Tag: UFC 176

Weekend Round-up: Aldo Accuses Mendes of Steroid Use, A Fighter is Out of UFC on FOX 12, and More


(Angry Jose Aldo looks identical to Happy Jose Aldo)

It’s been a rare, event-less weekend. Despite the lack of fisticuffs, Saturday and Sunday have been packed with quite a bit of mid-level news and fight booking house-keeping matters.

The biggest recent news has been a spat between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. As you’ve likely heard, an Aldo injury forced “postponement” [Ed’s note: LOL] of UFC 176.

Mendes took Aldo to task over this on the MMA Hour, saying:

If Aldo can’t stay healthy and is too fragile to go through a training camp, then I think it is time to step aside and let guys who are able to do that and able to push through all that stuff, to be a champ.

To put it bluntly, Aldo was fucking pissed. He told Combate (translation via MMA Fighting):

Maybe I have so many injuries because I’m not taking the same ‘supplements’ you take. I have injuries because I train a lot to beat you like I did last time, and I think you remember that and still have nightmares about it. I did all the medical exams I had to do, but if you’re a doctor now, I can send them so you can take a look. Maybe you can prescript one of your supplements so I can heal faster.

The one who gets beat up usually runs away from another beating, but you can’t run forever because I’m going after you. Before the cage is closed you can say whatever you want, because once they close it you won’t be able to open your mouth, so keep talking while you have a mouth. And who are you to say where we are going to fight? I don’t think Dana White would be happy to see someone making his decisions.
…
You’re the one who seems to only fight at your home, who desperately doesn’t want to fight in Brazil. I got injured before and my fight with Frankie Edgar was moved from Brazil to Las Vegas. I fought your coach in your home, fought at Mark Hominick’s home in front of 55,000 fans, I fought in Japan and Europe. And now you tell me you want to be the champion? A champion doesn’t choose opponents or where the fight is going to be. And now I ask you, who’s the real pussy?

Harsh words from a harsh man.

In other UFC news…


(Angry Jose Aldo looks identical to Happy Jose Aldo)

It’s been a rare, event-less weekend. Despite the lack of fisticuffs, Saturday and Sunday have been packed with quite a bit of mid-level news and fight booking house-keeping matters.

The biggest recent news has been a spat between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. As you’ve likely heard, an Aldo injury forced “postponement” [Ed’s note: LOL] of UFC 176.

Mendes took Aldo to task over this on the MMA Hour, saying:

If Aldo can’t stay healthy and is too fragile to go through a training camp, then I think it is time to step aside and let guys who are able to do that and able to push through all that stuff, to be a champ.

To put it bluntly, Aldo was fucking pissed. He told Combate (translation via MMA Fighting):

Maybe I have so many injuries because I’m not taking the same ‘supplements’ you take. I have injuries because I train a lot to beat you like I did last time, and I think you remember that and still have nightmares about it. I did all the medical exams I had to do, but if you’re a doctor now, I can send them so you can take a look. Maybe you can prescript one of your supplements so I can heal faster.

The one who gets beat up usually runs away from another beating, but you can’t run forever because I’m going after you. Before the cage is closed you can say whatever you want, because once they close it you won’t be able to open your mouth, so keep talking while you have a mouth. And who are you to say where we are going to fight? I don’t think Dana White would be happy to see someone making his decisions.
…
You’re the one who seems to only fight at your home, who desperately doesn’t want to fight in Brazil. I got injured before and my fight with Frankie Edgar was moved from Brazil to Las Vegas. I fought your coach in your home, fought at Mark Hominick’s home in front of 55,000 fans, I fought in Japan and Europe. And now you tell me you want to be the champion? A champion doesn’t choose opponents or where the fight is going to be. And now I ask you, who’s the real pussy?

Harsh words from a harsh man.

In other UFC news:

Michael Johnson is out of his UFC on FOX 12 bout with Josh Thompson due to injury. This is a shame as the two were expected to curtain-jerk the main card and it would’ve been quite an exciting affair. Let’s hope the main event of Robbie Lawler vs. Matt Brown stays intact.

Now, some news on the B-level circuit:

Bellator 123 has a new fight. Pat Curran will defend his featherweight title against Patricio “Pitbull” Freire. This is a fine enough main event for a normal Bellator card. The problem is  this isn’t a normal Bellator card. This is the one that’s going head-to-head with a UFC Fight Night Card headlined by Gegard Mousasi and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. If Pitbull-Curran is the best Bellator’s got, they’re going to be slaughtered.

World Series of Fighting, too, has some title news. Lightweight champion Justin Gaethje–who recently defeated Nick Newell at WSOF 11–will defend his title against Melvin Guillard. No date has been announced.  We’re amped up for this one. Gaethje is quite talented, and Guillard looked fantastic in his last fight against Gesias Cavalcante.

That’s all for now, Potato Nation. We suggest you make the best of what’s left of your Sunday.

UFC 176: The Negative and Positive Effects of Cancelling the PPV

UFC 176 is the second event in the “modern” era of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to suffer the fate of being cancelled. The news of Jose Aldo’s injury threw the mixed martial arts world into immediate speculation as to what the p…

UFC 176 is the second event in the “modern” era of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to suffer the fate of being cancelled. The news of Jose Aldo’s injury threw the mixed martial arts world into immediate speculation as to what the promotion would do to recover.

The announcement that this event would be scrapped didn’t come as a great surprise to anyone who follows the industry. However, the situation is cause for some concern and negativity, but the benefits of cancelling UFC 176 will be felt at the same time. 

 

The Negative Effects of Cancelling UFC 176

Having to cancel the event due to an injury is a glaring example of how the combination of the current schedule and lack of star power is an issue that needs to be addressed.

With Aldo going down to injury, the UFC scrambled to try to find a replacement main event. Joe Rogan was thrown under the bus when he asked Ronda Rousey if she would be able to compete, even though she had just fought moments earlier at UFC 175. Chris Weidman is also on the shelf. Johny Hendricks is injured. Demetrious Johnson just fought and isn’t the draw the UFC wants him to be. Jon Jones, T.J. Dillashaw, Anthony Pettis and Cain Velasquez are all tied up in other commitments to the UFC.

So who does that leave? No one, and that is the issue.

The UFC doesn’t have the luxury of company men such as Rich Franklin or Chael Sonnen to step up to compete last minute. Plus, there aren’t many other fighters who don’t carry titles who fans would be willing to spend money on a PPV to see. Had the promotion decided to move forward with the card, the show was widely expected to have abysmal numbers. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer (via BJPenn.com) reported that UFC 174 had buy rates lower than Bellator’s premiere on PPV, and the UFC does not want to go through that situation again.

Ten UFC events were planned to be held between July and August, which ties up a large number of fighters that could have been inserted into this slot. The UFC is pushing very hard to interject as much content into the sports world as possible, and that has created a schedule that has stretched their star power and viewer interest very thin.

Unable to find any names that would garner attention in three weeks forced the company to pull the plug.

 

The Positive Effects of Cancelling UFC 176

The event’s card featured a number of bouts that were highly anticipated. Now that the show is not being held, though, the UFC is forced to move the fights to other events, and the additions will strengthen those cards substantially.

The majority of the fights have been moved to either the UFC Fight Night event on August 23 or UFC 177. The Ronald Souza vs. Gegard Mousassi fight is expected to become the main event of said UFC Fight Night, which improves that card drastically.

One of the main complaints about the UFC planning so many cards at once is that the quality of fights was being diminished. The cancellation of UFC 176 is a short term solution to that problem. The remaining cards are immediately improved, and the potential presents itself that they will now get more viewership than they would have if UFC 176 had not been cancelled.

Chad Mendes versus Jose Aldo II is an important fight in the UFC, but unfortunately, fight fans will have to wait to see what happens the next time these competitors step in the cage.

While the initial response was negative, there are benefits to the cancellation of UFC 176 that should be celebrated, including the immediate improvement of other UFC events in August.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Gegard Mousasi vs. Ronaldo Souza 2 Moved to UFC Fight Night 50 in Connecticut


(Jacare Souza, smiling like a man who clearly doesn’t remember getting upkicked in the face six years ago. Photo via Combate/Globo)

In the wake of UFC 176’s cancellation, scheduled co-main event fighter Gegard Mousasi posted the following on Facebook:

 

Mousasi later erased the post, but it was too late — the UFC responded to his sarcasm by reassigning his rematch with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to Fight Night 50, the September 5th card being held on an Indian reservation in Connecticut, ten miles away from a Bellator show.

To be honest, we doubt the UFC brass had any malicious intent with this booking, but it’s still a kick in the nuts to go from a pay-per-view event at the Staples Center to a Friday night FS1 card in Ledyard, CT. Mousasi vs. Souza hasn’t officially been named as the UFC Fight Night 50 main event, although that’s certainly a possibility, considering that the only other notable fight on the lineup right now is Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa. We’ll keep you posted.

Fun fact: UFC Fight Night 50 comes smack in the middle of an eight-week stretch that will feature 10 UFC events. So yeah. The eyes of the world will be watching.


(Jacare Souza, smiling like a man who clearly doesn’t remember getting upkicked in the face six years ago. Photo via Combate/Globo)

In the wake of UFC 176′s cancellation, scheduled co-main event fighter Gegard Mousasi posted the following on Facebook:

 

Mousasi later erased the post, but it was too late — the UFC responded to his sarcasm by reassigning his rematch with Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to Fight Night 50, the September 5th card being held on an Indian reservation in Connecticut, ten miles away from a Bellator show.

To be honest, we doubt the UFC brass had any malicious intent with this booking, but it’s still a kick in the nuts to go from a pay-per-view event at the Staples Center to a Friday night FS1 card in Ledyard, CT. Mousasi vs. Souza hasn’t officially been named as the UFC Fight Night 50 main event, although that’s certainly a possibility, considering that the only other notable fight on the lineup right now is Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa. We’ll keep you posted.

Fun fact: UFC Fight Night 50 comes smack in the middle of an eight-week stretch that will feature 10 UFC events. So yeah. The eyes of the world will be watching.

UFC 176 Canceled in the Wake of Jose Aldo’s Injury — Yes, CANCELED, Not “Postponed”


(Fare thee well, dear poster.)

The guy in the truck did his absolute best to save UFC 176, but in the end, it was too great a task. The UFC broke the bad news this evening that its August 2nd pay-per-view card has been canceled following Jose Aldo‘s injury-related withdrawal from the main event. Here’s the official statement, followed by our usual angry commentary:

Las Vegas, Nev. – The UFC® has announced that the UFC 176 Pay-Per-View event scheduled for August 2nd will be postponed*. The featherweight championship fight scheduled to headline the event at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles was dropped from the card last week when champion Jose Aldo sustained an injury making him unable to defend his title against No. 1 ranked featherweight Chad Mendes.

The featherweight championship fight between Aldo and Mendes is expected to take place later this year and all other fights previously slated for UFC 176 are being rescheduled for upcoming cards. The August 30th Pay-Per-View event will remain titled UFC®177: DILLASHAW vs. BARAO II** at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Tickets for UFC 177 go on-sale Friday, July 18th.


(Fare thee well, dear poster.)

The guy in the truck did his absolute best to save UFC 176, but in the end, it was too great a task. The UFC broke the bad news this evening that its August 2nd pay-per-view card has been canceled following Jose Aldo‘s injury-related withdrawal from the main event. Here’s the official statement, followed by our usual angry commentary:

Las Vegas, Nev. – The UFC® has announced that the UFC 176 Pay-Per-View event scheduled for August 2nd will be postponed*. The featherweight championship fight scheduled to headline the event at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles was dropped from the card last week when champion Jose Aldo sustained an injury making him unable to defend his title against No. 1 ranked featherweight Chad Mendes.

The featherweight championship fight between Aldo and Mendes is expected to take place later this year and all other fights previously slated for UFC 176 are being rescheduled for upcoming cards. The August 30th Pay-Per-View event will remain titled UFC®177: DILLASHAW vs. BARAO II** at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Tickets for UFC 177 go on-sale Friday, July 18th.

As the STAPLES Center event will no longer take place, ticket refunds will be offered at the original point of purchase***. If tickets were purchased from AXS via www.axs.com or Purchase By Phone, refunds will be received automatically via AXS. Tickets purchased from the STAPLES Center box office can be refunded there, beginning Wednesday, July 9th. Those who purchased tickets at any other outlet should reach out to that original point of purchase and contact them directly for a refund.

* Guys, it’s canceled, okay? CANCELED. Do you really think we’re going to see UFC 176: Aldo vs. Mendes 2 on a poster sometime after UFC 177? All the other fights are being moved to Maine and Sacramento, for God’s sake. Stick a fork in it. By the way, if Jose Aldo can’t be medically cleared by October, we may be looking at Chad Mendes in an interim title bout. ON PAY PER VIEW!

** So that fight’s official, huh? A rematch of a lopsided ass-kicking that barely cracked 200k buys the first time? Headlining another PPV just three months later, because all of the UFC’s other champions are either injured or already booked or coaching upcoming seasons of TUF/TUF: Latin America? Yikes. Tough year.

*** Fun fact: This event had already sold $800,000 worth of tickets.

This is just the second time in Zuffa history that the UFC has had to cancel an event — UFC 151 was also nixed in August 2012 — and the circumstances are nearly identical: A garbage-ass card featuring a title fight and a bunch of filler + an unexpected injury to a headliner = an event that not even the UFC can justify taking money for. The only difference is, this time the UFC doesn’t have Jon Jones and Greg Jackson to publicly scapegoat. The promotion simply gambled on a one-fight card and lost. No other big names could be found on short notice. (Getting Ronda Rousey to make a four-week turnaround after slicing through Alexis Davis on Saturday was never really an option, due to the hand injuries that she sustained in that fight.)

To me, the big story here isn’t simply that another pay-per-view got canceled, it’s that the UFC has so few available stars these days that the promotion is basically operating without a net. There’s a relatively small pool of big-name fighters to go around, and when you’re running 50 shows a year — due to FOX network obligations and a ill-advised strategy to take over the entire world at once — the math simply doesn’t add up, especially when an injury bug is steadily striking down your best men and women.

The UFC’s hyper-saturated event schedule means that one-fight cards will become increasingly normal. At that point, the UFC can only cross its fingers and hope that its marquee attractions stay healthy. But they won’t; not all of them. And so, it’s only a matter of time before this happens again. And again. And again.

UFC 176 Cancelled, Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes II Possible for October

After losing its main event, UFC 176 has been officially “postponed,” though realistically, it is now cancelled. 
Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole first reported the news, and the UFC has subsequently confirmed it: 

The UFC® has a…

After losing its main event, UFC 176 has been officially “postponed,” though realistically, it is now cancelled. 

Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole first reported the news, and the UFC has subsequently confirmed it: 

The UFC® has announced that the UFC 176 Pay-Per-View event scheduled for August 2nd will be postponed. The featherweight championship fight between Aldo and Mendes is expected to take place later this year and all other fights previously slated for UFC 176 are being rescheduled for upcoming cards.

Iole tweeted that Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes II is possible for an October pay-per-view in Brazil:

This marks just the second time in company history a pay-per-view was cancelled, the first being UFC 151 in September 2012. 

The event was cancelled for essentially the same reason: a late injury to one of the main event fighters, Dan Henderson, forced him off the card, per UFC.com.

Iole later noted in his article on the UFC 176 cancellation that UFC officials considered putting UFC women’s champion Ronda Rousey in the August 2 main event, but that plan was scrapped when it was learned that she broke her hand during her 16-second win over Alexis Davis at UFC 175.

Last week, Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting reported that Aldo would not be able to square off with “Money” Mendes a second time due to a strained shoulder/spine injury suffered in training. 

Since scoring a spectacular knee-strike knockout over Mendes at UFC 142 in January 2012, Scarface has continued his winning ways against formidable foes in Frankie Edgar, Chan Sung Jung and Ricardo Lamas. 

Aldo is currently riding a 17-fight winning streak, with his sole career loss coming in a lightweight contest all the way back in November 2005. 

Mendes, in his own right, has looked impressive since his lone defeat inside the cage. 

Since coming up short against Aldo, the Team Alpha Male standout has rattled off five consecutive victories, four of which came via knockout. 

UFC 176 also would have featured a lightweight scrap between Tony Ferguson and Danny Castillo, a showdown between Bobby Green and Abel Trujillo and Gray Maynard’s return against Fabricio Camoes. 

Additionally, a high-profile middleweight clash between Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and Gegard “The Dreamcatcher” Mousasi has to be rescheduled. 

UFC 177, which is headlined by a bantamweight championship rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and Renan Barao on Aug. 30, takes place at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California, and remains intact. 

The other two championship bouts currently scheduled for 2014 are Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson II at UFC 178 in September and Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180 in November. 

Is this a perfect example of the UFC overextending itself with such an active schedule of events, or is it simply a smart and necessary business decision, considering the circumstances? 

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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Dana White Says Aldo vs. Mendes II Can ‘Still Happen,’ Just Not at UFC 176

According to UFC President Dana White, Chad Mendes can still receive his rematch with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, he just won’t get it on Aug. 2 at UFC 176 as originally scheduled. 
MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco reported that White remai…

According to UFC President Dana White, Chad Mendes can still receive his rematch with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, he just won’t get it on Aug. 2 at UFC 176 as originally scheduled. 

MMA Junkie’s Steven Marrocco reported that White remains willing to reschedule the rematch, and the UFC president is not yet looking for a replacement for the injured champion. 

“Aldo is going to be out 45 days – the Mendes/Aldo fight can still happen,” White said. 

After Frankie Edgar‘s lopsided TKO victory over BJ Penn at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale Sunday evening, many fans and media members speculated that the former lightweight champion might step up to fight at UFC 176, saving the pay-per-view card in the process. 

While White did not dismiss the idea of Edgar stepping up to fight on the Aug. 2 card, MMA Fighting’s Dave Doyle tweeted that Edgar vs. Mendes is out of the question, meaning that if Edgar does fill in at UFC 176, it will be against an unannounced opponent. 

“I’ve got to call Frankie Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday and see where he’s at on this thing,” White said. 

For Aldo, a shoulder and cervical spine injury will keep him sidelined until the middle of September, and all signs are pointing to the Mendes fight taking place upon his return. 

“Forty-five days after (UFC 176) he’ll (Aldo will) be OK to fight,” White said. 

Aldo previously defeated Mendes via first-round knockout at UFC 142, but the Team Alpha Male standout has dramatically improved his all-around skill set since that time, posting a five-fight winning streak which contains four knockouts and just one decision. 

Stay tuned to Bleacher Report UFC 176 as updates emerge. 

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