CageJunkies Relapse 09.26.11
Good morning CageJunkies and welcome to this weeks edition of the CageJunkies Relapse. If you’re not familiar this column is your way to catch up on all the past weeks mixed martial arts news in one place. With that said, we have UFC 135 news, Bellator 51 news, CFA news and more. Lets get it started!
UFC
UFC 135
Quick results –
Prelims
Tony Ferguson def. Aaron Riley via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – Round 1, 5:00
Tim Boetsch def. Nick Ring via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Junior Assuncao def. Eddie Yagin via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-27)
Takeya Mizugaki def. Cole Escovedo via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:30
James Te Huna def. Ricardo Romero via KO (punches) – Round 1, 0:47
Main
Nate Diaz def. Takanori Gomi via submission (armbar) – Round 1, 4:27
Travis Browne def. Rob Broughton via unanimous decision, 30-27 x 3
Mark Hunt def. Ben Rothwell via unanimous decision 29-28, 29-27, 30-27
Josh Koscheck def. Matt Hughes via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:59
Jon Jones def. Rampage Jackson via submission (rear naked choke) – Round 4, 1:14
Where do we begin? How about with Aaron Riley being a tough son of a bitch who had his jaw broken mid-round and didn’t bother to tell anyone until the round ended. I did miss most of this undercard as I was covering Bellator 51 (shameless plug), but I definitely caught most of the main event.
Nate Diaz defeated Gomi at welterweight with a sick armbar, and then announced he is done fighting at welterweight for the time being. He will be going back to lightweight were he is held in higher esteem.
Koscheck beats Hughes by TKO, but Hughes refuses to say he will retire. Instead when approached by Joe Rogan immediately after the loss he said he wants UFC to put him on the shelf, while all parties involved consider their options. At the post-fight press conference, which Hughes declined to attend, UFC president Dana White explained that he believes that Hughes will retire, even though he doesn’t want to say it in so many words. Koscheck on the other hand is pushing to get right back into action. After a 9 month layoff, Koscheck was able to possibly retire Hughes, and now wants to fight at UFC 139 in November. White hasn’t commented on Koscheck’s requests, but unless there is a medical clearance issue I wouldn’t be too surprised to see him fighting again at the November show.
The main event saw Jon Jones convincingly beat up on Rampage for three rounds and then hold true to his word and finish the former light-heavyweight champion. The end came via rear naked choke in round 4 and made believers out of both Rampage and Dana White. Rampage who thought Bones was all hype is now convinced that Jones is not only legit, but can only be defeated by mutual foe, Rashad Evans. For White’s part, he has now been convinced that Jones is a top three pound for pound fighter. With the defeat Rampage is already looking to perhaps fight in the recently announced UFC Japan show and Jones is likely set to collide with Evans in the near future.
As a treat, here is the best of Rampage from the post-fight press conference:
Hendo Signs With UFC
Surprising no-one, Hendo has jumped from Strikeforce to UFC and will be fighting at UFC 139 in November. His first opponent Shogun Rua and it is likely to headline the card. This is the 3rd… 4th… you know what I’ve lost count… Henderson is yet another Strikeforce champion to abandon ship only to end up in UFC. Speaking of former Strikeforce champions…
Alistair Overeem Splits With Golden Glory
Alistair Overeem released the following on Twitter this past week:
“I would like to make a statement regarding the recent news of the separation from my long-time management Golden Glory. As with any relationship, there are good times and bad times – you have your common ground and your differences. As with any relationship, you have trust. When differences lead to a breach of trust, there’s no turning back and no way to continue a positive, working relationship. I don’t air my dirty laundry. I would appreciate the respect regarding my privacy to not disclose any further details on this matter. Again, I would like to thank team Golden Glory for all the years we worked together and wish them success for the future.”
At the point of this tweet, it wasn’t news yet and it seems Overeem wanted to get ahead of the curve. Golden Glory really hasn’t said much beyond that they won’t air their dirty laundry either, so it seems we won’t know the real “bad” guy in this story for the foreseeable future.
Vitor Belfort Out, Cung Le Now Faces Wanderlei Silva At UFC 139
Wandy needs to be careful, with another poor showing he may be “retired” by UFC. Belfort seems to have terrible luck and should really drink more milk or something.
Strikeforce
Dana White Speaks
Recently White made some very interesting comment about Strikeforce continued existence and how it ties into Showtime. He first said:
“It depends on whether they want to seriously stay in the business, in the mixed martial arts business.”
He then followed up by saying the following:
“Let me tell you what, you guys have seen for the last 10 years all these up-and-coming companies that came and do these television deals, and you guys were saying to me, ‘How come you don’t do a network deal?’. What did I say? I said for the last 10 years, ‘When the right deal comes.’ Everybody that comes into this business thinks pay-per-view or free TV is the answer, is the Holy Grail, it’s the answer to everybody’s problems. [Expletive]. Either one of those two things will put you out of business. They get into these bad deals with companies, and next thing you know, you’re $30 million in the whole. I would classify everybody who’s done a television deal out there besides us has done a bad deal. Everyone.”
So the Strikeforce/Showtime tv deal is bad, by White’s own admission, but he wants another deal with them. Based on Zuffa’s involvement we will assume that they will want a “good” deal for Strikeforce. With Showtime being able to give someone else a “bad” deal (like the one they already have with M-1), it looks like Strikeforce’s days really are numbered.
Bellator
Bellator 51
We do love us some Bellator and Saturday nights event was no exception. Ed West defeated Luis Nogueira by unanimous decision. It was a fight that boiled down to West using his striking to keep Nog away and from being able to effectively dirty box him. Beebe, the former WEC champion, had an excellent first round catching Galvao in two different guillotine choke attempts. After that it was all downhill as he looked worn out and Galvao took advantage in the second. The third round saw Beebe turn it up, but alas two of the three judges saw it differently and gave the win to Galvao. Eduardo Dantas, the phenom, caught Wilson Reis with a flying knee and then took the TKO by strikes. The final fight led to what may have been the knockout of the night in ALL of mixed martial arts. Alexis Vila literally knocked out Joe Warren so hard that I fell asleep for two minutes.
If you are into zombie movies, watch the above video as Joe Warren had to rise from the dead after that KO.
The next round has been set as follows –
Alexis Vila vs. Marcos Galvao
Eduardo Dantas vs. Ed West
CFA
Today starts our coverage of CFA 03! Every day we will have an interview with a different fighter fro CFA 03 leading up to the big event on October 9th. Stay tuned!
The KO
I hope you enjoyed this weeks Relapse! See you next week!
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