Larry Brown Sports

Miesha Tate lost to Cat Zingano by third-round TKO at The Ultimate Fighter Finale 17 on Saturday and complained afterwards that the fight was stopped too early and that she was struck by an illegal knee.

Tate was in control most of the first two rounds of the fight. She repeatedly sought submissions in the second round — either by heel hook or armbar — but was unable to land either one. In the third round, Zingano came out and immediately got a takedown, and then dominated from top position. She nailed Tate with blow after blow to the face and body.

Halfway through the round, after receiving several blows to her face and nose, Tate fought to stand up. Just as she was standing up, Zingano nailed her with a knee that dropped her back to the ground. Tate fought to get back up again, but Zingano crushed her with three straight knees and an elbow to the head that forced the referee to stop the fight.

Tate may have felt the stoppage was too early, but I don’t. She was hardly able to defend herself and she was getting pummeled. I thought it was a good stoppage.

As for the potentially illegal knee, that’s a more legitimate point.

Under the “Fouls” section of the UFC’s rules, it states that you are not allowed to knee the head of a grounded opponent.

One could argue that Tate’s finger tips were touching the canvas at the time she was kneed, which would make the knee illegal. If it was illegal, it was by the slightest margin. I thought the rulings were fine.

To me, the biggest issue for Tate is her strength. She wasn’t strong enough to submit Zingano, and she struggled to get out from under Zingano in the third round.

Tate and Zingano earned Fight of the Night bonuses while Zingano will be a coach opposite Ronda Rousey on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. Zingano will face Rousey in a UFC title match.

Transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox has been a controversial topic of discussion over the last month. The 36-year-old Fox made her MMA debut last may and has beaten two female fighters. After her fight last month, it was revealed that Fox underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2006 and has been receiving hormonal therapy for 10 years.

Her unique situation has resulted in a number of fighters and people involved with MMA feeling that Fox has an unfair advantage and should not be able to fight against women. Matt Mitrione was suspended indefinitely by the UFC on Monday for taking it a step too far and calling Fox “a disgusting freak.”

“I watched one of the fight videos and holy (expletive), I haven’t seen a man beat a woman (like that) since Chris Brown beat Rihanna,” Mitrione told Fuel TV’s Ariel Helwani in an interview with SB Nation on Monday, via FOXSports.com. “That’s exceptional how he beats innocent, unknowing women like that.

“She’s not a he. He’s a he,” Mitrione continued. “He’s chromosomally a man. He had a gender change, not a sex change. He’s still a man. He was a man for 31 years. Thirty-one years. That’s a couple years younger than I am. He’s a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That’s ridiculous. That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak.”

The UFC released a statement regarding Mitrione’s suspension.

“The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on the ‘MMA Hour,’” the statement read. “The organization finds Mr. Mitrione’s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and — as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC’s code of conduct — Mr. Mitrione’s UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated.”

While Mitrione’s comments certainly should not be tolerated, it should be noted that the UFC’s pattern of discipline regarding Fox has already been incredibly inconsistent. Joe Rogan was not suspended last month after he said Fox is “a man without a d—” and called it “f—–g crazy” to allow her to fight against women. Even Dana White made some insensitive comments a few weeks ago when he referred to Fox as “he” and “him”

If the UFC is going to discipline fighters for making idiotic remarks about Fox, its front office workers and television personalities should be held to the same standard. You can’t expect a fighter to censor himself when White and Rogan don’t feel the need to do so.

Image via FallonFox.com

Chael Sonnen must have finally heard that WWE boss Vince McMahon once challenged UFC president Dana White to a fight, because he responded Tuesday with a proposal for McMahon.

In case you missed it, White revealed in a recent interview that McMahon wanted to fight him in the UFC or at a Wrestlemania event. White declined, saying that the 67-year-old McMahon is too old to be fighting.

Sonnen, who is 27-12 as an MMA fighter, seems to be game. He proposed a tag team fight between him and White against McMahon and WWE champ CM Punk.

In typical Sonnen fashion, the tweets came in a series of humorous, crap-talking blasts:

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Cesar Gracie dismissed the notion that Nick Diaz has never paid taxes, and also implied that his fighter may have had a mole in his camp leading up to UFC 158.

Gracie, who trains and manages Diaz, made his comments during an interview with Ariel Helwani Monday on “The MMA Hour.” Diaz stole headlines despite losing to Georges St-Pierre Saturday by claiming that he was probably going to jail because he never paid his taxes. Gracie told Helwani that is not true, and that Diaz probably misspoke Saturday.

“I just have to invest a little more money (in training),” Diaz said after the fight. “Now that I have a little bit more money. I’ve never paid taxes in my life and I’ll probably go to jail.”

Diaz made his comments in a casual manner. Gracie says Diaz often contradicts himself and frequently thinks aloud, which results in wild comments like that. He told Helwani that Diaz probably meant to say he needs to file his taxes for the year.

“He has paid taxes. I think he misspoke; it’s about filing,” Gracie told Helwani. “I talked to Nick a couple years ago about tax issues he was having. As far as paying taxes, he would pay the tax and probably more than he needed to the last two years. He’s paid hundreds of thousands in taxes. He’s not in a James Toney situation or Wesley Snipes. I think his issue is he needs to properly file, so he needs to get together with a good accountant. But he has paid a lot of money in taxes.”

Gracie said he’s not aware of Diaz being in any legal trouble because of his taxes.

Gracie also said in the interview that he felt like GSP was one step ahead of Diaz the entire fight. Gracie found that odd and seemed to believe there may have been a mole in his camp.

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Nick Diaz has spent the entire week leading up to his fight with Georges St-Pierre trying to get inside the champion’s head, and the trend seemed to continue in the hour before their fight at UFC 158 in Montreal Saturday.

UFC middleweight/welterweight Jake Shields, who trains with Diaz under Cesar Gracie, complained before the fight that GSP’s wraps looked “shady.”

I checked GSP’s glove and the wrap looked shady…now commission won’t let me back.Not saying he’s cheating but wtf?!

— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) March 17, 2013

Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole later reported that Shields went to talk to UFC president Dana White at ringside. According to what White told Iole, a UFC official went to check GSP’s wraps along with someone from the commission. Diaz’s camp apparently didn’t like the way GSP’s hands were wrapped, though the commission didn’t seem to see an issue.

I don’t know what the implications are for the complaint, but Diaz may have a built-in excuse if he loses. Now we can add hand wraps and steroids to the list of complaints Diaz has against GSP.

Dana White and Vince McMahon are two of the most recognizable faces in the fight industry. Both men share a similar story; they each took a struggling product and turned it into a multi-million dollar business. Many a drunken conversation among friends on the night of a UFC or WWE event has centered around which of the two would win in a fight — 67-year-old Vinny Mac or 43-year-old White.

But that would never happen, right? Maybe not.

During an interview with RDS, White revealed that a fight between him and McMahon would have already taken place if the WWE CEO had his way.

“Vince is too old, which he won’t think he is and he’ll go crazy (when he hears me telling people this),” White said. “He wanted to do that one time. Vince wanted to fight me. Swear to god. He called me up and said, ‘Let’s do it. We can either do it in the UFC or let’s do it at Wrestlemania.’ And I said, ‘You are crazy.’

“I’ve always said I respect Vince and I’ll say it again, I respect Vince very much. But Vince is too old to be fighting.”

Video of White’s comments can be seen around the 8:50 mark here. McMahon may be getting old, but he certainly has no shortage of energy and passion. Heck, he has even challenged an NBA owner to a fight a few years back. But he would have to be careful facing White, who comes from a boxing background.

I think the deciding factor here would be whether the fight took place at a UFC event or a WWE event like Wrestlemania. If it were a scripted fight in McMahon’s territory, we know what the outcome would be. If it were an actual MMA bout in the octagon, my money’s on White.

H/T Ariel Helwani

Nick Diaz is getting reckless with his accusations against Georges St-Pierre.

The two will meet Saturday at UFC 158 in Montreal, and now there is something fresh on everyone’s minds — accusations from Diaz (pictured) that his opponent is using “plenty of steroids.”

Diaz hinted during the pre-UFC 158 press conference Thursday that GSP is on steroids. That caused an angry St-Pierre to respond.

“I’m not on steroids, man,” said St-Pierre. “I never cheated once in my life.”

“We’ll see if they test who for steroids or what,” Diaz responded.

“I hope they do. I hope they do,” GSP shot back.

“You hope they do? What, for me to test positive for steroids?” asked Diaz. “Ain’t gonna happen.”

Later in the day, Diaz did a radio interview with “Tim and Sid” on 590 The Fan in Toronto and continued his accusations.

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