming by backing off when Herb Dean moved closer to Gonzaga would think the fight was stopped. Once Gonzaga rose to his feet, defenseless, Mitrione pounced in and unloaded with even more punches. A shrewd move.

Alistair Overeem took on Stefan Struve in the next fight. The contest was as one-sided as people thought it would be, though it did feature more takedowns than anyone expected. Overeem dragged Struve to the mat, and proceeded to bash his head in Gregor Clegane style until “Big” John McCarthy stopped the fight.

Nate Diaz and Rafael Dos Anjos fought in the night’s co-main event. Diaz looked flat and uninterested. Meanwhile, Dos Anjos looked more fierce than the raptors in that Gatorade Fierce commercial from 1999. This proved to be a recipe for an extremely one-sided affair. Dos Anjos battered a hobbling Diaz with leg kicks. Dos Anjos likely could’ve finished Diaz with leg kicks but instead he opted for the tired MMA trope of taking your opponent down and smothering them when they’re in danger of being TKOd. Dos Anjos won a unanimous decision victory. Diaz blamed his loss (and failure to make weight for the fight) on an injury.

And, as we stated above, JDS and Stipe Miocic faced off in the main event. JDS didn’t look like himself. About 1,000 people on Twitter claimed Cain Velasquez had taken his soul, and while it’s a cliched expression, it looked pretty accurate last night. JDS ate lots of punches, wasn’t as accurate as he has been in the past, and was slower. The JDS of 2-3 years ago would’ve knocked out Stipe Miocic in a round. Today’s JDS couldn’t even finish him.

The entire fight card’s results are below:

Main Card

Junior Dos Santos def. Stipe Miocic via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46).
Rafael dos Anjos def. Nate Diaz via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27).
Alistair Overeem def. Stefan Struve via knockout (punches) (R1, 4:13).
Matt Mitrione def. Gabriel Gonzaga via TKO (punches) (R1, 1:59).

Preliminary Card

Joanna Jerdzejczyk def. Claudia Gadelha via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28).
John Moraga def. Willie Gates via submission (rear-naked choke) (R3, 4:06).
Ben Saunders def. Joe Riggs via submission (injury tapout) (1, 0:57).
Drew Dober def. Jamie Varner via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1, 1:52).
Bryan Barberena def. Joe Ellenberger via TKO (strikes) (R3, 3:24).
David Michaud def. Garret Whiteley via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).
Henry Cejudo def. Dustin Kimura via unanimous decision (30-27 x3).
Ian Entwistle def. Anthony Birchak via submission (heel hook) (R1, 1:04).

Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Matt Mitrione: What We Learned from the Heavyweight Tilt

Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga and Matt “Meathead” Mitrione kicked off the UFC on Fox 13 main card in emphatic fashion. 
To the crowd’s delight, the two veteran heavyweights slugged it out on the feet, and the bout didn’t make it out of the first round.&…

Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga and Matt “Meathead” Mitrione kicked off the UFC on Fox 13 main card in emphatic fashion. 

To the crowd’s delight, the two veteran heavyweights slugged it out on the feet, and the bout didn’t make it out of the first round. 

While Gonzaga had his moments early and landed some solid, tight shots, it was the former The Ultimate Fighter standout, Mitrione, who walked away with the big finish and the critical victory. 

Mitrione slammed Gonzaga with a nasty right-left combo inside, putting his foe on wobbly legs and sending the fight tumbling to the canvas. From there, Meathead worked some hard ground-and-pound but could not quite put a stamp on his performance.

Realizing the threat of a submission from Gonzaga, Mitrione moved away. But as Napao worked to his feet, Meathead leapt in with one more vicious punch, officially ending the bout.  

The win was impressive, and Mitrione now moves to 9-3 with three straight first-round finishes inside the heavyweight division. 

 

What We’ll Remember About This Fight: 

Two heavyweight sluggers throwing down is always going to excite fans, but the most memorable moment of this fight was the final blow landed by Mitrione. 

The combination that dropped Gonzaga was fierce, but the final punch that sealed the deal was downright brutal. 

Mitrione showed what kind of power he possesses in his hands once again, and the results were devastating. 

 

What We Learned About Gonzaga: 

Gonzaga’s boxing looked tight and crisp early, but he got clipped and could not recover in Round 1. 

Every time Gonzaga looked ready to make the next move for his career inside the Octagon, he fell via TKO. And this fight was no different. 

After earning his title shot against Randy Couture at UFC 74, he lost the championship bout via TKO in Round 3. 

After back-to-back first-round finishes in 2008, Gonzaga’s stock was high, and he earned a big-time matchup with Shane Carwin. Carwin knocked him out in Round 1. 

So it goes for the aging Brazilian. 

His skills are good enough against lesser opponents. But give him a superior technician or athlete, and he struggles mightily. We did not learn much about Napao here, but it did become clear that he is not headed for grand things in the UFC’s heavyweight division. 

 

What We Learned About Mitrione:

Coming into this fight with Gonzaga, Mitrione won three of his last four fights—all via knockout. 

We knew Meathead possessed huge power and fluidity in his punches, and his UFC on Fox 13 bout only reaffirmed that fact. 

The major questions surrounding his skill set centered on his wrestling and grappling, and we did not see him defend any takedowns or fend off any submissions. 

For now, this area of his game remains a mystery. 

 

What’s Next for Gonzaga?

Gonzaga is 35 years old, and he’s been fighting professionally since 2003. He’s been knocked out in seven of his nine losses. 

Nobody would blame him if he called it quits right now, and it might actually be the right decision.  

Assuming that is not the case, however, a matchup with Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis makes sense moving forward. 

Lewis fell victim to Mitrione’s hands in his last outing, so a fight with Gonzaga will help establish where each man stands in the heavyweight division. 

 

What’s Next for Mitrione?

Mitrione boasted a No. 14 ranking going into his fight with Gonzaga, so he’s marching toward a top-10 fight in his next outing. 

If you’re really into ultra violence (and why are you reading this if you’re not?), Alistair Overeem earned himself a first-round knockout of his own over Stefan Struve just moments after Mitrione shut off Gonzaga’s lights. Coming into the fight with Struve, Overeem was ranked No. 11, which is close to Mitrione’s. 

Two huge, athletic heavyweights with massive power and quickness? Book it! 

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