LAS VEGAS — This is the UFC 141 live blog for Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks, a welterweight bout on tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Fitch (23-3) fought B.J. Penn to a majority draw at UFC 127 in February. Fitch has only lost once (against Georges St-Pierre) in the last eight years. Hendricks (11-1) won both his fights this year against T.J. Waldburger and Mike Pierce.
Round 1: Steve Mazzagatti starts us off, and no glove touch for these two. Fitch tries a little lunging right hand that comes up short. Hendricks comes forward and blasts him with a big left that stiffens Fitch up and drops him to his back. Hendricks jumps on him as Fitch sits up into another punch, and Mazzagatti steps in to stop it. That was quick. The kind of fight where they can show the whole thing rather than highlights. Hendricks parades around the Octagon with a wide grin showing through his beard. He looks just a little bit surprised, too.
Johny Hendricks def. Jon Fitch via TKO (punches) at 0:12 of round one
LAS VEGAS — This is the UFC 141 live blog for Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks, a welterweight bout on tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Fitch (23-3) fought B.J. Penn to a majority draw at UFC 127 in February. Fitch has only lost once (against Georges St-Pierre) in the last eight years. Hendricks (11-1) won both his fights this year against T.J. Waldburger and Mike Pierce.
Round 1: Steve Mazzagatti starts us off, and no glove touch for these two. Fitch tries a little lunging right hand that comes up short. Hendricks comes forward and blasts him with a big left that stiffens Fitch up and drops him to his back. Hendricks jumps on him as Fitch sits up into another punch, and Mazzagatti steps in to stop it. That was quick. The kind of fight where they can show the whole thing rather than highlights. Hendricks parades around the Octagon with a wide grin showing through his beard. He looks just a little bit surprised, too.
Johny Hendricks def. Jon Fitch via TKO (punches) at 0:12 of round one
Filed under: UFCFor UFC 141, the Vegas-based promotion is back home in the arms of the city that’s never more than one good heater away from turning this mess around. Will Friday night be the evening you finally outsmart the oddsmakers and let your obs…
For UFC 141, the Vegas-based promotion is back home in the arms of the city that’s never more than one good heater away from turning this mess around. Will Friday night be the evening you finally outsmart the oddsmakers and let your obsessive MMA knowledge pay you back for all those pay-per-views? Only one way to find out…
The line on Overeem has gone as high as -200 in some places before coming back down to the more reasonable levels we see here. We all know how Lesnar feels about being the underdog. Or at least, we know that asking him how he feels about it is a great way to get him to suddenly terminate your interview. But why are fans and oddsmakers so hot on Overeem, who didn’t look spectacular in his last outing, and has had every distraction possible without beginning an acting career in the lead-up to this fight?
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a combination of Overeem’s experience and a general pessimism about Lesnar. A little over a year ago he was the baddest man on the planet to many onlookers, but one loss and one colon-chopping surgery later and people are wondering if he’ll retire if he can’t beat Overeem. For better or worse, the pendulum swings hard on the subject of Lesnar, and there’s very little middle ground to be found. But the fact is, the former NCAA wrestling champ presents a difficult challenge for Overeem, who hasn’t faced a takedown threat this significant since, well, ever. Seriously, look at Overeem’s record and find me another big man with Lesnar’s wrestling skills. It’s one thing to shut down Fabricio Werdum’s takedowns, but Lesnar is a whole different problem. If Overeem had spent months working diligently on his takedown defense — in fact, if he had spent months doing any one thing in any one place — I’d be more optimistic. With all the distractions, the roving camp, and the possibility of Octagon jitters for a man with an unproven ability to shut down a powerhouse wrestler, optimism is in short supply over here. My pick: Lesnar. There’s always the possibility that one good punch or knee from The Reem will change his world, but when I add up all the variables I have no problem justifying the slight underdog pick.
This feels like an instance of oddsmakers getting the right guy, but to the wrong degree. Cerrone deserves to be the favorite, especially after the year he’s had, but Diaz’s tenacity, durability, and submissions game make him impossible to count out. Even if Cerrone batters Diaz bloody on the feet — and he very well may — he’s probably going to have to keep it up for three rounds. Diaz doesn’t go down easily, and his sheer pace and pressure has been known to make opponents do dumb things from time to time. At the same time, Diaz doesn’t seem capable of performing the kind of risk/reward calculus necessary to conclude that he needs to get the fight to the mat. If you’re beating him on the feet, chances are it will only make him more committed to fighting on the feet. If that’s the case, his best hope might be to keep the heat on and trash-talk Cerrone into a stupid mistake. My pick: Cerrone. I couldn’t possibly justify favoring him to this extreme, so I’ll save it for the parlay.
Oh, did you forget Fitch was on this card? You’re probably not alone. It’s easy to get dwarfed by the enormity of Lesnar and Overeem, and the Cerrone-Diaz fight promises exactly the kind of fireworks that a typical Fitch fight all but rules out. As a result, he flies under the radar in another fight that he’ll most likely win with his methodical, technical brilliance on the mat. You have to hand it to him: the man is outstanding at what he does. It’s just too bad that so many fans don’t enjoy what he does, no matter how well he does it. Hendricks would seem to have the pure wresting credentials to strap on the singlet and go takedown for takedown with Fitch, but he doesn’t quite have the high-level experience to make you feel comfortable with picking him over a vet like Fitch. My pick: Fitch. It won’t be much fun to watch, but it will be in my parlay.
It’s kind of amazing that the 41-year-old Matyushenko still has this much steam. He’s not in the title hunt at the moment, but when you look at the loss column of his record all you see are serious players (okay, and Vernon White, who Vladdy will still tell you he should have beaten that night in 1999). Still, the odds reflect a general feeling that Gustafsson is on his way up the ranks, whereas Matyushenko is doing well just to hang around where he is. Could Matyushenko outwrestle the big Swede? Sure he could. But just because Phil Davis managed to do it, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. My pick: Gustafsson. That line is slightly ridiculous, however, so I’ll add it to the parlay.
Have other people been seeing a different Nam Phan than I have lately? Because the guy I’ve seen is competent and fairly well-rounded, but he’s the not the type of guy I’d lay 2-1 odds for when he’s fighting a submissions wiz who has yet to find out what defeat tastes like. Granted, we don’t know if Hettes’ chokes are as easily applied to the upper echelon guys, but while Phan’s fought the bigger names, he didn’t always do so well against them. It’s not so hard to imagine him being taken down and submitted, just like it’s not so hard to imagine me talking myself into taking one of the safer underdogs on the card just so I don’t feel like a wuss for going with so many favorites. My pick: Hettes. There’s a chance Phan could prove himself worthy of those odds, but I don’t think he’s done it yet.
Quick picks:
– Matt Riddle (-130) over Luis Ramos (even). Riddle knows he needs a win, so look for him to play it smart and get it by any means necessary.
– Ross Pearson (-280) over Junior Assuncao (+220). No, it’s not exactly daring, but it is a safe place for your hard-earned money.
The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: You know what? Forget my weak list of favorites and very slight underdogs. If you’ve got guts and a little pocket change, I recommend taking a look at this totally insane parlay that our friends at Middle Easy have stumbled upon. It’s a longshot that could make for a very happy New Year.
Filed under: UFCWill Brock Lesnar make a triumphant return to the Octagon after more than a year away? Or will Alistair Overeem’s debut mark him as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division? Can Donald Cerrone finish 2011 with a perfect 5-0 recor…
Will Brock Lesnar make a triumphant return to the Octagon after more than a year away? Or will Alistair Overeem‘s debut mark him as the No. 1 contender in the heavyweight division? Can Donald Cerrone finish 2011 with a perfect 5-0 record? Or will Nate Diaz hand Cerrone a difficult ending to his stellar year? Will Jon Fitch return to his steady pace of grinding out decision victories? Or will Johny Hendricks become the first man not named Georges St. Pierre to beat Fitch in the Octagon?
We’ll attempt to answer those questions and more as we predict the winners at UFC 141.
What: UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem
When: Friday, the Facebook fights begin at 7 PM ET, the Spike preliminaries start at 9 and the pay-per-view starts at 10.
Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
Predictions on the five pay-per-view fights below.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem This fight is so fun for so many reasons. The obvious reason being that it’s two enormous men who will attempt to smash each other for our entertainment, but the slightly less obvious reason is that they’ll have two very different approaches to smashing each other, and that each man’s greatest strength aligns well with the other man’s greatest weakness.
For Overeem, the strength is that he punches, kicks and knees people really hard, and Lesnar’s greatest weakness is that he doesn’t react well at all when he gets hit really hard. In his last two fights, Lesnar has been finished by first-round TKO (against Cain Velasquez) and almost finished by first-round TKO (against Shane Carwin). In both cases, Lesnar did little more than cover up on the ground once he got leveled with a hard punch, although we have to give him credit for eventually recovering to beat Carwin. Overeem hits every bit as hard as Carwin and Velasquez do, and so Lesnar looks incredibly vulnerable on his feet.
However, Overeem has never shown that he can fair well against a good wrestler, and Lesnar is certainly that. Lesnar is also bigger and stronger than Overeem (or at least he is if he’s completely recovered from his latest bout of diverticulitis) and so he can’t be thrown around the cage the way many of Overeem’s recent opponents have been. It’s easy to picture Lesnar doing to Overeem what he did to Frank Mir at UFC 100: Getting on top of him on the ground, controlling him from the top, and eventually finishing him with punches.
And that’s what I think he’s going to do. This is a fight that could go a number of different ways, and Overeem probably has more different ways to win — he could easily use his K-1 striking to TKO Lesnar, and I wouldn’t rule out an Overeem win by submission either. But as long as Lesnar is completely healthy, I believe his physical power and wrestling prowess will be enough to take this. Pick: Lesnar
Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone Cerrone jumped to the UFC at the start of the year with the rest of the old WEC stars, and he’s promptly had one of the best years of any UFC fighter not named Jon Jones. Cerrone has already won four fights in 2011, beating Paul Kelly, Vagner Rocha, Charlies Oliveira and Dennis Siver. I think Diaz matches up better with Cerrone than any of those four, but I think at the end of an entertaining and mostly even fight, Cerrone will have landed more effective strikes and come out with a narrow decision victory. Pick: Cerrone
Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks Fitch is finally returning to the Octagon after 10 months off because of a shoulder injury, and in Hendricks — a former NCAA wrestling champion — he might be facing the first opponent since Georges St. Pierre who can force him to abandon his usual tack of winning a decision through clinches, takedowns and top control. However, while Hendricks has much better college wrestling credentials than Fitch, Fitch is better at incorporating his wrestling in MMA. I like Fitch to win this one by decision. Pick: Fitch
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson Matyushenko will turn 41 next week, but he’s still a sturdy gatekeeper in the light heavyweight division. Yes, he got wrecked by Jon Jones last year, but everyone gets wrecked by Jones. And that fight is Matyushenko’s only loss since he returned to the UFC in 2009. Throw in the fact that Matyushenko’s last two wins have been impressive first-round stoppages, and there’s a lot to like about Matyushenko.
But there’s even more to like about Gustafsson, a 24-year-old Swede who has all kinds of talent. This fight represents a solid test for Gustafsson, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see Matyushenko take it, but I like Gustafsson to win by TKO and offer up another indication that he’s a rising star at 205 pounds. Pick: Gustafsson
Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes Hettes easily won his UFC debut in August, submitting former Ultimate Fighter contestant Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres. Now he gets a step up in quality of competition against Caceres’s Ultimate Fighter castmate, Phan. Hettes is 9-0 in his MMA career, with all nine wins coming by submission, and in training at Greg Jackson’s gym he’s becoming a more complete fighter. Phan has never been submitted in 26 pro fights and probably won’t be submitted this time, but Hettes is good enough that he should beat Phan by decision. Pick: Hettes
Lesnar, a former UFC heavyweight champ, welcomes former Strikeforce champ Overeem into the UFC with this five-round contest to determine the No. 1 contender.
Filed under: UFC, NewsAfter trying unsuccessfuly to lobby for a fight against BJ Penn or Nick Diaz last week, Jon Fitch finally has his next date to enter the octagon.
The UFC welterweight contender will return to action for the first time since Febru…
After trying unsuccessfuly to lobby for a fight against BJ Penn or Nick Diaz last week, Jon Fitch finally has his next date to enter the octagon.
The UFC welterweight contender will return to action for the first time since February when he takes on Johny Hendricks at UFC 141 on December 30.
The UFC confirmed to MMA Fighting that verbal agreements are in place for the bout, which was first reported by ESPN.
Fitch (23-3-1, 1 no contest) last fought Penn at UFC 127 and the two went to a three-round draw. Afterward, they were expected to face off in a UFC 132 rematch, but a shoulder injury derailed Fitch, and he’s been rehabbing ever since.
The draw was the first time Fitch hadn’t won since a UFC 87 championship fight loss to Georges St-Pierre. Since joining the UFC, Fitch is 13-1-1.
Hendricks (11-1) is coming off back-to-back wins over Mike Pierce and TJ Waldburger. He’s won six of his seven UFC bouts.
UFC 141 is set for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and will feature a main event pitting former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar against newly signed former Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.
LAS VEGAS — This is the UFC 141 live blog for Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks, a welterweight bout on tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
For 
Will 
Brock Lesnar
After trying unsuccessfuly to lobby for a fight against BJ Penn or Nick Diaz last week,