Once in a while, Joe Silva likes to set up a card with an easy narrative. ‘Name’ fighters are given tough, but not too challenging opponents. We all pretend it’s a compelling matchup even though everyone knows who’s going to win. The fight happens, the good guy prevails, and it’s on to the next one. Such is the case with UFC 185.
The problem with this kind of card is that the bookies know who’s going to win too. This makes earning a buck off of watching people fight a bit of a challenge. Unless of course you like lengthy parlays or winning quarters off of 5-1 favourites. Still, this is MMA after all and crazier things have happened than a longshot winning a fight. Take for instance, the fact that Clay Guida has beaten both men vying for the lightweight title. Yes, this Clay Guida.
So with that in mind, let’s take a more in depth look at tomorrow’s UFC 185 card and see where we can earn some money to contribute towards CagePotato’s Patreon*.
*By “CagePotato’s Patreon” I of course mean blackjack and hookers.
By Sam Stilson
Once in a while, Joe Silva likes to set up a card with an easy narrative. ‘Name’ fighters are given tough, but not too challenging opponents. We all pretend it’s a compelling matchup even though everyone knows who’s going to win. The fight happens, the good guy prevails, and it’s on to the next one. Such is the case with UFC 185.
The problem with this kind of card is that the bookies know who’s going to win too. This makes earning a buck off of watching people fight a bit of a challenge. Unless of course you like lengthy parlays or winning quarters off of 5-1 favourites. Still, this is MMA after all and crazier things have happened than a longshot winning a fight. Take for instance, the fact that Clay Guida has beaten both men vying for the lightweight title. Yes, this Clay Guida.
So with that in mind, let’s take a more in depth look at tomorrow’s UFC 185 card and see where we can earn some money to contribute towards CagePotato’s Patreon*.
*By “CagePotato’s Patreon” I of course mean blackjack and hookers.
Like a smaller, stronger Rodney Dangerfield with penciled-on eyebrows, Carla Esparza just can’t get any respect. She’s been the 115 lb. champ for two years (between TUF 20 and other promotions) and has beaten a good chunk of her division already. We all thought Rose Namajunas was going to wreck her with her creative striking and it wasn’t even close. Wrestlers who can’t strike, beat strikers who can’t wrestle. At these odds you have to take the champ.
If this was a kickboxing match, Roy wouldn’t have a chance in hell. But it’s not, it’s MMA, and sometimes all you need is a big overhand right. It worked for Ben Rothwell and Bigfoot Silva against the Reem and I don’t think his chin has gotten any stronger. Fatty trumps Juicehead for a decent payout.
You might be asking, if this fight is so close, how come “The Immortal” isn’t considered a great underdog bet? He pays out 3 to 1! Well, let me direct you to this short clip and then tell me if you feel the same way. There’s more if you’re not convinced.
Johny absolutely deserves to be the favourite in this match-up, but Matt Brown is still being waaaay undervalued. Basically it comes down to game-plan. If Hendricks grinds out a wrestlefest, he’ll win, but if he strikes with Brown like he did with Lawler, this something of a coin-flip. “The Immortal” has a more diverse striking arsenal than Hendricks and also happens to be the toughest sum’bitch on the planet. Whoever emerges victorious deserves the title shot and either man deserves a bet.
Esparza won the UFC’s inaugural strawweight title with her third-round rear-naked choke submission of Rose Namajunas at the TUF 20 Finale in December. “Cookie Monster” was the #1 seed in the TUF 20 bracket due to her previous stint in Invicta FC, where she nabbed that promotion’s strawweight title as well.
Jedrzejczyk is 8-0 professionally and 2-0 in the UFC, with decision wins over Juliana Lima and Claudia Gadelha. A four-time IFMA Muay Thai European champion, J-Jed is perhaps best known for getting up in her opponents’faces during weigh-ins and eating a late punch during her last fight against Gadelha.
Even though Johny Hendricks vs. Matt Brown is arguably a more high-profile fight, Esparza vs. Jedrzejczyk will fill UFC 185’s co-main event spot due to a title being on the line; that’s just how it works. In other UFC 185 booking news…
(“After I won The Ultimate Fighter, they told me I could pick any three toys from the middle shelf.” / Photo via Getty)
Esparza won the UFC’s inaugural strawweight title with her third-round rear-naked choke submission of Rose Namajunas at the TUF 20 Finale in December. “Cookie Monster” was the #1 seed in the TUF 20 bracket due to her previous stint in Invicta FC, where she nabbed that promotion’s strawweight title as well.
Jedrzejczyk is 8-0 professionally and 2-0 in the UFC, with decision wins over Juliana Lima and Claudia Gadelha. A four-time IFMA Muay Thai European champion, J-Jed is perhaps best known for getting up in her opponents’faces during weigh-ins and eating a late punch during her last fight against Gadelha.
Even though Johny Hendricks vs. Matt Brown is arguably a more high-profile fight, Esparza vs. Jedrzejczyk will fill UFC 185′s co-main event spot due to a title being on the line; that’s just how it works. In other UFC 185 booking news…
The incident played out in a way that was very similar to the late punch that Paul Daley threw at Josh Koscheck after their UFC 113 fight had come to its conclusion. White wasted little time firing Daley from the UFC after his late strike, telling those at the post-fight press conference: “He’s done. I don’t give a shit if he’s the best 170-pounder in the world. He’ll never come back here again…I’m probably the most lenient guy in sports. And this is probably one of the most lenient organizations. We’re all human, we all make mistakes, things happen. There’s no excuse for that. These guys are professional athletes. You don’t ever hit a guy blatantly after the bell like that whether you’re frustrated or not. It was probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen…I don’t care if he fights in every show all over the world and becomes the best and everybody thinks he’s the pound-for-pound best in the world. He will never fight in the UFC ever again.”
I guess you could argue that due to the nature of the sport (basically punching another individual in the head), Daley should have gotten off with a strong warning, but White went with the nuclear option and permabanned Daley on the spot.
So, when Gadelha did pretty much the exact same thing after her fight with Jedrzejczyk had come to a close, the expectation would have been for White to appear at the UFC on Fox 13 post-fight press conference red-faced with anger. He didn’t — White more or less just shrugged it off.
(“You can’t put the slap back in the jar.” — Traditional Italian proverb that I just made up. / Photo via Getty)
The incident played out in a way that was very similar to the late punch that Paul Daley threw at Josh Koscheck after their UFC 113 fight had come to its conclusion. White wasted little time firing Daley from the UFC after his late strike, telling those at the post-fight press conference: “He’s done. I don’t give a shit if he’s the best 170-pounder in the world. He’ll never come back here again…I’m probably the most lenient guy in sports. And this is probably one of the most lenient organizations. We’re all human, we all make mistakes, things happen. There’s no excuse for that. These guys are professional athletes. You don’t ever hit a guy blatantly after the bell like that whether you’re frustrated or not. It was probably one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen…I don’t care if he fights in every show all over the world and becomes the best and everybody thinks he’s the pound-for-pound best in the world. He will never fight in the UFC ever again.”
I guess you could argue that due to the nature of the sport (basically punching another individual in the head), Daley should have gotten off with a strong warning, but White went with the nuclear option and permabanned Daley on the spot.
So, when Gadelha did pretty much the exact same thing after her fight with Jedrzejczyk had come to a close, the expectation would have been for White to appear at the UFC on Fox 13 post-fight press conference red-faced with anger. He didn’t — White more or less just shrugged it off.
The UFC president said of Gadelha’s actions, “People were going crazy on that one. She hit her after the bell, she did this, she did that.’ And then of course everybody goes back to Daley. ‘You kicked Daley out for that.’ The difference is this: when Daley did it to Koscheck, I was in there, and I went up to Daley because he was getting pulled around, and he didn’t care. He didn’t give a s–t. He looked right at me and said he didn’t care. As soon as (Gadelha) did it to (Jedrzejczyk), she reached her hand out and she apologized to her. She said ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ She apologized.” White then added, “Those two had a war. They’re in the heat of a battle. She landed a kick and then the bell rang, and then she hit her with a punch. And then she completely apologized for doing it. Totally different scenario.”
Yeah, no. It’s the same thing. She punched her opponent after the horn had sounded to end the fight. The only difference is that prior to this fight Gadelha was being touted as a potential title contender in a very thin weight class. In other words, the UFC needs to keep her around for the sake of the strawweight division. Daley was more or less expendable at the time he committed his foul.
White’s “she completely apologized” excuse for not punishing Gadelha for the illegal strike is almost as laughable as UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s claim of, “I don’t think she was trying to hit her there, I think she was trying to like high five her or something.”
Remorse or lack of remorse should have nothing to do with how these things are dealt with because there’s no way to tell if the remorse is legitimate or feigned. When someone is caught red-handed doing something they shouldn’t, of course they’re going to go through some sort of calculation as to how they can get out of trouble or at least minimize the punishment. (For the record, Daley apologized the next day after cheap-shotting Koscheck.)
How White can discern the level of real remorse that Gadelha had after the late punch is beyond me. Yet there he was proclaiming that he knew that Gadelha was sorry for her actions because, you know, she acted like she was sorry. If that’s all it takes to get out of trouble with White, one can only imagine the havoc that his children get away with.
The bottom line is Gadelha broke the same rule that Daley did in pretty much the same way Daley did, and she walked away from it without even getting a stern look from the UFC boss.
In other words, hypocritical business as usual for the UFC’s head honcho.
UFC on FOX 12 weigh-ins went down earlier today in San Jose, and no, they did not proceed without incident. Most notably, Matt Brown came in way heavy on his first attempt, tipping the scales at 172.5 pounds for his welterweight headliner against Robbie Lawler. Usually, a fighter in his position would grit his teeth and go back to the sauna for an hour. But due to a weird miscommunication, that didn’t happen. FOX Sports’s Marc Raimondi has the report:
[After missing weight], Brown was advised by a commission doctor that he should not continue to cut weight. By rule, a fighter has another hour to try to make weight. Brown thought the doctor was telling him he would not be allowed to weigh in again, according to CSAC executive officer Andy Foster.
“There’s a difference between advisement from a doctor and a directive by a doctor,” Foster told FOX Sports.
When a fighter misses weight in California, he or she must forfeit 20 percent of his or her purse, 10 percent to the commission and 10 percent to the opponent. After a discussion between the UFC and commission officials, the CSAC decided not to fine Brown.
“We were just looking after his health and safety, but I was going to let him on [the scale again],” Foster said. “I was going to give him his time. Chalk it up to miscommunication.”
UFC on FOX 12 weigh-ins went down earlier today in San Jose, and no, they did not proceed without incident. Most notably, Matt Brown came in way heavy on his first attempt, tipping the scales at 172.5 pounds for his welterweight headliner against Robbie Lawler. Usually, a fighter in his position would grit his teeth and go back to the sauna for an hour. But due to a weird miscommunication, that didn’t happen. FOX Sports’s Marc Raimondi has the report:
[After missing weight], Brown was advised by a commission doctor that he should not continue to cut weight. By rule, a fighter has another hour to try to make weight. Brown thought the doctor was telling him he would not be allowed to weigh in again, according to CSAC executive officer Andy Foster.
“There’s a difference between advisement from a doctor and a directive by a doctor,” Foster told FOX Sports.
When a fighter misses weight in California, he or she must forfeit 20 percent of his or her purse, 10 percent to the commission and 10 percent to the opponent. After a discussion between the UFC and commission officials, the CSAC decided not to fine Brown.
“We were just looking after his health and safety, but I was going to let him on [the scale again],” Foster said. “I was going to give him his time. Chalk it up to miscommunication.”
Foster said he spoke to Brown and his cornermen about three minutes after Brown weighed in. Foster said he asked Brown whether or not he would be making a second attempt.
“He said, ‘I’ll take the fine,’” Foster said. “His corner told me he’d take the fine. I’m going to chalk that up to a miscommunication as him thinking we told him absolutely not. Maybe a miscommunication error. But he did tell me he would take the fine.”
Foster said it’s understandable Brown could have misinterpreted the doctor’s words and the commission will look to remedy this potential problem in the future.
“I get it,” Foster said. “He’s been cutting, he’s foggy. And we’ll certainly learn from this experience and be very clear following this.”
And so, Brown will not be fined, and he’s still eligible for post-fight bonuses. Following the weigh-in debacle, Sean Shelby played a little prank on Dana White, telling the UFC president that Robbie Lawler was refusing to go through with the fight. Hilarity ensued.
Also blowing weight today was strawweight fighter Juliana Lima, who came in at 116.5 pounds on her second attempt, and will be fined 20% of her purse. Lima’s post-weigh-in face-off with Joanna Jedrzejczyk was one of the most epicly uncomfortable moments in recent UFC history:
Full UFC on FOX 12 weigh-in results are below.
Robbie Lawler (171) vs. Matt Brown (*172.5)
Anthony Johnson (204.5) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (205.5)
Clay Guida (145) vs. Dennis Bermudez (146)
Josh Thomson (155) vs. Bobby Green (155.5)
Jorge Masvidal (155.5) vs. Daron Cruickshank (155.5)
Kyle Kingsbury (204.5) vs. Patrick Cummins (206)
Tim Means (170.5) vs. Hernani Perpetuo (171)
Mike de la Torre (146) vs. Brian Ortega (145.5)
Tiago dos Santos e Silva (155) vs. Akbarh Arreola (155.5)
Steven Siler (146) vs. Noad Lahat (145)
Gilbert Burns (170) vs. Andreas Stahl (171)
Joanna Jedrzejczyk (115) vs. Juliana de Lima Carneiro (**116.5)
