Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis has lived up to his nickname so far in his MMA career. Davis is 9-0, (5-0 in the UFC), and holds wins over middleweight stand out Brian Stann and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Because of his mixture of good wrestling …
Davis is 9-0, (5-0 in the UFC), and holds wins over middleweight stand out Brian Stann and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Because of his mixture of good wrestling and slick submissions, Davis has become one of the UFC’s fastest rising stars.
Often young fighters will call out tougher competition with the hope of moving up the divisional rankings.
Davis on the other hand has had opportunities come to him.
After originally being booked to Matt Hamill, then Jason Brillz, Davis replaced Tito Ortiz to face Nogueira at UFC Fight Night 24.
Davis got past his biggest test to date, but showed us that he still has some improvements to make.
He will get an even bigger test in competition as he takes on Rashad Evans at UFC 133.
Evans is a former UFC light heavyweight champion who was well on his way to another title fight. Unfortunately for him, his former teammate and UFC champion Jon Jones had to pull out of their fight due to a hand injury.
Instead of waiting for his title shot like he had done for almost a year, Evans decided to take the fight against Davis.
Like Evans, Davis is a good wrestler. But wrestling aside, will Davis have enough tools to be competitive with Evans?
Evans will have much better striking coming into this fight. He will also have experience and knows how to handle pressure in a big fight.
Not only will Davis feel the pressure of being in such a big fight, he will also feel the pressure to perform well in his home state.
Davis is one of the division’s bright young stars. But I believe this will be the fight that he loses and learns from.
(The exact moment Tito’s fighting career jumped the shark.)
It’s amazing that with the UFC’s longtime policy of cutting fighters who lose three fights in a row, that Tito Ortiz, who is 0-3-1 in his past four fights hasn’t been fired yet. One would assume that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was being kept around because of his past merits and pay-per-view sales, but apparently his job isn’t as secure as we assumed.
According to Ortiz, the UFC was ready to let him go after his UFC 121 loss to Matt Hamill, but instead urged the former UFC light heavyweight champion to follow in the footsteps of longtime nemesis Chuck Liddell and retire to save them the trouble of sending him to the unemployment line. Tito says he basically begged Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta for one more kick at the cat and they begrudgingly agreed, throwing him in against a young lion in Ryan Bader at UFC 132.
“Dana White and Joe Silva [the UFC’s matchmaker] told me they wanted me to retire, but I knew I still had the fight inside me. I pretty much begged for my job, to show how much I want to fight, but I still have it in my heart to compete, to fight,” he told the UK Telegraph. I told them I want to still fight against the top guys, I want to put on a show. I’ve just turned 36, but when they put me against the top guys, I think I can still compete.”
(The exact moment Tito’s fighting career jumped the shark.)
It’s amazing that with the UFC’s longtime policy of cutting fighters who lose three fights in a row, that Tito Ortiz, who is 0-3-1 in his past four fights hasn’t been fired yet. One would assume that “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” was being kept around because of his past merits and pay-per-view sales, but apparently his job isn’t as secure as we assumed.
According to Ortiz, the UFC was ready to let him go after his UFC 121 loss to Matt Hamill, but instead urged the former UFC light heavyweight champion to follow in the footsteps of longtime nemesis Chuck Liddell and retire to save them the trouble of sending him to the unemployment line. Tito says he basically begged Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta for one more kick at the cat and they begrudgingly agreed, throwing him in against a young lion in Ryan Bader at UFC 132.
“Dana White and Joe Silva [the UFC’s matchmaker] told me they wanted me to retire, but I knew I still had the fight inside me. I pretty much begged for my job, to show how much I want to fight, but I still have it in my heart to compete, to fight,” he told the UK Telegraph. I told them I want to still fight against the top guys, I want to put on a show. I’ve just turned 36, but when they put me against the top guys, I think I can still compete.”
Ortiz feels that his record, that hasn’t seen a win added to the win column in nearly five years is deceiving, because he came close to winning against a few of the guys who beat him the past few years.
“Too bad people don’t pay attention to the major details. I’ve competed against the top guys and gone on to win world championships. I’m not getting submitted or knocked out…I’m making little mistakes where I should be submitting guys. I thought I beat Forrest Griffin 2 to 1 the second time. But it was what it was.”
Unfortunately for Ortiz, close only matters when you’re talking horseshoes, curling or hand grenades and this is fighting where constantly telling people you could have won your fights or that you were robbed makes you look like an excuse maker. He recalls that when he lost the fight to Hamill and he received the call to retire from the UFC he figured he would be seeing Ashton Kutcher burst through the door a moment later, but then reality set in that it was no joke.
“The UFC called me after that fight and said ‘we want you to retire’. I was shocked, I thought they were kidding around. I took it as they didn’t want to pay me, to give me what I’m worth. I’m competing against the top guys and I’m not getting dominated. So, next month, I’ll be fighting one of the top guys in the world again, ranked in the top 3, and I’m going to show how much I’m really worth.”
So if he gets manhandled by Bader like he did by Hamill, does that mean the UFC can give him a Costco gift certificate and a can of Xyience?
Michael Bisping might be the most hated fighter in MMA. From his trash talk on The Ultimate Fighter, (pick your season) to his questionable decision win against Matt Hamill in England, or his despicable behavior after his fight with Jorge Rivera at UFC…
From his trash talk on The Ultimate Fighter, (pick your season) to his questionable decision win against Matt Hamill in England, or his despicable behavior after his fight with Jorge Rivera at UFC 127, it’s easy to find a reason to hate “The Count.”
The problem is, none of these things are his fault.
Here are five reasons why we should not only stop hating Bisping, but we should also cheer for him.
Steve Cofield caught up to TUF 14 coach Michael Bisping recently during a break from taping the SPIKE TV reality series, and the cocky Brit expressed his dissentient opinion that his opposing coach on the show, Jason “Mayhem” Miller is not a worthy opponent.
“I can fully understand it. The guy’s obviously….he does Bully Beatdown. He does a TV show, so he’s got a bit of got a bit of a crossover appeal, if you will, but I wasn’t overly excited that he’s going to be my next fight. I wanted somebody like Chael Sonnen or possibly the winner of [Yushin] Okami and Anderson [Silva] — you know, somebody of that stature in the middleweight division,” Bisping explained matter-of-factly. “But I can understand from a business perspective the UFC’s decision to do…you know, to give Mayhem the shot. It’s a double-edged sword. It will be good for the show, but it wasn’t the opponent I wanted though.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/ncaasteve)
Steve Cofield caught up to TUF 14 coach Michael Bisping recently during a break from taping the SPIKE TV reality series, and the cocky Brit expressed his dissentient opinion that his opposing coach on the show, Jason “Mayhem” Miller is not a worthy opponent.
“I can fully understand it. The guy’s obviously….he does Bully Beatdown. He does a TV show, so he’s got a bit of got a bit of a crossover appeal, if you will, but I wasn’t overly excited that he’s going to be my next fight. I wanted somebody like Chael Sonnen or possibly the winner of [Yushin] Okami and Anderson [Silva] — you know, somebody of that stature in the middleweight division,” Bisping explained matter-of-factly. “But I can understand from a business perspective the UFC’s decision to do…you know, to give Mayhem the shot. It’s a double-edged sword. It will be good for the show, but it wasn’t the opponent I wanted though.”
Bisping may have caught a break when Sonnen was barred from being on the show due to his ongoing licensing issues with the California State Athletic Commission as the durable Team Quest product would drink his milkshake seven different ways.
What’s somewhat of a head-scratcher is how Bisping thinks he should be considered a superior fighter to Miller.
Let’s compare their last ten fights:
Bisping’s current three-fight streak includes wins over 39-year-old Jorge Rivera and 35-year-old Yoshihiro Akiyama. Akiyama’s biggest win of the past three years was a very debatable split-decision over Alan Belcher. Rivera’s biggest win over the same period was against Kendall Grove.
Three of his other wins in that 10-fight span were over Jason Day, Charles McCarthy and Denis Kang — all of whom have since been dropped by the UFC.
Looking at his losses, Bisping was knocked out by Dan Henderson and dropped decisions to Rashad Evans, (which prompted him to drop to middleweight) and to aging veteran Wanderlei Silva, whose UFC success could be described as lacklustre, in spite of his go-for-broke fan-friendly style.
If we go back further and find the biggest win of Bisping’s career, it would have to be the one he stole from Matt Hamill, which most would argue was a gift decision awarded to him by hometown judges in England. Because the fight took place at light heavyweight, it doesn’t improve his spot in the rankings.
Now let’s take a look at Miller’s past ten fights.
His win over Sakuraba pretty much cancels out Bisping’s win over Rivera and you could argue that his win over Tim Kennedy is worth more than any of Bisping’s, considering he is consistently ranked higher than any of the fighters “The Count” has fought at 185.
One point that’s worth noting is that Bisping has only fought one top 5 ranked middlewight fighter — Dan Henderson — and he was knocked out in devastating fashion in that fight. Miller has faced two: Chael Sonnen and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, and although he lost to both of them, he did so by decision, which in itself is a feat considering the caliber of both fighters.
He also survived three rounds with one of the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Maybe we’re missing something, but how exactly is Bisping on another echelon than Miller?
He later backtracks slightly in the interview from all but calling Miller a can to simply stating he’s a decent fighter looking to propel himself into the limelight by beating a fighter of his, er..stature.
“Listen…Miller’s tough. There’s no question, he’s super tough. He’s got great cardio. He’s tough as hell. If you look at his fight with Georges St-Pierre, he was getting the shit kicked out of him and he was just laughing the whole time. So he’s hard to finish, do you know what I mean? He’s tough. He’s got awesome jiu-jitsu. He’s got underrated stand-up and good wrestling. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating him. I’m not thinking he’s a lesser fighter than me,” Bisping explained with a straight face after stating minutes before that he was a superior fighter to Miller. “That’s not what I’m saying. But in terms of world rankings and getting a title shot, I don’t think he’s going to progress me in my career. In some ways I think he’s a bad match-up because the pressure’s going to be on me because I’m expected to beat him. And he’s obviously looking to make a name on my back.”
So a win over Mayhem wouldn’t do anything for his career, but his past three wins over Akiyama, Miller and Rivera did?
Riding an impressive four-fight win streak over some tough opponents, it might now be time for Kingsbury to be bumped up to fight some bigger name guys.Although he has earned that chance, Kingsbury did not exactly look like a world beater and should no…
Riding an impressive four-fight win streak over some tough opponents, it might now be time for Kingsbury to be bumped up to fight some bigger name guys.
Although he has earned that chance, Kingsbury did not exactly look like a world beater and should not be thrown all the way into the deep end.
He needs some opponents that can build his name but can challenge him in the right places and make him better.
Here are the top four fights Kyle Kingsbury should take next.
Overall, the show was just OK. The main event and co-main event were not very good fights. Rampage Jackson did enough to earn a title shot against Jon Jones, but not many will pick him to win against Jones. Hamill said he would break Rampage’s will…
Overall, the show was just OK. The main event and co-main event were not very good fights.
Rampage Jackson did enough to earn a title shot against Jon Jones, but not many will pick him to win against Jones.
Hamill said he would break Rampage’s will, but in fact it was Hamil whose will was broken. Hamil was unable to take down Rampage during the fight.
It wasn’t a surprise that Rick Story upset Thiago Alves. Alves has trouble with wrestlers, and Story had a great game plan. Meanwhile, the fans booed Story because they wanted to see Alves deliver a highlight-reel knockout.
Rampage was booed as well because he couldn’t finish Hamill. It was smart of Rampage not to mention the boos during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
Brian Stann was impressive against Jorge Santiago. It is not a surprise that Santiago lost, as he has not been successful in the UFC and has been knocked out many times in his career.
Meanwhile, Travis Browne’s Superman punch knockout of Stefan Struve was exciting. Browne needed a good win because his last fight against Cheick Kongo was rather boring.
San Francisco’s Chris Cariaso fought well in his decision loss to Modesto’s Michael McDonald. In my opinion, this fight could have gone either way.
Middleweight Tim Boetsch looked great in dominating Kendall Grove. It seemed like he broke Grove’s will during the fight with his ability to take him down.
Perhaps the most controversial fight was that in which Demetrious Johnson’s earned a decision win over Miguel Torres. This was a back-and-forth fight that could have gone either way; the judges gave it to Johnson.
Dana White was critical of Frank Mir and Roy Nelson for their performances, but I don’t know what White expected from them. These are two big heavyweights and it wasn’t a great match-up to begin with.
Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis has lived up to his nickname so far in his MMA career.
