This weekend saw UFC Fight Night 58: Lyoto Machida vs. C.B. Dollaway as well as the annual Grapple at the Garden event. I’ll break down both events for this week’s edition of the Monday Morning Analyst (MMA).
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ALBUQUERQUE, NM — By now it’s pretty clear the promotional angles for UFC 182 differ greatly from those of most other major UFC pay-per-views.
The biggest culprit for that is the chain of events that took place in early August, when a scuffle between light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier tumbled off the stage in the MGM Grand, then continued in expletive-laden form as the two bickered across a live (but assumedly off-the-record) television signal for a majority of the afternoon.
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Welcome to episode 2 of The Monday Morning Analyst (MMA). This week I break down the results and famous fights in the weekend. We look at three occasions this time: Invicta 10, RFA 21 and UFC 181.
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LAS VEGAS – Over a decade after huge things were called for him, “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler is ultimately a UFC winner.
In a plodding, razor thin fight on Saturday night, the American Top Team combatant summoned within the last two rounds to claim the UFC welterweight championship from Johny Hendricks at UFC 181. The scores were 48-47, 47-48, and an uneven 49-46 in a split decision in the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
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this is actually the UFC 181 live blog for Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler 2, a welterweight fight at Saturday night’s UFC event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday nightHendricks, who has won four of his previous five fights, will confront Lawler, who has won four of his previous five fights, in the main event. Take a look at the UFC 181 live blog below.
More Coverage: UFC 181 Results | UFC newsDownload MMA Fighting iPhone App
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this is actually the UFC 181 live blog for Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez, a lightweight fight at Saturday night’s UFC event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday nightPettis, who has won four of his previous five fights, will confront Melendez, who’s 1-1 in the UFC, on the primary card. Take a look at the UFC 181 live blog below.
More Coverage: UFC 181 Results | UFC newsDownload MMA Fighting iPhone App
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LAS VEGAS – Travis Browne directed the old school fashion of combatants like Mark Coleman on Saturday night.
Browne used some schoolyard-bully earthandpound to finish off Brendan Schaub at UFC 181. Referee Mario Yamasaki called off the heavyweight fight in the Mandalay Bay Events Center at 4:50 of the first round.
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this is actually the UFC 181 live blog for Travis Browne vs. Brendan Schaub, a heavyweight fight at Saturday night’s UFC event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday nightBrowne, who has won three of his previous five fights, will confront Schaub, who has won two of his previous five fights, on the primary card. Take a look at the UFC 181 live blog below.
More Coverage: UFC 181 Results | UFC newsDownload MMA Fighting iPhone App
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this is actually the UFC 181 live blog for Todd Duffee vs. Anthony Hamilton, a heavyweight fight at Saturday night’s UFC event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday nightDuffee, who has not fought in the UFC in nearly two years, will confront Hamilton, who’s 1-1 in his UFC profession, on the primary card. Take a look at the UFC 181 live blog below.
More Coverage: UFC 181 Results | UFC newsDownload MMA Fighting iPhone App
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Here Is the UFC 181 live blog for Tony Ferguson vs. Abel Trujillo, a lightweight fight at Saturday night’s UFC event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday nightFerguson, who has won four of his previous five fights, will confront Trujillo, who’s 3-1-1 in his previous five fights, on the primary card.
Check out the UFC 181 live blog below.
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LAS VEGAS – In the opening seconds of the UFC 181 lightweight fight, Abel Trujillo dropped Tony Ferguson straight to the mat using a strong right hand.
For a split second, it seemed like it might be short work for Trujillo in the Mandalay Bay Events Center. But not only did Ferguson survive the opening onslaught, the TUF 13 winner summoned for the largest win of his career.
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LAS VEGAS – An obvious eye poke price Francisco Rivera dearly in his UFC 181 fight against Urijah Faber on Saturday night.
Rivera was holding his own against the previous WEC featherweight champion in the 2nd round of the bantamweight fight in the Mandalay Bay Events Center when he caught an inadvertent finger in a person’s eye from Faber.
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LAS VEGAS – Josh Samman requested a fight at UFC 181 in honor of his late girlfriend, Hailey, whose birthday could have been this weekend.
Granted a chance, Samman made the the majority of his opportunity. The 26-year old middleweight from Miami knocked TUF 19 victor Eddie Gordon chilly in the Mandalay Bay Events Center having a head kick. The time was 3:08 of round two.
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UFC 181 weigh in pictures are for the UFC event this coming Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in vegas, Nevada. In the main event, UFC welterweight champ Johny Hendricks squares off against Robbie Lawler. In the co-main event, UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis defends his title against Gilbert Melendez.
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The ‘Countdown to UFC 181′ takes a closer look at the approaching UFC 181 occasion this Saturday night in the Mandalay Bay Events Center in vegas, Nev.In the main event, Johny Hendricks defends his UFC welterweight title in a rematch against Robbie Lawler. Anthony Pettis will attempt to keep his UFC title in the co-main event against Gilbert Melendez.
Anthony Pettis vs. Gilbert Melendez
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Bellator lightweight champion Will Brooks has not seen his family since last Thanksgiving. Obviously, back then, he was not Bellator lightweight winner. A lot has changed for the burgeoning ability and as he heads home for christmas as the corporation ‘s undisputed lightweight champ, he recognizes this previous year continues to be one long, odd, but executing journey.
“it is insane. Brooks did not actually think of it like that, but yeah, it is accurate. It is been a tremendous reversal of occasions for me personally in this previous year,” Brooks told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s The MMA Hour. “Brooks believe I must credit that to being patient, being willing to give that time with being my family in Illinois and making your decision to move out here to Florida and train at American Top Team. I have made plenty of sacrifices this previous year, year along with a half. It is worthwhile. It actually brought me to where I’m now. I am happy I made the choices I made.”
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Never a lack of issues, is there?
it is the Wednesday after three largely important occasions in the realm of combat sports. Metamoris 5 took place on Saturday, with MMA stars Jake Shields and Rory MacDonald turning in good functionality in their very own right. There was a lackluster main event, but most of the card ended up having worth.
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Metamoris 5, Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri, and UFC Fight Night 57: Frankie Edgar vs. Cub Swanson all took place this past Saturday. I break down the activity from all three occasions as well as the highlights and lowlights on this particular introduction episode of ‘The MMA (Monday Morning Analyst)’.
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A new form of fighting as a television spectacle was announced at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday, with some major names in Japanese combat sports and entertainment behind it.
The new promotion is called “Ganryujima,” which is named after a small Japanese island best known as the site of a duel to the death in 1612 between legendary master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (who the former kickboxer was named after) and Sasaki Kojiro. In more recent times, the island was used for televised pro wrestling spectacular grudge matches held without a ring or cage, known as Jungle Death matches.
Sadaharu Tanikawa, who ran the K-1 kickboxing promotion from 2003 until its closing in 2012, will be heading the promotion, which is being backed by the Fuji Network. The Fuji Network is one of the major networks in Japan. They ran prime time spectacles during the heyday of the Pride Fighting Championships, until canceling due to a scandal when it came out publicly that there was organized crime backing of the group. The Yakuza taint of Pride killed the promotion, as no other television network would touch the shows, even though ratings were still strong, and even after it was sold to Zuffa. It has not aired any fighting sports events for the past seven years.
Sports like kickboxing and MMA have continued to exist in Japan. UFC events at the Saitama Super Arena have drawn well, but to the general public, interest faded in both sports.
The rules explained at the press conference in Tokyo are that it will be a MMA fighting, but without submissions. The matches will be held in a flat circle, similar to sumo, with no ring or a cage. Punching will be allowed on the ground. Wrestling is allowed, but submissions are eliminated. There will be quick stand-ups from lack of punching on the ground, as the ground work will be allowed only if their is an attempt to finish the fight.
According to those close to the promotion, the mentality behind this is to attract a casual fan audience. Their belief is a cage is not general public friendly in Japan, and that extended ground work is boring to the public.
It’s more a spectacle, attempting to use people who already have names in Japan, and do celebrity fights and freak show fights, which worked for a period for ratings purposes. However, they were overdone and interest faded in them, but it has been years since they were done. The mentality was an attempt to produce a fighting surface and rules that sumos, the most famous combat sports athletes in Japan, can compete in. Attempts to use sumos in kickboxing and MMA worked for ratings purposes during Japan’s MMA boom, but they were unable to win many fights, so interest in them fighting faded over time.
Among those involved with the promotion are Hiroshi Hase, its Chief Director, a current senator in Japan whose background included wrestling in the 1984 Olympics and being a Hall of Fame pro wrestler; Masato, Japan’s best-known kickboxer whose retirement coincided with the ending of K-1 as he was its last native superstar; and Shinichi Shinohara, a silver medalist in the 2000 Olympics in judo.
The first show will be Feb. 28, which will air on Fuji’s satellite station, which is not that significant because satellite penetration in Japan is limited. But the top executives of Fuji are looking at building the group up to where they have a major network spectacular on Dec. 31, 2015. Fighting on New Year’s Eve was a tradition on the network for many years, until Fuji got out of the fighting business over the scandal.
The past few years, the Fuji Network brought in fighting celebrities like Bob Sapp, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Kazushi Sakuraba and many others for arm-wrestling and tug-of-war tournaments that aired on New Years Eve. In Japan, New Years Eve is the biggest television night of the year and the feeling is that gimmick has run its course and fights on network television are new again.
The initial reaction of the Japanese fighting sports media was strongly negative, particularly when Hase tied in the Ganryujima name with his pro wrestling death match on the island..
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The 2015 UFC schedule was released by UFC officials during their “Time is Now” press conference in Las Vegas on Monday.
There will be 45 total events. There will be 13 pay-per-view events, four events on UFC on FOX, 18 events on FOX Sports 1, and 10 events on UFC Fight Pass.
The UFC calendar will kick off with UFC 182 where Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight title against Daniel Cormier on Jan. 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.
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