Over the last few years, Hector Lombard has been a destructive force in Bellator’s middleweight division. The knockout artist has been on one of the best winning streaks in the sport over the last few years, winning his last 20 fights with a stop…
Over the last few years, Hector Lombard has been a destructive force in Bellator’s middleweight division.
The knockout artist has been on one of the best winning streaks in the sport over the last few years, winning his last 20 fights with a stoppage rate of 80 percent during the streak.
After a few years of watching him run rampant on Bellator’s 185-lb weight class, fans have been clamoring for Lombard to make the leap into the UFC. Earlier this week, the Bellator champ confirmed via Twitter that his next fight will be inside the Octagon.
The UFC’s middleweight division is currently without a true group of contenders, with only Chael Sonnen having done enough to earn a shot at Anderson Silva’s belt. But with top contenders like Mark Munoz and Michael Bisping already locked into fights this summer, it will be interesting to see who Lombard will get matched up against in his UFC debut.
As recent as a year ago, it would have seemed inconceivable for the UFC to put on an all-heavyweight fight card. But, here we are today, readying ourselves for just that very thing.The promotion’s heavyweight division has enjoyed an influx of talent of…
As recent as a year ago, it would have seemed inconceivable for the UFC to put on an all-heavyweight fight card. But, here we are today, readying ourselves for just that very thing.
The promotion’s heavyweight division has enjoyed an influx of talent of late, beginning with a version of The Ultimate Fighter that featured the big boys, and continuing as Strikeforce roster members have begun trickling into the UFC.
Thanks to the star-building reality show that brought in Roy Nelson, Jon Madsen and Brendan Schaub, as well as the Strikeforce acquisitions of Antonio Silva, Shane del Rosario and Fabricio Werdum, the division is as strong as it has ever been.
Add in some talented youngsters like Stipe Miocic and Stefan Struve, and you’ve got a nice looking collection of heavyweights standing in the same stable.
So what is the UFC to do with this newly flourishing division? Well, conventional wisdom tells us that if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
But in spite of the depth and talent characterizing the over-205-pound weight class, there have been naysayers out there who are not too high on the idea of allotting an entire event to showcase it.
The balance of a fight card is usually dependent on the variation of fighter sizes that comprise it. Smaller divisions, like bantamweight and flyweight, often provide an event with fast-paced action, while the heavier groups often supply the powerful knockouts.
While this view tends to oversimplify things a bit, it is not entirely without validity.
In addition to this concern, the all-heavyweight card comes off somewhat gimmicky. There is an aura about the heavyweight class that can be tapped into, but is stacking fight consecutive bouts in a row force-feeding it to fans?
I understand why some people are skeptical about how successful this event will be, but if we look at every fight individually, this card is actually loaded.
Junior Dos Santos versus Frank Mir may not get the juices flowing like Dos Santos-Overeem would have, but it is certainly a main event-worthy contest.
Cain Velasquez is one of the division’s brightest stars and has headlined PPVs before. He will be taking on Antonio Silva who has headlined Strikeforce events in the past.
Stipe Miocic versus Shane del Rosario features two of the sport’s most promising up-and-comers.
Gabriel Gonzaga versus Roy Nelson promises to have some good exchanges and be a competitive fight, while Mark Hunt versus Stefan Struve will depict an intriguing contest of styles between two fan favorites.
And lest we forget, the undercard to this event is utterly stacked with good matchups.
UFC 146 will be the promotion’s announcement that the division is stronger than ever before and will act as a precursor to some exciting things to come.
If this style of card becomes a regular thing, it runs the risk of suffering from overexposure, but if left as a one-shot deal, the all-heavyweight fight card at UFC 146 will be a cleverly symbolic way of letting everyone know that the promotion’s former weak link is primed for big things.
Upon his entrance into the UFC in 2007, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was one of the most sought-after talents in the sport and he would go on to achieve a lot of success for the company.Jackson’s legacy can be matched by very few fighters and he will alwa…
Upon his entrance into the UFC in 2007, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was one of the most sought-after talents in the sport and he would go on to achieve a lot of success for the company.
Jackson’s legacy can be matched by very few fighters and he will always be remembered as one of the most exciting fighters in mixed martial arts history, but he doesn’t appear to have the same desire to compete any longer.
Jackson’s recent performances have disappointed many fans as of late, including UFC president Dana White, and it has led some to question his longevity.
White considers the 34-year-old Jackson to still be among one of the more popular fighters in the light heavyweight division, but he believes the former UFC light heavyweight champion could of accomplished more in his career.
“I think he could have been so much better if he applied himself,” White told MMAFighting.com. “He had all the tools. Incredible chin, knockout power in both hands, incredible charisma and personality.”
Prior to signing with the UFC, Jackson was one of the most successful fighters competing in the now-defuct Pride FC in Japan. Jackson was renowned for his colorful personality, along with his knockout power and vicious body slams.
Collecting wins over fighters like Kevin Randleman and Ricardo Arona, Jackson would make a successful transition to the Octagon where he found himself victorious over Chuck Liddell and Dan Henderson, unifying both the UFC and Pride light heavyweight title.
But amidst all his success, White said some of Jackson’s losses have taken their toll on him and have caused him to become emotional.
“He’s crazy, Rampage takes losses really hard,” he said. “‘Rampage’ wants to fight one more fight on his contract, and his last fight, and he’ll never make that money ever again for the rest of his life. A lot of those guys in the UFC don’t realize that until its too late.”
Jackson is currently rehabbing a knee injury that will keep him out of action momentarily, but if and when he decides to return, it’ll be interesting to see what remains left of his legendary career.
MMA fans have mixed reactions when it comes to the smaller promotions of the sport, save for Bellator Fighting Championships, which has been seen as the one of the top two promotions in the world for great MMA action from start to finish.Aside from Bel…
MMA fans have mixed reactions when it comes to the smaller promotions of the sport, save for Bellator Fighting Championships, which has been seen as the one of the top two promotions in the world for great MMA action from start to finish.
Aside from Bellator, itself a smaller yet prominent promotion, some MMA cards, like the first Super Fight League card, hit with some fans but missed with the majority of fans because while it was fun to watch newcomers in action, it was quite the bust to see any promotion sell James Thompson vs. Bob Sapp as the rather predictable headliner of their card.
In contrast, the second Super Fight League event saw Neil Grove vs. Todd Duffee in the main event and turned in a pretty respectable night of fights, while both of ONE FC’s cards delivered greatly for fans of the sport of MMA, let alone the fans and followers of the Asian circuit.
Now, a lot of these smaller promotions deliver great MMA action before, during and sometimes after the action provided by Bellator and the UFC, but why does MMA need other smaller promotions when the UFC is constantly finding various ways to deliver more MMA action to its fans by the moment? If smaller promotions don’t exist and all we have is the UFC, can’t the UFC brass just scout talent from the amateurs and help them to go pro with simple training? If the UFC always has the best fighters in the world and they put on all of the best fights in the world, wouldn’t they be able to have the good eye for all the fighters who are ready to showcase their talents for the MMA world?
Actually, the answer to both of those questions is “no.”
It’s always cool to see a fighter impress in the amateurs, and a first glance might convince a fan that a fighter is good enough to make their pro debut in the UFC, whether on a pay-per-view or an Ultimate Fighter finale, but the reality is that not everyone is UFC-ready right off the bat. Every MMA fighter, whether they even go through an amateur career or not, needs a place in which to blast themselves off and make the whole MMA world notice them. Without that platform on which to make the MMA world notice who these bodies are that are trying to find success in the world’s fasting growing combat sport, no one can know for sure if they will find success in the UFC.
That’s where the smaller promotions are needed. They are the launching pads that most fighters use in order to earn their call to the UFC roster, and they are the stage on which most fighters go to get noticed so that they may earn their reputation as well as their arguments towards finding success in the UFC, the “major leagues” of MMA in most heads. They are not seen as competition to the UFC or Bellator in any way, shape or form, but with the types of fights that these promotions provide, that lack of competition is not a bad thing.
Take Tachi Palace Fights, for example. Many know Tachi Palace Fights as the promotion which put the flyweights on the map in the US circuit, and in addition to being the promotion which has provided an outlet for fighters like Ian McCall, Darrell Montague, Ulysses Gomez and Jussier Da Silva, TPF has also launched fighters such as Giva Santana and prospects Dustin Ortiz, Bubba Jenkins and Eddie Yagin.
Not only that, but also above all else is the fact that TPF prides itself as being more of a “national supershow” type of promotion and less of a company that’s trying to top UFC attendance records, UFC event ratings and so on.
That’s the one key thing about the smaller promotions and their purpose, which fans must understand about the smaller promotions like ONE FC, Tachi Palace Fights, Legend FC, Super Fight League, Dubai FC, KSW and even the most prominent of these “smaller-time” promotions, Bellator Fighting Championships. Sure, they are alternatives to the UFC, fans sometimes find their fights a bit more entertaining than some of what they see in the UFC or Strikeforce and the supply of prospects accentuates the fun of watching the promotion’s events while the action camouflages the fact that a lot of these rising stars are facing just that: prospects.
Does the abundance of prospects mean that the fighters are not impressive simply because the matchmakers are trying to comb the circuits in search of what some shifty spectators might consider “legitimate competition?”
Not at all. If anything, the deep pool of prospects should represent the future of the sport of MMA and not just “the best of some ‘no-name’ promotion.” That is why “national supershows” like Tachi Palace Fights, Legend FC and XFC, among others, exist.
As national supershows for the MMA world, the primary purpose of these smaller promotions is to provide a launching pad for some of the best prospects from a region or country, while also showcasing (more often than not) fighters who are veterans of the sport, and therefore, familiar faces to more mainstream audience.
Without them, a lot of these prospects may lose their luster before they’re ever able to prove their worth and earn their shot at the big time. Without a second home in which to entertain the masses, the veterans who fight on to make a living would incidentally be unable to make a living doing what they know how to do.
At the end of the day, the art of fighting and the execution is the only thing that a lot of these smaller-promotional fighters know how to do and have fun doing while making money off of it, and it’s true that they all will dream of getting the call to fight in the UFC, but if they go straight for The Octagon, how will we know if they’re really ready or not unless someone posts up their amateur career or prior experience up on YouTube?
The reality is that we will not know unless they start somewhere, and for any fighter coming up in the sport, there’s no other “somewhere” that satisfies the need to get UFC-ready than in the SFL, Bellator, Tachi Palace, any promotion in the Asian circuit or any promotion not mentioned thus far, because we all know that unless it’s Randy Couture, BJ Penn or anyone from the first five UFC events that we’re talking about, every great fighter starts off as just another promising fighter from “some smaller promotion”, but if not for those smaller promotions, how can we be sure that these could ever be held in as high regard as we hold them now?
If Phil Baroni had it his way, fighters could take all the steroids they want.In an interview with fightsportasia.com, the former UFC middleweight gave a rather interesting take on the use of steroids in MMA.”The New York Bad Ass” has never been one to…
If Phil Baroni had it his way, fighters could take all the steroids they want.
In an interview with fightsportasia.com, the former UFC middleweight gave a rather interesting take on the use of steroids in MMA.
“The New York Bad Ass” has never been one to shy away from saying exactly what’s on his mind, and he certainly didn’t hold back in this particular interview.
I want to see the best fighters. I want to see who is the strongest the best. Guys should be able to do whatever it takes to be the strongest. Getting choked and kicked in the head is really bad for you, worse than pot, TRT, or steroids. I don’t care who’s the cleanest, I wanna see the strongest, the fastest and the most gnarly fighters.
I don’t want to see who is the best at passing a drug test. Overeem isn’t the only guy taking [expletive]. He just got caught. I wanna see the baddest [expletive] going at it. That’s why Pride was the best. I wanna see a 205 [ripped] Wanderlei Silva kill dudes.
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Baroni would back steroid usage. He had a positive testing himself back in 2007 following a loss to Frank Shamrock at Strikeforce.
Fighters like Joe Riggs have often question whether or not the often inflated and toned Baroni uses steroids on a consistent basis.
“He always shows up in shape, looking shredded and puffed up, but I think he’ll be pharmaceutically enhanced, too,” Riggs said in an old interview with Cage Potato. “Just because he doesn’t test positive for steroids doesn’t mean he’s not on them right now.”
Looking for some more MMA news, and perhaps a couple of laughs? Follow me on Twitter @JordyMcElroy.
Nick Diaz has been out of action since losing a UFC interim title fight to Carlos Condit in February, but plenty of questions remain about his future.Not about his immediate future. We know what that holds. He’s suspended until January 2013, at least f…
Nick Diaz has been out of action since losing a UFC interim title fight to Carlos Condit in February, but plenty of questions remain about his future.
Not about his immediate future. We know what that holds. He’s suspended until January 2013, at least for the time being. He’ll eventually go in front of the inept Nevada State Athletic Commission for a hearing regarding his marijuana metabolite failure. But we don’t know when that’s going to happen, despite Diaz and his team making their best efforts to establish a hearing date sooner rather than later.
There’s a good chance Diaz might see his suspension cut from 12 months to six or nine months. After all, that whole medicinal marijuana card throws a wrench into things. Diaz was not, in fact, under the influence of marijuana on the night of his fight. The drug is not banned out of competition, and that’s where Diaz was using.
But even if his suspension is reduced, brother Nathan Diaz says Nick may not return to fighting at all.
“He’s busy right now. He’s got triathlon season,” the younger Diaz told media members during a UFC on FOX conference call. “I don’t think he’s really that interested in fighting. So as of right now, no.”
No matter how many times I hear Nick or Nathan reiterate that the elder Diaz is retired from fighting, I still don’t believe it. There’s nothing in the world that will convince me that once his suspension is retired—and if he’s offered a comeback fight against the winner of the proposed November bout between Condit and Georges St-Pierre—that Diaz will not return to the cage for another big payday.
It would be a shame to see Diaz actually walk away from fighting for the world of competitive triathlons. Competitive triathlons? Yeah, it takes a ton of endurance and heart, and kudos goes out to Diaz for even being able to compete in those things, but I cannot imagine anything more boring.
What I want to see is Diaz, back in the cage, throwing bungalows and generally being the entertaining dude he’s been over the past five years.
As recent as a year ago, it would have seemed inconceivable for the UFC to put on an all-heavyweight fight card. But, here we are today, readying ourselves for just that very thing.