Locked in the Guillotine MMA News 12.16.11: UFC 140 Fallout

Posted by Robert Winfree on 12.16.2011

News and thoughts on Dana White firing Miguel Torres, Jon Jones' big win and the rest of the results from last weekend's UFC 140, a preview of Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal and more!

Welcome loyal readers to this weeks column. A great UFC 140 card to review, and a Strikeforce card to preview. Don't feel bad if you forgot about it, I did. Also some thoughts on Miguel Torres getting fired, which was the big news item last week that came out just after I submitted my column. Lend me your neck for another few minutes and you're Locked in the Guillotine.

Feedback

A fair amount of feedback last week, which is always welcome here.

411's Stewart Lange hadn't considered Jon Jones as a TUF coach, but was behind the idea. As for Wanderlei, he's right about it being late in his career to headline a PPV. That said, he could easily headline the finale like Bisping and Mayhem. It seems he and Vitor Belfort will be coaching opposite each other on TUF Brazil, and will likely fight in a co-main event position.

TimE had a few things on his mind. He mentioned the possibility of stripping the title from GSP based on how long he's been out. I think if he has another injury then absolutely, but right now it's just been some bad luck. The notion of interim champions was brought up as well. An interim championship should be created when the return of the true champion is questionable. When Tim Sylvia and Andre Arlovski fought for the interim title after Frank Mir's motorcycle accident it was called for because Mir's return was highly questionable. The same is true of Shane Carwin and Frank Mir when Lesnar was out with his first battle with diverticulitis. His return was questionable at the time, and as such an interim title wasn't out of the question. Stripping the champion of the title should happen if the champion behaves in a truly disgraceful manner, or is injured and out for a long period of time. I don't think GSP has been out long enough just yet.

He also asked if I thought UFC 141 could break one million buys because of Brock Lesnar's involvement. It's certainly possible since Brock is a huge draw. The timeline is questionable because of the holidays, and the rest of the card doesn't scream buy me to average fans. The promotion behind this card has been a little shaky up to now, and it seems to be relying on Brock fighting another behemoth in Overeem to really sell it. That said, there's no reason that strategy will be ineffective. If I were to make a prediction, I'd say right about 800,000 buys, and anything under 700,000 would be a huge blow.



Great night of fights on Saturday, so lets have a look at what went down.

Cholish wins: Apparently John Cholish by TKO in the second was Ariel Helwani's lock of the night. This was a good fight for Cholish, a very solid debut. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of him.

The Unanimous 411 pick curse strikes: Jake Hecht stopped Rich Attonito in the second after elbowing him in the side of the head while Rich was going for a takedown. It was an awkward position, but the technique paid off big time. Nice debut for Hecht, who looked larger than Attonito physically. Fun fight.

Well that was underwhelming: Mark Bocek grappled his way to a unanimous decision win over Nick Lentz in the final portion of the facebook prelims. I love a good grappling match, but Bocek didn't do a whole lot in terms of finishing the fight, and stated in his post-fight interview his goal was to stabilize on the ground and chip away with ground and pound. A decent win for Bocek here, but the fight wasn't anything special.

The Tiger and The Gazelle: Yves Jabouin fought Walel Watson to a split decision victory. I thought the 30-27 for Jabouin was a little bogus, but I did think he won the fight. This was a fun little fight, and a good way to kick off the Ion television portion.

Hallman successfully debuts at 158: Dennis Hallman missed weight, he officially weighed in at 158.5, missing by two and a half pounds. The size difference was immediately obvious in his fight with John Makdessi. My official prediction was that Hallman would be too drained from the cut and Makdessi would win, but with Hallman coming in overweight things changed. Hallman announced afterward that he plans to stay at 155, assuming of course he ever gets to 155.

The Unanimous 411 pick curse strikes AGAIN: The staff here all picked Jared Hamman to beat Costa Philippou, and boy were we wrong. My pick was based on Hamman being more diverse in his striking and using leg kicks to keep the range and pick Costa apart. That all changed when Costa landed a big right hand to counter a leg kick. Hamman can take a shot, no doubt about it, but Costa landed a ton of shots and eventually forced the stoppage. Good win for Costa here, and he could make waves if he keeps performing like that.

The 411 Unanimous Curse strikes in just 35 seconds: Yeah, I'm getting mileage out of that for this column, so sue me. We all picked Krzysztof Soszynski in one for or another, and instead Igor Pokrajac came out and finished him via TKO in 35 seconds. Great fight for Pokrajac, and hopefully Soszynski comes back stronger because I like the guy.

Zombie greater than Machine Wow. The first fight of the PPV card lasted all of seven seconds, Hominick came in and threw a reckless left hook, and Chan countered with a right hand that rocked Hominick. A few seconds later The Korean Zombie forced the stoppage and got the win. Fast fight, and realistically this should have been another unanimous pick curse, but Butterfield picked Jung by decision so it's an almost unanimous pick curse.

Well, that was certainly something: Brian Ebersol fought Claude Patrick to a split decision victory in a fight that was predominantly fought in the clinch. When two wrestlers with mediocre striking fight it tends to look like. I imagine this fight was a stylistic preview of Sonnen and Munoz. Decent win for Ebersol, but I was right about being able to use this fight as a bathroom break.

Little Nog stops Tito: Rogerio Nogueira stopped Tito Ortiz in the first round with some brutal elbows and punches to the body. Ortiz has had a soft body for a while, it was a knee to the body from Machida that dropped him, and a knee to the body from Rashad Evans that stopped him in their second fight.

Wow: Frank Mir did not look good in the beginning of this fight, Big Nog was landing good solid shots on the feet and in the clinch. Big Nog stunned Mir and had Mir on rubbery legs, but made a tactical error in going for a guillotine instead of simply pounding Mir out. Mir recovered and grabbed a kimura during a transition and broke Nogueira's arm. If Mir wins his next fight he could get a shot at the title, which will still be around the waist of JDS.

The 411 unanimous pick curse is no match for the might of Jon Jones: Jon Jones is a scary dude. I actually gave the first round to Machida, as it seemed Jones was trying to play Machida's game. Machida landed some good shots and seemed to have a good grasp on the range and how to use it. In the second Jones got a takedown and opened a pretty nice cut on Lyoto. Then they wound up in a clinch and Jones got a standing guillotine and choked Machida out cold. Think about that for a moment, Jon Jones stopped one of the best fighters on the planet with a standing guillotine. That is ridiculous.

Machida looked pretty good in this fight, to the point that I actually wouldn't mind a rematch down the road if it comes up. For Jones, he's fighting the winner of Rashad Evans and Phild Davis next. From a stylistic standpoint I think he's got either of those guys beat easily. I just don't see anyone beating Jones at 205 for a long time.


Strikeforce has a card this week, did anyone else remember?

I'll be honest, I didn't know about this card until Monday when I read Dustin James previewing it in his Ultimate Writer column. Dana White recently said that Showtime wishes to keep Strikeforce around, so the promotion will remain. No one's really sure what's going to happen with Strikeforce in the future, but Dana has indicated there are plans for it, so we'll just have to wait and see. In the interim, let's have a look at what's scheduled to go down on Saturday.

KJ Noons vs. Billy Evangelista: Well, I honestly don't care too much about this fight. Noons was coasting for a long time on the fact that he beat Nick Diaz. Then they fought again and a lot of the Noons attention seems to have died down. Then he lost to Jorge Masvidal in a fight contested almost entirely on the feet. The reality is that Noons is a middle of the road lightweight, and as such not terribly relevant. Evangelista is in something of the same boat, though he was undefeated until he fought Jorge Masvidal. Noons is the smart pick, but this fight will be telling about Evangelista and how he faces up against the next level of competition.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Ovince St. Preux: Mousasi is in a very strange place, in that he's displayed all the talent to be a top level fighter, but never seems to connect all the dots. Mostly his wrestling defense is pretty bad and his last opponents have exposed that. Even gassed out 'King Mo' Lawal took him down pretty easily. Granted Lawal has legitimate world class wrestling, but then Keith Jardine spent much of the first round securing takedowns against Mousasi. Mousasi is known for his striking, but hasn't displayed those skills much as of late. I mean, he didn't finish Keith Jardine during the second and third rounds, and his cardio seems to be something of a question mark. OSP is a strong wrestler who's on a pretty good tear right now, which could spell trouble for Mousasi. Gegard will need to have been drilling his wrestling defense to have a chance in this fight, but I just think OSP will be too much for him to handle in the grappling department.

Christiane 'Cyborg' Santos vs. Hiroko Yamanaka: Cyborg is back! Cyborg is back! Oh, who's she fighting, you shouldn't care because Cyborg is back! That's pretty much what Strikeforce wants you to think here. Cyborg has demolished everyone that has been placed in front of her, and don't look for that trend to stop here. The reality is that the Strikeforce womens division is insanely thin, as this will be the second time Cyborg has defended her title against someone making their promotional debut. It seems more women are interested in fighting at the lower weight class, not that I blame them with Cyborg as the champ. That woman is a better fighter than many males at the comparable weight class, and is a smashing machine. Prayers should be offered to Hiroko's family.

Gilbert Melendez vs. Jorge Masvidal: And this is how thin the Strikeforce lightweight division is, a win of KJ Noons gets you a title shot. Masvidal is a pretty good fighter, but I can't help but think he's way out of his depth here. Gilbert Melendez is the consensus number two lightweight in the world, with some people arguing he should be number one. No one has consistently been able to figure out how to beat Melendez, and we're pretty much just waiting for him to come over to the UFC and test himself against the best in the world. Masvidal isn't in the upper echelon of lightweight fighters, and I don't think he has much of a chance against Melendez here.

News

Tuf Brazil gets coaches: It was announced on Tuesday by Dana White that Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva would be the coaches for the first season The Ultimate Fighter in Brazil. This is a great choice as both men are well known in Brazil and both are generally exciting fighters. This likely means that the fight between Anthony Johnson and Vitor Belfort will be scrapped unless filming is scheduled to start after the fight takes place. Either way this is a good choice as both men are great guys who will actually coach instead of just look to get air time.

Miguel Torres gets cut: I want to talk about this much more in depth below, but news broke on Thursday after I'd submitted my column that the UFC had released Miguel Torres after a controversial tweet he sent out. I'll go into this much more further down.

Werdum is back to face Big Country: Well, this continues the trend of fighters moving from Strikeforce to the UFC. Werdum has been pretty unimpressive, and his fight against Alistar Overeem was horrible to watch. I think Roy Nelson can take this given how weak Werdum's stand up is, and for all the things people say about Roy the man has legitimate power in his hands.

Hendo wants Jones: Dan Henderson has come out and said he wants to fight Jon Jones. Well it's his funeral I suppose. Dan has absolutely earned his spot in the history of the sport, but there's no way he beats Jones. Hendo's only shot would be his right hand landing on the jaw of Jones, and I don't think that would happen. Firstly because of the reach advantage for Jones, and the reality is that he's slowly learning how to really use it as he showed an excellent jab in the second round of his fight with Machida. Henderson also doesn't have the best takedown defense in the world, and if Jones gets on top of him he will just elbow him into oblivion. I respect Henderson and his place in the sport, but if that fight ever happens Jones should take it handily.

The Flyweights are coming: At the UFC 140 post fight press conference Dana White announced a four man tournament to crown the first ever UFC 125lbs champion and all four fighters are certainly deserving. Adding this weight class is a pretty good move for the UFC, and more exciting fights are definitely a good thing for us fans.

Showtime and Zuffa: Showtime and Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC and Strikeforce, came to an agreement to keep the Strikeforce brand alive and on their channels. Good thing for up and coming fighters and womens MMA. Some details still aren't fully known, but Dana White announced that fighters moving from one brand to another is done for the time being.

Spotlight, Personality, and Personal Conduct

That title look familiar to anyone? Probably not, but in reality that was the same title as the end of column thoughts for my second ever column here at 411mania. The catalyst for that particular discussion was the way Nick Diaz handled himself that resulted in him losing his title shot against GSP. A similar situation has now arisen with former WEC and UFC fighter Miguel Torres, who was released last week following a controversial tweet he sent out. So I think it's valid to look once again at these things and how fighters need to conduct themselves.



I don't personally follow Torres on twitter, but did he make a joke about that cut, what it looks like on his head, and doubtless what he'd enjoy doing to it if he could?

I've never cared much for Miguel Torres, between his lackluster fights, the hype behind him, and the obnoxious tweets that Dustin James quoted every week he just rubbed me the wrong way. That said, I am not especially happy to see him fired. I think it was probably the correct call, but I rarely celebrate another man losing his job. I'm sure by now everyone is acquainted with the facts of what happened, so I don't feel the need to go into great detail about the circumstances. Instead I think we should look at how these types of things can be avoided.

The reality is that much of this could have been avoided if Torres had observed the proper rules for quoting a source. If he'd put his tweet in quotation marks and cited the source as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia this probably wouldn't be much of an issue right now. Shows like that, and there are actually quite a few of them out there, are known for dark humor that doesn't appeal to everyone. Quoting a show like that and citing it places more of the heat on the show for making the joke than on you for putting it back out into the world. It might say something negative about your sense of humor, but not a whole lot more than that. There's a lesson in there people, you should probably pay attention in English class. It might not be the most fun subject, but if you follow proper guidelines it might save your job.

I went back and re-read my second column to see if there was anything relevant that I could re-post here. Much of that column was directed at Nick Diaz and Rampage Jackson as examples of things fighters should avoid. Thankfully Rampage seems to have mellowed a bit, but I said the following about him and his behavior:

Even some of the longtime UFC fighters can have problems with the media. Rampage made some waves lately with his "feud" with MMA reporter Ariel Helwani. From what I've seen of Helwani he's one of the most professional and easy going reporters in the MMA circle. If you tell him you're not going to discuss a topic he respects that and moves on. He doesn't pester and nag like interviewers in other sports, he conducts himself professionally. My understanding of the situation, and feel free to enlighten me in the comments section, is that Rampage didn't like some of the questions Ariel was asking him. As a result he threatened Ariel during an interview, called Ariel's radio show and insulted him on-air, including a few profanities. Is this really how a world class athlete should be behaving? Let's assume, for a moment, MMA was covered more extensively and it wasn't Ariel Helwani but a reporter for ESPN, or Fox Sports? This is a former champion, the current title contender, hurling profanity and threatening reporters.

The current reality is that the UFC has a deal with Fox Sports, and I think Rampage is well aware that an incident like the one with Helwani could have seriously negative consequences now that the UFC is expanding onto a much larger platform. And like it or not, that reality has played a part in what happened to Miguel Torres. The UFC is now on arguably the biggest sports network in the country, and fighters can't be doing stupid things. Imagine if the Dennis Hallman vs. Brian Ebersol fight had taken place on a free TV card on FX? It was bad enough on PPV, but on free TV going to more viewers than the PPV audience it could have been much worse from a public relations standpoint. I also said this:

Dana White is trusting his fighters not to do anything completely stupid or asinine, because their behavior reflects on him, the UFC, and the sport of MMA.

An NHL player was fined because he commented about another hockey player dating his former girlfriend and getting his "sloppy seconds". It's arguable that the UFC has a bigger fan base than professional hockey does, and if not is definitely closing in on it. Andre Arlovski said something about sloppy seconds way back in the day before a fight with Tim Sylvia that was much more crude. Back then we all kind of laughed about it. In any other sport that comment would have been met with some type of discipline, and as the UFC continues to expand and get more exposure fighters need to be increasingly aware of what they say. This is especially true of things said on the internet, because anyone has access to it and is capable of spreading it. The reality is that a little common sense is invaluable when you're in the type of position that fighters for the UFC are right now.



We could be seeing a lot more of pissed off Dana instead of happy Dana if fighters don't start using their brains. Dana has said these are intelligent people, and he's correct. While no one is exempt from occasionally sticking their foot squarely in their mouth the internet does give you a chance to self edit. Before hitting the "send" or "tweet" button, take a moment to read over what you've typed and make a conscious effort to decide if sending it into the world is really the best idea.

That's gonna do it for this week, you've survived until the bottom of the page and as such have Escaped the Guillotine. See you all next week.