MMAMon: UFC 142 Was Epic, Jose Aldo Is Back & Frank Mir Was Only a Pretend Jerk

If we learned anything from this past week, it’s that Brazil isn’t scared of MMA, homie.

MMA Monday is a weekly column on AlphaKick highlighting the most interesting MMA & UFC news, happenings and fights of the past week. Tune in every Monday morning as David Light gets you caught up in the sometimes-weird world of Mixed Martial Arts.

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• UFC 142 was way better than Tim Tebow and the Broncos on Saturday night. The event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was almost beautiful in the way it all came together throughout the week, and especially the way Jose Aldo disappeared into the crowd after he knocked out Chad Mendes. Many people thought UFC 142 was going to be a weak card and spent time watching Tim Tebow instead, and boy what a huge mistake that was for anyone who followed through with that gameplan.

• Jose Aldo was back to form at UFC 142, after a rather boring start to his UFC career. The 25-year-old phenom not only finished Chad Mendes, but he ignited the arena and left the UFC with one of the more memorable exits you will ever see in an MMA event. It’s hard to go out on a high note higher than Aldo gave the Brazilian faithful. At this point however, the desire to see Aldo move up to lightweight and challenge himself seems to be more pressing. I’m fine with him at featherweight, but having him take on Frankie Edgar would be a fantastic fight.

• Edson Barboza is proving he’s a fantastic prospect with every fight he takes from the UFC. Barboza is 10-0 in his MMA career, 4-0 inside the UFC and gave fans one of the greatest kicks ever at UFC 142 (more on this down below). Despite Aldo and Vitor’s great performance, it was Barboza who shined brightest by taking home two OTN awards, banking a cool $130,000 in extra cash and quite clearly receiving Dana White’s full undivided attention.

• Commentator Joe Rogan put Mario Yamasaki on the spot after his poor disqualification of should-have-been-winner Erick Silva. While Yamasaki certainly made a mistake, this is not something Rogan should have done, even if he thought he was helping Yamasaki out by giving him a chance to explain himself.

• Anthony Johnson was immediately cut by the UFC after his loss to Vitor Belfort at UFC 142. After Johnson failed to make weight for the fight, White said he already made his decision on the day before that win or lose, Johnson would be gone for his unprofessionalism in regards to making weight. Johnson had missed weight in a few fights prior, too. Although I definitely like Johnson as a person, this had to be done. Even if Johnson really fell ill on the day of his last cut, that’s the risk you take when you’re basically a heavyweight dropping down to middleweight. Either account for that risk, or fight in a weight class that’s safer for you.

• UFC Sweden/Fuel TV 2 sold out in just 30 minutes, or was it an hour? Or maybe it was three hours? I’ve heard a lot of different numbers based on different sources, but the point is the tickets were snatched up darn quick. The UFC really is becoming the world’s first truly global sport. We can talk all day about how Soccer is the world’s sport, but until it’s accepted as the norm in the United States, it will have a huge asterisk next to that title. The UFC has no team affiliation barriers, just fighters. Global MMA domination is really just a waiting game at this point, sort of like the sun burning out is a waiting game. It’s definitely going to happen, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

• Cyborg Santos was busted for anabolic steroids and while that’s been known for a little over a week, I didn’t get a chance to talk about it last time. I know there are a lot of people that think these sort of things should be legal in MMA as well as other sports, and if you want to make that argument then that’s OK. I’m not sure if I agree or not, but you’re free to make that argument. What you are not free to do however is think that just because you believe steroids should be legal, that it’s ok to use them when they’re not. When one fighter is given one set of rules, and another fighter gets to play by a different set of rules, then that’s cheating. Plain and simple. Even if you’re fine with steroids, you can’t be fine with someone leap frogging the rules of engagement.

• ESPN’s Outside The Lines released a video that went deeper into the UFC’s fighter pays, including an interview with UFC Owner Lorenzo Fertitta. In response, the UFC released an uncut video clip from that same interview.

• Edson Barboza’s spinning wheel kick knockout of Terry Etim looked like something straight out of Mortal Kombat. You can almost see the tiny frost crystals on Etim as his body froze in mid air. Why didn’t he shatter when he hit the ground? GIF please, do it.

• Frank Mir totally punked some guy in the motion capturing department for the new UFC Undisputed 3 video game. Poor guy. All he wanted to do was make him do the hokey pokey and shake it all about.

• Ronda Rousey has a stalker and to no one’s surprise, it’s a puppet. As far as creepy proposal videos go, this one gave me a pretty good laugh. So did the fact that Ronda Rousey apparently looks at Julia Budd’s broken arm every day. Boss chick is boss.

• Jeff Monson has some anarchist ideas for you which isn’t really a surprise, but it’s always fun to hear more about what fighters think about real-world issues.

• Gina Carano in the first 5 minutes of Haywire was pretty sweet. What a cool chick, I mean really. She’s the exact opposite of Ronda Rousey in a good way, and even took Cyborg’s cheating revelation with total class. It doesn’t hurt either that Haywire looks like it might actually be a good movie.

• Chael Sonnen should not be around children because it’s a recipe for disaster. And by children, I do mean anyone that knows how to make a triangle.

• Junior Dos Santos went surfing in Brazil during the week of UFC 142. Hey, it might not look pretty in the water, but at least he cool on land.

• Vitor Belfort is such an awesome guy, I mean really. If you’ve never known much about Belfort, all you have to do is watch this brief interaction with him after his victory at UFC 142, which Anthony Johnson didn’t even make weight for. Belfort is a true professional, a class act and I really would love to see him make another title run.

• Nick Diaz & Ronda Rousey destroyed MiddleEasy’s LayzieTheSavage in the most one-sided grappling match I’ve seen since UFC 100: Lesnar vs. Meat Face.

• The awesome new UFC 143 sizzler trailer was revealed during UFC 142, and was recently made available online. I’ve been calling Diaz one of the best P4P fighters in the world for over a year now, and I can’t wait for him to prove his win over Penn had more to do with Diaz’s sick skills than The Prodigy’s preparation. As far as sizzler trailers go, this one got me pretty pumped.

• Brittney Palmer has a wicked right hand, even if it looks girly as all hell. Actually, that’s not even a negative comment. The primary reason I love Palmer is precisely because she looks girly as all hell. And yes, I am that guy who uses “all hell” in ways that make no sense whatsoever.

• Arianny Celeste was looking ridiculously hot in bikini a photo shoot during UFC 142 week in Brazil. Not a bad link to end on, if I don’t say so myself.

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