News flash! Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate don’t like each other very much.
For the last two years, Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey have had one of the ugliest, most bitter rivalries in MMA, and it’s an affair that has budded into an all-time great. It’s a …
News flash! Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate don’t like each other very much.
For the last two years, Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey have had one of the ugliest, most bitter rivalries in MMA, and it’s an affair that has budded into an all-time great. It’s a feud that has been building steadily ever since the two were announced as opponents for the first time almost two years ago.
So what events led to this? What are some of the most memorable, interesting moments that took place between the two? How did it all come to this!?
MMA trailers have become woefully formulaic these days. Throw some highlight reel clips alongside a catchy (or not so catchy) pop song and boom, instant commercial.
The UFC will air said trailer on TV tens of thousands of times (in just one broadcast), use it for video ads on the MMA websites it advertises on/secretly controls, and after a few weeks we’ll all have the dreadfully cliched piece of marketing memorized.
Today we found something more refreshing.
We’d like to present to you an incredible UFC 168 trailer from Internet famous video makers Next Media Animation—a Taiwanese media studio known for its humorous, nigh absurdist take on current events.
Instead of generic, “bad ass” rock music and B-roll footage, this trailer offers us over-the-top visuals like Anderson Silva bench-pressing minivans and literally turning into a spider—all in the polygonal splendor of 1990s computer graphics.
We don’t want to spoil it for you, so just take our word for it; watching this is worth the one minute 30 seconds.
MMA trailers have become woefully formulaic these days. Throw some highlight reel clips alongside a catchy (or not so catchy) pop song and boom, instant commercial.
The UFC will air said trailer on TV tens of thousands of times (in just one broadcast), use it for video ads on the MMA websites it advertises on/secretly controls, and after a few weeks we’ll all have the dreadfully cliched piece of marketing memorized.
Today we found something more refreshing.
We’d like to present to you an incredible UFC 168 trailer from Internet famous video makers Next Media Animation—a Taiwanese media studio known for its humorous, nigh absurdist take on current events.
Instead of generic, “bad ass” rock music and B-roll footage, this trailer offers us over-the-top visuals like Anderson Silva bench-pressing minivans and literally turning into a spider—all in the polygonal splendor of 1990s computer graphics.
We don’t want to spoil it for you, so just take our word for it; watching this is worth the one minute 30 seconds.
Reigning UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey has been busy despite a 10-month absence from the Octagon. She has taken parts in movies and appeared in a Marc Jacobs T-shirt line. These activities have put the focus on her looks rather than he…
Reigning UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey has been busy despite a 10-month absence from the Octagon. She has taken parts in movies and appeared in a Marc Jacobs T-shirt line. These activities have put the focus on her looks rather than her abilities as a fighter.
It could be conceived that Rousey‘s focus hasn’t been in the right place lately, as her Twitter account suggests just one day before her fight:
Rousey has received criticism from upcoming opponent Miesha Tate due to her actions outside of UFC circles, according to an interview with Marc Raimondi of Fox Sports. Said Tate:
Every single woman that fights MMA has done just as much work as Ronda has, we just haven’t gotten as much turnaround. Those women who came before her haven’t been on magazine covers, they weren’t plastered everywhere by the UFC. They didn’t get the same reward back. She got 10 times back what she was putting in and maybe everyone else was getting 1 to 1.
Tate continued:
I know what it was like to be fighting for breadcrumbs and not to be taken seriously. I didn’t just jump into this. It’s no disrespect to Ronda, she’s a great athlete. But there’s another side to the story that people aren’t seeing. Girls didn’t get the same things Ronda has gotten.
Even a recent article from the New York Postreflected heavily on Rousey‘s actions in the public’s eye before touching on her upcoming bout against Tate.
With her fellow fighters and media outlets concentrating so heavily on her looks, it is up to Rousey to emerge victorious in convincing fashion to be taken seriously in MMA circles.
That being said, all opinions aside, Rousey is a fantastic fighter. She is undefeated with a 7-0 record, as each of her UFC bouts has ended in the first round due to submission from a devastating armbar.
It will be easier said than done for Rousey on Saturday. Tate is a ferocious and experienced fighter. Tate holds a 13-4 record and has the stamina to go the distance in a fight—something Rousey has never had to do.
The last time these two faced off, Rousey was able to defeat Tate by armbar submission. However, that contest lasted for 4:27—the first time Rousey was unable to defeat an opponent within the first minute of the matchup.
We could certainly be in store for another highly contested matchup this time around, as Rousey‘s absence from the Octagon could prove to be detrimental. After all, Tate has continued to be active with her last fight taking place this past April.
If Rousey is to get away from public attention such as the tweet below from USA Today Sports, it all must begin with an enthralling matchup that culminates in a big win for the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
UFC 168 is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. The odds are more or less locked in, and there are a few surprising underdogs.
On a night that can be looked at as the ultimate proving ground of old generation vs. new generation, a few fights have somewhat su…
UFC 168 is upon us, ladies and gentlemen. The odds are more or less locked in, and there are a few surprising underdogs.
On a night that can be looked at as the ultimate proving ground of old generation vs. new generation, a few fights have somewhat surprising lines.
So which fights are those? Which fighters should you make the sneaky pick on? Who is the smart money riding on?
UFC 168 is here.
Two championship rematches that will cap off a stellar year of fights, and the 168 card will help set the tone for the UFC heading into 2014.
UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman defends his title for the first time at UFC 168, and …
Two championship rematches that will cap off a stellar year of fights, and the 168 card will help set the tone for the UFC heading into 2014.
UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman defends his title for the first time at UFC 168, and it is against the man he knocked out in July. Anderson Silva will attempt to retake his crown.
Ronda Rousey puts her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship on the line in order to get her hands on Miesha Tate one more time. The heated rivalry gets its second, and potentially final, chapter in the co-main event of the evening.
There will be nine other bouts on the card that looks to deliver exciting action throughout the night. All bonuses are up in the air with no clear leader. That should make for even more excitement as the cast of fighters seek bonus money.
Bleacher Report will have live reactions from all 11 fights at UFC 168.
UFC 168 Card
UFC Middleweight Championship: Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva
UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship: Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate
This is how rumors get started.
The scene is a 23-second video shot during the media scrum portion of Thursday’s UFC 168 pre-fight press conference. Company president Dana White (unshaven, in a black V-neck) sits front and center as the disembodied voi…
This is how rumors get started.
The scene is a 23-second video shot during the media scrum portion of Thursday’s UFC 168pre-fight press conference. Company president Dana White (unshaven, in a black V-neck) sits front and center as the disembodied voice of The Media asks him about reports that Brock Lesnar will be attending the event on Saturday.
What The Media wants to know is, does the notoriously reclusive Lesnar, who retired after a loss to Alistair Overeem in Dec. of 2011, have business with White in Vegas? Or will he be there strictly for pleasure?
“Really?” White says, as if Lesnar‘s presence at UFC 168 is news to him. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”
Then three full seconds of silence stretch before another voice, this one belonging to MMA Junkie.com’s John Morgan, asks: “Honestly?”
White cracks a grin. “Honestly,” he says, his eyes slipping to the left. “I don’t know.”
Fade to black, and…cue the blogosphere doing what the blogosphere does.
Roughly 24-hours later, White turned up the tease, responding to Ariel Helwani‘s questions on the subject by throwing even more accelerant on the long-dormant media firestorm that is Lesnar.
“If there was something there and I hadn’t announced it, why would I tell you, anyway?” White said, grin still in place. “You don’t worry about what’s going on with Brock. If something happens with Brock, you’ll know about it.”
At his point, we have no idea if White is just messing with us here, though anytime somebody uses the word “honestly” so many times in quick succession, the last thing it does is convince us that person is being honest.
We just don’t know if there is any truth to speculation that Lesnar could return, and drawing conclusions from the fact that he apparently wants to watch Anderson Silva‘s rematch against Chris Weidman in person is a bit of a stretch.
But in MMA circles, any mention of Lesnar—who for the briefest moment was UFC heavyweight champion and the sport’s biggest star—has a ripple effect akin to dropping a 6’3”, 265-pound boulder into the middle of a deep lake.
Not to mention, any inkling that the Big Fella could return, groundless or not, comes at an interesting time in the UFC’s history.
The company’s biggest draw (Georges St-Pierre) just announced an indefinite fact-finding mission on the bright side of life; its most dominant champion of all time (Anderson Silva) told Helwani this week there’s a “great chance” he’ll retire on Saturday; the heavyweight champ (Cain Velasquez) expects to miss most of 2014; and the lightweight champ (Anthony Pettis) just had knee surgery.
All of which is to say, you can understand why White could conceivably pick this moment to give Lesnar a call and see if he wants to hang out, you know, just as friends.
But if Lesnar is really, seriously considering a comeback to the UFC—and, again, we have no evidence that he is—please allow me to offer him some unsolicited advice: Dude, don’t do it.
We all saw how the Lesnar experiment ended the first time around. The former NCAA national wrestling champion and WWE star started his UFC career on a 4-1 tear, becoming heavyweight champ and a bonafide pay-per-view powerhouse before his shortcomings suddenly, violently, caught up with him.
He was a once-in-a-generation type of athlete with a fine wrestling base, but he simply came to the game of mixed fighting too late in life and with too limited a skill set. He was unable to close the holes in his stand-up game (not that it seemed like he tried especially hard), and eventually the best fighters in the division exploited his weaknesses.
Oh yeah, and diverticulitis. Lesnar’s career was twice interrupted by the rare intestinal ailment that reportedly almost took his life and did take a sizeable chunk out of his colon.
For a while, his grappling and his physical gifts were good enough, but then at UFC 116 in July of 2010, Shane Carwin poked a tiny hole in Lesnar’s balloon. It merely took another year and a half for the air to leak out completely, first at the hands of Velasquez, then Overeem.
Lesnar is 36 years old now and nearly two full years removed from the sport. By and large, age is not the friend of large men, and time away from the cage? Well, that’s Kryptonite.
Since early 2012 he’s been on retainer in WWE, getting paid good money to carry a soft travel schedule and perform “extreme, no rules” matches with the likes of John Cena and CM Punk. His MMA career may have ended on a down note, but it gave him new life in the world of professional wrestling.
That’s good—albeit taxing—work, if you can get it.
At this late stage in his athletic career, with enough money to never worry about it again and a pretty cushy gig in WWE, it’s hard to believe Lesnar would seriously consider a comeback to the UFC.
And yet, there’s Dana White, smiling that smile, unable to look us in the eye as he tells us he has no idea why Lesnar is coming to UFC 168.
In any case, the hard truth is this: Unless he spent every waking moment he was not on WWE TV in a temple somewhere working on his striking with Freddie Roach and the ghost of Cus D’Amato, a UFC return seems like a very bad idea.
If Lesnar remains retired, history will continue to look on his brief run as UFC heavyweight champion as a short-lived, but smashing success. If he comes back, he might win a few fights, but in the end he’ll likely end up on the wrong end of more beatings from the new breed of MMA heavies—the Velasquezes, Overeems and Junior dos Santoses of the world.
What would Lesnar gain from that? Why risk it?
The man got out while the getting was good, and the getting likely won’t ever get any better than it already got.
Reigning UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion