Tuesday was a hot day for breaking UFC news as we learned that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will face Chael Sonnen in April following their coaching stints on The Ultimate Fighter, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.While t…
Tuesday was a hot day for breaking UFC news as we learned that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will face ChaelSonnen in April following their coaching stints on The Ultimate Fighter, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.
While that news is great, it left a hole at the top of the UFC 155 card when it was announced that the Jones-Sonnen booking would leave Forrest Griffin without an opponent at UFC 155. Well, the ultimate “company man” is here to save the day once again.
As reported on Twitter early Wednesday morning, Stephan Bonnar will step up and replace ChaelSonnen at UFC 155 against rival and buddy Forrest Griffin:
*Breaking* According to industry insider “Mac”, Stephan Bonnar will step in for ChaelSonnen at UFC 155 to face Forrest Griffin on 12.29
Now, you may ask if this is too much, too soon for Stephan Bonnar.
He is coming off a recent TKO loss to middleweight champion Anderson Silva, but Bonnar has been pleading with Dana White for one final shot at Griffin. It seems White has decided to reward Bonnar for saving UFC 153 with this final bout with Griffin.
The two men met for the first time at the first TUF finale in a fight that many consider the most important fight in MMA history (Griffin defeated Bonnar by unanimous decision to win the first season of The Ultimate Fighter).
The two would have a rematch at UFC 62, and Griffin picked up the decision victory.
With Griffin leading the series 2-0, it’s odd to see a third fight get booked. Still, it’s hard not to be excited when you consider the high-caliber fights the first two were.
It was also reported on Twitter that this will be a retirement fight for both men, which could be another reason White gave in to the fight.
Although it is a little sad to imagine two legends of the sport fighting for the final time, we can rest easy knowing we are just a couple months away from seeing two of the most exciting fighters in UFC history lay it all out on the line one final time.
With the recent news that Chael Sonnen would be coaching the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite of Jon Jones, there was some speculation about what that meant for the proposed bout between Chael Sonnen and Forrest Griffin at UFC 155.The r…
What would the UFC possibly do if Sonnen lost to Griffin at the UFC’s end-of-year event? Or worse, what would happen if the fight ended up being a total snoozer? Would they still go forward with their plans for The Ultimate Fighter?
Apparently Zuffa saw the risk and opted to remove Sonnen from UFC 155 entirely. In fact, he won’t be fighting until April at a yet-to-be-numbered UFC event.
Dana White told me he does not plan to have ChaelSonnen fight between now and April 27. #UFC
Having Sonnen on the shelf is a risky move for the UFC. While a win over Griffin likely wouldn’t have appeased many detractors, it would have at least mildly justified Sonnen getting a shot at Jones.
Instead, he’s getting fast-tracked to a title shot and jumping over the more deserving contenders such as Alexander Gustafsson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
That’s not to say that I don’t get it.
As far as marketability and promotion go, there are few better at building a fight than Sonnen, and since the UFC is a pay-per-view business, they need to maximize profits. I just don’t see how sacrificing the legitimacy of a title is a smart business decision.
The likely reason is that the UFC felt they needed a proverbial “game changer” due to the declining TUF ratings, and ChaelSonnen was the obvious choice. He’ll provide weeks of entertainment and will hopefully draw eyeballs to a struggling television show.
But him getting a title shot is a sham.
If the UFC wants to be accepted as a “major league” sport, they need to present themselves that way. Sonnen is getting the coaching gig and subsequent title shot because of his gift of gab.
Ultimately though, the cancellation of Sonnen/Griffin is good for business. While I may disagree with the decision, they need something to save a dying TUF franchise. If Sonnen and Jones aren’t the answer, I’m not sure who on the roster could possibly compel fans to tune back in week after week.
Lost in all of this is what happens with Griffin. White was extremely critical of the former light heavyweight champion following UFC 148 and openly stated that it may be time for Griffin to consider hanging it up.
Hopefully Joe Silva can find a new opponent for Griffin. It would be a shame for him to lose out on such a big fight this way.
Looks like the UFC’s heavyweight division just got a lot more interesting, as the winner of the UFC 155 title bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez already has his future opponent.At the UFC 153 post-fight presser, UFC president Dana White …
Looks like the UFC’s heavyweight division just got a lot more interesting, as the winner of the UFC 155 title bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez already has his future opponent.
At the UFC 153 post-fight presser, UFC president Dana White stated that currently suspended heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem will get the next crack at the belt. MMA Junkie has the scoop.
“The winner of that fight will fight Overeem [in March or April],” White said bluntly.
JDS was originally scheduled to defend his title against “The Demolition Man” in May, but the former Strikeforce champion tested positive for elevated testosterone to epitestosterone levels and was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for nine months.
This led to the Brazilian boxing specialist defending his belt against a former champion, Frank Mir, at UFC 146. Dos Santos controlled the fight until earning a second round TKO stoppage.
On the same card, Velasquez badly bloodied and beat Antonio ‘Bigfoot” Silva, scoring a first round TKO, immediately putting his name back into title contention.
Dos Santos knocked out Velasquez in just over a minute when he won the title in November, so some fans questioned whether or not Cain would get a rematch or if JDS would wait for Overeem to serve his suspension.
The trash talk riled up “Cigano,” who told Dana White in a one-on-one meeting in August that he was indifferent to a rematch with Velasquez and wanted to “knock him [Overeem] out right now.”
Overeem is currently undefeated in his past 12 fights, most recently retiring former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar when he easily finished him in the first round of their UFC 141 bout in December.
Does Overeem deserve a title shot after over a year of inactivity inside the Octagon due to a drug test related suspension?
When UFC 155 rolls around at the end of the year, it will feature two of the baddest men on the planet fighting for the heavyweight title.Junior dos Santos will defend his belt for the second time against the man he took it from, Cain Velasquez.”Cigano…
When UFC 155 rolls around at the end of the year, it will feature two of the baddest men on the planet fighting for the heavyweight title.
Junior dos Santos will defend his belt for the second time against the man he took it from, Cain Velasquez.
“Cigano” defeated Velasquez on the first UFC on Fox event. The KO came one minute and four seconds into the first round. it was quick, devastating, and everything we as fans have come to expect from dos Santos.
Since that time, dos Santos has defended his title once against Frank Mir, while Velasquez has earned himself another shot with his win over “Bigfoot” Silva. There have been people asking lately if the champion is overlooking his upcoming fight with Velasquez, in favour of a potential fight against Alistair Overeem next year.
Overeem did recently talk a lot of trash aimed at dos Santos, and I think he simply got tired of hearing it. Dos Santos wanted the trash talking to stop, and therefore focused some of his attention towards a potential fight with Overeem.
That is not to say he overlooked Velasquez, however. Despite winning the fight with a quick KO, Junior knows that Velasquez is one of the most dangerous opponents in the heavyweight division. A motivated Cain, is a dangerous Cain. Just ask “Bigfoot” Silva.
I do not believe dos Santos is overlooking his coming fight with Velasquez. He will be training hard, and will show up to the fight ready. Velasquez will be ready as well, and I doubt he lets this fight end a minute and a bit in.
Velasquez is motivated and dangerous. So is Junior dos Santos. Sparks will fly as these two heavyweights collide for the second time, with the heavyweight belt on the line. Whatever you do, don’t blink!
For the third time in just over a month, Zuffa is in panic mode trying to find a main event for one of its cards. The stress of this particularly rough stretch, however, has resulted in public opinion turning various entities. The latest victim of this…
For the third time in just over a month, Zuffa is in panic mode trying to find a main event for one of its cards. The stress of this particularly rough stretch, however, has resulted in public opinion turning various entities. The latest victim of this is UFC heavyweight and former TUF 10 competitor Matt Mitrione over the awkward position he found himself in when he was offered a seriously lopsided match with Strikeforce’s Daniel Cormier.
The criticism recently leveled against him, however, is somewhat unfounded. Comparing him with Jon Jones, meanwhile, is completely off-base.
Everyone remembers the UFC 151 fiasco where Jones’ opponent, Dan Henderson, suffered a leg injury that forced him out of the bout. Jones turned down a fight with ChaelSonnen, who was willing to step in on eight days’ notice after a lengthy layoff following his UFC 148 loss to Anderson Silva, forcing the UFC to cancel the headline-less event.
In recent weeks, an interested eye has been turned to the UFC’s sister promotion, Strikeforce, who recently canceled an event of their own following a knee injury suffered by Gilbert Melendez.
While the UFC now owns the majority of star-caliber fighters from Strikeforce’s roster, Cormier remains one of the hottest commodities still under the control of the California-based promotion.
Cormier rocketed up the heavyweight rankings and became one of the top prospects in MMA after winning the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Cormier, unfortunately, remains with his old boss, even though the UFC has taken almost everyone else in his weight class, leaving Cormier without a readily-available opponent. Because of how his contract is structured (and a frustratingly-assertive Showtime), he must fight one more time before he is allowed to join Antonio Silva, Lavar Johnson and Fabricio Werdum in the UFC.
Zuffa has struggled to find an opponent for the defacto Strikeforce heavyweight champion (he has a belt, so that makes him champion, right?). Initially, he was linked to former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia, but a surge of hate on Twitter ended up nixing the veteran’s chances. For a long while, he was scheduled to face Frank Mir, but yet another injury has taken that fight off the table.
Now, Zuffa is scrambling to find somebody (anybody!) to face Cormier. Apparently, Mitrione was one of the first choices to be the fifth choice to headline the card, slated for November 3 and turned the fight down.
Naturally, Dana Whitedid not like this. The fan response has been similarly grumpy. Ultimately, though, in terms of where Mitrione is in his career, it would be absolutely insane to take a bout with Cormier right now.
Mitrione is one of the rare fighters who actually had his professional MMA debut in the UFC. After his debut, where he knocked out Marcus “Big Baby” Jones, Mitrione made a habit of racking wins, working his way up to a 5-0 record (with four of those victories coming by way of knockout) and that earned him a shot at some stiffer competition.
That stiffer competition was French kickboxerCheick Kongo. While Kongo is known for his heavy hands and powerful knees, he beat Mitrione by effectively out-working him in the clinch. That loss, Mitrione‘s latest fight, came October 29, 2011.
Kongo is a solid heavyweight fighter by any metric. That said, he is not in the Top 10. In fact, he has not beaten any of the Top 10 fighters he has faced. Now, however, Mitrione is being asked to fight against a near-unanimous top-five heavyweight?
On top of everything else, Mitrione already has a fight scheduled. He is more than a month deep into preparing for a fight at UFC 155 against Phil De Fries.
While Dana White ripped Mitrione for “not taking a big opportunity,” the numbers seriously suggest that fighting at UFC 155 is the bigger opportunity. UFC 155 has two of the UFC’s biggest draws of 2012 scheduled to fight in Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez rematch and ChaelSonnen vs. Forrest Griffin. On top of that, the UFC’s so-called “year end” events tend to be among the biggest, and have averaged about 800,000 buys since 2008 (those events being UFC 92, UFC 107, UFC 124 and UFC 141).
Even if Mitrione finds himself fighting on the preliminary card (which is likely to be the case), Cormier vs. Barnett, which was undeniably a bigger fight than Cormier vs. Mitrione would have been, drew just 463,000 viewers. FX prelim bouts, meanwhile, tend to draw more than double that.
Fans have been comparing Mitrione, since this news broke, to Jon Jones. That, however, is not apt.
The fact of the matter is that Jones would have been a heavy favorite against Sonnen. Mitrione would have been a heavy underdog against Cormier. Jones did not have a fight slated when he was offered Sonnen, due to Henderson’s knee injury. Mitrione has already spent a month preparing for De Fries.
Above all, Mitrione would not have gotten anything by fighting Cormier. Even if he beat Cormier by some fluke, he would end up in the same position Chris Weidman is in now, and would have to, at the very least, face off with an Alistair Overeem, or Werdum, to have the degree of fame required in the UFC to get a title shot against a big name like Velasquez or Dos Santos.
Because of that, it is hard to criticize Mitrione for deciding against a fight with Cormier. Granted, there may have been some behind-the-scenes incentive for Mitrione to take the fight (that is, a healthy bonus check). Short of that, however, Mitrione should not be blamed for refusing to be food for Cormier.
He already has a job to do. Beat De Fries. He should not be berated for sticking to it.
At UFC 155, Alan Belcher will look to finally earn a spot firmly amongst the Top Ten middleweights in the world when he faces off with Yushin Okami for the second time.These two first met six years ago at UFC 62, where Okami took home a unanimous decis…
At UFC 155, Alan Belcher will look to finally earn a spot firmly amongst the Top Ten middleweights in the world when he faces off with YushinOkami for the second time.
These two first met six years ago at UFC 62, where Okami took home a unanimous decision.
Since that time, both men have ascended to become top middleweights, although Okami is seen by many as higher ranked.
Belcher will look to change that when he faces Okami at UFC 155.
Tuesday was a hot day for breaking UFC news as we learned that UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will face Chael Sonnen in April following their coaching stints on The Ultimate Fighter, according to Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times.