Sport

08th Oct 2012

Monday MMA Round-Up

UFC, international and Irish-interest mixed martial arts, JOE has you covered with our round-up this Monday.

JOE

Monday MMA Round-Up

Never overlook a Bigfoot

The most surprising thing about Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva’s win against Travis ‘Hapa’ Browne on UFC on FX 5 last

weekend was that few people expected it. The betting line had Browne as the clear favourite. 77% of the readers of

the MMA site Tapology had Browne winning (and 90% of them had him winning by KO). But nobody told ‘Bigfoot’.

If you scan both fighters’ records there is no reason to have given Browne such a clear advantage. If anything, Silva’s

record looks more impressive. He has held championship belts (Cage Rage, Cage Warriors and EliteXC) throughout

his career that began career 4 years earlier than Browne and he has recently only been beaten by highly ranked

heavyweights (Werdum, Cormier and Velasquez) during his 17-4 run.

Browne can count himself a little unlucky. There is also a suggestion that he may have bought into his own hype and

figured he’d coast to victory. He began the fight imitating the fancy footwork of Dominic Cruz (who is roughly half

the weight of Browne) and throwing an array of flashy kicks, none of which landed. Shortly after, he injured his left

knee, which massively reduced his mobility.

In fairness to Browne, he kept swinging but Silva timed a counter right hand that landed flush to give him a TKO

victory. Many will say the win is tainted because of the knee injury, which I think would be unfair to Silva.

Also worth mentioning

•

The opening fight of the event saw the UK’s Phil Harris lose by rear naked choke to Darren Uyenoyama.

While the result will disappoint Harris, he is managed by Corkman Graham Boylan’s of Intensiti Fighter

Management. Intensiti also have a number of Irish fighters signed to their stable who will be looking to

follow Harris’ lead onto the big show.

Jay Hieron lost to Jake Ellenburger in the penultimate fight of the card. In Hieron’s corner were Randy

Couture, Martin Kampmann and Ray Sefo who brought a combined combat sports (MMA, boxing and K1)

record of 103-39. It didn’t make any difference to the result though.

•

Invicta FC 3 – No Dice for Daly

SBGi’s Aisling Daly ventured over to Kansas City to take part in Invicta Fighting Championships third show.

Unfortunately, the Dubliner lost a unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards but gave a good account of herself

making Barb Honchak work extremely hard for the victory. You can see Aisling’s fight along with the entire card over

at the Invicta FC website.

WMMA in the UFC?

At the beginning of the year we made a call that Zuffa would start to promote female MMA fights under the UFC

banner by the end of the year. One of the reasons for suggesting that WMMA would make the big stage was the star

quality of Ronda Rousey. It seems, at least on Rousey, Dana White agrees with us.

“There’s no secret, I’ve been pretty honest about my feelings for Ronda Rousey,” said White after the recent UFC

event in Nottingham we attended. “I think she’s f****** awesome.” Speculation continues to mount as to a bout

between bantamweight champ, Rousey and featherweight champ, Christiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos who will soon return

from her ban for using performance enhancing drugs.

White has since said that fight is close to being made. Both fighters are currently on the Strikeforce books but that

might not amount to anything if White wants the fight to take place under the UFC banner. In Nottingham White

also said ”I would absolutely positively bring Ronda Rousey into the UFC. Yes.”

Irish MMA

After UFC 153 this Saturday there’ll be nearly a month long layoff from UFC events. But not to worry, there are

plenty of Irish events for you to get your MMA fix at all over the country. You can follow these promotions on

Twitter and Facebook to get updates on their fight cards.

•

Man of War IV – Leopardstown Racecourse, Dublin, October 14th

@ManofwarMMA

•

Cage Contender XV – Kings Hall, Belfast, October 20th

@cagecontender

•

Ryoshin Fighting Championship 2 – Roadstone Club, Kingswood, Tallaght, Dublin, November 10th

@RyoshinFC

•

Clan Wars XIII – Armagh City Hotel, Co. Armagh, November 17th

@ClanWarsMMA

•

Imortal Fighting Championship 6 – Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny, November 24th

UFC, international and Irish-interest mixed martial arts, JOE has you covered with our round-up this Monday.

By Fergus Ryan @GusRyan100

Never overlook a Bigfoot

The most surprising thing about Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva’s (Above) win against Travis ‘Hapa’ Browne on UFC on FX 5 last weekend was that few people expected it. The betting line had Browne as the clear favourite. 77% of the readers of the MMA site Tapology had Browne winning (and 90% of them had him winning by KO). Nobody told ‘Bigfoot’.

If you scan both fighters’ records there is no reason to have given Browne such a clear advantage. If anything, Silva’s record looks more impressive. He has held championship belts (Cage Rage, Cage Warriors and EliteXC) throughout his career that began career 4 years earlier than Browne. He has recently only been beaten by highly-ranked heavyweights (Werdum, Cormier and Velasquez) during his 17-4 run.

Browne can count himself a little unlucky. There is also a suggestion that he may have bought into his own hype and figured he’d coast to victory. He began the fight imitating the fancy footwork of Dominic Cruz (who is roughly half the weight of Browne) and throwing an array of flashy kicks, none of which landed. Shortly after, he injured his left knee, which massively reduced his mobility.

In fairness to Browne, he kept swinging but Silva timed a counter right hand that landed flush to give him a TKO victory.

Many will say the win is tainted because of the knee injury, which is probably would be unfair to Silva.

Also worth mentioning…

The opening fight of the event saw the UK’s Phil Harris lose by rear naked choke to Darren Uyenoyama.

While the result will disappoint Harris, he is managed by Corkman Graham Boylan’s of Intensiti Fighter Management. Intensiti also have a number of Irish fighters signed to their stable who will be looking to follow Harris’ lead onto the big show.

Jay Hieron lost to Jake Ellenburger in the penultimate fight of the card. In Hieron’s corner were Randy Couture, Martin Kampmann and Ray Sefo who brought a combined combat sports (MMA, boxing and K1) record of 103-39. It didn’t make any difference to the result though.

Invicta FC 3 – No Dice for Daly

SBGi’s Aisling Daly ventured over to Kansas City to take part in Invicta Fighting Championships third show.

Unfortunately, the Dubliner lost a unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards but gave a good account of herself making Barb Honchak work extremely hard for the victory. You can see Aisling’s fight along with the entire card over at the Invicta FC website.

WMMA in the UFC?

At the beginning of the year we made a call that Zuffa would start to promote female MMA fights under the UFC banner by the end of the year. One of the reasons for suggesting that WMMA would make the big stage was the star-quality of Ronda Rousey. It seems, at least on Rousey, Dana White agrees with us.

“There’s no secret, I’ve been pretty honest about my feelings for Ronda Rousey,” said White after the recent UFC event in Nottingham we attended. “I think she’s f***ing awesome.” Speculation continues to mount as to a bout between bantamweight champ, Rousey and featherweight champ, Christiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos who will soon return from her ban for using performance enhancing drugs.

White has since said that fight is close to being made. Both fighters are currently on the Strikeforce books but that might not amount to anything if White wants the fight to take place under the UFC banner. In Nottingham White also said ”I would absolutely positively bring Ronda Rousey into the UFC. Yes.”

Irish MMA

After UFC 153 this Saturday there’ll be nearly a month long layoff from UFC events. But not to worry, there are plenty of Irish events for you to get your MMA fix at all over the country. You can follow these promotions on Twitter and Facebook to get updates on their fight cards.