Three Stars from UFC 129: Undercard edition

UFC 129 was that rare sporting event that lived up to the hype. Because UFC 129 was such an unbelievably good show, Cagewriter is breaking down Three Stars into two posts. First up, the undercard.

No. 1 star -- Pablo Garza: What's the best way to start off the biggest UFC event in the promotion's history? With a flying triangle submission. Garza's first-round choke of Yves Jabouin stood out in a night of stand-out performances, and earned him a $129,000 bonus. In his last fight, a win over with a flying knee over Fredson Paixao, Garza made $8,000. Not a bad bonus for less than five minutes work.

No. 2 star -- Rory McDonald: Dealing with a Diaz brother is never fun. Nate, like his brother Strikeforce champ Nick, couples a nasty jiu-jitsu game with unending trash talk. But the 21-year-old McDonald ignored that, and used suplexes and strikes to stop Diaz in a unanimous decision.

No. 3 star -- John Makdessi: Not to be outdone by Garza's fast start to the fights, Makdessi pleased the Canadian crowd with a spinning backfist KO, sending Kyle Watson to the floor in the third round with a hard left to the chin. Unfortunately, Lyoto Machida's KO of Randy Couture robbed Makdessi of the bonus, but not of the respect earned from the highlight reel knockout.

Honorable mention -- Ivan Menjivar: Speaking of amazing finishes that were also worthy of a bonus, Menjivar only needed a minute and a half to finish off Charlie Valencia with a short elbow that busted up Valencia's nose.

Who were your Three Stars from the UFC 129 undercard? Tell us in the comment section or on Facebook.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Three-Stars-from-UFC-129-Undercard-edition?urn=mma-wp1926

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Week 2 Road To Rampage ? Matt Hamill Trains For Quinton Jackson At UFC 130

Week 2 Road To Rampage ? Matt Hamill Trains For Quinton Jackson At UFC 130.

UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill
Date: May 28, 2011
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena
Broadcast: Pay-per-view and Spike TV
MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)
Matt Hamill vs. Quinton ?Rampage? Jackson
Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson
Travis Browne vs. Stefan Struve
Jorge Santiago vs. Brian Stann
Thiago Alves vs. Rick [...]

Source: http://www.mmatko.com/week-2-road-to-rampage-%e2%80%93-matt-hamill-trains-for-quinton-jackson-at-ufc-130/

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REVGEAR Giveaway ? Win FREE MMA Fight Gear!

Time to get yourself some new MMA gloves, pads or fight shorts? Revgear is giving you the chance to take home some of the best professional MMA clothing and fight gear out there with this special gift certificate giveaway.
Follow the three simple steps below for your chance to win one of three Revgear gift certificate [...]

Source: http://fighterxfashion.com/revgear-giveaway-win-free-mma-fight-gear/

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Early estimates have UFC 129 close to a million pay-per-view buys

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Though Saturday's UFC 129 main event left a lot to be desired, the show as a whole was still very much a success. Bringing in a record gate of over $12 million and a record attendance of near 56,000 fans at the Rogers Centre, the show was the UFC's biggest ever live event, and though it won't be the biggest pay-per-view event in the company's history, early numbers suggest it fared very well.

According to Dave Meltzer's WrestlingObserver.com, early trending numbers for the event have the buyrate coming in slightly below one million buys.

That early number is very likely to change and fluctuate as a more accurate estimate is able to come in, but based on the numbers WO typically looks at to help determine a show's buyrate, that's where the initial target is.

If it stays in this range near a million buys it's another big selling show from UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre, and that's made even more impressive considering he was taking on a fighter in Jake Shields most were not giving any chance at all.

Link to WrestlingObserver.com report

Penick's Analysis: Though the main event was a dud, the rest of the card delivered in a big way, and with that many people tuning in on pay-per-view, more fans will be familiar with some of the guys that got featured on the card, most notably UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo, who will get a major benefit from being under GSP on this card. This was the largest audience that had tuned to see him fight, and even though he wasn't at his best, fans should still want to see him compete again the next time out, and now that at least four times the people that watched his fight with Urijah Faber having seen him, it will make him an easier sell in a headlining capacity if the UFC tries to do that with him in his next fight.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9247.shtml

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Trainers agree: Georges St-Pierre, Nick Diaz bout makes sense

Two welterweight champions defended their belts in April. First, Nick Diaz kept his Strikeforce strap with an exciting, first-round win over Paul Daley on April 9. On April 30, it was the UFC champion's chance, as Georges St-Pierre won a not-so-exciting decision over Jake Shields.

Now that Zuffa owns both the UFC and Strikeforce, wouldn't it make sense to square them off? Diaz is begging for the bout, and their coaches believe it should be next.

Firas Zahabi said that with Diaz still in the wings, GSP still faces enough of a challenge at welterweight to not move up to middleweight. From MMAFighting.com:

"If Georges went up (to 185) right now, he wouldn't have cleaned out the division because there's still Nick Diaz there," Zahabi said. "He's champion, so you can't say he doesn't deserve a shot. I can't confirm anything, but I see it as a possibility. They have two champions. It's always exciting to see two champions go at it. He has a great style. He has beautiful boxing, great jiu-jitsu, and it's very similar to his brother. It's not easy to fight a tall, lanky guy like that. And he's always very busy. It's a whole different style than Jake."

Though Shields and Diaz are training partners, Diaz's boxing background means that he could pose a much bigger threat to GSP's stand-up game.

Cesar Gracie, Diaz's coach, believes that Nick is the man to challenge GSP's safe style. From MMAjunkie.com:

"He's a guy that could press the action against GSP and not let GSP dictate the pace. GSP has been a great champ, and hats off to him. But there has been criticism that he's not really taking risks. With Nick, you have the ultimate risk-taker. He will fight you at your game. He throws caution to the wind, really, because he's more interested in beating you up than winning on points. I think that makes for an intriguing matchup between the two."

In his bout against Daley, Diaz appeared to be in trouble several times because he took chances to try to end the fight. There was no danger like that in the GSP-Shields bout.

Let's face it, both fighters don't have many challenges within their own promotions or weight classes. Their trainers wouldn't suggest these fights if they didn't think it would be good for the fighters and their careers. It's time for GSP and Diaz to fight. Please make it happen, Zuffa.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Trainers-agree-Georges-St-Pierre-Nick-Diaz-bou?urn=mma-wp1968

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Garza lands possible Sub of the Night; Makdessi set the mark for KO of the Night in UFC 129 openers

That's the way to start out the biggest MMA event in North American history. Pablo Garza flashed some impressive jiu-jitsu by executing a flying triangle. Garza caught Yves Jabouin in the submission and finished it on the ground to up his first UFC victory at 4:31 of the first round.

John Makdessi followed that up with an even more spectacular spinning backfist knockout of Kyle Watson. Watson caught the left hand on the chin, went down in a heap and slammed his head against the mat at 1:27 of the third round. He was actually unconscious for a few minutes following the knockout.

UFC 129 sold 55,000 tickets at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Media members on the scene report that the building is about half full with another five and half hours of fighting on the way.

Garza-Jabouin and Watson-Makdessi were the first two of five fights being streamed on the UFC Facebook page. There's a long way to go, but Garza and Makdessi certainly themselves in the mix for a postfight bonus.

The UFC hands out bonuses for Knockout of the Night, Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night. The promotion awarded record $100,000 bonuses at UFC 100. With a UFC-record gate in excess of $11 million, one can only guess how massive tonight's bonuses might be.

UPDATE: UFC analyst Joe Rogan confirmed the bonuses will be $129,000 each.

You can watch UFC 129 on PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) right here on Yahoo! Sports.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Garza-lands-possible-Sub-of-the-Night-Makdessi-?urn=mma-wp1774

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Jens Pulver sees future at 135-pounds

Former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver is often regarded as the “Godfather” of the little guys–specifically the lightweight division.
Some may forget that before he was considered the worlds best 155-pounder, he was heralded as the best featherweight fighter in the world, though in those times the level of athlete that exists today was not there. [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/14/jens-pulver-sees-future-at-135-pounds

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