As first reported by ESPN, former welterweight title contender Dan Hardy will face Matt Brown at the April event. Hardy, who was mercifully kept on the UFC roster despite losing four straight matches in 2010-2011, won back-to-back fights against Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah last year. But his second-life in the UFC could come to a screeching halt against Matt Brown, who had the best year of his career in 2012, going 4-0 with big wins over Mike Swick and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Like Hardy, Brown bounced back from a demoralizing stretch in 2010-2011 where he dropped four out of five matches.
As first reported by ESPN, former welterweight title contender Dan Hardy will face Matt Brown at the April event. Hardy, who was mercifully kept on the UFC roster despite losing four straight matches in 2010-2011, won back-to-back fights against Duane Ludwig and Amir Sadollah last year. But his second-life in the UFC could come to a screeching halt against Matt Brown, who had the best year of his career in 2012, going 4-0 with big wins over Mike Swick and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Like Hardy, Brown bounced back from a demoralizing stretch in 2010-2011 where he dropped four out of five matches.
Buzz about this fight has been building since last month, when Brown suggested it on Twitter, and Hardy deemed the Immortal a better opponent than that “big, loud, annoying kid” Matt Riddle. That’s good enough for us. So who’s ending this one with their hand raised?
On Tuesday morning, it was announced (via Yahoo! Sports) that Benson Henderson will unify the UFC lightweight championship with the Strikeforce lightweight championship, as he will meet Gilbert Melendez at UFC on Fox 7. Shortly after, it was confirmed …
On Tuesday morning, it was announced (via Yahoo! Sports) that Benson Henderson will unify the UFC lightweight championship with the Strikeforce lightweight championship, as he will meet Gilbert Melendez at UFC on Fox 7. Shortly after, it was confirmed that Daniel Cormier and Frank Mir will meet in a heavyweight battle on the same card.
We’ve got our main event and our co-main event. Now, we’ve got our probable Fight of the Night winner.
MMAweekly.com confirmed on Tuesday evening that welterweight favorite Dan Hardy will return to the Octagon against hard-hitting slugger Matt Brown on April 20. It is assumed that a fight of this caliber will make place on the main card, although that has yet to be confirmed.
Hardy most recently appeared in a September victory against Amir Sadollah. It was the second consecutive win for the Brit, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
A four-fight losing streak left him without a victory in 2010 or 2011. Prior to the skid, Hardy earned a title shot against Georges St-Pierre by besting the likes of Mike Swick and Marcus Davis.
The outspoken “Outlaw,” who fights out of Nottingham, England, has long been one of the most popular fighters to step foot into the Octagon. The trash talk between Hardy and Davis remains one of the most entertaining feuds to ever hit the Internet.
Going 4-0 in 2012, Brown picked up notable wins against Swick and formerly undefeated kickboxer Stephen Thompson, which put him on the map as someone trying to break through the glass ceiling. His current winning streak is the longest of his 27-fight career.
Many expected Brown to be released toward the end of 2011 after being submitted in four of five contests. Keeping him proved to be a good move, because at this point in time, Brown is pulling a freight train of momentum behind him.
It seems a lot of MMA followers are quick to dismiss any fight that doesn’t bear significant relevance in regards to divisional rankings. The desire to see top 10 ranked opponents collide isn’t outlandish, but the disregard that every other…
It seems a lot of MMA followers are quick to dismiss any fight that doesn’t bear significant relevance in regards to divisional rankings. The desire to see top 10 ranked opponents collide isn’t outlandish, but the disregard that every other fight garners seems preposterous.
One cannot break into the upper echelons of any division without mowing through some unranked opposition on the way. And remember that because a fighter isn’t a current top 10 occupant, doesn’t mean, for a second, that they’re incapable of putting on one hell of a show for fans.
Remember UFC on Fox 4’s amazing back-and-forth brawl between lightweights Joe Lauzon and Jamie Varner? It was without a doubt one of the top fights of the year, but it wasn’t a contest designed to outline a new entrant into the top 10 rankings.
It wasn’t a title eliminator either. It was nothing more than an exciting matchup that showcased a tangible level of synergy between two men, and yielded one of the most enjoyable fights we’ve seen in years. It was, quite simply put, a fun fight.
Mixed Martial Arts has emerged as a successful platform for a new breed of athletes. Now recognized as a legitimate sport, rather than a freak-show intended to lure drunken, testosterone-fueled meatheads to the television, MMA combines ranking and audience draw to determine who’s advancing their career, who’s fighting for a title and who sits on the cusp of a championship opportunity.
MMA now has a fair structure. Part of the foundation lies in the matchmaking and the manner in which a man may ascend to the top of his specific weight class. If fighter A hopes to emerge as a marquee draw, title contention associated with his name, he’s got to be a part of some fights that, in the grand scheme of things don’t necessarily mean a whole lot.
But these fights, the fights in which a man struggles to make his presence known, are the kind of fights that often produce explosive action. These guys are hungry; hungry for success, and a chance to challenge the best fighters in the world all the while taking home a paycheck that will actually cover training costs as well as living costs.
Think back for a moment on the careers of some of your favorite fighters.
Did Nate Diaz’s second-round submission win over Melvin Guillard at UFC Fight Night 19 mean much to the elite of the division? Did Cain Velasquez’s lopsided mauling of Denis Stojnic at UFC Fight Night 17 send ripples through the deeper waters of the heavyweight division? Did Chuck Liddell’s ultrafast-paced war with Paul Jones at UFC 22 decide the next man to vie for promotional gold?
The answer to all of those questions is an emphatic no. But every one of the aforementioned men eventually emerged as bona fide superstars, and each ended up, at one point or another, fighting for a title. Furthermore those fights were highly enjoyable aesthetic treats for anyone who simply wants to see a good, fun fight.
Without the fun fights, the sport cannot build superstars. The wars among unranked fighters often lead to, or help launch respectable fan followings. Continue to win fights, win fans. These men, the ones willing to put the time and effort in competing in these “fun fights,” often morph from unrecognized preliminary card fighter, to eventual stud, recognized worldwide.
Sit back for a brief moment and try to tell me that virtually every Matt Brown fight isn’t an all-out, fan friendly spectacle that has turned “The Immortal” into a fighter that fanatics are anxious to see compete.
Are we so eager to watch Brown throw leather because we know that with one more win he’ll be challenging Georges St-Pierre for his welterweight title? No, we’re not. Brown isn’t even close to a title shot, in fact, he’s unranked by the majority of quality MMA media outlets.
We watch Matt Brown fight because we love fun fights, and it takes fun fights to mold champions. Whether or not Brown will ever challenge for a title remains to be seen, but what we can take away from Matt’s performances is particularly important: “The Immortal”, just as many previously mentioned in this article, is walking, talking, active proof that fun fights have a key place in this business.
MMA doesn’t always have to be about a title fight. At the end of the day, MMA should always be a pleasure to watch, and that makes the less relevant, but (often) more entertaining bouts a crucial piece of the puzzle.
Do “fun” fights have a place in MMA? You bet they do.
Over the past few days, we’ve witnessed a pair of rarely seen finishes in the octagon — a suplex KO and a flying reverse triangle — and after we here at CagePotato collectively picked our jaws up off the floor and found a clean pair of shorts, we got to thinking, what other techniques/finishes do we rarely come across in the MMA stratosphere? And more importantly, which of these techniques/finishes have we not devoted some sort of gif or video tribute to already?
Taking all of those factors into account, we came to the standing TKO, a finish so uncommon in MMA that we could only name a handful of occurrences before having to resort to the Interwebs for assistance. So in honor of the iron-jawed sumbitches who wouldn’t bow to defeat even when it was kneeing/punching/kicking them damn near to death, we’ve placed our favorite examples of this phenomenon below. Check ’em out after the jump and let us know which stoppages you thought were warranted and which ones could have gone on a little longer.
Over the past few days, we’ve witnessed a pair of rarely seen finishes in the octagon — a suplex KO and a flying reverse triangle — and after we here at CagePotato collectively picked our jaws up off the floor and found a clean pair of shorts, we got to thinking, what other techniques/finishes do we rarely come across in the MMA stratosphere? And more importantly, which of these techniques/finishes have we not devoted some sort of gif or video tribute to already?
Taking all of those factors into account, we came to the standing TKO, a finish so uncommon in MMA that we could only name a handful of occurrences before having to resort to the Interwebs for assistance. So in honor of the iron-jawed sumbitches who wouldn’t bow to defeat even when it was kneeing/punching/kicking them damn near to death, we’ve placed our favorite examples of this phenomenon below. Check ‘em out after the jump and let us know which stoppages you thought were warranted and which ones could have gone on a little longer.
Allow me to get my bias out of the way early: I love Matt Brown.Since “The Immortal’s” stint on The Ultimate Fighter’s seventh season, I have been captivated by Brown’s skill set inside the Octagon.The dude looks like he should be playing bass in a loc…
Allow me to get my bias out of the way early: I love Matt Brown.
Since “The Immortal’s” stint on The Ultimate Fighter‘s seventh season, I have been captivated by Brown’s skill set inside the Octagon.
The dude looks like he should be playing bass in a local modern rock cover band, and there is nothing overly athletic or impressive about his fighting style.
Brown finds beauty in the ordinary though, and he always manages to fight better than the sum of his parts.
Put simply, the dude can scrap, and he is competent anywhere a fight may go.
His striking is just slightly above average, his wrestling is positively average, and his offensive jiu-jitsu is fairly impressive. That said, his defensive ground skills are lackluster at best, and Brown has been forced to tap in four of his five UFC losses.
Because he does not have a go-to skill or a home run technique to rely on, he becomes the best kind of fighter to watch: the kind that can (and will) do anything at any time.
Against Mike Swick at UFC on Fox 5, we saw everything that is great about Matt Brown. We saw him take some hard punches in stride, and we saw him land kicks, punches, knees and elbows after absorbing punishment.
When the fight hit the mat, we saw Brown’s aggressive bottom game in full force.
He looked for a D’Arce choke immediately, but eventually gave up on the submission attempt in favor of a triangle. When the triangle failed, Brown then looked for a straight armbar.
Swick, despite being on top, was unable to mount any sort of offense on the ground because he was constantly defending Brown’s attacks.
None of it was flashy, and none of it was overly technical (as evidenced by the fact that he couldn’t finish), but, again, the sum of these attempts got him back to his feet and out of danger.
Honestly, Brown’s brutal knockout of Swick was just the icing on his primetime cake (which I’m sure was plain vanilla with vanilla frosting), as Brown had already proven his worth by avoiding danger against an incredibly dangerous opponent.
While Brown does not possess the athleticism and power of a Rory MacDonald or a single devastating weapon like Johny Hendricks’ H-bomb, he is without question one of the most entertaining 170-pound fighters in the world.
“The Immortal” comes to fight, and after notching his fourth straight UFC win against Mike Swick, it appears he is finally ready for the big stage.
Will he continue his streak of excellence, or will he regress into the body of a fighter who was nearly cut by the organization after losing three straight contests via submission in 2010?
I don’t know.
But I do know Brown will come to fight, he will entertain and he will compete.
In what comes as a bit of a surprise, tonight has some pretty clear-cut favorites for post-fight bonuses. Events typically have a handful of fights and fighters who look like heavy candidates to take home some extra change, but tonight’s UFC on F…
In what comes as a bit of a surprise, tonight has some pretty clear-cut favorites for post-fight bonuses. Events typically have a handful of fights and fighters who look like heavy candidates to take home some extra change, but tonight’s UFC on FOX 5 card separates it from past events in the fact that there are four men who look to be near shoo-ins for the rewards.
In fact, the only question that really haunts me is: Who’s going to take home that submission of the night award?
I’ve got a fair idea of who’s going to leave with “Fight of the Night” honors, and I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that I know who will exit with a “Knockout of the Night” award. But that submission nod has me a bit stumped, I’ll admit.
On Tuesday morning, it was announced (
