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UFC on FOX 13: Dos Santos vs. Miocic — Live Results & Commentary

(“Someday *I’ll* be big, and you’ll have to listen to *me*!” — That kid in the background. / Photo via Getty)

Fresh off of last night’s TUF 20 Finale card which focused on strawweights and lightweights, the UFC is on the scene in Phoenix tonight with a FOX card focusing on heavyweights and Diazweights. Yes indeedy, it’s time for UFC on FOX 13, and the big boys will be doing their thing: Ex-heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos faces off against top contender Stipe Miocic in the main event, while Alistair Overeem and Stefan Struve do their best to get back in the win column. But first, Matt Mitrione will see if his magical shoulder tackle works on Gabriel Gonzaga.

Our friend Alex Giardini will be furiously typing out round-by-round results from the “Dos Santos vs. Miocic” main card after the jump, beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and tell us how you’re feeling on twitter @cagepotatomma. Cheers!

(“Someday *I’ll* be big, and you’ll have to listen to *me*!” — That kid in the background. / Photo via Getty)

Preliminary Card Results
– Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Claudia Gadelha via split decision (28-29, 29-28×2)
– John Moraga def. Willie Gates via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:06 of R3
– Ben Saunders def. Joe Riggs via submission (injury) at 0:57 of R1
– Drew Dober def. Jamie Varner via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:52 of R1
– ~~Derek Brunson vs. Ed Herman~~ (Canceled due to Brunson suffering from food poisoning)
– Bryan Barberena def. Joe Ellenberger via TKO (strikes) at 3:24 of R3
– David Michaud def. Garett Whiteley via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28×2)
– Henry Cejudo def. Dustin Kimura via unanimous decision (30-27×3)
– Ian Entwistle def. Anthony Birchak via submission (heel hook) at 1:04 of R1

Welcome to the UFC on FOX 13 liveblog. Stay a while, share some laughs, and pray for some saucy scraps. It’s been a pretty eventful evening thus far to say the least, so let’s hope the trend continues.

Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Matt Mitrione

Round 1: Mitrione declines to touch gloves, and starts talking to him. Mitrione is bouncy on the feet, but gets caught by a right hand from Gonzaga. Mitrione lands a sharp jab, keeping up with his footwork. Gonzaga steps on Mitrione’s foot, and the latter starts to back up. Gonzaga starting to walk him down. Both heavyweights are swinging wildly, but missing most of their punches. Mitrione staggers Gonzaga with a brutal left hand, and the Brazilian goes down on all fours. Mitrione lacing him with shots, and Gonzaga tries to get up but is brought down again. It’s all over, and the man formerly known as “Meathead” gets the job done.

Matt Mitrione def. Gabriel Gonzaga via TKO (strikes) at 1:59 of R1

Alistair Overeem vs. Stefan Struve

Round 1:

Matt Mitrione vs. Gabriel Gonzaga: Can Either One Become a Contender with a Win?

The UFC invades Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday with UFC on Fox 13, a stacked card featuring two critical heavyweight bouts.
In the main event, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos battles 12-1 Stipe Miocic in what appears to be a No. 1-c…

The UFC invades Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday with UFC on Fox 13, a stacked card featuring two critical heavyweight bouts.

In the main event, former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos battles 12-1 Stipe Miocic in what appears to be a No. 1-contender’s matchup. The winner of that fight can appeal for a shot at the winner of Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum, and he’ll probably get it.

The other important heavyweight bout, though, takes place earlier on the card.

It’s Stefan Struve vs. Alistair Overeem. Struve needs to prove he can roar back from a heart condition that’s kept him out of action since March 2013, and Overeem needs to prove he can capitalize on his potential (Can you do that for us, Reem? Please?).

The third main card heavyweight tilt, Matt “Meathead” Mitrione vs. Gabriel Gonzaga, I’m sorry to report, really does not matter in the grand scheme of the division. These guys probably aren’t going anywhere now or in the future.

That’s not to say this fight is worth skipping. It could very well steal Fight of the Night honors. It’s going to please fans, it’s going to feature two skilled, sharp opponents, but when one examines the current state of the heavyweight division, it’s hard to see either of these two making noise moving forward.

Mitrione, at 8-3, probably possesses the better chance of the two at making a run, and his resume hardly screams “contender.”

He’s an impressive physical specimen at 6’3″, 260 pounds, with the bounce and pop of a middleweight, but he’s still young to the sport, having only fought professionally since 2009.

All 11 of his fights have come inside the UFC Octagon, which, again, is impressive, but his slip-ups in that time are not.

He lost a split decision to Cheick Kongo in an absolute snooze fest at UFC 137, and he fell to the mighty right hand of Roy Nelson at The Ultimate Fighter 16 finale almost exactly two years ago.

Meathead bounced back from that defeat with a 19-second knockout of Phil De Fries at UFC on Fuel TV 9, but Brendan Schaub was up next, and Mitrione was not ready.

Schaub submitted him with ease, putting him to sleep in the first round of their UFC 165 encounter.

Since then, Mitrione owns two first-round knockouts over Shawn Jordan and Derrick Lewis, two unranked heavyweights.

But it’s hard to ignore those losses.

Kongo. Nelson. Schaub.

None of them are title contenders themselves. Kongo is out of the UFC altogether, and Schaub recently had a heart-to-heart with Joe Rogan, where the UFC commentator told him to retire before he seriously risks his health.

Nelson, meanwhile, lost a No. 1-contender’s fight to Mark Hunt, effectively eliminating himself from title contention for the foreseeable future.

Those are the guys Mitrione lost to, mind you. If you cannot beat guys who themselves are not contenders, you’re far from a contender yourself.

Ditto for Gonzaga.

The 35-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist with devastating fists and kicks recently enjoyed some success in the heavyweight division, piecing together two knockout victories over Dave Herman and Jordan before getting boxed up and outclassed by Miocic in his most recent outing.

Herman and Jordan. The former is no longer with the UFC; the latter is unranked and positively mediocre.

Before this 2-1 streak, Gonzaga was brutally knocked out by Travis Browne at The Ultimate Fighter 17 finale.

As is the case with Mitrione, Gonzaga simply fails the test against the upper echelon of heavyweight fighters. He’s not a “bad” fighter by any means, and there’s something to be said for being consistently above average in the UFC, if only slightly.

Unfortunately, that’s the highest point either Mitrione or Gonzaga will ever reach—slightly above average.

They won’t be contenders. They won’t win the belt. They won’t be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

But they’ll hang around and separate the chumps from the champs.

And it’ll be damn fun to watch them do it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Joe Riggs vs. Ben Saunders, John Moraga vs. Jussier Formiga Added to UFC on FOX 13

(“Help you with your squat technique, ma’am?“)

Two months after accidentally blasting a hole through his leg, welterweight veteran Joe Riggs has been rescheduled to make his Octagon return at UFC on FOX 13: Dos Santos vs. Miocic (December 13th, Phoenix). Riggs will face Ben “Killa B” Saunders in a booking that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is a closet Bellator fan. Basically, this fight is for the unofficial Fight Master Season 2 certificate. The stakes literally couldn’t be higher.

Saunders was successful in his own UFC return in August, submitting Chris Heatherly with an omoplata — the first such finish in the promotion’s history — after a 7-3 run in Bellator. Riggs has yet to compete this year, but is riding a six-fight win streak. And in case you missed it, Joe Riggs says his recent near-death experience started when he brought a gun to his gym and his friend cocked it. To which we can only respond: Joe, that “friend” of yours is trying to kill you.

(“Help you with your squat technique, ma’am?“)

In other UFC on FOX 13 booking news, former flyweight title challenger John Moraga will face contender Jussier “Formiga” da Silva, who has scored back-to-back wins against Scott Jorgensen and Zach Makovsky. Moraga is coming off a guillotine choke victory against Justin Scoggins at UFC Fight Night 50 earlier this month.

Also, Matt Mitrione vs. Gabriel Gonzaga was added to the card last week. We missed that news somehow. But now we know. Mitrione via shoulder bomb.

On This Day in MMA History: Gabriel Gonzaga Cro-Cops Mirko Cro Cop at ‘UFC 70: Nations Collide’

(To this day, we still cannot watch this knockout without mourning what could have been.)

Heading into his UFC debut against Eddie Sanchez at UFC 67, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was already considered by many to be the far and away best striker in the UFC’s heavyweight division, if not in all of MMA. His left high kick had become the thing of legend thanks to his devastating wins over Aleksander Emelianenko, Igor Vovchanchyn and Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE, to the point that it kinda-sorta became our slogan. And after he defeated Sanchez via a first round TKO set into motion by that very same kick, we figured it was only a matter of time before we saw “Mirko Cro Cop: UFC Heavyweight Champion” pasted on every UFC poster imaginable.

But as they so often do, the MMA Gods threw a wrench into our (and Mirko’s) plans at UFC 70: Nations Collide on April 21st, 2007 — seven years ago today. In a heavyweight title eliminator match that served as the evening’s main event, the Croatian special forces officer was paired against Gabriel Gonzaga, a Cro magnon-looking Brazilian who had scored three consecutive finishes (two TKO, one sub) in his first three UFC contests. Cro Cop was listed as over a 5-to-1 favorite across the board.

Any notion that the fight would be an easy win for Mirko was erased in the first round, however, as Gonzaga managed to take Filipovic down on multiple occasions and batter him with vicious elbows from on top for the majority of five minutes.

And then, it happened.

(To this day, we still cannot watch this knockout without mourning what could have been.)

And then, it happened.

In perhaps the most dramatic twist of fate in MMA history, Gonzaga Cro-Copped Cro Cop with a head kick, sending him crashing to the mat with his ankle twisted hideously beneath him. The KO came with just 9 seconds left in the round, and to this day remains one of the most shocking and unexpected knockouts of all time. In fact, the knockout was incredible enough to land on the UFC’s “Ultimate 100 Knockouts” list at #3, behind only Barboza vs. Etim and Silva vs. Belfort.

The devastating KO would earn Gonzaga a shot at Randy Couture — who just so happened to be on hand for his brutal KO of Filipovic — with the heavyweight title on the line at UFC 74. Despite nearly ending Couture’s run in the same fashion as Cro Cop’s with a high kick in the first round, Gonzaga would suffer a third round TKO defeat to the legend and would go just 3-4 before being released by the UFC in 2010. A brief retirement would follow before Gonzaga returned to the UFC, where he has gone 5-2 since.

As for Cro Cop, well, let’s just say that he was never the same after the Gonzaga fight. He would also go 3-4 in his next 7 UFC contests before being released from the promotion in 2011, eating nasty defeats at the hands of Brendan Schaub and Roy Nelson among others. Although Filipovic would claim that he was “worn out” and considering retirement in 2009, he continues to take occasional kickboxing and MMA matches to this day, most recently dropping a majority decision to Remy Bojansky at Glory 14. His MMA endeavors have been equally fruitless, but we’ve already lamented at long about that.

–J. Jones

Gross Video of the Day: Gabriel Gonzaga’s Broken Hand Can Also Be Used as a Flotation Device

The hard-flung overhand rights that Gabriel Gonzaga launched at Stipe Miocic during Saturday’s UFC on FOX 10 co-main event may have hurt him worse than they hurt his opponent. Gonzaga came out strong in the first round of the heavyweight scrap, only to grow visibly fatigued and inactive as the fight wore on. Ultimately, “Napao” lost a unanimous decision.

Breaking his right hand early in the fight may or may not have had a lot to do with that, but what is for darn sure is that the Brazilian’s paw was straight jacked-up after the bout. MMA House has released a video of a hand they say is Gonzaga’s taken from what appears to be backstage in the United Center or a hospital room Saturday night.

Check it out above. If you’re a hearty soul, go ahead and try it while eating lunch.

The top of “Napao’s” hand is cartoonishly swollen and puffy, kind of like there’s a fat stack of oatmeal cookies underneath his skin. Why did my mind choose that as an analogy? Is it bad that now I want cookies?

Anyway, Gonzaga deserves a cookie after that disgusting injury, especially after losing. Go get yours, ‘Zaga.

– Elias Cepeda

Check it out above. If you’re a hearty soul, go ahead and try it while eating lunch.

Anyway, Gonzaga deserves a cookie after that disgusting injury, especially after losing. Go get yours, ‘Zaga.

– Elias Cepeda

Gabriel Gonzaga to Undergo Surgery for Broken Right Hand

UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during his loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 10.
The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.
Gonzaga, 34, suffered a one-sided unanimous-decisi…

UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during his loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 10.

The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.

Gonzaga, 34, suffered a one-sided unanimous-decision loss to Miocic. Gonzaga said after the fight that he believed he’d broken the hand in the first round of the fight, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.

“That changed everything,” Gonzaga said. “Even though he was faster than me, I couldn’t fight well because of the pain I felt in my right hand.”

He also posted a gruesome photo of the injury on his personal Instagram profile. The heavyweight jiu-jitsu specialist, most famously known for his stunning head-kick knockout of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, told MMA Fighting that the hand injury affected him greatly over the course of the fight:

I came back to Boston and I’m going to the hospital tonight to schedule the surgery. I’ll talk to the doctor today and get an answer (on when I’ll be able to return to training).

I was hesitating to throw other punches and take him down. I was hesitating to go for it or not. I didn’t know I broke my hand, but it was hurting a lot, so you think twice before throwing the punch.

Prior to the Miocic loss, Gonzaga scored consecutive wins over Dave Herman and Shawn Jordan. He is 5-2 since returning to mixed martial arts after a brief period of retirement, and he has a 16-8 career record overall. Outside of the win over Cro Cop, his most famous career moment came when he challenged Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort at UFC 74.

He was ranked 12th in the division but may fall out of the latest rankings with the loss.

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