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By Anthony De Franco  February 27, 2010, at 6:05 am  Yancy Medeiros defeated Raul Castillo via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
This is a tough fight to get excited about. It’s not that Medeiros did anything wrong, or didn’t impress. It’s that we saw him outstrike a grappler who clearly is not comfortable on his feet whatsoever. However, let’s choose to be positive. He defeated an American Kickboxing Academy member by using effective, if not dominant striking and showed some really nice takedown defense. The only offense that Castillo put together came after a low blow. That should say something.
Saffiedine defeated Terry via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
I’ll say it again: Training with Cung Le might be a mistake. I keep saying that Anthony Johnson needs to get with a real camp if he wants to be a legit contender, and we saw again here that Terry was simply overmatched. Terry has a great highlight reel TKO with a head kick, but against a tougher opponent in Saffiedine, he was peppered with shots throughout and couldn’t get a takedown. Saffiedine looked good, and I like the combination of all the different arts he combined in his attack.
Luke Rockhold defeated Paul Bradley via TKO (Knees to the Body) at 2:24 of round 1.
Rockhold was absolutely dominant. He was winning the standup battle many times over and did it by using impressive counters. The finishing sequence was impressive as he threw a couple of really nice knees against the cage to drop Bradley. Combine this win with some of Luke’s submission wins, and suddenly this is a guy that we really need to start looking at.
Trevor Prangley vs. Karl Amoussou ends by Technical Draw due to accidental eye poke from Prangley at 4:14 of round 1
Everyone is going to get on the referee for this, but it isn’t really his fault. He was a slave to a dumb rule. When someone gets poked in the eye like that, why should they not be allowed five minutes to recover? Is it any different then getting hit with a low blow? After a few minutes, unless you really got gouged, your eye starts to open and you can go on fighting. That was a good fight for four minutes, and it’s a shame that it was stopped because of a stupid rule like that.
Sarah Kaufman defeated Takayo Hashi via Unanimous Decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
Kaufman was just too strong for Hashi. The reality is that 135 is not a very deep division in women’s MMA. Hashi is a 125 fighter who was fighting up in order to give Kaufman an opponent. Kaufman boxed well throughout the fight, but Hashi simply could not keep up with the Canadian fighter. The problem is going to be finding an opponent for Kaufman. Even Jordan Breen might have to dig deep into the bag of tricks to find one.
By Anthony De Franco February 15, 2010, at 2:00 pm Anthony Johnson having to pull out of his UFC on Versus fight with John Howard robbed us of a great fight. We were waiting to hear who his replacement is and we now have it: Daniel “Ninja” Roberts.
First thing, can you give yourself the nickname “ninja”? I know that Nick Denis refers to himself as “The Ninja of Love”, but just “The Ninja”? Isn’t that taken by Murilo Rua?
As for Daniel himself, he is 9-0 and stepping into the UFC octagon for the first time. He has seven submission victories to his credit, so you know that he will want to take Howard to the ground. Howard’s recent destruction of Dennis Hallman showed that you don’t want to tangle with him on the feet.
Through the wonder of Youtube, here is Roberts fight against Levi Avera. Roberts wins this one via rear naked choke.
By Anthony De Franco January 7, 2010, at 3:42 pm In a battle of two ultra-athletic welterweights, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will take on John “Doomsday” Howard at Ultimate Fight Night 21, which will be aired on Versus. Here’s the news from Bloody Elbow:
After a lot of smack talk and some genuine bad blood between both guys, it looks like the two will finally meet in the octagon.
John Howard on Twitter: “Me and Anthony crumble Johnson will be fighting. Time to shut him up. See u soon crumble. ur ass is mine Here comes the Doom!”
He also says the fight will happen this March. They have two cards planned on that month, the UFC card on Versus, and UFC 111 on New Jersey about a week later.
[UPDATE]: MMA Junkie reports that the bout will take place on the main card of UFN 21 on Versus
That’s shaping up to be a pretty decent card. We’ve already talked about Jon Jones taking on Brandon Vera and the possibility of Kimbo Slice bringing the ratings bonanza to Versus.
The first thing that I thought when I saw this fight was how far Anthony Johnson fell after his loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 106. Sure, Johnson was dominated the whole fight. However, he’s still a top-10ish welterweight. Johnson should be able to handle Howard easily.
By Anthony De Franco December 1, 2009, at 7:48 pm The UFC’s welterweight bad boy will get his chance to avenge the worst loss of his career at UFC 109. MMA Weekly says:
It may not be a title shot, but UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck will get his shot at revenge when he rematches the last fighter to defeat him. He returns to action on Feb. 6 at UFC 109 in Las Vegas to face Brazilian fighter Paulo Thiago.
The bout was first announced by AOL Fanhouse and later independently confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the fight.
Always a busy fighter, Koscheck stepped up on short notice to take a fight at UFC 106 against rising star Anthony Johnson and did not disappoint. Despite a few fouls in the fight from both competitors, Koscheck showed good stand-up and a return to his wrestling roots as he out-grappled and eventually submitted Johnson in the second round.
The fight earned Koscheck a big notch in the welterweight division, not to mention bonuses that night that totaled $140,000. Following the win, he called for a title shot and blasted current top contender Dan Hardy for not doing enough to earn a shot at the 170-pound title.
Josh Koscheck is coming off to straight wins where he finished opponents in impressive fashion. After defeating Frank Trigg at UFC 103, he stopped Anthony Johnson at UFC 106 despite being poked in the eye during the fight. By choking Johnson out, Koscheck put himself all that much close to the championship picture.
As for his opponent, Paulo Thiago is 1-1 since defeating Kos. Josh’s American Kickboxing Academy teammate Jon Fitch got some revenge against Thiago at UFC 100, and Paulo got back to his winning ways by defeating Jacob Volkmann at UFC 106.
Here’s the skinny: Koscheck is a top-five welterweight. Thiago isn’t. Look for Koscheck’s revenge to come swiftly as he finishes Thiago and puts himself in the title picture.
By Anthony De Franco November 24, 2009, at 2:17 pm From Ariel Helwani via twitter:
Cung Le confirmed on The #MMA Hour that Anthony Johnson did collapse before the #UFC 106 weigh-ins, but will continue to fight at 170
Uhhh.. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson has now missed weight for his fight during UFC 104, and now passed out while trying to make weight. Johnson also reportedly started his camp at a whopping 220 pounds before his UFC 104 fight. That would make him have to lose 50 pounds in a six week span before the fight.
Add to that the fact that Johnson was clearly gassed by the time that the second round started in his fight with Josh Koscheck, and we have another point in an argument that we at this website have taken a hardline stance on for a long time: Johnson must fight at 185.
He’d still be a big strong man for a middleweight, and to reprove the point that we made in a previous post: There are only four guys at 185 that I know would beat him.
Rumble, let’s save ourselves some trouble and just start your run at Anderson Silva soon.
By Anthony De Franco November 24, 2009, at 10:05 am Ladies and Gentlemen, let us take this time to take pride in a little victory. The UFC 106 disclosed payroll was over 1 million dollars. Way to get that money, guys.
Some interesting notes from this list, brought to us by MMA Weekly:
- Tito Ortiz is making 250,000 in a loss. Do we even know if he can still draw? If the numbers for this card come back, and they suck, how is Dana White going to defend paying him that kind of money?
- Lil’ Nog also making big bucks, getting 100,000 for his win over Luiz Cane. Rogerio was incredibly good in the victory, and showed the kind of skills that can make him a champ at 205.
- The night’s big winner was Josh Koscheck, who received 106,000 in salary for his win over Anthony Johnson, and then added 140,000 more for Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night. War Kos. That’s got to be a good feeling waking up on Monday and seeing an extra 246,000 in your bank account.
Here’s the full list:
MAIN EVENT FIGHTERS
-Forrest Griffin: $250,000 (includes $150,000 win bonus) def. Tito Ortiz: $250,000*
- Josh Koscheck: $106,000 (includes $53,000 win bonus) def. Anthony Johnson: $17,000
MAIN CARD FIGHTERS
-Paulo Thiago: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus) def. Jacob Volkmann: $6,000
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $100,000 (includes $30,000 win bonus) def. Luiz Cane: $19,000
-Amir Sadollah: $30,000 (includes $15,000 win bonus) def. Phil Baroni: $25,000
PRELIMINARY CARD FIGHTERS
-Ben Saunders: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Marcus Davis: $27,000
-Kendall Grove: $44,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus) def. Jake Rosholt: $15,000
-Brian Foster: $12,000 (includes $6,000 win bonus) def. Brock Larson: $26,000
-Caol Uno: $20,000 vs. Fabricio Camoes: $10,000
(The fight was ruled a draw. Both fighters received their show money only.)
-George Sotiropoulos: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Jason Dent: $8,000
UFC 106 DISCLOSED FIGHTER PAYROLL: $1,021,000
*Tito Ortiz was paid a flat rate of $250,000 to show, with no available win bonus.
UFC 106 AWARDS & BONUSES
(Each fighter was awarded $70,000 per award, which is in addition to his disclosed salary.)
Fight of the Night:
-Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
Knockout of the Night:
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Submission of the Night:
-Josh Koscheck
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