Since the entrance of the bantamweight division under the Zuffa fold, the UFC has since cashed in on the obvious talent of the weight class.Champion Dominick Cruz has since set a bench mark of achievement in the division, making two successful title de…
Since the entrance of the bantamweight division under the Zuffa fold, the UFC has since cashed in on the obvious talent of the weight class.
Champion Dominick Cruz has since set a bench mark of achievement in the division, making two successful title defenses against the likes of former titleholder Urijah Faber and spitfire Demetrious Johnson—both bouts were exciting throughout, with the Faber bout garnering high praise and “Fight of the Night” honors for their efforts.
Bonus checks for the 135-pounders have been in abundance as of late, and the impending bout between Scott Jorgensen and Jeff Curran should be no exception to a potential boost in pay.
The two men meet at this weekend’s UFC 137 pay-per-view event, rounding on the main card.
So, how will the fight pitting the two battle-tested men shake out?
It’s been an interesting road, but after nearly eight years, Jeff Curran is back in the UFC.
Curran will return to the promotion at UFC 137 next week against former bantamweight title challenger Scott Jorgensen in Las Vegas in a bout that was moved to the main pay-per-view card on Friday. It’s another shot with Zuffa and the UFC that Curran said he begged for, and a fight against a top contender that he jumped at the chance to get.
On Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” Curran told host Ariel Helwani that he’s always been physically ready – but now he believes he’s more mentally ready than he ever was before and it’s time to “put up or shut up.”
“Everything’s going great,” Curran said. “It’s kind of like I knew where I need to be to be able to focus on my fighting, and (the past personal problems) seem like such a long way away sometimes. Everything is revamped and going smoothly in my personal life, everything’s going smoothly in my gym, and I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
Curran (33-13-1) took a short-notice fight against future UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra at UFC 46 in January 2004. He lost a unanimous decision, but went on to a nine-fight winning streak outside the promotion. After a loss in his lone fight for Pride, the Illinois-based fighter went on another winning streak, one that got him a shot at the WEC not long after it had been purchased by Zuffa.
After a win in his first fight for the promotion since WEC 4, Curran got a shot at featherweight champion Urijah Faber and was submitted in the second round. He said that loss started a domino effect for him, mentally, and after four straight losses – all to WEC champions or title challengers – he was cut by the WEC in August 2009.
“Physically, I was prepared as ever for all my fights in the WEC,” Curran said. “For Urijah, I just got caught. After that, it was a spiral in my mental focus. I don’t know what made them turn the table and give me (another) opportunity. But at this point, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve got to get out there and prove myself.”
Curran has won four of five fights since his last loss in the WEC, a split decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki. His one loss in that stretch came in a Bellator event in Chicago, not far from the gym he runs in the city’s northern suburbs that is the training home to the likes of former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver and UFC featherweight Bart Palaszewski, who also will fight at UFC 137.
But Curran said even at the Bellator fight, in April 2010, he wasn’t where he needed to be mentally for Bryan Goldsby, who beat him in a unanimous decision. He said there had been a temptation to sit back and wait for the WEC to call (before it merged with the UFC), since matchmaker Sean Shelby had said they might have a fight for Curran later in the year.
WIth his cousin Pat making his Bellator debut on the same show – the start of what would be his improbable run through the lightweight tournament to a $100,000 pay day and an eventual shot at Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez – Curran said he felt pressure to take the fight, even though he wanted to pull out.
“We decided I needed to make some money – I was having some financial problems,” Curran said. “And part of getting Pat into the lightweight tournament was having both cousins on the same show in Chicago. I kinda stepped in and took one for the team, even though I tried to pull out of the fight. I just didn’t want to make up a lie. I was asking to be released and they wouldn’t’ do it because I was the main event in Chicago. I was going to pull an injury card, but I didn’t. So I just went forward with it. That’s one fight I regret taking – not that Goldsby didn’t earn the win.”
Even two wins in his own XFO promotion after the loss to Goldsby had him unsure what his next step might be. He beat Billy Vaughan in May, but said that a loss to him likely would have meant his retirement from the sport.
“I was training hard, I was in great shape,” Curran said. “I thought if I can’t beat these guys, nothing against them, I don’t deserve to be in the UFC. I thought I needed to finish Billy Vaughan to get back in the UFC, but I think that was enough for them to say, ‘Jeff looked good, he was back meaning business.'”
And now that he’s back, fighting at bantamweight where he believes he has his best shot instead of featherweight or lightweight, Curran said he has to take advantage of what might be his last opportunity in the world’s biggest promotion.
“I think about it every second of the day,” Curran said. “I was just at a Keith Urban concert and there were 20,000 people there, and I just sat there with chills and thought, ‘The pressure.’ I’m not intimidated by it. I’ve been in all the big shows. But what it all encompasses is that I finally fought my way back, and it’s either put up or shut up – embarrass myself or get out there and do my thing.”
It’s been an interesting road, but after nearly eight years, Jeff Curran is back in the UFC.
Curran will return to the promotion at UFC 137 next week against former bantamweight title challenger Scott Jorgensen in Las Vegas in a bout that was moved to the main pay-per-view card on Friday. It’s another shot with Zuffa and the UFC that Curran said he begged for, and a fight against a top contender that he jumped at the chance to get.
On Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” Curran told host Ariel Helwani that he’s always been physically ready – but now he believes he’s more mentally ready than he ever was before and it’s time to “put up or shut up.”
“Everything’s going great,” Curran said. “It’s kind of like I knew where I need to be to be able to focus on my fighting, and (the past personal problems) seem like such a long way away sometimes. Everything is revamped and going smoothly in my personal life, everything’s going smoothly in my gym, and I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
Curran (33-13-1) took a short-notice fight against future UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra at UFC 46 in January 2004. He lost a unanimous decision, but went on to a nine-fight winning streak outside the promotion. After a loss in his lone fight for Pride, the Illinois-based fighter went on another winning streak, one that got him a shot at the WEC not long after it had been purchased by Zuffa.
After a win in his first fight for the promotion since WEC 4, Curran got a shot at featherweight champion Urijah Faber and was submitted in the second round. He said that loss started a domino effect for him, mentally, and after four straight losses – all to WEC champions or title challengers – he was cut by the WEC in August 2009.
“Physically, I was prepared as ever for all my fights in the WEC,” Curran said. “For Urijah, I just got caught. After that, it was a spiral in my mental focus. I don’t know what made them turn the table and give me (another) opportunity. But at this point, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve got to get out there and prove myself.”
Curran has won four of five fights since his last loss in the WEC, a split decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki. His one loss in that stretch came in a Bellator event in Chicago, not far from the gym he runs in the city’s northern suburbs that is the training home to the likes of former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver and UFC featherweight Bart Palaszewski, who also will fight at UFC 137.
But Curran said even at the Bellator fight, in April 2010, he wasn’t where he needed to be mentally for Bryan Goldsby, who beat him in a unanimous decision. He said there had been a temptation to sit back and wait for the WEC to call (before it merged with the UFC), since matchmaker Sean Shelby had said they might have a fight for Curran later in the year.
WIth his cousin Pat making his Bellator debut on the same show – the start of what would be his improbable run through the lightweight tournament to a $100,000 pay day and an eventual shot at Bellator lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez – Curran said he felt pressure to take the fight, even though he wanted to pull out.
“We decided I needed to make some money – I was having some financial problems,” Curran said. “And part of getting Pat into the lightweight tournament was having both cousins on the same show in Chicago. I kinda stepped in and took one for the team, even though I tried to pull out of the fight. I just didn’t want to make up a lie. I was asking to be released and they wouldn’t’ do it because I was the main event in Chicago. I was going to pull an injury card, but I didn’t. So I just went forward with it. That’s one fight I regret taking – not that Goldsby didn’t earn the win.”
Even two wins in his own XFO promotion after the loss to Goldsby had him unsure what his next step might be. He beat Billy Vaughan in May, but said that a loss to him likely would have meant his retirement from the sport.
“I was training hard, I was in great shape,” Curran said. “I thought if I can’t beat these guys, nothing against them, I don’t deserve to be in the UFC. I thought I needed to finish Billy Vaughan to get back in the UFC, but I think that was enough for them to say, ‘Jeff looked good, he was back meaning business.'”
And now that he’s back, fighting at bantamweight where he believes he has his best shot instead of featherweight or lightweight, Curran said he has to take advantage of what might be his last opportunity in the world’s biggest promotion.
“I think about it every second of the day,” Curran said. “I was just at a Keith Urban concert and there were 20,000 people there, and I just sat there with chills and thought, ‘The pressure.’ I’m not intimidated by it. I’ve been in all the big shows. But what it all encompasses is that I finally fought my way back, and it’s either put up or shut up – embarrass myself or get out there and do my thing.”
(Props to our buddies over at IronForgesIron. Skip to 4:00 for the beginning of the fight.)
If Scott Jorgensen hadn’t convinced you back at WEC 47 that the guillotine choke could get much, much worse, then Morgan Bracken sure will. The 4-3 lightweight fighter managed to pull off this beaut of a throw/submission last weekend at an unknown event in Topeka, Kansas. We literally know nothing else about the fight, and frankly we don’t care to find out. Because a move like this is kind of like trolls in Norway, legend has it that they exist but you until you actually see one, you never believe. In fact, one of the only other people to see both a guillotine suplex and a troll is Bas Rutten. Go figure.
Check out a few of our favorite attempts after the jump.
(Props to our buddies over at IronForgesIron. Skip to 4:00 for the beginning of the fight.)
If Scott Jorgensen hadn’t convinced you back at WEC 47 that the guillotine choke could get much, much worse, then Morgan Bracken sure will. The 4-3 lightweight fighter managed to pull off this beaut of a throw/submission last weekend at an unknown event in Topeka, Kansas. We literally know nothing else about the fight, and frankly we don’t care to find out. Because a move like this is kind of like trolls in Norway, legend has it that they exist but you until you actually see one, you never believe. In fact, one of the only other people to see both a guillotine suplex and a troll is Bas Rutten. Go figure.
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsOne of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz’s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He…
One of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz‘s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He has already handily beaten most of the best 135-pound fighters in the world, and there aren’t a lot of big fights for him out there.
Cruz’s latest conquest was Demetrious Johnson, and that fight went a lot like most of Cruz’s other fights: It wasn’t a vicious, violent beatdown, but it was a one-sided display of technical dominance, a fight in which we knew within the first minute or two that we were going to see Cruz win a unanimous decision.
As much as MMA fans recognize Cruz’s skill, it’s going to be hard for the UFC to get the general public excited about his fights because the public likes guys who destroy their opponents better than guys who win through their technical mastery. Still, there’s no doubting that Cruz is by far the best in the bantamweight division: He’s already beaten most of the other Top 10 bantamweights, as you’ll see below.
Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA (Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)
1. Dominick Cruz (1): One of the really impressive aspects of Cruz’s current run is the quality of the competition he’s facing. As we’ll discuss below, there are a lot of really good bantamweights in the UFC right now — Johnson, Joseph Benavidez, Brian Bowles, Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen — and Cruz has beaten them all handily.
2. Joseph Benavidez (2): Benavidez is 15-0 when he’s not fighting Cruz, and 0-2 when he is fighting Cruz. If the UFC ever adds a flyweight class, Benavidez could easily make the cut to 125 pounds and would likely be the division’s first champion. Instead he languishes as the second-best fighter in a division where he’s already lost twice to the best.
3. Brian Bowles (3): After losing the bantamweight belt to Cruz in March of 2010, Bowles missed a year because of injuries. Now he’s 2-0 in 2011, and if he makes it 3-0 by beating Faber at UFC 139, he’ll probably get another shot at Cruz.
4. Urijah Faber (4): If Faber gets by Bowles at UFC 139, the UFC will probably give him his rubber match with Cruz. But that says more about Faber being the UFC’s most marketable bantamweight than it says about Faber’s chances of taking the bantamweight belt from Cruz: The way Cruz beat Faber at UFC 132 leaves little doubt that Cruz would be a heavy favorite if they fight again.
5. Bibiano Fernandes (NR): The former Dream featherweight champion, Fernandes is now fighting at 135 pounds in the Dream bantamweight tournament, and he looks great there: He’s better off fighting at a lower weight. He’s the best bantamweight outside the UFC, and he could be a great future opponent for Cruz if the UFC ever signs him.
6. Demetrious Johnson (5): Mighty Mouse is undersized at 135 pounds, and he would benefit from a move down to flyweight. The UFC has been talking about creating a flyweight class for a long time (and the WEC talked about it for a long time before that), and with guys like Johnson and Benavidez around, there’s no better time than now.
7. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen was thoroughly outclassed by Cruz last year, but he bounced back with a big knockout win over Ken Stone in June. He draws Jeff Curran next at UFC 137.
8. Miguel Torres (7): The former WEC bantamweight champion, Torres is the best UFC bantamweight who hasn’t yet fought Cruz. I also think Torres could be an interesting opponent for Cruz because he has height and reach that match up well with Cruz, and because he’s good at fighting off his back, and Cruz showed against Johnson that he can at times be sloppy on top. Torres is coming off a loss to Johnson, and he probably needs to go on a two-fight winning streak before the UFC would give him a crack at Cruz. He can start that streak at UFC 139, when he fights Nick Pace.
9. Brad Pickett (8): After putting together some very impressive performances in the WEC, the British Pickett will finally make his UFC debut on his home turf at UFC 138 in Birmingham, England, where he’ll face …
10. Renan Barão (9): Barao is on an incredible run, having won 26 straight fights (with one no contest) since dropping his professional MMA debut in 2005. However, all but the last three of those fights have been against little-known opponents on small Brazilian shows. Going to England to face Pickett represents a big step up in quality of competition for Barao, and the fight represents a very good match-up to determine which one of them really deserves to be considered a Top 10 bantamweight.
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsJoseph Benavidez doesn’t get enough respect.
Benavidez is probably the best flyweight in MMA, but he so far hasn’t had the opportunity to prove that because the UFC doesn’t have a flyweight class. So the tiny B…
Benavidez is probably the best flyweight in MMA, but he so far hasn’t had the opportunity to prove that because the UFC doesn’t have a flyweight class. So the tiny Benavidez is fighting bigger guys at 135 pounds, and he’s doing a remarkable job of it, beating every single opponent he’s faced except the bantamweight champion, Dominick Cruz.
That makes Benavidez the No. 2 bantamweight in MMA, and yet the No. 2 bantamweight in MMA doesn’t even get to fight on TV: His victory over Eddie Wineland at UFC on Versus 5 was shown only on Facebook, not on Versus. If Benavidez were the flyweight champion, he’d be fighting on the top of the card. Instead he’s fighting on Facebook.
And since Benavidez has already had his chances at Cruz and lost, he’s going to remain stuck as the No. 2 fighter in a weight class the UFC doesn’t do much to promote. At least until the flyweight class opens up.
Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA (Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)
1. Dominick Cruz (1): Cruz’s upcoming bantamweight title defense against Demetrious Johnson will be shown on Versus, not on pay-per-view, a further illustration of how the bantamweight class hasn’t really been fully integrated into the UFC. But it’s a great deal for fans to get a pay-per-view-worthy fight for free.
2. Joseph Benavidez (4): When he’s not fighting Cruz, he dominates: Benavidez is 15-2 in his career, with the two losses coming to Cruz and the 15 wins featuring eight submissions, three TKOs and four unanimous decisions, none of which was close.
3. Brian Bowles (2): The former WEC bantamweight champion, whose only loss came to Cruz, will almost certainly get the next shot at the bantamweight belt if he can beat Urijah Faber at UFC 139 in November.
4. Urijah Faber (3): Even though he just lost to Cruz in his last fight, beating Bowles might be enough for Faber to get another shot at the bantamweight title. In a largely overlooked weight class, Faber is still the most popular fighter, and he’s the only bantamweight the UFC would put in a pay-per-view main event.
5. Demetrious Johnson (5): Can Johnson beat Cruz? It’s an awfully tall order. Johnson has good takedowns and is a good wrestler, but Cruz rarely allows his opponents to get close enough to him to take him down. The oddsmakers have installed Johnson as a +300 or higher underdog, which means Johnson beating Cruz would be almost as big an upset as Yushin Okami beating Anderson Silva.
6. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen draws Jeff Curran at UFC 137, in a fight that Jorgensen should win handily. Curran has had a long and impressive MMA career, but it’s been five years since Curran beat anyone notable.
7. Miguel Torres (7): Torres was the best bantamweight in the world a few years ago, but he needs some time to regroup after having lost three of his last five. At age 30 it’s not too late for Torres to get back into bantamweight title contention, but younger, faster opponents like Benavidez and Johnson have exposed some flaws in Torres’ game.
8. Brad Pickett (8): The British Pickett gets to fight in front of his home crowd at UFC 138, when he takes on Renan Barao in Birmingham, England. Pickett has won 10 of his last 11 fights but has been sidelined all of this year with an injury.
9. Renan Barão (10): Barao lost his first pro fight and has gone an incredible 26-0 since then, including a unanimous decision victory over Cole Escovedo at UFC 130. He hasn’t faced anyone nearly as good as Pickett during that streak, however, so he’s getting ready for his toughest test yet.
10. Eddie Wineland (9): Wineland is coming off back-to-back decision losses, but he looked good enough in losing to Faber and Benavidez that he deserves to remain in the Top 10. Barely.
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsDemetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is the next big thing in the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts. Or maybe the next little thing.
Johnson is small even by bantamweight standards (if the UFC ever adds …
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is the next big thing in the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts. Or maybe the next little thing.
Johnson is small even by bantamweight standards (if the UFC ever adds a 125-pound flyweight class, he’ll probably join it), but he showed once again in his UFC 130 victory over Miguel Torres that he has strong enough wrestling that he can take down bigger opponents, keep them down, and grind out decisions. And Johnson is so quick moving in and out that he has managed to avoid the “boring” label that’s too often fastened to fighters who rely on their wrestling like that.
There’s no telling how far the 24-year-old Johnson can go, but he’s already come a long way: See just how high he is on the bantamweight board below.
(Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)
1. Dominick Cruz (1): The champion is now less than a month away from his long-awaited rematch with Urijah Faber at UFC 132. In that fight, Faber retained the WEC featherweight title and handed Cruz the only loss of his career. This time Cruz is the champion, and the favorite.
2. Urijah Faber (2): Faber beat Cruz handily last time, but the big question is whether he’s as good a fighter now as he was then. The 32-year-old Faber has looked like he’s slowing down in the last couple of years, while the 25-year-old Cruz is still improving. It’s a tough fight to call.
3. Joseph Benavidez (3): His fight with Eddie Wineland in August in Milwaukee will be a good challenge for Benavidez, who is 14-2 in his MMA career, with both losses coming by decision against Cruz.
4. Brian Bowles (4): The Cruz-Faber main event isn’t the only big bantamweight fight at UFC 132: Bowles fights Takeya Mizugaki on the undercard. A Bowles win could set him up for the next shot at the Cruz-Faber winner.
5. Demetrious Johnson (NR): The UFC really ought to give Johnson a pay raise. Earning $6,000 to show and a $6,000 bonus for winning just isn’t enough for a fighter who’s in the Top 5 of his weight class. Johnson isn’t a big draw now, but he looks like a future title contender, and a long-term contract extension would seem to make sense for both the UFC and Johnson.
6. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen showed off some very impressive ground and pound against Ken Stone at the Ultimate Fighter Finale, with a brutal right hand to Stone’s chin from inside Stone’s guard, knocking him cold. Jorgensen was outclassed by Cruz when they fought for the bantamweight title in December, and I wouldn’t give him much of a chance in a rematch, but he’s a threat to anyone else in the division.
7. Miguel Torres (5): It’s tough to see the way Torres has fallen: He’s lost three of his last five after starting his career 37-1. Torres still has plenty of good fights left in him, but it’s probably not realistic to think he’ll ever get the bantamweight title back.
8. Brad Pickett (NR): Pickett was supposed to fight Torres at UFC 130, but an injury forced him out of the fight and Johnson took his spot. Pickett beat Johnson in April of 2010, and you could make an argument that he deserves to be ranked higher than Johnson because of that, but I have Johnson ahead of Pickett based on how much Johnson looks like he’s improved in the last 14 months.
9. Eddie Wineland (8): Wineland lost to Faber in March but gave him a much tougher fight than most people expected, and now he’s got a big fight with Benavidez in August. Wineland has been around a long time (he was the first WEC featherweight champion), and sometimes that makes people forget that he’s only 26 years old and is still getting better.
10. Renan Barão (9): Barao’s unanimous decision victory over Cole Escovedo at UFC 130 runs his incredible streak to 26 straight wins (with one no contest mixed in). It’s time to see how Barao does against Top 10 competition.
It’s been an interesting road, but after nearly eight years, 
One of the things that demonstrates 
Joseph Benavidez
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is the next big thing in the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts. Or maybe the next little thing.