MMA Personalities News - Page 43

Mention the greatest night of his professional life, and Seth Petruzelli won't give you that here-we-go-again stare, even though he's heard it all before, at least 1,001 times. As you know – and he knows well – Petruzelli was a UFC failure 10 months ago, buried on the preliminary card of "EliteXC: Heat" and set to face Aaron Rosa before Ken Shamrock suffered a cut over his eye and was forced to back out of the main event against Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson.

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Gabe Ruediger, a former cast member of "The Ultimate Fighter 5" still trying to improve his image after disastrously failing to make weight on the reality show, picked up his fourth consecutive win over the weekend. Ruediger (15-5) submitted the previously unbeaten Wander Braga (10-1) via second-round guillotine choke at this past Saturday's CalledOut MMA event at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif.

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Check out the full weigh in results for Saturday's Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg event, as well as pictures!

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With women’s MMA about to take its biggest step forward, one of the original pioneers of the movement will be sitting on the sidelines watching, but not by her choice. Earlier this year Erin Toughill had been announced to participate on the undercard to Saturday night’s Strikeforce card, with the belief that she would step into the evening’s main event featuring Gina Carano and Cris “Cyborg” Santos should one of them be forced to withdraw. Alas, it never came to fruition.

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Police: Man shoots own leg, crashes his pickup A Germantown man who apparently shot himself in the leg was flown to an area hospital Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 12, after crashing his pickup truck into two vehicles before striking a utility pole. Billy Rush, 35, of Germantown, drove his Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck into a utility pole at 12:26 p.m. in front of 1270 E. Second St., minutes after he drove eastward out of a Shell gas station, crossing three lanes before he was struck by a Chevrolet Impala, said Franklin police Chief Gordon Ellis. The pickup then traveled into a parking lot and struck a parked car, then headed back onto the road and struck the pole, he said.

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Chad Dukes: Would you ever consider [dropping to light heavyweight] and facing [Silva]? Randy Couture: Yeah, are you kidding? I think he's one of the best fighters in the world. Those are the kinds of guys I want to fight. That would be an interesting fight. I think the guy with a wrestling background that can get their hands on him, tie him up and smother him is definitely a guy that's going to give him fits and make him have a rough night.

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It’s gone past passé to say that Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le has been conspicuously absent from the promotion’s expanding rotation. Le (6-0) earned the title after defeating Frank Shamrock almost a year and a half ago but has yet to defend it. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has even relented in announcing that he’ll put an interim title up for grabs before the end of the year. Hopefully, the splintered lineage will be unified sooner than later. Le, 37, said he’s spent his time away from the cage nursing injuries and surgeries, as well as acting in five films (including a co-starring turn with Dennis Quaid in the sci-fi flick “Pandorum” due out Sept. 18). Le hinted the promotion has bigger plans for him anyway.

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Anderson Silva explains why he will never fight his friend, Lyoto Machida.

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Jake Shields could easily make the claim as being the most talented fighter currently competing in the sport that gets the least amount of respect and recognition for his caliber of skill level. The thirty year old Cesar Gracie trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt has gone undefeated in the past four years, racking up a dozen consecutive victories over the likes of Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit and Paul Daley.

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Throughout his dominant UFC career, the knock on Anderson Silva has been his drawing ability, or lack thereof. His two fights with Rich Frankin did buyrates in the 300,000 range, and his fight with Dan Henderson did only slightly better. Then in July 2008, the UFC put together a monster campaign on his behalf leading into his fight with James Irvin, and Silva came through with a memorable highlight knockout. The show did a big rating for Spike TV, and everyone thought Silva was on the path to being a big draw. Then Patrick Cote happened.

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Four months after his most recent fight, a loss to Shogun Rua at UFC 97, Chuck Liddell is relaxing and enjoying life. But he's not ready to say he's retired. In an interview Wednesday with FanHouse, Liddell said that he doesn't know if he'll fight again, and he doesn't know when he'll be ready to retire. Liddell wants to determine the future of his career on his own schedule, and he's only going to decide for sure after he gets back in the gym and tests himself again. Liddell also talked about connecting with the fans, dealing with a Twitter imposter, and his acting career. The full interview is below.

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Over a brief period of time it looked like UFC lightweight Kurt Pellegrino may be on his way down the 155-pound ladder, or worse yet, out of the company. Losses in two out of three fights, to Joe Stevenson and Nate Diaz, had Pellegrino reeling, looking for a way to rebound and get his career back on track. Enter fellow UFC lightweight contender Kenny Florian. After moving back to his native New Jersey and making a decision to join Florian’s camp in Boston, Pellegrino has flourished, winning three straight fights, including this past Saturday’s win at UFC 101 over Josh Neer.

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The breakout mainstream success that has been achieved by Gina Carano may seem like a new phenomenon, but in truth she is simply the latest in a line of women to achieve such things. In the 90’s it was Kathy “The Punisher” Long who parlayed her success in the kickboxing and boxing ring to movie roles in such films as Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Tim Burton's Batman Returns to even making an appearance as a commentator at UFC 1.

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For Gina Carano, it’s a good thing that her next opponent, Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, is the scariest fighter south of the equator. If she wasn’t, Carano would have a hard time getting into the gym. On Saturday, history will be made in San Jose, Calif., when the two face off as headliners of a major MMA card in the midst of a headline-filled summer. Strikeforce, the sole second of the UFC, booked the fight for five, five-minute rounds to the objections of some of its fighters. The logic was that female fighters always steal the show, especially when one of those fighters is the first and only female to crossover on the mainstream radar.

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Scott Casber recently talked with UFC and MMA Legend Don Frye. Scott and Don talk about Frye’s recent appearance in ‘Public Enemies’, his long wrestling background, growing up on boxing and being a No Holds Barred fighter.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Wednesday confirmed the return of Vladimir Matyushenko to the promotion, announcing a bout between the Belarusian and Croatian fighter Igor Pokrajac. They will meet on the undercard of UFC 103 in Dallas, which features a main event pitting Rich Franklin against Vitor Belfort. ...

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by Jordan Breen (jbreen@sherdog.com) 19054 Anderson Silva is a great fighter. No, I know, that's not a startling revelation, let alone an interesting one. After his three-minute mauling of Forrest Griffin on Saturday night, the ever-fickle MMA public has decided that Silva is to be celebrated once again, and in the strongest of terms. That's to be expected after a performance with such a violent and skillful aesthetic. Griffin threw 35 strikes at Silva's head and landed literally one. Silva knocked Griffin on the mat three times. In case you're not mathematically inclined, that means Silva actually knocked Griffin down triple the amount of times that Griffin even touched his face. However, what's been overlooked in discussion of Silva's superlative skills is his equally lofty accomplishment. Silva's complete sonning of Griffin is not just a technical sign of the times or an acid test that portends a successful light heavyweight run. It's actually set a particularly impressive standard for pound-for-pound achievement: With the victory, Silva has become the first fighter in this sport's short modern history to defeat top-five opponents across three weight classes. Of course, Silva became a superstar when he became MMA's first pantheon-level middleweight. However, long before he ever eviscerated Rich Franklin, even before his Pride tenure, Silva was one of the sport's best welterweights. Eight years ago, he rolled into Osaka and took the Shooto world 168-pound title from Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, who was widely seen as the sport's top pound-for-pound fighter at the time. In fact, on the back of that victory, Silva was actually slated to make his UFC debut at UFC 34 to face then-champ Carlos Newton. The exclusive deal that Zuffa wanted for Silva didn't jive with "The Spider," though, or his Chute Boxe handlers, who wanted to keep doors to Pride and Meca Vale Tudo open. Just think how radically different history might be if Silva got into the Octagon in '01 and Matt Hughes didn't unconsciously powerbomb his way to glory. Maybe there's a Marvel Comics-style "What If?" concept brewing. Nonetheless, it is strange that the victory over Sakurai gets glossed over historically when it was Silva's first great moment and it is an accomplishment that stands the test of time. How often does any fighter dethrone the pound-for-pound king? Surely when Silva loses, the world won't forget about it in eight years -- at least I hope not.

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Check out the video to see Gina Carano talk about her upcoming bout with Cris Cyborg, weight issues, sex tapes, and more!

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Check out the video below as Frank Shamrock interviews both Gina Carano and Randy Couture, as they talk strategy and discuss Carano's upcoming bout with Cris Cyborg.

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Anderson Silva wasn't lying when he stated that he's years ahead of the competition. At UFC 101 on Saturday, he showed the world exactly why he's one of the most feared strikers in the sport by dismantling former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin in 3 minutes and 23 seconds. It looked to be a walk in the park for the UFC Middleweight champion. It was fairly evident in the week leading up to this tilt that Forrest Griffin was being highly over-valued as a legitimate challenger to Silva. While a lot of fans agreed that Griffin's size could be a legitimate problem, it almost works to every challenger's disadvantage in the light heavyweight division. Speed is what kills competition in MMA, and the same case is made in boxing as well. Unfortunately, Griffin didn't have the game plan to stifle that speed.

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