At UFC 200 on Saturday, Joe Lauzon heads the Fight Pass prelims when he faces Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Diego Sanchez. Lauzon, however, is a seasoned BJJ practitioner as well and has routinely employed submissions in his fights. In fact, he’s won …
At UFC 200 on Saturday, Joe Lauzon heads the Fight Pass prelims when he faces Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Diego Sanchez. Lauzon, however, is a seasoned BJJ practitioner as well and has routinely employed submissions in his fights. In fact, he’s won Submission of the Night honors more than any other UFC fighter—six times.
Lauzon’s last submission victory came over Jamie Varner in 2012. Maybe UFC 200 will see a return to form for the Massachusetts native. His grappling is a delight to witness, and we’re long overdue for it.
He’s won 18 of his 25 victories via submission, and we’ve ranked his top five. Click through to find out which ones made the cut!
Brock Lesnar is a large man, in multiple ways.
Granted, none of his other largenesses happen without his physical largeness, but even so he looms over both pro wrestling and MMA as a bona fide superstar.
In the case of the latter, you can see how…
Granted, none of his other largenesses happen without his physical largeness, but even so he looms over both pro wrestling and MMA as a bona fide superstar.
In the case of the latter, you can see how big of a deal he is by the way the UFC scrambled to clear a spot for him on their capstone UFC 200 card like a restaurant manager faced with Leonardo DiCaprio strolling in off the street.
By all accounts, the July 9 clash with Mark Hunt is a one-off situation. Lesnar remains under contract with WWE and doesn’t appear poised, at age 38, to make a full-blown return to MMA, which he left in 2011 after two straight losses and a serious intestinal disease.
It doesn’t matter, though. The big guy with the big sword tattoo is returning, and that’s big. To help you prepare for the big moment, here’s a look back at the defining moments of his MMA career to date.
The Octagon travels to Ottawa this Saturday night for UFC Fight Night 89. The host country of Canada is well-represented throughout the event, including on the main card, which features a Canadian in each bout.
Headlining the show is a welterweig…
The Octagon travels to Ottawa this Saturday night for UFC Fight Night 89. The host country of Canada is well-represented throughout the event, including on the main card, which features a Canadian in each bout.
Headlining the show is a welterweight scrap between Rory MacDonald and Stephen Thompson. MacDonald, fresh off a narrowly missed title shot, will look to get back in the win column by besting the surging Thompson, who enters riding a six-fight win streak.
Fan-favorite Patrick Cote takes on Donald Cerrone in the evening’s co-main event. Cote has won three in a row, while Cerrone is hoping to build off a successful welterweight debut, which he kicked off earlier this year.
Rounding out the main card is a trio of contests ranging from flyweight to light heavyweight. The docket looks like this:
UFC Fight Night 89 Main Card
Rory MacDonald vs. Stephen Thompson
Donald Cerrone vs. Patrick Cote
Steve Bosse vs. Sean O’Connell
Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Thibault Gouti
Valerie Letourneau vs. Joanne Calderwood
The agenda boasts some competitive propositions, which only the most advanced intellects could suss out. That’s why we’ve assembled the Bleacher Report picks team. It’s the closest we could get.
Read on for predictions from Scott “Hold the Door” Harris, Sydnie “Joffrey” Jones, Nathan “The Mountain” McCarter, Steven “Red Viper” Rondina and Craig “Aegon” Amos.
Well, a lot has gone down since the last installment of the Bleacher Report MMA Rankings.
The UFC has two new champions in Stipe Miocic and Michael Bisping. Super prospects Thomas Almeida and Aljamain Sterling had massive reality checks at UFC Fight Ni…
Well, a lot has gone down since the last installment of the Bleacher Report MMA Rankings.
The UFC has two new champions in Stipe Miocic and Michael Bisping. Super prospects Thomas Almeida and Aljamain Sterling had massive reality checks at UFC Fight Night 88. Top 10 names such as Demian Maia, Sara McMann and Max Holloway cemented their spot in the rankings. And that’s just in the UFC!
Naturally, the MMA team of Patrick Wyman, Steven Rondina, Nathan McCarter and Chad Dundas is here to give you some fresh new MMA rankings. You can find them below.
You can find each panel member’s individual rankings here.
Jessica Andrade is moved from bantamweight to strawweight.
Renan Barao remains at bantamweight.
Joanne Calderwood and Valerie Letourneau remain at strawweight.
Chad Mendes will remain in the rankings for the time being. This will change if he receives a suspension for a possible USADA infraction, reported by Mike Sloan of Sherdog.
New format! Like it? Don’t like it? Let us know in the comments section.
Angela Hill is the new Invicta FC strawweight champion, The Street Fighter fan took the title off Livia Renata Souza in a hard-fought split decision at Invicta FC 17, showing she isn’t just a hot prospect but that she’s a legitimate player. She hasn’t yet touched her ceiling, and it wouldn’t be all that shocking if she panned out to be No. 1 material.
In UFC land, Jessica Andrade dropped from bantamweight to strawweight and absolutely destroyed former Invicta champ Jessica Penne. There’s a real chance she ends up fighting for a title in the near future.
Flyweight
No. 1. Demetrious Johnson (40) No. 2. Joseph Benavidez (36) No. 3. Kyoji Horiguchi (29) No. 4. Henry Cejudo (28) No. 5. Jussier da Silva (23) No. 6. Ian McCall (17) No. 7. John Moraga (15) No. 8. Ali Bagautinov (10) No. 9. Zach Makovsky (8) No. 10. Wilson Reis (5)
Not much happened at 125 pounds. In the lone noteworthy fight of the month, Kyoji Horiguchi scored a decisive win over Neil Seery. The 25-year-old didn’t look radically different following his joining American Top Team and continues to be one of the best young fighters in MMA.
Dominick Cruz defended his bantamweight title from Urijah Faber at UFC 199, but that didn’t shake up the rankings much. The bigger shake-ups came at Fight Night 88.
At that event, Bryan Caraway derailed the Sterling hype train, launching the veteran into the rankings for the first time. In the main event, Cody Garbrandt made the most of his prime-time opportunity and scored a big win over Almeida.
Invicta FC bantamweight champion Tonya Evinger is a beast and scored her ninth win in a row by steamrolling Colleen Schneider at Invicta FC 17. Come on, Sean Shelby—get her in the UFC!
Featherweight
No. 1. Conor McGregor (40) No. 2. Jose Aldo (36) No. 3. Frankie Edgar (32) No. 4. Max Holloway (28) No. 5. Chad Mendes (24) No. 6. Ricardo Lamas (12) No. 7T. Charles Oliveira (11) No. 7T. Daniel Straus (11) No. 7T. Cub Swanson (11) No. 10- Jeremy Stephens (5)
Jeremy Stephens roughed up Renan Barao at UFC Fight Night 88 to cement his place in the top 10, and Holloway dominated Ricardo Lamas at UFC 199 to cement his place as the No. 4. Unfortunately, neither man has much more room to climb the rankings unless he starts getting bigger opportunities—which isn’t close to being a certainty.
Lightweight
No. 1. Rafael dos Anjos (40) No. 2. Khabib Nurmagomedov (36) No. 3. Eddie Alvarez (28) No. 4. Tony Ferguson (27) No. 5. Will Brooks (23) No. 6T. Donald Cerrone (19) No. 6T. Nate Diaz (19) No. 8. Edson Barboza (15) No. 9. Anthony Pettis (4) No. 10. Dustin Poirier (3)
Dustin Poirier overwhelmed Bobby Green at UFC 199, and that was good enough for him to scratch his way into the top 10. He’s been a monster at 155 pounds to this point, and while his footing isn’t secure in the rankings, he seems ready to climb deep as time goes on.
Maia did Maia things to Matt Brown at UFC 198, repeatedly suckering his American foe to the ground and coiling around him. He’s so darn good.
Also during the month, fringe names Gunnar Nelson and Rick Story both notched wins, over Albert Tumenov and Tarec Saffiedine respectively. Great wins, though they’re going to need longer streaks to get into these rankings.
Middleweight
No. 1. Michael Bisping (38) No. 2. Luke Rockhold (37) No. 3. Chris Weidman (32) No. 4. Ronaldo Souza (29) No. 5T. Lyoto Machida (17) No. 5T. Robert Whittaker (17) No. 7. Gegard Mousasi (16) No. 8. Vitor Belfort (15) No. 9. Anderson Silva (8) No. 10. Derek Brunson (6)
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza exploded Vitor Belfort at UFC 198 to start off the month, but it’s hard to remember that these days. That, of course, is because of Bisping’s unlikely rise to the middleweight title. Obviously, that completely turned the top half of our middleweight rankings upside down.
Light Heavyweight
No. 1. Jon Jones (40) No. 2. Daniel Cormier (36) No. 3. Anthony Johnson (32) No. 4. Alexander Gustafsson (26) No. 5. Phil Davis (20) No. 6. Ryan Bader (18) No. 7. Glover Teixeira (17) No. 8. Liam McGeary (13) No. 9. Muhammed Lawal (9) No. 10. Ovince Saint Preux (7)
The biggest fight at 205 pounds in May happened in Bellator, when Phil Davis faced off with Muhammed Lawal with a shot at Liam McGeary’s title on the line. In a back-and-forth fight, Davis took home the unanimous decision win (something many disagreed with). Despite the loss, Lawal made headway in the rankings.
Miocic is the new heavyweight champion of the world, knocking Fabricio Werdum out cold at UFC 198. People aren’t yet sure what to make of Miocic, who was a clear underdog entering the event, but he unanimously takes the top spot here. His first title defense is set to come against Alistair Overeem, who conveniently took a big win of his own over Andrei Arlovski.
They’ll face off at UFC 203 in Miocic’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
Top Fights to Watch in June
Marcos Galvao vs. Eduardo Dantas (Bellator 156, June 17)
Ali Bagautinov vs. Geane Herrera (UFC Fight Night 89, June 18)
Valerie Letourneau vs. Joanne Calderwood (UFC Fight Night 89, June 18)
Donald Cerrone vs. Patrick Cote (UFC Fight Night 89, June 18)
UFC Fight Night 88 is scheduled for Sunday, May 29.
The event is headlined by a battle between top bantamweight prospects, Thomas Almeida and Cody Garbrandt. Both youngsters, 24-years-old, have bright futures ahead, but the intriguing main event …
UFC Fight Night 88 is scheduled for Sunday, May 29.
The event is headlined by a battle between top bantamweight prospects, Thomas Almeida and Cody Garbrandt. Both youngsters, 24-years-old, have bright futures ahead, but the intriguing main event will catapult only one into the immediate title scene.
Former bantamweight champion Renan Barao moves up a weight class in the show’s co-main event. He’ll face off with the hard-hitting 145-pounder, Jeremy Stephens, who is looking for just his second win over the past five fights.
The full Fight Night 88 main card looks like this:
Thomas Almeida vs. Cody Garbrandt
Renan Barao vs. Jeremy Stephens
Tarec Saffiedine vs. Rick Story
Chris Camozzi vs. Vitor Miranda
Jorge Masvidal vs. Lorenz Larkin
Joshua Burkman vs. Paul Felder
As is our custom here at Belacher Report, we’ve assembled the picks team to provide you with five sets of prognostications.
We’ve got Scott “Hot Pepper” Harris, Sydnie “Soda Pop” Jones, Nathan “New Potato” McCarter, Steven “Relish” Rondina and Craig “Cotton Candy” Amos, all ready to tell you what we think.
This Saturday, UFC 198 goes down from Curitiba, Brazil. At the top of the card, Fabricio Werdum defends his UFC heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic.
At age 38, Werdum is riding the crest of an unlikely career resurgence that coincided with his secon…
This Saturday, UFC 198 goes down from Curitiba, Brazil. At the top of the card, Fabricio Werdum defends his UFC heavyweight title against StipeMiocic.
At age 38, Werdum is riding the crest of an unlikely career resurgence that coincided with his second stint with the UFC. Since stepping in against Roy Nelson back in 2012, Werdum is 6-0, thanks in part to the vicious muaythai he added to his world-class jiu-jitsu.
Miocic is no slouch, either. The Cleveland native has used a sharp MMA boxing game to win his last two by knockout, and five of his last six. There’s no doubt he’s ready for this shot.
This mouth-watering clash got us thinking: Who are the five best heavyweights to ever set foot inside the UFC Octagon? We set to work, and herewith is that list.
Only fighters who competed in the UFC are eligible, although their non-UFC credentials can be factored in, albeit to a lesser extent than what they did within UFC borders (sorry, Cro Cop). They are also ranked more on how they fared against their peers than on how they’d do in different eras. Got it? Great. Let’s get it on.
Well, a lot has gone down since the last installment of the Bleacher Report MMA Rankings.