Tag: UFC 214

UFC Rankings Update: Stipe Miocic Climbs Pound-For-Pound List

The UFC delivered a-hitting pay-per-view event in the form of last weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. While the overall card wasn’t full of title picture-changing rankings implications on the whole, the top two fights were title fights where the incumbent champs putting on dominant performances to bolster […]

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The UFC delivered a-hitting pay-per-view event in the form of last weekend’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

While the overall card wasn’t full of title picture-changing rankings implications on the whole, the top two fights were title fights where the incumbent champs putting on dominant performances to bolster their already lofty spots among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC.

Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic secured the record for most consecutive title defenses in the weight class’s history with a dominant five-round destruction of formerly touted hype train Francis Ngannou, earning a one-spot rise up the pound-for-pound list to No. 6. Some feel he may deserve to be higher on the list, however.

Not to be outdone, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier also rose a spot after his own dominant second-round TKO over another majorly hyped contender in Volkan Oezdemir.

He and Miocic’s move pushed bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw down one spot to No.7 at pound-for-pound. The rest of UFC 220 didn’t feature a ton of movement, but rising bantamweight contender Rob Font did rise three spots to No. 11 after an exciting stoppage of Thomas Almeida, who fell to No. 12 for his latest loss.

Check out the full updated rankings from the UFC’s official website here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Georges St-Pierre
4 Daniel Cormier +1
4 Max Holloway
6 Stipe Miocic +1
7 TJ Dillashaw -1
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Cris Cyborg
10 Tony Ferguson
11 Cody Garbrandt
12 Robert Whittaker
13 Amanda Nunes
14 Khabib Nurmagomedov
15 Joanna Jedrzejczyk

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Dustin Ortiz +1
10 John Moraga -1
11 Matheus Nicolau +1
11 Tim Elliott *NR
13 Alexandre Pantoja -2
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Magomed Bibulatov -2

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes
6 John Lineker
7 Bryan Caraway
8 John Dodson
9 Aljamain Sterling
10 Pedro Munhoz +1
11 Rob Font +3
12 Thomas Almeida -2
13 Eddie Wineland -1
14 Brett Johns -1
15 Matthew Lopez

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Brian Ortega
4 Josh Emmett
5 Cub Swanson
6 Ricardo Lamas
7 Chan Sung Jung
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Yair Rodriguez
11 Renato Moicano
12 Dennis Bermudez -1
13 Dooho Choi
14 Myles Jury
15 Mirsad Bektic

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Dustin Poirier +1
6 Justin Gaethje -1
7 Kevin Lee
8 Nate Diaz
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Al Iaquinta
11 Beneil Dariush
12 James Vick +1
13 Francisco Trinaldo -1
13 Anthony Pettis +1
15 Evan Dunham

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Rafael Dos Anjos
3 Colby Covington
4 Robbie Lawler
5 Demian Maia
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till
8 Neil Magny
9 Kamaru Usman
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Donald Cerrone
12 Carlos Condit
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Yancy Medeiros

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero
2 Luke Rockhold
3 Jacare Souza
4 Georges St-Pierre
5 Chris Weidman
6 Kelvin Gastelum
7 Michael Bisping
8 Derek Brunson
9 David Branch +1
10 Uriah Hall +1
11 Vitor Belfort +1
12 Krzysztof Jotko +1
13 Paulo Costa +2
14 Lyoto Machida
15 Brad Tavares *NR

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Glover Teixeira +1
2 Volkan Oezdemir
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
8 Ilir Latifi +1
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Jan Blachowicz +1
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov +2
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Gian Villante *NR
15 Jared Cannonier

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Carla Esparza
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Cynthia Calvillo
9 Felice Herrig
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Randa Markos
12 Cortney Casey
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Maryna Moroz
15 Tatiana Suarez

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Sijara Eubanks
2 Lauren Murphy
3 Alexis Davis
4 Roxanne Modafferi
5 Barb Honchak
6 Liz Carmouche
7 Jessica-Rose Clark
8 Montana De La Rosa
9 Mara Romero Borella
10 Jessica Eye
11 Rachael Ostovich
12 Paige VanZant
13 Shana Dobson
14 Gillian Robertson
15 Kalindra Faria

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie
6 Ketlen Vieira
7 Cat Zingano
8 Sara McMann
9 Ronda Rousey
10 Marion Reneau
11 Katlyn Chookagian
12 Leslie Smith
13 Bethe Correia -1
14 Sarah Moras
15 Aspen Ladd

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Joanna Jedrzejczyk Details Drastic Weight Cut Before UFC 217

Most in the mixed martial arts world were shocked when former women’s strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk lost her title to Rose Namajunas via first-round knockout at November’s UFC 217. After defending the title five times, Jedrzejczyk lobbied for an immediate rematch with ‘Thug’ Rose despite the quick and vicious nature of her loss. Ultimately, she got […]

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Most in the mixed martial arts world were shocked when former women’s strawweight champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk lost her title to Rose Namajunas via first-round knockout at November’s UFC 217.

After defending the title five times, Jedrzejczyk lobbied for an immediate rematch with ‘Thug’ Rose despite the quick and vicious nature of her loss. Ultimately, she got it as well, signing on for the rematch at April’s UFC 223 from Brooklyn, New York.

When she does, however, she’ll prepare for the bout without the aid of her former nutritionists Perfecting Athletes, whom she fired following a disagreement about how her weight management was handled prior to the Namajunas fight. Details were scarce about just what prompted Jedrzejczyk to incite such drastic change, but today (Mon., Jan. 22, 2018), the former champ revealed why to Ariel Helwani on today’s The MMA Hour in a graphic description.

Jedrzejczyk said she cut an alarming 15 pounds in only 14 hours and was surprised to even make weight:

“Man, I felt so bad, I had to cut 15 pounds in 14 hours; I did it in 14 hours.

“I think Perfecting Athletes couldn’t believe that I did that. I start my weight cut at 5 pm on Thursday and I was on weight five minutes before 11 am on Friday, so it was a miracle. I was praying to God for this miracle. And it happened. I took this mentally. I was crying, I was so weak but I believed it. I said to one of the Perfecting Athletes team, ‘Hey, it’s a shame for a champion to not make her weight’, and then I made it — a thing I couldn’t believe.”

Photo by Noah K. Murray for USA TODAY Sports

The title challenger continued on about the drastic cut, detailing how things got worse when her legs began to numb, which returned the day of the fight:

“After the weigh-ins, I had only fluids and I went to bed because I took just two 15-minute naps during the weight cut.

“The thing is, my legs got numb after I woke up. I said to my doctor, ‘Hey, my legs are numb’, and she said, ‘nothing to worry about, we’re going to hydrate you more’ and ‘you’re going to be fine’.

“But the next day, I felt the same and thought the most crazy things. I took the fight mentally. I wanted to go into the fight and push away all of the worries.”

With her rematch now in sight, Jedrzejczyk said that she had trusted her advisors at Perfecting Athletes, but they made a mistake – a mistake which she paid the ‘ultimate price’ for after being light all training camp before running into serious trouble  towards the tail end:

“They were like family, you know. I trusted them so much and I paid the ultimate cost for someone’s mistake,” she said. “They agreed with me. We sat and talked on Monday after the fight and they agreed with me that they made a mistake, but I paid the ultimate price.”

“I was light in this camp,” Jedrzejczyk continued when asked what mistake had been made by Perfecting Athletes.

“I was like 127 on the Friday and Saturday a week before the fight. We were planning to get me to 125 by Tuesday, but my weight went up on Sunday to 130 and I couldn’t drop the weight for three or four days. I did everything that I could, and it’s their mistake. I started my weight cut with the limit at 130, so it was almost impossible to make that weight.”

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Daniel Cormier Reveals Planned Date For MMA Retirement

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is nearing 40 years old, and despite dominating a much younger challenger in Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 on Saturday, he has already planned his retirement date. Cormier (20-1) has been the best 205-pound fighter outside of Jon Jones for some time now, and with ‘Bones’ facing yet another unceremonious suspension […]

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UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is nearing 40 years old, and despite dominating a much younger challenger in Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 on Saturday, he has already planned his retirement date.

Cormier (20-1) has been the best 205-pound fighter outside of Jon Jones for some time now, and with ‘Bones’ facing yet another unceremonious suspension following their rematch at UFC 214, he will hold that distinction for the foreseeable future. DC’s status as champion was reinforced once again after a second-round TKO shut down the Oezdemir hype train in Boston last week.

As he approaches the big 4-0, Cormier revealed on today’s episode of The MMA Hour that he has set a very specific date for his retirement from MMA:

“Come March, I will have 12 months, at max, left. I’m going to be done by March 20, 2019. I won’t be fighting again.”

“I’m done, I’m going to done at 40,” Cormier said. “I won’t be back. There won’t be jumping around or ‘I’m done until I get the right type of fight.’ It’ll be over. I’m not going to be doing this anymore. I’ve said time and time again that I’ve lived a great life in sports, I’ve loved every moment of it. My family has revolved around sports. Not only my family, Selena and the kids, but also my mom and my dad. I’ve been the center of the athletic universe for my family for a really, really long time, and it’s time for that to be little Daniel and Marquita. It’s time for them to be the center of our athletic competition, and I just want to be one of those crazy dads that gets to yell on the sideline and just go crazy and brag about his kids.”

The light heavyweight division will certainly undergo quite the transformation once Cormier retires, and with no sign of Jones anytime soon, the 205-pound weight class will be in dire need of high-level replacements.

In fact, it’s almost unfathomable to think of a light heavyweight division without either man.

For his part, Cormier knows when to bow out; the man began his career in earnest in 2009, and ever since then, he’s collected belts wherever he’s fought. Now, Cormier has his broadcasting gig with FOX Sports to fall back on, and his occasional commentary at UFC events.

Who will be the man to replace DC once he’s retired? Assuming Jones is still off the radar, it could be some time before the UFC truly answers that question.

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Seven Biggest Takeaways From UFC 220

With championships on the line in MMA’s two biggest divisions, last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, promised to get the UFC’s 2018 pay-per-view schedule started off right, and overall, it’s safe to say it accomplished that. Two of the UFC’s biggest hype trains were sent back down to […]

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With championships on the line in MMA’s two biggest divisions, last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, promised to get the UFC’s 2018 pay-per-view schedule started off right, and overall, it’s safe to say it accomplished that.

Two of the UFC’s biggest hype trains were sent back down to re-evaluate things in two sobering, dominant performances from two of the most workmanlike titleholders the sport has ever seen, brutal knockouts gave a big jolt to the preliminary card, and two rising featherweights met in a close and exciting slugfest.

Those are only the surface results, however. Let’s dig a bit deeper and look at the seven biggest takeaways from UFC 220.

Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara for USA TODAY Sports

7) Hype Trains Die Hard Yet Again:

In a paradoxical set of circumstances, in no sport are hype trains perhaps both created and sent crashing than they are in mixed martial arts, and UFC 220 was one of the most poignant, hard-hitting reminders of that.

Top-ranked Ngannou had run over every competitor he’d faced in the UFC and most recently knocked out Alistair Overeem, a veteran who had given champion Stipe Miocic significant trouble in their fight at UFC 203, with 2017’s clear “Knockout of the Year” at UFC 218, sending his hype into the proverbial stratosphere heading into his main event against Miocic at UFC 220.

The promotion of ‘The Predator’ was so much so that he was the betting favorite despite Miocic winning five straight fights with two title defenses.

But as the narrative goes, Miocic outclassed Ngannou with a superior strategy, one that involved all aspects of mixed martial arts rather than just knockout power. His takedowns were varied and effective, his ground control stifling, and when he needed it, his strikes much more consistent and accurate than those of a fading and eventually gassed Ngannou.

The challenger admitted he underestimated the champion’s skills, but he wasn’t the only hype train to get derailed at UFC 220.

Formerly surging light heavyweight knockout artist Volkan Oezdemir also saw his improbable three-fight run to title contention stopped in its tracks when champ Daniel Cormier put on maybe the most Daniel Cormier-like performance we’ve ever seen, grounding “No Time” in well, no time and pounding him in the crucifix until the ref mercifully stepped in to call it off.

Both Ngannou and Oezdemir had as much or more hype than any fast-rising prospect had in the relatively shallow divisions for years, but instead of gold belts, they left Boston with some legitimate questions to answer about their all-around skillsets.

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Daniel Cormier vs. Volkan Oezdemir Full Fight Video Highlights

Light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had several questions to answer when he faced off against surging slugger Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston after only retaining the championship when Jon Jones knocked him out at last July’s UFC 214 and was […]

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Light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had several questions to answer when he faced off against surging slugger Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of last night’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston after only retaining the championship when Jon Jones knocked him out at last July’s UFC 214 and was subsequently suspended for a second USADA violation.

And all Cormier did was answer those questions with resounding answers that left no doubt as to who the best 205-pound competitor in the UFC is.

‘No Time’ came out throwing a ton of volume early, hitting Cormier with several accurate left hands as he kept his activity level high. Cormier’s legendary chin held true as his nearly always does, however, and ‘The King of the Grind’ soon saw the fight turn in his favor. A stinging straight right found a home, followed by a massive left hook that injured Oezdemir’s eye, leading to a single leg that ground Oezdemir and saw him in a potentially fight-ending rear-naked choke until the bell saved him.

The second round tied a bow on Cormier’s dominant show as he utilized a textbook takedown to instantly mount ‘No Time,’ transitioning to the crucifix where he rained down a never-ending series of ground punches to give the ref no choice but to stop the fight at 2:00 of the round.

Watch the video highlights of Cormier’s telling, dominant win here:

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UFC 220 Post-Fight Press Conference

Featuring one of the most anticipated heavyweight title fights in recent memory, tonight’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, is in the books. In the main event, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic left no doubt about whom the ‘baddest man on the planet’ is, dominating hyped contender Francis Ngannou with a smothering […]

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Featuring one of the most anticipated heavyweight title fights in recent memory, tonight’s (Sat., January 20, 2018) UFC 220 from TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, is in the books.

In the main event, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic left no doubt about whom the ‘baddest man on the planet’ is, dominating hyped contender Francis Ngannou with a smothering display of strategy and ground skills.

The co-main event featured a light heavyweight title fight between Daniel Cormier and surging striker Volkan Oezdemir, where Cormier answered all the questions about his status as the ‘real’ 205-pound champion by weathering ‘No Time’s’ early storm to also ground him and finish the bout with a swarming TKO in the second.

All in all, a good start to the UFC’s pay-per-view schedule.

Watch the fighters break down all of the action in the post-fight press conference starting live right here:

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