Karo “The Heat” Parisyan appears to be done with the UFC.
Parisyan (18-5) was slated to take on Dustin Hazelett in a welterweight matchup at UFC 106 Saturday, but reportedly pulled out of the bout at the last minute Thursday.
UFC President Dana White announced on Twitter that Parisyan will “not be fighting again in the UFC.”
UFC President Dana White has told Yahoo Sports that Dan Henderson is headed to Strikeforce.
“I guarantee you 1,000 percent that Dan Henderson is signed by Strikeforce,” White was quoted as saying. “Dan and I have been friends and we will continue to be friends, but it just didn’t work out and he went to Strikeforce.”
Obviously, if Henderson does indeed end up in Strikeforce it takes a possible rematch against Anderson Silva off the table, a fight looked forward to by many. It also brings to end speculation that he could face Nate Marquardt.
Former Bamberg-Ehrhardt standout athlete Rodney Wallace’s UFC debut was confirmed this week.
Wallace (9-0) will face Brian Stann (7-2, 1-1) who is coming off a unanimous decision win over Steve Cantwell at Ultimate Fight Night 19 in September on the UFC’s TUF 10 Finale Show Dec. 5 at the Palmes Casino in Las Vegas.
Wallace, a light heavyweight, won the Vendetta Fighting Championship in September, defeating three men in one night.
Brock Lesnar has pulled out of his UFC 106 heavyweight title defense against Shane Carwin due to a prolonged illness.
Lesnar has reportedly been battling the illness for more than three weeks. Now, the UFC is left with a main event between light heavyweight fighters Tito Ortiz and Forrest Griffin as the main event of that card. It is expected that Carwin will stay on the card, but finding a “main event” worthy replacement could prove difficult on such short notice (the card is scheduled to take place Nov. 21).
The outcome of UFC 104 was such a foregone conclusion Saturday night that I nearly turned the channel.
Through five rounds, in my mind, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had put together a brilliant tactical fight. No, he didn’t level Lyoto Machida – a man many of us thought, at least a little, couldn’t be touched inside a cage – but, he did land more shots than Machida did. And, he did it with some vicious leg kicks that slowed the Dragon, known for his elusiveness, down and made him easy to hit.
Shogun dominated, and at times in the fifth and final round looked like he might just be toying with Machida a bit. He was the aggressor for much of the fight, save a few times when Machida moved forward with a flurry. Really, it was as clear cut as could be. Shogun was back and in a big way.
Then, the results from the judges came back, they raised Machida’s hand, a unanimous decision of all things, and strapped the belt right back on the guy who brought it to the octagon. The question is, what happened?
Check out the FightMetric stats on the bout: Rua landed 82 shots to Machida’s 42. Almost double. He landed 17 shots to the head to Machida’s 14, and he landed 49 leg kicks to Machida’s 4. FightMetric scored the bout 49-47 for Rua. So, why didn’t the judges?
The most obvious answer is, the judges simply didn’t know what they were looking at. They took the power of five rounds of solid leg kicks foregranted, ignored the fact that Shogun had hobbled Machida and, well … let’s be honest about this, the judges were horrible in this one. There is no real excuse other than to say they have to do better. It’s not a good thing for MMA when one man clearly beats the other and doesn’t get the decision.
Dana White has since said a rematch is imminent. Credit him for that decision. It’s the only right thing that could have been done in this situation.
More UFC 104 thoughts
Stefan Struve won “Submission of the Night,” Patrick Barry and Antonio Hardonk won “Fight of the Night,” and Barry also won “Knockout of the Night.” Each fighter earned an extra $60,000 for the awards with Barry getting an extra $120,000 for winning two awards… Dana White said Anthony “Rumble” Johnson would have won “Knockout of the Night” had he made weight. Johnson missed weight by five pounds. Still, as embarrassing as that is, he was impressive, scoring a knockout of Yoshiyuki Yoshida at 0:41 of the first round… Joe Stevenson’s ground and pound was pretty vicious in his win over Spencer “The King” Fisher… The stoppage in the Cain Velasquez-Ben Rothwell fight was ill-timed however, Velasquez dominated and still had Rothwell in a bad way.
Lyoto Machida got the decision over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event of UFC 104 Saturday night.
The decision was questionable at best. Personally, I gave Rua all five rounds in the fight. Granted, a couple of the rounds were close, but Rua clearly did more damage. MMA is one of the greatest sports in the world, but decisions like tonight are discouraging. It’s clear, and has been stated time and time again, that officiating and judging in MMA has to improve.
Carolina Fight Promotions is rolling out an impressive card this Saturday for their Carolina Crown event Saturday in Raleigh.
MMA legend Royce Gracie is scheduled to be the guest host at the event, and Vinny Magalhaes and Jason Guida will square off in teh main event. In total, the card will feature 14 fights, seven amateur and seven pro.
A video has circulated on the internet today of UFC President Dana White saying that middleweight star Dan Henderson was asking for “obscene” money and that the sides were far apart in negotiations.
Rumors have circulated recently that Henderson has been mulling a move to Strikeforce. Such a move would be dissapointing for many MMA fans. Henderson, who had one of the more vicious knockouts in recent memory when he flattened Michael Bisping at UFC 100, seemed to be headed toward a matchup with Nate Marquardt. The winner of that match, likely, would move on to face the winner of the impending Anderson Silva/Vitor Belfort matchup.
That would be a compelling series of fights for MMA fans. On the other hand, in Strikeforce, Henderson immediately becomes the best fighter in his division and possibly (sorry Fedor fans) the entire company.
Finally … the Gracie family has returned to the UFC.
Numerous reports indicate that heavyweight Rolles Gracie (3-0) has been signed by the UFC and will take on Mostapha Al-Turk (6-5, 0-2 UFC) at UFC 109.
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