Metal Reviews

Watch UFC 178 if you can. Best PPV of the year.

Everything I've ever heard about White says that he's the Vince McMahon of MMA. Everything you guys have said, from keeping people out of the HoF and putting undeserving ones in, to making millions, makes him that, if perhaps a bit younger and less out of touch.

Cheers, DW, I'll try and hunt it down.

I give those guys (have to throw in the Fertitas) all the credit in the world for their vision and tenacity, but Dana needs to get off TV and stay behind the scenes so he doesn't continue making an ass of himself and embarrassing the brand in the process. When you're pushing for mainstream acceptance, the last thing you want is for the company president to get on TV and talk shit about current and former employees like a locker room jock.

Or you could have a president like Scott Coker who has turned into Viacoms bitch "yes-man". Dana may bend the truth to sell fights, but he usually tells it like it is and I for one respect that. And if you notice the last year or so, his media presence has dropped considerably. After every event there use to be several new quotes from him, now you are lucky to get 5 minutes out of him.

Coker is an employee of Viacom and has to answer to the big bosses for the decisions he makes, whereas White really doesn't have to answer to anybody. Hopefully, he'll do a better job than Bjorn Rebney whose tournament laden system was tanking the company. Coker was an excellent talent scout during his time in Strikeforce and should be able to build a solid roster of home grown fighters that people will be excited to see. Time will tell.

Daaaaaamn!! Dominick Cruz tears his ACL AGAIN. This time in the right knee. I fear this may be the end for the Dominator. Bantamweight just got a whole lot less interesting.

TJ Dillashaw will be sleeping much easier tonight.

Raphael Assuncao, who's won 7 straight and the last man to defeat Dillashaw, broke his ankle today. Sidelining him for a few months.

So that leaves Dillashaw-Barao 2 or Dillashaw-Faber.

I'd watch Dillashaw-Faber and enjoy it.

Stoked to watch Jones and Hector Lombard both fight this week.

Picks: Jones, Cerrone, Marquardt, Gaudinot, Lombard.

Jones in four with a knockout?

I agree with your picks, but no way Gaudinot beats Horiguchi. Horiguchi is a future contender.

I'd love to see Cormier ragdoll Jones like everybody else he's fought, but Jones is something special and I think will show us something new. But never forget that Alexander Gustafsson took Bones down. What will Cormier do when he gets a hold of him?

Horiguchi could get him before it goes to time, but if it goes to time I like Gaudinot.

Surely, Jones has been working on his wrestling and takedown defense or at least I'm banking on that as a fan. If DC tries to stand with him, though, he is going to get lit up. They're not even close to being on the same level when it comes to striking.

Jones defends the takedown as good as anyone in MMA and his reach advantage is huge in this fight. Footwork and cardio will be the keys to victory for DC. If he can disrupt Jones' spacing and do work inside his range then this fight will be very interesting. I'm definitely going with my heart here, but I'm picking DC to shock the world with a TKO victory over the champ in the Third Round.

Agree with ya'll on the Cowboy and Marquardt fights but Lombard better not sleep on Josh Burkman.

Faber has said he wouldn't fight TJ since they're both Team Alpha Male guys. More than likely it will be Barao-Dillashaw II.

I've read a lot of things saying that if the money is right, they (Faber and Dillashaw) would fight. Duane Ludwig started his own gym, so TJ could go train there with him and Urijah could stay at Alpha Male training with Martin Kampmann and the rest of the dudes who train there. I could see it happening if Assuncao is out a while, and no other contenders emerge. I agree that Barao should be first, and Dana hinted at that in an interview this week.

John Dodson has said he would like to return to 135 and challenge Dillashaw for the title. If I'm not mistaken, this would be a rematch that Dodson originally won?

Yes, sir. First round TKO, but that was three years ago and TJ has improved a lot since then. Assuncao is the only other guy that has beaten him so far.

Another one bites the dust for LHW kingpin Jon Jones who methodically took down challenger Daniel Cormier and further cemented his MMA legacy. DC had a solid game plan of working strikes in the clinch but he kept such a torrid pace through the first three rounds that he just totally gassed and never recovered. Jones took over the fight in the fourth with his typical, otherworldly striking and stifling take down defense. Despite a monster slam by DC late in the fight, it was pretty much all Jones the last two rounds which ultimately earned the champ a unanimous decision win. The classless post-fight interview was atypical of Bones but maybe he is finally embracing his place as the UFC's arch villain. The fans will never love him the way they did Couture or Liddell, so he might as well drop the "nice guy" front and just be the arrogant bastard that everyone knows he is.

Cowboy Cerrone gives another dominating performance taking home a UD victory over youngster Myles Jury. Cerrone pretty much owned Jury from the get-go with superior striking and ground game and should have honestly KO'd or submitted him a couple of different times. Cowboy was unhappy with his effort after the match but said he was willing to fight again soon, possibly against Khabib. Rafa dos Anjos is getting Pettis next at UFC 185 and Bendo is fighting Eddie Alvarez in a couple weeks, so there is plenty going on in lightweight over the next few months.

Tavares wins a snoozer over Marquardt, who is now 1-4 in his last 5 fights and surely on the bubble. Also, Horiguchi dominates Gaudinot and Lombard cruizes with a UD win over Josh Burkman. Lombard is 3-0 since dropping to welterweight and looks to be a force in the division. His next fight will probably be the winner of Woodley/Gastelum.

Good breakdown. Lombard said he'd like to fight Rory Mac next in a title eliminator.

Paul Felder and Cody Garbrandt look to be two solid up and comers.

Can't wait for the eventual Jones-Velasquez fight.

I'm sure he would, but didn't Dana already guarantee Rory a title shot? Or has that been thrown out the window in the wake of the announced Lawler-Hendricks rubber match?


I've got Cain winning that fight pretty convincingly. He's a bigger, faster and better version of DC with the cardio for a 5 round war. Save your "Breaking Bones" shirts for this fight, folks. I'm still pumped for Cain's title fight against Werdum. Fabricio's striking has come a long way since his early days with the company and very few people can say they KO'd Mark "Ironhead" Hunt.

Eddie Alvarez backs out of his upcoming fight with Bendo due to "personal reasons." Replaced by...Cowboy fuckin' Cerrone!! Thank you, MMA gods. Their first match is still one of my all time favorite fights.

Has anyone else been following this Jon Jones cocaine fiasco? For those that haven't heard, Jones tested positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition random drug test administered in early December. The results were received by the UFC before the title fight with Cormier but Jones was not suspended because the infraction occurred more than twelve hours prior to the bout. Under WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) rules, which is what the Nevada Athletic Commission follows, cocaine is not considered a PED and since the positive test occurred "out of competition," i.e., more than twelve hours before the fight, technically he was not in violation and could proceed with the fight. Jones promised after his title defense that he would enter rehab and deal with the issue which was universally applauded by the bosses Fertita and White. It turns out, rehab lasted only one day and Jones was back to business as normal.

I don't really care what recreational drugs athletes use in their spare time, but I remember Dana raking the Diaz clan over the coals after their admitted marijuana usage. Now White gives Jones a total pass after a positive coke test less than a month out from a huge title fight? Add to that, the drug tests also revealed a very fishy low T/E ratio, which some think could indicate that Jones was injecting epitestosterone to mask his PED use. Still speculation at this point, but something to consider given the timing of the rehab charade. A CIR test has not yet been done on Jones' sample (to my knowledge) but even if the results showed no traces of PEDs, all this looks really bad on Bones given his less-than-stellar reputation.

UFC Fight Night in Boston is in the books and Jose Aldo now has a date with Connor McGregor at UFC 187. McGregor was dominate as expected against an over-the-hill Dennis Siver whose style was pretty much telemade for the Irishman. Loudmouth though he is, McGregor has proven to be no joke and showcased an impressive stand-up game utilizing his size and reach to it's full advantage. Siver really had no moments against him and proved to be just another stepping stone to Aldo's featherweight belt. Many are less than thrilled with Connor leapfrogging a more deserving Frankie Edgar for the title shot, but to be fair, it is a much more interesting match-up stylisticaly and Aldo has already proven himself against Edgar. Casual interest for this fight should be relatively high with the UFC really marketing the hell out of McGregor and Aldo actually looking mortal in his last few outings. Expect sparks to fly in this one.

Karma finally caught up with Ben Henderson in the highly anticipated third fight with fellow WEC alum Donald Cerrone with Smooth coming out on the wrong end of a controversial decision. Most scorecards had Henderson on top 29-28 at fight's end, but if MMA judges have shown us anything, it's that no sense makes perfect sense. It wasn't like Bendo ran away with the fight, but he was definitely the more efficient fighter. Cowboy looked pretty good considering the short layoff time from his whoopin' of Myles Jury. He landed some serious counter punches late in the fight and a couple of nice head kicks but was stifled by Henderson's tactical leg kicks through much of the first two rounds. Yeah, you heard that right. Strangely enough, Ben abandoned his superior wrestling game to stand and trade strikes with Cerrone. A strategy which ultimately failed to sway the refs in his decision. Cowboy said after the fight he was going to take some time off and rest (yeah, right), but it's looking like he will meet Khabib mid-year for the #1 Contender slot. If so, he better start working on his takedown defense RIGHT NOW if he is to survive the grind of the Eagle.