Other Combat Sports News - Page 4

Many people in the MMA world know Marco Alvan for being the lead trainer for UFC heavyweight contender Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga, but the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and Team Link founder is also an accomplished grappler himself. Alvan is set to display his ground skill when he faces UFC middleweight Jorge Rivera in a special grappling match coming up at the New England Grappling Championships in Rhode Island.

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Wrestling Canada officials are intrigued by Georges St-Pierre's interest in wrestling at the Olympics but, like the mixed martial arts star himself, are tempering their enthusiasm with a dose of realism. The 28-year-old UFC welterweight champion from Montreal says he is mulling over giving up his title and walking away from MMA to spend 18 months devoting himself to making a run at the 2012 Games in London. Canadian wrestling coach Dave McKay, a two-time Olympian who finished fifth at the 1988 Olympics, has never met St-Pierre or seen him wrestle. But he is no stranger to MMA and speaks highly of his skills.

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In this MMA Access feature, Mike Reilly from Team Bison (Brett Rogers’ head trainer) talked with PDG about Brett’s main event fight in Strikeforce, the training leading up to the fight and what is next for the formerly undefeated heavyweight.

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PDG: You mentioned that before; that even though none of Brett’s fights had gone to the ground you guys had been working on his ground game extensively. Mike Reilly: That is my background and is really the base for a lot of the things that we do during training. Brett has very good round skills, he is extremely difficult to submit and so we weren't surprised at all about how Brett performed on the ground during the first round. We knew that Fedor’s best option was to stay in the half guard because if he made any effort to gain the full mount he would have been reversed. Brett did a good job getting back to the guard, reversing and then landing a couple of good shots. I think part of the problem in this fight was that our game plan consisted more of the standup game and maybe we should have surprised Fedor with more of an emphasis on the ground game.

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osh Barnett took the tournament gold in the ultra heavyweight/pessadisimo (over 215 pounds) division among the blackbelts at the World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship 2009 held at California State University in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 8. In the tournament final, Barnett bested Ralph Gracie pupil, Bruno Paulista. Paulista had an impressive showing against the larger Barnett — he demonstrated nifty guardwork, locking up Barnett and threatening him with triangle choke from high guard and arm bar via knee bar feint. Despite struggling to pass Paulista’s guard, Barnett defended well against his submission attempts and kept up the pressure throughout the 10 minute contest.

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For their Saturday night theatrics, Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone may well take "Fight of the Year" honors when Sherdog staffers convene in January to talk about awards hardware for 2009. It will likely get my vote. But it's not the lightweight fight from the night I want to talk about. Lost in the post-event excitement that a truly great fight breeds -- never mind the upset special delivered by Mackens Semerzier -- is the horrific job that referee Jon Schorle did in officiating the Dave Jansen-Rich Crunkilton fight. Completely missing a blatant (albeit inadvertent) knee to Crunkilton's groin -- to which he reacted visually and audibly -- was bad enough on its own. However, with the fight on the line in the third round, Schorle saw fit to repeatedly stand Jansen up from top control instantaneously, as the unbeaten lightweight prospect was trying to steal the round and the fight. For the last half of the final stanza, the eventually victorious Jansen fought both Crunkilton and the inane whims of Schorle. But this is not an op-ed about an isolated incident in which Referee X did his unwitting best to ruin a fight. It's not even just about the act of refereeing itself. People reacted to Schorle's mishandling as if he were a local misfit referee who just cropped up that evening. Media reports used the name "Jon Schorle" without a sense of context. The commentary booth, including an increasingly agitated Frank Mir, referred to him only by the disparaging title of "this referee." If you're a boxing fan, you'll be dismayed to find out that Schorle, a Californian-based official now splitting time in Texas, was the referee who stood by while Vic Darchinyan beat Victor Burgos until he had a blood clot in his brain, resulting in emergency surgery and an induced coma following the bout. He was the third man in the ring for Vitali Klitschko beating hapless Corrie Sanders to a pulp. He oversaw the Erik Morales-Zahir Raheem bout -- which he allowed to devolve into a clinch-filled slip-and-slide on a soaked canvas -- as well as Joel Casamayor-Michael Katsidis, in which a thrilling bout was compromised by Schorle's all-around inattentiveness. Schorle's reputation is such that before the rubber match in his epic trilogy with Rafael Marquez, Israel Vazquez's camp fought viciously and successfully to have Schorle removed as the bout's referee and replaced with Pat Russell. These are just a few recent examples.

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Two times ADCC champion on the 99kg category, ‘Xande’ Ribeiro was looking for his first title on the absolute, but an injury on the final against Bráulio Estima postponed the black belt’s dream. “I was trying to get Bráulio on a half guard and the muscle of my chest, my shoulder and my arm stretched... I tried to hold his hip, but I think I used too my strength“.

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Kyra explained her injury. “I had this problem at the Worlds. I made a lot of physiotherapy, but this week I trained hard and felt again. The pain was so strong that there wasn’t even a position to sleep“, regrets the black-belt, that won’t need surgery. “I went to the doctor and he said it’s a slipped disk. Now I gotta rest, make physiotherapy, there isn’t much to do“.

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a very good article on the head to head PPV of UFC 103 and Mayweather/Marquez..he's not bashing mma of anything like that..just a good read that I thought I would share with ya'll..I like what he said at the end of his article "No matter which sport won, or which sport did more sales, a lot of people watched a lot of guys fight this weekend. You gotta love that."...

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He basically just says he's considering trying MMA and that he's having some contractual issues with Don King. He has always been a rather aggressive boxer and seems to have a style that would actually translate well to MMA. Hopefully some one can teach him some wrestling and jiu jitsu off his back.

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Saturday at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather Jr. will exchange punches with Juan Manuel Marquez. On the same evening at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Rich Franklin will exchange punches, kicks, body slams, sneers and sundry other examples of impoliteness with Vitor Belfort.

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The ADCC 2009 Website is up! looks like its been up for a while, but havn't seen it on here. Some great Super fights already. Roger Gracie vs Robert Drysdale, and looks like quite a few household names will be there as well. GSP, Urijah, Maia and more!

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I've maintained for some time that I thought the return of the best P4P boxer on the planet would do pretty good numbers even if they have dropped the ball on the promotion and the fight isn't really that competitive on paper. I didn't really think UFC 103 would put too much of a dent in the buys that the fight would be getting either. However, the results of the poll on this article on BadLeftHook have to been seen as troubling.

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Ray Mercer -"It Kills Me How None Of Those MMA Guys Want To Fight Me Now!" James Slater: It's a pleasure to speak with you, Champ, as always. Firstly, is the fight with Andreas Gustafsson a definite for September 4th? Ray Mercer: No, I'm not taking that fight now. I was supposed to leave yesterday. J.S: Oh, does that mean you're retired, Ray? R.M: No, I'm not retired. I was gonna take the fight, but I had a little accident, that's all. J.S: Sweden, of course, is the site of your last boxing win - when you beat Richel Hersisia (last September). Are you popular over there? R.M: Oh yeah, I love fighting over there, man. I love it in Sweden.

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This back and forth between Golden Boy Promotions and the UFC is great. Boxing and MMA go head-to-head o September 19. It's UFC 103 in Dallas against the Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing card. Last week, Golden Boy announced it would be adding three more solid fights to its undercard. UFC followed that announcement by unveiling a free one-hour lead-in show on Spike TV featuring two fights on the previously unaired undercard. Golden Boy has fired it's next shot announcing that the Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight will be available in 170 movie theaters across the country.

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by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Aug 12, 2009 at 5:30 am ET Yet another high-profile amateur wrestler is heading to the world of mixed martial arts. Daniel Cormier, a two-time Olympian and the U.S. squad's 2008 Olympic team captain, was a two-time JUCO national champion and NCAA Division I runner-up at Oklahoma State University in 2001. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) learned of the move from Zinkin Entertainment & Sports Management, a high-profile agency that now represents Cormier. Cormier, who will train with other collegiate-wrestling champions such as Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck at American Kickboxing Academy, is expected to compete in the light-heavyweight division upon his MMA debut. Cormier's wrestling accomplishments are in no short supply. Among the feats are three high-school state championships in his native Louisiana, a 117-6 collegiate record that included three-time All-American honors, six U.S. senior national championships and a fourth-place finish at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. While many fighters compete in relative obscurity early in their careers, Cormier is likely to follow in the footsteps of former amateur wrestling champions such as Ben Askren and "King" Mo Lawal and garner immediate attention.

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USA Wrestling is excited to announce a new alliance to provide leadership for USA Grappling, its national program in the sport of Grappling. International respected coach Ricardo Liborio of Coconut Creek, Fla. has been named the National Coach for USA Grappling. “Ricardo Liborio brings credibility to our Grappling program,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “We are confident that we will not only sustain our competitive excellence but will take it to a new level with Ricardo on our team. USA Wrestling is committed to maintaining our dominant position in international Grappling.”

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Mitsugu Noda def. Yang Rae Yoo via Unanimous Decision K-1 Heavyweight Title Tournament Bouts Keijiro Maeda def. Melvin Manhoef via KO (Punch) at 2:01 of Round 1 Gokhan Saki def. Tyrone Spong via KO (Punch) at 1:57 of Ext. Round Semmy Schilt def. Hesdy Gerges via Unanimous Decision Ewerton Teixeira def. Jerome Le Banner via Split Decision (2nd Ext. Round) Glaube Feitosa def. Junichi Sawayashiki via KO (Punch) at 0:47 of Round 2 Peter Aerts def. Errol Zimmerman via Unanimous Decision (Ext. Round) K-1 Heavyweight Title Tournament Final Keijiro Maeda def. Gokhan Saki via Majority Decision (Ext. Round) Keijiro Maeda becomes the second K-1 Heavyweight Champion! Remy Bonjasky def. Alistair Overeem via Unanimous Decision (30-28 x 3) Figured I'd add this considering Overeem and Manhoef's inclusions on the card.

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovksi will make his professional boxing debut on Saturday April 11th, it has been reported. He will box on the undercard of Paul Williams-Winky Wright in Las Vegas, according to boxing website Ring Talk.

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According to comments attributed to Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson in a new interview with The Nassau Guardian, Slice could be set to embark on a professional boxing career soon rather than later.

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Not in MMA though, but in combat grappling. Former UFC Middleweight Dean Lister, released by UFC earlier upon request, has been invited to compete in the Abu Dhabi grappling tournament once again this year. Lister won the tournament in 2003. He's also considering moving up to the weight class that Fedor Emelianenko, also expected to participate this year, will be competing in for a potential match against the MMA Heavyweight king.

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