Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we may have just witnessed this generation’s Frye vs. Takayama.
It’s hyperbolic bordering on blasphemous praise, I know, but just give this video a watch and I promise that i will not disappoint. On Wednesday’s episode of TUF: Latin America 2 — a show that I literally had no idea was currently airing, yet alone featured Kelvin Gastelum and Efrain Escudero as coaches — Team Escudero’s Marco Polo Reyes took on Team Gastelum’s Christian Soto in a lightweight elimination round bout.
While I can’t attest to how the first round and half went down, I can say that the finishing sequence was absolutely BONKERS.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we may have just witnessed this generation’s Frye vs. Takayama.
It’s hyperbolic bordering on blasphemous praise, I know, but just give this video a watch and I promise that i will not disappoint. On Wednesday’s episode of TUF: Latin America 2 – a show that I literally had no idea was currently airing, yet alone featured Kelvin Gastelum and Efrain Escudero as coaches — Team Escudero’s Marco Polo Reyes took on Team Gastelum’s Christian Soto in a lightweight elimination round bout.
While I can’t attest to how the first round and half went down, I can say that the finishing sequence was absolutely BONKERS. Both men threw heavy leather and standing elbows with little regard for their health and/or appearance until Reyes was finally able to drop Soto with a left hook to the body and a right hand upstairs. From there he dropped approximately 4,368 more punches and elbows on his downed opponent before Herb Dean stepped in and waved it off.
Given the breakout success featherweight Yair Rodriguez has seen since winning the season one crown, it might be time for us to give The Ultimate Fighter’s Latin cousin a look-see. Of course, that would entail me doing more than skipping straight to the fights from the American incarnation of TUF on Tivo the next day first, which I’m quite not prepared to do.
During a press conference today in Mexico City, UFC president Dana White announced that Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum will appear as rival coaches on the first installment of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America (aka EL TUF), which will air this fall in Mexico and the United States. Velasquez and Dos Santos will then meet at the show’s Finale, “the week of November 15th,” according to White.
Though no other fights on the card have been booked, White vowed to bring a stacked lineup to Mexico City. “You know I want to come to Mexico with a bang,” he said. “We’re gonna bring some good fights here, I promise you.”
When a media member asked White if the UFC would postpone the event or set up a new headliner if Velasquez got injured before the fight, White tried to ward off the bad juju: “Bite your tongue. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
Lots more details to come. Stay tuned.
Update, via MMAFighting: Velasquez vs. Werdum and the finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America will take place at UFC 180, November 15th at Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad. TUF: Latin America will feature bantamweights and featherweights, and will air on Televisa in Mexico beginning the week of August 18th. The show begins filming on May 12th in Las Vegas.
During a press conference today in Mexico City, UFC president Dana White announced that Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum will appear as rival coaches on the first installment of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America (aka EL TUF), which will air this fall in Mexico and the United States. Velasquez and Dos Santos will then meet at the show’s Finale, “the week of November 15th,” according to White.
Though no other fights on the card have been booked, White vowed to bring a stacked lineup to Mexico City. “You know I want to come to Mexico with a bang,” he said. “We’re gonna bring some good fights here, I promise you.”
When a media member asked White if the UFC would postpone the event or set up a new headliner if Velasquez got injured before the fight, White tried to ward off the bad juju: “Bite your tongue. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
Lots more details to come. Stay tuned.
Update, via MMAFighting: Velasquez vs. Werdum and the finals of The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America will take place at UFC 180, November 15th at Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad. TUF: Latin America will feature bantamweights and featherweights, and will air on Televisa in Mexico beginning the week of August 18th. The show begins filming on May 12th in Las Vegas.
(Cain Velasquez: Just one of the many ferocious Latino UFC warriors who probably won’t be appearing on this card. / Illustration via Evan Shoman Art)
On Friday, the UFC casually tweeted out a semi-major announcement — the promotion will hold its first event in Mexico this November. Though a date and venue haven’t been revealed, the event will serve as the Finale for The Ultimate Fighter: Latinoamerica, which will begin filming this spring in Las Vegas, and will air on Fight Pass and the UFC Network.
Despite Mexico’s deep love of combatsports, the UFC has never held an event on Mexican soil — and it hasn’t been for lack of trying. As early as 2008, UFC president Dana White discussed the difficulty that the promotion had breaking into the market, “basically because five families control all of Mexico.” [Editor’s note: That statement has not been fact-checked.]
Things have been looking promising lately, though. The UFC was planning on holding an event down in Mexico as early as this April, but the date was scrapped because proposed headliner Cain Velasquez wasn’t healthy enough to make it. We’ll update you when we know more about the TUF: Latinoamerica Finale lineup, or who might coach the show. At this point, it looks like El Chapo won’t be available.
(Cain Velasquez: Just one of the many ferocious Latino UFC warriors who probably won’t be appearing on this card. / Illustration via Evan Shoman Art)
On Friday, the UFC casually tweeted out a semi-major announcement — the promotion will hold its first event in Mexico this November. Though a date and venue haven’t been revealed, the event will serve as the Finale for The Ultimate Fighter: Latinoamerica, which will begin filming this spring in Las Vegas, and will air on Fight Pass and the UFC Network.
Despite Mexico’s deep love of combatsports, the UFC has never held an event on Mexican soil — and it hasn’t been for lack of trying. As early as 2008, UFC president Dana White discussed the difficulty that the promotion had breaking into the market, “basically because five families control all of Mexico.” [Editor’s note: That statement has not been fact-checked.]
Things have been looking promising lately, though. The UFC was planning on holding an event down in Mexico as early as this April, but the date was scrapped because proposed headliner Cain Velasquez wasn’t healthy enough to make it. We’ll update you when we know more about the TUF: Latinoamerica Finale lineup, or who might coach the show. At this point, it looks like El Chapo won’t be available.
(“Machida vs. Mousasi” is going down tomorrow in Jaragua, Brazil. Come back to CagePotato tomorrow night at 10:30 p.m. ET for our liveblog of the FOX Sports 1 main card. / Video via YouTube.com/UFC)
(“Machida vs. Mousasi” is going down tomorrow in Jaragua, Brazil. Come back to CagePotato tomorrow night at 10:30 p.m. ET for our liveblog of the FOX Sports 1 main card. / Video via YouTube.com/UFC)
