The UFC 137 fight card took a big hit earlier this week when the scheduled main event between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit was scrapped due to an injury sustained by the UFC welterweight champion GSP. With the event now missing its biggest draw…
The UFC 137 fight card took a big hit earlier this week when the scheduled main event between Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit was scrapped due to an injury sustained by the UFC welterweight champion GSP.
With the event now missing its biggest draw, critics are beginning to question whether the event will be worth the $44.99 price tag. The knee injury is only expected to keep St-Pierre out for a few weeks, so there is a realistic possibility that we will be seeing the fight between him and Condit as soon as January 2012.
Still, UFC 137 remains an excellent card even without St-Pierre vs. Condit.
Each person will have to make his or her own choice when it comes to buying this and any UFC event, but before you decide to say “no” to this one, please take the time to check out the top five reasons why you should be rushing to your cable box to order UFC 137.
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Bellator, Rankings, FeatherweightsJose Aldo is continuing to run roughshod over the rest of the featherweight division, improving his professional MMA record to 20-1 with a unanimous decision victory over Kenny Florian at UFC 1…
Jose Aldo is continuing to run roughshod over the rest of the featherweight division, improving his professional MMA record to 20-1 with a unanimous decision victory over Kenny Florian at UFC 136. So does anyone at 145 have a chance against Aldo?
So far it hasn’t looked like it. It’s not just that Aldo has won every single one of his fights since coming to North America at WEC 34 in 2008. It’s that none of his fights have been close. He’s shifted from being a knockout artist to usually winning one-sided decisions, but he really hasn’t been tested by anyone.
Is Chad Mendes the man to change that? He’s certainly the most worthy challenger to Aldo’s title. We’ll run down the top of the featherweight division below.
Top 10 featherweights in MMA (Number in parentheses is the fighter’s previous ranking.)
1. Jose Aldo (1): After struggling to cut down to 145 pounds, Aldo has talked about moving up to lightweight, but I think that would be a mistake. I don’t think he has the frame for 155, and I think he’d really struggle against big lightweight wrestlers. In fact, I think he might struggle against a good featherweight wrestler like …
2. Chad Mendes (2): The undefeated Mendes was a good college wrestler and may be the opponent to put Aldo on his back and keep him there. If there’s anyone in the featherweight division who represents a threat to Aldo, it’s Mendes.
3. Hatsu Hioki (3): Hioki is the big question mark in the UFC‘s featherweight division. He’s about to make his UFC debut after going on a great run in Japan, and if he can make the adjustment to the cage and the North American unified rules, he could be a title contender: Hioki’s reach, high-volume striking and active guard make him a tough puzzle to solve. Unfortunately, the recent track record of Japanese fighters coming to the U.S. has not been good. Hioki makes his debut against George Roop at UFC 137.
4. Pat Curran (NR): Curran has looked sensational since dropping from lightweight to featherweight, and after seeing him knock out Marlon Sandro, I think he’s the best featherweight outside the UFC. Bellator has a strong featherweight division, and fights with Joe Warren or Patricio “Pitbull” Freire would be great matchups for Curran.
5. Erik Koch (8): Koch looked good in his September victory over Jonathan Brookins, which improved his record to 13-1, with the only loss coming against Mendes. At age 23, Koch has a very bright future ahead of him.
6. Mark Hominick (7): After taking several months off following his loss to Aldo, Hominick will return at UFC 140 against Chan Sung Jung in what should be an outstanding battle.
7. Kenny Florian (4): It’s tough to see where Florian goes from here. He’s good enough that he’s earned three title shots in his career, but not good enough to win any of them, or even be competitive in any of them. And at age 35, with 20 pro fights under his belt, it’s not like he’s suddenly going to get a lot better. Still, I hope we haven’t seen the last of Florian. He can have a gatekeeper role at either featherweight or lightweight, even if he’s done fighting for belts.
8. Tyson Griffin (NR): Featherweight — not lightweight — has always been the right weight class for Griffin. It was the right weight class for him when he beat Urijah Faber in 2005, and it’s the right weight class for him now, after he’s moved back down from lightweight and beaten Manny Gamburyan. Up next for Griffin is a featherweight fight with another former lightweight, Bart Palaszewski, at UFC 137.
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri (NR): Another former lightweight dropping down, Kawajiri put on a good show in submitting Joachim Hansen at Dream.17. I’d like to see the UFC add Kawajiri to its featherweight roster.
10. Dustin Poirier (9): The 22-year-old Poirier is a rising star at featherweight. He gets Pablo Garza on the undercard of the November 12 UFC on Fox event.
UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo successfully defended his title last night against veteran fighter Kenny Florian. Though Florian put up a good performance and even arguably won a couple of rounds, the fight never really seemed like it was slipping…
UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo successfully defended his title last night against veteran fighter Kenny Florian. Though Florian put up a good performance and even arguably won a couple of rounds, the fight never really seemed like it was slipping away from the champion.
Aldo has now made it five championship victories, though his actual winning streak extends 13 fights, all the way back to May 2006. The unbelievable streak has included victories over most of the top 145-pound fighters in the world, including previous WEC featherweight champions Urijah Faber and Mike Brown.
Some believe that Aldo has cleared out the 145-pound division so much that he should really consider making the move up to 155 pounds to give himself a bigger challenge. But on the contrary, there are still numerous exciting contenders remaining for Jose Aldo at 145 pounds. Here are the top five challengers remaining for Aldo right now in the UFC featherweight division.
By now ya’ll know that Hioki has some prime wins under his belt (something you can’t always say about fighters competing on the other side of the Pacific), including Mark Hominick (twice) and an upset over Marlon Sandro for the Sengoku featherweight strap. Hioki hit a rough stretch in 2007, dropping consecutive decisions under the Shooto banner, but he hasn’t really lost since if you don’t count the decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa that the judges hung on him–and we don’t.
By now ya’ll know that Hioki has some prime wins under his belt (something you can’t always say about fighters competing on the other side of the Pacific), including Mark Hominick (twice) and an upset over Marlon Sandro for the Sengoku featherweight strap. Hioki hit a rough stretch in 2007, dropping consecutive decisions under the Shooto banner, but he hasn’t really lost since if you don’t count the decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa that the judges hung on him–and we don’t.
The featherweight roster for world’s largest MMA organization just became even stronger, as the UFC signed Hatsu Hioki on Saturday, June 25th.The acquisition, which has been in the works since Hioki vacted his Shooto Featherweight Championship in May, …
The featherweight roster for world’s largest MMA organization just became even stronger, as the UFC signed Hatsu Hioki on Saturday, June 25th.
The acquisition, which has been in the works since Hioki vacted his Shooto Featherweight Championship in May, was reported by 5th Round.
Since his win over Marlon Sandro in December 2010, Hioki has been ranked as highly as the second best featherweight in the world by various MMA publications.
With an outstanding career record of 24-4-2, Hioki also holds wins over fighters such as Mark Hominick, Jeff Curran and Masanori Kanehara.
No date or opponent has been determined for Hioki’s debut with the organization.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter here.
This should not be Florian’s stiffest test before Aldo. Just saying. PicProps: Examiner.com
Dana White has all but made official the next featherweight championship fight, saying that Kenny Florian “pretty much” is next in line for Jose Aldo, and we’ve kind of grumbled about it. It’s not the we don’t like Ken-Flo — we do — but we’re not entirely sold on Florian as the number one contender in the featherweight division.
Being brand new to the weight class, most reasonable people would expect Florian to get two or three good wins before they throw him in against the Brazilian destroyer of legs and faces. It’s not like we’re asking him to go on an eight fight win streak before he gets a title shot, just spend more than fifteen minutes in the weight class.
Being the kind and helpful people we are, we decided to share our own ideas about who Florian could fight next to strengthen his case for a shot at the belt. If Florian wins, then by all means slate him for the Aldo fight. If he loses, he probably wasn’t ready anyway, right?
This should not be Florian’s stiffest test before Aldo. Just saying. PicProps: Examiner.com
Dana White has all but made official the next featherweight championship fight, saying that Kenny Florian “pretty much” is next in line for Jose Aldo, and we’ve kind of grumbled about it. It’s not that we don’t like Ken-Flo — we do — but we’re not entirely sold on Florian as the number one contender in the featherweight division.
Being brand new to the weight class, most reasonable people would expect Florian to get two or three good wins before they throw him in against the Brazilian destroyer of legs and faces. It’s not like we’re asking him to go on an eight fight win streak before he gets a title shot, just spend more than fifteen minutes in the weight class.
Being the kind and helpful people we are, we decided to share our own ideas about who Florian could fight next to strengthen his case for a shot at the belt. If Florian wins, then by all means slate him for the Aldo fight. If he loses, he probably wasn’t ready anyway, right?
vs. Chad Mendes
Money Mendes would be a perfect test for Florian, who had difficulty with Gray Maynard’s wrestling at UFC 118. Florian has worked to improve his wrestling, but Diego Nunes was not going to test that — Mendes would test the shit out of Florian’s TDD and scrambling. If Florian beats Mendes, he’ll make a clear statement that he belongs in the title picture at 145. The catch here is that Mendes already has a fight scheduled for UFC 133 on 6 August, against Rani Yahya. Against Rani Yahya. Rani Yahya. Yeah, they could totally scratch that fight.
vs. Mark Hominick
Hominick came up short against Jose Aldo, but did it in the most impressive manner possible. Clearly a top five talent, Hominick is dealing with postpartum depression after giving birth to that forehead alien Aldo gave him, and has a clear schedule. As soon as he’s medically cleared and ready to fight, we’d love to see him return to challenge Florian. While the Canadian striker wouldn’t necessarily test Florian’s ground game, he should be a good litmus test for Florian’s striking at 145, and we know there will be no shortage of heart when Hominick enters the cage.
vs Dustin Poirier
If you want to sound like a New Orleans native, that city should be properly pronounced “Nawluns”. Draw out that first syllable a little bit. Similarly, Dustin the Diamond’s surname would be “Pwawyay”. In general, just go slowly and cut down on enunciation, and the locals will at least think you’re from somewhere nearby, rather than another damn tourist. Anywho, Josh Grispi would be in this slot, except he’s now lost two in a row, one of those courtesy of our young friend from Lafayette. Poirier has one loss at 155, and he’s looked great as an undefeated featherweight. While admittedly this is a very dangerous fight for Florian — Poirier is no name opponent — we’d like to see someone test Florian’s cardio and resolve at 145. Poirier should administer that test capably.
vs Chan Sung Jung
There are few fighters in the UFC’s featherweight division more well-known than The Korean Zombie, so this would be a big-name matchup worthy of a main event five rounder. Like Florian, Jung is long and tall at 145, and dangerous both standing and on the ground. While it debatable if a win over Jung would bolster Florian’s claim to contendership, who cares? It would be plenty of fun to watch. Jung’s dance card is clear after his redemption win over Leonard Garcia, so can we pencil this one in at the end of the summer?
vs Hatsu Hioki
The Sengoku champ and much-ballyhooed potential pickup will need a test of his own when he signs with the UFC, and a Hioki-Florian matchup sounds like a great chance to take the temperature on both fighters. Hioki looked like a complete fighter in his victory over Marlon Sandro, showing better striking to complement his already tight ground game. That victory earned Hioki nods as a top five talent from pretty much everyone, so a victory puts Florian as a legitimate championship contender, something we haven’t been completely convinced of quite yet. Again, Hioki hasn’t been officially signed yet, but when he is, Florian would be a blockbuster first fight for him.
What you got, Nation? Is Ken-Flo ready for Aldo, or should he take another fight first?
Jose Aldo
