Issue 168

June 2018

UFC flashback: Velasquez vs. dos Santos – November 12th 2011.

More eyeballs get drawn to the Octagon than ever before as the UFC arrives on network TV.

FC bosses Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta always had their eye on this. For them, this was the biggest night in their company’s history. The Octagon had finally broken free from cable to find a home on network television. “I always talk about monumental moments we've had over the last years,” White said. “If you add them all up and put them together, they don’t equal this.” Almost everyone in America would be able to turn on Fox and watch two men fight in a cage. To kick things o with the new broadcast deal: the world heavyweight title. 

Choked up

Many of the night’s top performers had come to the UFC as recruits from WEC following the promotions’ merger late the previous year. Ricardo Lamas was chief among them, out grappling Cub Swanson to sink in an arm-triangle choke and earn a $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus.

The waiting game

The co-main event ended at approximately 5.30pm Paci c Time. Because of all the pre-fight chat from Curt Menefee, Brock Lesnar and Dana White on the Fox broadcast that began at six, fans in the arena had to wait

a whole hour for the main event. Plenty of people, including Ron Perlman (left), were bored stiff.

Anticlimax?

For all the hype and build-up, the headline attraction only lasted a minute and four seconds. Junior dos Santos’ looping overhand right grazed Cain Velasquez, the defending champion, on the temple and he went down. The Brazilian rushed in for the finish and a new king was crowned. After waiting so long for 64 seconds of action, the defining moment of ‘Cigano’s career received a lukewarm reception. On any other night, it would have been celebrated as a triumph.

Action packed

In a time before Fight Pass, US viewers only got a one-fight, hour-long, ‘main-card’ broadcast. Many international viewers, saw most of the prelims, including 15 minutes of Fight of the Night, lightweight action that saw Benson Henderson and Clay Guida’s hair flying everywhere. Henderson won the decision and a title shot. 

UFC and bust

Hard-core fans of Japanese MMA had waited years for Norifumi Yamamoto to fight in the UFC. Sadly, ‘Kid’ was a shadow of the man who used to jump two or more weight classes to knock out bigger men. He was dominated for three rounds by newcomer Darren Uyenoyama, who came into the fight with an uninspiring 6-3 record.