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Saturday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Saturday
9:00 a.m. ET Fox Sports 2: Best of PRIDE Fighting Championship
Fastest Fights in Pride History Countdown of the fastest fights.
3:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Tonight
UFC highlights, analysis and interviews.
4:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: Best of PRIDE Fighting Championship
Fastest Fights in Pride History Countdown of the fastest fights.
5:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Unleashed
Nate Diaz fights Jim Miller; Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills; Cub Swanson vs. Charles Oliveira; Stefan Struve vs. Dave Herman.
5:00 p.m. ET AXS: AXS TV Fights
BAMMA 13 Curt Warburton vs. Mansour Barnaoui for the lightweight title; Max Nunes vs. Jason Jones for the heavyweight title; from Birmingham, England.
6:00 p.m. ET NBC Sports: World Series of Fighting Future Champions
6:30 p.m. ET NBC Sports: World Series of Fighting Future Champions
6:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Fight Night
Ali Bagautinov vs. Marcos Vinicius; c vs. Rafael Natal; Piotr Hallman vs. Francisco Trinaldo; Jussier Silva vs. Joseph Benavidez; Ronaldo Souza vs. Yushin Okami; Glover Teixeira vs. Ryan Bader. From Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
7:00 p.m. ET NBC Sports: World Series of Fighting 4
Tyrone Spong vs. Angel DeAnda; Marlon Moraes vs. Brandon Hempleman; Ray Sefo vs. Dave Huckaba; J.Z. Calvalcante vs. Tyson Griffin. From Ontario, Calif.
9:00 p.m. ET NBC Sports: World Series of Fighting 5
Andrei Arlovski vs. Mike Kyle. From Atlantic City, N.J.
9:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: UFC Tonight
UFC highlights, analysis and interviews.
10:00 p.m. ET Fox Sports 2: The Ultimate Fighter
Season 18 Episode 2: Ladies First
11:30 p.m. ET AXS: AXS TV Fights
BAMMA 13 Curt Warburton vs. Mansour Barnaoui for the lightweight title; Max Nunes vs. Jason Jones for the heavyweight title; from Birmingham, England. Read more -
Saturday MMA: A TV Viewer’s Guide
By: Jeff Sherwood
Saturday
3:00 a.m. ET AXS: AXS Fights The Best of 2012 Highlights from the year's fights.
5:00 a.m. ET Sportsnet ONE: UFC Wired Joe Rogan hosts this UFC highlight show featuring some of the best bouts from years past.
6:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC: Benson Henderson vs. Nate Diaz Benson Henderson vs. Nate Diaz; Alexander Gustafsson vs. Mauricio Rua; Rory MacDonald vs. B.J. Penn; Matt Brown vs. Mike Swick. From Seattle.
8:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider Fuel for the Fire Long Island native Chris Weidman tours the town he loves; Alexander Gustafsson sits down with Jon Anik; Nate Diaz's submission game; Chad Mendes' dominating performance.
8:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider Alexander Gustafsson's San Diego training; Joe Lauzon's signature moves; Arianny Celeste poses.
9:00 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Ultimate Insider Flashback Seattle; Heavyweights Collide Experience UFC on FOX 5 from a new perspective; The comeback of Cain Velasquez; Randy Couture analyzes the Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez championship fight.
9:30 a.m. ET FuelTV: UFC From All Angles Rashad Evans Former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans.
12:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Reloaded UFC 147: Wanderlwi Silva vs. Rich Franklin II Highlights of UFC 147 in Brazil.
3:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Unleashed Featuring Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans, Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar, and Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida.
4:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC 101: The Fundamentals Fighters Kenny Florian and Rashad Evans teach you the fundamentals of watching the UFC.
4:30 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC 101: The Moves Learn the secret moves of the best fighters in the world.
6:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Unleashed Featuring Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans, Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Stephan Bonnar, and Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida.
7:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Best of 2012: The Year in Review Relive the thrilling action of the best bouts, the greatest knockouts and submissions.
10:00 p.m. ET FuelTV: UFC Reloaded UFC 147: Wanderlei Silva vs. Rick Franklin II Highlights of UFC 147 in Brazil.
10:00 p.m. ET Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine Nate Marquardt vs. Tarec Saffiedine; Daniel Cormier vs. Dion Staring; Gegard Mousasi vs. Mike Kyle. From Oklahoma City.
11:00 p.m. ET Sportsnet ONE: UFC Central Hosted by "Showdown" Joe Ferraro. UFC highlights and news. Read more -
Radio: 'The Jordan Breen Show'
By: TJ De Santis
Jordan Breen returned to The Sherdog Radio Network Thursday for another edition of "The Jordan Breen Show." On this episode Breen takes listener calls, emails, and talks about the latest news of Mike Kyle pulling out of his upcoming fight with Gegard Mousasi.
Read more
Check out the show and our archives by clicking here. -
UFC/Strikeforce Postmortem: Judge Dread, Knockouts
By: Jake Rossen
Leonard Garcia file photo: Sherdog.com
Among Mike Goldberg’s usual duties -- sponsor plugs, broadcast generalship, tanning -- is reciting the standard “Rules of the Octagon” narration over a graphic, which states points will be awarded “based on striking, grappling, aggression, and Octagon control.” At 10 seconds in length, this will never be mistaken for an instructional video, but it’s become very obvious that Nevada judges in attendance Saturday haven’t even bothered with that much.
After handling Leonard Garcia for three rounds, pushing Garcia backward, landing while Garcia whiffed in open-mouthed “offense” and even taking a round with a conceivable 10-8 work effort, two judges ignored Nam Phan and scored the bout 29-28 Garcia. (The third saw it 30-27 Phan, cementing his status as human with two functioning corneas.) It stands next to New Coke, “The Phantom Menace” and the Hula burger as one of the worst decisions of all time.
In typically boorish bureaucratic fashion, these judges will never be asked to explain their scorecard, will never be asked to provide evidence of their competency, and will probably not be reprimanded in any meaningfully way -- all expected outcomes of virtually every other botched job on the planet.
Nothing can suffocate the enthusiasm of fans more quickly than something purported to be “As Real as it Gets” burdened by the inexplicable presence of officials who use a fictitious set of standards to oversee fights. Athletic commissions are assumed to be competent; as we saw with Chael Sonnen’s hearing Thursday, some members can’t even tell the difference between a mixed martial artist and a boxer. At this point, it’s becoming impossible to tell the difference between a fight judge and a brick. Read more -
Strikeforce Post-Mortem: Women’s Rights, Lefts, Mousasi, More
By: Jake Rossen
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos celebrates her victory. Photo by Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com.
It could be argued that Strikeforce’s most valuable asset isn’t Fedor Emelianenko, hyper-competent CEO Scott Coker, or the tremendous access allowed by CBS/Showtime; it’s their lockdown on female mixed competition, which has outdistanced early catcalls, derision, and fan immaturity to become one of the most entertaining and dynamic divisions in the sport.
For the holdouts, Saturday’s “Strikeforce: Carano vs. ‘Cyborg’” put the defense on permanent rest. 145 lb. contenders Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos spent some of the most torturous five minutes in recent memory slugging, shooting, and swelling; it was Santos who wanted it more, muscling Carano in the clinch, landing the bigger power shots, and finally beating a grounded Carano like it was personal with only one second left in the round. (An MIA Carano unable to be interviewed due to medical intervention backstage should suffocate any idea that it was a premature stoppage.) Read more
