Despite a victory over Robert Whiteford in his most recent Octagon appearance, UFC has decided to cut Lucas Martins from the active talent roster.
Combate was the first to report the news that Martins, who signed a new three-fight deal after picking up three finishes in his first four fights with the UFC, finishing up the deal with the aforementioned win over Whiteford, is now free to negotiate with outside MMA promotions.
“My manager (Diego) Lima was talking to the UFC, and said that the division is full,” Martins told MMAFighting.com. “Even though I was coming off a win, my contract is over and they told me to get a couple more wins outside the UFC, two nice knockouts, and they would definitely sign me again. I wasn’t expecting that because I was coming off a win, but it’s fine.”
“I’ve done a lot of things in there,” he said. “There are athletes in the UFC that haven’t done half of what I did, and this is happening to me. I’ll keep my head up and continue doing my job. I’m looking at other fights now and go back to the UFC because they pay us better. I don’t fight for status, I fight for money to help my family.”
Despite a victory over Robert Whiteford in his most recent Octagon appearance, UFC has decided to cut Lucas Martins from the active talent roster.
Combate was the first to report the news that Martins, who signed a new three-fight deal after picking up three finishes in his first four fights with the UFC, finishing up the deal with the aforementioned win over Whiteford, is now free to negotiate with outside MMA promotions.
“My manager (Diego) Lima was talking to the UFC, and said that the division is full,” Martins told MMAFighting.com. “Even though I was coming off a win, my contract is over and they told me to get a couple more wins outside the UFC, two nice knockouts, and they would definitely sign me again. I wasn’t expecting that because I was coming off a win, but it’s fine.”
“I’ve done a lot of things in there,” he said. “There are athletes in the UFC that haven’t done half of what I did, and this is happening to me. I’ll keep my head up and continue doing my job. I’m looking at other fights now and go back to the UFC because they pay us better. I don’t fight for status, I fight for money to help my family.”
Aside from a genuine, non-ironic “talk to the hand” that I had no idea people still said, that was all that Vitor Belfort had to say to reporters during the post-fight press conference last night about the elephant in the room. And frankly, I’m not going to add much else about it, either. You couldn’t talk to many fans – or even the fighters involved – about this fight without engaging in a lengthy discussion about drug usage. Naturally, Belfort winning the fight only intensified these discussions, as though there should be an asterisk next to the W on his record.
I won’t write that Belfort’s chemical wizardry is completely meaningless in a fight; if it was, he wouldn’t bother with it. But attributing the absolutely brilliant spinning kick that ended this fight – and made a strong case for Knockout of the Year for this year’s Potato Awards – to a loaded syringe is just as laughably misinformed. Belfort was Rockhold’s first true test, and The Phenom simply proved to be too much for him.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
“Can somebody beat him up for me, please?”
Aside from a genuine, non-ironic “talk to the hand” that I had no idea people still said, that was all that Vitor Belfort had to say to reporters during the post-fight press conference last night about the elephant in the room. And frankly, I’m not going to add much else about it, either. You couldn’t talk to many fans – or even the fighters involved – about this fight without engaging in a lengthy discussion about drug usage. Naturally, Belfort winning the fight only intensified these discussions, as though there should be an asterisk next to the W on his record.
I won’t write that Belfort’s chemical wizardry is completely meaningless in a fight; if it was, he wouldn’t bother with it. But attributing the absolutely brilliant spinning kick that ended this fight – and made a strong case for Knockout of the Year for this year’s Potato Awards – to a loaded syringe is just as laughably misinformed. Belfort was Rockhold’s first true test, and The Phenom simply proved to be too much for him.
Still, I wouldn’t be as optimistic about the idea of Belfort taking on the winner of Silva vs. Weidman as some people are being. Does Belfort deserve to fight the winner? Absolutely. But there’s a reason the UFC danced around the issue during the post-fight press conference, and yes, that reason is related to the same elephant in the room that overshadowed this fight. I’ll put it this way: If Silva wins, hosting a rematch against Belfort in Brazil makes sense. If Weidman wins? Not so much, and hosting Weidman vs. Belfort in the United States is playing with fire, as far as NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer is concerned.
Elsewhere on the card…
– The co-main event pitted former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza against last-minute replacement Chris Camozzi. Most of us dismissed this fight as little more than a bump in the road for Jacare, and most of us were correct in doing so.
Okay, that might be a little too harsh. Camozzi deserves a ton of credit for even accepting this fight on short notice, let alone for putting up the fight that he did. But Jacare is just that much better than Camozzi, and without much time to prepare, Camozzi was little more than a slightly-resistant grappling dummy. It’s a thrill to watch Jacare’s ground game, and hopefully we’ll get to see him test it against the deep end of the division soon.
– Here goes nothing: Did I think Dunham won? Yes. But did he get “ROBBED!!!!” in an unforgivably biased decision? No. This fight wasn’t under Stockton Rules – the blood on the face of dos Anjos shouldn’t affect your opinion on who won the fight. I personally think dos Anjos won round one, Dunham won round two, and the third round – although I gave it to Dunham – could have gone either way. It wasn’t a robbery, it was a very close fight that arguably deserved Fight of the Night honors. There’s a big difference between the two.
– Rafael Natal defeated Joao Zeferino. Zerefino was completely spent by the second round, and Natal couldn’t have given less of a fuck while in the cage with him. Not in the fun “I’m going to throw a bunch of spinning stuff because whatever you can’t stop me” way, but in the “Mir vs. Cro Cop: someone has to win, I guess” way. Move along people, there’s nothing to see here.
– I’m willing to bet that you didn’t watch the Fight of the Night winning scrap between Lucas Martins and Jeremy Larsen that kicked off the Facebook preliminaries. That’s a shame, because you missed a great fight. This wasn’t a technical masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it was a downright brawl that saw Larsen control the first two rounds before walking into a devastating punch from Martins just thirteen seconds into the final round. It sucks to lose like that, but the $50,000 both fighters took home probably numbs the pain a bit.
– Submission of the Night went to Jacare, and Knockout of the Night went to Belfort. All bonuses were worth $50,000.
Full Results:
Main Card:
Vitor Belfort def. Luke Rockhold via KO (spinning heel kick and punches), 2:32 of Round One
Ronaldo Souza def. Chris Camozzi via technical submission (arm triangle choke), 3:37 of Round One
Rafael dos Anjos def. Evan Dunham via Unanimous Decision
Rafael Natal def. Joao Zeferino via Unanimous Decision
Preliminary card:
Nik Lentz def. Hacran Dias via Unanimous Decision
Francisco Trinaldo def. Mike Rio via submission (arm triangle choke), 3:08 of Round One
Gleison Tibau def. John Cholish via submission (guillotine choke), 2:34 of Round Two
Paulo Thiago def. Michel Prazeres via Unanimous Decision
Yuri Alcantara def. Iliarde Santos via TKO (punches), 2:31 of Round One
Fabio Maldonado def. Roger Hollett Unanimous Decision
John Lineker def. Azamat Gashimov via TKO (punches), 1:07 of Round Two
Jussier Formiga def. Chris Cariaso via Unanimous Decision
Lucas Martins def. Jeremy Larsen via KO (punch), 0:13 of Round Three
Before I was a writer here at CagePotato, some of my favorite columns to read were the“New Guys” features devoted entirely to familiarizing us with the unfamiliar faces sprinkled throughout the average UFC card. It made the preliminary action far more exciting in my opinion, and more importantly made me look like less an MMA fan, more a prophet when making picks against my friends on fight night. I would of course plead ignorance after I had successfully transferred their money into my wallet, but hey, that’s what they get for saying “This Cyprus Diabetes guy is going to get straight up murdered by Luiz Cane.”
So to begin a year in which 95 or so percent of scheduled UFC fights will likely be cancelled due to injury, we figured we would brush off this old feature moving forward, if only to brief you on the no-namers who will inevitably be stepping in on short notice to replace our plagued MMA stars. Today’s edition focuses on the upcoming UFC on FX 7 card headlined by Michael Bisping vs. Vitor Belfort, and features a pair of dangerous, well-rounded sluggers hailing from, you guessed it, Brazil. Funny how that always seems to be the case.
Before I was a writer here at CagePotato, some of my favorite columns to read were the “New Guys” features devoted entirely to familiarizing us with the unfamiliar faces sprinkled throughout the average UFC card. It made the preliminary action far more exciting in my opinion, and more importantly made me look like less an MMA fan, more a prophet when making picks against my friends on fight night. I would of course plead ignorance after I had successfully transferred their money into my wallet, but hey, that’s what they get for saying “This Cyprus Diabetes guy is going to get straight up murdered by Luiz Cane.”
So to begin a year in which 95 or so percent of scheduled UFC fights will likely be cancelled due to injury, we figured we would brush off this old feature moving forward, if only to brief you on the no-namers who will inevitably be stepping in on short notice to replace our plagued MMA stars. Today’s edition focuses on the upcoming UFC on FX 7 card headlined by Michael Bisping vs. Vitor Belfort, and features a pair of dangerous, well-rounded sluggers hailing from, you guessed it, Brazil. Funny how that always seems to be the case.
(Nobre vs. Matheus Nicolau Pereira at Bitetti Combat 13. And if you dug that standing TKO, you’ll love these.)
PEDRO “The Rock” NOBRE Experience: 14-1 record, with all but 1 win coming by stoppage (9 TKO, 4 Sub). Multiple appearances under the Bitetti Combat banner. Trains out of the illustrious Brazilian Top Team gym. Will be facing: Iuri Alcantara (2-1 UFC, holds a KO victory over top contender Ricardo Lamas) Lowdown: Stepping in as a late replacement for the injured George Roop, who was actually stepping in for the injured Johnny Eduardo*opens mouth, inserts revolver*, Nobre has developed a reputation for putting on technical, exciting brawls that rarely make it out of the second round. For an example of this, see above. He was one of the first participants selected for TUF: Brazil, but was eliminated from the competition when he was knocked out by Vincius Vina in his preliminary fight.
LUCAS “Mineiro” MARTINS Experience: 12-0, with all but one win coming by stoppage (8 TKO, 3 Sub). Trains out of Chute Box and holds two local lightweight titles to his credit. The craziest thing about this guy? He just turned pro last year, yet has already racked up 12 victories. Will be facing: Edson Barboza *shivers* (4-1 UFC, CagePotato Knockout of the Year Winner, possible recipient of Jax-like roboleg surgery) Lowdown: Although we dubbed him the “Unluckiest SOB Ever” when we first heard he would be fighting the beast that is Barboza, upon further research, it looks like “Mineiro” might stand more than a snowball’s chance in hell of winning this thing. Like Barboza, Martins is a devastating striker who can deliver an unconventional highlight reel KO in the blink of an eye. The above gif, for instance, was taken from Martins’ last fight against Oberdan Vieira Tenorio at Jungle Fight 46, so you know the guy won’t be short on confidence heading into the biggest fight of his life. Combine that with the fact that he has next to nothing to lose by taking this fight on such short notice, and you’ve got yourself a technical battle good enough to be placed on any main card. What we’re saying is, expect to see this one show up during the FX broadcast despite the fact that it is buried in the prelims.
So Taters, anyone like these boy’s chances a little better?
