Issue 110
January 2014
Water and walkouts, pain and perseverance, spins and silence. It’s that time again...
MOST CONTROVERSIAL DECISION
Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks, UFC 167
Has a challenger ever been more convinced he’s won the title, and then looked quite as utterly crushed when the judges’ call was read? Hard-hitting Johny Hendricks was certain he was the new UFC welterweight champion, after going back and forth with still-reigning titleholder Georges St-Pierre for five rounds in the main event of UFC 167. So much so he and his corner were practically planning the celebratory parade prior to the judges’ call – embracing one another and acknowledging the crowd’s applause.
But as soon as Bruce Buffer declared the deciding official’s opinion of the split decision, Hendricks collapsed to his knees in disbelief. His team was beside itself. ‘Bigg Rigg’ and crew felt his power strikes, takedowns and huge second round, where St-Pierre was on rubber legs, was enough to take gold – and many agreed.
‘Rush’, however, had more significant strikes, a submission attempt (there was talk Hendricks had tapped to GSP’s opening-minute guillotine, although the video shows nothing of the sort) and several takedowns of his own on his side. Put simply, it was an intensely close contest. As UFC president Dana White says, you should never leave it in the hands of the judges. Hendricks no doubt agrees wholeheartedly.
KNEED FOR SPEED
Rafael Cavalcante and Brandon Thatch, UFC Fight Night 32
Knees to the body finished two fights, back to back, in an average of 1:44 at UFC Fight Night 32. Brandon Thatch caught Paulo Thiago so flush with that left knee to the liver
midway through the first that the Brazilian’s body and mind gave up simultaneously.
Thiago had stepped in to throw a right and simply crumpled toward the floor, tapping Thatch and then the canvas when he got there.
Croatia’s Igor Pokrajac did the same after getting brutalized in the clinch by Rafael Cavalcante’s knees.
Sharing the love between the body and head had Pokrajac hurt against the cage where the former Strikeforce champ simply chopped him to the mat with several right hands. Unpleasant.
MOST EMOTIONAL MOMENT
Tim Kennedy, UFC Fight for the Troops 3
Hearing US Army Ranger Tim Kennedy pour his heart out to his military peers as he was sat atop the Octagon fence newly victorious at UFC Fight for the Troops 3 was a poignant moment.
With the crowd roaring having just watched the middleweight knock out Rafael Natal with a leaping left hook in the first round, Kennedy traced an outline on his chest around his heart and shouted: “I love you.”
It was plainly evident what competing in front of fellow personnel meant to the sniper who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
HEAVIEST RIGHT HOOK
Tyron Woodley, UFC 167
If we had to match the weight of 170lb’er Tyron Woodley’s hands to a particular metal it would have to be lead. He torqued and twisted every sinew and muscle fiber into the right hook that floored fellow wrestler Josh Koscheck at UFC 167.
Both men had each other hurt in what turned out to be just a four minute and 38 second affair. But it was Woodley who would have the final word, launching said strike so it clipped his former number-one contender opponent on the
jaw in such a way it immediately turned Koscheck’s lights out entirely for the first time ever. (He’d protested his two previous strike stoppage losses.) Not bad these Strikeforce guys, eh?
MIND BULLETS
Jimi Manuwa, UFC Fight Night 30
It’s official: Jimi Manuwa has an unfair advantage. Three times the British striker has shown the power to stop a 205lb man from (up to) 30 feet away – with mind bullets. Consider this...
In Manuwa’s UFC debut in September 2012 Kyle Kingsbury was mysteriously prevented from starting the third round by the doctor. At UFC on Fuel TV 7, Cyrille Diabate couldn’t come out for the second due to an unexplained leg ailment. And most recently, during a big-power stand-up scrap at UFC Fight Night 30, Ryan Jimmo collapsed to the floor late in the second with a surprise ankle injury.
What is the one common element among all these incidents? Manuwa was not touching any of his opponents. We’re telling you: mind bullets.
SURPRISE!
Eddie Alvarez, Emmanuel Newton and Daniel Straus, Bellator 106
If you were a favorite or a champion fighting on the Bellator 106 card there was a good chance you lost. For starters, Daniel Straus overcame featherweight champion Pat Curran through five rounds for the evening’s first upset. And Emmanuel Newton, having KO’d one of Bellator’s biggest names in ‘King Mo’ with a spinning back-fist earlier this year, took a unanimous decision and the vacant interim Bellator 205lb belt in the rematch. But the biggest shock was when lightweight gold bearer Michael Chandler and former champ Eddie Alvarez near enough repeated their ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate from 2011.
In the course of successfully rocking each other several times they probably exchanged enough leather to
re-skin a cow – which is, of course, when they weren’t swapping rear naked chokes. Alvarez got the split decision and, finally, some kind of closure over his custody battle with Bellator for his contract rights.
MADDEST ENDING
Bobby Green and James Krause, UFC Fight for the Troops 3
You’d have thought between in-cage crapping and post-fight melees mixed martial arts would have long ago met its production quota for weird stuff. Apparently not. Bobby Green’s TKO win over James Krause at UFC Fight for the Troops 3 has to be one of the oddest we’ve seen for a while.
We’ll set the scene. It’s nearing the final minute of the first round and Green has not long been deducted a point for the second meeting between his foot and Krause’s jewel-protecting cup. Green launches his left leg to Krause’s lower torso area. It lands. Krause collapses to the canvas cupping his groin.
Referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy waves off the fight. You’re assuming it’s a disqualification on Green? Nope. TKO win. McCarthy ruled the kick was on the belt-line not the groin, and as Krause was unwilling to fight following a legal blow Green got the TKO win. You certainly can’t call MMA uneventful.
AIR BELFORT
Vitor Belfort, UFC Fight Night 32
Yeah, yeah, Vitor Belfort head-kick knockout. Impressive, title shot, whatever. What we really need to talk about regarding the former UFC champion’s 77-second knockout of MMA legend Dan Henderson was how the Brazilian’s left uppercut actually forced ‘Hendo’ to fly through the air. Not metaphorically, not ‘it depends on the camera angle’; that dude’s forward momentum was forced up and inevitably down because of a Vitor Belfort strike. As Henderson lunged forward for his first attack of the UFC Fight Night 32 main event (a kind of double-feinted overhand right), Vitor’s reply was the aforementioned bomb, which caused Henderson’s entire lower body to continue the movement while his upper body stayed in place. During which, for a good moment or two, the former Pride and Strikeforce champ was entirely airborne. Henderson landed flat on his back and when he finally found his feet took a left head kick in the mush that was enough to call it the first strikes’ loss of Dan’s career. Thank you for flying Air Belfort.
