The Afternooner for November 25

(The Afternooner is our lunchtime dose of combat sports news.)

Contributor: Ben Kohn

• Cub Swanson talked about his loss to Frankie Edgar in a way that many fighters can learn from in dealing with a loss. Swanson thanked Edgar for the lesson, promised to get better, and said Edgar exposed him. Candid talk from a fighter is rare and the last time I can think of a fighter admitting something like that was Cerrone about his asswhooping at the hands of Nate Diaz. Good on you Cub and I hope you come back stronger.
• Kron Gracie, the son of Rickson, will compete in MMA for the first time against Hyung Soo Kim on December 23^rd in Japan under the Real Fight Championship promotion. Both men are making their MMA debuts. Rickson talked about how Kron is focusing on applying his Jiu Jitsu to MMA and not becoming a kickboxer. He says Kron is doing no cross-training at all (for sure bullshit) but if it’s true, it’s a bad idea. I understand the concept of imposing your game on someone else but being competent enough in the other disciplines is necessary to survive in the fight game nowadays. Let’s see how he does in his first fight.
• King Mo talked about how there is no rivalry between the UFC and Bellator, how the two have different directions they are heading in with Bellator focusing more on entertainment. He also discussed why he thinks it differs from other major sports, where results matter above all while in MMA, hype and other factors matter just as much, if not more. It was an interesting take and I can’t say I disagree with him too much.
• Urijah Faber has stated that he would take a title fight at any viable weight class, be it FW, BW, or other. When asked if he would want to fight Aldo though, he was clearly not keen on the idea saying it was the most painful fight he’s ever had. However, he wouldn’t be able to turn down the opportunity. Personally, I hope that fight never happens again. That was brutal to watch.
• Nick Diaz talked about MMA as his chosen career path and why he was only willing to come back for title fights or Anderson. He basically says he fell into it because he was good at it and that he is not in love with being an MMA fighter. Hey Nick, we may have figured that out, just saying.
• Vitor Belfort says he feels better now than he did on TRT, saying he feels lighter and faster and doesn’t have to deal with the annoying TRT treatments anymore which were bothersome for him to have done. He speaks about his emphasis on improving his technical skills this camp as well. Personally, I don’t think this is true and I’m sure he’s probably diminished in size for sure. We shall see how he moves but I don’t blame him for displaying an air of confidence at all, it’s what a fighter has to do.
• The UFC signed Justin Jones to fill in short notice for a LHW bout against Corey Anderson. The 27 year old is 3-0 with wins over Toby Imada, Shannon Gugerty, and Rad Martinez and is overall a good prospect….at MW. He’s stepping up in weight and that doesn’t bode well for him as he’s facing a much larger wrestler and with less than a year of pro experience and a preference for standing and throwing down, I see him getting grounded.
• Edson Barboza jumps in the rankings all the way to number six after his excellent performance against Bobby Green. Barboza is now on a two fight win streak and 5-1 since 2013, his sole loss to Donald Cerrone. He’s likely to get a top 5 fighter next and I’m curious to see how he performs.

-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @agentbenten.