UFC light heavyweight James Te Huna showed a huge amount of courage Saturday in coming back from the brink of defeat to beat Ryan Jimmo by unanimous decision at UFC on Fuel 7 at Wembley Arena, London.However, it is not his comeback victory that is bein…
UFC light heavyweight James Te Huna showed a huge amount of courage Saturday in coming back from the brink of defeat to beat Ryan Jimmo by unanimous decision at UFC on Fuel 7 at Wembley Arena, London.
However, it is not his comeback victory that is being talked about, but his entrance. As the 205-pound man from New Zealand made his way to the octagon, fans were surprised to see that a man who was about to do battle in the cage was dressed in a full black suit.
The music was instantly recognisable as the theme tune from the movie Men in Black, and was accompanied by Te Huna and his coaches doing the famous Men in Black dance. UFC President Dana White is not keen on flashy entrances, so the decision was a brave one from Te Huna. However, the 10,349 fans in attendance enjoyed the extra effort.
Te Huna‘s entrance will now take its place among the most memorable in MMA history. Here are some of the others.
Renan Barao successfully defended his interim bantamweight title at UFC on Fuel TV 7, submitting Michael McDonald in the championship rounds.Now, Barao may finally get to meet fellow UFC bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz, who has been recovering f…
RenanBarao successfully defended his interim bantamweight title at UFC on Fuel TV 7, submitting Michael McDonald in the championship rounds.
Now, Barao may finally get to meet fellow UFC bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz, who has been recovering from a knee injury for more than one year.
While Barao‘s future may be decided, the rest of the UFC on Fuel TV 7 competitors are left to ponder what could be next. Let’s take a look at who those fighters could be competing against in their next outings.
We’re less than one month away from UFC 158, where welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre will take on Nick Diaz in a fight we’ve been waiting almost eighteen months to see. At this point, it’s too late for a petty disagreement to cancel this fight. Nothing short of an act of God is going to stop this fight from finally happening, which is obviously great news when Nick Diaz is involved, because once again, Diaz has apparently been no-showing his media obligations.
At least that’s what Dana White had to say during the post-event press conference for yesterday’s UFC on FUEL TV 7. According to him, everyone’s favorite welterweight from the 209 hasn’t been showing up for Countdown tapings. This also explains why Nick Diaz vs. GSP didn’t get its own UFC Primetime episodes even though the much less interesting bout between Rousey vs. Carmouche did; Primetime requires much more effort from the fighters being profiled to film. As Dana White said yesterday (transcribed by MMAWeekly):
“Nick Diaz would be an interesting Countdown show, too,” White shot back sarcastically, “if we could get him to show up for those.
We’re less than one month away from UFC 158, where welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre will take on Nick Diaz in a fight we’ve been waiting almost eighteen months to see. At this point, it’s too late for a petty disagreement to cancel this fight. Nothing short of an act of God is going to stop this fight from finally happening, which is obviously great news when Nick Diaz is involved, because once again, Diaz has apparently been no-showing his media obligations.
At least that’s what Dana White had to say during the post-event press conference for yesterday’s UFC on FUEL TV 7. According to him, everyone’s favorite welterweight from the 209 hasn’t been showing up for Countdown tapings. This also explains why Nick Diaz vs. GSP didn’t get its own UFC Primetime episodes even though the much less interesting bout between Rousey vs. Carmouche did; Primetime requires much more effort from the fighters being profiled to film. As Dana White said yesterday (transcribed by MMAWeekly):
“Nick Diaz would be an interesting Countdown show, too,” White shot back sarcastically, “if we could get him to show up for those.
“Imagine how good his Countdown show would be. You think his video blog would be great? How about if he had a professionally shot, by professionals, the best in the business, the best at cutting and producing features on athletes. Imagine how (expletive) good that would be.”
“First we gotta get him to show up for the (expletive) interviews and then we can do it. How many has he missed, four? Three. He’s missed three,” White revealed.
“So we’ve got a crew rolling around Stockton not doing a (expletive) thing. It costs us a lot of money and we can’t properly sell the fight or Nick Diaz.”
Except for one thing: According to the Nick Diaz camp, Nick hasn’t been blowing off the camera crews. Rather, Nick Diaz simply isn’t being told about the media obligations he apparently has. As Jonathan Tweedale – a lawyer with the Nick Diaz camp – told MMAWeekly.com:
“Dana is mistaken. There is no ‘crew rolling around Stockton’ and Nick did not ‘miss’ three interviews. In fact, several earlier dates were arranged without Nick’s knowledge and with no notice to Nick. When Nick learned what had happened, I assisted him in arranging a date and time directly (Thursday, Feb. 14). Nick arrived early and was in good spirits at that Feb. 14 date – the one and only date he knew about in advance. Nick requires things to be done in an organized and orderly manner. That is the kind of professional he is.”
Did someone just call Nick Diaz a “professional” in a non-sarcastic manner? There’s a first time for everything.
It isn’t up to me to determine who is telling the truth in this game of he said/he said. I will just say that when Nick Diaz is in full-blown Macho Man-esque ranting mode, he cuts the best interviews on the planet, and that part of me hopes that Nick Diaz defeats GSP simply for the headaches that UFC Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz will cause.
Who do you think is telling the truth here? Is Nick Diaz no showing his media obligations, because that’s what Nick Diaz does? Or is Dana White saving face for not promoting UFC 158 as much as fans would like? Let us know in the comments section. Keep it civil, guys.
UFC featherweight Cub Swanson added his name to the 145-pound division’s ever-growing list of rising contenders with his unanimous decision victory over Dustin Poirier at Saturday night’s UFC on Fuel 7.The exciting battle between Swanson and Poirier wa…
UFC featherweight Cub Swanson added his name to the 145-pound division’s ever-growing list of rising contenders with his unanimous decision victory over Dustin Poirier at Saturday night’s UFC on Fuel 7.
The exciting battle between Swanson and Poirier was a perfect showcase of how talented these featherweights are. And with the recent influx of former top lightweights such as Frankie Edgar, Clay Guida and Dennis Siver, the division is as stacked as ever.
Hit the jump and check out the top 10 featherweights in the UFC.
Note: While Anthony Pettis is set to take on champ Jose Aldo on Aug. 3, he is not included in the rankings because he has not had a fight in the division yet.
When Renan Barao defended his interim bantamweight title Saturday night at UFC on Fuel TV 7 in London’s Wembley Arena against up-and-coming star Michael McDonald, the Brazilian brawler proved he was one of the sport’s pound-for-pound toughe…
When RenanBarao defended his interim bantamweight title Saturday night at UFC on Fuel TV 7 in London’s Wembley Arena against up-and-coming star Michael McDonald, the Brazilian brawler proved he was one of the sport’s pound-for-pound toughest fighters.
Barao also proved he is ready to take the next step toward the upper echelon of MMA fighters by letting current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz know that he was ready for a fight whenever he gets back.
This is clearly the interim champion calling out Cruz—the reigning champ has missed over a year of action with two separate knee surgeries to replace a torn ACL (h/t MMAJunkie)—and this is a major step for Barao.
There’s no coming back from calling out a star like Cruz.
There is no doubt that the duo will face off when Cruz is healthy enough to unify the titles, but the reigning champion had some words of his own for the interim title holder on the Fuel post-fight show (h/t FOXSports).
Enjoy the back-to-back titles. The truth is that I’m the champ and I can’t wait to get in and fight the guy. I’m excited, man. He’s so good. He brings so many different tools. It’s a different challenge than I’ve ever faced. I’m coming back from these injuries and it makes it an even tougher task.
Cruz is a humble fighter who has never shied away from giving credit to his opponents, but Barao should not take these most recent comments as any sort of fear.
The defending bantamweight champion is one of the most dangerous men in the UFC, and as long as he is at 100 percent in the Octagon, he will be hard to beat.
If there is a shred of weakness in Cruz’s knee when he fights next, though, Barao is the kind of fighter that will make him pay by attacking the limb relentlessly.
The MMA world can’t wait to see Cruz square off against Barao.
Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao withstood some dangerous moments and an overall stiff challenge from Michael McDonald in the main event of the UFC on FUEL 7 card in England yesterday to retain his belt with a fourth round arm-triangle submission win. After three rounds of close action, that saw McDonald land some hard shots to the dome of the champion, Barao was able to drag the challenger to the mat, take his back and then quickly transition to a cross-side knee-on-belly position with a locked arm-triangle and force the tap.
Throughout the fight, Barao looked confident on his feet but clearly wanted to take McDonald to the ground where he’d be safe from the American’s nasty counter-punches and where he assumed he’d have a clearer advantage. McDonald survived being taken down early in the first round and stuffed many more takedown attempts up until the end.
Ultimately, the champion’s conditioning enabled him to continue to doggedly pursue McDonald and keep him on the mat. Barao earned an $50,000 with his Submission of The Night and urged injured regular bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz to come back as soon as possible, in his post-fight remarks. The win represented Barao’s 20th-straight victory, in a stunning streak that dates back to April 2008.
Interim Bantamweight Champion Renan Barao withstood some dangerous moments and an overall stiff challenge from Michael McDonald in the main event of the UFC on FUEL 7 card in England yesterday to retain his belt with a fourth round arm-triangle submission win. After three rounds of close action, that saw McDonald land some hard shots to the dome of the champion, Barao was able to drag the challenger to the mat, take his back and then quickly transition to a cross-side knee-on-belly position with a locked arm-triangle and force the tap.
Throughout the fight, Barao looked confident on his feet but clearly wanted to take McDonald to the ground where he’d be safe from the American’s nasty counter-punches and where he assumed he’d have a clearer advantage. McDonald survived being taken down early in the first round and stuffed many more takedown attempts up until the end.
Ultimately, the champion’s conditioning enabled him to continue to doggedly pursue McDonald and keep him on the mat. Barao earned an $50,000 with his Submission of The Night and urged injured regular bantamweight champ Dominick Cruz to come back as soon as possible, in his post-fight remarks. The win represented Barao’s 20th-straight victory, in a stunning streak that dates back to April 2008.
Even if Cruz takes a while longer to heal and return, Barao should have his share of exciting fights ahead of him in the near future. For one, there’s McDonald again if the youngster can get another win or two notched. As Alex Giardini wrote in yesterday’s live blog of the event, it is easy to imagine this fight as the beginning of an compelling rivalry between Barao and McDonald.
Tom Watson and Stanislav Nedkov’s torrid back-and-forth middleweight battle earned both men Fight of The Night honors and $50,000 each extra in bonuses. In the first round, Nedkov looked to have Watson hurt from uppercuts and nearly finished but ‘Kong’ managed to survive into the second. It wasn’t long until Watson had turned the tide, damaged Nedkov and dropped him with a knee in the second. Some ground strikes later and the referee was forced to step in and stop the action.
Watson earned an additional $50,000 for Knock Out of The Night honors as well.
Jimi Manuwa earned a stoppage win over Cyrille Diabate after Diabate could not answer the horn to start the second round due to a leg injury. Welterweight grappling phenom Gunnar Nelson got a unanimous decision win over Jorge Santiago and Matt Riddle showed Britain who’s boss by beating Che Mills via split decision.
Cub Swanson continued his impressive rise back to title contention with a unanimous decision win over the tough and talented Dustin Poirier and James Te Huna got a unanimous decision nod from the judges over Ryan Jimmo.
UFC on Fuel 7 Prelim Results:
Renee Forte def. Terry Etim via unanimous decision
Danny Castillo def. Paul Sass via UD
Andy Ogle def. Josh Grispi via UD
Tom Watson def. Stanislav Nedkov via TKO, 4:42 of round 2
When 