(It’s what real estate agents would call a “fixer-upper.” / Photo via Getty. Click for larger version.)
Isaac Vallie-Flagg made $50,000 the hard way on Saturday night, when he lost a three-round demolition derby against Takanori Gomi in UFC 172‘s Fight of the Night. Though the fight remained close to the last bell, the judges were no doubt swayed by the fact that Gomi’s face was relatively unmarked, while IVF’s right eye was blown up and his nose was split open. Here’s what they looked like afterwards:
After the jump: Two gnarly photos of Ike from the fight, and a post-fight photo with Jon Jones just because.
(It’s what real estate agents would call a “fixer-upper.” / Photo via Getty. Click for larger version.)
Isaac Vallie-Flagg made $50,000 the hard way on Saturday night, when he lost a three-round demolition derby against Takanori Gomi in UFC 172‘s Fight of the Night. Though the fight remained close to the last bell, the judges were no doubt swayed by the fact that Gomi’s face was relatively unmarked, while IVF’s right eye was blown up and his nose was split open. Here’s what they looked like afterwards:
(“Well if I can’t get this guy to wake up and fight, YOU TRY!! Photo via Getty.)
Blah blah blah standard introductory paragraph that you don’t read blah blah blah UFC returns to Cincinnati with Fight Night 40 blah blah May 10th. Fights booked:
Soa Palelei vs. Ruan Potts – Just over a week after signing with the UFC, EFC Heavyweight champion Ruan Potts will face the streaking Australian Soa Palelei in his promotional debut. Since returning to the UFC (after going 10-1 in various promotions following his one-off stint at UFC 79), Palelei has scored back to back (T)KO’s over Nikita Krylov and Pat Barry. Expect a stand up war between these two that ends inside the distance, Nation.
Justin Salas vs. Ben Wall: A potential “Loser Leaves Town” match pits Salas, who has dropped 2 out of his past 3 including a most recent submission loss to Thiago Tavares in under three minutes, against the 7-1-1 TUF Smashes alum who was starched by Alex Garcia in under a minute at Fight Night 33.
Blah blah blah who do you like blah blah this gif of Genki Sudo:
(“Well if I can’t get this guy to wake up and fight, YOU TRY!! Photo via Getty.)
Blah blah blah standard introductory paragraph that you don’t read blah blah blah UFC returns to Cincinnati with Fight Night 40 blah blah May 10th. Fights booked:
Soa Palelei vs. Ruan Potts – Just over a week after signing with the UFC, EFC Heavyweight champion Ruan Potts will face the streaking Australian Soa Palelei in his promotional debut. Since returning to the UFC (after going 10-1 in various promotions following his one-off stint at UFC 79), Palelei has scored back to back (T)KO’s over Nikita Krylov and Pat Barry. Expect a stand up war between these two that ends inside the distance, Nation.
Justin Salas vs. Ben Wall: A potential “Loser Leaves Town” match pits Salas, who has dropped 2 out of his past 3 including a most recent submission loss to Thiago Tavares in under three minutes, against the 7-1-1 TUF Smashes alum who was starched by Alex Garcia in under a minute at Fight Night 33.
Blah blah blah who do you like blah blah this gif of Genki Sudo:
Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut,Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:
“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”
In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.
Erasing the bitter memory of his unsuccessful Octagon debut,Luke Rockhold began building his own UFC highlight-reel last night at UFC Fight Night 35 with a first-round body-kick TKO of Costa Philippou. Rockhold picked up a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus for the effort. At the post-fight press conference, Rockhold did what every surging middleweight does after a big win — he called out Michael Bisping:
“I’m looking at anyone in the middleweight division to get myself back into (title) position,” Rockhold said. “I already let it be known Bisping’s out there. A lot of people are calling him out, but Bisping went on national TV and told everybody he was the unofficial Strikeforce champion. He calls it a joke and this and that, but I say he’s got bad taste and he needs to pay for it.”
In other bonus news, featherweight Cole Miller won Submission of the Night for his second-round rear-naked choke of Sam Sicilia — which Miller followed up by calling out Donald “Clownboy” Cerrone in the post-fight interview — while middleweights Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson both got $50,000 bumps for FOTN. Highlights from both those matches are embedded at the end of this post.
In injury news, Derek Brunson was taken to a hospital after the event to reportedly have surgery on a fractured jaw. (I’m surprised he didn’t have a bunch of broken ribs as well, thanks to all those elbows that Romero dropped on him in the finish. By the way, was that a late stoppage or what? Referee Blake Grice should have to chip in for Brunson’s medical bills.) Also, Cole Miller broke his hand and will find out today if he needs surgery.
“First of all, I don’t know if anybody remembers this but Georges St. Pierre is the one who said that he wanted to do the extra drug testing because he wanted to prove that he wasn’t on drugs. It wasn’t that he thought that Johny Hendricks was on steroids or performance enhancing drugs of any kind; he wanted to do this…[Y]ou see it in boxing all the time. One guy comes out and says ‘I want to do extra drug testing because I’m worried about this guy and I want to see what’s going on.’ They never come to an agreement. This guy says ‘I want to use this one’, this guy says ‘I want to use that one’; the Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to test them, okay?
“Now, a lot of things… I’ve talked about the Nevada State Athletic Commission as far as the refs and the judges; they drug test. Not only did they drug test Josh Barnett for his last fight because Josh Barnett has been busted for performance enhancing drugs before, they also made Travis Browne do it at the same time and the UFC paid for that. We paid for that drug testing. Also, for him to say we’re very lenient on drug testing, when we go out of the country and we regulate ourselves we test everybody on the card, not just the main event, not just the co-main event. You want to talk about being lenient? The fight that I was screaming about, yelling about that it was the greatest fight I’ve ever seen, Mark Hunt vs. Bigfoot Silva, we tested the guys for that fight, we caught Bigfoot Silva, and he got destroyed. Literally, got destroyed for going over the limit.
“He didn’t test positive, what he did was: Vitor Belfort, Bigfoot Silva, any of these other guys that are on TRT we test them throughout their whole camp. He did his last test the week of the fight and his numbers were fine. He took a shot after he got tested. So we tested him again after and his levels were through the roof and he got destroyed. Lost the win money that we gave him, lost the bonus money that we gave him, and obviously he’s not getting an extra bonus. The guy got smashed, and he’s suspended for a year. So if that’s lenient on drugs I guess we’re lenient then. I mean, I don’t even know what to say to it…
“What I heard is Georges St. Pierre is upset about some of the things I said at the press conference and he’s upset that I said that he didn’t win the fight, that I thought Johny Hendricks won the fight. But if that’s the case, call me man-to-man. Let’s talk on the phone, let’s sit down face-to-face. I talked to him after the fight face-to-face (and) he didn’t say any of that to me. So the whole thing is a little weird…
“And then as far as the other thing he said that we’re a monopoly? Viacom is our competitor. They have a $40 billion market cap. $40 billion. I’m never going to see $40 billion for as long as I live. Neither will the UFC, so we’re not a monopoly either.
“So, everything Georges St. Pierre says is a little kooky. That’s the other thing too: I’m here, I’ve been in Atlanta, I’ve been on planes, and doing all this stuff. Lorenzo reached out to him and Lorenzo still hasn’t heard from him yet. If Georges St. Pierre wants to talk like a man he can pick up the phone and call us or come see us face-to-face, but everything that he said is ridiculous.”
Full results from UFC Fight Night 35 are below; click the links for video highlights from each fight.
(Using so-phisticated technology, Jurassic Park scientists were able to extract the preserved blood from Munoz’s bone spurs and BINGO! Dino DNA. Photo via Munoz’s Twitter.)
Fact: Chris Weidman hits so hard that his victims often fail to quantify the force of his punches until weeks and sometimes months after they’ve been hit. Just ask middleweight contender Mark Munoz, who received such a vicious beating at the hands of Weidman last July that his bones began to disintegrate over the course of the year in an attempt to deal with the shock. Hell, even Weidman’s body cracked under the pressure of possessing two pipe bombs for hands. So it’s quite fitting that, almost a year to the day after their clash at UFC on FUEL 4, both Weidman and Munoz have been booked to return to action at UFC 162.
If you recall, Weidman’s teammate, Costa Phillipou, quickly stepped in as a replacement against Boetsch at UFC 155 and managed to successfully cut “The Barbarian’s” title hopes right out from under him with a series of eye pokes and headbutts that were eventually declared a third round TKO. Prior to the loss, Boetsch had racked up 4 straight wins in the middleweight division over the likes of Hector Lombard and Yushin Okami among others. Will ring rust play a factor in Munoz’s return to the octagon, or will Boetsch launch himself right back into the short list of contenders at middleweight with a win here?
Munoz vs. Boetsch is just one of several exciting matchups to be announced within the past few hours, so join us after the jump to check out the chronologically-sorted list.
(Using so-phisticated technology, Jurassic Park scientists were able to extract the preserved blood from Munoz’s bone spurs and BINGO! Dino DNA. Photo via Munoz’s Twitter.)
Fact: Chris Weidman hits so hard that his victims often fail to quantify the force of his punches until weeks and sometimes months after they’ve been hit. Just ask middleweight contender Mark Munoz, who received such a vicious beating at the hands of Weidman last July that his bones began to disintegrate over the course of the year in an attempt to deal with the shock. Hell, even Weidman’s body cracked under the pressure of possessing two pipe bombs for hands. So it’s quite fitting that, almost a year to the day after their clash at UFC on FUEL 4, both Weidman and Munoz have been booked to return to action at UFC 162.
If you recall, Weidman’s teammate, Costa Phillipou, quickly stepped in as a replacement against Boetsch at UFC 155 and managed to successfully cut “The Barbarian’s” title hopes right out from under him with a series of eye pokes and headbutts that were eventually declared a third round TKO. Prior to the loss, Boetsch had racked up 4 straight wins in the middleweight division over the likes of Hector Lombard and Yushin Okami among others. Will ring rust play a factor in Munoz’s return to the octagon, or will Boetsch launch himself right back into the short list of contenders at middleweight with a win here?
Munoz vs. Boetsch is just one of several exciting matchups to be announced within the past few hours, so join us after the jump to check out the chronologically-sorted list.
UFC on FOX 7 – April 20th
Joseph Benavidez vs. Darren Uyenoyama: The former flyweight title challenger in Benavidez is on the heels of a unanimous decision victory over Ian McCall at UFC 156. Uyenoyama, on the other hand, recently made the drop to flyweight following a successful bantamweight debut victory over Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto at the inaugural UFC on FOX card. The grappling specialist looked more dangerous than ever at 125 lbs, successfully choking out Phil Harris in the second round of their scrap at UFC on FX: Browne vs. Bigfoot.
Johnny Bedford vs. Erik Perez: Despite getting viciously knocked out of the TUF 14 tournament by eventual bantamweight winner John Dodson, Bedford has been killing it ever since entering the deep waters of the UFC’s bantamweight division. The hard-hitting Ohioan cruised past Louis Gaudinot en route to a third round TKO at the TUF 14 Finale before absolutely blistering Marcos Vinicius at the TUF 16 Finale last December. Bedford will have his hands full when he takes on fellow slugger Erik Perez, who has finished all three of his opponents since entering the organization in June of 2012. Here’s a video of his 17-second blitzkrieging of WEC veteran Ken Stone in case you are still questioning how this fight will end.
Sam Stout vs. Isaac Vallie-Flaag: Following a successful promotional debut victory over Yves Edwards at UFC 156, the relatively unknown Vallie-Flaag will be given a very similar test for his sophomore appearance when he faces 15-fight UFC veteran Sam Stout. After getting out-jogged by John Makdessi at UFC 154 (at least according to Stout), “Hands of Stone” rebounded with a unanimous decision victory over Caros Fodor at UFC 157 last month.
(Bobby Green vs. Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennet at KOTC – Fight 4 Hope.)
For obvious reasons, the main focus of Saturday night’s UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar card is on both the headlining title fight and the title implications of an Alistair Overeem win, but that is not to say that there aren’t plenty of intriguing matchups to be had on the undercard as well. Featuring the UFC debuts of a couple Strikeforce veterans and an undefeated Hawaiian prospect, UFC 156 promises to deliver from top to bottom, so join us after the jump to get the inside scoop on all of the unfamiliar faces that will be stepping into the octagon Saturday night.
(Green vs. Dan Lauzon at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.)
(Bobby Green vs. Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennet at KOTC – Fight 4 Hope.)
For obvious reasons, the main focus of Saturday night’s UFC 156: Aldo vs. Edgar card is on both the headlining title fight and the title implications of an Alistair Overeem win, but that is not to say that there aren’t plenty of intriguing matchups to be had on the undercard as well. Featuring the UFC debuts of a couple Strikeforce veterans and an undefeated Hawaiian prospect, UFC 156 promises to deliver from top to bottom, so join us after the jump to get the inside scoop on all of the unfamiliar faces that will be stepping into the octagon Saturday night.
(Green vs. Dan Lauzon at Affliction: Day of Reckoning.)
Bobby “King” Green (LW) Experience: 19-5 (7 KO, 8 Sub), including notable victories over TUF 15 alum Daron Cruickshank, Charles Bennett, and Matt Ricehouse. Multiple appearances under the Strikeforce and KOTC banners, the latter of which he was the junior welterweight champion and undisputed lightweight champion. Will be facing: Jacob Volkmann (15-3, 6-3 UFC, 0-1 Secret Service) Lowdown: Although he is perhaps best known for having two points deducted for low blows in the first round of his fight with Dan Lauzon (see above), Green is a legitimately well-rounded fighter who poses all sorts of problems for Volkmann. A solid submission artist who attacks from any position he is in, look to see Green’s bottom game tested against the smothering top game of Volkmann. Although personally, I think Green’s best chance of victory here will be on the feet, where he could easily stun and possibly finish Volkmann if he can avoid the inevitable takedown.
(Vallie-Flagg, seen here dropping a first round TKO to a waxed linoleum floor.)
Isaac Vallie-Flagg (LW) Experience: 13-3-1 record (5 KO, 3 Sub), including a notable split decision win over Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante at Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier and a notable loss to Rudy Bears. Compiled a 4-1 record under the King of the Cage banner. Will be facing: Yves Edwards (42-18-1, 10-6 UFC) Lowdown: A measured, technical striker with a solid submission game, this Jackson’s MMA product will likely be looking to stick and move his way to a decision victory over the heavy-handed Edwards, who will enjoy both a tremendous experience and grappling advantage heading into this one. Check out a full video of Vallie-Flagg’s Strikeforce debut victory over Cavalcante here.
(Highlights from Kimura’s most recent KO victory over Guy Delumeau at PXC 34.)
Dustin Kimura (FW) Experience: 9-0 (2 KO, 6 Sub), including one appearance under King of the Cage that resulted in a first round submission via rear-naked choke victory over Toby Misech. Will be facing: Chico Camus (12-3, 1-0 UFC) Lowdown: There’s not honestly much out there about this kid, but Kimura has gained notoriety for his solid submission and grappling game, and based on his most recent fight, has made some strong improvements to his standup as well. He’ll be facing a talented grappler and Duke Roufus product in Camus, who demonstrated some fierce ground-n-pound (but some subpar striking) in his UFC debut victory over Dustin Pague at UFC 150. This fight could very well be determined on the feet, with Kimura using his grappling in reverse to showcase his newfound striking prowess.
(See! I told you guys Woodley was in an entertaining fight once!)
Tyron “T-Wood” Woodley (WW) Experience: 10-1 (1 KO, 5 Sub), including an 8-1 run under the Strikeforce banner. Notable victories include Jordan Mein, Paul Daley, and final Strikeforce welterweight champion Tarec Saffeidine. Will be facing: Filling in on short notice for Erick Silva against Jay Hieron (23-6, 0-3 UFC) Lowdown: Honestly, if you don’t know what Tyron Woodley’s gameplan is by now, then you’ve clearly never seen a Tyron Woodley fight. This fight will be determined by one sole factor: whether or not Hieron can stuff Woodley’s endless takedown attempts. Based on his luck in the UFC, I’m betting “The Thoroughbred” wont be able to. Woodley by UD.
