Tag: Paige VanZant

Downfall: Four Reasons UFC Hype Trains Crumble

Reigning UFC featherweight champion and global super star the “Notorious” Conor McGregor suffered his first UFC loss at last weekend’s (March 5, 2016) UFC 196, tapping out to Nate Diaz in the second round of their welterweight main event bout. While McGregor still holds his 145-pound title, as well as his spot as the promotion’s

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Reigning UFC featherweight champion and global super star the “Notorious” Conor McGregor suffered his first UFC loss at last weekend’s (March 5, 2016) UFC 196, tapping out to Nate Diaz in the second round of their welterweight main event bout.

While McGregor still holds his 145-pound title, as well as his spot as the promotion’s biggest star, his fall from grace also marks yet another UFC hype train to taste defeat in recent memory.

Along with the Irishman, heavily promoted and heavily pushed stars Ronda Rousey, Paige VanZant, and Sage Northcutt have all suffered losses in just the last four months alone.

While these fighters undoubtedly have the ability to bounce back and create even brighter futures, it’s interesting to look deeper into those elitists that garner the special treatment of the infamous UFC hype machine.

Why is it that these hype machines often end up facing downfall? Let’s take a look at four possible reasons:

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Paige VanZant Selected To Appear On Dancing With The Stars

Months back, current UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha labeled fellow contender Paige “12 Gauge” VanZant as a “pretty dancer” rather than a fighter. Although she suffered a bloody loss in her last bout against Rose Namajunas, the 21-year-old VanZant has definitely proven herself to be a legitimate fighter despite her good looks, and

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Months back, current UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha labeled fellow contender Paige “12 Gauge” VanZant as a “pretty dancer” rather than a fighter.

Although she suffered a bloody loss in her last bout against Rose Namajunas, the 21-year-old VanZant has definitely proven herself to be a legitimate fighter despite her good looks, and flashy charm.

However, it also appears as if Gadelha’s statement may have been partially correct, as it was announced today (March 8, 2016) that VanZant has been selected to be part of the cast of the 22nd season of ABC’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Reality show.

The move makes sense, as “12 Gaauge” has spoken on her interest in competitive dancing in the past.

The No. 7-ranked strawweight contender won’t be the first fighter to have appeared on the show either, as former champions Randy “The Natural” Couture and Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell took part in seasons 19 and nine respectively.

The upcoming season is set to premiere on March 21, 2016, lasting until sometime in May.

With that being said, the Team Alpha Male Staple will likely remain out of action until sometime late this summer at the earliest.

VanZant currently holds a 3-1 UFC record, and will look to get back to her winning ways upon her return.

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Wasted Potential: Top Seven Failed Hype Trains in UFC History

With an expanding roster and bottomless bank account, the UFC is able to tactically market promotional newcomers, rising prospects, and evolving contenders like no other mixed martial arts (MMA) outlet in the world. The organization’s efforts are understandable to say the least. In order to continuously grow into the billion dollar company that it is

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With an expanding roster and bottomless bank account, the UFC is able to tactically market promotional newcomers, rising prospects, and evolving contenders like no other mixed martial arts (MMA) outlet in the world.

The organization’s efforts are understandable to say the least. In order to continuously grow into the billion dollar company that it is today, the UFC must stand by its readily-available talent.

But in many cases, the promotion’s abundant marketing schemes, self-assuring build ups, and over-the-top billings prove downright futile. Whether it’s a young prospect incapable of scaling his talent against higher competition or a recently acquired veteran succumbing to the overwhelming pressure of the Octagon, the UFC has struck out more than it would like to admit.

In accordance with those gutter balls, here are the top seven failed hype trains in promotional history.

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Conor McGregor: The Last of The UFC Hype Trains

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is just as much based on business, marketing, and promotion, as it is on actual fighting inside of the Octagon. With that being said, we often see certain fighters receive huge promotional pushes from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) simply because they possess the looks, the charisma, or the media power

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Mixed martial arts (MMA) is just as much based on business, marketing, and promotion, as it is on actual fighting inside of the Octagon.

With that being said, we often see certain fighters receive huge promotional pushes from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) simply because they possess the looks, the charisma, or the media power in order to become a mega star.

However, these fighters don’t always have what it takes to succeed in the cage, or in other words, live up to the massive hype that has been placed on them.

Of course we have seen tremendously promoted combatants rise through the ranks, and demolish competition on their way to the superstardom the UFC had paved for them.

In just the last few years, we have seen many young up and coming fighters pushed by the UFC, noting four in particular.

The interesting part here, however, is that only one remains on top, at least for now.

Let’s take a closer look:

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VanZant On “Awesome” Loss To Namajunas: No Excuses, But Lots Of Blood

Rising UFC women’s strawweight contender Paige “12 Guage” VanZant suffered a slight set back in her last bout when she took on former title challenger “Thug” Rose Namaunas in the main event of December 10, 2015’s UFC Fight Night 80 from Las Vegas. Despite being on the short end of a brutal and bloody five

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Rising UFC women’s strawweight contender Paige “12 Guage” VanZant suffered a slight set back in her last bout when she took on former title challenger “Thug” Rose Namaunas in the main event of December 10, 2015’s UFC Fight Night 80 from Las Vegas.

Despite being on the short end of a brutal and bloody five round beating, “12 Guage” recently called the loss “awesome”:

“I think it’s awesome,” VanZant told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I don’t know. I thought it was awesome. I was just looking to see how bad the cut was or where it was, because I wasn’t really sure. I saw it was under my eye, so it was good to go for the next five rounds or four rounds.”

Namajunas would go on to score a submission victory in the final frame, proving to the world that was a legitimate threat at 115-pounds, while also making it clear that the 21 year old VanZant has some holes in her game to improve on.

Although the fight was fairly one sided, PVZ has received quite a bit of praise and support regarding her pure heart, grit, and toughness, something she didn’t necessarily expect:

“I really didn’t expect that much support,” VanZant said. “I thought I embarrassed myself out there and I put on an embarrassing performance. But then afterward I had all these positive articles. I was reading all these positive things after the fight. It felt really good, especially after taking a loss not to take a ton of criticism for it. It was really neat that I still had a lot of fans come forward and my stock grew even after a loss.”

While Namajunas’ skill set was clearly the superior on fight night, VanZant was also a bloody mess from the first round on, something that may have hindered her performance as well. Not making any excuses, the Team Alpha Male product admitted the she had blood in her ears for weeks after the scrap:

“Especially because we did go to the ground a lot, I couldn’t see at all,” VanZant said. “And the blood completely filled my ears. I was cleaning blood out of my ears for three weeks after the fight. So I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t see anything. No excuses. But yeah — a lot of blood.”

At the end of the day, VanZant proved that while there’s obviously room for improvement, she isn’t one to give up too easily:

“I have a no-give-up attitude,” VanZant said. “It didn’t surprise me in that sense, but it was definitely a good test.”

Who should “12 Guage” meet next?

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Fight Night 80 Highlights/Results: Namajunas Dominates VanZant, Chiesa & Northcutt Notch Submission Wins + More

While looking through the lense of hindsight, it’s almost impossible to imagine how Paige VanZant was ever listed as a 2-to-1 favorite over Rose Namajunas heading into their Fight Night 80 main event. Yet she was, and we can only imagine that a lot of people made some money off a rare miss by the Vegas bookies.

Over the course of five rounds, our girl Rose utterly dismantled VanZant in every department. Her striking was impeccably crisp, her takedowns came at will, and her submissions were what ultimately won her the day. Vanzant looked completely outmatched from start to finish, repeatedly latching onto to hapless headlock throws THAT NO FIGHTER SHOULD EVER ATTEMPT AGAIN. But what she lacked in polish, VanZant more than made up in grit. On multiple occasions throughout the fight, a bloodied and battered Vanzant appeared to be caught in what any logical person would consider a fight-ending submission — first it was a rear-naked choke, then an armbar so brutal that it may have rearranged her DNA — but not once did she stop pressing forward and throwing nything she could think of at her clearly superior opponent. So on this day, we raise a glass to both competitors and say, congratulations on one epic goddamn war.

But the main event wasn’t the only fight that delivered, so head after the jump for a full list of Fight Night 80 results.

The post Fight Night 80 Highlights/Results: Namajunas Dominates VanZant, Chiesa & Northcutt Notch Submission Wins + More appeared first on Cagepotato.

While looking through the lense of hindsight, it’s almost impossible to imagine how Paige VanZant was ever listed as a 2-to-1 favorite over Rose Namajunas heading into their Fight Night 80 main event. Yet she was, and we can only imagine that a lot of people made some money off a rare miss by the Vegas bookies.

Over the course of five rounds, our girl Rose utterly dismantled VanZant in every department. Her striking was impeccably crisp, her takedowns came at will, and her submissions were what ultimately won her the day. Vanzant looked completely outmatched from start to finish, repeatedly latching onto to hapless headlock throws THAT NO FIGHTER SHOULD EVER ATTEMPT AGAIN. But what she lacked in polish, VanZant more than made up in grit. On multiple occasions throughout the fight, a bloodied and battered Vanzant appeared to be caught in what any logical person would consider a fight-ending submission — first it was a rear-naked choke, then an armbar so brutal that it may have rearranged her DNA — but not once did she stop pressing forward and throwing nything she could think of at her clearly superior opponent. So on this day, we raise a glass to both competitors and say, congratulations on one epic goddamn war.

But the main event wasn’t the only fight that delivered, so head after the jump for a full list of Fight Night 80 results.

In the co-main event of the evening, TUF Live winner Michael Chiesa took on the always game veteran Jim Miller in a back-and-forth banger so sweet that it managed to snatch “Fight of the Night” awards away from Namajunas vs. VanZant. Sadly, it’s starting to look like the younger of the Miller brothers is also starting to lose a little pep in his step, and worse, he’s more vulnerable to the submission than he’s ever been in his career. Given, he’s only been submitted three times in the past three years (well, two if we exclude the Healy fight) and only by insanely talented grapplers, but it’s kind of like how Dan Henderson went from an iron-jawed beast to a guy who gets shut down the first time he’s hit almost every fight.

In any case, enjoy these Chiesa-Miller highlights set to some blasting EDM, because the UFC is too cheap to provide embeddable highlights for their Fight Pass Events.

Finally on the highlight front, here’s Sage Northcutt‘s finish of Cody Pfister in the second round of their main card scrap. Oh, you hadn’t predicted that Sage Northcutt would beat a guy whose last name is Pfister and whose nickname is “The Pfist”? You silly, silly sonofabitch, you.

The complete Fight Night 80 results are below.

Main card
Rose Namajunas def. Paige VanZant via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:25 of R5
Michael Chiesa def. Jim Miller via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:57 of R2
Sage Northcutt def. Cody Pfister via submission (guillotine) at :41 of R2
Thiago Santos def. Elias Theodorou via unanimous decision

Undercard
Tim Means def. John Howard via KO (left hook) at :21 of R2
Omari Akhmedov def. Sergio Moraes via TKO (punches) at 2:18 of R3
Antonio Carlos Junior vs. Kevin Casey ends in no contest (eye poke) at :11 of R1
Aljamain Sterling def. Johnny Eduardo via submission (guillotine) at 4:18 of R2
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Andreas Stahl via TKO (punches) at 4:25 of R1
Danny Roberts def. Nathan Coy via submission (triangle) at 2:46 of R1
Zubaira Tukhugov def. Phillipe Nover via split decision
Kailin Curran def. Emily Kagan via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:13 of R2

The post Fight Night 80 Highlights/Results: Namajunas Dominates VanZant, Chiesa & Northcutt Notch Submission Wins + More appeared first on Cagepotato.