Tag: UFC 207

Amanda Nunes Reveals How Bad UFC Hurt Her Before UFC 207

Women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was understandably angered at the UFC’s  decision to only promote returning superstar Ronda Rousey prior to their main event fight at UFC 207. The questionable call came from an obvious business standpoint despite the fact that “Rowdy” was surrounded by a myriad of question marks while Nunes had been dominating

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Women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes was understandably angered at the UFC’s  decision to only promote returning superstar Ronda Rousey prior to their main event fight at UFC 207.

The questionable call came from an obvious business standpoint despite the fact that “Rowdy” was surrounded by a myriad of question marks while Nunes had been dominating top-level competition the entire year Rousey was absent from the sport following her first loss, a disheartening knockout to Holly Holm at 2015’s UFC 193.

It lead to a response from Nunes that many felt was a bit harsh after her 48second domination of Rousey, something the champion has since apologized for. But during a recent Q&A session prior to tonight’s (Sat., March 11, 2017) UFC Fight Night 106 from Fortaleza, Brazil (via MMA Fighting), Nunes revealed she wasn’t as angry as she was sad at the UFC’s overall treatment of the better fighter, and it made her want to punish ‘Rowdy’ more:

“I talk about anger, but I was sad. I felt alone, you know what I mean? Everything was for Ronda, and I was the champion, the best in the world. That’s why I say that. They hurt me a lot. I fought that day with anger.

“Every time I touched Ronda, connected a punch, I wanted more and more,” she continued. “That’s why the fight was so fast. Every time I connected, I felt that she couldn’t take it, so I threw more and only stopped when it was over. But it was good.

“It was great, you know? Every punch I landed in that face made me wanna laugh, but I held it. It was great.”

Photo: Mark J. Rebilas of USA Today Sports

The words make sense watching how she took her anger out on Rousey’s face that night, yet that doesn’t mean she wishes the superstar former champ, whose camp she all-out smashed in her post-fight interview, any further harm. In fact, she hopes “Rowdy” can use a change of scenery to make a successful comeback and go out with a win:

“She needs to take some time to recover. A loss is something tough. I’ve lost before, you need great people around you, your family, people giving you positive energy. I want to see Ronda coming back, her finishing her career with a win. Every athlete deserves that. I don’t want it to end this way because it’s sad.

“I won, but I don’t wish her any harm. I want her to come back and maybe, who knows, a rematch in the future? It would be perfect.”

It’s a stark departure from Nunes now, as it’s clear she’s had time to let her anger and hurt from the UFC dissipate in order to objectively view Rousey and the circumstances overall.

Still, it’s fair to question if the UFC would be better served to start promoting a dominant, stoppage-motivated champ rather than put their success on the shoulders of a fading star who may or maybe not ever return to the octagon again.

Will “Rowdy’s” career end like “The Lioness” hopes it does, or is the onetime freight train too far gone due to the faults of Edmond Tarverdyan?

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Ronda Rousey May Just Return To MMA – And The UFC Needs Her

It’s been almost two months since former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey suffered her second straight stoppage loss to Amanda Nunes at December 30’s UFC 207 from Las Vegas, and we still haven’t heard or seen an official public word from the “Rowdy” one herself. Sure, she released a canned thank you to her

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It’s been almost two months since former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey suffered her second straight stoppage loss to Amanda Nunes at December 30’s UFC 207 from Las Vegas, and we still haven’t heard or seen an official public word from the “Rowdy” one herself.

Sure, she released a canned thank you to her fans shortly after the loss, and followed it up with a cryptic motivational quote days later. Rousey also surfaced – if you want to call it that – again on social media this week with the following Instagram post that could suggest she’s at least considering a return to the competition she once ruled for years:

#quotephase

A post shared by rondarousey (@rondarousey) on

That’s a speculative-at-best bit of info to go off of, yet it’s by far the most suggestive words we’ve got from Rousey in the weeks and months after her second straight devastating stoppage loss.

Her shockingly rapid downfall was of course set into motion by a vicious Holly Holm head kick in the main event of UFC 193, and many urged her to ditch her highly criticized head coach Edmond Tarverdyan and find a new camp, but she refused. That lead to another loss to the dominant Nunes, and many believed and still believe she will retire.

However, even a slim chance of her returning is big news for the UFC in their painfully tough start to 2017. With her and lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s statuses up in the air, new owners WME-IMG are finding out the hard way just how star-driven this business is, and they need both of their biggest stars back soon.

Rousey’s previously high-profile acting roles seem to be reducing a bit after two losses, and while she doesn’t need the money, fighting is in her DNA. It’s clearly going to take a broad change of scenery and philosophy, however.

What do you think? Will “Rowdy” ever return to the cage?

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Cody Garbrandt Questions ‘Broken’ Dominick Cruz’s Heart

There’s a new king of the UFC’s bantamweight division, and his name isn’t Dominick Cruz or TJ Dillashaw. Cody Garbrandt shook up the mixed martial arts (MMA) world when he outclassed Cruz in their 135-pound title bout in the co-main event UFC 207, handing ‘The Dominator’ his second-ever loss of his illustrious career. ‘No Love’ snapped “The

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There’s a new king of the UFC’s bantamweight division, and his name isn’t Dominick Cruz or TJ Dillashaw.

Cody Garbrandt shook up the mixed martial arts (MMA) world when he outclassed Cruz in their 135-pound title bout in the co-main event UFC 207, handing ‘The Dominator’ his second-ever loss of his illustrious career. ‘No Love’ snapped “The Dominator’s” decade-long win streak and handled him unlike anyone we’ve ever seen before.

Now Garbrandt is slated to make his first career title defense against former Team Alpha Male teammate Dillashaw after they square off as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 25. The UFC bantamweight champ recently spoke to MMA Fighting to discuss his win over Cruz, and questioned the former king of 135 pounds’ heart inside the Octagon:

“I was very surprised with Dominick, all the sh*t talking he did,” Garbrandt said. “What he said he was gonna do to me, he wasn’t able to do that, so I was just waiting for him to get the rematch. Give him the rematch, give him the respect for being the most dominant bantamweight fighter in the world. If I talked a lot of sh*t and kid comes and beats me up like that, I’d at least try again, because I have a fighter heart.”

“I feel like Dominick doesn’t [have a fighter’s heart],” Garbrandt said. “I think I broke Dominick in that fight and truly don’t think Dominick will be the same.”

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas – USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas of USA Today Sports

While Garbrandt may prefer an immediate rematch against Cruz for his first title defense he’s fine stepping into the Octagon with Dillashaw, who he labels as ‘not a good person’:

“That’s fine,” Garbrandt said. “I’m very content with fighting T.J. I’m happy to fight T.J. T.J.’s not a good person. He’s not a good person. He’s kind of a generic version of Dominick Cruz.”

How do you see the matchup between Garbrandt and Dillashaw going down? And will ‘No Love’ and Cruz get the opportunity to run it back again down the road?

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Ronda Rousey Gets Downgrade For Next Acting Role

Her fighting career remains uncertain at best, but former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will be returning to acting soon. In a press release issued today (Tuesday, February 21, 2017), news came that Rousey will be featured on an upcoming episode of NBC’s “Blindspot” as a female prisoner called “Devon Penberthy”: Rousey will be

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Her fighting career remains uncertain at best, but former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will be returning to acting soon.

In a press release issued today (Tuesday, February 21, 2017), news came that Rousey will be featured on an upcoming episode of NBC’s “Blindspot” as a female prisoner called “Devon Penberthy”:

Rousey will be playing DEVON PENBERTHY: a female prison inmate who grew up in a working class family from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and is serving time for transporting weapons across state lines. She is a tough, athletic woman who knows how to fight and handle a weapon.

While it sounds like a role obviously tailor made for Rousey, it can also be called a severe downgrade for the once-featured movie actress, who has played roles in high-budget feature films like “Fast & Furious 7,” “The Expendables 3” and, “Entourage.”

That should probably come as little surprise based on Rousey’s recent results in the octagon, where the once-feared champion has lost her last two bouts by devastating knockout to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. She’s yet to publicly address her 48-second defeat to Nunes at December 30’s UFC 207 except for a canned statement on social media, and it’s largely thought we may have seen the last of her in a MMA cage.

And in the cutthroat world of show business, one’s window to enjoy the limelight – just like it is in the fight game – can close in an instant, as rumors circled about that Rousey’s acting skills were beginning to become less and less desireable in the months after her upset loss to Holm.

She was supposed to star in Mark Wahlberg’s “Mile 22,” but it was rumored her part was reduced significantly due to her acting skills – or lack thereof. A “Roadhouse” remake starring Rousey has also been delayed multiple times with no official release date known.

“Rowdy” is now doing guest roles on cable network crime dramas,  quite the setback from being one of the most sought-after female faces in Hollywood less than two years ago. The MMA great doesn’t need the money, but it doesn’t seem like something that will occupy the competitive drive of the Olympic bronze medalist.

Hey, there’s still fighting, as many feel she could rekindle her past success if she’d just leave a certain downtrodden head coach.

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Joe Rogan Admits Huge Mistake In Praising Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey was once considered to be the very best 135-pound female fighter on the planet. Rousey was so dominant that at the height of her UFC title run, UFC commentator Joe Rogan said that she was capable of beating some of the male bantamweight fighters competing inside the Octagon. Over the last year, however,

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Ronda Rousey was once considered to be the very best 135-pound female fighter on the planet. Rousey was so dominant that at the height of her UFC title run, UFC commentator Joe Rogan said that she was capable of beating some of the male bantamweight fighters competing inside the Octagon.

Over the last year, however, Rousey has suffered a brutal fall from grace. She was shockingly knocked out by Holly Holm at Nov. 2015’s UFC 193, which led to her sitting out the majority of 2016. She then returned at Dec. 30, 2016’s UFC 207 only to be stopped by champion Amanda Nunes in 47 seconds.

Because of her recent losing skid, Rogan said on his podcast that he was wrong to make the comments he did:

“I’m not happy that Ronda Rousey lost but in a way, it makes things easier because there was a bunch of f**kin’ people going, ‘Oh yeah, what about Ronda Rousey?” And I made the mistake saying – hyperbole. I’m the master of hyperbole, I exaggerate all the time – I was like, ‘She could probably beat half the men bantamweights in the UFC.’

“That’s definitely not true. I shouldn’t have said it at the time, now it’s definitely not true. She could beat a few that aren’t good outside the sport. Look, if she gets guys on the ground she could f**k a lot of people up. Her Judo is 100 percent legit, her armbars are amongst the best in the business but people were always saying that… Thank god now that she’s lost everyone’s relaxed with that.”

Rousey’s fighting future is currently unclear, although UFC President Dana White recently said that there’s a good chance we may have seen the last of the “Rowdy” one inside the Octagon.

Do you expect to see the ex-champion fight again?

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TJ Dillashaw Blasts Cody Garbrandt: I Was Never Close With Him

Former Team Alpha Male teammates Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw will fight for Garbrandt’s newly acquired UFC bantamweight title later this year after they coach opposite each other on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Since losing his title to Dominick Cruz last January, Dillashaw has won two straight over Raphael Assuncao and John

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Former Team Alpha Male teammates Cody Garbrandt and TJ Dillashaw will fight for Garbrandt’s newly acquired UFC bantamweight title later this year after they coach opposite each other on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Since losing his title to Dominick Cruz last January, Dillashaw has won two straight over Raphael Assuncao and John Lineker to earn another shot at divisional supremacy. Garbrandt, on the other hand, recently dominated Cruz over the course of five rounds to steal the title at this past December’s UFC 207.

The two bantamweights have seemed to stir up a rivalry since Dillashaw’s departure from the Sacramento-based Team Alpha Male, but the ex-champion recently told Submission Radio that him and “No Love” were never close. He also said that the champion tends to put on an act when the cameras are rolling:

“I was never close with him, I was never friends with him and he’s just obsessed with what I’m doing and how I’m living and what’s going on in my life,” Dillashaw said. “I don’t question anything of what he’s got going on cause that’s him. I could care less. You know, I just kind of feel like they’re just obsessed with what I’ve got going on. Off-camera, not on interviews, things are fine. Things are perfectly fine. We’re in rooms together and things are nothing, but as soon as the camera’s on and doing interviews, he’s the tough guy because he wants to look cool. For him it’s all about looking cool and getting his social media followers up. It’s a lot of petty stuff. He’s getting his hair lined up and his eyebrows waxed and looking as cool as he possibly can, but really I think it makes him look just kinda dumb, you know, to buy into all that. He really doesn’t have the wits behind him. He can talk, but really it’s just him getting angry. You saw with Cruz as well, he just kinda gets angry and loses it. He really doesn’t have any valid points.”

Who do you expect to walk away with 135-pound gold when Garbrandt and Dillashaw settle their bad blood later this year?

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