With 13 of his 28 professional victories coming by some form of knockout, it’s no secret what one can expect from Dan Henderson when he steps into the cage. In fact, he’s finished his last three opponents via stoppage, and according to his striking coach Gustavo Pugliese, he’ll be looking to make it four straight when he meets Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on November 19th…
With 13 of his 28 professional victories coming by some form of knockout, it’s no secret what one can expect from Dan Henderson when he steps into the cage. In fact, he’s finished his last three opponents via stoppage, and according to his striking coach Gustavo Pugliese, he’ll be looking to make it four straight when he meets Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on November 19th…
UFC 139 takes place at the famed HP Pavilion in San Jose November 19. The event is headlined by a battle of Pride legends, as former three-time world champion Dan Henderson takes on recently dethroned UFC title-holder in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.It’s…
UFC 139 takes place at the famed HP Pavilion in San Jose November 19.
The event is headlined by a battle of Pride legends, as former three-time world champion Dan Henderson takes on recently dethroned UFC title-holder in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
It’s a big leap for Zuffa since acquiring Strikeforce earlier this year. The event will mark the first in the UFC’s history hosting an event in the San Jose area.
It is a proven market for mixed martial arts fans, with roots tied around the American Kickboxing Academy.
The training facility has seen stars such as Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, heavyweight kingpin Cain Velasquez and former champ Cung Le—who will also be making an appearance as the co-headliner, opposite the famed Wanderlei Silva.
Another big fight sitting pretty on the main card, as a top contender’s match, will pit former champions Brian Bowles and Urijah Faber—a fan favorite who resides only a couple hours away in Sacramento.
It’s a pivotal bout for the bantamweight class, but who will come out on top?
At UFC 139, the most likely contender for Dominick Cruz’ 135 pound title will emerge, as former WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber, faces off against former WEC bantamweight champion, Brian Bowles.Each of these men has already lost to Cruz in the…
At UFC 139, the most likely contender for Dominick Cruz’ 135 pound title will emerge, as former WEC featherweight champion, Urijah Faber, faces off against former WEC bantamweight champion, Brian Bowles.
Each of these men has already lost to Cruz in their careers.
At WEC 47, Dominick Cruz won the title when Bowles broke his hand and was unable to continue after the second round.
At UFC 132, Cruz made the first defense of his UFC bantamweight title when he defeated Faber by unanimous decision.
Now that these two are set to match up, lets take a look at an early head to toe breakdown.
It seems strange somehow to begin a discussion about the UFC light heavyweight championship without mentioning the names Jon Jones, Rashad Evans or even, in light of recent news, Lyoto Machida.Yes, there are a great many people “in the mix,” (to use Da…
It seems strange somehow to begin a discussion about the UFC light heavyweight championship without mentioning the names Jon Jones, Rashad Evans or even, in light of recent news, Lyoto Machida.
Yes, there are a great many people “in the mix,” (to use Dana-speak), for the UFC’s marquee strap.
Amid the seemingly endless Jones/Evans “will they fight, won’t they fight” narrative and the recent announcement that Machida will be getting the next shot (so apparently it’s “they won’t fight…yet”), the casual fan would be forgiven for forgetting “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson are even fighting, let alone in striking distance of a title shot themselves.
A month before Machida and Jones square off in Toronto, these two Pride legends will face each other in the main event of UFC 139 in San Jose. It’s the kind of matchup that got fans excited when it was first announced.
Both men are known knockout artists with a litany of scalps between them. Both men are fan favorites with long histories in the sport. Each is a former champion and the definition of world class.
But before the Machida vs. Jones announcement, the general consensus regarding this fight was that the winner would be getting the next title shot.
Now it’s not so certain.
Dan Henderson certainly hopes this fight launches him into a title situation. That’s the fight he originally wanted, after all, as the reigning Strikeforce LHW champion.
It’s the fight that seemed somewhat close to happening before the aforementioned Jones vs. Evans drama managed to (once again) hold up the top of the division.
Henderson’s campaign for a title shot is not without merit. After all, other Strikeforce champions have been brought over and given a title shot based solely on the Strikeforce belt over their shoulders.
Two Strikeforce champions received instant title shots against GSP immediately upon crossing over. OK, Jake had to fight Martin Kampmann, but after beating Hendo that was viewed by many as a gimme fight.
Of course, one of said champions blows it all by failing to show up to a press conference, while the other tries to skewer Georges’ face like he was making an eyeball thumb-kabob. But the principal remains the same.
Then there’s Alistair Overeem, the Strikeforce heavyweight champ who would probably have gotten a title shot in his UFC debut if it weren’t for the fact that Overeem vs. Dos Santos is the fight the UFC chose to go with for their FOX debut.
As it is, a marquee matchup with top PPV draw Brock Lesnar may be even more beneficial to The Reem’s career.
Then there’s talk that Strikeforce LW champ Gilbert Melendez might get an instant title shot if (when) he crosses over to the UFC. Plus there are all the rumors surrounding a potential Dominick Cruz vs. Christiane “Cyborg” Santos superfight.
OK, I just made that up. But tell me that wouldn’t be a little bit fun. And if Dominick keeps running through challengers at 135 lbs., who else are they going to throw in there with him? Answer: Kenny Florian with one leg cut off.
So Henderson’s got a case for a title shot, but what about “Shogun?” Let’s not forget that he was the reigning champion only a few months before Jon Jones ascended to the top of the division and exploded everyone’s faces.
Jones made Rua look awfully bad when he took the title from him back in March. But was it really a bad enough beating to keep him from another title shot, as it would if it happened in another division?
I say no. Plus if Jones should run through Machida and Evans, then we’re looking at a suddenly shallow list of light heavyweight title contenders. “Shogun” could definitely receive another shot in that situation.
Will the winner of Rua vs. Hendo being getting a title shot? Eventually, yes. With Machida vs. Jones already booked and Evans waiting seemingly since Biblical times for his title shot, there’s really no argument for Hendo or “Shogun” to cut in line with a win.
Still, a win here guarantees that the winner will probably be getting a title shot at some point. In today’s UFC LHW division, that’s about as much certainty as you’re going to get.
Unless, of course Evans gets injured again—or the invincible Jones should happen to lose. Either situation could see the winner of Rua vs. Henderson get fast-tracked to a title shot ASAP.
The UFC will go to San Jose for the first time on Nov. 19, and they are bringing a star-studded card headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.Henderson re…
The UFC will go to San Jose for the first time on Nov. 19, and they are bringing a star-studded card headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.
Henderson returns to the UFC for the first time since his knockout of the year against Michael Bisping. He has gone 3-1 since that 2009 victory with victories over Fedor Emelianenko, Renato Sobral and Rafael Cavalcante.
In the co-main event, Wanderlei Silva and Cung Le look to trade heavy leather in their anticipated middleweight bout.
Also on the card, bantamweights Urijah Faber and Brian Bowles will fight as well as welterweights Martin Kampmann and Rick Story.
These are early betting odds and predictions for the main card bouts.
Filed under: UFCIf you’ve been feeling like the UFC is occupying a lot of your free time lately, it isn’t your imagination. The world’s foremost MMA organization is coming off a stretch of four straight events — two of them pay-per-views, and all of t…
If you’ve been feeling like the UFC is occupying a lot of your free time lately, it isn’t your imagination. The world’s foremost MMA organization is coming off a stretch of four straight events — two of them pay-per-views, and all of them on Saturday nights — before going into the briefest little two-week hibernation leading up to UFC 137 at the end of the month.
After that, it’s UFC 138 from England on November 5, then the UFC’s FOX debut the weekend after that, and then UFC 139 in San Jose the weekend after that. Once we hit 2012, the UFC calendar only gets busier.
It makes you wonder, between the UFC’s pay-per-view offerings, cable TV events, and regular reality show installments, what’s the true cost in both money and time for hardcore fans who simply have to see it all?
For starters, take a glance at the pay-per-views. If everything proceeds according to schedule, the UFC will have put on 16 of them in 2011. They run you about $55 a pop in HD ($45 in what I like to call “regular D”), so let’s split the difference and call it $50 per event.
If you had stayed home all by your lonesome and paid for every single event without any friends or even sympathetic, MMA-loving acquaintances to pitch in, you’d have spent $800 just on UFC events in 2011. Of course, that doesn’t count the cost of monthly cable (which you need in order to watch those Spike TV or Versus events, not to mention the prelims before each pay-per-view) or monthly internet access (which you need in order to watch the Facebook prelims and, you know, read this article).
But let’s be realistic. Very few people are laying down the dough for each and every pay-per-view all by themselves. For the sake of argument, let’s say you had three friends who were just as fanatical about seeing every single pay-per-view. Let’s say the four of you split each one equally. Then you’re looking at $12.50 a pay-per-view, and $200 on the year (not counting snacks, drinks, and carpet cleaner for when your friends inevitably get drunk and spill some snacks on your floor).
That’s no small chunk of change, but most of us probably spend at least that much per year on coffee or junk food, so it’s not unreasonable, either. To put it in perspective, compare the cost to other entertainment expenditures.
UFC president Dana White likes to tout his pay-per-views as being a relatively cheap form of entertainment, assuming you can get a significant number of people to chip in. The average price of a movie ticket in the U.S. now hovers around eight dollars, which means you could see about 25 movies per year for the same price as splitting 16 UFC pay-per-views among you and your three friends.
Or, at $18 per month, you could pay for almost an entire year’s worth of Netflix (assuming you want DVDs in the mail and instant streaming — and be honest, you do), which would allow you to stay home and watch a theoretically unlimited number of movies (even if you have to wait an extra few months to see Real Steel).
If you’re the type who feels like Hollywood never measures up to real-life sporting events, however, you could buy tickets to about eight major league baseball games or about four NFL games, depending on the team, the seat, and how you go about acquiring them. Of course, that doesn’t factor in parking, refreshments, or stadium pickpockets, though it does get you out of the house in a way that UFC pay-per-views don’t.
But it’s not just money that fight fans invest in order to keep up with the UFC — it’s also a great deal of time. Those 16 pay-per-views in 2011? Those clock in at around three hours each, which adds up to 48 hours — two whole days — spent watching grown men beat each other up.
Add up this year’s Fight Nights, UFC Live events, TUF Finales, and UFC 138 on tape delay from England, and there’s another 10 events at two hours each, including commercials. Then there’s the one-hour UFC on FOX, for a total of 21 hours spent watching the UFC’s free events. Add in another 22 hours spent watching two full seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, plus the one hour prelims before each pay-per-view event, and what you’re looking at is 107 hours spent watching the UFC alone in 2011, and that doesn’t even include little extras like Facebook prelims or Countdown shows.
If you’re curious, that’s almost four and a half full days in front of the TV. But as general sports fandom goes, that’s not even necessarily so extreme.
For instance, over the course of the NFL’s 17-week regular season, you could easily watch three full football games every Sunday, plus another one every Monday night. At around three hours per game, that’s 204 hours a year. Factor in three weeks of playoffs, plus the Super Bowl, and you’re up to about 237 hours, or nearly 10 full days.
One major difference is that the 10 days of NFL viewing is packed into about five months, whereas the UFC’s 4 1/2 days is spread out across the entire year. But then, NFL games take place mostly on Sundays, when people are more likely to be home anyway, whereas UFC events are almost exclusively on Saturday nights, when people are more likely to go out in search of some form of social life. The NFL is also almost entirely free to watch, if you don’t count the toll that sitting through all those commercials takes on your mind and spirit.
So what does it all mean? That depends on your perspective. If you’re a lonely but dedicated fight fan doing it all by yourself, it means you could be taking a date to the movies almost once a week for what you’re spending to watch the UFC alone at home on Saturday nights, and in the end you’d still have about seven extra hours to spend perusing online dating sites or improving your personal hygiene (perhaps some combination of the two would be best).
If your UFC fandom goes hand-in-hand with your social group, you might only spend as much on pay-per-views as you do on pizza every year, and at least it’s in the company of friends who will tell you if you have sauce on your face.
Whatever you’re spending, and however long it’s taking you, get ready to put in more time and money next year. The UFC isn’t slowing down. Not as long as its fans are still willing to do what it takes to keep up.
It seems strange somehow to begin a discussion about the UFC light heavyweight championship without mentioning the names Jon Jones, Rashad Evans or even, in light of recent news, Lyoto Machida.
If you’ve been feeling like the