Upcoming
Events
Do you
want to list an event on Onzuka.com?
Contact
Us
(All events on Oahu, unless noted)
2012
October
Aloha
State BJJ Championship
(BJJ
& Sub Grappling)
(Kaiser H.S. Gym)
7/9/12
Warpath to Mayhem:
Rumble at the Resort
(MMA)
(Kauai Beach Resort, Lihue, Kauai)
6/16-17/12
State
of Hawaii BJJ Championship
(BJJ
& Sub Grappling)
(Blaisdell Arena
5/19/12
Scrappler's Fest
(BJJ & Sub Grappling)
(Kauai)
The Quest For Champions
Martial Arts Tournament 2012
(Sport-Pankration, Submission Grappling, Continuous Sparring)
(St. Louis High School 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)
|
|
March
2012 News Part 1
|
Casca Grossa Jiu-Jitsu
is now the O2 Martial Arts Academy with 7 days a week training!
We are also offering Kali-Escrima (stick fighting) on Monday
nights with Ian Beltran & Erwin Legaspi.
Kickboxing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with Kaleo Kwan, PJ
Dean, & Chris Slavens!
Kids Classes are also
available!
Click
here for info!
Take classes from
the Onzuka brothers in a family-like environment! |
Onzuka.com
Hawaii Underground Forum is Online!
Chris, Mark,
and I wanted to start an official Onzuka.com forum for a while
now. We were searching for the best forum to go with and hit
a gold mine! We have known Kirik, who heads the largest and most
popular forum on the net, The Underground for years.
He
offered us our own forum within the matrix know as MMA.tv. The
three of us will be the moderators with of course FCTV808 being
the lead since he is on there all day anyway!
We
encourage everyone from Hawaii and our many readers around world
to contribute to the Hawaii Underground.
If you
do not have a login, it's simple and fast to get one.
Click here to set up an account.
Don't worry about using Pidgin English in the posting. After
all it is the Hawaii Underground and what is a Hawaii Underground
without some Aloha and some Pidgin?
To
go directly to the Onzuka.com Hawaii Underground Forum
click here!
|
Want
to Advertise on Onzuka.com?
Click here for pricing and more
information!
Short term and long term advertising available.
More than
1 million hits and counting!
|
O2
Martial Arts Academy
Your Complete Martial Arts School!
Click here for pricing and more
information!
O2 Martial Arts features Relson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu taught by Relson
Gracie Black Belts Chris and Mike Onzuka and Shane Agena as well
as a number of brown and purple belts.
We also offer Boxing and Kickboxing classes with a staff that
is unmatched. Boxing, Kickboxing, and MMA champions Kaleo Kwan
and PJ Dean as well as master boxing instructor Chris Slavens
provide incredibly detailed instruction of the sweet science.
To top it off, Ian Beltran & Erwin Legaspi heads our Kali-Escrima
classes (Filipino Knife & Stickfighting) who were directly
trained under the legendary Snookie Sanchez.
Just a beginner with no background? Perfect! We teach you from
the ground up!
Experienced martial artist that wants to fine tune your skill?
Our school is for you!
If you want to learn martial arts by masters of their trade in
a friendly and family environment, O2 Martial Arts Academy is
the place for you!
|
Want to Contact
Us? Shoot us an email by Clicking Here!
Follow O2 Martial Arts news via Twitter at:
http://www.twitter.com/O2MAA
Winner
of Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller Gets a UFC Lighweight Title Shot
by Ken
Pishna
All
the talk at lightweight in the UFC has centered on whether Frankie
Edgar will get a rematch against current champion Benson Henderson
or if Anthony Pettis would cut to the front of the line.
It
appears that neither is the likely scenario, at least according
to UFC president Dana White’s comments at the UFC on Fox
3 kick-off press conference at Radio City Music Hall in New York
City on Tuesday.
Edgar
believes he is owed an immediate rematch following a decision
loss to Henderson at UFC 144 in Japan. When he captured the belt
from B.J. Penn, Edgar agreed to an immediate rematch, and then
did so again following a draw with Gray Maynard. Turnabout is
fair play, right?
Nate
Diaz, who faces Jim Miller in the main event of UFC on Fox 3
in May, however, said that he thought the winner of his fight
would get the next title shot.
The
UFC president backed him up.
“Well,
I’m still obviously still dealing with the whole Frankie
Edgar thing. I’m talking to Frankie and we’ll figure
this thing out,” White said, before adding, “We did,
we said the winner of (Diaz vs. Miller) would get the shot.”
Things
don’t always go as planned, though. Injuries always play
a factor, timing… possibly shifting weight classes.
Pressed
further by a fan, who asked, “From what I remember, the
winner of Jim Miller facing Nate Diaz gets a title shot, is this
correct?” White responded, “This is correct.”
Considering
the nuances of the situation, the UFC lightweight merry-go-round
is still rotating in full swing, trying to find a good stopping
point.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Dominick
Cruz: I’m Tired of Urijah Faber Running His Mouth
With
the 15th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” set to debut
Friday on FX, there’s no love lost between coaches Dominick
Cruz and Urijah Faber.
Faber
dropped a unanimous decision to Cruz last July, but during a
recent appearance on HDNet’s “Inside MMA,” Faber
was quick to remind the UFC bantamweight champion that he submitted
him with a guillotine choke back in 2007.
“He’s
alive right now because there’s rules in MMA, and I had
to release his neck and let him breathe,” Faber said. “So
you're welcome, Dominick Cruz, for giving you life and letting
you live. Next time I'm going to do the same thing. I'm going
to let you live, but it's going to be painful.”
Naturally,
Cruz didn’t appreciate Faber’s comments.
“He
can say whatever he wants, but he’s just saying ignorant
things because I get under his skin,” Cruz told the Sherdog
Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “He starts
trying to go for the jugular, but that was one of the dumbest
things he could have said because he’s been allowed to live
several times. Tyson Griffin let him live. Mike Brown let him
live. Jose Aldochopped his leg off, so I’d be fighting him
with no leg right now. He’s just saying stupid things to
try to hype things up. It just makes no sense.”
The
Griffin loss was Faber’s first in MMA. It took place about
a year and a half before he beat Cruz.
“If
there weren’t rules in MMA, back in 2005, Tyson Griffin
put him to sleep with a knockout and he would have finished him
right then and there, and I would have never fought Urijah Faber,”
Cruz said.“There would have never been a rivalry. There
would have never been nothing. This is a sport. This isn’t
a death match. If it’s a death match, I’ll grab a pitchfork
and stab him through his chest. It’s not a death match,
man. … It’s a sport. It’s a sporting event.”
Faber
has said Cruz is a good fighter. However, he believes the champion
focuses on scoring points and doesn’t pose any real danger
in the Octagon.
“He
caught me in a submission in 2007. He beat me. I never made one
excuse for it,” Cruz said. “I go and I beat him, and
he has nothing but excuses. It’s a sport. You can win by
points or you can win by finish. I did not finish him. I beat
him by keeping him going backwards the entire fight, landing
more punches than him and getting more takedowns than him. Yes,
it’s hard to finish him. He’s one of the best fighters
on the planet and so am I. He didn’t finish me either.”
Cruz
expects a decisive finale, though, when they meet a third time
on July 7 at UFC 148.
“I’m
going to put a whooping on him, and this time I’m going
to finish him,” he said. “I’m tired of hearing
him run his mouth with that big chin of his.”
Source:
Sherdog
|
Rampage
Jackson admits TRT usage, claims his doctor works for UFC
By Zach
Arnold
On
April 9th in Sacramento, the California State Athletic Commission
(Department of Consumer Affairs) will hold a hearing regarding
proposed changes to Athletic Commission regulation that would
allow Therapeutic Use Exemptions. What the final outcome will
be, nobody is sure. Currently, public comments (e-mails, letters,
etc.) are being accepted. You can send your feedback on the matter
to the CSAC by finding out the appropriate information here.
Theoretically,
one of the allowances of a TUE for MMA fighters could come in
the form of TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy). I’m
disgusted that athletic commissions allow TRT usage amongst fighters
in the first place. I’ve long based this position on two
factors:
1.
Dr. David Black, the man involved in drug testing for both the
NFL & WWE, once famously said on 60 Minutes that testosterone
is the base chemical of steroids.
2.
Two major factors that can lead to needing the use of testosterone
amongst fighters/wrestlers is extreme weight cutting or steroid
abuse that damages the endocrine system and thus leads to getting
a doctor’s prescription for testosterone.
I
will not make a blanket statement claiming that all TRT users
in MMA previously used or currently abuse steroids. So, don’t
put words in my mouth on that front. What I will definitely say
is that when you have guys who are extremely muscular and put
it to physical use in a cage, that’s an issue that has to
be addressed.
We
know the names of fighters who have been discussed in the media
in relation to TRT. Chael Sonnen. Nate Marquardt. Dan Henderson.
And now, you can add Rampage Jackson to the list. More on this
below.
Keith
Kizer came out last year during the Nate Marquardt incident and
tried to make the case for how Nevada’s TUE for TRT usage
works. Color me unconvinced. I believe that if you are not currently
or actively fighting/training and you need to use testosterone
legally, so be it. Once you are active or training again, there
should be no allowance for TRT usage under any circumstances.
This is fight sport, not tennis. As Victor Conte appropriately
stated last year during an interview with Eddie Goldman, MMA
is the hurt game. Using testosterone in a hurt game changes how
much physical punishment you can inflict on an opponent. This
isn’t about running faster. This is about concussing someone
in the head as hard as possible during a fight.
Nevermind
the fact that all the products being pushed by Big Pharma for
“Low T” are being pushed to people in their late 40s
or early 50s… look at what age range we are talking about
for fighters wanting a TUE to use testosterone. The 18-40 year
old demographic. That demographic is great for UFC to attract
for a TV viewership but I don’t consider it the right demographic
for active fighters to be allowed to use testosterone. Not a
chance.
There
are people reading this who may be using TRT but aren’t
active fighters and, let me assure you, I am not attacking you.
You aren’t in a cage trying to physically hurt or cripple
someone.
I’m
not here to push the issue of doping as one of winning or losing.
This is all about safety, in my opinion. The more doping you
have in the sport, the more you push the clean athletes out of
it and increase the risk of fighters getting seriously hurt or
even killed.
Which
is why this new Rampage Jackson interview in Fighter’s Only
magazine is devastating on many fronts. It’s a terrible
public relations situation for UFC. It brings sunlight to an
issue that desperately needs to be addressed by grown-ups and
not political hacks. This goes right to the core of fighter safety.
I
will blockquote some of Rampage’s comments here during the
Fighter’s Only interview — but I’ve also made
some screen captures in case the interview goes offline.
Screen
captures: One | Two | Three
Elbow’s
hurt, shoulder’s fucked up, wrist’s fucked up, both
my knees fucked up, ankle problems. I fucked my jaw up before
I fought Wanderlei and after a while its like man, I am training
hard for these fights and I’ve got these injuries and at
the back of my mind I’m thinking ‘I just want to retire.’
I
never had surgery in my life. But I hurt this knee back in college,
I hurt it before I fought Rashad and so I knew it was the same
injury… a lot of fights when I am injured I don’t tell
anybody but the UFC knew this time because my doctor works for
the UFC. Its good that the UFC knew because they look after you,
they take care of you even if its just in training. Pride didn’t
do that.
I
almost pulled out but then I went to see the doctor and he told
me to talk to an age-management doctor. So I went and talked
to them and they tested me and said my testosterone was low;
they prescribed me testosterone, to bring my testosterone levels
back up to levels where I can be like… so that I am the
same as young people, like when I was 25, and it would help build
my knee up. I hurt my knee like a month ago and I only did three
shots of testosterone but it put a lot of weight on me, a lot
of muscle on me but it healed me knee up good enough to where
I could fight.
It
was hard for me to train, it takes time to heal, I couldn’t
do certain things, but this was my first time ever using testosterone.
I took what the doctor prescribed to me and I went to the pharmacy…
I gave myself small doses and that shit immediately changed me,
that’s why I am saying now I am not going to retire. I am
not gonna retire no time soon, its just unfortunate that I got
this injury.
So,
by this point of the interview, Rampage states his claim that
he has a doctor ‘who works for the UFC’ but is smart
enough to not name them in the interview… although I’m
sure the guessing game online will start right about… now.
Then, Rampage claims his ‘UFC doctor’ directed him
to someone else and that person ended up writing up a prescription
to get testosterone.
So,
Rampage already has stepped into it deep here by saying his doctor
supposedly works for the UFC and that this connection led him
to getting approved for a testosterone prescription. Then he
drops this bombshell:
So
I spoke to the UFC and they were like ‘yeah, a lot of fighters
are probably doing it but not telling anyone.’ Me, I keep
it real, I am not doing anything wrong. Its legal and I am not
abusing it and I am not going over certain levels. From what
I learned about it, when I got tested my levels my levels were
really low and the doctor was telling me that athletes can burn
testosterone.
This,
right here, is Rampage claiming that UFC, as he puts it, ‘probably’
knows that ‘a lot’ of fighters are using testosterone.
Chael Sonnen did warn everyone that fighters using testosterone
would keep it on the down low after his suspension.
Let’s
try to look at it from another point of view here. Imagine if
an football player, one of high name ID, came out and said, “Yeah,
my doctor, he works for the league and they pushed me to an age-management
guy to get testosterone. The league also knows that guys are
using testosterone but the users don’t talk about it.”
A lot of fans will say, ‘drug usage hasn’t impacted
the popularity of pro-football.’ They would be right. It
also doesn’t make the situation any less dangerous and acceptable,
either. It should be noted that a few years ago, the Pittsburgh
Steelers faced this kind of situation a couple of years ago as
reported by ESPN concerning Dr. Richard Rydze. The difference
here is that the ESPN report notes the claim that the doctor
was accused of being a buyer of HGH & testosterone.
As
you might expect, the public reaction to Rampage’s interview
has not exactly been very positive. Dr. Margaret Goodman of the
Voluntary Anti-Doping Association issued this response to our
request for comment:
It
is difficult to know where to begin after reading the article
on testosterone use by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson before
his last fight in Japan.
He
was obviously unfit to fight due to his knee injury. So who cleared
him? How could he be placed at risk?
If what Rampage says is correct, he was given permission to fight
on TRT by whom? Was this someone in the UFC?
Who knew about it and when? What about the dangers of testosterone
use, let alone the risk to the person’s opponent? What happened
to fair, clean fights?
The UFC continues to state they want a clean sport. Rampage’s
statements, if true, certainly provide some contrast in the current
discussion about what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Therapeutic Use Exemptions must be taken seriously. As is done
by WADA, they take a great deal of time and expertise to determine
if warranted. An athlete can’t simply say he’s been
injured, is tired, or everyone is using, to get a TUE for testosterone.
If Rampage’s comments are factual, how can the public have
a comfort level that UFC fights are fair when certain athletes
are allowed to use certain substances and others are dropped
or suspended from the organization for use? How can the organization
make these determinations when certain substances should be allowed?
It isn’t fair, it isn’t thorough, and it seems arbitrary.
I
think MMA is a great sport. However, it cannot excel and maintain
its image as a great sport with an inherently flawed PED program.
Fox, Showtime and its executives should care about their public
image when certain athletes are given an unfair advantage or
disadvantage.
I
hope Rampage’s comments are not true. If they are, there
is considerable amount of explaining that needs to be done regarding
his allegations as this might affect the organization’s
future licensure in the US.
Bottom
line, irrespective of where the UFC holds fights, whether there
is a commission overseeing the bouts or not, they should run,
not walk to an organization that can oversee and develop a proper
PED testing program. This can only be done via an independent
third party that conducts random unannounced testing year-round.
Margaret
Goodman MD
VADA President and Founder
www.VADA-testing.org
Rampage
just opened a big can of worms here. How should we look at him
after this interview with Fighter’s Only?
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
DANA
WHITE SLAMS DOOR ON TIM SYLVIA’S UFC COMEBACK HOPES
By Mike
Chiappetta - Senior Writer
Mar
6, 2012 - Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia has spent
much of the last few weeks publicly pleading for one more run
in the UFC. Earlier this week, he appeared on The MMA Hour and
even said he'd be willing to fight for free in order to prove
himself again.
It
appears his campaigning has failed to sway the UFC's decision
makers, however.
On
Tuesday, MMA Fighting began to ask company president Dana White
if he was reconsidering his decision to shut the door on a Sylvia
return, but he didn't even need to wait for the question to be
finished before giving an emphatic response.
"Hell no," he said. "Hell no."
No
further elaboration was offered or necessary.
The
36-year-old Sylvia (30-7) had two title reigns during his octagon
days, first capturing the belt in February 2003 by knocking out
Ricco Rodriguez. After a positive steroids test derailed that
first run at the top, he recaptured the top spot in April 2006
with a KO of Andrei Arlovski.
He
eventually dropped the championship in one of the UFC's all-time
classic moments, when 43-year-old Randy Couture returned from
retirement to romp his way to the belt in a unanimous decision
victory.
Sylvia
left the promotion two fights later, and after making a hefty
payday at Affliction: Banned during a loss to Fedor Emelianenko,
he's been an MMA nomad. He reached his career low point in a
knockout loss to boxer Ray Mercer in an MMA rules bout, but since
then he's won six of seven.
Judging
from White's response, Sylvia could win 10 more in a row and
he still won't be welcomed back to the UFC.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Zé
Mario trains Rashad Evans and teaches “hurting and finishing”
in UFC
After
a long while without setting foot on a mat, Zé Mario Sperry
rekindled his love for Jiu-Jitsu. The Carlson Gracie black belt
has been training and teaching techniques a-plenty in Rio de
Janeiro and other nooks of the world.
At
the behest of onetime UFC champion Rashad Evans, Zé Mario
made the trip to Florida to help the light heavyweight get ready
for his UFC 145 showdown with current champ Jon Jones on the
21st of April in Atlanta, Georgia.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
One
FC: War of the Lions Card Announced
One
FC has almost finalized their upcoming card set for March 31
in Singapore with the show coming together in rapid fashion.
Headlining
the fight card will be a showdown between Felipe Enomoto, who
recently defeated Ole Laursen, as he faces Zorobabel Moreira.
Also
on the card, previously mentioned Ole Laursen will look to get
back on track and face the man he was supposed to square off
with at the inaugural One FC card in Eduard Folayang.
Folayang
has won his last six fights in a row and is considered one of
the top prospects coming out of Asia.
Originally
the main event was set to pit former UFC and Strikeforce champion
Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral against Melvin Manhoef, but
Sobral is no longer slated for the March card. Instead Manhoef
will now face Yoshiyuki Nakanishi.
Former
Pride and Dream fighter Tatsuya Kawajiri will also be featured
on the One FC card in March, but he has yet to have an opponent
named for the show.
Here
is the full card for One FC: War of the Lions
Felipe
Enomoto vs Zorobabel Moreira
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs TBA
Eduard Folayang vs Ole Laursen
Yuya Shirai vs Fabricio Monteiro
Melvin Manhoef vs Yoshiyuki Nakanishi
Jian Kai Chee vs Eddie Ng
Masakazu Imanari vs Kevin Belingon
Jeet Toshi vs Nicole Chua
Kim Hock vs Juan Wen Chie
Kian Long Yun vs Yodsanan Sityodtong
Danny Van Bergen vs Richie Whitson
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Miro
Mijatovic: The PRIDE yakuza ownership war in Nov. 2003
By Zach
Arnold
Transcript
of Spike TV interview by Dan Herbertson for MMA Uncensored
“I
originally got involved in the fight game by being introduced
by the Croatian Soccer Federation to a Croatian fighter who in
2002 was pretty big and that was Mirko Cro Cop, so my original
involvement was to act as Mirko Cro Cop’s manager in, at
that time, he was in K-1 so that’s where I started in about
2002 I think it was.
“The
first time PRIDE had ever done a massive event, massive being
Tokyo Dome, was in November of 2003 which had a double headline
of (Wanderlei) Silva vs. Rampage (Jackson) and also Cro Cop vs.
(Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira for the interim heavyweight title.
“At
the backstage, behind the scenes of that particular event, I
was personally… usually there was plenty of yakuza around
as customers of the shows, the guys that were picking up the
ring side seats for 100,000Y, you know, a lot of those guys were
yakuza and obviously customers of the event. The first time I’d
actually seen that there was catually something going on behind
the scenes was at that specific event where there was probably,
I’d say, between 100-to-200 armed yakuza guys from two different
groups basically looking like they were setting up battle lines
and ready to start open warfare.
“The
warfare was basically between two groups — one group was
behind (Hiromichi) Momose, which is the guy that used to sit
at PRIDE events with the black cap with “Young at Heart”
stitched on it. So many people who watched PRIDE events would
know who that is; and also the new owner or the owner who had
taken over from (Naoto) Morishita who had, uh, let’s say
died earlier in January of 2003. The new owner was a guy called
Ishizaka (Kim Dok Soo) and his Osaka-based crew were having a
major dispute with Momose’s crew and it came pretty close
to shots being fired at that specific event. So, it was a pretty
um… dangerous scene behind the scenes…
“80,000
people in Tokyo Dome and all the way behind including change
rooms and the rest of it… you know, things had already gotten
pretty hot by November of 2003. So, there was a battle for which
yakuza group was actually going to take control of PRIDE.”
How
the feud came to a conclusion
“That
had started with Morishita’s death and it continued for
the whole year and it culminated at that November event and what
happened was that Ishizaka and his group basically had the numbers
to take control or take full control of PRIDE. And from that
time forward, you’d find that Momose does not play as much
of a… you know how can I say, a prominent position at PRIDE
events. Until that event, you’d see Momse sitting at ringside
very regularly. Following the November 2003 event, you’ll
find that you don’t see him much at all and he was pushed
out.
“Look,
the official… Naoto Morishita… he was the guy who basically
resurrected or was the creator of the PRIDE concept. The original
PRIDE events were run by KRS which was a company which was funnily
event funded by a combination of Momose & Ishizaka, you know,
who years later were to have a final war at that November 2003
event. The events were a massive financial failure and KRS basically
was bleeding money.
“Morishita
came in and was able to change around the dynamic or the cost
of the events and built the PRIDE sort of brand as people began
to know it. As we started, as we got into let’s say 2000
to 2003, Morishita was clean. He was a clean guy. He didn’t
come from a yakuza background and neither were the shares in
the company Dream Stage Entertainment owned by yakuza at those
times. However, there was a reasonable level of funding for his
shows coming from those groups and obviously in Japan when you
do live events the yakuza have the rights, each of the yakuza
in each local region, have what they call the rights to charge
you a fee for putting on events within their territory. The best
way to describe it in English is protection money. You know,
if you don’t pay the guys, they will look to cause problems
at the events.”
The
end of Morishita’s reign of power and his death
“So,
Morishita… because PRIDE was a product in 2001, 2002 which
was not nationally televised, it was on Japanese PPV (SkyPerfecTV)…
it generally was not a group that was making a lot of money.
So, a lot of the income flow came from both yakuza supporting
the events through straight-out loans or buying large chunks
of the expensive tickets and the reason why they did that was
1) they liked fighting 2) there was a lot of money to be made
on gambling on, you know, MMA fights in Japan at that specific
time. So, for them, it was an interesting below-the-radar type
event which produced reasonable money, reasonable cash and good
ways to also wash (launder) money.
“So,
Morishita was in debt or should I say Dream Strage Entertainment
was into debt with guys like Ishizaka, not so much to Momose
in the later days… and Morishita’s death in the Tokyo
Hilton was pronounced a suicide by the police. But you also have
to remember that the police… aren’t always that interested
into going too deep into investigations of… yakuza-tainted,
you know, deaths, it’s not really what they’re interested
in especially if you don’t have a victim, let’s say
victim who’s really pushing it. In this particular case,
it’s pretty much standard yakuza operational-wise if they’re
going to take someone out, they don’t just, you know, walk
down the street and shoot them although they do that every day
as well… but the smarter guys always operate on the basis
of a suicide, connecting it to a sexual issue.
“For
example, supposedly Morishita was with his mistress who also
disappeared at that time. Reason why they do that is the wife
doesn’t tend to make a lot of noise to the police about
investigations, so once there’s a sexual [angle] to the
scandal involved… there’s no one pushing hard to discover
the facts, the wife doesn’t want to know. She’s angry
that she’s found out that her husband’s having an affair
or a supposed affair, so things get hushed up.
“So,
the official finding was suicide. I’ve stayed in the Hilton
myself in Tokyo many, many times and there’s not a lot of
ways and a lot of places you can hang yourself from in those
rooms. So… how it all happened… you know, as I said,
the official cause remains a suicide. How that could have practically
happened is a very different story and is a story that’s
never really been told.
“What
did happen was in usually these sorts of cases if you follow
the money trail, Morishita’s shares (in DSE) which would
have normally gone to his next of kin, in other words of his
wife, ended up in the hands of Ishizaka and his front man Sakakibara.”
Influencing
fight outcomes vs. match fixing in PRIDE
“When
we say controlling fights, I suppose there’s a whole scope
of what you can say controlling a fight is. I mean, at one end
of the spectrum it’s basically fixing fights. At the other
end of the spectrum which is what PRIDE did on a regular basis
which was controlling or trying to influence the outcome of fights,
whether that was through referees like (Yuji) Shimada doing his
usual bits and pieces to make fights go the way the promoter
wanted them to wherever it was, matchmaking fights where you
knew the favored fighter was going to win which is not really
any great mystery… Doing things like giving one fighter
three or four months notice of the fight he’s going to have
and the opponent gets to know a week or 10 days before or he’s
actually baited-and-switched which was actually a very common
occurrence in PRIDE.
“For
example, Mirko Cro Cop may be fighting or for example was set
to fight Heath Herring at one of his first debut fights. Poor
‘ol Heath thought he was fighting a wrestler and trained
for fighting a wrestler for three months. 10 days before the
fight, they switched it and said you’re fighting Mirko Cro
Cop. Mirko actually had four months to prepare for the fight,
Heath had 10 days, which was good for us because I was managing
Mirko so no problem for me but tough luck for Heath and that
was a very, very common way of influencing the fights.
“In
terms of actually matchmaking the events… yes, the [yakuza]
were involved. There were fights (that) they wanted to see but
remember even these yakuza guys … so there were fights that
those guys wanted to see and they also knew that big headline
fights would also carry a lot of betting, just like in the US
model…
“You
know, gambling here is illegal… it has to be said which
is why it’s one of the yakuza’s main forms of business,
whether it’s in Sumo where there’s been a lot of scandals
or whether it’s been in the fight industry and, you know,
the meaning of yakuza actually comes from gambler in Japanese.
That’s where the original business was, so, you know, 200
years later they haven’t given up on their main business.
Gambling still remains one of their main lines of business.”
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Ronaldo
Jacare “ready” to fight Rockhold, waiting for Strikeforce’s
call
By Marcelo
Barone
Over
a year later, Ronaldo Jacare submitted another guy. The victim
this time was Bristol Marunde, who could not handle a katagatame
applied on the third round, on a bout that happened last Saturday
(3rd) in Strikeforce. The Brazilian showed great stand-up level
on the previous rounds and made it a perfect performance after
doing something he had planned all the way through his trainings.
“I
did a good job. I fought a guy on a 5-win streak, a champion
in another event with a good record. We studied him, set a good
game plan and I brought a good win back to Brazil”, affirmed
the athlete who missed the feeling of getting a win by submission.
“It’s
hard to finish when you fight twice a year. After my last submission,
in January of 2011, I only fought twice. But things are going
to get better and I’ll fight more times in 2012”.
Hoping
to fight within four months, Ronaldo Jacare affirmed he wants
a rematch against Luke Rockhold, the one who took his belt away
and is now the middleweight champion.
“I
made it pretty clear I will be ready in case they give me this
rematch. It’s too soon, I fought last weekend, so I have
to wait for Strikeforce’s call”.
But
it’s not only up to the event. Ronaldo now needs the doctors
to say he is good to go. He broke his left hand on the first
round of the bout and does not know how long it will take to
cure it.
“I
went to a hospital on the United States, got and x-ray and I
broke my hand near my thumb. I’ll know more about it this
week when I go to the orthopedist. On the first round I let my
left hand go and I didn’t imagine it could get broken like
this. I thought it was an injury but then, on the second round,
I felt my hand swelling. At the end of the fight it was as big
as a ball, but I’ve been through worse”.
Source:
Tatame
|
Sherdog's
Official Mixed Martial Arts Rankings
The
Saitama Super Arena has hosted a healthy amount of great lightweight
bouts. Few were ever as intense and competitive as Benson Henderson’s
title capture against Frankie Edgar to cap a rousing UFC 144
in the UFC’s return to Japan after an 11-year absence.
In
a 25-minute back-and-forth affair that divided onlookers, Henderson’s
heavy kicking and scrambling ability earned him a unanimous decision
victory and the top spot in perhaps MMA’s finest weight
class. However, true to Frankie Edgar form, one good turn deserves
another: both Henderson and Edgar have already agreed to write
a second chapter to their rivalry for the UFC lightweight title
this summer.
Also,
in this edition of the Sherdog.com rankings, the bantamweight
division’s loss is the flyweight division’s gain.
March
3 in Sydney, Australia, Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez
departed from 135 pounds where they both challenged for Dominick
Cruz’s throne, and entered the UFC’s flyweight championship
tournament. While Benavidez boldly sounded his arrival with a
second-round smashing of former Shooto world championYasuhiro
Urushitani, Demetrious Johnson’s situation was a bit pricklier.
First,
Johnson thought he had won a split decision over the sport’s
No. 1 flyweight, Ian McCall. Then, it seemed had won a majority
decision. Then, it turned out that a recording error at the scorekeeper’s
table had occurred, and a majority draw was in fact the correct
verdict. The bizarre debacle’s silver lining? Both fighters
emerged healthy and have agreed to rematch in the near future,
potentially giving us another “Fight of the Night.”
Quinton
Jackson and Yushin Okami fell from their comfy top-five perches,
too. Which perennial standout will be next to fall in 2012’s
shakeup?
Heavyweight
1.
Junior dos Santos (14-1)
Coming
off of a UFC title win witnessed by tens of millions live in
November, dos Santos is primed for the internationally high-profile
fight of his career on May 26, as he will take on Alistair Overeem
at UFC 146 in a bout that will uniquely tie up the heavyweight
lineages of the UFC, Pride and Strikeforce. If you were feeling
generous, you could even throw in the K-1 World Grand Prix.
2.
Cain Velasquez (9-1)
Velasquez
is back in the gym and training to bounce back from losing the
UFC heavyweight strap to Junior dos Santos in November. Originally
rumored to face Antonio Silva, the American Kickboxing Academy
product is now expected to return to action against fellow ex-champ
Frank Mir on an as-yet-unannounced date.
3.
Alistair Overeem (36-11, 1 NC)
Overeem
locked up a shot at the UFC heavyweight title by steamrolling
former titleholder Brock Lesnar on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas. The
former Strikeforce, Dream and K-1 World Grand Prix champion now
has a chance to become the world’s top heavyweight, but
he’ll first have to get through heavy handed Brazilian ace
Junior dos Santos at UFC 146.
4.
Fabricio Werdum (15-5-1)
The
man who submitted Fedor did much to restore the luster to his
name on Feb. 4. In need of a solid win after a universally panned
June performance against Alistair Overeem in Strikeforce, Werdum
got just that in his Octagon return. The Brazilian earned a unanimous
decision and “Fight of the Night” honors at UFC 143
by bashing the steel-chinned Roy Nelson with knees for the better
part of 15 minutes.
5.
Shane Carwin (12-2)
Faced
with the first two-fight skid of his career after suffering losses
to Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos, Carwin was expected to
compete at UFC 141 in December. However, the Grudge Training
Center product was dealt yet another injury setback in October
and will instead undergo back surgery with eyes on a mid-2012
return.
6.
Frank Mir(16-5)
Mir
can now lay claim as the first man to both knock out and submit
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The impressive and brutal submission
came in their Dec. 10 rematch, when Mir snapped the Brazilian
great’s right humerus with a vicious first-round kimura
to settle their rivalry once and for all. While no date has been
announced, Mir is expected to return against Cain Velasquez later
this year.
7.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (33-7-1, 1 NC)
Long
regarded as one of MMA’s finest heavyweight grapplers, Nogueira
suffered his first submission loss in more than 40 bouts on Dec.
10 when he had his right arm snapped by a Frank Mir kimura. The
35-year-old underwent surgery on the broken limb at the end of
2011 and is expected to resume training in mid-2012.
8.
Josh Barnett(31-5)
After
being granted a conditional license by the California State Athletic
Commission, the once-suspended Barnett is back on track to compete
in the final of Strikeforce’s world heavyweight grand prix.
The “Warmaster” is slated to face unbeaten AKA wrestler
Daniel Cormier on May 19 in San Jose, Calif.
9.
Daniel Cormier (9-0)
Cormier’s
breakout win over Antonio Silva came at a cost, as his broken
hand delayed his Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix final against
Josh Barnett. Now, with the wrestler’s hand healed and his
catch-wrestling opponent once again licensed to fight in California,
the big men are set to collide on May 19 in San Jose.
10.
Brendan Schaub (8-2)
Schaub
seemed to be narrowing in on a title shot prior to his surprising
upset loss at the hands of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in Rio de
Janeiro this past August. “The Hybrid” will return
to the cage April 21 at UFC 145 in Atlanta, where he will take
on another heavyweight looking to recover lost hype in Ben Rothwell.
Other
contenders:
Fedor
Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Cole Konrad,Mike Russow, Antonio Silva.
Light
Heavyweight
1.
Jon Jones (15-1)
So
much for taking five months off: Instead of resting for the first
half of 2012, the UFC’s 24-year-old light heavyweight ace
will be back to work in the first quarter of the year. Jones’sensational
submission of Lyoto Machida on Dec. 10 once again set up a twice-canceled
showdown with former training partner and ex-champ Rashad Evans,
now slated for April 21 at UFC 145 in Atlanta.
2.
Dan Henderson (29-8)
Henderson
appears to have his sights set solely on gold. UFC President
Dana White recently said that the 41-year-old turned down an
April fight against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, instead preferring
to wait for the winner of the April 21 Jon Jones-Rashad Evans
title bout. “Hendo” will ride an impressive four-fight
win streak into his next bout, including a rousing, five-round
November decision over Mauricio Rua.
3.
Rashad Evans (17-1-1)
The
former champ is once again a step away from reclaiming his UFC
title after a Jan. 28 routing of previously unbeaten prospect
Phil Davis. Evans has seen multiple title shots pass due to injury,
including two tentative meetings with current champ Jon Jones.
The pair will hope the third time’s the charm as they’re
slated to clash April 21 in the main event of UFC 145.
4.
Mauricio“Shogun” Rua (20-6)
The
former UFC light heavyweight champ is still without a return
date following his heartbreaking decision loss to Dan Henderson
in November, but change is nonetheless afoot. In February, Rua
announced a split from manager Eduardo Alonso and stated that
he will return to training with Andre “Dida” Amado
in Curitiba, Brazil.
5.
Lyoto Machida (17-3)
Things
were looking up for Machida in his Dec. 10 title confrontation
with Jon Jones. The Brazilian karateka’s unorthodox style
was proving an apt foil to the young champ until a second-round
guillotine detached Machida from consciousness and dashed his
hopes of once again holding the UFC light heavyweight title.
6.
Phil Davis(9-1)
On
Jan. 28, Davis returned from a 10-month layoff and went straight
into the toughest bout of his nascent career. It also proved
his longest outing, as “Mr. Wonderful” was outclassed
across 25 minutes by former UFC champ Rashad Evans en route to
a unanimous decision loss.
7.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (20-5)
Injury
derailed Nogueira’s second UFC main event, which was to
come against Swedish up-and-comer Alexander Gustafsson on April
14. Instead, “Lil Nog” will undergo surgery for an
injured patella and watch from the sidelines as Gustafsson meets
Thiago Silva.
8.
Alexander Gustafsson (13-1)
Sweden’s
top export was primed for the biggest fight of his career on
April 14, and he’ll still get it, only not against the man
he thought. With original opponent Antonio Rogerio Nogueira injured,“The
Mauler” will take on the returning Thiago Silva in the main
event of UFC on Fuel TV 2 in front of a partisan crowd in Stockholm.
9.
Ryan Bader (14-2)
Bader
grinded out the biggest win of his career on Feb. 26, a unanimous
decision victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in
his foe’s old stomping grounds of Saitama, Japan. The 28-year-old
wrestler from Arizona State is now 2-0 since his shocking loss
to Tito Ortiz, with wins over Jackson and Jason Brilz.
10.
Quinton“Rampage” Jackson (32-10)
What
might have been a grand homecoming for the onetime Pride star
turned out to be a one-sided drubbing, as Jackson fell to Ryan
Bader via unanimous decision Feb. 26 in Saitama, Japan. Just
one week later, Rampage took to Twitter and declared himself
finished with the UFC -- which, according to him, stands for
“U Fight Cheap”-- though he plans to continue fighting.
Other
contenders:
Rafael
Cavalcante, Forrest Griffin, Muhammed“King Mo” Lawal,
Vladimir Matyushenko, Gegard Mousasi.
Middleweight
1.
Anderson Silva (31-4)
Already
regarded by most as the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter,
“The Spider” will have a chance to further cement his
legacy come June. Perhaps more importantly, he’ll have a
chance to shut the sport’s loudest mouth once and for all.
Silva will again put his belt on the line against brash wrestler
Chael Sonnen, only this time it will be on the champ’s home
turf, an as-yet-unannounced Sao Paulo venue.
2.
Chael Sonnen(27-11-1)
Sonnen
sealed the deal with a Jan. 28 decision win over Michael Bisping,
and now the rematch of the year is on. In June, the trash-talking
Oregonian will have the chance to take the belt which he claims
his rightfully his, Anderson Silva’s UFC middleweight title,
when he heads to Sao Paulo to face champion in hostile territory.
3.
Mark Munoz(12-2)
The
former Oklahoma State wrestler notched the biggest win of his
career on Nov. 5, stopping Chris Leben between the second and
third rounds of their UFC 138 main event. The “Filipino
Wrecking Machine”appeared to be on the brink of title contention
before an elbow injury took him out of his Jan. 28 meeting with
Chael Sonnen.
4.
Michael Bisping (22-4)
Once
more a step away from a title shot, Bisping had his title dreams
snuffed out by Chael Sonnen, who handed the Englishman a narrow
decision loss in their January encounter. The defeat halted a
four-fight win streak for “The Count” which included
stoppage wins over Jason Miller and Jorge Rivera.
5.
Vitor Belfort (21-9)
Belfort
had two hurdles in place before the year even started. Last month,
he cleared the first with a resounding first-round submission
of Anthony Johnson in Rio de Janeiro. Next up: a June rematch
with old nemesis and fellow Brazilian MMA icon Wanderlei Silva,
which will come at the end of the pair’s stint as coaches
on“The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.”
6.
Nate Marquardt (31-10-2)
Less
than a year after being released by the UFC for issues stemming
from testosterone replacement therapy, “Nate the Great”
is back in the Zuffa fold. While no date has been announced,
Marquardt is expected to make his welterweight debut in Strikeforce
against rising star Tyron Woodley.
7.
Tim Boetsch (15-4)
On
Feb. 26, Boetsch orchestrated one of the most stunning comebacks
in recent history, emerging from a two-rounds-to-none hole to
knock out Yushin Okami in the third frame of their UFC 144 meeting.
With three straight wins at 185 pounds, “The Barbarian”has
quickly become an unlikely contender.
8.
Yushin Okami(26-7)
After
going nearly eight years between stoppage losses, Okami has now
been punched out in back-to-back Octagon appearances. The perennial
middleweight contender was well on his way to rebounding from
an August drubbing at the hands of Anderson Silva when Tim Boetsch
surged back to score a comeback win in the third round of their
bout at UFC 144.
9.
Brian Stann(11-4)
“All-American”
Stann is going international for his next bout. Stann will get
back into the Octagon against a like-minded striker in Italian
Alessio Sakara in front of the Swedish crowd at the UFC on Fuel
2 on April 14 in Stockholm.
10.
Luke Rockhold (9-1)
In
the first defense of his Strikeforce middleweight title, Luke
Rockhold showed the offensive acumen that makes him an interesting
up-and-comer in smashing veteran Keith Jardine in the first round.
Unfortunately, the oft-injured Rockhold broke his hand, putting
the brakes on any discussions his second title defense.
Other
contenders:
Hector
Lombard, Demian Maia,Rousimar Palhares, Ronaldo“Jacare”
Souza, Chris Weidman.
Welterweight
1.
Georges St. Pierre (22-2)
The
welterweight division’s French Canadian king managed only
one Octagon appearance in 2011, a five-round decision win over
Jake Shields in April. While there’s still no solid timeline
for his return, GSP has stated that rehabilitation on his reconstructed
ACL is “ahead of schedule,” possibly putting him in
line for a late-2012 meeting with interim champ Carlos Condit.
2.
Carlos Condit (28-5)
Nearly
five years after becoming the final WEC welterweight champ, Condit
has captured UFC gold. The “Natural Born Killer” used
a perfectly executed game plan on Feb. 4 to steer clear of Nick
Diaz and rack up points for a unanimous decision win. What’s
next for the new UFC interim welterweight titleholder is unclear,
but Dana White says a fight against Georges St. Pierre is in
the cards regardless of whether Condit meets Martin Kampmann
in the meantime.
3.
Nick Diaz (26-8, 1 ND)
Following
a five-round decision loss to Carlos Condit in the main event
of UFC 143, Diaz angrily declared himself finished with MMA.
Weeks later, the Nevada State Athletic Commission further lessened
the likelihood of seeing the former Strikeforce ace in the cage
anytime soon when it suspended Diaz due to once again testing
positive for marijuana.
4.
Johny Hendricks (12-1)
The
former Oklahoma State Cowboy propelled himself into the Top 5
with a stunning, 12-second knockout of Jon Fitch on Dec. 30.
Despite the current chaos atop the division, Hendricks will have
a chance to further boost his status when he takes on fellow
wrestler Josh Koscheck in May at UFC on Fox 3.
5.
Jon Fitch (23-4-1, 1 NC)
Jon
Fitch’s three-plus-year odyssey to get another UFC welterweight
title shot was waylaid at UFC 141, as Johny Hendricks needed
just one punch and 12 seconds to lay the former Purdue Boilermaker
out. It will be a long, slow climb back to Fitch’s former
perch as welterweight’s second banana.
6.
Jake Ellenberger (27-5)
The
Nebraskan “Juggernaut” continued his march through
the UFC welterweight ranks Feb. 15 by surviving a late scare
to outpoint Diego Sanchez in Omaha. Ellenberger has now won six
straight since dropping his Octagon debut to Carlos Condit, but
the 26-year-old’s path to contendership has been stymied
by Georges St. Pierre’s injury and Condit’s recent
interim title win.
7.
Josh Koscheck (17-5)
Koscheck
survived early pressure from Mike Pierce to squeak out a narrow
decision victory Feb. 4 at UFC 143. Despite a recent split from
his longtime home at American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose,
Calif., “Kos” will still have revenge on his mind come
May 5 when he meets Johny Hendricks, who comes off a 12-second
knockout of Koscheck training partner Jon Fitch.
8.
Jake Shields(27-6-1)
Shields
snapped the first two-fight losing skid of his career by spoiling
the welterweight debut of Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 144 in February.
Though repeatedly hurled to the ground by the world-class judoka,
Shields kept up a high-volume offensive attack across three rounds
to earn a unanimous nod.
9.
Martin Kampmann (19-5)
Less
than a minute away from dropping a decision to Thiago Alves,“The
Hitman” took out his Brazilian foe with a remarkable, come-from-behind
guillotine choke on March 3 in Sydney. With back-to-back wins
against Alves and Rick Story, Kampmann has put himself near the
top of the division, though whether he’ll get a shot at
interim champ Carlos Condit remains to be seen.
10.
B.J. Penn(16-8-2)
B.J.
Penn’s temporary hiatus from MMA following his October loss
to Nick Diaz had all but removed “The Prodigy” from
the sport’s headlines. However, a Twitter tirade against
the aforementioned Diaz has got many itching to see the Hawaiian
back inside the cage in 2012.
Other
contenders:
Ben
Askren, Charlie Brenneman, Rory MacDonald, Rick Story, Tyron
Woodley.
Lightweight
1.
Ben Henderson (16-2)
Twenty-five
months after winning the WEC lightweight title, Henderson has
positioned himself atop the UFC’s 155-pound division.“Bendo”
continued his sterling streak inside the Octagon by wrestling
the belt from Frankie Edgar in a five-round thriller at UFC 144.
The best part: we get to see them do it again this summer, when
UFC President Dana White said the pair will rematch.
2.
Frankie Edgar (14-2-1)
The
man often compared to Rocky Balboa fought valiantly but could
not hang on to his UFC title against the bigger, stronger Benson
Henderson at UFC 144. After losing a close decision to the former
WEC champ, Edgar will have a chance to reclaim his gold this
summer when the top-tier lightweights collide again at an as-yet-unannounced
event.
3.
Gilbert Melendez (20-2)
Strikeforce’s
lightweight ace turned in another strong performance on Dec.
17, out-punching American Top Team slugger Jorge Masvidal across
five rounds to retain his 155-pound strap. While all signs pointed
to Melendez’s imminent UFC signing, it was recently announced
that “El Nino” will remain in the hexagon for the time
being, where he figures to have a rubber match with Josh Thomson
later this year.
4.
Gray Maynard (10-1-1, 1 NC)
There’s
been little news from Maynard’s side since the former Michigan
State Spartan was knocked out in his third meeting with Frankie
Edgar last October. While the timeframe for his return remains
unclear, what is known is that Maynard has parted ways with his
former camp at Xtreme Couture and has recently spent time at
both Nova Uniao in Rio de Janeiro and American Kickboxing Academy
in San Jose, Calif.
5.
Shinya Aoki(30-5, 1 NC)
After
demolishing former training partner Satoru Kitaoka on Dec. 31,
Aoki has lined up a rematch with the man he defeated on New Year’s
Eve 2008. Though the bout has lost some of its luster since it
was first proposed last year, Aoki will travel to Cleveland to
take on former Bellator champion Eddie Alvarez, who has gone
7-1 since tapping to an Aoki heel hook.
6.
Jim Miller(21-3)
Miller’s
first starring role in the Octagon went so well, he’s headed
straight for another. The tenacious New Jerseyan took out Melvin
Guillard with a first-round rear-naked choke Jan. 20 in the main
event of UFC on FX 1. Now, Miller moves up to headlining duty
for the UFC’s May 5 Fox show, where he’ll collide with
Nate Diaz in a likely title eliminator.
7.
Clay Guida(29-12)
Once
more on the cusp of contention, Guida had his title dreams busted
-- along with his four-fight winning streak -- by Ben Henderson
in a thrilling Nov. 12 three-rounder. The lightweight stalwart
finishes 2011 with a 2-1 mark, having topped Anthony Pettis and
Takanori Gomi.
8.
Anthony Pettis (15-2)
Frank
Edgar and Benson Henderson might have stolen the show at UFC
144 in the main event, but Anthony Pettis wasn’t content
to let his 155-pound brethren get all the shine. “Showtime”
showed up in sizzling style in Saitama, kicking Joe Lauzon upside
the head and knocking out the respected “J-Lau” early
in the first frame.
9.
Michael Chandler (9-0)
Previously
unranked Chandler used heavy hands, a granite chin and his powerful
collegiate wrestling base to topple Eddie Alvarez on Nov. 19,
outlasting Bellator’s longtime lightweight ace to score
a shocking fourth-round submission. With six impressive Bellator
victories and a shiny new gold belt, Chandler awaits the winner
of the promotion’s next lightweight tournament in 2012.
10.
Nate Diaz (15-7)
In
a critical beatdown, Nate Diaz announced his entry into UFC lightweight
contendership on Dec. 30 with his thrashing of Donald Cerrone.
The Cesar Gracie pupil could become the company’s next 155-pound
challenger, but he’ll first have to get through Jim Miller
in the May 5 main event of UFC on Fox 3.
Other
contenders:
Eddie
Alvarez, Donald Cerrone, Pat Healy, Joe Lauzon, Gleison Tibau.
Featherweight
1.
Jose Aldo(21-1)
It
might be too early to call Jose Aldo “the people’s
champion,”but the Brazilian dynamo’s sensational first-round
knockout of previously-unbeaten Chad Mendes at UFC 142 in Rio
de Janeiro --punctuated by his post-fight dive into the carioca
crowd – was one of the most stirring moments in MMA’s
recent past. Though UFC brass was pushing for former lightweight
champ Frankie Edgar to drop down and challenge Aldo, it seems
likely that Aldo will face the winner of May’s Dustin Poirier-Chan
Sung Jung bout or Hatsu Hioki.
2.
Hatsu Hioki(26-4-2)
Following
a lackluster performance in his UFC debut, the “Son of Shooto”
showed what he was capable of in his sophomore outing. Fighting
on his home turf at UFC 144, Hioki took a hard-fought victory
over tough veteran Bart Palaszewski, all but confirming his status
as the true No. 1 contender to Jose Aldo’s throne.
3.
Chad Mendes(11-1)
Chad
Mendes might be one of the world’s best featherweights,
but as he found out at UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro, that tends
not to matter against Jose Aldo. Mendes came to fight, but still
wound up unconscious with one second to go in the first round,
and losing his unbeaten record, to boot.
4.
Pat Curran(16-4)
It’s
been a fast rise through the 145-pound ranks for Curran, who
finished his Bellator tournament run with a stunning August knockout
of former Sengoku ruler Marlon Sandro. On March 9, the Illinoisan
will take his second stab at Bellator gold when he meets reigning
featherweight champ Joe Warren in Hammond, Ind.
5.
Kenny Florian (14-6)
After
falling short in his third UFC title bout -- this time an October
decision loss to featherweight ace Jose Aldo -- Florian decided
to take some time off to reassess his career. While his fighting
future remains uncertain, the hiatus has led the former lightweight
contender back to the commentary booth, where he has become part
of the UFC’s broadcasting “B Team” on FX.
6.
Marlon Sandro (20-3)
Sandro
bounced back from the first knockout loss of his career in November,
submitting BJJ black belt Rafael Dias with a first-round arm-triangle
choke. The heavy-handed Brazilian will begin his second Bellator
tournament stint -- the road back to a potential rematch with
Pat Curran -- March 9 when he faces Roberto Vargas in the sixth-season
quarterfinals.
7.
Diego Nunes(17-2)
It’s
Jose Aldo that rules 145, but his Nova Uniao teammate Diego Nunes
did his part to keep moving in the division at UFC 141 by winning
a well-appointed unanimous decision over Manny Gamburyan. Nunes
has now won four of his last five, his lone loss coming on points
to Kenny Florian last June.
8.
Dustin Poirier (12-1)
In
just over one year, Poirier has moved from WEC unknown to one
step away from UFC contendership. “The Diamond” will
have a chance to cement his status as Jose Aldo’s next challenger
come May 15, when he’ll meet Korean star Chan Sung Jung
at UFC on Fuel TV 3.
9.
Bart Palaszewski (36-15)
In
his second outing at featherweight, “Bartimus” ran
into a roadblock. Though he rallied back from a brutal opening
round, Palaszewski could not close the gap and fell via unanimous
decision to Japanese standout Hatsu Hioki at UFC 144.
10.
Joe Warren(7-2)
Bellator’s
145-pound titleholder seemed a clear-cut favorite to win the
company’s fifth-season 135-pound bracket, but things took
an unexpected turn on Sept. 24 when Warren was flattened by a
left hook from fellow wrestler Alexis Vila. With top contender
Patricio Freire injured, Warren will move back up the scale for
a March 9 title defense against Summer Series tourney winner
Pat Curran.
Other
contenders:
Iuri
Alcantara, Patricio Freire, Tyson Griffin, Chan Sung Jung, Erik
Koch.
Bantamweight
1.
Dominick Cruz (19-1)
Cruz
waited more than four years for his rematch against Urijah Faber;
their third meeting will come much quicker. The bantamweights
have been tabbed as coaches of “The Ultimate Fighter”Season
15, which will debut on FX in March and will conclude with a
bantamweight title bout between Faber and Cruz at UFC 148 on
July 7.
2.
Urijah Faber(26-5)
Last
July, Faber suffered his first loss at bantamweight in a five-round
unanimous decision against UFC champ Dominick Cruz. The“California
Kid” will have another opportunity to take the title in
July at UFC 148, but first he will coach opposite Cruz on the
15th season of UFC reality show “The Ultimate Fighter.”
3.
Renan Barao (28-1, 1 NC)
Barao’s
fifth fight under the Zuffa banner didn’t end in a decisive
finish, but it was impressive nonetheless, as the Brazilian took
a hard-fought unanimous decision over former WEC title challenger
Scott Jorgensen at UFC 143. The Nova Uniao fighter has now gone
29 straight fights without a loss and could be primed for a shot
at the belt in 2012.
4.
Brian Bowles (10-2)
Bowles
suffered his first submission loss on Nov. 19 by way of Urijah
Faber guillotine choke, and with it was dealt his first setback
in the Octagon after wins over Takeya Mizugaki and Damacio Page.
For now, the 21-year-old from Georgia moves down a rung in the
ever-deepening UFC bantamweight division and takes a step back
from a potential rematch with the man who took his WEC title,
Dominick Cruz.
5.
Scott Jorgensen (13-5)
The
bantamweight division’s all-action wrestler had regained
some momentum following his failed WEC title bid against Dominick
Cruz, topping Jeff Curran and Ken Stone in his first two UFC
outings. That came to a halt Feb. 4 when Jorgensen was outpointed
by streaking Brazilian Renan Barao at UFC 143.
6.
Miguel Torres (40-4)
Miguel
Torres’ “rape van” Twitter indiscretion might
have gotten him released, but just three weeks later, the former
WEC bantamweight champion once again had a UFC deal. His first
assignment back won’t be an easy one, as Torres has been
tasked with derailing the momentum of hot prospect Michael McDonald,
April 21 at UFC 145 in Atlanta.
7.
Masakatsu Ueda (15-1-2)
With
an entertaining victory over previously unbeaten Kyoji Horiguchi
on Jan. 8, the former Shooto world 132-pound champion firmed
up his 2012 plans. Ueda will be headed stateside this year, to
take part in Bellator’s Season 6 bantamweight tournament.
8.
Bibiano Fernandes (11-3)
After
losing his Dream featherweight crown on the last day of 2010,
Bibiano Fernandes stormed through 2011 en route to the promotion’s
bantamweight title. On New Year’s Eve 2011, Fernandes topped
Rodolfo Marques Diniz before finishing off UFC veteran Antonio
Banuelos in 81 seconds.
9.
Michael McDonald (14-1)
Michael
McDonald’s four-fight Zuffa run has been thrilling thus
far, and the 21-year-old hot prospect has finally earned a major
leap up in competition. At UFC 145 in Atlanta, McDonald will
step in with a very similar action fighter to himself in former
WEC champion Miguel Torres in a major “Fight of the Night”
contender.
10.
Brad Pickett (20-6)
Brad
Pickett has been itching to get back into action since getting
whomped by Brazilian Renan “Barao” in his native England
this past November. Pickett’s road to redemption starts
in Stockholm, Sweden at UFC on Fuel 2, as he takes on power-punching
Damacio Page on the April 14 bill.
Other
contenders:
Chris
Cariaso, Eduardo Dantas, Zach Makovsky, Takeya Mizugaki, Eddie
Wineland.
Flyweight
1.
Ian McCall (11-2-1)
McCall
couldn’t catch a break in his UFC debut: after being announced
the loser of a decision against Demetrious Johnson, it was revealed
that the bout had been scored a majority draw and should have
gone to a fourth round. As such, “Uncle Creepy” and“Mighty
Mouse” will duel again later this year, with the winner
moving on to face Joseph Benavidez for the vacant UFC flyweight
title.
2.
Jussier da Silva (14-1)
There’s
a flyweight party in the UFC, but “Formiga” wasn’t
invited. In the meantime, the Brazilian ant-man has lined up
a pair of bouts to keep him busy until he gets his call from
the big show. On March 18, da Silva will move up to 132 pounds
to meet Argentinean Martin Coria, then back down to defend his
Shooto South America flyweight belt against Lincoln de Sa on
April 21.
3.
Joseph Benavidez (16-2)
During
his tenure at bantamweight, it was often said that Benavidez
could be the best flyweight fighter in the world. On March 3,
he took the first step toward proving that claim by punching
out Shooto champion Yasuhiro Urushitani at UFC on FX 2. Having
guaranteed himself a shot at the UFC flyweight title, Benavidez
now awaits the winner of the to-be-scheduled Demetrious Johnson-Ian
McCall rematch.
4.
Demetrious Johnson (14-2-1)
“Mighty
Mouse” thought he had secured his passage to a UFC title
bout with a majority decision over Ian McCall, but a scorekeeping
error left him in the same spot as he had been three rounds prior.
The flyweights will have to do it again later this year to decide
who will face Joseph Benavidez for the mantle of inaugural UFC
125-pound champion.
5.
Yasuhiro Urushitani (19-5-6)
Shooto’s
former 123-pound ace was dealt the first knockout loss of his
lengthy career on March 3, falling in his UFC debut to former
bantamweight contender Joseph Benavidez. The defeat snapped a
five-fight winning streak which had seen Urushitani defeat Pancrase
champ Kiyotaka Shimizu, Yuki Shojo and Ryuichi Miki.
6.
Mamoru Yamaguchi (26-6-3)
Mamoru
Yamaguchi might not have any MMA fights scheduled, but the longtime
Shooto star is never one to sit by idly and wait. On Feb. 5,
Yamaguchi hopped back into the Shoot Boxing ring to grab himself
a majority decision and a payday in the kickboxing ring over
Kazuyuki Fushimi.
7.
Darrell Montague (9-2)
Darrell
Montague was looking at a potential March 9 date with Jussier
da Silva under the Tachi Palace Fights banner. However, life
interceded, as Montague is now expecting the birth of his first
child, a personal undertaking that nixed a slated bout with the
Brazilian.
8.
Shinichi "B.J." Kojima (12-4-5)
It
hasn’t been pretty, but the world’s former No. 1 flyweight
has racked up back-to-back wins since returning last August from
a career-threatening knee injury. Next up for Shooto’s blonde
bomber: a March 10 engagement with Korean youngster Nam Jin Jo
in Tokyo.
9.
Yuki Shojo(11-6-2)
Yuki
Shojo struck out trying to win the Shooto world title at 123
pounds when Yasuhiro Urushitani went upside his head in July.
The action-oriented Shojo is now bound for Shooto's 115-pound
division, signing on to face free-swinging Junji Ito on March
10.
10.
Louis Gaudinot (5-1)
Louis
Gaudinot is lucky in that next time in the Octagon, he'll get
to compete at his more natural weight class at 125 pounds. However,
it won't be easy for the green-haired dynamo, as he'll meet big-punching
Brazilian prospect John Lineker, who will cut down from bantamweight
for his flyweight debut.
Other
contenders:
Fumihiro
Kitahara, Dustin Ortiz, Alexandre Pantoja, Kiyotaka Shimizu,
Jose Maria Tome.
Source
Sherdog
|
Miro
Mijatovic: Fedor, Mirko, and PRIDE yakuza’s loaded pistols
By Zach
Arnold
Transcript
of Dan Herbertson interview with Miro Mijatovic for Spike TV’s
MMA Uncensored Live
“As
we took Mirko from K-1 into PRIDE, PRIDE for the first time made
it onto normal [broadcast] TV on Fuji TV. The reason was PRIDE
had been building up a good level of success in terms of having
a very good live event and a very good showing of fans, a lot
of hardcore fans but they hadn’t been able to make the jump
from a hardcore fan base into national television. By bringing
Mirko, who back in March 2003 (Saitama Super Arena) knocked out
Bob Sapp and became the biggest property in the fight industry,
Mirko was able to drag DSE or PRIDE onto national TV which is
actually what happened. That’s why, you know, and you had
the fights with Herring & Vovchanchyn and at that stage whe
you got to the finals in November w/ Mirko/Nogueira, PRIDE had
become a very significant competitor to the natural power base
of K-1.
“So,
as we were approaching New Year’s Eve which is the #1 ratings
on Japanese television, also traditionally the big night for
fight events as well… K-1 had traditionally been doing the
Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event which was a mixture of K-1 fights &
Mixed Martial Arts fights on New Year’s Eve with TBS (Tokyo
Broadcasting System). PRIDE and Fuji TV were undecided in November
as to whether they were going to do an event on New Year’s
Eve and go head-to-head with K-1.
“I
suppose the big cause of all the problems or one of the big causes
was that Nippon TV, which is a much bigger TV station than TBS,
decided that they wanted to get into the fight game in a big
way and that meant challenging TBS & K-1’s dominance
in the sport. Now, they didn’t have a way to get in there
because PRIDE was exclusive to Fuji. K-1 was very close to Fuji
and TBS although because of the relationship with PRIDE and Fuji
TV, you know, growing K-1 had become much less important to Fuji
TV and in the beginning of November (2003), Nippon TV approached
(Seiya) Kawamata who eventually did a deal with and myself to
do an event on New Year’s Eve. Now, that was all based around
ensuring that Mirko Cro Cop was headlining the event. I’d
spoken to Mirko leading up to the November fight and immediately
afterwards and I said, ‘Look, it’s in our interests
to have three strong promotions and the more strong promotions
there are, the better it is for the fighters. Obviously, your
fight money goes up.’ Mirko agreed to fight because it was
quite traditional for him to fight a pro-wrestler on New Year’s
Eve. It wasn’t that tough a fight, he was going to get good
money. Nippon TV offered Kawamata a contract for three years,
600 million yen for the first event on that night and off we
went.
“So,
we announced the first fight in the beginning of November which
was Mirko versus (Yoshihiro) Takayama and we started to put an
event together. We had less than 60 days to put an event on.
We had zero fighters contracted. We had nothing except a contract
to go out and do the fight. So, off we went and ran around and
collected fighters.
“So,
in the middle of November, Fuji TV and PRIDE decided that they
were going to do an event as well on New Year’s Eve. That’s
when the fun and games started. Fun and games being obviously
they realized that with a fledgling promotion like Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye
was, if they could destroy our main event which was Takayama
and Cro Cop, the show would probably start to fall apart. So,
towards the end of November, Mirko started to receive visits
from a guy called Ken Imai (former right-hand man of K-1 Godfather
Kazuyoshi Ishii), who worked closely with (Nobuyuki) Sakakibara
and finally Mirko was paid $300,000 to fake a back injury and
pull out of the event, which he eventually did in the middle
of December. That was a pretty aggressive move as far as I concerned,
since they had interfered with my relations with Mirko. I obviously
knew a lot about what all the fighters were getting paid all
over PRIDE and I knew that Fedor was fighting for around $10,000
a fight and was being totally ripped off by his manager at the
time Pokogin (Russian Top Team) and also PRIDE as well. So, I
shot off to Saint Petersburg and sat down with Vadim Finkelchtein,
Apy Echteld, Fedor and his brother and after the course of two
days we did a deal and I signed Fedor on a one-year contract
for four fights at almost 20 times the money he was getting paid
at the time. So, it wasn’t a difficult deal for Fedor to
accept. When I came back to Japan and announced that Fedor was
fighting on Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, PRIDE reacted furiously. Sakakibara
hit the airwaves and said he was going to sue me, he was going
to sue Fedor, he was going to do this, do that, and the other.
What he actually did was not go for legal actions because he
had no legal rights to sue anybody. What he did was he started
sending yakuza around so I started to get visits to my office
from various yakuza dudes, you know, calls late into the night
to arrange meetings to talk to these guys and things escalated
from there.
“As
the time got closer and closer, the threats started to get ratcheted
up and eventually from around about the 20th of December, death
threats started to happen. Kawamata was threatened when he came
back to Japan for a press conference. They grabbed him, according
to him, threatened to kill him. He, of course, reacted to that
by jumping on the next plane out of the country again and …
the threats started to come to me. In the next 10 days leading
up from the 20th of December through the actual event itself,
things got very, very hot. People, guys were turning up into
my house, you know, 2 AM, 3 AM, big groups, three or four guys.
I don’t know who they were but they certainly weren’t
friends of mine, you know, and I took other measures. I moved
my family away from where we were living and started to stay
myself into hotels and other places as the event got closer and
closer. The pressure kept on escalating right up to the actual
night of the event in Kobe on the 31st. At that stage, you know…
threats are threats and the fight industry’s full of guys
who think they’re alpha males. People make a lot of threats
in the heat of the moment. It’s just part of the game but
when those guys have guns and have a history of carrying out
threats, things are a little bit more nervous. What happened
was we put on the event on the 31st… despite all the interruptions
from PRIDE and some local yakuza groups in Kobe, the event went
off fine. Fine means we had 40,000 people attend the event so
we were actually the best-attended event on that specific night.
We beat PRIDE and K-1 in terms of the paid attendance. Unfortunately,
due to the absolute mess of not being able to announce fights
in the lead up to the actual event itself… for example,
whether Fedor was fighting or not, no one knew until the 31st
because the promoter Kawamata had said, ‘he’s not going
to fight’ due to the pressure he got from the yakuza. I
was saying ‘he’s fighting’ and so you had mixed
messages out to the audience. The result was and it wasn’t
only that fight, all the other fighters we tried to put on we
couldn’t make announces so the ratings results was horrible.
We ended up with 4% ratings, the lowest ratings on the night,
and the event just crumbled afterwards.
“New
Year’s Eve, on New Year’s Eve the event goes on. New
Year’s day, Kawamata again disappears. No one’s there.
Fighters want to get paid. We had some cash at the time that
Kawamata hadn’t grabbed and we were able to pay the Russian
fighters and a few others. I dealt with a lot of people who remained
unpaid. I was trying to handle arrangements as fighters were
leaving the two days afterwards and then on the 3rd of January
(2004), much to my great surprise, Sakakibara, Ishizaka, and
four yakuza guys turn up to the hotel where I was staying, the
Okura hotel in Kobe, and I was… how can you put it, shepherded
into a meeting room and we had some pretty difficult discussions…
discussions were pretty simple. I was told I had to sign over
my rights to Fedor or I wasn’t going to leave Kobe alive.
So, we had… a pretty difficult afternoon of discussions
and negotiations. I was fairly confident they weren’t going
to shoot me in the Okura hotel, that’s a bit difficult to
deal with getting a body out of, especially a body of my size,
out of the walls so I felt I had a bit of room to push back on
and eventually I was able to… because they knew where I
lived, they knew were my family as in Tokyo, I was able to then
have the discussions moved to Tokyo which was on the 4th and
the 5th and we sat in, you know, the same group of guys, we sat
down and continued those discussions and eventually I agreed
to sign my rights to Fedor across to PRIDE for zero value.
“I’ve
seen guns before and these weren’t toy guns. They were loaded
pistols and they… when they talked, number one first they
show you that they’re armed, they’re dressed in suits
but they showed you that they’re holstered and they’re
armed. Eventually when I’m pushing back on what they were
asking to do, one of the guys pulled out his gun, put it on the
table… and we continued to talk and when I continued to
push back, he picked the gun up and aimed it to my head and said,
‘You know what’s going to happen if you don’t
sign?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, look, we’re in a hotel,
it’s going to be pretty messy, so I understand that if you
guys want me dead I’ll be dead and I’m sure you’re
not going to shoot me here in the meeting room in the hotel.
So, let’s continue talking.’ As long as I recognized
the fact that there was a credible threat, the guys realized
that they didn’t need to go any further than that at that
stage. It was a very credible threat.”
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Quinton
‘Rampage’ Jackson Says He’s One More and Done
with the UFC
by Damon
Martin
Is
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s time with the UFC
coming to a close?
After
a series of messages on his Twitter account, it certainly appears
that way. The former UFC light heavyweight champion, who has
dropped his last two bouts in a row, says that after one more
trip to the Octagon he’s exiting the UFC.
And
just to clarify, he’s leaving the UFC, not retiring from
fighting altogether.
“I
will fight whoever they put in front of me, I always have, but
it will be my last fight in the UFC,” Jackson wrote. “I
have other things on my mind.
“I
didn’t say I would be done fighting, I just said I’m
not fighting for the UFC (u fight cheap). Said I have other things
on my mind (big head).”
From
the sound of Jackson’s messages, he’s obviously unhappy
with the UFC for both their pay structure as well as advice they
are giving him on his career.
He
responded to another fan question when quizzed about why he was
leaving the UFC, and Jackson stated, “Why should I stay?
I don’t need them or anybody else negative dealing with
my career.”
This
isn’t the first time Rampage has lashed out after a loss
in the UFC. Following his defeat to Jon Jones in September 2011,
Jackson stated he was considering a career in boxing.
UFC
president Dana White threw cold water on the situation after
Jackson’s initial statement because he was still under contract
with them at the time.
“He’s
under contract. He’s not boxing until… I mean, if he
wants to box when his contract is up, that’s up to him,”
White stated.
Jackson’s
current contract situation is unknown, but if he does have only
one fight left on his deal, his time with the UFC may indeed
be coming to a close.
Regardless,
Jackson will be in the UFC for at least one more fight and will
then make a decision on where his fighting future will take him.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Josh
Barnett Granted License with Conditions by California Commission
by Damon
Martin
The
California State Athletic Commission has granted Josh Barnett
a license for his upcoming fight on May 19 for Strikeforce against
Daniel Cormier.
At
a special hearing held on Monday, the commissioners questioned
Barnett, who had his license denied in the state after a positive
drug test prior to his scheduled fight against Fedor Emelianenko
in the Affliction promotion in 2009.
By
a vote of 4 to 2, the commission granted Barnett a license for
the fight with special conditions. The two commissioners who
voted against the licensure were Mike Munoz and Eugene Hernandez.
The
hearing lasted nearly an hour with the commissioners questioning
Barnett about his positive test for steroids back in 2002 when
fighting for the UFC, as well as his positive test in 2009 when
the California commission denied his license for the fight with
Emelianenko.
Barnett
denied ever taking any steroids in 2009 and says getting the
call that there was a positive test was like a punch to the gut.
“I
can’t speak on the test itself, what I can say is I didn’t
knowingly or intentionally ingest steroids. I did not take steroids.
I do not know how a steroid got into my system. There could be
a potential of a tainted supplement, there could be a potential
of the machines perhaps not being cleaned in between usage, there’s
a myriad of factors that could go into this, but I know for one,
I did not take steroids,” Barnett said.
“Getting
that phone call was, I just hope you don’t have to feel
a feeling that sinking in your life.”
Commissioner
Eugene Hernandez continued to hammer away at Barnett for the
past positive tests, but ultimately the commission opted to grant
him a license once the motion was levied by Commissioner John
Frierson.
“The
commission has voted to grant you a license, but they will require
random biological fluid testing prior to your participation in
any event in California. The timing of that biological fluid
testing will be at the discretion of the staff,” read the
decision from the commission.
Barnett
did take a drug test prior to Monday’s meeting and the results
came back negative for any performance enhancing substances.
He will be subject to further pre-fight testing at the commission’s
discretion.
While
Barnett said his contract to fight Daniel Cormier on May 19 has
not been signed, he understands that another positive test would
be devastating and stated he ‘might as well take my boots
and hang them up’ if that happened. Obviously, Barnett was
more than confident that another test would not come back positive.
He
also promised to make believers out of the two commissioners
who voted against his license approval, and hoped to see them
at the fight, which is currently scheduled for May 19, most likely
in San Jose, Calif.
“This
is a privelege not a right and I never saw it as such. I intend
to make everybody on this commission as well as you Miss Chappelle
happy with your decisions, but especially those Mr. Hernandez
and Mr. Munoz, I want to make believers out of you that is more
important to me than anything else,” Barnett stated.
Barnett
will now prepare to face Daniel Cormier on May 19 for the finals
of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Junior
dos Santos-Alistair Overeem Heavyweight Title Bout Official for
UFC 146
by Mike
Whitman
An
expected UFC heavyweight title pairing between Junior dos Santos
and Alistair Overeem is now official, as the Las Vegas-based
promotion announced Tuesday that the bout will take place at
UFC 146.
Taking
place May 26 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC
146 was originally announced as the location for the upcoming
heavyweight title bout by UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta last
month. However, the date and location of the expected contest
were not announced officially until today.
Overeem
earned his shot at dos Santos’ title by knocking outBrock
Lesnar at UFC 141 this past December. A former Strikeforce heavyweight
champion and Pride Fighting Championships standout,“The
Demolition Man” has not lost since 2007, when he was knocked
out by fellow Pride vet Sergei Kharitonov.
Since
that defeat, Overeem has won 11 of 12 outings, his only blemish
being a 2008 no-contest against Mirko Filipovic at Dream 6. Considered
one of the finest strikers in the heavyweight division, Overeem
won the K-1 world grand prix kickboxing title in 2010 and followed
that triumph with a knockout of ex-UFC prospect Todd Duffeejust
three weeks later to capture the Dream interim heavyweight championship.
Dos
Santos has not seen action since lifting the UFC heavyweight
crown from Cain Velasquez at UFC on Fox 1 this past November.
Following his 64-second knockout of the American Kickboxing Academy
standout, dos Santos underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus
in his left knee.
The
heavy-handed Brazilian has won 10 of his 14 career outings by
knockout and has yet to taste defeat in his UFC career, posting
a perfect 8-0 record since joining the promotion in 2008. “Cigano”owns
notable career victories over Fabricio Werdum, Roy Nelsonand
Shane Carwin and has never been knocked out.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Mike
Fagan: The fifth anniversary of PRIDE 33
By Zach
Arnold
Mike
Fagan hosts the Untethered MMA Podcast every Thursday at FightFansRadio.com.
He also occasionally writes for Vice.com. You can follow him
on Twitter at @ItsMikeFagan.
On
Saturday, the UFC returns to Japan for the first time since 200,
and this will mark the organization’s first show in Japan
since parent-company Zuffa bought the floundering company from
Semaphore Entertainment Group. For newer fans, this may look
like another step in the UFC’s efforts to expand into international
markets.
(Over
the last 5 years the UFC has put on shows in England, Ireland,
Germany, Australia, and Brazil. You can add Sweden to that list
in April.)
There’s
a larger significance for long-time fans of the sport. While
the UFC currently has a stranglehold on major-league MMA, it
was only five years ago when that title was in dispute.
Between
1997 and 2007, PRIDE ruled the MMA world from Tokyo. The company
stockpiled the best fighting talent that money could buy, and
complemented that talent with over-the-top, pro-wrestling-style
theatrics. At the turn of the millennium, the UFC was struggling
to stay afloat, putting on shows in Indian casinos and trying
to fight a cultural stigma spurred by John McCain. Meanwhile,
PRIDE was packing 40,000+ into the Saitama Super Arena to watch
Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko “Cro Cop” and Wanderlei
Silva and all the other legendary names that long-time fans look
back on with sepia-colored glasses.
PRIDE
began to crumble in 2006. Japanese fight magazine Shukan Gendai
uncovered published stories implicating PRIDE as a front for
the yakuza, Japan’s answer to the mafia. By the spring of
2007, the company completely collapsed. The UFC bought the assets
(what essentially amounted to the PRIDE brand name and tape library),
and, after a brief attempt to run the company separately (think
Strikeforce present day), stuck Gorilla Monsoon’s proverbial
fork in the carcass.
The
UFC’s return to Japan falls on an interesting date. You
see, PRIDE held their final show, PRIDE 33*, five years ago today.
(Event pictures here.)
The
card, on paper, seemed to be plagued by schizophrenic matchmaking.
Brazilian wunderkind Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would fight
current heavyweight monster Alistair Overeem despite having beat
him clean less than two years ago in the semifinal of PRIDE’s
middleweight (205 lb.) tournament. Lightweight champ Takanori
Gomi squared off with UFC welterweight castoff Nick Diaz, in
a non-title affair. And Wanderlei Silva, the only middleweight
champ PRIDE had known, would battle Dan Henderson for his title.
Silva had won a decision over Henderson back at PRIDE 12, but
the rematch was an interesting choice as Henderson was the reigning
welterweight (183 lb.) champ and Kazuo Misaki, then-number one
contender and a man Henderson had split two fights with in 2006,
fought another questionable fight against Frank Trigg on the
undercard.
And
yet, it is hard to find a serious fight fan who doesn’t
rank PRIDE 33 among their top five shows of all time.
Joachim
“Hellboy” Hansen and Jason Ireland opened the show
with an entertaining lightweight scrap. Trigg, whose career had
mostly been written off following multiple rear-naked choke losses
to Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre in the UFC, followed with
an upset decision victory over Misaki. James Lee surprised Travis
Wiuff with a wild haymaker early before finishing with a guillotine
choke 39 seconds into the bout.
Rameau
Thierry Sokoudjou then stepped into the ring against Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira, the twin brother of former PRIDE heavyweight
champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Sokoudjou had all of three professional
bouts, and was listed as a 10-1 underdog (or worse) by the bookmakers.
As the bell rang, Josh Barnett, on color commentary, commented
that Nogueira had just been named as Brazil’s Olympic representative
for boxing. Twenty seconds and a winging left hook later, “Lil’
Nog” found himself staring at the rafters. As far as I know,
this is still the biggest betting upset in MMA history, though
Matt Serra challenged the shock factor when he TKO’d Georges
St. Pierre just six weeks later.
In
the wake of the upset, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and Sergei
Kharitonov made easy work of overmatched opponents Mac Danzig
and Mike Russow, respectively.
Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua’s knockout of Alistair Overeem is
packed with poetry. It would be Overeem’s last fight at
205 lb. before moving up to heavyweight full time, and it perfectly
encapsulated his career to that point. In the opening minutes
of the bout, Overeem proved he had the size, skill, and athleticism
to hang with the man most considered as the number one fighter
in the weight class. But his cardio failed him — Overeem
is always quick to point out the massive cut he needed to undertake
to make weight — and a diving right hand put his lights
out before the bout had reached four minutes. Overeem has only
lost a single bout since, and is scheduled to fight Junior dos
Santos for the UFC heavyweight title sometime in the late spring.
“Shogun’s”
career has been much more rocky. He wound up in the UFC, dropping
his debut to Forrest Griffin. Multiple knee surgeries kept him
out of action for 15 months. He returned to TKO an aging Mark
Coleman in the most unimpressive of fashions. He earned a title
shot after helping stamp out Chuck Liddell’s career. After
a controversial decision loss, “Shogun” knocked out
Lyoto Machida in an immediate rematch to win the light heavyweight
crown. He dropped the title in his first defense to Jon Jones,
the new 23-year-old wunderkind who would go on to complete the
greatest individual year in mixed martial arts history. Rua would
go on to avenge his loss to Forrest Griffin before putting on
the Fight of 2011 against Dan Henderson in November.
It
was the co-main event at PRIDE 33 between Takanori Gomi and Nick
Diaz that took home Fight of the Year honors in 2007, and elevated
a very good card to an all-time great. Gomi had amassed a 13-1
record over the past 3 years and was the reigning PRIDE lightweight
champ (though this was, for whatever reason, a non-title affair).
He was paired with Diaz, a 23-year-old kid with 20 fights under
his belt, including a 6-4 record in the UFC. Most infamous for
a post-fight hospital brawl with Joe Riggs, PRIDE saw Diaz as
a way to promote their organization’s superiority to the
UFC.
And
for the first few minutes of the bout, that objective looked
like it would come to fruition. Gomi secured a takedown and pounded
Diaz from top position before the referee stood the fighters
up. At the two-minute mark, Gomi landed a dynamite right that
put Diaz back on the mat. Diaz managed enough defense to survive
Gomi’s follow up onslaught. By the end of the round, Gomi
struggled to keep his hands in front of his face, allowing Diaz
to pepper him with jabs and straight rights as the bell rang.
Gomi
returned with some life in the second, continuing to land wild
power shots to Diaz’s face. That face had become a smorgasbord
of abrasion and bruises and sweat and swelling. A cut under the
right eye forced the referee to ask for advice from the ringside
doctor, who allowed the bout to continue. Gomi, fueled by some
mix of compassion and exhaustion, visibly pleaded with the referee
to put a halt to the contest after the restart. His wish was
denied, prodding Gomi to shoot for a takedown. As the two fell
toward the mat, Diaz brought his right leg over Gomi’s left
shoulder and under his chin. With his ankle secured around the
neck, he trapped Gomi in with his left leg and pulled down on
the head, forcing Gomi to tap.
It’s
largely regarded as one of the top ten fights of all time, and
is often used as a primer for newer fans to the sport. Unfortunately,
Diaz’s win is not recognized by the Nevada State Athletic
Commission. Diaz tested positive for marijuana, and the athletic
commission, taking the position that marijuana is a “performance-enhancing
drug,” declared the bout a no contest.
If
Gomi and Diaz represent the climax of our story, then Wanderlei
Silva and Dan Henderson provide a satisfying resolution. The
fight was even through two rounds. Midway through the third,
Henderson lands a spinning backfist that briefly wobbles the
champ. Moments later, Silva is knocked unconscious by a perfectly
placed left hook. It was an historic moment: Henderson became
the first, and thus far only, man to hold major titles in two
weight classes simultaneously.
The
results may have been exciting, but they provided the final nails
to PRIDE’s coffin. Gomi and Misaki took huge shots to their
profiles in Japan. Henderson’s knockout gave Silva, one
of the biggest draws in the company, his third loss in five fights
and second knockout loss in a row. The man who delivered the
first, Mirko Filipovic, had already migrated to the UFC. So had
Silva’s foil Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. A month
later, the UFC would announce their purchase.
*My
apologies for the David Foster Wallace, but I know this will
cause a mild ruckus. PRIDE 33 was the organization’s penultimate
show. It was also held in the United States. When the organization’s
demise became a full-blown reality, PRIDE officials scrambled
to put on one final show (aptly titled “Kamikaze”)
to be held in Japan. That show was headlined by Jeff Monson and
Kazuyuki Fujita. If you recognize those names, I hope you appreciate
my point. If you don’t recognize those names, well, I hope
you appreciate my point.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
UFC
EVENT IN CALGARY NOT FINALIZED, BUT DANA WHITE CONFIDENT IT'LL
HAPPEN
By Mike
Chiappetta - Senior Writer
Mar
6, 2012 - NEW YORK -- A rumored summertime UFC event in Calgary
is still under consideration and yet to be finalized, but UFC
president Dana White on Tuesday told MMA Fighting that he's confident
a deal will get done.
"It's
not done but it's going to happen," White said on Tuesday
after a press conference to announce another event, the UFC on
FOX 3 show in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Other
sources told MMA Fighting that several details still need to
be worked out before the date can be officially added to the
UFC's calendar. The projected date and site for the event, which
would be UFC 149, is July 21 at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the
home arena of the NHL's Calgary Flames.
The
possibility of the event was first reported by Canada's Sportsnet.
Just yesterday, however, Sportsnet reported that the Canadian
Medical Association is mounting opposition to a possible event
in the Calgary, even though other events have previously been
sanctioned in the city's home province of Alberta.
Canada has been a major market for the UFC over the last few
years, with the promotion's largest-ever gate, $11 million, coming
from a Rogers Centre event in Toronto. Other successful events
have been held in Montreal and Vancouver, but a planned March
show in Montreal was scrapped after the UFC couldn't secure a
worthy main event, and Vancouver seems to have fallen off the
UFC's radar after regulatory changes, insurance concerns and
other issues.
That's
left Edmonton and Calgary as the two Canadian cities most likely
to get a UFC event, and for now it seems that the latter is more
likely to get one first.
The
Scotiabank Saddledome's seating capacity is 19,289 for hockey,
with other configurations including floor seats possibly boosting
that total higher.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Mike
Fagan: The fifth anniversary of PRIDE 33
By Zach
Arnold
Mike
Fagan hosts the Untethered MMA Podcast every Thursday at FightFansRadio.com.
He also occasionally writes for Vice.com. You can follow him
on Twitter at @ItsMikeFagan.
On
Saturday, the UFC returns to Japan for the first time since 200,
and this will mark the organization’s first show in Japan
since parent-company Zuffa bought the floundering company from
Semaphore Entertainment Group. For newer fans, this may look
like another step in the UFC’s efforts to expand into international
markets.
(Over
the last 5 years the UFC has put on shows in England, Ireland,
Germany, Australia, and Brazil. You can add Sweden to that list
in April.)
There’s
a larger significance for long-time fans of the sport. While
the UFC currently has a stranglehold on major-league MMA, it
was only five years ago when that title was in dispute.
Between
1997 and 2007, PRIDE ruled the MMA world from Tokyo. The company
stockpiled the best fighting talent that money could buy, and
complemented that talent with over-the-top, pro-wrestling-style
theatrics. At the turn of the millennium, the UFC was struggling
to stay afloat, putting on shows in Indian casinos and trying
to fight a cultural stigma spurred by John McCain. Meanwhile,
PRIDE was packing 40,000+ into the Saitama Super Arena to watch
Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko “Cro Cop” and Wanderlei
Silva and all the other legendary names that long-time fans look
back on with sepia-colored glasses.
PRIDE
began to crumble in 2006. Japanese fight magazine Shukan Gendai
uncovered published stories implicating PRIDE as a front for
the yakuza, Japan’s answer to the mafia. By the spring of
2007, the company completely collapsed. The UFC bought the assets
(what essentially amounted to the PRIDE brand name and tape library),
and, after a brief attempt to run the company separately (think
Strikeforce present day), stuck Gorilla Monsoon’s proverbial
fork in the carcass.
The
UFC’s return to Japan falls on an interesting date. You
see, PRIDE held their final show, PRIDE 33*, five years ago today.
(Event pictures here.)
The
card, on paper, seemed to be plagued by schizophrenic matchmaking.
Brazilian wunderkind Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would fight
current heavyweight monster Alistair Overeem despite having beat
him clean less than two years ago in the semifinal of PRIDE’s
middleweight (205 lb.) tournament. Lightweight champ Takanori
Gomi squared off with UFC welterweight castoff Nick Diaz, in
a non-title affair. And Wanderlei Silva, the only middleweight
champ PRIDE had known, would battle Dan Henderson for his title.
Silva had won a decision over Henderson back at PRIDE 12, but
the rematch was an interesting choice as Henderson was the reigning
welterweight (183 lb.) champ and Kazuo Misaki, then-number one
contender and a man Henderson had split two fights with in 2006,
fought another questionable fight against Frank Trigg on the
undercard.
And
yet, it is hard to find a serious fight fan who doesn’t
rank PRIDE 33 among their top five shows of all time.
Joachim
“Hellboy” Hansen and Jason Ireland opened the show
with an entertaining lightweight scrap. Trigg, whose career had
mostly been written off following multiple rear-naked choke losses
to Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre in the UFC, followed with
an upset decision victory over Misaki. James Lee surprised Travis
Wiuff with a wild haymaker early before finishing with a guillotine
choke 39 seconds into the bout.
Rameau
Thierry Sokoudjou then stepped into the ring against Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira, the twin brother of former PRIDE heavyweight
champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Sokoudjou had all of three professional
bouts, and was listed as a 10-1 underdog (or worse) by the bookmakers.
As the bell rang, Josh Barnett, on color commentary, commented
that Nogueira had just been named as Brazil’s Olympic representative
for boxing. Twenty seconds and a winging left hook later, “Lil’
Nog” found himself staring at the rafters. As far as I know,
this is still the biggest betting upset in MMA history, though
Matt Serra challenged the shock factor when he TKO’d Georges
St. Pierre just six weeks later.
In
the wake of the upset, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and Sergei
Kharitonov made easy work of overmatched opponents Mac Danzig
and Mike Russow, respectively.
Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua’s knockout of Alistair Overeem is
packed with poetry. It would be Overeem’s last fight at
205 lb. before moving up to heavyweight full time, and it perfectly
encapsulated his career to that point. In the opening minutes
of the bout, Overeem proved he had the size, skill, and athleticism
to hang with the man most considered as the number one fighter
in the weight class. But his cardio failed him — Overeem
is always quick to point out the massive cut he needed to undertake
to make weight — and a diving right hand put his lights
out before the bout had reached four minutes. Overeem has only
lost a single bout since, and is scheduled to fight Junior dos
Santos for the UFC heavyweight title sometime in the late spring.
“Shogun’s”
career has been much more rocky. He wound up in the UFC, dropping
his debut to Forrest Griffin. Multiple knee surgeries kept him
out of action for 15 months. He returned to TKO an aging Mark
Coleman in the most unimpressive of fashions. He earned a title
shot after helping stamp out Chuck Liddell’s career. After
a controversial decision loss, “Shogun” knocked out
Lyoto Machida in an immediate rematch to win the light heavyweight
crown. He dropped the title in his first defense to Jon Jones,
the new 23-year-old wunderkind who would go on to complete the
greatest individual year in mixed martial arts history. Rua would
go on to avenge his loss to Forrest Griffin before putting on
the Fight of 2011 against Dan Henderson in November.
It
was the co-main event at PRIDE 33 between Takanori Gomi and Nick
Diaz that took home Fight of the Year honors in 2007, and elevated
a very good card to an all-time great. Gomi had amassed a 13-1
record over the past 3 years and was the reigning PRIDE lightweight
champ (though this was, for whatever reason, a non-title affair).
He was paired with Diaz, a 23-year-old kid with 20 fights under
his belt, including a 6-4 record in the UFC. Most infamous for
a post-fight hospital brawl with Joe Riggs, PRIDE saw Diaz as
a way to promote their organization’s superiority to the
UFC.
And
for the first few minutes of the bout, that objective looked
like it would come to fruition. Gomi secured a takedown and pounded
Diaz from top position before the referee stood the fighters
up. At the two-minute mark, Gomi landed a dynamite right that
put Diaz back on the mat. Diaz managed enough defense to survive
Gomi’s follow up onslaught. By the end of the round, Gomi
struggled to keep his hands in front of his face, allowing Diaz
to pepper him with jabs and straight rights as the bell rang.
Gomi
returned with some life in the second, continuing to land wild
power shots to Diaz’s face. That face had become a smorgasbord
of abrasion and bruises and sweat and swelling. A cut under the
right eye forced the referee to ask for advice from the ringside
doctor, who allowed the bout to continue. Gomi, fueled by some
mix of compassion and exhaustion, visibly pleaded with the referee
to put a halt to the contest after the restart. His wish was
denied, prodding Gomi to shoot for a takedown. As the two fell
toward the mat, Diaz brought his right leg over Gomi’s left
shoulder and under his chin. With his ankle secured around the
neck, he trapped Gomi in with his left leg and pulled down on
the head, forcing Gomi to tap.
It’s
largely regarded as one of the top ten fights of all time, and
is often used as a primer for newer fans to the sport. Unfortunately,
Diaz’s win is not recognized by the Nevada State Athletic
Commission. Diaz tested positive for marijuana, and the athletic
commission, taking the position that marijuana is a “performance-enhancing
drug,” declared the bout a no contest.
If
Gomi and Diaz represent the climax of our story, then Wanderlei
Silva and Dan Henderson provide a satisfying resolution. The
fight was even through two rounds. Midway through the third,
Henderson lands a spinning backfist that briefly wobbles the
champ. Moments later, Silva is knocked unconscious by a perfectly
placed left hook. It was an historic moment: Henderson became
the first, and thus far only, man to hold major titles in two
weight classes simultaneously.
The
results may have been exciting, but they provided the final nails
to PRIDE’s coffin. Gomi and Misaki took huge shots to their
profiles in Japan. Henderson’s knockout gave Silva, one
of the biggest draws in the company, his third loss in five fights
and second knockout loss in a row. The man who delivered the
first, Mirko Filipovic, had already migrated to the UFC. So had
Silva’s foil Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. A month
later, the UFC would announce their purchase.
*My
apologies for the David Foster Wallace, but I know this will
cause a mild ruckus. PRIDE 33 was the organization’s penultimate
show. It was also held in the United States. When the organization’s
demise became a full-blown reality, PRIDE officials scrambled
to put on one final show (aptly titled “Kamikaze”)
to be held in Japan. That show was headlined by Jeff Monson and
Kazuyuki Fujita. If you recognize those names, I hope you appreciate
my point. If you don’t recognize those names, well, I hope
you appreciate my point.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
To
Kyra Gracie, what in Jiu-Jitsu is worth more than medals?
Kyra
Gracie, 26, took up another mission as a Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
To repay Jiu-Jitsu for all it has done for her, the Gracie wants
to be a role model for children living in regions with a dearth
of nearly everything. “Being here and feeling the children’s
energy, seeing them become better people—that is worth more
than all my medals combined,” reflects Kyra in the following
video.
JIU-JITSU
AS A LEVER FOR SOCIAL GOOD
The clip is a trailer for a new movie directed by Stuart Cooper,
“The Main Tournament of my Life”. Watch it to find
out a bit more about the affection Kyra has for her Instituto
Kapacidade outreach project and how Jiu-Jitsu serves as a powerful
tool of social benefit.
Please visit Gracie Magazine to see
the clip:
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Bustamante
compliments Belcher, confident in another win for Palhares in
the UFC
By Guilherme
Cruz
One
of the great UFC icons, Murilo Bustamante spoke to TATAME about
his protégé Rousimar Palhares’ next fight
on May 5th, against Alan Belcher.
“We’re
having his camp started now and everything seems to be great.
He’s doing just fine, motivated and glad about the match-up.
Alan Belcher has great level”, said, completing: “I
guess Alan Belcher is a perfect match because he moves forward,
he wants to fight and that’s amazing. The more he comes,
the best it is for us”, guaranteed Murilo, when asked about
the American’s style against Rousimar’s.
Bustamante
vs. Menne at Amazon FC
Impossible to dodge from the subject, Murilo also commented on
his next fight, in Manaus, at Amazon FC, on May 31st against
Dave Menne. Feeling as young as a little boy, the fighter seemed
to be very motivated and prepared for the fight. “We’re
doing a great training camp, I’m already in shape. My gas
is good too and I’m doing sparring trainings at Nobre Arte
with Claudio (Coelho)”.
Source:
Tatame
|
UFC
Japan: A wonderful show & a pyrrhic victory?
By Zach
Arnold
One
of the best events in the history of the organization? Might
be prisoner of the moment talk, but the afterglow from UFC Japan
2012 is pretty damn strong.
The
post-show headlines in Japanese media outlets (ranked by emphasis):
Takanori
Gomi’s big win.
Kid Yamamoto’s devastating loss & career crisis.
Yoshihiro Akiyama loses to Jake Shields. Will he stay in UFC?
Rampage struggles.
(Here are the official Monday morning headlines from the Japanese
media outlets on the aftermath of UFC Japan 2012.)
It
should be noted that Japanese media coverage of the event was
exclusively sports media & not entertainment media. This
is different trend/protocol from what kinds of media attended
PRIDE & K-1 events. There were some rather notable Japanese
sports media outlets that were, in fact, silent or barely acknowledged
the show. Politics…
The
card UFC booked for this event was solid on paper for a traditional
UFC show. I believed that. I also believed that the UFC should
have tailored the card more for traditional Japanese tastes.
The ending result for UFC Japan 2012 is that the card the promotion
booked outperformed all of our expectations, both in terms of
fight quality and at the live gate. Ben Henderson vs. Frankie
Edgar was everything… and then some. Five rounds of pure
guts & glory.
You
can debate the merits about how the live gate was accomplished
(how many paid vs. papered, who bought what tickets, so on and
so forth). What you can’t argue is that this was a crowd
that wanted to be at the show and watch it at a very early time
of the morning. The fans at Saitama Super Arena were smart, polite,
and well-timed in expression their reaction to the right spots.
In classic fashion, some fans right on camera started chanting
“USA! USA!” It was as perfect symbolism as you could
get in capturing the spirit of the fight fans that I have loved
for so long in Japan.
The
configuration used by UFC at Saitama Super Arena was called ‘main
arena – center stage.’ Capacity around 22,000. DREAM
often uses this configuration but their audiences are smaller
than UFC.
Reality
vs. symbolism
UFC’s
show at Saitama Super Arena all but neutered the image of DREAM
in Japan. Not only did they draw a more vibrant audience, they
did it right on the home turf. DREAM is a shell of PRIDE but
I can’t imagine right now that they are very happy with
the way things played out here. On a symbolic front, UFC raised
their flag and no one took it off the flag pole.
UFC
Japan proved that you could produce a show with great quality
but also results that can be damaging long-term for advancement
in the country. This was a fight card that featured a little
bit of everything. Between the FX broadcast and the US PPV telecast,
you had six hours to digest 11-12 fights. Nothing could be better.
However,
to say that there wasn’t damage done would be an understatement.
This is where business comes into play.
The
losses by Kid Yamamoto, Yushin Okami, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and
Rampage Jackson all represented different kinds of symbolism.
The cumulative effect is that today’s UFC Japan show felt
more like the last gasp of PRIDE & K-1’s spirit more
than anything else.
There
was Kid Yamamoto, a man who drew 30 million viewers on network
television after fighting Masato on NYE on broadcast TV, fighting
early on the card and getting a nice but not entirely robust
reaction from the fans. Watching him lose to Vaughan Lee in the
fashion that he did was gutting. Yamamoto later told the press
that he got too cute and made a mistake by laying on top of Lee
when he should have stayed standing up. Nonetheless, the loss
was brutal to watch and the fans were stunned. It was pure agony.
Yamamoto was a symbol of one of the big draws Japan produced
many years ago. Now, his career is effectively crippled.
Yushin
Okami, the closest Japanese title contender in the UFC, lost
to Tim Boetsch in shell-shocking fashion. After two rounds of
domination, Boetsch put it all together in the early part of
round three and finished Okami. This loss really hurt because
Okami had been wanting to show himself in a big way on his home
soil. Instead, the man who won in other countries lost on his
own turf. In a real-sport sense, Okami was the most important
Japanese fighter on the card. He was never popular in Japan and
mostly an unknown, which makes this loss even more excruciating.
Yoshihiro
Akiyama, who was the biggest Japanese name on the UFC Japan card,
was never fully embraced by the fans. At the weigh-ins, he got
a mixed response. At Saitama Super Arena, he was cheered but
the reaction was not uproarious (only in spots). He fought Jake
Shields and lost by decision, something that you would expect
to happen. Akiyama was by far the most important name UFC had
on the roster in order to try to secure a broadcast television
deal. He came into his fight against Shields on a losing streak
and didn’t manage to stop it from continuing. After the
show, Dana White talked about Akiyama needing to sit down with
management as to whether or not his Zuffa tenure should continue.
Rampage
Jackson, who missed weight by six pounds for his fight against
Ryan Bader, claimed that he injured his knee and was told that
he probably shouldn’t have fought on the UFC Japan card.
That doesn’t change the fact that Rampage begged to fight
on the Japan show instead of the UFC Chicago broadcast on Fox.
Rampage’s gas tank was on empty by the time the fight with
Bader was over. He looked terrible in front of the fans that
he wanted to fight in front of the most. It was a depressing
outcome.
The
score card
The
audience at UFC Japan was definitely sympathetic to the ghost
of PRIDE past, but they did treat the event like a sporting event
more than an entertainment spectacle like the NYE MMA events.
Hatsu
Hioki, when disciplined, housed Bart Palaszewski. He admitted
after the fight that he needs more experience against higher-level
competition before he gets a title shot with Jose Aldo. Dana
White agrees with him. Hioki is now the rising Japanese star
under the Zuffa banner. The question is whether or not he will
become a big star in Japan if he gains success from fights that
take place on foreign soil. Without a strong broadcast television
deal, it’s difficult for the fans to see his future fights
unless they have WOWOW.
Takanori
Gomi had a near-career-death experience with Eiji Mitsuoka and
yet managed to get the win. The screeching from female fans during
Gomi’s difficult spots in the fight was a little disconcerting.
He got exactly the pop you would expect after the win. However,
he’s not winning a title in the UFC no matter how much lip
service is performed.
The
overall mentality of the fans coming out of the UFC Japan event
is of two mindsets.
First,
the Japanese fans love the fact that UFC came to them with a
show. Japanese fight fans are very loyal & passionate &
smart. However, they expect the best talent in the world to come
to them. They aren’t going to go out and search for it outside
of Japan. If you are the best in the world, you go to Japan and
prove it. Call it selfish if you want, but this mentality has
existed for decades in the country. This is why so many fighters
love going to Japan and respect the country so much. Demanding,
but excellent fans.
Second,
there’s reality that will set in soon. The UFC is the major
leagues of MMA and Japan doesn’t even have an equivalent
or rival to the UFC. At this point, DREAM isn’t even in
the ball game. The best sports comparison I can make is Major
League Baseball to Japanese professional baseball. MLB is king,
but Japan still produces great talent like Yu Darvish that MLB
covets. MLB has games in Japan but it doesn’t mean that
it has any effect on whether or not Japanese baseball is hot
or if it tanks. That’s the predicament right now for the
MMA landscape in Japan.
This
was a great show for the UFC. They should be proud for what they
accomplished. However, what’s good for UFC isn’t going
to trickle down to the Japanese MMA scene. I got called out on
this on Saturday night.
“JMMA
isn’t getting any worse.”
“Unable
to evolve and accept something new?”
UFC
is not Japanese MMA. That’s the point. The UFC is the UFC.
It’s like the Miami Heat going to Spokane, Washington to
play in front of fans of Gonzaga’s college basketball team.
Apples to oranges.
If
there is one aspect to UFC’s success that you hope trickles
down into the Japanese scene, it’s that we get fresh blood
on the management side. The scene needs new players who can put
capital into a promotion and start running shows again on an
active & big scale. The problem is that the only players
around now are still the same cockroaches who scorched the territory
in the first place. They’re not leaving, either, by the
way. If you’ve got a lot of money and want to get into MMA,
why on earth do you want to get into a business with so many
black money sleazebags who will immediately try to destroy you
and threaten your family? If you’re rich and want fun, there’s
a million other things you can do with your life.
The
best scenario right now for the Japanese MMA scene is on a smaller
level with Shooto, Pancrase, DEEP, and other promotions creating
young talent that can go overseas to compete. However, this doesn’t
address the huge power vacuum for MMA on a national scale in
the country. As long as the police are telling TV executives
to stay away from anyone in the fight business that’s connected
to the gangs, it’s very difficult to see progress any time
soon.
This
isn’t about the Japanese fans ‘evolving’ and accepting
UFC as their own product. I’m sure there will be new UFC
fans in Japan who watch the product and like it but will want
their own major league of MMA. Who can blame them? Nothing the
UFC does in Japan can address this problem because UFC isn’t
a Japanese promotion. They’re not going to run shows like
PRIDE did every other month in the country.
The
irony here for UFC is that they really need a strong national
player to pop up in Japan to help create new stars that have
mass market appeal in Japan. Now that the legends are fading
away, new names need to be developed. The problem is that as
long as DREAM or other promoters continue to flail around, guys
like Hatsu Hioki won’t become household names in Japan.
UFC needs a Japanese promotion to build up Japanese stars. Without
this development in the coming years, UFC will come back to Japan
with mostly gaijin vs. gaijin fights and the shelf life for that
will result in smaller & smaller returns on investment.
The
challenges ahead for UFC
Sponsorship
and television.
First,
sponsorship. Other than a couple of random signs on the cage,
there was not a Japanese sponsorship presence at the UFC event.
Consider that Dentsu & Softbank are working with UFC and
this becomes an even more concerning item of interest. They are
big boys who can normally bring sponsors to the table but couldn’t
this time around. It’s very difficult to attract sponsors
without a major broadcast television deal, but even DREAM is
able to recruit lower-level sponsors like HEIWA. When PRIDE lost
their Fuji TV deal, their sponsorship money ran dry fast. When
K-1 struggled towards the end, they had bizarre sponsorship deals
for Fashion TV. In other words, the blue chip sponsorship demand
in Japan has vanished. It will take a lot of hard work in order
to convince companies to sponsor anything fight-related in the
country because of a) the yakuza/police wars and b) the mindset
that it’s not a good return on investment to sponsor a fight
promoter now.
On
the broadcast television front, UFC did some good things but
they also suffered some very bad luck. The show looked great.
The fans were A+ all the way. The fight quality was rock solid.
However, UFC is still not a Japanese company. They are a gaijin-heavy
operation. Their aces are gaijins. Even with Kid Yamamoto &
Takanori Gomi on the card, Dentsu couldn’t help UFC muster
any sort of great TV deal. UFC Japan is on TV Tokyo from 3:15
to 4:45 AM JST w/ the sponsors being Don Quijote & UFC Undisputed
3. Ouch.
UFC
needed the Japanese fighters to show up strong in order to have
a remote chance of making it onto television with a solid deal.
It didn’t happen. UFC needed to be able to show that they
could attract blue-chip Japanese sponsors in order to convince
TV suits that they might be palatable to make a deal with. That
didn’t happen, either. Dentsu & Softbank are great muscle
to have in your corner, so if they can’t come through for
you then it’s hard to see what the path is for UFC to make
it onto broadcast television in Japan in a substantive manner.
Remember,
UFC was able to get onto broadcast television in Mexico and Brazil.
Brazil is a great market for them because so many people watch
the fights. In Japan, the door is closed and even a great showing
at UFC Japan didn’t likely open the door very much. A lot
of the reasons as to why they can’t advance business-wise
in the country are not their fault & we shouldn’t blame
them. Many of the problems created are due to the culture of
corruption that has rotted the core of acceptability for MMA
with respectable television & business leaders in the country.
Bottom
line
Great
show. Great fans. Good for UFC’s business. No impact on
improving the dilapidated & corrupt MMA business on a large
scale in the country. Many challenges ahead for UFC in the years
to come to make the inroads to be a consistently major player
in the country… but they accomplished a lot more with the
Saitama Super Arena show than could have been expected.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Dana
White: Benson Henderson-Frankie Edgar Rematch in Works for Summer
By Mike
Whitman
Frankie
Edgar’s wish has apparently been granted.
The
former UFC lightweight champion tweeted Tuesday that he will
receive a rematch with newly christened titlist Benson Henderson,
and UFC President Dana White confirmed the news shortly thereafter.
“Frankie
Edgar and Ben Henderson rematch will be this summer,”White
wrote on his official Twitter account.
Henderson
defeated Edgar to capture the lightweight title at UFC 144 on
Feb. 26, earning a contentious unanimous decision over the New
Jersey native in a hard-fought, five-round main event. Neither
a date nor a location has been set for the rematch.
Until
this afternoon, it was unknown who would serve as Henderson’s
first challenger in the ultra-competitive UFC lightweight division.
Henderson’s former World Extreme Cagefighting foil, Anthony
Pettis, had his name thrown around, as did Nate Diaz andJim Miller,
who will square off in the UFC on Fox 3 main event on May 5.
However, it now appears that Edgar sits firmly in the driver’s
seat.
Known
for his exceptional heart and toughness as well as his sharp
boxing and wrestling skills, Edgar has won six of his last eight
fights. The former champion originally won the title via unanimous
decision over B.J. Penn in 2010 and bested “The Prodigy”
a second time four months later to cement his claim to the belt.
Edgar then drew with Gray Maynard in Sherdog.com’s 2011
“Fight of the Year” at UFC 125 before knocking out
Maynard at UFC 136 the following October.
A
former WEC lightweight champion, Henderson, 28, has lost just
once since 2007, relinquishing his championship to Pettis at
the WEC’s final show in December 2010. Since joining the
UFC ranks,“Smooth” has won four consecutive bouts,
outpointing Mark Bocek, Miller and Clay Guidabefore taking Edgar’s
title last month in the UFC’s return to Japan.
Source
Sherdog
|
A
miserable Winter for non-UFC Japanese MMA power brokers
By Zach
Arnold
It’s
been a miserable two weeks, and frankly full Winter, for the
(formerly) major power brokers in the Japanese MMA scene.
First,
Spike TV aired edited portions of an interview with former Fedor
Emelianenko & Mirko Cro Cop agent Miro Mijatovic about the
yakuza scandal that destroyed PRIDE.
(Read
our primer below for a full summary of the key players in the
story.)
The
segment was watched by over 500,000 viewers on Spike TV and shocked
people in certain Japanese circles. You won’t hear about
that much at all, though, because no one is publicly willing
to talking about it. A source described the still-taboo topic
as ‘too hot to handle’ — even five years after
the death of PRIDE. Dan Herbertson, who conducted the video interview
with Miro, posted the following on Twitter:
I
e-mailed the producers at Spike to get the Miro & PRIDE segments
fixed and hopefully get the [GeoBlock] removed. I know that quite
a few members of the media in Japan have seen the MMA Uncensored
segment now but no one will comment. Spike [is] aware of the
issue with the Miro & PRIDE videos and are already working
to restore them. Yakuza hackers maybe?
Spike
TV’s MMA Uncensored program site posted three separate clips
of their extended interview with Miro. There is still general
disbelief about the claims made during the interview despite
the fact that none of the accused parties ever filed defamation
lawsuits or criminal complaints in Japan against the accusers.
Second,
take a look at this DMCA complaint that was filed, resulting
in this boilerplate notice. Take one look at who sent out the
claim.
I
will eventually view all of the audio/video of the extended interview
and will make every effort possible to transcribe what was said.
I’m not about to exit quietly on this front.
Speaking
of exiting quietly, have you heard anything about DREAM these
days? Since the New Year’s Eve event at Saitama Super Arena
headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii, it has been
practically silent on the DREAM front outside of some web site
updates & the DREAM Twitter account greeting the UFC Japan
Twitter account. With Shinya Aoki booked in Bellator & both
Tatsuya Kawajiri and Lenne Hardt booked for One FC, the Real
Entertainment roster of fighters now resembles more of a booking
agency than a singular promotional entity. It’s safe to
say that DREAM is currently in hibernation. PR/front man Sasahara
says that DREAM will release an event schedule in the next week
or two, but that doesn’t change the long-term facts on the
ground. What cards do they have in the hole to do anything substantive?
I
can’t wait for people online to start up the “Fedor
is a promotional killer” talk.
This
was not what I think the natives had in mind in 2012 when UFC
Japan arrived at Saitama Super Arena and basically splattered
the remains of the old players who want to make a come back into
the scene.
I
can personally assure you that the old cast of characters that
got pushed to the sideline for various reasons all want back
in the Japanese fight game. The problem is that they either are
blocked off from getting back on broadcast television or they
have made such powerful enemies that they are (temporarily) on
the run. I couldn’t write a better ending to this script
if I had made one up.
As
for any reported attempts to sabotage Spike for the interview
with Miro — quite revealing that old wounds never really
heal.
Game
on.
(I
talked about the Spike TV/PRIDE segment during my 40-minute radio
interview with Jack Encarnacao on Sherdog Rewind last Sunday
night. During the interview, I revealed a decade-old secret that
few people knew about in regards to the NYE 2003 MMA wars in
Japan.)
Open
discussion: MMA Uncensored Live (Spike) on PRIDE scandal
By Zach
Arnold
TV:
Spike (11 PM EST/PST), MMA Uncensored Live web site
The
show is hosted by Mike Straka (@mikestraka). Reportedly, a big
topic on the debut show will be the implosion of PRIDE, given
that it’s been almost five years since UFC did the asset
sale agreement with Sakakibara.
I’m
told that the show will cover the scandal in-depth on a heavy
level, which would mean the first time a major US media outlet
is discussing the ultimate taboo of the Japanese fight industry
(the yakuza).
I
haven’t seen the show, so I can’t comment on how the
story is portrayed until I watch the show. However, if you’re
a new visitor and want some reading material to review the background
on the implosion of PRIDE, here are some key words to search:
The
yakuza: Organized crime syndicates in Japan. Recently, politicians
& police have ramped up the war against the black suits and
the suits in turn are threatening to turn Japan “into Mexico.”
Major players: Yamaguchi-gumi (largest umbrella group w/ heavy
roots in Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, moving towards Kanto area), kudo-kai
(sub-group known to have relations with fight industry in the
past), kokusui-kai (smaller Kanto-based group), Inagawa-kai (Kanto-based
top rival to Yamaguchi, they’ve been dealing with a turf
war with Yamaguchi). Rikidozan, the Godfather of Japanese pro-wrestling
after the Reconstruction period post-World War II in Japan, was
heavily involved in the Underworld.
Shukan Gendai: This is the weekly magazine that published a series
of negative articles about PRIDE in 2006 that caused the public
firestorm in regards to creating the yakuza scandal.
Tadashi Tanaka: Scandal writer who took a lot of heat for his
articles but ultimately won the battle.
Seiya Kawamata: Kawamata was the major focus of the Gendai articles.
He’s an admitted yakuza fixer on behalf of K-1 boss Kazuyoshi
Ishii. K-1 & PRIDE initially worked together with Antonio
Inoki but ended up being blood rivals. Kawamata is a big talker
and still is around, but under the radar. Kawamata was the man
who managed Inoki’s 2003 New Year’s Eve MMA show at
Kobe Wing Stadium. It flopped horribly on Nippon TV.
Kunio Kiyohara: Kiyohara was the producer at Fuji TV who was
heavily involved in the matchmaking & production of PRIDE.
PRIDE was his baby. Kiyohara’s father had pull with Sankei
Shimbun. When the police started investigating & interrogating
Fuji TV employees, Kiyohara was a focus during the PRIDE scandal.
Miro Mijatovic: Was one of the big three agents during the PRIDE
days. He managed Fedor & Mirko Cro Cop in Japan. He managed
Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe’s deals. A heavy hitter in
the hotel business & investing world. He would soon get sabotaged
after Fedor worked Inoki’s 2003 NYE event instead of the
PRIDE show on Fuji TV. It was Mijatovic who went after troublemakers
when violence allegedly started breaking out. After Kawamata
filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Nippon TV over the
NYE deal, Miro successfully got a court lien on any winnings
Kawamata got in court against NTV. Miro was deemed to be of good
character by Tokyo District Court. It’s rare enough to see
any court battles in the fight industry rampant with corruption
& yakuza… and even rarer that a foreigner took the fight
to big players. After the Inoki NYE show, he would end up losing
both Fedor & Mirko due to various power plays.
Toshiro Igari: Famous anti-yakuza lawyer who worked with Miro
to go after the bad guys. In fact, Miro’s case was featured
in one of Igari’s publications. Igari took on many big fish
but may have taken on too big of a one when Sumo was imploding
due to various scandals. Igari was a TV personality and vocally
stood up against corruption. Before his last book would be published
by Kodansha (the same publishing house that produces Shukan Gendai),
he was found dead in the Philippines. Few people believe it was
suicide, as the yakuza has a way of blurring the lines in regards
to making murders look like suicides. Igari got the last laugh
from the grave when his biggest book to date was published after
his death. This article at The Economist succinctly characterizes
Mr. Igari’s end.
Ken Imai: Ken Imai was Kazuyoshi Ishii’s former right-hand
man who left K-1 when all hell broke loose due to a corporate
tax evasion scandal. Imai ended up being Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s
point man. He pulled Mirko Cro Cop away from Miro and got him
into PRIDE. Mirko was supposed to fight on the Inoki NYE show
but ended up pulling out due to what he claimed was a back injury.
Mirko left Miro and went with Imai just days after the Inoki
NYE event. Imai was heavily involved in the business side of
K-1 & foreign shows.
Nobuyuki Sakakibara: The front man for PRIDE. Huge ego. Big talker.
Plenty to say. Background was from the Nagoya Fuji TV affiliate,
Tokai TV.
Sotaro Shinoda: Sakakibara’s right-hand man. He, along with
Kato (the boss of DREAM) worked with Sakakibara & Kiyohara
to put together the PRIDE coalition.
Mr. Ishizaka aka Kim Dok Soo: He was referred to in Shukan Gendai
as the infamous “Mr. I,” the alleged shadow owner of
PRIDE who is zainichi (of Korean blood). Kanagawa police put
out an arrest warrant and he supposedly fled to South Korea but
doesn’t know much Korean language. Think of him as a Godfather
type.
Naoto Morishita: The original front man for PRIDE. He was found
dead, hanging by shower curtain in a hotel room. Sakakibara took
over after his death.
Hiromichi Momose: The original Godfather of PRIDE, the man in
the ball cap & dark glasses w/ body guards. He was Nobuhiko
Takada’s backer when UWF-International collapsed due to
money troubles & image damage after an interpromotional series
in 1995-1996 with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Momose, though an
entity called KRS, backed the first PRIDE events with Takada
vs. Rickson Gracie. Eventually, the company backing PRIDE would
be Dream Stage Entertainment. Momose was a classmate in his younger
days with Tatsuo Kawamura, the veteran entertainment power broker
who has been the power source for Antonio Inoki for many years.
Momose is now dead.
Ed Fishman: Friend of Dick Clark, the man from Malibu who made
a name for himself in Las Vegas & Atlantic City through gaming.
He was supposedly approached by Sakakibara, after PRIDE lost
its Fuji TV deal, for a loan. Ed wanted to buy PRIDE. He promoted
two PRIDE events at the Thomas & Mack Center in Vegas. During
this time frame, UFC was negotiating with Sakakibara and got
the PRIDE assets despite the two PRIDE Vegas events doing decent
business.
Jamie Pollack: UFC point man who moved to Japan after the PRIDE
asset sale deal to try to run PRIDE under Zuffa leadership. He
encountered nothing but hostility and found himself back in the
States in short order. His name is historically important because
Zuffa eventually closed down the PRIDE offices with signs telling
employees to clean out their desks immediately. This unfairly/fairly
played right into the Japanese media stereotype that UFC was
never serious about running PRIDE and that the evil gaijin had
killed the home promotion.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Jacare
Sits Atop Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey Fighter Salaries
The
Ohio Athletic Commission on Monday released the Strikeforce:
Tate vs. Rousey fighter salaries to MMAWeekly.com.
The
main event at Saturday’s event at Nationwide Arena in Columbus,
Ohio, Ronda Rousey staking her claim to the Strikeforce women’s
bantamweight championship, by arm barring former champion Miesha
Tate.
The
following figures are based on the fighter salary information
that promoters are required by law to submit to the state athletic
commissions, including the winners’ bonuses.
Although
mixed martial arts fighters do not have collective bargaining
or a union, the fighters’ salaries are still public record,
just as with every other major sport in the United States. Any
undisclosed bonuses that a promoter also pays its fighters, but
does not disclose to the athletic commissions (specifically,
pay-per-view bonuses, fight of the night bonuses, etc.), are
not included in the figures below.
Strikeforce:
Tate vs. Rousey Fighter Salaries
Ronda
Rousey: $32,000 (includes $17,000 win bonus)
def. Miesha Tate: $19,000
Josh
Thomson: $80,000 (flat rate; no win bonus)
def. K.J. Noons: $38,000
Kazuo
Misaki: $50,000 (flat rate; no win bonus)
def. Paul Daley: $45,000
Lumumba
Sayers: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
Scott Smith: $65,000
Ronaldo
“Jacare” Souza: $92,000 (includes $22,000 win bonus)
def. Bristol Marunde: $10,000
Sarah
Kaufman: $25,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus)
def. Alexis Davis: $4,000
Roger
Bowling: $16,000 (includes $8,000 win bonus)
def. Brandon Saling: $5,000
Pat
Healy: $22,500 (includes $5,000 win bonus)
def. Carlos Fodor: $12,000
Ryan
Couture: $10,000 (flat rate; no win bonus)
def. Conor Heun: $8,000
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
O2
Goes 4-0 at Vendetta 3
The boys fought hard and fought well, representing their instructors
and their team in fine fashion showing heart, determination and
honor. We are very proud of you and thank you to the team for
preparing the warriors for battle!
Kickboxing
Bryer Nagahama def. Thomas Reyes (Reyes Dojo) via decision
Triple Threat
Verdis Womack def. Mike Pu'u (Edwards MMA) via submission via
triangle in Round 3.
Kickboxing
Eugene Anguay def. Anthony Reyes (Reyes Dojo) via decision
Kickboxing
Kalai Kwan def. Jonavan Pitre (Total Control) via decision
|
Lisa
Ha Battles to Go to China!
link
#3
Ranked Lisa Ha from our Kawano Boxing Club got a really tough
one
tomorrow.
Winner goes to China for the AIBA World Championships,
which
has 196 Countries. Also an Olympic Qualifier, but not in that
weight
class. Check Link above or go to www.Usaboxing.org
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.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Strikeforce
‘Tate vs. Rousey’ Results & Play-by-Play
Nationwide
Arena in Columbus, Ohio
March 3, 2012
Ryan
Couture vs. Conor Heun
Round 1
Couture bounces and flicks out a few leg kicks while Heun stalks
forward slowly. Heun clinches up along the fence but Couture
reverses and drives knees into Heun’s thigh and body. They
break off, Heun landing an elbow as they split, and now Couture
looks for punching combinations. Couture’s punches and leg
kicks are scoring while Heun misses with a pair of head kicks.
After a hard straight right from Couture, Heun drives forward
and lands a takedown. Couture gets an omoplata, but Heun lifts
him up and drops him to break up the hold. Another takedown for
Heun lands “The Hurricane”in half-guard. Couture wraps
him up and Heun looks for a choke as Couture turns to his side.
Couture shrimps and escapes to his feet with 30 seconds to go.
A right hand lands for Couture; Heun catches a kick but doesn’t
do anything with it. Couture puts a turning kick in Heun’s
gut and Heun returns to his corner with a bloodied face.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Couture
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Couture
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Couture
Round
2
Couture puts a couple short rights on Heun, who replies with
a turning kick. Heun hits a slow-motion single-leg and Couture
scrambles back up to be grazed by a head kick. Ducking an uppercut,
Heun floors Couture again. Couture turns to work for a kimura
on Heun’s left arm and Heun uses his right to drop hard
elbows to Couture’s body from half-guard. Couture abandons
the kimura and throws up his legs for an armbar, but Heun stacks
him up and extracts his limb. Heun grabs a front headlock as
Couture stands back up but quickly lets it go as Couture pushes
him into the cage. Takedown lands for Couture and he quickly
whips onto Heun’s back. With 90 seconds to go, Couture works
for a rear-naked choke, but Heun gets out the back door with
a minute left. Heun pulls rubber guard, perhaps looking for an
armbar, but they stall out and Couture finishes on top.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Couture
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Couture
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Couture
Round
3
Couture is clearly the fresher fighter as the final frame begins,
dipping in and out of range to pop Heun with right hands before
clinching up and dumping him to the base of the fence. It’s
a reverse of the earlier position now as Heun looks for a kimura
and Couture drops elbows. Couture slides into full mount and
Heun tries to wall-walk, nearly putting himself into a mounted
triangle. Heun is out of mount but still trapped under Couture,
who’s driving elbows into Heun’s thigh again. Heun
turns over and Couture takes his back, sinking in both hooks
and flattening him out. Heun is just laying there, letting Couture
bash away with punches, and referee Jerry Krzys has seen enough.
Ryan Couture gets the TKO win at 2:52 of round three.
Caros
Fodorvs. Pat Healy
Round 1
The lightweights get straight into the clinch and it’s Healy
looking for the takedown while Fodor defends and punches inside.
Healy can’t get it to the floor but keeps Fodor on the fence.
Healy gets popped with hard left, then a combination as they
break off. Now it’s Fodor pushing Healy and planting the
veteran at the foot of the cage. Elbows come from Fodor as he
works to pass half-guard, cutting Healy open on the nose. Healy
squeaks out the back door and grabs on to Fodor’s leg, scoring
a trip takedown as soon as he’s back on his feet. Healy
mashes with punches from Fodor’s open guard, then stands
to try and pass. Fodor kicks him in the gut from his back and
scores with a couple punches, but Healy closes out strong with
ground-and-pound.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Fodor
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Fodor
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Fodor
Round
2
Fodor scores with jabs and counters early while Healy tries to
stick his hands in Fodor’s face. Healy drops for a double-leg,
gives it up and digs an underhook to shove Fodor into the cage.
A high single-leg attempt from Healy stalls the action for the
second minute of the round; he finally puts Fodor on his rear
end with 2:45 to go. Fodor grabs a loose guillotine as Healy
works to pass at a glacial pace. Fodor gets back to his feet
with two minutes to go and is quickly dragged down again. Boos
rain down from the Ohio crowd as Healy tries to pass half-guard
with a minute left. He gets to side control on Fodor’s left
side and then steps into mount, where he drops a few punches
and mashes Fodor into the ground with his chest. Fodor regains
half-guard and it ends there.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Healy
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Healy
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Healy
Round
3
Healy gets inside and drives on a single-leg, pushing Fodor to
the ground inside the first minute. They’re back to the
same position on the cage, and this time Healy wastes no time
stepping into mount. Fodor tries to push off the fence but only
pushes himself away from it, allowing Healy some room to gift-wrap
his arm and land punches. Fodor squirms out of the bad position
but Healy slaps on an arm-triangle choke, leaning from Fodor’s
right to left in half-guard. Fodor breaks the hold and grabs
for a leg, wrenching a heel hook. Healy pulls his leg out and
goes for another arm-triangle, and this one’s tight. Fodor
is trapped and has no choice but to tap out.
Roger
Bowling vs. Brandon Saling
Round 1
Saling catches a leg kick and offers a few punches in return,
but Bowling quickly finds his rhythm, landing kicks to the legs
and head. Big right hands scoring for Bowling now and he tries
to drag Saling down on the fence. Saling defends and it’s
a firefight with Saling stinging Bowling now. Bowling backs away,
then comes forward and hits a takedown. Saling won’t stay
down, though, and he rocks Bowling again as they slug wildly
along the outside. Bowling takes him down again and goes for
an armbar, but Saling defends well and blasts Bowling again as
they stand. Bowling drills Saling with knees to the body, eating
some more punches along the way, but eventually taking him down
again. The pace finally slows with two minutes left as Bowling
waits to improve his position, staying heavy on top. Bowling
gets the crucifix, pinning Saling’s right arm, but Saling
is defending against any major offense. With a minute to go,
Bowling opens up with punches and elbows. Saling bucks desperately
but can’t escape, and he’s cut open on the forehead
from the hard ground-and-pound. Bowling gives up the crucifix
to take full mount with seconds left.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Bowling
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Bowling
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Bowling
Round
2
Bowling clinches up and drags Saling down, moving immediately
to side control and looking for the crucifix again. He gets it
less than a minute into the frame and now the right hands are
coming hard and non-stop. Saling is a bloody mess, just absorbing
punch after punch, unable to escape, and referee Mark Matheny
is forced to intervene at the 1:15 mark.
Sarah
Kaufman vs. Alexis Davis
Round 1
Davis comes out throwing but Kaufman has her on wobbly legs with
hard punches. They clinch on the fence, Kaufman on the outside,
and Davis escapes with knees up the middle. More clinch work
on the cage with both women throwing knees and jockeying for
position. Kaufman exits with a right hand and referee Jerry Krzys
calls time to have the doctor check out a huge cut over Davis’
left eye. The action continues and they go back to brawling,
Kaufman scoring with more big right hands. Davis lands a couple
kicks to the body but she’s just getting brutalized with
punches right on the spot of her cut. More clinching and more
right hands from Kaufman now, and they break with a minute to
go in the round. Davis begins to string together some punches
and puts a left high kick on Kaufman’s face. Kaufman is
bleeding along her hairline now as they trade punches to the
horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Round
2
Davis tries to grab Kaufman’s head in the Thai plum and
Kaufman just blasts her with head-down punches on either side.
Davis is bleeding from her nose now, too, as she’s tossed
to the ground and hops back up. They tie up and Davis has her
back put on the cage, where they trade knees to the body. They
break off and Kaufman goes back to sticking punches in Davis’
face before bullying her into the fence again. Kaufman disengages
with elbows, takes a hard low kick and snaps Davis’ head
back with a jab. Davis scores a couple knees inside but she’s
still getting mauled in the punching exchanges as her face gets
bloodier and bloodier.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Kaufman
Round
3
Davis comes out kicking and Kaufman goes back to jabbing. Kaufman
catches a couple kicks but doesn’t do anything with them,
and Davis lands some hard knees up the middle. Kaufman lands
a cross, a jab and gets tripped to the floor, where Davis lands
in side control on the right side. Kaufman covers up to deflect
elbows and punches from Davis, but she’s in a bad spot with
half the round to go. Davis postures up, latching on to Kaufman’s
right arm. Kaufman twists and sweeps to the top, but Davis keeps
hold of the limb and rolls back on top. Kaufman turns over and
stalls out on her side, absorbing a couple hammerfists from Davis.
Now Davis looks to take Kaufman’s back, but Kaufman lays
back down and Davis winds up in half-guard. Kaufman tries to
push off the cage, can’t get out and shrimps up in deep
half-guard while Davis punches away. Elbows to the body have
Kaufman trying to escape again in the last seconds, but she finishes
the fight on her back.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Davis (29-28 Kaufman)
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Davis (29-28 Kaufman)
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Davis (29-28 Kaufman)
Official
result: Judge Cardo Urso scores the bout a 29-29 draw, while
judges Otto Torriero and Daryl Wise see it 29-28 for the winner
by majority decision, Sarah Kaufman.
Ronaldo“Jacare”
Souza vs. Bristol Marunde
Round 1
Souza lunges first with punches and zaps Marunde with a long
right hand. The former champ is just stalking Marunde along the
outside and sliding backward when Marunde tries to snap off single
punches. Souza gets the clinch and drags Marunde to the ground,
securing his back in the process. He’s riding high on Marunde’s
back with both hooks in as Marunde turns his right side to the
fence. Jacare head-butts Marunde’s shoulder and gets a verbal
warning from ref Keith Peterson. The Brazilian is sitting up,
just picking his shots, but Peterson stands them up after some
punches stray to the back of Marunde’s head. They resume
and Souza knocks down Marunde instantly with a right, grabbing
a guillotine and wrenching it from half-guard. Marunde regains
his guard and escapes to his feet, but Souza whips him right
down and takes his back again. Marunde scrambles up and moves
to the fence, putting Souza’s back to the cage for the last
few seconds.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Souza
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Souza
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Souza
Round
2
Souza dazes Marunde with more punches before wheeling around
and driving a spinning back-kick into his face. The BJJ wiz has
a body lock and hops on Marunde’s back again, riding him
to the floor, but Marunde is quickly back on his feet. Marunde
ducks a punch to tie up, but Souza drills him with a knee to
the face. Overhand right, push kick and a body punch from Souza
lead to another brief clinch. Souza double-pumps a jab and takes
an outside leg kick. Souza goes to the body again and lands a
couple hard overhand rights, but he stays in the pocket and takes
some punches in return. Jacare plows Marunde down with a couple
seconds left and drops back for a heel hook just before the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Souza
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Souza
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Souza
Round
3
Jacare gets an early single-leg and goes to work from Marunde’s
half-guard with punches, forearms and elbows. Marunde squirms,
his right side flush to the cage, unable to get out from under
the Brazilian. He nearly has his back taken but scrambles to
his feet, only to be taken down again. Souza secures his back
this time, then flips him over and locks up a tight arm-triangle
choke. Marunde offers little resistance this time and taps out
at 2:43 of the third round.
Scott
Smithvs. Lumumba Sayers
Round 1
Sayers ducks inside and slams Smith to the ground at the base
of the fence. Smith gets to his knees and has his back taken,
both hooks sunk in, and eats a few punches under his armpit.
Sayers gives up the position and thumps Smith some more on the
feet. He picks “Hands of Steel” up again and takes
him for a ride before slamming him down hard on his back. Smith
has a loose guillotine but can’t get anything on it with
Sayers in side control. Smith lets go and turns to his belly,
where Sayers grabs a guillotine of his own. He sits back and
Smith taps to the choke immediately.
Paul
Daley vs.Kazuo Misaki
Round 1
The action is tentative in the early going with Daley landing
the better punches down the pipe, but missing with just as many.
Misaki tags the Englishman with a left, catches a kick and drives
Daley to the ground along the outside. He tries to control Daley’s
legs, but“Semtex” works his way back up. Daley is again
getting the better of the standup, until Misaki scores with a
combo with 80 seconds to go. Daley covers up, his back to the
fence, and Misaki swarms him with a big combo to the head and
body. Daley gets a takedown with 40 seconds to go and Misaki
closes up his guard. Misaki pulls rubber guard but Daley explodes
with 10 seconds left and drops heavy punches before the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Misaki
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Misaki
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Misaki
Round
2
Misaki stings Daley with another left hook in an exchange and
they clinch on the fence. Daley can’t finish the takedown
and Misaki circles out, blocking a body kick along the way. Another
combo lands for Misaki as he shifts out of the way of Daley’s
punches. He backs Daley into the cage and sticks a few jabs in
his face. Single-leg goes for Daley in the center of the cage
and Misaki closes up guard again, simultaneously wrapping up
Daley’s wrists to neutralize any offense. Daley thumps a
couple right hands to Misaki’s body but there’s not
a lot happening on the ground. Daley stacks up and passes to
side control, then takes Misaki’s back as the Japanese vet
tries to scramble to his feet. Misaki easily twists around and
takes top position, but they stall out and get stood up just
before the end of the round.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Daley
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Misaki
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Daley
Round
3
Daley backs off Misaki with a left hook and brings him to the
ground soon after. Misaki is gushing blood from a cut on the
left side of his head and referee Jerry Krzys wants to have it
checked out. It’s a deep gash, but Misaki’s cleared
to continue and immediately starts walking Daley down when they
resume. Daley cracks him again, though, and lands some solid
knees in the clinch. Misaki is just swinging for the fences but
not coming close to Daley now. He leaps with a knee and gets
blocked. Misaki puts a nice combo on Daley’s body as he
chases the former title contender around the cage, blood coating
his chest and back. Daley lands a leg kick and takes a straight
right in the mush. Takedown lands for Daley but Misaki hops back
up and presses Daley into the cage post. They break with 30 seconds
left and Misaki blitzes with another combo. Daley tries a takedown
with a body lock, can’t get it. The bloody mess Misaki finishes
with a blocked high kick.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Misaki (29-28 Misaki)
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Daley (29-28 Misaki)
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Misaki (29-28 Misaki)
Official
result: Daryl Wise scores the bout 30-27 for Misaki, while Justin
Floor has it 29-28 for Daley. The third and deciding judge, Otto
Torriero, scores the fight 29-28 for the winner by split decision,
Kazuo Misaki.
Josh
Thomsonvs. K.J. Noons
Round 1
Thomson catches Noons with a front kick and some kicks on the
inside. Noons responds with a jab, misses with a step-in knee.
No-go for Thomson on a shot, and the next one misses as well.
Thomson keeps kicking to the body and legs while Noons moves
forward with jabs. Thomson latches on to a single-leg and trips
Noons to the ground at the base of the fence. Noons gets up and
gets taken back down right away. Thomson drops some short elbows
to Noons’ body as he holds him down to the end of the round.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Round
2
Thomson slips on a kick and Noons tries to take advantage, but
the wrestler powers back up and drags Noons to the floor. Noons’efforts
to use the fence to work back up fail. Thomson is holding his
man down but not doing anything offensively. With 2:45 to go,
Thomson puts Noons’ back on the mat and tries to get more
active with some elbows. It’s not enough for ref Keith Peterson,
who stands them up with two minutes on the clock. Noons is cut
on the outside of his left eye as he pushes forward, slinging
uppercuts and wide hooks. Thomson gets another takedown inside
the last minute and again just holds Noons on the fence. Noons
is active with his back to the cage, putting exasperated punches
on Thomson’s ribs.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-9 Thomson
Round
3
They’re on the feet for all of 30 seconds before Thomson
brings the fight to the floor again. This time, he slaps on an
arm-triangle and cranks it from half-guard on Noons’ right
side. It’s very deep and Noons is turning all sorts of red,
but he defends and turns halfway over to loosen the choke. Thomson
won’t let go of the choke, trying to get Noons on his back
again, but Noons is out of danger now. Thomson swats away with
sporadic hammerfists from Noons’ half-guard as the fight
enters its final 90 seconds. Noons is bloodied and exhausted,
and doesn’t seem to have any way to get out from beneath
Thomson. “The Punk” triangles Noons’ legs in the
last 30 seconds and tries to unload some ground-and-pound. He
finishes standing with some hard knees to Noons’ ribs.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Thomson (30-27 Thomson)
Freddie DeFreitas scores the round 10-9 Thomson (30-27 Thomson)
Chris Nelson scores the round 10-8 Thomson (30-26 Thomson)
Official
result: It’s a unanimous decision with scores of 29-28 across
the board for the winner, Josh Thomson.
Miesha
Tatevs. Ronda Rousey
Round 1
Tate comes forward swinging wild punches, gets wrapped up and
tripped to the ground in the middle of the cage. Rousey stands
and looks to pass, move to side control on Tate’s left.
She sits up and grabs an armbar, then leans back to extend. Tate’s
arm bends at a gruesome angle, but she turns into the hold and
escapes after absorbing some hammerfists. Tate takes Rousey’s
back in the scramble but can’t secure it. They stand up,
Tate still holding on to Rousey’s back, and gets slammed
down. Rousey guts out a rear-naked choke attempt, stands and
sneaks out the back door. Now Rousey stands and Tate drives forward,
looking for a takedown. Instead, Rousey sweeps Tate to the floor,
but they don’t stay there long. Back on the feet, Tate scores
with a left hand and Rousey instantly clinches up. She tosses
the champ to the ground and lands in side control again on Tate’s
right. Rousey steps into full mount and Tate goes belly-down.
Referee Mark Matheny is hovering nearby as Rousey goes wild with
ground-and-pound. Rousey switches to the armbar, extending Tate’s
left arm all the way. There’s no escape for Tate this time;
she taps, but only after having her arm broken or dislocated.
At 4:27 of the opening round, Ronda Rousey is your new Strikeforce
women’s 135-pound champion.
Source:
Sherdog
|
UFC
on FX 2 ‘Alves vs. Kampmann’ Results and Play-by-Play
Allphones
Arena in Sydney, Australia
Oli
Thompson vs. Shawn Jordan
Round 1
Jordan paws with his punches before landing his left hand and
moving Thompson backward. The American starts to land in combination
and is landing cleaner punches for the first half of the round.
Thompson starts to find his range finally and lands a heavy right
hand on Jordan. Thompson looking more comfortable on the feet.
Jordan returns fire two a two-piece that puts Thompson on the
mat, and Jordan tries to flurry for the finish. Thompson gets
back to his feet in a scramble, and locks up a kimura. Jordan
rolls out and Thompson clinches standing, but eats knees or his
trouble. Thompson face is getting messed up from the damage.
Jordan is landing with both hands again until Thompson lands
a Superman punch. Both men land big punches before the horn.
Sherdog.com scores the round 10-9 for Shawn Jordan.
Round
2
Both heavyweights attack with punches again. Thompson is being
overwhelmed again by Jordan's punching, but he is hanging tough
despite getting marked up. One-two lands for Jordan. Referee
Steve Perceval warns the fighters for more action as they're
both starting to slow. Thompson has become a sitting duck for
the punches of the former LSU fullback. Thompson get smacked
with a big uppercut. He continues to stand in front of Jordan,
but he's hurt. Jordan taunts him, moving forward with heavy uppercuts
and knees, dropping Thompson to the mat. Jordan follows up with
punches to seal it. Steve Perceval calls the fight at 3:53 of
the second round.
Daniel
Pineda vs. Mackens Semerzier
Round 1
After an inside low kick by Semerzier, Pineda charges him with
punches and gets his back to the fence. Semerzier turns the clinch
and bails on it, with Pineda missing punches on the exit. Semerzier
kicks to the body, and Pineda counters with a right. They brawl
inside, punctuated by a hard Semerzier knee. As Semerzier kicks,
Pineda smacks him with a hard jab. Unfortunately, the kick goes
low and Pineda gets a brief respite from referee Leon Roberts.
Solid outside leg kick by Pineda. Left hook by Pineda flattens
Semerzier on his seat, and “The Pit” punches his way
right into mount. From there, Pineda is pristine: he rolls into
a beautiful triangle, then pops Semerzier’s arm to force
the tap. A great submission from Daniel Pineda end the bout at
2:05.
T.J.
Waldburger vs. Jake Hecht
Round 1
Probing
front kick lands for Hecht. They exchange, and Waldburger cracks
Hecht with a left hook. Hecht returns fire with a right uppercut
of his own. Waldburger clinches and instantly takes Hecht down.
Hecht tries to jump up and control with a whizzer, but Waldburger
jumps over his foe and rolls through for an armbar, similar to
Dustin Hazelett on Josh Burkman. Hecht rolls through and tries
to escape, but Waldburger keeps his arm, pops the hips, and it’s
a wrap. Sensational finish by T.J. Waldburger at just 55 seconds
into the first round.
Kyle
Noke vs.Andrew Craig
Round 1
After trading kicks, Noke rushes Craig quickly and gets a takedown.
Craig tries to stand against the fence, but the Australian controls
him with a front headlock. Noke turns the corner and gets Craig’s
back, instantly looked for the rear-naked choke. Craig stands
and is able to shake Noke, but Noke holds the rear waistlock
and keeps threatening to take his back. Noke lands a sharp knee
to the head from behind Craig, and then throws him back to the
mat. Noke takes Craig’s back with one hook, Gable gripping
his chin. Craig breaks free, but Noke stays on top and sets up
in full guard. A Craig triangle is quickly thwarted by Noke,
who lands two heavy left elbows. Noke goes to half and lands
several clean right hands before Craig shrimps away and gets
back to his feet. They clinch, Craig defends a Noke kneepick
attempt, and they circle away. Wild overhand right for Noke glances
Craig’s chin. Noke gallops forward right into a counter
left hook from Craig. Nice kick to the body lands for Noke, marking
the best action of the final minute.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Noke
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Noke
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Noke
Round
2
Craig feints with his hands and cracks Noke with an outside low
kick, but the Aussie responds with one of his own. Craig comes
into the pocket swinging, and Noke cuts the corner and hits him
with another good low kick. Craig walks Noke down to the fence
and feints, trying to set up a place for his right. He stings
Noke with one, but can’t follow up. The Aussie snatches
up a high single-leg, and Craig smashes him with short elbows,
winding up on top in half guard. Noke regains full guard and
looks for a triangle, but Craig postures up and shuts it down.
Right hands and elbows for Craig land on top as Noke continues
to look for the triangle by using wrist control. Noke pushes
Craig away with just under a minute to fight, and Craig allows
his foe to stand. Noke lands a jab and a right hand before following
with knees. Just as Noke gets aggressive, Craig clips him with
a short hook on the way in that stuns him. Noke hits the mat
on his seat, and Craig dives into half guard, where he stays
until the bell.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Craig
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Craig
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Craig
Round
3
The middleweights trade tired kicks to start the final frame.
A left hook for the circling Noke lands, and he follows with
two kicks. Craig trips him up off the second kick, but Noke is
back to his feet instantly. Craig whips his right overhand above
Noke’s jab, landing above the ear. Noke shoots, and Craig
shuts it down before attempting a wild, out-of-range kneetap
of his own. Noke punches and shoots in on another single, driving
Craig back to the fence. Craig fights is, pummeling and getting
an underhook, but Noke stays glued to his waist and finally drags
him to the mat halfway through the round. Craig sits on the mat
for a few seconds, taking a breather before walking up the fence
and breaking free from Noke. Noke continues to push a tired-but-effective
jab into Craig’s face. With 90 seconds to go, Craig explodes
with a power double-leg, driving Noke straight to his back with
a sudden show of force. Noke gets his back to the fence and Craig
chips away with short right hands. Noke rolls to the turtle position,
and Craig punches away as Noke tries to escape. Noke bails out
looking for a kneebar, and Craig sits up and punches away until
the bell.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Craig (29-28 Craig)
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Craig (29-28 Craig)
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Craig (29-28 Craig)
Official
result: All three judges -- Sal D'Amato, Andy Roberts and Chris
Watts -- score the bout 29-28 for the winner by unanimous decision,
Andrew Craig.
Cole
Millervs. Steven Siler
Round 1
Siler walks Miller down over the first 30 seconds and lands two
hard low kicks. Miller clinches, and they work with over-unders
along the fence. Miller can’t get the takedown, and they
break away. Siler lands another leg kick, and when Miller returns,
Siler catches it and knocks him to the mat with a right cross.
Siler catches another Miller kick, but can’t land a punch
on the follow. The featherweights duel kicks once again. Siler
steps in and gets caught with a short left counter, but comes
right back and lands his own right hand. Double jab and a right
hand lands for Miller and the ATT rep clinches again, but still
can’t find the takedown. Clean, hard right lands for Miller,
but Siler rips off four shots in response. Low kick by Miller
breaks Siler’s posture. Siler clinches off an exchange and
runs Miller to the fence, but nothing coming of it. Siler continues
to press forward, and he stands Miller up with a hook-uppercut
combo. Miller ducks under a Siler hook and runs for a takedown,
but Siler defends with a guillotine and takes top before the
horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Siler
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Siler
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Siler
Round
2
Hard Siler low kicks start the second round. Right hook to the
body and a left hook up top land for Siler, who is all over his
foe along the fence with winging hooks. Miller circles away and
looks for a takedown of his own. Miller finally runs Siler to
the mat with an outside trip, but Siler gets right back up. Miller
lands a hard right on Siler, but the TUF 14 alum is undaunted.
Siler continues to stalk Miller, even after Miller lands a heavy
right uppercut that rocks his head back. Miller gets Siler back
to the fence and bobbles his opponent’s around with two-handed
punching, but Siler circles away once more. Siler is bloodied
from his nose and his upper lip. Each time Miller seems to start
landing, Siler roars back with combinations of his own. Siler
is now starting to retreat as Miller’s right hand starts
to smear blood on his face. However, Siler comes back with a
hard right to the body and then a one-two. Siler clinches, but
can’t get a takedown. They break, and Miller looks for a
takedown of his own before the horn. Siler shrugs him off, and
gives chase at the horn. Good round of back-and-forth action.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Siler
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Siler
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Siler
Round
3
Miller kicks low as an arm-weary Siler continues walking forward
with wide-swiping hooks. Miller finally counters Siler with a
right hand, but continues to eat right hooks to the body from
Siler who is relentless in pursuit of “Magrinho.” Clean
right straight from Miller crashes into Siler, but Siler backs
him right back up with a one-two. Siler looks for a half-hearted
takedown, but Miller easily shrugs him off. Miller jabbing and
low kicking but not landing hard. Miller lands a front kick and
gets to the collar tie, but Siler breaks his grip and gets off
of the fence with two minutes go fight. Miller jab snaps Siler’s
head back, and he clinches in another attempt to put Siler on
the ground. Siler tries to turn and run out of a waistlock, but
Miller sucks him to the mat and moves right into quarter guard
on top. Heavy rights hands for Miller, and he takes full mount
with 20 seconds left. Miller tries to force Siler to roll and
expose his back, but can’t do it, and Siler winds up getting
guard back before the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Miller (29-28 Siler)
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Miller (29-28 Siler)
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Miller (29-28 Siler)
Official
result: All three judges -- Sal D'Amato, Charlie Keech and Kon
Papaioannou -- score the bout 29-28, for the winner by unanimous
decision, Steven Siler.
Anthony
Perosh vs. Nick Penner
Round 1
Perosh
is tentative as he waits to close the distance on the southpaw
Penner. Perosh rushes in with an overhand right, but when he
finally gets a hold of him, Penner is able to shuck him by and
remain standing. The Perosh overhand appears to have cut up Penner’s
eye. The Australian dives at Penner’s legs, and pulls him
to the mat. As “The Hippo” starts to pound on top,
Penner suddenly pulls off a scissor sweep and regains his feet.
The blood is really flowing from a mouse below Penner’s
left eye. Perosh bulls into the clinch again and looks for double
underhooks on Penner. The Canadian breaks free, but Perosh lands
a hard knee on the exit that has Penner wincing. Perosh lands
another overhand right and gets another takedown on Penner, moving
right into half guard where he gets busy with elbows. Perosh
moves to side. Penner gets half guard back, but Perosh smoothly
moves to mount. Penner is overmatched on the ground and just
getting punched repeatedly by Perosh. The Aussie goes for an
arm-triangle to end the bout, but Penner defends wisely and exposes
his back. Rather than keep trying for it, Perosh punches away
with his right hand, landing clean on the face. Penner just lays
there, waiting for the bell. Referee John Sharp warns him to
defend, but Penner doesn’t. Sharp steps in with just one
second to go in the round, giving Perosh the TKO win at 4:59
of the first round.
James
Te Huna vs. Aaron Rosa
Round 1
Rosa
jabs at the air as Te Huna looks for inside low kicks. Te Huna
lands a hard right, and bulls forward with heavy blows inside,
backing Rosa up to the fence. Left hook for Te Huna lands on
the break, and he’s all over Rosa. Rosa is getting torn
with Te Huna’s right uppercuts and hooks. The left side
of Rosa’s face is pouring blood as the crowd gasp with each
salvo. A Rosa left hook lands on Te Huna and does absolutely
nothing. Te Huna is like The Terminator now, walking forward
and smashing Rosa with punches. The bloodied Rosa finally hits
the mat off of a series of massive rights. Te Huna kneels and
punishes Rosa with right after right, square to the face, until
Leon Roberts intervenes at 2:08 of the first round. Brutal victory
for James Te Huna.
Court
McGeevs. Constantinos Philippou
Round 1
Philippou circles from side to side, trying to counter on the
forward-moving McGee. McGee finally rushes with a right, but
loses his balance as Philippou returns fire. McGee ducks and
is raked by two hooks from Philippou. A right uppercut smacks
for Philippou, who is starting to look comfortable standing.
A quick head kick for McGee glances his foe, but the Serra-Longo
product hits him with a straight right. McGee continues to slowly
walk forward, pumping his jab, as Philippou answers with his
right hook and right uppercut. Winging hooks land for both men
with two minutes to go in the round. McGee double jabs at the
air and goes for a leg, but Philippou easily sidesteps the attempt.
McGee shoots, bails and tries to fire punches, but Philippou
tags him with another heavy right, knocking him off balance again.
Hard flurry with both fighters landing, but McGee lands a left
hook that wobbles Philippou before the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Philippou
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Philippou
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-10
Round
2
It’s mostly misses through the first minute as both men
gauge the distance standing. McGee gets into clinching range,
but Philippou cracks him with a hard right hook. Double jab for
Philippou gets through. Both men trading left hooks in short
exchanges, but neither can land clean on the other. McGee continues
to advance on Philippou, but can’t land strikes or set up
his takedown. McGee ducks under and tries a double-leg, but Philippou
gets an underhook and shuts it down. Philippou lands a glancing
left hook. McGee clinches as his foe comes forward, but eats
a big uppercut and stalls out along the fence. Chipping lefts
from McGee do little to slow Philippou, who muscles his way off
the fence. Left hook at the end of a three-piece lands for Philippou.
McGee ducks into another right uppercut. Left hook-right uppercut
for Philippou smacks McGee through the gloves, and the former
TUF winner responds with a spinning back elbow which is blocked.
They exchange before the horn with no telling blows landed.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Philippou
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Philippou
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Philippou
Round
3
Both men again look to the left hook early, but neither can get
it by their opponent’s guard. McGee pressures Philippou,
putting his head down and winging punches that land on Philippou.
The TUF 11 champ is bleeding from his left ear and nose. McGee
continues to give chase, and throws a low kick that goes a shade
high, catching Philippou on the cup. After a short respite, the
bout restarts and“The Crusher” puts Philippou on the
mat with a high single-leg, but Philippou pops right back up.
They exchange inside, and Philippou tosses McGee to the side
like a rag doll. The Utah native comes right back with a flying
knee and a head kick. Left hook-right uppercut lands for McGee,
who is starting to finally have consistent striking success.
Philippou drops a right hand onto McGee’s ear. As McGee
continues to press, Philippou circles away, throwing sporadic
hooks and uppercuts to keep McGee from advancing. Hard low kick
is landed by Philippou. Body kick and right hand land for McGee,
but he can’t get the takedown to follow up. Double-leg shot
by McGee, and Philippou gets the underhook once more. McGee measures
Philippou for a final spinning back elbow before the horn, but
misses.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 McGee (29-28 Philippou)
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 McGee (29-28 Philippou)
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Philippou (30-28 Philippou)
Official
result: All three judges -- Sal D'Amato, Howard Hughes and Anthony
Dimitrou -- score the bout 29-28 for the winner by unanimous
decision, Costa Philippou.
UFC
Flyweight Championship Tournament Semifinal
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall
Round 1
Low kicks are traded early as Johnson stays outside. McCall clinches
and hits an inside trip into full guard. As he tries to pass,
Johnson sweeps to take top, but McCall regains his feet and they
resume standing. Left hook by Johnson inside, as both fighters
wing away in close. Johnson lands a lead left hook, and McCall
tags him with one of his own. Body kick by Johnson is caught,
and McCall kicks his plant leg out, moving right into half. McCall
elbows on top, and Johnson scrambles back to his feet. Johnson
jumps in again, but McCall cuts him off right a short right hook
this time. Two overhands for “Mighty Mouse” whiz wide.
Johnson shoots, but McCall defends and flurries on his head.
McCall limplegs out, but Johnson tags him with a hook that has
him wobble for a moment. Johnson is right in on his leg again,
but “Uncle Creepy” bases down and elbows his head.
Great takedown defense. McCall rushes, and eats a left hook.
McCall feints, and lands a hard inside low kick. Both men trade
single shots before the horn, with neither gaining a real advantage.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 McCall
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-10
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Johnson
Round
2
Johnson looks for a takedown again quickly, but McCall shuts
it down. Both men trade fast hands, but again, both fighters
just glance with their hooks. McCall tries a switch-step elbow,
but Johnson counters. Double jab and two right hands now for
Johnson. McCall is coming forward more now, forcing Johnson to
counter. McCall throws a hard low kick and it lands square on
the cup, and Johnson immediately turns away wincing in pain.
McCall calls his own foul and holds his hand out to apologize.
The break lasts just a brief moment, and the two men slap hands
to restart the round with just over three minutes to go. Johnson
bursting in and out of the pocket again now, landing kicks to
both McCall’s body and legs. McCall is trying to land hook
combinations on Johnson when he rushes in, but can’t get
a clean shot. Jab for McCall is followed by a body kick. “Uncle
Creepy” tries to grab a leg but can only push “Mighty
Mouse” back to the cage. Johnson turns him around as they
trade knees, then lands a hard elbow. Left head kick for Johnson
is partially blocked, but prompts McCall to charge forward with
three punches and a clinch. More tough dirty boxing before Johnson
escapes McCall. Left hook counter by Johnson against a charging
McCall. McCall lands a right of his own, which prompts Johnson
to clinch him along the fence, landing knees before the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Johnson
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-Johnson
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Johnson
Round
3
Inside low kicks are the order of business for the first minute.
A Johnson kick goes low and McCall grabs his cup. Referee Leon
Roberts doesn’t intervene, so Johnson flurries. McCall defends
and circles away, shaking his head at the foul not being seen.
Johnson combining his jab and low kick, then back pedals as McCall
advances to launch a flying knee. Off of the knee, McCall puts
Johnson on the mat and sets up in half guard. Johnson uses an
underhook and half guard to push away and get back to his feet.
Johnson rushes in again, and McCall ducks under for a waistlock.
“Uncle Creepy”elevates Johnson and slams him to the
mat, and takes his back. McCall locks his legs under Johnson
in back mount and starts wailing on his head. Johnson is trapped
belly down and McCall is landing heavy right punches and elbows.
Johnson gets free from back mount, and McCall tries to slam him
from the rear waistlock again, but Johnson gets his feet back.
Two front kicks from Johnson provoke a McCall smile. McCall shoots
a double, and Johnson almost goes over the top for an armbar.
McCall gets a front headlock and tries to turn the corner to
the back. Johnson rolls and gives up half guard instead. McCall
passes right into full mount with just over 30 seconds to go.
McCall is all over Johnson with rights, as he whoops it up and
gets the crowd into it. McCall pounds away with referee John
Sharp looking on until the horn. The UFC's first-ever flyweight
fight is a great one.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-8 McCall (29-27 McCall)
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 McCall (29-28 McCall)
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 McCall (29-28 Johnson)
Judge
Sal D'Amato has it 29-28 for Demetrious Johnson, while Anthony
Dimitriou sees it a 29-29 draw. Judge Kon Papaioannou has it
29-28 for the winner by majority decision, Demetrious Johnson.
Demetrious Johnson advances to the final of the UFC flyweight
tournament.
UFC
Flyweight Championship Tournament Semifinal
Joseph Benavidez vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani
Round 1
Both flyweights trade low kicks and roundhouses to the body to
start. Urushitani tries to go upstairs, but Benavidez blocks
and tries to flurry in response. Benavidez chases Urushitani
and cracks him with an overhand right. The Team Alpha Male fighter
runs Urushitani into the fence where they grapple along the wall
with over-unders. Benavidez attempts a seoi nage but isn’t
deep enough on the arm, and Urushitani scrambles over top of
him. The American runs his opponent back into the cage, and is
trying to suck him off the fence for a takedown. He manages to
get the Japanese fighter to one knee, but finally finishing the
takedown with under two minutes go in the round. Benavidez chips
away with right hands before passing to side control, eying his
patented guillotine from top position. Urushitani gets half guard
back, but Benavidez passes right into mount and then takes the
back. Benavidez tries to sink his choking arm under Urushitani’s
jaw, but the former Shooto world champion fights his hands and
hears the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Benavidez
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10 Benavidez
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Benavidez
Round
2
Urushitani opens with a body kick and Benavidez wipes him out
with a perfect right hook. Urushitani goes down and Benavidez
is all over him with punches. The Japanese fighter goes fetal,
and referee Steve Perceval is forced to rescue him just 11 seconds
into round two. Joseph Benavidez advances to face Demetrious
Johnson in the UFC flyweight championship tournament final.
Thiago
Alvesvs. Martin Kampmann
Round 1
Jab-right ross-low kick for Alves lands early as the Brazilian
takes the center of the Octagon. Kampmann circles away and drives
in on a single-leg, but Alves shuts it down and punches him in
defense. Kampmann tries to turn Alves and throw him uchi mata
style, but Alves blocks and escapes. Kampmann launches a teep
that rocks Alves’ head back. The Dane moves right in on
a takedown, but Alves gets his wits back and snakes back up the
fence. Alves is cut just outside his left eye. The welterweights
clinch along the fence, trading knees before they break. Kampmann
tries for another single, but this time it is Alves showing his
wrestling as he hits a nice kneetap inside. Kammann sits up looking
for a guillotine, but Alves jumps over to side control. Kampmann
regains half guard, but Alves continues to pressure on top and
uses a headlock to pass into full mount with just over a minute
to fight. Alves pins Kampmann’s left arm, and punches away
with his own left. Kampmann tries to buck, but can’t go
anywhere. Alves slashes at him with elbows. With just seconds
to go, Alves lands harder shots, but his aggression lets Kampmann
wriggle free at the horn.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Alves
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Kampmann
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Alves
Round
2
Kampmann tries to wade into the clinch, but Alves controls his
hands and circles away. Kampmann is inching forward, but not
landing strikes. He runs Alves back to the fence again, but no
offense results. Kampmann lands a knee as they cross jabs, but
Alves returns with a right of his own. Quick counter combo from
Alves, then another hard left hook lands on Kampmann. Body kick
by the Brazilian. Kampmann is just walking into Alves’ counters
now. Right uppercut-left hook lands for Alves, and he stuffs
Kampmann’s ensuing takedown attempt. Kampmann is now bleeding
from a mouse under this right eye. Alves limplegs and escapes
from the takedown attempt with two minute to go in the round.
Leg kicks for Alves landing now, and the Brazilian follows with
a heavy right cross that gets Kampmann’s attention. Another
left Alves hook hits“Hitman” in the mouth. Kampmann
rushes in pursuing another takedown at the horn, but Alves easily
shuts it down.
Jordan
Breen scores the round 10-9 Alves
Tristen Critchfield scores the round 10-9 Alves
Mike Whitman scores the round 10-9 Alves
Round
3
Kampmann tries to work his jab to start the final frame, but
Alves turns him around with another hard outside low kick. It’s
Alves who looks for a takedown this time, but Kampmann gets underhooks
and sucks him into the clinch. They work with over-unders along
the fence again until Alves simply pushes away. Kampmann jabs
in and rushes Alves to the far fence, but again, Alves shuts
down his takedown attempt, this time with a far overhook. Kampmann
launches a knee, but loses control of the clinch and Alves is
free again. Outside low kick by Alves chops into Kampmann, and
then he throws an inside low kick-cross-outside low kick combo.
Jab-uppercut scores for the Dane. Kampmann kicks, and Alves smacks
him with a right hand. Alves sees his chance and drives in on
a double-leg takedown. Kampmann locks up a guillotine and sweeps
straight to full mount. Alves is trapped, and taps out. Incredible
comeback for Kampmann in the dying moments of the bout. The guillotine
submission is official at 4:12 of the third round.
Source:
Sherdog
|
Dominick
Cruz Not Hyped About Urijah Faber Rivalry, but Ready to Coach
TUF
by Erik
Fontanez
You
and your friends might be hyped about the rivalry between Dominick
Cruz and Urijah Faber, but the UFC bantamweight champ doesn’t
share your enthusiasm.
There’s
nothing to get excited about when considering Faber, according
to Cruz.
“I
was never hyped up about the rivalry,” Cruz told MMAWeekly
Radio. “Nobody gets hyped up about not liking somebody.
Either you like somebody or you don’t.”
Despite
the history between the champ and his mortal enemy from Team
Alpha Male, Cruz feels there’s no reason to get excited
other than being able to defend his title. The fact that Faber
is the one challenging for it makes no difference.
There’s
no secret the two 135-pound fighters don’t like each other.
Their trash talk has circulated in the media as much as any two
fighters in recent memory. Once the two coach The Ultimate Fighter
Live, the trash talk will continue.
This
time it’ll be face-to-face banter, every day.
“I
(going to) see him every single day and I have to deal with him,”
Cruz said in anticipation of the upcoming TUF season on the FX
network. “I’m going to talk crap to him, and he’s
going to talk crap to me.”
Cruz
will defend his bantamweight title against Faber for the second
time on July 7 at UFC 148 in Las Vegas. The reality show will
intertwine with Cruz’s camp in preparation for the fight,
and the champ scheduled his time accordingly to allow for little
distraction.
Cruz
will get what he calls his “me time” to prepare for
Faber when he’s not coaching.
“After
the show, we’re going to have time where it’s just
‘me time’ (and) I just focus on my own camp,”
he said. “I should have at least eight weeks, which is plenty
of time to get ready for a five-round fight.
“It’s
about teaching (the fighters), giving them everything I’ve
got, and at the end of the day I can also get my workouts in.”
Coaching
will be a challenge to the bantamweight champion, and challenges
aren’t easy to overcome. But that’s fine, Cruz said.
Challenges aren’t supposed to be simple.
Bring
on the coach’s clipboard. Cruz is ready.
“It’s
going to be a challenge,” he said, “but if it wasn’t
challenging everyone would do it.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
K.J.
Noons on Strikeforce Bout with Josh Thomson: ‘It’s
Gonna Be a Barnburner’
By Tristen
Critchfield
The
women’s bantamweight title bout between Miesha Tate and
Ronda Rousey has garnered nearly all of the media attention in
the weeks leading up to Saturday’s Strikeforce card.
Once
fight night is over, however, K.J. Noons wouldn’t be surprised
if the water-cooler talk centers around his co-main event tussle
with former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson.
“I
don’t really have to say too much. My fight is always ‘Fight
of the Night,’ and K.J. Noons is definitely stealing the
show. Look at my track record,” Noons said during a recent
media conference call. “I’m really excited to be fighting
somebody like Josh Thomson; it’s gonna be a barnburner.
I’m training as hard as I’ve ever trained, so I’m
ready.”
The
former EliteXC lightweight king was victorious in his last outing,
beating Billy Evangelista via unanimous decision at Strikeforce
“Melendez vs. Masvidal” in December. Prior to that,
the Hawaii native had lost two straight, falling to Jorge Masvidal
in June and Nick Diaz in October 2010.
A
win over Masvidal likely would have earned Noons a title shot
against Strikeforce 155-pound titlist Gilbert Melendez, but instead
it was “Gamebred” who received that opportunity. A
barren Strikeforce roster allows for a quick turnaround, however,
and now the winner of Noons-Thomson is being touted as the next
challenger for the lightweight strap. Noons isn’t making
any future reservations these days.
“I
kind of put my foot in my mouth when I said I wanted a title
shot and lost [to Masvidal],” he said. “I’m kind
of superstitious, so I just want to concentrate on the fight
ahead of me.”
Strikeforce
CEO Scott Coker was noncommittal regarding the No. 1 contender
status of the winner of Saturday’s fight, which takes place
at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
“Both
of these guys are definitely at the top of the division. We’ll
make a decision based on performances,” Coker said.
Regardless
of what the future holds, the man known as “King” is
looking forward to putting on a show. According to Noons, it’s
a foregone conclusion that his fight will entertain the masses.
“It’s
something that’s in your blood,” he said. “I’ve
had almost 45 pro fights in boxing, kickboxing and MMA, and every
single fight I’ve had has always been ‘Fight of the
Night.’ I have a true passion for fighting and it’s
going to be exciting.”
Source: Sherdog
|
BELLATOR'S
BLAGOI IVANOV REPORTEDLY STABBED IN HEART, CLINGING TO LIFE SUPPORT
By Shaun
Al-Shatti - Staff Writer
Feb
27, 2012 - Blagoi Ivanov, an undefeated Bellator heavyweight,
is reportedly clinging to life at Pirogov Hospital in Sofia,
Bulgaria after being stabbed in the heart in a Sunday morning
barroom brawl.
According to Bulgaria's Sofia News Agency, the fighter remains
in critical condition on artificial life support.
Ivanov and two friends were allegedly attacked by eight individuals
armed with bats and knives immediately after arriving to a bar
on Graf Ignatiev Street. Police arrived at 5:10 a.m. to discover
the assailants missing and a deep stab wound under Ivanov's armpit
that was later found to have pierced his heart.
The
three victims were rushed to Pirogov Hospital, where surgeons
reportedly carried out a life-saving operation on Ivanov. Despite
the procedure, doctors maintain that the 25-year-old's life is
still "under a real threat."
Ivanov's
two friends were treated for light wounds and bruises and have
since been released from the hospital.
Police
are currently investigating the attack. According to reports,
the same bar was also the scene of a recent shooting.
Ivanov
(6-0, 1 NC) is perhaps best known for being the man to dethrone
Fedor Emelianenko in the 2008 Combat Sambo World Championships
finals. After rolling to a 3-0 record to kick off his professional
mixed martial arts career, "Baga" inked a deal with
Bellator Fighting Championships, where he promptly finished William
Penn and Zak Jensen to advance to the semi-finals of Season 5's
heavyweight tournament.
However, Ivanov would ultimately withdraw from a Bellator 56
bout against Thiago Santos due to an injury sustained in training.
He then fought against former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco
Rodriguez, earning a third-round TKO victory last December.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
BAMMA
9: Jack Marshman Says He’s Got Too Much Power for Tom Watson
to Handle
British
middleweight champion Jack Marshman is getting ready for the
biggest fight of his young career as he faces Tom ‘Kong’
Watson at BAMMA 9 in March.
Marshman
has been known for his knockout power in the past and he says
that’s going to be the key once again when he faces Watson
for the BAMMA middleweight strap.
“I
feel like I’m going to have the edge standing,” said
Marshman. “I think I’ve got too much power in my hands
for him.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Wand
foresees MMA of the future: “What’s happened so far
was good, but…”
Contributor:
Junior Samurai
Wanderlei
Silva has one of the sharpest tongues in MMA. The other day,
over Twitter, he set up a training session with Anderson Silva
to prepare for his fight with Vitor Belfort that follows the
TUF reality show’s inaugural season in Brazil, where it
will run every Sunday on Globo network starting March 25. “Teach
me that kick you nailed him in the mouth with,” said the
champion from the day’s of Pride FC.
“TO
MAKE IT FAR, STUDY FIGHTING, BE A NERD”
When
he wants to be serious, Wand has his fair share of clever phrasing,
as well. Like in the video below, where he addresses TUF, the
current state of MMA and much more. Watch and learn from the
Jiu-Jitsu and Thai boxing black belt.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Strikeforce:
Feijao expected to fight in April, title fight not likely
By Guilherme
Cruz
Rafael
‘Feijao’ Cavalcante is coming from a great win by knockout
in Strikeforce over Yoel Romero and has already training again
for his comeback to the cage. On a chat with TATAME, the former
light heavyweight champion revealed he shall fight in April,
but still does not know who he might fight against.
“I’ll
probably fight in April. I was training to fight King Mo for
the title, but it was canceled and I decided to back off…
I want to fight more, that’s all. If they give me three
fights a year, I’m good to go”, explains Cavalcante,
who does not like to pick out names.
Rafael
had been matched up for a dispute of the interim title against
the also former champion King Mo Lawal, but the American anti-doping
test forced the organization to change plans.
After
that, he doesn’t believe he’ll fight for the championship.
“Who would be my opponent for the title fight? Of course
I would like to do it, but it’s unlikely. I think they will
put me to fight one more time before I fight for the title”,
regrets.
Source:
Tatame
|
‘Minotauro’
Nogueira Honored by Countrymen During Carnival Parade
By Marcelo
Alonso
RIO
DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro paid homage
to former Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight titleholder
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira during a Carnival parade on Monday.
Playing
to a resilience-centered theme from the Grande Rio Guild, the
parade featured a number of examples of the power of the human
spirit, including yachtsman Lars Grael, who had his leg amputated
during an accident at sea. Nogueira was recognized for a life
filled with comeback stories, which started as a child, when
he was hit by a truck and spent time in a coma.
As
a professional mixed martial artist, Nogueira has made a career
out of overcoming adversity, starting in 2002, when he recovered
from a hellacious beating to submit Bob Sapp. Even as he has
aged, the magic has not left him. At UFC 134 in August, Nogueira
returned from three serious surgeries to knockout “The Ultimate
Fighter” Season 10 winner Brendan Schaub. “Minotauro’s”
twin brother, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and reigning UFC heavyweight
champion Junior dos Santos also took part in the parade.
“Minotauro”
continues his recovery from arm surgery after he suffered a gruesome
injury in his most recent appearance, a submission defeat to
Frank Mir in December. At 33-7-1, the 35-year-old owns notable
victories against 2006 Pride open weight grand prix winner Mirko
Filipovic, two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling
World Championships gold medalist Fabricio Werdum, former UFC
heavyweight champions Josh Barnett and Tim Sylvia, two-time Olympian
Dan Henderson and UFC hall of famers Mark Coleman and Randy Couture.
“The
Rio Carnival is the biggest event of cultural expression in the
world. The Grande Rio theme had everything to do with us,”
Nogueira told Sherdog.com. “I had a great experience.”
Source Sherdog
|
MMA
Top 10 Rankings: Benson Henderson Takes Top Spot
The
updated MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings were released on Wednesday,
Feb. 29. 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. Megumi Fujii (1)
2. Sarah Kaufman (2)
3. Miesha Tate (3)
4. Marloes Coenen (4)
5. Zoila Gurgel (5)
6. Tara LaRosa (6)
7. Rosi Sexton (7)
8. Alexis Davis (8)
9. Ronda Rousey (9)
10. Hiroko Yamanaka (10)
HEAVYWEIGHT
DIVISION (over 205 pounds)
1. Junior Dos Santos (1)
2. Alistair Overeem (2)
3. Cain Velasquez (3)
4. Josh Barnett (4)
5. Frank Mir (5)
6. Fabricio Werdum (6)
7. Shane Carwin (7)
8. Daniel Cormier (8)
9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (9)
10. Travis Browne (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 (6)
6. Phil Davis (7)
7. Gegard Mousasi (8)
8. Alexander Gustafsson (9)
9. Ryan Bader (n/a)
10. Quinton Jackson (5)
MIDDLEWEIGHT
DIVISION (185-pound limit)
1. Anderson Silva (1)
2. Chael Sonnen (2)
3. Vitor Belfort (4)
4. Michael Bisping (6)
5. Mark Munoz (7)
6. Tim Boetsch (n/a)
7. Yushin Okami (3)
8. Brian Stann (8)
9. Rousimar Palhares (9)
10. Chris Weidman (10)
WELTERWEIGHT
DIVISION (170-pound limit)
1. Georges St-Pierre (1)
2. Carlos Condit (2)
3. Jake Ellenberger (4)
4. Josh Koscheck (5)
5. Johny Hendricks (6)
6. Jake Shields (8)
7. Jon Fitch (7)
8. Thiago Alves (9)
9. Diego Sanchez (10)
10. Rory MacDonald (n/a)
LIGHTWEIGHT
DIVISION (155-pound limit)
1. Benson Henderson (3)
2. Frankie Edgar (1)
3. Gilbert Melendez (2)
4. Gray Maynard (4)
5. Jim Miller (5)
6. Anthony Pettis (8)
7. Shinya Aoki (6)
8. Clay Guida (7)
9. Michael Chandler (9)
10. Nate Diaz (10)
FEATHERWEIGHT
DIVISION (145 pound-limit)
1. Jose Aldo (1)
2. Hatsu Hioki (3)
3. Chad Mendes (2)
4. Dustin Poirier (4)
5. Erik Koch (5)
6. Kenny Florian (6)
7. Pat Curran (7)
8. Diego Nunes (8)
9. Marlon Sandro (9)
10. Chan Sung Jung (10)
BANTAMWEIGHT
DIVISION (135 pounds or less)
1. Dominick Cruz (1)
2. Urijah Faber (2)
3. Joseph Benavidez (3)
4. Renan Barao (4)
5. Brian Bowles (5)
6. Michael McDonald (6)
7. Scott Jorgensen (7)
8. Demetrious Johnson (8)
9. Bibiano Fernandes (9)
10. Masakatsu Ueda (10)
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Shogun
welcomes rematch with Rampage in the UFC
By Guilherme
Cruz
Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua ran over Rampage Jackson in Pride seven
years ago when he was still a John Doe, and their path might
meet again. Both fighters come from losses, and the bout is likely
to happen in the middle of the year, and Shogun likes the idea.
“The fight against Rampage will happen eventually. It’s
inevitable and UFC knows it. He won’t retire before fighting
me and neither am I (laughs)”, affirmed Shogun on an exclusive
interview to TATAME, on which he also commented on coming back
to the trainings and his recent partnership with a merchandizing
company and more.
You
closed a deal with a merchandizing company after rupturing with
Eduardo Alonso. How are things going?
I’ve
closed a deal with Seven Entretenimento and it’s more comfortable
having a whole company taking care of business for me. I wanna
keep my sponsors rewarded because they invest a lot in me. That’s
what I need and I believe a lot in my work.
Can
you tell the difference already?
Yes.
Actually, everybody who calms me for an interview talks to them
first and they know my schedule. Before I had to do many things
and they got messy. Now I let them handle it. Everything involving
fights is up to my manager and everything about the press is
handled by this company, and my trainings are held by Dida.
Who
is your new manager?
Actually
I rather not comment because I want UFC to know him first and
then I’ll release it to the press.
And
about the trainings, is Dida still shooting for TUF?
He’ll
be back on the 15th. Meanwhile I’m just training at the
gym and the trainings are good. Soon I shall meet my opponent
and we’ll work on it for my next bout.
How
is it working with Dida again, since he was the one who helped
you to get to that title?
Dida
is very good. We started working together when we were little.
Dida is a trustworthy guy both as an athlete and as a coach,
mainly. I guess that’s the most important thing.
Have
you started training already?
For
now I’m just maintaining until they match me up.
What’s
next? They’ve talked about Phil Davis and Rampage Jackson…
I
guess it could be one of these guys. I don’t discard Ryan
Bader nor Rampage, Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin… I guess
there are many guys I could fight. Actually, soon I’ll know
more about it and I’ll keep you posted. I’m sure I’ll
train focused on my opponent and he’s going to be a hard
one.
Rampage
was defeated last Saturday (25th) at UFC Japan. Did you want
to fight there .
Absolutely.
It was in Japan where I appeared to the world. I missed it there.
I like the Japanese people, I really like Japan.
So,
talking about the old days…. Would you like to rematch Rampage?
Absolutely.
The fight against Rampage will happen eventually. It’s inevitable
and UFC knows it. He won’t retire before fighting me and
neither am I (laughs).
Were
you surprised by his performance against Ryan Bader?
It’s
hard to tell because we don’t know what happens to each
and every fighter. I don’t know if he got injured, if he
was not feeling ok… It’s hard to know, but Rampage
is very professional and deserves to be respected.
Do
you want to fight on the next edition of UFC in Brazil, in June?
Of
couse I want to fight at UFC Sao Paulo.
In
April there will be a title fight between Jon Jones and Rashad.
Do you have any thoughts about it?
I
guess Jon Jones is the one to be defeated, he’s been pushing
everyone on the division and I see him as the favorite, but I
really respect Rashad.
Source:
Tatame
|
DAKOTA
COCHRANE DISCUSSES CONTROVERSIAL PAST AS HE PREPARES TO CHASE
UFC DREAM
By Mike
Chiappetta - Senior Writer
Dakota
Cochrane's shocking past resurfaced as he's preparing to join
the upcoming cast of TUF, but he's standing strong.
Follow
@MMAFighting on Twitter, and Like MMA Fighting on Facebook.
Feb
28, 2012 - To the people that know him best, Dakota Cochrane's
secret wasn't a secret at all. It's not something he kept from
prospective business relationships, either. As his mixed martial
arts career took off, his friend Kirk Schuster, who was looking
after his career, would often receive phone calls from other
management companies about representing Cochrane. They would
try to woo Schuster with promises of a UFC contract for Cochrane.
Do
me one favor, Schuster would tell them, Google his name and call
me back if you're still interested. A return call never came.
Not once.
Everyone
has a past. But in the testosterone-filled sports world, Cochrane's
past proved impossible to outrun. What he describes as a temporary
lapse in judgment from his college days continues to revisit
him. It did again this week, shortly after FX announced that
he had been chosen as one of the 32 finalists that will compete
for a chance to be on that network's first season of The Ultimate
Fighter. Within 24 hours, the news was all over the MMA blogosphere:
while in college, he had participated in gay pornography.
"It's
definitely a decision I regret," he told MMA Fighting. "If
I would have known what would happen I definitely wouldn't have
done it. But I had money issues and I needed help. I went there
to do pictures, and they started throwing pretty high numbers
in front of me. I didn't really think. It was a big mistake."
But
no matter the size of the mistake, it was one he made no effort
to escape on the eve of his biggest opportunity. On his audition
tape for TUF, he included an introduction that mentioned all
about his past. Everything.
"I
think it's a little bit courageous for both of us," he said
of the UFC's decision to include him on the show. "I could
just hide in a hole and no one would know except for the people
close to me. And to them, I was up front. I let them know right
away so it wasn’t anything that could come back and bite
them in the butt. I think maybe they respected that a little
bit. I think some people judge against it, some people will be
OK with it. Some people will want me to get my butt kicked, and
hopefully others will respect what I'm trying to do."
The
25-year-old Cochrane, who is not gay, says he earned around $80,000
overall from taping the videos, which he made while a college
student at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, where he was an
all-league track athlete as a pole vaulter and 4x100 meter relay
runner.
"Every
time I was down there, I hated it," he said.
Finally,
when he admitted to his girlfriend Lacey Sechtem what he was
doing, she asked him to stop, and the short-lived career was
over. At the time, Cochrane had no idea he would one day become
a professional athlete and that the decision would follow him
and possibly cause some detours to his path.
Schuster,
who is now his manager, told MMA Fighting that Cochrane has had
several opponents back out of fights after learning of his history,
as well as promoters withdraw offers to him. None of it, however,
served to dissuade Cochrane from chasing his goal of fighting
in the UFC.
"This
kid honestly is a role model," said Schuster, who housed
Cochrane for a year earlier in his career. "The reason I
say that is because he made a mistake, he recognized his mistake.
He paid at the time and he continues to pay for it every day,
but he remains mentally strong. I think it fuels him and drives
him to prove to people that he can overcome this. He's always
told me, 'We'll keep fighting in shows until they either have
no choice but to want me, or I can't fight anymore.'"
Cochrane
actually missed his first shot at the UFC. Schuster said that
the promotion's matchmaker Joe Silva had once called about the
possibility of signing Cochrane for a short-notice fight as a
replacement, but by the time he returned the call, the spot had
already been filled.
But
even then, Cochrane and Schuster had been candid about his background,
embracing honesty as the best course of action.
Aside
from the obvious back story, Cochrane's rise is interesting due
to his history as a track star, a fairly novel background in
MMA. He first tried the sport during some time off when he was
bored. He trained for six months, scored a knockout in his first
amateur fight and was quickly hooked.
"Beating
someone up, it's pretty exciting," he said with a laugh.
But
making a career out of it wasn't an early thought. At first it
was a fun side interest, but as he improved and his competitive
instinct kicked in, the sport's pull intensified.
He
won his first four pro fights. By the time he defeated former
WEC champion Jamie Varner last September to improve to 11-1,
it was obvious that he was nearing the big leagues. But by then,
he'd already had the experience of his past resurfacing, albeit
on much smaller scales.
Even
when he was back in college running track, the news popped up.
Then, when he moved to Omaha and started training MMA there,
it popped up again. But this time is a little different, his
past being exposed on a national scope.
"I'm
looking forward to getting it done and over with," he said.
"People can be shocked, and people can say whatever they
need to say, and then we can move on."
"They're
saying the same things they've been saying for seven years,"
Schuster added. "They're not coming up with anything new."
Cochrane
says he's a far different person than he was then. He's now a
father of two, and Lacey, his girlfriend at the time he was making
the videos, stuck by him and is soon to become his wife. The
decision he made years ago was a selfish one, made for money,
but this opportunity to be on TUF isn't just about him; it's
a chance to enrich his family.
On
Thursday, he'll get on an airplane and fly to Las Vegas while
attempting to put aside the distractions of this week and focus,
because alongside will be 31 other fighters filled with the same
dream. They'll all have pasts, too, just not ones that everyone
else knows about. That's OK with Cochrane. It's his mistake,
and he's owning it.
"All
I can ask," he said, "is that people respect that I've
overcome something like that and tried to make a negative into
a positive."
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Tonight!
|
Kauai
cage match #12
Rumble at the Resort-Warpath to Mayhem
March 3, 2012
Kauai Beach Resort
Aloha All,
Tickets
are now on sale for Kauai cage match #12, Rumble at the Resort-Warpath
to Mayhem, March 3, 2012, Kauai Beach Resort!
We
are again breaking new ground on Kauai as this is the first ever
MMA event inside a Resort ! We have come a long way since 2005
starting MMA on Kauai and not being welcomed with open arms with
the public to now being able to host an event inside a Resort
shows the tremendous steps we have taken here on Kauai with our
promotion.
Come
and see the new up and coming fighters as they battle their way
to Mayhem at the Mansion at the end of the year!
Tickets
now available at:
Kauai Harley- Puhi
Deli and Bread- Kukui Grove
Pono Market-Kapaa
Wongs-Hanapepe
Baby Blutique- VIP
Doors open at 5:30pm
Weigh
ins will be on March 2, 2012-Kukui Grove Shopping Center- 5:30pm
Official
after Party will be at Tiano's in Lihue
For
reserve VIP seating call 808-245-5888
Mahalo
and see you all on March 3rd!!!
|
Toughman
Hawaii: Challengers
Hilo Civic
Center, Hilo, Hawaii
March 3, 2012
Source:
Wally Carvallho
|
UFC
on FX 2 Preview: The Main Card
By Tristen
Critchfield
Over the years, fighters with top-notch skills at 125 pounds
have been forced to go one of two routes: bulk up and fight at
bantamweight to get a shot at the big show, or remain active
at their preferred weight in various smaller promotions. That
all changes Down Under, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship
finally debuts its long-awaited flyweight division at UFC on
FX 2 “Alves vs. Kampmann” on Friday from the Allphones
Arena in Sydney, Australia.
The
four-man tournament features a pair of fighters who experienced
success at 135 pounds -- Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez
-- against two others who stayed outside the Octagon to shine
at 125 -- Yasuhiro Urushitani and Ian McCall. The semifinal winners
will vie for the shiny new flyweight strap at an as-yet-to-be-determined
date.
For
those who are not quite ready to embrace the all-out action the
little guys are sure to provide, there is the main event: a pivotal
welterweight duel between Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann. Here
is a look at the UFC on FX 2 main card, with analysis and picks.
Welterweights
Thiago Alves (19-8, 11-5 UFC) vs. Martin Kampmann (18-5, 9-4
UFC)
The
Matchup: It was not all that long ago that Alves was regarded
as one of the best welterweights in the sport not named Georges
St. Pierre. Times have changed, as a new crop of 170-pound talent
has emerged and losses to Jon Fitch and Rick Story robbed Alves
of his perennial Top 10 status. The “Pitbull” was given
a something of a reprieve at UFC 138, and he took advantage by
submitting Octagon newcomer Papy Abedi inside of a round.
Abedi,
who repeatedly dropped his hands and moved straight backward,
was the perfect rebound fight for a dangerous striker like Alves.
The Brazilian will return to his accustomed level of competition
against Kampmann, who has a diverse kickboxing arsenal. After
a pair of heartbreaking decision defeats to Jake Shields and
Diego Sanchez, “The Hitman” righted his ship at UFC
139 in a split-decision triumph over Story. In addition to utilizing
crisp, accurate striking, the Dane was able to handle Story in
the clinch and return to his feet after being taken down.
Solid
clinch work could prove to be key for Kampmann against Alves,
who is good at controlling distance and is capable of landing
with fight-ending power from most any range. It is better to
move forward against Alves and pressure him, as Story did in
their encounter. Alves is an alert counterstriker and mixes kicks
and punches with seamless precision. It is no secret that the
American Top Team representative endures a draining weight cut
so that he can enter the cage in the neighborhood of 190 pounds
on fight night. This has led to issues at weigh-ins in the past,
and the result -- in addition to his missing weight -- is a fighter
who tires as the fight progresses.
Kampmann
often likes to rush his opponents and display his power in tight
spaces. In tie-ups, he can wear down his opponent with knees,
as well. Alves’ tremendous upper body strength often allows
him to brush off clinch attempts, assuming he is not worn out.
Kampmann
has underrated jiu-jitsu, but only dominant wrestlers like Fitch
or St. Pierre have been able to have their way with Alves on
the ground. Both Alves and Kampmann favor a standup affair, anyway,
so it is likely that the man who is able to land more consistently
will have the edge. If Kampmann hesitates to close the distance
early on, Alves will make him pay with kicks. The Dane’s
kickboxing will allow him to connect with solid combinations
on the outside, but it is Alves who has the more dangerous power.
The Brazilian can also explode with flying knee attacks once
he gets a handle on Kampmann’s timing.
The
Pick: All signs point to a predominantly standup affair, though
if it does end up on the mat, Kampmann has a slight advantage,
especially if “Pitbull” is fatigued. Upright, “The
Hitman” will have to take some risks to get the fight in
close, and Alves certainly has the tools to make him pay on his
way there. There will be some high-octane exchanges between these
two, but look for Alves to gradually get the better of it and
win via decision.
UFC Flyweight Tournament Semifinals
Joseph Benavidez (15-2, 2-0 UFC) vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani (19-4-6,
0-0 UFC)
The
Matchup: Benavidez put together a solid run fighting at bantamweight
in the WEC and the UFC. The Team Alpha Male product lost only
twice, both times to Dominick Cruz, who was able to use his range
and quickness to keep Benavidez from finding a consistent rhythm
in their meetings. The introduction of the flyweight class seems
to come at a perfect time for the 27-year-old, as Cruz remains
the 135-pound champion and teammate Urijah Faber is locked in
for another bout with “The Dominator” in July.
Long
considered to be the frontrunner to capture a flyweight belt,
Benavidez will be heavily favored in his half of the 125-pound
bracket against Urushitani. The Japanese fighter is the Shooto
123-pound champion and carries a five-fight winning streak into
his UFC debut. While 14 of his 19 career victories have gone
to a decision, Urushitani has finished three of his last five
opponents. Most recently, he stopped Yuki Shojo in the second
round at a Shooto event last July. The 35-year-old spent most
of that bout circling and finding a home for his left hand, which
helped to set up a straight left-high kick combination that essentially
ended the fight.
Urishitani’s
style has earned him recognition as one of the top flyweights
in the world, but it is a long shot that it will carry him to
victory against Benavidez. The former WEC standout likes to bang
on the feet early and, once he gets comfortable, will shoot for
single- and double-leg takedowns. All of this is done with amazing
quickness that allows him to dictate the tempo of his bouts with
constant pressure.
Urushitani’s
ideal scenario involves him using solid counterboxing to land
multiple jabs and outpoint Benavidez. Though his striking is
solid overall, the Shooto champion lacks the dynamic power on
the feet to finish his opponent. This is problematic because
Benavidez is certainly quick enough to outstrike Urushitani,
and he can also use his standup to set up scrambles.
As
the stronger fighter, Benavidez should dominate the action in
the clinch and on the ground, and his excellent gas tank allows
him to constantly work in transitioning from one hold to another.
The
Pick: It is hard to imagine Benavidez allowing Urushitani to
pick him apart in a jab fest. Benavidez wins the striking battle
early and the ground game late en route to a third-round submission.
UFC
Flyweight Tournament Semifinals
Demetrious Johnson (14-2, 2-1 UFC) vs. Ian McCall (11-2, 0-0
UFC)
The
Matchup: Johnson reached his ceiling at bantamweight in October,
when he fell via unanimous decision to Dominick Cruz at UFC Live
6. Though “Mighty Mouse” actually landed more strikes
than the champion, he was taken down 10 times for his attempts
in trying to close distance against his rangy opponent.
Faced
with a more favorable matchup at 125 pounds in McCall, Johnson
can get back to doing what works best for him, which is closing
the gap quickly, exploding into his attacks and consistently
winning scrambles and exchanges. Johnson fights with a pace and
an intensity that can be difficult to match, and he wears down
his foes with quick combinations and active wrestling. The AMC
Pankration representative does not possess knockout power in
his hands, but he is effective enough with his striking to score
points and set up takedowns.
Of
the two UFC newcomers in the flyweight bracket, McCall has a
better chance of pulling off the upset than Urushitani. Resilient
inside the cage as well as out of it, McCall overcame personal
demons to author a memorable 2011, beating Jussier da Silva,
Dustin Ortiz and Darrell Montague in succession; all three men
figure to eventually join McCall in the UFC someday.
The
Tachi Palace Fights 125-pound titleholder has made great strides
in his all-around game under the tutelage of Colin Oyama and
Giva Santana. McCall moves well on the feet, and he throws powerful
punches, as well. On the ground, “Uncle Creepy” has
graduated from simply fighting at a frenetic pace and is now
adept at holding a dominant position and doing damage there.
McCall’s
solid takedown defense will be put to the test against Johnson,
who will change levels quickly to attempt to gain control. Johnson’s
speed can be difficult to adjust to, and McCall would be wise
to mix in kicks to keep the Washington native at bay. McCall
has a good sense of timing on his takedowns but will find it
difficult to catch up to Johnson.
The
Pick: McCall will make this competitive, landing some solid punches
and holding his own on the mat, but, eventually, Johnson’s
relentless approach will pay dividends. Look for “Mighty
Mouse” to outstrike McCall on the feet and win the scrambles
on the floor to take home a unanimous decision.
Middleweights
Court McGee (14-1, 3-0 UFC) vs. Constantinos Philippou (9-2,
2-1 UFC)
The
Matchup: McGee, with three victories in the UFC and eight straight
overall, is on the verge of making some serious noise in the
middleweight division. First, he must get past Philippou, who
came through with a breakout performance at UFC 140 by finishing
the durable Jared Hamman.
McGee’s
grinding approach starts and ends with conditioning. “The
Ultimate Fighter 11” winner wore down Dongi Yang in his
last appearance, backing the South Korean up against the cage
with punches before taking the fight to the canvas in the final
frame. The Utah native is not going to overwhelm anyone with
his standup, but his right hand is effective enough to close
the distance and create openings for clinches and takedowns.
Once in a dominant position, McGee is persistent with his ground-and-pound.
Philippou,
a longtime Ring of Combat veteran, did not set the world on fire
in losing to Nick Catone and taking a split decision victory
over Jorge Rivera in his first two UFC appearances. Against Hamman,
however, the Serra-Longo Fight Team representative looked much
more explosive, hurting his adversary with a solid one-two combination
early on. From there, Philippou put his foot on the gas pedal,
eventually forcing a stoppage with punches on the cage. The New
Yorker will have to counter as McGee moves forward, using movement
and taking good angles to stay away from the fence.
Philippou
held his own in tie-ups against Rivera, but McGee will be much
more persistent in forcing him to the ground from that position.
A decent recovery rate will allow McGee to absorb some punishment,
but he will need to tire out Philippou by pressing him into the
cage, working for takedowns and smothering him from top position.
The
Pick: McGee has the necessary tools to dictate the location and
the tempo of this fight. Unless Philippou can hurt him early
and follow up immediately, McGee will grind his way to victory
after three rounds.
Source:
Sherdog
|
RONDA
ROUSEY BANKING ON ECLECTIC JUDO BACKGROUND TO EARN STRIKEFORCE
GOLD
By Luke
Thomas - Senior Editor
Can
the varied judo background of Ronda Rousey carry her all the
way to earning the Strikeforce women's bantamweight championship?
In the mind of the Olympic bronze medalist, it's almost a foregone
conclusion.
Follow
@MMAFighting on Twitter, and Like MMA Fighting on Facebook.
Feb
28, 2012 - In the run-up to Strikeforce's bantamweight title
clash between champion Miehsa Tate and challenger Ronda Rousey,
much of the focus of the fight has had nothing to do with actual
fighting.
Did
Rousey jump the line for a title shot? Has the marketing for
this fight focused incessantly on looks? What's the latest in
the war of words between the two fighters? Questions like these
and others dominate the news cycle. While these queries aren't
without some merit, there's another story to be told: how each
fighter plans to win this coming Saturday evening.
In
this interview with MMA Fighting, Rousey discusses her unusual
judo past, how it's radically different from the prototypical
wrestling/jiu-jitsu fighter background and why she believes Tate
cannot properly prepare for it.
The judo bronze medalist also discusses her admiration for Gina
Carano, drug testing efficacy in USADA, candor in the fight business
and much more. Partial transcription below:
Luke
Thomas: Okay, joining me right now to talk about her upcoming
title fight at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, which of course
takes place March 3rd at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio,
former bronze judo medalist, Ronda Rousey. Ronda, how are you?
Ronda Rousey: it's not former, the next Olympics hasn't happened.
Luke
Thomas: (laughs) I guess that's true, current bronze medalist,
how are you?
Ronda
Rousey: I'm good, how you doing?
Luke
Thomas: Speaking of the 2012 London games, how invested are you
in judo? Are you gonna watch that as a spectator?
Ronda
Rousey: Yeah, well I'm for sure going. It'll be an amazing experience
to go to the Olympics just for fun and just to watch and to enjoy
the games and different sports, it'll be great.
Luke
Thomas: Are you being facetious?
Ronda
Rousey: No.
Luke
Thomas: I guess I'm just sort of curious as to your current level
of enthusiasm for judo in that way. I know you sort of went to
MMA because you got tired as a competitor of the daily grind.
Ronda
Rousey: Yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't love the sport. I
love watching judo, I just don't like the lifestyle required
to be the best in the world at it.
Luke
Thomas: Fair enough. Let me ask you about self promotion because
you seem to be rather good at it. Did it come naturally? Is it
something you're working on? Is it a little combination of both?
What is it?
Ronda
Rousey: I guess it comes naturally in that I benefited from being
raised in a certain environment where I come from a family of
very educated and empowered and quick-witted women and ever since
I've been 13 or so, most people I've hung out with are men in
their mid 20s. I've lived in a lot of houses that were just me
and my teammates between the banter of my teammates and arguing
with my sisters, I developed my own brand of quick-witted shit-talking
that has served me so well.
Luke
Thomas: But this isn't something like a Chael Sonnen act, is
it? This seems to be something that is mostly natural, or am
I overstating it?
Ronda Rousey: I just try to be as bluntly honest as possible.
It's not entirely genuine in that I do not have all that energy
all day long, but I just kind of just an exaggerated version
of myself I guess.
Luke
Thomas: Let me ask you about being blunt. Do you think the fight
game is full of too much posturing and people not being candid
with one another?
Ronda
Rousey: I think that the women's side definitely does. The men
have a good balance of fighters that are much more soft-spoken
and are just there to compete and other fighters that are showmen
but on the women's side, you really don't see any of that, any
of the girls going out of their way to market themselves at the
extent of some criticism. That's why I really did a call-out
on my last fight because I realized that no other woman had done
a call-out on TV before so I was like, "You know what? If
I'm the first one to do it, it's bound to work and it did and
I'm just trying to draw inspiration from a lot of the men's fighters
that have been using the exact same package that I have and I
think if I was a man and I was doing the exact same things that
I'm doing now, no one would really say "boo" about
it but because I'm a woman and not a lot of the women have been
outspoken before that it's become something that a lot of people
like to pay attention to.
Luke
Thomas: Well tell me about Gina Carano, and I don't mean to be
superficial with the question but in the sense that she has been
able to leverage both ability and looks to a pretty strong degree
at this point. Is she blazing a path that you'd like to follow
or are you looking for something different?
Ronda Rousey: She definitely is and if I didn't see what Gina
was already doing, I wouldn't have become an MMA fighter because
I wouldn't think it would offer any sort of long-term career
for me so she has her own path and she's going about things her
own way, but yeah, I see that she's been successful and I think
it would be dumb of me to not look at what she's done and how
she's succeeded and kinda pick and choose from her strategy and
make some of it my own.
Luke
Thomas: Let's talk about drug testing and the state athletic
commissions versus WADA which you've also done a lot of testing
throughout your judo career. Which one's more rigorous, WADA
or state athletic commissions?
Ronda
Rousey: I would actually say that USADA is the worst one because
I think that the United States drug tests are more stringent
than the world drug testing and I think that the professional
athletic commission is actually most lax of the three. For the
Olympics, all I could take the Olympics was Advil.
Luke
Thomas: Does that mean that there is more opportunity for a false
positive because you can take more over the counter supplements
in gross degrees in state athletic commission testing?
Ronda
Rousey: Well in USADA, they told us that, "You are entirely
responsible for everything that you take." Even if you take
a supplement and test positive for something that's not on the
label and you can prove that it came from that bottle and it
was mistakenly done, they will hold you accountable so that's
why I only take children's vitamins because I know that it's
a lawsuit waiting to happen if they happen to put something else
in there. I've always just been overly cautious and for all these
people that are testing positive for various kinds of steroids
and saying, "Oh, I got it from some supplement," it's
bullshit. It's a blatant lie and I feel it's insulting the intelligence
of the fans.
Luke
Thomas: Talk to me about newaza in judo. I think a lot of people
have poor conception of what it actually entails both in terms
of newaza training and newaza as a function of competition in
judo. How does it work? How much training is involved in submissions
in judo and how much of it matters in competition?
Ronda
Rousey: Training in newaza in judo is not mandatory. You can
get away with not knowing any ground and just knowing how to
defend and stay standing. I just happen to come from a background
where my mom, she tore her knees out when she was like 17 so
all of her fights, she won on the ground and then when I was
16, I tore my knee out and I spent that entire year only doing
ground work and when I moved away from home, I went to [Jimmy]
Pedro's. They're known as mostly a very ground based judo school
so the difference I think between a judo and jiu-jitsu ground
game is in judo, you only have sometimes only three seconds,
even less than that to make something work so it pushes the transition
and the pace on the ground to be faster than any other grappling
sport.
Luke
Thomas: Is that the key to the game? It seems like once you get
that rush in, the two on one and then the trip, it's just a matter
of seconds at that point. Do you think the jiu-jitsu guys don't
have the same sense of urgency in their submission application?
Ronda
Rousey: Yeah, they don't have any sense of urgency and they don't
have as much need to be able to transition between the stand-up
and the ground as quickly as a judo player does because we don't
have an undisclosed amount of time to work on the ground and
so I think that's a big advantage. A lot of judo players like
I said neglect learning any kind of ground game at all. It's
kind of like some judo players I think have an amazing ground
game that transfers better to MMA than any style but some judo
players are just completely useless on the ground. It's kind
of random.
Luke
Thomas: There's obviously a lot of overlap between amateur wrestling,
folkstyle, freestyle, Greco Roman and judo but I guess my question
to you would be, why does your judo beat Miesha Tate's wrestling?
Ronda Rousey: I think it's because I have a very unorthodox style
of judo in that I kind of have a weird European-Japanese-Brazilian
jiu-jitsu mix that is extremely hard to prepare for and I train
with world champion and Olympic medalist wrestlers several times
a week and there's no way that she could have judo players of
my caliber to train with. It's just such an unorthodox style
that I don't think she can be nearly as prepared for me as I
am for her.
Luke
Thomas: You come in reaching for her arm, I've never seen you
change elevation at least not yet in your career. More than just
being a different style, I mean the particular application of
it. Is she not going to be as strong as you, is she not going
to be able to understand the angle at which you come to grab
her, what do you mean?
Ronda
Rousey: Well, yeah, like you were pointing out, for judo players,
you don't change levels when you come in for the takedowns, you
telegraph a lot less. What was the rest of your question, just
the advantage that judo players have in general?
Luke
Thomas: I guess I'm just wondering, I talked to [Tate] and her
sense was that her wrestling really had a lot of different tools
to stop your judo and what you're telling me is quite the opposite
in a sense that she doesn't even know what she's getting into.
Ronda
Rousey: There's no way she can know because I'm not a normal
judo player and she, I think it's ridiculous to assume that you
know how to defend a style that you've never fought against or
had any experience training with.
Luke
Thomas: Talk to me about what's harder on the body over time,
judo or MMA? I read a book called "Falling Hard" where
a writer picked up judo as a hobby and really sort of followed
it through and he talked about the devastating injuries. Which
is harder on the body, judo or MMA?
Ronda
Rousey: Judo is definitely much harder on the body. It's much
harder on your joints. It's not so much cosmetic damage because
you don't see much blood, but more people have died from judo
than doing MMA and most people get injuries like torn shoulders,
separated collar bones, broken collar bones, broken legs, knees
everything. I've seen way more injuries, broke necks, people
break their necks doing judo because you're pretty much doing
gymnastics with somebody on your back. Imagine someone doing
gymnastics with another person trying to stop you and throw you
on your ass. It's pretty much dangerous in that way and I think
that judo is probably one of the more dangerous sports under
boxing.
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
TUF
15's Cristiano Marcello: ‘All I Know Is Fighting’
by Damon
Martin
If
you go back and watch many of the early videos from Pride Fighting
Championships and see fighters like Wanderlei Silva and Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua, you’ll likely see another familiar
face that will soon become even more familiar.
During
the rise of the famous Brazilian Chute Boxe camp, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
coach Cristiano Marcello was at the forefront helping the careers
of fighters like Silva and Rua as they made their way through
the Japanese fight scene.
Marcello
was also working on his own fight career as he helped advance
athletes at the Chute Boxe academy. He infamously had an incident
at Pride in Japan in 2005 when he choked out former EliteXC fighter
Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett in the backstage area
after an altercation between the two competitors.
Now
Marcello is focusing solely on his own fight career, and he will
look for a jump start next Friday when he debuts as one of the
competitors on the Ultimate Fighter season 15, also known as
TUF Live.
Marcello
has gone 3-0 in his last three fights, and he’s hopeful
to keep that streak alive when he debuts along 31 other lightweights
on the new season of the show debuting on FX.
“I
have committed my life to the martial arts both as a competitor
and coach since I was 10 years old. All I know is fighting,”
Marcello told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday. “It is my passion
and a part of my core. The opportunity to compete on the first
TUF that will premiere on FX is something I am very excited about.
I intend to do whatever I can to make it into the house, and
display some great fights for the fans.”
Marcello
worked for years to make his students better, and now the teacher
looks to better his own career with the launching pad that helped
fighters like Forrest Griffin, Kenny Florian, and Michael Bisping
become household names.
“Cristiano
Marcello is one of the most talented fighters I have worked with,”
said Nima Safapour from Alchemist Management, who represents
Marcello. “He has an accomplished resume as both a top fighter
and elite MMA coach. I am confident that he will be able to showcase
his skills on the first FX TUF. Cris plans to make great fights,
and to also make most of the opportunity.”
There
are no free passes into The Ultimate Fighter house, however.
Marcello has the same opportunity as the other 31 lightweights,
and to make it into the house, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black
belt must first fight his way there.
Marcello
will compete on next Friday’s TUF 15 debut card that airs
on FX starting at 9 p.m. ET in a special two-and-a-half-hour
broadcast that will showcase all 16 fights.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Manager
Debunks Alistair Overeem Rumors
For
Glenn Robinson, picking who to manage comes naturally. He’s
on a roll too: Jake Shields is coming off of a big win over Sexiyama,
Rashad Evans has a title shot right around the corner, and his
most recent signing, Alistair Overeem, is the first title defense
of UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos.
With
all of this success there can’t be any controversy, right?
Wrong.
Right
after Robinson’s Authentic Sports Management group signed
the Strikeforce and Dream heavyweight champion, rumors started
circulating on Twitter that ASM had paid Overeem a $500,000 signing
bonus. Some might think that paying Overeem to join their camp
would be a good marketing move, but would ASM ever be able to
recoup that cost?
Not
so fast says Robinson.
“(The
rumors) are all (expletive),” Robinson told MMAWeekly Radio’s
Weekend Edition.
Where
did these rumors come from?
“There
are some evil people in this business that are real dirty and
they spread rumor(s).”
While
none of the rumors had been officially reported on, people who
claim to know Overeem say that the only reason the giant heavyweight
settled on the Blackzilians’ camp is the money offered,
as well as additional but unspecified perks. ASM would gain the
marketing push of signing the world’s most interesting free
agent and Overeem could cash in.
But
if the $500,000 bonus is not true, is Overeem being given special
treatment by ASM? Could this be a marketing ploy?
“It’s
not a publicity stunt. Our deal is (very) fair to (all parties).
Our objective is to help Alistair as much as we help Rashad or
any fighter
on our team. We treat everyone the same.”
So
if ASM didn’t pay Overeem an incredible sum of money to
sign, nor treating him any differently than any other fighter
under contract, how did Robinsin sign the highly sought after
heavyweight?
“How
did I sign Alistair? I can’t give away my trade secrets,”
he said with a laugh. “You are basically asking a chef to
tell you his secret ingredients.”
Looking
at Robinson’s roster of talent, his recipe is working.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Jiu-Jitsu
is for the weak
Contributor:
Junior Samurai
The
gentle art is a body guard that’s with you 24/7 and never
complains, armor ready for use anywhere the need may arise.
The
problem is that the only ones who understand that are the ones
who train and study Jiu-Jitsu as a means of self-defense every
day.
THERE
ARE TIMES WHEN ONLY JIU-JITSU SAVES YOUR SKIN
Take
for example the Valente brothers, who were recently on two Spanish-language
television programs in the United States and reinforced the idea
that at times only Jiu-Jitsu can save you, demonstrating extreme
self-defense situations. Even for women and children.
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Thiago
Tavares “correcting flaws” for his next fight in the
UFC
By Guilherme
Cruz
Thiago
Tavares won his two fights in UFC in Rio de Janeiro and is hungry
for more. Back to the trainings in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina,
the lightweight fighter talked to TATAME and guaranteed he has
not settled.
“I’m
trying to correct my flaws. I’ve watched that tape so many
times to see where I went wrong. I overcame myself that time,
to stand-up for an entire round, where he is best at”, said
Thiago, excited. “I’m already training again…
I’m not training hard because even knowing when I’m
supposed to fight (May or June), they haven’t confirmed
it yet. It’s not proper for me to train hard now”.
Holding
a professional record of 17 wins in 22 bouts, being seven of
those wins in UFC’s cage, Thiago highlights Sam Stout and
Spencer Fisher, his last opponents, as the most important ones.
“I
feel glad because I’ve defeated the two toughest opponents
of my life and they were the best fights of my life. Now it’s
a new round, and I’m feel capable and moving forward”.
For the future, he hold higher expectations: “I know it’s
a long way, but I guess I can move step by step and make my dream
come true and bring the belt to Florianopolis”.
Compliments
to Henderson and Edgar
Tavares
watched from far away the title dispute of his weight class betweeen
Ben Henderson and Frankie Edgar and he can only compliment both
lightweight athletes, who dueled for 25 minutes on the main event
of UFC 144, which happened last Saturday (25th), in Saitama,
Japan.
“I
wasn’t surprised by its outcome. What did surprise me was
Henderson’s game plan, the way he got the win. Ben Henderson
clearly won the fight. He dominated the center of the octagon,
worked a lot his coups, found the right distance and threw that
kick. Edgar had to move the entire time and, even with great
conditioning, he got tired. Ben was better. Edgar landed more
coups, but Henderson’s were stronger”.
After
the loss, many believed that Edgar would drop to the featherweight
division, but Thiago disagrees. “When he beat BJ Penn up
twice and knocked Maynard out he was a gas machine, but now,
only because he was dominated, it’s because he’s too
light? He’s light, but he ain’t weak. He took Gray
Maynard down, he held him and he took Henderson down. He was
shaken by his game plan and his techniques, that’s all”.
Source:
Tatame
|
Road
to the UFC Flyweight Championship
By Brian
Knapp
They
have waited their turn with persistent patience, many of them
plying their trade for regional circuit pennies as they sought
an opportunity no one seemed convinced would ever come their
way. In a matter of days, the flyweights will finally arrive
in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Score
one for the little guy.
A
four-man tournament to crown the promotion’s first flyweight
champion will kick off at UFC on FX 2 “Alves vs. Kampmann”
this Friday at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. There,
a quartet of the sport’s best and brightest at 125 pounds
will vie for the gold and the right to be remembered as the first
man to summit the UFC’s flyweight mountain. The winner will
be forever linked to the pioneering champions who went before
him: Mark Coleman, Frank Shamrock, Dave Menne, Pat Miletich,
Jens Pulver, Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz.
With
blinding speed and breathtaking skill as its hallmarks, the 125-pound
division can only strengthen the UFC brand. Which man will be
welcomed into the promotion’s pantheon of kings? Here is
a look at the four mixed martial artists who answered the call
on the Road to the UFC Flyweight Championship.
Joseph
Benavidez
No
one stands to gain more from the advent of the 125-pound class
than Benavidez. Universally recognized as an elite bantamweight,
he has already fought and lost to reigning champion Dominick
Cruz twice. That leaves Benavidez in a state of limbo at 135
pounds, a fact which was only exacerbated by the arrival of Team
Alpha Male stablemate and longtime mentor Urijah Faber. Benavidez
will enter the four-man tournament as a healthy favorite, backed
by a three-fight winning streak and previous victories over former
WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat
Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Rani
Yahya and well-traveled Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Jeff Curran.
The skills of a prime 27-year-old figure to translate well to
125 pounds, where the San Antonio native could prove freakishly
strong, as well. In short, this could be Benavidez’s doorway
to superstardom.
Yasuhiro
Urushitani
The
former Shooto 123-pound champion has his work cut out for him
in his UFC debut. Finished only once in an outstanding career
that spans more than a decade, Urushitani has avenged three of
his four professional defeats. The 35-year-old Japanese stalwart
has rattled off five consecutive victories, equaling the longest
such streak of his career. With wins over “The Ultimate
Fighter” Season 14 winner John Dodson, former two-division
Shooto champion Mamoru Yamaguchi and the world-ranked Yuki Shojo
already in his back pocket, Urushitani’s place in the tournament
can only be described as well-deserved. However, his counter-heavy
style lends itself to few finishes -- 17 of his 23 bouts have
gone the distance -- and one has to wonder how that methodical
approach will play against an opponent as gifted offensively
as Benavidez.
Demetrious
Johnson
A
5-foot-3 ball of fury, the diminutive Johnson, aptly nicknamed
“Mighty Mouse,” has become one of MMA’s most dynamic
performers. Successful in his bantamweight incarnation, the 25-year-old
Kentucky native used wins over former Ring of Combat champion
Nick Pace, Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts representative Damacio
Page, 2005 K-1 Hero’s lightweight grand prix winner Norifumi
“Kid” Yamamoto and Torres as a springboard to a shot
at bantamweight titleholder Cruz at UFC Live 6 in October. Though
Johnson fell short on the scorecards and wound up on the wrong
side of a unanimous decision, he caused Cruz plenty of problems
with his otherworldly quickness and agility. Now, the Matt Hume
protégé gets a chance to showcase his skills at
his natural weight class. Only one rule applies when watching
Johnson compete: do not blink.
Ian
McCall
Voted
Sherdog.com “Comeback Fighter of the Year” for 2011,
McCall has emerged as one of the sport’s most compelling
figures, with his signature handlebar mustache, affinity for
Chihuahuas and rebirth at 125 pounds. After a failed run as a
World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight, which included an embarrassing
submission loss to Charlie Valencia in 2007, “Uncle Creepy”
cut 10 pounds and has yet to feel the sting of defeat since.
The colorful, complex and, at times, seemingly haunted 27-year-old
Californian has made enormous strides with his striking and grappling
under Colin Oyama and Giva Santana. McCall -- whose battles with
addiction outside of the cage are as well-chronicled as his exploits
inside it -- burst on the global scene with a memorable 2011
campaign, as he captured the Tachi Palace Fights crown and scored
wins over the previously unbeaten Jussier da Silva, Dustin Ortiz
and Darrell Montague, all three of whom figure to follow the
trail he blazes into the Octagon. The world’s top-ranked
flyweight will find himself in deep waters in his first Octagon
appearance, as he locks horns with Johnson in the semifinals.
Anyone with a straight face willing to count him out?
Source Sherdog
|
Spike
Calls on Ratings Heavy-Hitter Kimbo Slice for TUF Live Counter-Programming
Spike
TV continues its counter-programming war against the UFC and
Fox. The network’s latest salvo is The Ultimate Fighter
Fridays.
The
UFC on Fox launch The Ultimate Fighter: Live on March 9 on FX,
so Spike is countering TUF Live with TUF taped. While the UFC
is offering its new jive-live format that features footage edited
during the week and leading up to a live fight on its current
episode, Spike offers footage from its fourteen seasons as host
network for The Ultimate Fighter.
Spike
TV has also brought in its top draw to kick off its weekly counter-programming
efforts.
Kimbo
Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson) will host the March 9 kickoff
of The Ultimate Fighter Fridays to “discuss never-before-revealed
details of his experiences on the show and provide insight into
what went on when the cameras weren’t rolling during the
filming of the The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.”
Season
10 of TUF, Kimbo’s season, was the highest rated of the
series’ 14-season run on Spike. Season 14 delivered an average
of 3.4 million viewers per week. The week that Kimbo fought eventual
season winner Roy Nelson, the ratings hit 5.3 million viewers
for that episode.
Now
Spike hopes to rekindle the YouTube phenomenon, countering the
UFC as the MMA juggernaut continues to establish itself across
the Fox family of networks, including Fox, FX, and Fuel TV.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Tomorrow!
|
Kauai
cage match #12
Rumble at the Resort-Warpath to Mayhem
March 3, 2012
Kauai Beach Resort
Aloha All,
Tickets
are now on sale for Kauai cage match #12, Rumble at the Resort-Warpath
to Mayhem, March 3, 2012, Kauai Beach Resort!
We
are again breaking new ground on Kauai as this is the first ever
MMA event inside a Resort ! We have come a long way since 2005
starting MMA on Kauai and not being welcomed with open arms with
the public to now being able to host an event inside a Resort
shows the tremendous steps we have taken here on Kauai with our
promotion.
Come
and see the new up and coming fighters as they battle their way
to Mayhem at the Mansion at the end of the year!
Tickets
now available at:
Kauai Harley- Puhi
Deli and Bread- Kukui Grove
Pono Market-Kapaa
Wongs-Hanapepe
Baby Blutique- VIP
Doors open at 5:30pm
Weigh
ins will be on March 2, 2012-Kukui Grove Shopping Center- 5:30pm
Official
after Party will be at Tiano's in Lihue
For
reserve VIP seating call 808-245-5888
Mahalo
and see you all on March 3rd!!!
|
Toughman
Hawaii: Challengers
Hilo Civic
Center, Hilo, Hawaii
March 3, 2012
Source:
Wally Carvallho
|
UFC
ON FX PREDICTIONS
By Michael David Smith - Lead Blogger
Predicting
the winners at UFC on FX.
Feb
28, 2012 - Will Martin Kampmann make a case that he deserves
to be in title contention in the welterweight division? Or is
Thiago Alves set to get his second win in a row? Can Joseph Benavidez
and Demetrious Johnson take care of business and advance to the
first ever UFC flyweight title fight? Or do UFC newcomers Yasuhiro
Urushitani and Ian McCall have what it takes to pull off an upset
in the UFC's four-man flyweight tournament?
I'll attempt to answer those questions as I predict the winners
of Friday night's UFC on FX show below.
What: UFC on FX: Alves vs. Kampmann
When:
Friday, the FUEL prelims start at 6 p.m. Eastern and the FX main
card starts at 9.
Where:
Allphones Arena, Sydney, Australia
Predictions
below.
Thiago
Alves vs. Martin Kampmann
During
Georges St. Pierre's long injury layoff, the UFC's welterweight
division is undergoing a dramatic transformation, with new contenders
establishing themselves in a weight class that GSP had previously
seemed to clean out.
This fight is a great opportunity for Kampmann to show that he
belongs in the title hunt. Alves has already had a title shot
and lost, and it's probably not realistic to think that he'd
get another shot at the belt. But if Kampmann beats Alves and
looks good in the process, he'd have a strong case that he deserves
a shot at interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit (whom Kampmann
beat by split decision in 2009) or that he's another win away
from getting a shot at the Condit-GSP winner.
I think Kampmann will out-grapple Alves and win a one-sided decision,
putting himself in the welterweight title conversation.
Pick:
Kampmann
Joseph
Benavidez vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani
I've
been saying for years that Benavidez was ready to be the best
flyweight in the world just as soon as Zuffa opened up a flyweight
division, and now it's time for Benavidez to prove it. Urushitani
is a good fighter who vacated the Shooto title to move to the
UFC's flyweight division, but he's not on the same level as Benavidez.
this should be a beatdown.
Pick:
Benavidez
Demetrious
Johnson vs. Ian McCall
McCall
left the WEC after losing to now bantamweight champion Dominick
Cruz, and at flyweight he's gone on a four-fight winning streak,
beating high-quality opponents and earning the No. 1 ranking
in the world according to some observers. I think Johnson has
superior speed and better wrestling, however, and should be able
to out-point McCall and win a decision.
Pick: Johnson
Court
McGee vs. Constantinos Philippou
McGee is 2-0 since winning Season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter,
and he's proven to be a solid if not spectacular prospect. The
UFC is bringing him along slowly with its matchmaking, and although
Philippou is on a two-fight winning streak of his own, I like
McGee to take this one.
Pick:
McGee
Source:
MMA Fighting
|
Jeff
Curran Meets Johnny Eduardo at UFC on Fuel 3
by Damon
Martin
‘The
Big Frog’ Jeff Curran will jump back into action at UFC
on Fuel 3 in Virginia where he faces Nova Uniao fighter Johnny
Eduardo.
Sources
close to the match-up confirmed the new fight to MMAWeekly.com
on Tuesday.
A
veteran of nearly 50 pro bouts, Jeff Curran had to fight his
way to get back into the UFC and was able to do so at UFC 137
last October. Unfortunately, Curran came up short against Scott
Jorgensen so he’ll try to get back to his winning ways this
May instead.
Facing
Curran in Virginia will be Brazilian Johnny Eduardo, who will
also look to avoid losing two in a row.
Eduardo
debuted at UFC 134 in his home country of Brazil last year, but
dropped a decision to fellow countryman Raphael Assuncao.
Now
in May he’ll face Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace Jeff Curran in
a fight on the UFC on Fuel 3 undercard taking place in Fairfax,
VA.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Matches
to Make After UFC 144
By Brian
Knapp
They
met 437 days ago in the Arizona desert, producing one of the
great fights of 2010 and one of the signature moments in mixed
martial arts history. Forever linked by their first encounter,
Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis now appear destined to meet
once again, this time with far more at stake.
Henderson
ousted pound-for-pound mainstay Frankie Edgar by unanimous decision
to capture the lightweight championship in the UFC 144 headliner
on Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, eliciting
49-46, 48-47 and 49-46 nods from the cageside judges. A few hours
earlier, Pettis figuratively decapitated “The Ultimate Fighter”
Season 5 semifinalist Joe Lauzon with a first-round head kick.
The
high-profile wins by two of the lightweight division’s promising
young stars appear to set the stage for a rematch of their epic
WEC 53 encounter in December 2010. His triumph ealed by his unforgettable
fifth-round “Showtime Kick” off the cage, Pettis won
by unanimous decision. It remains the only time Henderson has
been beaten in the last five years.
Their
first bout was undeniably superb, but the rematch has the potential
to exceed it. Henderson and Pettis used the World Extreme Cagefighting
springboard to better themselves and raise their respective profiles,
and they were at their very best in Japan. It looks as though
rounds six through 10 between them could soon be en route. Who
could argue?
In
wake of UFC 144 “Edgar vs. Henderson,” here are seven
other matchups we want to see made:
Jose
Aldo vs. Hatsu Hioki: For American fans that had not seen Hioki
in top form, UFC 144 likely proved an eye-opening experience.
The Japanese ace turned away the seasoned Bart Palaszewski with
takedowns, effortless guard passes, submission attempts and ground-and-pound.
He even humored the WEC import with an extended standup engagement
in the second round. Hioki’s unanimous decision over Palaszewski
figures to bring about a showdown with reigning featherweight
king Aldo. He has won six consecutive fights and has yet to be
finished in 30 professional appearances.
Frankie
Edgar vs. Jim Miller-Nate Diaz loser: Fires in fighters like
Edgar are not easily extinguished. Minus UFC gold for the first
time in nearly two years, the 30-year-old will be a force with
which cream-of-the-crop lightweights will have to deal for years
to come. The loss to Henderson will only stoke the flames of
his competitive spirit. Provided Edgar can string together one
or two wins following this setback, he could find himself in
play for a title shot in no time at all, perhaps even by the
end of 2012. Miller and Diaz will lock horns in a high-stakes
affair at UFC on Fox 3 in May. Have the winner knock on Edgar’s
door.
Ryan
Bader vs. Alexander Gustafsson: Bader was far from spectacular,
but a victory over one of the greatest light heavyweights in
history -- even if it was an overweight, out-of-shape and disengaged
Quinton Jackson -- cannot be discounted. “The Ultimate Fighter”
Season 8 winner seems to have left behind the sour memories of
his 2011 defeats to Jon Jones and Tito Ortiz, as he has clawed
back into meaningful circulation at 205 pounds. Should Gustafsson
get past Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on April 14 in his native Sweden,
a pairing with the once-again-relevant Bader could prove ideal.
Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua:
The rematch needs to happen at some point, and, with both men
on the rebound, now appears to be as good a time as any. Jackson
never seemed interested in a fight with Bader, but a second crack
at Rua -- the 2005 Pride Fighting Championships middleweight
grand prix winner who handed him arguably the worst beating of
his career -- could bring his Memphis, Tenn., blood back to a
boil.
Jake
Shields vs. Johny Hendricks-Josh Koscheck winner: Shields may
lack some of the world-class physical tools of his peers, but
no one can ever question his determination and will to win. The
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt grinded through his 15-minute
encounter with Yoshihiro Akiyama en route to a unanimous decision,
throwing the brakes on a two-fight losing streak and strengthening
his position in the UFC’s cutthroat welterweight division.
Because of his pedigree and past accomplishments, Shields’
road does not figure to get any less treacherous from here. In
that spirit, he could fit nicely into a matchup with the winner
of the Hendricks-Koscheck duel at UFC on Fox 3 in May.
Tim
Boetsch vs. Chris Weidman: Boetsch’s situation could not
have been direr, as he was completely outgunned in his fight
with the world-ranked Yushin Okami for two full rounds. However,
the man they call “The Barbarian” turned the tide in
dramatic fashion in the final frame, as he rocked Okami with
power and aggression before stopping the former middleweight
title contender with a series of wicked right uppercuts from
the clinch. The win likely earns Boetsch a crack at another Top
10 middleweight later this year. The undefeated Weidman, who
bested 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World
Championships gold medalist Demian Maia on short notice in January,
certainly fits the bill.
Mark
Hunt vs. Pat Barry-Lavar Johnson winner: Hunt was nothing more
than an afterthought when the UFC picked up his contract in 2010,
and a 63-second submission loss to Sean McCorkle in his promotional
debut at UFC 119 did nothing to dissuade the notion. However,
the 37-year-old has not lost since, and he poked his head back
above the .500 mark with a first-round technical knockout against
the favored Cheick Kongo at UFC 144. Hunt may be well past his
prime, but he still packs a mighty wallop and becomes must-see-television
when matched properly. Barry and Johnson will duke it out at
UFC on Fox 3 in May. Pin Hunt to the victor.
Source: Sherdog
|
FALLING
ACTION: BEST AND WORST OF UFC 144
By Ben
Fowlkes - Senior Writer
Feb
27, 2012 - UFC 144 brought us some exciting finishes and set
a new standard for translator style, but now that it’s all
over and the smoke has cleared it’s time to sort through
the mess for the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest
Winner: Ben Henderson
Usually when a fighter brags to his trainer about how many more
rounds he could go at the end of the fight, it’s either
a) an obvious lie, or b) meant to distract us from how poorly
he did in the rounds he already fought. With Henderson it was
neither. He really could have gone 15 more minutes, and would
probably have only solidified his lead on the scorecards. There’s
room to argue the decision, but you can’t look at Edgar’s
face and call it a robbery. Henderson took it to the champ and
never seemed starstruck by the scope of the moment or the opportunity.
In short, he looked like a champion in there, and now he is one.
His history with Pettis makes a WEC-themed rematch seem like
an attractive option, and Bendo has said that he wants that fight
eventually. For now, maybe we should let him get used to being
champion. Like Tito Ortiz, he might want to spend a few weeks
sleeping with the belt before putting it on the line.
Biggest Loser: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
He didn’t look terrible in his decision loss to Ryan Bader.
But if that’s the nicest thing you can say about the former
champ’s performance, it’s probably not a good sign.
The question with Jackson is how badly he really wants to keep
doing this, and for how long. If he has no realistic hope of
reclaiming a title, and if he doesn’t especially enjoy the
day-to-day aspects of the fighter’s life (and he doesn’t),
then why keep putting himself through the meat-grinder for a
few superfluous paychecks? Not that we should expect it to be
an easy decision. He’s not getting knocked out over and
over again like Chuck Liddell, but he also doesn’t seem
to have the same passion for the sport that Liddell did. If he’s
going to show up overweight and get out-worked by younger, hungrier
fighters, what’s the point? Hopefully, that’s the question
Jackson is asking himself this week. No one wants to watch a
former great fighting like he'd rather be filming an action movie.
Best
Career Resurrection: Mark Hunt
While I admit I was pleased to see that it’s not just me
who has trouble getting more than a couple words at a time out
of the former K-1 champion, I wasn’t terribly surprised
with the outcome of the fight. Hunt has improved his grappling
and his cage awareness enough to force other heavyweights to
stand and trade with him at least a little bit. When you can
take it and dish it out as well as Hunt can, that’s a recipe
for some knockouts. A win over Cheick Kongo might not qualify
you for a title shot these days, but with three straight wins
in the UFC Hunt has definitely pulled off an improbable career
turnaround at 37 years old. From July of 2006 through the end
of 2010, he couldn’t buy a win (though, with bouts against
guys like Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, and Alistair Overeem,
it’s not as if he fought a bunch of chumps). But Hunt didn’t
give up, and didn’t even give in to an offer of free money
from the UFC. He wanted the chance to prove himself, and now
he’s making the most of it. It’s the feel-good story
that everyone except Hunt wants to talk about, but that’s
okay. His performances of late speak for themselves.
Least
Impressive in Victory: Jake Shields
He spent three full rounds using his striking as little more
than a diversion to aid his takedowns, and he still struggled
to get Akiyama down and keep him there. Granted, Akiyama’s
a tough guy to haul to the mat, especially now that he’s
dropped to welterweight, but if Shields is going to depend so
heavily on his ground game he has to be able to force the issue
more. He’s now four fights into his stay with the UFC, and
he’s yet to pull off a truly convincing win. He’s too
good a fighter to be content with lackluster decisions, and yet
maybe not quite good enough to go out there and dominate tough
competition. I don’t know where that puts him in the UFC’s
welterweight class, but it’s nowhere good.
Most
Impressive in Defeat: Frankie Edgar
Once again, MMA’s Rocky shows that he can take his licks
and keep coming forward. There’s absolutely no quit in this
guy, and seemingly nothing he can’t fight through. You can’t
blame him for wanting to stick around at lightweight and get
his belt back, nor can you blame him for feeling like he deserves
a rematch. You don’t get to be UFC champion by being someone
who is easily convinced to seek out easier challenges. Still,
with his quickness and resiliency I think we’d all like
to see what he could do against Jose Aldo. All of us except,
perhaps, Edgar himself. Give him time to come around to the idea.
If it’s between an immediate title shot at featherweight
and getting thrown back into the hopper at lightweight, he might
change his mind soon enough.
Biggest
Boost: Anthony Pettis
The stars couldn’t have aligned any better for the former
WEC champ. After a stunning head kick finish against Joe Lauzon
and a victory for his old rival in the main event, Pettis might
have somehow managed to vault to the top of the UFC’s most
crowded division. Does he totally deserve the title shot after
only two wins in the UFC, one of which was a forgettable split
decision? Maybe not, and if he didn’t have that history
with Henderson, you can bet that no one would be talking about
it right now. None of that changes the fact that a Henderson-Pettis
rematch would be an exciting option right now, and one the UFC
likely knows it could sell. Maybe other fighters have to win
five or six in a row to get a shot at the title, and maybe it’s
a little unfair for Pettis to cut in line thanks to two memorable
head kicks, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Most
Refreshing: Joe Rogan admits to getting carried away
Okay, so Rogan freaked out a little bit when Tim Boetsch pulled
off a surprising comeback against Yushin Okami. It was a great
come-from-behind win for Boetsch, but probably not the greatest
comeback in the history of the universe, as Rogan initially seemed
to suggest. Most color commentators would breeze right past that,
but Rogan calmed down and admitted that, yes, he’d gotten
caught up in the moment. When’s the last time you heard
a sports broadcaster correct his own mistakes that quickly? In
a job that often requires speaking before you have a chance to
think, the occasional flub is going to happen. Props to Rogan
for admitting it on the air. Now all he has to do is tone it
down in those pre-PPV shouting matches with Dana White.
Source: MMA Fighting
|
Strikeforce’s
Scott Smith, ‘This Guy’s Not Going to End My Career’
by Mick
Hammond
Sometimes
in an effort to move forward, we actually move backwards, which
is what happened to Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith when
he decided to move down to welterweight.
“My
training camps hadn’t been that great my last couple fights,”
said Smith. “I focused more on my weight cut to 170 pounds
than I was on my training. I wanted to get more focused into
technique instead of just training to get in shape for fights.”
Smith
lost both his bouts at welterweight, so for his next fight he
will be returning to 185 pounds with an emphasis on also returning
to what made him most dangerous as a fighter.
“I
really want to get back to my roots in Muay Thai,” said
Smith. “Wrestling and my ground are always something I work
on, but if you look at my last five or six fights, I’ve
gotten away from throwing my kicks and elbows which early on
were successful for me.
“I
haven’t had much success counter-punching, so I need to
go in there with a game plan of what I’m going to do and
not just seeing what (my opponent is) doing.”
Smith
will get an opportunity to try out his newfound strategy when
he steps back in to the cage for the first time in nearly eight
months against Lumumba Sayers on Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey
on Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio.
“He
hasn’t been out of the first round, win or lose, and I don’t
have a ton of success in the first round, so it makes for an
exciting fight,” said Smith.
“This
is a fight where later on he’ll be in territory he hasn’t
been before that could be successful for me. I think he’ll
coming out swinging early, and once you weather that storm, you
can pick him apart. If he tries to take it to the ground, he’s
going to have to do it from the outside, because I’ve been
working on my Muay Thai and clinch a lot.”
While
Smith might like to look forward to the overall year upcoming,
he told MMAWeekly.com that he’s only focused on March 3
because he knows what’s at stake.
“I
know this fight is obviously a must-win for me,” he said.
“If I win this fight, then I can make out a two or three
fight game plan. But right now, pretty much this is it. I’ve
got to go out there and win this fight.
“(Being
in this situation) does mess with emotions: it’s scary in
one sense, but it kind of pumps you up on another sense, like
this guy’s not going to end my career for me.”
Regardless
of outcome, Smith is thankful for his fans and intends to put
his best foot forward for them in Columbus.
“I’m
glad they’ve been sticking by me,” he said. “I’ve
had a tough run of fights, so I hope I can come back there and
put on the kind of show that they like see.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
TUF
Brazil final still lacks location; news from presser in Japan
Filming
of the TUF Brazil reality show is going full steam. As is the
tradition, in the final episode of the show, the coaches of the
two teams face off, and that’s just what Vitor Belfort and
Wanderlei Silva are set to do, in one of the most long-awaited
rematches of all times.
The
showdown between the two will likely be the main event, as it
is rumored that the rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael
Sonnen will no longer be in Brazil.
The
final of the reality show was planned for a soccer stadium in
São Paulo—Pacaembu Stadium—, but the idea was
nixed. When queried about the venue for the TUF final, at the
post UFC 144 press conference, Dana White said it had yet to
be determined.
“We’re
working on it.”
The
mystery continues…
Still
at the press conference, Quinton Jackson guaranteed he will not
be retiring, even after losing to Ryan Bader. And the pressure
for featherweight champion José Aldo to square of with
former lightweight kingpin Frankie Edgar continues, Dana White
says he’s all for it. Now Ben Henderson looks set to have
his maiden title defense against the last man to beat him, Anthony
Pettis. White was pleased with the promotion’s return to
Japan
Source:
Gracie Magazine
|
Coach
talks Kid Yamamoto’s loss in UFC’s return to Japan
By Guilherme
Cruz
Kid
Yamamoto was good as new and focused for this comeback to the
UFC against the English Vaughan Lee, last Saturday (25th), and
he has a great start, but was then submitted yet on the first
round. Coach of the tough guy, the Brazilian Sergio Cunha regrets
the bad outcome.
“We
are all upset, of course”, said Cunha to TATAME, directly
from Tokyo. “He was doing great, moving well, fast and aggressive,
but Lee is a great fighter. Our game plan was to punch and move,
explore the stand-up, mixing the attacks. It was about winning
the first round and breaking Lee’s confidence”.
Thing
did not go, however, according to expected. After putting the
English on an uncomfortable situation, Kid was surprised with
two coups which shake him. In order not to be knocked out, the
Japanese tried to take him down and went for Lee’s guard,
and was responded with a triangle and then an armbar.
“He
was confident, trading punches well, but was then counterattacked.
It happens, it happens in the sport and Lee deserves all credits.
He did a good job, was calm enough to take advantage of the situation.
Congratulations”, compliments Sergio.
It
was Kid’s third loss in three UFC fights, but his glorious
past might guarantee him another chance on Dana White’s
organization. To grab this chance, Cunha says a good work has
to be done.
“I
hope he keeps training hard after a time off. He saw it was important
that his body is healthy and healed, so we gotta work more and
correct the mistakes on his stand-up guard, get him better at
Jiu-Jitsu and move forward”.
Source:
Tatame
|
Sherdog
MMA Pick’Em: UFC 144 Final Report
Boetsch
shocked everyone but himself.
Virtually no one bought into Tim Boetsch. Now, the doubters undoubtedly
wished they had.
Boetsch
sent shockwaves through the Sherdog MMA Pick’Em fantasy
game, as he roared back from the brink to stop former middleweight
title contender Yushin Okami on third-round punches at UFC 144
“Edgar vs. Henderson” on Saturday at the Saitama Super
Arena in Saitama, Japan. A staggering 91 percent of users expected
Okami to emerge from the encounter with his hand raised. He did
not.
For
two full rounds, all went according to plan for Okami. He battered
Boetsch on the feet and on the ground, seeming to close in on
a one-sided nod from the judges. Boetsch had other plans. The
AMC Pankration representative upped his intensity and aggression
in the third round, trapped Okami on the cage and unleashed a
firestorm of uppercuts that folded the Japanese stalwart and
capped a remarkable comeback for the man they call “The
Barbarian.”
The
rest of the UFC 144 main card was not particularly kind to Pick’Em
players, either, as the majority of them misfired on Frankie
Edgar-Benson Henderson (56 percent picked Edgar), Quinton Jackson-Ryan
Bader (83 percent picked Jackson) and Cheick Kongo-Mark Hunt
(77 percent picked Kongo). Most users were on point with Jake
Shields-Yoshihiro Akiyama (84 percent chose Shields), Hatsu Hioki-Bart
Palaszewski (64 percent chose Hioki) and Anthony Pettis-Joe Lauzon
(66 percent chose Pettis). The prelims were every bit as volatile,
as three heavy favorites -- Takeya Mizugaki (95 percent), Tiequan
Zhang (94 percent) and Norifumi Yamamoto (93 percent) -- all
felt the sting of defeat.
Within
Sherdog MMA Pick’Em, players earn points based on correct
match-by-match predictions for a given event. A maximum of 210
points can be picked up in a single match.
Players
are awarded 50 points for each correct pick, along with 30 additional
points if they choose the correct method: decision, knockout/technical
knockout or submission. If the method involves a finish, 30 additional
points will be awarded to players who choose the correct round
in which the finish occurs. Players are also allowed five boosts
per event through which they can notch an additional 100 points
for outcomes about which they feel particularly certain. However,
any incorrect selections involving boosts will cost the player
50 points.
“Darkan”
currently leads the Sherdog MMA Pick’Em standings with 7,020
points, having picked 53 of his 72 bouts correctly, with an 80
percent success rate on his boosts. The frontrunner, however,
was successful on only six of the 12 bouts at UFC 144.
Source Sherdog
|
Strikeforce’s
Sarah Kaufman is Angry and Wants Her Title Back
by Andrew
Gladstone
Former
Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Sarah Kaufman
has been put on the backburner for a shot at current champion
Miesha Tate.
Kaufman,
will be fighting to continue to earn her way back up to title
contention, while Tate’s current challenger, Ronda Rousey,
will be making her debut at bantamweight and is only four fights
into her MMA career. Rousey, however, has been effective at marketing
herself and her Olympic-level Judo background.
Regardless
of the situation, Kaufman remains with a positive outlook and
believes that either Tate or Rousey will be a fun fight for her
to get back her title, but first, she must impress Zuffa execs
when she meets submission grappler Alexis Davis at Strikeforce:
Tate vs. Rousey on Saturday night.
“I
think every fight is exciting,” Kaufman told MMAWeekly Radio
“I
was still pushing, even though I was realistic, even though I
wasn’t going to get it for the Miesha Tate fight cause that’s
the right fight for me and that’s what I deserve. I’m
not looking past Alexis. I have fought her before. It was an
extremely dominant performance before the TKO and I’m looking
to be even more dominant this time around. Not to prove anything
to anyone, but just because I need that. I’m angry and I
got that drive. I want that title back no matter what.”
The
Canadian’s drive and determination for capturing the belt
back cannot be denied as she looked impressive in her last fight
against a game Liz Carmouche at Strikeforce Challengers 17.
Even
though Kaufman’s been overlooked for the title shot, the
former Strikeforce champion doesn’t care whether she fights
either Tate or Rousey if she gets pas Davis. She already holds
a victory over Tate and believes she could beat her again, and
she also feels that Rousey fits her style of fighting perfectly.
“I
don’t care who wins, they’re just fighting and I’ll
fight whoever. If I give Ronda her first loss, I’d happily
do that because I will be hitting her and you know with Miesha,
she thinks she can beat me and I know I can definitely beat her,
it’s a win-win for me.”
If
Kaufman emerges victorious at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, she
will take out another top challenger in the bantamweight division
and prove without a shadow of a doubt that she’s the clear
no. 1 contender for the winner of Tate vs. Rousey.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
UFC
on FX 2 Start Times and Bout Order Released
The
final bout order has been released for this weekend’s UFC
on FX 2 card headlined by the welterweight match-up between Thiago
Alves and Martin Kampmann.
The
four main card fights that will air on FX starting at 9pm ET/6pm
PT.
UFC
on FX 2 Main Card:
MAIN EVENT: Thiago Alves vs Martin Kampmann
Joseph
Benavidez vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani (Flyweight tournament)
Demetrious Johnson vs. Ian McCall (Flyweight tournament)
Court McGee vs. Costa Philippou
UFC
ON FUEL TV PRELIMS STARTING AT 6pm ET/3pm PT
James
Te Huna vs. Aaron Rosa
Anthony Perosh vs. Nick Penner
Cole Miller vs. Steven Siler
Kyle Noke vs. Andrew Craig
TJ Waldburger vs. Jake Hecht
Mackens Semerzier vs. Daniel Pineda
UFC
ON FACEBOOK PRELIMS STARTING AT 5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT
Oli
Thompson vs. Shawn Jordan
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
Lighter
Camp Workload Has Kept Josh Thomson Healthy for Strikeforce Return
By Tristen
Critchfield
Josh
Thomson is the last man to defeat Gilbert Melendez, but ever
since he won a five-round decision from “El Nino” to
become Strikeforce lightweight champion in 2008, theAmerican
Kickboxing Academy product’s mixed martial arts career has
been plagued by injuries and extended layoffs.
“The
Punk” would sit out for more than a year before making his
first title defense in December 2009 against Melendez, who had
captured the interim crown in his absence. After losing the rematch,
Thomson had a fairly active 2010, earning victories overPat Healy
and Gesias Cavalcante before falling to Tatsyua Kawajiri on New
Year’s Eve.
He
hasn’t stepped in the cage since. Most recently, Thomson
was forced to withdraw from a proposed September bout with Maximo
Blanco due to a foot injury.
Now
finally healthy, Thomson will lock horns with K.J. Noons in the
co-main event of Strikeforce “Tate vs. Rousey” at Nationwide
Arena in Columbus, Ohio, this Saturday night. The 33-year-old
says that he has taken the appropriate measures to stay healthy
during his training camp.
“We
did something different for this camp, and I’m a little
nervous doing something like this against a guy like K.J. --
given all his experience -- [but] we felt like it was something
that had to be done,” Thomson said during a recent Strikeforce
media conference call.
“Obviously
I’ve spent half of my career on the shelf because of injury.
We really cut back on the workload that I was doing as far as
training in this camp. We’re hoping it pays off. I look
better and felt better in the gym than I have in years, but I’m
not looking to be a gym hero. I want to come in there and make
sure I perform well on fight night.”
In
the past, Thomson said he would engage in four-a-day workouts
three times a week before a fight. That included the standard
MMA sessions as well as grueling plyometric cross-fit workouts.
Cutting back there has allowed Thomson to remain fresher and
healthier.
“I
just felt that I was getting hurt a lot, getting injured a lot
[in previous camps],” Thomson said. “My body was just
breaking down.”
Thomson
has been working with the likes of Gray Maynard and Justin Wilcox
during his current camp, which he said was 12 weeks long to make
up for his prolonged absence. Also, the former Strikeforce champion
has been working extensively with kickboxers in preparation for
Noons, who has professional experience in both boxing and kickboxing.
“I’m
just focusing on making sure I’m in really good shape for
this fight given that K.J. likes to push the pace,” Thomson
said. “He likes to be an action fighter, and I want to make
sure I’m in shape for all those things."
Source:
Sherdog
|
Dana
White: The only thing consistent about the NSAC is that they’re
inconsistent
By Zach
Arnold
This
is a rather interesting interview. For the first four minutes,
Dana talks about the state of the Welterweight division and where
things stand. He then gets a shot in at Aaron Simpson for having
a fight that is a ‘blur’ and in Danaworld that’s
a quick way to get the axe or put in the doghouse. “Don’t
ever be the blur, man.” He then rips Dave Herman for wearing
a pink scarf and coming out to “Macho Man.”
The
UFC Japan is briefly mentioned. Dana vehemently denied that anything
PRIDE-style would be done and that it would be the standard UFC
production format, which he says is one of the best live sporting
experiences a fan can enjoy.
“No,
we’re not doing anything PRIDE.”
However,
the portion of this interview that has everyone’s attention
is what Dana had to say about Nick Diaz and his upcoming suspension
from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
ARIEL
HELWANI: “What is the latest on [Nick Diaz] and when do
you think we’ll find out how long he’ll be suspended
by the commission?”
DANA
WHITE: “Who knows? I mean, who knows? Let me put it to you
this way… they’re very consistent at being inconsistent.
So… Floyd Mayweather is allowed to, you know… first
of all, not only by the Nevada State Athletic Commission but
by the judge is allowed to not go to jail until his fight is
over. Right? Chael Sonnen, who had paid all his dues and everything
was behind him, was not allowed to coach The Ultimate Fighter.
Recently, a boxer tested positive for marijuana. He’s suspended
for a year and they take 40% of his purse. Floyd Mayweather walks
into the Nevada State Athletic Commission and they literally
kiss his ass.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Double standard?”
DANA
WHITE: “Double standard, bias, whatever you want to call
it… there’s one thing that’s consistent there
and consistent as hell, it’s one of the most insane things
that I’ve ever seen in my life. You know, and the response
would be, ‘this guy brings a lot of the money to the city
of Las Vegas.” So do we! So do we.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “And considering the fact that he has that prescription
to smoke medical marijuana in California, do you think he has
a case here?”
DANA
WHITE: “Who knows, I mean… as far as I know, marijuana
is illegal, right? But here’s what I do know… the Nevada
State Athletic Commission does not allow you to smoke marijuana.
You cannot have traces of marijuana in your system. It’s
pretty simple. There’s a list of drugs you can and you can’t
do and marijuana is one of the can’t dos, you know what
I mean? Whether you got a medical card or a doctor shows up and
says, ‘yeah, I allow him to smoke weed.’ ‘I don’t
care, we don’t.’ Heh. The Nevada State Athletic Commission
does not allow you to smoke weed.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Did Nick or his manager, Cesar Gracie, when was
the last time he did smoke prior to the fight?”
DANA
WHITE: “No. I mean, going into this fight, I had a talk
with Nick, we sat down, I told him and you’ve guys have
heard this a million times. I’m like, ‘Nick, listen,
play the game this much. It’s all I need you to do.’
And playing the game that much means don’t smoke marijuana
any time around any of your fights. Don’t do anything illegal,
you know, show up to some press conferences. I mean, I’ve
been very lenient with Nick Diaz, you know, we’ve invested
a lot of money in him. He came off looking incredible after that
series. People who didn’t like him then liked him, you know,
it’s just one of those things. It’s very frustrating.”
ARIEL
HELWANI: “Do you think we will ever see him back? Because,
at the end of that fight, he did retire…”
DANA
WHITE: “Yeah, I doubt he retired. I mean, we’ll see
what happens. Nobody’s called me and said he wants to retire.
This is what he does. He’s a fighter. Whether he likes it
or doesn’t like it, you know, the whole love & hate
thing… Nick Diaz was born to fight. This is what he does.
This is how he makes a living. He’s an incredible athlete.
He does triathlons and all these other things but nobody’s
making big money, you know, run, bike, swim.”
**
The
Nevada commission will have a hearing on Wednesday at 9 AM PST
to discuss young Nick’s suspension.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Joseph
Benavidez isn’t Done at Bantamweight Yet
by Damon
Martin
Joseph
Benavidez may be moving to 125 pounds to compete in the first
ever UFC flyweight tournament, but that doesn’t mean his
time at bantamweight is done.
Benavidez,
who went 7-2 during his time between the WEC and UFC as a bantamweight,
isn’t closing the door on a return there despite his new
home at flyweight.
The
problem that Benavidez was having at bantamweight had nothing
to do with an inability to hang with bigger fighters.
The
only two losses that Benavidez has in his entire career are courtesy
of current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, so unfortunately
he was stuck in limbo unless the promotion opted to see the two
square off for a third time at some point down the road.
Add
to that, Benavidez’s longtime teammate and training partner
Urijah Faber is the one challenging Cruz next for the belt. Benavidez
has said on numerous occasions that he has zero desire to face
him at any point. The move to flyweight was just natural.
That
doesn’t mean, however, that Benavidez won’t return
to 135 pounds at some point in the future.
“I’m
not against it. I definitely would like to go up and fight again
and see what happens,” said Benavidez when speaking to MMAWeekly
Radio.
“I’ll
fight at 35 again if the fights are right. Superfights are always
something the UFC wants to do, so we’ll see what happens.
I’m definitely not against it.”
The
focus right now for Benavidez is only on winning his fight at
UFC on FX 2 March 3 in Australia against Japanese fighter Yasuhiro
Urushitani, and then moving onto the finals of the flyweight
tournament to claim the championship.
Still,
Benavidez knows he is just now starting to hit his peak as a
fighter, and as time goes on, he definitely sees conquering the
bantamweight division as a goal.
“In
my mind I will fight at 35 again. I’m going to be fighting
for a long time, probably in the UFC for the rest of my career,”
said Benavidez. “35 is probably going to happen again.”
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
UFC
Sweden
Saturday, April 14th
Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden
TV: Fuel TV
Dark
matches
Welterweights:
Simeon Thoresen vs. Besam Yousef
Middleweights: Francis Carmont vs. Magnus Cedenblad
Featherweights: Eric Wisely vs. Jason Young
Lightweights: Yoislandy Izquierdo vs. Reza Madadi
Light Heavyweights: Cyrille Diabete vs. Jorgen Kruth
Welterweights: Papy Abedi vs. James Head
Bantamweights: Brad Pickett vs. Damacio Page
Diego Nunes vs. Dennis Siver
Main card
Welterweights:
Damarques Johnson vs. John Maguire
Welterweights: Paulo Thiago vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
Middleweights: Brian Stann vs. Alessio Sakara
Light Heavyweight: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Alexander Gustafsson
UFC 145 (Saturday, April 21st, at Phillips Arena in Atlanta,
Georgia)
TV: FX prelims, PPV main card
Dark
matches
Featherweights:
Marcus Brimage vs. Maximo Blanco
Welterweights: Keith Wisniewski vs. Chris Clements
Lightweights: John Makdessi vs. Anthony Njokuani
Lightweights: Mac Danzig vs. Efrain Escudero
Welterweights: Matt Brown vs. Stephen Thompson
Bantamweights: Miguel Torres vs. Michael McDonald
Lightweights: Mark Bocek vs. Matt Wiman
Main card
Featherweights:
Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin
Welterweights: Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills
Heavyweights: Travis Browne vs. Chad Griggs
Heavyweights: Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell
UFC Light Heavyweight title match: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans
Source: Fight Opinion
|
Recovered
from Surgery, ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira Resumes Training
Ahead of Schedule
By Gleidson
Venga
RIO
DE JANEIRO -- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira just couldn’t help
himself.
What
was supposed to be a light workout and press conference Monday
became the Brazilian heavyweight’s official return to training
following mid-December surgery to repair a broken right arm.“Minotauro”
wasn’t expected to resume workouts until June, but this
afternoon at the Team Nogueira training center, he put on gloves
and training gear to spar with teammate Diego Braga.
“I
felt great. I was longing to train. I was just going to show
some ‘shadow’ training, but I couldn’t stand it,”
said Nogueira, admitting that he isn’t yet ready to train
at 100 percent. “I still need about three weeks of physical
therapy [and] to hone my boxing with coach Erivan [Conceicao],
and then, later, I’ll call Master [Ricardo] de la Riva and
start training jiu-jitsu. I think I’m back in a month.”
The
35-year-old had his arm snapped in December by a Frank Mirkimura
in a brutal submission loss at UFC 140. Before Nogueira (Pictured,
file photo) can think about a Mir rematch, or any other fight,
he has some appointments lined up with his sparring partners
at Team Nogueira.
“Junior
‘Cigano’ [dos Santos] is coming here pretty soon, to
train for the fight against [Alistair] Overeem,” Nogueira
said. “Then, at some point, come [Antonio] ‘Bigfoot’
Silva and Anderson Silva. I need to be 100 percent for training
with these guys, because they’re tough guys.”
Source
Sherdog
|
Five
questions to look at heading into the UFC Japan 2012 event
By Zach
Arnold
This
is such an oddly intriguing show for a lot of reasons, both in-and-out
of the cage. There’s so many variables at play here. I could
bring up a million different angles to analyze but we’ll
take five basic storylines heading into the event here and look
at how everything is playing out right now.
On
Sunday, I saw the first cable/satellite barker ad for the PPV
event. The narrator’s voice is strangely subdued and what’s
not mentioned is that the telecast will apparently be four hours
long. Your guess is as good as mine.
1.
Will the crowd for this show represent a floor or a ceiling for
UFC & Dentsu?
I
am of two thoughts here.
First,
the positive take and one that UFC argues. They run a good show,
they get a few backers, and then through repetition hope that
some rich people who aren’t yakuza buy into what they are
doing.
Second,
the negative take and more realistic viewpoint. The Japanese
MMA industry on a mainstream level is dead. There are no major
Japanese stars being created now. Kid Yamamoto, Gomi, and the
rest are a dying breed. Once they are gone, the replacements
have nowhere near the same name value. That’s the great
irony about UFC’s predicament here. They want to build something
up in Japan but the local promoters that they weren’t friendly
with basically torched the business to the ground.
If
Dentsu is able to get UFC onto television, perhaps they have
a shot — albeit a small shot. The UFC product is not tailored
for Japanese cultural wants or needs. There aren’t major
Japanese players right now in the divisions sans Hatsu Hioki
and Hioki’s not a major star in his home country. The plan
was to broker some time on TV Tokyo, the smallest of the over-the-air
networks in Japan, and then try to parlay that onto a bigger
network like Tokyo Broadcasting System or Fuji TV. The major
problem with that strategy is that UFC is not a Japanese company
and the TV suits have no desire to touch MMA right now because
the police are on the warpath against the gangs. We know the
history of black money in the Japanese fight game. It resembles
Mexico in many regards.
2.
Will this be a WWE/non-traditional audience for UFC Japan or
will it draw traditional MMA fans?
When
WWE drew 13,000 at Yokohama Arena a decade ago, the Japanese
promotions freaked out. Was Vince going to steal their fans?
The answer ended up being a fat ‘no.’ The fans the
WWE shows in Japan attract are not the traditional wrestling
fans. They’re concert-goers. They aren’t the bread-and-butter
fans that used to read the weekly magazines or watch Samurai
TV/GAORA to watch New Japan, NOAH, All Japan.
If
UFC is to be successful long-term in Japan, they need to do something
that WWE utterly failed to do when they bought the assets to
WCW — win over the old MMA fans. UFC needs to win over the
PRIDE fans and get them into the fold. This belief that the PRIDE
fans just went away and never will come back is a misguided train
of thought. Those PRIDE fans are on the sidelines. K-1 couldn’t
win them over with their substandard product. UFC has the money
& resources to make it work… if they want to and don’t
use a Vince-like “you’re going to like what I want
you to like” mentality.
3.
UFC Japanese guys vs. ‘normal’ Japanese fighters who
are draws
Throughout
UFC’s history, both under SEG & Zuffa, there’s
been a strange dichotomy in regards to the kinds of Japanese
fighters UFC attracts & thinks are the right fit versus actually
booking Japanese fighters that are the major draws.
Go
back to when UFC got Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. Kohsaka was a middle-of-the-pack
draw in RINGS. Kiyoshi Tamura & Akira Maeda were the aces,
with Yoshihisa Yamamoto (of all people) just underneath. Kohsaka
became a somebody in the States, then went back to Japan and
promptly had a 30-minute draw with Tamura at Tokyo Bay NK Hall.
After that fight, his big notch was Fedor and the stoppage. Fedor,
of course, took care of business in the rematch.
Kaoru
Uno still, to this day, is viewed by UFC as this major legend
in Japan. There’s a difference between being a pioneer and
being a legend. Uno was never a big draw in Japan but he was
always treated with a lot more respect by foreign promoters than
native ones on a major scale.
Yushin
Okami is a no-namer back home. Nobody knows about him except
when he occasionally hangs out with guys like Shinsuke Nakamura
from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He’s not considered a big
star at all. He has the record to show the folks back home that
he’s the real deal but since he didn’t become a star
in Japan first, they don’t care. This point, ultimately,
is what makes or breaks UFC Japanese fighters versus traditional
Japanese draws.
Kid
Yamamoto is by far the biggest Japanese draw UFC has ever booked
and he’s been in a royal slump. He’s fighting to keep
his career alive now. He also got damaged with the marijuana
party story in Shukan Gendai, an outfit that we’ve seen
be very friendly to the interests of K-1 in the past.
Yoshihiro
Akiyama is the best shot they have of maintaining a high-level
name as a star but they put him into a very difficult spot against
Jake Shields. If Shields wins but does so in boring fashion,
this will be a crowd-killer.
4.
How will Japanese promoters react in the aftermath of the first
show?
When
I said the over/under number for the first UFC Japan show would
be 10,000, I used that as a benchmark because that’s a good
determination as to what the mindset will be of the locals in
regards to whether or not they start panicking.
If
UFC pulls in over 12,000, I guarantee you the panic will be starting.
If Dentsu even papers the crowd and gets 15,000, the pressure
cooker will be boiling. If the show draws in the 8,000-9,000
range as Shu Hirata says it has so far… the locals will
be laughing.
You
can spin 9,000 as a Ryogoku Kokugikan-level number & as a
half-house at Budokan or Yokohama Arena. Remember, Japan is more
about image than it is about substance when it comes to making
impressions in the fight game.
You
might look at the difference of a few thousand people and go,
“What’s the big deal?” Again, politics is everything
over there. Nikkan Sports is backing the show, so that media
outlet will be secure. Yahoo Japan will give UFC a fair shake
as well. However, the rest of the major media outlets are the
wild card. Dentsu has plenty of sway but there will be several
major media outlets that will either ignore the UFC show or go
out of their way to bury Dana White hard like they did when he
was portrayed as the evil gaijin corporate raider after the PRIDE
sale.
A
nice, big number here at UFC Japan shuts a lot of people up.
A solid number changes nothing. A low number gives a chance for
schadenfreude and spin.
5.
With no more television support, is MMA sustainable on a large
scale in the country?
It’s
not. This is why Dentsu backing UFC is so critical. A multi-year
deal to promote shows in the country means nothing unless Dentsu,
which has plenty of juice, can convince sponsors to back them
to get the events on TV. If an outlet like TV Tokyo, which historically
has plenty of pay-to-play examples for buying programming time,
is taking a pass on the UFC… that spells trouble. WOWOW
doesn’t cut it. You need a major broadcast TV network backing
you or else you are going nowhere on a big scale in Japan.
What
makes the situation much more difficult for UFC long term in
Japan is that there are no new major players entering the local
Japanese fight scene. All the cockroaches that damaged the scene
are still around, making promises left and right that they’ll
make a comeback. The scene dramatically needs fresh blood in
order to flush out the bad guys and right now that’s not
happening. Until the current cast of characters is eliminated,
the TV networks will have plenty of incentive to not give an
MMA promotion a major television deal because of political &
police pressure to not ‘reward’ the major gangs who
often are heavily involved in the sport.
Source:
Fight Opinion
|
Duffee,
Prangley, Kelly and Others Sign with India’s Super Fight
League
India’s
Super Fight League has announced the signings of several former
UFC and Strikeforce fighters including Todd Duffee, Paul Kelly
and Trevor Prangley.
The
promotion will hold their first show on March 11 from India with
the main event featuring former Elite XC fighter James Thompson
against Bob Sapp.
The
new signings announced on Monday include heavyweight Todd Duffee,
who holds one of the fastest knockouts in UFC history with his
win over Tim Hague. Duffee has been out of action dealing with
injuries since his loss to current UFC contender Alistair Overeem
at the close of 2010, and missed fighting at all in 2011.
Now
he’ll return to action as a part of the Super Fight League
in 2012.
Also
announced on Monday were new fight deals with former Strikeforce
competitor Trevor Prangley, former UFC lightweight Paul Kelly,
middleweight fighter Xavier ‘Professor X’ Foupa-Pokam,
Lena Ovchynnikova and Baga Agaev.
All
of the new fighters signed four fight deals with the promotion
with bouts expected to take place starting in 2012.
Source:
MMA Weekly
|
|