E. BRIDGEWATER, Mass. – UFC lightweight sensation Joe “J-Lau” Lauzon fights once again in the main event February 7, headlining “UFC Fight Night” on Spike TV against fellow Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Hermes Franca, live from the Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida.
Lauzon (17-4, 5 KOs, 12 submissions), star of The Ultimate Fighter 5 television reality show, last headlined April 2, 2008 Joe in disappointing loss by second-round TKO to fellow Massachusetts fighter Kenny Florian on UFC Fight Night 13 in Denver. “J-Lau” bounced right back this past September, registering an impressive second-round stoppage of Kyle Bradley (13-6) on UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Nebraska.
“It’s kind of weird,” Lauzon said, “but I’ve gone from undercard to main event, back to undercard, and now main event again. I’m not complaining at all. This is a huge fight for me, second only to my main event in Denver, which was more personal with both of us (Lauzon and Florian) from Massachusetts.”
Former UFC lightweight title challenger Franca (20-7), fighting out of Juniper, Florida by way of his native Brazil, is a former WEC and AFC champion. His most notable victories to date include a knockout of former UFC lightweight title challenger Caol Uno five years ago and third round submission (arm-bar) Jamie Varner in 2006.
In his UFC championship fight in 2007 against Sean Sherk, Franca lost a 5-round decision on UFC 73: “Stacked.” In his last action (October 25), Hermes won a 3-round decision versus Marcus Aurelio at UFC 90.
“This fight will be different than the one against Florian,” Lauzon promised. “I’m going to push the pace, be more aggressive. He’s a counter-puncher who likes his opponents to come to him. He’s a good defensive fighter, very good in every way. We’re both dangerous. It’s going to be fast-paced, a real dog fight.”
47 Comments »
mania he lost to frankie he beat macus aurelio
I caught that too. I’m certain of it because I lost money on Franca (vs Edgar). The big question is will Hermes knees or wild looping hooks connect or will Lauzon’s gameplan be more effective. I don’t see a submission from either, and I’m going with Hermes now that his cage rust shouldn’t be a factor after the suspension (and I need to win my money back).
Hermes wins this everywhere except for cardio. But even gassed hermes is still a danger. I for one can see an armbar, hermes is leagues above him in BJJ.
I agree so much wit this it is unbelievable. When is the last time you saw Frankie display some dominating BJJ? I think Joe takes this with equal BJJ but a faster pace.
Ok my last comment was sooooo error filled it’s unbelievable. “agree”=”disagree”
And I meant Hermes display… not frankie
A little too much to drink tonight maybe ?
not sure what j-lau’s belt is but his jits is awesome, and he loves to scrap. i think this is gonna be a tough one for him but i really see j-lau taking this. 2nd round tko.
I dont think that he has one, just trains with no gi. ALSO, Dana White says that Lesnar vs. Mir 2 could happen as early as April, since both are uninjured and they both want to fight.
In some other strange news, Paulo Thiago did NOT sign a 3 fght contract with the UFC, he signed a 1 fight contract in hopes of beating KOS, if he puts on a good performance then he will likely be signed for 3 more fights. If not, his contract is up and he is out. As the article said, dont tell Fedor’s people this.
Really . . . = ( Hope he beats Josh then. The WLWT div needs some decent competitors (i think Hughes and Serra are still in the top 10 in the UFC WLWT div, thats how bad it is LoL)
IMO i dont even think those 2 should headline a PPV, which i am sure they will, but i would rather see that fight as a headline for a UFN or another Fight for the Troops. Basically anything but having to pay for that fight. I just dont really want to pay for that fight for some reason.
I hope he beats KOS and the ufc re-signs kos anyways. Even though i dont like him one bit, he is still a good fighter to have on your roster.
Word. I dont wanna pay for it either, hell, they should come fight in my backyard, thats what i think of that fight LMAO! But i agree, Kos is needed to test guys before they reach a real gatekeeper. Plus the WLWT roster is agian, very slim, with no Sanchez, Thiago on hold, Oh sh*t, i forgot about Karo and stun gun and Yoshida i guess. Still slim pickins and Kos is needed, just not for headliners.
How is Hughes being a top 10 a bad thing? Hughes has lost to GSP and Thiago… number one and two of the division. Seriously? (keep in mind I’m not arguing that Hughes vs Serra is not a PPV headline fight)
I actually think its a deep division but there is a pretty big difference between the real top guys and the gatekeeprs, maybe in time they will catch up. But i cant really see to many ppl challenge GSP, BJ, or even Alves, Fitch, and Kos.
The betting odds just came out -200 GSP and +160 for BJ if anyone wanted to know
Time for BJ to pay me back for all the kind words ive spoken on his behalf, love the odds, time to cash in, my money is not only where my mouth is, i put some salt on that sh*t and chased it with a brewsky! Im gonna try to put together between 500 and 750 of extra cash and drop it all on BJ. The only time he’ll be an underdog ever again so im gonna make it count. BJ BJ BJ!!!
yeah, i am going for GSP but BJ’s line is very good and i would put money on him but i cant root against GSP. I think the closer it gets to fight night the line with get closer and closer to even so if i was going to put money on BJ i would do it now IMO. It is gambling though so you never know.
Thanks, not much of a gambler, really, h=i have no idea about any of it, except how odds work, i get that, kind of; explain the finer points if you can so i can make an educated bet (let me guess, an educated bet would be to put my money on Georges right? LMAO!, skip that part = )
h=i . . .should say “i have no idea” no h=i whatever.
I place bets on almost every card, but i bet like 10 here or there (and no not thousand, 10 dollars haha) but i usually come out winning on most of my bets. I try not to bet on to many favorites because you have to put up so much of your money to win a rather small pay-out and you can lose a ton (Nog vs Mir, a lot of ppl lost A LOT of money to that fight because everyone thought Nog was a lock to get all your money back plus the little you would take if he won). What i do is look for a good underdog who i think will have a good chance at winning and i make sure i know a lot about the fighter and how he matches up with the other.
But if you personally think BJ is going to win, then i would put a lot on him because its a good line and he will probably not be any more of an underdog then he is now IMO. And if i didnt have morals i would put a bet on BJ but still root for GSP but i just cant bet against him. I dont think that i am betting on that fight at all, but the Machida vs Silva fight i am, and not for Machida.
For all the other gamblers out there, what do you think of this?
I go a lot on feelings and how the styles match and all that stuff. I also know the lines move the most from the time that the fighters weigh in so i know a lot of ppl wait for that. Just to see if the fighter looks in shape or what kinda mind tricks are going on. Best example is when Dos Santos vs. Werdum, i just happen to watch a fight of Santos a week before so i put like 20 on him at a good betting line, and when everyone saw him hitting mitts and saw how out of shape Werdum was, the lines started getting more even (santos was still a huge underdog though).
Yo comprendo mi amigo! Muchas Gracias!!
I dont see Lauzon having anymore trouble with Franca than Edgar did.
Lauzon’s wrestling is not that great so he can’t LnP him like Frankie. Where do you expect him to win?
off subject,I just read a story that implied that Brock is training at Xtreme Couture with Randy now,just wanting to see if anybody else has heard anything about this ,the story is on Bloody Elbow,it is not really clear
Yea, he asked randy if he could come over to Xtreme during 92. Weird because drysdale does BJJ coaching there and he’s Mir’s JJ coach too. Besides him there isn’t anything there for him. He could get better striking coaches elsewhere and he has comprido(who was a teammate of Drysdale and Maia at Alliance) for BJJ so very strange.
Good Knowledge = )
i’ll be rooting for lauzon. franca will win.
Nice vote of confidence
This my friend is considered the win-win response. If Lauzon wins then he could say his guy won but if Hermes wins he can say he knew it was coming. Smooth
Hehe! That’s how I did it against the Nogueira-Mir fight. I was rooting for Nog but I placed my money on Mir. A smooth move indeed…
this is gunna be a good fight their both some scrappers
Adam G you gotta be pulling for lauzon being as he is one of BJ’s pupils, am i correct?
With the way AdamG hugs Penn! I dont think he has anymore room to be a fan of any other fighter! LOL!
LMAO! nice JV! Theres a little room here, i like Joe, Leban (after he figured out how to not be a loser!), Ando, Hendo, Torres, i like a lot of guys, the newest fighter to catch my eye is easily Anthony Johnson WLWT div (i think, right?) He looks like a beast, Johnson/Thiago, Johnson/GSP are two fights i cant wait to see!!! But BJ does consume about 90* of my fighter liking, how could he not, right? = ) Joe lost me a bit with how fast he dropped to Florian, didnt think that would happen, thought he would be the guy to expose Flo for a fraud, but he isnt, he exposed himself as the real deal, BJ will have to expose him as just a contender, not a champion = ) I wish Flo would move up to WLWT eventually, him and D.Haz would be great!!!
has leban figured out how to not be a loser? He just got popped for steroids.
True, i completely forgot about that, dudes a tard! Thats it, off my list!! I sadi “off!” = )
This is going to be a great fight. Both these fighters are trying to prove the are a top contender in their division. I’m going to have to go with Lauzon on this as I think he is going to want this more. Is it just me or does Franca not fight as he use to? Maybe the roids changed his game?
i got lauzon taking franca down about 20 times and winning a unanimous dec.
Agreed. I think he gets a mount eventualy and secures a finish via it but it would come after about 20 TDs yea.
Ya know what, I think i’ll jsut go ahead and agree with this. Sounds realistic enough.
Anomaly, were you as dissapointed in Joe as i was after the Flo fight? Or were you not even pulling for him??
-Now that was a hard one to call for me man. But you better believe I was rooting for Joe like no other.
-I have problems with Kenny man, don’t like how he relies on the elbows so much, and how he took so long to call out Penn, he was toooo happy being a gatekeeper who fights people he is more sure he can beat, when him and EVERYBODY else knew he was deserving of a title shot, which I think is due to his fear of losing and then losing his ability to be a big draw anymore.
-I was pretty disappointed though to be honest, Joe was doing fantastic, that body lock take down was a very dominating display, and I wish it lead to more. It’s like Joe gave up man, be it the elbows or gassing or whatever, I was so stolked at how good he was doing only to be disappointed. It was like the Hughes/Penn 2 fight only scaled down a bit haha.
This is shaping up to be as good as ufc95 “the best uk card yet” I like dana but hes shit all over us this time!! UFC95 Smells of shit, raging iv bought tickets!!!
haha i no all the rumors were liddell and anderson so alot of guys bought tickets and it turns out to be a bunch of just random fights. i mean all of them are good fights, but diego and joe stevenson headlining. thats a little sad.
yeah i bought my tickets believing liddell would be going, so im not happy!!! i agree they are nice fights, but not when your splashing alot of money based on dana promising “the best card yet” and now there is now there is hardly a top ten fighter on the card never mind title fight, it sucks big time!!
Its not gony sell out with this thats for sure!!
theres no way id have bought my tickets if i knew this was gony happen
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Lauzon is my favorite LW. I really liked Florian until their match up. I lost a ton of respect for Kenny in that fight. Those elbows to the back of the head were crap. Joe would have won if he hammerfisted Kennys balls like ten times. Or did some eye gouging, or maybe bit his ear off. I can’t wait for BJ to destroy Kenny. War Lauzon!