UFC Fight Night: T.J. Dillashaw vs Dominick Cruz | Long Island MMA

UFC Fight Night: T.J. Dillashaw vs Dominick Cruz

UFC is heading to Boston, Massachusetts on January 17th 2016 with another exciting Fight Night card, airing exclusively on Fox Sports 1.  The headliner for this one is going to be an exciting battle for the UFC Bantamweight Championship.  T.J. Dillashaw will defend his title against former Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz, who had never actually lost the title in the first place!
Dominick Cruz was stripped of the Bantamweight Championship due to inactivity caused by repeated long-term injuries.  Upon his return, Cruz finished Takeya Mizugaki in an explosive knockout, 1:01 into the 1st round.  Cruz has defeated many great opponents and is actually the last person to defeat the Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson.  Dominick feels he is the rightful Champion of the division until someone can beat him inside the octagon, and Dillashaw believes he’s the man to do it!
T.J. Dillashaw’s most notable feat is when he took the title from the former champion, Renan Barao. Barao was on an undefeated win streak that lasted 9 years, at the time he was at the top of the Pound-for-Pound list.  Barao had the odds to win 20 to 1, but Dillashaw put on such an impressive and dominant performance that finished the former champion halfway through the 5th round.  Barao got his rematch a year later and Dillashaw put on an even better performance, this time finishing Barao in the 4th round.

There are some other matchups that evening that are very promising as well.  Eddie Alvarez vs. Anthony Pettis is bound to be an exciting war.  This is Pettis’s first fight since his loss to Lightweight Champion Rafael Dos Anjos, and Alverez will be riding off of his victory against Gilbert Melendez, both men trying to get there shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship.  Another match to pay attention to is Chris Wade vs. Mairbek Taisumov, both of these men are extremely explosive and have the potential to finish fights.  Chris Wade is a strong up-comer in the division fighting out of Long Island MMA in Farmingdale, New York.

The entire Fight Night Boston card is an exciting one, but make sure you really pay attention to the fights mentioned here, you will not be disappointed!

A Win for Long Island in UFC!

A Win for Long Island in UFC!

This past weekend at UFC 194 we witnessed the upsetting loss of the UFC Middleweight Champion,
Chris Weidman, to the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Luke Rockhold.  Despite Chris’s
efforts to defend his title, Rockhold finished him with a 4th round TKO to become the new UFC Middleweight Champion.  This may have been an upsetting for many of Weidman’s hometown fans
from Long Island, NY, but luckily Chris wasn’t the only Long Island boy fighting this past weekend!
Ryan LaFlare, fighting out of his gym in Farmingdale, NY, took his 12th professional win against Mike Pierce on Friday at The Ultimate Fighter Finale.  LaFlare has won 5 of his 6 UFC fights, and intends on adding more to that list!  This fight against Mike Pierce was really important because LaFlare was coming off his first and only career loss, and he came back better than ever.  Ryan LaFlare dominated Mike Pierce for 3 rounds ending in a unanimous decision.  LaFlare had made some improvements in his striking game and out-struck Pierce with clean counters and devastating body kicks.  Pierce was forced to attempt his takedowns on LaFlare, but all his attempts failed as LaFlare was able to stuff them, create the space he needed, and continue dominating on the feet.  The excitement increased at the end of the 3rd when both fighters bit down on their mouth piece and finished with a barrage of punches until the bell rang.  Sometimes we lose, and sometimes we win.  It’s important to learn from the losses we encounter and

celebrate all the wins along the way!