John Lineker has been a curious case in the UFC.
He entered the UFC with a lot of hype surrounding him. He was a hard-throwing flyweight that could do a lot of damage in the division. In his UFC debut, Lineker missed weight and lost against Louis Gaudi…
John Lineker has been a curious case in the UFC.
He entered the UFC with a lot of hype surrounding him. He was a hard-throwing flyweight that could do a lot of damage in the division. In his UFC debut, Lineker missed weight and lost against Louis Gaudinot.
The red flags should have been up right away.
Since that time, he has gone 4-1 in the Octagon, but missed weight an additional two times. At UFC 169, he stepped on the scale heavy once again, but was able to come back an hour later to reach the flyweight limit of 126 pounds.
Entering UFC 169, Lineker was still talked about as a potential title contender. He could have challenged champion Demetrious Johnson after his TKO victory over Phil Harris, but by missing weight, the UFC could not take the risk. It needed to see him make weight.
After eventually making weight, he took on Ali Bagautinov. The Russian was able to take a unanimous decision against Lineker. The UFC should take this time to hand Lineker his pink slip and send him packing.
That may sound harsh, but the UFC needs to send a message. He has come in overweight for half of his bouts. That is unprofessional and would not be tolerated from a fighter who does not excite the crowd with fight-altering power.
It sends a message that if you continually come in heavy, then the leash is very short. It also sends a message to Lineker to get his act together. It will either force him to alter how he cuts weight or move up to 135 pounds.
Either way, Lineker can go to the regional circuit to fix his issues. The UFC can always bring him back to the fold after a couple of fights if he proves he can make weight consistently or grab a couple of wins at 135 pounds.
Lineker‘s current UFC run has been a complete failure—even with the wins. Half of his wins have come when he was overweight and he has two key losses in a division where he was trying to be billed as a contender. Unacceptable.
Lineker is a very exciting fighter that people love to watch. I love to watch him in the cage as well. However, the weigh-ins and loss to Bagautinov are the straws that broke the camel’s back.
Releasing Lineker cuts through the hullabaloo. It is not as if the UFC has never released contenders before—and for less than what Lineker has gone through. It just makes sense for the UFC to stop giving him chance after chance and show that no one is untouchable simply because of their rank and fighting style.
If the UFC wants to be taken seriously, then it needs to take this seriously. What Lineker has done to date has been unprofessional and the promotion needs to take a stand.
Send Lineker back to the regional circuit to fix his issues and make him prove he is worthy of a UFC contract.
UFC 169 had more decisions than President Barack Obama, and Dana White isn’t happy.
The “Super Saturday” fight card this year featured two championship bouts, including the bantamweight title rematch between Renan Barao and Urijah Fab…
UFC 169 had more decisions than President Barack Obama, and Dana Whiteisn’t happy.
The “Super Saturday” fight card this year featured two championship bouts, including the bantamweight title rematch between RenanBarao and Urijah Faber and the featherweight title bout between Jose Aldo and Ricardo Lamas.
Fighters didn’t seem overly eager to take home an extra $50,000 in bonus money, as the fight card only had two finishes. The UFC is all about breaking records, but not the kind of records that fans saw fall on Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
With 10 bouts going the distance, it was announced that UFC 169 broke the record for most decisions ever on a UFC fight card. The event breaks the previous record of nine, which was held by UFC 161.
To top it all off, the main event bout between Barao and Faber ended in controversy after a premature stoppage was turned in by referee Herb Dean. UFC president Dana White looked like a confused man who was trying to make sense of it all at the post-fight press conference:
I think [Dean] is the best referee in the business. He rarely ever makes mistakes, but he made a mistake tonight. Barao gets screwed and Faber gets screwed. It’s the cherry on the 10-decision, record-breaking catastrophe this evening.
After dropping Faber with a massive overhand right, Barao swarmed the Team Alpha Male member with multiple unanswered ground strikes. Despite being stuck in belly-down side control, Faber did a tremendous job of using his only free hand to block Barao’s punches. He even threw Dean a thumbs-up sign on the other hand to let the ref know he was still coherent.
Unfortunately for Faber, Dean was standing on the opposite side of the action, where he was unable to see the thumb being held up. With Faber trapped and turtling up for survival, Dean made the unpopular decision to step in and stop the fight at 3:42 of the first round. It was an unfortunate ending to a relatively uneventful night.
If Justin Bieber was still seeking free UFC pay-per-view, perhaps even White would have given him a pass on this card.
This was not one to tell your grandkids about.
I mean, unless your grandkids want to grow up to be ringside officials.
UFC 169 made a bit of fairly inauspicious history on Saturday night, setting a record for most decisions during a single UFC event. T…
This was not one to tell your grandkids about.
I mean, unless your grandkids want to grow up to be ringside officials.
UFC 169 made a bit of fairly inauspicious history on Saturday night, setting a record for most decisions during a single UFC event. Ten of 12 fights went the distance, as Jose Aldo and Renan Barao both retained their titles and Alistair Overeem staved off Frank Mir.
“We broke a record tonight that I’m not very proud of,” said UFC president Dana White at the postfight news conference, via MMA Fighting. “Most decisions ever in UFC history; that’s not one you’re going to hear me bragging about at press conferences.”
The Super Bowl weekend show is usually one of the biggest attractions on the UFC’s annual pay-per-view slate, but expectations for this year’s were already tempered weeks ago.
The loss of Dominick Cruz to yet another injury robbed UFC 169 of its much-ballyhooed bantamweight title unification bout as well as much of its sizzle, even after popular former WEC champion Urijah Faber entered the picture as his replacement.
Before that, a rumored light heavyweight championship fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira was briefly linked to the event but then pushed back to April.
Without Jones or Cruz, UFC 169 never established much momentum and—despite the fact that it featured dueling featherweight and bantamweight championship fights—was not expected to be a hot seller.
In the end, the action in the cage mirrored those tepid expectations.
The cliché about UFC events that don’t look great on paper is that they often exceed expectations. This one didn’t, instead leaving a good portion of fans wondering what exactly they’d paid $54.95 to watch in high definition.
It was not the best nor the worst fight card in recent memory, but certainly one of the most nondescript. Each of the seven preliminary bouts required the judges’ scorecards, and then all but the first and last fights on the PPV did the same.
One of the few bright spots came during the curtain-jerker, when Abel Trujillo and Jamie Varner turned the second round of their lightweight clash into a back-and-forth slugfest. For much of that frame, it appeared Varner was on the verge of victory—until Trujillo uncorked a right hook that left him unconscious and crashing to the mat on his face.
It was a stunning comeback KO for Trujillo, and it was about as good as things were going to get on this night.
As the most noteworthy finish on the card, it turned out to be a lucrative one. Trujillo pocketed a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus, while he and Varner won $75,000 each for Fight of the Night.
The only other main card stoppage—Barao’s first-round TKO of Faber—was marred by regrettable intervention from referee Herb Dean. Though Faber had been hurt twice during early stand-up exchanges, he appeared to have his wits about him and immediately protested after Dean stepped in to save him from a barrage of ineffectual hammerfists.
Both Dean and Faber handled the aftermath with grace, though the UFC president could not help but crack wise about it.
“It was the cherry on top of the 10-decision catastrophe,” White said of the stoppage.
In what might turn out to be his last fight as featherweight champion, Aldo turned in a fitting microcosm of his entire career inside the Octagon.
He outclassed Ricardo Lamas over five full rounds, looking technically flawless and flashing his awesome power. There was absolutely nothing to critique about his performance, except that it lacked some intangible but ultimately essential quality.
He brutalized Lamas’ legs with kicks and peppered him with pinpoint punches but never appeared to put the 4-to-1 underdog in serious jeopardy. That has been the one drawback of Aldo’s run in the UFC so far: There has been a great deal of wow factor but very few wow moments.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of Aldo’s fighting style if he indeed leaves the 145-pound division behind for a possible superfight with lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Prior to coming to the UFC, he had 15 stoppages in 18 wins, but four of his six fights with the big show have gone to decision.
He was once known as a fearsome finisher, and it would very much behoove Aldo to get back to that if he’s going to fulfill his sky-high potential as a star.
Not that you could particularly blame him on this night. The monotony of UFC 169 was bigger than any one man.
Even the heavyweights—Overeem and Mir—needed the full 15 minutes to conduct their business.
Overeem battered and bloodied the former UFC champion over three rounds. Despite the fact Mir’s offense was historically bad, however, The Reem (a guy who amassed nine consecutive stoppages from 2007 to 2010) couldn’t finish.
Aside from the record number of decisions, there was not much about UFC 169 that will linger very long in our collective memories. In the new reality of the organization’s live-event schedule, that’s to be expected.
Even in this shortest month of the year, the fight company still has two more live shows to get through—Fight Night 36 on Feb. 15 and UFC 170 on Feb. 22. For better and worse, that crush of events won’t give us much time to dwell on this clunker.
Perhaps those back-to-back middleweight contender bouts will wash the taste out of our mouths. If not, then it’s a good bet that Ronda Rousey’s title defense against Sara McMann will do the trick.
Maybe we’ll even see something worth saving for the grandkids.
UFC 169 saw Renan Barao and Urijah Faber battle for the UFC Bantamweight Championship for the second time.
Barao came out on top once again, and this time he was able to get the finish. Typically we would not see Faber challenge for the title for a co…
UFC 169 saw Renan Barao and Urijah Faber battle for the UFC Bantamweight Championship for the second time.
Barao came out on top once again, and this time he was able to get the finish. Typically we would not see Faber challenge for the title for a considerable amount of time, but the UFC should give a serious look at giving an immediate rematch to the “The California Kid.”
Like most, I am not generally a fan of immediate rematches unless there is a good reason. The UFC Bantamweight Championship has a good reason to see Faber challenge again right away.
Why?
The division is not filled with challengers who are ready to headline a pay-per-view or excite fans. The current top five ranked fighters are:
Fighter
Record
Last Result
Urijah Faber
30-7
Loss to Barao, UFC 169
Michael McDonald
16-3
Loss to Faber, UFC on Fox 9
Rafael Assuncao
21-4
Win over Dillashaw, UFC Fight Night 29
Eddie Wineland
21-9-1
Win over Yves Jabouin, UFC on Fox 10
T.J. Dillashaw
9-2
Win over Mike Easton, UFC Fight Night 35
No. 2-ranked Michael McDonald can be removed from this discussion right away. He has a definitive loss to Faber as his most recent outing. Also, he was finished by Barao. He will need at least one key win before emerging as a title challenger again.
That leaves No. 3-ranked Rafael Assuncao, No. 4-ranked Eddie Wineland and No. 5-ranked T.J. Dillashaw as the only other title contenders with Dominick Cruz on the shelf.
Dillashaw was mentioned by Faber in the post-fight interview, but he is only coming off a win to Mike Easton. His win streak was broken prior to that fight by Assuncao. He could be placed in a title fight with Barao, but he would leapfrog Assuncao, who is more deserving.
Wineland is only coming off one win just like Dillashaw. He picked up a TKO win over Yves Jabouin at UFC on Fox 10. He is 3-1 in his last four bouts and has a TKO loss to Barao back in September. It is a bit too soon to see that rematch.
That leaves the UFC with two options—Assuncao or Faber.
Assuncao is the more deserving of the two. He is on a five-fight win streak. However, the problem with his title bid is that it is a hard promotional sell. The Brazilian is not charismatic, and the fanbase does not care much about him.
The only way the UFC could possibly sell this fight is to have it headline a secondary card in Brazil. It would most likely do a fine gate in Brazil, but the ratings and/or buys for the show would not be much.
That is why Faber should get the call, and it is why the UFC should put this fight on Fox.
The UFC promotional machine can sell this rematch due to the controversial stoppage at UFC 169. The organization can use that as the narrative and push this fight on network television to give Barao and the UFC Bantamweight Championship more exposure.
The bantamweight division is in a sorry state. It is not filled with exciting contenders and doesn’t have a champion whom many casual fans are excited about. That is unfortunate with how good Barao is, but that is just the state of things today.
Fox will allow more folks than ever to witness Barao’s brilliance, or it will allow everyone to watch Faber finally achieve UFC gold. Either way, it pays dividends for the UFC in the long run. Assuncao can be next in line, and the UFC can show him in the crowd as the next challenger.
It will be what is best for business.
A title fight with Faber on Fox will draw considerably more eyes than Assuncao. It will set up the winner to have a bigger payday in their next outing for the UFC.
There is no excitement around Barao and any other challenger. The UFC, and Faber, should not pass up a payday with the trilogy fight to erase the controversy of UFC 169. Make the fight, put it on network television and try to move this division in the right direction.
Fans can lull themselves to sleep with talk of controversy or proverbial screwjobs, but at the end of the day, Renan Barao is simply a better fighter than Urijah Faber.
The bantamweight champ defeated Faber for a second time in the main event of UFC 16…
Fans can lull themselves to sleep with talk of controversy or proverbial screwjobs, but at the end of the day, RenanBarao is simply a better fighter than Urijah Faber.
The bantamweight champ defeated Faber for a second time in the main event of UFC 169 on Saturday night. However, this time the bout ended with a questionable TKO stoppage instead of a lopsided unanimous decision.
All of the talk leading up to the rematch dwelled on Faber’s monumental improvements in striking and the possibility of him finally closing the gap with Barao. But when the two actually met in the middle of the cage, the bout was nothing more than a continuation of the first fight.
Barao once again proved to be the more fluid and dynamic striker, dropping Faber early in the first round with a straight right hand. “The California Kid” fought tooth and nail to get back to his feet, but he was never able to stave off Barao’s unrelenting attack. Another right hand from the Brazilian sent Faber crashing back down to the mat once more.
Like a bloodhound, Barao pounced on Faber’s side and began unloading a series of hammerfists. Stuck in belly-down side control, Faber chose to hang out in the position and use his free hand to block Barao’s strikes. He even gave referee Herb Dean a thumb’s up to let him know he was OK and still in the fight.
Unfortunately, the signal was in Dean’s blindspot, and the longtime MMA ref made the decision to step in and stop the fight at 3:42 in the first round.
“It’s very frustrating,” Faber told UFC commentator Joe Rogan after the fight. “I’m one of the most durable guys in the world. You get caught with punches. He told me to do something, so I gave him a thumbs up right before he stopped it. Herb is a great referee. I just wish I would have had more of a chance.”
In a sport enamored with controversy, fans have seemingly wiped the slate clean of Barao’s performance leading up to the finish. He dropped Faber twice and had him wobbled in three exchanges. It was yet another picture-perfect performance from one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
This isn’t to suggest that some degree of sympathy isn’t warranted for the premature stoppage. Faber was obviously conscious, and Dean had a clear visual of the strikes being blocked. Perhaps his decision was swayed by all of the wobbly exchanges.
Regardless, it’s pretty sad to hear boos echo throughout the arena when Barao’s name was called in the end, as if he was somehow gifted a victory. Faber didn’t show anything to suggest he was in that fight any more than the first bout.
The MMA world was infatuated with Faber’s 2013 run, with wins over Michael McDonald, IuriAlcantara, Scott Jorgensen and Ivan Menjivar. Saturday night was just a hard dose of reality served to those eager to ride the coattails of hype.
Faber may be a much-improved fighter, but there is only one RenanBarao.
At UFC 169 in Newark, N.J., Renan Barao scored a first-round TKO victory over champion Urijah Faber to retain his UFC bantamweight title.
But the stoppage did not come without some controversy, with Faber saying in the cage after the fight that he beli…
At UFC 169 in Newark, N.J., RenanBarao scored a first-round TKO victory over champion Urijah Faber to retain his UFC bantamweight title.
But the stoppage did not come without some controversy, with Faber saying in the cage after the fight that he believed he was fit to continue and had attempted to signal that belief to the referee.
After a fairly even first two minutes, Barao dropped Faber with a massive straight right hand that was plainly audible to television viewers. Faber survived an ensuing swarm of ground-and-pound and staggered to his feet but did not get the better of the wild stand-up exchanges that followed.
A big overhand right put Faber down again. This time, Faber turtled up completely, covering his head against a storm of hammerfists from Barao. Barao turned down the steam a half-notch and looked up at referee Herb Dean, seeming to wonder when the stoppage would come. A few seconds later, Dean waved off the contest.
All class in defeat but clearly frustrated, Faber told broadcaster Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight that he disagreed with the stoppage.
“It’s very frustrating,” Faber said. “I’m one of the most durable guys in the world. He told me to do something, so I gave him a thumbs-up. Herb is a great referee. I just wish I would have had more of a chance.”
Faber also sent this tweet after the fight:
Whelp! Back to the drawing board. Thanks for all the support folks. Congrats to @RenanBaraoUFC
Faber also added that he was holding on to Barao‘s leg. But because of Faber’s turtled appearance and Barao‘s preceding rain of punishment, Dean and anyone else appears to have a case that a stoppage in that moment, at worst, appeared to only expedite the inevitable.
The win marks Barao‘s first defense of the UFC lineal bantamweight championship. Barao dropped the “interim” prefix from his business card after Dominick Cruz relinquished his belt because of an extended injury layoff.
Barao earned the interim title in July 2012 with a defeat of the very same Faber at UFC 149.
John Lineker has been a curious case in the UFC.