- Taylor Swift – Style – Qwanny’s Version | Q3 Media Super Bowl Ad
- 10 Greatest Wide Receivers that NEVER Won a Super Bowl
- 10 Best Christmas Day Performances in NBA History
- The Beast: The Final Fight | Documentary | A Qwality Film
- The Beast: The Final Fight Trailer
- The Crush Podcast: Broncos Lose Again, Kelce the Clout Chaser
- Qwality Sports: Ben Gordon Interview, Talks Time in NBA and His Workout Mindset
- AFC South Sports Betting Preview
- UFC London Aspinall vs Blaydes
- Take A Guess: The Sports Trivia Game Show Hosted by DeQwan Young | Episode 29
UFC 202 Preview
- Updated: August 20, 2016
by Abraham Jackson
When people look back at UFC in 2016, they all call it the “Year of the Upset”. From Michael Bisping avenging a dominant loss to Luke Rockhold to claim UFC gold, to Tyron Woodley viciously knocking out the man who was labeled ‘unknockout-able’ Robbie Lawler to win the UFC Welterweight championship. Those are just two examples of what has been a rollercoaster year of shocking upsets in MMA, which reminds us combat sports fans that no matter how much of an underdog a fighter or how dominant a champion can look prior to a fight, one punch can simply change history. As amazing as Bisping and Woodley’s upsets were this year, they were both overshadow but one upset in particular on the night of March 5th, 2016 when Nathan Donald Diaz punched his ticket into stardom by defeating the most must-see fighter since Brock Lesnar was reigning in the organization, the UFC Featherweight Champion, Conor McGregor.
This fight wasn’t originally suppose to happen. After Conor McGregor backed up everything he has been talking about since he arrived to the UFC, and knocked out the long time Featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo in 13 seconds flat, his stock couldn’t get any higher within the company. Conor McGregor’s confidence and star power sky rocketed, giving him the opportunity to do something he set out to do since he signed to the UFC and become both the Featherweight champion, and Lightweight champion at the same time thus becoming the only man to hold two titles simultaneously in the company. Conor McGregor accomplished this when he was fighting in top European MMA organization Cage Warriors, which was what garner him attention and hype prior signing to UFC. Unfortunately for Conor McGregor those dreams were put to a halt, when the UFC Lightweight champion at the time Rafael dos Anjos injured his foot 2 weeks before their originally schedule fight at UFC 196. UFC not wanting to take McGregor off the card and lose interest and money from what was intended to be one of the biggest UFC cards ever, they scrambled for a replacement for dos Anjos, look no further than Nate Diaz.
Nate Diaz’s UFC career has had it’s share of ups and downs since he broke out of his older brother Nick Diaz’’s shadow back in 2007 when he won the Ultimate Fighter season 5 competition. Nate Diaz remained in title contention in the lightweight division since then boosting wins over some of the best 155lbs fighters in the world like Donald Cerrone, Gray Maynard, Jim Miller, among many others. Nate even challenged for the Lightweight title against then champion Benson Henderson although losing by unanimous decision. But since he challenged for the championship, Nate’s career looked to hit a bit of a slump losing for the first time by TKO against Josh Thomson. He was able to rebound from that devastating loss by TKOing Gray Maynard but he stayed on the sidelines for over a year, until finally fighting Rafael dos Anjos in December of 2014, in a fight which was a very underwhelming fight. Nate would show up to the dos Anjos fight 5 pounds overweight and his performance was nothing short of mediocre. Once again Nate would sit on the sidelines for another year until fighting surging contender Michael Johnson. This time Nate Diaz looked motivated, in shape and ready to fight and his performance spoke for it’s self. He out-struck Michael Johnson in what was the most impressive performance of his career in 4 years, and right after he would go back to what made him popular in the UFC, his outspoken ways calling out the top dog in the UFC brass Conor McGregor which would immediate spark headlines and interest among the headlines, setting up possibly a big money fight.
Little did we know we would be getting this fight only 3 months removed from Nate DIaz’s epic post fight rant after his Michael Johnson win. When Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of the fight, the immediate fight that the fans and the UFC top brass wanted to book was the Nate Diaz/Conor McGregor fight. There were some a few issues when setting up the fight as Nate Diaz would be coming into that fight with only 10 days notice, so him cutting down to 155lbs was a problem. Not wanting Nate to possible make any excuses after the fight, Conor allowed the fight to be at 170lbs which would mean he would have to beef up in 10 days. So with all the hype, exciting press conferences and the stellar weigh-in we finally get to fight night, finally we get to fight night.
There is a lot of misconceptions about the first fight, people seem to has a foggy memory about. Upon reviewing the first fight, a lot of people seem to think that Conor McGregor dominant that round. Granted I felt Conor McGregor won that round but it certainly wasn’t a dominant round. Conor did find some success with his left hand hitting Diaz with the harder shots, but his attacks were wild and all over the place. It looked like he had problems with a southpaw the size of Diaz in the round, especially when Diaz was finding success with his right jab. I don’t know how people thought this was such as dominant round, and Conor was massacring him but it was far from it. Another thing people had a misconception about its that Conor isn’t a good grappler. Near the end of the first round Diaz was able to find a way on top of Conor, but Conor was able to sweep Diaz and get top position on him, press up against the cage too. Someone who isn’t a capable grappler wouldn’t be able to sweep a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as good as Diaz is, Conor may not be Jacare Souza level in Jiu Jitsu but he certainly isn’t an amateur that casual fans make him out to be. Yes Conor did get submit by Diaz, but that was after a very lazy takedown attempt after he was gassed and already rocked by a Diaz on the feet. That certainly doesn’t constitute Conor being a bad grappler, because I’ve seen many top level Jiu Jitsu guys in MMA get submit by fighters who are not on the same level as them when it comes to Jiu Jitsu in very similar way.
Now with Diaz upsetting Conor, not only has his star power sky rocketed it put him in a very lucrative position where he is now one of the bigger draws within the organization, giving him bargaining chips. Conor being the competitor he is, wants and eventually gets an immediate rematch much to the disappointment to the featherweight division top contenders who are awaiting Conor to come back down and defend his title so they can get their pay day fights. But UFC knows that even with Conor losing, they hit the bank on this big money rivalry. Although Conor’s rivalry with Jose Aldo was entertaining it was pretty much one sided, as it was strictly Conor who made the rivalry entertaining with his constant trash talk and belittling of his adversary. Prior to losing his belt to McGregor, Jose was champion in for nearly 6 years, including when he was champion in WEC, which was owned by ZUFFA at the time. Despite being a dominant champion, he was never a big money draw or someone who got the needle moving when it comes to super fights. Conor McGregor was his first real big money fight, despite defending his title 7 times on PPV. With Nate Diaz you get another fighter with personality, and who can talk trash back to Conor, it as all the makings for the big money fight we are getting this Saturday and a big reason why Conor’s fight with Diaz was more successful in PPV buyrates and box-office revenue than his fight with Aldo despite only having 11 days to promote the fight.
This fight was originally suppose to take place on UFC 200, but there was problems with the UFC top brass and Conor McGregor with Conor not wanting to do the amount of press conferences they were asking him to do. So UFC decided to take Conor off the milestone card putting to the much anticipated rematch on hold for the time being. Then it was announced at UFC 199 that they have an official date for Diaz/McGregor 2, at UFC 202 in Las Vegas on August 20th, to the excitement of hardcore fans and casual fans alike. This time both fighters will have full training camps for this fight. For this training camp, Conor McGregor has brought into two key factors that will help him try to avenge his loss to the long, lanky southpaw. The first is that in Marcelo Garcia black belt, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu sensation, Dillon Danis who has won almost every prestige BJJ tournament at only 22 year olds. The second is a tall, lumbering, southpaw who will be duplicating Nate Diaz in Conor Wallace who is a 6-time National Champion boxer. Even though in the first fight Conor was already training prior to the opponent switch, its never easy for a fighter to have an opponent change less then 2 weeks to fight night especially when it’s a fighter who is totally different stye than his original opponent, and especially when you have to jump 2 weight class in that time. So yes Conor will be more equipped to Nate Diaz’s skill set this time around, but in the same token if he loses this fight he will have no excuses, and he will be forced to go back down to featherweight, knowing he lost to the better fighter. As for Nate, he will get to have a full training camp, but not much will change for the Stockton native other than being in better shape. He already knows mentally he can beat Conor, and he already has a who’s who of fighters in his training camp, whom he has trained with for over a decade. Fighters like his older brother Nick Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, and Jake Shields, better yet all known as the “Scrap Pack”, who has made a name for themselves fighting at the top level for many years.
What Conor needs to do to win this fight, is realize he can’t push to pace he was able to do against smaller fighters at Featherweight. Conor had the size advantage when he was fighting at 145lbs therefore his favorite weapons, mainly his left hand and kicks were effective. Against a taller southpaw like Diaz, it’s not nearly going to be effective especially from someone who can endure punishment like Nate. Conor has beaten other southpaw fighters before like Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway both of whom are exceptional fighters and are vying for title shots down the road, Conor knocking out Dustin in less than 2 minutes, and beating Max Holloway who actually has a height advantage over Conor in easy fashion despite blowing his knee out in the fight in route to a dominant decision win. But style-wise Conor is a better match up for them than he is Nate. In this fight Conor has to go against all his natural instinct’s of what made him the fighter he is. He can’t be the fighter who pushes the pace because that will play into Nate’s fight, as Nate can outpace pretty much every fighter there is out there. He needs to time his punches and have a much more methodical approach this time around, he can’t look to get Nate out there quickly, he has to respect the chin of Nate and not look for a one punch highlight reel KO. As for what Nate needs to do? Not much needs to change for Nate this second time, similar to in the first round he was utilize the jab against the smaller fighter, as Conor approaches with his powerful lefthand, left off that right jab before he gets a chance to land. Like he has done in so many fights before, Nate needs to play the mental game with Conor to point where Conor abandons his gameplan and look for the one punch KO which will play right into Nate’s hands and let Conor tire himself out like he did in the first round. Regardless of what happens, this fight will be talked about for decades to come, and it will be in the best interest of the UFC if Conor wins as they can set up the rubber match in the future.
Despite being overshadowed by the main event, we have a co-main event fight that could possibly steal the show with two of the most explosive, hard hitting Light Heavyweight’s in the division, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson takes on Glover Teixeira with big title implications on the line as the winner will most likely face the Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier next. In what is a polar-opposite of the main event, both Rumble Johnson and Glover Teixeira both share mutual respect and admiration for each other, and would rather let their skills do the speaking instead of their mouths.
Since moving up to Light Heavyweight, Rumble Johnson’s career has skyrocketed finally realizing his potential. Looking at how big in size and successful Rumble is at 205lbs, it’s hard to imagine that he was fighting at Welterweight at one point. Back then you saw the explosiveness of Rumble, but you saw the lack of discipline. Often missing weight, and gassing out in fights it was clear Anthony Johnson didn’t belong at Welterweight. He would move up to middleweight to take on someone who would end up being a training partner of his in Vitor Belfort, and missed weight there as well, gassed out in the fight and wound up getting choked out by the Brazilian legend. After missing weight various times, Rumble was handed his walking papers by the UFC but wound up being a blessing in disguise for his career. Rumble would move up to 205lbs, and go 6-0 outside the UFC defeating the likes of Jake Rosholt, Mike Kyle, and Andrei Arlovski eventually getting invited back to the UFC. It looked like Rumble found growth, maturity and a home at Light Heavyweight and in his 2nd go around in the UFC, it showed going on a 3 fight winning streak against some of the best fighters in the division in Phil Davis, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and knocking out the man who was considered the #1 contender in Alexander Gustafsson in his home country of Sweden to secure a title shot. Although he was originally suppose to fight Jon Jones for the belt, but Jones’s outside actions got him stripped of the title setting up a fight between Rumble and former #1 contender Daniel Cormier for the vacant title. Despite rocking Cormier in the beginning of the fight, Cormier was able to withstand Rumble’s onslaught and repeatably took down and bloodied Rumble until he secured a rear naked choke in the 3rd round. Not feeling discouraged by the loss, Rumble took it as a learning experience and bounced back with two impressive knock out wins over Jimi Manuwa and Ryan Bader working his way back to a title shot, but now the only man in his way is a Brazilian knock out machine who is equally as impressive on the ground as he is on his feet in Glover Teixeira.
Glover Teixeira’s road to this #1 contender’s fight is a much different path than his opponent. Glover was discovered by the UFC legend Chuck Liddell’s trainer John Hackleman, and for many years served as one of Chuck Liddell’s main training partners. Eventually Glover would build up his own name, and for years was regarded as one of the best fighters not fighting in the UFC. He would amass a 17-2 record, until finally at the age of 32 would get his chance at the big show in the UFC. His first fight he dominated former Ultimate Fighter alumni Kyle Kingsbury choking him out in the first round. Glover would then beat the likes of Fabio Maldonado, former champion Rampage Jackson, James Te-Huna and Ryan Bader until finally realizing his dream and getting a UFC title shot. Despite losing to champion Jon Jones, Glover showed his grit and heart in the fight never giving up despite Jones’s onslaught and made many fans that night. After that Glover hit a bit of a road bump losing to Phil Davis by unanimous decision, but bounced back with big wins over Ovince Saint Preux and Patrick Cummins, and then knocking out former Light Heavyweight champion, Rashad Evans this past April in impressive fashion. At age 36 this may be the last chance Glover gets to becoming a champion and recognizing his dreams, so he will have to be the very best Glover Teixeira if he wants to fight Daniel Cormier next.
Both fighters bring the the dynamic factor that they can end the fight at any given moment with one punch. Although on paper you will be expecting a stand up fight, I wouldn’t be surprised if either fighter tries to take the fight to the ground. Rumble Johnson comes from a wrestling background, and has very impressive top control, but at the same time Glover Teixeira isn’t no slouch in the wrestling department and is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt who has competed in some of the best BJJ tournaments in the world. This is such a tough fight to call, as there is so many factors coming into this fight but it will be interesting how it all plays out nonetheless.
Other fights to look out for is the fan favorite Donald Cerrone in his second fight at Welterweight against the gritty Rick Story. Rising superstar and knockout artist Cody Garbrandt who may be on the verge of a title shot takes on tough veteran Takeya Mizugaki. Before the main event, one of the more intriguing fights which has bragging rights written all over it is Conor McGregor’s main training partner and Ultimate Fighter finalist Artem Lobov, takes on Nate Diaz’s protege and rising prospect Chris Avila. But my sleeper fight of the night would go to Neil Magny vs. Lorenz Larkin which will main event the Fight Pass part of the prelim. Both fighters are nearing title shots, especially Neil Magny who is one of my personal favorite fighters who continues to impress me with his all around skills and durability , but Lorenz Larkin who has been nothing short of impressive since moving down to welterweight will look to put a halt to Magny’s title hopes with his explosive striking and knock out power. All in all this is going to be a impressive night of fights from top to bottom, and if all plays out right this could go down as one of the most talked about events in UFC history.