Gessner's Ground and Pound: Dana White gives the fans what they want, UFC 130 Fallout, and whose next for Jon "Bones" Jones?


prowrestling.net
MEMBERSHIP INFO | LOG-IN | CONTACT US | SUBMIT NEWS | ABOUT US
Insider News • Live TV & PPV Coverage • Hitlists • Results • Blogs

HOME | WWE NEWS | TNA NEWS | MMA NEWS | ALL NEWS | TV & PPV | ARENA REPORTS | VIEWPOINTS | PRODUCT REVIEWS | AWARDS



Dot Net App
GOT AN IPHONE, IPAD, IPOD TOUCH, SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB, OR ANDROID PHONE?

THEN BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD OUR NEW FREE APP
(or SEARCH "pro wrestling" in App Store or Android Marketplace)

Dot Net Podcast
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO DOT NET FREE PODCAST IN ITUNES OR CLICK HERE FOR LISTING OF LATEST SHOWS

MMA / UFC News


Gessner's Ground and Pound: Dana White gives the fans what they want, UFC 130 Fallout, and whose next for Jon "Bones" Jones?
Jun 3, 2011 - 01:42 PM


By Mark Gessner

Dominant Position

- Georges St-Pierre, aside from rematches with fighters he has already beat, had no one left in the welterweight division for him to fight following defeating Jake Shields at UFC 129. He could wait until Jon Fitch and BJ Penn recover from their injuries and have their rematch from UFC 127's draw. However, even with that he has already beaten both handily (Fitch via unanimous decision at UFC 87 and a TKO victory over Penn at UFC 94).

The only real fight of interest left for him in the UFC was against Anderson Silva, which would require putting on a minimum of fifteen pounds to move up to the middleweight division. GSP has been hesitant in his last two post fight interviews following his wins over Josh Koscheck and Shields about moving up a division to fight Silva and has said that once he makes the jump, he is staying there due to it being in the best interest for his body and not wanting to jump and drop weight.

Since his first two stints with the UFC, Nick Diaz has gone 11-1 in his MMA career and is currently on a nine fight winning streak. In that time, he has defeated nine of his opponents by either knockout or submission. He is currently the reigning Strikeforce Welterweight Champion.

Following GSP's victory over Shields at UFC 129, Lorenzo Fertitta, the CEO and co-owner of the UFC, posted on Twitter asking if fans wanted to see GSP vs. Silva or GSP vs. Nick Diaz. Apparently, the overwhelming majority wanted to see the latter. So this past Wednesday, UFC President Dana White announced that Nick Diaz would be fighting Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137 on October 29, 2011 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Diaz will be one of the toughest opponent's for GSP and the last true test for him at the 170 pound weight class.

GSP defeated Koscheck and Shields with his standup striking skills, based heavily in boxing. Had Diaz not been given a fight with GSP, he was set to box for IBF Super Middleweight Champion Jeff Lacy in the Fall. GSP defeated Dan Hardy and Thiago Alves in his two fights prior by taking them to the ground and winning all five rounds in each fight. Diaz is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, training primarily at Cesar Gracie's camp and can pull off a submission on his back as easily as he does on top of his opponent. While still nearly four months away, this has the makings of an epic battle between two champions and is one I cannot wait to see.

- UFC 130 this past weekend featured a phenomenal three fight undercard. You had Brian Stann continue to make a name for himself in the middleweight division with his TKO victory over Jorge Santiago in the opening fight of the PPV. Rick Story outclassed the third ranked welterweight in all of MMA in defeating Thiago Alves via unanimous decision. Story was able to out strike a prolific striker in Alves in the majority of their standup exchanges, while scoring takedowns along the way.

Even following a knee to the head in the third round from Alves, Story was able to keep his composure, reached for a double leg takedown against the cage, and regained his awareness, avoiding being knocked out by followup striking by Alves. You then had one of the best superman punches ever seen in MMA thrown by Travis Browne that knocked out Stefan Struve.

Following those three excellent fights up was Frank Mir versus Roy Nelson in the co-main event and Rampage Jackson versus Matt Hamill as the main event.

In the first round of Mir and Nelson, Mir showed how well rounded he is as a fighter, out striking Nelson and then scoring a late takedown in the round with an excellent Judo hip throw takedown. But, as former WWE Creative Writer Court Bauer stated on Twitter, "Mir blew his load in round one." The following two rounds were two tired heavyweights struggling through the final ten minutes of their fight.

Mir continued to dominate Nelson throughout the two rounds but was clearly gassed out. Frank Mir is an excellent fighter. He is well-rounded, possessing good striking along with a great jiu-jitsu game, that submitted former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. With that said, Mir looks too thick at the 260 pounds that he weighed in at for this fight. His arms looked cut, his midsection looked thick. For him to be a contender again in the heavyweight division, he needs to drop the thickness, which will increase his cardio and stamina.

As for Nelson, "the fat thing was funny for a while, it's not funny anymore," said Dana White following UFC 130 in his interview with Ariel Helwani of MMMFighting.com. Nelson has since gotten together with renowned nutritionist Mike Dolce, who helped with Thiago Alves' weight issues of making 170 pounds, and Nelson will be taking his weight seriously. While Mir and others have joked about Nelson dropping to 205 or even 185, White would like to see Nelson cut to at least 240. Best of luck to Nelson on his new diet and becoming a legitimate threat once again.

Mir versus Nelson was then followed up with Rampage against Matt Hamill. Matt Hamill requested this fight following Thiago Silva failing a drug test, leaving Rampage without an opponent. Rampage is currently the third ranked light heavyweight in the world. Hamill is not in the top ten. This showed throughout their fifteen minute fight.

Hamill's best and only chance, was taking Rampage to the ground and ground-and-pounding out a victory. According to CompuStrike, Hamill was 0-for-17 in his takedown attempts during the fight. And, as expected, Rampage out-striked Hamill standing up. Rampage decisively defeated Hamill 30-27 on all three judges' scorecards. Rampage has since attributed his inability to knocking out Hamill due to having a fractured right hand, which he entered the Octagon with.

Originally, UFC 130 was supposed to be main evented by the third fight between the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. Had the lower three fights on the main card been topped off with a championship fight, this would have been one of the best all-around PPVs in recent UFC history. However, the co and main event left a lot to be desired with this and many other viewers. Injuries happen in sports, but hopefully injuries will not hurt the upcoming events over the next month and will lead to fights that are still entertaining.

- Going into UFC 130, Rampage was given the opportunity to fight the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon "Bones" Jones if he defeated Matt Hamill. While defeating Hamill handedly, Rampage also revealed that he had a fractured hand. Due to the injury and the medical suspension that comes with it, Rampage may lose out on that opportunity. If Rampage is not cleared to resume training, Dana White has said that Lyoto Machida will be the next fighter to get a chance against Jones, presumably late Fall-early Winter.

Rashad Evans was originally supposed to get a fight with Jones for the title before Jones injured his hand versus Shogun, and was originally diagnosed with needing surgery. Upon receiving a second opinion, it was determined that Jones did not need surgery, however Evans had already been scheduled to headline UFC 133 against Phil Davis and the fight will go on as planned. If Evans defeats Davis, and Rampage needs time to recover from his fracture, could we possibly see Evans vs. Rampage again for the chance to face Jones if he beats Machida? I, and presumably the UFC hope so, as Evans vs. Rampage in their first fight was only one of two cards to draw a million buys that did not include Brock Lesnar in the past few years.

- As reported last week, Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen were the original choices as coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 14. With Sonnen's suspension suspension and inability to be licensed as a cornerman, UFC has named his replacement. The Ultimate Fighter 14 will now be Team Miller vs. Team Bisping. Jason "Mayhem" Miller has been selected to replace Sonnen will be coaching the first ever class of bantamweight and featherweight fighters on TUF. Mayhem is most known for his post-fight brawl on CBS with Jake Shields and the "Skrap Pack" (Nick and Nate Diaz and Gilbert Melendez) following Shields defeating Dan Henderson and his role on "Bully Beatdown" on MTV. While TUF 13 may have had a lack of verbal battles between Lesnar and JDS, Mayhem and Bisping will not have that lack of verbal sparring.

Striking Flurry

- The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 finished its weekly programming on Wednesday. Ramsey Nijem and Tony Ferguson both defeated their opponents via TKO to move on to the finals which will air this Saturday on Spike at 9:00 EST. Also from this past season of TUF, teammates from Team Lesnar Chris Cope and Chuck O'Neil will be fighting on the televised main card. On the undercard, Team Dos Santos teammates will fight as Shamar Bailey will be fighting Ryan McGillivray, and Team Lesnar's Clay Harvison will fight Team Dos Santos' Justin Edwards.

- On June 26, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson was set to headline UFC on Versus against Nate "The Great" Marquardt. Johnson has since suffered a shoulder injury and was forced to pull out of the fight. Filling in for Johnson versus Marquardt, will be Rick Story who defeated Thiago Alves this past Saturday. Chris Leben made a big impact in the middleweight division defeating two opponents in two weeks this past Summer, so this will be a big opportunity for Story at the end of the month.

- If you feel that you will be losing out on your MMA fix with the end of TUF this past Wednesday, don't worry about a lack of fights. There was UFC 130 last Saturday. The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Finale is this Saturday on Spike. On June 11, UFC 131: Dos Santos vs. Carwin with the winner of the main event being the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship on PPV. The continuation of Strikeforce's Heavyweight Grand Prix is the following Saturday on the 18th on Showtime. The following Sunday, UFC on Versus 5 takes place. And finally, UFC 131: Cruz vs. Faber on July 2 for the UFC Bantamweight Championship. Enjoy the six consecutive weekends of fighting.

Knockout Blow

MMA Tweet of the Week- "U wanted it! U GOT IT!!! GSP vs DIAZ Oct 29th UFC 137 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas."- @

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE:


READ OUR INSIDER NEWS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! BECOME A MEMBER FOR JUST $7.50 A MONTH (or less with a year-long sub) - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO CONTENT, MEMBER MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AND VIEW THE SITE WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO)



RELATED ARTICLES FROM MGID AFFILIATE SITES...



MEMBERSHIP INFO
Become a Dot Net Member right now for $7.50 a month or $66 a year ($5.50 a month avg.). Get exclusive audio, first-look insider news, Forum access, member blogs, more...

CLICK FOR SIGN-UP INFO


The Current Must-Read List
ACCESS PREVIOUS MUST-READ ARTICLES

Vote In Our Latest Poll


Dot Net Free Podcasts
CLICK FOR FULL LISTING OF ALL PODCASTS

Latest from Our Affiliate Site

_pwtorch.com_
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PWTORCH HEADLINES

© 2008-2012 LAST ROW MEDIA LLC • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED -- PRIVACY POLICY