The BankAtlantic Center played host to the UFC on Friday night, as the rematch between Demetrious Johnson and Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall headlined an action-packed fight card for UFC on FX 3. Johnson and McCall first met earlier this year …
The BankAtlantic Center played host to the UFC on Friday night, as the rematch between Demetrious Johnson and Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall headlined an action-packed fight card for UFC on FX 3.
Johnson and McCall first met earlier this year in the first round of the flyweight tournament, with Johnson originally being announced as the winner by majority decision. However, we later found out that there was an error on the scorecards and the bout was actually a draw.
With a “sudden death” fourth round missed due to the incorrect scoring, the decision was then made to have a rematch headline the FX card on June 8. The bout was the first UFC card to ever feature flyweights in the main event.
That historic fight will be remembered, but it was only part of what made this a highly entertaining fight card. Here are the 10 most memorable moments from UFC on FX 3: Johnson vs. McCall.
The UFC has some serious thinking to do when it comes to Leonard Garcia. Garcia, who has been fighting for Zuffa in the UFC and WEC since 2007, has never really been an especially great fighter. He has a fan-friendly, wild-swinging style that has earne…
The UFC has some serious thinking to do when it comes to Leonard Garcia.
Garcia, who has been fighting for Zuffa in the UFC and WEC since 2007, has never really been an especially great fighter. He has a fan-friendly, wild-swinging style that has earned him four Fight of the Night bonuses (and one for Knockout of the Night) and has made him one of the most recognizable featherweights in the UFC. That said, he has never wowed anyone with anything other than his ability to take a beating.
After dropping a unanimous decision to Matt Grice at UFC on FX: Johnson vs. McCall, Garcia is now officially on a three-fight losing streak. Saying “Garcia is on a three-fight losing streak,” though, does not do justice to the lack of success Garcia has actually had with Zuffa.
Garcia, between the UFC and WEC, is 6-7-1. That in and of itself is not that bad (though fighters like Gerald Harris and Thales Leites have been cut with substantially better records).
However, Garcia is also a frequent favorite of the judges who, in this span of time, have actually awarded him two controversial split-decision wins (against Jameel Massouh at UFC 42 and later against Nam Phan at the TUF12 Finale), a controversial draw against George Roop (Roop, most believed, should have gotten the decision) and gave him the nod over Chan-Sung Jung in their neck-and-neck slugfest at WEC 48.
In fact, Garcia’s last controversy-free victory came when he knocked out Jens Pulver at WEC 36 in 2008. This win is also the only time Garcia has put together back-to-back victories under Zuffa employ. To top it all off, the two men who his most recent victories have come over (Chan-Sung Jung and Nam Phan) beat him in their rematches.
So, yeah. Garcia has not done too well in the last four years.
All that said, have fans seen the last of Leonard Garcia in the UFC? It is hard to say at this point, but probably not. Not to harp on this, but the UFC is hurting for featherweight fighters, plain and simple.
Is Garcia great? No. But the UFC is looking at a wave of young fighters that will soon flood into the featherweight division, courtesy of the three most recent seasons of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF14 and TUF: Brazil both featured featherweights, while some TUF: Live alumni are likely to drop to featherweight) and the upcoming The Smashes season (which also features lightweights).
Garcia, in all likelihood, will not be close to a title fight from this point forward. That said, he is capable of beating at least some of the rookies that will be pouring into the promotion in the next year. At the very least, he is likely to receive another fight or two before being cut.
While ultimately the results of his fights would certainly suggest he should be given a pink slip, Garcia is likely going to be given the Keith Jardine treatment. Dana White loves brawlers. Even brawlers that lose.
The UFC makes a stop in Sunrise, Florida, tomorrow night for their latest UFC on FX event, featuring a flyweight rerun, a handful of veterans on the main card, and a murderer’s row of nobodies on the prelims. But is it skippable? Maybe not. After studying the card, we’ve found a few somewhat credible reasons to watch this thing. Read on, and if you’re around tomorrow night, be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for our liveblog of the “Johnson vs. McCall” main card, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.
#1: It’s make-or-break time for Leonard Garcia. The last time that “Bad Boy” beat anybody decisively was his first-round TKO of Jens Pulver at WEC 36, back in November 2008. That was ten fights ago. Since then, Garcia has gone 3-5-1, with all three of those wins coming by split-decision. Two of those wins are widely considered to be bullshitrobberies, and were later avenged in rematches with the “losing” fighters, Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. Basically, Garcia’s record since 2009 should really be 1-7-1, and even that lone legit victory (against Jameel Massouh at WEC 42) could have easily gone the other way.
Now, Garcia finds himself on the preliminary card of an FX show, against Matt Grice, whose overall UFC record stands at 1-4, including the first-round TKO loss that Grice suffered against Ricardo Lamas in his last fight. Garcia vs. Grice has all the markings of a “win or go home” match. It doesn’t matter if Leonard turns it into an exciting brawl — if he loses, he’s on extremely thin ice, and we may not see him back again.
The UFC makes a stop in Sunrise, Florida, tomorrow night for their latest UFC on FX event, featuring a flyweight re-run, a handful of veterans on the main card, and a murderer’s row of nobodies on the prelims. But is it skippable? Maybe not. After studying the card, we’ve found a few somewhat credible reasons to watch this thing. Read on, and if you’re around tomorrow night, be sure to come back to CagePotato.com for our liveblog of the “Johnson vs. McCall” main card, which kicks off at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.
#1: It’s make-or-break time for Leonard Garcia. The last time that “Bad Boy” beat anybody decisively was his first-round TKO of Jens Pulver at WEC 36, back in November 2008. That was ten fights ago. Since then, Garcia has gone 3-5-1, with all three of those wins coming by split-decision. Two of those wins are widely considered to be bullshitrobberies, and were later avenged in rematches with the “losing” fighters, Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. Basically, Garcia’s record since 2009 should really be 1-7-1, and even that lone legit victory (against Jameel Massouh at WEC 42) could have easily gone the other way.
Now, Garcia finds himself on the preliminary card of an FX show, against Matt Grice, whose overall UFC record stands at 1-4, including the first-round TKO loss that Grice suffered against Ricardo Lamas in his last fight. Garcia vs. Grice has all the markings of a “win or go home” match. It doesn’t matter if Leonard turns it into an exciting brawl — if he loses, he’s on extremely thin ice, and we may not see him back again.
#2. Erick Silva might be a future superstar.
The 27-year-old Team Nogueira product’s UFC career has lasted just 69 seconds. First, he ran through Luis Ramos in 40 seconds at UFC 134, then he ran through Carlo Prater in 29 seconds at UFC 142, although the fight left Silva with a controversial DQ loss. His opponent on the UFC on FX 3 main card, Charlie Brenneman, represents a big step up in competition, but if Silva can pull it off, he’ll earn the kind of “future of the welterweight division” hype currently reserved for Rory MacDonald. Keep your eye on him.
#3. Demetrious Johnson figured out how to cut weight.
Mighty Mouse’s first meeting with Ian McCall in March ended in a three-round draw, and look, it’s not like he’s making excuses here, but Johnson did tell MMA Junkie that he ran out of energy in the third round because of a poorly-designed diet that had him cut out carbs entirely: “When I was going down to 125 (pounds), I didn’t want to jump on the scale and be [announced], ‘Demetrious Johnson, ladies and gentlemen!,’ and Joe Rogan’s like, ’128!’…When it came time for me to rehydrate, I didn’t have any carbs because if you take something out of your body for eight weeks and you try to put it back into your body for like one night, to fight, your body is going to go into shock. You’re not going to perform well.”
Though McCall was making his UFC debut that night, he was no stranger to the 125-pound division thanks to his 3-0 stretch in Tachi Palace Fights last year. Unfortunately, Johnson was a flyweight rookie, and made some rookie mistakes. Now that he has a better sense of what’s required to make 125 and feel strong the next day, we might see an even more ferocious Mouse in the cage tomorrow — and this time, he’s definitely not going to want to leave it in the hands of the judges.
#4: Mike Pierce‘s Brazilian-bashing routine might come back to bite him in the ass.
After Pierce’s main card fight with fellow welterweight Carlos Eduardo Rocha was booked, Pierce got on Twitter to drop some rather unwarranted hate: ”WANTED: no work ethic, no cardio, terrible striking and limited ground game. Brazilians, please send fight applications to Joe Silva.“ Now, he’s rolling directly into American Top Team territory making cracks about Thiago Alves and fast food. That kind of near-suicidal dissing of Brazilian fighters has usually been the realm of Chael Sonnen, but Pierce wants to get in on the action too, apparently.
And it’s not because he’s racist. It’s worse — it’s because he’s already looking past Rocha and angling for a future fight against Alves. And that’s a mistake, because Rocha is a tough bastard, and now it’s personal. If Pierce isn’t taking this fight seriously, he could find himself down two fights in a row on Saturday morning, and where he goes from there is anybody’s guess. For the record, Brazilians are intelligent and upstanding people who have Internet access, never feed carrots to buses, and know how to treat a lady.
(Dammit! This was so much easier to escape in the video game!)
On the heels of two straight submission via rear-naked choke losses courtesy of Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller, former “top contender” Melvin Guillard’s stock is probably at an all time low. The UFC, likely recognizing Melvin’s need to step up his ground game or GTFO, are not cutting him any slack, as they have paired him against 3rd degree (uh-oh) BJJ black belt (not good) under Royler Gracie (dear God) Fabricio Camoes. The worst part: Camoes is coming off a submission by rear-naked choke victory at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller.
Matter of fact, it looks to us like the UFC is trying to punish each and every member of The Blackzilians for Anthony Johnson’s colossal mistake. Have the Zuffa attorneys not informed DW and Joe Silva that judging a certain group of people based on one isolated incident is considered profiling, and could lead to a huge backlash from said group? If we could think of any examples from American history, say from around the 1960’s, that could possibly help prove this point, we would. Unfortunately, no such example exists. Perhaps we’re just lucky.
Join us after the jump for a ton of fight booking news…
(Dammit! This was so much easier to escape in the video game!)
On the heels of two straight submission via rear-naked choke losses courtesy of Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller, former “top contender” Melvin Guillard’s stock is probably at an all time low. The UFC, likely recognizing Melvin’s need to step up his ground game or GTFO, are not cutting him any slack, as they have paired him against 3rd degree (uh-oh) BJJ black belt (not good) under Royler Gracie (dear God) Fabricio Camoes. The worst part: Camoes is coming off a submission by rear-naked choke victory at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller.
Matter of fact, it looks to us like the UFC is trying to punish each and every member of The Blackzilians for Anthony Johnson’s colossal mistake. Have the Zuffa attorneys not informed DW and Joe Silva that judging a certain group of people based on one isolated incident is considered profiling, and could lead to a huge backlash from said group? If we could think of any examples from American history, say from around the 1960′s, that could possibly help prove this point, we would. Unfortunately, no such example exists. Perhaps we’re just lucky.
Speaking of fighters who will find themselves in the unemployment line with another loss, it looks like a “loser leaves town” match has been booked between Leonard Garcia and Matt Grice, this one at UFC on FX 3. Currently 1-4 in under the Zuffa banner, Matt “The Real One” Grice has suffered submission defeats to Shannon Gugerty and Terry Etim and TKO losses to Matt Veach and Ricardo Lamas. Garcia, on the other hand, is coming off back to back karmic defeats in rematch bouts against Chan Sung Jung and Nam Phan. If Garcia were to somehow lose this one, we imagine he’d stand a better chance of sticking around than Grice, but let’s just say that a loss by either = the soup kitchen and watch the leather fly.
Coming off a successful UFC debut in which he beat down Kamal Shalorus en route to a third round rear-naked choke victory, undefeated prospect Khabib Nurmagomedov will take a huge step up in competition when he faces Gleison Tibau at UFC 148. We don’t know exactly where we’d place Tibau on our “Good, Bad, and Ugly” scale of dropping weight; ever since cutting down from welterweight following UFC 65, he has managed to make 155 lbs on most of his attempts, yet shows up looking like MuscleBob BuffPants come fight night. I guess we’d categorize him as “Freakish.” In either case, Tibau’s put together a hell of a run at lightweight, going 4-1 in his last 5 and most recently snagging a close decision victory over Rafael Dos Anjos.
In UFC on FX 4 news, TUF 9 winner Ross Pearson and WEC veteran Cub Swanson are set to lock horns in a featherweight contest. After going 5-2 as a lightweight, Pearson recently made the trip down to 145 at UFC 141 and proceeded to chase Junior Assuncao around the octagon like he was Kalib Starnes en route to a unanimous decision victory. In the aftermath of Pearson’s “Quarrian” effort, Assuncao was released by Zuffa, and still isn’t sure why. Shame.
Meanwhile, the bearer of perhaps the worst tattoos in all of MMA rebounded from a UFC debut loss to Ricardo Lamas at the inaugural UFC on Fox event with a brutal, mouthpiece ejecting TKO of George Roop at UFC on FOX 2. Swanson has gone win-loss in his last seven contests, and holds notable victories over Mackens Semerzier and that’s it. Put your money on the Brit, ladies and gentlemen.
UFC on FX 4 goes down from the the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey (*shudder*) on June 22nd.
CagePotato Roundtable is our new recurring column in which the CP writing staff and some of our friends all get together to debate an MMA-related topic. Joining us this week is former CagePotato staff writer Chad Dundas, who now writes for an up-and-coming blog called ESPN. If you have a suggestion for a future Roundtable column, send it to [email protected].
CagePotato reader Alexander W. writes: “The Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall fight inspired my suggestion: Greatest robberies in MMA history. I’d be curious to hear the variety of opinions out there. Surely that fight was a top ten.”
Chad Dundas
There are a lot of things about Pride Total Elimination 2003 that don’t make sense when viewed with modern MMA sensibilities. How to even comprehend a world where a skinny, haired-up, suit jacket-wearing Dana White could bet Pride bigwigs $250,000 that Chuck Liddell was going to win that company’s 2003 middleweight grand prix? Or comprehend that a bizarrely dangerous and clearly-enunciating Liddell showed up in the first round of said tournament and KTFOed an impossibly svelte Alistair Overeem? Or that Overeem had an old dude in a robe and shriners hat accompany him to the ring while carrying a big foam hammer? Or that on this night somebody got tapped out with a sleeve choke? Or that Wanderlei Silva fought Kazushi Sakuraba and it didn’t just make everybody feel sad and empty?
No sense at all.
What does still sort of make sense is this: After watching Liddell sleep Overeem, there was no way on God’s green Earth that Pride judges were going to let another UFC emissary walk out of Saitama Super Arena with a win*, so they conspired to pull off one of the greatest screwjobs in MMA history when they awarded Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a unanimous decision over Ricco Rodriguez. The indisputable fact is, Ricco whipped Big Nog good that night, taking him down, brutalizing him, shaking off his feeble submission attempts and controlling pretty much the whole affair. At least, that’s how I remember it. Unfortunately, due to Zuffa’s ongoing war on Internet piracy it seems their bout will only be remembered by history and by the creepy old man who answers the queries you submit to the Sherdog Fight Finder.
CagePotato Roundtable is our new recurring column in which the CP writing staff and some of our friends all get together to debate an MMA-related topic. Joining us this week is former CagePotato staff writer Chad Dundas, who now writes for an up-and-coming blog called ESPN. If you have a suggestion for a future Roundtable column, send it to [email protected].
CagePotato reader Alexander W. writes: “The Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall fight inspired my suggestion: Greatest robberies in MMA history. I’d be curious to hear the variety of opinions out there. Surely that fight was a top ten.”
Chad Dundas
There are a lot of things about Pride Total Elimination 2003 that don’t make sense when viewed with modern MMA sensibilities. How to even comprehend a world where a skinny, haired-up, suit jacket-wearing Dana White could bet Pride bigwigs $250,000 that Chuck Liddell was going to win that company’s 2003 middleweight grand prix? Or comprehend that a bizarrely dangerous and clearly-enunciating Liddell showed up in the first round of said tournament and KTFOed an impossibly svelte Alistair Overeem? Or that Overeem had an old dude in a robe and shriners hat accompany him to the ring while carrying a big foam hammer? Or that on this night somebody got tapped out with a sleeve choke? Or that Wanderlei Silva fought Kazushi Sakuraba and it didn’t just make everybody feel sad and empty?
No sense at all.
What does still sort of make sense is this: After watching Liddell sleep Overeem, there was no way on God’s green Earth that Pride judges were going to let another UFC emissary walk out of Saitama Super Arena with a win*, so they conspired to pull off one of the greatest screwjobs in MMA history when they awarded Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a unanimous decision over Ricco Rodriguez. The indisputable fact is, Ricco whipped Big Nog good that night, taking him down, brutalizing him, shaking off his feeble submission attempts and controlling pretty much the whole affair. At least, that’s how I remember it. Unfortunately, due to Zuffa’s ongoing war on Internet piracy it seems their bout will only be remembered by history and by the creepy old man who answers the queries you submit to the Sherdog Fight Finder.
What stings the worst about the whole thing is that it’s easy to imagine an alternate universe where that decision went the other way. In that universe, maybe Rodriguez goes on to become one of the sport’s most beloved and respected figures, ascending to full-on legendary status and winning gold in both Pride and the UFC, before having his arm snapped by Frank Mir at UFC 140 without so much as changing the expression on his beautiful, leathery face. And instead it’s Big Nog who slips unceremoniously into obscurity, slumming it on Celebrity Rehab and fighting out his days at events like Israel FC, Cage Thug MMA, and Armageddon Fighting Championships.
If that universe is out there somewhere, I hope we all find it someday.
(*Yeah, I’m just guessing about all this, but it feels true in spirit.)
Look, everyone knows that a robbery in PRIDE means nothing because the whole thing was fake anyway. At least in those cases, you knew that the judges had their reasons. Here in America, we have robberies based off of pure, home-grown stupid. We produced the master karate sensai judge that thinks leg kicks are pointless. Out on the regional scene, in places like Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Arizona, we’ve seen decisions passed down that were mind-gobblingly incompetent. Try to forget that those same states are players in national politics.
So let me tell you bastards about Zoila Frausto. Frausto was fighting at bantamweight and walking around at 150 pounds before Bellator announced its only tournament for women in 2010 — at 115. It was a brutal weight cut, but Frausto made it. Throughout the tournament, her most impressive victories were over the scales. A bland weight-loss diet left her unable to train intensely, and her performances in the cage were every bit as anemic as you’d expect. She out-muscled a visibly smaller boxer in Jessica Pene in the quarter-finals, earning an uncontroversial, but uninspiring win.
Her opponent in the semis at Bellator 31 was Jessica Aguilar, a fantastically well-rounded fighter out of American Top Team. The Warrior Princess spent most of the fight backpedaling, and her face told a bruising tale after fifteen minutes. Aguilar didn’t have a scratch, but Frausto got a split decision — one of the judges gave her all three rounds. I honestly thought the judges were confused about the fighters’ identities — the decision was that bad. So Frausto advanced to the finals.
Here, at least, justice would be done. Frausto’s opponent was Megumi Fujii, the undefeated, best female fighter on the planet (she’s not a can crusher ben dammit icanthearyou lalalalalalalalalalala). Fujii had outclassed both her opponents in the tournament, and she’d have her way with this interloper and claim an American title.
Except she wouldn’t. Fujii, like some kind of insane Sakuraba with a vagina, elected to stand and box with the one-dimensional striker. Frausto does her best Leonard Garcia impression [Ed. note: Hold on, I’m getting to that. -BG], putting on an impressive show of offense without actually managing to do anything or even land most of her attacks. Fujii out-lands her, out-maneuvers her, and out-works her. But those big arm movements must be impressive from a distance. Despite Frausto’s swollen face and rapidly closing eye, one Florida judge scores it four rounds to one for her, another sees it a bit closer, one judge has a brain in his head but he’s outvoted and boom: Frausto catches another gift decision and claims the Bellator Straw-weight Championship.
Rematches with both Aguilar and Fujii have been pursued, but neither have ever materialized. To this day, the women’s rankings are skewed and Frausto retains the belt. She’s hasn’t fought at 115 since October 2010.
If you need a “real” answer, then fine: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48, which is the robbery by which all modern robberies are judged. It’s the LeBron James of robberies. Judges love Leonard Garcia because he grunts like a female tennis player when he throws punches, and that irrational love helped Garcia take a similar decision against Nam Phan in December 2010, and previously hypnotized one judge into scoring it Garcia’s way when he got blown out in all three rounds against Mark Hominick at WEC 51. But Garcia/Jung 1 has to be the worst of the lot — or anybody’s lot — because it added a foul aftertaste to the greatest MMA brawl since Griffin vs. Bonnar at the TUF 1 Finale. It’s the proverbial poop-pie at the end of a great southern meal.
According to FightMetric, Garcia shouldn’t have won any rounds of that fight, let alone two. Here’s how Bad Boy clinched the split-decision, despite being outstruck 106-71 — he scored two takedowns, and he was the aggressor for much of the fight, meaning that the faces he made while audibly whiffing his hooks were much scarier than his opponent’s, as the Korean Zombie was tagging Leonard at will. Obviously it wasn’t a career-ender for Jung, who got his revenge 11 months later. But it was such a perfect representation of what’s wrong with modern MMA judging: Striking totals don’t matter, each takedown counts for a billion points, and “Octagon Control” can always be used to justify scoring it for the guy you like better. Ugh. Terrible.
Whenever I think of a robbery, normally Matt Hamill and Michael Bisping immediately come to mind. But a fight that tops even that is Machida/Rua 1 at UFC 104. That fight was incredibly hyped because of “The Machida Era.” Everyone was so entranced by the Elusive one. The Dragon had us eating out of the palm of his hand. Besides, nobody really knew which Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would show up for the fight and to be honest, who could blame them? After multiple knee surgeries, a broken arm, and some seriously lackluster performances not many people saw this as anything but an uphill battle for Rua. Machida was even favored in the odds by over 4-1, and for good reason.
However, right from the start, Shogun took to the center of the Octagon and kept cutting angles on Machida. That set the stage for some dirty boxing but more importantly some incredibly vicious leg kicks. It was evident before the end of the first round that Shogun was landing the more damaging shots. Machida started off in southpaw, but as I said, those leg kicks quickly changed all of that, seeing as Machida needed to change stances during round three.
It became apparent in round four and five that Machida had slowed down considerably. Meanwhile, Rua kept pushing forward, landing harder strikes, cutting Machida off with angles, and pushing him against the cage. It seemed like Rua had it all in the bag. It isn’t often you find yourself agreeing with Mike Goldberg but this seemed like one of those times, a clear-cut unanimous decision for the challenger, right? Wrong.
Judges Cecil Peoples, Nelson Hamilton, and Marcos Rosales scored the bout 48-47 for Machida. Rosales and Peoples both scored the first three rounds in favor of the champion, while Hamilton gave Machida rounds two, three, and four. After the fight, Cecil Peoples stated that leg kicks don’t win fights, and further explained that he thought Machida was landing the cleaner, more efficient shots during the entirety of the fight. FightMetric, however, disagreed claiming Shogun outstruck Machida in round one (19 to 11), round two (21 to 7), round three (19 to 14), round four (10 to 4), and round five (13-6). I don’t know what three of MMA’s most experienced judges were smoking the night of UFC 104, but I would wager it smelled of shenanigans.
Remember that scene from The Hurricane, where the black Rubin Carter beats the hell out of the white Joey Giardello, yet loses on the scorecards of the blatantly racist white judges? Yeah, it turns out that the real fight was nothing like that. At all. Not that that should surprise you. That scene displayed such over-the-top biases that I’d assume something like that could never happen in real life if I wasn’t familiar with Mariusz Pudzianowksi vs. James Thompson II.
It’s not that I want to believe that the outcome was predetermined; it’s just that literally everything about the completely unnecessary rematch leads me to that conclusion. The rematch was booked for KSW 17: Revenge — an event named by the least subtle person to ever work for the Polish MMA promotion. While Mariusz Pudzianowski was unsurprisingly the overwhelming fan favorite, his only significant offensive output was a jab he landed early in the second round. Meanwhile, Thompson landed numerous takedowns and punches from the mount and side control throughout the fight. Thompson dominated, yet Pudzianowski was still declared the winner by majority decision. While a terrible decision shouldn’t always lead one to believe the bout was a work, it doesn’t help that one of the judges’ scorecards looked like this. The hometown hero had earned his revenge — on paper, at least.
The fight has since been declared a no-contest due to miscommunication between the judges, who declared the bout a draw which should have warranted a sudden-death round, and the referee. Not that it matters. Even if the miscommunication never occurred, the sudden-death round was completely unnecessary. Thompson won easily and has nothing but a no-contest on his record to show for it. Fauh-king joooooooooke, indeed.
Jared Jones
Marcos Galvao may be the most cursed man in the history of decisions. For every gift Leonard Garcia is undeservedly given, three Christmas presents are stolen from beneath Galvao’s children in their sleep, metaphorically speaking. I would quote something about the yin and yang of life, but being that I was recently ostracized from my tree dwelling commune for urinating on one too many stray animals, I will save the liberal hippie analogy for another day.
The point is, Galvao’s fight with Joe Warren at Bellator 41 was the first time in recent memory that I actually believed the judges were paid off. Fresh off his damn-near-heroic comeback victory over Joe Soto, in which he snagged the Bellator Featherweight championship, self-proclaimed (aren’t they always?) “Baddest Man on the Planet” Joe Warren decided to make a run at the Bantamweight crown. Why he was set on trying to capture two titles before defending one is beyond me, but Warren figured he’d test the waters against journeyman Marcos Galvao in a 137-pound catchweight fight back at Bellator 41. Galvao, who was riding a three-fight win streak over mediocre competition, seemed like a perfect matchup for both Warren and Bellator to display the champ’s dominance. This idea has backfired on Bellator before, and it should have backfired on them on that cool April night.
The first round was close, but clearly Galvao’s, as Warren’s main offensive output consisted of attempting wild takedowns that succeeded in getting him mounted on more than one occasion. Perhaps that was the goal, but I can guaran-damn-tee his goal in the second round wasn’t to eat as many flying knees as humanly possibly, and yet that’s how it went down. The third was clearly Warren’s, but was nowhere near the 10-8 round he would have needed to walk away with a lucky draw. Despite all this, Warren would claim victory, and Galvao’s children would go hungry for another night, because the world can be a cold, unforgiving place. Though Warren would meet his maker in Alexis Vila shortly thereafter, Galvao would wind up on the wrong end of another bullshit decision against, you guessed it, Alexis Vila. Yin and Yang, folks.
Go ahead, TRY and throw some Fightmetric stats at me for the Warren/Galvao fight; it will be as pointless an argument as the one that tree-hugging tyrant Raiyne Thomas-Kirkpatrick-Gilligan and I had before I was kicked out of Serenity Gardens. Neither of us are going to change our ways, so we’d best just move along.
Did we leave out any good MMA robberies? Let us know *your* #1 pick in the comments section.
Inside the Octagon, Ian McCall is a force to be reckoned with. For anyone who tuned in on Friday night to see the debut of the flyweight division, you can clearly see that McCall is not just a fighter, but an entertainer as well. Between his in-cage an…
Inside the Octagon, Ian McCall is a force to be reckoned with. For anyone who tuned in on Friday night to see the debut of the flyweight division, you can clearly see that McCall is not just a fighter, but an entertainer as well.
Between his in-cage antics and his own personal brand of humor, McCall will always stand out from the pack. One of the tools that McCall uses in order to be remembered is his unusual, but undeniably memorable, choice of nickname: Uncle Creepy.
This is a look at some of the best nicknames in MMA. Some of the monikers on this list qualified because they are tremendously fitting. Some make the list due to pure badassery. That’s a word, right? If not, it should be.
The UFC has some serious thinking to do when it comes to 
