Big Cheick Kongo fought in the UFC for the 17th time last night and pulled out his 11th Octagon victory when he won an exhausting decision against Shawn Jordan.Overcoming the wrestling-centric attack of his opponent, Kongo was able to do damage with kn…
Big Cheick Kongo fought in the UFC for the 17th time last night and pulled out his 11th Octagon victory when he won an exhausting decision against Shawn Jordan.
Overcoming the wrestling-centric attack of his opponent, Kongo was able to do damage with knees from the clinch and win the favor of the judges, who awarded him the unanimous decision victory.
The victory doesn’t erase the memory of seeing Kongo eat the first knockout loss of his career back in February; however, it does show us that he isn’t an aging veteran who is ready to bow down to the new breed of young heavyweights.
Where does the 37-year-old Frenchman go from here? Here is a look at five fights for Cheick Kongo to take next.
At UFC 149, Urijah Faber had his chance to set up a trilogy fight and challenge for Dominick Cruz’s bantamweight championship.All “The California Kid” needed to do was beat Renan Barao. He did not have to win decisively, he did not have to d…
At UFC 149, Urijah Faber had his chance to set up a trilogy fight and challenge for Dominick Cruz’s bantamweight championship.
All “The California Kid” needed to do was beat Renan Barao. He did not have to win decisively, he did not have to demolish his foe, he just had to win and the shot would be his.
Unfortunately in the fight game, things do not always go according to plan, and Faber was outpointed for five rounds in what was a lopsided unanimous decision victory for the Brazilian phenom Barao.
For Faber, the lost opportunity means more than just missing a shot at the belt in the short term; he proved that he should never challenge for the bantamweight strap again.
Losing a competitive fight is one thing, and Faber is certainly a competitive fighter against 99 percent of bantamweights.
The problem is that he has not showed any kind of evolution or ability to adapt in his game, and that leaves him at a crossroads in his career.
The gameplan to beat Faber is relatively simple: stay outside, use your reach (Faber’s stumpy arms almost always give his opponent the reach advantage), kick his legs and avoid being taken down.
It sounds like a lot, but it really consists of leg kicks, jabs and the occasional sprawl. If you avoid Faber’s power, you will be fine by following this blueprint.
We saw it work for Dominick Cruz when he defeated Faber at UFC 132, and we saw it work again at UFC 149 when Barao followed an identical plan.
Let me say this: Faber is an incredible fighter and one of the best lighter weight fighters in the history of the sport.
Now, let me also say this: he is old and past his prime. At 33 years of age, Faber seems like a relatively young man. Certainly, many men find their prime in their mid-to-late 30’s, so why is Faber any different?
Faber is different because he has been fighting professionally since 2003. He has been in some incredible five-round wars, and he has exerted himself to the fullest both inside and outside the cage in those nine years.
Besides being a top-level mixed martial artist, Faber is a businessman, a writer and star of his fight team, Team Alpha Male.
With this responsibility, Faber’s career probably feels more like 15 years than it does nine years, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
For starters, Faber can get out of the sport while he is still young. He has already accomplished much, and, as mentioned, he has plenty of avenues to explore should he decide to stop fighting.
Aside from this though, the bantamweight division is loaded, and it is getting deeper every day. I still think Faber can beat most bantamweights, but I do not feel he is at the tippy-top form he once was in his career.
Lastly, he had his chances, and other fighters are building more deserving resumes at this point. Faber finds himself in title shots as often as any fighter due to his skill and marketability, but maybe it is time to say enough is enough.
Like Kenny Florian, Faber has had his chances and failed.
Now, he needs to move on.
Thankfully, the future is just as bright for Faber outside the Octagon, so there is no shame in the fact that we will probably never see him challenge for the belt again.
It may seem early to declare, but, with his performance against Renan Barao, I think it safe to say that, unless he shows a major evolution in his game, Urijah Faber should never challenge for a UFC championship again.
While UFC 149 wasn’t the fight card that we originally expected, there were some fighters who made the best of a bad situation.Some fighters on excellent winning streaks would fall for the first time in years, while one tasted gold for the first time i…
While UFC 149 wasn’t the fight card that we originally expected, there were some fighters who made the best of a bad situation.
Some fighters on excellent winning streaks would fall for the first time in years, while one tasted gold for the first time in his career.
There were big-time upsets on the scorecards, but also some fights that didn’t come off smelling like a rose.
Here’s the post-fight stock report for each fighter from UFC 149.
At UFC 149, Urijah Faber had a golden opportunity. The stipulations were simple: Defeat Renan Barao, and the title shot would be his. Sure, he would also get a sparkly interim belt, but the chance to square off for a third time aga…
At UFC 149, Urijah Faber had a golden opportunity.
The stipulations were simple: Defeat Renan Barao, and the title shot would be his. Sure, he would also get a sparkly interim belt, but the chance to square off for a third time against his biggest rival, Dominick Cruz, is what he really wanted.
The bout began, and Faber could not get going.
The second round began, and Faber could not get going.
For five rounds, Faber bobbed and weaved, attempting to take out his foe, but kept coming up short in nearly every aspect of his game.
What went wrong for “The California Kid?”
In this fight, I think it was more a case of what went right for Barao that kept Faber off point.
Barao utilized hard leg kicks for the bout’s duration, and this is something that can keep any fighter off balance (literally), but such a game plan is particularly effective against Faber, as Jose Aldo previously showed.
With banged up legs, Faber lost speed, power and the ability to dictate where the fight took place. This was his first obstacle, and that alone was enough to stifle his game plan.
Barao did not stop there, however. The rangier, longer fighter, Barao used his kicks and reach to keep Faber at bay, and he never allowed the smaller fighter to get inside where he could use his power.
From this distance, Barao was very effective both offensively and defensively. To this end, it is pretty simple: If a bout is fought standing and one fighter is better both striking and defending strikes, that fighter will win.
At UFC 149, that fighter was Renan Barao.
For Faber, the loss really did not prove anything we did not already know.
Against Jose Aldo and in his second fight against Dominick Cruz, Faber showed that he has problems with a faster, more technical striker who has excellent takedown defense.
Faber’s bread and butter are his speed and his powerful grappling, and against guys like Cruz, Aldo and Barao, these focal points are nullified.
In a nutshell, to understand what went wrong for Faber, you can look directly to the past. He did not show any new skills or abilities, and for that reason he fell to the same kind of fighter he has struggled with in the past.
Faber is undoubtedly still one of the world’s top bantamweights, but until he shakes out these areas of his game, he will continue to be second or third best.
UFC is on another level. Hector Lombard fell to Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 by split decision on Saturday night. The Cuban fighter’s failure to make noise in his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut is proof that UFC is the superior MMA league. Accord…
UFC is on another level.
Hector Lombard fell to Tim Boetsch at UFC 149 by split decision on Saturday night. The Cuban fighter’s failure to make noise in his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut is proof that UFC is the superior MMA league.
According to John Morgan of MMAjunkie.com, UFC president Dana White talked about how disappointing Lombard’s match was. He said:
It’s the unfortunate thing about hype: When there’s a lot of hype behind you and you don’t live up to the hype, it goes away real quick. This is one of those things—the guy was on a 25-fight win streak, a lot of people were high on him, people have been talking about him forever. Guys that fight in other organizations end up in top-10 rankings, and it’s a whole other world over here.
In their MMA power rankings going into the week, ESPN ranked Lombard as the seventh-best Middleweight fighter in the world. Boetsch was unranked, by the way. Their analysis of Lombard’s ranking read: “All the talk of Lombard being overrated for annihilating the Bellator field can now stop: The Cuban is headed for the UFC.”
Well, isn’t that ironic?
When Lombard finally fought in the UFC, it only proved that he was overrated—not the other way around, like ESPN tried to play it.
A fighter that absolutely dominated Bellator and CFC couldn’t come up with a victory against Boetsch—a solid but far-from-elite competitor.
Lombard was supposed to be elite. He hadn’t lost a fight since 2006. Not only does his Saturday-night loss hurt his reputation, but it destroys Bellator’s and CFC’s as well.
There’s a lesson to be learned from the crash of the Cuban hype train: If they aren’t fighting the UFC’s best, don’t rank them among the UFC’s best.
David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.
Renan Pagado vs. Urijah Faber In the main event of UFC 149, Renan Pagado used the Jose Aldo Light playbook against Faber on his way to a convincing decision victory. Pagado used the same strategy.
Renan Pagado vs. Urijah Faber
In the main event of UFC 149, Renan Pagado used the Jose Aldo Light playbook against Faber on his way to a convincing decision victory. Pagado used the same strategy of eliminating Faber’s movement with low kicks and then capitalizing with punching combinations. Faber was never in danger of being finished but was also never close to gaining any type of advantage.
Neither fighter did much in the first round. Pagado landed a low kick and couple of glancing punching combinations. Faber did his best to move and counter but never landed anything significant. The first round was the closest but I gave it to Pagado. The second round saw Pagado begin to establish control as he landed a clean punching combination off of a flying knee. He also continued to land the occasional low kick. The third round was when Pagado really began to damage Faber with the low kicks. He landed a huge one toward the end of the round and in between the third and fourth rounds, Faber had ice on his lead leg. The fourth and fifth rounds were more of the same. Pagado didn’t outclass Faber the way Aldo did but he established that he is clearly the better fighter and deserves a shot at Dominick Cruz once the champion is healthy.
The script for Urijah Faber title fights is becoming a bit repetitive at this point. Fighters with better movement and more technical striking use those advantages to keep him off balance and eventually outpoint him on the way to a decision victory. Faber’s wrestling is no longer good enough to get top level opponents to the ground and his days as a champion are probably over. But he will still continue to provide entertaining fights and will likely be remembered as the first fighter under 155 lbs to become a star. Pagado’s career is going the opposite direction. He will face Dominick Cruz for the bantamweight title in his next fight and he is capable of winning. That fight has the potential to be the best in the history of the 135 lb division and I’m already excited to see it. Renan Pagado is not the 135 lb Jose Aldo but he might soon be the 135 lb champion.
Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch
In the biggest upset of the night, Tim Boetsch defeated the much heralded Hector Lombard in a perplexing fight. Lombard seemed to feel the pressure of making his first UFC appearance and never really let his hands go. He threw single shot counters whenever Boetsch came into range, which was almost never, and didn’t seem to ever get comfortable in the octagon. Boetsch fought from the outside landing kicks and occasionally coming close enough to land a punch but spent much of the fight on the outside avoiding engaging with Lombard. He used exactly that strategy to win the first round. Lombard won the second by landing the most significant strike of the fight, which was a glancing body kick that hurt Boetsch enough to allow Lombard to gain top position. But Lombard was uncharacteristically hesitant seeming to look for the perfect opportunity to strike instead of just using his incredible power to bomb punches through Boetsch’s guard. The third round was the most confusing of the fight as both fighters knew they needed the round and neither seemed willing to take a chance to win it. Neither showed any urgency and they basically traded low kicks until Lombard scored a takedown late in the round. Based on that, I gave Lombard the round and had him winning by decision. But the Canadian judges disagreed and gave Boetsch a split decision victory. Regardless of the outcome, neither fighter has any cause to blame the judges because the fight was available to be won and neither wanted to take a chance.
For Boetsch, this puts him close to the top of the division. Personally, I would rather see Chris Weidman get the next title shot as he seems to really want it while Boetsch appears to be trying to tiptoe his way into it. I guess a fight between Weidman and Boetsch to determine a number one contender would be acceptable but I have a hard time rewarding Boetsch for that performance. For Lombard, this is a huge loss. He was supposed to come in and immediately be the biggest threat to Anderson Silva but he looked far from that. Only time will tell whether this was the first step in Lombard being exposed as a small show hype machine or whether he was just nervous in his first fight on the big show. The most concerning thing to me was that he looked small. He carries a lot of muscle and if he was willing to drop some of that, he could easily cut to 170 lbs. Part of success in the UFC is finding the optimal weight class and if Lombard struggles at 185, he will have to seriously consider making the cut.
Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan
Cheick Kongo bounced back from his TKO loss to Mark Hunt with a plodding decision victory over Shawn Jordan. Most of the fight took place against the cage as the fighters battled for position and worked for takedowns that they would never get. Jordan pressed the action in the first round keeping Kongo’s back to the cage and working for takedowns. Even though he was completely unsuccessful, he controlled the fight and I gave the round to him. After working so hard in the first round, Jordan seemed to tire and Kongo began to get the advantage pushing Jordan against the cage. Kongo also managed to separate and land a couple of damaging knees and combinations. He never hurt Jordan but he did enough to win the round. The third round was fought between two exhausted fighters and consisted mainly of Kongo pushing Jordan up against the fence. Neither fighter did any real damage but Kongo had Jordan’s back to the cage for most of the round giving him the edge in scoring, which was enough to win the fight. Neither fighter was impressive and both showed a surprising lack of conditioning.
Kongo appears to be solidified as a mid-level heavyweight who has already reached the peak of his UFC success. If he faces a major step up in competition in his next fight, he will likely lose. Jordan is actually the more promising of the two fighters. Hopefully he will learn from this experience and use it to motivate him in taking his conditioning to another level. Some young fighters need to feel the frustration that comes from losing a winnable fight because of an empty gas tank to understand how hard they need to work in the gym. Jordan now knows that what he has been doing thus far isn’t enough and I expect him to show significant improvement in his next fight.
Ebersole vs. Head
In the first of two big upsets on the night, James Head defeated Brian Ebersole via split decision. Ebersole’s willingness to take fights on short notice finally caught up to him in this fight. He was clearly the smaller fighter as he is in the midst of cutting to lightweight and the fight looked exactly the way one would expect a fight between a lightweight and a welterweight to look. Head was much stronger and landed the more damaging strikes. Ebersole was totally unsuccessful in gaining any sort of grappling control over his opponent and was reduced to weak attempts to pull guard to try to get the fight to the ground. Despite all of that, the fight was actually even going into the final round. Ebersole’s unorthodox movement and striking was enough to earn him the second round after Head had won the first round. The third round was a disappointingly lackluster display from both fighters considering that the outcome of the fight was at stake. By the middle of the third round, Ebersole seemed bored and resigned to the fact that even though Head was not a threat to him in any way, the size difference was too much to overcome. Head seemed to realize the same thing but refused to try to take advantage of it settling instead to stuff Ebersole’s takedowns and throw an occasional combination. Ebersole finally got a takedown at the end of the round and moved to mount, which was the most significant point in the round and because of that, I gave the round and the fight to Ebersole. But Head won a split decision on the judges’ scorecards and Ebersole has no room to argue after his weak effort in the third round. Let’s hope this was a result of Ebersole being in the middle of a weight cutting process and nothing more. For Head, this was a chance to earn an impressive victory over an unprepared opponent and he was unable to do anything that makes him look like he’ll be a factor in the UFC.
Matt Riddle vs. Chris Clements
Matt Riddle took a step forward in his UFC career by controlling his fight with Chris Clements and eventually finishing via an impressive arm triangle in the third round. Riddle controlled most of the first round landing several takedowns and keeping Clements off balance. Clements seemed to be the better striker but was never able to get comfortable and Riddle landed the biggest strike of the fight when he hurt Clements with a liver kick. The second round saw more of the same with Riddle eventually taking Clements back after controlling much of the round on the ground. The third round started with Riddle making an ill fated attempt to entertain the crowd by engaging in exchanges with Clements and coming out on the losing end. He eventually smartly took the fight to the ground again to regain control. Clements managed to get back to his feet and attempt a spinning back fist but Riddle countered by locking up an arm triangle in the standing position. From there, he used an outside trip to take Clements down into side control and ended the fight with an impressive submission victory. Riddle showed improvement in this fight and if he continues to focus more on the type of execution that locked up that submission and less on entertaining the fans, he could make some headway in the welterweight division. Clements showed decent striking but will need to work hard on his wrestling if he wants to last in the UFC.
At 
UFC is on another level.