Issue 099
March 2013
The raising of Cain, a fistful of knockouts, a controversial ‘spike’ and yet another Lauzon ‘Fight of the Night’ – it’s just another four weeks on planet MMA.
SHOCK HORROR
Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos, UFC 155
In the heavyweight title main event of UFC 155 between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos, Velasquez provided the shock, and ‘Cigano’ the horror. Even the biggest Velasquez booster can’t have expected the man’s rematch with Dos Santos (who took Cain’s title with a 64-second knockout a year prior) to be a one-sided, 25-minute beating catalysed by a massive first-round right hand that nearly knocked Junior’s head off his shoulders. The result was Dos Santos’ face distorted with swelling and the title back around Velasquez’s waist after a landslide judges’ call.
BEST FIGHT
Jim Miller vs Joe Lauzon, UFC 155
Fight-night bonus cheques and UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon are like long-lost lovers. Every time they’re within reach of one another they can’t resist hooking up and going back to his place. For the 12th time in his UFC career, the former TUF competitor plodded into the Octagon and did something amazing.
This time against fellow fight-night firecracker Jim Miller, who hurled elbows and hands into Lauzon’s cranium at more or less every opportunity through the 15 allotted minutes – rocking and cutting ‘J-Lau’. But Lauzon was unmoved, and continued to fire, even nailing a leap for a leg lock before Miller took the judges’ nod. Next year’s ‘Fight of the Year’ perhaps?
MOST (POTENTIALLY) ILLEGAL MOVE
Jamie Varner, UFC 155
We’re not suggesting for one fraction of a second UFC lightweight Jamie Varner is a dirty fighter. In fact, he probably didn’t realise the way he dropped Melvin Guillard on his head late in the third round at UFC 155 was possibly illegal – because even the referee didn’t seem to realise. Varner wasn’t penalised for slamming from an Iranian lift, one of the few illegal moves classified as a ‘spike,’ which is outlawed under the MMA law book, the Unified Rules.
With Guillard holding an inverted triangle-type position (Guillard pointing down with his torso against Varner’s back), Varner, from standing, suddenly dropped himself to the mat in a seated position. The only thing that prevented Guillard from, perhaps, virtually living at the chiropractors was him quickly moving his head to the side prior to impact. And the only thing that may have saved Varner from penalty was not having control of one of Guillard’s arms at the same time, the perfect recipe for this particular foul.
AND YOU THOUGHT GUIDA’S HAIR WAS BAD
Tatsuya Kawajiri, Dream 18
Japanese featherweight Tatsuya Kawajiri was rocking a rather neat, almost samurai top-knot kind-of hair do as his Dream 18 bout with compatriot and UFC vet Michihiro Omigawa started on New Year’s Eve. However, at the end of the first stanza of his grinding win his styled barnet resembled a bird’s nest, and waiting for the decision his locks looked a little like Oh Dae-su, the crazed lead character from Korean thriller Oldboy (look it up). UFC 145lb’er Clay Guida’s ever-bouncing bangs have nothing on Kawajiri’s coif.
HEY, SLUGGERS
Phil Baroni and Hayato Sakurai, Dream 18
UFC veteran Phil Baroni is a sucker for a slugfest and did he get one against Japanese legend Hayato Sakurai or what? They took a while to get going on New Year’s Eve at Dream 18 but by the final round both tired parties heaved all they could at each other. Attempting to land haymakers right until the end left Sakurai so exhausted he collapsed on the ropes after the final bell. He still got the unanimous nod though.
TAKE A KNEE
Melvin Manhoef, Dream 18
Dutch kickboxing animal Melvin Manhoef is, when it comes to combat, more or less the definition of the word ‘vicious.’ Not in a bad way, but, of his MMA wins, he has a 93% (T)KO rate and he used to be walked to the ring on a leash – so, you know… Anyway, Denis Kang, UFC veteran and man once regarded the best middleweight in the world, discovered said viciousness on New Year’s Eve at Dream 18. Kang took a knee to the midsection so intense he immediately hit the deck and the fight waved off at 50 seconds of the first. Manhoef: vicious.
BIGGEST PUNCH
Shinya Aoki, Dream 18
UFC, MFC and IFL veteran Antonio McKee didn’t want a single piece of Shinya Aoki at Dream 18 after the cult Japanese grapple sensation surprised pretty much everyone, probably himself included, by shovelling an overhand right so hard into McKee’s face it forced the American to submit early in round two. It broke the McKee’s left orbital, it’s rumoured. Aoki had cracked McKee with the same punch in the same spot at the start of the fight, with McKee touching the area immediately afterward and in between rounds, before Aoki’s second blind overhand. McKee turned away, only to find himself caught in the ropes, where his frantic attempts to tap went unnoticed by the referee for a good few moments. Well, training under a bundle of Muay Thai champions at Evolve MMA had to pay off some time.
WHAT A BLAST
Veronica Rothenhausler, Invicta 4
Very, very few women have one-punch knockout power, but Invicta 4’s Veronica Rothenhausler is one of them. She stopped two girls in five seconds with strikes in her amateur career (and another in two minutes), and most recently blasted her first pro opponent, Katalina Malungahu, in 72 ticks. The five-foot-eleven (yeah, seriously) featherweight’s right hand beat Malungahu’s by some distance and crumpled the Xtreme Couture fighter, forcing the referee to make the save. The hype machine is already humming.
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