Perennial UFC lightweight contenders Clay Guida and Gray Maynard will square off in the main event of UFC on FX 3, while former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin is set to take on Cung Le at UFC 148, the UFC announced today. Guida vs. Maynar…
Perennial UFC lightweight contenders Clay Guida and Gray Maynard will square off in the main event of UFC on FX 3, while former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin is set to take on Cung Le at UFC 148, the UFC announced today.
Guida vs. Maynard was heavily rumored to take place at UFC 145, but the bout never came to fruition for that card. Instead, the matchup will be a five-round affair this summer.
“The Carpenter” Clay Guida is coming off of a “Fight of the Night” bout against Benson Henderson at the UFC’s inaugural FOX event in November, despite a losing effort.
Meanwhile, “The Bully” Gray Maynard lost a rubber match in devastating knockout fashion against then reigning lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 136.
The winner will immediately be catapulted back into title contention, while the loser will have a long road ahead to be considered anything more than a divisional gatekeeper.
Franklin was scheduled to meet Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 133, but “Little Nog” suffered a shoulder injury close to fight time and the bout ended up being scrapped.
This will be Franklin’s first bout in nearly a year-and-a-half, with his last outing being a unanimous decision loss to former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 126.
His next opponent, Cung Le, a former Strikeforce middleweight champion, was unsuccessful in his UFC debut against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139. “The Human Highlight Reel” lost by second round TKO.
UFC on FX 3 is set to take place at Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 22nd with a venue to be announced, while UFC 148 goes down on July 7th and the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Frankie Edgar, the ultimate UFC underdog, went from a lamb to B.J. Penn’s slaughter, to fluke Lightweight Champion, to undisputed title holder. Though that road saw him face off against a bevy of tough opponents, the lightweight kingpin has seen but th…
Frankie Edgar, the ultimate UFC underdog, went from a lamb to B.J. Penn’s slaughter, to fluke Lightweight Champion, to undisputed title holder. Though that road saw him face off against a bevy of tough opponents, the lightweight kingpin has seen but the tip of the division’s iceberg.
Edgar will face Ben Henderson this Saturday, in Japan, and, though the immediacy and difficulty of the challenge ahead warrants Edgar’s full attention, “Smooth” is but one of many lightweights that will be vying for Edgar’s crown before the end of the calendar year.
The following is a list of the top 10 threats Edgar may have to deal with before 2013.
UFC 144 will indeed be a dynamic event and the first time the UFC has ventured into Japan since December of 2000. The Lightweight Title fight main event will showcase the challenger, Benson Henderson, squaring off with the current&n…
UFC 144 will indeed be a dynamic event and the first time the UFC has ventured into Japan since December of 2000. The Lightweight Title fight main event will showcase the challenger, Benson Henderson, squaring off with the current defending champion, Frankie Edgar, in what is sure to be a crowd pleasing affair.
Benson “Smooth” Henderson has been on an absolute tear since joining the UFC ranks after dropping his WEC Lightweight championship by decision to Anthony Pettis in the WEC’s final event. Henderson has since defeated Mark Bocek and Jim Miller, and earned his lightweight title fight by edging out Clay Guida in a fight of the year candidate.
Henderson brings to the table a wealth of mixed martial arts knowledge. He is well-versed in wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and taekwondo. Most amazing though is Henderson’s ability to live up to his nickname—he is very smooth in his movements and doesn’t ever seem to find himself in bad positions.
Henderson can utilize a 3″ height advantage, a 2″ reach advantage, and an overall size advantage to dethrone the current champ. Henderson also has tree trunks for legs that will make it very difficult for Frankie Edgar to complete takedowns against him, as was the case with Henderson’s fight with Clay Guida.
Frankie “The Answer” Edgar though has been an absolute upset machine in the UFC—though now its hard to say he is upsetting anyone. Edgar has earned a spot on the top pound-for-pound fighter list by fighting with the larger weight-class at Lightweight instead of dropping down.
Edgar has used very solid boxing and a never ending quickness to wear down and punish his opponents. Not only has he dished it out but has proven he has a pretty decent chin and a heart that allows him to come back from the brink of defeat.
So what is the answer for Benson Henderson in defeating Frankie Edgar?
Henderson isn’t the same kind of fighter that Edgar is used to. No disrespect to Edgar, but he has mostly fought one dimensional opponents to this point.
Furthermore, most have been plain type wrestlers, including Gray Maynard, Sean Sherk, and Matt Veach. They’ve combined for 14 knockouts, which seems impressive until you realize that only two occurred in the UFC. BJ Penn, a opponent that wasn’t one-dimensional, was at the end of his career and couldn’t match Edgar’s pace or endurance.
This is the problem that Henderson presents for Edgar. Not only can Henderson match Edgar’s pace and endurance, he’s also just as quick and stronger than the champion himself is.
Henderson has excellent wrestling and sprawling techniques which he demonstrated against Clay Guida. Also on display against Guida was his scrambling ability which more often than not allowed Henderson to gain the better position.
Add to the fact that Benson isn’t just a plain wrestler or one-dimensional fighter and that spells disaster for Edgar. Benson is adept at striking and he will use all types of stand-up attacks including kicks, knees, punches, and spinning attacks, all while using fantastic movement to counter punches.
This leaves Frankie Edgar searching for an answer. Edgar will have problems striking with Henderson. Edgar will have problems taking down Henderson. Edgar will have problems out-working Henderson. How will Frankie Edgar stop Henderson’s momentum? He might not have an answer.
Though the fight will no doubt be action packed, the advantages that Henderson owns over Edgar leads me to believe that Benson Henderson will walk away from the UFC 144 main event as the new UFC Lightweight Champion.
Additionally, I fully expect this to the first time in Frankie Edgar’s career that he is finished.
Shortly after Jose Aldo crushed Chad Mendes’ title hopes, (and face) at UFC 142 last weekend, fans started wondering whom the UFC could possibly put in front of its featherweight champion. Aldo has taken out everyone that Zuffa has asked him to, …
Shortly after Jose Aldo crushed Chad Mendes’ title hopes, (and face) at UFC 142 last weekend, fans started wondering whom the UFC could possibly put in front of its featherweight champion.
Aldo has taken out everyone that Zuffa has asked him to, and now there is a huge gap in talent between the champion and the challengers.
With guys like Dustin Poirier, Erik Koch, Hatsu Hioki and Chan Sung Jung all a win or two away from a shot at the title, many fans have started calling for Aldo to move up in weight and challenge a top contender at lightweight in a potential superfight.
The fighters on this list would all pose some interesting challenges for Aldo, as most would have a significant size advantage and a few might even be able to test Aldo’s ridiculous takedown defense.
Filed under: UFC, NewsThis is how easy these things start in the fight business. These minor beefs. These subtle slights that fighters carry with them like childhood insults that are still fresh in their minds decades later. Once I started talking to t…
This is how easy these things start in the fight business. These minor beefs. These subtle slights that fighters carry with them like childhood insults that are still fresh in their minds decades later. Once I started talking to the various parties involved in the UFC 142 main event for a Sports Illustrated article this week, I heard about it from all of them. Once they start, these things take on a life of their own.
How this story starts is, Gray Maynard gets to know Jose Aldo at UFC 136 and they get to talking. Maynard likes him. More than he expected to, really, since it turns out “he’s actually a really humble guy.” Since Maynard has already left his longtime home at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas by this point, he figures maybe it’s time to do some traveling, learn some new stuff. Spending the winter in Brazil (where it’s summer) working out with Aldo and the Nova Unaio team sounds fun, right?
“So I contacted [Aldo’s manager] Ed Soares, just kind of threw it out there,” Maynard said. “I didn’t know if they’d take me up on it, but a couple days later [Soares] called me back and said he’d love to have me down there. A couple days later I was on a flight, basically put everything on hold and flew down there.”
So far, so good. But as long as he was going to be helping Aldo prepare for fellow wrestler Chad Mendes, Maynard figured he might as well take a look at some fight footage of Mendes on his long flight to South America. Here’s where it gets tricky.
“The first time I trained with Jose, I told the guy, ‘Hey, on the flight down here the tapes I watched [on Mendes], you seem a little more comfortable in the Octagon. I don’t know if he’s quite ready,'” Maynard said. “It’s not a knock on him. He’s the top guy to [challenge for the title]. It’s just that Jose’s on top of his game.”
It was a sincere opinion, Maynard said, so when people asked him what he thought of the upcoming fight, that’s what he told them: Mendes isn’t ready. Not surprisingly, this didn’t please Mendes when he heard it.
“Honestly, I don’t know why Gray’s even talking about me,” he said. “Gray’s never trained with me. He has no idea what I feel like in there. Obviously, he’s training with Jose, so if he gets asked that question I guess that’s what he thinks he’s got to say, but honestly, Gray’s style of wrestling is completely different from mine. I’m more of an explosive, blast you off your feet kind of wrestler. He’s more like a bully that just gets you up against the cage and works takedowns and slams from there.”
Mendes’ training partner and mentor, Urijah Faber, was even more direct.
“Since when are the two best guys in the weight class not ready to fight each other? That’s an absurd thing to say. But whatever. Who cares what [Maynard] thinks? Chad’s going to go in there and fight and win.”
But now that Maynard’s taken some heat from the Team Alpha Male crew for his comments, he’s not at all ready to back away from them. If anything, he’s only more committed to his original assessment, he said, because now he knows just how good Aldo is.
“From watching the tapes, that’s how I felt, that [Mendes] wasn’t ready. But actually training with Jose, I feel it even more now,” Maynard said. “For me, helping out Jose doesn’t mean I want Chad to lose or I came here to make that happen. It’s just a matter of helping out Jose, and now that I’ve been here, that’s what I think is going to happen. I only know Chad a little bit, and I think he’s a tough kid, but Jose is really tough. I couldn’t believe it. I was seriously impressed. …I knew he could strike. I knew that. What I didn’t know is, man, he’s tough to take down. And the kind of athlete he is, the way he applies that, it’s amazing. He can take a punch, too.”
But as fight night approaches, these outside opinions tend to diminish in importance. Soon enough it’ll be just Mendes and Aldo in the cage, and then it won’t matter what anyone else says. When it gets to that point, however, Mendes has something that Aldo doesn’t, which is the benefit of a former opponent’s experience. Faber went five brutal rounds with Aldo, and learned some hard lessons that he’s passed on to his protege, he said.
For instance, there’s the issue of Aldo’s leg kicks.
“The one thing I didn’t take into account was, I knew the leg kicks were going to hurt, but I didn’t know how disarming they would be,” Faber said. “As far as leg kicks in practice, when your legs gets kicked a couple times and it starts to hurt, you don’t keep wanting to get kicked in it all day. You heal it up and put ice on it so you can train the next day. But in a fight like that, you have to know that kicks like that will do damage and you have to honor that. You can’t just tell yourself that you’re going to take the pain and do what you want to do. You have to avoid them and make him pay when he tries it.”
Aldo shredded Faber’s thighs with kicks early on, effectively taking away Faber’s ability to shoot for a takedown in the later rounds. He took criticism for it after the fight, but even Mendes can’t say it was unwarranted.
“That’s something even Urijah talked about,” he said. “He doesn’t have that explosive shot the way I do. A lot of his takedowns come off of punches, using that snap single-leg or something. Aldo took that away from him with those leg kicks, and by that point it was too late.”
And that — the fact that not all wrestlers and/or wrestling styles are created equal — is why Mendes doesn’t worry about Maynard’s assessment of him or Maynard’s training with Aldo, he said. There are wrestlers and then there are wrestlers, and just because you’ve seen one in the gym doesn’t mean you know what it’s like to fight another in the cage on Saturday night.
“We don’t know how much [Maynard’s work with Aldo] is going to help him, but we’ll get in there and see,” Mendes said. “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve been wrestling since I was five years old, and I’ve never taken a year off. It’s something I’ve done my whole life. For him to bring a wrestler in to work with for one camp, his wrestling’s not going to be anywhere near mine.”
With Mendes’ predictions, just as with Maynard’s and Faber’s, we’ll know soon enough who had it right.
With fighters like Gilbert Melendez, Luke Rockhold, and King Mo Lawal, Strikeforce has some legitimate talent. The problem is, their talent pool is so limited that unless the organization wants to keep trotting out the same 5 fights as main events over…
With fighters like Gilbert Melendez, Luke Rockhold, and King Mo Lawal, Strikeforce has some legitimate talent.
The problem is, their talent pool is so limited that unless the organization wants to keep trotting out the same 5 fights as main events over and over again, they need to either add some talent or create some of their own.
While Strikeforce has valiantly been trying to create stars through their Challengers series over the past few years, the number of marketable fighters they have gained has been minimal and with the Challengers events now defunct, they’ll need to find talent from another source.
Obviously this is alluding to the UFC.
The biggest organization has plenty of fighters who are stuck in the middle of their respective divisions, and while they are far away from title fights in the UFC, they would be instant title contenders in Strikeforce.
This is how easy these things start in the fight business. These minor beefs. These subtle slights that fighters carry with them like childhood insults that are still fresh in their minds decades later. Once I started talking to the various parties involved in the