Until he came up against Colby Covington, Bryan Barberena looked invincible with nine wins in his last ten fights, including victories over the likes of reputable fighters such as Sage Northcutt and Warlley Alves. However, Colby Covington really brought Barbereba back to earth with a one sided decision victory. Still, there is no taking away […]
Until he came up against Colby Covington, Bryan Barberena looked invincible with nine wins in his last ten fights, including victories over the likes of reputable fighters such as Sage Northcutt and Warlley Alves. However, Colby Covington really brought Barbereba back to earth with a one sided decision victory.
Still, there is no taking away the threat that Bryan Barberena is. Of his nine victories, a staggering 8 of them are via knockout! Barbereba isn’t playing games, that is for sure.
On the other hand, we have Joe Proctor (11 – 4) whose victories against Jordan Rinaldi and Chris Tickle came prior to his defeat at the hands of James Vick.
His last outing did not go too well either, he was knocked out b Magomed Mstafaev. However, that fight was 16 months ago and Proctor has not fought since. Has he been hard at work at training? We will have to wait and see on UFC fight night 108.
We can see this fight progressing for more than a couple of rounds, but sooner or later, Barberena is going to prove too much for the out of touch Proctor. We are going with a Barereba victory via a technical knock – out.
Live results from the FOX Sports 1 main card will be after the jump beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, courtesy of Matt Saccaro. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest updates, and shoot us your own thoughts on twitter @cagepotatomma. Thanks for being here.
(Shaking is customary, but wiggling is also acceptable. / Photo via Getty)
Live results from the FOX Sports 1 main card will be after the jump beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, courtesy of Matt Saccaro. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest updates, and shoot us your own thoughts on twitter @cagepotatomma. Thanks for being here.
PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
– Felice Herrig vs. Lisa Ellis
– Heather Jo Clark def. Bec Rawlings via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
– Joanne Calderwood def. Seo Hee Ham via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).
– Tecia Torres def. Angela Magana via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
– Aisling Daly def. Alex Chambers via submission (arm bar), 4:53 of round 1.
– Angela Hill def. Emily Kagan via unanimous decisio (30-27, 30-26, 30-27).
Headliner Donald Cerrone became the fifth UFC fighter in history to earn ten performance bonuses, thanks to his second-round knockout of Jim Miller, which netted him a $50,000 bump for Performance of the Night. Fun fact: Cerrone has earned $610,000 in bonus money during his three-and-a-half-year UFC career…and counting. Check out highlights from Cerrone vs. Miller in the video above. At the 0:38-0:41 mark, Jim Miller tries to recreate Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell and fails. But man, that would have been awesome.
Fight of the Night went to the John Lineker vs. Alptekin Ozkilic flyweight feature, which Lineker won by TKO with nine seconds remaining in the fight. Highlights from that match are after the jump, along with footage from Edson Barboza‘s body-kick TKO of Evan Dunham, Joe Proctor’s gritty win over Justin Salas, and Rick Story‘s squash match submission against Leonardo Mafra.
Headliner Donald Cerrone became the fifth UFC fighter in history to earn ten performance bonuses, thanks to his second-round knockout of Jim Miller, which netted him a $50,000 bump for Performance of the Night. Fun fact: Cerrone has earned $610,000 in bonus money during his three-and-a-half-year UFC career…and counting. Check out highlights from Cerrone vs. Miller in the video above. At the 0:38-0:41 mark, Jim Miller tries to recreate Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell and fails. But man, that would have been awesome.
Fight of the Night went to the John Lineker vs. Alptekin Ozkilic flyweight feature, which Lineker won by TKO with nine seconds remaining in the fight. Highlights from that match are after the jump, along with footage from Edson Barboza‘s body-kick TKO of Evan Dunham, Joe Proctor’s gritty win over Justin Salas, and Rick Story‘s squash match submission against Leonardo Mafra.
Jake Ellenberger vs Martin Kampmann Ellenberger is of course the guy that keeps on coming. Kampmann also keeps moving forward as well. Both fighters have more than 40 fights combined and only 9 wins via decision. These guys finish their fights. Ellenberger is favored -210 at 5Dimes with Kampmann sitting at -175. Kampmann is going
Jake Ellenberger vs Martin Kampmann
Ellenberger is of course the guy that keeps on coming. Kampmann also keeps moving forward as well. Both fighters have more than 40 fights combined and only 9 wins via decision. These guys finish their fights.
Ellenberger is favored -210 at 5Dimes with Kampmann sitting at -175. Kampmann is going to get taken down, but if he can avoid the take downs, Kampmann is the better striker. Kampmann is not a bad bet here in the underdog position as he recently beat Thiago Alves with a surprise punch and guillotine combo that shocked everyone as he was losing the entire fight. That could happen again here IF Kampmann can stop the takedowns from Ellenberger. I’ve got Ellenberger winning.
Jonathan Brookins vs Charles Oliveira
Jonathan Brookins always in good in the top game as well as the wrestling department. He has a good fight IQ, but is not a great finisher. Oliveira is good on the feet and on the ground (although hes been beat there before). Oliveira has been up and down in the past, but possesses incredible all around skills.
I’ve got Oliveira winning.
Justin Lawrence vs John Cofer
Justin Lawrence is an interesting talent. He’s like an American Denis Siver. I think Lawrence is going to win.
Myles Jury vs Chris Saunders
Another good fight.
Daron Cruickshank vs Chris Tickle
Tickle is tough, while Cruickshank is skilled. I think Cruickshank is going to showcase is striking skills in this coming out party of a fight. Tickle is a brawler with mediocre at best ground skills. However, he packs heat with his punches and Cruickshank doesn’t protect his chin well. However, like I said previously, I think Cruickshank will win.
Cristiano Marcello vs Sam Sicilia
Marcello possesses terrible standing game, while Sicilia has poor ground game. If Marcello can’t get this fight to the ground Sicilia is going to win. If this hits the ground, Marcello will win in short fashion.
Coach Dominick Cruz and his coaches are giddy on how good they think James Vick will be. At one point they are off in a corner of the gym almost snickering at how no one but them knows how good the lanky young fighter is.
“He’s making it to the finals,” Cruz says.
Cruz says that Vick listens well and is an open book.
Dana White comes in and for some reason is the one to make the announcement that Cruz has torn his ACL and is out of the fight with Faber, though he will stay on as coach. We all knew at this point that Cruz had injured himself this week, but I guess I expected that this week’s episode would have footage and put a little more drama into it.
It is just as well because we need all the time we can get for tonight’s two matchups of Cruz’ James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Faber’s Mike Chiesa.
Coach Dominick Cruz and his coaches are giddy on how good they think James Vick will be. At one point they are off in a corner of the gym almost snickering at how no one but them knows how good the lanky young fighter is.
“He’s making it to the finals,” Cruz says.
Cruz says that Vick listens well and is an open book.
Dana White comes in and for some reason is the one to make the announcement that Cruz has torn his ACL and is out of the fight with Faber, though he will stay on as coach. We all knew at this point that Cruz had injured himself this week, but I guess I expected that this week’s episode would have footage and put a little more drama into it.
It is just as well because we need all the time we can get for tonight’s two matchups of Cruz’ James Vick vs. Joe Proctor and Justin Lawrence vs. Faber’s Mike Chiesa.
Fight Time!
Proctor vs. Vick
Rd 1
Vick backs up Proctor with jab and left kick feints for a minute then lands a one-two-three to the body combo. More feints and pawing jabs from Vick as he stalks Proctor.
At just under a minute, Proctor shoots in for a double leg takedown but gets stuffed by Vick. Proctor lands a clean over hand right to Vick’s chin.
Vick forces a Thai plum and lands knees to the body and his own overhand right. Vick lands an uppercut, Proctor lands a cross, hook combo. Vick responds with his own cross that lands. Proctor fires back, lands and Vick hits back with a head kick that is mostly blocked.
Vick lands a right cross from a distance, using his reach. Proctor comes in closer, throws a body kick but is countered with a left hook. Another uppercut from Vick lands. Proctor lands a straight cross, Vick swings and misses with a head kick.
Rd 2
Vick keeping Proctor at the end of his long arms with feints. And a left body kick and left jab.
Proctor shoots in and gets a big slam but Vick stands right back up. Proctor grabs hold of Vick’s next from the side with a rear-naked choke type grip, Vick defends and gets a single leg takedown – landing in side mount.
Vick looks indecisive and uncomfortable from the side mount and stands up, letting Proctor go. Proctor lands a nice right hand to the face. Vick lands an uppercut to the head and two knees to the body.
Proctor counters an uppercut from Vick with a straight cross with thirty seconds left. Proctor finally making Vick pay for keeping his hands so low and lands two more right crosses.
–
Decision time!
Vick wins both rounds on all judges’ scorecards. “I feel like everything is coming together for me at the right time.”
Fight Time!
Chiesa vs. Lawrence
Rd 1
Lots of feints and then the young Lawrence begins making mistakes. First, he throws a head kick with no set up at the wrestler Chiesa, who uses that to slam him onto the ground. Lawrence snaps back up to his feet where he is pressed up against the cage by Chiesa.
From there, Lawrence turns and gives up his back while trying to escape, gets taken down with Chiesa on his back. Lawrence successfully turns into Chiesa and puts him on his back, in full guard.
Chiesa shoots his hips up for an armbar attempt. Lawrence stands and defends. Chiesa slaps on a triangle attempt and again Lawrence defends. He is in Chiesa’s half guard now, raining punches down.
Chiesa recomposes to the full guard and locks it up high. From the full guard Chiesa throws non-stop combinations of sweep, keylock and guillotine attempts at Lawrence, who defends. Lawrence backs Chiesa up on the fence but Chiesa manages to throw another triangle attempt on with under one minute left. Chiesa throws elbows to Lawrence’s head from the triangle position until the horn sounds.
Rd 2.
Lawrence comes out with a body kick and almost gets taken down again for it. Coach Cruz immediately begins yelling out that he should use “boxing only” on his feet to avoid making Chiesa’s job of taking him down easier.
Lawrence doesn’t and immediately throws a head kick. Now Lawrence is swinging with his fists – he lands a big overhand right and then a left hook that stuns Chiesa. Lawrence lands another left hook but follows up with a body kick that Chiesa grabs and nearly takes him down with again.
Lawrence frees himself up and Cruz yells out that he throw no more kicks. Lawrence lands another big overhand right, followed by a left hook-overhand right combo to the head of Chiesa.
Chiesa throws a double jab, Lawrence backs straight up, and the second jab lands. Chiesa throws a spinning reverse elbow but Lawrence closes the distance, jams him up and the elbow doesn’t land. Chiesa throws and lands a flying knee to the head of Lawrence.
Lawrence is finding his range now, mixing up head and body punches in combos. One body shot lands flush and drops Chiesa to the mat, face first!
Lawrence follows up and throws punches at the turtled-up Chiesa. Lawrence then chooses to grab the torso of the downed Chiesa, giving Mike a chance to go for a submission.
Chiesa grabs ahold of Lawrence’s left arm and torques a keylock. Lawrence stands and defends. Lawrence back in Chiesa’s full guard. Chiesa lands elbows, Lawrence stands with five seconds left and throws punches. The horn sounds.
Dana White is in the cage, announces that we are going to a sudden death victory round three!
Rd 3
Chiesa throws a knee, Lawrence grabs it and slams him to the mat. Lawrence is in Chiesa’s full guard. Chiesa sits up and sweeps Lawrence over.
Chiesa is in mount and begins raining down punches on Lawrence. Lawrence covers up but makes no attempt to escape and most of Chiesa’s punches get through.
The referee stops the bout one minute into the third round. The gym erupts in cheers and hooting from Team Faber.
Chiesa tells Jon Anik that this was the toughest fight of his career.
This week’s matchup between Joe Proctor and Chris Tickle seems to be a study in contrast. Proctor has been quiet thus far, with his nose to the grindstone in training. Tickle has been loud, full of bravado, while annoying his coaches by finding ways not to train during practices.
Similarly, both sides seem to agree that Proctor is the more technical fighter, with the ability to finish on the ground while Tickle is a powerful brawler that needs to avoid the ground. But before we can get to that fight, Tickle showed up drunk to last week’s.
After his teammate loses and he is selected to fight Proctor, we see Tickle giggling, talking smack and pushing his coach Dominick Cruz over the edge. We are told, and its not hard to believe, that Tickle got crunk prior to the bout.
Coach Cruz is in no mood for jokes after losing his second straight in the locker room and tells Tickle to “shut up. Shut up.” “What are you doing?” Cruz asks Tickle.
“Nothing,” Tickle replies. “I’m being me.”
Coach Cruz, and perhaps the viewing nation, simply replies, “why?”
Last week’s episode ended with Tickle getting in Urijah Faber and Proctor’s face when the match up was announced. Proctor teammate Al Iaqunita, fresh off his own win, believes that Tickle’s courage is liquid-based.
This week’s matchup between Joe Proctor and Chris Tickle seems to be a study in contrast. Proctor has been quiet thus far, with his nose to the grindstone in training. Tickle has been loud, full of bravado, while annoying his coaches by finding ways not to train during practices.
Similarly, both sides seem to agree that Proctor is the more technical fighter, with the ability to finish on the ground while Tickle is a powerful brawler that needs to avoid the ground. But before we can get to that fight, Tickle showed up drunk to last week’s.
After his teammate loses and he is selected to fight Proctor, we see Tickle giggling, talking smack and pushing his coach Dominick Cruz over the edge. We are told, and its not hard to believe, that Tickle got crunk prior to the bout.
Coach Cruz is in no mood for jokes after losing his second straight in the locker room and tells Tickle to “shut up. Shut up.” “What are you doing?” Cruz asks Tickle.
“Nothing,” Tickle replies. “I’m being me.”
Coach Cruz, and perhaps the viewing nation, simply replies, “why?”
Last week’s episode ended with Tickle getting in Urijah Faber and Proctor’s face when the match up was announced. Proctor teammate Al Iaqunita, fresh off his own win, believes that Tickle’s courage is liquid-based.
“Tickle was hammered at the fight tonight. When he wakes up and finds out he has to fight Proctor, he’s going to shit himself,” Iaquinta laughs.
Cruz continues his dressing down of Tickle. “Do me a favor and just try to keep your mouth shut for this next week,” he says. “And no more drinking.”
Cruz explains during an interview later that he actually loves Tickle and his personality. “He cracks me up…he has a good heart.”
Tickle, perhaps still drunk, takes Cruz aside in the training center and makes a request. He tells Cruz to fuck all that technique shit, he needs to be “pushed,” in terms of conditioning. Well, no one’s conditioning is likely to improve in the week of their fight, and Cruz has been trying to push Tickle for a month now, with much push back from Chris.
Cruz is flabbergasted at Tickle’s lack of self-awareness.
“’I don’t want to tell you how to coach me, but push me.’ Alright Tickle. Good advice!” Cruz
Back in the house, Tickle weighs himself on the scale – he’s 168.5 pounds. The lightweights will need to weigh in at a maximum of 156 the day before their fight. Proctor, who says he likes Tickle and that they talk every day, walks in to the house after Tickle and is goaded into weighing in in front of his opponent.
He does, and he’s over 175. Still, there’s no chance that the Joe-Lauzon protégé will miss weight after his coach has mercilessly teased fellow TUF 5 cast mate Gabe Ruediger, will he?
Cut to Tickle eating three corn dogs in his bed. Well, he seems to have the weight thing under control.
Tickle’s Team Cruz team member Justin Lawrence expresses his disgust at Tickle’s attitude. “Every day you don’t get coached by a world champion like Dom. You’ve got to be able to take this opportunity that he’s giving you, and just soak it up,” Lawrence preaches.
Lawrence turns his judging eye to injured teammate Mike Rio next. Rio, one of the oldest in the house, is talking about his injured knee to Lawrence. The 21 year-old dispassionately responds by saying MMA is a “young man’s game.”
Rio says he feels that he has ten more years in him if he can stay healthy. Lawrence says, “Really? See, I think at the age 30, you’re done.”
Rio is 30 years old. Dick move, Lawrence.
At the next day’s training, Cruz calls Tickle over, but not to yell at him. The coach wants to apologize to the fighter.
“I was very frustrated last night and I let it come out and I apologize for that,” Cruz tells Tickle.
Cruz says he’s making today’s practice a hard one. He wants his fighters to be put in “tough situations [that] challenge their brain and their heart.”
On that note, Rio and Lawrence are sparring and things are about to get intense. Cruz explains that he makes spinning kicks illegal in sparring for his guys because he’s seen nasty KO’s from them and wants to keep things safer in practice.
Lawrence still throws a spinning heel kick at Rio and the old man gets pissed. A shouting match ensues between the two but Cruz doesn’t seem to much mind. “They got angry at each other. Good. They are already fighting each other,” he says with a wide grin.
Rio says later during an interview that he was pissed so decided to give a little extra mustard on the ground to Lawrence and “pop” his arm in an arm bar. Cruz makes Lawrence and Rio continue sparring one another and Rio appears to use his anger to school Lawrence on the ground.
Rio shoots in, takes Lawrence down, arm bars him, and their round ends with Lawrence downed once again, his back taken by Rio. Lawrence storms off, presumably in search of the supposed benefits of his youth.
“Rio stepped up,” Cruz says. “And Justin, when he doesn’t kick your ass, he starts getting frustrated with himself.”
Cruz talks with Lawrence after practice, calming him down and explaining to him that he needs to start relying on his mind as much as he does on his physical gifts. “You’ve got to find different ways to win other than [with] power, athleticism and speed…now you’ve got to think each round,” Cruz explains calmly.
Now’s the time we learn a little bit more about Proctor and Tickle’s lives outside of the Octagon. Both men say they’ve used MMA training to lift themselves out rough situations during their youths.
Proctor was raised by his grandparents, his father in jail during his youth and his mom out of the picture. He goes on to say proudly that these days he and his dad are close, and that his dad has been clean of drugs for four years.
Proctor’s coach Faber says of the quiet Massachusetts kid, “always beware of the dog with no bark.”
Faber is confident that Proctor’s technical style will be able to overcome Tickle’s powerful brawling. The segment ends with the voice of Faber and perhaps an assistant coach doing the Faber thing to do – coining nicknames.
“Proc-daddy,” Faber says. “Proctologist,” another voice says. “The Proctornator,” Faber submits. It’s like improvised jazz, really it is.
“Velociproctor,” the other voice offers. To which Faber, simply says, in a mellow voice, “I know.”
Ok.
We’ve got the first real house prank of the season, ladies and gents!
Guess who does it? That’s right, Tickle me Chris. Tickle takes a plastic water jug, cuts it in half, fills with water and rigs it on the house front door so that when Team Faber walks in, it will fall on one of them.
Joe Proctor walks in and gets soaked. With water from his own water bottle!
Proctor laughs it off. Tickle brags about Proctor getting “smoked.” What is and isn’t entertaining must vary wildly depending on one’s ability to communicate with the outside world, read, listen to music or watch television.
Live cut- in! Vitor Belfort is in the UFC Training Center waiting to watch the fight.
We’re back in the house on Easter Sunday and the guys all seem to wish they were back home with family for the holiday. Lawrence, underscoring how young he really is, actually says that he misses being at home with his parents for Easter, because his mom and dad get him an Easter basket each year.
Tickle is being all nice and cooking a turkey and ham for the guys. Two other guys are off in the distance in the yard playing bean bag in their underwear. Why not, I guess?
Mike Cheisa is waxing poetic on what it will be like getting back home and being with a girl again after three months with dudes. “Look, this is going to be the worst performance of my life,” he imagines telling the lucky lady to be. “You’re going to get naked. I’m going to put my hands on you and then I’m going to jizz all over you.”
Who hasn’t been there?
Tickle talks a bit about growing up in the not-Chicago portion of Illinois and dealing with racism. He says he was in and out of jail through his youth but that training himself in MMA lifted him out of many bad habits.
Ironically, he may be the real mature guy in the house because of the real-world responsibilities he has. “Most of these guys live on their own or with their parents,” Tickle says. He, on the other hand, has a fiancé and two kids.
“I fight for my family,” he says.
At the weigh-in, Cruz looks at Faber in his Urijah Faber dress-code mandated flip flos and calls his toes “sweaty.” Faber brushes off Cruz by saying he is “very intimidating with zero finishes.”
Tickle weighs in at 153 while eating pizza on the scale and then breaks up the seriousness of his stare down with Proctor by asking Joe if he can “smell my pizza?”
Fight time!
Proctor comes out staring hard at Tickle.
Rd 1
Proctor lands a jab, Tickle misses with a head kick. Lots of feinting from both men. Tickle with a rear roundhouse leg kick.
Proctor with an inside leg kick. Tickle marches towards Joe with a left-right, left-right combo followed by an attempted high kick that is blocked.
Proctor lands a right hand and clinches with Tickle. Tickle reverses and presses Proctor against the cage. Tickle lands an overhand right on separation and then throws a hard punch combo at Proctor, mixing the body and the head.
They free up and hit the center of the cage. A lot of measuring each other up and Tickle coming in with bursts of strikes. Two head kicks that miss from Tickle but a left hook that lands.
Proctor throws a two-punch combo and clinches up with Tickle. Proctor has his own back to the cage but is controlling Tickle’s head in a Thai plum grip. Tickle defends against knees to the head and they separate with Tickle whiffing on a big overhand elbow strike to the head.
Proctor jabs and then shoots and gets a double leg takedown. Tickle scrambles up to his feet but gives up his back in the process.
Proctor gets behind Tickle and gets his arm under his chin, dragging Tickle backwards onto the mat. Tickle fights hard to remove Proctor’s connecting hand from the back of his own head, but Proctor maintains the other arm’s position under Tickle’s throat and eventually secures the tap out.
Three in a row for Team Faber. They now lead 3-2
Matchup time!
Faber chooses his own John Cofer to face Vinc Pichel. Faber also takes the time to give Vinc a new nickname. Vinc “From the depths of hell” Pichel. The man is a champion and a poet.
