While the triumphant freakshow that was Bellator 149 may be getting all the coverage, the UFC put on a decent little show of their own over the weekend. Though not without its fair share of unfortunate, injury-related withdrawals, Fight Night 83 wasn’t the worst night of fights by a long shot. And hey, no one almost died! (Too soon? Too soon.)
In the evening’s main event, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone dueled with late replacement Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira in the former’s first trip up to the welterweight division. Word had it that the loser of the match would have to change his nickname to “Ranch Hand” per a gentleman’s agreement made in the locker room, but that’s neither here nor there. In an effort to once again remind us that it’s not all head kicks and “fuck you kicks” when it comes to Donald Cerrone, the former title challenger took Oliveira to the mat early and, for lack of a better word, just tooled him from there.
The triangle that Cerrone locked up just over halfway through the round had Oliveira tapping faster than that time Sage Northcutt put an uncomfortably tight, ab-smothering turtleneck, so check out a full replay of the fight above (until it gets taken down).
After the jump:Chris Camozzi obliterates Joe Riggs‘ arms & face and the world feels sadder for having witnessed it.
While the triumphant freakshow that was Bellator 149 may be getting all the coverage, the UFC put on a decent little show of their own over the weekend. Though not without its fair share of unfortunate, injury-related withdrawals, Fight Night 83 wasn’t the worst night of fights by a long shot. And hey, no one almost died! (Too soon? Too soon.)
In the evening’s main event, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone dueled with late replacement Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira in the former’s first trip up to the welterweight division. Word had it that the loser of the match would have to change his nickname to “Ranch Hand” per a gentleman’s agreement made in the locker room, but that’s neither here nor there. In an effort to once again remind us that it’s not all head kicks and “fuck you kicks” when it comes to Donald Cerrone, the former title challenger took Oliveira to the mat early and, for lack of a better word, just tooled him from there.
The triangle that Cerrone locked up just over halfway through the round had Oliveira tapping faster than that time Sage Northcutt put an uncomfortably tight, ab-smothering turtleneck, so check out a full replay of the fight above (until it gets taken down).
Elsewhere on the Fight Night 83 card, UFC veterans Chris Camozzi and Joe Riggs faced off, and if you’ve been wondering how much “Diesel” has left in the tank (nailed it), then this fight will probably not be a fun thing to watch for you.
I know it’s been said before, but Joe Riggs has got to be the oldest looking 33-year-old since…people started living past 33, I guess. I understand that chopping one’s own dick off can’t be good method of preserving one’s youth (when you’re in you early 30′s at least), but someone needs to show that guy, like, moisterizer or something. I swear that I saw a fine layer of ash fly off his face when Camozzi landed that jab.
Main Card
Donald Cerrone def. Alex Oliveira via submission (triangle choke) (R1, 2:33)
Derek Brunson def. Roan Carneiro via first-round TKO (2:38)
Cody Garbrandt def. Augusto Mendes via first-round TKO (4:18)
Dennis Bermudez def. Tatsuya Kawajiri via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Chris Camozzi def. Joe Riggs via first-round TKO (0:26)
James Krause def. Shane Campbell via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Undercard
Sean Strickland def. Alex Garcia via third-round TKO (4:25)
Oluwale Bamgbose def. Daniel Sarafian via first-round KO (1:00)
Anthony Smith def. Leonardo Augusto Guimares via unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Nathan Coy def. Jonavin Webb via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Ashlee Evans-Smith def Marion Reneau via split-decision, (30-27, 28-29, 29-27)
Lauren Murphy def. Kelly Faszholz via TKO (Round 3, 4:55)
Shamil Abdurakhimov def. Anthony Hamilton via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
So I guess it’s about time that we start taking Stephen Thompson seriously as a title contender, eh?
Matched up against former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks in the main of event of Saturday’s Fight Night 82, the general consensus seemed to be that “Wonderboy” would ultimately succumb to the wrestling prowess of “Bigg Rigg” as several more talented grapplers had before him. Of course, you can’t exactly outwrestle your opponent if you can’t touch him, and it appeared as if Stephen Thompson was fighting from the future.
Utilizing his trademark karate stance and a level of accuracy that rivaled Anderson Silva‘s UFC debut, Thompson not only tore through Hendricks, he did so almost effortlessly. He stuffed the former champ’s takedowns, beautifully managed his distance, and mixed up his attacks with almost machine-like precision, cracking one of the game’s most lauded chins in the process. Once you take away a man’s steakhouse, you take away his fire, I always say, and Hendricks looked like a man without fire on Saturday. The guy with a canon of a left hand just isn’t there anymore, it would seem, and a credit is due to “Wonderboy” for the ease with which he was able to nullify Hendricks.
Fight Night 82 also featured Roy Nelson’s return to the win column, a horrifically broken jaw, and an early contender for “Knockout of the Year,” so check out all the highlights and results after the jump.
So I guess it’s about time that we start taking Stephen Thompson seriously as a title contender, eh?
Matched up against former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks in the main of event of Saturday’s Fight Night 82, the general consensus seemed to be that “Wonderboy” would ultimately succumb to the wrestling prowess of “Bigg Rigg” as several more talented grapplers had before him. Of course, you can’t exactly outwrestle your opponent if you can’t touch him, and it appeared as if Stephen Thompson was fighting from the future.
Utilizing his trademark karate stance and a level of accuracy that rivaled Anderson Silva‘s UFC debut, Thompson not only tore through Hendricks, he did so almost effortlessly. He stuffed the former champ’s takedowns, beautifully managed his distance, and mixed up his attacks with almost machine-like precision, cracking one of the game’s most lauded chins in the process. Once you take away a man’s steakhouse, you take away his fire, I always say, and Hendricks looked like a man without fire on Saturday. The guy with a canon of a left hand just isn’t there anymore, it would seem, and a credit is due to “Wonderboy” for the ease with which he was able to nullify Hendricks.
Fight Night 82 also featured Roy Nelson’s return to the win column, a horrifically broken jaw, and an early contender for “Knockout of the Year,” so check out all the highlights and results after the jump.
In the evening’s co-main event, Roy Nelson defeated Jared Rosholt by unanimous decision. That is the most objectively positive thing you can say about the fight, as well as the only real thing you could take away from it. Roy Nelson continues to be Roy Nelson, in that his fights suck if he doesn’t land an overhand right in the first 7 or so minutes, and Jared Rosholt continues to be the least entertaining fighter in the division.
In fact, Nelson would prefer if we stopped referring to Rosholt as a “fighter” altogether, telling Megan Olivi that “I try to give the fans exactly what they (want). An explosion, a fun fight to watch. It’s just, I didn’t think he was going to run the whole time. I mean, Jared is a great athlete, but he’s not a fighter. And tonight I think I showed that to the UFC world, that he’s a great athlete, but man, when you’ve got a fight, you have to fight.”
Nelson went on to call Rosholt “a track star,” so let’s hope that Joe Silva does the right thing and books Rosholt vs. Starnes in the main event of an upcoming Fight Pass card. Put it in one of those weird Eastern European countries, like Estonia or Latvia — they’ll just be happy to be out of the house.
Over at Uproxx, I sometimes like to try my hand at the fight-picking game. I went 107-56-1 last year and am off to a rough 6-6 start this year thanks to Johny Hendricks and pretty much every undercard fight that happened at Fight Night 82. When making my predictions for the Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson, however, I made the following observation:
It’s great that Nicholson made the most out of the weigh-ins for this event, because his octagon debut is going to be both incredibly brief and unmemorable, in that the only thing he will remember from it will be the ride to the hospital.
With that out there, I’d like to now apologize to Alex Nicholson for what in hindsight . Nicholson *will* be able to remember his UFC debut, he’ll be able to remember it well, because Alex Nicholson was not lucky enough to merely be separated from his conscious like most of Cirkunov’s past opponents. No, he had his jaw cranked until it broke.
While he was awake.
So again, my apologies Alex. Let’s hope that proving me wrong served as some solace to you…on your ride to the hospital.
The ease with which Cirkunov fractured his opponent’s jaw served as a doppelganger of sorts to the finish of Diego Rivas vs. Noad Lahat earlier in the night, in that the force with which Rivas flying knee’d Lahat should have broken his jaw in no less than 4 places. Was that too complicated a way of putting that? Who cares, just watch this already.
Main card
Stephen Thompson def. Johny Hendricks via first-round TKO (3:31)
Roy Nelson def. Jared Rosholt via unanimous decision
Ovince St. Preux def. Rafael Cavalcante via unanimous decision
Joseph Benavidez def. Zach Makovsky via unanimous decision
Misha Cirkunov def. Alex Nicholson via rear-naked choke (R2, 1:28)
Mike Pyle def. Sean Spencer via third-round TKO (4:25)
Undercard
Josh Burkman def. K.J. Noons via unanimous decision
Derrick Lewis def. Damian Grabowski via first-round TKO (2:17)
Justin Scoggins def. Ray Borg via unanimous decision
Diego Rivas def. Noad Lahat via second-round KO (0:23)
Mickey Gall def. Mike Jackson via rear-naked choke (R1, 0:45)
Alex White def. Artem Lobov via unanimous decision
You might not know this, Potato Nation, but there’s a 19-year old kid who’s been making quite a splash in the UFC over the past few months. He goes by the name of Sage Northcutt, and while we may not have been paying him quite as much lip service around these parts as everywhere else, it’s safe to say that he has all the star-making potential that the UFC could use more of in these post-Rousey times.
Of course, with Northcutt’s incredible rise to popularity has come the inevitable, almost inexplicably-cruel backlash, and boy did Northcutt ever receive that following his hype train-derailing loss to short-notice opponent Bryan Barberena at UFC on FOX 18 last weekend.
You might not know this, Potato Nation, but there’s a 19-year old kid who’s been making quite a splash in the UFC over the past few months. He goes by the name of Sage Northcutt, and while we may not have been paying him quite as much lip service around these parts as everywhere else, it’s safe to say that he has all the star-making potential that the UFC could use more of in these post-Rousey times.
Of course, with Northcutt’s incredible rise to popularity has come the inevitable, almost inexplicably-cruel backlash, and boy did Northcutt ever receive that following his hype train-derailing loss to short-notice opponent Bryan Barberena at UFC on FOX 18 last weekend.
From what we’ve been able to glean, Northcutt’s crimes seem to be that he is 1) Impossibly wholesome/athletic/good-looking and 2) Gets paid “too much.” Now to us, those issues (especially the second) seem to reflect more on both the lack of charisma that most fighters possess and the pathetic state of fighter pay more than anything else, but every cause needs a scapegoat, and Northcutt — being the Ken Doll-looking, hand-picked prodigy that he is — was quickly assigned that status after being plucked from obscurity on Dana White’s Youtube series, Looking for a Fight.
Two quick victories and a couple massive paydays later (relatively speaking), the MMA community had already begun to vocalize its discontention for Northcutt, what with his penchant for awesome flips and “respect” for “people.” Like Tim Tebow before him, it seemed that many of our gripes with “Super” reflected more upon us than the man (kid) being put on trial, which rather than forcing us to look inward and examine ourselves, only fueled our need to see him fail all the more.
So from the moment Northcutt’s tap to Bryan Barberena’s arm-triangle was labeled “quick” by color commentator Joe Rogan — a declaration that seemed accurate, we might add — you just knew that the response from his doubters would be especially vicious. As it just so happens, many of Northcutt’s doubters were not online trolls as you might expect, but actual UFC-employed fighters.
“Woo!!! Tapped like a little Bitch & Tried to tel the Ref Different!! @sagenorthcutt VonFlu/Got You,” wrote top lightweight contender Tony Ferguson, a class act if there ever was one.
“I want 40k for a scaredy tap #northcut,” noted Angela Magana, proud owner of zero UFC wins and an Instagram account.
“Omg what a pussy!!! Dude gave up. No heart. Ufc give me his 40/40 next time cause no f—ing way I would get finished with that s—! Lol,” wrote James Vick, who I would make a joke about if he was a memorable enough personality to warrant one.
Again, you’ll notice that many of the fighters main complaints seem to be leveled at Northcutt, when it’s the UFC management that should be their intended target. It’s the kind of short-sightedness that perhaps helps one understand why no fighter union has been formed despite ever-restrictive UFC policies, but I’m getting away from the topic at hand here. Sage Northcutt lost, and because he dared to participate in the UFC’s hype machine, we took great pleasure in seeing him cut down to size. This year’s harvest will be plentiful and great, ye.
Elsewhere on UFC on FOX 18, Ryan Bader suffered a lightning fast KO loss to Anthony Johnson after attempting quite possibly the least set-up takedown attempt in the history of the sport. As was the case in his losses to Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida before — the former of which his career may never recover from — Bader proved that despite his many improvements, he is simply one mental mistake away from being completely outclassed by the division’s elite. And Tito Ortiz.
Also, “Rumble” Johnson hits hard — like really, really hard — and you probably wouldn’t want to get punched by him.
In other surprising developments from the card, Ben Rothwell continued his improbable career comeback by becoming the first man to submit Josh Barnett (with an actual submission). The incredible finish came via midway through the second round of their co-main event scrap, via the same Gogo choke that he used to submit Matt Mitrione in his last contest. Given just how proficient and skilled a grappler we know Barnett to be, the win should arguably place Rothwell on the short list of title contenders. The power of shelf expression, ladies and gentlemen.
The full results from UFC on FOX 18 are below.
Main card
Anthony Johnson def. Ryan Bader via TKO (R1, 1:26)
Ben Rothwell def. Josh Barnett via submission (guillotine) (R2, 3:48)
Jimmie Rivera def. Iuri Alcantara via unanimous decision
Bryan Barberena def. Sage Northcutt via submission
Undercard
Tarec Saffiedine def. Jake Ellenberger via unanimous decision
Diego Ferreira def. Olivier Aubin-Mercier via UD
Rafael Natal def. Kevin Casey via third-round TKO (3:37)
Wilson Reis def. Dustin Ortiz via unanimous decision
Alexander Yakovlev def. George Sullivan via KO (R1, 3:59)
Alex Caceres def. Masio Fullen via unanimous decision
Randy Brown def. Matt Dwyer via unanimous decision
Levan Makashvili vs. Damon Jackson ends in majority draw (29-27 Jackson, 28-28 x2)
Tony Martin def. Felipe Olvieri via submission (rear-naked choke) (R3, 3:02)
It was a mantra that Dominick Cruz had been repeating for years…literally, years. In the two years he had spent battling injuries since his last fight and the four years he spent doing the same before his *other* last fight, Cruz has kindly been reminding us that 1) Ring rust is a lie 2) He never really lost his belt and 3) The members of Team Alpha Male were a bunch of meathead jocks that couldn’t ‘andle his riddum’. But until last night, the former WEC and UFC bantamweight champion was all talk.
“You can’t hit what you can’t catch,” was another trademarked slogan that Cruz made sure to repeat ad nauseum in the trash talk-filled lead up to his bantamweight title fight with TJ Dillashaw at Fight Night 81, and without comparing him to the one true MMA psychic, Mystic Mac, it’s safe to say that “The Dominator” might have a magical crystal ball of his own.
It was a mantra that Dominick Cruz had been repeating for years…literally, years. In the two years he had spent battling injuries since his last fight and the four years he spent doing the same before his *other* last fight, Cruz has kindly been reminding us that 1) Ring rust is a lie 2) He never really lost his belt and 3) The members of Team Alpha Male were a bunch of meathead jocks that couldn’t ‘andle his riddum’. But until last night, the former WEC and UFC bantamweight champion was all talk.
“You can’t hit what you can’t catch,” was another trademarked slogan that Cruz made sure to repeat ad nauseum in the trash talk-filled lead up to his bantamweight title fight with TJ Dillashaw at Fight Night 81, and without comparing him to the one true MMA psychic, Mystic Mac, it’s safe to say that “The Dominator” might have a magical crystal ball of his own.
In a thrilling, hyper-paced five round fight, Cruz made Dillashaw miss, miss, and miss again, utilizing his classical, ferocious footwork to stay two steps ahead of the champion while countering brilliantly throughout the fight. In total, Dillashaw landed just 109 of the 408 strikes he threw last night while absorbing 112 of Cruz’s 302 attempts. It was a razor-close fight if you were to go purely by the numbers, but “The Dominator” was clearly the better man when all was said and done, and the judges (or at least, two of them) seemed to agree.
To Dillashaw’s credit, he was able to land far more strikes on the returning Cruz than any fighter before him ever had, and arguably took both of the championship rounds, but it just wasn’t enough. The former champion may have risen up the ranks by emanating Cruz’s style, but he was simply left flat-footed and swinging at air when forced to deal with the real McCoy. We’re sure that a rematch will be on the horizon for these two, but for now, that loss is going to be a tough one for Dillashaw to eat.
In the co-main event of the evening, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis faced off against former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and looked like a shell of his former self, to put it mildly. Utilizing the blueprint Rafael Dos Anjos used to dethrone Pettis, Alvarez opted to, for lack of a better term, “grapplefuck” Pettis into a state of tranquility over the course of three rounds. Even in the brief moments that the fight was being contested at range, Pettis just seemed unable or unwilling to let his hands go, resulting in an undoubtedly disappointing, yet dominant win for Alvarez (that was of course rendered a split decision).
While the judging on display at Fight Night 81 was its usual mix of indecisiveness and incompetence, the refereeing was, for the most part, on point. That was, of course, until the featured heavyweight bout between Matt Mitrione and Travis Browne. On two separate occasions, Browne’s fingers managed to find their way into Mitrione’s eyes without so much as a warning from referee Gary Forman, with the second instance not even resulting in a pause in the action until Mitrione complained that he was “seeing double.”
Of course, there was also the issue of the clearly separated shoulder that Mitrione suffered in the fight to no avail, but that’s for another day. As it stands, Browne picked up another big TKO win, and the only thing more gruesome than Mitrione’s eye are his free agent prospects following the tough loss.
Check out the full results for Fight Night 81.
Main card
Dominick Cruz def. T.J. Dillashaw via split decision
Eddie Alvarez def. Anthony Pettis via split decision
Travis Browne def. Matt Mitrione via third-round TKO (4:01)
Francisco Trinaldo def. Ross Pearson via unanimous decision
Undercard
Patrick Cote def. Ben Saunders via second-round TKO (1:14)
Ed Herman def. Tim Boetsch via second-round TKO (1:39)
Chris Wade def. Mehdi Baghdad via submission (RNC) (1st, 4:30)
Luke Sanders def. Maximo Blanco via submission (RNC) (1st, 3:38)
Paul Felder def. Daron Cruickshank via submission (RNC) (3rd, 3:56)
Ilir Latifi def. Sean O’Connell via first-round TKO (:30)
Charles Rosa def. Kyle Bochniak via unanimous decision
Rob Font def. Joey Gomez via second-round TKO (4:13)
Francimar Barroso def. Elvis Mutapcic via unanimous decision
2015 was a tough year for the Potato Nation…Nation. We lost our commanding officer, saw our budget slashed to ribbons, and suffered damn near every setback a mid-level MMA blog could suffer. There were times when it seemed that CagePotato would be forced to close its doors for good, or even worse, sell out and start writing “credible” “unbiased” and “truthful” stories rather than 500-700 word fart jokes masquerading as journalism.
But we’re still here, dammit, and while our prospects for 2016 may not be the brightest they’ve ever been, our continued existence will serve as a proud Stockton Heybuddy to everyone who’s been saying for years that we died the minute Old Dad left. So to kick off another year of hastily-researched shenanigans, we figured there would be no more appropriate a celebration than to deliver our year-end awards list, THE POTATO AWARDS, just one business week too late.
Use the page links below to scroll through our list of the greatest knockouts, the slickest submissions, and the most bizarre, f*cked up MMA moments that 2015 had to offer. A huge thanks goes out to all the contributors who made this possible, as well as those of you who have continued to stick with us through these tough times. To 2016!!!!!!!!!!
Page 1: Comeback Fight of the Year, The Steve Nelmark “Is He Dead?” Award, MMA Screen-Cap of the Year
Page 2: Worst Performance in a Drug Test, The Minowaman Freak Show Hall of Fame Award, Worst Event, Submission of the Year
Page 3: MMA GIF of the Year, Most Satisfying Beatdown, Worst Fight of the Year, Most Embarrassing Knockout
Page 4: Greatest Unsanctioned Fight of the Year, The Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year, Worst Use of Social Media, Greatest Fight Cancelled Due to Injury, Knockout of the Year
Page 5: WTF?!! Moment of the Year, Most Awkward Interview, The Cecil Peoples Shittiest Decision Award, MMA Fail of the Year, Greatest Hype Inflation
Page 6: Photo of the Year, Best Event of the Year, Fight of the Year
2015 was a tough year for the Potato Nation…Nation. We lost our commanding officer, saw our budget slashed to ribbons, and suffered damn near every setback a mid-level MMA blog could suffer. There were times when it seemed that CagePotato would be forced to close its doors for good, or even worse, sell out and start writing “credible” “unbiased” and “truthful” stories rather than 500-700 word fart jokes masquerading as journalism.
But we’re still here, dammit, and while our prospects for 2016 may not be the brightest they’ve ever been, our continued existence will serve as a proud Stockton Heybuddy to everyone who’s been saying for years that we died the minute Old Dad left. So to kick off another year of hastily-researched shenanigans, we figured there would be no more appropriate a celebration than to deliver our year-end awards list, THE POTATO AWARDS, just one business week too late.
Use the page links below to scroll through our list of the greatest knockouts, the slickest submissions, and the most bizarre, f*cked up MMA moments that 2015 had to offer. A huge thanks goes out to all the contributors who made this possible, as well as those of you who have continued to stick with us through these tough times. To 2016!!!!!!!!!!
Page 1: Comeback Fight of the Year, The Steve Nelmark “Is He Dead?” Award, MMA Screen-Cap of the Year
Page 2: Worst Performance in a Drug Test, The Minowaman Freak Show Hall of Fame Award, Worst Event, Submission of the Year
Page 3: MMA GIF of the Year, Most Satisfying Beatdown, Worst Fight of the Year, Most Embarrassing Knockout
Page 4: Greatest Unsanctioned Fight of the Year, The Krazy Horse Bennett Arrest of the Year, Worst Use of Social Media, Greatest Fight Cancelled Due to Injury, Knockout of the Year
Page 5: WTF?!! Moment of the Year, Most Awkward Interview, The Cecil Peoples Shittiest Decision Award, MMA Fail of the Year, Greatest Hype Inflation
Page 6: Photo of the Year, Best Event of the Year, Fight of the Year
Comeback Fight of the Year: Patricio Freire vs. Daniel Weichel at Bellator 138
It’s a scenario we’ve seen a thousand times before — Fighter A rocks Fighter B with a punch/kick/knee, gets overconfident, and walks right into a fight-ending knockout shot from his wobbled opponent — and yet it is NEVER NOT INCREDIBLE.
And this (last) year’s award for the Comeback Fight of the Year (aka the Kongo vs. Barry award)? It would be hard not to give it to Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, who went from nearly knocked out to knocking his opponent out in a span of roughly 30 seconds.
In the co-main event of Bellator 138, Freire was looking to defend the featherweight title that had long eluded him for a second time against Daniel Weichel, who was fresh off a career-defining win over former champion Pat Curran in the Bellator season 10 featherweight tournament final. Though he was mostly known for his grappling prowess, Weichel surprised everyone by flooring Pitbull with a hellacious combination in the closing seconds of the first round.
Sensing that his opponent was still on queer street, Weichel came out aggressive in the second round, pressing Freire to the cage and looking for the one shot to end it all. Unfortunately, aggression can come at a price when facing a knockout artist like Pitbull, and boy did it ever in the form of a short left hook. It was a dicknailing of epic proportions and a triumphant comeback for Freire, who would sadly lose his title to Daniel Straus later in the year.
The Steve Nelmark “Is He Dead?” Award: Thomas Almeida vs. Anthony Birchak at Fight Night 77
Thomas Almeida had a more violent year in 2015 than Joseph Stalin had in 1937. Save a brief hiccup against Brad Pickett, the Brazilian prospect was damn near flawless over the course of three fights, all of which ended via (T)KO inside of two rounds. He battered Yves Jabouin, butchered Brad Pickett, and topped off the year with a knockout of Anthony Birchak that was basically a shot-for-shot remake of the fight to which this category owes its name.
Seriously, take a look for yourself. The similarities are STRIKING.
MMA Screen-Cap of the Year: The “Flexibilty” of Reebok Fight Kits
Even if you’re not one for superstitions, it would be hard to look at Reebok’s hilarious, depressing #FightKit unveiling ceremony as an ominous sign of things to come. Between the obnoxious, overbearing, trying-so-hard-to-be-hip dubstep soundtrack and the awkward segues and fighter introductions delivered by Corrina Werkle, it looked like Reebok had maybe, just maybe rushed into this whole MMA thing a little quickly.
Of course, adding to this theory was the fact that the creative geniuses at Reebok had apparently neglected to run their presentation through spellcheck, resulting in the absolute nexus of stupidity pictured above.
We can debate the decision that capped off UFC 195’s welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit all we want. We can take to Twitter to vent our frustrations with an (admittedly) outdated judging system until the cows come home. In fact, we have been for years, but with no change in sight, it’s probably best that we just focus on the latest in what has been an incredible series of title fights for the UFC, and that’s exactly what Lawler vs. Condit was.
We can debate the decision that capped off UFC 195′s welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit all we want. We can take to Twitter to vent our frustrations with an (admittedly) outdated judging system until the cows come home. In fact, we have been for years, but with no change in sight, it’s probably best that we just focus on the latest in what has been an incredible series of title fights for the UFC, and that’s exactly what Lawler vs. Condit was.
Results and highlights after the jump.
While the numbers might paint UFC 195′s main event as an incredibly one-sided affair in Condit’s favor — “The Natural Born Killer” outstruck “Ruthless” nearly two to one — it was Lawler’s time-tested power that must have swayed the judges. Despite looking a step behind the challenger in most of the exchanges and relying on an offense that consisted almost solely of wide, looping hooks, Lawler was able to land the most significant strikes of the fight, dropping Condit in the second round and nearly finishing him in the closing moments of the fifth. If one were to base their opinion of the winner solely on how each fighter looked when all was said and done, Lawler would have almost undoubtedly been declared the winner across the board.
That’s not to say that Condit didn’t get his, though. Condit dropped the champ in the first, had him wobbled in the third, and landed his own onslaught of punches in the fifth as well. It was that ever-important third round that most of the debate seems to stem from, but again, there’s really no point to all the discussion with no proposed way of improving MMA judging currently on the table.
Of course, the easiest way to avoid another judging debacle — if you’re Stipe Miocic, at least — is to quickly and violently shut your opponents lights out, which is exactly what he did against Andrei Arlovski.
The story of Arlovski’s comeback from suicidal falling star to title contender has been an inspiring and much-lauded one, but just as quickly as it came, it ended against the Ohio native on Saturday night. Miocic clipped Arlovski early with a short right behind the ear and swarmed the former heavyweight champion before he could recover, bringing an end to his title hopes in a manner that would be hard to declare as anything but anticlimactic.
But with 5 wins in his last 6 fights (and the only loss being a decision to Junior Dos Santos that may or may not have been BS, if we complained about that sort of thing), it looks like Miocic will finally get his shot at the winner of the Werdum-Velasquez rematch…and he only had to scare Dana White shitless to get it.
Elsewhere on the UFC 195 card, Brian Ortega put on a Jiu Jitsu clinic over Diego Brandao, Abel Trujillo snagged a rare submission victory over Tony Sims, Joe Duffy and Dustin Poirier went to war, and Michael McDonald scored one of the most insane submission reversals you will ever see in his UFC return, so head below for all the highlights and results from UFC 195.
Lorenz Larkin vs. Albert Tumenov
Brian Ortega vs. Diego Brandao
Michael McDonald vs. Masanori Kanehara
UFC 195 Results:
Main Card
Robbie Lawler def. Carlos Condit via split decision
Stipe Miocic def. Andrei Arlovski via first-round TKO (0:54)
Albert Tumenov def. Lorenz Larkin via split decision
Brian Ortega def. Diego Brandao via submission (triangle) (R3, 1:37)
Abel Trujillo def. Tony Sims via submission (guillotine) (R1, 3:18)
Undercard
Michael McDonald def. Masanori Kanehara via sub (RNC) (R2, 2:09)
Alex Morono def. Kyle Noke via split decision
Justine Kish def. Nina Ansaroff via unanimous decision
Drew Dober def. Scott Holtzman via unanimous decision
Dustin Poirier def. Joseph Duffy via unanimous decision
Michinori Tanaka def. Joe Soto via split decision
Sheldon Westcott def. Edgar Garcia via first-round TKO (3:12)
