Tag: UFC on Versus 5

UFC on Versus 5 Weigh-in Results: Dan Hardy Needs Three Tries to Make Limit

Filed under: UFC, NewsMILWAUKEE – Dan Hardy got perhaps the loudest ovation at Saturday’s UFC weigh-ins – even though he wore Chicago Bears orange in green-and-gold Packers country. (OK, maybe it was meant to be Harley-Davidson orange.)

But Hardy, spo…

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MILWAUKEE – Dan Hardy got perhaps the loudest ovation at Saturday’s UFC weigh-ins – even though he wore Chicago Bears orange in green-and-gold Packers country. (OK, maybe it was meant to be Harley-Davidson orange.)

But Hardy, sporting bright orange for his signature mohawk, missed weight for his welterweight bout against Midwesterner Chris Lytle, weighing in at 171.5 pounds even after dropping four pairs of trunks that he wore for show. Lytle weighed in at 170.5 for the main event of Sunday’s UFC on Versus 5 card.

After the official weigh-in event concluded, Hardy was able to make not just 171 pounds, but 170, the UFC confirmed. Hardy took to his Twitter feed, saying, “Not sure what happend there, I was on weight when I left the hotel!”

All 22 of the other fighters on the card successfully hit their marks at the weigh-ins, which took place outside the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

Hardy is looking to snap a three-fight losing streak that started with a welterweight title fight loss to Georges St-Pierre last year. Lytle is coming off his first loss in five fights, a decision setback to Brian Ebersole in February. Both men have said they want to put a Fight of the Night-type performance on, promising to stand in the pocket and trade.

Jim Miller and Ben Henderson fight in the co-main event, an important bout that might determine the next top contender in the lightweight division. Miller comes in on a seven-fight winning streak, tops in the UFC outside champions St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. A win is likely to assure him a shot at the Frankie Edgar–Gray Maynard rematch winner in October. Henderson, the former lightweight champ in the WEC, won his UFC debut in April against Mark Bocek. And while an upset of Miller wouldn’t likely get him a title shot, it would throw a wrench into the division. Though for the second straight fight, Henderson had to strip down to make his mark, he eventually weighed in at 156. Miller came in at 155.5.

Also on the main card, Donald Cerrone and Charles Oliveira had one of the afternoon’s more intense staredowns after leaving the scale, though they did shake hands. Cerrone said Friday he finds his opponent to be cocky thanks to a smirk he gave him earlier in the week. Cerrone has won four straight in the lightweight division – two to close out his WEC career and his first two as part of the UFC. The former WEC star won five Fight of the Night bonuses with that promotion, and a third straight UFC win would likely elevate his name into future title talk. Cerrone was 156; Oliveira weighed 155.

The complete weigh-in results are below:

Main Card
Dan Hardy (170*) vs. Chris Lytle (170.5)
Jim Miller (155.5) vs. Ben Henderson (156)
Charles Oliveira (155) vs. Donald Cerrone (156)
Amir Sadollah (170) vs. Duane Ludwig (170.5)
Preliminary Card
C.B. Dollaway (186) vs. Jared Hamman (185)
Joseph Benavidez (135.5) vs. Eddie Wineland (136)
Ed Herman (186) vs. Kyle Noke (185)
Karlos Vemola (205.5) vs. Ronny Markes (205)
Alex Caceres (146) vs. Jim Hettes (145.5)
Cole Miller (155.5) vs. T.J. O’Brien (155.5)
Jacob Volkmann (156) vs. Danny Castillo (156)
Edwin Figueroa (136) vs. Jason Reinhardt (135)

* Hardy missed weight on his first try. After removing his trunks, he was still 171.5. On his third try, after the official weigh-in event, he made 170.

 

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Clay Guida in No Rush for UFC Title Shot, Says Jim Miller Is Top Contender

Filed under: UFC, NewsMILWAUKEE – The logjam in the UFC lightweight division thanks to the Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard draw has been far-reaching.

Clay Guida knows plenty about it. He’s been on one of the division’s best tears, with four straight wins…

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MILWAUKEE – The logjam in the UFC lightweight division thanks to the Frankie Edgar–Gray Maynard draw has been far-reaching.

Clay Guida knows plenty about it. He’s been on one of the division’s best tears, with four straight wins. But if he wants a title shot, he’s got to wait until the dust finally settles.

After dismantling Anthony Pettis in June, Guida positioned himself for a possible title shot. But he believes Jim Miller is ahead of him in line, and he has no problem waiting for his moment to come.

“Jim Miller is the frontrunner, and maybe Ben Henderson – we’ll see what happens tomorrow night,” Guida said Saturday during a fan Q&A in Milwaukee. “I’m not in a rush. I’ll be (in the UFC) five years in October. When the time comes, we’ll be ready and it’ll be the most exciting lightweight title fight you’ve ever seen.”

Miller and Henderson fight in the co-main event of UFC on Versus 5 in Milwaukee on Sunday. Miller’s seven-fight lightweight winning streak has him likely next in line for the Edgar-Maynard winner, but a Henderson upset could throw a wrench in the works – and could open the door for Guida.

Guida said he does not yet have his next fight booked – perhaps a strategic move on the UFC’s part, waiting to see what happens between Miller and Henderson.

But Guida has no qualms with saying Miller is ahead of him in line – even though Miller hasn’t been named the official next title challenger yet.

“Jim Miller’s just been a wrecking ball,” Guida said. “He ran through Kamal Shalorus, which I thought would be his toughest test. It’s an interesting matchup. I’ve won four in a row, but right now Jim Miller is the frontrunner for next contender. But don’t sell Ben Henderson short. He’s a gamer.”

 

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With 3-Fight UFC Skid, Dan Hardy Talks Punking and Location, Location, Location

Filed under: UFC, NewsMILWAUKEE – Like his U.K. brethren The Who, Dan Hardy says he won’t get fooled again.

Hardy’s three-fight losing skid going into his main event against Chris Lytle at UFC on Versus 5 is why he’s in desperate need of a win. But t…

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MILWAUKEE – Like his U.K. brethren The Who, Dan Hardy says he won’t get fooled again.

Hardy’s three-fight losing skid going into his main event against Chris Lytle at UFC on Versus 5 is why he’s in desperate need of a win. But the former welterweight title challenger knows two things for sure going into Sunday.

He won’t get “punked” again – not the way Anthony Johnson did him in March. And regardless of his 0-4 record in the United States, he doesn’t take location into account too much for his fights – he knows a good fight will win him fans no matter where it’s at.

“I don’t think the location makes a difference,” Hardy told MMA Fighting on Friday after a workout at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. “I’m constantly winning in the gym when I’m over here, and I met my girlfriend over here – and that’s pretty successful so far. So I’m not going to hold it against the country. I think you pick up fans regardless of where you are. It’s the style of the fight that’s going to win the fans, regardless of where you are.”

Hardy said his four losses on U.S. soil are more a matter of fluke and odd circumstance than anything gone awry on his part.

Against Pat Healy, who would go on to fight in the UFC, WEC, IFL, and was a winner on Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers card to improve to 3-1 in that promotion, Hardy was in just his fourth pro fight.

“I took it on a day’s notice – stepped in for a guy at the American Top Team,” Hardy said. “I was out there training for a month, and I had (won) two fights. I came in undersized, got caught in a guillotine and ran out of gas. I put that one to bed – it was about experience.”

Hardy then went back to his native England for his next 11 fights – and went 9-1 with a no contest sprinkled in. He returned to the States for a fight against Forrest Petz.

“I’ve never seen a video of it, but I beat the (crap) out of that guy,” Hardy said. “I went to the afterparty, and he went to the hospital with a broken nose and stitches. I was fighting in his home town on a show his manager had promoted, and the next thing, he’s got a contract with the UFC. So I kinda feel like I got stitched up a little there.”

Hardy’s two UFC losses came after he went 4-0 in the promotion. He got a shot at Georges St-Pierre‘s welterweight title in Newark last year, and suffered the same fate as many others since and before him – a dominant unanimous decision GSP victory. And against Johnson in March, he was simply outwrestled for three rounds – he was “punked,” as he says.

“I think every one of the fights has its own circumstance and I don’t tend to dwell on the location of it,” Hardy said.

Against Lytle on Sunday, Hardy doesn’t believe a second punking is in the offing. The loss to Johnson left him aggravated because he was under the impression Johnson wanted to stand and trade for a three-round slugfest. Instead, Hardy spent the majority of the fight on his back thanks to Johnson’s takedowns, and a fight everyone thought would be an old-fashioned slobberknocker turned into a reason for the crowd to let Johnson know what it thought of him.

But Hardy blames himself, in part, for not being better prepared for Johnson’s takedowns. And he also blames a little of the ol’ what-goes-around-comes-around.

“I was annoyed, but I was annoyed with myself,” Hardy said. “A few years ago when I was fighting on the Cage Warriors show, I did the same thing to somebody else. I guess it’s karma. If he had been saying it to the media, but not saying anything to me, I wouldn’t have bought into it. But it was the private messages between us, like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to steal the show. It’s going to be a great fight.’ But it was a smart game plan, and he outsmarted me, unfortunately. I only have myself to blame for that.”

Lytle has said he’s not out to “pull an Anthony Johnson” against Hardy, which ought to give the Brit some measure of relief. But with the three straight setbacks – GSP and Johnson, and a knockout loss to Carlos Condit in between – staring him in the face, a fourth could be deadly, and he knows it. Not many fighters stay in the big show with four straight losses.

“It’s concerning because I love my job and I love being a part of the UFC,” Hardy said. “But there’s not much I can do with it. I’m three losses down. I can’t take those back. I can only learn from them. I’m at the mindset where as long as I leave the Octagon on Sunday night knowing I gave it everything I’ve got, what more can I do? But for right now, I’m confident Sunday’s going to be a good day. I know that Chris is a very beatable guy for me.”

Hardy and Lytle fight in the main event of UFC on Versus 5 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The main card airs live on Versus at 9 p.m. Eastern and also features a co-main event lightweight fight between Jim Miller and former WEC champ Ben Henderson.

 

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Donald Cerrone Channels Old Jamie Varner Disdain Ahead of Charles Oliveira

Filed under: UFC, NewsMILWAUKEE – Donald Cerrone may not have been more riled up any time in his career than he was before his rematch with Jamie Varner last September.

“Cowboy” seethed through his post-workout interviews at WEC 51. He got right in V…

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MILWAUKEE – Donald Cerrone may not have been more riled up any time in his career than he was before his rematch with Jamie Varner last September.

“Cowboy” seethed through his post-workout interviews at WEC 51. He got right in Varner’s face at the weigh-ins. And he then tore right through his old nemesis in the fight.

Cerrone said then that fighting angry was something he had no problem doing. Against Charles Oliveira on Sunday at UFC on Versus 5, he doesn’t have nearly the same level of animosity. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try to seek it out to give him an advantage when the Octagon door closes.

“I can’t wait to get in the ring and see his cocky (butt) standing across from me,” Cerrone said Friday after a workout at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. “I saw him looking at me the the other day smirking, and that, to me, is cocky. I’ll smirk in the ring, you smirk back. I fight better angry.”

Cerrone (15-3, 1 NC, 2-0 UFC) has put together a respectable four-fight winning streak, all in dominant fashion. He closed out his WEC career with a win over Varner and a submission of Chris Horodecki at the promotion’s swan song show in December. He opened his UFC career, post-merger, with a submission of Paul Kelly in February and a kickboxing clinic decision over Vagner Rocha in June – that Cerrone said he wasn’t fond of his performance in that fight.

A self-described “slow starter,” Cerrone said he looks back on the rage he experienced before his rematch with Varner last year and is trying to channel it for Oliveira (14-1, 1 NC, 2-1 UFC, 1 NC).

“I try to get my mind in the same mindset as I had for Varner because when I fought Varner … there was nothing he could have done, in my mind, to beat me. I was invincible,” Cerrone said. “Getting myself back in that mindset where no one can touch me, that’s what I’m looking to get back to. What did I do, mentally, to get in that mindset? … This guy has nothing for me. What am I gonna do? That’s the mindset I’m in for this fight. There’s blood in my eyes, and I’m ready.”

With fellow lightweights Jim Miller and Ben Henderson fighting one spot up the card, and Miller’s seven-fight winning streak putting him in line for a possible title shot, Cerrone said getting a title shot isn’t something that is realistically on his mind. (Though he did joke that a Miller loss to Henderson would mess up the UFC’s possible plan, and he’d gladly take a crack at the title in that instance.)

Instead, Cerrone, who had five Fight of the Night bonuses in his 10 career WEC fights, and already has one in his two bouts in the UFC, is happen to put on crowd-pleasing performances every time he steps in the cage.

“Just go in there and fight, man,” Cerrone said. “Go in there and fight your (butt) off, like you’ve got nothing to lose. That’s what people want to see. They want to see you sit in that pocket and throw down and just take punches and give ’em right back. That’s fun. That’s when it’s a good time. Sh-ttin’ and gettin’ and goin’ hard. I hope this weekend, we can do that.”

Cerrone and Oliveira fight on the main card of UFC on Versus 5 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. The main card airs live on the Versus cable channel at 9 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.

 

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After Ben Henderson, Jim Miller Hopes Eight Is Enough for UFC Title Shot

Filed under: UFC, NewsMILWAUKEE – Jim Miller can join the club when it comes to being frustrated with the UFC’s lightweight title situation.

Only three fighters have been in the race for the last 18 months – BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. P…

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MILWAUKEE – Jim Miller can join the club when it comes to being frustrated with the UFC‘s lightweight title situation.

Only three fighters have been in the race for the last 18 months – BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. Penn lost to Edgar, then got a rematch, which Edgar won. And Edgar and Maynard’s January draw forced a rematch for this October, when both will have recovered from training injuries.

Meanwhile, Miller sits in a pack with the likes of Clay Guida and, before him, Anthony Pettis, wondering when’s gonna be his time. With a seven-fight winning streak going into his co-main event fight against Ben Henderson on Sunday at UFC on Versus 5, Miller is ready for eight to be enough to get him the winner of Edgar-Maynard. And if not? He’ll keep doing what he’s doing.

“I can’t look past any of my opponents,” Miller said Friday after a workout in Milwaukee. “I feel that I’m ready to be recognized as the best lightweight in the world. I kind of have my opportunity to prove it. Anybody they put in there against me, I’m going to be able to beat. Hopefully this is the one, but we’ll see. We’ll see the way it goes and see what happens down the road.”

Miller (20-2, 9-1 UFC) hasn’t lost since a unanimous decision setback to Maynard at UFC 96 in March 2009. His only other pro defeat? It’s rather perfect that it came at the hands of Edgar, losing the New Jersey-based Realty Fighting lightweight belt.

His seven-fight tear through the UFC since his loss to Maynard includes four stoppages, including a TKO against Kamal Shalorus in March and a Submission of the Night win over submission specialist Charles Oliveira last December.

And even though seven straight wins in the lightweight division would normally be enough to get a crack at some gold – the only longer current streaks in the UFC belong to champs Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva – the alternative of sitting on the sideline hoping he gets a shot later hasn’t really appealed to him, either.

“I’m here to fight the best, and I know I can beat anybody in the world,” Miller said. “Basically, I’m just getting opportunities to show it. The way the title picture has worked out these last couple fights, with BJ and Frankie, and now all the stuff going on with Frankie and Gray, you can’t expect anything. You just have to wait it out and let those guys settle it. In the meantime, I’ve been happy taking these fights and fighting tough guys and working my butt off so I can beat them.”

Against Henderson, Miller gets an opponent who perhaps has a little something extra to prove on Sunday. Henderson (13-2, 1-0 UFC) was lightweight champ in the WEC, and Miller was critical of the WEC’s lightweights when they merged into the UFC at the start of this year – believing they were a second tier of competition to their big brothers in the bigger show.

And though he may not be ready to take back completely what he said, he does admit Henderson proved himself worthy of UFC lightweight status with his win over Mark Bocek at UFC 129 in April.

Miller also has a win over Bocek at UFC 111. But the New Jersey-based fighter said if Henderson is only using their mutual fights with Bocek for comparison, he’s in trouble.

“He definitely fought Mark a lot more conservative than I did,” Miller said. “I know that if I had tried to stall it out on the mat, I could’ve done it. But I wanted to sub him out. I put him in danger a couple times. But time has passed. I think if Ben thinks he is fighting the same Jim Miller that fought Mark (in March 2010), he’s going to be in for a rude awakening on Sunday night.”

Miller and Henderson fight Sunday in the co-main event of UFC on Versus 5 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wis., the UFC’s debut in the state. The main card airs live on the Versus cable channel at 9 p.m. Eastern.

 

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Vintage KO of the Day: Duane Ludwig vs. Jens Pulver

(Props: king981)

Since Sunday night’s UFC on Versus 5 broadcast will be led off by Duane Ludwig‘s welterweight battle with Amir Sadollah — we’ll be liveblogging the action starting at 9 p.m. ET, by the way — we figured we’d look back at one of Bang’s classic knockouts that you might not have seen before. On January 25th, 2003, Ludwig (8-2) faced off with former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver (14-2-1) in Montreal for UCC’s vacant lightweight title. After vacating his UFC title the previous year, Pulver had won his first two fights outside of the organization and was looking to pick up another scalp and another belt. It didn’t quite work out like that.

About 12 seconds into the fight, Ludwig leveled Pulver with a massive right hand. Pulver managed to struggle to his feet, and Yves Lavigne broke the fighters after a brief clinch. From there it’s all Duane — a body shot, head kick, and a right-straight finisher that dropped Pulver and actually had him rolling out of the ring to avoid more damage. As the commentator puts it, “Jens Pulver might be ‘Little Evil’, but Duane Ludwig is a shepherd for the devil.” The dramatic victory earned Ludwig a shot in the UFC, where he out-pointed Genki Sudo in his debut at UFC 42.


(Props: king981)

Since Sunday night’s UFC on Versus 5 broadcast will be led off by Duane Ludwig‘s welterweight battle with Amir Sadollah — we’ll be liveblogging the action starting at 9 p.m. ET, by the way — we figured we’d look back at one of Bang’s classic knockouts that you might not have seen before. On January 25th, 2003, Ludwig (8-2) faced off with former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver (14-2-1) in Montreal for UCC’s vacant lightweight title. After vacating his UFC title the previous year, Pulver had won his first two fights outside of the organization and was looking to pick up another scalp and another belt. It didn’t quite work out like that.

About 12 seconds into the fight, Ludwig leveled Pulver with a massive right hand. Pulver managed to struggle to his feet, and Yves Lavigne broke the fighters after a brief clinch. From there it’s all Duane — a body shot, head kick, and a right-straight finisher that dropped Pulver and actually had him rolling out of the ring to avoid more damage. As the commentator puts it, ”Jens Pulver might be ‘Little Evil’, but Duane Ludwig is a shepherd for the devil.” The dramatic victory earned Ludwig a shot in the UFC, where he out-pointed Genki Sudo in his debut at UFC 42.