(Props: MMA Weekly)
Can’t exactly blame Stephan Bonnar for showing up at the postfight press conference of the “TUF 12” finale this weekend looking like the cat that ate the balding, 6-foot-tall Croatian canary. Something tells me …
“Everyone expected me to brawl,” says a half proud, half sheepish Bonnar in the above vid. “I knew what I was going to do, but I kind of let on that I was going to brawl. I feel sneaky, I feel surreptitious. It feels good, though. I felt a little guilty out there for not going toe-to-toe but hey, I got the win.”
Indeed. Also, someone should tell Bonnar that it’s not “sneaky” to analyze your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses in order to devise a strategy you think gives you the best chance to win. That’s just called, you know, professional fighting.
Filed under: UFCLAS VEGAS – This is “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale live blog for Igor Pokrajac vs. Stephan Bonnar, the co-main event of tonight’s card at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas.
Pokrajac (22-7, 1-2 UFC), one of the main training partners …
LAS VEGAS – This is “The Ultimate Fighter” Finale live blog for Igor Pokrajac vs. Stephan Bonnar, the co-main event of tonight’s card at The Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas.
Pokrajac (22-7, 1-2 UFC), one of the main training partners of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in Croatia, is coming off a submission win over James Irvin in August, which snapped a two-fight losing skid to open his UFC career. Bonnar (12-7, 6-6 UFC), runner-up to Forrest Griffin for the Season 1 light heavyweight title, snapped a three-fight skid in July with a TKO win over Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 116.
Filed under: UFC, NewsStephan Bonnar is past his prime as a UFC fighter, but he showed he has a little fight left in him Saturday night in defeating Igor Pokrajac at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.
With a much better ground game than Pokrajac, Bonnar eas…
Stephan Bonnar is past his prime as a UFC fighter, but he showed he has a little fight left in him Saturday night in defeating Igor Pokrajac at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.
With a much better ground game than Pokrajac, Bonnar easily won a unanimous decision, improving his pro record to 13-7. Pokrajac falls to 22-8 and probably won’t be back in the UFC.
(Above: "Remember, remember, the fourth of December, the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot, brah." Below: You know what to do, honey. / Photos courtesy of UFC.com)
Welcome, fi…
(Above: "Remember, remember, the fourth of December, the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot, brah." Below: You know what to do, honey. / Photos courtesy of UFC.com)
Welcome, fight fans, to the first leg of a liveblog double-header on CagePotato.com. The TUF 12 Finale gets rolling on Spike at 9 p.m. ET, with Team GSP lightweight finalists Jonathan Brookins and Michael Johnson battling for the highly coveted glassware, Stephan Bonnar trying to build a winning streak against Igor Pokrajac, and Demian Maia tangling with rangy TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove. Plus, five other TUF 12 vets will do their best to hang on to their UFC contracts, including Nam Phan, who clashes with hardy slugger Leonard Garcia in the UFC’s first-ever televised 145-pound feature. (Yes, the UFC has featherweights now!)
Round-by-round results await you after the jump; refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest. Please toss in your two cents in the comments section, and don’t forget to check in at our viewing party at PlayPhilo.com for a chance to win a UFC: Ultimate 100 Greatest Fights DVD set.
After watching Stephan Bonnar grind out consistently exciting, if not bloody fights throughout his 5 year UFC career, the no brainer is to stay tuned for his Main Card TUF 12 Finale bout against Igor Pokrajac. But who is Pokrajac and is watching a fight with Bonnar against a virtual unknown worth not tuning […]
After watching Stephan Bonnar grind out consistently exciting, if not bloody fights throughout his 5 year UFC career, the no brainer is to stay tuned for his Main Card TUF 12 Finale bout against Igor Pokrajac. But who is Pokrajac and is watching a fight with Bonnar against a virtual unknown worth not tuning in to the if anything, *interesting line-up Strikeforce has put together
About an hour after the TUF 12 Finale card begins on Spike TV, Strikeforce will be airing its card onShowtime with a match-up between an aging Matt Lindland, who at 40 years old can be summed up as an Olympic wrestler with a spotty MMA record (he’s also a politician) and Robbie Lawlor, whose recent losses were met at the hands of notables, Jake Shields and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Lawlor should grind out the win against Lindland via TKO, but despite the odds stacked against Lindland, he does put in the effort to keep the fight interesting.
Up next on the Strikeforce lineup would be former UFC Welterweight Paul Daley, the guy who got kicked out of the promotion for sucker punching Josh Koscheck after the 3rd round bell. To this day we don’t know exactly what kind of trash-talking Kos did to provoke the punch, but Kos does admit he said something pretty vile. Daley is facing a fellow striker in Scott Smith. The wild nature of Smith’s style and Daley’s technical skills will make for a standup slugfest that should leave Smith on the ground in a TKO.
Finally, the long-awaited rematch, 10 years in the making or that’s what the hype tells us, is the Main Card event between Dan Henderson and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Henderson is a wrestler who’s developed a powerful right hand and Babalu is a crazy jiu-jitsu artist. The fight should go the 3 rounds, as neither fighter is expected to submit and overall this should be a good one.
Let’s skip back over to the TUF 12 Finale. Let’s face it, you can’t claim anyone on this card is at the tail-end of his career. In addition to Stephan Bonnar versus Igor Pokrajac which should be nothing short of a stand-up and possibly blood-shed war, we have Demian Maia paired up against Kendall Grove that may end with Grove tied up in Maia’s masterful jiu-jitsu, but watching “Da Spyda” trying to use his long legs in defense against Maia won’t be boring.
Also on the TUF 12 Main Card are Welterweights Johny Hendricks and Rick Story. Hendricks is from the hailed wrestling Team Takedown and has yet to take a loss in his pro MMA-career. Rick Story is no joke either, as a Southpaw with a four fight win-streak in the UFC. The fight should go a full three grinding rounds leaving Hendricks the victor.
Both Strikeforce and UFC seemed to be very considerate offering some great fights at no cost (if you already pay for cable) but with the fights overlapping, thank goodness we live in a world of “why choose?” when we have those extra special features like DVR and Tivo to enjoy.
According to Stephan Bonnar, there comes a point in every training camp where it becomes so miserable it’s almost fun.
“Every day you go through hell,” said Bonnar. “Pretty soon you’re like, I’m so sick of this. Then you settle in and it just starts growing on you. You kind of accept that the fun’s over. It’s probably kind of like being locked up in jail: the first month or so it sucks and you can’t wait to get out, but then you kind of get used to it and you forget how the good life is.”
Fortunately for Bonnar, he has a parole date in sight. Saturday night he faces Igor Pokrajac at The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale, which means, if nothing else, that his suffering is about to come to an end. For now, anyway.