Fights to make for the UFC on Fox 18 main card fighters

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. No, not the fights. I mean, yeah, those are good and all, but what are they in comparison to a really good fight booking article? Pretty shabby, I’d say. And this is going to be a really awesome fight booking article. You know this. I’m here to play fantasy matchmaker to all the main card talent on UFC on Fox 18, and maybe just a little bit of the undercard talent as well. So, join me for what is almost assuredly going to be the highlight of your weekend.

Well… don’t join me, I’m writing this and you’re reading it, so technically we can’t be doing both together, at the same time. But you know what I mean, damn it.

Just for the record, I’ll be trying to follow the Joe Silva/Sean Shelby methodology as close as I possibly can. Matching winners with winners and losers with losers and pitting similarly tenured UFC talents against one another. So, lets get to it!

Anthony Johnson: There’s really only one good option for Rumble right now, and that’s to wait. If Jones beats DC (as seems likely), then Johnson vs. Jones is easily the best fight the UFC can put together at light heavyweight. It promises to be surefire action, and almost certainly a title fight that will end in a stoppage loss for somebody. For all Jones’ great success, he’s very willing to eat a lot of heavy shots in order to wear down his opponent. Gus cracked him, DC landed a lot of shots in tight, and even Glover got his licks in. If Johnson gets the opportunity to land a few hard bombs, things could get real interesting.

Ryan Bader: There are two obvious outcomes Bader should be angling for right now. The most obvious is a fight with Alexander Gustafsson when the former title contender is ready for another bout. It’s the biggest fight Bader could get right now, and even if it’s not one he’s incredibly likely to win, it’s his best path to sticking around the top of the division and returning to something like potential title contention. If he wants a softer landing in a smaller fight, then he could fight Shogun once he loses to Rashad Evans at UFC on Fox 19. That wouldn’t be half as compelling, but it’d be a fresh fight for Bader against someone with some name value left.

Ben Rothwell: Unfortunately for Rothwell, he may feel like a title contender right now, but there’s a line ahead of him and it is slow moving. He’s already beat Overeem, even though the Dutchman is ranked ahead of him, so his best bet is to angle for a fight with Stipe Miocic, but that could be a very hard sell to Stipe if Miocic is of the belief that he’ll get a title shot if he waits long enough. Rothwell’s likely best option is a bout with Travis Browne. It’s not the sexiest big fight, but it’s probably the one that makes the most sense immediately.

Josh Barnett: Fortunately for Barnett this loss sets him up for a perfect top heavyweight bout. Josh Barnett vs. Andrei Arlovski. Somehow Arlovski and Barnett have never fought and with them both coming off losses right now (it’d be better if they were both coming off wins obviously) it’s the fight to make. Both guys have question marks, both guys are solidly top 10. Book it!

Jimmie Rivera: He passed his “get into the top 15” test with a win over Iuri Alcantara, unfortunately his next step is a bit less clear. Most of the rest of the 10-15 ranked fighters are either already booked, or coming off a loss. With Caraway and Almeida gunning to fight one another that seems like it could tie up just about everyone at the top of the division. But, it leaves one awesome option. Jimmie Rivera vs. Michael McDonald. That fight would be bananas and super fun. And while McDonald is ranked 6, his performance against Masanori Kanehara doesn’t inspire me to believe that he’s solid in that spot. If the UFC isn’t willing to give him that big a bump up, then he could fight a veteran gatekeeper like Rani Yahya or Felipe Arantes.

Iuri Alcantara: That’s probably an end to his current run in the top 15, but I”m not sure that it’s absolutely the end. There are a few other hangers-on in that division that aren’t winning but have managed to keep a spot in the rankings. Fights against Takeya Mizugaki, Eddie Wineland, or Johnny Eduardo all look really good right now. I think I’d like to see Mizu fight Frankie Saenz more so I’d put Iuri Alcantara against Eddie Wineland if Wineland is still determined to keep his fighting career going.

Tarec Saffiedine: Saffiedine didn’t look amazing in his bout against Ellenberger, but he looked as good as he needed to to get a win. The road ahead gets more difficult, though. Most of the top ranked welterweights are not fading as fast as Ellenberger has been and have a lot more to offer a low powered volume striker. The fight I think would be most interesting and should offer an interesting skill clash would be Dong Hyun Kim, his huge frame and powerful Judo could be a really interesting test (along with his flaily striking) to see if Saffiedine can consistently beat big tough welterweights, especially ones that can offer a lot of diverse offense.

Rafael Natal: I had a bunch of other ideas as to what might make the best fight for Natal right now, but it’s pretty obvious. Nate Marquardt just got a big win and wants to keep going, throw Natal at him. It’ll be ugly, but it’s the best option out there at the moment.

Wilson Reis: Reis just put on the performance of his career in a win over Dustin Ortiz. As such, this is the time to rush him up the ladder. Despite what Rogan says, a 9-year vet in his 30s is not a “prospect.” He’s the best fighter he’s likely going to be and we’re seeing it right now. Unfortunately, with the way that division is right now, there are almost no good options. Reis just lost to Formiga, Joe-B and Makovsky are booked, Ali-B is coming off a loss and so is Moraga. The simplest fight is with Kyoji Horiguchi, that would be nuts, but if Horiguchi loses that pushes back one of the divisions best young fighters just a bit further. Honestly, I’d say give Reis a fight with Ian McCall, even with McCall coming off a loss, he’s been out for a while, he’s top ranked, and if Reis wins, it builds a new title challenger without sacrificing a new face.

Sage Northcutt: Horacio Gutierrez would be a good idea right now.

Other Bouts: Barberena vs. Steele, OAM vs. Madadi, Ortiz vs. Bagautinov, Caceres vs. Miller, Brown vs. Herrera,  Makashvili vs. Alers, Jackson vs. Knight, Martin vs. Erosa

Report: UFC releases Mike Pierce and 10 other fighters from roster (UPDATED)

New talent comes in, which means other talent has to go out. That’s the way of being a fighter in the UFC. For most, it’s not a job for long. The UFC has been signing a lot more fighters recently (including a whole bunch of heavyweights), but that means it’s time for them to cut a bunch of fighters too and that’s exactly what it looks like they’ve done.

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None of this is official, we’re going off the UFCFIGHTERSiNFO twitter account, which runs a ruby script over the UFC.com roster and publishes the changes as the UFC updates its website. When a fighter gets deleted from the website that almost always only means one thing, that they’ve been released from their contract. On that note, the latest round of releases includes 10 names. Steve Montgomery, Marcio Alexandre Jr, Danny Castillo, Mike Pierce, Konstantin Erokhin, Valmir Lazaro, Akbarh Arreola, Steve Kennedy, Hayder Hassan, and Marcin Wrzosek all appear to have had their UFC contracts terminated. [UPDATE: Add Leo Kuntz to this list, making it 11 fighters released]

There’s one big surprise on that list, and it’s longtime welterweight Mike Pierce. Pierce recently returned to the promotion, off a long injury layoff, to take on borderline top 15 welterweight Ryan Laflare. The 35-year-old put on a spirited showing and even came close to finishing LaFlare for a fight that, while he didn’t win, had him looking very much in the kind of form that took Johny Hendricks to a split decision. Still, it was his second straight loss in the UFC (albeit two years apart) and that looks like it was enough to see him out the door. Given his age, it’s hard to imagine him making his way back, but he has the ability to win fights regionally so, if he’s intent on competing for another few years I wouldn’t put a UFC return past him.

Otherwise there aren’t too many surprises. While Danny Castillo is a notable name in the lightweight division, he’s also lost four straight and five of his last six. Alexandre, Erokhin, Hassan, Arreola, and Kennedy have all struggled to find winning form in their short UFC careers and as a non-TUF finalist who lost his debut, it’s pretty standard practice for Wrzosek to get released. I’m a little surprised to see Lazaro gone after going loss-win-loss, with his win coming over James Krause. But his fight with Michel Prazeres wasn’t pretty and lightweight is an especially unforgiving division.

Stay tuned as we’ll update this article with confirmations where possible, and given that no fighters below lightweight were released, there may be more yet to come.

Note: Because the various hosting servers update at different times, these names may still appear up on the UFC website for several hours after they were removed.

Bellator’s Honeycutt says Koscheck is giving him MMA CliffNotes

Bellator loves wrestlers, and it seems wrestlers love Bellator too. The promotion has become the place to be if  you’re a top collegiate NCAA wrestling talent looking to make your way in to MMA. Fighters like Bubba Jenkins, Darion Caldwell, Aaron Pico, Mike Chandler, and others have made the promotion their home. One of those standout wrestlers, Chris Honeycutt, is set for his next bout at Bellator 148, this Friday, January 29th in Fresno, California.

Honeycutt will be taking on longtime MMA veteran Paul “The Gentleman” Bradley, in a rematch of their June 2015 bout, where an accidental clash of heads caused a cut to Bradley and ended the fight in a no contest. Honeycutt sat down with Bloody Elbow to talk about his plans for the rematch and about all the ins and outs of transitioning from wrestling to MMA.

First off, why MMA?
“It’s like wrestling, but more fun,” Honeycutt said of his desire to move to fighting. “I get to kick and punch people in the face instead of just taking people down and holding them. Anything to stay away from a full time desk job.”

Are you excited for this rematch? Would you have rather moved on to a new fight?
“I fought Paul and I didn’t finish the fight. It was a No Contest. So of course I want to… I’m the sort that likes to start projects and finish them. So, I started the fight with Paul, I’d like to finish it now. I don’t know that I wanted to finish it before I began anything else, but it’s only because it takes time for him to heal all his stitches and time passes. And I walked off without any bumps or bruises, I was back in the gym that following Monday, training. It would have been nice to get another one in while I was waiting for him, but I’m not complaining. This is now, I’m going to go in there and take care of business and beat him up again.”

His willingness to hold the pocket when you’re coming in really emphasizes the potential for the kind of headbutts that caused that cut. Are you worried about it happening again?
“My coaches tell me to just let that be what it was and move on, but I’m not going to lie to you. If I told you I was going into this fight, if I’m not a little worried about where my head is going to be when I throw some body shots. I’m going to make sure my left elbow is up, so if we do clash he’s going to hit my elbow first. If in fact he does get the cut again, it’s not by head, he’ll het the elbow. The fight should either continue, or if it’s stopped, it’s stopped because I hit him with my elbow, which won’t make it a no contest, so it’ll give me the win. The first round, a lot of my combinations I was throwing, he was always retreating out, so I almost got in that rhythm. I try not to get in a continuous rhythm over and over again, because it makes you more predictable. But, him backing up so much in that first round I almost took it for granted. Only in the second, he started to kinda… I think he realized he lost the first round, so he needed to make up for it. He stopped backing up as much. And me not expecting him to actually stand his ground on that combination caused us to hit heads pretty hard.”

Is keeping your elbow up the only thing you’re changing for this fight, or was there anything else you saw last time out?
“As far as my last camp and this camp goes, it’s identical. I’m not changing really anything. What worked the first time around will work the second time around. And like I said, if there’s any change it’s just, be a little more conscious of where my head is. And if I do lean in with my head, make sure my elbow is covering it, so if there is any frcition amongst our head position and what not, it comes off my elbow, so it will end in my favor and not his.”

You train with Josh Koscheck a lot over at Dethrone, can you tell us what happened with his injury?
“When you get good athletes all in the same room and we all strive to be the very best, so if you’re not 100% on sparring days or wrestling days and whatnot, injuries are bound to happen. It happened to be that it happened to him during camp and that’s unfortunate. But, Josh being the guy he is, he’s still in the room every day during training, making sure everyone else is getting workouts in, they’re pushing hard, and they’re ready for January 29th.”

Does it help you a lot to have someone like Koscheck around who has already walked the path you’re on?
“We both are Edinboro grads, so we both had the same college wrestling coach. I mean, he was the reason why I came to Dethrone in the first place, here in California. Because, we share the same mindset on what it takes to be successful and the drive and commitment it takes. We see eye to eye on that. Him transitioning from wrestling to MMA and doing that first hand, and me moving here, he’ll be able to give me the CliffNotes almost. How to skip… ‘Don’t waste so much time on this. Learn this first, that’ll come.’ I wanted to learn boxing before I learned kicking, because once you get the boxing down you can see where the kicks are part of fighting. I feel like that’s sped my transition up by years.”

You’re already co-maining a card for Bellator, assuming you continue having success quickly, what are your long term goals?
“I just want to get the belt and hold onto it and not give it up until I’m ready to call it quits. Then retire and live on a beach. I mean, once I get the belt, to me that’s as high as you get, and you just hold it and keep it for as long as you can, until you don’t want it anymore and you want to retire. If I were to tell you what the future looks like, I’ll have the belt by the end of this year, the end of 2016, and then I’ll retire and give the belt back that’ll be it. If I’m reigning champ for 10 years I’ll be happy with that.”

You saw RIZIN, right? Is that something you’d like to do?
“Before Bellator decided to come to Fresno, I was about to fight on the December 4th card. And I was hoping, if I got on the December 4th card, go out there and kick some ass, not get beat up, and if I walk off with no injuries, I’d be able to fight that at the end of the month. I was thinking about that for a couple of days, and then they told me that they had a Fresno show coming, which is even cooler, because I get to fight in front of the home town, or I get to fight here in Fresno. Everyone gets to come watch and it’s convenient for me to fight, because I live here. But yeah, RIZIN is probably a good opportunity.”

Maybe take a fight with one of those huge Sumos?
“I’ll fight anybody. I just want to fight, that’s all I want to do. I train so much, that not having a fight every five months, it drives me crazy. Because I’m a wrestler, I’m used to wrestling four times a day every weekend for months on end. That’s the only part I probably haven’t gotten used to yet, is just that fights take time. There’s just big breaks in between.”

The Bellator guys on that RIZIN show, King Mo and Brennan Ward, were both wearing shoes when they fought. As a a longtime wrestler, is that something you’d prefer, given the opportunity?
“I don’t know how the rules are. I mean, I would imagine you’re allowed to do anything you can do in MMA here in the states, plus you can do the soccer kicks. If I’m hindered on what I can do, I wouldn’t wear them. If there’s no hindering on any aspect by wearing them, then I would wear them. That’d be my outlook on it.

“I’m not going to sacrifice not being able to kick the guy just so I can have a little bit better grip. Sometimes not wearing shoes is actually better anyway. You get into a scramble and someone has, basically, a handle. I know when I went and wrestled at the NCAAs last year, I put the wrestling shoes back on for a ‘Supermatch.’ I was in a scrambling position and I’m just like, ‘My leg won’t come out because he’s got my shoe.’ Where in MMA I’m like, ‘There’s not even a slight chance that this person would be able to hold on to my foot if I didn’t have a shoe on.'”

Seeing those guys wearing them, it made me wonder if all the wrestling to MMA converts out there were just secretly pining to wear shoes in the cage.
“I think it depends on how someone trains on a day to day. On a day to day, I don’t wear shoes ever. The only time I wear shoes is on my cardio sessions and that’s new. That’s something I just started doing this camp. So, I’m starting to get comfortable wearing shoes again, but living here in Fresno, I mean I find excuses to wear shoes. I rocking flip flops and sandals year ’round.”

Chris Honeycutt fights Paul Bradley in the co-main event of Bellator 148 on Spike TV, Friday, January 29th.
You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisTheCutt

Daley on Koscheck: ‘He’s such an idiot, why am I giving him the opportunity to fight me’

Paul Daley is a unique character in modern MMA. A fighter whose career has been marked by large stretches of success and singular (and sometimes highly memorable losses). Unusually for a high octane knockout artist like Daley, he’s never really found a long-term, consistent home in the upper tier of MMA. His year-and-a-half stint in Strikeforce was interspersed with regular fights for BAMMA and ended on a split decision loss to Kazuo Misaki, after which the promotion would hold only four more events before becoming part of the UFC.

And of course, there was his UFC run. A successful 2-0 start, derailed utterly by a punch after the bell in an ugly loss to Josh Koscheck. Daley is a fighter who has found success wherever he’s gone and somehow still managed not to stay anywhere for too long. Now he’s with Bellator, and it sounds like it’s a place he’s looking to stay. At least for as long as he stays in MMA. It also just happens to be where Josh Koscheck ended up after his long UFC tenure came to a close.

Paul Daley sat down to talk with Bloody Elbow about his career plans and goals for the future, starting with his Bellator 148 bout, this Friday, January 29th, against Andy Uhrich.

“Oh shit no. Hell no,” Daley chuckled when asked if he’d still be fighting in his 40s. “I definitely won’t fight for the next decade, no. I do have a plan as far as stepping away from the international sport of Mixed Martial Arts, but it’s… I have a plan. I probably won’t be fighting when I’m 40 though, or 38. It doesn’t go too much past the age of 35, and I’m 33 this year.”

And with a set deadline in place, “Semtex” has a pretty good idea of how he wants the next year to go:

“I’m gonna win all my fights and I’m going to end as champion, given the opportunity,” said Daley of his 2016 plans. “But, most importantly, just to keep enjoying the sport, keep enjoying the preparation, keep enjoying beating people up, and keep winning. If I keep winning then everything else is possible. My main focus is on making sure I’m in the best position possible to do that and everything should just launch straight off of that.”

For many it’s a little surprising that the first fight planned for Daley this year wasn’t a bout against the newly signed Josh Koscheck. But, to hear Daley tell it, that’s not a fight he’s sure Koscheck deserves given his recent record:

“You know what, this f***ing idiot, he’s such an idiot, why am I giving him the opportunity to fight me?”

“It doesn’t matter having my opponent changed for me too much,” Daley responded when asked if he was happy that he hadn’t been booked against Koscheck, given the fighter withdrawing due to injury. “But, as far as Koscheck being the first fight, I just feel like… Koscheck is an established name, granted, he’s a great fighter, I think he’s been losing. And I’m like, ‘You know what, this fucking idiot, he’s such an idiot, why am I giving him the opportunity to fight me?’ I’m not one to build up things like a ‘super-mega-awesome-fight,’ but this is probably the biggest fight Koscheck could get right now; the most attention that he could build up for a fight. So, why the fuck am I giving this guy the opportunity, straight off the back of five losses, when I’m on a really good winning streak in kickboxing and MMA. I don’t really need the Koscheck fight. I’m in a position to fight whoever Bellator give me. And I feel like I can beat whoever Bellator give me. Saying that, the Koscheck fight is a big money fight, it would have the potential to bring me a hell of a lot of money. So, who knows? Right now I’m just glad… The guy pulled out of a fight in his home town. I’m not relying on anything apart from being told [my fight is] going to be on January 29th.”

As far as that January 29th fight, the goal is a lot like Daley’s goal in most of his fights:

“I’d love to get a really good faceplant knockout, that’d be awesome. I’d also like to get the rounds in, show my versatility and show that I am improving and I’m still enjoying improving. That’s the main thing. Some kinds of people say I have weaknesses that continue to be exposed, but I’m kinda happy that the fight I had with Andre Santos was a real tough fight where I could dig down. I wasn’t prepared for such a fight, but I showed that I can handle myself in a position where a tough wily Brazilian, who had more fights than me, champion in Brazil, came after me with submissions. And I went two rounds with this guy. I was in his guard, I was in his half guard. Man, I was in all these positions and I came out and won the fight.

“People that have just seen me standing, banging, knocking people out, or defending a takedown or whatever, but I was working in these positions and I was successful in a lot of these positions, even landing a takedown in the first round against Santos. So, sometimes I feel like I want that knockout and sometimes I’m just like, ‘I don’t give a fuck what happens, because I know I’m gonna win anyways.’ So it doesn’t matter. I’m quite happy to show people the old Semtex, leave people laid out, flat on their face, needing oxygen. But, I also want to show the other portion of the fans that I am a tough fighter and I can survive so called ‘bad positions’ where my fans are biting their nails. I look for opportunities to show that.”

And after Uhrich, Daley would love to find his way into a big tournament, either on RIZIN or Dynamite, and hopefully one that leads to the welterweight title:

“F*** yeah, put Koscheck in there as well, Brennan Ward is a great character, Michael Page is extremely entertaining. I think that’s an awesome 4-man tournament right there. Just putting that out there, Scott.”

“I’d love to be part of a Rizin card, and just any cool event,” Daley said of the possibility of fighting for the Japanese promotion. “The Dynamite card was sort of the same thing. Scott Coker does fantastic things with Bellator. The previous Bellator, when Bjorn was in charge, the thing I was attracted to was the tournament format. It’s much better the way it is now, nothing against Scott. I don’t even know why I’m having to justify saying that. I’m just like… I like tournaments. It doesn’t have to be a tournament every show, it doesn’t have to be Japan, but before I’m done in the sport I would love to be part of a big tournament, you know?

“Someone just asked me about ‘What’s happening with Koreshkov?’ He has gone a bit quiet on the whole Bellator/MMA scene, as far as promoting him as a champion. Whether he’s having contract difficulties or visa difficulties, I’m just gonna put this out there to Scott: If something were to happen, if the belt is vacant, lets do a welterweight tournament for the belt. Let’s do that. Doesn’t have to be in Japan, let’s just put on another Dynamite card and make the tournament for the welterweight belt.

“Fuck yeah, put Koscheck in there as well, Brennan Ward is a great character, Michael Page is extremely entertaining. I think that’s an awesome 4-man tournament right there. Just putting that out there, Scott.”

And while Bellator’s Dynamite and Sakakibara’s RIZIN have opportunities for kickboxing bouts, it sounds like Daley is looking to get the most out of his MMA career in the immediate future:

“I think the Bellator contract has a little bit of flexibility where Bellator are involved,” Daley responded, when asked about the possibility of seeing him continue kickboxing in the near future. “I don’t think they’ll just let me go and fight for Glory, let me go and fight for another big kickboxing promotion, K-1 or such. If they’re involved… There has to be some sort of Bellator tie in. And I appreciate that Scott is, through the Dynamite show, keeping kickboxing in Bellator. In that case, yeah I’d love to keep doing the kickboxing thing. But, I think for me there’s longevity left in my kickboxing career moreso than my MMA career. You may see… In the next 18 months or so, you may see me step away from MMA, but continue kickboxing or visa-versa. I’m still a baby in kickboxing much more than MMA. I’m really a baby in kickboxing, despite having some years in and despite having over 20 kickboxing fights. We’ll see, we’ll see what happens. I have a plan in my head and I have faith in my plans, so we’ll just see what happens.

“I just want to fight straight up kickboxing. It’s appealing to me, because I haven’t got to worry about the takedowns. I feel that kickboxing… Sometimes in an MMA fight you can feel like you’re not really in a fight. You know you are, everybody is super skilled. Wrestling is dangerous and striking introduced with wrestling is dangerous. But, sometimes you come out of an MMA fight and it’s been a bit of a wrestling-fest, you don’t really you’ve been in a fight. I like to feel… In kickboxing you’re in a fight. You know you’ve been in a kickboxing fight. Your legs are sore, your eyes are swollen, your nose hurts, you’ve been hit with punches, kicked in the ribs. I like that. I like to know I’ve been in a fight.”

As for the MMA fights he’s been in, Daley says his bouts stand out more to him as highlights he can revisit, rather than moments he really enjoyed at the time:

“I think Scott Smith is one I might look back on and think, ‘That was a pretty cool punch.'”

“I’ve had a lot of fights, you know?” Daley said, talking about his favorite fight in his career. “None of them have really been enjoyable win or lose. Yeah, I’ve had some great ones to look back on and say, ‘That was a pretty cool knockout.’ But no, when I’m in there and punching, there’s not much emotion there; anger or happiness or fun. I like the knockouts, you know I’ve had a lot of knockouts. All the knockouts are always good to look back on, when you’re winning. The Scott Smith one is one that stands out to me. That was just a fantastic punch and I think the effect it had on him and the finish… I thought the commentary was fantastic, it was just great. I think Scott Smith is one I might look back on and think, ‘That was a pretty cool punch.'”

With a long career already behind him and an end goal for MMA in sight, perhaps it’s not too surprising that Semtex is a big fan of seeing Nick Diaz’s NAC suspension get reduced, from 5 years to 1.5. If nothing else, it means there’s slim chance of Daley vs. Diaz 2… If Diaz can just get himself out of that UFC contract:

“Yeah, yeah, that’s good,” Daley said, speaking to the news of Nick Diaz’s deal with the NAC. “I’m all for that. I was kind of hoping that his sentence getting reduced was something that would get him out of the UFC contract, because that’s another big big rematch that I’d be happy to make. I’m a big fan of Nick Diaz. Our fight was a 1-round, crazy fight that the fans loved, but I hated because I lost it, because I veered so far away from my coaches’ gameplan it’s unbelievable. If that fight could happen, that’s definitely a fight that I would drop everything for. It would pay extremely well, because everyone would want to see that rematch and Nick’s a cool character. I’m happy he got his sentence reduced and I’m interested in seeing who they put in front of him. Hopefully he can do something to get out of his UFC contract and we can put that fight on before I step away from MMA. Before I step away I’d like that rematch. I know he’s on good terms with Scott Coker as well, the whole Strikeforce thing.

“It wasn’t one of my favorite fights, because I fought completely the wrong fight, but it’s definitely one of the fans’ favorite fights. I know a lot of people expect me to say it was a great fight, but one: it’s not fun losing. And two: it’s a shame when you have a gameplan in your head that you know would have been effective, or more effective than just going out there and slugging it out with a very durable fighter. It’s good that people mention it to me all the time and I’m happy that I’ve got that place in MMA history of being in one of the most entertaining one-rounds contested.

“And that’s why we should get Nick Diaz out of his UFC contract, so he can fight in Bellator and we can get loads of viewers and I’ll make a big bunch of money. That’s the reason why.”

The MMA Vivisection: Bellator 148 picks, odds, & analysis

Bellator is back in action this Friday, January 29th in Fresno California with a card that was supposed to feature both Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley. The two men wouldn’t be fighting each other (yet), but it seemed primed to showcase both men and set up a future bout down the line. Instead Koscheck was forced off the card with an injury and Daley is left as the headliner with promising up and comer Chris Honeycutt taking on Paul Bradley in the co-main event. It promises to be a solid night of action fights that should showcase some decent rising talent and some solid vets. A good card for a Friday night if you just can’t get enough fights in your life.

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Here’s a look at the complete Bellator 148 card as it stands today:

Spike TV Main Card

Paul Daley vs. Andy Uhrich

Chris Honeycutt vs. Paul Bradley

Raphael Butler vs. Tony Johnson Jr.

Patricky Freire vs. Ryan Couture

Online Prelims

Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Amber Tackett

Javy Ayala vs. Carl Seumanutafa

Art Arciniega vs. Justin Smitley

Paul Ruiz vs. Josh San Diego

Matt Perez vs. Eugene Cancino

Jermaine McDermott vs. Eric Huggins

Nick Bustamante vs. Te’Jovan Edwards

John Paul Elias vs. DeMarco Villalona

The MMA Vivisection – UFC on Fox 18: Johnson vs. Bader picks, odds, & analysis

UFC Fight Week means UFC Vivisection Week as well. So, Bloody Elbow is here to bring you more fight breakdowns than you can shake a stick at. We’re looking at UFC’s Newark, New Jersey card, featuring Ryan Bader vs. Anthony Johnson in a light heavyweight top contenders bout. The card also features a ranked heavyweight fight between Josh Barnett and Ben Rothwell as well as a slew of rising young fighters and action oriented veterans. Lots to look at, lots to analyze.

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Here’s a look at the UFC on Fox 18 card as it stands right now:

Fox Main Card

Anthony Johnson vs. Ryan Bader

Josh Barnett vs. Ben Rothwell

Iuri Alcântara vs. Jimmie Rivera

Sage Northcutt vs. Bryan Barberena

Fox Sports 1 Prelims

Tarec Saffiedine vs. Jake Ellenberger

Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira

Kevin Casey vs. Rafael Natal

Dustin Ortiz vs. Wilson Reis

George Sullivan vs. Alexander Yakovlev

Alex Caceres vs. Masio Fullen

Fight Pass Prelims

Levan Makashvili vs. Damon Jackson

Tony Martin vs. Felipe Olivieri

Matt Dwyer vs. Randy Brown

The MMA Prospectus: UFC on Fox 18 & more LWs

The MMA Prospectus is back again after a week of non-scouting due to me being tired. We’re here once more to look at the ins and outs of fighters on the rise, including looks back at the top performers of UFC Boston (that means you Luke Sanders and Chris Wade), and WSOF 27 (Shout out to Shamil Gamzatov for making us look smart). We’re also looking forward to UFC on Fox 18 and the next Sage Northcutt performance as well as Jimmie Rivera’s bid to break into the top 15 at bantamweight and the debut of the next “Looking for a Fight” star, Randy Brown. And taking a quick glace over this weekend’s Bellator card and strong welterweight prospect Chris Honeycutt.

Rounding out this week’s show is a quick peek at two potential top flight up and coming lightweights, Bekzod Abdurkhmonov and Mateusz Gamrot. As well as a glance around to some of the other regional shows out there to see if there are any exciting young fighters who might put on a solid show.

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Welcome to the UFC, Mihajlovic & Di Chirico

I don’t know what’s going on down in Zuffa central, but heavyweight seems to be the flavor of the moment. Once a division that couldn’t buy a new body, it’s now chock full of fresh talent. The latest newcomer in the field? Bojan Mihajlovic, who MMA D’Eferlante reports will fight Francis Ngannou in Zagreb, Croatia on April 10th.

Making his way to the UFC alongside Mihajlovic is a new middleweight fighter and a rare talent out of Italy. Alessio Di Chirico’s signing was announced by the UFC on January 20th. Di Chirico will be making his debut in Croatia as well on the April 10th card. No debut opponent has been announced yet. So…

Who is Bojan Mihajlovic?

The 35-year-old fighter is the first Serbian (I believe) in the promotion’s history. He trains out of Family Fight Team in Novi Sad alongside a number of longtime regional vets and reasonably promising young fighters, who compete mostly on the regional local circuit. Mihajlovic is an old-school adopter of MMA in his native homeland. He’s traveled to Brazil on several occasions to learn the basics of MMA and Luta Livre technique and bring them back to his own training environments. As such he has a somewhat inconsistent pro career that stretches all the way back to 2003. He’ll be entering the UFC with a 10-3 official Sherdog record, whether or not that represents a clear picture of his actual pro career. His record is mostly made up of cans and .500 opponents, but he hasn’t officially lost since 2006 to UFC vet Goran Reljic. Moreover, his record is pretty indicative of the circuit he fights on, which is pretty underdeveloped in comparison to the global MMA scene.

What you should expect:

First off, on a more well developed circuit, Mihajlovic would probably be a light heavyweight, and even then a smallish one. He’s got the Omielanczuk build of being shortish (5′ 11″), barrel chested, and short armed. He’s actually pretty light on his feet as a big man, but it’s reasonable to wonder if that’s not in part due to him not being a true heavyweight. In terms of skill sets, Mihajlovic is mostly a kicker when he’s standing and given time and space it seems like he’d like to be a range striker. But, he doesn’t do well at maintaining distance when he punches and usually ends up clinched up after one or two strikes.

Because he’s a smallish fighter, Mihajlovic often gets muscled around a bit on the inside. Opponents have been able to push him against the fence regularly and keep him there for long stretches. Part of that is his own comfort there, as bodylock takedowns are central to Mihajlovic’s arsenal. If he can get his back off the cage and find underhooks, Mihajlovic is decent at getting the bodylock and using foot sweeps along with his low center of gravity to snap opponents to the ground.

On the ground is where Mihajlovic does all his fight ending work. He’s quick to move into mount (usually from side control off the bodylock) and because of his short powerful stature, he has very little trouble kneeling or crouching over opponents while raining down heavy, fast shots. It’s the best developed part of his game, without question. It’s also shown him as a potential loose cannon fighter, who has tried to punch through referees and had to be pulled off of at least a couple opponents. It’s something that could translate really poorly to a larger, more public arena like the UFC.

What this means for his debut:

It’s pretty clear that Mihajlovic is set up as cannon fodder here for Ngannou. He’s not a dangerous puncher standing, and while he throws a decent variety of snapping kicks, his short arms and legs put him at serious disadvantage in trying to range strike against someone with 5 inches of height on him (and probably a lot more reach). His reliance on clinches and body locks to initiate his takedown and ground game mean he might be able to surprise the Frenchman once or twice and catch him off balance, but they make him poorly suited for winning a battle of strength inside over the long run of a fight. Mihajlovic is tough and scrappy and I expect he’ll put up a fight, but it’s hard to see him winning, or even making the final bell here.

To get us better acquainted, here’s his 2014 bout against Marko Igrc:

Who is Alessio Di Chirico?

When we wrote up our list of the top-10 middleweight prospects in MMA today, Di Chirico was hanging out right around 11 or 12. The 26-year-old Italian fighter will make his way to the UFC with an undefeated 9-0 record. He trains out of Hung Mun MMA Studio under head coach Fabio Ciolli and is the only notable fighter out of the camp to date (although it seems to be producing a lot of young regional talent). His record is about what you’d expect for a fighter in an underdeveloped market like Italy. Lots green fighters early, but he’s taken a few fights in Poland lately, against a much better level of opposition. And he has still done well in his steps up, having finished all but one of his pro fights. He started his athletic career playing semi-pro football (American style) in Italy, before moving to MMA.

What you should expect:

There are good sides and bad sides to being a big fish in a small pond, and middleweight is sort of a division of small ponds. Like LHW, there just aren’t a whole lot of natural 185 lb fighters out there on the regionals. On the plus side that gives guys the opportunity to develop some interesting, creative games we might not see otherwise, on the downside we get fighters with a strange hodgepodge of disconnected skills. Di Chirico is a bit of both. He kicks well enough at range, but tends to stick to single strikes. This is especially true of his boxing, which he uses to throw looping overhands coming forward and the occasional counter hook moving away. His forward movement (and rare combinations) seem to be entirely centered around getting in on single leg takedowns. Di Chirico’s a pretty good athlete, so he does well to stay out of trouble striking, but his low output and limited selection don’t create a lot of opportunities on their own.

Di Chirico actually has a pretty crafty clinch wrestling game and is strong in pursuit of the takedown when he can get a hold of a leg. But, he’s not necessarily a power takedown artist (I have some doubts about how well his double leg will translate to the UFC) and finessing single legs gets harder and harder at the higher levels of the sport. He’s generally a good scrambler and does well with back takes, but he’s not amazing at controlling dominant positions. He can hold opponents down alright and pepper in a few short shots, but when he tries to open up his submission offense or GnP he seems to lose position as often as not.

Because he’s a good athlete, I expect him to continue improving and to generally do well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as something of an OSP-like fighter whose athleticism, speed, and power often make up for less than stellar technique in all areas.

To get us better acquainted, here’s a look at his most recent bout against Andrzej Grzebyk:

Barnett understands Werdum’s ‘fear’, but says he should’ve taken Miocic fight

Deciding not to take a fight is always a tricky business in combat sports, especially when you have to make the decision quickly and publicly. The UFC and fans were left reeling a bit when Cain Velasquez pulled out of his planned title shot against Fabricio Werdum on just two week’s notice. But, the UFC had a backup plan sitting in their hip pocket. Stipe Miocic was the challenger in waiting. With Velasquez gone, he was ready to step up and take his title shot against Werdum. Except that Werdum wasn’t ready to give it to him.

Josh Barnett, who fights Ben Rothwell this Saturday at UFC on Fox 18 offered to fight Stipe in Werdum’s place as the UFC 196 headliner and sounded more than ready if the UFC was willing to put an interim heavyweight title on the line. That didn’t happen. And while Barnett understands why Werdum turned the fight down, he chipped in with his own advice to the current champ (transcript via MMAFighting):

“I understand his fear, but should he take that fight?” Barnett said at a UFC media lunch. “I think he should. I think that’s where he should step up and blast this guy. Or at least he should have come up with a better excuse. But it’s his life to live, not mine. The fans will judge him and think whatever they want to.”
…
“He does not want to risk the potential of walking into the cage and making less than he’s making now,” Barnett said. “He probably feels like this opportunity to make this money, this is it. He’s 38, he’s coming into his prime. He’s had the best performances of his entire life. If he doesn’t do it now, it’s gone forever. He won’t make that money again. These are his opportunities for his paydays, so he’s fearful of losing that. Understandably so.”
…
“I understand his reasoning, but when you say that in the public when we’re supposed to be swimming in a sea of tough guys, sometimes there’s aspects of the business side that you’re not gonna get everybody to understand,” Barnett said. … “What does that say about Cain, too? Oh, he’s willing to fight Cain all f*cked up, but not Stipe? This is where people should understand pro wrestling more. Now you just cut down your opponent. You basically said he’s worth fighting injured and I can beat him. How good is he then?”

Whether you agree with Barnett’s take on the differences between Cain and Stipe or not, his points on this being Werdum’s big chance to get his money fights is probably spot on. Hardcore fans may be just as excited for Werdum vs. Miocic, but Velasquez is one of the few established name fighters at heavyweight. For Werdum he may have seen this new fight as a chance of missing bigger for a dangerous short notice opponent. And that just wasn’t a risk worth taking.

UFC 196 goes from PPV to FS1 with Hendricks vs. Thompson headliner

In something of an unprecedented move, the UFC is is cancelling a PPV, but not a fight card. In the past, when major PPV main events have fallen apart, the world’s leading MMA promotion has gone one of two directions: Either keep the event on PPV and hope that the UFC brand carries it without a major headliner, or cancel the card altogether and re-book the fights asap. This time, they’ve taken the rare option of the middle path. Move the card off of PPV.

Because PPV comes with it’s own obligations to satellite and cable providers, the UFC has been incredibly reluctant in the past to actually go so far as to move an event off PPV and onto network TV. Essentially, if the card is good enough to go forward with, then it might as well stay on PPV and get whatever buys it can generate. It looks like that’s no longer the case.

Yahoo Sports has reported that the upcoming UFC 196 card will no longer take place on PPV, but instead be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1. The headliner will now be Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson, with no new fights being added to the card.

Originally the event was slated to be headlined by Fabricio Werdum vs. Cain Velasquez 2 for the heavyweight title, but a late injury to Velasquez saw the UFC try to promote a Stipe Miocic as a last minute title contender for Werdum’s belt. Werdum declined to take the fight, opting instead to pull out and take the time to heal up his own injuries, rather than fighting a new challenger on short notice.

All of which left the UFC right in the lurch, set to hold a PPV without a fight to headline it. Looks like this time around they went for the best option for the fans and the fighters. Here’s a look at the card as it stands now:

Fox Sports 1 Main Card

Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson

Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt

Ovince Saint Preux vs. Rafael Cavalcante

Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky

Fox Sports 1 Prelims

Josh Burkman vs. K.J. Noons

Derrick Lewis vs. Damian Grabowski

Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer

Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson

Fight Pass Prelims

Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson

Artem Lobov vs. Alex White

Justin Scoggins vs. Ray Borg

Noad Lahat vs. Diego Rivas