Random Fight News/Comments: 2011

[Guest John Hancock]

I didn't even see that WEC match, but I can't argue with the MVP list.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Yeah they pretty much pick themselves. A lot of people loved Garcia/Jung (obviously) but I can never get into those type of fights. Number two and three are pretty awesome though so it's cool they made it.

 

To finish the MMA winners: UFC 116 won Best Major Show, GSP won Most Outstanding Fighter, Joe Rogan won Best Television Announcer(bah), and Silva/Dana got the Booker and Promoter awards.

[Guest TruSoul]

I didn't see any of those fights and while I can't stand Lesnar...I can't argue the list. He has pulled a lot of people to see the fights....

[Guest Frank Botch]

Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" peaks with more than 850,000 viewers

 

Strikeforce's first event of 2011 was a hit with Showtime viewers.

 

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed that this past Saturday's "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" event peaked with 853,000 viewers.

 

Industry sources confirmed that viewership on the premium-cable channel peaked during the evening's main event between Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz and Brazilian slugger Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos.

 

"Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" took place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

 

Overall, the event averaged 561,000 viewers, which is more than any single Strikeforce event broadcast on Showtime in the past year.

 

The peak viewership was the second-highest ever earned by a Strikeforce event on Showtime, ranking just behind 2009's female championship fight between Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos and Gina Carano, which drew a Strikeforce record 856,000 viewers during the main event and averaged 576,000 viewers for the card.

 

The ratings for Strikeforce's most recent events include:

 

576,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg" (January 2011)

517,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Miami" (January 2010)

412,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum" (June 2010)

367,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Houston" (August 2010)

350,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Noons 2" (October 2010)

341,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu II" (December 2010)

308,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery" (May 2010)

164,000 viewers, "Strikeforce: Los Angeles" (June 2010)

 

Great rating, good news going into the GP.

[Guest John Hancock]

That's a damn fine rating for a show like Strikeforce! Well done lads.

[Guest Frank Botch]

[YOUTUBE]3Hz6Uq4Ar9o[/YOUTUBE]

 

Dana meets some kids, watches basketball and gets some broken ribs from Lesnar.

 

Jon "Bones" Jones becomes one of just a few major MMA Athletes to sign a shoe deal. With K-Swiss.

 

Now I have to buy some K-Swiss.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Brian Stann and Wanderlei Silva have been officially paired up for the UFC 130 pay-per-view event on May 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the promotion's popular "Ultimate Insider" webcast.

 

Stann punched his ticket (literally) for bigger and better things in the busy 185-pound division with a first round technical knockout over the resurgent Chris Leben at UFC 125: "Resolution" just last month.

 

Prior to withdrawing from the "Lesnar vs. Carwin" pay-per-view event, Silva outpointed Michael Bisping at UFC 110 in Sydney, Australia, snapping a two-fight skid to bring his record to 2-3 inside the Octagon and 33-10-1 overall.

 

Read entire article..

 

FC 130 card to date:

 

Main Card:

Champ Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard (lightweight title bout)

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Thiago Silva

Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann

Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson

Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story

 

Prelim Card:

Travis Browne vs. Stefan Struve

 

Wand losing to a former marine would be a nightmare for 'ol Frank Botch, won't happen though. Struve from semi main to prelims. Good card.

[Guest John Hancock]

Hell of a card. There's not a single fight there that I don't want to see.

 

LOL@Struve though. He wasn't just in the semi-main event, he WON the semi-main event, in the first round, by TKO. I guess they just want a semi-known "name guy" to be on a free fight to rake in the publicity and interest, like they're doing with Yamamoto for UFC 126.

[DC 536]

I thought Nelson was tied up elsewhere. When did that mess get cleared up?

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, apparently that all got sorted out

[Guest Frank Botch]

It was funny that that was the only explanation we got; ''Nelson, who's contract dispute has been resolved, will fight Mir.'' Dana probably got his blackmail on.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Extreme Sports are showing WEC shows every night so if anyone missed them first time around, check 'em. Not sure how long they've been doing this so I might be late but, you know, if they are on a while, nobody told me.

 

Rampage turned down a chance to take Rashad's place:

 

Before Jon Jones ultimately got a UFC 128 title with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was offered the bout but turned it down.

 

A UFC official today confirmed the turn of events with MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com). Rua first mentioned the possibility in an interview with Tatame.com.

 

The March 19 slot opened this past weekend when Rashad Evans's knee injury forced him out of the upcoming title fight, which takes place in Newark, N.J. as a pay-per-view headliner.

 

With Jackson turning down the title fight, he still officially is scheduled to fight Thiago Silva in the co-headliner of May's UFC 130 event. Soon after that fight's announcement, UFC president Dana White hinted that Jackson could be in line for a title shot with a victory.

 

The reason Jackson turned down the title fight wasn't immediately clear. The UFC official declined to comment, and the fighter's representatives couldn't be reached.

 

However, Jackson previously has talked about wanting to avenge a 2005 loss to Rua, which came in PRIDE. The violent TKO actually prompted Jackson to change up his training, which resulted in a subsequent six-fight win streak and the winning of the UFC light-heavyweight title.

 

Regardless, the UFC 128 situation all must have happened quickly.

 

Just hours before UFC 126 began Saturday in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White learned that Evans will be out six to eight weeks with a strained ligament in his knee. That apparently was when the fight was offered to Jackson, who would have seen his remaining camp time cut in half from 12 weeks to just six.

 

With Jackson out, Rua then agreed to a proposed fight with Jones right before the contender's UFC 126 main-card bout with Ryan Bader. Ten minutes later, after a second-round submission victory, Jones also jumped on board for the UFC 128 title fight.

 

"We did the deal literally, I don't know if you saw, but earlier, we told 'Shogun' that, 'Hey, listen, if this kid wins, we want to put him in there for the fight,'" White told MMAjunkie.com after UFC 126, which took place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. "We talked for a while about it. Right before Jones and Bader came out, him and his team accepted the fight."

 

White said there was no back-up plan after that.

[Guest Kasabifan]

Kinda odd, I know Rampage still has visions of knees and soccer kicks in his head of Rua, but Rua is coming off a long lay off, and if anyone can attest to ring rust it's Rampage. Just odd that he would turn it down.

[Guest Rikidozan]

@FrankBotch; I reported as much to WrestlingObserver.com about a week ago.

 

In regards to Jackson passing-up the chance to have the title shot, I think a move like that shows improved maturity and long-term thinking that he's sorely lacked in his career thus far. Seems like Evans/Jackson II is now set for later in the year.

[Guest Frank Botch]

@FrankBotch; I reported as much to WrestlingObserver.com about a week ago.

 

I see, I don't use that... particular site.

 

Rampage can talk about training time etc but I think it's all down to this:

 

I know Rampage still has visions of knees and soccer kicks in his head of Rua,

 

I mean I like Rampage but that Rua fight was brutal, he's probably still not over it.

 

- While there had been speculation that Kenny Florian would drop down to the featherweight division, speculation has ended as Florian confirmed via Twitter that he would be fighting at 145. Here is what he posted….

I'll indeed be fighting at 145lbs. It is a great new challenge. Goal is to get belt at FW & I'll be back at 155. TY all for the support.

I'll always have haters no matter what decision I make but for me it's always been about new & difficult challenges & doing what I love. TY.

 

Good luck from a hater Kenny.

 

Aldo will murder you.

[Guest Kasabifan]

Tyson Griffin has dropped down also, I think thats already been reported here tho.

 

Its a good move for both tbh, they were growing increasingly irrelevant at 155, and in Griffin's case was probably close to being cut.

 

But yeah, Aldo smash.

[Guest John Hancock]

I though Griffin had already been cut. Can't see him doing much better at featherweight than lightweight really. Any excuse to keep his job though I suppose.

[Guest Rikidozan]

To look at it from a different point of view; Florian, and to a lesser extent Griffin, will hopefully bring along any casual UFC fans who've never heard of the great former WEC bantamweight/featherweight, or don't care about the WEC guys they've never heard of, but have heard of/like Florian and Griffin. Smart move by the UFC in my estimation.

[Guest The Beltster]

I dont think Rampage is scared to fight Rua again at all, I have no doubt his reasoning of lack of training and prep time is the reason he turned it down. He's apparently about 50lbs over making weight with what? 5-6 weeks out? He'd have to cut weight hard which is draining AND he would need to train for Rua, who is a great fighter. He would be stupid to take the fight on this short notice with no many intangibles and go in there and get flattened.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Yeah he's 250 right now:

 

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson today responded to Rua's revelation that "Rampage" turned down a title shot that subsequently was given to Jon "Bones" Jones at UFC 126. The title-fight slot opened when Rashad Evans recently went down with a knee injury.

 

"I'm not taking a fight on four weeks' notice ," Jackson said in an exclusive interview with MMAjunkie.com. "It's not enough time to get ready for a five-round fight. Dana knows that. And 'Shogun,' he's a fighter, and he should know that. He shouldn't even go and say s--- like that with him being a fighter. He saw me at the fight this weekend. Everybody saw how big I am."

 

Jackson currently is scheduled to fight Thiago Silva at UFC 130. If he had taken the Rua fight, he'd have just six weeks to prepare. Right now, he has 12 weeks until UFC 130.

 

"I'm 250 pounds, and I would have to lose 45 pounds in, what, three or four weeks? The first time I fought 'Shogun,' I was injured going into that fight, and it's haunted me all the way up to now. I always believed the second time I fight 'Shogun' that I'm going to be close to 100 percent as possible."

 

So for now, he plans to focus on Silva.

 

Lies!! Probably.

 

And damn, this dude gets out of shape between fights.

 

In kinda related news Rua is the betting underdog going into his fight with Jones. Huh.