With UFC 136 fast approaching it’s hard not to consider this one of the most exciting fight cards of the entire year. The main card is headlined by current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who will defend his title against Gray Maynard.The two li…
With UFC 136 fast approaching it’s hard not to consider this one of the most exciting fight cards of the entire year. The main card is headlined by current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who will defend his title against Gray Maynard.
The two lightweight superstars will square off in a highly anticipated rematch, after their bout at UFC 125 ended in a draw.
Also featured on the card is featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who will defend his title against Kenny Florian, who recently dropped to the 145 weight class.
This stacked fight card takes place in Houston, in front of a sold out Toyota Center.
The following slides display the early betting odds and predictions for each fight at UFC 136.
Wrestling haters of MMA, your prayers have been answered.Ben “Smooth” Henderson handled Jim Miller with some difficulty, but he survived the submission attempts and delivered the most punishment that any man has ever inflicted on Miller en route to his…
Wrestling haters of MMA, your prayers have been answered.
Ben “Smooth” Henderson handled Jim Miller with some difficulty, but he survived the submission attempts and delivered the most punishment that any man has ever inflicted on Miller en route to his electrifying unanimous decision win over the AMA Fight Club phenom this past Sunday at UFC on Versus 5.
Miller was seen as a win away from a Clay Guida, a Melvin Gullard or maybe even the winner of Edgar vs. Maynard 3 at UFC 136 if he wanted Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard, but Henderson did what nobody else had done to Miller up to that point, and it’s now attracted quite the conversation.
The same opponents for whom Miller would’ve been lined up are now the opponents for whom Henderson is lined up for if he wished, which asks the question:
“Is The Smooth One good enough to win the belt one day?”
In answering this question with an emphatic, “Yes, he is,” I’d like to also pose a counter-question:
“Is there any good reason to think Ben Henderson will never win the belt one day?”
Now, to that counter-question, I say there is probably one or two good reasons, one being Guillard and the other possibly being Guida, but Miller was also a reason why Bendo would never win the belt.
Guillard is a better striker than Bendo, and Guida could be a much more aggressive threat on the ground than Bendo, but it seems as though it will take a sledgehammer, a sniper-rifle or a trio of Showtime Kicks from Roy Nelson to put the former WEC lightweight champion down.
With Henderson’s improving striking skill set, his already scary submission offense and his indescribably-frighteningly-superb submission defense, it seems unfathomable to believe that Henderson will end his UFC run without winning the UFC lightweight title at least once.
He has the talent and the skills, and now all he needs to do is shut down the men standing between him and either Edgar or Maynard.
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, LightweightsThe UFC’s lightweight division is such a shark tank that it’s incredible that Jim Miller won seven fights in a row against 155-pounders in the Octagon, and won all of them convincing…
The UFC‘s lightweight division is such a shark tank that it’s incredible that Jim Miller won seven fights in a row against 155-pounders in the Octagon, and won all of them convincingly. Even if you’re not fighting the cream of the crop, you’re going to run into trouble at some point when you’re fighting UFC lightweights.
Trouble is just what Miller ran into at UFC on Versus 5, when Ben Henderson hammered him for three rounds on the way to a unanimous decision victory. The Henderson fight was Miller’s chance to earn the next shot at the lightweight title, but instead he gets dropped in the rankings, and it’s back to the drawing board for the UFC, which needs to figure out who’s next for the winner of the upcoming Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard fight.
So who will it be? We take a look at some of the contenders as we rank the Top 10 lightweights in MMA below.
(Editor’s Note: The fighter’s rankings the last time we ranked the lightweights are in parentheses.)
1. Frankie Edgar (1): The lightweight champion defends his title against Gray Maynard at UFC 136, and one way or the other, we can all hope for a decisive ending so that some new blood can fight for the lightweight strap.
2. Gray Maynard (2): One of the frustrating things about the lightweight division is that we’re going to go two full years with only three men competing for the belt: First Edgar beat B.J. Penn, then he beat Penn in the rematch, then Maynard and Edgar fought to a draw, and now they’re preparing for a rematch. There’s a long line of good lightweights waiting for a title shot.
3. Gilbert Melendez (3): Unfortunately for Melendez, he’s still stuck with Strikeforce, defending his belt against Jorge Masvidal next. Masvidal is a fine fighter, but he’s a step down for Melendez. The sooner Melendez is in the UFC, the better.
4. Clay Guida (6): Edgar, Maynard and Melendez are pretty well established as the Top 3 in the world, but watching the Ben Henderson-Jim Miller fight had me re-assessing the rest of the lightweight division, which is a big jumble of good fighters who are hard to separate from each other. I settled on Guida as the next-best of the bunch because of his current four-fight winning streak, in which he has looked particularly dominant, and especially for his impressive win over Anthony Pettis, who in turn had an impressive win over Henderson. If Kenny Florian or Diego Sanchez were still in the lightweight division, I’d rank either one of them ahead of Guida, as they both beat Guida before his current four-fight streak began. But as it is, I have Guida next in line at lightweight, and probably next in line for a title fight.
5. Anthony Pettis (9): The further we get into the world of the post-UFC-WEC merger, the more impressive it seems that Pettis was the WEC’s lightweight champion. When Pettis beat Henderson to win the WEC lightweight belt, we didn’t know that Henderson was capable of beating a Top 10 UFC lightweight like Miller. Now that we do know, it’s reasonable to re-assess Pettis’s standing in the lightweight division, and that’s what I’ve done in moving him into the Top 5.
6. Ben Henderson (NR): The best thing about Henderson as a fighter? His physical strength, especially in his lower body. He uses those tree trunk thighs to drive right through his opponents, and he completely overpowered Miller — something no one has ever done before.
7. Shinya Aoki (4): Aoki is going to have a tough time staying up high in the lightweight rankings if he doesn’t start beating higher-quality competition. The two guys he’s beaten this year, Rich Clementi and Lyle Beerbohm, are fine, but they’re nowhere near the level of opponents he’d be fighting in the UFC. I still think Aoki is a Top 10 lightweight, but I wish I could see him prove it in the Octagon.
8. Melvin Guillard (8): Guillard is currently on a five-fight winning streak, and if he makes it six in a row against Joe Lauzon at UFC 136, he’d have a good chance of earning the next shot at the Edgar-Maynard winner. It’s hard to believe now that Guillard was once viewed as an example of a guy who had thrown away his talent: Now he’s 7-1 since making his UFC return three years ago, and on the verge of a title fight.
9. Jim Miller (5): Miller is a great jiu jitsu practitioner who’s always looking for a submission, but what he found against Henderson is that he just wasn’t strong enough to deal with a bigger man pounding away at him from the top. He might want to consider a move to featherweight.
10. Eddie Alvarez (7): The longer Alvarez goes without fighting significant competition, the harder it’s going to be for him to stay in the lightweight Top 10. Alvarez is 7-0 since signing with Bellator, which is impressive, but none of his seven opponents is even close to the Top 10. And the last time he did face a Top 10 opponent, Shinya Aoki, he was submitted in 92 seconds. I’d love to see Bellator put Alvarez in the cage with someone who can really let him prove that he’s one of the MMA elite, but the reality is that won’t happen any time soon.
The 155 pound division has always been one of the deepest in mixed martial arts and right now is no different. At the beginning of the year it seemed pretty clear what direction the lightweight division was going—Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard wo…
The 155 pound division has always been one of the deepest in mixed martial arts and right now is no different.
At the beginning of the year it seemed pretty clear what direction the lightweight division was going—Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard would battle for the prestigious UFC lightweight title with the winner facing WEC’s final lightweight champ Anthony Pettis.
As with most things in life, nothing goes according to plan. Fast forward a mere 227 days later and the lightweight title picture is a tangled web of uncertainty.
Last night, the consensus top contender Jim Miller put his seven bout unbeaten streak on the line against former WEC lightweight champ Ben “Smooth” Henderson.
Keyboard warriors and media aficionados considered this to be a tune-up fight for the AMA Fight Club product, but it appears that Henderson didn’t get the memo.
Both men brought the action with a highly competitive opening 10 minutes. On my unofficial score card they tied it with a round a piece heading into the final stanza.
Henderson made sure there were no questions about the winner with his actions in the final-round battering a tired Miller which earned him a 10-8 round on one of the judges’ score cards.
The MMA Lab product is unbeaten since joining the UFC and after dominating the former top contender can make a serious claim to being the top challenger following the Pettis-Maynard rubber match.
However, he is not alone. Both Clay Guida and Melvin Guillard also have the ability to challenge for the throne.
Guida stretched his winning streak to four bouts with the biggest win of his career spoiling the coming out party of the final WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis.
Guillard appears to be in the best shape of his career since hooking up with Greg Jackson—collecting five straight victories, three of them by way of stoppage.
“The Young Assassin” wasted no time looking to get back into the octagon following his July stoppage of Shane Roller taking a bout with jiu-jitsu ace Joe Lauzon.
With their impressive credentials and winning streaks, any of them would be fine challengers for the title. It seems we will have to trim the fat to find the real top contender.
Since Guillard has already agreed to a bout with Lauzon it makes sense to match the other contenders up in a title eliminator.
Both combatants have been known to throw caution to the wind and put on thrilling performances inside the cage and this would be the best way to find the true No. 1 contender.
(You don’t *have* to cover your face when you wear this shirt in public — but it couldn’t hurt. Props: Punch Buddies)
After Tuesday’s pep-talk, I’m happy to report that you guys got your acts together and started to produce quality work. So after sifting through the most recent wave of submissions for our Punch Buddies photoshop contest, we’ve chosen five runners-up, as well as two winners who will score “Young Assassin” t-shirts. Check out the Melvin Gulllard-themed brilliance after the jump.
(You don’t *have* to cover your face when you wear this shirt in public — but it couldn’t hurt. Props: Punch Buddies)
After Tuesday’s pep-talk, I’m happy to report that you guys got your acts together and started to produce quality work. So after sifting through the most recent wave of submissions for our Punch Buddies photoshop contest, we’ve chosen five runners-up, as well as two winners who will score “Young Assassin” t-shirts. Check out the Melvin Gulllard-themed brilliance after the jump.
William and Avelino, please send your names, sizes, and addresses to [email protected] and we’ll get you hooked up ASAP. Thanks to everyone who entered, and keep your eye on Punch Buddies!
By now, every slightly more than casual UFC fan knows that each of the seven UFC champions will defend their titles between now and Thanksgiving. Those are the kinds of fights that every fight fan knows about. The kinds of fights that people pay $50 to…
By now, every slightly more than casual UFC fan knows that each of the seven UFC champions will defend their titles between now and Thanksgiving. Those are the kinds of fights that every fight fan knows about. The kinds of fights that people pay $50 to order the PPVs to watch.
The fights on this list are the fights that not everybody is talking about that they shouldn’t look at as “just a throw-in fight to fill out a fight card.” The fights on this list are the bouts people should not forget about.
Wrestling haters of 
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