Kevin Burns wants rematch with Anthony Johnson to "make it right"
(mmajunkie.com)Much of the MMA world was taken aback when the Nevada State Athletic Commission recently elected to leave Kevin Burns' (7-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) controversial July TKO victory over fellow welterweight Anthony Johnson unchanged.
After repeated warnings throughout the bout by referee Steve Mazzagatti for Burns to be cautious of repetitive eye pokes, a final third-round blow crumpled Johnson to the mat. Mazzagatti did not initially see the illegal strike, and Burns was awarded a much-maligned victory.
But as Burns recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), regardless of the NSAC's opinion on the matter, the Iowa native is prepared to correct the matter in his own manner.
"To be honest with you, I was kind of impartial," Burns said about Johnson's appeal with the commission. "[The NSAC] had the right and the ability to do what they wanted as far as making the appeal. I didn't have adverse feelings either way.
"I guess what's really going to be the true-tell sign at the end of the day is when we meet in the cage again, and we have a chance to compete against each other. Then the fans will get to see what they wanted to see, and we'll get to make it right."
NOGUEIRA BROTHERS OPEN TEAM NOGUEIRA DALLAS
(mmaweekly.com)Both Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his brother have been very successful as trainers in the field of mixed martial arts and now the tandem is expanding into Texas with the opening of “Team Nogueira” Dallas, which will be located in the new Octagon MMA gym.
The Nogueira brothers are hopeful to train new mixed martial artists while continuing to teach and broaden their Brazilian Jiu-jitsu education to new students in the Dallas area.
“We are bringing the best mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu training that most people in Dallas have not experienced before,” said Nogueira. “We’ve developed training programs for men, women and children, as well as competitive fighters.”
Lead trainer, Greg Seal, owner of Octagon MMA, who is a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt and who has trained with the Nogueira team for the past six years is very positive about bringing the popular fighter’s style to the Dallas based gym.
Bloody sport gains in mass popularity
(cnn.com)Rich Franklin used to spend his days teaching math to high school students. Today, he spends his evenings in an octagon-shaped cage grounding and pounding fighters into submission in front of thousands of screaming fans.
Wow, no MMA bashing, Im stunned....
Counter programming alert: UFC 86 to air at same time as Elite XC: ‘Heat’
(mmamania.com)If you watched UFC Fight Night 15 or “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) 8 on Spike TV last night then there’s a good chance you saw the commercials showing that UFC 86: “Jackson vs. Griffin” will be replayed for free on October 4 on Spike TV beginning at 9 p.m. ET.
That “coincidentally” happens to be the same date and time that Elite XC will air perhaps the most important event in its history, Elite XC: “Heat” on CBS.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Dana White and the UFC have attempted to sabotage the competition with counter programming.
In fact, it was only two months ago when Affliction MMA was set for its first live pay-per-view (PPV) event. The t-shirt company turned MMA promotion had big plans to make a splash in the MMA world only to to have the UFC plan a free “Fight Night” on Spike TV the same night.
To make matters worse (for Affliction) the UFC headlined the card with one of the most popular fighters on the planet, Anderson Silva.
Apparently the plan worked because Affliction’s PPV buys did not reach expectations and the UFC’s free “Fight Night” pulled in better numbers.
While this isn’t a live event being put on by the UFC, it’s still counter programming and there will still be fans who opt to tune in to the replay of a card headlined by one of the better fights of the year between Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin instead of eyeballing another potential disaster main event involving Kimbo Slice.
It’s clear the UFC wants to clear the world of any and all competition. And if there’s an organization out there capable of pulling that off, it’s definitely the good ole’ Zuffa boys.
GUIDA HAPPY WITH WIN; WANTS 1 MORE FIGHT IN ’08
(mmaweekly.com)Having been on the wrong side of a few controversial decisions during his time with the UFC, lightweight competitor Clay Guida worked as hard as ever to prove himself during his bout with Ultimate Fighter Season 6 winner Mac Danzig on Wednesday night at UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha.
Guida kept up a very high pace during the fight with Danzig and when it was over he felt there was no doubt that he was the victor.
“I felt confident in this one,” said Guida about the decision. “He’s got pretty good takedown defense, towards, up against the cage, he stopped it, he stopped my takedown a couple of times. But I stuck with it and put him down to his butt where I wanted it and it did feel good to come out with the decision.”
In the end, Guida was able to dominate the ground portion of the fight, landing numerous takedowns while being cautious of his opponent’s considerable submission skills in the process.
Second effort nets Schafer biggest win
(sports.yahoo.com)OMAHA, Neb. – Eric Schafer was almost a Division I college football player. But a hip pointer caused him to miss his senior high school season and the Big Ten conference teams that had shown interest in him as a linebacker suddenly began to encourage him to walk on.
Then, he nearly became a doctor. He graduated magna cum laude with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. His medical school entrance test results were very high, enough so that he could have been accepted pretty much wherever he wanted.
But what he wanted, really, was to fight. He bought the pay-per-views of most Ultimate Fighting Championship shows and quickly became enthralled. His first was UFC 8, when Don Frye won a tournament by beating Gary Goodridge in the final round.
“Once I discovered MMA,” Schafer said, grinning, “I never thought about football for a minute again.”
It’s hard to imagine a guy who looks like a grown-up Opie Taylor being a mean and snarling linebacker, so that was probably a good call. But, honestly, it wouldn’t be easy to guess Schafer’s profession now simply by looking at him.
He took the first step toward establishing himself in the UFC when he submitted hometown favorite Houston Alexander with a slick arm triangle choke Wednesday at 4:53 of the first round at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
Dustin Hazelett promoted to BJJ Black Belt
(mmafighting.com)UFC welterweight Dustin Hazelett was promoted to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Jorge Gurgel at Gurgel's gym Tuesday night in West Chester, Ohio.
Hazelett, 22, began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in his junior year of high school and has been studying with Gurgel for the past 5 years and 10 months, according to the Team Gurgel website.
Hazelett, who will be quick to remind you he’s not Jon Fitch, is 4-2 in the UFC and 11-4 overall in MMA.
In his last fight, Hazelett won the Submission of the Night award with a second-round armbar win over Josh Burkman at “The Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale” in June.
Hazelett had to go under the knife to remove damaged cartilage under his nose after that fight, but he’s already back training for his next fight scheduled for Nov. 15 at UFC 91 “Couture vs. Lesnar” against Tamden McCrory.
Houston Alexander couldn’t hear at UFC Fight Night 15
(mmamania.com) “The crowd was so loud that I couldn’t hear my corner. If I heard them and knew, you know, there are 10 seconds left, five seconds left, whatever, I would have tried to hung in there a little longer and survived. But it was so loud and these people were supporting me so much, I couldn’t hear and I had to tap.”
– Houston Alexander tells Yahoo!Sports.com that if he knew how much time was left in the first round (seven seconds) he perhaps would have tried to last until the bell rather than tap because of an Eric Schafer arm triangle at UFC Fight Night 15: “Diaz vs. Neer” last night. Alexander is from Nebraska and had his hometown crowd vociferously rooting him on until the waning seconds of the opening frame. The loss is Alexander’s third straight, pushing his record inside the Octagon below .500 (2-3).
UFC FIGHT NIGHT $30,000 BONUSES HANDED DOWN
(mmaweekly.com)Following UFC Fight Night 15 in Omaha, Neb., Ultimate Fighting Championship officials informed MMAWeekly.com of the fighter bonuses as handed down by the promotion after the event’s conclusion.
Each fighter was handed a $30,000 bonus for their efforts including Fight of the Night, Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night.
“Ultimate Fighter” season 5 winner Nate Diaz pulled off a split decision win over a very game opponent in Josh Neer and both fighters were rewarded with a Fight of the Night bonus.
Alessio Sakara sent a message to the middleweight division that he will always bring the fight as he finished off newcomer Joe Vedepo with a vicious head kick that earned him a Knockout of the night.
Wilson Gouveia made an impressive debut in the 185-pound weight class with a slick armbar submission, picking up the win over Ryan Jensen, and a $30,000 Submission of the Night bonus as well.
UFC FIGHT NIGHT 15 AWARDS AND BONUSES:
Fight of the Night:
-Nate Diaz vs. Josh Neer
Knockout of the Night:
-Alessio Sakara
Submission of the Night:
-Wilson Gouveia
UFC 92: CB Dolloway vs Jorge Rivera
(mmamania.com)The Ultimate Fighter 7 runner-up CB Dollaway (7-1) will make his third straight Octagon appearance when he takes on UFC veteran Jorge Rivera (15-7) at UFC 92 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on New Year’s Eve weekend according to WrestlingObserver.com.
“The Doberman” was unsuccessful in his bid to win it all at the TUF 7 finale on June 21, but he was able to rebound and score an impressive submission victory over Jesse “Yellow Submarine” Taylor less than a month later at Fight Night 14.
Facing him will be a very tough albeit inconsistent fighter in Rivera. “El Conqistador” came up short against Martin Kampmann at UFC 85 after a very impressive KO victory over Kendall Grove at UFC 80.
This should be a good test for Dollaway. Rivera has knockout power and has ended 10 of his 15 wins by (T)KO. No doubt Dollaway will try and utilize his wrestling to keep things on the ground until he can find a submission against the crafty veteran.
Demian Maia vs. Nate Quarry at UFC 91
(tatame.com)With a perfect MMA career after eight wins in eight fights, Demian Maia remains unbeatable after three submission victories in UFC’s octagon, and he’s already training for his next bout. The UFC 91’s most important fight will be Randy Couture’s back to Ultimate against an young Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title, and Demian Maia will face Nathan Quarry, at November 15th. Against the new opponent, Demian keeps training hard in Brazil, still without a specific training for Nate.
Guida talks win over Danzig
(sherdog.com)Sherdog talks the win over Mac Danzig with Clay Guida.
Way to go Guida! He's always putting on exciting fights and he's always respectful. Definitely one of my favorite fighters to watch.
TUF 9 TO FEATURE UNITED STATES VS. UNITED KINGDOM
(mmaweekly.com)The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced during the broadcast of Wednesday night’s Fight Night that the 9th installment of the “Ultimate Fighter” would feature middleweights and welterweights in a battle of the United States against the United Kingdom.
UFC announcer Mike Goldberg mentioned the newest season of the popular reality show during the Mac Danzig and Clay Guida fight, also saying that auditions would be held in both Chicago, Ill, and London, England in the upcoming month.
The latest season of the “Ultimate Fighter” featuring the U.S. versus the U.K will be the first such “international” version of the show, pitting two countries fighters against each other.
While no other details were released about the 9th season of the show, it seems popular British fighter, Michael Bisping, would almost be a shoe in to be involved with the U.K. team, but he first has to battle Chris Leben in his home country on Oct 19.
Josh Koscheck vs Yoshiyuki Yoshida possible for UFC Fort Bragg
(mmamania.com)Top welterweight contender Josh Koscheck could possibly meet up with Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC Fight Night 16: “Fights for the Troops” during the three-hour Spike TV special that will take place from Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., on December 10.
MMAmania.com has heard whispers about the solid 170-pound match up from several independent sources over the course of the last few days.
Koscheck has won nine of 11 bouts inside the Octagon since his stint on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) back in early 2005, transforming from a world class wrestler into a dangerous well-rounded fighter in less than three years.
He has faced top competition in the loaded division in his last five appearances, including a showdown with current welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (he was not champion at the time). He lost that bout via three-round decision but won over a legion of new fans with the performance for being able to hang with the uber talented Canadian.
Koscheck has since defeated rising star Dustin Hazelett with a second round technical knockout at UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” back in March and grizzled veteran Chris Lytle via bloodbath, er, unanimous decision at UFC 86: “Jackson vs. Griffin” this past July.
Dustin Hazelett's Breakout Year Gets More Black
(mmajunkie.com)In the continuation of a breakout year for UFC's Dustin Hazelett, he received his biggest reward to date yesterday: His black belt in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. He was one of 6 students to receive their black belts yesterday from trainer/teacher Jorge Gurgel at his MMA Academy.
I think congrats are in order for Dustin and all of them. 
Frank Mir: ''Every time Kimbo Slice fights, it sets the sport back''
(fiveouncesofpain.com)Los Angeles, Calif. - The UFC’s breakthrough reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” gears up once again for its eighth season premiering tonight on Spike TV. Current interim UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will both be featured as coaches this season and after completing an interview last week with Nogueira, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was also afforded the opportunity to speak with Mir.
While Mir was made available in order to promote TUF, he was more than willing to discuss everything and anything MMA in what proved to be an intriguing interview. During the course of the conversation we asked Mir to share his thoughts on the recent return of Randy Couture, the surprise upset win of Rashad Evans over Chuck Liddell, his experiences being on the show and the motorcycle accident that nearly ended his career.
FRANK MIR'S REBOUNDS TO ULTIMATE FIGHTER 8
(mmaweekly.com)Frank Mir freely admits that Brock Lesnar gave him a second shot at UFC gold after his nearly career ending motorcycle accident in 2004.
Lesnar was expected to use his meat cleaver hands to smash Mir into bits, a steppingstone on the way to a heavyweight title shot. Lesnar did just that for the first 80 seconds or so. But according to Mir, it was his newfound ability to handle setbacks that prevented him from folding under pressure, submitting the wrestling star in just 91 seconds. And it wasn’t some expensive mental coach or guru or self-help tape that helped him get back on track. It was a good old-fashioned ass kicking at hands of his wife.
Mir’s turnaround began in a Sacramento hotel room after UFC 65. He had just been trounced by Brandon Vera. Mir couldn’t understand it; he was fully recovered and had trained hard. He was even eating right, something he struggled with in the past. Sitting on the hotel bed, he couldn’t even remember getting hit by Vera’s knee, or any of the punches that followed before the fight was stopped.
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