Two days after last weekend’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a UFC middleweight has issued an apology for racially insensitive marks he was seen and heard issuing during the UFC Fight Pass-aired portion of the UFC preliminary card. Alex Nicholson, who recently picked up his first UFC
Two days after last weekend’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a UFC middleweight has issued an apology for racially insensitive marks he was seen and heard issuing during the UFC Fight Pass-aired portion of the UFC preliminary card.
Alex Nicholson, who recently picked up his first UFC win in July with a shocking come-from-behind knockout of favored Devin Clark at the scintillating UFC Fight Night 91 from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was caught on video muttering the unfortunate phrase, “He can’t even open his motherf**king eyes,” when his teammate Mike Perry was introduced for his own UFC debut against veteran Hyun Gyu Lim.
The comments were immediately flagged for their brash oversight of common respect, especially in a bout when Perry had already drawn heat for instigating at the official weigh-ins. He went on to win the bout with a brutal knockout, so it’s unfortunate that Nicholson had to mar his teammate’s big debut win with some in-the-moment comments like this.
For his part, he attempted to mend the fences this evening with an apology on Twitter (via Bloody Elbow):
I respect every man who steps in the cage and my comments were insensitive towards lim I was hype for my brother but It's all love no hate.
It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong and apologize, although it remains to be seen if the UFC will take any action against Nicholson for the bad publicity they certainly don’t need in this age of seemingly nonstop USADA drug test failures.
He’s only a two-fight veteran in the UFC, having lost his debut to a brutal jaw/neck crank submission from rising prospect Misha Cirkunov after he proposed to his girlfriend at the weigh-ins.
Following his win at middleweight, it’d be unfortunate to see a potentially solid career be hindered by such a foolish statement.
We’ll see if this apology is enough in the eyes of the new UFC ownership.
Going into his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut at UFC 202, Mike Perry (7-0) looked to make a statement against Hyun Gyu Lim (13-6-1). He did just that in the very first round. Perry went for a leg kick, but the counter left hand was there for Lim. “The Ace” landed a right hand as
Going into his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut at UFC 202, Mike Perry (7-0) looked to make a statement against Hyun Gyu Lim (13-6-1).
He did just that in the very first round.
Perry went for a leg kick, but the counter left hand was there for Lim. “The Ace” landed a right hand as Perry went for a body kick. Perry kept staying busy with kicks. He whiffed a left hook, but he didn’t miss the second time as Lim was dropped. Perry moved into the mounted crucifix. He kept raining down punches until Lim got back up. “The Ace” was dropped again and Perry laid down some leather. He dropped Lim for a third and final time with a left hook.
Final Result: Mike Perry def. Hyun Gyu Lim via TKO (Punches) – R1, 3:38
Now that UFC officials have figured out all the fights, maybe we will get the updated fight card for UFC 202.
Mike Perry, an unbeaten fighter over six career bouts, will make his Octagon debut August 20 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas vs. Hyun …
Now that UFC officials have figured out all the fights, maybe we will get the updated fight card for UFC 202.
Mike Perry, an unbeaten fighter over six career bouts, will make his Octagon debut August 20 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas vs. Hyun Gyu Lim. Perry is stepping in for the injured Sultan Aliev, who suffered a wrist injury in training.
Perry and Lim are just one of several welterweight bouts set for the night. The 24-year-old Perry has finished all six of his opponents, including four inside of the first round.
Lim (13-5-1) is just 1-2 over his last three following a seven-fight win streak. His most recent appearance inside the Octagon was a TKO loss to Neil Magny.
It’s the halfway-ish point of the year, which means that we are a mere six or so months away from handing out our annual Potato Awards in categories such as “MMA Fail of the Year”, “Media Shill of the Year”, and the always coveted “Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year.” But because you Taters have been good this year, we’re going to allow you to open one present early: Our definitive ranking of the best UFC brawls of the year, so far.
It’s been a rocky year for the UFC, to say the absolute least. Pay-per-view numbers are tanking, fan interest is waning due to market oversaturation, and even the promotion’s new video game has been plagued by (albeit hilarious) technical issues. But the great thing about the UFC/MMA in general is that all can be forgiven with a few great fights, and these 10 brawls are undoubtedly the kernels of corn hidden amongst the soggy floor-turds that the UFC has been shitting out this year.
To repeat: This list is only dedicated to the best *brawls* of the year, which implies a fight in which both participants take their fare share of licks. TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao was a one-sided beatdown, albeit a brilliant one-sided beatdown, and therefore bears no mention here. Except that I just mentioned it. God damn it.
Let’s just get to the top 10 brawls of the year, nearly all of which contain links to full fight videos for your viewing pleasure…
#10 — Kevin Souza vs Mark Eddiva: TUF Brazil 3 Finale (Check out Souza vs. Eddiva in its entirety here.)
A classic example of two guys with more heart than brains (or defensive capabilities) leaving it all in the octagon, Kevin Souza vs. Mark Eddiva opened up the FS1 prelims for the TUF Brazil Finale in a huge way.
Watching Souza vs. Eddiva was kind of like watching two women play Tekken for the very first time, in that both fighters only seemed to understand how one button on their controllers worked — for Eddiva it was leg kicks, for Souza it was the overhand right. These two techniques were traded with absolutely zero setup for two highly entertaining rounds, earning both men a $50,000 “Fight of the Night’ bonus in an evening of otherwise unmemorable decisions and memorable-for-all-the-wrong-ways squash matches. It was Souza, however, who walked away from the fight victorious via an always rare standing TKO.
It’s the halfway-ish point of the year, which means that we are a mere six or so months away from handing out our annual Potato Awards in categories such as “MMA Fail of the Year”, “Media Shill of the Year”, and the always coveted “Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year.” But because you Taters have been good this year, we’re going to allow you to open one present early: Our definitive ranking of the best UFC brawls of the year, so far.
It’s been a rocky year for the UFC, to say the absolute least. Pay-per-view numbers are tanking, fan interest is waning due to market oversaturation, and even the promotion’s new video game has been plagued by (albeit hilarious) technical issues. But the great thing about the UFC/MMA in general is that all can be forgiven with a few great fights, and these 10 brawls are undoubtedly the kernels of corn hidden amongst the soggy floor-turds that the UFC has been shitting out this year.
To repeat: This list is only dedicated to the best *brawls* of the year, which implies a fight in which both participants take their fare share of licks. TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao was a one-sided beatdown, albeit a brilliant one-sided beatdown, and therefore bears no mention here. Except that I just mentioned it. God damn it.
Let’s just get to the top 10 brawls of the year, nearly all of which contain links to full fight videos for your viewing pleasure…
#10 – Kevin Souza vs Mark Eddiva: TUF Brazil 3 Finale (Check out Souza vs. Eddiva in its entirety here.)
A classic example of two guys with more heart than brains (or defensive capabilities) leaving it all in the octagon, Kevin Souza vs. Mark Eddiva opened up the FS1 prelims for the TUF Brazil Finale in a huge way.
Watching Souza vs. Eddiva was kind of like watching two women play Tekken for the very first time, in that both fighters only seemed to understand how one button on their controllers worked — for Eddiva it was leg kicks, for Souza it was the overhand right. These two techniques were traded with absolutely zero setup for two highly entertaining rounds, earning both men a $50,000 “Fight of the Night’ bonus in an evening of otherwise unmemorable decisions and memorable-for-all-the-wrong-ways squash matches. It was Souza, however, who walked away from the fight victorious via an always rare standing TKO.
#9 — Yui Chul Nam vs. Kazuki Tokudome: Fight Night 37
The utter ass-whooping that Kazuki Tokudome suffered in the first round of his fight with Yui Chul Nam at Fight Night 37 was comparable only to Maynard-Edgar 1 in terms of its lopsidedness. From the opening bell, Nam blitzkrieged Tokudome with big right hands both in the clinch and on the break, wobbling his Japanese counterpart multiple times in the process. Had Tokudome been that one French guy from TUF 11, he would have surely quit on his stool between rounds.
But as was the case in Maynard-Edgar 1, the second round told a different story entirely. Tokudome scored a huge double leg takedown in the opening stanza, then utilized some heavy top control to peck away at the South Korean with short shots from above. While not able to inflict nearly as much damage on his opponent as he received in the first round, Tokudome arguably earned a 10-8 of his own in the second thanks to his complete positional dominance. “Askrening”, I believe it’s called.
The first half of the third round was much of the same for Tokudome, who despite having both his eyes nearly swollen shut by the strikes of Nam, continued to dominate with top control. But you can never keep a good Nam down, as they say. “The Korean Bulldozer” (awesome nickname, BTW) was eventually able to reverse the position and secure a takedown of his own, which was apparently all he needed to earn a split decision win.
For $10/month, not only do you get to see a bunch of overseas cards not aired in the United States, you get access to the UFC’s entire video library—which includes fights from the WEC and Pride, as well as episodes from TUF.
It wouldn’t have been a bad deal if the UFC’s execution hadn’t been lacking in all departments.
FightOpinion, a firebrand MMA website that has recently earned the ire of Dana White, extensively covered the UFC Fight Pass, and not the fluff coverage the paid for media often provides for anything Zuffa-owned. If you want the dirt on the UFC Fight Pass, FightOpinion has the shovel. They ran three articles on the star-crossed streaming service. You should read each one.
Here’s what they concluded:
-The UFC Fight Pass isn’t worth the money, especially when you consider that you have to pay for 13 PPVs throughout the year as well. It costs over $700 a year to be a UFC fan.
-The UFC Fight Pass doesn’t even work from a promotional point of view; the pay wall ensures that the fighters who need exposure most won’t get it.
-The UFC Fight Pass pales in comparison to the WWE’s digital network, a sentiment we share.
-The UFC Fight Pass is lacking a plethora of features that are standard issue on other digital streaming networks (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc). It’s also in dire need of polish. An example they give is that searching for “UFC 1” will give you every single event starting with “UFC” and “1”, so you’ll get UFC 1, 10, 11…100, 101, etc.)
-The legalese in the UFC Fight Pass’ terms of use agreement is binding and horrific (although this isn’t unique to the UFC).
But FightOpinion wasn’t the only MMA Media outlet to have doubts about the UFC Fight Pass. MMA Mania’s Matt Roth wenton a twitterrantagainstthe service. Even worse, he says that the UFC charged him for watching fights on the Fight Pass—fights that your monthly $10 is purportedly granting you access to.
It’s clear that the Fight Pass is a half-finished cash grab that’s held together by duct tape. If you buy it in its current, faulty incarnation, you’re either a mark for the UFC or an MMA media member (though there’s a lot of crossover here). Stay away from the fight pass for a while longer. It’s not ready for public consumption.
However, that didn’t stop the UFC from airing its first card on the UFC Fight Pass: UFC Fight Night 34, an event that was held in Singapore this morning.
For the most part, there wasn’t a whole lot of game-changing stuff to happen on this event. We’ll give you a quick rundown with some GIFs (all courtesy of @ZProphet_MMA) and then the complete results:
(The UFC, where tapping out doesn’t matter, like the points in “Whose Line is It Anyway?” / Photo Via Getty)
For $10/month, not only do you get to see a bunch of overseas cards not aired in the United States, you get access to the UFC’s entire video library—which includes fights from the WEC and Pride, as well as episodes from TUF.
It wouldn’t have been a bad deal if the UFC’s execution hadn’t been lacking in all departments.
FightOpinion, a firebrand MMA website that has recently earned the ire of Dana White, extensively covered the UFC Fight Pass, and not the fluff coverage the paid for media often provides for anything Zuffa-owned. If you want the dirt on the UFC Fight Pass, FightOpinion has the shovel. They ran three articles on the star-crossed streaming service. You should read each one.
Here’s what they concluded:
-The UFC Fight Pass isn’t worth the money, especially when you consider that you have to pay for 13 PPVs throughout the year as well. It costs over $700 a year to be a UFC fan.
-The UFC Fight Pass doesn’t even work from a promotional point of view; the pay wall ensures that the fighters who need exposure most won’t get it.
-The UFC Fight Pass pales in comparison to the WWE’s digital network, a sentiment we share.
-The UFC Fight Pass is lacking a plethora of features that are standard issue on other digital streaming networks (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc). It’s also in dire need of polish. An example they give is that searching for “UFC 1″ will give you every single event starting with “UFC” and “1″, so you’ll get UFC 1, 10, 11…100, 101, etc.)
-The legalese in the UFC Fight Pass’ terms of use agreement is binding and horrific (although this isn’t unique to the UFC).
But FightOpinion wasn’t the only MMA Media outlet to have doubts about the UFC Fight Pass. MMA Mania’s Matt Roth wenton a twitterrantagainstthe service. Even worse, he says that the UFC charged him for watching fights on the Fight Pass—fights that your monthly $10 is purportedly granting you access to.
It’s clear that the Fight Pass is a half-finished cash grab that’s held together by duct tape. If you buy it in its current, faulty incarnation, you’re either a mark for the UFC or an MMA media member (though there’s a lot of crossover here). Stay away from the fight pass for a while longer. It’s not ready for public consumption.
However, that didn’t stop the UFC from airing its first card on the UFC Fight Pass: UFC Fight Night 34, an event that was held in Singapore this morning.
For the most part, there wasn’t a whole lot of game-changing stuff to happen on this event. We’ll give you a quick rundown with some GIFs (all courtesy of @ZProphet_MMA) and then the complete results:
22-year-old kickboxing ace Max Holloway, who recently suffered a loss to Conor McGregor, returned to the winning column on the prelims.
In the co-main event, famed Japanese fighter Tatsuya Kawajiri made a successful UFC debut, submitting Sean Soriano via rear naked choke in the second round—a submission where the referee literally missed the frantic tapout while he was standing right in front of the fighters.
The main event featured a fight between Tarec Saffiedine and Hyun Gyu Lim. By all accounts the fight was entertaining, but Saffiedine was clearly the better fighter. He made use of his signature leg kicks throughout the fight to cripple Lim, stymieing the Korean’s offensive efforts. Saffiedine walked away with a unanimous decision victory.
Here are the complete results:
Main Card
Tarec Saffiedine def. Hyun Gyu Lim via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47)
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Sean Soriano via technical submission (rear naked choke), 0:50 of Round 2
Kiichi Kunimoto def. Luiz Dutra via DQ (illegal elbows), 2:57 of Round 1
Kyung-Ho Kang def. Shunichi Shimizu via submission (arm triangle), 3:53 of Round 3
Preliminary Card
Max Holloway def. Will Chope via TKO (punches), 2:27 of Round 2
Katsunori Kikuno def. Quinn Mulhern via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Royston Wee def. Dave Galera via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Mairbek Taisumov def. Tae Hyun Bang via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Dustin Kimura def. Jon Delos Reyes via submission (armbar), 2:13 of Round 1
Russell Doane def. Leandro Issa via technical submission (triangle), 4:59 of Round 2
For those of you who weren’t already planning to sleep in tomorrow, CagePotato will be liveblogging the UFC’s first event in China, which will be broadcast pretty damn early in the morning for us Westerners; the main card kicks off on FUEL at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT, so be here if you can.
The weigh-ins went down earlier today, with the Cung Le vs. Rich Franklin main event and eight supporting bouts becoming official — but not everybody made it to the scale. Hours before weigh-ins, doctors declared that Korean rookie Hyun Gyu Lim was medically unfit to compete, and he was pulled from his prelim bout against David Mitchell. Though Lim’s medical issue was not disclosed, MMAWeekly.com says it was a problem related to his weight cut. Mitchell, who was coming in as an injury replacement for Marcelo Guimaraes, will be paid his show money but won’t be competing on the card.
For those of you who weren’t already planning to sleep in tomorrow, CagePotato will be liveblogging the UFC’s first event in China, which will be broadcast pretty damn early in the morning for us Westerners; the main card kicks off on FUEL at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT, so be here if you can.
The weigh-ins went down earlier today, with the Cung Le vs. Rich Franklin main event and eight supporting bouts becoming official — but not everybody made it to the scale. Hours before weigh-ins, doctors declared that Korean rookie Hyun Gyu Lim was medically unfit to compete, and he was pulled from his prelim bout against David Mitchell. Though Lim’s medical issue was not disclosed, MMAWeekly.com says it was a problem related to his weight cut. Mitchell, who was coming in as an injury replacement for Marcelo Guimaraes, will be paid his show money but won’t be competing on the card.
FUEL TV MAIN CARD
Cung Le (186) vs. Rich Franklin (185)
Stanislav Nedkov (203) vs. Thiago Silva (205)
Paulo Thiago (169.5) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (170.5)
Mac Danzig (155) vs. Takanori Gomi (155)
Jon Tuck (156) vs. Tiequan Zhang (155)
Jeff Hougland (135) vs. Takeya Mizugaki (135.5)
FACEBOOK PRELIMS
Motonobu Tezuka (135.5) vs. Alex Caceres (136)
John Lineker (126) vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani (125.5)
Tom DeBlass (185) vs. Riki Fukuda (186)
