Phil Davis kept up the winning ways for Penn State wrestlers on Saturday night in Seattle, as he won his Ultimate Fight Night decision, 30-27, on all three cards over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. His alma mater won the Division I NCAA wrestling championship last Saturday.
Nogueira took the lead early, as he tagged Davis a few times in the first round. Nogueira's takedown defense was markedly improved from his last bout -- a loss to Ryan Bader -- as he stopped every takedown attempt from Davis in the first round. Davis, a Division I national champion wrestler at Penn State, was clearly frustrated by not being able to use his biggest weapon.
Davis' movement did not slow in the second round, but he still had a hard time getting inside to land any strikes. Nogueira continued to land punches here and there, just enough to keep Davis at bay. Finally, Davis managed a takedown in the final two minutes of the round. Though Nogueira came close to getting back to his feet, Davis kept him on the ground and punished him. He landed several punches to the head and body, then finished the round by throwing knees into Nogueira's side several times.
Nogueira's takedown defense wilted by the third round. Davis used a single leg to take Nogueira to the ground, and smothered him for at least a minute. Halfway through the round, they returned to their feet, with Nogueira stalking Davis around the Octagon. But Davis returned to his bread and butter and took Nogueira down again. He maintained in that position for the rest of the bout. Nogueira tried to kick Davis off, but couldn't do it.
After the fight, Davis was honest about his training camp.
"I was falling apart in this training camp. I had all types of injuries," Davis said. He wasn't surprised that Nogueira stopped his takedowns. "I know he's tough. He's resilient. He learns."
Heading into this bout, this match-up had been hyped up as a reincarnation of Shogun-Bones from UFC 128, since both Davis and the new light heavyweight champ, Jon Jones, are young, up-and-coming stars with wrestling bases. They were both fighting Brazilians who were stars in Pride.
Davis showed that he still has a while to go until he's ready for a title shot, but there's nothing wrong with that. He still is an exciting prospect in the UFC's light heavyweight division. He is now 9-0 in MMA, 5-0 in the UFC. Nogueira, the twin brother of former UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, is now 19-5. This is his second loss in a row in the Octagon, as he dropped a decision to Ryan Bader at UFC 119.
You beat up a sluggish Mauricio Rua, stop a New Jersey robber and appear on "The Tonight Show," and all hell breaks loose on the MMA betting front.
The UFC's newest mega-star, Jon Jones has definitely caught the attention of the public. As a result, his value in the Octagon may be a bit overvalued. Some off-shore books have already set the odds for a Jones-Rashad Evans fight. The champ is as high as a minus-525 favorite.
Phil Davis trained with Jones back in the day and knows the advantages of working with someone can have mentally.
Larry Pepe of ProMMARadio recently told Davis about Jones being a 5-to-1 favorite over a former training partner in Evans.
A few updates on the teammate versus teammate front. Georges St. Pierre, another Greg Jackson fighter, thinks the situation is odd and says he wouldn't have taken the fight.
"It's a pretty weird situation right now," the UFC welterweight champion told The Canadian Press. "I don't know what to say. Me, I would not fight a friend but it happens sometimes that I have two friends that are fighting each other. It's kind of an awkward situation."
Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz were asked recently about fighting teammates and both reacted strongly.
Diaz said Jones and Evans aren't really training partner and snapped when asked about fighting his brother, Nate.
"They're not real training partners though," Diaz said about Jones and Evans. "You don't understand, they're like 10 years apart for one and they didn't grow up training together. That guy's just brand new into the sport. He's just doing whatever, they've got him busy making photo shoots and press conferences, and conference calls and all this."
"That's what they've got them doing and they're not focused on what's important to them in life. I've got what works, and I've got what's got me there and that's my team. That's a disgusting thought to have to fight my brother. I don't even appreciate being asked about that," Diaz said.
Source: http://www.fighters.com/03/31/strikeforce-challenger-series-15-weigh-in-results
Following his resounding victory at UFC 127, Michael Bisping got himself in hot water by spitting at the corner of Jorge Rivera. The British middleweight was vilified by most of the MMA media and fans. That's sent The Telegraph's MMA expert Gareth Davies into a tizzy.
Davies suggests the American media is out to get Bisping, saying there was no balance to the stories written when both Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt called him out.
First we had Chael Sonnen, hardly a Saint himself, allowed to attack the Manchester middleweight with impunity. Where was the balance here from the US mainstream media covering MMA? Sonnen wrote UFC matchmaker Joe Silva an open letter, asking for a fight with Bisping. Fair enough. How did the US MMA media respond ? They wrote it up ignoring any of Sonnen's misdemeanours in the sport. Balance ? None of it. But don't let the facts get in the way of a witchhunt.
From atop of his high horse, 'Nate the Great' added that Bisping's actions are unbecoming of a martial artist and were unsportsmanlike. No argument there, the spitting was utterly wrong, but am I really the only one who sees the irony here ?
Am I the only member of the media who can recall this same Marquardt bringing home his own illegal knee to a downed opponent just two years ago ? It was against Wilson Gouveia [CORRECTION: It was Thales Leites at UFC 85]. Am I also the only one to recall Marquardt followed that foul up with an illegal strike to the back of the head later in the fight? I know. I was there watching it live. Didn't Marquardt himself bring the sport into disrepute ? by testing positive for steroids on his UFC debut…
Davies calls me out for Cagewriter's Marquardt story.
Frankly that's no big deal. Davies and I have differing opinions on what to write in story that's simply reporting one fighter's quote about another. I don't believe the story needed to analyze whether Marquardt had the right to rip another fighter.
GAD assumes there's some anti-Bisping agenda. Funny things is, I may have the softest stance in the entire MMA media with regards to Bisping's future.
During Iole's appearance on ESPNRadio1100 following the incident on Mar. 1, I argued that the Bisping knee wasn't intentional and the spitting is something happens in the heat of the moment. I outright scoffed at the possibility of the middleweight being fired, but if some of the British media and Bisping want to believe it's them against the world - good deal, it makes for a fun storyline for the future.
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Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_8880.shtml
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Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/03/28/hdnet-offers-an-honest-assessment-of-bobby-lashley/
Mike Kyle injured, out of Strikeforce bout with Gegard Mousasi is a post from: MMA Interplay UFC News
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