Tag: UFC 171

UFC 171: Kelvin Gastelum Ready to Take the Tough Road to the Top

Kelvin Gastelum isn’t looking for shelter. He’s in search of the biggest challenges he can find.
Where a large majority of past winners of The Ultimate Fighter were ushered into the official UFC fold slowly and brought along at a measured pace, the 22-…

Kelvin Gastelum isn’t looking for shelter. He’s in search of the biggest challenges he can find.

Where a large majority of past winners of The Ultimate Fighter were ushered into the official UFC fold slowly and brought along at a measured pace, the 22-year-old had no want to continue that trend. After pulling off a dramatic upset over the heavily favored Uriah Hall to win the 17th season of the reality-based fighting tournament, Gastelum didn’t waste time basking in a job well done. Instead, he made the decision to drop down a weight class and get to work.

Certainly the UFC could have paired him in a favorable matchup and allowed him to get his feet wet, but when his opponent was announced to be Paulo Thiago, the Yuma-based fighter’s path began to take shape. When the gritty Brazilian veteran was forced out of the bout just weeks before their scheduled date in Indianapolis, the undefeated fighter remained focused and properly dispatched late-replacement Brian Melancon in the first round of their tilt at Fight Night 27 in Indianapolis.

It was an impressive showing from start to abrupt finish and put another charge of momentum behind Gastelum‘s rising profile. He was looking to continue that push when his next challenge was announced but an injury suffered in training forced the Team Sonnen representative out of his scheduled bout with Court McGee at UFC on Fox 9 last December.

While Gastelum was undoubtedly disappointed he was forced to withdraw from the fight, those feelings quickly faded when his next fight against Rick Story came together for UFC 171.

“Before I even got the fight it was rumored that Story was going to fight Tyron Woodley,” Gastelum told Bleacher Report. “As soon as Woodley got the fight with [Carlos] Condit, I text Dana and asked him if I could get this fight. He told me he was going to work on it with Joe Silva, and the next thing I know, they are calling to tell me I’m fighting Rick Story.

The Brave Legion fighter has been a nightmare matchup for some of the biggest names in the division and is one of only two people to hold a win over current title challenger Johny Hendricks. With his upcoming opponent’s history against “Bigg Rigg,” Gastelum packed his bags and headed to Arlington to train with the former two-time Div. I national champion wrestler and his crew.

“I did my training for this camp down here with Team Takedown and Johny Hendricks,” Gastelum said. “They have some experience fighting Story and Johny is a heavy-hitter with a great wrestling base. I’ve been preparing pretty well with them and I feel good. I feel confident going into this fight.”

In addition to the wrestling pedigree the camp is known for, they are also recognized for carrying some of the best beards in the fight game. While Hendricks’ beard may be the most famous of the bunch, heavyweight Jared Rosholt and coach Marc Laimon have been bringing it strong and Gastelum‘s baby face must have been an interesting addition around the gym.

“No…no they didn’t,” Gastelum laughed when asked if they made him grow a beard to train with TTD. “Marc Laimon and everyone down there has their facial hair going and I tried to join the club but mine grows in patches. It’s just not something I could pull off.”

When Gastelum steps into the Octagon to face Story on Saturday night, it will be the biggest challenge to date. The Washington native has twice as many fights under the UFC banner as Gastelum does for his entire professional career. There is no doubt a victory over Story would certainly speed up his ascension through the rankings, and while Gastelum isn’t quite sure where a win in Dallas would put him in the bigger picture, he’s confident it will only lead to bigger things.

“A win over Story does put me in a really good position for a really good fight against a top opponent in my next outing,” Gastelum said. “But I don’t know what my next step would be to be honest. That is something I would have to talk with my management team and coaches about. A win here would put me in the right direction because I don’t want to move backwards. I want to keep going forward. I want to keep getting bigger fights and keep building myself up in the rankings. 

“Everything is absolutely coming together for me,” he added. “I feel great and I feel like this is my time to shine. This is where I need to be right now. I’m living my dream and I’m happy to be here.”

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Natural Born Killer: The 5 Best Moments of Carlos Condit’s Career

Carlos Condit’s UFC 171 bout against Tyron Woodley is full of heavy implications.
If he is able to beat his fellow First Round Management stablemate, he’ll earn a shot at the welterweight championship that will be decided in the main event between John…

Carlos Condit‘s UFC 171 bout against Tyron Woodley is full of heavy implications.

If he is able to beat his fellow First Round Management stablemate, he’ll earn a shot at the welterweight championship that will be decided in the main event between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler. Condit is a former WEC champion and UFC interim champion, but he fell short in his shot at unifying the belts against Georges St-Pierre.

But with St-Pierre on hiatus from the sport, the top of the division is wide open. Condit told Bleacher Report last week that it is an opportunity for others, including him, to make a statement. The brass ring is available for the taking, and Condit is one of many top welterweights who are hoping to grab it.

Over the course of the last few years, he has vaulted from virtual unknown to one of the more recognizable fighters in the division. He is also one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, thrilling fans with few exceptions.

How did he get here? Today, we take a look at the five biggest moments from the career of “The Natural Born Killer.”

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UFC 171: Hendricks vs. Lawler Fight Card Betting Odds and Predictions

If you’ve been hesitant to order any of the UFC’s 2014 pay-per-view offerings due to underwhelming fight cards, UFC 171 might be the cure for the thing that ails you.
If three bouts featuring some of the top welterweights in the company aren’t enough t…

If you’ve been hesitant to order any of the UFC’s 2014 pay-per-view offerings due to underwhelming fight cards, UFC 171 might be the cure for the thing that ails you.

If three bouts featuring some of the top welterweights in the company aren’t enough to whet your appetite, then surely the main event will be enough to plop you on the couch in front of the television on Saturday night. After all, a new welterweight champion will be crowned, and reigning kingpin Georges St-Pierre is not involved.

Yes, the UFC is moving on with the business of finding a new champion after St-Pierre lost his smile and decided to take an extended hiatus from the sport in December. And as luck would have it, the two combatants who were chosen to determine the next champion just happen to be two of the most exciting fighters in the division, not to mention two of the heaviest punchers.

It’s a recipe for a good time. But what better way to add even more intrigue to a stellar fight card than by throwing down some hard-earned money on the fights?

As usual, I am here to break down the betting odds and give you my plays for the UFC 171 main card. And I’ll give you the same speech I usually do: a big part of betting on sports is money management. If there is no value in betting on a particular fight, I’ll tell you so.

But I know some of you want to bet on everything under the sun. For you, I’ll suggest interesting prop bets that might be worth a small play. And as always, I’ll close out the proceedings with my patented “Just for Fun (and $5) Parlay,” where I give you a six-fight parlay with a big payout for a small investment.

After all, what is life without a good parlay to root for?

Let’s get started.

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UFC 171: Johny Hendricks, Robbie Lawler Prepare to Put Fresh Spin on WW Title

Arguably the most interesting thing about Saturday’s fight between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler is that it doesn’t really matter who wins.
Either way—and barring something unforeseen—the UFC 171 main event will usher in a new era…

Arguably the most interesting thing about Saturday’s fight between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler is that it doesn’t really matter who wins.

Either way—and barring something unforeseen—the UFC 171 main event will usher in a new era for the welterweight division. No matter who hangs the no-vacancy sign on the 170-pound title, one of the fight company’s most reliable weight classes will be unequivocally changed.

For the first time since 2008, the welterweight class will have an undisputed champion not named Georges St-Pierre. Regardless of this weekend’s result, every man in the division will enjoy new life, and each of them will have a new target upon which to heap his most sinister desires.

Welterweight will be scruffier and a little rougher around the edges come Monday, with either Hendricks or Lawler at the helm. We’ll trade custom suits and polite sound bites for ball caps and straight talk, careful game-planning for bad intentions, and a half-decade of French-Canadian dominance for a wide-open division where it feels like anybody has a shot to wear the belt.

And really, that makes this the best kind of fight.

Hendricks comes in as a 4-1 favorite, according to BestFightOdds.com, and by all rights the title should be his for the taking. His pedigree as a two-time NCAA national champion wrestler at Oklahoma State suggests he’ll be able to decide where things are contested. If he wants to take Lawler off his feet and finish him on the ground or grind out a decision, he should be able to do it.

A Hendricks victory is also likely the best path to a smooth transition of power. Many observers thought he defeated St-Pierre in their razor-close battle at UFC 167 four months ago, and a win over Lawler would cauterize the wound of that fight’s controversial decision. Some people might even read it as the de facto first defense of a title he had already won.

Certainly, Hendricks also has a better chance to hang onto the belt longer than Lawler might. Nobody wants to see a welterweight repeat of the instability that plagued the light heavyweight championship after Chuck Liddell lost it back in 2007. In addition, to the extent the UFC can mitigate the notion that the new champ is just keeping GSP’s belt warm for him until he returns, a Hendricks victory also plays better.

The wild card, obviously, is both men’s shared proclivity for boxing. Any number of factors—pride, ego, a willingness to please—could sucker Hendricks into a stand-up battle against Lawler, and if that happens, all our careful prognosticating and sober pre-fight analysis will prove moot.

Likewise, a Lawler championship in the UFC in 2014 would be one of the sport’s most unexpected feel-good stories. It might not last long, but it would be hard not to smile at the notion of the 31-year-old finally cashing in on the potential we first heard about when he began his UFC career on a three-fight tear back in 2002.

Either way, the storyline will be new. There will also probably be some growing pains.

Nobody expects either of these guys to be St-Pierre, after all. That would be unfair.

You don’t replace the best 170-pound fighter in MMA history just by handing somebody else his belt. Neither contender will likely ever match his drawing power, crossover appeal or streak of 10 consecutive title defenses. In order to even have the chance, one of these two gents would still have to be champion circa 2020, and no one imagines that will happen, either.

But no matter what, it will be fresh.

It will be lively.

It will be a whole new world for the welterweight division, and that’s something we haven’t seen in a long time.

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UFC 171: Hendricks vs. Lawler Live Streaming Weigh-in Video

Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler will battle at UFC 171 to determine the new welterweight king.
Georges St-Pierre dominated the 170-pound class for years. Following a controversial win over Hendricks at UFC 167, though, St-Pierre vacated his…

Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler will battle at UFC 171 to determine the new welterweight king.

Georges St-Pierre dominated the 170-pound class for years. Following a controversial win over Hendricks at UFC 167, though, St-Pierre vacated his belt and stepped away from MMA for personal reasons. As a result, a different fighter will claim the undisputed welterweight crown for the first time in six years.

Hendricks and Lawler won’t be the only elite 170-pounders competing at UFC 171.

In the co-main event, Carlos Condit and Tyron Woodley will meet in a matchup that could produce the next title challenger. Also, Jake Shields will try to keep his momentum going against a fellow former middleweight, Hector Lombard.

Additionally, Rick Story will test up-and-coming The Ultimate Fighter winner Kelvin Gastelum in the final fight on the preliminary card.

The UFC 171 weigh-ins will be held on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. When the weigh-ins begin, live video will be available through the above stream. 

Below is the entire fight card for UFC 171, which will be held on Saturday, March 15 in Dallas, Texas.

 

UFC 171 Main Card (10 p.m. ET on Pay-Per-View)

  • Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler
  • Carlos Condit vs. Tyron Woodley
  • Diego Sanchez vs. Myles Jury
  • Jake Shields vs. Hector Lombard
  • Ovince St. Preux vs. Nikita Krylov

 

UFC 171 Prelims (8 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2)

  • Kelvin Gastelum vs. Rick Story
  • Raquel Pennington vs. Jessica Andrade
  • Dennis Bermudez vs. Jimy Hettes
  • Sean Spencer vs. Alex Garcia

 

UFC 171 Online Prelims (6 p.m. ET on UFC Fight Pass)

  • Renee Forte vs. Francisco Trevino
  • Will Campuzano vs. Justin Scoggins
  • Bubba McDaniel vs. Sean Strickland
  • Daniel Pineda vs. Rob Whiteford

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UFC 171: Jake Shields on Hector Lombard, ‘He’s a Prick, No One Likes Him’

Don’t expect Jake Shields and Hector Lombard to share a brew together after their UFC 171 encounter.
After Lombard pulled a “Captain Obvious” move and labeled Shields as a boring fighter, the former Strikeforce champ responded in his UFC 171 media scru…

Don’t expect Jake Shields and Hector Lombard to share a brew together after their UFC 171 encounter.

After Lombard pulled a “Captain Obvious” move and labeled Shields as a boring fighter, the former Strikeforce champ responded in his UFC 171 media scrum (per MMA Fighting).

I’ve always thought Hector is a prick. Everybody kind of knows that. He’s a really good fighter but as a person, everyone who knows him, no one likes him at the gym. He’s the guy who goes after all the new guys, tries to break their ribs, break their arms, knock them out. But as a fighter, he’s talented.

Shields echoes a sentiment shared by many throughout the MMA community regarding Lombard. As Fight! magazine detailed, Lombard has had a number of incidents happen in the gym and is widely associated with the term “bully.”

Lombard will look to win back-to-back fights for the first time in his UFC career. Since amassing a 31-2-1(1) record outside the UFC, Lombard has defeated Nate Marquardt and Rousimar Palhares by KO while dropping decisions to Tim Boetsch and Yushin Okami.

Shields, meanwhile, will look to make it three in a row at UFC 171. Outside of a disastrous 2011 campaign that saw Shields lose to Georges St-Pierre and get blasted out of the Octagon against Jake Ellenberger, the “Scrap Pack” member has yet to lose. Technically, it would be Shields’ fifth win in a row if he can defeat Lombard, but Shields’ win over Ed Herman at UFC 150 was overturned due to a failed post-fight drug test.

Expect Lombard to look for the knockout punch while Shields will look to use his “American Jiu-Jitsu.”

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