Ah, Sweet Irony: Akiyama Implies Bisping May Have Been Greased Up

(Akiyama vs. Sakuraba is a cautionary example of why it’s best to wait until *after* the fight to make an impassioned plea to the referee. If only Palhares had seen this. VidProps: YouTube/AkiyamaYoshihiro2)
Well, this is a switch: Not only is …


(Akiyama vs. Sakuraba is a cautionary example of why it’s best to wait until *after* the fight to make an impassioned plea to the referee. If only Palhares had seen this. VidProps: YouTube/AkiyamaYoshihiro2)

Well, this is a switch: Not only is a Greg Jackson-trained fighter accusing someone else of potentially greasing his body during a fight but it’s none other than Yoshihiro Akiyama, who you may remember was himself outed as one of the greasiest MFers in the game following a 2006 fight against Kazushi Sakuraba at K-1 Dynamite!! The video of that fiasco can be seen at top. Nevertheless, Akiyama told MMAFighting.com foreign correspondent Daniel Herbertson upon returning home this week that the reason he didn’t try harder to take Michael Bisping down at UFC 120 was that the Brit felt suspiciously slimy to the touch.

"I only went for one takedown but Bisping’s body was really slippery,” Akiyama said. Then, apparently even setting off the alarms on his own irony indicator, quipped: “Even if I do say so myself … "

Look, nobody wants to get into another GreaseGate debacle here, so unless Akiyama wants to pursue this further we’re willing to chalk it up as a harmless pot-calling-the-kettle-black-type situation and move on with our lives. Also, not that we think Bisping would necessarily be above bending the rules (See: Him possibly purposely injuring Matt Hamill during “TUF 3”), we’re kind of wary of accusing another Wolfslair fighter of cheating, lest he threaten our testiculars via angry Facebook post.

Gotta say though, if anybody knows what a greased-up fighter feels like, it’d be Akiyama.

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Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC 120

Filed under: UFCNow that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in Londo…

Filed under:

Now that we’ve all had a chance to vent about how and when we saw UFC 120, let’s all make like elected officials under investigation and put aside what we knew and when we knew it so that we might discuss what actually happened in London this weekend.

Maybe it wasn’t such a great night for most of the British fighters on the main card, but the event still got a great reaction from the always enthusiastic U.K. crowd, even if there weren’t quite as many soccer chants and sing-alongs as I’d like.

But enough with the preamble. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between from UFC 120.

UFC 120 Live Blog: Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama Updates

Filed under: UFCThis is the UFC 120 live blog for Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, the main event of tonight’s Spike TV event from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bisping (19-3) is coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 114 in May. Akiyama (13…

Filed under:

This is the UFC 120 live blog for Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama, the main event of tonight’s Spike TV event from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Bisping (19-3) is coming off a win over Dan Miller at UFC 114 in May. Akiyama (13-2) lost in July to Chris Leben in a Fight of the Night.

The live blog is below.

UFC 120 Aftermath: Bisping Outlasts Akiyama; Condit Proves Far Less ‘Foolish’ than Hardy Anticipated

(“Free porridge for everyone!” PicProps: UFC)
We hope Dana White didn’t have to make any profane and vaguely threatening phone calls on Saturday night after several of his athletes ignored his well articulated desire for them not to l…


(“Free porridge for everyone!” PicProps: UFC)

We hope Dana White didn’t have to make any profane and vaguely threatening phone calls on Saturday night after several of his athletes ignored his well articulated desire for them not to let their fights go to the judges at UFC 120. Michael Bisping was among the offenders, claiming a clear-cut (and fairly compelling) unanimous decision over Yoshihiro Akiyama. Mike Pyle’s grinding upset win over John Hathaway also went the distance, as did wins for undercarders Claude Patrick and Spencer Fisher. Oh, and Cheick Kongo and Travis Browne fought to a frickin’ draw (which Big DW actually joked about on yesterday’s video blog) after Kongo got a little grabby with Browne’s shorts.

Only Carlos Condit and Alexander Gustafsson were good for televised stoppages and Zuffa even fudged that by adding Gustafsson’s choke out of Cyrille Diabate by the magic of tape delay. On the whole – and despite its overly judgy nature – UFC 120 was the kind of card that proved a bit better in practice than on paper. Still, we’re sure glad we didn’t have to pay for it.

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UFC 120: Michael Bisping Beats Yoshihiro Akiyama

Filed under: UFCEngland’s Michael Bisping gave the fans in London something to cheer about in the main event at UFC 120 on Saturday, coming back from a shaky start to win a unanimous decision after a hard-fought 15 minutes in the Octagon with Yoshihiro…

Filed under:

England’s Michael Bisping gave the fans in London something to cheer about in the main event at UFC 120 on Saturday, coming back from a shaky start to win a unanimous decision after a hard-fought 15 minutes in the Octagon with Yoshihiro Akiyama.

“Right at the start of the first round he hit me with a shot here and I was seeing double,” Bisping said afterward. “Akiyama is a great fighter but I truly believed in my training, my skills and my ability to win this fight.”



UFC 120 (Somewhat) Liveblog: Isn’t ‘Cocky Brit’ Redundant?

 (Confidence is believing in yourself, cockiness is believing everyone else sucks)
Fair disclosure: if you’ve forgotten that the replay for UFC 120 is on tonight starting at 8:00 pm ET and you make a few wagers at the bar tonight and lose, do…

 
(Confidence is believing in yourself, cockiness is believing everyone else sucks)

Fair disclosure: if you’ve forgotten that the replay for UFC 120 is on tonight starting at 8:00 pm ET and you make a few wagers at the bar tonight and lose, don’t say we didn’t try to help you out.

For everyone else who is on the up-and-up and managed to avoid all of the spoilers today, we’re going to be liveblogging the replay after the jump.

Get your beverages and snacks ready and let’s get down to business.

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