“They brought me into this fight as a fish for Shogun to eat.”
So said Brandon Vera during yesterday’s hour-long “UFC’s Road to the Octagon” special on FOX, which previewed next weekend’s UFC on FOX: Shogun vs. Vera card in Los Angeles. Vera is well aware that few people are giving him a chance in the night’s headliner — especially considering that he hasn’t had an impressive victory in over three years — but the opportunity to fight Shogun and return to elite-fighter status has given him new motivation for training.
“They brought me into this fight as a fish for Shogun to eat.”
So said Brandon Vera during yesterday’s hour-long “UFC’s Road to the Octagon” special on FOX, which previewed next weekend’s UFC on FOX: Shogun vs. Vera card in Los Angeles. Vera is well aware that few people are giving him a chance in the night’s headliner — especially considering that he hasn’t had an impressive victory in over three years — but the opportunity to fight Shogun and return to elite-fighter status has given him new motivation for training.
The “Road to the Octagon” special also previews the Ryan Bader vs. Lyoto Machida co-main event. Coming off his grisly loss to Jon Jones — his third loss in his last four fights — Machida may have more to lose if he doesn’t turn in a good performance on Saturday. As for Bader, the TUF 8 winner has momentum again coming off a pair of wins over Jason Brilz and Quinton Jackson, so this fight will determine where he stands in the division. A win sets him up as a title contender. A loss could give him a reputation as a guy who collapses when it counts.
We’ll leave you with one last fish analogy. Here’s Machida discussing his tendency to drop his left hand while throwing his flurries of straight punches: “Some people see it as a mistake. When you go fishing, it’s better to have a nice piece of bait. That way you can catch a bigger fish.”
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, Light HeavyweightsOther than Jon Jones, no light heavyweight in mixed martial arts has been more impressive than Dan Henderson in the last 12 months.
Henderson brutally knocked out Renato “Babalu” Sobral in December, won th…
Other than Jon Jones, no light heavyweight in mixed martial arts has been more impressive than Dan Henderson in the last 12 months.
Henderson brutally knocked out Renato “Babalu” Sobral in December, won the Strikeforce light heavyweight title with a TKO over Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante in March, took another TKO victory over Fedor Emelianenko in July as a light heavyweight fighting against a heavyweight, and then beat Shogun Rua in an all-time classic at UFC 139.
So where does that put Henderson? He’s certainly in our light heavyweight Top 5, but it’s still tough to justify Henderson going higher than fifth. Henderson did, after all, lose to Rampage Jackson, who lost to Rashad Evans, who lost to Lyoto Machida (who also lost to Rampage). The light heavyweight division has been so competitive for so long, with so many of the top fighters picking each other off, that after Jones, any of the next five guys could easily be put in any order. My order is below.
1. Jon Jones (1): The light heavyweight champion has easily separated himself from the pack, with two dominant wins over two other Top 10 light heavyweights, Shogun Rua and Rampage Jackson. Jones will try to make it three dominant wins over three other Top 10 light heavyweights when he takes on Lyoto Machida on December 10 at UFC 140.
2. Rashad Evans (2): Evans is a tough one to rank because he’s been so inactive of late: He’s only fought three times in the last two and a half years. But he’s been impressive in all three of those fights, beating Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson and Thiago Silva, and he has earned the light heavyweight title shot that he’ll supposedly get whenever he and Jones are healthy and able to fight at the same time.
3. Lyoto Machida (4): Machida is a tough one to rank: Should he be below Evans, even though he brutally beat Evans? Should he be above Rampage and Shogun, even though both of them beat him? There’s really no fair way to rank them, since Evans, Machida and Jackson all went 1-1 in their fights against each other. Machida will get a chance to show where he belongs in the light heavyweight division when he takes on Jones.
4. Rampage Jackson (5): Jackson has fought all the best of the best in the light heavyweight division, beating Machida and Henderson in the UFC, and losing to Jones, Evans and Forrest Griffin in the UFC and Shogun in Pride. It’s impossible not to put Rampage behind someone he’s beaten and above someone he’s lost to, but given the totality of his career No. 4 sounds about right.
5. Dan Henderson (6): As great as Henderson has looked in the last year, I can’t rank him ahead of Rampage, given what happened when Rampage and Henderson fought. I’d sure love to see a rematch of that one, though.
6. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (3): Shogun is only 2-3 in his last five fights, but it’s about as impressive a 2-3 record as a light heavyweight could possibly have: The two wins were brutal first-round knockouts of Machida and Griffin, while the three losses were close decisions against Machida and Henderson, and a loss to Jones in which he admittedly looked bad — but then again Jones makes everyone look bad.
7. Forrest Griffin (7): The biggest question about Griffin is whether, at age 32 and having a wife and kid, he’s still interested in completely committing himself to MMA. When Griffin is on, he’s good enough to beat high-quality opponents like Rich Franklin, Rampage and Shogun. He looked decidedly off in his rematch loss to Shogun in August, however.
8. Rafael Cavalcante (8): Feijao bounced back from his loss to Henderson and beat Yoel Romero Palacio in September, and now would be a good time to see him in the UFC, where there are a lot more good fights for him.
9. Phil Davis (9): The 9-0 Davis was pulled from a fight with Evans in August because of a knee injury, and there’s still no word on when he’ll be ready to return. A former NCAA wrestling champion, Davis is one of the most talented athletes in the light heavyweight division, and he’ll be fighting for the belt eventually.
10. Thiago Silva (10): I’ve been waiting for someone to step up and take the bottom spot in the Top 10 from Silva, who’s been suspended all year for taking performance-enhancing drugs. But no one has really been able to do that, and so Silva stays. He should return early in 2012.
The suits on Wall Street keep whispering about a ‘Halloween indicator‘ and how now is not a time to sell; rather we should sit back and let our riches mount. Call it what you will, but millions watched UFC on FOX and UFC 139 and concluded the same thing: Most fighter’s stocks are rising steadily. Even if you’re not sure which is the true Fight of the Year from this weekend — Dan Henderson vs. Marucio Rua or Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler — you’ll know how to safeguard your hypothetical MMA portfolio’s worth after playing another round of ‘Buy, Sell, Hold’.
Stephan Bonnar: Buy
It’s hard to believe that any TUF veteran could take nearly a year off from the sport and return with the engine firing on all cylinders, but Stephan Bonnar did just that. The BJJ schooling he dished out was almost as surprising as his apology to Josh Koscheck for making those damn shirts. Even that wasn’t the most unexpected thing to happen; one judge gave the ‘American Psycho’ a 30-25 victory. Grab hold of any unclaimed stock before he starts getting big fights and Dana declares him “in the mix.”
(In a way, we were all the “Screaming PRIDE Lady” that night. / Photo courtesy of Esther Lin, MMA Fighting)
The suits on Wall Street keep whispering about a ‘Halloween indicator‘ and how now is not a time to sell; rather we should sit back and let our riches mount. Call it what you will, but millions watched UFC on FOX and UFC 139 and concluded the same thing: Most fighter’s stocks are rising steadily. Even if you’re not sure which is the true Fight of the Year from this weekend — Dan Henderson vs. Marucio Rua or Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler — you’ll know how to safeguard your hypothetical MMA portfolio’s worth after playing another round of ‘Buy, Sell, Hold’.
Stephan Bonnar: Buy
It’s hard to believe that any TUF veteran could take nearly a year off from the sport and return with the engine firing on all cylinders, but Stephan Bonnar did just that. The BJJ schooling he dished out was almost as surprising as his apology to Josh Koscheck for making those damn shirts. Even that wasn’t the most unexpected thing to happen; one judge gave the ‘American Psycho’ a 30-25 victory. Grab hold of any unclaimed stock before he starts getting big fights and Dana declares him “in the mix.”
Kyle Kingsbury: Sell it like a dog with fleas
When Kyle Kingsbury comes to mind, so does the letter ‘O’ – as in Outclassed, Outworked, and Oxymoron. Not once did this guy look like he belonged in the Octagon despite his four-fight win streak since losing his UFC debut against “Filthy” Tom Lawlor at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale. Do not let critics scare you into keeping an underperforming stock by calling you a prisoner of the moment. After all, this is mixed martial arts where you’re only as good as your last fight.
Martin Kampmann – Buy
While some would argue that Martin Kampmann should be riding a five-fight win streak right now — with his previous decision losses to Jake Shields and Diego Sanchez falling somewhere between “questionable” and “straight bullshit” — the truth is that the Hitman was one pitch away from being struck out. Just like baseball, MMA has its own set of unwritten rules, one of which is ‘three losses and you’re cut’, unless you’re Dan Hardy. Thankfully for the Danish fighter, he decoded the opponent’s signals, managed to hit a solid line drive, and made it on base. Keep your eye on this guy; big things are on the horizon.
Rick Story – Hold, Please
There are still a few chapters yet to be written about Rick Story‘s mixed martial arts career. What seemed at first to be a low comedy is now looking more like a familiar tragedy. The hype train derailed after Story was dominated by late replacement Charlie Brenneman at UFC Live: Kongo vs. Barry. Being fully aware that Story took that fight a little less than a month after defeating Thiago Alves, I still don’t like this investment at the moment because everything has to go right to make the stock go to the next level, and that’s a very tough call in this particular environment. Maybe he should listen to Joe Rogan going forward; at least he could tell Rick that giving up your back in the third round is not the wisest decision.
Urijah Faber – Buy it like they’re giving it away from free
Dominic Cruz will defend his Bantamweight title against “The California Kid” in a rubber match after Urijah Faber took out top contender Brian Bowles via submission. If it seems like we’re experiencing deja vu it’s because these two took Fight of the Night honors this past summer at UFC 132, a mere four months ago. Faber methodically picked his opponent apart and managed not to break his hands in the process. Kudos are in order. It won’t matter if he beats Cruz this time around just as it won’t matter if he never wins a belt in the UFC. People love this guy and so should you. TCKUF is MMA’s version of MEG.
Brian Bowles – Dump it like a Kardashian
Brian Bowles‘ calm acceptance of not being “one of the cool kids” is like me being okay with not being nominated for Journalist of the Year in the sense that any other reaction is complete nonsense and no amount of objection to the contrary would do a damn bit of good. The fear of breaking his hands again alone is enough to make the former champion hesitant and uncomfortable fighting the same style that lead to him headlining fight cards. I doubt he will ever be a legitimate contender again; for this reason I’m dumping all BB stock I own and suggest you do likewise.
Cung Le – Hold
I find it difficult to fault the Hollywood action star/three-time Wushu World Championships bronze medalist/2007 Kung Fu Artist of the Year/Former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion/lover of many slashes for coming up short in his UFC debut. Those pesky Octagon jitters are real, knowmsayin? Questionable stoppage or not, Cung Le was not going to win that fight. It just wasn’t meant to be, which leads me to the rest of the fighters on the UFC 139 PPV…
Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, and Shogun Rua – Buy, Buy, Buy
Three former champions from PRIDE, Strikeforce, and UFC, all of whom are future Hall of Famers, looked defeat in the eyes and declared that they would not go down without a fight. “The Axe Murderer” got clipped, went down, and came back to welcome the aforementioned Cung Le to the big show the proper way — by punching and kneeing him into a bloody pulp. There’s a certain country in the Pacific Ocean that is just dying to see Wanderlei Silva return to the Land of the Rising Sun that will undoubtedly yield massive short term dividends.
Immediately after, Dan Henderson and Maurico “Shogun” Rua battled it out in what Dana White says is one of the top three fights in MMA history. Despite the initial reaction of the masses after seeing undefeated Michael Chandler choke out Eddie Alvarez for the Bellator lightweight championship, Hendo vs. Shogun is quite possibly the single best fight anyone has ever had the privilege of watching. Both men were rocked, bloodied, and generally pretty banged up entering the final round, one that never would have happened if Josh Rosenthal had his way. Henderson may have got the ‘W’, but both are winners in the eyes of the fans, even if some insist the fight should have been ruled a draw requiring an immediate rematch.
Load up on these fighters’ stock if you want to avoid being beaten with a stick — or worse! Until next time….
Filed under: UFCWhat a weekend. If you were one of the people who decided that you’d had enough MMA lately and it was time to get out of the house on Saturday night and go see the new Twilight movie, let’s just say you got what you deserved.
What a weekend. If you were one of the people who decided that you’d had enough MMA lately and it was time to get out of the house on Saturday night and go see the new Twilight movie, let’s just say you got what you deserved.
The rest of us were treated to an amazing UFC event (not to mention a great lightweight battle between Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez in Bellator), we didn’t even have to fight through a crowd of pre-teen girls to get a good seat.
Now that it’s all over and we’ve had a chance to clear our heads and think rationally again, it’s time to look at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: (tie) Dan Henderson and “Shogun” Rua
Centuries from now, when future generations attempt to learn about our culture by digging through the ruins of our athletic commission offices, the records they discover will only tell them that Hendo won a unanimous decision over Rua at UFC 139. What it won’t tell them is that, honestly, no one really lost that fight. Rua helped make it a classic by battling back from the brink of unconsciousness in almost every round. Hendo just couldn’t put the Brazilian away, and after twenty minutes of trying he barely had enough gas left to sputter across the finish line in the fifth. Personally, I gave Rua a 10-8 in that final round, which would have resulted in a draw. I know, I know — a tie is like making out with your sister while eating non-fat ice cream. Still, I think it would have been a fitting end, not that you can really be upset about any outcome after a scrap like that. Together, Henderson and Rua pushed each other to a new level of greatness. It was a collaborative effort that required both man’s mix of skill, toughness, and almost self-destructive resolve. Neither could have reached this height without the other forcing him to it, and for that the MMA world will forever remember both of them as equal partners in one of the greatest fights the sport has ever known.
Biggest Loser: Brian Bowles
This was his big chance to get back into a title shot, and he was simply outclassed by Faber. You can’t question his toughness. The sound of that uppercut he took was enough to make me reach up and make sure that my own teeth were still there, so I can’t even imagine how he battled through that. But when it came to launching an offense of his own, it was clear very early on that he just didn’t have much to threaten Faber with. It’s not a catastrophic end for the 10-2 Bowles, but it does knock him down the bantamweight ladder, making you wonder if he’ll ever get a meaningful title around his waist again. He’s probably still better than about 90 percent of the guys in the division, but the gap between Bowles and the top two men in the weight class is a chasm of talent that I’m not sure he’ll ever be able to find his way across.
Best, Slightly Troubling Redemption Story: Wanderlei Silva
There were definitely flashes of the old Wand in his TKO win over Cung Le. He took a few hard shots and stayed upright. He attacked with a ferocious, though measured aggression. In general, he proved that he’s not quite ready to be hauled off to the scrap yard just yet, which is a little bit worrisome, to be honest. It’s not that the win wasn’t a great one, or one that he needed in a bad, bad way. And not to get all double-rainbow on you, but what does it mean? Le’s never been known as an especially powerful striker, so it’s tough to tell if Silva’s ability to withstand his blows is necessarily proof that his chin is solid again. It’s not hard to imagine a situation where he interprets this victory as a sign that he’s back in the saddle and ready to brawl again, with the end result being several more bad knockouts before he once again faces the same difficult decisions. In a perfect world, maybe this would be the win that lets him go out on a high note. In the real world, he probably won’t be happy he takes a few more thumps on the skull.
Best Case for a Rubber Match: Urijah Faber
“The California Kid” did all the right things this weekend. Not only did he dispatch Bowles in impressive fashion, he also talked up his rivalry with champion Dominick Cruz. Before their second fight he was content to play the cool kid and let Cruz look like the one driving the animosity. After losing the decision, Faber now seems genuinely irked and hungry for a decisive showdown, which is exactly what the 135-pound division needs right now. Faber likes to make Cruz out to be a point-fighter who’s learned how to game the judges, but that’s a little too dismissive. The champ has real skills, and Faber knows it. What’s still unclear is if he has an answer for those skills, but we should find out soon enough. Faber better make the most of this shot. If he loses, it’s likely the last one he’ll get.
Least Likely to Complete His Full UFC Contract: Cung Le
He told us a few days before the fight that he signed a six-fight deal with the UFC and planned to make the most of it, but I have a hard time imagining that after his performance this weekend. It’s not that he looked bad, but his style and his age are both working against him. Le is 39 years old and this was only his third fight in the last two years. Most of his prior MMA career has been spent out-kicking overmatched opponents, but he won’t get such cozy treatment in the UFC. After showing up on the scales with a physique that’s starting to show its age, then getting his face smashed in by Silva, it’s very possible that he might soon decide he’s better off making his money on the movie set than the Octagon.
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Most Deserving of a Step Up: Michael McDonald
The 20-year-old bantamweight looked flawless in a quick destruction of late fill-in Alex Soto. His striking is crisp, his poise is impressive (especially considering his youth), and the UFC obviously sees the potential in him. I know Dana White probably doesn’t want to rush his development and get him crushed, but at 14-1 and with three UFC bouts under his belt, he’s ready to move up to the next level of competition and take his spot on the main card.
Narrowest Escape: Martin Kampmann
Not that he didn’t deserve to win — he did. But if I’d just been screwed by the judges at least once, maybe even twice in my last two fights, I might have been a little worried about letting them decide my fate a third time. Fortunately for Kampmann, they got it right this time (Dana White claimed that the judge who scored the fight with Story had actually meant to score it for Kampmann) and he’s finally back in the win column. It’s about time.
Worst Display of Professionalism: (tie) Shamar Bailey and Nick Pace
They both came in over the mark at Friday’s weigh-ins, then both ended up on the losing end in Saturday’s fights. As strategies for ensuring some degree of job security in the UFC go, that’s about as bad as it gets. Bailey came in at 158 pounds for a 155-pound fight, while Pace clocked in at 141 for a fight at 135. That smacks of disrespect for your opponent and yourself, and it also costs you a significant chunk of your purse. Making weight is part of being a professional, and it should be a given at this level. If you can’t do it — and if you make things worse by following it up with a loss afterward — then you won’t be at this level for long.
Most Surprising: Stephan Bonnar
It’s not that he dominated Kyle Kingsbury on the mat for most their fight. That was something many people saw coming. But his public apology to Josh Koscheck in his post-fight interview? Now that was a shock. If you don’t know, Koscheck and Bonnar got into it over Bonnar’s decision to use a very Koscheck-like image and design for his Trash Talkin’ Kids t-shirt line. Koscheck didn’t approve, Bonnar didn’t much care, and Koscheck sued him when he went ahead with the plan. Despite the disparity in weight, a feud seemed to be simmering there, but Bonnar squashed it by apologizing in the cage and admitting that Koscheck was right all along. That was the right way to play it, and it proves once again that Bonnar is one of the genuine good guys in this sport. Koscheck? He’s not winning any awards for congeniality, but he’s okay too, I guess.
UFC 139 might have been the event that flew under many people’s radar, but the main event delivered in a big, big way. Now the MMA Wrap-Up returns to examine the questions of Dan Henderson and “Shogun” Rua‘s greatness, and ask where it falls among the great achievements of our time. Or, you know, something like that.
UFC 139 might have been the event that flew under many people’s radar, but the main event delivered in a big, big way. Now the MMA Wrap-Up returns to examine the questions of Dan Henderson and “Shogun” Rua‘s greatness, and ask where it falls among the great achievements of our time. Or, you know, something like that.
Filed under: UFCAmong the MMA media who log serious frequent flier miles following the UFC around the country all year, it takes something major to jar them out of the vague sense that fight night is another day at the office.
Among the MMA media who log serious frequent flier miles following the UFC around the country all year, it takes something major to jar them out of the vague sense that fight night is another day at the office.
That’s not to say that even the most grizzled road warriors on press row aren’t appreciative of having a job they love following a sport they’re passionate about, but when you start to hear the UFC’s in-arena playlist in your sleep (damn you, techno remix of “Hotel California”!), some of the action can start to feel routine.
Then you get an event like UFC 139, which ended with quite possibly the best fight any of us had ever seen. As Dan Henderson and “Shogun” Rua battled back and forth for five rounds, a sense of baffled astonishment set in. It’s that rare moment where you realize you’re witnessing something amazing, even as that something is still happening. You could look at the faces of the fans in the arena and picture them preparing to tell their grandchildren about this night decades from now.
Afterwards, I tried to compare scorecards with ESPN writer (and fellow University of Montana alum — go Griz) Chad Dundas. Personally, I had the fight a draw, but you could make case for almost any result, and I was curious how Chad scored it.
“Awesome,” he replied. “I scored it ‘awesome.'”
Two things about that: 1) It’s a good thing he isn’t an actual judge, because the phrase, “Judge Chad Dundas scores the bout awesome,” probably wouldn’t go over well with any commission (well, maybe Texas wouldn’t care), and 2) I can’t disagree. That fight was awesome, and it almost doesn’t matter who got the official nod from the judges at the end.
Some more fight night musings, scribbled from 35,000 feet and culled from a brain suffering from severe sleep-deprivation:
– Hendo will likely get a title shot soon, but in which division? Dana White said he was open to letting Henderson challenge for a belt at either middleweight or light heavyweight, depending on which one is available first. The thing about that is, Henderson has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to be a 185-pounder full-time. Even if he won the belt, he told us earlier this week, he might not stick around to defend it. He simply hates the weight cut that much. Don’t tell that to White, however, who said that if Hendo did beat Anderson Silva, a rubber match would only make sense.
“I think Hendo would go back down [to 185 pounds] for that too,” said the UFC prez. “I think these guys will go wherever the big money fights are.”
In other words, White’s betting that Henderson likes money more than he hates dieting. He might have a point.
– Even though both the UFC middleweight and light heavyweight champs have contenders in line to face them, don’t assume that those match-ups are set in stone. Henderson tweeted from the hospital that he was suffering only from a sprained thumb, which seems almost impossible to believe, but might mean that he won’t need as much time off as you’d expect after a fight like that. That could be important if the UFC finds itself suddenly in need of his services. Talking with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva before the event, he claimed that he’d gone back and crunched the numbers for this year and was slightly amazed to discover that about half his original main events in 2011 had been altered or scuttled entirely by injuries. He seemed to think that the intensity of the sparring in many gyms was to blame, but regardless of the cause, it makes you think twice about assuming that any title shot promises are truly guaranteed. An injury to the champ or the challenger, and the picture could change in a hurry. The show must go on, after all.
– Wanderlei Silva‘s win doesn’t automatically extend the life of his career indefinitely. Even with the dramatic TKO victory over Cung Le, White didn’t seem like he was at all ready to retract his previous statements about wanting to see Silva hang it up. When the knockouts start piling up, he said, it’s time to go — regardless of whether you can still win one here or there.
“People can disagree with me or whatever. Go start your own organization. I’m not doing it,” he added.
As for how Silva will take that message, White sounded an optimistic tone, saying “I think he gets it. It’s pretty clear. I’ve been very open and honest about it.”
So has Silva, and he doesn’t sound like a man who’s ready for the rocking chair just yet. File this little battle under ‘To be continued.’
– If you think the UFC schedule is crazy now, just wait. White had to sit out from some of the pre-UFC 139 media responsibilities because he was just so worn down after the stress of the first FOX show, which is understandable. But after this emotionally-draining night in San Jose, the UFC is back in Vegas in two weeks, then Toronto the week after that, then Vegas again for the end of the year. In 2012, with the FOX deal starting up and ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ going live, things really get insane.
“The schedule is looking ugly, man. Especially for me,” White admitted. “There’s 26 weeks alone of live television. 26 weeks of live television, every Friday night ends in a live fight, then I have to jump on a plane and fly to wherever we are on Saturday, then start all over again on Monday.”
That’s a travel schedule that even pro wrestlers and Rolling Stones roadies would wince at, and it already appears to be taking a toll on White. What will become of the organization if he runs himself into the ground? He doesn’t sound too worried about it.
“This is McDonald’s, man,” he said. “This thing goes on forever without me. Is it different without me? Yeah maybe it’s a little different without me, but they don’t need me, man.”
– I’m not sure how the UFC so consistently manages to position press row so near to each arena’s foremost striking expert, but it does. This time, media members were treated to several hours worth of one ticket-holding genius shouting for the “2-4” combination. He must have thought it was a flawless attack, since he offered the same advice to nearly every fighter, from Nick Pace to Wanderlei Silva to Dan Henderson. None of them listened to him, of course, but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm any. A note to those of you who plan on attending a live event: it’s not a damn Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, people. The fighters are not taking your requests, no matter how loudly you shout the MMA equivalent of ‘play Free Bird!’ at them.
– Anybody complaining about an early stoppage in the Cung Le-Silva fight obviously didn’t see Le’s face as he made his way to the locker room. Remember how badly his nose was smashed at the end of his first bout with Scott Smith? It was a lot like that, only with more assorted lumps about the rest of his face to accompany it. You could tell by the way he lunged for that desperate takedown attempt: Le was done. Even if he could have gone on a few more seconds, better to stop it just a tad too soon than to let it go on a punch too far.
– Urijah Faber is more willing than ever to be Dominick Cruz’s bantamweight nemesis. Before their rematch, he was somewhat reluctant to assume that mantle. Now that he’s had some time to stew on that decision loss, however, he’s all about the rivalry. Not only did he call out Cruz in his post-fight remarks, telling him to “throw some gel in that widow’s peak,” but he later insisted that Cruz’s narrow win didn’t prove him to be the better fighter, hence the need for a rubber match.
“We’ll find out who’s the man for the rest of our lives,” Faber said. “That’s important to me.”
No kidding.
– Ronda Rousey got the UFC president’s attention with her grisly armbar win at Strikeforce: Challengers. White actually referenced the nasty ending to that fight when lambasting the referee in the Chris Weidman-Tom Lawlor fight for being slow to step in. Weidman claimed he didn’t blame the ref for not believing him that Lawlor had been choked unconscious since “I could be trying to get a cheap victory with that,” for all the ref knew. White disagreed:
“I blame him. I do. You’re referee. You should know when somebody’s out. Get your ass in there and stop the fight. Same thing with the armbar last night in Las Vegas. …I blame him. 100 percent.”
Okay, so he didn’t call out Rousey by name, but we all know who he’s talking about. Just getting him to admit to watching a women’s MMA fight is a step in the right direction, even if he later insisted that his general feeling on the lack of depth in the women’s division is a deal-breaker for him. Baby steps.
– UFC headed to Sao Paulo in June? Magic Eight Ball says, ‘Outlook good.’ I was reluctant to believe White’s claim that Brazil is “our new Canada,” but the regular presence of Brazilian media members at UFC fights lately makes me think otherwise. One Brazilian reporter quizzed White about a newspaper report that the organization was headed for Sao Paulo in June — a question that clearly caught White off-guard.
“How’s this stuff get out?” he said, before changing gears and trying to play it coy, yet gleefully unsubtle. “I don’t know if we’re going to Sao Paulo in June, and if Anderson Silva’s headlining the card. No clue. That would be awesome, though.”
– Unsolicited travel tip: When you realize that you didn’t pack enough underwear for your excessively long road trip spanning back-to-back MMA events, think twice about trying to wash a pair in your hotel room’s bathroom sink. It takes longer to dry than you’d think, and attempting to wear them while still even a little bit damp will be a decision you immediately regret.
Other than 
What a weekend. If you were one of the people who decided that you’d had enough 
Among the MMA media who log serious frequent flier miles following the UFC around the country all year, it takes something major to jar them out of the vague sense that fight night is another day at the office.