Archive for the 'UFC' Category

Pictured: The poster for tonight’s Light Heavyweight showdown.

Tito Ortiz is, indeed, back. Going into his fight with Ryan Bader last month everyone expected the Huntington Beach Bad Boy to be resoundingly beaten and cut from the UFC, but Mr. Ortiz had other ideas. After his stunning upset of Bader, Tito was called in on short notice to face Rashad Evans in what was, before Phil Davis withdrew, a #1 contender fight, with the winner getting the victor of Jones/Rampage. But with Tito’s imposition on the main event, does it somewhat decrease the legitimacy of Evans’ contendership? And, if Tito were to win, should he get a shot at dethroning Jon Jones? Read the rest of this entry »

The UFC returns after a month hiatus with a big card from Las Vegas. Well, it was ‘big’ a few weeks back, when the rubber match between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard for the lightweight title was topping the bill, but now, with that bout scrapped due to injury, it has acquired reputation of a rather substandard card. This couldn’t be further from the truth - despite the lack of pure name value on the card, there are plenty of entertaining and relevant scraps on offer. If Rampage should knock off Hamill in the main event, he will be one win away from another title shot, assuming that the victor of Rashad-Davis is next in line. The winner of Mir-Nelson will also find himself on the brink of title contention, behind the winner of Carwin-Dos Santos. One of the top propsects and welterweight Rick Story is set to try to break out against potential top 5 170er Thiago Alves, and the exciting Jorge Santiago makes his return to the UFC to face dangerous striker Brian Stann. Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: The official poster for UFC 129, which emanates from Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the new time of 6pm EST.

Tomorrow night is a huge one in the history of the UFC. It features the shattering of their attendance record - the ~22,000 current is expected to be more than doubled, with 55,000 seats sold at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. It also marks the first time the UFC have visited Ontario, and the first time the UFC Featherweight title is fought for. The card is, in a word, stacked, and every single fight is set to be aired in some form - five prelims on a Facebook stream, two on Spike, and the five fight main card featuring a title double header and Randy Couture’s 3rd ‘last fight ever’ on pay-per-view. It’s an interesting one from many perspectives - how will Jake Shields fare against GSP? Will Mark Hominick fulfill his promise to trouble Jose Aldo on the feet? Will Lyoto Machida go 1-3 since Joe Rogan’s declaration of the Machida era two years ago? Will Randy Couture’s storied career end on a high? This is the card of the year so far, and I, personally, am hyped for it. Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: Cole Escovedo’s stunning KO of Yoshiro Maeda at last year’s DREAM 13.

Cole Escovedo has an incredible story. The guy was the first WEC Featherweight champion, before being struch down by a horrific staph infection that left him paralaysed, and lost him two years of hic career. Escovedo has since returned, despite doctors telling him he may never walk again, and established himself amongst the top Lighter-weight fighters in the world not currently contracted to the UFC. Ever since his miraculous return from injury, Escovedo has been campaigning to return to the WEC and now the UFC, and in the video embedded above he ‘auditions’ for the upcoming season of TUF, which is to feature Bantamweight and/or Featherweight fighters. For a man who has gone through so much adversity, it would be great to see Cole’s career come full circle and for him to return to the major league of MMA. So please, join us in tweeting @DanaWhite and @SpikeTV to let them know about this video and help this warrior complete his comeback. And hey, if he’s as amusing as he is in the video, then maybe the guy will not only be amongst the most talented fighters on the season, but one of the most entertaining personalities, too.

For more details, check out this fanpost on BloodyElbow.com.

Pictured: Phil Davis, who is among the prospects to challenge new light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones in the future. Davis fights Antônio Rogério Nogueira tonight at UFC Fight Night in Seattle.

Jon Jones looked amazing last Saturday night. There was a feeling of destiny in the air as the young New Yorker made his way to the Octagon, from a pretty good (considering this was a New Jersey crowd) reaction from the UFC faithful. Then he stepped into the cage and beat seven bells out of a man considered by many to be among the top five fighters on the planet. Even the most hardcore Jones-o-phile couldn’t have foreseen just how dominant their favourite would be as he stepped dominated Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in every aspect of the game, out working him standing and against the cage and destroying him with some young Tito Ortiz-esque ground and pound from inside the guard. When the fight finally finished, there was no doubt who the victor was, and no doubt that he deserves his spot in the sun atop the 205 lbs rankings. But for how long?

The Light Heavyweight weight class has always been a competitive one, and no sooner had Jon Jones hand been raised than the sharks, scenting blood, began to gather:

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Picture: Jon Jones throws a left roundhouse kick at Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

At 2:37 into the third round, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was stopped by the relentless attacks of Jon “Bones” Jones. Jones captured the UFC Light Heavyweight title at age 23 making him the youngest champion in UFC history.

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Editor’s Note: Our group predictions for tonight’s UFC 128 main event are below, but our man with the Breakdown every Monday, Jose Fernandez (JF), stepped up with predictions and analysis for the whole show; and Robert Visnick (RV), who offers his Two Cents on MMA every week, has a rebuttal or two. Hope you enjoy! — Tommy

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Pictured: Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Jon Jones at the UFC 128 weigh in today. Photo from TheFightNerd.com.

Welcome to another installment of Fight of the Week, or, let’s try this again, shall we? Following the disappointment of last week’s debacle, as Ferrid Kheder refused to weigh in vs. Toby Imada, and our fight of the week turned into a dud — we brilliantly waited for the weigh-ins to post the breakdown for this week’s selection.

As you can see, or maybe not from the photo as everyone looks hilariously unenthused — we have been rewarded. The fight is indeed on, tomorrow night in New Jersey for UFC 128 — as rising star Jon Jones challenges for the UFC Light Heavyweight title against champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. It’s Jones, the guy who looks better every time against Rua, the veteran who has proven it all against everybody — but maybe hasn’t seen anything like the phenom in front of him. Quite the fascintating matchup, with the betting odds perhaps surprisingly favoring the young challenger.

Weighing in from Total-MMA staff tonight are Jose Fernandez (JF), Robert Visnick (RV), and George Do (GD).

As always, our predictions are for entertainment purposes only, so don’t blame us if you bet away your savings and end up selling your assets to your most bitter competitor, like our friends in Strikeforce MMA… ugh, speaking of debacles don’t get me started on that one again. I couldn’t believe no one on MMA Live last night on ESPN could show the gumption to call it what it is.

Anyway… heck of a fight on the way. Our analysis:

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It’s a struggle to make it through this video. But unfortunately, it’s not an early April Fool’s joke. Strikeforce is now owned by ZUFFA, which will — essentially, let’s cut the crap — inevitably lead to the end of Strikeforce. Dave Walsh at Liverkick.com does a nice job of explaining why, if that’s the kind of analysis you want right now. If you want a more emotional reaction, read on…

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At UFC 128 Jon Jones at the young age of 23 will enter the octagon trying to take the Light Heavyweight Belt away from current UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Jones has exploded on to the MMA scene and has been entertaining us all with his exciting fighting style. At the young age Of 23 Jon Jones has made a quick run up the Light Heavyweight Rankings. Fight Magazine currently has the young phenom ranked #4 in the world at 205.
The stars aligned perfectly for Jon Jones when he got news of his title shot.

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