Tag: UFC on Fox 9

Chad Mendes Intends to Give Nik Lentz a Reality Check at UFC on Fox 9

Chad Mendes isn’t a fighter people are lining up to face.
The former title challenger has been a staple in the upper tier of the featherweight division for the past several years and has left a trail of wrecked opposition in his wake.
Since joining the…

Chad Mendes isn’t a fighter people are lining up to face.

The former title challenger has been a staple in the upper tier of the featherweight division for the past several years and has left a trail of wrecked opposition in his wake.

Since joining the WEC in 2010, “Money” has found success in 10 of his 11 showings, with his only loss coming at the hands of 145-pound king Jose Aldo when they squared off for the featherweight title at UFC 142 in January of 2012.

Following his loss to Aldo, the perennial contender has rattled off four consecutive victories, with each win coming by way of knockout. In three of those bouts, Mendes was forced to deal with a change of opponent, as the fighter originally slated to face him withdrew due to injury.

In some cases, a replacement could not be found and Mendes was pulled from the card entirely. But in situations like his scheduled bout with Clay Guida at UFC on Fox 7 back in April, “The Carpenter” suffered an injury and Darren Elkins stepped in.

The scrappy Indiana native was promptly knocked out for his troubles and the bout with Guida was rescheduled for UFC 164 in August.

The matchup figured to be one of Mendes‘ toughest to date, as Guida‘s wrestling and nonstop attack presented interesting challenges for the California native, but Mendes ultimately handled the test with ease, as he became the first man to stop the former lightweight via strikes.

Where Mendes was once a nightmare matchup for the opposition based on his wrestling skill alone, now he was unveiling a new weapon with his striking and the results his stand-up produced sent a stern message to the rest of the featherweight division.

“I think I’m definitely answering the critics,” Mendes told Bleacher Report. “When I first started fighting, all I had was wrestling. I didn’t have any stand-up or jiu-jitsu training and I had wrestled my whole life. Getting into it, obviously the stand-up took awhile to develop. The jiu-jitsu came pretty quickly because it’s so similar to wrestling, but the stand-up was a completely different world for me.

“It was something I wanted to take my time to perfect and really become good at, but it took awhile because I wasn’t really comfortable getting in there in a live situation and relying on my striking.

“I went back to my wrestling almost every time because it’s a fight and I had to use my strongest weapon to win. If I hadn’t done that then, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. It was something that needed to be done and the striking aspect is coming along. It’s fresh in my mind and I’m becoming very comfortable in that aspect.

“I think my progress is showing and having Duane Ludwig out here coaching us and showing all the crazy techniques that go on in his mind has been unbelievable. The guy is a tactical genius when it comes to this sport. I think it has shown in everyone at Team Alpha Male. Everyone is loving him here and his system and the way he runs things has been perfect for us.

“For me it always takes time,” he added. “Even in wrestling, it took me awhile to get comfortable taking different shots. It’s just how I’ve always been. I like being completely comfortable and confident in a certain area before I start getting crazy…especially when my job is on the line.

“I learned a little more with each fight and now I’m here in a place where I’m knocking guys out. I just feel really comfortable and confident in there. I feel there is a lot more to improve upon and I’m excited to get out there and take the next step.”

While the victory over Guida and a four-fight winning streak would typically be enough to warrant a title opportunity, the featherweight championship picture was in a state of disarray with the UFC waiting to determine who would get the next shot at Aldo.

That honor ultimately went to Ricardo Lamas and the former No. 1 contender decided to keep things rolling, agreeing to take another fight.

Where finding opponents for Mendes has apparently been somewhat trying in the past, the UFC did not have to look too far for his next go-around.

Despite already having a bout lined up against Dennis Bermudez at Fight for the Troops 3, former-lightweight-turned-surging-featherweight Nik Lentz jumped at the opportunity when a chance to fight Mendes opened up.

“The Carny” has won all three of his showings at 145 pounds, and while that is certainly impressive, Mendes believes the American Top Team product has bitten off more than he can chew. Lentz sent some verbal charges in his direction at a pre-fight press conference back in October and Mendes believes his opponent will be brought back to reality when they step into the Octagon at UFC on Fox 9.

Where Mendes has risen to the top of the featherweight ranks on the strength of his wrestling talents, the past four fights have shown a marked progression in his striking skills.

Team Alpha Male brought on former UFC veteran and Muay Thai guru Duane “Bang” Ludwig to serve as head coach for the Sacramento-based squad, and the results have been nothing short of impressive.

All six of Mendes‘ victories leading up to the Aldo fight came by way of decision, but his four wins following his title shot have all come via TKO or KO. The 28-year-old has found a new level of comfort on his feet and that confidence has opened up an entirely new avenue to his game.

He will be looking to continue that progression against Lentz and believes he’ll have the advantage in nearly every department when the two men meet on Dec. 14.

“[Lentz] was doing it at the press conference. I don’t know if he’s completely crazy or he’s just trying to pump himself up. Some of the stuff he’s saying, I’m just like, ‘Dude…you can’t really believe that.’ But it is what it is. You have to give the guy some credit for being confident in himself I guess.

“I think I’m a bad matchup for him. I’m a way better athlete than he is. I’m strong and I’m going to be much quicker than he is. I have better wrestling as well.

“The way he beats guys is to take them down and grind them out. He is slow and doesn’t really have much in his stand-up. He looks strong, but I’m strong too and my speed and wrestling are going to be able to nullify that.

“He’s probably the most confident guy I’ve fought—at least in the sense of letting everyone else know it. I’m excited to get in there and get that fifth knockout.

“I basically take it one fight at a time. But there are a few top guys in our division. Myself, Frankie Edgar, Cub Swanson and Ricardo Lamas are at the top and I feel like it’s our pool. Then we have guys like Lentz who are trying to break into that pool.

“This is a fight for him to get in there, so I understand why he has to be confident and try to pump himself up, because this is the biggest fight of his career. I look at this fight like it is just another great step towards the belt for me.

“He’s a tough guy. He’s a big guy and he is cutting down from 155. I’m expecting him to be strong, I just think I’m going to be too much for him.”

While the bout against Lentz will hold heavy implications on Mendes‘ title hopes, there is a huge amount of additional appeal with the card taking place in Sacramento. The city is the place he and his Team Alpha Male teammates call home—three of them will be competing alongside him on Saturday night.

In addition to his bout, friends Danny Castillo, Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez will all step into action at the event with big bouts in front of them.

While they all have plenty to gain and more to lose at UFC on Fox 9, Benavidez will be making his second attempt to claim the flyweight title. With the close-knit group at Team Alpha Male, their friend claiming championship gold is a victory for the entire squad and Mendes has just as much hope for his teammate as he does for himself. 

“It is awesome, man,” Mendes said. “I’ve actually fought on the same card as Joe and Faber before at a WEC event. It was awesome because we got a clean sweep and it was one of the coolest nights of my life.

“I have fought in Sacramento one other time back when the WEC did the only pay-per-view they ever did. Faber was also on that card and it was amazing fighting in front of the hometown crowd. The Sacramento crowd is unbelievable. They are rowdy and it’s fun having them behind us.

“Now that Joe is going to be fighting for a world title with us on that card, it’s just awesome. This is going to be so cool for Team Alpha Male. It’s a great way for us to end the year and bring that belt back to Sacramento. All my friends and family have been talking about it nonstop.

“It’s also cool hearing your name on local radio stations and hearing people talk about it in the gym. This is what we do all this hard work for and it’s about to pay off. I couldn’t be more excited.”

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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UFC on Fox 9: McDonald Expects to Beat Faber ‘Everywhere,’ Even His Hometown

Michael McDonald might drive himself to UFC on Fox 9.
From his home in Oakdale, Calif., it’ll take about 90 minutes—a straight shot north on I-5 to Sacramento, where on Saturday night McDonald will fight Urijah Faber in a bantamweight bout …

Michael McDonald might drive himself to UFC on Fox 9.

From his home in Oakdale, Calif., it’ll take about 90 minutes—a straight shot north on I-5 to Sacramento, where on Saturday night McDonald will fight Urijah Faber in a bantamweight bout steeped in title implications.

It’ll be a luxury to have access to his own vehicle, he admits, especially after the UFC shipped him off to Atlanta (2,400 miles), London (3,900 miles) and then Boston (3,080 miles) for his last three fights.

He drove to the event when he fought Alex Soto at UFC 139 in San Jose two years ago and it seemed to work. McDonald won by knockout in 56 seconds.

“Not to be on a plane was very nice,” he says.

Don’t let the light travel schedule fool you, though, this won’t be a home game for McDonald. Not when there are four fighters from Sacramento’s Team Alpha Male (including Faber) on the card this weekend.

Not when he’s fighting a borderline legend of MMA‘s lighter weight classes, a guy who actually bills himself as “The California Kid.”

“He’s probably going to have more fans,” McDonald says. “He has a bigger fanbase than me. It’s about an hour-and-a-half away from my home and it’s probably five minutes away from his.”

If he thought about it long enough, McDonald might come around to the idea that this is a pretty big deal for him—fighting Faber in the former champion’s hometown. At just 22 years old, though, he’s pretty much the epitome of the steady-eddy professional and until this bout is over, he’s not allowing himself to think about Faber as anything more than just another opponent.

Still, McDonald grew up in California and made the first 11 appearances of his pro career there from 2007-10. On some level, he knows there’s a little more at stake here than just possible pole position in the 135-pound division.

“If I had a dime for every time somebody asked me what I do for a job and I said, I’m a mixed martial artist, and they said ‘Oh, do you know Urijah Faber?’ I’d be freaking rich,” McDonald says. “So, that’d be pretty nice to say, ‘Oh yeah, I beat that guy.’ That’d be pretty cool.”

McDonald bears no more ill will toward his fellow Californian than is necessary during the week before two men fight at an event a stone’s throw from their homes, in front of a crowd likely stocked with friends and family.

He and Faber are “business friends,” he says, and then adds, “He’s a nice guy. I don’t have any animosity toward him at all.”

Not that this fight needed an extra storyline.

During the years immediately preceding McDonald’s arrival in the big show, Faber was regarded as the best, most popular fighter under 155 pounds. More recently, he’s scuffled, going just 8-5 since since his aura-shattering TKO defeat at the hands of Mike Brown in Nov. 2008.

Meanwhile, McDonald has sprinted to 16-2 overall, 5-1 in the Octagon.

Both guys have lost to current interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao but are still in the thick of the 135-pound title picture. If McDonald beats Faber and Barao should lose to returning champ Dominick Cruz during their unification bout in February, McDonald would be a shoo-in as the next challenger.

Faber? He likely stays in the mix no matter what. Because he’s Urijah Faber.

Despite the 34-year-old’s recent struggles, McDonald won’t say he’s lost a step. Instead, he compares Faber’s dominant run with the featherweight title to Anderson Silva’s time as middleweight champion and says a lot of the guys who fought Faber back then beat themselves before the cage door even opened.

“There’s an intimidation factor when you’re the champion or when you have a reign at the top,” McDonald says. “I think that was a factor when Urijah was the champion. People were a little bit intimidated by him, subconsciously. I think that’s the biggest difference between him now and then.”

By virtue of saying that, of course, McDonald implies that it won’t happen to him. He says he’s prepared for the strategies Faber will likely try to implement against him, but he hasn’t spent much time poring over video looking for the secret to how to beat him, either.

“In my mind I think I’m going to beat him everywhere, and I’m actually interested to see (if that’s true),” he says. “I think I’m going to beat him everywhere, so let’s see if I actually can. Let’s see how many of those things play out like I think they will …

“Other than one fight, everybody I’ve ever fought has been rocked or knocked out,” McDonald continues. “I don’t think this fight is any different. I think Urijah’s going to get hit and he’s going to be rocked. I think the question is just going to be about what happens after that.”

Faber has always been “on his radar,” says McDonald, who made his WEC debut the same night Faber announced himself in the bantamweight division by dispatching Takeya Mizugaki. Since then, they’ve fought on the same UFC card twice, so if a collision between them wasn’t exactly inevitable, McDonald always knew it was a good possibility.

Two top 135-pound contenders, both trying to get back to another title shot, their fight schedules more or less complementary—it was easy to do the math.

It’s also easy to bill this bout as something of an in-state rivalry match, though McDonald professes not to care about any of that.

He says he doesn’t care that he’s fighting Faber in his hometown or that—despite the fact he’ll only be an hour or so from his own front door—it’ll likely go down in hostile territory.

He says he’s content beat that same old fighter’s drum: It’s just another fight. Just another opponent.

Maybe the gravity of the situation won’t dawn on McDonald until the next time some fan asks him if he knows Urijah Faber.

Maybe then he’ll have a story to tell.

Chad Dundas is a lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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UFC on Fox 9: Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald Head-to-Toe Breakdown

UFC on Fox 9 is brimming over with must-see matchups, but Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald might just be the pick of the bunch. Certainly, the heartbreaking cancellation of Carlos Condit vs. Matt Brown doesn’t hurt its claim.
Despite the Norther…

UFC on Fox 9 is brimming over with must-see matchups, but Urijah Faber vs. Michael McDonald might just be the pick of the bunch. Certainly, the heartbreaking cancellation of Carlos Condit vs. Matt Brown doesn’t hurt its claim.

Despite the Northern California pair playing down the geographical rivalry, there is bound to be a healthy amount of pride at stake, particularly with the event taking place at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif.

More intriguing still, the 12-year age difference between the two should provide plenty of fodder for the youth vs. experience debate.

Without further delay, let’s take a closer look at how UFC on Fox‘s co-main event breaks down.

Begin Slideshow

UFC on Fox 9: Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez Head-to-Toe Breakdown

Only two successful title defenses into his championship reign, UFC flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson is already looking at a rematch with Joseph Benavidez, whom he defeated to become the first 125-pound king.
Since beating Benavidez in a close …

Only two successful title defenses into his championship reign, UFC flyweight titleholder Demetrious Johnson is already looking at a rematch with Joseph Benavidez, whom he defeated to become the first 125-pound king.

Since beating Benavidez in a close decision in September 2012, Johnson has held onto his strap by beating John Dodson and John Moraga. Currently sitting at No. 7 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings, Johnson will try to close in on the Top Five by beating Benavidez again at UFC on Fox 9 on Saturday.

If he’d campaigned hard enough, Benavidez might have convinced the UFC to give him this rematch much earlier. However, he wanted to be sure he’d made the improvements necessary to beat Johnson before a second meeting with the champion.

With wins over Ian McCall, Darren Uyenoyama and Jussier Formiga since his loss to Johnson, Benavidez has more than earned another shot at a UFC championship.

As Johnson and Benavidez get set to meet again, here is a closer look at how the elite flyweights match up in all areas.

Begin Slideshow

UFC on FOX 9 is Officially Cursed: Injured Matt Brown Out of Fight With Carlos Condit

(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)

We don’t want to freak you out, but curses are real. Our last five posts about UFC on FOX 9 have all been injury related. Our sixth post about the event is worst of all: Matt Brown is out of his fight with Carlos Condit due to a back injury.

The best fight left on the card after a series of injuries ravaged it is gone now. If you’re not keeping score, here’s a rundown of how injury-plagued this fight card has been:


(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)

We don’t want to freak you out, but curses are real. Our last five posts about UFC on FOX 9 have all been injury related. Our sixth post about the event is worst of all: Matt Brown is out of his fight with Carlos Condit due to a back injury.

The best fight left on the card after a series of injuries ravaged it is gone now. If you’re not keeping score, here’s a rundown of how injury-plagued this fight card has been:

Ian McCall was taken off the card in late October due to injury. In mid-November, the card lost its biggest star in lightweight champ Anthony Pettis. Then the card lost both Kelvin Gastelum *and* Jamie Varner. Former flyweight contender John Moraga fell to the curse next, and John Dodson after him. Now, it’s Matt Brown.

That’s seven fighters the card lost!

Maybe GSP’s alien friends are punishing the UFC for Dana White’s treatment of the champ? Perhaps the UFC has lost the favor of the MMA gods by forcing fans to pay for unfit for television, jobber-level matches? Or maybe the UFC is just exceptionally unlucky?

Either way, UFC on FOX 9 is a shadow of its former self. There are still some decent to above-average fights on it, but it’s no longer a must-see, free-card-of-the-year. Bummer.

Matt Brown Withdraws from UFC on FOX 9 Bout Due to Back Injury

UPDATE: December 7, 12:53 p.m. PT
Brown tweeted the specific nature of the injury: he has three herniated discs in his lower back.
Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reported that Condit has, in fact, been pulled from the fight. The UFC is looking to move h…

UPDATE: December 7, 12:53 p.m. PT

Brown tweeted the specific nature of the injury: he has three herniated discs in his lower back.

Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reported that Condit has, in fact, been pulled from the fight. The UFC is looking to move him to UFC 170, but no opponent has been named.

— End of update —

Next week’s UFC on Fox 9 event just lost one of its most interesting fights.

Matt Brown, currently riding a six-fight winning streak and nearing a top contendership position in the welterweight division, has withdrawn from his much-anticipated main card bout against former interim champion Carlos Condit.

Sources close to the fight confirmed the news with Bleacher Report on Saturday morning. The possibility of Brown’s withdrawal was first reported by Twitter user Front Row Brian on Friday, but our sources told us that Brown’s decision to withdraw from the fight was not actually made until Saturday morning.

The injury itself was not disclosed.

Brown’s last three wins came over Mike Pyle, Jordan Mein and Mike Swick. He is currently ranked No. 9 in the UFC’s official rankings and has been one of the more remarkable comeback stories of the last few years. He’d lost four of five fights as 2011 came to a close, but a win over Chris Cope at UFC 143 started Brown on the best stretch of his career.

We were not able to determine if a late-notice replacement opponent for Condit will be tabbed, but it’s likely that Condit will be removed from the card and have a fight scheduled for a later date. Whether or not that’s against Brown—once he returns from healing the unspecified injury, of course—remains to be seen.

After suffering consecutive losses to Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks, Condit returned to his winning ways in August with a win over Martin Kampmann. 

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