The UFC production team makes the cross-country trek for the second show in seven days as UFC Fight Night 24 hits Spike TV from the Pacific Northwest just a week after UFC 128 rocked New Jersey harder than Springsteen in his heyday.
While the card has undergone a number of changes since the original lineup was announced, each shift has made the event better.
Nam Phan squaring off with Leonard Garcia would have been good, but Garcia facing “The Korean Zombie” for a second time is awesome. Tito Ortiz facing fellow veteran Rogerio Nogueira was an okay main event, but switching Ortiz for Phil Davis makes things a lot more entertaining.
Cards on the table: I love all the changes because I’m going to be in Seattle (well, I’m in Seattle right now) covering this event for Heavy, so getting an even better lineup for my first assignment for the site is gravy on my french fries, maybe with some cheese curds mixed in.
I love poutine.
Here’s what’s going down at Fight Night 24.
Waylon Lowe (10-3-0) vs. Nik Lentz (20-3-2)
I will forever hold a special place in my heart for Lentz because he’s one of few fighters in the sport who actually fits his nickname to a tee; the dude looks like a “Carny,” which is probably where he got the name in the first place.
Anyhow, this night is bound to get off to a slow start because Lentz and Lowe are two of the most agonizing fighters to watch compete, as both are top-control wrestlers who don’t do much other than work for top control and stay in place once they’re there.
I hate using this word when describing fights or fighters, but if the boring shoe fits…
The really freaky thing to consider is that Lentz is unbeaten through his first five fights in the UFC; he’s gone 4-0-1 and gone to the scorecards at the end of each of those fights. Talk about a guy who is maximizing his time in the Octagon.
Lowe has managed back-to-back wins after stepping in as a late replacement punching bag against Melvin Guillard in his debut. He too has logged the maximum amount of time possible in the cage over those two victories, scoring painful-to-watch decisions over Williamy Freire and Steve Lopez. Neither remain with the organization, so take that however you will.
Since no one outside of the Lowe and Lentz family and friends groups will really be too focused on the details of this fight, I might just use the guaranteed 15 minutes as an opportunity to stock up on beverages and use the facilities before the real entertainment begins.
Michael McDonald (11-1-0) vs. Edwin Figueroa (7-0-0)
This is one example of a change that didn’t go from good to great, as McDonald was originally slated to face Nick Pace. The Team Tiger Shulmann fighter was forced out due to an unspecified injury, and has been replaced by organizational newcomer Figueroa.
Either way, McDonald is the main attraction in this bout; a 20-year-old wunderkind who has already earned wins over respected veterans like Manny Tapia and Cole Escovedo. He also earned a first-round submission win over Clint Godfrey in his WEC debut, and is a fighter to keep an eye on in the bantamweight division.
Figueroa has stopped all seven men he’s faced thus far in his career, never venturing past the 90-second mark of the second round. While he’s accomplished the feat against unknown opponents in various regional events, it shows he’s got solid power and knows how to finish an opponent when he’s got them on the ropes.
That being said, beating Johnny Bedford at KOK 9 is a lot different then stepping under the bright lights on the big stage against a promising young talent on two weeks notice.
Mario Miranda (12-2-0) vs. Aaron Simpson (7-2-0)
This should be a fun little scrap.
Simpson has come back down to earth after winning his first three fights in the UFC, losing back-to-back bouts as he stepped up in competition. He looked gassed after just one round with Chris Leben last June, and was simply overmatched against the powerful Mark Munoz at UFC 123, so it will be interesting to see which version of “The A-Train” shows up in this one.
At his best, Simpson is a strong wrester with solid conditioning and decent power, but it’s been three fights since we’ve really seen that from him; he didn’t look good over the final two rounds of the Tom Lawlor fight. An official three-fight losing streak could spell the end of the 36-year-old’s run in the UFC middleweight division.
There is no way to know what to expect from Miranda at this point either, as the AMC Pankration product is 1-2 in the Octagon, but lost to a pair of fighters higher up on the food chain than he was at the time. Demian Maia is a top 5 middleweight, and the departed Gerald Harris is a tremendous athlete who was made an example of after his one-and-only UFC loss.
In between those two bouts, Miranda sent David Loiseau packing from the UFC for a third time with a savage beating at UFC 115 in Vancouver.
He probably falls somewhere between the guy who looked outstanding against Loiseau and the man who was manhandled by Maia in Boston, but he needs to have a strong performance here. With the eventual influx of talent that will come over from Strikeforce as contracts expire, we could see a few more fighters falling by the wayside, and the loser of this one could be one of those castaways.
Hendricks stepping in on short notice to replace Dennis Hallman is another one of those positive changes I spoke of in the opening. Not that I have anything against Hallman, but he doesn’t have an awesome Grizzly Adams beard like Hendricks.
This is a fortunate break for Hendricks, who was supposed to face Paulo Thiago on the March 3rd Versus card before the Brazilian was forced to withdraw at the eleventh hour. Prepared and in need of a fight, Hendricks jumped at the opportunity to get in the cage here.
The former All-American at Oklahoma State is coming off the first loss of his career, and actually brought the man who beat him, Rick Story, in to help him prepare for his originally scheduled fight. Like his long-time teammate Shane Roller, Hendricks is a work in progress with his hands, but a tremendous wrestler. He’s shown power in the past, stopping both Amir Sadollah and Charlie Brenneman, but his bread and butter will always be his skills on the ground.
Waldburger got the better of David Mitchell in his UFC debut and beat veteran Pat “Bam Bam” Healy for the Shark Fights welterweight crown in the fight prior. He also boasts wins over current welterweight Brian Foster and former UFC competitor Pete Spratt, as well as Shannon Ritch, but so do close to 70 other guys.
The Texas native appears to be taking the Joe Stevenson route, as this will be the 19th professional bout for the 22 year old who got his start with a first round loss to Sammy Say when he was just 17-years-old.
“Big Sexy” hasn’t been as prominent in the news since Stefan Struve handed him the first loss of his career back at UFC 124. He’s still offering up gold on Twitter and The UG pretty regularly, but the spotlight has faded and now he needs a win over Morecraft to keep his name in the news for more legitimate reasons.
Like a handful of other fighters on this card, including his opponent, it’s hard to gauge what we’re going to get from McCorkle in this one. He made short work of Mark Hunt in his debut and we all chalked that up to Hunt being over the hill, but “The Super Samoan” came out strong last time, while McCorkle had one burst of energy before Struve handed him a beating.
Morecraft lost to Struve last time out as well, though he acquitted himself quite well before catching the gigantic Dutchman’s fist with his face 21 seconds into the second round. The Massachusetts native dominated Struve in the opening frame, coming close to putting away the emerging heavyweight prospect with some heavy ground-and-pound. Failing to finish when he had the opportunity should serve as a great learning and motivational tool for Morecraft as he continues to develop.
John Hathaway (14-1-0) vs. Kris McCray (5-2-0)
I don’t really agree with the thinking that you can learn more from a loss than you can a win, but I do believe that fading from the spotlight after his loss to Mike Pyle is a positive for Hathaway.
Beating Diego Sanchez at UFC 114 brought Hathaway all kinds of attention, both good and bad, but the loss to Pyle at UFC 120 allows him to take a step back and continue developing the solid all-around abilities he’s shown thus far. While we’re always on the lookout for “The Next Big Thing,” sometimes we put that tag on fighters too quickly and I think that happened with Hathaway.
The 23-year-old Briton is still a very promising young fighter. Don’t get me wrong, I thought he looked great against Sanchez, but at this early stage in his career, there are going to be ups and downs, especially while competing in the stacked welterweight division. His UFC 120 bout with Pyle was one of those dips in the road, but he’s got a great opportunity to bounce back here.
McCray gets a high five for switching training camps heading into this fight. He’s been outclassed and outworked in his two UFC appearances to date, and working with the Renzo Gracie Combat Team should prevent that from happening a third time.
The former TUF finalist showed a lot of promise heading into the house, and a lot of heart while he was in there, fighting a record five times during the taping period. But he’s been flat ever since, losing to Court McGee in the finals and getting quickly tapped by Carlos Eduardo Rocha in his post-TUF debut at UFC 122 in Germany.
This is a tough fight for McCray and potentially a must-win; while I think his time on TUF could earn him one more chance, another swift exit from the Octagon could be the end of his UFC run.
John Madsen (7-0-0) vs. Mike Russow (13-1-0, 1 NC)
I’m not sure whether the fact that Madsen and Russow are a combined 6-0 in the UFC is impressive or indicative of the lack of depth and talent in the heavyweight division. Either way, their track records in the Octagon suggest this should be a good tilt, and you’ll never hear me complain about that.
After getting stopped in the TUF 10 tournament by eventual finalist Brendan Schaub, Madsen has rattled off four-straight wins over increasingly competent opponents. His wins over Justin Wren and Mostapha Al-Turk didn’t cause too many people to take notice, but after handing Karlos Vemola his first career loss (and a ticket to the light heavyweight division) and smashing on Gilbert Yvel at UFC 121, Madsen has earned some solid buzz.
His wrestling background and work with Brock Lesnar‘s DeathClutch team will always keep him competitive, but it’s his developing hands and nasty streak that has Madsen on many people’s radars now. The win over Yvel was the epitome of what the 31-year-old heavyweight can do in the cage, taking down the Dutchman with a precision double leg before unloading a bunch of bombs en route to the opening round finish.
Russow returns for the first time since doing his best impression of Homer Simpson as a boxer at UFC 114. Facing then unbeaten Todd Duffee, the Chicago Police Officer took two and a half rounds of punishment from the chiseled specimen before knocking him out with the one and only good punch he threw all night.
Amusing and unexpected as his win over Duffee may have been, Russow has now won 13 of 15 fights, with an early no contest and a loss to Sergei Kharitonov back in February 2007 standing as the only blemishes on his record. We know he can take a punch, or more correctly, a ton of punches, but whether Russow can defend against the takedown will be the determining factor in this fight.
With each passing fight, Semerzier’s upset win over Wagnney Fabiano is looking more and more like an aberration. He’s dropped three straight since catching the BJJ black belt in a triangle in his WEC debut, and is unquestionably looking at a must-win scenario as he officially welcomes “Bruce Leroy” to the UFC.
Semerzier has been competitive in two of his three losses, earning Fight of the Night honors with Cub Swanson in a split decision loss last time out, but he just hasn’t been able to replicate the success he found against Fabiano. Though they are relatively close in terms of total number of fights, Semerzier boasts a big advantage in terms of the competition he’s faced and having competed on the biggest stage in comparison to Caceres in this one.
I’m really looking forward to this one because I’m always curious to see how kids like Caceres handle themselves inside the Octagon once the TUF cameras are done rolling. He earned himself a lot of prime time exposure with his “Bruce Leroy” stylings and acerbic way of interacting with is fellow cast mates, but now Caceres needs to show he’s more than just a persona.
He’s been out of the cage for more than a year due to taping TUF 12 and an injury that forced him off the Finale in December. Combining that kind of cage rust with stepping under the lights against a talented fighter like Semerzier gives Caceres a perfect opportunity to prove that there is more to him than a Bruce Lee impersonation.
These two met in the best ugly fight of 2010, slugging it out for three rounds on the Spike TV Prelims live portion of the WEC’s lone pay-per-view event. If the sequel is half as entertaining as the original, it will easily win Fight of the Night honors.
Garcia is the king of split decisions. Each of his last two wins have come through questionable 2-1 selections from the judges, and he somehow managed to convince one judge that he’d also beaten Mark Hominick in between those victories. Previous to that, he battle George Roop to a rare split draw.
If you add his loss to Manny Gamburyan to the mix and score his bouts with Jung and Nam Phan properly, the Greg Jackson product should be 0-4-1 over his last five. Instead, Garcia is 2-2-1 in that span and the biggest beneficiary of the “swinging hard scores you points with the judges” plague that is afflicting the sport right now.
Jung became an overnight sensation in North America with his truly zombie-like performance the first time around with Garcia, but followed it up by getting knocked out by a perfectly timed headkick from Roop. As cool as his nickname and walkout t-shirts may be, Jung is officially 1-3 in his last four fights, and has sworn to employ a more measured, less chaotic style moving forward.
I’m curious to see if “The Korean Zombie” can stick to his promise in this one, as Garcia is notorious for drawing opponents into the sloppy affairs he so often wins by split decision. If Jung can keep to the game plan, land consistently like he did the first time around, and not eat so many punches, he should get back in the win column.
Then again, he should’ve won the first fight.
Amir Sadollah (4-2-0) vs. DaMarques Johnson (8-3-0)
In the span of eight days, Sadollah was scheduled to face three different opponents.
Originally slated for what would have been a great kickboxing match against Duane Ludwig, “Bang” was forced off the card with an injury and replaced by fellow TUF winner James Wilks. A week and a day later, Wilks was also out with an injury, replaced by Johnson, the man he beat in the TUF 9 welterweight finale.
It feels like I say this before every Sadollah fight, and maybe I do, but the charismatic TUF 7 winner needs another solid victory here to keep what little momentum can be built off beating Peter Sobotta going. Outside of his win over C.B. Dollaway, each of the other three men he’s beat have been released, while he’s come up short against the two solid contenders he’s faced to date.
Johnson is a tough guy to face as a last minute replacement. While he’s just 3-2 over his five UFC appearance, Johnson has looked very good at times, earning a pair of bonus checks from his wins over Edgar Garcia and Brad Blackburn, and sending Mike Guymon into retirement with a body triangle submission back in January.
I always believed Johnson would end up being the best of the bunch coming out of the welterweight pack on TUF 9, and that seems to be the case.
Dan Hardy (23-8-0, 1 NC) vs. Anthony Johnson (8-3-0)
I honestly wouldn’t trade places with Anthony Johnson for all the money in the world.
The gigantic welterweight is coming into this fight after a 16-month layoff that included knee surgery, and gets to return to the cage against a pissed-off and hungry Dan Hardy.
No thanks.
As always, the question of the hour with Johnson is his weight and conditioning; that’s what happens when you miss weight twice in a seven-fight span and walk around north of 220 pounds between fights. I’m no doctor, but cutting upwards of 23 percent of your body weight repeatedly can’t be easy and definitely isn’t good for you. Yet Johnson insists on fighting at the 170 pound limit.
Hardy is eager to put 2010 behind him and get back in the win column. While he benefitted from the added exposure of facing GSP at UFC 111 last March, he was handily defeated on that night, than got dropped by Carlos Condit on his home turf seven months later, leaving him winless for the year.
Though the talkative Brit has become a divisional afterthought in the wake of his two-fight skid, Hardy is a more complete and focused fighter today than he was heading into his title fight with St. Pierre last March, and he intends to show that against Johnson. He’s always been dogged for being pushed along too quickly because of his quick wit and British passport, but the truth is that Hardy is a very talented fighter and better than a lot of people give him credit for, including me.
He hopes an impressive win over Johnson will be the first step back into contention, and hopes for a rematch with Condit sooner rather than later.
I’ll spare you the cliches about the veteran squaring off with the rising prospect and make no mention of torches being passed. What I will say is that this bout will give us a more accurate measure of where Phil Davis is at in his development, and a win should vault the former Penn State standout into the top 10 of the light heavyweight division.
Nogueira is the perfect guy to face Davis at this point in time; he’s a crafty veteran with very good hands and a strong ground game. If he can keep it standing, Nogueira has the knockout power and technically sound boxing to keep Davis off balance and really test the unbeaten prospect. On the ground, he’s a legitimate black belt who won’t be as easily dominated as the four men Davis has beaten thus far in the UFC.
It’s those talents and abilities that makes the introduction of Davis into the main event – thanks to yet another Tito Ortiz injury – such an intriguing story. Davis has yet to really be tested since debuting at UFC 109, earning unanimous decisions over Brian Stann and Rodney Wallace, while submitting Alexander Gustafsson and Tim Boetsch before and after the Wallace win.
Theoretically, Nogueira will be able to push Davis in all the areas that he has excelled in thus far. The beauty of this fight is in the potential of Davis coming in and continuing to go unchecked in the Octagon. While some would surely attribute that to the rapid decline of Nogueira’s overall abilities, I think it would be a further indication that Davis has a very bright future in this sport.
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