The Real Winners and Losers from UFC Fight Nights 55 and 56
In Sydney, Australia, on Friday evening America time, a cadre of UFC fighters banded together to show fans and one another what their sport can do when all of its cylinders are firing. Eleven fights featured 11 stoppages—seven knockouts and four submissions—with five native Australians and New Zealanders ending the night with their hands in the air.
And the crowd goes wild, as do the viewers watching at home on UFC Fight Pass, the company's streaming service. For that level of a fight card, that's as literally as good as it can get.
But that was merely the first leg of the marathon. On Saturday evening, 8,500 miles from the sands of Sydney, could another set of fighters replicate the experience? Well, if we're being honest, it didn't look so good, especially after an important and flashy co-main event in the flyweight division was a late scrap due to illness.
Without Ian McCall and John Lineker as the insurance policy, a ragtag collection of prospects, veterans and street food vendors slouched into Uberlandia, Brazil to hold down the reputation of the greatest combat-fighting nation on the planet.
In fact, a full 75 percent of those competing at Fight Night 56 were doing so for only the first or second time in the Octagon. That's not a good number.
But fear not! We still had Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, the living legend whose career evolved right alongside the sport and reached untold glory in countries all around this Earth. Did a green ex-football player have what it takes to challenge Shogun? Did this card give us any chance of a repeat performance from Australia?
As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real top winners and losers from these two UFC weekend cards. Check it out.
Loser: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
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It didn't even take a full minute to slam another huge nail into Shogun's coffin.
Shogun threw an overhand right that was countered by a Saint Preux left, which sent Rua to the floor. Saint Preux swarmed on the vulnerable Shogun and finished off the opportunistic win in short order.
That's really all it was. Shogun was clipped; then he slipped and fell, and Saint Preux took him out. Sometimes, it's as simple as that.
Winner: Ovince Saint Preux
2 of 9
Though the circumstances were weird, the win was legit. Saint Preux capitalized on his opportunity when he saw Rua throw a patented overhand right but hit nothing but air during the exchange. Saint Preux fared a little better, banging home a left that knocked Shogun off-balance and to the canvas. Saint Preux dropped and swarmed, pummeling Rua until the referee stopped the action.
It was certainly a good way to wash out the bad taste of the Ryan Bader loss. Who knows what's next for OSP? Your guess is as good as mine.
Loser: Luke Rockhold
3 of 9
Everyone knew how this fight would end. If some media member out there picked Michael Bisping out of sheer cuteness, I didn't see it, and it surely joined a needle-slim minority.
Bisping's high-energy personal style (and frenetic kickboxing game) has value to the UFC. It just didn't offer much help to Rockhold, who had to force himself through months of tedious trash talk and a full fight camp in order to lay a whooping on a loose-tongued, long-toothed codger in front of hundreds (maybe thousands) of fans tuning into their computer screens.
Rockhold did net the dominant second-round submission win as well as a $50,000 performance bonus. And he got to travel to Australia to do it. It's not like Rockhold needs us to start a charity in his name.
But come on: This was a waste of Rockhold's time and effort. Was pairing him up with Bisping the best or only way to coax out Rockhold's star power? The guy is 30 years old. He's camera ready both in appearance and personality, and oh, he's really, really freaking good at fighting.
He wants big fights, too. He wants that belt. It's more than a platitude for him, and this Bisping detour has to stick in his craw. At 30, Rockhold is at the peak of his prime, but he can see down at the bottom of the mountain where the waves break, too.
Because the real kicker here is that, despite this win, he'll still have to go through someone like Lyoto Machida or Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in order to get to The Holy Grail. And that's a hell of a hard mission. After his anticlimactic pasting of an overmatched opponent Friday, it's clearer than ever what a needless detour this was in that quest.
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Loser: Michael Bisping
4 of 9
Feel for Michael Bisping if you must. Feel for the cut he suffered over his eye before the fight and the accidental Rockhold headbutt in the opening moments that may have made it worse. Feel for him tapping out for the first time in his career. Feel for the fact that Bisping, at age 35, probably has fought his last relevant fight at the top of the promotion.
That's right—it's novelty fights aplenty from here on out. Maybe a tune-up for Anderson Silva? Uriah Hall? Something with Dan Henderson?
Bisping has had a long and successful career. And it looks like now it will end without him fighting for a title in the UFC.
Winner: John Lineker
5 of 9
Friday night around 8 p.m., the story was John Lineker struggling with his weight. Again.
Barely 12 hours later, the fight was off, but Lineker was no longer the story.
Opponent Ian McCall blamed the withdrawal on a blood infection that blew out of control during and after the weigh-cutting period. It's a tough situation. Cutting weight stresses the body, and sicknesses like this can sometimes take advantage of a weakened immune system.
It's never wrong to listen to your body when it's telling you to take a seat. As I believe it was originally written on the Dead Sea Scrolls: It is what it is.
So, yeah, no literal winners here. And hey, fighters want to fight. But another bit of bad publicity for Lineker—who has missed weight a ridiculous three times in his UFC career and flirted with doing so again Friday night before he was able to shed the final pound on a second try—was narrowly avoided.
Facing such chronic problems with such a basic (albeit risky) practice in professional MMA, other fighters have received far less lenience than Lineker. Maybe Lineker and company will view this in a way they haven't viewed the previous offenses and take it as a sign that a change needs to come, and now.
Either way, Lineker still got his show money. He watched the fights Saturday night in Brazil in relative comfort. And you know what? It could have been a lot worse for him.
Winner: Alan Jouban
6 of 9
The mild-mannered Louisianan moved well throughout bout, even when it favored opponent Warlley Alves. But Alves began to tire with the frenetic pace. Not Jouban, who kept calm and stayed on his horse, slamming home repeated combinations and just winning the fight.
The only ones who mattered in that opinion, though, were the judges, and they scored it for the hometown favorite in Alves.
Luckily I was watching, and while it won't be worth much, Jouban is the official winner here, in this slide.
Losers: Dhiego Lima and Jorge Oliveira
7 of 9
The inaction, the sloppy grappling exchanges, the sluggish strikes and takedown attempts. There were quite a few stinker fights on UFC Fight Night 56, but Dhiego Lima vs. Jorge Oliveira might have been the stinkiest.
Lima was the larger, better and more prepared fighter, and yet he couldn't close the deal on any occasion. Including the occasion when he had multiple deep choke attempts that he simply relinquished with no apparent reason.
Eventually, Lima got the unanimous-decision victory. But if you missed this, do you add it to your DVR? No, you most surely do not.
Winner: Australian Fight Fans
8 of 9
Not only were the Australian faithful treated to that UFC record 11 stoppage victories in 11 bouts, but they got to see their hometown boys take the lead in getting it done.
Of the eight Australians or New Zealanders who competed—Dan Kelly, Vik Grujic, Richie Vaculik, Dylan Andrews, Anthony Perosh, Jake Matthews, Soa Palelei and Robert Whittaker—all but Grujic, Vaculik and Andrews emerged victorious. The two locals on the main card—Palelei and Whittaker—both scored big second-round knockouts.
And to slather still sweeter Vegemite on the evening, it all happened in front of the backdrop of favorite son Mark Hunt getting an interim heavyweight title shot next weekend at UFC 180.
In the face of lowered ratings from the Land Down Under, there was some concern that Australia was not exactly the green pasture of globalization that fans and leaders once assumed. But if the MMA scene did indeed need a jump-start in Australia, this was precisely what the doctor ordered.
Full Results from Both Events
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UFC Fight Night 55
Main Card
Luke Rockhold def. Michael Bisping by submission (guillotine choke), 0:57, Rd. 2
Al Iaquinta def. Ross Pearson by TKO, 1:39, Rd. 2
Robert Whittaker def. Clint Hester by TKO, 2:43, Rd. 2
Soa Palelei def. Walt Harris by TKO, 4:49, Rd. 2
Preliminary Card
Jake Matthews def. Vagner Rocha by technical submission (rear-naked choke), 1:52, Rd. 2
Anthony Perosh def. Guto Inocente by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:46, Rd. 1
Sam Alvey def. Dylan Andrews by KO, 2:16, Rd. 1
Louis Smolka def. Richie Vaculik by TKO, 0:18, Rd. 3
Chris Clements def. Vik Grujic by TKO, 4:06, Rd. 1
Daniel Kelly def. Luke Zachrich submission (kimura), 4:27, Rd. 1
Marcus Brimage def. Jumabieke Tuerxun by KO, 2:58, Rd. 1
UFC Fight Night 56
Main Card
Ovince Saint Preux def. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, TKO, 0:35, RD. 1
Warlley Alves def. Alan Jouban by unanimous decision
Claudio Silva def. Leon Edwards by split decision
Dhiego Lima def. Jorge Oliveira by unanimous decision
Juliana Lima def. Nina Ansaroff by unanimous decision
Preliminary Card
Diego Rivas def. Rodolfo Rubio, unanimous decision
Caio Magalhaes def. Trevor Smith by KO, 0:31, Rd. 1
Leandro Buscape Silva def. Charlie Brenneman by submission (rear-naked choke), 4:15, Rd.1
Thomas Almeida def. Tim Gorman by unanimous decision
Colby Covington def. Wagner Silva by submission (rear-naked choke), 3:26, Rd. 3
Scott Harris likes to talk and write about the serious and less-serious aspects of MMA. Feel free to follow Scott on Twitter. It's like watching someone yell at the TV, except you're reading it on Twitter.
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