UFC News - Page 521

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oh wtf!?!?

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Alessio Sakara (12-7) is back in business, getting the green light to return to action against Octagon newcomer Joe Vedepo (7-1) at UFC Fight Night 15 at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Neb., on September 17. “Legionarius” — who was forced to withdraw from a fight with Rob Kimmons earlier this year because of a broken ankle sustained during training — has dropped two of his last three bouts, including his most recent contest against Chris Leben at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion in March, which the Italian fighter lost via technical knockout (strikes) in round one. It was his middleweight debut after registering a very mediocre record at light heavyweight (3-3). One has to imagine that this is a must-win situation for Sakara. Vedepo is the Midwest Cage Championship (MCC) middleweight champion, defeating Brian Green via submission (verbal) back in June in a hard-fought battle to earn a UFC berth. The 25-year-old former light heavyweight has an impressive mix of wins via submission and (technical) knockout, demonstrating an ability to finish fights just about anywhere.

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Unfortunatly UFC 87 payouts won't be officially released. But i found several sources that say brock lesnar made more than twice what GSP made. Apparently fighter payout’s are not released in Minnesota as part of the state’s freedom of information legislation. At least that is what Scott LeDoux, the executive director of the Minnesota Combative Sports Commission told MMAJunkie.com. I did read that George St. Pierre is on the same contract as his fight with Hughes when he pulled in $160,000 which means he would have made the same amount. If you combine that with his $60,000 "Fight of the Night" bonus, he would have pocketed a total of $220,000 for the event which is probably pretty accurate. Total and complete bs

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UFC President Dana White confidently laid out his organization’s plan to acquire the services of Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) for a future matchup with recently returned heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures). The promotion will simply wait, he said during a conference call Tuesday.

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Apparently, Paulo Filho is sticking to earlier statements and asserting that he has no desire to fight his friend and teammate, Anderson Silva. From MMA Junkie: Filho recently today told Tatame.com he was not considering the bout despite recent comments from Ed Soares, manager for both Filho and Silva, to the contrary. "Definitely no," Filho said of a potential bout with Silva. "We're close friends and I believe there's space for everybody [in the UFC]. It's definitely out of my plans." Discussions of the bout first began with UFC President Dana White's recent comments that Zuffa LLC -- owners of both the UFC and WEC -- will merge the WEC's 205-pound and 185-pound divisions into the UFC. The undefeated Filho is ranked second in WAMMA's most recent middleweight world rankings. Only Silva is ranked higher.

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FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned from two independent sources in the last 24 hours that USKBA middleweight champion Nick Catone is expected to face Amir Sadollah at UFC 91 on Nov. 15 in Las Vegas. Bout agreements between Catone and Sadollah have not been signed but could be finalized by early next week.

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Make sure to read some of the comments for a laugh. Decent article for the casual MMA fan.

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Possibly, according to Chuck Liddell. He was quoted as saying that if Randy Couture emerges from the upcoming "tournament" as still the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Liddell would consider moving up to Heavyweight for a 4th title fight with Couture.

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Rich Franklin expects a tough time of it when he faces Matt Hamill in a light-heavyweight bout on Saturday. The former middleweight champion says his gameplan is all about speed and footwork – but that might be difficult when carrying extra weight. “I’ve got to be quick on my feet... I need to use my footwork to confuse him and stick and move and stick and move and avoid takedowns,” he told MMA Stomping Grounds. But he noted that if he is carrying “an extra 20 pounds... and it goes the full 15 minutes, that takes a toll on conditioning”. Franklin is campaigning at 205lbs after losing his middleweight title to Anderson Silva and then failing to win it back in a rematch. Both were heavy losses for the former champion and he says the UFC was not interested in seeing him fight Silva for a third time.

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) recently inked light heavyweight Houston Alexander to a new five-fight contract extension, locking-in the services of the hard-hitting Nebraskan slugger well into 2009 if the promotion decides to keep him on the roster, according to WrestlingObserver.com. Alexander was relatively unknown to the masses until he burst onto the scene with two destructive performances inside the Octagon, taking out top contender Keith Jardine in his debut back at UFC 71: “Liddell vs. Jackson” in May 2007 and then crumbling Alessio Sakara at UFC 75: “Champion vs. Champion” less than four months later. “The Nebraskan Assassin,” however, quickly returned to Earth with back-to-back losses to Thiago Silva and James Irvin. In fact, Alexander didn’t last more than four minutes combined in those two bouts. Despite his recent struggles, Alexander remains a fan favorite and a crowd pleaser win or lose. That’s more than likely the reason the promotion made the decision to keep him around. He will have his opportunity to get back on the winning track against Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Eric Schafer at UFC Fight Night 15 in front of a hometown crowd at the Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha. Neb., on September 17.

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Jason Lambert (23-8 MMA, 4-3 MMA) was riding high in 2006. Riding an eight-fight win streak, including three wins in the UFC, "The Punisher" was on top of the world. But after three losses in his next four fights, Lambert made the decision to try the UFC's middleweight division. Lambert will make his 185 pound debut for the UFC at UFC 88 in Atlanta this Saturday night. Lambert discussed the process for dropping to 185 pounds while a recent guest of TAGG Radio (www.taggradio.com), the official radio partner of MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "After my last 205 (pound) fight I didn't go back up to my normal walk-around weight," Lambert explained. "I stayed right around 205 (pounds). So it wasn't too hard for me to start getting down to [185 pounds]." Lambert said with two days left before weigh-ins he is already at his target weight. "I'm not cutting right now," Lambert said. "I'm ready. I've been focusing on keeping my power and strength. I think it should be a good time for me to get down to [185 pounds]." Lambert had fought at 185 pounds earlier in his career, but had fought excusively at 205 pounds while signed with the UFC. The North County Fight Club product had hoped for an opportunity to try a practice run at making the weight, but UFC plan changes didn't allow that luxury. "People have been asking me if I did [a mock weight cut]," Lambert said. "I was waiting to hear from the UFC. I was asking them for a fight and they weren't getting back to me. So I didn’t think that I had a fight. "I was waiting, and then they came back with September when I thought I was going to fight in October because they hadn't gotten back to me. So I was getting ready to do [a mock cut], and then they called. So I didn't want to do a mock one when I was starting to ramp up for a training camp. I just put it on hold and started training for the fight." Lambert said that differences in training were necessary, but that diet was the biggest factor in reaching the lower weight class. "I've been doing a lot of the circuits and stuff like that with my strength coach," Lambert said. "It's just real high-energy, really fast-paced circuits with all kinds of things. "I've had a dietitian for a while, I just never listened to him. I just had to pay a little more attention to what he was telling me. Just be smart about it so I'm not having to cut too much and killing myself." In addition to dealing with a new weight class, Lambert was also forced to deal with an opponent change just three weeks out from the fight. Lambert's original opponent, Jason Day, was forced off the card due to an arm injury and veteran middleweight Jason MacDonald filled in. Lambert said the change was not an issue. "[Opponent changes] are just part of the business," Lambert said. "Things like that happen, so you can't let it just completely rattle you. You've just got to be ready for it. "You can kick and throw a tantrum and all that, but it's not going to do you any good. Re-focus on who you've got now and get back in there in the gym. Maybe tweak some things mentally. But typically you prepare the same for anybody. It's usually just mostly mental for me -- doing the visualizations and things like that with whoever I'm going to be fighting." Lambert has suffered through a tough stretch in his recent bouts. But the recent struggles haven't deterred him from wanting to put on a great show for the fans. "I want to go out there and excite the fans," Lambert said. "I always have had exciting fights, and I'm always looking to be fight of the night. I do get a little bit nervous, but it's more so the fact that I want to have a really good showing." Lambert hopes to excite a ground that he knows has the potential of being quite loud. "I anticipate a crazy crowd," Lambert said. "I think my fight with (Renato) 'Babalu' (Sobral) was the first fight in Ohio, and that place was a zoo. I couldn't believe the streets -- everywhere was just packed. It was just crazy. "I'm expecting it to be like that here. Because anytime it's the first time [the UFC] comes to a place, usually it's pretty crazy."

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“I was talking to the UFC after the second [Anderson] Silva loss and they encouraged me to move up to 205. They told me my position there would be more appealing to them from a business perspective. They weren’t interested in a third match between me and Silva and they didn’t want me fighting contenders because I could eliminate possible title fights, so I was stuck in that I was going to be fighting people on the back end of their losses to Silva and I didn’t care for that gatekeeper position. After the Travis Lutter fight, I said I would try my hand at 205 again.” – Former middleweight champion Rich Franklin reveals to the his reasons for moving back up to the light heavyweight division for his upcoming fight against Matt Hamill at UFC 88: “Breakthrough” at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on September 6. “Ace” was soundly defeated twice by UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, which essentially meant that he’d be relegated to fighting — and possibly knocking off — new contenders. (If you have the time click the Baltimore Sun interview. Its longer but a good read)

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Ever since losing a title shot to Anderson Silva at UFC 73 back in July of last year, Nate “The Great” Marquardt (26-8-2) has been looking to get back into title contention. He welcomed Jeremy Horn back to the UFC with a guillotine choke submission at UFC 81 in February. And he looked … um, “Great” in a well-publicized UFC 85 bout with Thales Leites. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Your split decision loss to Thales Leites has got to be a bitter pill to swallow. How do you feel about the two points that you were docked, the second of which looked unjustified? Nate Marquardt: Yeah, you know, it’s not as bad as it seems to be honest. That fight got me a lot of publicity. Everyone who saw the fight said that I won. So it’s not really like I really lost that fight. Yeah, I thought the second point deduction … I don’t feel like what I did was illegal, but sometimes that happens in fights. To be honest, I think I could have finished Thales, and that was my fault for not keeping on him at a couple of points in that fight. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): I read that after the fight, Leites didn’t want to grant you an immediate rematch. Is that true? Nate Marquardt: Yes. We asked Joe Silva immediately after, and he said that Thales didn’t want a rematch. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Do you think he was trying to dodge you? Nate Marquardt: I don’t know. It’s the smarter decision on his part. He ran away with the win on his record. And he’s looking to get a title shot, so it would be a smart choice on his part. Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): So is it difficult to bounce back from something like this, or are you looking at it as a win … or at least not a loss? Nate Marquardt: Yeah, exactly. I see some mistakes I made during that fight, and I always try to work on that. I just try to get better after every fight. I’m not trying to look at it as a win or as a loss. I’m just trying to look at it and see what I did right, and try to copy that, and see what I did wrong and try to fix it.

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Youngster Jeremy "Lil Heathen" Stephens (13-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC), whose three-fight win streak was snapped with a recent unanimous-decision loss to Spencer Fisher, will meet UFC newcomer and Brazilian fight veteran Rafael dos Anjos (11-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) in November at UFC 91. The lightweights have agreed to the fight, and bout agreements are expected to be signed shortly, according to a source close to one of the fighters. The bout is the latest addition to UFC 91, which takes place Nov. 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

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Heading into this weekend’s UFC 88 in Atlanta, there will be an intriguing match-up in the middleweight division of two fighters headed in different directions at this point in their careers. On one hand, you have former Pride dual titleholder Dan Henderson, nearing the twilight of his career and currently on a two-fight skid. On the other, you have Rousimar Palhares, in just his second year of fighting and on an impressive six-fight winning streak.

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“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.” When Mick Jagger wrote the classic song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” he obviously had no idea that it would one day relate to the sport of mixed martial arts, but for Nate Marquardt there may not be a more perfect theme song.

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“I think at this point in my UFC career all the fights I face are tough, and I don’t think Lambert will be any different. What I do think is that the first time you cut the weight down to a level you haven’t before it’s tough. With Lambert, we’re talking about a guy who has fought at heavyweight, then was down to light-heavyweight, and now he’ll have his first fight at 185. I think that’s definitely to my advantage. As the rounds go on, I think the weight cut will wear on him.”

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When Brock Lesnar signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the former collegiate wrestling champion and former professional wrestling superstar said he wanted to fight the top heavyweights. He was serious. At UFC 91 on Nov. 15 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Lesnar will face Randy "The Natural" Couture for the UFC heavyweight belt in only his fourth mixed martial arts bout and third time in the Octagon. "I've wanted a fight with Randy since before I signed a contract with the UFC," Lesnar told the media on Tuesday. Despite his inexperience and Couture's year-long layoff from competition, expectations are high that the match-up will generate record numbers. "We actually do research on these things if you can believe it or not," said UFC president Dana White.

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Jeremy Horn confirmed today that he will be off UFN 15 due to a wrist injury. He won't need surgery but knows he could be "out a while". Ryan Jensen will be his replacement at UFN and will face Wilson Gouveia.

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