Tag: General

Besides A Well Placed Punch, Does Cody Garbrandt Have Anything To Offer Dominick Cruz?

So it’s official, Cody Garbrandt has been granted his wish and finally has the opportunity to punch Dominick Cruz in the face at UFC 207. Great news for anyone whose been following the beef between the two with a relish and passion topped only by Cody Garbrandt himself. So while this match up may be the what the fans, Garbrandt, and Cruz want, the big question is this: Can Cody get the job done?

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So it’s official, Cody Garbrandt has been granted his wish and finally has the opportunity to punch Dominick Cruz in the face at UFC 207. Great news for anyone whose been following the beef between the two with a relish and passion topped only by Cody Garbrandt himself. So while this match up may be the what the fans, Garbrandt, and Cruz want, the big question is this: Can Cody get the job done? Now, with mixed martial arts anything is possible, so sometimes asking these questions can be a bit futile, ultimately leading nowhere. But hypotheticals are too enticing for me to simply just walk away from, so here’s my two cents.

No, Cody Garbrandt will not beat Dominick Cruz at UFC 207. The rationalization is fairly simple in all actuality. Cody Garbrandt is an absolute savage, a talented boxer with speed and explosive movement that should give every bantamweight pause. The problem here is that he doesn’t offer Dominick Cruz anything he hasn’t seen before.

Where Garbrandt shines is when people decide to stay in the pocket with him. As such, that means Garbrandt is going to be hard pressed to land some leather on Dominick Cruz’s chin. The bantamweight champion isn’t a man who will sit in the pocket and trade blows for kicks. He’s looking to create angles, frustrate his opponents on the feet, all the while threatening with take downs throughout.

While Garbrandt does have good speed and pop on his punches, great footwork as well, he tends to share something in common with his former teammate TJ Dillashaw: both have a tendency to lead with their heads allowing themselves to get hit while looking for their own strike. While this can be great when you have a dance partner of a similar mindset, Cruz is a man known for never being in the same position twice if he can avoid it.

Garbrandt is going to have to utilize leg kicks as well as have his counter wrestling game on point. Here’s the problem with that though. Being primarily a puncher at heart, Garbrandt has a style that Cruz has seen a number of times in his career. Dillashaw was a much more complex puzzle for Cruz to figure out and he did so passing the test flying colors.

We’ll leave the full analysis for later, but what do you guys think of Cody Garbrandt’s chances against Dominick Cruz?

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.

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Does Paddy Pimblett Deserve All The Hype?

So every once in awhile a true star will emerge in the sport of mixed martial arts. Randy Couture was a massive star back in the day, as was Chuck Liddell, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Mauricio Shogun Rua, all the way to Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. But the emergence of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor changed things in such a manner that no one could have anticipated the backlash. UFC fighters getting paid millions to fight?! Never would that ever happen…

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So every once in awhile a true star will emerge in the sport of mixed martial arts. Randy Couture was a massive star back in the day, as was Chuck Liddell, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Mauricio Shogun Rua, all the way to Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. But the emergence of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor changed things in such a manner that no one could have anticipated the backlash. UFC fighters getting paid millions to fight?! Never would that ever happen. Yet here we are in this new day and age where demanding millions is completely common place. But you won’t see that kind of money floating around in the prelims. Only the stars are set to make those major purses. Now that Conor McGregor has opened up the European market like never before there seems to be another fighter attempting to follow in his footsteps. Paddy Pimblett. But is this young fighter truly good enough to carry the torch?

First off, I’m not the biggest fan of hating on fighters nor is it the intention here. But from what Paddy Pimblett has shown so far, I’m going to need a bit more convincing. He certainly has all the tools tok make himself a successful UFC fighter, one that could one day be a true star. The question is has he faced the kind of opposition he needs to in order to stake the claim as the next best thing coming out of Europe?

The answer is a bit more complicated than a yes or no.

Paddy Pimblett comes from the era where fighters no longer learn just one discipline, they instead learn several right out of the gate. That means he’s a well rounded youth with a ton of upside and more space to fill up on his hard drive. At 21 years of age he’s already built up an impressive record of 12-1 and has shown a willingness to strike, wrestle, or grapple depending on where the fight takes him.

But could he do that to Max Holloway? Could he put Frankie Edgar on his back? Can he out strike Jose Aldo?

These are the kind of questions that need to be asked and answered in order to give the Paddy Pimblett hype train some steam. Don’t get it twisted, this kid certainly has a great deal of talent. But until he’s competing at a high level it’s hard to tell just how dangerous he truly is. Until that day, watching some highlights of the young UK fighter will have to do until we see Paddy at the UFC level.

What’s your thoughts on Paddy Pimblett?

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.

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URIJAH FABER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT AFTER UFC ON FOX 22

Hall of famer and decorated UFC bantamweight Urijah Faber announces that he will retire after his UFC on Fox 22 bout against fellow veteran Brad Pickett. The card will take place at newly built Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California and the California kid couldn’t think of a more fitting place.

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Long time coming…

Hall of famer and decorated UFC bantamweight Urijah Faber announces that he will retire after his UFC on Fox 22 bout against fellow veteran Brad Pickett. The card will take place at newly built Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California and the California kid couldn’t think of a more fitting place.

“I’ve been kind of waiting for this, and this is actually going to be my last fight,” Faber revealed. “And it just feels right to do it in [Sacramento] in this new area. It just feels like the right time and the right place. I’ve been waiting for this new arena to be built, I was waiting for that Dominick Cruz opportunity, and I feel like this is going to be an epic event and I can’t wait to do it in front of the people I love.”

The Dominick Cruz opportunity he’s referring to is the third installment of the feud that started between him and now bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz back in the WEC days. In the first fight Faber was dominant, scoring a rd. 1 guillotine choke submission, in the second installment Cruz edged out a controversial victory via 5 round war, and in the latest installment Cruz ran away with the series scoring a dominant 5 round win. Though Faber fought valiantly, it was clear the writing was on the wall for Faber as a real competitor in the bantamweight division.

“I’ve been teetering with it for a long time,” Faber said. “The thing is that I’m lucky. Like I said, I have my health and I really love what I’m doing. But just as far as the passion goes, I have a passion for what I’m doing still, but it doesn’t get the same emotion (out of me) that it has in the past. I remember my favorite fighter of all-time is Roy Jones Jr., and I remember him talking about him kind of feeling that, where he was playing little basketball games the same day as a boxing match.”

Despite the Cruz feud, Faber has had a 14 year highlight reel career dominating in WEC with 5 title defenses at featherweight and even headlining WEC’s only pay per view event (WEC 48) against Jose Aldo. In the UFC he’s stayed on top of the featherweight and bantamweight divisions where most of his losses came from title shots. Outside the Octagon the 37 year old is quite the entrepreneur, starting multiple businesses including the lucrative Alpha Male gym which has bred starts like Paige VanZant, D.J. Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt and Chad Mendes.

“I’ve loved just being a part of other people’s success,” Faber said. “Even guys like T.J. (Dillashaw) — I enjoy the fact that T.J. and Chad and guys like (Mark) Munoz and Scotty Jorgensen, all these guys that I helped get into the sport. And I’ve seen some of them go. I don’t know, I feel like it’s kind of like a perfect time for me to make an exit and work on building this team. I have some entertainment stuff I’ve been working on, shows and some movie stuff. I’ve got business stuff that I’ve been working on, but I’m most excited about growing the next generation of fighters, bringing multiple belts back to the Sacramento area. And I want to go out with a massive win against a great opponent in my hometown.”

While it’s clear Faber is no longer the competitive force at bantamweight he use be, does that mean his days of competing should be done? Well for one there’s always bellator, depending on his contract obligations. But do we even need to go that far? Even in the UFC there’s a couple of fights left. A catch weight against Mighty Mouse Johnson or even grudge match between Faber and former student T.J. Dillashaw are all matches that I would be up for. His chin is still in tact and the 37 year old always shows up in great shape so if he changes his mind, I think he still has options.

What do you guys think of the retirement of this future hall of famer? Too soon, or a long time coming?

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Found Footage: Chris Weidman vs Ben Askren

We all know that wrestling is essential to having a complete MMA game. You can be the best striker on this planet, but if you don’t know how to fend off a double leg takedown then you’re likely not going to go too far in high level mixed martial arts. Wrestling is perhaps the most important skill to have in MMA and because of that very reason stars like Matt Hughes, Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, and much more were able to dominate the competition. Another two well decorated wrestlers who have made the transition to MMA are former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and ONE FC welterweight champion Ben Askren.

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We all know that wrestling is essential to having a complete MMA game. You can be the best striker on this planet, but if you don’t know how to fend off a double leg takedown then you’re likely not going to go too far in high level mixed martial arts. Wrestling is perhaps the most important skill to have in MMA and because of that very reason stars like Matt Hughes, Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, and much more were able to dominate the competition. Another two well decorated wrestlers who have made the transition to MMA are former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and ONE FC welterweight champion Ben Askren.

Ben Askren is true monster when it comes to wrestling. Granted that’s made a ton of his fights boring because no one can get up from under him, it does show that Askren has a ground game that should be feared and respected. Chris Weidman is no slouch on the mat himself winning numerous championships of his own before eventually becoming an All American in wrestling. Both men have utilized their skill sets to become champions, demonstrating just how essential a freestyle wrestling game is for high level MMA.

Now, likely you’re not blind and you’ve already read the title of this article so you know something that has to do with Chris Weidman facing off against Ben Askren is coming. But perhaps not in the way that you may be thinking. Before either of these decorated wrestlers entered a cage and exchanged leather with other combatants, they met on the mat in a high school wrestling meet. Check out the video below to get a glimpse of Chris Weidman and Ben Askren battling on a wrestling mat.

What’s your thoughts on these two wrestling monsters?

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.

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As UK Office Gets Downsized, Should We Be Worried About The New UFC Owners?

So in the last couple of weeks it seems that the new owners of the UFC, WME-IMG, has been deadset on cleaning house. It’s that unusual when you think about it. A new boss comes into a role of power and brings with them their own army of trusted employees to hopefully enhanced the newly acquired business. But despite the fact that it may not be overly surprising, the rate and timing in which all these firings are occurring couldn’t have come at a worse time for the company.

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So in the last couple of weeks it seems that the new owners of the UFC, WME-IMG, has been deadset on cleaning house. It’s that unusual when you think about it. A new boss comes into a role of power and brings with them their own army of trusted employees to hopefully enhanced the newly acquired business. But despite the fact that it may not be overly surprising, the rate and timing in which all these firings are occurring couldn’t have come at a worse time for the company.

After the lay offs at the Canadian UFC office, it occurred that the move may have been ill timed, specifically because of the fact that the promotion has a fight in Toronto in less than two months. It’s a bit wild that WME-IMG would make such a move. Add that to the fact that the UFC is having problems with Georges St-Pierre and you have to wonder just what the hell is going on behind the scenes.

The UFC beefing with GSP is a bit much as well. The man helped to build the company into the popular brand that it is today. The fact that he’s being shafted by new management can put a black eye on the company. GSP is considered one the genuine nice guys of MMA and you can bet people are paying attention to how the former welterweight champion is being treated. It would come as no surprise if GSP left for Bellator MMA because of that fact and, though the promotion doesn’t have the best talent in the world, the fact that another high profile fighter would prefer fighting for the fledgling organization could have ripple effects down the line.

The biggest question is why make enemies when you can play nice and generate more money?

Now it seems that the UK offices are experiencing lay-offs as well. While it can be expected that new management would obviously mean a bit of an overhaul, the UFC is a well oiled machine that has gotten many things right and some wrong over the years. But each of the offices have managed to bring together some of the most memorable fighting events in the last ten plus years. We’ve yet to see WME-IMG’s full plan come to fruition, this is true. But all it takes is one bad decision to ruin a good thing. Let’s hope all of these lay-offs are just and will really bring the promotion to the next level.

What do you think of the new UFC owners’ business decision of late?

Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.

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UFC TRIMS THE FAT: COMPANY LAYOFFS REACH A NEW HIGH

In case you haven’t heard the UFC is going through some spring cleaning. Layoffs have been coming from all angles. From their Las Vegas headquarters (where it is reported 60-80 employees will be fired) to Asia, Brazil, Canada, and Latin American offices. Officials have confirmed layoffs are happening.

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OUT WITH THE OLD…

In case you haven’t heard the UFC is going through some spring cleaning. Layoffs have been coming from all angles. From their Las Vegas headquarters (where it is reported 60-80 employees will be fired) to Asia, Brazil, Canada,  and Latin American offices. Officials have confirmed layoffs are happening.

 ”It was less than 15 percent of our workforce,” -UFC official

UFC was bought out WME-IMG  last August in a sale that was reportedly worth 4 billion dollars. Since then it seems like the company has taken a no nonsense business mind that has cut off former superstars like Rory MacDonald, and most recently GSP. If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.

Trimming the fat by cutting people who aren’t up to par make sense, but cutting people because you don’t think they will sell enough doesn’t. While we appreciate the Ronda Rousey’s, Brock Lesnar’s, and the Conor McGregor’s, it’s a fighting organization at the end of the day. Not everyone should have to be fan favorites to be signed to the premiere fighting championship in the world. Is it really all about the money? Whether it’s just about the money or not, no one knows for sure, but it does seem UFC plans on ruling with an iron fist. If you like the contract, then great. Don’t like it? Hit the bricks kid; unless you make us boatloads of cash.

UFC insiders have described the morale at the Vegas headquarters as “very bad” almost like a “morgue.”

Another way to look at these recent actions is maybe they’re trying to build up there other companies. The UFC owns other outlets companies and maybe they’ll head lower tier promotions. Almost like a UFC farming system if you will.  Either way Scott Coker and Bellator have to be licking their chops as free agents like  GSP will be there for the taking.

Bellator is owned by media giant Viacom so their bankroll is significant. If the promotion can find a way to market themselves attractively the UFC could be in for some real competition. Maybe seen as the true martial artists promotion. What will the face of MMA look like in the next 3 years? That’s what we’re all guessing at but you can guess it will be a lot different than today.

Hit us up with your thoughts and comments on the recent UFC firings below.

 

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