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2012
November
Aloha
State BJJ Championship
(BJJ
& Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
10/20-21/12
NAGA
Hawaii
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Radford H. S. Gym)
8/18/12
Warpath to Mayhem:
Rumble at the Resort
(MMA)
(Kauai Beach Resort, Lihue, Kauai)
August
King of the Mat
(Submission Grappling)
8/4/12
Maui Open
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Lahaina Civic Center, Lahaina)
7/21/12
Sera's Kajukenbo Martial Arts Tournament
(Continuous Sparring, MMA (Controlled), and Sub. Grappling)
(War Memorial Gym, Wailuku, Maui)
**CANCELLED**
7/14/12
King of the Cage
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
6/29/12
Vendetta 5
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
6/16-17/12
State
of Hawaii BJJ Championship
(BJJ
& Sub Grappling)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
6/16/12
Destiny
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
6/15/12
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Blaisdell Exhibition Hall)
5/26/12
Toughman Hawaii Presents; King Of The Ring
(Boxing)
(Edith Kanakaole Tennis Stadium, Hilo)
5/19/12
Scrappler's Fest
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Island School, Lihue, Kauai)
The Quest For Champions
Martial Arts Tournament 2012
(Sport-Pankration, Submission Grappling, Continuous Sparring)
(St. Louis High School Gym)
5/18/12
Vendetta 4
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center)
5/4/12
King of the Ring
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom)
Just Scrap XVI
(MMA)
(Maui War Memorial Gym, Wailuku)
4/28/12
Destiny
(Kickboxing & MMA)
(The Waterfront, Aloha Tower)
4/21/12
Amateur Boxing Event
Smoker Fundraiser
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park Gym)
4/14/12
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom, Waipahu)
Hawaiian
Open Championship of BJJ
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
3/29/12 - 4/1/12
Pan
Jiu-Jitsu Championship
(BJJ)
(Irvine, CA)
3/3/12
Warpath to Mayhem:
Rumble at the Resort
(MMA)
(Kauai Beach Resort, Lihue, Kauai)
Vendetta 3
(Kickboxing, Triple Threat)
(Waipahu Filcom, Waipahu)
Toughman Hawaii: Challengers
(Kickboxing)
(Hilo Civic, Hilo)
2/11/12
Amateur Boxing Event
(Boxing)
(Palolo District Park Gym)
2/4/12
Man Up & Stand Up
(Kickboxing)
(Waipahu Filcom Center, Waipahu)
1/21/12
ProElite
MMA
(MMA)
(Blaisdell Arena)
1/15/12
Polynesia
International BJJ Tournament
(BJJ)
(King Intermediate, Kaneohe)
1/7/12
Toughman Hawaii
(Kickboxing)
(Hilo Civic Center, Hilo)
|
|
July
2012 News Part 3
|
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We are also offering Kali-Escrima (stick fighting) on Monday
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Kickboxing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with PJ Dean &
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We just started a
Wrestling program in May taught by Cedric Yogi.
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O2 Martial Arts features Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu taught by Relson
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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
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provide incredibly detailed instruction of the sweet science.
To top it off, Ian Beltran & Erwin Legaspi heads our Kali-Escrima
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O2 will start a wrestling program in May headed by Cedric Yogi
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Just a beginner with no background? Perfect! We teach you from
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The
Nine Lives of Brandon Vera
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it”
~ George Santayana
Expectations
are a funny thing in mixed martial arts.
When
Anderson Silva made his UFC debut back in 2006, everyone knew
coming in that he was a devastating striker with solid credentials,
but it’s hard to imagine many people back then had the expectation
that he would go on to become the most dominant champion in the
promotion’s history.
Less
than a year prior to Silva’s debut, a young brash heavyweight
with only four fights on his professional record came to the
UFC with a lot less on his resume, but a whole lot more to talk
about after a lone victory in the Octagon.
Brandon
Vera splashed onto the canvas of UFC fans everywhere with a blistering
performance over Fabiano Scherner, and following the fight he
proclaimed that he was destined to be the first ever two-weight
class champion with hopes of holding both the heavyweight and
light heavyweight titles.
His
next few fights didn’t do much to dispel that proclamation
as Vera dismantled two more heavyweight contenders before a blistering
performance putting away former UFC heavyweight champion Frank
Mir in just over one minute’s time.
Yes,
the future was quite bright for Brandon Vera, but he soon found
out that expectations and hype can work against you when things
don’t go your way.
Following
a long contract dispute with the UFC, Vera finally returned to
action nearly a year after defeated Mir and ended up losing his
first professional fight in a very lackluster affair against
former heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia.
The
much smaller Vera was no match for Sylvia’s behemoth power,
moving him around the cage and controlling the action for the
better part of 15-minutes. The loss wasn’t enough to convince
Vera to drop down to light heavyweight however, but the next
fight did the trick when he was finished by Fabricio Werdum in
the first round of their fight at UFC 85.
With
Vera now at 205lbs, the expectations started again and so did
his mouth proclaiming that he was ready to conquer this new weight
class. Gone were the bold statements about being a two-weight
class champion, but Vera was still more than confident that he’d
soon be sitting on top of the world as the best in the light
heavyweight division.
That
prediction found no home either.
Vera
went 3-2 in his first five fights at 205lbs and while he didn’t
look outworked or out classed in either of the losses, the days
of him putting top opponents away in record fashion were gone.
Still
the UFC found a home for Vera at the top of cards, even putting
him in the main event of UFC 105 against legendary fighter Randy
Couture. The expectations for Vera continued to be very high,
and journalists everywhere still predicted that he could turn
things around and be the champion he was declared to be just
four years earlier.
Vera
lost to Couture, albeit by a very slim margin, so when he got
matched up with young, undefeated stud Jon Jones at the first
ever UFC on Versus show, he again proclaimed that he was a new
man and ready to start a climb back towards the top of the division.
Once
again, Vera failed to live up to the expectations he set for
himself before the fight.
“I
was like whatever I’m going to smack this kid around. It
didn’t work out that way. That kid was a man in disguise,”
Vera told MMAWeekly Radio about underestimating Jon Jones in
the fight.
Jones
not only won, but broke Vera’s orbital bone above his eye
in the process, once again landing him on injured reserve and
back out of everyone’s collective minds. The Brandon Vera
hype train was derailed, maybe once and for all.
Still
determined to prove he was a top light heavyweight, Vera then
moved onto a fight with Thiago Silva, and needless to say he
was thoroughly dominated. After the fight was over, Vera was
released from the UFC.
Without
a promotion to call home, it’s safe to say Brandon Vera
had hit rock bottom.
But
his reprieve came shortly after his pink slip was delivered because
his opponent Thiago Silva had tested positive for submitting
a tainted sample for drug testing, and following the result he
came clean and admitted using performance enhancing drugs. Vera’s
firing was overturned and the UFC gave him yet another chance
to come back and prove himself.
Vera
was then put in the cage with former Ultimate Fighter 8 competitor
Eliot Marshall. While Vera didn’t look bad during different
moments of the fight, he was twice dropped by Marshall in the
fight and the third round saw him almost lose an arm as the Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt cranked hard on an arm bar.
Somehow,
Vera persevered the pain and made it out of the fight and won
a fairly controversial decision over Marshall.
So
was there any surprise that a collective groan was heard throughout
the MMA community when Vera’s name came up again as a main
event fight, this time against former champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’
Rua? Even more moans came from the crowds of fans when it was
revealed that Vera would be facing Rua in the main event of the
fourth ever UFC on Fox card.
Even
Vera admits he was surprised when the call came in offering him
the opportunity to face the legendary former Pride and UFC champion,
but like the fighter that he is, he accepted without hesitation.
So
as he heads into yet another main event, there is a different
Brandon Vera getting ready for this fight. He’s yet to even
remotely utter the phrase ‘I’m back’ as he did
prior to past fights.
Vera’s
not talking titles, title shots, or even the top ten of the light
heavyweight division.
Maybe
for the first time ever, Vera is appreciative to just be where
he’s at, he’s not heaping unrealistic expectations
on his performance, and in the most basic terms he’s just
happy to be here.
“This
could be more than redemption. I can’t even say redemption,
it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I don’t even know
what to call it, a miracle? This is going to be good,” said
Vera about the fight with Shogun.
Was
some of the hype behind Vera heaped on because of the media?
Sure it was. But Vera takes responsibility now for his own mistakes,
misgivings and self-promotion.
Fighters
can all learn from Brandon Vera’s career to see what not
to do when you’re a young, talented athlete, and he’s
the first to point out those mistakes now. Vera just won’t
live in the past anymore however.
He’s
moving on and it’s not about starting over or climbing back
up the ladder. It’s about survival, it’s about competing,
and it’s about not passing up on another golden ticket.
“It’s
my fault,” Vera said pointing at past mistakes.
“I’ve
had to grow up a lot. I’m glad to be at where I’m at.
All the ‘would’ve, could’ve, should’ve and
what if’s and maybe I could have did this’ I’m
past all that now. I’m in the now and in the future.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Anthony
Johnson Debuts at Light Heavyweight, Braulio Estima Makes MMA
Debut at Titan 24
Former
UFC fighter Anthony Johnson is ready to test his meddle at a
new weight class as he makes his light heavyweight debut at Titan
Fighting 24 in late August.
Johnson
first revealed his move to 205lbs when talking to MMAWeekly.com
earlier this month, and now his first fight in the new division
has been booked.
The
former welterweight and middleweight contender will face veteran
Esteves Jones at Titan Fighting 24, which airs live on AXS TV
on Friday, August 24.
“I’m
excited to make my light heavyweight debut on August 24 in Kansas
City for all the Titan Championship fans,” said Johnson.
“I respect my opponent, but he’s in my way to get to
the top of this new division. I’m looking forward to showing
everyone my strength and power at 205, and exactly what I am
capable of at this weight.”
Johnson
moves up to light heavyweight after his lone fight in Titan Fighting
where he defeated fellow former UFC competitor David Branch earlier
this summer.
Also
added to the Titan Fighting 24 card is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world
champion Braulio Estima, who makes his MMA debut on the upcoming
show.
While
Estima is considered one of the top grapplers in the world, he
came into the MMA spotlight recently when he accepted a jiu-jitsu
match with UFC bad boy Nick Diaz. Unfortunately, Diaz ultimately
no showed the event and Estima went without a grappling match
that night, but the exposure definitely didn’t hurt his
introduction to MMA fans.
Now
Estima moves into the world of mixed martial arts after a highly
decorated career in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and makes his debut against
Chris Holland.
Holland
popped into the spotlight recently as well with a big TKO win
over former UFC and Pride fighter Phil Baroni.
Also
on the Titan Fighting 24 card, Team Blackzilian up and comer
Junior Karanta takes on Matt Uhde in an undercard bout.
More
fights for the Titan Fighting 24 card will be announced int eh
coming weeks.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
29/07/2012 09:19
'Massaranduba' returns to lightweight division at UFC 153
By
Marcelo Barone
Photo
Eduardo Ferreira
Francisco
Drinaldo “Massaranduba” became one of the most popular
fighters at TUF Brazil, and the UFC wants to use that for their
next show in Brazil. After a dominant and fast win over Delson
Heleno at UFC 147, as a middleweight, “Massaranduba”
will return to lightweight division at UFC 153, next show planned
for Rio de Janeiro, on October 13th.
“I
know what I need to do,” Francisco told TATAME, revealing
he will fight at HSBC Arena. “It’s not that I’ll
drop two weigh classes that I’ll have easy fights, I know
that I’ll fight a tough opponent, but I’ll make the
tickets worth the show. I’m ready for anyone, and I’ll
do a great fight”.
UFC
Rio 153
HSBC
Arena, Rio de Janeiro
-
José Aldo vs. Erik Koch;
-
Vitor Belfort vs. Alan Belcher;
-
Glover Teixeira vs. "Rampage" Jackson;
-
Rony Jason vs. Sam Sicilia;
-
Serginho Moraes vs. Renée Forte;
-
Cristiano Marcello vs. Reza Madadi;
-
Francisco Massaranduba vs. TBA.
Source:
Tatame
|
Confirmed:
Shogun vs. Vera worth shot at title
His
solid performance even in defeat to Henderson helped pave the
way to Shogun again nearing the top of the heap. Photo by Josh
Hedges.
Short
and blunt—with a sincere, “Yes”, Dana White finally
confirmed that the fight between Mauricio Shogun and Brandon
Vera this coming Saturday will determine the next challenger
to the UFC light heavyweight belt.
The
choice seems indicative of the dearth of new names rising to
the top of the division, given how Shogun, who is coming off
a loss to Dan Henderson last November, and Vera have both suffered
devastating defeats at the hands of current champion Jon Jones,
who will be putting his title up for grabs against the seasoned
Dan Henderson this coming September 1.
Now
Lyoto Machida, who will be taking on Ryan Bader this Saturday,
was being tipped as a possible challenger but, with the recent
announcement from White, he’ll have to beat his American
opponent and then wait a little while longer for his chance to
reclaim the belt that was once his.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Dana
White: Winner of Shogun vs. Vera Gets Next Title Shot
When
UFC on Fox 4 ends, either Mauricio “Shogun” Rua or
Brandon Vera will have earned the next shot at the UFC light
heavyweight title.
It
came with some shock during a media conference call on Monday
that UFC president Dana White backed up an earlier statement
by saying that the winner of the main event at this weekend's
UFC on Fox 4 show would indeed get the next crack at the 205-pound
belt.
According
to White, the winner between Rua and Vera will face the winner
of the upcoming UFC 151 main event between light heavyweight
champion Jon “Bones” Jones and Dan Henderson.
“Yes,”
White answered when asked the direct question about the main
event fight crowning the next No. 1 contender at light heavyweight.
“Shogun
Rua just came off the fight of the year last year and he's probably
one of the greatest fighters in the world in the last decade.
This guy knocked out Rampage (Jackson), knocked out Chuck Liddell,
knocked out Mark Coleman, knocked out Lyoto Machida, knocked
out Forrest Griffin, knocked out Alistair Overeem twice, submitted
Kevin Randleman. A win puts this guy right back into position,
and he's probably the No. 2 guy in the world.”
The
scenarios in this situation seems mind boggling to most, especially
considering the ramifications if Jones defeats Henderson in early
September.
Jones
mauled Brandon Vera via first round TKO when they met at UFC
on Versus 1 back in May 2010, and then did very much the same
thing to Shogun when he captured the light heavyweight strap
in March 2011 at UFC 128.
Should
Jones get past Henderson, it appears he will be set for a rematch
against one of the two main event fighters at UFC on Fox 4.
Since
his loss to Jones, Rua has appeared twice in the Octagon, defeating
Forrest Griffin in Brazil, and losing by decision to Dan Henderson
at UFC 139.
Meanwhile,
Brandon Vera has gone 1-2-1 over his last four fights, but a
win at UFC on Fox 4 will earn the UFC veteran his first title
shot since joining the company in 2005.
“Brandon
is a guy who burst onto the scene, was gonna be a 205-pound champion,
a heavyweight champion, was running through guys left and right.
I don’t know what happened, but it’s about opportunities,”
White explained about Vera's surprising position in the title
picture. “He accepted this opportunity to fight one of the
greatest fighters of this decade and we’ll see what he does
with it.”
White
also stated that it doesn't matter how impressive either Ryan
Bader or Lyoto Machida were in the co-main event of the evening,
the winner in the main event would be the one challenging either
Jones or Henderson for the title next.
UFC
on Fox 4 goes down Saturday night from the Staples Center in
Los Angeles and broadcasts live on Fox starting at 8 p.m. ET/5
p.m. PT.
Source:
Yahoo Sports
|
Dana
White: UFC's Alexander Gustafsson on deck for 'big fight'
Especially
after UFC president Dana White today surprisingly confirmed the
winner of Saturday's UFC on FOX 4 headliner between Mauricio
"Shogun" Rua and Brandon Vera is next in line for a
light-heavyweight title shot.
But
that doesn't mean Gustafsson (14-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) is the forgotten
contender of the division.
"He's
ready for a big fight now too," White said today during
a media conference call. "(We'll) get him lined up with
one of the top guys soon, and we'll fight out where he sits and
where he fits."
Since
a loss to now-teammate Phil Davis more than two years ago, Gustafsson
has racked up five consecutive UFC wins. Most recently, the Swede
scored a unanimous-decision victory over perennial contender
Thiago Silva at UFC on FUEL TV 2.
However,
Gustafsson has been on the sidelines since the April 14 fight,
and UFC officials have mentioned little in the way of what's
next for the 25-year-old.
Back
in June, he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio)
he was hoping for a late-summer return, and he'd gladly take
a late-replacement opportunity if it means a shot at the belt.
Currently, reigning champion Jon Jones is scheduled to fight
Dan Henderson in UFC 151's main event on Sept. 1, but neither
fight has mentioned any injuries or ailments leading into the
bout.
Should
that change, Gustafsson would step in?
"Yeah,
absolutely," said Gustafsson, who said he favors Jones in
the title fight. "I wouldn't say no to that. That's what
I train for: a shot at the title. That's why I do this. I want
to win a belt.
"(But
I have) no idea what the UFC will do. I take it one fight at
a time, and I don't what the UFC has planned for me. I don't
know what the plans look like."
Source:
MMA Junkie
|
Chris
Weidman Asks Anderson Silva’s Camp Why Don’t They Want
to Face the No. 1 Contender?
There’s
probably no quicker way to illicit a response from a fighter
than to call them ‘amateur’ or ‘a joke’,
especially when those words are coming from a manager and not
another competitor.
The
strong statement came from Jorge Guimaraes, who is a co-manager
of UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva, when speaking to Tatame.com
about the prospects hoping to next face his fighter in the Octagon.
“That’s
a big joke,” Guimaraes said about Chris Weidman and his
fellow middleweight contenders. “Anderson has the biggest
paycheck in the UFC and you can’t promote and event with
these amateur kids that are coming up now.”
Needless
to say Weidman didn’t take too kindly to Guimaraes’
words about him or the other top ten middleweights vying to face
Silva in the cage.
“I
read them and it’s kind of crazy. The managers they have
no right to start putting down professional athletes. He put
me, and (Alan) Belcher, and (Tim) Boetsch down and he’s
trying to draw attention away from the fact that I’m the
No. 1 contender, and then called us amateurs, and we’re
all top ten fighters,” Weidman told MMAWeekly.com when reached
for comment.
“This
is what we do for a living and then you have some manager in
Brazil who’s calling us amateur fighters and calls me a
joke, it’s definitely a little crazy and I know I wouldn’t
want my manager speaking about other fighters like that.”
As
a matter of fact, Weidman’s manager David Martin declined
to comment on the story all together and simply left the talking
up to his fighter who is the one competing in the Octagon.
Weidman
believes there is a bigger conspiracy going on because the names
that Silva’s managers continue to mention include UFC welterweight
champion Georges St-Pierre, Strikeforce champion Luke Rockhold,
and after Friday night they even found interest in a potential
bout against UFC bad boy Nick Diaz.
“It’s
like they’re trying to avoid my name being mentioned at
all for the title shot. They’re trying to deflect with other
guy’s names so people can start thinking about them as possibilities,
but even guys they’re choosing to call out like GSP or (Nick)
Diaz, they’re both welterweights,” Weidman stated.
The
fact is right now St-Pierre, Diaz and Rockhold are unrealistic
in terms of fights for Silva to take at least in the next 8 to
10 months. Weidman is quick to point out he has nothing but the
utmost respect for all three fighters, but right now none of
them fit into the immediate picture for a bout with Anderson
Silva.
“I
mean GSP, let’s start with him. The guy is coming off ACL
surgery, we don’t even know for sure when he’s fighting,
and when he does fight he’s fighting Carlos Condit for the
welterweight title. You never know what’s going to happen
and best-case scenario he could fight again around May. So if
anything, fight me next, if you beat me then you get your shot
with GSP. You’re just calling out a 170lber coming off ACL
surgery,” Weidman fired back.
“Then
Nick Diaz, he’s another guy he’d have a size advantage
over, he’s another good name but the guy’s not going
to be cleared till February. That’s just crazy. Nothing
to say about me, who has proven to be the No. 1 contender. I
beat two top five guys in the division in a row, and no one’s
come close to doing that, especially in the fashion I did in
my last fight against Mark Munoz.”
The
third name mentioned by Silva’s camp, Luke Rockhold, is
a legitimate middleweight and currently the Strikeforce champion
at 185lbs, but he cannot move to the UFC for at least the next
18 months while the company is under contract with Showtime.
Silva’s
representatives have also stated that he’s not looking to
fight at a higher weight class than 185lbs again, so it’s
either middleweight or bust for the longest reigning champion
in UFC history.
“The
guy’s a champion of 185, he should be fighting the contenders.
You don’t call out guys that aren’t going to be able
to fight forever and guys that are lighter than you. Why don’t
you call out Jon Jones? That makes sense, I’m sure a lot
of people would watch, I’d love to watch too. If you’re
not going to fight him, fight me, I’m ready to go,”
Weidman stated.
The
other concern raised by Silva’s camp was the ability to
promote a fight between their client and a fighter like Weidman,
who isn’t as widely known or outspoken as say his last opponent
Chael Sonnen.
Weidman
puts his faith in UFC President Dana White and knows that the
UFC can promote a fight with him and Silva just fine, and he’s
ready to step up to the challenge.
“Dana
White’s the best promoter in the world and I have full confidence
that he’d be able to promote the fight just fine,”
said Weidman. “I’m undefeated, every time I’ve
had a full camp I’ve finished my opponent. You’ve got
Anderson Silva, the No. 1 guy in the UFC right now, and just
him alone is fine, and it just makes no sense what he’s
saying. The manager’s not showing enough faith in the UFC
and Dana White in the way they can promote the fight.”
The
one person who has yet to make a statement about this entire
situation is the UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. While
his managers have talked about what fights make the most sense,
the reigning and defending king of the 185lb division hasn’t
said much in terms of what interests him or if he’s opposed
to facing Weidman in the Octagon.
“I
have nothing but respect for Anderson Silva, and I would expect
him to want to fight the best guy and the guy who’s going
to give him the toughest challenge. If it was up to him, I think
he would want to fight me because I am the toughest challenge.
But his managers I feel like they are trying to keep me away
from it and try to make me irrelevant enough in the title picture
with Anderson Silva,” Weidman said.
“When
you talk to Ed Soares and the other guy, it’s as though
I’m not in the picture at all.”
There’s
no doubt that Weidman is fired up about the entire situation,
but he makes one thing very clear when discussing anything to
do with the UFC middleweight title picture. While his dream is
to fight for the title, Weidman is a company man and will do
whatever the UFC asks him to do.
If
that’s face Anderson Silva later this year, Weidman will
gladly sign the dotted line. If it’s another fight, Weidman
will gladly participate in that endeavor as well.
“If
the UFC tells me tomorrow that I’m fighting someone else,
I have no problem. I fight for the UFC, whatever they tell me
to do, I’m going to do. My goal is to be the champion and
I feel like I’m in a position where I have the chance to
become the champion, it’s me trying to chase my goal,”
said Weidman.
“If
the UFC tells me 20 minutes from now that the Anderson Silva
fight isn’t going to happen, and I need to fight someone
else, I might be upset for a couple of minutes, but I’ll
move on. I just feel like I’m the No. 1 contender right
now and I feel like the champion should fight the No. 1 contender.”
And
that’s the bottom line that Weidman wants everyone from
Anderson Silva to his managers to the fans to the UFC executives
to understand. He has proven in the cage that he’s the toughest
challenge still standing in the UFC middleweight division, and
Weidman is ready to show Anderson Silva as well.
“I
feel like I’ve made it blatantly obvious with this last
fight that I’m ahead of the pack,” said Weidman. “The
champ should want to fight that guy.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
With
UFC 149 Behind Him Court McGee Believes It’s Hard to Find
Good Judges
As
the saying mixed martial arts goes, “Don’t leave it
in the hands of the judges.”
The
judging in MMA is always subject for great scrutiny, and it’s
well deserved.
With
incompetent officiating, some fighters exit the Octagon holding
their heads low because they left it in the judges hands. And
at UFC 149 against Nick Ring, Court McGee was another unfortunate
fighter that was given a bad call.
All
three judges Octagon side scored the fight 29-28 in favor of
Nick Ring, but McGee wasn’t at all fazed by the decision.
The TUF 11 winner knew that he left it all in the practice room
and in the fight and harbors no resentment for the outcome.
“I’m
not the judges and I’m not the counter punch guy,”
McGee told MMAWeekly Radio.
“I
don’t count every little punch, every kick and strike. I’m
just the guy who shows up to practice every day and comes out
to fight and win. I had an overwhelming amount of people who
thought that I had won. People like Dana and stuff had me winning
the fight, but I’m just the guy who goes out and fights
man.
“You
know, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the judges to make
that decision and sometimes they don’t make the best decisions.
Sometimes you don’t know what they’re watching.”
When
judges are uneducated, it’s hard to fully understand what
they’re looking for. Many times, we don’t know if they’ll
favor striking over grappling or grappling over striking because
there’s very little oversight with little ramifications
for poor calls.
McGee
has witnessed this firsthand and not just in his own fight, but
in a promotion in Colorado where amateur boxing judges were appointed
to score an MMA organization. And he believes firmly that MMA
scoring tends to be based on the bias of judges with the only
martial arts they know.
“There’s
decisions that are bad, but I know in MMA it’s hard to find
good judges. People aren’t experienced in the grappling
and the wrestling, and the kickboxing and boxing. I know for
a fact a promotion in Colorado, like the last three judges they
had for the past two or three shows were all boxing judges, amateur
boxing. A lot of their scores were more towards like amateur
style point system punching, so when they went to they ground,
they really didn’t know.”
At
the end of the day saying we need to educate the judges in MMA
is beating a dead horse. The athletic governing bodies are going
to use who they’re going to use, and McGee isn’t going
to waste his time being upset by an outcome he can’t change.
McGee exits the cage knowing every time regardless, that he did
his job.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
The
Nine Lives of Brandon Vera
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it”
~ George Santayana
Expectations
are a funny thing in mixed martial arts.
When
Anderson Silva made his UFC debut back in 2006, everyone knew
coming in that he was a devastating striker with solid credentials,
but it’s hard to imagine many people back then had the expectation
that he would go on to become the most dominant champion in the
promotion’s history.
Less
than a year prior to Silva’s debut, a young brash heavyweight
with only four fights on his professional record came to the
UFC with a lot less on his resume, but a whole lot more to talk
about after a lone victory in the Octagon.
Brandon
Vera splashed onto the canvas of UFC fans everywhere with a blistering
performance over Fabiano Scherner, and following the fight he
proclaimed that he was destined to be the first ever two-weight
class champion with hopes of holding both the heavyweight and
light heavyweight titles.
His
next few fights didn’t do much to dispel that proclamation
as Vera dismantled two more heavyweight contenders before a blistering
performance putting away former UFC heavyweight champion Frank
Mir in just over one minute’s time.
Yes,
the future was quite bright for Brandon Vera, but he soon found
out that expectations and hype can work against you when things
don’t go your way.
Following
a long contract dispute with the UFC, Vera finally returned to
action nearly a year after defeated Mir and ended up losing his
first professional fight in a very lackluster affair against
former heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia.
The
much smaller Vera was no match for Sylvia’s behemoth power,
moving him around the cage and controlling the action for the
better part of 15-minutes. The loss wasn’t enough to convince
Vera to drop down to light heavyweight however, but the next
fight did the trick when he was finished by Fabricio Werdum in
the first round of their fight at UFC 85.
With
Vera now at 205lbs, the expectations started again and so did
his mouth proclaiming that he was ready to conquer this new weight
class. Gone were the bold statements about being a two-weight
class champion, but Vera was still more than confident that he’d
soon be sitting on top of the world as the best in the light
heavyweight division.
That
prediction found no home either.
Vera
went 3-2 in his first five fights at 205lbs and while he didn’t
look outworked or out classed in either of the losses, the days
of him putting top opponents away in record fashion were gone.
Still
the UFC found a home for Vera at the top of cards, even putting
him in the main event of UFC 105 against legendary fighter Randy
Couture. The expectations for Vera continued to be very high,
and journalists everywhere still predicted that he could turn
things around and be the champion he was declared to be just
four years earlier.
Vera
lost to Couture, albeit by a very slim margin, so when he got
matched up with young, undefeated stud Jon Jones at the first
ever UFC on Versus show, he again proclaimed that he was a new
man and ready to start a climb back towards the top of the division.
Once
again, Vera failed to live up to the expectations he set for
himself before the fight.
“I
was like whatever I’m going to smack this kid around. It
didn’t work out that way. That kid was a man in disguise,”
Vera told MMAWeekly Radio about underestimating Jon Jones in
the fight.
Jones
not only won, but broke Vera’s orbital bone above his eye
in the process, once again landing him on injured reserve and
back out of everyone’s collective minds. The Brandon Vera
hype train was derailed, maybe once and for all.
Still
determined to prove he was a top light heavyweight, Vera then
moved onto a fight with Thiago Silva, and needless to say he
was thoroughly dominated. After the fight was over, Vera was
released from the UFC.
Without
a promotion to call home, it’s safe to say Brandon Vera
had hit rock bottom.
But
his reprieve came shortly after his pink slip was delivered because
his opponent Thiago Silva had tested positive for submitting
a tainted sample for drug testing, and following the result he
came clean and admitted using performance enhancing drugs. Vera’s
firing was overturned and the UFC gave him yet another chance
to come back and prove himself.
Vera
was then put in the cage with former Ultimate Fighter 8 competitor
Eliot Marshall. While Vera didn’t look bad during different
moments of the fight, he was twice dropped by Marshall in the
fight and the third round saw him almost lose an arm as the Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt cranked hard on an arm bar.
Somehow,
Vera persevered the pain and made it out of the fight and won
a fairly controversial decision over Marshall.
So
was there any surprise that a collective groan was heard throughout
the MMA community when Vera’s name came up again as a main
event fight, this time against former champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’
Rua? Even more moans came from the crowds of fans when it was
revealed that Vera would be facing Rua in the main event of the
fourth ever UFC on Fox card.
Even
Vera admits he was surprised when the call came in offering him
the opportunity to face the legendary former Pride and UFC champion,
but like the fighter that he is, he accepted without hesitation.
So
as he heads into yet another main event, there is a different
Brandon Vera getting ready for this fight. He’s yet to even
remotely utter the phrase ‘I’m back’ as he did
prior to past fights.
Vera’s
not talking titles, title shots, or even the top ten of the light
heavyweight division.
Maybe
for the first time ever, Vera is appreciative to just be where
he’s at, he’s not heaping unrealistic expectations
on his performance, and in the most basic terms he’s just
happy to be here.
“This
could be more than redemption. I can’t even say redemption,
it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. I don’t even know
what to call it, a miracle? This is going to be good,” said
Vera about the fight with Shogun.
Was
some of the hype behind Vera heaped on because of the media?
Sure it was. But Vera takes responsibility now for his own mistakes,
misgivings and self-promotion.
Fighters
can all learn from Brandon Vera’s career to see what not
to do when you’re a young, talented athlete, and he’s
the first to point out those mistakes now. Vera just won’t
live in the past anymore however.
He’s
moving on and it’s not about starting over or climbing back
up the ladder. It’s about survival, it’s about competing,
and it’s about not passing up on another golden ticket.
“It’s
my fault,” Vera said pointing at past mistakes.
“I’ve
had to grow up a lot. I’m glad to be at where I’m at.
All the ‘would’ve, could’ve, should’ve and
what if’s and maybe I could have did this’ I’m
past all that now. I’m in the now and in the future.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Roger
Gracie: “Technically, I’m much better” than Tim
Kennedy
Roger
Gracie is the best grappler to ever move from Jiu-Jitsu to MMA,
but Tim Kennedy seems to disagree.
In
his Twitter, the two-time Strikeforce middleweight contender
called out the Brazilian, willing to prove that he has a better
ground game. The Gracie, who won 10 world titles in Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu (three at openweight class) and two ADCC championships,
is confident on his skills.
“He
can say whatever he wants. He can be good on the ground, but
technically I’m much better. In a Jiu-Jitsu match, he probably
wouldn’t have a chance against me,” Roger told TATAME
about the challenge.
“In
a MMA fight, we can’t say. In my last fight, my opponent
(Keith Jardine) was far away from being a black belt and I couldn’t
submit him”.
Roger,
who defeated Jardine in his middleweight debut, is open to fight
anyone next, including Kennedy.
"I
guess it can be an interesting fight. Anyone in Strikeforce would
do an interesting fight with me”.
Source:
Tatame
|
Belfort
praises opponent for UFC 153
The
UFC 153 card, which goes on October 13, at HSBC Arena, in Rio
de Janeiro City, has new attractions. Vitor Belfort became the
seventh Brazilian confirmed for the event, returning to the stage
where he submitted Anthony Johnson this year, in January. The
opponent will be American Alan Belcher, who comes from a victory
over the Brazilian Toquinho. Also news is the definition of the
opponent for the winner of the first edition of TUF Brazil Rony
Jason. The fighter, who had been confirmed for the card without
an opponent, will face Sam Sicilia, participant of the 15th season
of the reality show in the United States. Sicily comes from a
win in TUF 15 Finale against Cristiano Marcello, another Brazilian
confirmed for UFC 153.
Belfort,
who would face his rival coach on TUF Brazil Wanderlei Silva
for UFC 147, in Belo Horizonte, had to give up the battle due
to a hand injury. Now, he’s got a new chance to fight in
Brazil, this time in Rio de Janeiro. Belcher comes from four
victories: Rousimar Toquinho, Jason MacDonald, Patrick Cote and
Wilson Gouveia. Happy with the opportunity, Belfort celebrates
the chance to fight at home again:
“Undoubtedly,
it’s a great pleasure. Especially seeing the impact of the
sport in my country today. I’ve always dreamed of moments
like this and I am very happy to fight here again, for my fans”,
declares Belfort, ensuring full recovery from his injury until
the fight. “I have just been authorized to test my hand.
I still feel it a little when punching, but it sure will be 100%
for the fight. This is a sacrifice I must make, and I’ve
kept myself in shape. I’ll go for it!”
About
the opponent, Vitor only praises him: “He is an excellent
fighter, a tough guy and good in all the elements. He comes from
a very good win over Toquinho. Surely this will be a great test
for both”, and concludes: “I’m focused on the
belt, but what comes ahead is Belcher and now I’m only thinking
about it”.
The
main fight of the night will be between the featherweight champion,
Jose Aldo, and the young American Erik Koch.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Ryan
Bader: Two losses in 2011 forced me to change my approach for
the better
(Light
heavyweight contender Ryan 'Darth' Bader faces former UFC light
heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida on August 4 at the Staples
Center, L.A., live on FOX. This is part two of an exclusive four-part
series from Bader.)
Defeat
can send you one of two ways. It can either send you on a downwards
spiral of despair, or it can force you to improve and rise to
the top. Unfortunately, I lost two fights in a row in 2011 and,
as a result, had to change a lot of things. I changed those things
and now, in a way, losses to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz were good
for my career, as they forced me to go away, evolve and work
on clear weaknesses I had in my game.
Losing
two in a row definitely sucked, though. The Jones loss hurt badly
at the time, just because it was defeat number one. Obviously,
we now know just how good Jon is, and that cushions the blow
somewhat. He's gone on to destroy pretty much everybody else
at 205 lbs. But the Tito loss was the one that really made me
stop and re-evaluate what I was doing with my career. That one
really hurt.
I
was thinking about that Tito defeat constantly for about a month,
and it was a tough setback to shake. In the end, though, I decided
to use it as the impetus to change the way I prepared for fights
and, to be honest, I haven't looked back since. I handed over
the reins in training camp and used a lot of new coaches with
a lot of new ideas.
My
improvements have been clear to see in my last two fights. I
knocked out Jason Brilz inside a minute and a half at UFC 139,
and then felt as good as I've ever felt in beating Rampage Jackson
at UFC 144. I stuck to the game plan my coaches came up with,
and it seemed to work. That then gave me even more confidence
and faith in what my coaches were telling me. Now I just follow
exactly what they tell me to do, whether in training or in a
fight, and have complete belief in what they say. I know I'm
going to be in shape and know I'm going to be the best possible
version I can be on fight night. As a top fighter, that's all
you can really hope for.
I
felt comfortable in there against Rampage, simply because I had
evolved to the point where I now possessed many more tools than
he did. Some opponents may go and watch old tapes of me and assume
I'm going to be one-dimensional, an easy touch, but that's no
longer the case. Back then I was just a wrestler with an overhand
right, but I've added many more skills to my game now. Fights
against Rampage and Brilz have shown my stand-up is a lot more
technical and smooth than it once was, and I'm now looking for
more than just the big right hand. I'm able to set stuff up and
think outside the box a bit more.
The
losses to Tito and Jones were real turning points for me, but
the win over Rampage felt like the start of a new chapter. That
marked a new me. Because until you go out there and put it all
together, you really just never know how your potential matches
up to the best in the world. I was waiting to find out whether
I was heading in the right direction, and the way in which I
was able to dominate Rampage provided the evidence. After that
my confidence went through the roof and I'm now more than happy
to face anybody in the light-heavyweight division. In fact, I've
already fought some of the best light heavyweights of all-time,
so nobody can make me fearful at this stage in my career.
Four
of my last five fights have been against current or former champions,
and that's pretty good going for somebody considered an up-and-coming
prospect not long ago. I'm no longer looking at these guys as
fighters I used to watch on television and support – they're
now my peers, my rivals. I've fought and beaten heroes of mine
and, after a while, you kind of lose sight of the fact you used
to look up to some of these fighters.
Machida
is no different. He's a guy who has been there and done it already,
and somebody I have admired in the past. When he rose to the
top of the light heavyweight division and knocked out Rashad
Evans to win the belt, he seemed invincible. Nobody could solve
the Machida puzzle. At the time I had no idea who would be good
enough to suss him out.
However,
in the end, somebody did figure him out. And on August 4, it's
my turn to do the same.
Source:
Yahoo Sports
|
Dominick
Cruz Just a Fan at UFC 149, Promises He Won’t Lose a Step
in Comeback
UFC
bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz was recently supposed to
defend his belt against Urijah Faber. Come fight time, however,
he was a fan in the seats like anyone else, looking on as Faber
fought Renan Barão for the interim UFC bantamweight title.
While
coaching opposite Faber on the latest season of The Ultimate
Fighter, Cruz blew out his knee and now finds himself on the
sideline for the next several months.
Barão
defeated Faber via decision at UFC 149 on Saturday night in Calgary.
Many of the fans in attendance, likely still stinging from flat
performances in the prior couple of fights, rained down boos
on the headliners, but Cruz wasn’t one of them.
“I
enjoyed the fight. It was fun to watch. It was very technical,”
Cruz commented in a recent interview with AXS TV’s Inside
MMA, explaining some of the booing. “There was a lot that
went on in that fight that maybe not a lot of people understood.
Despite
enjoying the fight as a fan, it still left a sour taste in Cruz’s
mouth to be in the seats instead of the Octagon.
He’s
a fan of the fights, maybe more so than most other fighters,
but ultimately Cruz wants to be in the fight. And once he’s
healed up from his torn ACL, he will be back at it, full steam
ahead.
“I’m
not going to lose a step,” Cruz declared, answering those
who question whether he can be the same fighter upon his return.
“By
the time I get back in there to fight, I will have had all the
rest I need, all the training I need to be ready for that fight
and to just do what I always do… and that’s win.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Sherdog’s
Top 10: Post-Fight Interviews and Moments
By Tristen
Critchfield
What
makes a post-fight moment memorable? Is it passion, emotion and
energy? Carefully scripted work on the microphone? Blatant disrespect
for a fallen opponent? Blissful ignorance that results in the
highest levels of unintentional comedy? The answer is all of
the above -- and then some.
It
is no secret that mixed martial arts is full of interesting characters,
but, sometimes, it is not until after the fighting has stopped
that one’s true personality is fully revealed. Of course,
sometimes that revelation immediately leads to more fighting,
which is not surprising, considering the line of work.
Picking
10 memorable post-fight interviews and moments was not an easy
task. With such a wide variety to choose from, there are bound
to be some noticeable omissions, but that is the point of any
list: to generate argument and discussion. Here is our version
of the Top 10 Most Memorable Post-Fight Interviews and Moments,
as chosen by Sherdog.com staff.
10.
From the Horse’s Mouth
Charles
Bennett vs. K.J. Noons
EliteXC “Destiny”
Feb. 10, 2007 | Desoto Civic Center, Southhaven, MIss.
One
phrase would have summed up everything nicely: “Don’t
talk smack to The Horse.” However, after Bennett knocked
out Noons with a punch at 3:43 of the opening round of their
lightweight bout, “Krazy Horse” had plenty more to
say. For a man known for post-fight theatrics and a tendency
to play to the camera, would you expect anything less?
First,
Bennett explained his motivation leading up to the fight with
Noons.
“I
knew what was gonna happen. This guy, he wants to come in and
talk s--- to me. You don’t talk s--- to me, you know what
I’m saying? It’s better to not talk s--- because then
I don’t come to the fight with an edge, you know. It’s,
like, I didn’t even wanna touch his gloves because I was
gonna knock him out.”
Then,
he moved on to the fans.
“Hey,
I love the boos. Keep on with them, because the more you boo
me, eventually, you’re gonna love me. You gotta love me.”
Next,
announcer Jay Glazer gave Bennett the opportunity to break down
his knockout on the big screen.
“Is
my hair right? Right there, boom I faked him ... oh, s---. Whoa!
Stop it, Horse! Stop it! Is he gonna get up? His arms are wobbly;
he doesn’t know where he is. That’s what happened.”
Finally,
he revealed his future plans.
“I’m
trying out acting y’all. I want to be an actor so bad. So
I’m gonna try some acting next, but I’m always willing
to fight.”
There
is not much else to add to that, except that it turned out to
be the last notable victory for Bennett, who has amassed a 7-12
mark since then. It is safe to say that nobody knows how to maximize
his time in the limelight quite like The Horse.
9.
Father Knows Best
Nick
Diaz vs. K.J. Noons
EliteXC “Return of the King”
June 14, 2008 | Neil S. Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu
Forget
for a moment that the event’s title included Noons’
moniker or that it was held in his native Hawaii or that he needed
just 48 seconds to stop Yves Edwards in the featured attraction.
None of that mattered to Nick Diaz, who was brought into the
cage to hype a future bout between the two men at the conclusion
of the show’s festivities.
Noons,
who defeated Diaz via doctor stoppage at EliteXC “Renegade”
on Nov. 10, 2007, further antagonized the Stockton, Calif., native
by asking the hometown crowd if Diaz deserved a rematch; the
question was greeted by a chorus of boos, to which Diaz famously
replied: “Don’t be scared, homie.”
Things
quickly devolved from there, with Noons’ father jawing at
the Diaz camp and vice versa. The war of words escalated into
a brief scuffle and ended with both of the Diaz brothers flashing
their usual brand of sign language at the top of the entrance
ramp.
“The
Diaz brothers: public enemies No. 1 in Hawaii,” said analyst
Mauro Ranallo.
At
the center of the action was Karl Noons Sr., a former professional
kickboxer. In an interview with Sherdog.com, the elder Noons,
despite allegedly having a bottle thrown at him by Nate Diaz,
made it clear that he most definitely was not scared.
“The
bottom line is those Diaz brothers are just punks from Stockton,”
he said. “They’re just punks, and I hope we don’t
see them out tonight.”
Nick
Diaz would have last word, however, beating Noons via unanimous
decision in their rematch in October 2010.
8.
Good and ‘Little Evil’
Jens
Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez
WEC 47 “Bowles vs. Cruz”
March 6, 2010 | Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Saying
goodbye can be difficult, especially in a sport where the appearance
of Father Time can be so cruel and sudden. When Pulver bid the
fans a teary-eyed farewell following his first-round submission
defeat to Vazquez, it truly seemed like the man who was the UFC’s
first lightweight champion was really done. After all, it was
the fifth consecutive loss for “Little Evil” dating
back to WEC 34, when he dropped a five-round verdict to Urijah
Faber that was a landmark event for fighters below 155 pounds.
Each setback since that one had come inside of a round, and Pulver
seemed to sense that it was time.
“I
don’t know how many times I can cry in front of you. I love
you all way too much to keep putting you through this,”
Pulver said.
When
pressed as to whether or not it was an official retirement announcement,
Pulver offered no guarantees.
“I’ll
never say that [it is over], but I love you all way, way, way
too much to put you all through this again,” he said. “You
guys have made my life a miracle. I don’t make a lot of
money at this ... you’re the only reason I’ve done
this from Day One. [UFC President] Dana White, you gave me that
second chance, I apologize. You gave me my first chance, my third
chance, you’ve made everything for me, sir. Dana, I love
you, brother, and I appreciate you.”
There
was a lot love going around the Nationwide Arena that night,
but it turned out to be far from Pulver’s last fight. Since
then, he has fought seven times, proving that a love of caged
combat dies hard.
7.
No Mercy
David
“Tank” Abbott vs. John Matua
UFC 6 “Clash of the Titans”
July 14, 1995 | Casper Events Center, Casper, Wyo.
As
part of a one night, eight-man tournament with no weight classes
and no set rounds -- instead, each bout had a time limit -- Abbott
came out swinging against the 400-pound Matua.
“Tank”
immediately hurt his opponent with a shot behind the ear and
continued to land haymakers as Matua stumbled around the cage
and tried to fend off the attack. A decisive blow sent Matua’s
head bouncing off the canvas and left him stiff and twitching
on the ground. Not satisfied, Abbott pounced for one last --
and unnecessary -- follow-up punch before referee John McCarthy
could intervene.
Abbott’s
reaction was what made the post-fight scene memorable for all
the wrong reasons. After finishing the fight, the bearded heavyweight
looked at the prone Matua and mocked his fallen foe. It was the
type of stomach-churning moment that MMA would take years to
recover from and a far cry from the sportsmanlike attitude displayed
by most modern fighters. Afterward, Abbott made nary a mention
of concern for Matua in a post-fight interview.
“That’s
what I am,” Abbott said in response to his performance.
“That’s only one dimension. I will go on. I’m
a little winded right now because I’m excited. Other than
that, cakewalk baby.”
Even
today, the image of Matua lying in the “Fighter’s Crucifix”
position, along with Abbott’s mockery of him, remains an
image burned into the minds of many MMA fans.
6.
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
Georges
St. Pierre vs. Sean Sherk
UFC 56 “Full Force”
Nov. 19, 2005 | MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas
After
his victory over Robbie Lawler at Strikeforce “Rockhold
vs. Kennedy,” Lorenz Larkin made a passionate plea to UFC
President Dana White. Dropping to his knees, the middleweight
striker asked that fighters under the Strikeforce banner receive
post-fight bonuses just like their UFC counterparts.
“We’re
your family too,” he said.
While
Larkin did not credit St. Pierre as his inspiration behind the
move, it was “Rush” who first attempted to utilize
the whole begging and pleading angle to his advantage after defeating
Sherk at UFC 56.
“Now
everybody, I want you to listen to me,” St. Pierre said.
“I’m gonna go on my knees like that and ask the UFC
management to give a world title shot. Please, I want the belt
so bad. Give it to me. I’m not gonna [make] a mistake this
time. Give me a chance for the belt.”
After
making his request, St. Pierre’s charismatic interview continued.
He used sound effects to mimic Sherk while watching video of
the fight, apologized for his English and commented on his first
bout with Matt Hughes, saying that the then-champion beat him
“fairly squarely.” Most importantly, his pleading netted
him a rematch with Hughes a year later -- a bout he won to become
welterweight champion for the first time. Larkin can only hope
that his performance is similarly well-received.
5.
Where’s Georges?
Nick
Diaz vs. B.J. Penn
UFC 137 “Penn vs. Diaz”
Oct. 29, 2011 | Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas
The
highly anticipated Octagon debut of Stockton, Calif.’s,
resident bad boy came complete with vintage Diaz moments, both
during and after the bout.
For
three rounds, Diaz battered Penn with his trademark high-volume
boxing, leaving the Hawaiian’s face a swollen and bloody
mess at the conclusion of the contest. Then, the Cesar Gracie
protégé launched a verbal assault in the direction
of sidelined 170-pound kingpin Georges St. Pierre, who had to
withdraw from UFC 137 due to a knee injury.
“I
don’t think Georges is hurt,” Diaz said. “I think
he’s scared to fight everybody right now. What’s up!
Where you at Georges?”
St.
Pierre was sitting just a few feet away, smiling and feigning
fear from his cageside seat. The champion’s expression belied
his true feelings, however. Although “Rush” was supposed
to face Carlos Condit upon returning to full health, Diaz’s
remarks upset St. Pierre so much that he requested an immediate
matchup with Diaz. Hoping to take advantage of the drama that
had recently transpired in the Octagon, UFC President Dana White
complied.
Of
course, everyone knows by now how this story goes: St. Pierre
tore his ACL and is not scheduled to come back until November.
In the meantime, Condit defeated Diaz for the interim title at
UFC 143. Diaz announced his retirement in the Octagon and later
failed a post-fight drug screen for marijuana, which ultimately
resulted in a year-long suspension for the former Strikeforce
titlist.
Through
it all, it is easy to get the sense that St. Pierre -- despite
a pending clash with Condit – would not mind meeting up
with Diaz at some point. Disrespect can be a powerful source
of motivation.
4.
Performance Issues
Matt
Hughes vs. B.J. Penn
UFC 63 “Hughes vs. Penn”
Sept. 23, 2006 | Honda Center, Anaheim, Calif.
Hughes
had just defeated Penn via third-round technical knockout to
avenge his loss to “The Prodigy” more than two-and-a-half
years earlier, but the reigning welterweight king was hardly
the star of the evening. The victory over Penn set up a rematch
with a young Canadian named Georges St. Pierre, whom Hughes had
defeated for the 170-pound strap at UFC 50 after Penn vacated
the title due to contractual issues.
As
Hughes was still basking in the glow of victory, UFC analyst
Joe Rogan handed St. Pierre the microphone.
“I’m
very glad you won that fight, Matt, but I’m not impressed
by your performance,” he said. “I look forward to fighting
you in the near future.”
His
words paid no mind to the fact that Hughes was in the middle
of one of the most dominant championship reigns in UFC history
and was widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in
the world at the time. The thing is St. Pierre’s memorable
line was delivered as politely as possible, preceded by a hug
and concluded with a handshake.
“That’s
his opinion. It might stink, but it’s his opinion,”
Hughes replied.
St.
Pierre’s statement would have life as a useful critique
long after his rematch with Hughes was in the books, however.
Wife burns dinner? Boss gives another boring presentation? Neighbor
brags about his lawn? “I’m not impressed with your
performance” serves as the all-purpose response.
The
website Asylum.com later capitalized on this concept beautifully,
producing a commercial that featured St. Pierre delivering his
signature statement in an office setting as workers went about
the mundane tasks of drinking coffee, making copies and filing
reports. Perhaps St. Pierre knew what he was talking about: he
knocked out Hughes in the second round at UFC 65.
3.
Lighting the Fire
Forrest
Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar
“The Ultimate Fighter 1” Finale
April 9, 2005 -- Cox Pavilion, Las Vegas
UFC
analyst Joe Rogan at the time called it “the craziest war
I have ever seen.” The back-and-forth slugfest between Griffin
and Bonnar captivated old fight fans and converted new ones,
providing a thrilling conclusion to the first season of what
initially had been a shot-in-the-dark attempt at marrying MMA
and reality television.
In
the giddy aftermath, smiles and handshakes were plentiful, and
it looked like this “Ultimate Fighting” thing just
might be able to stick around after all. Both Griffin and Bonnar
left everything in the Octagon that night, and “The American
Psycho” collapsed to the canvas in disappointment when the
decision was announced in favor of Griffin.
“Oh.
My. God. That is what it’s all about right there,”
said a slimmed-down version of UFC President Dana White, as he
handed Griffin the trophy for winning the inaugural season of
“The Ultimate Fighter.”
As
it turned out, Bonnar’s efforts would not go unrewarded,
either.
“Frank
[Fertitta], Lorenzo [Fertitta] and I have gotten together and
decided there is no loser,” White said, “and we’re
gonna offer Stephan Bonnar a six-figure contract with the UFC.”
The
feel-good announcement drew a deafening cheer from those in attendance
and prompted a warm embrace between the two combatants.
“Let
me thank Stephan. That was a great fight. There was a couple
times it was just, like, ‘Man, I wish he would land one
of those so it could be over.’ I was so tired,” Griffin
said. “It was a great fight. I love to fight like that.”
If
it felt like the start of something big for the UFC, it is because
it was.
2.
Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Chael
Sonnen vs. Brian Stann
UFC 136 “Edgar vs. Maynard 3”
Oct. 8, 2011 | Toyota Center, Houston
It
had been a long 14 months away from the Octagon for Sonnen. After
coming within moments of defeating pound-for-pound king and middleweight
champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117, the Oregon native failed
a post-fight drug test and later pleaded guilty to federal money
laundering charges. Those troubles delayed a lucrative rematch
with “The Spider,” and by the time Sonnen returned
to action, he was forced to earn his way back to another title
shot.
With
Silva in attendance, Sonnen dominated Brian Stann -- a Top 10
middleweight in his own right -- as he submitted the former United
States Marine with an arm-triangle choke at 3:51 of the second
round. Once that job was complete, Sonnen returned to doing what
he does best -- antagonizing Silva.
“Anderson
Silva, you absolutely suck,” he said. “Super Bowl weekend,
the biggest rematch in the history of the business: I’m
calling you out, but we’re raising the stakes. I beat you,
you leave the division. You beat me, I will leave the UFC forever.”
Of
course, their highly anticipated rematch didn’t take place
until July 7, and, despite losing to Silva via second-round technical
knockout, Sonnen does not appear to be going anywhere. Still,
give credit where credit is due. The self-proclaimed “Gangster
from West Linn” knows how to sell a fight, even if he claims
that is never his intention.
1.
Centennial Man
Brock
Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
UFC 100 “Lesnar vs. Mir 2”
July 11, 2009 | Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas
Thanks
in large part to his professional wrestling background, Lesnar
was not well received by many hardcore fans when he decided to
make the transition to mixed martial arts.
Hate
him or love him, Lesnar was undeniably the sport’s biggest
draw, which helped him to receive a title shot in just his third
UFC bout. Beating the beloved Randy Couture to capture the heavyweight
strap only served to make the massive South Dakota native even
more reviled by the masses.
It
was only fitting that Lesnar would headline the promotion’s
centennial event, a card that drew more mainstream attention
than the sport had ever previously received. Lesnar took care
of business, stopping Frank Mir with punches in round two to
avenge a previous loss to the submission artist in his UFC debut.
Once victory was achieved, Lesnar launched into full-blown, sports
entertainment heel mode, as he taunted the fallen Mir and screamed,
flexed and spit into the TV cameras. Things got even more outrageous
during the champion’s post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
Egged on by a hostile crowd, Lesnar sounded as though he was
still on Vince McMahon’s payroll.
“Keep
booing, keep booing. I love it,” he yelled. “Frank
Mir had a horseshoe up his ass. I told him that a year ago. I
pulled that sumb---- out, and I beat him over the head with it.”
Lesnar
was not done, however, as he offered a few thoughts on his immediate
future, none of which included prospective opponents. Keep in
mind, Bud Light sponsors the UFC.
“I’m
gonna go home tonight. I’m gonna drink a Coors Light. That’s
a Coors Light because Bud Light won’t pay me nothing. I’m
gonna sit down with my friends and family, and, hell, I might
even get on top of my wife tonight,” he said.
The
usually media-averse Lesnar would never do another interview
quite like that one, nor would he be as dominant in the Octagon
as he was at UFC 100. However, for one night, he had everyone
talking MMA.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Injury
appreciation month: Updated UFC August 2012 fight cards
By Zach
Arnold
Event:
UFC on Fox 4 (8/4 Staples Center in Los Angeles, California)
TV: Fox (8 PM EST/5 PM PST)
Preliminary
fights
Flyweights:
Ulysses Gomez vs. John Moraga
Featherweights: Manny Gamburyan vs. Michihiro Omigawa
Heavyweights: Phil De Fries vs. Oli Thompson
Featherweights: Rani Yahya vs. Josh Grispi
Light Heavyweights: Phil Davis vs. Wagner Prado
Featherweights: Cole Miller vs. Nam Phan
Main card
Welterweights:
Mike Swick vs. Damarques Johnson
Lightweights: Joe Lauzon vs. Jamie Varner
Light Heavyweights: Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader
Light Heavyweights: Mauricio Shogun vs. Brandon Vera
Event: UFC 150 (8/11 Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado)
TV: FX/PPV
Preliminary
fights
Bantamweights:
Dustin Pague vs. Chico Camus
Lightweights: Nik Lentz vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
Bantamweights: Ken Stone vs. Erik Perez
Middleweights: Jared Hamman vs. Michael Kuiper
Featherweights: Dennis Bermudez vs. Tommy Hayden
Main card
Lightweights:
Max Holloway vs. Justin Lawrence
Middleweights: Yushin Okami vs. Buddy Roberts
Middleweights: Jake Shields vs. Ed Herman
Lightweights: Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard
UFC Lightweight title match: Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson
Source: Fight Opinion
|
Travis
Browne Off UFC on FOX 4; Swick vs. Johnson Bumped to Main Card
By Ariel
Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer
Travis
Browne's loss is a pair of welterweights' gain.
According
to the UFC on FOX Twitter account, Browne has been removed from
the Aug. 4 card, while Mike Swick vs. DaMarques Johnson has been
bumped up to the main card. In the end, while names like Devin
Cole and Matt Mitrione were discussed, the UFC could not find
a suitable opponent for Browne.
Swick
(14-4) hasn't fought since his loss to Paulo Thiago at UFC 109
in Feb. 2010. A serious stomach ailment and a knee injury kept
him out of the Octagon for over two years.
Johnson
(16-10) lost to John Maguire in his last fight via second-round
armbar submission.
UFC
on FOX 4, headlined by Shogun Rua vs. Brandon Vera, will air
on FOX from the Staples Center in Los Angeles next Saturday night.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Surgery
May Follow After Rousimar Palhares Exits UFC 150 Card
by Damon
Martin
The
injury bug bit again on Tuesday when news came down that Brazilian
submission specialist Rousimar Palhares was forced out of UFC
150.
Palhares
was expected to face perennial top ten middleweight and former
title contender Yushin Okami on the UFC 150 card in Denver on
Aug 11.
Team
Greg Jackson fighter Buddy Roberts stepped in as a replacement
as MMAWeekly.com first reported late Tuesday night and he will
now face Okami instead.
Speaking
with MMAWeekly.com, Palhares’ manager Alex Davis confirmed
his fighter’s exit from the card and the fact that he will
likely have to go under the knife.
“He
has damage to his knee, will probably require surgery,”
Davis wrote in an email.
It
was just earlier in the day on Tuesday that Palhares released
a video talking about the tragic theater shooting that took place
in Aurora, Colorado as he sent out his sympathies to the victims
involved.
The
injury will sideline Palhares for the foreseeable future, although
should the knee not end up requiring surgery his return would
come in a much quicker time.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Check
out the professors who are fighting at International Masters
and Seniors
Contributor:
Junior Samurai
One
of the most charming and traditional competitions on IBJJF’s
calendar in Brazil will begin on Thursday, at Tijuca Tenis Clube,
Rio de Janeiro. It’s the International Masters and Seniors
Championship, event that brings together the “young guns”
of the gentle art which are over 30 years old. Among the enrolled,
great fighters who made and still make history in the sport,
fighting or teaching.
Take
a look at some of the stars listed below, and to see the full
listing in IBJJF site, as well as the brackets.
MASTER
Felipe
Costa
Pedro Raposo
Pablo dos Santos
Carlos Vieira Holanda
Bruno Ramos
Rodrigo Aleixo
Theodoro Canal
Eduardo Telles
Hugo Britto
João Paulo Marques
Cristiano “Titi” Lazzarini
Fernando “Soluço”
SENIOR
Gabriel
Willcox
Omar Salum
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Association
of Boxing Commissions Meets in Florida
By Greg
Savage
CLEARWATER
BEACH, Fla. -- The Association of Boxing Commissions met this
week for their annual convention and Wednesday was reserved for
mixed martial arts discussion. Chief among the topics up for
debate was the revamping of the criteria by which fights are
to be judged.
Sub-committee
Chairman Jeff Mullen briefed the assembled commissioners and
state regulators on the subtle changes his group had come up
with. Modifications to the rules include the removal of the word
“damage” from the previous guidelines while replacing
it with the much less descriptive, and more lawyer friendly term
“impact.”
The
committee also dealt a deathblow to the half-point scoring system
that has been much discussed over the past couple of years. In
doing so, Mullen, a past proponent of the system, stated that
his goal was to continue to educate officials on the intricacies
of the 10-point must system that has been in use since MMA was
first regulated in 2000.
A
further goal of the current modifications is the use of more
10-8 rounds which, in effect, would be analogous to the greater
differentiation offered by a half-point scheme.
“What
we have tried to do is close the gap between 10-9 and 10-8 scorecards,”
said the executive director of the Tennessee Athletic Commission.
“Right now we have the 10-9 for most rounds and then way
over here [extending his arms out to his sides to show a great
disparity in length] we have the 10-8. We just want to lessen
that distance.”
With
the committee on board a vote was called for and seconded but
before it could commence, Michael Mersch, vice-president of business
and legal affairs for the UFC rose and commented that in his
more than 20 years of practice he had never seen a body vote
on regulations without first, at the very least, discussing it
with those who are to be regulated.
A
six-month timeframe was floated before a three-month mail ballot
vote was agreed upon to allow the UFC brass a chance to go over
the committee’s recommendations. Mersch stated that a matter
of weeks would be sufficient time to review the proposed changes
and provide a response to the ABC.
The
sad state of affairs that is the California State Athletic Commission
came up on a couple of fronts. One, the lack of reporting of
suspension information to the ABC database by the recently ravaged
regulatory body along with other association members drew some
harsh words but little in the way of repercussions. The sad fact
being that the ABC lacks the federal mandate to oversee MMA that
they enjoy for boxing and there is not much they can do to compel
members to abide by their rulings when it comes to mixed martial
arts.
Another
point of concern for the ABC members in attendance was the future
appointment of George Dodd’s successor as executive director
of the CSAC. Pennsylvania Director Greg Sirb spoke up in open
session to lobby for a role, either directly or indirectly, for
the ABC in helping California choose a suitable replacement.
Sirb
called Dodd a “nice guy who was in over his head,”
and opined that he was not given the tools or budget to run a
successful operation. It was clear he was hoping for an experienced
regulator to take his place.
Georgia
Executive Director Andy Foster gave an impassioned presentation
imploring his colleagues to use the best officials at their disposal.
His Southern drawl in full effect, Foster hammered away at his
anonymous targets, both in attendance as well as in absentia
about the use of boxing officials to referee and judge MMA. New
Jersey Commission chief Aaron Davis voiced his support for Foster’s
comments.
Foster
also asked the assembled state commission representatives to
either regulate amateur MMA or ban it in their states. This drew
a rousing chorus of applause from a number of the members. It
is a hotly-contested issue but Foster and his supporters believe
that the health and welfare of amateur fighters is best served
by athletic commissions who have the safety of the athletes in
mind.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Titan
24 to Feature Anthony Johnson's Light Heavyweight Debut, Braulio
Estima's MMA Debut
By Ariel
Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer
Titan
Fighting Championship's next event will feature a pair of interesting
debuts.
Former
UFC welterweight star Anthony Johnson will compete in his light
heavyweight debut against Esteves Jones, while Brazilian jiu-jitsu
specialist Braulio Estima will make his MMA debut against Chris
Holland at Titan 24 on August 24 in Kansas City, KS. The card
will air live on AXS TV (formerly known as HDNet).
Titan
officials, as well as Johnson and Estima's manager, Glenn Robinson
of Authentic Sports Management, confirmed the news with MMAFighting.com
on Wednesday.
Johnson
(11-4) won his Titan debut in May when he defeated Dave Branch
via unanimous decision. The fight marked his first outside of
the UFC since he was released following his loss to Vitor Belfort
at UFC 142 in January. His opponent, Jones (7-3, 1 NC), enters
the fight riding a two-fight losing streak. He is a former King
of the Cage super heavyweight champion.
The
31-year-old Estima made MMA headlines in May when he was scheduled
to compete against Nick Diaz in a BJJ super-fight at the World
Jiu-Jitsu Expo. However, the match never happened because Diaz
failed showed up to compete.
Estima
has won a plethora of BJJ competitions over the past decade.
He most recently defeated Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in
a super-fight at the 2011 edition of the prestigious Abu Dhabi
Combat Club Submission Wrestling Championship and won gold medals
at the 2009 ADCC tournament in the 88kg and Absolute divisions.
He has been training with the Blackzilians in South Florida in
preparation for his MMA debut, along with Johnson.
"I'm
stepping into MMA, fighting at 170," Estima told MMAFighting.com,
"which I know is one of the most competitive divisions in
the sport. Georges St-Pierre is at the top of this weight class.
But still, I like the challenge. I'm already very successful
in other areas, I have a successful gym in Birmingham, and I
do very well with my grappling career, so this move to MMA is
not about the money. It is not about fame. It is about pushing
myself and seeing how far I can go in this new area. I am having
fun training with the Blackzilians and learning MMA. I want to
enjoy the ride, and keep moving forward."
Estima
will meet Holland (5-3) in his MMA debut, who is coming off a
win over veteran Phil Baroni at Ring of Fire 43 in June. "The
Hammer" enters the fight riding a three-fight winning streak.
The
card will also feature Junior Karanta (1-0) vs. Matt Uhde (3-0).
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Belfort
says Belcher a tough opponent, not thinking about title shot
Vitor
Belfort will fight in front of his fans again, as he faces Alan
Belcher at Rio de Janeiro's UFC 153, on October 10. Recovered
from a hand injury, which forced him to move away from the Wanderlei
Silva fight planned for UFC 147, also in Brazil, Vitor is excited
to return to Rio;
"It's
a huge pleasure to fight here again, specially now that the UFC
is growing a lot in my country. I always dreamed with moments
like this and I'm very happy to fight in front of my fans again",
Belfort said.
Vitor
believes a win over Belcher puts him closer to the title, but
he prefers to focus on his next fight.
"He's
an excellent fighter, a tough guy, good in every aspect. He's
coming of a great win over Toquinho (Rousimar Palhares). I'm
sure this will be a great test for both," he said. "I'm
focused on the title, but Belcher is my next fight and that's
the only thing that worries me now".
Source:
Tatame
|
Are
Rory MacDonald and Georges St-Pierre Headed Down the Same Path
as Jones vs. Evans?
by Damon
Martin
“The
lady doth protest too much, methinks”
~ Hamlet
The
age-old tale of teammates not wanting to fight one another is
always a revalent story in the landscape of mixed martial arts
because it always seems to happen.
The
most infamous case of two teammates who once upon a time vowed
they would never face each other were Team Jackson fighters Rashad
Evans and Jon Jones.
At
the time, Evans was the patriarch of the team, a former light
heavyweight champion who had been a mainstay at the gym for years.
Then young upstart Jon Jones came along and started his meteoric
rise up the ranks of the 205lb weight class, but time and time
again through every interview conducted, both Jones and Evans
stated they would never fight each other.
“[I
would] absolutely not [fight Rashad Evans]. If Rashad Evans won
the belt, which I’m hoping he does, my only goal would be
to be the toughest contender there is, and keep whipping butt
without being champion. I’d stay at 205 and be the second
best. That would be my goal. As I said, I’m hoping he wins,
we’re very proud of him. I can’t do it,” Jones
told ESPN in late 2010.
Unfortunately,
Evans never got the chance to fight for the light heavyweight
title because his planned bout against then champion Mauricio
‘Shogun’ Rua was scrapped after Evans suffered a knee
injury in training. So with Evans out, his teammate and close
friend Jon Jones was offered the opportunity to step in and compete
for the title instead.
Even
at that point, Evans still wasn’t ready to say he’d
face his teammate because friendship ran deeper than any title,
or so we thought.
“I’m
not going to fight him,” Evans told MMA:30 just days after
Jones was offered the shot against Rua. “We fight enough
in practice. Everybody always said like ‘you’ve got
to fight (Jon) Jones’ and I told Jon I was like ‘you
know what man, I enjoy working with you as a teammate and I think
whatever’s going to be for you, is for you, and whatever
is for me, is for me, and the way it shapes out, it shapes out.”
Jones
went on to win the title, but soon after the championship changed
hands, both competitors also started singing a whole different
tune.
Rashad
Evans exited Greg Jackson’s camp and vowed never to return,
and shouted with anger at how Jones had betrayed their pact to
not fight each other when in another interview the new champion
admitted that if UFC President Dana White wanted the fight to
happen, it would have to happen.
“It’s
Dana’s world when you’re a UFC fighter and we live
in it,” Jones said when speaking to Versus TV back in 2011.
“So, I respect Dana a lot, and if that’s what he absolutely
wanted to happen, I guess that’s what would have to happen.
Me or Rashad would not want to get fired over the situation.
It would just be majorly awkward for us.”
The
awkwardness obviously faded in favor of animosity as every dirty
secret, every bad moment that ever occurred between Jones and
Evans soon fell into the spotlight as the one-time teammates
soon became heated rivals.
Now,
not every teammate vs. teammate situation will end as bitter
as Jones vs. Evans did, but it’s hard to ignore the signs
surrounding these types of scenarios as the ‘super camps’
continue to fill up with top talent in the same weight classes.
Take
for instance, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and
170lb prodigy Rory MacDonald. Both train under head coach Firas
Zahabi at the Tristar gym in Montreal, and both have been quite
adamant in the past that they would never, ever face each other.
“I’m
not interested in fighting him. There are a lot of welterweights.
I don’t think we have to do it now. In two years, who knows?
Maybe I’ll go to middleweight,” St-Pierre told reporters
at UFC 145 earlier this year where he attended as one of MacDonald’s
cornermen.
“He’s
a friend, like a brother for me. I just hope the best for him
and I know one day he’ll be world champion.”
MacDonald
has been singing the same tune about never fighting GSP, and
how out of respect for his team and coaches, he’d take the
backseat for now while St-Pierre continues to drive as welterweight
champion.
“It’s
like this, Georges has seniority at our gym Tristar, Georges
is a friend of mine, we’re training partners together. I
don’t know about you but you probably don’t like to
beat up your best friend, cut him, watch him bleed, cry, lose
money, all that stuff, it sucks,” said MacDonald.
“But
there’s also a thing at our gym, I don’t want to get
kicked out for one, I’m newer there, and Georges brought
me in as a guy in his own weight division. I have to respect
that you know? I have a long way to go in this career of mine,
and in the UFC, and I want to wait till I am peaked to carry
that title.”
As
MacDonald continues his climb up the welterweight ladder however
it’s hard to ignore the similarities between his situation
with St-Pierre and what happened not long ago between Jon Jones
and Rashad Evans.
Recently,
the often soft-spoken MacDonald has started to show the maturing
process even when speaking to the media. In past interviews and
press conferences, MacDonald seemed to defer to St-Pierre almost
in a ‘big brother’ sort of way, learning and growing
under the UFC’s welterweight champion.
MacDonald
is starting to become his own man however and that could eventually
turn into him being a top contender standing right behind St-Pierre
in the divisional rankings.
“I’ve
come to a point in my career where I don’t look up to anybody
in this sport anymore,” MacDonald said at the UFC 152 pre-fight
press conference earlier this week.
“Yeah,
Georges he’s a good friend of mine, but I don’t look
up to anyone. He’s a regular guy and a great training partner
for me and me for him so it works good together.”
There
is a calming influence in this situation as coach Firas Zahabi
continues to lead and work with both St-Pierre and MacDonald,
but Jones and Evans also had a fierce general heading up their
training with legendary coach Greg Jackson at the helm.
Both
St-Pierre and MacDonald seem clear when saying they won’t
fight each other, and right now it’s not even a matter that
has to be discussed. St-Pierre is recovering from knee surgery
and takes on Carlos Condit later this year, with another top
welterweight contender being crowned in a fight between Martin
Kampmann and Johny Hendricks.
Meanwhile,
MacDonald has his own biggest test coming up at UFC 152 in Toronto
as he faces future UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn. Still if MacDonald
wins, it’s going to be hard to ignore that he’s slowly
but surely creeping up behind his friend and teammate in the
welterweight rankings.
UFC
President Dana White has never understood the concept of teammates
not fighting each other, especially with the biggest prize in
the world on the line. He’s confident if they wanted St-Pierre
vs. MacDonald to happen, it would happen.
“Why
are you in this? You’re in this to become the world champion.
I guarantee you if Rory looks at (expletive) GSP’s bank
account, he’ll want to beat the (expletive) out of him.
That’s what it’s about,” White told MMAWeekly.com
in April.
“This
is the fight business, not the friend business.”
Are
St-Pierre and MacDonald strong enough in their friendship and
statements to stay the course and truly avoid each other for
the foreseeable future or do we have another Jones vs. Evans
situation brewing just beneath the surface?
The
next year in the UFC welterweight division should be an interesting
scenario to watch unfold.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
After
Training Scuffle, Jacob Volkmann No Fan of Hector Lombard
Jacob
Volkmann doesn’t follow MMA as closely as some fighters
do, but he made a point to watch UFC 149 on Saturday to root
against Hector Lombard.
He’d
trained with the Cuban middleweight last year at American Top
Team, and from what Volkmann says, the session didn’t go
too well.
“My
teammate had a fight down in Florida,” Volkmann told the
Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “I
went to train at ATT, which is a great gym. I have nothing against
that gym. I just had a beef with Hector Lombard.”
Lombard
was an Olympic judoka for Cuba who entered UFC 149 with 20 straight
wins. Volkmann, a lightweight who has competed in the UFC at
170 pounds, was a three-time All-American wrestler at the University
of Minnesota.
“It
was grappling time, and he asked me to wrestle him,” Volkmann
said. “I was like, ‘Alright, whatever.’ So I went
over and we got our own little mat area like the size of a circle
on a regular mat. We started wrestling. I was doing collar ties,
and then all of a sudden, he karate chopped me in the side of
the neck. I was like, ‘Alright.’ I didn’t know
what the hell was going on, but he didn’t like what I was
doing.”
Volkmann
said the two kept wrestling, and things got worse.
“I
didn’t really take any shots because I felt that he was
kind of a spaz,” Volkmann said. “Then all of a sudden,
he pushes me away and punches me in the face with no gloves on
or nothing. I had a fight in three weeks. I was fighting Danny
Castillo in three weeks. I was like, ‘Aw, Jesus.’ He
wanted to fight me right there and then, right in the gym. There
was one of his coaches there that had to stop it.”
To
Volkmann’s delight, Lombard lost Saturday in his UFC debut,
dropping a split decision to Tim Boetsch. The Minnesotan wasn’t
too impressed with his performance either. He hesitated to predict
how a fight with Lombard would unfold, but his confidence grew
after the weekend.
“Judging
from his last UFC fight,” Volkmann said, “I think I
could take him.”
Source
Sherdog
|
MMA
Top 10 Rankings: Renan Barão Fighting His Way to the Top
The
updated MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings were released on Wednesday,
July 25. This system ranks the Top 10 MMA fighters from across
the world in each of the seven most widely accepted men’s
weight classes and the Top 10 pound-for-pound women fighters.
Taken
into consideration are a fighter’s performance in addition
to 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.
(Fighter’s
previous ranking is in parenthesis.)
Below
are the current MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings:
WOMEN’S
POUND-FOR-POUND (all weight classes)
1. Sarah Kaufman (1)
2. Ronda Rousey (2)
3. Miesha Tate (3)
4. Jessica Aguilar (4)
5. Megumi Fujii (5)
6. Marloes Coenen (6)
7. Tara LaRosa (7)
8. Rosi Sexton (8)
9. Alexis Davis (9)
10. Hiroko Yamanaka (10)
HEAVYWEIGHT
DIVISION (over 205 pounds)
1. Junior dos Santos (1)
2. Cain Velasquez (2)
3. Daniel Cormier (3)
4. Fabricio Werdum (4)
5. Frank Mir (5)
6. Josh Barnett (6)
7. Travis Browne (7)
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (8)
9. Stefan Struve (9)
10. Roy Nelson (10)
LIGHT
HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION (205-pound limit)
1. Jon Jones (1)
2. Rashad Evans (2)
3. Dan Henderson (3)
4. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (4)
5. Lyoto Machida (5)
6. Phil Davis (6)
7. Alexander Gustafsson (7)
8. Gegard Mousasi (8)
9. Ryan Bader (9)
10. James Te Huna (10)
MIDDLEWEIGHT
DIVISION (185-pound limit)
1. Anderson Silva (1)
2. Chael Sonnen (2)
3. Vitor Belfort (3)
4. Michael Bisping (4)
5. Chris Weidman (5)
6. Tim Boetsch (6)
7. Mark Munoz (7)
8. Brian Stann (8)
9. Alan Belcher (9)
10. Yushin Okami (10)
WELTERWEIGHT
DIVISION (170-pound limit)
1. Carlos Condit (1)
2. Johny Hendricks (2)
3. Martin Kampmann (3)
4. Jake Ellenberger (4)
5. Josh Koscheck (5)
6. Jake Shields (6)
7. Jon Fitch (7)
8. Diego Sanchez (8)
9. Rory MacDonald (9)
10. Ben Askren (10)
LIGHTWEIGHT
DIVISION (155-pound limit)
1. Benson Henderson (1)
2. Frankie Edgar (2)
3. Gilbert Melendez (3)
4. Gray Maynard (4)
5. Anthony Pettis (5)
6. Nate Diaz (6)
7. Michael Chandler (7)
8. Eddie Alvarez (8)
9. Clay Guida (9)
10. Jim Miller (10)
FEATHERWEIGHT
DIVISION (145 pound-limit)
1. Jose Aldo (1)
2. Chad Mendes (2)
3. Erik Koch (3)
4. Chan Sung Jung (4)
5. Ricardo Lamas (5)
6. Hatsu Hioki (6)
7. Dustin Poirier (7)
8. Pat Curran (8)
9. Patricio Freire (9)
10. Daniel Straus (10)
BANTAMWEIGHT
DIVISION (135 pounds or less)
1. Dominick Cruz (1)
2. Renan Barao (3)
3. Michael McDonald (4)
4. Urijah Faber (2)
5. Brian Bowles (5)
6. Brad Pickett (6)
7. Bibiano Fernandes (7)
8. Masakatsu Ueda (8)
9. Eduardo Dantas (9)
10. Eddie Wineland (10)
FLYWEIGHT
DIVISION (125 pounds or less)
1. Joseph Benavidez (1)
2. Demetrious Johnson (2)
3. Ian McCall (3)
4. Jussiero da Silva (4)
5. Yasuhiro Urushitani (5)
6. Shinichi “BJ” Kojima (6)
7. Darrell Montague (7)
8. Mamoru Yamaguchi (8)
9. John Dodson (9)
10. Louis Gaudinot (10)
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Greco-Roman
Wrestling - Building Toughness Daily
By Jordan
Newmark
Jordan Newmark continues his four-part series on the 2012 Olympics
and its relation to the sport of mixed martial arts...today,
Greco-Roman wrestling
Two-time US Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling, Dan Henderson
Dan Henderson. That’s all you need right there.
If
one had to validate to a UFC fan how exemplary an elite background
in Greco-Roman wrestling can be for a fighter, one would only
need to mention “Hendo,” who, at 42 years old, will
be facing UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 151
on September 1st. The born and bred Californian has competed
in MMA for 15 years, fought and won in three weight classes,
won multiple belts and tournaments in multiple organizations
(UFC, Strikeforce, and PRIDE), and still to this day is one of
the toughest and most dangerous fighters around, one especially
known for his granite chin and outrageous knockout power. Before
his incredible nearly 40 fight career in the cage began, Henderson
was a two-time US Olympian (1992, 1996), winner of several medals
in international competitions like the Pan American Games and
World Cup, and, truly, a lifelong wrestler.
“You
definitely have to be dedicated,” said Henderson of being
an Olympian. “You have to be able to learn and to get into
shape and be able to do all the cross-training that is involved.
I think that's why I'm so mentally tough, because I competed
like that. Wrestlers in general are fairly mentally tough. The
biggest thing is the dedication involved - the commitment. It
was obviously one of my goals. It was something that I wouldn't
trade for anything. It definitely made me much more of a patriotic
person. There are all the countries there, and to represent the
United States was awesome. Barcelona was my first time and I
was 21 years old. I was really excited about it, but it didn't
compare to wrestling for my country in my home country in Atlanta.
I think I was the first American to compete, so the crowd was
really waiting for an American to come out and it happened to
be me.”
What
Henderson has been able to accomplish in MMA should be reason
enough to sway the uninformed of a Greco-Roman wrestling mat’s
ability to forge hardened fighters. But “Hendo” is
far from alone, as UFC veteran Matt Lindland won a silver medal
at 76 kg at the 2000 Olympics, former UFC heavyweight and light
heavyweight champion Randy Couture was a three-time Olympic alternate,
“The People’s Champ” Chael P. Sonnen won high
honors in several international tournaments and was an Olympic
alternate, and the original depiction of Greco-Roman wrestling
in the Octagon was multiple Olympic alternate and UFC Hall of
Famer Dan “The Beast” Severn. The facts of the matter
are clear, Greco-Roman wrestling can make a man out of you.
“I
believe that Olympic caliber Greco-Roman wrestlers have an advantage
in a lot of particular positions, but more importantly, at the
highest levels everything is a fight,” affirms Lindland.
“You fight for points that don't come easy, you fight to
make it on teams, you are fighting to medal at the tournaments.
You absolutely have to fight for every inch and the word used
is literally ‘pummel’. These are some of the most mentally
tough men I know.”
For
the uninitiated, Greco-Roman wrestling is part old school brutal,
chest to chest battling for positioning and it’s part gut-wrenching
suplex superiority. It’s a brand of punishing physical endurance
one wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy mixed with near herniating
highlight reel lifts and slams. The event is also home to one
of the single greatest moments in US Olympic history when Rulon
Gardner won gold in Sydney in a 1-0 victory over the seemingly
undefeatable three-time Olympic gold medalist Aleksandr Karelin.
If the US team’s head coach and 1984 Olympics gold medal
winner Steve Fraser has anything to say about it, the 2012 London
Games will play host to a similarly dizzying and headline-grabbing
effort by his current roster of wrestlers.
“We
have high expectations and we truly believe that every one of
these six guys can medal for sure,” states Fraser. “There
is nobody on our team that doesn't have a chance. With that said,
with two young guys who are totally unproven and a few veterans
who have won, but haven't won in a few years - you never know.
It never gets easy in this sport. Our expectations are to do
well and what that means is five medals with at least two gold.
If we were to do that, we would be the heroes of the world and
have shocked everybody. Nobody in Greco wins five medals usually.
The countries that are winning a team title in the World Championships
are winning three medals and that's enough to win the team title.
Our goal is for everyone to win a medal, which would be six,
but, realistically, if we win three then we could win the unofficial
Olympic team title.”
It
comes down to six guys who will be worked to the bone by Fraser
and his illustrious staff of assistant coaches to be ready to
give it their all once the lights and cameras are on. Only three
countries qualified all seven weight classes on their team and
for the US that unattained spot is at 96 kg. The six for the
US seem to be split down the middle of young blood or experienced.
As mentioned, regardless of which category they fall in, Fraser’s
job is to get them in the mindset that they’re going to
end up on the medals podium.
“Steve
Fraser is one of those individuals who is a great coach, a great
motivator,” remembers Henderson. “He tries to make
everybody mentally tough and if you're not - he's going to beat
it into you. He's on the mat and wrestles with us, grinds with
us. At his age and being able to beat us at the same time? Being
mentally tough was his biggest thing. Being mentally tough and
confident. He always said, 'Expect to win. Expect to win.' I
think he is definitely a great asset to USA wrestling.”
The
younger trio of Team USA is comprised of three first time Olympians:
Ellis Coleman at 60 kg, Ben Provisor at 74 kg, and Chas Betts
84 kg. The latter, Betts, is a well-conditioned grinder from
the University of Northern Michigan who won gold at the Pan American
Championships earlier this year. In May, Provisor’s profile
and confidence shot through the roof as he defeated 2008 Olympic
gold medal winner Manuchar Kvirkvelia of Georgia at the Curby
Cup. The youngest member of the team is the most famous pop-culturally
as Coleman took the internet by storm after successfully landing
a “flying squirrel” technique at the Junior World Championships.
As US assistant coach and 1976 Olympic gold medal winner Momir
Petkovic explains, Coleman’s strengths aren’t his theatrics,
but his tenacity.
“On
this team, we have younger kids who are just coming up like Ellis
Coleman,” says Petkovic. “He is 60 kg. He is a two-time
Junior World Bronze medalist. Very focused, very hungry, very
determined, loves it so much. This is his first Olympics. He
is young, only 20-21 years old, and, hopefully, he will be able
to pull out a surprise for us. We know how much he can do, but
for the rest of the world this will be his first big, major international
competition. I can definitely see Ellis Coleman in MMA. He's
got that killer instinct. He's just a unique, unique, unique
guy. I've been in this sport for like 50 years and not that many
I see like him. I never see anyone have a major surgery, broken
ankle, screws, ligaments, four hour surgery. And then the next
morning he's in the gym lifting, push-ups, sit-ups, like what
the [expletive] is going on with this kid? Where is he coming
from? Just a very unique, unique, unique person.”
The
leadership of the US team obviously comes from its experienced
half of three top candidates for medals in their respective weight
classes: Spenser Mango at 55 kg, Justin Lester at 66 kg, and,
team stalwart Dremiel Byers at 120 kg. For Mango, a second appearance
at the Olympics mixed with his copious amount of World Championships
experience and still being only 26 years old should mean trouble
for the rest of the competition. Don’t call him “Harry”
anymore, as the 2x World bronze medalist, Lester, has proven
he is one of the elite at his weight and is highly motivated
to prove that in London after shockingly missing out on the team
in Beijing. The final and heaviest member of the team is also
one of the most decorated wrestlers in country history, as Byers
owns a bronze, silver, and gold medal from the World Championships.
These three will look to their vast experience to help themselves
as well as to guide each other to the ultimate achievement of
Olympic glory.
“The
Olympics are so special,” asserts Petkovic. “The first
time at the Olympics it is overwhelming. Suddenly, you're in
the middle of 10,000 athletes and you don't know what you need
to do. One thing we try to work with them on is them trying to
keep cool and know that this is just another tournament. Get
ready to raise your individual game to the level for you to be
able to function at the best you can. Everyone at the Olympics
has a dream of winning the gold medal. It doesn't matter if they've
did anything before or if they didn't do anything before. It
doesn't matter where their ranking is before. That all falls
apart when the competition starts and anything can happen against
anyone at any moment. An 18 year old kid can go in there and
kick some ass against a two-time World champion. It's a totally
different competition. The whole world is waiting for this and
ready to declare, ‘this is my time’.”
In
MMA, the buzz word for wrestlers is “control”. Fighters
with frightening wrestling talent like past and present Olympians
have the ability to dictate where a fight takes place or doesn’t
take place. That is an added benefit during a fight, and for
a career, as wrestlers can keep themselves out of harm by controlling
the action, which can potentially lengthen their career. On top
of that, wrestlers are molded over thousands of hours of acclimating
themselves to the pain of training and competing. After years
of grinning and bearing it in wrestling rooms and day long tournaments,
fighting one fight in a cage in one night doesn’t seem so
bad.
“It
is a fact that the daily grueling training that wrestlers have
to go through to become great wrestlers is such a benefit in
the MMA world,” explains Fraser. “The conditioning
factor alone, both physically and mentally. There is no other
sport in the world that requires such grueling training as wrestlers.
Wrestling is constant, non-stop attack. The conditioning factor
from wrestlers is just huge. There are no better conditioned
athletes, mentally and physically, than wrestlers.”
Beginning
August 5th and ending August 7th, a sport will take center stage
that is one of the most utterly excruciating and muscularly demanding
you’ll ever see. As the former two-time member of the US
Olympic team, Henderson, prepares to drop an “H-bomb”
at his UFC 151 showdown on a champion who is 17 years his junior,
fight fans should watch the wrestling event that made this old
man “Hendo” so damn tough.
Source: UFC
|
UFC
152 Benavidez vs. Bisping? Weight Classes Go Out the Window at
Press Conference
by Ken
Pishna
Q:
How do you know when UFC middleweight Michael Bisping is going
to start a firestorm of controversy?
A:
When his lips move.
Bisping
is heading into a fight with Brian Stann at UFC 152 on Sept.
22 in Toronto. He has a lot of respect for Stann, dishing out
very little of his usual pre-fight trash talk at the decorated
former Marine.
But
Michael Bisping being Michael Bisping, he had to have someone
to target heading into the fight, so why not the little guys?
“In
my opinion, and I think in most people’s, this is the main
event. This is the real main event, two big hard-hitting guys.
No one cares about little flyweights. This is the real main event.
This is the real big fight. Tune in cause someone’s getting
knocked out; ain’t going to be me though,” said Bisping
in a recent interview on Fuel TV.
“This
is the real main event of UFC 152.”
Joseph
Benavidez is one half of the announced UFC 152 main event, the
first UFC flyweight championship. He takes on Demetrious “Mighty
Mouse” Johnson for the honors.
He
was asked about Bisping’s remarks at a UFC 152 kickoff preference
in Toronto on Tuesday with Bisping seated to his immediate right.
“It
was pretty silly of course when I heard it, but it’s Michael
Bisping. Everybody pretty much expects something ridiculous to
come out of his mouth, right?” Benavidez quipped. “That’s
pretty much what he does.”
“Listen
pal, when you were a glint in your dad’s eye, I was kicking
ass in the UFC,” Bisping played along, although a note of
resentment colored his tone.
Benavidez,
quit witted himself, retorted, “And probably saying ridiculous
things, also,” before moving on to the title fight before
him instead of the hopeful middleweight contender beside him.
“It’s
not gonna change the fact that we’re the top two guys in
the world and that we’re going out to make history that
night.”
While
the middleweight division sits amid a quagmire of fighters hopeful
to get the next crack at Anderson Silva, Benavidez and Johnson
square off at UFC 152, one of them poised to become the first
ever UFC flyweight champion of the world.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
London
Calling: Scouting MMA Prospects at the 2012 Olympics
By Tommy
Messano
This
summer’s London Olympics mark the 30th incarnation of the
modern Olympic Games. The grappling arts have always held a prominent
role in the Olympics dating back to the ancient games, when Pankration,
a hybrid boxing and wrestling sport, was introduced at the Greek
event in 684 BC. When the Olympics entered its modern age in
1896, officials concocted a Greco-Roman wrestling event with
no time limits and no weight classes to be one of the nine sports
athletes could compete in.
Grappling
sports would evolve again in 1904 with the addition of freestyle
wrestling and would not see another change until Judo was included
in the 1964 Olympic Games.
The
2008 Olympics featured a trio of current MMA stars that donned
the red, white and blue of Team USA in Beijing. The August 2008
games were the only place in the world where you could earmark
three future MMA champions, all with 0-0 professional MMA records
at the time.
While
Georges St. Pierre was defending his status as the top welterweight
in the world, a 24-year-old Ben Askren -- who surprised pundits
by even making Team USA -- placed a respectable seventh in the
163-pound freestyle wrestling field.
In
August 2008, heavyweight MMA still revolved around the comings
and goings of Fedor Emelianenko. Future MMA heavyweight Daniel
Cormier’s second Olympic Games ended in frustration. After
he was named team captain, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy was
unable to compete in the 211-pound bracket when he suffered kidney
failure during his weight cut in Beijing.
Future
movie star Gina Carano carried the torch for women’s MMA
in the summer of 2008 as one of the faces of the Elite XC promotion.
In Beijing, a 21-year-old Ronda Rousey lived up to pre-tournament
hype with a bronze medal finish at 154-pounds in judo.
From
the pressure cooker that is the Olympics to small regional MMA
events, the crossover to the cage may be an even more attractive
option than it was four years ago. After failing to make this
year’s US freestyle wrestling team, longtime international
competitors Shawn Bunch and Steve Mocco quickly traded in their
wrestling shoes for four-ounce gloves.
In
the race for top-flight wrestling talent, the relationship between
USA Wrestling and MMA promotions remains cordial but distant.
Between the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, amateur wrestling did pull
off their most proactive move in decades with the cash-based
Living the Dream Medal Fund. The fund was established to offer
big-money payouts to any Team USA wrestler who achieved medal
status at the World Championships and Olympic games.
Rich
Bender, executive director of USA Wrestling, tells Sherdog.com
the Living the Dream Fund has been a success.
“Additional
resources have been generated, the wrestling community has been
engaged, and wrestlers have been rewarded for their success,”
says Bender.
Bender
uses the barometer of how many medals Team USA wrestlers bring
home and how many elite athletes extend their careers in the
sport to determine that the Living the Dream Fund is working.
With hopes that more successful collegiate wrestlers will stick
with their first sport, Bender says that the Living the Dream
Fund’s status for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro is
“to be determined.”
Within
in the judo community, MMA is still a relatively new friend --
or foe, depending whom you ask. MMA remains a polarizing topic
with old-school judo players, but it appears the long-held stance
has softened ever so slightly since the 2008 Olympics. Perhaps
no one athlete in the 2012 London Games has a better perspective
on the issue than Ivo dos Santos, an Australian judo player and
MMA fighter who has written about his road to the 2012 Olympics
on Sherdog.com.
Dos
Santos (Pictured, top) has seen MMA chatter increase at judo
events since 2008 Olympic medalists Rousey and Satoshi Ishii
made the switch.
“Four
years back, MMA wasn’t really spoken about in judo circles,”
Dos Santos says. “Everyone knew about [Yoshihiro] Akiyama
and [Hidehiko] Yoshida, but when Ishii won the Olympic heavyweight
gold medal -- which is judo’s equivalent of the 100-meter
sprint, in terms of prestige -- and walked away to try his hand
at MMA, it got many other judoka interested.”
In
September 2010, dos Santos, a star member of the 2012 Australian
judo Olympic team, competed in and won his first professional
MMA fight. Two years later, as MMA has gotten more mainstream
cultural acceptance in Australia, dos Santos predicts more members
of the judo community will embrace the artistic elements of cage
fighting.
“When
I had my one and only pro fight so far, there was an old judo
guy working for the combat sports commission. He berated me for
about five minutes on how I was making judo out to be a thug
sport and so on,” Dos Santos says. “It wasn’t
really what I needed an hour before my first fight. There are
still a few guys around with that attitude, but as MMA has become
more mainstream and people understand it more, the attitude towards
it has changed.
“Some
of the traditional old guys now watch MMA and enjoy picking out
the elements of judo displayed in MMA fights. I think in the
next few years, it will have won the majority of them over.”
In
athletic projections of future talents, there is never a sure
thing or a perfect formula to unearth who will succeed at the
highest levels of a sport. When it comes to the Olympics and
MMA, having a hardened international pedigree is close to a soft
bet as it gets for future in-cage success.
Dating
as far back as the 1984 Olympics with USA gold medalist Mark
Schultz, the varied Olympic runs of Rick Hawn and Dan Henderson,
as well as the modern successes of Askren, Cormier and Rousey
in entering the cage after their amateur careers were done; as
MMA grows the connection back to Olympics may increase as well.
Below
are six Team USA Olympians with the potential to turn the international
spotlight into a long-term MMA career.
Jordan
Burroughs
Weight: 163 pounds (74 kilograms)
Sport: Freestyle Wrestling
Age: 24
First Match: Aug. 10
Blue
chip, five-star -- however you want to label him, freestyle wrestler
Jordan Burroughs is both USA wrestling’s best gold medal
hope and a potential MMA star. A two-time NCAA Division I champion
out of Nebraska, Burroughs already found success on the international
stage when he took home gold at the 2011 world champions a mere
three weeks after his final college match.
Pound
for pound, Burroughs may be the most talented grappler competing
for Team USA, and if he fulfills his gold medal dreams, the former
Dan Hodge Trophy winner would be major get for any MMA organization.
Kayla
Harrison
Weight: 172 pounds (72 kilograms)
Sport: Women’s Judo
Age: 22
First Match: Aug. 2
“Not
the next Ronda Rousey, but the first Kayla Harrison” is
a line the 22-year-old judoka may use if she decides to cross
over into MMA. The first American woman since 1964 to become
a world champion in judo, Harrison shares the same grappling
coach as Rousey. The relationship between former sparring partners
Harrison and Rousey has ranged from protégé to
frenemy (one part friend, one part enemy).
Within
the judo community, based on pure grappling skills, most expect
that Harrison will and should surpass Rousey’s 2008 bronze
medal performance.
Ellis
Coleman
Weight: 132 pounds (60 kilograms)
Sport: Greco-Roman Wrestling
Age: 20
First Match: Aug. 6
In
combat sports, it never hurts to have a good gimmick. Greco-Roman
wrestler Coleman’s signature move, “the flying squirrel,”
made him an Internet sensation: his successful leaping takedown
has recorded more than 5,000,000 views on YouTube. Only 20 years
old, Coleman is relatively new to the international scene, but
he has a cult following and big-time athletic chops that would
serve him well in MMA.
Travis
Stevens
Weight: 178 pounds (81 kilograms)
Sport: Judo
Age: 26
First Match: July 31
Another
testament to the growing collusion between the sports of judo
and MMA is Team USA’s Travis Stevens. A two-time Olympian,
Stevens has supplemented his judo training with MMA work at the
Renzo Gracie Academy in New York. Now a brown belt in Gracie
jiu-jitsu, Stevens has hinted at a possible MMA move after the
Olympics and has even trained with current UFC fighter Tom Lawlor
in preparation for the Games.
Jake
Herbert
Weight: 185 pounds (84 kilograms)
Sport: Freestyle Wrestling
Age: 27
First Match: Aug. 11
A
four-time NCAA All-American and Dan Hodge Trophy winner out of
Northwestern University, Jake Herbert failed to make the Olympics
in 2008. In 2009, Herbert took silver at the world championships.
While in college, Herbert trained some MMA in the offseason and
even worked with Andrei Arlovski at the former UFC champion’s
Illinois gym.
Kelsey
Campbell
Weight: 121 pounds (55 kilograms)
Sport: Women's Freestyle Wrestling
Age: 27
First Match: Aug. 9
After
the games, you could potentially add Kelsey Campbell’s name
to the list of successful former Arizona State wrestlers turned
MMA fighters. Campbell wrestled for coach Thom Ortiz, the same
man who recruited current UFC fighters Cain Velasquez, Ryan Bader
and C.B Dollaway to the Tempe campus. Only the 13th female on
an NCAA Division I wrestling team, Campbell shocked pundits by
winning her weight class at the Olympic trials after nearly leaving
the sport years earlier.
Prior
to her underdog run at the Team USA trials, Campbell took a break
from wrestling to train MMA at Rough House MMA in Colorado.
Source:
Sherdog
|
New
Poll Suggests American Support for MMA as an Olympic Sport
By Luke
Thomas - Senior Editor
A
new survey commissioned by Yahoo! Sports suggests there is fairly
significant support for mixed martial arts being contested as
an Olympic sport. According to the survey, 25% of Americans think
MMA should be included in the Olympics. Other sports people want
to see in the Olympics are: baseball (32%), softball (24%), lacrosse
(19%), and field hockey (15%).
Yahoo!
partnered with Ipsos MediaCT to conduct the study in May of 2012.
2,000 U.S. adults ages 18 to 64, 'who are representative of the
U.S. online adult population', were polled, according to a press
release.
In
addition to those polled, count another influential name among
those supportive of mixed martial arts being contested in the
Olympics: UFC President Dana White.
White
has been an outspoken critic of amateur mixed martial arts. He's
suggested both domestic sanctioning bodies and international
governing organizations like the U.S. Olympic committee are necessary
to properly regulate that side of the sport.
"First
and foremost mixed martial arts is a combination of most of the
sports that are already Olympic sports," White said in April
of this year. "But I don't believe in amateur mixed martial
arts. There's no such thing, it's BS. What it is, is a way for
a promoter to not pay a fighter. That's what amateur means. It
means I don't have to pay you because I consider you an amateur
and I believe there is no real amateur mixed martial arts in
this sport, until the Olympic committee gets behind it like they
did with USA boxing and boxing in other countries. I would love
for that to happen."
Like
boxing, White has argued for a tiered amateur MMA system that
is tightly regulated domestically and culminates in the highest
level of achievement in the form of an Olympic gold medal. "The
goal was to go into the amateurs, you fight your way up to the
top, you win an Olympic gold medal and then you go right into
the pros and the whole world wants to see you fight. That's the
way it always worked in boxing and that's the way it should work
in MMA, too."
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Alan
Belcher Wants Vitor Belfort in Brazil; Belfort Accepts the Challenge
by Damon
Martin
Coming
off a win nobody expected him to get, Alan Belcher understands
why maybe he’s not the name any top middleweight is itching
to fight.
Just
about everybody short of the people closest to Belcher thought
he was going to be the latest victim to leg lock master Rousimar
Palhares at UFC on Fox 3 in May, and when the Brazilian snatched
his limb early in the first round all the prognosticators felt
vindicated with their choice.
Belcher
was happy to disappoint all of them as he slipped out of the
submission and proceeded to pound Palhares into the mat, earning
the TKO victory.
Since
that time, Belcher has been waiting for the fight to come along
that could help him earn his long awaited shot at the UFC middleweight
title, but lately all he’s been doing is waiting.
“With
all due respect, the fighters and the coaches can see the skills
a little more clearly than everyone else. They’re a little
bit more realistic and honestly I’m probably more well rounded
than anyone else. When you go against someone that has a well-rounded
game and you can’t really see holes in their game, meaning
they can punch, they can kick, they can defend takedowns, and
then on the ground they’re dangerous, and then they have
some momentum going like I do with a winning streak and I have
motivation and I’m really intense, I think I’m a dangerous
fight for most people,” Belcher told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.
“I’m
not saying they’re dodging me, but I’m saying they’re
trying to be smart.”
The
two names that seem most relevant to Belcher right now are former
UFC champion Vitor Belfort and current top middleweight contender
Chris Weidman. Earlier in the day on Tuesday, Belfort was calling
for a fight with Weidman, while Weidman has been hoping to land
a fight with UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva.
Again,
Alan Belcher’s name was nowhere to be found, so he’s
taking matters into his own hands.
“Right
now, if I want to get something signed it needs to be against
Vitor Belfort or Chris Weidman. Both of those guys are highly
ranked, good fighters, very challenging for me and both of them
could potentially be a top contender,” said Belcher.
“I
want to fight Vitor. He’s still an awesome fighter, still
a top contender, but he’s also a legend. I’d be happy
with either one of those fights right now, otherwise wait for
(Brian) Stann and (Michael) Bisping and see what happens there.”
Well
before Belcher could even make his statement, it appears that
Belfort is now on board with the match-up. After propositioning
Weidman for a fight, only to be turned down moments later via
Twitter, Belfort then turned his attention to Belcher.
“Belcher
let’s make this fight (at) UFC Rio on Oct 13,” Belfort
wrote on Tuesday.
For
his part, Alan Belcher seems more than happy to accept.
“I
want a challenge and if that means going to Brazil and fighting
one of the best Brazilians ever, then let’s do it. I’m
willing to fight anyone, the bigger, the stronger, the better
the opponent, and the setting that is the scariest, is the most
attractive fight for me,” Belcher stated.
“Cause
right now that’s what motivates me is the challenge, my
fear of losing. I’m so motivated to keep winning and get
that belt.”
While
the fight is far from official, both Belcher and Belfort appear
to be on board, so now it’s up to the UFC to seal the deal.
No
matter who he faces next however, Alan Belcher is supremely confident
that he’ll be the one coming out on top and earning a title
shot in the very near future.
“I’m
the guy to beat,” said Belcher. “And it’s going
to be hard for anybody to beat me.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
One
FC calls Babalu and Aoki and sets opponents for Rolles and Igor
Gracie
One
FC’s organization has already announced opponents for Rolles
and Igor Gracie. The two brothers will face Tony Bonello and
Jung Hwan Cha respectively. One FC takes place on August 31,
in Phillipines, and will also present Renato Babalu and Shinya
Aoki on the card.
Rolles’s
opponent, Bonello accounts for 16 wins in 17 fights, and has
been champion of the King of The Cage in two different categories.
A tough test for Rolles Gracie.
Debuting
on the event, Igor Gracie has no easier life. He faces South
Korean Jung Hwan Cha, with 14 fights in his career, of which
eight are victories.
Like
GRACIEMAG.com has already informed, the event features Gregor
Gracie, Bibiano Fernantes, Andrei Arlovski, Soa Palelei, Phil
Baroni, Rodrigo Ribeiro, Jens Pulver and Gustavo Falciroli. Check
out the One FC official card:
ONE
FC
QUEZON CITY, PHILLIPINES
AUGUST 31 2012
Shinya
Aoki vs TBA
Bibiano Fernandes vs Gustavo Falciroli
Andrei Arlovski vs Soa Palelei
Jens Pulver vs Eric Kelly
Gregor Gracie vs Nicholas Mann
Renato Babalu vs TBA
Eduard Folayang vs TBA
Rolles Gracie vs Tony Bonello
Igor Gracie vs Jung Hwan Cha
Phil Baroni vs Rodrigo Ribeiro
Kevin Belingon vs TBA
Mitch Chilson vs TBA
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Daniel
Cormier Believes Beating Frank Mir is the Perfect Introduction
to UFC Fans
by Damon
Martin
Strikeforce
Heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier was having a regular
day at training like any other, hitting pads and helping his
teammates like he does any Wednesday. But this day took a turn
for the positive when he finished up his workout, and noticed
he had a slew of messages on his phone, as well as a flood of
Twitter responses awaiting his viewing.
“I
was getting out of training because I thought I fought Sept.
29. So I was in the gym working out, starting my training camp.
On Wednesday nights I hit mits with Javier (Mendes), and I got
done and I was sitting on the side watching him work Shawn Bunch.
Bob (Cook), my manager, told me today he’s like ‘they’re
trying to bring over a bigger named guy, we don’t know who
it is yet, but they’ll let us know something soon’,”
Cormier told MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday night.
“So
Bunch went on Twitter cause I put a picture up of him hitting
pads and he goes ‘I guess you’re fighting Frank Mir.’
So I started fumbling with my phone and I got a call from Daniel
Rubenstein and he tells me that it’s a done deal, cause
Ruby knows everything.”
Just
like the rest of the world, Cormier found out via Twitter that
he would indeed be facing former UFC heavyweight champion Frank
Mir for his final fight in Strikeforce later this year. While
a date and location have not been determined, the bout is likely
to take place in October or November and will close the book
on the Strikeforce heavyweight division forever.
Just
over a week ago, Cormier heard once again via the internet that
he was expected to face former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia
for his final bout in Strikeforce. Now make no mistake, Cormier
would have been happy to face any opponent, but when he got word
that Frank Mir was going to be the name on his bout agreement,
he certainly perked up.
“It’s
like knowing I was going to fight Josh Barnett. There’s
only a few guys in the world that their names ring that much
and it’s so resounding when it comes to what they’ve
done in this sport. So I was pumped up,” Cormier stated.
“Tim
Sylvia’s accomplished a lot, but he just hasn’t really
fought in the top of the sport for a while. No disrespect to
Tim, but this is a much easier fight to get pumped up for. I
dropped my phone a couple of times while I was trying to look
at Twitter.”
Mir’s
willingness to go to Strikeforce, even if it is only for one
fight before they both head to the UFC in 2013, is still unprecedented
because up till now that’s been the biggest complaint by
many fighters competing in Zuffa’s sister promotion.
UFC
fighters haven’t been willing to give up a bigger viewing
audience and the marquee name that goes along with fighting in
the Octagon to compete in Strikeforce.
When
the offer came in, Mir was happy to make the move to go over
and give Cormier the big fight he’s been waiting for. The
former Olympian gave thanks to the executives at Zuffa, like
UFC president Dana White, for making this deal possible.
“You’ve
got to tip your hat off to the executives at Zuffa for doing
something like that and to Frank Mir for doing it. I respect
Frank greatly for stepping in and taking this fight. This fight
can elevate my status in the sport a ton,” said Cormier.
Beyond
Mir’s standing as a multi-time former UFC heavyweight champion,
he’s also one of the most recognized fighters in the sport.
His last fight was a headlining championship bout at UFC 146
against Junior dos Santos, and Mir has headlined more than his
fair share of big shows including his part as the biggest card
in history when he faced Brock Lesnar at UFC 100.
Cormier
believes that facing Mir will raise his stock not only in the
heavyweight division, but also to the casual UFC viewers who
might tune in to see the bout because Mir is involved.
“The
reality is Frank Mir is a guy people from the UFC know. He’s
been a champion. He’s always around the top of the sport.
Frank Mir is going to introduce me to the UFC fans a little bit
more than I would fighting a different guy,” said Cormier.
Now
it’s on to the business of getting ready for the fight with
Mir, and that will be the only name on Cormier’s mind for
the next few months.
He’s
already begun his preparation, but he knows in his heart that
he’s already had the best training ever to face Mir because
Cormier has already defeated a man he believes is superior to
his next opponent.
“There’s
no motivation like fighting a champion. I respect Frank, the
fight’s very similar to Josh Barnett. I think Josh Barnett
is better,” Cormier revealed.
“No
disrespect to Frank, but I think Josh is better and I’m
going to train as if I’m fighting Josh Barnett again, and
let’s see how this fight plays out.”
The
last time Cormier prepared like that, he dominated Barnett for
the better part of 25 minutes en route to winning the Strikeforce
Heavyweight Grand Prix. If he can duplicate that performance,
Frank Mir’s lone trip to Strikeforce may not have a happy
ending.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Matt
Mitrione Explains Why He Turned Down Travis Browne Fight at UFC
on FOX 4
By Ariel
Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer
When
the news of Ben Rothwell's injury was first reported, a lot of
MMA fans asked, Why not have Matt Mitrione fight Travis Browne?
It's
a valid question, especially since Mitrione was once scheduled
to fight Rob Broughton at UFC on FOX 4 before visa issues forced
Broughton off the card. In fact, the UFC recently asked Mitrione
to step in on short notice to fight Browne, but he decided to
turn the fight down. Here's why:
According
to Mitrione, he was informed that his fight against Broughton
was going to be scrapped from the card five weeks ago. He even
alluded to that on a July 3 episode of The MMA Hour. Since then,
he has yet to be booked on another UFC card. He was hoping to
fight on Sept. 7 in his hometown of Indianapolis, but that card
was recently canceled.
"Since
I haven't been booked," Mitrione said, "I have been
home visiting my children and not training in a way that would
allow me to do two things: put on a fight that the fans deserve
and fight a top-tier fighter like Travis Browne."
Mitrione,
who hasn't fought since last October due to various injuries,
admitted to thinking long and hard about the opportunity, but
ultimately felt like he made the right decision.
"It's
inevitable that Travis and I will fight," he said, "but
he and the fans deserve the best me possible because that scrap
will certainly have title implications when it happens."
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Anderson's
manager says GSP is the only fight that makes sense
By Guilherme
Cruz
Anderson
Silva is the biggest champion in UFC history, and many fighters
are trying to earn their next shot in a Chael Sonnen way. After
the "Spider" defeated his last opponent at UFC 148,
many fighters started to say that they can submit of KO the champ.
"That's
a big joke," Silva's manager, Jorge Guimaraes, said about
Chris Weidman, Tim Boetsch and Alan Belcher's challenges. "Everybody
saw that it worked for Chael, and he got really famous with that,
and now everybody wants to be on the spotlight".
The
manager believes that only one fight makes sense for the middleweight
champion right now, and it's not on the middleweight division.
"No
opponent makes sense for Anderson at this moment. Unless we do
a catchweight against Georges St. Pierre," he suggests.
"They didn't offer the fight, but he's the only one that
could do a super fight. Anderson has the biggest paycheck in
the UFC, and you can't promote an event with these amateur kids
that are coming up now".
Source:
Tatame
|
Updated:
UFC Heavyweight Frank Mir Headed to Strikeforce for Bout with
Daniel Cormier
Former
heavyweight champion Frank Mir is set to become the first UFC
fighter to temporarily exit the Octagon for a bout with sister
promotion Strikeforce.
Mir
will face unbeaten wrestler Daniel Cormier in the co-main event
of an as-yet-unannounced October Strikeforce card, UFC President
Dana White told USA Today on Wednesday.
Mir-Cormier
represents the first convergence of the UFC and Strikeforce rosters.
UFC parent company Zuffa, LLC, acquired Strikeforce in 2011 and
has maintained the organizations as separate entities, despite
calls from fans and pundits to bring fighters such as Melendez
and Cormier to the Octagon. According to the USA Today report,
both Mir and Cormier compete in the UFC after the bout, with
Strikeforce having dissolved its heavyweight division.
Mir
will look to rebound from a May thumping at the hands of current
UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos. The 33-year-old submission
specialist had won four of five since dropping his title to Brock
Lesnar in July 2009.
Also
33, Cormier has racked up 10 wins and seven finishes in less
than three years as a professional mixed martial artist. The
two-time U.S. Olympian finished his run through the Strikeforce
heavyweight grand prix in May with an impressive win over another
onetime UFC champ, Josh Barnett.
Source
Sherdog
|
Tax
records reveal DCA corruption & who cashed in big at the
California State Athletic Commission
By Zach
Arnold
As
we laid out in our June 16th budget analysis of exploding inspector
& in-state travel costs at the California State Athletic
Commission, we didn’t have any names initially to connect
to the murky data on the spreadsheets. All we knew is that somebody
was getting paid a lot of money on the taxpayer’s dime to
work shows.
Then,
we discovered that a significant reason for costs being so high
was due to the fact that those who benefited the most were also
full-time state employees during the day. The reason this was
important to note is because full-time state employees get paid
time-and-a-half when working as inspectors at CSAC. The time-and-a-half
is based on what salary is higher: your day job salary x 1.5
or regular CSAC salary (around $30/hour) x 1.5. If your day job
pays $40 an hour, suddenly working as a CSAC inspector meant
you were getting paid $60/hour for salary. On top of that, the
state employees got all sorts of travel benefits including airplane
tickets, Cadillac Escalade car rentals, meal money, and other
goodies. The end result is that you had figures such as $729,000
and $668,000 a year for inspector salary costs, while in-state
travel was well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per
year.
The
reason these costs raised so many eyebrows amongst those who
work at other state athletic commissions in America is because
most inspectors are paid a flat fee to work a show, usually a
few hundred dollars at most. Forget benefits like getting your
travel costs getting picked up by the taxpayer, too. Inspectors
in Nevada & New Jersey were flabbergasted to see just how
much money was being dished out in California.
The
apex of the civil war between the lowly California State Athletic
Commission and the politicians at the Department of Consumer
Affairs, which controls CSAC, was on June 26th in El Monte, California
when DCA sent a dozen officials to get George Dodd terminated
as Executive Director of CSAC. As we previously reported, there
was allegedly pressure from the state Senate’s Rules Committee
via Governor Jerry Brown’s office to commissioners at CSAC
to either fire Dodd or else have their one-year appointments
expire. Linda Forster, Brian Edwards, and Mike Munoz were all
appointed by Governor Brown to CSAC last year. They are all gone
from CSAC a year later. CSAC voted to censure, but not fire Dodd.
This drove DCA crazy and they were determined to make life hell
for those working at CSAC, including ambush fake 9 AM emergency
meetings to get a loan from the state’s General Fund.
A
loan? For an athletic commission? The truth is that CSAC didn’t
need a loan. Yes, there was a money crunch, but the commission
simply needed to adjust their budgeting costs for inspectors
and in-state travel. A few adjustments would have immediately
raised revenues at CSAC and nobody would have complained. George
Dodd asked DCA to tell the public that, no, CSAC was not in the
red by $35,000 and that there was still money left in the bank
account. DCA allegedly wouldn’t acknowledge this, as it
would have made getting a loan for CSAC more difficult. Even
after George Dodd’s resignation last Monday from CSAC, DCA
press flacks sent out e-mail talking points to The LA Times,
other newspapers, and members of the MMA media. Virtually no
one challenged their claim that CSAC was in the red by $35,000
and that CSAC would be in the red by $700,000 at the end of the
2012-2013 Fiscal Year. The $700,000-in-the-red claim was absolutely
absurd to make because it was propaganda by DCA from their insolvency
letter which claimed that spending would stay static… despite
the fact that everyone at CSAC said it would not.
Put
the actions of DCA into context. This is a government behemoth
that gets hundreds of millions of California taxpayer dollars
each year. There is a level of paranoia at Sacramento HQ that
is pungent. When trouble happens at one board or agency, DCA
management simply shifts those employees around to other agencies
in order to keep individuals on the payroll. There are employees
at DCA who got sued for sexual harassment, resulting in the agency
using taxpayer dollars to pay out enormous legal settlements.
And, yet, those employees still hang around at DCA today while
George Dodd, who got paid $88,000 as head of CSAC, was bum-rushed
out of the commission despite the fact that DCA hand-picked him
from Seattle just a couple of years ago.
I
am not an apologist for George Dodd. You’ve never heard
me make any comments judging his level of competency to try to
cover for the mistakes he has made. Others can do that. However,
the fact is that the media has devoured the talking points from
Consumer Affairs that Dodd is individually responsible for the
chaos at CSAC. It’s a scam. Don’t hate the player,
hate the game. Our focus in our investigation at CSAC has been
all about the antics of politicians at Consumer Affairs who have
turned a lowly athletic commission into a high-stakes political
circus revealing fingerprints from the biggest names in California
politics. Why a board like the California State Athletic Commission,
which generates $1.3M in revenue, has attracted so much attention
from so many powerful politicians is beyond logic. As Jordan
Breen detailed on Sherdog Radio a few weeks ago, DCA became paranoid
about CSAC because CSAC is simply a dumping & transfer ground
for other employees at various DCA boards. It’s simply a
mechanism to keep individuals in Sacramento so that they can
draw paychecks.
The
old adage follow the money always applies to these kinds of stories,
so that’s exactly what we did. We decided to go through
the publicly-disclosed tax records of officials at the Department
of Consumer Affairs to find out what has been going on. Where
did the money at CSAC go? Who benefited the most? Why were certainly
individuals paid more than others? Why is top management at DCA
always so involved in the activity at CSAC?
What
we discovered provides more pieces of the on-going puzzle.
Key
background information
The
Department of Consumer Affairs, as of 2011, had around 4,000
employees under their umbrella in Sacramento. Nearly 900 of them
make more than $60,000 and around 1,500 make over $50,000. The
upper echelon class, starting at $70,000 and above, is loaded
with people classified as project managers or investigators.
I’d hazard to say that up to a quarter of the DCA workforce
falls into these categories. By general estimates, DCA deals
with a tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
California taxpayer dollars. They have more boards & bureaus
than you can shake a stick at. There are so many boards, most
people at the agency can’t keep up with the activity at
every single agency.
Which
is why the particular focus by so many bureaucrats & politicians
in Sacramento towards a lowly athletic commission that generated
$1.3M USD in the last Fiscal Year is even more of a mystery.
There
are a tremendous amount of bureaucrats at DCA that are political
fixers. The sole job of these fixers is to shift around employees
from one department to another based on budgeting issues or if
political & liability problems arise. It’s a shell game.
Once you get your feet inside DCA, it’s like a vortex that
sucks you in. As long as you play the political game right, you
can easily get decades of employment in Sacramento.
The
surprise DCA dropped on George Dodd’s lap
George
Dodd was hand-picked by Brian Stiger, then a top bureaucrat at
DCA, to take over as Executive Director of the California State
Athletic Commission in 2010. George is from Seattle, so he’s
not exactly a creature of the Sacramento clan. He didn’t
know what the politics at DCA were all about. That’s how
DCA wanted it to be. They wanted full control over him and of
CSAC.
As
we went through the tax records of the Department of Consumer
Affairs in 2011, we noticed some very unusual filings. In 2011,
DCA paid money out to 51 different people for athletic inspector
work at CSAC. The payouts widely vary, but there was a curious
trend at the top of the pay scale. We noticed that there were
several inspectors who got inflated payments in 2011 despite
the fact that they either aren’t working now or weren’t
working in the past but only started working again.
The
secret? Political sabotage and incompetence by the Department
of Consumer Affairs towards various athletic inspectors. Between
issues regarding back pay owed to inspectors along with claims
filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
all of a sudden inspectors that hadn’t been getting paid
or getting event bookings started seeing some money come their
way. The result? DCA threw a stink bomb George Dodd’s way
on the balance sheet and resulted in extra inspector salary costs.
Keep in mind, some of the inspectors in question were around
before George Dodd became the Executive Director. In other words,
he had nothing to do with DCA’s political decisions and
yet they threw these inflated salaries his way and had him try
to manage the situation.
Potential
motivation for Denise Brown’s desire to fire George Dodd
Put
yourself in the shoes of one Denise Brown, the person appointed
by Governor Jerry Brown last January to take over as the top
boss at the Department of Consumer Affairs. You’ve been
working at DCA since the days of the Jimmy Carter administration.
You’ve gone in-and-out of various bureaus, from cosmetology
to CARB (California Air Resources Board). You’ve had years
where you made peanuts and other years where you drew a 6-figure
paycheck. Governor Brown really, really wants you as the head
of DCA. Although he appointed you to the top position at DCA,
you have to be confirmed by the state Senate’s Rules Committee.
If they don’t go along with your confirmation, your career
is finished.
Here’s
a layout of Denise Brown’s work history at Consumer Affairs:
Brown
was an advisor to the executive officer and staff of the California
Air Resources Board from 2009 to 2011. She served in the Department
of Consumer Affairs in multiple positions from 1977 to 2009,
including chief deputy director. Brown was chief deputy registrar
at the Contractors State License Board from 2004 to 2009, chief
deputy director at the Department of Consumer Affairs from 1999
to 2004 and a program administrator at the California Architects
Board from 1998 to 1999.
She
worked in multiple positions at the California State Board of
Barbering and Cosmetology from 1994 to 1998 and from 1987 to
1991, including executive officer of the board. She was deputy
chief of the Division of Consumer Affairs from 1981 to 1983 and
a legislative aide from 1977 to 1981. This position requires
Senate confirmation and the compensation is $144,504. Brown is
a Democrat.
Two
factors to consider here: a) The recent payouts from DCA to Denise
Brown & b) how much she stands to make as DCA’s #1.
The answer to point A is right below in graphic form. The answer
to point B is: potentially over $200,000 a year plus benefits.
Tax
data: 2007 -> 2009 -> 2010 -> 2011
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Rousimar
Palhares Out; Buddy Roberts In Against Yushin Okami at UFC 150
by Damon
Martin
A
late change has been made to the upcoming UFC 150 card in Denver
as Rousimar Palhares has been forced out of his fight with Yushin
Okami.
Greg
Jackson trained middleweight Buddy Roberts now steps in to face
Okami on the show happening on Aug. 11 at the Pepsi Center in
Denver. Roberts’ manager Ali Abdel Aziz from Dominance MMA
confirmed the news via Twitter late Tuesday evening, and also
independently confirmed the switch to MMAWeekly.com as well.
Buddy
Roberts gets a huge opportunity in only his second UFC fight
as he steps in to face perennial top ten middleweight Yushin
Okami on short notice.
Roberts
was already competing on the card against Colorado native Chris
Camozzi, but now moves up in the card to face Okami instead.
The
veteran middleweight, who is also an instructor at Greg Jackson’s
gym in New Mexico, has won his last six fights in a row including
his UFC debut where he defeated Caio Magalhaes by unanimous decision.
Now
he faces Yushin Okami in a bout that will still remain on the
main card for the UFC 150 pay-per-view headlined by lightweight
champion Benson Henderson in a rematch with Frankie Edgar.
As
for Rousimar Palhares, the nature of his injury has not been
revealed at this time, but for now he will sit on the sidelines
and await his return at a later date.
UPDATE:
Sources have also indicated that local fighter Chris Camozzi
has suffered a training injury and will not remain on the UFC
150 card. MMAWeekly.com will have more information on the show
as it develops.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Hi
Everyone,
Wanted to let you know the Boxing show this Saturday, July 28,
2012 at Palolo Gym has been postponed to a later date. Don't
know the exact date yet.
Thank You and Have a Great Evening!!!
Bruce Kawano
Amateur Boxing of Hawaii President.
Commissioner for Hawaii State Boxing Commission.
USA-Boxing Coaches/International Task Force Member.
Ringside Board of Advisors.
A.I.B.A. Athlete and Youth Commission.
Head Coach- Kawano Boxing Club.
USA National Boxing Team Coach.
Rock Bottom Sports Bar- General Manager.
Red Lions Manager
Boxing Coach - UFC Gym.
|
Renzo
Gracie Returning Soon; Possibly Brazil?
by Damon
Martin
In August, three of the new generation of Gracie fighters will
all compete on the upcoming One FC 5 show, taking place in Manila.
Brothers Rolles, Gregor and Igor will all take part in the One
FC show, Pride of a Nation, and trainer and family member Renzo
Gracie is working hard to get them all ready for their upcoming
bouts.
He’s working so hard in fact that he’s also reaping
the benefits of the training.
“To push them I’ve got to get myself in shape too.
Today we did like eight rounds and then we did three more rounds
of grappling. So even if I don’t want to, I get in shape,
and if I get in shape, I want to fight,” Gracie revealed
when speaking to MMAWeekly Radio. “So I’m really looking
forward to being back in there real soon.”
It’s been over two years since Gracie last competed in MMA
when he lost in his lone bout in the UFC against Hall of Famer
and former welterweight champion Matt Hughes.
Now that he’s helping his family members, and extended family
members like former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, get
ready for fights, Gracie is starting to feel the itch to get
back in the cage again.
“I’m going to drop a little bit of weight and I’ll
be in there for sure,” said Gracie.
As far as a return date, Gracie hasn’t set any goals for
himself, but there is an upcoming show in his home country of
Brazil that looks awfully intriguing. The UFC will return to
Rio de Janeiro in October for UFC 153, and while nothing has
been discussed yet, Gracie admits that the thought of fighting
in his home country certainly serves as motivation.
“That’s a possibility. In my life I learned one thing,
impossible is nothing,” Gracie stated about possibly competing
at UFC 153.
“I love the crowd there. I love the intensity that surrounds
the whole arena when you’re in Brazil fighting and Brazil
is cheering. It’s a different ball game.”
Gracie has spent much of his life competing and teaching, but
if there was one regret he has it’s that he never got to
fight much in his home country of Brazil.
If that opportunity presented itself, Gracie would have an awfully
hard time turning it down, and if it doesn’t happen at UFC
153 then keep your eyes on any future UFC card heading to Brazil.
“Almost my whole life I fought in foreign lands. I fought
in Japan, I fought in America, but I didn’t have the chance
to fight in Brazil as often as I would love to do it,” said
Gracie.
“For sure, if I have an opportunity I’ll be there.
If it’s not on this next one, believe it’s going to
be on a future one.”
At 45 years young, Gracie has found the fountain of youth working
with his cousins and other top fighters at his academy in New
York City, and he’s still got plenty of fight left in him.
Now it’s just a matter of when, not if, Gracie will return
to action.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Viewpoint:
Too Much, Too Soon
By Tristen
Critchfield
Conspicuous
by his absence at the UFC 149 post-fight press conference was
Hector Lombard, a man who entered the Octagon with the hoopla
befitting a mixed martial artist riding a 25-fight unbeaten streak.
Lombard
seemed to have the right blend of “it” to make him
a viable challenger for reigning middleweight champion Anderson
Silva: an impressive collection of YouTube highlights, an imposing
physique, an Olympic pedigree and, finally, just a touch of craziness
to make things interesting.
As
Saturday’s disappointing main card dragged on at the Scotiabank
Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, UFC President Dana White
found himself holding out hope that the man known as “Lightning”
would salvage the pay-per-view and give him potential material
for a big announcement regarding the 185-pound division at the
end of the evening.
Instead,
the furious flurries of offense that came to define the Cuban
judoka’s winning streak were nowhere to be found, as Lombard
dropped a split decision to Tim Boetsch in a bout that did not
seem to portend future No. 1 contender status for either man.
Sure, Lombard had his moments -- a body kick in round two, a
couple successful takedowns and stout defensive wrestling, but
this was a guy who could have vaulted to a showdown with arguably
the greatest champion in the sport with a dominant effort. Most
fighters are not considered for such an opportunity so early
in their UFC careers.
“It
wasn’t the fight I expected at all,” White said at
the press conference. “I don’t know if I was sickened
by it; it just wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be. Whether
it was Boetsch or Lombard winning, I thought it was gonna be
a real war. As the card was going on, I was thinking, ‘Thank
God, Boetsch and Lombard are coming up, because this is gonna
save the show.’”
It
was fitting then that Lombard did not make an appearance at the
traditional post-fight question-and-answer session. While his
sometimes combative attitude toward media could have made for
some potentially entertaining sound bites, he would have taken
attention away from more deserving -- and less heralded -- fighters
in attendance, such as Matt Riddle, Ryan Jimmo and Bryan Caraway.
Lombard had his chance to be a star by taking out Boetsch, an
opponent who has risen to Top 10 status since leaving the light
heavyweight division last year. Lombard failed to take advantage
of that opportunity.
Remember
the excitement that Chris Weidman generated a little more than
a week ago when he finished Mark Munoz inside of two rounds?
It felt like a new contender had emerged, and it was fun to ponder
the direction the talented Serra-Longo Fight Team representative’s
career might take. It was a reaction akin to the buzz generated
by Jon Jones’ breezing past Vladimir Matyushenko or Renan
Barao subbing Brad Pickett or Silva kneeing Chris Leben into
oblivion.
There
is just something special about the moment when a legitimate
star emerges, and many hoped Lombard’s coming out party
would occur at UFC 149. Instead, we got the exact opposite --
it felt like a potential championship candidate had been taken
away from us, thanks to his own passivity and a steady diet of
Boetsch leg kicks.
“It’s
the unfortunate thing about hype,” White said. “When
there’s a lot of hype behind you and you don’t live
up to it, it goes away really quick.”
To
understand where that hype came from, one must take a look at
whom Lombard defeated to establish his reputation as one of the
best middleweights outside the UFC. Notable victories for the
American Top Team product since 2006 came against the likes of
James Te Huna, Brian Ebersole, Kalib Starnes, Jay Silva, Alexander
Shlemenko, Joe Doerksen, Jesse Taylor and Trevor Prangley.
Te
Huna is certainly a solid win, but it is reasonable to assume
that he has progressed considerably since his 2007 meeting with
Lombard; Ebersole is a welterweight with designs on moving to
155 pounds, while Starnes, Silva, Doerksen, Taylor and Prangley
were Octagon journeymen at best with a combined 6-15 record in
the promotion. Shlemenko was Lombard’s most significant
test in recent years, but that win alone hardly justifies a title
shot in the world’s preeminent MMA organization.
Most
of the aforementioned names represent the types of fighters that
Lombard would have faced in a UFC preliminary matchup. Jumping
straight to a co-headliner -- and this was after Lombard was
originally scheduled to have been a main event attraction against
Brian Stann at UFC on Fox 4 -- is a serious step up, no matter
how much anyone tries to trumpet the quality of talent that exists
outside the Zuffa realm.
That
is why Mark Munoz took exception to Lombard’s fast-track
path, making it clear he thought the Cuban had been fighting
“cans” outside of the UFC. Prior to his loss to Weidman,
Munoz had won seven of his last eight fights in the Octagon,
so perhaps he had reason to be upset. Lombard has since called
out “The Filipino Wrecking Machine” for his comments.
Since both men are coming off losses, the pairing would align
with the promotion’s usual matchmaking patterns. However,
Lombard has not done anything to warrant another marquee fight,
and Munoz is still a top-flight 185-pounder and one who is conceivably
better than Boetsch.
Where
Lombard belongs for now is on the FX network against an Andrew
Craig, Francis Carmont or the like. See how he does there, and
then gradually move him up the divisional ladder. Realistically,
the contract that it took to lure Lombard away from Bellator
Fighting Championships dictates he will do no such thing. A bout
against Munoz or someone of a similar standing is much more likely.
However,
in a perfect world, with a middleweight division that is suddenly
vibrant with life, “Lightning” would have some serious
work to do -- gaudy record or not -- because, after Saturday,
Lombard does not appear to be who we thought he was.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Why
it’s possible UFC will get involved in CSAC chaos
By Zach
Arnold
When
I read the full-throated spin from the Department of Consumer
Affairs about the chaos at the California State Athletic Commission,
I wanted to vomit. It’s sickening to see DCA pushing spin
that is so laughable and so egregious that it can be easily challenged
by anyone with a brain. However, DCA has not been challenged
very often over the years in the press, especially by anyone
the fight media. Sure, DCA had their meltdown a few years ago
with The Los Angeles Times over a nursing board scandal and then-Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger had to clean house. However, DCA in large
part never gets challenged in the political press. They never
get challenged by the sports media, either. After all, why would
anyone in the press care about a bunch of bureaucrats that are
largely faceless to the public?
I
can assure you that, despite DCA’s weak and trollish spin
that is on display in articles like this, the atmosphere right
now at Sacramento headquarters is atrocious. The top players
in DCA management are allegedly questioning the loyalty of each
other. Government lifers are worried about who is currently backstabbing
others in the office and who will be the next to turn. They are
paranoid beyond belief. As I’ve stated in past articles
on this web site, DCA never expected any press coverage regarding
their business dealings… especially for an athletic commission.
How
paranoid are things at DCA HQ? Consider the following. A source
on background with knowledge of CSAC office inner workings claims
that the Department of Investigation, DCA’s unit of bloodhounds,
has confiscated hard drives of those at CSAC and is combing through
any and all electronic material they can to discover leads that
could help them out with such mysteries as media moles. DOI claims
they can get away with this thuggish tactic by claiming that
they have the right to confiscate materials from public employees.
However, the real reason they get away with this kind of behavior
is because they haven’t been challenged in court. It’s
not necessarily a new tactic from DOI, unfortunately. They’ve
pulled this stunt before on past CSAC employees who they wanted
to jettison out of town, fairly or unfairly. It’s abusive.
It’s
also a sign that confidence at the Department of Consumer Affairs
is totally shaken. Their confidence has been shaken by the CSAC
board members who fought back against their power play to terminate
George Dodd at the 6/26 El Monte hearing. As we demonstrated
recently, DCA got their revenge in spades against those who didn’t
carry out their orders. DCA’s confidence has also been shaken
by the fact that we’ve been covering their internal politics
and naming names.
On
Wednesday, we laid out the road map for the political players
who are causing chaos at the California State Athletic Commission.
The list of names reads like a who’s who of the major politicians
in CADEM (the California Democratic Party). Darrell Steinberg,
Governor Jerry Brown, Denise Brown (DCA boss), and Karen Chappelle
(California deputy AG). By revealing all of the fingerprints
from the major political players in California in regards to
the chaos at CSAC, we wanted to show you just how vulnerable
certain individuals are based on the whims of politicians who
have no desire to protect the best interests of the fight game
and have every interest in advancing not only their own careers
but the careers of political fixers.
The
development of key political players like Darrell Steinberg &
Governor Jerry Brown being involved directly or indirectly with
the mess at CSAC is an important news item to highlight for a
reason. It’s a revealing development when you juxtapose
it to what recently happened in California for the political
battle over AB2100.
As
Dan Morain of The Sacramento Bee laid out in his July 1st article,
the Fertitta family spread a lot of money around to various politicians
& lobbyists to kill the legislative process for passing AB2100.
A major reason for Fertitta family power in California is because
of the money they have invested in Indian casinos. The Teamsters
and other unions have their own money in pensions tied up to
the fortunes of Indian gaming. Money talks and the Fertitta family
knows how to push the right buttons in Sacramento. Dan pointed
out that Zuffa gave CADEM $15,000 in mid-May and gave Governor
Jerry Brown $50,000.
If
Zuffa got worked up over AB2100, you can only imagine how interested
they will be in the fortunes of the California State Athletic
Commission and the regulatory climate in California. Actions
speak louder than words and Zuffa knows California is still an
important cog in their future business plans.
Which
leads us to what is about to happen to CSAC thanks to its political
decimation at the hands of the Department of Consumer Affairs,
Governor Jerry Brown’s office, and the state Senate’s
Rules Committee led by Darrell Steinberg. If you are the UFC
and you see the power vacuum that has been created at CSAC, you
can look at it as a chance to grab some additional political
power in California in order to ensure that the regulatory terms
are most favorable to your business needs for running major shows
in the state.
An
educated person might suspect that UFC is interested in pulling
some strings to see if they can mold the future of CSAC, if DCA
wants to keep it alive. As we reported over the last couple of
days, the Department of Consumer Affairs is interested in gutting
the CSAC office in Sacramento so that they only have employees
at the office based on seniority for working for the state of
California as opposed to actual experience in the fight business.
This would mean that individuals like Sarah Waklee, who work
at CSAC and also works as an inspector at various shows throughout
the state, would likely be a goner.
However,
we have heard Waklee’s name bandied about over the last
week after she appeared with inspector Che Guevara at the UFC
event (Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman) in San Jose at HP Pavilion.
According to a CSAC source, there is an impression in some Sacramento
political circles that UFC would be interested in seeing Waklee
groomed to become the next Executive Director of CSAC. Despite
the fact that she has various detractors, she’s 33 years
old and really likes her job. To paraphrase why UFC would be
interested in having her as the new Executive Director at CSAC,
one Sacramento source framed it this way: she could be a target
that UFC could try to persuade and influence.
Just
remember… former CSAC Executive Director Armando Garcia
now works for the Fertitta empire.
There
are so many questions regarding why DCA, Darrell Steinberg, Jerry
Brown, Denise Brown, and a host of others are acting the way
they are right now about CSAC. It would be a fascinating scenario
to see how DCA would react to UFC throwing around cash if they
thought they would manipulate or steer the process as to who
DCA and Governor Brown would pick as the next Executive Director
at CSAC. Given that the biggest names in Sacramento already have
their fingerprints on the mess at CSAC, it’s not just a
money play that is motivating the decision making process.
If
you are UFC, would you be willing to get involved in such a toxic
political climate in order to try to shake things up in order
to influence who the next DCA puppet will be at CSAC? Zuffa wasn’t
afraid to spread the wealth around with lobbyists and politicians
over AB2100. The power vacuum in Sacramento might prove to be
an opportunity for the boys in Las Vegas to really flex their
political muscle in the state and to protect turf that is of
importance to their yearly show schedule.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Gilbert
Melendez vs. Pat Healy to Headline Strikeforce's September Event
By Ariel
Helwani - Video Reporter and Writer
Gilbert Melendez's next title defense will be against Pat Healy.
Strikeforce
announced on Wednesday that "El Nino," the promotion's
lightweight champion, will meet Healy in the main event of its
Sept. 29 event in Sacramento, Calf.
Heavyweight
Daniel Cormier was scheduled to compete in his final Strikeforce
fight in the co-main event, but he will now face Frank Mir later
this fall.
The
card, which will take place at the Power Balance Pavilion (formerly
known as Arco Arena), will air on Showtime. The undercard will
air on Showtime Extreme.
Melendez
(21-2) has won his last seven fights in a row. He most recently
defeated Josh Thomson via split decision in May.
Healy
(28-16) enters the title fight riding a five-fight winning streak.
He extended his streak earlier this month when he beat Mizuto
Hirota via unanimous decision.
Tickets
for the event go on sale to the general public this Saturday.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Hector
Lombard Goes Back to the Drawing Board, but Not at 170
by Ken
Pishna
Hector Lombard, at UFC 149 on Saturday night in Calgary, lost
his first fight since late 2006. That’s a stretch that spans
25 fights, including only one draw.
But now, after losing to Tim Boetsch in the Octagon, Lombard
is left to figure out what went wrong.
It takes two to tango and Boetsch certainly didn’t make
it easy for Lombard to implement his usual bombastic game plan.
Although Lombard tried swinging for the fences, searching for
that explosive knockout that he’s known for, Boetsch kept
his distance, using his reach advantage and lots of movement
to stay out of Lombard’s power range.
“I was able to keep throwing those kicks and keep him at
distance,” remarked Boetsch after the fight. “He didn’t
land the big shots that he wanted to. I was able to frustrate
him and I was able to not let him dictate the range.”
Still, Lombard seems to feel he fell flat, to one extent or another,
in his Octagon debut.
“That wasn’t the real Hector,” he posted on Twitter
on Monday, answering to fans and critiques alike.
UFC president Dana White concurred, saying maybe Lombard should
consider dropping down a weight class. “Lombard maybe should
fight at 170. He made 185 easily.”
As of right now, however, the Cuban born Australian doesn’t
sound like he’s ready to contemplate such a move.
“I feel strong at 185. Just because I had a bad fight does
not mean that I am going to drop to 170,” Lombard wrote
on Twitter.
Regardless of what class he decides to fight in next, Lombard
has some work to do. Being a former Bellator champion and Olympian,
coupled with his amazing winning streak, there was a lot of hype
surrounding his UFC debut.
That’s a lot of hype that now falls into the shadows and
will have to be earned all over again.
“It’s the unfortunate thing about hype,” commented
White after UFC 149. “When there’s a lot of hype behind
you and you don’t live up to it, you go away real quick.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Royler
Gracie launches Diet App
Ivan Trindade
GMA member Royler Gracie is offering another way of experiencing
the Gracie way of life.
The leader of Gracie Humaita just launched an IPhone/IPad App
that features the Gracie Diet.
Royler states the following about the App: “Now you can
easily follow Gracie Diet. You have a Diet specialist 24/7 in
your pocket”.
For more info, go to graciepowerdiet.com.
Source: Gracie Magazine
|
UFC
on Fox 4 Main or Co-Main Event to Determine Next Title Contender
at 205lbs
by Damon
Martin
The
common theme with the last two UFC on Fox shows is that the main
event could hold title implications for a particular division.
At UFC on Fox 2, Rashad Evans earned a title shot at champion
Jon Jones when he defeated Phil Davis in the main event. The
same was true at UFC on Fox 3 when Nate Diaz submitted Jim Miller,
and now he sits awaiting a shot at the UFC lightweight belt.
It appears the UFC will keep that theme alive with a pair of
light heavyweight bouts leading the card at UFC on Fox 4, albeit
in a very confusing and befuddling manner.
According to a report from Fox Sports on Wednesday, UFC president
Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva will find the next light
heavyweight title contender out of the two main event bouts heading
the card in Los Angeles on Aug. 4.
Should Mauricio “Shogun” Rua defeat Brandon Vera in
impressive fashion, he’s likely the man who will get the
call to next compete for the UFC light heavyweight title. If
Rua loses or doesn’t shine the way most expect him to against
opponent Brandon Vera then the UFC will turn its attention to
the co-main event bout between Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader.
“These fighters have a huge opportunity to show the world
why they deserve to fight for the UFC title next,” White
said in an email to Fox Sports. “Winning isn’t enough
at UFC on Fox. This division is so competitive these fighters
have to look great to separate themselves from the pack.
“I’m expecting all of these guys to go all-out to prove
why they should be next in line for a title shot.”
This move can only be received with more than a few puzzling
looks and raised eyebrows when considering whom the UFC light
heavyweight champion is right now.
Jon “Bones” Jones stands as the reigning and defending
champion at 205 pounds and he’s blasted through all three
of the potential names that could earn a title shot at next weekend’s
UFC on Fox 4 card.
Jones submitted Bader in early 2011 to earn a title shot against
then champion Shogun, who he then dismantled and destroyed via
TKO to claim the title in March of last year.
Jones then met former champion Machida in December 2011 and proceeded
to choke him unconscious via guillotine to wrap up his second
consecutive title defense.
Obviously Jones’ standing as champion could change because
he has a title fight already scheduled for Sept. 1 in Las Vegas
at UFC 151. He faces former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan
Henderson. Should Henderson win, that throws a whole new spin
on the title picture.
The key thing to remember with all of the “No. 1 contender”
talk with this show is the fact that the UFC has on numerous
occasions in the past stated that a fight would determine the
next title challenger only to change their minds after the night
was over.
Jon Fitch was in a No. 1 contender’s bout against Thiago
Alves at UFC 117 in 2010, but following his victory he never
actually received the nod for a title shot.
That’s just one of many instances where a fighter or bout
was intended to determine a No. 1 contender and eventually the
UFC shifted gears after the fact.
With the UFC on Fox 4 show just over a week away, the title talk
certainly adds an extra layer of drama to the fights on the card,
but don’t expect any of the winners in the two main events
to be handed a championship contract upon exiting the Octagon
that night.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Exclusive:
Belcher challenges Belfort: “It would be the biggest fight
of my career”
By Luca
Gomes
Anderson Silva needs a challenge, and Alan Belcher eyes a win
over former middleweight contender Vitor Belfort to build way
over this position.
“I am working on it. I want Vitor. It makes sense, but he
has to agree,” Belcher told TATAME via email. “It would
be the biggest fight of my career. He needs to fight me to be
the best right now. He knows it but is smart, he knows I am hard
to beat. I would appreciate the opportunity and take the fight
very seriously”.
“I loved Rio when I visited. I have friends there and I
would be very comfortable. I look forward to winning the fight
and winning more Brazilian fans”, he added.
Alan believes that a win over Belfort would be enough or him
to earn a title show. “He is the best fighter in the decision
and most dangerous”, he explains, ranking him among the
best middleweights. “My ranking, I feel I am the best. I
will fight to prove it. If I lose, then I'm wrong”.
Anderson Silva is the reigning middleweight king, but Belcher
believe he has what it takes to dethrone him.
“I believe I will bear him when I get an opportunity. There
is no other fighter that possesses my skills on the decision.
Size, power, speed, black belt BJJ, well rounded striking, heart,
and drive”.
Alan Belcher vs. Vitor Belfort agreed set for UFC 153
Photo Eduardo Ferreira
Alan Belcher called out Vitor Belfort, and the UFC liked the
idea, as the pair of middleweights are set to fight at UFC 153,
in Rio de Janeiro, on October 13th.
“Dana White’s decision was (to fight) Belfort at UFC
Rio. Let’s do it”, “The Phenom” wrote on
his Twitter.
The winner of this fight will get a step closer to a title shot,
against middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
UFC 153’s main event will feature the featherweight collision
between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch, for the world title, and the
main card will also have Rampage Jackson’s final fight,
against Glover Teixeira.
Sergio Moraes vs. Renée Forte and Cristiano Marcello vs.
Reza Madadi are already set for the prelims, while TUF Brazil
winner Rony Jason waits for an opponent.
Source: Tatame
|
MMA
Roundtable: Faber's Next Move, Grading the UFC-FOX Partnership,
More
By Luke
Thomas - Senior Editor
It's a quiet weekend (for the most part) in mixed martial arts,
but there are issues to address both past and present. After
UFC 149, poor officiating reared its ugly head again. We also
have to consider where one of the most popular lighter weight
fighters goes forward in his storied career. As the fourth installment
of UFC on FOX 4 approaches next weekend, we find ourselves one
year into the historic marriage between the world's top MMA league
and their broadcast partner. How would one grade the first year
of the partnership? And hey, there's an all-women's fighting
organization in North America putting on their second show this
weekend. Can they really succeed as viable programming and turn
a profit?
To help me sort through these issues, my colleague Dave Doyle
joined me in this week's installment of the MMA roundtable.
1. What is Urijah Faber's best career option in the wake of his
UFC 149 loss to Renan Barao?
Doyle: On Monday's MMA Hour, Faber said that he still considers
himself at the top of the bantamweight division. That's not an
unfair assessment. There's no shame in losing to Dominick Cruz
or Renan Barao, it's not like he was blown out of either fight,
and he's beaten everyone else he's met at 135 pounds.
But if Faber is going to commit to making another run at the
top of the division -- knowing the type of competitor Faber is,
I don't doubt he's going to give it his all -- he's also going
to have to accept that in order to do so, he's going to have
to fight some guys who will be looking to make their name off
beating him. A title shot any time soon is out of the question.
There's no point in rehashing fights against guys like Brian
Bowles or Eddie Wineland, whom he's already beaten.
Faber has indicated he's not necessarily interested in fighting
someone like Miguel Torres in a "just for the heck of it"
sort of way. So that means Faber is going to have to fight some
of the up-and-comers in the division, whether that turns out
to be Michael McDonald or someone else. "The California
Kid" will need to string together a few wins of that nature
before he's seriously considered in the title picture again.
Thomas: I generally agree with Faber's take on matters. I also
agree with Dave here. If Faber is to continue his run at bantamweight
because he isn't getting blown out and he's still positive about
his chances, more power to him.
But he also might need to consider tactical adjustments, if they
can even be made at age 33. Faber's right that he isn't getting
handily defeated. He's very competitive with both Dominick Cruz
and Renan Barao. But he's also consistently coming up a bit short.
Something's not going right and if he is to continue fighting,
he'll need to adjust for what's holding him back.
Far be it from me to offer strategy advice to a fighter as accomplished
as Faber, but I'm going to try anyway. Either he needs to create
more scrambles where he can assume better clinched or ground
positions or at a minimum keep his opponent off balance while
he scores with strikes. The other option is to augment his striking
so he doesn't have to rush opposition to get inside their reach.
Faber adding a double or triple jab to close distance would be
a welcome addition.
Whatever he chooses is fine just as long as he realizes something
needs to be adjusted. He can't fight the way he is now and beat
Cruz or Barao. He won't get blown out and he'll beat everyone
else at bantamweight, but who wants to be close but no cigar?
2. Was Dana White's criticism of the UFC 149 officiating fair?
Doyle: It was mostly fair, but it also wasn't the biggest issue
with UFC 149.
Josh Rosenthal made a mistake when he stepped in after what he
erroneously thought was a low blow in the Matt Riddle-Chris Clements
fight, but he was let off the hook somewhat when Riddle went
on to win the fight. Yves Lavigne should have been more proactive
about restarting the action during Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan,
particularly during the brutally dull third round. But in that
case, would it have really made a difference? Given that Jordan's
game plan rarely deviated from unsuccessful takedown attempts
and Kongo repeatedly landed single strikes and then pinned Jordan
against the fence, it's hard to see that the fight would have
morphed into a thriller even if Lavigne was quick to reset them.
That referees are obvious targets for criticism is something
that transcends across sports, which made it easy for White to
focus his wrath on the third man in. Just look at the conspiracy
theorists who pop up anytime a star in the NBA has a call go
in their favor. But poor officiating was just one of a laundry
list of things that went wrong at UFC 149. There was plenty of
blame to go around.
Thomas: Mostly, yes. He was probably a bit harsh on Lavigne,
but not in anyway that deserves push back.
Referee Josh Rosenthal can't seem to shake off whatever ailed
him during the Munoz vs. Weidman fight. His botching of the liver
kick in the Riddle vs. Clements fight was very, very bad and
frankly, uncharacteristic of a referee who is generally quite
capable. White's commentary there was absolutely deserved.
As far as Lavigne is concerned in not stepping in sooner during
the Jordan vs. Kongo bout, White is mostly right. There were
a few moments that probably called for a restart. However, there
were also moments where there wasn't a ton of 'action', but there
was also a lot of inside pummeling. When fighters are jockeying
for position like that, you have to let them sort it out. Again,
Lavigne's problem was that he didn't restart when Kongo and Jordan
stopped pummeling, but the idea that there was an endless array
of opportunities for Lavigne to step in is not true.
I'm torn on this issue of criticizing referees. On the one hand,
some of these errors seem egregious. On the other hand, refereeing
is a brutally unforgiving gig. It's zero tolerance and every
decision - major or minor - holds enormous consequences. Yes,
the calls were bad, but if Rosenthal is making bad calls, who
is making the good ones? I hate to suggest we have to live with
a certain measure of 'error toleration', but it may just be the
reality we're living in.
3. The month of August marks the first year of the UFC-FOX parternship.
There are six years left, but how would you grade the overall
performance of the partnership in this first one?
Thomas:
I'd give it a C. Maybe C+. The deal is working splendidly for
one party, not so much for the other.
Overall,
the FOX platforms are doing well after one year. FUEL is quite
obviously bigger than it's ever been, the ratings in terms of
getting key male demos in time slots where they've historically
been lacking are way up on FX and while the last UFC on FOX show
wasn't a ratings bonanza, the first two shows did great. And
even then, Saturday night MLB games occasionally do only marginally
better than UFC on FOX 3 (although it still was disappointing
in terms of UFC's ability to deliver).
The
group not getting the most out of the deal is the UFC. That isn't
to say they aren't getting anything. Ratings on FX for pay-per-view
prelims are doing well and as I mentioned above, they're giving
their broadcast partners a lot to work with. The problem is it's
not clear the UFC on FOX shows are really turning new fans into
pay-per-view subscribers, programming on FUEL is essentially
lost content and 'The Ultimate Fighter' on FX is anything but
revived. The splintered platforms aren't making it exactly easy
for UFC fans to know when and how to access content. I'd also
add that FOX being M.I.A. on UFC 148 in terms of even offering
cursory promotion was a fairly egregious moment of negligence.
Oh, and this UFC-FOX deal was also supposed to usher in a new
set of sponsors for the UFC that were previously unattainable.
The
good news is there are six years left. That's a lot of time to
figure things out. Here's to hoping they do.
Doyle: I don't think I can grade it yet. If I had to, I'd give
it an "Incomplete" and hand it back for more work.
The main lesson out of the UFC on FOX ratings so far is the same
one we learned from Elite XC on CBS: Stars draw audiences on
network television. Fights that look good on paper in and of
themselves don't. In an ideal world, UFC on FOX 3 would have
made pay-per-view draws out of guys like Nate Diaz and Alan Belcher
after they looked so good in winning their fights. UFC still
needs to find the sweet spot where they're able to give FOX big
enough names to draw a network-worthy rating without cannibalizing
pay-per-view buys. This is an ongoing trial-and-error process.
Fuel TV, to me, seems to be a matter of FOX using UFC as a bargaining
chip to get the network carried on more cable systems. It wouldn't
be the first time a popular brand was used by a corporate giant
to get a station on more systems and it won't be the last. I
think it's fair to assume UFC understood this going in. In the
short term, it seems a shame a lot of people are missing out
on what has been a consistently good UFC on Fuel TV series (including
the leader for fight of the year so far in Chan Sung Jung vs.
Dustin Poirier), but if two years from now pressure from fans
means Fuel is in twice as many homes as it is now, then the short-term
losses will have been worth it for FOX.
As for FX, I've already stated my opinion that as long as The
Ultimate Fighter basically features a bunch of dudes hanging
around a house, it doesn't matter whether it's on Spike or FOX
or running simultaneously on every major network. A stale concept
is a stale concept. At the very least, the solid ratings for
UFC PPV prelims on FX shows that fans will find what they want
to watch regardless of the channel.
I don't necessarily agree with Luke's take that FOX should have
been promoting Silva vs. Sonnen. They weren't making money off
it, and on that night, there were so many people tuning in to
the PPV broadcast that UFC was taking away from viewership of
FOX properties. But I agree with the general notion FOX should
do more to plug their UFC programming. The promotion for Cain
Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos was through the roof and so were
the ratings. UFC on FOX 3 promotion was almost nonexistent and
that, too, showed in the ratings. There's a lesson there.
Finally,
I'll note that as I work on this, my local FOX Sports Net affiliate
is airing the Roy Nelson-Fabricio Werdum fight and Fuel is airing
UFC Tonight. I'm flipping between the two rather than watching
something on a non-FOX network. I can't be the only one out there
watching more random second-run UFC programming now than in the
past. It's a small thing, but this sort of ubiquity can only
build the brand even further.
4. Invicta FC aren't only trying to sell tickets and present
women's fighting as viable sports programming, they're also trying
to fix everything that's wrong with the sport. Can they really
be successful?
Thomas: I'd like to believe they can and I most certainly hope
they do, but I'm really skeptical.
Women's
athletics - in terms of thriving sports that are profitable and
deliver as television content - tend to do well in spaces where
the downgrade in the quality of play from the men's game is negligible
or nonexistent (or better, although I maintain that's rare).
In sports like gymnastics, they're different in terms of what
the competitors are required to do, but the general rule still
holds. In games like tennis, there are fewer sets in the women's
side and they may not hit the ball quite is hard, but the game
is extraordinarily similar. No one ever says. 'I only watch men's
tennis'. They'd be missing out on a crucial part of the game.
Contrast that with basketball. The women of the WNBA are obviously
incredibly talented athletes, but the level of play relative
to the NBA is a significant downgrade.
Can women's MMA be delivered in such a way that it's as entertaining
as the men's? In a sport where the game naturally rewards athleticism
and big power matters, I doubt it. But who cares? It doesn't
have to match the men's game on the men's games' terms. Like
gymnastics, it can be separate but equal. The question is can
one organization holding fights in the Midwest on off-UFC weekends
get the sport to a point where it can be enjoyed for it's high
level and special quality of play? I have a hard time believing
that.
Doyle: What's that Chinese proverb about the thousand-mile journey?
It begins with a single step. I think instead of aiming to come
out of the gate and fix all of the sport's problems, the folks
involved with Invicta should simply focus on putting on great
events. And on that count, they're off to a solid start. The
more opportunities women have to compete, the better the chances
are that more women will be attracted to taking up MMA. Just
like we've heard for years how male fighters were inspired as
kids watching the likes of Royce Gracie, there are no doubt girls
and women looking to fight because they've watched Gina Carano
or Ronda Rousey. And while its true Strikeforce has locked up
most of the elite women's talent, a full-time women's promotion
is the next step in that evolution. If Invicta focuses on simply
putting on one quality event at a time rather than make it a
goal to "fix everything wrong with the sport," then
they might eventually find the problems they're looking to solve
sort themselves out on their own.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
The
Legality of a Beatdown Before, After the Bell
By Jeffrey
B. Aris
One
of the most captivating aspects of mixed martial arts is the
variety with which combat can be waged: punches, kicks, wrestling,
jiu-jitsu, even aikido, if one is counseled by a famous sensei.
A more troubling and legally dicey situation occurs when these
actions fall outside the confines of regulated combat.
There
have been several instances in MMA and boxing where fighters
have taken their craft beyond the bounds of regulated action.
Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator Joe Rogan excitedly
remarked that Paul Daley should be arrested for assault after
his post-fight sucker punch on Josh Koscheck at UFC 113. The
terms “assault” and “battery” are often discussed
by many MMA fans, yet it is important to understand the legal
significance of each.
While
actual legal definitions of assault and battery differ based
on jurisdiction, the two crimes are most meaningfully different
in that assault is viewed as the threat of force while battery
is the actual offensive contact. In the most complete sense,
assault is defined as the “threat or use of force to another
that causes that person to have reasonable apprehension of imminent
bodily harm.” Battery, on the other hand, is defined as
“the unlawful application of force to another resulting
in either bodily injury or offensive touching.”
Understanding
the differences between assault and battery is essential to understanding
the ramifications of one fighter hitting another fighter after
the bell. In some instances, an assault cannot occur if the victim
does not have an impending sense of fear of an attack. This means
that a sucker punch, as in a punch that one does not see coming,
such as Daley’s punch to Koscheck at UFC 113, could not
fit the aforementioned legal definition of assault since the
victim did not see the punch and thus did not have the requisite
awareness of the assault. The same would be true if a fighter
was tackled or hit from behind.
Although
assault may have more legal wrangling, it is clear to most of
us that criminal battery occurs frequently in combat sports.
Anderson Silva’s shoulder check of Chael Sonnen at the UFC
148 weigh-in would qualify as a battery. Dereck Chisora committed
the same when he slapped Vitali Klitschko during the weigh-in
for their heavyweight boxing match. Many fans questioned whether
some of the punches in the K.J. Noons-Jorge Gurgel fight came
after the bell at Strikeforce “Houston.” Andreas Spang
and Maiquel Falcao got in a post-fight scuffle that cost Spang
20 percent of his purse at Bellator 66. Numerous other examples
of unsanctioned hits are prevalent in fans’ minds. The question
then begs as to why have fighters not been criminally charged
for these unsanctioned hits?cost him.
The
chief reason is that MMA and boxing are regulated by state athletic
commissions. Thus, a government entity already exists that, by
design, is responsible for oversight and discipline rather than
the criminal justice system. Because of this built-in government
regulation, most district attorneys are hesitant to punish fighters
for these unlawful acts unless the situation rises to the extreme.
Despite
the lack of fighters facing criminal charges for harming their
opponent outside of a regulated event, there are examples of
the occurrence. The most serious example of a fighter hitting
another in an unsanctioned capacity occurred in a November 2001
charity boxing event between James Butler and Richard Grant.
Butler, the favorite in the bout, lost a decision to the underdog
Grant. Once the fight concluded and both boxers had their gloves
removed, Butler approached Grant seemingly to shake hands. Instead,
he threw a haymaker that sent Grant to the canvas with a dislocated
jaw and a lacerated tongue.
The
Butler-Grant sucker punch is the most complete example of a fighter’s
post-fight actions garnering the attention of the legal system.
Since the fight occurred at a fundraiser to support the victims
of the 9/11 attacks, the Roseland Ballroom in New York was full
of police officers. Numerous members of the NYPD were witnesses
to the malicious post-bell hit, and Butler was escorted from
his dressing room to the police station where he was charged
with second-degree assault. Butler served four months in prison
after pleading guilty for second-degree assault for the late
hit, and he was later sentenced to 29 years in prison for the
homicide of boxing commentator Max Kellerman’s brother,
Sam Kellerman.
Outside
of the Grant-Butler fracas, the more common disciplinary authority
for unsanctioned violence has been in the form of a state athletic
commission disciplinary hearing.
Mike
Tyson was no stranger to arousing the dismay of athletic commissions.
His most notorious fight was when he was disqualified after biting
both ears of Evander Holyfield in their 1996 rematch. Aside from
this infamous incident, Tyson’s boxing license was also
under scrutiny before the Nevada Athletic Commission, which had
to determine whether he should be sanctioned for a late hit in
his 1999 fight with Orlin Norris in which Tyson punched Norris
after the bell in the first round.
The
punch sent Norris to the canvas, and he was unable to continue
due to his knee being injured in the fall. Referee Richard Steele
declared that the punch came after the bell, yet held it to be
accidental, and the fight was ruled a no contest instead of a
disqualification win for Norris. After the fight, the NAC launched
a formal investigation into whether any of Tyson’s $8.7
million dollar purse should be withheld. In the end, the commission
determined that the late hit was accidental and did not warrant
any punishment.
Within
the MMA sphere, NAC provision 467.7962 sets out fouls in which
a fighter can be disciplined for improper conduct. Rule 22, engaging
in any unsportsmanlike conduct that causes an injury to an opponent
, and rule 27, attacking an opponent after the bell of the period
of unarmed combat, are two of the primary regulatory devices
used to sanction an MMA fighter who hits another fighter after
the bell.
Recently,
the MMA newswire was abuzz with activity, not just from the long-awaited
rematch between Sonnen and Silva at UFC 148 but from the shoulder
check from the champion at the weigh-in. While Sonnen seemingly
shrugged off the quick strike from Silva’s shoulder, NAC
Executive Director Keith Kizer was not as dismissive of the event
as was the challenger. Kizer told MMAjunkie.com he confronted
Silva after the incident and said, “if you ever ... despite
your previous record with us as a good licensee, if you ever
do anything like this again, that’s it for you in Nevada.
You’ll be fighting your fights elsewhere.”
Many
fans thought that this reaction from Kizer was bluster, yet his
reaction to an unsanctioned hit is nearly identical to the sentiment
reached by a former commissioner upon his inquiry in the aforementioned
Tyson-Norris fight. Then athletic commissioner and current chief
executive officer of the UFC, Lorenzo Fertitta, issued a stern
warning that Tyson’s antics were getting old and, “my
advice is to pack Mike Tyson’s bags up and take this act
on the road, I’m not so sure we need him in the state of
Nevada any longer.”
MMA
has steadily gained popularity for a multitude of reasons. Chief
among them is the nature of competition inherent to every event.
While football, baseball and other traditional sports showcase
competition, MMA is competition derived in its purest form: a
fight. A career in combat sports draws those who are innately
competitive and those with a desire to excel in this pure form
of competition. While we are likely to see more instances where
fighters take their craft beyond the bell, let us hope that MMA’s
best moments remain inside the cage.
Source
Sherdog
|
Peter
Dabbene: Lost in translation (why worldwide growth could backfire
on the UFC domestically)
By Zach
Arnold
Peter
Dabbene is a writer of short stories, novels, graphic novels,
and plays; he is a reviewer and a columnist, and yes, a poet
(but a tough one). His website is www.peterdabbene.com.
I’ve
been a dedicated UFC fan for a long time—my wife and I watched
UFC 44 in a hospital room a few hours after she gave birth. In
the years following, I’ve seen the UFC exhaust the supply
of adjectives for their events—no more “UFC 46: Supernatural”
or “UFC 112: Invincible“, or my choice for most misleading
title, “UFC 73: Stacked”, which, disappointingly, did
not feature the fighting debuts of Arianny and the other octagon
girls. I’ve witnessed the UFC grow worldwide and sign more
fighters than ever, sponsoring more events per month than the
local PTA. But even as the UFC expands, there’s a factor
that could put the brakes on that growth, at least in the U.S.A.—the
language barrier.
Unwatchable
though it was, that first two-hour episode of The Ultimate Fighter:
Live—in which Urijah Faber, Dominic Cruz, and Dana White
were collectively reduced to the occasional whisper of “Wow”
or “He’s good”—was at least in English. TUF:
Brazil proved worse: I like Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort
as much as the next guy, but the MMA audience doesn’t generally
overlap a whole lot with fans of foreign films and subtitles,
and reading translations of Portuguese at the bottom of the screen
gets old quick. It’s bad enough when fighters give the same
canned threats in those pre-fight sound bites; having to read
them in captions is cruel and unusual punishment.
To
make clear that I’m not declaring war on an entire country,
a la Chael Sonnen (everyone’s favorite xenophobe), let me
say that I have nothing against Brazil, or Brazilians, other
than the fact that I’ve suffered through a few too many
excruciating post-fight interviews featuring high-pitched Brazilian
voices and staccato English-y summaries by translators. I think
Ed Soares is cool and all, but I’ll take a fun blowhard
that I can understand like Matt Mitrione over a more technically
skilled foreign-speaking fighter any day.
See,
the thing is, after a while, even the best technique gets boring;
the blowhards and larger-than-life characters keep it all fun.
Despite their technical shortcomings, Brock Lesnar and Tito Ortiz
made fights interesting, just through their personalities. Forrest
Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, too. For me, a less-skilled slugger
like Chris Leben or Matt Brown is a helluva lot more interesting
to watch than Renan Barão or the latest (Brazilian) Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Love them or hate them, at least these
U.S. fighters are memorable.
Brazilian
fighters overall seem very humble and respectful of the sport—and
that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t play well for a
nation reared on reality TV meltdowns, like the U.S. Even when
a Brazilian fighter is talking smack, it’s just not quite
the same in halting English or after they’ve had to give
the nod to their manager to indicate that they’re done talking
now.
We’ve
all learned that in Portuguese, starting R’s make the English
“H” sound, and W’s make the “V” sound.
Then, just to throw us all off, Jose Aldo came along and informed
us all that we’re supposed to pronounce the “J”.
Short of free Berlitz classes for all, it’s not likely that
the U.S.-Brazil communication gap will narrow anytime soon.
Some
Brazilian fighters are undeniably exciting, English-speakers
or no. They bring something different to the table—Lyoto
Machida’s style is unlike any other fighter, as are, to
some degree, Vitor and Wanderlei’s “go for the KO,
make an exciting fight” style. And Anderson Silva’s
just a freak.
But
there’s a generation of fighters coming up who are technically
sound in every way—and boring as hell to watch. This is
true of U.S. fighters, too, not just Brazilians; the difference
is that U.S. fighters can find other ways to differentiate themselves—a
U.S. audience can relate to them. The language barrier makes
a lot of Brazilian fighters seem all but interchangeable—and
the fact that most of them are named Silva doesn’t help,
either.
I’m
picking on Brazil because given the current names at the top
of the weight classes, you can make the case that Brazil is on
the verge of dominating the UFC. Demographics seem to indicate
a tidal surge of Brazilian fighters heading for the UFC in future
years; aside from the current crop on TUF: Brazil and elsewhere,
every poverty-stricken kid in Brazil is probably looking at Anderson
Silva and Junior Dos Santos right now and thinking, “Why
not me?” Many of these will wash out, but 5 or 10 years
down the road, it’s likely that there will be a large number
of very, very good Brazilian fighters.
Meanwhile,
the UFC seems to be looking at the global market in the same
way that any Fortune 500 company might—they have a “product”—mixed
martial arts, UFC-style—and they want to scale up production
to maintain the flow of new fighters and increase profits; hence,
the upcoming TUF: India, and soon, in all likelihood, TUF: Japan,
TUF: Thailand, and TUF: France.
OK,
just kidding about TUF: France.
Just
as many big companies have done before, the UFC may be overreaching.
McDonald’s once charged into China with grand plans, only
to watch competitor Kentucky Fried Chicken better adapt to local
tastes (squid on a stick, anyone?). While KFC hasn’t exactly
forced McDonald’s to tap out just yet, this and other cautionary
tales might serve to warn the UFC that the local culture is always
different, and rarely as simple as making more of the exact same
thing.
Even
if the UFC’s international efforts succeed, getting Americans
to watch FOX and pay-per-view events—let alone foreign-based
Ultimate Fighter shows— at the rate the UFC is cranking
them out requires interesting fighters, big personalities that
make people want to watch every event. And to “experience”
a big personality, you generally have to speak the same language.
So
how will the UFC reconcile trying to expand their audience to
mainstream U.S. sports fans through the FOX TV deal, as an increasing
number of Brazilians and other foreign-speakers rise to the heights
of the sport? Hopefully the core of what made the UFC popular
won’t be lost in translation.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Middleweight
Soap Opera: Weidman Wants Silva, Belfort Wants Weidman, Belcher
Wants Belfort
by Damon
Martin
There are a lot of fights that could be made in the UFC middleweight
division right now, but the only problem is every top contender
wants to fight somebody else.
At the top of the list are names like Chris Weidman, Vitor Belfort
and Alan Belcher, who could all be considered at worst top ten
middleweights, but getting them to agree to fight one another
appears to be a problem right now.
Chris Weidman fresh off his victory over Mark Munoz at UFC on
Fuel TV 4 believes he’s the man to face Anderson Silva next
for the UFC middleweight title, and no other fight makes a lot
of sense for him.
“I feel like I really deserve it. I beat two top five guys
and I think I’m a stylistic nightmare for Anderson Silva.
I would love to get that shot. No one else is on a five-fight
win streak and beat the quality of guys I’ve beaten. I’m
ready to speak up a little bit, just be confident in my abilities
and respectfully call out Anderson Silva,” Weidman told
MMAWeekly Radio.
Despite Weidman’s pleas for a shot at Anderson Silva, UFC
president Dana White still seems unsure of who will face the
champion next and there may be a sort of “round-robin”
de facto tournament to finally declare who will be the contender
worthy of challenging the greatest titleholder in UFC history.
So while the UFC brass makes decisions behind the scenes, the
rest of the middleweight contenders are trying to make matches
for themselves.
Start with former UFC middleweight title contender Vitor Belfort,
who has been out of action since January, first for filming The
Ultimate Fighter Brasil and then dealing with an injury that
kept him out of his scheduled fight against fellow coach Wanderlei
Silva in June.
Now on the road to recovery, Belfort is gunning for a big fight
in his native Brazil as part of the UFC 153 card headed to Rio
de Janeiro in October and there is one name on his list of potential
opponents.
“Guys I spoke to Joe Silva and ask to fight with the top
contender (Chris) Weidman here in Brasil,” Belfort wrote
on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
“I want the belt but I am not desperate. I think Weidman
is next for the belt, but Anderson Silva deserve to see who is
next. So let’s make this fight the next contender. Belfort
vs. Weidman, the next contender for Anderson Silva.”
For his part, Weidman doesn’t seem too interested in facing
Belfort in Brazil coming off his win over Munoz in July.
“Love ya Vitor Belfort but you already had your shot at
the belt, and I’m sure you will have another in the future,”
Weidman wrote in response to Belfort. “Right now is my time
though.”
Next up on the hit list is Mississippi native Alan Belcher, who
also believes he should be close to a title shot next. Belcher
is on a four-fight win streak and has looked ultra impressive
in his last two victories over Jason MacDonald and Rousimar Palhares.
Belcher has been asking for every top middleweight under the
sun, but as of now no one has stepped up to face him, so he’s
taking the social networking route as well to try and find an
opponent.
“I will fight anyone although I want to fight someone who
will challenge me,” Belcher said via Twitter. “I want
to fight Vitor Belfort in his home country in October.”
Belcher and his manager Malki Kawa have also been petitioning
to land a fight with Chris Weidman as well, but as of now Weidman
seems resigned to hopefully face Anderson Silva next.
Also don’t forget to add in top ten middleweight Tim Boetsch,
who is coming off a big win over former Bellator middleweight
champion Hector Lombard. While it wasn’t the most exciting
of fights, Boetsch did enough to crush the hype surrounding Lombard
in one 15-minute bout.
The only thing working against Boetsch right now is a possible
broken foot suffered in the fight with Lombard that will likely
land him on injured reserve for the next couple of months.
While this is the fight game, right now the UFC’s middleweight
division looks more like a soap opera as fighters all try to
land the right match-ups.
Unfortunately, no two fighters seem to want to fight each other
and it will be left up to matchmaker Joe Silva to decide who
gets whom when the bouts finally get made.
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Disappointing
UFC Debut Doesn't Mean End of Title Hopes for Hector Lombard
Jul
22, 2012 - It's too early to call Hector Lombard a bust, but
in his UFC debut, he was certainly a disappointment. The hyper-aggressive
fighter who boasted 13 first-round knockouts during his 25-fight
unbeaten streak was nowhere to be found, instead electing to
fight a passive style of counter striking against Tim Boetsch,
and never scrapping the plan even when it became clear it wasn't
working.
It
could have simply been a case of the octagon jitters. Lombard
had been anticipating this day for years -- dating back to his
first rumored arrival in 2007 -- and when it finally arrived,
he was in a co-main event. And before he knew it, people were
booing him.
That
had to be a disconcerting development. Suddenly, his new home
was not so inviting. Instead, it had turned adversarial. All
throughout fight week, everything had been perfect for him. He'd
been treated royally by the UFC, many media members and MMA observers
were placing him smack into the middleweight title picture, and
he was a solid favorite to beat Boetsch.
Now,
all of that is gone. Lombard is tainted goods in the eyes of
many, particularly to those who previously thought he was only
the product of beneficial matchmaking outside the UFC.
But
the good thing is this for Lombard: MMA fans tend to have short
memories.
For
proof, think about Carlos Condit, who like Lombard, came into
the UFC as a reigning champion for another promotion. In Lombard's
case, it was Bellator, and in Condit's case, it was WEC.
At
the time, Condit was riding an eight-fight win streak, and on
the outer fringes of the welterweight division's top 10. Among
the sport's observers, there was a division about just how good
he was, and whether he could challenge among the UFC's best or
would wilt under the bigger spotlight. And just like Lombard,
Condit lost his octagon debut in a split-decision.
Except
for their ages, the parallels between Condit and Lombard at the
times of their arrivals are eerily similar. And as we know now,
things turned out pretty well for Condit.
After
the Kampmann loss, he beat Jake Ellenberger. And then Rory MacDonald,
and Dan Hardy, and Dong Hyun-Kim and Nick Diaz, on the way to
the UFC interim welterweight title.
Fans
have short memories. For a time, Condit was considered one of
the most exciting fighters in the sport, a real finisher. But
a tactical game plan against Diaz, which admittedly may have
gone too far, turned many against him. And against him, they
have stayed, even though prior to that, he'd knocked out Kim
and Hardy and even today's wunderkind, MacDonald.
I
can predict that if Condit knocks out Georges St-Pierre when
they fight, hopefully later this year, Condit will be back in
the fans' good graces as a crowd-pleaser. One fight seems to
swing perception that much, and Condit's seen every side of the
tug of war.
Lombard
has the chance to turn it around, too. The difference between
the two is that Lombard is short on time. He's already 34 years
old, and even though he hasn't yet been robbed of his hand speed,
those days are coming faster than he would hope. So if his UFC
149 performance was an aberration, if it was simply the nerves
of the moment getting to him, he should have a chance to win
over the critics he lost.
If
there's one thing we've learned from watching Lombard's career,
it's that he'll soon get his chance. The Cuban likes to stay
active. He fought five times apiece in 2009 and 2010, and four
times in 2011. Lombard won't want to stay out of the cage for
too long.
When
he does return, he'll come back with a nearly clean slate. Carrying
a 25-fight unbeaten stretch with you also means accompanying
expectation. Lombard was supposed to win big. But now he's just
a guy trying to get into the win column, so shedding the streak
might be liberating.
Condit
was able to turn things around, and Lombard is capable of doing
the same. It's not like he got embarrassed by Tim Boetsch; according
to FightMetric, Boetsch out-landed him by only 10 strikes in
the fight.
Lombard
only has to do what he's done all these years: let his hands
go. While some will be ready to write him off now, let's not
go digging his career grave just yet. His first fight might have
been a bust, but that doesn't mean his UFC career will be, too.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Georges
St-Pierre On Track for UFC 154 Return
Georges
St-Pierre UFC 129UFC president Dana White recently mentioned
that he was targeting UFC 154 to showcase welterweight champion
Georges St-Pierre’s return to face interim titleholder Carlos
Condit, as well as a contender’s bout pitting Martin Kampmann
against Johny Hendricks.
Those
plans haven’t changed.
White
reiterated as much at Thursday’s UFC 149: Faber vs. Barão
pre-fight press conference, saying, “Unless any complications
happen, (GSP is) good to go.”
St-Pierre
has been on the sidelines since the UFC 129 mega-event in Toronto
last year, where he won a unanimous decision over Jake Shields.
He
was slated to return to the Octagon in October, but fell off
the UFC 137 fight card due to a knee injury. St-Pierre was then
slated for the UFC 143 Super Bowl weekend fight card, but withdrew
from the fight as well when it was revealed that he had severely
damaged his right ACL, requiring surgery.
He
has since been rehabbing the injury, slowly working his way back
into form.
St-Pierre
recently revealed that he is fully back to training and, as White
confirmed, it appears he is on track for a UFC 154 showdown with
Condit on Nov. 17 in Montreal.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Matches
to Make After UFC 149
Renan
Barao can take a bow -- and a breath.
Barao
was cold and precise in picking apart Team Alpha Male founder
Urijah Faber en route to a lopsided unanimous decision and the
Ultimate Fighting Championship interim bantamweight crown in
the UFC 149 main event on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome
in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The 25-year-old Brazilian chopped
down Faber with crisp punching combinations and a steady diet
of leg kicks. Barao, who trains alongside UFC featherweight king
Jose Aldo under the Nova Uniao banner, has won 19 consecutive
fights.
Barao
kept Faber at a safe distance throughout the 25-minute encounter,
as he grew more and more comfortable in the pocket. He supplemented
multi-punch combinations with savage leg kicks, a tactic that
forced “The California Kid” to alternate between stances
in an attempt to minimize damage. All three judges scored it
for Barao by 49-46, 50-45 and 49-46 counts; he has not tasted
defeat in more than seven years.
With
reigning 135-pound champion Dominick Cruz stuck on the sidelines
recuperating from a serious knee injury, the newly minted Barao
could find himself confronted by a lengthy layoff of his own.
Cruz underwent reconstructive knee surgery in June to repair
the anterior-cruciate ligament in his left knee. Typical recovery
time for such an injury runs between six months and a year, placing
the 26-year-old champion’s return sometime in the first
quarter of 2013.
No
other viable title contenders have emerged at 135 pounds, so
the UFC will likely be content stomach Cruz’s recovery in
order to pair him with Barao.
In
wake of UFC 149 “Faber vs. Barao,” here are five other
matchups that need to be made:
Urijah
Faber vs. Miguel Torres: Zuffa saved the Faber-Torres bout for
a rainy day. Perhaps now would be a wise time to cash in. Faber
has compiled an ugly 0-5 mark in his last five title fights and
one has to wonder whether or not he will ever receive another
crack at promotional gold. Torres, meanwhile, was victimized
by a Michael McDonald knockout in April and has lost some of
the luster that once surrounded him in World Extreme Cagefighting.
Boetsch
stymied the debuting Lombard.
Tim Boetsch vs. Alan Belcher: Boetsch spoiled the promotional
debut of former Bellator Fighting Championships middleweight
kingpin Hector Lombard, remaining unbeaten at 185 pounds with
a split decision over the temperamental Cuban judoka. While his
performance did nothing to set the masses on fire, it cemented
Boetsch as a key player in the division. Belcher has finished
his last four opponents, three of them -- Brazilian leg lock
connoisseur Rousimar Palhares included -- inside one round. The
confident and marketable Roufusport standout has poked and prodded
the UFC to pit him against a Top 10 opponent, and “The Barbarian”
certainly measures up.
Hector
Lombard vs. Mark Munoz: Lombard’s promotional debut could
not have gone worse, even though he appeared to do more to achieve
victory than his opponent. The split decision loss to Boetsch
brought an end to one of MMA’s most celebrated winning streaks,
as Lombard lost for the first time since November 2006. Unlike
other UFC debutantes, the American Top Team representative does
not figure to receive the benefit of the doubt. Lombard has already
taken public aim at Munoz, and, with both men now on the rebound,
theirs has become a matchup worth booking.
Cheick
Kongo vs. Stefan Struve-Stipe Miocic winner: Experience and some
sapping clinch work carried Kongo past Shawn Jordan in one of
the most forgettable fights in UFC history. As a result, the
37-year-old Frenchman has some work to do if he wants to restore
his reputation. Kongo has served a vital role for the UFC in
recent years, and that role becomes even more necessary as the
promotion attempts to mine talent and find suitable foes for
heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos and others near the top
of the division. The 6-foot-11 Struve and the undefeated Miocic
will toe the line against one another at UFC on Fuel TV 5 on
September 29. Maybe Kongo will be waiting in the wings for the
victor.
James
Head vs. Matt Riddle: Head seized his golden opportunity to compete
on the main card of a pay-per-view and ran with it, as he halted
the mercurial Brian Ebersole’s 11-fight winning streak with
a split decision. Not much was expected from the Oklahoman when
he entered the UFC in 2011, but he has responded to his submission
defeat against “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 11 alum
Nick Ring at UFC 131 with back-to-back victories over Ebersole
and Papy Abedi. Riddle impressed as well, as he coaxed a tapout
from Chris Clements with a third-round arm-triangle choke. Already
on the same page, Head and Riddle could meet to further iron
out the welterweight division’s middle class.
Source:
Sherdog
|
By
the Numbers: UFC 149
For
the most part, the UFC 149 pay-per-view card was not one for
the record books. Don’t tell that to Renan Barao, however,
as the Brazilian cruised to a five-round unanimous decision over
Urijah Faber to earn the promotion’s interim bantamweight
crown on Saturday night, spoiling the possibility of a Faber-Dominick
Cruz rubber match.
While
much of the evening’s main card was set to the boos of those
in attendance at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta,
the preliminary offerings featured plenty of thrilling moments,
including a trio of first-round knockouts. Not every event is
guaranteed to be compelling theater, but there are still plenty
of statistics to examine. Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC
149, with statistics courtesy of FightMetric.com.
30:
Consecutive fights without a loss for Barao, who defeated Faber
to capture the UFC interim bantamweight championship on Saturday
night. The Nova Uniao standout’s only loss came at the hands
of Joao Paulo Rodrigues de Souza in his professional debut.
20:
Leg kicks landed by Barao, twice as many as Faber. The Brazilian
did the most damage to his opponent’s legs in the middle
rounds, landing 17 leg kicks in rounds two, three and four combined.
By comparison, Jose Aldo outlanded Faber 27 to 1 in leg strikes
in their featherweight title clash at WEC 48.
161:
Power strikes to the head attempted by Barao, who landed 29 of
those attempts -- along with 26 jabs. Meanwhile, Faber landed
39 of his 142 head strikes, including 17 of 85 power strikes.
0:
Takedowns in six attempts for Faber. The entire fight was contested
on the feet, with neither bantamweight landing a single strike
on the mat.
25:
Significant strike advantage for Barao, who outlanded his opponent
in rounds one (12 to 7), two (22 to 12), and four (21 to 8).
11:
Title fights for Faber in his UFC and WEC career. After winning
his first six championship bouts, “The California Kid”
is 0 for his last 5 in contests with a belt on the line.
1-4:
Faber’s record in five round fights – the Californian’s
lone victory came against Jens Pulver at WEC 34, while he has
fallen to Mike Thomas Brown, Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz and Barao
in 25-minute affairs.
Lombard
was unimpressive.
54: Significant strikes by which Hector Lombard has been outlanded
in his three career defeats. The former Bellator middleweight
champion was outlanded by 28 significant strikes a split-decision
setback to Tim Boetsch on Saturday night. “Lightning”
was outlanded by Gegard Mousasi (36 to 16) and Akihiro Gono (39
to 33) in previous losses.
.580:
Career significant striking accuracy for Cheick Kongo, tying
him with Randy Couture for fourth all-time among UFC fighters.
Though his bout with Shawn Jordan didn’t feature an abundance
of striking action, the Frenchman was his usual accurate self,
landing 38 of his 56 significant strikes (68 percent) against
the former LSU fullback.
14:
Failed takedown attempts by Brian Ebersole against James Head.
The Tiger Muay Thai representative executed his only successful
takedown in 15 attempts in round two en route to falling via
split decision.
5:
Takedowns landed by Matt Riddle in his submission triumph against
Chris Clements. It was the most takedowns by “Deep Waters”
since he landed five in a victory over Dante Rivera at the “TUF
7” Finale in his UFC debut.
.667:
Percentage of bouts (4 of 6) on the UFC 149 undercard that resulted
in a finish. By comparison, just one of the five main card tussles
avoided going to the judges.
40:
Significant strikes by which Court McGee outlanded Nick Ring
in his contentious unanimous decision defeat to “The Promise.”
McGee outlanded his opponent in rounds two (32 to 25) and three
(53 to 16), but all three judges saw the contest 29-28 in favor
of Ring.
350:
Total strikes thrown by McGee, 207 more than Ring. McGee threw
175 strikes in the third round, which is more than Ring (143)
did in the entire fight.
52:
Significant strikes landed by Francisco Rivera in his first-round
knockout of Roland Delorme. The Californian connected at a 66
percent clip to capture his third first-round knockout victory
in his last four fights.
7:
Seconds needed by Ryan Jimmo to knock out Anthony Perosh in a
205-pound clash, tying him with Todd Duffee for fastest official
knockout in UFC history [Duane Ludwig’s KO of Jonathan Goulet
is listed by the Nevada Athletic Commission at 11 seconds]. The
longtime Maximum Fighting Championship veteran floored his Australian
opponent with a right hand to earn his 17th consecutive win.
2:
Strikes landed by Jimmo. By comparison, Duffee landed five strikes
in his knockout of Tim Hague at UFC 102, while Ludwig needed
just one strike to finish Goulet.
23:
Career submission wins between Bryan Caraway and Mitch Gagnon.
“The Lightning Kid” forced Gagnon to tap out to a rear-naked
choke in a bantamweight bout.
36:
Advantage in total strikes for Caraway in rounds two and three.
In the opening frame, the “TUF 14” alumnus outlanded
his opponent 25 to 24. However, Gagnon landed 16 more significant
strikes than Caraway over the course of the bout.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Matches
to make after UFC 149: The Losers
Anthony
Perosh vs. Joey Beltran
Anthony
got caught, plain and simple. His three fight winning streak
was broken, but he will be back for more. A match with Beltran
would be nice, as it would allow him to prove himself in standup.
Joey is known for brawling, and I am sure Anthony wants to prove
himself after the seven second knockout. plus, this fight would
give Beltran a full training camp, and a match against someone
he can try and show off his skills at 205 against.
Court
McGee vs. Riki Fukuda
Court
did very well against Nick Ring, but he lost the first two rounds.
He was not able to implement his brawling style, and fell right
into Nick’s technical boxing. He could be in danger of being
cut if he losses another fight, and the same goes for Riki Fukuda.
Both fighters started out promising when they entered the UFC,
but their careers have floundered as of late. It is well known
that the UFC likes to pit two people on their way out against
one another and this is another example of that.
Brian
Ebersole vs. Clay Guida
Ebersole
talked about dropping down to 155 after his win last month, so
it was a surprise when he took this short notice fight. Short
notice fights are nice sometimes as you are able to capitalize
on one training camp and make to pay days. That did not happen
and Ebersole had his 4 fight win streak broken. He does not seem
like the same fighter who first took on Chris Lytle in an entertaining
3 round fight in Australia in his debut. Maybe a drop to 155
is what he needs, and a match against Guida may bring out that
fire he has lost. They are both coming off losses, need to rebound,
and have interesting things that go on with their hair. This
fight makes sense solely on that it would be the hairrow vs.
the cave man.
Hector
Lombard vs. Mark Munoz
I
guess Hector really would throw away a title shot for the chance
to fight Mark, because after his fight he will not hear the words
title shot for some time to come. Not only was he unimpressive
in his fight, he did not even really looked like he cared to
be in the cage. He was professing a real anger and desire to
fight Munoz, and sometimes fighters need emotion to get motivated
for a fight, BJ Penn for example. Anyways, he anted a fight with
Munoz, and after the loss the fight is a lot more plausible.
Let the two fight it out and settle all the comments in the cage.
hopefully, they do better in a rivalry fight than either did
in their last performances.
Urijah
Faber vs. Miguel Torres
Urijah
lost a lot in this fight. He lost winning a title, his shot at
rival Dominick Cruz, and has to question where he goes from here.
In fact, Faber has lost his last 5 fights for a title, and he
is only 5-5 in his last 10 fights. Given those losses are to
top fighters. The problem is that Faber will have to win many
fights to get back to the title, and at the same time cannot
be taking out contenders when he himself cannot be in the ring
for a shot at the belt anytime soon. That is why a fight with
Torres makes sense now. Just like when Chuck fought Wanderlei,
a lot of the importance is gone since both fighters have lost
their belt, but it would still be highly entertaining, and both
of them would not being taking our a rising contender at 135.
Source:
Caged Insider
|
Matches
to make after UFC 149: The Winners
Ryan
Jimmo vs. James Te-Huna
Ryan
Jimmo has put the light heavyweight on notice with his seven
second knockout of Anthony Perosh. After grinding away on the
regional circuit he finally has a shot on the biggest stage.
With the division currently short on contenders to Jon Jones
belt they need to start weeding out the middle of the pack fighters.
James currently holds a 4-1 record in the octagon with his only
loss to Alexander Gustafsson, and a match with Jimmo would tell
who has the ability to contend with the top ten. Plus, they are
both very similar with them being 30, having a penchant for standup,
and their ground game is questionable.
Nick
Ring vs. CB Dollaway
Nick
Ring was finally able to settle a score from the Ultimate Fighter
when Court won the season, because Nick had gotten hurt. With
that behind him he now needs to prove he cannot be controlled
by wrestlers. His only loss in his career was to Tim Boestch
in a grappling heavy fight. To rise to the top of the division
he will need to prove he can win a fight anywhere. A match with
CB, who is a great grappler, will prove how far he can go in
his fighting career. CB has the ability to smother a fighter
on the ground, and Nick will need to learn to avoid that so he
can implement his own game.
Matt
Riddle vs. Dan Miller
Matt
Riddle has one rare distinction as a fighter to have all his
professional MMA bouts in the UFC. While that is a positive there
is not a ton of room for mistakes. At only 26 he has had a few
losses, but his game is slowly becoming more evolved, and he
always has an entertaining fight, win or lose. A match up with
Dan would not only be entertaining, but it could also answer
a lot of questions about how far Riddle’s MMA game has evolved.
Miller is a beast on the ground, has good hands, and decent power.
This addition to any card could easily be a contender for fight
of the night.
James
Head vs. Matt Brown
James
may have won his fight, but it was not a crowd pleasure. Now,
that could be his opponents fault or his own, but to get to the
top of the division it is a long way to a title shot if you are
boring, just ask Jon Fitch. Putting Matt Brown in the cage guarantees
you a fight, and he will force the action on his opponents who
try and stall. Both are on a decent little streak at welterweight
and another win will push them closer to challenging the top
fighters at 170.
Cheick
Kongo vs. Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira
Cheick
won another fight, but it was not pretty. When a judge gives
a 10-10 round you can expect there to not be much action. Originally,
he was supposed to face Pride legend Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira,
but Big Nog was not ready. If he will be ready in about another
three months the match still makes sense. As weird as it sounds,
Cheick is also a true veteran of the octagon with nearly 20 fights
and six years in the cage, and that is something many fighters
cannot say. So, the fight still makes sense as neither of them
will be fighting for the title soon, and the match can still
headline a lower level card or co-main event a PPV.
Tim
Boetsch vs. Alan Belcher or Chris Weidman
It
really as not that pretty, but the Tim won the fight. Realistically
they need to give Anderson a fight, because they cannot keep
one of their only healthy champions out for too long. Right now
Weidman and Belcher are the only logical choices. Weidman is
coming off a huge knockout in over Munoz, and a nice decision
win over Demian Maia. belcher is 6-1 in his last seven fights,
has 5 finishes in those 6 wins, and the only loss is a controversial
split decision to Akiyama that was fight of the night. Regardless
of who gets the shot at Anderson the other needs to fight Boetsch.
He is 4-0 in the division with wins over top ten fighters in
Yushin Okami and Hector Lombard. The fight between Weidman or
belcher would give a real contender.
Renan
Barao vs. Michael McDonald
If
Cruz is able to come back in a reasonable amount of time it is
obvious that Renan would unite the title. The problem is that
early estimations put him out for around a year. The interim
title should be defended, and Renan should not sit around like
Condit did.Pay-per-views deserve title fights, interim or not.
Michael is the most likely to get that shot. His speed, power,
and foot work are hard to match. That is what you need after
seeing how much trouble Faber had catching Barao. It was a rumor
that McDonald was supposed to get the shot before Barao, but
an injury kept him out. Make this fight to tide over fans until
Cruz can come back to defend his title.
Source:
Caged Insider
|
Tim
Boetsch’s Broken Foot Forces UFC Brass to Rethink Its Middleweight
Blueprint
Tim
Boetsch at UFC 117Everyone wants to know who the next challenger
to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva will be.
Is
it Chris Weidman, Michael Bisping, Vitor Belfort, Brian Stann?
Prior
to Saturday night’s UFC 149, many felt it would be the winner
between former Bellator champion Hector Lombard and rising middleweight
Tim Boetsch.
After
their fight, however, the picture didn’t get much clearer.
Lombard
defied his usual bombastic tactics, succumbing to Boetsch’s
methodical plan of attack, in a fight that left many scratching
their heads.
“Our
gameplan,” recounted Boetsch after the fight, “was
to utilize those leg kicks to not allow him to explode into that
range that he’s very powerful.”
And
that’s exactly what happened. Even though the plan nearly
went awry.
“I
wanted to use my kicks to keep him off me and that’s what
I was doing. Then, early in the second round, I blew up my foot,
which made the rest of the fight more uncomfortable than I had
anticipated.”
Although
Boetsch’s broken foot didn’t pull him from a title
shot – that was never the plan – it did throw a monkey
wrench into the UFC’s plans for the middleweight division.
“After
beating Okami and Lombard now, (Boetsch) has put himself in a
very, very good position,” said UFC president Dana White
on Saturday night in Calgary.
“I
wasn’t coming in tonight to say this guy is gonna fight
Anderson Silva. There’s gonna be some match-ups in the 185-pound
division that will decide who fights him.
“If
we had to make a fight right now for Anderson because Anderson
wants to fight in another two months, I’d do the Weidman
fight.”
But
that’s not the case. Currently the plan is to pit several
top contenders against one another to come up with the best challenger.
The
winner of Boetsch and Lombard was chief among the participants
in that plan, but Boetsch’s broken foot will cause the UFC
brass to go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments
to the middleweight blueprint.
As
for Boetsch, he’s obviously heard the criticisms of he and
Lombard, but true to his blue-collar roots, he takes it in stride,
patiently waiting for his time.
“The
vibe in the room says no, (I don’t deserve a title shot),”
Boetsch said. “But I’m ready for whoever. I train hard
enough and if I keep beating enough tough people, I’ll get
that title shot. I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Matt
Riddle Calls for Dan Hardy Fight, Rails on British Fan that Spit
at Him
Dan
Hardy already has his next fight lined up. He’s scheduled
to fight in his hometown of Nottingham, England, against Amir
Sadollah on Sept. 29 at UFC on Fuel TV 5.
But
he may already have his next opponent after that… or if
Sadollah happens to fall off the card, Matt Riddle is in the
wings, ready and waiting.
After
he defeated Chris Clements with the UFC 149 Submission of the
Night on Saturday night in Calgary, Riddle mentioned at the post-fight
press conference that he would really like to fight Hardy next.
“I’m
down to fight anybody at any given time, anywhere,” Riddle
remarked at the post-fight press conference. “I just picked
Dan Hardy because he’s got a lot of hype behind him and
I know that it will put me on the map for sure. I have nothing
personal against him, but a win over him, I guarantee everybody
knows my name afterwards.”
But
that was when the fun began. Perhaps when we found out the truth
behind Riddle’s “Dan Hardy callout.”
“I
heard Riddle hates English people,” UFC president Dana White
offhandedly remarked.
“I
will be completely honest, when I fought in Manchester, England,
they were very cruel to me,” Riddle retorted. “One
fan actually spit directly in my face and he was lucky enough
where it hit my mouth.”
“Wow.
I was kidding,” laughed White.
“I
don’t have anything against English people,” Riddle
continued. “But to be disrespected like that, that was the
part that really upset me.
“Everybody
up here on this table is a world class athlete and we should
be treated as a world class athlete. And for some butter-toothed
Brit to spit in my mouth, that was some bull.”
Little
did White realize what a can of worms his facetious remark would
open up, but he rolled with it.
“We
are definitely making the Dan Hardy fight!”
In
reality, the timing probably won’t work out well, unless
of course Sadollah does have to drop out of the fight sometime
soon, but it could be cooking at a little warmer temperature
on the back burner after Riddle’s timely rant.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
UFC
149 Sells Out in Calgary with a Gate that Rolls Over the Rolling
Stones
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship landed in Calgary for the first
time in its history on Saturday night with UFC 149: Faber vs.
Barão.
The
main card fighters didn’t necessarily deliver, but the fans
in Calgary certainly did… to the tune of a soldout crowd
of 16,089 at the ScotiaBank Saddledome.
Those
fans accounted for a live gate of $4.1 million, tops at the venue.
“We
shattered the record here, which was set by the Rolling Stones,”
UFC president Dana White declared at the UFC 149 post-fight press
conference.
While
many of the main card fights fell flat with fans and White, the
preliminary fighters brought exciting finishes, as did the pay-per-view
opener between Matt Riddle and Chris Clements.
Urijah
Faber fell short in his latest bid to earn a UFC championship.
Renan Barão edged farther and farther ahead of Faber as
their main event fight wore on, eventually earning a unanimous
nod from the judges, walking away with the interim UFC bantamweight
title.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Vinny
Magalhaes talks his return to the UFC, fighting Igor Pokrajac
and submitting Jon Jones
Vinny
Magalhaes returns to the octagon on UFC 152, against Igor Pokrajac,
after snapping seven wins and a light heavyweight championship
at M-1 Global. The BJJ wiz sees himself as a complete mixed martial
artist after three years away from the UFC, and he wants to prove
that against top competition.
On
this exclusive interview to TATAME, ‘Pezao’ analyzes
Pokrajac’s abilities on the ground game, his expectation
to become a Top 10 light heavyweight and a potential fight with
reigning champion Jon Jones.
What
are your thoughts on Pokrajac?
He’s
a tough dude, I believe he’s a good test for my debut. There
are some other fighters in this division that would be more easy
fights for me, but I told Joe Silva that I wanted to fight someone
who was coming off wins, because if I fight someone who’s
coming of losses, I wouldn’t prove anything for me.
He’s
coming of three big wins. Do you believe a victory over him puts
you on the Top 10 already?
I
don’t know if that would put me among the best, but would
definitely take me away from the bottom, would put me in the
mix, which is very good so far.
He
was submitted only once, in more than 30 times. Have you studied
his game yet? Saw any holes in his ground game?
I’ll
start to watch his videos this week, but, besides bring submitted
only once in more than 30 fights, he already showed some deficiency
on his fights against Matyushenko, James Te Huna and Stephan
Bonnar. All these guys dominated him on the ground, but they
wasn’t looking for a submission. If I dominate him on the
ground, I’ll submit him.
You’re
a BJJ specialist, but two of your last three wins were by TKO.
How do you see your evolution on the striking part? Do you believe
you’d be ready to stand and bang with him?
I’m
ready, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll fight his game.
My strategy is simply and is not a secret: take the fight to
the ground and finish there. I don’t need to prove to anyone
that I’m a better striker today. I need a win and, to get
that, I have to impose my game, which is the Jiu-Jitsu.
Do
you see yourself ready to fight a Top 10 competitor now?
The
reason why I wanted to return to the UFC was to prove that I
can fight with the best, so I’ll never refuse a fight. I
believe that Igor would become a Top 10 with one more win because
it would be his fourth in a row – but that’s not gonna
happen. I guess that, with a win over him, I would be able to
fight a Top 10 next. Actually, I don’t care. I’m just
thinking on my next fight.
Do
you believe your ground game could be the turning point on a
potential fight against Jon Jones?
On
the ground, I believe I can submit everyone on my division in
the UFC, including Jon Jones, but it’s too soon to speculate
about that. I didn’t even debut yet. And more, having only
a good Jiu-Jitsu won’t make anyone a UFC champion. To beat
the champion, I’d need to get better in other areas too,
unless he starts the fight on my guard (laughs).
Source:
Tatame
|
Luke
Rockhold, the Strikeforce champ who sees childish pleasure in
Jiu-Jitsu
Strikeforce
middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, 27, is respected for his
aggressive style standing and on the ground. On Saturday, it
was the native of Santa Cruz, California’s turn to outfight
Tim Kennedy for five rounds and win by unanimous decision in
Portland, Oregon.
Last
year, Luke won a decision over Ronaldo Jacaré and became
the divisional champion. Unbeaten since 2007, Luke now awaits
an August second encounter Jacaré, and should Jacaré
win he will then await a rubber match.
Luke
is also an old acquaintance to anyone who would pay regular visits
to major Jiu-Jitsu championships. Also a good surfer, the Strikeforce
champion is a Jiu-Jitsu brown belt and has put together a collection
of medals on the mat. In 2006, he earmed a silver medal at the
IBJJF Pan. In 2007, he won the competition as a blue belt. That
same year, he was promoted to purple belt and won the No-Gi World
Champion in California.
None
of that was accidental. Luke spent a season in Rio de Janeiro,
sharpening up his Jiu-Jitsu in Barra da Tijuca, and the practice
in Brazil and the USA proved worthwhile. When he won the championships,
Luke showed his euphoria for winning with a simple and striking
gesture: he wouldn’t take off his medal. Throughout the
entire weekend, he walked around the tournamentwith the medal
on his chest and a smile on his face.
The
champion’s attitude at the time evokes something Master
Rickson Gracie says: “In life, it is important not to lose
the joy of a child. At sea, on the beach or training at the gym,
I do not lose the will to have fun, which for me is something
almost childish.”
A
professional champion and the owner of a complete fight style,
Luke could have been a serious athlete the whole time. His father,
Steve, in fact, was a good basketball player, having played for
NBA team Golden State Warriors. His brother Matt is a professional
surfer.
But
what Luke Rockhold really gets a kick out of is doing Jiu-Jitsu.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
UFC
149 Aftermath: Urijah Faber Deserved Better
Jul
22, 2012 - Urijah Faber, the man who put lighter-weight mixed
martial artists on the map in North America, heard the jeers
of the crowd during his UFC 149 main event against Renan Barao,
and the profane chants afterwards.
There
was nothing wrong with Faber's unanimous-decision loss to Barao
per se. It was a well-contested, technical fight.
But
it also just so happened that the moment at which it became obvious
the former World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion's
day as a top title contender are at an end occurred right after
some of the worst action seen in the Octagon in quite some time,
and the crowd wasn't in the mood for a 25-minute chess match.
"You
never want to hear boos, but you're more concerned with the guy
who's trying to take your head off," said Faber. "I
had a broken rib, and sore legs, and all kinds of stuff. It's
unfortunate, I don't ever want to be in a fight where people
are booing, but, you know, I did my best out there tonight, but
Barao fought a smart fight."
It
was an unfortunate moment in the career of a proud warrior. Fighters
at featherweight and under are able to headline and co-headline
major events in large part because Faber's excitement level in
the cage during his WEC heyday and charisma outside helped the
little guys force their way onto the main stage.
Time
eventually caught up with Faber, like it does for every fighter.
Elite opponents learned to shut down the flurries which led to
his inventive finishes. He never seemed to regain that extra
spring in his step after his brutal loss to Jose Aldo Jr. And
he was given more opportunities to regain championship glory
than most, even as his detractors never seemed to come up with
better alternatives for his spot on the card.
So
yes, Faber deserved better than what he got from the crowd on
Saturday night. You don't chant "Bulls--" at the guy
who has been the antithesis of that word. Urijah Faber has never
given the fans less than 100 percent, even when his best wasn't
quite enough.
"If
you're booing during the Faber vs. Barao fight, you're not a
fan of MMA," said UFC president Dana White. "You're
here to see some crazy, you know, old UFC. That was a good fight,
a technical good fight between two of the best in the world.
So if you were booing that fight, you know, you came here to
see lions in the cage or something, a guy vs. a dragon or something."
UFC
149 Notes
After
all is said and done, was UFC 149 the worst pay-per-view event
of all-time? While those who plunked down money to buy the pay-per-view
or attend the event in Calgary may think otherwise, the "honor"
still goes to UFC 33.
For
those who weren't around at the time, let's put it this way:
Zuffa learned more about how not to put on a PPV in that one
night than at any other point during their tenure.
The
Sept. 28, 2001 card at Mandalay Bay was the first sanctioned
UFC event under Unified Rules in Nevada and was supposed to be
Zuffa's big hometown coming-out party, with three title fights
on the bill.
Instead,
a nightmare unfolded. All six main-card fights went the distance.
The last two, with Jens Pulver defending the lightweight title
against Dennis Hallman and Tito Ortiz defending against Vladimir
Matyushenko, were the worst back-to-back title fights in UFC
history. The card ran so long that cable operators in much of
the country pulled the plug on the main event. While that may
have been a mercy killing, fans weren't happy: UFC 33 did 75,000
PPV buys, a number the company would only surpass once in their
next 10 events. Zuffa learned their lessons in a hurry, as this
card served as the impetus for the five-fight PPV format, and
we've never had another card with three title matches.
The
fact White invoked UFC 33 during the post-fight press conference,
in and of itself, tells you this UFC 149 was a memorably bad
show. But while UFC 149 gave UFC 33 a run for its money, fans
at least got to see an action-packed undercard and a solid PPV
opener in Matt Riddle's win over Chris Clements. So UFC 33 remains
the champion of bad cards.
UFC
149 Quotes
"When
I fought in Manchester, England, they were very cruel to me.
One fan actually spit directly in my face and he was lucky enough
where it hit my mouth. ... I don't have anything against English
people. But to be disrespected like that, that was the part that
really upset me. Everybody up here on this table is a world-class
athlete and we should be treated as a world-class athlete. And
for some butter-toothed Brit to spit in my mouth, that was some
bull." -- Matt Riddle, trying to get Dan Hardy's attention.
"Why
the hell would I fight Riddle? There is no value in it for me
and I'd forced to look at him more than I have to now."
-- Hardy's response Sunday on Twitter.
"It's
the unfortunate thing about hype. When there's a lot of hype
behind you and you don't live up to the hype, it goes away real
quick." -- White, on Hector Lombard.
"This
company makes money, and I like breaking records. We broke the
gate record tonight and I'm embarrassed by it. I was excited
when I heard and now I'm embarrassed. The undercard delivered
-- they were awesome -- and the main card did not." -- White's
summation of UFC 149
Good
call
To
Dana White, simply for manning up and admitting that the main
card turned out terrible. Can you imagine a major boxing promoter
coming out and doing the same? Heck, after the Manny Pacquiao-Tim
Bradley judging fiasco last month, Bob Arum openly bragged about
how much money he'd make off the rematch. Part of the reason
fans are loyal to the UFC product is that on the rare occasions
the company produces brutally bad events, White calls it for
what it is, then goes out and works twice as hard to come up
with something to make up for it. Here's a guess White will spend
the next few days lining up middleweight fights that will take
the attention of Saturday's fiasco.
Bad
call
To
just about everyone involved in the Cheick Kongo-Shawn Jordan
stinker. There were enough bad calls in this fight to make an
NBA ref shake his head. Kongo, a veteran with a fierce striking
game, chose a game plan that seemed to involve nothing more single
strikes followed by minutes upon minutes of dry humping. He stuck
with it even during third-round exchanges in which it was clear
Jordan could barely lift his arms. Jordan's management put their
guy in with a fighter the level of which he clearly wasn't ready.
Ref Yves Lavigne must have been daydreaming about Montreal beating
Calgary in the Saddledome to clinch the 1986 Stanley Cup during
Kongo and Jordan's periods of inactivity. And judge Jeff Blatnick,
who hands out 10-10 rounds like Halloween candy, somehow saw
a tie round in there, even though Kongo clearly won all three.
Add up all these bad calls and you have the clubhouse leader
for worst fight of the year.
Stock
up: Matt Riddle
No,
we're not going to go nuts and proclaim Riddle the next big thing
at welterweight after defeating Chris Clements. But the guy who
joined The Ultimate Fighter without a pro fight gave the Calgary
crowd their last big thrill of the night with just an awesome
submission, as he locked in an arm triangle choke while standing,
took it to the ground, and finished the fight there, earning
submission of the night honors. Then Riddle stole that show at
the post-fight press conference in calling out Dan Hardy for
his next fight, prompting White to promise to make the bout on
the spot. Hardy is scoffing at Riddle on Twitter, but if nothing
else, Riddle has ensured there will be interest in his next fight,
no matter the foe.
Stock
down: Hector Lombard
If
you comb through the hundreds of fighters who have stepped into
the Octagon over the years, you're bound to find one or two who
have overcome a UFC debut as putrid as Lombard's performance
against Boetsch. But sometimes you just have to call a bust a
bust. Not only was Lombard's win streak in part a matter of matchmaking
about a half-step above Kimbo Slice vs. Bo Cantrell, but even
the numbers touted in Lombard's favor don't hold up to scrutiny.
For example, Lombard did fight seven opponents with UFC experience
during his 20-fight win streak, but their combined UFC record
was 11-17; a number which drops to 7-16 if you take out Brian
Ebersole, who is about to drop to lightweight.
So,
in summation: Lombard's record was a hype job of the sort usually
only seen in boxing; he lost his debut to a guy who broke his
foot during the fight; and White brusquely dismissed his prospects
afterwards. If Lombard does manage to get to the title, it will
be one long, long road.
Fight
I Want to See Next:
Renan
Barao vs. Mike McDonald. My MMAFighting.com colleague Luke Thomas
tweeted on Saturday night that he spoke to UFC bantamweight champion
Dominick Cruz's head coach, Eric Del Fierro, and that Del Fierro
told him Cruz is at least four months away from returning to
training due to his torn ACL. Even assuming that all goes well
once Cruz is back to all-out training, that's a long time for
a champ to stay on the sidelines. So hopefully, the UFC will
inject some meaning into their interim championship. Barao, who
didn't react to his victory as though an interim title is meaningless,
indicated his willingness to fight whoever the UFC wants him
to fight. McDonald was the other name seriously considered for
the Faber bout in a thin bantamweight division before Barao was
picked. So if Cruz is out for the forseeable future, then Barao
vs. McDonald is the way to go.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Boxing
show
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Palolo District Park Gym at 6:30 pm.
Aloha everyone,
Wanted to let you know our next Boxing show will be on Saturday,
July 28, 2012 at the Palolo District Park Gym at 6:30 pm.
Admission is $10.
If you have any questions email me back at bkawano@aol.com
Thank You and Have a Great Day!!!
Bruce
Kawano |
Dana
White Says Anderson Silva Still Has No Next Opponent
UFC 149 was supposed to provide some clarity to the middleweight
contenders race as to who will next challenge champion Anderson
Silva.
Unfortunately,
at the end of the night there were only questions with very little
in the way of answers.
Just
days ago, UFC President Dana White teased that he would have
some major revelations to make after UFC 149 ended, but once
it was over he changed his tune.
“To
be honest you know me, I am in no mood right now to even talk
about that,” White told Fuel TV when asked about the middleweight
division after the event.
While
there was no direct reference made after the show ended, a lot
of the plans at middleweight hinged on the fight between Tim
Boetsch and former Bellator champion Hector Lombard. The end
result was Lombard’s winning streak coming to a very unimpressive
end, while Boetsch most likely suffered a broken foot en route
to victory.
So
instead of having a new No. 1 contender crowned, White could
only say that no one stands out head and shoulders above the
crowd and more fights will have to happen before Anderson Silva
finds his next challenger.
“No,
there’s going to be some fights that happen before any of
these guys fight Anderson Silva,” White revealed.
The
overall mood from White could only be described as somber after
what he hoped was going to be an explosive fight between Boetsch
and Lombard turned into a fizzled out performance from the highly
hyped former Bellator champion.
White
was looking for someone, anyone to come out and stake their claim
to the top spot at middleweight, much like Chris Weidman did
in his fight just over a week ago against Mark Munoz at UFC on
Fuel TV 4.
“When
I talk about guys fighting for the next fight and guys who are
possibly going to fight for world titles, I like dominant performances.
(Chris) Weidman, I want to see a guy like Weidman come in out
of nowhere and take out the No. 2, No. 3 guy in the world the
way that he did. We’ll see what happens,” said White.
Weidman’s
impressive performance aside, White says he’s still not
next in line for a title shot, and for now the No. 1 contender
remains a mystery.
The
UFC will be holding executive meetings early next week where
details could be hammered out to hopefully put together a match
or series of matches that will finally find a top dog ready to
challenge Anderson Silva’s seemingly unstoppable reign as
champion.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
The
Waiting Game: Renan Barao Says He Will Fight Whoever, Whenever
the UFC Asks
Will
he or won’t he wait?
That
seemed to be the biggest question of Renan Barao before UFC 149,
but now that he’s captured the UFC interim bantamweight
title it’s an even more relevant inquiry.
Prior
to Saturday night, Barao seemed somewhat up in the air regarding
the idea of sitting and waiting for champion Dominick Cruz to
return from knee surgery, or opting to take another fight to
defend his newly won interim belt.
Cruz
is expected to be out until at least May or June 2013 after tearing
the ACL in his knee while training for his rematch with Urijah
Faber, which was originally scheduled for UFC 148 just a few
weeks ago.
“I’m
a player of the UFC, I fight whenever I’m asked to,”
Barao answered when asked about waiting for Cruz or taking another
fight.
Logic
would say because of the timeline for Cruz’s return to action
that Barao would almost definitely take another fight in the
interim.
There
are a few contenders waiting in the wings, but maybe none more
deserving that young phenom Michael McDonald, who was also in
the running to get the title shot after Cruz fell out due to
injury.
Ultimately,
McDonald was taken out of the running due to a lingering injury
he was dealing with after his devastating knockout win over former
WEC champion Miguel Torres back in April.
Barao
remains resigned to the fact that he is a UFC employee and if
the bosses tell him to take another fight, he’ll take another
fight.
If
they tell him to face Michael McDonald, then that’s who
Barao will face. He’s just happy to call himself champion
and be a good company man.
“It’s
not up to me to decide who to fight with, it’s up to the
UFC. I’ll fight anyone, I’m an employee of the UFC,
I’m going to be ready for anyone,” said Barao.
That
could be good news for the upcoming UFC fight schedule as cards
continue to grow, but title options remain limited with champions
like Cruz currently on the shelf. It would seem likely Barao
will get to defend his newly won interim belt at least one time
before Cruz finally returns in mid-2013.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Urijah
Faber Not Sure What’s Next After Second Failed UFC Title
Bid
Once
counted among the vaunted “nearly indestructible” in
mixed martial arts, former WEC champion Urijah Faber has become
human over the past few years.
Starting
out with an impressive run to 21-1 to start his career, including
capturing and defending the WEC featherweight championship, Faber
has since gone 5-5 in the cage.
He
lost the WEC belt to Mike Brown in late 2008 and has yet to return
gold to his waist. Faber failed in three attempts to regain the
belt in the WEC, and at UFC 149 on Saturday night in Calgary,
was unsuccessful in his second attempt at a UFC belt.
Renan
Barão utilized much the same strategy as his teammate,
UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, to overcome Faber, using
kicks and knees to slow his mobility en route to a unanimous
decision.
That
puts Faber’s failed attempts to regain a title at five.
Most fighters rarely see that number of title fights even from
the winning side of the equation, so where does Faber go from
here?
“I
don’t know. I fought a guy on a huge win streak and didn’t
get it done. I fought Dominick (Cruz), who is considered the
champ right now, as well,” Faber reflected at the UFC 149
post-fight press conference. “I’m right there, it’s
just a matter of continuing to heal up and then reassess this
thing.”
UFC
president Dana White agreed, saying that it would be good to
let things settle for a little bit before they determine Faber’s
next move.
One
move that won’t be happening, despite Faber dropping weight
classes in the past, is another move down on the scale.
“Pffft.
No way,” Faber laughed when asked about whether or not a
drop down to 125 pounds was even possible for him. “I put
on 18 pounds last night (after weighing in at 135 pounds on Friday).
I would probably not be here if I was attempting 125s. No, 135s
is where I’ll be.”
Thinking
that he may have suffered a broken rib early on in the fight,
Faber doesn’t need to make any rash decisions. He’ll
need some time to heal up before he can determine his career
strategy and get back in the gym.
He
certainly doesn’t sound like a man that has given up, however.
Disappointed?
Yes. But to the point of giving up? No.
“This
is what I do for a living, so this isn’t anything that new,
really.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Sergio
Moraes meets Renee Forte at UFC 153
TUF
Brazil finalist Sergio Moraes will return to the UFC octagon
as a welterweight, as he meets fellow TUF alum Renee Forte at
UFC 153, event scheduled to October 13th in Rio de Janeiro. Sources
close to the situation confirmed the bout to TATAME.
Moraes
and Forte competed on TUF Brazil at the middleweight division.
Sergio submitted Thiago Rela and Delson Heleno in the show, while
Renee defeater Fabio Bolinho by decision. Both fighters were
eliminated from the competition by Daniel Sarafian.
Serginho
got the call to replace an injured Sarafian on the TUF finale,
against Cezar Ferreira, but he left the octagon with a unanimous
decision loss.
Source:
Tatame
|
10
big mistakes you must avoid in Jiu-Jitsu
Where
do you think you make most mistakes in Jiu-Jitsu? Is it the posture?
In laziness? Not following a diet with determination?
Today
GRACIEMAG.com lists ten mistakes you shouldn’t make in Jiu-Jitsu.
However, more then teaching, we want to learn from you. In your
opinion, what is the most common mistake in Jiu-Jitsu? Share
it with other readers and help everyone to improve.
1. ELBOWS AWAY FROM THE BODY
In
Jiu-Jitsu, there is hardly any position in which the elbow should
be away from the body. Keeping your elbows close to your body
all the time means avoiding armbars, imbalances, mooring and
something worse. Always stay safe and do not open gaps keeping
the elbow to the body, in attack or defense.
2. BAD POSTURE
The
greatest secret in Jiu-Jitsu is the posture, something all the
white belts needs to pay attention since the start. Learn to
keep your back straight when you are inside someone’s guard.
Good posture will save you from being unbalanced, swept and submitted.
Also remember to keep the toes bent and stuck in the dojo, not
just with the instep lying on the floor. This prevents you from
being pushed easily.
3. IGNORING SELF-DEFENSE
Do
not ignore self-defense techniques. The more basic, the most
useful they will be. Or do you intend to become a black belt
who gets all desperate to get out of a simple choke? Repeat the
basics at the beginning of training, to warm up. Make 20, 50
moves for each side, and see your Jiu-Jitsu flowing much faster.
4. COMPETING IN TRAINING
The
mats of your gym are not competition fighting areas. There you
have to train, lose, tap and learn. Only by losing and working
on your weaknesses you will become a complete fighter. Trying
to “win at training” only limits your game. After all,
you will just try what you already do well.
5. LOOKING AT YOUR COLLAR
When
you are attacked with a choke, try to put your chin on your chest,
but never look at your collar. You will end up turning to the
direction of the choke, or making room for the kimono to enter
more. Look at your opponent’s elbow, pull his shoulder and
arm to relieve the pressure and rotate the hips to the right
side to escape.
6. LEAVING YOUR ARM WITHIN THE GARD WHEN TRYING TO PASS
When
trying to pass, be careful not to let your arm within the guard,
which is half way to receive a triangle choke.
7. CROSSING YOUR FEET
When
applying an armbar, do not cross your feet, which might help
in its defense.
8. DISRESPECTING HIERARCHY
Invite
a black-belt mate to practice can be seen as a lack of respect
to hierarchy. Wait for the more experienced to invite you.
9.
TRAINING LIKE A LION, EATING LIKE A BIRD
Try
eating well before and after the Jiu-Jitsu practice. Preferably
with professional help. Avoid training while hungry or with your
stomach full, and not take the supplements without medical supervision.
And drink a lot of water, before, during, and after Jiu-Jitsu.
10. LEARING ATTACKS AND FORGETING ABOUT DEFENSES
Learning
good defenses is more important than learning 50 different submissions,
mainly those you won’t be able to use. Memorize where your
body needs to be to defend from each posture. Correct your mistakes
immediately, with more experienced athletes.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
UFC
149 Fighter Bonuses: Ryan Jimmo Makes KO of the Night an Easy
Pick
The
main card didn’t deliver as anticipated at UFC 149: Faber
vs. Barão on Saturday night in Calgary, but the athletes
in the opening bout of the main card and some standouts on the
prelims put forth the effort to earn post-fight awards with bonuses
of $65,000 for each winner.
Despite
a few to choose from, it was hard to deny Ryan Jimmo’s seven-second
KO of Anthony Perosh for Knockout of the Night honors.
As
quickly as the fight start, it was over. Jimmo and Perosh met
in the center of the Octagon, Jimmo landed a right hand and that
was all she wrote. Perosh was out on the mat.
Matt
Riddle vs. Chris Clements was the one bright spot on what was
a lackluster pay-per-view card at UFC 149. Riddle and Clements
battled back and forth for the first tow rounds of their fight
before Riddle landed a standing arm triangle choke, tripped Clements
to the mat, maintaining the choke and forcing him to tap out.
The
finish earned Riddle the UFC 149 Submission of the Night and
a $65,000 bonus check.
In
a night that left much to be desired on the main card, aside
from Riddle and Clements, the Fight of the Night honors fell
to a preliminary bout.
Bryan
Caraway continuously sought a submission, while Mitch Gagnon
was ahead in the striking game. The fight went to and fro into
the third stanza before Caraway – who ate some hard punches
– took Gagnon’s back, locked on a body triangle, and
then finished the fight with a rear naked choke.
Caraway
got the victory, but he and Gagnon each took home a bonus check.
Source:
Yahoo Sports
|
UFC
149 Results: Barao Bests Faber to Capture UFC Interim Title
One long winning streak came to an end at UFC 149, while one
other continued and it resulted in a new bantamweight champion
being crowned.
Quietly
making his way through the ranks at bantamweight, Brazilian upstart
Renan Barao was maybe the most unlikely contender a few months
ago, but when UFC champion Dominick Cruz suffered a torn ACL,
he got the call to step in and face Urijah Faber.
Barao
had racked up an impressive 27 fight win streak heading into
Saturday night, but Faber was going to make him work to get to
28.
Just
over two years ago, Faber had battled Barao’s teammate and
close friend Jose Aldo while competing at featherweight, but
the lessons learned that night transferred more to Barao than
they did Faber.
Much
like his teammate, Barao was looking to establish a punishing
lead leg kick, and while Faber says he didn’t land it with
nearly as much ferocity as his teammate, it still took its toll
throughout the 25-minute fight.
Barao’s
quickness and ability to move in and out with his long, rangy
punches gave Faber fits as he just could not find a way inside
to do any damage to his Brazilian counterpart.
A
knee strike landed by Barao in the 2nd stanza apparently broke
Faber’s rib according to the Sacramento native, which obviously
made movement and breathing much harder for the leader of Team
Alpha Male.
The
rest of the fight looked eerily similar to the first two rounds
with Barao just out maneuvering Faber with his strikes, and never
allowing him to get comfortable on his feet at any point.
The
end result wasn’t exactly a barn burner or a fight people
will talk about for years to come, but Barao did his job in dominating
Urijah Faber en route to becoming the new UFC interim bantamweight
champion
“I
knew Faber was a great athlete a great fighter, but I was well
prepared. I prepared my game very well and that was the result,”
said Barao.
The
loss for Urijah Faber has to be considerably tougher than most
because this was supposed to be his shot at revenge against Dominick
Cruz, while also securing his first major title in nearly four
years.
Faber
now moves to 0-5 in his last five title bouts, and almost assuredly
would have to climb a very difficult ladder to get back for number
six.
“I
knew he was really good at keeping distance, he’s got really
long punches, he’s able to keep his kicks from pretty far
out, so it was a little more difficult to get in on takedowns.
I knew he was tough, I was hoping for a better result, but more
power to him today,” Faber said.
Following
the fight, commentator Joe Rogan made several references to Barao
now earning a shot against UFC bantamweight champion Dominick
Cruz, but with his knee surgery it’s likely he’ll be
out the better part of the next 12 to 15 months.
Assuming
Barao is relatively healthy after this fight, it would almost
be a guarantee that he will have to defend the belt at least
once before Cruz returns.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Dana
White ‘Embarrassed’ by UFC 149 Main Card, Praises Undercard
Fighters
Saturday
night served as a bit of déjà vu for UFC president
Dana White, and that was not a good thing.
The
main card for UFC 149 ended with four out of the five fights
going to decision, with most of them being fairly lackluster
affairs drawing boos from the Calgary crowd in attendance.
White
remembers an eerily similar night from more than a decade ago
when the UFC was hoping to re-launch to the masses with one of
the biggest cards ever that quickly turned into one of the biggest
disasters ever.
UFC
33 was touted to be one of the biggest cards ever for the promotion,
but after injuries scrapped their main event, and every fight
on the main card went to decision, forcing the show to go over
the pay-per-view time limit, it was anything but a success.
Fast
forward to UFC 149 on Saturday night and White was feeling the
same exact way he did that night in September 2001.
“I
felt like I was at UFC 33 again,” White said at the post-fight
press conference.
The
night in Calgary definitely did not go as planned, but White
couldn’t be mad at the undercard fighters who performed
on both FX and Facebook. Fighters like Ryan Jimmo burst on the
scene with his ultra impressive seven-second knockout, as well
as Bryan Caraway putting on a “Fight of the Night”
performance against Mitch Gagnon.
“Before
I get too negative, I think that the undercard was awesome, these
guys blew it out of the water,” said White.
The
rest of the card, however, failed to impress and White wasn’t
ashamed to admit it. Records were broken in Calgary Saturday
night, but White is not a proud man for how his fighters delivered
or didn’t deliver as the case may be.
“I
like breaking records, we broke the gate record here tonight
and I’m embarrassed by it. I was excited when I heard, and
now I’m embarrassed. The undercard delivered; they were
awesome. The main card did not,” White stated.
He
did defend the main event that came under a wave of boos as well,
but White believes that was mostly fallout from the previous
few fights that caused the entire crowd to feel like they were
on Ambien instead of watching high level mixed martial arts.
“I
don’t think the Faber/Barao fight deserved the boos that
it got. You’re talking two of the best guys in the world
in a five-round title fight; it was very technical. Everybody
knows how good Urijah Faber is and Barao dominated him tonight.
If the undercard wasn’t as (expletive) as it was, it wouldn’t
have been so bad,” White stated.
The
two fights that led into Barao vs. Faber definitely left the
crowd in a frenzy as Hector Lombard came up flat in his UFC debut
against Tim Boetsch, while Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan put
on one of the worst heavyweight fights this side of Gabriel Gonzaga
vs. Kevin Jordan at UFC 56, which is widely considered one of
the most criticized fights in UFC history.
“I
think Cheick Kongo and (Shawn) Jordan pushed against the fence
for three rounds and I think the ref let them do it. This isn’t
the ultimate clinching championship, it’s the fighting championship,
and when you see two guys clinching for three rounds and in the
third round they clinched for an entire five minutes, and this
idiot (referee) standing around looking at them,” White
said.
“As
a referee your job is to enforce the rules and make sure that
these guys fight, and if they’re not fighting you break
them up and you make them fight. We’re talking about guys
that are experienced. Experienced guys that have done enough
fights by now. Yves Lavigne was horrendous, horrendous tonight.”
There
was definitely a bad taste left in Dana White’s mouth following
UFC 149, but the promotion will live to fight another day with
hopes that the next group of fighters performance at UFC on Fox
4 in two weeks paid close attention for what not to do when the
eyes of the world are on you.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Barao
dominates Faber, wins UFC ínterim title
Renan
Barao’s win streak is a little lonegr after UFC 149. The
Brazilian phenomenon, who entered the cage with an undefeated
mark over his last 28 bouts, increased his record with a dominant,
unanimous decision win over former WEC champ Urijah Faber.
The
victory gave Barao the interim UFC bantamweight championship,
and now he’s set to battle UFC champ Dominick Cruz.
At
the co-main event, a disappointing loss for Hector Lombard, against
Tim Boetsch, forced the UFC to change its plans. Who’s next
for Anderson Silva? Dana White needs a couple more days to figure
it out.
Complete
results:
Renan
Barao def. Urijah Faber via unanimous decision;
Tim
Boetsch def. Hector Lombard via split decision;
Cheick
Kongo def. Shawn Jordan via unanimous decision;
James
Head def. Brian Ebersole via split decision;
Matt
Riddle def. Chris Clements via submission (arm-triangle choke)
at Round 3;
Nick
Ring def. Court McGee via unanimous decision;
Francisco
Rivera def. Roland Delorme via knockout (punches) at Round 1;
Ryan
Jimmo def. Anthony Perosh via knockout (punches) at Round 1;
Bryan
Caraway def. Mitch Gagnon via submission (rear-naked choke) at
Round 3;
Antonio
Carvalho def. Daniel Pineda via KO (punches) at Round 1;
Anton
Kuivanen def. Mitch Clarke via split decision.
Source:
Tatame
|
12
tough athletes you should watch during London 2012 Olympics
You
don’t have much patience for that stuff of fellowship and
love for the sport about the Olympics? What you really want is
to watch people giving their own blood, sweat and tears in London?
GRACIEMAG.com
lists our 12 favorite tough guys in the coming Olympic Games
that go on from July 27 to August 12.
1. Oscar Pistorius, track and field
Famous
for his green and yellow clothes, the 25-year-old South African
will compete in the 400 meters on August 4 and 4 x 400 relay
on August 9. However, few will look at the sweat from his face,
but at his legs. Oscar is the first amputee allowed to run among
non-disabled, he who has half of both legs since he was a baby
due to bone malformations. It will certainly be one of the greatest
moments of these Games.
2. Hiroshi Hoketsu, equestrianism
Watching
a man who dominates his horse (or is it the opposite?) in action
is something beyond the Olympic ideal, is something almost mythological.
The 71-year-old Japanese Hoketsu will have much to teach us,
as the oldest athlete in London 2012. GRACIEMAG.com bows to the
old master and cheers for him.
3. Filip Filipovic, water polo
The
though and scorer Serbian with 6’6” and 220 lbs is
considered the best water polo player in the world, in a sport
that it’s almost as ferocious as an UFC underwater.
4. Teddy Riner, judô
Bronze
medal in Beijing-2008, the 23-year-old French heavyweight is
hungry for gold this year. And it will be hard to hold him. He
is our bet for the podium over 100 kilos, in August 3.
5. Mijail Lopez, greco-roman wrestling
Weighing
264.5lbs, Cuban Mijail Lopez is one of the biggest tough guys
in these Olympic Games. He is the man to be beaten in greco-roman
wrestling – like Dan Henderson and other stars of MMA today.
6.
Katie Taylor, boxing
Gone
are the days when the best thing to see in boxing was the duels
between American and Cuban In London-2012, we recommend keeping
an eye on Irish Katie Taylor, 26, a former soccer ace who became
five time boxing champion. Brazilian Adriana Araújo will
be one of the Katie’s rivals towards the gold medal.
7. Emmanuel Mutai, marathon
Strong
mind, lean body, persistence. Marathoners will always be respected
by fighters for these and other qualities. Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai,
along with his compatriots Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang, is
one of the biggest favorites to win the classic race that closes
the Games.
8. Yelena Isinbayeva, pole vault
Despites
having been defeated by Brazilian muse Fabiana Murer, the twice
Olympic champion promises to stop the stadium in London. Among
her attributes that attract our attention are the coldness, a
fit body for flying and a lot of jumping and running techniques
– in addition to her beautiful eyes.
9. Roger Federer, tennis
The
king of grass Roger Federer is seeking his first gold medal in
tennis singles. The Swiss, however, will have to show even more
heart, and mind. On his way, there will be the brutal Rafael
Nadal, the constant Novak Djokovic and the motivated British
Andy Murray.
10. Ryan Lochte, swimming
If
Michael Phelps is considered the best swimmer in the world, in
London 2012, the American shark will have a rival of his level.
Ryan Lochte seeks to enter into the Olympic pantheon, and to
do so he needs to defeat his fellow. Don’t blink.
11. Thiago Silva, soccer
In
order to Brazilian striker Neymar to shine up front, the best
defender in the world needs to shine (and play hard) back there.
Thiago Silva, recently hired for 42 million euros by French club
PSG, is our candidate for the toughest player of the Olympic
Games.
12. Usain Bolt, 100 meters
Usain
Bolt is the track and fields’ Jon Jones, but the Jamaican
star won’t have an easy time. In his country, he recently
lost twice to Yohan Blake. Bolt is now struggling against the
wind, his own limits and an abused compatriot, which only heats
up the climate in London. Usain Bolt recently had one of his
secrets revealed: aunt Lilly Bolt ensures that her nephew only
developed muscle fibers so well thanks to a diet based on …
sweet potatoes, in large doses since he was a child.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Dana
White does the right thing in admitting that UFC 149 was a massive
disappointment
The
UFC's success in the last 11 years has been based upon deep cards
filled with evenly matched fights in which the athletes took
risks in a desire to put on a show.
None
of that occurred on Saturday at UFC 149 in a very lackluster
main card at the Scotiabank Saddledome, in which Renan Barão
claimed an easy unanimous decision over Urijah Faber to claim
the interim bantamweight belt.
Fans
in Calgary and in social media sites blasted Dana White before
the fight for what they perceived as a poor card. A slew of injuries
to high-profile fighters decimated the fight card, but White
spent the week before the show angrily defending his men.
He
said to anybody who would listen that "our guys always deliver."
On
Saturday, though, they did not and White wasn't shy about sharing
his displeasure. After Barão's unanimous decision was
announced, the crowd stuck around and booed loudly to let White
know what it thought of the company's first trip to Calgary.
Appearing
on the post-fight show on Fuel TV, White said he was "not
too excited about" how the card turned out, though he wasn't
nearly as upset with either Barão or Faber. The rest of
the fighters on the main card, though, felt White's wrath.
Heavily
hyped middleweight Hector Lombard fell flat on his face, doing
next to nothing in a split decision loss to Tim Boetsch. Cheick
Kongo won a unanimous decision over Shawn Jordan only because
he was slightly less horrid than Jordan. And James Head defeated
Brian Ebersole by another split decision in a fight whose highlight
was Ebersole giving a thumbs up while Head was trying to choke
him.
Only
Matthew Riddle, who defeated Chris Clements with a third-round
arm triangle choke, put on the kind of effort in the main card
that makes White smile.
"If
the undercard didn't suck so bad, they wouldn't have been so
[angry at] the main event," White said.
Fights,
no matter how good they look on paper going in, can turn out
far differently than most expect. And, as White said, the UFC
does routinely put on far more good fights than bad.
It
was good, though, that White showed his anger on Saturday. One
of the reasons that the fights are so routinely good, in addition
to the outstanding matchmaking of Joe Silva and Sean Shelby,
is White's personality.
He
won't accept cards like Saturday's very well and lets the fighters
know it in no uncertain terms. It creates a culture in which
the fighters compete with a sense of urgency.
The
late boxing trainer, Georgie Benton, used to tell his fighters,
"Win this one; look good in the next one." And fighters,
who know how much it means to win in the UFC, can slip into that
mode if someone isn't around to remind them that's not acceptable.
Barão
certainly wasn't scintillating in his win over Faber, but he
did everything right. He kept Faber on the outside with his kicks
and fired punches and knees the few times the ex-World Extreme
Cagefighting featherweight champion managed to close the distance
between them.
They
fought a tactical fight and Faber wasn't able to find a way to
get near to create the scrambles he's so good in. As a result,
Barão won by scores of 49-46, 50-45 and 49-46.
"I
knew he was trying to keep me at a distance," Faber said.
"Those kicks were coming from pretty far out and it was
difficult to get in for takedowns."
But
there was no excuse for the lack of action in the Boetsch-Lombard,
Kongo-Jordan and Head-Ebersole fights. They were awful and weren't
nearly up to the UFC standards.
"I
was excited about this card," White said on Fuel's post-fight
show. "I didn't just come down here and say a bunch of things
I didn't think were going to be true. I never expected Hector
Lombard would look like that [against] Boetsch. I thought those
two would go right after each other. Cheick Kongo and Jordan,
that was disgusting."
The
card was awful but those things happen in sports. Not every fight
can be Hagler-Hearns. Still, if you want to blame someone, blame
White, since he's the man at the top and he puts the shows together.
Give
him credit, though, for not sitting back and looking past what
was a poor show for the people who paid their $55. He made his
feelings known, loudly, publicly and unequivocally.
White
getting angry and blasting the show isn't going to guarantee
that every card will be hellacious in the future. It does, however,
set a tone and reminds the fighters that there is a standard
that has been set and expected to be followed in a UFC fight.
That
was not the case on Saturday by any stretch of the imagination.
Source:
Yahoo Sports
|
Mike
Guymon Running Away from Father Time, Chasing UFC Return
Mike
Guymon at UFC 121Following his release from the UFC in early
2011, former King of the Cage welterweight champion Mike “Joker”
Guymon decided it was time to step away from the sport. A year
later, he felt amiss in his decision to retire, and decided to
return to MMA.
As
Guymon explains, “I didn’t want to go out the way I
did. I feel like I cheated everyone: the UFC, my friends, my
fans, my training partners and myself. (By the time I had reached)
UFC Fight Night for the Troops, it was like a shadow of me; it
wasn’t me at all.”
After
troubles maintaining a healthy medicinal balance for his battle
with depression, Guymon was able to right himself. And with his
mental wellbeing in check, it was time to make a comeback.
“I
took a fight with BAMMA (in March), coming back at 155 pounds
and fought Cris Leyva and I felt great,” Guymon told MMAWeekly.com.
“I had that fire back in me. Just everything that was missing
before, I had that back.”
Then
this past Friday, Guymon’s triumphant return continued,
as he took a unanimous decision over Xtreme Couture prospect
Mike Dizak at BAMMA’s latest installment in Commerce, Calif.
“This
was probably the toughest out of all my fights because I did
it with a fractured shoulder,” said Guymon. “So to
fight someone like Dizak and come out on top with the adversity
I went through is something I’m still, like, tripping on.
“It’s
not the way of winning a fight that I’d like, but it got
the job done and to get the ‘W’ under conditions like
that, I’m pretty ecstatic. I used every little bit for this
fight – even cutting weight, all the veteran things, the
little things – the small things are what got me through
this fight.”
Sporting
back-to-back wins for the first time three years, Guymon is eager
to step back into the cage and work his way back to the UFC to
rectify his earlier misstep.
“I
think there’s a couple of things that need to be done on
my shoulder, but I want to get back in there,” he said.
“I want to work my back into the UFC and show people what
I can do.
“I’d
love to do it this year, but I think it’d be unrealistic
to think I could pull off a huge string of victories quick by
the end of this year with the way my physicality is now. I’m
thinking that at the very first part of next year, I’d love
to have that position where I’m back in the UFC and I’m
fighting at 155 pounds.”
As
Guymon points out, the clock isn’t necessarily in his corner,
so if he’s going to make one last run, it’s going to
have to materialize in the near future.
“I
don’t have many big windows of opportunity,” he said.
“If I’m going to do this, it’s going to be now
or never. It’s basically that simple.
“I’m
37 years old, and this sport every day is getting younger, stronger,
better, badder, faster, everything. There’s so much that
comes into play that if I’m going to do that, I can’t
wait because Father Time is coming quick.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Jose
Aldo vs. Erik Koch Headlines UFC 153 in Rio, Marcello vs. Madedi
Also Added
by Damon
Martin
UFC
featherweight champion Jose Aldo will return home for his next
title defense when he helps headline UFC 153 in Brazil.
Aldo
will defend his 145-pound title against Erik Koch in a bout headed
to Rio de Janeiro on Oct. 13.
In
addition to Aldo vs. Koch, UFC officials also announced on Thursday
that former Ultimate Fighter competitor Cristiano Marcello will
face Reza Madadi in a lightweight bout on the card.
The
fight between Aldo and Koch was originally scheduled to headline
the UFC 149 card taking place this weekend in Calgary, but a
thigh injury forced the incumbent champion to sit out and recover
instead.
Now
with the thigh healed, Aldo will once again get the chance to
fight in his home country of Brazil. His last trip there resulted
in a knockout of Chad Mendes in the first round, and now Aldo
looks to do the same when he faces Koch in October.
By
the time Erik Koch faces Aldo, he will have been out of action
for more than a year following his last win against Jonathan
Brookins last September. The Duke Roufus trained fighter will
look to move his four-fight win streak to five while also becoming
the UFC featherweight champion when he faces Aldo.
It
will be a daunting task, however, facing Aldo in his home country
with a nation full of Brazilians standing behind him.
The
bout between Aldo and Koch is expected to headline the UFC 153
fight card, which lands at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
UFC
149 PREVIEW: Penick's main card breakdown and fight predictions
for "Faber vs. Barao" event
By: Jamie
Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The
UFC's debut in Calgary finally comes this weekend, though it
looks entirely different than when tickets went on sale. Much
like UFC 146, the main card has seen every fight changed from
what was originally scheduled; unlike UFC 146, only two of the
originally scheduled fighters remain on the pay-per-view portion
of the card. Here's what's on tap for the Scotiabank Saddledome
on Saturday night:
Urijah
Faber vs. Renan Barao (UFC Interim Bantamweight Championship)
Urijah
Faber has lost his last four title fights, making this a veritable
"do or die" fight for his Championship hopes. For Barao,
it's an opportunity brought about by chance, but one he hopes
to take full advantage of in Calgary.
Faber's
credentials and skills are well-known and documented. He's a
very good striker, a good wrestler, and his submission game can
be lethal. He's a well rounded package of a fighter who nonetheless
has fallen short to excellent fighters in competitive title fights.
Barao
brings with him a 28-fight unbeaten streak, dating back to his
first career fight. His destruction of Brad Pickett opened eyes
and revealed him to be a legitimate contender in this bantamweight
division, but he was brought down to earth a bit in a much closer
fight against Scott Jorgensen. It's easy to peg him as the favorite;
he's eight years younger than Faber, and realistically he's faster
at this stage in their respective careers. His striking game
is solid, his grappling game is excellent, and if he can keep
Faber at bay during the bout he could very well run away with
things.
However,
that's a lot easier said than done, and with Barao's style of
fighting he's not likely to avoid a confrontation. Jose Aldo
was able to brutalize Faber's legs with kicks, and Dominick Cruz
was able to avoid him enough to score points and win enough of
the rounds in their rematch to edge a razor-thin decision.
Faber
has a tendency at times to get a little wild, but he's a lot
more cautious ever since his TKO loss to Mike Brown. There's
a reason he's remained amongst the top lighter weight fighters
in the world for as long as he has, and this is type of fight
is nothing new to him.
Barao
is going to give Faber a fight on Saturday night. He's going
to be looking for a finish, and he's going to press the action
to do so. Faber's going to come back just as hard and just as
fast, and it may come down to which fighter lands their big shot,
but it also may come down to experience. Barao's never fought
in a title fight, so he's never been in a five round fight. That
edge goes big time in Faber's favor, and I lean towards the former
Champion to regain gold once again.
PREDICTION:
Faber via decision
Hector
Lombard vs. Tim Boetsch (Middleweight)
Lombard's
25-fight unbeaten streak has been built on the back of lesser
competition, though that's not all his fault. He was supposed
to enter the UFC in 2007, but visa issues kept him from being
able to make that debut. He's fought around the world, he's beaten
a lot of different fighters, but the only thing he hasn't done
is take out a truly top-level competitor in the division.
Boetsch
represents just that following his third straight win in the
division. Though he was losing to Yushin Okami for two rounds
in his last bout, his violent third round comeback just proved
that he can't be counted out at any point.
Lombard
is a knockout artist, but he's got skills on the ground as well.
Boetsch is in a similar boat, though his grappling is better
served in tight and on top when he's raining down strikes. He's
got serious strength in that department, though, and he's been
known to toss around an opponent or two in his career.
We
will find out for sure where Hector Lombard is in the middleweight
division in this fight. If he comes in and blitzes a fighter
of Boetsch's quality, it will be as big a statement as any fighter's
made in their UFC debut. But his run could also come to an end
at the hands of a hard-hitting fighter in Boetsch. I can't count
Boetsch out, and he could very well keep Lombard out of the title
picture right off the bat; I've gone back and forth on this pick,
and the first two rounds of Boetsch's bout with Okami keep sticking
in hy head. However, there's that third round to remember as
well. If he can survive an early onslaught, this might be his
shot at the upset.
PREDICTION:
Boetsch via KO in the second round
Cheick
Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan (Heavyweight)
This
fight was supposed to be Kongo against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira;
instead, Kongo will take on the Strikeforce import who made his
debut back in March with a fun finish over Oli Thompson. Kongo
himself needs to bounce back from a violent loss, a knockout
at the hands of Mark Hunt at UFC 144 in February.
Kongo
made his UFC debut three years before Jordan became a professional
fighter. Suffice it to say, the experience edge is his in a big
way. He's fought some fantastic competition in his MMA career,
and he's a solid veteran with heavy hands. And though he did
get knocked out in his last fight, historically he's an extremely
tough fighter to finish.
Jordan's
got a lot of promise, though, and this is a chance for him to
get a breakout win in the heavyweight division. He's got the
power to do just that, but he's going to have to find his spots
and avoid getting knocked out himself. This is an interesting
heavyweight matchup, and we'll find out whether Jordan's got
more of an upside or not based on how he performs. I think the
potential is there for something a little more, and he just may
get that breakout win.
PREDICTION:
Jordan via KO in the first round
Brian
Ebersole vs. James Head (Welterweight)
Ebersole
makes a quick turnaround, having just defeated T.J. Waldburger
in a tough, closely contested fight last month at UFC on FX 4.
Head was supposed to face Claude Patrick after a submission win
over Papy Abedi in April, but an injury to Patrick brought about
this fight.
Head's
got a solid, though unspectacular skill set. He picked up a submission
win over Abedi in what was his welterweight debut, and ten fights
into his MMA career he has room for growth. However, Ebersole's
very real experience edge, along with some disappointment in
how he performed last month, don't necessarily bode well for
Head in this fight.
Ebersole's
the type of fighter who is really good at a lot of different
aspects of the fight game, without being truly excellent in any
area. He's absolutely well-rounded, and he's capable of surviving
through bad spots as well. Though he's turning around quick and
took the fight on short notice, I still favor him significantly
in this matchup.
PREDICTION:
Ebersole via decision
Chris
Clements vs. Matt Riddle (Welterweight)
This
spot on the main card initially started out as Thiago Alves vs.
Yoshihiro Akiyama. Then Akiyama got hurt and it was Alves vs.
Siyar Bahadurzada. Then Alves got hurt and it was Bahadurzada
against Clements. Finally, Bahadurzada went down with an injury,
bringing Matt Riddle into the frame. Clearly, this fight isn't
anywhere near what could have been on this card.
Riddle
should have lost a decision to Henry Martinez in his last fight,
but he edged out a narrow split to snap a two-fight losing streak.
He just doesn't have a ton of power, and he's more than willing
to trade strikes with fighters who score more than he does.
Clements
is coming off a split decision of his own, but he's also got
a history of stopping fights, including a win over UFC vet Rich
Clementi prior to his UFC debut. Riddle's not easy to stop, but
Clements should be the better fighter here.
PREDICTION:
Clements via unanimous decision
=====Preliminary
Card Quick Picks=====
--Court
McGee over Nick Ring via decision
--Roland
Delorme over Francisco Rivera via submission in the second round
--Anthony
Perosh over Ryan Jimmo via submission in the first
--Bryan
Caraway over Mitch Gagnon via decision
--Daniel
Pineda over Antonio Carvalho via TKO in the second round
--Mitch
Clarke over Anton Kuivanen via decision
Source:
MMA Torch
|
TUF
or WTF?: A Season-by-Season Retrospective of The Ultimate Fighter
By Nathan
Smith
With
the recent announcement that Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin have
been named as the coaches for the next installment of The Ultimate
Fighter series, the MMA universe immediately launched into a
full-blow orgasmic ticker-tape parade complete with tons of flying
confetti and a marching band belting out death metal tunes. Once
I heard the news, it was as if my life instantaneously turned
into a beer commercial and the entire Potato Nation was invited.
There was a rad pool-party, barbeque, a plethora of hotties,
endless alcohol, and an overall quest for fun.
Well
. . . . . actually, none of that happened. In fact, when word
spread that Nelson and Carwin would helm the next season of TUF,
it was officially filed under “WTF?” Judging from the
comment section, most of the CP brethren didn’t care for
the choices either. TUF is coming off a season that saw the ratings
dip lower than they ever had, which could partially be blamed
on the move to FX and the dreaded Friday night time slot. Regardless
of the variables for the ratings drop, something drastic needs
to be done, but is anybody really convinced that Carwin and Nelson
are the answer to TUF’s slow and painful demise? Let’s
start from the beginning and take a look back to see if this
runaway train can be coaxed back onto the main rail.
The
Season That Started it All
The
inaugural season of TUF featured future Hall of Famers Chuck
Liddell and Randy Couture as the competing coaches who would
go mano y mano at the PPV after the season finale. For fans of
the UFC, that was good enough for most to initially tune in for
the Fertitta-funded experiment. It still remains the best crop
of young talent and personalities to ever grace the show; future
stars like Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Josh Koscheck, Chris
Leben, Diego Sanchez, Mike Swick, Kenny Florian, and Nate Quarry
were all complete unknowns vying for stardom in a fledgling sport.
You mix in the whole “fatherless bastard” angle and
the show was off and running even before the awe-inspiring climax
between (pre TRT) FoGrif and The American Psycho. Even before
that, we were treated to the greatest speech of all time that
has since been condensed into a few words. “Do you wanna
be a fighter?” Though there were other memorable moments
from the seasons that followed, Zuffa should have quit while
they were ahead because it would never be this good again. The
unrefined personification of immature talent, undeniable aspirations
and gonzo-sized balls oozed from the boob tube during every episode.
Season
2
Season
2 saw Rich Franklin coach opposite Matt Hughes, and since both
men competed at different weight classes, they were obviously
not going to fight at the conclusion of the season. This was
a prime example of the UFC throwing shit against the wall to
see if it would stick by parading two somewhat charismatic champions
in front of the camera with hopes of gathering ratings/fans for
the upcoming UFC 56 PPV. Although it was undoubtedly a less thrilling
season than that of its predecessor, it did introduce to another
future light heavyweight champion in Rashad Evans, who won the
contract competing as a heavyweight, as well as such names as
Joe Stevenson, Melvin Guillard, and future pound-for-pound punching
bag GOAT Keith Jardine. And if not for Jardine, the worldmay
have never learned that “The Dean of Mean” would make
no sense if his last name was Johnson, a valuable take home indeed.
Season
3
Season
3 is one of my personal favorites because of the preconceived
notions about coaches: Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock. Tito was
working the crap out of “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy”
gimmick and wore the black hat pretty damn well even though he
desperately wanted to be accepted by everyone. On the other hand,
Shamrock was the MMA legend who competed in the very first UFC
tournament and was the founder of his own training facility –
The Lion’s Den. Shamrock was supposed to be the more seasoned
coach, but chose to bring in weight lifting specialists and opted
to rewatch videos of his UFC fights instead of training during
an infamous episode, among other baffling decisions. Tito, conversely,
came across as a guy that was genuinely committed to making his
team better fighters through technique (believe it or not) and
some crazy conditioning drills involving piggyback rides and
vacant floors of Las Vegas hotels. In the end, Tito TKO’d
Ken in just over a minute and Michael Bisping began his quest
to piss off everybody around the world en route to winning the
LHW contract.
Season
4 – The Comeback
Season
4 came upon us with the familiar sound of a giant turd smacking
against a cinder block divider. Luckily for the UFC, a Ram-Manesque
New Yorker with a perfectly timed overhand right came along and
the dookie kind of stuck. I am not exactly sure who came up with
the idea of bringing back washed up fighters mixed with a few
coulda-shoulda guys coupled with a blend of has-beens and never-weres,
but I am certain it must have sounded phenomenal during the pitch
meeting. This was the only other season that featured an abundance
of talent (albeit fleeting talent) like the first season. Shonie
Carter, Patrick Côté, Matt Serra, Travis Lutter,
Jorge Rivera, Pete Sell, *cough convicted rapist *cough* Jeremy
Jackson, Scott Smith, Din Thomas, Mikey Burnett, and (everybody’s
favorite) Chris Lytle. All of these guys were waaaaaay professional
for any of the usual drama to become too much of an issue, aside
from Shonie’s batshit craziness, that is. There were no
head coaches but instead guest coaches, and all the fighters
shared instructors Mark DellaGrotte as their striking guru and
Marc Laimon as the perceived submission specialist. Season highlights
include a goggled Burnett self-concussing himself while running
through some sheet rock (forgetting that code requires studs
every 16 inches), Serra calling Laimon a pussy for never stepping
into the real world of fighting and of course . . . . . this.
After the season there would be a fundamental plummet to mediocrity.
Season
5, or, the Aforementioned Plummet to Mediocrity
Season
5 was back to a basic grudge match between BJ Penn and Jens Pulver.
The session would have been pretty tense if Pulver actually won
his “welcome back to the UFC” fight months prior. Instead,
Jens got KTFO by a wild-eyed nobody (at the time) named Joe Lauzon.
How do you remedy this issue? Make Lauzon a participant during
the season and have BJ make the guys raise their hands if they
did NOT want to be on Pulver’s team. We were also introduced
to the unrefined, yet potent, skills of Nate Diaz (along with
his brotherly inspired “Fuck You” demeanor towards
Karo Parisyan) and some Ping-Pong skills that would make Forrest
Gump puke. So, basically the entire thing resembled a trash can
fire without the Doo Wop.
Season
6, Pick up Sticks
The
sixth installment involved none other than the return of Matt
Serra taking on Matt Hughes. I have 2 sets of 2 words for you:
War Machine & Upper Decker. Unfortunately, those were the
best things to come out of this chapter. The season aired in
the winter of 2007, but due to injuries suffered by both Serra
and Hughes, they would not actually face one another until a
year and a half later. That is some great shit right? WOOHOO!
Season
7
Forrest
Griffin made a return to TUF where his career started but he
was opposed by (then) LHW Champ Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
for TUF 7. There is something to be said about the participants
when the competitor that has had the most impact in the sport
of MMA . . . was eliminated in the first round of competition.
That participant was Mike Dolce, who has made cutting weight
a science, just don’t ask him to train you on defending
a rear-naked choke. The season was marred with controversy after
Boone’s Farm-fueled finalist Jesse Taylor went full retard
and kicked out a UFC provided limo window while acting the fool
after the show had concluded which resulted in his expulsion.
Whatever. The dude was a douche and we all got to see that goofy
bastard Amir Sadollah force bitter-beer-face C.B. Dollaway to
tap-out (again) in the finale.
Season
8
There
was actually a little bit of hype for season 8 because it featured
the fan-friendly PRIDE legend (and alleged bus carrot feeder)
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira against a UFC mainstay Frank Mir. Both
Minotauro and Mir came across as students of the game with a
plethora of knowledge that they were eager to share with the
teams. Both guys also brought in talented assistant coaches but
I am partial to Mir’s choice of Robert Drysdale as his BJJ
sage. I have to admit that TUF is better if one of the coaches
is a complete asshole, because it gives you a reason to root
but both Mir and Nogueira acted gentlemanly which didn’t
make this any fun. But there was Junie Browning and his alcohol/psychosis
powered idiocy. In the end, we were left with Ryan Bader winning
his weight class and there really wasn’t anything else worth
a shit to mention. Sorry. I am not trying to be lazy, but for
Christ’s sake, it isn’t like somebody spunked on about-to-be-eaten-sushi.
God bless you Mr. Kingsbury.
Season
9
The
poop slapped the partition again during the Dan Henderson and
Michael Bisping-coached season 9, which paired the United Kingdom
against the U.S.A. Sounds like a recipe for awesome sauce, does
it not? But unfortunately, our hopes of igniting a second Revolutionary
War were drowned beneath what was truly a sub-par season. There
was literally nothing remotely interesting about this shit until
Team Hendo participant Frank Lester got his teeth knocked out
and they got stuck in his mouthpiece during the semifinals. Other
than that, the only true fireworks came when Hendo finally made
Bisping eat his words during UFC 100. I offer this photo of complete
and total greatness and ask you all to move on.
Season
10 – Fat ex-NFL Stars and Stank Bref Jokes
Following
a few seasons that resembled Ishtar, the tenth installment of
TUF was pure magic because of some “black on black crime.”
Rashad Evans versus Quinton Jackson is the stuff that builds
cathedrals. You mix in Kevin “KIMBO SLICE” Ferguson
with “BIG COUNTRY” Roy Nelson in a heavyweight edition
of the event and you have ratings gold. Well, almost. The two
fought in the very first bout of the season and set a record
with 6.2 million viewers. The problem was there were 15 episodes
left and the talent pool was thinner than Kate Moss on the runway.
So that left us with Titties and some outstanding hate filled
banter between Rampage and Suga. Meathead made it somewhat interesting,
but in the end we just wanted to see the coaches scrap, a fight
we would be denied of for some 6 months because of some motherfucker
named B.A. Barachus. Due to the complete lack of competition,
Nelson winning the competition was fairly predictable, which
really took a lot of steam out of what was supposed to be a marquee
season.
Season
11
Much
like the TRIX Rabbit, Uncle Dana reached into his bag of tricks
and gave us his two ratings darlings for the next interval. The
prodigal son Tito Oritz and Chuck Liddell (two of the best American
MMA fighters of all time) were summoned to coach a group of kids
and then settle a grudge. The fact that the Iceman dominated
The Huntington Beach Bad Boy in two consecutive UFC matches lead
all of us to wonder . . . what grudge? For great drama? For nostalgia’s
sake? For shits and giggles? Much like that fucking owl that
takes a couple licks of a Tootsie Pop and then beaks the shit
out of it, the world may never know. Thankfully, Tito had another
neck or back or skull injury and was forced out of the coach
roll towards the conclusion of the season. This led us back to
TUF 1 and TUF 2 coaches facing off – it was somewhat cyclical
although the ratings didn’t show the drama. Having Rich
Franklin replace Tito was not exactly a shock because it was
leaked by somebody who took a picture on TUF Training Facility.
Note:It wasn’t – and I repeat WAS NOT leaked by CP,
we only prematurely disclose nude photos of formerly alleged
domestic abuse perpetrators and things of that nature. With the
exception of a near riot, the season was fairly pedestrian by
entertainment standards, but the PPV main event was golden thanks
to a very game Chuck and a broken-armed KO thrown by Rich Franklin,
who proved once again that he is the ultimate Zuffa company man.
*foreshadow*
Season
12
This
leads us to the inevitable season of the man that is better than
everyone in the world – Georges St. Pierre – kiss his
ass and suck his dick everyone – squaring off against one
of the biggest douches ever to grace the UFC, the infamous Fraggle
Rock. Sure, GSP was a guest coach on season XXIIV or whatever,
but we finally got to see him for weeks on end. Am I a GSP jock
sniffer? You bet your ass I am, and to be completely fair and
honest with you, the season sucked. We were presented with the
prototypical “face” and “heel” but it fell
completely short of all expectations. Koscheck and his shadowy
fedora were supposed to make GSP’s blood boil, but the damned
hockey loving, round bacon-eating, maple-syrup-loving, polite
Canadian nice guy refused to take the bait. The best we got was
some male nurse bullshit (Ed note: And this moment, which in
my opinion, was great enough to give the season a pass). The
fact that the likable, pseudo-philosopher Jonathan Brookins won
and has since failed to deliver anything is just another black
eye on TUF franchise.
Season
13
Season
13 brought us the Chicken Salad and Chicken Shit period of TUF.
That’s right (Karma and other) wrestling aficionados! A
BONA FIDE star was in our presence. Excuse me while I wipe the
puke reminisce from the corners of my mouth. What we, the audience,
were force-fed was episode after episode of Junior Dos Santos
being a very likable dude and Brock Lesnar being an arrogant
prick. The problem with the end of the season was: first off,
Lesnar was stricken with another bout of Diverticulitis which
meant he was replaced by Shane Carwin in the PPV finale –
secondly, all the fighters on the show were MEDIO-CORE at best
(Chris Cope? Shamar Bailey? Clay Harvison?) It is pretty sad
when the entire making of chicken salad from fowl feces is the
only thing anybody remembers.
Season
14
Cue
Joe Strummer with “London Calling” as Michael Bisping
returned for yet another season of TUF against (at the time)
the likable trash-talking Jason Miller. To be honest, I didn’t
hate this season. In fact, I found the verbal jousting between
The Count and Mayhem reasonably entertaining. You put the bad
blood between the coaches with some damn talented up-and-comers
and it makes for a pretty decent season. Also, the fire extinguisher
and Mariachi hoax was one of the better pranks to be performed
on the show. Diego Brandao looked like a beast and that dude
from Bloodsport, John Dodson, walked away with top honors as
Mayhem began taking his walk to Puppy Lake at the season finale.
Also, Bisping fell off an air hockey table, a moment so great
that I only wish it had somehow affected him in the three round
beatdown he doled out on Mayhem at the Finale. I can dream, can’t
I?!
Season
15
TUF:
LIVE (Dominic Cruz VS Urijah Faber) and TUF: BRAZIL (Wanderlei
Silva VS Vitor Belfort) were the latest editions of the franchise
and thanks to injuries, neither set of coaches actually fought
one another. This means that four of the last six seasons have
ended with the opposing coaches NOT squaring off. Tito, Brock,
Cruz and Belfort were all sidelined prior to their scheduled
fights. Although he looked a little different, Rich Franklin
stepped in to bail out the UFC brass once against against The
Axe Murderer while Renan Barao will face Faber this weekend.
Having season 15 air live was a novel idea but proved to be a
disappointment, and although I’ve heard favorable things
about TUF: BRAZIL, I don’t speak Portuguese (or know how
to read subtitles) so other than the actual fights, the rest
eluded me.
So
fans of TUF have ordered our meal while patiently sitting at
the In-N-Out booth, and now we are being served Roy Nelson and
Shane Carwin as an animal style Double-Double with fries. I am
calling bullshit on this one. Being a coach on TUF used to mean
something and I am just going to have to say “Negative GhostRider
– The Pattern is Full.” For starters, Nelson has only
won two of his last five fights and Carwin has lost his last
two contests which have taken place over two-plus years. So both
coaches are 2-7 over their previous 9 UFC fights. WTF!!!! Call
me a moron but I just don’t get it. We have invested lots
of money and hundreds of hours to Zuffa provided content and
we deserve better. We all deserve much fucking better!
With
ratings in the toilet, I have to ask the question: Why didn’t
the UFC brass opt to have a Forrest Griffin versus Stephan Bonnar
season where the two charismatic dudes would prank the shit out
of each other and then both retire after one last war? TUF would
come full circle and it would garner attention from the MMA community
at the very least. The casual fan doesn’t know Shane Carwin
from Shane Mosley and pitting him against Roy Nelson who looks
like any dude in the Mid-West holding a Meister Brau while driving
a tractor absolutely baffles me. Wait a second. Is that the new
UFC demographic?
What
do you say CP Nation? You got any better ideas?
Source:
Caged Potato
|
Ian
McCall vs. John Moraga Added to UFC on FOX 4
By Mike
Chiappetta - Senior Writer
Ian
McCall is jumping right back on the horse. Just over one month
after falling in a UFC flyweight semifinal matchup with Demetrious
Johnson, the dynamic Californian will waste no time getting back
in the octagon. He's accepted a fight with UFC newcomer John
Moraga, which will take place at UFC on FOX 4.
The
promotion confirmed the matchup on Thursday.
With
the show scheduled for August 4, McCall will have little more
than two weeks to prepare.
Coming
off back-to-back barn-burners with Johnson, McCall is still hunting
for his first UFC win. He's 11-3-1 in his career.
Moraga
is an Arizona-based fighter who trains out of respected camps
The Lab (home to current UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson)
and Arizona Combat Sports (Jamie Varner).
Moraga
is 10-1 and riding a four-fight win streak, with his only career
loss coming in a 2010 decision against current UFC standout John
Dodson.
UFC
on FOX 4 takes place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and
features a quadruple-header on network TV with fights including
Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Brandon Vera, Lyoto Machida
vs. Ryan Bader, Travis Browne vs. Ben Rothwell and Joe Lauzon
vs. Jamie Varner.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Georges
St-Pierre On Track for UFC 154 Return
by Ken
Pishna
UFC
president Dana White recently mentioned that he was targeting
UFC 154 to showcase welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s
return to face interim titleholder Carlos Condit, as well as
a contender’s bout pitting Martin Kampmann against Johny
Hendricks.
Those
plans haven’t changed.
White
reiterated as much at Thursday’s UFC 149: Faber vs. Barão
pre-fight press conference, saying, “Unless any complications
happen, (GSP is) good to go.”
St-Pierre
has been on the sidelines since the UFC 129 mega-event in Toronto
last year, where he won a unanimous decision over Jake Shields.
He
was slated to return to the Octagon in October, but fell off
the UFC 137 fight card due to a knee injury. St-Pierre was then
slated for the UFC 143 Super Bowl weekend fight card, but withdrew
from the fight as well when it was revealed that he had severely
damaged his right ACL, requiring surgery.
He
has since been rehabbing the injury, slowly working his way back
into form.
St-Pierre
recently revealed that he is fully back to training and, as White
confirmed, it appears he is on track for a UFC 154 showdown with
Condit on Nov. 17 in Montreal.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Jake
Ellenberger set to face Josh Koscheck at UFC 151
by Mike
Drahota
News
has broke that the co-main event to September's UFC 151 featuring
Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson is set. Welterweights Jake Ellenberger
and Josh Koscheck will square off in the Octagon in a bout of
two highly-ranked fighters coming off of a loss. Both looking
to get back on track and claw towards the title shot, the fight
presents a very interesting dynamic for a division that is currently
experiencing quite the logjam at the top.
Ellenberger
was one of the UFC's most talked-about fighters after defeating
Diego Sanchez and Jake Shields en route to a six-fight winning
streak. The wheels came off a bit however, as Ellenberger lost
in brutal fashion to the surging Martin Kampmann. Ellenberger
rocked the always tough Kampmann in the first, but could not
finish the deal. Unable to sleep after that devastating loss,
the fight has fueled Ellenberger's fire, as he has reevaluated
his training. While talk of a title shot is long gone, he could
do a lot to get back on that path at UFC 151.
Across
the cage, veteran UFC Welterweight Josh Koscheck will await.
Never one to mince words or hold back his true feelings, he did
just that when he spoke out against his controversial loss to
Johny Hendricks. While the fight may have been close, the reality
is that Koscheck finds himself in a very similar position as
Ellenberger, both needing a win something fierce to stay relevant.
Koscheck may be in a bit more of an urgent situation as he is
the older fighter. It will be tough for him to rise back to the
upper rungs of the 170 lb. world, as he has already lost to Georges
St. Pierre and has a lot of talent ranked below him.
Both
fighters are extremely well versed in wrestling with KO power
to boot, no doubt effective styles. Ellenberger has put on more
exciting finishes while Koscheck has fought the better competition
over the long-haul. This bout will be an extremely exciting affair,
as one of Welterweight's best fighters will find himself on a
dreaded two-fight losing streak. Coupled with UFC 154 in November,
which is rumored to feature GSP vs. Carlos Condit and Johny Hendricks
vs. Martin Kampmann, and you have an explosive scenario set to
unfold in the UFC Welterweight division.
Source:
Low Kick
|
UFC
Targeting Cung Le vs. Rich Franklin for UFC on FUEL 6 Event
By Mike
Chiappetta - Senior Writer
UFC
president Dana White wants Cung Le to fight in China, and what
White wants, he usually gets. Within hours of winning at UFC
148, Le had already heard from White that he wanted him to compete
at UFC on FUEL 6, and even though Le is still recovering from
injury, that's still the plan.
As
long as Le properly heals up from his recent three-round win
over Patrick Cote, he'll be facing Rich Franklin at UFC on FUEL
6, White said in a Thursday press interview in Calgary.
According
to him, Le has a bone bruise and is in a walking cast, but the
promotion is keeping tabs on his recovery in hopes that he'll
take a major slot on the card, which will emanate from Macau,
the Chinese gambling and entertainment destination.
"I'm
very confident that Cung Le is going to be in China," he
said.
Le
and Franklin were originally scheduled to fight at UFC 148, but
Franklin was pulled from the fight and moved up to UFC 147 headlining
status opposite Wanderlei Silva after Silva's original opponent
Vitor Belfort was injured.
Franklin
(29-6, 1 no contest) went on to win by unanimous decision.
Meanwhile,
Le's victory over Cote was his first in the UFC after losing
to Silva in his octagon debut in 2011.
The
original pairing between veteran middleweights is apparently
one that the UFC still has an interest in, and as long as Le
can soon be cleared, he should have no issues making the November
10 date.
"If
he fights in China, he will fight Rich Franklin," White
said.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Vinny
Magalhaes talks his return to the UFC, fighting Igor Pokrajac
and submitting Jon Jones
By Guilherme
Cruz
Vinny
Magalhaes returns to the octagon on UFC 152, against Igor Pokrajac,
after snapping seven wins and a light heavyweight championship
at M-1 Global. The BJJ wiz sees himself as a complete mixed martial
artist after three years away from the UFC, and he wants to prove
that against top competition.
On
this exclusive interview to TATAME, ‘Pezao’ analyzes
Pokrajac’s abilities on the ground game, his expectation
to become a Top 10 light heavyweight and a potential fight with
reigning champion Jon Jones.
What
are your thoughts on Pokrajac?
He’s
a tough dude, I believe he’s a good test for my debut. There
are some other fighters in this division that would be more easy
fights for me, but I told Joe Silva that I wanted to fight someone
who was coming of wins, because if I fight someone who’s
coming of losses, I wouldn’t prove anything for me.
He’s
coming of three big wins. Do you believe a victory over him puts
you on the Top 10 already?
I
don’t know if that would put me among the best, but would
definitely take me away from the bottom, would put me in the
mix, which is very good so far.
He
was submitted only once, in more than 30 times. Have you studied
his game yet? Saw any holes in his ground game?
I’ll
start to watch his videos this week, but, besides bring submitted
only once in more than 30 fights, he already showed some deficiency
on his fights against Matyushenko, James Te Huna and Stephan
Bonnar. All these guys dominated him on the ground, but they
wasn’t looking for a submission. If I dominate him on the
ground, I’ll submit him.
You’re
a BJJ specialist, but two of your last three wins were by TKO.
How do you see your evolution on the striking part? Do you believe
you’d be ready to stand and bang with him?
I’m
ready, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll fight his game.
My strategy is simply and is not a secret: take the fight to
the ground and finish there. I don’t need to prove to anyone
that I’m a better striker today. I need a win and, to get
that, I have to impose my game, which is the Jiu-Jitsu.
Do
you see yourself ready to fight a Top 10 competitor now?
The
reason why I wanted to return to the UFC was to prove that I
can fight with the best, so I’ll never refuse a fight. I
believe that Igor would become a Top 10 with one more win because
it would be his fourth in a row – but that’s not gonna
happen. I guess that, with a win over him, I would be able to
fight a Top 10 next. Actually, I don’t care. I’m just
thinking on my next fight.
Do
you believe your ground game could be the turning point on a
potential fight against Jon Jones?
On
the ground, I believe I can submit everyone on my division in
the UFC, including Jon Jones, but it’s too soon to speculate
about that. I didn’t even debut yet. And more, having only
a good Jiu-Jitsu won’t make anyone a UFC champion. To beat
the champion, I’d need to get better in other areas too,
unless he starts the fight on my guard (laughs).
Source:
Tatame
|
2012
Summer Olympics: Ivo dos Santos Judo Blog
Australian
judo player and MMA fighter Ivo dos Santos is currently preparing
to compete in the men’s 66-kilogram (145.5-pound) division
at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where he will attempt to
become the first Australian male to medal in judo since 1964.
Here is his latest blog entry.
So,
it’s getting closer and closer to the day where I get to
compete on sport’s biggest stage, the Olympic Games. I’ve
now entered a final phase of speed and sharpening work. The long,
hard sessions smashing my body to pieces are done (thank god!).
However,
it’s the phase just before this that I want to write about.
I call this part ‘in the trenches.’ This involves heavy
conditioning sessions off the mat and as much randori (judo sparring)
as possible. This lead-up has been fantastic because we (the
Aussie team) have been able to attend some of the strongest training
camps on earth. We attended both the Nymburk (Czech Republic)
and Castelldefels (Spain) camps. Across these two camps, I was
able to do randori with 23 out of the 32 guys I will compete
against in London.
It
was during one of these camps that one of my blog followers posed
an interesting question to me: Is judo the only sport, especially
combat sport, where athletes go out of their way to train with
their rivals? I’m not an expert in elite training of other
sports, but I’d say it might be.
I
have also had other people ask me if I try my hardest against
rivals, do different things, let them get me or other things
to get inside my opponents’ heads. I would only do that
if I was scared of them.
Whilst
I think this could work in some cases, I definitely don’t
do it. In this day and age, everyone is on YouTube -- there are
no secrets!
I
look at it this way: I have to give my best against them.
The
main reasons why:
-
If my best is better than theirs, I will beat them in training.
-
If my best sees me get my butt kicked, I am able to see exactly
how good they are (and adapt my game).
-
I can see what they do when I impose my game on them.
-
Even if they towel me up, they will know I am not a p---y and
that I am slightly unhinged, and no one wants to fight that guy.
A
lot of people overcomplicate the sport of judo. I am not trying
to tell them they are wrong. I just see it as something much
simpler.
It’s
a fight with some rules.
In
a fight, you want to be 100-percent confident that you have what
it takes to beat the other guy, no matter what happens, because
if you don’t, you will not only lose but probably get hurt.
For me, it is impossible to feel that sort of confidence unless
I have gone head-to-head with my adversary or someone similar.
The devil you know is never as scary as the devil you don’t.
The
other important point is no matter how many times you get thrown,
submitted or pinned in a row, you are getting closer to catching
them yourself.
Well,
that’s my rambling for today done. I’m off to get in
some more training. I’ll try and post one more blog before
the games.
Ivo
Source
Sherdog
|
Why
it’s possible UFC will get involved in CSAC chaos
By Zach
Arnold
When
I read the full-throated spin from the Department of Consumer
Affairs about the chaos at the California State Athletic Commission,
I wanted to vomit. It’s sickening to see DCA pushing spin
that is so laughable and so egregious that it can be easily challenged
by anyone with a brain. However, DCA has not been challenged
very often over the years in the press, especially by anyone
the fight media. Sure, DCA had their meltdown a few years ago
with The Los Angeles Times over a nursing board scandal and then-Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger had to clean house. However, DCA in large
part never gets challenged in the political press. They never
get challenged by the sports media, either. After all, why would
anyone in the press care about a bunch of bureaucrats that are
largely faceless to the public?
I
can assure you that, despite DCA’s weak and trollish spin
that is on display in articles like this, the atmosphere right
now at Sacramento headquarters is atrocious. The top players
in DCA management are allegedly questioning the loyalty of each
other. Government lifers are worried about who is currently backstabbing
others in the office and who will be the next to turn. They are
paranoid beyond belief. As I’ve stated in past articles
on this web site, DCA never expected any press coverage regarding
their business dealings… especially for an athletic commission.
How
paranoid are things at DCA HQ? Consider the following. A source
on background with knowledge of CSAC office inner workings claims
that the Department of Investigation, DCA’s unit of bloodhounds,
has confiscated hard drives of those at CSAC and is combing through
any and all electronic material they can to discover leads that
could help them out with such mysteries as media moles. DOI claims
they can get away with this thuggish tactic by claiming that
they have the right to confiscate materials from public employees.
However, the real reason they get away with this kind of behavior
is because they haven’t been challenged in court. It’s
not necessarily a new tactic from DOI, unfortunately. They’ve
pulled this stunt before on past CSAC employees who they wanted
to jettison out of town, fairly or unfairly. It’s abusive.
It’s
also a sign that confidence at the Department of Consumer Affairs
is totally shaken. Their confidence has been shaken by the CSAC
board members who fought back against their power play to terminate
George Dodd at the 6/26 El Monte hearing. As we demonstrated
recently, DCA got their revenge in spades against those who didn’t
carry out their orders. DCA’s confidence has also been shaken
by the fact that we’ve been covering their internal politics
and naming names.
On
Wednesday, we laid out the road map for the political players
who are causing chaos at the California State Athletic Commission.
The list of names reads like a who’s who of the major politicians
in CADEM (the California Democratic Party). Darrell Steinberg,
Governor Jerry Brown, Denise Brown (DCA boss), and Karen Chappelle
(California deputy AG). By revealing all of the fingerprints
from the major political players in California in regards to
the chaos at CSAC, we wanted to show you just how vulnerable
certain individuals are based on the whims of politicians who
have no desire to protect the best interests of the fight game
and have every interest in advancing not only their own careers
but the careers of political fixers.
The
development of key political players like Darrell Steinberg &
Governor Jerry Brown being involved directly or indirectly with
the mess at CSAC is an important news item to highlight for a
reason. It’s a revealing development when you juxtapose
it to what recently happened in California for the political
battle over AB2100.
As
Dan Morain of The Sacramento Bee laid out in his July 1st article,
the Fertitta family spread a lot of money around to various politicians
& lobbyists to kill the legislative process for passing AB2100.
A major reason for Fertitta family power in California is because
of the money they have invested in Indian casinos. The Teamsters
and other unions have their own money in pensions tied up to
the fortunes of Indian gaming. Money talks and the Fertitta family
knows how to push the right buttons in Sacramento. Dan pointed
out that Zuffa gave CADEM $15,000 in mid-May and gave Governor
Jerry Brown $50,000.
If
Zuffa got worked up over AB2100, you can only imagine how interested
they will be in the fortunes of the California State Athletic
Commission and the regulatory climate in California. Actions
speak louder than words and Zuffa knows California is still an
important cog in their future business plans.
Which
leads us to what is about to happen to CSAC thanks to its political
decimation at the hands of the Department of Consumer Affairs,
Governor Jerry Brown’s office, and the state Senate’s
Rules Committee led by Darrell Steinberg. If you are the UFC
and you see the power vacuum that has been created at CSAC, you
can look at it as a chance to grab some additional political
power in California in order to ensure that the regulatory terms
are most favorable to your business needs for running major shows
in the state.
An
educated person might suspect that UFC is interested in pulling
some strings to see if they can mold the future of CSAC, if DCA
wants to keep it alive. As we reported over the last couple of
days, the Department of Consumer Affairs is interested in gutting
the CSAC office in Sacramento so that they only have employees
at the office based on seniority for working for the state of
California as opposed to actual experience in the fight business.
This would mean that individuals like Sarah Waklee, who work
at CSAC and also works as an inspector at various shows throughout
the state, would likely be a goner.
However,
we have heard Waklee’s name bandied about over the last
week after she appeared with inspector Che Guevara at the UFC
event (Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman) in San Jose at HP Pavilion.
According to a CSAC source, there is an impression in some Sacramento
political circles that UFC would be interested in seeing Waklee
groomed to become the next Executive Director of CSAC. Despite
the fact that she has various detractors, she’s 33 years
old and really likes her job. To paraphrase why UFC would be
interested in having her as the new Executive Director at CSAC,
one Sacramento source framed it this way: she could be a target
that UFC could try to persuade and influence.
Just
remember… former CSAC Executive Director Armando Garcia
now works for the Fertitta empire.
There
are so many questions regarding why DCA, Darrell Steinberg, Jerry
Brown, Denise Brown, and a host of others are acting the way
they are right now about CSAC. It would be a fascinating scenario
to see how DCA would react to UFC throwing around cash if they
thought they would manipulate or steer the process as to who
DCA and Governor Brown would pick as the next Executive Director
at CSAC. Given that the biggest names in Sacramento already have
their fingerprints on the mess at CSAC, it’s not just a
money play that is motivating the decision making process.
If
you are UFC, would you be willing to get involved in such a toxic
political climate in order to try to shake things up in order
to influence who the next DCA puppet will be at CSAC? Zuffa wasn’t
afraid to spread the wealth around with lobbyists and politicians
over AB2100. The power vacuum in Sacramento might prove to be
an opportunity for the boys in Las Vegas to really flex their
political muscle in the state and to protect turf that is of
importance to their yearly show schedule.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Anderson
Silva next fight: Dana White teases 'crazy' plan that screams
middleweight tournament
by Thomas
Myers
3
months ago: May 5, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Alan Belcher
celebrates a victory against Rousimar Palhares during UFC on
Fox 3 at the Izod Center. Alan Belcher won by technical knock
out in the first round. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-US PRESSWIRE
The
Anderson Silva sweepstakes could take a "crazy" turn
as soon as this Saturday (July 21, 2012), according to Ultimate
Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White.
With
all the talk of "The Spider" wanting to fight everyone
outside the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion, including his
clone and Strikeforce's Luke Rockhold, as well as a cloudy --
albeit rich -- 185-pound contender picture, his next opponent
seems like anyone's guess.
Chris
Weidman, Vitor Belfort, Michael Bisping, Brian Stann, Alan Belcher,
Tim Boetsch and promotional newcomer Hector Lombard are all seemingly
in the dreaded "mix." No one fighter truly stands out
from the sea of competition at the moment; however, the situation
could gain some clarity if meaningful match ups are made.
Imagine
that.
Well,
based on recent remarks from White at the UFC 149 pre-fight press
conference (via MMAFighting.com), it appears that a plan is indeed
being cooked up to take all the guesswork out of the equation
and deliver the Brazilian a bonafide, clear-cut number one contender
by the end of the 2012 fight season.
Check
it out:
"We're
working on so much crazy shit right now -- you know how I get.
I get all nutty and start telling you shit I'm not supposed to
be telling you. We're working on really, really exciting stuff
that we're just going to kill it at the end of this year. Some
really fun stuff.... I am very excited about the 185-pound division
-- it's all I've been talking about for the last four days. I
was on the road, in Australia, on the phone every day talking
about the 185-pound division. It's never been more exciting.
I will let the cat out of the bag on Saturday about what we are
going to do. Whoever wins on Saturday [between Hector Lombard
vs. Tim Boetsch], I will have answers for you at the press conference."
Middleweight
tournament time, Maniacs.
Sure,
I'm reading between the lines and jumping to wild, irresponsible
conclusions. But, even before White's recent tease, it was rather
clear that something had to be done to not only inject some excitement
back into the second-half of the promotional calendar, but also
not have to fork over more millions to convince Silva to fight
a guy who he feels is undeserving.
Indeed,
with Chael Sonnen already a distant memory after Silva thrashed
him at UFC 148 and only a handful of fights remaining before
he calls it a career, making everyone fight for the right to
challenge the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) only seems fitting,
especially with the current talent-laden division.
So
what can we (maybe) expect? Who knows, but while we wait for
official confirmation, here is my fantasy bracket:
Lombard/Boetsch
winner vs. Weidman
Bisping/Stann winner vs. Belfort/Belcher (dream match up, completely
unofficial) winner
Whichever two fighters advance through the gauntlet meet in the
center of the Octagon, co-headlining the New Year's Eve weekend
pay-per-view (PPV) event with a title shot on the line.
Got
a better idea?
Source:
MMA Mania
|
Hector
Lombard Won’t Get Mark Munoz, but UFC Middleweight Picture
is Gaining Focus
by Ken
Pishna
Former
Bellator champion Hector Lombard hasn’t set foot in the
Octagon yet, but he’s already been mapping out his next
fight, although he has a fairly tough one in front of him at
UFC 149 on Saturday night.
Lombard
squares off with Tim Boetsch, who has been making huge waves
in the UFC middleweight division of late.
Lombard,
however, has already declared that he wants to step into the
cage with Mark Munoz next, even if he were offered a shot at
Anderson Silva and the UFC middleweight title.
No
go says UFC president Dana White.
“He
must not have Fuel TV because Mark Munoz lost the other night,”
White commented at Thursday’s UFC 149 pre-fight press conference
when asked about Lombard’s preference to face Munoz.
Should
he come out on top against Boetsch, which is by no means a given,
Munoz is nowhere near penciled in for Lombard.
“He’ll
be fighting one of the guys that are at the top of that division,”
said White. “Not that Munoz isn’t, but Munoz has a
loss right now.”
The
UFC president mentioned that he has been conferring at length
with UFC matchmaker Joe Silva lately about the state of the UFC
middleweight division and, assuming everyone comes out of the
next couple of shows healthy, there is already a road map sketched
out.
“You
know how I never have any answers for you (immediately after
the fights)?” White said at the press conference. “I’ve
been talking to Joe Silva. On Saturday night, after the fights,
I’ll have some answers for you.”
The
brash UFC boss wouldn’t hint at anything beyond that, but
made it sound as if Saturday night’s fight has a lot to
do with how things will shake out in the middleweight division’s
title picture.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Urijah
Faber: The Perfect Situation and the Worst Case Scenario
by Damon
Martin
The last few months have not been easy on Urijah Faber.
After being selected to coach on the latest installment of The
Ultimate Fighter, Faber packed up his entire team and moved them
from Sacramento, Calif., to Las Vegas to help him build a team
in a three-month long process for the first ever live version
of the show.
The plus side was after the long arduous process was complete.
Faber would finally get the chance to settle the score with long
time rival Dominick Cruz and that put a huge smile on the face
of “The California Kid.”
The elated feeling of the perfect situation Faber felt came to
a crashing halt, however, when an injury sent the entire plan
crashing into the side of a mountain.
UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz suffered a devastating
knee injury and immediately after hearing the news a wave of
sadness, anger and depression washed over Faber.
Faber isn’t afraid to admit that it was a tough pill to
swallow when he heard that Cruz would be yanked from the title
fight and he would instead face a new opponent for an interim
belt instead.
“It was a couple of days of being kind of pissed off, but
I figure the show must go on and don’t want to dwell on
things too much,” Faber told MMAWeekly Radio.
The show did go on and just over a week later Faber had a new
opponent in Brazilian phenom Renan Barão. The pair was
set to face off as the co-main event in the biggest card of the
year as part of UFC 148 also in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, the wheels fell off of that plan as well when
UFC 149 main event fighter Jose Aldo was forced to sit out due
to injury and so the upcoming card in Calgary needed a main event.
The UFC called up Faber and Barão and asked them to shift
their bout to the headline slot of the upcoming show this weekend.
“It’s pretty much been the worst case scenario all
the way around going into a big fight, but what are you going
to do? Nothing I can really do about it. I just have to go in
there and fight,” Faber said about the situation surrounding
his fight with Barão.
“I never really make excuses or anything like that. If I’m
going to get beat up it’s not going to be because of any
other circumstances other than I let somebody beat me up, and
I don’t plan on doing that.”
The easy way to look at the ordeal is to say Faber now gets to
headline a card as opposed to being the co-main event under the
biggest rematch in UFC history when Anderson Silva was facing
off with Chael Sonnen. But there’s so much more to this
story than meets the eye.
See, being a part of the biggest card of the entire year has
a lot of benefits, including sponsorship money, exposure, pay-per-view
revenue, not to mention fighting close to home in Las Vegas as
opposed to traveling further away into Canada. Tack on the extra
taxes that fighters competing abroad need to pay and Faber’s
main event fight doesn’t hold the same luster as it might
have by looking from the outside in.
Faber isn’t above stating that this was anything but the
ideal situation for this fight, but lamenting on a bad situation
will do nothing to help him face Renan Barão and that’s
ultimately what matters most.
“That’s a lot more to this situation that people really
don’t understand why it sucks for me. The bottom line is
I’m a fighter that’s what I’m here to do. I’d
love for everything to be perfect, but that’s not the way
the world works and you’ve just got to roll with the punches,”
said Faber.
With the focus back on Renan Barão, a stoic Urijah Faber
looks at his opponent’s record with a different set of eyes
that most.
Barão has amassed an impressive 18-fight winning streak
en route to his 28-1 record, an accomplishment of epic proportions
when looking at the records of most title contending UFC fighters,
but Faber likes to dig a little deeper when admiring the Brazilian’s
consecutive victories.
“You don’t want to take anything away from the guy
for having a win streak like that. It’s hard to win that
many in a row. Now had I fought all the guys that he fought,
would I have had the same win streak? I think so,” Faber
stated.
Still, Barão’s ranking and record can’t be ignored
and Faber isn’t looking past him in any way, shape or form.
As a matter of fact, Faber believes this fight will truly define
the best bantamweight in the UFC.
To Faber, it’s not about the gold belt that gets handed
out at the end of the night. It’s about who truly is the
best fighter competing at 135 pounds, and Faber believes that
the winner in the UFC 149 main event will have made a big stake
to that claim come Saturday night.
“This is going to be the determining factor in who is the
No. 1 guy. I felt like after I fought Dominick that I had done
enough to win, so in my mind I’m the top guy and Barão,
he hasn’t been beaten in 29 fights (including one no contest).
In his mind, he’s the top guy. In Dominick’s mind,
he’s the top guy. That’s what you’re dealing with
here,” said Faber.
“This is going to be some of the weeding out process.”
Source: MMA Weekly
|
Pros
Pick: Faber vs. Barao
By Mike
Sloan
A
knee injury to Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight kingpin
Dominick Cruz set in motion the events that led to an interim
title bout between Urijah Faber and Renan “Barao” Pegado
in the UFC 149 headliner on Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome
in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Faber
has recorded three wins in his past four outings. The 33-year-old
Team Alpha Male founder last appeared at UFC 139 in November,
when he submitted Brian Bowles with a second-round guillotine
choke. A former WEC champion at 145 pounds, Faber wrestled collegiately
at the University of California at Davis. In 31 professional
appearances, he has never been submitted. Faber views “Barao”
as a different kind of threat than the man he was originally
booked to meet.
“Cruz
and ‘Barao’ are polar opposites. ‘Barao’
is a guy that starts hard and looks for the finish right away
but seems to fade a little bit as the fight goes on,” he
said in his pre-fight interview with UFC.com. “Dominick
is really tricky, has great conditioning and is always looking
to outpoint you in a long fight. I’m a good combination
of those two put together. I’m dangerous and I thrive in
long fights.”
Pegado,
who trains out of the same revered Nova Uniao camp as UFC featherweight
champion Jose Aldo, has secured 19 of his 28 professional victories
by knockout, technical knockout or submission. The 25-year-old
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt last competed at UFC 143 in February,
when he coasted to a unanimous decision over Scott Jorgensen.
“Barao” views the fight with Faber as a defining moment
in his career.
“Urijah
is a great fighter and person,” he said. “It will be
the most important fight in my life, and this can put me at another
level in the UFC and as an MMA pro fighter.”
Sherdog.com
touched base with a number of professional fighters and trainers
to gauge their opinions on the UFC 149 “Faber vs. Barao”
main event:
Joseph
Sandoval: I’m going for Renan. He’s just too fast and
is a smaller Jose Aldo. He’s gonna finish Urijah in the
championship rounds; I say [via] TKO.
Keith
Berry: Faber is pretty well-rounded, with great wrestling, but
Renan is a phenom. I think he will get the TKO in the third round.
Jason
Dent: Picking and pulling for Faber. To be honest, I’m not
that familiar with Renan just yet. I have to believe Faber has
fought the tougher competition, though.
Jeff
Hougland: Faber will win, but it will be an awesome fight for
the fans. Neither one knows how to have a boring fight.
Mike
Ciesnolevicz: I’m going to take “Barao” in this
fight. I think he is going to be the next big thing at this weight
class. It’s hard to pick against him. I see him outstriking
Faber standing, maybe with low kicks like his training partner
Aldo did. It will set up Barao-Cruz down the line for the belt.
John
Hackleman: I pick Faber to win because of his explosive wrestling,
much improved striking, his very underrated yet dangerous submissions
and, most of all, because of his very cute dimple. No one with
a dimple like that should ever lose.
Travis
Wiuff: Faber wins by decision.
Erik
Paulson: This will be a fun fight to watch. Faber needs to take
him down and try to choke him to finish. “Barao” could
possibly win by KO if he can keep it on the feet.
Mark
Bocek: “Barao” wins by decision.
Cung
Le: Going with Faber.
Javier
Vazquez: This should be a fun fight. I just have a feeling about
this one, and I think “Barao” is going to finish Faber.
I don’t like to pick against Faber, but I think “Barao”
might just be the guy that beats Cruz. “Barao” will
finish Faber in a spectacular fight.
John
Gunderson: “Barao” is a beast and only 25. This will
be a tough fight for Faber, but I believe he will pull out the
victory. Faber has more experience in the big show and championship
fights. Plus, his work ethic [will help]. His incredibly fast-paced
fighting style will prevail. He also has a good team of guys
to work with everyday and will dominate this fight later on [in
the] championship rounds.
Nam
Phan: Faber all the way.
Pros
Picking Faber: 7
Pros Picking Pegado: 5
No Pick: 1
Source:
Sherdog
|
Urijah
Faber, Renan Barao have no issue with interim title
By John
Morgan, MMAjunkie.com
CALGARY
-- On Saturday, Ultimate Fighting Championship officials will
crown the second bantamweight champion in organization history
when Urijah Faber (26-5 MMA, 2-1 UFC) meets Renan Barao (28-1,
3-0) in the main event of UFC 149 at Scotiabank Saddledome.
The
title comes with a small caveat, though, as the belt is solely
of the interim variety. But to the two men competing in the main
event, it makes no difference.
"Being
the interim champ means a lot to me," Faber said. "It's
the symbolism of the belt. It means being the best, and that
means everything to me. That's why I do this."
Faber,
a former featherweight champion with World Extreme Cagefighting
(an organization the UFC bought and later absorbed), brings a
wealth of big-fight experience to the cage. In fact, 10 of Faber's
last 15 appearances have been contested with a world championship
on the line. Faber earned his latest title bid by piecing together
a 3-1 mark since moving down to the 135-pound division, and "The
California Kid" remains one of the promotion's most recognizable
figures.
Meanwhile,
Barao boasts an astonishing 28-fight winning streak and has been
installed as a 2-to-1 favorite by oddsmakers. Soft-spoken by
nature, the Brazilian contender has been respectful of his opponent
during pre-fight festivities, but he's quick to note the importance
of not allowing Faber's reputation to play a role in the contest.
"Faber
is a famous person, a famous fighter, a famous personality,"
Barao said. "I just came here to find my place, have my
own fame and my own personality. I can't worry about his fame.
I'm just here to fight."
The
winner of Faber-Barao is expected to meet bantamweight champ
Dominick Cruz for the undisputed 135-pound title.Cruz is mending
from June surgery to repair a torn ACL, which is why Saturday's
fight is for an interim title. UFC President Dana White said
he was unsure when Cruz could be ready to fight but was encouraged.
"His progression is great," White said. "It's
going well, but you never know with those type of injuries. Some
guys heal faster than others.
Cruz
was crowned the first UFC bantamweight champion in 2010. He's
since defended the belt twice against Faber and Demetrious Johnson.
In
UFC 149's co-feature, former Olympic judoka Hector Lombard (31-2-1,
0-0) meets knockout artist Tim Boetsch (15-4, 6-3). The winner
is expected to feature prominently in the UFC's middleweight
title picture as the promotion seeks new contenders for longtime
champion Anderson Silva.
UFC
149's five-fight main card airs on pay-per-view (10 p.m. ET).
Four preliminary-card fights air on FX (8 p.m.), and an additional
two bouts stream on Facebook (7 p.m.).
MMAjunkie.com
is a part of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group
Source:
USA Today
|
Dana
White Quashes Hector Lombard-Mark Munoz Talk, Hints at 'Really
Good Fights'
By Dave
Doyle - Staff Writer
Middleweight
Hector Lombard raised eyebrows on Wednesday by proclaiming that
after fighting Tim Boetsch on Saturday night at UFC 149, he wants
a piece of Mark Munoz next.
It
was a curious statement, given both that Lombard seems to be
on the short list of possible opponents for middleweight champion
Anderson Silva, and that Munoz was on the wrong end of a wicked
beating at the hands of Chris Weidman last week.
But
at Thursday's UFC 149 press conference in Calgary, UFC president
Dana White threw cold water on the idea of a potential Lombard-Munoz
bout, while also strongly hinting that there are a slew of interesting
fights at 185 pounds on the way.
"He
must not have Fuel TV, because Munoz just lost the other night,"
White said. "If he wins on Saturday, I mean, I don't think
he'll be fighting Mark Munoz, he'll be fighting one of the guys
at the top of that division, not that Munoz isn't, but Munoz
has a loss right now."
In
the wake of Anderson Silva's win over Chael Sonnen on July 7,
the UFC's middleweight division has suddenly become one of the
most interesting in the company. Several fighters are trying
to stake their claim as No. 1 contender. Weidman did his part
with his victory over Munoz last week. Upcoming bouts like Lombard
vs. Boetsch and Michael Bisping vs. Brian Stann only add to the
intrigue.
Later
in the press conference, White hinted that there will be a lot
more to come.
"We
got plans, my friends," White said. "It's all I've
been talking about for four days, believe me. I've been on the
phone with me and Joe Silva putting together some really good
fights. As long as everyone stays healthy, believe me.
"You
know how normally, after a fight on Saturday, you guys are like
‘who is he going to fight next,' I'll have answers for you
on Saturday. We'll see who wins, and I'll have a lot of answers
for the 85-pound division. I'm excited, man, I'm serious, the
185-pound division has never been more exciting."
As
for Lombard, it seemed odd that the former Bellator champion
appeared to be looking beyond his debut UFC fight. But his opponent,
Boetsch, had a succinct answer for his foe: "He's in for
a big surprise on Saturday night."
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Travis
Wiuff Isn’t with Bellator to Shake Hands and Kiss Babies;
He’s Here for a Belt!
by Mick
Hammond
After
mixed results in his initial run at light heavyweight, Travis
“Diesel” Wiuff has returned to the weight class and
has made real headway by making it to Bellator’s 205-pound
tournament semifinals on Friday night.
For
Wiuff, the move down from heavyweight was more necessity than
anything else.
“Monte
Cox and I were having trouble finding fights,” said Wiuff.
“It was just a crazy year where fights were falling through,
opponents were falling through and shows were backing out at
the last moment. Then last September Monte called me and told
me that Bellator was looking for someone to fight their light
heavyweight champion (Christian M’Pumbu) in a super fight.
“At
the time I was 270 pounds and had no plans on going back down
to 205. I was having decent success and had beaten a couple of
tough guys at heavyweight and I had planned on staying there.
But an opportunity came up that I couldn’t pass on, so I
dropped 60 pounds in five weeks and beat their champion and the
rest is history.”
While
some fighters may have pushed for a title shot after defeating
the reigning champion in a non-title fight, Wiuff understood
what he was getting into and welcomes the opportunity to prove
himself.
“I
knew the only way you could fight for the championship was to
go through the tournament,” said Wiuff. “Bellator’s
all about the tournament, and I don’t have any problems
with it. I have to earn my title shot just like their current
champions did and their future champions will have to do it.
I’ve got no problems doing it.”
At
Friday’s semifinals in Tampa, Fla., Wiuff will face off
against Tim Carpenter. It’s a match that Wiuff told MMAWeekly.com
he has the advantage in as long as he plays his game.
“I
try not to worry about what my opponent does; those are things
I can’t control, so I just worry about myself,” said
Wiuff. “He has a black belt in jiu-jitsu, but that doesn’t
concern me; the only belt that does is the Bellator light heavyweight
belt.
“Come
fight night when I’m fighting a light heavyweight that’s
maybe 220 and I’m used to training with guys who are 270,
it’s a huge difference and advantage for me to be bigger
and stronger. I can basically do what I want with them in the
cage.”
While
Wiuff isn’t looking so far ahead that he’s discounting
Carpenter, he makes no bones about his plans for his time in
Bellator.
“I
try not to look too far forward or think about who I’ll
fight next, I’m just trying to take care of this opponent,”
said Wiuff. “Tim Carpenter is a well-respected fighter and
wouldn’t be in this tournament if he wasn’t. I’m
just looking forward to fighting Tim Friday night.
“I’m
excited to get out there and compete. I’m not in Bellator
to shake hands, kiss babies and be friends with these guys. I’m
here to win the light heavyweight championship and it’s
only a matter of time before I get my hands around it.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Jiu-Jitsu
lessons from one who got the mount but lost in the UFC
Marcelo
Dunlop
Fabricio
Morango punishes Melvin Guillard at UFC 148: he got the mount
but not the win. Photo by Josh Hedges/UFC publicity.
What
do Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, Marcus Bochecha and Melvin
Guillard have in common?
Recently,
all of them won fights even after have been dominated and mounted.
It’s a trend that is becoming all the more common, although
perhaps meaningless, in the UFC; but one that has even reared
its head at the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, as with the case
of Bochecha in his match against Rodolfo Vieira.
Bothered
by the frequency of this occurrence, GRACIEMAG.com had a talk
with Jiu-Jitsu black belt Fabricio “Morango” Camões,
one of the latest to witness it up close, real close, at UFC
148.
“It’s
truly frustrating when it happens to us,” said the Gracie
Humaitá fighter after dropping a judges’ decision
to Melvin Guillard.
The
highlights of the conversation and Morango’s reflections
follow:
1.
ISSUE OF TIME IN MMA
“Everyone
who steps into that octagon knows they’re going to do some
things wrong and other things right, and they learn from their
mistakes. My coaches were satisfied with my appearance; Melvin
is one of the top dogs in that weight group and I did alright.
I messed up some at the end of each round, like the spinning
punch and spinning kick, and he capitalized on those mistakes.
In the mount, I sensed that he was really prepared and savvy
in defending. I feared time was running out and wasn’t sure
whether I should drop bombs on him or go for his arm, and he
capitalized on that to push my knee and shrimp out of the position.
I’m going to fix that, because it’s frustrating when
it happens to us; mounting is too good a position.
2.
THE MOUNT AND A LESSON FROM RICKSON GRACIE
“I
was talking to Rickson about Jiu-Jitsu and MMA one time, and
he told me this: ‘When you get the mount in MMA, what’s
important is to not let the position get away from you. You can’t
digress; you have to maintain control of the guy, and after that
you can naturally go on to end the fight.’ And if I hadn’t
let him get out, eventually he’d have offered up an arm
or turned his back, or at least I would have scored some points
at the end of the round and maybe won the judges’ decision.
I’m going to work on some finer details of my mount with
Royler so I don’t let the position slip away again.”
3.
THE TACTICS ISSUE
So
we asked him whether everyone isn’t just a lot better prepared
to defend these days, and whether black belts might be neglecting
practicing the mount in training. Morango feels it’s more
of a physical issue than a technical one: “You can see that
Melvin never stopped for a moment. He was bridging the whole
time, turning sideways to make room, and he was exploding to
get out the whole time. Folks are really studying mount escapes
a lot, mainly the athletes who know they might end up there.
It’s a question of survival. And they’re strong and
explosive enough to get out, but the key is really for us to
not go off halfcocked and keep top position at all costs. The
knockout or submission will come around naturally, I believe,”
he said.
4.
ISSUE OF THE JUDGES
“It
really does seem to me that it’s becoming more and more
common to see someone get the mount and still lose the fight,
but there’s one side of the debate that bothers me. Could
it be that the judges don’t understand just how valuable
the mount is? Is the guy getting the mount scoring the points
the position he achieved is worth? I don’t think so. You
can even hear the crowd cheering more when a fighter escapes
mount than when one tries for a submission or to mount. That
falls under another question. The way I see it, the judges aren’t
rewarding the one who gets in there looking to win and finish,
but the one who’s in there not to lose. All the guy does
is defend, doesn’t expose himself, doesn’t try for
the takedown, and some judges fall for it. At UFC 148 the judges
showed they were using different criteria, because my fight and
Tibau’s were similar. If I lost, then Tibau won. Tito Ortiz
got the takedown and took it to the ground, and the judges felt
he lost. I feel that more and more they’re rewarding the
ones who train to stall, the ones who train not to fight, and
we’re left asking the question: Would it be better if we
just trained not to expose ourselves, rather that train to get
the submission or knockout, in the UFC?”
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
UFC
149 ‘Faber vs. Barao’ Statistical Matchup Analysis
By Reed
Kuhn
The
injury bug has hit mixed martial arts pretty hard this summer,
but despite losing two champions from the UFC 149 lineup, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, still found a way to host a title bout on Saturday
at the Scotiabank Saddledome. With UFC bantamweight champion
Dominick Cruz on an injury layoff, an interim title is now up
for grabs.
Former
WEC champion and the alpha male of Team Alpha Male Urijah Faber
will take on the surging Renan “Barao” Pegado. While
making predictions is best left to Octagon veterans, I do want
to see how these two match up and provide you all with deeper
statistical insights than you can see anywhere else. Let us get
to it.
Tale
of the Tape
Yet
another “Ultimate Fighter” coaching derailment is certainly
disappointing, but Joe Silva arranged a worthy and very close
matchup here, as we will see. While Faber is an exciting and
steadfast draw for MMA fans, “Barao” has only competed
on the big-show circuit for two years. Yet “Barao,”
undefeated in 29 straight fights, is the early favorite.
The
Tale of the Tape shows two evenly sized, orthodox stance fighters
who can both finish fights better than their peers. One item
from the tape is worth noting. Amazingly, Faber is now 33 years
old. No longer the bouncing “California Kid” who dominated
the WEC five years ago, he is now a seasoned veteran just beyond
the 32-year-old threshold of natural youth advantages in MMA.
Barao will be eight years younger than Faber, a difference that
leads to a win rate of 63 percent for the younger fighter.
The
Striking Matchup
Note:
Bantamweight division statistics only
Faber’s
power striking has always been a strength, and it will remain
a mismatch area for this fight. Keep in mind that at featherweight
he scored four more standing knockdowns, further illustrating
his knockdown power. The threat of his high mix of power strikes
is also compounded by the creative ways with which he throws
strikes. Since moving to the bantamweight division, his striking
accuracy has gotten even better, and he will have the edge over
“Barao” in this critical striking metric.
However,
what “Barao” may lack in accuracy, he makes up for
with volume. The second most important number here is the standup
striking ratio. “Barao” has pushed the pace, averaging
50 percent more striking attempts than his opponents, though
mostly with jabs rather than power strikes. It is worth noting
that “Barao” throws three times as many leg kicks as
Faber.
Faber
had to be more reactive in his fight against Cruz, but, in general,
he does not rely on a high-volume jab attack. He picks his shots
and throws heat. The critical question here will be if Faber
can get the timing right and land some early damage by countering
“Barao,” or if the Brazilian will mimic his training
partner, Jose Aldo, and keep Faber off balance with a barrage
of strikes.
Takedowns
& Grappling Matchup
Both
fighters have dominated their opponents on the ground with superior
positioning, striking and submissions. They have both finished
fights on the ground, and neither has ever been submitted, so
this aspect of the matchup will certainly be a challenging test
for each fighter.
Pegado’s
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt means Faber will not have the
same submission advantage he has had in prior fights. However,
Faber’s additional years of experience bolster his own grappling
credentials. When it comes to wrestling, here is a surprise.
While Faber attempts takedowns at twice the rate of “Barao,”
the Brazilian has had the much better success rates, both offensively
and defensively. We will temper some of that advantage based
on the Brazilian’s slightly lower level of competition and
Faber’s NCAA Div. I wrestling pedigree. If either fighter’s
strategy is to put the other on the ground, it will be interesting
to see who is first to get top position.
A
Final Word
The
betting line began close to even, with “Barao” as a
very light favorite, but market activity has pushed the line
further in his favor, and he currently owns a -200 edge. That
is a pretty big deal considering Faber is the much more popular
fighter. Faber has been favored in all his fights except the
two unsuccessful title attempts versus Aldo and Cruz. “Barao,”
favored in all his Octagon appearances, has averaged a betting
line of -250.
It
looks like Joe Silva has been up to his usual tricks. While each
fighter has a few advantages in this matchup, it looks to be
a competitive tilt for the interim strap. Faber winning a belt
would surely be a marketing dream come true for the UFC. It could
also be that the biggest beneficiary of Cruz’s injury was
a man that did not have any shot at a title just two months ago.
What numbers stand out most to you and how do you see this going
down?
Next
month, we will take a look at the third main event rematch of
the summer, when Benson Henderson welcomes Frankie Edgar back
for a chance to regain the lightweight title.
Enjoy
the fights.
Note:
Raw data for the analysis was provided by, and in partnership
with FightMetric. All analysis was performed by Reed Kuhn. Reed
Kuhn, Fightnomics, FightMetric and Sherdog.com assume no responsibility
for bets placed on fights, financial or otherwise.
Source
Sherdog
|
Eat
Like the California Kid - Urijah Faber on Food
By Frank
Curreri
Urijah
Faber and the Art of Instinctive Eating
“Man,
this is good!” Urijah Faber raved, shaking his head in bliss,
after a bite of his lunchtime creation.
The
ensuing 2 pm feast at a Las Vegas grocery store was enough to
make a medieval king jealous.
Watching
Faber -- who battles Renan Barao (30-1, 1 NC) for the UFC interim
bantamweight title at UFC 149 this Saturday -- build his own
salad from scratch reveals a diet as dynamic as he is charismatic.
On this afternoon, his table is engulfed with a $28 lunch, standard
for him. There is a massive salad (maybe triple the size of a
normal salad), a bag of chips, a large container of salsa and
a 16-ounce smoothie to wash it all down.
“Traditionally
I’ve always eaten a lot of salads,” the 32-year-old
said, “because growing up we always ate a lot of salads
… While I was in the womb, before I can even remember, I
was conditioned to enjoy a healthy diet.”
As
they say in the fight game, Faber “walks” most of the
year in the neighborhood of 156 pounds. Before his fights, the
former Division I wrestler cuts down to 135 or 136 pounds, then
rehydrates immediately following his weigh-in. Over a 30-minute
lunch, the sport’s most popular bantamweight offered his
unique philosophies on food and nutrition. The picture he painted
is one of a man who doesn’t deprive himself -- but instead
eats mostly whatever he wants, mindful of always seeking out
the highest quality ingredients.
He
has sipped Pepsi and Coke a time or two, but has otherwise shunned
conventional soda pop. He draws parallels between his own views
on food and the ‘everything is the devil’ hang-ups
of The Water Boy, Bobby Boucher. Spontaneity and impulse are
central themes to the Faber “diet.” This is a man who
always listens to his gut. Here is a compelling sit-down interview
with Urijah Faber on the art of Instinctive Eating:
What
are some of the ‘Don’t’s on your eating list?
“There
are a lot of things I don’t like. It’s like the Water
Boy, Bobby Boucher and his mom saying that ‘Everything is
the devil.’ I had that growing up. Like, I’ve never
had a soda pop or a Pepsi. I’ve tasted it a couple times
but never really drank one. It’s like, you know, ‘It’s
the devil!’ (chuckles). I’ve had root beer …and
I’m not a complete weirdo when it comes to stuff like that,
but I don’t ever drink soda. I try to avoid candy but sometimes
I crave it and I’ll have a little. I don’t eat red
meat very often; I just don’t like the way I feel when I
eat it. On occasion I’ll have a good steak or In N’
Out burger if I feel like it. I don’t like milk very much
… I’ll drink goat milk, I think it’s better for
your body and easier to digest. I’ll try to get it as close
as ‘out of the goat’ as possible without sucking on
the nipple of the goat (chuckles).
“I
don’t avoid milk in all cases. I actually like Egg Nog at
Christmas time. But milk, in general, I feel like it makes a
lot of mucous for me and I think there can be a lot of hormones
in milk that I don’t like. It’s just another one of
those things that mom raised me to be anti against since I was
young.
With
your team on The Ultimate Fighter, do you simply stick to teaching
techniques, instilling confidence, etc… Do you actually
go over dietary considerations with them as well?
“If
I see there is a problem with someone, I’ll definitely step
up and say something about their diet, at least make them aware.
Because a lot of times people don’t even know that they’re
not eating right. For example, this is a salad. Is a salad from
McDonald’s the same thing? Because they have ‘em with
iceberg lettuce, cheese, croutons and tomatoes … so it sounds
great.
“We
had this guy on our team from Hawaii and he was having the hardest
time making weight. He’s like, ‘All I had last night
was salad, blah, blah, blah. So he had this family get-together
and invited the whole team over. They had three types of salad:
One was a fruit salad with marshmallow mix. Another salad had
fried bacon bits, wonton sticks, iceberg lettuce and chicken.
And then they had like an iceberg lettuce salad. They all were
salads, but they were all super unhealthy! So I started thinking,
‘Yeah, he just had salad but it had a bunch of ranch dressing
or something on it.’
The
Dominick Cruz diet vs. Urijah Faber diet. Who wins?
“I’ve
talked to Dominick and spent some time with him and it sounds
like his diet is horrible. He was kind of making fun of himself
about it. It’s a testament to his mentality. He’s pretty
tough mentally from the crap he puts into his body. So he does
pretty well.
“So,
hands down, first round KO, Faber wins the diet contest.”
Tell
the fans reading this about your lunch today and why you chose
it.
“Traditionally
I’ve always eaten a lot of salads because growing up we
always ate a lot of salads. Like this salad here has chicken
in it, some cheese, a lot of olive oil and garlic, apple cider,
some dark green lettuce, couscous, some Israeli couscous –
which I don’t even think I’ve eaten that before –
but it looked good so I threw it in there.
“There
are a lot of complex carbohydrates in here, a lot of saturated
and unsaturated fats, fiber, protein and a whole lot of flavor.
Protein is important. Protein isn’t necessarily an energy
source but it’s for rebuilding your muscles and you utilize
the creatine that you get from meat. The first three to seven
seconds of explosive activity you use creatine. Some people take
creatine supplements … Everybody has creatine naturally
and some people have high levels naturally, but you can also
get it from meat.
“So
this is a high calorie meal; I don’t count calories but
I know there are a lot in here. I need a lot of energy and this
will satisfy me. I’ve got a smoothie for sugar (16 ounce
mix of blueberries, strawberries, banana, low-fat yogurt and
orange juice). I also love chips and salsa. It’s something
that I crave. I’ve seen people go on diets where they try
to avoid a bunch of things. I’m not like that. I’m
more of an instinctive eater. I’m craving chips probably
because my body is telling I need some salt and carbohydrates
– and probably because it just tastes good. You want to
enjoy what you’re eating … Man, this is so good.”
What
figures, people or sources have most shaped your philosophies
on eating healthy?
“First
and foremost, my family, my mom and dad and how they raised us
and what they taught us to like. If we were watching movies we
had popcorn and smoothies. My mom would cook with olive oil instead
of butter, honey instead of sugar, and all those kind of things.
So I learned a lot and created a regimen through them.
“I
also had a lot of influences when I was in college at UC-Davis
(University of California-Davis). I took classes, did research
and educated myself as to what’s behind good food and what
makes it healthy. My third big influence was the wrestling world.
Cutting weight is so important in our sport and I’ve had
a lot of good coaches who built knowledge through trial and error.
So I’ve learned a lot from them.
How
much of your diet is based on upbringing, how much on what you
have learned from others and by studying nutrition, and how much
on instinct?
“While
I was in the womb, before I can even remember, I was conditioned
to enjoy a healthy diet. After that I started learning more when
I was an athlete. I learned a lot through trial and error as
an athlete. I learned what you should and shouldn’t put
into your body, especially at certain times of the day (what
Nutrition expert Dr. John Ivy of the University of Texas calls
“Nutrient Timing”). The scientific part of my diet
is things like … I don’t want to eat a steak an hour
before a workout. Steak takes like six to eight hours to digest
so you can’t utilize that energy for a long time. A piece
of bread trickles into your system and you can use it over a
couple of hours, it’s steady energy. Sugar (holds up his
smoothie) is a right away energy source, in 15 to 45 minutes
I’ll feel the effects of this sugar.
“Sometimes
it’s good for me to have simple carbohydrates, like white
rice. I come down 21 pounds from my walk-around weight (roughly
156 pounds) to make 135 pounds. So when I get down to about 10
pounds over (145) it makes sense to have high energy dense food.
So it’s fine to eat white rice on an occasion like that,
but for the most part I like complex carbohydrates – beans,
rice, vegetables, couscous, all those grains, nuts, they are
complex carbohydrates.
“Simple
carbohydrates have been refined and they’ve taken away a
bunch of stuff and just leave the energy part. That’s what
America has too much of. If you’re working out a ton, and
you need some simple carbohydrates, then do it. But if you’re
not working out at all, and all you eat is simple carbohydrates,
then you’ll be storing fat. And that’s a lot of white
rice, a lot of breakfast cereals that are processed, and a lot
of processed foods.
Tell
us the difference between weight cutting for wrestling versus
a UFC fight?
“You
can imagine, if you weigh in for a wrestling match and you have
to compete in an hour, you’re not going to cut as much in
that final week. You have to come down gradually and be able
to function right after you make weight. It may mean, for example,
if I were to make weight for wrestling, I don’t want a full
meal. I want something that is going to give me some energy quick:
a bagel, power bar, fruit, some sort of recovery drink with electrolytes
and sodium to get myself hydrated. Just enough to get me through
my seven minute competition. You need to be able to function
for seven minutes at the highest rate possible.
“I’ve
had twenty something title fights, so when I’m making weight
I have a whole day to recover. So I can be a little more dramatic
with my weight loss and deplete my body more during the week
of competition, (and after weighing in) then get that rebuilding,
rest and completely rehydrate. But I have a lot more resources
to get ready for a 25 minute battle, versus seven minutes in
wrestling. If I had to make weight in MMA the way I did in wrestling,
and compete for 25 minutes, I would be in some serious trouble.”
Do
you cook? What are some of your go-to dishes?
“I’m
a really good cook. I can cook everything my mom cooks –
just not as well. I think that comes with time. Growing up we
had to make a lot of food for ourselves. My mom would make us
cook dinner once a week during high school, so my brother and
I would have to make dinner. My parents also worked their butts
off so I was always cooking stuff for myself. I make smoothies,
salads, Italian dishes, I know ho
w to steam vegetables … I do it all.”
For
more info on the Faber diet you can log onto Faber’s Web
site at http://urijahfaber.com/category/eat-like-a-champ/.
Source:
UFC
|
7
Questions: Bellator 72
By Brian
Knapp
Bellator
Fighting Championships returns with the second installment of
its three-part Summer Series, as the promotion touches down with
Bellator 72 on Friday at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla.
The
event features the Season 6 welterweight tournament final between
Karl Amoussou and World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Bryan Baker,
along with a pair of Summer Series semifinals in the light heavyweight
draw: Emanuel Newton vs. Attila Vegh and Travis Wiuff vs. Tim
Carpenter. The winner of the Amoussou-Baker showdown will earn
a crack at unbeaten Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren.
Amoussou
will carry a three-fight winning streak into the cage. The 26-year-old
Frenchman advanced to the 170-pound final with a split decision
over the previously unbeaten David Rickels at Bellator 69 in
May. Amoussou has delivered 12 of his 15 professional victories
by knockout, technical knockout or submission.
A
26-year-old judo black belt, Baker secured his spot in the final
with a unanimous nod over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season
6 alum Ben Saunders at Bellator 67 in May. Now based at Jackson’s
Mixed Martial Arts in Albuquerque, N.M., he has recorded 12 wins
in his last 14 appearances. All three of Baker’s defeats
have come at 185 pounds.
Here
are seven questions and answers worth pondering ahead of the
event, which airs on MTV 2 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT:
Question:
Regardless of who wins the Season 6 tournament final, does Amoussou
or Baker have a prayer of actually beating Askren?
Answer: A prayer, yes; a good chance, no. Neither Amoussou nor
Baker matches up particularly well with Askren, a relentless
wrestler and gifted scrambler with a developing submission game.
Few fighters in MMA can execute a game plan as well as the 2008
Olympian, and one would have to favor the man they call “Funky”
against either of the two finalists, especially in a five-round
fight.170?
Question:
Is Paul Daley here for a paycheck or a title belt? Will he even
consistently make 170?
Answer: Only Daley knows what goes on in that head of his. It
is hard to believe he was within striking distance of a welterweight
title shot in the UFC a little more than two years ago, before
an ill-advised after-the-bell cheap shot on Josh Koscheck earned
him a pink slip. Daley has fought a constant battle with scale
over the years, and that figures to continue inside Bellator.
With that said, his signing was a calculated risk for a fledgling
promotion, as Daley can interject some excitement into the welterweight
division even if he never reaches the top. Perhaps his performance
against Rudy Bears will provide some clues as to what his future
holds.
Question:
Will Newton make a statement and show he has moved beyond potential
and is now ready to start winning some big fights?
Answer: Newton has a golden opportunity to make waves, as the
28-year-old Reign MMA representative finds himself in the light
heavyweight tournament semifinals against Attila Vegh with some
momentum behind him. Newton has won his last six fights, including
a Bellator 71 submission against Cesar Gracie protégé
Roy Boughton. The now-or-never cliché certainly applies
here.
Question:
Which Vegh will show up, the guy who smoked Zelg Galesic or the
one who went three ugly rounds with Dan Spohn?
Answer: His handlers would probably welcome either one, so long
as a victory is involved. Like his opponent, Newton, Vegh will
enter the cage on the strength of a six-fight winning streak.
However, European fighters generally struggle against foes with
a hearty wrestling base. That could spell trouble for the Slovakian
against Newton.
Question:
Carpenter and Wiuff are definitely on the “boring”
side of the bracket, but is either man a sleeper to beat the
winner of Vegh-Newton in the finals and earn a title shot?
Answer: Many saw Wiuff as a favorite to win the tournament before
it began, and he did nothing to change their view in the quarterfinals
with a first-round TKO over Chris Davis. Experience, strong takedowns
and a heavy top game should give him an edge against Carpenter,
provided he can stay out of harm’s way on the ground. Wiuff
would be a definite factor against either Vegh or Newton in the
final.
Question:
Where does Saunders fit in as a Bellator welterweight? Will he
ever win a tournament, or is he now trapped in an unenviable
long-term contract?
Answer: Saunders is a solid welterweight with an exciting style
who will likely never get over the hump against wrestlers with
stout submission defense. Depending on how a hypothetical bracket
fell, he could certainly win a tournament and find himself in
a championship bout. However, as long as Askren remains under
Bellator employ, Saunders will likely find the road to promotional
gold blocked.
Question:
Will Marius Zaromskis and Waachiim Spiritwolf finally finish
their fight?
Answer: Odds are they will not. Too much offense and too little
defense means one of them will not see the finish line.
Source
Sherdog
|
Embattled
head of CSAC steps down
By Josh
Gross | ESPN.com
George
Dodd, executive officer of the California State Athletic Commission,
resigned Monday, three weeks after the regulatory body charged
with overseeing boxing and mixed martial arts in the state censured
him for failing to adequately inform commissioners of the board's
insolvency.
Dodd's
tenure as head of the busiest combat sports jurisdiction in the
U.S., which began in February 2010, will come to a close July
31. A successor has not been named.
Using
revenue generated primarily through the licensing of fights,
CSAC's fund is mandated to be self-supporting. However, the commission's
fiscal year that closed last month missed budget projections
by $35,000. It faces a potential deficit of $700,000 by 2013,
according to budget analysts from the state's Department of Consumer
Affairs.
Speaking
during the June 26 hearing at which he was censured, Dodd claimed
his budget projections were off by $600,000 for several reasons.
In 2011, the state licensed 12 events that generated revenue
in excess of $25,000. That number fell to seven this fiscal year,
due in part to declining revenues from Strikeforce after it was
purchased by Zuffa. Dodd also blamed a difficult business climate
in the state, including a 7 percent tax on events, for the decline,
as well as the use of funds to pay commission debts (including
one dating back to 1992) rather than compensate inspectors.
Though
Dodd did not properly inform the commission, prior to being censured
he met with staff from the Department of Consumer Affairs 18
times to address the situation.
After
unanimously voting to reprimand Dodd and limit his financial
duties, commission chairman John Frierson and co-chair Eugene
Hernandez were granted new oversight of the executive officer
and the board's money matters.
Turmoil
continued when commissioner Linda Forster resigned the following
day, citing recent actions taken by CSAC regarding the insolvency
crisis for her decision.
On
June 29, Department of Consumer Affairs director Denise Brown
ordered a full audit of the athletic commission.
Prior
to serving as CSAC executive officer, Dodd was programming director
for Washington state's Department of Licensing's Professional
Athletics Division.
Source:
ESPN
|
Strikeforce:
Rockhold vs. Kennedy Pulls Average TV Ratings on Showtime
Strikeforce:
Rockhold vs. Kennedy never seemed to get much traction amongst
media or fans, but the TV ratings are in and the event held up
well against Strikeforce’s other recent offerings on Showtime.
Rockhold
vs. Kennedy drew an audience of 420,000 viewers, industry sources
told MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday.
While
that isn’t a blockbuster number, it holds up well in relation
to the promotion’s other offerings on Showtime. The Heavyweight
Grand Prix Final in May did slightly better at 463,000 viewers,
and the most attention-grabbing women’s fight in some time,
Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey, pulled in 472,000 viewers.
The
best number that Strikeforce has ever drawn on Showtime is 741,000
for Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva,
but that was an anomaly. The vast majority of Strikeforce events
have drawn between 400,000 to 600,000 viewers.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Maui
Open
Saturday, Auguest 4, 2012
Lahaina Civic Ctr
 |
|