The Good Josesito Lopez – The great thing about sports, combat sports inparticular, is you never know who’s going to win or how. We saw another example of this last night when replacement Josesito Lopez defeated Victor Ortiz by 9th round stoppage when Ortiz could not continue after suffering a broken jaw. Lopez was filling in for Andre Berto and seemed to be being overlooked by the Ortiz camp as the former welterweight champ had already signed on to face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 15, a fight that clearly won’t be taking place now. Despite being the noticeably smaller of the two Lopez more than held his own landing quick combinations in a back and forth bout that saw numerous shifts in momentum. Surprisingly Ortiz appeared to be hurt more times during the fight as Lopez was able to effectively counter his aggressive opponent. Ortiz was doing his fair amount of damage as evidenced by Lopez’ swollen face as he exerted his power and strength advantages. At the end of round 9 Lopez caught Ortiz once again and ended the round in pursuit. As mentioned earlier Ortiz would notify the ref he could not continue after the 9th to which Lopez was elated notching the biggest win of his career. The loss was a costly one for Ortiz and one that certainly gave his detractors fuel for the fire. The contract did have a rematch clause and I for one would love to see a second go around between Lopez and Ortiz if it could be anything like the first. Credit to Josesito Lopez for not only stepping up but seizing the moment in a great fight.   Lucas Matthysse – Josesito Lopez wasn’t the only one to make a statement on Showtimes doubleheader as Lucas Mattysse opened the [...]

  * I take no pleasure in writing this but like I stated in my previous takeaway, Ortiz is the same guy who was bullied by the smaller Maidana.  He would have got absolutely wrecked by bigger, faster, and more technical Canelo.   However, I do not fault him for bowing of last nights contest with a broken jaw, Ortiz is no Arthur Abraham, nor should he be expected to be.   * There should be a codeword used in the corner so that the fighter can quit on his stool without the camera capturing the lead up.   Upon the usage of the codeword, the corner needs to take the responsibility and save the fighter reputation in stopping the contest themselves.    It was sad and puzzling watching Ortiz call over the referee over to tell him he had a broken jaw.   *  Clay Guida might be the first Autistic fighter in MMA.   He likes to be in his own space and stimulate himself by doing movements that serves him no purpose in winning the fight.  Being a sparring partner for Clay might be the easiest gig on the planet.  “Hey, aren’t you gonna stretch?”  “No man I am sparring with Guida, I don’t even need to wear gloves.”   * Even the Brazilian crown knew that UFC 147 was a dog shit event.   On a scale of 1-10, the ruckus caused by the UFC 147 audience  for a US standard would have been a 9, but on a Brazilian scale it was a 4 at best.   * It was pretty scary watching Humberto Soto in the corner after getting up from that knock down from Lucas Matthysse.  Soto was groaning and mumbling  like  he was in a severe head on car collision.  Yikes.   This is exactly the reason why [...]

  Gray Maynard vs Clay Guida – This weekend UFC brings us two nights of back to back events and while the cards may not look that impressive on paper they both offer interesting main events. First up we have Fridays UFC on FX 4 headlined by a lightweight bout between Gray Maynard and the popular Clay Guida. Maynard will be returning to the octagon for the first time in 8 months after being stopped by then UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar in their third meeting. Guida is coming off a loss himself, a decision to current 155 pound champ Ben Henderson. Though this matchup is between two fighters who have both had their share of success in the UFC, up to this point Maynard has been superior. Thus it comes as no surprise that “The Bully” is the betting favorite, of course it doesn’t hurt that he seems to be better at just about everything Guida is good at as well as being the bigger and stronger of the two. The one advantage “The Carpenter” should have an advantage is cardio which could play a factor being as the contest is scheduled for 5 rounds. Win or lose it may be awhile before Maynard gets another shot at the title but a win for Guida would not only be one of the biggest of his career but also put him in the mix of lightweight division contenders.   916Chris’ pick – Unlike so many others I’m not really a fan of Guida so looking at this from an unbiased viewpoint I don’t think this as competitive as it appears to be. Guidas key to victory is usually to take his opponents down and smother their offense, in this case he’s facing a better wrestler who has rarely had to [...]

The Good Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs Andy Lee – As anticipated, Saturdays middleweight title fight between champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and challenger Andy Lee was a fun one. After a delay due to Chavez’ inability to provide a urine sample before the fight, Lee got off to a good start boxing from distance while Jr. was slow to get started. However once the defending champ did get going it was hard for Lee to keep the distance required. Chavez’ size and strength advantages were on full display as he absorbed the challengers best punches while moving forward and landing his own, particularly to the body. By the fifth round Chavez was in full control with and Lees face began to show as much. Lee certainly did his best to hang in tough, exchanging power punches with his much larger opponent though it would ultimately lead to his downfall. With his back against the ropes the challenger was once again going toe to toe only to be caught with a massive counter right hand. Lee was clearly hurt and Chavez swarmed on him with punches causing the referee to stop the bout giving Jr. the 7th round TKO. If Julio can continue to make the weight he can be a force in the middleweight division.   Tomasz Adamek vs Eddie Chambers – Although many may have not seen it as NBC Sports decided to air it almost simultaneously against Chavez vs Lee, the heavyweight contest between Tomasz Adamek and Eddie Chambers was a better than average fight in the division. Chambers was effective early on taking full advantage of his edge in speed, landing more than his share of overhand rights. Unfortunately Chambers injured his arm around round three and was relugated to mostly being a one armed fighter [...]

  * Chavez Jr looked like a man possessed.  Once we get this drug testing out of the way for the fighters we should be…..  Where is Chavez Jr urine at?  Oh there is none?  Again?   Texxxxxaaaaaasssss!   * If I am Sergio Martinez I am channeling my inner Machida and asking for some god damn urine.  Chris will probably not give JCC Jr a great chance in dethroning the metro-sexual one, but I on the other hand feel as though with his chin, body punching, and lack of urine, JCC jr will be a real tough test for Sergio Martinez.   Now if Sergio somehow manage to take away that lack of urine part then it’s a blowout.   * Is it me or should Emanuel Steward have given better advice to Andy Lee than ‘box his ass’?   * Score cards had Andy Lee ahead at the time of the stoppage.  Not shocking but surprising, I had bearded Luis Miguel ahead 4-2 but I can see it being the other way around since some of the early rounds could have went to Andy due to his high activity level.  I am just surprised that in a state where it’s okay to not give urine for a mandatory drug test if your last name is Chavez, the judges gave Andy Lee that much credit during the fight.   * Victor Ortiz vs Saul Alvarez, why all the excitement about this match up?  It basically another blown up welterweight for the much larger Canelo.   Victor has just two fights in the lower welterweight division, one in which he went life or death with Berto and another in which he got knocked out by the pound for pound the best fighter in the world Floyd Mayweather.   And while it did [...]