Archive for the ‘ UFC 87 ’ Category

We were turned onto this little nugget of awesomeness by Steve Cofield of Yahoo! Sports and ESPN Radio in Las Vegas.

Prior to the weigh-ins for UFC 87 in Minnesota, UFC President Dana White conducted a Q&A with members of the UFC’s “Fight Club.”

Usually, “Fight Club” members are UFC loyalists who are some of the most passionate people about the product I have ever met. However, a dissenter infiltrated their ranks in the form of a 29-year old fan from Toronto who has been dubbed “Crazy Corrie”

Corrie is a die-hard Tito Ortiz fan and also a Randy Couture supporter. Somehow she was given a mic during the Q&A and vented her frustrations on Dana.

This is must-see video, folks!

Last time when we posted WWE play-by-play announcer Jim Ross’ critique of a UFC pay-per-view event, it was one of our most read articles for the month. Well, Ross is back at it again, this time with an even more thorough critique of UFC 87.

I wanted to post some of his thoughts again. As a huge Ross fan, I marked out recently when we were on the same flight from Philadelphia to Dallas last month. It was pretty early in the morning, so I didn’t want to disturb him. Early morning flights after you worked late the night before are the worst. It was still pretty cool getting to sit one row behind the guy (he was the last row in first class, I was in the first row of coach).

While reading his thoughts, please keep in mind that Ross is a pro wrestling-man who has been involved with that industry almost his entire adult life. He is also a former WWE Vice President of Talent Relations and admittedly is more fan than expert when it comes to MMA. None-the-less, I still think his perspective is very interesting.

On various production elements (morphed by me into one paragraph):

The pre-show interviews from the key participants felt unnecessary. After watching the 30 minute pre pay per view show, I felt like I had heard the material enough already. Let’s get to business. … But if pre show interviews are going to be used, the UFC should consider identifying the interviewees with graphics. … The sponsor signs in the fighter’s corners has got to go. Or classed up. Something. … Announcers (Mike) Goldberg and (Joe) Rogan always do a solid job and I enjoy listening to them because it is clear that they thoroughly prepare for which I have ample respect…. I do think that they could lay out more especially on the fighter’s entrances so we fans at home can hear the natural ambiance. I like to hear boos, cheers, catcalls and all the other unique sounds that come from an atmosphere like Target Center was Saturday night. … It’s easy to get too familiar with the Harley Davidson spiel…”only motorcycle worthy of being in the Octagon.” Please tweak the copy so I don’t tune out when I hear it. That’s not the purpose. … The UFC needs a 3rd voice, a voice over guy, to read the copy for the fighter’s packages and any thing else they can take off Mike Goldberg’s plate. Doing play by play is plenty even with a partner like Joe Rogan. … The broadcasters having to sell live event tickets during the action of the final two matches was distracting. Having been there I understand one reads what they are produced to read but from a fan’s perspective it annoyed me. Sell tickets between bouts or just use a graphic and no audio sell but keep the main event (s) clean. …Post match interviews on these events are often times a train wreck. That may be a good thing for some but for my two cents this aspect of the presentation needs addressing.

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Steve Cofield from Yahoo! Sports and ESPN Radio in Las Vegas is reporting that last night’s post-UFC 87 press conference at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. was a buzz about the UFC possibly looking to match Brock Lesnar in his next fight vs. Cheick Kongo.

“The word swirling around the media room was that UFC may try to make a Cheick Kongo-Lesnar fight next,” writes Cofield.

Lesnar evened his UFC record to 1-1 following a three-round unanimous decision over Heath Herring in one of the night’s featured attractions. In an undercard match that was moved to the pay-per-view broadcast on a tape-delay basis, Kongo finished UFC newcomer Dan “The Viking” Evensen off via TKO towards the end of round 1.

Kongo and Herring actually fought each other this past March, with Herring winning their UFC 82 matchup via split decision in a fight where both competitors looked impressive. Despite losing to Herring, Kongo would pose an intriguing test for Lesnar. Kongo is still relatively new to MMA and would be vulnerable on the ground. However, he could possibly dominate the standup portion of the fight.

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Last night’s UFC 87 event from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. proved to be yet another strong showing from the UFC with very few negatives involved with the promotion and production of the show.

The event saw two of the promotion’s biggest stars walk away victorious in fights that went to the judges yet whose outcomes were never truly in doubt.

Lesnar, the former NCAA and WWE heavyweight champion, got off to an explosive start against Heath Herring, blasting him with an overhand right early in the fight that floored the former PRIDE veteran. Lesnar, who once spent training camp with the Minnesota Vikings, then exploded like a defensive end coming off the edge on a blitz and went in for the kill.

An over-zealous Lesnar landed out of position and was unable to finish Herring during the opening seconds of the fight. However, what proceeded was three rounds of dominance, with Lesnar showing he could take Herring down at will. When it was over, Lesnar evened his UFC record to 1-1 while improving his overall MMA record to 2-1. It is unclear who he’ll face next, but Lesnar showed all the ingredients of a future heavyweight champion during the unanimous decision victory.

While former NCAA wrestler Jon Fitch proved he was the number two ranked welterweight in the world last night with a gritty performance, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre proved there is a strong gap between number one and two. Despite having no formal wrestling background in high school or college, St. Pierre proved to be Fitch’s equal on the mat.

On the feet, Fitch was no match for St. Pierre’s superior athleticism. Despite showing a strong chin and an amazing will to fight with less than his full faculties, Fitch was out-pointed in the standup aspect for virtually the full 25-minute duration of the contest. It was St. Pierre’s utilization of a stiff left jab, reminiscent of how B.J. Penn peppered Sean Sherk during their UFC 84 title fight in May, that appeared to have done the most damage. However, the standup exchange was not one-sided, as Fitch landed his shots as well, managing to open up St. Pierre in the process. But when the bout was done, it was evident by looking at the faces of both fighters that Fitch clearly sustained the most damage.

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UFC 87 Awards & Bonuses

MMA Weekly has their hands on the UFC 87 Awards and Bonus figures for the night. They are as follows:

  • Jon Fitch and Georges St. Pierre each pocketed an extra $60,000 for Fight of the Night following their five round war for the welterweight title.
  • Demian Maia was awarded Submission of the Night and also pocketed an extra $60,000 for his rear naked choke submission against Jason MacDonald in the opening bout of the pay-per-view portion of the show.
  • Rob Emerson was awarded Knockout of the Night and also took home an extra $60,000 for his brutal 12 second knockout victory over TUF 5 castmate Manny Gamburyan.

UFC 87 Thoughts & Commentary

UFC 87 is now in the books and it was one of the best shows, if not the best show, all year. Georges St. Pierre defended his title against an incredibly game Jon Fitch, Brock Lesnar proved his worth against Heath Herring, and Roger Huerta failed to do the same against a technical Kenny Florian. Let’s get right into breaking it down.

Georges St. Pierre is on another level at 170 lbs.

Jon Fitch proved tonight that he is a man’s man and has zero quit in him. His tenacity, recovery speed, and aggression were all extremely admirable. What he also showed is that no one, and I mean no one, in the weight class has what it takes to contend with St. Pierre’s overall game. Standing or on the ground, St. Pierre is dominant. If he can’t finish you with his strikes, he will take you down. If he can’t take you down, he’ll work you over on the feet. He is as multi-dimensional of a fighter as there is in all of mixed martial arts right now and that includes the current consensus pound-for-pound king, Anderson Silva. No one in the weight class has a prayer right now to beat him. Not Thiago Alves, not Jake Shields, not Karo Parisyan, nobody. B.J. Penn is the only fighter with a sliver of a chance and with Penn’s in-ring challenge after the fight, it’s looking like we’ll get to see that superfight sooner than later, hopefully in December.

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One of the big storylines going into Saturday night’s event wasn’t whether or not Georges St. Pierre would defend his crown against Jon Fitch. Nor was it the question of whether or not Roger Huerta would step up to the plate and win in his toughest fight in the UFC to date. Instead, it was the most overlooked storyline, whether or not Brock Lesnar would record a victory over a legitimate heavyweight and prove his worth in the UFC, that was answered with a resounding “yes.”

Brock Lesnar dominated Heath Herring from start to finish on Saturday night, setting the tone of the fight by dropping Herring on his rear end with a crushing right hand to his left eye in the opening seconds of round one. From there, it was all Lesnar for the rest of the fight.

Lesnar controlled Herring’s back for most of the fight with Herring absorbing a massive amount of punishment from Lesnar’s boulder-sized fists and a ridiculous amount of knees to the body. Herring proved his worth as one of the best gatekeepers in all of MMA, taking a beating and not folding. Herring has taken beatings from some of the world’s best heavyweights and this one was just another day at the office in his book.

Herring tried valiantly to escape Lesnar’s top control but was largely unable to do so and in the end, Lesnar came away with a dominant victory, sending his record to 2-1 and proving to the MMA world that he belongs in the UFC. Time will only tell what’s next for Lesnar as the UFC’s heavyweight division isn’t as strong as it used to be but he certainly proved to the doubters tonight that he is for real.

UFC 87 Quick Results

Main Card:

  • Georges St. Pierre def. Jon Fitch via Unanimous Decision
  • Brock Lesnar def. Heath Herring via Unanimous Decision
  • Rob Emerson def. Manny Gamburyan via Knockout Rd 1. (12 secs into round 1)
  • Kenny Florian def. Roger Huerta via Unanimous Decision
  • Demian Maia def. Jason MacDonald via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) Rd 3.

Undercard:

  • Tamdan McCrory def. Luke Cummo via Unanimous Decision
  • Cheick Kongo def. Dan Evensen via TKO (Strikes) Rd 1.
  • Jon Jones def. Andre Gusmao via Unanimous Decision
  • Chris Wilson def. Steve Bruno via Unanimous Decision
  • Ben Saunders def. Ryan Thomas via Submission (armbar) Rd 2.

We will be bringing you our coverage of UFC 87 tonight with our patented LIVE chat , plus we’ll be updating the fight results as they happen. Five Ounces of Pain will be your destination for everything UFC 87 this weekend so keep this page bookmarked and be sure to join other 5 Oz. readers, staff, and other MMA fans tonight! Click the link below to enter the chat!

WHEN: Tonight, Saturday, August 9th, 8:00 PM ET

WHERE: Five Ounces Of Pain LIVE Results and Chat!

Main Card:

  • Georges St. Pierre def. Jon Fitch via Unanimous Decision
  • Brock Lesnar def. Heath Herring via Unanimous Decision
  • Rob Emerson def. Manny Gamburyan via Knockout Rd 1. (12 secs into round 1)
  • Kenny Florian def. Roger Huerta via Unanimous Decision
  • Demian Maia def. Jason MacDonald via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) Rd 3.

Undercard:

  • Tamdan McCrory def. Luke Cummo via Unanimous Decision
  • Cheick Kongo def. Dan Evensen via TKO (Strikes) Rd 1.
  • Jon Jones def. Andre Gusmao via Unanimous Decision
  • Chris Wilson def. Steve Bruno via Unanimous Decision
  • Ben Saunders def. Ryan Thomas via Submission (armbar) Rd 2.

(Photo courtesy of MMAjunkie.com)

UFC President Dana White has done a ton of media for tonight’s UFC 87 event to take place from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

During the press tour, which includes his own video blog, TV, radio, and press conference appearances, he has made several intriguing statements.

There are four particular quotes from White that I’ve found to be extremely intriguing:

On Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s current legal situation:

“That one is out there like, ‘He hit her and she lost her baby.’ It was a week later. He knocked her mirror off her car. Rampage said, and he’ll tell you when you talk to him, ‘I care about everybody. I care about all life. I would never hurt anybody.’

“That’s the way he is. Now he’s in a situation where somebody’s trying to civil sue him and make some money. Absolutely not. Absolutely not, this is not a criminal thing. No way. I’m no lawyer and I’m no judge, (but) this stuff will be worked out in the court.”

Regarding Roger Huerta and his recent comments in FIGHT! mazgine:

“Roger Huerta’s a guy who’s been reading the headlines a little too much. You get out there and promote the guy and he’s like, “Look at all the papers I’m in, look at all the promotion I’m getting, I want a lot more money.’ Well he hasn’t fought anybody to get the money yet. He beats Kenny Florian, that’s a whole different ballgame.

“Roger Huerta has contract problems? What’s his contract problem? He signed a contract, he’s under contract, when his contract is up he’ll re-negotiate a new one. … What he was bitching about was doing PR. In his thing he said, ‘They got me out there doing PR.’ Yeah, moron. How do you think you make money? You don’t make money unless people know who you are and want to see you fight. Am I supposed to pay Roger Huerta to go out and do PR? Is that how it works?

“That’s not how it works. When Oscar De La Hoya fights, he’s on Leno and Letterman. The night before his fight, he weighs in in Las Vegas, and then flies to Los Angeles to do PR for the fight. Because he makes more money. Because he becomes more popular and more people want to see him fight. …What happens is these guys turn into pussies, is what happens.”

On Tim Sylvia during a recent edition of Tagg Radio:

“Look, we cut Tim Sylvia, he couldn’t cut it in the UFC anymore…. Tim has been boring people for years, I was glad to get rid of him.”

On the real reason why the UFC signed Mirko Cro Cop away from PRIDE:

“Fifty times we thought it was over and we were buying PRIDE, then we hear they were talking to these guys and these guys and kept string us along. So when Mirko Cro Cop’s deal came up, we went after Mirko aggressively, signed him, and that really started to unravel PRIDE. He was really tight with them, so once we were able to take him away, all the other fighters started talking to us too. And that was basically the last nail in the coffin for those guys. It was really a business move to buy PRIDE. That’s why we signed Cro Cop.

“It wasn’t like we brought Cro Cop in and thought he was going to take over the heavyweight division or anything. I think that’s what the fans thought — the hardcore fans who really knew a lot about PRIDE — but it was a business move to kill PRIDE.”

Over the past week, Canadian-middleweight Jason “The Athlete” MacDonald has been covering the happenings at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy on his blog at Sportsnet.ca.

In his most recent post, MacDonald discussed his upcoming bout with Demian Maia and how a lot of fans are focusing solely on Maia’s jiu-jitsu skills. MacDonald said, “Everyone’s talking about Maia’s jiu-jitsu, and there’s no doubt he’s a superb jiu-jitsu fighter. But I’m not going to turn this into a jiu-jitsu fight. I’m going to make this a mixed martial arts fight. That’s the bottom line. So, my prediction: I’ll TKO Maia in the second round.”

MacDonald is entering the fight as a +220 underdog but he feels he’ll flourish in the role. The last time the UFC considered MacDonald a stepping stone he submitted The Ultimate Fighter alumni Chris “The Crippler” Leben and Ed “Short Fuse” Herman.

MacDonald is currently 4-2 in the UFC but has failed to secure the necessary wins to consider him a legit contender. MacDonald’s two defeats came to former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin and Yushin Okami.

Another interesting note from MacDonald’s blog was that he used an IV to re-hydrate following Friday’s weigh-ins. “Afterward, when I got back to the hotel, I actually got an IV, which is I believe is one of the safest ways to re-hydrate,” said MacDonald, “I was probably already back up to 200 pounds by the evening.”

We’ve posted a ton of UFC 87-related content over the past several days and in case you missed it, I wanted to summarize what we have waiting for you:

My UFC 87 Preview: Complete with predictions on the entire card

Weigh-in coverage: Video of the weigh-ins and the actual written results

UFC 87 Pain Poll: Our entire staff breaks down the event

5 Oz of Pain Presents: The Duel: Luke Thomas of BloodyElbow.com and Jordan Breen of Sherdog.com star in this special star-studded UFC 87 edition

Our entire UFC 87-content catalog: Click here and celebrate it much the same way the two Bobs in “Office Space” celebrate Michael Bolton’s entire catalog. Seriously though, Adam Morgan posted a ton of UFC 87 video and this is where you can see it.

If anything breaks during the day, we’ll have it here. And be sure to check back tonight and tomorrow for full results and analysis.

Enjoy the fights!

Dana White talks about this weekend’s event, the future for Brock Lesnar if he loses, and about his video blog. Turns out that it was Lorenzo Fertitta’s idea.

Official UFC 87 weigh-in results

Courtesy of the UFC’s official site.

All fighters made weight and the show is good to go for Saturday night:

  • Georges St. Pierre (170) vs. Jon Fitch (170)
  • Heath Herring (250) vs. Brock Lesnar (265)
  • Roger Huerta (155) vs. Kenny Florian (155)
  • Demian Maia (185) vs. Jason MacDonald (185)
  • Manny Gamburyan (155) vs. Rob Emerson (155)
  • Tamdan McCrory (170) vs. Luke Cummo (167)
  • Cheick Kongo (235) vs. Dan Evensen (244)
  • Andre Gusmao (205) vs. Jon Jones (205)
  • Steve Bruno (170) vs. Chris Wilson (170)
  • Ben Saunders (170) vs. Ryan Thomas (170)