Silva vs. Belfort Off UFC 108
(mmajunkie.com)According to Ed Soares, Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort for the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 108 is not happening. Soares, Silva's manager, said "The latest is he's not fighting Jan. 2," Soares said. "That's not going to happen. He won't be ready." When he's ready is not yet known but insisted the progress was ahead-of-schedule, and Silva fans have no cause for concern.
Josh Neer Gets His Walking Papers
(cagepotato.com)After suffering his second loss in a row and his third defeat in the last four outings, Josh "The Dentist" Neer has been released from the UFC, ending his third tour of duty inside the Octagon. It's not exactly a surprise to anyone who saw his scrap with Gleison Tibau at UFC 104 last weekend. In a fight that never was pay-per-view quality to begin with, Neer spent three rounds getting slammed on his back and embarrassing the entire state of Iowa with his poor takedown defense before losing via unanimous decision. At UFC 101 in August he suffered a similar fate against Kurt Pellegrino, who also outwrestled Neer en route to a plodding decision.
Akiyama and Okami arrive at Xtreme Couture
(fightersonlymagazine.co.uk)Yoshihiro Akiyama and Yushin Okami have arrived at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas for a month of training, and so far they are enjoying themselves immensely. The Japanese duo say the difference in training methods and partners is very refreshing.
“I like how the practices aren’t long but short, hard workouts… The fighters are welcoming and friendly and as for the trainers, they are all awesome,” Akiyama told the Xtreme Couture website. “I have a hard time communicating due to my language barrier but I feel it’s beneficial for my fight career because I am able to look at their body language, learn the language and train hard.”
Dan Hardy on Swick: "Forget fight of the night, I want fight of the year"
(fightersonlymagazine.co.uk)Dan Hardy is all focus as he prepares for his UFC 105 meeting with Mike ‘Quick’ Swick, and not even talk of a welterweight title shot against Georges St. Pierre should he win is enough to distract him from the task at hand.
In fact, Hardy has two goals in mind. Beat Swick, and do it in such emphatic fashion that his critics are silenced. Some are saying that Hardy has bitten off more than he can chew with Swick, and it rankles the Nottingham man.
Credeur vs. Massenzio in the works for UFC Fight Night 20
(mmaweekly.com)A middleweight clash between Tim Credeur and Mike Massenzio is possible for UFC Fight Night 20.
TheGarv.com was the first to report the match-up Friday morning, and MMAWeekly subsequently learned that at least one fighter has agreed to the match-up with bout agreements expected shortly.
UFC FIght Night 20 has yet to be officially announced by the UFC but is expected for Jan. 11 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax. Va.
Karo Parisyan is going to eat Dustin Hazelett for breakfast
(mmamania.com)“I think it’s a great style for me. It’s a great matchup. I eat Jiu Jitsu guys for breakfast a lot of times. He’s tough and he’s got really good Jiu Jitsu and good standup. He’s a well-rounded fighter, but I have fought 2 and 3-time Jiu Jitsu world champion guys man. And I’m a grappler myself so I really have some surprises for him. I have a tremendous respect for Dustin as an opponent. I don’t know him as a person, but he looks like a nice guy. But like I said, I have been training a lot with tall and lanky guys. I think it is a great matchup due to the fact that I should be able to overpower him, beat on him a little bit and catch him in submissions myself. Dustin is not going to do anything that I’ve never seen before. He’ not going to throw anything my way that I’ve never seen. He’s good off of his back and a good Jiu Jitsu guy, but that’s all he is. I’m a grappler myself, a Judo artist. I have good takedowns and my standup has come a long way, so it’s a very good matchup man. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to get in the cage and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
– Former number one welterweight contender Karo Parisyan talks about his road back to becoming relevant again in the crowded 170-pound title chase.
Is the MMA Talent Pool Drying Up?
(bloodyelbow.com)There were 190 middleweights and 81 light heavyweights who showed up cauliflower ears and all in hopes of becoming the next "Ultimate Fighter."
...
UFC president Dana White called it a low turnout and said he was looking to recruit three or four fighters that day. After season nine's tryouts drew 700 welterweight and lightweights, he was perplexed by the drop-off.
"It's very weird," he said. "You would think right now in these hard economic times... I thought this would be the biggest turnout we ever had."
Kurt Pellegrino Off TUF 10 Finale
(mmajunkie.com)The injury bug is back with a vengeance. Following Thiago Alves being forced off UFC 107, now comes word that Kurt Pellegrino is now off the TUF 10 Finale. Edgar announced the change today, word is Pellegrino has herniated discs and will be out 3 weeks. Edgar also hinted at a replacement being named soon.
Don King Prepared To Monetize MMA, Take On UFC
(mmamania.com)And not only that, but he actually discussed MMA without trashing it in favor of boxing. The famed boxing promoter, still going strong at 78 with slightly less but still-electric hair on his head, recently put over UFC while saying he's "the people's promoter. Whatever the people want, I'm going to promote". And that means MMA, particularly a league capable of competing with UFC and thus making MMA as a whole more competitive and not UFC then everyone else.
Report: Alves Off UFC 107
(mmajunkie.com)It now appears that anyone who is a Thiago or facing Jon Fitch at UFC 107 is cursed. First Fitch's original opponent, Ricardo Almeida, was forced off due to injury and now word is that the replacement, Thiago Alves, is now off too. There are unconifirmed reports Alves has a torn PCL. Alves was to have faced Paulo Thiago initially before Almeida's withdrawal broke up the fight of the Thiagos. No word yet on a potential replacement to face Fitch.
Paul Kelly on Siver: "I'll break his jaw or submit him - whatever gets me the bonus!"
(fightersonlymagazine.co.uk)Paul Kelly says he is feeling better than ever ahead of his UFC 105 clash with German lightweight Denis Siver. A former welterweight, Kelly is two fights and two wins into a new life at 155lbs and says the move was definitely the right one.
“I feel great at this weight now. The first cut was kind of difficult but its easier each time and my weight is well on track now, just over two weeks from the fight. I feel really sharp and really strong, I am hitting the weights again, which I didn’t do for my last fight and I can feel the difference.”
Dana has "proposal" for Liddell, "disgusted" with Rampage
(fightersonlymagazine.co.uk)Dana White says he is “putting together a proposal” for former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell, who recently finished a run on popular television show Dancing With the Stars and is now apparently itching for a return to action.
In a recent interview with Sportsnet, UFC president White was asked if a match between Chuck Liddell and Mark Coleman is on his mind, pitting as it would two veterans of the sport against each other.Dana
“I’ve never even thought about Liddell-Coleman. I am more focused right now on what to do with Liddell,” replied White, who has repeatedly stated that he does not want Liddell to return to fighting, given his recent loss of form and run of stoppage losses.
Denis Kang: "I am looking to make a major statement"
(fightersonlymagazine.co.uk)Denis Kang believes his forthcoming match with Michael Bisping at UFC 105 “is probably the biggest fight of my career” and “one which will put me on the map in the UFC”. With just over two weeks to go until the fight, Kang is focused on the potential fruits of victory. “I am in good place, mentally and physically. I am ready. This is the right fight at the right time for me.
“This is one of the biggest fights on a UFC card and being in Bisping’s hometown in England where he is very popular there will be a lot of attention on it. I’ve fought in PRIDE FC tournaments, but UFC in my view is bigger than PRIDE was and this is a major fight on the card,” he says.
Vitor : I don’t have this ambition of fighting him (Anderson) now, I didn’t get in UFC looking for it, to take his belt
(tatame.com.br)This thing of fighting Anderson is something that I’ve never looked for. I care about him a lot, but started that thing of Dana White talks... I don’t care about fighting for the title, I want to do some more fights. I don’t have this ambition of fighting him (Anderson) now, I didn’t get in UFC looking for it, to take his belt… I never had that thing, I just want to do my work.
I know I deserve, that’s not the problem, neither the discussion, I just like to make some fights. The belt’s moment is gonna come, there are people that want to talk that I don’t deserve, but I don’t believe that. Anderson is not a guy that I want to fight, I support him a lot, we already trained together, I like him a lot. It’s not a thing that I want to... If the belt were on Nate Marquardt’s hands, if I could choose, I wouldn’t fight with Anderson because I care about him.
Happy with win, Stevenson wants holiday break
(mmaweekly.com)Heading into UFC 104, Joe Stevenson was taken back a little bit when he heard the news that Spencer Fisher had walked into UFC president Dana White's office and specifically asked to face the former "Ultimate Fighter" champion.
Stevenson was definitely up for the challenge, though. He bludgeoned his way to a second round TKO victory after getting Fisher caught in a crucifix, and hammered him with elbows to force the stoppage.
UFC 104 bonus baron Pat Barry undergoing surgery, out at least two months
(mmajunkie.com)UFC heavyweight Pat Barry today will undergo surgery to insert a pin in his thumb near the wrist that will keep him out of action for at least two months.
The fighter, who won $120,000 after winning Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night honors at this past weekend's UFC 104 event, today discussed the surgery with MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio) – just minutes before he was slated to enter the operating room.
"I'm sitting in a hospital robe," he joked. "They really do have your butt stick out exposed. You'd think they would have fixed these things by now."
Ed Soares Manages Bentleys, Not Toyotas
(mmamania.com)In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, MMA manager Ed Soares recently compared the "Three Kings"-Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida & Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira-he manages to Bentley & Toyota dealerships in terms of quantity vs. quality. In other words, he feels he's got a garage full of Bentleys. "When you look at the car dealership, well, thank God there are Toyota dealers. There’s nothing wrong with Toyotas. They’re great cars, reliable cars, but there are 3,000 of them on the lot. Walk into a Bentley dealership, though, and there are only 12, 15 cars in the place. There are two things about that: The guy’s walking in to buy the car, and you know they’re not going to be negotiating price when they’re buying a Bentley. And that’s how I feel about our fighters. You want one of our fighters, you’re going to get a high-performance fighter."
NSAC To Discuss Alexander, UFC 109
(mmaweekly.com)The NSAC yesterday released the agenda for it's next tele-meeting scheduled for November 4. 2 items of note on the agenda are Houston Alexander and UFC requesting a February date. Alexander has requested a new fighter's license, which he must do when his current license runs out because he is over 35 (all fighters over 35 must do this), while Zuffa is asking for a February 6 date for an event at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Vegas, presumably this would be UFC 109.
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