UFC 184 is right around the corner, as the pay-per-view event takes place this Saturday. The strong card is headlined by two women’s bouts, and fans will not want to miss it.
The card was originally headlined by Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort, b…
UFC 184 is right around the corner, as the pay-per-view event takes place this Saturday. The strong card is headlined by two women’s bouts, and fans will not want to miss it.
The card was originally headlined by Chris Weidman and VitorBelfort, but injuries put the kibosh on that. Instead, a women’s bantamweight championship bout between Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano takes top billing.
It’s not as great as it once was, but UFC 184 is still a strong card. Here are three reasons you should tune in Saturday.
The Best Woman on the Face of the Planet
There is no doubt about it: Rousey is the best fighter in the world right now. She is also the most popular by far.
She has been a giant star for the UFC. That’s why she’s headlining pay-per-view shows.
Rousey has been dominant and has made all her challengers look foolish. Not only that, but the former armbar-only fighter has put together some awesome striking finishes in her last two bouts.
She is taking on one of her biggest tests to date in Zingano. Zingano is no joke. She’s a physical specimen and is as tough as they come.
That said, a win for Rousey sets up a potential superfight with Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who fights in the Invicta main event in the same town on the same weekend, giving us one of the biggest women’s MMA weekends in MMA history.
The Debut of Boxing Royalty
She has long been touted as the best prospect in women’s MMA, and she has a chance to prove it in a UFC co-main event. Yes, Holly Holm is set for her debut with the company and is looking to quickly rise in the UFC ranks.
Holm is an amazing boxer with great kicking. She is, like Zingano, a physical specimen and a beast on the feet.
She takes on the scrappy Raquel Pennington, who looks to play the role of spoiler. She’s tough as nails and can take a punch, but Holm strikes with power few ladies have.
It should be interesting, to say the least.
The Rise of ElCucuy
The lightweight division is a murderers’ row of top fighters. One who doesn’t get nearly enough credit and has flown under the radar is Tony Ferguson.
The winner of The Ultimate Fighter 13, Ferguson has quietly inched closer to the lightweight title picture. He’s on a four-fight winning streak, with finishes over Abel Trujillo, KatsunoriKikuno and Mike Rio.
He’s good everywhere. That well-roundedness sets him up with a great plan against his current foe, GleisonTibau, who is on a strong streak himself.
It will be a tough fight, but a win for Ferguson catapults him up the ranks.
When it comes to women’s MMA, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey hasn’t yet found an equal inside the Octagon. At UFC 184, Cat Zingano will try to prove that she is Rousey’s equal.
To this point, Rousey hasn’t just gone undefeated; sh…
When it comes to women’s MMA, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey hasn’t yet found an equal inside the Octagon. At UFC 184, Cat Zingano will try to prove that she is Rousey’s equal.
To this point, Rousey hasn’t just gone undefeated; she has obliterated anyone standing in her way. The 28-year-old’s perfect 10-0 record is enhanced by the fact that all 10 fights have ended in stoppage. Her fights have combined for only 12 total rounds.
Rousey has been in the cage for as many rounds as one championship boxing fight. That’s dominance.
She hasn’t fought an opponent quite like Zingano, though. The Alpha Cat has power, the kind that has led her to an unblemished record of her own. The 32-year-old is 9-0 with eight finishes. However, her brand of violence is not as dominant as Rousey’s. She’s fought in 22 rounds.
Odds via Odds Shark as of Sunday, Feb. 22 at 11 p.m. ET.
So what will happen when these two unbeaten fighters enter the Octagon to close out UFC 184? Here’s a look at all the essential information surrounding the bout along with an early prediction.
When: Saturday, Feb. 28
Start Time: Fight Pass prelims at 7 p.m. ET (subscription required); Fox Sports 1 prelims at 8 p.m. ET; main card pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET
As the long odds would indicate, there isn’t much belief that Cat Zingano can get the job done against the champion.
That’s an understandable sentiment. The champion has done nothing but dominate the division since its creation. Miesha Tate surviving more than two rounds with Rowdy has been considered a feat. Rousey defended her belt twice in 2014 for a combined one minute and 22 seconds of actual fight time.
What is scarier is that Rousey feels better physically heading into 2015 than she did in her dominant 2014, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports:
I’m perfectly healthy and better than ever before. I can just feel my body itching to fight again. … You have to remember I’ve been pretty much fighting all my UFC fights with one leg. Now I feel better than I did when I was 16 years old fighting when I got my first knee surgery. I really feel rejuvenated like I molted or something and I have a brand new body. I allowed myself to rest and recuperate.
That being said, Zingano is still one of the best fighters in the division. There are areas where she could conceivably test Rousey, specifically on the feet. Here’s how the two compare statistically as both strikers and grapplers:
The area of concern for Zingano is takedown defense. Her rate of 55 percent is good enough to fend off most opponents, but Rousey isn’t just another opponent. Where Alpha can generally use her muscle to work her way back to the feet, few have survived a Rouseytakedown to stand and strike again.
Zingano‘s ability to fend off Rousey‘s judo throws and takedown attempts will dictate just how long this fight lasts.
Prediction
If Zingano‘s previous bout with Miesha Tate is any indication, this might be a short night of work for Rousey once again. While Zingano was able to ultimately defeat Tate via knockout, it wasn’t before Tate nearly ended the fight with an armbar of her own in the second round.
Here’s Cupcake nearly ending the fight on her third takedown of the night against Zingano:
There are still those who believe Zingano can be the one to challenge Rousey, though. Julia Budd, who fought Rousey in 2011 under the Strikeforce banner, believes the champ will see her toughest test to date, per Steve Juon of MMAMania.com:
I can’t see it ending…well I can see it ending by armbar but I see it going longer and Cat definitely being able to use her stand-up to keep Ronda (away). It’s hard to vote against Ronda because she’s been so dominant, but I think that Cat stands a good chance — the best chance of any of the opponents she’s faced.
Watching Zingano vs. Tate to its conclusion, the way the challenger dominated and finished the third and final round is something to applaud. There’s an argument to be made that Zingano‘s power in close quarters could stave off the inevitable.
However, Zingano has also been taken down by Amanda Nunes in her other UFC bout. That’s a trend that doesn’t bode well for surviving to see a third, fourth or fifth round against the champion.
Rousey via first-round submission (armbar)
All bout and card information via UFC.com. All statistics via FightMetric unless otherwise noted.
Standing across from former multiple-division boxing world champion Holly Holm at UFC 184 on February 28 will be former The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 competitor Raquel “Rocky” Pennington.
The No. 12-ranked Pennington was originall…
Standing across from former multiple-division boxing world champion Holly Holm at UFC 184 on February 28 will be former The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 competitor Raquel “Rocky” Pennington.
The No. 12-ranked Pennington was originally scheduled to welcome the undefeated mixed martial artist to the big leagues at UFC 181, but Holm pulled out in November due to a neck injury. Now, Rocky has the Jackson’s MMA fighter right in her cross hairs.
“I don’t think she’s fought on an elite level or fought the types of opponents in MMA like we have in the UFC, like myself or any of the other girls. So I want to be the one to derail the hype train,” Pennington told Fox Sports’ Elias Cepeda.
Holm’s UFC arrival wasn’t the smoothest. A tumultuous negotiating period with her manager Lenny Fresquez almost saw UFC President Dana White pull back from the bargaining table altogether.
Nonetheless, the 33-year-old was able to secure a deal with the sports’ largest fight promotion in July.
Despite her inactivity inside the Octagon thus far, Holm’s 7-0 professional record has created a palpable buzz around the women’s bantamweight division. Though the Albuquerque-based fighter has yet to compete in the UFC, all the talk lately has been about a future date between Holm and a certain “Rowdy” one.
Before her signing, speculation of Holm facing the only women’s bantamweight champion in UFC history was everywhere, at least from the titleholder’s standpoint.
“I really hope that the UFC picks Holly up and that I get to fight her before I retire,” champion Ronda Rousey told MMA Junkie in December 2013.
With the current 135-pound champion on the verge of cleaning out the division if she makes a fifth straight title defense against the undefeated Cat Zingano on the same card, a faceoff with Holm may not be too far out of the question.
One impressive victory could be all it takes for a showdown between the two champions, White told the Los Angeles Times in July (h/t MMA Mania). And there’s not much in the way of roadblocks, aside from a Holm loss.
Former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate has lost to Rousey twice in her career, but since her UFC 168 loss to Rowdy Ronda, the 28-year-old has piled up three straight victories over quality names.
Outside of Tate and outspoken Brazilian Bethe Correia, there are few challengers to Rousey’s throne. That said, one Octagon win for Holm is not enough to convince Pennington she deserves a shot at the longtime women’s bantamweight ruler.
“It does motivate me [Holm’s looming title opportunity], extra. I do not think she deserves to pop in and walk right into a title shot in the UFC,” said Pennington.
While Holm and Rousey take to the headlines, Altitude MMA’s Pennington has been rising up the 135-pound rankings. The 26-year-old most recently defeated late replacement Ashlee-Evans Smith via rear-naked choke at the sound of the first-round bell in December.
Since her TUF 18 finale victory over Roxanne Modafferi in November 2013, Pennington has only lost once, to Brazilian Jessica Andrade in a close split-decision contest. Though the judges and most MMA outlets agreed that Andrade was the rightful winner, Pennington was the more accurate striker and wrestler, per FightMetric.
Holm will be a significant upgrade in competition for the Coloradan. As an unparalleled boxer, she tallied 33 wins compared to just two losses. Holm is also unorthodox and throws punches from the southpaw stance.
In those 33 aforementioned victories, nine came by way of knockout. But that was boxing.
The former Legacy FC women’s bantamweight champion has knocked out six of seven MMA opponents.
Holm will now channel her efforts toward cementing a legacy in a new sport on the biggest stage possible. The former world champion boxer will attempt to validate all the praise that made her such a highly sought-after commodity into a win over Pennington.
That’s if she remembers who exactly she’s facing on February 28 inside the Staples Center.
“I heard a couple of interviews she’s done, and I don’t think she know who she was fighting.The guy interviewing her kept repeating questions to her about ‘Raquel,’ but she kept on talking about a ‘Jessica’,” said Pennington.
This Saturday, she has a chance to remind both Holm and White that the 135-pound division isn’t as shallow as one might think. If Pennington can make the co-main event tilt a gritty grappling affair against the relatively untested Holm, then she may well shock the world.
The UFC’s welterweight division is a talent-rich collective where the battle to claim elite-level status never slows. Once a position in the divisional upper-tier at 170 is solidified, a fighter moves within striking distance of a potential championshi…
The UFC’s welterweight division is a talent-rich collective where the battle to claim elite-level status never slows. Once a position in the divisional upper-tier at 170 is solidified, a fighter moves within striking distance of a potential championship opportunity. Yet, with a shark tank of talent in the welterweight depths, fortunes can change in an instant, and a fighter can go from contention to fighting for relevancy in quick fashion.
Jake Ellenberger is no stranger to the ever-changing tides that come with competing in what is arguably the deepest division under the UFC banner.
Over the past five years “The Juggernaut” has been slinging leather under the bright lights of the biggest stage in mixed martial arts. Throughout this stretch, the 29-year-old Nebraskan has squared off with a collection of the world’s best at 170 pounds, and carved out his place in the elite tier of the welterweight division in the process. Ellenberger found success in six of his first seven showings inside the Octagon, with his only setback coming via split decision in a hard-fought scrap with former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit in the Omaha native’s official debut.
A six-fight winning streak would serve to add his name to a list of potential title contenders, and the heavy-handed Team Reign representative seemed to be within striking distance of a title shot when he stepped in against Martin Kampmann at The Ultimate Fighter 15 Finale in June of 2012. Unfortunately for Ellenberger, the Danish striker would rebound from a drubbing in the opening frame to earn the victory via stoppage in the second round.
While his setback against “The Hitman” would serve to stunt his momentum, wins in his next two showings would once again spark talk of a potential title shot in his future. That said, the Southern California transplant would be turned back by Rory MacDonald in his next bout, then go on to suffer two more losses as he came out on the business end of things in fights with Robbie Lawler and Kelvin Gastelum respectively.
Nevertheless, despite being in the midst of the roughest patch in his career, Ellenberger‘s drive and determination to succeed have never waned. Being raised in the Midwest instilled the former Marine’s blue-collar work ethic and his belief that continuous mental and physical investment will yield the desired results.
He will get the opportunity to get things back on track when he faces former title challenger Josh Koscheck at UFC 184 on Feb. 28 in Los Angeles, in a bout where both men are in jeopardy of being pushed out of the upper echelon of the welterweight ranks. And while he was admittedly curious when the bout against “Kos” was offered up, Ellenberger is fully confident he’ll emerge victorious at UFC 184.
“I was surprised when I got the call to fight [Josh] Koscheck,” Ellenberger told Bleacher Report. “I didn’t know he was still fighting. I thought he had put in his resigning papers, but I guess that’s not the case.
“I’m stoked about the matchup and I’m excited for the fight. I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments in my camp, and that is what this sport is really all about. You have to evolve and make adjustments and I’ve really had to dissect a lot of things about myself. I had to take a good look inside because it’s not specifically the battle with your opponent but the battle within yourself.”
In addition to his bout with the Fresno-based veteran being an opportunity for Ellenberger to get things back on track in his fighting career, UFC 184 will also bring him to the next step in his personal evolution. Where a fighter’s success is typically measured in wins and losses, the process of progress is what ultimately provides fuel to his motivational fires.
Instead of focusing all of his time and energy into expanding his athletic skill set, Ellenberger also works on the psychological side of things as well.
“I’m always looking to push myself and grow as an athlete,” Ellenberger said. “I’m always looking to move forward and up because those are the only directions to travel. It’s all about evolving both mentally and physically. This fight comes at a perfect time for me. I’m in great shape physically. I’m focused and I’m in the best psychological state I’ve been in quite some time. There are a few things I can contribute that to, but everything inside and outside of the cage is rolling.”
While Ellenberger is eager to break out of his rough patch and take a big step forward, the organizational banner he competes under recently set about some changes of their own. On Tuesday afternoon, the UFC held a press conference where CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC President Dana White and Lawrence Epstein outlined some major changes to the promotion’s drug testing policies, especially in regard to performance-enhancing drugs.
The UFC has vowed to ramp up their efforts to test fighters both in and out of competition and the new policy overhauls will go into effect on July 1. Ellenberger was excited to hear that changes, but said PED usage is a complex issue that will be difficult to police on a global scale.
“The UFC taking this new stance is a great move, but [PEDs] are definitely one of those things that are hard to control,” Ellenberger said. “And not just in our sport, but competitions in general. People in America don’t realize that in other cultures using those drugs is viewed as acceptable. I have friends from all over the world and some of them were raised with that being part of the athletic culture and you get to hear different perspectives on the matter.
“I think it’s a good thing there is going to more testing and stricter penalties, but at the end of the day, it is always going to be hard to control. And there are always going to be guys who are trying to cut corners. This new policy is definitely a good thing for the sport though.
“There are a lot of phonies in my division… a lot of them,” he added. “Guys are getting hit for PEDs, which is not surprising. The rankings in the division are very subjective and it’s all opportunity for me right now. There are a lot of open doors and that’s how I see it.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
UFC 183 is over and done with, which makes this a great time to take a look ahead to UFC 184, headlined by a women’s bantamweight title fight between dominant champion Ronda Rousey and compelling challenger Cat Zingano. As of this writing, the full UFC…
UFC 183 is over and done with, which makes this a great time to take a look ahead to UFC 184, headlined by a women’s bantamweight title fight between dominant champion Ronda Rousey and compelling challenger Cat Zingano. As of this writing, the full UFC 184 card is as follows:
Main Card
Ronda Rousey vs. Cat Zingano
Raquel Pennington vs. Holly Holm
Jake Ellenberger vs. Josh Koscheck
Tony Ferguson vs. Yancy Medeiros
Mark Munoz vs. Roan Carneiro
Preliminary Card
Alan Jouban vs. Richard Walsh
Ramon Salazar vs. NorifumiYamamoto
Derrick Lewis vs. Ruan Potts
James Krause vs. Valmir Lazaro
Dhiego Lima vs. Tim Means
MasioFullen vs. Alexander Torres
The main card features an interesting mix of old talent looking to revitalize their careers and hot up-and-comers looking to build up their resumes.
What is the current outlook on each fight? Who will win?
Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman were scheduled to meet at UFC 184 for the middleweight championship, but an injury to Weidman forced the champion out of the event.
Following UFC 183, UFC President Dana White confirmed that the UFC had offered Belfort …
VitorBelfort and Chris Weidman were scheduled to meet at UFC 184 for the middleweight championship, but an injury to Weidman forced the champion out of the event.
Following UFC 183, UFC President Dana White confirmed that the UFC had offered Belfort an interim championship fight against LyotoMachida. He turned it down according to White.
Turning the fight down in itself is not an issue. It would make sense that Belfort would choose to wait for the undisputed champion, but White said that Belfort actively pursued an interim title fight at UFC 184 to remain on the card. So, why turn down the fight against Machida?
At the post-fight press conference White said that they will in fact offer Belfort one more fighter for an interim championship bout at UFC 184. The UFC President failed to mention who it would be, but with Machida out of the picture the only name that appears likely is Luke Rockhold.
It’s a fight that makes sense. Rockhold dropped his UFC debut to Belfort when the former UFC champion landed a spinning heel kick. Since that fight, Rockhold has looked outstanding. He has won three straight—all finishes.
If Belfort turns that fight down he should be stripped of his title shot.
Did he earn the right to challenge Weidman? Yes. By winning three straight fights—in 2013.
He has not seen the cage in over a year, and the division has progressed nicely in his absence. When Belfort was active, the division was thin. It was Anderson Silva, Weidman and nobody else. Since that time other contenders such as Rockhold, JacareSouza and Yoel Romero have emerged. All with impressive wins to their credit.
Why should they be penalized with waiting around while Belfort turns down fights? Title fights that is. The UFC never tried to give Belfort another contender’s bout. They put a title in front of him, and he turned it down. If he does it again, why should they hold up other contenders for his primadonna ego?
If Belfort turns down the next interim title fight offered to him, the UFC should tap Machida and Rockhold as the interim championship bout. The fight is already scheduled for April as a UFC on Fox headliner. Imagine that fight now being deemed for a title.
It would be a huge Fox main event with the inclusion of the title. No longer is it merely just a contender’s fight, but now the winner is an interim champion and jumps Belfort for the shot at Weidman.
Nothing is set in stone. Nor should it be. The UFC attempted to give Belfort exactly what he wanted. They offered him an interim title fight at UFC 184, and he declined. They should be under no obligation to stick with him as the next title contender. Other fighters are more active and have their own legitimate claims to being the top contender.
Machida vs. Rockhold is an amazing fight that is only enhanced by the interim title being up for grabs. And the UFC can flex its muscle by showing they are serious by telling Belfort they are moving on if he declines the next interim bout offered to him.
Belfort vs. Rockhold or Machida vs. Rockhold are two fantastic interim title tilt options to have in the UFC’s back pocket. The decision should be up to Belfort. Fight or lose your title shot. The inmates don’t run the asylum.
When it comes to women’s