Tag: UFC 192

UFC 192 Showed the Future of the UFC Is in Good Hands

Entering UFC 192, all eyes were on the top of the card. That’s normal for combat sports. Main events and other featured contests are what we salivate to watch. After the conclusion of the events, we discuss the fallout and new championship landscapes, …

Entering UFC 192, all eyes were on the top of the card. That’s normal for combat sports. Main events and other featured contests are what we salivate to watch. After the conclusion of the events, we discuss the fallout and new championship landscapes, but UFC 192 on Saturday was different.

Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson put on a fantastic show in the main event, but with Jon Jones’ presence looming over the light heavyweight division, there is not a lot of buzz surrounding that championship. Cormier won. That’s it. We are moving forward. So what can we take away and be excited about following the show in Houston?

The future.

The future of the UFC is bright. We have seen a lot of prospects filter through the UFC over the years, but rarely—if ever—have we seen them come through with flying colors like the young guns did at UFC 192.

Five fighters aged 23 or younger won. Not only did they win, but they also did so impressively to offer a glimpse into the high ceiling they have. Who were these five blue-chippers, and why are we excited?

 

Sage Northcutt — Age 19

Northcutt debuted at UFC 192, and you could have counted me as one of his biggest critics. I wasn’t sold on the hype surrounding him. Sure, he has a good look and is athletic, but his record gave no indication of his true potential.

Northcutt got a favorable draw against Francisco Trevino, and he did what good fighters do against inferior competition. He destroyed Trevino. In just 57 seconds, Northcutt rocked Trevino, took him down and pummeled him until the referee stepped in.

Lightweight is a deep division, but this kid is just 19 years old. The future is bright with Northcutt both in and out of the cage.

 

Sergio Pettis — Age 22

When Pettis debuted in 2013, he entered with a lot of fanfare, in part because his brother is Anthony Pettis. Sergio was undefeated and had a similar skill set to that of his brother. Nevertheless, he got upset in his second UFC bout.

Pettis dropped to flyweight after back-to-back wins but was knocked out by Ryan Benoit in March. His fight against Chris Cariaso, the No. 10-ranked contender, was a big bout in his young career. And he passed. It was not the most beautiful performance, but he sailed through against a former title challenger.

We have to remind ourselves that Pettis is only 22 and has all the raw skills to be special. He just needs time to develop.

 

Yair Rodriguez — Age 22

The Mexican prodigy got one of the loudest pops of the evening, and for good reason. The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America winner is a special talent.

Rodriguez did not lose a single round against Daniel Hooker. He beat him up, and the only thing missing was the finish. Rodriguez got to showcase both style and substance. He blends his striking together beautifully, and eventually we will see a highlight-reel knockout.

Rodriguez has the benefit of being in a talent-rich division. There is no reason for the UFC to rush him up the ladder. He can certainly be tested against someone in the top 15, but there isn’t a dire need to jump the gun. The UFC can afford the opportunity to continue to allow the prospect to hone his skills.

 

Rose Namajunas — Age 23

If you were to believe the ridiculous hype from The Ultimate Fighter 20, you would have thought Namajunas was the second coming of Ronda Rousey. Those who followed her progression through Invicta FC knew that was a laughable notion—but not because Namajunas didn’t have talent.

Namajunas‘ athletic ability and frame make her a top-tier prospect at 115 pounds. She just needs to be refined. There are not many dynamic athletes like her in the division. If she adds the right tools, she will be a handful for anyone at the weight.

She is currently ranked at No. 4. That’s way too high, and competent voters know that. She is even ranked above undefeated Tecia Torres, who holds a victory over her. It’s a bit silly, but I understand the desire to believe in the marketable Namajunas. You can see the potential in her. She just has to live up to it.

 

Albert Tumenov — Age 23

Versace will want to wait before scheduling Alan Jouban‘s next photo shoot because the hard-hitting monster Albert Tumenov iced him in less than three minutes.

He is a Russian Master of Sport in boxing, and he showcased those hands. After hurting Jouban, Tumenov laced a left hand that made the model face-plant on the mat. Jouban was out like a light. When he came to, he tried to protest as he wobbled about the Octagon.

Of all the prospects who performed well at UFC 192, Tumenov seems most ready for a crack at someone in the top 15. He looks prepared for a test of his skills to see if he can put a number beside his name.

All five of these athletes shined, illustrating that the future of the UFC has several athletes ready to take the reins.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 192 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Gustafsson vs. Cormier

Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson went to war in UFC 192’s main event on Saturday night.
The Toyota Center was restless after a relatively slow main card that featured four unanimous decisions, and the natives weren’t shy about making their displ…

Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson went to war in UFC 192‘s main event on Saturday night.

The Toyota Center was restless after a relatively slow main card that featured four unanimous decisions, and the natives weren’t shy about making their displeasure known. Gustafsson and Cormier put on the kind of show that can’t be booed—five rounds of back-and-forth, blood-and-guts action to please even the most discerning connoisseur of violence.

Jon Jones’ rangy shadow hangs over the event like a pall of smoke. How could it not, when he holds victories over all four of the light heavyweights who competed on the main card? Nevertheless, those four showed that the division isn’t all Jones. Cormier and Gustafsson put on a great fight, and Ryan Bader finally picked up the name win that has eluded him throughout his career by taking a decision from Rashad Evans.

Ruslan Magomedov announced himself as a top-15 heavyweight with a wide decision over Shawn Jordan, while Julianna Pena demonstrated that her time has come to face the women’s bantamweight division’s elite. Ali Bagautinov and Joseph Benavidez put on a reasonably solid fight and yet showed just how far the rest of the flyweight division still has to go to reach Demetrious Johnson’s level.

The undercard was a riot of violence and entertainment. Yair Rodriguez did amazing things in his win over Daniel Hooker, while the heavily hyped Sage Northcutt destroyed Francisco Trevino in his arrival in the promotion.

Maligned prospects Rose Namajunas and Sergio Pettis got back on track with career-saving wins. Violence specialist Albert Tumenov cracked the granite chin of Alan Jouban in a dominant knockout win, and Adriano Martins flattened Islam Makhachev with a counterpunch.

On a night with a decent if meaningful main card and a preliminary card as good as the promotion has ever put together, let’s take a look at the real winners and losers from UFC 192.

Begin Slideshow

Onetime Pretender Ryan Bader Turns Title Contender by Routing Rashad Evans

In a world still trying to fill the hole left by the absence of former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, there are many pursuers to the throne. Most of the names are familiar to the ex-champ—casualties left in his path of Octagon destruct…

In a world still trying to fill the hole left by the absence of former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, there are many pursuers to the throne. Most of the names are familiar to the ex-champ—casualties left in his path of Octagon destruction—and so it seems likely that if and when he returns, it will be a rematch against whoever happens to be wearing the belt he left behind. Ryan Bader, once a prospect, then an afterthought among the division elite, now finds himself square in the middle of the title picture and the hunt for a Jones do-over after stunning Rashad Evans in the UFC 192 co-main event Saturday night.

In a fight considered a toss-up by betting line, Bader swept the judges’ scorecards with a trio of 30-27 scores, authoring the most technically impressive performance of his seven-year UFC run.

In capturing his fifth straight win, Bader now has the inside track on a championship fight against Daniel Cormier, with one big caveat. Jones still casts an ominous 6’4″ shadow, having just settled his hit-and-run case in New Mexico with little more than probation. While he hasn’t yet publicly stated any intention to return to mixed martial arts, in the immediate aftermath of UFC 192, Jones posted and then quickly deleted a video on Instagram, saying, “I think I miss it.”

Jones, however, has yet to officially meet with the UFC, which suspended him and stripped him of the championship in the wake of his April car crash and arrest.

Whether or not Bader (20-4) gets an opportunity to fight for the title, he showed an elevation of skills that makes him a more formidable challenge than at any point of his career. In the past, Bader featured an overhand right and an overzealous wrestling attack almost exclusively, but against Evans, he illustrated a newfound versatility. He controlled the distance with a sharp, protective jab, showcased a sneaky right uppercut and beat Evans at his own game with superior counterstriking. 

“I was feeling good and went out there and finally just felt like the fighter I knew I could be,” he said in the post-fight press conference at Houston’s Toyota Center. “I felt quick, felt fast with the jab. I hit him with some good shots. Rashad is a veteran of the sport. To take out someone like that, that’s what I need. Make it five wins in a row with a name like that as a bookend like that, we’ll see where it goes.

“Obviously I do want a title shot,” he continued. “We got Jon Jones back in the picture. For me, I’ve got to control the things I can control. That’s the fight in front of me, that was Rashad. We’ll just see what happens.”

There was a time when it seemed that Bader’s inconsistency would preclude him from reaching the top tier of UFC light heavyweights. After a promising start to his UFC career, including The Ultimate Fighter 8 title and five straight victories, he seemed to plateau, struggling through a 3-4 stretch that included a first-round submission loss to Tito Ortiz, who at the time, had not won a fight in almost five years.

By the end of his rough patch, he was 30 years old and stuck in neutral.

For most observers, it was confirmation that he would never reach his early promise, but to his credit, Bader kept at it, put the loss behind him and kept building on his skill set. While his stand-up had once been shaped by his bulky and stiff frame, he exhibited few traces of his former self on Saturday with striking that was at times downright creative. 

“Just progress, focus,” he said in the press conference, explaining the leap. “Every training camp, I take the things I need to take and drop the stuff I need to drop. This is my 17th fight in the UFC. That accumulates. Having the right people around me in my camp. My personal life is great. Everything together, it just puts me in the mindset to go out there and take what I want. It’s changing my mind set, really. I just made up my mind that I want to go out there and do it, and want to be the best.”

Reaction to Bader’s win was somewhat restrained due to the recent inactivity of Evans (19-4-1), who was competing for the first time in 687 days. The former champ had been out of the Octagon since a November 2013 technical knockout victory over Chael Sonnen. In the time since, he’d undergone multiple knee surgeries, which had put his career into some doubt.

Evans had previously come back from a long layoff, however, and performed brilliantly, returning from a 14-month hiatus to steamroll Ortiz back in 2011. While that fact may not be enough to sway some of the more vocal Bader doubters, his streak speaks for itself, with the longest string of victories of anyone in the division’s top 10. 

Does he have enough firepower to effectively challenge the ultra-aggressive Cormier? Can he hang with the uber-talented Jones? In truth, most would probably doubt him in either instance, but he’s already beaten expectations once.

A few years ago, few would have bet on him to reach this point at all. There was a time when Bader was going nowhere. Who would have guessed his road to nowhere led all the way here? 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 192: Jon Jones Teases Return on Instagram

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the main event of UFC 192, a light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, caught the attention of a certain former light heavyweight champion by the name of Jon Jones. Ol’ Jonny Bon…

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the main event of UFC 192, a light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson, caught the attention of a certain former light heavyweight champion by the name of Jon Jones. Ol’ Jonny Bones took to Instagram to post two videos with his thoughts on the bout.

Naturally, because this is Jones, both of them have since been deleted. But this is also the Internet, where nothing is ever truly deleted.

One of the posts featured Jones saying “I think I miss it…I don’t know,” while pacing about his house. The other was a video of Jones silently nodding, accompanied with text that read “You showed some heart tonight DC,” as MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi captured. Again, both of the posts have been deleted, but one of them has since been preserved on Twitter:

While the two videos combined for just 15 seconds, they still say a great deal, most importantly that Jones seems to be looking to make a comeback. That is not a massive shock, of course, but there was a fair bit of talk from his manager, Malki Kawa, that Jones may not come back.

While there’s an off chance the UFC would make him take a tune-up fight against someone like Ryan Bader or Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, a compelling rematch with Cormier likely awaits. The two faced off earlier this year at UFC 182 following a contentious buildup which included a massive brawl at a press conference and many, many more tense moments. While the blood wouldn’t be as bad for a rematch, it would still be an incredibly compelling match.

So what do you want to see next for Jones, MMA fans? Should he have the opportunity to retake his belt, or should he have to work his way back to the top?

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 192: Daniel Cormier, Alexander Gustafsson Tough Beyond All Measure

It seems nearly impossible to mention Daniel Cormier and his reign as UFC light heavyweight champion without mentioning the great, glaring elephant in the room.
That elephant is Jon Jones, of course, and he casts a shadow as deep and wide as it is long…

It seems nearly impossible to mention Daniel Cormier and his reign as UFC light heavyweight champion without mentioning the great, glaring elephant in the room.

That elephant is Jon Jones, of course, and he casts a shadow as deep and wide as it is long across the rest of the division. The former champion—and make no mistake about it, he is the former champion even if he never lost the title in the Octagon—is constantly on the tip of our tongues, even in the midst of great and gritty performances put on by Cormier and others in his absence.

On this, there should be no controversy. Cormier is the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. Not the interim champion. Not the fake champion. He is the full and undisputed titleholder. He did not beat Jones, but he became the champion because Jones could not act like the champion. This is a blood business, but it is a business, and it is not good for business when high-profile champions are involved in incidents like the one that unraveled around Jones in Albuquerque this year.

The UFC had no choice in the matter. They needed to suspend Jones, and they needed to strip him of the championship. They needed to build a foundation and show there are consequences to actions, not just for Jones himself, but for others who will follow in his footsteps.

Cormier was handed an opportunity, and you can’t blame him for taking it. Nobody in their right mind would have said no when the UFC came calling that day. Again, through all of this, it must be remembered that Jones beat Cormier. He did. Cormier did not beat Jones to earn the championship, but it is the real championship all the same.

All of that is a long way of saying that what happened on Saturday night at UFC 192 in Houston was a great championship fight. Perhaps not one for the ages, and perhaps not a fight you slot up there with the greatest of all time. But it was a rough, tough and durable performance from both Cormier and Gustafsson, two men of heart and will and iron and blood who proved, if nothing else, that they are made of the stuff the greats are made of.

Cormier came out in the first round and summarily picked up Gustafsson over his head, twirled him in the air and then slammed him on the mat. It seemed an ominous start for the lanky Swede. But, as these things often go, it turned around quickly. Gustafsson has proven himself in wars before—most notably against Jones himself—and he showed once again that he will quite literally take anything you can throw at him and mostly remain standing.

Gustafsson fired away in the second round, even dropping the champion with a brutal knee in the final seconds. Everything was tied up, and it seemed like momentum was shifting from the Cormier side to the other direction.

But Cormier, who has spent a lifetime battling tragedy and hardship while continually grinding things out in one of the toughest sports in the world, just kept coming. He didn’t quit. He was constantly in Gustafsson‘s face, so much so that the Swede was forced—on more than a handful of occasions—to turn and run away just to catch a moment of something resembling peace.

And still Cormier kept coming, running after Gustafsson, throwing punches at his back and head. The fight remained somewhat close, though Gustafsson‘s face was a bloody mess and his nose in shambles by the end of the fight. And yet, much like his loss to Jones, Gustafsson was further defined by losing to Cormier. He is a great fighter, with plenty of skill and technique. But more than that, he is one of the toughest men walking the planet Earth.

After, Cormier dropped the pre-fight rhetoric that he’d used to sell the fight.

“I”m moving away from promos, and I’m going to be myself,” Cormier said. “I want to thank Alex here tonight, because he made me a better man.”

The truth is that both men are better than most of us are or ever could be. They are better at fighting, of course; this is without question. But at UFC 192, we saw a kind of steel-clad heart that is so very rare in all walks of life. Both men took more punishment than I could take in a lifetime.

Both kept moving and fighting and never giving up. And it’s in moments like this when the best parts of mixed martial arts are revealed. Everything else—the unsavory parts of our nature—are washed away, and what is left are two men who represent the toughest and best of us all.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 192: Julianna Pena Calls Out Ronda Rousey Following Win over Jessica Eye

Julianna Pena scored a huge win at UFC 192, and she’s setting her sights high for her next fight, calling out bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. Speaking to Joe Rogan in the cage following the bout, Pena had strong words for the champ. 
“Dana White …

Julianna Pena scored a huge win at UFC 192, and she’s setting her sights high for her next fight, calling out bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. Speaking to Joe Rogan in the cage following the bout, Pena had strong words for the champ. 

“Dana White calls Ronda the Mike Tyson of MMA. Well I’m Evander Holyfield,” she said. “I’m right here. I’ll be your huckleberry.”

Pena has been one of the most exciting names in the women’s bantamweight division since her breakout performance on The Ultimate Fighter, Season 18. As part of Team Tate, Pena ran through MMA veteran and favorite to win the season Shayna Baszler. From there, she would defeat old rival Sarah Moras via submission, and then won the season by defeating Jessica Rakoczy by TKO.

While many were expecting Pena to immediately cement herself as a force in the division, she suffered a catastrophic knee injury in 2013 that shelved her for over a year. She returned to action in April with a dominating win over Milana Dudieva.

This win over Eye cements Pena’s place as a top-10 fighter, but any serious talk that Pena is ready for a title shot is a bit premature. Eye is a solid fighter, but winning via decision in a competitive fight should not earn Pena a ticket to the front of the line. If Pena had dominated Eye the way she did Dudieva, a case for a title shot could have been made. As it stands, however, Pena needs at least one or two more fights before entering the title-fight discussion.

Still, this is a major victory for Pena, and the future is beyond bright for her. If she continues to improve and continues to add names to her resume, it is only a matter of time before she gets a title fight.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com