Tag: Ricky Simon

Urijah Faber vs. Ricky Simon In The Works For UFC Sacramento

Yesterday, Urijah Faber had announced he had agreed to a fight for his return with all signs pointing towards him fighting at UFC Sacramento. “Looking at today’s landscape, I just know that I can compete easily. I’ve stayed in great shape,” Faber…

Yesterday, Urijah Faber had announced he had agreed to a fight for his return with all signs pointing towards him fighting at UFC Sacramento. “Looking at today’s landscape, I just know that I can compete easily. I’ve stayed in great shape,” Faber said to Dan Hardy. “It sounds like fun and the reason I stopped […]

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Exclusive: Ricky Simón Talks Cracking Bantamweight Elite

Fresh off his dominant victory at UFC 234, Washington State’s Ricky Simón shares his thoughts on his performance and who he wants next. Simón made the most of his pay-per-view debut at UFC 234 as he thoroughly dominated Rani Yahya with a clear unanimous decision nod. Immediately after his fight, however, Simón was none too […]

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Fresh off his dominant victory at UFC 234, Washington State’s Ricky Simón shares his thoughts on his performance and who he wants next.

Simón made the most of his pay-per-view debut at UFC 234 as he thoroughly dominated Rani Yahya with a clear unanimous decision nod.

Immediately after his fight, however, Simón was none too pleased by his performance. That’s because he is a notoriously hard critic of himself. However, now that he has had a couple of days to take it all in, has Simón changed his tune?

“I always feel like I’m my biggest critic,” Simón told LowkickMMA in a recent interview. “For some reason right after the fight, I could only think of everything I did wrong. One of my coaches, Ian Loveland, wasn’t able to make the trip out, but I could still hear him yelling at me during the fight anytime I would make a mistake.”

“But you know honestly I think I followed the gameplan to a tee. You know, I beat the No. 15 guy in the world so I can’t be too hard on myself,” Simón said.

Cracking the bantamweight elite should be a foregone conclusion for Simón. But as the 26-year-old points out the rankings are fairly unpredictable.

“I never know how the rankings work,” explained Simón. “I feel like Rani should have been ranked high himself. And I definitely want that number next to my name because once you get that a lot of things can change. Not just in the fight game either. As far as getting matched up, getting new contracts, more money, and more sponsorship.”

“I am excited to see the ranking come out and I should definitely have a number next to my name,” Simon concluded.

Shortly after speaking with Simón the UFC released their new updated rankings. Simón will be happy to know that he now has the number 14 next to his name. So now that he has cracked the bantamweight rankings what’s next for Simón?

He has a certain someone in mind.

“Someone I have my sights set on is Rob Font,” Simón told LowkickMMA. “I’m always looking at the rankings and I’m always trying to see the next step and who has what match ups. I feel like that is a great, great fight.”

He continued, “It would be an entertaining fight and it would push me into the top 10. I wanted to break that top ten in 2019 and I’m already on the right track.”

As for what’s in the immediate future for Simón, a wedding. The bantamweight contender is planning a wedding in June, but keeping true to form, Simón would like to get one more fight in before the big day.

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UFC 227 Video Highlights: Ricky Simon Bests Montel Jackson In Prelim Bout

In the co-main event on the preliminary card at UFC 227 on Saturday night, Ricky Simon picked up a big victory. Simon bested Montel Jackson in a Bantamweight bout that aired second-to-last on the FX prelim portion of the big event at the STAPLES Center…

In the co-main event on the preliminary card at UFC 227 on Saturday night, Ricky Simon picked up a big victory. Simon bested Montel Jackson in a Bantamweight bout that aired second-to-last on the FX prelim portion of the big event at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California on Saturday night. The judges scored […]

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Big John McCarthy Reacts To Controversial UFC Atlantic City Stoppage

This weekend’s (Sat., April 21, 2018) UFC Fight Night 128 from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw a controversial stoppage unfold when bantamweight Ricky Simon came back from an early round beating against Merab Dvalishvili. In the fight’s third round, Simon snatched a mounted guillotine choke on a tired Dvalishvili, and the dangerous […]

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This weekend’s (Sat., April 21, 2018) UFC Fight Night 128 from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, saw a controversial stoppage unfold when bantamweight Ricky Simon came back from an early round beating against Merab Dvalishvili.

In the fight’s third round, Simon snatched a mounted guillotine choke on a tired Dvalishvili, and the dangerous submission was tight.

Watch the brutal choke right here, which went down to the final seconds of the fight:

At first, it appeared Dvalishvili would survive to the bell and, after out-striking Simon by a wide margin in the opening rounds, most likely win on the judges’ scorecards. Dvalishvili didn’t tap despite being in serious danger, and the fight seemingly came to a close.

However, a cageside discussion amongst officials declared that the fight would be called a TKO victory for Simon after Dvalishvili was deemed to be unconscious at the end of the third round. The video showed that Dvalishvili was indeed in big trouble and exhausted towards the end of the three-round fight, and a heated argument about whether or not it was the correct call predictably erupted online. According to many of the prominent MMA referees questioned, it seems the consensus is that referee Liam Kerrigan and the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board made the right call last weekend.

The biggest name in refereeing for the sport – legendary UFC referee and current Bellator commentator “Big” John McCarthy – discussed the strange scenario with fans on Twitter last night, saying that the right outcome was made, but the wrong result was recording with a TKO:

McCarthy even responded to Ariel Helwani’s clarification of the situation, forcefully declaring it should have been a technical submission result:

“Big” John also cleared up any doubt in his mind that Dvalishvili was out, detailing the exact moment when he went out not once but twice in the fight:

Earlier in the night, McCarthy had a somewhat angry, somewhat humorous response to a fan who asked him if being saved by the bell was a real thing in MMA as it was in boxing:

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UFC Fight Night 128 Performance Of The Night Bonus Winners

UFC Fight Night 128 has come-and-gone and it was quite the event. The event saw Kevin Lee dominate Edson Barboza, aside from one scary moment from a hook kick, en route to a fifth round TKO victory due to doctor stoppage. Also on the card, Frankie Edga…

UFC Fight Night 128 has come-and-gone and it was quite the event. The event saw Kevin Lee dominate Edson Barboza, aside from one scary moment from a hook kick, en route to a fifth round TKO victory due to doctor stoppage. Also on the card, Frankie Edgar bounced back from his first-ever knockout loss to […]

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UFC Atlantic City Bonuses: Branch Earns Extra $50K For Knockout

UFC Fight Night 128 emanated tonight (Saturday, April 21, 2018) from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. The headliner saw two 155-pound contenders, Kevin Lee and Edson Barboza, duke it out for supremacy. Apart form the main event, former World Series Of Fighting (WSOF) two-division champ David Branch made an emphatic statement against Thiago […]

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UFC Fight Night 128 emanated tonight (Saturday, April 21, 2018) from the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. The headliner saw two 155-pound contenders, Kevin Lee and Edson Barboza, duke it out for supremacy.

Apart form the main event, former World Series Of Fighting (WSOF) two-division champ David Branch made an emphatic statement against Thiago Santos with a first round knockout.

This was several months removed from his second round defeat to ex-UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. Branch took home an extra $50,000 for his efforts and Performance Of The Night.

Our second recipient of Performance Of The Night goes to none other than welterweight Siyar Bahadurzada. He pulled off an amazing second round TKO over opponent Luan Chagas by way of body kick.

It was one of the more dramatic finishes of the night and earned the 34-year-old $50,000 more to take home.

Finally, fight of the night goes to the bantamweight scrap between Merab Dvalishvili and Ricky Simon. Simon made his Octagon debut in Atlantic City, and what a debut it was.

The end of the fight brought a ton of controversy as Simon locked in a choke that seemed to render Dvalishvili unconscious. The referee never called the fight off and it seemed as though the fight would go to the judges’ scorecards.

Instead. the decision was made to award Simon the fight for rendering his opponent unconscious with the choke. They’ll both take home an extra $50,000 for their amazing performances.

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