Last year saw Duffee staging a minor comeback, with a quick win over Neil Grove at Super Fight League 2, and another first-round TKO against Philip De Fries last December in his UFC return. So why has Todd Duffee been a ghost in 2013? For one thing, he recently discovered that he suffers from a rare nerve disorder called Parsonage-Turner syndrome. As he explained on Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, the disorder has caused him debilitating pain and will put him on the shelf for at least a year:
“It felt like somebody stabbing me in my back,” Duffee said of his first encounter with Parsonage-Turner syndrome. “I kind of freaked out. Should I go to the ER? What do I do? It was that kind of pain. I just couldn’t move. I could kind of lift my shoulder to a certain extent, but I couldn’t use my hand fully. I could like pulse it, but I couldn’t close it. I couldn’t pick up anything with it or anything like that…It was scary. I’m not even going to lie to you. I was like, what is going [on]?”
Last year saw Duffee staging a minor comeback, with a quick win over Neil Grove at Super Fight League 2, and another first-round TKO against Philip De Fries last December in his UFC return. So why has Todd Duffee been a ghost in 2013? For one thing, he recently discovered that he suffers from a rare nerve disorder called Parsonage-Turner syndrome. As he explained on Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, the disorder has caused him debilitating pain and will put him on the shelf for at least a year:
“It felt like somebody stabbing me in my back,” Duffee said of his first encounter with Parsonage-Turner syndrome. “I kind of freaked out. Should I go to the ER? What do I do? It was that kind of pain. I just couldn’t move. I could kind of lift my shoulder to a certain extent, but I couldn’t use my hand fully. I could like pulse it, but I couldn’t close it. I couldn’t pick up anything with it or anything like that…It was scary. I’m not even going to lie to you. I was like, what is going [on]?”
After receiving his diagnosis, it took Duffee a month and a half before he could even close his right hand. As Sherdog reports, the UFC had been considering using Duffee at UFC 168, but recovery from Parsonage-Turner typically takes 18 to 24 months. The good news is, Duffee is healing ahead of schedule.
“I’ve talked to all the therapists I’ve worked with and the doctors,” Duffee said, “and they’re all very confident that I can come back inside a year.”
The 27-year-old Duffee theoretically has a lot of time left as a competitor. But after sitting out all of 2011 and 2013, he’ll have to start from the bottom once again when he returns (we hope) at the end of 2014. Get well soon, Duff Man.
The UFC heavyweight division is as exciting as it’s ever been.The top 10 features a list of competitive, competent fighters, and the top two guys, champion Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, are currently in the process of penning one the greatest r…
The UFC heavyweight division is as exciting as it’s ever been.
The top 10 features a list of competitive, competent fighters, and the top two guys, champion Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, are currently in the process of penning one the greatest rivalries in heavyweight history; they’ve already surpassed Andrei Arlovski-Tim Sylvia (by a long shot), and their third meeting, which takes place this October, should set them ahead of Brock Lesnar-Frank Mir.
But there’s a major problem: Velasquez and dos Santos are in a league of their own.
“Cigano” is currently ranked the No. 1 heavyweight contender following his knockout win over Mark Hunt at UFC 160, while Fabricio Werdum is ranked No. 3, though he is really No. 2 considering Daniel Cormier won’t fight Velasquez (his teammate) and is on the way down to light heavyweight. The trouble is, the numbers don’t truly represent the disparity that exists between dos Santos and Werdum.
At least for now, the heavyweight division is Velasquez and dos Santos, and then everybody else. And unless the UFC plans on having those two fight one another exclusively over the next two or three years, it’s going to need some young talent to climb up the heavyweight ranks.
Fortunately, there are several guys who are young enough, or new enough to the UFC scene, that are capable of making a run into or up the top-10 ranks in the next year.
Striking/takedown statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
We’ve saved the biggest fighters for last in the striking assessment series. Heavyweights end 57% of fights by (T)KO, far more than any other weight class. They also have the highest average power head striking accuracy, possibly because defense is harder when you’re that big.
So let’s see how the whole division stacks up against each other, then look at the winners and losers in each category. A full explanation of the chart and variables is included at the end of this post.
THE WINNERS
Sniper Award: Relative newcomer Shawn Jordan has been a highly accurate striker to date, though he has lacked knockdown power. So let’s focus on the trio of Pat Barry, Dave Herman, and Mark Hunt, who each have four or more UFC appearances and have maintained power head striking accuracy of 38% or more. These are big guys who can also hit their target.
Energizer Bunny Award: Monstrous southpaw Todd Duffee has almost quadrupled the striking output of his opponents with three fights to date in the Octagon, none of which have gone the distance. But with far greater Octagon experience, veterans Cheick Kongo and former champion Junior Dos Santos have managed to almost double the volume of opponents, all while maintain accuracy well above the division average.
(Click chart for full-size version. For previous Databombs, click here.)
We’ve saved the biggest fighters for last in the striking assessment series. Heavyweights end 57% of fights by (T)KO, far more than any other weight class. They also have the highest average power head striking accuracy, possibly because defense is harder when you’re that big.
So let’s see how the whole division stacks up against each other, then look at the winners and losers in each category. A full explanation of the chart and variables is included at the end of this post.
THE WINNERS
Sniper Award: Relative newcomer Shawn Jordan has been a highly accurate striker to date, though he has lacked knockdown power. So let’s focus on the trio of Pat Barry, Dave Herman, and Mark Hunt, who each have four or more UFC appearances and have maintained power head striking accuracy of 38% or more. These are big guys who can also hit their target.
Energizer Bunny Award: Monstrous southpaw Todd Duffee has almost quadrupled the striking output of his opponents with three fights to date in the Octagon, none of which have gone the distance. But with far greater Octagon experience, veterans Cheick Kongo and former champion Junior Dos Santos have managed to almost double the volume of opponents, all while maintain accuracy well above the division average.
Biggest Ball(s) Award: Punch for punch, Shane Carwin has landed the most knockdowns in the fewest strikes. Despite low accuracy and pace, Carwin packed enough power to finish his first four UFC fights all by (T)KO. Like a mortar in high winds, Carwin doesn’t land on target very often. But when he does, he destroys what he hits.
THE LOSERS
Swing and a Miss Award: With just 12% power head striking accuracy, the recently retiredChristian Morecraft is the least accurate heavyweight striker on the list. Though Shane Carwin is a close second, he has made the most of the shots he’s landed. Morecraft outworked opponents by more than 30%, but under-landed them in the long run.
Starnes Award for Inaction: Former kickboxer Alistair Overeem may have seemed invincible prior to his knockout loss to Antonio Silva, but he certainly didn’t press the action inside the MMA cage. Opponents outworked the Reem by throwing more than double his standing strike volume.
Smallest Ball(s) Award: Only three heavyweights shown here have failed to score a knockdown in UFC/Strikeforce competition. But Shawn Jordan has failed to do so in 56 minutes of Octagon time to date. But Jordan did manage to finish two opponents by strikes, showing he’s got power on the ground. Morecraft, however, failed to score a knockdown in four UFC appearances, losing three of those fights by KO himself — so maybe his retirement from competition was a good thing after all.
Also Noteworthy…
Heavyweights hit hard, and collectively the group shown in the graph has scored 82 knockdowns in their fights through 2012. We’re just three months into 2013 and already fighters like Bigfoot Silva and Mark Hunt are putting in performances that will boost their striking assessment position the next time around.
In order to understand standup striking performance, which is more multifaceted in MMA than it is in boxing, I need to boil down a few of the most important variables that determine success as a striker. These are fairly uncomplicated variables in isolation, but together they can summarize a fighter’s overall capabilities. Here, I’ve focused on three fundamental, offensive metrics:
Accuracy: I’ve used power head striking accuracy (as opposed to body or leg strikes, or jabs to the head), where the average for UFC Heavyweights is about 28%. Certainly, great strikers can attack the body and legs, but the most likely way to end a fight by strikes is by aiming at the head. And in order to keep this comparison apples-to-apples, we can’t have a guy that throws a lot of high accuracy leg kicks skewing his accuracy stat. The accuracy of the power head strike is a great indicator of a fighter’s striking prowess, and there’s a wide range within a single division as we’ll see. This is the vertical axis, so more accurate fighters are higher in the graph.
Standup Striking Pace: Prior analysis reveals that outpacing your opponent is a key predictor of success, and certainly correlates with winning decisions as it reflects which fighter is dictating the pace of the fight. Here, I’ve used the total number of standup strikes thrown as a ratio to the same output from a fighter’s opponents. All strikes attempted from a standup position are counted, including body shots and leg kicks. This is the horizontal axis in the graph, and the average for the whole division must be 1, so fighters with superior pace appear further to the right.
Knockdown Rate: The objective of every strike thrown is to hurt your opponent, and knockdowns reflect a fighter that has connected with a powerful strike. I’ve used the total number of knockdowns a fighter landed divided by the number of landed power head strikes to see who does the most damage per strike landed. The size of the bubble for a fighter indicates their relative knockdown rate; the bigger the bubble, the higher their knockdown rate. The very small bubbles indicate fighters who have yet to score a knockdown in their Zuffa fights.
The data includes all UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce fights through 2012, including UFC 155.
Opinions that fans and pundits have on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and its place in MMA are about as varied as the search engine terms that brought you here. With Dana White promising to “test the shit out of” fighters on testosterone replacement therapy to Vitor Belfort lashing out at his critics on Twitter over his own TRT usage, we’ve seen two different extremes over the course of this weekend alone. It’s a complicated issue that has many different ways of being interpreted; possibly none of which are entirely right or wrong by themselves. With that in mind, here’s an attempt at condensing the plethora of opposing views on the issue into nine different ways to look at it, arranged in no particular order.
1.) It’s Incredibly Dangerous For Both Fighters Involved.
Perhaps the most common criticism I’ve heard and read regarding testosterone replacement therapy in MMA is that it makes an already dangerous occupation even more hazardous. This is easy to observe through the perspective of the user’s opponent. It’s one thing if Barry Bonds wants to hit longer home runs, or if Hedo Turkoglu wants to flop harder — their opponents are not physically hurt by their actions in either example. However, if an MMA fighter takes testosterone to become more aggressive and punch harder, the likelihood of his opponent suffering irreparable brain damage increases dramatically.
Often neglected, however, are the additional long-term risks that the TRT user opens himself up to. Testosterone may make a fighter faster and stronger, but it doesn’t exactly undo brain damage. Prolonging a fighter’s physical prime also elongates the amount of time he’s receiving blows to the head. Imagine if boxers like Meldrick Taylor and Riddick Bowe – who showed signs of dementia pugilistica by the ends of their careers yet didn’t retire until they couldn’t stay in shape — had access to testosterone replacement therapy. Giving aging fighters the illusion that they can keep taking shots to the head because they’re still in good physical condition is bound to end in disaster.
2.) TRT Isn’t Nearly The Advantage It’s Made Out to Be.
Opinions that fans and pundits have on testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and its place in MMA are about as varied as the search engine terms that brought you here. With Dana White promising to “test the shit out of” fighters on testosterone replacement therapy to Vitor Belfort lashing out at his critics on Twitter over his own TRT usage, we’ve seen two different extremes over the course of this weekend alone. It’s a complicated issue that has many different ways of being interpreted; possibly none of which are entirely right or wrong by themselves. With that in mind, here’s an attempt at condensing the plethora of opposing views on the issue into nine different ways to look at it, arranged in no particular order.
1.) It’s Incredibly Dangerous For Both Fighters Involved.
Perhaps the most common criticism I’ve heard and read regarding testosterone replacement therapy in MMA is that it makes an already dangerous occupation even more hazardous. This is easy to observe through the perspective of the user’s opponent. It’s one thing if Barry Bonds wants to hit longer home runs, or if Hedo Turkoglu wants to flop harder — their opponents are not physically hurt by their actions in either example. However, if an MMA fighter takes testosterone to become more aggressive and punch harder, the likelihood of his opponent suffering irreparable brain damage increases dramatically.
Often neglected, however, are the additional long-term risks that the TRT user opens himself up to. Testosterone may make a fighter faster and stronger, but it doesn’t exactly undo brain damage. Prolonging a fighter’s physical prime also elongates the amount of time he’s receiving blows to the head. Imagine if boxers like Meldrick Taylor and Riddick Bowe – who showed signs of dementia pugilistica by the ends of their careers yet didn’t retire until they couldn’t stay in shape — had access to testosterone replacement therapy. Giving aging fighters the illusion that they can keep taking shots to the head because they’re still in good physical condition is bound to end in disaster.
2.) TRT Isn’t Nearly The Advantage It’s Made Out to Be.
The way that some fans rant about TRT ruining the sport, you’d swear that Jose Canseco is set to fight a 260 pound Ken Shamrock for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Sure, many TRT users have been successful in their recent bouts, but is that because of the drugs or because they’ve been fighting beatable opponents? Was it a colossal upset when Dan Henderson defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua? Or when Forrest Griffin beat Tito Ortiz? Did anyone really think that Vitor Belfort had no chance at knocking out Michael Bisping? Didn’t think so.
Let’s not forget about the times when the extra juice turned out to be meaningless, either. Chael Sonnen still lost to Anderson Silva (twice), Frank Mir still got the tar beat out of him by Junior Dos Santos and Todd Duffee still got knocked out by the doughy Mike Russow. Wait for that last one to sink in before acting like a syringe full of testosterone is enough to make someone unbeatable.
3.) Damn the TRT Users, But Only If We’re Paying No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain.
So, Dana White promises to “test the shit out of” fighters who apply for therapeutic-use exemptions, and suddenly, all is right in the UFC? Not quite. As Old Dad pointed out, only fighters with TUEs have to worry about blood tests. Fighters who aren’t admitting that they’re taking synthetic testosterone are getting the same urine tests that everyone else is subjected to. You know, the same urine tests that can only gauge testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratios, not the presence of synthetic testosterone.
Basically, Dana White’s promise to crack down on testosterone abuse can only catch the fighters who follow the rules for obtaining a therapeutic-use exemption. It’s a great way to make it look like TRT is no longer an issue — the number of people applying should drop once it results in more testing — without actually addressing the problem. If we’re worried about catching cheaters, then why are we only focusing on the guys who are already disclosing their drug usage?
4.) It Fuels the Debate: Are Fighters Entitled to Retire on Their Own Terms?
I’m reminded of what Muhammad Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, said during an ESPN documentary about the tragic Ali vs. Holmes fight. “A fighter has the God-given right to say bye-bye whenever he wants to,” said Dundee, “because it’s the life he leads. I don’t believe in telling a fighter to retire because you’re not God.”
Regardless of your stance on the quote, testosterone replacement therapy supports your belief. On one hand, it isn’t up to the fans to tell someone when he should stop making a living as a fighter. If he wants to use TRT to keep fighting, and is aware of the risks involved, let him proceed. On the other hand, no one is entitled to a career as a professional fighter; that’s why commissions make fighters apply for licenses. Licensing a person who is too old to compete without drugs seems like cognitive dissonance to those who are opposed to TRT.
5.) It Keeps Our Sport From Gaining Legitimacy.
As much as many fans hated watching Allen Iverson cross over Michael Jordan, moments like these are an important part of mainstream sports. Athletes get older, and can no longer keep up with the younger generation. When that happens, they either ride the bench or retire. There’s no discussion about shooting mainstream athletes up with testosterone once they can no longer compete. It’s bad enough that critics of our sport think that MMA fighters are steroid taking lunatics instead of athletes. The fact that many of our aging stars are on TRT can’t possibly be helping our argument.
6.) Every Sport Has Its Drug Issues, and TRT Is Ours.
Wait, are we really going to let some football loving simpleton lecture us about drugs while NFL players are popping painkillers like Pez? The other mainstream sports aren’t without their issues: the NBA has a colorful history with cocaine, the NHL is trying to combat Ambien usage among players and Major League Baseball’s issues with amphetamines are only an afterthought because of The Steroid Era. Athletes are no different from the rest of us. They use drugs to improve their lives the same way that we use drugs to improve our lives.
7.) It’s Addict Mentality at its Ugliest.
As some of you may know, I am very open about my struggles with addiction. I’ll have to be careful here; I don’t want to project my illness onto other people so much as I want to make the case that TRT could be a gigantic red flag in some instances.
That being said, a sure sign of addiction is when a person feels that he or she needs drugs in order to function. The belief that one can’t succeed without taking drugs has caused turmoil in the lives of many addicts, and it’s hard not to spot this mentality in many TRT users. It’s hard to look at a fighter who believes that he can’t compete without a TUE and not think that perhaps low testosterone levels are the last thing that he should be worried about. This is especially true in the instances where fighters who have failed drug tests in the past are using TRT. It hurts to type this, but Michael Bisping has a damn good point.
8.) Who the Hell Even Cares?
This mentality may be is pure, unadulterated capitalism at its ugliest, but why would any fan of the sport be opposed to fighters using a drug that enhances their abilities to entertain us? We aren’t buying tickets and PPVs to see how healthy these guys will be when they’re fifty years old. We’re spending money to see the impressive ways that these guys can hurt each other right now. Fighters have found a legal loophole that aids them in their efforts to entertain us. If anything, we should be upset that some of them aren’t taking full advantage of it.
Oh, and save the ”sanctity” and “purity” lectures for marriage and Christmas decorations, not two guys beating the crap out of each other in a cage, okay?
9.) The Way That You, The Reader, Look At TRT.
Which is obviously the correct way, and anyone who thinks that numbers one through eight are even remotely relevant is a complete idiot. Of course, the correct way to look at testosterone replacement therapy is….
With a somewhat forgettable year thankfully coming to an end, UFC 155 looked to excite fans, promote contenders and get everybody ready for a new year. This card did exactly that. Not to reach into our bag of clichés so early into the aftermath, but UFC 155 really sent 2012 out with a bang, and set the bar high for upcoming cards in 2013.
With as many solid fights as took place Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 155, Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon’s three round battle was recognized by the UFC brass as the Fight of The Night and each man earned an extra $65,000 for their effort. The lightweight contenders should also be in consideration for Fight of The Year lists everywhere.
If it is, Lauzon will be competing with himself for his incredible fight last August against Jamie Varner. JLau may have lost the decision against Miller on the judge’s score cards, two rounds to one, but deserves credit for coming back from being bullied, beaten and bloodied badly in the first round by Miller in the first round and finishing stronger in the final two rounds.
On the strength of his aggressiveness and multiple submission attempts to close out the second and third rounds, this writer believes that a very reasonable judge could have scored the bout Lauzon’s way instead of Miller’s. As it stands, both men were impressive in their own ways and, *reaches back into the bag of applicable clichés* there simply were no “losers” in this one.
Miller has always shown excellent boxing skills but he may have been sharper than ever before against Lauzon in the first and second rounds, scoring almost at will with shots to the body and head, as well as knocking Joe down repeatedly with a nasty inside leg kick. His dirty boxing from the clinch was masterful, using punches, knees and elbows to hurt and cut open Lauzon over and again.
With a somewhat forgettable year thankfully coming to an end, UFC 155 looked to excite fans, promote contenders and get everybody ready for a new year. This card did exactly that. Not to reach into our bag of clichés so early into the aftermath, but UFC 155 really sent 2012 out with a bang, and set the bar high for upcoming cards in 2013.
With as many solid fights as took place Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 155, Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon’s three round battle was recognized by the UFC brass as the Fight of The Night and each man earned an extra $65,000 for their effort. The lightweight contenders should also be in consideration for Fight of The Year lists everywhere.
If it is, Lauzon will be competing with himself for his incredible fight last August against Jamie Varner. JLau may have lost the decision against Miller on the judge’s score cards, two rounds to one, but deserves credit for coming back from being bullied, beaten and bloodied badly in the first round by Miller in the first round and finishing stronger in the final two rounds.
On the strength of his aggressiveness and multiple submission attempts to close out the second and third rounds, this writer believes that a very reasonable judge could have scored the bout Lauzon’s way instead of Miller’s. As it stands, both men were impressive in their own ways and, *reaches back into the bag of applicable clichés* there simply were no “losers” in this one.
Miller has always shown excellent boxing skills but he may have been sharper than ever before against Lauzon in the first and second rounds, scoring almost at will with shots to the body and head, as well as knocking Joe down repeatedly with a nasty inside leg kick. His dirty boxing from the clinch was masterful, using punches, knees and elbows to hurt and cut open Lauzon over and again.
For his part, Lauzon looked to be on his way out of the fight early on but somehow not only managed to survive, but thrive and turn the tide back in his favor multiple times with knees and submission holds despite bleeding like a stuck pig. Lauzon was cut in at least three places on his head by Miller and wore a crimson mask for most of the fight. On his facebook page, the Massachusets fighter shared a photo with fans of his bruised and stiched up (to the tune of 40) face.
The old knock on Lauzon for tiring late in fights should finally be retired. Both men look ready to continue to fight the division’s other elite. Lauzon, of course, has hit a speed bump and may have to move back a spot or two. Miller, as long as he’s healthy, should get another top opponent as soon as possible to give him another chance to move towards a title shot.
More than just a big uppercut – Dos Santos shows heart of a champion in defeat
Junior Dos Santos could not threaten in the late rounds to the same level that Lauzon did but he also, and perhaps even more improbably, managed to go the distance and survive after nearly being knocked out in the first round. For five rounds Cain Velasquez knocked around and took down Dos Santos en route to winning back the UFC heavyweight title that he lost a little over a year ago to Dos Santos.
Despite looking to be out on his feet from the early minutes, Dos Santos never stopped moving, never stopped swinging and demonstrated almost unbelievable conditioning and mental fortitude. Despite being knocked silly time and again from clean shots to the chin and temple from Velasquez, and being dragged to the ground time and again, Dos Santos refused to stay down. He fought to the end and promised to be back for what an almost inevitable rubber match at some point between the two champions.
Cain out-paced, grappled and struck Dos Santos with a ballsy strategy that relied on complete faith in his own conditioning level. We’ve heard for years about how Velasquez out-worked light and welterweights in the gym but we’ve rarely had to see him go the distance and show his supposed inhumane conditioning.
In the main event at UFC 155 Cain showed what all the gym-buzz was about. Velasquez used everything in his arsenal from the opening bell, from punches, kicks, knees to diving for take downs ceaselessly, and continued to until the final one. After Dos Santos quickly got back to his feet after Cain’s first successful take down in the opening stanza and then Velasquez began missing follow up low single leg attempts from far away, it appeared that the Chicano fighter might be on his way to getting frustrated by the then-champ.
However it soon became clear that Velasquez was simply employing a strategy set on tiring out the larger-muscled Brazilian from the onset. Cain’s low single leg attempts from far away were not so much about landing the take down as not letting Dos Santos rest at any point while managing to stay low and out of the way of his counter upper cuts.
As Dos Santos huffed and puffed in the first round and then began eating more and more shots on the feet, including a huge over hand right from Cain, it was evident that the Velasquez strategy was paying dividends.
Still, the now two-time champion had to stay clear of Dos Santos’ power for five rounds. Even when “Cigano” had his hands at his sides and ate huge shots to the chin against the fence, he followed up with wild but hard punches, one at a time, to the body and head of Velasquez. Cain got hit with plenty, but his Toltec stone statue-like head managed to hold up to Dos Santos’ power this time around.
From the sound of Dos Santos’ voice in his post-fight interview, he injured his jaw badly. His head was also badly bruised and swollen, no doubt outward evidence of concussions suffered internally. As such, and because Velasquez won so dominantly, an immediate rematch is out of the question.
That said, however, two exciting fights from this rivalry have left each man with one win a piece. There is no doubt that should both stay healthy and winning enough, that they will face one another at least one more time.
Fans can’t be upset with that. Well, maybe the Vegas crowd that inexplicably booed Dos Santos after his courageous effort could be, but other than those ignorant parasites, no fans could be upset with a third fight.
The only question is who Velasquez will fight next. If his teammate Daniel Cormier keeps on winning as he enters the UFC, he couldn’t be far off from deserving a title shot. The two have said they don’t want to fight one another but Dana White has a way of making these things happen.
Fight of the Night went to Jim Miller vs. Joe Lauzon, Submission of the Night went to John Moraga, who kicked off the preliminary card by choking out Chris Cariaso, and Knockout of the Night went to Todd Duffee, who scored a first round TKO (Caveman Seizure) over Phil De Fries.
Full Results:
Main Card:
Cain Velasquez def. Junior Dos Santos via Unanimous Decision
Jim Miller def. Joe Lauzon via Unanimous Decision
Costa Philippou def. Tim Boetsch via TKO (punches), 2:11 of Round Three
Yushin Okami def. Alan Belcher via Unanimous Decision
Derek Brunson def. Chris Leben via Unanimous Decision
Preliminary Card
Eddie Wineland def. Brad Pickett via Split-Decision
Erik Perez def. Byron Bloodworth via TKO (punches), 3:50 of Round One
Jamie Varner def. Melvin Guillard via Split-Decision
Myles Jury def. Michael Johnson via Unanimous Decision
Todd Duffee def. Phil De Fries via TKO (punches), 2:04 of Round One
Max Holloway def. Leonard Garcia via Split-Decision
John Moraga def. Chris Cariaso via Submission (arm-in guillotine choke), 1:11 of Round Three
UFC 155 ends the year with an absolutely stacked card. It will be headlined by heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and top contender and former champion Cain Velasquez. That is not the only heavyweight bout on the card, though. Recently re-signed he…
UFC 155 ends the year with an absolutely stacked card. It will be headlined by heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and top contender and former champion Cain Velasquez.
That is not the only heavyweight bout on the card, though. Recently re-signed heavyweight Todd Duffee has agreed to fill in on short notice to take on Phil De Fries, who was supposed to fight Matt Mitrione.
This fight presents a similar style of matchup to the previously planned De Fries-Mitrione bout. Here is the head-to-toe breakdown of Duffee vs. De Fries.
