The little guys are taking over! Warren knocked stiff by Vila and Kawajiri dominates in featherweight debut

The little guys are taking over! Warren knocked stiff by Vila and Kawajiri dominates in featherweight debut

Can anyone deny that the bantamweight and featherweight divisions have a chance to lead the way for MMA in the very near future?

The best bantamweight in the world is fighting this weekend on free television when Dominick Cruz defends his UFC title against Demetrious Johnson at UFC on Versus 6. Plus "The Ultimate Fighter" debuted last week featuring the smaller fighters for the first time. It looks like Season 14 may produce more legitimate UFC fighters than any previous season.

But it's not just the UFC that's loaded with intriguing guys at 135 and 145 pounds. This weekend produced several exciting results, including one of the nastiest knockouts of the year.

Bellator's 145-pound champion, Joe Warren is a natural bantamweight and was planning on crushing the field in Bellator's latest 135-pound tournament. Nothing went to plan, as that journey to a second title hit a stone wall in just 64 seconds. Make that some stone fists. Amazingly, the guy who did it is 40 years old.

Alexis Vila, a 1996 Olympic wrestling bronze medalist for Cuba, rocked Warren with a right and then finished him with a left hook that had the American in snooze-mode on his way down. Check out Warren (7-2) as his body is completely locked up on the ground.

Because of his age, who knows what Vila's future holds, but it'll be an interesting story to track. He's made a better life for himself since defecting from Cuba, now living in the Miami area.

At Bellator 51, Vila (10-0) advanced to the Bellator 135-pound semifinals along with Vila, Marcus Galvao, Eduardo Dantas and Ed West. The winner of the tourney gets a shot at Bellator champ Zach Makovsky.

Meanwhile across the Pacific, DREAM kicked off its own bantamweight tourney. Rodolfo Marques, Antonio Banuelos, Bibiano Fernandes and Masakazu Imanari all won in the first round.

The stars of the show were the dominant Japanese lightweights Tatsuya Kawajiri and Shinya Aoki. Both have been just about unbeatable in their home country, but struggled when they came over to the U.S. to take on Gilbert Melendez.

After his loss to Melendez, Aoki's bounced back with six straight wins, but Kawajiri decided it was time to drop a weight class.

The thickly muscled 33-year-old shed some bulk to face Joachim Hansen. There were no negative signs of the weight cut and "The Crusher" looked incredibly strong at featherweight rolling to a third round submission win via arm-triangle choke. Hansen's a smallish 145 pounder, so we won't go crazy over the victory, but the potential is there for Kawajiri to be a real player at featherweight.

Aoki took on former WEC champion Rob McCullough. The outcome was predictable with the submission master catching the American in a neck crank at the end of the first round (11:15 mark).

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/The-little-guys-are-taking-over-Warren-knocked-?urn=mma-wp7402

Hiroyuki Abe Cyril Abidi  Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague

Ellenberger quickly KOs Shields in UFN 25 main event

Ellenberger quickly KOs Shields in UFN 25 main event

Jake Ellenberger notched a quick win over Jake Shields in the main event of Ultimate Fight Night 25 in New Orleans on Saturday.

Shields twice attempted takedowns to start the fight, but Ellenberger shook them both off. Shields clinched with Ellenberger, who then delivered a knee to the body and another to the head. The knee to the head knocked Shields to the ground. Ellenberger jumped on top and threw several hammerfists until the fight was stopped at 0:53 of the first round. Shields appeared to be disoriented as he tried to continue the fight against referee Kevin Mulhall.

Ellenberger was elated about his performance.

"I was just trying to keep the pressure on him, and I came away with the W," said Ellenberger, who pocketed a $55,000 knockout of the night bonus for his efforts.

Though it was a tough loss, just walking into the cage was a win for Shields. Three weeks ago, his father -- who also served as Shields' manager and cornerman during fights -- passed away. Shields said before the fight that his father would have wanted him to fight, but that doesn't mean actually fighting was easy for him. He was not happy with the stoppage.

"I feel frustrated. I went down with a good hit. I wanted to keep fighting, but the ref thought it was time to stop it," Shields said.

For Ellenberger, this convincing victory catapults him into the UFC welterweight title picture. He has five wins in a row, with four of those wins coming by a stoppage. He is known to be a finisher, and he showed that off tonight.

Shields, the one-time Strikeforce middleweight champion, lost in his last bout, a title shot against Georges St. Pierre. This loss puts him at 0-2 on the year.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Ellenberger-quickly-KOs-Shields-in-UFN-25-main-e?urn=mma-wp7000

Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo 

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?

What you need to know from this week on ?The Ultimate Fighter?It's week two of "The Ultimate Fighter," the episode where the fighters get their teams, their home for the next six weeks and we figure out which fighters will get the most air time. Who will be in the first quarterfinal fight of the season? What will the house look like? How will Jason "Mayhem" Miller creatively use a heap of tires? Join me for a recap and spoilers, won't you?

Reality TV show cliche of the week: The fighters moved into their house, shocked by the digs and availability of food. Then they eat. A lot. Remember that these are featherweights and bantamweights who will all need to weigh in for their fights soon. Foreshadowing?

Team picks of the week: Michael Bisping won the coin toss and chose the first pick instead of the first fight. The teams are (with some identifiers):

Team Bisping
Bantamweights: Louis Gaudinot (the guy with the green hair)
T.J. Dillashaw (Team Alpha Male guy)
John "Prince" Albert
Josh Ferguson (Guy whose brother didn't make the show)

Featherweights: Diego Brandao (Jackson's guy)
Akira Corassani (Best name in the house guy)
Marcus Brimage
Stephen Bass

Team Miller
Bantamweights: John Dodson (Team Jackson guy)
Johnny Bedford (Texas bro)
Dustin Pague (Heel-clicking dude, A.K.A. Ron Santo)
Roland Delorme (Canadian bro)

Featherweights: Dennis Bermudez (Maury Povich guy)
Bryan Caraway (Miesha Tate's boyfriend)
Dustin Neace
Steven Siler

Bisping claimed that Miller didn't take a single fighter who he wanted. Miller said that he chose based on his coaches' strengths. As they were leaving, Miller remarked that Bisping's fighters didn't look happy to be on his team. To the cameras, Bisping said, "Why wouldn't they be happy? I won the Ultimate Fighter. I've won 17 fights in the UFC. He's the Strikeforce reject."

Technology of the week: Miller stopped by the fighters' house to bring compression suits for each fighter to wear to recover from each practice. Something tells me these pieces of technology will be floating in the pool soon.

Fight pick of the week -- Bryan Caraway (Miller) vs. Brimage (Bisping): Brimage was already concerned about cutting his weight to 145 lbs., as he sat at 157 lbs. Bisping taught Brimage some of his weight cutting tricks, and both fighters made weight on their first try.

Prank of the week: Miller and his boys filled Bisping's room at the training center with tires. When Bisping did get into his room, he had to knock down the door, giving this season its first door casualty. R.I.P, TUF door.

Showtune of the week: As Caraway and Brimage faced off at weigh-ins, Corassani led Team Bisping in a chant that pumped up Brimage, but just made Team Miller laugh. "That was ADORABLE," Miller said.

Fight of the week -- featherweights: Bryan Caraway (Team Miller) vs. Marcus Brimage (Team Bisping)

Round 1: Caraway quickly went to his strength, wrestling, by taking down Brimage. He controlled him on the canvas, took his back and put his legs in. Brimage's active arms made it difficult for Caraway to slap on a choke, as he kept Caraway's hands from his neck and also landed enough punches that Caraway's eye swelled up. This is how the entire round went.

Miller and Bisping traded barbs in the first round. First, Miller laughed at Bisping's instructions in grappling, and when Miller said, "He's panicking," Bisping yelled back, "We're panicking!?!"

Round 2: Brimage came out with fast striking to start the round, but Caraway again answered with a takedown. He took Brmage's back with ease, but this time Brimage could get back to his feet. Caraway shot in a few more times, and when he was able to get him down, Brimage was able to get out. Halfway through the round, Caraway took Brimage down and landed a nasty elbow. He took Brimage's back, and this time was able to finish the rear naked choke.

Caraway is our first winner, but the two gave viewers a fun, active fight. This season is already shaping up to be an upgrade.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/What-you-need-to-know-from-this-week-on-The-Ult?urn=mma-wp7485

Daniel Acacio Bernard Ackah  Terrance Aflague Yoshihiro Akiyama  Gilbert Aldana 

TFC 20: Varner and Rogers lose, Whitney scores dynamite flying knee KO

TFC 20: Varner and Rogers lose, Whitney scores dynamite flying knee KOJamie Varner and Brett Rogers must've thought a few fights in the minor leagues would be fine on their way back to the bigs. That's not the way it's working out for the former WEC and Strikeforce stars. Both Varner and Rogers lost last night at Titan Fighting Championship 19.

Varner looked sluggish throughout his fight against Dakota Cochrane. He leaned too heavily on his takedown game and couldn't control Cochrane on the ground. Cochrane (11-1) was the much better fighter on the feet taking a unanimous decision, 30-27 on all three cards.

Varner, the former WEC lighweight champ, is now 1-4-1 in his last six. He's only 26, but has battle hand problems and other injuries for the last few years. Before the fight, Varner talked about his goals of a Zuffa return.

"I literally just took some time away from actual competition," Varner told the Kansas City Star. "I was still training and working out often. I took some fights last year that might have been (after) a little too quick of a turnaround. I needed my body to fully heal. I also took some college classes so I can have different opportunities in a few years down the road after my MMA career. For now I am 100 percent committed to MMA and getting to the UFC."

MMAjunkie says Varner was hinting at retirement on Twitter after the fight. It appears he deleted the tweet. Cochrane was  a late replacement on this card. His victory shows just how sick the depth is around the country in all weight classes.

Rogers (11-4) was facing a better known entity in former UFC fighter Eddie Sanchez and result was the same. Rogers was a top-rated heavyweight for Strikeforce and even gave Fedor Emelianenko a run for his money during their 2009 fight.

Against Sanchez, he looked tentative and exhibited little growth in his game. Rogers never put his punches together and appeared unable to check a kick. Sanchez beat up his lead leg for 15 minutes. Sanchez took a split decision, 30-27, 28-29 and 30-27, from Rogers, who's now lost 4-of-5.

The best moment of the night came fromn Andrew Whitney. He and Laramie Shaffer engaged in a slugfest for two-plus rounds, but that all changed when Whitney delivered a picture perfect flying knee.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/TFC-20-Varner-and-Rogers-lose-Whitney-scores-d?urn=mma-wp7220

Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade 

Altitude and Boetsch?s power too much for Ring at UFC 135

Altitude and Boetsch?s power too much for Ring at UFC 135

Nick Ring tried to be elusive, but doing that for 15 minutes fighting in the Denver altitude is a major task. Tim Boetsch waited for Ring to slow down in the latter rounds and when he got his hands on him, he beat up him on the ground to win over the judges in a unanimous decision victory, 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27.

Ring, a former cast member on Season 11 of "The Ultimate Fighter," was unbeaten coming into the fight. Boetsch (14-4, 5-3 UFC) looks like a new fighter down at middleweight. He had moderate success at light heavyweight, but the weight cut has allowed him to really play up his inside power in striking and clinch situations.

Ring (12-1, 2-1 UFC) allowed Boetsch to get his hands on him way too much in the second and third rounds. The thickly-muscled former college wrestler dropped Ring to his knees with right hand. Ring rose quickly and tried to survive in the clinch. He threw some knees and he one of them. Boetsch slammed him down and eventually got into position to slap on a guillotine choke. Ring avoided a finish, but he was getting tired.

Boetsch's dirty boxing took a further toll and Ring hit the mat again at the end of the second. Boetsch nearly finished Ring with a nasty kimura, but ran of out time. It was more of the same in the third. Boetsch executed a beautiful throw in the final 90 seconds of the fight and roughing up Ring throughout the third. He sent Ring flipping into air and landed on top of him to knock the wind out of the Canadian.

It was all about the gameplan for Boetsch.

"I was trying to land one big punch in that first round and that doesn't work in the UFC," said Boetsch.

Between the first and second rounds, his corner urged him to get back to what they had talked about before the fight. Boetsch did so and it led to a solid win.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Altitude-and-Boetsch-s-power-too-much-for-Ring-a?urn=mma-wp7253

Jimmy Ambriz Matt Andersen  Alex Andrade  Jermaine Andrè  Yoji Anjo 

UFC on Verus 6 Fight Card Complete with Byron Bloodworth vs. Mike Easton Set

Saturday's UFC on Versus 6 fight card is again complete after an injured Jeff Hougland was replaced by Byron Bloodworth, who meets fellow Octagon newcomer Mike Easton in a bantamweight prelim at the Oct. 1 event in Washington, D.C. UFC on Versus 6 is headlined by bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson and also features Charlie Brenneman vs. Anthony Johnson and Stefan Struve vs. Pat Barry.

Source: http://mmafrenzy.com/26192/ufc-on-verus-6-fight-card-complete-with-byron-bloodworth-vs-mike-easton-set/

José Aldo  John Alessio  Houston Alexander Ricardo Almeida  Eddie Alvarez