Recap

By Elias Cepeda

This final episode of the TUF 15 season included perhaps more out-of-the-ring action than any prior episode. We got more of Cruz and Faber cracking wise at each other, but also legit blows thrown inside of the house and a surprise announcement or two.

The winning fighter and coach will each win a Harley Davidson motorcycle and so the guys are taken to a Harley super store to try bikes on and leather for size. They are hosted by Theo “Juice” Rossi, who has inexplicably still managed to survive cooperation with the government (Watch Sons of Anarchy to get the reference. And yes, I have trouble telling the difference between quality screenplay and reality.)

Back in the house, Tickle decides to throw a water bottle on the balls of a sleeping Daron. Daron, with weeks of pent up aggression from being eliminated, wakes up into a sprint like a Navy Seal or something, finds Tickle and fires off a punch and kick combination on the goofball.

Tickle acts outraged, like he doesn’t understand that getting awoken from slumber by getting hit in the balls absolutely deserves an ass-kicking. Daron worries that he might get kicked off of the show for fighting in the house because that’s what has happened in past seasons.

Naw, its cool, dawg, says UFC President Dana White. Well, not really. But he does announce to the guys in the gym, later that all of them will be fighting on next week’s finale in Vegas. All, except for Mike Rio, who busted his rib, and Andy Ogle, who is on medical suspension after his last KO loss.

The passionate Ogle is distraught at the idea that he won’t get to fight after making it so far. White assures him that he will “be back.” That isn’t good for everyone’s favorite warrior-poet, who literally runs after White as the Prez is leaving the building, wraps his arm around him and asks to be put on the Nottingham card in September.

Let’s get a few things straight before we even start to analyze this one: Yes, Cole Konrad picked up the quickest stoppage of the evening at last night’s Bellator 70 from New Orleans. No, that isn’t our way of saying that the entire card was full of decisions. And no, we aren’t lying to you.

But before we get to that, let’s talk about the evening’s main event. Despite having a heavyweight title fight on the card, the main event of the evening was the lightweight tournament finals between former welterweight standouts Rick Hawn and Brent Weedman. While the first two rounds were razor thin, the third round was all Rick Hawn. Hawn took Weedman down numerous times throughout the round and utilized elbows from inside Weedman’s guard. Weedman put together some late offense, but it was too little, too late. Rick Hawn will meet Michael Chandler next season for a shot at the lightweight title.

(Negative side effects of TRT: Bacne. Positive side effects: Falcon Punch.) 

My God, today’s NSAC meeting, which determined both Chael Sonnen’s future ability to continue legal injecting steroids testosterone replacement therapy and Nick Diaz’s minimum retirement length was like watching Lawrence of Arabia, twice, minus all of the train explosions and shots of interesting desert landscapes. To describe the six hour hearing in a word: humdrum. Thankfully, we’ll be much briefer in summing up what went down.

To kick off the afternoon, Sonnen was successful in achieving a therapeutic use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy, and now joins the like of Dan Henderson, Todd Duffee, and Shane Roller in the select group of MMA fighters to receive an exemption from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. As far as interesting developments go, Sonnen admitted that he injected himself with testosterone, stating, ”I administer two times a week, every Sunday and Thursday. It’s self-injected intermusculatory and [I] consider it to be a prescription.” When Commissioner Pat Lundvall asked why Sonnen had never listed using testosterone on his medical forms over the past few years, Sonnen stated that he was under the impression that it wasn’t something that needed to be disclosed. He also stated under oath that he “has never taken anabolic steroids.”

In another interesting moment, which took place before the hearing truly began, Keith Kizer likened TRT to “the new Viagra” as doctors continue to push it on the population and that “Therapuetic Use Exemptions do not allow you to test outside of normal ranges. It only allows for presence of synthetics.” Does this make Sonnen TRT’s Smiling Bob? Only time will tell.

Mauro haters, hit mute now. Actually, everyone hit mute and read what I say about the fights below. (Video: YouTube/ShoSports)

Bruised and battered. Cut and bloodied. Josh Barnett’s face wasn’t one of a man who got out-wrestled last night. Olympic-level or not, wrestling doesn’t leave you looking like you put your head through a meat grinder. Don’t get me wrong, he did get out-wrestled last night, he just got out-struck as well. He got out-everythinged, if you want to get technical.

It didn’t have to be that way, of course. A lot of men would have wilted earlier–much earlier–in the onslaught of Daniel Cormier’s attack. But Barnett never thought of taking the easy way out, and today his face testifies to the evolving game of Cormier. The AKA product showed great versatility in his striking, staggering Barnett with heavy hands, head kicks, and knees. His combinations come fast, hard, and often, which explains why his hand surgeon is on retainer (yeah, he broke his hand again last night). When he did grab hold of “The War Master”, his grappling pedigree shone as well. He sent Barnett stumbling across the cage from the clinch and dolled out single-leg frequent flier miles, at one point flipping the former UFC champion in the air before slamming him to the mat.

When we last saw Maiquel Falcao and Andreas Spang in the cage with each other, the two nearly started brawling during a post-fight interview at Bellator 66. Anticipation for their main event clash at last night’s Bellator 69 from Lake Charles, Louisiana was high, even though Falcao initially missed weight for their bout. The dust has settled, and the event produced this season’s middleweight tournament champion, a close (borderline controversial) decision and much more.

The evening’s main event saw UFC veteran Maiquel Falcao dominate Swedish prospect Andreas Spang. Save for an early right cross that appeared to have Falcao in trouble, as well as an illegal knee from “Big Rig” that cost him a one point deduction on the scorecards, Maiquel Falcao controlled this entire fight. Already known for his Muay Thai prowess, Falcao utilized an ever-improving wrestling game on his way to the unanimous decision victory.

Immediately after winning this season’s middleweight tournament, Bjorn Rebney came to the cage to announce that Maiquel Falcao will be fighting Alexander Shlemenko, who was initially set for a rematch against Hector Lombard before he signed with the UFC, for the vacant middleweight title. Falcao vs. Shlemenko should be an interesting fight, especially if Falcao is healthy for it. At the post-event press conference, Maiquel Falcao revealed that he had been battling a flu leading up to his fight against Spang.

(Video props: YouTube/MMAVictor)

There’s nothing new about Bob Sapp losing a fight without dignity, but every week he seems to hone his craft as an MMA-Theatre master thespian. A typical Sapp fight consists of him lumbering in toward his opponent, waiting until he feels incidental contact, then feigning a tko until the ref halts the bout. Wash-Rinse-Repeat. But last night he may have sunk to a new low in his bout against Soa Palelei at Cage Fighting Championship 21.

Sapp starts off the bout by touching gloves –just like they do in *real* MMA bouts! Too cute!–then he ducks his head and charges meanders forward toward “The Hulk”. This is his opponent’s cue to tag him with something—anything–that could count as a landed blow and explain his fall to the canvas. To his surprise, Sapp makes it all the way to the opposite side of the cage with Palelei nowhere to be found. Stupefied, he does the only thing he knows how: he teeters over.

As a real fighter with real intentions of fighting, Palelei tries to partake in the ‘takedown’ but his help is completely unnecessary. Sapp is all too happy to let gravity ease his menacing frame down to the canvas. And so the Australian does his thing, pounding away at a turtled-up Sapp, while Sapp does his thing, turtling-up while getting pounded. Although this isn’t the first bout where Sapp has succumbed to a phantom punch, at least his previous opponents were somewhere in the general vicinity when he fell.

The new rules of the Bob Sapp Challenge™ await you after the jump.

By Elias Cepeda

We’ve got two quarter final match ups today so let’s jump right in. From Coach Dominick Cruz’ team we have Vinc Pichel taking on Coach Urijah Faber’s Chris Saunders. After that, Team Faber teammates Al Iaquinta and Andy Ogle lock up. At the end of the episode, injured Cruz’ replacement to face Faber at UFC 148 for the interim bantamweight title will also be announced.

(Stay away from the light, Dustin! Stay away from the light!) 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Potato Nation, the end times are upon us. Last night, a quiet, unassuming man named Chan Sung Jung escaped from a remote Korean testing facility and wound up in Fairfax, Virginia. Needing to fulfill certain diversity requirements that had long eluded them, the people of Fairfax embraced and accepted him with open arms, completely unaware that he was in fact patient zero of a zombie-like virus that would spell the untimely demise of the human race. Those ignoramuses.

Before they even knew what had hit them, reports of strange occurrences were popping up from county to county, then state to state. Having caught the latter half of the movie Outbreak on TBS just a few weeks prior, the people of Fairfax knew that they had to capture the source of the disease if they were ever to restore order to the chaos they had created. So they sent forth their bravest virologist, a man by the name of Dustin Poirier, to subdue the host and bring him back for testing. Early reports claimed that “The Diamond” would have little to no trouble accomplishing this feat, as he had successfully extinguished every threat placed before him since joining the Zuffa corporation.

How wrong they were.

For nearly twenty minutes, the two engaged in an all out war of attrition, one that would determine the very fate of mankind. He put up a hell of a fight, but as much as it saddens us to say this, we are officially doomed. Poirier was infected by “The Korean Zombie (virus),” and chances are that you will be soon as well. Early symptoms include raucous use of the phrase, “HOLY SHIT BRO”, an ability to absorb a tremendous amount of punishment, $80,000 cash, drowsiness, and cramps.

(Brazilian boy can’t get no love? / Props: enlapelea.com)

Fabio Maldonado should have learned his lesson in his fight against Kyle Kingsbury last June — if the judges refuse to count body punches as “effective damage,” you might as well just start head-hunting and grunting and hope for the best. Once again, the Brazilian light-heavyweight put on a body-shot clinic in his bout against Igor Pokrajac at last night’s UFC event, and once again he wound up with a unanimous decision loss, with one judge inexplicably handing all three rounds to the Croatian. Many observers called this one a robbery, and you can understand why if you look a little closer at the striking totals. According to FightMetric…

- Round 1: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 36-6 in significant strikes, 47-16 overall.

- Round 2: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 26-13 in significant strikes, 60-18 overall.

- Round 3: Maldonado out-landed Pokrajac 36-17 in significant strikes, 59-30 overall.

- Overall: Maldonado’s success-rate for significant strikes was 72% (98 of 137), compared to 45% for Pokrajac (36 of 80). The final overall striking total was 166-64 in Maldonado’s favor.

(Props: FoxSports)

The main event of last night’s UFC on FUEL TV 3 event blew past its already high expectations. “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier set a frenetic pace for over three rounds, with Jung dominating the fight both in the standup and on the ground. In the end, Jung rocked Poirier with punches and a flying knee, and put “Diamond” to sleep on the mat with a d’arce choke at the 1:07 mark of round four. You can check out highlights from their scrap above, including an excerpt from Jung’s astounding grappling clinic in round two.

The match earned both men $40,000 Fight of the Night bonuses, and Jung picked up an additional $40k for the event’s Submission of the Night (“What about meeeeeeee?!” – The McKenzietine). Knockout of the Night went to Tom Lawlor, who celebrated his birthday then starched Jason MacDonald in just 50 seconds.

After the jump: Dustin Poirier gets emotional in a post-fight interview with Ariel Helwani, and full results from UFC on FUEL TV: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier.