Melvin Guillard once again showed why he is a top contender. His speed and hands are some of the best in the lightweight division.Shane Roller is a very solid wrestler, but made the mistake of staying on the feet and attempting to trade punche…
Melvin Guillard once again showed why he is a top contender. His speed and hands are some of the best in the lightweight division.
Shane Roller is a very solid wrestler, but made the mistake of staying on the feet and attempting to trade punches. Early on all was well, then Guillard starting landing hard shots which rocked Roller and led to the end for him.
Post fight, both men were respectful. The doctors were attending to Roller who appeared to be OK, while Guillard celebrated and spoke facts. He did not demand a title shot and his post-fight speech truly made him look well in the eyes of the big names of the UFC.
There are many fights that both men could take after this, but one thing is for sure, and that is it is time for Guillard to get a top guy so that we can truly see where he is at in the lightweight division.
Next for Roller? There are a few names that come to mind, but the best that does is the loser of Siver vs Wiman. Wiman would match up pretty well with both guys, and while Siver has superior stand-up, Roller’s wrestling could truly make the difference.
Next for Guillard? He is at the top of his game. A fun match up for him would be Anthony Pettis.Guillard would have the advantage considering his teammate is coming off of a victory over Pettis.
Pettis is healthy and that could be perfect for a meeting in Dallas, TX later this year.
Sotiropoulos vs Dos Anjos had all of the makings for a grappling war, but this fight is the one that you do not need to blink. If you did then odds are you miss the beautiful knockout Dos Anjos scored. This fight was expected to be the fight to put …
Sotiropoulos vs Dos Anjos had all of the makings for a grappling war, but this fight is the one that you do not need to blink. If you did then odds are you miss the beautiful knockout Dos Anjos scored. This fight was expected to be the fight to put Sotiropoulos back in the title hunt, but at the end of the day it boosted Dos Anjos’ stock and put Sotiropoulos in an interesting situation.
There are many fights that could now take place, and a good on for Dos Anjos would be the winner of the Denis Siver vs Matt Wiman fight, while Sotiropoulos could fight the likes of Anthony Njokuani or Anthony Pettis.
This was a solid upset and will really have the potential for interesting match ups. Both men have an excellent ground game, with Dos Anjos having the superior striking, which will benefit for future match ups.
After the fight, Sotiropoulos exited the cage pretty fast and headed to the back as you could see the obvious disappointment on his face, while Dos Anjos and his camp appeared extremely happy as they celebrated loudly on their way to the back. Great early start to the night, this should be sign for even more great fights to come, because this whole card up to now has been nothing less than impressive.
This fight is now the early front runner for knock out of the night, will anyone top this? Stay tuned to find out.
Around the world, the fight everyone is talking about right know is Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye, the heavyweight championship boxing match that took place in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday. That fight drew 55,000 ticket buyers and tens of millions of viewers around the world.
Most of the people who watched that fight didn’t see UFC 132. And we should all pity them.
If you ever wanted a clear illustration of what’s right with mixed martial arts and what’s wrong with boxing, you got it on Saturday: Boxing fans were told to expect the biggest heavyweight fight in almost a decade, and they were treated to a dull, plodding 12-round affair in which Klitschko did what he always does and Haye looked like he didn’t want to fight at all. Meanwhile, MMA fans were treated to UFC 132, an absolutely outstanding event capped by a world bantamweight title fight in which Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber gave fans everything they could ask for and more.
I’m a longtime boxing fan, and on Saturday morning I was just as excited about Klitschko-Haye as I was about Cruz-Faber. I thought both my boxing needs and my MMA needs would be fulfilled with big fights in both sports. But I was quickly reminded that boxing is too often a pretty dull sport: There are still some great fights and still some great fighters, but much of the time, you tune in for a big fight and you turn off your TV an hour later in disgust, mad that they sucked you in for a snoozefest.
MMA has its snoozefests, too, of course, but they’re nowhere near as frequent as the ones in boxing. Much more often, we get absolutely sensational displays like Cruz and Faber gave us in the main event of UFC 132. The difference in bang for the buck between Klitschko-Haye and Cruz-Faber isn’t even close. One fight left everyone who watched it disappointed. The other fight left everyone who watched it thrilled.
And, of course, it’s not just about the main event. UFC 132 was a great card from top to bottom, with 11 fights and not a bad one in the bunch. Boxing has become so focused on the main event above everything else that HBO, which owned the American broadcast rights, didn’t even show any of the undercard fights. Boxing is all about the main event, while the UFC is about putting on a good show that lasts five hours or so.
I’m actually not a big fan of “boxing vs. MMA” arguments because I’ve always liked both sports. But on days like Saturday, when I watch major events in both sports, it’s hard not to notice that MMA is doing a lot of things right, while boxing is doing a lot of things wrong.
The referee checks on Wanderlei Silva after his knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132 on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
UFC 132 Photos
Urijah Faber knees Dominick Cruz in their UFC bantamweight championship bout at UFC 132 on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Notes from UFC 132 — Cruz retained his bantamweight title, but other than him the biggest winner from UFC 132 may have been Carlos Condit, whose victory over Dong Hyun Kim was an emphatic statement that he deserves a welterweight title shot. Based on timing, I think Condit will probably need another win before he gets that shot — the next welterweight title fight, between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz, won’t take place until late October, and that would necessitate a long time for Condit to sit around waiting. But if Condit wins one more fight, I would absolutely rank him at the top of the list of fighters deserving of a title shot. He’s definitely the best welterweight who hasn’t gotten a crack at GSP yet.
— Wanderlei Silva is probably done, UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. If he’s done it’s sad to see him go, but it’s the right move. His knockout loss to Chris Leben was ugly.
— It was amazing that Andre Winner was able to make it out of the first round of his fight with Anthony Njokuani. With a minute remaining in the round Njokuani unleashed a brutal assault of punches, kicks and knees, and Winner looked like he was out on his feet. Njokuani ended up winning an easy decision, 30-26, 30-26 and 30-27, and Njokuani deserves a lot of credit for his first UFC win. But give Winner credit, too, for hanging tough after taking a beating that would have made a lot of people quit.
–Aaron Simpson showed once again that if you’re a good wrestler with good cardio, you can win a whole lot of decisions in MMA. Simpson doesn’t do anything that looks really spectacular, but he has a style that makes it easy for him to grind out opponents and win over 15 minutes, as he did against Brad Tavares. The crowd booed at the end of the fight because they wanted to see more action, but what Simpson does is effective.
— Brian Bowles said after the second round of his unanimous decision victory over Takeya Mizugaki that he had broken his hand. Rory Singer, Bowles’ cornerman, replied, “A f**king champion fights in the third round. I don’t give a s**t.” Singer’s lack of sympathy notwithstanding, it is a concern that Bowles’ hands seem to be susceptible to injury. Bowles was out for a full year after breaking his hand against Dominick Cruz in 2010.
Quotes from UFC 132 — “I felt great. I’ve been training hard, and I’m kind of feeling emotions right now because my whole life I’ve battled so much. And now I’m coming back to the top of my game, my life is in order, and it’s a great feeling to be feeling like this.” — Melvin Guillard. It’s great to hear that Guillard has his life on track, because there have never been any questions about his talent — just about whether he could put his drug problems behind him and focus on his sport. It appears that Guillard is now doing just that.
— “I’ve got to say, Urijah — man, that dude hits hard. He hits hard, his hands move fast.” — Dominick Cruz.
— “Congratulations to Dominick. He won. It wasn’t enough of an output on my side to make it a decision, and I didn’t finish him. I felt like it could have gone either way, I felt like I won the fight, but you can’t really judge when it comes to that, so congratulations to Dominick.” — Urijah Faber. It’s always nice that guys like Faber and Cruz, who fought for 25 minutes and who genuinely dislike each other outside the cage, are still classy after their fight.
Good call –During Donny Walker’s unanimous decision loss to Jeff Hougland, his corner repeatedly did something that every corner should do, but many corners don’t: Tell the fighter the truth about how he’s likely doing on the judges’ scorecards. Too often, cornermen tell their fighters that they’re winning even when they’re not. Walker’s corner was honest with him and told him after the second round and all through the third that he needed to finish the fight if he wanted to win it. It didn’t work, as Walker wasn’t able to finish Hougland, but he should thank his corner for leveling with him.
Bad call — I disagreed with all three judges in the Dennis Siver-Matt Wiman bout. They all scored it 29-28 for Siver, while I had it 29-28 for Wiman. Siver definitely won the first round and Wiman definitely won the second. The toughest round to call was the third, when in my opinion Wiman controlled the round with his grappling. The judges disagreed, and I think that was a bad call.
Stock up — Tito Ortiz won for the first time since he beat Ken Shamrock on October 10, 2006. How long ago was that? The UFC’s champions at that time were Tim Sylvia, Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, Matt Hughes. There were no UFC lightweight, featherweight or bantamweight champions at the time. Five of the UFC’s seven current champions had never fought in the UFC the last time Tito Ortiz won a fight. Ortiz isn’t going to be the light heavyweight champion again, but considering that many MMA fans thought he had no business in the Octagon with Ryan Bader, Ortiz’s stock is definitely up after his impressive victory.
Stock Down — George Sotiropoulos is now on a two-fight losing streak after his first-round knockout loss to Rafael dos Anjos. Sotiropoulos came into 2011 a contender in the lightweight division. He’s nowhere close to title contention now.
Fight I want to see next Cruz vs. Faber was so much fun that plenty of people will want to do it again, but the fight I really want to see next is Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson. I think Johnson has just the right style to give Cruz trouble, and that would be the best bantamweight bout the UFC could book.
Around the world, the fight everyone is talking about right know is Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye, the heavyweight championship boxing match that took place in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday. That fight drew 55,000 ticket buyers and tens of millions of viewers around the world.
Most of the people who watched that fight didn’t see UFC 132. And we should all pity them.
If you ever wanted a clear illustration of what’s right with mixed martial arts and what’s wrong with boxing, you got it on Saturday: Boxing fans were told to expect the biggest heavyweight fight in almost a decade, and they were treated to a dull, plodding 12-round affair in which Klitschko did what he always does and Haye looked like he didn’t want to fight at all. Meanwhile, MMA fans were treated to UFC 132, an absolutely outstanding event capped by a world bantamweight title fight in which Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber gave fans everything they could ask for and more.
I’m a longtime boxing fan, and on Saturday morning I was just as excited about Klitschko-Haye as I was about Cruz-Faber. I thought both my boxing needs and my MMA needs would be fulfilled with big fights in both sports. But I was quickly reminded that boxing is too often a pretty dull sport: There are still some great fights and still some great fighters, but much of the time, you tune in for a big fight and you turn off your TV an hour later in disgust, mad that they sucked you in for a snoozefest.
MMA has its snoozefests, too, of course, but they’re nowhere near as frequent as the ones in boxing. Much more often, we get absolutely sensational displays like Cruz and Faber gave us in the main event of UFC 132. The difference in bang for the buck between Klitschko-Haye and Cruz-Faber isn’t even close. One fight left everyone who watched it disappointed. The other fight left everyone who watched it thrilled.
And, of course, it’s not just about the main event. UFC 132 was a great card from top to bottom, with 11 fights and not a bad one in the bunch. Boxing has become so focused on the main event above everything else that HBO, which owned the American broadcast rights, didn’t even show any of the undercard fights. Boxing is all about the main event, while the UFC is about putting on a good show that lasts five hours or so.
I’m actually not a big fan of “boxing vs. MMA” arguments because I’ve always liked both sports. But on days like Saturday, when I watch major events in both sports, it’s hard not to notice that MMA is doing a lot of things right, while boxing is doing a lot of things wrong.
The referee checks on Wanderlei Silva after his knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132 on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
UFC 132 Photos
Urijah Faber knees Dominick Cruz in their UFC bantamweight championship bout at UFC 132 on Saturday, July 2, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Notes from UFC 132 — Cruz retained his bantamweight title, but other than him the biggest winner from UFC 132 may have been Carlos Condit, whose victory over Dong Hyun Kim was an emphatic statement that he deserves a welterweight title shot. Based on timing, I think Condit will probably need another win before he gets that shot — the next welterweight title fight, between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz, won’t take place until late October, and that would necessitate a long time for Condit to sit around waiting. But if Condit wins one more fight, I would absolutely rank him at the top of the list of fighters deserving of a title shot. He’s definitely the best welterweight who hasn’t gotten a crack at GSP yet.
— Wanderlei Silva is probably done, UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. If he’s done it’s sad to see him go, but it’s the right move. His knockout loss to Chris Leben was ugly.
— It was amazing that Andre Winner was able to make it out of the first round of his fight with Anthony Njokuani. With a minute remaining in the round Njokuani unleashed a brutal assault of punches, kicks and knees, and Winner looked like he was out on his feet. Njokuani ended up winning an easy decision, 30-26, 30-26 and 30-27, and Njokuani deserves a lot of credit for his first UFC win. But give Winner credit, too, for hanging tough after taking a beating that would have made a lot of people quit.
–Aaron Simpson showed once again that if you’re a good wrestler with good cardio, you can win a whole lot of decisions in MMA. Simpson doesn’t do anything that looks really spectacular, but he has a style that makes it easy for him to grind out opponents and win over 15 minutes, as he did against Brad Tavares. The crowd booed at the end of the fight because they wanted to see more action, but what Simpson does is effective.
— Brian Bowles said after the second round of his unanimous decision victory over Takeya Mizugaki that he had broken his hand. Rory Singer, Bowles’ cornerman, replied, “A f**king champion fights in the third round. I don’t give a s**t.” Singer’s lack of sympathy notwithstanding, it is a concern that Bowles’ hands seem to be susceptible to injury. Bowles was out for a full year after breaking his hand against Dominick Cruz in 2010.
Quotes from UFC 132 — “I felt great. I’ve been training hard, and I’m kind of feeling emotions right now because my whole life I’ve battled so much. And now I’m coming back to the top of my game, my life is in order, and it’s a great feeling to be feeling like this.” — Melvin Guillard. It’s great to hear that Guillard has his life on track, because there have never been any questions about his talent — just about whether he could put his drug problems behind him and focus on his sport. It appears that Guillard is now doing just that.
— “I’ve got to say, Urijah — man, that dude hits hard. He hits hard, his hands move fast.” — Dominick Cruz.
— “Congratulations to Dominick. He won. It wasn’t enough of an output on my side to make it a decision, and I didn’t finish him. I felt like it could have gone either way, I felt like I won the fight, but you can’t really judge when it comes to that, so congratulations to Dominick.” — Urijah Faber. It’s always nice that guys like Faber and Cruz, who fought for 25 minutes and who genuinely dislike each other outside the cage, are still classy after their fight.
Good call –During Donny Walker’s unanimous decision loss to Jeff Hougland, his corner repeatedly did something that every corner should do, but many corners don’t: Tell the fighter the truth about how he’s likely doing on the judges’ scorecards. Too often, cornermen tell their fighters that they’re winning even when they’re not. Walker’s corner was honest with him and told him after the second round and all through the third that he needed to finish the fight if he wanted to win it. It didn’t work, as Walker wasn’t able to finish Hougland, but he should thank his corner for leveling with him.
Bad call — I disagreed with all three judges in the Dennis Siver-Matt Wiman bout. They all scored it 29-28 for Siver, while I had it 29-28 for Wiman. Siver definitely won the first round and Wiman definitely won the second. The toughest round to call was the third, when in my opinion Wiman controlled the round with his grappling. The judges disagreed, and I think that was a bad call.
Stock up — Tito Ortiz won for the first time since he beat Ken Shamrock on October 10, 2006. How long ago was that? The UFC’s champions at that time were Tim Sylvia, Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, Matt Hughes. There were no UFC lightweight, featherweight or bantamweight champions at the time. Five of the UFC’s seven current champions had never fought in the UFC the last time Tito Ortiz won a fight. Ortiz isn’t going to be the light heavyweight champion again, but considering that many MMA fans thought he had no business in the Octagon with Ryan Bader, Ortiz’s stock is definitely up after his impressive victory.
Stock Down — George Sotiropoulos is now on a two-fight losing streak after his first-round knockout loss to Rafael dos Anjos. Sotiropoulos came into 2011 a contender in the lightweight division. He’s nowhere close to title contention now.
Fight I want to see next Cruz vs. Faber was so much fun that plenty of people will want to do it again, but the fight I really want to see next is Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson. I think Johnson has just the right style to give Cruz trouble, and that would be the best bantamweight bout the UFC could book.
One of the most anticipated bouts at UFC 132 saw Tito Ortiz pick up one of the biggest victories of his career, after he defeated light heavyweight prospect, Ryan Bader. Both men came out and began to feel each other out, trading leg kicks in the…
One of the most anticipated bouts at UFC 132 saw Tito Ortiz pick up one of the biggest victories of his career, after he defeated light heavyweight prospect, Ryan Bader.
Both men came out and began to feel each other out, trading leg kicks in the process. Ortiz and Bader continued to circle. Then Ortiz stepped inside and landed a right hook that knocked down Bader. Ortiz continued his assault on his opponent shortly after, and applied an arm-in guillotine choke to submit Bader within two minutes of the opening round.
What’s next for Tito Ortiz? –
The win for “The Huntington Beach Boy” ended a five-fight winless streak, which has allowed Ortiz some breathing room for the moment and remain in the UFC. Since 2006, Ortiz has remained competitive throughout his losing skid, fighting some of the top fighters in the world such as Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida. The win not only earned Ortiz a victory over a top fighter, but a chance to maintain some drawing power, as it could lead to a bout against respected veteran like Vladimir Matyushenko or the winner of Rich Franklin and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
What’s next for Ryan Bader? –
After suffering his second consecutive loss, Bader will likely remain out of action for the rest of the year. Bader’s time away will give him a chance to redefine his overall gameplan and evolve as a fighter. While a return to the Octagon before the end of the 2011 is a bit premature, Bader will need to re-solidify his status among the light heavyweight division if he intends to stay in contention. A bout against up and coming fighter, Alexander Gustafsson is possible, or a facing fellow wrestler Matt Hamill is also likely.
Dominick Cruz defeated Urijah Faber tonight in the first bantamweight championship fight in the UFC’s history, winning a tightly contested judges’ decision and evening the score between the two men at 1-1. The former WEC featherweigh…
Dominick Cruz defeated Urijah Faber tonight in the first bantamweight championship fight in the UFC’s history, winning a tightly contested judges’ decision and evening the score between the two men at 1-1.
The former WEC featherweight champion, Faber, fought hard but was unable to score enough points on the judges’ scorecards to be crowned the new champion. Still, he believed going into the decision that he had the fight won, he told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.
“I’m an optimist, I felt like, yeah, I did enough,” he explained. “Three times, I feel like, I put him down and that scores usually pretty big on the cards. I took some of his best punches and kind of walked through.”
“I felt like I definitely had a chance to get the victory,” he added.
Faber was outnumbered in total strikes throughout the fight, but did land more power punches, according to CompuStrike.
“I did a lot of standing right in front of him and just kind of taking what he had, which was kind of my gameplan,” Faber admitted. “I wanted to not react to his movement and get distracted, stay calm and block his kicks and his punches, then fire back with some heavier punches.
“But I guess when it goes to a decision, you need to rack up those points also, and I must not have done that.”
When asked about an immediate rematch, Faber stopped short at saying that he believed he deserved an immediate fight with Cruz, but did agree that the division seems to be somewhat in limbo after he lost to the champion.
“That’s not up to me. I’ll fight anybody. I’ve never turned a fight down. Any time they’ve wanted me to fight somebody, I’m game. I’m always game to take an opportunity to fight for the title.
“I really feel, in my heart, that there’s not a lot of people out there that can hold a match to me, let alone beat me. Dominick beat me tonight on the judges’ cards, but I feel like we were neck and neck in that fight.”
The former 145-pound kingpin is now 0-4 in his last four title fights with two losses to Mike Brown, one to Jose Aldo and his loss tonight to Dominick Cruz.
Around the world, the fight everyone is talking about right know is Wladimir Klitschko vs. David Haye, the heavyweight championship boxing match that took place in Hamburg, Germany, on Saturday. That fight drew 55,000 ticket buyers and tens of millions of viewers around the world.
