The time has almost arrived for UFC 212 and the weigh-ins have been made official. UFC 212 takes place tomorrow night (June 3) inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main event features a featherweight title unification bout between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway. Both men tipped the scales at 145 pounds, making […]
The time has almost arrived for UFC 212 and the weigh-ins have been made official. UFC 212 takes place tomorrow night (June 3) inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main event features a featherweight title unification bout between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway. Both men tipped the scales at 145 pounds, making […]
It wasn’t that long ago when Jose Aldo was attempting to get out of his UFC deal, and was saying he had no more interest in fighting. But, as Aldo gets set to throw hands with Max Holloway on Saturday, the featherweight champ’s outlined some pretty interesting plans for the future. After the UFC announced that Conor McGregor was […]
It wasn’t that long ago when Jose Aldo was attempting to get out of his UFC deal, and was saying he had no more interest in fighting. But, as Aldo gets set to throw hands with Max Holloway on Saturday, the featherweight champ’s outlined some pretty interesting plans for the future.
After the UFC announced that Conor McGregor was going to challenge Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt last November, Aldo said he was done with the promotion. Aldo laid claim to the interim 145 title last summer, by defeating Frankie Edgar, and was eager to face McGregor again. But, as it became clear that the renowned fighter didn’t have a lot of options, due to his contract with the UFC, Aldo resumed talks for his next bout.
Well, in advance of his scrap this weekend with the now interim champ Holloway, Aldo was asked about his plans for the future (while taking to MMA Junkie). Not only did Aldo say he wants to stay busy after UFC 212, the 30 year-old wants to battle other stars at other weight classes.
“…I want to test myself in new divisions. I want to test myself against new challenges, new athletes, do superfights. The UFC is opening up that side now. Before, I’d tried to move up to lightweight and couldn’t. It didn’t work out. But not now.
“I just negotiated two fights. The opponents (lightweight contenders Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov) didn’t take them, but I know it’s a lot closer. I have to keep that going. I have to stay motivated. I have to win the fight, and this way I know I can make these challenges.”
And in terms of superfights, Aldo also had this to say:
“I want to do superfights. I don’t necessarily want to challenge the champion. I want to do fights that allow me to stay active. A champion needs big opponents, bigger promotion processes – and that gets in the way of a champion who wants to fight more times in an year.
So, chances are these comments are going to raise more than a few eyebrows around the game. Historically, Aldo hasn’t been an active fighter, although, much of that has had to do with injuries. But, if Aldo can get by Holloway, then it will be really interesting to see what comes next for the legend.
Since the UFC is struggling this year to book all-star bouts, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they looked at having Aldo fight a big name before 2017 is out.
Who would you like to see Aldo fight next? Provided he defeats Holloway?
After Sunday’s fights and Alexander Gustafsson’s brilliant performance against Glover Teixeira, the UFC is back with more action with a robust card in Rio de Janiero. While the main event features two of the top featherweights in the world, the co-main event offers up some strawweight action as two former title challengers square off. Claudia Gadelha versus Karoline Kowalkiewicz has all the makings of fight of the night written all over it. Both women fight at a high pace with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. It’s a nice style clash that should offer up some interesting results.
After Sunday’s fights and Alexander Gustafsson’s brilliant performance against Glover Teixeira, the UFC is back with more action with a robust card in Rio de Janiero. While the main event features two of the top featherweights in the world, the co-main event offers up some strawweight action as two former title challengers square off. Claudia Gadelha versus Karoline Kowalkiewicz has all the makings of fight of the night written all over it. Both women fight at a high pace with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. It’s a nice style clash that should offer up some interesting results.
Claudia Gadelha missed her opportunity to become the third strawweight champion as she lost her grudge match to Joanna Jedrzejczyk last July at the TUF 23 finale. Since then she’s made a few changes to her training, the biggest of which was a shift in camps. She left Nova Uniao and relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Jackson-Winklejohn gym. There, she has hoped to improve upon her style which is a nice mash up of hard nosed Muay Thai, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Gadelha has always excelled in grappling and did well in her rematch against Jedrzejczyk in the early goings before fatigue set in.
She’ll once again want to rely on her grappling skills in this match up as Kowalkiewicz is a fighter who thrives on battling things out on the feet. Gadelha’s striking is sound and is arguably on par if not more technical than her opponent’s approach, yet she does have a tendency to brawl and remain stationary when throwing strikes. Instead, Gadelha should want to entice her opponent into a brawl then surprise her with a reactive double leg takedown. From there, Gadelha should look to ride things out in half guard, defend the underhook, and land ground and pound to her hearts content. Playing around in full guard and mount is certainly an option, but Kowalkiewicz is savvy and isn’t afraid to throw up submission. Softening her up should be Gadelha’s priority before hunting for submissions.
On the flip side of things we have Karolina Kowalkiewicz who could be one of my favorite female fighters in the game today. While Joanna Jedrzejczyk may be the queen of technical skill, Jessica Andrade the queen of ferociousness, and Claudia Gadelha the queen of grappling, Karolina Kowalkiewicz is the queen dirty fighting in strawweight division. That is neither a reference to her cleanliness or an allegation of cheating, but rather her ability to take fights where she wants them and excel in close in combat, particularly the clinch.
While she came up short against the champion at UFC 205 due to being picked apart from the outside, Karolina Kowalkiewicz proved that she won’t stop moving forward. But she’ll want to control her aggression in this bout as Claudia Gadelha is likely looking for an opportunity to put Kowalkiewicz on her back. Rather than resorting to her blitzing style of attack, Karolina should look to throw jabs, straights, and front kicks to keep Gadelha at bay. She also needs to keep her feet moving laterally in hopes of avoiding the takedown. If she is taken to mat however she should look to get the cage, wall walk, then use the opportunity to battle inside the clinch. Barring that, the occasional 2-1 blitz could be a nice way to close the distance and get into clinch territory.
Who wins this battle of strawweight contenders?
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UFC 212 is a few days away and the fourth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel. In the episode, interim featherweight champion Max Holloway shares his packing secrets for traveling abroad and ventures on a go-karting outing; his fellow headliner and champion Jose Aldo reflects on what it takes to find – […]
UFC 212 is a few days away and the fourth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel.
In the episode, interim featherweight champion Max Holloway shares his packing secrets for traveling abroad and ventures on a go-karting outing; his fellow headliner and champion Jose Aldo reflects on what it takes to find – and keep – his passion for fighting. Former champion Vitor Belfort guides his sidekick through fight week, as competing middleweight Nate Marquardt keeps his sense of humor intact on the mats. Elsewhere in Rio, welterweight Erick Silva hits the streets, opponent Yancy Medeiros hands out chocolate, strawweight Claudia Gadelha talks about the rise of women’s MMA and her foe Karolina Kowalkiewicz looks forward to getting “fat and happy” after their fight.
Vitor Belfort (25-13) is going into his final fight at UFC 212 against Nate Marquardt (35-17-2). Belfort has had a fair share of ups and downs while Marquardt has more experience under his belt but has a similar pattern of victories and defeats. Both are pretty aggressive and have a tendency to give a knockout […]
Vitor Belfort (25-13) is going into his final fight at UFC 212 against Nate Marquardt (35-17-2). Belfort has had a fair share of ups and downs while Marquardt has more experience under his belt but has a similar pattern of victories and defeats. Both are pretty aggressive and have a tendency to give a knockout and take it as well. This could be one of the best MMA fights of the season although the betting odds right now are Nate Marquardt (+145) and Vitor Belfort (-185).
Belfort’s key wins have been against Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping and Anthony Johnson (UFC 142). His notable losses have been to Jon Jones (UFC 152), Ronaldo Souza (UFC 198) and Gegard Mousasi (UFC 204). Despite closing 40, Belfort is still a fast fighter for his age and does retain some serious power in his kicks and punches. This is backed up with some solid defensive grappling, which is why this could be a close contest. The first cracker of a punch by elfort or Marquardt could spell victory for either.
What every punter should look out for is that Marquardt isn’t too comfortable facing Southpaws. Belfort also has an advantage when it comes to kicks so he has the ability to work from long range.
Nate Marquardt’s key wins have been against Demian Maia (UFC 103), James Te Huna (UFC Fight Night 43), and CB Dollaway (UFC on FOX 17). His key losses have been to Hector Lombard (UFC 166) ), Brad Tavares (UFC 182), and ), Thiago Santos (UFC 198). Yes, Marquardt does have the experience and is a skilled jiu-jitsu player. But patience is not one of his virtues. He won’t want to end up with battering of kicks from Belfort. That is something he is sure to remember from the past. Combinations and takedown attempts ought to be his game plan. This is because Belfort’s takedown defense is still sharp.
This could be a very close contest although this could go down as a KO in favor of Belfort.
While all eyes may be on the main card fight between Aldo and Holloway, there are some other bouts at UFC 212 in Rio on June 3, 2017 that are sure to see some sparks fly. This includes the bantamweight bout between Marlon Moraes who makes his debut in the Octagon and Raphael Assuncao. 34 […]
While all eyes may be on the main card fight between Aldo and Holloway, there are some other bouts at UFC 212 in Rio on June 3, 2017 that are sure to see some sparks fly. This includes the bantamweight bout between Marlon Moraes who makes his debut in the Octagon and Raphael Assuncao.
34 year old Assuncao (8-1) has done well since 2011 and has lost only to T.J. Dillashaw in their UFC 200 rematch in 2011. On the other hand Moraes is a well known figure who has spent plenty of time in the World Series of Fighting where he scored a clean 11-0 and was the bantamweight champion. This match will bring him right in the firing line since Assuncao is well experienced in UFC and has a well rounded game. His average strikes per minute stands at 3.37, which may not seem too impressive but he does have the potential to outsmart Moraes on several counts despite Moraes’ leg kicks.
Moraes’ says he’s hungry and ready to bring his own Marlon Moraes style and promises to mix it up a bit. While many debutants have thought that way they haven’t really been able to get the better of any of the UFC veterans. Pacing is going to play a major role in this bout and we could see Assuncao frustrate Moraes by slowing the fight down.
