Controversial disgraced welterweight Rousimar Palhares is currently suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for holding onto another submission for too long and gouging the eyes of Jake Shields at last year’s WSOF 22, after which he was unceremoniously stripped of his WSOF 170-pound title and suspended by the promotion. Yet that didn’t stop “Toquinho”
Controversial disgraced welterweight Rousimar Palhares is currently suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for holding onto another submission for too long and gouging the eyes of Jake Shields at last year’s WSOF 22, after which he was unceremoniously stripped of his WSOF 170-pound title and suspended by the promotion.
Yet that didn’t stop “Toquinho” from competing at today’s (Sat., May 21, 2016) Venator FC 3 from Milan, Italy, where he took on Emil Meek because he had to “pay the bills” (as his manager Alex Davis put it). The fight didn’t work out in the lethal grappling wiz’s favor, however, as his early telegraphed takedown attempt was capitalized upon by “Valhalla” with a barrage of elbows and follow-up punches that got the massive upset stoppage in just 45 seconds.
In other action, Jason “Mayhem” Miller was submitted by new opponent Mattia Schiavolin after missing weight for his originally scheduled middleweight title bout against Luke Barnatt, who knocked out replacement opponent Stefan Croitoru on the card, by an alarming 24 pounds:
(There’ll be plenty more of this after the jump. Trust me.)
It’s February 18th, 2016 (or something like that), which can only mean one thing: There dun been a whole lotta MMA fights booked today! And rather than give you some paint-by-numbers fight booking breakdown (looking at you, Goldsteen), I’ve decided to do pretty much that, but with gifs. So without further askew, let’s get to it!
#6: Matt Hamill vs. TBA — WSOF 4-Man Light Heavyweight Tournament
Although he won’t be getting that rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator he was hoping for, Hamill has in fact signed an exclusive contract with World Series of Fighting, and is expected to make his debut as part of a 4-man tournament for the promotion’s light heavyweight belt. There’s no word on who he’ll be facing yet (our guess is another UFC veteran, which is all this tournament is made up of), but we feel confident not giving two shits about this fight regardless. Ranking:
(There’ll be plenty more of this after the jump. Trust me.)
It’s February 18th, 2016 (or something like that), which can only mean one thing: There dun been a whole lotta MMA fights booked today! And rather than give you some paint-by-numbers fight booking breakdown (looking at you, Goldsteen), I’ve decided to do pretty much that, but with gifs. So without further askew, let’s get to it!
#6: Matt Hamill vs. TBA — WSOF 4-Man Light Heavyweight Tournament
Although he won’t be getting that rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator he was hoping for, Hamill has in fact signed an exclusive contract with World Series of Fighting, and is expected to make his debut as part of a 4-man tournament for the promotion’s light heavyweight belt. There’s no word on who he’ll be facing yet (our guess is another UFC veteran, which is all this tournament is made up of), but we feel confident not giving two shits about this fight regardless. Ranking:
Remember that time I mentioned how the WSOF light heavyweight tournament is entirely made up of former UFC fighters? Well, enter Thiago Silva, who was just signed by the WSOF to a multi-fight contract despite being a reprehensible piece of human garbage.
(*exhale*) In any case, Silva has been booked in the WSOF’s 4-man lightweight tourney opposite former UFC middleweight Ronny Markes in the semifinal round.
You see what’s happening here, right? WSOF is unabashedly setting up Thiago fucking Silva to be the face of their light heavyweight division. My reaction to this can only be summed up in the immortal words of David Caruso. Ranking:
‘Page is back, baby! Lovers of MMA circa 2005, rejoice!!
I kid (sort of), but according to MMAFighting, Jackson’s return to the Octagon is being eyed for UFC 186 in April, with his opponent potentially being Fabio Maldonado. The Brazilian former pro boxer is fresh off a second round TKO of Hans Stringer at UFC 179, and has won 4 of his last 5 overall. Say what you want about Rampage (or Maldonado) being past his prime…
I suppose I should have finished that thought with a counterpoint, but what I’m getting at is Rampage vs. Maldonado has slugfest written all over it. In blood. Ranking:
Jim Miller is a gamer through and through, and Paul Felder kicked off 2015 with a KO of the Year-worthy spinning backfist over Danny Castillo at UFC 182. This fight will win all of the performance bonuses. Ranking:
Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, UFC Tonight is reporting that the UFC is looking to book Dillashaw vs. Barao II for the April 25th card in Montreal now that Dominick Cruz has once again gone down with an ACL injury.
This rematch makes a hell of a lot more sense now than it did when Barao and Dillashaw were originally scheduled to lock horns again at UFC 177, which as we all know, ended with Barao withdrawing from the fight on 24 hours notice following a botched weight cut. While Dillashaw went on to starch Joe Soto that night, Barao would bounce back with a third round submission win over top contender Mitch Gagnon at Fight Night 58. The scales are finally starting to even in the battle of Team Alpha Male vs. All of Brazil, so we’ll go ahead and slap this one with a Ranking of:
Matt Hamill, who achieved widespread fame and admiration as a successful hearing-impaired fighter, will return to pro MMA this year after signing with the World Series of Fighting promotion.
The news came Wednesday night via Ariel Helwani of MMAFightin…
Matt Hamill, who achieved widespread fame and admiration as a successful hearing-impaired fighter, will return to pro MMA this year after signing with the World Series of Fighting promotion.
Hamill will compete in a four-man tournament to determine the inaugural WSOF light heavyweight champion. Also in the bracket is Thiago Silva, the controversial fighter who has also signed with WSOF and who defeated Hamill by unanimous decision in October 2013. As it happens, that was the last professional fight in the UFC or elsewhere for both men.
Silva will face another UFC veteran, Ronny Markes, in the tournament’s semifinal round. Hamill will take on an as-yet unannounced opponent.
Last July, Hamill, now 38, retired from the sport, citing a “nagging injury.” However, in December Hamill tweeted that he was coming out of retirement and seeking a fight.
It’s time for The Hammer to get back into the ring and offer some payback! http://t.co/pyPxCPKCQG
Hamill originally targetedBellator and a rematch with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson for his return fight. But that never materialized. Like a bout with Jackson, however, a matchup with Silva would give Hamill the opportunity to avenge a previous loss.
Hamill (11-5) earned legions of fans for his success in college wrestling and later in MMA. He was a formidable and heavy-handed wrestler during his heyday in the late 2000s, defeating notables like Tito Ortiz, Mark Munoz and Keith Jardine.
He also has the strange distinction of being the only man to ever technically defeat Jon Jones, though he only did so because Jones was disqualified for throwing illegal elbows.
In 2010, a movie, The Hammer, was made about Hamill’s life.
At the tail end of his UFC run, Hamill looked thoroughly unimpressive, even during rare victories. Diminished by time and injuries, Hamill was a shell of his former self, particularly against younger, more complete mixed martial artists.
It remains to be seen whether Hamill’s health or fighting game will have improved during his retirement. Either way, Hamill’s return to active competition will likely draw interest in various quarters of the MMA and non-MMA public.
(“F*ck yeah I’ll watch this again!” — Nobody, ever. Photo via Getty.)
We have lamented at length about Matt Hamill‘s decision to unretire the *first* time and the uninspiring results it garnered, but alas, it appears the TUF 3 alum simply refuses to listen.
That sounded wrong. What I meant to say was that our words have fallen on…goddammit, this was a terrible analogy to use.
Matt Hamill is un-retiring, again, despite recently retiring from MMA (again) due to “a nagging injury” that forced him out of his expected WSOF debut in May. And not only that, but now he’s calling for a rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator over Twitter.
“@scottcoker I want a fight with @rampage4real. The Hammer is coming back and want to come to @bellator,” tweeted Hamill last night.
Eesh. Where do we begin…
(“F*ck yeah I’ll watch this again!” — Nobody, ever. Photo via Getty.)
We have lamented at length about Matt Hamill‘s decision to unretire the *first* time and the uninspiring results it garnered, but alas, it appears the TUF 3 alum simply refuses to listen.
That sounded wrong. What I meant to say was that our words have fallen on…goddammit, this was a terrible analogy to use.
Matt Hamill is un-retiring, again, despite recently retiring from MMA (again) due to “a nagging injury” that forced him out of his expected WSOF debut in May. And not only that, but now he’s calling for a rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator over Twitter.
“@scottcoker I want a fight with @rampage4real. The Hammer is coming back and want to come to @bellator,” tweeted Hamill last night.
It’s a lofty request to say the least. Not only does a fight between Hamill and Jackson make absolutely zero sense no matter how you slice it, but considering the plodding suckfest that was their first encounter back at UFC 130 (which saw Jackson emerge victorious via UD), it doesn’t even seem like something fans would want to see again. Seriously, does anyone remember how sluggish and ineffective Hamill looked that night? Come to think of it, “sluggish” and “ineffective” would be two great ways of describing how Hamill looked in his fights against Roger Hollett and Thiago Silva after coming out of retirement for the first time.
This is not meant as a knock against Hamill, cruel as it may seem, but rather a call to reason. I can only begin to understand what drives a once prominent fighter to step back into the cage despite every warning sign that he shouldn’t, but rather than fall back on the same tired speech about why someone in Hamill’s inner circle should be stepping in and preventing this from happening, I think I’ll just list some facts:
– Matt Hamill is 38 years old.
– He has not fought since October of 2013
– Less than a year ago, Hamill cited “a nagging injury that never healed and has worsened with time” as the reason for his second retirement. An injury that has apparently healed through some sort of magic.
– Hamill is 1-3 dating back to 2011, and is 0-1 against Rampage Jackson.
– It is very likely that Bellator will take him up on his offer.
That last fact is perhaps the most depressing of them all.
Sad but foreseeable news today, as TUF 3 alum, UFC star, and inspirational figure Matt Hamill has called it quits on his MMA career for a second and hopefully final time.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my most loyal fans for standing by me throughout my 10 year career with MMA… All good things must come to an end and I am saddened that the time has come for me to hang up my gloves permanently due to a nagging injury that has never healed and has worsened with time. The memories have been good….
Sad but foreseeable news today, as TUF 3 alum, UFC star, and inspirational figure Matt Hamill has called it quits on his MMA career for a second and hopefully final time.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my most loyal fans for standing by me throughout my 10 year career with MMA… All good things must come to an end and I am saddened that the time has come for me to hang up my gloves permanently due to a nagging injury that has never healed and has worsened with time. The memories have been good….
His recent woes aside, there’s no denying the impact Hamill had on the UFC, its fans, and the deaf community during his MMA career, which saw him score wins over Keith Jardine, Tito Ortiz, Mark Munoz, Jon Jones (technically), and Michael Bisping (not technically but c’mon). Having had the brief opportunity to train with Hamill prior to his fight with Rich Franklin at UFC 88, I can personally attest to the quality of his character and would like to wish him the best of luck wherever the road takes him.
Show Hamill some love one final time in the comments section.
Ultimate Fighter Finale cards weren’t always so garbage-ass. On December 5th, 2009 — four years ago today — the TUF 10 Finale went down in Las Vegas, with a lineup featuring Jon Jones (before he became light-heavyweight champion), Frankie Edgar (before he became lightweight champion), Kimbo Slice (who was one of the most popular figures in the sport at the time), as well as Roy Nelson, Brendan Schaub, and Matt Mitrione. Today, a UFC card with those names would be sold as a pay-per-view, and it would probably do pretty damn well*. In 2009, this was just another free show on Spike TV, a cable channel that everybody knew how to find. Damn…we just didn’t know how good we had it back then.
Maybe you remember Nelson’s nasty one-shot KO of Schaub at the event, and maybe you remember the 15-minute wheezefest that was Kimbo vs. Houston Alexander. But the reason that the TUF 10 Finale remains infamous four years later is because of a bullshit little rule known as “no 12-to-6 elbows,” which may very well be the most arbitrary and baseless rule in MMA history. Essentially, MMA fighters are allowed to crack each other’s skulls wide open with their ‘bows, either standing or on the ground, but if your elbow is moving vertically downward, you might as well be a villain in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. My goodness, somebody could actually get injured with those things.
Jon Jones, who was 22 years old at the time, had earned a prime spot on the TUF 10 Finale main card thanks to his 3-0 run in the UFC light-heavyweight division, which included a hilariouslymadcap decision win against Stephan Bonnar, and a second-round submission of fan-unfavorite Jake O’Brien. This was the pre-backlash Jon Jones, a guy who was universally beloved for his dynamic wrestling ability and his improvisational striking, which he picked up (as the legend goes) from watching YouTube videos. Matt Hamill was supposed to be just another stepping-stone in Jones’s quick rise to the top — a recognizable TUF-guy for him to squash. And that’s exactly what happened, even though Hamill wound up winning the fight on a technicality.
Ultimate Fighter Finale cards weren’t always so garbage-ass. On December 5th, 2009 — four years ago today — the TUF 10 Finale went down in Las Vegas, with a lineup featuring Jon Jones (before he became light-heavyweight champion), Frankie Edgar (before he became lightweight champion), Kimbo Slice (who was one of the most popular figures in the sport at the time), as well as Roy Nelson, Brendan Schaub, and Matt Mitrione. Today, a UFC card with those names would be sold as a pay-per-view, and it would probably do pretty damn well*. In 2009, this was just another free show on Spike TV, a cable channel that everybody knew how to find. Damn…we just didn’t know how good we had it back then.
Maybe you remember Nelson’s nasty one-shot KO of Schaub at the event, and maybe you remember the 15-minute wheezefest that was Kimbo vs. Houston Alexander. But the reason that the TUF 10 Finale remains infamous four years later is because of a bullshit little rule known as “no 12-to-6 elbows,” which may very well be the most arbitrary and baseless rule in MMA history. Essentially, MMA fighters are allowed to crack each other’s skulls wide open with their ‘bows, either standing or on the ground, but if your elbow is moving vertically downward, you might as well be a villain in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. My goodness, somebody could actually get injured with those things.
Jon Jones, who was 22 years old at the time, had earned a prime spot on the TUF 10 Finale main card thanks to his 3-0 run in the UFC light-heavyweight division, which included a hilariouslymadcap decision win against Stephan Bonnar, and a second-round submission of fan-unfavorite Jake O’Brien. This was the pre-backlash Jon Jones, a guy who was universally beloved for his dynamic wrestling ability and his improvisational striking, which he picked up (as the legend goes) from watching YouTube videos. Matt Hamill was supposed to be just another stepping-stone in Jones’s quick rise to the top — a recognizable TUF-guy for him to squash. And that’s exactly what happened, even though Hamill wound up winning the fight on a technicality.
For four minutes, Jones out-struck, out-worked, and out-shined Hamill, at one point rag-dolling him to the mat in the slickest foot-sweep takedown outside of a Lyoto Machida fight. From there, Bones engaged the Finishing Sequence, launching punches and elbows at his near-helpless opponent. The fight was effectively over by then, but Hamill continued to defend himself, desperately covering his face with his arms. Slightly frustrated, Jones tried a different angle, blasting his elbows straight down into Hamill’s face. It was then that Steve Mazzagatti jumped in — but it wasn’t to award Jones the TKO victory.
Noticing that Jones had begun throwing the dreaded 12-to-6 elbows, Mazzagatti paused the action and pulled Jones off of Hamill, who made no attempt to get off his back. (As we later learned, Hamill suffered a broken shoulder when he was tossed to the mat.) Mazzagatti asked Hamill if he could continue. Hamill, who has been deaf since birth and was momentarily blinded by his own blood, was unresponsive. Instead of bringing in a doctor and sign-language interpreter to clear Hamill’s vision and communicate with him, Mazzagatti immediately stopped the fight, and handed Jones a loss by disqualification.
Jones’s attempt to appeal the loss was shot down, as these things usually are. Luckily, the shoddy enforcement of a shoddy rule didn’t slow down his momentum. The UFC moved forward with Jones’s career like the “loss” never happened, building him up in main-event fights on their UFC on Versus series — where he smashed Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko, both in the first round, both with legal elbows. Jones has been a pay-per-view poster boy ever since.
If not for Jon Jones’s disqualification loss at the TUF 10 Finale, he’d be 20-0 overall and 14-0 in the UFC — an unbeaten run that would give him the second-longest win streak in UFC history, behind only Anderson Silva (16). Instead, he’s riding a 10-fight win streak and is still stuck in 3rd place behind Georges St. Pierre (12). But keep in mind that Jones is still only 26 years old and has only been fighting professionally since April 2008. Seven more wins? As long as he doesn’t jinx himself, that’s totally doable.
* Jones’s last PPV outing didn’t exactly blow the doors off, but Kimbo Slice could probably outdraw half of the UFC’s champions to this day.
