Ahead of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 92 event, which features TUF veteran Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres taking on highly-regarded prospect Yair Rodriguez in the main event, UFC has released a pair of promotional “Free F…
https://youtu.be/JUO4tM6GS34
Ahead of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night 92 event, which features TUF veteran Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres taking on highly-regarded prospect Yair Rodriguez in the main event, UFC has released a pair of promotional “Free Fight” videos.
Featured above is the complete Alex Caceres vs. Sergio Pettis fight from the UFC On FOX 10 event, which saw “Bruce Leeroy” upset the younger brother of former UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis, picking up his second submission victory in the UFC in the process.
“Alex Caceres earned his second UFC submission victory when he was able to finish Sergio Pettis. Watch Caceres in the main event at Fight Night Salt Lake City on Saturday, Aug. 6 live on FS1.”
On Saturday, Benson Henderson turned in another controversial decision victory when he met Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 10.
In three of his past five outings, Henderson has picked up split-decision wins. According to MMADecisions.com, a majority of the M…
On Saturday, Benson Henderson turned in another controversial decision victory when he met Josh Thomson at UFC on Fox 10.
In three of his past five outings, Henderson has picked up split-decision wins. According to MMADecisions.com, a majority of the MMA media felt “Smooth” should have lost at least two of those bouts, with the weekend’s matchup against Thomson being one of them.
Is a win always a win in MMA, or was Henderson penalized in the rankings for his debatable victory over Thomson?
With UFC on Fox 10 in the books and UFC 169 ahead, here are the latest official UFC rankings.
The hard-flung overhand rights that Gabriel Gonzaga launched at Stipe Miocic during Saturday’s UFC on FOX 10 co-main event may have hurt him worse than they hurt his opponent. Gonzaga came out strong in the first round of the heavyweight scrap, only to grow visibly fatigued and inactive as the fight wore on. Ultimately, “Napao” lost a unanimous decision.
Breaking his right hand early in the fight may or may not have had a lot to do with that, but what is for darn sure is that the Brazilian’s paw was straight jacked-up after the bout. MMA House has released a video of a hand they say is Gonzaga’s taken from what appears to be backstage in the United Center or a hospital room Saturday night.
Check it out above. If you’re a hearty soul, go ahead and try it while eating lunch.
The top of “Napao’s” hand is cartoonishly swollen and puffy, kind of like there’s a fat stack of oatmeal cookies underneath his skin. Why did my mind choose that as an analogy? Is it bad that now I want cookies?
Anyway, Gonzaga deserves a cookie after that disgusting injury, especially after losing. Go get yours, ‘Zaga.
The hard-flung overhand rights that Gabriel Gonzaga launched at Stipe Miocic during Saturday’s UFC on FOX 10 co-main event may have hurt him worse than they hurt his opponent. Gonzaga came out strong in the first round of the heavyweight scrap, only to grow visibly fatigued and inactive as the fight wore on. Ultimately, “Napao” lost a unanimous decision.
Breaking his right hand early in the fight may or may not have had a lot to do with that, but what is for darn sure is that the Brazilian’s paw was straight jacked-up after the bout. MMA House has released a video of a hand they say is Gonzaga’s taken from what appears to be backstage in the United Center or a hospital room Saturday night.
Check it out above. If you’re a hearty soul, go ahead and try it while eating lunch.
The top of “Napao’s” hand is cartoonishly swollen and puffy, kind of like there’s a fat stack of oatmeal cookies underneath his skin. Why did my mind choose that as an analogy? Is it bad that now I want cookies?
Anyway, Gonzaga deserves a cookie after that disgusting injury, especially after losing. Go get yours, ‘Zaga.
UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during his loss to Stipe Miocic at UFC on Fox 10.
The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.
Gonzaga, 34, suffered a one-sided unanimous-decisi…
UFC heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga will undergo surgery to repair a broken hand suffered during his loss to StipeMiocic at UFC on Fox 10.
The news was first reported by Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting.com.
Gonzaga, 34, suffered a one-sided unanimous-decision loss to Miocic. Gonzaga said after the fight that he believed he’d broken the hand in the first round of the fight, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
“That changed everything,” Gonzaga said. “Even though he was faster than me, I couldn’t fight well because of the pain I felt in my right hand.”
He also posted a gruesome photo of the injury on his personal Instagram profile. The heavyweight jiu-jitsu specialist, most famously known for his stunning head-kick knockout of Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, told MMA Fighting that the hand injury affected him greatly over the course of the fight:
I came back to Boston and I’m going to the hospital tonight to schedule the surgery. I’ll talk to the doctor today and get an answer (on when I’ll be able to return to training).
I was hesitating to throw other punches and take him down. I was hesitating to go for it or not. I didn’t know I broke my hand, but it was hurting a lot, so you think twice before throwing the punch.
Prior to the Miocic loss, Gonzaga scored consecutive wins over Dave Herman and Shawn Jordan. He is 5-2 since returning to mixed martial arts after a brief period of retirement, and he has a 16-8 career record overall. Outside of the win over Cro Cop, his most famous career moment came when he challenged Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort at UFC 74.
He was ranked 12th in the division but may fall out of the latest rankings with the loss.
This is something I don’t normally say, but I think it would be shame if Josh Thomson never fought again after losing to Benson Henderson on Saturday at UFC on Fox 10.
Typically, when it comes to MMA, I would describe myself as pro-retirement. Ou…
This is something I don’t normally say, but I think it would be shame if Josh Thomson never fought again after losing to Benson Henderson on Saturday at UFC on Fox 10.
Typically, when it comes to MMA, I would describe myself as pro-retirement. Our sport is so mentally and physically demanding—and the payoffs generally so meager compared to the risks—that the moment a fighter decides it’s not worth it anymore, it’s time to call it a career.
If he or she can make a living working behind the scenes, in front of a camera or in an entirely different industry, that’s usually the best possible move. As mere spectators, it’s our duty to respect the decision, just as we did for Nick Diaz last year and Georges St-Pierre last month.
But even in a field where we’re used to unhappy endings and unfulfilled dreams, it would feel particularly unfair if things ended like this for Thomson.
The longtime MMA veteran had enjoyed the biggest star turn of his career since returning to the UFC in 2013. The previous dozen years left him as little more than the second-best lightweight in Strikeforce, a guy who’d likely be remembered for coming up short in his classic trilogy with Gilbert Melendez.
His second-round knockout of Nate Diaz at a UFC on Fox show last April changed all that, and a couple of unforeseen injuries at the top of the 155-pound division allowed him to ride the wave well past most of our expectations.
Saturday’s bout with Henderson should’ve been another triumph. Thomson came in as more than a 2-1 underdog but destroyed those odds, as he continually dragged Henderson to the mat and climbed on his back.
Even after breaking his thumb in the first round, Thomson controlled most of the action. Again and again, he managed to get to a dominant position, threatening Henderson with submissions while crafting an advantage that seemed obvious to most onlookers, if not the ringside officials.
The gritty performance should’ve boosted him into the title shot he was promised late last year, or at least set him up for a championship eliminator against a returning T.J. Grant in the coming months.
Instead, after the judges botched another one—and Henderson won his umpteenth controversial decision—it left him contemplating the end.
We’re still not sure exactly how seriously to take the numerous hints Thomson made at retirement during the post-fightpress conference. History has taught us not to put much stock in the things fighters say in such close proximity to the actual bout.
Still, it was unusually galling to watch Thomson choke back tears and try to find the right words while Henderson sat on the other side of the podium, cracking jokes and reveling in victory.
It was also disappointing to read critical comments from Dana White, who said in the immediate aftermath that neither fighter “really went after it and tried to pull out the win,” according to MMA Junkie.com.
Hopefully, those criticisms will fade in the coming days. At some point, UFC brass will realize that Thomson almost beat a former champion with only one opposable thumb. It will likely give Thomson a couple weeks to cool off and come back at him with an offer to fight another top contender.
God knows he deserves it. The biggest question may be whether it’ll be enough to entice Thomson back into the cage.
I kind of hope so.
At this point, he’s certainly in the twilight of his career, but at 35 years old, he’s never looked more capable. For all his talk about having a rough time preparing for this bout, Thomson took Henderson to his absolute limit, even after suffering what should have been a debilitating injury.
If justice had been served, he’d be the No. 1 contender right now—or at least he’d be able to walk away and make this a storybook ending for his career.
But few storybooks end with their protagonists getting jobbed on a lousy decision.
Thomson deserves one more chapter.
I hope he gets a good one and I hope he takes advantage.
It’s starting to become a tradition to bring the UFC to Chicago in January, and this time it was particularly cold in the Windy City for UFC on FOX 10. While the preliminary fights provided a lot of excitement, the main card was dragged down by some dull moments. Nevertheless, there’s still quite a lot of stuff to talk about so join us for a final look back at the event with a Clint Eastwood-esque squinty-eyed glare.
The Good
• UFC on FOX Production. At this point, the production of the UFC on FOX series is crisp, well-paced, and truly hitting its stride. The broadcast-introduction they’ve been doing with Ving Rhames narrating the story of the main event fighters while suspenseful music plays in the background was intense, as always. (It kicks the ass of the nu-metal “Bring the Pain” intro from the UFC pay-per-views, at least). Hopefully they keep Marsellus Wallace around.
The Fox analyst crew also did a great job, adding even more professionalism to the proceedings. The enthusiastic Daniel Cormier sounded like a seasoned pro joking about gumbo and jambalaya next to old staples Brian Stann and Curt Menefee. The only drawback about the analysts was that they weren’t used enough. The more time they spend breaking down the fights and analyzing the fighters’ skill-sets, the better. In fact, I’d love to see the broadcast kick back to the desk in between every fight, which would help new fans get more familiar with the fighters and wrap their heads around what they just saw.
• Cowboy.Donald Cerrone‘s performance was one of the few highlights in an otherwise lackluster main card. Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg were doing their best to hype Adriano Martins as a worthy opponent, but despite the fact that Martins looked pretty good for a guy Cowboy had never heard of, Cerrone completely out-classed him. Cerrone was patient, picking his shots in the first round until he finally caught Martins with his hands down and landed a knockout shin kick to the head.
After the KO, Cerrone could have landed another shot to his unconscious opponent but to his credit he held back and didn’t follow up with an unnecessary punch. In fact, his calmness after the fight was chilling. The old adage in football when you score a touchdown is to act like you’ve been there before; that’s exactly what Cerrone did, looking like a stone-cold killer.
(Adriano Martins’s kick-face: Ugly, but fantastic. / Screen-shot via CP reader 5knuckleshuffle)
It’s starting to become a tradition to bring the UFC to Chicago in January, and this time it was particularly cold in the Windy City for UFC on FOX 10. While the preliminary fights provided a lot of excitement, the main card was dragged down by some dull moments. Nevertheless, there’s still quite a lot of stuff to talk about so join us for a final look back at the event with a Clint Eastwood-esque squinty-eyed glare.
The Good
• UFC on FOX Production. At this point, the production of the UFC on FOX series is crisp, well-paced, and truly hitting its stride. The broadcast-introduction they’ve been doing with Ving Rhames narrating the story of the main event fighters while suspenseful music plays in the background was intense, as always. (It kicks the ass of the nu-metal “Bring the Pain” intro from the UFC pay-per-views, at least). Hopefully they keep Marsellus Wallace around.
The Fox analyst crew also did a great job, adding even more professionalism to the proceedings. The enthusiastic Daniel Cormier sounded like a seasoned pro joking about gumbo and jambalaya next to old staples Brian Stann and Curt Menefee. The only drawback about the analysts was that they weren’t used enough. The more time they spend breaking down the fights and analyzing the fighters’ skill-sets, the better. In fact, I’d love to see the broadcast kick back to the desk in between every fight, which would help new fans get more familiar with the fighters and wrap their heads around what they just saw.
• Cowboy.Donald Cerrone‘s performance was one of the few highlights in an otherwise lackluster main card. Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg were doing their best to hype Adriano Martins as a worthy opponent, but despite the fact that Martins looked pretty good for a guy Cowboy had never heard of, Cerrone completely out-classed him. Cerrone was patient, picking his shots in the first round until he finally caught Martins with his hands down and landed a knockout shin kick to the head.
After the KO, Cerrone could have landed another shot to his unconscious opponent but to his credit he held back and didn’t follow up with an unnecessary punch. In fact, his calmness after the fight was chilling. The old adage in football when you score a touchdown is to act like you’ve been there before; that’s exactly what Cerrone did, looking like a stone-cold killer.
The performance earned Cowboy the Knockout of the Night bonus — his third such award in the UFC — and put Cerrone ahead of Anderson Silva and Joe Lauzon for the most amount of fight bonuses in Zuffa promotions: 13, when you count his WEC bumps. It was a clear highlight in a card that did not have a lot of them. Next up? Give Cowboy a top-five opponent and let’s see if he can work his way into title contention.
The Bad
• Missing Corner Commentary. In an earlier column, I criticized Fox for failing to provide a translation for Edson Barbosa’s corner in between rounds at UFC on Fox 9. The Fox crew blundered again this time around during Jeremy Stephens vs. Darren Elkins when they failed to provide audio for Stephens’s corner in between the first and second round. It’s a small quibble, but as somebody who really enjoys hearing the advice given by the corners during the fight, it was annoying. There’s absolutely no point in even showing the corners if we’re just going to look at the fighters and their trainers. In between rounds is one of the few times we get to hear actual strategy in the midst of the battle, and I wish we’d get to actually hear it.
• No title shot for Henderson. After a questionable split-decision win was announced for Benson Henderson, Dana White told the media that a title shot was not likely for Bendo. While I’m certainly not dying to see a third fight between Anthony Pettis and Ben Henderson, the UFC has developed a ranking system [Ed. note: LOL] and guess who the number one lightweight contender is? That’s right, it’s Mr. Smooth himself. Regardless, of whether you like his fighting style or not, Henderson is next in line.
Dana White has said many times that he wants the UFC to be like the NFL and other major league sports. Well let me ask you this: if the Denver Broncos had barely beaten the New England Patriots in a rather boring game do you think they would be prevented from competing in the Super Bowl because Roger Goodell didn’t think it was an impressive performance? Of course not. A win is a win and Bendo earned his title shot. If the UFC wants to match guys up completely subjectively than they should be a bit more honest about it and get rid of the ranking system. Otherwise the rankings are entirely illegitimate. Regardless, it’s clear that one of the biggest stories coming out of Saturday night’s fights is that the UFC has a Benson Henderson problem.
The Ugly
• Fox Robots. As mentioned above, the UFC on Fox was really tight and professional from a production standpoint. However, there was an element of production that was just horrible: those damn robots. They’re like something out of that horrible kids’ movie starting Hugh Jackman. The robots have become a staple of Fox Sports programming and as MMA fans we should be getting used to them. However, no matter how many times I see them, I just can’t get over how stupid they are. At UFC on Fox 10, they were out in full force, shadowboxing with the UFC ring girls. Thanks to Mike Goldberg, we learned that the boxing robot has a name: Beatus. Wow. Even company-man Joe Rogan couldn’t hold back his feelings on the robots, lamenting on-air that they should “throw that thing in the garbage.” And that’s one of the reasons people love Joe Rogan so much. He’s not afraid to call it like it is, whether it’s bad refereeing, horrible judging or stupid robots.
• Safety issue. With about 40 seconds left in his fight against Darren Elkins, Jeremy Stephens got his foot caught in the gap between the cage and the mat. Rogan and Goldberg were talking about how it appeared that Stephens hurt his leg, and my guess is he was hurt because he briefly caught his foot in the gap. This isn’t the first time fighters have slipped into the crack, and it’s something the UFC really needs to address. If they don’t, somebody’s going to break an ankle, twist their knee, or otherwise get seriously hurt.
UFC heavyweight 
