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UK Scene - Park
UK SCENE: A bad week for UK fighters capped off at UFC 118; Daley's continued dismissal and UK news in brief
This past Saturday at UFC 118 two long standing questions were finally answered. Firstly, was Frankie Edgar’s close decision win over B.J. Penn at UFC 112 a fluke? Secondly, can a strict Boxer compete against a high level Mixed Martial Artist? The answer to both questions was a resounding no.
Frankie Edgar silenced his critics as he convincingly won all five rounds on all three judges’ scorecards to officially bring the curtain down on B.J. Penn's dominance at 155 lbs.
In the co-main event of the evening former IBF Boxing World Champion James “Lights Out” Toney was helpless and clueless as Randy Couture gave him a baptism by fire in his UFC debut. Toney was left defeated and embarrassed as Couture proved a big point as he put on an MMA clinic to humble the boxer.
It was a disappointing evening for the two British fighters on the card as Rough House duo Andre Winner and “Slick” Nick Osipczak both dropped unanimous decisions in Boston.
Andre Winner saw his match up promoted to the 1-hour “Prelims Live” special but was unable to find a way to defeat Minnesotan wrestler Nik Lentz. Despite being unable to really hurt Winner, Lentz controlled the fight enough to frustrate the Brit for three long rounds. Winner was able to display some good take down defence at times - but ultimately he was unable to impose his game on his opponent and was left both frustrated and defeated.
Nick Osipczak started well in his bout with Greg Soto and landed some good shots early in the first round. All in all it was a good round for the Brit as he sent Soto back to his corner with a bad cut above his left eye. Again the Brit started well as round two began, but he was then largely dominated on the ground for the remainder of the round.
Soto began round three with a huge takedown and this is where the domination began. Several submission attempts and some heavy ground and pound gave Osipczak the first real beating of his career. A flurry of late elbows as the round came to a close just underlined the round for Soto, and subsequently the fight, as he took a 29-28 unanimous decision victory.
DANA SAYS NO TO-DALEY:
Almost four months since UFC 113 in Montreal, where Paul Daley threw a sucker punch at Josh Koscheck after the final horn had sounded, UFC President Dana White is standing firm in his stance to ban Daley from the UFC for life.
“That ain't happening, brother,” White told MMAJunkie.com when asked if he would consider a return for the Brit. “I know there's a lot of people that are fans. Dude, that was one of the, I don't even know how to put a word on what that kid did. ‘You just had a chance to fight him for 15 minutes, and now you're going to sucker-punch him after the fight?”
“It's disgusting. I hate that. I have no respect for that whatsoever. I know some people out there disagree with me, but this is a sport. There's a lot of things that I'm lenient about, but to walk up and sucker-punch a guy in the face that you just had 15 minutes with?”
Last month the Quebec Athletic Commission handed Daley a 30-day ban meaning he would still be available to fight Jorge Masvidal at Shark Fights on September 11. Daley responded to Whites comments earlier this week via The Underground Forum.
“Dana = UFC God. He created his world and he rules it with an iron rod” Daley said. “His world, But not my world, I was still making money, fighting and winning before the UFC and will carry on doing the same now [that I'm] not with the UFC.”
“Haters keep talking about me, doing me the world of good. Supporters, Thank you.”
OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF:
Speaking of Dana White, the UFC President has been invited to speak in front of The Oxford University debate club on October 13. White will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Sir Winston Churchill, Robert Kennedy and Yasser Arafat when he talks to the club members.
White will no doubt have to be on his guard as he aims to portray Mixed Martial Arts as the legitimate sport that it is and help take some of the sting of the “Cage Fighter” tag that MMA still has around its neck here.
White will be in England for UFC 120 from the London O2 Arena on October 16. It will prove to be a busy week for White as the UFC will also launch the first ever UK Fan Expo which will take place at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre on October 15 & 16.
The final preliminary fights have now all been announced for the London return with the full fight card below:
OFFICIAL FIGHT CARD
Michael Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit
John Hathaway vs. Mike Pyle
Cheick Kongo vs. Travis Browne
James Wilks vs. Claude Patrick
Cyrille Diabate vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Rob Broughton vs. Vinicius Quieroz
Steven Cantwell vs. Stanislav Nedkov
Spencer Fisher vs. Kurt Warburton
James McSweeney vs. Tom Blackledge
Paul Sass vs. Mark Holst
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This week has been yet another disappointing one for UK fighters. With the success Team UK had in TUF 9 and Dan Hardy earning his shot at Georges St. Pierre’s title, 2009 proved to be a special year for UK MMA.
2010 so far has been anything but successful as Michael Bisping lost to Wanderlei Silva, Dan Hardy was controlled by GSP and Paul Daley earned himself a life-time ban from the UFC. There have also been losses for Terry Etim and Paul Kelly; and now Andre Winner and Nick Osipczak join Brad Pickett as all three Brits dropped decisions in August.
With just over six weeks until UFC 120, UK fans will be looking to this event for some success for British fighters as Bisping, Hardy and John Hathaway all look to pick up important wins on the same evening that the new breed of UK fighters will finally make their UFC debuts.
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Chris Park is the MMATorch UK Specialist and guest columnist at ESPN.co.uk. Please email any comments or questions to Chris at; mmatorchuk@gmail.com or look us up at http://www.facebook.com/mmatorchuk2 our new MMATorch Facebook home for UK Fans!
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