Matches to Make After UFC 143; Pacquiao takes on Bradley; Peterson and Khan Rematch Set
Matches to Make After UFC 143
By Brian Knapp
Brian writes for the superb mma website www.sherdog.com
In October, Ultimate Fighting Championship officials told Carlos Condit to step aside for Nick Diaz. Four months later, he answered with his feet, fists, elbows, knees and, most importantly, his mind.
The “Natural Born Killer” engaged in a fascinating cat-and-mouse game with one of MMA’s fiercest fighters on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, as he walked away from the UFC 143 headliner against Diaz with a unanimous decision in his back pocket and the interim welterweight championship around his waist.
Rewarding the execution of a masterful game plan, all three judges ruled in Condit’s favor, two of them giving him four of the five rounds. According to FightMetric.com figures, he outlanded Diaz 159-117 in total strikes and 151-105 in terms of significant strikes. Though he spent much of the 25-minute battle moving backwards, Condit was the more active fighter, as well, throwing 74 more strikes than Diaz.
The win, Condit’s 13th in his past 14 fights, sets up a unification bout with longtime welterweight king and Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts stablemate Georges St. Pierre, once he recovers from reconstructive knee surgery. The two men figure to lock horns sometime later this year.
In wake of UFC 143 “Diaz vs. Condit,” here are six other matches we want to see made:
Nick Diaz vs. Jon Fitch: In the immediate aftermath of his first defeat since November 2007, Diaz sounded like a man fully prepared to leave the cage for the last time. One has to wonder whether or not that feeling will remain once frustration wears off. Still only 28, Diaz has plenty left in the tank physically and would be entering his prime years with much to prove and sufficient motivation. Should Diaz reverse course on retirement, a showdown with Fitch might provide him with the quickest route back to title contention. If not, MMA has lost one of its preeminent competitors.
Werdum put a beating on Nelson.Fabricio Werdum vs. Frank Mir: Quite simply, Werdum has never looked better. The two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist throttled the rugged Roy Nelson from the Thai plum, landing one crushing knee after another to his opponent’s face. Werdum’s punches and kicks often found their marks, too, and kept “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 10 winner on the defensive. Werdum has rattled of four wins in five outings, including victories over Antonio Silva and the incomparable Fedor Emelianenko. Still widely regarded as one of the premier heavyweight grapplers on the planet, the 34-year-old Brazilian has put himself in prime position to secure more meaningful fights. Mir, anyone?
Roy Nelson vs. Shane Carwin: No one will ever question Nelson’s resolve. The slimmed-down 35-year-old absorbed a horrendous beating from Werdum in the co-main event, losing a one-sided unanimous decision. Nelson had no answer for the Brazilian in the clinch, as Werdum tipped the spear of his close-quarters onslaught with heavy knees from the Thai plum. Nelson has more than enough tools to remain relevant in a division lacking depth, but he has lost three of his last four fights. Victory now becomes a necessity. Carwin, who finds himself recovering from a second back surgery, carries with him arguably the heaviest hands in the sport. A duel with Nelson might prove pure gold, if for no other reason than to find out whether or not “Big Country” can withstand that kind of otherworldly punching power.
Josh Koscheck vs. Jake Shields-Yoshihiro Akiyama winner: Koscheck escaped his grueling 15-minute encounter with the criminally underrated Mike Pierce, taking a split decision from the former Sportfight champion. Love him or hate him, Koscheck has made himself into one of the most successful fighters in UFC history. His 15 victories inside the Octagon tie him with Tito Ortiz for fifth on the all-time list, behind only Matt Hughes (18), Georges St. Pierre (16), Chuck Liddell (16) and Randy Couture (16). Koscheck looked tentative at times against Pierce, but he can always fall back on his top-shelf wrestlingchops when the need arises. UFC President Dane White has already shown public interest in pairing him with Diaz. Should that bout fail to materialize, perhaps the man that emerges from the Shields-Akiyama tussle at UFC 144 later this month could step up and fill the void.
Renan “Barao” Pegado vs. Dominick Cruz-Urijah Faber winner: Pegado needs no more fine tuning. On an incredible 18-fight winning streak, the 24-year-old Nova Uniao export has clearly established himself as a top contender at 135 pounds. Pegado zipped past Scott Jorgensen with a diverse striking game, stout chin and airtight takedown defense. In short, he kept the fight standing, all but ensuring Jorgensen’s downfall. Coaching opposite one another on the forthcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, bantamweight champion Cruz and archrival Faber will tie a bow on their trilogy at some point this summer. The man they call “Barao” will be waiting on the winner.
Ed Herman vs. Brian Stann-Alessio Sakara winner: Herman has carved out a nice niche at 185 pounds. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 3 finalist dispatched the previously unbeaten Clifford Starks with a combination of in-cage experience and submission savvy. Herman has won each of his last three fights, bouncing back well from multiple knee surgeries. The 31-year-old will not set the world on fire with any one skill, but he promises to be a difficult out for anyone inside the middleweight division with stars in their eyes. Stann and Sakara will collide at UFC on Fuel 2 on April 14 in Sweden. Pair the victor with Herman.
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Previewing Pacquiao-Bradley
by Dan Rafael – catch Dan at www.espn.go.com
Junior welterweight titleholder Timothy Bradley Jr. and Top Rank, his promoter, wrapped up their deal Friday as he signed a contract to challenge welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The match comes as no surprise. Bradley had been one of the leading names to face Pacquiao and although Pacquiao has not yet signed the paperwork, his adviser, Michael Koncz, told ESPN.com on Monday that he had committed to the pay-per-view fight.
Although Bradley will be moving up to the 147-pound division for the fight — there is no catch weight — he is about the same size as Pacquiao and has fought in the division before, including two fights ago when he outpointed Luis Carlos Abregu in a nontitle bout in July 2010.
At 28 and in his prime, Bradley, who is fast and skilled but lacks power, probably poses more danger to Pacquiao than any of his recent opponents.
“It’s a very tough fight. Stylistically, Timmy poses a real threat,” Top Rank president Todd duBoef said. “I think Timmy is an incredibly skilled fighter. He has quick hands, quick feet, he’s undefeated and he doesn’t know how to lose. Tim Bradley is a winner. Manny will have to be on top of his game against Tim Bradley, who is in his prime. Manny has always taken on those challenges.”
Bradley will earn a career-high $5 million minimum purse.
“Manny and his team understand that in order to put on these big events you need the most skilled fighters in the world and competition, and that’s why he respects all of his opponents and what they bring to the table,” duBoef said.
Bradley was one of five opponents who were in the mix to fight Pacquiao. There was, of course, Floyd Mayweather Jr., whose proposed fight with Pacquiao is the biggest in the sport, but has languished for more than two years as the sides have put one road block in front of each other after another. The prospect of Pacquiao-Mayweather was again put on hold when Mayweather announced earlier this month that he would move up to junior middleweight to challenge titleholder Miguel Cotto on May 5, also at the MGM Grand.
The other opponents Top Rank had discussed with Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KOs), 33, were Juan Manuel Marquez (for a fourth fight), Cotto (for a rematch, although they could never agree on the weight) and junior welterweight titleholders Bradley and Lamont Peterson. Peterson was knocked out of the running recently when Top Rank began discussing a fight between him and Marquez. Ultimately, Peterson signed for a rematch with Amir Khan on Thursday.
With Pacquiao not geared up to fight Marquez in an immediate rematch of their tight fight in November, that left Bradley, who had signed last year with Top Rank with the express purpose of positioning himself for a fight with Pacquiao.
“In Timmy Bradley, you’re dealing with an accomplished fighter,” duBoef said. “He’s a premier fighter in the 140-pound division and he’s on everyone’s pound-for-pound list in the top 5 to 10. He had a destruction of Peterson (in a one-sided decision in December 2009). He played with Peterson, who just beat Khan, and I was on the other end in that fight because I was Peterson’s promoter. Bottom line — Timmy Bradley is a terrific fighter.”
Top Rank put Bradley (28-0, 12 KOs), of Palm Springs, Calif., on the undercard of Pacquiao-Marquez III in November to provide him with exposure on a major pay-per-view card, knowing he might be Pacquiao’s next opponent. Although it was a sloppy fight filled with fouls, Bradley dismantled faded former lightweight champion Joel Casamayor and knocked him out in the eighth round.
In January 2011, Bradley unified two belts (one was later stripped) when he won a head butt-induced 10th-round technical decision in a heavily hyped fight against Devon Alexander, that never caught the public fancy, despite so much money being poured into it by HBO.
After the win, Bradley, who had called out for a unification fight with then-titleholder Khan, wound up rejecting a 50-50 deal for a July fight with him for what would have been a career-high payday of at least $1.4 million, in part because he was in the process of breaking from co-promoters Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson. He later signed with Top Rank, which has now delivered him a fight with Pacquiao.
Dan Rafael covers boxing for ESPN.com.
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Lamont Peterson, Amir Khan set fight
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
Unified junior welterweight titlist Lamont Peterson and former titleholder Amir Khan will meet in a rematch at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on May 19, a little more than five months to the day after their all-action first fight went down as one of the most controversial bouts of 2011.
“Everyone is very pleased that this is Lamont’s next fight,” attorney Jeff Fried, who represents Peterson and Barry Hunter, Peterson’s trainer/manager and father figure, told ESPN.com on Thursday after the deal had been signed. “It was challenging for a variety of reasons, including some of the post-fight antics undertaken by Khan. But at the end of the day, Lamont and Barry had a singular focus on what is in the best interest in Lamont Peterson and his family, and that is what drove this deal getting done.”
England’s Khan (26-2, 18 KOs) came to Peterson’s native Washington, D.C., to defend his belts Dec. 10 and lost a split decision in a fight filled with great action but marred by questionable officiating, issues over the scorecards and an unauthorized figure at ringside.
“Both sides are signed, but this has been one of the most difficult negotiations I have had for any fight I have ever been involved with,” said Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer, who has negotiated dozens of major fights. “There was a lot of back and forth, but it all ended good in getting this fight done. I think it’s one of the most anticipated rematches. It’s the right fight for Lamont and the right fight for Amir, and I’m really excited both parties agreed to do this fight.”
Peterson accepted the deal from Golden Boy, which handles Khan, for the rematch even though Top Rank’s Bob Arum had been wooing Peterson, a promotional free agent, for a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, which he hoped to put on at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Peterson, who earned $650,000 for the first fight and rejected a $1 million offer for the rematch shortly after the first fight, will make “substantially more than $1 million,” Fried said, although he did not divulge the terms.
Khan, who has a contract with HBO in the United States and Sky in England, brings substantial money to the fight but wanted the rematch so badly that he gave 50 percent of the worldwide revenue that the fight will generate to Peterson.
“We offered 50-50 because that was how much Amir wanted this fight,” Schaefer said. “There were times where it looked like we were close to getting it done, but it was a drawn out process. But in the end it was not a sanctioning organization, a TV network, the media or fans who made this rematch. It’s the fighters who wanted to get the fight done. It was Lamont Peterson saying he didn’t want to fight anybody else except Amir Khan and it was Amir Khan saying he wanted to fight only Lamont Peterson. That is what makes fights.
“The truth is both fighters had other options. But it really came down to what they wanted most. For both guys, other options might have been more lucrative, but it was not really only about the money. They realized the right thing to do was to fight each other again.”
The refereeing was the most controversial aspect of the December fight. Khan had two points deducted for pushing — an almost unheard of foul call — in the seventh and 12th rounds by Washington-area referee Joe Cooper. Without the deductions, Khan would have retained the belts via unanimous decision.
Khan complained that while he was docked points for pushing, Peterson (30-1-1, 15 KOs) was never warned for leading with his head. Golden Boy also raised questions about judge George Hill’s scoring of the seventh round, which appeared to read 10-10 but was crossed out to read 10-8 in Peterson’s favor.
Then there was the much-publicized issue of the so-called ringside “mystery man,” who turned out to be Mustafa Ameen, who is affiliated with the IBF and had a credential arranged as a courtesy from the organization, but was not at the fight in an official capacity. However, he was seen on video at ringside apparently touching the scoring slips, which is against the rules, and distracting a judge. He was later seen in the ring apparently celebrating with the Peterson team after the fight.
It all led to Khan protesting the decision to the sanctioning bodies and harsh words were exchanged between the camps. But now all of that should only add to the interest surrounding the rematch, which will headline HBO’s “World Championship Boxing.”
“May the better man win,” Schaefer said. “It will be one of the most talked-about fights of the year. This is one of those fights people wanted to see and I am happy we can deliver it to the fight fans. I will say this, Jeff Fried deserves a lot of credit for helping us get this done.”
Schaefer said he is close to finalizing the co-featured bout for the card, which would also take place in the 140-pound division: Lucas Matthysse (29-2, 27 KOs), the hard punching contender from Argentina, against former lightweight titleholder Humberto Soto (57-7-2, 34 KOs) of Mexico, who is now fighting as a junior welterweight.
“I am almost done with that fight and HBO is licking their chops on this fight,” Schaefer said. “Those two fights as a doubleheader is probably the best 1-2 punch HBO boxing has delivered in a long time.”
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
