Random Fight News/Comments: 2011

[Guest John Hancock]

I don't think I'll ever really get used to that whole weight cutting culture, especially for light--heavyweights. I'm pretty sure Forrest was walking around last year at something absolutely ridiculous, like 260lbs or something. I'm five inches taller than Rampage and damned if I've ever weighted near 250lbs.

 

I'm interested to see the first generation of MMA guys starting to get old, because I want to see what effect all these crazy weight cuts have been doing to them physically.

[Guest Rikidozan]

Appears as though Thiago Silva has been caught Chael Sonnen-ing and his fight with Jackson at UFC 130 is off. Instead, we get Jackson/Evans II, and this time I hope the hype is the same, but the pay-off lives up to said hype.

 

UFC takes place May 28th, with Edgar/Maynard II as main, Jackson/Evans as co-main and Mir/Nelson, Alves/Story, and maybe Wanderlei Silva fighting too.

[Evil Gringo 279]

Now that is quite a stacked card to look forward too.

 

Nelson as I have said before on here, defeated Mir in a BJJ Competition before he joined the UFC (Nelson that is) and it would be interesting to see what happens this time out.

 

Edgar v Maynard wasn't the snore fest I thought it would be, in fact it was an early entrant for FOTY although there is of course a long way to go. I think Maynard will learn from his mistakes in the first fight and take out Edgar this time who should then cut down to 145lbs where his striking will carry more power and give him more of an edge.

 

Rampage v Evans II is also something I want to see, although Evans will more then likely win again and look to control in the clinch and take Jackson down... but Rampage always has that punchers chance and if he varies things up again like he should and uses his wrestling and his clinch games as well then it could make things very interesting.

[Guest Frank Botch]

UFC president Dana White has never been a fan of fighters refusing to fight one another because they are training partners or friends, so when former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans stated that he would change weight classes if fellow light heavyweight and good friend Jon Jones earned the light heavyweight title from Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in March, White's take was about as surprising as Anderson Silva feeling disrespected by an opponent.

 

"Now it's in the situation where, 'well, this guy's my friend and that guy's my friend...' Dude, you have way too many friends," White told MMADigest. "You need to keep the friends thing down and stop training with people. Now he's talking about, 'maybe I'll go to heavyweight, maybe I'll go to middleweight.' Well, if he goes to middleweight, Nate Marquardt is one of the top middleweights in the world... one of his friends. Shane Carwin's one of the best heavyweights in the world, well that's one of his friends. You know, he's got too many friends."

 

White also believes that Evans' has been inactive for far too long. The former champion has been out of action since May of last year, when he won a decision against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and the right face Rua for the light heavyweight title. When it was revealed that Rua needed to undergo knee surgery and would be out for a significant period of time, however, White believes that Evans should have taken another fight in the interim.

 

"When he said he was going to sit out and wait for Shogun, I said, 'You're insane," White continued. "'You're going to sit? [shogun] is injured and has to sit out. Has to overcome all of these things --rust and all this other stuff to come back. And you're gonna just sit out?'"

 

To White, it comes down to confidence in your abilities and taking advantage of one's limited time in the sport.

 

"If you truly believe that you're the best in the world you should be ready to fight anybody, because whoever you fight on the way up are guys, if you win the title, that are coming after you anyway," White said. "You might as well stay active, you might as well make money. Fighters have a very small window of opportunity and this kid's just letting the window close."

 

Now forced to sit while healing from a knee injury of his own, when he next steps foot inside the Octagon more than a year will have likely past since his last fight, but if it's at middleweight White says he's only a fight or two away from a title shot -- unless St. Pierre ends up with the title.

 

"His injury will keep him about 8-weeks," White said. "Rashad at middleweight is about two fights away. You know, if you did an Okami-Rashad Evans fight and the winner gets Anderson Silva or George St. Pierre... but he won't fight Georges St. Pierre because their friends."

 

Out of sync video:

 

[YOUTUBE]0S-o8_JMTbg[/YOUTUBE]

 

This is why I don't have any friends, nothing but trouble. And no one likes me.

 

Condit is injured and out of his fight with Lytle.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Brian Ebersole is replacing Condit.

 

TORONTO -- Toronto's appetite for the UFC is proving to be near insatiable.

 

The mixed martial arts juggernaut enjoyed a record day at the box office Thursday, selling more than 42,000 tickets -- its entire original ticket block -- for UFC 129 on April 30 at the Rogers Centre.

 

And they went in the first day of a pre-sale, with some paying a premium of almost $90 to join the fan club that had first crack at the tickets for the UFC's first show in Ontario.

 

"I LOVE CANADA!" UFC president Dana White told The Canadian Press in a text message.

 

The previous UFC attendance record was UFC 124 in Montreal, which drew 23,152 to the Bell Centre in December. White often refers to Canada as the mecca of mixed martial arts.

 

"To say the response was overwhelming would be an understatement," said Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations.

 

"In less than an hour we were pretty well down to some singles (tickets)."

 

It took the UFC even less time -- just seven or eight minutes after tickets went on sale to members of the UFC Fight Club at 10 a.m. ET -- to decide it needed to make several thousand more tickets available so there would be some left when the general public gets a chance to buy them Saturday.

 

On Friday, another pre-sale is set for those who subscribe to the UFC newsletter.

 

Wright would not detail the possible total number of seats on sale but said 50,000 would be "pushing it."

 

"I'd love to see a first digit (of) five but time will tell."

 

Tickets ranging in price from $50 to $800 went fast.

 

A search for best available tickets at noon produced a $50 limited view seat in the upper tier 500 level of the Rogers Centre.

 

With service charges and a one-year Fight Club membership ($88.19), the total rose to $153.69.

 

Some of those who managed to buy tickets Thursday were quick to put them up for resale. One seller offered eight side-by-side seats in Section 115 -- face value of $150 each -- for $4,500 or $562.50 each.

 

Another on Craigslist offered two $50 tickets for $175 each "or highest bidder.

 

Tickets also appeared on Stubhub, a ticket reseller.

 

The Fight Club has about 20,000 members worldwide, including some 7,000 in Canada. They are allowed to buy up to eight tickets in the pre-sale.

 

But being a member does not guarantee getting a ticket.

 

"Incredibly disappointed as a fan and fight club member still couldn't get tickets for UFC 129. Even at 10am. Horrible," Amy Miranda tweeted to White

 

SCALPERS LOVE CANADA TOO!

 

Freddie Roach: St-Pierre vs. Silva is the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather of MMA

by Steven Marrocco on Feb 10, 2011 at 3:30 pm ET

Count boxing guru Freddie Roach among those who can't wait to see UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (21-2 MMA, 15-2 UFC) fight middleweight champion Anderson Silva (27-4 MMA, 12-0 UFC).

 

After watching boxing's biggest fight go the way of the dodo bird, the trainer, who's been a fistic consultant for both champs, thinks it's the biggest possible draw for MMA.

 

"It's Pacquiao-Mayweather in MMA," Roach told UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan on this week's episode of "UFC Ultimate Insider." "It's one guy going up in weight to fight the bigger and better – supposedly better – guy."

 

Roach, who's trained some of boxing's biggest stars including multi-division champ Manny Pacquiao, knows about the heartache that comes with lost opportunity. After endless months of rumors about a possible megafight between Pacquiao and welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather, he gave an interview this past November in which he said the fight would never happen.

 

To see a meeting of MMA greats in their prime must be a small consolation.

 

At this point, the 50-year-old Roach said he has a closer relationship to St-Pierre. The welterweight champ sought him out as he prepared for his sixth title defense at UFC 124 against Josh Koscheck, and later asked Roach to be his cornerman (Roach declined due to prior commitments).

 

Roach marveled at the discipline St-Pierre brought to the table during their work together and predicted a left hook knockout of Koscheck. (No such luck for St-Pierre, though he broke Koscheck's orbital bone in the first punch of the fight and dominated the standup action en route to a unanimous decision.)

 

It's been more than a year since Roach worked steadily with Silva, though his time with the middleweight champ certainly left an impression.

 

"Anderson is a better boxer at this point," Roach said.

 

But while Roach believes St-Pierre is somewhat of an underdog, he thinks he might be able to change that.

 

"There's some things I've learned about Anderson that I think I can help Georges with," he said. "Because I've worked with [Anderson] closely, and Anderson is a very clever fighter."

 

So clever, in fact, that Roach thinks Silva has often mailed it in during his long reign as middleweight champion.

 

That won't be an issue for this fight, he added.

 

"That's one fight I don't think you have to worry about Anderson not getting up for," he said. "He will get up for [st-Pierre]. Because he doesn't always get up for fights like talented people do at times. Sometimes it comes so easily and natural to them that they get a bit lazy.

 

"But for that fight, I expect both guys to be at their best. Georges is stronger physically and can rough him up on the inside. Anderson's more of a technician and knows distance. Distance is the key to that fight."

 

Now, it's just a matter of St-Pierre getting past Jake Shields (26-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC 129, which takes place April 30 at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

[Guest John Hancock]

Oh I f*cking hate ticket scalpers. Yay self-invested capitalism and all that, but it's just such a d*ck move. The UFC website has some cool little feature for UFC 129, where you can see the view from your seat before you buy the ticket just to make sure. So all the criticism of the Skydome for being too big, the view from the cheapest seats isn't actually THAT bad.

[Guest Jack]

I'm interested to see the first generation of MMA guys starting to get old, because I want to see what effect all these crazy weight cuts have been doing to them physically.

There will be some damage to the kidneys, heart, liver etc., and they'd be more likely to find their weight harder to control, but the significant difference will be brain damage. They're putting themselves in risk of that and in 20 or so years, you'll see a few of these guys slurring their words. Not as many as boxing though, because the knockouts come quicker and MMA fighters aren't taking as much of an assault to the head, but there'll definitely be a few.

[Guest Dusty Finish]

The late pull-outs of Condit and (if true) Thiago Silva are potentially real body blows to the short term futures of both divisions.

 

In my head, I had Penn-Fitch and Condit-Lytle as tournament semis for the vacant 170lbs strap for after GSP moves up to Middleweight.

 

Devil's advocate- Jones beats Shogun. Rashad beats Rampage. 205 becomes as big a mess as heavyweight over night.

[Guest Rikidozan]

GSP won't stay at middleweight after he fights Anderson Silva, both GSP himself and Dana White have stated that won't happen. Like Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm said on their radio show yesterday, it's probably a wiser decision for Silva to move to 205lbs and make a run for Jon Jones should he beat Rua.

 

Like Beltster said I believe twice here on the forum, booking GSP/Silva is a big gamble because if Silva wins (which he very probably would) then you've damaged one of your (the UFC's) top draws and marketable fighters. Of all the division-moving options, to me, Silva moving to 205lbs make the most sense, although ironically a huge obstacle is of course Rua holding the light heavyweight title, so, as mentioned before, everything hangs on Jones beating Rua next month.

[Guest Rikidozan]

Even though the fight has not been made, oddsmakers are putting Rashad at a 2-to-1 favorite over Quinton Jackson should that fight be made for May.

 

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/

[Guest Frank Botch]

Fight isn't happening:

 

With Thiago Silva's status in doubt, the UFC isn't taking any chances.

 

MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) has confirmed with sources close to the UFC that the promotion has pulled the Brazilian from a planned UFC 130 matchup with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (31-8 MMA, 6-2 UFC), and Matt Hamill (10-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has stepped in to fill the void.

 

Verbal agreements for the contest are in place, and bout agreements are expected to be finalized shortly.

 

Hamill had been expected to face Phil Davis at April's UFC 129 event. It's currently unknown if Davis will receive a new opponent for the card or be shifted to a later date.

 

News of the new matchup was first reported by MMABay.co.uk.

 

Featuring a lightweight title rematch between champ Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, UFC 130 takes place May 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

 

Silva's status became an issue earlier this week when the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed the fighter's UFC 125 drug screen was still under investigation. While the NSAC has yet to file a formal complaint against Silva, the promotion has chosen to air on the side of caution.

 

Hamill enters the matchup on a five-fight win streak, albeit a bit of a dubious run with the inclusion of a disqualification victory over Jon Jones in December 2009. Nevertheless, "The Hammer" also counts wins over Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine, Mark Munoz and Reese Andy during the run.

 

Meanwhile, Jackson is 3-1 in his past four bouts with wins over Lyoto Machida, Jardine and Wanderlei Silva and a lone decision loss to Rashad Evans.

 

Rampage got this.

[Guest John Hancock]

That's a much better fight for Rampage. I doubt many people really give a sh*t to see Rampage/Evans II anyway, as the last one kinda sucked.

[Guest Kasabifan]

Lol Matt Hamill.

 

Page back into title contention again then after this one. Good news.

[Guest Rikidozan]

And the final UFC 129 ticket number is...55,000! All-time UFC gate record shattered, all-time Rogers Center gate gone too. Probably all-time MMA gate gone too, which will surely mean Pride fanboys being placed on suicide watch.

[Guest The GS]

Strikeforce on any Sky channel anymore?

Think Angle's company Angle Foods is going to be a sponsor on Fedor's shorts. Well that's what I'm taking from one of Angle's recent tweets.

[Guest John Hancock]

Strikeforce on any Sky channel anymore?

Think Angle's company Angle Foods is going to be a sponsor on Fedor's shorts. Well that's what I'm taking from one of Angle's recent tweets.

 

It's on Showtime in America, but I have no if they have some sort of agreement with any British/Irish channels like HBO do with Sky Atlantic, or Comedy Central do with Paramount Central.

[Guest Rikidozan]

Tonights event is airing on PrimeTime PPV in the UK, and assume all forthcoming StrikeForce events are too.

[Guest The GS]

Tonights event is airing on PrimeTime PPV in the UK, and assume all forthcoming StrikeForce events are too.

 

That a Sky channel?

[Guest John Hancock]

I think so. Channel 480 apparently. They're doing a bundle deal where you get the entire tournament for £24.95.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Channel 480, it's PPV though. 9.95 for tonight, 25 for the whole thing.

 

You have to be registred with them and stuff too, even if I ever paid for anything it's too much trouble.

 

EDIT: That last line is so grammatically incorrect, stay in school kids. I don't pay for anything ever but even if I did, this whole deal would be too much trouble. A little better.

 

Miguel Torres is fighting Brad Pickett at 130, try not to get too excited at that news.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Frank Botch