MMA Hot Stuff

The Ultimate Fighter Season Recap

So I'm a huge fan of The Ultimate Fighter. Frankly I think it's made many of the fighters I'd consider to be top tier, a household name before they even had a win in the octagon. I haven't missed a season, I've been known to watch past seasons in an entire marathon sitting (weekends at the ski cabin, bless you) and getting TUF dvds in my Christmas stocking always makes me a happy girl.

But this season I've found myself extremely busy and haven't been a religious viewer as I should be. Thankfully, my MMA-friend Laura (ladies you all know her wit found over at Lemondrop) is now mixing the two (wit and MMA) by writing for the UFC (hip hip hooray).

So if you're looking for a great recap of the entire season, please check out her article over at the UFC.com. 

As far as my personal opinion, I'm happy with the outcome. Some people question the quality of this season but I think it's sort of par for the course when you have heavy weights. A couple fights have been good but the personalities in the house are as entertaining as ever. Seeing Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans exchange in some verbal jabs only makes me want to see those two fight even more. Rashad has definitely proven he's a very different type of coach than Rampage. Or maybe it's better to say he's a coach and Rampage is not. You be the judge. Catch the two hour special Wednesday December 2nd.

For an extra thrill, here's a list of TUF 10 fighters and their twitter ids (if known).

Abe Wagner

Brendan Schaub

Darrill Schoonover

Demico Rogers

James McSweeney

Jon Madsen

Justin Wren

Kimbo Slice

Marcus Jones

Matt Mitrione

Mike Wessel

Rampage Jackson 

Rashad Evans

Roy Nelson

Wes Sims

Zak Jensen

UFC 102 Breakdown By Jon Anik And Kenny Florian

While I'm not going to be happy until I see this type of recap on SPORTSCENTER (hello ESPN aren't you listening to me?) this will have to do for now.

My friends Jon Anik and Kenny Florian did a quick break down of the Couture/Nogueira fight and the Jardine/Silva fight from UFC 102.

One quick note, as they mentioned Randy was coming to an end to his contract, however as Randy announced tonight during the post-fight press conference, he has just signed another contract with the UFC for 6 more fights over the next two years. RAD!

To support Jon, Kenny and the rest of the ESPN MMA Live crew, please follow them on twitter!

twitter.com/kenny_florian

twitter.com/franklin_mcneil

twitter.com/jon_anik

twitter.com/mollyqerim_espn

twitter.com/espn_mmalive

oh and me!

twitter.com/mmahotstuff

UFC 102 Results

OFFICIAL EVENT RESULTS:

Fight Honors:

"Fight of the Night" - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture

"Knockout of the Night" Nate Marquardt

"Submission of the Night" Jake Rosholt

This was probably one of the best and yet under rated cards this year! Here are the final results...

Winners in GREEN

Randy Couture vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira by Unanimous Decision in the 3rd Round

Keith Jardine vs Thiago Silva by Knock Out in the 1st Round

Chris Leben vs Jake Rosholt by Submission (choke) in the 3rd Round

Nate Marquardt vs Demian Maia by Knock Out in the 1st Round

Brandon Vera vs Krzysztof Soszynski by Unanimous Decision in the 3rd Round

Ed Herman vs Aaron Simpson by Techncial Knock Out in the 2nd Round

Gabriel Gonzaga vs Chris Tuchscherer by Technical Knock out in the 1st Round

Junstin McCully vs Mike Russow by Unanimous Decision in the 3rd Round

Tim Hague vs Todd Duffee by Knock Out in the 1st Round (UFC RECORD of  7 seconds)

Nick Catone vs Mark Munoz by Split Decision in the 3rd Round

Marcus Aurelio vs Evan Dunham by Split Decision in the 3rd Round

Strikeforce Results

Guest Writer: Salvatore DeRosalia

STRIKEFORCE 

Televised Fights: 

MAIN CARD (BEGINNING AT 7:30PM): 

Gina “Conviction” Carano (7-0) vs. Cris “Cyborg” (7-1) – 145lb Female Championship Bout 

Gina and Cyborg both look calm as they make their walk to the cage.  The crowd is certainly on Gina’s side as it roars when she enters the cage.  This is quite possibly the most important in STRIKEFORCE history.  Fighters are you ready? Fans are you ready?  “Let’s go!” 

Round one starts with Cyborg staking Gina and she takes eventually takes her down after a short flurry.  Somehow Gina ends up on top but Cyborg is goes for a heel hook.  Gina escapes and Cyborg takes her back and initiates ground and pound.  Gina gets out and gets up but only to more vicious blows from Cyborg.  Gina and Cyborg go down to the ground again and Gina ends up in full mount.  She delivers her own vicious ground and pound.  Gina and Cyborg stand up and trade heavy punches in the middle of the ring.  Both fighters are tired.  Gina lands a SUPERWOMAN punch to the face of Cyborg.  Both girls are trading blows as Cyborg takes Gina down again.  Cyborg seems to be hurting Gina more then she is being hurt.  They clinch in the middle of the cage.  Cyborg falls on Gina and lands in half guard.  Cyborg attempts an Americana twice but Gina rolls out of it.  Cyborg initiates ground and pound. Gina curls up against the cage and covers her face.  The Ref yells at Gina to fight back or he will stop the match.  The Ref warns her again.  Cyborg continues to deliver horrific blows to Gina’s face as Josh Rosenthal steps in and stops the fight as the horn sounds to end the round.  There is confusion in the ring for a moment but the fight is over.  Gina is still on the mat as Cyborg runs around the ring elated with her accomplishment.  Gina fought hard but the strength of Cyborg was just too much and she is now the STRIKEFORCE WOMANS 145LB CHAMPION. 

Renato "Babalu" Sobral (35-8) vs. Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1) - Light Heavyweight Championship Bout 

First things first, Referee BIG JOHN MCCARTHY is huge. 

Bell rings and Babalu meanders to the center of the cage.  Babalu catches Mousasi kick and clinches.  Mousasi establishes side control. Babalu tries to get up but Mousasi destroys Babalu with straight hard punches to the head.  Babalu’s body goes stiff.  Mousasi wins fight by KO at1:00 in the first round and is now the STRIKEFORCE Light Heavyweight Champion 
 
 
 

Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez (15-2) vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida (18-5-1) – Lightweight Interim Championship Bout 

El Nino takes the center of the cage and spends the first 3 minutes of round 1 picking apart Ishida’s face with jabs, hooks and crosses.  Ishida shoots for and get a double leg takedown, almost secures a rear naked choke but Gilbert turns it around into his own takedown which is where the round comes to an end.  

Gilbert used his reach in round 2.  Gilbert sprawls on a shot attempt from Ishida and then uses the clinch to administer some dirty boxing and knees.  Gilbert lets his hands fly with bunches of punches to Ishida’s face.  Ishida starts bleeding from the top of his head. Ishida takes heavy knees to the torso with a 1:30 left in round 2. Round 2 ends with another takedown from Melendez, Ishida seems gassed. 

Round 3 opens with Melendez taking the center of the cage again.  The two fighters’ trade punches.  Both fighters are hanging their hands low which is opening them up for punches.  Gilbert takes Ishida down with 3 minutes left and jumps on top of him with a flurry of punches, and knees to the body.  Melendez mounts Ishida’s back delivering furious blows to side of head.  Fight is stopped by Herb Dean because Ishida is not intelligently defending himself.  Gilbert wins fight by TKO at 3:56 in round 3.  Melendez avenges his first loss to Ishida in convincing fashion and remains the STRIKEFORCE Lightweight Interim Champion! And now I'm off to his after party.. I MIGHT post pictures tomorrow. Might.

Mike "Mak" Kyle (12-6-1) vs. Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum (11-4-1) 

Both fighters come out to center of the ring and waste no time throwing kicks and punches.  Werdum shoots for single leg and ends up in Kyle’s guard.  Kyle almost secures arm bar from the bottom on Werdum, the Jiu Jitsu specialist, but Werdum fights out of it gets side control.  Werdum wraps the neck of Kyle with a guillotine choke.  Kyle tries hard to fight out of it but the fight ends a few seconds later by tapout.   

Preliminary Bouts:

Alex Trevino Defeated Isiah Hill via Submission (Side Choke) at 3:56 in the 1^st round

James Terry Defeated Zak Bucia via TKO at 1:23 in the 1^st round

Justin Wilcox Defeated David Douglas via Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) at 3:16 in the 3^rd round

Jay Hieron Defeated Jesse Taylor via Unanimous Decision (30-27 on all three scorecards)

Also,  don't forget to follow me at Twitter.com/MMAHotStuff 

UFC 100 Provisional Numbers

As confirmed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission's Executive Director Keith Kizer; here are the provisional numbers for UFC 100.

Live gate    $5,128,490
Tickets sold    9,793
Comp tickets    1,078
Unsold tickets    0
Closed circuit gate    $312,800
Tickets sold    6,256
Comp tickets    575

We knew UFC 100 was a success and now we see just how much of a success it really was. What I'd like to know is how much did the scalpers make off of the tickets that were resold.

UFC 100 Results

UFC 100 did not disappoint, it was full of great fights, rowdy fans and a little bit of drama. Here are the results at a glance.

Jon Fitch beat Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Brock Lesnar beat Frank Mir via technical knockout at 1.48, round two

Georges St Pierre beat Thiago Alves via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-44, 50-45)

Dan Henderson defeated Michael Bisping via knockout at 3.20, round two

Yoshihiro Akiyama defeated Alan Belcher via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Mark Coleman defeated Stephan Bonnar via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Jim Miller defeated Mac Danzig via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Jon Jones defeated Jake O'Brien via submission (D'Arce choke) at 2.43, round two

Dong-Hyun Kim defeated T.J. Grant via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)

Tom Lawlor defeated CB Dolloway via submission (guillotine choke) at 55 seconds, round one

Shannon Gugerty defeated Matt Grice via submission (guillotine choke) at 2.36, round one

The drama came in a couple different fashions. Dan Henderson worked Michael Bisping and a few fans thought that last punch he landed after Bisping was already out was a bit uncalled for. If you ask me it was just his way of getting the last word in. Bisping sort of set it up by running his mouth a little too much before the fights.

I had picked Thiago Alves to beat Georges St Pierre. I really thought he was going to be the upset pick. While it did go the distance, unfortunately Thiago wasn't able to win even one round. I am happy to see he was able to go the distance and look forward to seeing their next opponents. In my opinion, the 170 lb weight class is a bit shallow compared to the other weight classes.

Yikes the drama-rama of the night award goes to Broke Lesnar (aka Nacho Libre). After beating Frank Mir Brock managed to showcase the WWE still left in him by running his mouth. He said something about a horse shoe up the bum, flipped off the 11,000 or so fans that were booing him and then proceeded to say he was going to go drink a Coors Light not a Bud Light because Bud Light won't pay him. And if that weren't enough he closed his speech by saying something about getting on top of his wife...

The lesson learned tonight my friends is there is always a winner and a loser. But in some cases even the winners are losers. Behavior like Brock's will only tarnish the image of a sport that has been fighting for so long to be more mainstream. It's a shame when a publication as great as MSNBC doesn't really showcase MMA and yet when it does it's highlight is Brock's bad behavior.

To be fair, Brock did apologize during his post fight interview with ESPN MMALive. I'm guessing he got a good talking to after his stupidity. I was also reminded by a fellow MMA writer who said "Don't forget he's new to the sport, give him time." Point made but Brock needs to remember he's no longer in the WWE. MMA/UFC fans are a little smarter and a smidgen classier.

I pushed UFC Fantasy all week. How did you guys do? I ended up at 112 out of 24865...

I can't wait for UFC 101. Philly bound. We should have a tweet up! Don't forget you can follow me at twitter.com/mmahotstuff

Week in Review: UFC WEC And Everything In Between

Hi ladies
wow, where have I been?! My body was kind enough to turn a common cold into bronchitis during the weekend of UFC 98 and forced me to take a week "off". But I'm feeling much better and there has been a lot going on!

While UFC 98 has come and gone I need to fess up and say my picks were ALL WRONG. And to those of you that emailed me to point that out, thanks captain obvious(es) and good job in picking the favorites. I had the pleasure of taking my dad to the fights and he had a great time. While you may have better seats while watching the fights at home there's nothing like feeling the excitement in the arena.

Frankie Edgar did an outstanding job against Sean Sherk and I owe him mad props. While I knew Frankie would do well he showed everyone he is deserving of these great match ups. I'm definitely excited to see what is in store for him!

Ohhh so sad. That Matt Serra vs Matt Hughes fight was the fight I was really looking forward to. Hughes had his hands down half way through the first round. Neither of them did a stellar job, but it was a pretty good fight. I had the first round going to Serra, second round going to Hughes and the third round going to Serra. So when it came down to judge's decision, I really thought Serra had won. And frankly, by the expression and body language of both Hughes and Serra I think they both thought Serra had won as well. Everyone in the crowd around me and my Tweeps (people on Twitter) thought the same thing. I guess as the saying goes "Never Leave It Up To The Judges" is very fitting here in this situation. The judges probably saw something that the rest of us didn't.

The Evans vs Machida fight was great. While I thought Evans would have won the fight it was exciting for sure. When Machida knocked Evans out in the second round seeing Evans buckle like that left my mouth open for two minutes. Perhaps we'll be seeing Lyoto face off with Shogun Rua at UFC 104.

All old news but for me the highlight was not only taking my dad to his first UFC event but seeing him get into it and actually say to me stuff like "What a great take down" and knowing the specific hold and submission names really impressed me. I had a great time with him. Thanks for going dad!

Other news worthy items you should know about:

• Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (24-6-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) will return to the UFC and fight Mostapha Al-Turk (6-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at next weekend's UFC 99 event.
• EA Sports announced they will release a MMA-themed video game "EA Sports MMA" in 2010. This is another sign how mainstream MMA going. Video games will help reach the younger demographic even more than they are now.
• It was announced that Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans are the new coaches for The Ultimate Fighter.
• Tune in to WEC 41 to not only watch Mike Brown defend his title against Urijah Faber but our friend Kenny Florian will be the commentator. Super excited for this card.
• Frank Trigg signed a new deal with the UFC.

June is not only the month of my birthday (33, already?) but it's also a great month for MMA addicts.

EVENTS
June 5th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 10
June 6th - Strikeforce Robbie Lawler vs Jake Shields (oh yeah AND Andrei Arlovski vs Brett Rogers as well as Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith) YAY
June 7th - WEC Mike Brown vs Urijah Faber
June 12th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 11
June 13th - UFC 99 Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva (Marcus Davis vs Dan Hardy also on this card)
June 19th - Strikeforce Challengers: Santos vs Villasenor
June 19th - Bellator Fighting Championships Week 12
June 20th - The Ultimate Fighter Finale 9 (Yes we'll get to see TUF finals but also on the card is Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez  and Nate Diaz vs Joe Daddy Stevenson) WTF Chris Lytle is on the prelim card? Breaks my heart. Hopefully he still tries for fight of the night honors!

All in all a great month for MMA fans. More to come. More frequently I promise.

 

ESPN MMA Live: Episode 47

Miguel Torres will be defending his title against Takeya Mizugaki in his own back yard this Sunday!

Miguel called in talked about not feeling the additional pressure fighting in front of his hometown fans, they're what helped him get where he is today. He also talked about his training preparations.

He also talked about his plans to move up a weight class. I'd LOVE to see this.

Kenny confirmed the fight with BJPenn will in fact be happening and as he announced on KennyFlorian.com looks like UFC 101 August 8^th in Philly.

Lashley joined in and he talks about his performance against Jason Guida. Find out what he thought of his performance also find out if he would fight for the UFC now. Is there a possibility he'll appear on The Ultimate Fighter? Also, find out his thoughts on being compared to Lesnar.

 

Announced/Rumored Fights:

• Forrest Griffin vs Thiago Silva happening at UFC 101
• Matt Hamill vs Brandon Verra UFC 101
• Rousimar Palhares vs Alessio Sakara UFC 99
• "JZ" Cavalvante vs Tatsuya Kawajiri Dream 9
• Gegard Mousasi vs Rameau Sokokjou Dream 9

 

Versus to sign multi-year extension with WEC that could run two more years

--I'd like to see old fights hosted on versus.com.

The crew gave a Fight Night debrief. If you missed the fights check out what they had to say.

Loving the training table series keep it up guys. Although I'm still craving a whopper my way.

UFC 94: ESPN MMA Live Recap with GSP

The MMA Live crew sat down with GSP after his dominating victory over BJ Penn Saturday night at UFC 94. After four rounds with no answer for GSP's game plan or size advantage, Penn's corner had seen enough and called an end to the fight. Hear the MMA Live crew recap the fight and hear GSP's thoughts as well.

UFC 93 Fantasy Results

Okay so I peeked at my fantasy results. I didn't really LOOK to see who won the bouts because I'm hosting a UFC 93 party and I want to see the fights without knowing the outcome.

But I did see that I scored 192 points and ranked 54th out of 20289! Not bad huh! By the way, if you don't believe me my username for UFC Fantasy is MMAHotStuff.

How did you do?

Oh, and check back soon for a list of bars showing UFC 94 Pay Per View.