The Takedown MMA News Report 2.26.10: UFC 110 Fallout
Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 02.26.2010
An extended look at the fights from UFC 110 including thoughts on how the audience really helped, ideas on why crowd reactions are so important to sporting events, Bellator news including tournaments, signings, and pay grades, fight announcements, a video from UFC 2010, and more inside the Takedown!
In My Opinion…
Some of the most talked-about things from UFC 110 were the stunning KO over Rodrigo Nogueira from Cain Velasquez, the amazing ‘rebirth' of Wanderlei Silva at 185 pounds, and the awesome battle between lightweight Joe Stevenson and George Sotiropoulos. However, one of the most important things coming from the UFC's first trip (hopefully of many) down to Australia was the audience.
In any kind of sport where you are in an arena-styled setting, with the fans surrounding the event filled with high-paced action, the energy from the crowd can play a huge and crucial role in how the event unfolds. If the crowd is dead, then often times the event is deemed a relative failure in the eyes of many. Ask any fan of the WWE what their opinion of the event is when the crowd simultaneously starts chanting "BOOOORING….BOOOOORING…" They will say they agree, and as such the opinion is spread and the event is deemed to be unsuccessful.
On the other hand, when the crowd is into the action entirely and emotionally vested, giving all of their support to one or the other, roaring, cheering and screaming as the action intensifies; well, that's a great crowd and it shows that the event is s tremendous event. They say there is no experience like seeing something live and in person, and it shows with the crowd. I don't know about the rest of people, but I know I don't sit at home and constantly scream and cheer at the TV. The energy just isn't there (most of the time). However, whenever I go see an event live, I find myself wooping and hollering just like everyone else. It's infectious.
So when I had to quickly reduce the volume from my speakers in order to avoid hearing loss after the crowd heard the decision in the aforementioned bout between Stevenson and Sotiropoulos, I knew the event was a huge success. The crowd wanted more and more as the night wore on, and who could blame them? They loved it, and Dana even acknowledged it to the point of hinting that they might be working on a future TUF season based out of Australia.
It's all about how the crowd reacts. Whether they are booing or cheering, any reaction is better than no reaction.
UFC 110: Cain is Able
Following his beautiful one-round massacre of the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, it is now clear that by the end of 2010, Cain Velasquez will be a challenger for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Highlighted by a counter right that stumbled Nogueira with a short left that continued to drop the Brazilian, Cain's win was secured with four or five huge bombs dropped on Nogueira following the knockdown. While some may point to Nogueira's chin (or lack thereof) as the reason why he lost, I would like to point out that Cain was consistently beating Nogueira to the punch and/or countering extremely effectively. Like it or not, Cain walked into the Octagon that night the MUCH better man.
Michael Bisping is lucky this isn't PRIDE or he would probably still be nursing the wound he would have gotten had Wanderlei Silva gone through with the stomp/soccer kick/knee that he had prepared late in the fight. Bisping was tagging Wanderlei with some good combos through the fight but Wanderlei kept taking them and giving back as he got, and he did well. Much better than some thought. I guess the facial reconstruction and a second time cutting weight will do wonders for someone's cardio at a new, untested weight?
George Sotiropoulos (a name I still can't spell without just copy-pasting it) showed us he has the talent to move up into the next echelon of lightweights. He really showed he has the talent as he controlled Joe Stevenson on the feet and on the mat for 15 minutes in a fight that was so packed with energy I thought the TV would explode from the sheer noise as the crowd roared with the decision. Joe had a nice little winning streak going so he's safe from any real danger, and now George has that name win every great fighter needs. Up next for George I say he should either face Gray Maynard or maybe even the winner of Florian/Gomi.
How Keith Jardine didn't see that fist coming from a mile away is beyond me. I've been rocked a bit but even I could see that was coming. With this loss, nothing really happened. Frankly, very few really thought Jardine had a real chance at walking out of that fight with another W under his belt, and it showed. Now, I will be the first to also point out that Bader has a long way to go. He is explosive and he has decent wrestling, but he needs to get a great cardio coach to work him over because this is the third time in as many fights where he has gotten tired before the end of the second round and you can't afford to give even an inch in the fights where you are climbing up the ladder.
Cro Cop won. It wasn't a head kick. Perosh wanted to fight but couldn't because of a cut. That's about it.
Overall I would have to say that UFC 110 was DEFINITELY a great card. Outside of the questionable call in the finish to the Bonnar/Sosyznski fight, it was full of awesome sauce.
Speaking of Bonnar/Sosyznski, Bonnar's team has officially filed a protest to have the result overturned to a NC or a draw due to the nature of the incident. Since the cut happened from an illegal – but unintentional – headbutt, and it was in the third round, it should have gone to the judges with the scores from the first two rounds. Had that protocol been followed the bout would have been ruled a majority draw (the scores were 19-19, 19-19, and 20-18 Sosyznski up to that point). Both men have expressed interest in a rematch at some point in the future to decide a "real" winner.
Bellator News
The first round bracket for the Bellator Season 2 tournament has been set, and it is good one.
On April 8th, the first week for Season 2, there have been four matches announced, all tournament-related. In the sole lightweight match announced thus far, Season 1 finalist Toby Imada will be rematching Jorde Masvidal in a first-round matchup. For the featherweight tournament, DREAM veteran Joe Warren will be fighting Eric Marriot, and Georgi Karakhanyan will be fighting against Bao Quach. Jacob McClintock, one of the first signees for the welterweight tournament, is announced for the event but no opponent has been given thus far.
The next week, the first round of the Featherweight tournament will conclude as Wilson Reis will be taking on Shad Lierley, and Patricio Freire will be fighting William Romero. In the welterweight tournament, Ben Askren will be taking on recent signee Ryan Thomas. Also announced for the Bellator XIII event is a featherweight bout between Jeff Curran and Joe Doherty, as well as a women's bout (the weight class is unknown) between Felice Herrig and Catia Victoria.
Also signed to complete the Season 2 welterweight roster is Brett Cooper, who has posted a 10-5 record in his pro career.
In more Bellator news, the payouts for the second season winners have slightly changed from the first season. For the first tournament, the winners had the potential to win a grand total of $175,000 after winning the whole thing. That was broken down into a first round payout of $25,000; a second round paycheck of $50,000; and a finals win would get the winner $100,000 dollars. The first round had a base show pay of $10,000 with a $15,000 win bonus; the second round's base show rate was $25,000 and another $25,000 to win, and the finals were $40,000 to show and a whopping $60,000 to win.
For the second season, the payout will not be as much. The first round will still have a $10,000 base show rate, but the winner's bonus has been reduced to another $10,000. For the second round, the base show rate and win bonus will each be $15,000. Finally, the finals payouts will be $20,000 to show and $30,000 to win. That adds up to a ‘mere' $100,000. The speculation for this has ranged from the fact that the fighters are no longer vying for a title but a shot at a champion to tightening budgets to other ideas. However, despite the pay cuts, spots for the Season 2 tournament filled up quickly, and some spots for the Season 3 tournaments have already been applied for – and some have even been filled.
In the Lands of the Rising Sun
Sengoku 12
So far the fights made official for the event are:
· Jorge Santiago vs. Mamed Khalidov (for the SRC Middleweight Championship)
· Wilson Reis vs. Yuji Hoshino
· Shigeki Osawa vs. Kyung Ho Kang
· Akihiro Gono vs. Diego Gonzalez
· Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller
· Leonardo Santos vs. Kiuma Kunioku
· Maximo Blanco vs. Chang Hyun Kim
Ryo Chonan is the only fighter confirmed for the event with no opponent.
DREAM.13
FEG officials have let loose with a fair few fights scheduled for DREAM.13, to take place on March 22. In addition to a few ‘serious' fights, as well as a gimme fight or two, they have the obligatory freak-show matchup where Ikuhisa Minowa – more commonly and lovingly known as Minowaman – will be facing heavyweight Jimmy Ambriz.
· Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joachim Hansen (for the DREAM Featherweight Championship)
· KJ Noons vs. Andre Amade
· Katsunori Kikuno vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
· Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Jimmy Ambriz
· Ryo Chonan vs. Andrews Nakahara
As of this time no other fights have been announced. DREAM.13 will air live on HDNet the morning of March 22.
K-1 in 2010
K-1 has released their schedule for 2010 and there are quite a few scheduled before even the first half of the year is gone by! They are expected to have their first MAX (Middleweight) GP event on March 19, to be broadcast live on HDNet. Following that, they will have another regional qualifying tournament on March 27, a mere week and a half later. After the two MAX events are done, the promotion will launch the first of its several K-1 World GP Regional qualifiers with events in Warsaw on March 28, an event on April 3 in Japan, another event on April 10 in Lithuania, and an event on May 21 in Bucharest, Romania.
No official participants have been announced thus far, but it can be assumed that eventually the ‘regulars' of K-1 will be involved in the events such as Semmy Schilt, Remy Bonjasky, Badr Hari, Errol Zimmerman, Peter Aerts, and even Alistair Overeem has plans to compete in K-1 in 2010.
I don't know whether to applaud the fixes they put into the game, or cry at the sheer bad writing that went into this interview.
Future Fights
A small recap of potential fights in the future announced over the week
· Matt Riddle vs. Greg Soto, UFC 111 (Soto replacing an injured Ricardo Funch)
· KJ Noons vs. Andre Amade, DREAM.13
· Katsunori Kikuno vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka, DREAM.13
· Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Jimmy Ambriz, DREAM.13
· Ryo Chonan vs. Andrews Nakahara, DREAM.13
· Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Falaniko Vitale, Shine Fights III
· Eduardo Pamplona vs. Nick Thompson, Shine Fights III
· Braulio Estima vs. Rick Hawn, Shine Fights III
· Alexandre "Cacareco" Ferreira vs. Jamal Patterson, Shine Fights III
· Jacob Volkmann vs. Ronnys Torres, UFC Fight Night 21
Quick Jabs
· The WEC will be holding an open Q&A session with Donald Cerrone and Urijah Faber, just before the weigh-ins for the event. The Q&A will start at 3:30PM EST, with the weigh-ins starting at 5PM EST. Both events are free and open to the public, and are held in coordination with the Arnold Sports Festival that weekend.
· James McSweeney, best known for being the ‘winner' of the widely-considered worst bout in TUF history against Wes Shivers, has been announced as the first of four unlockable characters in UFC Undisputed 2010. Is it just me, or could they have come up with a better unlockable?
· Shine Fights: Worlds Collide: Mayorga v Thomas finally has some fights. Even better, I find they are happening relatively close by in Fayetteville, NC. I may not have been able to go to FN 20, but I will surely try to attend this one. I will in fact be rooting heavily for Braulio Estima.
· Stratus Media Group has assumed control of ProElite Inc with plans to relaunch the MMA promotion. As of right now no real details have been released other than the fact that the company has bought the rights to the ProElite name. Hopefully they don't suffer from the same setbacks that the first promotion under ProElite suffered from.
Thanks for reading again, hope to see you all sometime in the future!!
![Ryan Bader KO's Keith Jardine [UFC 110]](http://i49.tinypic.com/mwqkw8.gif)
