UFC Live on Versus: John "Doomsday" Howard Crashes the Coming-Out Party

From where I sat last Sunday night in Broomfield (Colo.), it looked like three fighters emerged from the snowy rubble and took huge leaps forward in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Two are painfully obvious.

As Dana White said in his video blog yesterday (at about the 3:07 mark), Jon "Bones" Jones has been the toast of the mixed martial arts town since his devastation of Brandon "The Truth" Vera.

Meanwhile, Junior "Cigano" dos Santos secured himself a place in the upper echelon of heavyweight challengers to Brock Lesnar's throne with his own brutalization of Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga. Arguably, he should be the backup plan instead of Cain Velasquez should the winner of Frank Mir and Shane Carwin be unable to go at UFC 116 against Lesnar.

Cigano has taken out Fabricio "Vai Cavalo" Werdum (in his debut at UFC 90), Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Gilbert "The Hurricane" Yvel, and now Gonzaga.

It's a more intimidating set of scalps than that possessed by any top contender not named Frank Mir.

Furthermore, the 25-year-old Brazilian has finished everyone on the list but Cro Cop by technical knockout in the first round. By comparison to those four bouts, the 12-minute submission of Filipovic (via punches) was a marathon.

Regardless of the pecking order, his latest victory promises dos Santos a place atop the division. That means his quantum hop was only slightly shorter than Bones'.

The third big winner, however, might not be as apparent because he wasn't on the main card.

John "Doomsday" Howard's annihilation of Daniel "Ninja" Roberts only trails the other two because of the opponent. Whereas Jones and dos Santos steamrolled two known, dangerous quantities in Vera and Gonzaga, Howard faced a guy making his UFC debut boasting a career hit-list highlighted by Anthony "Mad Dog" Macias.

[crickets chirping]

Nevertheless, anyone who saw Ninja come out knows he isn't a total slouch.

He was certainly the aggressor early on and even controlled matters for...oh...about 90 seconds. Of course, that means Doomsday needed less than 31 ticks of the clock to completely overwhelm Roberts by the 2:01 sweep of the first round.

The 27-year-old welterweight's performance stands out not merely because he went home with one of three $50,000 bonuses for Knockout of the Night. His explosive finish certainly punctuated his evening, but Howard showed other assets as well.

The native of Boston, Mass. displayed admirable poise while weathering Roberts' early rush. He also ate some decent shots from his adversary and easily blinked them off.

Finally, there was the matter of the slam that reversed the course of the battle and spelled the beginning of the end for the UFC newcomer.

Doomsday hoisted his ill-fated foe by a single leg, helicoptered him around like a child, and drove Roberts to the canvas in one of the baddest slams I've seen this side of Kevin "The Monster" Randleman and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

The lesson?

It's unwise to anger Mr. Howard.

Something I kept in mind when I found myself riding in the same shuttle to Denver International Airport with the Muay Thai specialist. I probably didn't have to worry since we weren't in a cage and I had witnesses in the form of a couple of his coaches, two UFC employees, and two ladies from Latin America who kept on about nutrition pleasantly enough.

On the other hand, it is something Anthony "Rumble" Johnson might want to consider.

Johnson and Howard were supposed to meet up in Colorado, but Rumble had to excuse himself due to injury. Before the bugaboo arose, the two were engaged in quite a spirited war of words. Well, judging from what I heard in the van, there's at least some authentic animosity between the duo.

I won't quote anyone because, while I identified myself as a writer, it wasn't a formal interview—just happenstance that we were flying out at the same time and using the same carrier to DIA.

Nevertheless, I can safely confirm the pair of welterweights isn't exchanging Christmas cards. Suffice it to say Howard, the owner of a seven-fight win-streak, wasn't particularly concerned with who heard his glowing praise of Rumble.

Nor was his buddy/coach.

Despite the sure-to-get-ugly brouhaha developing between the men, Howard seems like someone for whom you can root. Nobody's perfect and it wasn't exactly a determinative sample size, but the man came off like one of the good guys during the 30-minute trip.

When I mentioned I saw Roberts shortly after Doomsday dispatched him, the victor seemed genuinely concerned for the semi-departed's well-being.

Additionally, he and his team appeared to be sincerely irritated that referee Tom Johnson was too far from the action to step in after the decisive blow.

Ninja went nighty-night after a heavy left caromed his noggin off the ground, but Johnson—a good six feet away—didn't save the unconscious competitor immediately. As I assume these modern-day gladiators are taught, Howard kept going until the horn sounded or a zebra dived in and delivered two more good bombs flush to Roberts' dome.

They were totally unnecessary and absolutely not the winner's fault, but he felt bad about them nonetheless. I like that.

I also liked the handspring into a back flip (although, if you really want to light up the crowd, do it before the fight like Bones did).

Lastly, you've gotta love it when the dude wins $50K for two minutes of work and still rides the Super Shuttle the next day. There's a father of three girls who has his priorities in place.

Or at least has cooler plans for the money than a $100 private car to the airport.

After his weekend outside of Denver, John Howard's future might not be quite as bright as those belonging to Jon Jones and Junior dos Santos. But I'd add a "yet" to that.

Because, with a couple exhibitions like this last one, it will be blinding.

**www.pva.org**