It’s once again fight day here at LowKickMMA, and the talent on display tonight (Saturday, April 16th, 2016) will come in the form of UFC on FOX 19. Headlining the card are Rashad Evans and Glover Teixeira, but there’s a whole bunch of great fights also taking place on the preliminary section of the card.
It’s once again fight day here at LowKickMMA, and the talent on display tonight (Saturday, April 16th, 2016) will come in the form of UFC on FOX 19. Headlining the card are Rashad Evans and Glover Teixeira, but there’s a whole bunch of great fights also taking place on the preliminary section of the card.
Michael Chiesa vs. Beneil Dariush closes the preliminary card on FOX in a lightweight bout.
Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington is next in a women’s bantamweight bout.
Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio is next in a welterweight bout.
Hacran Dias vs. Cub Swanson opens the FOX in a featherweight bout.
Randy Brown vs. Michael Graves opens the FOX in a lightweight bout at UFC on FOX 19.
John Dodson vs. Manny Gamburyan in a bantamweight bout finishes off the UFC Fight Pass preliminary card.
Cezar Ferreira vs. Caio Magalhaes is next in a middleweight bout.
Opening the UFC Fight Pass prelims was Omari Akhmedov vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos in a welterweight bout at UFC on FOX 19. An entertaining round one. Akhmedov got an early round takedown but was overtaken by Santos as he went for a heel hook. Akhmedov countered with a kimura submission attempt but was not successful. In the second round, both men had their moments on the ground as they both took each other down. Santos turned things up in the third round and was winning the fight on the feet. Santos rocked him, and Akhmedov went for a takedown, but it was stuffed. Santos blitzed him with elbows, knees and strikes while in the clinch. Akhmedov was back peddling as Santos just went off on him, and the fight was stopped.
So join us right here at LowKickMMA for UFC on FOX 19, kicking off at 4 p.m. ET!
Here are the results:
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX, 6 p.m. ET)
Lightweight Bout: Michael Chiesa vs. Beneil Dariush
Women’s Bantamweight Bout: Bethe Correia vs. Raquel Pennington
Welterweight Bout: Court McGee vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
Welterweight Bout: Randy Brown vs. Michael Graves
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 4 p.m. ET)
Bantamweight Bout: John Dodson vs. Manny Gamburyan
Middleweight Bout: Cezar Ferreira vs. Caio Magalhaes
Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos def. Omari Akhmedov via TKO in round 3.
While looking through the lense of hindsight, it’s almost impossible to imagine how Paige VanZant was ever listed as a 2-to-1 favorite over Rose Namajunas heading into their Fight Night 80 main event. Yet she was, and we can only imagine that a lot of people made some money off a rare miss by the Vegas bookies.
Over the course of five rounds, our girl Rose utterly dismantled VanZant in every department. Her striking was impeccably crisp, her takedowns came at will, and her submissions were what ultimately won her the day. Vanzant looked completely outmatched from start to finish, repeatedly latching onto to hapless headlock throws THAT NO FIGHTER SHOULD EVER ATTEMPT AGAIN. But what she lacked in polish, VanZant more than made up in grit. On multiple occasions throughout the fight, a bloodied and battered Vanzant appeared to be caught in what any logical person would consider a fight-ending submission — first it was a rear-naked choke, then an armbar so brutal that it may have rearranged her DNA — but not once did she stop pressing forward and throwing nything she could think of at her clearly superior opponent. So on this day, we raise a glass to both competitors and say, congratulations on one epic goddamn war.
But the main event wasn’t the only fight that delivered, so head after the jump for a full list of Fight Night 80 results.
While looking through the lense of hindsight, it’s almost impossible to imagine how Paige VanZant was ever listed as a 2-to-1 favorite over Rose Namajunas heading into their Fight Night 80 main event. Yet she was, and we can only imagine that a lot of people made some money off a rare miss by the Vegas bookies.
Over the course of five rounds, our girl Rose utterly dismantled VanZant in every department. Her striking was impeccably crisp, her takedowns came at will, and her submissions were what ultimately won her the day. Vanzant looked completely outmatched from start to finish, repeatedly latching onto to hapless headlock throws THAT NO FIGHTER SHOULD EVER ATTEMPT AGAIN. But what she lacked in polish, VanZant more than made up in grit. On multiple occasions throughout the fight, a bloodied and battered Vanzant appeared to be caught in what any logical person would consider a fight-ending submission — first it was a rear-naked choke, then an armbar so brutal that it may have rearranged her DNA — but not once did she stop pressing forward and throwing nything she could think of at her clearly superior opponent. So on this day, we raise a glass to both competitors and say, congratulations on one epic goddamn war.
But the main event wasn’t the only fight that delivered, so head after the jump for a full list of Fight Night 80 results.
In the co-main event of the evening, TUF Live winner Michael Chiesa took on the always game veteran Jim Miller in a back-and-forth banger so sweet that it managed to snatch “Fight of the Night” awards away from Namajunas vs. VanZant. Sadly, it’s starting to look like the younger of the Miller brothers is also starting to lose a little pep in his step, and worse, he’s more vulnerable to the submission than he’s ever been in his career. Given, he’s only been submitted three times in the past three years (well, two if we exclude the Healy fight) and only by insanely talented grapplers, but it’s kind of like how Dan Henderson went from an iron-jawed beast to a guy who gets shut down the first time he’s hit almost every fight.
In any case, enjoy these Chiesa-Miller highlights set to some blasting EDM, because the UFC is too cheap to provide embeddable highlights for their Fight Pass Events.
Finally on the highlight front, here’s Sage Northcutt‘s finish of Cody Pfister in the second round of their main card scrap. Oh, you hadn’t predicted that Sage Northcutt would beat a guy whose last name is Pfister and whose nickname is “The Pfist”? You silly, silly sonofabitch, you.
The complete Fight Night 80 results are below.
Main card
Rose Namajunas def. Paige VanZant via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:25 of R5
Michael Chiesa def. Jim Miller via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:57 of R2
Sage Northcutt def. Cody Pfister via submission (guillotine) at :41 of R2
Thiago Santos def. Elias Theodorou via unanimous decision
Undercard
Tim Means def. John Howard via KO (left hook) at :21 of R2
Omari Akhmedov def. Sergio Moraes via TKO (punches) at 2:18 of R3
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Kevin Casey ends in no contest (eye poke) at :11 of R1
Aljamain Sterling def. Johnny Eduardo via submission (guillotine) at 4:18 of R2
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Andreas Stahl via TKO (punches) at 4:25 of R1
Danny Roberts def. Nathan Coy via submission (triangle) at 2:46 of R1
Zubaira Tukhugov def. Phillipe Nover via split decision
Kailin Curran def. Emily Kagan via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:13 of R2
Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa was as predictable as it was unexpected, if that makes any sense. Allow me to explain. The Fight Night 50 main card opener that pitted the TUF 5 alum against the TUF 15 winner was predictable in the way that all Joe Lauzon fights are: It was a back-and-forth, ferociously paced banger that brought the crowd to life from the very moment it started. There’s a reason why Lauzon has scored a UFC record 13 fight bonuses, and his most recent performance was no exception.
The fight’s ending was unexpected, however, in that Lauzon emerged victorious via TKO — something he hasn’t accomplished since 2008 — and that said TKO came due to the doctor’s intervention. As you might expect, Chiesa was upset with the decision and immediately took to Twitter to protest the stoppage while demanding an immediate rematch.
“Out of all the bloody three-round wars I’ve seen … Diego, Lauzon and many others, why the hell did they stop my fight?” asked Chiesa. “I was never beat, my will was never broken, I was winning that fight. I demand a rematch before the year ends. I hope you all were entertained, you guys got robbed as much as me. That fight was going to be a three-round war. We all got robbed.”
Lauzon responded shortly thereafter with the above Instagram post, showing that not only had all 3 judges had scored the first round for him, but stating his belief that “rematches are dumb.” That led to this exchange between the two lightweights on Twitter:
Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa was as predictable as it was unexpected, if that makes any sense. Allow me to explain. The Fight Night 50 main card opener that pitted the TUF 5 alum against the TUF 15 winner was predictable in the way that all Joe Lauzon fights are: It was a back-and-forth, ferociously paced banger that brought the crowd to life from the very moment it started. There’s a reason why Lauzon has scored a UFC record 13 fight bonuses, and his most recent performance was no exception.
The fight’s ending was unexpected, however, in that Lauzon emerged victorious via TKO — something he hasn’t accomplished since 2008 — and that said TKO came due to the doctor’s intervention. As you might expect, Chiesa was upset with the decision and immediately took to Twitter to protest the stoppage while demanding an immediate rematch.
“Out of all the bloody three-round wars I’ve seen … Diego, Lauzon and many others, why the hell did they stop my fight?” asked Chiesa. “I was never beat, my will was never broken, I was winning that fight. I demand a rematch before the year ends. I hope you all were entertained, you guys got robbed as much as me. That fight was going to be a three-round war. We all got robbed.”
Lauzon responded shortly thereafter with the above Instagram post, showing that not only had all 3 judges had scored the first round for him, but stating his belief that “rematches are dumb.” That led to this exchange between the two lightweights on Twitter:
Now 0-2 against Lauzon thanks to that sweet burn, Chiesa took to the media to vent his frustrations with the stoppage, telling MMAJunkie that he would even being willing to give up the $50,000 “Fight of the Night” money he earned in order to receive a rematch.
Everyone’s like, ‘Cheer up, you got the bonus.’ I don’t care. I would give that $50,000 back just to be able to go the rest of the fight.
It just upsets me. I’m not taking a shot at the commission, but I feel like they should have at least given me through the round. Herb did his job coming in and checking the cut, but we train three months for one moment. To take it away from me in a fight where I was never out of the fight isn’t right.
Again, it’s easy to see where Chiesa is coming from. The loss to Lauzon snapped a two-fight win streak for the TUF 15 winner, whose only professional loss prior to last weekend came at the hands of former Strikeforce title challenger Jorge Masvidal in July of 2013. But it’s easy to claim that you’d hand over 50K when the option isn’t actually on the table, which is why Lauzon proceed to grant Chiesa his rematch on Instagram this morning under one condition: Chiesa put his money where his mouth is.
“Accept the loss like a man, or the @UFC can send me your FoTN check and we do it again,” wrote Lauzon.
I think we can all agree that immediate rematches are best when saved for title fights, and even then often seem rushed and/or doomed to fail (*cough* Dillashaw-Barao *cough*). In the case of Lauzon-Chiesa, a rematch seems especially impractical — it’s not like Chiesa suffered his cut from an accidental headbutt ala Bonnar-KSos 1. He received it while eating a flurry of knees and punches, and like Lauzon pointed to, all three of the judges had scored the first round for him. Simply put, it does not appear as if Chiesa was exactly “robbed” like he claims.
A rematch would do next to nothing for Lauzon, but God love the kid, he’s willing to accept one for the mere price of Chiesa’s bonus check. Because Joe Lauzon loves bonus checks. He likes the smell of freshly printed paper. He loves the Arabic Typesetting font. Hell, Lauzon even likes it when he cuts himself between the thumb and forefinger while opening a bonus check, and it’s that kind of attitude that has made “J-Lau” the UFC’s first billionaire.
The ball is now in Chiesa’s court, in any case. In the meantime, we guess he’ll just have to bite his tongue and accept that…
(Ronaldo Souza and Gegard Mousasi, showing about as much intensity as the average person does while ordering fast food at a drive-through. / Photo via Getty)
In the immortal words of Jeff Monson: “You like watching people get f*cked for free?” Then follow us after the jump for round-by-round results from the UFC Fight Night 50 main card, which our dear friend Ryan Harkness will be compiling after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET, along with his usual charming commentary. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and follow us on twitter for even more hijinx. Thanks for being here.
(Ronaldo Souza and Gegard Mousasi, showing about as much intensity as the average person does while ordering fast food at a drive-through. / Photo via Getty)
In the immortal words of Jeff Monson: “You like watching people get f*cked for free?” Then follow us after the jump for round-by-round results from the UFC Fight Night 50 main card, which our dear friend Ryan Harkness will be compiling after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET, along with his usual charming commentary. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and follow us on twitter for even more hijinx. Thanks for being here.
PRELIMINARY CARD RESULTS
John Moraga vs. Justin Scoggins
Al Iaquinta def. Rodrigo Damm via TKO (strikes) at 2:41 of round 3
Rafael Natal def. Chris Camozzi via decision (split) (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Chris Beal def. Tateki Matsuda via decision (unanimous) (29-28 x 2, 30-27)
Chas Skelly def. Sean Soriano via decision (unanimous) (30-27 x 3)
Souza, on the other hand, recently picked up his third straight UFC win (and sixth in a row overall) over Francis Carmont at Fight Night 36. We highly doubt he’ll be lacking motivation heading into his rematch with Mousasi, who ended his night with an upkick KO when they previously met in the Dream middleweight finals back in 2008. Ah, Dream, how we have forgotten you so.
But Mousasi vs. Souza II isn’t the only big fight to be booked today, not by a long shot…
(Mousasi vs. Souza 1, Dream 6 Middleweight Grand Prix Finals, 2008)
Souza, on the other hand, recently picked up his third straight UFC win (and sixth in a row overall) over Francis Carmont at Fight Night 36. We highly doubt he’ll be lacking motivation heading into his rematch with Mousasi, who ended his night with an upkick KO when they previously met in the Dream middleweight finals back in 2008. Ah, Dream, how we have forgotten you so.
But Mousasi vs. Souza II isn’t the only big fight to be booked today, not by a long shot…
According to BloodyElbow, Fight Night 42 victors Ben Henderson and Rafael Dos Anjos have also agreed to meet in the main event of Fight Night Tulsa, which will be transpiring on August 23rd, a.k.a the same day as Fight Night: Bisping vs. Le in Macau. Way to optimize viewership, UFC!
As I mentioned, both Henderson and Dos Anjos picked up stoppage wins at Fight Night 42, the former by 4th round submission over Rustam Khabilov and the latter by second round TKO of the now-fired Jason High. The fight will serve as both Dos Anjos’ first main event and first five round contest, which is quite an accomplishment for a guy best known as the victim of Jeremy Stephens’ uppercut from Hell for a large part of his UFC career.
Another pivotal lightweight matchup announced earlier today is that of Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa. Things have been up-and-down for Lauzon both professionally and personally as of late; the TUF 5 alum bounced back from the first two fight skid of his career to trounce Mac Danzig at UFC on FOX 9 and recently saw his newborn son diagnosed with cancer only to kick its ass at just two months of age. Take *that* cancer, ya dick!
I guess I should mention that Chiesa has scored back-to-back wins over Colton Smith and Francisco Trinaldo at Fight for the Troops 3 and UFC 173, respectively. So there’s that.
Finally, a light heavyweight contest between Ryan Bader and Ovince St. Preux as the main event of a Fight Night event in Bangor, Maine on August 16th. The announcement was made by Bader himself on Twitter just moments ago. Similar to the Henderson/Dos Anjos booking, both Bader and OSP picked up decisive victories at UFC 174 last weekend over Rafael Cavalcante and Ryan Jimmo, respectively, and all but agreed to fight one another when some media mark tried to play matchmaker in the evening’s post-fight press conference. Hooray for that guy!
My prediction: OethhP by Submithhion. (I’m sorry, that was a low blow.)
Despite the enthusiastic and supportive Fort Campbell crowd, last night’s Fight for the Troops 3 event began with some bitter defeats for the handful of UFC fighters with military backgrounds. Army Staff Sgt./TUF 16 winner Colton Smith kicked off the main card by tapping to a rear-naked choke from TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa — which earned Chiesa a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus — while former Marine Liz Carmouche ate her second UFC defeat in a decision loss to Alexis Davis.
Luckily, Tim Kennedy saved the operation. The Special Forces vet fed off the energy in the room and tagged Rafael Natal with a long left hook that put the Brazilian’s lights out near the end of round 1, and won Kennedy a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bump. As he explained after the fight:
“I had to wait for the crowd to stop cheering because I was afraid to emotionally commit to something and not do it for the right reasons,” he said. “They’re screaming, ‘Ranger up! Ranger up!’ And I want to start throwing overhands and blitz the guy. I was waiting for them to stop, and they didn’t stop. Then they started cheering ‘U-S-A!,’ and ‘Kennedy!,’ and I was like, ‘For the love of God.’
“It had a negative effect on me because I was waiting and apprehensive. If there was any amount of pressure that could be put on a single fighter for a fight, I can’t think of a situation that would be more stressful than this.”
By the way, Kennedy tore his quad in the last week of training camp, but as he told Ariel Helwani later, “There’s no way you’re getting me off this card. They would have had to shoot me. If they had to roll me up with a wheelchair, I would have got in that cage, I didn’t care.”
Check out video of Kennedy’s knockout above, check out full results from the fight card right here, and follow us after the jump for lots more UFC Fight for the Troops 3 video highlights…
Despite the enthusiastic and supportive Fort Campbell crowd, last night’s Fight for the Troops 3 event began with some bitter defeats for the handful of UFC fighters with military backgrounds. Army Staff Sgt./TUF 16 winner Colton Smith kicked off the main card by tapping to a rear-naked choke from TUF 15 winner Michael Chiesa — which earned Chiesa a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus — while former Marine Liz Carmouche ate her second UFC defeat in a decision loss to Alexis Davis.
Luckily, Tim Kennedy saved the operation. The Special Forces vet fed off the energy in the room and tagged Rafael Natal with a long left hook that put the Brazilian’s lights out near the end of round 1, and won Kennedy a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bump. As he explained after the fight:
“I had to wait for the crowd to stop cheering because I was afraid to emotionally commit to something and not do it for the right reasons,” he said. “They’re screaming, ‘Ranger up! Ranger up!’ And I want to start throwing overhands and blitz the guy. I was waiting for them to stop, and they didn’t stop. Then they started cheering ‘U-S-A!,’ and ‘Kennedy!,’ and I was like, ‘For the love of God.’
“It had a negative effect on me because I was waiting and apprehensive. If there was any amount of pressure that could be put on a single fighter for a fight, I can’t think of a situation that would be more stressful than this.”
By the way, Kennedy tore his quad in the last week of training camp, but as he told Ariel Helwani later, “There’s no way you’re getting me off this card. They would have had to shoot me. If they had to roll me up with a wheelchair, I would have got in that cage, I didn’t care.”
Check out video of Kennedy’s knockout above, check out full results from the fight card right here, and follow us after the jump for lots more UFC Fight for the Troops 3 video highlights…
(Tim Kennedy bum-rushes Rogan and Goldie’s event recap in hilarious fashion. And please, Mike, stop trying to make “The Sniper” happen. It’s not happening.)
(Cuban middleweight Yoel Romero’s just-as-nasty KO of Ronny Markes, also from the main card.)
(Rustam Khabilov shows he’s more than just “that suplex guy,” landing a sweet spinning heel kick to Jorge Masvidal’s neck. Somehow Masvidal recovered and fought on, but Khabilov still won the fight by unanimous decision, pushing his UFC record to 3-0. Both men earned $50,000 Fight of the Night bonuses for their efforts.)
