The Ultimate Fighter had another near upset in the second week, but No. 2 seed Joanne Calderwood did just enough to escape No. 15 seed Emily Kagan. Kagan showed just how deep the 115-pound division is in her competitive fight against Calderwood, but she came up just short. Certainly, Calderwood owes her the carrot cake. […]
The Ultimate Fighter had another near upset in the second week, but No. 2 seed Joanne Calderwood did just enough to escape No. 15 seed Emily Kagan. Kagan showed just how deep the 115-pound division is in her competitive fight against Calderwood, but she came up just short. Certainly, Calderwood owes her the carrot cake. […]
(Fight Pass shows only get the stock image treatment. / Photo via Getty)
You might not have noticed since all the other MMA sites were reporting about Floyd Mayweather Jr. tonight, but the UFC had an event on Fight Pass, UFC Fight Night 51.
Efrain Escudero made his (unsuccessful) return to the UFC against Leonardo Santos. Santos controlled the first round of the encounter. However, Escudero managed to drop Santos in the second with a right hand. It appeared to change the complexion of the fight as Santos became deflated and tired. In the third, Escudero was light on his feet and it looked like he’d pull away with the decision. This wasn’t meant to be. Santos found some source of inner strength (or Escudero stopped paying attention; who knows) and landed a huge takedown. From the takedown, he managed to take Escudero’s back and held the position until the round ended. This was enough to give Santos the unanimous decision victory.
Get the recaps for the other fights after the jump.
(Fight Pass shows only get the stock image treatment. / Photo via Getty)
UFC Fight Night 51 happened on Fight Pass tonight. You might not have noticed since all the other so-called “MMA” sites are too busy writing about Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ugh.
So was this event worth checking out? Kind of. When it becomes available for replay on Fight Pass, watch the main event. Despite that fight being the only one really worth watching on the main card, we recapped some other higher profile fights from the event.
Efrain Escudero made his (unsuccessful) return to the UFC against Leonardo Santos. Santos controlled the first round of the encounter. However, Escudero managed to drop Santos in the second with a right hand. It appeared to change the complexion of the fight as Santos became deflated and tired. In the third, Escudero was light on his feet and it looked like he’d pull away with the decision. This wasn’t meant to be. Santos found some source of inner strength (or Escudero stopped paying attention; who knows) and landed a huge takedown. From the takedown, he managed to take Escudero’s back and held the position until the round ended. This was enough to give Santos the unanimous decision victory.
In the co-main event, Gleison Tibau fought Piotr Hallman. Here’s a protip on this fight: Skip it. Tibau displayed his characteristic lack of conditioning. He torched his gas tank with a large flurry in the beginning. The rest of the fight was basically just non-stop clinching against the cage with zero activity. Hallman managed to cut Tibau with a knee to the head late in the third round. It didn’t matter though; Tibau got the decision because he spent more time pushing Hallman against the fence than Hallman spent pushing him against the fence. Even Jon Anik described this fight as “exhausting” to watch.
The main event: Andrei Arlovski took on Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in a rematch of their Strikeforce bout from 2010. This time, Arlovski was the one who got his hand raised. The fight didn’t last long. Bigfoot was slow and plodding, Arlovski was agile and had much faster hands. Eventually, Arlovski tagged Bigfoot with an uppercut that dropped him flat on his ass. Arlovski pounced on Bigfoot and landed a series of hammer fists that put Bigfoot out cold. We’re hesitant to say Arlovski is “back” but he could be back.
Here are the complete results:
Main Card
Andrei Arlovski def. Antonio Silva via KO (punches), 2:59 of round 1.
Gleison Tibau def. Piotr Hallman via unanimous decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Leonardo Santos def. Efrain Escudero unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Santiago Ponzinibbio def. Wendell Oliveira via TKO (punches), 1:20 of round 1.
Iuri Alcântara def. Russell Doane via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Jéssica Andrade def. Larissa Pacheco via submission (guillotine choke), 4:33 of round 1.
Preliminary Card
Godofredo Castro def. Dashon Johnson via submission (triangle armbar), 4:29 of round 1.
George Sullivan def. Igor Araújo via KO (punches), 2:31 of round 2.
Francisco Trinaldo def. Leandro Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Sean Spencer def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Rani Yahya def. Johnny Bedford via submission (kimura), 2:04 of round 2.
Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.
On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.
Please stand by…
Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.
On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.
(Here’s what the TUF 20 bracket looks like after episode 1; click image for full size version. Team Pettis is in green, Team Melendez is in purple. Props: Reddit MMA)
Last night’s premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned ended with Invicta FC standout Tecia Torres losing in a major upset, when she dropped a three-round decision to the relatively unheralded Randa Markos. If you think that’s a “spoiler” because you haven’t watched the episode yet, well, now you know how the rest of us feel. Due to some epic screw-ups by the UFC production team, the Torres/Markos result was briefly revealed on the broadcast before the fight had even aired, and UFC.com posted an episode recap while the show was still going on. Those are spoilers, my friends.
But all that weirdness aside, TUF 20 episode 1 was a highly satisfying two hours — and not just because the CagePotato logo appeared on the broadcast several times (!) in footage from Rose Namajunas’s Invicta fights. In an interesting change of format, the 16 strawweight competitors were given seeding-numbers based on their rank in the division, and placed into a bracket; #1-ranked Carla Esparza will fight #16-ranked Angela Hill, #2-ranked Joanne Calderwood will fight #15-ranked Emily Kagan, and so on. Coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez still got to pick their teams based on which fighters they liked best after an evaluation session — and they’ll still decide the order of the fights — but they weren’t given the seed-numbers beforehand. It worked out like this…
Instead of giving you a scene-by-scene rundown of everything that happened on the show, we’d like to debut the TUF 20 Checklist, which will hopefully hit the major themes that you’ll be seeing each week. Here we go…
(Here’s what the TUF 20 bracket looks like after episode 1; click image for full size version. Team Pettis is in green, Team Melendez is in purple. Props: Reddit MMA)
Last night’s premiere episode of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will Be Crowned ended with Invicta FC standout Tecia Torres losing in a major upset, when she dropped a three-round decision to the relatively unheralded Randa Markos. If you think that’s a “spoiler” because you haven’t watched the episode yet, well, now you know how the rest of us feel. Due to some epic screw-ups by the UFC production team, the Torres/Markos result was briefly revealed on the broadcast before the fight had even aired, and UFC.com posted an episode recap while the show was still going on. Those are spoilers, my friends.
But all that weirdness aside, TUF 20 episode 1 was a highly satisfying two hours — and not just because the CagePotato logo appeared on the broadcast several times (!) in footage from Rose Namajunas’s Invicta fights. In an interesting change of format, the 16 strawweight competitors were given seeding-numbers based on their rank in the division, and placed into a bracket; #1-ranked Carla Esparza will fight #16-ranked Angela Hill, #2-ranked Joanne Calderwood will fight #15-ranked Emily Kagan, and so on. Coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez still got to pick their teams based on which fighters they liked best after an evaluation session — and they’ll still decide the order of the fights — but they weren’t given the seed-numbers beforehand. It worked out like this…
Instead of giving you a scene-by-scene rundown of everything that happened on the show, we’d like to debut the TUF 20 Checklist, which will hopefully hit the major themes that you’ll be seeing each week. Here we go…
Did the “ladies bring it” in the episode’s fight?: Yeah, they absolutely did. Tecia Torres dominated the first round against Randa Markos, battering the Iraqi-Canadian with her trademark side-kick and some painful-looking oblique kicks. (Torres was also aided by Herb Dean’s less-than-stellar officiating.) When Markos tried to take the fight to the ground, Torres wouldn’t let her. But Markos came alive in the second frame, eventually dragging Torres to the mat and smashing her with ground-and-pound. It was clear that both women were fading during the sudden victory round, but once again, Markos managed to score a takedown late in the round, and held Torres on her back until the final horn, which was enough to earn her the nod from all three judges. It was a truly gutsy performance from Markos, who we figured didn’t have a chance in this one.
Most absurd Dana White exaggeration (tie):
– “It’s the most important season we’ve ever done.” I think he meant “with the obvious exception of season 1.”
– “One of these girls is literally gonna become one of the biggest stars in the world.” Oh man. Demetrious Johnson is ten pounds heavier and has a penis, and he still can’t get over with fans.
Best tease of a scene from a future episode: At some point in the season, Dana White will have to console a crying “Rowdy” Bec Rawlings in a back room at the TUF gym. That usually means “injury,” but we’ll see. Poor Rowdy Bec. Also, one of the women passes out during a weight cut at one point.
Scariest quote: “Those women are my food.” — Angela Magana. Holy shit. Take this thing back to Baltimore! Thug Rose gets an honorable mention for her speech about how she enjoys hurting people.
The Ultimate Fighter returned for its 20th season on Wednesday evening, and it may be the most anticipated season since the show first aired. After 19 seasons, a new division will be implemented through the show, and a champion will be crowned at its finale. The UFC brought in eight of Invicta FC’s strawweight division […]
The Ultimate Fighter returned for its 20th season on Wednesday evening, and it may be the most anticipated season since the show first aired. After 19 seasons, a new division will be implemented through the show, and a champion will be crowned at its finale. The UFC brought in eight of Invicta FC’s strawweight division […]
A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium to broadcast their shows on…or so we thought.
After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.
People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’re not kidding either. Her age is unknown. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.
Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).
(If GIFs had sound you’d be hearing “THISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHTTHISFIGHT.” / GIF via r/MMA)
A Fight Pass deal was a welcomed development. Invicta finally had a stable medium on which to broadcast their shows…or so we thought.
After a pretty entertaining card, the stream froze shortly into the main event, which pitted Michelle Waterson against Yasuko Tamada.
People were understandably upset, though some tried to justify the stream going down by saying the phone stream was intact. The stream bounced back for about 10 seconds in the third round and then froze again. It didn’t come back (at least not for us) until Mike Schiavello was saying goodbye to everyone. From what we did see of the main event, Waterson looked incredible. She was agile, her strikes were lightning quick and she was unloading fierce combinations on Tamada. Tamada, on the other hand, looked like she was about 60 years old. We’d love to know how old she actually is but her age is unknown. No joke. She had to be close to 40 at least. Outside of the fact that she was slow, her skill set was anemic. Waterson destroyed her.
Overall, the event was pretty good if you ignore the stream collapsing at the end (bad streams must be some kind of Invicta curse).
We got to see Katja Kankaanpaa capture the Invicta FC strawweight title with a plucky submission win over Stephanie Eggink. Eggink controlled the first four rounds of the fight and nearly finished Kankaanpaa on multiple occasions. In the fifth round, Kankaanpaa caught Eggink, who seemed to disregard Kankaanpaa’s chances so late in the fight, in a d’arce choke. For some reason, the announcer called it a “dragon sleeper choke.” Cool, sure.
Other fights:
Tonya Evinger absolutely wrecked Ediane Gomes, dominating her in the grappling department and ultimately submitting her with an armbar. In her post-fight interview, Evinger said her game plan was simply to “kick someone’s ass.”
Women’s MMA pioneers Roxanne Modafferi and Tara LaRosa met on this card. Modafferi looked like a different fighter. Her striking and footwork improved about a thousand times over since we saw her in the UFC. She picked LaRosa apart en route to a unanimous decision.
DeAnna Bennett scored an incredible liver kick KO over Michelle Ould. The kick was brutal enough to have Ould reeling for several minutes after the fight was over.
Veronica Rothenhausler couldn’t continue her streak of knocking out her opponents in the first round. She managed to clip Charmaine Tweet in the first few seconds of the fight, but Tweet recovered quickly and proved to be far too much for Rothenhausler to handle. Tweet took control of the fight, dragged Rothenhausler to the mat, and finished her with ground and pound.
There were two fights of note on the prelims:
Irene Aldana defeated UFC-vet Peggy Morgan in a totally one-sided match-up. Aldana submitted Morgan with a rear-naked choke after flooring her multiple times with powerful strikes.
Alexa Grasso became 5-0 after defeating Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision. Grasso could potentially be a big name in the future. She’s conventionally attractive, talented, and Mexican–which will likely cause the UFC to call her up as they seek to expand in Mexico and Latin America.
The complete results of Invicta FC 8 are below:
Main Card
Michelle Waterson def. Yasuko Tamada via TKO (knee and punches), 4:58 of round 3.
Katja Kankaanpaa def. Stephanie Eggink via submission (d’arce choke), 2:03 of round 5.
Tonya Evinger def. Ediane Gomes via submission (armbar), 3:31 of round 1.
Roxanne Modafferi def. Tara La Rosa via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
DeAnna Bennett def. Michelle Ould via TKO (liver kick), 1:34 of round 2.
Charmaine Tweet def. Veronica Rothenhausler via TKO (punches), 4:05 of round 1.
Preliminary Card
Irene Aldana def. Peggy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke), 2:51 of round 1.
Alexa Grasso def. Ashley Cummins via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
Jodie Esquibel def. Jinh Yu Frey via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-27).
JJ Aldrich def. Delaney Owen via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).
