Video: Jon Jones suffers cut over eye in training, stitches required

Jon Jones needs to up his head game ahead of UFC 178, at least when it comes to protection. The fighter recently suffered a bad cut over his eye during training, one that required a trip to the doctor for stitches. Report is that the stitches will be out within a few days and he’ll be back to training with in a week, but it’s exactly the kind of scare fans don’t need leading into a just recently announced matchup with Daniel Cormier on September 27. Jones released a statement and a couple of videos of his doctor’s visit, over Instagram.

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FYI this is a completely different scar than the one I had in that area previously, they’re not even touching… The four stitches will be out in four days. The wound should be healed within a week. Time for me to start wearing my head gear #adversityisnothing

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Good to know the champ is still on track for fight night, and hopefully a little better padded in the head area until then.

Glover Teixeira lined up for fall return against Phil Davis

Glover Teixeira’s long awaited light heavyweight title shot didn’t go exactly as planned. For a man long considered a fringe title contender, even outside the UFC, Glover’s eventual title shot feels like it came and went rather quickly and quietly. A five round battle with Jon Jones that saw him outworked in his wheelhouse for the majority of the fight, and left Teixeira with a torn labrum in his shoulder, the result of Jones’ mid-fight arm crank.

Fortunately, Teixeira was able to avoid surgery and is now expected to return sometime this fall to face Phil Davis. Combate reports that a verbal agreement for the fight is in place. No date has been set, but the bout is expected to take place at UFC 179 in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

As mentioned, Teixeira will enter the bout off his first professional loss in eight years, stretching back to a unanimous decision loss to Ed Herman in Teixeira’s fourth pro fight. In-between he put together a twenty fight winning streak, culminating in his UFC 172 title shot. Now, for the first time in a long time, Teixeira will be looking to bounce back from a loss and recover some steam in the division. While he probably doesn’t have another shot at Jon Jones looming, there’s always the potential that a change in hands for the title could refresh former challengers. A win over Davis would put him right back in the conversation for future contenders.

For Phil Davis, the conversation is about more than winning. His UFC record is a stellar 8-2 (1 NC) and he’s never lost back to back fights in his career. His only losses come to top competition in Rashad Evans and Anthony Johnson. But, the way he has won and lost in the UFC has become increasingly more predictable, increasingly less fun, and with it, the criticism has mounted. Davis should be primed to “turn the corner” as a talent. Six years in as a pro, he should be entering his peak years, but a bad beating at the hands of Anthony Johnson, last time out, have many fans (and his boss) wondering whether or not that will ever happen. At 29, he’s still a fairly young fighter in a very thin (and old) division, but if he doesn’t show more in this fight than he did in his last few he may find himself under heavy fire from the UFC brass.

Light heavyweight is currently one of the UFC’s most open divisions in terms of fight bookings, so stay tuned as I’m sure more fight announcements are coming as the UFC looks to fill up it’s fall lineup.

Drysdale & Casey fail post fight drug tests

Robert Drysdale may have only had one fight in the UFC to this point, but he’s failed two drug tests. The word is in (and more importantly the results) that the UFC light heavyweight failed his post fight test after defeating Keith Berish at the TUF 19 Finale. But, Drysdale’s not alone. Keeping him company is newly resigned Kevin Casey, who will most likely have his knockout win against Bubba Bush overturned after failing his drug test following UFC 175. MMAJunkie has the report on both fighters:

The Nevada attorney general’s office today confirmed that Casey (9-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who knocked out Bubba Bush in 61 seconds at UFC 175, tested positive for drostanolone, a steroid. Drysdale (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), who submitted Keith Berish at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale, was flagged for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio of 12-to-1, according to Deputy Attorney General Christopher Eccles.

It’s hard to say what the UFC will do with Casey, this is his second go round with the promotion, so they may just want to cut ties quickly, however it seems almost certain that Drysdale will be gone. Drysdale was pulled from a planned bout against Cody Donovan in November of 2013, when he flagged for high T/E ratio in a pre-fight drug screening. Drysdale revealed afterward, that he had been undergoing TRT, but had not disclosed his use to the Athletic Commission or the UFC. He was given a 9 month suspension for the test failure. Considering that he’s been popped again, immediately following his first fight, it’s difficult to see any reason that the UFC would keep him, excepting perhaps that light heavyweight is so pressed for talent, they can’t afford to lose anyone.

There is no official word as of yet as to what eventual fines or suspensions each athlete will face, but they have both been placed under temporary suspension until a formal hearing can be arranged. The UFC has yet to release an official statement as well, so stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more news and updates as they occur.

UPDATE: The UFC has now released an official statement, and there’s not much to it that we didn’t already know:

The UFC has been notified by the Nevada State Athletic Commission that UFC middleweight Kevin Casey and light heavyweight Robert Drysdale failed drug tests following their fights at UFC 175 and The Ultimate Fighter Finale, respectively. Casey tested positive for drostanolone and Drysdale was flagged for an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio. Both fighters have been temporarily suspended from competition and informed their positive tests violated the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy and Promotional Agreement with Zuffa, LLC. The UFC has a strict, consistent policy against the use of any illegal and/or performance-enhancing drugs, stimulants or masking agents by our athletes and will support the NSAC’s determination pending a formal hearing at a later date.

Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz official for UFC 183 on January 31st

Today, Dana White appeared on ESPN with a fight announcement that had been teased all week. Anderson Silva will be making his return from injury on January 31st in Las Vegas, and when he does so, Nick Diaz will be there to meet him. Max Bretos announced the news via Twitter:

Dana White announcing on @SportsCenter Anderson Silva will be back in #UFC Octagon. He will face Nick Diaz January 31st. Boom.

— Max Bretos (@mbretosESPN) July 29, 2014

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Anderson will be returning from a little over a year on the sidelines, following a gruesome lower leg break, suffered in his second bout against Chris Weidman. The loss marked the first back to back losses of Silva’s career, as well as solidifying Weidman’s grip on the UFC middleweight title. Silva’s rehab has been big news, as the fighter was quick to return to walking and even training on the injured leg, but still ended up taking a reasonably cautious amount of time before returning to the cage.

Diaz won’t be on any fresher legs when he meets Silva. The older Diaz brother hasn’t fought since UFC 158, when he was handily outworked for 5 rounds by Georges St-Pierre. That loss was his second in a row, following a decision against Carlos Condit, and a short term retirement inbetween the two. He went into retirement again after his GSP loss and will have been out of the sport for nearly two years by the time he returns to face Silva in January.

No venue has been announced for the card as of yet, but it has to be assumed that the bout will be on PPV. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow as I’m sure more details will be forthcoming.

UPDATE: Brett Okamoto also announced via Twitter that the bout will take place at middleweight and that the event will be a PPV, UFC 183.

Silva vs. Diaz will be fought at 185 pounds as you would expect. Event is UFC 183 PPV.

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 29, 2014

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Report: Ronda Rousey likely to be featured athlete in UFC’s drive for uniforms

If Ronda Rousey is thinking about stepping away from the UFC in the near future, it sounds like she’s just been given one more reason to stay. The UFC’s women’s bantamweight champion is their most “in demand” current star, and as such, it sounds like she’ll be the face on the UFC’s plans to create a fighter uniform. Adweek has the report, that the UFC is still working on securing a uniform deal, with Ronda Rousey at the helm.

There’s another deal on the horizon. The 27-year-old will likely be the face of the UFC’s first official outfitting deal, according to Mike Mossholder, UFC’s svp of global marketing partnerships.

The UFC is “actively engaged in conversations” with a “premium apparel line” for an exclusive deal to outfit the league’s 400-plus fighters, said Mossholder, who would not reveal the outfitter. Since Rousey’s the “No. 1 most requested athlete” by UFC sponsors like MetroPCS, it’s “highly likely” she’d be highlighted. Reps from Nike, Under Armour and Adidas either declined to comment or could not be reached.

All told, it’s not a lot more information that we had, but it is interesting to know that plans for a UFC uniform are moving forward, and that the UFC is doing whatever possible to keep one of their biggest stars at the forefront of their business expansion. Rousey has teased in the past that she may not be in her MMA career for the long haul, but it’s opportunities like this one that may keep her around the sport longer than anticipated.

Joe Riggs out of UFC Fight Night: Brasilia bout after accidental shooting

Looks like Joe Riggs’ UFC return is on hold after the fighter suffered an accidental gunshot wound on Monday night. According to the official UFC press release, Riggs was taken to the hospital after accidentally shooting himself in the hand and thigh while cleaning one of his firearms. He is reportedly currently undergoing treatment.

Scheduled to return to the Octagon in Brasilia, Brazil on September 13 against Paulo Thiago, veteran Joe “Diesel” Riggs’s first UFC bout since 2006 has been put on hold after an accident at Riggs’ home in Arizona Monday night.

The UFC released the following statement on the incident.

“We were made aware that newly-signed UFC competitor Joe Riggs was involved in an unfortunate accident last night. While cleaning his permitted firearm (a pistol), the gun discharged, injuring his hand and upper thigh. Riggs was transported to a nearby hospital in Arizona where he is being treated by physicians. We wish Joe a speedy recovery.”

A replacement opponent for Thiago is being sought and will be announced shortly.

Riggs is on a six fight winning streak since a 2011 ProElite loss to Kendall Grove, one that capped the first losing streak of his career. Most recently he was crowned “Fight Master” off the one season run of Bellator’s reality TV show of the same name. He secured his release from Bellator shortly thereafter and was expected to return to the UFC as a short notice replacement for Mike Rhodes against Paulo Thiago.  No word on Riggs expected time of recovery, but I think it’s safe to assume he’ll be gunning for a quick return from injury.

Hindsight: UFC on Fox 12 in retrospect

It would appear that someone forgot to tell Robbie Lawler and Matt Brown about making peace. Then again, age is such a relative thing, and outside the world of sport, they still carry the sheen of youth. It’s a funny trick that our minds play on us as fans, quickly dubbing a 30 year old man a “grizzled veteran.” Of course, what’s worse is that the taxation of  athletics often makes honest men of us, but a fight like Lawler vs. Brown is a good reminder that correlation isn’t causation and expectation isn’t necessarily reality. After nine and thirteen years in the game respectively, Matt Brown and Robbie Lawler are better than ever. The two of them recently capped off a good, if not exceptional night of fights and a strong night of fight picking from yours truly.

Disclaimer time: A run of good luck is really putting my “I don’t gamble” dogma to the test. Getting things right is a great way to convince yourself that you’re smarter than you really are. And since I already know I’m a genius, we’re talking some truly dangerous ego boosting here. That said, I don’t have much money to burn, and all my Bloody Elbow cash goes to feed my movie addiction, so I’m not risking another one on top of it. Nonetheless, I like talking odds and picks and all the trappings therein, so even though this isn’t a gambling guide, I hope it makes itself useful for future fights. I’ll be using Best Fight Odds for the odds on each fight, and taking the mode for each fighter.

Hindsight: Joanna Jedrzejczyk (-350) vs. Juliana Lima (+270) (I picked Jedrzejczyk, I was right)

• JJ (as I am only ever going to call her, but I believe it’s pronounced Ye-dre-chik) looks like she has top 5 potential for the woman’s strawweight division. It’s tough to label her early, as the top of that division is stacked, but once you get past Torres, Gadelha, Calderwood, and Esparza, the field is open for promising young talent.
• JJ does need to work a bit more on her distance control in fights. As an excellent range striker, she can be a bit static with her footwork, and while Lima couldn’t take her down, fighters like Gadelha and Esparza may have less trouble once they get in on her legs. We’re about to find out as apparently a battle with Claudia Gadelha is already lined up for November.
• Lima’s striking looked a little better than I thought it would for this fight, and she at the very least had the chops to hang out for 15 minutes and not get knocked out, or even down, but she got out-struck and unlike bantamweight, there are a lot of other women at 115lbs who can do the same. She’ll need more than wrestling going forward.

Hindsight: Gilbert Burns (-150) vs. Andreas Stahl (+130) (I picked Burns, I was right)

• Stahl is really fast. Much faster than he looks. And as such, he was able to have a great deal of success in scrambles against Burns, and keep the more technical striker (and fighter all around) a little bit off balance and troubled for all of the fight. If he can just put a little more polish in his kickboxing (especially defensively) he could have a lot of good fights at 170.
• Burns has officially announced his drop to lightweight, so there’s no point in looking at him going forward at 170. But, at lightweight he could be a real force. He needs to work on finding his rhythm a little quicker, and mixing in his grappling a lot more, but he has all the tools to be a future contender.
• They were seen as a joke camp with a lot of rough edges early on, but the Blackzilians have turned into a pretty damn fine camp. Finally their coaching situation seems to have settled a bit (although I think they’re officially without a “head coach” right now), and Henri Hooft appears to be doing wonders with their striking. Burns is a BJJ champ but it’s obvious his getting a solid dose of kickboxing mechanics from the ground up.

Hindsight: Noad Lahat (+190) vs. Steven Siler (-240) (I picked Siler, I was wrong)

• Steven Siler appears to have found one of those strange niches in the UFC in which a relatively unknown fighter wins a string of fights because he is being chronically underestimated and is, well, unknown. As he’s settled in to a more veteran UFC status (with 9 UFC fights under his belt) opponents have gotten a pretty good bead on how he fights, and are beating him. The fact that he’s not a great finishing threat (his submission skills just haven’t been as deadly at the UFC level) may make this a hard trend to break.
• Noad Lahat needed this fight like few fighters have needed to win a fight before. As an active duty soldier he’s the kind of fighter that the UFC loves to promote, but back to back losses to Godofredo Pepey and Steven Siler would have put a pretty serious halt to any talk of Lahat as a prospect. This was a good solid win over a fighter that was supposed to beat him. It was a win he could build on.
• It looks like Lahat got the memo from his Pepey loss, box less wrestle more. He’s got the kind of wrestling and grappling chops to be a long term talent, but his desire to show his striking last time out cost him badly. He didn’t make those kinds of mistakes for long enough here, and benefited a ton from the large skill advantage he held on the mat.

Hindsight: Akbarh Arreola (+220) vs. Tiago Trator (-300) (I picked Trator, I was right)

• I get what the UFC is doing with its push for Mexican fighters, but this was a waste of a fight for one of them. Arreola is a sensible signing, a longtime vet with a lot of experience in tough fights… but he’s lost most of those fights. They needed to match him like they’ve been matching their southeast Asian prospects, softballs all the way. This was just a bad way to kill off what little interest there might be in a fighter from a developing market.
• Trator is a legit talent pickup for the UFC. Arreola isn’t great, but he’s a savvy vet and did enough to stay alive throughout this fight. Don’t let that fool you into thinking Trator doesn’t have promise though. At 27 years of age and 5 years into his pro career, he’s primed to turn the corner technically. It may not happen, but his aggressive Muay Thai game will make him fun to watch no matter what.
• If he’s not injured, and not cut, I assume that the UFC will still put Arreola on their Mexico card in November, they’ve signed enough random lightweights in the past year to get him a competitive fight, but it’s not going to be an exciting one.

Hindsight: Mike De La Torre (+150) vs. Brian Ortega (-190) (I picked Ortega, I was right)

• This was a really rough loss for De La Torre, and unfortunately more the product of an extremely bad style matchup rather than an indictment of his skill. Aggressive grapplers are the anathema of aggressive strikers (see Guillard, Melvin) and De La Torre rushed in head on and got met with a nifty choke for his trouble.
• Brian Ortega is yet another example of the constant influx of talent at the bottom of 145. For a division that only houses about 60 fighters it’s one of the UFC’s deepest from top to bottom. It’s getting to the point that the UFC may have trouble building one prospect without doing it at the expense of another. Fights with Jim Alers or Niklas Backstrom would be bananas.
• Hopefully the UFC keeps De La Torre and gets him into a fight with someone like Alex White or Alan Omer, another fun, strike heavy fighter who he can get into a good scrap with. De La Torre has it in him to be a good action fighter for the UFC, but Bocek and Ortega are not action fights.

Hindsight: Tim Means (-200) vs. Hernani Perpetuo (+170) (I picked Means, I was right)

• This is one of those times I have to really credit Dallas (and the injury bug), because while we were both picking Means, he had the nice point of insight that Means tends to be inconsistent from fight to fight, where as with Perpetuo it’s round to round. A broken arm didn’t help him here, but Means was able to get ahead and stay there.
• And with that broken arm, this has become an exceptionally tough run for Perpetuo. Jordan Mein was a hellacious first fight into the UFC and while Means was a step down, he wasn’t a big one. I think Perpetuo gets another shot here, because he’s exciting when he’s on and the UFC’s not really cutting many guys, but he either needs a big step back, or to really step up his game.
• Means delivered in the way he often has of late, which is to say that when he’s not facing a terrible striker he tends to keep things pretty close for the decision. Honestly this doesn’t make me way higher on his long term potential, but it was nice to see him get a win as I’ve always had a soft spot for him. If he takes a step up after this fight, I don’t know if I’d pick him to win it.

Hindsight: Patrick Cummins (-225) vs. Kyle Kingsbury (+180) (I picked Cummins, I was right)

• I felt this fight was pretty dead even (at least in terms of what could be expected) going into it, thus I was pleasantly surprised that Cummins was utterly dominant with his wrestling. Kingsbury is the only fighter of any note he’s beaten thus far in his career, really the announcement of his potential. If he can do that to a couple more lower tier LHWs he can start knocking on doors for top ten fights.
• That was one of the most ill advised returns to competition for a fighter in some time. Kyle Kingsbury has seemed like a decent enough dude (outside of his treatment of fine edibles), so I was a little disheartened to hear he was making his return from semi-retirement for another fight in the UFC. I hoped that he’d be competitive against a guy whose biggest fight involved getting stomped for two minutes, but he wasn’t and now he’s back out of the game.
• Cummins looks like he’s put some time in his hands. He still doesn’t have the best responses to getting hit, but he has power and he times his strikes well and that gives him a lot of opportunities to be dangerous, even if he never becomes a striking savant.

Hindsight: Daron Cruickshank (+210) vs. Jorge Masvidal (-250) (I picked Masvidal, I was right)

• I wish this fight told me more. Quality inside boxers with good grappling chops and some ability to wrestle are kryptonite to Daron Cruickshank. His style requires space and time to force his opponents off rhythm, to make them guess at what comes next. He got a little of that early, because Masvidal’s gonna do his thing, but once Masvidal came to his senses this was all his fight.
• And, similarly to Cruickshank, this didn’t tell me anything new for Jorge Masvidal. He still started slow, he still almost lost a fight he was favored to win, and he still showed enough skill and grit to be considered  a top ten guy at 155. I wouldn’t pick him against the division’s elite after a fight like this, but he’s earned the right to stay at the table.
• For those calling for Cruickshank to “develop new skills” I don’t know that that’s really a possible, or even a sensible option. He’s had a ton of success fighting with the style he came in with, and that style leaves holes. Plugging those holes would probably mean changing that style so much it wouldn’t be effective, and that doesn’t serve anyone.

Hindsight: Bobby Green (+300) vs. Josh Thomson (-400) (I picked Thomson, I was wrong-ish)

• I’m really not sure Bobby Green got this victory. I thought Thomson landed the better, cleaner shots all night. But, much like Bendo, Green is very good at shaking blows off and pretending that he didn’t get hurt. I’ve heard enough talk from judges to know that that kind of thing matters and it may have just cost Josh Thomson another win.
• Not that that grates overly hard on me. Thomson’s a great fighter, but I’m not at all invested in his success, and few fighters needed a win right now more than Green, who is charged with the task of looking after his brother’s kids. This may not have been the clearest victory, but he showed up in impossible circumstances against terrible odds and fought a very solid fight against a great fighter. There’s no shame in that.
• I’ve said it on video, but I think one of Thomson’s biggest current problems (outside the judges) is that he’s not the greatest independent threat to finish. He’s great at capitalizing on the mistakes of his opponents and fights in all areas to great effect. But when his opponents aren’t giving a lot of openings, he’s not really excellent at creating his own. Top lightweights tend not to have a lot of holes, thus Josh Thomson is having a rough time on the score cards.

Hindsight: Dennis Bermudez (-175) vs. Clay Guida (+155) (I picked Bermudez, I was right)

• I don’t know what else people want from Bermudez. I saw grumblings even after this fight that people still just aren’t sold on him. Does he need to eat someone in the cage? Would that do it? He’s beating his recent opponents handily. Guys that many thought he would have trouble with. Just because he may not beat fighters in the top 5 doesn’t mean he’s not a legitimate entry into the top 10 of his division.
• I like having the aggressive, reckless Clay Guida back, but in the modern era, that also means he loses a lot more definitively than he used to. Cardio and wrestling aren’t enough for the current 145 lb division and it’s only getting deeper around him. They could slide him down into up and comer fights, but at some point it’s diminished returns for a popular fighter.
• Bermudez still gets hit a bit, a problem that will definitely put him in trouble against the really strong strikers ahead of him, but he just seems so ridiculously strong that at times I’ve felt like it’s really unfair for him to fight dudes his size. He’s not always the most technical fighter in the world but it’s a competition between him and Chad Mendes for the strongest guy at 145.

Hindsight: Anthony Johnson (-600) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (+450) (I picked Johnson, I was right)

• Anthony Johnson is probably the best kickboxer at 205. If not it’s a close race between him and Gustafsson, but I’d say Johnson is probably better just on his feet. Hooft has done wonders with his striking and it’s now totally irrelevant to go on about how powerful or fast he is. He’s a technician and he took Lil Nog apart in seconds.
• It was sad to see just how overmatched Lil Nog was in this fight. Given the halt he put on Rashad Evans’ offense, there was reason to hope that he could use his crafty veteran skills to make this an ugly long fight, even if it was one he was going to lose. Instead he just got melted, like a sno-cone in hell.
• With Gustafsson only on the shelf for a short time and Jones booked with DC (and probably not ready for a quick turnaround) now is the time for a possible Gustafsson vs. Rumble matchup. Honestly, if that fight doesn’t get made, I can’t see who else they have Rumble fight. Teixeira off a loss is possible, but it feels like he needs to be in a no. 1 contender bout and I don’t think he’ll ever fight Rashad.

Hindsight: Matt Brown (+295) vs. Robbie Lawler (-360) (I picked both, I was a wuss)

• I picked Lawler in the Vivi with Dallas and I picked Brown in the Staff Picks. I don’t like to do that often as I want to be known for sticking to my guns, but I did think there was a way for Brown to win this one and nobody seemed to be taking him. The fact that he did much better than most picking against him thought he would, was a nice bonus for taking him to win, even if he didn’t.
• Brown almost did get something going, in just the way I thought he might. He dominated the second round, working out of the clinch, because of Lawler’s complete willingness to stand in and get hit. Lawler got trapped working willingly in the clinch and gave Brown a chance to show off just how far ahead his inside game is over just about everyone else in MMA.
• Eventually though, the favorite won out and for the reasons it was expected he would. Modern day Lawler’s footwork and counterstriking are just too picture perfect to let Brown inside when he didn’t want him there. It took a bad round to figure out that he didn’t want Brown inside, but once that decision was made, the rest of the fight happened in Lawler’s range.

Those are my collected thoughts from a very good (if not quite great) UFC event in a month of great UFC events. No part of it disappointed, although picking a lot of winners made this series feel a bit pointless at times. But, as always, that’s the benefit of hindsight. I’ll still soldier on ahead, even if it’s just to talk about how right I was, and hope to be back next time when Ryan Bader should still be better than Ovince St. Preux, even if not by a wide margin. Until then.

Welcome to the UFC Masanori Kanehara

Not everyone’s journey to the UFC is the same and for Masanori Kanehara, that journey was an especially long one. Although no official debut date has been announced (it could be assumed he’ll be fighting on the Saitama card) and no opponent has been lined up, the UFC made his signing official last week with the addition of Kanehara to their bantamweight roster.

Who is Masanori Kanehara?

When I mentioned Kanehara’s journey to the UFC above, it was to prepare you for his 23-11-5 record, starting in Deep back in 2003. Since then, Kanehara has competed for ZST, Sengoku, and Pancrase, as well as brief stints with K-1 and Shooto. He has wins over, Norifumi Yamamoto, Michihiro Omigawa, Chan Sung Jung, and Shunichi Shimizu. He would be entering the UFC on a 6 fight win streak, if he hadn’t lost his last fight by DQ for throwing his opponent out of the ring. The 31-year old trains out of Paraestra Hachioji alongside UFC lightweight Kazuki Tokudome. It’s not a camp otherwise known for producing high end talent; at some point Kanehara spent time training with Greg Jackson town in Albuquerque, but I’m not sure if he still trains there or not.

What you should expect:

Masanori has a very upright kickboxing style, predicated on being light on his feet and throwing counter hooks over his opponents punches. He likes to stand tall with his head high, not the best against aggressive strikers, and something he’s paid for in the past. While his kicks and punches are fast and look to have some power behind them, he seems to take a little while to get in rhythm, only throwing combinations as he gets more comfortable, later in fights.

He has a pretty nice shot and double leg when he wants it, but I’m not sure how well he sets it up with strikes, as most of what I’ve seen his him shooting under his opponents, rather than generating takedowns on his own offense. He has a very clingy top game, and while his ground and pound isn’t all that heavy, he’s very good at advancing position and working toward submissions. Overall he’s a very well rounded fighter and a welcome addition to the bantamweight division. I don’t know that he has the fluidity of transition or standup skill to make a run at the top 15, but there are definitely guys at 135 he can beat.

To get us better acquainted, here is his recent bout against Wade Choate at Deep 62 Impact:

Watch: Melvin Manhoef on receiving end of a last second TKO in kickboxing bout

Melvin Manhoef is something of a cult idol in MMA. A “What if?” fighter who never got a chance to ply his trade in the UFC despite holding wins over Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Kazuo Misaki among many others. He never developed much in the way of a well rounded skill set, but his obvious kickboxing talents and wealth of power made him a must watch fighter for many fans. Over time there have been various campaigns to get him into the UFC, none of which ever gained much traction, but showed the consistent mystique around Manhoef’s talents.

Now, at 38 and still in the combat sports game, things are looking a little less bright for the former K-1 Heroes and Dream star. He recently took on Cesar Cordoba at International Fighting Championship in Spain, and things did not go well. The end came at 2:59 of round 1. Check out the video of the brutal finish, above.

UPDATE: Since posting the original video, I’ve gotten a full copy of the fight, and it gets a little weird after Manhoef faceplants on the canvas. Manhoef was able to make it back to his feet, and got what appeared to be a pretty long recovery period after beating the count. Cordoba went right back to wailing on Manhoef, who appeared to have regained at least some of his faculties, only to have the ref jump in at the last second of the round to stop the fight. Manhoef went a little crazy, but he was pretty clearly getting beaten up. Seeing the full video (now posted above) what do you think of the stoppage? No longer a clean KO, now something of question mark.

Welcome to the UFC Richard Odoms

I keep saying that heavyweight MMA is a weird place, it’s own special deal; a world in which the normal laws of MMA talent acquisition and scouting don’t really apply. It’s signings like this that confirm that world view to me. Because, by any sensible measure, the UFC’s signing of Richard Odoms is weird. But, for heavyweight MMA, it’s normal. Or at least near enough. His signing was announced by the UFC on Thursday with the fight booking between Odoms and Ruslan Magomedov at UFC 177.

Who is Richard Odoms?

“The Black Eagle” as he is known, is a 39 year old heavyweight fighting out of RodrigoPinheiroBJJ along with Pete Spratt’s Muay Thai camp down in San Antonio, Texas. He comes to the UFC with a 8-1 record gained fighting reasonably decent competition. His only loss came to current UFC heavyweight Jared Rosholt in a hard fought three round decision where Odoms sustained a large cut to his head and apparently a broken ankle as well. Otherwise, he has wins over D.J. Linderman and Darrill Schoonover among a range of decent regional talent. It’s a decent record for an up and coming fighter, but admittedly, a little light for someone who is likely already past their physical prime. Alongside his MMA career, Odoms has a 5-0 boxing record, compiled entirely in 2003. Odoms is also a police officer, alongside his career in the cage.

What you should expect:

Odoms throws pawing strikes and kicks from the outside, looking for opportunities to load up on harder shots, or get into the clinch and cage control. While he still packs a lot of power in even small shots, his tentativeness on the outside, does make him a pretty easy target for well timed takedowns, as he tends to stand tall. When he does find a comfortable rhythm, Odoms tends to throw kicks with regularity and speed. His hands, are another matter. Punches tend to come as big, telegraphed sweeping strikes; huge hooks and uppercuts that opponents can see coming, but are powerful enough to do serious damage if they land. Essentially, he’s the kind of competent heavyweight brawler that is dangerous in any fight, but will have trouble winning consistently with his current skill set.

What this means for his debut:

Mostly, bad things. Ruslan Magomedov may not put much power in his punches, but he’s a nicely technical kickboxer with good footwork, who’s made a career out of out hustling and outpoint slower fighters. And standing at 6′ 5″ as he does, he’s not in much danger to get out muscled by Odoms, who still looks pretty unpolished in his wrestling game. Essentially, because Magomedov will likely let Odoms hang around, there’s always a possibility that he lands one big strike, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

To get us better acquainted, here’s his last bout against D.J. Linderman. (Bout starts at about 00:86:00)