Lightweight fighter Nate Diaz swarmed to the most significant win of his career in the Ultimate Fighting Championship by landing one punch after another Friday against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone.
Diaz halted Cerrone's string of wins by snapping his head with one punch after another to win a unanimous decision in the co-main event of UFC 141 in Las Vegas. Diaz consistently landed jabs, crosses and straight punches with both hands to rack up a 258-to-66 edge in total strikes, according to statistics from Compustrike.
Cerrone found some success with his legs, especially with strikes to Diaz's legs and the occasional kick to the head. Diaz also hit the deck several times after Cerrone tripped him or swept his leg. Compustrike saw Cerrone landing 31 of 49 leg strikes. (MORE>>>)
Alistair Overeem ended Brock Lesnar's career by winning the battle of heavyweight archetypes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Overeem stopped Lesnar with a technical knockout Friday in the first round of UFC 141's main event in Las Vegas. Lesnar after the fight announced his retirement.
UFC promoted the fight as a match-up of opposites, between Overeem's high-level striking and Lesnar's powerful wrestling. Lesnar was willing to exchange blows in the stand-up game with Overeem and paid the price. (MORE>>>)
Alistair Overeem is a step closer to ensuring his fight versus Brock Lesnar on Dec. 30 will take place as scheduled.
Per the terms of a conditional one-year license issued by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Dec. 12, Overeem submitted a urine sample two days later at an accredited laboratory in the United Kingdom.
The sample was subsequently shipped to a Quest Diagnostics facility in Lenexa, Kan., where testing revealed it was negative for all prohibited substances, according to a statement issued by NSAC executive director Keith Kizer on Tuesday.
That test ended a nearly month-long chain of events, in which Overeem left the United States the day the test was first ordered, submitted a blood test instead of the urine test the Nevada commission requires, then submitted a urine sample which was returned to his doctor untested. (MORE>>>)
While there was some concern after a one-hour television show that contained only 64 seconds of actual fighting, the debut of UFC on Fox on Saturday night drew strong numbers, particularly in the company’s target demographics.
UFC on Fox did a 3.1 rating and 5.7 million viewers for the one-hour broadcast, based on the fast national Nielsen numbers. It was the largest audience ever to watch an MMA television show in the United States, breaking the record of 5.3 million set on Sept. 30, 2009, for an episode of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show on Spike TV featuring a taped match of Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson. (MORE>>>)
On Saturday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship takes one of the most important steps in the promotion’s history, running its first event on network television. Fox offers an opportunity for the burgeoning sport to rise to a new level and cultivate a new base of fans. Taking center stage and fighting to unseat UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is an unlikely challenger.
Junior Dos Santos does not fit the image many casual fans have of a rising sport built on hand to hand combat. He does not have a menacing look or boisterous personality. He does not talk trash about his opponents or wear a threatening scowl. In fact, his defining characteristic may be a warm smile. It’s a personality that makes him easy to like, and it’s hard to find someone in the world of MMA who has a bad word to say about the Brazilian heavyweight. (MORE>>>)
A intriguing middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort (20-9 MMA, 9-4 UFC) and former welterweight Anthony Johnson (10-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) will be part of January's UFC 142 card.
UFC officials today announced that verbal agreements are in place for the fight.
UFC 142 takes place Jan. 14 in Brazil, and Belfort vs. Johnson will be part of a main card expected to air on pay-per-view.
Although UFC officials haven't announced exact details, event sources told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) it'll likely be held at Rio de Janeiro's HSBC Arena, which also hosted UFC 134 in August. (MORE>>>)
Fighting in his home country of Brazil, Jose Aldo will defend his UFC Featherweight Title Jan. 14 in UFC 142 against undefeated fighter Chad Mendes, FOXSports.com has learned.
The fight will pair Aldo’s electrifying style, one punctuated by ferocious flying knees and lighting-quick submissions, against a nuanced ground game Mendes honed as an NCAA Division I wrestler.
That’s the technical stuff. The other side of the fighters’ match, which will be at a venue UFC officials plan to announce in the next week or so, centers on each one’s mentor. (MORE>>>)
In a UFC event that saw multiple, last-minute headlining changes, Nick Diaz out-boxed BJ Penn at Saturday evening’s main event en route to an exciting decision victory over the former two-division champ. Though Penn was able to land a takedown and ground-and-pound the former Strikeforce welterweight champion in the first round, the final ten minutes proved to be too much for the proud Hawaiian. In his first fight back in the UFC since 2006, Diaz was more than impressive, repeatedly landing crisp combos to the head and body of Penn, changing levels fluidly as his opponent’s back was glued to the fence and unable to effectively respond to much of Diaz’s offense in the lopsided second round. Penn managed to keep up with Diaz in the third, earning both fighters “Fight of the Night” bonus checks, but not enough to take home the victory. (MORE>>>)
MMAFrenzy’s coverage of UFC 137 continues as we continue our preview of Saturday’s main card with our main event of the evening, former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz versus former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn.
Be sure to stay tuned to MMAFrenzy for complete coverage of UFC 137, including results, previews, and the MMAFrenzy podcast. (MORE>>>)
Even headlining a Ultimate Fighting Championship card hasn't kept Nick Diaz from feeling seller's remorse.
"If I had my chance to do it over again, I would have gone back to the boxing contract," Diaz said Wednesday. "It would have paid me more money. ... Later on, I'm sure they would have had me back here." (MORE>>>)
When I look at the odds for UFC 137, I keep getting hung up on the fact that Nick Diaz is only a slight underdog to B.J. Penn. Since the fight was announced it seemed to me that this was a very, very good fight for Penn. While it should be exciting, I just don't like Diaz's chances to win.
Without dipping into the always annoying "but anything can happen
in MMA" cliche, what am I missing? Where are Diaz's chances to win so
great that he should only be a slight dog in this fight? (MORE>>>)
Injuries have forced welterweight John Hathaway and heavyweight Oli Thompson off UFC 138, which is scheduled for Nov. 5 in Birmingham, England.
The announcement was made Monday on UFC’s website. The nature of the
injuries suffered by Hathaway and Thompson was not disclosed.
Hathaway is a native of Brighton Sussex, England. He was set to face Matt Brown. (MORE>>>)
Former UFC interim heavyweight champion Shane Carwin announced on his web site Saturday that he has suffered another back injury.
Carwin expects the injury to sideline him until next year.
“As I ramped up my training for UFC 141, my back locked up,” Carwin
said. “It wasn’t like the [Brock] Lesnar fight, but my back just
tightened up and I froze.
“I scheduled an MRI and the results showed that my disc in my lower
back is into the nerves. My doctor gave me two options: retire and I
could probably go on for a few years without surgery or I could undergo
surgery and continue fighting. (MORE>>>)
Assuming the English translation we’ve been given is accurate, it was admittedly a bit jarring to see reports of Anderson Silva’s longtime manager, Ed Soares, casually telling a Brazilian media outlet the middleweight champion “only has around four fights left in his career.”
Yet before we all start weeping over the swan song of the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter, it’s important to keep some perspective on exactly what Soares means when he says “four more fights.” (MORE>>>)
It's not often that fans of mixed martial arts are given the chance to watch two of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport on one card. At UFC 136, fans were given that chance with UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Both men were already considered two of the best in the sport, but where do they stand when it comes to the best pound for pound fighters? (MORE>>>)
Chael Sonnen looked like he hadn't missed a day in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Sonnen elicited a tapout from fellow top-10 middleweight Brian Stann in the second round of their bout at UFC 136 in Houston. It was Sonnen's first fight since losing 14 months ago to middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
A head-and-arm choke forced Stann to give up, not long after Sonnen took him down with authority to start the round. (MORE>>>)