The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to make its eighth appearance north of the border on December 10th with UFC 140: Jones vs Machida taking place from the Air Canada Center in Toronto.It will mark the third time this year that the UFC has c…
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is set to make its eighth appearance north of the border on December 10th with UFC 140: Jones vs Machida taking place from the Air Canada Center in Toronto.
It will mark the third time this year that the UFC has come to Canada and the fight card is once again packed with many of Canada’s best mixed martial artists.
Canadian fighters are as prominent as ever in the organization with the best talent in the world and are also in high spots in the many world rankings floating around in the universe.
I love keeping track of the top fighters in the world right now, but this stacked card has prompted me to look back and take a crack at my list for Top 20 Greatest Canadian MMA Fighters of All Time.
Last night’s MFC 31 wasn’t the only MMA card our friends north of the border were treated to. Astute readers may have also remembered that Instinct MMA made its promotional debut in Quebec, Canada last night as well. The night’s main event pitted ex-hockey enforcer Steve Bosse against UFC veteran Houston Alexander. With a combined fourteen knockouts in twenty victories for the pair, you probably guessed that someone was going to get knocked out. And my God did these two deliver.
Last night’s MFC 31 wasn’t the only MMA card our friends north of the border were treated to. Astute readers may have also remembered that Instinct MMA made its promotional debut in Quebec, Canada last night as well. The night’s main event pitted ex-hockey enforcer Steve Bosse against UFC veteran Houston Alexander. With a combined fourteen knockouts in twenty victories for the pair, you probably guessed that someone was going to get knocked out. And my God did these two deliver.
GIFs are after the jump.
Also of note, Patrick Cote picked up a first round TKO over Crafton Wallace, as Wallace injured his leg early and was unable to continue. And since you’re so curious, Eric “Butterbean” Esch lost to 33-year-old heavyweight boxer turned MMA fighter Eric Barrak. Eric Barrack was making his MMA debut last night after racking up a 5-0 record as a professional boxer. And Barrack won by a guillotine choke in the third round. Getting choked out by a boxer making his MMA debut is probably a sign that you should be focusing on your reality television career instead of fighting at this stage in your life, homie.
Can Canadian mixed martial arts star and pioneer Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald continue to impress vs. Alan Belcher this Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 25? In his own words, Jason MacDonald saved his job with a comeback victory this past April in To…
Can Canadian mixed martial arts star and pioneer Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald continue to impress vs. Alan Belcher this Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 25?
In his own words, Jason MacDonald saved his job with a comeback victory this past April in Toronto against Ryan Jensen, and this weekend he will step up to a bigger challenge in Alan “The Talent” Belcher.
MacDonald is a ground wizard and will look to welcome Belcher back to the UFC with a good ole fashioned lesson on the ground. Belcher is coming off of 14-months of recovery from surgery for a detached retina and will look to punish MacDonald in a stand up tilt.
Classic matchup of a grappler vs a striker and MacDonald will have to get this down quickly before Belcher gains any rhythm in his return. 14-months is a long layoff and I think MacDonald will look to come out in a submission blitz to get a win before his foe can shake any type of ring rust he may feel.
Submissions grow tougher as the fight goes on with slippery sweat becoming an issue and the further this one goes, I like Belcher’s chances for a decision.
In an odd coincidence, Belcher’s last fight over a year ago was also against a Canadian in veteran striker Patrick Cote, and this will be the fifth Canadian fighter he has faced in his last eight fights. I’m beginning to not like Mr. Belcher very much. Pick on another country will you.
MacDonald will continue to impress in this fight with Belcher, as I see him bringing us back to his earlier days in the UFC when he had great victories over Ed Herman, Chris Leben and Rory Singer. He was quick, precise and dominant in those fights before some tough losses and the major injury stalled his time in the UFC.
I hope to see that “Athlete” on Saturday night.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA and (also a Correspondent for MMACanada.net)
Instinct Mixed Martial Arts today announced most of the main card line-up of it’s upcoming inaugural MMA event set for October 7 at the Rousseau Centre of Sports Excellence in Boisbriand, Quebec and the card is shaping up nicely.
The main event of the evening will see former UFC light heavyweight Houston Alexander take on hockey enforcer-turned-MMA-fighter Steve Bosse. In the night’s co-main event former number one UFC middleweight contender Patrick Cote will look to improve his post-Octagon record to 3-0 with a win over muay thai specialist Crafton Wallace. The third fight on the card will feature a heavyweight tilt between king of the four-rounders and reality television star Eric “Butterbean” Esch and undefeated 5-0 Quebec boxer Eric Barrak who will make his MMA debut that night.
Instinct Mixed Martial Arts today announced most of the main card line-up of it’s upcoming inaugural MMA event set for October 7 at the Rousseau Centre of Sports Excellence in Boisbriand, Quebec and the card is shaping up nicely.
The main event of the evening will see former UFC light heavyweight Houston Alexander take on hockey enforcer-turned-MMA-fighter Steve Bosse. In the night’s co-main event former number one UFC middleweight contender Patrick Cote will look to improve his post-Octagon record to 3-0 with a win over muay thai specialist Crafton Wallace. The third fight on the card will feature a heavyweight tilt between king of the four-rounders and reality television star Eric “Butterbean” Esch and undefeated 5-0 Quebec boxer Eric Barrak who will make his MMA debut that night.
It’s no surprise that the card is conspicuously short of submission specialists, considering this is the same organization that was originally called Strikebox which was started by TKO MMA founder Stephane Patry a few years back and was touted as “kickboxing with MMA gloves.” You may recall the incident back in 2009 where a riot erupted when James Thompson ignored a “gentleman’s agreement” not to take the fight to the canvas after the Quebec athletic commission refused to grant the promotion clearance for a special set of rules that would see the referee immediately stand fighters up if the fight hit the floor.
Hopefully things run more smoothly this time around for Patry, who was responsible for putting on some of the best bouts in Canadian MMA history under the UCC and TKO banners and who helped launch the careers of a number of Canadian fighters including UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, Sam Stout, Chris Horodecki, Mark Hominick, David Loiseau, Jonathan Goulet and Cote among other notables.
Instinct 1
Friday, October 7, 2011
Rousseau Centre of Sports Excellence
Boisbriand, Quebec
Houston Alexander (13-6) vs. Steve Bosse (8-1)
Crafton Wallace (18-5-1) vs. Patrick Cote (15-7)
Eric “Butterbean” Esch (14-8-1) vs. Eric Barrak (0-0)
Sergej Juskevic (11-6-2) vs. Martin Grandmont (11-5)
Travis Cox (6-9-1) vs. Derek Gauthier (6-3)
Syd Barnier (3-3) vs. Dimitri Waardenburg (7-5)
Shawn Levesque (1-0) vs. Guillaume Vigneau (1-1)
Clint Kingsbury (1-0) vs. Bojan Kladnjakovic (1-1)
(Sometimes winning and heart aren’t enough. Just ask Vince McMahon.)
During an appearance on Steve Cofield and Kevin Iole’s ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM’s “The MMA Insiders” show on Friday, UFC president Dana White made it clear that in spite of the fact that Jon Fitch has not lost since dropping a decision to Georges St-Pierre three years ago, the American Kickboxing Academy captain won’t likely get a title shot anytime soon because the fight is a tough one to sell.
“Everybody is saying ‘Jon Fitch is one of the best in the world, when is he fighting GSP?’ The problem is he went in and fought GSP and got destroyed,” White explained like it happened a month ago. “I mean GSP completely dominated him from the first round to the fifth round and beat him up and dropped him and everything else…”
It’s funny, Kenny Florian keeps getting title shots and the UFC has been trying to put together a rematch between Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans despite how the last ones went.
But we digress.
Instead of scratching our heads over the UFC’s double standards when it comes to earning a title shot, we’ve come up with five suggestions for Fitch to get what he has coming to him since winning doesn’t seem to be enough.
Check out the gallery after the jump.
(Sometimes winning and heart aren’t enough. Just ask Vince McMahon.)
During an appearance on Steve Cofield and Kevin Iole’s ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM’s “The MMA Insiders” show on Friday, UFC president Dana White made it clear that in spite of the fact that Jon Fitch has not lost since dropping a decision to Georges St-Pierre three years ago, the American Kickboxing Academy captain won’t likely get a title shot anytime soon because the fight is a tough one to sell.
“Everybody is saying ‘Jon Fitch is one of the best in the world, when is he fighting GSP?’ The problem is he went in and fought GSP and got destroyed,” White explained like it happened a month ago. “I mean GSP completely dominated him from the first round to the fifth round and beat him up and dropped him and everything else…”
It’s funny, Kenny Florian keeps getting title shots and the UFC has been trying to put together a rematch between Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans despite how the last ones went.
But we digress.
Instead of scratching our heads over the UFC’s double standards when it comes to earning a title shot, we’ve come up with five suggestions for Fitch to get what he has coming to him since winning doesn’t seem to be enough.
Let’s all be completely honest for a minute: If Patrick Cote didn’t get all Rick James on Todd Brown at the weigh-ins, last night’s Ringside 11 in Quebec would have completely flown under our radars. That would have been unfortunate. Aside from a pair of UFC cast-offs fighting to remain relevant, the event also featured the MMA debut of the notorious hockey enforcer Donald Brashear. At 39 years old, Brashear probably isn’t going to be the next Steve Bosse, but at least he is not the next Jose Canseco.
Brashear fought with the same aggression he displayed in the NHL, immediately rushing his opponent, Mathieu Bergeron and dropping him. From there, Brashear just kept punching while Bergeron flopped around the cage trying to get back to his feet. Bergeron eventually laid out, bringing the stoppage only 21 seconds into the fight. MMAFighting.com also reports that after the fight, Brashear said that he would fight MMA again.
Video after the jump. For the record, I’m not exactly sure who shot this footage, or who decided the video needed a DMX song instead of the actual crowd noise. Whoever you are, you may want to shake your camera a lot less next time.
Still got it
Let’s all be completely honest for a minute: If Patrick Cote didn’t get all Rick James on Todd Brown at the weigh-ins, last night’s Ringside 11 in Quebec would have completely flown under our radars. That would have been unfortunate. Aside from a pair of UFC cast-offs fighting to remain relevant, the event also featured the MMA debut of the notorious hockey enforcer Donald Brashear. At 39 years old, Brashear probably isn’t going to be the next Steve Bosse, but at least he is not the next Jose Canseco.
Brashear fought with the same aggression he displayed in the NHL, immediately rushing his opponent, Mathieu Bergeron and dropping him. From there, Brashear just kept punching while Bergeron flopped around the cage trying to get back to his feet. Bergeron eventually laid out, bringing the stoppage only 21 seconds into the fight. MMAFighting.com also reports that after the fight, Brashear said that he would fight MMA again.
Video after the jump. For the record, I’m not exactly sure who shot this footage, or who decided the video needed a DMX song instead of the actual crowd noise. Whoever you are, you may want to shake your camera a lot less next time.
Oh, and in case you were curious, Patrick Cote took home a unanimous decision over Todd Brown. Apparently, he is now also the Ringside MMA Middleweight Champion. Oh well, Todd Brown: Nice guys finish last.
Can Canadian mixed martial arts star and pioneer Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald continue to impress vs. Alan Belcher this Saturday night at 
