Tag: Jon Jones

Thiago Silva Joins the MMA Bitch-Slap Hall of Fame; Jon Jones Dumps Haterade [UPDATED]

("Look, Brandon, I’m sorry. If you take your hand away, I promise I won’t slap you in the face again." / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)
UPDATE: A clip of Silva playing Vera like a bongo has been added to the end of this post…check it out …

Brandon Vera Thiago Silva UFC 125 slap spank MMA photos
("Look, Brandon, I’m sorry. If you take your hand away, I promise I won’t slap you in the face again." / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

UPDATE: A clip of Silva playing Vera like a bongo has been added to the end of this post…check it out while it lasts.

The third round of Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera at UFC 125 represented one of the most humiliating beat-downs in recent MMA history, as Silva seemingly got tired of punching Vera about midway through the round and just started slapping him in the face until the fight was over. With Vera’s job likely on the line that night, it was the worst possible final impression to leave with his bosses — as if that mangled schnozz wasn’t enough.

After the fight, top light-heavyweight contender Jon Jones fired up Twitter and posted the following: "Wow that slapping was so disrespectful.. id love to give him a slap in the face…Dominating someone in a fight is 1 thing, looking to simply humiliate them is another..Traditional martial artist always seemed to show honor and respect.. Anyways what’s done is done, I’m headed to the gym to make sure nothing like that ever happens to me."

We say: Eff the haters, Thiago. You’ve just joined a very select group of MMA fighters who have demonstrated their dominance through slapping and spanking. The other members of the MMA Bitch-Slap Hall of Fame are after the jump…

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Greg Jackson too Safe? Well, He Does Wear Rubber Gloves…

Dana White recently targeted beloved coach, Greg Jackson of Jackson’s MMA as a contributor to boring fights in the UFC. Though Jackson holds prestige as the trainer to names like Georges St. Pierre, Jon “Bones” Jones, Rashad Evans, Clay Guida and Carlos Condit to name a few, White believes that Jackson’s lead-with-caution approach is […]

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Dana White recently targeted beloved coach, Greg Jackson of Jackson’s MMA as a contributor to boring fights in the UFC. Though Jackson holds prestige as the trainer to names like Georges St. Pierre, Jon “Bones” Jones, Rashad Evans, Clay Guida and Carlos Condit to name a few, White believes that Jackson’s lead-with-caution approach is hindering the excitement that the fighters should be bringing into the octagon that helps the viewers feel their $49.95 pay-per-view was money well spent. White had a mouthful to say in regard to Greg Jackson’s training methods including that he has respect for Jackson yet his game plans and corner work are “weird”. White summed up his thoughts by saying:

You’ll see guys who are traditionally exciting fighters, but when they go to the Greg Jackson camp they become safety first fighters. Why wouldn’t you tell him ‘go for broke in this third round? This is a close fight.

Greg Jackson had an opportunity to fire back to White’s criticisms earlier today via a phone interview with MMAFighting’s Ben Fowlkes:

Here’s a quick stat for you. So there’s been 22 [UFC events] this year? We had 12 bonuses so far this year, so one out of every two, one of my fighters got Submission of the Night, Knockout of the Night, or Fight of the Night.

Jackson went on to list that Jon Jones had finished every single fight under the Jackson training camp save for a Disqualification against Matt Hamill for an illegal elbow. He also mention’s Carlos Condit’s recent Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night honors with his victory over Dan Hardy at UFC 120.

The comments made by White were after a disappointing performance by Nate Marquardt who lost via Unanimous Decision to Yushin Okami earlier this month at UFC 122. White felt Marquardt had ample opportunity to try and finish Okami in the 3rd round but didn’t feel his corner was urging Marquardt to go for it.

Despite criticism, Greg Jackson remains a favorite MMA coach and is up for Coach of the Year at the 2010 World MMA Awards this Wednesday night. Jackson took top honors last year, so it doesn’t look like you, the fans would have agreed with White in 2009. We’ll see if you’ve had a change of heart this year.

MMA Top 10 Light Heavyweights: Who’s No. 2?

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Light HeavyweightsWhen you’re trying to rank MMA fighters, it’s easy to say you’ll just rank them based on who they’ve beaten and who they’ve lost to inside the cage. It’s a lot harder to actually create the ran…

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When you’re trying to rank MMA fighters, it’s easy to say you’ll just rank them based on who they’ve beaten and who they’ve lost to inside the cage. It’s a lot harder to actually create the rankings when you realize that it’s mathematically impossible to rank every fighter ahead of the guys he’s beaten and behind the guys who have beaten him.

That’s the challenge of picking the No. 2 light heavyweight in the world right now. UFC light heavyweight champion Shogun Rua is No. 1, but there are three candidates for No. 2: Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans. And there’s simply no way to rank those three without putting one of them behind someone he’s beaten, and another one ahead of a man who has beaten him. Machida beat Evans, Evans beat Rampage, and Rampage beat Machida. Any way you slice it, someone has to get ranked ahead of someone who beat him in the cage.

So who’s No. 2? I make my choice below.

Bader Believes Flashy Jones May Tone Down Creative Style for UFC 126 Clash

Filed under: UFC, NewsRyan Bader walked into the UFC with big hopes of his own to go with the expectations of others who saw a diamond in the rough. The former collegiate wrestling All-American has steadily improved and risen up the UFC light-heavyweig…

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Ryan Bader walked into the UFC with big hopes of his own to go with the expectations of others who saw a diamond in the rough. The former collegiate wrestling All-American has steadily improved and risen up the UFC light-heavyweight depth chart, first winning The Ultimate Fighter’s season eight, before embarking on an octagon career that’s seen him go 5-0, with big wins over Keith Jardine, and most recently, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

That victory put him on a collision course with another rising star, Jon Jones. The two will meet at UFC 126 in February 2011, and because the two are likely to be in the championship picture for years to come, it seems to be the type of matchup that at best might ignite a longtime rivalry, and at worst will launch one of the two squarely towards top contender status.

State of the UFC Light Heavyweights

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 light heavyweight division.

The light heavyweight division is both the …

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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 light heavyweight division.

The light heavyweight division is both the UFC’s most talented weight class and — right now anyway — its most frustrating. There are so many good fights that can be made, but the championship belt is tied up because the champion, Shogun Rua, is recovering from knee surgery.

It’s been almost a year and a half since anyone other than Shogun and Lyoto Machida has fought for the light heavyweight title, and it’ll probably be another six months or so until we see Shogun defend his title again. So as we look at the light heavyweight division, we’re looking at a division with a wealth of contenders but a shortage of title fights.

Machida Isn’t Assuming Anything About Rampage Heading into Their UFC 123 Bout

(There’s an ad for a sports drink if I ever saw one.)
Lyoto Machida isn’t taking anything for granted in preparing for his upcoming bout with Quinton Jackson at UFC 123 November 20.
The former UFC light heavyweight champ says he’s preparing for every s…


(There’s an ad for a sports drink if I ever saw one.)

Lyoto Machida isn’t taking anything for granted in preparing for his upcoming bout with Quinton Jackson at UFC 123 November 20.

The former UFC light heavyweight champ says he’s preparing for every scenario that "Rampage" may present him with during the fight — even the unlikelihood that Jackson may demonstrate some newly developed kickboxing skills.

"Well, I always think for a MMA fight, despite the specialties of each fighter, you have to be prepared for anything, because we can never know what the guy is up to. A guy who doesn’t know how to kick may be kicking on the following fight, you can’t tell for sure. The need leads the frog to a jump. We have many examples of people who are good on areas that aren’t theirs specialties: Georges St. Pierre has improved a lot his Wrestling, people that didn’t kick are now kicking and so it goes… I don’t underestimate any fighter," Machida told Tatame.com. "I think that, just as I’m prepared for anything during the fight, so are they: the stand-up game, the takedowns and the ground game. Of course we have our game plan set, our strong point is Karate and the exchanges, but if we need to use the other skills, we will do the takedowns and the ground game that I train here with Valter Broca, who’s a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, graduated by De La Riva, who always help me on this area."

As far as Jackson’s gameplan, Machida doesn’t think Quinton will shy away from standing with him, despite his tough to defend against unorthodox karate striking prowess.

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