When Luiz Cane was destroyed by Antonio Rogerio
Nogueira this past November at UFC 106, no one was more shocked by the
result than "Banha," himself.
His lone prior loss was via disqualification after blasting James Irvin
with an illegal knee at UFC 79 in December 2007.
But Nogueira outstruck the brawling Cane and earned a TKO in just 1:56.
With Cane now scheduled to face French striker Cyrille Diabate at UFC 114 in May, the Brazilian slugger said he's working
on a complete retooling effort to address the lessons learned against
Nogueira.
Day’s after a bout between Alessio Sakara (15-7) and Nate Marquardt (29-9-2) was announced for UFC 116 in Las Vegas, it was canceled just as quickly.
Sakara had to withdraw from the bout due to the passing of his Father according to F4Wonline.com.
No official word has come down from the UFC whether or not Marquardt will remain on the card but all signs point to yes.
Italian born fighter Sakara had earned three straight bouts and is 6-4 with one no contest in his UFC career. He’s coming off a TKO victory win against James Irvin at UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones in March.
Marquardt will look to rebound from a loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC 109 when he meets his next opponent. The fight with Sonnen earned both men the “Fight of the Night” honors, his second award after winning the “Knockout of the Night” against Demian Maia at UFC 102.
Two more bouts look close to being finalized for this July’s UFC 116 event with a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt (29-9-2) vs. Alessio Sakara (15-7) and a heavyweight matchup featuring “TUF 10″ finalist Brendan Schaub (5-1) vs. Chris Tuchscherer (18-2) making the show.
UFC 116 will take place on July 3rd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will air on pay-per-view.
Bout agreements are in place for both fights but have yet to be finalized.
Middleweight Marquardt is looking to erase a loss after dropping a unanimous decision to Chael Sonnen at UFC 109. The fight against Sonnen helped to earn Nate “The Great” his second “Fight Night” honor after both men were awarded the “Fight of the Night” award and was also given the “Knockout of the Night” award for KOing Demian Maia at UFC 102. Marquardt had won three straight before the loss to Sonnen which included victories over Maia, Wilson Gouveia, and Martin Kampmann.
Marquardt will meet a fighter riding a three fight win streak in Sakara who earned a TKO victory over James Irvin at UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones event. He won a split-decision over Thales Leites last summer at UFC 101. Sakara has won nine of his fifteen victories by knockout.
Schaub earned his first UFC victory in his last fight by KOing Chase Gormley in 47 seconds at UFC on Versus 1 in March. He was a member of “The Ultimate Fighter” season 10 and faced Roy Nelson in the finals in December. He was KO’d by the former IFL champ in the first round to lose the Finale. All of Schuab’s victories have come via knockout and lasted no longer than 1 minute and 27 seconds.
Tuchscherer is 1-1 in the UFC like his opponent Schaub, and erased a loss in his debut by earning a majority decision over Canadian Tim Hague at UFC 109. The Minnesota Martial Arts Academy fighter has been known to train alongside heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. Tuchscherer suffered an unfortunate loss in his debut after taking a crippling kick to the groin by Gabriel Gonzaga.
The current rumored UFC 116 card appears as follows:
- Brock Lesnar vs. interim champ Shane Carwin (heavyweight title-unification bout)*
- Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Wanderlei Silva*
- Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos*
- Nate Marquardt vs. Alessio Sakara*
- Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson*
- Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer*
- Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski*
- Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle*
- Kendall Grove vs. TBA*
- Goran Reljic vs. TBA*
The finishing touches are currently being put in place to make a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt and Alessio Sakara official for UFC 116.
The news of the bout was recently reported by MMAjunkie.com.
UFC 116 is expected to take place on July 3 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas while airing live on pay-per-view. Brock Lesnar is slated to face off with Shane Carwin in the main event of the evening to crown an undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.
Marquardt will be entering the match-up on the heels of a one-sided unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Chael Sonnen after going on a three-fight winning streak in the UFC middleweight division, while Sakara will be looking to improve upon a three fight win streak in the UFC that has included victories over the likes of Joe Vedepo, Thales Leites and James Irvin.
UFC middleweight fighter Alessio Sakara (15-7-1) is fresh off-of a victory at the “UFC Live: Vera vs. Jones” event, defeating opponent James Irvin via TKO (punch) in the first round.
Speaking to Tatame.com, Sakara wants to face a big name in his next bout and has his eyes on British fighter Michael Bisping.
“The UFC didn’t say anything about it yet, but a fight against Bisping would be great. I’m coming up step by step, one day I wanna fight for the title. I have to show I deserve to get in the mix”.
“I knew I was faster than him (Irvin), I trained hard for that, but I didn’t knew the victory would come that fast…Before, I put so many pressure in myself. Now, I do my job without any pressure”.
What NOT to say during a live UFC broadcast. I’d have to say if I was making a list of phrases not to utter during the commentary portion of a live mixed martial arts event, “He’s getting molested” would have to be near the top of the list. Any of you guys that caught last weekend’s inaugural “UFC on Versus” event know what I’m talking about? It happened during the Cheick Kongo vs. Paul Buentello mauling.
Here’s a play-by-play of the play-by play:
Goldberg: I don’t know how much more Buentello can take, Joe.
Rogan: Oh, he can take it all night. The thing is; will Herb Dean let him? He’s getting molested.
Goldberg: You must intelligently defend yourself.
Right off the bat, I feel like Joe Rogan is the best in the business at what he does, so this is in no way an attack on one of my admitted personal favorite commentators in the sport. If anything, it’s a plea to the entire mixed martial arts community to NOT make this some kind of trendy MMA slang.
Let me ask you guys something: What is the first thing that pops into your noodle when you hear the word “molested”? For myself, it’s nearly impossible not to associate the term with unwanted sexual acts with a minor; one of the lowest and most unforgivable offenses on the earth.
I understand when you’re kicking back with your boys watching a UFC it may get a few chuckles when you joke that one fighter is raping his opponent, but in my opinion, molestation jokes have no place or time where they are funny; and that absolutely includes a commentating microphone of a major mixed martial arts event with more than one million eyes and ears watching and listening.
It may not be pretty to listen to, but I’ll take a good old fashioned Lampley meltdown(see video below) over a molestation reference any day of the week.
Playing the game? Many of you guys heard Herb Dean tell Paul Buentello that he was doing just that after taking a set of knees to the Chiclets from Cheick Kongo during the pair’s “UFC on Versus” tussle.
So what is this “playing the game”? Well, it was described by Joe Rogan during the broadcast as a situation where Buentello had both hands off the canvas, but when he saw that he was going to catch a knee to the dome, he put his hand down on the mat to make the knee illegal. And that’s exactly what it is. I’ve heard “Big” John McCarthy giving other fighters the same warning in UFC’s past, so it’ nothing new to the sport.
My beef with this instance of “playing the game” is that fact that “The Headhunter” was supposedly “playing the game” for a full four seconds before catching some tough love in the form of a knee to the face from Kongo while technically “downed” (one hand on the mat) before Dean deemed that Buentello was basically at fault. Buentello puts his hand on the canvas at 1:43 of round two, takes the first knee to the head at 1:40, and the second at 1:39. To me, that’s not playing the game, but getting illegally bludgeoned.
I could be wrong, but my interpretation of “playing the game” has always been when a fighter attempts to put his hand down just as the knee is about to hit him, and not four or five seconds after the fighter has touched his palm to the mat. I don’t feel like a fighter is “playing the game” after having his hand on the canvas for two seconds or longer. That’s plenty of time for both a skilled referee and the opposing fighter to see what’s going on.
The rules are there for a reason – to protect the fighter – but with the sport being as young as it is in the grand scheme of things, sometimes it seems like we’re making things up as we go. Like when you’re playing touch football with your buddies back in grade school and some wise-ass decides to change the rules in the middle of the game. What is that? Unfortunately for Buentello, he couldn’t just take his ball and go home.
You can’t call “timeout” in MMA. You just can’t. Have you guys ever seen or been in a fight where someone is getting their lunch money taken from them and they decide it’s time to call “time”? You can’t do that. That is so against the rules of fighting that it’s not even funny.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I saw two men that seemed to call “time” during last weekend’s “UFC on Versus” card. The subjects in question: Paul Buentello and James Irvin.
First it was Irvin who freaked out when he took a “for real punch” to the eye. I was shocked when referee Josh Rosenthal informed James Irvin that he had five minutes to recover from being punched directly in the face from the fist of Alessio Sakara. Luckily, some sense was eventually made of the unfortunate situation and Irvin was informed – rightfully – that he had basically submitted from a punch to the face.
Then it was Buentello who turned away from Cheick Kongo when his finger was jarred out of socket. I have no doubt that the injury must have been excruciatingly painful due to Buentello limping around the Octagon following the digit disaster, but the fight should have been waved off right then and there, just like the Irvin fight.
Long story short, if an injury occurs in MMA from anything other than a foul, it’s a wrap. No “timeouts” in MMA, fellas.
Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez. How can this fight not come to fruition? With Frank Mir and Shane Carwin set to duke it out tomorrow evening at UFC 111 for the right to challenge Brock Lesnar for the real UFC heavyweight crown, there really is no other fight for either of these human wrecking machines that have been carving out a path of destruction on their way to the top of the heavyweight mountain. Both look nearly unstoppable at the weight class, which brings me to my next topic.
Five unstoppable forces in UFC heavyweight division. Can we just celebrate the fact that the state of the UFC heavyweight division is the best it’s ever been right now? Right now we have a situation where there are five incredibly talented big men that look nearly invincible. There’s UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, a better than ever Frank Mir, and a trio of undefeated human wrecking balls, Junior dos Santos, Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez. What do all of these guys have in common? I can’t visualize any of them losing any time soon; but some of them will do just that. The beauty of the situation we find ourselves in is the possibility of establishing a heavyweight title holder that can not be disputed in just about a year’s time.
Until next time, bang, bang…. BANG, BANG, BANG!!!!!.
Jim Lampley: There you go – four punch, five punch, six punch combinations - body shot, body shot - bang, bang, bang…. bang, bang, BANG!!! Try and stop it. Bang, Bang! Here I come. Bang! You wanna throw some time? Bang! This is the Manny Pacquiao that has dominated boxing for the past three years. Bang, bang, bang, BANG, BANG!!!
Max Kellerman: And when Pacquiao…
Jim Lampley: You wanna throw back? Bang!! Keep coming!
Max Kellerman: And when Pacquiao starts doing this, now I tend to agree: Clottey has to do something to keep him off.
The UFC’s first ever event on the Versus network, “UFC on Vesus 1″ sold out the 1stBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo. headlined by light-heavyweights Jon Jones vs. Brandon Vera and heavyweights Junior dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga.
The event drew a total of 6,443 fans for a gate total of $568,125 according to UFC president Dana White. A total of 1.24 million viewers watched the event with a 1.66 rating in the males 18-34 demographic, and a total of $713,000 was payed out in fighter salaries.
The same venue was also host to the “UFC Fight Night 13: Florian vs. Lauzon” event in April 2008, which drew an attendance of 6,742 for a $753,429 gate total.
The 1.24 million viewers only ranked third highest among MMA events on the Versus network. The June 2008 event, “WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver” ranks first on the Versus network, drawing 1.54 million viewers, while the “WEC 41: Brown vs. Faber II” event falls into second place after the June 2009 event drew 1.3 million viewers. The total was an improvement over the past MMA event from March 6th, “WEC 47: Bowles vs. Cruz,” which only saw a viewership of 373,000.
The top earners for the “UFC on Versus 1″ network were heavyweight fighters Cheick Kongo, who earned $110,000 for his victory over Paul Buentello, and Junior dos Santos, who earned $70,000 for his win over Brandon Vera.
A break down of the fighter salaries from Sunday’s “UFC on Versus 1″ is as follows:
Jon Jones: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus) def. Brandon Vera: $60,000
Junior Dos Santos: $70,000 ($35,000 win bonus) def. Gabriel Gonzaga: $67,000
Cheick Kongo: $110,000 ($55,000 win bonus) def. Paul Buentello: $40,000
Alessio Sakara: $42,000 ($21,000 win bonus) def. James Irvin: $20,000
But for UFC middleweight Alessio Sakara, his UFC on Versus 1 win over
James Irvin came in a less-than-desirable fashion after a legal punch to
the eye led directly to a first-round finish of "The Sandman."
Despite the auspicious ending to the bout, Sakara looked impressive in
the opening minutes of the contest, and the win was his third-straight
in the UFC. And now "Legionarius," who once appeared close to losing his
spot in the UFC, has his eyes on some of the middleweight division's
best.
UFC president Dana White talks all things related to the first UFC on Versus show, including the mistake made by Herb Dean, James Irvin’s weight cut, and Showtime.
UFC president Dana White talks all things related to the first UFC on Versus show, including the mistake made by Herb Dean, James Irvin’s weight cut, and Showtime.
When Luiz Cane was destroyed by Antonio Rogerio
As the old saying goes, a win is a win.