Tag: Tim Boetsch

Chris Weidman Swagger-Jacks Mark Munoz, Undergoes Elbow Surgery


(I guess we could caption this, but wrestling has a way of sometimes looking funny enough on its own.)

#1 middleweight contender Middleweight Chris Weidman just can’t let Mark Munoz have his own moment. First, Weidman spoiled Munoz’ hopes of earning a title shot. Now, just days after we found out Munoz injured his foot and will be out for some time, and also that his elbow is still jacked up from nasty bone chips, Weidman decided that he needed elbow surgery to remove bone chips as well.

We suppose its possible that Weidman’s elbow surgery is unrelated to sticking it to Munoz. MMA Fighting has the report. “[Weidman] underwent surgery at the Sanford Surgical Tower on his left elbow to clean out bone chips that had developed over time.”

According to the report, Weidman had been dealing with elbow issues for over two years.


(I guess we could caption this, but wrestling has a way of sometimes looking funny enough on its own.)

#1 middleweight contender Middleweight Chris Weidman just can’t let Mark Munoz have his own moment. First, Weidman spoiled Munoz’ hopes of earning a title shot. Now, just days after we found out Munoz injured his foot and will be out for some time, and also that his elbow is still jacked up from nasty bone chips, Weidman decided that he needed elbow surgery to remove bone chips as well.

We suppose its possible that Weidman’s elbow surgery is unrelated to sticking it to Munoz. MMA Fighting has the report. “[Weidman] underwent surgery at the Sanford Surgical Tower on his left elbow to clean out bone chips that had developed over time.”

According to the report, Weidman had been dealing with elbow issues for over two years. With a few months before he’s scheduled to fight Tim Boetsch, Weidman reportedly felt this was a good time to get his ‘bow fixed up. Hopefully his surgery and recovery go better than Munoz’.

“According to Weidman’s doctors, he will be back to full strength in three-to-six weeks. Weidman expects to return to his home in Long Island, N.Y., in a two days, and he will be able to resume cardio training next week,” MMA Fighting reported.

Side note, ‘taters – we are now taking bets on just how many fights Weidman will have to win before he gets the title shot he already deserves. We’ll call it the Okami over-under.

– Elias Cepeda

Chris Weidman to Return Against Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 in December


(Stare at the space directly between them, and slowly move toward your screen. If you do it correctly, you will eventually see the face of Phil Baroni.)

Now that Anderson Silva is “vacationing” until a big fight comes along, Chris Weidman‘s hard-earned #1 middleweight contender spot means jack shit. That’s reality, and there’s nothing Chris can do but exist within it, you know? And so, the undefeated Serra-Longo product will return to the Octagon against another contender, with the hope that he doesn’t get bumped down the ladder.

Multiple outlets are reporting that Weidman will face off against fellow 185-pound bruiser Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 (December 29th, Las Vegas). Weidman is coming off of his insane elbow-KO of Mark Munoz in July, which boosted his UFC record to 5-0. Meanwhile, Boetsch is on an improbable 4-0 run as a middleweight, including an epic comeback TKO against Yushin Okami, and his bizarre split-decision win against Hector Lombard — a “guaranteed slugfest” that turned out to be shockingly dull.


(Stare at the space directly between them, and slowly move toward your screen. If you do it correctly, you will eventually see the face of Phil Baroni.)

Now that Anderson Silva is “vacationing” until a big fight comes along, Chris Weidman‘s hard-earned #1 middleweight contender spot means jack shit. That’s reality, and there’s nothing Chris can do but exist within it, you know? And so, the undefeated Serra-Longo product will return to the Octagon against another contender, with the hope that he doesn’t get bumped down the ladder.

Multiple outlets are reporting that Weidman will face off against fellow 185-pound bruiser Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 (December 29th, Las Vegas). Weidman is coming off of his insane elbow-KO of Mark Munoz in July, which boosted his UFC record to 5-0. Meanwhile, Boetsch is on an improbable 4-0 run as a middleweight, including an epic comeback TKO against Yushin Okami, and his bizarre split-decision win against Hector Lombard — a “guaranteed slugfest” that turned out to be shockingly dull.

With the champ unavailable and other top middleweights already booked, on the mend, or suddenly fighting at light-heavyweight, a matchup between Weidman and Boetsch is as logical as any other. And while it seems that Boetsch doesn’t have much of a chance here, we said that about the Barbarian’s last two fights too, so who knows.

UFC 155 will be headlined by the heavyweight title fight between Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, and will also feature Chael Sonnen vs. Forrest Griffin and Gray Maynard vs. Joe Lauzon.

UFC: Is Switching Weight Classes Really the Answer for Struggling Fighters?

Tim Boetsch made his UFC debut in early 2008 as a member of the light-heavyweight roster. After an unimpressive 2-2 run, The Barbarian was released from his contract and sent back to the independent leagues.In the summer of 2010, Boetsch received an in…

Tim Boetsch made his UFC debut in early 2008 as a member of the light-heavyweight roster. After an unimpressive 2-2 run, The Barbarian was released from his contract and sent back to the independent leagues.

In the summer of 2010, Boetsch received an invitation to rejoin the company. Not faring much better the second time around, the NCAA wrestler won his return contest, but was shut down by Phil Davis in his sophomore effort.

In six UFC contests, he was unable to put together a pair of consecutive wins and prove that his contract was deserved. Where could Boetsch go from here? 

After consulting with his coaches, Boetsch decided that a run at middleweight could be in his best interests, and boy, was he right.

Compiling a flawless 4-0 record since making the move, Boetsch has bested Ultimate Fighter winner Kendall Grove, previously undefeated Nick Ring and world-ranked competitors Yushin Okami and Hector Lombard. These days, the Barbarian is the No. 6 ranked middleweight in the world.

Likewise, Brian Stann is another fighter who had a less-than-stellar run in the UFC light-heavyweight division, but has breathed new life into his career by cutting weight. Other fighters who have dropped in weight in hopes of getting a fresh start include Urijah Faber, Martin Kampmann, Mike Swick and Demian Maia.

The wrestling mentality is that a fighter should be competing at the lowest weight that his body will allow him to compete. With incredible advances in the science of weight cutting, fighters are able to compete in divisions as much as 50 pounds lower than their walking weight.

However, just because you can get yourself to a particular weight does not mean that it’s the best place for you to compete. Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian and James Irvin have all worked their way down to a division in which their bodies were drained.

Were they competing against smaller competitors? Absolutely. But were they doing their best? Not a chance.

Irvin came into his middleweight debut badly dehydrated and resembled Skellator. Clearly, the former light-heavyweight did not have the energy to compete and he was quickly stopped in the first round by gatekeeper Alessio Sakara.

Sapping your body of fluids is riskier than simply coming in at less than 100 percent. Dr. Johnny “The Fight Doc” Benjamin has talked about the long term dangers of weight cutting.

“Weight cutting has been harshly regulated in wrestling, but it hasn’t been in the UFC. There are some very serious health concerns with weight cutting. The one everyone thinks about is kidney damage or kidney failure. Some people think it’s not a big deal, but go to a dialysis centre and spend an hour there and watch people get every drop of blood taken out of their bodies and ask them how it is to do that three times a week just to live. The other thing people don’t think about is your brain is at risk because water makes up 97 percent of the cerebral spinal fluid, the fluid around the brain that cushions it from blows. So anytime you lose mass amounts of water, you lose cushioning around the brain, and now you ask Vitor Belfort to punch you in the face—it’s a bad combination. “

Conversely, fighters like Rich Franklin, Jake Shields and Randy Couture have packed on additional pounds in hopes of improving their roster spot after failed attempts to capture (or recapture) a championship in their natural weight class. 

Chael Sonnen is considering a move to light-heavyweight after a pair of failed bids to capture the middleweight championship from Anderson Silva. Former champion Rich Franklin made the same move nearly four years ago.

Randy Couture jumped up to heavyweight in 2007 when he recognized that the division was weak enough for a smaller-statured athlete like himself to utilize superior technique in order to negate a size disadvantage. That being said, each division has a collection of legitimate contenders, and a move of this magnitude is unlikely in the competitive climate of today’s MMA.

In terms of packing on weight, sometimes it is necessary. As his body continues to grow, Jon Jones will be unable to make the 205 pound limit. The same story goes with champions Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz and their respective divisions.

What does all of this weight switching mean? Is a different division the way to go for someone who is struggling to make a name for themselves? Or is this simply the MMA version of “the grass is always greener?”

As fighters look for a competitive advantage inside the Octagon, you can expect fighters to continue changing divisions. Is it the best solution for a struggling fighter? There is no cut and dry answer. However, so long as fighters like Tim Boetsch and Martin Kampmann continue to find success in lighter divisions, you had better believe that others are going to follow suit.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

It’s Cool, Hector Lombard Was Just Injured During his Loss to Tim Boetsch


“What’s that screeching noise? Sounds like a train coming to a sudden halt…”

Remember when we all thought that Hector Lombard was the X factor of the UFC middleweight division? And we pegged the middleweight who hadn’t lost a fight since 2006 a 4-1 favorite to wallop Tim Boetsch at UFC 149? And we thought he would go on to give Anderson Silva his toughest test to date? Oh man, those were some good times, right?

As far as Hector Lombard is concerned, not so fast. Three weeks after his dreadful performance at UFC 149, the Cuban middleweight has released a statement on his Facebook page. Presumably after meeting with his social media consultant, Tito Ortiz, Lombard claims that he was just too damn injured to have been fighting, bro. I know, put on your shocked faces.

Via His Official Facebook Page:


“What’s that screeching noise? Sounds like a train coming to a sudden halt…”

Remember when we all thought that Hector Lombard was the X factor of the UFC middleweight division? And we pegged the middleweight who hadn’t lost a fight since 2006 a 4-1 favorite to wallop Tim Boetsch at UFC 149? And we thought he would go on to give Anderson Silva his toughest test to date? Oh man, those were some good times, right?

As far as Hector Lombard is concerned, not so fast. Three weeks after his dreadful performance at UFC 149, the Cuban middleweight has released a statement on his Facebook page. Presumably after meeting with his social media consultant, Tito Ortiz, Lombard claims that he was just too damn injured to have been fighting, bro. I know, put on your shocked faces.

Via His Official Facebook Page:

I want to let all my fans know. I fought mu last fight injured. i wasnt 100% sure but i when to the doctors… I have a fracture sternum with a torn cartilage, i got this injure in training for my fight with Tim Boetsch. I have to be out of training for 6weeks i should never have fought like that, but i didnt want to let my fans and the UFC down, love you all.

So let me get this straight: You may have had this nasty injury coming into your fight at UFC 149 that restricted your movement to the point where you basically stood straight up and held your head perfectly still throughout the fight, but you somehow weren’t sure. And yet you waited until three weeks after the fight to go to the doctor to find out what, if anything, was wrong with you?


From one Cuban to another.

Now seems like the perfect opportunity to bring back CagePotato’s 12-Word Checklist for Knowing if You Should Fight Through Injury. So easy an MMA fighter could use it! Here it is: Hurt sternum? Don’t Fight. You do fight? Don’t talk about your sternum.

Given how appalling his performance was, do you buy his explanation, or is this another example of a fighter making an excuse for a loss after the fact?

@SethFalvo

Dr. Ferguson on Lombard Bout: ‘It Was Almost as If His Corner Was Delusional’

When Dr. Rhadi Ferguson makes his predictions for mixed martial arts matches, he takes a few different variables into consideration.But first and foremost, Dr. Ferguson, a world-renowned martial arts instructor who has trained Olympic athletes and cham…

When Dr. Rhadi Ferguson makes his predictions for mixed martial arts matches, he takes a few different variables into consideration.

But first and foremost, Dr. Ferguson, a world-renowned martial arts instructor who has trained Olympic athletes and champion mixed martial artists alike, looks past the fighters and into their corners.

“As you move up in the ranks of mixed martial arts, as you step up in competition, the quality of the coaching becomes more paramount,” noted Dr. Ferguson, 37. “I always refer to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War when it comes to making fight predictions.

“The one thing that you always have to look at, judge and measure are the abilities of the two coaches, the two camps.”

Good coaching can mean the difference between wins and losses, finishing a fight or being finished. On the other end of the spectrum, poor instruction can prove to have just as big of an influence on matches.

According to Dr. Ferguson, one doesn’t have to look any further back than Tim Boetsch and Hector Lombard’s match at UFC 149 on Saturday to see an example of the latter.

“‘Conan’ (Silveira, Lombard’s coach) got out-coached by Matt Hume and the people in his corner didn’t make the adjustment,” Dr. Ferguson explained. “Not only did they not make any adjustments, but they were telling Hector that he did fine when he clearly lost the first round.

“It was almost as if his corner was delusional. I’m not sure if the MMA game has passed Conan by—I’m not sure if he was aware of what was going on, I’m not sure if Hector’s corner knew what was going on—but there was no time during that fight where they asked Hector to modify his behaviour.”

In retrospect, Dr. Ferguson, who first heard of Lombard while the two were competing on the international judo circuit about 10 years ago, insisted that it wouldn’t have taken him long to modify Lombard’s behaviour on Saturday evening.

“If I was cornering Hector, I would say, ‘Hector, listen, son. You lost the first round, okay? The first round was close. This fight is very easy. You are a 2000 Olympian, you have some of the best takedowns in the world. Here’s what I need you to do: In the next 10 minutes, I need you to get me three takedowns, son. Can you do that?’ The answer would be, ‘Yes.’

“I need two takedowns in this round, Hector,’” Dr. Ferguson said. “‘Can you give me two takedowns?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘I don’t care if you punch, I don’t care if you knock him out—I don’t care about any of that. Hector, I need two takedowns. Do you understand?’”

From there, Dr. Ferguson noted that Lombard would promptly get his two takedowns before returning to the corner for the break between the second and third rounds.

“‘Hector, listen,” Dr. Ferguson continued. “I don’t know how the judges are scoring it, but it seems like you won the second round and the first round is up in the air. This is your UFC debut, son, and I need two takedowns in the final round.’”

Of course, as it played out, Dr. Ferguson watched the fight from home and Lombard woke up on Sunday morning with the third loss of his professional mixed martial arts career.

Going into Lombard’s bout with Boetsch, Dr. Ferguson predicted Lombard would finish on the losing end. But to be certain, Dr. Ferguson feels that Lombard, who he noted possesses a unique blend of speed and power, could have a bright future in the sport.

Yet one question, it seems, will persist as Dr. Ferguson continues to try to predict Lombard’s performances in the future.

“I know Conan prepares, but I am not sure about the depth and breadth of his coaching prowess,” said Dr. Ferguson, who trained under Silveira’s American Top Team banner for about five years in the 2000s. “The stuff that I do, I haven’t seen Conan doing any of that stuff and from my professional opinion, he doesn’t. He couldn’t possibly do the studying and analysis that I do and that the coaches that I’ve worked with over the years do. It’s just not possible. Because if he did, he would not have made such coaching and communication errors. To me, in my opinion, if you asked me to grade Conan’s coaching based on the coaching that I’ve done, he’s not going to make the grade.

“He’s super-knowledgeable, but coaching isn’t one-dimensional. It’s not just based on doing MMA or BJJ. You have to be a student and I challenge him to tell me the last 20 books he’s read on coaching in the last 24 months. I sat down with Greg Jackson for five minutes and, in that time, we had both read seven of the same books in the past 12 months. In my opinion, the game has passed Conan by and the only one who doesn’t know it is Conan. The great thing about having a superb athlete like Hector is that a great athlete covers up bad coaching when the competition disparity is great. Now that Hector is in the UFC, we’ll see how good Conan is. I hope for Hector’s sake he understands that coaches need coaching, too.

“And I’d be happy to have him as a client,” Dr. Ferguson added after pausing. “I think he’s a wonderful guy. He just needs to learn a bit more, that’s all.”

For more information on Dr. Rhadi Ferguson and MMA coaching, visit http://www.TheTruthAboutMMA.com

Ed Kapp is a Regina, Saskatchewan-based freelance journalist. Unless otherwise noted, all quotations were obtained first hand.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Anderson Silva Camp Thinks UFC Middleweights Are “Amateur Kids,” Rallies for GSP Just to Be Difficult


Anderson Silva, shown modeling for Rolling Stone while showing us his war face.

It’s no secret that the UFC middleweight division is a bit of a mess right now. With Michael Bisping set to fight Brian Stann, Alan Belcher squaring off against Vitor Belfort, Cung Le fighting Rich Franklin and Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch sitting on the sidelines, it’s no wonder we’re possibly looking at a middleweight tournament to sort this mess out. In theory, the tournament would give Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva plenty of time to go to barbecues and fight Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones while the division sorts itself out. In reality, that will never happen.

With the middleweight division being such a gigantic question mark, it may make sense to just ask someone in Anderson Silva’s camp who they’d like to see him fight next. There’s just one small problem: Anderson Silva’s camp are, how should I say this, pricks. Case in point, here’s what Silva’s manager Jorge Guimaraes said about the possibility of Anderson fighting Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher, who have all recently called out “The Spider” (via Tatame):


Anderson Silva, shown modeling for Rolling Stone while showing us his war face.

It’s no secret that the UFC middleweight division is a bit of a mess right now. With Michael Bisping set to fight Brian Stann, Alan Belcher squaring off against Vitor Belfort, Cung Le fighting Rich Franklin and Chris Weidman and Tim Boetsch sitting on the sidelines, it’s no wonder we’re possibly looking at a middleweight tournament to sort this mess out. In theory, the tournament would give Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva plenty of time to go to barbecues and fight Light-Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones while the division sorts itself out. In reality, that will never happen.

With the middleweight division being such a gigantic question mark, it may make sense to just ask someone in Anderson Silva’s camp who they’d like to see him fight next. There’s just one small problem: Anderson Silva’s camp are, how should I say this, pricks. Case in point, here’s what Silva’s manager Jorge Guimaraes said about the possibility of Anderson fighting Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher, who have all recently called out “The Spider” (via Tatame):

“That’s a big joke. Everybody saw that it worked for Chael, and he got really famous with that, and now everybody wants to be on the spotlight. No opponent makes sense for Anderson at this moment*. Unless we do a catchweight against Georges St. Pierre.** They didn’t offer the fight, but he’s the only one that could do a super fight. Anderson has the biggest paycheck in the UFC, and you can’t promote an event with these amateur kids that are coming up now.***”

*Except for, you know, the winners of the fights in the first paragraph that aren’t Le vs. Franklin. Include Weidman and Boetsch on that list, too.

** So, a guy who is undefeated, has won five fights in the UFC’s middleweight division and just destroyed a consensus top middleweight doesn’t make sense, but a welterweight who has been nursing an injury, is booked to unify the UFC Welterweight Championship/Interim Championship in November and will then need time to put on weight for a middleweight fight does. Right, sure, why not? Just tell me, is Chael Sonnen the middleweight champion of this parallel universe you’ve created, or did Travis Lutter manage to knock him out?

Look, the rest of us have given up on this Silva/GSP super fight years ago. With the time it would take for GSP to put on enough weight to fight at 185 – not to mention rehab from an injury in the all-too-likely case he gets hurt in November – it’s safe to assume that ship has sailed. Silva/GSP is pretty much an MMA pipe dream, the same way that Pacquiao vs. Mayweather is one for boxing.

***Didn’t we have this exact same discussion before UFC 117? And then didn’t Chael Sonnen make himself famous by calling out Anderson Silva, like you, you know, just said seconds earlier?

Eh, I give up. If you guys in the comments section have any better ideas for Anderson Silva that don’t involve middleweights, Jon Jones or Georges St. Pierre, let us know.

Previously: Anderson Silva Camp Doesn’t Want Weidman or Lombard, Brings up Luke Rockhold Just to Be Difficult.