170 division up for grabs at UFC 171, Post-GSP era?

Photo from Wikipedia.org

By. Ivan Huang

For the first time in six years, there will be a new face of the UFC's welterweight (170) division.

Johny Hendricks almost shocked the world at UFC 167, by almost defeating UFC pay-per-view king Georges St. Pierre in a controversial split decision loss.

Shortly after the controversial decision, St. Pierre announced in his post fight interview that he would be taking a break from the sport, claiming he had some "personal things happening" and that he has to "step away for a little bit," leaving the welterweight division's belt vacant.




We do not know when St. Pierre will return, or if he'll ever return, but now that the man who has dominated the division since 2006 has left the sport... or has "(stepped) away for a little bit," the welterweight division crown is now up for grabs.

Before St. Pierre's fight with Hendricks, many have considered that the welterweight division has been cleaned out by St. Pierre. Defeating guys like: Carlos Condit, Nick Diaz and Jake Shields, who have been considered by many the only threats to his title.

UFC 171: Hendricks vs Lawler, minus well be called UFC 171: Welterweights. The card features seven of the top 15 ranked welterweights, including TUF 17 winner Kelvin Gastelum who takes on no. 14 ranked Rick Story.

Here are all the important welterweight match ups on the card:

1. Johny Hendricks vs 3. Robbie Lawler

2. Carlos Condit vs 11. Tyron Woodley

6. Jake Shields vs 12. Hector Lombard

14. Rick Story vs (NR) Kelvin Gastelum

Expect huge title implications on the under card and a shake up in the rankings come Sunday, Mar. 16.

Weekly Recap: Vitor Belfort and TRT + Melendez Deal

By. Ivan Huang

Does Vitor Still Deserve a Title shot?

Photo credit to MMAjunkie.com

The hottest topic among the MMA community this week has been the Nevada Athletic Commission's banishment of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT).

And the poster boy/goat of the whole TRT situation has been none other than 36-year-old UFC star Vitor Belfort.

Although Belfort isn't the first big name fighter to receive a Testosterone Use Exemption (TUE), the first actually being Dan Henderson, when most people think of TRT they think of Belfort.

Belfort was first granted TUE in 2012 coming off a loss in a light heavyweight championship bout against Jon Jones, a bout where he was obliterated by the pound-for-pound king in Jones.

Belfort would then win three fights in a row, all in his home country of Brazil by devastating knockouts. The wins included top contenders Luke Rockhold, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson.

It's quite understandable that Belfort receives more press when it comes to TRT, because Belfort in the past has been caught using performance enhancing drugs and that under the Nevada Athletic Commission, he isn't allowed to use it but was allowed to use it in all of his recent fights in Brazil.

According to ESPN, Belfort has amassed a record of 5-2 using TRT and that his use of it started around Feb. 2011 fight with Anderson Silva in Nevada.

Now that TRT is banned from the Nevada Athletic State Commission, Dana and the UFC quickly followed suit, banning it in all of their events even outside of Nevada.

"We follow Nevada," White said, in an interview with ESPN.

A day after the announcement, Belfort and his manager releases a statement to Fox Sports 1,

"The Nevada State Athletic Commission recently altered its policy and will no longer permit testosterone use exemptions and will not permit a TRT program. Other jurisdictions may follow suit. I'm going to drop my TRT program and compete in MMA without it. Given the time constraints between now and my proposed next bout in May, I have determined not to apply for a license to fight in Nevada at this time."

Belfort also stated that his doctor recommends giving him 90 days to adjust training without TRT before he fights again.

This caused the UFC to pull Belfort from his match against Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman, who has been critical of Belfort's TRT use in the past.

"He's failed a drug test before. He's on TRT now. I don't agree with TRT to begin with, so him failing a drug test and being on TRT, I don't really like it. So I appreciate there will be a commission making sure he's doing things right. I don't have high testosterone at all. I'm completely fine. I guarantee his testosterone on TRT is two or three times higher than mine. I wake up and I work hard two or three times a day. I don't feel that there's a need for it, and if it comes to point where you need it, then you retire, you don't fight. Fighting is a sport where strength is important, and if you're going to have extra testosterone, especially after you've been caught cheating, it's unfair," Weidman said, in an interview with Fox Sports 1.

With Belfort out of his matchup against Weidman, Lyoto Machida, coming off of an impressive victory versus Gegard Mousasi on Feb. 15, steps in to face the Champion Weidman.

A well deserved opportunity for Machida, now begins to let fans wonder, Does Belfort deserve a title shot right after his "90 day period" to adapt?

Well the argument is that before Nevada's banishment of TRT, it was perfectly legal as long as testosterone levels were not above the average human's.

As stated by Chael Sonnen, who's also used TRT since 2011, after the announcement of Nevada's decision,

"The rules are the rules,” he declared. “Yesterday, it was legal; so quit complaining. Today, it’s illegal; so quit complaining. Testosterone is out."

As everyone who watches MMA or the UFC knows, that the window of opportunity for certain fights are very small, and only time (and Dana White) will reveal if Belfort's window of opportunity has closed.

Sweet Deal with the UFC lands Melendez a Coaching gig + Title Shot

After accepting a deal with Bellator in mid-February, the UFC has decided to match their offer, making Melendez who is (1-1) in the UFC, one of the highest paid fighters.

The San Francisco native, who was coming off of a Fight of the Year Candidate versus Diego Sanchez, accepted a deal with Bellator in which the terms of the contract was not disclosed.

Photo credit to fighthubtv.com

After the UFC had matched his offer, we now know that, "Melendez's deal guarantees that at least 75 percent of the 31-year-old's fights will be contested on pay-per-view moving forward. Additionally, income earned from Melendez's contracted pay-per-view points will kick in at a lower minimum buy rate than for any contract in UFC history, meaning Melendez will still earn pay-per-view point income on an event that underperforms at the box office," according to MMAfighting.com.

Melendez will now coach The Ultimate Fighter 20, opposite of Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis in the UFC's introduction of the Women's Straw-weight division (115).

After the reality show is aired, Melendez will get the chance to face Pettis for the title with the event and location TBD.

This sets a precedent for many fighters that are not happy with what the UFC has to offer after their contract expires, to talk to Bellator and see if the UFC will match their deal.

"We're going after everybody," Bjorn Rebney, CEO of Bellator Fighting Championships said in an interview with Dave Meltzer of MMAfighting. "When a fighter has one option, he has no power at the negotiation table, but when he has two options, the fighter has all the negotiation power.

“We’re going after everybody, more-and-more often. I think there’s a bigger picture issue. The biggest thing is there are two major players in MMA. It’s far and away better for the fighters. When a fighter has one option, he has no power at the negotiating table. But when he has two options, the fighter has all the negotiating power. That’s actually counter intuitive, coming from the CEO of a fight company. But that’s the truth. And my checkbook may take a shot because of it. But if the fighters can earn what they feel they deserve, overall we and the sport will be in a better place. You’re going to see much more of this as we move forward, guys coming from the smallest regions where we find undiscovered talent, to the superstars from the UFC and other guys we find in the United States.” - See more at: http://www.bjpenn.com/bellator-not-stopping-at-melendez-were-going-after-everybody-says-rebney/#sthash.SbyoRGJ2.dpuf

UFC 170 live experience: recap + analysis

UFC 170 poster photo credit to Wikipedia.

Background:

Heading into UFC 170 I thought this was a very lackluster card, considering this was a pay-per-view. Initially, the card was supposed to feature Daniel Cormier making his light heavyweight (205) debut, versus former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans. But Evans pulled out of the fight due to a knee injury that would require surgery.

I was disappointed as a fan to see that match up get scrapped, even though Dana White says that Ronda Rousey was becoming one of the UFC's biggest superstars, I didn't buy it. As a hardcore fan, the bout that interested me most was the Cormier vs. Evans bout. A bout that would propel either contender into a title shot against pound-for-pound king: Jon Jones.

In an attempt to revive UFC 170's relevancy, Fox and the UFC really hyped up an unknown prospect that Dana literally picked up from a coffee shop, (4-0) Patrick Cummins, whose former opponents have a combined record of 10-20 according to Bleacher Report. The reason for this, stated by Dana was that Cummins claimed to have made Cormier cry in wrestling practice, as they were prepping Cormier to compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

I'd have to admit, the match up was such a mismatch that I thought it would be entertaining to see Cummins, a +980 underdog, maybe pull off something magical here.

Prelims:

There were a lot of empty seats through out the preliminary bouts, which was sort of dull besides Erik Koch's knock out of Rafaello Oliveira, the under card featured five decisions.

The energy in the arena totally shifted once the main card was on. And as usual, the UFC pumped up all its fans with their signature "Face the Pain" by Stemm introduction.

Whittaker vs Thompson:

The first fight of the main card totally brought everyone out of their seats when Kickboxing specialist, Stephen Thompson knocked out The Ultimate Fighter: Nations winner Robert Whittaker in a technical, but wild exchange.

Pyle vs Waldburger:

The second fight featured 38 year old UFC veteran, Mike "Quicksand" Pyle against, ground specialist TJ Waldburger. The fight was a very interesting back and forth bout until the third round when Pyle's experience played to his advantage.

After Pyle was able to hurt Waldburger with a series of punches and his signature knee, Pyle grabbed a hold of Waldburger's neck with a guillotine that helped Pyle sweep Waldburger, landing in mount and that was all she wrote.

Pyle TKO'ed Waldburger shortly after in a late stoppage that resulted in Waldburger taking more damage than he should of.

It was a very impressive performance performance by "Quicksand." A performance that secured the no. 15 ranked Pyle's roster spot in the UFC for now.

MacDonald vs Maia:

Next fight was a bout between the welterweight division's top contenders in no. 6 ranked Demian Maia and no. 4 ranked Rory MacDonald.

After a few unimpressive performances by GSP's disciple, MacDonald really needed to earn an impressive victory to be back in the talks for title contention. A opportunity that was opened just recently with the retirement/layoff of GSP.

Maia at that point came off of a very close split decision loss in his home country of Brazil to San Francisco native Jake Shields.

Both Maia and MacDonald knew the stipulations and opportunity with a victory in this fight would do for their title contention status.

The bout was by far the most entertaining bout in the card and of Rory MacDonald's career, as MacDonald was able to survive a first round scare against the BJJ prowess of Maia in the first round.  Maia was able to mount MacDonald and control him for four minutes out of five in the first. 

In the second round, MacDonald came out looking possessed, looking very different from his passive performances in his past two fights, MacDonald out landed Maia 40-13 in total strikes and stifled seven of Maia's take down attempts with great strength.

Heading into the third round, the fight was clearly even with Maia taking the first and MacDonald taking the second. MacDonald was able to impose his versatile striking and stuff more of Maia's takedowns with brute force, defending 10 of 11 of them.

But the one takedown from Maia came later at around the 2:00 mark of the third (it made my younger brother who is Rory MacDonald's no. 1 fan hold his breath).

But MacDonald was able to keep his composure holding on to his butterfly hooks, not allowing Maia to advance to a more dominant position, then resulting in a beautiful scramble by MacDonald using his feet to levitate Maia off the ground, allowing him to stand back up.

MacDonald then ended the fight strong landing more strikes, then stuffing Maia's final takedown attempt.

The final results of the judges scorecards read (29-28) unanimous decision win for MacDonald.


Cormier vs Cummins:

Coming out to "Bollywood Flow" by Drake, Daniel "DC" Cormier looked like a man possessed. After the humiliating story of him crying in wrestling practice was divulged by Cummins,

Cormier looked like a different man, two days before the fight during a press conference, the two faced off and uncharacteristally, Cormier shoved Cummins while displaying a very mean and angry look on his face. It was very uncharacteristic of Cormier because he is normally a very calm and collective individual.

Though the result was what everyone had expected, a first round TKO of Cummins, the hype was just as entertaining as the fight was.

Though this victory will be looked at as a crushing of a tomato can for Cormier, this match was more about how Cormier's weight cut to light heavyweight (205) than the compeition itself.

Cormier looked good in this fight, and proved to everyone that he was able to make the weight and still perform. It was a moral victory for Cormier and a victory for the fans, because who wouldn't want to see Cormier take on the likes of Jones, Gustaffson, Texiera and Evans in the future?

Rousey vs McMann:

The main event between the two former Olympic medalists, fan favorite "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey and Sara McMann ended in a very controversial stoppage.

As soon as the fight started, both fighters took little time to get comfortable as Rousey rushed at McMann. Both fighters were swinging for the fences and landing punches, but Rousey was able to press McMann against the cage and landed some devastating knees, one of which dropped McMann and referee Herb Dean stops the fight.

The crowd showed mixed emotions after the stoppage, though Rousey was clearly the fan favorite, the fans thought the fight was stopped early. Half of the crowd was booing and half of the crowd was cheering when the final result was announced, while the replay of the fight was shown on the big screens.

It has been two early stoppages in a row for Dean, who called an early stoppage last pay-per-view at 169 between Faber and Barao.

Overall this event was very entertaining and exceeded my low expectations I had for this event.

I give this event a 7.5/10.

First post! Countdown to UFC 170

Currently on my way to Las Vegas to watch UFC 170, and as Dana White would say, "Fight week blog week!"





About me: My name is Ivan, and I'm a UFC and MMA fanatic. I've been closely following the UFC since 2004, and have been practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for three years on and off. I'm currently a student at the City College of San Francisco studying journalism. This blog was originally made for educational purposes, but I plan on continuing this blog to share my opinions, thoughts and updates regarding the major topics in the UFC and the sport of MMA.