Tag: MMA

Lyoto Machida vs. Luke Rockhold May Be in the Works

A major fight in the UFC middleweight division is reportedly under discussion. 
Luke Rockhold, who has won two straight and has long requested a big-time opponent, may face Lyoto Machida, the former light heavyweight champion who just lost a five-…

A major fight in the UFC middleweight division is reportedly under discussion. 

Luke Rockhold, who has won two straight and has long requested a big-time opponent, may face Lyoto Machida, the former light heavyweight champion who just lost a five-round decision to middleweight champion Chris Weidman.

That’s according to Rockhold‘s training teammate and current UFC light heavyweight Daniel Cormier, who holds a side job as a commentator on the TV program UFC Tonight and announced the discussions on that program Wednesday night (h/t MMA Fighting).

Rockhold (12-2) was the Strikeforce middleweight champion when that promotion folded. Riding a nine-fight win streak that included victories over current UFC standouts like Jacare Souza and Tim Kennedy, Rockhold made his Octagon debut in May 2013 against Vitor Belfort. However, Belfort stopped the Rockhold hype in its tracks with a first-round head-kick knockout. 

Since the loss, Rockhold has notched first-round stoppage wins over Costas Philippou and Tim Boetsch. However, the 29-year-old has been spoiling to avenge the Belfort loss, repeatedly taking Belfort to task for his use of TRT and calling him a “dirty” athlete.

Rockhold may get closer to his desired rematch—or even a middleweight title shot—if he can get past Machida. 

Machida (21-5) has been impressive since dropping down to middleweight. He’s 2-1 in the UFC at 185 pounds, with wins over Mark Munoz and Gegard Mousasi before earning the shot at Weidman, which he lost despite a solid performance.

If it does indeed take place, the matchup between the two could be an interesting contrast of styles. Rockhold is a grappler first and foremost. He won two world jiu-jitsu titles in 2007, around the time he made his pro MMA debut. The BJJ black belt now trains alongside Cormier, UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and a slew of other standouts at American Kickboxing Academy in California.

Machida is renowned for bringing an unabashed karate style to the cage. The quick, elusive light heavyweight is often criticized for a perceived lack of action, but he is admired among hardcore devotees for his finely tuned offensive and defensive skills. Machida, also a BJJ black belt, works with Anderson Silva and the luminaries of the Black House gym.

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Former UFC Champ Dominick Cruz Return Bout Downgraded to UFC 178 Prelims

After being sidelined for nearly three years, Dominick Cruz will make his long-awaited UFC return at UFC 178 against Takeya Mizugaki.
There’s one problem, though: The fight won’t be featured on the actual pay-per-view card.
Cruz, a for…

After being sidelined for nearly three years, Dominick Cruz will make his long-awaited UFC return at UFC 178 against Takeya Mizugaki.

There’s one problem, though: The fight won’t be featured on the actual pay-per-view card.

Cruz, a former UFC champ and arguably the greatest bantamweight in MMA history, will be competing in the prelims of the Fox Sports 1 portion of the upcoming fight card. Most fighters in Cruz’s position would balk at the mere notion of being snubbed for a main card spot.

It isn’t like he lost consecutive fights and stumbled out of the spotlight. In fact, it can be argued that Cruz is still the uncrowned champ in the bantamweight division. No one actually defeated him for the title. Prolonged difficulties dealing with a torn ACL and a groin injury forced the UFC to officially strip Cruz of the belt and award the undisputed title to interim champ Renan Barao back in January.

During Wednesday’s episode of UFC Tonight, MMA journalist Ariel Helwani contended that Cruz was completely OK with the idea of fighting on the undercard. In a text message, per Dave Doyle of MMAFighting.com, Cruz told Helwani that he was just happy to be fighting again, period:

FS1 is in 90 million households. It did 735k viewers on my teammate Ross Pearson’s fight. At this point with the last two-plus years off, I’m just pumped to FINALLY be in there fighting again, period.

My team at FOX Sports has been with me through this entire injury, witnessing me go crazy watching each and every fight card. Now I get to go show them, alongside the rest of the world, how I can fight. It’s not a downfall in any way at this point in the fight world to be on prelims anymore with these kind of views that FOX gets. It’s my pleasure, and I’m absolutely PUMPED to just compete again!

Cruz appearing on the prelims should be attributed to an incredibly stacked pay-per-view card. Even after losing Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier as the main event, UFC 178 still stands as one of the meatiest fight cards of the year.

Demetrious Johnson is set to defend the UFC flyweight title against Chris Cariaso in the headliner, while the co-main event features a showdown between Donald Cerrone and former Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez.

Other bouts on the card include an epic grudge match between top featherweights Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, and a pair of title-eliminator bouts, featuring Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero, and Cat Zingano vs. Amanda Nunes.

UFC 178 will take place on September 27 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

 

Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.

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UFC Fight Night 48 and 49 Main Card Betting Odds and Predictions

The UFC returns this Saturday with two fight cards. UFC Fight Night 48 hits Macau in China, and UFC Fight Night 49 takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
UFC Fight Night 48 is headlined by Cung Le vs. Michael Bisping in a middleweight contest, and UFC Fight N…

The UFC returns this Saturday with two fight cards. UFC Fight Night 48 hits Macau in China, and UFC Fight Night 49 takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

UFC Fight Night 48 is headlined by Cung Le vs. Michael Bisping in a middleweight contest, and UFC Fight Night 49’s main event is a top-five battle in the lightweight division between Rafael dos Anjos and Benson Henderson.

Eight other main card tilts in total will take place over the course of Saturday.

This breakdown will assist you in your attempts to identify the best value this weekend. Let’s get right to looking at the odds for this weekend’s cards.

All odds provided by Oddsshark.com.

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UFC 178: Meet Chris Cariaso, the Next Guy Challenging for the Flyweight Title

On occasion, the UFC finds itself in a real pickle.
They have cards announced, venues booked and tickets sold, and no fight. Now, that wasn’t the case even as recently as a few years ago, but trying to deliver nearly a card a week across a handful of p…

On occasion, the UFC finds itself in a real pickle.

They have cards announced, venues booked and tickets sold, and no fight. Now, that wasn’t the case even as recently as a few years ago, but trying to deliver nearly a card a week across a handful of platforms can make strange bedfellows.

It can cause cards to look different than advertised.

It can cause them to be cancelled outright.

It can cause them to be headlined by guys no one really cares about.

It can cause them to be headlined by guys no one really cares about for a title.

Whatever. Buy it if you like it, don’t if you don’t.

But in the event you are, or you even kind of think you maybe might, you should probably know what you’ll be getting yourself into come September’s UFC 178.

Initially the card was to be headlined by that quarrelsome duo of press conference brawlers, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. Those dudes are big, and they hate each other. Once they took it to the streets (foyer?) and started throwing ‘bows on a press tour, it was all but a guarantee to be the biggest fight of the year.

Then Jones got hurt and the fight was pushed to January, letting the air out of the MMA community’s collective balloon.

In its place?

You’ve got a champion no one cares about fighting a challenger no one knows about. They’re small, and they don’t seem to have any real opinion on each other. Certainly no press conference ‘bows to be thrown, that’s for sure.

Yes, that sound you hear is the sound of money not being spent, pay-per-views not being bought.

Demetrious Johnson, fresh off his dreadful debut as a pay-per-view headliner, will defend the flyweight title against Chris Cariaso, who is basically just a guy.

He’s better than some, not as good as others. Probably good to his wife and his mom. Yup, just a guy.

Presently sitting at #8 on the UFC’s official flyweight rankings, Cariaso is a 33-year-old former bantamweight who sits at 4-2 as a flyweight and 17-5 overall. Every time he’s jumped up in competition at 125 he’s lost–Jussier Formiga and John Moraga are both higher ranked and hold wins over him–and he most recently managed to score a split decision over Louis Smolka.

Why yes, Guy Who Just Asked, that is the Louis Smolka who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page!

You can all have a moment to tug your collars and ring your hands now. We’ll wait.

Cariaso has looked solid at times as a flyweight, but he’s essentially become a title challenger by happenstance. Anyone who deserved it as much or more on merit was tied up fighting someone way tougher than Louis Smolka, anyone else had either already fought Johnson or was coming off a loss.

That isn’t to say he doesn’t have a hope (we all remember how those claims can sometimes end up), but it is to say that three wins over totally irrelevant names in the promotion’s thinnest division do not a challenger make.

At a time when Johnson is only getting better and pulling further away from the 125-pound pack, a fight with Cariaso is about as easy as it’s going to get for him as champion.

He’s made better men look awful in his reign, and unless he shows up totally underestimating his foe, this should resemble his win over Ali Bagautinov. The only difference could potentially be that this one would be more one-sided.

It’s not particularly fair to Cariaso, either, as he’s earned a chance to rematch Moraga or Formiga, or get another highly ranked name thanks to his win streak. He’s obviously not going to turn down a title shot, but there’s been little to suggest he’s ready for one in his performances.

A slower build would have been much more reasonable and perhaps would have made him more of an obvious, saleable threat if he was in a title fight he’d truly earned down the line.

All in all though, that’s what you’re looking at in Cariaso. The next man to challenge for the flyweight title isn’t flashy, hasn’t gotten into the fight via any wildly convincing exhibition in the cage and could be in for a very long night at UFC 178.

That’s why they fight the fights, though: One punch and he could wake up the next day as champion of the world.

Everyone will know who he is then.

 

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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UFC Fight Night 49 Preliminary-Card Predictions

The UFC returns with a double header this Saturday, as UFC Fight Night 48 and 49 comes to you in the morning and nighttime.
Following UFC Fight Night 48 will be UFC Fight Night 49 in Tulsa, OK. The card is headlined by Benson Henderson and Rafael dos A…

The UFC returns with a double header this Saturday, as UFC Fight Night 48 and 49 comes to you in the morning and nighttime.

Following UFC Fight Night 48 will be UFC Fight Night 49 in Tulsa, OK. The card is headlined by Benson Henderson and Rafael dos Anjos, who are both in the lightweight title picture and could get closer to a shot with a win…

The UFC’s inaugural trip to Maine only had four prelims, which saw me go 3-1. This weekend will see a total of 11 prelims, which will make an impact on the overall record going forward.

The card has some interesting prelims that precede the main card. Let’s take a look at those fights and make some predictions.

 

2014 Riley’s Record: 109-71

Last Event: UFC Fight Night 47 (3-1)

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Chris Weidman: The Invisible Champion

Invisibility will always remain a superpower most of us dream of acquiring.
As a kid, I remember pulling a blanket over my head and walking around my house pretending to be unseen.
I would creep up on my mom, peer around the corner at my dad or run aro…

Invisibility will always remain a superpower most of us dream of acquiring.

As a kid, I remember pulling a blanket over my head and walking around my house pretending to be unseen.

I would creep up on my mom, peer around the corner at my dad or run around like a banshee with wings.

But as magnificent and pure as that was, being invisible in today’s world doesn’t necessarily equate to immediate awesomeness.

From coffee lines to UFC supremacy, we are often better seen for what we are—no false representations, transparent masteries or undiscovered potential.

Because whether we’re ordering an iced latte with sugar and milk (my girlfriend’s favorite) or defending the UFC middleweight throne in succession, it’s almost always beneficial to be noticed.

I guess that’s why champion Chris Weidman remains such an anomaly in the current state of mixed martial arts.

In hindsight, Weidman is everything we could ask for.

He’s humble, a true sponge in the gym, capable of handling himself on the mic and an undefeated titleholder who has shown nothing but excellence inside of the Octagon.

Not to mention the 30-year-old is young enough to prolong his current dominance and put the middleweight division back on the proverbial map since you-know-who was overtaken.

For Weidman‘s stock, one which is currently in a state of limbo, everything seems to add up.

But for some reason, he remains the UFC’s invisible champion.

He’s the very same champion who rewrote the history books by snuffing out Anderson Silva’s every move on two separate yet monumental occasions.

He’s the same polarizing athlete who recently stood and exchanged with Lyoto Machida, a former light heavyweight champion who is regarded as arguably the best counterstriker of all time.

Yeah, he’s that guy. The one who has racked up five UFC finishes, three title-fight victories and has a perfect takedown defense.

For some unforeseen, uneducated reason, Weidman has flown under the radar like a sixth-grader at varsity tryouts.

People might point out the fact that his titanic finishes of Silva were sparked by an unknown source of fortunate timing and calculation, but that sort of argument is a farce.

Others might point out the fact that Weidman hasn’t defended his title as many times as other standout kingpins like Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez, Jose Aldo and even Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson.

The rest of the pack will remark over the New Yorker’s lack of natural ability, citing striking imperfections, a lack of technicality and the aforementioned knack for being in the right place at the right time.

Is it fair?

Not one bit.

But this business is built around images, not necessarily skill sets or resumes. Just look at Conor McGregor’s popularity, which came even though he hasn’t fought anybody within the featherweight division’s Top 10, let alone defeat them.

In any case, Weidman‘s image is somehow faded. Like a flickering flashlight in a room of lamps, his presence has not completely manifested itself.

However, that’s subject to change, especially if he can decisively knock off Vitor Belfort and defend his title for the third straight time at UFC 181 on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas.

If he can do that then there will be no denying his superstar bravado. There will be no more excuses, no more silly proclamations regarding his in-cage effectiveness and no lackluster assaults on his future potential.

With one more victory, Weidman will finally be recognized for what and who he is: one of the best pound-for-pound middleweights this sport has ever seen.

 

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