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1:15 a.m. ET Greg Savage: All in all, UFC 179 was not the greatest card by any measurement but the main event came as advertised. Two high-quality opponents getting after it for 25 minutes.
1:00 p.m. ET Mike Fridley: UFC 179 is now history, but the night hasn’t concluded until performance awards are issued and the post-fight press conference has wrapped. Watch it here.
12:52 p.m. ETTristen Critchfield: Thus far in his career, Jose Aldo hasn’t resonated with fans the way he should, despite his dominance in the cage. One man in attendance at UFC 179 can probably relate. Once upon a time, Anderson Silva’s performances served to frustrate as much as fascinate. It wasn’t until his Hail Mary triumph against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117 that “The Spider” truly became beloved.
Perhaps this bout, a 2014 “Fight of the Year” candidate with Chad Mendes, can set Aldo on a similar track. In recent outings, Aldo, like Silva before him, has appeared disinterested in his opposition. That changed on Saturday night, as Mendes pushed him, and in the process, brought out a better version of the featherweight champion. Aldo still has a ways to go to match Silva’s lofty profile, but this performance can go a long way toward altering public perception.
12:42 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: Since I gave Mendes the hyper-wild third round, I had this bad boy 38-38 going into the final round. Despite his history of wilting and giving away the fifth and final round, Aldo fought with a great measure of control and aggression and took the last frame like a true champ. I have Aldo retaining on a 48-47 scorecard in one of the best fights this year, in the realm with Johny Hendricks-Robbie Lawler and Chris Weidman-Lyoto Machida.
12:37 p.m. ET Mike Fridley High-level coaching in the challenger’s corner between rounds four and five. Remember when Duane Ludwig’s name first became synonymous with violence as video of his surgical clinic on Shad Smith came to light? It’s comforting to see he’ll be rocking snot boxes vicariously long after his gloves are ceremoniously left in the center of a cage. Consensual violence lovers everywhere salute you, sir.
12:32 p.m. ET Mike Fridley As stung as Aldo was by Mendes in round three, the frame still goes to the champion for his striking sophistication and tempo control. Fans and some judges will give a round to a game challenger for making a champ look human, but stanzas are won on the merits of success rather than moral victories. I have it 30-27 after three.
12:18 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: It’s pretty clear that Jose Aldo was having his way with Chad Mendes in the latter half of the first round, but his final two blows were clearly after the bell. It’s the type of moment that could alter the course of a fight permanently. At the very least, Aldo deserves a stern warning. At most, a point deduction could be in order. He got neither from what I could see. Fortunately, Mendes seems to have recovered.
12:17 a.m. ET Jordan Breen: Apart from the unceremonious eye poke, a tremendous opening round to this featherweight championship bout and one of the best this year. Mendes was getting to Aldo early with a variety of left hands, while Aldo's countering combinations are pinpoint fast. However, Mendes got dropped when Aldo came out hot after getting poked in the eye, and was basically knocked down at the end of the round by a nasty one-two from Aldo which was a good second after the horn. Oh, the drama.
11:58 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It's hard not to think what might've been if Teixeira didn't miss three years of his prime in green card hell. However, I feel like when people look back at this specific fight, they'll wonder whether or not Teixeira's decision to train at his own gym in Connecticut was a good idea after all. Davis put it on him early and often tonight, but Teixeira still wasn't in great shape and was pretty sloppy on the feet.
11:57 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: When will we eventually start saying "How good could Glover Teixeira have been if he didn't have his visa problems for several years?"
11:38 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Great opening round for Phil Davis against Glover Teixeira. Considering Davis has won zero rounds in the fights he's lost – Lyoto Machida ripoff aside -- he's looked like a frontrunner. As soon as Rashad Evans and Anthony Johnson stuffed his takedowns, he retreated within himself and didn't engage at all. Even after Teixeira dinged him a few times in the first 60 seconds, Davis kept exchanging punches and actually set up his takedown. Also, he showed some fantastic leg riding and under-the-armpit punches, flashing some Cain Velasquez style.
11:29 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Wacky scorecard update: It was judge Vinicius Lins who gave Lucas Martins all three rounds against Darren Elkins. Lins previously gave Rony Mariano Bezerra every round in a fight he lost to Robbie Peralta, as well. He also gave Piotr Hallmann a 29-28 scorecard against Gleison Tibau.
11:27 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: Fabio Maldonado is a real slump buster for the UFC. They should just have him backstage at every single card and when things begin to drag, break the glass and run him out into the Octagon.
11:21 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Oh, fortunately for us, Fabio Maldonado decided to do his world-famous, much-beloved Homer Simpson routine and give this shot an overdue shot of adrenaline, straight to the hard. For the umpteenth time, Maldonado was taken down easily and used as a grappling dummy before getting top position and bashing Stringer to the head and body. Other than the Diaz brothers, no one uses the pattycake boxing attack as effectively and brutally as Brazil's favorite fighting redneck.
11:19 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Often times during an event like this, time and entertainment just become tenuous, abstract concepts that float in and out of my life as I try to keep tabs on fights, public reaction and editorial duties. But, it is typically around this midway portion of a PPV that you start to get a sense if a card is veering towards being memorable in some way. Judging from the fan and media voices I'm seeing on Twitter, via text, in my inbox, we could be headed for a memorably maligned card if this complete lack of excitement keeps up.
11:11 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: Get me a Xyience energy drink.
11:09 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: If you’re already struggling to keep your eyes open two bouts into this less-than-stellar UFC 179 pay-per-view offering, keep this in mind: Two weeks from now we return to Brazil for a Fight Night card with an Ovince St. Preux-Francimar Barroso co-main event. Just saying.
11:05 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Guys, I'm just here to tell you that Darren Elkins won an amusingly scored split decision over Lucas Martins, with two 30-27 scorecards and another 30-27 against him. I'm here to tell you this because every other human who watched it has tried to bleach it from their brain and few folks will dare ever speak of the bout ever again.
10:57 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: So, Martins-Elkins turns out to be an absolute dud. But, I'm looking around Twitter and the like, seeing lots of venom for Elkins as if he's solely to blame. He's a wrestler with a one-dimensional gameplan, who is nonetheless running straight forward with punch combos and front kicks to help set up a takedown. He can't really take Martins down, yet the Brazilian can't counter, can't cut a corner to create an angle, won't time him with a knee or an uppercut when he changes levels. Martins is completely trigger shy despite the fact he's made a mess of Elkins' face with a paltry amount of strikes. They're both culpable.
10:55 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: A picture is worth a thousand words.
Hats off to Wilson. That shit hurt. I thought I had him when I dropped him. #waitingtogetxrayinUSA pic.twitter.com/8udKLaUedQ
— Scott Jorgensen (@Scottjorgensen) October 26, 201410:37 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Heading into tonight, Brazilians were 84-40 against foreign opposition on home soil. Obviously, there's something to be said for the fact that many Brazilian guys have gotten preferable match-ups on these particular cards. I think the one overestimated aspect is the “hometown judging” aspect. The UFC always have two or three Brazilian judges, but there's non-Brazilian judges as well. If anything, the judging dynamic only comes into play in fights where the crowd sweating the home fighter in a close fight and could maybe lead the judges to be swayed by their reactions. Unless you're a guy like Matt Riddle (who claimed he thought jet lag was a myth until he flew to England to fight Nick Osipczak) who hasn't really traveled far from home and has no world, road warrior experiences, you should be fine going to fight in Brazil unless you're being installed as a fall guy.
10:31 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: How much of an advantage is fighting in Brazil nowadays? Better yet, any fighter competing in their hometown/country anywhere? So much is made of homefield advantage, and sure the Brazilian faithful are going to give that extra adrenaline boost to one of their own -- think Chris Kelades against Patrick Holohan in Nova Scotia, Canada a couple weeks back -- but is there any real correlation between fighting on home soil and grabbing victories inside the Octagon? It seems to be something that mattered a ton more in the past than it does heading into 2015.
10:16 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: Piggybacking off Mr. Breen, I have nothing but positive things to say about Carlos Diego Ferreira, who is coming off back to back finishes of Colton Smith and Ramsey Nijem. While the man truly stood out on a card as thin as UFC 177, he really made his mark with me personally during media day in Sacramento, Calif., as he was quite insightful about his progression as a mixed martial artist and about how much fighting for the UFC meant to him. Heading into his fight with Nijem, Ferreira knew he would be thrust into a slugfest, a style of fighting he is not accustomed to, but he excelled and added another niche to his evolving game. With 11 submission victories between them, it will be interesting to see if Beneil Dariush and Ferreira hits the mat early and often.
10:13 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: I'm particularly intrigued to see what Carlos Diego Ferreira can do on the feet against Dariush. Ferreira has a weird striking style: he doesn't have much hand speed, his punches tend to loop and he throws a lot of awkward punches while back-pedalling. And yet, in so many of his fights, including his hammerjob of Ramsey Nijem, he lands deceptively powerful, hyper-accurate punches, despite how they look. Not a bad quirk to have when you're primarily a grappler first and foremost.
10:12 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: And after your big win at Tachi, get a dubious stick of meat from Rez Dogs and wash it down with a pack of Natural American Spirit out of one of the many cigarette vending machines.
10:10 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: Fabricio Camoes, Christos Giagos, Andre Fili, Glover Teixeira and Chad Mendes. What do they all have in common? They all have smelled the sweet, sweet smell of Lemoore, Calif., courtesy of fighting at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino. I think if I'm a young fighter and want to get into the UFC, I'm looking to fight at the Tachi Palace.
9:57 p.m. ET Brian Knapp: Beneil Dariush is now carrying the banner Anderson Silva and Mauricio Rua once carried, as one of Rafael Cordeiro’s prized pupils. That sure beats scooping ice cream and blending milkshakes at Baskin-Robbins. Now that I think of it, I could go for some mint chocolate chip right about now; and we happen to have a few minutes before the main card starts. Honey, start the car.
9:55 p.m. ET Jeff Sherwood: With Magny getting the win tonight and going 5-0 this year and being mentioned in the same breath as a guy like Roger Huerta, maybe the UFC will at push him a bit more. Think back to how they pushed Huerta, then ask your yourself “Has the UFC pushed Neil Magny at all?” I'm not saying put him on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but any guy who can go 5-0 in your company deserves some kind of love or at least a fight against a real contender.
9:54 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: Magny’s 5-0 record in 2014 probably deserves an asterisk. Although he was given a unanimous decision victory over Alex Garcia at UFC Fight Night “Henderson vs. dos Anjos” in August, plenty of virtual judges saw that bout differently. All three Sherdog.com scorers -- myself included -- had the fight 29-28 for Garcia. And according to MMADecisions.com, six of the 11 media scorecards overall favored Garcia. Nobody said it didn’t take a little luck to get to 5-0. 9:47 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: Chris Leben is too shy to let us know how he really feels:
I'm watching the UFC right now and both these dudes are fucking horrible last fight on the undercard no clue what their names are
— Chris Leben (@cripplerufc) October 26, 20149:32 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: Look at you booking fights Tristen. Can you imagine a fighter in as much of a groove as Magny going up against a returning superstar in GSP? While I feel like the storyline makes itself, the 27-year-old could benefit a great deal from grabbing the microphone away from Brian Stann post-fight and calling the Canadian out, as his calm demeanor isn’t doing him any favors when it comes to getting booked in big fights. We could be looking too far ahead though, as “Patolino” in Rio De Janiero is no pushover.
9:29 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: To Tristen's point, Magny going 5-0 would tie him for the modern UFC record with five wins a calendar year, alongside Roger Huerta, who did in 2007. I guess the major difference is that Huerta was anointed a poster boy, landed on the cover of “Sports Illustrated” and had an epic victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat brawl with Clay Guida, whereas Magny should've lost to Alex Garcia.
9:25 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: The scorecards have come out for the Fili-Arantes fight. I had it 30-27 Fili as did Chris Nelson. Our other Sherdog judge, Jeff Sherwood, gave Arantes the third round. Every round was ebb-and-flow with momentum swings, but it seemed Fili landed the bigger, cleaner strikes. However, the Brazilian crowd dynamic seemed like it could create real scorecard havoc, which seemed averted with unanimous 29-28's for Fili.
But, on closer examination, all three judges gave Arantes different rounds: judge Marco Aurelio Borges gave him the first, Guilherme Bravo gave him the second and Eric Colon gave him the third. It's rare when a guy gets at least one judge's vote in every round and doesn't get a single scorecard in his favor. It's also a reminder of how fine the line between good and bad judging can be, as ultimately we got the right outcome, but by some dubious math.
9:22 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: When I first saw a commercial on Fox Sports 1 earlier this week promoting a fight between Neil Magny and William Macario as the featured UFC 179 prelim, I had to do a double take.
Then I remembered. Magny, a mostly nondescript fighter on a mostly nondescript season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” is 4-0 thus far in 2014. If there is anyone who is capitalizing on the oversaturation era, it’s Magny, who suddenly rivals Donald Cerrone as one of the promotion’s most successfully prolific fighters, albeit against a different level of competition than “Cowboy.”
So kudos to you, Mr. Magny. And if you make it 5-0 tonight, it’s time to aim a little higher. I hear GSP is back in the gym. And if not, it’s been a good -- if not entirely memorable -- run.
9:05 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: Naoyuki Kotani is 13-2 in his last 15 outings with losses to only Norman Parke and Jorge Masvidal. He also comes into the fight against Yan Cabral as the biggest underdog on UFC 179.
8:48 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Wilson Reis' crushing win over Scott Jorgensen, now 2-6 in his last eight outings, probably just sent “Young Guns” to the unemployment line. However, just as good as Reis' crippling body kick and arm-triangle choke for the win, was Brian Stann's line of questioning in the post-fight interview, probing a jubilant Reis about why he felt Jorgensen struggled with southpaws and how it set up the fight-altering body kick. I hope Stann never gets comfortable and stops researching. He is the best broadcasting asset the UFC has now.
8:17 p.m. ET Patrick Wyman: One of the really underrated and overlooked things about the halcyon days of the Chute Boxe camp was their technical and vicious ground striking, which always featured excellent posture and a lot of torque, even in close spaces. We saw a little bit of that when Arantes managed to find top position; his coach, Diego Lima, was a student of old-school Chute Boxe fighter Luiz Azeredo during the old days, and the tradition continues today.
8:11 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: I may be in the minority here, but I’m digging Scott Jorgensen at as high as +180. While Wilson Reis did emerge victorious in his flyweight debut against Joby Sanchez, his performance left a bit to be desired. Meanwhile, Jorgensen has been pining to get back into action since his scrap with Henry Cejudo at UFC 177 was scratched. When “Young Guns” tipped the scales overweight on Friday I was a bit concerned, but after learning he wouldn’t attempt to cut down to 125 pounds, I like him as an upside bet.
8:01 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Any betting thoughts as we get the televised portion of the card started? Andre Fili was -120 two days ago, smart folk finally driving that price up. I was shocked to see he was such a modest favorite over Felipe Arantes. Arantes is a solid, workmanlike fighter, but he's pretty conservative and not a real fight-ending threat. Fili likes to take major chances standing and on the ground; that might get you into trouble against a real dynamo like Max Holloway but doesn't hurt him too much against a guy like “Sertanejo.”
7:59 p.m. ET Chris Nelson: As we get started for the UFC 179 prelims on Fox Sports 1, Spike TV has some strong counterprogramming with six hours of Cops and Auction Hunters.
7:38 pm. ET Jordan Breen: Even though he was a clear cut above Giagos in the grappling department, I thought “Durinho” showed exceptional hips there, even for a high-level jiu-jitsu guy. Giagos shrimped out of full mount, he wormed right back into it while throwing a heavy punch. He went for an armbar from the back for a sec, almost fell off, then rolled right back onto Giagos' back, then got the nasty, fight-ending armbar with under 10 seconds. Very nifty.
7:30 p.m. ET Chris Nelson: Well, that didn’t go Fabricio Camoes’ way, but at least he’s got one of the best nicknames on the card: “Morango,” or “Strawberry.” (Although he missed weight, so maybe it should be “Morangao.”) Other solid Brazilian nicknames: Gilbert “Durinho” Burns (“Little Tough Guy”), Felipe “Sertanejo” Arantes (a style of Brazilian country music), William “Patolino” Macario (“Daffy Duck”) and Fabio “Caipira de Aco” Maldonado (“The Iron Hillbilly”).
7:28 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: Tony Martin got his first UFC win by handling veteran Fabricio Camoes on the ground and locking up a tight kimura for the first-round tap. Martin showed the control that say, Linton Vassell lacked on Friday night against Emanuel Newton, stepping over Camoes' head repeatedly to ensure the shoulder lock was fully applied. It's still worrying that a guy who won round one in his first two UFC fights, despite getting a finish in four minutes, still sounded out of breath and exhausted after the fight. Also, his cornerman Brock Larson was wearing two baseball caps simultaneously -- one backwards on top of one forwards -- creating the worst detective hat in the history of time. 7:22 p.m. ET Tristen Critchfield: My two cents: I have no doubt that McGregor will get plenty of screen time. I disagree that a potential face-off with Mendes lacks panache, however. After all, didn’t the “Notorious” one recently promise to rest his luckiest charms on Mendes’ forehead? There’s enough heat there to bring McGregor into the cage no matter who wins and despite the fact that the Irishman is already booked against Dennis Siver on Jan. 18.
Depending on how much action Aldo-Mendes provides, McGregor’s entrance could be the most interesting part of the evening. Let's hope not, though.
7:19 p.m. ET Jordan Breen: It wouldn't make a ton of sense to push McGregor-Mendes that hard since this card is in Rio and tailor-made for a Brazilian audience despite being a pay-per-view event in North America. But, they're all-in on the Irishman for a reason: his magnetism and puckish ways transcend language or nationality. Aldo winning makes McGregor more interesting to that audience, sure, but Brazil is still a massive market for the UFC and you want your big markets to have connections with all of your stars.
It's entirely possible they have an interview with him on the PPV, too, since they just announced his fight with Dennis Siver for Jan. 18 in Boston and they're going to want to sell tickets (duh). He gets on the mic, calls Siver a German midget (note to Conor: born in Russia) or whatever he deems fit, pontificates on the main event, says he'll defile whoever the winner is and then it's on to another Corn Nuts ad.
McGregor's next fight is in Massachusetts, which has the greatest percentage of Brazilian ex-pats in America with just under a quarter of them all. Areas like Framingham or Danbury (Connecticut, I know) are 5-6 percent Brazilian. Presumably, some of them might be interested in Jose Aldo's exploits this evening. There's maybe even some of them who haven't had the full "Conor McGregor experience" yet. You can't underestimate the power of ubiquity and exposure in MMA, a sport where if you're lucky, you're fighting three times a year. Unless you're Neil Magny.
7:15 p.m. ET C.J. Tuttle: Heading into this evening’s main event, I find myself intrigued with how UFC plans on handling Conor McGregor’s presence cage side.
With all the moving parts involved, does the UFC bring “Notorious” inside the Octagon ala Bellator MMA for an epic face-off between the future 145-pound title fight competitors? Does the production team devote copious amounts of screen time to McGregor in sunglasses schmoozing up to Dana White?
The first scenario doesn’t make much sense with a Chad Mendes victory, but the prospect of McGregor going toe-to-toe with an adrenaline fueled Jose Aldo in the heart of Brazil could make for a special moment, one I’m not too sure the UFC should pass up.