Tag: UFC News

The TUF season isn’t over, but Kelvin Gastelum and “Bubba” McDaniel may have guaranteed $25,000 in their pockets for fight of the season. A fight that had a plethora of back and forth sweeps, also saw an heavy favorite tap to the underdog. Despite having a significant experience and striking disadvantage, Team Sonnen was confident that Gastelum would surprise Team Jones with an upset.

More than likely, the majority of fans expected Bubba to pick apart Gastelum on the feet, and counter strike every time he came forward. However, that not at all what happened. It was an extremely competitive first round, both on the feet, and on the ground. Gastelum always initiated the takedown, but several time Bubba was able to sit up and reverse the position, giving him top control. Again though, Gastelum would scramble and find himself on top. The round ended with Gastelum landing punches on top, which may have been enough for the judges to score it in his favor. However, I can see Bubba getting the round due to the time he had back control. Either way, extremely close round.

With the uncertainty of who took round one, both fighters came out with a sense of urgency. They exchanged leg kicks and again, the fight went to the ground. Gastelum dropped back for a guillotine choke, but Bubba escaped and took top control. You could hear the constant shouts from Sonnen for Gastelum to improve his position after putting himself in such a compromising one. He did just that, and took the back of Bubba. It wasn’t long before Gastelum sunk in a deep rear naked choke, and forced the tap.

Team Sonnen regains control, and I guarantee in Gastelum’s next fight he won’t be taken so lightly. After a victory over one of the more promising and experienced competitors, he’ll have all the fighters looking at Gastelum as a serious contender.

This TUF season has easily been one of the more exciting seasons. To keep the excitement going, next week’s fight will feature the bout between Team Sonnen’s, Tor Troeng, and Team Jones’, Josh Samman. If Team Jones wants to have a fighting chance, Samman will need to secure a victory one way or another.

 

– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli

@FightFreek

Top ten featherweights, Cub Swanson and Dustin Poirier, battled one another for three rounds in a back and forth bout that was awarded fight of the night honors. In the end, it was Swanson who emerged victorious and will continue his climb up the ranks.

With Anthony Pettis getting the next crack at Jose Aldo, it looks like a title shot isn’t going to happen. This does however open up the opportunity for another rematch that Swanson asked the UFC for, when he requested the opportunity to avenge his loss to Ricardo Lamas fifteen months ago. Swanson said he thought he was winning the fight right up until Lamas countered a guillotine attempt with an arm triangle choke, winning him the fight. The UFC declined his request for a rematch, stating that it didn’t make any sense.

Lamas was on the brink of a title shot himself, but of course, Pettis spoiled that opportunity. Now with Swanson and Lamas both at the top of the featherweight ranks with a four fight win streak, a rematch between the two would not only be a guaranteed exciting fight, but could determine the next number one contender. If I was Joe Silva, I couldn’t get that fight on the books fast enough. I’m not calling this fight before it happens, if it even happens at all, but if Swanson can muster up a win over Lamas, that screams number one contender.

As Swanson stated in the post fight press conference, he’s done playing around, and he treats every fight like it’s his last. He knows that his MMA career would end with one more serious injury occurring. From his recent performances, fans can see that his attitude has changed for the better, and he seems more focused then ever to capture the UFC featherweight belt.

 
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli

@FightFreek

Chael Sonnen said it best when he said that Kevin Casey just never showed up to his fight with Collin Hart on this week’s episode of TUF. For someone who has trained extensively with the Gracies, Casey looked fairly lackluster on the ground. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Gracie trained fighters supposed to possess a dangerous guard? Well it looks like Casey has shattered that myth.

Collin Hart wasted no time in this fight, as he lunged toward Casey the very moment the fight started. His early flying knee attempted didn’t exactly land, but Hart followed through with a takedown that positioned him immediately into side control. It was impressive how quickly Casey was able to gain a full guard position, but he didn’t amount any offense with it. For as good a grappler as Casey is, his inability to hold his opponent against the cage or achieve under hooks in the clinch was quite surprising. Although he had brief success landed several heavy punches, Hart took the first round with his early takedown, landing more strikes in the clinch, and simply getting the better of every position.

It looked like a fire had been lit under Casey’s rear early in the second round, as he landed a flurry of punches that had Hart in defense mode. Now the most disappointing part of this fight, is that after Casey chased Hart he chose to clinch with him up against the cage. It would’ve been fine, but Casey never tried to utilize any strikes in the clinch, and it seemed as if he was just biding his time. That was a huge mistake on his part, as Hart worked for another takedown and stayed in the top position for the remainder of the fight. Between his dominate position and the short strikes he was landing, the judges correctly scored the second round for Hart as well.

With Team Sonnen still leading 2-1, Team Jones has seized control and has matched up Team Sonnen’s last pick, Kelvin Gastelum, against Team Jones’ third pick, Robert “Bubba” McDaniel. This is a fight that may very well tie this competition 2-2.

 

– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli

@FightFreek

While watching this week’s episode of the Ultimate fighter, I’m sure everyone half expected the “devastating knockout” that we all heard so much about, wouldn’t like up to the hype. Luckily, that wasn’t the case . Uriah Hall landing a spinning head kick that rivaled that of Edson Barboza’s knockout of the year award, leaving spectator in disbelief. This knockout win really validates what Dana White and Chael Sonnen have commented on, with regards to Uriah Hall being one of best fighters in this TUF season, if not the best fighter. There’s only a handful of knockouts in the UFC that have been as impressive, but none of them have occurred during any TUF season.

As on this moment, I can’t see how any other fighter could possible beat Hall out for knockout of the season. However, the winner is determined by votes. So just like the MMA awards, this too gives the fans the chance to screw it all up with their bias opinions. If I was one of the fighters, I’d still be taking Dana White’s advice and focusing on winning either submission of the season, or fight of the season.

This TUF season is looking extremely promising early, with only two fights in the season, we’ve seen two stellar knockouts. Match ups have all favored Team Sonnen thus far, as they lead 2-0, so Team Jones will have to do something spectacular if they want to regain control. Unfortunately, Team Sonnen’s Kevin Casey, a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu black belt, is fighting next. Defeating Casey will be much easier said than done, so Team Jones’ Collin Hart will have to be on his A game.

 
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli

@FightFreek

Even in past fights that had a number of upsets, never before has there been a UFC event in which the best predictions were barley over fifty percent. MMAfix.com recorded forty five total predictions from numerous different MMA websites that gave their picks for all eleven bouts. After a bad night of predictions, I’m too disappointed seeing the most
correctly predicted number of fights was six.

After an impressive debut over Dustin Pague at UFC 150, most people he would only be more comfortable in his second fight and had have an even better performance. After a close two rounds, Camus was arguably ahead on the judges scorecards, but then Kimura took his back and sunk in the choke. After the proficient submission defense Camus showcased in his fight with Dustin Pague, it was surprising to see him succumb to a rear naked choke.

Whether you disagree with the decision or not, Isaac Vallie-Flagg really took the fight to Yves Edwards in the first and third rounds. The MMA veteran of over sixty fights had a dominating second round performance, but the judges saw the other two rounds for Vallie-Flagg in a close split decision. Not too many fans thought the Edwards would fall at the hands of a lesser known opponent, especially after coming off a stellar knockout of Jeremy Stephens.

Jacob Volkmann did exactly as everyone predicted, and smothered Bobby Green with his wrestling… in the first round. In the second, Volkmann seemed to have lost his edge and found himself on his back, which is an unusual spot for him to be in. As the fight progressed, Volkmann’s performance worsened and he just crumbled under the pressure of Green until the he was finished by the rear naked choke.

I don’t want to call this next fight an upset, because Jon Fitch and Demian Maia had equal chance of winning this fight, but the fact is Fitch was a slight favorite and Maia absolutely annihilated him. No one has dominated Fitch in such fashion since Georges St-Pierre at UFC 87.

I’m counting my lucky stars that I went against my better judgment to put some money on Alistair Overeem to win. After securing a two round lead, Overeem got complacent and it cost him. Nearly everyone forgets that Bigfoot is a Karate black belt because of his outstanding Jiu-Jitsu skills, and Overeem learned the hard way that if you don’t respect the striking of Silva, he will knock you out off your feet, literally. So much for the Reem getting a title shot.

Now for the biggest upset of the fight, with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira defeating former light heavyweight champion, Rashad Evans. At -450 betting odds, Evans was the biggest favorite on the card, but that didn’t stop Little Nog from getting his hand raised. In a fight that wasn’t nearly as exciting as the most of the other bouts, Evans struggled to secure a takedown, and when he did, Nogueira got right back to his feet. All other attempts to take the fight to the ground were stuffed by Nogueria and he landed counter strikes on the exit. Seeing that talented wrestlers such as Ryan Bader and Phil Davis were able to take and hold down Nogueira, it was quite surprising that Evans wasn’t able to do the same. This win for Nogueira has dramatically shifted the rankings in the light heavyweight division.

It was a rough night of predictions for all MMA website, but I’m sure we’ll all shack it off, go back to the drawing board, and prepare for a much more successful night at the next UFC event in two weeks, UFC on Fuel TV: Barao vs. McDonald.

 
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli

@FightFreek