UFC 121: Cain Velasquez TKOs Brock Lesnar

by Michael David SmithThe UFC has a new heavyweight champion, as Cain Velasquez brutalized Brock Lesnar to win a first-round technical knockout Saturday at UFC 121.

The fight wasn't close, as Velasquez showed vastly superior technique and unloaded on Lesnar on the ground until Lesnar's face was a bloody mess and referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight.

"I trained for a five-round fight and that's what I was hoping for," Velasquez said afterward. "I wasn't expecting this. You can't expect a first-round stoppage."

 

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Video: Whitewater Kayakers Running the Plunge on Icicle Creek

I was over in Leavenworth one evening last week taking a look at the Plunge drop on Icicle Creek with Charles from AquaSports and we happened to run into this guy Nels, who told us he thought Darren Albright was going to be running it soon.� Sure enough, a few minutes later Darren came down [...]

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Daniel Roberts Wants rematch with John Howard - UFC 121

Daniel Roberts showed off his "Ninja" skils with his UFC 121 $70,000 Submission of the Night victory over Mike Guymon and would like a rematch with John Howard, the man who handed him his lone UFC loss. Interview by Danny Acosta. Video by Rick Lee.

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Bellator hits home stretch Thursday night with marquee fights in Philly

Though the City of Brotherly Love may be focused on how the Phillies are faring in the playoffs, Philadelphia's fight fans have a treat with Bellator in town. In the second-to-last card of the season, Bellator will award a championship belt, and host the bout it likely expected when it signed Roger Huerta.

With lightweight tournament champ Pat Curran injured, Philadelphia's own Eddie Alvarez will face Huerta in a non-title bout. This will be the third bout for Alvarez since winning the Bellator lightweight belt, but he has yet to defend the belt.

Though a belt isn't on the line, Huerta called this fight "the biggest fight of his career." 

"He's kind of [going to] bring me back from the dead, almost," Huerta said in a Bellator press call. "He's going to bring the best out in me."

That's exactly what Huerta needs, considering that he's lost three of his last four bouts. 

Lyman Good will put his welterweight title on the line when he meets up with Season 2 welterweight tournament champion Ben Askren. Though Askren was an Olympian in 2008 and a two-time national champion wrestler at the University of Missouri, Good said that he's ready for Askren's wrestling, having worked with with Kurt Pellegrino on takedown defense. He also stepped up the focus on his cardio.

"I've been working purely on my conditioning as well, using a lot of the time I've had since I last fought, not so much that I had a specific weakness that I was worried about, but you've got to ask yourself, in contrast to your opponent, what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses?" Good said. "It's clear what Askren's are, so I've been working on my takedown defense and wrestling, but especially my cardio, which pays dividends when it comes to a fight, especially a five-rounder."

Bellator will air on FOX Sports. Check your local listings to see when it will air in your area.

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Movie Monday

As you’ve likely heard me say before, Mondays are bad for me. They’re the busiest day of the entire week at the office and most of the time I’m trying to catch up with chores at home from being away all weekend. The former still applies, however having kept close to home this weekend I [...]

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Tito says he's healthy again, should we believe him?

Who's buying stock in the revitalized, healthy Tito Ortiz? It doesn't look like the UFC is just yet. Sure, he's on the card this week in Anaheim but he's not being heavily promoted. But can you blame the promotion for being cautious?

The UFC can't afford to promote another main event where Ortiz gasses and then claims he wasn't healthy for the fight.

Ortiz is saying all the same things he said before that less than pleasing battle against Forrest Griffin. From Sergio Non of USA Today:

[Ortiz said:] "I feel great, man. I haven't felt like this in a long time. It's been a good six, seven years since I felt the way I do now. The last time I felt like this was when I had my world title. [...]

"What I'm able to do now is wrestle every single day. We wrestle five days a week. [...] You're going to see at the weigh-ins how good of a shape I'm in. My weight's about 220 right now. Usually it's about 215, 212, so I'm able to really stay in great shape, and do the wrestling, and do the squats and lunges, and stuff that I couldn't do before because of my lower back. [...] Able to put weight on my shoulders and to press and to push and to push my weight forward."

Sergio Non wisely said, but we've heard this before. Why should we believe Tito this time?

[Said Ortiz:] "I told myself I would never take a fight like I did last year ever again. I promised myself I'd never do that, because I never want to give a guy an opportunity to beat me again."

Sold yet? This sounds too similar to the prefight banter before the Griffin match. He lost that one and then said he fought with major injuries and even had a scary incident of temporary paralysis during the training camp.

"I've got to kind of take care of my family. I didn't fight for 18 months, so bills had to be paid, so I had to fight," said Ortiz. "I got through a physical for the UFC and I fought with a fractured orbital bone and a ruptured disc in my neck. I took the fight anyways. I probably shouldn't have been doing it. I'm a great actor, thank God."

There's a lot on the line in this fight. The UFC is paying Ortiz pretty big money. How does it promote a former light heavyweight champ if he's not even competitive against a guy outside the top 10 in the weight class? Ortiz isn't worried and even talked about having five years left in his career. 

"Over the last two years, just the challenges I've gone through, people would fold. Guys would quit. Guys would say, 'I'm done. That's it. I'm out." I'm not that type of person. I want to make sure these next five years I get the most out of it."

Let's hope he's healthy and most of the way back to his form of his 20s. A legitimately promotable Ortiz is good for the sport.

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Damn Am Live Webcast TODAY!

If you can't be there in person, don't fret. The 2010 Costa Mesa Damn Am presented by Volcom will be webcast live today at Volcom.com starting at 12:00 noon PST.

While you wait, check out some Damn Am photo and video action from Friday and Saturday.

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