MMA Fighting: All Posts by Chuck Mindenhallhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52789/mma_minimal_navy..jpg2019-05-27T09:00:00-04:00https://www.mmafighting.com/authors/chuck-mindenhall/rss2019-05-27T09:00:00-04:002019-05-27T09:00:00-04:00Tatiana Suarez has the look of a future champion, and that future isn’t so far off
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<p id="isgQcx">People knew <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3662/tatiana-suarez">Tatiana Suarez</a> was a lot of things ahead of <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/964/ufc-228">UFC 228</a> last September. They knew she was a <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/2018/8/31/17796696/tatiana-suarezs-undefeated-record-goes-far-beyond-simple-wins-and-losses">survivor.</a> They knew she could wrestle. And they knew she was undefeated. What they didn’t know was just how good she was.</p>
<p id="Pyyfab">That changed a bit after 28-year-old Suarez put a major beatdown on <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/818/carla-esparza">Carla Esparza</a> that night in Dallas, thoroughly taking the first two rounds before finishing things in the third via a TKO. If controlling every inch of the fight didn’t open people’s eyes, her post-fight interview sure did. Even after such a dominant showing, she said she wasn’t as dominant as she could have been. She seemed mildly disappointed in herself.</p>
<p id="92iHrW">That’s the kind of competitor Suarez is.</p>
<p id="2jzzCr">“I just feel like I get better every fight, and that’s just coming from experience in the cage, getting more cage time, feeling more comfortable in there,” Suarez told MMA Fighting this week. “With the Carla Esparza fight I just felt like I started hitting her in the head really hard, and I kind of zoned out a little bit. I wasn’t picking my shots as well as I should have been. I feel like I could have hit a lot sooner. That’s what I learned from that fight, and that’s what I said in my interviews. “That I felt like I could have had a finish sooner than that and it could have been even more dominant than it was, and people thought that was cocky too. I know what I’m capable of. And I know what I do in practice, and what my coaches go over with me.” </p>
<p id="tOuPei">Cocky and confident have always been a connoisseur’s distinction, but as Suarez gets ready to return next Saturday night against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2648/nina-ansaroff">Nina Ansaroff</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1030/ufc-238">UFC 238</a>, this time people have an inkling that she’s legit. Not only is her wrestling a major problem for opposition, so is her relentlessness…and her scrambling ability…and her ground game…and her striking. Thus far Suarez has given very little indication of her weaknesses.</p>
<p id="dMrKWl">Now as a No. 2 strawweight getting set to face the No. 3 in Ansaroff, Suarez’s name isn’t just a buzzword in the industry. It’s more like a locomotive getting set to plow through whoever is left in front of her. </p>
<p id="ptN3GM">“I feel like I’ve heard a lot of buzz, especially after the last fight,” she says. “For me, I’m just focused on my next opponent. I never look past anybody. I always go into a fight thinking that they’re the best in the world, and that I’ve got to take them out, and that they’re going to try and take my head off. So, I go in with that mindset, and I think the future…when go fight by fight, that’s when I do the best. It’s really nice to hear people talking, but it’s also like, what? That’s crazy.</p>
<p id="CTkTgq">“Before I used to hear, like, ‘she’s not that good.’ And then it became, ‘oh, now I’m the Tatiana train,’ and then it went back to, ‘nah, I’m still not sold,’ and then after this last fight it was, ‘wow, I think she’s going to be the next champ.’ It’s crazy.”</p>
<p id="8ZnrJH">The timing might not get any better for Suarez to make her case for a title shot. She is fighting Ansaroff, a high-profile strawweight who has won four straight fights, on a big pay-per-view event that features five total women’s fights from top to bottom. There will be a showcase element to the proceedings. </p>
<p id="kzlrbj">Then there’s the fact that <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2360/jessica-andrade">Jessica Andrade</a> just dethroned <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2024/rose-namajunas">Rose Namajunas</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a> in Brazil, knocking “Thug” Rose out with a brutal second-round slam. With Namajunas unsure if she wants to continue fighting, Suarez — with another emphatic victory — could move into catbird’s seat to challenge Andrade next. </p>
<p id="Q5XkCb">“I loved that [Andrade-Namajunas] fight, it was so technical, it was amazing,” she says. “Rose was, in terms of her technicality, she was using her distance beautifully. She was keeping her at bay. But Andrade was doing what I expected Andrade to do, just as Rose was doing what I thought Rose would do. </p>
<p id="6nz8Gl">“I just felt like it was a matter of time before Andrade took over the fight. I just felt like she was pressuring her so much. Rose was going backwards beautifully, but I felt like the pressure was a lot on what Rose could mentally handle in terms in that fight. I though it was a matter of time, you could see the tides turning in that way. They did, just more in a crazier fashion than I expected. I just thought Andrade would start overpowering her.”</p>
<p id="fsglX1">If anybody has been keeping in proximity to a title, it’s Ansaroff, who is playing with the same set of stakes in Chicago. Her fiancée is the current bantamweight and featherweight champion <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/377/amanda-nunes">Amanda Nunes</a>, who has helped mold Ansaroff into a contender over the last couple of years. </p>
<p id="HghzA3">Suarez says she respects everything about Ansaroff, from her ability on down to her demeanor, but that it doesn’t bother her in the slightest to hit people she’s friendly with.</p>
<p id="sXKpaz">“I think she’s a great opponent,” she says. “She uses her distance really well. She’s long, she has long legs, she has a long jab. She’s a good striker. I remember watching her fight <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2943/angela-hill">Angela Hill</a> and thinking, ‘she’s a really good striker.’ And you know what, she’s worked really hard to get where she is. She beat Claudia, she got that upset, and that was really great for her career.”</p>
<p id="3Ry7g9">Suarez feels primed for the division to begin running through her, and sees her tilt with Ansaroff as the next definitive moment to get everybody on board. </p>
<p id="EwYMmC">“They were saying we want this to be a title contention fight, but you just never know with the UFC,” she says. “They can tell you one thing then another thing happens. So I’m not like thinking I have to win this to get a title fight. </p>
<p id="r5G0Be">“I want to win this just because I want to win. I’ve worked really hard, I’ve sacrificed a lot, and I want to win every fight equally the same. So, right now I’m just focusing on getting the W and putting on a dominant performance. I know I can. I know I can put on a really good performance, really dominant. I just really believe in myself. I work so hard, I know how well I do in practice, and if I do this right there’s no reason I shouldn’t win this fight. </p>
<p id="Ogr1jc">“That’s why some people take it as I’m cocky, and I’m like, ‘no, no, that’s not it at all. I just work super hard and know what I do to prepare for fights, and I do really well. I just can’t see anybody stopping it.” </p>
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https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/27/18639857/tatiana-suarez-has-the-look-of-a-future-champion-and-that-future-isnt-so-far-offChuck Mindenhall2019-05-25T10:00:00-04:002019-05-25T10:00:00-04:00Pioneer Tonya Evinger wants to crash the party in Sweden, score her first UFC victory
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<figcaption>Esther Lin, MMA Fighting</figcaption>
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<p id="cEZoBN"><a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2000/tonya-evinger">Tonya Evinger</a>’s initial tour of the UFC hasn’t exactly been a joy ride. As the reigning Invicta FC bantamweight champion transitioning over, her first task was to bulk up and face one <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/593/cris-cyborg">Cris Cyborg</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/876/ufc-214">UFC 214</a> for the featherweight title. Because she’s made of grit and burlap, Evinger gladly accepted. As so many others that went before her, she came up short, succumbing to a tough fought third-round TKO. </p>
<p id="gDcBvF">Since then it’s been a career on tumble dry. Fights booked, and fights cancelled. Once because she was injured in training camp (for her fight with <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3099/marion-reneau">Marion Reneau</a>), once because her opponent was injured in the lead-up to the fight (<a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3796/ketlen-vieira">Ketlen Vieira</a>). It all led to a battle with the 23-year-old upstart <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3173/aspen-ladd">Aspen Ladd</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/979/ufc-229">UFC 229</a>, which went south for Evinger quickly. She lost via a first-round TKO.</p>
<p id="3S49JI">Given the turbulence of her UFC start, it’s no wonder the 37-year-old Evinger is ready to erase some short-term memories. </p>
<p id="FqisNp">“It’s kind of sucked,” she told MMA Fighting this week, as she gears up for a fight with <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3799/lina-lansberg">Lina Lansberg</a> out in Stockholm, Sweden. “Having eight months between fights doesn’t pay your bills. I have a full-time job so I had to get permission for time off to even do this camp. I only got a four-week camp out of this because I have to work. And I’m away from home out in the middle of nowhere where there’s no gym, and nowhere for me to work out. Literally, I can run and that’s it. So it’s a real weird situation for me. But I was able to get off work and train for this fight, and I know how important it is for me to win this fight.</p>
<p id="1w8K0e">“I’m just going to get out there and do my best. I think last time [against Ladd] it was a little too close to my surgery. Again, here I was sitting out 14 months because the time they put off past Cyborg to the time I got injured to the time my opponent got knocked off to the time I got rescheduled. I was already kind rushing back, but what do you want me to do? I was sitting out 14 months. I need the work. I knew it was a little too soon. Hard-headed, I guess.”</p>
<p id="irOyRU">Evinger lives in Texas. Her day job is to work long, grueling days in the oil fields operating a drilling rig. It sounds like something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel, but that’s the life she leads. “After a day’s work, fuck you’re tired,” she says. When you talk to Evinger, there is zero percent chance of encountering B.S. In fact, it strikes you that she doesn’t feel a need to exaggerate. </p>
<p id="zGEcQI">But what the former collegiate wrestler loves to do is compete as often as she can, and whenever the opportunity arrives. The hardest thing for her to do is watch time tick by on the sidelines, while nursing an injury or waiting for UFC matchmakers to call. She knows her status in the fight game: She is a grinder, a tough out, a tough-nosed fighter who is going to mash your nose up. What she is definitively not? Well…for lack of a better word, entitled.</p>
<p id="PXPc3g">“It was crazy for me,” she says. “It’s not like they’re looking for a fight for me every couple of months like they do some of these girls. I know [Irene] Aldana just fought a couple of weeks ago and now she’s fighting again on July 20. Good for her, I think that’s great for the girls that are getting a lot of attention. </p>
<p id="cYNrcp">“But man, I don’t think I get that kind of attention. And I don’t get pushed that much. If I miss a fight and they’re like, ‘well we’ll just reschedule you,’ well yeah, but not for next week. You’re going to reschedule me for two months from now, if that. I don’t think I’m on the top of their minds. It’s just one of those things. I’m trying to take whatever I can get and fight as long as I can and win as many as I can.”</p>
<p id="uNaDjL">It won’t be easy against Lansberg, who will have the privilege of fighting on her native soil in Sweden. Back when she was competing on the U.S. National team, Evinger competed at various ports in Europe, and at one point was slated to do so in Sweden. That time a cartilage tear in her wrist kept her out. </p>
<p id="GRr7NC">Now that she finally gets tour Scandinavia, she knows the crowd will be all about Lansberg, and that’s fine with her.</p>
<p id="7gnH8L">“I just don’t ever real think about that,” she says. “I fought <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2292/colleen-schneider">Colleen Schneider</a> in LA, which was in her backyard I guess. I’ve done that a few times. I think Vegas, when I fought for my world championship in Invicta, was the craziest. That’s when I fought Aldana, and I swear all of Mexico came to watch her fight. The whole arena was full of people booing me. It was crazy. I was like, where are all the Americans? </p>
<p id="NVodOQ">“It wasn’t a big deal. As I beat her more and more during each round, the crowd just got more and more quiet, so it was one of those things.”</p>
<p id="mJIYbm">That’s the kind of energy leak that Evinger is hoping can happen in Stockholm. Should she beat Lansberg, it will be a milestone in a career that spans a decade-and-a-half. As a pioneer in women’s MMA, and one of the original ambassadors for keeping it going, Evinger has never won in the UFC. As crazy as that sounds, it’s true.</p>
<p id="FwzgYv">“It’s funny, I just saw a post the other day, somebody posted the pioneers of women’s MMA,” she says. “And I’m like, are you fucking kidding me? Those girls started not that many years ago. Get out of here. I was fighting back when they didn’t have women’s MMA, and it wasn’t even on the Internet, and you couldn’t even find a promotion to fight for, and there were only a handful of girls. Get out of here. I was fighting way back then, when you literally couldn’t find a fight. </p>
<p id="pbijAx">“It’s crazy to even look at my record back to when my first fight was back in 2005. I was trying to fight way before then, there just wasn’t anybody to fight and no promotions. The five other girls in the world that were fighting didn’t want to fight you because you’re a wrestler. You can be a pioneer winning just a couple of fights these days. But man, I’ve put in a lot of time, so I’m going to keep fighting until they stop paying me. That way it’ll even out.”</p>
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https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/25/18638926/fresh-off-the-oil-fields-pioneer-tonya-evinger-traveling-across-the-pond-for-first-ufc-victoryChuck Mindenhall2019-05-18T14:00:00-04:002019-05-18T14:00:00-04:00Title shot? Aspen Ladd doesn’t see anything beyond Saturday’s rematch with Sijara Eubanks
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<p id="f0I27I">Of all the buzz names in the industry ringing in people’s ears, California’s undefeated prospect <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3173/aspen-ladd">Aspen Ladd</a> is a particularly loud one. At just 24 years old, she’s already built a head of steam after coming over from Invicta FC in 2017, winning both of her UFC fights to date. Her last fight in the Octagon was an onslaught at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/979/ufc-229">UFC 229</a> against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2000/tonya-evinger">Tonya Evinger</a>, a fight she won via TKO midway through the first.</p>
<p id="TNXoDJ">Her last fight with Invicta came against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3260/sijara-eubanks">Sijara Eubanks</a>, who just happens to be her opponent Saturday night in Rochester, New York. Though Ladd won the first meeting, Eubanks is a special case. She’s the only fighter who’s forced Ladd to stick around long enough to hear the judge’s scorecards. Everyone else that has crossed Ladd has fallen well inside the allotted 15 minutes.</p>
<p id="LzTFo1">“I feel like I’m getting better every fight, because I never leave the gym,” Ladd told MMA Fighting this week from upstate New York. “I’m always there. I’m always training regardless of opponent, regardless if I have a fight. So I have improved quite a bit over time, and getting older and learning more. I’m improved.”</p>
<p id="cKWgOA">Nothing illustrated just how far Ladd has come in short time quite like her last bout with Evinger. Coming off a featherweight title shot against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/593/cris-cyborg">Cris Cyborg</a>, Evinger was the more seasoned fighter, and was considered by some to be the hungrier of the two. It was either going to be an education for Ladd, or a coming out party.</p>
<p id="Sg69N4">It turned out to be the latter.</p>
<p id="ndbzGs">“It was exactly how we planned it going in,” Ladd says. “As far as her being hungry, I think everybody — or not necessarily everybody — but we’re all [hungry] and we all want the same thing. We all want to win, we all want to go in and beat the opponent. That night I just did, and she didn’t.”</p>
<p id="VfAR6v">What stood out was the ferocity in which Ladd took control. Once she was able to get the 37-year-old Evinger on her back early in the first round, she began to unleash a series of increasingly more menacing punches and elbows. With each blow that she rained down, she screamed out, making it one of the more primal ending sequences of the year.</p>
<p id="lfoLtD">Usually a mild-mannered, almost shy fighter, it was as if a switch went off that activated the beast.</p>
<p id="PBEp3U">“It’s not a switch necessarily, it’s just an extreme focus,” she says. “You feel nerves up until you’re actually fighting, then there’s nothing. But I have one goal when I’m in there and that’s to get the opponent out as fast as I possibly can.”</p>
<p id="VwPG9r">In Eubanks, she’ll be facing a big bantamweight who has been on a bit of a warpath herself. “Sarj” has won both her fights in the UFC after losing the decision to Ladd, her most recent victory coming against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/581/roxanne-modafferi">Roxanne Modafferi</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/980/ufc-230">UFC 230</a>. Had Eubanks made weight, she was among the forerunners to face <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3494/valentina-shevchenko">Valentina Shevchenko</a> for the women’s flyweight title.</p>
<p id="DmZMJg">Ladd says that seeing Eubanks again some two-and-a-half years removed from the last bout — back when she was just 21 years old — helps out a little bit. But, other than perhaps seeing some improvements in Eubanks’ striking, there’s really not a lot of parallels to draw from the first fight.</p>
<p id="mMRB4l">“There’s a little bit more familiarity with this opponent,” she says. “I’ve seen her, I’ve faced off with her, all that, but it doesn’t help in the extent of the fight, per se. Just because it’s been so long — it’s been a couple of years — and we’ve both changed as far as how we fight and with who we are as a fighter. It doesn’t help as much as people think.”</p>
<p id="xoD6GI">If there’s been anything more impressive about Ladd than her total dominance thus far in the cage, it’s her attitude. She is a tireless worker who obsesses over getting better. She knows she has tremendous upside, but she’s okay letting herself realize her own potential in an organic way. She doesn’t want to be expedited towards a title shot.</p>
<p id="fEoI63">In fact, she’d rather stay active than contemplate hypotheticals.</p>
<p id="JALaj0">“I’ve only fought a few of the women in the bantamweight division,” she says. “I’m just here for the experience, and to fight as many people as I possibly can.”</p>
<p id="MK9fsh">Asked where she would like to be at the end of 2019, if she’s able to look at the big picture and make such a projection, she shuts down that line of thinking automatically. Even at 24 years old, she has already learned to take nothing for granted — and to never look past an opponent.</p>
<p id="6zbKfz">“As far as I consider everything, my world ends on Saturday night,” she says. “That’s it. I don’t see anything beyond that, nothing beyond that goal. Afterwards, we’ll see.”</p>
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/18/18626766/title-shot-aspen-ladd-doesnt-see-anything-beyond-saturdays-rematch-with-sijara-eubanksChuck Mindenhall2019-05-18T13:00:00-04:002019-05-18T13:00:00-04:00Heading into his trilogy fight with Charles Oliveira, Nik Lentz is far more comfortable in his own skin
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<p id="qjo8le">For reasons that remain mysterious to everyone including those involved, <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/175/charles-oliveira">Charles Oliveira</a> and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/69/nik-lentz">Nik Lentz</a> are fighting a third time on Saturday night in Rochester, New York. The first fight between the two happened nearly nine years ago, ending in a “no contest” due to an illegal knee landed by the Brazilian, Oliveira, thus rendering his submission that night moot. They ran it back four years later at featherweight and Oliveira — for all intents and purposes — squared any lingering debt by tapping Lentz out in the third round.</p>
<p id="NFCldJ">Series over, right? Wrong.</p>
<p id="NVf8MU">“A lot of people don’t understand the fight, and I don’t actually understand the matchmaking all that well myself,” Lentz told MMA Fighting this week. “But after the fight happens a lot of people will understand it was a great fight to make. I’m going to get him.” </p>
<p id="HnYQSG">If anything, it’s two reinvigorated fighters colliding in upstate New York, regardless of the backstory. Oliveira — who has long since become the all-time submission leader in UFC history — has won four straight fights, all coming via finishes. Lentz, too, has been riding a recent surge. He is coming off of back-to-back victories over <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/70/gray-maynard">Gray Maynard</a> (TKO) and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3287/scott-holtzman">Scott Holtzman</a> (decision), the latter of which got him some recognition after airing on ESPN.</p>
<p id="K9OfhK">Strictly speaking, they are the exact same players, and Lentz is expecting a very similar version of Oliveira that he’s encountered at four-year intervals.</p>
<p id="83wd3V">“He’s a little less chaotic, but as far as technique he’s basically the same fighter he’s always been,” Lentz says. “One of the things that throws people off about Charles and threw me off originally, is he’s a tall, skinny-looking guy. But really he’s extremely athletic, and super strong, and he hits really hard, and it throws you off a little bit.</p>
<p id="IoXOwC">“That’s how he ends up getting so many submissions. It’s because you can see a guy fighting him thinking, ‘oh, I’m going to get him,’ and he grabs them, and it’s like, holy shit, the guy doesn’t have a muscle in his body but he’s super strong!”</p>
<p id="mfecva">Non-strictly speaking, the subtext is this fight is happening at <em>lightweight</em>, a significant detail when tracing back the rivalry to its origins. The last time Oliveira and Lentz fought was in 2015 at a show in Goiânia, Brazil, which ended with Oliveira sinking a guillotine. It was contested at 145 pounds. Oliveira has had a very well documented struggle with making the weight as a feather, but it was equally brutal for Lentz.</p>
<p id="pv45jQ">“The Carny” says it was actually that second Oliveira fight — the last he ever had at 145 — that became an eye-opener for him in the moment, and ultimately played out as career-saving revelation.</p>
<p id="agc6Ql">“The last fight was the fight that woke me up to being like, oh my God, this is miserable,” Lentz says. “I cut so much weight. <em>Anybody</em> could have beat me that night. My wife could have kicked my ass that night. I was tired just walking to the cage because I’d cut so much weight. I don’t really put too much on the loss. I learned a lot from it, but as far as a rivalry with Charles? I’ve lost to a lot of people in my career. The person means nothing to me.”</p>
<p id="gmZpOE">The memory of the last encounter reads like an existential dialogue a fighter might have with himself during a sleepless night.</p>
<p id="RPz9Ai">“I thought about actually not going to Brazil, but during the fight [Oliveira] kneed me in the stomach — he caught me with a big knee — and I was looking up at the lights, and he was raining down elbows on me and the thought kept coming through my head, ‘is this really worth it?’” he says. “And then an elbow hit me in the face, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore.’ Then another elbow, and I thought, ‘I can quit right now and be done with fighting altogether.’</p>
<p id="cFuFN1">“And then he hit me again, and I thought, ‘no Nik, you’ve got to keep it together,’ and I kept fighting from there.”</p>
<p id="WQ0LC4">Through 22 UFC fights on three different continents, Lentz has never had to dig deeper than he did that night. Though he lost to Oliveira, he ended up turning the bout into a Fight of the Night, which was a hell of a turnaround for a guy who barely had enough energy just to show up. Still, the misery of that situation became a meaningful epiphany.</p>
<p id="IJZCrv">Lentz decided to move back to lightweight, where he’s since gone 5-2 and is on the verge of his first three-fight winning streak since 2013. Along the way he has become a father — now with a three-year-old, and an 11-month old — and far more comfortable in his own skin. His marriage, which suffered through the misery of him cutting weight and maintaining a strict disciplinary diet, is now happier than it’s ever been.</p>
<p id="ibslA0">And he says, understanding how cliché it might sound, that he’s in the best shape of his life. When he says it he means from a perspective of mental health, as much as physical.</p>
<p id="d4BP4Y">“I’m much more confident, I’m much more relaxed,” he says. “Originally when I got into this shit, I was a tough kid but I wasn’t ready for the cameras. I wasn’t ready for that kind of life, I wasn’t ready for people judging me all the time. I wasn’t ready for any of that. That used to weigh on me, but that’s gone.”</p>
<p id="qnuYAG">“I worked so hard, and I trained so hard, and the thing that was missing was…that I made it the No. 1 priority in my life. Everything revolved around fighting, my diet, what I did, it just engulfed my life. When I had the kids it kind of put things in perspective. I was like, what am I doing? </p>
<p id="5hhjPa">“Now everything feels right, physically, mentally. I train less, I do less, but my athleticism, my conditioning, my technique, it all went through the roof. It’s crazy. It’s like I stopped and chilled, I saw the world for what it was and realized I was missing out. The only thing is I have to get used to is that I’m significantly less nervous, which feels a little weird during fight week and stuff.”</p>
<p id="f8RBES">The older, wiser Lentz — the sturdy veteran, who at 34 years old knows he has more fights in the rear-view mirror than in front of him — has also shed some delusions in the last few years.</p>
<p id="9R1J6r">“I learned on my path to ‘45 that being a good fighter isn’t enough to get you a title,” he says. “I learned that early in my career, and that was kind of a devastating thing for me. I had done a lot of the things that I thought were right, and it got me nowhere. I started to learn that the champs aren’t always the best fighters, and that if you’re ranked No. 5, you’re probably not better than whoever is ranked No. 10. A lot of those things threw me for a loop when I was younger.”</p>
<p id="6DYlDQ">So maybe a trilogy fight with Oliveira doesn’t make the most sense in the world, but for Lentz it’s all good. He’s enjoying the ride more than he ever has before, and he’s not holding his fists as tight as he did when he debuted at UFC 103 a decade ago. Is he motivated by title shots? That wouldn’t hurt, but the journey is the key thing.</p>
<p id="fwES55">“Now it’s just putting together the wins and seeing where it takes me,” he says. “I’m definitely capable of beating anybody in the world. I have many more years of fighting left, even if there are obviously more behind me that in front of me. But I’ve got a long way to go and I’ve never felt better.</p>
<p id="peupLW">“I know a lot of fighters say that, saying at 34 you can’t feel better. But clearly if you look at how I’ve been fighting, and how I react, and how I am on camera, and how I am on fight night, you can see it. I am a better athlete, I am a better person. Everything is better.”</p>
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/18/18624854/heading-into-his-trilogy-fight-with-charles-oliveira-nik-lentz-is-more-comfortable-in-his-own-skinChuck Mindenhall2019-05-14T14:00:00-04:002019-05-14T14:00:00-04:00Frankie Edgar ‘giddy’ to get next title shot , says Alexander Volkanovski’s time will come
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<img alt="TUF 22 Finale Photos" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4dp8n9VBuYpie3MyCrgQXBU3Fuc=/0x0:1920x1280/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63833825/089_Frankie_Edgar_vs_Chad_Mendes.0.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Frankie Edgar</figcaption>
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<p id="zCLc29">One of the dangers of accepting late replacement fights is that a loss looks like a loss in the scrolling Wikipedia sense. Yet <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/60/frankie-edgar">Frankie Edgar</a>’s loss against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2838/brian-ortega">Brian Ortega</a> back at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/930/ufc-222-holloway-edgar">UFC 222</a> could easily support an asterisk. He was supposed to fight <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/1541/max-holloway">Max Holloway</a> in Las Vegas, and — when Holloway went down with an injury — opted to stay on the card and face the next best comer. That happened to be the young gun Ortega.</p>
<p id="CUWuZE">Edgar lost the bout via first-round knockout, but helped save an event.</p>
<p id="UzwUcD">That’s why Edgar — who bounced back to beat <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/236/cub-swanson">Cub Swanson</a> in April — wasn’t overly stressing when <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4234/alexander-volkanovski">Alexander Volkanovski</a> ran his win streak to 17 straight with his victory over <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/7/jose-aldo">Jose Aldo</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a> this past weekend. Volkanovski had screaming credentials and the hysteria of the moment, but Edgar had circumstances and a legacy of doing right by the UFC.</p>
<p id="xTCIH1">“I felt I was [next for Holloway] just based on the conversations I’ve had with the UFC and whatnot, but you never know,” Edgar told MMA Fighting on Tuesday, just a day after news broke that Edgar and Holloway would fight at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1050/ufc-240">UFC 240</a> in Edmonton, Alberta, on July 27.</p>
<p id="qzRnE9">“I’ve been told I was having shots before and haven’t got them. Of course I really wasn’t holding my breath, I wanted to make sure I got bout agreement and then I knew it’s real.”</p>
<p id="rVUCHk">For Edgar, this will be the third time he and Holloway will attempt to square off. They were first slated to fight at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/908/ufc-218">UFC 218</a> in Toronto, yet that time Edgar was forced to withdraw with an injury. Holloway ended up rematching Jose Aldo, whom he’d taken the title from six months earlier at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/872/ufc-212">UFC 212</a>.</p>
<p id="oCb0X0">They were then booked to fight at UFC 222, and this time it was Holloway that went down. The two have been in each other’s crosshairs for more than a year, and somehow keep swerving off of each other. That’s why for Edgar he’s hoping the third time’s the charm.</p>
<p id="tW4lFU">“Every time I get ready for [Holloway] I feel like I’m getting ready for a better version,” he says. “He continually gets better, and he’s represented our weight class tremendously. He’s considered the best featherweight of all time, so these are the positions I want to keep putting myself in. I want to keep challenging myself. If I want to take the belt, I want to take the belt from the best featherweight ever. This is my opportunity.</p>
<p id="f2zE7b">“Remember, nine years ago I was fighting for a belt that nobody thought I could win against the best lightweight of all time, so for me this is fitting.”</p>
<p id="0GMog3">Nine years ago is when Edgar was booked as a massive underdog to challenge <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/73/b-j-penn">B.J. Penn</a> at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. Not many people gave Edgar a chance to upend the consensus lightweight GOAT, but he managed to score a unanimous decision and solidify his name as a champion.</p>
<p id="qu9zju">Since losing his title at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/391/ufc-144-edgar-vs-henderson">UFC 144</a> against Benson Henderson, Edgar has been on a warpath to win it back. He has been booked into three subsequent title fights — the rematch with Henderson at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/431/ufc-150-henderson-vs-edgar-ii">UFC 150</a>, and then two fights with featherweight king Jose Aldo — yet has come up short in each. The title has proven an elusive goal for Edgar, who is now 37 years old. Still, over the last 10 fights he has gone 8-2, including the late shake-up fight with Ortega. </p>
<p id="LwwJDa">That kind of road should lead to somewhere, and Edgar is all smiles that it led — finally — to a long-coveted fight with the Hawaiian, Holloway.</p>
<p id="k0ahxm">“We’re still over 10 weeks away from the fight, and I’m giddy today,” he says. “I woke up and went to train, I’ve got a smile on my face and I’m pumped that I got this opportunity. But it is still so far away, and I’ve been here before. So I got to make sure we get to the fight, get to the venue and make it happen.</p>
<p id="7OdCiE">“But ten weeks this upcoming Saturday, that’ll be the perfect time. I’ve been training. I was hurt for a while, the past month-and-a-half, I’ve been finally back in the gym able to do stuff. So it is perfect timing. I feel like I’m in shape to get in shape right now.”</p>
<p id="lH8Cio">The injury that Edgar suffered — a torn bicep that forced him out of a fight with Chan Sung Jung this past November — is finally healed entirely. “It took forever, but it’s 100 percent,” he says. Now the goal is to stay healthy for his much-anticipated scrap with Holloway in Alberta, a fight that he believes he has more earned through course of action. </p>
<p id="3D5ugS">As for Volkanovski, who was hospitalized with a blood infection on Sunday? He hopes he gets well soon, and that he can wait it out. </p>
<p id="wbwW6X">“I think it should matter,” he says of his resume. “You hear Dana [White] and UFC brass, they like people that step up, they like guys that are willing to put it all on the line, and I think my whole career I’ve done that. And I think that’s why I got rewarded.</p>
<p id="jL9amZ">“I think so, based on my past history with the UFC, and then the landscape of the way went down with me and Holloway, I think it just makes sense. I don’t want to take anything away from Alex, he’s a stud fighter. He’s won a bunch of fights in a row. He’s going to get his time. I was him not too long ago, and he’s going to get his time. I know he’s probably a little upset, because I’ve been there before. But his time will come.” </p>
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https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/14/18623421/frankie-edgar-giddy-to-get-next-title-shot-says-alexander-volkanovskis-time-will-comeChuck Mindenhall2019-05-12T12:00:00-04:002019-05-12T12:00:00-04:00For Rose Namajunas, the slam that ended UFC 237 busted open a pile of reservations
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<img alt="MMA: UFC 237- Namajunas vs Andrade" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fFTksUTmkPNDOe7l5lib-By5JwQ=/0x0:2400x1600/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63819849/usa_today_12691793.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="zgIKtt">Any degenerate can tell you the surest way to analyze a fighter is to gamble on them, because nothing identifies holes in a fighter’s game quite like losing money. For that reason — and perhaps that reason alone — <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2024/rose-namajunas">Rose Namajunas</a> was the sharp’s choice on Saturday night for strawweight title defense against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2360/jessica-andrade">Jessica Andrade</a>. On paper, she was the superior fighter. It was always her fight to lose.</p>
<p id="NC3zQa">Yet Namajunas came into <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a>’s main event as a slight underdog, a handicap created perhaps more of emotional matter than technical. She was heading to Brazil, where Andrade would have the partisan crowd, because she challenges herself by defying convention. If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that Namajunas doesn’t mind confounding her public. She’s motivated by karmic rhythms and the pull of The Greater Good, sideline properties that — as a champion — can be filed away in the sport’s mind as “new wrinkles.” </p>
<p id="4Oq6fa">And besides, she wanted to depressurize the situation in her own unique way — to put it all on Andrade to perform, and leave herself with the most simplified task possible: That is, to get in, kick ass, get out. She wanted to momentarily take the weight off the title as she carried it back to Colorado, or leave the damn thing there for good.</p>
<p id="D9RNfE">Through the first round-and-a-half Saturday night, she was putting on a clinic. She was snapping the jab off of Andrade’s face, and every time Andrade would wince in anticipation of <em>that </em>she would punctuate with straight right hands. Everything was landing crisply and intently, the kind of striking display that, through spectator astonishment, quickly becomes art. Andrade began bleeding immediately. The commentators, <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/328/dominick-cruz">Dominick Cruz</a>, <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/373/daniel-cormier">Daniel Cormier</a> and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2258/jon-anik">Jon Anik</a>, were warning that Andrade couldn’t withstand that kind of abuse for five rounds. She wouldn’t even make it through a couple of rounds at the rate she was absorbing Namajunas’s strikes. </p>
<p id="fmmZkc">Even as Andrade picked Namajunas up and hoisted her to the heavens for a slam, Namajunas was fishing for the Kimura from the broadside of her shoulders. When Andrade followed through with that slam a couple of sequences later, she was fending off an armbar attempt once they hit the ground, proving all routes to victory were pretty much shut down or closed. Everywhere Namajunas was presenting crises for the challenger. </p>
<p id="ssRbEy">“Thug” Rose an underdog? It was like the old cliché: Taking candy from a baby. </p>
<p id="BXCWjK">Then it happened. Midway through the second round, Andrade heaved Namajunas up yet again, and this time slammed her headfirst into the canvas. Namajunas didn’t bounce back up. Namajunas didn’t really move at all. She was out. Next thing you know Andrade was sitting on top of the fence, basking in the hysteria of her masses, signaling for a belt around her waist. All fortunes can change just that fast in the fight game. And what gives gambling its libido is that it commonly does; nothing burns a deposit slip quicker than a flash knockout.</p>
<p id="jMsg7R">Afterwards, in her post-fight interviews, Namajunas validated some of the instinctual reservations people had about the fight. Namely that she was already contemplating the exits from the fight game, because the weight of the title was a little overwhelming.</p>
<p id="HNXAab">“It’s just a huge pressure, you always got to obsess about everything,” she told TSN. “I think what it is, is prior to becoming a champ you put a lot of importance on getting the belt and all that stuff. It is important, but it’s only kind of financially important. Really, at the end of the day, it’s all about facing your fears, and to me, I realized once I’ve become a champ and defending the belt, having the belt itself is.</p>
<p id="7CJjDR">“It’s cool, but it doesn’t mean as much as I think people put meaning on it. It’s just a materialistic thing that ends up controlling your life, and really, it’s like…I went out there and had fun and I challenged myself. I have some many other things to look forward to. It’s just a part of me and it’s an accomplishment. Maybe I’ll get it again, maybe I won’t. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll never do this again. We’ll see.”</p>
<p id="5Idtx3">Not exactly the fodder for a rematch. And not exactly the mindset of hungry fighter. A couple of weeks back <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/117/rory-macdonald">Rory MacDonald</a> had a similar revelation after fighting <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/109/jon-fitch">Jon Fitch</a> to a majority draw in the welterweight grand prix. He said he’d have to reassess the situation to see if he still had it in him to keep fighting. Within 48 hours, he determined that he did. But in those 48 hours fans were left to marinate in his confession, to contemplate the hard reality that some fighters just lose their stomach for it. </p>
<p id="UF4FHF">The 26-year-old Namajunas, who has contended all along that there is a happy life outside of fighting waiting on her once she’s financially solvent, was just confirming the fight game’s intuition. There’s more to her. Everybody who’s watched her knows that. As a young fighter, she may find it in herself to want to keep going, and that wouldn’t be surprising. Nor would it be surprising if she faces Andrade again down the line, and exacts some revenge. </p>
<p id="QrcLh7">She was winning the fight handily up until the moment she lost, therefore giving a rematch more than enough justification to happen. Will it? It’s up to Namajunas to figure out, but if you heard how deeply she exhaled after lugging that title around for the last year, I wouldn’t bet on it. </p>
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/12/18616625/for-rose-namajunas-the-slam-that-ended-ufc-237-busted-open-a-pile-of-reservationsChuck Mindenhall2019-05-12T01:31:27-04:002019-05-12T01:31:27-04:00UFC 237 bonuses: Jessica Andrade nets a pair after championship win
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<img alt="MMA: UFC 237- Namajunas vs Andrade" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1aTJAsLnPTn5AqQVmuoBNSv4_-M=/0x0:2400x1600/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63819224/usa_today_12691682.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Jessica Andrade | Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p id="6tVWY0">It wasn’t the greatest night for Brazilians fighting at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a> in Rio — or at least not until the end.</p>
<p id="mGOnye">After former champions <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/101/anderson-silva">Anderson Silva</a> and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/7/jose-aldo">Jose Aldo</a> fell on the main card against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3047/jared-cannonier">Jared Cannonier</a> and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4234/alexander-volkanovski">Alexander Volkanovski</a> respectively, it looked as though <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2360/jessica-andrade">Jessica Andrade</a> was well on her way to following suit. Yet when she scored a dramatic second-round slam knockout of <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2024/rose-namajunas">Rose Namajunas</a>, her fortunes changed in a hurry.</p>
<p id="UaWwfD">And so did her pocket book.</p>
<p id="Wo2Cxb">Andrade was awarded two different bonuses for her table-turning theatrics on Saturday night, one for Performance of the Night, and one for Fight of the Night honors. She received the standard $50,000 for each.</p>
<p id="VF1Xin">Meanwhile Namajunas took home the other half of the FOTN bonus, and <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2897/warlley-alves">Warlley Alves</a> — who scored a third-round KO of <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/1673/sergio-moraes">Sergio Moraes</a> during the preliminaries — received the other POTN.</p>
<p id="KuyiHI">The event, which was held at Rio de Janeiro’s Jeunesse Arena, had an announced live gate of 15,193 paid through the door.</p>
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/12/18616423/ufc-237-bonuses-jessica-andrade-nets-a-pair-after-championship-winChuck Mindenhall2019-05-12T00:53:49-04:002019-05-12T00:53:49-04:00Jessica Andrade knocks Rose Namajunas out with vicious slam to take women’s strawweight title
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<img alt="UFC 237: Namajunas v Andrade" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/91hNw58Yw8UFQxDbe4fD6Q6HCrQ=/0x0:3200x2133/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63819175/1143153711.jpg.5.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p id="nOg4PR"><a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2024/rose-namajunas">Rose Namajunas</a> came out in the <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a>’s main event fast, mean and on point — just like you’d expect from a world champion. In the second round, she ended up unconscious on the ground as the city of Rio howled in celebration.</p>
<p id="RYWiqG">Brazil’s own <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2360/jessica-andrade">Jessica Andrade</a> weathered the early storm before dealing the death blow midway through the second round. More directly, she landed a slam that knocked Namajunas out cold. The end came at the 2:58 mark of the second round, in a fight that Namajunas had thoroughly dominated up until that point.</p>
<p id="bgGKuK">“I was very certain of what I had to do in that second round,” Andrade said in the post-fight interview. “You know, I never thrown that move, I’d never pile-drived in the UFC. That’s my nickname, so I’m very happy to do that. I noticed she was slowing down, and I wanted to be able to knock her out. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone, too.”</p>
<p id="Oy5iNh">Namajunas, who last fought more than a year ago at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/935/ufc-223">UFC 223</a>, came out guns blazing, landing at will left jabs and straight rights early and opening up a cut on Andrade’s left eye. The action heated up as Andrade lifted Namajunas and slammed Namajunas down late in the round, but during that sequence she ended up fighting out of an armbar attempt once on the ground.</p>
<p id="FdChvy">Late in the first, Namajunas landed a big shot that sent Andrade reeling, though the Brazilian was able to survive. </p>
<p id="oVUWj1">The 26-year old Namajunas said in her own interview that losing the belt was a “huge pressure off [her] shoulders.” She falls to 8-4 overall, and 2-2 in title fights. </p>
<p id="up8CnM">Andrade, 27, who has won four straight bouts, moves to 20-6. </p>
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https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/12/18616399/ufc-237-results-jessica-andrade-knocks-out-rose-namajunas-with-vicious-slam-take-strawweight-titleChuck Mindenhall2019-05-12T00:18:39-04:002019-05-12T00:18:39-04:00UFC 237 results: Jared Cannonier scores early TKO victory over injured Anderson Silva
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<img alt="Jared Cannonier" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-mpOl3y1ChoKLQy3Oxkl7ITg7aw=/0x0:1920x1280/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63819110/013_Jared_Cannonier.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Esther Lin, MMA Fighting</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="VSdGXG"><a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a> wasn’t a glorious homecoming for <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/101/anderson-silva">Anderson Silva</a>. In fact, it was a painful exercise in futility.</p>
<p id="kgZOYB">Silva succumbed to a first-round TKO in his fight with <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/3047/jared-cannonier">Jared Cannonier</a>, and it was shade of <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/566/ufc-168-weidman-vs-silva">UFC 168</a> all over again. Cannonier landed a hard leg kick that buckled Silva’s knee, and effectively rendering him unable to continue.</p>
<p id="ElUejv">Silva writhed in pain the ground after receiving the kick, unable to put any weight on the knee, as referee Herb Dean came into stop the contest at 4:47 of round one. </p>
<p id="amzDqy">Afterwards, Cannonier (12-4) spent a long few moments basking in the boos that rained down on him in Rio, before paying respects the legend he just vanquished. And also giving the Brazilian fans a bit of their own medicine.</p>
<p id="rT9Ix4">“I appreciate the opportunity to step in here,” he told <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/2258/jon-anik">Jon Anik</a> in the post-fight interview. “[Silva] didn’t have to fight me, he could have fought anybody he wanted to and he accepted a fight with me. So I want to show my appreciate and my respect for him. </p>
<p id="vBBqhv">“But the crowd is a different story. They don’t respect me, so I ain’t got no respect for them.”</p>
<p id="nFAigz">With the loss, the 44-year old Silva drops to 35-10-(1). He has now gone just 1-6-(1) in his last eight fights, including the loss in the rematch against <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/352/chris-weidman">Chris Weidman</a> in which he fractured his leg. </p>
<p id="3yBSOR">Cannonier has now won back-to-back fights, having defeated <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/310/dave-branch">David Branch</a> at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/980/ufc-230">UFC 230</a> last November. </p>
https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/12/18616375/ufc-237-results-jared-cannonier-scores-early-tko-victory-over-injured-anderson-silvaChuck Mindenhall2019-05-11T23:58:10-04:002019-05-11T23:58:10-04:00UFC 237 results: Alexander Volkanovski spoils party in Brazil, outpoints Jose Aldo
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AqeH8fOiy-bBU_2GG2XA8biDMwg=/0x0:1920x1280/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63819062/067_Chad_Mendes_x_Alexander_Volkanovski.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Esther Lin, MMA Fighting</figcaption>
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<p id="hA3HVE">He wanted to play the spoiler at UFC 237 in Brazil, and that’s exactly what <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/4234/alexander-volkanovski">Alexander Volkanovski</a> did on Saturday night against former featherweight champion <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fighter/7/jose-aldo">Jose Aldo</a>.</p>
<p id="D1kesf">Volkanovski outpointed Aldo through three tactical — at times dominant — rounds at <a href="https://www.mmafighting.com/fight-card/1027/ufc-237">UFC 237</a>, scoring a resounding unanimous decision. The final tally was 30-27’s across the board for Volkanovski, who has now gone a perfect 7-0 in the UFC. He has won 17 fights in a row overall.</p>
<p id="fyiu1V">The 30-year-old Australian — who at one time was a professional rugby player — used the initial couple of minutes to get Aldo’s timing down, and then began to dictate the pace and tempo of the fight. He handily won the first and second rounds, and then glided through the third using his speed and striking. </p>
<p id="ooCpJw">“I wanted to land punches, that’s why I was standing and trading a long time,” he said. “Hey, I just wanted to say thanks Brazil for the experience. I’m sorry it wasn’t the fight you wanted. Aldo, nothing but respect, you’re a legend. Thank you for that.”</p>
<p id="jTw9b2">With the fight being deemed a possible No. 1 contender bout in the UFC’ s featherweight division, Volkanovski also made it clear he thinks he’s next in line for a title shot.</p>
<p id="2FBR6Z">“And now let’s get down to business. I’m next in line 100 percent. I’m undefeated in the top three now, I should be ranked No. 1. Let’s set it up. I wouldn’t mind being on the same card in Australia. That would be a cracker of a card, let’s make it happen.” </p>
<p id="8KOv9G">With the loss, the 32-year-old Aldo falls to 28-5. The loss snaps a two-fight winning streak. </p>
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https://www.mmafighting.com/2019/5/11/18616245/ufc-237-results-alexander-volkanovski-spoils-party-in-brazil-outpoints-jose-aldoChuck Mindenhall