The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) always likes to end their year with a bang. It seems like every year-ending pay-per-view (PPV) put on by the world leader in mixed martial arts (MMA) is stacked. So much so that you’ll have to go back to UFC 141 in 2011 to find the last UFC PPV that
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) always likes to end their year with a bang. It seems like every year-ending pay-per-view (PPV) put on by the world leader in mixed martial arts (MMA) is stacked. So much so that you’ll have to go back to UFC 141 in 2011 to find the last UFC PPV that ended the year without a title fight.
The final UFC event of 2016 will keep the streak going unless a last minute incident ruins those plans. Current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes will defend her title for the first time against former 135-pound queen Ronda Rousey. It’ll be the fifth straight year-ending UFC PPV to close with a title bout.
LowKickMMA.com has a list of the top five UFC PPVs that ended the year in exciting fashion.
Let’s hop into it.
5. UFC 194: Aldo vs. McGregor
The final PPV card of 2015 had a ton of hype surrounding it. UFC 194 was headlined by a featherweight title bout between champion Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor. The two were initially set to meet at UFC 189, but Aldo pulled out with an injury. “Notorious” knocked out Chad Mendes on the PPV to capture the interim 145-pound title.
McGregor blasted Aldo countless times going into the fight, even going as far as saying, “I love you like my bitch.”In one of the most shocking title finishes in the history of the sport, McGregor slept Aldo in just 13 seconds with a left punch.
The co-main event featured a middleweight title bout between champion Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. Weidman had successfully defended his title against Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, and Vitor Belfort. Rockhold earned his shot by winning four straight bouts.
Weidman’s fate was all but sealed in the third round when he threw a sloppy wheel kick that allowed Rockhold to take him to the ground. The champion had no answer for Rockhold’s ground assault and Weidman was a bloody mess at the end of the round. The challenger picked up where he left off in the fourth round and finished Weidman to become the new 185-pound kingpin.
Here are the rest of the results:
Yoel Romero def. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza via split decision (29-27, 28-29, 29-28)
Demian Maia def. Gunnar Nelson via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-25, 30-25)
Max Holloway def. Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
(Palelei puts a twelve-second beating on Bob Sapp, then visibly regrets accepting the fight in the first place.)
Way back in 2007, a towering Australian slugger by the name of Soa Palelei made his UFC debutat UFC 79: Nemesis. In what would turn out to be Palelei’s lone appearance in the organization, the Aussie engaged in a tepid, horrendously sloppy clinchfest with fellow future-castaway Eddie Sanchez. It was easily the worst fight of the night — marred by long stretches of inactivity, a pair of low blows, and an equally anticlimactic ending in which Soa basically called it quits due to some swelling around his eye — and ranked among the worst of the year.
Sanchez, having narrowly avoided being fired by virtue of winning the fight, would lose his next two fights before receiving a mercy execution from the promotion. Palelei, on the other hand, would not be given a second shot in the UFC (perhaps rightfully so) and would spend the next five years compiling a 10-1 record in the hopes that he could someday earn a chance at redemption and Zuffa glory.
Well, according to Palelei’s management team (Paradigm Sports Management), the heavyweight KO artist will finally be given that chance, as he has inked a four-fight deal with the UFC. Palelei stated the following in an official press release that was sent out yesterday:
I’m thankful to Dana White and Joe Silva for giving me this opportunity to come back to the UFC to showcase my skills. With determination, hard work and a great team, I’m happy to say that today I have signed with the UFC. I look forward to competing in the best organization in the world.
(Palelei puts a twelve-second beating on Bob Sapp at CFC 21, then visibly regrets accepting the fight in the first place.)
Way back in 2007, a towering Australian slugger by the name of Soa Palelei made his UFC debutat UFC 79: Nemesis. In what would turn out to be Palelei’s lone appearance in the organization, the Aussie engaged in a tepid, horrendously sloppy clinchfest with fellow future-castaway Eddie Sanchez. It was easily the worst fight of the night — marred by long stretches of inactivity, a pair of low blows, and an equally anticlimactic ending in which Soa basically called it quits due to some swelling around his eye — and ranked among the worst of the year.
Sanchez, having narrowly avoided being fired by virtue of winning the fight, would lose his next two fights before receiving a mercy execution from the promotion. Palelei, on the other hand, would not be given a second shot in the UFC (perhaps rightfully so) and would spend the next five years compiling a 10-1 record in the hopes that he could someday earn a chance at redemption and Zuffa glory.
Well, according to Palelei’s management team (Paradigm Sports Management), the heavyweight KO artist will finally be given that chance, as he has inked a four-fight deal with the UFC. Palelei stated the following in an official press release that was sent out yesterday:
I’m thankful to Dana White and Joe Silva for giving me this opportunity to come back to the UFC to showcase my skills. With determination, hard work and a great team, I’m happy to say that today I have signed with the UFC. I look forward to competing in the best organization in the world.
Palelei’s lone loss since leaving the UFC came by way of first round submission via punches to future Strikeforce heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in 2010. And while Soa hasn’t exactly been taking on world beaters as of late — his past two victories have come over the all-too-TKOable Bob Sapp and famed UG troll Sean McCorkle – it’s hard to claim that anyone riding an eight-fight win streak hasn’t earned another shot in the UFC. Unless that person is Jason Reinhardt, in which case you should probably just exit whatever room you are negotiating contracts in before you get crabs.
[UPDATE]
According to Fight News Australia, Palelei has drawn Croatian Stipe Miocic for his first fight back with the promotion. The two are rumored to meet at UFC 161, which goes down on June 15th in Manitoba, Canada:
A source also revealed to Fightnewsaustralia.com that Palelei is touted to appear on the UFC 161 card in June with 30 year-old Stipe Miocic (9-1, UFC 3-1) slated as an potential opponent. UFC executives have yet to formally announce the event or the fight.
Perhaps Melvin Guillard has made some DRASTIC improvements to his ground game since joining up with the Blackzilians, or perhaps he simply has some sort of autoerotic asphyxiation fetish, because the hard hitting lightweight recently told MMA Weekly that he wants his next fight to be a rematch against Joe Lauzon, whom you may recall, dropped Guillard and finished him with a rear-naked choke in just under 50 seconds of their UFC 136 bout. According to Guillard, the loss is the only in his career that he felt he truly should have won. Here’s what “The Young Assassin” had to say:
In the 10 losses I have in my MMA career, I haven’t rematched anyone I’ve lost to. Not once, I’ve never really cared for rematches because I felt they won, now I’ll move on. Right now, I’m at the point where this fight means something to me, I have something to prove against Joe Lauzon, so this is a rematch I’m asking for. Right now, I’m looking to watch the fights in Japan and I’m praying that he loses to (Anthony) Pettis because I want a rematch against Joe Lauzon. I don’t want to fight nobody next but Joe Lauzon. I don’t even care how it goes, I just want to see Pettis win and I want an immediate rematch with Joe Lauzon. Hopefully, I can get that rematch by fourth of July in Vegas.
Join us after the jump for a few more interesting musings from Guillard’s interview.
(Come to think of it, we’d watch this again.)
Perhaps Melvin Guillard has made some DRASTIC improvements to his ground game since joining up with the Blackzilians, or perhaps he simply has some sort of autoerotic asphyxiation fetish, because the hard hitting lightweight recently told MMA Weekly that he wants his next fight to be a rematch against Joe Lauzon, whom you may recall, dropped Guillard and finished him with a rear-naked choke in just under 50 seconds of their UFC 136 bout. According to Guillard, the loss is the only in his career that he felt he truly should have won. Here’s what “The Young Assassin” had to say:
In the 10 losses I have in my MMA career, I haven’t rematched anyone I’ve lost to. Not once, I’ve never really cared for rematches because I felt they won, now I’ll move on. Right now, I’m at the point where this fight means something to me, I have something to prove against Joe Lauzon, so this is a rematch I’m asking for. Right now, I’m looking to watch the fights in Japan and I’m praying that he loses to (Anthony) Pettis because I want a rematch against Joe Lauzon. I don’t want to fight nobody next but Joe Lauzon. I don’t even care how it goes, I just want to see Pettis win and I want an immediate rematch with Joe Lauzon. Hopefully, I can get that rematch by fourth of July in Vegas.
Guillard also stated that his dislike for Lauzon has dramatically increased over the past couple months thanks to Twitter, go figure. Apparently Lauzon had some less than nice things to say about Guillard in the wake of his first round submission (also by rear-naked choke) loss to Jim Miller at the inaugural UFC on FX event. Shortly after the fight was over, Lauzon posted, “Some people never learn…that looked familiar.” That statement, along with several other comments Lauzon made expressing his frustration over Guillard’s claims that the loss was a fluke seem to have angered Guillard to no end:
Lately on my Twitter some posts have been popping up and I’m like what the hell is this? So I’m looking and next thing I know it’s people talking about Joe Lauzon hit the nail on the head, he was right, so I went in and read the article and all of a sudden he’s blasting me talking about he slapped me and he choked me out, and Melvin’s going around telling everybody I got lucky.
I never said the dude got lucky. I said it was a good fight, I always gave Joe Lauzon the respect that was due, and I thought he was the better guy that day. Did I think the fight was a fluke on my part? Yeah, the fight was a fluke on my part, but I never took anything from him. So I guess he misinterpreted what I said.
Guillard has grown so heated over Lauzon’s recent comments, in fact, that he has threatened to violate the CP ban of bringing back your old self when discussing his future pans for “J-Lau.”
The new me, I’m trying to be respectful and handle it the right way, but at this point right now I’m kind of fed up with it. The old me is about to come out on Joe Lauzon. He’s about to take Rich Clementi’s place of being that guy that I just don’t like.
If you recall, Clementi and Guillard had an epic war of words before, during, and after their UFC 79 battle. If you also recall, Clementi won that fight by way of REAR-NAKED CHOKE. Afterward, Clementi and Guillard nearly came to blows yet again when Clementi told Joe Rogan in the post fight interview that Melvin “still hadn’t learned his lesson.” Ironic.
What do you guys think? Does Guillard deserve another shot at Lauzon, or should we be talking about the fact that a man who was being touted as the next lightweight title contender not too long ago is now asking for rematch against an opponent who would hypothetically be coming off a loss? Discuss.
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