Although it is no longer the main event of UFC 196, the UFC Fight Night 82 headline bout between former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks and rising contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is getting the “Countdown” treatment, and the full episode is now available.
Embedded above is the full episode of UFC Fight Night Countdown: Hendricks vs. Thompson, a 30-minute preview special focusing on this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 82 event, which takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The official description for UFC Fight Night Countdown reads as follows:
“UFC Fight Night Countdown goes all-access inside the training camps of two of the world’s best welterweights set to square off in Las Vegas.”
Make sure to visit MMANews.com on Saturday evening for complete UFC Fight Night 82: Hendricks vs. Thompson results.
https://youtu.be/_uknWF7B3uE
Although it is no longer the main event of UFC 196, the UFC Fight Night 82 headline bout between former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks and rising contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is getting the “Countdown” treatment, and the full episode is now available.
Embedded above is the full episode of UFC Fight Night Countdown: Hendricks vs. Thompson, a 30-minute preview special focusing on this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 82 event, which takes place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The official description for UFC Fight Night Countdown reads as follows:
“UFC Fight Night Countdown goes all-access inside the training camps of two of the world’s best welterweights set to square off in Las Vegas.”
Make sure to visit MMANews.com on Saturday evening for complete UFC Fight Night 82: Hendricks vs. Thompson results.
The injury-forced withdrawals of both Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum from UFC 196 presented the UFC with a peculiar, if not unfamiliar scenario, and left many fans wondering what magic the promotion still had up its sleeve after all these years. Would Dana & Co. book a freakish but totally watchable fight to serve in its place, ala UFC 153? Would they bring Ben Rothwell in to save the day, ala what they should have done with Fight Night 76? Or would they throw their hands in the air and outright cancel the event, ala UFC 176? The options were literally limitless.
As it turns out, however, the UFC went and pulled a rabbit out of its hat that not many of us saw coming, bumping up the co-main event between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to main event status and shifting the card from its previous pay-per-view spot to the totally free (depending on your cable package) Fox Sports 1 network instead.
“A non-Fight Night, numbered UFC event on free TV? What madness is this?!” we cried with a mix of astonishment and jubilation. It was an unprecedented move, to be sure, and one that unfortunately was too good to be true…
The injury-forced withdrawals of both Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum from UFC 196 presented the UFC with a peculiar, if not unfamiliar scenario, and left many fans wondering what magic the promotion still had up its sleeve after all these years. Would Dana & Co. book a freakish but totally watchable fight to serve in its place, ala UFC 153? Would they bring Ben Rothwell in to save the day, ala what they should have done with Fight Night 76? Or would they throw their hands in the air and outright cancel the event, ala UFC 176? The options were literally limitless.
As it turns out, however, the UFC went and pulled a rabbit out of its hat that not many of us saw coming, bumping up the co-main event between Johny Hendricks and Stephen Thompson to main event status and shifting the card from its previous pay-per-view spot to the totally free (depending on your cable package) Fox Sports 1 network instead.
“A non-Fight Night, numbered UFC event on free TV? What madness is this?!” we cried with a mix of astonishment and jubilation. It was an unprecedented move, to be sure, and one that unfortunately was too good to be true…
On a name basis, at least (you like that misdirection? SEO 101, babayy!!). Because while UFC 196′s card will still air on FS1 next Saturday as promised, it has officially been downgraded to “Fight Night 82,” per Bloody Elbow.
The UFC announced that the Super Bowl weekend show has been rebranded as UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson, as if it were a normal Fox Sports 1 card all along. The main card bout order has been upped to six fights (with the addition of Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer and Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson) to fill the three-hour broadcast, and Hendricks vs. Thompson has been elevated from three rounds to five.
Ooh boy, Johny “Steakhouse” Hendricks in a suddenly-upgraded five-rounder? Does the UFC not realize that having this man make weight is struggle enough? “Bigg Rigg” just had to close down his restaurant, dammit, he is stressed out as it is!
As a result of the Fight Night shuffle, UFC 197: McGregor vs. Dos Anjos has now been changed to UFC 196: McIlroy vs. Dos Santos. It doesn’t make sense to us either, you guys, but we’ll be damned if we’re going to say so publicly and risk being called a goof by The Baldfather on Twitter. That’s the final kiss of death for any once-mid-level-but-now-something-slightly-less-than MMA blog!
MAIN CARD (FOX Sports 1, 10 p.m. ET)
-Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson
-Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt
-Rafael Cavalcante vs. Ovince Saint Preux
-Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky
-Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson
-Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET)
-Josh Burkman vs. K.J. Noons
-Damian Grabowski vs. Derrick Lewis
-Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins
-Noad Lahat vs. Diego Rivas
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET)
-Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson
-Artem Lobov vs. Alex White
With Cain Velasquez pulling out, followed by Fabricio Werdum, the UFC 196 pay-per-view has officially been scrapped.
UFC President Dana White announced to Yahoo! Sports that UFC 196 will be pulled from…
Well, UFC finally made an official decision.
With Cain Velasquez pulling out, followed by Fabricio Werdum, the UFC 196 pay-per-view has officially been scrapped.
UFC President Dana White announced to Yahoo! Sports that UFC 196 will be pulled from pay-per-view and moved to FOX Sports 1, with Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson scheduled as the new main event for the FS1 card.
UFC 196: Hendricks vs. Thompson is scheduled for February 6, 2016 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
So yeah, pretty good so far. The bad news is, now that Matt Brown won’t be competing at UFC Fight Night 60, a welterweight bout between Stephen Thompson and Brandon Thatch will now serve as the main event (?!) of the February 14th card in Broomfield. Thompson is on a four-fight win streak, and most recently won a decision against Patrick Cote on the UFC 178 prelims in September. Thatch is 2-0 in the UFC, and is coming off his brutalization of Paulo Thiago back in November; all 11 of Thatch’s pro wins have come by first-round stoppage, with six of those wins coming in the first minute.
Make no mistake, Thompson vs. Thatch is a great matchup, and has the potential for beautiful, beautiful violence. But when Thompson vs. Thatch is the most high-profile fight on your card, blah blah something something oversaturation, you see where I’m going with this.
The 29-year-old Thatch has made quite an impression in just 2 UFC performances, stopping veterans Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago with strikes in a combined total of less than 4 minutes. Another fun fact about Thatch: He has stopped 11 out of his 12 opponents inside the first round, and 3 in less than 20 seconds. Got. Damn.
Thatch has also shown a willingness to take a shot to give one, however, which might not be the best strategy against a striker of Wonderboy’s caliber. Now 5-1 in the UFC and riding a 4-fight win streak, Thompson has looked almost untouchable in the octagon as of late, thanks in no small part to his wealth of kickboxing experience — 37 amateur and 20 professional matches, with 28 wins coming by knockout.
Predictions, please.
Random aside: Does anyone else miss the days when the UFC used to name each card? Numbering Fight Night cards make sense, sure, (and sounds a lot cooler than “Fight Night Broomfield”), but a return to naming the big cards would add a touch of flare to what many consider a continuously monotonous product. It would help each event stand out from the previous one, at the very least, and would occasionally make for some unintentionally hilarious results. And don’t even act like you wouldn’t be a *little* more excited for UFC 189: Battle in the Bayou 2 — Electric Boogaloo than Johnson vs. Stevenson, or whatever.
The 29-year-old Thatch has made quite an impression in just 2 UFC performances, stopping veterans Justin Edwards and Paulo Thiago with strikes in a combined total of less than 4 minutes. Another fun fact about Thatch: He has stopped 11 out of his 12 opponents inside the first round, and 3 in less than 20 seconds. Got. Damn.
Thatch has also shown a willingness to take a shot to give one, however, which might not be the best strategy against a striker of Wonderboy’s caliber. Now 5-1 in the UFC and riding a 4-fight win streak, Thompson has looked almost untouchable in the octagon as of late, thanks in no small part to his wealth of kickboxing experience – 37 amateur and 20 professional matches, with 28 wins coming by knockout.
Predictions, please.
Random aside: Does anyone else miss the days when the UFC used to name each card? Numbering Fight Night cards make sense, sure, (and sounds a lot cooler than “Fight Night Broomfield”), but a return to naming the big cards would add a touch of flare to what many consider a continuously monotonous product. It would help each event stand out from the previous one, at the very least, and would occasionally make for some unintentionally hilarious results. And don’t even act like you wouldn’t be a *little* more excited for UFC 189: Battle in the Bayou 2 — Electric Boogaloo than Johnson vs. Stevenson, or whatever.
Round-by-round results from the UFC 170 main card will be after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section.
Round-by-round results from the UFC 170 main card will be after the jump beginning at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and shoot us your own thoughts in the comments section.
Preliminary Card Results
– Alexis Davis def. Jessica Eye via split-decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
– Raphael Assuncao def. Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
– Aljamain Sterling def. Cody Gibson via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– Zach Makovsky def. Josh Sampo via unanimous decision (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
– Erik Koch def. Rafaello Oliveira via TKO, 1:24 of round 1
– Ernest Chavez def. Yosdenis Cedeno via split-decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
Robert Whittaker vs. Stephen Thompson
Naturally, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson comes out to “Wonderboy” by Tenacious D. Whittaker shows love to Australia by walking out to AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.”
Round 1: Thompson opens with a side kick. Whittaker sticks the jab. Whittaker throws a high kick. Thompson marches forward with punches, then lands a leg kick. Body kick then a leg kick from Thompson. He tries an outside axe kick that scores him style points if nothing else. Great head movement and counters from Thompson. Truly, he is the white Machida. A hook kick from Thompson lands. Whittaker pops the jab. Thompson drops Whittaker with a dead-on right straight, then swarms as Whittaker tries to get to his feet. Thompson clinches, fires in some knees, and clubs Whittaker down to the mat again. Thompson with a frenzy of ground and pound until Mario Yamasaki calls a stop to it. Impressive, violent finish from Wonderboy. Stephen Thompson def. Robert Whittaker via TKO, 3:43 of round 1.
Mike Pyle vs. TJ Waldburger
And now Waldburger is coming out to “TNT” by AC/DC. What the hell. He’s not even Australian. And Mike Pyle is rocking the mullet tonight. Waldburger is already dead.
Round 1: Waldburger lands first with a leg kick. Pyle lands a kick but almost eats a big overhand left in return. Pyle fires a pair of leg kicks. They trade leg kicks. Pyle dashed forward with punches. Pyle grabs a clinch and Waldburger pushes him against the fence. Pyle escapes with ease. Waldburger slips while throwing a kick and Pyle chases him when he gets up but can’t capitalize. Waldburger lands a right, then a left, then a leg kick. Pyle tries a front kick to the body, Waldburger grabs him, Pyle sweeps him to the mat and gets on top. Then, Pyle transitions into side control. Very slick work by Pyle tonight. But then Waldburger powers up to his feet and escapes. They clinch against the fence. Knees to the body then to the head from Pyle. Waldburger throws a pair of knees to Pyle’s leg as the round expires. 10-9 Pyle.
Round 2: Uh…I think my dog just erased everything I wrote for this round when he ran across my laptop. WTF. Short version: It was a much closer frame…Waldburger may have had a slight edge in the striking total, but Pyle had some good grappling moments and bloodied Waldburger’s face with knees.
Round 3: Hard right hand from Pyle and he smells blood. They clinch, Pyle shoulder-checks im in the face then lands a hard left hook. And then a spinning back elbow. Pyle is on fire. He lands two nasty elbows in the clinch then fires punches until Waldburger stumbles to the mat. Pyle almost gets a guillotine but Waldburger pulls out. Pyle bears the ever-loving fuck out of Waldburger with punches and elbows from the top. Joe Rogan asks Herb Dean why he’s not stopping the fight. This beating…it just keeps going. Okay, now Herb stopped the fight. Mike Pyle def. TJ Waldburger via TKO, 4:03 of round 3.
Rory MacDonald vs. Demian Maia
Round 1: They meet in the center of the cage and trade haymakers. Demian Maia shoots once, MacDonald defends. He tries it again and single-legs MacDonald to the mat. Maia trying to pass guard. He throws down an elbow. And boom, Maia scores mount. Maia softening MacDonald up with punches to the head and body. MacDonald tries to shrimp out and almost does it. Maia in half-guard now. MacDonald uses double-butterfly guard, trying to prevent the mount again. MacDonald kicks him off and gets up. Maia shoots and Rory defends. The two fighters start brawling and Maia lands the harder shots. MacDonald is bloodied. The round ends, and it’s an easy 10-9 for Maia.
Round 2: Maia landing some serious power punches, but MacDonald comes back with a series of head kicks that have Maia hurt. Maia shoots and fails. McDonald with a hard body kick and Maia shoots in desperation. MacDonald is having a lot of success with his kicks right now, which are landing at all levels. MacDonald lands a head kick as Maia is shooting in. MacDonald has Maia rocked with punches and kicks. MacDonald using his range really well, landing long jabs and straights. Overhand left from Maia, kicks to the body and leg from MacDonald. MacDonald with a kick to the body, a kick to the head. He tries a superman punch. MacDonald measure up Maia and stings him with a cross. He lands another body kick as the round ends. That round was all MacDonald, 10-9. We’re even heading into round 3, but Rory has the momentum.
Round 3: MacDonald with more long punches. Maia lands a left straight. MacDonald with more kicks to the body and head. MacDonald with another clean right hand. Maia shoots, unsuccessfully once again. MacDonald punches him in the face for it. MacDonald thoroughly outboxing Maia. Maia shoots for a single. Then he grabs both legs and slams MacDonald to the mat. Maia on top, MacDonald pushes him off and scrambles away. MacDonald fends off another takedown attempt. And another. MacDonald with a body punch before stuffing another takedown. MacDonald with a front kick to the body. MacDonald stuffs a takedown and makes Maia pay, landing a nice uppercut. MacDonald with jabs and another big uppercut. And a right straight. MacDonald stuffs one last takedown before the bell. Pretty clear 10-9 for Rory as far as I’m concerned. After a couple of back-to-back stinkers, that was a fantastic performance from Rory MacDonald. Hey look, all the judges got it right! Rory MacDonald def. Demian Maia via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3). “The animal is back,” MacDonald says. “I’m ready to kick some ass, I’m ready to kill…I want that belt.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have now entered the “squash match” portion of the evening…
Daniel Cormier vs. Patrick Cummins
Round 1: Cormier takes the center of the cage. Cummins lands a sharp leg kick. He shoots, Cormier defends. Cummins with a nice body kick. Cormier lands a hard uppercut. Some hockey-fighting from the clinch. Cummins literally turns his back and runs away. Cormier follows him and throws bombs. An uppercut from Cormier glances off the side of Cummins’s head, and Cummins hits the mat. Cormier starts throwing down bombs. Cummins rolls and turtles. More big, nasty shots from Cormier and it’s all over. Cummins tries to get to his feet. He looks disappointed with the stoppage, but come on bro, you were gonna get killed out there. Daniel Cormier def. Patrick Cummins via TKO, 1:19 of round 1.
Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann
Round 1: Rousey storms to the center of the Octagon, and McMann lands multiple punches to Ronda’s dome as she’s coming in. They clinch against the fence and Rousey lands a hard knee to the body and a sharp elbow. They trade knees. Rousey lands another knee to the liver and McMann drops to the mat and covers up. Herb Dean steps in…just as McMann grabs a leg and tries to recover. The crowd boos the stoppage as premature. But what are you gonna do, McMann dropped like a corpse. Ronda Rousey def. Sara McMann via TKO, 1:06 of round 1. So that’s what it looks like to see Ronda win by something other than an armbar…interesting.
Well damn, the main card is over in two hours, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to replay any of the prelims. Are Goldberg and Rogan going to have to kill time for a full hour? I want no part of this. Good night, all.
