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The MMA Ten keeps you updated on the latest news from the world of the UFC and beyond. Read it and you’ll feel like a senior citizen that stumbled onto a Matlock marathon.

One For the Land

Stipe Miocic, UFC Champ
(Photo Credit: Imgur)

A few years ago, the thought of Stipe Miocic bringing Cleveland a title before LeBron James seemed crazy, mostly because most Clevelanders probably had no idea who Miocic was. They do now. Miocic beat Fabricio Werdum to win the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 198 and now he is the toast of the town. Stipe brought the belt to the Cavs game last night, and earlier in the day he took batting practice with the Indians. A former college baseball player, Miocic showed off his skills in a big way.

Game on, LeBron. You’ve got Kyrie and Kevin back this year, so there will be no excuses. If the Cavs can’t win it all, at least Miocic got one for the Land.

UFC Fighter Analyzes Roughned Odor’s Punch

Roughned Odor punches Jose Bautista
(Photo Credit: Imgur/purpleketchup)

Baseball fights aren’t really fights. There’s a lot of shouting and posturing, hemming and hawing, and very few punches actually get thrown, let alone land. But the game has changed thanks to Texas Rangers second baseman Roughned Odor, who clocked Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista with a solid punch that actually landed right on the button. UFC fighter Alan Jouban analyzed the punch for TMZ, saying Odor has set the bar for non-MMA sports fights. “You see it too many times, like soccer players or basketball players, they just can’t throw a punch to save their lives. It was a good punch, I’m surprised (Bautista) didn’t drop.”

Your MMA Injury of the Week

George Roop - Broken Leg X-Ray
(Photo Credit: MixedMartialArts.com)

Former UFC fighter George Roop has taken his talents to Japan to fight in the Road FC promotion. Roop was in the main event for his debut, but it hardly went as expected. Roop suffered a nasty leg break after throwing a front kick.

Roop has a made a career out of being a game fighter with tons of heart. I’m sure he’ll make a recovery and be back in the cage.

Cyborg Destroys Smith, Calls Out Rousey

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As predicted, Cris Cyborg annihilated Leslie Smith in her UFC debut Saturday night, needing just 1:21 of the first round to get the TKO win. Cyborg, still the Invicta FC champ, didn’t waste much time in calling out Ronda Rousey for her next fight after she defends her Invicta title.

For the record, Rousey has been calling out Cyborg for a fight since her days in Strikeforce, but the squabble has always been about the weight. Cyborg claims she can’t make 135, and Rousey insists on fighting at that weight. Rousey competed as a judoka at weights as high as 154, but that is with a gi on. Still, a catchweight of 140 pounds seems completely reasonable. Fans have long wanted to see this fight, so get it done and make a truck load of cash in the process.

Dirty Snapchats, MMA Version

UFC Fighter Brad Pickett has been sending out some really dirty Snapchats.

When I said dirty Snapchat, was that not what you were expecting?

Killer Knockout, Killer One-Liner

GLORY Kickboxing is one of the premier kickboxing leagues in the world. GLORY 30 went down last weekend and it featured one of the best highlights of the year, as Marat Grigotian put down Djime Coulibaly with an insane head kick.

It also featured a killer one-liner from announcer Mauro Ranallo. During the slow-mo replay, Ranallo said, “Marat Grigorian just put Djime in airplane mode!” Ranallo is one of the best and most-versatile announcers in combat sports. Along with GLORY Kickboxing, Ranallo calls boxing for Showtime and pro wrestling for the WWE.

Facepalm of the Week: Lingo Failure

I get it if you are a casual fan and you don’t know a gogoplata from an omoplata. That’s fine. Enjoy the sport, keep watching and you will soon know most of the terminology and techniques. But if you are going to cover a sport and you are a major news outlet, at least make an effort. Case in point: CBS News and a few other outlets somehow calling the strike that ended the Miocic vs. Werdum fight a ‘sucker punch.’

cbs news_suckerpunch

I bet Werdum would have won if he just tried one of those kick-thingies. 

Elbow of Death

BAMMA is an MMA promotion run out of the UK, and they held their 25th event last weekend. Tom “Firekid” Duquesnoy absolutely face-planted his opponent with a vicious elbow to the chin.

Duquesnoy is now both the BAMMA bantamweight and featherweight champion.

Melvin “No Mercy” Manhoef Fights Friday Night

One of the greatest knockout-artists in kickboxing and MMA history goes to war Friday night when Melvin “No Mercy” Manhoef takes on Rafael Carvalho at Bellator 155, and you can watch it on Spike TV. Manhoef has Tyson-like power, registering 28 knockouts in his 30 pro MMA wins. His opponent is also known for his punching power. Carvalho has 10 knockouts in his 12 wins. Someone is going down, probably in the first round and likely in a very violent fashion.

Here’s Manhoef in his last fight against Hisaki Kato.

Your MMA Nickname of the Week

http://gty.im/183657214

If you’ve read any of these pieces or my UFC previews, you know I’m a huge fan of nicknames, at least the clever ones. Fighting on the same Bellator card as Manhoef Friday night is former UFC fighter Joey Beltran, aka “The Mexicutioner.” He’ll take on another fighter with a solid nickname in Dave “The Fugitive” Jansen.

About Matt Lo Cascio

Matt Lo Cascio has been covering MMA since 2009, mostly in the midwest for ChicagosMMA.com. He also writes UFC previews for Draft Kings, and is the play-by-play announcer for the XFO, seen on UFC Fight Pass.

View all posts by Matt Lo Cascio