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2010
November
Aloha
State BJJ
Championships: Final Conflict
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
11/6/10
Man Up & Stand Up Kickboxing Championship
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
10/23/10
NAGA
Hawaii
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Radford H.S. Gym)
10/15-17/10
ETERNAL SUBMISSIONS: 1st Annual BJJ GI/NO-GI tournament
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kauai Beach Resort, Kauai)
10/16/10
Just Scrap
(MMA)
(Hilo Civic Auditorium, Hilo)
10/2/10
Mad Skills
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu
9/11/10
Kauai Knockout Championship
(MMA, Kickboxing)
(Kauai)
9/10/10
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
8/28/10
Big
Island Open
(BJJ)
(Hilo Armory, Hilo)
8/14/10
Hawaiian
Open Championships of BJJ
(BJJ & No Gi)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
USA Amateur Boxing
(Boxing)
(Lihue Convention Hall, Lihue, Kauai)
8/13/10
Battleground Challenge 2
(MMA)
(Dole Cannery Ballroom)
8/7/10
Just Scrap
(MMA)
(Hilo Civic Auditorium, Hilo)
8/6/10
Mad Skills
(Triple Threat/Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
7/24/10
The Quest for Champions 2010 Martial Arts Tournament
(Sport-Pankration, Submission Grappling & Continuous Sparring)
(St. Louis High School Gym)
7/17/10
Maui Jiu-Jitsu Open
(BJJ & No Gi)
(Maui War Memorial, Wailuku, Maui)
Mad Skillz
(Kickboxing, Triple Threat)
(99 Market Shopping Center, Mapunapuna)
7/9/10
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Filcom Center, Waipahu)
7/3/10
Amateur Boxing
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park Gym)
6/26/10
Kauai Cage Match 9
(MMA)
(Kilohana, Gaylords Mansion, Kauai)
6/25-26/10
50th
State BJJ Championships
(BJJ)
(50th State Fair,
Aloha Stadium)
6/24/10
Quest for Champions
(Kumite/Grappling)
(St. Louis High School Gym)
6/19/10
Just Scrap
(MMA)
(Hilo Civic Center, Hilo)
6/18-19/10
Select
Combat
(Triple Threat)
(50th State Fair,
Aloha Stadium)
6/12/10
Destiny: Fury
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Center)
6/11-13/10
MMA Hawaii Expo
(Blaisdell Ballroom)
6/11-12/10
3rd
Annual Pacific Submission Championships
(BJJ & Submission Grappling)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
6/11/10
Legacy Combat MMA
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
6/4/10
X-1:
Nations Collide
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
6/3-6/10
World
Jiu-Jitsu Championships
(BJJ)
(The Pyramid, University of California at Long Beach, Long Beach,
CA)
5/22/10
Destiny
(MMA)
(Waiphau Filcom Center)
5/15/10
Scrappla Fest 2
Relson Gracie KTI Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Island School, Kauai)
X-1 World Events
(MMA)
(Waipahu HS Gym)
Mad Skills
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
Boxing Event
(Boxing)
(Evolution Training Center, Waipio Industrial Court #110)
5/1/10
Galaxy
MMA: Worlds Collide
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
4/28/10
Chris Smith BJJ Tournament
(BJJ)
(Hilo)
4/23/10
2010 Hawaii State/Regional Junior Olympic Boxing Championships
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park Gym)
4/17/10
Hawaiian
Championships of BJJ
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser
H.S. Gym)
Strikeforce:
Shields vs Henderson
(CBS)
4/16/10
808 Battleground
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
4/8-11/10
Pan
Jiu-Jitsu Championships
(BJJ)
(University California Irvine, Irvine, CA)
4/3/10
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
Amateur Boxing Smoker
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park Gym)
3/27/10
DESTINY: No Ka Oi 2: Oahu vs Maui
(MMA)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
3/20/10
X-1: Champions 2
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
3/20/10
Hawaiian Championships of BJJ
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
3/14/10
Hawaiian Kimono Combat
(BJJ)
(PCHS Gym)
3/10/10
Sera's Kajukenbo Tournament
(Kumite, Katas, Grappling)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
3/6/10
Destiny Fast N Furious
(MMA)
(Level 4 RHSC)
2/19/10
808 Battleground
(MMA)
(Filcom, Waipahu)
2/6/10
UpNUp 6: Unstoppable
(MMA)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
2/5/10
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom)
1/30/10
Destiny
(Level 4,
Royal HI Shopping Ctr)
(MMA)
Quest for Champions
(Pankration/Sub Grappling)
(Kalani HS)
1/23/10
Kauai Knockout Championship Total Domination
(MMA & Kickboxing)
(Kauai War Memorial Convention Center, Lihue, Kauai)
1/17/10
X1: Showdown In Waipahu
(Boxing, Kickboxing, MMA)
(Waipahu H.S. Gym)
|
|
August
2010 News Part 3
|
Casca Grossa Jiu-Jitsu
is now the O2 Martial Arts Academy with 7 days a week training!
We are also offering Kali-Escrima (stick fighting) on Monday
nights with Ian Beltran & Erwin Legaspi and Kickboxing Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday with Kaleo Kwan, PJ Dean, & Chris
Slavens!
Kids Classes are also
available!
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here for info!
Take classes from
the Onzuka brothers in a family-like environment! |
Onzuka.com
Hawaii Underground Forum is Online!
Chris, Mark,
and I wanted to start an official Onzuka.com forum for a while
now. We were searching for the best forum to go with and hit
a gold mine! We have known Kirik, who heads the largest and most
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He
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three of us will be the moderators with of course FCTV808 being
the lead since he is on there all day anyway!
We
encourage everyone from Hawaii and our many readers around world
to contribute to the Hawaii Underground.
If you
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O2
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Your Complete Martial Arts School!
Click here for pricing and more
information!
O2 Martial Arts features Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu taught by Relson
Gracie Black Belts Chris and Mike Onzuka and Shane Agena as well
as a number of brown and purple belts.
We also offer Boxing and Kickboxing classes with a staff that
is unmatched. Boxing, Kickboxing, and MMA champions Kaleo Kwan
and PJ Dean as well as master boxing instructor Chris Slavens
provide incredibly detailed instruction of the sweet science.
To top it off, Ian Beltran & Erwin Legaspi heads our Kali-Escrima
classes (Filipino Knife & Stickfighting) who were directly
trained under the legendary Snookie Sanchez.
Just a beginner with no background? Perfect! We teach you from
the ground up!
Experienced martial artist that wants to fine tune your skill?
Our school is for you!
If you want to learn martial arts by masters of their trade in
a friendly and family environment, O2 Martial Arts Academy is
the place for you!
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UFC
118 SCORES FIGHTERS $60,000 BONUSES
The Ultimate Fighting Championship made its big splash in Boston
with UFC 118. The promotion continued to pay back the fighters
that it felt performed well, handing out $60,000 post-fight bonuses
on Saturday night.
Joe
Lauzon, who fought on the Spike televised preliminary fight card,
used a commanding performance over his former “Ultimate
Fighter” teammate, Gabe Ruediger, to earn one of those bonuses.
He
showed Ruediger no mercy, taking him down and brutalizing him
with punches to soften him up. Lauzon then picked him up and
slammed him back down to the mat only to finish him off with
an arm bar worth $60,000.
Nate
Diaz, saying he wants to float back and forth taking the best
fights he can get at both welterweight and lightweight, had a
spectacular fight with crowd favorite Marcus Davis at UFC 118.
The two punished each other with powerful punches over the course
of three rounds before Diaz finally wrestled Davis to the mat
and finished him off with a choke that put Davis completely out.
Getting
to that choke, the heart and efforts of both men was enough to
earn them the Fight of the Night bonus.
There
were no knockouts at UFC 118, so the final tally was $180,000
in post-fight bonuses in Beantown.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Tubby
Toney cashes unearned check
BOSTON
– The only proof that boxer James Toney trained with any
reasonable effort for his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut
is anecdotal – supposedly he dropped 40 pounds just to enter
the Octagon at a bloated, bubbly 237.
The
deck is stacked against any boxer trying to compete in mixed
martial arts – just as it would be for an MMA fighter in
a boxing match. It’s why almost no one even tries.
But
Toney agreed to match up with UFC legend Randy Couture anyway,
then he embarrassed himself and his sport by hardly looking like
he prepared for a fight that was billed as boxing vs. MMA, even
if it was never going to prove anything.
Instead
of some definitive statement we got a ridiculous result –
Couture earning an easy victory by arm triangle submission at
3:31 of the first round. Toney is nicknamed “Lights Out.”
On this night, he never bothered to turn them on.
“Toney
lasted longer than I thought he would,” UFC president Dana
White said, which isn’t saying much.
Toney
is the current IBA heavyweight boxing champion, one of 11 belts
he’s held in five weight classes in his impressive career.
He had only one route to victory on Saturday night: Landing a
perfectly timed punch. Couture, a former All-American wrestler,
shot in for a takedown. Toney, who didn’t show up for the
postfight news conference, never really threw – let alone
land – a significant punch. He fought in what appeared to
be a boxing stance, leaving himself completely prone to a wrestling
takedown, suggesting he had no idea how to defend himself.
Less
than 30 seconds into the fight, Couture employed a primitive
single-leg takedown, shooting in low and grabbing Toney’s
ankle. The boxer fell backward in a clumsy pile, too slow and
top-heavy to do anything.
“It’s
pretty easy to counter,” Couture said of the single leg,
noting that’s why you rarely see it in MMA. “A good
grappler or a good wrestler is going to step out of that.”
Toney
is neither. Once on his back, he was finished. Couture delivered
some punches and elbows and eventually squeezed his neck until
Toney quit rather than lose consciousness. Toney threw perhaps
just one punch, a harmless, from-his-back effort.
“I
didn’t feel like he demonstrated any real solid skills once
he hit his back and butt,” Couture said. “He had no
idea.”
Indeed
he didn’t, which is why this boxing vs. MMA exhibition was
mostly a farce. A young, athletic boxer who actually showed up
in great condition would likely lose. Toney literally had no
chance with his strategy and preparation.
Couture
deemed the experiment “silly,” although he noted it
would be the same if he tried to box. “James would probably
knock me out in the first round.”
Probably,
but it’s also likely a professional such as Couture would
at least show up in shape. Toney’s body lacked definition
and his stomach hung over his shorts. In MMA, where speed is
a must, low body fat is imperative. Toney claimed he trained
for eight months for the fight, but it barely showed.
“I’m
sure he was prepared as he could’ve been,” White said.
“Anyone who knows James Toney the last few years, James
isn’t the most physically fit boxer.
“From
the day we signed the fight in my office, he lost a lot of weight.”
That’s
nice if you’re filming an episode of “The Biggest Loser.”
As fights go, it was a joke. Boxing promoter Gary Shaw, a longtime
rival of White’s, said Toney looked “like a very old
man, slurred his words, and was non-competitive.”
“James
Toney had less than a zero percent chance unless Randy had a
heart attack from hearing the bell ring,” Shaw said Saturday
night.
Shaw
went on to call the pay-per-view a “sham,” which isn’t
really true. This fight may have been, but White went to great
lengths to build a fairly stacked card around it (not all the
fights delivered, but on paper they looked good). Toney-Couture
wasn’t the main event of the five-fight pay-per-view; Frankie
Edgar defended his lightweight title against B.J. Penn in the
headliner.
“I
didn’t try to sell this as, ‘Tune in, you’ll see
the most spectacular war,’ ” White said. “Anything
can happen in a fight. … We’re not after boxing.”
And
while such a sideshow didn’t speak well for MMA, what does
it say for the state of boxing, that a 42-year-old James Toney
is someone’s heavyweight champion?
Arguing
boxing vs. mixed martial arts is a waste of time anyway. The
UFC was founded, in part, to solve the age-old debate of which
fighting discipline was best. UFC 1 featured a tournament won
by Royce Gracie, a master of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That was 1993.
By 2010, a fighter with a command of just one discipline –
no matter what it is – rarely lasts. It’s about being
well-rounded and dangerous against a number of styles.
“Ninety-nine
times out of 100 or 100 out of a 100, the MMA guy is going to
win,” White said.
It’s
why fights like these never need to be made, a problem compounded
when the boxer shows up out of shape, unprepared and with no
discernable strategy to do anything other than pray for a miracle
punch to land.
James
Toney collected a check Saturday night. Would’ve been nice
if he’d made an attempt to earn it.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
UFC
NAMES HEAD MAN LEADING CHARGE INTO ASIA
UFC president Dana White is stepping up the speed at which he
clones himself, masterminding a plan to take over the world with
mixed martial arts.
At
least, that’s how other fight promoters have to feel.
Four
years ago, the UFC announced the hiring of Marshall Zelaznik
to head its return into the U.K. And just two years ago, UFC
co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta quit his “day job” at Station
Casinos to become the full-time CEO of the Ultimate Fighting
Championship.
Zelaznik
has since morphed from the president of the U.K. division to
a more sizable role as Managing Director of International Development,
while Fertitta has proved a remarkable force in global expansion,
quickly landing a partial ownership deal with a firm in Abu Dhabi,
among other key areas.
White
earlier this year named Tom Wright as the man to knock down doors
in Canada, which he quickly did, helping to open Ontario up to
mixed martial arts in 2011.
Saturday
night, following UFC 118, White named the latest addition to
the promotion’s global efforts, Mark Fischer, who will lead
the charge in Asia.
A
strong move into the Asian market opens up the possibility of
airing the UFC’s product in more than 1 billion homes. That
represents a tremendous amount of growth for the American based
company. The U.S. has an estimated 115 million households.
Like
White’s “big announcement” when Fertitta made
the full-time move, the casual fan in America isn’t likely
to jump up and take notice. Still, it’s a major move for
the company, which has always had plans to make mixed martial
arts, and its brand of it in particular, the biggest sport in
the world.
This
type of announcement falls into the behind the scenes category
for most fans, but it opens up endless possibilities for the
promotion, and exposes itself to fans when they see the influx
of new talent from around the world.
Fischer
was an executive with the NBA for 12 years, spending five or
six of those years building the league’s program in China,
so he’s got a leg up on dealing with the various aspects
of doing business in Asia.
“As
successful as the NBA was there... I think we can do just much
with the UFC and more,” Fischer said when he was introduced
at the UFC 118 post-fight press conference as the new Managing
Director of UFC Asia.
He
added that there are numerous markets in Asia that the UFC has
a strong interest in. Obviously China and Japan, but also Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.
White
has lately stated that they would like to return to Brazil at
around the same time or before the Summer Olympics takes place
there in 2016.
So
the next question is when does the Brazilian version of Dana
White come to the fore?
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Sonnen
earns another shot against Silva
The
only middleweight who came close to getting off Anderson Silva’s
belt, the trash talker Chael Sonnen will have a rematch for the
UFC title. The second bout still does not have its date chosen
yet, but the information has been confirmed by the president
of the organization, Dana White, to ESPN. On the first time they
have met, on UFC 117, Sonnen dominated the fight for 23 minutes,
punishing Anderson on the ground and pound and even surprisingly
dominating also the stand-up game, but ended up submitted with
an arm bar on the triangle two minutes before the end of the
fight. With a rib injury, the Brazilian is expected to return
only on 2011. Stay tuned on TATAME to know more about this rematch.
Source: Tatame
|
Macaco
talks performance against Galvão
Veteran
of the rings, Jorge Patino “Macaco” was called in five
days before he confronted André Galvão on the last
edition of Strikeforce and did not let anyone down. Better on
the first round, Macaco tells he slowed it down due to an injury,
suffered yet on the initial round. “I did a good first round,
getting two knockdowns on my opponent, but when the first round
ended, I realized I had broken my left hand. I told Evangelista
Cyborg and he told me to move on, said I was doing a good job
on the fight”, reminds the fighter, who is on the fighting
business for over 15 years.
“On
the second round, my opponent didn’t want to do the stand-up
game and put me down and controlled the position. On the third
I was conscious, moving, and the judge stopped the fight without
a reason. He made a mistake because I wasn't done”, comments.
Having a broken hand and the invitation at the last minute, Macaco
celebrates the good act. “I continued to fight even having
a broken hand just to give Strikeforce a show”, concluded
the fighter, who went under surgery last Wednesday.
Source: Tatame
|
Edgar
the answer to lightweight puzzle
BOSTON
– Mixed martial arts can be a lot like the weather in New
England. If you don’t like who’s on top, wait a little
while and it’s likely to change.
Frank
Edgar established himself – for the time being – as
one of the sport’s superstars with a one-sided mauling of
former champion B.J. Penn in the main event of UFC 118 Saturday
at TD Garden.
Edgar
lifted the lightweight title from Penn at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates, via an agonizingly close decision. There
was nothing controversial about Saturday’s outcome as Edgar
battered Penn around the cage as if Penn, not boxer James Toney,
were making his mixed martial arts debut.
Penn
is one of the greats in the history of the sport, but Edgar has
firmly established himself as one of the sport’s active
greats. Forget the moronic notion that he should abandon the
155-pound division to compete in World Extreme Cagefighting as
a 145-pounder. The next person who asks that should be institutionalized.
All
three judges scored the bout 50-45, but even the shutout didn’t
really indicate Edgar’s dominance. Edgar outlanded Penn
155-53, but it was even more telling over the final three rounds,
when Edgar stepped on the gas pedal and Penn had no answer. In
Rounds 3-5, Edgar outlanded Penn 119-23.
After
manhandling Penn for 25 minutes Saturday, it was hard to do anything
other than to say, “Wow.”
“He
absolutely dominated B.J. Penn everywhere in the Octagon tonight,”
Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White said. “On
his feet, on the ground, wrestling. The first couple of times
he took (Penn down), I couldn’t believe it. And not only
did he take him down, he was going down hard. He put on an incredibly
dominant performance tonight against a guy who has been the best
in the world for a long time.”
Edgar
has proven himself the equal of the four other men he shares
a UFC championship belt with: heavyweight Brock Lesnar, light
heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, middleweight Anderson
Silva and welterweight Georges St. Pierre.
He
hasn’t gotten much respect, despite entering the fight with
a 12-1 MMA record and a 7-1 UFC mark. He’s quietly gone
about his business and has routinely put on some of the UFC’s
most exciting fights and never complained when he wasn’t
singled out.
He
noted that most fighters compete with a chip on their shoulder,
but the one on Edgar’s has to be the size of a boulder.
He fights like he has something to prove every second of every
match, though that’s usually because he does.
Penn
once again failed to show for the postfight news conference,
but he didn’t have to say much. The result of the fight
said all that needed to be said.
“Frankie
fought a great fight,” Penn said in the cage following his
second consecutive loss and his third in his last five outings.
“He’s the man. I have nothing bad to say.”
If
he had, he would have looked stupid. Edgar was magnificent and,
at 28, clearly getting better. He’ll get a chance to avenge
his only loss, an April 2008 defeat at the hands of Gray Maynard,
who earlier on Saturday routed Kenny Florian to set up the rematch.
Maynard
manhandled Edgar in that fight, but Edgar has improved so much
in the five fights he’s had since that Maynard won’t
be facing anywhere near the same person.
“I
believe in myself, my team believes in me and if it takes time
for you guys [in the media] to believe in me, I know I’ll
do that, too,” Edgar said.
He
started quickly and ended strong. He outboxed Penn. He took Penn
to the ground four times – though Penn has arguably the
sport’s best takedown defense. And he seemed to even outgrapple
the jiu-jitsu wizard on the ground. Anything a mixed martial
artist would need to do, Edgar did on Saturday.
“He’s
changed a lot,” Maynard said of Edgar. “Our fight was
what, two and a half, three years ago. He has changed a great
deal. He’s not the same fighter.”
Penn
isn’t either. Two losses in a row and three in his last
five don’t signal that he’s on the verge of being finished,
but he’s got plenty of soul searching to do. There are times
he appears like he’s among the handful of the greatest fighters
who ever lived, but more recently, he looks lost.
White
isn’t sure what to do with him and Penn, in the cage after
the loss, conceded he has to go home and mull over his future.
There
are no such problems with Edgar. If he gets by Maynard, there
is George Sotiropoulos on the horizon, as well as a legion of
other top contenders.
MMA
is about as humbling a sport as golf. Fighters who are on top
and look invincible one night often appear vulnerable and confused
the next time out. It’s the nature of the beast.
Edgar
is young and a pro for just under five years. He appears to be
a guy still on the rise.
“I
built on my confidence [from the first Penn fight],” Edgar
said. “The first time I was in there, I had the confidence
I could do what I needed to do, but I hadn’t done it before.
After doing it and knowing I could do it going in a second time,
that confidence added a lot to it.”
Maynard
may be the guy who knocks Edgar off his lofty perch. Perhaps
it will be Sotiropoulos or even Jose Aldo, the WEC featherweight
champion who may eventually jump to lightweight.
Sooner
or later, Edgar’s going to be throttled the way he throttled
Penn. The person who is the one who ultimately does it remains
a mystery.
But
we already know this much about that guy: If he’s going
to beat Frank Edgar and win the UFC lightweight championship,
he’s going to be one damn good fighter.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Shooto
Brazil puts medical care first
Health
care at the first place. This is the slogan of André Pederneiras,
president of the South American Shooto, and he announces news
for the event: the Brazilians who win Shooto world titles will
have a complete and free health care.
“That’s
a way we found to encourage the guys who fight in Shooto…
A world champion has to have a good structure coming from the
event”, Pederneiras said, revealing that he news is only
for the Brazilians. “I’m not Santa Claus”, jokes.
“The
health insurance can be used while the athlete keeps himself
as the champion, and it’ll still be valid eve if he fights
in another event. That’s an independent thing because Shooto’s
contract doesn’t demand exclusivity. He can fight anywhere
and his health insurance is guaranteed. Shooto priories the career
of the athlete. Even without a contract, Shooto wants the fighter
to grow”, explains.
Source: Tatame
|
MAIA
MAULS MIRANDA IN BATTLE OF BLACK BELTS
Typically when two Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belts square off
in mixed martial arts, a fist fight typically breaks out. Not
so much with Demian Maia and Mario Miranda at UFC 118 in Boston.
Maia
and Miranda are both jiu-jitsu specialists, but Maia isn’t
just a black belt. He’s one of the best black belts in the
world, and it showed on Saturday night.
Maia
was able to take Miranda down almost at will. He wasn’t
satisfied with that, continually transitioning to full mount,
peppering Miranda with punches, and then trying to submit him
with an armbar.
To
Miranda’s credit, he refused to go quietly into submission.
Every
time Maia would make a move for his arm, Miranda would remain
calm and find his way out.
But
that is the way the fight went each and every round, so there
was no questioning who won the fight. Demian Maia easily took
the unanimous decision, re-establishing his position as one of
the top middleweight fighters in the world.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
EDGAR
SHUCKS FLUKE TALK, DOMINATES PENN
Fluke? What fluke? Don’t tell Frankie Edgar that his win
over B.J. Penn was a fluke. At least, not after he scored two
“flukes” in a row over the former champion.
UFC
118 in Boston was supposed to be Penn’s come back as the
old school fighter from the streets of Hilo, but it wasn’t
to be. If anything, it was a rerun of their first meeting at
UFC 112... except that Edgar looked even better than before.
Much
like their first meeting, Edgar was able to score takedown after
takedown on Penn, but this time with more frequency. He bounced
around the Octagon on his feet, darting in and out, frustrating
Penn by making himself a hard target to hit, but also by landing
a stinging jab and hard body kicks along the way.
And
instead of Penn finding a way to adjust as the fight moved along,
Edgar seemed to get quicker and more confident, moving in with
more power and frequency than earlier in the fight. Penn only
grew more and more frustrated.
“It
looked like the same kind of fight as the last time,” Penn
said after the fight.
Even
after he scored a takedown of his own in the fourth round, Penn
was unable to take advantage of Edgar on the ground, which is
typically a world that Penn dominates. Edgar remained calm, got
back to his feet and picked up right where he left off before
the takedown, peppering Penn with the jab, darting in and out,
and landing kicks to the body.
“I
feel like I walk on water,” Edgar declared after the fight.
And he looked like he was walking on water during the fight,
while Penn was walking in quicksand.
He
didn’t discount Penn, however. “I knew he was gonna
come in tough again. It was close the first time, I just wanted
to make that point.”
Which
he did. No one can question whether or not Edgar deserved to
win the fight. Penn certainly doesn’t.
“Frankie
fought a great fight. He’s the man. I got nothing bad to
say.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Lightest
absolute champion Caio now aims at No-Gi Worlds
Caio
Terra is always competing. Furthermore, Cesar Gracie’s roosterweight
trains the ground game with MMA beasts like Gilberto Melendez,
Jake Shields, Nick and Nate Diaz. The repercussions from his
winning the absolute division at the Las Vegas Open on the 14th
are still rippling. But now Caio only wants to hear about his
upcoming challenges, like the American National championship
and World No-Gi Championship. Check out what he has to say:
You
became the lightest absolute champion in IBJJF history. How might
that affect your career?
I’d won the absolute division at Naga this year, and I did
my first absolute at the American No-Gi Nationals last year and
took third place. But winning it at a tough IBJJF tournament
like that one was truly a surprise for me. It made me really
happy. But I think the thing I was happiest about was not getting
hurt…
You
even stripped off the gi that very Saturday and entered the American
Nationals, participating in one of the most controversial matches
of the championship, when you were eliminated in the semifinal.
Did you expect to go further?
I certainly wanted to win, but I think it would have been tough;
I’d had a lot of matches that day and hadn’t eaten
anything. It was a true marathon for me. In spite of everything,
when I make it to a final I always come up with some extra gas
in the tank.
If
we want the sport to be professional we have to be professional
in every way, not just in our physical ability” Caio Terra
You
lost to Diego Herzog via an illegal move, when he crossed his
leg over your knee. What do you think of that rule?
At the last four major tournaments I competed in there were four
major errors: this one in Las Vegas, in the No-Gi Worlds 2009
absolute, in the final of the 2010 Pan and the final of the Worlds
2010, when my opponent clearly ran off the mat carrying me piggy
back…
They were major errors that kept me out of competition. I feel
mistakes happen, but they are bothersome for all the time and
money spent in preparing, training and traveling. We need professionals
who pay more attention; looking in for the outside, everyone
sees the errors without needing a replay.
As for crossing the knee from the outside in, truth is I feel
it could count, as could the heelhook. But if it counts for one
it should count for the other. I was playing within the rules
and if it counted I would have tried not to expose myself in
that way.
You’ve
been a ref before. What can be done to make refereeing evolve?
Referees should be professionals, like they are in other major
sports. Until that happens, other viable things can be done,
like obliging refs to redo the refereeing course, before the
event. It’s normal that one makes mistakes, but a lot of
people make too many mistakes because they don’t know the
rules.
And
why haven’t you been refereeing lately? Did you decide to
dedicate yourself solely to your career as an athlete?
No, there’d be no problem in carrying on refereeing. Truth
is that the public and practically the entire Jiu-Jitsu community
also don’t know the rules, so spectators complain and argue
things that don’t make any sense. Anyone who studies the
rules properly will see that everything is interconnected and
everything makes perfect sense. I feel all the black belts who
compete and take their students to compete should know the rules
and thus need to study them and take the refereeing course. If
we want to make the sport professional we need to start being
professional in every way, not just in our physical abilities.
Terra
in No-Gi Worlds 2009 final against Carlos Holanda. Photo: Alicia
Anthony.
What
are your objectives to come? Any absolute coming up?
My main objective is the No-Gi Worlds 2010; I want to become
three-time champion at black belt. I also have a superfight in
New Hampshire two weeks from now, and I want to also compete
at the Gi American Nationals in September, and perhaps I’ll
compete in São Paulo at the end of the year. Whether I
enter the absolute or not I decide on the day, if I’m feeling
well I compete, otherwise I’d rather spare myself to not
risk getting injured.
Who
do you have to thank for this good phase you’re seeing?
I want to thank my sponsors Budovideos, Shoyoroll, Dethrone and
Versatile Fighter for their support, and all my students for
helping me train and everyone who reads this interview and wants
to carry Jiu-Jitsu forward. If you have any comment or opinion
don’t keep from expressing them.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
COUTURE
MAKES SHORT WORK OF JAMES TONEY
Can you say one and done?
UFC
president Dana White can, and that’s likely what will happen
after James Toney’s mixed martial arts debut at UFC 118
in Boston, although he would beg to differ.
UFC
Hall of Famer Randy Couture barely broke a sweat, even though
he took more than three minutes to finish the fight.
There
were no surprises here. Couture immediately took Toney down and
started to go to work from full mount. He took his time, softening
Toney up with punches, and then took the gift that Toney gave
him by way of sticking his left arm in the air.
Couture
attempted a side choke from mount, twice. But when he couldn’t
finish from mount, Couture eventually slid off to the side, applying
the appropriate leverage to finish the choke, and likely, Toney’s
time in the Octagon.
“This
is exactly what we trained to do. I knew with Toney’s boxing
stance, the single leg would likely be there,” said Couture.
“I’ve been working that arm triangle for over a year
now.”
Couture’s
jiu-jitsu coach, Neil Melanson, appreciated the effort and handed
the head of Xtreme Couture his black belt in the Octagon after
the fight.
Toney
still appears to be in denial about his efforts in mixed martial
arts, saying, “My ground game is alright, I just fought
a great fighter.”
True,
he did indeed fight a great fighter, but most would argue with
his assessment of his ground game.
To
his credit, Toney seems intent on his MMA venture.
“I’ll
be back. I ain’t no quitter.”
He’s
not a quitter, but Toney will be hard pressed to declare himself
a mixed martial artist.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
UFC
118 DRAWS WELL IN BOSTON, BUT NO SELLOUT
The Ultimate Fighting Championship finally landed in Beantown,
a personal goal of UFC president Dana White’s, with UFC
118.
Headlining
Saturday night’s event was a lightweight championship rematch,
where Frankie Edgar solidified himself as the champ by defeating
B.J. Penn for the second straight time. His next defense will
come against Gray Maynard, who earned the shot by dominating
Kenny Florian as part of the undercard.
UFC
Hall of Famer Randy Couture finally put the freak show debate
to rest, making quick work of world champion boxer James Toney
in the co-main event.
The
action took place before 15,575 fans at the TD Garden (more commonly
known as the Boston Garden) in Boston. It was a strong draw at
the venue, but may leave UFC brass sidelining thoughts they have
had about putting on a stadium event at Fenway Park. TD Garden
has a capacity of 20,000 in a concert setting, while Fenway holds
up to 37,000 for baseball games.
UFC
officials were somewhat surprised leading up to the event, as
they had expected a sellout their first time in Boston. The attendance
was still a strong number for the promotion, drawing an estimated
gate of $3 million in a down economy.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Couture
stays humble and Toney’s taunting days are over
The
so-called MMA-vs.-boxing challenge ended with Randy Couture easily
overcoming top pugilist James Toney at UFC 118 this Saturday
in Boston. Following a takedown, an arm-triangle ended the contest
in just 3:19 minutes of fighting.
“It
was exactly what I trained to do. I knew that, with Toney’s
boxing, the single-leg would be a good option. Beyond that, I’ve
been working on that arm-triangle for more than a year,”
said the 47-year-old veteran.
“I
think that, despite his training nine months for this fight,
there’s a lot to learn in so little time,” adds Randy.
Despite
all the pre-fight taunting from his opponent, “Captain America”
has praise for him.
“I’m
give him credit for being here.”
Now
Toney changed his tone, but with a slightly erroneous assessment
of his MMA skills.
“He
caught me, put me on the ground and I couldn’t get up again.
My ground game is good, I just fought a great fighter. I’ll
be back,” he declared.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Distak
and the “historical day” on Strikeforce
Boxing
coach and one of the leaders of X-Gym, Josuel Distak cannot hide
his happiness for the last weekend. Having three athletes fighting,
the final score was perfect for the team, which had the wins
of Ronaldo Jacaré, Rafael Feijão and André
Galvão, guaranteeing two belts to the Brazilian squad.
“We’re very happy with this historical win, I think
that Brazil never had a better moment on MMA: we earned two belts,
had another win and a baby”, celebrated the coach, who evaluated
each win of the future champions to be.
How
was it to follow, along with Rogério Camões, the
wins on X-Gym on Strikeforce?
The
team is to be congratulated, the whole group did a great job.
We’re very happy with this historical win, I think that
Brazil never had a better moment on MMA: we earned two belts,
had another win and a baby (laughs).
On
backstage, how was the expectation for the fights, since you
knew Ronaldo Jacaré had become father?
Backstage
things were great, it was a happy moment for everybody, the group
gave a great present for the new “papa”, so I’m
very happy. They did it all right. A baby and two belts…
I think it won’t happen again in history. That 21th was
very important to Brazil and I’m glad for the Brazilians,
who now have three Strikeforce’s belts: with (Rafael) Feijão,
(Ronaldo) Jacaré and with Cris Cyborg. We have two UFC
belts, with (Maurício Shogun) and another one with Anderson
Silva. We also have WEC’s belt with (José) Aldo and
Sendoku’s with Marlon (Santos)… I think Brazil reached
the top of the world with these belts.
What
did you think of André Galvão’s over Macaco,
who is a legend on MMA?
Well,
André Galvão’s fight with Macaco was a very
important one on André’s career because Macaco is
a legendary fighter, a legend on MMA, a man who fought over 50
times, so I think it was a honor and a pleasure to André
having this fight with him, because he is, in my opinion, historical
in Brasil and abroad… The event chose Macaco at the last
minute, so he could fight André Galvão. In name
of the sport, Macaco proved that the experience is an important
thing too. It was a good fight and a very important one to André
Galvão… I’d like to congratulate him and Macaco
too.
Do
you think that the change of opponents five days before the fight,
especially when the new opponent is a guy like Macaco, made it
harder to Galvão to make a good performance?
Yes.
We’ve been training on that same rhythm, we were training
to fight a wrestler and we trained very hard, so it disturbed
thing a bit. We didn’t know if he would try to bring the
fight to the ground or if he would try to catch André,
but we have been preparing ourselves for these kinds of situations,
so things worked out just fine.
How
do you evaluate the knockout the Rafael Feijão applied
on King Mo Lawal, who was unbeaten until then?
We
were hoping for a win, we were training hard and we proved to
the world that Rafael deserves to be on the top 10. We’ve
been saying it and some people laughed at us (laughs), I think
it’s pitiful. He fought a really tough guy… King Mo
is one of the tops of the division and Rafael wrote his name
in the history of the sport with this win. Now the division has
a champion and the champion is Rafael Feijão.
How
did you see Ronaldo Jacaré’s win, after 25 minutes
of hard work in order to win the belt?
Ronaldo
is a guy who is showing his evolution on the sport each day,
with no fear of MMA. He showed a wonderful stand-up technique,
the Americans loved it, and they saw that he’s a fighter
who can deal with any situation. It was very important not just
for us, but to Brazil…
Did
Strikeforce say when they might come back?
Well,
the event hasn’t said anything, but we’re preparing
ourselves, setting our strategy for these belt defenses. Let’s
see, but I think that the hardest one is on our way… I believe
it’ll be against Dan Henderson or (Gerard) Mousasi. I think
both of these fighters might confront us.
Source: Tatame
|
Edgar
Beats Penn Again; Couture Chokes Toney
Solidifying
himself as the kryptonite to Penn’s lightweight Superman,
Edgar retained his 155-pound championship with a near flawless
performance in the UFC 118 “Edgar vs. Penn 2” headliner
on Saturday at the TD Garden in Boston. Edgar swept the scorecards
from all three judges in a unanimous verdict: 50-45, 50-45 and
50-45.
“I
feel like I can walk on water,” Edgar said
Edgar
scored with two- and three-punch combinations throughout the
fight, delivered strong takedowns in the first and second rounds
and dominated the revered Hawaiian in virtually every phase of
the sport. Penn was visibly frustrated after the first five minutes,
and his situation did not improve.
“Frankie
fought a great fight. He’s the man,” Penn said. “I’ve
got nothing bad to say. He fought me twice. He walked away with
the decision twice. What can you say? It looked like the same
kind of fight as last time. He got off good. Much respect. I’ve
really got to go back and think about things.”
Edgar
made one mistake in the 25-minute match, as he left himself open
for a takedown inside the first 15 seconds of round four. The
champion returned to his feet, however, and resumed picking apart
Penn with punches. Penn delivered another takedown in the fifth
round and threatened to take back control, only to have the relentless
Toms River, N.J., native reverse into top position during a scramble.
Some nice ground-and-pound punctuated the victory, Edgar’s
fifth in a row.
Their
first encounter at UFC 112 in April -- which also went to Edgar
in a unanimous decision -- was clouded by controversy. The rematch
was not.
“First,
I want to thank B.J. He really brought out the best of me,”
Edgar said. “I knew he was going to come in tough again.
It was close the first time. I just wanted to make that point.”
Couture,
As Expected, Dominates Toney
Couture
choked Toney in R1.
In the co-headliner, UFC hall of famer Randy Couture dominated
former professional boxing world champion James Toney, submitting
the mixed martial arts novice with a first-round arm-triangle
choke. The white flag came 3:19 into round one.
Couture
dropped levels for a single-leg takedown inside the first 30
seconds, put Toney on his back and moved immediately to mount.
From there, the finish was academic. Punches from the top softened
the boxer for the choke near the cage. After a brief readjustment,
Couture locked up the choke, passed to the side and waited for
the tapout.
“This
is exactly what we trained to do,” Couture said. “No
one really shoots a low single in MMA. I knew with James’
boxing stance a low single would probably be there, and it worked.
I’ve worked on that arm-triangle for over a year now, so
to finally get it, it was awesome.”
The
47-year-old Couture had some words of wisdom for his latest victim.
“I
think, realistically, even if he’s been training nine months,
that’s real short order to pick up everything he needed
to know for mixed martial arts,” he said. “I’m
a huge fan of boxing. A lot of credit to James for stepping up
in here. He’s the first boxer to do that. I think all of
us MMA guys love boxing, and hopefully, now, there’s a whole
bunch of boxers like James that will start to love MMA.”
Toney
credited Couture and vowed to return.
“I
didn’t expect him to be so aggressive at first,” he
said. “He just caught me. He got me on the ground, and I
couldn’t get out of the triangle choke. But I’ll be
back. I ain’t no quitter.”
Maia
Outpoints Miranda
In
a battle between Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, former middleweight
title contender Demian Maia neutralized Mario Miranda with takedowns,
positional control and repeated submission attempts en route
to a unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 30-27 for
Maia.
Maia
secured five takedowns in the match and mounted Miranda in the
second and third rounds. He came close to nailing down armbars
twice, but Miranda, despite his fatigued state, escaped each
time. Maia closed out the win in round three with a pair of takedowns,
moving to the full mount as the bout approached the final minute.
A
two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, Maia tried his best
to finish it, but Miranda refused to be taken.
Maynard
cruised past Florian.
Gray Maynard boxed effectively and grounded Kenny Florian repeatedly,
as he won a unanimous decision, remained unbeaten and cemented
his place as the top contender in the lightweight division. Scores
were 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
“I’m
really glad to finally get to the spot where I have a chance
at the belt,” Maynard said. “Love me or hate me, I
work my ass off.”
After
a competitive opening period, Maynard cut Florian near his left
eye with a second-round punch, took down the two-time title challenger
with a little more than two minutes left and dropped some of
his patented ground-and-pound. Round three followed a similar
pattern, as the Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts thoroughbred
again took Florian off his feet and attacked with punches from
inside his guard. Florian, growing more desperate by the minute,
tried to reverse position with an omaplata, but Maynard kept
his composure, calmly freed himself and cinched his eighth straight
win.
Maynard’s
strategy was clear.
“Try
to make him chase me. He doesn’t chase a lot, so [I was]
just trying to have him chase me,” he said. “Maybe
two shots at a time, move off, chase, two shots at a time and
then maybe try for the takedown.”
Diaz
Batters, Submits Davis
An
accumulation of heavy, accurate punches carried Nate Diaz to
his third victory in four appearances, as “The Ultimate
Fighter 5” winner submitted Marcus Davis with a third-round
guillotine choke in a featured welterweight duel. The end came
4:02 into round three.
Diaz
peppered Davis with a relentless stream of punches throughout
the match, as the Cesar Gracie protégé opened a
pair of cuts near his opponent’s right eye, including a
nasty gash on the eyelid. By the time the third round arrived,
Davis’ face was grotesquely swollen. Diaz secured top position
and locked in a tight guillotine choke, leaving Davis unconscious
against the cage.
“I
think I broke my hand in the second round,” said Diaz, who
left the door open to a possible return to the 155-pound division.
“I want to go back and fight those tough guy wannabees down
there at 155 -- Maynard and all those who think they’re
hot shots.”
Source: Sherdog
|
Edgar
Beats Penn Again; Couture Chokes Toney
by Brian
Knapp
Frankie Edgar made B.J. Penn look average.
Solidifying
himself as the kryptonite to Penn’s lightweight Superman,
Edgar retained his 155-pound championship with a near flawless
performance in the UFC 118 “Edgar vs. Penn 2” headliner
on Saturday at the TD Garden in Boston. Edgar swept the scorecards
from all three judges in a unanimous verdict: 50-45, 50-45 and
50-45.
“I
feel like I can walk on water,” Edgar said
Edgar
scored with two- and three-punch combinations throughout the
fight, delivered strong takedowns in the first and second rounds
and dominated the revered Hawaiian in virtually every phase of
the sport. Penn was visibly frustrated after the first five minutes,
and his situation did not improve.
“Frankie
fought a great fight. He’s the man,” Penn said. “I’ve
got nothing bad to say. He fought me twice. He walked away with
the decision twice. What can you say? It looked like the same
kind of fight as last time. He got off good. Much respect. I’ve
really got to go back and think about things.”
Edgar
made one mistake in the 25-minute match, as he left himself open
for a takedown inside the first 15 seconds of round four. The
champion returned to his feet, however, and resumed picking apart
Penn with punches. Penn delivered another takedown in the fifth
round and threatened to take back control, only to have the relentless
Toms River, N.J., native reverse into top position during a scramble.
Some nice ground-and-pound punctuated the victory, Edgar’s
fifth in a row.
Their
first encounter at UFC 112 in April -- which also went to Edgar
in a unanimous decision -- was clouded by controversy. The rematch
was not.
“First,
I want to thank B.J. He really brought out the best of me,”
Edgar said. “I knew he was going to come in tough again.
It was close the first time. I just wanted to make that point.”
Couture,
As Expected, Dominates Toney
Couture
choked Toney in R1.In the co-headliner, UFC hall of famer Randy
Couture dominated former professional boxing world champion James
Toney, submitting the mixed martial arts novice with a first-round
arm-triangle choke. The white flag came 3:19 into round one.
Couture
dropped levels for a single-leg takedown inside the first 30
seconds, put Toney on his back and moved immediately to mount.
From there, the finish was academic. Punches from the top softened
the boxer for the choke near the cage. After a brief readjustment,
Couture locked up the choke, passed to the side and waited for
the tapout.
“This
is exactly what we trained to do,” Couture said. “No
one really shoots a low single in MMA. I knew with James’
boxing stance a low single would probably be there, and it worked.
I’ve worked on that arm-triangle for over a year now, so
to finally get it, it was awesome.”
The
47-year-old Couture had some words of wisdom for his latest victim.
“I
think, realistically, even if he’s been training nine months,
that’s real short order to pick up everything he needed
to know for mixed martial arts,” he said. “I’m
a huge fan of boxing. A lot of credit to James for stepping up
in here. He’s the first boxer to do that. I think all of
us MMA guys love boxing, and hopefully, now, there’s a whole
bunch of boxers like James that will start to love MMA.”
Toney
credited Couture and vowed to return.
“I
didn’t expect him to be so aggressive at first,” he
said. “He just caught me. He got me on the ground, and I
couldn’t get out of the triangle choke. But I’ll be
back. I ain’t no quitter.”
Maia
Outpoints Miranda
In
a battle between Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts, former middleweight
title contender Demian Maia neutralized Mario Miranda with takedowns,
positional control and repeated submission attempts en route
to a unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 30-27 for
Maia.
Maia
secured five takedowns in the match and mounted Miranda in the
second and third rounds. He came close to nailing down armbars
twice, but Miranda, despite his fatigued state, escaped each
time. Maia closed out the win in round three with a pair of takedowns,
moving to the full mount as the bout approached the final minute.
A
two-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, Maia tried his best
to finish it, but Miranda refused to be taken.
Maynard
Earns Title Shot
Maynard
cruised past Florian.Gray Maynard boxed effectively and grounded
Kenny Florian repeatedly, as he won a unanimous decision, remained
unbeaten and cemented his place as the top contender in the lightweight
division. Scores were 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28.
“I’m
really glad to finally get to the spot where I have a chance
at the belt,” Maynard said. “Love me or hate me, I
work my ass off.”
After
a competitive opening period, Maynard cut Florian near his left
eye with a second-round punch, took down the two-time title challenger
with a little more than two minutes left and dropped some of
his patented ground-and-pound. Round three followed a similar
pattern, as the Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts thoroughbred
again took Florian off his feet and attacked with punches from
inside his guard. Florian, growing more desperate by the minute,
tried to reverse position with an omaplata, but Maynard kept
his composure, calmly freed himself and cinched his eighth straight
win.
Maynard’s
strategy was clear.
“Try
to make him chase me. He doesn’t chase a lot, so [I was]
just trying to have him chase me,” he said. “Maybe
two shots at a time, move off, chase, two shots at a time and
then maybe try for the takedown.”
Diaz
Batters, Submits Davis
An
accumulation of heavy, accurate punches carried Nate Diaz to
his third victory in four appearances, as “The Ultimate
Fighter 5” winner submitted Marcus Davis with a third-round
guillotine choke in a featured welterweight duel. The end came
4:02 into round three.
Diaz
peppered Davis with a relentless stream of punches throughout
the match, as the Cesar Gracie protégé opened a
pair of cuts near his opponent’s right eye, including a
nasty gash on the eyelid. By the time the third round arrived,
Davis’ face was grotesquely swollen. Diaz secured top position
and locked in a tight guillotine choke, leaving Davis unconscious
against the cage.
“I
think I broke my hand in the second round,” said Diaz, who
left the door open to a possible return to the 155-pound division.
“I want to go back and fight those tough guy wannabees down
there at 155 -- Maynard and all those who think they’re
hot shots.”
Amilcar
Alves vs. Mike Pierce
Round 1
Pierce bullies his way in and shoots a single that is stuffed.
He knees to Alves legs along the cage then slams him to the floor.
Pierce settles into the guard and tries to ground-and-pound.
Alves stands back up but is planted again by Pierce. Alves gets
back up again and Pierce clinches to the end of the round. Textbook
Mike Pierce, ugly but effective. He takes the first round 10-9
on the Sherdog card.
Round
2
Pierce is in on another single and takes Alves back down. He
gets a front headlock on the ground but Alves scrambles back
to guard. Midway through the round boos start to ring out. There
has been a dearth of action in round two. Pierce is holding Alves
against the cage and punching to the body. After another fruitless
two minutes the round closes. Second verse, same as the first,
10-9 Pierce. Not pretty.
Round
3
Alves starts off active landing a couple of low kicks and a partially
blocked head kick. But, as expected, Pierce slows the pace to
a crawl with a takedown. Pierce goes for a straight armbar but
Alves defends well. Pierce looks determined to get the submission
though and goes back to it from half-guard. He is rebuffed again.
The third time's a charm as Alves taps out to the armbar at 3:11
of the final round.
Nick
Osipczak vs. Greg Soto
Round 1
Osipczak pops Soto with a lead left and then a one-two that snaps
his head back. Soto shoots and wrangles Osipczak to the ground.
The Brit goes for a triangle but Soto pulls out. He moves to
half and looks for an opening but can't find anything. Osipczak
gets back to his feet and pushes Soto against the cage. Osipczak
lands a jumping knee in the clinch and Soto responds with a knee
of his own. Osipczak cracks him with a straight right and now
begins to turn up the heat. He lands another combo and Soto is
bleeding from around the left eye. Osipczak is cruising after
one. He takes it 10-9 on the Sherdog card.
Round
2
After a short delay due to the ringside doctor checking Soto's
cut, round two gets underway. Osipczak starts battering Soto
with punches again but gets careless after missing a poorly thrown
elbow. Soto grabbed him around the waist and took him down from
behind and immediately searched for a rear nake-choke. Osipczak
defended and go to guard and tried an armbar but was foiled.
Soto settled in on top and pounds away from half-guard. Osipczak
avoids most of the shots but a few trickle through. He gets his
full guard back and pushes Soto off. They scramble and Osipczak
is up but eats a knee. The trade in the middle and the Brit misses
with a wild shot at the horn. Soto garners a 10-9 score on the
Sherdog card.
Round
3
Both guys look a bit tired to start the last round. Soto takes
advantage and takes Osipczak down right off the bat. He gets
to side-control and goes to work. Osipczak gets his guard back
and shifts his hips for an armbar but Soto sees it coming and
extracts his arm. Soto is back in side and hammers a pair on
knees to the body. Soto slides in an arm triange but Osipczak
is safe and motions to the referee. Soto is not amused and drops
a heavy knee to the stomach. He jumps to mount and hammers away.
Osipczak gives up his back and is pounded on some more. The round
closes with Soto trying for a rear naked. He doesn't get close
but he dominates the third for a 10-8 round on the Sherdog card.
All
three official judges see the contest 29-28 for Soto, who takes
the unanimous decision.
Dan
Miller vs. John Salter
Round 1
Miller looks like he came to throw hands tonight. He pops Salter
with an early one-two and follows it up with more punches as
Salter tries to find his range. Miller lands another straight
right against the southpaw and another. He is having problems
with miller's range. Salter has had enough and takes Miller to
the mat. Salter can't muster any offense on the ground and Miller
kicks him off and stands. Salter lands a nice left hook for his
first meaningful strike. Miller misses on a takedown and Salter
answers with one. Miller is breathing heavily with his mouth
open. The round closes and Miller takes a close one 10-9 on the
Sherdog card.
Round
2
Miller's mouth is hanging open, that is not a good sign. The
fighters trade winging punches and Salter shoots. It's a mistake.
Miller locks in a figure-four guillotine and taps out Salter
at 1:53 of the frame.
Nik
Lentz vs. Andre Winner
Round 1
Lentz lands a low kick and shoots a single that is defended by
Winner. Letz works hard for the takedown as his opponent balances
himself against the cage. Lentz gives up the single and then
reaches for the left leg again. This time he gets the takedown,
but Winner pops back up. Lentz drags him back down but again,
he can’t hold the Brit slugger down. Back against the fence,
Lentz fights for another takedown as he alternates between a
single and a double. Winner’s defense is solid and Lentz
has to give up the takedown effort. Lentz backs away from a sharp
right hand and immediately goes to another single attempt that
is stuffed. Lentz drops levels for a double and then transitions
to a single. Both fail. Knee to the body from Winner from the
clinch with his back against the fencing. The crowd is booing
the clinch wrestling. Lentz lifts Winner’s left knee high
into the air, but the Brit hops on his other foot to avoid being
tripped up. Winner lands a standing elbow and then uses wrist
control to thwart another single. Lentz drags Winner down, but
he can’t keep him there. Winner stands and lights Lentz
up with his hands. A left snaps the head back.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Lentz
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Lentz
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Winner
Round
2
Lentz misses a kick to the body and then charges forward to tie
up. Winner has none of it. Lentz lands a left and Winner glances
a right. Lentz drops for a single and has to give it up. Winner
knees the body and uses an underhook to stay on his feet with
his back to the fencing. Winner turns his opponent around and
Lentz returns the reversal. Lentz goes to an inside trip on the
right leg and Winner briefly counters with a standing kimura.
Lentz lifts Winner into the air, but he can’t deposit him
on the canvas. Hard right hook by Winner. Lentz wants none of
the standup and goes right to a single attempt. Lentz gets a
trip and Winner is using a whizzer in an effort to stand. Winner
is warned for holding the fence and Lentz pushes his opponent’s
back to the floor. Winner, as he has done previously in this
bout, wastes little time in getting to his feet. Lentz slams
Winner to the mat face first, but again he can’t hold down
his prey.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Lentz
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Lentz
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Lentz
Round
3
Winner checks a low kick and stalks Lentz down. Winner lands
a kick to the body and clips his foe with short punches from
both hands. Lentz weathers the storm and gets a trip takedown
from the clinch. Winner uses his left arm to push off the head
and his back against the fence to stand. Lentz stays right on
him and tries to take his back while on the feet. Winner is tripped
in the scramble, and Lentz goes to side control before being
put in half guard. Winner explodes to stand and Lentz briefly
has his back before going to half guard. Lentz nearly passes
into mount and Winner gives up his back. Winner eats a few right
hands and defends an arm-triangle choke. Winner jockeys for position
and rolls out of the clasp of Letnz’s hooks. Lentz continues
to ride the back while throwing punches and elbows with his left
arm.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Lentz (30-27 Lentz)
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Lentz (30-27 Lentz)
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Lentz (29-28 Lentz)
Official
scores: 30-27 (twice) and 29-28 for the winner by unanimous decision,
Nik Lentz.
Joe
Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger
Round 1
Ruediger is short early with jabs and a low kick. Lauzon lands
a right hook and a glancing left before slamming Ruediger to
the floor. Lauzon moves to side control and Ruediger gives up
his back. Lauzon attacks with hard punches and constantly moves
to improve his position. Ruediger gets his back off the floor
and is getting peppered by very hard punches by Lauzon. Right
hands set up an armbar transition and Ruediger taps quickly.
Very impressive performance by Joe Lauzon. The official time
is 2:01 of round one.
Marcus
Davis vs. Nate Diaz
Round 1
The fighters trade jabs that miss their marks. Davis checks a
low kick and Diaz starts to taunt Davis. The boxer unloads with
his hands and down goes Diaz to connections from both hands.
Davis hops on his back and continues to unload with both hands.
Diaz gets to his feet and throws his hands in the air, continuing
to taunt his opponent. The fighters clash melons and referee
Yves Lavigne tells the fighters to watch their heads. Davis is
bleeding from a cut near his right eyebrow. He lands a left hook
and Diaz returns fire with a straight left. Both fighters land
glancing blows and Diaz drops levels for a single. Davis defends
and then stuffs another takedown. The fighters clash heads again
as southpaws collide. Davis ducks under a left hook and kicks
the right leg. Diaz lands a left counter that slows Davis down
a bit. Diaz is winning the boxing war from the outside with his
reach as he’s able to connect with both hands. Davis lands
a left hook. And another.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Diaz
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Diaz
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Davis
Round
2
The cut above Davis’ right is deep, wide and long. It’s
packed with Vaseline and the doctor wants a look. He allows the
second round to start and here we go. Davis lands a left hook
on the heels of a jab. The fighters clash heads yet again. Diaz
uses his jab to set up a straight left and Davis counters with
short punches on the inside. Diaz is using his jab well to keep
Davis at a safe range. Davis ducks his head and connects with
a left-hook lead. Diaz peppers the face of Davis with a right
and a left. Davis tells him to bring it on. Diaz obliges, and
scores with each fist. Davis connects with two low kicks and
starts to bleed from the cut he sustained in the first round.
Diaz backs Davis up to the fence and drops for a double, but
Davis is too strong. Davis throws Diaz to the floor and Diaz
sweeps at the horn.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Diaz
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Diaz
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Diaz
Round
3
Referee Lavigne asks Davis to protect his eye, which has swollen
up and has a huge gash above it. Diaz refuses to touch hands
to kick off the third period. Davis misses a lunging left lead
and Diaz lands a low kick. Diaz goes back to his jab and Davis
connects with a hard lock kick right on the knee. Diaz clinches
and moves the fight up against the fencing. Davis gets free and
runs back to the center of the Octagon. A hard right hook blasts
the jaw of Davis. Diaz again uses his jab to set up a beautiful
straight left. Diaz is picking Davis apart with his boxing. Davis
opens up and Diaz hits the body with a right. Davis’ eye
is a mess. Diaz hits the eye with his left hand and lands a stiff
body kick before scoring a quick single-leg takedown. Diaz advances
to half guard and hits the right eye. Diaz works a guillotine
and rolls. Davis refuses to tap and goes to sleep at the 4:02
mark.
Kenny
Florian vs. Gray Maynard
Round 1
A long feeling-out process ends with a blocked head kick from
the foot of Florian. The Southpaw Florian reaches out with his
right hand to paw at the left glove of Maynard. At the midway
point of round one, there is still not a clean strike. At the
2:10 mark, Florian connects with a right hand to silence the
impatient crowd. Maynard lands a straight right to the body and
the feint fest continues. Maynard drops for a single and Florian
stuffs it. Maynard switches to the other leg and lifts his opponent
into the air to score the tackle. From the top in guard, Maynard
holds the right wrist of Florian and does little else. Finally
Maynard lets his right hand go and it connects three times. Maynard
gets in some lefts before the horn and a right directly after
it.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-10
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maynard
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Maynard
Round
2
Another slow start plays out in round two. Maynard blocks a kick
aimed at the shoulder at the one-minute mark. Florian tries to
enter the pocket and Maynard lands a short right and exits. A
straight right hits the chin of Florian. Maynard blocks another
shoulder kick but it sounds like a hard impact on the arms. Maynard
shakes it off, so it must have hurt. Florian connects with a
short punch and Maynard is bleeding from a small cut near his
right eye. Maynard shoots and trips Florian to the canvas. Maynard
lands a short right elbow from his back in half guard. Maynard
returns the favor with a heavy right elbow of his own. Maynard
sneaks in a right hand and is warned by referee Mario Yamasaki
for holding the cage. Florian works a half butterfly and Maynard
is all over his body with lefts and rights.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Maynard
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maynard
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Maynard
Round
3
Florian is showing some light swelling around his left eye. He
waves Maynard on and connects with a straight right to the midsection.
Maynard blocks a head and spinning-back kick. Florian opens his
hips and throws another head kick. Maynard times a takedown with
Florian’s return to balance and he succeeds. Maynard punches
the body with his left from the guard. Yamasaki warns the fighters
to get busy or he’ll stand them up. Maynard throws short,
looping punches from the guard that are doing little damage.
Florian scrambles and Maynard throws him right back down. Florian
locks on an omoplata and Maynard pulls free. Florian reaches
for a triangle and comes up short before locking on another omoplata.
The technique is deep, but Maynard is able to escape.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Maynard (30-28 Maynard)
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maynard (30-27 Maynard)
Mike Fridley scores the round 10-9 Maynard (30-27 Maynard)
Official
scores: 30-27 (twice) and 29-28 for the winner by unanimous decision,
Gray Maynard.
Demian
Maia vs. Mario Miranda
Round 1
Miranda, with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in his
corner, has a head kick blocked in the opening seconds. Maia
closes the distance and drops for a double. Maia secures the
takedown, but he can’t hold Miranda down. Maia trips him
to the floor and hits the head with his left hand. Maia transitions
to the back and has both hooks in. Maia hits the head with both
hands and then briefly tries to sing a rear-naked choke. Miranda
scrambles in an effort to stand and Maia continues to ride the
back. Maia works for an armbar and Miranda slips free and stands
to his feet. Maia lands a lunging left hand and a low kick. Maia
closes in and connects with a knee the body. The pace slows to
a crawl as the fighters are tentative to engage. Miranada lands
a low kick. And another.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Maia
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maia
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Maia
Round
2
Maia controls the head and trips Miranda to the canvas. From
the top in half guard, Maia keeps his head close to the chest
to ensure tight positioning. Maia gets in a knee to the thigh
and then passes to the right side into the mount. Miranda has
his back trapped against the cage and he’s eating right
hands on the kisser from the mount. Maia gets Miranda off the
fencing and briefly works for an arm-triangle choke. Miranda
defends and Maia lets go to punch and elbow the head. Maia is
scoring with each blow. Maia advances to a higher mount, where
he sets up an armbar on the right elbow. Miranda defends perfectly
and Maia has to give it up. Maia with elbows and punches. Maia
goes back to the armbar and it’s set up cleaner this time,
but Miranda explodes out and to his feet. Miranda hops on top
and lands a left elbow before the horn.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Maia
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maia
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Maia
Round
3
Maia grabs the left leg of Miranda and drags him directly to
the floor. Maia jumps on his back and he has both hooks inside
the thighs. Maia switches to a body triangle and back to hooks.
Maia goes for the arm again and Miranda escapes and takes the
top in the four-point position. Maia reaches for a leg and Miranda
stands. Maia is spent. Miranda’s corner begs him to throw
a flying knee, but he instead lets his hands go. Miranda lands
a left hook and Maia takes him down and quickly moves to the
mount. The mount is high and Maia goes directly for the arm again.
Maia has it this time, He extends the arm and Miranda goes out
the back door and ends up on top, where he throws punches at
the head until time expires.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Maia (30-27 Maia)
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Maia (30-27 Maia)
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Maia (30-27 Maia)
Official
scores: Demain Maia takes the unanimous decision with 30-27s
across the board.
Randy
Couture vs. James Toney
Round 1
Couture shoots a single and easily takes Toney down. Couture
moves directly to mount and Toney is in serious trouble. Couture
punches the head with his left hand and then stays tight on Toney’s
chest with his head for control. Couture postures up and lands
some heavy punches on the face before returning to control. Couture
lands hard lefts on the chin of Toney, but the boxer is still
hanging in there. Couture slaps on an arm-triangle choke, but
Toney’s back is against the fence. Couture complains that
Toney submitted, but the fight goes on. Couture drags Toney away
from the fence and goes for another arm triangle. Couture passes
to side control and this fight is over. Toney taps quickly to
the choke. The official time is 3:19 of the opening frame.
In
his post-fight interview with UFC commentator Joe Rogan, Toney
is gracious in defeat and says that he'll be back.
Frankie
Edgar vs. B.J. Penn
Round 1
The fighters storm out and trade short, heavy punches and both
men graze. Edgar drops under a flurry and scores a single trip.
From his back, Penn looks for an armbar and then lets it go.
Penn is working a butterfly guard while holding an underhook
on the right arm just above the elbow. Penn goes to heel on hips
and sweeps to his feet. Edgar follows. Penn scores with a left
hook lead. Edgar is throwing back, but his range is short through
the midway point of round one. Edgar rushes in and Penn clips
him with a knee to the body. Edgar trips Penn to the canvas,
but the former champion stands. Edgar gets to the side and slams
Penn hard to the canvas. Penn stays patient and gets to his feet
shortly after with his back “crawling” against the
cage. Edgar connects with a low kick and circles away from Penn’s
powerful right hand. Two left hooks hit the right eye of Penn.
Penn answers with a left hook from a southpaw stance. Edgar kicks
the body before the horn.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Round
2
Edgar checks a low kick and eats a left hook in the pocket. And
another. Penn connects with a right hand and Edgar kicks the
body. Edgar has a single stuffed and he lands a knee to the body.
The champion lands a low kick and then fails on a quick double.
Penn has yet to utilize his jab properly in this fight, instead
choosing to throw looping punches. Penn connects with a straight
right to the body and is taken down by a lightning fast waist
hold. Penn shows good footwork in getting to guard and back to
his feet. Edgar lands a left hook as Penn moves straight backward
to avoid leather. A double jab from Edgar finds its mark. Edgar
continues to circle, staying away from a slugfest. Penn blocks
a head kick and then absorbs a kick to the thigh. Edgar with
a hard kick to the body. Edgar cracks Penn with a left hook and
then makes him look silly with a feint-low kick combo.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Penn
Round
3
Penn shows his jab early in round three, but he’s just pawing
it out. Penn has a body kick blocked before he tastes a left
hook. Edgar steps forward to throw both hands at short range,
but he hits nothing. Edgar reverts to his jab and he moves the
head back with a second attempt. Penn rushes in and cracks Edgar
with a knee to the body. Edgar throws a fast head kick, but it
just misses. Edgar sets up a beautiful right hook on the jaw
with hooks to the body. An uppercut lands for Edgar. The champion
is working Penn over to the body, and it’s setting up clean
punches on the chin. Penn throws his jab and follows with a right
to the body that scores. Edgar shoots a double and Penn stuffs
it. A hard right to the body sets up a left hook to Penn’s
temple. Edgar shoots and Penn stays upward, but the champion
gets the better of a brief dirty boxing exchange against the
fence. Penn sees a right hand slide into Edgar’s abdomen.
Edgar connects with a short left before time runs out.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Round
4
Blood trickles down the left nostril of Edgar to start round
four. Penn takes Edgar down with a double and moves right to
the mount. He’s very low and Edgar is able to get to guard.
Penn passes to the left side and Edgar uses the window to explode
to his feet. Penn lands a right hook as Edgar ran away. Edgar
is back on the prowl, moving Penn back towards the fencing. Edgar
lands a low kick that sweeps Penn’s legs out from under
him. Edgar hops on top into Penn’s dangerous guard. Penn
goes to the rubber guard by grabbing his own left foot. Penn
goes to the high guard with both feet locked around the neck.
Edgar postures and stands, where he controls the feet before
diving in with punches that light Penn up. A hard right elbow
lands for Edgar. The champion lets Penn up and connects with
a left hook. Penn checks a low kick and then tries to grab another
low kick. A left uppercut from Edgar finds a home on the chin.
Penn blocks kicks to the body and head and lands a short right
before the bell.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Edgar
Round
5
Penn gets a quick single and takes Edgar down immediately. Penn
punches with his right hand and looks to pass, but Edgar works
to get to his feet. Penn pulls him back down and transitions
to the back. Edgar turns into the challenger and ends up on top
in Penn’s open guard. With three minutes remaining in the
fight, Edgar hits the head and body from the guard. Penn looks
to set up a kimura on the right arm, but elbows from Edgar thwart
it. Edgar gets in a nice left hook on the mouth. Penn looks for
offense on the left arm and Edgar makes him pay with hard rights
to the body. Edgar locks up a brabo choke and Penn has none of
it. Penn gets to his feet and is greeted by an uppercut to his
forehead. Edgar scores with an inside low kick and a left to
the body. Penn catches a low kick and Edgar knees him in the
chin. Penn’s legs wobbled slightly.
TJ
De Santis scores the round 10-9 Edgar (50-45 Edgar)
Loretta Hunt scores the round 10-9 Edgar (50-45 Edgar)
Tomas Rios scores the round 10-9 Edgar (49-46 Edgar)
All
three official judges see the bout 50-45 for Frankie Edgar, who
retains his lightweight title with a unanimous decision.
Source: Sherdog
|
UFC
Fills Vacancies for ‘Bisping vs. Akiyama’
by Brian
Knapp
Long lauded as one of Europe’s prized prospects, Olympian
MMA Championships lightweight titleholder Paul Sass will make
his promotional debut against Mark Holst in a preliminary matchup
at UFC 120 “Bisping vs. Akiyama” on Oct. 16 at the
O2 Arena in London. Eleven bouts have been booked for the event,
which Spike TV will air on same-day tape delay.
Unbeaten
as a professional, Sass last appeared in March, when he submitted
Jason Young with a first-round heel hook under the OMMAC banner.
The 22-year-old has submitted nine of his first 10 foes, seven
of them by triangle choke. Spawned by the Next Generation gym
in Liverpool, England, Sass has also spent time training under
the Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts umbrella in Albuquerque,
N.M. Wins against “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 9 quarter-finalist
Martin Stapleton and current British Association of Mixed Martial
Arts lightweight champion Rob Sinclair anchor his resume.
Holst
lost a unanimous decision to John Gunderson in his Octagon debut
at “The Ultimate Fighter 11” Finale in June; the defeat
snapped a three-fight winning streak for the Shotokan karate
black belt. Based at the Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts in Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada, the 25-year-old has held titles inside the Freedom
Fight and Xtreme Kombat League promotions. Holst has secured
each of his eight career victories by knockout, technical knockout
or submission.
A
middleweight matchup pairing “The Ultimate Fighter”
Season 3 winner Michael Bisping with Yoshihiro Akiyama will headline
UFC 120, along with a key welterweight battle between Dan Hardy
and former World Extreme Cagefighting champion Carlos Condit.
In addition, undefeated British export John Hathaway will take
on Xtreme Couture Mixed Martial Arts veteran Mike Pyle at 170
pounds and French kickboxer Cheick Kongo will collide with the
unbeaten heavyweight Travis Browne.
UFC
120 “Bisping vs. Akiyama”
Saturday, Oct. 16
O2 Arena
London
Michael
Bisping vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Dan Hardy vs. Carlos Condit
John Hathaway vs. Mike Pyle
Cheick Kongo vs. Travis Browne
James Wilks vs. Claude Patrick
Cyrille Diabate vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Rob Broughton vs. Vinicius Kappke de Quieroz
Steve Cantwell vs. Stanislav Nedkov
Paul Sass vs. Mark Holst
Spencer Fisher vs. Curt Warburton
James McSweeney vs. Tom Blackledge
Source: Sherdog
|
Overeem
“runs”, so ‘Bigfoot’ eyes Fedor
By Guilherme Cruz
The win over the former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski put Antônio
“Big Foot” Silva back in the mix at Strikeforce. With
Fabrício Werdum’s injury and the recent loss of Fedor
Emelianenko, the Brazilian was expected to fight for the title
of the division, but the champion Alistair Overeem did not accept
the challenge.
“First, the fight between Bigfoot and Overeem would be in
October, but Overeem said he wouldn’t do it”, the manager
Alex Davis said, responding the pronouncement of the Dutch, who
referred to the Brazilian as a “plug hole” for the
absences of Werdum, injured, and Fedor. “He got scared.
I get it, fighting Bigfoot is not easy and he would lose his
title”, Alex said, reminding that Overeem did his last (and
only one) title defense against Brett Rogers, who was coming
from a loss by knockout to Fedor.
Now, the fight that might happen is between Bigfoot and Fedor,
and Alex says Strikeforce already called him, and Silva said
he’s on. “We heard a lot of thing on the media and
it looks like Strikeforce is defining it with Fedor’s management”,
Davis revealed, guaranteeing that the only thing Antonio wants
is to fight. “Bigfoot fights whoever they put against him,
he’ll run thru whoever they set. Bigfoot deserves to fight
against both, Oevreem or Fedor… He has don enough to prove
that”, finished.
Stay
tuned on TATAME to know more about the sieve of the heavyweights
of Strikeforce.
Source: Tatame
|
GRIFFIN'S
NEW BOOK IS MAN VS. WILD MEETS GEORGE CARLIN
by Damon
Martin
Have you contemplated where you'll be when the world falls apart
into the apocalypse, or what you'll do in case of nuclear fallout?
Well,
former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin has all
of those unprepared people in mind with his new book "Be
Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down," released by Harper-Collins
and co-written by author Erich Krauss.
This
is the second collaboration between Griffin and Krauss, who worked
on the fighter's first book entitled "Got Fight?" The
teamwork appears to have hit a new level with their work in the
latest literary bombshell from the duo.
The
book is aimed at the key MMA demographic, 18-34 year old males,
but anyone who is a fan of laughing out loud will find something
to like in this book. But not just everyone is qualified to read
it.
Griffin
opens his newest 246-page book by offering up a quiz that readers
must pass before moving on to the meat of the information he's
providing in case of an unexpected apocalyptic situation.
It's
those opening moments in the book that set the tone, as Griffin
cranks up the heat right away asking questions like, "What
kind of animal do you own?" "What stands out most about
you at the gym?" and "What is your favorite magazine?"
The
best excerpts from that section of the book may very well be
Griffin's candid question and answer about his fight with UFC
middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Following the loss, he
promptly rose from the canvas and exited the Octagon, racing
towards the back. He explains why he did that, and how reporters
would hound him about it in almost every interview following
the fight.
He
also offers up some of the most hilarious insight into his fight
with UFC Hall of Famer Dan Severn early in his career. That will
have any longtime MMA fan putting the book down to wipe a tear
away from laughing so hard.
The
best part about Griffin's book isn't just the humor that he uses
when explaining just about everything, but funny enough, the
book is actually pretty educational if you're planning on surviving
a nuclear fallout, or total anarchy.
Of
course, those situations are few and far between, but Griffin
offers up tips on hand-to-hand combat, rations needed in a pinch,
and gun buying and owning tips. He even gets Black Label Society
leader and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde to contribute
to the book with his own brand of literary insight.
The
book does travel over a variety of subjects, and does tend to
go in a lot of different directions at a moment's notice, but
for an attention deficit society, "Be Ready When the Sh*t
Goes Down" is a great way to kick back and read for 20 minutes,
and then pick up where you left off only to find out something
totally new because that's just where the book goes.
The
personal stories that Griffin interlaces in the book also fit
perfectly, from a wife who packs just as much fire power as her
fighter husband, to the Rottweiler attack as a kid that taught
him a very valuable lesson. Griffin has a rare sense of humor
that he can poke fun at himself, while probably saying things
that just end up being hilarious.
Griffin
is still an elite fighter in the UFC's light heavyweight division,
but he proves in this book that he's also one part Bear Grylls,
one part Dirty Harry, one part MacGuyver, and one part George
Carlin. Roll it all up, and you get Forrest Griffin's book, "Be
Ready When the Sh*t Goes Down."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Battle
lines drawn in B.C. as Canadian doctors vote for ban on MMA matches
Aspiring local fighter calls decision 'sad'
By John
Bermingham, The Province
No-holds-barred mixed martial arts matches could be banned if
Canada’s doctors have their way.
Doctors
attending the Canadian Medical Association’s annual meeting
in Ontario voted 84 per cent Wednesday in favour of calling for
a ban on MMA prize fights.
Dr.
Ian Gillespie, president of the B.C. Medical Association who
seconded the motion, said the main aim was to reduce head injuries
in matches where fighters wearing no protective gear receive
repeated blows to the head.
“People
who are participating now in their 20s, by the time that they’re
in mid-life, might very well be disabled,” Gillespie told
The Province.
The
CMA will likely lobby the federal government for a ban on MMA
matches, said Gillespie, adding: “We hope [legislators]
put a high priority on the medical risks” of the highly-popular
sport.
“I’m
very happy with it passing,” said Dr. Gordon Mackie, the
Richmond doctor who originally pitched the idea. “The right
issues were raised and the consensus was strong.”
Not
all doctors agree with the call for a ban, however.
Dr.
Samuel Gutman, an emergency-room doctor at Lions Gate Hospital,
who was in charge of safety at the recent Ultimate Fighting Championship
in Vancouver, said his colleagues are “misguided” about
MMA injuries.
“Many
doctors have never seen an MMA match, have never been ringside,”
said Gutman.
MMA
injuries are similar to those in a National Football League game,
he said. In an MMA match, the fight goes on if someone starts
bleeding, which may prompt some people to think it’s brutal.
The fighters are highly conditioned, he said, which reduces their
injuries.
“It
appears to be brutal because of the nature of the sport,”
Gutman said. “It’s a combat sport. There are injuries.”
By
calling for a ban on MMA prize- fights, he said, doctors ignore
the vast majority of MMA fighters who take part in amateur bouts.
“It’s
going to put a lot more people at risk,” he said. “The
amateur [MMA] is where people are getting hurt.”
E.
Spencer Kyte, The Province’s MMA columnist and blogger,
said the doctors mean well but they haven’t gone about it
the right way.
“Fighter
safety is something that everyone at every level of the sport
is concerned with,” said Kyte.
“But
to not have done the proper research, and look at the studies
that are already out there on the topic, or spoken with anyone
within the industry before moving forward, seems misguided to
me — and unfortunately, it also seems a hasty decision.”
Cheryl
Chan, an MMA fighter in Burnaby who plans to turn professional,
called the CMA vote “sad.”
“It’s
almost people who don’t understand the sport who are voting
on not continuing on with it,” she said. “There’s
a safety aspect with every sport.
“We
don’t go into it thinking we’re not going to get hurt.
We go into it prepared. It’s a fight. You are going to get
hurt. Just like you are going to get hurt when you play football.
That’s why we train as hard as we do.”
Chan
said she’s had one amateur MMA fight but only got a black
eye. “I’ve been hurt more in softball than I have in
MMA so far,” she said.
Gutman
said it’s now time the provincial government regulated MMA
in B.C., as it does with boxing, with rules and regulations to
protect the safety of athletes.
Vancouver
mixed martial artist Paul Lazenby, who organizes amateur MMA
events in the Vancouver area, is currently working with Sport
B.C. to set up an association to regulate amateur fighters.
Banning
mixed martial arts would only send it underground, he said.
“There
are so many people who want to fight. MMA is not going anywhere.”
Source: Fight Opinion/The Province
|
The
Zuffa Myth and the Auteur Theory of the UFC
by Jake
Rossen
In
a softball profile of Dana White for The Boston Herald, sportswriter
Ron Borges falls hook and line for the same inexhaustible fairy
tale that the UFC was held on barges and regularly featured groin
biting before White and the Fertittas gallantly dragged it from
the muck.
“The
fighter’s spirit [White] learned at McDonough’s was
never extinguished as he rewrote UFC’s rules to exclude
troubling practices like groin shots, eye gouging and head butts,”
writes Borges.
Does
the UFC circulate a press kit with this fiction? Probably not:
Enough reputable outlets have repeated it enough that Borges
probably considered it accurate. But the UFC rules as we know
them were more or less in place in New Jersey in 2000, well before
White purchased the promotion.
Boston
was home to White for years, and a little hyperbole isn’t
so bad. The bigger issue is the consistent portrayal of White
as the sole and exclusive engine behind the UFC’s success,
to the point where any and all history prior to 2001 is either
revised or eliminated.
In
fairness to White, he had a good teacher. Bob Meyrowitz, who
ran Semaphore Entertainment Group at the time ad man Art Davie
and Rorion Gracie approached the business with the premise for
the UFC, was not even in attendance for their first event in
Denver. By the time the promotion was turning over hundreds of
thousands of pay-per-view buys, Meyrowitz had purchased Davie
and Gracie’s stake and turned himself into its sole creator.
It made for a cleaner, better package, with the neat side effect
of satiating Meyrowitz’s voluminous ego. Sound familiar?
White’s
story as told through the uncritical lenses of media misses several
key points: When a business officer has a near-bottomless well
of financial resources to cover their slips, things get easier.
Those slips came early and often: UFC 33 was a disaster simply
because no one could get a time slot coordinated, as embarrassing
an error as any the upstart promotions have managed; heavily
oiled marketing campaigns featuring Carmen Electra looked like
something you’d see in Out, which is a little too demo-specific;
Chuck Liddell was lent out to Pride and smashed. It’s all
rookie, bush-league stuff. The difference? Fertitta could cover
the repair bill.
Also
swept aside is the notion of Zuffa purchasing the UFC’s
intellectual property when they could have easily started their
own banner and saved a couple of million. The reason? Meyrowitz,
despite his fumbles, turned the UFC into a highly recognizable
brand: the UFC-as-Kleenex analogy started under his watch. For
everything White has done, he was working with an incredible
asset: eight years of brand placement. If Coca-Cola is hemorrhaging
money and a new CEO is able to reverse their fortunes, it’s
an impressive feat -- but it does not mean he invented Coca-Cola.
The
UFC and MMA as we know it today is the product of many, many
people: the Gracies, who popularized the idea of disparate styles
meeting in Brazil; the boxers who would consent to fighting a
wrestler sporadically throughout the 20th century; Bill Viola,
who strapped headgear and pads on martial artists and let them
punch and submit each other in Philadelphia at the height of
the Toughman craze; Pat Jordan, who wrote a 1989 Playboy article
on Rorion that brought Davie to his Academy; Davie and Rorion,
who packaged it as a commercial property; SEG, which turned it
into a viable television product; Joe Silva, who can make sense
of the bigger picture in matchmaking; and White and the Fertittas,
who used money and connections to make it digestible to the masses.
But
that’s not a good sound bite, is it? It’s long and
laborious and probably missing a few more steps.
Today,
White is fond of statements like, “I built this thing.”
And in many ways, he’s right: White figured out how to monetize
a business that had the scarlet letter of political oppression
and social irresponsibility seared into it. It’s a spectacular
fourth-quarter comeback, and it’s impressive enough on its
own. So why embellish it?
Source: Sherdog
|
Rafael
Feijão
By Guilherme Cruz
Showing good takedown defenses and a sharp Muay Thai, Rafael
“Feijão” Cavalcante saw his dream coming true
as he became Strikeforce’s champion last Saturday, knocking
out Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal on the third round. After
the victory, Feijão talked to TATAME and spoke about the
feeling of becoming a champion and the strategy he used for the
fight, the wins of his training partners Ronaldo Jacaré
and André Galvão and his future on the event.
What did you think of the fight?
Thanks God everything worked out just fine, we did exactly what
we have trained to do. I thought it was excellent, because I
used the game plan I have set. I used several positions I trained
until 10 minutes before the fight began, so it was great.
You showed you have been training your takedown defenses…
We have a great team, there’s Corvo, André Galvão,
Jacaré… All of them are good on the takedowns, so
it was crucial to me, besides having Rodrigo and everyone from
Team Nogueira at my side. I had to fell and try to catch him
quickly, or to stand up and try to punish him. The takedown,
even when you can’t make your opponent to stay down, wears
out the athlete.
The stand-up game was to work on the clinch and knees, right?
The strategy on the first round was to be a little but faster
and defend the takedowns, and on the other rounds I tight it
up and he got tired. I defended the takedowns on a good way,
and when he began to get tired, I punched him hard and fit a
knee.
How was the feeling when you got the belt in hands?
It meant the world to me, I’m living a dream I’ve been
seeking for a long time. A lot of people see that I’ve been
working on it for a long time, I’m working on my professional
career for over six years, I’m involved on the fighting
business for a longtime. I dedicate it to God and my family,
because they support me at any moment.
What did you think of the fights of Jacaré, beating Tim
Kennedy, and Galvão, beating Jorge Patino Macaco?
It was excellent, the guys were very prepared. Galvão
had a great win over an experienced guy. I remember of when I
was a child and I watched this guy fighting and André
beat him. Macaco is a legend. Jacaré got a hard one, but
we got these wins.
What do you expect of your future in the event? Do you know anything
about your next opponent?
No,
no one said anything. I just want to rest now. There were three
and a half months dedicated to trainings, diet, staying away
from the family… I just want to rest now.
Source: Tatame
|
Sanchez
Reunites with Jackson’s Academy
by Tristen
Critchfield
It
was in April that Diego Sanchez first held a news conference
to announce his plans to return to Albuquerque, N.M., to live
and train. The theme that day was simple: "A Return to the
Roots."
As
far as returning to his hometown, the statement was true, but
it wasn't until mid August that the UFC welterweight truly returned
to his MMA roots.
"The
Nightmare" has returned to Jackson's MMA in preparation
for his upcoming bout with Paulo Thiago at UFC 121 on Oct. 23
at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Sanchez
conducted his previous fight camp through the Albuquerque Kickboxing
Academy under the guidance of Lenny Lovato Sr., a state champion
wrestling coach at an area high school.
After
“The Ultimate Fighter" winner suffered a surprising
and one-sided loss to John Hathaway at UFC 114 in May, he determined
that it was time to go back to train with Greg Jackson and his
highly regarded collection of fighters, where Sanchez's career
began.
"It
was just as simple as me coming back," Sanchez said. "Greg
always had an open door for me and open arms for me. It was just
a matter of making the decision, and I just followed my heart.
Greg was the one who started my career. He knows me better than
any other coach."
When
Sanchez first decided to return to Albuquerque after spending
nearly three years in California, he wasn't quite ready to come
back to his original team.
"It
was a personal choice because I was in between moving. I still
had my life in California; I hadn't moved back completely yet,"
he said. "I had just come back for the training camp. I
wanted to try to do it on my own, try to run a camp on my own
and be my own coach. I figured out that there's nothing better
than having a good team and a good coach behind you."
Sanchez
experienced great success under Jackson, winning the first season
of "The Ultimate Fighter" and racking up six straight
victories in the UFC before a loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 69
in 2007.
Later
that year Sanchez left New Mexico to live and train in San Diego.
He also tried his hand at the 155-pound division, eventually
earning a title shot against B.J. Penn at UFC 109 last December.
After
losing via fifth-round stoppage to Penn, Sanchez moved back up
to 170 pounds and was given the little-known Hathaway as a first
opponent. The Albuquerque native cites a lack of focus as his
main problem in losing a fight to someone who entered the Octagon
with just three UFC bouts under his belt that night.
"I
took my opponent lightly. I thought I was just gonna go in there
and knock him out. I didn't make the right decisions in training
camp or diet. I didn't cut out the things I should have cut out.
It showed in my weight cut and it showed in my performance,"
he said.
Whatever
differences there might have been between the popular fighter
and the renowned training camp, they weren't irreconcilable.
Over the years, Jackson has calmly answered questions about the
split by expressing respect for one of his first pupils. When
Sanchez was ready to come back, all he had to do was ask.
"He
just felt he needed to be at a different place at a different
time, and now he feels that he needs to be back home -- so he's
back home," Jackson said.
A
couple months remain until Sanchez meets Thiago, who owns notable
victories over Mike Swick and Koscheck during his UFC tenure.
That allows Jackson some time to correct the holes in Sanchez's
game, although he believes it could take longer than that.
"He
has a lot of work to do -- a lot of work to do," Jackson
said. "But he's really receptive; he's coachable. So now
it's just changing his style back and improving what we've already
got.
"There
needs to be some changes and it might take us a fight or two
to get to those changes, but that's what we've got to do."
Sanchez
says he's "100 percent" back in Albuquerque this time
around. He's moving into a house just outside of Albuquerque,
away from the distractions of the city. Both Sanchez and the
gym have changed over the years, but the common goal remains.
"The
gym has come a long way since I had left," Sanchez said.
"It just felt good to be back home -- this is my home away
from home since I was a teenager growing up over here... Greg's
come a long way. So have I. Now we're back together, and we're
ready to take on whoever the UFC puts in front of us."
This
article was updated Aug. 25 at 12:29 a.m. to correct that Sanchez
was stopped by Penn; the fight did not go to a decision.
Source: Sherdog
|
WEC
50 ATTENDANCE AND GATE RECEIPTS RELEASED
The
Nevada State Athletic Commission on Wednesday revealed the official
gate receipts and attendance for WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez,
which took place on Aug. 18 in Las Vegas.
The
main event featured WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz successfully
defending his title from Joseph Benavidez. The win lines him
up for his next defense, against Scott Jorgensen, who also won
his bout the same night.
WEC
50 drew a crowd of 1,861 to the Pearl at the Palms Hotel. 1,490
of those tickets were sold and 371 were complementary. The gate
receipts for the event totaled $275,340.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Hayley
Pieper Kalua Pig Plate Fundraiser
Today!
Brandon
Pieper’s 4 year old daughter Hayley has a hole in her heart
and needs surgery to fix it. He is holding a fundraiser this
Saturday, August 28th to help pay for the medical costs. Come
and get a great plate lunch for you and buy one for each of your
friends before the BJ Penn-Frankie Edgar fight and help out a
great cause!
What:
Kalua Pig plate lunch
Cost:
$7 (donations also accepted)
Pick
up: Pilila’au Community Park
(Farrington Hwy, take a right onto Plantation Road, Near Pokai
Bay)
85-166 Plantation Rd
Waianae, HI 96792
Time:
3:00PM
Brandon
277-1136
Rae 627-2778
|
Big
Island Open BJJ Tournament In Hilo Today!
Chris Smith, from Charles Gracie school in Hilo, is putting together
a competition on August 28.
AME: Big Island Open
Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Location: Hilo Armory - 26 Shipman St. Hilo, HI 96720
Time: Kids start at 8:00am and adults to follow (around 11:00am)
Price: $45 per event up till 8/20/10
$55 8/21/10 to 8/25/10
Registration: http://www.tigerbjj.com
Source: Troy Souza
|
UFC
118 Today!
TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
August 28, 2010
Hawaii
Air Times:
UFC 118 Countdown
8/27/10 10:00-10:30AM Channel 559 (SPIKE)
UFC 118 Preliminaries 3:00 - 4:00PM, Channel 559 (SPIKE)
UFC 118 4:00PM - 7:00PM, Channel 701
Dark
matches
Welterweights:
Mike Pierce vs. Amilcar Alves
Welterweights: Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto
Middleweights: Dan Miller vs. John Salter
Lightweights: Andre Winner vs. Nik Lentz
Lightweights: Joe Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger
Main card
Lightweights:
Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis
Middleweights: Demian Maia vs. Mario Miranda
Lightweights (#1 contender’s match): Kenny Florian vs. Gray
Maynard
Boxing vs. UFC: James Toney vs. Randy Couture
UFC Lightweight Title match: Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn
|
BJ
Penn really loves James Toney and admits first Edgar fight was
a bad fight for him
By Zach
Arnold
If you thought Ariel Helwani’s interview with Mayhem Miller
was classic, this interview with BJ Penn ranks right up there
but for many different reasons. At the start of the interview,
Penn asks Ariel Helwani if he really dislikes him and Ariel has
to reassure him that he likes him, which ends up with a handshake
and a man hug. From there, Penn is like a kid at Christmas talking
about being in Boston. Just like the Mayhem interview, read the
transcript first and then watch the video.
One
thing very notable during the interview is how frayed the relationship
is between Penn and Dana White.
Transcript
available in full-page mode.
ARIEL
HELWANI: “All right, let’s talk about the history.
I know you’re a history buff. This is pretty cool, right?”
BJ
PENN: “This is awesome, man! We’re in Boston, this
is where they came over right where America started and the,
uh, the first thing I did, uh, got here, I was like c’mon
you gotta take me, I got Lauzon on the phone, took me down to
see Plymouth Rock, went to see The Mayflower, too, and look at
this, look at this press conference where we get to do this at.
Amazing!”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You’ve been around the sport a long time.
Did you ever think you’d be, not only you know Boston all
that stuff, you were in Abu Dhabi, but to me this feels a little
extra special, right?”
BJ
PENN: “This is, this is amazing, man. You know I never get
to come to someplace like Boston. I’m all the way in Hawaii.
We have such a different history and to come back and really
see the American history, it’s a trip.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “All right, so let’s talk about this fight.
Obviously, Abu Dhabi very disappointing for you. I’m sure
you had a chance to watch the fight since then. How did you score
it?”
BJ
PENN: “Ummm… you know… you know what? I fought
a bad fight. You know what? At the end of the day, I fought a
bad fight. If I would have won that fight, I would have had to
call Dana and get him on the phone and say, Dana, I gotta rematch
that guy. I can’t live with that and we got to do this again,
you know? People can say BJ you won, BJ you lost, c’mon,
let’s not play games. I didn’t fight a great fight.
Frankie fought a great fight, you know. Frankie’s in the
position he’s in now and I got a chance to erase things
on Saturday.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Well a lot of people said you weren’t 100%
going into that fight. How banged up were you?”
BJ
PENN: “I would never answer on something like that and the
one reason why is because Frankie Edgar’s a good guy. He’s
just here to do his best, he’s a human being, he’s
a father, you know. Who cares about any of that stuff? Frankie
Edgar fought that fight, Frankie Edgar ended up with the decision
and here we are right now in Boston.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Was there something about his style that gave
you trouble out there?”
BJ
PENN: “I don’t know if it was his exact style but I
would say is that Frankie got into great shape, Frankie had a
great camp, there was great people behind him and they put together
a great game plan and they ended up walking away with the victory.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “After that fight, a lot of people were wondering
what would you do next. Then, the UFC gave you that rematch.
But going into the fight, there was a lot of talk that it might
be your last fight at 155. Considering the fact now that you
have to win the belt and of course maybe defend it a couple of
times, is it safe to assume that you’re sticking around
at Lightweight for a long time now?”
BJ
PENN: “I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t
know what I’m going to do tomorrow when I wake up, you know?
We’ll see. I definitely, you know what? I just want to fight.
I want to fight the #1 contender to the #15 contender, I’ll
fight all of them. If someone’s hurt and they can’t
give me a fight, I’ll ask Dana to give me a fight at Welterweight,
I got a few things in my head and it ain’t only about the
champion, there’s some other guys up there I want to fight,
too.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Can you share a couple of names with us?”
BJ
PENN: “Not right now. I gotta keep my eye on Frankie Edgar.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “OK. Are you expecting him to be the same Frankie
Edgar, the same one that you fought on UFC 112 on Saturday night?”
BJ
PENN: “I’m expecting him to be a little better. Not
a lot better, a little better. He might try to kick more. He’s
got smart guys, you know? He’s got Phil Nurse. He’s
got his boxing coach. He’s got all these other people, so,
you know, you got to be really careful about these guys, man,
they’re really tricky.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You said on the Countdown show that it kind of
bugged you the way he celebrated because really, you know, you
could say that maybe he didn’t win that fight decisively.
Looking back now, because it was such a big deal for him to beat
a guy like you, a legend such as yourself, can you understand
why he celebrated that way?”
BJ
PENN: “I think that celebration should have came out after
the victory, not before the victory.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You thought he was maybe…”
BJ
PENN: “After the decision.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You thought he was trying to sway the judges maybe?”
BJ
PENN: “I mean, don’t we all think that? Right?”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Right. After the fight, your book came out and
there were some rumors that your relationship with Dana White
and the UFC was a little strained as a result. How is it now?”
BJ
PENN: “Uh… it’s…. it’s, I wish it was
better.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Do you like to maybe talk with him and try to,
you know, smooth everything out, maybe after the fight?”
BJ
PENN: “I love Dana White. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t
be where I am today. Bottom line.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “OK. And final question, I know you’re a big
boxing fan, right? And it seems as though you’re really
enjoying James Toney. The stuff that he said. You sat next to
him at the press conference. What do you think this means for
the sport? I mean, if he beats Randy Couture, a lot of people,
ooooohhh MMA will take three steps back. Would it really be all
that bad if James knocks out Randy?”
BJ
PENN: “What’s worse than having the WWF champ as our
heavyweight champ? That ain’t worse than having James Toney
come on and win a fight.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “So it’s all not that bad for the sport, right?
He’s bringing a little hype. Can’t be worse, right?”
BJ
PENN: “It’s great for the sport. James Toney is God’s
gift to MMA right now. He’s promoting the sport. He’s
telling everybody to go out and buy tickets. You can’t ask
for a better person. What James Toney is doing is putting more
money into everybody’s pockets.”
Source: Fight Opinion/MMA Fighting
|
BJ
Penn raging to recover belt
by Carlos
Eduardo Ozório
BJ Penn will have a tough task this Saturday, when he tries to
recover the UFC lightweight belt against Frankie Edgar in Boston.
Penn ended up losing his belt by unanimous decision after a close
contest at UFC 112. For this fight, the black belt promises a
better performance.
“I’ve
been training really hard. In the old days, I’d pride myself
on how little I needed to train to win, but now I prefer to brag
about how much I train to do so. I try to train a lot, eat right
and see how far I can go,” he says.
“Everyone
talks about my physical conditioning and how they can beat me.
But they forget that I fought Sean Sherk and he’s considered
to be a cardio machine. I fought Kenny Florian and he never gets
tired. I’ve fought so many guys with good conditioning in
recent years, but they insist on bringing up the subject,”
adds the fighter on the UFC website.
BJ is considered by many to be one of the greatest MMA fighters
of all times. Besides recovering his lightweight belt, the fighter
wants to reaffirm that position.
“I
want to be categorized in a level all my own, like Randy Couture.
You don’t want to be in the middle, along with all the rest.
When they talk about us, we want them to say something special,
like Joe Frazier or Muhammad Alia, that type of people. You want
to be extraordinary.”
In
the end, BJ hopes to use in the rematch an ingredient that was
missing in his last appearance.
“I
have to not like the person at the other end of the ring and
that’s why I consider myself different in several aspects,
not just as an athlete, but as a fighter. When people fight in
real life, it’s not because they are athletes, but because
something irritated them. When a man raises his fists, it’s
because he’s run out of ideas. Those are natural instincts
that I have and if someone wants to fight me, I hope they’re
irritated so I can get irritated and, then, we can fight,”
he closes.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
FLORIAN
VS. MAYNARD WINNER GETS UFC TITLE SHOT
by Ken
Pishna
UFC president Dana White, at Wednesday’s press conference
in Boston, confirmed that the winner between Kenny Florian and
Gray Maynard at UFC 118 on Saturday night would get a shot at
the UFC lightweight title.
Just
who that shot will be against remains to be seen.
Current
champion Frankie Edgar is putting his belt on the line at UFC
118 against the man he defeated to earn it, B.J. Penn. The immediate
rematch comes after a close, but unanimous, decision at UFC 112
in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.
Florian
and Maynard each has a legitimate argument for a shot at the
title.
Florian,
while he has already failed in two attempts to acquire the gold
– once to Sean Sherk and another to Penn – has defeated
Clay Guida and Takanori Gomi since the loss to Penn. Beating
Maynard, a fellow Top 10 ranked lightweight, would put him over
the top in regards to earning his way back.
Maynard,
on the other hand, hasn’t suffered a defeat yet in his young
career. His professional record stands at 9-0. He’s looking
to Florian as the final ingredient to a recipe to the title that
has included wins over Nate Diaz, Roger Huerta, Jim Miller, and
perhaps most importantly, current champion Frankie Edgar.
The
Edgar versus Penn bout headlines UFC 118, the promotion’s
debut in Boston, with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture squaring
off with boxing champion James Toney in the co-main event.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Updated:
Emelianenko Calls for Bout with Overeem Next
Amidst recent speculation that a bout between Fedor Emelianenko
and Antonio Silva is possibly in the works for Strikeforce, a
post today on Mix Fight.ru, quotes Fedor stating he is hoping
to fight Alistair Overeem next.
According to the report (which was translated by FCF via Google
Translate), Emelianenko was quoted saying “I would like
a rematch with (Fabricio) Werdum,” but due to the fact the
Brazilian recently underwent elbow surgery, “This year,
in November-December, I would prefer to meet in a cage with Alistair
Overeem.”
After being submitted by Werdum in the first round of their June
26th bout, Emelianenko and his management immediately called
for a rematch with the renowned jiu-jitsu practitioner, but Werdum’s
aforementioned surgery will prevent that fight from occurring
in 2010.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has said that both Silva and the
heavyweight champion Overeem are possible opponents for Fedor's
next bout, which will be the last on the former Pride champion’s
current contract. While attending a M-1 Global event in Atlantic
City earlier this month, Fedor was quoted saying at a press conference,
that he hopes to resign with the promotion.
Update: In a press release sent out this afternoon by M-1 Global
titled “We Want Overeem”,
Emelianenko was quoted saying:
“This is an important match for me and something that I
personally want to happen,” says Fedor. “There have
been conversations about putting this match-up together in the
past and now is the time to begin making this bout possible.”
The release also stated that “roadblocks”, which had
been apparently hindering negotiations regarding an Overeem and
Fedor bout, “seem to be disappearing.”
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Transcript
of Mayhem Miller’s ‘don’t be scared, homie’
challenge to Nick Diaz; Update: Diaz/Noons II booked
By Zach Arnold
A classic interview that the transcript cannot do justice, so
read the transcript and watch the video. 53,000 views in one
day for a non-UFC MMA-related video is off-the-charts.
Update:
KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz II for the Welterweight title is the main
event of Strikeforce’s 10/9 HP Pavilion event in San Jose.
ARIEL
HELWANI: “I think is referencing a famous line said by the
great Nick Diaz with this t-shirt, right?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “The best unintentional comedian of our generation.
I mean, we don’t have an Andy Kaufman. What we do have is
an Nick Diaz. Unintentional comedian. It’s like he never
breaks character and I’m not, but somebody is. Don’t
be scared, homie.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Now is your way of campaigning for a fight against
Nick Diaz some time in the future?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “I just want to let it be known that, dude, I’m
not scared. I’m ready to go! Like I’m ready to go any
time. Let’s do it. Let’s make it happen. BUT, obviously,
for some reason, the fight’s not happening. I don’t
have a contract in front of me and everybody wants to see the
fight. I’m ready to do the fight.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Why isn’t the fight happening?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “I don’t know.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Well, you want to do the that. Does that mean
that he doesn’t want to do the fight?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Obviously. I mean… that’s what I’m
getting because everybody wants to see the fight. Everyone’s
like, ‘hey man, when you’re going to whip Nick Diaz’s
ass?’ I hear that like 10 times a day, you know, and that’s
just at my dinner table. You know? But… it’s just like
one of those things like I’m in the middle of this weird
publicity war where people think that I don’t want the fight.
I want the fight. Hell yeah I want the fight. Of course I want
the fight because I will whip his ass and make him look bad doing
it.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Do you feel as though you now have to go to the
public here and campaign to get the fight because maybe behind-the-scenes
things are happening where they’re trying to not make the
fight happen?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Well, if the fight doesn’t happen, we know
why. We know why?”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Why?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “I ain’t no bitch.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “So you’re saying that he’s perhaps scared
of you or scared to fight you?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Apparently, because I want the fight.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Have you talked to his camp?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “What do you mean? I don’t talk to those guys.
They don’t even speak English. They speak mumbling gibberish.
Haven’t you seen (the flipping middle fingers) on Youtube?
I saw it.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Have you talked to Scott Coker about the fight?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “YEAH! He wants it, I think. I think that he wants
it. Scott Coker wants the fight. I’ve heard directly from
the line Scott Coker wants the fight. Of course, why wouldn’t
he want the fight? Two exciting guys who talk smack and fight
hard. I know. I respect him as a fighter, BUT as a person man
he’s running scared.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You seem a little fired up.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “My upper lip is sweating, that’s how fired
up I’m getting. All right, let me calm down a little bit.
NO, I don’t want to calm down!”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “All right. You’re a 185'er, he’s a 170-pounder.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “NO, NO, NO, NO, let’s squash that right now.
The whole 170 thing, he made that up. He fought, what, Frank
Shamrock at 183. He fought Scott Smith at 182. All of a sudden
when he has to fight Mayhem, he’s a 170-pounder, Oh, okay,
very convenient that you’re a 170-pounder now. All right,
cool, he a 170-pounder.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Would you be interested in going back down to
170 to fight him?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “No, man, I haven’t made 170 in six years.
He knows that and the reason I stopped making 170 is because
I was emanciated (he means emaciated), that means I was really
sick and tired. It’s like, I couldn’t do that. He knows
that. That’s why now all of a sudden he’s switching
around, ‘oh come to 170.’ C’mon dude. You fought
all these old men at 185, now all of a sudden when it’s
a tough dude, now you’re a 170-pounder. All right, I see
how it is.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “And do you think this is maybe an excuse that
he is using to not fight you?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “MAN, Ariel Helwani, I thought you were a smart
dude. You went to college, right? Maybe you’re not reading
in between the lines here. YES!”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “I just wanted you to say it.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Oh. Yeah.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Is your suspension over with the Tennessee athletic
commission?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Man, I think I sent the check out a couple of days
late after I got the notice, you know, I’m pretty bad at
paying my bills. I got an assistant now.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Congrats.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Big ups, Amy. Thank you, I appreciate you. Make
sure to pay my bills. But, yeah, September… I can’t
remember the date, 13th or something like that, maybe before
that, I get off suspension and I”m ready to fight. I mean,
I’ve been training hard. Like I’ve just been training
all the time just to be ready for whatever and as soon as that
three months come up, man, you know I have a few different offers.
Dude, Tokyo’s calling. So..”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “DREAM?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Yeah, so I have a contract out with them.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Who are they offering you?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “What are you looking for, the scoop?”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Yes.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Oh my God.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Remember you called me many moons ago Scoop McGillicutty?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “You are Scoop, yeah. Now I got a new name for you.
I thought it was smart but it’s not. I was thinking the
K-N-O-W-S because you know everything, THE KNOWS.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “THE KNOWS that knows. What are you trying to imply?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “No, no… nothing.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Oh man, you’re stealing jokes from Forrest
Griffin?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Oh, he did that joke?”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “He already did it. I expect more from you, Mayhem.”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “He’s a smart dude, though, c’mon. Forrest
Griffin is a smart, witty, funny dude, so I could imagine he
thought about it before me.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Strikeforce’s next big event is October 9th
in San Jose. Will you be fighting on that card?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “I hope so. I mean I’m ready. I want to do
it. I want to fight. Like I want to fight. I’m finished
filming Bully Beatdown Season 3. I’m finished filming that.
I’ve been doing commentary for HDNet, you know, I’m
keeping busy and I’m keeping training.”
(snip)
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Strikeforce is saying that they’re doing
a Middleweight tournament. Perhaps kicking off in October, will
you be a part of it?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “Dude, I mean, I’m a Middleweight.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Have they asked you to be a part of it?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “I haven’t gotten anything in writing or anything
signed, so no scoop here. I want to fight and I think that I
should be the title holder. I know I can wear the strap around
my waist and I know I can carry it for a long time, I just to
got to get in the right fights so that I can show everybody that.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Is there a part of you that’s disappointed
that Jake Shields signed with the UFC and you never got that
shot?”
MAYHEM
MILLER: “OF COURSE, MAN, I have the infamous line, ‘where’s
my rematch, buddy’ and now he scoots off to UFC for less
money. That’s OK, I mean, sure, I hope he makes it up in
sponsors, good luck to him. You know, I’m here in Strikeforce
with the contract, Strikeforce is putting on fantastic shows,
Showtime just keeps pumping out the content and you know I’m
ready to get here and be part of it.”
Source: Fight Opinion
|
Murilo
Bustamante
By Guilherme Cruz
Former UFC middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante is confident
on the success of his student Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares
on the American event. With three consecutive wins, two by a
submission known as foot lock, Toquinho will make the main event
of UFC Fight Night 22 against Nate Marquardt, and Murilo believes
that o win would put him closer to the belt dispute. On an exclusive
interview conceded to TATAME, Bustamante analyzed the combat,
commented about Toquinho’s success on UFC and talked about
his loss on Impact FC, revealing he suffered from a labyrinthitis
crisis during the combat.
What is your expectation for the next fight of Rousimar?
Man, the expectations are as high as they can get. Toquinho is
doing fine, improved a lot his techniques. Actually, he’ll
probably go to Las Vegas now to take some medical examination
for UFC. They wouldn’t accept the exams he had done here
in Brazil, so he went there to do their way and then he’ll
come back, he’ll arrive here on Sunday and we’ll get
back for his trainings.
You’re in Las Vegas now?
No, not me, he went by himself and is taking the examinations
there and then he’ll come back so he can restart his trainings.
He was doing great, the trainings were awesome, and he’s
got a good technique… I had to hold him on the trainings
otherwise he’d be ready before the time comes (laughs).
The expectations are high, we’re very confident. He’s
taking his trainings seriously and everything is working out
just fine.
Nate is known for doing a great stand-up game and also being
a JIu-Jitsu black belt. Have you set your game plan already?
I’m studying his game, studying hard, so I have it in mind.
I talk to Rousimar and say what he must do. It’s in his
head already, now he’s just rehearsing his show so that
he can present it over there.
Toquinho has two foot lock submissions. If Nate makes a mistake,
he can fit the third, right? Do you believe that a submission
over Marquardt may put Toquinho among the tops of the ranking?
Yeah, we’ve been seen the rankings, and I think he’s
on the 13th or 16th position, so, he’s getting there…
It’ll be a very important fight because, depending of his
performance, if he knocks out or submits, he’ll give a huge
step… He’ll be among the top 10 and he can dispute
the belt. So, it’ll be up to UFC to decide…
You were the champion of this division. How does it feel like
to see Toquinho walking step by step to reach the top of the
division?
Well man, I’m very happy to be able to help someone, especially
when the guy deserves to be where he is. Toquinho walked in BBT
coming from the an inner city, I put him on the team, noticed
he was good at it, so he’s been improving step by step since
that time, he’s taking a long term journey to reach the
top and get the win. The most satisfying thing is to see a student
of yours winning. To help him to get the win is like another
chance for me to become a champion again, it’ll be like
a double-dream coming true: h is and mine. It’ll be great
if he becomes champion on the same event which I became the champion,
mainly because we fight on the same division.
Speaking about you, what happened on your last fight, when you
got sick?
Man, I had a labyrinthitis crisis due to a punch in my head,
or some hit on the ground or a punch. I spoke to the doctors,
had been examined and they said it really was labyrinthitis.
I had had it on 1995, I guess, then on 2000 and something, but
due to a punch… After that, I never had it after that incidents,
I’ve never had it during a fight before. But it happened
on this fight… I got dizzy on the ground, I haven’t
been hit so hard on the ground, so I couldn’t tell what
was going on… When I stood up, I thought it’d go away
because I didn’t know what was going on and, when I got
up and made a step towards him I got dizzier.
I lost my balance, got much vulnerable… If my opponent had
noticed it and tried to punch me at that time, it’d be really
hard on me, but, luckily, Big John realized it right there and
interrupted the fight, and I couldn’t start it over. Labyrinthitis
is a weird thing because it allows you to make some moves, but
if you jolt, like turning from one side to another or to stand
up, you get very dizzy. During the fight, this kind of thing
can be very dangerous, so I didn’t have much choice…
Even if I was doing fine, doing a good fight – and I can
I think I won the first round -, I couldn’t make it.
After the fight, did you have it again?
Man, I spent a week feeling that way, I ministered some seminars,
but I felt dizzy at times when I was showing some position or
when I was on the ground and then would stand up, but I could
walk perfectly. On the streets I didn’t feel a thing…
It was only when I stood up that I used to lose my balance. I
came back to Rio, did some examinations, but I haven’t feel
anything. The doctor said I could train again.
Do you think that the time-zone and the fact that the event was
scheduled to happen earlier, since it would be broadcasted to
the United States, may have been a bad thing for you?
No,
man. I think the problem really was a punch in my head. I haven’t
been hit hard, but some hit made it start and so I got dizzy.
I left the hotel at 9am and I fought at noon, so the time-zone
didn’t disturb me, and I got there a week earlier. To fight
at noon wasn’t a good thing for me, it was awful, but it
didn’t change a thing about my labyrinthitis.
Source: Tatame
|
Alistair
Overeem Not Interested in Fedor Fight, Decides to Fight for K-1
in October
By Ariel Helwani
On Wednesday afternoon, M-1 Global released a statement in which
Fedor Emelianenko was quoted as saying that he now wanted to
fight Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem sooner
rather than later.
But
when MMA Fighting spoke to Overeem shortly thereafter, he said
he had no interest in fighting anyone other than Fabricio Werdum
under the Strikeforce banner, and that his next fight will be
for K-1 in October.
A
transcript of our conversation is below.
Ariel
Helwani: Have you decided when and where your next fight will
be?
Alistair Overeem: Yes, I'm going to fight in the K-1 tournament,
so my first fight will be October for the Final 16 in Korea.
If I win the fight, I will advance to the Final 8 in Japan. That
fight will be in December.
Why
isn't your next fight going to be for Strikeforce?
I've stated many times that Strikeforce was my number one priority,
but after Fedor lost to Werdum, I had no intention of fighting
somebody other than Werdum. I came to the States to challenge
the winner of the fight and that was Werdum, so no need to fight
somebody else. Furthermore, I like K-1 very much and there are
not many opportunities to stay fighting in K-1, so I want to
fight if I still can. One of my goals is to be K-1 champion and
this is my chance.
Emelianenko
has now said that he would like to fight you by the end of the
year. Is that possible at this point?
No, unfortunately not. The reason is because if I enter the Final
16 and win, I will fight the K-1 Final in December. My decision
was made because nothing was certain and Strikeforce and M-1
didn't act fast enough when I made my decision to start K-1 training.
Now I read on the internet that Fedor and his management want
to fight me all of sudden. Do they really need two months of
thinking and negotiating? I think it's a little strange to be
honest. If Fedor challenged me right after the fight it would
have been something to take in consideration, but the M-1 management
started to say that all the polls on several websites stated
that people rather have a Fedor vs. Werdum rematch then a fight
against me. There we have another lie by M-1 because every poll
I have read stated the opposite and showed that everybody want
to see Fedor versus me. Check their current poll at their own
Web site (laughs).
Scott
Coker recently hinted at the fact that Antonio Silva would be
your next opponent. Does a fight against "Bigfoot"
interest you?
No, not at all. When I fought Brett Rogers there was much criticism
over how the champion could fight a fighter that lost his last
fight. If you co-promote with people that have their own demands
it's hard to make good and logical fights. If you look at another
big MMA organization in the States, you can see that they have
a clear road map of who's fighting who and which fighters are
entitled to get a shot at the championship belt. Having a clear
virtual ranking is one of the reasons they are successful because
they can hype fights. You can debate if I'm the number one in
Strikeforce using results of the past, but the fact remains that
Fedor signed with Strikeforce and chose Werdum instead of me.
We all know that in every organization Fedor is more than welcome
to fight straight for the belt due to his stature and experience,
but if his management decided that they would like a tune-up
fight and then Werdum before fighting me they are taking a risk.
Fighting in a organization is just the same as climbing a ladder.
If you lose, you will fall a couple of steps down and if you
win you go up. It's not fair to other fighters that are climbing
the same ladder. So to make a long story short, I'm the champion,
which means I'm number one, not based on ranking but because
I'm wearing the belt.
Number
two is clearly Werdum because of his win over Fedor and Antonio
Silva. Fedor losing means he's number 3 and Antonio Silva, who
came back from a loss against Werdum by defeating Arlovski is
clearly the number 4. So in that case, Fedor should fight Antonio
Silva and the winner of that fight should fight against the winner
of a bout between myself and Werdum. It's just that simple --
it's not rocket science.
Does
a part of you think that the Fedor fight will never happen now?
If Fedor stays in Strikeforce and beats Antonio Silva and I win
my fight against Werdum, then there is a big possibility that
I will face him. So I still think I will meet him in the cage
eventually.
Do
you still have an issue with the way M-1 has handled this situation?
Everybody knows that I'm not crazy about those guys. I personally
think that they don't know how the US market works. They have
a different mentality and culture. The way they use Fedor as
a trophy is, in my opinion, not how a management team should
work. They should have the interest of the fighter as the number
one priority and sometimes I have the feeling that Fedor doesn't
know what M-1 is demanding behind his back. I don't want to go
in to details so I won't. All I can say is never have I witnessed
a management manipulating and using the amount of tricks as Fedor's
management has done.
Has
this whole process been frustrating for you?
In the beginning I took it personally because of the things Vadim
[Finkelstein] and M-1 we're saying in the media and I wanted
to fight him bad, but now that he lost I was like, 'What goes
around comes around.' So now I will move on and focus on my own
career.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Strikeforce
Postmortem:
Upset Specials, Noons’ Bad Knee, More
by Jake
Rossen
Rafael
“Feijao” Cavalcante (left) vs. Muhammed “King
Mo” Lawal: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
The
problem with perfect records is their limited shelf life: no
one can depend on being undefeated in order to remain an attraction.
Fight enough and you will eventually run into someone who has
answers for everything you have and questions you can’t
address.
Bobby
Lashley and Muhammed Lawal both had their pristine careers tarnished
Saturday: Lawal was unable to hold down the relentless Rafael
“Feijao” Cavalcante, while Lashley somehow managed
to lose a fight he was winning virtually every minute of up until
that point.
It’s
hard to know who suffers more: that Lashley lost is not too surprising,
though few expected it to be against Chad Griggs -- a man so
far off the industry radar that Lashley hadn’t even seen
tape of his opponent. Lawal, meanwhile, was perceived as one
of the top athletes in the sport and had broken into the top
10 with a win over Gegard Mousasi. Losing to Cavalcante, who
is barely a year removed from a KO loss to fringe player Mike
Kyle, means we either underestimated the Brazilian or severely
overestimated the former champion.
With
Lawal’s confidence both in and out of the ring -- his hands-at-hips
striking style has the arrogance of Roy Jones without the ability
-- it’s easy to forget he’s barely two years into a
fight career. But Lashley, always impatient to have a crack at
Fedor Emelianenko or a current champion, may be more easily intimidated
by finding out he’s human.
In
either case, they both proved a point worth repeating: anyone
in the business of promoting invincible fighters isn’t going
to be in business for long.
Next
for Lawal: A confidence-rebuilder against Kevin Randleman.
Next
for Cavalcante: An opportunistic Mousasi.
Next
for Lashley: Andrei Arlovski and a guaranteed win for someone
who needs it.
Next
for Griggs: Brett Rogers.
Next
for K.J. Noons: Gilbert Melendez.
New
Questions: Strikeforce Houston
Does
Lashley want this?Does Lashley really want this?
Lashley,
who earned his name recognition from a WWE tour several years
ago, insisted his NAIA wrestling credentials were more suited
for real fighting. But since debuting in 2008, the barn-sized
fighter has earned a reputation for being an abrasive and unreasonable
personality: despite not having a single valuable win to his
credit, he talked repeatedly of fighting for a championship.
For someone with such lofty goals, he also went nearly seven
months between Strikeforce appearances and even took on a part-shift
obligation to TNA wrestling -- a senseless proposition for anyone
truly serious about competition.
With
a loss to Griggs, Lashley has lost his “Lesnar Light”
status and now becomes another struggling contender. Aside from
an easy-money fight with former WWE associate Dave Batista, he
probably won’t be sniffing a title bid anytime soon. Whether
that’s enough to make him move on is the question that’ll
bounce around his head for the better part of the next few months.
Is
Noons just getting warmed up?
Noons,
27, is unique in MMA’s lightweight division for having several
pro boxing bouts to his credit. While those hands didn’t
look too formidable in his two most recent bouts after a two-year
hiatus -- both of them decision wins -- Noons blasted Jorge Gurgel
Saturday with a one-two combination that should make future opponents
at least a little shy about trading with him.
While
he has confidence in his hands, a postfight mention of wanting
to face Floyd Mayweather is ridiculous on any level but financial:
he’s obviously angling for a payday. (Fortunately for him,
an opponent with little chance of winning is right up Mayweather’s
alley.) If Noons can ward off some of the better wrestlers in
Strikeforce -- most notably Gil Melendez and Josh Thomson --
he’s going to be a problem.
Should
Texas be a no-fight zone?
The
display of questionable officiating during Saturday’s Strikeforce
event comes down to one key fact about the Texas State Athletic
Commission: there’s no such thing as a Texas State Athletic
Commission. Instead, the state’s Department of Licensing
and Regulation is responsible for oversight of boxing and mixed
martial arts: a seven-member board dictates policy on fight sports
and 28 other industries, including electricians and auctioneers.
Contrast that with a state like New Jersey or Nevada, which employs
at least one full-time commission member whose sole duty is to
audit prizefighting.
Among
their flubs: Lashley was struck multiple times in the back of
the head in the climax of the Griggs fight; Noons blasted Gurgel
with an illegal knee to punctuate his fight-ending finish; and
no drug tests were performed on any of the athletes.
The
sport is plenty dangerous even with immaculate oversight: it
has no room for a state that can’t devote its full authority
to regulating it.
Etc.
8,635
was the final attendance number for the Toyota Center, according
to MMAJunkie.com. The figure was bolstered in part by Houston’s
Noons and neighboring Oklahoma State wrestler Lawal, who had
the crowd chanting “King…Mo!” like they were under
hypnosis…Lashley was seen on a stretcher following his loss
to Griggs, but was released from the hospital early Sunday morning,
according to reports. There are already calls for Lashley to
drop some of the massive muscle devouring oxygen, but when your
main asset is ridiculous power, that’s like asking Anderson
Silva to stop kicking…Nick Diaz was announced as the headlining
attraction for an Oct. 9 event in the promotion’s home base
of San Jose. While Diaz is their welterweight champion, there’s
no guarantee he’ll defend that belt considering the promotion’s
imaginative approach to matchmaking. A Diaz/Joe Riggs trilogy
capper -- if you count their hospital fight of legend -- seems
the most realistic, though I remain in high support of a Diaz/Cung
Le Superfight…Josh Gross reports that the company is still
debating whether to make a long-discussed eight-man tournament
a single-night affair or spread it over multiple shows. There
is no novelty to the former, which is essentially what every
company does already. While tournaments are usually a mess, there’s
spectacle to be found in a single-evening, three-fight format.
And spectacle is what Strikeforce needs.
Source: Sherdog
|
Rodrigo
Minotauro's exclusive interview:
1-
How are you feeling at this point?
Minotauro:
I’m very calm, these things are normal in a professional
athlete’s life. Our trainings are just so intense plus the
countless battles we go through…We’re liable to it!
And I mean, it’s just another surgery…what won’t
kill you, only makes you stronger!!(Laughter) The same way I
concentrate during a training period, I’ll be really focused
on my recovery!
2-
What wounds will you be treating?
Minotauro:
I’ll be going under two surgeries, one on my hips and the
other one on my knee. The surgery on my hip will be an arthroscopy,
on my knee I’ll have to repair my ACL and the meniscus.
These are old wounds that I’d have to treat at some point.
They were compromising my speed, flexibility e explosion. I consulted
a specialist and he put me against the wall saying “Well,
you can fight now, but we won’t be able to fix you up, do
the surgery, go through the treatment, and I promise you, you’ll
be kicking your opponents in the face in no time.” I’d
be fighting Mir with about 60% of my capacity, no doubt I would
be in disadvantage.
3-
What is the estimated time for your recovery?
Minotauro:
Considering both surgeries, give me six months and I’ll
be standing in that octagon once again!
4-
Rumors about your contusion?
Minotauro:
Our professional life is public, it’s hard to control everything!
What some don’t get is that some (non-official) news have
great impact!
5-
Have you assigned the dates for the surgeries?
Minotauro:
Yes I have. One will be on the US. The other one in Brazil, with
specialists also, no doubt we’ll be using the best resources
available, both doctors granted me that after the recovery I
will be flying!!
6-
This was a much anticipated fight as much for you as for your
fans, what can you say about this second match up?
Minotauro:
At my first fight with Mir I was not ok, I was stubborn and had
to pay for that! Mir is a fantastic athlete and deserves respect,
he’s had some tough moments in his life, and he’s undoubtedly
a winner! This second match up could be a “double-edged
sword”, if the athlete is not able to separate heart from
head, the chances of everything going to waste grow a lot! In
my opinion going after a rematch has its limits. When they offered
me this match, the whole plot was written in my head on a split
second, “If God is putting him on my way once again, I’ll
be ready!!” With that I’ve decided to fight only if
I’m 100%!!
7-
Mir VS Cro-Cop?
Minotauro:
Big fight, they’re both champions that have been through
similar moments on their career, but most importantly both wanting
to be back at the top!! Cro-Cop is looking for his third consecutive
victory and Mir will try to recover from his last loss.
8-
What do you expect from your twin brother, Rogério (Minotouro)
against the explosive Ryan Bader?
Minotauro:
The good thing about this entire situation is that I’ll
be able to be at his corner!!(Laughter) We know Ryan’s game
quite well, he’s very fast and he’s evolved a lot since
time I coached him at TUF. Rogério is living a great moment
in his career and his goal is definitely to take the light-heavyweight
belt home He’ll be fighting with everything he’s got!
His boxing is really dangerous, that makes it possible to control
the distance in the fight. Another good point is Rogério’s
fighting experience, we believe that’ll make a big difference
9-
At the fifth round of Silva VS Sonnen, in those last few minutes,
what was going through your mind?
Minotauro:
We were very worried about his wound, but he made a good choice
he decided to fight! It looks crazy, I even posted in my twitter
account (https://twitter.com/Minotauromma), the very last seconds
before he entered the octagon, he told me “be cool Master,
I´ll submit him”. Anderson is a really dangerous athlete,
he looking for that triangle since the second round and at the
fourth, he almost knocked Sonnen out. No doubt that all of his
anti-professional bad talk made Anderson even thirstier for a
victory, his technical level and his champion heart took him
to finish the fight with only one minute to go!! Not everyone
can do that!! Anderson definitely filled us with proud!!
10-
When you come back, how do you think the heavy-weight division
will be like?
Minotauro:
God willing, with Junior as a champion!! We’re all working
hard for that! He’s a terrific athlete and a great guy,
he deserves that title more than anyone!! I’ll be back at
2011, which is just around the block, only 4 months before this
year is over. One thing at a time, as always I want to fight
with the best and get to that belt!
Source: Tatame/MMAllStars
|
Just
a few short weeks ago Eliot Marshall was looking for a fight.
Well
he found one. Actually he found two. The former UFC light heavyweight
is on a mission to get back to the Octagon, and the road starts
Friday in Ring of Fire where Marshall takes on fellow former
"Ultimate Fighter" competitor Josh Haynes.
Two
weeks after Marshall faces Haynes, he'll fight again in the Bring
the Thunder MMA promotion. All of this with one, single, solitary
thought in mind...
The
UFC or bust.
"The
goal is the UFC. Let's not beat around the bush, that's where
the best fighters fight," Marshall said in an interview
with MMAWeekly.com. "Yeah, there's this guy that's here,
there's this guy that's there, and you're always going to have
this talk like 'what if (Alistair) Overeem, or Fedor, or whatever.
You tell me where the best guys fight? They fight in the UFC."
Following
his loss to Vladdy Matyushenko earlier this year, Marshall was
given his walking papers from the UFC. The Colorado based fighter
admits that pink slip was one of the toughest things he's ever
had to accept. While he may have had no choice in the matter,
he also has made it his personal mission to earn his way back
to the big show.
"Sure,
Dream would be cool, go to Japan; Strikeforce would be cool;
but overall the best fighters, it's in the UFC," Marshall
commented. "I'll fight wherever working up to it, whatever
it takes. Do you want to play in the CFL or the NFL?"
With
a new son and a wife at home, Marshall is looking at the big
picture when it comes to his MMA career. He doesn't want to leave
anything on the table, and know that he could have taken a bigger
step, or accomplished bigger goals.
Like
Crash Davis in the film "Bull Durham" as he looks at
a younger, better prospect get called up to the majors while
he toils away in the minors, Marshall doesn't want that regret,
and he's willing to fight, scratch and claw his way back to the
top.
It
starts at Ring of Fire on Friday, and while former “Ultimate
Fighter” finalist, Josh Haynes, will be the man to step
in the cage against him, Marshall admits it didn't really matter
who signed on the dotted line to face him. He was a marked man
as soon as the pen hit the paper.
"I'm
just excited to have a fight," said Marshall. "I'm
excited to show I changed the style a little bit, let's go see
how we do. Let's see how we do and then use all that frustration,
those past four months or however long it's been, let's just
put it out there."
Following
this fight and the show just two weeks later, if Marshall doesn't
get the call from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva inviting him back,
he'll keep beating people up until he earns a return ticket.
From there he plans on working his way all the way to a title
shot.
"I'm
not a fan of everything Chael Sonnen says, but he hit the nail
on the head the other day when he was like look, you're a goddamned
coward if when they ask you who you want to fight next, if my
answer is not Shogun, I'm a coward," Marshall said emphatically.
"He's right. Shogun's the best in the world. Shogun's the
light heavyweight champion of the world. So that's who I want
to fight. Why not?
"He's
right. If you don't want to fight the titleholder, you're a coward."
After
weeks of waiting for an opponent to step up to face him, Marshall
says the talking is over; it's time to fight.
"I
can talk the best game in the world if you want me to,"
Marshall said. "Let's see what happens in the cage. I bet
you it will be 10 o'clock on Friday night."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
FEG
in Survival Mode
By Daniel Herbertson
Since FEG created DREAM in 2008 they have held six events a year
with one additional Dynamite!! event held on New Year's Eve.
In 2010 we will only see four DREAM events. A Korean show was
planned and then scrapped and the yearly trip to Osaka never
happened.
DREAM
Featherweight Champion Bibiano Fernandes is the latest in a long
list of fighters (Japanese magazine Kamipro recently revealed
that it has been both foreign and Japanese fighters) that have
encountered issues being paid. FEG's response to this situation
was, "Please wait for the official statement" but no
date for the statement has been given.
HDNet
commentator Michael Schiavello revealed via twitter (http://twitter.com/schiavellovoice)
that the K-1 Max 70 kg Finals are on October 25 but the 70 kg
Final 16 hasn't even been completed yet. Three of the eight fights
needed for the Final 16 took place back in July and the remaining
five bouts were to be held on a European event later in the year.
No European K-1 MAX Final 16 event has been announced.
FEG
is disorganized, under significant financial stress and appears
to be running in survival mode.
The lack of organization mostly stems from the sudden resignation
of a key staff member immediately prior to DREAM.14 in May.
This
staff member worked on both K-1 and DREAM events and was responsible
for most of the management behind the scenes in addition to being
one of the few staff that spoke English and Japanese. Several
fighters, most notably Nick Diaz, have since expressed frustration
in the lack of organization and English speaking staff and this
was highlighted by Diaz's late attendance to the DREAM.14 weigh-ins.
Although a replacement for this key staff member was planned,
it never eventuated.
FEG
is an extremely private company so we can never be truly sure
of of the source of their financial woes but rumors are circulating
that the problems are mainly due to increasing fight purses and
problems finding replacement sponsors since Heiwa and Olympia
left.
However
the financial problems started, the end results are fighters
not getting paid and fewer events.
In
the past fighters complaining of slow payment were, according
to FEG USA's Mike Kogan, simply not aware that FEG has it written
in their contracts that it takes two months to pay fighters.
That excuse can't be used here as Bibiano Fernandes hasn't been
paid for a fight that was almost five months ago. Fernandes is
their Champion and has publicly said that he refuses to fight
if they don't pay him. FEG have promised a response "soon"
but it has been 10 days now since Fernandes went public and both
fighters and fans are fast losing confidence in the company.
The
fact that FEG are decreasing the amount of events that they are
holding in these tough times is worrying. It indicates that DREAM
and K-1 are not turning a profit. If their events were profitable
they would obviously be continuing to hold as many events as
possible.
With
these staffing problems, payment delays and lack of events, one
gets the feeling that FEG is just trying to survive and hold
out for the light that is coming at the end of this dark year.
Chinese
financial group PUJI Captial recently promised $230 million to
FEG over five years starting in January 2011. With the announcement
of the financial support of PUJI Captial, FEG announced plans
of global expansion and declared "war on the UFC and WWE",
but the business plan that they revealed seemed to be a larger
version of the failing one that they are currently employing.
PUJI's
money is going to disappear quickly if FEG does not realize that
the way towards profitability and financial security is not to
throw more money at the problem but to fix the existing problems
and restructure the company.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Hayley
Pieper Kalua Pig Plate Fundraiser
This Saturday!
Brandon
Pieper’s 4 year old daughter Hayley has a hole in her heart
and needs surgery to fix it. He is holding a fundraiser this
Saturday, August 28th to help pay for the medical costs. Come
and get a great plate lunch for you and buy one for each of your
friends before the BJ Penn-Frankie Edgar fight and help out a
great cause!
What:
Kalua Pig plate lunch
Cost:
$7 (donations also accepted)
Pick
up: Pilila’au Community Park
(Farrington Hwy, take a right onto Plantation Road, Near Pokai
Bay)
85-166 Plantation Rd
Waianae, HI 96792
Time:
3:00PM
Brandon
277-1136
Rae 627-2778
|
UFC
118 Tomorrow!
TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
August 28, 2010
Hawaii
Air Times:
UFC 118 Countdown
8/27/10 10:00-10:30AM Channel 559 (SPIKE)
UFC 118 Preliminaries 3:00 - 4:00PM, Channel 559 (SPIKE)
UFC 118 4:00PM - 7:00PM, Channel 701
Dark
matches
Welterweights:
Mike Pierce vs. Amilcar Alves
Welterweights: Nick Osipczak vs. Greg Soto
Middleweights: Dan Miller vs. John Salter
Lightweights: Andre Winner vs. Nik Lentz
Lightweights: Joe Lauzon vs. Gabe Ruediger
Main card
Lightweights:
Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis
Middleweights: Demian Maia vs. Mario Miranda
Lightweights (#1 contender’s match): Kenny Florian vs. Gray
Maynard
Boxing vs. UFC: James Toney vs. Randy Couture
UFC Lightweight Title match: Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn
|
Big
Island Open BJJ Tournament In Hilo
Tomorrow
Chris Smith, from Charles Gracie school in Hilo, is putting together
a competition on August 28.
AME: Big Island Open
Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Location: Hilo Armory - 26 Shipman St. Hilo, HI 96720
Time: Kids start at 8:00am and adults to follow (around 11:00am)
Price: $45 per event up till 8/20/10
$55 8/21/10 to 8/25/10
Registration: http://www.tigerbjj.com
Source: Troy Souza
|
Man-up
& Stand-up 2010 part IV
What: Man-up & Stand-up 2010 part IV (kickboxing)
When: Friday September 10, 2010
Doors open @ 6pm
Where: Waipahu Filipino Community Center
The
main event will feature the young but hungry O2 rising star who
goes by the name of Isaac
Hopps.
This young boy has just been getting better with every fight
that he has taken. He will now face the confident but cautious
Soljah boy “Nui Wheeler”. Nui will be defending his
welterweight title for the fourth time. He took a break after
losing his super lightweight belt in the beginning of the year
but “he’s back”. He hopes to show this young boy
that you must first pay your dues to fill his shoes. But it seems
as if Isaac has no intentions of paying his dues or becoming
journeyman. Isaac is looking to take his spot as THE BOSS. Oh
$h!t, Nui ain’t gonna stand for that. As of right now, the
ring is Nui’s office and when Sep 10 arrives, we’ll
see who is getting demoted or who is still taking care of business.
Be there when Nui meets Isaac, west meets east, boss meets apprentice.
NUI WHEELER 146 ISAAC HOPPS – das right – its on.
Another
fight that will be a showstopper is the Dennis Montera vs Alika
Kumukoa match. Dennis is the younger of the two but don’t
count this youngster out. Brada has skills and that’s why
he has the 115# title. Dennis will be defending his title against
an older and relentless fighter who will do anything for that
title. Both fighters are very technical and can hit. Dennis has
been in kickboxing for a while now and has faced some of the
best teenagers at 115# beating mostly everyone his skills made
contact with. Alika on the other hand has also faced some well
named fighters at 115# to 135# doing fairly well. But Alika will
finally get to fight someone at his walking weight on Sep 10.
Be there when these two lightweights LIGHT each other up. Das
right
Another
lightweight fight that promises to be action packed is the Shawn
Desantos vs Israel Lovelace. Shawn has beaten most of his opponents
and is looking to beat one more that one of his Wahiawa originals
failed to do on the last man-up. Israel on the other hand fights
as if he has no worries in the world. With the skills that these
two bangaz have, they should have no worries. Shawn is wanting
to bring this win back to Wahiawa with him but so is Israel,
well not to Wahiawa but to the Wesside. Will another Wahiawa
boy end up on the canvas from the confident Wessider. Sep 10
– be there.
There
will be more exciting matches but Man-up & Stand-up always
like to say a few words for the up and coming. If you don’t
believe that there will be some major fireworks. Check out this
line up
MICHAEL
150 MAKANA WIGGLESWORTH
CODY 160 RODNEY BARONA
MIKAL PEYTON 135 ISAAN HATTORI
NUI WHEELER 145
ISAAC HOOPS
JON MENDONSA 145
BRYSON LUM
JON PAALIMOO 135 KALIN STAFFORD
JOSE TOLETA 135
KAINOA COOK
JOEY SODENO 115
DJ CASERIA
BJ SANTANA 130
MICAH SHIGETA
RONNIE VILLAHAMOSA 155 JUSTIN DULAY
D FERREIRA 190 DANIEL SANTOS
SCOTT ENDO 170 BARAK HOLT
DENNIS MONTIRA 115 ALIKA KUMUKOA
AARON VILLAHMOSA 125 KALANI JOHNSON
JUSTIN FONOTI 215
BRYSEN DELACRUZ
TAISEN KEY 125 CARLOS MASUNGSON
KAHALE DELIMA SHW JARREN KAWALU
TODD PARK 160 ROBERT BANIS
BLAKE VILLANEDA 150 JORDAN RITA
IKAIKA TAMPOS 145 VERN KAPOI
ANDYMAR
RENON 225
MATT STONE
PAUL AUSTRIA 130 CHASE TANTOG
BOBBY BARTELL 145 GARY DEPERALTA
SHAWN DESANTOS 120 ISRAEL LOVELACE
RICKY FARJARDO 120 DONOVAN CALLURUDA
CHANTE STANDFORD 115 KAIMI SURREL
ETHAN KERFOOT 165 DYLAN VENEGAS
JOSEPH CARTER 145 ISAAC SABALA
All
matches & participants are subject to change
Source: Derrick Bright
|
UFC
118 Preview: The Main Card
by Tomas
Rios
A
marathon of August MMA finally hits its closing note come Saturday
with UFC 118 “Edgar vs. Penn 2.” Airing live on pay-per-view
from Boston’s TD Garden, this show marks the UFC’s
first venture into the state of Massachusetts since winning a
long battle for sanctioning.
With
the aforementioned UFC lightweight title rematch between Frankie
Edgar and B.J. Penn headlining the bill, mandatory viewing laws
should be enforced. Backing up that hotly anticipated dustup
is a No. 1 contender’s match in the same division as well
as the Octagon debut of soon to be grappling dummy James Toney.
I’m
not going to wrench your arm into watching these fights, though.
I’ll let your friends, family members and loved ones handle
that -- Little Suzie is money with the octopus guard.
Follow
Tomas Rios and his in-progress deconstruction of Family Matters’
last three seasons on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Tomas_Rios
Frankie
Edgar vs. B.J. Penn
Unlike
the cast of “Jersey Shore,” reigning UFC lightweight
champion Edgar is actually from the shore and appears to have
a brain that evolved past the reptilian stage. He’ll need
every bit of brainpower he can muster to repeat the feat he pulled
off at UFC 112 -- defeating the previously unstoppable lightweight
virtuoso Penn.
In
fairness to Penn, the five-round decision he dropped to Edgar
was poorly judged and an example of how effective counterpunching
is often ignored in favor of striking volume. “The Answer”
would do well keeping to the stick-and-move strategy he worked
against Penn since his speed advantage allows him to move in
and out while avoiding any fight-altering counterpunches. The
only problem is that he’ll still be living dangerously thanks
to Penn’s marked power advantage.
Whether
or not Penn can land the clean power strikes he caught the likes
of Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez with is the definitive question
going into this rematch. The first bout established that Edgar
is not going to get Penn down and keep him there. He has no choice
but to play his speed against the Hawaiian’s power. While
the speed advantage will undoubtedly still be there for Edgar,
he can’t bank on Penn giving in to the temptation of lethargy
for long stretches.
He
also can’t expect Penn to keep his bone-chilling grappling
skills on the shelf all over again. While Edgar does have solid
wrestling skills, his undersized frame and iffy defensive wrestling
from the clinch is worrying should Penn pursue a takedown. If
“The Prodigy” shoots, he’ll get pancaked all day,
but a clinch tie-up favors Penn’s size, balance and underrated
dirty boxing skills.
Basically,
this fight hinges on whether or not Penn fights the fight Edgar
wants. Another five-round straight boxing match does not favor
his patient, counterpunching style -- at least not in the eyes
of judges dazzled by CompuStrike stats. However, assuming the
same approach from Penn, a fighter who effortlessly dismantled
all comers up until Edgar, is far too dismissive a stance given
his intense desire for greatness.
Another
spirited performance from Edgar should be expected, but the best
version of Edgar does not beat an on-point Penn. The rematch
should unfold in the same fashion I expected the original to
play out -- with Edgar putting up unflinching resistance but
eventually losing to a more skilled opponent. A level change
counter to Edgar’s charging combinations is the move to
wait on. Once it materializes, the timer on his title reign will
turn into a Doomsday clock.
Randy
Couture vs. James Toney
Any
serious prognostication of the “UFC vs. Boxing” sideshow
that is Couture vs. Toney is an affront to the sport of MMA.
It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath and accept
some hard truths about “Lights Out” before stretching
reality in the name of making it seem like he has a chance of
winning.
Toney’s
athletic prime came during the first half of the 90s as a middleweight
and super middleweight. Since then he has done nothing but gain
weight while putting the long-term effects of an overextended
boxing career on display for all to see. The physical and mental
degradation of this once great boxer, regardless of how grating
he can be, is a tragicomedy of the highest order.
Presuming
that he can put Couture down and out with a single blow is a
stretch. No one seems to take into account the fact that he is
not a natural heavyweight and will not have the boxing shoes
that play a critical role in boxers generating the power they
are known for. Setting that aside, however, the fact remains
that Couture was once a borderline world-class wrestler and remains
fully capable of taking down any boxer who ever lived.
Beyond
that rather obvious advantage, Couture, even at 47, remains a
serious athlete with a vaunted commitment to proper training.
Contrast that with Toney, who is so out of shape that the UFC
has resorted to Photoshopping his media photos. Regardless, even
an in-shape Toney doesn’t have the time necessary to make
up for the more than 13 years of MMA training Couture holds over
him.
That’s
the story of this fight: a haggard, old boxer stepping outside
his realm to take on a man his senior in age but junior in mileage.
The conclusion will be every bit as predictable come fight night
as it was when the announcement first hit the newswire.
Demian
Maia vs. Mario Miranda
A
short-notice matchup created by a chaotic string of injuries,
Maia is essentially fighting to keep Miranda from usurping his
spot in the division. Despite being a considerable favorite to
retain his status among the middleweight elite, this is a grave
style clash for the Brazilian jiu-jitsu juggernaut.
Should
Maia choose to continue making the mistake of leaning on his
striking, he’ll find Miranda much more capable of taking
a toll on that decision than Dan Miller. An athletic, lengthy
striker with solid muay Thai skills, Miranda can work from range
with kicks and get nasty with short strikes from the clinch.
That disadvantage for Maia is made all the more severe by his
still substandard striking skills.
Just
as Maia is outgunned on the feet, however, so is Miranda on the
mat. While he isn’t a walking free submission, he also doesn’t
have anywhere near the skill or experience to roll with his fellow
Brazilian. What this fight comes down to is whether or not Maia
can score the takedowns he needs to win.
It’s
a double-edged proposition for him since his best takedowns come
from the clinch, but Miranda’s striking from that position
may be his best weapon. Although Maia will need to mind his p’s
and q’s in the clinch, he should be able to finish his attacks
considering the success he’s had against the likes of Chael
Sonnen and Ed Herman.
Getting
grounded by Maia is the start of a downhill slope for anyone
at 185 pounds. Miranda doesn’t have the wrestling to thwart
that scenario. As long as Maia doesn’t spend too much time
upright, this fight is his to lose.
Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard
The
right to face the winner of the evening’s main event will
be up for grabs when Florian and Maynard lock up in what could
be your “Fight of the Night” winner. Who gets that
potentially dubious prize depends largely on how Maynard chooses
to approach the fight.
For
all of Florian’s offensive dynamism, he still remains somewhat
unproven when it comes to generating offense from the guard.
Maynard certainly has the wrestling to drag Florian to the floor,
but as he showed in his bout with Nate Diaz, he’s more prone
to engaging on the feet with a dangerous grappler. Trading on
the feet isn’t going to fly for him against the local favorite,
though, since Maynard’s boxing still has a lot of room for
improvement.
Florian’s
combination of sharp striking and a strategic mind make him the
sort of fighter tailor-made to exploit the gaping holes in Maynard’s
defense. Prone to throwing parabolic arm punches, “The Bully”
leaves himself ripe for counter-strikes and lacks the fluid body
movement to get away with it against a striker of Florian’s
caliber. Given his recent preference for standing in the pocket,
there is a real chance Maynard steps into a fight-ending salvo.
How
many chances Florian gets to make that happen is up to Maynard’s
wrestling and his faith in defending the Bostonian’s submissions.
The owner of a solid base and sound positional skills, Maynard
can work the kind of lockdown top control that Florian hasn’t
proven he can overcome. By the same token, Florian has shown
slick offensive wrestling and could easily plant Maynard on his
back given the opportunity.
That,
more than anything, is why Florian should be able to win this
fight. He has the diversity of techniques that Maynard is still
in search of. Whether it be with his striking or submissions,
Florian will eventually find the opening he’s perpetually
hunting down and hand Maynard his first professional loss.
Nate Diaz vs. Marcus Davis
After
a failed lightweight title run, Diaz looks to continue his reinvention
as an elite welterweight against fellow “The Ultimate Fighter”
alumnus Davis. After going 1-2 in his last three Octagon bouts,
this is a match Davis desperately needs to win to retain whatever’s
left of his status in the 170-pound class.
“The
Irish Hand Grenade” leans heavily on his boxing skills,
but his age and a long injury history have mostly robbed him
of his speed and power. What remains is a sound boxer who lacks
the pop to keep a sturdy-chinned volume puncher like Diaz from
razor tagging him. The Californian’s lanky frame has acclimated
nicely to welterweight, and his combination of rangy punches
and relentless pace make him a rough style clash for a close-quarters
striker like Davis.
There
is no quarter awaiting Davis on the floor either, as Diaz is
one of the most adroit guard players the UFC has. While Davis
does have some decent clinch wrestling skills, he doesn’t
have the tight top-control game to reliably corral the crown
prince of the 209. Giving Diaz the space he needs to work his
active guard game is a mistake that Davis won’t survive
unscathed should this fight reach the mat.
It
really doesn’t matter if it does, though, since Diaz has
the edge in offensive arsenal anywhere the fight heads. That’s
not to say Davis won’t make a fight out of it, but expect
a bloody TKO to go Diaz’s way after several tense minutes
of back-and-forth violence.
Source: Sherdog
|
Suddenly
Soft-Spoken, BJ Penn Tries to Return Emphasis to Fighting Roots
By Mike
Chiappetta
BOSTON -- At 31 years old, BJ Penn feels time slipping away.
Almost a decade ago, he was a 22-year-old wunderkind who seemed
like the one-man evolution of a nascent sport. Since then, at
times, he was the guy who seemed to come up short in the big
fight. Later, he became a two-division champion. Now, he's practically
an elder statesman.
For
all his prodigious talent, Penn has had the epic career to go
with it, though this "epic" has as much to do with
peaks and valleys of high drama as it does the casual "epic"
currently tossed around by this generation to signify something
amazing. Penn's most recent setback came in April, when he was
upset by massive underdog Frankie Edgar in Abu Dhabi.
Since
then, Penn's been preternaturally quiet. This is the guy who
told Georges St. Pierre he was ready to fight "to the death,"
told Sean Sherk he'd punish him for using steroids and once spent
a whole season of "The Ultimate Fighter" antagonizing
Jens Pulver. Yet, in the leadup to his rematch with Edgar, Penn's
had surprisingly little to say. And when he has spoken, he's
been alternately self-critical, self-aware and, at times, brutally
blunt.
If
there's been one theme Penn's tried to get across in the last
two weeks, it's that he's re-finding himself as a fighter. He
seems to be convinced that he got too caught up in marketing
and promotion and all the other things that go along with being
a professional athlete. He came in a natural fighter, and that's
the way he wants to go out.
"I
love it. I love to be a contender," Penn said on Wednesday.
"After I beat Frankie, I know it's UFC policy that I have
to take the belt, but I just want to be a guy who fights all
the best fighters, you know what I mean? I have eight belts at
home, no disrespect to [the UFC belt], but I just want to be
a true fighter. I don't want to be labeled a champion; I just
want to be labeled a fighter."
What
exactly Penn means by that and how it applies to his UFC 118
fight on Saturday night is anyone's guess.
Does
it mean he plans to eschew technique and instead instigate a
brawl? Some believe that might be an easier road to victory for
Penn (15-6-1), who has the power edge in the standup department
while Edgar has the superior speed.
Perhaps
it means forgetting about game plans and going on instinct. Or
maybe it's more of a mind-set; he has repeatedly made reference
to his early days in the UFC, when he truly was more of a "fighter"
than a mixed martial artist.
On
the other hand, Penn admitted that he's had his problems ("I
think at certain times I have lived up to expectations, and certain
times I definitely haven't," he said at one point), but
offered no explanations or apologies, saying, "The pressure
people put on me makes me who I am. I regret nothing. Every time
you lose, you come back stronger."
Still,
this fight is something of a crossroads for Penn, who has made
no secret of the fact that he hopes to be remembered as the best
lightweight in MMA history. His first run as a 155-pounder was
dominant. Since coming back to the lightweight division in 2007,
he's 4-1, but a second loss to Edgar would badly damage his argument
as the greatest lightweight ever.
It
would also make him 5-5 over his last 10 fights, a record that
while tinged with losses to greats like Georges St. Pierre and
Matt Hughes, looks rather ordinary on paper.
Penn,
though, says that's not going to happen.
"I
feel I'm going to blow a lot of people away Saturday," Penn
said. "They're going to be surprised by who BJ Penn is."
And
given this new approach, just who is that?
"I
don't know," Penn said. "This is him right here. I
guess I don't know what to say to that."
If
there was a quintessential moment of this new Penn outlook, it
came when he was asked to judge, on a scale of 1-10, where he
thought his performance will be.
"I
think sitting here right now and ready to perform on Saturday,
I think I'll be at a 9," he said.
What
fighter wouldn't say he'd be a '10' on fight night? But those
are the kinds of answers you get from the Penn of 2010. No more
trash-talk. These days, instead of self-promotion, it's self-awareness.
After all these years of wild declarations and trash talk, he'll
let the picture he paints on the UFC canvas speak for him.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Did
UFC do enough to make the sale for UFC 118?
By Zach
Arnold
I’m
mostly referring to their Countdown show last night, but perhaps
you might be interested in the question on a broader basis.
Will
MMA fans take James Toney seriously enough to pay for his UFC
118 fight?
As
I pointed out in the MMA Memories article this morning, the Edgar/Penn
II fight is secondary in marketing compared to the ‘boxing
vs. UFC’ fight with James Toney vs. Randy Couture.
The
idea behind promoting the fight is simple. James Toney is legitimately
insane, made a name for himself in boxing, and Randy Couture
is one of the most popular cross-over figures the UFC has. He’s
coming off of filming the movie The Expendables, he’s “Captain
America,” and it’s two 40-somethings who are well-known
symbols from their respective sports who will fight each other
to prove… something. What that something is, nobody is sure
of. The major Achilles’ heel in promoting this fight involves
two steps:
1)
Does the general public think that Toney has any chance of pulling
off the upset?
2)
Can Toney get the public to hate him enough to want to pay to
see him get his ass kicked or will they be amused by his antics
but not moved enough to pay to watch him fight?
After
watching last night’s Countdown show, I feel like UFC has
done a remarkable job in promoting Toney to the best of their
abilities but that they may not be able to sell enough people
on him being a serious threat. Which means, did they convince
enough people that Toney will get his ass kicked and that everyone
will have fun watching it? I think the answer is a resounding
‘yes.’
Toney’s
Trainer Respects Couture, but Expects ‘Knockout in the First’
Watching
the glee on the faces of Randy Couture and Ron Frazier (Xtreme
Couture) was like watching someone who has a secret and that
secret is bad news that they are going to deliver to a person
they either really hate or are amused by. I laughed when the
narrator on the Countdown show said, “James Toney has already
won the war of words.” It would help if we understood half
of what he saying. Thanks to UFC’s various jump cuts and
subtitles (along with closed captioning), you could understand
what he was saying.
“There’s
nothing he can do that can stop me from kicking his ass. I promise
you. … How do I feel about fighting a 47-year old man? I
hope he gets SSI. It’s time for him to collect it. …
I’m in a real man’s sport. … “Ain’t
nothing stopping me. Can’t nobody in MMA or UFC or anybody
else can beat me. You know that. … I’m coming to knock
every single y’all’s block off your shoulders.”
UFC
tried their best to push the angle that Toney was receiving legitimate
MMA training from Trevor Sherman.
“We
have a plan for Randy and that plan is to unleash James. And
that’s it. We’re just going to put some skills in his
tool belt that he can use that he can use and make him a little
more effective. But, make no mistake, that will be James Toney
that fights Randy Couture, not some concoction that we’ve
put together in the gym.”
Both
Couture and Frazier took absolute delight in the fact that they
are facing Toney.
“If
anybody came off the streets with six months experience in this
gym looking for a fight, we call that being green-lighted. That
means everybody gets to take their turn beating him up. [Toney]
can say whatever he wants to say. It’s not going to bother
Randy Couture. He’ll settle it once they get into that Octagon
and they lock that cage door.”
Dan
Goossen says only way to call Toney/Couture ‘boxing vs.
MMA’ is if Randy boxes Toney in second match
Couture
has, for months, admitted that it’s a freak show fight and
he’s happy to oblige.
“Now
we finally get to see two top flight guys from the two different
sports and answer some questions for a lot of people. The hardcore
fans, the boxing, they’re all going to come together to
watch this fight. James or any other boxers that think they’re
just going to walk in there with their boxing tools and be terribly
effective are sorely mistaken.”
“It’s
tough when you go to a construction site with one tool,”
exclaimed Frazier. “When you have a screwdriver and it calls
for a hammer, you got problems.”
John
Arthur, Toney’s manager, put it this way: “It’s
the crossroad. It’s like, who’s going to be the best?
Who’s going to be there?”
What’s
been amusing is how many people in boxing have been predicting
Couture destroying Toney and shaking their heads at the fight
happening, while many MMA fighters are predicting Couture winning
and seeming thrilled at the prospects of seeing it happen.
Source: Fight Opinion
|
PENN
IS READY TO PROVE HE'S STILL THE BEST
by Damon
Martin
When B.J. Penn debuted in the UFC at just 22 years of age, he
was already thought of as a "Prodigy" for his accomplishments
in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so when he made his MMA
debut and blasted three opponents with strikes, the world was
set on notice that this Hawaiian kid came to fight.
From
his first opponent, Joey Gilbert, all the way up to Japanese
fighter Caol Uno, who he crushed in his third fight, Penn looked
unbeatable, and by all accounts unstoppable.
Until
he ran into UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver, and for the
first time seemingly ever in his MMA career, Penn faced adversity
in the cage. After a five-round war, Pulver came out on top via
a majority decision. Penn had to scratch his head and wonder
what went wrong?
As
he prepares for his UFC 118 rematch with Frankie Edgar, Penn
still can't believe the losses he has on his record, and it's
not because he never thought he'd lose to those particular people.
He
never thought he'd lose at all.
"When
I first started fighting I thought I was God’s gift to fighting,"
Penn commented recently. "I thought I would go 100 in a
row with 100 knockouts. I just sit back and I look at my record
and I can’t believe that I have six losses. It just blows
me away.
"But
every time that you get a loss you take a different path and
you get back on the right journey of why you started this thing
in the first place because it’s a journey of never ending,
you never stop learning. And I do believe if of course I won
that fight I would have changed nothing in my game and set myself
up to fall even harder in the future. And I really think that
that was a blessing for me and now my game can keep evolving
and not stay there and become extinct."
Penn
is one of only a handful of fighters that were in the UFC back
in 2001 – when he debuted – that are still competing
in the Octagon. The biggest reason why is his ability to adapt
to the ever changing game of MMA.
It's
that adaptability that allowed him to think about what he did
wrong in the fight against Edgar, what his opponent did right,
and then figure out a way to stop it from ever happening again.
"I
think Frankie is a difficult competitor for anybody he fights,"
said Penn. "He is (in) there. He’s in it to win it
and I think what probably made him a difficult opponent to fight
against is that him and his team, they had a good game plan.
They came out and one is his team had a good game plan and number
two, Frankie executed and that’s always a difficult thing
to go against."
While
he admits he's not big on film study, Penn saw what went wrong
the first time, and while he by no means had a bad performance,
he knows that he has to do better if he wants to beat Edgar in
the rematch.
"I
feel I can be more busy out there and I feel like I can make
some tweaks and adjustments and I think him and his corner, they
did a great job out there," Penn stated.
"They
work together well. They mixed up the things that they were doing.
They actually even masked a couple of the things that they were
trying to do with the different names. And I think I’m ready
for everything that they got the next time."
The
tweaks to his game and the loss to Edgar haven't made Penn feel
like he's getting a little long in the tooth for MMA, just the
opposite. The Hawaiian icon says the loss was the biggest motivation
he's had to go out there, keep fighting, and do it as often as
possible.
"The
loss to Frankie actually made me step back and realize that I
want to fight as much as I can, you know," said Penn. "After
the fight with Frankie, you know, God willing I have no broken
hand or any broken bones or no suspension, you know, I want to,
you know, fight next month, fight, you know, next week. I really,
you know, I don’t know if I feel my biological clock ticking
or what but I just want to get in there and I just want to fight
as much as possible and just see it, you know.
"I’ve
kind of spaced my career out actually over the 10 years and I
kind of want to make a push to be a true fighter, a person that
fights all the time. And I think I’ve got a good training
camp and I’ve kind of figured out how to keep myself healthy
through multiple training camps. I think I could do it and I
think I could try to be very busy and very active. And I don’t
want to say that it’s just all about the money, but I wouldn’t
mind trying to make some money."
There's
no timeline for when Penn wants to call it a career, but it sounds
like it's nowhere in the near future, but before he starts talking
about legacies, and Hall of Fame careers, he wants to put everything
back on the right track first.
That
starts with beating Frankie Edgar at UFC 118.
"I
want to prove to the world, I want to prove to Frankie, I want
to prove to Frankie's corner, I want to prove to my corner, I
want to prove to everybody, who the best fighter is in the world.
Who's got the most tools, and who can execute better.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Dana
White: Kenny Florian-Gray Maynard Winner Guaranteed Title Shot
By Mike
Chiappetta
BOSTON -- Fighting for the first time in his UFC career in his
native state of Massachusetts, Kenny Florian already has plenty
of incentive and motivation to beat Gray Maynard.
On
Wednesday, he got one more reason.
UFC
president Dana White confirmed that the winner of the Florian-Gray
Maynard UFC 118 fight will indeed be guaranteed the next crack
at the UFC lightweight championship.
White
first mentioned that Maynard would get an opportunity to fight
for the championship if beat Florian, noting that many fans and
media thought he'd become the No. 1 contender after defeating
Nate Diaz in January. Instead, the UFC went a different route,
giving Frankie Edgar a chance to face champion B.J. Penn. Edgar,
of course, went on to earn the historic upset that led to Saturday
night's main event rematch.
"If
Gray Maynard beats Kenny Florian, he deserves a title shot, no
doubt about it," White said during a pre-fight press conference
held at the historic Faneuil Hall building.
Later,
though, another reporter followed up on the 155-pound title picture.
"So,
whoever comes out of this gets the title shot?" he asked.
"Yes,"
White said, explaining that he only mentioned Maynard earlier
because he was passed over following his win over Diaz.
A
Florian win would make him the No. 1 contender in the lightweight
division for the third time in his career. In Oct. 2006, he lost
a unanimous decision to Sean Sherk when the two faced off for
the then-vacant belt. After six straight wins, he earned another
opportunity, but was stopped by Penn in a fourth-round rear naked
choke submission loss at UFC 101 in Aug. 2009.
After
recently stopping Takanori Gomi and Clay Guida, a victory over
Maynard would give Florian three straight wins. Other lightweights
have longer streaks, including George Sotiropoulos, who's won
six straight, but it appears, they'll have to wait.
"Every
fight is important and every fight is like a championship fight,"
Florian said. "Obviously I've been there before. I think
a lot of what you do, a lot of the winning comes before you get
there. I think I've prepared very, very well. Gray's a great
opponent. If I get the chance [to fight for the title again],
I think it's well deserved and I'm very appreciative of that."
As
for Maynard, who is 9-0 with one no contest, he seemed more concerned
with more immediate matters.
"I
have a couple of pounds to cut, that's what's going through my
mind," he said. "Kenny's a tough guy, but it's a fight
and I love it. I love my job. I'm prepared. Let's just hurry
up and get there. Let's get past cutting weight and fight. Let's
get in the cage. Let's find out."
Source: MMA Fighting
|
THE
REMATCH YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR:
NICK DIAZ VS. KJ NOONS IS SET
FOR SATURDAY, OCT. 9, IN SAN JOSE, CALIF.
Kaufman to Defend STRIKEFORCE Women’s Belt Against Coenen
Live
on SHOWTIME® at 10 p.m. ET/PT;
Ticket Pre-Sale Begins Today
SAN
JOSE, Calif. (Aug. 25, 2010) – A grudge rematch that fans,
media, and the confident fighters themselves have been clamoring
for since the first fight ended in bloody controversy nearly
three years ago, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 9, when KJ
Noons (9-1), fresh off a knockout victory last Saturday, challenges
STRIKEFORCE World Welterweight (170 pounds) Champion Nick Diaz
(22-7, 1 NC) in the main event at HP Pavilion here, live on SHOWTIME®
(10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the West Coast).
In
the co-feature, undefeated STRIKEFORCE Women’s Welterweight
World Champion Sarah Kaufman (12-0) will make the second defense
of her 135-pound title against No. 1 contender and Dutch superstar
Marloes Coenen (17-4).
Another
featured fight will pit an emerging star from the STRIKEFORCE
Challengers series, up-and-coming Luke Rockhold (7-1), against
the vastly more experienced, 2000 Olympic Games wrestling silver
medalist, Matt "The Law" Lindland (22-7), in a middleweight
(185 pounds) contest.
Tickets
go on sale to the general public this Saturday, Aug. 28, at 10
a.m. PT online at Ticketmaster.com, at HP Pavilion ticket office,
or by phone at (800) 745-3000.
A
special presale opportunity for “STRIKEFORCE Insider”
e-newsletter subscribers begins today, Wednesday, Aug. 25 at
10 a.m. PT. Sign up to become a “STRIKEFORCE Insider”
at http://www.strikeforce.com/insider.html.
Diaz
has not lost a fight since he faced Noons, losing via disputed
first-round TKO on Nov. 7, 2007. Diaz, of Stockton, Calif., has
been devastating in recent outings, notching seven in a row.
The talented, outspoken, no-nonsense brawler also boasts a Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
The
always-dangerous Noons is an aggressive and prolific striker
who has won his last six fights, including the thrilling slugfest
against Diaz that ended when the cageside physician halted the
proceedings due to excessive cuts around Diaz’ eyes.
Since
that fight, there has been no love lost between the pair of brash
fighters. Seven months after their first fight, on June 14, 2008,
the fighters and their camp members nearly came to blows in the
cage after the fighters registered victories in separate bouts.
“Nick
has no class, he’s a bum, a piece of (expletive) and he
and his team disrespected my family and I with their gestures
and trash talk and tried to upstage my fight,’’ said
Noons after the near-fracas.
Offered
Diaz: “I’m sorry about what happened in the cage afterward,
but I didn’t start it. His guys were talking (expletive)
to us.’’
Diaz
is coming off a first-round submission (armbar) over fellow superstar
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai last May 29 at DREAM 14 in Japan.
The six-foot, 27-year-old Diaz won the STRIKEFORCE title with
a convincing first-round TKO (punches) over Marius “The
Whitemare” Žaromskis on Jan. 30, 2010.
The
5-foot-11, 27-year-old Noons, who was born and raised in Kailua-Kona,
Hawaii, registered a spectacular, crowd-pleasing second-round
knockout over Jorge Gurgel during last Saturday’s STRIKEFORCE:
Houston, live on SHOWTIME.
Kaufman,
a former ballet dancer, retained her belt for the first time
with an explosive third-round body slam KO over Roxanne Modafferi
at STRIKEFORCE Challengers in Everett, Wash., on July 23.
The
personable, hard-hitting, 5-foot-5, 24-year-old Kaufman, of Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada, has scored knockouts in nine of her
12 victories.
Coenen,
29, will appear before an audience for the first time since suffering
a hard-fought third-round TKO loss to Cris Cyborg for the STRIKEFORCE
Women’s Middleweight (145 pounds) Championship at STRIKEFORCE:
Miami last Jan. 30.
The
game and courageous, 5-foot-9 Coenen gave Cyborg one of her toughest
fights. A member of Holland’s Team Golden Glory, Coenen
has been a mixed martial artist since the age of 14. She will
be moving down in weight to challenge for the title.
Rockhold,
of Santa Cruz, Calif. will bring a six-fight winning streak into
what figures to be the toughest assignment of his career. Many
feel the 25-year-old is one of STRIKEFORCE’s next great
middleweight stars. He has been victorious by submission in all
but one of his wins. A member of Team AKA in San Jose, Rockhold
won his last start with a first-round TKO (knees to body) over
Paul Bradley on Feb. 26, in San Jose.
Lindland,
of Oregon City, Ore, brought home the silver in Greco-Roman wrestling.
He’s fought the best in a 13-year MMAs career, including
the famed Fedor Emelianenko. An All-American at the University
of Nebraska before turning pro in 1997, Lindland holds victories
over Pat Miletich, Jeremy Horn, former UFC welterweight champion
Carlos Newton and remains one of only two men to submit Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt Travis Lutter.
In
his most recent fight, the six-foot-tall Lindland scored a third-round
TKO over “King” Kevin Casey on May 21 during a STRIKEFORCE
Challengers in Portland, Ore.
Source: Strike Force
|
Belfort
back in November, but not for the belt
Former UFC champion, Vitor Belfort was waiting for a chance to
fight for the belt against Anderson Silva, but an injury on the
rib of the champion, who defended his title on UFC 117 against
Chael Sonnen, forced them to postpone their possible fight to
2011. On his Twitter, Vitor announced his comeback to the octagon
on November. “The fight for the belt won’t happen this
year, because the current champion is injured. But I’ll
fight in November”, Vitor wrote, without mentioning his
opponent’s name. According to some rumors, Anderson and
Sonnen will probably face each other in a rematch later this
year. Stay tuned on TATAME to know more news about the UFC middleweight
title picture.
Source: Tatame
|
UFC
118: boxing confident against MMA
by Carlos
Eduardo Ozório
In
recent years, a lot has been said about boxing’s drop in
popularity in its competition against MMA. The lack of charismatic
fighters, mainly in the heavyweight division, further adds to
its decline in public preference. In the USA, for example, now
MMA is the most watched sport among men under 30 years of age,
studies have shown.
This Saturday, at UFC 118 in Boston, one fight in particular
will, in some way, be a showdown for the styles. On one side,
one of MMA’s biggest stars, Randy Couture; on the other,
a world champion pugilist in James Toney. The bout is a two-edged
sword, although neither fighter is paying much mind to the dispute
between boxing and MMA. Should Couture lose, it in a way returns
some of boxing’s might, more so because Toney has no experience
in the octagon whatsoever. Should Toney suffer a humiliating
defeat, it could give the impression that boxing is weak in the
face of mixed martial arts.
“I’m
not worried about what Randy’s going to do. I’m going
to knock him out. After beating Randy, in October I’ll defend
my boxing titles,” declares a confident James Toney.
“If
I knock him down, he’s not getting up. Everyone in the UFC
will call me the knockout king. I’m now an athlete in both
sports and I’ll continue to do MMA. I’m excited about
hitting him with these four-ounce gloves. Couture isn’t
the toughest opponent I’ve faced in my career, that was
Evander Holyfield,” he adds.
Toney has trained for the bout for nine months, he really may
surprise some people. Despite the provocations, in the end he
thanks Randy for the opportunity.
“I
thank him, because he’s the only man to accept a fight with
me.”
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
White
Says Rematch Between Silva and Sonnen in the Works
By
Kelsey Mowatt While appearing on ESPN’s Sports Center, UFC
President Dana White has confirmed that he is “looking towards”
an immediate rematch between middleweight champion Anderson Silva
and challenger Chael Sonnen. While discussing this weekend’s
upcoming UFC 118, White acknowledged “that’s the fight
that fans want to see. The way that I see my job is my job is
to give the fans what they want,” when asked if Sonnen would
indeed receive an immediate rematch. (pictured above: Silva with
his BJJ instructors, the Nogueira brothers)
No
date was mentioned for the fight, although it is widely expected
that Silva is several months away from returning, due to a rib
injury the champion incurred while preparing for his August 7th
bout with Sonnen. After being dominated by Sonnen throughout
their memorable bout at UFC 117, Silva caught the number one
contender with a late, fifth round triangle choke, to win his
13th straight fight.
White
also confirmed that light-heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun”
Rua will face Rashad Evans in his first title defence, when he
returns from knee surgery in mid-spring, early summer.
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Scott
Coker on Bobby Lashley: “Some soul-searching to do”
and “the true test happened tonight”
By Zach
Arnold
There’s a lot said non-verbally during this interview that
makes it worth watching. Plus, what Scott Coker actually does
say… some of it is cringe-worthy. Wait until you see what
he says about KJ Noons and what’s next for Noons. (Hint:
Bad behavior gets rewarded.) What he says plays off of the announcement
of Nick Diaz defending his 170 pound Welterweight title in October
at HP Pavilion. If you hate the way Strikeforce doesn’t
enforce the integrity of their weight classes, then Mr. Coker’s
comments will make you rip your hair out.
Strikeforce’s
one-sided marketing backfires again
The
biggest dodge, by far, during the interview is when Ariel Helwani
puts him right on the spot (and accurately so) about Chad Griggs,
not promoting the guy, and the reasons behind it.
ARIEL
HELWANI: “What an interesting night. If anyone ever wanted
an example of how unpredictable MMA can be, just look at tonight
and don’t want to really cast a negative spell on the night,
but, you know… Three of your most marketable fighters lost
tonight. Was this a disappointing night for you?”
SCOTT
COKER: “No, not at all, I mean in the cage, anything can
happen… as you know. And, you know, to me the better man
should win. Some of these guys are my friends, sometimes they’re
the favorites, sometimes they’re not, but what, to me, what
was about fascinating tonight was you to say to me that Jacare
was never going to try one submission in five rounds against
Tim Kennedy, I would have never believed it. And, uh, and that’s
what happened. He never went to the ground with him and Tim controlled
him on the ground, took him down, actually out struck him on
the states, but you know what, it was a close fight, it was a
technical fight, but the fight went completely differently than
what I had thought.
“Bobby
Lashley, I think he’s got some soul-searching and when we
talk to him next week or tomorrow or Monday, you know we’re
going to have that conversation and it’s going to be interesting
and you know we’ll support him on what he wants to do.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “How surprised were you by his performance tonight?”
(pausing
for a few seconds)
SCOTT
COKER: “You know, I think that… with Lashley…
the true test, I mean I think the true test happened tonight
and so, you know, it’s uh… it’s sometimes good
for a fighter and to go out there, test himself, maybe it doesn’t
work out, then what’s he going to come back with? How’s
he going to come back? And that’s going to be the key, to
see if he really wants to be an MMA fighter is you know how’s
he going to come back and that’s going to be up to him because
we facilitate these fights but he’s going to have to have
the desire to do that and I hope he does because, you know what?
He’s got physical talent, he just has to put it all together.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Does he have what it takes to be a legitimate
MMA fighter?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I mean, he’s got a ways to go, obviously, right?
I mean, let’s be honest, so… He’s, you know, where
he’s at in his path as a martial arts fighter I think is
in the beginning stages, you know, but does that mean he should
stop? You know, he just have a lot of focus on him because of
his WWE background and his collegiate wrestling background but
mostly the WWE so people have all these high expectations but
to me I’ve always managed those expectations in my mind
because he’s just, he only has what, a handful of fights.
So, you know what, to me the true test of a martial arts fighter
is the character and how he comes back and that’s going
to be up to him.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Chad Griggs was relatively unknown going into
this fight. Does a part of you now wish he was maybe promoted
a little more so that you could have this payoff of the guy who
beat Bobby Lashley?”
SCOTT
COKER: “You know what? When they get into the ring, it’s
up to the fighter, right? And I think that Chad, you know, believe
me, our PR team is trying to do as much as they can for every
fighter, as much as they can and people gravitate to Bobby because
of who he is so it’s not that we said, well you got to talk
to him or you can’t talk to him. It’s just that people
gravitate toward Lashley because of who he is and his wrestling
background and he’s a star. I mean, the guy walks out in
the street, everybody knows who this guy is. So, you know, I
don’t think that was the case.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “OK, when you were on my show, the MMA Hour, you
said you were considering Batista vs. Bobby Lashley. Does that
performance tonight ruin those plans or maybe make it more of
a case to have that fight now?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I mean, here’s the thing is that, you know
what? I think that’d be a fun fight to watch and you know
we don’t have a deal with Batista. We’re continuing
dialogue but you know if we come to a deal, we’d love to
promote that.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Close to a deal?”
SCOTT
COKER: “(pauses) In dialogue. Yeah, so.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Jorge Gurgel and KJ Noons, a little controversial
with the hit after the bell or at least it seemed to be and what
appeared to be an illegal knee. What’s your take on those
two situations? Were they dirt or was it just maybe the referee
not jumping in at the right time? Your thoughts?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I mean, what I saw when it happened, it was like
bang bang, so he didn’t have time to stop and he got caught.
And it’s up to the fighter to protect themselves as well,
right? Protect themselves at all. But it wasn’t anything
malicious, I mean KJ’s not a dirty fighter and Jorge Gurgel
was up here and he was very, I mean, I felt for him because obviously
that had, you know, he got hurt and it effected his second round
but you know what? He didn’t want to use it as an excuse,
right? And that’s, to me, that’s class and true martial
arts spirit, you know? But… KJ, you know, if that shot bang
bang, if it didn’t happen would it have been a different
second round? Maybe, but maybe would have stopped him later anyway?
You never know. And then at the end of the fight when they went
to the ground the knee strike, I didn’t think the knee hit,
you know, and so you know to me he was already hurt. I mean,
the fight should have been stopped.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “KJ Noons’ next fight. Will it be at 170 perhaps
against Nick Diaz or perhaps maybe against Gilbert Melendez for
the 155 pound title?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I mean, that’s really going to be up to KJ.
You know, we’re going to give him a choice. If he wants
to fight Nick Diaz, let’s do it. If he wants to fight Gilbert,
let’s do it.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “He has his shot at either title right now?”
SCOTT
COKER: “We’re going to let him, not so much pick, but
we’re going to have a conversation with his manager and
say, look, I mean it was tough for KJ to make the weight cut
and get down to 155. So, we’re going to say, look, if you
don’t make the cut, come and fight. I mean, him and Nick
Diaz is going to be one of the biggest fights in the rematches
that has happened I think in a long time and that’s going
to be an amazing fight when it does happen and him and Gilbert
would be, you know, I could see it now in my mind what kind of
fight that would be and it would be amazing.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “You’re about to kickoff a Middleweight tournament.
Will the winner of that tournament fight Jacare next or is there
perhaps another #1 contender out there?”
SCOTT
COKER: “Well, the thing is, you know, when we talk about
that tournament, it’s, you know, all the stars have to align
perfectly in order for that tournament to happen and so we’re,
you know, we’ll have to wait and see what happens but the
nice thing about the 185 pound weight class in Strikeforce is
that it’s very deep, we have a lot of great fighters, and
I look forward to you know stirring the pot, sort of speak, and
so you know I think we’ll have another announcement next
week on that 185-pound weight class.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “And you have a new Light Heavyweight champion.
Feijao beats King Mo. King Mo obviously a lot of promise, this
was his first title defense, did not look as good as he did against
Gegard Mousasi and Feijao seems to be putting it all together
now. Considering what happened to him 14 months ago when he lost
in pretty shocking fashion to Mike Kyle, you surprised to see
him now as your champion?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I am and I tell you, I knew he was dangerous because
he had the power and he had a good stand-up striking, a good
stand-up. But so did Gegard Mousasi and then, you know, I think
King Mo you know basically negated the stand-up by taking him
down. So, I was surprised a little bit but you know what? We’re
proud to have him as a champion and then that’s another
division at 205 now we can just mix it up and let these guys
all fight each other. It’s going to be fantastic.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Any chance Mike Kyle vs. Feijao II’s the
next fight for Feijao?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I don’t think that will be the next fight,
but that’s a fight maybe down the line, we’ll put Kyle
in the mix, but you know we have Dan Henderson and we have Gegard,
who’ll come back at the beginning of the year and we also
have Babalu at 205 so we’re going to have some good fights.
I’m looking forward to it.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “We’ve been waiting to ask you this question
for some time. A man by the name of Paul Heyman was on my radio
show this past Monday and he mentioned that he had a meeting
with you last week in New York.”
SCOTT
COKER: “Did he say what it was about?”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “He was a little bit quiet on that front so that’s
what we’re here. We want to know what that meeting was about
and does Paul Heyman have a future in Strikeforce?”
SCOTT
COKER: “I mean, Paul and I have been friends for a long
time and, uh, you know we just had a nice dinner, a nice chat.
But, you know, we’ll see. I mean Paul and I have been talking
about doing a couple of things together and you know if it works
out, we’ll do it, and I think we’ll do it, I think
it’s going to happen.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “What kind of capacity?”
SCOTT
COKER: “Uh… we’ll talk about that…”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “C’mon Scott, give us a little info. Will
he be a promoter type? Would he be a behind-the-scenes kind of
guy? He’s a very creative mind.”
SCOTT
COKER: “Yeah, I mean, he’s a very creative mind and
you know what? We’ll have an announcement probably in a
couple of weeks.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “So, perhaps, Paul Heyman is headed to Strikeforce
after all?”
SCOTT
COKER: “Well, he’s not going to fight. I don’t
think he wants to fight at, you know, at 205 or anything, but…”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “A management perspective?”
SCOTT
COKER: “Not even management. Yeah.”
Source: Fight Opinion
|
UFC
118 Primer
by Jake Rossen
James
Toney is in trouble Saturday -- trouble of both an orthopedic
and ego-denting nature -- but you knew that.
If
Toney agrees, he’s doing a terrific job of hiding it.
There’s
probably lots of reinforcement at his camp about how he can work
over Randy Couture in the stand-up, and since that’s where
the fight begins, he’s got it made. Or that Couture, six
years older and bound to get old sometime, might be too slow
to react to a timed bomb. Maybe his training day consists of
an hour of meditative self-delusion. Most likely, he’s willing
to do what he has to do in order to pick up a six-figure check
that’s getting harder to come by in his own sport.
It’s
this awful, fantastic spectacle that’s the real headliner
of Boston’s first UFC card, even though B.J. Penn’s
rematch with Frankie Edgar (rightfully) occupies the top of the
lineup. Owing either to their low-gear lightweight title match
in April or the sheer insanity of a name boxer walking into a
cage, Toney/Couture is getting the majority of the attention.
And
why not? We’ve seen Penn and Edgar fight and it’s not
pretty. But we’ve never been exposed to the clash of boxing
and wrestling personalities at this level. Toney, when he can
be understood, is a human hype train, and the belligerence leading
into this fight has people who give him no chance still anxious
to see him crumble. He also happens to be the most accomplished
boxer to ever subject himself to the threat of muay Thai and
Greco-Roman wrestling. It’s like throwing a chicken into
a pen with a lion. Knowing the result doesn’t mean you can
turn away.
Toney
will lose because the same threats he has to endure are not the
same threats he can impose: it’s a gift for Couture to enter
a ring and only have to worry about two weapons instead of a
dozen. Anyone can land a hail-Mary punch, and if it happens to
be Toney, so be it. But whatever happens between two well-aged
prizefighters has little relevance to their respective sports.
Both have a lot more to offer than just Couture and Toney.
What:
UFC 118, a 10-bout card from the TD Garden in Boston
When:
Saturday, Aug. 28, at 10 p.m. ET on pay per view, with a preliminary
special at 9 p.m. ET on Spike
Why
You Should Care: Because Toney will be one of only a very few
boxers with the guts -- or empty wallet -- to try punching someone
while he’s being tackled; because Penn/Edgar II will determine
whether Penn has finally found his true test at 155 lbs, a Buzzy
the Hummingbird nuisance who can circle circles around him; and
because Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard will result in a clean
number-one contender for the winner.
Fight
of the Night: Marcus Davis and Nate Diaz, undercard filler that
could be plenty violent.
Hype
Quotes of the Show: “Is that what it is? [MMA vs. boxing?]
I thought it was Randy Couture vs. James Toney. It’s not
boxing anymore because James is in MMA. He’s fighting MMA
style, not boxing.” -- A surprisingly rational Dan Goossen,
Toney’s manager, to Fanhouse.
“This
is my time to do my business and let everybody know what boxers
can do, because this is boxing versus MMA. And I am going to
knock him out.” -- Toney, who apparently didn’t get
Goossen’s memo, to ESPN.com.
Questions:
UFC 118
Is
James Toney a future member of the Quick Tab Club?
There
are fighters who do not quit, even under circumstances that would
make many grown men sob. Hands and limbs can get broken and no
one blinks: thanks to muscle memory, some fighters even continue
fighting while technically unconscious.
That’s
one extreme. The other is fighters who look for the first avenue
out as soon as things aren’t going their way. We’ve
seen taps as soon as someone gets mounted; some have quit simply
because they were tired, with their opponent standing several
feet away.
If
James Toney seems lackadaisical about the potential for injury
on Saturday, that may be because MMA is generous to the courage-deficient.
You can quit any time and for any reason, though the majority
waits until soft tissue damage has occurred. If Randy Couture
begins pounding on Toney from up top, he may not stick around
for the entire set. And if he’s submitted, there’s
probably a speech in store about Couture not being man enough
to stand with him. How serious Toney is as an MMA athlete will
not be determined by how hard he attacks, but by how stubborn
he is when he can’t.
Is
Randy Couture in a lose/lose situation?
If
anyone in MMA deserves to be the recipient of a handicap match,
it’s Couture, who -- aside from a brief contract scuffle
several years ago -- has been an anyone, anytime kind of fighter
and provided the UFC with an engaging and respectful personality
to balance out the frothing stereotypes.
The
problem with facing someone with such a clear disadvantage is
that no one will celebrate a victory: if Couture wins, it’s
because Toney was too fat and one-dimensional. If Toney happens
to win, it’ll be a black eye for the UFC. The only way Couture
could be impressive in victory would be to out-strike Toney.
And that’s probably not on the table.
Is
Frankie Edgar the least celebrated champion in the UFC?
Edgar
had the biggest win of his career against B.J. Penn in an April
Abu Dhabi bout, handing Penn his second-ever loss in the lightweight
class and claiming the UFC title. Because of the method -- somewhat
boring -- and the idea that Penn simply had an off-night, it
hasn’t felt like anything’s changed: oddsmakers have
Edgar as the sizable underdog.
Is
he? Edgar certainly hasn’t gotten any slower in the proceeding
six months, while Penn isn’t going to add much to his arsenal
we haven’t already seen. Edgar is tough to tackle and keeps
busy enough standing to impress judges. If he can beat Penn again,
observers might finally feel comfortable thinking of him as a
champion.
Red
Ink: Couture vs. Toney
There’s
a reason many of the images depicting James Toney on the UFC’s
website appear only from the waist up: Toney is not a physical
specimen and not in any kind of shape other than round. If his
gut is evidence of the seriousness with which he approaches his
new career, we’re looking at a very jovial man.
Maybe
Toney believes dedication is a pointless emotion -- he has so
many things going against him that it seems impossible he can
circumvent all of them. In addition to inexperience, single-dimensional
skills and a body hardly attuned to MMA, it will also be his
first competition in a cage.
Randy
Couture, on the other hand, will make his 29th appearance and
can easily take the fight right out of Toney’s element and
into his. The fight is so academic that it feels like we might
be missing something, especially considering how loud Toney has
declared his chances. We’re not.
What
it Means: For Couture, money as easy as it if fell from the sky;
for Toney, a chance -- win or lose -- to restore some of his
brand in boxing.
Might
Look Like: An instructional DVD on Greco-Roman wrestling.
Wild
Card: Couture has been clipped while rushing in before, most
notably against Vitor Belfort -- who sliced his eye open -- and
Chuck Liddell. Toney is unquestionably better at finding chins
than either of them.
Who
Wins: While Toney KOing a slow-footed Couture is not completely
out of the question, it’s 10 times more likely Couture will
put him down and find an appendage to bend. Bettors beware: this
is a fight most welterweights could win. Couture by submission.
Source: Sherdog
|
The
Cut List: Who Needs a Win at UFC 118 to Stay Employed?
By Ben
Fowlkes
Sometimes when the UFC holds an event in a new city, it relies
heavily on brand recognition alone to sell tickets. After all,
if you live in Jerkwater, USA and the UFC finally shows up with
a Fight Night event at your local civic center, you're probably
going to go just to say you were there, even if there are no
major stars in the lineup.
That
couldn't be further from the truth in the case of Boston and
UFC 118. Not only is a large market that only recently opened
up to MMA, it's also a place near and dear to Dana White's heart.
Boston doesn't get a couple of TUF contestants sandwiched between
local boys. Boston gets the full UFC treatment. Boston gets a
title fight, a sideshow match-up, and a number one contender
bout.
But,
as always, just as there are stars so too must there be drifting
detritus. Half the guys on every fight card go home sad, and
those who go home sad too often in the UFC don't get to come
back. Let's break down Saturday night's lineup to see who desperately
needs a win this time around.
Marcus
Davis (17-6, 9-4)
Who he's fighting: Nate Diaz
Why he's in danger: Though "The Irish Hand Grenade"
(still one of the best extremely specific nicknames in the sport)
is coming off a win over Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113, it doesn't
change the fact that he's a 37-year-old slugger who's 1-2 in
his last three fights. Perhaps most troubling is that he got
knocked out for the first time in his MMA career last November
when he faced Ben Saunders. Normally you could throw up your
hands and utter something about this being MMA and four-ounce
gloves and anything can happen, so on and so forth, but for Davis
the unprecedented TKO could be considered a sign that the years
are catching up with him. If he loses to Diaz, he'll be 1-3 in
his last four, with his future prospects growing dimmer.
Odds of getting cut: 3-1. Diaz shares his brother's striking
style, but not his power. If this turns into a boxing match it
will be to Davis' advantage. Even if Davis loses, as long as
he doesn't look awful doing it he might have enough goodwill
stored up with the UFC brass to get one more chance to turn it
around.
Gabe
Ruediger (17-5, 0-1 UFC)
Who he's fighting: Joe Lauzon
Why he's in danger: Simply put, people don't like him. In his
time on season five of "The Ultimate Fighter" he managed
to come off as both inept and cocky before being kicked off the
show for his melodramatic (and failed) attempt at making weight
for a fight. He's since racked up a six-fight win streak in the
smaller shows, but hasn't beaten anyone of note in some time.
Now he gets another shot in the Octagon against UFC vet Joe Lauzon,
who Ruediger has already labeled "overrated." True,
Lauzon isn't the UFC's best lightweight, but at least his mental
toughness has never been called into question. That's more than
you can say for Ruediger.
Odds of getting cut: 2-1. Ruediger is probably going to lose
this fight. The question is, can he lose in such a fashion that
the UFC will decide to have him back again?
Dan
Miller (11-4-1, 3-3 UFC)
Who he's fighting: John Salter
Why he's in danger: After dropping a decision to Michael Bisping
at UFC 114, Miller's losing streak hit the dreaded three-fight
mark that usually equals automatic termination in the UFC. Whether
he got to keep his job because the UFC sees something worth cultivating
in him, or just because even Dana White didn't have the heart
to cut a guy who's gone through what Miller has lately, we don't
know. What we do know is that four straight losses would be really
pushing it, especially if the last one comes against Salter,
who has yet to impress in the UFC.
Odds of getting cut: 4-1. I like Miller's chances to win this
fight and put an end to his losing streak. If he fights smart
and brings all his weapons into the cage with him this time,
he lives to fight in the Octagon another day.
Greg
Soto (7-1, 0-1 UFC)
Who he's fighting: Nick Osipczak
Why he's in danger: Soto lost his UFC debut against Matt Riddle
due to disqualification after an illegal upkick. That's kind
of like coming in on your first day of a new job and breaking
the copier. It probably won't get you fired immediately, but
people are going to be watching you very closely on your second
day of work.
Odds of getting cut: 3-1. This should be a close fight, and it's
certainly not out of the question to think Soto can pull out
a win. As long as he doesn't get absolutely destroyed by Osipczak,
he stands a decent chance of coming back.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Rodrigo
Medeiros
By Erik Engelhart
Jiu-Jitsu coach of the heavyweight champion of UFC, Rodrigo “Comprido”
Medeiros arrived in Brazil on July 27 to visit his friends and
TATAME talked to the two-time absolute world champion on Muzio
de Angelis’ gym, on Gávea neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro.
The expert on the gentle art talked about his plans, commented
on Brock Lesnar’s win over Shane Carwin doing the move he
taught him, analyzed the next confrontation of him with Cain
Velasquez and the possible fight of Junior “Cigano”
dos Santos, next challenger for the belt of the division. Check
these and other subjects on the interview below.
How are things going on the United States?
I’ve been travelling a lot. The good side is that I’ve
been working a lot, but the bad side is that I won’t be
able to fight the Mundial, because I won’t be training.
I had the opportunity to go to places like Greece, New Zeeland
and several cities of the United States. I didn’t like the
way people treated me in Greece, because it was too much…
I told them to take it easy, to hold their instincts because
they’re not my parents (laughs). But, on a general way,
I like how people treat me when I travel.
How are things at your gym, Flow MMA?
I already have my first purple-belt, and Andrei Arlovski is now
my partner, and there’s a chance that we start to work together,
since he’s teaching MMA in my gym. We haven’t talked
about it yet, mainly because he fought and is injured, but it’s
possible that we start to work together. There’s nothing
confirmed, but it’s the natural way.
Do you intend to change your focus from the trips and go back
to the competitions?
I arrived here on the 27th… I had a fight on the United
Stated on the 26th, and I’m preparing myself to fight on
Chicago Open, but I’ll try not to travel on the first semester
of 2011 so I can dispute the Mundial in a good shape, because
since I started travelling, it became harder for me.
People questioned a lot Brock Lesnar’s technique and he
surprised everybody managing to find a submission position out
of nowhere after being spanked. How did you feel when you saw
your work making a difference so Lesnar could keep his heavyweight
belt of UFC?
The position on which he made the difference is mine, but it’s
not only one thing that makes it work and brought him to the
spot where he is. He has his training partners, his sparring,
his Wrestling coach, Boxing, Muay Thai, so it was a complete
work that made him win. But the fight ended due to a position
that I taught him, so my work was recognized. Whoever knows me
knows that what he did on the fight against Frank Mir had many
adjustments I did and my friends in Brazil said he even looked
like me. We do a different work focusing ourselves on our opponent
and what’s been done for the fight with Mir was great, because
he couldn’t move on the ground, he couldn’t even blink
his eyes. The submission of Brock was a good thing for me, for
him, and it answered several questions about Brock’s limitations.
How is he like when you see him every day?
He’s a guy who has the heart of a fighter and dedicated
himself to be where he is. He’s a cool guy, who wants to
live to his family and to have his things and sometimes we just
don’t get it. The guy likes to talk to the press and people
don’t get it… He likes it, what can we do? He kept
himself on the media all his life with WWE… I knew the guys
on WWE and they’re treated like movie stars, and Brock is
tired of all this attention, he doesn’t what that anymore.
He wants to stay on his place with his family and the guys keep
running after him.
After the hard time Brock had while stand-up, do you intend to
focus more on his Wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu preparation and avoid
the bangs?
Of course I can’t tell you what the strategy to be used
against Velasquez will be, but I see Cain trying to use his good
shape in his favor, because he has a great conditioning and I
believe he’ll try to move a lot, punch him, run, kick, and
keep doing that while he runs on that octagon… Maybe he
tries a single leg, and that’s what I see Velasquez doing.
Of course that he can surprise us as well. He’s a more complete
fighter than Carwin, but he doesn’t have the same catch
ability, because Shane’s catch what absurd and Brock was
the only one who handled him.
There’s a possibility of him fighting against Cigano. What
do you thing that would be the best way to beat your countryman?
I
believe we have to give one step at a time. I watched Cigano’s
fight and I think he’s an excellent athlete, there’s
no way of him being a bad fighter on the ground, he’s doing
Jiu-Jitsu for a long time and he trains along with the Nogueira
brothers and Demian (mais), so for sure, he’s not a silly
boy on the ground. Cigano has a heavy hand, he’s strong.
UFC has the best heavyweight of the world, there’s no easy
choice there, and Brock knows that. Who would imagine that Anderson
would have a hard time or that BJ would lose his belt? The level
is so high and everybody wants to beat Brock, who is the champion.
I believe that he’ll win and will confront Cigano and it’ll
be two hard fights… It’ll be great for people to watch.
Source: Tatame
|
Belfort:
Return Opponent Won’t Be Sonnen
by Marcelo
Alonso
Vitor
Belfort will return in November, but he will not be fighting
fellow middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, the Brazilian told
Sherdog.com on Monday.
“I
talked to Lorenzo (Fertitta) this week and will return in November,”
Belfort said. “I just asked him to not be (on the November
card in Germany). I'm tired of traveling. I would like to return
to fighting here in America. According to my conversation with
Lorenzo, my opponent will not be Sonnen, but another guy that
will be decided soon.”
Belfort
had been scheduled to challenge middleweight champion Anderson
Silva in April at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi. However, Belfort had
to withdraw and have surgery on his shoulder. Silva went on to
defend successfully against Demian Maia at the event and then
again Aug. 7 against Chael Sonnen.
There
had been some expectation that a returning Belfort would meet
Sonnen next since the wrestler had nearly knocked off Silva,
who is injured and will likely not fight again in 2010.
Whomever
Belfort is fighting, training camp begins this week at Xtreme
Couture. The former UFC light heavyweight champion, who began
physical therapy shortly after his Feb. 10 surgery, just moved
to Las Vegas this week with his wife, son and two daughters.
“With
the help of Shawn Tompkins, Ray Sefo and all the partners here,
I hope to reach my best shape soon,” he said. “I am
eager to return to my training routine as well as very happy
here.”
Source: Sherdog
|
MMA
TOP 10: JORGENSEN MAKING A MOVE
The latest MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings were released on Wednesday,
August 25. This system ranks the Top 10 MMA fighters from all
across the world in each of the seven most widely accepted weight
classes.
Taken
into consideration are a fighter's performance in addition to
his win-loss record, head-to-head and common opponents, difficulty
of opponents, and numerous other factors in what is the most
comprehensive rankings system in the sport.
Fighters
who are currently serving drug-related suspensions are not eligible
for Top 10 consideration until they have fought one time after
the completion of their suspension.
Fighters
must also have competed within the past 12 months in order to
be eligible for Top 10 consideration unless they have a bout
scheduled within a reasonable time frame.
Below
are the current MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings, which are up-to-date
as of August 25.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
HEAVYWEIGHT
DIVISION (over 205 pounds)
#1
Heavyweight Fighter in the World: Brock Lesnar
2.
Fabricio Werdum
3.
Fedor Emelianenko
4.
Cain Velasquez
5.
Junior Dos Santos
6.
Shane Carwin
7.
Alistair Overeem
8.
Frank Mir
9.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
10.
Brett Rogers
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
LIGHT
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205-pound limit)
#1
Light Heavyweight Fighter in the World: Mauricio "Shogun"
Rua
2.
Lyoto Machida
3.
Rashad Evans
4.
Quinton Jackson
5.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6.
Forrest Griffin
7.
Jon Jones
8.
Thiago Silva
9.
Randy Couture
10.
Ryan Bader
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
MIDDLEWEIGHT
DIVISION (185-pound limit)
#1
Middleweight Fighter in the World: Anderson Silva
2.
Chael Sonnen
3.
Jake Shields
4.
Nathan Marquardt
5.
Demian Maia
6.
Dan Henderson
7.
Yushin Okami
8.
Robbie Lawler
9.
Jorge Santiago
10.
Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
WELTERWEIGHT
DIVISION (170-pound limit)
#1
Welterweight Fighter in the World: Georges St-Pierre
2.
Jon Fitch
3.
Josh Koscheck
4.
Thiago Alves
5.
Paul Daley
6.
Nick Diaz
7.
Martin Kampmann
8.
Matt Hughes
9.
Paulo Thiago
10.
Dan Hardy
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
LIGHTWEIGHT
DIVISION (160-pound limit)
#1
Lightweight Fighter in the World: Frankie Edgar
2.
B.J. Penn
3.
Gilbert Melendez
4.
Shinya Aoki
5.
Kenny Florian
6.
Eddie Alvarez
7.
Tatsuya Kawajiri
8.
Gray Maynard
9.
Ben Henderson
10.
Jim Miller
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
FEATHERWEIGHT
DIVISION (145 pound-limit)
#1
Featherweight Fighter in the World: Jose Aldo
2.
Manny Gamburyan
3.
Mike Brown
4.
Urijah Faber
5.
Josh Grispi
6.
Marlon Sandro
7.
Diego Nunes
8.
Raphael Assuncao
9.
Michihiro Omigawa
10.
Hatsu Hioki
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
BANTAMWEIGHT
DIVISION (135 pounds or less)
#1
Featherweight Fighter in the World: Dominick Cruz
2.
Brian Bowles
3.
Scott Jorgensen
4.
Joseph Benavidez
5.
Miguel Torres
6.
Damacio Page
7.
Takeya Mizugaki
8.
Brad Pickett
9.
Masakatsu Ueda
10.
Charlie Valencia
Source: MMA Weekly
|
MANNY
GAMBURYAN OKAY BEING THE DOG TO ALDO
After
dropping to featherweight and earning two unanimous decisions,
Manny Gamburyan (11-4) still went into his fight with former
featherweight titleholder Mike Brown a huge underdog. He was
taking on the former champ who had dethroned WEC-poster boy Urijah
Faber and to the casual MMA fan the Armenian was still relatively
unknown. He made his presence known though by knocking out Brown
just two minutes into the first round of their April 24 match-up.
Already a top contender at 145, that knockout solidified his
spot as the number one challenger.
“I
know it made the decision easy for the WEC as far as, ‘Is
Manny getting the next title shot,’” said Gamburyan.
“I made it easy by knocking out Mike Brown. I knew I’d
be fighting Aldo or Faber.”
Almost
mid-way through his training camp for the Sept. 30 bout with
Aldo, Gamburyan is still a massive underdog. Aldo is the Brazilian
phenomenon that shocked fans by entering the WEC and knocking
off every competitor the organization threw his way. He is 7-0
since signing with the WEC in June of 2008.
“To
be honest with you, it’s more fun,” explained Gamburyan.
“When you’re the underdog, you don’t have anything
to lose. Like right now, I’ve got nothing to lose. He has
what I want, he has everything I need, and I’m going to
go out there and take it from him.”
With
nothing to lose and the world to gain, Gamburyan knows what beating
Aldo would mean. Not only would he gain the title, he would be
the first Armenian-American to do so. Coming from a Judo background,
“The Anvil” is bringing in extra training partners
to prepare for Aldo.
“More
Muay Thai guys, more wrestling guys, more jiu-jitsu guys,”
said Gamburyan. “I’ve been sparring with Muay Thai
guys. They’ve been throwing knees at me and kicks at me,
at like 25 miles per hours. I’m bruised every day, I’m
cut up every single day, but it is what it is. This is what it’s
going to take for the belt. I’m one inch away from my goal
so I’m not going to waste my time.”
Seeing
his end goal in sight, Gamburyan is pushing through the pain
and weariness to prepare himself for the champion. After knocking
out Brown, “The Anvil” watched Aldo dominate Urijah
Faber for five straight rounds, all the while breaking down his
technique and looking for holes in his game. Since April, Gamburyan
has had the opportunity to analyze Aldo and develop his game
plan to conquer the Brazilian.
“He’s
definitely beatable,” said Gamburyan. “Like I say,
he’s the Brazilian phenom, he’s a great fighter that
guy. It’s going to be an honor fighting him. I can’t
take anything away from him. He’s got very good stand up,
good kicks, knees, punches. But I see some weaknesses that I’m
working on right now. Hopefully it’s going to be my night
Sept. 30. Some people say shock the world, like I was the underdog
against Brown. I don’t know if I shocked the world, but
I’m going to do the same thing against Jose Aldo.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Toney’s
act proves too tempting to White
James
Toney didn’t let the first sentence of the first question
finish before erupting. After going 72-6-3 as a boxer, Toney
makes his mixed martial arts debut when he fights Ultimate Fighting
Championship Hall of Famer Randy Couture in a three-round heavyweight
bout at UFC 118 on Aug. 28 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.
When
a reporter referred to Couture as a legend, Toney banged his
palm on a table and began to shout.
“Man,
what kind of [expletive] sport is this if y’all call a guy
barely over .500 a legend?” Toney said of Couture’s
18-10 record. “If this guy is a legend, what am I? I’m
going to knock this [expletive’s] head off. I’ll hit
him so hard his grandmother’s going to feel it. I come from
boxing. Boxing ain’t no joke and your legend is about to
find that out the hard way.”
Toney
is one of the greatest boxers of his era, as well as in a league
by himself in terms of trash talking. He loves to fight, and
not just inside the ring. He never has seen a fight he didn’t
want to take.
“See
all these security guys around here,” said John Arthur,
Toney’s conditioning coach and close confidante, nodding
toward a group of burly men with biceps the size of grapefruits
sitting nearby. “They’re not here to protect James.
They’re here to protect the public. James is a fighter and
if someone says something to him, he’s ready to fight all
the time. He’d hurt somebody bad if he could. That’s
how he is. He loves to fight.”
He’s
fighting in MMA because UFC president Dana White is a huge boxing
fan and was infatuated with the thought of adding Toney to his
roster once Toney began bugging him for a fight last year. Toney
has been unable to get a significant fight in boxing recently
and decided to try to find one in MMA.
The
UFC considered first matching him with the since-released Kimbo
Slice, though Toney asked instead for heavyweight champion Brock
Lesnar.
“He’s
a big dude,” Toney said of Lesnar, “but all that means
is he’ll make a bigger noise when he hits the floor after
I knock his [butt] out.”
He
has to wait for his chance at Lesnar, though. As it is, he’s
positioning his fight with Couture as a battle of boxing vs.
MMA, though it’s nothing of the sort.
Toney’s
best days as a boxer are far behind him – his last win over
a then top-10 opponent was in 2003 – but he’s world-class
in a discipline in which not many others in MMA are.
He’ll
wear four-ounce gloves after fighting much of his career wearing
10-ounce gloves. And though Toney is known more for his defense
than his punching power, he can punch and will knock out anyone
if he hits them on the chin wearing a four-ounce glove.
The
likelihood of that happening, though, is extraordinarily low.
Most likely, Couture will either kick Toney and knock his feet
out from under him or he’ll use his wrestling skills to
quickly take Toney to his mat. And despite rumors that he forced
Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammad Lawal to tap
in sparring, once Toney’s on his back, he’s a short-timer
against Couture.
But
if Couture quickly takes him down and finishes him with a ground-and-pound,
it won’t prove that MMA fighters as a group are more talented
than boxers. Nor will it be meaningful if Toney happens to hit
Couture on the chin with a haymaker and knock him out.
Toney
is the kind of a guy who thinks he can beat anybody at anything.
Put him in a game of 1-on-1 against Kobe Bryant and the 5-foot-10
heavyweight would start trashing Bryant’s skills and promising
a victory. He’d probably try to convince you he’d outrun
Usain Bolt in the 100 meters.
MMA
and boxing are related but different sports, and being great
in one is no guarantee of success in the other. A Toney win will
no more be a win for boxing than a Couture win will be a line
in the sand for MMA. This fight simply means a paycheck for both
men.
Don’t
take it seriously and it might turn out to be fun.
One
of the most underappreciated, but significant, reasons for the
UFC’s success has been Joe Silva’s astute matchmaking.
Every fight Silva makes has a purpose. Unlike many promotions,
which just put on undercard fights to kill time until the television
broadcast begins, each of the matches that Silva makes carries
meaning. There is a logical order of progression in his matchmaking.
There
is no logic or natural progression in this fight. Toney is a
boxer – an old boxer who, at almost 42, is just about finished
– and he’s not going to be around for the long haul.
White
insisted when he first signed Toney that he would never put on
a “freak show fight.” This, though, is exactly what
Couture-Toney has become.
“I’m
the guy who said all the time I’d never do a freak show
and now, here I am doing one,” White said. “But I put
a really good card on around this so that no matter what happens,
no one can complain.”
It
will be an entertaining diversion and, if Toney wins, it guarantees
the most rollicking post-fight news conference in UFC history.
These
sports, though, are about as different as football and futbol.
An
athlete who is great at one isn’t necessarily going to be
great at another. That’s a given going in and nothing that
happens between two 40-plus-year-old men Aug. 28 in Boston will
change that.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Cruz
takes control of bantamweight division
LAS
VEGAS – Dominick Cruz may not be flashy and he doesn’t
often do things to bring a crowd to its feet. But the World Extreme
Cagefighting bantamweight champion does so many things so well
so often that it’s going to take a near-perfect fight for
someone to beat him.
Joseph
Benavidez fought a very good fight against Cruz on Wednesday
in the main event of WEC 50 at the Palms Resort, but very good
wasn’t quite good enough. Cruz won a split decision to retain
his title and cement his place among the elite fighters in the
world, if he hadn’t before Wednesday’s victory.
Judges
had it 49-46, 48-47 for Cruz and 48-47 for Benavidez in the rematch
of a non-title fight between them a year earlier at WEC 42.
Cruz
is now 17-1 and unbeaten at 135 pounds, where he’s reeled
off a series of impressive wins. In his past three outings, he’s
beaten Benavidez twice and Brian Bowles once. They’re ranked
third and second in the world, respectively, in MMAWeekly’s
bantamweight rankings.
Cruz
didn’t have an easy path to the title and he’s apparently
not going to have an easy road to keep it. He’ll likely
face Scott Jorgensen, who won a rousing decision over Brad Pickett
on Wednesday that was named Fight of the Night, in his next title
defense. Jorgensen is ranked fifth by MMAWeekly.
“I
have nine of the top 10 guys in the world [at bantamweight],”
WEC general manager Reed Harris said. “ … No matter
who they’re fighting, these guys are fighting the best in
the world.”
That’s
what makes Cruz’s recent run so much more impressive. There
wasn’t much to choose from between him and Benavidez on
Wednesday, though it turned out the takedowns were the difference.
According to CompuStrike, Cruz landed 86 of 235 strikes on Benavidez,
while Benavidez connected on 69 of 233. The difference was in
takedowns, where Benavidez was 0 for 2 and Cruz was 6 for 7.
“The
takedowns kind of tilted the scale in Dominick’s favor,”
Jorgensen said. “It was a great fight.”
Cruz
is exceptionally quick and has a difficult-to-figure style. He
presents all sorts of different angles and is hard to hit cleanly.
Benavidez decided not to try to scramble up quickly once he was
taken down, instead preferring to try to maneuver for position
and hopefully land a few elbows from the top.
Cruz,
though, rarely allowed Benavidez to gain a dominant position
on the ground. When they were on their feet, Benavidez was frustrated
by not being able to land that one big punch that could have
altered the outcome.
“I
felt this was the same fight [as their first meeting], man,”
Cruz said. “He’s still quick. He’s still got a
good pace. He still threw a lot of good stuff. I think he was
a little more cautious this time and didn’t go as crazy
on a lot of the striking. That kind of played to my advantage
a little bit, in my opinion. I make good reads as the fight goes
on and I get stronger and stronger as the fight goes on, as well.”
Cruz
and Benavidez could fight 20 times and 19 of them would turn
out to be just about the same, but there won’t be a third
match anytime soon. Harris said he doubted he’d give Benavidez
a rematch for a while, which isn’t a bad decision given
that Cruz won both bouts and that there is a plethora of legitimate
challengers awaiting a shot.
Benavidez
seemed to know it as the fight ended. He was upset at himself
for being cut with an elbow in the final 10 seconds and seemed
to know that he didn’t do enough to win.
“I
was disappointed right at the end of the fight because I realized
I had gotten cut with about five seconds left,” Benavidez
said. “That didn’t have to happen, but I was going
for broke on the bottom. In the middle of the fight, I would
have protected myself. [When it ended], I was like, ‘Damn
it. That didn’t need to happen.’ I also figured I didn’t
do enough to win.
“But
I wasn’t watching the fighting and when the judge did say
my name, it was quite a surprise. I was like, ‘Wow, this
happened? Is it the work of God or something?’ ”
But
after ring announcer Bruce Buffer read Nelson Hamilton’s
48-47 score for Benavidez, the dream ended. After that, he read
Adalaide Byrd’s 49-46 and Lester Griffin’s 48-47 for
Cruz, who turned back yet another significant challenge.
No
one is unbeatable in mixed martial arts and Cruz’s day will
come, just as it has for other elite fighters this year like
Lyoto Machida, Fedor Emelianenko and Quinton “Rampage”
Jackson.
The
fighter who beats Cruz, though, is going to have to be very talented
and very precise.
“Dominick
Cruz is a great fighter,” Jorgensen said. “You have
to give him that.”
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Olympian
Cormier takes next step
Former
Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier isn’t wasting any time when
it comes to establishing himself as a force in the heavyweight
division.
He
has fought four times in just over a year, and finished all four
of his opponents, never going beyond the second round in any
bout.
Yet
through it all, Cormier remains patient and focused on building
his career in such a way that he will not sacrifice long-term
success for instantaneous payoffs.
“I’ve
got to make sure I take care of my career,” Cormier told
MMAWeekly.com. “It’s the most important thing to me,
it’s my livelihood, and I have to make sure what (my management
and I are) doing is in the best interest of that.”
Still,
when an opportunity arose to be part of Saturday’s Strikeforce
event in Austin, Texas, in front of friends and family after
just having claimed the King of the Cage heavyweight title from
Tony Johnson less than a week ago, Cormier and his team couldn’t
help but jump at it.
“The
decision to get back (into the cage so soon) is because of experience,
I want experience,” he stated. “I enjoy fighting and
love the competitive feeling I get whenever I’m about to
compete in a fight or wrestling match.
“My
manager/coach, ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook, thought it was a good
idea to rack up as many of these fights as these opportunities
are presented to us. I’m doing them and I’m having
a great time doing it.”
Having
been successful on his two previous Strikeforce appearances on
the Challengers Series, Cormier knows what’s at stake now
that the company has chosen to move him to its main stage.
“It’s
a huge opportunity to make a statement,” he said. “It’s
an opportunity to fight for the Strikeforce big heads and the
Showtime big heads, which you generally don’t get when you
fight on Challengers.
“The
opportunity to fight in front of my family and friends also plays
a big part in it. I’m so happy about this opportunity; the
whole situation is perfect.”
Standing
in the way of Cormier’s perfect evening is a monster of
a man, 6-foot-6-inch heavyweight prospect Jason “Juggernaut”
Riley.
“He’s
a big, tough, durable guy,” commented Cormier. “He’s
fought some of the best guys in the world, and he took the fight
against me (on short notice), so it shows me that he’s a
fighter.
“I’m
excited to fight him. It’s going to be a very tough fight.
He’s a big guy, and you have to be careful or he’ll
knock you out.”
Cormier
sees the bout with Riley as exactly the type of fight he needs
right now to continue to work his way up the ranks.
“It’s
definitely going to test my abilities,” stated Cormier.
“I think we’re getting better guys every time and we’re
progressing every time as we move forward in my career.
“It
feels good to know we’re headed in the right direction.
Facing more dangerous fighters will only make me more aware,
sharper, and hopefully my skills are good enough to pull off
a win.”
Having
gained the kind of success and support early in his career which
some fighters do not find their entire careers, Cormier knows
how blessed he is, and he intends on paying back that support
with continued strong performances.
“I
just want to thank MMA Elite, Zinkin Entertainment and the American
Kickboxing Academy,” he said in closing. “Follow Cormier
on Twitter @Cormier2010 and on Facebook.
“It’s
going to be awesome. I’m going to go out, put on a good
show in an exciting fight, and hopefully get out of there with
another finish.”
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Bellator:
Frausto, Hornbuckle and big heavyweights shine
Bellator
continued their third season with an event in Chicago that featured
three tournament bouts and a featured event.
Zoila
Frausto kicked things off with a dominating decision over Jessica
Pene, 30-27 on all three judges' cards. Frausto used takedown
defense and punishing kicks to move on in the Bellator tournament.
She seemed eager to take on whatever fighter Bellator put in
front of her.
"Whoever's
up next. I want that number one spot, and I'm gunning for it,"
Frausto said after the fight.
Frausto
joins Jessica Aguilar and Megumi Fujii in the semifinals of Bellator's
women's tournament, but the tournament may have hit a hitch.
In the postfight press conference, Frausto said that she injured
her foot. The severity of the injury will decide if she can continue.
After
Brad Blackburn dominated the first round, Dan Hornbuckle came
back with a vengeance. He controlled Blackburn throughout the
second, and even knocked him down as the round ended. The third
was more of the same, with Hornbuckle showing crisp striking
until the bitter end of the bout. With that, he won the non-tournament
match in a unanimous decision, 29-28 on all three cards.
Hornbuckle
had lost fought in Bellator's season two welterweight final,
dropping a decision to Ben Askren. Blackburn, a UFC vet, has
now lost three fights in a row.
The
event also featured two heavyweight tournament fights.
Damian
Grabowski, a heavyweight out of Poland, won the first fight in
a unanimous decision, 30-27 from all three judges. His opponent
Scott Barrett kept the fight closer than the score would indicate.
He used his wrestling to control Grabowski but inflicted little
damage, while Grabowski continually threw strikes from the bottom.
By the third round, Barrett looked exhausted, and Grabowski had
no trouble throwing punch after punch.
Cole
Konrad, a two-time NCAA champion at Minnesota, controlled Rogent
Lloret on the way to a unanimous decision. Throughout the bout,
Konrad took down Lloret time and time again. Lloret's vaunted
jiu-jitsu did not factor in as Konrad -- who looked in much better
shape than in his last Bellator bout -- kept Lloret on the ground
with strikes and grappling.
Grabowski
and Konrad now join Neil Grove in the semifinals of Bellator's
inaugural heavyweight tournament.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
GASSAWAY
WINS AT BELLATOR AFTER 2 YEARS AWAY
After two years away from the sport, former UFC fighter Brian
Gassaway is happy to be back and on the winning track.
He
told MMAWeekly.com following his win at Bellator 25, “It’s
been something I’ve wanted to do, but I’ve just been
plagued with injuries.
“That
comes along with fighting for a long time. I’m 38 now, so
injuries don’t go away like they did when I was younger,
but my mindset is still there, so I really felt great, like I
was back home in the cage.”
Having
racked up around 100 professional fights across multiple disciplines
ranging from Shidokan to MMA, Gassaway has rarely ever had such
a long time away from fighting.
And
while he was happy to return victorious, he feels his performance
against Kevin Knabjian could have gone better.
“I
felt like skill-wise I could have done more, done better, especially
on the ground,” stated Gassaway. “Apparently I did
enough (in the judge’s eyes). I think what I lacked skill-wise,
I made up for in heart and determination.”
It’s
that same sense of determination that continues to drive Gassaway’s
competitive spirit.
“The
motivation (for continuing) I think is just the passion of fighting,”
he said. “I don’t do it for fame; I never did it for
fame. I love to test myself and push myself to the limits, and
I don’t really see another test other than MMA that is the
ultimate test for me.
“I’m
not going to be one of those guys who fights way beyond their
years; when I’m ready to give it up, I’ll give it up,
but I don’t see that happening any time soon. I feel great,
I have a great training camp, and the sky’s the limit right
now.”
Having
taken fights all over the world, Gassaway is eager to build off
the momentum of his returning victory and stay busy through the
remainder of 2010.
“I
haven’t talked to Bellator (about returning), but I may
be taking a fight that Shonie (Carter) was going to take in Singapore,
but we haven’t spoken to the promoter about that,”
stated Gassaway.
“I’ve
fought weight classes above me, I’ve fought on short notice,
and I don’t have anything to prove to anybody. If anybody
wants me to fight – as long as they come to me with an honest
proposal – I’m all for it.”
While
he may never be at the top of the rankings, Gassaway continues
to fight because it’s something he feels deep within his
soul. And that can be just as rewarding as any gold belt to the
right person.
“I
would definitely like to thank Christian Uflacker and everybody
from my training camp,” he concluded. “They all help
me tremendously to get to where I’m at right now.
“Fighting
is my passion and I hope to get in there soon. I always like
to bang, and I know fans like to see guys who lay it all out
on the line, and I’ll try to do for you every fight. Whether
you love me or hate me, you’ll always get an exciting fight
from me.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Dominick
Cruz and Fredson win at WEC 50
Dominick
Cruz wins again in the WEC. With five wins in the blue cage,
the American rematched Joseph Benavidez this Wednesday at WEC
50. The bantamweight-title bout was a lively affair that took
all five rounds. In the end, Cruz held on to his title with a
split decision, beating the hard-nosed Benavidez for a second
time.
Three-time
world Jiu-Jitsu champion Fredson Paixão, too, saw action
in the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, and got his second win
in the promotion. The fighter used his finely tuned Jiu-Jitsu
and kicks to take a split decision over Bryan Caraway.
Check
out the results:
WEC
50
Las Vegas, Nevada
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Dominick
Cruz defeated Joseph Benavidez via split judges’ decision
Anthony Pettis finalizou Shane Roller via triangle in R3
Chad Mendes defeated Cub Swanson via unanimous judges’ decision
Scott Jorgensen defeated Brad Pickett via unanimous judges’
decision
Bart Palaszewski knocked out Zack Micklewright in R2
Maciej Jewtuszko knocked out Anthony Njokuani in R1
Javier Vazquez submitted Mackens Semerzier via rear-naked choke
in R2
Ricardo Lamas defeated Dave Jansen via unanimous judges’
decision
Fredson Paixao defeated Bryan Caraway via split judges’
decision
Danny Castillo defeated Dustin Poirier via unanimous judges’
decision
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Feijao,
Jacare Win Strikeforce Title
HOUSTON
-- Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante shocked light heavyweight
champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal at Strikeforce “Houston”
on Saturday at the Toyota Center. Lawal, a highly regarded wrestler,
got caught up in a striking battle with Feijao and paid the price,
losing by knockout in the third round.
“This,
of course, is not about me. This is about my coaches, my team,
my partners and trainers. This is about them,” Cavalcante
said. “Somebody asked me before what the key was to winning
this fight -- training, training, training. I’m just living
my dream. I don’t know what to say.”
Lawal
was expected by many to employ a grappling-heavy strategy, akin
to the tactics he used to secure the title against Gegard Mousasi
in April. However, Feijao fought off a number of takedowns and
remained upright outside of a few seconds in the first round.
Despite
the fact he could not -- or would not -- take the fight to the
mat, Lawal held his own in the striking battle. He hurt Feijao
with digging body shots in the second round and was in the midst
of another body barrage when the Brazilian unloaded a trio of
knees, the second of which clearly hurt Lawal.
As
the champion stumbled backwards, Feijao clipped him with an overhand
right that put him down. Lawal went into survival mode and shot
in on a single-leg takedown attempt, but Cavalcante was too strong
and battered him with punches and elbows until referee “Big”
John McCarthy stepped in 1:14 into round three.
“I
just need to make some adjustments; that’s all,” Lawal
said. “He fought a hell of a fight. I’ll come back
stronger. I’m not worried. Losses always make true champions
stronger.”
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza anchored the Strikeforce middleweight
championship belt to his waist after a hard-fought five-round
battle with Tim Kennedy. The Brazilian -- known for his world
class jiu-jitsu skills -- battered Kennedy with a tenacious standup
attack that kept him off balance throughout the fight.
“In
the cage, you can only find warriors, and Tim Kennedy’s
a warrior,” Jacare said through his translator. “He
had a hard time taking me down, so we had to go stand up. I’m
stoked that I won.”
Kennedy,
who may have thought he had a standup advantage, found out early
that “Jacare” had closed that hole in his game. He
consistently beat Kennedy to the punch over the first two rounds
and stymied the former American Special Forces soldier at nearly
every turn. Kennedy’s only real output over the first two
frames came by way of a pawing left hook that briefly knocked
an off-balance Souza to the mat late in round one.
“Jacare”
was undeterred in his strategy to trade on the feet and cut Kennedy
over the left eye with a nice combination early in the third
round. Kennedy answered with his first takedown of the match.
The
American changed it up late in the middle rounds by attacking
Souza’s lead leg, but, despite those efforts, “Jacare”
just kept coming.
Kennedy
was more successful late in the fight, but he could not muster
enough to sway the Texas judge’s. A big slam in the fight’s
final seconds excited the pro-American crowd, but it was not
be enough to earn Kennedy the victory.
“The
best grappler in the world couldn’t get me on the ground,”
Kennedy said. “I [took] him down a couple of times. My hat
is absolutely totally off to Jacare. It was a very, very frustrating
fight. I have no idea what happened with the decision.”
Tallies
of 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47 gave “Jacare” the unanimous
decision win and the Strikeforce middleweight title.
“I
don’t like judges,” Kennedy said. “This is what
happens when I go to them. You’re not going to see me here
again. I’m going to train harder. I’m going to come
back meaner.”
Strikeforce lightweight contender K.J. Noons made a statement
with his second-round knockout victory over Jorge Gurgel, but
it may not have been the one for which he hoped.
Noons’
transgressions began at the end of the first round, when he landed
a huge left hook that crumpled Gurgel; the punch was clearly
thrown after the bell sounded ending the period.
Noons
was in control throughout the fight. He took the center of the
cage and delivered crisp combinations and digging body shots
that showed his technical advantage over an always game Gurgel,
a much less technical brawler.
“He
was really staying on his toes and kind of frustrating me staying
away from my hands,” Noons said. “I’ve got that
killer instinct, and I just wanted to get in there and try and
finish it and put on a good performance for the fans.”
After
picking himself up off the canvas after the late punch at the
end of the first round, a still-reeling Gurgel came out for the
second on wobbly legs. He was sent crashing to the floor by a
blistering straight right-left hook combination that came as
a counter to a wild Gurgel right hand. Noons looked to the referee
as he peppered him with three left hands and, as referee Kerry
Hatley was moving in to stop the bout, an errant right knee that
did not land but was clearly aimed toward Gurgel’s head.
The
one-sided affair came to a close at just 19 seconds of the second
round and moved Noons one step closer to a potential shot at
either lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez or welterweight
titleholder Nick Diaz, a man he has already beaten.
“I
think that’s an interesting match -- me and Diaz,”
Noons said. “He wants it. I want it.”
After a controversial call, Arizona-based heavyweight Chad Griggs
stopped former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Bobby
Lashley at the end of the second round in their featured heavyweight
bout. Lashley dominated the bout with takedown after takedown,
but he failed to exact significant damage once he got the bout
to the mat.
“This
is one of the best days of my life,” Griggs said. “It’s
like a dream.”
The
turning point in the fight came late in the second round when
referee Jon Schorle stepped in and had Lashley -- who had Griggs
in full mount -- pause to get a cut under his left eye checked
by the ringside physician. After getting the approval of the
doctor to continue, Lashley and Griggs were restarted on their
feet, rather than back in the mount.
“I
felt him getting tired,” Griggs said. “He was working
hard to finish me. I just tried to relax, kept trying to hit
him every time he posted up, and I was. I knew I opened him up,
and I just kept on going for it. I knew he was bleeding. I knew
it was bothering him.”
Lashley,
like he had repeatedly in the fight, shot right back in but was
finally stopped by Griggs. As Lashley clutched his ankle hoping
to finish the takedown, Griggs smashed away at his head with
powerful hammerfists right up to the end of the frame.
Lashley
stayed on the mat between rounds, and the excitement in the Griggs
corner signaled the fight had been stopped.
“That
guy is so big and strong,” Griggs said. “I could feel
him burning energy trying to hit me, and he wasn’t hurting
me. I could hear him huffing and puffing. I think there’s
15 people here who thought I was going to win.”
Source: Sherdog
|
Santiago
Stops Misaki, Retains Sengoku Crown
In
clearly one of the year’s best fights, Santiago stopped
Kazuo Misaki on a fifth-round technical knockout in the Sengoku
Raiden Championships 14 headliner on Sunday at the Ryogoku Kokugikan
in Tokyo. The end to the epic encounter came with less than half
a minute remaining, as Misaki’s corner threw in the towel
to save its man from further punishment.
After
four grueling rounds that saw both middleweights on the verge
of being stopped, Santiago sealed the deal in the fifth. He buckled
Misaki with a knee, swarmed him with strikes and ultimately mounted
the Japanese veteran. Misaki reversed into top position, only
to be swept by the American Top Team-based Brazilian jiu-jitsu
black belt. Having returned to a dominant position on Misaki’s
back, Santiago flattened out his foe and unleashed a stream of
punches. The towel flew in soon after, 4:31 into the final round.
Santiago
-- who submitted Misaki in a dramatic fifth-round comeback in
January 2009 -- traveled a treacherous path to victory. Misaki
controlled the first two rounds, weathered a knockdown in the
third and leveled Santiago with a left hook early in the fourth.
The finish seemed near for the 2006 Pride Fighting Championships
welterweight grand prix winner. Known for his questionable chin,
Santiago survived a swarm of hammerfists and rolled through the
ropes to escape, accepting a point deduction for his crime. The
strategy proved wise. Late in round four, he put down Misaki
with a right hand in a precursor of what was to come.
The
29-year-old Santiago has rattled off 11 wins in 12 fights and
avenged his only loss -- a November technical knockout to Mamed
Khalidov -- in that timeframe.
Narantungalag
Upsets Gono on Points
Jadamba
Narantungalag outstruck, out-grappled and outworked Akihiro Gono
in the clinch en route to a unanimous decision, as the Mongolian
underdog spoiled the UFC veteran’s lightweight debut in
the co-main event. Scores were 30-28, 30-29 and 30-28 for Narantungalag.
The
34-year-old Narantungalag routinely beat Gono to the punch, scored
effectively in close quarters and delivered five takedowns against
the Japanese standout. Short-circuited by his opponent’s
relentless attack, Gono spent the last half of round three on
his back defending against ground-and-pound and an attempted
guillotine choke.
The
defeat halted a three-fight winning streak for Gono, a well-traveled
35-year-old who owns victories against former Strikeforce light
heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi and current Bellator Fighting
Championships middleweight titleholder Hector Lombard.
Hioki
Submits Lawson
World-ranked
Shooto champion Hatsu Hioki needed a little more than two minutes
to dispatch British import Jeff Lawson, as he cinched a triangle
choke for the tapout 2:09 into round one of their featherweight
duel.
Lawson
unfurled wild punches from the start, none of which landed on
the calm, cool and collected Japanese star. Hioki secured a takedown
inside the first minute, took back control and ultimately mounted
Lawson. The British Association of Mixed Martial Arts veteran
reversed into Hioki’s guard, only to fall into the triangle
choke. After a brief struggle, Lawson surrendered.
The
win, Hioki’s seventh in eight fights, moves him closer to
a crack at reigning Sengoku featherweight champion Marlon Sandro,
who was seated at ringside.
Okuno
KOs Thompson; Enomoto Advances
In
the first round of the Sengoku welterweight grand prix, UFC veteran
Nick Thompson was carried out of the ring on a stretcher after
a brutal encounter with a Taisuke Okuno left hook.
Down
on the scorecards, Okuno stormed out of his corner for round
three and dropped the former Bodog Fight welterweight champion
with a right hook inside the first 10 seconds. Thompson fought
valiantly to survive and regained shaky footing, only to meet
with the fight-ending punch. The blow left Thompson facedown
and unconscious 27 seconds into the third stanza.
The
knockout wiped out two strong rounds from Thompson, who kept
his Japanese counterpart on the end of a stiff left jab, scored
with four takedowns and mounted him late in the first round.
The 29-year-old Minnesota Martial Arts Academy representative
has now lost three consecutive fights -- the longest such streak
of his career.
Okuno
was one of two men to advance in the grand prix, as Yasubey Enomoto
submitted Kenta Takagi with a bulldog choke 53 seconds into round
two of their first-round match. The 26-year-old Enomoto has rattled
off back-to-back wins since his technical knockout loss to Bellator
veteran Tyler Stinson in June 2009.
Other
Bouts
Leonardo Santos def. Sotaro Yamada -- Disqualification (Knees
to Groin) 3:56 R1
Takuya Sato def. Motoki Miyazawa -- Unanimous Decision
Shintaro Ishiwatari def. Kil Woo Lee -- Submission (Guillotine
Choke) 2:20 R1
Shoko Sato def. Takuya Eizumi -- TKO (Doctor Stoppage) 1:38 R2
Wataru Takahashi def. Tatsuya So -- Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)
4:34 R2
Jae Hyun So def. Hirokazu Nishimura -- Unanimous Decision
Source: Sherdog
|
FEIJAO
CONQUERS THE KING TO WIN THE TITLE
The King has fallen, and Feijao now reigns supreme.
Rafael
"Feijao" Cavalcante realized his dream on Saturday
night as he TKO'd Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal in the third
round of their title fight main event at Strikeforce: Houston.
The victory crowned him the new Strikeforce light heavyweight
champion.
Prior
to the fight, Feijao talked at great length about his Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu pedigree under the Nogueira brothers, as he aimed for
a ground fight with the former NCAA All-American wrestler. While
the fight did hit the mat a couple of times, it seemed Lawal
was more than happy to test his stand-up against Feijao's.
It
didn't turn out to be the best idea.
Feijao
may have flaunted his submission skills, but he's known more
for his knockout power and he proved that, connecting with a
devastating knee strike in the third round after catching Lawal
behind the head with his Thai plum.
Getting
cracked flush in the forehead sent "King Mo" backwards
and just a few seconds later, Feijao clipped the champion with
a big right hand that sent him crashing to the canvas.
Trying
to recover in just a brief moment, Lawal grabbed onto Cavalcante's
leg to try to survive, but the Brazilian started to reign down
elbow strikes while the fighters were clinched. After watching
one of the champion's arms go limp as he dropped to his knees,
referee John McCarthy saw enough and put a stop to the punishment.
"I
have a new coach in the boxing and the Muay Thai," Feijao
said about the knockout. "This of course is not about me.
This is about my coaches, my team, Team Nogueira, my partners,
trainers; this is about them. They give me support."
The
support paid off as Feijao handed Lawal not only his first loss
as a fighter, but took the light heavyweight belt that he won
just one fight ago. Cavalcante's performance showed tremendous
improvements, as well as great patience not to push the fight.
His aggression has cost him in past fights. He credited the victory
to all the hard work he did in the weeks leading up to the fight.
"Somebody
asked me before the key to win this fight. Training, training,
training," said Feijao.
Now
a winner of three fights in a row, including his TKO victory
to claim the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, Rafael "Feijao"
Cavalcante is sitting on top of the world, and he's happy to
be there.
"I'm
just living my dream," he declared. "This (I) always
want; I always want to be here. Today I am here."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
SANTIAGO
DEFENDS BELT IN WAR AT SENGOKU 14
Jorge Santiago has got to be tired of seeing the same old faces.
In his past four fights, he’s fought just two opponents,
Kazuo Misaki and Mamed Khalidov.
That
should be about to change. The Sengoku middleweight champion
already avenged a loss to Khalidov earlier this year, and on
Sunday in Japan he defeated Misaki for the second time in less
than two years.
Santiago
had to battle back and forth through nearly five full rounds
with Misaki before the Japanese fighter’s corner finally
threw in the towel with just under 30 seconds left. It was a
tough battle for both men, but it showed the American Top Teamer’s
resilience as Sengoku’s titleholder.
"I
proved to everybody here what a champ is made of," said
Santiago after the fight.
He
doesn’t have a strong roster of opposition to display his
wares against, but Hatsu Hioki again showed why he is considered
one of the top featherweight fighters in the world. He handed
British fighter Jeff Lawson just the fourth loss of his 18-fight
career.
Hioki
wasted no time locking on a triangle choke that had Lawson tapping
just over two minutes into the first round.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Big
Nog change plans about surgeries
Former
champion of the heavyweight division of UFC, Rodrigo Minotauro
Nogueira was forced to leave UFC 119 card due to a hip injury,
which got worst, and lost the chance to rematch Frank Mir. After
announcing that his hip and knee surgery would be done on the
United States, the Brazilian changed his plans.
“I’ll
do my surgeries Wednesday. Let’s heal this injury and get
back at our best”, wrote Minotauro on his Twitter, revealing
that he will come to Brazil today. “I’ll go to Vitória
da Conquista this weekend. I’ll meet my father, take some
time off to be with him and all my family and go to my brother’s
birthday party. Hold it, man, I’m getting there”, completed
Minotauro, who will be back on the United States in September
to follow Rogério MInotouro, his brother, facing Ryan
Bader, on UFC 119.
Source: Tatame
|
Fedor
may return against Pezão
Fedor
Emelianenko may soon decide on his future at Strikeforce, where
he still has one fight to do if he doesn’t renew his contract.
After losing to Fabrício Werdum after going ten years
unbeaten, everyone expects the greatest heavyweight in MMA history
to have a rematch with the Jiu-Jitsu black belt. But that is
not yet certain.
Another
possibility would be to face Alistair Overeem, the current champion
of the organization, and now there’s a new matchup being
speculated on: Sources close to the fighter told MMAJunkie.com
that Fedor may face Antonio “Pezão” Silva. The
bout would take place on December 4 at a so-far undetermined
location.
Pezão,
though, was also linked to a fight with Overeem for the belt.
Neither of the matchups has yet been confirmed by Strikeforce
or the fighters involved.
According
to Pezão, either possibility would be fine for him.
“Both
Overeem and Fedor are great fighters. I’d be really happy
to fight either of them. I have a lot of respect for them both,”
he told MMAJunkie.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
If
there’s a problem, Bronx will fix it
Undefeated
with 13 fights under his belt, Charles “do Bronx” Oliveira
faced adversity right from his start in MMA. With little experience
and a lot lighter than his opponents, the underdog tapped three
opponents in a row at the Predador FC Grand Prix of 2008. He
submitted Jackson Pontes with a rear-naked choke, finished off
Viscardi Andrade by technical knockout and did the same to beat
Diego Braga. It’s worth noting that the three bouts all
took place on the same night.
Not
unaccustomed to challenges, the beast from the coastal São
Paulo town of Guarujá also turned heads on his UFC debut,
with the best submission of the night, a armbar from the triangle
on Darren Elkins at UFC on Versus 2.
Charles
adjusts the triangle to follow up with an armbar. Photo: Josh
Hedges
Now
the Jiu-Jitsu brown belt won’t back down on yet another
mission. Charles was called on to substitute Matt Wiman –
out with a broken arm – in the fight with Efrain Escudero
at the September 15 UFC Fight Night 22 show in Texas. The news
was confirmed by MMAWeekly.com.
Escudero
is a handful and is coming off a sensational triumph over Dan
Lauzon. But who could doubt the young Bronx’s abilities?
Place
your bets…
Check
out the card:
UFN
22
Austin, Texas
September 15, 2010
Nate
Marquardt vs Rousimar Palhares
Efrain
Escudero vs Charles do Bronx
Jim
Miller vs Gleison Tibau
Cole
Miller vs Ross Pearson
John
Gunderson vs. Yves Edwards*
Jared
Hamman vs Kyle Kingsbury
Dave
Branch vs Tomasz Drwal
Rich
Attonito vs Rafael Natal
David
Mitchell vs Anthony Waldburger
Brian
Foster vs Forrest Petz
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
NOONS
KO'S GURGEL, INDECISIVE REFFING STRIKES
A night of bizarre occurrences continued in the second fight
of the night at Strikeforce: Houston with K.J. Noons getting
a knockout win over Jorge Gurgel, but not without cracking the
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt after the bell following round
one, and then unloading an illegal knee in round two.
Playing
to his opponent's strengths, Gurgel came out striking, but did
manage to land some very solid leg kicks to get the action started.
Noons made the necessary adjustments and started to find his
range as the fight moved forward.
With
the seconds ticking down in the first round, Gurgel got in close
to Noons for the first time in the fight and both started winging
punches. Just as the bell sounded to stop the round, Noons, who
was already in motion, unloaded a huge left hook that flattened
Gurgel.
The
Brazilian was able to continue, but not for very long as the
second round didn't even make it to the 30-second mark.
As
Gurgel planted directly in front of Noons, the pro boxer turned
MMA fighter clipped him with a quick right, and then plowed him
with a crushing left hook that sent him sprawling on the canvas.
Noons motioned towards the referee as if he wanted the fight
to be stopped, but the fight continued and the California based
fighter unloaded a few more punches.
As
the referee finally stepped in, appearing almost confused as
to what was going on, Noons reared back and blasted a knee strike
that grazed Gurgel while his knees were clearly still on the
mat. While the knee strike was definitely illegal, the fight
should have already been stopped if not for the indecisive referee
that was slow to move in and stop the punishment.
Following
the win, Noons' second for Strikeforce, he talked about Gurgel's
ability to stuff his striking early, but it was only a matter
of time until the boxer found his range.
"Jorge
is a great opponent, he's well around. He was really staying
on his toes, and kind of frustrating me, staying away from my
hands," Noons stated after the fight.
"He
was trying to get me into his game plan, but I just stuck to
my game plan, and the adrenaline rush a little bit, got that
killer instinct and wanted to get in there and try to finish
it."
Gurgel
left the cage under his own power after a nasty cut on his right
side was cleaned up, and after he recovered from the strikes
and the end of the fight.
With
a 2-0 record in Strikeforce, Noons now sits in the proverbial
cat bird's seat. He could be a top contender in either the lightweight
or welterweight divisions. A longtime rivalry with 170-pound
champion Nick Diaz could be just the fight that will make Noons'
decision all the easier.
"I
think that's an interesting match, me and Diaz," said Noons.
"He wants it, I want it, I think that would be a good match."
Noons
defeated Diaz by TKO back in 2007 while both fighters were under
the EliteXC banner. The Hawaiian battered Diaz and opened several
cuts that forced the stoppage between rounds. A rematch could
be a possible headline fight for the upcoming Oct. 9 card in
which Diaz has already been announced as a participant in the
main event.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
STRIKEFORCE
RETURNS OCT 9; DIAZ HEADLINES
Strikeforce will be heading back to the cage in October. Welterweight
champion Nick Diaz takes the spotlight in the main event on the
card against an as of yet unnamed opponent. 135-pound women's
champion Sarah Kaufman will also defend her title against Marloes
Coenen and Matt Lindland takes on Luke Rockhold.
Diaz
will return action Oct. 9 in San Jose, Calif., at Strikeforce
for the first time since defeating Marius Zaromskis to win the
vacant welterweight title in January. Diaz fought in Dream back
in May, and then faced a three-month suspension from his role
in the Nashville, Tenn., post fight brawl in April.
Diaz
was announced as the welterweight champion during the Strikeforce
broadcast, but with no opponent named. He could always go back
to 185 pounds for a fight if no top 170-pounders are available.
With K.J. Noons' knockout win on Saturday night, though, he could
be a top candidate as an opponent for Diaz if Strikeforce chooses
to put the fight together.
Also
on the October card will be women's welterweight champion Sarah
Kaufman getting the bump up to the main card of a Strikeforce
show. She takes on Marloes Coenen with the championship on the
line. Coenen will drop down to 135 pounds after spending her
last two fights in Strikeforce at 145 pounds, which resulted
in a win over Roxanne Modafferi and a loss to middleweight champion
Cris "Cyborg" Santos in her last fight.
Another
fighter getting a bump up to the main Strikeforce card will be
American Kickboxing Academy fighter Luke Rockhold, as he tries
to keep his winning streak alive when he takes on Olympic silver
medalist Matt Lindland.
Lindland
comes into the fight off of a TKO win over Kevin Casey in May,
while Rockhold has been a winner of six in a row, and has tasted
defeat only once in his career.
More
fights are expected to be announced in the coming weeks for the
October Strikeforce card.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
JACARE
TAKES STRIKEFORCE MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE
Tim Kennedy isn’t accustomed to losing, but confused or
not, that’s just where he found himself after fighting Ronaldo
“Jacare” de Souza at Strikeforce: Houston on Saturday
night.
“I
don’t know what happened,” he said after the judges’
scorecards were read. “The best grappler in the world couldn’t
take me down. My hat is totally off to Jacare. It was an absolutely
frustrating fight.”
As
often happens when two fighters who have strength on the ground
– Jacare is a submission specialist and Kennedy a strong
wrestler – a stand-up fight broke out.
Both
Jacare and Kennedy attempted takedowns at various points in the
fight, but neither was able to implement it as a key portion
of his attack.
For
his part, Jacare appeared to want to keep this fight on the feet,
an area where most felt Kennedy would have the advantage. One
of the most decorated grapplers in the world, Jacare displayed
a tremendous improvement in his stand-up game.
The
Brazilian, although the punch count may not have backed it up,
seemed to beat Kennedy to the punch more often than not, and
just had a better overall rhythm and control of the action over
the course of the fight. It didn’t hurt that he also opened
a serious cut over Kennedy’s left eye midway through round
three.
It
was a close fight, and a fight that doesn’t end in a finish
is always open for argument, but Jacare’s hand was raised
after five rounds.
“I
don’t like judges and this is what happens when I go to
them,” Kennedy said.
The
Strikeforce middleweight belt, vacant since the exodus of former
champion Jake Shields, is vacant no more.
The
strap now resides around Jacare’s waist, as he joins fellow
Black House fighters Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo in the championship
ranks.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Feijão
celebrates his dream knockout
Rafael
Feijão dominated the standup action and knocked out champion
King Mo to take the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt this Saturday
in Houston. While still in the cage, the fighter made a point
of giving thanks for his sharp striking game.
“I’ve
got new boxing and muay thai trainers. This result is not just
mine, but my trainers’, my team’s, Team Nogueira’s,
my training partners’. I owe them for this. They back me
up,” he stated.
On
the secret to his success, his ninth knockout win, he summed
things up:
“Someone
asked me before the fight what the key to winning is. It’s
train, train, train…” said Feijão.
The
belt now strapped around his waist is fulfillment of a desire
the fighter has always pursued.
“I’m
just living my dream. This is my dream; I always wanted to be
here. Now I’m here,” he finished.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Team
Nogueira steals Strikeforce spotlight
Team
Nogueira captured two championships as Brazilians stopped two
Texas favorites at Strikeforce’s Saturday night Showtime
event at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Rafael
“Feijao” Cavalcante (10-2) took advantage of a noticeable
in-cage size difference to largely neutralize the takedown game
of world-class wrestler “King” Mo Lawal (7-1) and capture
the light heavyweight title. Earlier, a battle between ground
fighting experts Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (13-2 with
one no contest) and former U.S. Army Green Beret Tim Kennedy
(12-3) wound up a five-round fight that was almost exclusively
standing, with Souza receiving a unanimous decision on scores
of 49-46, 48-47 and 48-47.
Souza’s
teammate, Cavalcante, finished Lawal with strikes after a rocked
Lawal failed on a takedown attempt. Referee John McCarthy called
the fight at 1:14 of the third round.
“I
have a new coach on my boxing, my Muay Thai, on everything,”
Cavalcante said. “This is not about me. It’s about
my coaches, my team, Team Nogueira and my training partners.
They gave me support. I dedicated my entire life to MMA. I train
every day. Someone asked me before the fight what’s the
key to winning. Training, training, training.
“He’s
[Lawal] a complete fighter. I tried to stand up in the first
and second round. I wanted a stand-up war to make him tired.”
Cavalcante
came out strong in the third round, landing two rights and a
knee, but Lawal came right back with punches. The key was clinch-fighting
as Cavalcante landed hard knees while Lawal threw body punches,
which Lawal had used effectively to win the second round. But
Cavalcante’s knees were stronger, and Lawal was put down
and hurt.
Lawal
quickly got to his feet and instinctively shot in for a takedown.
Cavalcante, who blocked several Lawal takedown attempts during
the fight, started throwing elbows to the head as Lawal had him
pinned against the fence but was unable to take him down. Taking
one shot after another, Lawal was just holding on and not defending
himself, prompting McCarthy to step in and stop the fight in
front of the 8,635 in attendance.
Lawal
had dominated his previous fights largely due to his wrestling.
The two-time national champion and U.S. wrestling team member
came seven seconds from earning a berth on the 2008 Olympic team.
On Saturday, he was able to take down Cavalcante only twice in
more than 11 minutes, and in both instances, Cavalcante was almost
immediately back on his feet while taking no significant damage.
But
just as Cavalcante showed enough wrestling ability to keep the
fight where he wanted it, Lawal showed an improved stand-up game,
enough to where the first round was close. Lawal clearly won
the second round, particularly by landing body punches.
“I
need to make some adjustments, that’s all,” Lawal said
to Showtime announcer Gus Johnson after the fight, but he wouldn’t
answer questions about what adjustments he was talking about.
“He
fought a hell of a fight. I’ll come back stronger. Losses
make a true champion better, that’s all.”
Lawal
had a meteoric rise to the championship, capturing the Strikeforce
light heavyweight title only 18½ months after his MMA
debut. He used his wrestling to dominate five rounds against
Gegard Mousasi and capture the title in a major upset in April,
and he never had been in a fight when he couldn’t count
on his wrestling to get him where he wanted the fight to be at
every time.
Lawal,
who lived in Dallas when he was younger, used his power early
to score the first of his two takedowns with a high back suplex.
But after all that work in getting Cavalcante down, the Brazilian
was back standing in an instant. Lawal was out of his comfort
zone when Cavalcante blocked several more attempts, including
one in the middle of the first round when Lawal lifted him up
high but in mid-air Cavalcante was able to block the slam and
land on his feet.
It
was a memorable 48 hours for Souza, whose wife gave birth to
a boy (Enzo Gabriel Souza) on Friday, and he was able to overcome
ineffectiveness in his usual game plan of takedown and submissions
and score a victory in the striking game.
“In
the cage Tim Kennedy is a warrior,” Souza said through an
interpreter. “I had a hard time taking him down. I had to
stand up.”
Kennedy,
who lives in Austin, Texas, where he had been stationed in the
army, was given time off to concentrate on MMA before getting
too old. On Saturday, he expressed shock at the decision in a
fight where most of the rounds were close.
“I
have no idea what happened,” Kennedy said. “I looked
at the numbers when I was waiting for the decision. The best
grappler in the world couldn’t take me down. I took him
[Souza] down a number of times. It was a very frustrating fight.”
According
to statistics on the Strikeforce broadcast, Kennedy landed as
many or more punches in every round and got two takedowns while
stopping all of Souza’s takedown attempts in a fight that
featured standing for 24 of the 25 minutes. Souza landed the
harder punches, most notably an overhand right in the third round
that left Kennedy with a nasty cut over his left eye. Kennedy
bled heavily, and the eye worsened as the fight went on.
Yahoo!
Sports scored the fight 49-47 in favor of Souza.
The
biggest upset of the show provided something pro wrestling haters
have been hoping for but never had seen on a major U.S. show:
a star from the current era of World Wrestling Entertainment
being truly beaten up in an MMA fight.
Bobby
Lashley (5-1), who actually headlined the biggest pay-per-view
pro wrestling event in history – the 2007 WrestleMania when
he was managed by Donald Trump – fell to full-time Tucson,
Ariz., firefighter Chad Griggs (9-1).
Lashley,
who had a strong legitimate wrestling background as a three-time
small college national champion and World Military Games silver
medalist, came into the fight at 246 pounds, his lightest weight
to date. He was able to take down Griggs at will for two rounds.
Before
the fight, Griggs dismissed Lashley, saying he was nothing but
a wrestler, a statement that rang true. Lashley punched from
the top but never did any damaging blows, as he wouldn’t
test his stand-up game and, when on the ground, he never attempted
any submissions, even though he spent much of the fight in dominant
ground position.
Because
of the predictability of his attack, Griggs was able to land
an uppercut late in the first round that opened a deep cut under
Lashley’s left eye. The cut got bad enough in the second
round, even though Lashley continued to keep Griggs on his back,
that referee Jon Schorle called for a rarity – a stand-up
break to check the dominating fighter who was in a full mount.
When
the fight was restarted, Lashley shot for a takedown without
any setup, and Griggs sprawled and with 10 seconds left in the
round threw punch after punch. The round ended with Lashley badly
bleeding and glassy-eyed, and when Schorle saw him in that position,
he waved it off.
“That
guy is so big and strong,” Griggs said of Lashley. “He
was hitting me but he wasn’t hurting me. I could hear him
huffing and puffing. I kept dropping hammer punches from the
bottom. I knew I was hurting him.
“I
think there’s like 15 people here who thought I’d win,
and they were all my family, so thanks, family.”
While
one loss generally doesn’t mean much in MMA, this is devastating
for Lashley because of his high pay and defeat to an unheralded
fighter. He was signed based on marketability and perceived potential
given his legitimate background, and even before the fight, there
had been a lot of talk of matching Lashley against Dave Bautista,
the latest pro wrestling crossover, on a Strikeforce pay-per-view
show.
Source: Yahoo Sports
|
Strikeforce:
Houston Results in a Night of Upsets and Controversy
On
paper, Strikeforce: Houston looked like it would be a night where
a series of favorites stampeded to easy victories. Then again,
they don't fight on paper.
"King"
Mo Lawal got off to a good start in his first Strikeforce light
heavyweight title defense. He slammed Rafael "Feijao"
Cavalcante to the mat, deftly avoided most of his offensive assaults,
and seemed like he was in complete control.
Then
in the third round the Brazilian challenger found his range in
the stand-up game and unloaded on Lawal with hard right hands
and a series of knees to the head that left the champion wobbled.
After dropping Lawal with a left-right combination, Cavalcante
poured on the elbow strikes until referee "Big" John
McCarthy called a stop to the bout at 1:14 of round three, making
"Feijao" the third man to hold the Strikeforce light
heavyweight strap in 2010.
"My
strategy was to block his takedowns in the first and second rounds,
because I knew he was going to get tired, and that's what I did,"
Cavalcante said in the post-fight press conference.
A
dejected Lawal said in the cage afterwards that some adjustments
were in order after the loss, but vowed to learn from it and
come back better in future fights.
"He
fought a hell of a fight, but I'll come back stronger. This is
how true champions get better."
Perhaps
Lawal's biggest error was getting sucked into a striking exchange
with a power-puncher like Cavalcante. His response to getting
rocked by the right hand was to try and fire back on the feet,
which played right into the Brazilian's strengths.
"I
hit him hard with the right hand and with the knee, I saw in
his eyes that he looked a little dizzy," Cavalcante said.
"I saw he was hurt, so I just kept hitting him and waited
for the referee to stop it."
Fellow
Brazilian Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza enjoyed similar success
in the night's other title fight, though the result was far less
definitive in that battle for the Strikeforce middleweight title.
Souza and U.S. Army Special Forces sniper Tim Kennedy went back
and forth during a very close five-round fight, but in the end
it was Souza who got the unanimous decision, much to Kennedy's
dismay.
"I
want to go another five rounds," Kennedy said in the post-fight
press conference. "When I was in the back and the doc was
stitching me up I said, 'Make sure they're tight because I want
to get back in there in the next couple of months.' I want another
five rounds with that guy."
Perhaps
the biggest surprise in the fight was that it took place almost
entirely on the feet. Considering Souza's history as a highly
decorated jiu-jitsu fighter and Kennedy's success with a ground-and-pound
attack, most people expected this to hit the mat early and often.
The opposite turned out to be the case, with Kennedy getting
the only two takedowns on the fight, though the action never
stayed there for long.
First,
Noons floored Gurgel with a left hook that came just after the
bell to end the opening round, leaving a bloodied Gurgel staggering
back to his corner. Gurgel wasn't fully recovered by the time
the second round began, and Noons dropped him early on in the
round before finishing him with a combination of strikes that
culminated in what appeared to be an illegal kick to the head
of the downed Gurgel just as the referee was moving in to stop
the bout at 0:19 of the second round.
Gurgel
said afterwards that he didn't blame Noons for either apparent
foul, but instead said it was referee Kerry Hartley's job to
stop those blows from happening.
"The
late hit is not K.J.'s fight," Gurgel said. "He did
what a fighter is supposed to do. When the round is over it's
up to the referee ... to separate the fighters and get them to
their respective corners. K.J. is absolutely not at all to blame
for it."
For
his part, Noons was adamant that he'd done nothing wrong in the
bout, even though he appeared to commit two fouls in a bout that
could have possibly resulted in a disqualification loss.
"Not
by any means did I try to hit him after the bell. That's not
my style. I don't do that. It was the heat of the moment. I was
trying to finish the fight or finish the combination. Can I stop
my hand as it's flying as the bell's ringing? No."
Finally,
in the heavyweight division Strikeforce newcomer Chad Griggs
pulled off a tremendous upset by defeating heavy favorite Bobby
Lashley after a series of unanswered strikes left Lashley unable
to continue after the second round.
That
fight too had its share of controversy, however, as referee Jon
Schorle restarted the fighters in a standing position after taking
Lashley out of the dominant full mount position to let the doctor
check a cut under his left eye. After the restart, an exhausted
Lashley dove for an unsuccessful takedown and left himself open
to the series of hammer-fists from Griggs.
"I
actually felt him starting to fade a little bit at the end of
the first round," Griggs said after the win. "Once
he got cut and I landed a couple good punches I could see it
in his eyes that he didn't like it."
Lashley
left the cage under his own power, but was reportedly later taken
from the arena to the hospital on a stretcher. Strikeforce officials
had no further update on his condition when the post-fight press
conference concluded.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
KENNEDY
WANTED SHIELDS, SETTLES FOR JACARE
Tim Kennedy fights Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza for the vacant
Strikeforce middleweight title on Aug. 21, but Souza wasn’t
his first choice in a battle for the belt.
Kennedy
wanted to compete against former titleholder Jake Shields.
Shields
vacated the Strikeforce crown and was released by the organization
in June following an inability to agree on contractual terms.
Shields quickly inked a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship
and will debut with the Las Vegas based promotion at UFC 121
on Oct. 23 against Martin Kampmann.
“I
did want to fight the legitimate champion. I wanted to go in
there and the champ has the belt. I’m the contender, and
I beat the champ, and it’s my belt. And it’s my job
to defend it,” Kennedy told MMAWeekly.com. “I was very
excited and anxious for that and then it didn’t happen.”
Kennedy
was anxious because he and Shields have known each other for
more than a decade and it was Shields’ influence that prompted
Kennedy to transition from traditional martial arts to mixed
martial arts.
“Jake
and I, we’re not good friends, but we’ve known each
other for 14 years now. He was actually the one that introduced
me to MMA, brought me from the Japanese martial arts school that
I had been to The Pit,” explained Kennedy.
“There
were some apprehensions about the possibility of me fighting
him, but the more fights I had in Strikeforce, the more inevitable
that it seemed.”
Slightly
disappointed that he’s competing for a vacant title, Kennedy
insists it will not change his approach to the match-up with
Souza.
“I
was bummed, but it doesn’t change how I’m doing this
fight or how I trained for it. Fortunately Jake and Jacare are
kind of similar in how they approach their MMA fights, so it
worked out well.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
BOBBY
LASHLEY READY TO BRAWL
Bobby Lashley heads into his Strikeforce: Houston bout with Chad
Griggs not knowing much about this opponent, but feels that’s
a good thing.
“I
don’t know very much about him at all,” Lashley admitted
to MMAWeekly.com. “I saw a glimpse of him online of what
he’s done. I’ve seen pictures of him holding titles,
so I know he’s beaten someone. I know he has a pretty good
record. That’s all I really know of him.”
Ideally
a fighter likes to review fight footage of his opponent to formulate
a game plan and know what to expect, but the undefeated Lashley
doesn’t mind the lack of knowledge about Griggs. He believes
the unknown may even be an asset.
“I
think it makes you train better. Sometimes when you get a lot
of tape on someone you almost get tunnel vision and you expect
certain things and you want to train a certain way,” commented
the former collegiate and professional wrestling standout.
“I
don’t want to be like that right now. I want to be able
to train everything, and that’s what I’ve been doing,”
added Lashley. “I still need to work on everything, so I
think it’s good to not have one specific thing and honing
in on one specific aspect of this fight.
“I
think for me, kind of being early on in my career, I don’t
want to train a certain way.
“I
know he really likes to come out there and brawl, and if a brawl
is what he wants that’s what he’s going to get. I’m
coming to fight.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
STRIKEFORCE:
HOUSTON RESULTS & PLAY-BY-PLAY
Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal makes the first defense of
his Strikeforce light heavyweight title on Saturday night at
Strikeforce: Houston. On tap for him is challenger Rafael “Feijao”
Cavalcante at the Toyota Center in Houston.
And
after months of will he, won’t he, what’s happening,
former Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields left the
promotion for the greener pastures of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
His successor will be crowned on Saturday night.
Battling
it out for the vacant middleweight strap are Tim Kennedy and
Ronaldo “Jacare” de Souza.
MMAWeekly.com
will have live round-by-round coverage of the main card beginning
at 10 p.m. ET (delayed on the west coast).
STRIKEFORCE:
HOUSTON PLAY-BY-PLAY:
-Muhammed
"King Mo" Lawal vs. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante
R1
- With a touch of the gloves, the main event is under way. Cavalcante
aggressive, moving forward with missing big shots. Lawal answers
with a flurry of his own while Cavalcante is against the cage.
Lawal picks him up and slams him to the canvas. "Feijao"
immediately back to his feet. They're tied up against the fence,
but quickly separate. Lawal in and out with jabs to the body
and then head. Cavalcante with a jab. Cavalcante with an uppercut
as Lawal moves in for a takedown. Feijao defends. Cavalcante
with a right hand and two knees to the body. Lawal with a jab.
A minute remaining and they're standing in the center of the
cage. Cavalcante misses a big right hand. Lawal carrying his
left hand by his waist. Cavalcante with a hard leg kick. The
round ends. Close round. MMAWeekly.com scores it 10-9 for Cavalcante
R2
- Cavalcante with an outside leg kick. Lawal closes the distance
and throws combinations. Cavalcante does a good job of defending.
Lawal moves to a southpaw stance. Lawal with combination and
Cavalcante misses a huge right hand. Cavalcante with a high kick
and Lawal gets him down. Feijao stands back up and they separate.
Lawal wiht three punches to the body followed by two more. Lawal
still carrying his hands at his waist. Lawal continues to work
the body. Lawal winning the striking this round. Lawal moves
in and lands two more body shots and ties up Cavalcante. The
round ends. MMAWeekly.com scores the round 10-9 for Lawal.
R3
- Lawal eats a combination and looks hurt. The champ responds
and lands a one-two of his own. Cavalcante fires back landing
a knee that send Lawal back. Cavalcante lands a hook dropping
Lawal. Lawal works for a single leg and takes elbow after elbow.
Big John McCarthy stops the fight. Rafael "Feijao"
Cavalcante is the new Strikeforce light heavyweight champion.
Rafael
"Feijao" Cavalcante def. Muhammed "King Mo"
Lawal by KO at 1:14, R3
-Ronaldo
"Jacare" de Souza vs. Tim Kennedy
R1
- Both careful in the opening moments. Light exchanges with nothing
really landing. Souza with a push kick. Souza moves in and lands
a combination. Souza with another right hand. Kennedy fires a
high kick that's blocked. Kennedy misses with a winging right
hand. They exchange and both land right hands. Souza's stand
up looks much improved, winning the striking to this point. Kennedy
rushes in and Souza slips. Kennedy pounces but Souza gets back
up. Some dirty boxing inside the clinch at the end of the round.
MMAWeekly.com scores the round 10-9 for "Jacare."
R2
- Kennedy attempts a superman punch, Souza counters. Kennedy
rushes in with a flurry of four punches at least landing the
final right hand. Kennedy slips while going for a flying knee
and immediately bounces back to his feet. Souza lands a counter
right hand. They're standing toe-to-two in the center of the
cage. They have a brief exchange. Souza attempts a double-leg
takedown with a minute remaining. Kennedy brushes it off. They
exchanged leg kicks. Souza with a push kick to Kennedy's face.
Kennedy stalking his opponent as the round ends. Close round.
MMAWeekly.com scores it 10-9 for Souza.
R3
- Kennedy looking more aggressive in the third. He moves in launching
big shots that mostly miss. They clinch and separate. Kennedy
again unnleashes a couple of looping punches and clinches. Souza
circles away. Souza with a three punch combination but Kennedy
has good defense. One of the punches got through because Kennedy
is cut above the left eye. Souza letting his hands go. Kennedy
losing the stand up and gets a trip takedown. Kennedy in Souza's
guard with just under two minutes remaining on the clock. "Jacare"
kicks him off and gets back to his feet. Kennedy moving forward
but unable to put together effective offense. Kennedy lands a
kick to the body as the round ends. MMAWeekly.com scores the
round 10-9 for "Jacare."
R4
- Kennedy with an outside leg kick as we had into the championship
rounds. Kennedy with a counter right hand that lands flush, but
Souza absorbs it. Kennedy with another outside leg kick. Kennedy
with a counter kick to the body. Kennedy misses a superman punch
and Souza ducks under looking for the takedown. Kennedy sprawls
and they're back standing. Kennedy's hands low and Souza lands
a right hand. Kennedy with an accidental kick to the groin with
1:34 on the offical clock. After a few minutes the fight is restarted.
Kennedy goes for a takedown but "Jacare" defends. Light
kickboxing for the rest of the round. MMAweekly.com scores it
10-9 for Kennedy.
R5
- Final round and Kennedy seemingly needs a finish to win. Kennedy
with a leaping left hook. Souza with a stiff jab. Souza misses
with a windmill punch, but lands a solid right hand counter punch
in the next exchange. Another right hand by "Jacare."
Kennedy is bleeding again. Pace slows with two minutes to go.
Kennedy over commits on a punch and Souza clinches. They quickly
separate. "Jacare" gets Kennedy's back standing but
Kennedy breaks free without being taken down. Souza with a right
hand on the button. Kennedy gets a slamming takedown. Close round,
but MMAWeekly.com scores it 10-9 for Souza.
Ronaldo
"Jacare" de Souza def. Tim Kennedy by unanimous decision
(49-46, 48-47, 48-47)
-Jorge
Gurgel vs. K.J. Noons
R1
- Gurgel with a good right hand and a kick to the body. Gurgel
aggressive early. Noons begins to try and establish his jab.
Noons with a combination to the body and the head as Gurgel lands
a leg kick. Half way through the roundit's an even fight. Noons
wiht two leg kicks. Gurgel answers with one of his own. When
Noons closes the distance, Gurgel fires combinations. Gurgel
went for a takedown but Noons stuffs it. Noons with a couple
of body shots. Noons lands a left hook and right hand to the
jaw of Gurgel. As the bell sounds Noons lands a left hand in
a wild exchange knocking Gurgel down. Gurgel hurt badly.
R2
- Noons with a right hand and left that puts Gurgel down. Noons
swoops in to finish and lands an illegal knee as the referee
tries to stop it. The fight is over.
K.J.
Noons def. Jorge Gurgel by KO at :19, R2
-Bobby
Lashley vs. Chad Griggs
R1
– They touch gloves and Lashley takes Griggs down with a
double-leg and advances to side control. Lashley works his ground
and pound, mostly right hands as he attempts to mount Griggs.
Griggs scrambles back to his feet. Lashley doesn't waste any
time getting the fight back to the canvas with a double-leg slam.
Griggs again gets up from the bottom. Lashley presses him against
the cage and before long they're separated by the referee. Griggs
times an uppercut as Lashley shoots in for a takedown. Lashley
gets it but he ate a big shot in the process. Lashley bleeding
on the chest of the downed Griggs. The cut is below his left
eye. MMAWeekly.com scores the round 10-9 for Lashley.
R2
- Griggs looking to strike but Lashley takes him down with a
big slam. Lashley works punches to the body and head, but Griggs
doing a good job not taking big shots. Lashley mounts at the
half way mark in the round. Lashley unable to do much from there
and the referee stands them up with 33 seconds remaining. Doctor
called in to check the cut. Lashley breathing heavily, mouth
open. Lashley shoots and Griggs sprawls and lands hammer fists.
Lashley saves by the bell.
Lashley
quits say the announcers. Griggs wins! Official ruling is referee
stoppage.
Chad
Griggs def. Bobby Lashley by TKO (strikes) at 5:00, R2
STRIKEFORCE:
HOUSTON RESULTS:
Main
Bouts (On Showtime):
-Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante def. Muhammed "King
Mo" Lawal by KO at 1:14, R3
-Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza def. Tim Kennedy by unanimous
decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47)
-K.J. Noons def. Jorge Gurgel by KO at :19, R2
-Chad Griggs def. Bobby Lashley by TKO (strikes) at 5:00, R2
Preliminary
Bouts (Non-Televised):
-Daniel Cormier def. Jason Riley by submisstion (strikes) at
1:01. R1
-Andre Galvao def. Jorge Patino by TKO (strikes) at 2:45, R3
-Vinicius Magalhaes def. Rocky Long by unanimous decision
-Adam Schindler def. Kier Gooch by submission (rear naked choke)
R1
-Reynaldo Trujillo def. Jose Santibanez by TKO (strikes) R1
-Chad Robichaux def. Humberto DeLeon by split decision (29-28,
28-29, 29-28)
-Arteneus Young def. Chad Cook by unanimous decision
Source: MMA Weekly
|
CHAD
GRIGGS UPSETS FORMER WWE SUPERSTAR LASHLEY
All good things must come to an end. And on Saturday night, Bobby
Lashley’s good thing finally came to an end. His unbeaten
streak fell by the wayside at the Toyota Center in Houston when
the unsung Chad Griggs took advantage of his one-dimensional
fighting style.
Lashley
came out as he always does, shooting the takedown, and ground
and pounding. It worked well for him for the better part of the
fight, but Griggs caught him with a series of uppercuts on one
of the takedowns in the first round, opening a gash under the
left corner of the former WWE Superstar’s left eye.
Lashley
was able to continue in the second round, but continued his one-dimensional
style of takedowns and ground and pound. The problem being that
Griggs adjusted enough to continue wearing on Lashley.
Griggs
sprawled out on a takedown near the end of round two and made
Lashley pay dearly for it, hammerfisting the side of his head
until the round ended.
Lashley
made it to the bell, but shortly after, the referee took a look
in Lashley’s eyes and waived off the fight.
Griggs,
a firefighter and paramedic by day, immediately put himself on
the Strikeforce heavyweight map, upping his professional record
to 9-1.
“It
feels so good. It’s like a dream,” he said after the
fight. “I think there’s like 15 people here that thought
I was gonna win and that’s my family.”
Griggs
still has a lot to prove in a division that includes the likes
of Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio
Silva, Brett Rogers, and other, but he took a huge step forward
at Strikeforce: Houston.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Paulo
Thiago
Preparing
himself for another hard one on UFC, Paulo Thiago talked to TATAME
about his next fight on the American octagon, again Diego Sanchez.
On the exclusive interview, which you check below, Paulo commented
about his trainings, talked about the possibility of training
with Wanderlei Silva in Las Vegas and responded the American’s
provocations. “His situation is even worse, he’s coming
from two losses, so it’ll worth his job. Both of us will
give our best, this nightmare thing is bullshit. If it’s
up to me, if someone will get fired, it’ll be him”,
Paulo said, on the exclusive chat with TATAME.
What
are you expecting of this fight against Diego?
It’s
a hard fight, but I’m training hard and getting ready...
I believe everything will work out just fine.
What
are his strong points?
Diego
is left-handed, what makes it hard because they’re few left-handed,
so to get a training partner is a hard thing. He spin around
during the fight all time, has a great conditioning. The thing
is I have to work on my conditioning to hold him during all fight
and work a lot on my bang and ground game, so that I get at my
best because he’s dangerous.
Diego
said he still don’t know if he will fight among the welterweight
or on the lightweight division, but that he hopes a war between
you too, promising to give you a “nightmare”. What
do you think of it?
To
speak, he can speak what he wants. He’s on the same situation
as me… He’s even worse, he’s coming from two losses,
so it’ll worth his job. Both of us will give our best, this
nightmare thing is bullshit.
So,
your ideia is to send him back to the lightweight division?
If
it’s up to me, if someone will get fired, it’ll be
him.
What
are your training plans? Do you intend to train more in Rio de
Janeiro?
I
was going to Rio, but I had to change my plans because the guys
on X-Gym are out to fight on Strikeforce, but I’ll spend
a week in Las Vegas and maybe I’ll train with Wanderlei
(Silva). O Wallid (Ismail) is dealing with it for me, but I’m
training hard here in Brasília, all Brazilian have scheduled
fights.
Source: Tatame
|
Amilcar
wants to win UFC fans on debut
Amilcar
Alves needed 11 wins on the Brazilian rings to get the chance
of shinning on the biggest MMA event on earth, and he does not
want to waste that opportunity. Chosen to debut on UFC 118, against
Mike Pierce, the athlete from Nova União, who won 11 out
of the 12 fights he did, is confident.
“I’m
very happy, training a lot, and I hope I can do a good fight
and fix myself on this division”, commented Amilcar, on
an interview given to UFC official site, analyzing his opponent’s
game. “I know he’s a good wrestler, so I’m training
a lot my boxing and my Wrestling skills, so that his game doesn’t
work with me, and I can impose my Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu strategy”,
points out.
Without
fighting since the end of last year, when he got his eight win
in a row, the fifth on the first round, Amilcar is not anxious.
“I’m glad, and also calm. I trust my Judo skills, just
like he trusts on his Wrestling abilities… If he have to
battle on this takedown part, we will. Let’s see what happens
there and who will be the better”, said.
With
a four fights contract with UFC, Amilca knows it will take him
a lot more than just a win to win the American fans. “You
have to be aggressive at all times. Besides it’s a good
thing for the fight itself, the fans of Ultimate like it a lot.
I intend to please them”, revealed the tough guy, leaving
is message to Mike: “watch out, my friend… I’m
getting there”.
Source: Tatame
|
Jacaré,
Feijão and Galvão: black belts comment on exciting
night
Although
Jiu-Jitsu didn’t prove to be the weapon most used this time,
three of the style’s black belts stood out at this Saturday’s
Strikeforce: Houston event in Texas. Two of them even won titles.
Read and watch what they had to say:
Ronaldo
Jacaré
Two-time absolute world champion and current ADCC superfight
champion Jacaré proved his standup game is up to speed,
taking a decision win over Tim Kennedy for the middleweight title.
“It’s so much joy for just one man. My son was born,
lots going on in my head. Enzo Gabriel, your father loves you!”
he said, then going on to comment on the fight:
“I sensed that he was too strong for me to take him down,
so I resolved to fight standing. I wanted the knockout the whole
time, but fortunately, I fought a really tough opponent. I hope
it won’t be long before I put my belt on the line.”
Rafael
Feijão
Although nine of his ten wins came by knockout, Feijão
comes from a Jiu-Jitsu background and is a black belt. King Mo
was the latest opponent to feel the wrath of the fists of Feijão,
the new Strikeforce light heavyweight champion. “I’m
doing so well, man! I made it to my dream. I learn with every
fight and thank my partners and God in first place. I always
try for the finish in my fights and all my outings will be like
this,” he guarantees. “In the first round I hit him
hard and could see he was in good shape. I realized I have my
work cut out for me this time. King Mo is a monster, a complete
fighter and I respect him,” says Feijão.
André
Galvão
Also a Jiu-Jitsu world champion, Galvão was the one to
most use the gentle art in Houston. He took Jorge Macaco down
a number of times and fought well on top. But it was strikes
that would bring about the demise of his opponent on all fours.
The fight wasn’t for the welterweight belt, but Galvão
is in line for it.
“I feel really well, and it’s really great when we
win. Macaco is a really experienced fighter, so this was really
important for me. I know I have more to improve on. I took a
hard punch to the eye in the first round and saw three Macacos
before me. It was important to get through that, but I hope it
doesn’t happen again,” he says.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Jorge
Santiago retains Sengoku belt
The
14th installment of Sengoku took place today in Japan.
Jorge
Santiago defended his middleweight belt against Japan’s
game Kazuo Misaki. The bout was a rematch of the 2009 GP final
where Santiago won via submission in the fifth round.
After
four lively rounds the Japanese athlete held an advantage and
was on his way to winning when Jorge landed a strike that dropped
the challenger to the ground and followed up with aggressive
ground-and-pound till Misaki’s corner threw in the towel
with 29 seconds left in the fight.
“I
showed what champions are made of; the fight went as expected,”
said Santiago after the bout.
Jiu-Jitsu
black belt Léo Santos won his fight with Sotaro Yamada.
The Japanese fighter was disqualified for kicking Santos in the
groin region three times in the first round.
In
the welterweight GP Taisuke Okumo and Yasubey Enomoto made it
past their respective opponents and join Keita Nakamura and Takuya
Wada in the next round of the tournament.
In
the bantamweight GP Shitaro Ishiwatari, Shoko Sato, Wataru Takahashi
and Jae Hyun go through to through to the next phase.
Check
out the complete results:
Sengoku
14
Ryogoku Kokugikan,Tokyo, Japan
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Jorge
Santiago defeated Kazuo Misaki via desistance in R5
Jadamba Narantungalag defeated Akihiro Gono via unanimous decision
Hatsu Hioki submitted Jeff Lawson via triangle in R1
Leonardo Santos defeated Sotaro Yamada via disqualification in
R1
Welterweight
GP
Taisuke
Okuno knocked out Nick Thompson in R3
Yasubey Enomoto submitted Kenta Takagi via choke in R2
Takuya
Sato defeated Motoki Miyazawa via unanimous decision (reserve
fight)
Bantamweight
GP
Shintaro
Ishiwatari submitted Kil Woo Lee via guillotine in R1
Shoko Sato defeated Takuya Eizumi via TKO in R2
Wataru Takahashi submitted Tatsuya So via rear-naked choke in
R2
Jae Hyun So defeated Hirokazu Nishimura via unanimous decision
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Big
Island Open BJJ Tournament In Hilo on Aug 28th!
Chris Smith, from Charles Gracie school in Hilo, is putting together
a competition on August 28.
AME: Big Island Open
Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Location: Hilo Armory - 26 Shipman St. Hilo, HI 96720
Time: Kids start at 8:00am and adults to follow (around 11:00am)
Price: $45 per event up till 8/20/10
$55 8/21/10 to 8/25/10
Registration: http://www.tigerbjj.com
Source: Troy Souza
|
X-1
World Events
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Blaisdell Arena
X-1
TO PRESENT BIGGEST TITLE FIGHT IN HAWAIIAN MMA HISTORY ON SEPTEMBER
11TH AT “HEROES”
Second
round of light heavyweight title tourney to commence
Honolulu,
HI (USA): Top Hawaiian fight promotion X-1 World Events today
announced the full fight card for its next incredible event,
entitled “HEROES.” This exciting fight card will feature
a main event of X-1 World Middleweight Champion Falaniko Vitale
putting his belt on the line against devastating KO artist Kala
“Kolohe” Hose. Also taking place at the Neal S. Blaisdell
Arena that night will be the much-anticipated second round of
the X-1 World Light Heavyweight title tournament, as the pairings
have been set. Russia’s Vitaly Shemetov, coming off a brutal
KO victory over Japanese MMA pioneer Shungo Oyama, will battle
Hawaii’s own Poai Suganuma. Also coming off a big KO win
is South Korea’s Sang Soo Lee, who will lock horns with
California’s Roy Boughton, an undefeated submission specialist.
“HEROES” will also showcase two world title fights,
as well as a world kickboxing championship match.
Tickets
for this incredible event will go on sale on August 7th at the
Blaisdell Box Office at 9 AM, as well as all Wal-Mart, Kailua
Sports Gear outlets, and on Tickemaster.com, or by calling (800)
745-3000. Prices are $200.00 for 1st row/cageside seats , $150.00
for 2nd row seats, $100.00 for floor seats, $50.00 for the risers/lodges,
and $35.00 for the upper bowl. Tickets for all military, law
enforcement, fire department, and EMT’s are available with
ID at the Blaisdell Box Office for $10 off of the $50 and $35
seats, and $25 off the $200 floor seats, $150 2nd row seats,
and $100 floor seats.
Falaniko
Vitale (27-9, fifteen submissions) is one of the most respected
Hawaiian combatants fighting today. An experienced athlete who
recently celebrated ten years as a professional fighter, Vitale
proudly represents the 808 Fight Factory, one of the toughest
fight gyms on the Islands, and has fought for some of the most
well-known promotions in the world. Fans of King of the Cage,
Rage in the Cage, SuperBrawl, Icon Sport, the IFL, StrikeForce,
and the UFC have all seen his skill set exhibited. In his most
recent bout, he defended his coveted X-1 strap against former
UFC competitor Kalib Starnes, finishing his controversial opponent
via submission in the process. Niko, as he is known, has taken
on top names in the sport, including “Ruthless” Robbie
Lawler, former StrikeForce Middleweight title challenger Jason
“Mayhem” Miller, MMA pioneer Jeremy Horn, StrikeForce/UFC
veteran Trevor Prangley, and UFC fighter Frank Trigg. He has
beaten notable fighters such as UFC vet Aaron Riley, former UFC
Middleweight Champion Dave Menne, UFC middleweight contender
Yushin Okami, and the aforementioned Lindland.
Kala
“Kolohe” Hose (7-3, seven KO/TKOs) is known for his
devastating knockout power, and has garnered a reputation as
one of the toughest Island fighters today. He claimed the ICON
Middleweight title in August of 2008 with an exciting TKO victory
over current UFC fighter Phil Baroni that was lauded by Island
fight fans for its great action. Also a veteran of Superbrawl
and EliteXC, Hose will look to add the X-1 Middleweight belt
to his list of accomplishments. During his career, he’s
faced UFC veterans such as Baroni, “Mayhem” Miller,
and Reese Andy. He will face what is probably the toughest opponent
of his career in Vitale.
In
addition, the second round of the heralded X-1 World Light Heavyweight
tourney will commence at this event, as former EliteXC headliner
and Hawaii native Poai Suganuma (10-3) will match up with “The
Dancing Russian” Vitaly Shemetov (7-7), who brutalized respected
veteran Shungo Oyama in the first round of the tournament en
route to a KO victory. Suganuma, for his part, defeated Greg
Schmitt via unanimous decision on his way to advancing. The other
semifinal matchup will feature Gracie-trained submission specialist
Roy Boughton (4-0, four submissions), who tapped out Adam Akau
with a first round guillotine choke to garner a place in the
second round of the tournament, as he faces extremely tough South
Korean SpiritMC veteran Sang Soo Lee (14-9). Lee knocked out
Daniel Madrid with a beautiful right hand in order to move on
in the tourney. Also featured will be a 145 lb. World Championship
bout between Dave Moreno and Ricky Wallace, as well as a 135
lb. World Championship fight between Bryson Hanson and Russell
Doane.
“I
am very excited about this incredible card. Having two great
Island fighters like Niko and Kolohe fight for the belt, along
with the second round of the tournament, and throwing in two
other title matches…what a card!” exclaimed Mike Miller,
Owner/Promoter of X-1 World Events. “It’s going to
be an amazing night of fights.”
The
full fight card is as follows:
Main
Event: 185 lb. World MMA Championship:
Falaniko Vitale vs. Kala “Kolohe” Hose
Light
Heavyweight MMA Championship tournament (second round):
Poai Suganuma (HI) vs. Vitaly Shemetov (Russia)
Sang Soo Lee (S. Korea) vs. Roy Boughton (California)
145
lb. World MMA Championship:
Dave Moreno vs. Ricky Wallace
135
lb. World MMA Championship:
Bryson Hanson vs. Russell Doane
160
lb. World Kickboxing Championship:
Danilo Zanollini vs. Kaleo
Kwan
155
lbs. – Bryson Kamaka vs. Herman Santiago
135
lbs. – Adrianna Jenkins vs. Kat Alendai
135
lbs. – Eddie Perrells vs. Mark Tajon
135
lbs. – Raquel
Paaluhi
vs. Sarah D'Alelio
170
lbs. – Anthony Torres vs. Thomas Sedeno
145
lbs. – Dustin Kimura vs. Chris Williams
185
lbs. – Caleb Price vs. Collin Mansanas
135
lbs. – Van Shiroma vs. Kazuki Kinjo
About
X-1 World Events
Founded
in 2004 by Mike Miller, X-1 World Events is a world-class mixed
martial arts (MMA) promotional company based in Honolulu, HI.
Locally-owned and operated, X-1 delivers exciting live arena-based
entertainment events to fight fans all over the islands. The
events feature some of the MMA world’s most talented fighters,
including UFC, Pride, and Abu-Dhabi veterans such as former UFC
champions Dan “The Beast” Severn and Ricco Rodriguez,
UFC veterans Jeff Monson, Kimo Leopoldo, Chad “The Grinder”
Reiner, “Sugar” Shane Nelson, Brandon Wolff, Wes “The
Project” Sims, Ronald “The Machine Gun” Juhn,
Wesley “Cabbage” Correira, and Falaniko Vitale, as
well as Pride veterans Chris Brennan and Ron “H2O-Man”
Waterman. X-1 World Events can be found online at http://www.x1events.com/
About
Fight of Your Life Communications
Fight of Your Life is the only company that focuses exclusively
on communications within the sport of MMA. Through utilization
of media relationships, sponsorship contacts, writing skills,
and public relations experience, Fight of Your Life raises the
profile of its clients, which increases awareness, draws revenue,
and helps establish long-term viability. Current Fight of Your
Life clients include fight promotions such as Gladiator Challenge,
Jeff Curran’s XFO, X-1 World Events, MMA Big Show, and Shine
Fights. In addition, Fight of Your Life handles management for
rising StrikeForce lightweight title contender Lyle “Fancy
Pants” Beerbohm. Also, Fight of Your Life owner Phil Lanides
covers MMA for Examiner.com. For additional information on Fight
of Your Life Communications, please visit http://www.fightofyourlife.com/
|
KING
MO NOT SITTING IDLY ON HIS THRONE
by Damon
Martin
Heading into his first title defense as the Strikeforce light
heavyweight champion, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal wants
everyone to know that he's not the hunted now just because he
won the belt.
He's
still the predator.
While
Lawal appreciates all the accolades that go along with being
champion, don't be fooled into thinking that the gold around
his waist has stolen his hunger. He's already got his next prey
in his sights: Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante.
"I'm
the sniper still," Lawal told MMAWeekly Radio before his
title fight. "I know how I got there, I know who I want,
and Feijao made perfect sense. The thing is, I don't care who
it is. I’m sniping everybody. I've got everybody in my crosshairs."
When
he beat Gegard Mousasi to win the title in April, the talk began
immediately about who would earn the chance to get the first
crack at the new champion. The opportunity fell to the Brazilian,
and he'll try to be the first fighter to hand Lawal a loss and
take his title at the same time.
To
Lawal, the other name on the fight contract opposite his doesn't
matter. Feijao happens to be the one, but at the end of the night,
King Mo is getting his hand raised and that's just too bad for
the competition.
"It
makes no difference who it is. I train for everybody in every
situation. I study hard; study my opponents real hard and real
smart. So to me, Feijao made sense, cause he was coming off a
big win," Lawal stated.
"I
know who he's training with, I know everything about Feijao.
I know more about Feijao than he knows about himself. Just like
Mousasi, I study everybody."
In
his intense study, Lawal has discovered some flaws in Feijao's
game, and he's confident in his ability to exploit them on Saturday
night.
"He
likes to keep his hands low to throw from different angles. I
guess that's good for him, but it's a double-edged sword. With
your hands low, you're asking to get hit," said Lawal. "And
if he's asking to get hit by me, he's going down."
Prior
to their fight, Feijao has been quoted as saying that he welcomes
a ground fight with the former NCAA All-American wrestler, and
that he believes his jiu-jitsu is sufficient to get the win if
need be.
Training
in California with the likes of Fabricio Werdum, Dean Lister,
and Marcelo Garcia, Lawal is more than happy to test the Brazilian's
ground skills. Although Lawal admits there's one person in that
group that he doesn't want to test again.
"I
don't want to grapple Marcelo ever again," Lawal joked after
a rough going with the multi-time Abu Dhabi champion.
It's
that very aspect of his training that King Mo knows makes him
a better fighter than his opponents. He's not afraid to train
with the best and lose, because when he goes into his own fights
those experiences just add up to a win.
"I
get humbled every day in training. I make sure to train with
the best. I make sure I have people that are better than me in
every aspect," Lawal commented.
With
the Strikeforce championship secured, and the hunger to still
gun for the best, Lawal makes it clear that he's in this sport
for the challenge. The challenge he gets in training everyday,
and the challenge he gets when he fights. It's not about belts,
and it's not about fame.
"It's
about having fun and getting paid," said Lawal. "If
I'm having fun and getting paid, that's all that matters."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Rizzo
“won’t predict anything” against Sylvia
With three victories in a row, Pedro Rizzo will have the chance
to fight against Tim Sylvia, former champion of UFC, and he is
aware it will not be easy. On an interview on Sensei SporTV’s
blog, the tough guy talked about the chance he is having.
“I had other opportunities, like the bout with Josh Barnett
on Affliction, so I’d rather not to predict anything. But,
without any doubts, it’s a great chance. If I win, it’ll
strengthen me. I’ll Ge a huge step so I can face the Best
guys again, to join the top 10 again”, said Rizzo, commenting
the strategy he would use on the duel.
“I
have to keep moving. I’m short, so I have to use my legs.
For sure, it’ll be tough, man. The day before yesterday
he did a great fight (against Paul Buentello), like I haven’t
seen for a while. He seemed relaxed, but came for it. I’ll
train very hard”, analyzes Pedro, who knocked out Ken Shamrock
on his last fight.
Source: Tatame
|
What
has Brock Lesnar learned on the ground?
by Carlos
Eduardo Ozório
Brock Lesnar’s coach and a Jiu-Jitsu teacher in Chicago
Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros stopped by Rio de Janeiro,
where he took the chance to conduct seminars and visit team Brasa
branches. The fighter spoke with GRACIEMAG.com at the team’s
Gávea branch, where Muzio De Angelis runs the show, and,
furthermore, demonstrated one of the positions he’s taught
Lesnar (see below).
Here’s
what he had to say:
What
do you think Cain Velasquez, Lesnar’s next opponent, will
try?
I
don’t think he’s going to try to get the takedown.
He’s going to want to circle, hit and get out.
In
Brock’s last fight, in the first round, he found himself
in a jam against Shane Carwin. What are your thoughts on that?
I
think it’s great. Nobody before then had survived strikes
from Carwin and Brock did. Indeed, he came out well. Even in
that predicament he didn’t lose consciousness and he knew
how to defend from the bottom, which a lot of people said was
his weak point. Before the second round began he was hopping,
proof he was fine.
And
when will you see action again?
I’m
going to compete at the Chicago Open and take some friends. There
was even another group that wanted to compete, but sign-ups ran
out. I’m going in as an adult. Now I should have more time
on my hands so next year I want to return to the Worlds. A guy
who can withstand training with Brock has to have what it takes
to do well at the Worlds.
Does
Lesnar like training Jiu-Jitsu? Does he practice playing guard
or wear a gi?
Lesnar
likes learning a lot and practices everything he needs to. We
don’t insist on what he doesn’t need to learn, we practice
what he’ll need for each fight. He likes playing on the
bottom and knows how to play guard. Now as for the gi, we don’t
use it much.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
Political
war over MMA continues in New York
By Zach
Arnold
Bob
Reilly to Harry Reid — this is our ring (Albany Times-Union)
US
Senate Major Leader Harry Reid called MMA “a legalized street
fight” — in favor — of MMA after he watched a
recent UFC event in Las Vegas. He further said he would help
UFC get MMA legislation passed in New York. Now, Bob Reilly,
MMA’s biggest critic in New York, is going after Reid for
his support of MMA. The Times Union claims that Reid is trying
to get the help of New York Senator Chuck Schumer to give a local
push for legislation to be passed.
Up
north of New York, in Ottawa, the city’s mayor is interested
in MMA events at Scotiabank Place.
Saw
this item on FB a couple of days ago:
Shannon
Knapp – Took King Mo, Tim Kennedy, Bobby Lashley, KJ Noons
and Mayhem Miller to Fisher House today here in Houston. We visited
the spinal cord injury wing of the hospital. Everybody seemed
to enjoy visiting with the guys. I have so much respect for those
that serve in the military and the personal sacrifices they make
protecting our country. God bless them all!
King
Mo: Booker T, Jerry Lawler, and Harley Race influenced my persona
UFC
UK boss Marshall Zelaznik — Penn and Florian could give
UFC a dilemma. No kidding. Notice how Kenny Florian’s fight
against Gray Maynard has gotten zero promotional push for the
UFC 118 show?
Antonio
Margarito’s next move
A
full recap here of what happened yesterday with the California
State Athletic Commission rejecting Antonio Margarito’s
license request. The move forced Margarito to apply for a boxing
license in Texas. If he can get it, his fight against Manny Pacquiao
will happen on 11/13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. If he can’t
get a license in Texas, then he’ll have to fight in Mexico
or Abu Dhabi. Michael Koncz says that Top Rank is confident Margarito
will get licensed in Texas.
Manny
Pacquiao’s conditioning coach says if the Margarito bout
falls through, book Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez.
Speaking
of Cowboys Stadium, Strikeforce actually considered running a
show there. What?
Source: Fight Opinion
|
GURGEL
PLANS TO RAIN ON THE K.J. NOONS PARADE
by Damon
Martin
While he will always be Brazilian at heart, Jorge Gurgel has
called Cincinnati, Ohio, his home for many years, but over his
last several fights the Marcus Aurelio black belt has been traveling
away from home for his fight camps.
Finding
it tough to focus on his own training while teaching his students,
Gurgel sought out coaches like Matt Hume and Mark DellaGrotte
to help him prepare for fights, while his school back home continued
to flourish.
Much
like his close friend Rich Franklin, who decided home really
is where the heart, and the best training, is for his last fight,
Gurgel made the necessary moves to allow himself to train in
his own academy for once. Now, he’s feeling the best he's
felt in a long time.
"It's
the same old thing that people say you can never train for a
fight where you are the sensei, where you teach," Gurgel
said when appearing on MMAWeekly Radio. "So I got the curse,
in my personal opinion, of building the biggest talent pool of
fighters and training partners that I could possibly build of
my own students, but I could not even take advantage of that
myself."
It
wasn't his students that were the curse, it was owning and operating
a business day to day that took him away from his training. A
coach would call off or an inspector would need to come by the
building, and Gurgel was constantly taken away from his own time
spent getting ready for a fight.
Knowing
that if he wanted to stay at home to prepare for fights, Gurgel
had to bring in a business partner, as well as coaches from some
of his other schools around the United States. He's staying at
home, sleeping in his own bed, and he feels as ready as he's
ever been for a fight.
"Things
are coming easy for the first time in my life," Gurgel commented.
"I spent 11 years of my life fighting professionally, training
camp is going easy and smooth, and I'm appreciating that very
much."
With
a perfect training camp in place, Gurgel has his mind and body
right for his upcoming bout with former EliteXC champion K.J.
Noons. Gurgel believes the winner of this fight will move on
to get a title shot in the near future, and while he believes
the plan is for Noons to go on and face champion Gilbert Melendez
later this year, he has other ideas.
"K.J.
Noons is obviously a No. 1 contender. Obviously he's one of the
most talented guys, if not the most talented guy, along with
myself, in the lightweight division," said Gurgel. "He
was brought to Strikeforce by the owners to be the hired gun
to fight Gilbert Melendez, so I know I'm going into this fight,
their plan is to have K.J. Noons beat me, and then get a chance
to fight for the title, fight Gilbert Melendez.
"I'm
going to piss on that party. Write that down right now, I'm going
to piss on their parade really bad, and I'm going to earn my
title shot."
Gurgel
has never been in the business of calling anyone out, and it's
no different for this fight. He understands just how dangerous
K.J. Noons truly is, and that's exactly what he wanted when he
signed with Strikeforce: to face the best.
"Here's
the deal, I never in my life, I don't ask, people know me, I
never ask for an opponent, I never hand picked my opponents.
I always tell people in my interviews, my job is to get a name,
a date, and a location. I will show up, I'll make weight, and
I'll do my best," Gurgel stated.
"I've
been fighting for 11 years and the last thing that I want is
to fight the guys that are not up to the best level in the world.
I want to fight the best guys."
Gurgel
will face Noons as part of the televised Showtime broadcast of
Strikeforce: Houston on Saturday night.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Where
Is MMA's Next Great Middleweight?
By Mike Chiappetta
For all his pre-fight bluster, Chael Sonnen walked into the octagon
as a major underdog against UFC middleweight champion Anderson
Silva, with most expecting him to emerge chastened and quieted,
however briefly. Yet for about 23 minutes, Sonnen did just what
he said he would, dominating Silva as he seemingly coasted towards
his moment of glory. It was not to be. In a comeback that will
live on in MMA lore for years to come, Silva found a way to steal
a win from Sonnen's back pocket, trapping him with a fight-ending
triangle/armbar submission.
Even
in losing, though, Sonnen did something of immeasurable value
to the UFC: he stayed a viable contender. Beyond the UFC's long-reigning
champion, a look at the 185-pound class worldwide shows a wide-open
field. More specifically, most of the world's top 10 middleweights
are over 30 years old. While opportunities abound, though, few
young 185-pound prospects have distinguished themselves.
Most
weight classes have their exciting, young prodigies. Featherweight
has Jose Aldo, welterweight has John Hathaway, and light-heavyweight
has Jon Jones, among others. So where, we must ask, is the next
great, young middleweight?
Ray
Longo thinks that man is training in New York.
Chris
Weidman is 26 years old. He was an NCAA All-American wrestler
who beat UFC light-heavyweight contenders Ryan Bader and Phil
Davis on the collegiate mats. He's a jiu-jitsu prodigy who qualified
for the esteemed Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission fighting world
championships after just eight months of formal training. And
he trains his hands with Longo, who while now known primarily
as the MMA coach who guided Matt Serra to the UFC welterweight
championship, initially made his bones as a boxing trainer.
"He's
the real deal, probably the most talented guy I've ever come
across so far," Longo told MMA Fighting. "He reminds
me of when the UFC brought in Cain Velasquez, because his cardio
is great, he's got the wrestling pedigree, and he's really, really
good at everything."
Weidman,
though, is regarded as one of few blue-chip up and comers in
the division. According to MMARanked.com, which sizes up prospects
around the world, only four of the top 50 prospects are active
middleweights. Weidman is the highest among them, followed by
Strikeforce's Luke Rockhold, Uriah Hall (who coincidentally faces
Weidman in a September Ring of Combat regional event) and Brazilian
Bruno Santos.
A
look at the dozen or so men who merit consideration as top 10
middleweights shows a class short on youth:
Dan
Henderson, 39
Anderson Silva, 35
Wanderlei Silva, 34
Chael Sonnen, 33
Vitor Belfort, 33
Demian Maia, 32
Hector Lombard, 32
Paulo Filho, 32
Nate Marquardt, 31
Michael Bisping, 31
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, 30
Chris Leben, 30
Jorge Santiago, 29
Yushin Okami, 29
Robbie Lawler, 28
While
MMA is such a layered sport that many athletes take time to put
a complete game together and often peak in their late 20s, each
division historically produces an outlier or two who break through
to elite status early.
Take
heavyweight, for example, where UFC has already lined up its
next two contenders to the championship: No. 1 contender Cain
Velasquez just turned 28, while top contender in the wings Junior
Dos Santos is 26.
Middleweight
has no young prodigy.
Some
thought Alan Belcher would be the man to break through. Belcher
was only 22 when he debuted in the UFC in 2006. He struggled
in his early career, going 3-3, but by late 2008, he appeared
to be turning the corner. Belcher has won four of his last five,
losing only a disputed split decision to Yoshihiro Akiyama during
that time. But while Belcher has showed strong recent progression,
the 26-year-old recently suffered a career-threatening setback.
He is on the shelf indefinitely after having surgery to repair
a detached retina.
Belcher
is one of the few middleweights under the age of 28 under contract
with the UFC. None of the others, though, has yet to fully establish
themselves as contenders. Kendall Grove, 27, has had moderate
success, but has also been on the verge of a pink slip at times.
He's 4-4 in his last eight fights. CB Dollaway, 27, is 4-2 after
getting off to a rocky start. John Salter, 25, has split his
two UFC bouts, while Ultimate Fighter season 11 champion Court
McGee, 25, will make his first post-TUF start against Ryan Jensen
in October.
The
promotion did recently try to add some young blood into the division,
most notably signing promising 25-year-old Korean Dong Yi Yang,
who is undefeated at 9-0, as well as 27-year-old Rafael Natal.
Things
are not very different at Strikeforce, where 31-year-old divisional
champion Jake Shields cut ties with the company, abandoning the
belt in favor of the UFC's welterweight class. On Saturday, a
new champ will be crowned when Tim Kennedy, who turns 31 in days,
takes on Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, who is also heading
towards his 31st birthday. The promotion's other top middleweights
include Matt Lindland (40), Cung Le (38) and Jason "Mayhem"
Miller, who turns 30 near the year's end.
So
what accounts for the trend? MMARanked.com's Vikram Sandhu thinks
middleweight is an "in-between" division.
"If
you look at the top ten lists for middleweight, it would be difficult
finding fighters who couldn't make the cut if they wanted to,"
he said. "When they start losing, they usually do. Many
middleweights are fighters that moved up in weight when they
ran out of challengers or success fighting at 170, or down from
205 later in their careers."
UFC
welterweight Thiago Alves was nearly faced with a similar predicament.
After failing to make weight at UFC 117 (the second time in his
career he's missed the mark), Alves was implored by UFC president
Dana White to move up in class. At just 26, Alves would have
suddenly become one of middleweight's hot young prospects. It
was a move he's briefly considered in the past, and one he thinks
he will make one day. Just not yet.
"When
it comes to strength-wise, I don't think they're too much stronger
than me," Alves told MMA Fighting. "I don't worry about
that. It's more about the reach and size. And I've still got
too much unfinished business in the 170-division. Once I do what
I need to do in this division, definitely I'm going to move up
to 185. That will be another chapter in my life."
Meanwhile,
other young talent tries to nudge into the conversation. Three-time
NCAA wrestling champ Jake Rosholt, who had a brief UFC run in
2009, is still just 27, and most expect him to find his way back
into a major promotion before long. Twenty-two-year-old UFC fighter
Brad Tavares, who shot to fame on last season's Ultimate Fighter,
is still unbeaten and looks promising, while 26-year-old Alexander
Shlemenko gets an opportunity to prove where he belongs on the
middleweight radar when he faces the red-hot Hector Lombard in
October.
"I
think he's a very unique talent," Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney
told MMA Fighting. "His striking is world class, but don't
count out his grappling. What he showed on the ground vs. [former
collegiate wrestling All-American] Jared Hess was very impressive
work."
While
we don't know right now who the next great middleweight is, we
can rest assured he's coming. Maybe it's Weidman or Rockhold
or the Korean Dong Yi Yang that opens our eyes and makes us believers.
But somewhere out there, a young fighter is on his way to emerging
and upsetting the status quo.
In
this sport, it only takes a few wins to rise to the top. Take
it from "King Mo" Muhammed Lawal, who just a year ago
was known by only diehard fans, but today is the Strikeforce
light-heavyweight champions: when phenoms come, they arrive quickly.
"Rankings
are a joke, rankings don't mean nothing," he said. "There
could be someone right now that we don't know about who can beat
everybody. He could be out in Budapest, Hungary, and no one knows
about him because of [a lack of] marketing. He could be smashing
people and we don't even know about him yet."
Divisional
Phenoms
Heavyweight: Cain Velazquez (28) - 8-0 record, UFC No. 1 contender
Light-Heavyweight: Jon Jones (23) - 11-1 record
Welterweight: John Hathaway (22) - 14-0 record
Lightweight: Eddie Alvarez (24) - 20-2 record, Bellator champion
Featherweight: Jose Aldo (23) - 17-1 record, WEC champion
Bantamweight: Dominick Cruz (24) - 16-1 record, WEC champion
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Silva
and the pressure of being number one
By Guilherme
Cruz
Anderson Silva is the best middleweight of the world, the number
one pound for pound and has the highest mark of consecutive wins
and belt defenses of UFC. If that was not enough, the Brazilian
is one of the greatest strikers of the event. Each time that
the DJ plays “Ain’t no sunshine” and the “Spider”
walks to the octagon, millions of fans stand up waiting for another
great win, but it is not always possible to do what the demanding
fans want him to do.
On the cover article of this month’s edition of TATAME Magazine,
we talked to several experts about the pressure that the athlete
feels as he enters the ring being considered the best of the
world, and Anderson explained his recipe to keep his focus: to
be humble. “To be perfect is a very wide concept, the search
of perfection is something impossible. I still think of myself
as a person who is learning, I’m far from being the number
one. I hope I get there someday”, said Anderson.
In
order to prepare this article, we talked with an expert in sports
psychology and athletes of the caliber of Fabrício Werdum,
who beat the number one Fedro Emelianenko, the heavyweight Rodrigo
Nogueira, who is among the best of the world for the last 10
years, Maurício Shogun, number one on the light heavyweight
division, and José Aldo, featherweight who is experiencing
for the first time the taste of being the number one. “Before
I was the champion, I used to move forwards in all my fights,
went for it, but nowadays I try to study more so I won’t
make any mistakes and keep my belt”, says Aldo.
Source: Tatame
|
OLYMPIAN
CORMIER STEPS UP AT STRIKEFORCE
by Mick
Hammond
Former
Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier isn’t wasting any time when
it comes to establishing myself as a force in the heavyweight
division.
He
has fought four times in just over a year, and finished all four
of his opponents, never going beyond the second round in any
bout.
Yet
through it all, Cormier remains patient and focused on building
his career in such a way that he will not sacrifice long-term
success for instantaneous payoffs.
“I’ve
got to make sure I take care of my career,” Cormier told
MMAWeekly.com. “It’s the most important thing to me,
it’s my livelihood, and I have to make sure what (my management
and I are) doing is in the best interest of that.”
Still,
when an opportunity arose to be part of Saturday’s Strikeforce
event in Austin, Texas, in front of friends and family after
just having claimed the King of the Cage heavyweight title from
Tony Johnson less than a week ago, Cormier and his team couldn’t
help but jump at it.
“The
decision to get back (into the cage so soon) is because of experience,
I want experience,” he stated. “I enjoy fighting and
love the competitive feeling I get whenever I’m about to
compete in a fight or wrestling match.
“My
manager/coach, ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook, thought it was a good
idea to rack up as many of these fights as these opportunities
are presented to us. I’m doing them and I’m having
a great time doing it.”
Having
been successful on his two previous Strikeforce appearances on
the Challengers Series, Cormier knows what’s at stake now
that the company has chosen to move him to its main stage.
“It’s
a huge opportunity to make a statement,” he said. “It’s
an opportunity to fight for the Strikeforce big heads and the
Showtime big heads, which you generally don’t get when you
fight on Challengers.
“The
opportunity to fight in front of my family and friends also plays
a big part in it. I’m so happy about this opportunity; the
whole situation is perfect.”
Standing
in the way of Cormier’s perfect evening is a monster of
a man, six-foot-six-inch heavyweight prospect Jason “Juggernaut”
Riley.
“He’s
a big, tough, durable guy,” commented Cormier. “He’s
fought some of the best guys in the world, and he took the fight
against me (on short notice), so it shows me that he’s a
fighter.
“I’m
excited to fight him. It’s going to be a very tough fight.
He’s a big guy, and you have to be careful or he’ll
knock you out.”
Cormier
sees Riley as exactly the type of fight he needs right now to
continue to work his way up the ranks.
“It’s
definitely going to test my abilities,” stated Cormier.
“I think we’re getting better guys every time and we’re
progressing every time as we move forward in my career.
“It
feels good to know we’re headed in the right direction.
Facing more dangerous fighters will only make me more aware,
sharper, and hopefully my skills are good enough to pull off
a win.”
Having
gained the kind of success and support early in his career that
some fighters do not find their entire careers, Cormier knows
how blessed he is, and he intends on paying back that support
with continued strong performances.
“I
just want to thank MMA Elite, Zinkin Entertainment and the American
Kickboxing Academy,” he said in closing. “Fallow me
on Twitter @Cormier2010 and on Facebook, we’ll accept every
single friend request.
“It’s
going to be awesome. I’m going to go out, put on a good
show in an exciting fight, and hopefully get out of there with
another finish."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Commentary
on the structure of both Bellator and Strikeforce events
By Zach
Arnold
From
Larry Pepe’s radio show on Monday night.
Bellator
— tournaments, champions, and television deals
“Bellator
got started with their third season last week and I can’t
help but feel that they’re losing some momentum. I think
there’s a couple of problems. I think they put out a good
product, I really do, and I really started following them in
season two and that’s when I saw some of the problems. I
was stoked for the beginning of the season, I think they did
a lot of things right. I like the tournament format BUT there
are definitely some flaws.
“The
first thing, call me crazy, the TV deal sucks. The TV deal is
horrendous. When I was following it in season two my guide would
show that it was going to be on at 8 o’clock one week, 10
o’clock another week, 11 o’clock another week, and
half the time it didn’t even come on at the time that was
listed because it got pre-empted by the end of a baseball game
or a basketball game or there was post-game programming. Sometimes
there was programming that wasn’t even related to a live
event that pre-empted it. One time I think it went on at 12 or
12:30 AM when it listed for 10 o’clock and I don’t
know how you can get any momentum. I don’t know how you
can get fans really following this thing if they don’t even
know when it’s going to be on and there’s no consistency.
I think that’s a big problem.
“I
think another problem that I noticed was that once you got about
midway through the season, half or more of the fights each week
had nothing to do with the tournament and that was very distracting.
I think it takes away the momentum. The 12-week format, I think
it should be pared down. I think every fight you see should be
tournament-relevant. I mean, imagine if you had March Madness
and in the second week, the third week, half-way through the
tournament, you started watching basketball games or you were
getting basketball games that had nothing to do with the teams
in the tournament, they were two teams that maybe you’d
never even seen before, maybe really not followed, never even
heard of and somehow they’re slammed in the middle of March
Madness. It would be ridiculous and in some respects that’s
what happens with these Bellator fights as you get deeper in
the tournament and I think a way to solve that and I know maybe
it’s not as friendly in terms of sponsors and in terms of
lengthening the season but make the tournaments shorter or put
more fighters in the tournaments so that when you’re watching
every week because when you are watching and you know that this
guy beats this guy, then he’s going to go on to the next
round. It definitely adds something to it. When you know you’re
watching a fight that has zero relevance, it really is distracting
and to be quite honest, I think it causes you to lose interest.
And then the other aspects is the champions. I think champions
just for the season, like TUF for example, NOT for the promotion.
There shouldn’t be a Bellator Middleweight champion. There
should be a Bellator Season One Middleweight champion and a Season
Two Middleweight champion because look at what happens. You have
guys like Hector Lombard who have fought twice now in ‘non-tournament
affairs.’ You now have Pat Curran getting hurt and being
replaced by Roger Huerta. This idea that these champions are
carrying over from a year ago… Eddie Alvarez took on a very
tough Josh Neer, had a very dominant fight, looked great. What
if he loses that fight and now Eddie Alvarez, who you just saw
lose a couple of months ago in the Bellator cage fighting for
the promotion is now defending his title against Pat Curran?
It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t think it makes
sense for the fluidity of it and it makes things very confusing.
I mean, there’s a lot of risk because at some point one
of those champions is going to lose in a non-title fight and
it’s going to make the belt look a bit silly. So, I don’t
know. I just think they need to restructure things a bit. They
need to tighten it up a bit. They need to get a better television
deal with some consistency and if you want to do champion vs.
champion, then when the season two winners make it, then do an
event where the season two winners fight the season one winners
but not for some mythical overall Bellator belt that doesn’t
get defended when you’re seeing those same guys fight half
the time. It just, I don’t know, to me it’s messy,
it doesn’t flow, and I think it has potential but I think
if it’s going to realize its potential there needs to be
some restructuring and there definitely needs to be a better
TV deal.”
Strikeforce
– surplus of titles, champion’s clauses, and promoting
from event-to-event
“Strikeforce
Challengers… We’ve talked about this. Not a fan of
the format given that they don’t use it any way. Joe Riggs
on what he calls a ‘last title run.’ Certainly not
an up-and-comer. One of the most experienced fighters they have.
I thought Challengers was supposed to be about up-and-coming
fighters so you get to know them, those you never heard of. Matt
Lindland headlines an event a couple of months ago. Riggs had
a nice fight, gets a W, calls out Nick Diaz. I’d like to
see that fight but the highlight, supposedly, of this event was
the women’s tournament. Which really, when you peel it back,
was to decide who the third-ranked fighter would be in their
135-pound division and this was not even a #1 contender tournament
because Sarah Kaufman will be defending against Marloes Coenen
later this year, we think, and a couple of things bothered me
about this. The first, of course, is that the fighters weren’t
even told who they were going to fight. It was done with some
kind of hokey, like they all open a card and find out who they’re
fighting at the weigh-in. I think that’s unfair to the fighters.
I think the fighters should be at least preparing in camp for
their first-round opponent. It deprives them of the opportunity
to do that.
“And
now you only have two rounds of fighting because there’s
only four fighters, so you have to win twice to win the whole
thing. The first round, which I guess for a lack of better word
is the semi-final round, is two rounds. Is just three minute
rounds, two rounds a piece, that’s it. It would seem to
be like that should be a three-round fight and it certainly set
up the possibility for draws, one 19-19 score(s) and stuff like
that, but I don’t understand that, that’s the first
thing. Especially when the rounds are three minutes. And to be
perfectly honest, not taking away anything from Miesha Tate,
Miesha’s a great fighter, congratulations to her for winning
the tournament… but then there’s this belt that’s
brought out to the winner of the tournament. It seems odd to
me, like you’re bringing out a belt. I was like looking,
thinking, what is the belt for? And the belt was for winning
this tournament which was the equivalent of winning two fights
that total, at maximum would have been five rounds and it’s
to determine the #2 contender in your 135-pound division. It
just, it just seems odd to me and people have listened to me
before know that I think Strikeforce makes a lot of mistakes
promotionally, yet they continue to to put on great cards. They
continue to put on great performances with the fighters. I just
think the way that things are structured in terms of their divisions,
their belts, their titles, the lack of divisional fluidity, the
lack of consistency from one event to the other and promoting
those events so there’s some anticipation so that people
are really looking forward to the, understand who’s fighting,
that’s missing and that’s been missing for a long,
long time and I hope it’s something they get a grip on because
they do have a good stable of fighters and they put on good fights
but the structural issues, these promotional issues, are a real
hindrance for me.”
Source: Fight Opinion
|
NOONS
LET'S HIS FISTS DO THE TALKING NOW
by Damon
Martin
A great many fighters learned a great many things while fighting
for EliteXC. Of course they also lost their jobs when the company
went out of business, but former lightweight champion K.J. Noons
knows that the EliteXC experience taught him a valuable lesson.
As
the champion sat on the sidelines, EliteXC worked feverishly
to put together a fight between Noons and Nick Diaz with the
title on the line. Noons had beaten Diaz just one fight before,
and the two sides were far apart on the money being paid and
other issues surrounding the matchmaking.
EliteXC
went as far as stripping Noons of his title, but the title belt
never saw the light of day again as the company went belly up
just a few weeks later.
Now
signed with Strikeforce, Noons has stopped talking about what
he wants to happen. He's not being the loudest one in the room
anymore.
He
wants to be the best fighter in the room, and let his fists do
his talking for him.
"I
was tired of a lot of that stuff from EliteXC, and I can really
just see clear now. The number one thing is just to fight, that's
it, easy. Just fight," Noons told MMAWeekly Radio recently.
"I didn't want to make a big fuss when I first came into
Strikeforce. At the end of the day, I just want to fight... the
way I fight, people can judge if they want to like me or not.
Not talk so much, let my fists do the talking."
So
far, so good for Noons, who defeated Conor Heun in his Strikeforce
debut, and makes his return to action on Saturday night where
he faces Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and former UFC lightweight
Jorge Gurgel.
Many
have pegged Noons as the top contender in the lightweight division,
and believe if he wins, he could be headed for a showdown with
Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez later this year. Again,
Noons shies away from the talk about title fights, because the
test in front of him is something he has yet to pass, and until
he gets an A+ on Saturday night, there's no point in talking
about what's next.
"There's
a lot of great fights I would like to see, but I'm not saying
anything till I get past this tough guy, Jorge Gurgel on Aug.
21," Noons stated. "Jorge Gurgel is my number one priority,
not Gilbert Melendez, not a belt, not a Nick Diaz, not a boxing
match. The 21st, I've got to be healthy, on weight, on my game,
game tight, be right."
It's
that very focus that has Noons sounding and fighting like a different
man than the person he was just two years ago. Yes, Gilbert Melendez
is a fight he would welcome, but Noons wants to leave that decision
up to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and the powers that be.
There's
no more talk, just action.
"I'll
just let my fists do the talking and when the time is right,
we'll do it," Noons commented. "Gilbert's a great champ,
so whenever. I'll work my way from the bottom to the top again.
I don't really care, I'm down for it."
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Strikeforce
‘Houston’ Preview
by Tomas
Rios
Just
like any organization, Strikeforce gets its fair share of negative
ink and kilobytes. However, credit must be given where it’s
due, and this Saturday’s Strikeforce card in Houston is
of the can’t-miss variety.
Airing
live on Showtime from the Toyota Center in the impossibly hot
city of “Screwston,” you’ve got Muhammed Lawal
making his first defense of the Strikeforce light heavyweight
crown as well as “Jacare” and MMA’s premier Ranger
deciding the middleweight title.
I
don’t need to say anything else, but I will say this: If
you miss these fights, I will cease to like you and I don’t
want to have stop liking you.
Follow
Tomas Rios and his 140 character assaults on society at www.twitter.com/Tomas_Rios
Muhammed
“King Mo” Lawal vs. Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante
The
worst of it is over for Lawal. He already beat Gegard Mousasi
and is now lording over a light heavyweight division short on
fighters perceived to be a serious challenge. It’s up to
Cavalcante to prove otherwise, and doing so means he’ll
have to overcome some daunting stylistic issues.
Just
about anything on two legs is going to hit the floor if Lawal
wants it to, and Cavalcante’s best look is on the feet.
Hype up his black belt from the Nogueira brothers if you must,
but if Mousasi couldn’t get a submission off his back against
Lawal, it seems borderline insane to believe Cavalcante will
succeed where “The Dreamcatcher” failed. For someone
with a relative lack of experience, Lawal has solid grappling
fundamentals and knows how to use his wrestling base to neutralize
any dangerous offense while in the guard.
Not
only that, but he was able to do it for 25 minutes solid against
Mousasi. Given some of Cavalcante’s conditioning issues
-- this is after all the same guy that gassed out and got laid
out by Mike Kyle -- it seems as if it would be in his best interest
to get after it early, lest he risk falling behind on the cards
with no gas left to do anything about it.
This
all gets back to Cavalcante’s biggest problem: He has no
way of keeping this fight on the feet and probably can’t
get any work done against Lawal’s top control. Even if Lawal
obliges his desire for a kickboxing match, Lawal has shown flat-lining
power and a real dedication to learning the art of boxing. Although
Cavalcante has a more well-rounded striking style, he doesn’t
have Lawal’s movement or ability to control distance behind
a solid jab.
More
than likely, any time spent on the feet will be a precursor to
Lawal dumping Cavalcante on the mat. The omnipresent threat of
a takedown is bound to influence Cavalcante’s approach,
and even if it doesn’t, pure recklessness on the feet won’t
get him any further. Trite as it may sound, styles make fights
and the style clash in this fight is too much for Cavalcante
to overcome.
Ronaldo
“Jacare” Souza vs. Tim Kennedy
After
a proposed giant-sized middleweight title tournament predictably
fell through, Strikeforce did the smart thing and put together
their two best middleweights, Souza and Kennedy, in a fight to
decide their next 185-pound champion. It’s a welcome bit
of sanity from the matchmaking department, as this is probably
the best middleweight fight Strikeforce has ever put on.
For
Souza it’s certainly the fight that will decide whether
he’s ready to become the supreme middleweight that so many
envision him as. A perception due in large part to his sustained
éclat in the grappling world, and that is undoubtedly
the skill he must flex to beat Kennedy. That’s not to say
Kennedy isn’t a good grappler in his own right, but a grappler
of Souza’s caliber who can translate his game to MMA is
a rare phenomenon.
What
really complicates matters for Kennedy is that Souza’s judo
background makes for slick takedowns, and his ironclad base has
translated into natural ground-and-pound ability. Even if Kennedy
does win the wrestling exchanges, he’ll still be stepping
into the unquestioned domain of his opponent. For all the improvements
he’s made since getting gamed on the mat by Jason “Marketing
Plan” Miller, it’s hard to imagine him Rangering Up
on someone like “Jacare.”
However,
if Kennedy can win the wrestling exchanges by keeping the fight
off the floor, this fight takes on a completely different dimension.
While Souza has the natural athleticism to develop quality striking
and has made strides in that area, the two times he got dinged
in his MMA career he reacted like he got hit by the Cloverfield
monster. A friable chin isn’t something that gets better
with training, and Kennedy has the skills to take advantage of
that inescapable chink in Souza’s armor.
Now
that he’s free of his military commitments, Kennedy is primed
to make leaps and bounds in his game. His combination of durability
and cardio do pose problems for Souza. Considering he couldn’t
stop Joey Villasenor, it becomes clear that Souza will have his
fair share of issues trying to put Kennedy away. The more time
Kennedy gets in this fight is just more time for him to jump
all over an opening and test Souza’s will to win.
Still,
tempting an underdog as Kennedy is, Souza’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu
casts a long shadow on this fight. If Kennedy had a telephone
pole jab or real kill-shot power he’d be my pick, but the
truth is that grappling is his best look. He’ll be good
enough to give Souza a tough fight, but it’ll still be “Jacare”
who walks home with a win.
K.J.
Noons vs. Jorge Gurgel
Undoubtedly
the leading candidate for “Grisliest Fight of the Night”
is the lightweight tilt between Noons and Gurgel. We’re
seriously talking about Paul Verhoeven levels of viscera just
about any time Gurgel enters the cage. Against a surgeon like
Noons … well, let’s just say Showtime’s pre-show
warning of “Blood and Violence” has never been so appropriate.
There
are three things you need to know about Gurgel. First is that
he’s an excellent grappler. The other two are that he doesn’t
know what a game plan is and fights a division above his best
weight. It’s hard to even remember the last time Gurgel
made a concentrated effort to consistently rely on his Brazilian
jiu-jitsu in a fight, as he mostly goes out of his way to get
into slugfests.
The
tragedy is that Gurgel has just enough chin and skill to survive
the trench wars he gets himself into. Going down that road against
Noons is a guaranteed loss for him, though. Known best for his
brutal razor tagging of Nick Diaz, Noons is one of the smoothest
strikers in the game -- at least when he’s in shape.
It
was obvious in his fight with Conor Heun that Noons didn’t
have the greatest training camp ever based on his conspicuous
semi-spare tire. Even with an extra bit of pudge, Noons clearly
won the fight and left Heun significantly worse for wear. Basically,
if Noons shows up in shape, he’ll tag Gurgel all night.
If he’s not in shape, he’ll still win albeit with a
bit more trouble than expected.
The
wildcard is Gurgel deciding to go for a takedown, but he rarely
does and he’s never been much of a wrestler anyway. Noons
isn’t a free double leg, and Gurgel’s notoriously patchwork
knees raise serious questions about just how capable he is of
working the ground game he was once known for.
This
just isn’t a good fight for Gurgel based not only on his
skills but also his almost suicidal need to prove something on
the feet. Fighting to your own detriment in MMA is inexcusable
at this point, and Noons will hammer that point home.
Bobby Lashley vs. Chad Griggs
There
isn’t a whole lot to say about the heavyweight tussle pitting
Lashley against Griggs other than the fact that Strikeforce is
doing right by their hoped-for golden goose. From what we’ve
seen of Lashley thus far, he’s not ready to take on Strikeforce’s
upper-tier heavyweights. Someone like Griggs is right in his
zone.
Besides
the fact that Griggs hasn’t fought in a year, he really
isn’t a particularly impressive fighter. He can certainly
flex with Lashley all day, but in terms of skills he doesn’t
have anything to offer against Lashley’s well-known wrestling
base. His 8-1 record is more a function of mediocre regional
opposition than any otherworldly talent he has hidden underneath
his bodybuilder’s physique.
The
other aspect of this fight to keep in mind is that Griggs is
basically a static quantity as a fighter while Lashley is at
least surrounding himself with the right people to improve. While
the actual ceiling on Lashley’s potential is open to debate,
he can get most any lower-tier heavyweight on the mat and get
his mangle on. Given the struggles that supposed next generation
heavyweight behemoths have experienced when forced to work off
their backs, this is basically a fight that will be decided by
Griggs’ ability, or lack thereof, to stop takedowns.
As
long as Lashley does what he’s been doing -- running people
over with his shot and working ground-and-pound -- Griggs shouldn’t
be much of a challenge for him. Of course, given the little we’ve
seen of Lashley thus far and some of his early struggles, there
is a real chance that it’s a matter of time before his MMA
run hits a serious speed bump against someone he’s “supposed”
to beat. I just don’t think Griggs is the man to pull that
feat off.
Source: Sherdog
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Helio
Gracie, one of 4 faces of Brazil according to TV channel
by Marcelo
Dunlop
Helio
Gracie (1913-2009) giving one of his last speeches. Photo: Mario
Lyra.
Gilberto Gil, Gustavo Kuerten, Fernando Henrique Cardoso and
Grandmaster Helio Gracie.
The
four illustrious figures were the Brazilians elected by the Biography
Channel to paint a picture of the face of the country. Each of
them had a primetime TV special done on them.
After
singer and former minister Gil (aired last weekend), tennis star
Guga (September 13) and intellectual and former president Fernando
Henrique Cardoso (in October), Helio’s life story will be
told in the final episode of the series, on a November Sunday
yet to be determined. The A&E channel will rerun the show
on the same day at 11pm.
We
wanted names that don’t just represent Brazil to Brazilians,
but who are also of international relevance,” explained
director of the series Rodrigo Astiz in an interview with “Revista
da TV” (“TV Magazine”) in O Globo newspaper. The
program is produced by Mixer.
According to the “O Estado de São Paulo” newspaper,
the program Biography: Helio Gracie will show the life of the
“family patriarch who became the symbol of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
and revolutionized the sport around the world.”
“This
tribute to Helio Gracie, now two years gone, is proof that someone
only really dies when we stop talking about him,” said Kyra
Gracie, the master’s great granddaughter, as quoted in the
Brazilian newspaper. “Helio didn’t produce fighters,
but human beings.”
Source: Gracie Magazine
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Reflective
and Determined B.J. Penn Out to Prove He's Still Got It
By Mike
Chiappetta
With age comes wisdom, but if you're a pro athlete, it also comes
with aches, pains and the beginning of the realization that your
career is closer to its end than beginning.
B.J.
Penn is not old in any sense of the word. If you're a longtime
MMA fan, Penn seems practically ancient, yet he's just 31. During
a UFC 118 conference call, though, Penn voiced the type of self-reflection
that is rarely seen in the macho world of MMA. Noting his desire
to re-take his place at the top of MMA lightweight landscape,
Penn explained his motivation in a way you'd rarely hear from
someone with a resume like his.
"I'm
the guy who doesn't want to let the sport pass him by,"
said Penn, who will square off with division champion Frankie
Edgar in Boston on Aug. 28. "I want to stay in the forefront.
I'm constantly up trying to think of how to tweak things, to
keep up with these young kids. I know he's near my age but he's
young in the sport, and I want to keep up with these guys."
At
UFC 112 in April, Edgar -- who is 28 -- stunned Penn in a five-round
unanimous decision that raised mild controversy. Still, the fact
that Edgar could last the distance was just as surprising to
some as the victory itself; Penn had gone off as a huge favorite,
by around 8-to-1 odds according to most lines makers. In the
rematch, Penn is still the favorite, though the odds have tightened
greatly; now he's around 3-to-1.
With
Edgar the champ, though, Penn -- only the second fighter after
Randy Couture to hold belts in two UFC weight-classes -- sees
himself as the underdog.
It
was a realization that came immediately to Penn (15-6-1), who
says the loss gave him a "brain-damage type of feeling,
the way I was feeling sorry for myself" in the aftermath.
"When
I first started fighting, I thought I was God's gift to fighting,"
he said. "I thought I'd go 100-0 with 100 knockouts. I look
back at my record and I can't believe I have six losses. It blows
me away."
Looking
to take a positive out of a negative, Penn examined the situation
and decided he needed to capitalized on his remaining days in
the sport, however long or short they may be.
"The
loss to Frankie made me step back and realize that I want to
fight as much as I can," he said. "After the last fight,
God willing I came out with no broken hands or broken bones,
or no medical suspension. I wanted to fight the next month, the
next week. I don't know if I feel my biological clock ticking,
but I want to fight as much as possible.
"I've
tried to space my career out over 10 years, but I want to make
a push to be a true fighter, a fighter who fights all the time,"
he continued. "I have a good camp and figured out how to
keep myself healthy through multiple camps. If I can do it, I
want to stay very busy and active."
In
many of his past fights, Penn has looked for some conflict with
his opponent before he ever got to the cage to use as motivation.
Any perceived slight or misguided comment would do. But he spoke
respectfully of Edgar and his team, complimenting them for the
planning and execution of the first fight, during which Edgar
would rotate from barely-there, moving target to takedown artist.
Penn
said this fight had its own meaning for him, and so he didn't
need to make it a grudge feud.
"Wanting
to go out there and prove Frankie cant beat me, there's no lack
of motivation," he said. "I wanna prove to the world,
to Frankie and his corner, prove to everyone who the best fighter
in the world is. Who has the most tools and can execute better?
As far as motivation, I can find something about Frankie not
to like."
To
Penn, it's not so much about having the title strapped around
his waist. He's been around long enough to know that another
phenom contender is always around the next contender, and that
any status as "champion" is fleeting.
It's
more about proving that at 31 and after a decade in one of the
world's most demanding sports, he's still got it, right now and
beyond.
"You
hear people say, 'You're the greatest,' and all this stuff. It's
BS," he said. "It's fake, it's all fake. You've just
got to keep training as hard as you can. The only thing real
is the fight, everything else is fake."
Source: MMA Fighting
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“King
Mo” Lawal Blasts Uneducated Fans
Since
“King Mo” Lawal began his rapid ascension up the MMA
ranks the accomplished wrestler has never been share about telling
you ‘like it is.’ From repeatedly stating he’ll
fight anyone in the world, to his classic back-and-forth with
“Rampage” Jackson, Lawal has consistently captured
headlines through his actions both in and out of the ring.
Following
his thoroughly dominant UD win over Gegard Mousasi in April,
Lawal was soundly booed by some ‘fans’ in attendance,
who we’re guessing didn’t appreciate him utilizing
his wrestling abilities to take out one of Strikeforce’s
biggest stars. Disliking a fighter for whatever reason is one
thing, but booing just because a guy exploits another fighter’s
weakness, demonstrates you rank extremely low on the MMA IQ scale.
Anyways, we’re thinking that incident might have had a little
something, something, to do with the following comment Lawal
reportedly made on the Ring Psychcology podcast (thanks to Bloody
Elbow for the quote).
“Some
are cool, some are idiots. They’re fans-they don’t
know what the f**k they are talking about. That’s why I’ll
say it again: ‘f**k the fans.’ A lot of them ain’t
educated. They’re just bandwagon jumpers…”
Indeed,
some are cool, some are idiots…we’ve been called both.
Lawal’s bout with Rafael Cavalcante Saturday should be interesting
Source: MMA Fix
|
Transcript:
Tito Ortiz’s version of the 2002 bar brawl with Lee Murray
By Zach Arnold
MICHAEL
SCHIAVELLO: “I want to talk about something that’s
become part of MMA folklore, MMA urban myth which I want to get
you to clarify. 2002… London… Tony Fryklund, Matt Hughes,
Pat Miletich, Tito Ortiz, and a man named Lee Murray got into
a street fight where apparently Tito Ortiz got knocked out by
Lee Murray.”
TITO
ORTIZ: “Not true. At all. One of my buddies got beat up,
was getting stomped in the concrete outside and I came to his
rescue. Me, Chuck Liddell, and Damien started to fight…
One of the guys sucker punched our friend Damien, I mean my friend
Bo, dropped him on the door, the cab ran over his arm, and Lee
Murray was in there. Lee Murray took a swing at me, missed, I
took a swing at him, I clinched him, I knee’d him…
he broke away, he started running away, I started chasing into
him, and he turns around and stops and plants his feet, I go
to stop and I slide right into him, he clipped me, dropped me,
and I popped right back up. Cops came, broke everybody apart.
One of the cops said he was squirt me in the face with mace,
I said go ahead because by then I was already snapped, I didn’t
give a [expletive], I was surviving, survival skills. I was never
unconscious at the time, in my whole life I’ve never been
unconscious and I never will go unconscious and… but I think
those stories are fabricated a lot to try to build, uh, Lee Murray
up but God looks over all of us and now he’s doing a 10-year
prison sentence, so karma’s a bitch, huh?”
MICHAEL
SCHIAVELLO: “Hello, Lee Murray!”
TITO
ORTIZ: “Nah, hey, I think the story doesn’t go any
further than that. It was an altercation. I was defending my
friend and it was no more than that.”
Matt Hughes
recalls streetfight between Tito Ortiz and Lee Murray in 2002
by MMAmania.com
Former
welterweight champion Matt Hughes has a new book hitting stores
soon. The Sun has been leaking excerpts the last few days right
here.
The
latest one recalls the unsanctioned street fight between then
UFC light heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz, and former UFC fighter-turned
alleged bank robber, Lee Murray, after UFC 38 in July 2002.
Hughes
tells the story second-hand via Pat Miletich because he went
back to the hotel room and was not involved in the incident (contrary
to recent lore).
Here's
the snip:
"So
it's four o'clock in the morning and they had everybody leave
the club, right? Well, the UFC had bussed us all over there but
they didn't have a bus to take us back. It's down to Mark, me
[Pat Miletich], Tony Fryklund, Chuck Liddell, Tito [Ortiz] and
Lee Murray. Lee Murray's crew was still there, Tito's crew was
also still there. I walked out the back door to go in the alley.
Tito's buddy jumped on my back. He jumped on my back and acted
like he had me in a choke hold, just messing around, you know?
Then I felt him get ripped off of me. I turned around and Tony
Fryklund had HIM in a chokehold, and was really choking him.
The guy looked like a mouse that just got trapped in a mousetrap;
his eyes were popping out and obviously he wasn't breathing.
Tony thought he was actually attacking me – that's the only
reason he did it. So I turned round and told Tony to let him
go, and Tony let him go. Then Tito's buddy turned around and
basically said ‘what the f*** are you doing?' to Tony. Well,
when he said that, one of Lee Murray's buddies, that one guy
who kind of took care of us all week long, thought this guy was
actually trying to fight us, so he ran out of the crowd and cracked
this kid with a right hand and knocked him out cold.... The entire
alley erupted into a huge brawl. I was just standing there, and
there were bodies flying all over the place. I was confused how
it all happened, because it happened so fast. I was standing
there with my mouth open like ‘what the hell is going on?'
I looked over and Chuck Liddell was with his back against the
wall, knocking people out that were trying to go after him. Then
I looked over and there's Tito directly past me, taking his coat
off, going after Lee Murray, and Lee Murray's backing up the
alley taking his jacket off. Both their jackets come off, and
Tito throws a left hook at Lee Murray and misses, and right as
he missed, Lee Murray counters with, like, a five-punch combo,
landed right on the chin, and knocked Tito out. OUT. Tito fell
face-first down to the ground, and then Lee Murray stomped him
on the face a couple of times with his boots."
I've
heard this story told numerous times and none of them seem to
be the same. This one is no different. Massive amounts of booze
tend do that to a drunken herd of men.
To
check out all of the excerpts from Matt Hughes' new book entitled,
"Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History"
click here. It sounds so far like an entertaining read.
Source: Fight Opinion/MMA Mania
|
Lawal
“Feeling Real Good” Heading into Saturday’s Bout
By
FCF Staff Houston’s Metro Fight Club hosted an open work-out
yesterday in anticipation of Strikeforce’s upcoming event
Saturday night, which will take place in that city’s Toyota
Center. In attendance were light-heavyweight champion “King
Mo” Lawal, KJ Noons, Artenas Young and Chad Robichaux, who
are all scheduled to compete on the card.
Lawal
(7-0) will face the highly regarded Rafael “Feijao”
Cavalcante (9-2) in his first title defence, after cruising to
a Unanimous Decision victory over Gegard Mousasi in April, to
lay claim to the Strikeforce championship. When asked how he
was feeling just a few days removed from the tilt, the champion
stated:
“I’m
feeling real good,” Lawal was quoted saying in a press release
from the promotion. “I need to cut about eight pounds but
that should be no problem. The weight is good and now it’s
just about waiting for Saturday night. All the work has been
done.”
And
when asked if he grows tired of speaking to the press, Lawal
reportedly answered:
“As
long as they ask good questions,” he said. “It gets
kind of old when you hear, ‘Do you think you’ll win?’
or ‘How are you feeling?’ Those are like one-word answers.
I don’t like the obvious questions. I mean, if I didn’t
think I could win the fight I wouldn’t have taken it.”
In
another of the card’s main attractions, former Elite XC
champion KJ Noons (9-2), will face veteran lightweight Jorge
Gurgel (13-6). Noons feels ready for the fight:
“Did
a little jump rope, a little stretch, a little pad work today,”
Noons said. “It’s part of the job. I’m feeling
great right now. My weight is on point and I just got my last
workout in.”
“I’ll
execute my game plan against Jorge. I’ll know a lot of people
in the crowd so it should make it that much more fun.”
Young Preparing for his Fight with Cook
Some
of the other bouts scheduled for the card include Ronaldo “Jacare”
Souza vs. Tim Kennedy for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight
title, Bobby Lashley vs. Chad Griggs, Chad Robichaux vs. Humberto
DeLeon (5-3) and Artenas Young vs. Chad Cook.
“Strikeforce
Houston” will be broadcast on Showtime.
Source: Full Contact Fighter
|
Minotauro:
“I’ll have to go on surgery”
Former
UFC heavyweight Champion, Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira
is out of UFC 119 due to an injury. Replaced by Mirko “Cro
Cop” Filipovic against Frank Mir, the Brazilian spoke about
his injury. “I hurt my hips training and I’ll have
to go on surgery. I’m only depending on a few exams, but
I think it’ll be done by the weekend. The surgery will be
on both sides of my hips, and I’ll operate my knee too.
If everything goes alright I’ll be back on training in four
months”, Nogueira told Pretorian website.
Source: Tatame
|
WEC
50 BONUS FIGHTERS RECEIVE $10K
by Damon Martin
The WEC has not only become the home to the lighter weight classes,
but it's also become the standard for the promotion to have some
of the best and most exciting fights in all of mixed martial
arts. The latest event, WEC 50: Cruz vs. Benavidez on Wednesday
night in Las Vegas, didn't disappoint either.
The
fighters at the event that earned the standard post fight bonuses
took home an additional $10,000 each for their performances.
Scott
Jorgensen and Brad Pickett went to war in a bantamweight contest
with a possible title shot looming for the winner, Jorgensen,
and both of them left every ounce of energy they had in the cage.
Their performance was so spectacular that the WEC handed the
pair of 135-pound warriors the bonus for "Fight of the Night"
at WEC 50.
Earning
a title shot may be the real prize Anthony Pettis earned with
his triangle choke submission over Shane Roller, but the Duke
Roufus student also picked up a bonus for "Submission of
the Night" for his victory.
Newcomer
Maciej Jewtuszko told MMAWeekly.com prior to his fight he wanted
to add Anthony Njokuani to his highlight reel. He did just that
as he knocked out the knockout artist, and took home $10,000
for "Knockout of the Night."
Source: MMA Weekly
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How
much would a no-time limit Roger-Jacaré match be worth?
by Marcelo
Dunlop
The idea of a no-time limit sport Jiu-Jitsu match born (or reborn)
in the USA last June fired up GRACIEMAG.com readers and fans
of the sport all around the world. Then it went cold, though.
Unable
to come to terms on the purse (10 thousand dollars to the winner
in the initial proposal), the first matchup put together by the
promoters, between Alliance ace Rubens Cobrinha and Rafael Mendes,
didn’t make it off drawing board, the latter unpleased by
the sum.
So
what would be a fair price for such a bout? To answer the question
left hanging, GRACIEMAG.com invited a former fighter and hotshot
promoter with first-hand knowledge on the subject, Wallid Ismail.
We
asked: How much, for example, would a match between two monsters
and archrivals like Roger Gracie and Ronaldo Jacaré be
worth – the former a Jiu-Jitsu-title record holder, three-time
absolute champion and undefeated MMA fighter; and Jacaré
a star at Strikeforce becoming ever-more popular in the sport
thanks to American television, and a postulant for the title
at this weekend’s event?
A
big-time promoter who knows his way around the market, Wallid
gave his straight opinion as one who has already participated
in such a match, against Royce Gracie in 1998, before a packed
arena on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach.
“The
fair price for such a match? I’m going to tell you something
and you can put it in what you’re writing there. The fair
price for any match is what is on the table. It’s how much
the interested promoter is able to put together. Then the fighter
evaluates whether he does or doesn’t want to fight. If there’s
a desire to make the fight happen, the interested parties will
reach an agreement,” Wallid philosophizes.
“When
I fought Royce with no time limit over ten years ago the purse
was practically double that, but you have to take into account
who Royce was. He was the man, the UFC superstar. And with the
appeal of all our rivalry, for me having beaten two members of
his family, it was thus a fair price.”
There
it is, would 20 thousand be a fair price these day?
Check
out the classic between Jaca and Roger at the 2004 Worlds and
leave your opinion: How much would you pay for a ticket to a
no-time limit match between those two?
Source: Gracie Magazine
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Another
fighter accuses DREAM of being a deadbeat on paying out fight
money
By Zach
Arnold
It’s
Bibiano Fernandes, the man who beat Joachim Hansen. He says he
won’t fight until he gets paid. Whether his claims are valid
or invalid, a lesson to anyone who fights for a Japanese promotion
is that you need an agent on the ground in Japan who is politically
or legally connected so that if you do have a dispute with a
promoter there, you can take care of the problem first-hand.
Odds
& Ends
I’ve
written a timely preview of five big MMA fights coming up for
the rest of 2010 that I think will outperform expectations.
Despite
the fact that both Anthony Johnson and Shane Carwin find themselves
on the courtroom/legal blotter, I still think Tim Sylvia ended
up having the worst weekend out of all fighters despite getting
paid for beating Paul Buentello.
WEC
50 and why certain fights got preference for title shots
Larry
Pepe interviewed Reed Harris on Monday and asked him why Joseph
Benavidez got the title shot against Dominick Cruz (as opposed
to Scott Jorgensen) and where Scott stands in the WEC fighter
hierarchy right now with the powers-that-be.
LARRY
PEPE: “So, let’s talk a little bit about the title
shot. Before we get to the actual fight, the word out there a
couple of months ago was that Joseph (Benavidez) and Scotty Jorgensen,
who has won four straight, were the guys really under consideration
for the title shot. Was that true? And if so, what tipped it
in Joseph’s favor?”
REED
HARRIS: “Well, yeah, it was true. I mean, you know, certainly
Scotty Jorgensen has really improved a lot and has done, he’s
won quite a few fights. But I think what we looked at more was
Benavidez is, who he beat and how he beat them, you know, and
the fact that he knocked Rani Yahya out, who I think has never
been knocked out, and then with his win over (Miguel) Torres,
you know, Torres was 37-2 at the time. You know, Joseph beat
him and also submitted him and that has never been done I think
in 40 fights Torres has had. So because of the way he won and
how impressive he looked, how much better he looked… We
thought he deserved a shot at the title.”
LARRY
PEPE: “And look, style makes a difference, I don’t
care what anybody says.”
REED
HARRIS: “That’s right.”
LARRY
PEPE: “I’m not saying this about Scotty, but we hear
it with Jon Fitch all the time with decisions and stuff, you
know how you win also matters when it comes to making the determinations
for title shots.”
REED
HARRIS: “To make your point, it was something we discussed
and it was a decision we had to make. Both of those guys we could
have put either one of those guys in there and felt comfortable
about it.”
LARRY
PEPE: “We talked about Scotty Jorgensen. He takes on a very
tough Brad Pickett. Scott came on last week and he said he thought
it would be impossible for him not to get the title shot if he
beats Pickett. That would give him five straight wins. Do you
see it that way? Do you think he gets the title shot with a win
over Pickett?”
REED
HARRIS: “Yeah. I mean, as soon as we see the fight, we want
to see how he looks, to make sure there are factors like injuries,
etc. that we look at, but if he goes through Brad Pickett, who
I think is on a nine-fight win streak and is certainly he shouldn’t
overlook and I know he’s not, then I think that would put
him in that position where he gets a title shot, yeah.”
LARRY
PEPE: “And to your point, for people who aren’t familiar
with Pickett because he’s only fought twice in the WEC,
this is a guy, Reed, who’s 19-4 overall with 15 stoppages.
He had that slick Peruvian neck tie in his debut against Kyle
Dietz. This guy is no slouch. If people that think is a walkthrough
for Scotty, I think they better be very surprised.”
REED
HARRIS: “No, I’ve heard Pickett, you know, as far as
a chin has probably got one of the best chins in WEC. And like
I said, I think he’s had a nine-fight win streak and this
guy’s very, very tough. He trains with Mike Brown down at
ATT (American Top Team) in Florida, which is probably one of
the best camps in the world, similar to I mean Jorgensen’s
got a great camp as well but this is going to be a very tough
fight for both of those guys. And by the way, it should be very
entertaining for the fans. I got a feeling this is going to be
a very, very exciting fight.”
Source: Fight Opinion
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