Rashad Evans picked up an important win over Dan Henderson at UFC 161, avoiding a third consecutive loss in the process.While Evans still has some work to do to make up for his deflating defeat against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, he’s back on the track t…
Rashad Evans picked up an important win over Dan Henderson at UFC 161, avoiding a third consecutive loss in the process.
While Evans still has some work to do to make up for his deflating defeat against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, he’s back on the track toward title contention. Meanwhile, Henderson is quickly headed in the wrong direction at 42 years old.
StipeMiocic also rebounded in a big way on Saturday, out-boxing Roy Nelson for three rounds in an upset victory. Competing in the final fight of his UFC contract, Nelson’s wallet is likely to take a hit from his poor performance over the weekend.
With UFC 161 in the books and UFC 162 ahead, let’s take a look at the latest official UFC rankings.
The UFC’s latest trip to Canada is in the books, and the Winnipeg crowd bore witness to a less-than-stellar card, which suffered heavily from a ruthless injury bug, on June 15. Instead of a main event between bantamweight champion Renan Barao and …
The UFC’s latest trip to Canada is in the books, and the Winnipeg crowd bore witness to a less-than-stellar card, which suffered heavily from a ruthless injury bug, on June 15.
Instead of a main event between bantamweight champion RenanBarao and top contender Eddie Wineland, a light heavyweight bout between Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson served as a three-round headliner. And a co-main event between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was downgraded to a heavyweight matchup between Roy Nelson and StipeMiocic.
Although the replacement fights still garnered moderate interest, the card as a whole failed to deliver, especially in comparison to the last event, UFC on Fuel 10, which featured 10 stoppages out of 12 fights and did not come with a price tag.
Regardless of how entertaining (or not entertaining) the card was, there were some key statistics coming out of Winnipeg.
The stats included focus on individual performances, such as most significant strikes and takedowns, while also focusing on the event and its place in comparison to past cards in 2013.
The UFC has packed up and left Winnipeg following Saturday’s UFC 161 pay per view card, and every fighter on the 11-fight card has received a medical suspension in the aftermath of the event. The majority of the fighters walked away with short tw…
The UFC has packed up and left Winnipeg following Saturday’s UFC 161 pay per view card, and every fighter on the 11-fight card has received a medical suspension in the aftermath of the event.
The majority of the fighters walked away with short two week medical suspensions, but a handful of fighters will be on the shelf for an indefinite amount of time. The fighters that received indefinite suspensions from the Manitoba Combative Sports Commission are main event winner Rashad Evans, as well as Ryan Jimmo, Pat Barry, James Krause, Sam Stout, Edwin Figueroa and Dustin Pague.
The Commission did not reveal details as to why the four individuals received indefinite suspensions.
Stipe Miocic stepped into his fight at UFC 161 as a betting underdog and a fighter many felt would be Roy Nelson’s fifth straight knockout victim. Coming into the fight off a loss to Stefan Struve from last September, Miocic stepped up on just a…
StipeMiocic stepped into his fight at UFC 161 as a betting underdog and a fighter many felt would be Roy Nelson‘s fifth straight knockout victim.
Coming into the fight off a loss to Stefan Struve from last September, Miocic stepped up on just a few weeks notice to face Nelson when the UFC needed another big fight after injuries claimed the main event and another featured bout on the card.
What resulted in the cage was a far cry from what many predicted would happen as Miocic put on a masterful performance, battering Nelson around the cage for the majority of 15 minutes.Miocic unloaded on Nelson time and time again. To his credit, the former Ultimate Fighter winner refused to go down, although it wasn’t for lack of trying by Miocic.
“I expected that as soon as we accepted the fight, the first thing out of my coach’s mouth and all my friends and teammates were like get ready for three rounds,” Miocic told Bleacher Report on Monday.“I sat there and I was hitting him with shots, but I wasn’t going to try and like over exert myself and get an adrenaline dump to where I can’t even keep my hands up.Just picked my shots and everything was going great.”
Miocic punished Nelson repeatedly with great counter shots. Once he could get an opening, he kicked down the door and flooded in with more strikes.Even in the third round, when it was clear he was up on the scorecards, Miocic didn’t slow down or try to coast his way to victory.
He continued to pop shot Nelson whenever the opportunity afforded itself. When it was over there was no doubt who stood tall as the victor.
“Your best defense is an offense,” Miocic stated.“I kept him back on his heels and not give him the chance to throw anything big.That’s what he does, he throws hard.I don’t care who you are, it’s a heavyweight with four ounce gloves on.It’s going to hurt.”
The win vaults Miocic into the top ten of the heavyweight division—a spot he briefly occupied last year when he was a rising star with an undefeated record before his loss to Struve in September 2012.
With the win over Nelson, who was ranked in the top five of the division before this fight, Miocic is in an enviable position most heavyweights would love to be in right now.
As highly regarded as the win over Nelson was on Saturday night, it didn’t change how Miocic approaches his fighting career or the next step he’ll take in the UFC.Since day one in the fight game, Miocic has never been about calling out other fighters or asking for title shots.
Some fighters and journalists would disagree with that approach because many times in MMA the loudest one in the room often gets exactly what they want (see ChaelSonnen), but Miocic isn’t going to change who he is to suddenly become a loud braggart just to get attention.
“Wherever they want to put me.I’m here to fight and when it’s time to fight, I fight,” Miocic stated. “Whoever they want me to fight.That’s how I am, I’m a fighter.Tell me who to fight.”
Miocic says he will enjoy a little down time now that the fight is finished, but won’t stay out of the gym for too long as he awaits the call from the UFC for his next trip to the Octagon.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
UFC heavyweight Stipe Miocic received a golden opportunity for furthering his MMA career at UFC 161 Saturday night. Not only did he deliver, he rose above and beyond the occasion, seizing the moment in dominant fashion.After picking apart the UFC&…
UFC heavyweight StipeMiocic received a golden opportunity for furthering his MMA career at UFC 161 Saturday night. Not only did he deliver, he rose above and beyond the occasion, seizing the moment in dominant fashion.
After picking apart the UFC’s No. 5 heavyweight Roy “Big Country” Nelson over three rounds during Saturday’s co-main event in Winnipeg, Miocic undoubtedly deserves top-10 status in the division.
Many pundits and experts picked “Big Country” to win. Perhaps they’d become overconfident in Nelson’s powerful right hand. Maybe it was his recent string of knockouts over sub-par competition. Whatever the reason, the unheralded and unranked Miocic was severely underestimated.
The opening seconds of the first round proved that it was Miocic—not Nelson—who was the better fighter on fight night. The former Golden Gloves boxer showed superior standup skills by landing crisp and accurate combinations while avoiding his counterpart’s fearsome haymakers.
Miocic also showcased excellent defensive timing with head movement and footwork, ducking under Nelson’s big punches and quickly countering during any openings.
The Ohio-born heavyweight also controlled the few grappling exchanges that took place, adding very effective knees and elbows to his steady diet of rights and lefts. “My coaches make the best game plan for me and I feel confident every time I come in,” Miocic told Ariel Helwanion FUEL TV after the fight.
Knowing Nelson has the best chin tolerance in all of MMA, Miocic’s game plan was always to go three rounds. It was a strategy executed almost flawlessly. It’s also worth noting that any time Nelson has faced a decision in his career, he’s lost.
“Three rounds,” Miocic said. “That’s all I was thinking the whole time. Three rounds, three rounds, three rounds. That’s what my coaches were telling me, that’s what I was telling me.”
The Strong Style team member’s confidence was apparent throughout the entire contest. So was his fight IQ—Miocic never forced the action when it wasn’t there. He remained calm and collected in every round, never appearing tired or showing signs of fatigue.
In the final round, Miocic knew Nelson’s only chance would be hunting for the knockout. He easily avoided Nelson’s ill-fated attempts at landing big punch, all while exposing his over-reliance on his best weapon.
Nelson gassed early on, at one point bending over in exhaustion between rounds. His condition worsened in each subsequent round. According to Fightmetric, “Big Country” also earned the embarrassing honor of setting the record for absorbing the most strikes in a single heavyweight bout without getting knocked out.
“I think I wobbled him in the beginning of one of the rounds,” Miocic said. “That’s when I was like ‘man, you know what? I belong here.’ I knew I belonged here and I just kept coming.”
The 30-year-old Croatian always had confidence in his own abilities, but now he has proved them. When the latest UFC heavyweight rankings come out later this week, Miocic will likely have a spot in the top-10, right where he belongs.
Michael Stets is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
Saturday night at UFC 161 did not end the way Pat Barry had hoped, with the heavyweight fighter falling to his friend Shawn Jordan by TKO in the first round. The loss moved Barry’s record to 2-2 over his last four fights, but the loss is now attached …
Saturday night at UFC 161 did not end the way Pat Barry had hoped, with the heavyweight fighter falling to his friend Shawn Jordan by TKO in the first round.
The loss moved Barry’s record to 2-2 over his last four fights, but the loss is now attached to a little bit of controversy after some replays of the video surfaced.
The initial camera view of Jordan’s uppercuts that rattled Barry and precipitated the end of the fight were not shown live due to the angle, but upon replay there is some evidence that a thumb may have inadvertently gone into Barry’s eye, which quickly stunned him before Jordan unleashed more punches.
Before Barry could even signal to the referee that he endured an eye poke, Jordan was swarming on him and the fight was stopped seconds later.
On Monday, Barry’s manager, Brian Butler of SuckerPunch Entertainment, sent shots of the fight and the apparent eye poke to Bleacher Report, along with photos of the fighter’s damaged eye a day after the fight occurred.
Butler made it clear that he is taking it upon himself to bring this to light, and Barry is never a fighter that wants to appear as if he’s making excuses for a loss.
“The eye poke is what stopped Pat.He was not dazed or even close to being unconscious,” Butler told Bleacher Report on Monday.“Watch the way he just turtles up to cover his eye.If it was more blatant, the ref would have given Pat time to recover, but it was hard to see.
“You can see Pat actually almost tap to motion the ref it was his eye, but Shawn was hitting so fast he couldn’t remove his glove from his eye.”
Barry posted a video on Sunday following the fight showing off his damaged eye, but didn’t make any mention of an eye poke that led to the end of the bout.
Jordan’s punches came in repeatedly, with two quick uppercuts before Barry backed off towards the cage.Jordan then unleashed a barrage of punches as Barry fell to the ground, covering up before the referee swooped in for the stoppage.
On paper, Barry’s loss reads as a TKO, which would mark his third knockout defeat in the UFC in his past six fights, but his manager wants to make it clear that he wasn’t knocked out or even seriously hurt during that barrage of strikes.
Butler says it was an accidental eye poke, but the action moved so fast from that moment there was no way the referee would have a chance to see it and react.
“This was set to be a great fight, and what most people didn’t see was that this stoppage was due to an eye gouge Pat received from an uppercut,” Butler stated.“The strikes themselves did not cause Pat to go down.He took a thumb directly into his eyeball and turtles up to protect it.Unfortunately, the ref did not have the angle I saw it (at), and the fight was stopped.”
Butler stated it’s not been decided at this time if he will try to file any kind of appeal with the athletic commission in Winnipeg for the inadvertent eye poke.Because the appeals process has to be very thorough, with evidence to potentially overturn any decision, it’s unknown if any appeal would have much of a chance of winning at this point.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
UFC heavyweight