UFC 136 is in the history books, and four fighters got rewarded with $75,000 for their performances Saturday night.Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan both pocketed an extra $75k for Fight of the Night. They went to war for 15 minutes, with Phan getting the be…
UFC 136 is in the history books, and four fighters got rewarded with $75,000 for their performances Saturday night.
Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan both pocketed an extra $75k for Fight of the Night. They went to war for 15 minutes, with Phan getting the better of Garcia for the first 10 of those minutes. Then in the last round, Garcia had Phan hurt badly, but could not close the deal. Phan would go on to win a unanimous decision.
Submission of the night went to Joe Lauzon for his rear naked choke victory over Melvin Guillard. After dropping Guillard with a left hook, Lauzon pounced, secured Guillard’s back, and secured the submission just 47 seconds in to the fight.
Knockout of the night went to Frankie Edgar for his unbelievable stoppage of Gray Maynard in the fourth round of their title fight. After once again surviving a first round beating, Edgar took control of the fight in the second round.
Then in the fourth round, Edgar connected with an uppercut that badly hurt Maynard. Edgar followed up with more punches until the referee stepped in to stop the bout.
Frankie Edgar survived another first-round onslaught from Gray Maynard on Saturday.
But this time, rather than going the distance for a draw like the two did in January, Edgar got out of the first, controlled the pace of the fight in the second and third, and in the fourth he dropped Maynard with a right and finished him on the ground. One of the best rivalries of the year finally had a finish – with an exclamation point – at UFC 136 in Houston.
Edgar’s fourth-round TKO in the lightweight championship main event earned him $75,000 for Knockout of the Night – the night’s only KO stoppage. Joining him with $75,000 bonuses were Joe Lauzon for Submission of the Night and Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia for Fight of the Night.
It was like deja vu for Edgar and Maynard in the first round. Just like their second fight at UFC 125 on Jan. 1, Maynard dominated the first, dropping Edgar with big shots on the feet. In January, it was a decisive 10-8 round for Maynard that Edgar had to come back from. On Saturday, just one just, Doug Crosby, gave a 10-8 to Maynard, while the other two scored it a standard 10-9.
Still, Edgar had to go into rally mode with his face bloodied to start the second round. Maynard was decidedly more cautious in the second and third rounds, both of which saw Edgar controlling the tempo and landing decent shots on the feet. But deep in the fourth round, Edgar landed a right uppercut that stunned Maynard, followed it with several more rights on the feet that put Maynard on the canvas, and then finished with several big shots on the ground.
The end came at 3:54 of the fourth, and Edgar retained his lightweight title. It also gave him a win over Maynard in his third try. In the pair’s first fight, in April 2008, Maynard won a unanimous decision. After Edgar won the lightweight title from BJ Penn and defended it in their rematch, he defended it against Maynard at UFC 125 – and the two fought to a rare title match draw. Finally with some closure, Edgar’s next opponent will be just his third in more than two years after a steady diet of Penn and Maynard the last four fights.
Lauzon’s Submission of the Night was also the card’s biggest upset. It came just 47 seconds into the first round against Melvin Guillard, who was riding a five-fight winning streak and came into the fight a more than 5-to-1 favorite. Guillard came out bouncing around and looking to land big shots, but a left from Lauzon stunned Guillard, and Lauzon pounced, quickly took Guillard’s back and sank in a fight-ending rear naked choke.
Amazingly, Lauzon now has won six straight fight night bonus awards and seven in his last eight fights. He has four submission bonuses and three Fight of the Night awards in that stretch. He also won Submission of the Night in June, a first-round kimura against Curt Warburton.
Lauzon’s only competition for the Submission of the Night award came from Chael Sonnen, whose second-round arm triangle choke of Brian Stann probably earned him another shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Sonnen called Silva out after the fight and said that he wants to up the stakes. Sonnen proposed that if he wins and takes the middleweight title, which he nearly did in August 2010, Silva should have to leave the 185-pound division. And if Sonnen loses, he said he will leave the UFC forever.
At the post-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White said it was tough to choose between Lauzon and Sonnen for Submission of the Night, but he ultimately gave it to Lauzon because Lauzon was such a heavy underdog and he rocked the favorite so quickly in the first round.
The Fight of the Night may had checks written for it the day it was announced. Phan and Garcia fought to a controversial split decision win for Garcia at the TUF 12 Finale in December. A rematch was booked for March, but Phan was injured. And when Phan’s original UFC 136 opponent, Matt Grice (who replaced Josh Grispi) was forced out, Garcia stepped in.
In what amounted to a continuation of their first fight, Phan and Garcia again had moments of a backyard brawl. But Phan was more accurate and controlled the pace in the first two rounds, landing more consistently. Garcia may have been on his way to a possible 10-8 third round, but Phan did enough to stay in the round and won a 29-28 unanimous decision.
Both Phan-Garcia fights have been Fight of the Night winners, and while Phan said after the fight he doesn’t want to do No. 3, Garcia said if the fight could be in Houston, in his native Texas, he’d gladly do a trilogy fight.
First off, this fight won’t be like the last fight. A lot of people don’t remember, but Leonard Garcia took the previous clash at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 12 on short notice, as a replacement for Alex Caceres.He didn’t have a training camp, so…
First off, this fight won’t be like the last fight. A lot of people don’t remember, but Leonard Garcia took the previous clash at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 12 on short notice, as a replacement for Alex Caceres.
He didn’t have a training camp, so most of his eight days leading up to the fight were spent trying to get from 172 pounds down to 145 pounds.
In light of this, Nam Phan should come into the fight knowing that this isn’t the same guy that he lost to in an extremely controversial decision. Garcia will have better conditioning, and, undoubtedly, his striking will be sharper.
Garcia knows that Phan is looking to take him down to neutralize his powerful striking and will look to get out of the wild exchanges that Garcia loves. Phan will need to disguise his takedowns and set them up with technical striking.
Since he will be looking for takedowns, Phan should look to apply some ground and pound, but not tire himself out too much. Garcia can definitely take a punch—as evidenced in all of his fights, including the fight-of-the-night classic against Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48.
Garcia has never been knocked out in 23 professional fights, and Phan should think that he has the knockout power to be the first to do it.
Phan should instead utilize his takedowns, transition on the ground and do damage in close quarters.
With this in mind, Nam Phan should be able to avenge his loss against the “Bad Boy” Leonard Garcia at UFC 136.
Filed under: UFCLast time on Fighter vs. Writer, Michael Bisping picked with his heart rather than his head at UFC 135, and it cost him the victory against yours truly.
With UFC 136 nearly upon us, I challenged former Strikeforce light heavyweight cha…
With UFC 136 nearly upon us, I challenged former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion and noted agent provocateur of Twitter, “King” Mo Lawal. There are few fighters more knowledgeable about the fight game (or more confident in their own knowledge of the fight game) than Lawal, so I have my work cut out for me.
As usual, we’ll start at the top of the card and work our way down. Mr. Lawal, you have the honors…
Lawal: Maynard via decision. “I love both fighters. Frankie’s a soldier, and so is Gray. Gray’s Team Thirsty. But I think Gray can pull off the decision, get a few takedowns early on and then coast. But if Frankie starts fast, he could be in trouble.” Fowlkes: Edgar via decision. He surprised me last time with how well he dealt with Maynard’s wrestling skills, and that was after getting dropped and nearly finished. I think he sticks and moves his way to a win, and we can all finally move on our lives.
Lawal: Florian via decision. “This whole card is fighters I like, but man, I think Kenny’s going to pull it off. The southpaw stance, the elusiveness, inside leg kicks, and takedowns. I think he pull it off that way.” Fowlkes: Aldo via decision. I just don’t see Florian being able to wrestle his way to a win before Aldo tenderizes his thighs with those kicks. The champ is too fast and has too many weapons at his disposal. Another weight class where Florian is better than everybody but the very best.
Lawal: Sonnen via decision. “I like Brian Stann, but I got to go with the wrestler on this one. Chael’s my boy. …His double-leg is tricky. No one’s figured out how to stop it. They all try and guillotine him and it never works. They get taken down. I don’t know how Brian Stann’s going to be able to stop that.” Fowlkes: Stann via decision. I agree that the takedown will be hard to stop, but if Stann can manage it I think this becomes his fight to lose. Sonnen’s been off for over a year, and Stann’s had a lot of time to hang out in the gym and plan on how to shut down the double-leg.
Lawal: Nobody. “I think this fight’s going to be a disappointment. Not a disappointment, but there’s going to be more game-planing, and it’ll be more technical than people think. It’s a toss-up. It’s going to come down to who made the adjustments.” Even when pressed, Lawal refused to make a pick. You know what that means. Now he can only get the win on this one if it ends in a draw or, as has actually happened before, doesn’t take place at all. Fowlkes: Phan via decision. I expect Garcia to show up telling himself he’s not just going to brawl, but then I expect him to get hit once and forget all about that. If Phan can avoid getting sucked into a street fight, like I think he can, he outpoints Garcia clearly enough this time that even the worst judges can’t miss it.
Melvin Guillard vs. Joe Lauzon
Lawal: Guillard via TKO. “Stoppage. First round. I think he’s much better, much more dynamic, and he’s more mature now. He’s a different fighter.” Fowlkes: Guillard via TKO. I don’t know if it’ll come in the first round, but it will come. I don’t see Lauzon being able to get him on the mat, at least not for very long, and Guillard is too fast and too powerful on the feet.
Mo Lawal picks: Maynard, Florian, Sonnen, Nobody, Guillard Ben Fowlkes picks: Edgar, Aldo, Stann, Phan, Guillard
If coaching one of the most talented and accomplished stables of MMA fighters ever gets old, Mike Winkeljohn and Greg Jackson have a decent shot, if they should choose, at being the MMA equivalent of Click and Clack, aka the Tappet Brothers, hosts of t…
If coaching one of the most talented and accomplished stables of MMA fighters ever gets old, Mike Winkeljohn and Greg Jackson have a decent shot, if they should choose, at being the MMA equivalent of Click and Clack, aka the Tappet Brothers, hosts of the radio show Car Talk. They could call themselves the Tapout Brothers.
I learned this about them the hard way, when I showed up at their Albuquerque gym to chat about fighters and fights. I wanted to talk about Jon Jones’ kicks to Quinton Jackson’s knees, and how Brian Stann is going to stop Chael Sonnen’s double-leg, and Leonard Garcia’s first injury-free fight in as long as anyone can remember. And we did. We also talked about a whole bunch of things I wasn’t expecting, like aliens, spies and the place of stripper poles at Team Jackson Winkeljohn.
As with the Tappet Brothers, when you ask the two legendary coaches a serious question, they proceed to clown you, laugh until they’re out of breath, and provide spot-on insight into your question—all at the same time.
Did I endure humiliation, confusion and ridicule in order to get you answers to some of MMA’s most burning questions? Yes, I did. But hey, at least this time Winkeljohn was kind enough to put his pants on, unlike the last time I spoke with the Tapout Brothers after UFC 128.
Those who want to see the Tapout Brothers’ unique charms, feel free to click on the two embedded videos. For those of you who don’t have time for the comedy act and just want your sound bites, here you go.
On Jon Jones’ hurt foot during his title defense against Quinton Jackson at UFC 135
Winkeljohn: Rampage checked one of the kicks that caught him on top of his foot. It happens to everybody that throws a lot of kicks. Fighters just deal with it.
Jackson: I think it was aliens shooting laser beams at his feet.
Winkeljohn: I thought the aliens told us not to tell anyone.
On Jones starting out that fight by walking from his corner on all fours
Winkeljohn: I thought that was your idea.
Jackson: For the first 30 seconds I turned to my big brother and said something to the effect of “what is he doing?”
Winkeljohn: I was just hoping he wasn’t picking up that hand and getting kicked in the face.
Jackson: But you know I love that stuff. Anything artistic and creative that puts your opponent a little off like “uh what’s gonna happen,” I like that.
On Jones’ multiple kicks to “Rampage’s” knee
Winkeljohn: People keep thinking that stuff’s illegal. You know what, you’re allowed to give someone brain damage but you can’t hurt their knee? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I knew we had the fight when [Jackson] was looking at the referee like, “um, um, he’s hurting my knee.” That was…
Jackson: …definitely a tell.
Winkeljohn: That was a great moment.
Jackson: Cross kicks to the knee are legal. And we’ll do whatever’s legal. If you make the technique illegal we’ll no longer use it.
On Steven Seagal’s attempt to visit Jones’ dressing room before the fight
Winkeljohn I don’t understand the reason for wanting to come last minute. If you want to help Jon out, you know, two months before the fight come talk to him if you have something important. IF. But right before the fight, that doesn’t make sense to me at all.
On Leonard Garcia vs Nam Phan at UFC 136
Jackson: This is the first fight in like six fights Leonard hasn’t had some severe injury. It will be fun to see what he can do.
Winkeljohn: Leonard is in his best shape ever.
Jackson: Nam Phan is super tricky and super crafty, and hopefully we can get around it.
(Jackson also acknowledged the judges got it wrong in the first fight, but has been on the other end of a bad decision enough times to not feel the least bit bad about it.)
On how Brian Stann will stop Chael Sonnen’s takedowns
Jackson: Groin strikes
Winkeljohn: I told him to turn and run. Get Chael tired
(more absurdity)
Winkeljohn: Stopping Chael’s takedown, that’s tough. That’s the crux. That’s huge. There’s no doubt about it. But we plan on putting some pain on him on the way.
Jackson: The other thing about Chael is that he’s got really good kickboxing. If you notice when he fought Okami, he didn’t really ground and pound Okami. Okami was able to get up every time. But [Sonnen] out-did him on his feet. So he’s a dangerous guy all the way around. And hopefully big bro and I have done our job enough where we’ll be able to shut that down.
(Translation: Okami provided the blueprint for standing up when Chael took him down. Brian can follow this blueprint to keep the fight standing.)
On Melvin Guillard spending a week at Imperial Athletics in Florida.
Jackson: It’s odd to me that everyone’s like “oh my god.” A lot of our guys go other places and train.
Winkeljohn: I told Melvin if he learns something cool come back and show me, and he did.
We ended with a round of picks for upcoming fights:
Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard III
Jackson: I’m think a 155 pounder will win.
Winkeljohn: Flip a coin.
Jose Aldo vs Kenny Florian
Winkeljohn: From day one I’ve always thought Aldo was fantastic, but I think he’s been a little exposed a bit as of late. And Florian is definitely a smart guy. So if anybody can take advantage of looking at tape that would be Kenny.
Anthony Pettis vs Jeremy Stephens
Jackson: That’s two very talented guys. Stephens hits hard, and Pettis is slick. And Duke Rufus is a great trainer.
Winkeljohn: I’m a go with Pettis to out-point Stephens in that one. I think Pettis can move around and avoid the power.
Brock Lesnar vs Alistair Overeem
Jackson: That’s the classic striker vs grappler. If Lesnar can get him down, might be Lesnar. If Overeem can either get up or hit him…
Winkeljohn: I think if Overeem can stuff a couple takedowns or avoid a couple first takedowns…
Junior dos Santos vs Cain Velasquez
Jackson: Dos Santos has that jab. It’s a beautiful thing. Cain’s got great combos. As usual I have know idea. I don’t even watch fighting.
Winkeljohn: It depends on how tight Cain can stay, and get in there. I’m leaning towards Junior on that one. Ever so slightly.
Want to make some real money this weekend? Then come over to my place on Saturday afternoon and be prepared to clean some toilets. Want to make some hypothetical, for-entertainment-purposes-only money this weekend? Then check out the latest UFC 136 betting lines (via BestFightOdds) and read our gambling advice after the jump.
PPV Main Card
Frankie Edgar (-125) vs. Gray Maynard (+120)
Jose Aldo (-320) vs. Kenny Florian (+301)
Chael Sonnen (-255) vs. Brian Stann (+227)
Nam Phan (-210) vs. Leonard Garcia (+208)
Melvin Guillard (-312) vs. Joe Lauzon (+310)
Spike TV Prelims
Demian Maia (-275) vs. Jorge Santiago (+245)
Anthony Pettis (-277) vs. Jeremy Stephens (+250)
Facebook Prelims
Joey Beltran (+190) vs. Stipe Miocic (-210)
Tiequan Zhang (-120) vs. Darren Elkins (+115)
Aaron Simpson (-313) vs. Eric Schafer (+300)
Steve Cantwell (-135) vs. Mike Massenzio (+130)
Want to make some real money this weekend? Then come over to my place on Saturday afternoon and be prepared to clean some toilets. Want to make some hypothetical, for-entertainment-purposes-only money this weekend? Then check out the latest UFC 136 betting lines (via BestFightOdds) and read our gambling advice after the jump.
PPV Main Card
Frankie Edgar (-125) vs. Gray Maynard (+120)
Jose Aldo (-320) vs. Kenny Florian (+301)
Chael Sonnen (-255) vs. Brian Stann (+227)
Nam Phan (-210) vs. Leonard Garcia (+208)
Melvin Guillard (-312) vs. Joe Lauzon (+310)
Spike TV Prelims
Demian Maia (-275) vs. Jorge Santiago (+245)
Anthony Pettis (-277) vs. Jeremy Stephens (+250)
Facebook Prelims
Joey Beltran (+190) vs. Stipe Miocic (-210)
Tiequan Zhang (-120) vs. Darren Elkins (+115)
Aaron Simpson (-313) vs. Eric Schafer (+300)
Steve Cantwell (-135) vs. Mike Massenzio (+130)
We’ll begin…at the beginning:
The Main Event: It’s a line that should really be dead even. But if somebody’s going to be a favorite here, should it really be Frankie Edgar? After all, he couldn’t beat Gray Maynard in either of their two previous meetings. As a slight underdog, Maynard is worth a small investment.
The Other Good ‘Dogs: A lot of them look good, actually. Chael Sonnen is coming off 14 months of controversy and inactivity, so his -255 feels a little inflated, especially against someone as focused and dangerous as Brian Stann. We all know that Leonard Garcia is bulletproof with judges, so if he can swing and grunt his way to the last bell — and not get finished by Phan — he could always end up stealing another one and doubling your money. And if Demian Maia insists on pretending he’s a striker, he’s asking to get laid out by Jorge Santiago.
The Smart Straight-Bet: Blowouts are the name of the game this weekend, with eight of the 11 matchups sitting at 2-to-1 odds or greater. You won’t get rich betting on the stiff favorites, so take a look at Tiequan Zhang at a modest -120 over Darren Elkins. Both guys are just 1-0 at featherweight, but Zhang’s aggressive grappling attack will give the American a heap of problems.
Stay Away From: Joe Lauzon. Yeah, yeah, everybody loves J-Lau, and his skill set is the perfect one to give Guillard trouble. At +310, why not put money on the grappler’s chance, right? Answer: Because Melvin is far too powerful, and he’s a little savvier about avoiding submissions these days. Guillard’s got this one, probably by KO. The same warning applies for Kenny Florian — tripling your cash on the seasoned challenger might be seductive, but you’ll likely be pissing that money away.
Official CagePotato Parlay: Aldo + Guillard + Pettis + Zhang. $20 returns a $57.18 profit. Not risky enough? Okay, $1,000 returns a $2,858 profit. Now we’re talkin’.
UFC 136 is in the history books, and four fighters got rewarded with $75,000 for their performances Saturday night.
Frankie Edgar survived another first-round onslaught from 
Last time on Fighter vs. Writer, 