— It may not have looked like it on TV, but 1,857 UFC fans filed into The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas last night to watch the TUF 13 Finale. Live gate receipts totaled $429,000.
— Kyle Kingsbury and Fabio Maldonado were awarded $40,000 bonus checks for beating the crap out of each other for 15 minutes. TUF 13 champion Tony Ferguson picked up an extra $40,000 for knocking out Ramsey Nijem and Reuben Duran was awarded the sub bonus for choking out Francisco Rivera.
— In a perfect world, Anthony Pettis would have knocked out Frankie Edgar (or Gray Maynard) last weekend with a 360° flipping somersault kick off the ref and hitched a ride on the same war wagon to super stardom that Jon Jones is currently driving. But in the real world, sh*t happens and after an unlikely five-round draw between Edgar and Maynard, Pettis took a fight with a fighter fully equipped to neutralize his flashy, yet effective striking style. As a result, Pettis’ title shot eluded him once again despite a spirited effort to finish the fight off his back. It’s certainly disappointing, but Pettis seems to be taking the setback in stride.
“I feel I had some holes in my game, and Clay Guida and (Guida’s trainer) Greg Jackson did a great job of having a good gameplan. I’ve got to go back to the drawing board and get better there.”Just because Anthony Pettis lost his title shot though, doesn’t mean Clay Guida secured one despite a strong lobbying effort for it in his post-fight interview. Dana White informed MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani after the show that Jim Miller is still above Guida on the lightweight ladder.
“I think I knew control-wise, he was on top, and he did a good job staying on top,” he told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I couldn’t get my submissions off. I attempted a lot. I hit him a lot. I just understand how the game works. If he controls you, you lose the round. I didn’t do enough to get up off my back, so big up to Clay.”
“I’m going to work on it and come back stronger,” he said.
White told MMA Fighting on Saturday that Jim Miller “is still ahead of [Guida]” in the organization’s lightweight rankings despite Guida’s win on Saturday night.The news shouldn’t come as a shock to Guida though. At the post-fight press conference, Guida acknowledged that Miller could be the frontrunner now, but that didn’t stop him from trying to convince the media that he has the fighting style to win a championship.
“Wrestling wins championships,” Guida told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Look at most of the champs right now, and some of the people that have a hard time. Anderson Silva is one of my favorite fighters, and you’ve seen that he has trouble with good wrestlers like Chael Sonnen.You know what else wins championships? Knockouts and submissions. I’d much rather see one of those than a unanimous decision via smothering. I’m getting tired of those.
“Cain Velasquez is one of the best wrestlers out there. Georges St-Pierre is a phenom. He’s one of those athletes that comes around once every 100 years. The guy could probably go wrestle in the Olympics. You saw he used to struggle with wrestling. Now he’s a master of it. Jose Aldo has a couple of holes in his game. We saw besides maybe his gas tank, it could be wrestling. Mark Hominick is not a great wrestler, and he was taking him down.
“There’s no secret anymore. Wrestling wins championships.”
— Tony Ferguson was crowned season 13′s TUF champ last night with a thrilling knockout over Ramsey Nijem. Like many former TUF champs, Ferguson may switch weight classes, but while he’s still a welterweight, he wants to fight TUF 7 champ Amir Sadollah.
“It depends on where everybody wants me to fight,” Ferguson said. “If Dana wants me to fight (at lightweight), I fought David Gardener at 155 pounds. I did really good. I’m a big 155-pounder, but I like 170 pounds. I wrestled in college at 165 pounds. I bumped up to 184 pounds for my team, but I’m comfortable where I’m at right now.Sadollah is already signed to fight Duane “Bang” Ludwig at UFC on Versus 5, so Ferguson will probably have to settle for someone else, but at least he’s already getting the hang of calling out guys that can advance his career.
“I like food. I like eating, and I like lifting. My girl likes me a lot better at 170 pounds. I’m kind of crabby at 155 pounds. I can definitely see myself going lightweight, but I love welterweight.”
“I saw Amir Sadollah over there, and I knew that he was a pretty big guy that was from ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’” Ferguson said. “I think that would be a pretty good little start right there.”
