The last time we saw Bones in the Octagon, he was trying not freak out about the destroyed toe he accidentally sustained during his UFC 159 whupping of Chael Sonnen. But luckily, the digit was simply dislocated, which has made a five-month turnaround between fights a possibility. By the way, this will be the third time in two years that Jones has competed at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto; he previously made belt-defenses against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort at the venue.
The last time we saw Bones in the Octagon, he was trying not freak out about the destroyed toe he accidentally sustained during his UFC 159 whupping of Chael Sonnen. But luckily, the digit was simply dislocated, which has made a five-month turnaround between fights a possibility. By the way, this will be the third time in two years that Jones has competed at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto; he previously made belt-defenses against Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort at the venue.
(Now there’s a guy who’s probably tied some women to railroad tracks in his day. Photo via CageWall.com)
Once upon a time, Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall was considered by many to be the #1 flyweight fighter in the world. Of course, this was back in 2011, when the UFC didn’t have a flyweight division, and the 125-pound MMA scene in America was pretty much limited to the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino.
Public opinion of McCall has changed dramatically since then. First, he went 0-1-1 in a pair of fights against Demetrious Johnson during the UFC’s inaugural flyweight tournament in 2012, and followed that up by losing a decision to Joseph Benavidez at UFC 156 this past February. (Along the way, he soldiered through problems both personal and legal.) So even though McCall is still officially listed as the UFC’s #3 flyweight contender — despite being winless in three Octagon appearances — it’s clear that his back is against the wall, and his next fight is of the “must win” variety.
On Saturday, the UFC announced that Ian McCall will return at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis (August 3rd, Rio De Janeiro) against Iliarde Santos, a Brazilian scrapper who lost his UFC debut last month when he was KO’d by Yuri Alcantara. On paper, this is a fight that McCall should win. Unfortunately, paper goes out the window when you’re talking about UFC events in Brazil, where Brazilian fighters have been winning over 80% of the time when matched up with non-Brazilian opponents. (Brazilians enjoyed a 7-0 sweep against foreigners at UFC on FUEL 10, by the way.) Can McCall rescue his UFC career with a win against Santos? Or will he just give the bloodthirsty — and occasionally shirtless — Brazilian fans another reason to celebrate?
The current UFC 163 fight-lineup is after the jump…
(Now there’s a guy who’s probably tied some women to railroad tracks in his day. Photo via CageWall.com)
Once upon a time, Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall was considered by many to be the #1 flyweight fighter in the world. Of course, this was back in 2011, when the UFC didn’t have a flyweight division, and the 125-pound MMA scene in America was pretty much limited to the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino.
Public opinion of McCall has changed dramatically since then. First, he went 0-1-1 in a pair of fights against Demetrious Johnson during the UFC’s inaugural flyweight tournament in 2012, and followed that up by losing a decision to Joseph Benavidez at UFC 156 this past February. (Along the way, he soldiered through problems both personal and legal.) So even though McCall is still officially listed as the UFC’s #3 flyweight contender — despite being winless in three Octagon appearances — it’s clear that his back is against the wall, and his next fight is of the “must win” variety.
On Saturday, the UFC announced that Ian McCall will return at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis (August 3rd, Rio De Janeiro) against Iliarde Santos, a Brazilian scrapper who lost his UFC debut last month when he was KO’d by Yuri Alcantara. On paper, this is a fight that McCall should win. Unfortunately, paper goes out the window when you’re talking about UFC events in Brazil, where Brazilian fighters have been winning over 80% of the time when matched up with non-Brazilian opponents. (Brazilians enjoyed a 7-0 sweep against foreigners at UFC on FUEL 10, by the way.) Can McCall rescue his UFC career with a win against Santos? Or will he just give the bloodthirsty — and occasionally shirtless — Brazilian fans another reason to celebrate?
The current UFC 163 fight-lineup is after the jump…
Jose Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis
Phil Davis vs. Lyoto Machida
Josh Koscheck vs. Demian Maia
Thales Leites vs. Tom Watson
Vinny Magalhaes vs. Anthony Perosh
Cezar Ferreira vs. Clint Hester
Robert Drysdale vs. Ednaldo Oliveira
Josh Clopton vs. Rani Yahya
Neil Magny vs. Sergio Moraes
Sheila Gaff vs. Amanda Nunes
Ian McCall vs. Iliarde Santos
John Lineker vs. Phil Harris
Viscardi Andrade vs. Bristol Marunde
(Leites sells tickets to the gun show while Marc Ratner continues to stare at Arianny’s tits. / Photo via Sherdog)
You know, there was a time when this website thought that Thales Leites had a legitimate shot at beating Anderson Silva, or could at least give him a good fight. Neither of those things turned out to be accurate, but at the very least, Leites was a top ten middleweight who had strung together five straight UFC wins in 2007-2008, including first-round submissions of Floyd Sword, Ryan Jensen, and Drew McFedries.
Leites’s title challenge against Silva at UFC 97 was both uncompetitive and dull as hell; there was a lot of butt-flopping from Leites, and a lot of weird crap from a clearly disinterested Silva. Leites followed up the unanimous decision loss with a split-decision defeat against Alessio Sakara, and the UFC gave him his walking papers.
Since then, Leites has gone 6-1 competing for promotions like MFC and Superior Challenge, and is riding a three-fight win streak with victories over Tor Troeng, Jeremy Horn, and Matt Horwich. And so, the UFC is giving Leites another chance, three years after his last Octagon appearance, booking him at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis (August 3rd; HSBC Arena, Rio De Janeiro), against former BAMMA champ Tom Watson. Watson is currently 1-1 in the UFC, and is coming off a TKO win over Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs. McDonald.
Can Leites prove his worth the second time around? Do any of you care? In other UFC 163 booking news…
(Leites sells tickets to the gun show while Marc Ratner continues to stare at Arianny’s tits. / Photo via Sherdog)
You know, there was a time when this website thought that Thales Leites had a legitimate shot at beating Anderson Silva, or could at least give him a good fight. Neither of those things turned out to be accurate, but at the very least, Leites was a top ten middleweight who had strung together five straight UFC wins in 2007-2008, including first-round submissions of Floyd Sword, Ryan Jensen, and Drew McFedries.
Leites’s title challenge against Silva at UFC 97 was both uncompetitive and dull as hell; there was a lot of butt-flopping from Leites, and a lot of weird crap from a clearly disinterested Silva. Leites followed up the unanimous decision loss with a split-decision defeat against Alessio Sakara, and the UFC gave him his walking papers.
Since then, Leites has gone 6-1 competing for promotions like MFC and Superior Challenge, and is riding a three-fight win streak with victories over Tor Troeng, Jeremy Horn, and Matt Horwich. And so, the UFC is giving Leites another chance, three years after his last Octagon appearance, booking him at UFC 163: Aldo vs. Pettis (August 3rd; HSBC Arena, Rio De Janeiro), against former BAMMA champ Tom Watson. Watson is currently 1-1 in the UFC, and is coming off a TKO win over Stanislav Nedkov at UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs. McDonald.
Can Leites prove his worth the second time around? Do any of you care? In other UFC 163 booking news…
Two light-heavyweights in need of a rebound will also be meeting at the 8/3 card. After being out-pointed by Phil Davis at UFC 159, grappling specialist Vinny Magalhaes will return at UFC 164 against Australian fighter Anthony Perosh, who hasn’t competed since his seven-second knockout loss to Ryan Jimmo at UFC 149 last July. In 20 professional fights, the 41-year-old Perosh has never been submitted. We’re not sure if that will matter against Magalhaes, but there you go.
Think of what you were doing 11 years ago. Most of you might envision a moment in your life that probably seems like ancient history now. George W. Bush was in his first term, Nelly was on the radio; I was fresh out of college, working at an Urban Outfitters, hoping that I’d eventually find a better job. (I did, fortunately.) The year was 2002, and it was the last time Josh Barnett competed in the UFC.
Most of you already know the tale: Barnett beats down Randy Couture in the second round of the their headlining title fight at UFC 36, then tests positive for steroids and is stripped of his title. He spends the next six years competing almost exclusively in Japan, gets himself in more PED trouble while fighting for Affliction, and has a minor career rebirth in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix of 2011-2012, where he finishes Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov with startling ease (both by arm-triangle-choke), but gets his ass handed to him by Daniel Cormier.
Think of what you were doing 11 years ago. Most of you might envision a moment in your life that probably seems like ancient history now. George W. Bush was in his first term, Nelly was on the radio; I was fresh out of college, working at an Urban Outfitters, hoping that I’d eventually find a better job. (I did, fortunately.) The year was 2002, and it was the last time Josh Barnett competed in the UFC.
Most of you already know the tale: Barnett beats down Randy Couture in the second round of the their headlining title fight at UFC 36, then tests positive for steroids and is stripped of his title. He spends the next six years competing almost exclusively in Japan, gets himself in more PED trouble while fighting for Affliction, and has a minor career rebirth in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix of 2011-2012, where he finishes Brett Rogers and Sergei Kharitonov with startling ease (both by arm-triangle-choke), but gets his ass handed to him by Daniel Cormier.
– Barnett has looked stellar against opponents who don’t know how to defend a takedown or an arm-triangle choke. Mir won’t be that easy to run through. And maybe this fight will turn out to be one of those “two great grapplers put on a bad kickboxing match” deals.
Overeem and Browne have some shared history, in that they were both flattened in recent fights against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, despite coming in as heavy favorites against the Brazilian future champion. Since then, Browne has rebounded with a quick-knockout of Gabriel Gonzaga at the TUF 17 Finale — aided by some controversial elbows — while Overeem has been inactive due to injury.
A year ago, I would have predicted “Reem by murder.” But now…I’m not so sure. Who would you put your money on for this one?
Overeem and Browne have some shared history, in that they were both flattened in recent fights against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, despite coming in as heavy favorites against the Brazilian future champion. Since then, Browne has rebounded with a quick-knockout of Gabriel Gonzaga at the TUF 17 Finale — aided by some controversial elbows — while Overeem has been inactive due to injury.
A year ago, I would have predicted “Reem by murder.” But now…I’m not so sure. Who would you put your money on for this one?
(Look on the bright side — things can’t get much worse for him, right?)
Though we know him best these days as a light-heavyweight can-crusher with only a single victory to his credit in the last three years, Brandon Vera started his career as a devastating force at heavyweight, racking up an 8-0 record including four nasty stoppages in the UFC. But after back-to-back losses to Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum, Vera decided to cut some weight and drop to the 205-pound division in 2008. It hasn’t exactly gone well. For every win over low-level talent like Reese Andy, Mike Patt, and Eliot Marshall, he’s eaten losses against superstars like Jon Jones, Randy Couture, and (most recently) Mauricio Rua.
Now, it looks like Brandon Vera is looking to bring back his old self. MMAJunkie reports that Vera is heading back to heavyweight for a meeting with Ben Rothwell at UFC 164, August 31st at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Rothwell has compiled a 2-3 record during his time in the Octagon, and last competed in January when he was choked out by Gabriel Gonzaga. Though neither fighter is riding a long losing streak, their lack of consistent success in the UFC makes this one a must-win fight for both men. Can “The Truth” re-energize his career at his original weight class, or will Rothwell be stealin’ that soul?
(Look on the bright side — things can’t get much worse for him, right?)
Though we know him best these days as a light-heavyweight can-crusher with only a single victory to his credit in the last three years, Brandon Vera started his career as a devastating force at heavyweight, racking up an 8-0 record including four nasty stoppages in the UFC. But after back-to-back losses to Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum, Vera decided to cut some weight and drop to the 205-pound division in 2008. It hasn’t exactly gone well. For every win over low-level talent like Reese Andy, Mike Patt, and Eliot Marshall, he’s eaten losses against superstars like Jon Jones, Randy Couture, and (most recently) Mauricio Rua.
Now, it looks like Brandon Vera is looking to bring back his old self. MMAJunkie reports that Vera is heading back to heavyweight for a meeting with Ben Rothwell at UFC 164, August 31st at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Rothwell has compiled a 2-3 record during his time in the Octagon, and last competed in January when he was choked out by Gabriel Gonzaga. Though neither fighter is riding a long losing streak, their lack of consistent success in the UFC makes this one a must-win fight for both men. Can “The Truth” re-energize his career at his original weight class, or will Rothwell be stealin’ that soul?
