Tag: Marcus LeVesseur

And Now They’re Fired: Chad Griggs, Marcus Levesseur, and Many, Many More


(Griggs might not have had the best ground game in the biz, but he made up for it in pure funkatude.) 

It must be spring, Potato Nation, because in order to make room for their new batch of Strikeforce fighters, the UFC has been doing a little cleaning out of their roster as of late. In total, 9 fighters have been axed as of this morning, including everyone’s favorite muttonchops aficionado, Chad Griggs. MMA Opinion has the full list, so join us after the jump to find out which fighters will no longer be punctuating the undercards of FUEL and FX events.

Chad Griggs: 11-1 before entering the UFC, Griggs’ lack of a ground game was quickly exposed in his debut, where he was choked out by Travis Browne in under three minutes at UFC 145. After dropping to light heavyweight, Griggs returned at UFC 154 to face PRIDE veteran and feared striker Cyrille Diabate. Those who were expecting a slugfest left disappointed, however, as Griggs was choked out in the first round again, just 15 seconds later than his first fight.

Marcus LeVesseur: Despite being one of the more decorated wrestlers to enter the UFC in some time, “The Prospect” quickly showed that he was simply not well rounded enough to hang in the sport’s highest promotion. After dominating the beginning of his UFC debut against TUF 12 alum Cody McKenzie, LeVesseur became McKenzietine victim #11 at just over three minutes into the first round. After scoring a snoozer of split decision over Carlo Prater in his next fight, Levesseur was absolutely savaged by Abel Trujillo at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz.


(Griggs might not have had the best ground game in the biz, but he made up for it in pure funkatude.) 

It must be spring, Potato Nation, because in order to make room for their new batch of Strikeforce fighters, the UFC has been doing a little cleaning out of their roster as of late. In total, 9 fighters have been axed as of this morning, including everyone’s favorite muttonchops aficionado, Chad Griggs. MMA Opinion has the full list, so join us after the jump to find out which fighters will no longer be punctuating the undercards of FUEL and FX events.

Chad Griggs: 11-1 before entering the UFC, Griggs’ lack of a ground game was quickly exposed in his debut, where he was choked out by Travis Browne in under three minutes at UFC 145. After dropping to light heavyweight, Griggs returned at UFC 154 to face PRIDE veteran and feared striker Cyrille Diabate. Those who were expecting a slugfest left disappointed, however, as Griggs was choked out in the first round again, just fifteen seconds later than his first fight.

Marcus LeVesseur: Despite being one of the more decorated wrestlers to enter the UFC in some time, “The Prospect” quickly showed that he was simply not well rounded enough to hang in the sport’s highest promotion. After dominating the beginning of his UFC debut against TUF 12 alum Cody McKenzie, LeVesseur became McKenzietine victim #11 at just over three minutes into the first round. After scoring a snoozer of split decision over Carlo Prater in his next fight, Levesseur was absolutely savaged by Abel Trujillo at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz.

Joey Gambino: After getting sliced, diced, and eventually submitted by Steven Siler in his promotional debut at UFC on FX 4, Gambino was outpointed by TUF 14 winner Diego Brandao at UFC 153.

Jared Papazian: 0-3 in the octagon, followed up a majority decision loss to Mike Easton at UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller with a submission loss to Dustin Pague at UFC on FX 3. He was given a final chance at the TUF 16 Finale, but was utterly dominated (30-25 x2, 30-26) by Tim Elliot in a performance that somehow netted both men a FOTN award.

Jeff Houghland: 1-2 in the promotion, with UD losses to Yves Jabouin and Takeya Mizugaki in successive contests.

Nick Penner: 0-2, with successive (T)KO losses to Anthony Perosh and Cody Donovan at UFC on FX 2 and UFC on FX 6, repectively.

John Cofer: The TUF 15 alum who was head kick KO’d by Justin Lawrence at the TUF 15 Finale last June before suffering an armbar defeat to Mike Rio at the TUF 16 Finale. 

Yasuhiro Urishitani: a.k.a the highly ranked flyweight who was blistered by Joseph Benavidez in the opening round of the flyweight tournament at UFC on FX 2, then outpointed by John Lineker at UFC on FUEL 6. 

Henry Martinez: 1-2 in the promotion, Martinez followed up a highly entertaining split decision loss to Matt Riddle at UFC 143 with a split decision win of his own at UFC on FX: Johnson vs. McCall. However, Martinez would find himself on the wrong end of a Daron Cruickshank highlight reel, walk-off KO at UFC on FOX: Henderson vs. Diaz. A sour note to end on, for sure.

–J. Jones

Tim Means Pulled Last-Minute From ‘UFC on FOX 5? For the Most Hilariously Cursed Injury Yet


(To be fair, Means’ should have seen something like this coming when he decided to frequent the creepy sauna in the middle of a swamp.) 

You guys remember how the booking of Tim Means and Abel Trujillo — two former convicts — on the undercard of UFC on FOX 5 raised some interesting questions regarding just who the UFC should allow to fight under their banner? Well, we can put that debate to rest for now in the case of Means, as Dana White announced over Twitter just a couple hours ago that “The Dirty Bird” has been pulled from the card for — we shit you not — slipping in the sauna and knocking himself unconscious:

 

I hope you all are happy, because you kind of predicted this.


(To be fair, Means’ should have seen something like this coming when he decided to frequent the creepy sauna in the middle of a swamp.) 

You guys remember how the booking of Tim Means and Abel Trujillo — two former convicts — on the undercard of UFC on FOX 5 raised some interesting questions regarding just who the UFC should allow to fight under their banner? Well, we can put that debate to rest for now in the case of Means, as Dana White announced over Twitter just a couple hours ago that “The Dirty Bird” has been pulled from the card for — we shit you not — slipping in the sauna and knocking himself unconscious:

 

I hope you all are happy, because you kind of predicted this.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because a very similar situation occurred at UFC 24 when Kevin Randleman slipped on a pipe backstage and knocked himself right out of the headlining heavyweight title match he was scheduled to compete in opposite Pedro Rizzo. At least we’re only dealing with an undercard injury for the time being.

At this point, the injury curse of 2012 has officially gone full-retard. Drunk on power and arrogance, it is basically stumbling through mess halls and vomiting into harpsichords, looking for the nearest hapless gent to pick a fight with. It’s beyond the point of parody, really, kind of like how fast food drive-thru window pranks and AIDS jokes just aren’t as funny as they used to be. The question is, will 2013 be just as bad? There’s truly no earthly way of knowing which direction the injury curse is going, but not a spec of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. YES, the danger MUST be growing, for the woe-ers keep on woeing, and they’re certainly not showing ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING!!

Ahem.

As DW mentioned, stepping up on short notice to face Trujillo will be Marcus LeVesseur, who lost his original opponent in TUF 15 winner Mike Chiesa due to a sudden illness that forced him to pull out from the fight at the last minute. If I were one to buy into conspiracies, this is where I’d start speculating that a Higher Power was behind all this, perhaps attempting to prevent some sort of ecological disaster or terrorist attack through a series of frivolously connected events that begin with this fight. Thankfully, I’m not one of those loons.

–J. Jones