Tag: MMA

Cesar Gracie Says Benson Henderson vs. Gilbert Melendez Is the Fight to Make

After Nate Diaz was thoroughly dominated by UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson at UFC on FOX 5, one would expect Cesar Gracie to be pretty disappointed.However, Diaz’s head coach remained in generally good spirits in a post-fight interview with …

After Nate Diaz was thoroughly dominated by UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson at UFC on FOX 5, one would expect Cesar Gracie to be pretty disappointed.

However, Diaz‘s head coach remained in generally good spirits in a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani, mainly because one of his fighters still has a chance to go toe-to-toe with “Bendo:” Gilbert Melendez. 

“I think that’s the fight they should make,” Gracie said about a possible Melendez vs. Henderson title bout. “Obviously it’s not up to me … Gilbert’s the champ over there, he’s been in Strikeforce forever, and that would be a great fight. He’s beaten the guys: he’s beaten the Clay Guidas and all these other guys and he’s a tough guy. I’ll tell you: that would be a scrap. He’s kind of like a Ben Henderson with that scrappy, fighter style … I think it would be a really good fight.” 

Melendez first fought in Strikeforce in back in March 2006, defeating Harris Sarmiento, before winning the title from Guida in June of the same year. 

“El Nino” is currently riding a seven-fight win streak and most recently won a rubber match with old rival Josh Thompson back in May. 

The California native was scheduled to defend his Strikeforce gold one more time before the brand folds, but a shoulder injury forced him out of a bout with Pat Healy in September, and he was unable to get healthy for the card in January. 

Meanwhile, Henderson is a perfect 6-0 in the UFC, though he has yet to get a finish inside the Octagon. “Smooth” hasn’t lost since his “Fight of the Year” performance against Anthony Pettis on the final WEC card in Dec. 2010.

Would Melendez vs. Henderson be a competitive affair, or would the reigning champion run though another Cesar Gracie student with ease?

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UFC on FOX 5 Results: Power Ranking the Five FOX Fight Cards

The network TV deal between the UFC and Fox has yielded some really great cards so far. The centerpiece of the deal, naturally, is the huge events on Fox that have put the sport front-and-center, with millions of viewers tuning in. We have seen five ca…

The network TV deal between the UFC and Fox has yielded some really great cards so far. The centerpiece of the deal, naturally, is the huge events on Fox that have put the sport front-and-center, with millions of viewers tuning in.

We have seen five cards now, with varying levels of star power, publicity and entertainment from the fights.

So how do these cards stack up against each other? Which is the best, which is the worst? What cards had better fights and better fighters? Which had title fights and which had title flops?

Find out right here!

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Mauricio Rua: 5 Fights to Get Shogun Back on Track

Eesh. Another fight, another wheezy, pudgy, disappointing fight from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The former light heavyweight champion has looked just awful in 2012, and at this point there are serious questions about his future in MMA. In his t…

Eesh.

Another fight, another wheezy, pudgy, disappointing fight from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

The former light heavyweight champion has looked just awful in 2012, and at this point there are serious questions about his future in MMA. In his two most recent fights, he has shown none of the cardio that used to be one of his greatest strengths, and the technically masterful striking he used to knock out Lyoto Machida has just seemed to evaporate.

So what can Shogun do to get back to his winning ways? And who can he fight?

Find out right here!

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UFC: The Top 10 Lightweights

With UFC on FOX 5 now a thing of the past and Benson Henderson firmly entrenched as the 155-pound champion, it’s time to take a look at who the best men the UFC has to offer in that class presently are. *Note: With his contracted fight at feather…

With UFC on FOX 5 now a thing of the past and Benson Henderson firmly entrenched as the 155-pound champion, it’s time to take a look at who the best men the UFC has to offer in that class presently are.

*Note: With his contracted fight at featherweight for UFC 156, Frankie Edgar is removed from the rankings. With his contracted fight at featherweight for UFC on FOX 6, Clay Guida is removed from the rankings.

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UFC on FOX 5 Results: Memorable Images and Quotes from Henderson vs. Diaz Card

Every time a UFC fight card comes to an end there a handful of moments that capture the imagination of fight fans. Sometimes those moments are memorable for good reasons, like say delivering a dominant performance in a title bout.  Sometimes …

Every time a UFC fight card comes to an end there a handful of moments that capture the imagination of fight fans. 

Sometimes those moments are memorable for good reasons, like say delivering a dominant performance in a title bout.  Sometimes those moments are memorable for a, shall we say, less than good reason, like maybe a fighter had to keep the censors on their toes to deal with his over-exuberant hand gestures.

Sometimes these moments get caught on camera, sometimes they live on only in our minds.  What follows are some of the images that were caught on camera from Seattle’s Key Arena during the UFC on Fox 5 fight card. Also included are quotes from the fighters involved in those moments.

*all quotes provided by the UFC unless otherwise noted

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UFC on Fox 5 Results: What Went Wrong for BJ Penn?

Say it isn’t so, BJ. As the excitement of BJ Penn’s return continued during his walkout to the Octagon on Saturday night, it soon faded into another poor performance for the future Hall of Famer. Leading up to his fight against Rory MacDonald, Pen…

Say it isn’t so, BJ.

As the excitement of BJ Penn‘s return continued during his walkout to the Octagon on Saturday night, it soon faded into another poor performance for the future Hall of Famer.

Leading up to his fight against Rory MacDonald, Penn said all the right things. He said he was now at the right weight, he said he was fighting for his legacy and he promised he would be prepared for this fight. None of those things were backed up in his fight in Seattle.

Penn looked horrible. There’s no other way to sum up his fight. It looked as if he had no real plan at all for MacDonald. Sure, we saw him go for the takedown a couple of times, but Penn looked like he was told of his opponent within the last few days.

Give MacDonald credit—he said he wanted to come in and hurt BJ, and he did just that.

The common theme leading up to the Penn vs. MacDonald fight was that it was Penn against the new breed of fighters. That statement couldn’t have been more true. It’s why we saw people like Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz fade away. It’s why we are seeing Rampage Jackson barely hang on to his UFC career. These young fighters are starting their training with every discipline, making it tough for those who spent most of their lives learning one.

So where did it go wrong for Penn?

Quite honestly, Penn was completely overmatched. There were times during the fight that it looked like it was you or me in the Octagon against MacDonald. Penn would go for a takedown, fail at it and then settle back into a stand-up position while MacDonald teed off on him.

It appeared Penn had an “oh sh–” moment when he realized he wasn’t going to be able to get MacDonald on the ground. The best chance Penn had to land significant strikes was when MacDonald took him down, and Penn started to fight from his back.

There were a couple of shots that gave Penn fans a split second of hope, but those were few and far between.

Penn is now on a Tito Ortiz type of losing streak—well, not quite that bad. Penn has lost four of his last six fights. I’m never going to call for somebody to retire, because I don’t think anybody but those close to the fighter should make that kind of statement, especially for a guy like Penn. I will say, however, that he has never looked worse in his career.

 

Joe Chacon is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

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