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UFC 196: Miesha puts Holly to sleep and captures the belt; Diaz catches McGregor with a RNC on Rd 2

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 06:37:37 +0000

UFC 196 ended with two upsets in the two main events, this Saturday, at the MGM Grand Arena, in las Vegas, Nevada.

Miesha Tate’s gameplan worked perfectly during the five rounds against bantamweight champion Holly Holm.

In her third title shot in the UFC, Miesha was able to keep her distance and avoid Holm’s powerful punches and kicks.

As early as the second round, she got her first double leg takedown and worked the ground and pound until Holm gave up her back.

Time ran out before Miesha was able to work out any kind of submission, but the pathway to victory was clear.

The champion got her act together on rounds 3 and 4 and was successful in hitting Miesha to probably win those two rounds.

When round 5 came, the fight was to close to be called and that’s when Miesha got her second takedown to work.

This time, Holm tried to rush her escape and was careless with her neck.

The arm went under and the RNC was in place.

As a final attempt to escapem, Holm flipped Tate to the ground, but the choke remained in place.

The squeeze came and soon enough Holm’s arms went motionless. the fight was over.

“I know how powerful she is, so I knew I could not be on her range. I’m so glad it worked out,” said a very emotional Miesha, now the UFC bantamweight champion.

The main event was not for the belt, but had the crowd on their feet regardless.

Both Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz promised an all out brawl and that’s what they delivered.

Conor started out hotter, with creative movement and powerful punches that soon opened up Diaz’ right eyebrow.

Known for his strong chin, Diaz pressed on despite all the blood coming out of his face.

Right around the mid-point of RD 2, a straight right hit McGregor and made him wobble back.

Diaz noticed that the opponent was in trouble and went for it.

After a few other shots landed, McGregor went for a takedown to slow down the fight, the probably is the ground is Diaz’ home turf.

Nate first attempted a guillotine and, as McGregor defended, landed in full mount to punch away.

Conor gave up the back to prevent the KO, but exposed his neck.

The RNC was quickly in place and the tap followed.

“I knew I was going to start out slow as a I didn’t have a full camp. If I had a full camp, he would not have touched me. I am always ready. We should be always ready to fight on our worst day,” said Diaz, who also thanked the UFC bosses for the chance to fight McGregor.

Still the featherweight champion, McGregor also talked about the fight: “I took a shot at 170lb. It did not work out. I have to give praise to Diaz, as he was more effective than me. I am humble in victory and in defeat. I’ll learn from this one and come back.”

Click here for the full results.

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Las Vegas ready for UFC 160

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:32:29 +0000

Las Vegas already breathes UFC 160, which will be held on Saturday, May 25, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. In the hallways of the hotel you can see some fighters on the card, and lots of visual communication. Fans are gradually coming to enjoy the event and the “Memorial Day” holiday. With many attractions, the fabulous Las Vegas is crowded, and MMA fans can’t wait to see Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, Mark Hunt and many others in action.

Those who come to town see images like this, which create an atmosphere that only the most passionate about mixed martial arts know:

Entrance of the MGM Grand Casino. Everyone stops to take a photo at the famous lion.

Cut-outs of Antonio Bigfoot are all around the MGM Grand Casino.

Bigfoot and Cigano are already at the MGM Grand Casino and can be seen in the hotel hallways.

And for the clash of the giants at the hotel.

UFC 160
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas (USA)
May 25, 2013

Cain Velásquez vs Antonio Silva
Junior Cigano vs Mark Hunt
Glover Teixeira vs James Te Huna
Gray Maynard vs TJ Grant
Donald Cerrone vs KJ Noons

Preliminary Card

Rick Story vs Mike Pyle
Dennis Bermudez vs Max Holloway
Colton Smith vs Robert Whittaker
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Abel Trujillo
Stephen Thompson vs Nah-Shon Burrell
Brian Bowles vs George Roop
Jeremy Stephens vs Estevan Payan

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Anderson Silva praises Weidman and says he stops in 5 years

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:09:50 +0000

Ten fights in five years, this is the goal of Anderson Silva in his next contract with the UFC. Photo: UFC / Disclosed

Anderson Silva is the middleweight champion of the UFC since 2006. The athlete, who turned 38 years old this week and is seen by many as the greatest fighter of all time, is used to seeing competitors asking for a chance against him in the UFC.

His next challenge will be on July 6 in Las Vegas against Chris Weidman, a young American talent that is unbeaten in nine fights. But what is nine compared to 37 combats in Spider’s career? This was a question never asked by the holder of the belt, despite what his team thinks. Since the duel between the two was set, Weidman has broadcasted to the four winds to be the right person to win against the idol, in a scathing and shocking way.

Until this Monday, April 15, Anderson hadn’t said a word about his next opponent, but in Sao Paulo during an ad shooting for a shavers campaign the fighter broke his silence and showed the attitude of a true champion:

“Weidman is almost ten years younger than me, but should be respected. He is leading the fight in a healthy way and we will have a great fight,” said Anderson.

His contract with the UFC ends in early 2014. When asked about the renewal, “Spider” revealed he plans to keep fighting, and he can perform the ten fights proposed by the organization, as long as they are within a period set by him:

“If I can fit all these fights in five years it will be great, otherwise I will be in debt with UFC fans,” concluded the champion.

UFC 162
MGM Grand Casino Hotel, Las Vegas
July 6, 2013

Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman
Mark Muñoz vs. Tim Boetsch
Roger Gracie vs. Tim Kennedy
Chris Leben vs. Andrew Craig
Charles Do Bronx vs. Frankie Edgar
Shane Del Rosario vs. Dave Herman
Ricardo Lamas vs. Chan Sung Jung
Edson Barboza vs. John Makdessi
Seth Baczynski vs. Brian Melancon
David Mitchell vs. Mike Pierce
Cub Swanson vs. Dennis Siver

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UFC Heavyweight Cain Velasquez: ‘Something Feels Missing’

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 01:00:46 +0000

Velasquez wants his belt back. Photo by Josh Hedges, courtesy of Zuffa LCC via Getty Images.

As solid and fierce a heavyweight as they come, Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos’ challenger for the UFC title, demonstrated that he has feelings — at least when it comes to the heavyweight belt. The 30-year-old former champion said in a video interview on Affliction’s YouTube page that he needs to fill a void.

“Something feels missing,” Velasquez said. “I need that belt. I need to be the top guy, the No. 1 guy. This is where I’m supposed to be. I’m going to go in and take that belt and keep it.”

In the video, Velasquez revisits the mistake he made during his first encounter with “Cigano” in November of 2011, when he was knocked out in the first round. The loss came before the eyes of millions of spectators who tuned in to the live broadcast of the event by network TV channels Fox and Globo in the U.S. and Brazil, respectively.

“The thing I learned from the first fight [with dos Santos] is, if I have a game plan, I need to execute it. Punch, kick, wrestle for a purpose every time. Anytime I go into a fight, the fans are pretty much pleased. Even though I’m going in with my game plan, my style of fighting is really aggressive and fast-paced. I don’t really like hitting submissions. I’d rather punch guys in the face. That’s what I do, and I think people want to see that. So that’s what they get,” said the Jiu-Jitsu brown belt from team Guerilla JJ.

Yesterday, MiddleEasy.com started a bit of a buzz by releasing a video suggesting that Cain had suffered a serious knee injury 14 days prior to his first encounter with his Brazilian dethroner.

*Following the publishing of this article, the YouTube video of Velasquez’s injury was made private and unavailable.

UFC 155
MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
December 29, 2012

Junior Cigano vs Cain Velasquez
Jim Miller vs Joe Lauzon
Tim Boetsch vs Costa Philippou
Yushin Okami vs Alan Belcher
Chris Leben vs Karlos Vemola
Brad Pickett vs Eddie Wineland
Erik Perez vs Byron Bloodworth
Michael Johnson vs Myles Jury
Leonard Garcia vs Cody Mckenzie
Phil de Fries vs Todd Duffee

For more UFC and MMA coverage,

visit GRACIEMAG.com’s Choke MMA section

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Rolles comments on loss

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:31:14 +0000

Last Saturday, the 6, UFC 109 had hardly come to a close and already the question on Jiu-Jitsu fans’ minds had nothing to do with the final fight of the night, between Couture and Coleman, or any other bout on the main card.

The puzzlement was regarding the evening’s opening bout, while the Mandalay Bay arena was still empty, and spectators were just filing in.

Against Joey Beltran, Rolles Gracie, 31, delivered far less than was expected of him and, wracked by fatigue, he lost via referee intervention in the second round – Rolles had gotten the submission in all his prior challenges.

GRACIEMAG.com asked the fighter’s team what had happened, and published the explanation early Sunday morning: apparently adrenaline had undermined the athlete’s preparations, consuming him and consuming his stamina.

On returning from Las Vegas, Rolles spoke with GRACIEMAG.com via email. Here’s what he had to say:

What must be most bothersome to you at this time is seeing that all the hard work you put into training didn’t yield the desired result. What conclusions have you reached since this fight?

Sure, all the hours of training and time spent away from my family, it seems it didn’t pay off. Of course this bothers me. But I also learned how I need to restructure my training program. The truth is that I didn’t perform to expectations and to my best, what I need to do now is train harder and keep fighting.

The impression from the outside was that up until your mounting everything was going according to plan… When did you feel the fatigue?

I think anyone who watched the fight could easily see that things were going well for the first few minutes. The first round was mine. To be honest, I don’t really remember when the exhaustion set in, but it was probably in the end of the first round. I should have paced myself better but I kept pushing forward and exhausted my energy.

Did the change of opponent, seeing before you a completely different guy, influence you in any way, perhaps subconsciously?

I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t effect me. But, this happens all the time. In fact, 3 out of my 4 fights had changes in opponents due to injury very late in the game and one fight was cancelled altogether, too late to even find another opponent. It’s part of the business and you just have to try to adapt and move on

How have you dealt with the criticism?

I understand the fans are disappointed. I appreciate all the support I received and I wanted to put on a good show. What can I say? It wasn’t my day. I mean, this is MMA, not golf. The fans are a different breed and when they are angry, they definitely let you know. With the internet, Twitter, e-mail, Facebook…everyone is so accessible and with the click of a button, you can tell an athlete exactly what you think of his performance. That’s just the way it is these days and I’m glad to be a part of a sport where the fans are so enthusiastic.

Any message to your fans from NY to Rio?

I’ve really enjoyed interacting with my fans. I always appreciate the comments, negative or positive. So keep them coming. I’m looking forward to fighting again soon. I’m already a better fighter coming out of this experience.

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