Bum Rush Rant: Jorge Rivera is Sick of Round Winners Who Call Themselves Fighters

("Fight, you bastard. If you want to have a dance-off, I’ll kick your ass in that too.")
A hot topic of debate at Cage Potato lately is whether or not the recent trend of wrestlers who are content to win fights by earning decisions via take…


("Fight, you bastard. If you want to have a dance-off, I’ll kick your ass in that too.")

A hot topic of debate at Cage Potato lately is whether or not the recent trend of wrestlers who are content to win fights by earning decisions via take downs and lay and pray is hurting the sport.

We asked UFC middleweight Jorge Rivera for his opinion on the subject during the latest episode of The Bum Rush Radio Show and El Conquistador didn’t pull any punches when explaining his take on the issue.

Rivera, who squares off with fellow slugger Alessio Sakara tomorrow at UFC 122 in Germany, says that he specifically asked for the fight with the former pro-boxer because he knows that Legionarius, like him, is a fighter who always steps into the Octagon to fight.

"I asked for this fight. Alessio’s a great fight. He’s tough, he’s got great stand-up and he comes forward. I asked for this fight. I always want tough fights. I know he’s gonna bring it. I know it’s gonna be a tough fight. I know it’s no walk in the park," Rivera explains. "You’re gonna see a good stand-up brawl and one of us is gonna get knocked out. I’m alright with that. I give the fans what they want. This is what we do. We both no what we’re getting into and we both agree to it, so let’s do it."

He says that guys who time and time again seem to be content to take a decision by being conservative and just doing the minimum necessary to win are in essence stealing from the fans.

"I was a fan before I was ever a fighter. I’m still a fan and I’m a fan of even some of the guys I fight against. I like watching them fight for various reasons. I hate watching boring fighters. You’re gonna pay 50 bucks to sit at home and watch some guy be boring. They build up all this hype around this guy and a guy puts you to sleep and you’re like, ‘What the fuck!?’ I’m not the only one. You’ve got ten million people who say the same shit. That’s not what I want to do. I want to be the exact opposite," Rivera explains. "When my name is called up, I want people to be like, ‘Hell yeah!’ because they know there’s going to be a fight. Even with this fight they know their gonna get a fight with me and Alessio. They know that. Everybody knows that we’re gonna fight. I know he’s not gonna run from me, he knows I’m not gonna run from him, and you know we both throw bombs. You guys know you’re gonna get your money’s worth. If all nine of the fights suck, ours isn’t going to. You’re gonna remember our fight for sure. That’s what I want."

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Nate Marquardt: GSP Will Destroy Jake Shields

Filed under: UFCJake Shields was the reigning Strikeforce middleweight champion and before that the reigning EliteXC welterweight champion, and so when he signed with the UFC, there was some question of which weight class he would pick.

Shields chose …

Filed under:

Jake Shields was the reigning Strikeforce middleweight champion and before that the reigning EliteXC welterweight champion, and so when he signed with the UFC, there was some question of which weight class he would pick.

Shields chose welterweight, beat Martin Kampmann by split decision in his first UFC fight, and will get the next crack at UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre if St. Pierre beats Josh Koscheck next month.

But just because Shields won his first fight doesn’t necessarily mean that welterweight was the right choice. And one UFC middleweight, Nate Marquardt, believes that Shields’ style of using his grappling to control his opponents on the ground would have been much more successful if he didn’t have to cut down to 170 pounds.

Eight MMA Fighters Who Desperately Need a Stoppage Victory

By CagePotato contributor Dan “siksik6” Teague
#8: Gray Maynard When fans and fighters complain about wrestlers in MMA, they’re talking about Gray Maynard. He takes fighters down because that’s what he’s good at. In Maynard’s nine-figh…

By CagePotato contributor Dan “siksik6” Teague

#8: Gray Maynard
Gray Maynard
When fans and fighters complain about wrestlers in MMA, they’re talking about Gray Maynard. He takes fighters down because that’s what he’s good at. In Maynard’s nine-fight UFC career, he has just one stoppage, a KO of Joe Veres over three years ago. He’s earned his title shot not because of his performances, but rather because what the hell else do you do with a guy who’s undefeated and has won eight straight fights, including one over the current champ? Cole Miller said it best: Taking people down should be a means to an end. Gray needs to start having some refs pull him off of people if he’s ever going to have any drawing power.

#7: Ben Askren
Ben Askren Bellator champion ring girls
Ben Askren is just starting to make his way into mainstream MMA discussions. However, it’s not exactly a heralded arrival. The kid makes picking strawberries look like it belongs in the X Games. His last “stoppage” was a controversial sub over Ryan Thomas, who promptly and correctly displayed his best WTFIYP face. Before that it was a north-south choke over some guy you’ve never heard of in some organization you’ve never heard of back in August of ’09. For his last fight, in which he won the Bellator welterweight strap, he came about as close to finishing Lyman Good as I did. I was on the couch eating Mayfield Butter Pecan ice cream. It was delicious. As a title holder for an up-and-coming organization, Askren needs to show more of a killer instinct if he ever wants his fights to be broadcast by anyone other than Fox Sports South.

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State of the UFC Welterweights

Filed under: UFCNovember is a month without any title fights, which makes it a good time to take a long view of the future title picture in each weight class. Today we look at the welterweight division.

George St. Pierre’s dominance over the welterwei…

Filed under:

November is a month without any title fights, which makes it a good time to take a long view of the future title picture in each weight class. Today we look at the welterweight division.

George St. Pierre‘s dominance over the welterweight division looked so great after his beatdown of Dan Hardy in March that it was starting to look like the UFC might have a little trouble selling anyone else as a credible threat to St. Pierre, who had already defeated all of the UFC’s other top welterweights.

But two things have happened since then: The UFC signed Jake Shields and he won his first fight in the Octagon to become the No. 1 welterweight contender, and the current season of The Ultimate Fighter has done a good job of building up some heat for St. Pierre’s upcoming fight with Josh Koscheck. So the UFC’s welterweight division is in good shape going forward, and we’ll look at the key fighters and key fights below.

Martin Kampmann Describes His Performance Against Jake Shields In One Word: Sh*tty

Our friends at RawVegas.tv caught up with UFC Welterweight, Martin Kampmann over the weekend as he participated in Randy Couture’s GI Foundation charity poker tournament. Kampmann had few words to describe his performance at UFC 121 against Jake Shields, referring to it with one word, several times: “shitty”. Kampmann also responds to questions […]

Our friends at RawVegas.tv caught up with UFC Welterweight, Martin Kampmann over the weekend as he participated in Randy Couture’s GI Foundation charity poker tournament. Kampmann had few words to describe his performance at UFC 121 against Jake Shields, referring to it with one word, several times: “shitty”. Kampmann also responds to questions on whether or not Shields deserves the next titleshot and who he’d like to meet next in the Octagon. Full video below:

Watch Martin Kampmann Talks About His Fight With Jake Shields on RawVegas.tv

Jake Ellenberger Tries to Trash-Talk His Way Into Jake Shields Fight, Gets Jon Fitch Instead

(In case you’ve completely forgotten what he looks like, this is Jake Ellenberger.)
Immediately after Jake Shields notched an ugly decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, welterweight vet Jake Ellenberger logged onto Twitter and started posting…

Jake Ellenberger UFC
(In case you’ve completely forgotten what he looks like, this is Jake Ellenberger.)

Immediately after Jake Shields notched an ugly decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, welterweight vet Jake Ellenberger logged onto Twitter and started posting short-message bombs directed at the former Strikeforce champ. Highlights included, "Jake Shields, you’re as exciting as watching a bowl of mash potatoes get cold…Your days are numbered" and "Jake Shields’ cardio won’t be a factor if he fights me next. I won’t keep him around long enough to get tired."

(As cheap as it is for Ellenberger to talk smack over Twitter — without even including ‘@jakeshieldsajj‘ in his posts so that Jake will actually see them — we have to commend him for being the first MMA fighter in Twitter history to understand the difference between "you’re" and "your." Okay, nerdy grammar rant over.)

Since Ellenberger is just 2-1 in the UFC with wins over fellow mid-packers Mike Pyle and John Howard, we didn’t think for a second that he’d get Jake Shields pulled from his impending title fight just on the strength of his eDisses. And he didn’t. Instead, Ellenberger got a fight against Jon Fitch.

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