Here’s a great idea for a Google Doodle or an ad campaign: Have a floating picture of Anderson Silva’s head, and tell the user to try to “punch” his head with the pointer. No matter where you point, the head floats away, and you miss.
That’s basically what Silva did to Stephan Bonnar on Saturday. Oh, you want to hit me? OK, give it a try. Here, I’ll back up against the cage. Hands down by my side. OK, go.
When Silva got bored of dodging Bonnar’s blows, he simply knocked him out. Now consider this — Bonnar had never been knocked out, excluding fights stopped because of cuts. Never. He and Forrest Griffin hit each other with everything they could throw, and both guys were still standing at the finish. Now Silva has knocked out Griffin and Bonnar in the first round.
So when we’re thinking of the world’s greatest athlete, where does this guy stand?
Also speaking of the world’s greatest, check out Usain Bolt’s second appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend. (He’s near the end of the clip.)
Other stuff that happened over the weekend:
Soccer: The U.S. men continue their bid to induce panic attacks among the fanbase, getting a 90th-minute goal to beat Antigua and Barbuda. The good news: They just need a draw on Tuesday against Guatemala to advance to the next round.
Cycling (track): No medals for the USA in the World Cup stop in Cali, Colombia. Might be because the USA only sent one cyclist, Cari Higgins, who finished fourth in the omnium.
Not much else happened over the weekend — see the Team USA wrap for more — but everything changes this week: figure skating revs up with Skate America, and the short-track speedskating World Cup starts in Calgary.
The recap of previous episodes reminds us that Nic Herron-Webb was kind of a jerk in the house. Really, you don’t mess with your housemates’ sleep. Mike Ricci in particular took offense.
Back in the house, Matt Secor decides to rub Julian Lane’s nose in his loss. Lane rolls with it for a bit but finally snaps, smashing a bottle and trying to get Secor to hit him. Lane’s teammates come in and calm him. Igor Araujo tells Secor to dial it down, which Secor doesn’t want to hear. Classic bully pretending he hasn’t done anything wrong.
Nelson’s team is still a little concerned about practicing only once a day. Colton Smith has an easy solution — you want a cardio workout? Run while you’re at the house!
Team Carwin has the fight pick. With the next pick … Shane Carwin … selects … zzzzzzzzzzz
What? I’m up! I’m awake! OK, it’s Nic Herron-Webb (remember the foreshadowing?) against Carwin’s Igor Araujo, who leans pretty far into Nic’s face. Igor says something about eating brains.
Bristol Marunde, sporting some nasty facial cuts from his bout with Lane, wants Igor to damage Nic’s mouth so he can’t talk.
Meet Igor Araujo — he’s Brazilian but is now at the Jackson camp in New Mexico. He’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, which should neutralize Nic’s strength there. And Igor’s father was a journalist! OK, we’re rooting for him now.
TUF vet Eliot Marshall comes in to work with Igor. To our surprise, Eliot knows a bit of Portuguese. Igor’s pretty happy to hear his home language.
Carwin tells us Igor is truly fighting for bread and milk. This is a good thing, apparently. And yet Carwin does pretty well fighting as a side job from his engineering career. During the next segment, Igor mentions bread and milk again.
About that next segment — Herron-Webb somehow gets Ricci’s bed on top of a gazebo in the backyard. Ricci tells Herron-Webb to go get it, but he has no leverage. He flips Herron-Webb’s hat off, at least, before going to retrieve his bed himself.
Meet Nic Herron-Webb — he’s 22 but has already created “nap-jitsu” and has a 3-year-old kid.
Igor does a tearful confession. He cries before going to sleep, thinking about his family. His son Renzo is turning 2. He says his tears make him stronger.
We get more and more pre-fight talk. Igor again talks about milk. Unlike Bristol, Igor doesn’t care about punishing Nic. Just wants to make him sleep and dream of Alaska and his bears.
Fight time: Steve Mazzagatti reffing. Igor quickly gets a takedown, then slips out of Nic’s active guard and advances to half-guard. Then to mount, though Nic nullifies it by clutching Igor’s torso. Nelson tells him, “You’ve gotta let go if you wanna win.” So Nic lets go and immediately gives up his back, taking punches to the side of the head. That’s not better. But Igor isn’t doing much, and Mazzagatti probably should’ve stood them up.
Round 2: It’s Nic on top. Igor tries to work up for a submission, but Nic maintains control and lands some sharp elbows. Then nothing. Still nothing. Still nothing. For the love of Pete, Steve Mazzagatti, will you please stand them up?! Oops .. Igor reverses. Nelson tells Nic not to fight off his back, which is too bad because he’s not bad at it. His punches force a scramble, and then Nic gets a good grip on a leglock. He can’t get it, but he reclaims top position. Nic tries some ground-and-pound as the round ends, and everyone expects a third round.
Which we don’t get, because two misguided judges think the first round was worthy of a 10-8. Um, no. Dana White visits Team Nelson to say that judging was as bad as it gets.
So it’s Igor by majority decision, and Carwin’s team is up 3-1. But Nelson still has his top two fighters.
Next week, we seem to have a bit more conflict among Team Nelson, and Carwin considers a tertiary career as a voice-over artist for self-hypnosis tapes.
Let’s say you’re an MMA promoter. In fact, let’s say you’re the biggest in the world.
Your fight cards will inevitably be undercut by injuries and other changes of plans. So you’ll need to have fighters who are willing to step in on short notice.
You may even heap praise among fighters who take such calls. You may question the manhood, dedication, sanity or humanity of fighters who do not take short-notice fights.
So then why would you cut someone from your roster after they step up?
Let’s make this clear: Rich Attonito, according to MMA Junkie, passed on the fight against Gunnar Nelson because he was worried about making weight. But Attonito is still in the UFC. Johnson, who always put on entertaining fights and rarely leaves a fight in the hands of the judges, is not.
So let’s switch hats here. Suppose you’re a fighter, not the promoter. And Dana White calls you to say there’s a slot open on a card in four weeks. What would you say?
We’re still in that lull between summer Olympic sports and winter Olympic sports, but we have plenty to report from the weekend. Names in the news include Landon Donovan, Chris Wondolowski, Brad Friedel, Kimbo Slice, Lance Armstrong, Lolo Jones, Dana White and Johnny Weir.
MLS
Nearly every game meant something …
– Columbus 1-1 Kansas City:KC only leads the East by three, and Columbus stayed within a point of the fifth playoff seed in the East.
– New York 0-2 Chicago: A massive hurt on the Red Bulls, who have just announced a front-office shakeup and dropped to fourth in the East, not yet assured of getting into the playoffs at all. Chicago‘s up to second and has clinched a berth.
– Toronto 0-1 D.C. United:United stands third, one ahead of the Red Bulls.
– Philadelphia 1-0 New England: The only game of the weekend with no playoff ramifications doomed the Revolution to ninth place in the East. The Union could still move up to seventh.
– Houston 1-1 Montreal: A little controversy, with Brian Ching‘s late goal wiped away on a late offside call. Houston is clinging to the last playoff spot, and Brad Davis‘ absence didn’t help. Summing up the East (all contenders have two games left): KC 59 pts., Chicago 56, DC 54, New York 53, Houston 50 // Columbus 49.
– Colorado 1-4 San Jose: A couple of months ago, I said Roy Lassiter‘s single-season scoring record was unbreakable. Chris Wondolowski is getting dangerously close to proving me wrong after netting a hat trick. The only other suspense for the Earthquakes is whether they’ll clinch the Supporters Shield next week — they have 64 points to KC’s 59.
– Seattle 3-0 Portland: The Sounders drew 66,452 for the big rivalry game, and neither the home team nor the home fans disappointed. Check out the Sounders’ tifo:
– Chivas USA 1-1 Dallas:Huge disappointment for Dallas, now trailing by four points for the last playoff spot in the West.
– Los Angeles 1-2 Salt Lake: From watching the first 30 minutes, you never would’ve guessed the night would end so badly for the Galaxy. But Real made a great comeback, and to make matters worse for the Galaxy (and possibly the USA), Landon Donovan is hurt.
The top two seeds are in good shape after the first leg of the semifinals: San Antonio left Minnesota tied 0-0, and Tampa Bay won 2-1 at Carolina.
EUROPEAN SOCCER
Heard Barcelona-Real Madrid was terrific. Sorry to miss it.
And sorry to see the end of an era. After eight years of starting every Premier League game his club played, Brad Friedel finally surrendered the starting spot at Spurs to Hugo Lloris.
What? Lance Armstrong isn’t cleared for sanctioned races? Fine — we’ll go unsanctioned.
BOBSLED
Track and field Olympians Lolo Jones, Hyleas Fountain and Tianna Madison joined the fun at the annual U.S. push competition, with all three placing in the top 10 and Fountain barely missing the top three. Rookie Aja Evans took the win. Veteran Steve Langton won the men’s event.
CRICKET
Sri Lanka had West Indies baffled in the World Twenty20 final. The host country held the fierce West Indies batters to 32 runs in the first 10 overs, on pace to score an anemic 64. Then Marlon Samuels played the innings of a lifetime, scoring 78. West Indies scored 137 — still not a great total.
But while West Indies took a while to warm up, Sri Lanka never did. Samuels added a terrific bowling performance to his vital spell with the bat, and Sunil Narine simply mowed down Sri Lanka just as it tried to get going. With defeat all but mathematically certain, Sri Lanka gave up its 10th and final wicket, scoring just 36. West Indies took the championship.
The women’s final was considerably closer — Australia held on to beat England by four runs.
MMA
Big weekend, with cards in the UFC, Bellator, One FC and Invicta. A few of the highlights:
– The UFC’s free cards continue to be pretty good, though Travis Browne‘s injury spoiled a compelling matchup with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. And John Dodson is ready for his UFC flyweight title shot.
– Dana White will take a bit of flak for thinking he could bail Jeremy Stephens out of jail in time for his fight with Yves Edwards. But the UFC clearly went above and beyond for Dennis Hallman, who is in the midst of a horrible child custody dispute.
– Remember when Brett Rogers was the man? He was 10-0, having just beat Andrei Arlovski, and he arguably took a round from Fedor Emelianenko? He looked horrible in Bellator against Alexander Volkov.
– All-female Invicta FC delivered another strong card from top to bottom. If you saw a better contest than Michelle Waterson‘s bout with Lacey Schuckman this weekend, please tell me.
I like Kimbo Slice, having met him a couple of times. But it’s a little painful to see him go from the UFC to boxing matches against guys who fall down every time he hits them. I’m sure Kimbo hits hard, but seriously? The opponent in this case was one Howard Jones, and we have to say things can only get better.
FIGURE SKATING
And finally, from the intentional humor department, here’s a group of figure skaters putting away the glitter and showing us some hoops trickery. This is clearly a parody of something I haven’t seen, but it’s still amusing, and it features nearly every skater who’ll be in the upcoming Grand Prix season (preview forthcoming). Watch the video.
But winter is fast approaching, and several figure skaters tuned up for Grand Prix action at the Finlandia Trophy, with Richard Dornbush second in the men’s competition, Mirai Nagasu third in the women’s event, Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue third in ice dancing, and the returning Johnny Weir fourth in his first competition since the 2010 Olympics.
More Oly sports in the Team USA roundup: Vincent Hancock is still shooting well, Kim Rhode‘s a little distracted, and Janet Bawcom edged Kara Goucher in a 10-mile run.
Previously on The Ultimate Fighter: Bleeep … Bleeeeppp! …. Bleeeeeeepppp! And Joey Rivera shocked No. 1 pick Alvey.
Several seasons ago, Forrest Griffin flipped a coin to set up the matchups. Now, Roy Nelson has his team drawing straws. Final draft pick Julian Lane gets the short straw, and he’s so pumped that his Mohawk is shaking. He’s leaning toward picking Mike Secor because Secor has been a jerk in the house. But maybe Mike Ricci (can he take a punch?) or Bristol Marunde (reasons unclear).
Dana White takes the guys for a special premiere of Here Comes The Boom. Dana pitches the film as a funny film, not a tough-guy film. (Can’t it be both? I’ve got this screenplay …)
We get to see a few snippets, especially the slow-motion of Kevin James knocking former TUF coach Jason “Mayhem” Miller.
Everyone had fun, but it appears Roy Nelson had an issue with it.
Watching movies with lights on sucked , just like someone using their phone in the theater.
Nelson’s worried that Lane isn’t fully prepared to go three rounds, thinking he gets sloppy when he’s gassed. Nelson tries to keep Lane motivated through some conditioning work: “If my fat butt can do this, I know you can.”
Fight selection time, and Nelson gives the fake-out, hinting that it’s going to be Mike (Secor? Ricci?) but taking Marunde instead. Marunde gives a long staredown, then tells Lane, “Big mistake.” Lane’s response: “Yeah, for you.” Wait … what? Marunde didn’t do anything, mistake or not. It’s like the old Brian Regan bit where the gate attendant says “Have a nice flight,” and Regan reflexively responds, “You too … if you go somewhere … sometime …”
Marunde talks about how awesome everything is with Team Carwin. Then he weighs himself and stares in disbelief … 186 pounds. Let’s get those 15 pounds off.
The weight cut starts in a hot tub. Then Marunde gets in a hoodie and a sleeping bag in the backyard. In Vegas. That’ll do it. We get a montage later that shows considerable amounts of sweat rolling out.
Over to Nelson’s team, and Roy is having a lot of trouble getting Lane to realize he can’t just let Marunde push him to the fence.
Then back to the weight-cut montage, including a nice torrent of sweat.
Weigh-in time, and Marunde makes it. Or does he? A couple of people on Nelson’s team think the beam on the scale was up. As in, “Dude, he’s heavier than that.”
Both Marunde and Lane say they’re fighting for a financial future for their young kids. Anyone else get really uncomfortable when fighters say that? You know, unemployment’s down. You can get steadier jobs. With health insurance, pending Congressional action in 2013.
Marunde seems like the better-grounded guy. He’s down to earth. And yet he comes across like an ’80s movie villain. He does know his ’80s films:
Tale of the tape: Marunde’s taller, older, more experienced … how exactly is Lane going to win this? He starts out swinging wildly and then being taken … you guessed it … up against the cage.
After 90 seconds of nothing, Marunde opens enough distance to land some knees. They break, and we get a view of Lane’s absurdly tight shorts. Why isn’t he wearing TUF standard issue? Can’t we put a black bar over that? And why is he taking so many knees?
Lane does succeed once or twice is turning it into a wild brawl, and that’s where he could succeed. Marunde’s face is somehow turned into a bloody mess. And yet the round ends with Marunde on top of Lane, pounding his ribs.
Between rounds, we see two gashes on Marunde’s face — one on the bridge of the nose, one on his cheek. Lane opens with a solid head kick. Then he slips throwing a wild right hand from about 20 feet away. Marunder responds with a sharp leg kick and combo. To say Marunde is the more fundamentally sound fighter is like saying Neil Peart has better drum technique than Phil Rudd.
A couple of minutes in, Lane again throws long-range bombs. One or two somehow land. Marunde again presses Lane to the cage, but Lane circles. Marunde regains control. Nelson keeps calling for Lane to throw an inside leg kick.
Round 2 ends, and there’s clearly not enough time in the episode for a third. I’d guess Marunde won, but the blood could sway the judges, and each round was close. But it goes to Marunde.
THEN Nelson brings up the weight issue. “Do you want me to make sure the commissioner does HIS job?”
White is stunned. And he tells Nelson he should’ve brought it up at the weigh-in. Which is what Nelson was asking!
Yet White exclaimed, “You can’t fix stupid.” No, but can you fix the scales?
Lane is in tears, dealing with the reckoning of letting down his family. Dude, CareerBuilder. Monster.com.
Next week: Lane seems mad again.
Worth noting: Nelson’s bottom two draft picks have fought. So have Carwin’s top two. So Carwin leads 2-1, but don’t bet on him holding that lead.
The title is “We Have Control,” which brings this to mind (1:45 mark):
The ratings really should be higher for this season. Things we see in this episode that we’ve never seen before:
A mattress floating (on floaties) in the pool.
A witty response to why someone walked at 3 months.
An inset video of a coach giving a full-fledged jiu-jitsu lesson in the middle of a fight.
Some disturbing personal details about pre-fight routines.
Here’s how it goes.
Cameron Diffley apologizes for giving up control with his loss to Neil Magny. Everyone on Team Nelson realizes he could be next.
At the house, we get this exchange between Mike Secor, who is posing as if he’s nude and has a plant blocking his privates, and Colton Smith. “Is it true that you walked at 3 months old?” “Yeah, that’s true.” “I heard he walked at 3 months old because he was so ugly no one wanted to hold him any more.”
That’s one of the most creative dissings in TUF history, and Smith concedes that it’s pretty good. Then Smith lists all the ways he could beat Secor.
Then Secor drops his likability rating right away with a “not here to be butt buddies” comment.
But Nic Herron-Webb immediately races into “guy we’re all going to hate” race. He says he can’t sleep, so he shoots pool. And whistles. And when people don’t immediately respond, he bangs a pool ball on the table. That brings out Mike Ricci, wearing the tightest tighty-whiteys in show history, and Eddy Ellis.
Ricci thinks Herron-Webb is acting out because he has already realized he’s outclassed. Everything points to a Ricci matchup with Herron-Webb.
But Shane Carwin instead chooses ….. zzzzzzzzzzz … what? Oh! I’m awake. No offense to Carwin, who runs an entertaining Twitter feed, but his voice has all the enthusiasm of Ben Stein’s without the ironic inflection.
So Carwin picks Joey Rivera, a late pick on Nelson’s team, to face his top guy, Sam Alvey.
Should be an easy win for Carwin’s team to maintain the “control” we’ve heard so much about. Right? Dana White thinks so.
Rivera relishes the challenge.
But first, back to the house issues. Michael Hill takes on Herron-Webb in a dressing-room discussion over his antics in the house, saying something along the lines of, “Hey, we live in the house, too. When we piss off the other team with a bunch of noise, you piss us off, too.” Julian Lane calls everyone together to do a cheer for Joey.
Meet Joey “Boom Boom” Rivera! He got into fighting by beating up her mom’s lousy boyfriends. That’s a new twist on things.
Nelson wants Joey to put Alvey on his back. In training we see Rivera putting Nelson on his back, which is either impressive or dangerous. That’s a lot of weight hitting the canvas.
Meet Sam Alvey! Grew up in Wisconsin and a hunter, fisher and “band nerd” who met his fiancee at a Renaissance fair. Seems safe to call him a Renaissance man.
His fiancee also won America’s Next Top Model. That would be McKey Sullivan.
First, a pre-fight prank. Smith, Lane and Herron-Webb take Alvey’s mattress. They thought about throwing it in the pool, but they decide to be nice and put some floaties under it so it won’t get soaked.
Alvey keeps up his constant smile. Igor Araujo is more shocked than Alvey:
Araujo: “You know they put your bed in the pool!”
Alvey: “Well, it’s floating on the pool.” He adds a hand gesture to demonstrate.
Araujo doesn’t respect such things and thinks karma will get them back. Alvey just thinks it gives him license to do more in revenge.
Smith is happy Alvey took it well. Alvey decided to sleep on the sofa, apparently not well.
After weigh-ins, we get a quick glimpse of the pool, which no longer has a mattress in it. Then Rivera gives us way too much information about his pre-fight sex habit. His wife obviously isn’t in the house, so he’s going to need to make some changes for this fight.
Alvey has a ton of respect for Rivera’s strength and punching power. The tale of tape shows us Alvey is six years younger but has many more fights.
Arianny is the Octagon Girl, Herb Dean is the ref, and we’re off. And Joey lands two sharp head kicks in the first 10 seconds. Takes Alvey down at 25 seconds. Takes Alvey’s back at 40 seconds as Alvey stands. They stall, but Rivera takes him down again. Alvey stands but is pressed against the cage, and Rivera is trying a standing arm-triangle. Don’t see that every day. They stall again, but Rivera uses a trip takedown to get a grip on a guillotine. They scramble, but Rivera keeps the guillotine and pulls guard with it. With a minute left, Rivera finally releases the choke. Then he sets up a triangle. Alvey gets out and up but doesn’t back away far enough for Rivera to slam. When the 10-second alert sounds, Alvey suddenly flings everything forward to land some big ground-and-pound punches, but it’s far too late to win the round.
Round 2: Rivera’s gasping for air in the corner as Nelson asks him to keep it up for five more minutes. Again, Rivera opens with kicks — one head, one body. Alvey tries to get close and eats an uppercut. Alvey presses Rivera to the cage, and Rivera goes for the guillotine again. But Rivera is unable or unwilling to reposition his hands despite several requests from his corner, and Dean eventually breaks up the stalemate. When they stand, Rivera again lands a couple of kicks. Alvey presses to the cage, and we get the most interesting inset video ever on this show — Roy Nelson calling over one of his assistants to demonstrate proper guillotine technique.
It doesn’t work, and they break, but Rivera again gets the better of a brief exchange. Then he takes Alvey down once again. They stand with a minute left, and nothing’s happening. Alvey gets a takedown with 10 seconds left. Again, too late.
Alvey raises his hands as the horn sounds, but the judges aren’t buying. Well, one of them does — it’s a majority decision for Rivera.
Recap: White says this didn’t go the way he thought it would. That’s an understatement. But White, who didn’t like Rivera’s prelim fight, is impressed with Rivera’s head kicks.
Alvey thought he won. Not when he sees the replay. He pledges to his team that he’ll be there for the next five weeks.
Carwin says he visited wounded troops, where their motto is never to leave anybody behind. And he says that’s the approach they’ll take with Alvey.
Nelson asks his team why Joey won? The answer: He listened. Well, except for the one piece of advice Nelson kept giving on repositioning his hands.
On the next episode: Nelson lets his team draw straws to see who’ll fight next. Then he questions the weigh-in results. This should be fun.
A good, strong pay-per-view card was exactly what the UFC needed after a summer of injuries, other bad news and the first major cancellation in the promotion’s history. Attendance in Toronto was a puzzler — a couple thousand and a couple million less than the UFC’s December visit to the same venue. But it likely did good business on TV, and it didn’t disappoint.
Here’s what happened and how it compared to the fight odds and various gut feelings:
Kyle Noke vs. Charlie Brenneman (welterweight)
What we expected: Former contender Brenneman working his way back up against TUF alum Noke, who was dropping a weight class in either a shrewd move of a bit of desperation.
What we got: A 45-second demolition by Noke.
Mitch Gagnon vs. Walel Watson (bantamweight)
What we expected: A tough bout for the long-limbed Watson, trying to maintain his UFC status after two losses, against Ontario’s own Gagnon.
What we got: Watson leaped in for the ever-risky Superman punch, and Gagnon countered perfectly with a powerful left hand. Gagnon cleaned up with a rear naked choke for his first UFC win, needing just 69 seconds to do it.
Simeon Thoreson vs. Seth Baczynski (welterweight)
What we expected: A toss-up bout between an intriguing Norwegian prospect and a gritty TUF alum. (Thoreson is the Norwegian, in case you couldn’t guess.) Bloody Elbow thought this would be a ground-fighting battle.
What we got: Thoreson was picking Baczynski apart on the feet until … bam. One good left from Baczynski sent Thoreson toppling face-first, and referee Big John McCarthy raced in to pull Baczynski away and stop the fight.
(Total time of the three Facebook fights: 6:04.)
Jimy Hettes vs. Marcus Brimage (featherweight)
What we expected: Another step up the ladder for Hettes, who was so impressive in wiping out Nam Phan. The oddsmakers had this one as the second-widest gap between favorite and underdog on this card. (Jones over Belfort was No. 1.)
What we got: Sharp striking from Brimage and a well-deserved unanimous decision for the TUF alum, who looks much better now than he did on the show.
Sean Pierson vs. Lance Benoist (welterweight)
What we expected: Hard to say. The odds favored the far younger Benoist, but Pierson had the experience edge and the home crowd. And Benoist was fighting on relatively short notice.
What we got: A good one. Pierson had the better of it until the end, when he got tagged and had to survive a late onslaught. Pierson got the decision.
Evan Dunham vs. T.J. Grant (lightweight)
What we expected: A Fight of the Night contender. Dunham was on the rise until “losing” a ridiculous decision to Sean Sherk, though he was set back a bit more with his loss to Melvin Guillard. Grant was OK at welterweight but has looked good at lightweight.
What we got: Fight of the Night. Grant bloodied Dunham badly but had to work to eke out a close decision. Dunham disagreed.
Igor Pokrajac vs. Vinny Magalhaes (light heavyweight)
What we expected: A classic striker-vs.-grappler matchup, with the underrated Pokrajac likely to take the win if he could stay out of the grappling specialist’s armbar.
What we got: He didn’t stay out of the armbar.
Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira (featherweight)
What we expected: Another grappling showcase for Oliveira.
What we got: A stunning knockout, with Oliveira falling in slow motion. On a night of big knockouts, Swanson won the bonus. After after being merely above-average in WEC competition, he looks like a powerful force in the UFC.
Matt Hamill vs. Roger Hollett (light heavyweight)
What we expected: An easy tune-up for Hamill in his return from retirement.
What we got: A boring tune-up for Hamill in his return from retirement. Formerly a dominating wrestler, Hamill looked like a slow kickboxer. Two takedowns and the ensuing ground-and-pound — effective in subduing both his opponent and the crowd — were enough to earn an easy decision.
Michael Bisping vs. Brian Stann (middleweight)
What we expected: The hype rang hollow — did anyone think Bisping was doing anything other than playing the “heel” role in his taunts of one of the sport’s all-time good guys? But it was still an intriguing matchup, with the ever-dangerous Bisping sure to test Stann.
What we got: Bisping looked fantastic. Stick, move, stick again, takedown. Stann simply had no answers. And yes, Bisping showed a ton of respect for Stann in the postfight interview, which should shock absolutely no one. This was never a genuine feud.
Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez (flyweight title fight)
What we expected: A barnburner between two perfect examples of the fast pace and superb technique in the new flyweight class.
What we got: A barnburner that mysteriously drew boos from some in the crowd. Dana White rightly questioned their intelligence. Great fight, good decision win for the sharp Johnson despite a powerful fourth round for Benavidez.
Jon Jones vs. Vitor Belfort (light heavyweight title fight)
What we expected: No more than a puncher’s chance for the accomplished but aging Belfort against the supremely talented Jones.
What we got: Puncher’s chance? We meant submission chance. Belfort pulled guard several times and had Jones in serious trouble with an armbar in the first round that may have damaged Jones’ arm. Yet Jones, to me at least, never looked like he was going to tap. Jones maneuvered his way out, then went to work with his elbow-heavy ground-and-pound attack. In the next couple of rounds, he put on a kicking clinic, dropping Belfort with a strong body kick. By the fourth, Belfort had little left to offer, and Jones landed on top of him in side control. Only a few seconds later, Belfort tapped to a keylock.
The Ultimate Fighter Friday: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson Yes We’re Still on Fridays on FX But No We’re Not Live Any More debuts on … well, Friday.
Sixteen things you might not know about the cast of the show’s 16th domestic season (not counting TUF Brazil or the new international seasons in various stages of planning/production — UK vs. Australia, India):
1. Two fighters have big red or pink Mohawks. (Julian Lane, Ricky Legere Jr.)
2. Fighters include one from North Dakota (Leo Kuntz) and one from South Dakota (David Michaud). Michaud is representing his reservation, as this remarkable video shows.
3. Colton Smith is an Army Ranger with a political chip on his shoulder. “The only thing that Colton has a hard time not choking out is the plethora of liberal tree-huggers he tends to run into in the greater DC area,” says his bio at sponsor Ranger Up. I don’t know — most of the liberal tree-huggers I know in the D.C. area could probably take this guy. They work out a lot.
4. Jason South is 34. He addresses his age in his TUF bio: “Well most people are giving me shit because of my age but I think it’s going to play a big role in keeping my head in the right place.”
5. Kevin Nowaczyk’s nickname is “Give Me Your Lunch Money.” Most nicknames aren’t commands. And yet he’s so humble that he answers the TUF bio question “Why you think you will be the next Ultimate Fighter champion” with “I don’t know if I will be …” (Matthew Secor’s answer starts “I don’t think I will be” but continues “I know I will be.”)
6. Best answer to the “Why you’ll win” bio question goes to Sam Alvey: “Because the force is with me.” (He elaborates.) He also was a “big time band participant” in high school.
7. Most of Lev Magen’s fight experience is in Israel.
8. Cameron Diffley was Forrest Griffin’s assistant coach, specializing in jiu-jitsu, when the former UFC light heavyweight champion was a TUF coach.
9. Igor Araujo helps develop the jiu-jitsu of the current UFC light heavyweight champ, Jon Jones.
10. Bristol Marunde is an IFL and Strikeforce veteran who chased down a rape suspect and stopped him with a head kick.
11. Alaskan Nic Herron-Webb is nicknamed “Naptime.” His MMA specialty is “Nap-jitsu.”
12. Dom Waters’ nickname is “Sho Nuff,” not to be confused with Rodney “Sho Nuff The Master” Wallace.
13. Frank “The Crank” Camacho made his pro debut at age 16 and says he has been training to win The Ultimate Fighter since age 14. Most of his fights were on Pacific islands, but he has moved to Maryland to work with Lloyd Irvin.
14. James Chaney, one of only three cast members with a Wikipedia entry (the others are Marunde and Diffley), has fought in Russia and lists his MMA specialty as “sambo.”
15. Several cast members have fought in Zuffa’s sibling promotion Strikeforce, including Bristol Marunde, Saad Awad, Ricky Legere Jr., and Cortez Coleman. Legere and Coleman have Strikeforce wins.
Last season didn’t have a lot of drama in the house. You’d think 13 weeks in the house would make people crazier than usual, but it seems to have a sedating effect. Producers seemed to think bringing Ronda Rousey into the house would spark … something. No. What are they going to do — hit on her on camera, knowing they’ll be released into the real world in another six weeks or so?
Also, by going live each week, producers and editors only had a short time to see what had happened in the house. Storylines couldn’t really be built.
This season? Looks dramatic.
Hard-core fans might not be happy. But will the ratings be better? As Shaun Al-Shatti said at MMA Fighting — you’re either pumped or vowing not to watch a single second.
The increasingly indispensable Morning Report at MMAFighting.com is a fun read today that also raises a lot of questions:
– Jon Jones says the UFC has “learned a lesson” about offering “full cards” in the wake of the UFC 151 cancellation. We’ll have to see whether that’s true. Blame Jones, blame Dan Henderson, blame anyone in sight — the fact is the UFC needs to have co-main events that can be viable main events in case a fight falls through. If not, we’re going to see more cancellations.
– An MMA Live rundown of the top 5 upsets in MMA history could provoke plenty of debate, but have you ever seen a better three-minute highlight package of the sport? If you want to introduce someone to the sport, you may not find anything better.
– Should I listen to Rampage Jackson and King Mo talking about to fix all the problems in MMA? I haven’t yet.
– Is Stefan Struve the funniest trash-talker in MMA? It helps that he keeps getting matched up with people like Pat Barry and Stipe Miocic.
– Should karate be in the Olympics, perhaps ahead of taekwondo? Karate may be a more widely accepted martial art. Taekwondo’s new rules and sensory equipment have been a mixed bag — it’s still “fencing with feet” and a little difficult to follow. But if you watch the video on the Morning Report, the winner basically takes the decision because she was punched in the face. That might be a tough sell.
Duresport.com 