Seven seasons old, and still going strong, The Ultimate Fighter has become somewhat of a farm system for the UFC.  This season didn’t produce a very high yield:  of the 32 competitors initially appearing on the cast, only seven were scheduled for a bout in the live finale. (One of those scheduled bouts, Tim Credeur vs Cale Yarborough, did not happen as Credeur was banned from competition by Nevada State Athletic Committee due to taking prescription drug Adderall several days prior to the fight.)  The rest of the card was mostly filled with UFC veterans, many of whom were in a must-win situation.

Dante Rivera vs Matthew Riddle (185 lbs)

TUF back-story: A friendly rivalry between a veteran Rivera and a rookie Riddle culminated with Rivera claiming he will retire should he lose this fight, and Riddle promising to have a retirement plaque ready to present to Dante after the bout.

The fight itself turns out to be pretty boring, with most of the bout taking place clinched against the fence.  Riddle gets a takedown towards the end of every round, and achieves mount on more than one occasion.  Ending each round in dominant position is enough to give Riddle the bout, 29-28 on one judge’s scorecard and 30-27 on the other two.  I don’t understand the UFC’s reasoning behind starting out the televised broadcast with this bout.

The aftermath:  Cooler heads prevail, and the retirement plaque never rears its ugly head.  Nevertheless, Rivera is not a UFC caliber fighter.  Riddle is very raw and green but shows potential.

Fight grade: 2/5

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Two weeks after their abysmal CBS debut, Elite XC returned with another card – this one broadcast on Showtime.  The event featured the first defense of the Elite XC’s newly minted 160 lbs title, with champion KJ Noons taking on the challenger Yves Edwards.  Other UFC and Pride FC veterans making an appearance on this card were Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, Nick Diaz, and Ron Waterman.  The commentary was provided by Mauro Ranallo and Stephen Quadros, as well as former pro-wrestler Bill Goldberg.

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UFC 85 saw a return of Ultimate Fighting Championship to London, England. The event was officially titled ‘Bedlam’, but often referred to as ‘Cursed’ due to all the injuries and mishaps that caused the lineup to change again and again. ‘Bedlam’ was originally scheduled to be headlined by Chuck Liddell taking on Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in a lightheavyweight bout, but first Rua and then Liddell were forced to withdraw from the card: Rua re-aggravated his knee injury and Liddell tore his hamstring in training. Eventually, the UFC settled on a welterweight main event of Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves.

Chris Leben was also scheduled to appear on this card, taking on Michael Bisping, but ran into some legal problems that forced him to withdraw and be replaced by the Canadian fighter Jason Day. With all the last-minute lineup changes, no title bouts or huge matchups, and only two weeks after the spectacular UFC 84, this event was pretty much an afterthought and carried fairly low expectations. Here’s how it went down:

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Back by popular demand!

There are quite a few tough calls to make this week.  FightMatrix was not created to be a prediction-based system, but its accuracy at the elite level is great, so it should be interesting to see how it fares in match-ups where both fighters are highly ranked.  Although, in Bisping/Day and Swick/Davis, we have two fighters who are still getting accustomed to their new divisions.  For entertainment purposes only, I have colored the betting favorites in GREEN where odds are available.  The system’s calls are on the left.

Welterweight
[#4] Thiago Alves vs. [#6] Matt Hughes

Middleweight
[#22] Jason Day vs. [#31] Michael Bisping

Welterweight
[#15] Mike Swick vs. [#17] Marcus Davis

Heavyweight
[#4] Fabricio Werdum vs. [#20] Brandon Vera

Middleweight
[#9] Nathan Marquardt vs. [#25] Thales Leites

Middleweight
[NR] Martin Kampmann vs. [#57] Jorge Rivera

Lightweight
[#47] Thiago Tavares vs. [#66] Matt Wiman

Light Heavyweight
[#19] Jason Lambert vs. [#165] Luis Cane

Welterweight
[#38] Roan Carneiro vs. [#113] Kevin Burns

Welterweight
[#55] Jess Liaudin vs. [#159] Paul Taylor

Heavyweight
[#48] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#56] Antoni Hardonk

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.

The past weekend was a important one for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts in the United States.  On Saturday, the fledgling Elite XC made history with their CBS debut: the first MMA event broadcast live on a major US television network.  And on Sunday, Zuffa-owned WEC held what was their most heavily hyped card to date, with 145-lbs champion Urijah Faber defending his belt against former UFC 155-lbs title holder Jens Pulver, and Miguel Torres defending his 135-lbs title against Yoshiro Maeda.

 While both events had several exciting, action-packed bouts, the Elite XC broadcast suffered from one huge problem:  all of the televised fights were stopped by either the referee, or the ringside doctor; and the stoppages ranged from mildly questionable to completely mind-boggling.  Fights need to be decided by fighters, not the New Jersey Athletic Comission officials!  That said, here’s how it all went down:

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Headlined by the long-awaited and much hyped lightweight title bout between BJ Penn and Sean Sherk, UFC 84 ‘Ill Will’ was the most anticipated MMA event of the year, to date.  Other than the main event, this card was all about the UFC’s elite 205-lbs division, with five lightheavyweight matchups that all made the televised broadcast.  Here is how it went down:

Thiago Silva vs Antonio Mendes

Mendes starts out aggressive, and quickly knocks Silva down with a partially blocked high kick.  Silva pops back up and is knocked down again – this time with a body kick.  Thiago scrambles up again, Mendes attempts a throw from clinch but lands on the bottom.  Thiago quickly passes Antonio’s guard and pounds away from mount; Mendes is unable to escape and the bout is stopped.

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The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event held in Canada, UFC 83 was headlined by the long-awaited rematch between the current welterweight champion Matt Serra and the interim champion Georges St. Pierre.  The card also featured six middleweight bouts (though only three of them were televised), and two Ultimate Fighter tournament winners making a debut at a new weight class: Mac Danzig at 155 lbs, and Michael Bisping at 185.

Mark Bocek vs Mac Danzig

Bocek surprised Danzig in the first round, getting a takedown and working from Danzig’s guard and half-guard from most of the round.  Danzig reversed position towards the end, but it was not enough to win the round. 

Danzig dropped Bocek with a knee to the chin early in the second.  Danzig dominated the round both on the ground and standing, damaging Bocek with elbows and punches and taking his back at one point. 

Bocek looked tired and had many small cuts on his face as the third round began.  Danzig continued his assault and opened up a gashing cut over Bocek’s left eye.  Referee Yves Lavigne stopped the action to check the cut, but allowed the bout to continue.  Danzig got a takedown, mounted and took Bocek’s back, forcing a tapout with a rear naked choke.

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UFC Fight Night 13 was the lead-in for the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show.  The card featured twelve bouts (seven of them at 155 lbs).  What was originally scheduled to be a two-hour broadcast was expanded to three hours after numerous online fan petitions; ultimately, seven out of twelve fights were televised.

James Irvin vs. Houston Alexander

The showdown between light-heavyweight strikers was over all too quickly as Irvin landed a superman punch early on that sent Houston to the canvas.  Irvin followed up with three more punches to his downed opponent as the referee Steve Mazzagatti stepped in to stop the bout at just 8 seconds into the first round.  Alexander vehemently protested the stoppage.

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For the past several WEC events, the viewers have been spoiled with multiple title defenses on each card. WEC 33 “Back to Vegas” was also scheduled to have two titles on the line. This was not meant to be, as the WEC Middleweight champion Paulo Filho is currently undergoing treatment for depression and substance abuse, and had to pull out of his scheduled rematch with Chael Sonnen, leaving this card with only the WEC Light Heavyweight title up for grabs.

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In a return to Columbus, Ohio, UFC 82 “Pride of a Champion” was headlined by a title unification bout between the defending UFC 185-lbs champion Anderson Silva and the last Pride FC 183-lbs champion, Dan Henderson.

John Fitch vs Chris Wilson

The televised broadcast started off with John Fitch (7-0 in his UFC career) taking on UFC newcomer Chris Wilson in a welterweight bout.  Wilson started strong, surprising Fitch with crisp standup and excellent takedown defense.  Fitch secured a takedown late in the first round but was not able to capitalize.  Wilson appeared to have won Round 1.

In the following two rounds, Fitch was able to get the takedown earlier in the round and controlled Wilson on the ground, scoring points but not damaging his opponent.  Wilson had some submission attempts and the final round ended with Fitch inside of Wilson’s triangle, but it was not enough.  Fitch took the unanimous decision with the scores of 29-20, 30-27, 30-27 in what was a fairly boring fight. Keep Reading

On February 13th, World Extreme Cagefighting made its debut in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Three titles were up for grabs as WEC’s welterweight, lightweight, and bantamweight champions all put their belts on the line.  It so turned out that two of them walked away empty handed from this night of mostly great fights.

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For the past several years, UFC has always stacked their Superbowl weekend card to make it one of the biggest events of the year.  This year, UFC 81 is the third UFC event within the span of 2 weeks, following an unexpectedly fun UFC 80 and a mind-numbingly boring Ultimate Fight Night.  The two featured matchups were heavyweight showdowns:  Tim Sylvia faced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the interim UFC HW title; and NCAA champion turned WWE superstar turned MMA fighter Brock Lesnar made his UFC debut against the former HW champion Frank Mir.

Tyson Griffin vs Gleason Tibau

The fight starts out with a long feeling-out period.  Griffin lets his fists fly towards the end of the first round, and Tibau responds with an impressive takedown.  The rest of the fight is more of the same, with Griffin winning the standup exchanges and Tibau getting an occasional takedown but unable to hold Tyson down for long.   In the third round, Griffin really finds his range and is hurting Tibau with head and body shots.  Tyson wins the bout, 30-27 on all judges’ scorecards.  The crowd does not agree with the judges and Griffin is boo’ed ruthlessly during the post-fight interview.

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UFC 80 took place at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England.  The main event featured BJ Penn taking on Joe Stevenson for the vacant 155-lbs title.

Jorge Rivera vs. Kendall Grove

The broadcast begins with the veteran fighter Rivera taking on the middleweight TUF 3 winner, Kendal Grove.   Rivera pushes the pace with an early takedown and punishes Grove with ground-and-pound.  Grove gives up his back and is taking heavy strikes to the head.  Grove tries to get back to his feet while still eating blows.  Grove collapses next to the cage and the referee calls an end to the bout.

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On paper, UFC 79 looked like one of the top MMA events of 2007.  Featuring the final installment in the Matt Hughes – Georges St. Pierre trilogy, a long awaited meeting between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, as well as the collision between two of the fastest rising light heavyweight stars in Lyoto Machida and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, this event had a lot of hype to live up to.  Let’s take a look at how it turned out.

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Interim Welterweight Championship
[#2] Georges St. Pierre vs. [#3] Matt Hughes

Light Heavyweights
[#4] Chuck Liddell vs. [#10] Wanderlei Silva

Light Heavyweights
[#3] Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. [#8] Lyoto Machida

Lightweights
[#41] Rich Clementi vs. [#69] Melvin Guillard

Heavyweights+
[#45] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#80] Soa Palelei