Cole Escovedo may best be known as the first WEC featherweight champion. But at Dream 13, Escovedo unleashed a devastating blow to the head of Yoshiro Maeda in a bantamweight bout to be remembered.The bout goes normally and Escovedo utilizes the head k…
Cole Escovedo may best be known as the first WEC featherweight champion. But at Dream 13, Escovedo unleashed a devastating blow to the head of Yoshiro Maeda in a bantamweight bout to be remembered.
The bout goes normally and Escovedo utilizes the head kicks early on. But, with less then eight minutes left (For those of you who don’t know, Dream utilizes a 10-minute first-round unlike the UFC), Escovedo unleashes one head kick that Maeda couldn’t handle that night.
If you blinked, you definitely missed the connection of Escovedo’s foot and Maeda’s head.
Maeda quickly dropped to the mat, and it was lights out from there. Maeda afterwards looked like he could barely stand, and leaves one to wonder if he actually knew where he was and what his name was.
Maeda would go on and lose his next bout against Kenji Osawa via split decision. But since that, he has won his last two bouts against Takafumi Otsuka and Masanori Kanehara. Maeda is now scheduled to fight in a week against Hideo Tokoro at Dream 17.
Escovedo went on from this bout and lost his next two fights to up-and-coming UFC bantamweight fighter, Michael McDonald and Michihiro Omigawa. Escovedo, though, is currently coming off of a win against Steven Siler and faces Renan Barao at UFC 130 this Saturday for his first bout, inside the Octagon.
This bout at Dream 13 produced one great knockout and a huge victory for the former WEC champ.
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will face Matt Hamill in the main event of UFC 130, which is scheduled to take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.Jackson has long been known for his, outspoken w…
Former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will face Matt Hamill in the main event of UFC 130, which is scheduled to take place on May 28 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Jackson has long been known for his, outspoken ways. Some find Jackson funny, while other find him to be, well, to be kind, not so funny.
To help set your mood for UFC 130, either for or against “Rampage,” Bleacher Report presents Jackson’s 10 best moments from YouTube.
UFC 129 was the biggest UFC event in history in terms of attendance, live gate ticket sales and marketing. The fight card featured welterweight champion and MMA superstar Georges St-Pierre, Jake Shields, Randy Couture, Lyoto Machida and Jose Aldo. It w…
UFC 129 was the biggest UFC event in history in terms of attendance, live gate ticket sales and marketing. The fight card featured welterweight champion and MMA superstar Georges St-Pierre, Jake Shields, Randy Couture, Lyoto Machida and Jose Aldo.
It was a truly epic event that should have done huge numbers in the pay per view ratings as well. The strange thing is that it did not meet the expectations that were placed on it by the projections.
Dave Meltzer reported that the event was estimated to have done around 800-900,000 buys, which is short of the one million buy goal.
The numbers will likely have been skewed due to the fact the UFC now starts its pay per views at 9pm Eastern time as opposed to 10pm in the past.
The time change certainly had an effect on the number of people who bought the event. After a few months, the numbers will be more clearly defined, but until casual fans get used to the time change, the numbers will most likely stay a bit lower.
Even with the numbers being below expectations, UFC 129 did a great job of bringing the sport of MMA into the mainstream. The event used so many different media outlets that had not been previously utilized and it helped the sport crawl forward to dominance.
What if their were no boundaries in UFC matchmaking? For one night only, fans could look forward to an entire MMA event consisting of a full card of main-event worthy fights. What fights would you want to see? Fedor Emelianenko versus Randy Couture? Ho…
What if their were no boundaries in UFC matchmaking?
For one night only, fans could look forward to an entire MMA event consisting of a full card of main-event worthy fights.
What fights would you want to see? Fedor Emelianenko versus Randy Couture? How about Brock Lesnar against Alistair Overeem?
It’s time to step outside the world of reality and linger in dream land for a bit. If the UFC was to build the greatest pay-per-view ever, here are 13 matchups that should make the cut.
It was only nearly one month ago that the UFC held the largest event in the company’s history: UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Canada where over 55,000 fans were in attendance.Off of the back of such a stellar performance, one would suspect that the UF…
It was only nearly one month ago that the UFC held the largest event in the company’s history: UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Canada where over 55,000 fans were in attendance.
Off of the back of such a stellar performance, one would suspect that the UFC would be attempting to strike while the iron is hot and somehow make use the brand’s ever-growing popularity.
However, when one browses over the UFC 130 fight card—and specifically the main event—it can be seen that this is not the case. But, to be fair to the UFC, they did have a lightweight title fight between champion Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard booked for the event, but it was canceled due to injuries on both sides.
Instead of seeking a better main event, the co-main event of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Matt “The Hammer” Hamill was simply bumped up the card and everything else was left as is, making the event lackluster overall.
What else could the UFC have done? In truth, with the way events are planned, it can be very difficult to replace a main event of that caliber on such short notice. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that UFC 130 is a step down from UFC 129.
But is this a bad thing?
The answer may well be a surprising “No.”
First, to the casual fan, Rampage Jackson is still a large draw due to his legendary highlight reels on YouTube. The 130 fight card is thus worth it to them because it is a name that they recognize.
Second, following UFC 129 with a sub-par event gives Zuffa—the company that owns the UFC—a chance to gauge the strength of the brand. The 130 card is indisputably average; thus if it achieves an above-average buy rate the brand is stronger than any of the fights on the card.
It is for these reasons—the support of the casual fan, as well as the litmus test of the brand’s strength—that UFC 130 will be marked a success in history books, the canceled main event notwithstanding.
The first of a British MMA double bill sees us going back to last weekend and The Troxy in London as we take a look at the latest Ultimate Challenge MMA show, Fists of Fire, shown this past Wednesday night on Sky Sports here in Britain.The broadcast be…
The first of a British MMA double bill sees us going back to last weekend and The Troxy in London as we take a look at the latest Ultimate Challenge MMA show, Fists of Fire, shown this past Wednesday night on Sky Sports here in Britain.
The broadcast began in the middleweight division as David Zetolofsky faced Karl Lawrence.
Lawrence began by testing the waters with a few strikes, Zetolofsky responding with a couple of take downs.
However, he didn’t stay in top position too long as Lawrence soon reversed. Zetolofsky went for an arm bar, but Lawrence survived, taking Zetolofsky’s back seconds later and getting the win with a knockout.
The big boys of the heavyweight division were up next as Deivida Banaitis took on Ben Smith.
Smith was looking to get back to winning ways after losing the title to Oli Thompson. Things didn’t go his way though.
Banaitis came forward with the heavy leather early on. An inadvertent low blow stopped his progress for a few seconds before an uppercut sent Smith down.
Banaitis then unleashed with the ground and pound from behind. Smith tried to cover up, but when things got too much he tapped out, giving Banaitis the stoppage win.
The first championship fight saw Nathan Beer challenging Dave Lee for the Featherweight title.
The first fight on the broadcast to make it out of the first round was an intriguing three-rounder in which both fighters gave their all.
Beer did a good job early on the ground, although Lee managed to neutralize him at times. Beer upped his game from the second round onwards, particularly in the striking department.
Both men look exhausted at the start of the third, but that didn’t stop them from unloading with the big blows.
But in the end neither man could get the job done, so the judges came into play as all three scored in favour of Beer, giving him the big title win.
It was back to heavyweight for the next fight as Tomasz Czerwinski went up against Amokrane Sabet.
No fancy stuff in this one. These two began swinging for the fences from the start. It was fought at a frantic pace to begin with, but it was obvious that the big unit that was Czerwinski wouldn’t be able to keep up that pace for long.
Indeed, after just two minutes Czerwinski was gassed, and actually stopped a couple of times to take in deep breaths.
But just as Sabet looked like he was going in for the kill, Czerwinski connected with a big right that sent Sabet crashing. He was completely out of it as the referee stepped in to give Czerwinski the knockout win.
The main event saw Jamaine Facey challenging John Maguire for the Welterweight title.
The best was saved for last with this one. Maguire put in a great performance on the ground, although Facey didn’t make things easy for him.
The action went to the ground quickly, only for Facey to tie Maguire up with a couple of over hooks. It was a sound defensive tactic. He also put on an acrobatic display of sorts, flipping out from under Maguire while the champion was on the offensive.
It was in the second round where Maguire took control, taking the mount and going for the ground and pound a couple of times before locking in a kimura to get the hard fought title retaining win.
In conclusion—UCMMA’s 20th outing proved to be a very enjoyable show.
Every fight shown delivered, and I even found myself enjoying the wild brawl between Sabet and Czerwinski. Nothing could match the main event though.
So in all another good show from the UCMMA crew, and a big thumbs up from me.
One word for head honcho Dave O’Donnell, and his singing performance at the beginning of the show. Don’t give up the day job, mate!
Cole Escovedo may best be known as the first WEC featherweight champion. But at Dream 13, Escovedo unleashed a devastating blow to the head of Yoshiro Maeda in a bantamweight bout to be remembered.