The Takedown MMA News Report 11.27.09: Contract Conundrum

Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 11.27.2009

Join a discussion of the Henderson/UFC dilemma, a review of UFC 106, looking at the DREAM/Sengoku partnership, the new main event of UFC 110, and more inside.

Welcome to another edition of


In My Opinion…
Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
Joe Silva has got to have the hardest job in the business. Making matchups may seem fine at the upper echelons because it's pretty clear when some guys should fight others in title eliminators, but how does one decide who fights who on undercard fights? For instance, how does Joe Silva come to think that a fight between Caol Uno and Fabricio Camoes would make the most sense on 21 November 2009, following an Uno loss by decision to Spencer Fisher, and a Camoes win by submission over Torrance Taylor?

I could see trying to find stylistic matchups that give some guys easy wins. For instance, the Alexander/Kimbo fight in the future is seen as a gimme fight for Kimbo as Houston is going to stand and bang with Kimbo, nearly ensuring that Kimbo wins. Other times the matchmakers have to know when to give guys somewhat of a challenge. For instance, in the Rumble/Koscheck fight, it could be seen as a test to see if Rumble is ready for the big leagues of the division or if he needs to change his game up.

Plus, what if they are a big name and already a great fighter, how do they decide who they fight? For instance, Lil Nog made his UFC debut at UFC 106. How did they decide to have him fight Luiz Cane? As of up til then, Cane had been on a roll in the Octagon: he knocked out Jason Lambert, he knocked out Skodjou, he scored a decision win over the tough Steve Cantwell, and aside from his DQ loss to James Irvin, his record was unblemished. Nogueria, not so much. A devastating 23 second KO loss to Sokodjou, a hard fought decision loss to Shogun, and a decision loss to the Janitor Vlad Matsyushenko all graced his record. So how did they decide to let them fight? A careful thought process and planning: they needed someone who epitomized a good fighter, someone with good ground skills, a nice chin and great striking. Luiz had those skills, and Rogerio held them in spades. So the matchup makes sense, and it does them both well.

I do not envy matchmakers, but I cannot argue with their effectiveness.

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UFC 106: Someone Snapped Their Losing Streak
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So in a night full of fights that didn't quite go the way many expected, we saw a perennial top-flight welterweight finally lose two in a row, another Ultimate Fighter keep his job by the hair of his nose, the successful debut of a Brazilian with great boxing and better jiu-jitsu, and the return of the Huntington Beach Bad Boy.

In the night's main event, we saw the rematch of a UFC 59 match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz that saw exactly how kind time has been to the two light heavyweights. Tito came into the match "100% healthy" like always but apparently it wasn't enough as he didn't manage the win. The first round saw a lot of what everyone thought they would do: Tito would constantly try to take Forrest down, Forrest threw a lot of leg kicks and combos that, while it did damage wasn't enough to stop Tito. Round two saw a diet round 1 where Forrest started to really take over, and in round 3 Forrest was totally dominating Tito as Tito gassed crazily. While Dana can go on to say that a 30-27 fight for Forrest was out of the question, and was shocked at it, I personally think that it could have gone that way, or even a 30-26 fight for Forrest. Tito was just unable to mount any real offense and outside of when Tito managed to get Forrest to the ground, he wasn't able to hurt Forrest any and just because he got the takedown, it didn't mean he got points because Forrest was constantly working to get out of it and was never held down. I agree with the 30-27 Forrest score, but I could see the 29-28 Forrest, however, 29-28 Tito was a totally wrong score and I find it hard pressed to agree that Tito won two rounds, let alone one.

In the night's co-main event we saw Josh Koscheck taking on rising welterweight talent Anthony "Rumble" Johnson in a fight that saw that Johnson was very much hype, very little talent. No offense to Rumble but in this fight with Koscheck it showed that he just doesn't have the skills needed to compete with the elite. When you have to cut that much weight to meet an agreed weight and it shows in just the second round, you have a problem. Rumble started off strong as he was able to defend against the initial takedown attempts by Kos but after a while he just couldn't keep it up and eventually Kos took him down when he wanted, but that errant knee screwed things over. After the fight resumed we saw Kos manage to take Johnson's back and then and then land some knees as Rumble barely manages to spin and grab a single Round 2 saw round one but worse as Johnson just ran out of juice in the tank and he gets poked in the eye like twice. Once Kos takes him down for the final time he just starts to rain down the elbows and just brutalizes Johnson. Eventually Kos gets Johnson's back and eventually sinks in a rear naked choke that Ricky Steamboat would be proud of.



I think that this showed both Koscheck's ability to react when facing a huge wrestler who is somewhat able to defend his takedown attempts and his ever-improving game as he out pointed Johnson and managed to submit the big man. While I would love to see Koscheck/Hardy for GSP's #1 contender, sadly Dan Hardy has already been named the #1 contender and Koscheck is basically out of matches for right now. The only ones that make any sense at all are Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch.

Making his debut we saw Diet Nog, Lil Nog, Rogerio Nogueria, whatever you wanna call him knock Luiz Cane's block off. Cane's known for his granite chin and more then decent striking but once Lil Nog took the Octagon with his southpaw stance Cane looked lost before finally getting dropped with a huge left that knocked him out.



Nog came in quick and strong and destroyed Cane. The best part though is that his biggest strength isn't even remotely his striking. Once he meets a Light Heavyweight he takes to the ground he's going to show us where his real strength lies. He's never looked better, and I think that we can safely say that the Sokodjou fiasco is long past him.



The other TUF winner on the main card is featured as Amir Sadollah took on the New York Badass in his return to the Octagon. Coming off of a wicked KO loss to Johny Hendricks, Amir needed to show he was legit and he proved it with his win over the seasoned vet. Phil came out strong like we all knew, but like we all also knew Phil ran out of gas about three minutes into the first round. While his win can be attributed to Phil's atrocious cardio, I think Amir really took over once he weathered the initial onslaught and showcased his better than decent Muay Thai skills as he picked Phil apart on the feet. After a while I was wincing every time they showed Amir kick his legs YET AGAIN and his veins were popping. The only thing wrong with this fight was that Amir was unable to finish the fight and it had to go to a decision. Otherwise this was a great fun fight to kick off the PPV and it showed that Amir might be for real.

As for the Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann fight, it was what it was and while Paulo got the W, it was nothing impressive and all it did was keep Jacob from moving up the ladder any. Paulo basically remained stationary here so eh.

In undercard action we saw TUF3 winner Kendall Grove keep his job by his hair again with a slick first round submission over Jake Rosholt in a fight everyone thought he was going to lose. Rosholt looked to have it as he locked in another head-arm triangle, but Kendall Grove used his wicked long legs to secure a triangle after escaping Rosholt's submission attempt and submit the other man.



In a candidate for KO of the Night we saw Killa B Ben Saunders take on perennial slugger Marcus Davis in a fight that saw Marcus look somewhat lost and out of his element as he was taken apart by the bigger man. Eventually, Saunders locked in a sick Thai clinch and made Davis eat a nasty knee that knocked him out and stopped Marcus for the first time in his career. Hopefully this doesn't deter Marcus from anything, but we will never see him get anywhere close to a title shot ever.

For Upset of the Year candidate in Brian Foster, he not only beat Brock Larson, he made Brock submit to strikes. Nobody saw that coming, and I mean nobody. Everyone expected Larson to run over Foster to show the Mike Pierce fight was a fluke, but alas, it was not to be. Larson has said that always being on the undercard just wasn't getting him psyched for his fights and I kind of agree, but it's no excuse when some people are just destined for undercard fights. I feel sorry for Larson, especially for what happened after his fight.

Uno/Camoes was a draw in the only fight nobody saw. Unless you have a crystal ball you did not see this coming, but Camoes was deducted a point for illegal kicks to Uno's head, so had the point not been taken away the scores would have been 29-28 Uno, then 28-29, 28-29 both Camoes. So Camoes lost the fight for himself with that kick. Poor Camoes. Still, a draw is better than a loss.

All in all it was a decent show, but the co-main events just never fell into place for me and while Forrest managed to get the win, and Koscheck submitted Johnson, nobody REALLY expected it to go any other way (save for Koscheck winning by submission, most expected it would be him by decision), but the undercard made up for it in spades as Kendall Grove submitted Jake Rosholt, Ben Saunders knocked Marcus Davis OUT, and Brian Foster made Brock Larson tap to strikes in Upset of the Year candidate. I remarkably enjoyed this show and I'm glad I paid the cover charge to get into the pub to watch this on a huge HD screen.

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Dan Hates Tito Too


An unsuspected turn of events in the Dan Henderson/UFC contract fiasco has come up as Dana White says that Dan Henderson has pointed at the returning Tito Ortiz for the reason he has been unable to come to an agreement with Zuffa over a new contract.

Henderson points to the amount of money Tito was offered for his new contract, despite being less than a fan favorite and on a losing streak, not having won a fight since his third meeting with Ken Shamrock at Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3. Since then he had gone 0-1-1, with a draw to Rashad Evans and a loss to Lyoto Machida. In his losing return effort, he made a quarter million. Forrest, in his winning effort, also made a quarter million, but that was including a $125,000 win bonus. So, despite not having won a fight since 2006, Tito earned more in a losing effort than everyone else did winning, even when you factor in the double bonuses earned by Josh Koscheck.

I believe Henderson struck a nerve with Dana by mentioning this, and Dana doesn't want to admit that he may have dropped the ball here. First he failed to lock Dan up into a contract, knowing that his UFC 100 fight with Michael Bisping was the last on his contract. Then he is unable to accommodate a title match or a fair title eliminator between Dan and Nate Marquardt, which did make sense. Lastly, he offers a returning Tito – who hasn't beaten someone not named Ken in over 3 years – a huge contract and pays him more than most people who have done well recently. I understand Tito is a big draw but unless he earns his keep by winning fights he doesn't deserve a big payday.

I think Henderson has every right to ask for more. Brock Lesnar earned about 400k in his UFC 100 match (no win bonuses though) but he earned it by mauling Mir's face open, stopping Randy Couture to win the belt, and destroying Heath Herring over 15 minutes. I approve of him earning that money, and hope he uses it well while he's out of commission. Tito, not so much.

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Brown Pride finally meets Brazil Pride


The Velasquez/Nogueria fight originally scheduled for UFC 108 has been moved due to Nogueria's recent case of staph infection. Once thought to be canceled from the illness, it was first thought to get moved to UFC 109 alongside a stacked card featuring Silva/Belfort, Couture/Coleman, and Marquardt/Sonnen. Now it has been thought to be move to UFC 110 as the night's main event with the winner thought to get a title shot against the winner of the Lesnar/Carwin fight for the title.

With Nog fighting off another staph case and Lesnar being out from hole-in-intestine-it is, the idea being kicked around was an interim title featuring some people previously mentioned with Carwin/Velasquez for the interim title.

I am really almost glad to see this fight get made again as Cain has worked hard to move up the heavyweight ladder, but it's kind of sad to see him have to earn title shots again and again. Already he was scheduled for a UFC 104 fight to determine a #1 contender, but that was taken from him as Shane was moved up to get a title shot. Instead he got veteran Ben Rothwell who he destroyed in one and a half rounds. Now he has to fight arguably the worst matchup for him in the entire UFC heavyweight division as Nogueria is sick off of his back and with his wrestling, Cain is going to put him there, and if the Couture fight is any indication, Nogueria's chin is back and is going to give Cain fits on the feet. Cain has shown a great chin of his own as evinced in the Kongo fight, and Nogueria hasn't been known for a guy with KO power.

I could see this going a bit longer than the Rothwell fight, but eventually Cain is going to take Nogueria down and once he goes down unless he shows constant vigilance, Nogueria is going to whip out that nasty old-man jiu-jitsu and submit Cain. Unless Cain works on his submission defense enough to just slide in this fight, Big Nog is going to catch him and Cain will have his first loss.

If Cain keeps it standing I could see him tagging Nogueria enough to get points but not enough to KO Nogueria. If Cain wins it is going to be by decision, but if Nogueria wins it'll be by a slick armbar or triangle, or by a decision from the constant attempts to choke Cain out. Either way it'll be a great fight and I look forward to it.

And just for S's and G's, here's a pic of something that looks suspiciously like ringworm on Nog's shoulder:

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The Ultimate Fighter is Not Here!

So, no Ultimate Fighter this week again, but this time it's because of the holiday schedule, I assume. Next week though, we see the last two quarterfinal fights as James McSweeney takes on whoever replaces Matt Mitrione and Marcus "The Darkness" Jones takes on Darrill Schoonover. I'm going to pick James McSweeney by another decision over whoever replaces Mitrione and Marcus Jones submitting Darrill Schoonover, which would put the semi-finals as Roy Nelson, Brendan Schaub, James McSeeney, and Marcus Jones. I know they would love for the team-team-team finale, so they aren't going to give Marcus to someone who could easily beat him (someone like Roy) so I foresee Brendan/Nelson and Jones/McSweeney for the semis which would hopefully lead to Nelson/Jones in the Finale which I would be all for. We'll know next week though won't we?

In somewhat related news, Houston Alexander has confirmed his TUF10 Finale fight with Kimbo Slice, but as of now the weight limit is still unknown, but the rumor is sitting at a 215 pound catchweight.

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In the Lands of the Rising Sun
Here I'll cover the happenings in Japanese MMA
I DREAM of Sengoku
So the rumors of DREAM and Sengoku co-promoting their year-end event to give us a lot of Japanese MMA are true. As of now, the definite fights are the original Sengoku main event of Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida, the Super Hulk Finale between Minowaman and Sokodjou, and several K-1 fights.

The hear right now is that a lot of fights will have a DREAM vs. Sengoku feel to them, as they are planning on scheduling many DREAM fighters to take on the Sengoku fighters.

Sengoku has been struggling lately as they are having difficulties finding broadcast partners and its struggling audiences. While it would be terrible for the fighters to see Sengoku go under, we may see them get picked up by DREAM because they have many terrific fighters under their contract. Hopefully Sengoku can survive the next year as they put on fun shows, but the waning interest in Japanese MMA since the PRIDE FC days has put a major hit on the success of MMA over there.

I'd love to see them survive, but as of right now as they say the money is in the UFC right now and they are slowly grabbing up more and more international fighters, and I would love to see many of these DREAM fighters under Zuffa contract. Tell me you wouldn't love to see Joe Warren mixing it up in the WEC bantamweight division, or seeing Joachin Hansen duking it out with someone like BJ Penn or even top WEC lightweights like Donald Cerrone? It would be fantastic to say the least.

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Quick Jabs
· Following his UFC 106 loss to Brian Foster, welterweight standout Brock Larson has been released from his UFC contract. Posting a 3-1 record in the Octagon prior to his recent loss streak, Brock was usually placed in the undercards where he said it was hard for him to get excited for his fights. While this is true, just fighting in the UFC should be nice, but after seeing him fight Brian Foster on SPIKE and seeing all the empty seats in the arena, I see his point. Fighting in front of near-empty crowds is definitely worse than fighting on a small-time show. To Strikeforce with you Brock!

· The previously rumored UFC 110 bout between Renzo Gracie and Matt Hughes has been removed from the potential fights for that card, but the fight is still thought to take place sometime in 2010.

· GSP vs. Dan Hardy is looking to be put as the main event for a March 2010 UFC 111. Hardy earned his title shot with a well-earned decision victory over Mike Swick in a fight that saw him stuff nearly all of Swick's takedown attempts, shake off almost all of Swick's strikes and put them back tenfold to buckle Swick with many a punch. While some will argue that Hardy doesn't deserve a title shot, he earned it according to the brass of Zuffa, so we are helpless and must sit back and watch GSP add another victim to his list.

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Bozo's Corner
Just stuff about me for the week.

So, typing this on a full-sized computer as opposed to the netbook I was reduced to using is so much better. Typing quicker and stuff. It's great.

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And that finishes the shot for today people. If you wanna say something, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say, or you can drop me a line at my email at [e-mail].