Category — UFC

I was so bored by last Saturday’s UFC on Fox three-bout main card that I forgot to write my reactions to it. Even the animated rock ‘em sock ‘em robots during the opening credits were more memorable.

Chael Sonnen looked horrible in a decision win over Michael Bisping and Rashad Evans looked similarly unimpressive while outclassing Phil Davis, which makes me even less inspired to watch Sonnen’s rematch with middleweight champ Anderson Silva or Evans’ tilt with light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Neither stands a chance. Not even Sonnen, who came within a couple of minutes and a triangle of beating Silva the first time around, looks like he’s got anything in the arsenal that Silva won’t be ready for. And I don’t see how Evans has a hope of getting close enough to his pal-turned-nemesis to put him down. Just not going to happen.

At least we’ve got a solid UFC 143 on Saturday to look forward to. Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit locking horns over the welterweight interim title has me wondering whether I’d rather see Diaz win so that Georges St. Pierre can shut him up in the fall, or Condit shut him up right now. Tough call. Count me as a Roy Nelson fan and a Fabricio Werdum fan, so that heavyweight tilt has me calling “pick ‘em,” while Renan Barao and preliminary carders Dustin Poirier and the grinning lunatic Matt Riddle each have bouts that will have my attention.

Chael Sonnen seems to think he’s Muhammad Ali (starting at the 5:30 mark of the video below), and I have to admit I’m amused by it. Of course, it’s a put-on. He’s found a shtick that works for him, that no one else outside of professional wrestling is using, and he’s using it. Here’s hoping he trashes Michael Bisping so we can see how he handles promoting a rematch with Anderson Silva (assuming Silva isn’t too injured to fight him).

I feel a bit badly for Demian Maia. While Chael Sonnen is carrying around a fake UFC belt and preparing to face Michael Bisping at Saturday’s UFC on Fox card, with the winner slated for a title shot, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace has seen his contender status take a bit of a nosedive as a result.

Originally scheduled to fight Bisping on the card, a bout that would definitely move the winner into the number two slot for a crack at champ Anderson Silva, Maia has to settle for late replacement Chris Weidman. While Weidman is no slouch — he’s a two-time NCAA division I All-American wrestler, an ADCC competitor and owner of a three-fight win streak in the UFC — beating him won’t do much to move Maia toward the belt. And a loss means he’ll probably never get another crack at it.

Still, I have to believe Maia will walk over Weidman, who admitted at Thursday’s press conference that being a late replacement for Bisping means he’s not 100 percent ready. Maia also has infinitely superior jiu-jitsu skills, continually improving striking and he’s been in tougher battles with tougher opponents. So I have no idea why odds makers have Maia as the underdog.

Is posing for photos with fans really the best way to spend the final few seconds before stepping into the octagon? I mean, it’s cool that Melvin Guillard felt comfortable and relaxed enough to do that (7:45 mark), but it seems strange and perhaps distracting. Granted, if he’d beaten Jim Miller at last weekend’s UFC on FX instead of tapping out to a rear-naked choke then I’d feel differently. I also appreciate Guillard’s display of sportsmanship after the loss, even going so far as to kiss Miller on the forehead.

Oh yeah, and I’m sick of Jon Jones. Can he go away until his next fight please?

Chances are a blow to the back of the head isn’t what you think it is. Even I was surprised by the narrow parameters of what constitutes such an illegal strike (and I’m the first one to cry foul whenever they occur). This video with “Big John” McCarthy certainly clarifies the matter and is mandatory viewing for anyone who’s ever voiced an opinion on the subject. Are you paying attention, Mario Yamasaki?

I get that the UFC is trying to break out of the box it’s in, grab some mainstream attention, appeal to sporting Joes and maybe a housewife or two. But I’m not sure this ad, which aired during Sunday’s NFL playoffs on Fox, really works.

You can see that it really really wants to be one of those classic Super Bowl commercials that everybody talks about the day after. And it’s mildly humorous, light heavyweight champ Jon Jones is certainly likable, and who hasn’t wanted to punt a toddler into the stratosphere? But the CGI looks cheap and there’s no footage of fighting or anything to connect this with MMA at all. Nice try, though.

Eight finishes in 10 fights, six of those in the first round. That’s how you put on a a fight card. So if you wrote off Friday’s UFC on FX debut due to a lack of big names (as I did just a few days ago), you owe it to yourself to check it out. Check out Nick “The Ninja of Love” Denis elbowing Joseph Sandoval unconscious — from a standing Thai clinch, in the centre of the cage, in just 22 seconds.

Check out Jorge Rivera entering retirement on a high note with a second-round TKO (punches) win over Eric Schafer. Check out Josh Neer guillotining Duane Ludwig via submission and Jim Miller surviving a scare against Melvin Guillard to sub him via rear-naked choke. Check out Mike Easton and Jared Papazian putting on a three-round rock ‘em sock ‘em hockey fight that should’ve won Fight of the Night. Or check out the actual Fight of the Night: Pat Barry showing surprising submission defense before putting his fists through Christian Morecraft’s face. Seriously, check it out.

It’s strange to see Melvin Guillard and Jim Miller chilling together before the weigh-ins (6:45 in Dana White’s vlog), discussing Miller’s ’stache, and then see them smiling at the weigh-ins. Strange because we often think of the animosity created and fabricated by fighters, either to get in the “destroy him” frame of mind or to hype a fight. But Guillard and Miller, who headline tonight’s UFC on FX card, appear to have none of that. They’re just two professionals out to do a job and put on a show for the fans. It’s kind of refreshing when there’s so much Sonnenesque trash talking going on in MMA.

Pat Barry cracks me up (check out his Techno-Viking). And apparently Christian Morecraft and his jutting alien jaw crack Pat Barry up. Can’t say as I blame him. Morecraft looked ridiculous during Thursday’s weigh-ins for today’s UFC on FX card. Doesn’t help that he has his name tattooed in gangsta script across his belly. I’m automatically inclined to think less of someone who has their own name inked on themselves. It’s like a bad vanity plate, and across the stomach is the worst. Of course, it might come in handy for Morecroft should he find himself knocked out and unable to remember his own name.

It was bad enough that referee Mario Yamasaki cost Erick Silva an obvious victory, but he actually threatened to disqualify Rousimar Palhares, as well (if the translation on the video below is accurate). After Palhares subbed Mike Massenzio he tapped him on the back to shake his hand, at which point Yamasaki stepped in. Now, I get Yamasaki’s earlier warnings about Palhares grabbing his opponent’s glove. Totally legitimate. But threatening to DQ a guy for wanting to shake his hand? That was the most-genteel and polite thing Palhares has ever done. Yamasaki might as well have slapped Palhares.