In our recap of the best, worst, and most insane moments that MMA had to offer in 2015, we bestowed the Potato Award for “Worst Fight of the Year” to Gabriel Gonzaga and Konstantin Erokhin’s scrap (if you could call it that) at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale, writing:
For three endless, slogging rounds, Gonzaga and Erokhin circled, stared, circled, and stared at each other, seemingly too scared to engage while the 1,800 people in attendance showered (or perhaps sprinkled, considering how few of them there were) them with boos.
By the time the abysmal contest had wrapped up, the pair of heavyweights had combined for just 35 significant strikes in total, with Gonzaga’s 20 strikes (and 2 takedowns!) earning him the victory.
Truthfully, we cannot even begin to imagine how a fight could possibly be worse than the Gonzaga vs. Erokhin already was, but somehow, someway, recent developments have allowed us to downgrade it from “piss-poor” to “the absolute nadir of professional mixed martial arts.”
In our recap of the best, worst, and most insane moments that MMA had to offer in 2015, we bestowed the Potato Award for “Worst Fight of the Year” to Gabriel Gonzaga and Konstantin Erokhin’s scrap (if you could call it that) at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale, writing:
For three endless, slogging rounds, Gonzaga and Erokhin circled, stared, circled, and stared at each other, seemingly too scared to engage while the 1,800 people in attendance showered (or perhaps sprinkled, considering how few of them there were) them with boos.
By the time the abysmal contest had wrapped up, the pair of heavyweights had combined for just 35 significant strikes in total, with Gonzaga’s 20 strikes (and 2 takedowns!) earning him the victory.
Truthfully, we cannot even begin to imagine how a fight could possibly be worse than the Gonzaga vs. Erokhin already was, but somehow, someway, recent developments have allowed us to downgrade it from “piss-poor” to “the absolute nadir of professional mixed martial arts.”
Details after the jump.
That’s because Erokhin, as it turns out, was on performance enhancing drugs during the contest. To steal a line from BloodyElbow’s Zane Simon, “I suppose it makes you wonder what aspect of the performance was ‘enhanced.’” MMAFighting has the deets:
Now, Erokhin’s drug test from the TUF Finale has come back positive. Erokhin popped for the anabolic steroid drostanolone in a pre-fight, in-competition test, according to documents obtained by MMA Fighting through a public records request with the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The Russian, who was removed from the UFC’s roster following the loss (his second straight since entering the promotion), will now be looking at a 9-month suspension from competition, at the minimum, as well as a fine that will almost surely negate whatever he received for the fight in the first place.
So in total, we have a terrible fight, a meaningless win, and another entry in our steroid bust timeline. What a shitshow.
Welterweight Tim Means might be best known for once getting KO’d by a sauna, but it turns out that he’s actually a pretty talented fighter in his own right (and boasts one of the best nicknames in the game to boot). Since returning to the UFC in 2014, “The Dirty Bird” has put together a respectable 5-2 record, with wins over TUF 19 finalist Dhiego Lima and George Sullivan among others.
Fresh off a second round starching of John Howard at Fight Night 80 in December, Means was set to welcome Donald Cerrone to the welterweight division at Fight Night 83 later this month in a fight that had “fireworks” written all over it. Unfortunately for us, Means’ recent out-of-competition test happened to have FAILURE written all over it as well, resulting in “The Dirty Bird” being pulled from the card and yet another main event being placed in jeopardy.
Welterweight Tim Means might be best known for once getting KO’d by a sauna, but it turns out that he’s actually a pretty talented fighter in his own right (and boasts one of the best nicknames in the game to boot). Since returning to the UFC in 2014, “The Dirty Bird” has put together a respectable 5-2 record, with wins over TUF 19 finalist Dhiego Lima and George Sullivan among others.
Fresh off a second round starching of John Howard at Fight Night 80 in December, Means was set to welcome Donald Cerrone to the welterweight division at Fight Night 83 later this month in a fight that had “fireworks” written all over it. Unfortunately for us, Means’ recent out-of-competition test happened to have FAILURE written all over it as well, resulting in “The Dirty Bird” being pulled from the card and yet another main event being placed in jeopardy.
The news of Means’ positive test broke earlier today, and as is usually the case, the man himself seemed more caught off guard by the results than anyone else, tweeting, “Fucccck that came out of left field! @usantidoping. Never even heard of ostarine! Look at my physic (sic). Do I look like a steroid user! Lol.”
Well, at least he’s not that broken up about it, although his classic “physique test” defense has been disproven about a million times over by now.
The UFC released a statement on Means’ failure earlier today via their website, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
The UFC organization was notified today that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has informed Tim Means of a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation stemming from an out-of-competition sample collection.
USADA, the independent administrator of the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, will handle the results management and appropriate adjudication of this case. It is important to note that, under the UFC Anti-Doping Policy, there is a full and fair review process that is afforded to all athletes before any sanctions are imposed. However, because Means was scheduled to compete against Donald Cerrone on February 21 in Pittsburgh, there is insufficient time for a full review and proper promotion before the scheduled bout. As a result, UFC will announce shortly a replacement opponent for Cerrone on the UFC Fight Night card in Pittsburgh.
Additional information will be provided at the appropriate time as the process moves forward.
But before you go throwing your hands in the air and cursing the MMA Gods for reducing another UFC card to rubble, there is hope.
According to Ariel Helwani, the UFC has booked a quick replacement for the February 28th-scheduled event in the form of Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira. Currently 3-1 in the UFC, Oliveira has scored wins over the likes of KJ Noons and Piotr Hallman, suffering his only setback to highly-touted prospect Gilbert Burns in his promotional debut.
The fight will still be contested at welterweight, according to those in the know, and should serve as an interesting for Cerrone, who will be attempting to rebound from a devastating first round loss to lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC on FOX 17. In any case, it seems another disaster has been avoided for now, at least.
(“If anyone from the bank shows up looking for a guy named Edward Targaryen, you never heard of him, okay?” via Getty.)
It has been a whirlwind handful of months for the Ronda Rousey camp, to put it lightly. Her loss to Holly Holm aside, it would appear as if Rousey’s support system is crumbling to the ground around her, or at the very least, setting all the charges for an eventual explosion.
(“If anyone from the bank shows up looking for a guy named Edward Targaryen, you never heard of him, okay?” via Getty.)
It has been a whirlwind handful of months for the Ronda Rousey camp, to put it lightly. Her loss to Holly Holm aside, it would appear as if Rousey’s support system is crumbling to the ground around her, or at the very least, setting all the charges for an eventual explosion.
Late last month, it was *then* revealed that Tarverdyan had failed to disclose his criminal past while applying for his cornerman’s license (or “Second’s license, as it’s called). MMAFighting explains:
Tarverdyan, 34, was arrested in December 2010 on two counts of felony identity theft and one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest, according to public records. The identity theft counts were bumped down to misdemeanors and Tarverdyan ended up pleading no contest to the three charges.
In 2011, the coach was sentenced to one day in jail (with a credit of one day), three years of probation and 30 days of community service, according to court documents. He was also fined $610.
So basically, everything we’ve come to know about Edmond Tarverdyan is a lie, right down to his age (if the information dug up by these redditors has any truth to it).
As a result of his most recent lie, Tarverdyan was stripped of his Second’s license indefinitely by CSAC, bringing into question his status as Rousey’s corner should her rematch with Holm be held in California (not that it would).
But even the darkest clouds have a silver lining, and yesterday, the CSAC handed down an official ruling on Tarverdyan following a complete investigation. The result: A surprisingly lenient suspension and fine (the latter of which we imagine Tarverdyan might have a tough time paying). As ESPN’s Brett Okamoto tweeted:
CSAC has re-instated Edmond Tarverdyan's corner license but suspended state for 3 months. $5k fine. Violation was false info on application.
His first order of business as Rousey’s newly-suspended coach? We couldn’t tell you exactly, but we do know that it won’t be showing Rousey tape of her UFC 193 performance. As he told Fox Sports:
“I know how to speak to Ronda. I know Ronda very well. She doesn’t need to watch that fight. The fight is over. It’s about what we’re doing now. It’s my job to watch the footage and I’m dedicating everything I have to Ronda’s rematch with Holly.”
Boy, can Mama Rousey ever spot a fraud when she sees one.
The injury-forced withdrawals of both Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum from UFC 196 presented the UFC with a peculiar, if not unfamiliar scenario, and left many fans wondering what magic the promotion still had up its sleeve after all these years. Would Dana & Co. book a freakish but totally watchable fight to serve in its place, ala UFC 153? Would they bring Ben Rothwell in to save the day, ala what they should have done with Fight Night 76? Or would they throw their hands in the air and outright cancel the event, ala UFC 176? The options were literally limitless.
As it turns out, however, the UFC went and pulled a rabbit out of its hat that not many of us saw coming, bumping up the co-main event between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to main event status and shifting the card from its previous pay-per-view spot to the totally free (depending on your cable package) Fox Sports 1 network instead.
“A non-Fight Night, numbered UFC event on free TV? What madness is this?!” we cried with a mix of astonishment and jubilation. It was an unprecedented move, to be sure, and one that unfortunately was too good to be true…
The injury-forced withdrawals of both Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum from UFC 196 presented the UFC with a peculiar, if not unfamiliar scenario, and left many fans wondering what magic the promotion still had up its sleeve after all these years. Would Dana & Co. book a freakish but totally watchable fight to serve in its place, ala UFC 153? Would they bring Ben Rothwell in to save the day, ala what they should have done with Fight Night 76? Or would they throw their hands in the air and outright cancel the event, ala UFC 176? The options were literally limitless.
As it turns out, however, the UFC went and pulled a rabbit out of its hat that not many of us saw coming, bumping up the co-main event between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to main event status and shifting the card from its previous pay-per-view spot to the totally free (depending on your cable package) Fox Sports 1 network instead.
“A non-Fight Night, numbered UFC event on free TV? What madness is this?!” we cried with a mix of astonishment and jubilation. It was an unprecedented move, to be sure, and one that unfortunately was too good to be true…
On a name basis, at least (you like that misdirection? SEO 101, babayy!!). Because while UFC 196′s card will still air on FS1 next Saturday as promised, it has officially been downgraded to “Fight Night 82,” per Bloody Elbow.
The UFC announced that the Super Bowl weekend show has been rebranded as UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson, as if it were a normal Fox Sports 1 card all along. The main card bout order has been upped to six fights (with the addition of Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer and Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson) to fill the three-hour broadcast, and Hendricks vs. Thompson has been elevated from three rounds to five.
Ooh boy, Johny “Steakhouse” Hendricks in a suddenly-upgraded five-rounder? Does the UFC not realize that having this man make weight is struggle enough? “Bigg Rigg” just had to close down his restaurant, dammit, he is stressed out as it is!
As a result of the Fight Night shuffle, UFC 197: McGregor vs. Dos Anjos has now been changed to UFC 196: McIlroy vs. Dos Santos. It doesn’t make sense to us either, you guys, but we’ll be damned if we’re going to say so publicly and risk being called a goof by The Baldfather on Twitter. That’s the final kiss of death for any once-mid-level-but-now-something-slightly-less-than MMA blog!
MAIN CARD (FOX Sports 1, 10 p.m. ET)
-Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson
-Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt
-Rafael Cavalcante vs. Ovince Saint Preux
-Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky
-Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson
-Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
-Josh Burkman vs. K.J. Noons
-Damian Grabowski vs. Derrick Lewis
-Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins
-Noad Lahat vs. Diego Rivas
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET)
-Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson
-Artem Lobov vs. Alex White
I’ve always been a bit of an oddball MMA fan when it comes to picking my “favorite” fighters. While respecting the otherworldly athleticism of a Jon Jones, the otherworldly physique of a Alistair Overeem, or the otherworldly riddum of a Georges St. Pierre, I would never list any of those guys in even my top 10 favorites. What can I say? Being a fan of Jon Jones (the fighter, at least) is just too easy for an anti-establishment renegade like myself — like being a Lakers fan in the early aughts or a Patriots fan ever.
This is all a way of saying that I always found myself drawn to fighters who were more, well, human. I’m talking about the “everymen” of the sport — the guys who started off on the coveted bar fighting circuit or doing a little training on the side before finding out that they had some translatable skills to bring to the game. I’m talking about your old school, cornfed, perpetually 40-year-old-looking dudes who may have never been a champion, but always made sure to 1) show up and 2) turn in a memorable, fan-pleasing performances. I’m talking about your Jeremy Horns, your Chris Lytles, and your Anthony Peroshes.
Which is why I’m both saddened and relieved to learn that, following a pair of tough first round losses to Sean O’Connell and Gian Villante, “The Hippo” will be hanging up his gloves for good.
I’ve always been a bit of an oddball MMA fan when it comes to picking my “favorite” fighters. While respecting the otherworldly athleticism of a Jon Jones, the otherworldly physique of a Alistair Overeem, or the otherworldly riddum of a Georges St. Pierre, I would never list any of those guys in even my top 10 favorites. What can I say? Being a fan of Jon Jones (the fighter, at least) is just too easy for an anti-establishment renegade like myself — like being a Lakers fan in the early aughts or a Patriots fan ever.
This is all a way of saying that I always found myself drawn to fighters who were more, well, human. I’m talking about the “everymen” of the sport — the guys who started off on the coveted bar fighting circuit or doing a little training on the side before finding out that they had some translatable skills to bring to the game. I’m talking about your old school, cornfed, perpetually 40-year-old-looking dudes who may have never been a champion, but always made sure to 1) show up and 2) turn in a memorable, fan-pleasing performances. I’m talking about your Jeremy Horns, your Chris Lytles, and your Anthony Peroshes.
Which is why I’m both saddened and relieved to learn that, following a pair of tough first round losses to Sean O’Connell and Gian Villante, “The Hippo” will be hanging up his gloves for good.
In a statement released on his website last night, Perosh reflected on his up-and-down career with the vigor and optimism of a man half his age, writing.
I’m retiring from fighting in MMA. I‘ve had a great career in MMA spanning 12 years, 25 fights, 15 wins & 5 wins in the UFC all by stoppage and 3 by Rear Naked Choke. I always went out for the win by stoppage and I am proud of what I have achieved in my career.
I am 43 years old (young!) and I told myself I would retire if I either couldn’t keep up with the training, didn’t want it anymore or if I lost more than I won. The last fight camps were hard on me physically and mentally. I didn’t get the win and I knew straight after my last fight that I had had enough. I’m finishing with a UFC record of 5 wins and 4 losses in the Light Heavyweight division.
On the bright side I am retiring with all my mental bearings and apart from the usual wear and tear I am physically fit!
Having kickstarted his professional career a bit later than most of his counterparts — in November of 2003 at 30 years of age — Perosh rattled off 5 stoppage wins alongside one defeat before receiving his first call up to the big leagues. Despite losing back-to-back contests at UFC 61 and 66, Perosh’s unblemished finish rate in victory would be a constant that continued for the entirety of his mixed martial arts career.
Some 7 years and 5 wins later, Perosh would receive a second shot in the UFC, coming in as a late replacement opponent for former PRIDE Grand Prix champion Mirko Cro Cop on the main card of UFC 110.
The loss that Perosh suffered that night would be a violent one, but in it, “The Hippo” demonstrated the kind of stubborn grittiness that would define the latter half of his career. Even more incredible would be the then 38-year-old’s trio of victories over Tom Blackledge, Cyrille Diabate, and Nick Penner that followed (again, all by stoppage).
Perosh’s momentum would be quickly and brutally shut down in July of 2012, however, when he was blitzkrieged by Ryan Jimmo en route to a lightning fast knockout defeat. With the world ready to move past him, Perosh was then booked against former TUF 8 finalist and M-1 champion Vinny Magalhaes at UFC 163. In the lead-up to the fight, Magalhaes’ arrogance was on full display; the young Brazilian called Perosh an “old man” whose Jiu Jitsu “sucked” and stated that if he were to lost to the Australian black belt, he should probably be cut from the UFC.
The fight that followed, while brief, would undoubtedly be a defining moment in Perosh’s career.
From a 7-second loss to an emphatic, 14-second victory, Perosh arguably experience the greatest rebound performance of any fighter in UFC history. “The Hippo” briefly circled to his left and waited for the supposedly superior Jiu Jitsu fighter to charge in for a takedown, and when Magalhaes did exactly that (with zero setup whatsoever), Perosh connected with the first punch — and last necessary punch, if we’re being honest — of the fight. Magalhaes collapsed to the canvas, and from there, Perosh pounced, unleashing a stream of right hands that reawakened and KO’d Magalhaes a few times more before referee Mario Yamasaki could wave off the fight.
In his post-fight interview that night, Perosh admitted to “getting butterflies” in his stomach upon landing his first punch, which he credited to the hard work of his boxing coaches, before telling Magalhaes to “start looking for a new job.” It was a rare moment of smack talk from the typically reserved Perosh, made all the more effective by the hilariously karmatic ass-whooping it proceeded.
Another tough loss at the hands of Ryan Bader would follow at Fight Night 33, prompting Perosh’s critics to once again call for his retirement. Nevermind the fact that Perosh had managed to gut through the relentless, ground-n-pound onslaught of a current title contender for three rounds without ever giving in at 40+ years of age; clearly, this was a man with nothing left to offer. It was a memo that Perosh apparently didn’t receive before entering the cage his next fight again heralded up-and-comer Guto Inocente, who he would similarly dismantle inside of a round.
In his past couple fights, however, it appears that time has finally caught up to the 43-year-old, who looked a few steps behind the pace of things in his aforementioned losses to O’Connell and Vilante. As he said following his win over Magalhaes, Perosh would only compete until “he didn’t feel he had it in him” anymore, and as a huge fan of the guy, I’m personally glad to see that he’s come to that revelation sooner rather than later. You know, relatively speaking.
You can read Perosh’s full statement over on his website, but for now, let’s all flood his Twitter with our congratulations and thanks to a true pioneer of Australian MMA. Thanks for the memories, Anthony.
