Issue 085

February 2012

Revisit MMA’s most jaw-dropping year yet with the help of UFC president Dana White, Nick Peet, John Morgan and Gareth A Davies.

Zuffa’s huge year

Following up December 2010’s merging of the WEC with the addition of Strikeforce three months later, Zuffa added to an already talent-rich UFC roster with two new weight classes and a wealth of top talent that included José Aldo, Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber, Ben Henderson as well as Alistair Overeem and Nick Diaz later in the year to name but a few. Zuffa followed this up in May with the announcement that its entire 350-plus fighters would be eligible for personal accident insurance. However the year’s biggest commercial success story came in August when they announced an historic seven-year deal with America’s number-one sports network, Fox Sports. A move that will bring MMA to the masses; the debut fight – all of 64 seconds of it – set a record for the highest-rated MMA event ever on US network television with a viewership peak of 8.8 million. 

“You put your left leg in”

Before Anderson Silva introduced the ball of his foot to Vitor Belfort’s chin at UFC 126 in February, a front-kick knockout was nigh unheard of in professional MMA. Yet like buses and Fedor losses, you go years without one then three come along at once. Where Silva’s strike was as unexpected as it was devastating, Lyoto Machida’s Karate Kid homage in April at UFC 129 was plain showing off as he went airborne and sent UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture into retirement minus a front tooth. To complete the year’s hat-trick of front-kick knockouts, Justin Buchholz pulled off the feat at Superior Cage Combat 1 just 21 days later without so much as a B-list movie star in sight.



Super-knockouts

Front-kicks may have grabbed many of the year’s KO headlines, but 2011 brought us nothing if not variety. John Makdessi cleaned out Kyle Watson at UFC 129 with a spinning back-fist knockout; in April, Patricky Freire headed into the Bellator lightweight final thanks to a devastating flying knee that was the beginning of the end for Toby Imada’s night; Pat Curran won the Bellator featherweight title thanks to a ‘Cro Cop’-esque head kick knockout over Marlon Sandro back in August; Cage Rage, Dream and Strikeforce veteran Marius Zaromskis whirled into viral YouTube sensation when he put Bruno Carvalho on queer street with a front roll head kick on an independent show in Sweden; and Travis Browne showed that even the heavyweight behemoths can take to the skies when the mood strikes with a devastating Superman-punch KO over Stefan.Struve at UFC 130.

Tweet to who?

Twitter, the social networking service once only populated by nerds and Hollywood celebrities, caused arguably the biggest stir in 2011. After the UFC announced bonuses for the best monthly fighter tweets and biggest follow numbers, the MMA universe has gone Twitter twisted. It’s taken the sport into the palms of fans worldwide with Dana White himself leading the way with well over 1.6 million followers. White even stated recently: “Twitter is the greatest marketing tool in the history of the world and it’s free” But, just ask Miguel Torres, be careful what you Tweet for!



War Machine wagon returns

War Machine (formerly Jon Koppenhaver of TUF fame) ends his year-long stay at San Diego’s George Bailey Detention Facility for felony assault came to an end in July. Making an immediate return to action, he faced Roger Huerta at the inaugural Ultimate Warrior Fighting in November (where face paint and backcomb was optional), picking up a win after Huerta suffered a rib injury.

Five-round non-title fights 

When UFC president Dana White announced in June that all main-event non-title fights would be five rounds as opposed to the customary three, fans salivated at the prospect of more ‘bang for their buck.’ Whilst the inaugural five-rounder between Chris Leben and Mark Munoz at UFC 138 failed to fulfill expectations, MMA legends Dan Henderson and ‘Shogun’ Rua went the distance in an epic encounter just two weeks later at UFC 139. A fight that will long be remembered thanks, largely, to the two extra rounds that saw Rua and Hendo leave everything in the cage and cop 180-day medical suspensions for their valiant efforts.

Girl power

Not to be outdone by their male counterparts, women’s MMA continued to prosper in 2011. Marloes Coenen retained her Strikeforce bantamweight title following a four round war with Liz Carmouche in March, then lost it in dramatic fashion to Meisha Tate just four months later. Felice Herrig and Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc’s shared one of the year’s most memorable staredowns, whilst 2008 Olympic judoka bronze medalist, Ronda ’Rowdy’ Rousey, added to the women’s ever expanding talent pool with five, sub-60 second, armbar victories inside the year.

“I’m getting too old for this s**t”

All good things must come to an end and the fighting careers of MMA’s elite are no different. Chuck Liddell, Matt Hamill, Chris Lytle, ‘Ninja’ Rua, Ricardo Almeida, Kevin Randleman and Mirko ’Cro-Cop’ all hung up their gloves. With pioneer fighters B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes and Mark Coleman also unlikely to ever cross the Octagon threshold again, the fighting world bid farewell to some of its greats. Some in more ways than others…

Gone, but not forgotten

2011 was a tough year for the MMA community as a number of its own tragically passed away. Ivan Canello, a staple of the Chute Boxe Academy who worked as a manager or agent for several Brazilian fighters, died in March aged just 32. In what was an especially dark month for MMA, August saw the industry lose three more of its kin in quick succession. First Shawn ‘The Coach’ Tompkins died in his sleep of a heart attack on the August 14th. He was then tragically followed within days of each other by colorful ring announcer and radio personality, Chris “Big Poppa” Schake, and Jack Shields; father and manager to UFC welterweight and former Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jake Shields.



Left hand yellow

To say the previous 12 months have been good to us in terms of crazy submissions is like saying UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste is “kind of attractive, I suppose.” Brazilian featherweight, Pablo Garza, took to the clouds with a flying triangle-choke victory over Yves Jabouin at UFC 129 that bagged him $129,000 in bonus money. Former TUF housemate Vinny Magalhaes introduced the world to the ‘Maga-Plata’ – a mounted gogoplata – at M-1 Challenge 25 in Russia during April. Richard Hale beat Nik Fekete at Bellator 38 with an inverted triangle, sunk in whilst riding the shoulders of his opponent on March 26th, and 2,000 miles away on the same night ‘The Korean Zombie,’ Chan-Sung Jung, stopped Leonard Garcia with the UFC’s first, and only, twister submission. With submissions getting more creative with each passing year, could 2012 be the year of the flying inverted gogo-twister?

Brittney Palmer

No sooner had we grown accustomed to the beautiful Brittney Palmer adorning our screens following her transition from the WEC in January, than she broke our collective hearts and left for pastures new in July. But we would only be left cradling the pages of her exclusive Fighters Only shoot and weeping when no-one was looking for four months as, in November, UFC president Dana White took an electronic straw poll via Twitter (naturally) and reinstated our favorite SoCal gal to full Octagon orbit. 

The UFC returns to Brazil 

A long 13 years on from its first, and only, visit to Brazil, the UFC returned to its spiritual home in August with the star-studded UFC 134. Billed as the homecoming of modern MMA, UFC: Rio surpassed all expectations in a night packed with action and emotion that featured big wins for home-grown idols ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira, Shogun Rua and Anderson Silva. Nogueira’s victory over Brendan Schaub in particular, coming after 18 months sidelined by injury, sent the 14,000 capacity crowd into carnival fever that, for once, really did have everybody on their feet. With UFC 142 returning to Brazil in January 2012, and plans to one day fill the 100,000-capacity ‘Sambodromo’ in Manaus, Amazonas, mixed martial arts well and truly returned home in 2011.

Fedor back in the win column

Having lost for the first time in nine years to Fabricio Werdum in 2010, Fedor’s losing streak continued well into 2011. First ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, then Dan Henderson, stopped the once seemingly unstoppable Fedor with beatdowns that were once the Russian’s patented calling card. A welcome return to the win column against Jeff Monsoon in November halted the slump and likely retirement, yet whether the ’Last Emperor’ will regain the mythical status he once held remains to be seen. 



Sonnen returns

Around 14 months on from his unsuccessful title fight with Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen returned to action in October at UFC 136 with a takedown and beatdown masterclass over hard-hitting Brian Stann. Wasting no time in rekindling his long-running feud with Silva, who was sitting cage side, Sonnen issued a ‘loser leaves town’ offer to the middleweight champ. A rematch has yet to be officially announced, but if and when it is, it promises to be the biggest in the UFC’s history. However, not to feel left out, Sonnen also found time in 2011 to aim his smack-talk sights on Wanderlei Silva, the Nogueira brothers, Arianny Celeste, Mirko ‘Cro Cop,’ Canadian talk-show hosts, Alistair Overeem and the nation of Brazil. His most scathing lines include: “Yushin [Okami] and I go back to civilization tomorrow. Thanks for everything, Brazil. It was like camping in Compton.” And: “[Alistair Overeem]’s not a very good fighter. As far as the K-1 being this great striking event, the K-1 is a striking-only event. If you’re in the K-1, you’re only allowed to strike, but I’ve never seen a great striker there. I could discredit the K-1 with two syllables: Bob Sapp.”

“Does my head look big in this?”

Sporting a hematoma visible from Andromeda, few would have begrudged Canadian featherweight Mark Hominick from calling it a night as the fifth and final round of his title fight against José Aldo at UFC 129 approached. Instead, despite being heavily behind on the judge’s scorecards, Hominick displayed the year’s standout moment of courage and determination as he took to the stage and dispensed a near fight-ending ground ‘n’ pound barrage on a tiring Aldo for an inspired closing stanza that proved, if proof were needed, his heart was a big as, well, his hematoma.



Year of the comeback

With the exception of the unfortunate recipient, everybody loves a good comeback story and 2011 brought us some of the best. Frankie Edgar survived possibly the most one-sided round in living memory at UFC 125 to retain his lightweight title against Gray Maynard in January. Tito Ortiz staged a career-saving comeback five years in the making as he stopped Ryan Bader in emotional fashion at July’s UFC 132. However, the year’s most memorable comeback came courtesy of heavyweight powerhouse Cheick Kongo. Dropped twice by Pat Barry in quick succession, everyone bar referee, Dan Miragliotta, considered the fight over. Instead Kongo got to his feet, planted himself against the cage and landed a hook/uppercut combo that put Barry to sleep and had Joe Rogan screaming, “That is one of the craziest stoppages I have ever seen!” High praise indeed from a man who has seen his fair few.

Lesnar returns

Describing his journey from South Dakota farm boy to one of the world’s biggest pay-per-view stars and former UFC heavyweight champion, man-mountain Brock Lesnar lifted the lid on his otherwise reclusive private life in his autobiography Death Clutch: My Story of Determination, Domination, and Survival. Returning to the cage after a year’s absence following a second bout of diverticulitis, Lesnar was paired up with Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in one the year’s most anticipated fights.

Heaven is a place on earth

Aside from the highlight reel knockouts and crazy-limbed submissions, 2011 will also be remembered for moments of magic. Edson Barboza’s spinning heel-kick that almost decapitated Anthony Njokuani at UFC 128. Rory MacDonald tossing Nate Diaz around like a rag-doll with not one, but three belly-to-back suplexes at UFC 129, and brother Nick Diaz’s KO of Paul Daley in one of the craziest one-round fights ever.

And still…

Anderson Silva’s reign atop of the middleweight and pound-for-pound listings continued unabated with back-to-back stoppages over Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami. Dominick Cruz, José Aldo and Georges St Pierre maintained iron-clad holds over their respective UFC titles, going 6-0 collectively. Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez picked up where he left off after a year out injured, with a dominant stoppage win over Tatsuya Kawajiri. While the UFC’s youngest ever champion, Jon Jones, continued his phenomenal rise to greatness as he stopped Ryan Bader and ‘Shogun’ Rua within just six weeks of each in the year’s first quarter, then submitted Quinton Jackson and Lyoto Machida.



MMA firsts: 2011

  • First UFC featherweight (Aldo vs Hominick) and bantamweight (Cruz vs Faber) title fights 
  • First UFC quarterly Twitter bonuses
  • First rematch to end in the exact same round (first), in the exact same minute (3.30), by the exact same method (guillotine choke) against the exact same opponent – Brian Bowles vs Damacio Page at UFC on Versus 3, echoing their 2008 WEC 35 bout.
  • UFC’s first stadium event – UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Ontario, Canada, that drew a North American record crowd of 55,724
  • First time fans have been able to vote for the cover star of a UFC video game, choosing Anderson Silva to front UFC Undisputed 3
  • First UFC fights to be streamed live on Facebook – UFC: Fight For the Troops 2 preliminary bouts
  • First time professional athletes have claimed a “First Amendment right to communicate with fans in a live event.” Part of Zuffa’s lawsuit against the State of New York in a bid to make MMA legal in the state
  • First movie to be set in the world of MMA to be worthy of the Rocky comparisons – Warrior



  • First UFC heavyweight to win eight straight fights in the Octagon – Junior Dos Santos
  • First career defeats for Cain Velasquez, Ryan Bader, Roger Gracie, Matt Mitrione, Ryan Couture, Liz Carmouche, Lyle Beerbohm and Gray Maynard


...