(Well, it’s not like he didn’t try to tell us that he wouldn’t be available.)
You guys remember yesterday, right? As in the day before today? Also known as the day the Thiago Silva vs. Ovince St. Preux fight was announced by the UFC? Well GUESS AGAIN, MOTHERFUCKERS:
As of this write up, no specific reason (training injury, upcoming Ziggy Marley concert) has been given for Silva’s withdrawal from the fight. However, recent history seems to indicate that either:
a.) The UFC booked the fight and Silva immediately injured himself, which he is wont to do.
b.) The UFC assumed Silva was healthy and booked the fight without even consulting him first.
(Well, it’s not like he didn’t try to tell us that he wouldn’t be available.)
You guys remember yesterday, right? As in the day before today? Also known as the day the Thiago Silva vs. Ovince St. Preux fight was announced by the UFC? Well GUESS AGAIN, MOTHERFUCKERS:
As of this write up, no specific reason (training injury, upcoming Ziggy Marley concert) has been given for Silva’s withdrawal from the fight. However, recent history seems to indicate that either:
a.) The UFC booked the fight and Silva immediately injured himself, which he is wont to do.
b.) The UFC assumed Silva was healthy and booked the fight without even consulting him first.
This also begs the question: If the UFC is planning to hold 50ish events in 2014 and is already struggling to find enough healthy fighters for a 30ish event schedule, will fighters even know who they’re facing before they step into the cage come next year? Personally, I hope they don’t, if only because it will provide us with more classic moments like this:
Not even 24 hours after the UFC announced the bout, Thiago Silva is out of his UFC Fight Night 35 co-main event bout against Ovince St. Preux.
The news was revealed via the UFC’s official @UFCNews Twitter account. The update did not reveal if Silva was…
Not even 24 hours after the UFC announced the bout, Thiago Silva is out of his UFC Fight Night 35 co-main event bout against Ovince St. Preux.
The news was revealed via the UFC’s official @UFCNews Twitter account. The update did not reveal if Silva was injured or pulled from the card for another reason, but it did say that a new co-main event for UFC Fight Night 35 will be determined soon.
UFC Fight Night 35 takes place on Jan. 15 at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga. A middleweight fight between former Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold and Costas Philippou headlines the event.
Silva (16-3-2, 7-3-2 UFC) is coming off consecutive wins over Matt Hamill and Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, but the Brazilian’s recent UFC tenure has been a troublesome one. He failed a drug test following his UFC 125 win over Brandon Vera due to the usage of a urine adulterant. He was suspended for 12 months, and the win was turned into a no-contest.
Silva was suspended yet again—this time for six months—after failing a drug test for marijuana metabolites following his Nov. 2012 win over Stanislav Nedkov. Once again, the win became a no-contest.
He also missed weight for his win over Hamill, coming in at 208 pounds for the light heavyweight bout.
St. Preux (14-5, 2-0 UFC) made his promotional debut at UFC 159 after six fights under the Strikeforce banner. He has two consecutive wins over Cody Donovan and Gian Villante.
On the heels of a first round dismantling of Shawn Jordan at UFC 166, it seems that the 2006 Mundials champion will be receiving a significant step up in competition for his next bout when he faces Stipe Miocic at UFC on FOX 10 in January. Miocic recently rebounded from his first career loss — a second round TKO at the hands of Stefan Struve — by treating Roy Nelson‘s face like Jenna Jameson treats secretly installed home security cameras at UFC 161 back in June. Gonzaga has struggled when facing the upper-echelon of the heavyweight division his entire career, so this fight may very well be make-or-break if he ever hopes to fight for a title again.
UFC on FOX 10 goes down from the at United Center in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 25.
On the heels of a first round dismantling of Shawn Jordan at UFC 166, it seems that the 2006 Mundials champion will be receiving a significant step up in competition for his next bout when he faces Stipe Miocic at UFC on FOX 10 in January. Miocic recently rebounded from his first career loss — a second round TKO at the hands of Stefan Struve — by treating Roy Nelson‘s face like Jenna Jameson treats secretly installed home security cameras at UFC 161 back in June. Gonzaga has struggled when facing the upper-echelon of the heavyweight division his entire career, so this fight may very well be make-or-break if he ever hopes to fight for a title again.
UFC on FOX 10 goes down from the at United Center in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 25.
In other fight booking news…
Less than a fortnight prior to Gonzaga and Miocic’s sure-to-be-slugfest, the seemingly unfirable Thiago Silva will square off with Ovince St. Preux at Fight Night 35, which transpires on January 15, 2014 from the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia.
Despite missing weight for his fight with Matt Hamill at Fight Night 29, putting on a piss-poor performance, and only defeating Hamill by virtue of the TUF 3 finalist being in even worse shape than he was before he retired, Silva is still tapdancing on eggshells in regards to his UFC career. That he’s receiving a top-15 opponent in St. Preux — who scored a vicious KO over Cody Donovan at Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen in August (improving his overall UFC record to 2-0) — leads us to believe that this the UFC’s way of telling Silva to finally pull his head out of his ass.
(Who saw this coming? We did, that’s who. Photo via Getty.)
Until his initial retirement back in August of 2011, Matt Hamill was considered by most to be a perennial contender at 205 lbs., a fierce grappler with ever-improving striking and a positively inspirational member of the deaf community. While the latter accolade still remains true two years and one unretirement later, the former have seemingly (and sadly) all but vanished in Hamill’s recent octagon appearances.
I was ready to make this decision after UFC 130 but my friends, family coaches and most importantly my daughter encouraged me to give it one last chance. My career has been plagued by injuries starting with The Ultimate Fighter and disrupted my training ever since.
There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of non stop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest.
I have fallen in love with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and I will continue to coach at our gym Mohawk Valley MMA along side my teammates and help the next generation of fighters make it to the UFC.
You see, that’s the thing that has irked us most about Hamill’s decision to unretire (and we’ve mentioned this before) — his retirement, this statement, was just so, appropriate. Hamill seemed self-aware, he seemed content, and most of all, he seemed comfortable with the legacy he had left behind while understanding that his time — as a fighter, at least — had come and gone. It was a mature, thoughtful decision not often reached by most combat sports athletes, let alone MMA fighters. It was closure.
Less than a year after making said decision, Hamill recanted on it. And now, rather than retire with the aforementioned sense of closure, it appears that Hamill has been released by the UFC following his disheartening loss to Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29. God only knows what lies in store for “The Hammer” now.
(Who saw this coming? We did, that’s who. Photo via Getty.)
Until his initial retirement back in August of 2011, Matt Hamill was considered by most to be a perennial contender at 205 lbs., a fierce grappler with ever-improving striking and a positively inspirational member of the deaf community. While the latter accolade still remains true two years and one unretirement later, the former have seemingly (and sadly) all but vanished in Hamill’s recent octagon appearances.
I was ready to make this decision after UFC 130 but my friends, family coaches and most importantly my daughter encouraged me to give it one last chance. My career has been plagued by injuries starting with The Ultimate Fighter and disrupted my training ever since.
There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of non stop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest.
I have fallen in love with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and I will continue to coach at our gym Mohawk Valley MMA along side my teammates and help the next generation of fighters make it to the UFC.
You see, that’s the thing that has irked us most about Hamill’s decision to unretire (and we’ve mentioned this before) — his retirement, this statement, was just so, appropriate. Hamill seemed self-aware, he seemed content, and most of all, he seemed comfortable with the legacy he had left behind while understanding that his time — as a fighter, at least — had come and gone. It was a mature, thoughtful decision not often reached by most combat sports athletes, let alone MMA fighters. It was closure.
Less than a year after making said decision, Hamill recanted on it. And now, rather than retire with the aforementioned sense of closure, it appears that Hamill has been released by the UFC following his disheartening loss to Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29. God only knows what lies in store for “The Hammer” now.
Although Hamill insisted that he had *finally* recovered from the nagging training injuries that had affected him for years upon returning to the sport in early 2012 (sound familiar?), his “comeback” performance against Roger Hollett — who holds the distinct honor of being brought in as a late-notice injury replacement for himself — at UFC 152 spoke quite to the contrary. The fight was tough to watch for a multitude of reasons, the most damning of which being Hamill’s sloppy, tired performance against a similarly gassed fighter he would have rolled through less than a year prior.
We tried writing off Hamill’s performance as the result of ring rust, but don’t we always with guys we generally wish the best for? When he was paired with Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29, however, we reacted with legitimate fear. To borrow a much-overused phrase, Hamill had nothing left to prove. Likewise, the beating he was surely set to endure would only tarnish the legacy he had worked so hard to build.
It was by the grace of God that Silva showed up in as poor of shape as he did, because we can only imagine what he would have done to Hamill had he put a good training camp in. Within two rounds, Hamill was literally staggering around the octagon as a result of Silva’s leg kicks, his hands on his hips, too tired to even return fire. While happening upon a replay of the fight at a bar some two days later, my father could only muster to me that “the white guy looks like he just stumbled out of here and into that ring.” It was a surprisingly accurate assessment.
Of course, the obvious counter to my long-winded lament is, “Who are you to decide when a fighter should retire?” And I have no counter for your counter, other than to simply ask, ”Have Hamill’s past two fights done anything to *improve* your image of him?” Were the last couple paychecks he received worth the abuse and humiliation?
I write this as a fan, Matt. I write this as someone who has followed your MMA career from the beginning. Hell, I write this as a fellow human being. Please, see this as a sign. See this as a sign to be the exception to the rule, as you have been your entire career, and retire (again) before you inflict anymore unnecessary punishment on yourself. Because the last thing this sport needs is another fighter who simply refuses to accept his mortality.
Oh yeah, and it looks like David Mitchell and Nandor Guelmino have been fired as well. Their career eulogies are forthcoming.
“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”
“All 20 UFC Fight Night 29 fighters passed their drug tests. Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission (CABMMA) tested every fighter before their bouts on Oct. 9 in Barueri, Brazil. After the bouts, the headliners – Demian Maia and Jake Shields – were tested again, in addition to four other randomly selected fighters…all results came back negative.”
(Kim vs. Silva: The moment of impact, and the aftermath. / Photos via Getty)
I wouldn’t call yesterday’s UFC Fight Night event a great card, necessarily — the headlining bout was predictably slow, and the main card broadcast dragged in the middle thanks to the light-heavyweights. Still, there were enough violent, surprising, and awful moments at UFC Fight Night 29 to make it worth discussing. So let’s talk about the interesting stuff first, and work our way down to the crap.
Rousimar’s heel-hook was the only submission on the card, and would be worthy of a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus even if there were other subs to compete with. Instead, the UFC decided to withhold the SOTN bonus due to Palhares’s “unsportsmanlike conduct,” and UFC President Dana White claimed that Palhares would receive an additional punishment for his actions. Palhares previously received a 90-day slap on the wrist** for holding a heel-hook against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111. Maybe the next punishment will be severe enough for him to actually pay attention.
* By the way, when Palhares showed up in the cage, he almost looked like the old Palhares again. Ah, the miracle of rehydration.
(Kim vs. Silva: The moment of impact, and the aftermath. / Photos via Getty)
I wouldn’t call yesterday’s UFC Fight Night event a great card, necessarily — the headlining bout was predictably slow, and the main card broadcast dragged in the middle thanks to the light-heavyweights. Still, there were enough violent, surprising, and awful moments at UFC Fight Night 29 to make it worth discussing. So let’s talk about the interesting stuff first, and work our way down to the crap.
Rousimar’s heel-hook was the only submission on the card, and would be worthy of a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus even if there were other subs to compete with. Instead, the UFC decided to withhold the SOTN bonus due to Palhares’s “unsportsmanlike conduct,” and UFC President Dana White claimed that Palhares would receive an additional punishment for his actions. Palhares previously received a 90-day slap on the wrist** for holding a heel-hook against Tomasz Drwal at UFC 111. Maybe the next punishment will be severe enough for him to actually pay attention.
* By the way, when Palhares showed up in the cage, he almost looked like the old Palhares again. Ah, the miracle of rehydration.
While Palhares’s victory was the most savage stoppage on the card, it certainly wasn’t the most surprising. That honor goes to Dong Hyun Kim, who was getting soundly lit up by Erick Silva until Kim ended the fight with a blazing overhand left in round two. Of course, this fight wasn’t without controversy either. Earlier in the round, Kim blatantly grabbed the fence to avoid being taken to the mat by Silva. The ref warned him about it — but didn’t pause the action or deduct a point — and the next thing you know, DHK uncorked a one-hitter quitter. Basically, it was the greatest use of an illegal fence grab since Jose Aldo did the exact same thing against Chad Mendes at UFC 142. All together, now…”YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CHEAT IN AN MMA FIGHT.” Kim is now on a three-fight win streak in the welterweight division, and earned the first Knockout of the Night bonus of his UFC career.
So let’s talk about those light-heavyweights, huh? Thiago Silva managed to save his job by beating Matt Hamill via decision, but it wasn’t pretty. Hamill started aggressively (as he often does), before fading later in the fight (as he often does). To a large extent, you can credit that to Silva’s relentless leg kicks, which jolted Hamill around the cage and stole much of his mobility. By the end of round three, Hamill was just looking to be put out of his misery. Every leg kick from Silva had him stumbling around in a circle, and Hamill was too exhausted to even stay upright, leaning over at the waist several times with his head completely exposed to further abuse. Silva landed strikes at will, but couldn’t find the strength to deliver a merciful death-blow, which suggested that Silva might have been pretty gassed himself. When the final bell sounded, Thiago Silva had staved off the reaper of unemployment, and Hamill proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he should have stayed retired.
Speaking of fighters who faded deep into the fight, Raphael Assuncao and T.J. Dillashaw earned UFC Fight Night 29′s Fight of the Night bonuses, despite the fact that the third round was eerily quiet, with both fighters (but especially Dillashaw) seemingly losing interest in attacking. Dillashaw started off as the aggressor both on the feet and on the mat, and managed to take the Brazilian’s back for a portion of the round. But Assuncao shifted the momentum in the second frame, landing more of his shots and bloodying the face of Dillashaw.
Just when Dillashaw should have picked up the pace in the decisive final round, he took his foot off the gas, steadily walking toward Assuncao but not really doing anything productive. Outside of a few counter-punches, Assuncao seemed to be cool with riding the clock out as well, which he did en route to a split-decision win. The crowd booed the lack of activity during round three, and yet this was officially the best fight on the card. Hmm. Personally, I would have given that honor to Kim vs. Silva — who doesn’t love a comeback knockout? — but maybe the UFC wanted to spread the bonus money around a little more.
Jake Shields‘s split-decision win over Demian Maia was impressive in theory, but not particularly fun to watch. We have to give Shields props for going into enemy territory and out-grappling a grappler who was supposed to be better than him. And he absolutely did that, securing more dominant positions against Maia and abusing the Brazilian with punches and elbows from the top whenever the opportunities presented themselves. The question is, will a methodical 25-minute ground battle do anything to raise Jake’s stock in the welterweight division? Short answer: Hell no. There are too many exciting contenders currently clogging up the top of the 170-pound ladder, and once again, Shields proved that his fights are not required viewing. Seven bouts into his UFC career, he’s still looking for his first stoppage victory, and he’s never been worthy of a Fight of the Night bonus. Being a great fighter means nothing if the fans and the promotion don’t care.
As for Fabio Maldonado vs. Joey Beltran…ugh, what can you say, really? Some ugly brawls are fun to watch, some are just ugly. Maldonado proved that even in victory, he can’t avoid getting his face torn to shit, and that he’ll make it a close fight even when he doesn’t have to. Beltran proved that he might not even be a Bellator-caliber fighter, although we’ll leave that to Viacom to decide.
Main Card
Jake Shields def. Demian Maia via split decision (48-47 x 2, 47-48)
Dong Hyun Kim def. Erick Silva via KO, 3:01 of round 2
Thiago Silva def. Mat Hamill via unanimous decision (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
Fabio Maldonado def. Joey Beltran via split decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
Rousimar Palhares def. Mike Pierce via submission (heel hook), 0:31 of round 1
Raphael Assuncao def. T.J. Dillashaw via split decision (29-28 x 2, 28-29)
Preliminary Card
Igor Araujo def. Ildemar Alcantara via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
Yan Cabral def. David Mitchell via unanimous decision (30-27 x 3)
Chris Cariaso def. Iliarde Santos via TKO, 4:31 of round 2
Alan Patrick def. Garett Whiteley via TKO, 3:54 of round 1
Not even 24 hours after the UFC announced the bout, 
