Filed under: UFCAll the fighters at UFC 139 will step onto the scale at the UFC 139 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll carry the live video right here at MMAFighting.com…
In the main event, Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua will have to make the light…
All the fighters at UFC 139 will step onto the scale at the UFC 139 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll carry the live video right here at MMAFighting.com…
In the main event, Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua will have to make the light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds, with a one-pound buffer. Other fights on the card include middleweights Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le and bantamweights Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles.
The weigh-in starts at 7 p.m. ET and the video is below.
All the fighters at UFC 139 will step onto the scale at the UFC 139 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll carry the live video right here at MMAFighting.com…
In the main event, Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua will have to make the light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds, with a one-pound buffer. Other fights on the card include middleweights Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le and bantamweights Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles.
The weigh-in starts at 7 p.m. ET and the video is below.
All the fighters at UFC 139 will step onto the scale at the UFC 139 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll carry the live video right here at MMAFighting.com…
In the main event, Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua will have to make the light heavyweight limit of 205 pounds, with a one-pound buffer. Other fights on the card include middleweights Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le and bantamweights Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles.
The weigh-in starts at 7 p.m. ET and the video is below.
On Saturday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be holding an event in San Jose, CA for the first time.Headlining the card is former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson, who will be making his return to the Octagon against former UF…
On Saturday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be holding an event in San Jose, CA for the first time.
Headlining the card is former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson, who will be making his return to the Octagon against former UFC light heavyweight champion “Shogun” Rua.
The co-main event will also feature a pair of former champions facing off, as Wanderlei Silva takes on Cung Le.
Rounding out the card, former WEC champions Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles will face off in a bantamweight bout, Rick Story will go up against veteran Martin Kampmann and TUF season one winner Stephan Bonnar will go toe-to-toe with Kyle Kingsbury.
On the eve of the event, let’s make some last-minute predictions.
Filed under: UFCSAN JOSE, Calif. — Alex Soto still isn’t completely sure what went wrong in his Ultimate Fighter audition. At the time it seemed like he’d done everything right.
“I went there, tried out, did everything good,” he said. “I grappled in …
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Alex Soto still isn’t completely sure what went wrong in his Ultimate Fighter audition. At the time it seemed like he’d done everything right.
“I went there, tried out, did everything good,” he said. “I grappled in front of Dana White, Joe Silva, and made it to the next phase, hitting the mitts. I made it all the way to the interview process, but I never heard anything back.”
Maybe it was the interview, he thought later. He was in the middle of a weight cut for a fight he had later that same week, so maybe his personality didn’t shine the way it could have. Then again, Soto’s coach, Manny Hernandez, has his own theory.
“It was the beard,” said Hernandez.
To hear Hernandez tell it, this wasn’t just some scruff from a few days of not shaving. It started just below Soto’s eyes and only got worse from there.
“Me, his manager, his coaches, we all said, ‘What’s with the beard, Teen Wolf?'”
Okay, Soto can admit now, the beard didn’t help. That’s part of why he shaved it. But even though he didn’t make it on TUF, things worked out when the UFC needed a late replacement to take on Michael McDonald at UFC 139 and Soto just happened to be in top shape since he was already preparing for a local fight on that same night. Even on 12 days’ notice, he couldn’t turn down the chance to get in the UFC.
Now Soto finds himself facing one of the organization’s top young bantamweight talents on the Spike TV prelim portion of the card, and the UFC officially has its first professional dolphin trainer under contract.
No, that’s not a typo.
In addition to his MMA career, Soto currently works for the U.S. Navy training dolphins. It’s a career path he got into after working as a diver at Sea World, where he initially cleaned tanks. When the park was looking for an employee adventurous enough to get in the water and work with the animals, it found one in Soto, who’s always up for a thrill.
For instance, consider his early experiences with MMA. After taking what he thought would be a pretty standard bout in Tijuana, with gloves and shinpads for extra protection, he got word that, actually, not everybody had shinpads. Or gloves, for that matter. And oh yeah, this bare-knuckle fight was in a nightclub.
“So turns out it was just a straight-up brawl,” said Soto. “It was a great experience. I don’t think I’d do it again, but it was a great way to start my career.”
For the 27-year-old Soto, that trip to Tijuana was actually something of a homecoming. He was born in the border town, and lived there until he was 12, when his family immigrated to the U.S.
Soto was in high school during the terrorist attack on 9/11, and that event made him feel like he had to do something to defend his adopted homeland, he said. So right out of high school he joined the Army. Before he knew it, he was shipping off to Afghanistan.
“I remember how I felt on 9/11,” said Soto. “It was a scary feeling. It was, you know, terrorizing. And that’s what I thought about when I went to Afghanistan was, the way that I felt that day, I want to do something about it.”
Soto was deployed with the 25th Infantry’s Long-Range Surveillance Detachment — a special unit that he was motivated to join largely because it was supposed to be difficult to get into.
“I’m always looking for adventure,” he explained. “It was a tryout where they put us through hell for about three months, and I made the team.”
When Soto came back home, he began to turn his focus toward an MMA career with the help of Hernandez and the rest of San Diego’s Team Hurricane Awesome. That puts him in regular sparring sessions with Strikeforce 135-pounder Liz Carmouche, who Soto jokes is just one of the bigger fighters he has to face on a regular basis, now that she’s “put on a few pounds” between fights.
“We go hard,” Soto said. “We don’t take it easy on each other.”
He’ll need the benefit of those training sessions against McDonald, who at just 20 years old is considered to be one of the UFC’s future stars at bantamweight. Maybe it’s his status as a rising contender, or maybe it’s the fact that Soto took the fight on less than two weeks’ notice, but oddsmakers seem to like McDonald’s chances, tabbing him a 5-1 favorite on Saturday night.
That’s alright with Soto, and with Hernandez, who said he was “ecstatic” when his fighter got the call for what many expect to be a rough entrance into the UFC.
“Whatever’s meant to happen will happen,” said Hernandez, who recounted telling Soto when he first joined the gym that he could go as far with MMA as he wanted to. Soto still remembers that day well, he said. At least so far, Hernandez’s words have proved true. After all, he did start out in a bare-knuckle fight in a Tijuana nightclub.
“Now I’m here in the UFC,” Soto said. “The biggest stage in the world.”
From Afghanistan to the dolphin tank, Soto’s already led an uncommonly interestingly life. Now the next chapter is set to begin on live TV. Whatever happens, at least this time an ill-advised beard won’t be to blame.
Filed under: UFCWhen you look at the tale of the tape for UFC 139’s main event, the only difference that really jumps out at you is age. For Dan Henderson, it’s probably going to be that way for the rest of his career. In fact, at 41 years old, he is t…
When you look at the tale of the tape for UFC 139‘s main event, the only difference that really jumps out at you is age. For Dan Henderson, it’s probably going to be that way for the rest of his career. In fact, at 41 years old, he is the oldest fighter on the UFC roster. By comparison, his opponent, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is 29.
Despite being over a decade apart in age, Henderson has had a more successful recent history than Rua, winning six of his last seven overall — four by knockout — with his only defeat coming in a decision loss to Jake Shields. Henderson has also pulled off wins in three weight classes (middleweight, light-heavyweight and heavyweight) during that time.
His return comes on the heels of one of his most dominant stretches since his PRIDE days. Not only has he KO’d three straight opponents, he also was the Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ and won a heavyweight bout against Fedor Emelianenko.
There is nothing he really needs to accomplish before calling it quits, but Henderson would love to earn a UFC championship, a feat that would make him the only man to capture titles in Strikeforce, PRIDE and the UFC, the leading promotions of his era.
For the last few years of his career, Henderson (28-8) has mostly been a striker, a vast departure from his early days as a wrestling-heavy grinder. In his last seven fights, he has just seven takedowns, and he tends to wrestle offensively in spurts. For example, against Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante in March, he scored three takedowns, and against Rich Franklin in January 2009, he had four. In his five other fights, he had none. Most puzzling in that stretch was the one loss to Shields, where he didn’t try a single attempt in a five-round fight.
That can make Henderson tricky to prepare for, but because of his power, you have to focus on that as a starting point. Henderson keeps his right hand cocked by his ear, ready to fire at any opening. He is very patient in waiting for his moment, but aggressive when it comes.
Unlike many elite fighters, Henderson does not blow away his opponents in statistical categories. According to FightMetric’s breakdown of his last 31 fights, Henderson lands 2.46 significant strikes per minute while his opponents land 2.36 against him. He lands 49 percent of strikes while opponents land 50 percent against him.
Even in the wrestling game, the former Olympian hasn’t overwhelmed his opponents, as he’s completed 59 percent of takedowns while opponents have put him on the mat on 41 percent of tries against him. Yet somehow when you add that all up, Henderson is elite.
That’s because the sum total of his skills allows him to overcome most of his issues. If you are willing to stand and trade with him, he’s probably a harder striker than you. If you want to take him down, it’s not going to be easy, but even if you do, he’ll probably get right back up. And with most of his fights contested standing, his power is going to win out most of the time.
Rua (20-5) has alternated wins and losses over his last five fights, though one of those defeats — a decision loss to Lyoto Machida — was controversial. In March, Rua lost the division championship, but he came back to knock out Forrest Griffin in less than two minutes in August.
Rua features a very diverse striking attack that is heavy on kicks, knees and clinchwork. According to FightMetric, he out-lands opponents at a nearly 2-to-1 rate, a major gap that explains much of his success. He is an average offensive wrestler (48 percent success rate) but his defensive wrestling has been downright terrible during his UFC tenure. In his seven UFC fights, he’s only stopped two of 17 takedown tries against him. That means opponents put him on the mat on 88 percent of their attempts. That could prove disastrous against Henderson if Henderson capitalizes on the advantage that’s there for the taking.
In this fight, Rua’s footwork will be important as he must circle away from Henderson’s power hand. His kicks can also keep him out of range for that overhand right.
One other factor to think about is the potential for a five-round fight. Rua has exhibited conditioning issues at times, and Henderson is 41. Who will a long fight favor? Possibly Henderson, because if they fall into clinches, he can take Rua down and earn points from the top position. But as I noted previously, Henderson wrestles in spurts, and that may or may not be a part of his plan on Saturday.
Rua is a slight favorite in this fight, and I understand the thinking. He has more diversity in his standup offense, and this is likely to be a standup battle. But this is no easy money fight for him. Henderson’s right hand and wrestling can be difference-makers. Above it all, we know both men have shown epic chins. This fight is a coin toss, but I’m going to guess Shogun’s technique overcomes Hendo’s sheer power and wins an exciting decision.
Filed under: UFCThe UFC invades San Jose on Saturday night for an event at Strikeforce’s longtime stomping grounds in the HP Pavilion, and at least on paper UFC 139 looks like one of the best fight cards of the year.
The UFC invades San Jose on Saturday night for an event at Strikeforce’s longtime stomping grounds in the HP Pavilion, and at least on paper UFC 139 looks like one of the best fight cards of the year.
Oddsmakers have already had a look at the card and determined their favorites. Now it’s our turn. Who knows, we might find a crazy underdog somewhere in here to carry us to the promised land.
In the past couple years it’s seemed like you never know for sure which “Shogun” you’re going to get until midway through the first round. Will he show up fierce and in shape, or soggy and slow? Fans have been willing to cut him some slack after injury layoffs, but a five-round battle with a grinder like Henderson could get ugly for the Brazilian if it makes it into the later rounds. If it remains a kickboxing match, you’ve got to like Rua’s chances. But Hendo seems to have a special gift for turning what looks like a nice, technical bout on paper into a messy, nasty affair in the cage. The more rough and tumble it gets, and the longer it goes, the more this fight favors Henderson. If he can wear Rua out in the clinch and on the mat in the early going, this is a very winnable fight for him. My pick: Henderson. At these odds, it’s worth small action, but I wouldn’t go big on the off chance that we saw a sharp “Shogun” or a Hendo who suddenly starts to look his age.
I have to imagine that if Le’s acting aspirations hadn’t already resulted in him losing a fight he should have won, the line on this would be considerably more lopsided. It’s not that Silva’s got no chance. Power is always one of the last things to go, though Silva’s trademark aggression is high on that list as well. He could conceivably get in close and smash Le with a big hook, or snatch him up in a Thai clinch and knee him like he’s “Rampage” Jackson and it’s 2004 all over again. More likely though, Le will keep him at a distance with his kicks, sticking and moving all night long. Le might not be known for his knockout power, but these days, Silva isn’t known for his ability to take much a shot. If Silva were somewhere north of a 2-1 underdog here, I could see taking the risk. But to get Dan Henderson odds on a fighter who is younger, but clearly further past his prime, that doesn’t seem like such a good deal. My pick: Le. I’ll save it for the parlay, and a part of me will continue to hope I’m wrong, since I’m not sure I can handle seeing Silva get knocked out again. I also can’t justify picking him, though.
I realize Faber is far more popular — Bowles realizes it too, in case you’re wondering — but this seems a tad ridiculous. You’re telling me that of all the fighters on the main card here, the biggest underdog is the guy who was champion of his division as recently as March of 2010, who has only lost one fight (via injury TKO, to the current champ), and who is facing a guy who has not held a belt since November of 2008, despite multiple chances to win one? I’m sorry, but I have to call shenanigans here. This is a much closer fight than the odds reflect. Faber deserves to be the favorite, and I understand why he’s got the bigger fan following, but cool hair and an almost disturbingly laid-back attitude isn’t enough to justify a line like this. In a straight-up pick, I’ll take Faber. Even then, however, I won’t feel totally confident in it. With a line this lopsided, I pretty much have to roll the dice on Bowles. If I didn’t, I’d hate myself in the morning. My pick: Bowles. He might look like Opie Taylor going up against Point Break-era Patrick Swayze, but it’s not a beauty contest, people.
If you ask me, this is the closest fight on this card. It could go so many different ways, and almost no outcome is unfathomable. Because of the unpredictable nature of this particular style match-up, my gut instinct is to stay away from it entirely. But then, that’s not much fun, and it doesn’t make for the most interesting of betting odds columns, either. With that in mind, I’ll go with the guy who I think has the more diverse skill set, not to mention a little more experience against top-level opponents. That’s Kampmann, but not by much. We’re talking slim margins on this one, which is not something I like to bet on. My pick: Kampmann. But if I were you, I’d opt to stay out of this one. Like Hemingway said of bicycle racing as compared to horse racing, this is one where you don’t need to bet on it in order to enhance your enjoyment of it.
Bonnar is a big, tough guy who’s been around the block and earned the right to keep going around even now, when it’s very clear that he’ll never challenge for a title or even get closer than the announcer’s table to one. But against Kingsbury he finds himself facing an opponent who’s probably a little faster, a little stronger, and just generally more athletic. Kingsbury was very green when fans first saw him on TUF, but he’s improved drastically since then and has four straight wins to show for it. Bonnar’s no easy opponent for anyone in the light heavyweight division, and you can rest assured that’s probably going to make you work for the full fifteen minutes, but if Kingsbury does what he’s capable of this should be his fight. My pick: Kingsbury. Another one for the parlay.
Quick picks:
– Miguel Torres (-340) over Nick Pace (+260). I suppose it’s possible that Pace is on Torres’ level. We just haven’t seen any evidence of it yet.
– Danny Castillo (-300) over Shamar Bailey (+230). No offense to Bailey, but Castillo probably faces tougher fights in the gym on a regular basis.
The ‘For Entertainment Purposes Only’ Parlay: Le + Kingsbury + Torres + Castillo
All the fighters at UFC 139 will step onto the scale at the UFC 139 weigh-ins Friday afternoon, and we’ll carry the live video right here at MMAFighting.com…
SAN JOSE, Calif. — 
When you look at the tale of the tape for 
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