Tonight’s (Sat., January 27, 2018 ) UFC on FOX 27 from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, wasn’t exactly receiving a ton of overall heat in the MMA world heading into the card, yet the event was a pivotal moment in the career of rising UFC featherweight Mirsad Bektic nonetheless. The touted No. 15-ranked prospect […]
Tonight’s (Sat., January 27, 2018 ) UFC on FOX 27 from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, wasn’t exactly receiving a ton of overall heat in the MMA world heading into the card, yet the event was a pivotal moment in the career of rising UFC featherweight Mirsad Bektic nonetheless.
The touted No. 15-ranked prospect was out of action since last March’s UFC 209 where he lost a heart-wrenching match to Darren Elkins after dominating the fight, and he returned to the Octagon to meet dangerous Brazilian Godofredo Pepey on the preliminary card of UFC on FOX 27.
Clearly looking to prove that his only MMA loss was behind him, Bektic came out aggressive early and absolutely smoked Pepey with a massive straight to the body in the first round to score a triumphant return.
Godofredo Pepey wants to make a statement tonight (July 22). Pepey will take on Shane Burgos on the UFC Fight Pass portion of the UFC on FOX 25 prelims. He’ll be going for his second straight victory, while Burgos wants to improve his professional mixed martial arts record to 10-0. Speaking with MMAFighting.com, Pepey had […]
Godofredo Pepey wants to make a statement tonight (July 22). Pepey will take on Shane Burgos on the UFC Fight Pass portion of the UFC on FOX 25 prelims. He’ll be going for his second straight victory, while Burgos wants to improve his professional mixed martial arts record to 10-0. Speaking with MMAFighting.com, Pepey had […]
UFC Fortaleza has experienced something of a double whammy with both Godofredo Pepey and Kyle Bochniak experiencing injuries that have forced them off the card. Luckily (if you consider it luck) for the UFC, they were set to face each other. The featherweight bout has now been pulled from the card, the promotion has confirmed. […]
UFC Fortaleza has experienced something of a double whammy with both Godofredo Pepey and Kyle Bochniak experiencing injuries that have forced them off the card. Luckily (if you consider it luck) for the UFC, they were set to face each other. The featherweight bout has now been pulled from the card, the promotion has confirmed. […]
(Shogun vs. Henderson 2 highlights via Fox Sports)
Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua fought for the second time last night in Natal, Brazil, and though we weren’t treated to another five-round dogfight, the rematch turned out to be nearly as incredible as their first meeting. This time, it was Henderson who was getting beaten up in the early rounds, as an energized Shogun Rua came close to finishing the American legend on more than one occasion. It seemed like Henderson’s heart, experience, and still-solid chin were the only things keeping him alive going into round three. And then…boo-yah.
All it took was one right hand directly across the chin to snap Shogun’s head back and send him into a backwards somersault across the mat. Arguably, referee Herb Dean could have stopped the fight as soon as Shogun went ass-over-teakettle, but he allowed Hendo to follow up the knockdown with some controversial blows to the back of the head, as Shogun groggily clung to Henderson’s leg. To those of you who expected Herb Dean to penalize Henderson during the finishing sequence: You haven’t been watching MMA for very long, have you?
The Pepey/Lahat KO was just one of five matches at UFC Fight Night 38 that ended in the first round. Notably, middleweight vet CB Dollaway TKO’d TUF Brazil 1 winner Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira in just 39 seconds with an impressive display of counter-punching, which you can watch below…
(Shogun vs. Henderson 2 highlights via Fox Sports)
Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua fought for the second time last night in Natal, Brazil, and though we weren’t treated to another five-round dogfight, the rematch turned out to be nearly as incredible as their first meeting. This time, it was Henderson who was getting beaten up in the early rounds, as an energized Shogun Rua came close to finishing the American legend on more than one occasion. It seemed like Henderson’s heart, experience, and still-solid chin were the only things keeping him alive going into round three. And then…boo-yah.
All it took was one right hand directly across the chin to snap Shogun’s head back and send him into a backwards somersault across the mat. Arguably, referee Herb Dean could have stopped the fight as soon as Shogun went ass-over-teakettle, but he allowed Hendo to follow up the knockdown with some controversial blows to the back of the head, as Shogun groggily clung to Henderson’s leg. To those of you who expected Herb Dean to penalize Henderson during the finishing sequence: You haven’t been watching MMA for very long, have you?
The Pepey/Lahat KO was just one of five matches at UFC Fight Night 38 that ended in the first round. Notably, middleweight vet CB Dollaway TKO’d TUF Brazil 1 winner Cezar “Mutante” Ferreira in just 39 seconds with an impressive display of counter-punching, which you can watch below…
Speaking of fights that lasted less than a minute, Thiago Santos TKO’d Ronny Markes in 53 seconds during the prelims, thanks to a well-placed body-kick. Considering that Markes missed weight by five pounds for the match, and he was already coming off a loss to Yoel Romero, his days in the promotion might be numbered.
“Possibly Early Stoppage of the Night” goes to the Steven Siler vs. Rony “Jason” Bezerra main card fight, which Jason won by first-round TKO after knocking Siler down with punches. The ref jumped in as soon as Siler hit the mat, drawing an immediate protest from the American featherweight. Not that Siler wasn’t hurt — but clearly there was some inconsistency in the officiating last night, when you consider how many opportunities Dan Henderson was given to recover after being rocked.
As for fights that went the distance, Norman Parke cost himself a victory against Leonardo Santos by getting a point deducted for shorts grabbing during their main card fight. Instead, the match ended in a majority draw. And in other point-deduction news, prelim fighter Mairbek Taisumov became just the second UFC fighter to have two separate point-deductions in a fight that went to the judges. (Taisumov was docked points for an illegal head-kick in round one and fence-grabbing in round two.) As a result, he lost a unanimous decision with scores of 30-25 across the board.
Once again, here are the complete results from UFC Fight Night 38: Shogun vs. Henderson 2…
Main Card
– Dan Henderson def. Shogun Rua via TKO (punches), 1:31 of round 3
– C.B. Dolloway def. Cezar Ferreira via TKO (punches), 0:39 of round 1
– Leonardo Santos vs. Norman Parke ends in majority Draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
– Fabio Maldonado def. Gian Villante via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-28, 29-28)
– Michel Prazeres def. Mairbek Taisumov via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-25, 30-35)
– Rony Jason def. Steven Siler via TKO (punches), 1:17 of round 1
Preliminary Card
– Thiago Santos def. Ronny Markes via TKO (body kick and punches), 0:53 of round 1
– Jussier Formiga def. Scott Jorgensen via submission (rear naked choke), 3:07 of round 1
– Kenny Roberston def. Thiago Perpetuo via submission (rear naked choke), 1:45 of round 1
– Hans Stringer def. Francimar Barroso via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Godofredo Castro def. Noad Lahat via KO (flying knee), 2:39 of round 1
UFC 147’s main event provided the most fireworks of the night but other than that, it was the under card that shone brightest. Rodrigo Damm earned his first win in the UFC’s featherweight division with a rear naked choke submission win in the first round over Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo.
Damm took home Submission of the Night honors and the accompanying $65k bonus check. Marcus Vinicius won the KO of the night award and bonus money for his come from behind win over Wagner Campos in the final stanza of their bout. Vinicius used knees to the head and body to drop Campos and finished with nasty punches on the ground.
TUF Brazil Final Matches
Four young Brazilian prospects got the opportunity to become the next “Ultimate Fighters” last night, and in front of a raucously supportive gigantic crowd inside the nation’s largest indoor stadium, no less. Given the fighters’ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu backgrounds, and relative inexperience, we saw a new phenomenon on display during the TUF Brazil finals – guys that can’t yet wrestle very well and are largely uncomfortable striking on their feet.
UFC 147′s main event provided the most fireworks of the night but other than that, it was the under card that shone brightest. Rodrigo Damm earned his first win in the UFC’s featherweight division with a rear naked choke submission win in the first round over Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo.
Damm took home Submission of the Night honors and the accompanying $65k bonus check. Marcus Vinicius won the KO of the night award and bonus money for his come from behind win over Wagner Campos in the final stanza of their bout. Vinicius used knees to the head and body to drop Campos and finished with nasty punches on the ground.
TUF Brazil Final Matches
Four young Brazilian prospects got the opportunity to become the next “Ultimate Fighters” last night, and in front of a raucously supportive gigantic crowd inside the nation’s largest indoor stadium, no less. Given the fighters’ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu backgrounds, and relative inexperience, we saw a new phenomenon on display during the TUF Brazil finals – guys that can’t yet wrestle very well and are largely uncomfortable striking on their feet.
Think back to TUF 1 in the states. All of those guys, Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Josh Koscheck, Kenny Florian, Diego Sanchez and more, turned out to be at their embryonic stages of development and all became much more polished and skilled in later years. Sometimes their fights got sloppy, but they were comparatively more well-rounded than what we’ve seen this year with TUF Brazil, and a big reason was basic wrestling competency all around.
In the U.S., wrestling programs have been huge feeder systems for MMA, leading to the base becoming a dominant skill-set in the sport. In contrast, top Brazilian teams have great striking and wrestling programs but many of these young fighters we saw on this first international TUF season are so new to MMA that they have not yet made it to those teams or simply haven’t been mixing it all together for very long yet.
A case in point was the featherweight finale that saw Godofredo Pepey repeatedly jump guard on the eventual winner Rony Jason. Pepey often jumped guard when he wasn’t taking damage and in parts of the Octagon that were not favorable places for working off of one’s back (for example, near the cage, which kills hip movement necessary to pull off submissions).
In MMA a fighter who jumps guard is either extremely confident in his or her own guard or has no confidence in other parts of their game. Or both. It appeared that Pepey, and to a lesser extent, the other finalists had a little bit of that combination.
No doubt they will all improve their games if they have humble attitudes and work with the right instructors for long enough. But in retrospect, throwing in all these pure gi and no gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guys into a cage while they are still relatively inexperienced at MMA will predictably lead to the type of weird guard-jumping we saw in the featherweight final and the wild, looping and leaping striking we saw in the middleweight one.
The 185 final between Cezar Ferreira and Sergio Moraes had plenty of sloppy, but passionate striking on the feet. Ferreira jumped out ahead, looking more comfortable on his feet than his opponent, though not extremely technical. Moraes, seemed to be lost as to what to do at all on his feet, or how to throw a punch or kick or set up a real, MMA take down.
That didn’t stop Moraes, however, from making things interesting on the strength of his guts and refusal to quit. After nearly getting finished early on, Moraes rushed Ferreira in the second round with looping punches that found their mark on the jaw of Ferreira. Ultimately Ferreira won a decision and took home the contract, but Moraes showed tons of heart.
Emotions Spilling Over for Brazilian Competitors
It was frankly beautiful to see the emotion we did from Brazilian fighters fighting in front of their countrymen, Saturday. Wanderlei Silva appeared to bow and make an extended prayer at the foot of the Octagon before stepping into the cage and delivering an electrifying performance in his first fight in Brazil in over ten years.
Rony Jason had tears of joy flowing long before he won as he was overcome during his walk to the Octagon. Who could blame him? The kid was walking into the biggest opportunity and challenge of his life, and had a larger stage than many established UFC superstars have had, between the TUF show that reached ten million viewers each week and fighting in the huge stadium and on pay per view all over the world. That had to be the best moment of his entire life. That is, until fifteen competition minutes later when he was awarded a UFC contract.
