Tag: Opinion

UFC 219: Holly Holm Out to Beat MMA’s Unbeatable Women’s Champion…Again

Holly Holm admits she’s feeling a twinge of deja vu leading up to UFC 219.
As she prepares to fight Cris “Cyborg” Justino for the women’s featherweight title Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Holm has a chance to shock the world all over again.
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Holly Holm admits she’s feeling a twinge of deja vu leading up to UFC 219.

As she prepares to fight Cris “Cyborg” Justino for the women’s featherweight title Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Holm has a chance to shock the world all over again.

This will be the second time she’s climbed into the Octagon with one of MMA‘s unbeatable champions—and we all remember what happened the first time.

Holm’s astonishing head kick knockout of Ronda Rousey at UFC 193 in November 2015 caused a tectonic shift in the landscape of the sport. It ended Rousey’s reign as both bantamweight champ and the UFC’s biggest draw while simultaneously teeing Holm up to be the fight company’s next female superstar.

Unfortunately, that star turn never fully materialized, as Holm went on to drop her next three fights in a row.

If the Rousey victory was one of MMA’s biggest surprises, Holm’s consecutive losses to Miesha Tate, Valentina Shevchenko and Germaine de Randamie turned it into one of the sport’s greatest missed opportunities.

Those defeats fashioned Holm into an odd figure in combat sports. Her previous professional boxing experience and hot start on the independent MMA scene made her the hottest of hot prospects. The victory over Rousey had her poised to cash in on that considerable potential. Then she squandered it, effectively dropping out of the conversation as current bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes took over the division.

Now against Justino, Holm will get something approaching a do-over.

In one fell swoop she might change much of what we think of her, becoming a two-time, two-division UFC champion and rebooting herself at 145-pounds. She’s going off as nearly a 3-to-1 underdog to Cyborg, according to Odds Shark, but represents perhaps the most interesting stylistic challenge of the ferocious titlist’s career.

Holm excels when her opponents bring the fight to her and Cyborg is nothing if not dependably aggressive. Justino won’t be as reckless as Rousey was and she’ll be even more dangerous but—after UFC 193—fans are already used to seeing Holm do the impossible.

“I think there are similarities with the feeling of it,” Holm said during last week’s UFC 219 media call. “Just knowing that people are having a little bit of doubt. To be the underdog [again] and come in—I think people think, ‘Oh, OK, well Holly is capable of doing some [surprising] things.'”

Certainly, Justino appears as invincable now as Rousey did then. Cyborg may have a far less cozy partnership with the UFC than the one Rousey enjoyed, but the results have been just as dominant.

Unbeaten since her professional debut in 2005, Justino has amassed a record of 18-1-1, including 11 straight knockouts. Along the way she’s established a reputation as one of the most fearsome fighters in MMA history.

Her only recent career hiccups include a positive steroid test in 2011 that turned a successful Strikeforce title defense into a no contest and an icy relationship with the UFC, which has kept her from taking her rightful place among the organization’s biggest drawing cards.

Like Holm letting the wave of notoriety she got by beating Rousey stale into disappointment, Cyborg has also spent much of her career in the Octagon watching the biggest opportunities float slowly by.

For years, fans hungered for a Justino vs. Rousey super fight, but Cyborg’s inability to make the 135-pound limit—and perhaps Rousey’s unwillingness to take the fight in the first place—ultimately made it impossible. After years of public spats and dead-end negotiations, Cyborg didn’t even arrive in the UFC until May 2016, six months after Holm laid Rousey flat.

Even after officially becoming a UFC property, Justino’s path has been fairly rocky.

Early on matchmakers didn’t seem to know what to do with her, booking her in a series of 140-pound catchweight attractions. When the company finally moved to create a featherweight division, another negotiating stalemate kept Justino out of the inaugural title bout. Instead, De Randamie defeated Holm at UFC 208 to become the first 145-pound women’s champ in promotional history.

Still, Cyborg’s shadow loomed large. De Randamie spent just 128 disastrous days with the title before the UFC stripped her, citing her refusal to defend against Justino.

Cyborg defeated InvictaFC bantamweight champ Tonya Evinger via third-round TKO to claim the vacant title in July 2017. Afterward, the fight company hit the reset button, booking the fight it wanted from the beginning: Cyborg vs. Holm.

Holm made the bout possible by following up her loss to De Randamie by heading back to bantamweight and scoring a rehabilitative knockout over Bethe Correia in June 2017. Given the shallow nature of the new featherweight class—where the UFC doesn’t even offer rankings on its official website—that was good enough to make her attractive as Cyborg’s next opponent.

For her part, Justino says she has known this fight was coming since the night she watched Holm KO Rousey.

“I watched the fight,” Cyborg said during the UFC 219 media call. “On that day, I was making plans to fight Ronda, but when Holly beat Ronda, I said one day soon, I’m going to fight Holly.”

It will be a massive opportunity for both fighters, especially Holm.

For the Albuquerque, New Mexico native it’s a chance to beat yet another MMA icon and to pair her improbable victory over Rousey with one perhaps even more unexpected.

Despite the fact Holm’s own UFC career hasn’t quite lived-up to expectations, defeating both Justino and Rousey would seal a unique, if admittedly strange, legacy for her.

Becoming featherweight champion would have obvious privileges. For Holm, it could be the difference between being remembered as an also-ran and retiring among the all-time greats.

The fledgling 145-pound title offers new life to the handful of contenders ready to step up from bantamweight. If Holm can become champion there, it could set up a series of interesting and promotable matchups for her against contenders like Cat Zingano, Megan Anderson or even Nunes.

Maybe Holm could even close out her career in a style befitting the hype fostered by her win over Rousey.

Instead of being remembered as a one-hit wonder, she might go down as MMA’s giant killer.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Khabib Nurmagomedov, MMA’s Bogeyman, Is Coming for Conor McGregor and UFC Gold

Every culture has a bogeyman, part myth, part monster, a terrifying reminder to children of the evil lurking in the hearts of men.
In Spain it’s the “Sack Man,” a vagrant who steals into the homes of naughty children, whisking them away from the only l…

Every culture has a bogeyman, part myth, part monster, a terrifying reminder to children of the evil lurking in the hearts of men.

In Spain it’s the “Sack Man,” a vagrant who steals into the homes of naughty children, whisking them away from the only life they’ve known. In the Netherlands, the Boeman hides under the bed, claws and fangs grotesquely long and sharp. In the mountains of Afghanistan, the Madar-i-Al, a hideous hag, comes to punish the uncooperative in the dark of night.

The story is universal because humanity needs an outsider, even in allegory, to set things right. Everywhere across the planet, regardless of race, religion or language there are bad kids and lessons that need learned.

If you ask hardcore fans, the UFC is no different.

The fighters, they believe, have gone mad with power. Conor McGregor’s emergence as a power broker—an athlete who only fights when and who he wants—has created chaos, with fighters demanding “money” fights and the sanctity of the ranking system called into question.

The internet is awash with fighters trying to do their best McGregor impression, perhaps forgetting the “Notorious” one only entered into legend after running over every featherweight in the world like a green, white and orange freight train.

The idea of the best fighting the best to establish primacy seems dangerously outdated, if not downright antiquated.

But a bogeyman lurks at lightweight, here to set things right. His name is Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0). And he is a very dangerous man—perhaps, just the man to return mixed martial arts to its default state.

On the surface, such a claim is absurd. This is a sport of mean mugs and muscles that bulge, a sport where the trash talk and tattoos are equally loud. 

Nurmagomedov, who fights Edson Barboza at UFC 219 Saturday on pay-per-view, fits none of those stereotypes, to the point his rejection of the current culture is a running joke. He’s confident, not cocky, strong without being veiny. Muscle and Fitness isn’t likely to be calling anytime soon. Neither is Saturday Night Live.

His is a power transported in time, the old-school kind developed by men like his father, Abdulmanap, a former wrestling, sambo and judo champion who grew strong tossing other men around because there was simply not much better to do.

“When Khabib gets a hold of people, they look surprised,” UFC announcer Joe Rogan told me. “It’s almost like they are shocked by how strong he is.”

It’s little wonder, then, that a young Khabib grew up learning the tools of combat, taking his first steps on the wrestling mats, navigating the world between the legs of his father’s pupils who lived and trained on the first floor of his family’s home. 

Theirs is a martial culture, where fights on the street are frequent and terror attacks and violence are a constant threat; where, as a boy, he once famously wrestled a bear like a seven-year-old circus strongman.  

There’s something old school about Dagestan, Russia, where Khabib grew up, too. Nestled in the Caucus mountains near the Caspian Sea, it’s home to the forever war, where Muslims such as Nurmagamedov have been fighting off a series of invaders from the Mongols to Peter the Great.

Until recently, a battle has raged against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the most diverse part of the country fighting off the Great Slavic North.

As Bloody Elbow’s Karim Zidan explained, it’s a martial culture well beyond the Nurmagomedov homestead:

“Khabib’s upbringing was not particularly unique among Dagestani families. While most children did not have judo and wrestling champions for parents, almost all young boys between the age of eight and ten tested their resolve on a wrestling mat. Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap, provided a small gym that encouraged rural youth to participate in basic combat sports to build confidence, discipline, and ensure preparedness for the potentially traumatic experiences that ravished the North Caucasus. Having lived through radical fundamentalism and separatist warfare in the Chechen Wars in the 1990s, Abdulmanap took a pragmatic approach to combat sports and its pivotal role in the formation of Caucasus youth.

“‘I believe every man must be ready for war … even in peaceful times,’ Abdulmanap told BloodyElbow in 2015. ‘It is always a topic of discussion in the Caucasus.'”

While its cultural chaos forges hard men, it’s Dagestan itself that creates champions. Abdulmanap, who once sold four bulls to pay for a new gymnasium, has coached many of them, with his own son being just one in an army of grappling monsters who have descended on the world of combat sports. 

“I feel the main things needed to be a successful fighter are a high level of commitment, an education, eagerness to learn all facets of the sport and a good upbringing,” he told me in a 2011 interview.

“Dagestan is a mountainous country. It presents its own challenges and benefits. In the elevation of the mountains, we train for 45 days. This helps prepare a fighter and get him into as best shape as possible.”

 

Khabib represents his roots, from his mountain shepherd’s hat to his heavy, top-control grappling game. But his journey into American mixed martial arts has required a new combat family, both to help him keep up with an ever-evolving sport and because his father has been denied a visa by the U.S. government and has been unable to corner him for any of his UFC fights.

“When I fight in USA, when I sign in 2012 to fight in UFC, he never can come and support me because we have problem with visa,” Khabib told The MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani. “…I am fighting eighth time without my father. It’s OK. He prayed for me, with me all the time with my heart. We talk with him everyday about my weight, my plan, my everything. My father is with me all the time, it’s no problem.”

In his father’s absence, coaches at the American Kickboxing Academy have molded Nurmagomedov into a fiercely single-minded fighter, a throwback to a time when a single skill set could take a man far. 

Modern mixed martial arts is a sport where wrestling and grappling are typically building blocks, sturdy parts of the overall structure rarely seen unless everything else comes crashing down. In any high-level UFC fight, it is presumed, both fighters have solid grappling fundamentals.

As a result, the bulk of every fight will consist of often awkward kickboxing and toughman contest shenanigans, either dreadfully technical or borderline bar-fighting.

Khabib plays a different game, effortlessly tossing every opponent with a variety of trips, bodylocks, and single leg shots, then demolishing them with one of the greatest top games in MMA history.

“My best background is like, smash opponents,” Nurmagomedov told UFC Countdown. “I all the time go forward. I all the time try to take down somebody. Make him give up. This is my style, you know. This is what I do all my life.”

Nurmagomedov doesn’t take an opponent down for points, then peck away fecklessly in his guard. Instead, he passes the legs quickly and smoothly, dropping furious ground-and-pound from either side control or the mount, confident enough to pursue submissions when they present themselves, knowing in his heart he can always find his way back to the top if things go awry.

As Vice’s Jack Slack points out, that style doesn’t just rack up points—it tends to crush a man’s spirit, even those who fight for a living:

“…the real strength of Nurmagomedov’s game: when he has a hold of his man. He is exceptional at shucking his way to a back bodylock and from there he will happily spend a round dragging his man to the mat, allowing them to get back up, and then either falling to the mat with them or tossing them to the mat and landing on them. Round after round in the octagon, Nurmagomedov has shown himself to be a step ahead of everyone who ends up with him around their waist.

“…And that is how Nurmagomedov wins bouts, he breaks fighters. He lets them up and he drags them down again. While he convinces opponents that his having a bodylock means the rest of the round is going to be spent on the floor.”

That’s not to say Nurmagomedov is hopeless in standing exchanges. There is both method and madness in his game, a combination that makes it hard for opponents to plan for him. His uppercut, in particular, is a formidable weapon, both a threat to an opponent’s consciousness and a tool to stand them upright for a takedown attempt.

On the whole, he’s an enthusiastic striker who often leaps in with winging hooks, counting on his speed and athleticism to bail him out of bad spots. That’s not supposed to be possible at the top levels of the sport. Not in 2017, when the game has become about punishing mistakes more than anything else.

In his last fight, Michael Johnson punished Khabib’s recklessness at times. The same punches landed by the incredibly disciplined McGregor would be fight-changers. His UFC 219 opponent, Barboza, is also the kind of striker who could end Nurmagomedov’s march to the championship with a single blow. 

However, identifying weaknesses on video is one thing; in the cage, there is Khabib to contend with. Nurmagomedov is so good at what he does, it doesn’t really matter what the other man does well.

There is only Khabib—unyielding, unflappable and seemingly unstoppable.

“You have to give up,” he told Johnson in mid-fight, fists raining down like a storm. “I have to fight for the title. You know this. I deserve it.” 

Actions, including a hammerlock that threatened to break Johnson’s arm, eventually spoke even louder than his words. Deserve was suddenly no longer part of the equation. Khabib had earned his opportunity against the best in the world.

 

While no man has been his match, and that shot at the title a presumptive inevitability, Khabib’s own body has continued to be his worst enemy. He’s fought just three times since 2013.

In the same span, six separate fights have fallen through. The culprits have included a torn meniscus, a rib injury and, in his last scheduled bout, a last-minute hospitalization as he struggled to make weight.

“Because all my life I train hard. This is why injuries are coming,” Nurmagomedov told UFC’s Megan Olivi. “But now, in the last couple of years, I changed a lot of things. It’s working too. Now I train a little bit smarter. I take care of myself. I’m tired of injuries and surgeries, rehab, then comeback and talk about this.

“…I feel great. I want to show I’m very excited about this comeback…I want to compete in one year maybe three or four times. This is my plan for next year. Now I’m healthy, now I feel good…I want to stay busy.”

It’s an awkward few minutes—answering inquiries from the press is definitely not Nurmagomedov’s strong suit. Earlier in the month, he created headlines by refusing outright questions about his weight.

But the UFC he represents doesn’t require a master’s degree in communications to advance to the top. Khabib is at his best when mouths slam shut and the cage door opens.

Is Khabib the traditional fight star the sport needs to return to its roots? On Saturday, the time for talking is over. It’s a question that can only be answered in fire and blood.

                 

Jonathan Snowden covers combat sports for Bleacher Report.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

10 Fighters Who Took the UFC by Storm During 2017

By now we’ve all heard the takes about how 2017 was a down year for the UFC.
With all of its biggest draws either easing into semi-retirement, suspended for one reason or another or out chasing big-money boxing matches, the world’s largest MMA promoter…

By now we’ve all heard the takes about how 2017 was a down year for the UFC.

With all of its biggest draws either easing into semi-retirement, suspended for one reason or another or out chasing big-money boxing matches, the world’s largest MMA promoter had to make do with what it had on hand.

The results—with a few notable exceptions—were largely forgettable. As the year comes to a close, combat sports fans are more likely to remember 2017 for Conor McGregor’s wild boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr., than anything that actually happened inside the Octagon.

Not that it was all bad.

Some people made the best of it. In fact, some of the UFC’s top up-and-coming talent had themselves great years.

Here’s a look at which fighters took the Octagon by storm during 2017 and what might be ahead for them in 2018.

Begin Slideshow

B/R MMA Roundtable: Is Floyd Being Real in Denying MMA Rumors?

It started with a rambling appearance on Periscope. Floyd Mayweather Jr., as he often does, offered fans a window into his life of pugilism and absurd wealth while discussing a host of topics.
Many of the things he said along the way were worth raising…

It started with a rambling appearance on Periscope. Floyd Mayweather Jr., as he often does, offered fans a window into his life of pugilism and absurd wealth while discussing a host of topics.

Many of the things he said along the way were worth raising an eyebrow over, given the controversial subjects touched upon and Mayweather’s complete lack of filter. One thing that was just downright strange, though, was the discussion of his possibly fighting…in the UFC.

“You already know I’m a money-getting motherf–ker. I’m Money May,” he said (h/t MMA Mania‘s Ryan Harkness for the transcription). “They just called me not too long ago and asked me to come back. I can come right back to the UFC. … I can do a three- or four-fight deal in the Octagon and make a billion dollars.”

The statement, essentially, came out of nowhere and wouldn’t have been especially noteworthy on its own. Mayweather, after all, is known to say just about anything for attention, and discussing the UFC, positively or negatively, has traditionally turned heads for him.

(Warning: NSFW language)

His words became a bit more meaningful, though, when longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan, on his podcast, stated that Mayweather was “legitimately” talking with the company about a transition to MMA. Then things got serious when company president Dana White told ESPN “it’s real” in regard to the negotiations. Mayweather fired back later that day, flatly saying to FightHype (via MMA Weekly, h/t MMA Fighting), “I’m not doing it,” but it’s hard to completely dismiss the rumors, and even harder not to wonder if this is simply a negotiating tactic playing out in public.

While the odds of Mayweather transitioning to MMA are long regardless of whether the two sides are negotiating, it’s worth discussing the ramifications that a Money-UFC team-up would have, and what a fight involving the 50-0 boxer might look like. With that in mind, the Bleacher Report MMA team is here to discuss the possibly ongoing negotiations, what it means for the sport and what a fight might look like.

Steven Rondina

At face value, the entire notion of Mayweather fighting in the UFC feels kind of absurd. The UFC is historically stingy when it comes to its athletes, and that doesn’t mesh well with a guy whose well-deserved nickname is “Money.” What’s more, Mayweather is also a competitor who traditionally likes to stack the deck in his favor on every conceivable level. Transitioning to MMA at 40 years old? To face a legitimate opponent? That’s not really his modus operandi.

The more I think about it, though, the more this kind of, sort of makes sense.

Conor McGregor has pushed the UFC out of its comfort zone when it comes to fighter pay to the point where the UFC’s current ownership, which is desperate for needle-moving fights, might be willing to float Mayweather a legitimate offer. On the flipside, Mayweather’s options in the ring feel somewhat limited at this time, with a can-crushing affair unlikely to yield the kind of returns he looks for and a legitimate opponent likely to put a beating on him at this point.

There’s a very real chance that all of this is just a symptom of White being a blowhard…but this whole situation just makes too much sense. If Floyd were ever going to step into the cage, now would be the time, no?

Jeremy Botter

I mean, look. We’re already well established in Twilight Zone territory at this point. Remember a few years ago, when somebody would’ve mentioned this fight and we all would’ve laughed and (probably) pointed in their general direction?

Yeah, those days are gone. The UFC’s new-ish ownership group has some huge loan repayments to make, and it can’t make them without throwing a few things out with the bathwater. One of those things is the old business model established by the Fertitta brothers, and the other is a healthy dose of common sense. What was once a not-in-a-million-years proposition is now an eye toward reaping the biggest profits available.

And make no mistake about it: if Mayweather steps into that Octagon, it’s going to be enormously financially lucrative, regardless of the opponent. It’s one of those things where you’ll tell everyone you won’t watch, but of course you will, because you can’t help yourself. Prizefighting was built on just such a foundation. Mayweather vs. CM Punk? Dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. But also? #WouldWatch

Nathan McCarter

I would watch this clown car roll into town 100 percent. However, what I am most interested in seeing, on the small chance this were to happen, is how the UFC fills out the card. It will provide great insight into which fighters (who don’t have pay-per-view points on their current deals) the UFC has a vested interest in promoting.

The Mayweather story itself doesn’t interest me all that much because we know what will happen against any credible well-rounded fighter. We’ve seen it before. But the implications for the business and how it affects other fighters is the story that I will be tuned into on a daily basis. Mayweather’s presence will have residual effects.

I’d also be interested in any new promotional tactics the UFC may employ, as it has gotten quite bland in that regard over the years. With a new TV deal on the horizon, a potential Mayweather fight could bring out the best presentation to date.

Jonathan Snowden

I understand how interesting this could be as a spectacle and how much money could flow into the UFC’s coffers as a result. I sat on the floor watching Mayweather fight McGregor with a smile I simply couldn’t erase from my face.

But as an athletic contest, this is straight garbage. A fight hasn’t even been announced yet, and the stench is already overwhelming.

McGregor had very little chance against Mayweather—but the slim possibility existed that he could waylay him with a hard shot and walk away an unlikely victor.

Even that chance will elude Mayweather if he decides to step into the cage.

If you haven’t seen it, take a quick peek at UFC 118 on Fight Pass. Watch James Toney, one of the most gifted boxers I’ve ever seen, take the center of the Octagon.

Then watch Randy Couture shoot the world’s slowest single leg from a yard away and put him helplessly on his back. It was as embarrassing as it was predictable.

A common thread connects boxing and MMA striking. The strategies and techniques vary to some degree—but they come from the same world.

Grappling? Grappling is something else entirely, foreign, scary and baffling, even after years of training.

When you train in a grappling sport for the first time, you often find yourself up against the smallest person in the gym, even if the weight difference is substantial.

This isn’t to provide you with a chance to be competitive. It’s the first of many humblings to come. It takes years to get good on the mat, a daily grind that all too often ends with your tapping frantically or trying to re-establish blood flow to your brain.

Mayweather won’t have time to get the reps he needs to succeed. Victory isn’t just unlikely—it’s hopeless.

Scott Harris

No, Mayweather has no chance of winning an MMA fight. Yes, a Mayweather dalliance in the UFC would nevertheless be appointment television and lucrative for all involved.

At the risk of sounding hopelessly naive, though, wouldn’t it be nice to see the UFC cultivate fan interest from the bottom up? The UFC is like a sports team that has every opportunity to build through the draft and farm system but ignores that methodology in favor of splashy free-agent signings.

On its face, that’s fine. We’re all here to make money. But the more often the UFC visits this particular ATM, the more it delegitimizes itself and its own athletes. It says something that Demetrious Johnson, the best MMA fighter on the planet and maybe ever, feels the need to put himself forward for a big-money fight with Mayweather. Shouldn’t the UFC have made a bigger star out of him already?

The UFC is desperate for name value, it is said. But isn’t that the UFC’s job? To promote fighters? What about Max Holloway and Robert Whittaker and Francis Ngannou and Amanda Nunes and a hundred other great fighters who are sitting under the UFC’s nose waiting to become household names while the UFC wrings its hands about a dearth of marketable talent?

Sure, novelty fights will always be big sellers. But figuring out how to make stars out of all the talent you already have? Now that’s a license to print money.

Steven Rondina

There’s definitely something to be said about the UFC’s inability to build stars and how that ties into the company’s frequent reliance on Mayweather to drum up headlines. The same goes for the fact that boxers have largely struggled when crossing over and how the UFC would need to steer into that in order to protect both the sports’ credibilities and its own brand.

The fact remains, though, that the UFC and Mayweather should be having at least a basic level of negotiation.

All signs say that Mayweather is looking for another fight at a time where there are few safe opponents available for him. All signs say that Endeavor wants to make the biggest fights possible in 2018 ahead of signing a new TV deal for the UFC. Even if Mayweather isn’t seriously looking to take the plunge or even if the UFC isn’t willing to ruin its credibility as a sports organization, both sides have something to gain from talking to the other.

Once again, it’s incredibly unlikely that Mayweather takes off his boots, tapes on some four-ounce gloves and dons a pair of atrocious Reebok trunks for $2,500. But given how huge their last date was, I’d be surprised if the two haven’t exchanged some text messages in the months since.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on Fox 26: Rafael dos Anjos Repaints Title Picture by Beating Robbie Lawler

No clear-cut No. 1 contender in the UFC welterweight division?
Rafael dos Anjos has something to say about that.
Dos Anjos’ masterful unanimous decision win over Robbie Lawler Saturday at UFC on Fox 26 should repaint the 170-pound title picture&m…

No clear-cut No. 1 contender in the UFC welterweight division?

Rafael dos Anjos has something to say about that.

Dos Anjos’ masterful unanimous decision win over Robbie Lawler Saturday at UFC on Fox 26 should repaint the 170-pound title picture—putting the former lightweight champion front and center.

For the last few years, the road to the welterweight title has run through Lawler. In besting him (50-45 x3) over five rounds at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg, Canada, Dos Anjos proved he’s ready for a shot at reigning champ Tyron Woodley.

If and when he gets that fight, it’ll give Dos Anjos the opportunity to enter the exclusive club of fighters who’ve won gold in two different UFC weight classes.

Predictions that he would be too small to compete at 170 or that his cardio couldn‘t hold up over 25 minutes with a larger man have proven incorrect. At this point, Dos Anjos is more than just a lightweight trying to find new life at a heavier weight. He’s a bonafide championship threat.

Things couldn’t have gone better for him against Lawler. Early and often, Dos Anjos scored with low kicks, leaving the bottom half of Lawler’s lead leg bruised and swelling. Near the end of the fight, Lawler was clearly struggling with an injured leg, though it was unclear if it was from RDA’s kicks or a grappling exchange that occurred midway through the bout.

Meanwhile, Dos Anjos utilized good head movement, fluid punching combinations, a variety of kicks and even a few flying knees.

By the time he was through, the pack of up-and-coming welterweight contenders jockeying for a crack at Woodley had a new leader.

“I have been doing this for so long and tonight was a real pleasure,” Dos Anjos told UFC play-by-play man Jon Anik after the fight. “Robbie Lawler is a legend and my hands are hurting … I feel like he had a very tough head.”

Dos Anjos’ run with the 155-pound title in 2015-16 duly established him as an aggressive striker and hard-nosed grappler. High-profile wins over Benson Henderson, Nate Diaz, Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone made it impossible to deny the 33-year-old Brazilian is one of the UFC’s toughest outs.

After back-to-back losses to Eddie Alvarez and Tony Ferguson during 2016, however, Dos Anjos was in need of a career reboot. He jumped up to the welterweight division and immediately made a splash.

He scored wins over Tarec Saffiedine and Neil Magny during the second half of 2017. While a bit undersized for 170 pounds, Dos Anjos’ never-say-die attitude and durability has so far proved enough to carry him.

That mindset was well on display in this important contender bout against Lawler.

Dos Anjos’ best moments of an impressive all-around performance may have come in the second round. In that stanza, Dos Anjos stunned Lawler with a left hook and then poured on a 23-second barrage of punches against the fence.

Lawler came away from the exchange smiling, but it was clear the bout was starting to slip away from him. With it, so too went Lawler’s best immediate chance to reassert himself as the No. 1 contender.

Lawler entered this fight just three months before turning 36 years old. As a mainstay of the elite MMA scene since 2002 and a veteran of 41 professional fights, legitimate questions have been raised about how long he can soldier on as one of the Octagon’s best-known purveyors of violence.

He can trace his UFC lineage back to the early 2000s and the Miletich Fighting System team that forged such legendary former champions as Matt Hughes and Pat Miletich. It’s possible, however, Lawler’s complete body of work will have surpassed either Miletich or Hughes by the time he calls it a career.

His second stint in the UFC and Cinderella run to the welterweight title in 2014 cemented his status as an all-time great and one of the fight company’s best-loved figures. But after dropping the title to Woodley at UFC 201, the San Diego, California, native has slowed a bit.

Prior to meeting Dos Anjos, Lawler fought just once since the Woodley bout. That was a unanimous decision win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 214. That fight—against another transplanted lightweight—proved he was still dangerous, but didn’t completely revitalize his status as a contender.

Against Dos Anjos, Lawler looked ready and always game, but perhaps as though he’d lost a step during his recent spate of inactivity.

Meanwhile, Dos Anjos socked away his third win of the year, looking like he’s just now hitting his prime.

Dos Anjos’ win should clear up what had been a murky race to be Woodley’s next title challenger.

Since taking the title from Lawler in July 2016, Woodley hasn’t been able to bring a spark to the top of the 170-pound division. Title defenses against Stephen Thompson and Demian Maia haven’t moved the needle or impressed critics.

Likewise, Woodley’s efforts to chase down a big money fight against somebody like Nate Diaz or Georges St-Pierre have been unsuccessful.

The list of contenders behind Woodley hasn’t done much to help, either.

Thompson defeated Jorge Masvidal by unanimous decision at UFC 217, but his second bout with Woodley at UFC 209 was such a stinker, matchmakers would be hard-pressed to grant him another shot at the title.

Newcomer Colby Covington jumped up to take the No. 3 ranking after his win over Maia in October. Yet, boosting Covington into a title shot at this stage would feel premature.

The same is true of other up-and-coming young guns like Darren Till, Santiago Ponzinibbio or Kamaru Usman.

At this stage, it’s time to match Woodley up with Dos Anjos.

Even if that bout doesn’t do huge numbers on pay-per-view, it would excite hardcore fans.

After jetting past Lawler, it’s also clear Dos Anjos might have the skills to give Woodley the fight fans have been waiting to see.

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Robbie Lawler Is UFC’s Godfather of Violence, but How Long Can He Keep It Up?

On the heels of his third-round knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 218 on Dec. 2, Eddie Alvarez declared himself the most violent man in the Octagon.
“I want the best fights, I want them to be violent, and I want the fans to be jumping and screami…

On the heels of his third-round knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 218 on Dec. 2, Eddie Alvarez declared himself the most violent man in the Octagon.

“I want the best fights, I want them to be violent, and I want the fans to be jumping and screaming the same way they were on Dec. 2 in Detroit,” Alvarez said on this week’s The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. “That felt good to me, so I want to continue to feel good about the fights that I’m in.”

This isn’t a new concept in combat sports, obviously. Especially in MMA, there has always been a class of fighters whose pride in putting on exciting slugfests allows them to exist outside the rat race of traditional divisional title pictures.

From Tank Abbott to Wanderlei Silva to Donald Cerrone and now Alvarez, there’s a special niche for people who prioritize action and entertainment over mere wins and losses.

But if Alvarez has anointed himself the UFC’s new god of violence, clearly Robbie Lawler remains its godfather.

Lawler’s meeting with Rafael dos Anjos Saturday in the main event of UFC on Fox 26 will be his 19th fight in the Octagon and his 41st overall since turning pro in 2001. During two separate stints in the UFC, as well as significant runs in EliteXC and Strikeforce, he established himself as one of the preeminent purveyors of violence in the sport’s modern era.

Any similar status enjoyed by younger fighters like Alvarez, Cerrone and Gaethje must necessarily share a lineage with—and likely owe a debt of gratitude to—the path walked by Lawler.

However, as he approaches what will almost certainly be his last fight before he turns 36 next March, it’s unclear how long Lawler can go on carrying that torch.

Since returning to the UFC from Strikeforce in 2013, he’s gone 9-2, won (and lost) the UFC welterweight championship, collected five of the fight company’s performance-based bonuses and had two bouts that were declared the Fight of the Year by various media outlets.

His feud with Johny Hendricks over the 170-pound title in 2014 and his UFC 189 tangle with Rory MacDonald in 2015 are both all-time greats.

As a man of very few words, he’s never given any indication he’s ever wanted to be anything other than professional MMA fighter.

Yet Lawler has started to slow down in recent years.

After fighting four times during 2014—a year he capped by winning the welterweight title from Hendricks at UFC 181—he’s navigated the ensuing years at a more deliberate pace. Lawler fought just once in 2015, though that appearance was his vicious slobberknocker with MacDonald.

Assuming he makes the date against Dos Anjos this weekend, Lawler will have fought twice each year in 2016 and 2017. After losing his title to Tyron Woodley via first-round knockout at UFC 201, he’s competed just once during the last 18 months—a unanimous decision victory over Cerrone at UFC 214.

Lawler has never talked much about retirement. Then again, he’s never talked much about anything, at least not with the media.

His quiet stoicism has become part of his appeal, as fans learned to love his low-key assurances that bad things were about to happen. Take, for example, Lawler’s comment on a potential welterweight matchup with Conor McGregor during the summer of 2016:

Against Dos Anjos, Lawler will face another former champion who moved up from 155 pounds midway through 2017 and has since won two straight fights.

The size difference will be noticeable between Lawler and Dos Anjos, but the 33-year-old Brazil native also has a long history as an aggressive, hard-nosed fighter with good all-around skills. Historically, it’s the sort of fight that Lawler would win, but OddsShark has the two going off in a near dead heat.

How Lawler fares here might tell us a lot about how much he has left in the tank. Leading up to their bout, MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn and Abbey Subhan compiled some stats that starkly demonstrate how much damage he’s taken in recent years:

“Lawler has absorbed 781 significant strikes in UFC competition since Jan. 1, 2013, the most of any fighter in the company since that date. Lawler’s 539 significant strikes absorbed in UFC title fights are the most in history. Lawler’s significant strike disadvantage of -82 against Carlos Condit at UFC 195 marked the largest disparity in UFC history for a fighter who won a decision.”

If Dos Anjos can dictate the pace of their bout, either through his in-your-face striking attack or grinding wrestling game, it could put to the test a version of Lawler who has been increasingly inactive while sustaining an increasing amount of damage during his fights.

Because he remains so highly regarded, a victory by Lawler could conceivably set up a title rematch with Woodley. The current champion has struggled to find compelling and marketable challengers—and his efforts to lure in a big fish like McGregor or Georges St-Pierre have so far been unsuccessful.

Considering the unpredictable nature of the existing UFC landscape, all parties involved could do a lot worse than trying to set up a Lawler-Woodley rematch.

A loss to Dos Anjos, on the other hand, makes such ideas untenable.

It would push Lawler a step further down the path of age and diminished returns.

It would raise more questions about how long he can stick around and whether he can continue to avoid handing down his unique position in MMA to someone like Alvarez.

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