Around The UFC: Soares On Hominick Win, Dos Anjos Replaces Dunham, Zahabi Comments On GSP Game Plan

Added on May 04, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Aldo’s Management On Hominick Win

On Saturday night in Toronto at UFC 129 we saw something we never saw before, we saw Jose Aldo get dominated in the fifth round of a fight he was clearly winning. Aldo looked tired, and maybe a little gassed out, but he also looked almost confused as to what he should do from his back while Hominick landed some viscous ground and pound.

After UFC 129, we began to hear rumors that Aldo was sick the weeks before the fight, and Ed Soares felt that he needed to clear things up. Soares went to MMAJunkie to talk about the fight, and to talk about what was going on with Aldo. However, Soares was very adamant about people not thinking that Aldo was making excuses, and he really want to get the message out there that no one should take anything away from Hominick’s fantastic fight. In fact Soares inferred they wouldn’t have even brought up the fact that Aldo was ill, but people overheard the term antibiotics in his corner during the fight. Soares said “We don’t want anything to be taken away from Mark Hominick. Hominick fought a hell of a fight and showed the type of heart that he has. I was a Mark Hominick fan before the fight, but now it makes me even more of a fan to see the type of heart that he has. That could have happened whether Aldo was 100 percent or not.”

Both Hominick and Jose Aldo earned a $129,000 fight of the night bonus for the fight. Soares said its to early to speculate what Jose Aldo will do next as he still relaxing from the long camp, and recovering from the fight.

Dos Anjos In For Dunham

Evan Dunham will be replaced Rafael dos Anjos and fight George Sotiropoulos at UFC 132. As reported here on SBW yesterday, Dunham was forced to withdraw from the fight with an undisclosed injury, and it sent many to their roster sheets to figure out who could be ready in time and what fight would be entertaining. Before most even had time time speculate, the UFC has announced that Dos Anjos will be taking the fight.

Dana White made a post on UFC.com announcing the change. White said “Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Dos Anjos has won ‘Fight of the Night’ and ‘Submission of the Night’ awards, and Sotiropoulos has won ‘Fight of the Night’ twice, so I expect an amazing fight.”

Dos Anjos was riding a 3 fight win streak when he faced Clay Guida, but he lost via submission because of a jaw injury. The 26 year old is currently 3-3 in his UFC career, and he has submitted half the people he has fought in his career. Dos Anjos also has only been finished twice in his 6 year career as a professional.

Sotiropoulos is coming off of his first UFC loss to Denis Siver that snapped an 8 fight winning streak, and bringing him to 7-1 in the Octagon. Sotiropoulos won the 6^th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and put together 7 wins in the cage finishing 5 of them by submission or via knockout.

What Was Going On With GSP’s Right Hand

One thing most people have picked up on is the overhand right that Georges St. Pierre kept throwing during his fight with Jake Shields. We have rarely seen GSP throw a bunch that looked so wild, so often, and it drew the fire of many of GSP’s fans and critics alike. Dana White even brought it up at the press conference, “The one criticism I will give Georges is that he was throwing this weird, overhand right the whole fight that looked like he was trying to knock him out. He kept throwing this crazy, almost like he was throwing a baseball right hand, it was very weird. I’ve never seen him do that before.”

During the fight I thought to myself, this must be happening because of the success Dan Henderson had with it against Jake Shields in their fight. I also thought, but Henderson didn’t win the fight with the punch, Shields was able to recover. St-Pierre’s lead trainer Firas Zahabi has told MMAweekly that it indeed was part of the game plan, and he is sticking by the plan. Zahabi said “I still stick by it, I think it was a good idea, it just didn’t land right on the button.”

Zahabi went on to say that because of Jake’s stance he is susceptible to the strike, and they were hoping it would create more damage. He said “Shields has been suspect to that punch before. He got hit with it with Henderson. Georges landed it a few times. I felt he staggered him, but didn’t land exactly on the chin. It landed a lot on the side of the head.”