(Watch Chris try not to laugh at 0:09-0:12. That almost makes this whole thing worth it.)
It’s only February, but UFC 169 has already given us some strong nominees for the 2014 Potato Awards. Worst Event of the Year? That’s pretty much a lock. Nick Catone vs. Tom Watson and Abel Trujillo vs. Jamie Varner will at least be honorable mentions in the Worst Fight and Best Knockout categories, respectively, and we may have to create a brand-new category for Most Pointless Post-Fight Callout. (Thanks, Alistair).
Not since Ed Bassmaster’s run-in with Dana White has a UFC interview been more cringe-inducing. The difference is, this is not a joke; Franklin McNeil is really this uncomfortable. From the way he stares at the camera while addressing Weidman, to his “I can barely read these damn cue cards” verbal delivery, it’s a Tito vs. Fedor-caliber train-wreck. Wisely, the cameraman makes the executive decision to keep the focus on Weidman once the conversation gets going. My goodness. Is this the level of talent we can expect from backstage interviewers in the post-Helwani era?
After the jump: Two more brilliant spots from McNeil, this time with Jose Aldo, Ali Bagautinov, and their translators. If you can watch both of them in their entirety, you are officially qualified to be a Navy SEAL.
(Watch Chris try not to laugh at 0:09-0:12. That almost makes this whole thing worth it.)
It’s only February, but UFC 169 has already given us some strong nominees for the 2014 Potato Awards. Worst Event of the Year? That’s pretty much a lock. Nick Catone vs. Tom Watson and Abel Trujillo vs. Jamie Varner will at least be honorable mentions in the Worst Fight and Best Knockout categories, respectively, and we may have to create a brand-new category for Most Pointless Post-Fight Callout. (Thanks, Alistair).
Not since Ed Bassmaster’s run-in with Dana White has a UFC interview been more cringe-inducing. The difference is, this is not a joke; Franklin McNeil is really this uncomfortable. From the way he stares at the camera while addressing Weidman, to his “I can barely read these damn cue cards” verbal delivery, it’s a Tito vs. Fedor-caliber train-wreck. Wisely, the cameraman makes the executive decision to keep the focus on Weidman once the conversation gets going. My goodness. Is this the level of talent we can expect from backstage interviewers in the post-Helwani era?
After the jump: Two more brilliant spots from McNeil, this time with Jose Aldo, Ali Bagautinov, and their translators. If you can watch both of them in their entirety, you are officially qualified to be a Navy SEAL.
UFC 169 was full of thrilling fights, with 10 of the 12 matches ending in decisions. However, the main event, the 135-pound championship fight between Urijah Faber and Renan Barao, ended in controversial fashion when the referee stopped the fight in th…
UFC 169 was full of thrilling fights, with 10 of the 12 matches ending in decisions. However, the main event, the 135-pound championship fight between Urijah Faber and RenanBarao, ended in controversial fashion when the referee stopped the fight in the first round in favor of Barao.
The loss is a tough setback for Faber, who received a lot of hype coming into the fight about his improvement under new coach Duane Ludwig. It seemed reasonable to expect the 34-year-old to avenge his 2012 loss to Barao.
However, there is only so much a new coach can do to alter a veteran’s fighting habits, and the fight was an illustration of that. Faber moved well throughout, but never really threatened Barao in the fight’s lone round.
The stoppage drew most of the attention after the fight, and referee Herb Dean’s decision was borderline at best. Faber expressed justifiable frustration afterwards, per ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto:
Despite being dropped moments before, Faber was actually signaling a “thumbs up” as Dean moved in to stop the fight. The result is his sixth consecutive loss in a title fight.
“It’s very frustrating,” Faber said. “I’m one of the most durable guys in the world. You get caught with punches, man. He told me to do something, so I gave him a thumbs up. Herb is a great referee, but I wish I had more of a chance.”
However, given that Faber was not particularly threatening throughout the round, and that he was on his back taking multiple shots, some believe the decision was defensible:
Regardless, Faber is now undefeated in non-title bouts and winless when a belt is on the line. Even at the twilight of his career, he may get another shot, though after losing twice, it will not likely be against Barao.
Meanwhile, the reigning bantamweight champion is now on an eight-year undefeated streak, and has fully established himself as monster in the 135-pound division. As FoxSports.com’s Damon Martin notes, it might be time for Barao to turn elsewhere to look for challenges:
Barao is the real deal, folks. He’s been undefeated for eight years and hasn’t lost in 33 fights. The only real mountain left for him to climb at bantamweight is to finally face former champion Dominick Cruz, but that almost seems unfair at this point following a two-plus year layoff for the former bantamweight king. If Jose Aldo bumps up to lightweight, Barao could consider a move to featherweight and challenge someone like Chad Mendes to crown a new champion. His challenges at 135 pounds are minimum at best right now.
It seems unlikely a Cruz match would occur right away without the former champ getting some time to get his feet wet again. Nevertheless, without a viable challenger at the moment, the 26-year-old Barao sits in the prime of his career at the top of his division.
I am not into the “Urijah Faber is so close to greatness” narrative. In my book, and in the opinion of most who watched his featherweight performances in the WEC where he basically held the division up, he has already more than proven himself.
At UFC 1…
I am not into the “Urijah Faber is so close to greatness” narrative. In my book, and in the opinion of most who watched his featherweight performances in the WEC where he basically held the division up, he has already more than proven himself.
At UFC 169, however, Faber came up short once again in his quest to gain the UFC belt which has eluded him since the WEC was merged into the UFC. Let’s take a look at how the fight went down.
Coming into this title bout, much was made of Faber’s improvement on the feet under coach Duane Ludwig. But even the best coach can only do so much in a relatively short time with a fighter who is well into his career and is set in his ways.
In Faber’s last two fights, there was little present which wasn’t there before. Timing the right hand over the top, an absence of left-handed strikes, it was the same Faber, still capable of crushing everyone but the truly elite.
The opening of the bout showed more movement from Faber and, to his credit, he was not standing directly in front of Barao in kicking range as he did throughout their first bout and his bout with Aldo. As the fight progressed, it was the usual Faber, though, and he showed little for Barao to worry about until the stoppage, though it could have been considered a strange point to stop the fight.
Something which I regret not including in my short piece on Renan Barao before the fight (time constraints prevented a complete “Killing the King”) was the idea of pinning an opponent in place with low kicks. Now if you punt an opponent’s leg out of his stance, he is stuck in one place while you are able to run in on him, but if he checks the kick, he isn’t in much better position.
There is no one in the world who can box off of one leg. A few guys can punch off of one leg, Benson Henderson and Yodsanklai Fairtex do it all the time when their kicks are caught, but few can defend against punches nearly so well when they are checking kicks. When one leg is off of the mat, a fighter has no means to control distance and evade strikes.
Think about how many men Dan Henderson has held in place for that headache maker of a right hand with stumpy inside low kicks alone. It’s not the most subtle set up, but you either check it or you eat it, and both make it hard to run away from the right hand.
The watershed moment in this bout came as Faber was caught with a hard outside low kick to his lead leg, attempted to check the next one but instead was punched in the chops with a long right straight as he stood on one leg.
Now this rooting the opponent to the ground by forcing him to lift a leg is something which I had hoped we would see from Faber. In the first bout between Faber and Barao, Faber was actually very effective with an inside low kick against Barao. This chopped away at Barao’s stance or forced Barao to check. The problem was that Faber never followed up.
In their rematch at UFC 169, Faber failed to follow up on the same success. He landed decently with a few inside low kicks, and he mucked around with Barao’s stance and ability to move for an instance each time he did so. But rather than use that opportunity to follow up on the kick by planting his lead foot and start punching after he had kicked, Faber simply kicked or punched.
His actions were predictable, and each time he ran in with a flurry, there was absolutely no reason for Barao to be stood there.
As a general rule, if an opponent is not:
1. backed up to the fence or ropes
2. moving in or
3. on one leg or off balance from a trip or kick…
There is absolutely no reason for him to not simply move out of the way when you rush him.
On a similar note to all this low-kicking-into-punches stuff: In the co-main event, Ricardo Lamas attempted low kicks against Jose Aldo, and Aldo checked almost every one. You can’t expect to land naked kicks on a guy like Aldo or Barao, but a fighter can and should try to get in behind those kicks and land some punches while the checking fighter is on one leg or recovering.
Urijah Faber has all the talent in the world. And he has a brilliant coach and camp. He just needs to sit down, watch the tape and decide whether he wants to keep working kickboxing with an elite kickboxer if he intends to simply run in with overhand rights when fight time comes.
Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By. Jack can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Make no mistake: Renan Barao was on his way toward his third consecutive title defense and another win over Urijah Faber, regardless of referee Herb Dean’s premature stoppage.
Let’s not blur the lines between controversy and reality. Sure, …
Make no mistake: RenanBarao was on his way toward his third consecutive title defense and another win over Urijah Faber, regardless of referee Herb Dean’s premature stoppage.
Let’s not blur the lines between controversy and reality. Sure, Faber has every right to be upset considering the fight was stopped while he was giving a thumb’s up sign and intelligently defending himself. It’s a tough way to lose any fight, especially a UFC title bout.
Boos echoed throughout the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey as Barao was declared the winner by TKO at 3:42 of the first round. What has followed is nothing short of overdramatic nonsense all centering on the UFC’s darling child and a referee attempting to do his job.
In reality, Faber showed nothing to convince anyone he was actually in the fight. He spent a large chunk of the first round fighting on instinct after getting tattooed with a straight right hand from Barao, who once again proved to be the more fluid and dynamic striker.
Is it Dean’s fault Faber was on wobbly legs throughout most of the fight? Did Dean throw the straight right hand or massive overhand right that sent Faber face first into the canvas?
Perhaps there is another story lying underneath all of the “controversy.” Could it be that Barao is just that good?
When listing the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, people tend to push Barao’s name to the back of the list behind every other UFC champion. Barao, who has yet to show any weaknesses, is riding a 32-fight win streak, minus a no-contest back in December 2007.
A three- or four-fight win streak is typically a big deal in MMA, but the mere notion that a fighter could win 32 fights consecutively in such an unpredictable sport is mind-blowing. Barao may be the most underappreciated champion in the UFC.
Early stoppage or not, Faber had nothing for Barao. He never showed anything in the rematch to suggest he had made the necessary adjustments to finally oust the Brazilian. If anything, the bout was already shaping up to be the fifth consecutive letdown in “The California Kid’s” bid for MMA gold.
The UFC 169 main event had everything to do with what RenanBarao did right, not what Herb Dean did wrong.
If UFC 169 did not exist, we would have to invent it as an example.
UFC 169 flopped from the first online prelim to the last title fight. Of 12 fights, 10 went to decision, the most in UFC history. The most important, a rematch between bantamweight cha…
If UFC 169 did not exist, we would have to invent it as an example.
UFC 169 flopped from the first online prelim to the last title fight. Of 12 fights, 10 went to decision, the most in UFC history. The most important, a rematch between bantamweight champion Renan Barao (33-1-0) and former champ Urijah Faber (30-6-0), ended with a premature stoppage by referee Herb Dean.
Barao clearly controlled the fight. He dropped Faber with an overhand right and pounded him on the ground. Faber stayed in belly-down side control, and the California Kid was only able to turtle up and cover his face against the barrage of punches Barao threw. Though Faber gave a thumbs up to signal he was surviving, Barao pled with Dean to end the fight.
UFC president Dana White called the whole night a travesty:
I think [Dean] is the best referee in the business. He rarely ever makes mistakes, but he made a mistake tonight. Barao gets screwed and Faber gets screwed. It’s the cherry on the 10-decision, record-breaking catastrophe this evening.
More than just a boring card, UFC 169 shed light on some issues the promotion will have to deal with moving forward.
According to James Queally of The Star-Ledger, two fans were stabbed during UFC 169, which was held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.Neither victim’s wounds were life-threatening, and their identities were not disclosed to the …
Neither victim’s wounds were life-threatening, and their identities were not disclosed to the press. Police arrested a Pennsylvania man (Angel Pereira, 36) for the assault.
In fact, there was little information that could be disclosed—not even where the attack took place, save for that it happened somewhere in the stands around 8 p.m.
Fan violence has often had a knee-jerk effect on the public; the idea of being assaulted at a professional sporting event reflects negatively on the sport associated with such acts, and this will not change anytime soon.
But in this piece, the segue was a little obvious; it was noted that just four days prior, the Prudential Center had hosted Super Bowl 48’s Media Day, which occurred without incident.
A media day and an actual sporting event are drastically different animals, but one can see why the association was made in the piece. The owners of the Prudential Center wanted to show that they are associated with big-name events and that such events can still happen safely.
They wanted to provide a positive association with their namesake to counter-balance the negative—and two stabbings at any event are a big negative.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of these unfortunate events is their ripple effect. In this case, the ripples will reach New York and may make the sanctioning of the sport in The Empire State harder than it ever has been.
And as of now, it has been too hard for the UFC or its attorneys to overcome.
Thankfully, the two men were not seriously injured.
UFC 169 was full of thrilling fights, with 10 of the 12 matches ending in decisions. However, the main event, the 135-pound championship fight between