Feb 042012
 

Tonight's UFC 143 main event sees Nick Diaz (left) square off with Carlos Condit (right) for the UFC Interim Welterweight Championship. (Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

—MAIN CARD (on Pay-Per-View)—

Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit: Condit via Unanimous Decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46), Round 5, 5:00

Roy Nelson vs. Fabricio Werdum: Werdum via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27), Round 3, 5:00

Josh Koscheck vs. Mike Pierce: Koscheck via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28), Round 3, 5:00

Renan Barao vs. Scott Jorgensen: Barao via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27), Round 3, 5:00

Ed Herman vs. Clifford Starks: Herman via Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Round 2, 1:43

Continue reading »

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Feb 032012
 

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

—MAIN CARD (on Pay-Per-View)—

Nick Diaz: 169lbs.
Carlos Condit: 169lbs.

Roy Nelson: 246lbs.
Fabricio Werdum: 246lbs.

Josh Koscheck: 170lbs.
Mike Pierce: 170lbs.

Renan Barao: 136lbs.
Scott Jorgensen: 135lbs.

Ed Herman: 185lbs.
Clifford Starks: 185lbs. Continue reading »

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Nov 052011
 

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

—MAIN CARD—

Chris Leben vs. Mark Munoz: Munoz via TKO (Corner Stoppage), Round 2, 5:00

Brad Pickett vs. Renan Barão: Barão via Submission (Neck Crank), Round 1, 4:09

Thiago Alves vs. Papy Abedi: Alves via Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Round 1, 3:32

Cyrille Diabaté vs. Anthony Perosh: Perosh via Submission (Rear Naked Choke), Round 2, 3:09

Terry Etim vs. Edward Faaloloto: Etim via Submission (Guillotine Choke), Round 1, 0:17 Continue reading »

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Jun 072011
 

"The Carpenter" Clay Guida's (white trunks) headlining bout opposite "Showtime" Anthony Pettis (black trunks) at "The Ultimate Fighter 13" Finale left much to be desired, according to many in the MMA community, as much of the bout was spent with Guida controlling his opponent on the mat. Are the pundits justified in their claims? (Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

This past weekend’s The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale was a night to remember. TUF crowned a controversial, yet capable champ in “El Cucuy” Tony Ferguson (11-2). Fans were also fortunate enough to witness up-and-comers like “Kingsbu” Kyle Kingsbury (11-2), Fabio Maldonado (18-4), “C-Murder” Chris Cope (5-1), and others who will likely entertain for years to come. But the night was unfairly lambasted by fans when the co-main event fight between “The Carpenter” Clay Guida (29-11) and final WEC champ “Showtime” Anthony Pettis (13-2) went to the judges’ decision. The fight was derided as boring, “lay-and-pray”, and even incorrectly judged – and all this criticism came down on the winner, Clay Guida. Whether or not the fight was enjoyable is subjective and it is a moot point to try and argue. You either enjoyed it or you didn’t; there is not right or wrong there. However, fans’ displeasure with Guida’s winning tactics are unfounded. “The Carpenter” indeed displays varying skills in a sport that caters to those who know when and how to use their strengths, even if it means using one skill at a time. But it is the bias against wrestling that has misguided so much of the post-fight fallout. Continue reading »

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Jun 062011
 

Dear Dana White,

I like to consider myself an intellectual. Not in a pretentious way but more in the sense that I don’t think being smart or educated is something to be ashamed of or mocked. Early on in high school I was picked on by a couple of jocks. By in large most of them, like most of everyone else didn’t really notice my existence but a couple of jock douchebags decided to pick on me and my indifference to sports became a seething hatred for meathead jocks. Granted, it was unfair of me to judge a whole group of people, namely athletes, by the actions of a couple of assholes but when you’re fifteen you’re generally not blessed with a philosophical and objective perspective. Even to this day, despite being intellectually evolved and more open-minded, that knee-jerk prejudice against jocks is still there. I make a distinction here between “jocks” and athletes, which doesn’t erase my prejudice, just makes it more selective.

When I first became aware of MMA I didn’t know it was MMA. I, like a lot of people saw it for how it was marketed at the time, as a brutal, no rules, barbaric bloodsport. Unfortunately, this angle repulsed me. It seemed to be everything I hated: dumb, meathead, uber-agro jock dicks that thought bashing someone’s face in and sending them to the hospital was cool. If they didn’t market it like that, I likely would’ve become a big fan of Royce Gracie – this little Brazilian beating much bigger and stronger guys with technique, with brains. I would’ve eaten that shit up at the time, if I had known and understood more about the sport; if it was marketed as mixed martial arts and not “No-Rules Cage Fighting”. It was your doing with The Ultimate Fighter that showed me that this was a real sport with athletes who trained. Martial artists rather than blood-thirsty barbarians. Not to say it’s not violent and primal and occasionally brutal and not to deny the visceral appeal of that element but it’s also a lot more.  And we also got to see that most fighters weren’t typical jocks. They’re athletes but most of them had to be a little bit nuts to want to do this for a living. Continue reading »

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Jun 052011
 

The UFC crowned Tony Ferguson as the thirteenth "Ultimate Fighter" on Saturday following his one-sided KO win over Ramsey Nijem. (Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

The UFC brought its thirteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show to a close last night in front of a sold-out crowd at the Palms Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as “El Cucuy” Tony Ferguson (11-3) blasted through Ramsey Nijem (4-1) in less than five minutes to become the next Ultimate Fighter. The co-main event of the evening featured lightweights “The Carpenter” Clay Guida (29-11) and “Showtime” Anthony Pettis (13-2) while the rest of the card followed the template set forth by previous seasons by featuring a host of The Ultimate Fighter alums including “Crazy” Tim Credeur (12-4), “Short Fuse” Ed Herman (16-8), and “Kingsbu” Kyle Kingsbury (12-2).  Virtually every fight on the card had the interesting added danger of a cut from the UFC or at least a serious career setback for the losing fighter as many of the competitors were in a precarious situation coming into their fight. Kicking things off was a battle between TUF 13 runners-up “C-Murder” Chris Cope (5-1) and “Cold Steel” Chuck O’Neil (8-4). Continue reading »

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Jun 042011
 

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

—MAIN CARD (on Spike TV)—

Tony Ferguson vs. Ramsey Nijem: Ferguson via KO, Round 1, 3:54

Anthony Pettis vs. Clay Guida: Guida via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27), Round 3, 5:00

Tim Credeur vs. Ed Herman: Herman via TKO (Strikes), Round 1, 0:48

Fabio Maldonado vs. Kyle Kingsbury: Kingsbury via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28), Round 3, 5:00

Chris Cope vs. Chuck O’Neil: Cope via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27), Round 3, 5:00 Continue reading »

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May 232011
 

First off I want to congratulate Sergio aka @iTzPrimo on Twitter who won the #1 Icemigo award. What’s the #1 Icemigo award? It’s some shit I invented just for Primo because that mofo RTs all my shit and comments on this column all the time. What did Primo win? Well, I don’t want to spoil the surprise for him but it’s either totally awesome or he’s totally getting KOS’d!! Or Maybe a little of both. Ha ha! See, I reward my loyal Icemigos. I’ve spent *$40,000 out of my own pocket giving away shit to people since I started the Spilled Bag of Ice Twitter account way back in February of 2010.  As for my enemies, *I’ve smashed their faces and crushed their souls. I’ve kidnapped their pets, made them love me and trained them to attack their former owners on sight…their children, too.

(*claims may be somewhat exaggerated for dramatic effect) Continue reading »

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May 132011
 

“The Titan” Lew Polley talks to MMA Gospel about his stint on “The Ultimate Fighter” as Team Dos Santos’ wrestling coach, which has caused quite a stir in the MMA community. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Lee)

“The Titan” Lew Polley (10-4) is a name that, up until just a couple of months ago, may not have been particularly well known among many MMA fans. The ability to fly under the radar certainly changed for Polley once he accepted the role as wrestling coach for Team Dos Santos on the most recent installment of Spike TV and Zuffa’s hit reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. An otherwise relatively mellow season has been a roller coaster ride of highs and lows for “The Titan”, whose own experience on TUF 13 left much to be desired; ultimately, after several weeks of back-and-forth conflict and escalating tension levels between Polley and “Cigano” Junior Dos Santos (12-1), Polley was asked by the Black House fighter to leave the show. It was a first for The Ultimate Fighter.

Following the controversial dismissal, MMA Gospel Editor-in-Chief Mallory Mejia spent 120 minutes talking to Lew and getting his take on The Ultimate Fighter 13. This two-part interview explores Polley’s own credentials in respect to MMA, his favorite previous seasons and coaches of The Ultimate Fighter, changes he would make to the TUF program, who he found to be the most viable contenders among the Season 13 fighters, his response to both the shit talkers and the supporters, and of course, a whole lot about the highly publicized feud between himself and his friend,  TUF 13 head coach opposite Brock Lesnar (5-2), Junior Dos Santos. Continue reading »

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Mar 082011
 

(Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC.)

Out with the old and in with the new? Probably not, but the “new” are coming whether the “old” like it or not. The thirteenth installment of the UFC’s hit Spike TV reality series The Ultimate Fighter has revealed the featured fighters of its upcoming welterweights-only cast. Opposing coaches in former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar (5-2) and Team Nogueira fighter “Cigano” Junior Dos Santos (12-1), who themselves will face off at UFC 131 on June 11 in attempt to claim the title of top heavyweight contender and get the next shot at reigning heavyweight king Cain Velasquez’s (9-0) belt, lead the 14 UFC hopefuls through the six-week TUF journey. Continue reading »

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