Issue 146

October 2016

You’ll get burned by a right hand if you stand with Eddie Wineland.

Frankie Saenz should have learned his lesson in the first round of his UFC on Fox 20 fight with Eddie Wineland. He tried to engage in a boxing exchange with a man that’s notorious for his powerful punches and found himself on the canvas after eating left and right hands to the jaw. But the former WEC bantamweight champion let him off the hook. The time wasn’t right to put him away. “Everybody I train with (and) teach, I always tell them, ‘Know if he’s hurt.’ I knew he was hurt, but he recovered really quickly,” Wineland says. In the third round, he knew for sure.

After two close rounds, the fight came down to the final five minutes. “Keith (Wisniewski, cornerman) said he thought it was a close fight and the winner of this round takes it,” Eddie says. But why leave it to the judges?

Decisive strikes

 It was obvious the judges wouldn’t be needed after Wineland connected hard with his hands again. Despite being outstruck 45-42 by Saenz, Eddie landed the shots that mattered most. “Everybody knows I’ve got power in my hands. I’m a 135lb’er with one-shot knockout power.” Though Saenz was having success with leg kicks, he came in to take aim at his opponent’s head and Wineland was ready to strike. He took a small step back, planted his feet and shot a straight right hand into Frankie’s chin to put him down again.

And there would be no reprieve this time. He swarmed with follow-up punches until referee Rob Madrigal had no choice but to stop the action.

It was an important win for the veteran 135lb contender, who’d doubted his future in the sport. “I broke (my) jaw and wasn’t sure I could come back. The only reason I continued fighting was because of my two-year-old son, just to prove a point that (if) you get knocked down you get up and keep moving forward,” Wineland adds. 

And there was one more thing he proved with his 12th career KO: “I’ve still got it.”